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AMERICAN FARMER'S 

ENCYCLOPEDIA; 

EMBRACING 

ALL THE RECENT DISCOVERIES IN AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY, ASD THE 
USE OF MINERAL, VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL MANURES, 

WITH 

DKCRIPTIONS AND PIGURES OF AMERICAN INSECTS, 

INJURIOUS TO VBOETATION. 

BEING A COMPLETE GUIDE 

FOR THE CULTIVATION OF 

EVERY VARIETY OF GARDEN AND FIELD CROPS. 

ILLUSTRATED 

BY NUMEROUS ENORAVT- G3 OF GRASSES, GRAINS, ANIMALS, IMPLEMENTS, IMSBCM, BTC. 



BY GOUVERNEUR FiaERSON, OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

UPON THE BASI3 OP 

JOHNSON'S FARMER'S ENCYCLOPEDIA. 



NEW YORK: 
A. 0. MOORE, AGRICULTURAL BOOK PUBLISHER, 

No. 140 FULTON STREET. 

1858. 



Entered accordiug to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 
C. M. SAXTON AND COMPANY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District 
of New York. 



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PREFACE 



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THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 



The Farmers' EncyclopcBdia, as originally published in England, containeJ 
much matter not particularly interesting to those living on the western side of 
the Atlantic. In the American edition, the locahsms and irrelevant portions 
have been supplanted by the introduction of much information more immediately 
relating to rural affairs in the United States. In effecting these alterations, the 
matter introduced by the American editor amounts to about thirty per cent., all 
of which has been derived from the best sources of intelligence. The main ob- 
jects which interest the American farmer, such as cattle, and the great crops of 
maize, cotton, tobacco, hemp, and other staples of the north and south, have 
received the most particular attention. 

In treating of farm-stock, implements, &c., the editor has had no individual 
interests to serve, and no prejudices to bias him. He has, therefore, doubtless, 
oflen failed to say all that partiality or predilection might have dictated in particular 
cases, and the discussion of the relative merits or demerits of contested agricultural 
subjects he has lefl to be carried on in the most appropriate places, namely, the 
pages of the numerous excellent periodical publications, industriously employed 
in diffusing the lights of agricultural science through every part of the Unioa. 
To many of these the editor is deeply indebted for most valuable information, the 
particular sources of which he has been careful to acknowledge in the proper 
olaces. 



EXPLAl^ATION OF PLATES. 



PLATE 1. 

Short-Horned Cows, 

PLATE 2. p. 1117. 

Varieties of Wheat, tvith the most destructive Ene- 
mies. 

a, Summer or Spring Wheat. 

b, Winter or Lammas Wheat. 

c, Egyptian Wheat 

d, Turgid Wheat 

e, Polish Wheat. 
/, Spelt Wheat. 

g. One-grained Wheat 

h, The Wheat Fly of Scotland, New Eng- 
land, &c., the larva or worm of which destroys 
the grain in the head or chaff. 

i. One of the Worms magnified. 

k. The Hessian Fly, which attacks the stem 
near its root 

I, A portion of Wheat Straw afiected with 
Rust, magnified, to show the parasitic plant or 
fungus giving rise to the disease called Rust, 
Blight, and Mildew. 

m, Another portion of a Diseased Stem in a 
green state, and before the fungus is quite ripe. 

n, The small portion marked 1 (I) is still 
more strongly magnified. 

0, p, q, r, s, t, u, Very highly magnified repre- 
sentations of the Fungus Parasite in difl!erent 
stages of growth and maturity. 

0, Showing it in the young state ; p, full- 
grown ; q, two plants bursting and shedding 
their seeds when under water in the micro- 
scope ; r, two plants bursting in a dry place ; 
s, apparently abortive ; t, seeds in a dry state ; 
u, a small part of the bottom of a pore with 
some of the parasitic fungi growing upon it. 



PLATE 3. p. 139. 

Barley, Oats, Bttckwheat, arid MilUt. 

a, b, c, d, Varieties of Barley. 
«, White, or Common Oat 
/, Siberian or Tartarian Oat 
g. Common Buckwheat 
h, Tartarian Buckwheat 
i, Emarginated Buckwheat 
k, German Millet 
I, Common Millet 
m, Italian Millet 
n, Polish Millet 
0, Indian Millet 



PLATE 4. p. 1044. 

Rice, Sugar, Tobacco, ^c. 

a, Canary corn. 

b, Rice Plant 

c, Wild Rice. 

d, Sugar Cane. 

e, Indigo Plant. 

/, Virginian Tobacco Plant 
g. Common Green Tobacco. 
h, Havanna Repanda Tobacco. 
I, Quadrivalvis Tobacco of the Rocky Mo in- 
tains. 
k, Mana Tobacco of the Rocky Mountains. 

PLATE 5. p. 575. 

Hay-Grasses adapted to particular Soils and StYwo- 
tions. 

The first group exhibits the Tall Hay-Grasses 
of temporary "duration ; the second group, TaU 
Hay-Grasses of permanent duration ; the third 
group. Grasses adapted to particular soils and 
situations. 

a, Ray or Rye-Grass (Lolium perenne). Pe- 
rennial Darnel, Perennial Rye-Grass. 

b, Orchard Grass, or Cock's-foot (Dactytis 
glomcrata"). 

c, Woolly or Creeping Soft Grass {Holcus 
mollis). 

cc. Tall Oat-like Soft Grass, Andes Grass 
{Holcus avenacais). 

d, Meadow Barley-Grass {Hordewm pratense). 
dd. Meadow, or Fertile Fescue {Festuca pra- 

tensis). 

e, Tall, or Infertile Fescue {Fesiuca elatior). 

f, Spiked, or Darnel Fescue Grass {Festuca 
loliacea). 

g, Meadow Foxtail (^Ahpecurus pratensis). 

h, Great or Smooth-stalked Meadow Grass. 
Spear-Grass (Poa pratensis). 

i, Rough-stalked Meadow Grass (^Poa trv~ 
vialis). 

k, Timothy, or Meadow Cat's-tail (^Phleum 
pratense). 

I, Floating Fescue (Festuca fluitans). 

m, Water Meadow Grass (Poa aquatica), 

n, Fiorin (^Agrostis stolonifera). 

PLATE 6. p. 576. 

Grasses. 

The first group exhibits the Early Pasture 
Grasses ; the second and third groups Pasture 



n 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 



Grasses adapted to particular soils and situa- 
tions. 

a, Sweet-scented Vernal Grass {Anthox- 
anthum odoraturn). 

b, Downy Oat-Grass {Avena pubescens). 

c, Annual Meadow Grass {Poa annua). 

d, Fine Bent (Agrostis vulgaris mutica). 

e, Narrow-leaved Meadow Grass (^Poa an- 
^usti folia), 

f, Dog's-tail Grass {Cynosurus cristatus). 

g, Hard Fescue (Festuca duriuscula). 
h, Smooth Fescue (Festuca glabra), 

i, Long-awned Fescue (Festuca hordeiformis), 
k. Sheep's Fescue (Festuca ovina), 
I, Alpine Meadow Grass (Poa alpina). 
m, Turfy Hair Grass (Aira ccespitosa), 
n, Common Quaking Grass, or Ladies' 
Tresses (Briza media). 

PLATE 7. p. 577. 
Crrasses, ^c, found in Fields and Meadows, 

a, Field Brome Grass (Bromus arvensis), 

b, Soft Brome (Bromus mollis), 

c, Darnel (Lolium temulentum). The Chess 
or Cheat of Europe. 

a, White Darnel (Lolium arvense). 

e. Welsh Fescue (Festuca Cambrica). 

f. Crab, or Finger Grass (Digitaria sangui- 
nalis). 

g. Red Top (Tricuspis). 

h, Blue Grass (Poa compressa), 
i, Creeping Soft Grass, or Couch Grass. 
k, Creeping Dog's Tooth (Cynodon dactylon), 
I, Upright Sea Lime Grass, Star, or Bent 
(Elymus arcnarius). 
m. Matt Grass (Psamma arenarium). 
n, Gama Grass. 

0, Scotl's Grass (Panicum hirtellum). 
p, Guinea Grass (Panicum poly gamum). 
q, Cow Wheat (Melampyrum pralense). 
r, Tare, or Common Vetch (Vicia sativa). 
s, The Lentil (Ervimi lens), 
t, Chick-Pea (Cicer arietinum), 
u, Spanish Lentil (Lathyrus sativus). 
V, Canadian Lentil (Vicia pisiformis). 
w, White Lupine (Lupinus albus.) 

PLATE 8. p. 339. 

Plants cultivated for Hay or Herbage. 

a, White,or Creeping Clover(Tn/bZuwire/)ens). 

b, Common Red, or Biennial Clover (Trifo- 
liv/rn pratense), 

c, Meadow, or Cow G\oveT (Trifoliummedium), 

d, Yellow, or Shamrock Clover (Trifolium 
procumbens). 

e, Lupuline Clover (Medicago lupuUna). 

f, Flesh-coloured, or Roussillon Clover (Tri- 
folium incarnatum). 

g, Saintfoin (the Bourgogne or Esparcette of 
the French). 

h, Lucern (Medicago sativa), 
i, Yellow Lucern (Medicago falcata). 
k, Long-rooted Clover (Trifolium macro- 
-hisum). 

PLATE 9. p. 619. 
Inferior Herbage, Plants occasionally cultivated. 

a, Burnet (Poterium Sanguisorba), 

b, Spurry (Spergula arvensis). 



c, Furze or Whin (Uiex Europeeus). 

d, Common Broom (Spartium scoparum), 

e, Spanish Broom (Spartivmi jimceum). 

f, Parsley (Apium petrosilinum). 

g, Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus). 

h, Lotus Tetragonolobus (Lotier cultiva, Ft.), 
i. Ripple Grass, or Ribwort Plantain (Plan- 
tago lanceolata). 

k. Yarrow (Millefeuille, Yt.). 

PLATE 10. p. 1108. 
Weeds and Plants troublesome to the Farmer. 

a, Cockle, or Corn Campion (Agrostemma 
Git ha go). 

b, Mellilot Clover (Trifolium officinalis). 

c, Tares. Smooth Tare (Ervum tetrasper- 
mum). 

d, Black Bindweed (Polygonum Convolvulus). 

e, Dodder (Cuscuta Europaa), 

f, Mellilot trefoil of Switzerland. 

g, Charlock, or Wild Radish (Raphans Ra- 
phanistrmn). 

h, HarifT, Cleavers, &c. (Galium Aperine). 

i, Couch Grass (Triticum repens), 

k, Rest Harrow (Ononis spinosa), 

I, Colt's-foot (Tussilago Farfara). 

m, Corn Mint (Mentha arvensis). 

n, Black Foxtail (Alopecurus agrestis), 

o, Wild Carrot (Daucus Carota). 

p, Hedge Parsley, or Dili (Tarilis infesta). 

q, Fool's Parsley (ALthusa). 

r, Bawd-Money. Fennel. (Meum bwnias). 

s. Corn Poppy (Papaver Rha:as). 

t. Buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus). 

u, Blue Bottle. Ragged Robin. (Centaurea 
Cyanus). 

V, Mayweed. Stinking Chamomile. (An- 
themis Cotula). 

V, V, St. John's Wort (Hypericum). 

w, Ox-eye Daisy (Chrysanthemum Leucanthe- 
mum). 

w w, Chamomile Feverfew (Matricaria Cha- 
momilla). 

X, Common Fumitory (Fumaria officinalis vel 
vulgaris), 

X X, Yellow Toad-Flax (Linaria vulgaris). 

y, Cinquefoil (Potenlilla Pennsylvanica). 

y y. Soap Wort. Bouncing Bet. (Saponaria 
officinalis). 

PLATE 11. p. 628. 

Russian Bee-Hive and Echium vulgare, called 
in Russian Ciniak. 

1, The Hive with the upper door removed 
so as to show the interior, and arrangement of 
the honey frames, a, Movable doors; b, wooden 
pegs ; c, movable pieces on which the doors 
are supported; c/, slats separating the comb 
from the doors ; e, frames in which the honey 
is deposited ; /, entrances with slides. 

2, One of the Honey Frames drawn out. 

3, Grating, or Adapter. 

4, Movable Board for separating. 

5, A Transverse Section of the Hive, show- 
ing, at /, the places of entrance ; at a, the 
depth to which the frames extend ; and at c, 
one of the combs. 

6, The Echium vulgare, or Ciniak, with its 
Root, Efflorescence, and nut-like Fruit. 



EXPLANATION OP PI,ATEa 



tU 



PLATE 12. p. 392. 

Cattle. 

1, Short-Horned Bull. 

2, Ayrshire Cow. 

3, Devon Bull, 2 years old. 

PLATE 13. p. 638. 

Horses, 
a, Arabian. 
6, English Racer. 
r, English Hunter. 
d, English Improved Hackney. 
€, English Black Horse. 
/, English Draught Mare. 
g, Suffolk Punch. 
/(, Clydesdale Horse. 
i, Irish Racer. 
k, Shetland Pony. 

PLATE 14. p. 421. 
Grain Drills. 

1, Cooke's Grain Drill. 

2, The same arranged as a Horse Hoe, or 
Cultivator. 

3, Suffolk Corn and Manure Drill. 

4, Groundsell's Patent Drop Drill. 
6, Pennock's Grain Drill. 

PLATE 15. p. 603. 
Harrows, Extirpators, and Scarifiers. 

1, Gang of Harrows. 

2, Berwickshire Harrow. 

3, Biddell's Extirpating Harrow. 

4, Harrow Tooth. 

5, Finlayson's Self-cleaning Cultivator, or 
!?carifier. 

PLATE 16. p. 667. 

Destrtutive Insects, Sfc. 

1, The OakPruner (Elaphidion pittator). See 
Borers, page 205. 

2, Locust Tree Borer {Clytus JUxuosus). See 
page 206. 

'' Potato-vine Bug (^Criociris trilintata). 



4, Cacnoaber FJea {HaUiea striolata). Mag 
nified. See pages 172 and 173. 

6, May Beetle, or Dor Bug (Phyllophaga 
quercina) See pages 172, 173. 

6, Pine Tree Weevil (Hylobius pales). A 
most destructive insect to the Southern pinl 
forests. See Webvils. 

7, Moth ot the Com Cut-Worm (Jgrotis 
clandestina). See Cut- Worm. 

8, Female Fly of the Peach Tree Worm 
{^geria exitiosa). See Peab Tree Borer. 

9, Bee, or Wax Moth {Gallerea cereana). See 
page 168. 

The three msects which follow are to be re- 
garded as fnendly to the interests of man, as 
they prey upon those which are destructive. 

10, Caravus Gorgi, one of a large family 
which preys upon caterpillars, &c. 

11, Lady Bird, or Lady Bug {Coccinella borea- 
lis). This insect lives upon plant-lice and 
other injurious insects. 

12, Trogus Fulvis, an insect of the Ichneu- 
mon Family, which commit great havoc among 
caterpillars and grubs. See Ichneumon FtiBs. 

N. B. Most of the subjects of this plate were 
furnished expressly for this work by Professor 
Haldeman, of Marietta, Pennsylvania, and 
drawn under his inspection by Miss Law-son, 
of Philadelphia 



PLATE 17. f 
Ploughs. 



902. 



a, The Holland, or Rotterdam Plough. 
6, Small's Chain Plough, 
c, d. East Lothian Plough, two views, v,nh 
scale of feet, &.c. 

e, English Swing Plough. 

/, Skeleton Plough of Kent 

g. Subsoil Ploughing. 

h, English Plough Head. 

i, Scotch Plough Head. 

k. Ploughshare for Stony Ground. 

I, Ploughshare for Clear Ground. 

m, m, Skim Coulters. 

n, Wheel Coulters. 

0, Smith's Subsoil Plough. 



THE AMERICAN EDITOR'S 
INTEODUCTION. 



" To render Agriculture more productive and beneficial to all, it is necessary that its principles should 
be better understood, and that we should profit more from the experience of each other, and by the 
example of other countries which excel us in this great business." — Buel. 



The work upon husbandry now ushered before the American public is the produc- 
tion of an English gentleman of great intelligence, assisted by some of the best 
authorities upon rural subjects in his country. By collecting and condensing the 
most interesting details relative to farming, chiefly derived from living authors, such 
as Professors Liebig, Lowe, Sir J. E. Smith, Brande, Youatt, Stephens, Thompson, 
Lindley, I. F. Johnson, etc., etc., he has been enabled to present the very latest infor- 
mation, and furnish a fund of matter which cannot fail to attract all who take an 
interest in rural affairs, so long studied and so thoroughly understood as these must 
needs be in Great Britain. 

The absence of speculative views, with the very practical and matter-of-fact character 
of the information given upon all subjects treated of, will perhaps be found to consti- 
tute the highest recommendation of " C. W. Johnson's Farmers' Encyclopaedia, and 
Dictionary of Rural Affairs." 

The comparatively limited range of English Agriculture is strongly contrasted with 
the diversity of culture met with in the United States. A work limited to an account 
of productions of the soil and climate of England would leave out many of the 
most important crops which exact the attention of the American farmer and planter. 
Hence the necessity of adapting a book of the kind to the new localities into which 
it is introduced. This, as may be well supposed, presents a task of no small labour. 

It lias been charged upon agriculturists, that improvements in husbandry encounter 
great opposition, and generally work their way very slowly ; whereas inventions and 
improvements made in the manufacturing and mechanic arts are seized upon and put 
to profit almost as quickly as promulgated. The late and justly celebrated Mr. Coke, 
of Holkam, England, the great benefactor of his own country, and, indeed, of every 
other country where agriculture is cherished, succeeded, by the adoption of an en- 
lightened course of tillage, in converting a sandy and comparatively sterile district 
into one of very great productiveness. But, though his improvements were on so 
large a scale, and the results so very striking to observers, such was the general 
ignorance, apathy, or prejudice prevailing in the neighbouring counties, that he esti- 
mated the rate at which his improved process spread around him, at only about three 
miles a year, A better condition of things would seem to exist at present in the 
United States, doubtless owing to the extension of education. But a few months 
have passed since the treatise upon Agricultural Chemistry of the celebrated Dr. 
Liebig, reached this side of the Atlantic, and though much of it is couched in the ab- 
struse phraseology of science, still has it been eagerly sought after in all directions, 
and gone through several editions. Can any stronger proof be furnished of the high 
state of intelligence pervading a large portion of the agricultural population of the 
United States ? 

The advances in agricultural improvement have, of late years, been in what mathe- 
maticians call a geometrical ratio, the pace increasing with great celerity at every suc- 
cessive step. In proportion as the influences of modern education become diffused, the 
savage charaicteristics of man are softened down, and the better feelings of his nature ac- 
1 A 



2 INTRODUCTION. 

quire predominance. Bloody and desolating wars are viewed in their true light, an(i 
the useful arts of peace appear the only proper sources of individual pleasure and 
national prosperity. As, among these arts, none possesses the vital importance of 
agriculture, from its furnishing the means of immediate subsistence, so it may fairly 
be said, no other excites at the present day a greater and more pervading ituerest 
throughout Europe and America, with all who seek independence or the gratification 
of the most rational of tastes. 

The inhabitants of the United States possess advantages for the prosecution of 
agricuhural pursuits, which, for variety and extent, surpass those enjoyed by any 
other people on the globe. They occupy the greatest portion of tlie North American 
continent, embracing all varieties of soil and surface, with a climate which in the 
southern parts admits the culture of many of the most valuable productions of the 
tropics, whilst the northern limits verge upon, but do not reach the less favoured 
regions where too severe and enduring frost entails a scanty vegetation. 

Commencing nearest the tropical limits, the chief attention of the planter is direct- 
ed to the culture of the sugar-cane, rice, tobacco, indigo, and especially cotton, more 
of which last is raised in the Southern States than in all the rest of the world besides. 
In the amount of sugar procured from the cane, Louisiana takes the lead, though 
Florida, Alabama, and others of the extreme southern states produce considerable 
quantities. South Carolina yields the most rice, which is also raised to a greater or 
less extent throughout the southern states, and even as high as Tennessee, Kentucky, 
and southern Virginia. The cotton region is still more extensive, spreading through- 
out the extreme southern and south-western states, from the Atlantic far west of the Mis- 
sissippi, and rising into middle Virginia, and even the lowest portion of Delaware 
In the quantity of tobacco produced, Virginia stands foremost, being followed succes 
sively by Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland, North Carolina, etc. 

The Middle States raise in the greatest abundance, maize or Indian corn, wheat, 
rye, barley and oats, whilst in a large portion of the Northern States, the wheat, 
rye, oat, potato, and especially grass crops, are extremely productive and valuable. 
Although maize is most extensively cultivated in the middle states, it is abundant 
in almost every section of the country, and from its affording so large an amount 
of the food of man and animals, is universally regarded as the most valuable cereal 
crop of the United States. Besides these there are many other rich products of the 
fields and forests, which enter largely into the aggregate of national wealth. 

The first history of American Agriculture differs from that of countries in the old 
world, where the advances in the arts were slow, and every acquisition marked by 
rudeness and simplicity. Not so, however, in America, whose intelligent European 
settlers came with all the appliances of advanced civilization, prepared to chop down 
the forests and clear away the thickets which had so long encumbered the ground and 
furnished a scanty subsistence to the savage hunter. For a time the roots obstructed 
the plough and prevented the deep turning of the soil: but they afforded no impedi- 
ment to the raising of grain crops, since the light virgin mould, abounding in the 
alkalies and all other elements of fertility, required but the slightest stirring of the 
surface to answer the purposes of the plough and harrow. Here then commenced 
the career of the American planter and farmer, upon a capital accumulated by nature 
herself through the most gradual accessions. Rich harvests of grain, crops of tobacco 
and other products sent to Europe and sold at high prices, stimulated to renewed ex- 
ertions, and the generous soil was subjected to a scourging course of tillage, by which 
many of the essential elements of its fertility were finally exhausted without any 
compensating additions. In Virginia, where the primitive settlements were made, 
large tracts of many hundreds and even thousands of acres, the once profitable cul- 
ture of which is shown by the extensive ruins of stately mansions, now lie waste 
and uncultivated, or are covered with a new growth of the oak and pine, renewing 
forests to which the deer, once driven away, has returned. 

The lands bordering on the Atlantic have thus been worn out by successive years 
^f culture without adequate help, the thinnest soils first, and next the deeper moulds. 
But let not those whose lots are cast in other and more prosperous parts of the Union 
sympathize over the decayed fortunes of once flourishing districts, and overlook their 
own gradual decline. It is in vain for the farmers of the western valleys and prairies 
to boast of the depth and inexhaustible productive powers of their lands. With every 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

crop, some of the elements of fertility must of necessity be removed, and the greater 
the crops the speedier the exhaustion, unless some adequate compensation be made. 
The following fact, stated in the fifth volume of that valuable American periodical, 
"The Cultivator," shows the progress of deterioration in one of the finest wheat dis- 
tricts in the whole country. 

" Thomas Burrall, Esq., has a most excellent wheat farm in the neighbourhood of 
Geneva, (New York,) which he began to clear and improve twenty-one or twenty- 
two years ago, and on which he has made and applied much manure. Mr. Bur- 
rall informed us, in the summer of 1836, that he had noted down the average product 
of his wheat crop every year ; that dividing the twenty years into three periods, he 
found that his wheat had averaged twenty-nine bushels per acre during the first of 
these periods ; twenty-five bushels the acre during the second ; and but twenty bushels 
the acre during the third period — thus showing a diminished fertility of nearly one- 
third, under what may there be denominated a good system of husbandry." 

All, then, who are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and even those now luxuriating 
upon the most fertile soils, must, sooner or later, be reduced to the necessity of adding 
to their fields some of the agents of fertility, and of adopting new means by which 
they can obtain crops that may be compensating and profitable. 

The late Judge Buel, in referring to a picture drawn by the Hon. James M. Gar- 
nett, of the deteriorated condition of Virginia agriculture, says : — " Let not the 
Northerners take credit to themselves, from this outline of old Virginia husbandry, or 
from the ingenuous detail of the causes which brought it to so low a condition. Though 
not exactly the like causes have operated, the same deteriorating system of husbandry 
has prevailed with us, though perhaps to a more limited extent. Though we have 
personally attended more to the art — to the practice — yet we have been equally defi- 
cient in the science with our brethren in Virginia — equally indifferent to the study 
and application of the principles upon which good husbandry must ever be based. 
And although we may have begun earlier in the business of reform, whether from 
necessity or from choice we will not say, we are still too defective in practice to boast 
of our trivial acquirements. The truth is, we have regarded the soil as a kind mother, 
expecting her always to give, without regarding her ability to give. We have 
expected a continuance of her bounties, though we have abused her kindness, and 
disregarded her maternal admonitions. We have managed the culture of the soil as a 
business requiring mere animal power, rather than as one in which the intellect could 
be brought largely to co-operate." 

" But," continues the judge, in the full fervour of his zeal for the promotion of 
agriculture, "there is a redeeming spirit abroad. The lights of science are beaming 
upon the agricultural world, and dissipating the clouds of superstitious ignorance 
which have so long shrouded it in darkness. The causes which have for some time 
been actively operating to improve the condition of the other arts, and to elevate the 
character of those who conduct them, are extending their influence to agriculture." 

The course of tillage followed in America since its first settlement, and with such 
exhausting and disastrous effects upon the soil, has been of late aptly styled the old 
system, to distinguish it from the New Husbandry, which last consists in the employ- 
ment of means calculated not only to arrest and prevent the exhaustion of soils, but to 
increase their productiveness. It is indeed gratifying to know that in many parts of 
our country which have suffered from the impoverishment of the land ; agriculture 
has for many years shown signs of progressive improvement, reduced farms having 
been brought into increased value, and the products of many of them being raised 
even above the amount afforded in the days of their first exuberant culture. This 
has occurred in New England, in the Valley of the Hudson, in New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, the upper portion of the Peninsula including Delaware and Eastern Mary- 
land, in several parts of Western Maryland, Old or Eastern Virginia, etc. 

It is the chief object of the numerous and many admirable agricultural publications 
so extensively circulated at the present day, as well as of the active societies everywhere 
instituted, to set forth the principles and practical details of the new system of hus- 
bandry, and to demonstrate the advantages resulting from the judicious application of 
manures and all sorts of fertilizing agents ; — from good tillage ; — from proper rotation 
of crops ; — from the assistance to be derived from root-culture ; — from the substitution 
for naked fallows, of clover and other good fallow crops. All these means are to be 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

adopted in conjunction with ample draining, with or without the additional advantages 
derived from sub-soil ploughing. 

Many of the processes which may be resorted to in carrying out the new system 
are in a great degree mysteries to thousands in the United States, although familiarly 
known and long employed in other countries, where with not half the natural advan- 
tages the labour of the husbandman is far better rewarded. Such has been the agri- 
cultural improvement effected in Flanders, that the whole country may almost be 
styled a garden, each acre being capable of supporting its man. Scotland, in little 
more than half a century, has changed from comparative unproductiveness, into one 
of the richest agricultural districts in Europe. In Great Britain, the products of the 
grain harvests have increased within sixty years, from one hundred and seventy to 
three hundred and forty millions of bushels. The system inculcated by the new 
principles, has even in some districts of our own country, where they have been well 
followed up, increased the value of farms, two, three, and four hundred per cent. — 
from twenty and thirty dollars to one hundred dollars per acre. " It has," says Buel, 
" made every acre of arable land, upon which it has been practised ten years, and 
lying contiguous to navigable waters, or a good market, worth, at least, one hundred 
dollars, for agricultural purposes." 

The zeal for the promotion of good husbandry which pervades the country at large, 
is displayed in the geological surveys which have been finished, or are in progress, in 
most of the states ; in the agricultural surveys in several others, together with the 
liberal premiums appropriated by legislative authority, and innumerable societies, foi 
the encouragement of every thing tending to improve and advance the agricultural 
interests. It is also shown by the extensive circulation of the many periodicals de- 
voted in whole or in part to agricultural topics. Every section of our extensive 
country has more or less of these invaluable aids for the dissemination of useful 
information. Although wishing to avoid, as far as possible, all invidious distinctions, 
where there are so many just claims to notice, some of these publications cannot be suf- 
fered to remain without a passing notice. Such are, " The JJmerican Farmer,''' re- 
cently published in Baltimore by John S. Skinner and successors, the pioneer of 
American periodicals specially devoted to agriculture : " The Cultivator,^'' published 
in Albany, N. Y., by the late Judge Buel and successors : "TVte New England Far- 
mer,'''' by Thomas G. Fessenden and successor, the Rev. H. Coleman: '■'■The 
Southern Agriculturist,'''' in Charleston, S. C, by B. R. Carroll; and ''The Farm- 
pys Register,'''' by Edmund Ruffin at Petersburg, Virginia. These able works con- 
stitute the chief officials on agricultural subjects in the northern, middle, and southern 
•states. 

Book-farmers have long suffered under general discredit, and been exposed to 
abundance of taunt and ridicule, even from their own agricultural brethren. Doubt- 
less the imperfection of much of the scientific data furnished and practised upon has 
often given occasion to unsatisfactory results. But the rapid progress of science 
has developed new facts, and furnished much more accurate information, Undei 
the direction of Davy, agricultural chemistry made vigorous advances. His many 
splendid discoveries, and especially his demonstration that the common alkalies, pot- 
ash and soda, and the alkaline earths, magnesia, lime, and alumine, were not simple 
elementary substances, but the oxides of metals, seemed to give a new impulse to 
those who sought to make chemistry subservient to agriculture. But even with the 
brilliant achievements of Davy and the subsequent valuable researches of Count Chaptal 
in France, agricultural chemistry remained very imperfect. Too exclusive attention 
had been devoted to the mineral constituents of soils. Most gratifying and important 
'■esults have been since obtained through the able investigations of several eminent 
French chemists, among whom we may name, Raspail, De Saussure, Braconnot, and 
Boussingault, all of whom have devoted special attention to ascertaining the nature 
and properties of organic substances entering into the composition of soils. What 
England commenced by Davy, and France followed up so ably by her distinguished 
chemists just named, Germany seems to have the honour of almost perlecting 
through the brilliant achievements of her chemist. Dr. Liebig, the highly important 
results obtained by whom have been quite recently placed before the world in a trea- 
tise entided " Organic Chemistry." The interesting developements made in this 
work of the chemical agencies operating in the various stages and conditions of growth, 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

maturity, and subsequent decomposition of vegetable and animal substances, and the 
mutual relations subsisting between these and the earth and atmosphere, have drawn 
upon Liebig the admiration of all Europe and America. 

It must, nevertheless, be owned that though generally adopted, the accuracy ot 
some of Liebig's results has been more than questioned by distinguished chemists in 
Europe and the United States. The particulars of these and the eftects of the several 
agencies acting upon the life of vegetables and animals, will be found in the Encyclo- 
paedia of Agriculture, arranged under various heads, such as, Soils, Humus, Carbon, 
Oxygen, Azote or Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Ammonia, etc. 

Whilst agriculture has, within the last few years, been thus receiving such rich 
tributes from abroad, many scientific investigators of the highest merit have been 
zealously and successfully engaged in the United Stales, in experimental researches 
which have added greatly to the stock of useful knowledge. Among these, it would 
be signal injustice to pass unnoticed the names of Professors Jackson and Dana of 
Massachusetts, who have devoted great attention to the analyses of soils, the chemical 
composition and properties of humus as found in ordinary mould, and in peats and 
bog-mud, the results of which have been published in the reports of the Agricultural 
and Geological Surveys of Massachusetts, and in separate essays. Professors Rogers 
and Booth of Philadelphia, the former in his Geological Report of New Jersey, and 
the latter of Delaware, have furnished numerous and highly accurate analyses of the 
valuable calcareous marls and green-sand deposits found so abundantly in the states 
named, as well as in others of the middle and southern regions, together with much 
information relative to the application of these inexhaustible agents of fertility ; — Nor 
can we omit the name of Dr. Harris of Massachusetts, whose highly interesting and 
useful treatise upon destructive insects, is a most valuable acquisition to the stores 
of agricultural knowledge. 

The success with which science has developed the agencies concerned in the 
various stages and processes of vegetation, and the certainty with which deficiences 
of soil can now be detected and remedied, have suddenly elevated agriculture from 
the condition of an art under the guidance of common observation and empirical ex- 
periment, to a science regulated by recognised principles of induction. We are 
indeed much mistaken if the day has not arrived when the successes of the book-farmer 
shall cause his incredulous brother farmer of the old routine system, to cease his 
taunts and spend some of his leisure hours in searching into books containing modern 
information in regard to matters of husbandry. 

In preparing the work for the American farmer, the editor has had several objects 
to fulfil. Of these, one of the principal was the reduction of the price, the cost of 
the imported copy being so great as to prevent any extensive circulation of it in the 
United States. Much of the irrelevant and less important materials in the original 
have been omitted, their place being supplied by the addition of information con- 
nected with the interests of American husbandry. In the selection of such informa- 
tion, the editor has to acknowledge his great indebtedness to distinguished writers at 
home and abroad, who have contributed, by elaborate works, separate treatises and 
communications in periodicals, to promote the cause of agriculture. 

The American edition will contain a far greater number of plates and figures illus- 
trating the various subjects ; notwithstanding which, its cost will be only about one- 
fourth that of the imported work. 



▲ S 



THE 



FARMER'S ENCYCLOPJIDIA, 



AND 



DICTIONARY OF RURAL AFFAIRS. 



A. 

ABATE (French, abbatre,- Spanish, aba- 
tir ; Italian, abbatere); to beat down. In com- 
merce, to let down the price in selling. 

In law, means the beating down or removal 
of an obstruction or nuisance, which, accord- 
ing to the common law of England, any per- 
son may remove, provided he does it in a 
peaceable mamner, so as not to occasion a 
breach of the peace, such as the obstruction 
of an ancient light, which is a private nuisance, 
or the erection of a gate across a common 
road, which is a public nuisance, and which 
any one may beat down and remove. 

ABELE TREE (Populus alba). European 
White Poplar, or Dutch Beech, otherwise call- 
ed the Arbeel. The Abele is a tree of very 
rapid growth, but seldom exceeds forty or fifty 
feet in height. The leaves are large, and di- 
vided into three, four, or five lobes, which are 
indented on their edges. 

This tree is not to be considered as a native 
of England. Hartlib, in his " Complete Hus- 
bandman," 1659, states that some years ago, 
there were ten thousand Abeles at once sent 
over into England from Flanders, and trans- 
planted into many counties ; that the timber is 
incomparable for all sorts of wooden vessels, 
especially trays; and that butchers' trays can- 
not be made without it, it being so exceedingly 
light and tough. 

"A specimen of their advance," says Eve- 
lyn, "we have had of an Abele tree at Sion, 
which being lopped in Feb. 1651, did, by the 
end of October, 1652, produce branches as big 
as a man's wrist, and seventeen feet in length. 
As they thus increase in bulk, their value ad- 
vances likewise, which, after the first seven 
years, is annually worth one shilling more. 
The Dutch, therefore," he continues, "look 
upon a plantation of these trees as an ample 
portion for a daughter." Besides the uses of 
the wood before stated, it is considered good 
for wainscoting, for floors, laths, and packing 
cases ; and, from the boards of it not splitting 
by nails, but closing over the heads, it is 
esteemed s'lperior to deal for the latter pur- 
pose. It is found to answer for works under 



water. Peaty and low damp soils are the most 
proper for the Abele, and in these it is well 
worthy the attention of the forest planter. It 
should never be planted near the margins of, 
nor in grass fields, for it extends its roots 
under the grass to a great distance, and sends 
up numerous shoots. The Abele is propa- 
gated b)' layers, cuttings, and ofT-shoots or 
suckers. The month of Februar}'' is the best 
season for planting the cuttings. In two years, 
many, if not all that have rooted, will be fit to 
plant out for good, on the sites where they are 
to remain for timber. The size of the plants 
considered the best for final transplantation, is 
from one and a half to three feet in length, but 
much larger plants will succeed very well by 
paying proper attention to keep the roots as 
perfect as possible. 

The Abele is sometimes made a variety of 
the Gray Poplar (Populus canescens), and seve- 
ral British as well as foreign botanists have 
confounded the two species, but they are very 
distinct. 

There are many varieties of the Abele, aris- 
ing from local circumstances. The variety, 
called on the continent, Polan de Holland, is 
preferable for avenues and for landscape gard- 
ening, from its rapid growth, its majestic 
height and aspect, and from its fine white 
leaves contrasting well with the green of other 
leaves. There are some magnificent ones 
near the Hague, and more particularly exten- 
sive avenues of them along most of the high- 
ways in the lower districts of Belgium, near 
Bruges and Ghent It is so common on the 
romantic banks of the Rhone, that some French 
authors call it Arbre du Rhone. 

According to M'Intosh, the best cuttings are * 
taken from the wood of the preceding year; 
and when made, each cutting should be nine 
inches in length, and planted in nursery lines 
eighteen inches apart, and the cuttings about 
six inches distant from each other. When in- 
serted in the ground, they should be put in 
deep enough to resist the drought ; and if only 
two inches of the top appear above ground, it 
will be found sufficient. In two years, or three 
at most, these cuttings will be fully grown to 
fit them for being finally planted out; but if 

7 



ABIES. 



ABORTION. 



they are to remain the third year in the nur- 
sery, they ought to be taken up and re-planted 
at a greater distance. The Abele often sends 
up naturally vast numbers of suckers from its 
roots, and such are sometimes used for )'oung 
plants; cuttings are, however, preferable. 
Langley asserts that he has known great 
quantities produced by chips only, where the 
trees have been hewed after felling ; and one 
of our earliest authors has proposed ploughing 
down these chips, with a view to produce an 
economical coppice. 

Amongst other uses of this tree, it may be 
mentioned that, on the Continent, the wood of 
the larger branches is prized, on account of its 
lightness, for making wooden shoes ; while the 
smaller twigs are used for fire-wood. By 
splitting the wood into thin shavings, like tape 
or braid, the stuff called sparterie used for 
hats, is manufactured. These shavings are 
always made from green wood. One work- 
man can, with the aid of a child to carry off 
the shavings, keep several plaiters employed. 
The ancient Greek athletse wore crowns made 
of the branches of this tree, because it was 
sacred to their patron deity, Hercules. (Julius 
Pollux, de Ludis. Miller's Did.) 

ABIES. In botany, the Fir or Pine tree 
genus, well known for the valuable timber ob- 
tained from many of the varieties. The origin 
of the Latin name is unknown, that of the 
English appellation is the Saxon Furh-wude, 
fir-wood. See Fib Tree. 

ABLACTATION (Latin, ablacto). The 
weaning of an animal. Also a method of 
grafting, without cutting the scion from the 
stock. 

ABORTION (Latin, abort io). In veteri- 
nary surgery, miscarriage, slipping, slinking, 
casting, or warping, all meaning the expulsion 
of the foetus at so early a period of pregnancy as 
to render it impossible for it to live. The im- 
mediate causes appear to be the death of the 
foetus, or derangement in the functions of the 
womb or its dependencies, arising from some 
external cause or causes operating on the mo- 
ther. Amongst these operating causes may be 
reckoned too much, or too little food, producing 
plethora or emaciation ; sudden fright acting 
on the nerves, or sympathy with certain smells 
or sights, such as the smell or sight of blood, 
of bones, of horns, and particularly of the 
aborted foetus of another animal ; — on a simi- 
lar principle, perhaps, to that which causes 
even some strong-nerved men to faint away 
on witnessing a surgical operation. Acci- 
dents, also, such as falls, bruises, over-driving, 
or fatigue, and the like, may frequently bring 
on abortion. 
• The signs of approaching abortion are, great 
languor, uneasiness, and restlessness* some- 
times a discharge of bloody matter, and the 
sudden filling of the udder, similar to the signs 
of approaching parturition. 

Abortion iyi the Horse. — Abortions very fre- 
quently happen among mares. This often 
arises in consequence of over-exertion during 
the latter period of pregnancy. Mares are 
liable, also, very frequently, to various acci- 
dents in their pastures, which may be the 
cause of their slipping their foal, such as 



kicks, tumbling into holes and ditches, over- 
exerting themselves to get over fences, and the 
like. On this account, when a mare is near 
her time, she should be kept by herself, in some 
convenient place. But there is another, and 
we suspect a very general, cause of these ac- 
cidents in mares ; we mean a stinting of them 
in their food, either in quantity or quality. It 
appears, indeed, that some imagine that tlie 
mare, when she is in foal, may be turned out 
almost any where : but this opinion is ill 
founded ; for although the mare does not re- 
quire to be kept so high in condition as when 
she is at hard work, yet she is not to be turned 
out into a pasture where she may be in a man- 
ner starved: but how often do Ave see the 
mare-in-foal on the worst piece of ground in 
the whole farm, exposed, during the rigorous 
winter season, to endure the cold, as well as to 
put up with scanty food. Every well-informed 
farmer knows that the slinking of the foal is 
often the consequence of such treatment. On 
the other hand, when the mare is not worked 
at all, and indulged with too high keep, she is 
almost equally in danger of abortion, her high 
condition having a tendency to cause inflam- 
mation and other disorders; and these de- 
ranging the reproductive organs, frequently 
produce miscarriage. It would seem, then, 
that moderate exercise and diet are best suited 
as means to avoid the misfortune of the pre- 
mature exclusion of the foal. 

Abortion in the Cow. — Abortion occurs of- 
tener in the cow than in all other domestic 
animals put together. Perhaps it is one of 
the greatest annoyances the proprietor of cows 
has to encounter, and unfortunately, for aught 
Ave see to the contrary, it is likely so to con- 
tinue ; for in spite of the improved state of 
veterinary medicine, and the researches of 
skilful veterinary surgeons, both at home and 
abroad, abortion still continues as frequent 
and anno5''ing as ever. The causes are fre- 
quently involved in obscurity ; but it may be 
mentioned, that an extremely hot and foul cow- 
house, a severe blow, violent exertion, starva- 
tion, plethora, an overloaded stomach, internal 
inflammations, constipated bowels, bad food or 
water, improper exposure, and the like, aa'III 
now and then produce abortion. Any thing 
whatever, indeed, that seriously affects the 
health of the animal in general, or the state of 
the reproductive organs in particular, may do 
so. But abortion occurs again and again 
Avhen no such causes as those enumerated can 
be traced. The disease, if such it may be 
called, as we think it may, is CA'en said to be 
infectious. No sooner does it shoAv itself in one 
animal than it is seen in another, and another, 
till it has spread over the most part of the coav- 
house. Some say this is to be attributed to the 
odour arising from the things evacuated. Pos- 
sibly it may be so, there is nothing unreason- 
able in the supposition ; for although we cannot 
perceive the smell, nor account for its peculiar 
influence, it is still quite within possibility 
that such an odour does exist, having the 
poAver attributed to it. There can be no great 
harm, however, in acting as if we were as- 
sured that the mischief has its origin in the 
source so commonly supposed, provided we do 



ABORTION. 



ABORTION. 



not shut our eyes to any other which accident 
or investigation may reveal. In the meantime, 
the number of abortions may be diminished by 
carefully avoiding all those causes which are 
known to be capable of producing it. Let the 
cows be regularly fed ; let their food be good, 
and in proper quantities ; let them have water 
as often as they will take it ; avoid sudden ex- 
posure to cold or heat ; and, above all, let the 
cow-house be well ventilated. Prohibit all 
manner of rough usage on the part of those 
who look after the cows, whether they be preg- 
nant or not. If any of them accumulate flesh 
too rapidly, gradually reduce their allowance ; 
and, on the other hand, if any become emaci- 
ated, discover the cause, and remedy it, always 
by slow degrees. Sudden changes in the 
matter or mode of feeding should also be 
avoided. The same sort of diet does not 
agree equally well with all the cows ; and this, 
in general, is indicated by undue relaxation, 
or constipation of the bowels ; this should be 
watched, and removed at once. Attention to 
these, and many other minor circumstances, 
will amply repay the proprietor for the little 
additional trouble. 

" That improper or too little food," says Mr. 
Lindsa}', " is a prominent cause of abortion, is 
strongly indicated by the following facts. A 
friend of mine, a respectable grazing farmer, 
kept a dairy of twenty-two cows, ten of which 
slipped calf at difierent periods of parturition. 
The summer had been very unfavourable in 
every respect, both as regarded the ground 
where the cows were pastured, and in getting 
in the hay crop. He had little or no hay of the 
last year's growth, and the hay of that year 
when cut into was in a very bad state ; but as 
he had no other, he was obliged to give it to 
his cattle. The consequence was as men- 
tioned above ; and besides, many of his stock 
died of various disorders ; and many of those 
which recovered remained long weakly." 

"The most common cause of abortion in 
cows," says White, " is improper feeding dur- 
ing winter and spring, before they are turned 
to pasture. The filthy pond-water they are 
often compelled to drink, and feeding on 
the rank fog-grass of October and Novem- 
ber, especially when covered with hoar-frost, 
are likewise frequent causes of miscarriage. 
I remember a farm near Berkeley, in Glouces- 
tershire, which afforded a striking proof of the 
injuries of stagnant pond-water, impregnated 
with dung and urine. This farm had been 
given up by three farmers successively, in 
consequence of the losses they sustained 
through abortion in their cattle, their not being 
in season (that is, not conceiving), red water, 
and other diseases. At length a Mr. Dimmery, 
after suffering considerably in his live stock 
for the first five years, suspected that the water 
of his ponds, which was extremely filthy, 
might be the cause of the mischief. He there- 
fore dug three wells upon his farm, and having 
fenced round the ponds to prevent his cattle 
from drinking there, caused them to be sup- 
plied with well-water, in stone troughs erected 
for the purpose; and from this moment his 
live stock began to thrive, became uncom- 
monly healthy, and the quality of the butter 
2 



and cheese made on his farm was greatly im- 
proved. It should be observed, that on this 
farm the cattle were regularly fed with good 
hay during the winter, and kept in good pas- 
ture in summer: so that there cannot exist a 
doubt that the losses sustained by Mr. Dim- 
mery were entirely attributable to the unwhole- 
some water the animals were compelled to 
drink." 

" In order," adds Mr. White, " to show that 
the accident of warping may arise from a viti- 
ated state of the digestive organs, I shall here 
notice a few circumstances tending to corro- 
borate this opinion. In January, 1782, all the 
cows in the possession of farmer D'Euruse, 
nearGrandvilliers, in Picardy, miscarried. The 
period at Avhich they warped was about the 
fourth or fifth month. The accident was attri- 
buted to the excessive heat of the preceding 
summer; but as the water they were in the 
habit of drinking was extremely bad, and thoy 
had been kept upon oat, wheat, and rye stra^', 
it appears to me more probable that the great 
quantity of straw they were obliged to eat in 
order to obtain sufficient nourishment, and the 
injury sustained by the third stomach in ex- 
pressing the fluid parts of the masticated mass, 
together with the large quantity of water they 
probably drank while kept upon this dry food, 
was the real cause of their miscarrying. A 
farmer at Charentin, out of a dairy of twenty- 
eight cows, had sixteen slip calf at diffei-ent 
periods of gestation. The summer had been 
very dry, and during the whole of this season 
they had been pastured in a muddy place, 
which was flooded by the Seine. Here the 
cows were generally up to their knees in mud 
and water, and feeding on crowfoot, rushes, 
and the like. Part of the stock had recently 
been brought from Lower Normandy, where 
they had all been affected with indigestion by 
feeding upon lucerne, from the effects of which 
they had been relieved by the operation of 
paunching. In one, the opening made was 
large enough to admit the hand for the purpose 
of drawing out the food ; the rest were ope- 
rated on with a trocar. In 1789, all the cows 
in the parish of Beaulieu, near Mantes, mis- 
carried. All the land in this parish was so 
stiff as to hold water for a considerable time; 
and as a vast quantity of rain fell that year, 
the pastures were for a long time, and at seve- 
ral periods, completely inundated, on which 
the grass became sour and rank. These, and 
several other circumstances which have fallen 
under my own observation, plainly show that 
keeping cows on food that is deficient in nutri- 
tion, and difficult of digestion, is one, if not 
the principal, cause of their miscarrying. It 
is stated by Mr. Handwin, that feeding in pas- 
tures, when covered with white frost, has been 
observed to occasion abortion in these ani- 
mals." 

If there be any probability of a cow miscar- 
rying from exposure to any of the common 
causes already enumerated, let her by all 
means be put apart from the others ; and let a 
skilful person attend to the evil from which 
she is expected to suffer. If the approach of 
abortion be evident, bleeding may be had re- 
course to ; for if it do not check abortion, it 

9 



ABORTIVE. 



ABSCESS. 



•will yet do no harm though it take place. 
When there are any premonitory symptoms 
of abortion, they are precisely the same as 
those which present themselves in ordinary 
labour, with the exception of their being less 
marked. 

Fumigation of the cow-house is resorted to 
as one of the means of preventing the spread 
of abortion ; tar, sulphur, gunpowder, feathers, 
and the like, are burned for the purpose of 
destroying the odour. We have never seen a 
single instance of the practice being attended 
with the smallest success ; while it is obvious 
that, if carried beyond a certain point, it may 
produce the very evil it is intended to remove 
or mitigate. 

It is a remarkable feature in the history of 
this complaint, that those cows that have once 
miscarried are particularly liable to do so 
a^ain at the same period of their succeeding 
pregnancy. Greater care is therefore requisite 
to guard against those causes which do, or are 
supposed to, excite it. The treatment of abor- 
tion, when it does take place, differs not from 
that adopted in cases of parturition, only that 
the cow which miscarries should be removed 
with all that belongs to her from among preg- 
nant cows. 

If the signs of approaching abortion be dis- 
covered early, the accident may sometimes be 
prevented. If the cow is in good condition, 
then immediately let it be bled to the extent of 
five or six quarts, and the bowels opened with 
half a pound of Epsom salts, three or four 
drams of aloes in powder, or as many ounces 
of castor oil, administered in a quart of gruel ; 
but if the cow is in very poor condition, and 
the miscarriage is anticipated from her having 
bee a exposed to cold, it would be more advan- 
tageous to avoid bleeding, and give her a warm 
gruel drink, with an ounce of laudanum in it. 
If after this abortion does take place, let her be 
kept in a comfortable place by herself; and if 
the after-birth has not passed off, let no injudi- 
cious and unnecessary administration of vio- 
lent forcing medicines, such as capsicum or 
hellebore, be given. Nature, with a little as- 
sistance, is generally equal to the perfect re- 
storation of the animal. 

Abortion in the Sheep. Ewes are much 
subject to abortion, in consequence of the 
numerous accidents they are liable to, such as 
fright, overdriving, being worried or run with 
dogs, a remarkable instance of which came 
under my own observation. A pack of hounds, 
in pursuit of a hare, got among a flock of 
sheep belonging to a farmer, and so hurried 
and alarmed them, that thirty out of a flock of 
two hundred ewes prematurely dropped their 
lambs. It is the same in sheep as in the other 
cases of domestic animals, — scarcity of food, 
and exposure to severe cold, having a great 
tendency to make the ewes prematurely drop 
their lambs, or produce them weakly and crip- 
pled at the full time ; and although there may 
be a little danger in giving too much food, 
such as allowing them to feed all the winter 
on turnips, the danger is trifling compared 
with the starving system. (Miller.) 

ABORTIVE. A term applied by gardeners 
and larmers to flowers, seeds, and fruits, which 
10 



do not come to maturity, in consequence of ex- 
ternal injury from the weather, from insects, 
or other causes affecting their growth. Thus 
I'ruit often becomes abortive, in consequence 
of cold winds or frosts in spring checking the 
flow of the nutritive juices; and afrer losing 
its healthy colour it shrivels, and falls. The 
same effects arise when the leaves of fruit- 
branches are devoured by caterpillars, or the 
fruit-stalks sucked by insects {Aphides, Cocci., 
&.C.). The only preventives are sheltering 
from cold, and destroying the insects. 

ABSCESS (Latin, a6sces.su*). In veterinary 
surgery, a circumscribed cavity in an animal, 
containing matter. [In common language, an 
imposthume or gathering.] The deposition 
of matter in a solid part of the body is 
always preceded, and in some degree ac- 
companied, by inflammation. The local symp- 
toms are, pain on pressure, heat, swelling, 
hardness, and, where it can be seen, redness. 
These are easily recognised, in proportion as 
the inflamed part is near the external surface. 
If the part in which an abscess is about to 
form be soft, yielding, and well supplied with 
blood, it soon softens and points, the pain di- 
minishes, the skin becomes thin, a fluid is felt 
fluctuating under it, and by and by the skin 
bursts, or a portion of it drops out, and the 
matter escapes. What is called the process 
of granulation succeeds to this; and, provided 
the matter be completely evacuated, and the 
outlet be such as not to retain any that may 
form subsequently, the cavity soon fills up. 

Such are the different stages of an ordinary 
abscess. The general health of the animal is 
rarely affected; but if an abscess form in a 
dense unyielding texture, in a part which can- 
not without much difficulty accommodate it- 
self to an increase of volume, then the swelling 
may be less, but the animal will endure a 
great deal more pain, [as is often exemplified 
under similar circumstances in the disease 
called felon or whitlow in the finger or human 
hand.] The irritation, indeed, is sometimes so 
great, from this cause, as to induce fever, and 
even death; and hence the formation of an 
abscess in the foot of an irritable horse is 
not an unfrequent cause of death. During 
the deposition of the matter in such cases, 
we have general symptoms added to those 
termed local. There is loss of appetite, 
thirst, a hot skin, quick and hard pulse, 
constipated bowels ; in short, the animal 
is fevered. When an abscess forms in a 
part remote from the surface, its presence is 
not easily recognised. The genera] practi- 
tioner has here an advantage over the veteri- 
nary surgeon. The expressed feelings of the 
patient, and the occasional slight shivering fits 
which accompany the formation of matter, are 
guides which the veterinary surgeon can 
rarely or never command. The shivering, if 
it occurs, passes unobserved, and the animal 
can give no account of himself; dissection, 
therefore, sometimes reveals large abscesses, 
whose existence Avas not even suspected dur- 
ing life. Fortunately these are not frequent. 

It is a curious circumstance, and one that 
well illustrates the preservative principle of a 
living being, that, unless there be some me- 



ABSCESS. 



ABSORBENTS. 



chanical obstacle, as in the case of the horse's 
foot, the matter always seeks its exit by an ex- 
ternal opening. If this were not a law in the 
animal economy, and if the matter were to 
spread indiscriminately on all sides, it might 
not only accumulate to an enormous extent, 
and produce much destruction, but by en- 
croaching upon vital organs, it might be a very 
frequent cause of death. The instances of 
such a thing happening are rare ; but they are 
easily accounted for by the presence of some 
mechanical obstacle which the absorbents 
could not overcome. Why an abscess should 
point at one part rather than another, is truly 
wonderful ; but it is not more so than almost 
every other process of importance in the ani- 
mal economy. We may attempt to explain it; 
but, in truth, to perceive that such is the case, 
and that because it would have been wrong 
had it been otherwise, is as far as we can pro- 
ceed. We know that the absorbents remove a 
portion of that side of the cavity which is next 
to the external surface ; but we do not know 
what urges them to act on that side in prefer- 
ence to any other ; and, perhaps, in a practical 
point of view, we need not care to know. 

The causes of abscess may in general be 
traced to an injury done to the texture of a 
part, or to the introduction of some foreign 
substance by which it is irritated. In the for- 
mer, the formation of matter is a part of the 
process by which the injury is repaired; in the 
latter, it becomes necessary to interpose a 
bland insensible medium between the sur- 
rounding parts and the irritating substance, 
while the same means serve to expel it. Thus 
a severe bruise, the insertion of a thorn, a nail, 
or any similar agent, may be followed by an 
abscess. 

The treatment of an ordinary abscess is 
very simple; as a general rule, the matter 
should be evacuated as soon as discovered. 
Let a broad-shouldered lancet be used, and let 
the opening be made sufficiently large ; and, 
what is of still more consequence, let it be at 
the lowest part of the tumour, in order that the 
cavity may be completely and constantly 
drained. The general practitioner has some 
scruple about making an artificial opening, 
often for good reasons. His patients dread the 
lancet more than a tedious cure; while the 
skin is thinner, and consequeiu , the natural 
outlet is sooner formed. But in ihe horse, and 
the dog, and still more in the ox, the skin is 
thick, its removal proportionally slow, and the 
natural process is both tedious and painful. 
It is, therefore, better both for the animal and 
his owners, to have an artificial outlet made 
for the matter as soon as the abscess is 
brought to a head, either naturally, or by the 
application of a bran poultice. Little more is 
necessary than to keep the part clean ; trim 
the hair from the edges of the orifice, and by 
applying hogs'-lard, prevent the acrid dis- 
charge from adhering to, and removing the 
hair from the skin beneath. Let no pretender 
stuff the cavity with a candle, or tent of tow, 
or rowels, or any thing else. All these inter- 
fere with nature's operations, prevent the 
escape of the matter, produce fistula, and other 
evils, often far more serious than the original 



abscess. If the cavity do not fill up so readily 
as might be expected, allow the animal a little 
more nourishing food than that recommended 
for invalids ; and inject once, < r even twice a 
day, a liniment composed of equal parts of 
spirits of turpentine and swee t oil ; or, if the 
matter discharged, instead of being thick, pale 
yellow, and without smell, be dark-coloured, 
variegated, and smell oflensively, a solution 
of chloride of lime, or one to three drachms 
of nitre in six ounces of water, may be used. 
A hernial tumour [or rupture] has been 
mistaken for an abscess ; and, in consequence, 
the blacksmith has plunged a lancet into the 
gut, or inserted a rowel. This is a most un- 
likely mistake for a veterinary surgeon to 
make. The heat, the pain, the rigidity, and 
the situation of an abscess, would be suthcient 
to distinguish it from a hernial swelling. If 
there be met with a tumour without heat or 
pain, very compressible, elastic, and situated 
on the belly, the veterinary surgeon would 
pronounce it a rupture, or hernia ; and of 
course would never dream of touching it with 
the lancet. — Miller. 

ABSORBENT SOILS. Such soils as im- 
bibe water. See Eahth, the use of, to vegeta- 
tion. 

ABSORBENTS. In veterinary medicine, 
those drugs are termed absorbents that are 
giv^en internally for the purpose of neutralizing 
any acid which forms in the stomach and 
bowels, in consequence of impaired digestion. 
Prepared chalk is generally used for this pur- 
pose. Those medicines are likewise termed 
absorbents which are applied externally for 
absorbing moisture. Armenian bole, calamine, 
flour, and the like, are employed in this way. 
They are sometimes dusted between folds of 
the skin when galled, and raw from friction, 
blisters, or grease. They are likewise useful 
in canker of the horse's foot, foul in the foot 
of cattle, foot-rot in sheep, and sores between 
the toes of dogs ; and they are beneficial in 
some forms of mange, in staying bleeding, 
and assisting the cure of a penetrated joint. 

ABsoniiESTs. In veterinary physiology, a 
class of vessels whose office it is to convey the 
product of digestion, and the residue of nutri- 
tion into the circulation, to be mixed with and 
repair the waste of the blood. They are di- 
vided into lacteals and lymphatics. The for- 
mer are all situated in the cavity of the belly ; 
and by extremely minute mouths, opening on 
the inner surface of the stomach and intes- 
tines, they receive the nutritious portion of the 
food, and carry it to a vessel which runs along 
the left side of the spine, and which, in its 
turn, empties itself isto the left jugular vein. 
The lymphatics are distributed over every 
portion of the frame, at least over every por- 
tion that contains blood. Their different 
branches are so minute and so numerous, that 
a celebrated anatomist who attempted their 
dissection, is said to have thrown down his 
knife in despair, exclaiming, " that the body is 
entirely composed of absorbents." The uses 
of the lymphatics are, to remove the residue 
of nutrition ; and when the supply of food is 
deficient, to remove such portions of the body 
as can be spared and converted into blood. It 

'1 



ABSORPTION. 



ABSORPTION. 



is they that effect the removal of parts which 
disappear without the action of external 
agents. The lymphatics ultimately empty 
their contents into the same vessel as the lac- 
teals ; and they follow, in their distribution 
through the body, the same course as the 
veins. In the horse they are liable to a dis- 
ease termed farcy ; and in all animals they are 
frequently inflamed in the neighbourhood of a 
sore. The absorbents, both lacteals and lym- 
phatics, are very delicate in their sides, nearly 
transparent, have numerous valves which 
compel their contents to flow only in one di- 
rection ; and their larger trunks have numerous 
glandular bodies on them. The use of these 
glands is not well known ; but, from one or 
two circumstances, it would appear that they 
have to produce some change on the fluid 
which passes through them before it is fit to 
mingle with the blood. 

ABSORPTION. An important process in 
vegetable physiology. As plants are not fur- 
nished with any individual organ similar to 
the mouth of animals, how, it may be asked, 
do they elfect the introduction of food into 
their bodies ; Is it by the general surface of 
their stem, leaves, or roots, or by any peculiar 
part of these 1 By whatever part it may enter, 
it must, at any rate, pass through the covering 
of the outer bark (epidermis), which the earlier 
physiologists thought it could not do, but by 
means of pores more or less visible. Yet 
some of them describe the outer bark as being 
so close and compact a texture, that the eye, 
aided even by the best microscopes, was un- 
able to discover in it the slightest vestige 
either of pores or of apertures. But Hedwig 
and De CandoUe detected superficial pores in 
'the leaves, at least, of many plants ; and so 
will any one else, who will be at the trouble 
of repeating their observations with lenses of 
similar powers. 

The next difficulty was with regard to the 
outer bark (epidermis) of the flower, fruit, and 
root. No pores had been detected in the 
flower and fruit, though it was evident that 
they were refreshed and invigorated by the ac- 
cess of moisture and of atmospheric air ; and 
no pores had been detected in the root, though 
it was evident that the whole of the nourish- 
ment which the plant derives from the soil 
must of necessity pass through the root. It 
was also evident that no aliment could be 
taken up by the plant, except in the state of a 
liquid, or of a gass — that is, by absorption or 
by inhalation, as the chyle is taken up into the 
animal lacteals, or the air into the cells of the 
lungs. The greediness with which plants ab- 
sorb water was perceived and acknowledged 
even in the earliest times, and even by men 
who were not botanists. Anacreon, in one of 
his little trifles in honour of drinking, makes 
the very trees of the forest drink : 

'H yi] iii\aiva vivci. 

ITii'ci' &i SivSfic' avrfiv. Ode xix. 

"The black earth drinks, and the trees drink it ;" 

that IS the moisture which it contains. 

By merely immersing in water a plant of 
almost any species of moss that has been 
some, time gathered, or long exposed to 
.2 



drought, so as to have had its leaves shrivel- 
led up, the moisture will immediately begin to 
penetrate the plant, which will thereby resume 
its original verdure; an experiment which 
proves the fact of the entrance of moisture 
into the plant through the outer bai-k (epider- 
mis). 

It might be doubted whether any of the 
moisture thus imbibed had passed through the 
root. But if the bulb of a hyacinth is placed on 
the mouth of a glass bottle filled with water, 
so as that the smaller roots (radicles) only 
shall be immersed, the water is imperceptibly 
exhausted, and the plant grows. The mois- 
ture must, consequently, have passed through 
the root. Plants seem, indeed, to be peculiarly 
well adapted for the absorption of fluids by the 
roots, from the infinite number of little absor- 
bent fibulous sponges (spongiolee.), in which 
the fine fibres of the root terminate. It is 
owing to this important property that the 
scientific gardener, in the transplanting of his 
young trees, or the scientific and ornamental 
planter, in the transplanting of his trees of 
full growth, is so extremely careful to pre- 
serve entire even the minutest fibres and ex- 
tremities of the root. Sir Henry Steuart's 
Planter's Guide has taught him the great im- 
portance of these little organs. 

Hales instituted a variety of experiments to 
show the absorbing power of roots, and the 
force with which it acted ; as did also Duha- 
mel and Marriotte, to show the absorbent 
power of leaves. But the most complete set 
of experiments upon the absorbent power of 
leaves is that of M. Bonnet, of Geneva, whose 
main object was to ascertain whether the ap- 
sorbing power of both surfaces of a leaf was 
alike. With this view he placed a number of 
leaves over water, so as that they only floated 
on it, but where not immersed ; some with the 
upper surface, and others with the under sur- 
face, applied to the water. If the leaf retained 
its verdure the longer with the upper surface 
on the water, the absorbing power of the upper 
surface was to be regarded as the greater ; but 
if it retained its verdure the longer with the 
under surface on the water, then the absorbing 
power of the under surface was to be regarded 
as the greater. Some leaves were found to re- 
tain their verdure the longer when moistened 
by the upper surface, and some when moist- 
ened by the under surface ; and some were 
indifferent to the mode in which they were ap- 
plied to the water. But the inference deduci- 
ble from the whole, and deduced accordingly 
by Bonnet, was that the leaves of herbs absorb 
moisture chiefly by the upper surface, and the 
leaves of trees chiefly by the under surface. 
What is the cause of this singular difference 
between the absorbing surfaces of the leaf of 
the herb, and of the tree 1 The physical cause 
might be the existence of a greater, or of a 
smaller number of pores, found in the leaves 
of the herb and tree respectively. The chemi- 
cal cause would be the peculiar degree of affi- 
nity existing between the absorbing organs and 
the fluid absorbed. Duhamel seems to have 
been content to look to the physical cause, 
merely regarding the lower surface of the leaf 
of the tree as being endowed with the greater 



ABSORPTION. 



ABSORPTION. 



capacity of absorbing moisture chiefly for the 
purpose of catching the ascending exhalations 
which must necessarily come in contact with 
it as they rise, but which might possibly have 
escaped if absorbable only by the upper sur- 
face, owing to the increased rapidity of their 
ascent at an increased elevation ; and regard- 
ing the upper surface of the leaf of the herb as 
being endowed with the greater absorbing 
power, owing to its low stature and the slow 
ascent of exhalations near the earth. This did 
not throw much light upon the subject ; and 
the experiments were still deemed insufficient, 
as not representing to us the actual pheno- 
menon of vegetation, though the fact of the 
absorption of moisture by the leaf is fullj^ 
confirmed. 

If, after a long drought, a fog happens to 
succeed before any rain falls, so as to moisten 
the surface of the leaves, plants begin to re- 
vive, and to resume their verdure long before 
any moisture can have penetrated to their 
roots. Hence it follows incontestibly, either 
that moisture has been absorbed by the leaf, or 
that exhalation has been suddenly stopped by 
closing the pores of the leaf, or both. The ef- 
ficacy of rain and of artificial waterings may 
be accounted for partly on the same principle ; 
for they have not always penetrated to the root 
when they are found to have given freshness 
to the plant by either or both of the processes 
just alluded to. The moisture, then, that enters 
the plant as an aliment, is taken up by means 
of the pores ; or, in default of visible pores, 
merely by means of the absorbent power of the 
outer bark (epidermis), not only of the root 
and leaf, but often, as it is to be believed, of 
the other parts of the plant also, at least M'hen 
they are in a soft and succulent state. 

It is to the modern improvements in pneu- 
matic chemistry, and to them alone, that we 
are indebted for our knowledge of the real 
functions of the leaves of plants, and of their 
analogical resemblance to the lungs of animals, 
it being now proved indisputably that the 
leaves of plants not only contain air, but do 
both inhale and respire it. It was the opinion 
of Dr. Priestley that they inhale it chiefly by 
the upper surface ; and it has been shown by 
Saussure that their inhaling power depends 
entirely upon the integrity of their organisa- 
tion. A bough of Cactus Opuntia, detached 
from the plant and placed in an atmosphere 
of common air, inhaled in the course of a 
night four cubic inches of oxygen ; but when 
placed in a similar atmosphere, after being cut 
to pieces and pounded in a mortar, no inhala- 
tion took place. The inhalation of air, there- 
fore, is no doubt eflTected by the pores of the 
outer bark {epidermis) of the leaf. 

It is important to attend particularly to the 
distinction pointed out above, that it is not the 
whole of the root which is endowed with the 
pcwer of absorbing nourishment, but only the 
points of the root fibres, termed spongelets. 
The surface of the root whose outer bark has 
acquired a certain consistence does not absorb 
the moisture of the soil in contact with it ; but 
the roots, and also the smallest rootlets, con- 
stantly lengthen at their extremities ; and these 
extremities are composed of a fine cellular 



tissue, compact, spongy, and the whole newly 
developed, possessing in a high degree the 
hygroscopical faculty proper to vegetable 
tissue. 

M. Carradori (Degli Organi Assorbenti) has 
remarked that there is a slight absorption, 
either by the surface of the roots, or by the 
fugacious hairs with which the roots of young 
plants are often furnished : but this effect 
seems owing to general hygroscopicity ; and 
he himself agrees that this absorption is ex- 
tremely feeble, especially in old and woody 
roots, comparatively with that which takes 
place at their extremities. These experiments, 
however, are not made with such minute accu- 
racy as to enable us to appreciate this com- 
parison. 

When we cut a branch of a tree and plunge 
it into water, its woody tissue thus laid bare 
quickly absorbs a quantity of water ; and in 
this manner is the life of branches preserved 
which are kept for ornamental purposes, but 
this effect has a limit. The extremity which 
has been cut and plunged in the water is not 
renewed, as in the case of the root; and is, 
consequently, more or less quickly altered or 
deteriorated by being in contact with the water. 
We renew its action by cutting off' the rotting 
extremity, and thus place a new and healthy 
surface in contact with the liquid. The water 
which in this manner penetrates into the 
woody tissue of vegetables, preserves their ex- 
istence, at least for a certain time, as if it en- 
tered by the spongelets. This is the same 
thing, we may rest assured, in these pheno- 
mena, as is presented in the developement of 
the cuttings of trees, which are also nourished 
in general only through the water sucked up 
by the surface of their denuded wood. These 
means of nutrition are, however, accidental or 
artificial ; and absorption is a natural opera- 
tion by the spongelets in general, or by the 
suckers in some vegetable parasites. M. Sen- 
nebier observed that, if we divide a plant into 
three parts, the roots as far as the crown, the 
stem as far as the branches, and the leafy top, 
then plunge the lower ends of these into water, 
the whole three will pump up a certain quan- 
tity, but the leafy parts more than the others. 
This absorption particularly takes place at the 
cut surface, where the woody parts are laid 
bare. 

A branch of raspberry put in water and ex 
posed to the sun has absorbed a hundred and 
fifty grains, but only imbibed eight grains when 
the division has been covered over with wax. 
It sucked up no more when, having the divided 
part covered, it was plunged in the whole of its 
length, than when only ashort zone at the ex- 
tremity Avas immersed. This proves that the 
outer bark is impenetrable to water. 

The woody portion, when laid bare, sucks 
up moisture in every way ; that is to say, when 
we cut a branch and place it in the water, it 
sucks it up, either when put into it by the 
upper or by the lower cut part. The habitual 
or upright direction, however, appears to offer 
certain facilities for this more than an inverse 
one. This, indeed, results, first, from the ob 
servation of M. PoUini (Elem.di Bot an., i. 281) 
for the watery juices mount a little less high 
B 13 



ABSORPTION. 



ABSORPTION. 



in the branches placed in an inverse direc- 
tion ; secondly, from the observation of com- 
mon gardeners, and of Mr. T. A. Knight, that, 
in the cuttings made in an inverse manner, it 
is more frequently only the lower buds which 
are developed, and not the higher ones, as 
happens in those made in a direct manner. It 
is necessary, in order to render these experi- 
ments comparative, that the horizontal cuttings 
be made equal ; and, as we were doubtful 
whether this circumstance had been taken into 
consideration, we made the following experi- 
ment : — We placed two branches of willow in 
water, the one in a direct manner, the other 
inverted, and contrived in such a manner that 
these two absorbing bodies were equal ; but 
the branch which was placed inverted pushed 
its roots a little slower than the direct one. 
(Mem. sur les Lenticilles, Anyu des Sc. Nat., 1825, 
Jan., pp. 18, 19.) 

The wood tends not only to absorb the water 
by its transverse section, but also lengthways. 
Thus we placed in water (ibid., p. 4) a branch 
of willow, the section of which was covered 
with mastic, but which had the part immersed 
denuded of the bark by taking off a cortical 
ring of an inch in length. This branch pushed 
its buds and roots in a manner similar to the 
branches which are immersed by a transverse 
section. 

The hygrometrical power of wood is such 
that when we expose it to the air it easily im- 
bibes the surrounding moisture; and, when 
preserved in shady places, it never dries of 
itself. Count Rumford (Mem. sur le Bois et le 
Charbon: 8vo, Paris, 1812) dried in an oven a 
piece of wood taken from the interior of a 
beam which had been placed for one hundred 
and fifty years in a battlement, and observed 
that it lost about ten per cent, of its own 
weight; and he thinks that this is the greatest 
degree of natural desiccation which wood can 
attain in our climate. An oak faggot, exposed 
eighteen months in the air, and which might 
be regarded as excellent wood for burning, lost 
twenty-four per cent. The same experimenter 
observed that, when chips of wood have been 
well dried in a stove, on their exposure to the 
open air they very freely imbibe water. If 
these chips are placed for twenty-four hours in 
a room, the extremes of this power of absorp- 
tion have proved to be, on one side, the Lom- 
bardy poplar, whose chips, five inches long by 
six lines broad, have sucked up 0*87 grains ; 
and, on the other, a billet of oak of the same 
dimensions, which sucked up 1*40 grains. 
When the same chips were exposed for eight 
successive days, it was found that they did not 
increase in weight if the air had remained at 
the same temperature, but they lost in weight 
if the air became more heated. This experi- 
ment, then, proves that the absorption is rapid; 
and that the equilibrium it attains will be 
determined by the surrounding atmosphere, 
and certamly also by its own hygrometrical 
power. 

These necessary conditions of existence 
have been effected by the organization of the 
spongelets as organs of suction, and by the 
nature of the water, which is abundantly dif- 



fused over nature, and also impregnated with 
their principal nourishment. 

The nature of the action of the spongelets is 
remarkable in this, that the choice which they 
seem to make of the matter which they absorb 
does not appear to be determined by the na- 
tural wants of the plant, but the facility is less 
or more influenced by the nature of the liquids. 
Thus, M. Theodore de Saussure (Reck. Chim., 
ch. 8) found, that if we place plants in water, 
with which is mixed sugar, gum, or the like, 
the spongelets will absorb a greater proportion 
of water than of the materials which are dis- 
solved in it; for the water which remained 
after the experiment was more saturated than 
before the roots were put into it. Again, if we 
plunge the roots into different solutions, they 
will absorb so much the more of these in pro- 
portion to their fluidity, although at the same 
time such solutions may be injurious to the 
plant, and yet will they absorb a less propor- 
tion of viscous matter, although this may con- 
tain more nutritive materials. Thus, of blue 
vitriol (sulphate of copper), the most hurtful 
of the substances employed, they absorbed a 
large quantity, but a very small quantity of the 
gum, which is not injurious. When we placed 
plants in solutions of gum, of different degrees 
of thickness, we found that the quantity absorb- 
ed was smaller in proportion as the solution 
was more viscous. Sir H. Davy, also, observed 
that plants perished in those solutions in which 
there was a large quantity of sugar or gum ; and 
prospered when the solutions had only a small 
quantity of either. (Agricultural Chem.) 

The effect of the viscosity is obviated when 
we put the roots in water which holds organic 
matters in suspension. Thus, the drainings 
of dunghills, and impure waters, are taken up 
by the roots in smaller quantities than pure 
water. It should seem that these particles 
have a tendency to obstruct the imperceptible 
pores, passages, or cells of the spongelets. M. 
Th. de Saussure remarks that analogous laws 
may be observed in the case of liquids in 
which different substances are dissolved, the 
more fluid being absorbed in a greater quan- 
tity than others. It would accordingly appear 
that the roots exercise a kind of choice in the 
soil ; but that the choice, far from being relative 
to the wants of the plants, is a circumstance 
purely mechanical. 

On the other hand, M. Pollini, who has 
repeated these experiments, found that of the 
solutions of different substances in water, the 
roots sucked up different quantities, without 
any apparent regard to their viscosity. Thus 
he constantly found, he says, that the roots 
absorbed more of common salt, or of potass, 
than of the acetate or of the nitrate of lime, 
and more of sugar than of gum. He found, on 
the other hand, that if he cut the extremity of a 
root, the water which entered by the wound 
contained indifferently all the salts which had 
been dissolved in the water ; and the portion 
which remained after absorption did not con- 
tain more than before. (Saggio di Osserv. e di 
Sperienze sulla Veget. degli Albert : Verona, 
1815.) 

Another circumstance remarkable in the 



ABSTERGENT REMEDIES. 



ACACIA TREE. 



experiments which we have before detailed is, 
that the disorganized tissue of the spongelets 
appears to give a much freer passage to the 
juices than that which had been uninjured. 
Thus plants can only live for two or three 
days in a solution of blue vitriol {aulphatc of 
copper), of which they absorb a large quan- 
tity : while they will live eight or ten days in 
a solution of gum, of which they absorb only a 
very little. Branches cut and plunged in the 
different solutions follow similar laws, and 
absorb both water and its solutions. 

It is very probable that the spongelets of dif- 
ferent species of plants are not all organized 
in a uniform manner, and that there are some 
which more easily admit of certain substances ; 
but microscopical observations are still far 
from accounting for these differences, and the 
facts drawn from culture are equally obscure 
in directing our judgment upon the point. 

The manner in which plants of diff'erent 
kinds exhaust the soil relatively to each other, 
the general action of manures, the prodigious 
number of ditTcrent plants which we can cul- 
tivate in the same patch of a garden, tend to 
prove that the differences of absorption in 
vegetables are of great importance. Instead 
of the variety, however, of aliments which sus- 
tain the life of animals, we find among vege- 
tables a great uniformity of the substances 
absorbed. The quantity of liquid absorbed at 
different epochs of the life of plants, and under 
the influence of different atmospherical cir- 
cumstances, appear more intimately connected 
T^ith the ascent of the sap than with its suction. 

Absorption varies according to the state 
of the plants and the periods of their growth ; 
going on more rapidly in proportion as the 
leafing is rapid. At the time of flowering and 
fruiting, also, more nourishment is absorbed 
from the soil. We likewise know that absorp- 
tion, as well as the progression of the fluids 
absorbed, depends greatly on the influence of 
heat and light; that it is most active in spring, 
that it diminishes in autumn, and is reduced 
almost to nothing, if it do not altogether cease, 
in winter. — Miller. 

ABSTERGENT REMEDIES, in farriery, 
are those used for the purpose of resolving or 
discussing tumours and concretions on the 
joints and other parts of animals. They 
mostly consist of volatile, stimulant, and sapo- 
naceous matters. 

ACACIA TREE (Robinia Psexid- Acacia Lin- 
nceus). The Acacia tree is well known in 
America, from Avhich it was introduced by the 
name of the Locust tree. It grows very rapidly 
in the early stages of its progress ; so that in a 
few years, from seeds, plants of eight and ten 
feet high may be obtained. It is by no means 
uncommon to see shoots of this tree eight or 
ten feet high in one season. The branches 
are furnished with very strong, crooked thorns ; 
the leaves are winged with eight or ten pairs 
of leaflets, egg-oblong, bright green, entire, and 
without foot-stalks. The flowers come out 
from the branches in pretty long bunches, 
hanging down like those of the laburnum, or 
the still more lovely Wistaria sinensis. Each 
flower grows on a slender foot-stalk, smelling 
very sweet. It is of a white colour, but there 



is a rose-red variety. It blows in June; and 
when the tree is full of bloom makes a hand- 
some appearance, and perfumes the whole air 
around. The flowers are followed by seed- 
pods, oblong, flat, having a longitudinal rib 
next the seeding suture, on the outside of that 
being drawn out into a membranous margin ; 
one-celled, and two-valved. The seeds are 
sometimes as many as sixteen, kiduey-sliaped, 
ending in a hooked beak, like a lens, and are 
of a rusty colour. 

In North America, where this tree grows to 
a very large size indeed, the wood is much 
valued for its duration. Most of the houses 
which were built at Boston in New England, 
on the first settling of the English, were con- 
structed of this wood ; and since then it has been 
much used in America for various purposes. 

The seeds of the Acacia tree were first 
brought to Europe by M. Jean Robin, nurser)-- 
man to the King of France, and author of a 
"History of Plants." M. Robin brought the 
first seeds from Canada; in consequence of 
which, succeeding botanists have, in honour to 
his name, termed the genus Rubinia to which 
the Acacia tree belongs. Soon after its intro- 
duction into France, the English gardeners 
received seeds from Virginia, from which 
many trees Avere raised. 

The wood, when green, is of a soft texture, 
but becomes very hard when dry. It is as 
durable as the best white oak of North Ame- 
rica, and esteemed preferable lor axletrces of 
carriages, trenails for ships, and many other 
important purposes. The turner finds the wood 
of the Acacia hard and well suited to his pur- 
pose, and is delighted with its smooth texture 
and beautifully delic.-vte straw colour. 

The tree, when aged, abounds with certain 
excrescences or knots, which, when polished, 
are beautifully veined, and much esteemed by 
the cabinet-maker. It makes excellent fuel, 
and its shade is said to be less injurious than 
that of any other tree ; while the leaves afford 
wholesome food for cattle. A gentleman in 
New England sowed several acres of it for 
this purpose alone. 

It has been employed with signal success in 
Virginia for ship building, and is found to be 
very superior to American oak, ash, elm, or 
any other wood they use for that purpose. In 
New York it has been found, alter repeated 
trials, that posts for rail-fencing, made of the 
Acacia tree, stand Avet and dry near the ground 
better than any other in common use, and will 
last as long as those of swamp cedar. 

The Acacia tree seems happily adapted to 
ornamental planting. Whether as a single 
tree upon the grass, feathering to the ground 
line, or as a standard in the shrubbery, tower- 
ing above a monotonous mass of sombre ever- 
greens, the Acacia has great charms for us, 
and may justly be called a graceful tree; and 
although its light, loose, and pleasing foilage 
admits the light, and seems to harmonize so 
delightfully with the polished lawn, or the 
highly cultivated shrubbery (and there is 
hardly a shrubbery to be found without them), 
yet we should like much to see the Acacia tree 
planted in the woods everywhere, where forest 
timber is an object of attention. 

'5 



ACACIA TREE. 



ACACIA TREE. 



In France the Acacia tree appears to have 
been more generally diffused throughout the 
country than [in England] ; for it does not only 
ornament their gardens, and shade their public 
walks, but the sprightly foliage of this beauti- 
ful tree shines through their woods and forests 
in every direction ; so much so that it might 
be taken for an indigenous inhabitant of the 
soil. 

In one of the Memoirs by the Agricultural 
Society at Paris, the properties of this tree are 
very highly extolled. Its shade, it is said, en- 
courages the growth of grass. Its roots are 
so tenacious of the soil, and shoot up such 
groves of suckers, that when planted on the 
banks of rivers it contributes exceedingly to 
fix them as barriers to check the incursions 
of the stream. Acacia stakes, too, are more 
durable than any other known wood. 

The choicest pieces only of the best oak 
timber are applied to the purpose of trenail- 
making in ship-building; and, as the Sussex 
oaks are generally reckoned the best, most 
shipwrights, even in the north, have them from 
thence, and the demand for them is so great, 
that trenail-making is there become a very 
considerable manufacture. If it be proved 
that the Acacia tree is equal to our best oak 
for this important purpose in our naval archi- 
tecture, then do we strongly recommend (and 
we write practically) to every landed proprie- 
tor to plant the Acacia as a forest tree, more 
especially as it will grow upon almost any 
description of soil, but more particularly upon 
sandy or gravelly shallow soils, where the oak 
does not thrive. 

In forty years the Acacia tree will grow 
sixty feet high, and will girth six feet, three 
feet from the ground; and, although brittle 
in a young state, the characteristics of the 
timber of a grown tree are toughness and 
elasticity. 

As a durable timber, it has been proved that 
nothing can exceed the Acacia wood, when of 
proper age. But there is one important use to 
which these trees may be applied, which has 
hitherto escaped the notice of the planter, 
namely, hedges. From its rapidity of growth 
it forms a fence capable of resistance in one- 
fourth of the time of any other plant hitherto 
Hsed for that purpose. Had we to fence in a 
whole estate, we should, in preference to all 
others, plant Acacias. They bear clipping, 
and may be raised to twenty or thirty feet high, 
if required, and are so strong that no animal 
can force through them. The only instance 
of an Acacia hedge we know of, on the conti- 
nent of Europe, is to be seen round part of the 
boulevard of the city of Louvain. Plants for 
this purpose should be taken from the nursery 
lines four feet high. At every point where the 
stems cross one another, a natural union or 
grafting takes place, and, as the stems in- 
crease in size, the spaces between will gradu- 
ally decrease; so that in the course of a few 
/ears the fence becomes a complete wooden 
wall, not occupying a space more than twelve 
or fifteen inches, forming a barrier that no 
animal can force. Fences of this description 
may either be made on the level ground, or 
concealed from the distant view. 
16 



It is difficult to account for the name com- 
monly given to this tree by the Americans, 
namely. Locust tree ; for the Locust tree 
{Hymensea Courbaril) is a native of South 
America. 

In the arboretum of the gardens of the Hor- 
ticultural Society of London, there is a proof, 
perhaps the very best proof that this country 
affords, of the great rapidity of growth, and 
also the beauty of this truly interesting and 
highly valuable tree. About twelve years ago, 
this aboretum was planted for the express pur- 
pose of introducing the trees of all countries — 
the research of enterprising men. The Acacia 
was planted with the other individuals of this 
very splendid collection, and the result has 
been, that the Acacia has made greater pro- 
gress than any of the oaks, the ash, the 
elm, the maple, or, indeed, any of the hard- 
wooded timber trees within the wall of the 
gardens. 

The Acacia trees, in their rapidity of growth, 
are exceeded only by a few of the poplar and 
willow tribes. 

There is a singular character about the 
suckers of this tree. They are rarely seen to 
appear on the lawn, but in the shrubbery fre- 
quently. They rise singly, not like the elm, 
and other trees, in thick masses, choking one 
another, but they start out of the ground at 
once, Avith all the boldness and vigour of a 
healthy shoot from a powerful stool ; and in a 
sheltered situation Avill grow, the same year, 
from twelve to fifteen feet long from the 
ground ; and it is the more remarkable, that 
these suckers grow in this vigorous way 
immediately under the shade of the parent, 
and other large trees. What is also very 
singular, so strongly are they attached to 
the root below the ground, at the insertion, 
that they are very rarely from accident dis- 
placed. 

Mr. William Lindsey mentions a very strik- 
ing instance of the astonishing rapidity of the 
growth of this tree. He observed a strong 
shoot make its appearance in one of the woods 
at Chiswick, and he had the curiosity to see 
what would be the result by applying a stake 
to this sucker for protection. By the end of 
the season, it was twenty feet high, and mea- 
sured three inches in circumference. When 
the full-grown old Acacia trees are felled, the 
following year hundreds of suckers will start 
up from the roots in all directions, and grow 
as freely as if a fresh plantation had been 
carefully made. So that, on the score of 
economy, we know of no tree that can be 
planted equal to the Acacia. As an under- 
wood, it far exceeds any other tree in produce; 
and for stakes, arbour-poles, hop-poles, and 
for pale-fencing, there is no wood equal to the 
Acacia. In America, the use of the Acacia 
has been confined to trenails of ships, in con- 
sequence of its scarcity. But were it, either 
in that or this country, as plentiful as oak, it 
would, be applied for more purposes in naval 
architecture, such as knees, floor-timbers, and 
foot-hooks, being far superior to oak for its 
strength and duration ; and from the tree ar- 
riving much sooner at perfection, and spread- 
ing into so many branches, it affords full as 



ACACIA TREE. 



ACACIA TREE. 



lar?e a proportion of crooks and compass- 
tiu.ber as the oak tree. 

A cubic foot of Acacia, in a dry state, 
weighs from forty-eight to fifty-three pounds' 
weight. If we compare its toughness, in an 
unseasoned state, with that of oak, it wiil not 
be more than 8-100 less. Its stiffness is equal 
to 99-100 of oak ; and its strength nearly 
96-100; but, if it were properly seasoned, it 
might, possibly, be found much superior to oak 
in strength, toughness, and stiffness. A piece 
of Acacia, unseasoned, two feet six inches 
long, and an inch square in the vertical sec- 
tion, broke when loaded with a weight of two 
hundred and forty-seven pounds avoirdupois. 
Its medium cohesive force is about 11-500 
pounds. (Dictio7iari/ of Architecture.) 

We are not aware that this tree has added 
in any shape to the list of medicines. The 
Acacia of the shops was formerly made from 
the unripe pods of the true Acacia tree ; but 
of later years, the Acacia Germanica of the 
shops is made from unripe sloes, and is pre- 
ferred as an astringent medicine to the true 
Acacia. 

The Acacia is easily propagated from seeds 
or suckers. (Miller.) 

[The following highly interesting account of 
this tree, and the mode of cultivating it in the 
United States, is given by Dr. S. Ackerly. 

"The cultivation of the locust tree, on Long 
Island, and in other parts of the state of New 
York, has been attended to with considerable 
profit to the agricultural interest, but not M'ith 
that earnestness which the importance of the 
subject demands. This may have arisen 
from the diliiculty of propagating it by tra.ns- 
planting, or not understanding how to raise it 

from the seed. 

* » • » » 

"The locust is a tree of quick growth, the 
wood of which is hard, durable, and princi- 
pally used in ship-building. To a country situ- 
ated like the United States, with an extensive 
line of sea-coast, penetrated by numerous bays, 
and giving rise to many great rivers, whose 
banks are covered with forests of extraordi- 
nary groAvth, whose soil is fertile, rich, and 
variegated, and whose climate is agreeably di- 
versified by a gradation of temperature; to 
such a country, inhabited by an industrious 
and enterprising people, commerce, both fo- 
reign and domestic, must constitute one of the 
principal employments. As long as the coun- 
try possesses the necessary timber for ship- 
building, and tlie other advantages which our 
situation affords, the government will continue 
to be formidable to all other powers. We have 
within ourselves four materials necessary for 
the completion of strong and durable naval 
structures. These are the live-oak, locust, cedar, 
a?t(i plnp, which can be abundantly supplied. 
The former is best for the lower timbers of a 
ship, while the locust and cedar form the upper 
works of the fnuiie. The pine supplies the 
timber for decks, masts, and spars. A vessel 
built of live-oak, locust, and cedar, will last 
longer than if constructed of any other wood. 
Naval architecture has arrived in this place 
and other parts of the United States, to as great 
perfection, perhaps, as in any other country on 



the globe. Our ' fir-built frigates' have been 
compared with the British oak, and stood the 
test ; and in sailing, nothing has equalled the 
fleetness of some of our sharp vessels. The pre- 
servation and cultivation of these necessary 
articles in ship-building, is a matter of serious 
consideration. It might not be amiss to sug- 
gest to the Congress of the United States to 
prohibit the exportation of them. The pine 
forests appear almost inexhaustible, and they 
will be so in all probability for many genera- 
tions to come ; but the stately cedars of Mobile, 
and the lofty forests of Georgia, where the live- 
oak is of a sturdy growth, begin to disappear 
before the axe of the woodsman. The locust, 
a native of Virginia and Maryland, is in such 
demand for foreign and domestic consumption, 
that it is called for before it can attain its full 
growth. It has been cultivated as far eastward 
as Rhode Island, but begins to depreciate in 
quality in that state. Insects attack it there, 
which are not so plentifully found in this state, 
or its native situations. These give the timber 
a worm-eaten appearance, and render it less 
useful. The locust has been extensively raised 
in the southern parts of the state of New York,, 
but the call for it has been so great, that few 
trees have attained any size before they were 
wanted for use. Hence they are in great de- 
mand, and of ready sale, and no ground can 
be appropriated for any kind of timber with so 
much advantage as locust. Besides its appli- 
cation to ship-building, it is extensively used 
for fencing ; and for posts, no timber mhU last 
longer, in or out of the ground. On Long 
Island, where wood is scarce and fencing tim- 
ber in great demand, the locust becomes of 
much local importance from this circumstance 
alone, independent of its great consumption in 
this city among the ship-builders. In naval 
structures it is not exclusively applied to the 
interior or frame. In many places where 
strength is wanting, locust timber will bear a 
strain which would break oak of the same 
size. Thus an oak tiller has been known to 
break near the head of the rudder in a gale of 
wind, which has never happened with a locust 
one. Tillers for large sea vessels are now 
uniformly made of locust in New York. It is 
the best timber also for pins or trenails 
(commonly called trunnels), and preferable to 
the best of oak. The tree generally grows 
straight with few or no large limbs, and the 
fibres of the wood are straight and parallel, 
which makes it split well for making trenails, 
with little or no loss of substance. These are 
made in considerable quantities for exportation. 
" The locust tree does not bear transplanting 
well in this part of our country, but this in all 
probability arises from the custom of cutting 
off the roots, when taken up for that purpose. 
Most of the roots of the locust are long, cylin- 
drical, and run horizontally not far under the 
surface. In transplanting, so few of the roots 
are left to the body of the tree removed, that 
little or no support is given to the top, and it 
consequently dies. If care was taken not to 
destroy so much of the roots, a much larger 
proportion of those transplanted would livn 
and thrive. So great has been the difficulty in 
raising the locust in this way, that another 
b2 17 



ACACIA TREE. 



ACANTHUS. 



method of propagating it, has been generally 
resorted to. Whenever a large tree was cut 
down for use, the ground for some distance 
around was ploughed, by which operation the 
roots near the surface were broken and forced 
up. From these roots suckers would shoot up, 
and the ground soon become covered with a 
grove of young trees. These, if protected 
from cattle, by being fenced in, would grow 
most rapidly, and the roots continuing to ex- 
lend, new shoots would arise, and in the course 
of a few years, a thrifty young forest of locust 
trees be produced. The leaves of the locust 
are so agreeable to horses and cattle, that 
the young trees must be protected from their 
approach. When growing in groves they shoot 
ap straight and slender, as if striving to out- 
top each other, to receive the most benefit from 
the rays of a genial sun. 

" Another difficulty has arisen in propagating 
the locust, from inability to raise it from the 
seed. The seed does not always come to per- 
fection in this part of the state of New York, 
and if it does, it will not sprout, unless pre- 
pared before planting. The method best 
adapted to this purpose was proposed by Dr. 
Samuel Bard ; but it is not generally known, 
or if known, is not usually attended to. When 
this shall be well understood and practised, the 
locust will be easily propagated, and then, in- 
stead of raising groves of them, the waste 
ground along fences, and places where the 
Lombardy poplar encumbers the earth, will be 
selected to transplant them, as, by having them 
separated and single, there will be an economy 
in using the soil, the trees will grow much 
better, and the timber be stronger. 

"Doctor Bard's methodof preparing the seeds 
was to pour boiling water on them, and let it 
stand and cool. The hard outer coat would 
thus be softened, and if the seed swelled by 
this operation, it might be planted, and would 
soon come up. This has been followed with 
.success in Long Island; and on a late visit to 
North Hempsted, I was led to admire Judge 
Mitchell's nursery of young locust trees, plant- 
ed in the spring. 

*' The judge took a quantity of seed collected 
on this island, and put it in an earthen pitcher, 
and poured upon it water near to boiling. This 
he let stand for twenty-four hours, and then 
decanted it, and selected all the seeds that v/ere 
any ways swelled by this application of heat 
and moisture. To the remainder he made a 
second libation of hot water, and let it remain 
also twenty-four hours, and then made a second 
selection of the swelled seeds. This was re- 
peateda third time on the unchangedones, when 
nearly all were swelled, and then he prepared 
the ground and planted them. He planted the 
seeds in drills about four feet apart, and in 
eight or ten days they were all above ground, 
and came up as regular as beans, or any other 
seeds that are cultivated in gardens. When I 
saw them, the middle of July, they were about 
a fool high, all thrifty and of a good colour 
and condition. 

" It is the judge's intention to leave them in 
their present situation about three years, and 
then transplant; and provided he does not mu- 
tilate tne roots ir; removing them, they will 
18 



bear transplanting, live, and thrive, and be the 
most productive forest tree that a farm can 
have. This method of preparing the seeds 
and planting the locust, cannot be too warmly 
recommended to the farming interest. On 
Long Island, where fencing timber is growing 
scarce, the cultivation of the locust tree is of 
great moment. In the centre of the island, on 
and about Hempsted plains, where there is no 
timber at all, it must be a most valuable acqui- 
sition ; and from the trials made in raising it 
from the seed, all difficulty must be removed 
to its extensive cultivation." 

After this account was Avritten, Judge Mit- 
chell transplanted the young trees referred to, 
on a side hill of waste ground which had lain 
for many years uncultivated, and his farm was 
soon improved by the addition of a large grove 
of valuable locust trees, in the most thrifty con- 
dition. 

When planted out from the nursery, tlie 
young trees must be protected from catile,' 
which are fond of the young buds. 

Professor Henshaw lately made some expe- 
riments, with the view of determining how far 
the vitality of the seeds of the locust acacia 
was impaired by heat. He put some of these 
seeds into boiling water ; others he actually 
boiled H, 3, 6, and even 15 minutes ; he plant- 
ed them afterwards in the earth, and they all 
sprouted and grew in half the time that seeds 
did which had not been boiled or soaked.] 

ACACIA. The Rose Acacia (Lat. Roblnia 
hispida). This graceful shrub is a native of 
North America. It grows twenty feet high, 
when the soil and situation agrees with it, and 
its beautiful rose-coloured drooping flowers 
bloom in June. It often blows again in July 
and August. Its branches are covered with 
prickles till they are two years old, when they 
fall off. This gives it the appellation of hispida, 
or hairy. It loves a good soil, and is very 
hardy. The flowers bloom on the wood of the 
same year ; therefore the plants should be 
shortened every season, unless they are planted 
in a shrubbery, in which case cut away only 
the dead wood. The smooth tree Acacia (Lat, 
Mimosa Jiilibrissin) is a green-house shrub, 
and a native of the Levant, but it succeeds in 
the open ground if carefully sheltered from 
frost and cold wind. It loves a fresh, light 
mould, and blows its beautiful rose-coloured 
flowers in August. It is multiplied by layers. 
The Sponge tree Acacia (Lat. Mimosa famesiana) 
is also a green-house shrub ; but it will thrive 
in the open air if very carefully protected. It 
comes originally from St. Domingo, and in 
August it throws out a small head of sweet- 
scented yellow flowers. It loves a good rich 
soil, with a sheltered south aspect. It is raised 
by seed, and multiplied by layers. {L. Johmon.) 

ACANTHA. The prickle of thorny plants. 

ACANTHIS. The plant called groundsel. 

ACANTHUS (Lat.). The name of the herb 
bear's breech, remarkable for being the model 
of the foliage on the Corinthian capital. Mil- 
ton, in his Paradise Lost, iv. 696, speaks of it, 

" On either side 
Acanthus, and each odorous bushy shrub. 
Fenced up the verdant wall." 

Todd's Johnson. 



ACCLIMATION OF PLANTS. 



ACCLIMATION OF PLANTS. 



In modern botany, Acanthus is a genus of 
herbaceous plants found in the South of 
Europe. Asia Minor, and India, belonging to 
the natural order Acanthaceae. 

ACCLIMATION OF PLANTS. This term 
has been applied to the act of accustoming 
plants to support a temperature or a climate 
different from that in which they are found 
originally growing. Tiiis diflers from nalu- 
ralizat.iiii, whicli is the act of transporting or 
transferri.ig a jilant into a country different 
from its native place of growth. Nobody can 
deny the possibility of these naturalizations; 
but there are some doubts upon the acclima- 
tions of plants, doubts which have been corro- 
borated by M. Schubler (Linnnea, 1829, p. 16) ; 
and it renders this important question the more 
deserving of examination, that the facts which 
are reported are complex and somewhat con- 
tradictory. 

On the one hand, we see wild plants appear 
fixed within the same climate from the epoch 
of which we have any knowledge, and culti- 
vated trees, such as the olive, that have for 
many centuries kept within the same limit. 

On the other hand, we see certain trees, 
such as the horse-chestnut, which, although 
originally from the tropics, have reached as 
far north as Sweden. We see that in garden- 
ing, the Aucubajupiinica and the Pseunia Moutun, 
after having been cultivated in the hothouse, 
have passed into the greenhouse, and now flou- 
rish in the open air. But before we infer from 
these facts the possibility of acclimation, it 
will be necessary to analyze them more fully. 

Taking the instance of a plant which may 
have been placed at the first in the hothouse, 
and afterwards cultivated in the open ground, 
what are we to conclude, but that, while igno- 
rant of its nature, and while its rarity rendered 
it more precious, we were unwilling to run the 
risk of losing it. There is not a gardener, or 
one who has had the management of a botanic 
garden, who has not made such calculation a 
hundred times, and who, doubtful of success, 
has been led to follow this prudent course with 
a multitude of plants. Those plants which are 
received from tropical countries are usually 
thus treated, on the supposition that they par- 
take of the general nature of plants brought 
from those countries ; and we afterwards try, 
by groping in the dark, those which form ex- 
ceptions to the general law. We thus succeed 
in naturalizing some of them ; but this does not 
yet prove that they have been acclimated, for 
they have not been exposed on their ariMval in 
the climate they were afterwards seen to sup- 
port. Even had this been done, the experiment 
would have been frequently doubtful ; for when 
plants arrive in Europe they are for the most 
part weak, and too young to try the experiment 
with ; while every one knows that young 
plants, such as those of the bead tree and the 
silk tree, will thrive in a temperate climate in 
their adult age, if they are very vigorous when 
planted, but which are easily destroyed by the 
frost when young. 

An exact knowledge of the manner of living 
of each species tends to explain some of the 
illusions which we are apt to fall into on this 
subject. Thus, when a plant newly arrived in 



Europe, and consequently little known, is cul- 
tivated in the open ground, it often happens 
that it is placed in a soil or a position contrary 
to its nature, that it is watered too much or too 
little, and that it is pruned unseasonably, and 
the like ; it consequently perishes without the 
temperature of the climate being to blame 
Some years afterwards its nature becomes 
betJer known, and the management wliich it re 
quires ; it is planted nncw in the open ground 
is properly cultivated, and it succeeds, and we 
then say it is acclimated, while it is simply 
naturalized. 

The greater number of cultivators think 
that plants produced from seeds collected in 
the same country are much stronger than those 
produced from foreign seeds, and make this an 
argument to prove the doctrine of acclima- 
tion. Sir Joseph Banks {Trails. Hnrt. Sue. i. 
21), in particular, adduces in favour of this 
opinion the culture of Zizania aquatica, esta- 
blished by him at Spring Grove ; but he also 
relates that the first seeds collected in England 
produced delicate plants, and the second strong 
plants, so that this example proves as much 
against as in favour of the theory. Dr. Mac- 
culloch, also (Journ. of Science, 1825, p. 20 ; 
Feriis.o. Bull., Sc. Agr., ix. p. 262), in his Essay 
on the Island of Guernsey, strongly doubts this 
pretended superiority of plants coming from 
seeds. We will not stop to notice that this 
opinion is in opposition to the very generally 
received idea, that the changing of seeds is 
useful. We do not think it less probable that 
those seeds taken from trees supposed to be 
languishing, in consequence of not being yet 
properly acclimated, produce young plants 
much stronger than those which are taken 
from trees more healthy, and growing in their 
natal soil. We will not discuss that which 
certain cultivators, such as M. J. Street (Trans. 
Hort. Soc., viii. 1 ; Ferussac, Bull., Agr.), assert, 
that the individual plants coming from cuttings 
are much stronger than those coming from 
seeds ; but we will ask whether this experi- 
ment has been made with any degree of cer- 
tainty, that is to say, in a comparative manner ; 
and when the fact is so, that native seeds have 
had better success, whether this may not have 
arisen from the circumstance that certain sorts 
of seeds do not succeed well when they are not 
sown immediately after maturity, as in the case 
of the cofl"ee plant, or perhaps from their being 
a greater number of seeds to dispose of, and 
more of them sown ? In fine, supposing that 
experiments are in accordance with the ad- 
mitted opinion, does this prove any thing more 
than that a tree which produces good seed is 
of a nature to accommodate itself to the soil; 
and is not this rather a proof of naturalization 
than of acclimation 1 Let us see if there 
exist any clearer proofs of the reality of accli- 
mation. 

One of the principal results of culture is the 
formation of varieties which otherwise would 
have no existence in nature, and which have 
different degrees of susceptibility according to 
the temperature. We know that these varie- 
ties, in many instances, are much more (i^^'■''^tc 
than the wild species. We may instance 
varieties of double flowers, which are ' 

19 



ACCLIMATION OF PLANTS. 



ACCLIMATION OF PLANTS. 



hardy than those of single varieties of the 
same species ; varieties of white flowers, which 
are generally less hardy than red or yellow 
varieties ; and the varieties of the oleander, 
with double rose-red flowers, and with single 
while flowers, are often killed by the frost, 
while the common oleander, with single rose- 
red flowers, may stand the winter. 

It is, however, those species produced by 
culture, and chiefly by hybridizing, which are 
of a more hardy nature than the wild species. 
Now we conceive that the choice of these va- 
rieties aflbrds the means of introducing certain 
sorts into climates where the original species 
could not have succeeded. This effect is 
most apparent in such varieties as have under- 
gone some change in the season of vegetation : 
thus the late variety of the walnut tree, which 
we call St. John's walnut, will thrive in those 
localities where the frosts are felt late in the 
spring, and where the common walnut tree is 
soon killed by the cold. Thus the very early 
varieties of the vine will bear fruit in certain 
climates, where either from there being little 
heat, or from the rapid approach of autumnal 
frosts, other varieties would not succeed. 

There exists, in many species of plants, the 
remarkable phenomenon of certain individuals 
being more early or more late than others, with- 
out our being able to attribute the circum- 
stance to the influence of locality ; while, at 
the same time, we cannot perceive any sen- 
sible difference in the organization. Now, by 
carefully collecting the seeds, or the layers, or 
the tubercles, or grafts, of such early and late 
varieties, we obtain artificially such agricul- 
tural sorts or varieties as present certain use- 
ful qualities, and such, in particular, as will 
thrive in climates where the original species 
would not succeed. For example, by gather- 
ing the tubers of such potatoes as ripen first, 
and by repeating the same, many times in suc- 
cession, we may by this means obtain a va- 
riety which will ripen in three months. To 
us, such a variety is of no more advantage 
than in giving us an early vegetable ; but if 
cultivated in climates farther north, it might 
introduce the useful culture of the potato in 
places where this was previously unknown. 
Attentive observation of such species and va- 
rieties may furnish means of advancing the 
culture of certain vegetables beyond their ordi- 
nary limits. For A;amp!e, if the varieties of 
the olive brought from the Crimea, which ap- 
pear less affected with cold than European 
varieties, should come to be introduced on the 
shores of the Mediterranean ; or if they should 
propagate extensively the variety caWcdCuillou 
in Provence, we might be led to conclude that 
the olive is accustomed to a greater degree of 
cold, although there might only be the substi- 
tution of a hardier sort for a more delicate 
one. 

In fine, although we are not authnr''7ed to 
observe that the vegetable tissue can;i it, by 
the effects of habit, accustom itself to a differ- 
ent temperature than that of its native climate ; 
and although we are disposed to recognise, in 
many cases, this influence of habit, yet the 
preceding facts seem to lead to the following 
iuierences: 1. That if certain species of vege- 
20 



tables are susceptible of being acclimated, this 
occurs within very narrow limits ; and we fre- 
quently exaggerate these limits by confounding 
acclimation with naturalization. 2. That the 
cases in which acclimation appears to take 
place in reality, chiefly, if not exclusively, 
comprise species where there is a formation 
of new varieties, or where we have managed 
to change the season of the vegetation of 
plants, as arising from periodicity. 3. That 
practical results, almost as important as those 
of acclimation, more properly so called, are 
obtained by ably following up certain pro- 
cesses of culture. (Miller's Didiondrij.) 

[A sensible and eloquent writer in the 
American Journal of Geology, has, in a paper 
upon the "Acclimating Principle of Plants," 
treated the subject in a highly interesting 
manner, and illustrated it by referring to many 
instances where plants have actually adapted 
their growth and habits to a great extent of 
country, and diversity of latitude. His views, 
it will be seen, are not in exact accordance 
M'ith those contained in the preceding article 
upon a similar topic. They are, however, cal- 
culated to be particularly interesting in the 
meridian of the United States. 

"Plants," observes the writer referred to, 
" have directl;^ no locomotive powers, but indi- 
rectly, they have in a great degree the faculty 
of changing their places, and, consequently, 
their climate. The embryo germ wrapped in 
a kernel, or seed, is virtually a plant, ready to 
germinate when thrown upon its parent earth, 
and affected with heat and moisture. It is in 
a most portable shape, and can be transported 
with ease to an unlimited distance. Nature in 
many instances superadds to seeds, wings, 
down, feathers, and chaff, by which they be- 
come buoyant, and are carried by tlie winds 
of heaven, by the storms that sweep the forest, 
and by the streams, and currents of rivers, and 
the ocean, to an immense distance, and 
through many degrees of latitude ! They be- 
come finally deposited in some genial soil, and 
at one remove, or through a succession, they 
occupy extensive I'egions. Nature manifests 
her great care of the embryo, by coating some 
of her seeds with shells, which protect them 
from the attacks of insects, and the action of 
the elements ; others have bitter, narcotic, or 
poisonous qualities, which forbid animals eat- 
ing them ; and many are filled with oily, or 
resinous matter, which resists, for ages, and 
even centuries, the action of the elements, un- 
less acted upon by the proper degree of heat 
and moisture. By such qualities they endure, 
and await a suitable time and conveyance to 
their destined place, in order to extend and 
vary their families. 

Birds also convey the seeds of plants in 
their crops over a wide extent, before they be- 
come triturated and digested ; and when these 
winged carriers die, or decay, from accident 
or age, the seeds are deposited, and take root 
in some distant land. Animals also convey 
them in their stomachs to a considerable dis- 
tance, and pass them uninjured by the powers 
of digestion. 

Man, more provident than all, to whom 
plants are necessary, whose support, whose 



ACCLIMATION OF PLANTS. 



ACCLIMATION OF PLANTS. 



comforts, and whose pleasures connect him 
with them, carries their choice seeds, slips, 
and scions, far and wide. His interests foster 
their growth, his attentions enrich their pro- 
ducts, and his skill and science preserve their 
existence, and adapt tlicm to their new condi- 
tion. In an improved community, man's 
wants multipl}' ; he has occasion for the more 
varied and rich fruits ; more abundant and 
luxurious clothing, and furniture of vegetable 
growth; odours to regale his senses, vegetable 
flavours to pamper his appetites, and all the 
medicinal plants to heal his various diseases, 
and invigorate his shattered constitution. He 
attaches himself to agriculture and horticul- 
ture : plants become his companions ; he car- 
ries a creative resource into those departments, 
and b}' his attentions, forms new varieties and 
excellences, unknown to the wild state of 
vegetable existence. Such are the means na- 
ture has provided for the propagation and 
extension of plants ; such are the indirect 
locomotive powers they possess. We must 
no longer, therefore, consider vegetables such 
inert and sluggish beings. 

Human care, and the providences of nature, 
have given to many plants a great extent of 
climate and latitude, an enlarged growth, and 
an increased and improved product. Let us 
bring together such instances as are within the 
knowledge of all, and which ought to stimtilate 
our cultivators to greater efforts. 

The valley of the Euphrates was doubtless 
the native region of all those fine and delicious 
fruits which enrich our orchards, and enter so 
largely into the luxury of living. We thence 
derived all the succulent and nutritious vege- 
tables that go so far to support life ; and even 
the farinaceous grains appertain to the same 
region. The cereal productions began in that 
same valley to be the staff of life. 

Our corn, our fruit, our vegetables, our 
roots, and oil, have all travelled with man 
from Mesopotamia up to latitude 60°, and even 
farther, in favourable situations. The cares 
of man have made up for the want of climate, 
and his cultivation atoned for this alienation 
from their native spot. The Scandinavians 
of Europe, the Canadians of North America, 
and the Samoides of Asia, are now enjoying 
plants which care and cultivation have natu- 
ralized in their bleak climes. Melons and 
peaches, with many of the more tender 
plants and fruits, once almost tropical, have 
reached the 45th degree of latitude in perfec- 
tion, and are found even in 50°. Rice has 
travelled from the tropics to 36°, and that of 
North Carolina now promises to be better than 
that of more southern countries. The grape 
has reached 50°, and produces good wine and 
fruit in Hungary and Germany. The orange, 
lemon, and sugar-cane, strictly tropical, grow 
well in Florida, and up to 31^°, in Louisiana, 
and the fruit of the former much larger and 
better than under the equator. 

Annual plants grown for roots and vegeta- 
bles, and grain, go still farther north in pro- 
portion, than the trees and shrubs, because 
their whole growth is matured in one summer; 
and we know that the developement of vegeta- 
Sion is much quicker when spring does open 



in countries far to the north, than in the tro- 
pics. In Lapland and on Hudson's Bay, the 
full leaf is imfolded in one or two weeks, 
when spring begins, although it requires sLx 
or eight weeks in the south. Nature makes 
up in despatch for the want of length in her 
seasons, and this enables us to cultivate the 
annual plants very far to the north, in full per- 
fection. The beans, pumpkins, potatoes, peas, 
cabbages, lettuce, celery, beets, turnips, and 
thousands of others, seem to disregard climate, 
and grow in any region or latitude where man 
plants and cherishes them. The fig is becom- 
ing common in France ; the banana, pine- 
apple, and many other plants, have crossed the 
line of the tropics, and thousands of the plants 
valuable for food, clothing, and medicine, and 
such as are cultivated for their beauty, fra- 
grance, or timber, are extending their climates, 
and promise much comfort and resource to 
man. Plants lately introduced, whose cultiva- 
tion has not run through many ages or years, 
have acquired but little latitude in their growth, 
and show but little capacity to bear various 
climates, because time has not yet habituated 
them to such changes, and human cares have 
not imparted to them new habits and new 
poM'^ers. 

Nothing can be effected by suddenness in 
acclimating plants; too quick a transition 
would shock them ; it must be a very gradual 
process, embracing many years, and many 
removals. The complete success that has at- 
tended the plants first named, the earliest com- 
panions of man, proves this. In the more 
recent plants, success is exactly in proportion 
to the length of time that a plant has been in 
a train of experimental culture. 

The most striking method of testing the 
effect of climate on plants, is to carry suddenly 
back to the south, such as have been extended 
far, and become habituated to a northern cli- 
mate. Such plants have so much vigour, and 
the habit of a quick and rapid growth so firmly 
fixed on them, by a long residence in the north, 
that when suddenly taken to the south, al- 
though the season be long and ample, they 
continue, from habit, to grow and mature 
quick, and obtain the name of rare-ripe ; be- 
cause they do not take half of the time to 
mature, that those of the same family require, 
which have never been so changed. Garden- 
ers give us early corn, peas, fruit, and turnips, 
by getting seed from places far to the north ; 
and cotton growers renew the vigour of the 
plant b}'^ getting the most northern seed. This 
practice is common in the case of most plants, 
and is founded on the supposition that planm 
do, and can acquire habits. 

The fact supported in the first number of the 
American Journal of Geology and Natural 
Science, "that plants are most productive near 
the northern limit in which they will grow," 
that they bear more seed or fruit, and have 
more vigour of constitution, offers much en- 
couragement to agriculturists. This proves 
that it is not a meager, stinted existence, de- 
void of profit or productiveness, that we give 
to plants, by pushing their culture far north, 
but a strong and healthful growth, one that 
repays the labour and attention, by a greater 

S' 



ACER. 



ACIDS. 



pi iducl than belongs to more southern situ- 
ations. 

Every view that we can take of this 
interesting subject, every fact within our 
Icnowledge, whether drawn from the actual 
state of cultivation, or from physiological in- 
vestigations into the habits, nature, and con- 
struction of plants, goes to show that plants 
do become acclimated, both in the natural and 
artificial way, to a great extent. Enough has 
been witnessed to prove that plants have a phy- 
sical conformation, that does accommodate 
itself to circumstances, and have capacities 
more extensive than are generally ascribed to 
them: enough has been realized to encourage 
farther efforts, and to give us hopes of much 
future benefit." 

As allied to this subject see Chnuile, injlu- 
tnce of, on the FniUfulness of VbinU.^ 
Accounts, Faiim. See Faiim accounts. 
ACER. The Roman name for a genus of 
trees, comprehending different species of the 
large deciduous kind, as the sycamore, &c. 
Set Maple Tree. 

ACJETIC ACID, and ACETUM, tenns em- 
ployed to signify Vinegar, which see. 
ACETOSA. 8ee Souhel. 
ACHILLEA. A genus of plants consisting 
of sixty or seventy species, found exclusively 
in the colder climates of the northern hemis- 
phere. They are all herbaceous, perennial 
weeds of little importance, except to botanists, 
and are only seen in cultivation in the collec- 
tions of the curious. 

ACIDS (Lat. acetum ,■ Goth, aceit ,- Sax. 
aecen). Liquids and other substances are 
called acids, which commonly, but not always, 
affect the taste in a sharp, piercing, and pecu- 
liar manner. The common way of tr)-ing 
whether any particular liquor hath in it any 
acid particles is by mixing it with syrup of 
[blue] violets, when it will turn of a red colour ; 
but if it contains alkaline or lixivial particles, 
it changes that syrup green. [The blue liquor 
obtained by steeping purple cabbage leaves in 
hot water, is also a convenient test liquor for 
acids as well as alkalies.] They combine 
with various earths, alkalies, and metallic ox- 
ides, and form the peculiar class of bodies 
called salts. (Todd's Johnson.) 

[In agricultural chemistry, the acids are di- 
vided into the inorganic and organic. The first 
kind, or inorganic, are derived from sources 
wholly mineral. The second kind, or organic, 
are derived from animal or vegetable orga- 
nized substances. The sulphuric acid, or oil 
of vitriol, is one example of a mineral or in- 
organic acid. It exists abundantly in nature, 
combined with mineral bases, as in plaster of 
Paris, where it is combined with lime, forming 
the sulphate of lime, or gypsum. Muriatic 
acid is another veiy abundant inorganic or mi- 
neral acid, and abounds in sea-salt, combined 
with soda, forming the muriate of soda or com- 
mon salt. Nitric acd, or af/urifortis, is another 
of this class of acids, existing abundantly in 
the well known substance called saltpetre, or 
nitrate of potash. The^e three constitute the 
principal inorganic or mineral acids. 

As all vegetables contain acids, these may 
he regarded as essential to their life. But these 



acids do not always exist in a free state, being 
generally combined with some of the alkalies or 
alkaline substances, such as potash, soda, lime, 
and magnesia. "These bases evidently regulate 
the formation of the acids, for the diminution of 
the one is followed by a decrease of the other : 
thus, in the grape, for example, the quantity of 
potash contained in its juice is less, when it 
is ripe, than when unripe ; and the acids, under 
the same circumstances, are found to vary in a 
similar manner. Such constituents exist in 
small quantity in those parts of a plant in 
which the process of assimilation is most ac- 
tive, as in the mass of woody fibre ; and their 
quantify is greater in those organs whose of- 
fice it IS to ]ire]iare substances conveyed to 
them for assimilation by other parts. The 
leaves contain more inorganic matters than 
the branches, and the branches more than the 
stem. The potato plant contains more potash 
before blossoming than after it. 

'•Now, as we know the capacity of saturation 
of organic acids to be unchanging, it follows 
that the quantity of the bases united with them 
cannot vary, and for this reason the latter sub 
stances ought to be considered with the strict- 
est attention both by the agriculturist and 
physiologist. 

"Wehaveno reason to believe that a plant in 
a condition of free and imimpeded growth pro- 
duces more of its peculiar acids than it re- 
quires for its own existence ; hence, a plant, 
on whatever soil it grows, must contain an in- 
variable quantity of alkaline bases. Culture 
alone will be able to cause a deviation. 

"In order to understand this subject clearly, 
it will be necessary to bear in mind, that any 
one of the alkaline bases may be substituted 
for another, the action of all being the same. 
Our conclusion is, therefore, by no means en- 
dangered by the existence of a particular al- 
kali in one plant, which may be absent in others 
of the same species. If this inference be cor- 
rect, the absent alkali or earth must be sup- 
plied by one similar in its mode of action, or 
in other words, by an equivalent of another 
base. 

"Of course, this argument refers only to those 
alkaline bases, which, in the form of organic 
salts, form constituents of the plants. Now, 
those salts are preserved in the ashes of plants, 
as carbonates, the quantity of which can be 
easily ascertained. 

"From these considerations we mustperceive, 
that exact and trustworthy examination of the 
ashes of plants of the same kind growing upon 
diffei-ent soils would be of the greatest import- 
ance to vegetable physiology, and would decide, 
whether the fac's above mentioned are the re- 
sults of an unchanging 'aw for each family of 
plants, and whether an invariable number can 
be found to express the quantify of oxygen 
which each species of piant contains in the 
bases united with organic acids. In all proba- 
bility, such inquiries will lead to most import- 
ant results ; for it is clear, that if the produc- 
tion of a certain unchanging quantity of an 
organic acid is required by the peculiar nature 
of the organs of a plant, and is necessaiy to 
its existence, then potash or lime must be ta- 
ken up by it,in order to form salts with this acid 



ACIDS. 



At.IDS. 



that if these do not exist in sufficient quantity | 
lu the soil, other bases must supply their place ; , 
and that the progress of a plant must be wholly 
arrested when none are present. ] 

" Seeds of the Sulsola Kali, when sown in 
common garden soil, produce a plant contain- 
ing both potash and soda ; while the plants i 
grown from the seeds of this contain only salts | 
of potash, with mere traces of muriate of soda, j 
(Cadet.) 

"The existence of vegetable alkalies in com- 
bination with organic acids gives great weight 
to the opinion, that alkaline bases in general 
are connected with the developement of plants. 

'• If potatoes are grown where they are not 
supplied with earth, the magazine of inorganic 
bases, (in cellars for example,) a true alkali, 
called Solanin, of very poisonous nature, is 
formed in the sprouts which extend towards 
the light, while not the smallest trace of such 
a substance can be discovered in the roots, 
herbs, blossoms, or fruits of potatoes grown in 
fields. (Ot/o.) 

" When roots find their more appropriate 
base in sufficient quantity, they will take up 
less of another." — (Liebi'a^'s Organic Chem.)] 

Vegetable acids abound in most plants ; thus, 
the Acetic acid (vinegar) is found in the chick 
pea (Cicer arietinum), in the elderberry (Sam- 
bucus nigra), in the date palm tree (Phoenix 
dacti^lifera), and in numerous others. 

The Oxalic acid is found combined with 
potash in the Oxalis Acetosella, or wood-sorrel 
(whence its name), and many other plants ; 
united with lime, it is detected in the root of 
the rhubarb, in parsley, fennel, soapwort, 
squills, &c.; and in an uncombined state in 
the liquid which exudes from the Cicer arieti- 
num, [chick pea, or Spanish Garbama.] 

Tartaric Acid [or Cremor tartar] is com- 
monly procured from tartar or tartrate of pot- 
ash (whence its name). It has been detected 
in many plants, such as in grapes, tamarinds, 
bilberries, white mulberries, the Scotch fir, 
couch grass, dandelion, &c. &c. 

Citric Acid has been found in oranges and 
lemons, cranberries, red whortleberry, bird- 
cherry, woody nightshade, the hip, and the 
onion. 

Malic Acid is the only acid existing in the 
apple, [pear,] barberry, plum, sloe, elder, ser- 
vice, &c. It is found with the citric acid in 
the gooseberry, currant, bleaberry, cherrj', 
strawberry, raspberry, &c. ; combined with 
lime, it is found in the house-leek, wakerobin, 
&c. ; and with potash and lime, in rue, garden 
purslane, madder, spinach, lilac, mignionette, 
&c. 

Renzo'c Acid. — This acid is found in ben- 
zoin, balsam of Tolu, storax, &c. ; and in 
marjoram, clary, chickpea, Tonkin bean, &c. 

Tiie I'ru.isir, or Hi/dn)ci/(inic Acid, exists in 
laurel leaves, peach blossoms, bitter almonds, 
flowers of the sloe, leaves of the bav-leaved 
\villnw, &c. ; there is little doubt but that all the 
bitter almond kernels contain this acid. 

Gallic Acid abounds in the barks of many 
plants, such as the elm, oak, chestnut, beech, 
willow, elder, plum tree, sycamore, birch, 
cherry tree, sallow, mountain ash, poplar, 
hazeL. common ash, sumach, &c. 



These are the chief vegetable acids. There 
are others which have been detected occa- 
sionally ; such as the moroxylic, in the Mums 
alba, or white mulberry ; the boletic, in the 
Boletus pseudu-igniarius ; [a species of mush- 
room,] the meconic, in opium ; the kinic, in 
the bark of the Cinchona officinalis ,■ the cam- 
phoric from camphor ; the suberic from cork, 
&c. ; but none of these are of that importance 
to the cultivator to require a particular notice 
in this place. The composition of the princi- 
pal vegetable acids is much more similar than 
the intelligent farmer might be inclined to 
suspect, as will be readily seen from a com- 
parison of the following table of their composi- 
tion, chiefiy by M. Berzelius : — 





Ilyilmsen. 


Carbon. 


Ovvjen. 


Acetic acid 


- 6-35 


4683 


■16-82 


Oxalic acid 


- 0-244 


33-222 


66 534 


Tartaric acid - 


- 3951 


36- 167 


50-8b2 


(Miric acid 


- 3-800 


41-369 


54-331 


Benzoic acid - 


- 5 10 


74-41 


2043 


Gallic acid 


- dOO 


56-64 


38 36 



iThurnson's Chem.) 

[The organic acids of aninuil origin are, like 
those obtained from vegetables, very numerous. 
As examj)les, there are, tiie furmic acids, first 
obtained from ants, but now ascertained to 
exist in sugar and some other vegetable sub- 
stances: Lactic acid, obtained from milk; — 
Uric acid, procured from human urine, and 
Hippuric acid, from the urine of the horse and 
other animals when stall-fed : Margaric and 
Stearic acids from fat, etc. The Phosphoric 
acid, though found combined with minerals, is 
very abundant in the animal system, being 
combiried with lime to form the bones, and ex- 
isting in the urine and other fluids and solids, 
in union with alkaline bases, forming phos- 
phates of soda, potash, lime, and magnesia- 
Phosphoric acid has also been found in all 
plants, the ashes of which have been examined 
by chemists, always, however, in combination 
with potash, soda, magnesia, or lime. Most 
seeds contain certain quantities of the phos- 
phates formed by the union of phosphoric acid 
with some one or more of the alkalies just 
named. In the seeds of different kinds of grain, 
there is abundance of phosphate of magnesia. 

Phosphoric acid, in one or other of its com- 
binations, plays indeed an important part in 
agricullure, and is an indispensable constituent 
of all good land. 

" The soil in which plants grow furnishes 
them with phosphoric acid, and they in turn 
yield it to animals, to be used in the formation 
of their bones, and of those constituents of the 
brain which contain phosphorus. Much more 
phosphorus is thus afforded to the body than it 
requires, when flesh, bread, fruit, and husks 
of grain are used for food, and this excess in 
them is eliminated m the urine ami the solid 
excrements. We may form an iilra of the 
quantity of phosphate of magnesia contained 
in grain when we consider that the concre- 
tions in tt... toecum of horses consist of phos- 
phate of magnesia and ammonia, which must 
have been obtained from the hay and oats con 
sumed as food. Twenty-nine of these stones 
were taken after death from the rectum cf a 
horse belonging to a miller in Eberstadt, the 
total weight of which amounted to 3 lbs. 

22 



ACINUS. 



ACORNS. 



"It is evident that the seeds of wheat could 
not be formed without phosphate of magnesia, 
which is one of their invariable constituents ; 
the plant could not, therefore, under such circum- 
stances attain its proper developement, so far as 
its fructification was concerned."] 

The Creiiic, is another organic acid lately dis- 
covered by Berzelius. From its containing ni- 
trogen and being a constituent in all fertile 
soils, it is believed to exercise a beneficial action 
on vegetation. It is always accompanied by the 
Apocrenic acid, changed from the crenic by oxy- 
dation. 

ACINUS. The stone of any berry. 

ACONITE, gee WoLrsBANE. 

ACORNS. The seed or fruit of the oak ; 
ecepn, Saxon, from ac, an oak, and copn, corn 
or grain ; that is, the grain or fruit of the oak. 

The Greeks had a tradition, that the oak was 
the first created tree ; and hence, having a 
similar idea as to the Arcadians being the first 
created men, they compared them to the oak. 
Virgil tells us to 

" Thresh the wood, 

For masts of oak, your father's homely food." 

And Ovid corroborates their iise : — 

"Content with food which nature freely bred, 
On wildings and on strawberries Ihey fed, 
Cornels and bramble berries gave the rest. 
And fallen acorns furnish'd out a feast." 

Turner, who is the earliest English author 
on this subject, writes, " Oke, whose fruit Ave 
call aciirn, or an eykorn (that is, the corn or 
fruit of an cyke), are hard of digestion, and 
nourish very much, but they make raw hu- 
mores. Wherefore, we forbid the use of them 
for meafes." They were long the food of the 
early Greeks, as they are of the lower order 
of Spaniards, even to this day ; but then it 
must be remembered, that the acorns of Sj^ain 
are more sweet and nutritious than those of 
England. And yet the early Britons certainly 
eat them : their priests, or Druids, taught them, 
that every thing that was produced on the oak, 
even to the parasitical mistletoe, was of hea- 
venly origin, a superstition which was com- 
mon, also, to the Persians and the Massagetas. 

The Saxons valued them chiefly for fatten- 
ing swine. Their king Ina, in the seventh 
century, gave them a law, respecting the fat- 
tening of their swine in the oak woods, Avhich 
privilege was called a pawnage, or pannage. 

The oak is often mentioned in Holy Writ, as 
the oak of Ophra, Judges vi. 1 1 ; of Shechem, 
Gen. XXXV. 4 ; and of Deborah's Grave, Gen. 
XXXV. 8. See Oak. 

Although acorns are said to have been the 
primitive food of mankind, at present they are 
only ixsed in raising young oaks, or for the 
purpose of fattening deer and hogs, for which 
last they are said to be a very proper and use- 
ful kind of food. 

In Gloucestershire, according to Mr. Mar- 
shall, they are in high esteem among the far- 
mers, who seem to be as anxious about them 
as their apples. They consider them as the 
best means of fatting hogs, and think they 
make the bacon firm, and weigh better than 
bean-fed bacon. The price of acorns there is 
from Is. Gd. to 2s. per bushel, according to the 
season and the price of beans. Few are sold. 
24 



however; every farmer collecting his own, or 
letting his pigs feed upon them. 

Some care is necessary to be taken when 
hogs are fed upon acorns, for otherwise they 
will be subject to constipation, and the disease 
called the garget. These may, however, be 
avoided, by mixing laxative substances with 
them, and not allowing them to have too many 
at a time ; at first a few, twice a day is often 
enough ; afterwards three times a day. The 
hogs, while they eat this food, should not be 
confined to the stye, but be suffered to run at 
large ; for if their liberty be too much abridged, 
they never thrive well, or grow fat on this sort 
of food. 

In Hertfordshire, and the New Forest in 
Hampshire, it is no uncommon thing, with the 
management above directed, and the assistance 
of a little wash, and a few grains now and 
then, for a farmer to kill several hogs in a 
season, which weigh from eight to ten score, 
and sometimes even more. Hogs fed in this 
way make very good well-flavoured meat ; but 
it is not thought by some so fine as when they 
are taken up, and four or five bushel of pease 
or barley-meal given to each to complete their 
fattening. 

" The pigs are gone acoming," is a very com- 
mon provincialism (see Mr. Wilbraham's Che- 
shire Glossary) ; and the expression is also con- 
firmed by Shakspeare's " full-acorn'rf boar." 

Acorns are sometimes given to poultry, and 
would be found an advantageous food for them, 
when dried and ground into meal. 

Tusser, speaking of acorns, says, 

"Some left among bushes shall pleasure thy swine. 
For fear of a. mischief, keep acurns from lime " 

They are considered injurious to cows, becaiLse 
they swell in their stomachs, and will noi 
come up to the cud again ; which causes them 
to strain as it were, to remit, and to draw their 
limbs together. 

In medicine, a decoction of acorais is reput- 
ed good against dysentaries and colics. Pliny 
states, " that acorns beaten topowder, and mixed 
Avith hog's lard and salt, heal all hard swell- 
ings and cancerous ulcers ; and Avheii reduced 
into a liniment, and applied, stays hemor- 
rhage." (Phillip's Fruits.) 

When employed for raising oak timber from, 
the method of planting the acorns, Avhich is 
practised by some, is to make holes to receive 
them, at the distance of 12 or 15 inches from 
each other, in an oblique direction, so as to 
raise up a tongue of turf under which they 
are to be deposited, and where they require no 
farther kind of nursing. In the course of from 
twent3'-to thirty years, in this mode of planting, 
the spot, it is said, will be fit to be coppiced, 
that is, partially cut down as underwood, leav- 
ing the most healthy plants. The thinnings 
may be sold for railing, and generally fetch a 
good price. A better method is, however, to 
dibble them on land that has been properly 
prepared by ploughing or digging, which may 
be done by women, three or four within a 
square yard ; or they may be sown broad-cast, 
when the surface is fine and moist, and rolled 
in with a light roller. The former is probably 
the better practice. They may likewise be set 
about the middle of November, by a land chain. 



ACORUS. 



ACRE. 



a quarter of a rod asunder, and six inches 
apart in the rows ; dibbling them in, zigzag, 
alternately on either side a line stretched 
tightly on the surface, with blunt-pointed dib- 
bles, letting a little mould fall down to the 
bottoms of the holes, to prevent water lodging 
round them, and burying them about two 
inches beneath the surface. Each square rod, 
when planted in this way, takes 132 acorns, 
nearly a pint, when they are middle-sized, 
which is equal to two statute bushels and a 
half on an acre. The expense, in England, of 
planting acorns in this manner is about 5s. an 
acre. Sec Planting. 

ACORUS, from the Greek a., privative, and 
»tog», the pupil of the eye. The botanical name 
of a plant of the thistle kind, that produces the 
drug called in the shop Calamus arumaticus. It 
is found abundantly in the neighbourhood of 
freshwater marshes. The ancient practice of 
strewing the floors with the leaves of these 
sweet rushes is still kept up in some of our 
cathedral churches upon certain high festivals. 
The plant, which belongs to the natural order 
Aroideie, flourisiies luxuriantly in loose, moist 
soils, and sends forth many deep-green, long 
sword-shaped leaves from its perennial, creep- 
ing, and horizontal stems. It seldom flowers, 
but the blossoms which it sends forth are of a 
greenish colour. The root, or more properly 
the stem, is the part which, when dried, is 
used medicinally, occasionally as a stimulant. 
It is slightl}^ acrid and aromatic. {Tltomsuns 
Dispensary.') 

ACRE (aecne, Sax. Acre, Lye says, is 
common to all the European languages. Sax. 
Die). He might have added further, that it is 
an Eastern word ; and that agr, akoro, and ukko- 
ran, denote in the Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic, 
a field, a husbandman. So the Saxon aeccep- 
mon, a husbandman. Wachter, in his Glos- 
sary, gives ukerman, a day-labourer. (Tudd's 
Johnsuti.) In Shakspeare' s King Lear, we 
have — 

" Search every acre in the high grown field. 
And bring hitn to our eye." 

The prevailing and standard measure of land 
in Britain. An acre in England contains 4 
square roods ; a rood, 40 perches, rods, or 
poles, 5^ yards, or 16^ feet each, according to 
the statute in the act passed in 1824, for the 
equalization of weights and measures through- 
out the United Kingdom, which is in this in- 
stance confirmatory of the old law of England. 
But in some parts of England there are other 
measures under the same designation of acre. 
For example, in Devonshire, and part of So- 
merset, 5 yards (instead of 5^) have been 
reckoned to a perch ; in Cornwall, 6 yards 
(anciently called the Woodland perch) ; in 
Lancashire, 7 yards ; in Cheshire and Stafford- 
shire 8 yards ; in the Isle of Purbeck, and 
some parts of Devonshii^e, 15 feet and 1 inch. 
In the common fields of Wiltshire and the 
neighbouring counties, 120 poles, or 3 roods, 
were reckoned to an acre. 

The Irish acre is 7840 square yards, and is 
equal to 1 acre, 2 roods, and 19 poles, nearly, 
of English measure. 

The Scotch acre contains 5760 square Scotch 



Equal to 

100 
staluts 
acres. 



ells, and is equal to 1 acre, I rood, 2 poles 
nearly, of English measure. 
The following Table shows the comparative 
quantity of each of the above measures; — 

A. R. P. 

120 .3 20 Devonshire ciistnninry measure,! 

11!) 2 26 Isle of Purbeck, dillo, I 

84 4 Cornish or Woodland ditto, I 

61 2 3"i Lancashire or Irish ditto, y 

47 1 2i Cheshire and Stallordsliire ditto, 

133 2 Wiltshire tenantry ditto, 

79 1 6j Scotch measure, 

The French acre, or arpent, according to Mr. 
Greave's calculation, consists of 100 perches, 
of 22 feet each, amounting to 48,400 square 
French feet, which are equal to 51,691 square 
English fleet, or very near one acre, and three 
quarters of a rood, English measure. The 
Strasburg acre is about half an English acre. 

Table exhibiting the Number of Plants which 
may be raised on a Perch of Land, at different 
distances : — 

In a perch are 272^ square feet, or 39,204 
square inches. A perch will contain 



Trees or 


Inches 


Number of Inches 


Square Inches 


Plants. 


over. 


asunder. 


to each. 


2450 


4 


4 by 4 


16 


1960 


. . 


5—4 


20 


1633 


12 


6—4 


24 


1069 


. . 


6—6 


36 


816 


36 


8—6 


48 


612 


36 


8—8 


64 


490 


4 


10—8 


80 


392 


4 


10 — 10 


100 


272 


36 


12 — 12 


144 


261 


54 


15 — 10 


150 



An acre will contain 



Trees nr 


Inches 


Number of feel 


Square feet 


Plants. 


over. 


;iRunder. 


to each. 


108 


360 


20 


400 


IGO 




16^ 


272^ 


134 


144 


18 


324 


302 


72 


12 


144 


435 


60 


10 


100 


680 


40 


8 


64 


888 


48 


7 


49 1 


1089 




8 by 5 


40 


1210 




6 


36 


1361 


8 


8 —4 


32 


1452 




6 —5 


30 


1555 


20 


7 —4 


28 


1815 




6 —4 


24 


2178 




5 —4 


20 


2722 


■ 8 


4—4 


16J 


2904 




5 —3 


15 


3630 


• 


4 —3 


12 


4840 




3 —3 


9 


5445 




4 —2 


8 


7260 




3—2 


6 


8712 




2^ — 2 


5 


10,890 




2—2 


4 


19,305 




1^-1^ 


2^ 


21,780 




2 — 1 


2 


43,560 




1 


' ! 



S-J 



ACRE. 



ACRE. 



A Table for reducing Square Yards into Acres, Roods, and Perches. 



Sq. Yds. 



30 

60 

91 

121 

151 















200 
300 
400 
500 
600 
700 
800 
900 
1,000 



1,100 
1,200 
1,300 
1,400 
1,500 
1,600 
1,700 
1,800 
1,900 
2,000 



2,100 
2,200 
2,300 
2,400 
2,500 
2,600 
2,700 
2,800 
2,900 
3,000 



3,100 
3,200 
3,300 
3,400 
3,500 
3,600 
3,700 
3,800 
3,900 
4,000 



4,100 
4,200 
4,300 
4,400 
4.500 
4,000 
4.700 
4,800 
4,900 
5,000 



7 

10 

13 

17 

20 

23 

26 

30 

33 



36 




3 
6 

10 
13 
16 
20 
23 
26 



1 29 



1 
1 
1 39 
2 3 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 



33 

36 



22 

26 

29 

32 

36 

39 

2 

6 

9 

12 



16 
19 
22 
25 
29 
32 
35 
39 



5,100 


1 9 


5,200 


1 12 


5,300 


1 15 



Sq. Yds. 



5,400 
5,500 
5,600 
5,700 
5,800 
5,900 
6,000 



6,100 
6,200 
6,300 
6,400 
6,500 
6,000 
6,700 
6,800 
6,900 
7,000 



7,100 
7,200 
7,300 
7,400 
7,500 
7,600 
7,700 
7,800 
7,900 
8,000 



8,100 
8,200 
8,300 
8,400 
8,500 
8,600 
8,700 
8,800 
8,900 
9,000 



9,100 
9,200 
9,300 
9,400 
9,500 
9,600 
9,700 
9,800 
9,900 
10,000 



10,100 
10,200 
10,300 
10,400 
10,500 
10,600 
10,700 
10,800 
10,900 
11,000 



19 

22 



1 25 

1 23 

1 32 

1 35 

1 38 



1 2 

1 5 

1 8 

1 12 

1 15 



18 
21 
25 
28 
31 



28 

31 

34 

38 

1 

4 

8 

11 

14 

18 



21 

24 

27 

31 

34 

37 

1 

4 

7 

11 



14 

17 

20 

24 

27 

30 

34 

37 

1 
1 4 



Sq.Yds. A. n 



11,100 
11,200 
11,300 
11,400 
11,500 
11,600 
11,700 
11,800 
11,900 
12,000 



12,100 
12,200 
12,300 
12,400 
12,500 
12,600 
12,700 
12,800 
12,900 
13,000 



13,100 
13,200 
13,300 
13,400 
13,500 
13,600 
13,700 
13,800 
13,900 
14,000 



14,100 
14,200 
14,300 
14,400 
14,500 
14,600 
14,700 
14,800 
14,900 
15,000 



15,100 
15,200 
15,300 
15,400 
15,500 
15,600 
15,700 
15,800 
15,900 
16,000 



7 
10 
14 
17 
20 
23 
27 
30 
33 
37 



16,100 
16,200 
16,300 
16,400 
16,500 
16,600 
16,700 
16,800 




3 

7 
10 
13 
17 
20 
2 23 
2 26 
2 30 



33 

36 



3 

6 



Sq. Yds. 



3 10 
3 13 



16 
20 
23 



26 

29 

33 

36 

39 

3 

6 

9 



13 
16 



19 

22 

26 

29 

32 

36 

39 

1 2 
1 6 
1 9 



1 12 
1 16 
19 
22 
25 
29 
32 
35 



16,900 
17,000 



17,100 
17,200 
17,300 
17,400 
17,500 
17,600 
17,700 
17,800 
17,900 
18,000 



18,100 
18,200 
18,300 
18,400 
18,500 
18,600 
18,700 
18,800 
18,900 
19,000 



A. R. P. 



3 1 39 
3 2 2 



2 


5 


2 


9 


2 


12 


2 


15 


2 


19 


2 


22 


2 


25 


2 


28 


2 


32 


2 


35 



19,100 
19,200 
19,300 
19,400 
19,500 
19,600 
19,700 
19,800 
19,900 
20,000 



20,100 
20,200 
20,300 
20,400 
20,500 
20,600 
20,700 
20,800 
20,900 
21,000 

21,100 
21,200 
21,300 
21,400 
21,500 
21,600 
21,700 
21,800 
21,900 
22,000 



22,100 
22,200 
22,300 
22,400 
22,500 



38 

2 

5 

8 

12 

15 

18 

21 

25 

28 



31 

35 

38 

1 

5 

8 



11 

15 

18 

21 



4 24 

4 28 

4 31 

34 

38 

1 1 



1 11 
1 14 



4 
4 
4 1 



1 18 

1 21 

24 

27 

31 



1 
1 

1 34 
1 37 



2 


11 


2 


14 


2 


17 


2 


20 


2 


4 



86 



Watersori's Manual of Commerce. 



ACRIMONY. 



AEROLITES. 



Table of Land Measure. 

In an acre are 
4 roods, each rood forty perches. 
160 perches, sixteen feet and a half each. 
4,840 square yards, nine feet each. 
43,560 square feet, 144 inches each. 
174,240 squares of six inches each, thirty-six 
inches each. 
6,272,640 inches, or squares, of one inch each. 

ACRIMONY (Acrimonia, Lat.). A sharp 
property in some plants and vegetables, by 
which they excoriate and blister the tongue, 
mouth, or other parts of the body, on being 
applied to them. The nature of this sort of 
acrimony has not yet been suiTiciently exa- 
mined by chemical investigation. It seems to 
differ in some measure according to the nature 
of the plants; as in tiie common onion, water- 
cresses, cabbages, &c., a part of their acrimony 
is lost, by their being exposed to a boiling heat ; 
while other kinds, as ginger, capsicum, arum, 
&c., do not become much milder by undergo- 
ing that process. 

The juice of the fungous excrescences of 
some trees possess so much acrimony as to be 
capable of blistering; and some kinds of 
fungi contain a juice or liquor of a very cor- 
rosive quality ; and it is probably on this ac- 
count that many of those which are commonly 
procured disagree so much with the patient, 
when made use of as articles of diet. By 
being more perfectly stewed, or otherwise pre- 
pared by means of heat, they might most 
likely be rendered safe and nutritious. Much 
caution should, however, be used, even when 
thus prepared, in eating such kinds as are un 
known. "There be some plants," says Bacon, 
in his Nat. Hist., "that have a milk in them 
when they are cut ; as figs, old lettuce, sow- 
tliistles, spurge. The cause may be an incep- 
tion of putrefaction : for those milks have all 
an acrimony, though one would think they 
should be lenitive." 

ADAPTER (Adiipfo, Lat.). In the manage- 
ment of bees, is a board used to place the 
hives or glasses upon. 

ADDER (Aerrep, aecrop, naTJBpe, aS it 
seems, from eicrep. Sax. poison; Mces-Goth. 
nadr, vjpera; TeuL udder). A viper, a poison- 
ous reptile, perhaps of any species. In com- 
mon language, however, adders and snakes are 
not the same, the term adder being generally 
understood to imply a viper. See Animal 
Poisoxs. 

ADKPS. In veterinary science, animal oil 
or fat. The fat differs in different animals ; and 
hence it has received different names. In the 
horse it is called grease; in the ox and sheep, 
tallow, fat, suet; and in the hog, hog's lard. 
At a low temperature all these possess various 
degrees of consistence ; but in the living ani- 
mal, they all exist in a fluid state, and are dis- 
tributed over various parts of the body. An 
immense quantity of fat is often found in the 
belly, all deposited in extremely small cells, 
which have no communication with each 
other. No fat is ever found within the skull. 
Fat performs important functions in the 
animal economy. When the supply of ali- 



ment, for example, is greater than the demand, 
the surplus is stored away in the form of fat; 
and when the demand, either from deficiency 
of food, over-exertion, or disease, becomes 
greater than the supply, then the absorbents 
carry the fat into the circulation, and thus, for 
a time, the evils that would very soon arise 
from a defect in the quantity of blood are pre- 
vented. Some animals accumulate fat more 
readily than others. Health, a round chest, a 
short back, and tranquil tem]ier are liighl)' 
favourable to its formation; and when to these 
qualities are added inaction, clean litter, and a 
plentiful supply of nourishing food, the animal 
is soon fit for the butcher. A warm atmo- 
sphere, provided it be a pure one, is also 
favourable to fattening. [See Laud Oii., &c.] 
(i1/' //«•'.<( Dictionurif). 

AERATION. The process by which the 
soil is exposed to the air and imbued there- 
with, air being indispensable to the healthy 
growth of plants. When a flower-pot is filled 
with rather dry earth, if it be plunged under 
water a profusion of air-bubbles will be 
seen to rise, owing to the water penetrating 
between the particles of the dry earth, and 
forcing out the air previously lodged there. 
As the more loose and porous a soil is, the 
greater quantity of air it will contain, it will 
follow, that the more a soil is ploughed and 
harrowed, or dug and raked, the better it 
will be aerated — one of the chief beneficial 
effects of frequently repeating these opera- 
tions. 

Besides the direct influence of the atmo- 
sphere, the agency of water is all-important in 
the process of aeration. All water openly ex- 
posed contains more or less atmospheric air; 
and, in consequence of this, it acquires an 
agreeable taste, always destroyed by boiling, 
which renders it vapid and disagreeable, by 
expelling the air. The importance of air con- 
tained in water to the growth of plants appears 
from Avater being found beneficial in propor- 
tion as it has had opportunities of becoming 
mixed with air. But the best water, with re- 
spect to the properties of the air it contains, is 
rain, which, falling in small drops, often tossed 
about by the wind, has an opportunity of col- 
lecting a large proportion of air, and, accord- 
ing to Liebig {Organic Chem.), ammonia, 
during its descent to the earth ; and hence the 
smaller the bore of the holes in a garden water- 
ing-pot, the better; and the more minutely the 
garden-engine scatters the water, the more ad- 
vantageously, so far as the air is concerned. 

There is another point of view in which 
aeration appears beneficial, arising from the 
excrementitious matters thrown into the soil 
by growing plants, as ascertained by M. Ma- 
caire; for as these matters become decom- 
posed in the processes of fallowing, irrigation, 
and drain in?, the gases there produced would 
not so readily be carried off from the soil, but 
for a due circulation of the common air 
through the earth. See Gases, their use to 
vegetation. (Miller's Dictionary). 

AEROLITES (From the Greek axp, air, and 
x<9(;c, a stone). Meteoric stones, bodi»s that 
fall from the heavens. The origin of these 
remarkable bodies is still a mystery. 

27 



AFRICAN MARIGOLD. 



AFTER-GRASS, 



2 


1 


1 


2 


3 


1 


2 





4 


1 


2 


2 


3 


2 


1 


1 


2 


1 


1 


1 


3 


3 


1 


1 



First Cnp. L-i'tcr Crop, 

dr. gr. .tr. gr. 

4 1 4 1 

13 13 

2 2 

2 1 2 1 

12 12 



AFRICAN MARIGOLD {Togifes erecta,\ 
Lin.). A favourite hardy annual, which does j 
not come from Africa, as its name would indi- : 
cate, but from Mexico. See MAniGOLn. 1 

AFTER-GRASS, or AFTERMATH. The 
second crop of grass, or that M'hich springs 
after mowing, or the grass cut after some 
kinds of corn crops. ! 

The composition of the after-grass generally 
varies considerably from that of the tirst or 
spring crop. The nutriment of the latter, from 
most of the grasses, is materially less than 
that of the former. This was clearly ascer- 
tained by the elaborate experiments of the late 
Mr. G. Sinclair, the results of which are dis- 
persed throughout his valuable Avork on the 
Grasses. To give a few instances only — 

First Crop. Second Crop, 
dr. gr. dr. gr. 

64 dr. of roiind-panicleii cock's-foot 

grass affiirdert of nutritive matter 
Meadow fo.x-lail grass 
Larjier-leaved creeping bent-cresteil 

d(if!'s-t;iil grass - - . 
Hard fescue grass . . - 
Welch fescue grass 
Yellow oat grass ... 

And the same remark applies to the rye-grass 
{LoUum perenne), not only of upland pastures 
but of meadows. Thus, Sinclair found (Hurt. 
Gram. Wob. 384) that this grass when flower- 
ing, taken from a water meadow that had been 
fed olf with sheep till the end of April, yielded 
of nutritive matter 72 grs. 

But the same grass from the same meadow 
which had not been fed off, yielded 100 grs. 

The same weight of this grass, from a rich 
old pasture that had been shut up for hay at 
the same time, yielded of nutritive matter 95 
grs. But the grass from the same field, which 
had not been depastured, yielded 120 grs. 

Some of them, however, contain exactly as 
much nutritive matter in the aftermath as in 
the first crop : thus, 64 drs. of the 



Sweet-scented soft grass yielded 
Smooth-stalked meadow grass 
Short blue meadow grass 
Cow grass - - 

Creeping fescue 

and one or two were found to contain more 
nutritive matter in the aftermath than in the 
first crop : thus 64 drs. of the 

First Crop. Latter Crop- 
dr. gr. dr. gr. 

Sweet-scented vernal grass yielded 13 2 1 

In the vicinity of London most of the after- 
grass, or second crop, was formerly made into 
hay, and was considered of considerable value 
for the ewes of suckling lambs, and milch 
cows; but in harvesting this crop, so as to 
make it sell well, great nicety is requisite, the 
nature o." after-jrrass being more soft, spongy, 
and porous than the first growth, and conse- 
quently more liable to be hurt by rains. The 
practice is therefore on the decline. 

In the midland counties their management 
of the feeding off the after-grass is in general 
judicious. It is commonly suffered to get up 
to a full bite before it is broken, and not turned 
in upon as ,-oon as the hay is off, or suffered to 
stand unti. much of it becomes improper for 
'Jie food of animals. Farmers, however, make 
28 



a point of saving autumnal grass for spring 
feed, and contend that it is the most certain, 
and, on the whole, the best spring teed yet 
known. This would seem to be a wasteful 
practice, at least in respect to the more for- 
ward aftei'-grasses. These ought certainly to 
be broken sufficiently early to be eaten, without 
waste, before Avinter sets in ; and the latest, 
that is to say, the shortest, may be shut in for 
spring feed. If after-grass be too long and 
gross, it is apt to lodge, and rot upon the 
ground in winter ; therefore, on rich lands, it 
ought always to be more or less off before Mi- 
chaelmas, in order to prevent its being wasted 
or lost in the winter. 

It is remarked by the author of '• Practical 
Agriculture," that, "In some districts much of 
the after-grass is frequently cut and made into 
a green soft sort of hay, as has been alieady 
mentioned ; but in others it is fed off by live 
stock in the autumn." And that " both modes 
may be useful under different circumstances. 
In situations where plenty of manure can be 
procured, as near large towns, and where the 
chief dependence is upon the sale of hay, or 
where lamb-suckling prevails, it may fre- 
quently be a beneficial practice to take a se- 
cond crop of ha3s as the first may by that 
means be more fully spared for sale, the after- 
crop supplying the cows or other cattle that 
may be kept on the farm. But in cases where 
manure cannot easily be obtained, and there is 
no local practice carried on which requires 
such sort of hay, it is better to let it be fed off 
by stock than run the risk of exhausting and 
injuring the ground by taking ofl' repeated 
crops. There is also another circumstance," 
he says, "to be considered in thi.« bu.'5iness, 
which is, that of the state of the land in respect 
to dryness, as where it is low, wet, and very 
retentive of moisture, it may be often more 
hurt by the poaching of the cattle in feeding 
off the herbage than b}'- a second crop of ha3^" 
But that, " independent of these considerations, 
it may, in general, be a more safe and usual 
practice to eat off the after-grass by stock, and 
only take one crop of haj% as by such means a 
more abundant annual produce may be afford- 
ed, and the land sustain less injury." 

It is, however, added, that " where a crop of 
rowen is made into hay, the most profitable 
application of it is probably in the foddering 
of such cows as are in milk ; as it is well 
suited, by its grassy qttality, and its not heat- 
ing so much, when well made, as olher sorts 
of hay in the stack, to afford a large flow of 
milk. It is this reason that induces the cow 
farmers to cut their grass so many times in the 
summer. Another beneficial application of 
this hay is, as has been seen, in the feeding of 
such ewes as are emploj'ed in the suckling of 
house-lambs during the winter season ; the 
intention in this case is the same as in that of 
the preceding instance. There is another ad- 
vantageous use to which this sort of produce 
may be applied, which is that of supporting 
young calves, and all sorts of young cattle that 
are kept as store stock." And that, " where 
sheep require the support of hay in the winter 
season, it is also Avell adapted to that use.'' 

la the manner of feeding after-grass, there is 



AGARIC OF THE OAK. 

also much variety in different districts. " It 
has," tiie same author says, "been observed 
by a farmer in Middlesex, that the condition on 
which he rents his farm is that of taking out 
the cattle at Michaelmas, but that sheep remain 
till February." In that county the practice is 
to turn on the cattle immediately after mow- 
ing; but in the northern districts, this grass, 
to which they have given the name of eddish, is 
kept till November, or even a later period, for 
the purjinse of furnishing fat stock, or for the 
pasturage of milch cows, from which a supe- 
rior quality of cheese is made, and by which 
time it has attained a considerable head: how- 
ever, this latter practice would seem to be 
attended with some loss, as has been shown 
from its being trodden and trampled under 
foot. In the stocking of after-grass, Marshall 
found the midland graziers of opinion, that one 
cow to an acre, on well-grown after-grass, M-as 
an ample stock. Good grass-land may, how- 
ever, admit something more ; and instead of 
pasturing of rowen, or after-grass, by heavy 
cattle m the autumn, to avoid poaching the 
ground, particularly at a late period in that or 
the winter season, it has been recommended 
by Dr. Wilkinson, "to confine the co.isumption 
of this grass principally to the support of 
sheep, unless in very favourable seasons, or 
where the soil is uncommonly dry ; in which 
cases milch cows, or other heavy cattle, ma)' 
be admitted without inconvenience." 

In some places it is the practice, as " where 
there is a great scarcity of spring feed, to re- 
serve after-grass in the autumn for spring 
use." Some, on the basis of experience, con- 
tend that it is the most certain, and, on the 
whole, the best spring feed yet known. It 
would seem, however, as has been shown, to 
be a wasteful practice, at least in respect to 
the more forward after-grasses. The for- 
wardest ought certainly to be eaten without 
waste before winter sets in; and the latest, 
that is, the shortest, be shut up for spring feed. 
Arthur Young, it is stated, found, from repeat- 
ed experiments, as suggested above, " that old 
after-grass feeds sheep that give milk better 
than turnips, which are more adapted to the 
fattening of stock ; and that this grass holds to 
a period, if wanted, when most other resources 
fail, the last half of April and the first half of 
May — periods always of want and difficulty, 
where rye-grass is not sown." Marshall also 
assures us, that as a certain and wholesome 
supply of food for ewes and lambs in the early 
spring, the preserved pasture is to be depended 
on as " the sheet anchor, in preference to tur- 
nips, cabbages, or any other species whatever, 
of what is termed spring feed:" and the same 
thing has been experienced by Dr. Wilkinson, 
who has observed, that " this food with him 
afforded a more nutritive and healthful quality 
of milk from the ewes to their tender lambs 
than turnips, even in their best state." But 
however useful after-grass pastures may be 
under this management, there is evidently a 
great loss of food incurred by it, especially in 
severe vrinters. (Sinclair's Hort. Gram. ,- Lowe's 
Prac. Ai^r.) 

AGARIC OF THE OAK. [Spunk, or touch- 
wood.] In farriery, a substance sometimes 



AGE OF ANIMALS. 

employed for restraining the bleeding of small 
vessels. 

AGARICUS. See Mushhoom. 

AGAVE. In botany, comprehends those 
plants which gardeners call American aloes. 

AGE OF ANIMALS. The age of a horse 
may be ascertained by his mouth, and the exa- 
mination of his teeth, till he is eight years old, 
after which the usual marks commonly wear 
out. These are usually forty in all; of which 
twenty-four are doulde teeth, and from their 
office, denominated grinders, four tushes, or 
corner teeth, and twelve fore-teeth. 

The first which appear are the foal-teeth, 
which generally begin to show themselves a 
month or two after foaling; they are tAvelve in 
number, six above and six below, and are 
easily distinguished from the teeth that come 
afterwards, by their smalhiess and whiteness, 
having some resemblance to the incisores, or 
fore-tcelh of man. 

When the colt is about two years and a half 
old, he commonly sheds the four middlemost 
of his foal-teeth, two above and two below; 
but sometimes none are cast till near three 
years old. The new teeth are readily distin- 
guished from the foal-teeth, being much 
stronger, and always twice their size, and are 
called the nippers or gatherers, being those by 
which horses nip ofl' the grass when they are 
feeding in the pastures, and by which, in the 
house, they gather their hay from the rack. 
When horses have got these four teeth com- 
plete, they are reckoned to be three years old. 

When "they are about three and a half, or in 
the spring before they are four years old, they 
cast four" more of their foal-teeth, two in the 
upper and two in the lower jaw, one on each 
side the nippers or middle teeth ; so that when 
you look into a horse's mouth, and see the two 
middle teeth full grown, and none of the foal- 
teeth, except the common teeth, remaining, 
3'ou may conclude he is four that year, about 
April or May. Some, indeed, are later colts, 
but that makes little alteration in the mouth. 

The tushes appear near the same time with 
the four last-mentioned teeth, sometimes sooner 
than these, and sometimes not till after a horse 
is full four years old ; they are curved like the 
tushes of other animals, only in a young horse 
they have a sharp edge all round the top and 
on both sides, the inner part being somewhat 
grooved and flattened, so as to incline to a 
hollow. 

When a horse's tushes do not appear for 
some time after the foal-teeth are cast, and the 
new ones come in their room, it is generally 
owing to the foal-teeth having been pulled out 
before their time, by the breeders or dealers in 
horses, to make a colt of three years old ap- 
pear like one of four that he may be the more 
saleable ; for when any one of the foal-teeth 
have been pulled out, the others soon come in 
their places; but the tushes having none that 
precede them, can never make their appear 
ance till their proper time, which is when a 
horse is full four, or coming four ; and there- 
fore one of the surest marks to know a four- 
year old horse is by his tushes, which are then 
very small, and sharp on the tops and edges. 

At the time when a horse comes five, « ' 
c2 2Q 



AGE OF ANIMALS. 



AGE OF ANIMALS. 



rather in the spring before he is five, the cor- 
ner teeth begin to appear, and at first but just 
equal with the gums, being filled with flesh in 
the middle. The tushes are also by this time 
grown to a more distinct size, though not very 
large : they likewise continue rougli and sharp 
on the top and edges. But the corner teeth 
are now most to be remarked ; they differ from 
the middle teeth in being more fleshy on the 
inside, and the gums generally look rawish 
upon their first shooting out, whereas the others 
do not appear discoloured. The middle teeth 
arrive at their lull growth in less than three 
weeks, but the corner teeth grow leisurely, 
and are seldom much above the gums till a 
horse is full five ; they differ also from the 
other fore-teeth in this, that they somewhat re- 
semble a shell ; and thence are called the shell- 
teeth, because they environ the flesh in the 
middle half-way round ; and as they grow, the 
flesh within disappears, leaving a distinct 
hollowness and openness on the inside. When 
a horse is full five, the teeth are generally 
about the thickness of a crown-piece above 
the gums. From five to five and a half they 
will grow about a quarter of an inch high, or 
more : and when a horse is full six, they will 
be near half an inch, and in some large horses 
a full half-inch above the gums. 

The corner teeth in the upper jaw fall out 
before those in the vmder, so that the upper 
corner teeth are seen before those below ; on 
the contrary, the tushes in the under gums 
came out before those in the upper. 

When a horse is full six years old, the hol- 
lowness on the inside begins visibly to fill up, 
and that which was at first fleshy grows into a 
brownish spot, not unlike the eye of a dried 
garden-bean, and continues so till he is seven; 
with this difference only, that the teeth are 
gradually more filled up, and the marks, or 
spots, become fainter, and of a lighter colour. 
At eight, the mark in most horses is quite worn 
out, though some retain the vestiges of it a 
longer time ; and those who have not had a 
good deal of experience may sometimes be 
deceived by taking a horse of nine or ten years ! 
old for one of eight. It is at this time only, 
when a horse is past mark, that one can easily 
err in knowing his age ; such practices are used 
to make a very young horse or colt appear older 
than he really is, by pulling out the foal-teeth 
before their time, which may be discovered by 
feeling along the edges where the tushes grow, 
for they may be felt in the gums before the 
corner teeth are put forth ; whereas, if the cor- 
ner teeth come in some months before the 
tushes rise in the gums, we may reas'>nably 
suspect that the foal-teeth have been puik d out 
at three years old. 

It is not necessary to mention the tricks that 
are used to make a false mark in a hi rse's 
mouth, by hollowing the tooth with a graver, 
and burning a mark with a small hot iron ; be- 
cause those who are acquainted with the true 
marks will easily discover the cheat by the 
size and colour of the teeth, by the roundness 
and oiuntness of the tushes, by the colour of 
the false mark, which is generally blacker and 
inorr impressed than the true mark, and bv 
30 



other circumstances which denote the ad 
vanced age of horses. 

After the horse has passed his eighth vear, 
and sometimes at seven, nothing certain can 
be known by the mouth. It must, however, 
be remembered, that some horses have hut in- 
diflerent mouths when they are young, and 
soon loose their mark ; others have their 
mouths good for a long lime, their teeth 
being white, even, and regular till they are 
sixteen years old and upwards, together with 
many other marks of freshness and vigour; 
but when a horse comes to be very old, it 
may be discovered by several indications, the 
constant attendants of age ; such as his gums 
wearing away insensibly, leaving his teeth 
long and naked at their roots ; the teeth also 
growing yellow, and sometimes brownish. The 
bars of the mouth, which in a young horse 
are always fleshy, aird form so many distinct 
ridges, are in an old horse, lean, dry, and 
smooth, with little or no rising. The eye-pits 
in a young horse are generally filled up with 
flesh, look plump and smooth ; whereas, in an 
old one, they are sunk and hollow, and make 
him look ghastly. There are also other marks 
which discover a horse to be very old, as gray 
horses turning white, and many of them being 
all over flea-bitten, except their joints. This, 
however, happens sometimes later, and some- 
times sooner, according to the variety of colouf 
and constitution. Black horses are apt to 
grow gray over their eyebrows, and very often 

a \ fib J 




AGE OF ANIMALS. 



AGE OF TREES. 



over a great part of their faces ; and all horses, 
when very old, sink more or less in their backs ; 
and some horses that are naturally long- 
backed, grow so hollow with age, that it is 
scarcely pos-jible to fit them with a saddle. 

The various progressive changes that take 
place in th^^ appearance of the teeth of horses 
at diffeient ages, from a few M-eeks old (marked 
(t in fig.) to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, and 18 
years, may be seen in the foregoing dental map, 
constructed by Mr. Blaine (Encyc. of Rural 
Sports, 273). 

Age (f Neat Cattle. The age of cows, oxen, and 
fju/ls, is known by the teeth and horns. At the 
end of about two years they shed their first 
fore-teeth, which are replaced by others, larger, 
but not so white ; and before five years all the 
incisive teeth are renewed. These teeth are 
at first equal, long, and pretty white ; but as 
the animals advance in years, they wear down, 
become unequal and black. When three years 
old, neat cattle also experience a considerable 
change in the structure of their horns, after 
which period these appendages, like the second 
or permanent teeth, preserve the same charac- 
ter. During the first year of the animal's age, 
two small, smooth, pointed, and neatly formed 
horns make their appearance attached to the 
head by a kind of button. This conformation 
continues during the first three years, after 
which the button moves from the head, being 
impelled by a horny cylinder. Thus the horns 
continue growing as long as the animal lives, 
as is indicated by the annual joints, which are 
easily distinguished in the horn, and by which 
the age of the creature may be easily known ; 
counting three years for the point of the horn, 
and one for each of the joints or rings. Dis- 
honest dealers sometimes obliterate these rings 
by shaving or filing the horns, in order to con- 
ceal the age of the beast. 

Age of Sheep. — The age of these animals is 
known by their having, in their second year, 
two broad teeth ; in their third year, four broad 
teeth ; in their fourth year, six broad teeth ; 
and in their fifih year, eight broad teeth before. 
After which, none can tell how old a sheep is 
while their teeth remain, except by their being 
worn down. 

About the end of one year, rams, wethers, 
and all 3'oung sheep, lose the two fore-teeth 
of the lower jaw ; and they are known to want 
the incisive teeth in the upper jaw. At 
eighteen months, the two teeth joining to the 
former also fall out ; and at three years, being 
all replaced, they are even and pretty white. 
But as these animals advance in age, the teeth 
become loose, blunt, and afterwards black. 
The age of the ram, and all horned sheep, may 
also be known by their horns, which show 
themselves in their very first year, and often 
at the birth, and continue to grow a ring annu- 
ally to the last period of their lives. 

Age of Goats. — The age of these animals is 
known by the same marks as those of sheep, 
as, by their teeth, and the annular rings on 
their horns. 

Age of Plants. — This, however difficult to as- 
certain, may be attempted in various ways, as 
from their general appearances and growth. 
The continuance of life is extremely different 



in plants, and from this difference, they are 
generally divided into annual, biennial, and 
perennial. 

The infancy of plants, like that of animals, 
is marked by the characters of weakness and 
I tenderness ; in the youthful state they acquire 
! beauty and size, the vessels attract and convey 
I their juices; the full growth is crowned with 
the robust fibre, and full exercise of all its 
functions ; the fruit therefore ripens ; but old 
age advancing, the vessels begin gradually to 
I harden and lose their tone, they droop, the 
juices move no longer with equal celeiity as 
in youth, the vital powers cease, and they die. 
Age of Trees. — The age of some trees may be 
determined from the number of ligneous annuli 
or rings. In many sorts of trees it is, how- 
ever, very difficult to distinguish these, and in 
others, utterly impossible. Some trees arrive 
to an astonishing age ; thus, the cedars of Le- 
banon have existed for 2000 years. In Eng- 
land, the oak is the most durable. 

Many instances of the extreme old age of 
trees exist in [England and elsewhere.] At 
EUersIie, three miles from Paisley, at the 
birthplace of William Wallace, is an oak, in 
which, according to the tradition of the neigh- 
bourhood, tliat celebrated chieftain once shel- 
tered himself with many of his followers. .\nd 
many others either till lately or still abound in 
England ; for instance, there was one at Lang- 
ley Wood, near Downton {Dodslei/, An. Reg.^ 
1758, p. 116), supposed to be of 1000 years' 
growth ; then there is the oak of William 
Kufus, in the new Forest; the Fairlop oak of 
Hainault Forest ; Fisher's oak on the road to 
Tonbridge ; Hern's oak in Windsor Forest • 
Queen Elizabeth's oak at Heveningham, in 
Suffolk ; the Whinfield oak, near Appleby, all 
of great antiquity. (Phillip's Fruits ,• Withers 
on Planting.) 

At Ankerwj'ke, near Staines, is a yew tree, 
that has certainly been growing there since 
the time of King John ; and at Fountain's Ab- 
bey, in Yorkshire, there are yew trees that are 
probably some centuries older; and the cele- 
brated Spanish chestnut tree, growing in Tiord 
Ducie's park, alTortworth, in Gloucestershire, 
which in the reign of .lohn was called the 
Great Chestnut of Tortworth, was certainly 
growing there in the days of William of Nor- 
mandy. 

At Trons, in the Grisons, there existed in 
1798, a lime tree which was a celebrated plant 
in the year 1424, and which, when last mea- 
sured, Avas 51 feet in circumference. The age 
of this specimen could not have been less than 
580 years. 

In the year 1776 there existed in the palace 
garden of Granada some famous cypresses, 
which were thought to have been at least 800 
or 900 years old. 

Some of the trees of oriental countries, how 
ever, attain to still greater ages than any of 
these : thus the Baobab trees of Africa, accord 
ing to Adanson, are 5150 years old ; and De 
candoUe considers the deciduous cypress tree.** 
of Chapultepec in Mexico to be still older. 

It would seem, that, after a certain age, all 
trees decrease in their rapidity of growth, a 
fact of some importance to be known to plant- 



AGENTS. 



AGRICULTURE. 



ers ; the oak, for instance, between its fortieth 
and sixtieth years ; the elm after its fiftieth ; 
the spruce after its fortieth ; the yew after its 
sixtieth : of this rate of growth, Decandolle has 
constructed an interesting table, showing the 
rate of increase in diameter of certain trees, 
such as the Oak, Larch, Elm, Spruce, Yew, 
every 10 years from 1 to 150 years. 

Mr. Waistell has constructed tables respect- 
ing the growth of timber, showing every fourth 
year, from 12 to 100, the progressive annual 
increase in the growth of trees, and gradual 
decrease in the rate per cent, per annum, that 
the annual increase bears to the whole tree. 

AGENTS. [In England.] Land agents, are 
very commonly persons of the legal profes- 
sion, little conversant with the ordinary details 
of farming affairs. This is not always a de- 
sirable state of things — it often leads to oppres- 
sion, to discord, and to very bad farming. 

An agent cannot bind his principal beyond 
the extent of his limited authority (Fenn v. Har- 
rison, 3 T. R. 575). For although a principal 
is bound by all the acts of his general agent, 
yet where he appoints an agent for a particu- 
lar purpose, he is only bound to the extent of 
the authority given. 

" Agreements for a lease, made with an agent 
who acts under a power of attorney, and a 
lease executed by such agent in pursuance of 
the agreement, shall bind the principal." (Ha- 
milton V. Clmncardr., 1 Bro. P. C. 341.) 

AGISTMENT. A term seemingly from the 
the old law French v/ord giste, which signifies 
a lying-place, and therefore, as applied to cat- 
tle, supposes pasturing. Agistment accord- 
ingly is the pasturing of cattle, the property 
of another, on the payment of a certain sum 
of money, or other valuable consideration; 
and the animals thus grazed are sometimes 
C3.\\ei gist men ts. "If," says Blackstone, "a man 
takes in a horse or other cattle to graze and 
depasture in his grounds, which the law calls 
agistment, he takes them upon an implied con- 
tract to return them on demand to the owner. 
(Cro. Car. 271.) But he cannot like an inn- 
keeper retain them till payment." Agistment 
also means the profit arising from this prac- 
tice. The tithe of agistment is the tenth part 
of the value for the keeping or depasturing 
such cattle as are liable to pay it ; but it may 
be avoided by cutting the grass for stall-feed- 
ing. 

AGREEMENT. A very considerable pro- 
portion of the lands of England are held by 
agreements between the landlord and the 
tenant. See Leases. 

These are best made in writing, although 
not absolutely necessary for terms not exceed- 
ing three years. {Crosby v. Wordsworth, 
6 East, 602.) An agreement to make a lease 
is, in equity, a good lease. {Hamilton v. Card- 
ness, 2 Bro. P. C. 125.) But whether an instru- 
ment shall amount to a present lease or only 
as an agreement for a future lease, will depend 
on the intention of the parties, to be collected 
from the instrument itself, {Morgan v. Bissett, 
« Taunton, 65. Baxter v. Browne, 2 W. Black. 
V73.) [See Customs of Counties.] 

AGRICULTOK (Lat. a husbandman). The 
■ id in our language is modern, but is getting 
32 



into common use. It is, however, more gene- 
rally written agriculturist, and is intended to 
imply one who is skilled in the art of cultivat- 
ing the ground. {Todd's JoJi'isun.) 

AGRICULTURE, HISTORY OF (Lat. 
agricultura). The art of cultivating the ground; 
tillage, husbandry, as distinct from pasture. 
( Todd's Johnson.) 

I shall, in the present article, limit myself to 
a brief historical sketch of agriculture, which 
became one of the sustaining arts of life as 
soon as man was ordained to earn his bread 
by the sweat of his brow. In the garden of 
Eden, whose fertile soil and genial clime ap- 
pear to have combined in maturing a continued 
variety and unfailing succession of vegetable 
sustenance, agricultural operations were un- 
known ; for that which came spontaneously to 
perfection required no assistance from human 
ingenuity; and where there is no deficiency 
there can be no inducement to strive tor im- 
provement. That period of perfection was 
but transitory ; and the Deity that had placed 
man in the garden " to dress it and keep it," 
eventually drove him thence " to till the earth 
from whence he was taken." {Gen. ii. 15 ; iii. 
23.) 

From that time to the present, agriculture 
has been an improving art; and there is no 
reason to doubt but that it will go on advanc- 
ing as long as mankind continues to increase. 

Man, in his greatest state of ignorance, is 
always found dependent for subsistence upon 
the produce of the chase ; but, as population 
increases, recourse must be had to other 
sources of food. And we find in the shepherd's 
life of the early ages, the first step to agricul- 
tural art, the domestication of animals, which 
it was found to be more convenient to have 
constantly at hand, rather than to have to seek 
precariously at the very time the}' were re- 
quired. As the increase of population still 
went on, and the flocks and the herds had pro- 
portionately to be enlarged, one favourite spot 
would be found too small for the subsistence 
of the whale ; and, as in the case of Abraham 
and Lot, they would have to separate and find 
pasturage in different districts. This separa- 
tion into tribes could not proceed beyond a 
certain extent ; and when the land was fully 
occupied, recourse would by necessity be had 
to means of increasing the produce of given 
surfaces of soil instead of enlarging their ex- 
tent. With Abraham and Isaac it is very 
evident that wheat and the other fruits of the 
earth were the rare and choice things of their 
country ; but when such nations once learned, 
as they might from the example of Egypt, the 
resource such products were in periods of fa- 
mine, arising from mortalities among their 
cattle, they would soon pursue their interests 
by cultivating them. This completed, the ac- 
quirement of property in land for the space not 
only long occupied, but upon which the occu- 
pier had bestowed his labour, built his habita- 
tion, and had enclosed from injury by vagrant 
animals, would be acknowledged to be his 
without any one stopping to inquire what right 
he had to make the enclosure. 

When once thus located, experience and 
observation would soon teach the employment 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



of manures, irrigation, times of sowing, and 
other necessary operations ; and every gene- 
ration would be wiser in the art than that 
which preceded it. This especially has oc- 
curred in these more northern climates, where 
art and industry has to compensate for a defi- 
ciency of natural advantages. "Enlarging 
numbers," observes Mr. Sharon Turner, "only 
magnify the effect; for mankind seem to 
thrive and civilize in proportion as they mul- 
tiply; and, by a recurrent action, to multiply 
again in proportion as they civilize and pros- 
per." In this manner improved modes of cul- 
tivation, the introduction of new species, and 
of more fruitful varieties of agricultural pro- 
duce, have universally kept pace with an in- 
creasing popiilation. This resting iipon a 
basis of facts, vindicates the wisdom of Pro- 
vidence, and refutes Mr. Malthus's superficial 
theory of over-production. The agricultural 
produce of England has gradually increased 
from the insignificant amount that was its 
value in the time of the Roman invasion, to 
the enormous annual return of 200,000,000/. ; 
and it is very certain that in this country, and 
much more in other parts of the world, the 
produce is a mere fraction of what the total 
soil is capable of returning. 

Agriculture is the art of obtaining from the 
earth food for the sustenance of man and his 
domestic animals ; and the perfection of the 
art is to obtain the greatest possible produce 
at the smallest possible expense. Upon the 
importance of the art, it is needless, therefore, 
to insist ; for by it every country is enabled to 
support in comfort an abundant population. 
On this its strength as a nation depends ; and 
by it its independence is secured. An agricul- 
tural country has within itself the necessaries 
and comforts of life ; and, to defend these, 
there will never be wanting a host of -patriot 
soldiers. 

Of the pleasure attending the judicious cul- 
tivation of the soil, we have the evidence of 
facts. The villa farms sprinkled throughout 
our happy land, the establishments of Holk- 
ham, Woburn, &c., would never have been 
formed if the occupation connected with them 
was not delightful. We have an unexception- 
able witness to the same fact in the late Mr. 
Roscoe, the elegant, talented author of the 
Lives of Lorenzo de Medici and of Leo the 
Tenth. Mr. Roscoe was the son of an exten- 
sive potato grower, near Liverpool. In the 
cultivation of that and other farm produce, he 
had been an active labourer; and he who thus 
had enjoyed the delights that spring from lite- 
rary pursuits, and from the cultivation of the 
soil, has left this recorded opinion, "If I was 
asked whom I consider to be the happiest of 
the human race, I should answer, those who 
cultivate the earth by their own hands." 

We have but little information to guide ixs 
as to the country in which man first cultivated 
the soil; nor of that in which he first settled 
after the deluge. Thus much, however, is cer- 
tain, that we have the earliest authentic ac- 
count of the state of agriculture as it existed 
among the Egyptians and their bond-servants, 
the Israelites. From the former, probably, the 
Greeks were descended. The Romans, at a 



later period, were a colony from Greece ; and 
from the Romans the other countries of Europe 
derived their earliest marked improvement ia 
the arts. 

Our brief history of the progress of agricul- 
ture, then, will be divided into, 1. The agricul- 
ture of the Egyptians and other eastern 
nations; 2. The agriculture of the Greeks; 
3. The agriculture of the Romans ; 4. The 
agriculture of the Britons, including a cursoiy 
notice of its present state among the chief 
nations of Europe. 

I. The AenicuLTunr, of the Egtptia?js, 
Israelites, and OTUEn earlt Easterx 
Nations. 

Every family of these primitive ixtiois had 
its appointed district for pasturage, if it pur- 
sued a pastoral life ; or its allotted enclosure, 
if it was occupied by tilling the earth. There 
was no distinction in this respect between the 
monarch and his people : each had a certain 
space of land from which he and his family 
were to derive their subsistence. 

The Egyptians, as well as the Israelites, 
were flock-masters. The latter were particu- 
larly so; and, as Joseph's brethren said to 
Pharaoh, "their trade was about cattle from 
their youth." {Gen. xlvi. 34.) When, there- 
fore, they came into Egypt, they desired the 
low-lying land of Goshen, as producing the 
most perennial of pasture. {Gen. xlvii. 4.) It 
is true that the same authority says, "Every 
shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyp- 
tians;" but this was because, about a century 
before the arrival of Joseph among them, a 
tribe of Cushite shepherds from Arabia had 
conquered their nation, and held them in sla- 
very; till, after a sanguinarj- contest of thirty 
years, they regained their liberty about twenty- 
seven years before Joseph was promoted by 
Pharaoh. That the Egyptians were flock- 
masters is certain, from many parts of the 
Scriptures. Thus, when Pharaoh gave per- 
mission to the Israelites to dwell in Goshen, 
he added, as he spoke to Joseph, "And if thou 
knowest any men of activity among them, then 
make them rulers over my cattle" {Gen. xlvii. 
6.) ; and when the murrain came into Egypt, 
it was upon their horses, asses, camels, oxen, 
and sheep. {Exod. ix. 3.) 

The attention and care necessary to be paid 
to their domestic animals were evidently well, 
known and attended to ; for when they pro 
posed to settle in a land, their first thought 
was to build "sheepfolds ibr their cattle." 
{Numb, xxxii. 16.) They had stalls for their 
oxen {Bab. iii. 17), and for all their beasts 
Thus King Hezekiah is said to have made 
" stalls for all manner of beasts, and cotes for 
flocks; moreover, he provided him possessions 
of flocks and herds in abundance" (2 Chron 
xxxii. 28) ; and that this abundance exceeded 
the possessions of the greatest of our moderi. 
flock-masters, we may readily acknowledge, 
when we read that " Mesha, king of Moab, was 
a sheep-master, and rendered unto the king of 
Israel 100,000 lambs, and 100,000 rams, with 
the wool." (2 Kings, iii. 4.) 

They prepared the provender for their 
horses and asses of chaff, or cut strav. and 

33 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



barley. (Judges, xix. 21 ; 1 Kings, iv. 28.) 
Our translation does not explicitly state this, 
but it is clear in the Hebrew original. (Dr. 
KennicoWs xxivth Codex; Harmer's Observa- 
tions, i. 423.) It is also certain, from the He- 
brew original, that they tied up calves and 
bullocks for the purpose of fattening them 
(Jerem. xlvi. 21 ; Amos, vi. 4, &c., Parhhunt's 
Hebrew Lexicon, 673) ; and that they were ac- 
quainted with the arts of the dairy. " Surely 
the churning of milk," says Solomon, " bring- 
cth forth butter" (Fruv. xxx. 31) ; and Samuel 
speaks of the " cheese of kine." (2 Savi. xxvii. 
29.) The chief vegetable products cultivated 
by these eastern nations were, wheat, barley, 
beans, lentils, rye, the olive, and the vine. 
(Exod. ix. 31; Levit. xix. 10; 2 Sam. xvii. 
28, &c.) 

The scanty notices which we have of their 
tillage, give us no reason to doubt that they 
were skilful husbandmen. The name for till- 
age (Obed) emphatically expresses their idea 
of it ; for it literally means to serve the ground. 
(Parkhurst, 508.) And that the cares and at- 
tention necessary were well sustained, is evi- 
denced by the fact, that David, for his extensive 
estate, had an overseer for the storehouses in 
the fields ; another over the tillage of the 
ground ; a third over the vineyards ; a fourth 
over the olive trees ; two to superintend his 
herds ; a seventh over his camels ; an eighth 
to superintend his flocks; and a ninth to attend 
similarly to the asses. (1 Chron. xxvii. 25 — 
31.) 

Of their ploughing, we know that they turned 
up the soil in ridges, similarly to our own 
practice ; for the Hebrew name of a husband- 
man signifies a man who does so. (Parkhurst, 
93.) That they ploughed with two beasts of the 
same species attached abreast to the plough. 
(Deuf.xxn.lO.) That the yoke, or collar was fast- 
ened to the neck of the animal ; and that the 
plough, in its mode of drawing the furrows, re- 
sembled our own ; for we read of their sharp- 
ening the coulter and the ploughshare. (1 .Saw. 
xiii. 20, &c.) Ploughing was an operation 
that they were aware might be beneficially 
performed at all seasons ; for Solomon men- 
tions it as a symptom of a sluggard, that he 
will not plough in the winter (Prov. xx. 4); and 
that too much care could not be devoted to it, 
they expressed, by deriving their name for 
ploughing from a Hebrew root, which signifies 
silent thought and attention. (Parkhurst, 244.) 

Their sowing was broadcast, from a basket 
(Amos, xi. 13 ; Psalm cxxvi. 6) ; and they gave 
the land a second superficial ploughing to 
rover the seed. It is true that harrowing is 
mentioned in our translation (Job, xxxix. 10) ; 
but Schultens and other Hebraists agree that 
harrowing was not practised by them. Rus- 
yell, in remarking upon the mode of cultivation 
Tiow practised near Aleppo, says, " No harrow 
is used, but the ground is ploughed a second 
time after it is sown, to cover the grain." 
(Parkhurst, 720.) 

The after-cultivation apparently was not 
neglected ; they had hoes or mattocks, which 
they employed for extirpating injurious plants. 
" On all hills," says the prophet, " that shall 
bn digged with the mattock, there shall not 
34 



come thither the fear of briers and thorns." 
(Isa. vii. 25.) In those hot climates a plentiful 
supply of moisture was necessary for a health- 
ful vegetation; and the simile of desolation, 
employed by the same prophet, is " a garden 
that hath no water." (Jsa. i. 30.) In Egypt 
they irrigated their lands ; and the water thus 
supplied to them was raised by an hydraulic 
machine, worked by men in the same manner 
as the modern tread-wheel. To this practice 
Moses alludes, when he reminds the Israelites 
of their sowing their seed in Egypt, and water- 
ing it with their feet, a practice still pursued 
in Arabia. (Deut. xi. 10; NIebuhr, Voyage en 
Arabic, i. 121.) 

When the corn was ripe, it was cut with 
either a sickle or a scythe (Jer. I. 16; Joel, iii. 
13), was bound into sheaves (Psalm cxxix. 7; 
Deut. xxiv. 19, &c.), and was conveyed in 
carts (Amns, ii. 13), either immediately to the 
threshing-floor or to the barn. They never 
formed it into stacks as we do. These pas- 
sages in the Scriptures (£."xorf. xxii. 6 ; Judg. 
XV. 5; Job, V. 26) refer exclusively to the 
thraves or shocks in which the sheaves are 
reared as the}' are cut. (Harmers Observ. iv. 
145, &c.) The threshing-floors, as they are 
at the present day, were evidently level plats 
of ground in the open air. (Judg. vi. 37 ; 
2 Sam. xxiv. 18 — 25, &c.) They were so 
placed that the wind might, at the time of the 
operation, remove the chief part of the chaff. 
They, perhaps, had threshing-floors under 
cover, to be used in inclement seasons ; for 
Hosea (ii. 35), speaking of "the summer 
threshing-floors," justifies such surmise. The 
instruments and modes of threshing were va- 
rious. They are all mentioned in these two 
verses of the prophet ; " Fitches are not 
threshed with a threshing instrument, neither 
is a cart-wheel turned upon the cummin, but 
the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the 
cummin with a rod. Bread-corn is bruised 
because he will not ever be threshing it, nor 
break it with the Avheel of his cart, nor bruise 
it with his horsemen." (Isaiah, xxviii. 27, 28.) 
When the seed was threshed by horses, they 
were ridden by men ; and when by cattle, al- 
though forbidden to be muzzled (Deut. xxv. 4), 
yet they were evidently taught to perform the 
labour. (Hosea, x. 11.) The "instrument" 
was a kind of sledge made of thick boards, 
and furnished underneath with teeth of iron. 
(Isaiah, xli. 15; Parkhurst, 242, 412.) The 
revolving wheels of a cart, and the various 
sized poles employed for the same purpose, 
need no further comment. To complete the 
dressing of the corn, it was passed through a 
sieve (Amos, ix. 9), and thrown up against the 
wind by means of a shovel. The fan was, 
and is still, unknown to the eastern husband- 
men ; and where that word is employed in our 
translation of the Scriptures, the ori,7inal 
seems to intend either the wind or the shovel. 
(Isaiah, xxx. 24; Jer. xv. 7; Parkhurst, 183, 
689.) 

Of their knowledge of manures we know 
little. Wood was so scarce that they con- 
sumed the dung of their animals for fuel. 
(Parkhurst, 764.) Perhaps it was this defi- 
ciency of carbouaceous matters for their lands 






AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



that makes an atteniion to fallowing so strictly 
enjoined. (LeviL xix. 23 ; xxv. 3; Hosea, x. 12, 
&c.) 

The lanaed estates were large, both of the 
kings and of some of their subjects; for we read 
that Uzziah, king of Judah, " had much both in 
the low country and in the plains ; husband- 
men also, and vine-dressers in the moun- 
tains and in Carmel, for he loved husbandry" 
(2 Chron. xxvi. 10) ; that Elijah found Eiisha 
with twelve yoke of oxen at plough, himself 
being with the twelfth yoke (1 Kings, xix. 19) ; 
and that Job, the greatest man of the east, had 
14,000 sheep, 6000 camels, 1000 yoke. of oxen, 
and 1000 she-asses. (Job, i. 3 ; xlii. 12.) In 
the time of Isaiah, the accumulation of landed 
property in the hands of a few proprietors was 
so much on the increase, that a curse was ut- 
tered against this engrossment. " Wo unto 
them," says the prophet, " that join house to 
house, that lay field to field, till there be no 
place, that they may be placed alone in the 
midst of the earth." (Isaiah, v. 8.) 

II. The Acriculture of the Greeks. 




1. Ancient implement from a tombstone at Athens. 
2. The Greek plough. 3. The spade. 4 and 5. Hoes. 

Revelation has taught us to offer up our 
prayers and thanksgivings for all benefits to 
the one omni-beneficent Creator and provider 
of the universe. The less enlightened ancients, 
whose religion was mythological, equally con- 
vinced with ourselves of the existence of some 
divine first cause and providence, like us of- 
fered up their votive petitions and hymns of 
praise, though the objects of their \vorship 
were as many as the benefits or the evils to 
which man is subject. 

Agriculture Avas too important and too bene- 
ficial an art not to demand, and the Greeks and 
Romans were nations too polished and dis- 
cerning not to afford to it, a very plentiful se- 
ries of presiding deities. They attributed to 
Ceres — as their progenitors, the Egyptians, did 
to Isis — the invention of the arts of tilling the 
soil. Ceres is said to have imparted these to 
Triptolemvis, of Eleusis, and to have sent him 
as her missionary round the world to teach 
mankind the best modes of ploughing, sowing, 
and reaping. In gratitude for this, the Greeks, 
about 1356 years before the Christian era, es- 
tablished, in honour of Ceres, the Eleusinian 
mysteries, by far the most celebrated and en- 
during of all their religious ceremonies ; for 
they were not established at Rome till the close 
of the fourth century. Superstition is a pro- 
lific weakness ; and, consequently, by degrees, 
ever}' operation of agriculture, and every pe- 
riod of the growth of crops, obtained its pre- 
siding and tutelary deity. The goddess. Terra, 
wa's the guardian of the soil ; Stercutius pre- 



sided over the manures ; Volutia guarded the 
crops whilst evolving their leaves ; Flora re- 
ceived the still more watchful duty of shelter- 
ing their blossom ; they passed to the guardian- 
ship of Ladantia when swelling with milky 
juices; liubigo protected them from blight; 
and they successively became the care of Hos- 
tilina, as they shot into ears; of Matura as 
they ripened ; and of Tutelina when they were 
reaped. Such creations of polytheism are fa- 
bles ; but they are errors that should even now 
give rise to feelings of gratification rather than 
of contempt. They must please by their ele- 
gance ; and much more when we reflect that it 
is the concurrent testimony of anterior nations, 
through thousands of years, that they detected 
and acknowledged a Great First Cause. 

Unlike the arts of luxury. Agriculture has 
never been subject to any retrograde revolu- 
tions ; being an occupation necessary for the 
existence of mankind in any degree of com- 
fort, it has always continued to receive their 
first attention ; and no succeeding age has been 
more imperfect, but in general more expert, in 
the art than that Avhicli has preceded it. The 
Greeks are not an exception to this rule ; for 
their agriculture appears to have been much 
the same in the earliest brief notices we have 
of them, as it was with the nation of which 
they were an offset. The early Grecians, like 
all new nations, were divided into but two 
classes ; landed proprietors, and Helots, or 
slaves ; and the estates of the former were 
little larger than were sufficient to supply their 
respective households with necessaries. We 
read of princes among them ; and as we dwell 
upon the splendid details of the Trojan war, 
associate with such titles, unreflectingly, all 
the pageantry and luxury of modern potentates, 
that are distinguished by similar titles. But 
in this we are decidedly wrong ; for there was 
probably not a leader of the Greeks who did 
not, like the father of Ulysses, assist with his 
own hands in the farming operations. {Ho- 
mer's Odyss. 1. xxiv.) Hesiod is the earliest 
writer who gives us any detail of the Grecian 
agriculture. He appears to have been the 
contemporary of Homer ; and, in that case, to 
have flourished about nine centuries before 
the Christian era. His practical statements, 
however, are very meager ; we have, therefore, 
preferred taking Xenophon's (Economics as our 
text, and introducing the statements of other 
authors, as they may occur, to supply deficien- 
cies or to afford illustrations. 

Xenophon died at the age of ninety, 359 
years before the birth of Christ. The follow- 
ing narrative of the Greek agriculture is from 
his " Essay," if not otherwise specified. 

In Xenophon's time the landed proprietor 
no longer laboured upon his farm, but had a 
steward as a general superintendant, and nu- 
merous labourers, yet he always advises the 
master to attend to his own affairs. •' My ser- 
vant," he says, " leads my horse into the fields, 
and I walk thither for the sake of exercise in 
a purer air ; and when arrived where my work- 
men are planting trees, tilling the ground, and 
the like, I observe how every ining is per- 
formed, and study whether any of these opera- 
tions may be improved." After his ride, hLs 

3ii 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



servant took his horse, and led him home, 
" taking with him," he adds, " to my house, 
such things as are wanted, and I walk home, 
wash my hands, and dine off whatever is pre- 
pared for me moderately." "No man," he 
says, " can be a farmer, till he is taught by 
experience; observation and instruction may 
do much, but practice teaches many particu- 
lars which no master would ever have thought 
to remark upon." " Before we commence the 
cultivation of the soil," he observes, that, "we 
should notice what crops flourish best upon it; 
and we may even learn from the weeds it pro- 
duces, what it will best support." 

" Fallowing, or frequent ploughing in spring 
or summer," he observes, " is of great advan- 
tage ;" and Hesiod advises the farmer ( Works 
and Days, 50) always to be provided with a 
spare plough, that no accident may interrupt 
the operation. The same author directs the 
ploughman to be very careful in his work. 
" Let him," he says, " attend to his employment, 
and trace the furrows carefully in straight 
lines, not looking around him, having his mind 
intent upon what he is doing." Ibid. 441 — 443. 

Theophrastus evidently thought that the soil 
could not be ploughed and stirred about too 
much, or unseasonably ; for the object is to 
let the earth feel the cold of winter and the 
sun of summer, to invert the soil, and render 
it free, light, and clear of all weeds, so that it 
can most easily afford nourishment. (De Cau- 
sis Plant, lib. iii. cap. 2, 6.) 

Xenophon recommends green plants to be 
ploughed in, and even crops to be raised for 
the purpose ; " for such," he says, " enrich the 
soil as much as dung." He also recommends 
earth that has been long under water to be put 
upon land to enrich it, upon a scientific prin- 
ciple which we shall explain under Irriga- 
tion. Theophrastus, Avho flourished in the 
fourth century b, c, is still more particular upon 
the subject of manures. He states his convic- 
tion that a proper mixture of soils, as clay 
with sand, and the contrary, would produce 
crops as luxuriant as could be effected by the 
agency of manures. He describes the pro- 
perties that render dungs beneficial to vegeta- 
tion, and dwells upon composts. {Hist, of 
Plants, a. cap. 8.) Xenophon recommends the 
stubble at reaping time to be left long, if the 
straw is abundant ; " and this, if burned, will 
enrich the soil very much, or it may be cut and 
mixed with dung." " The time of sowing," 
says Xenophon, "must be regulated by the 
season ; and it is best to allow seed enough." 

Weeds were carefully eradicated from among 
their crops ; " for, besides the hindrance they 
are to corn, or other profitable plants, they 
keep the ground from receiving the benefit of a 
free exposure to the sun and air." Homer 
describes Laertes as hoeinir, when found by his 
»on Ulysses. {Odyss. xxiv. 226.) 

Water-courses and ditches were made to drain 
away " the wet which is apt to do great damage 
xo corn." 

Homer describes the mode of threshing corn 
by the trampling of oxen {Iliad, xx. lin. 495, 
&c.)- and to get the grain clear from the 
straw, Xenophon observes, " the men who have 
the care of the work take care to shake up the 
3fi 



straw as they see occasion, flinging into the 
way of the cattle's feet such corn as they ob- 
serve to remain in the straw." From Theo- 
phrastus and Xenophon combined, we can also 
very particularly make out that the Greeks 
separated the grain from the chaff by throwing 
it with a shovel against the wind. 

III. TUK AoRICULTURE OF THE Ro7«ANS. 




1, 2, 3, Ploughs used by the Romans in different ages 
4. The yoke for fixing the cattle. 5. The reaping hook 
6. The scythe. 

It is certain, that at a very early age Italy 
received colonies from the Pelasgi and Arca- 
dians ; and that, consequently, with them the 
arts of Greece were introduced ; and we may 
conclude that there was then a similarity in 
the practice of agriculture in the two coun^ 
tries. 

About 753 years before thenativity of Christ, 
Romulus founded the city of Rome, whose in- 
habitants were destined to be the conquerors 
and the improvers of Europe. The Roman 
eagle was triumphant in Egypt, Persia, Greece, 
Carthage, and Macedon ; and the warriors who 
bore it on to victory, in those and other coun- 
tries, being all possessors of land of a larger 
or smaller extent, naturally introduced, upon 
their return, any superior vegetable, or im- 
proved mode of culture, which they observed 
in those highly civilized seats of their victories. 

Thus the arts of Rome arrived at a degree 
of superiority that was the result of the accu' 
mulated improvements of other nations ; an'l. 



1 

fl 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



finally, when Rome became in turn the con- 
quered, the victors became acquainted with 
this accumulated knowledge, and diffused it 
over the other parts of Europe. 

Of the agriculture of the early Romans we 
know but little ; but of its state during the 
period of their greatest prosperity and improve- 
ment, we fortunately have very full informa- 
tion. Cato in the second, and Varro in the 
first centiu"y before the Christian era, Virgil, 
at the period of that event, Columella and 
Pliny but few years subsequently, and Palla- 
dius in the second or fourth century, each 
wrote a work upon agriculture, which, with 
the exception of that by Columella, have come 
down to us entire. 

From these various authorities we derive 
full information ; and we are convinced that 
many of our readers will be surprised at the 
correct knowledge of the arts of cultivation 
possessed by that great nation. 

1. Size (if the Rnmmi Farms. — When Romu- 
lus first partitioned the lands of the infant state 
among lus followers, he assigned to no one 
more than he could cultivate. This was a 
space of only two acres. {Varro, i. 10; Pliny, 
xvii. 11.) After the kings were expelled, seven 
acres were allotted to each citizen. (Pliny, 
xviii. 3.) Cincinnatus, Curius Dentatus, Fa- 
bricius, Regulus, and others, distinguished as 
the most deserving of the Romans, had no 
'arger estates than this. Cincinnatus, accord- 
ing to some authorities, possessed only four 
acres. {Ibid.,- Columella, i. 3, &c.) On these 
limited spaces they dwelt, and cultivated them 
with their own hands. It was from the plough 
that Cincinnatus was summoned to be dictator 
{Livy, iii. 26) ; and the Samnian ambassadors 
found Curius Dentatus cooking his own repast 
of vegetables in an earthen vessel. {Plutarch, 
in vita Cato. Cens.) 

Some of the noblest families in Rome derived 
their patronymic names from ancestors desig- 
nated after some vegetable, in the cultivation 
of which they excelled, as in the examples of 
the Fahii, Pisones, Lentuli, Cicerones, and the 
like. {Pliny, xviii. 1.) In those days, "when 
they praised a good man, they called him an 
agriculturist and a good husbandman : he was 
thought to be very greatly honoured who was 
thus praised." {Cato, in Praef.) As the limits 
of the empire extended, and its wealth increas- 
ed, the estates of the Roman proprietors became 
very greatly enlarged; and, as we shall see 
more particularly mentioned in our historical 
notices of gardening, attained to a value of 
80,000/. {Plutarch in vit. Marias et Lucullus.) 
Such extensive proprietors let portions of their 
estates to other citizens, who, if they paid for 
them a certain rent, like our modern tenants, 
were called Coloni {Columella, i. 7; Pliny, 
Epist. X. 24) and Politores, or Partiarii, if they 
shared the produce in stated proportions with 
the proprietor. {Pliny, Episl. vii. 30, and ix. 
37, &c.) Leases were occasionally granted, 
which appear to have been of longer duration 
than five years. {Ibid. ix. 37.) 

2. Distinction of Soils. — Soils were charac- 
terized by six different qualities, and were 
described as rich or poor, free or stiff, wet or 
dry. {Colum. ii. 2.) 



The best soil they thought had a blackish 
colour, was glutinous when wet, and friable 
when dry ; exhaled an agreeable smell when 
ploughed, imbibed water readily, retaining a 
sufliciency, and discharging what was super- 
fluous ; not injurious to the plough irons by 
causing a salt rust; frequented b)-- crows and 
rooks at the time of ploughing ; and, when at 
rest, speedily covered with a rich turf. ( Virg. 
Georg. ii. 203, 217, 238, 248 ; Pliny, xvii. .'5.) 

Vines required a light soil, and corn a heavy, 
deep, and rich one. {Virg. Georg. ii. 29 ; Cato, 
vi.) 

3. Manures. — The dung of animals was par- 
ticularly esteemed by the Romans for enrich- 
ing their soil. " Study," says Cato, " to have 
a large dunghill." {Cato, v.) They assidu- 
ously collected it and stored it in covered pits, 
so as to check the escape of the drainage. 
{Colum. i. 6; Pliny, xvii. 9, and xxiv. 19.) 
They sowed pulverized pigeons' dung and the 
like over their crops, and mixed it with the 
surface soil by means of the sarcle or hoe. 
{Colum. i. 16 ; Cato, xxxvi.) They were aware 
of the benefit of mixing together earth of oppo- 
site qualities {Ibid.), and of sowing lupines 
and ploughing them in while green. ( Varro, i. 
23.) They burnt the stubble upon the ground, 
and even collected shrubs and the like for the 
similar purpose of enriching the soil with 
their ashes. {Virg. Georg. i. 84; Pliny, xvii 
6, 25.) 

Pliny also mentions that lime was employed 
as a fertilizer in Gaul, and marl in the same 
country and Britain ; but we can only surmise 
hence that they were also probably employed 
by the Romans. {Pliny, xvii. 8, and xvii. 5.) 

4. Draining. — The superfluous water of soils 
was carried off by means both of open and 
covered drains. {Colum. ii. 2, 8 ; Pliny, xvii. 
c. ; Virg. Georg. i. 109.) Cato is very particu- 
lar in his directions for making them. {Cato, 
xliii. clx.) 

5. Crops. — They cultivated wheat, spelt, 
barley, oats, flax, beans, pease, lupines, kidney- 
beans, lentils, tares, sesame, turnips, vines, 
olives, willows, and the like. To cite the au- 
thorities who mention each of these would be 
needless, for they are noticed in all the Roman 
writers upon agriculture. Of the relative im- 
portance or proportion in which the crops 
were profitable to the Romans, we have this 
judgment of Cato : — "If 3^ou can buy 100 acres 
of land in a very good situation, the vineyard 
is the first object if it yields much wine : in 
the second place, a well-watered garden ; in 
the third, a willow plantation ; in the fourth, 
an olive ground; in the fifth, a meadow; in 
the sixth, corn ground ; in the seventh, an 
underwood, a plantation yielding stout poles 
for training the vine ; and in the ninth, a wood 
where mast grows." {Cato, i.) 

They made hay, and the process appears to 
have been the same as in modern timt.s. After 
being cut it was turned with forks, piled into 
conical heaps, and finally into stacks or under 
cover. But the mowing was imperfectly per- 
formed ; for, as soon as the hay was removed 
from the field, the mowers had to go over it 
again. {Farro; Colum. ii. 22.) 

6. Implements. — The plough consisted of s" 

D 37 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



veral parts : the beam to which the yoke of the 
oxen was fastened ; the tail or handle termi- 
nated in a cross bar, with which the ploughman 
guided the instrument; it had a ploughshare, 
tlie share-beam to which it was fixed, and two 
mould-boards, a coulter, and a plough-staiT for 
cleaning the ploughshare. (Quid. Pont. i. 8, 
57 ; Virg. G. i. 170 ; Plmy, xvii. 18, 19.) Some 
of their ploughs had wheels, and some were 
without coulters and earth-boards. Besides 
this, they had spades, rakes, hoes, with plain 
and with forked blades, harrows, mattocks, 
and similar implements. 

7. Operations. — Ploughing was usually per- 
formed by two oxen, though three were some- 
times employed. They were yoked abreast, 
and trained when young to the employment. 
(Cicero, in Verr. iii. 21 ; Col. vi. 2, 10 ; Pliny, 
xviii. 18 ; Virg. G. iii. 163, &c.) They wei'e 
usually yoked by the neck, but sometimes by 
the horns. {Pliny, viii. 45; Colum. ii. 2.) 
There was but one man to a plough, which he 
guided, and managed the oxen with a goad. 
(Pliny, Epid. viii. 17.) 

They sometimes ploughed in ridges, and 
sometimes not. They did not take a circuit 
when they came to the end of the field, as is 
our practice, but returned close to the furrow. 
They were very particular in drawing straight 
and equal sized furrows. ( Pliny, xviii. 19,s.49.) 

They seem to have ploughed three times al- 
ways before they sowed ( Varro, i. 29) ; and to 
stiff soils even as many as nine ploughingswere 
given. C Virg. G. i. 47 ; Pliny, xviii. 20 ; Pliny, 
Epist. V. 6.) The furrows in the first plough- 
ing were usually nine inches deep. When the 
soil was only stirred about three inches, it was 
called scarification. (Pliny, xviii. 17 — 19.) 
They usually fallowed their land every other 
year. (Virg. G. i. 71.) 

Sowing was performed by hand, from a bas- 
ket ; and that it might be performed regularly, 
the hand moved with the steps. (Colum. ii. 9 ; 
Pliny, xviii. 24.) The seed was either scat- 
tered upon the land and covered by means of 
rakes and harrows, or more commonly by sow- 
ing it upon a plain surface, and covering by a 
shallow ploughing, which caused it to come up 
in rows, and facilitated the operation of hoeing. 
(Pliny, xviii. 20.) They were particular as to 
the time of sowing, the choice of seeds, and 
the quantity sown. ( Varro, i. 44 ; Pliny, xviii. 
24, s. 55 ; Virg. G. i. 193, &c.) 

Weeding was performed by hoes, hooks, and 
by hand. 

In dry seasons the crops were watered. 
(Virg. G. i. 106.) If they appeared too luxu- 
riant they were fed off. (Ibid. 193.) 

Reaping and mowing were the usual modes 
of cutting down the corn crops, but the 
oars were sometimes taken off by a toothed 
machine, called botilium, which «eems to have 
been a wheeled cart, pushed by oxen through 
the corn, and catching the ears of coi^n between 
a row of teeth fixed to it, upon the principle of 
the modern daisy rake. In Gaul, the corn was 
cut down by a machine drawn by two horses. 
{Viarro, i. 50; Virg. G. i. 317 ; Colum. ii. 21 ; 
Pliny, xviii. 30.) They do not seem to have 
yer bound their corn into sheaves. (Colum. 

10 



Threshing was performed by the trampling 
of oxen and horses, by flails, and by means of 
sledges drawn over the corn. (Pliny, xvii. 30 ; 
Colum. i. 6 ; Virg. G. iii. 132 ; Tibullus, i. 5, 
22 ; Varro, i. 52.) The threshing-floor was 
circular, placed near the house, on high 
ground, and exposed on all sides to the winds. 
It was highest in the centre, and paved with 
stones, or more usually with clay, mixed with 
the lees of the oil, and very carefully consoli- 
dated. (Colum. i. 6; Varro, i. 2; Virg. G. i, 
178 ; Cato, xci. and cxxix.) 

Dressing was performed by means of aseive 
or van, and by a shovel, with which it was 
thrown up and exposed to the wind. ( Varro, 
i. 52 ; Colum. ii. 21.) It was finally stowed in 
granaries or in pits, where it would keep fifty 
years. (Pliny, xviii. 30 ; Varro, i. 57.) 

8. Animals. — Oxen, horses, asses, mules, 
sheep, goats, swine, hens, pigeons, pea-fowls, 
pheasants, geese, ducks, swans, guinea-fowls, 
and bees, are mentioned by various authors as 
products of the Roman farms. Directions for 
breeding many of these are given in the third 
and fourth books of the Georgics. 

Such is an outline of the Roman agriculture ; 
and in it our readers will doubtless find suffi- 
cient evidence to warrant them, in agreeing 
with us, that it was but little different from that 
pursued by the present farmers of England. 
We are superior to them in our implements, 
and consequently in the facility of performing 
the operation of tillage ; we perhaps have su- 
perior varieties of corn, but we most excel 
them in our rotation of crops, and in the ma- 
nagement of stock. We differ from them, also, 
in not practising the superstitious rites and 
sacrifices which accompanied almost all their 
operations (see Cato, cxxxiv. c.) ; but of the 
fundamental practices of agriculture, they were 
as fully aware as ourselves. No modern wri- 
ter could lay down more correct and compre- 
hensive axioms than Cato did in the following 
words ; and whoever strictly obeys them will 
never be ranked among the ignorant of the 
art. " What is good tillage V says this oldest 
of the Roman teachers of agriculture ; " to 
plough. What is the second? to plough. The 
third is to manure. The other part of tillage 
is to sow plentifully, to choose your seed cau- 
tiously, and to remove as many weeds as pos- 
sible in the season." ( Cato Ixi.) 

Such is an epitome of their agricultural 
knowledge ; a knowledge which has since in- 
creased, and can only in future be added to by 
attending to this advice of another of their 
writers. " Nature," he observes, " has shown 
to us two paths which lead to a knowledge of 
agriculture — experience and imitation. Pre- 
ceding husbandmen, by makmg experiments, 
have established many maxims ; their poste- 
rity generally imitate them ; but we ought not 
only to imitate others, but make experiments, 
not directed by chance, but by reason." 
(Varro, \. 18.) 

IV. The AGnicuLTUiiE of ExGLAifD. 

The historian of English agriculture has not 
the least trace of authority from which he can 
obtain information of its state beyond the pe 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



riod when the Romans invaded this island, and 
the annals of even that period are meager and 
unsatisfactory. 

When Coesar arrived in England, about 55 
B. c, he describes the Cantii, or inhabitants of 
Kent, and the Belga;, inhabiting the modern 
counties of Somerset, Wilts, and Hants, as 
much more advanced than the rest of the peo- 
ple in the habits of civilized life. They culti- 
vated the soil ; employed marl as manure ; 
stored their corn unthreshed, and freed it from 
the chaff and bran only as their daily demands 
required. The interior inhabitants lived chiefly 
upon milk and fleuh, being fed and clothed by 
the produce of their herds. "The country," 
adds Cossar, " is well-peopled, and abounds in 
buildings resembling these of the Gauls, and 
they have a great abundance of cattle. They 
are not allowed to eat either the hen, the goose, 
or the hare, yet they take pleasure in breeding 
them." (Cass. v. c. 10 ; Strabo, iv. 305 ; Diodor. 
Sic. V. 301 ; Pliny, xvii. 4.) Cicero, in one of 
his letters, says, " There is not a scruple of 
money in the island ; nor any hopes of booty, 
but in slaves; (Lib. iv. Ep. 17) ; a description, 
that the industry and intelligence of succeed- 
ing ages has rendered singularly inapplicable. 
The first steps in that improvement were owing 
to the Romans themselves. Rutilius has ele- 
gantly and correctly said, that Rome filled the 
world with her legislative triumphs, and caused 
all to live in one common union, blending dis- 
cordant nations into one country, and, by im- 
parting a companionship in her own acquire- 
ments and laws, formed one great city of the 
world. 

Agricola was the chief instrument in impart- 
ing to the Britons the improved arts and civi- 
lization of the Romans. " To wean them from 
their savage habits, Agricola held forth the 
baits of pleasure, encouraging the natives, as 
well by public assistance as by warm exhorta- 
tions, to build temples, courts of justice, and 
commodious dwelling-houses. He bestowed 
encomiums on such as cheerfully obeyed; the 
slow and uncomplying were branded with re- 
proach ; and thus a spirit of emulation diffused 
itself, operating like a sense of duty. To es- 
tablish a plan of education, and give the sons 
of the leading chiefs a tincture of letters, was 
part of his policy. By way of encouragement 
he praised their talents, and already saw them, 
by the force of their natural genius, rising su- 
perior to the attainments of the Gauls. The 
consequence was, that they who had always 
disdained the Roman language began to culti- 
vate its beauties. The Roman apparel was 
seen without prejudice, and the toga became a 
fashionable part of dress. By degrees, the 
charms of vice gained admission to their 
hearts ; baths, porticos, and elegant banquets 
grew into vogue ; and the new manners, which 
in fact served only to sweeten slavery, were by 
the unsuspecting Britons called the arts of 
polished humanity." (Tacitus, Agricoln, xxi.) 
Thus eloquently does Tacitus describe the dif- 
fusion of the Roman arts among the early na- 
tives of England ; and that agriculture was 
one of those in which they so rapidly improved, 
is attested by the fact that in the fourth century 
the Emperor Julian, having erected here gra- 



naries in which to store the tributary corn that 
he exacted from the natives, at one time sent a 
fleet of 600 large vessels to convey aw^ay the 
store they contained. Julian himself particu- 
larizes the transaction. " If," says Gibbon. 
" we compute those vessels at only seventy 
tons each, they were capable of exporting 
120,000 quarters ; and the country which could 
bear so large an exportation must have attained 
an improved state of agriculture." (Dec. and 
Fall of Rom. Emp. c. xix.) 

Possessing this improved agriculture, Eng- 
land was successively subdued by the Saxons, 
the Danes, and the Normans ; but as these all 
came to improve their fortunes, and to win the 
comforts of life, agriculture continued to flou- 
rish: her operations were interrupted, her pro» 
ducts destroyed, in whichever direction swept 
the tide of war; but no sooner was peace re- 
stored than the inhabitants, though of varied 
extraction, united their knowledge in the pur- 
suit of this art, on which not only their com- 
fort, but their existence chiefly depended. A 
similar summary observation applies to all 
succeeding ages ; and our agriculture has con- 
tinued slowly to improve in spite of every ob- 
stacle that has occasionally delayed, or that 
has permanently retarded its advance. 

1. Tenures — Size of Estates. — The native 
Britons, it is very certain, appropriated but 
small portions of the land for raising corn, or 
other cultivated vegetables, and the rest of the 
country was left entirely open, affording a 
common pasturage for their cattle, and pan- 
nage for their swine. Under the Roman 
government, we have seen that the extent of 
cultivated ground must have considerably in- 
creased, yet the oldest writers agree, that by 
far the greatest proportion of the country was 
occupied by heaths, woods, and other unre- 
claimed wastes. 

When the Saxons established themselves in 
the island, an almost total revolution in the 
proprietorship of the lands must have occur- 
red. The conquest was only accomplished 
after a bloody struggle ; and what was won 
by the sword was considered to possess an 
equitable title, that the sword alone could dis- 
turb. In those days it was considered that the 
lands of a country all belonged to the king ; 
and on this principle the Saxon monarchs 
gave to their followers whatever districts they 
pleased, as rewards for the assistance afforded 
in the conquest, reserving to themselves cer- 
tain portions, and imposing certain burdens 
upon each estate granted. (Cuke's Littleton, 1. 
58. 2 ; Blackstone' s Coium. 45, &c.) This Avas 
only a continuance of that feudal system that 
prevailed upon the Continent. 

As this feudal system declined, and was 
finally extinguished in the twelfth year ( f 
Charles II., so proportionally did the landed 
interest increase in prosperity. Freed from 
the burden of furnishing a soldier and hi' 
armour for every certain number of acrf.'., 
and all restrictions as to lands changing hands 
being removed, and ihc niDnerous impositions 
being got rid off, with which the lords op- 
pressed their sub-infcudatories, it soon becamt 
a marketable species of propeity; and, a^ 
money and racchandiM increased, and the 

39 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



proprietor lived less upon his estate, it soon 
became the most eligible plan for both landlord 
and tenant, that the whole rent should be paid 
in money. 

Of the size of these early farms we have no 
precise information ; but, from the laws of 
Ina we may perhaps conclude that a hide of 
land, equal to about 100 or 120 acres, was the 
customary size ; for, in speaking of the pro- 
duce to be given to the lord for ten hides, the 
law speaks of the smallest division of each 
county of which it was particularly cognisant; 
namely, of ten families, or a tithing, as they 
were collectively called. Again, Bade ex- 
pressly calls a hide of land fumiUa, and says 
it was sufficient to support a family. It was 
otherwise called mansum, or mancrium, and 
was considered to be so much as one could 
cultivate in a year. 

War succeeded war, and chivalry and the 
chase were the engrossing occupations of the 
landed proprietors during the whole of the 
middle ages; yet amid all these convulsions, 
and all this neglect, agriculture continued to 
obtain a similar degree of attention, and its 
practitioners to occupy a similarly humble, 
yet more independent station of life. Bishop 
Latimer flourished in the first half of the six- 
teenth century ; and his father was among the 
most respectable yeomen of his time, yet his 
farm evidently did not exceed 100 acres. "My 
father," says Latimer, "was a yeoman, and 
had no lands of his own ; he had only a farm 
of three or four pounds by the year, at the 
utmost; and hereupon he tilled as much as 
kept half a dozen men. He had a walk for 100 
sheep ; and my mother milked thirty kine," 
&c. {Latimer's Sermons, p. 30.) But that this 
class of society was then not very refined, is 
proved by Sir A. Fitzherbert, in his Book of 
Husbandry, declaring, "It is the wife's occupa- 
tion to winnow all manner of corn, to make 
malt, to wash and wring, to make hay, to shear 
corn, and in time of need to help her husband 
to fill the muckwain, or dung-cart ; to drive 
the plough, to load corn, hay, and such other; 
and to go or ride to the market ; to sell butter, 
cheese, milk, eggs, chickens, capons, hens, 
pigs, geese, and all manner of corn." 

This race of farmers, and this extent of 
farm, continued much the same till the closing 
years of the eighteenth century. The wife, 
indeed, had long previously ceased to partici- 
pate in the above-mentioned drudgery, but she 
still attended the dairy, and sold its products 
at market, as her husband still participated in 
the usual labours of his farm ; but in the latter 
half of that century, and thence to the present 
time, a different class of men have engaged in 
the cultivation of the soil. The accumulation 
of wealth from the vast increase and improve- 
ment of manufactures and commerce, the 
diffusion of better information, and the in- 
creased population, have all contributed to this 
cifect. Individuals engage in the pursuit 
whose education and habits require a larger 
income for their indulgence than can be 
tifforded by the profits of a small farm ; and, 
consequently, in districts having the most fer- 
ine soils, farms of from 300 to 500 acres are 
very common ; whilst in less productive dis- 
40 



tricts they extend even to 1000 a.t-r ^000 acres. 
With the present expenditure of rent, tithe, 
taxes, rates, and labour, and the reduced 
prices of agricultural produce, farms, even 
of those extents, cannot yield a profit sufficient 
to support the farmer of refined habits. And 
if the present artificial system of corn laws is 
removed, we do not see any possible result but 
a return to smaller farms, and a more labour- 
ing class of tenants ; for it admits of perfect 
demonstration, that small farms, having that 
manual labour, and that careful tillage which 
small plots obtain, return a more abundant 
produce than those which are too large to be 
so attentively cultivated. 

Enclosure of Land. — It is a rule, founded 
upon general observation, that the most en* 
closed country is always the best cultivated: 
for, as Sir Anthony Fitzherbert observed, in 
the reign of Henry VIII., live stock may be 
better kept, and with less attendance, closes 
be better alternately cropped, and the crops 
better sheltered in inclement seasons, "if an 
acre of land," he concludes, "be worth six- 
pence an acre before it is enclosed." 

We have seen, already, that hedges, ditches, 
and other fences, marked the boundaries of 
the early Saxon estates ; and these were cer- 
tainly not adventitious distinctions, for they 
are mentioned in most of the Saxon grants of 
which we are aware, and are strictly regulated 
and protected by law. If a tenant omitted to 
keep his farm enclosed, both in winter and 
summer, and to keep his gate closed, if any; 
damage arose from his hedge being broken 
down, or his gate being open, he was declared 
to be legally punishable. ( Wilkins, Leges Sax. 
21.) If a freeman broke through another's 
hedge he was fined 6s. {Ibid.) 

As woollen manufactures improved, the de- 
mand for broad cloths became excessive, not 
only in England but in the continental na- 
tions; and the consequent consumption of 
wool was so large, and the price was so en- 
hanced, that self-interest dictated to the landed 
proprietors, even in the reign of Henry III., 
that the enclosure of their manorial wastes, on 
which to feed sheep upon their own account, 
or to let out as pasture farms, would be a 
source of extensive emolument. The statutes 
of 20 Hen. 3, 13 EdAV. 1, and others, were con- 
sequently passed for sanctioning and regu- 
lating the practice. The demand for woollens 
continued, and became so great, that rapidity 
of manufacture was the chief consideration, 
" Yet as ill as they be made," says King Ed- 
ward VI., in his private journal, " the Flemings 
do at this time desire them wonderfully." The 
consequences are depicted by the same genuine 
authority. " The artificer will leave the town, 
and for his mere pastime will live in the coun- 
try ; yea, more than that, will be a justice of the 
peace, and will scorn to have it denied him, so 
lordly be they now-a-days ; for they are not con- 
tent with 2000 sheep, but they must have 20,000, 
or else they think themselves not well. They 
must have twenty miles square their own land, 
or full of their farms : four or five crafts to live 
by is too little. Such hell-hounds be they." 
(Edward the Sixth's Remains, p. 101.) The 
rents of land were consequently enormously 






\ 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



raised, and the corn farmers were ruined. 
" They everywhere,'' says Roger Ascham, " la- 
bour, economize, and consume themselves 
to satisfy their owners. Hence so many 
families dispersed, so many houses ruined, so 
many tables common to every one, taken 
away. Hence the honour and strength of 
England, the noble yeoman rj', are broken up 
and destroyed." {Ascham^s Eplstks, 29.3 — 295.) 
Bishops Story, Latimer, and others, raised 
their voices in their behalf, and hurled their 
invectives from the pulpit upon those who op- 
pressed them. " Let them," said Latimer, in a 
sermon preached before the king, " let them 
have sufficient to maintain them, and to find 
them in necessaries. A plough land must 
have sheep to dung their ground for bearing 
corn ; they must have swine for their food, to 
make their bacon of; their bacon is their veni- 
son, it is their necessary food to feed on, 
which they may not lack; they must have 
other cattle, as horses to draw their plough, 
and for carriage of things to the markets, and 
kine for their milk and cheese, which they 
must live upon, and pay their rents." 

The short-sighted executive of that period 
endeavoured to prevent these enclosures by a 
prohibitory proclamation, as the legislature 
had done by the statutes 4 Hen. 7, c. 16, 19. 
There doubtless was great distress, and always 
will be upon any sudden change in the direc- 
tion of the national industry, and in none more 
extensively than in the return from an agri- 
cultural to a pastoral mode of life. But, as is 
observed by one of the most impartial of our 
historians, " every one has a legal and social 
right of employing his property as he pleases ; 
and how far he will make his use of it com- 
patible with the comforts of others, must be 
always a matter of his private consideration, 
with which no one, without infringing the com- 
mon freedom of all, can ever interfere. That 
no national detriment resulted from this exten- 
sive enclosure — no diminution of the riches, 
food, and prosperity of the country at large, is 
clear to every one Avho surveys the general 
state and progress of England with a compre- 
hensive impartiality." (Turner's History of 
Edward the Sixth, &c.) " The landlord," he 
further observes, " advanced his rent, but the 
farmer also was demanding more for his pro- 
duce." 

The evil of converting arable to pasture 
land cured itself. The increased growth of 
wool in other countries, and the improvement 
of their manufactures, by degrees caused the 
production of it in England to diminish ; and 
as dearths of corn accrued, and the consequent 
enormous increase of its value rendered its 
growth more lucrative, pasture-land gradually 
returned to the dominion of the plough. 

Since that period enclosures have gone on 
with various, but certainly undiminished, de- 
grees of activity. More than 3000 enclosure 
bills were passed in the reign of George III. 
The land so enclosed was, and is, chiefly dedi- 
cated to the growth of corn ; but since the field 
culture of turnips was introduced in the seven- 
teeth, of mangel wurzel in the nineteenth cen- 
tury, and other improvements in agricultural 
practice, every farm is enabled to combine 
6 



the advantages of the stock and tillage hus- 
bandry. 

Implements. — It is very certain that the state 
of any art is intimately connected with that of 
its instruments. If these are imperfect it can- 
not be much advanced ; and this is so univer- 
sally the case, that agriculture, of course, is no 
exception. 




1. Norman plough, with the hatchet carried by the 
ploughman for hreaking the clods. 2. Sowine, as re- 
presented by Striitt. 3. Reaping. 4. Threshing. 5. VVliel- 
tiiig. 6. Beating hemp. 

We find, in the earliest of our national 
records, that the plough, the most important 
implement of husbandmen, was then of a very 
rude construction. In general form it rudely 
resembled the plough now employed, but the 
workmanship was singularly imperfect. This 
is no matter of surprise ; for among the early 
inhabitants of this country there were no arti- 
ficers. The ploughman was also the plough- 
wright. It was a law of the early Britons that 
no one should guide a plough until he could 
make one ; and that the driver should make 
the traces, by which it was drawn, of withs or 
twisted willow, a circumstance which aflbrds 
an interpretation to many corrupt terms at 
present used by farming men to distinguish 
the parts of the cart harness. Thus the womb 
withy has degenerated into ivambtye or wantycf 
wit hen trees into whipping or ivhipple trees ; be- 
sides which we have the tail withes, and some 
others still uncorrupted. (Leges Wallicse, 283 
— 288.) We read, also, that Easterwin, Abbot 
of Wearmouth, not only guided the plough and 
winnowed the corn grown on the abbey lands, 
but also Math his hammer forged the instru- 
ments of husbandry upon the anvil. {Bede, 
Hist. Abb. Wearmoih, 296.) Whether the early 
British or Saxon ploughs had wheels is uncer- 
tain, but those of the Normans certainly had 
such appendages. Pliny says that whtels 
were first applied to ploughs by the GauJs 
d2 41 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



The Britons were forbidden to plough with 
any other animal than the ox ; and they attached 
any requisite number of oxen to the plough. 
The Normans had been accustomed, in their 
light soils, to employ only one, or at most two. 
(Leges Wullicse, 288; Mnnlfaucon's Monumens 
de Monarchie Frangois I. Planche, 47 ; Giraldus 
Cambrensis, c. 17.) 

The gigantic and universal impulse that 
seemed simultaneously to affect the human 
mind in the sixteenth century, tended to the 
improvement of sciences which could not be 
benefitted without agriculture sharing in the 
good. Metallurgy and its subservient arts, and 
applied mathematics, were thus assistant to 
improving the plough. It received the first 
improvement among the Dutch and Flemings 
in the sixteenth century ; and still more so in 
Scotland in the following one. 

The common wooden swing-plough is the 
state to which it was brought in the last-named 
country, in the eighteenth century, and still is 
known in many countries, as the improved 
Scotch plough. The first author of the improved 
form is differently stated. A man of the name 
of Lummis has by one writer this credit as- 
signed to him, though he learned the improve- 
ment in Holland. He obtained a patent for his 
form of construction ; but another ploughman, 
named Pashley, living at Kirkleathem, pirated 
his invention. The son of Lummis established 
a manufactory at Rotherham in Yoi-kshire, 
whence it is sometimes called the Rotherham 
plough ; but in Scotland it was known as the 
Dutch or Patent Plough. On the other hand, 
the Rotherham plough is said to have been 
made at that town in 1720, or ten years before 
Lummis's improvements. The grandmother 
of the Earl Buchan, Lady Stewart of Goodtrees, 
near Edinburgh, is also named as an improver. 
She invented the Rutherglen plough, formerly 
much employed in the west of Scotland. Mr. 
Small, in 1784, and Mr. Bailey, in 1795, pub- 
lished upon the proper mathematical form of 
this implement. In the fourth volume of the 
Transact ionf! of the Highland Society, and in the 
Quarterly Journal of Agriculture for February, 
1829, there are also two valuable Essays upon 
the same subject. In 1811 this plough came 
very generally to be made of cast iron. {Amos's 
Essay on Agricultural Machines, Survey of W. 
Riding of Yorkshire, &c.) 

Wheel ploughs have been commensurately 
improved. The objects to be attended to in the 
formation of a plough, and that is the best 
which attains to them most effectually, are, 
first, that it shall enter and pass through the 
soil with the least possible resistance ; se- 
condly, that the furrow-slice be accurately 
turned over; and, thirdly, that the moving 
power or team shall be placed in the most 
beneficial line of draught. 

Scarifiers and horse hoes are implements 
wnich were unknown till within about a cen- 
tury ago. Hoeing by manual labour had, in 
very early ages, been partially practised ; for 
the earliest writers, we have seen, recom- 
mended particular attention to the cutting 
down and destroying of weeds. But to Jethro 
TuU, is indisputably due the honour of having 
iirst demonstrated the importance of frequent 
A3 



hoeing, not merely to extirpate weeds, but for 
the purpose of pulverizing the soil, by which 
process the gases and moisture of the atmos- 
phere are enabled more freely to penetrate to 
the roots of the crop. The works of Tull ap- 
peared between the years 1731 and 1739. 

Drills. — We noticed, when considering the 
Roman agriculture, that the Romans endea- 
voured to attain the advantages incident to 
row-culture by ploughing in their seeds. A 
rude machine is described in the Transactions 
of the Board of Agriculture, as having been 
used immemorially in India for soAving in 
rows. The first drill for this purpose intro- 
duced into Europe seems to have been the in- 
vention of a German, who made it known to 
the Spanish court in 1647. (Harte's Essays on 
Husbandry.) It was first brought much into 
notice in this country by Tull, in 1731 ; but the 
practice did not come into any thing like ge- 
neral adoption till the commencement of the 
present century. There are now several im- 
proved machines adapted to the sowing of 
corn, beans, and turnips. See Drills. 

Draining, as we have seen, was attended to 
by the Romans, and it was unquestionably 
practised in Britain during the middle ages ; 
for where lands were too retentive of moisture, 
or abounded in springs, the obvious remedy 
was to remove it by drains. This, however, 
and far simpler operations, are seldom per- 
formed in the most correct mode without a 
knowledge of the sciences connected with 
their success. Draining was never correctly 
understood till the scientific observations of 
Dr. Anderson, and the practical details of Mr. 
Elkington, about the year 1761, placed it upon 
a more enlightened and correct system. The 
important benefits that have arisen from the 
adoption of this system are very extensive ; 
and the acknowledgment of 1000/., voted to 
Mr. Elkington, was a just testimony that the 
landed interest appreciated the boon, and that 
the benefiter of this country is duly estimated 
by its legislature. 

There are numerous kinds of drain ploughs. 
The ttiole plough was invented by a Mr. Adam 
Scott, and improved by a Mr. Lumley of 
Gloucestershire during the present century. 

The past and the present century have also 
given birth to machines totally unknown in 
previous ages ; of these are rollers, machines 
for haymaking, reaping, threshing, and dress- 
ing ; and if to these be added the immense im- 
provement that has taken place in the form 
and quality of all other agricultural imple- 
ments, the saving of labour, and the power to 
pursue the necessary operations neatly and 
well, will be found to be incalculably pro- 
moted. 

Crops. — It is probable that wheat was not 
cultivated by the early Britons; for the cli- 
mate, owing to the immense preponderance of 
Avoods and undrained soil, was so severe and 
wet, that in winter they could attempt no agri- 
cultural employments ; and even when Bede 
wrote, early in the eighth century, the Anglo- 
Saxons sowed their wheat in spring. (Bede's 
Works, p. 244.) The quantity cultivated in the 
reign of Henry III. does not appear to have 
exceeded the quantity necessary for the year's 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



consumption; for in a very wet, inclement 
year, 1270, wheat sold for six pounds eight 
shillings per quarter, which, calculating for 
the diiference of the value of money, was 
equal to twenty-five pounds of our present cur- 
rency. It continued an article of comparative 
luxury till nearly the 17th century commenced; 
for in the household books of several noble 
families it is mentioned that manclicts, and 
other loaves of wheat flour, were served at the 
master's table, but there is only notice taken 
of coarser kinds for the servants. That the 
cultivation of Avheat was very partial in the 
reign of Elizabeth is attested by Tusser, who, 
writing at that period, says, — 

"In Sil.ToIk again, whereas wheat never grew. 
Good husbandry used, good wheat-land I knew." 

As the climate has improved by the clearing 
and drying of the surface of the country, so 
proportionally, has the cultivation of wheat 
extended. 

It was probably owing to the fickle and in- 
clement climate of England rendering the 
successful completion of harvest a much rarer 
and more hazardous event than now, that our 
forefathers made on the occasion such marked 
and joyous festivities. We do not know the 
motive that actuated the farmer, but no dread 
of an uncertain harvest could have made him 
more prompt and vigorous, who, in 1289, cut 
and stored 200 acres of corn in two days. 
'J'he account is given in "The History of Haw- 
stead." About 250 reapers, thatchers, and 
others, were employed during one day, and 
more than 200 the ilext. The expenses of the 
lord on this occasion are thus stated : — Nine- 
teen reapers, hired for a day at their own 
board, 4rf. each ; eighty men one day, and kept 
at the lady's board, Ad. each ; 140 men, hired 
for one day, at Zd. each ; wages of the head 
reaper, 6*. %d. ; of the brewer, 3s. 4f/. ; of the 
cook, 35. 4f/. ; thirty acres of oats, tied up by 
the job, Is. Qd.; three acres of wheat, cut and 
tied up by the job. Is. \\d.\ five pair of 
gloves," &c. 

Barley is probably the grain which was 
most cultivated by the early Britons. The re- 
presentation of it occurs upon their coins. 
{Camdtn^s Britannia, by Gibson, Ixxxviii.) It 
was not only the grain from which their pro- 
genitors, the Cymri, made their bread, but 
from which they made their favourite bever- 
age, beer. 

Oats being well-known and cultivated by the 
Germans and other continental nations when 
Pliny wrote, they were probably known also 
to this island in the earliest ages. In all 
periods, even to the present time, bread made 
of oatmeal has been a very prominent part of 
the food of the inhabitants of the northern parts 
of Britain. "In Lancashire," says Gerarde, 
in 1597, "it is their chiefest bread-corn, for 
jamrocks, haver-cakes, thorffe-cakes, and those 
which are called generally oaten-cakes ; and 
for the most part they call the grain haver, 
whereof they do likewise make drink for want 
of barley." It is so hardy that it is admirably 
calculated for a cold climate, and there is 
scarcely any soil in which it will not be pro- 
ductive. In southern climates it will not 
flourish. 



"Rye," says Gerarde, gr^weth very plenti- 
fully in the most parts of Germany and Polo- 
nia, as appeareth by the great quantity 
brought into England in times of scarcity of 
corn, as happened in the year 1596; and at 
other times, when there was a general want of 
bread-corn, by reason of the abundance of 
rain that fell the year before, whereby great 
penury ensued, as well of cattle, and all other 
victuals, as of all manner of grain. It groweth, 
likewise, very well in most places of England, 
especially towards the north." 

Its hardiness probably rendered it a prin- 
cipal grain with the early Britons ; but as it is 
a great impoverisher of the soil upon which it 
grows, and the grain makes very inferior 
bread, it is now cultivated to a very small 
extent. 

Peas have been extensively cultivated in 
England from a very early period ; but they 
have been much less since the bean has be- 
come a more general field crop, which it did 
not till within the present century. Lentils 
were brought to England about 1548. Gerarde 
says he had heard they were cultivated as fod- 
der near Waterford. Maize, or Indian corn, 
was made known in England in 1562. It is 
commonly cultivated in the south of France 
as a field crop, and for the same purpose was 
tried in England in 1828, at the recommenda- 
tion of Mr. Cobbett, but it has not succeeded. 
Tares, in 1566, according to Kay, were grown 
as a seed crop, and given to horses, mixed 
with oats and peas, though they were some- 
times cut green as fodder. This is now their 
chief use. 

Potatoes were introduced from South Ame- 
rica, by Sir Walter Raleigh, about 1586. Sir 
Robert Southwell, President of the Royal Soci- 
ety, informed the Fellows, in 1693, that his 
father introduced them into Ireland, having 
received them f;om Sir Walter. (MS. Journal 
of Royal Society.) It long continued to be 
neglected by gardeners. In 1663, however, 
attention was drawQ to its extensive culture. 
But notwithstanding the exertions of the Royal 
Society to effect this purpose, potatoes did not 
become a field crop till the early part of the 
last century. They became so in Scotland 
about 1730, a day-labourer of the name of 
Prentice having the honour of first cultivating 
them largely two years previously. Every 
county of England now grows them exten- 
sively, ancashire and Cheshire are particu- 
larly celebrated for them. In the counties 
round London, especially in Essex, about two 
thousand acres are annually cultivated for 
supplying the metropolis with this root. 

Turnips and clover, though known in Eng- 
land during time immemorial, were never 
much cultivated in the field before the early 
part of the seventeenth century, and we men- 
tion them together, because their introduction 
among the farmer's crops caused the greatest 
improvement in the art that it ever recei\'^ed. 
In 1684, it is observed as a modern discovery, 
" sheep fatten very well on turnips, these prov- 
ing an excellent nourishment for them in 
hard winters, when fodder is scarce ; for they 
will not only eat the greens, but feed on the 
roots in the ground, scooping them out even 

42 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



to the very skin." This is the first notice we 
have of feeding off turnips ; and the same 
authority adds, " ten acres sown with clover, 
turnips, &c., will feed as many sheep as one 
hundred, acres would have done before." 
{Huughtori's Collections on Husbitndry, &c., iv. 
142 — 144.) Brown, Donaldson, and all other 
writers upon agriculture, agree, that the intro- 
duction of the improved mode of cultivating 
these crops revolutionized the art of hus- 
bandry. Previously, light soils could not be 
cropped with advantage ; there was no rotation 
that the judgment could approve. Tusser, in 
the sixteenth century, in the following homely 
lines, tells us that two corn crops were grown 
consecutively and then a fallow; and many 
authorities could be quoted to show that some 
soils were fallowed on alternate years, so that 
they afforded only one crop in two years. 

" First rie and then barlie, the champion saies. 
Or wheat before barlie, be champion waies : 
But drink before bread-corn, with Middlesex men. 
Then laie on more coinpas, and fallow agen." 

But now, by the aid of green crops, a fallow 
usually occurs but once in four years. " Clo- 
ver and turnips," it has been observed, " are 
the two main pillars of the best courses of 
British husbandry; they have contributed 
more to preserve and augment the fertility of 
the soil for producing grain, to enlarge and 
improve breeds of cattle and sheep, and to 
afford a regular supply of butcher's meat all 
the year, than any other crops." It was pre- 
viously a difficult task to support live stock 
through the winter and spring months ; and as 
for feeding and preparing cattle and sheep for 
market during these inclement seasons, the 
practice was hardly thought of, and still more 
rarely attempted. 

Mangel wurzel has only been cultivated by 
the farmer for a few years past. Its chief ad- 
vantage is, that as it will succeed upon tena- 
cious soils which will not produce turnips, it 
enables farms in which such soils predomi- 
nate to support a larger quantity of live stock. 
Its cultivation seems on the increase, its fat- 
tening qualities being good, the produce heavy, 
and liability to failure small. 

Hops, although indigenous to England, were 
little attended to, and never employed in brew- 
ing till the sixteenth century ; and then, when 
they began to be more used, the citizens of 
London petitioned parliament to prevent them 
as a nuisance. " It is not many years since," 
says Walter Blith, writing in the year 1653, 
" the famous city of London petitioned against 
two nuisances, and these were Newcastle 
coals, in regard of their stench, &c., and hops, 
in regard they would spoil the taste of drink 
and endanger the people." (English Improver 
Improved, 3d ed. 240.) 

There are many other crops occasionally 
cultivated by the farmer which may be enu- 
merated here, and most of them first exten- 
sively cultivated within the last 150 years, but 
which in this place will require no further 
notice — such as the artificial grasses, rape, 
mustard, caraway, coriander, flax, hemp, buck- 
ji^heat or brank, teasel, madder, saintfoin, 
mcerne, cabbage, carrots, and others. 

General cultivation. — We have no informa- 
41 



tion as to whether the early inhabitants of 
Britain varied their modes of ploughing with 
the nature of their soil. They sometimes 
ploughed with two oxen, sometimes with more ; 
some ploughmen, represented in very old pic- 
tures, evidently drove the team as well as 
guided the plough; but it was usual for them 
to have a driver. There is a very old Saxon 
dialogue extant, in which a ploughman, in 
stating his duties, says, " I go out at daj'-break, 
urging the oxen to the field, and I yoke them 
to the plough — the oxen being yoked, and the 
share and coulter fastened on, I ought to 
plough one entire field or more. I have a boy 
to threaten the oxen with a goad, who is now 
hoarse through cold and bawling. I ought, 
also, to fill the bins of the oxen with hay, and 
water them, and carry out their soil." (Tur- 
ner's Anglo-Saxons, ii. 546, ed. 5.) Repeated 
ploughings and fallowings, to prepare the soil 
for wheat, was the common practice ; for Giral- 
dus Cambrensis, speaking of the Welsh, says, 
with astonishment, "they ploughed their lands 
only once a year, in March or April, in order to 
sow them with oats ; but did not, like other 
farmers, plough them twice in summer and 
once in winter, to prepare them for wheat." 
(Descript. Cambriae, c. viii.) 

In a law tract, called Fkta, and Avritten early 
in the fourteenth century, are given several 
agricultural directions, especially upon dress- 
ing and ploughing fallows. In summer, the 
ploughing is advised to be only so deep as to 
buiy and kill the weeds; and the manure not 
to be applied till just before the last ploughing, 
which is to be deep. (Fleta, lib. ii. c. 73.) 

Sowing was anciently performed in all cases 
by hand. In the famous antique tapestry of 
Bayeux, a man is represented sowing. The 
seed is contained in a cloth fastened round his 
neck, is supported at the other extremity by 
his left arm, and he scatters the seed with his 
right hand. 

All agricultural writers, from the earliest 
era to the present, have recommended the seed 
to be soaked in some medicament or other 
previously to sowing. Virgil recommends oil 
and nitre for beans ; others direct the employ- 
ment of urine ; and Heresbachius, who wrote 
in 1570, mentions the juice of the houseleek. 
" Sow your ridges," says the same author, 
" with an equal hand, and all alike in every 
place, letting your right foot, especially, and 
your hand go together. Wheat, rye, barley, 
oats, and other large seeds must be sown with 
a full hand, but rape seeds only with three 
fingers." (Googe's Heresbachius, 246.) 

The tapestry of Bayeux, already mentioned, 
represents a man harrowing ; one harrow only 
being employed, and one horse. In the time 
of Heresbachius, though harrowing was the 
usual mode of covering the seed, yet he f-ays, 
" in some places it is done with a board tied 
to the plough." Rakes seem to have been 
employed by the Anglo-Saxons ; for the accu- 
rate researches of Mr. Turner do not appear 
to have discovered any mention of other im- 
plements that were employed by them for the 
purpose. (Hist. Anglo-Sax. ii. 544.) 

We find no very early mention made of 
hoeing by any English agricultural writer. 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



Though there is generally some directions for 
"plucking up the naughty weeds." Heresba- 
chius is the first that we have met with who 
notices the advantage of loosening the surface 
of the soil about growing crops. " Sometimes," 
he says, "raking is needful, which, in the 
spring, loosens the earth made clung by the 
cold of winter, and letteth in the fresh warmth. 
It is best to rake wheat, barley, and beans 
twice. Moreover, they break asunder with a 
roller the larger and stiffer clods." {Googe's 
Heresbackius, [printed in 1578,] 256.) It Avas 
not till the time of Tull, 1731, that the due im- 
portance of this was appreciated. 

Of the other operations of agriculture, as 
reaping, mowing, stacking, and the like, there 
seems no need of making mention : they were 
performed much in the same way as now. 
" Corn," says the author last quoted, " should 
be cut before it is thorough hard ; experience 
teacheth that if it be cut down in due time, the 
seed will grow to fulness as it lieth in the 
barn." (Gnoge's Heresbachius, 406.) According 
to Henry, the practice with our ancestors was 
for the women to thresh and the men to reap. 
(^Hist. of Britain, vi. 173.) 

Irrigation seems to have been practised in a 
few places in Britain from the time of the Ro- 
mans, there being meadows near Salisbury 
which have been irrigated from time immemo- 
rial. Lord Bacon mentions it as a practice 
well understood in his time (1560 — 1626) ; and 
at the same period, 1610, appeared a work by 
Robert Vaughan, detailing the mode of " sum- 
mer and winter drowning of meadows and 
pastures, thereby to make those grounds more 
fertile ten for one." It was not, however, till 
the close of the last century that the attention 
of agriculturists was much aroused to the sub- 
ject. The writings of Boswell, Wright, West- 
ern, and others, between the years 1780 and 
1824, partially awakened the farmers to the 
importance of the practice. The best exam- 
ples of it are to be observed in Gloucestershire 
and Wiltshire ; but it is now one of the prac- 
tices of farming that is the most undeservedly 
neglected. Mr. Welladvise was its great pro- 
moter in Gloucestershire. 

Live Stock. — Cattle and sheep were the chief 
riches of the Britons when they became first 
known to the Romans (Cxsar, v. c. x.), and 
they are still a great source of our agricultural 
riches. 

Sheep. — In a very early Anglo-Saxon MS. a 
shepherd is represented as saying, " In the first 
part of the morning I drive my sheep to their 
pasture, and stand over them in heat and in 
cold with dogs, lest the wolves destroy them. 
I lead them back to their folds, and milk them 
twice a day ; and I move their folds and make 
cheese anj butter." (Turner's Anglo-Sax. ii. 
540.) 

This attention to sheep was attended with so 
much success that they became an object of 
acquirement by the continental nations ; and 
in the reign of Edward IV. at the time a treaty 
of peace was concluded with Spain (1466), a 
license was granted by that monarch " for cer- 
tain Coteswold sheep to be transported to 
Spain, as people report, which have there so 
multiplied and increased, that it hath rurned 



the commodity of England much to the Spanish 
profit, and to the no small hinderance of the 
gain which was beforetimes in England raised 
of them." {Hairs Chrunide, 266. Holinshed, 
668.) The sheep thus exported were probably 
improved by attention and climate till they had 
become that breed of Merinos which was re- 
imported to this country early in the present 
century. The statute 3 H. 6, c. 2, forbids the 
exportation of sheep. The fears v/hich old 
chroniclers may have ignorantly entertained, 
that the exporting of sheep would be injurious 
to our native commerce, have in all succeed- 
ing years been proved to be fallacious. The 
demand for our wool was so large, and the 
consequent increase of the breed of sheep was 
so great, that an impolitic legislature in 1533 
endeavpured to check it. The preamble of the 
act states, that " divers of the king's subjects, 
to whom God of his goodness hath disposed 
great plenty and abundance of moveable sub- 
stance, now of late, within few 3^ears, have 
daily studied, invented, and practised ways 
and means to accumulate into few hands, as 
well great multitudes of fanns as great plenty 
of cattle, and in especial sheep, putting such 
lands as they can get to pasture and not to 
tillage, whereby they have not only pulled 
down churches and towns, and enhanced the 
old rates of the rents, and that no poor man is 
able to meddle with it, but also have raised 
the prices of all manner of corn, cattle, «&c., 
almost double above the prices accustomed, to 
the great injury, «&c., of his majesty's sub- 
jects ; and as it is thought that the greatest 
occasion of this accumulation is the profit that 
cometh of sheep, which now be come to a few 
persons' hands of this realm, that some have 
24,000, some 20,000, «&c., by which a good 
sheep for victual, that was accustomed to be 
sold for 2s. Ad., &c., is now sold for 6s., &c. ; 
M"hich things thus used be principally to the 
high displeasure of Almighty God, to the decay 
of the hospitality of this realm, to the diminish- 
ing of the king's people, and to the let of cloth- 
making," «Scc. It then enacts, that no one shall 
have more than 2000 sheep ; though, as a sub- 
sequent section declares every hundred to con- 
sist of six score, the limited number was 2400. 
And it further enacts, that no man shall have 
above two farms. (25 H. 8, c. 13.) 

Harrison, who died in 1593, describes our 
sheep as very excellent, "sith for sweetness 
of flesh they pass all other. And so much are 
our wools to be preferred before those of Milesia 
and other places, that if Jason had known the 
value of them that are bred and to be had in 
Britain, he would never have gone to Colchis 
to look for any there."' (Description of England, 
prefixed to Holinshed, 220.) Heresbach, who 
was a contemporary, gives such a description 
of the best form and qualities of sheep, that u 
is evident that the excellence of the breed was 
not the mere effect of chance. (Googe's Htres- 
bach. 1376.) From that period till the latter 
half of the eighteenth century, we are not ac- 
quainted with any efforts further to improve ii. 
This last-mentioned period was the era of thu 
improvements effected by Mr. Bakewell and 
his pupils, the Messrs. CuUey. 

Bakewell was born in 1726, at Ditchley iu 

45 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



Leicestershire, and about the year 1755 com- 
menced those experiments which finally effect- 
ed a greater improvement in our sheep than 
was ever effected in any species of agricultu- 
ral produce by the exertions of one individual. 
He travelled over England, Ireland, Holland, 
and other places, for the purpose of examining 
the various breeds of cattle, and by careful se- 
lections, and judicious crosses, succeeded in 
procuring a stock that obtained for the Ditch- 
ley sheep a previously unheard of excellence. 
Fortunately the English agriculturists appre- 
ciated the importance of his success ; and it is 
a fact that, in 1789, three of his rams, the pro- 
duce of one birth, were let for the breeding 
season, for 1200 guineas, and the whole pro- 
duce of his letting was at least 3000 guineas. 
One of his rams obtained for Mr. Bakewell, in 
one season, 800 guineas ; and when it is taken 
into the calculation, that the same animal 
served for his own flock, it produced for its 
owner in that year 1200 guineas. Mr. Bake- 
well died in 1795. 

Messrs. Culley introduced these improve- 
ments into Northumberland, and the other 
northern counties of this island. When they 
first settled in that district, the sheep kept there 
were large, slow-feeding, long-woolled animals ; 
and a breed between those and the Cheviot 
sheep. These breeds rarely became fat before 
they were three years old ; but the Leicesters 
introduced by the Messrs. Culley were sold fat 
at little more than a year old. They at first 
met with much opposition ; but as it was soon 
seen they were improvers, and not mere inno- 
vators, the flocks have generally been made to 
improve by their example. They became the 
general patrons of improvement, and their 
great attention to minutiae, unremitting indus- 
try, and superior cultivation, gave birth to a 
spirit of emulation, and their own merits were 
rewarded with a liberal success. For several 
years they occupied farms to the amount of 
about 8000/. per annum. They had pupils 
with liberal premiums from all parts ; and 
these again were the means of making known, 
not only their enlightened husbandry, but the 
encouraging illustration they afforded of in- 
dustry, economy, and intelligence duly re- 
warded. 

Merino sheep were imported by George IIL 
in the years 1788 and 1791. This breed at- 
tracted much attention in 1804, when his 
majesty commenced his annual sales. Dr. 
Parry, Lord Somerville, and others have 
paid considerable attention to them; but the 
climate of England has a considerable effect 
in deteriorating their fleeces, and the flesh is 
loo indifferent to permit them to be much en- 
couraged in a country where mutton is so 
considerable an article of food. {Hunfs Agri- 
cuUural Memoirs ,- Gent's Mtigazine ,- Enc. Brit.) 

Mr. EUman, of Sussex, during an enlight- 
ened practice of more than fifty years has 
brought the South Down variety of sheep to a 
state of the highest improvement. Perhaps 
the best description of the varieties of the 
fheep reared in England has been written by 
this gentleman for " Baxter's Agricultural Li- 
trary." 

Cattle, a," we have already noticed, have al- 



ways been a prominent production of Great 
Britain. They were mentioned by Csesar, 
Strabo, and other ancient writers. They have 
ever since continued, more or less, particularly 
to engage the attention of the husbandman, not 
only for the dairy and the plough, but also as 
a source of food. The breeding of cattle, how- 
ever, had been so much neglected for the more 
profitable pasturage of sheep, tnat in 1555, 
an act of parliament was passed to remedy 
the evil. The preamble states that, " For- 
asmuch as of late years a great number of 
persons in this realm have laid their lands, 
farms, and pastures, to feeding of sheep, oxen, 
runts, scrubs, steers, and heifers, &c., having no 
regardor care to breed up youngbeasts or cattle, 
whereby is grown great scarcity of cattle and 
victual ;" and, therefore it is enacted that a 
cow shall be kept wherever are sixty sheep, 
and a calf reared where there are one hundred 
and twenty, &c. (2 & 3 Phil. <^ Mary, c. 3.) 
Many other legislative enactments occur in the 
records of that and contiguous periods ; but 
reason and interest are better promoters of im- 
provement than acts of parliament. A due at- 
tention to the breedingof cattle was first aroused 
by Mr. Bakewell, who has just been mentioned 
as an improver of sheep. He let bulls for 150 
guineas during four months, and 5 guineas per 
cow was no uncommon charge. Pedigrees 
have been preserved of different animals Avith 
as much care as those of race-horses. The 
attention and care that have thus been paid to 
their breeding have met with an appropriate 
recompense. In no other country is there to 
be found such breeds of cattle ; and that none 
are so highly estimated, is proved by the prices 
that have been given for individuals. {Mar- 
sha/rs Midland Counties, i. 334 ; Parkinson on 
Live Stock, ii. 469.) 

Horses. — That the ancient Britons had 
horses with which they impelled their war 
chariots, we know upon the authority of those 
who had seen them — Cocsar, Strabo, and others. 
In the epitome of Dion Cassius, by Xiphelin, 
those horses are described as small and swift. 
They appear not to have been usually employed 
in the operations of agriculture ; and their em- 
ployment was not considered desirable ; for in 
tbe old Cambrian laws, oxen are exclusively 
directed to be employed. (Leges Wallicas, 288.) 
Under the Saxons, and still more under the 
Normans, who flourished here in an age that, 
from its excelling in noble horsemanship, has 
been distinguished as the chivalric, the breed 
of horses was undoubtedly improved. " Richard 
De Rulos, Lord of Brunne and Deeping, was 
much addicted to agriculture, and delighted in 
breeding horses and cattle." {Ingulphus's 
Chron. lib. i.) 

In the year 1494, the exportation of horses 
was so extensive, and the price of them so 
much enhanced, that an act of parliament or- 
dained that none should go out of the realm 
without the king's license (2 H. 8, c. 6 ; 32, c. 
13 ; 33, c. 5) ; but these being evidently intend- 
ed for the improvement of war horses, " for the 
defence of the realm," would only collaterally 
benefit those employed by the husbandman. It 
was provided by the second of the acts just 
quoted, tnat no stallion should be kept that did 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



not measure fifteen hands from the sole of the 
hoof to the highest part of the wither ; each 
hand to be four standard inches. We find, 
however, that at this period draught horses 
were fine and powerful animals, for Harrison, 
who lived at this era, and whose appendix to 
Holinshed we have before quoted, after ex- 
pressing his admiration of them, says, that five 
or six of them would draw with ease three thou- 
sand weight of the greatest tale for a long 
journey. We must remember, too, that in 
those days the roads were totally different from 
what they are at present. It is within the me- 
mory of persons still living in the hundreds of 
Essex, that no more than a load of wheat was 
ever sent out in a wagon, the roads there 
being, until within less than a half a centur}', 
exceedingly bad. 

We have already noticed that in the tapestry 
of Bayeux a man is represented harrowing 
with a horse. This tapestry was woven in 
the year 1066, and this representation is the 
fiirst notice, of which we are aware, of the 
horse being employed in agriculture. The 
first attempt that historians notice, to improve 
the breed of our husbandry horses, was in the 
reign of King John. Tyrant and despot as he 
was, yet his evil qualifications gave two bene- 
fits to England. His tyranny gave birth to 
Magna Charta; and his pride, rendering it 
hateful to him to see foreigners surpass him 
in the excellence of their horses, induced him 
to import 100 stallions from Flanders ; and 
from that era may be dated the improvement of 
our draught horses. His object did not entirely 
succeed ; for a century subsequently, in the 
reign of Edward II., we find that horses were 
still imported from Lombardy and Flanders. 
We have already noticed some of the enact- 
ments to improve the breed of horses, but 
these shared the fate of most other compulsory 
measures ; for when Elizabeth summoned her 
forces to defend her realm, in the prospect of 
a Spanish invasion, she could obtain no more 
than 3000 cavalry. 

Sir A. Fitzherbert, who wrote in the reign 
of Henry VIII., says, in his Boke of Husbandry, 
— " A husbande may not be without horses and 
mares, and specially if he goe with a horse- 
plough, he must have both ; his horses to 
droive, and his mares to brynge colts to up- 
holde his stocke, and yet at many times these 
may droive well if they be well handled." 
The roguery of horsedealers was an early sin; 
for one of the old Cambrian laws provides, 
that the purchaser of a horse shall have three 
nights to ascertain whether he is infected with 
the staggers ,- three months to prove his Itivgs ,- 
and twelve months to discover whether he is 
infected with the glanders. For every blemish 
not discovered before purchasing, if it was not 
in the ears or tail, one third of the price was 
to be returned. {Laws of Howell Dhu.) The 
deceptions practised by the dealers in horses 
^s still proverbial ; and there does not appear 
with their fraternity to have been any interme- 
diate age of innocence ; for Sir A. Fitzherbert 
says, " Thou grayser, that mayest fortune to 
he of myne opinion or condytion to love 
horses, and young coltes and foles to go among 



thy cattle, take hede that thou be not beguilt^d 
as I have been a hundred times and more. And 
first, thou shalt knowe that a good horse has 
fifty-four properties ; that is to say two of a 
man, two of a badger, four of a lion, nine of 
an oxe, nine of a hare, nine of a fox, nine of 
an asse, and ten of a woman." 

Since the days of Elizabeth, every variety 
of horses has been gradually improving, in 
England, and four kinds, the Suffolk Punch, 
the Cleveland bays, the Clydesdale, and the 
Lincolnshire or dra)', are surpassed by no 
country in the world. The numerous cart 
stallions attending every market town during 
the covering season, is an attestation that this 
care is not on the decrease. It is stated, as a 
further proof, that a few years since a Suffolk 
cart-mare and her offspring sold at Woodbridgc 
Lady-day fair for 1000/. 

Pigs have been among the usual animals 
fostered by the farmer in times at least as 
early as the Anglo-Saxons. In those days 
they were evidently the most numerous of their 
live stock ; scarcely an estate is mentioned 
without its being stated that it afforded pan- 
nage, or mast in its wood, for such a number 
of swine. They were a very prominent por- 
tion of their wealth; and, indeed, a chief ne- 
cessary, for they were in winter obliged to use 
almost exclusively salted meat, and the great 
preponderance of woodland supported best 
this kind of stock. (Turner's Anglu-Saxons, 
iii. 22.) Heresbach is particularly earnest in 
commending the pig; and after mentioning it 
as abominable to the Jews, says, with a boast- 
ful feeling that made him forget its impiety, 
"I believe, verily, they never tasted the ff itches 
of Westphaly." 

Enactments occur in our statute book, in 
1225 and 1534, regulating the pannage of 
swine. There are now a great many varieties 
of pigs, every district of Englancf'varying in 
the size and qualities of those it prefers. Some 
attention has of late years been ] aid to im- 
prove the stock, but in general they have been 
too much neglected. We have not particu- 
larized the progress of husbandry m Scotland, 
because previously to the time of its union 
with this country. Lord Kames and Mr. Fletcher 
agree that its agriculture was deplorable ; and 
since then the improvement of the art in that 
most generally enlightened part of tiie island 
has, in many districts, outstripped, and, in 
most, at least kept pace with that of England ; 
and its future advance will probably surpass 
that of England, because good education is 
more completely diffused among its inhabi- 
tants. 

Ireland is in general deplorably behind in 
all the arts of life ; nor will this be obviated 
until the effect of education and wealth is more 
generally felt and appreciated by its generous 
and hospitable, but far from wealthy rthabi- 
tants. 

Wales, for the most part, has an agriculture 
as bad as that of Ireland ; and we cannot have 
much hope of its improvement, when Mr. 
Adam Murray, in his evidence before the Com 
mittee of Agriculture in 1833, stated that the 
Welsh have a great antipathy againsi u> 



17 



AGRICULTURE, 



AGRICULTURE. 



Saxons, or Sassenachs ,- and that they take 
every advantage of any EnglUhman that settles 
among them. 

V. Continental Aguiculture. 

We have now brought to a conclusion our 
.iketch of the progress of agriculture. The 
limits of our work preclude us from giving 
here more of the ample details that have come 
under our notice in the research for the ma- 
terials, of which we have given the abstract. 
We have not withheld our attention from the 
husbandry of other nations, but have found 
little concerning the history of their progress 
in the art ; and the examination of their present 
operations made it so apparent, that with the 
exception of Flanders, they were all so much 
behind in general practice, that the conviction 
is forced upon us, that little instruction could 
be obtamed from its detail. Several of them, 
however, excel us in some particular points : 
and in noticing these we shall avail ourselves of 
the opportunity to enfore the importance of 
extra attention to them upon our own agricul- 
turists. 

Flanders. — This country was certainly the 
first of modern countries to improve the prac- 
tice of agriculture. Its farmers were the first 
tutors of England; and from the time of Sir 
Richard Weston, who published an account of 
their husbandry, in 1645, till that of the Rev. 
T. Radcliff in 1819, the Flemish husbandmen 
have continued models of neat and economi- 
cal farming. In this respect we fall short of 
them. It is a leading principle with them to 
make their farms closely resemble gardens. 
Consequently, to effect this, they have small 
farms, and devote their efforts to these three 
grand points — the accumulation of manure — 
the destruction of weeds — and the frequent and 
deep pulverization of the soil. We recom- 
mend for the perusal of our readers the work 
(Tour iti Flanders) published by Mr. Radcliff, 
and the Flemish Husbandry of the Society for 
the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and we are 
convinced that they will benefit by the time so 
occupied. We do not expect that they will 
induce them to try to cultivate a large surface 
of land with the minute accuracy of a garden ; 
but it might pursuade them to adopt that more 
cleanly system of cultivation which is the only 
one that is permanently profitable. 

We shall only remark more particularly 
upon the assiduous care the Flemish farmers 
bestow upon the collection of manures. 

They were the first among the moderns to 
raise crops for the sake of ploughing them in 
whilst growing ; and they continue it more ex- 
tensively than any other nation. This prac- 
tice, we may say, is entirely neglected by our 
farmers ; but if they knew sufficient of che- 
mistiy to understand how much fertilizing ma- 
terials such green crops impart to the soil, it 
vvould ue a practice more extensively adopted. 
Every fragment of animal and vegetable mat- 
ter is preserved by the Flemish farmers for 
the fertilizing of their lands ; and the ready 
sale which all such decomposable substances 
meet, is one cause of the broom and the bar- 

V .succeeding in keeping their town so scru- 
-18 



pulously neat. Saw-dust, chips, and similar 
refuse all tend to increase their composts ; and 
on their barren lands trees are frequently 
planted for the purpose of creating in time a 
fertile soil by the agency of their falling 
leaves. 

Their dunghills are so C(mstructed that all 
the drainage is collected in cisterns, with 
which liquid is mixed the emptyings of privies, 
pulverized rape cakes, and the like ; and this 
most fertilizing compound is conveyed to their 
fields by means of barrels fixed on wheels, 
and is spread by means of a scoop, 2840 gal- 
lons per acre being allowed for their flax crop. 
(Johns, on Liq. Manure.') 

The slovenly management of his dunghill 
is one of the most general specimens of the 
ignorance or carelessness of a farmer. He 
allows the most soluble and valuable portions 
to drain away; and treats with ridicule the 
idea of carrying out manure in a liquid form. 
As this arises from ignorance and bigoted at- 
tachment to old practice, it should excite our 
pity more than our anger. Liquid manures, 
notwithstanding stupidity and prejudice, are 
amongst the best of fertilizers, and will, in a 
coming age, be generally employed, since it is 
a fallacy to argue that they cannot be employed 
on a large scale ; for the comparative expense 
of preparation and application is unquestiona- 
bly smaller on a large scale than on a less. 

Holland. — The husbandry of this country is 
almost exclusively confined to the dairy and 
to stall feeding. There are two points in their 
practice in which other farmers would do well 
to imitate them. 

It is a common prejudice that a cow for the 
dairy should never be fat. This is thus far 
true, namely, that if a cow inclines to fatten 
easily, she does not yield so much milk as one 
that generates fat less readily. But a good 
dairy cow, that is, one that secretes milk 
abundantly, will not fatten whilst in that con- 
dition, and therefore the abstaining from giving 
them nutritive food is an erroneous conclusion. 
The Hollanders know that the contrary is the 
correct practice, and once a day, or oftener, 
they give their cows rape cake, and other nu- 
tritious preparations. The ignorance of the 
common English practice is evident from this 
fact, that without one exception, other ani- 
mals, when suckling, are always kept much 
higher than at other periods. 

The other point of their practice that merits 
imitation is the cleanliness with which they 
keep all their animals. It will excite a laugh 
with some of our agricultural readers, when 
we recommend not only the most scrupulous 
daily cleaning and washing out of cow-sheds, 
pig-styes, and the like, but that the animals 
themselves should be cleaned. This, however, 
is not a mere speculative precept, for the na- 
tional example of Holland attests its utilit}'. 
We have known the beneficial effects of such 
treatment upon the health of cows and pigs in 
this country. But in the absence of all facts, 
if the farmer would but allow his own common 
sense to direct him ; if he would but reflect 
that no animal will thrive that is not healthy; 
that his horse becomes diseased if not kept 
clean ; and that by no possibility can it be 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



otherwise but that fetid stenches, and encum- 
bering filth must tend to breed disease, he 
would not allow so baleful a neglect to con- 
tinue. It is fulile to urge that where stock is 
large, the attendance to such treatment is im- 
possible ; for if it is beneficial it will pay to 
adopt it ; and no one should engage in a larger 
concern than he can manage in the most bene- 
ficial mode. 

Germany. — The inhabitants of the diiferent 
districts of this extensive empire pay particu- 
lar attention to the cultivation of timber trees. 
The number of German books on the subject 
is excessive. 

It is a subject which has of late years been 
gaining much attention also in England, and 
planting will probably be still further extended 
over many of the poorer soils that at present 
will not pay whilst producing corn. 

The careless and ignorant manner in which 
the labourer is alloAved to mutilate timber trees 
that grow upon most farms, cannot be too se- 
verely deprecated. To train trees correctly, 
requires as much judgment as any operation 
in which the gardener or forester is concerned. 
Not an unnecessary wound should be inflicted 
upon them ; for the process of healing each 
wound not only deducts so much from the 
growth of the tree, but is usually the intro- 
ducer of decay. Yet the hedger, with no other 
instrument than his bill, is generally allowed 
an unguided use of so unfit and mutilating a 
tool. 

Lomhardy. — In this, and most of the other 
Italian states, all rivers, and in some, even all 
springs, are considered to be the property of 
the government, for they are the source of 
a considerable revenue. Any one desiring a 
canal from a river has to pay for it to the 
government; and he may cut it through an- 
other person's ground without the latter having 
the power to prevent it, upon paying the value 
of the land. Such canals are considered as im- 
proving the value of an estate, for they irrigate 
not only their grass lands, but their corn, vines, 
and other crops, numerous little channels 
being cut for the purpose down the ridges. 
The water from a river is purchased at a certain 
price for so many hours' or days' run in the 
year, through a sluice of a stated dimension. 
Arthur Young mentions that the fee-simple of 
an hour's run per week through a particular 
sized sluice at Turin, sold in 1788, for 1500 
livres. Watered lands usually let for one 
third more than lands that are unwatered. 

We have already noticed, and shall again 
have to recur to the subject of irrigation ; but 
we could not but notice the above national evi- 
dence in favour of what we know to be one of 
the most beneficial practices neglected by our 
agriculturists. 

Tuscany. — Sismondi informs us that it is the 
practice in this country, where he was himself 
for five years a cultivator, to trench one-third 
of the farm every year with the spade, bring- 
ing the lower soil to the top. This mode of 
culture bringing a new soil for the promotion 
of vegetation, for it has been in a manner 
lying two years fallow, is sanctioned by reason 
as well as confirmed by practice. We are not 
the advocates of a general system of spade 
7 



husbandry. There are objections to it that at 
present are insuperable. But we do recom- 
mend, and that from our own experience, its 
partial adoption. There is no parish in Eng- 
land in which many of the labourers are not 
out of employ during a considerable portion of 
the year. Perhaps the average of the poor's 
rates were 10«. in the pound upon the farmer's 
rental ; and this might have been reduced 
more than one half, if every farmer had em- 
ployed one man in spade husbandry for every 
thirty acres he cultivated. Thus he would 
have had some return for the money he ex- 
pended; and the saving of horse labour, and 
the benefit of the extra cultivation, would have 
turned tne balance in his favour, and he wouli 
thus have got rid, in a great degree, of the 
worst of all outlays — an outlay without a pos- 
sibility of a return. 

I have searched various statements of the 
agriculture of the other European countries ; 
but though I am gratified by the conviction 
that they are all more or less improving, yet 
in almost all their practices, except the culture 
of the vine, they are very far behind England. 
For that reason I leave them unnoticed, be- 
cause there is no instruction to be extracted 
from a detail of deficiencies that have already 
been overcome. Upon a revision of the whole, 
I may remark that agriculture, in common 
with all other kinds of knowledge, is always 
flourishing, in proportion to the freedom of the 
people. Spain, subjugated by its despotii 
monarchy and priesthood, has an agriculture 
imperfect and degraded beyond that of any 
other European nation. Flanders has always 
had a liberal government, and its agriculture 
improved before our own, and is its equal 
now. 

By freedom, I mean security of property and 
person, unrestricted discussion of every virtu- 
ous opinion, and an untainted distribution of 
justice. With us, the era that introduced such 
freedom into England was that of the Reform- 
ation, confirmed and strengthened by the ex- 
clusion of the Stuarts in 1688. 

The introduction of the scholastic philoso- 
phy, which revived lliat activity of mind 
which the Grecian vanity had so much abused, 
and the Romans, by their gross habits, had so 
long paralysed ; the mathematical sciences 
which the Grecians had imported from Alex- 
andria and had forgotten ; that natural and 
experimental knowledge which neither the 
Grecians nor Romans had ever much or per- 
manently pursued ; the reformation of religion, 
which removed from the mind that incabos 
that forbad man to trusi to his own reason, but 
made it the bond-slave of interested ignorance- 
the invention of printing, which became the 
mighty engine of diff'using accumulated know- 
ledge ; were all events that preceded the seven- 
teenth century, and rendered it an era splendid 
by the general improvement which it afibrded 
in all the arts and sciences. These have justly 
been represented as forming a circle, for they 
are so united, so blended together, and so co- 
assistant, that one cannot be improved without 
the benefit being shared in some way by the 
others. 

Agriculture participated in the general pr<» 
E 49 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



gress ; and the impetus that was given to the 
human mind, tutoring it to follow reason rather 
than habit, was felt by the cultivators of the 
soil. The eighteenth and present centui'ies 
have been those in which the improvement 
has been marked, and the instances of which 
have already been noticed. The reason of 
this is to be found in its having then very 
generally engaged the attention of a more en- 
lightened class of society. The noblemen, the 
gentry, and even the monarch of England, be- 
came practical agriculturists ; and under the 
patronage of George III., the Duke of Bedford, 
Lords Sheffield, Suffield, and Albemarle, Coke, 
Western, and many others, it was sure to ob- 
tain the benefit of all the improved knowledge 
of the day. In 172.3 was instituted the Society 
of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture 
in Scotland; in 1749, the Dublin Agricultural 
Society; in 1777, the Bath and West of Eng- 
land Society; in 1784, the Highland Society 
of Scotland; in 1793, the London Board of 
Agriculture, and the Royal Agricultural So- 
ciety of England in 1838. The last chiefly 
through the exertions of Mr. W. Shaw and 
Mr. Handley, Lord Spencer and the Duke of 
Richmond. This, although supported entirely 
by voluntary subscriptions, promises to be of 
the highest advantage to agriculture, and by its 
excellent arrangementj, of which carefully 
avoiding all political discussions is a promi- 
nent feature, it now includes in its copious list 
of members, men of all parties, who are united 
not for the sake of indirectly forwarding party 
objects, but for the improvement in all its im- 
portant branches of practical agriculture. 
The fate of the Board of Agriculture, which 
expired about the year 1812, from the with- 
drawal by government of the annual parlia- 
mentary grant for its support, should operate 
as a warning to all other agricultural societies ; 
for this society failed, not from a want of 
talent or of industry, but from its efforts being 
paralysed, and its resources curtailed by its 
being considered the society of a party, and 
made the arena for the discussion and promul- 
:ga,tion of political doctrines. From none of 
these have arisen any splendid discoveries, for 
such are not to be made in agriculture : there 
can never arise, so far as we can foresee, any 
Newton or Watt in this art ; but they have 
edected and are accomplishing all that such 
associations can be expected. They have oc- 
casioned the collision of opinion, they have 
stimulated the desire of improvement, and 
they have promoted the general communica- 
tion of its acquirements. The general im- 
provements introduced into agriculture, under 
the auspices of these valuable societies, have 
been, amongst several others, 1. The general 
introduction of green crops; 2. The improve- 
ment of agricultural machinery, such as the 
drill, the thrashing-machine, the plough, &c.; 

3. Better breeds of all kinds of live stock ; 

4. Better and more numerous varieties of 
seeds. 

Of the benefits conferred by other sciences 
upon agriculture, by chemistry, botany, and 
physiology. I shall hereafter have much to 
say. They are branches of knowledge hitherto 
*f)0 seldom combined with practical skill to 
50 



have yet accomplished much; but of what 
they are capable of achieving, an estimate 
may be formed from the perusal of De Can- 
dolie's Physiologic Vegetale. "It is certain," 
as the writer of this has elsewhere observed, 
"that a cultivator of the soil should have a 
knowledge of botany and of chemistry. With- 
out the first he will be unable to understand 
terms and observations that must occur in 
every well-written work on his art ; unable to 
comprehend the nature and habits of the ob- 
jects of his culture, or to render obsei-vations 
which he makes intelligible to others or even 
to himself. Chemistry is of as much, if not 
greater, importance to him. The nature of 
soils, of manures, of the food and functions of 
plants, would all be unknown but from the 
analyses which chemists have made. Science 
can never supersede the dung-hill, the plough, 
the spade, and the hoe ; but it can be one of 
their best guides — can be a pilot even to the 
most experienced." (Baxter's Agricultural Li- 
brary, 110.) 

Of the literature of agriculture, I have little 
to say in this place. From the days of Hesiod 
until the sixteenth century, the authors upon 
this art were very few ; but from that period to 
the present, they have continued to increase ; 
and its literature, if now collected, would form 
a copious library. 

There have been professorships of agricul- 
ture for some time proposed at the Universities 
of Oxford and Cambridge. There was one 
appointed at Edinburgh in 1790, and the chair 
is now (1841) filled by Mr. Low ; another at 
Oxford in 1840, of which Mr. Daubeny is 'he 
present holder. 

A prejudice too generally existed amongst 
farmers against the agricultural knowledge 
contained in books ; but now they are gene- 
rally better educated, this prejudice will ceasa. 
Ignorance is always bigoted and obstinate; 
and it i5 the same mental sterility which made 
thrm jealous of all new practices, that made 
the Irish persist in fastening their horses to the 
plough by their tails, until it was absolutely 
prohibited by the government. The Irish said 
in defence of their practice what some English 
farmers say in defence of theirs, however erro* 
neous, " My grandfather did well enough this 
way." Such foolish observations amount to 
no more than this, " We will not try to im- 
prove." This race of stagnant cultivators is 
gradually disappearing; and those Avho are 
succeeding them, we see reason to believe, are 
more enlightened, and consequently more 
ready to adopt improvements. We most 
heartily rejoice at this ; and we hope to see 
them more and more a class of reading men. 
Practice must ever be their chief tutor, as in 
all other arts ; but likewise, as in all other 
arts, that practice will always be the most cor- 
rect in its details which is founded upon 
scientific knowledge. (G. W. Johnson. Miller s 
Gard. Did. by Orr Sf Co.) 



[Aghicultuhe ik the United States. 

A glance into the agricultural history of the 
United States has been given in the introduce 
tion to this work. It ■will not therefore b« 






AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



necessary to say much upon that topic here, 
where the agricultural resourses of the Re- 
public will be mainly dwelt upon. 

Notwithstanding the desolation to which a 
scourging course of tillage has reduced so 
many of the once rich acres in the Atlantic 
states, the agricultural productions of the 
country are exceedingly abundant. Until very 
recentljr, the value of these products has been 
a subject for conjecture and approximate com- 
putation. The act of Congress for taking the 
Census of 1840, provided that the persons en- 
gaged in enumerating the population, should 
collect facts so as to show the amount of the 
products of husbandry, as well as of eveiT 
other branch of industry pursued throughout 
the country. A fund of authentic information 
of the highest interest has been thus obtained, 
exhibiting not only the aggregate value, but 
the relative proportions the several products 
of agriculture, commerce, the forests, and the 
manufactures, bear to each other. 

As the agriculture of the country yields the 
immediate means of subsistence, so does it 
furnish the basis of commerce, and the various 
branches of industry, all of which must prosper 
or languish according to the good or bad suc- 
cess attending rural affairs. 

" Land and trade," says a quaint old English 
writer, " are twins, and ever will wax and 
wane together. It cannot be ill with trade but 
lands will fall, nor ill with lands, but trade will 
feel it." (Sir Juseph Child.) 

" In the pursuit of agriculture," says a sen- 
sible writer in Hunt's Magazine, " we are, in 
effect, advancing the other great interests of 
the country, a fact which we are too apt to 
forget in discussing any single interest with 
ex-parte views. We will take the mere subject 
of commerce, which is supposed to be inimi- 
cal to the other interests of the nation, and 
what a mighty spring is given to the internal 
trade of the country by agricultural enterprise, 
looking at the actual condition of the trans- 
portation of agricultural products upon the 
principal lines of commercial communication, 
both at the east and west. How large a por- 
tion of the freights is furnished by the agricul- 
ture of the south to the ships which are con- 
tinually plying from its ports to the inland 
ports of our own territor3% and to the prominent 
cotton markets abroad. Of the vessels that are 
daily taking in their cargoes in the harbours 
of Charleston and New Orleans, and the inter- 
vening ports, it is safe to say that the princi- 
pal portion of those freights is derived from 
the cotton, sugar, tobacco, and rice, as well as 
the other agricultural staples of the surround- 
ing territory. The same is the case with the 
commerce of the Mississippi: and we find the 
numei-ous steam ships and flat boats which 
ply upon that river during the season of navi- 
gation, ai-e laden with the agricultural products 
of the states that border its banks, or that are 
sent down through the interior by the Ohio. 
The commerce of the lakes is maintained, more- 
over, in a great measure by the transportation 
of the agricultural produce of the great states 
of Ohio, Illinois and Michigan, lying upon their 
borders, to the eastern markets : and the same 
may be said of the canal and rail-road trans- 



portation of the greater number of the states 
as well as our coastwise trade. Furthermore, 
if we examine the decks and holds of the ships 
which are constantly setting sail from our 
commercial towns both at the east and south, 
we find that agriculture supplies the great 
bulk of the cargoes which are exported abroad. 
It is agriculture indeed which gives life-blood 
to' the trade and commerce of the country, and 
is doubtless as important to the solid vigour of 
commercial enterprise as nutritious food to the 
health of the human body. Withdraw this re- 
source from our commerce, and the veins and 
arteries of the commercial system would sink 
into a state of collapse, exhibiting the cadave- 
rous and pallid hue of disease and starvation. 
Of the amount of the several species of agri- 
cultural products yielded by the country, we 
are furnished with the following statements, made 
in one of the late reports of the United States 
Commissioner of Patents. 

All Estimate of the products of labour and capi- 
tal in the United States for the year 1848- 



Agricultural Pro- 
ducts. 

AVheat (n) 

Indian corn 

Barley 

Rye 

Oats 

Buckwheat 

Potatoes 

Beans 

Peas 

Flaxseed 



Hay 

Hemp and Flax. 



Tobacco 

Cotton 

Rice 

Sugar (including 

maple) 

Silk cocoons. ... 

Hops 

Beeswax (6) 

Honey 



Molasses (c) . .. . 

Wine 

Pasturage, annual 
value 

Value of the residu- 
tt?/i of crops: straw, 
chaff, &c. (rf).. 

Manure (e) 



Products nf orchards 

Value in 1640 

Increase 25 per cent 

Products of gardens 



Number estimated 
at 3,000,000 . . . 



Products of nurseries 
Value of in latO . . . 
Increase 25 percent. 

Live stock and its 
products. 
Sheep, No. in 181S . 
Wool, pounds .... 
Neat cattle, number 

in 1848 

Swine, number in 
1848 ^ . . - 



Quantities 



Bushel 

126,364 

583,150 

6.222. 

32,951. 
185.500i 

12,523! 
114,475: 

io,ooo; 

20,000. 

i,6oo: 



Tons. 

15,735,000 

100,000 

Pounds. 

218,909,000 

1,060,000,000 

119,199,500 

275,000,000 

400,000 

1,560,301 

789,525 

23,685,750 

Gallons 
9,600,000 
500,000 



Dollars. 
7,256,904 
1,814,226 

nntial valtu^ 

■miatul at 15 

doUs. per garden 



Dollars 

1 15 

59 

65 

65 

35 

50 

30 

1 00 

87i 

1 20 



8 00 
180 00 



04 
07 
03 

05 
2 00 
09 
21 
10 



Dollars. 

145,319,290 

344,058,500 

4,044,332 

21,418,475 

64,925,000 

6,266,500 

32,342,500 

10,000,000 

17,500,000 

1,920,000 



125,830,000 
18,000,000 



8,756,360 
74,620,000 
3,575,985 

13,750,000 

800,000 

140,967 

165,800 

2,368,575 



2,736,000 
500,000 

60,768,136 



100,000,000 
60,000,000 



593,534 

148,383 



25,000,000 
60,000,000 

18,714,482 

35,000,000 



30 



1.119,866,420 
9,071,130 



45,000,000 



741,917 



54,813,047 
18,000,OOQf 



51 



AGRICULTURE. 



AGROSTIS. 



Estimate — coiitinued. 



Butchers' meat (g) 
including mutton, 
beef, & pork, lbs. 

Value of hides, pelta 
and tallow - 

Increase of neat cat- 
tle in 184S, estima- 
ted at 3 per cent. 
sincel847, in num- 
ber 449,147, atflO 
per head 



Horses, mules passes 
Number in 1848.... 
Value of incr'se (la- 
bour not estimated 

Poultry. 

Value in 1840 

Increase 2.5 per cent. 

Eggs, No. consumed 

Live geese feathers 

lbs. 

Products of the dairy. 

Value in 1840 

Increase 25 per cent. 
Milk, value of 



Products of the forest, 
including lumber, 
furs, and skins. .. 

Firewood, No. c'ds 



I Products of the fishe. 
I ries, including 
( whale, cod, mack- 
erel, and all other 
fisheries - 



{Capital employed in 
commerce, trade, (^ 
internal transport- 
ation - . • 

Profits at 6 per cent. 

Manufactures. 
Products, value of . 

Mines. 
Products of, inclu- 
ding iron, lead, 
gold, silver, mar 
ble, granite, salt, 
coal, &c. &c. . 



Banking and insu- 
ratice. 

Bank capital - 

Capital of insurance 

companies 

Profits of 



3,664,934,000 



Dollars Dollars 

146,597,360 

20,000,000 



5,419,586 



9,344,410 
2,336,102 
1.084,300,000 

2,000,000 



33,787,008 

8.446.750 

20,000,000 



25,000,000 



Money loaned at inte- 
rest. 
Profits of.... — 



1 Rentals. 

i Of houses and lands 

I Professions. 
Profits of 



212,000,000 



i cent 
50 



4,401,470 



8,129,350 



11,660,512 
5,421,500 

1,000,000 



42,233,758 
20,000,000 



277,553,950 



! 22,250,000 

1 50 j 37,500,000 



59,750,000 



17,581,330 



..' 24,000,000 

1 
..! 550,000,000 



~, 



■5,000,000 

20,000,000 

20,000,000 
50,000,000 
50,000,000 



3,323,564,7561 



(a) The estimates above given by the Commis- 
sioner of Patents, for 1848, are founded upon 
the bases furnished in the census returns for 1840, 
with the addition of 22 per cent., that being the 
computedincreaseof population since that period. 
The prices are generally the average prices of 
the different articles in the New York market. 
The quantities and values of hemp, flax, hops, 
beeswax, molasses, wine, products of orchards 



and nurseries, have 25 per cent, allowed for 
increase, except where later information justifies 
a departure from this rule. 

(A) The census of 1S40 contains no returns 
of honey. Bevan estimates 30 pounds of honey 
for each pound of wax produced, and this is taken 
as the basis of the present estimate. 

(c) A little more than 45 gallons of molasses 
are allowed by authors treating on the subject 
of sugar-growing and manufacture, for every 
1000 lbs. of cane sugar. 

(d) In France 11| per cent, upon the value of 
the products of the land and forest is allowed 
for the refuse of crops. From the returns of 
estimates made by farmers in various parts of 
the Union in 1848, it appears that many allow 1 
ton of straw to 20 bushels of wheat and other 
small grain produced, and 1 ton of fodder for 
about 25 bushels of Indian corn. The straw is 
valued at $2.50, and the fodder at $2 per ton : 
very low prices. If to these be added the 
refuse of the cotton, sugar, rice, and other crops, 
it will make the total value exceed g! 100,000,000. 
In England, the annual value of straw alone, 
used for thatching, &c., is estimated at about 
$40,000,000, 

(e) The average price of manure in the pre- 
sent estimate is 66j cts. per cord. The value 
of the manure produced in England was com- 
puted, in 1835, at 329,300,000 foads, valued fit 
about $295,000,000, exclusive of the droppings 
from grazing stock, equal to about \ more. 

{g) See Food and Ventii..\tion. 

[AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS, CoNstjMp- 
TioN OF. To one who examines statements of 
the agricultural products of various kinds every 
year yielded in such immense quantities, it 
seems, at first glance, difficult to imagine how 
these can all be consumed, before fresh crops 
would glut the markets and do away, for a 
time, with the labours and profits of the hus- 
bandman. It is, however, only necessary for 
one to inquire into the consumption of the pro- 
ducts of the soil constantly going on in some 
of the most populous countries and cities, to give 
him courage to persevere in his productive ef- 
forts, even with renewed ardour. It has, for 
example, been estimated that the daily con- 
sumption of corn in England and Ireland, is, 
1,238,096 bushels of wheat and barley ; besides 
annually, 100,000 bags of rice, and 450,000,000 
lbs. of sugar. The immediate products of the 
grasses, which, consumed by animals, forms 
the food of man, constitutes an amount almost 
inconceivable. In London alone there is an- 
nually consumed 155,000,000 lbs. of butcher's 
meat. Of cheese, another prodnctioii of grass, 
11,500 tons are annually introduced into Loii- 
don, from Cheshire, about 20,000 tons irom 
Warwickshiie, besides that imported from many 
other countries. Oi butter, the annual con- 
.sumption is about 50,000,000 lbs., the produce 
of 300,000 cows ; and in London, between 9 and 
10,000 cows are kept for the supply of milk to 
the inhabitants, which produce annually about 
30,000,000 qts. (Johnson's Lectures o7i Botayy,)'] 

AGROSTIS. The bent grass. An extensive 
genus of grasses, which, from the marshy soil 
on which they flourish best, are of comparatively 
small value to the farmer. 

Agrostis alba, or white bent, in Englana 
flowers in the first week in Aognst, and the 



i 



AGROSTIS. 



AGROSTIS. 



seed is ripe about the beginning of September. 
This grass is late, unproductive, and contains 
but little nutritive matter. Its creeping roots 
greatly exhaust the soil ; in this variety they 
are smaller than in the other varieties of 
Agrostis, but equally dithcult to extirpate when 
once in possession of tenacious clays. This 
propert}?^ of the roots is the best character of 
distinction for the purpose of the agriculturist, 
as it may be found at any season or stage of 
growth of the plant. 

The Agruititi caniiia, var. tnutica, Awnless 
variety of brown bent; Trichodium caninum 
miUicuni (8chrader), Creeping-stalked brown 
bent, is the most common grass on deep bogs, 
even where they are subject to be under water 
for six months in the 3rear. It is a diminutive 
plant, very unlike the produce of such soils : 
the leaves seldom attain to more than two or 
three inches in length. The smallness of the 
produce, even when cultivated in the most 
favourable circumstances, affords a sufficient 
proof of its unworthiness to be regarded by 
the farmer in any other light than that of a 
weed which indicates a soil capable of being 
improved, so as to produce the most valuable 
grasses by irrigation. It differs but little from 
the Agrostis nivea, except in the want of awns 
and the length of the culms. The structure 
varies almost imperceptibly in the Agrostis ca- 
nina, Agrostis nivea, and in this species. The 
like gradual shades of difference maybe per- 
ceived in the colour of the plants ; the caninu 
is of a brownish-green colour ; this awnless 
variety is of a pale green; the nivea of a 
greenish straw colour. The knots or bundles 
of leaves attached to the decumbent shoots 
shoAV it to be connected with the Agrostis 
cartina fdscicularis. It flowers in England the 
second and third weeks of July, and ripens 
the seed about the middle of August. 

Agrostis caiiina capiUaris. Fine-panicled 
brown bent. This variety is nearly akin to 
the Agrostis canina fascicularis, bundle-leaved 
bent; tufted bent. In old pastures, or light 
soils, this bent may be readily distinguished 
in the autumn by its shoots, which are fur- 
nished with leaves in tufts or bimdles, that 
generally run along on the surface of the rest 
of the herbage, and is occasioned, apparently, 
by the cattle, which eat the other herbage, and 
leave the scattered shoots of the tufted-leaved 
bent untouched. It is a very common grass 
on poor, light, but moist soils, incumbent on 
clay, that have long been under pasture. This 
and the woolly soft grass in some parts of Eng- 
land are termed winter fog. From the above 
details it will appear to be the least valuable 
of the bent grasses that have been mentioned. 
The cultivation of a grass of this value is out 
of the question ; the point of most importance 
to be ascertained respecting it is, how to re- 
move it from the soil, and to substitute more 
valuable grasses in its place. I have wit- 
nessed the beneficial effects of coal ashes, as a 
lop dressing, when spread on the pasture in 
sufficient quantity. The ashes favour the 
growth of the superior grasses, and the pasture 
being in consequence closely cropped by the 
cattle, which now find the pasture more pala- 
table, the tufted bent disappears ; it will, how- 



ever, be found by no means destroyed, but 
only checked in its growth. This grass 
flowers in England the first and second weeks 
of August, and ripens the seed in the end of 
the same month. 

Agrostis lobata. Lobed bent ; sea-side bent. 
The general appearance of this plant indicates 
its inferior comparative value. It appears, ac- 
cording to the information afforded by Mr. 
Curtis, to be chiefly confined to the sea coasts. 
It grows wild on a stiff wet, clayey loam, part 
of the London blue clay, in the parish of Cud- 
dington, near Epsom, Surrey. It does not ap- 
pear to be of much value to the agriculturist, 
although its nutritive powers are far from 
being inconsiderable. 

Agrostis mexicana, the Mexican bent grass, 
is, as its name implies, a native of South 
America, and was introduced into England, by 
Mr. Gilbert Alexander, in 1780. It delights 
more in calcareous or clayey soils than in 
those that are of a silicious sandy nature. It 
perfects an abundance of seed, which when 
sown produces plants that soon arrive at per- 
fection. So far, therefore, it possesses the 
requisite properties of a grass adapted for the 
alternate husbandry ; but it is late in the pro- 
duce of foliage in the spring, and that herbage 
is not distinguished by any superior nutritive 
powers. It is perfectly hardy. Being a native 
of a warmer climate, its defects may possibly 
be greatly lessened by being naturalized, and 
by frequently raising it from seed successively 
ripened in England. At present it does not 
offer any strong reasons to recommend it fur- 
ther to the notice of the agriculturist. It flow- 
ers in the third week of August, and the seed 
is ripe towards the end of September. 

Agrostis nivea. Snowy bent ; straw-coloured 
bent grass. 

Agrostis paluslris, or marsh bent. This is 
considered onl}' a variety of the Agrostis stolo- 
riifera. This grass is properly a sub-aquatic : 
it will grow on tenacious clays, but it seems 
only to thrive in very moist soils, or in such 
as are for the most part covered Avith water. 
In moist woods it is more frequent than any 
other of the creeping-stemmed bent grasses : 
here the culms often attain to five feet in 
height, when supported by bushes. The above 
details show the inferior nature of this grass 
compared to the larger, and even to the lesser 
leaved varieties of the Agrostis stulonifera. It 
cannot, therefore, as yet be considered in any 
other light than a weed that chokes up drains 
and underwoods. 

Agrostis ramosissima. Lateral -branching 
bent grass. This is nearly allied to the Agros- 
tis mexicana, and is one of the latest flowering 
grasses. It is remarkable for the number of 
branches that issue from the joints of the 
stem ; and the woody substance of the culms 
makes it approach to the nature of a shrub. 
It affords little herbage till the beginning of 
summer, and flowers at so late a period of the 
season (the first or second week in October), 
that, the frost generally destroys the panicles 
before the seed is perfected. The herbage is 
killed by frost, but the roots suffer nothing 
from its effects ; it is propagated by parting 
and planting the roots early in the spring or 
£ 2 53 



AGROSTIS. 



AGROSTIS. 



late in the autumn. It is neither very pro- 
ductive nor nutritive. 

Agrostis repens. Creeping-rooted bent; white 

->nt. The Agrostis nigra, or black couch 

ass of Withering. Though a later growing 
f .'ass, it is less productive than the Agrostis a/ba. 
1' is subject to the rust, a peculiar disease 
■which dries up the extremities of the leaves 
and gives it an unsightly appearance. Simple 
ploughing will be found ineffectual to root out 
this weed in clayey soils. It will be found 
ultimately the cheapest and most expeditious 
mode of extirpating it to follow the plough and 
fork out the roots. Burning, under such cir- 
cumstances of soil, would doubtless be highly 
beneficial, but the roots of this couch grass 
penetrate so deep that a considerable part of 
them would escape ; and the least particle of 
the root soon produces a plant. It flowers in 
England the second week of August, and the 
seed is ripe about the latter end of September. 

Agroftis stolonifera aristata. Awned-creeping 
bent. This variety of creeping bent, which is 
allied to the Agrostis Canina or awned var. 
Agr. vulgaris of Dr. Smith, is greatly inferior 
to the larger-leaved variety {Agrostis stolonifera 
latifolia, or florin) ; for the weight of nutritive 
matter per acre afforded by the latifolia is two- 
thirds greater than that of the awned variety. 
Cattle appear to eat this grass in common with 
the rough-stalked meadow-grass and meadow 
fox-tail grass. It flowers about a week later 
than the florin, but the seed is ripe about the 
same time. 

Agrostis stolonifera angustifolia. Smaller- 
leaved creeping bent. This is the most com- 
mon variety of the creeping bent, on damp, te- 
naceous, clayey soils, and in moist woods. It 
stands next in value to the longer-leaved vari- 
ety of creeping bent ; but appears from all the 
observations that have been made on it, when 
growing in natural pastures, to be entirely neg- 
lected by cattle, while any of the superior 
pasture grasses presented a sufficiency for a 
bite. It flowers in the second and third weeks 
of July, and ripens the seed about the end of 
August. 

Agrostis stolonifera (var. 1 latifolia). Longer- 
leaved creeping bent ; florin. [See Plate 5, n. 
Hay Grasses.] 

The Rev. Dr. Wm. Richardson has intro- 
duced this variety of the Agrostis stolonifera to 
the agricultural world, under the name of Fi- 
orin, and has shown its merits and properties, 
deduced from his own experiments, in a vari- 
ety of publications on the subject, to which the 
reader is referred. It is greatly superior in 
point of produce and nutritive powers to the 
other varieties of Agrostis stolonifera. 

On comparing the specimens of these differ- 
ent varieties, their resemblance to each other 
is so great, that they may be easily mistaken 
for each other, without a close inspection, and 
some knowledge of botany to assist it. This 
variety appears to be confined to rich ancient 
pasture land, as its natural place of growth, 
and the other varieties to various soils and 
situations ; and that when taken from these 
different soils, and cultivated together under 
the same circumstances, they retain their dis- 
criminating characters. On damp, clayey 
54 



soils, the second variety (smaller-leaved, creep- 
ing bent) is the most common. To moors and 
bog soils, the third variety (awned creeping 
bent grass) is chiefly or altogether confined. 
To light sandy soils, particularly when more 
or less shaded, the fourth variety (wood creep • 
ingbent grass) is peculiar; and the fifth vari- 
ety (marsh creeping bent grass) is seldom 
found but in the bottoms of ditches, or by the 
side of rivulets. The first variety being there- 
fore scarce, and the others very common, there 
is little room for surprise at the contradictory 
results of experiments that have been made, 
on one or other of these inferior varieties, by 
gentlemen equally eminent for agricultural 
knowledge under the conviction of their being 
one and the same grass as recommended by 
Dr. Richardson under the name of florin : 
whereas, though they agree in the general ha- 
bit of Dr. Richardson's variety, and indeed in 
every respect except in the characters before 
described, their inferiority in every agricultu- 
ral merit is so great, as to justify the oppro- 
brious epithets that have been bestowed upon 
them, by those who, from the above causes have 
differed from Dr. Richardson's statements of 
the merits of the first variety of florin, and 
prevented that justice being done to the disco- 
very which it may have deserved. 

The above details will assist the farmer in 
deciding on the comparative merits of this 
grass as a constituent of a mixture of grasses 
for permanent pasture ; from which it will 
doubtless appear worthy of attention, but its 
value not so great as has been supposed, if 
its habits or manner of growth be impartially 
taken into the account, when compared with 
the produce and nutritive powers of the other 
grasses. The chief advantage of this grass, 
in permanent pasture, is its late growth. It 
remains in a degree inactive, till other grasses 
have attained to perfection, and when their 
productive powers become exhausted, those of 
florin and its varieties begin ; and it will be 
found, on inspection, that the latest mouthful 
of herbage, and sometimes the earliest, in those 
pastures, is principally afforded by this grass. 

There has been much prejudice existing 
against the different species of Agrostis in gene- 
ral ; but let the proprietor of a rich ancient 
pasture divest a part of it of this grass entirely, 
and the value of the plant will be demonstrated 
in the comparative loss of late and early herb- 
age. The cock's foot grass is superior to the 
larger variety of the creeping bent, in the pro- 
portion nearly of 1 1 to 9. The meadow fescue 
is also superior to florin in nearly the like pro- 
portion as cock's foot. The meadow fox-tail grass 
is inferior to florin in the proportion nearly of 
6 to 7. When cultivated separately, for the 
purpose of green food or hay, florin requires to 
be kept perfectly clear of weeds, its couchant 
habit of growth affording great encouragement 
for the health of upright growing plants — 
under this circumstance, weeds. It flowers in 
England about the second and third weeks of 
July, and the seed is ripe about the second and 
third weeks of August. The mode of converw 
ing florin into hay, during the winter months, 
is amply detailed in Dr. Richardson's publica- 
tions on Fiorin. Full information will there 



AGROSTIS. 



AGROSTIS. 



he likewise found on the productive powers, 
uses, modes of cultivation, &c., of this grass, 
deduced from the Doctor's own experiments. 

Agrostis Urida. Rock bent; upright bent. 
Triciwdium rupeslre (Schrader). This species 
being inferior to the common bent in most 
points, its value to the agriculturist can be but 
little. The only property that renders it worthy 
of notice is, the small degree in which it im- 
poverishes the soil : when cultivated on a poor, 
silicious, sandy soil, the produce, though some- 
what inferior, continued for six years, without 
diminishing in the yearly quantity, and without 
any manure being applied ; a circumstance 
which was not manifested in any other species 
of grass. 

Agrostis vulgaris canina. Awned fine bent. 
(Brown bent, or Agrostis canina. Wither. 
Arr. Smith's Engl. Flora. Agi-ostis vulgaris 
van /2. Do. var. 1.) As this is a much less 
common plant than the variety of Agrostis 
vulgaris before described, and as it ditiers so 
much from that variety in the properties which 
constitute the farmer's distinguishing charac- 
ters of grasses, the name canina is here added. 
The vulgaris mutica is more common to sandy 
soils ; the v. canina to clayey soils. The weight 
of nutritive matter in which the produce of 
one acre of the awnless variety of Agrostis 
vulgaris canina exceeds that of the awned va- 
riety is 151.8. The comparative merits of the 
Agrostis vulgaris exceed those of the Agrostis 
vulgaris canina nearly as 2 to 1. The crop of 
the awnless variety is greater than that of the 
awned, but it is much less nutritive, being as 
VO to 7 ; the spring and autumn produce is 



likewise superior. Neither of these varieties 
appears to be of much value to the farmer. 
The rust attacks the culms and leaves of both 
varieties, which gives the plants a dirty brown 
appearance ; the Agrostis vulgaris is always 
free from this disease. The brown bent 
flowers in the second and third weeks of July, 
and ripens the seed in the end of August. 

Agrnstis vulgaris mutica. Common bent; fine 
bent grass. [See Plate 6, d, of Hay Grasses.] 
This species has four varieties, according to 
Dr. Schrader. The first is distinguished by 
being awned (see Agrostis vulgaris canina, and 
Trichodium cuninurn) ; the second by awnless 
and diseased flowers (see Agrostis punilla of 
Willd. Spec. Plant, i. p. 371) ; the third by its 
diseased awned flowers ; the fourth, by having 
the flowers viviparous, Agrostis sylvulica. 

The common bent is one of the earliest of 
the bent grasses ; in this respect it is superior 
to every other of this family ; but inferior to 
several of them in the quantity of produce it 
affords, and the nutritive matter it consumes. 
It is the most common grass on natural 
sandy pastures ; and even on more tenaceous 
soils, that are elevated and exposed, it is fre- 
quent. It flowers h\)\n the third week of June 
till the second week of July, and the seed is 
ripe the beginning of August. 

The following tabular arrangement shows 
at a glance the proportional value of the seve- 
ral varieties of Agrostis, in seed and in flower, 
and their yield per acre of green and dry pro- 
duce on various soils, and comparative quali- 
ties of nutrition. 



Description. 



SoiU 



Agrostis alba, in flower, . . - . . 

— canina, in flower . - . • 

canina, when seed ripe . . . 

palustris, in flower . . . . 

palustris, when seed ripe . . - 

repens, in flower, . . - . 

stolonifera arislata, in flower 

stolonifera aristata, in December 

stolonifera angustifolia, when seed ripe 

stolonifera angustifolia, in December - 

canina capillaris, in flower . - - 

canina fasicularis, in flower 

canina fasicularis, \n st&A . . - 

-Hieiicana, in flower . . . . 

nivea, in flower - . . . . 

nii'ca, when seed ripe . . . 

raviusissisima, in flower - • . 

stolonifera latifolia, in flower 

stolonifera latifolia, seed ripe 

lobata, in flower . . . . 

■ lobata, seed ripe - - - . - 

stricta, in flower . - . . 

i«ric/a, seed ripe - . . . . 

vulgaris mutica, in flower . . - 

vulgaris mutica, in seed . . i 

vulgaris canina - . . . 



Clay 
Bog 



Clayey loam 
Bog 



Sandy loam 
Sandy 

j Rich, black, silici- \ 

\ ous, sandy j 

Sandy 

Strong clayey loam 
Peat 

Silicious sand 

Bog 

Silicious sand 

Sandy loara 



Green Pro- 
duce per Acre 



Itx. 
8,167 8 
5,445 
6,135 10 
10,209 6 
13,612 8 
6,125 10 
S,84S 
10,209 6 
16,335 
17,015 
4,764 6 
2,722 S 
4,083 13 



6,125 10 
4,764 6 
2H,586 4 
17,696 4 
19,057 8 
6,806 4 
6,125 10 
9,528 12 
7,486 14 
10,209 6 
9,523 12 
6,125 10 



I 
Dry Produce Proluce per Acre 
per Aero. of Nutrive malter. 



3,471 3 

1,497 6 

2,603 5 

4,534 3 

5,445 

2,679 15 

4,210 12 

4,594 3 

7,350 12 

8,507 8 

1,310 3 

680 10 

1,429 5 



19,057 8 6,670 2 



2,603 6 4 
1,310 3 4 
\. 434 



7,742 1 12 

8,575 14 

3,403 2 

2,679 15 6 

4,764 6 

2,713 15 14 

4,594 3 8 

4,764 6 



0| 2,603 6 4 



lbs. 
2,255 3 

148 14 

239 4 

438 10 

584 14 

287 2 

368 10 

438 10 15 

765 11 

930 8 

148 14 
85 1 

239 4 





4 


595 8 12 



239 4 
148 14 
693 5 
967 12 
1,042 3 
319 
287 
251 3 
175 7 
531 11 
251 3 
239 4 



3 

3 
5 
11 
2 3 



This family of grasses has been held in little 
esteem by farmers, principally on account of 
tlieir lateness of flowering. (Sinclair's Hort. 
Gram. ,■ Smith's Eng. Bot.) 

[Several of the species thus enumerated, as 
existing in England, have found their way to 
America, doubtless introduced mixed in grain 
and grass seeds. They are, however, so dry 
and wiry as to be esteemed of little or no 



value to the farmer. Among these are, the 
— A. vulgaris, which Pursh, the celebrated 
botanist, says, is common in all grassy field... 
flowering in Jnly. This is doubtless the 
species which gives name to the genera, de 
rived from Agros, a Greek word signifying a 
field. Dr. Darlington says it is the grass ex 
tensively known in the Middle States as Herd.s 
or Red-top, and sometimes in the Eastern States 

55 



AIR. 



AIRA. 



called Foul Meadow Grass. The last name 
being evidently derived from the great difficulty 
with which it is eradicated when it has once 
obtained a footing. The grass called while-top, 
appears to be a variety of Herds. There 
seems to be considerable obscurity and confu- 
sion in the descriptions given of this grass. 
The common characteristics of the plant, as 
seen in the meadows of Pennsylvania, Dr. 
Darlington says, resemble those of the A. alba, 
the White or Yellow Tops of the Eastern Stales. 
It affords a tolerably good pasture for cattle, 
and is valuable in swampy grounds, which its 
roots tend to consolidate; but it is not much 
esteemed for hay, and is now seldom, if ever, 
an object of special cultivation in the Middle 
States. The Pennsylvania farmers are so op- 
posed to having Herds grass rooted in their 
fields and meadows that they reject clover and 
every other grass seed in which the least 
Herds appears. Among the species found in 
the United States, are the following — 

A. pungens, or VirginianAgrostis, frequenting 
dry, sandy banks, and road-sides, flowering in 
the southern part of Pennsylvania, in August. 
This species differs much, in habit, from most 
others. 

A. cinna, common on rivers and islands be- 
low tide-water, from Canada to the Carolinas, 
flowering in June, &c. 

A. juncea, found in barren, sajidy places, 
from New Jersey to Florida ; flo«rering from 
July to August. 

-1. laterifulia, found in rich soil on the 
edges of woods from New York to Florida, 
especially in the western countries, where it 
appears to be of more value. In the southern 
parts of Pennsylvania it affords an indifferent 
pasture in the latter part of summer, but is not 
regarded as of much consequence, which may 
indeed be said of most, if not all, of the Ame- 
rican species of agrostis. 

The late Judge Peters introduced the florin 
into Philadelphia county, in 1812, by import- 
ing a quantity of the strings or layers from 
which it is always propagated in Ireland. For 
some reason its cultivation has not been kept 
up, and at present it is difficult to be found in 
America. When once it has obtained a foot- 
ing in a suitable soil, it is scarcely to be 
eradicated, for which reason it is not adapted 
to the alternate system of husbandry.] 

AIR {Air, French, aer, Lat). The element 
or thin medium in which terrestrial animals 
move and breathe, and which surrounds the 
earth to a considerable height. See Atmo- 
sphere and Gases. 

AIRA. A genus of grasses, of which there 
are but few species capable of being cultivated 
to advantage as field grasses. 

Aira aqwitica. Water hair-grass. This plant 
is an aquatic, found naturally growing in the 
mud of standing pools, or running waters in 
England. It is, therefore, unfit for cultivation. 
Mr. Curtis says, that it is the sweetest of the 
British grasses; but there are several species 
which contain more sugar, in proportion to the 
other ingredients which compose their nutri- 
tive matter, as the Glycerin Jluitans, Elymus 
arenarius. Poa nemoralis var. angustifolia, Poa 
ttquatica 



Aira cxspifosa. Turfy hair-grass ; hassock 
grass. [See Plate 6. of Pasture Grasses, m,] 
This grass is of a very innutriiious nature ; 
but even if it had greater nutritive powers, the 
extreme coarseness of the foliage would render 
it unfit for cultivation. It delights in moist 
clayey soils, where the water stagnates ; but is 
found in almost every kind of soil, from the 
dry sandy heath to the bog. It forms dense 
tufts in pastures very disagreeable to the sight, 
which are termed hassocks, bull's faces, &c., 
by farmers. It is a most difficult plant to ex- 
tirpate, when in considerable quantity. Some 
persons, to get rid of it, dig up the tufts, and 
fill up the holes with lime compost ; this, no 
doubt, would answer the end, at least for a few 
years, if all the roots were destroyed ; but this 
is never the case : a circle of roots is left, 
which, in one or two seasons, produce larger 
hassocks than before ; and besides, when the 
hassocks are numerous, the expense attending 
this process is considerable. Others depend 
on occasional mowings to keep the hassocks 
under; but this is productive of little good, 
particularly if the mowing of the tufts be de- 
ferred till the autumn, which I believe is the 
common practice. I have found no treatment 
weaken or retard the growth of grass so much 
as cutting it closely, before and after the first 
tender shoots appear in the spring. But the 
only effectual and most profitable mode of ex- 
tirpating this grass is by first paring and burn- 
ing the surface of the land, and by making 
proper drains, to correct, as much as possible, 
the tenacious nature of the soil ; in this case 
surface-drains are as necessary as those 
termed hollow. Sand should likewise be ap- 
plied during the course of crops taken previous 
to returning the land again to permanent pas- 
ture, if such should be desirable, from its local 
situation ; as that, for instance, of a park or 
policy. This grass flowers about the third 
week in July, and the seed is ripe towards the 
end of August. 

Aira cristata. Crested hair-grass. Poa cris- 
lata. Crested meadow-grass. Host. ii. p. 54, 
t. 75. This native grass was formerly ranked 
by botanists under the genus Poa, but has 
since been referred to that of Aira, to which it 
is more closely allied. The produce of this 
species, and the nutritive matter it affords, are 
equal to those of the Festuca ovina at the time 
the seed is ripe ; they equally delight in dry 
soils, though the Aira cristata will thrive M^ell 
and remain permanent in soils of a moist and 
clayey nature, which is different from the Fes- 
tuca ovina. The greater bulk of the produce 
of the Aira cristata, in proportion to its weight, 
makes it of inferior value to the Festuca ovina. 
In some parts of the country it grows on dry 
pastures plentifully, where it appears to be but 
sparingly eaten by cattle, particularly if the 
pasture be not overstocked. Rye-grass {Lo- 
lium perenne), sheep's fescue (Festuca ovina), 
yellow oat-grass (Ave7ia Jlavesctns), crested 
dog's tail ( Cynosurus cristatus), meadow barley 
(Hordeum pratense), flexuose hair-grass {Aira 
Jlexuosa), are all preferred by cattle to the 
crested hair-grass. The nutritive matter of 
this grass differs but little in its composition 
from those of the above : it approaches nearest 



AIRING. 



ALBURNUM. 



to that of the Aira Jlexuosa, differing only in 
having less bitter extractive matter and of 
more tasteless mucilage ; but the soft hairy 
foliage of the grass appears at once the cause 
of this dislike in cattle to eat it. It flowers 
about the first week in July, and the seed is 
ripe about the beginning of August. 

Aira Jlexuosa. Zig-zag hair-grass ; wavy 
mountain hair-grass. The Aira Jlexuosa is 
much more productive on its natural soil than 
the Festtica ovinu ,- but it requires a deeper soil 
though not a richer. The Festuca ovina is 
more common among heath, the Aira Jlexuosa 
among furze, though both grasses frequently 
grow intermixed on the same soil. To those 
who attempt the improvement of such soils in 



a secondary manner only, this species of hair 
grass appears to be the best of those grasses 
natural to the soils in question, and may form 
a principal part of a mixture of seeds for that 
purpose of improvement. The produce of 
this grass on a heath soil is superior to that 
on a cla)'ey loam in the proportion of 2 to 1. 
The proportional value in which the grass at 
the time of flowering e.vceeds that of the latter- 
math, is as 8 to 7. Flowers in the first week 
of July. Seed ripens in August. 

In England the proportionate value of the 
different varieties of Aira as deduced from ex- 
periments may he ascertained by reference to 
the following classified table of results : 



Description. 


Soil. 


GrfCD Produce 
per Acre. 


Dry Produce 
per Acre. 


Produce per Acre 

of Nutritive 

Matter. 


Aira aqualica, in flower 

caespilosa, seed ripe 

cristata, in flower 

cristata, seed ripe 

flexnosa, in flower 

fiexuosa, seed ripe 


C Mud covered with ) 

t water 5 

Clay 

Sandy loam 

Heath on clay 


lbs. 

10,690 

10,209 
10,890 

6,806 4 
10,209 6 

9,528 12 











lbs. 
3,267 

3,318 
4,900 8 
3,403 2 
3,318 
3,573 4 







12 

8 


lbs. 
382 13 10 

319 11 
340 5 
127 10 
319 11 
297 12 6 



AIRING. In the management of horses, 
implies the exercising them in the open air, 
which is of the greatest advantage to them 
when performed with moderation, and accord- 
ing to the circumstances or state in which they 
are in respect to their health and the nature 
Df their keep. By this means their legs are 
prevented from swelling, their stomachs im- 
proved, and their wind rendered more free and 
perfect. 

AIR VESSELS, of vegetables, are certain 
horizontal vessels of large diameter, that pass 
through the bark of trees to the alburnum, [or 
white internal bark.] These horizontal vessels 
Dr. Darwin supposes to contain air, enclosed 
in a thin moist membrane, which may serve 
the purpose of oxygenating the fluid in (he ex- 
tremities of some fine axteries of the embryo 
buds, in the same manner as the air at the 
broad end of the egg is believed to oxygenate 
the fluids in the terminations of the placental 
vessels of the embryo chicken. 

ALBUMEN is the name given by chemists 
to the impure glossy viscid liquid, which forms 
the while of an egg. This white is composed 
chiefly of albumen mixed with some mucus, 
soda, and sulphur 

Albumen unites readily with water, and 
when heated to 165° it coagulates into a white 
solid mass ; but when mixed with ten times 
its weight of water, it no longer is coagulated 
by heat. It is composed, according to the 
analysis of MM. Gay Lussac and Thenard, of 

Carbon 52-883 

Oxygen 23 872 

Hydrogen --..-. 7-540 
Azote ...... 15-705 

iRtck. Phys. Ckem. ii. 332.) 100000 

Albumen (which is nearly identical in com- 
position with the gluten of vegetables), is one 
of the most important and common of all the 
animal substances. It abounds in bones, mus- 
8 



(Sinclair s Hort. Gram. Woh.) 

cle, the membrane of shells, sponges, &c.; 
and, according to the experiments of Hatchett, 
cartilage, nails, horns, hair, &c., are almost 
entirely composed of it. {Thomsoji, vol. iv. 
p. 407.) 

ALBURNUM. An integument composed 
of a soft white substance, scarcely perceptible 
in some sorts of trees, situated between the 
liber and the wood. In the oak and elm it is 
hard and very conspicuous. It is as it -were 
an imperfect wood, not having acquired that 
state of consistence necessary to perfect wood ; 
hence it may be compared to the cartilage in 
animals, which at length becomes bone. This 
state must necessarily be passed through be- 
fore wood can be formed. The hardness of 
this substance is in proportion to the vigour 
of the plant or tree. 

The vessels of the alburnum in their living 
state possess the property of conveying the 
sap-juice, which is propelled upwards in the 
early spring, by the absorbent terminations 
of the roots, as visible in decorticated oaks, 
the branches of which expand their buds like 
those of the birch and vine in the bleeding 
season. That the vessels of the alburnum in 
their living state occasionally act as capillary 
syphons, through which the sap-juice is first 
pushed upwards by the absorbent extremities 
of the roots, and afterwards returns down- 
wards, partly by its gravitation, in branches 
bent below the horizon, appears from an ex- 
periment of Dr. Walker; and lastly, that the 
vessels of the alburnum, after their vegetable 
life is extinct, possess a power of capillary at- 
traction of the sap-juice, or of permiitinj- it to 
pass through them occasionally, appears from 
the following experiment: — A branch cf a 
young apple-tree was so cankered, that the 
bark for about an inch round it was totally 
destroyed. To prevent the alburnum from 
becoming too dry by exnaiation, this decayed 

67 



ALCOHOL. 



ALDER TREE. 



part W3.S covered with thick white paint : in a 
few days the painting was repeated, and this 
three or four times, so as to produce a thick 
coat of paint over the decayed part, or naked 
alburnum, extending to the ascending and 
descending lips of the wound ; this was in 
spring, and the branch blossomed and ripened 
several apples. 

ALCOHOL is the name first given by the 
alchemists (it came originally from Arabia) to 
the liquid obtained by the distillation of wine, 
beer, and other fermented spirits. These seem 
to have been known in the earliest ages : 
Noah, who planted a vineyard, drank wine ; 
and the heathen writers deemed the invention 
worthy of being ascribed to their greatest 
kings and heroes. Beer, there is little doubt, 
was invented by the Egyptians. They cer- 
tainly used it in the days of Herodotus. The 
Germans drank it extensively when Tacitus 
wrote. These were probably the purest varie- 
ties of alcohol then generally made ; although 
they were known in the dark ages, and it is 
probable have been employed in the North of 
Europe from a very remote period. The pro- 
cess, however, of separating the impure alco- 
hol from these is very easy: upon subjecting 
the wine or wash to a moderate heat, the spirit 
arises, and is easily collected in a worm sur- 
rounded by cool water. It is in this way that 
gin is procured from the distillation of fer- 
mented barley or other grain ; rum from mo- 
lasses ; brandy from wine. It must not be 
supposed, however, that the product of these 
distillations is pure alcohol, for even the 
strongest brandy contains between forty and 
fifty per cent, of water. The first who pro- 
cured alcohol in a state of tolerable purity is 
supposed to have been Arnold of Villa Nova, 
a celebrated alchemist of the fourteenth cen- 
tury. When impure alcohol is concentrated 
by repeated distillations, and by mixing it 
with some salt, like the salt of tartar, that 
has a strong attraction for water, it gradually 
parts with a considerable portion of its water, 
and becomes reduced in specific gravity 
to about 0.820 ; that of commerce, however, 
is rarely of less specific gravity than 0.8371. 
At the greatest strength, however, at which it 
has been observed, such as that of 0.792, 
which M. Lowitz obtained by repeatedly dis- 
tilling rectified spirits from potash, it possesses 
the following properties: — it is transparent, 
colourless, of a strong agreeable penetrating 
taste, and produces when swallowed intoxica- 
tion. It does not freeze, even by exposure to 
the most intense cold ; it is very volatile, boil- 
ing at 176° of Fahrenheit, and in a vacuum at 
56°. It unites with water in all proportions, 
and is entirely combustible, burning without 
leaving any residuum. Alcohol, according to 
the analysis of M. Saussure, is composed of 

Hydrogen 13-70 

Carhnn - . . - . -51-98 
Oxygen 34-32 



yvipson's Chem. vol. ii. p. 39.) 



100-00 



The following table will show the ordinary 
proporti-^n of alcohol per cent, by measure in 
various fluids, according to the experiments 
cf Professor Brande. 
58 



Port 21-40 

Ditto 25-83 

Madeira 1934 

Ditto 24-42 

Sherry 18-25 

Ditto 19-83 

Claret 12-91 

Calcavella 1810 

Lisbon 18-94 

Malaga 17-26 

Bucellas 1849 

Red Madeira 18-40 

Malmsy Madeira ----- 16-40 

Marsala ------- 2587 

Ditto 17-26 

Red Champagne ----- 11-30 

White Champagne 12-80 

Burgundy ------ 14-53 

Ditto - - 11-95 

White Hermitage ... - - 1743 

Red Hermitage - - - - - 12 32 

Hock 14-37 

Ditto 8-88 

Vin de Grave 12-80 

Frontignac ------ 12-79 

Coti-Roti 12-32 

Roussillon ..--.- 17-36 

Cape Madeira ------ 18-11 

Cape Muschat 18-25 

Constanlia ------ 17-75 

Tent 13-30 

Sheraz 15-52 

Syracuse ------- 15-28 

Nice ....... 14-63 

Tokay 9-88 

Raisin 2577 

Grape 18-11 

Currant ------- 2055 

Gooseberry - - - - - - 11-84 

Elder 9-87 

Cider 9-87 

Perry 9 87 

Brown Stout 6-80 

Ale 8-88 

Brandy 5339 

Rum 53-68 

Hollands or Gin 51-60 

The spirits distilled from different fermented 
liquors, says Davy, diflfer in their flavour, for 
peculiar odorous matters or oils rise in most 
cases with the alcohol. The spirit from malt 
usually has an empyreumatic taste, like that 
of oil formed by the distillation of vegetable 
substances. The best brandies seem to owe 
their flavour to a peculiar oily matter, formed 
probably by the action of tartaric acid upon 
alcohol ; and rum derives its characteristic 
taste from a principle in the sugar cane. The 
cogniac brandies contain prussic acid. {Davy, 
Chem. Phil. 135.) 

ALCOVE (Span, a/coia,- D&n. alkove ; but 
originally from the Arab, alkobba). A recess 
in gardens or pleasure-grounds. 

ALDER TREE {Alnus glutinosa,G3&nnGT; 
Betula Alnus, Linn.). The common Alder [of 
England] appears generally as a shrub ; but 
if allowed to attain maturity it will grow to a 
stately tree. The bark in old trees is blackish, 
and full of clefts; on the young shoots it is 
smooth, and of a purplish hue. The leaves 
have a dark green colour, and roundish shape, 
resembling those of the hazel, nicked on the 
margin, smooth, and clammy to the touch. 
The foot-stalk is about an inch long ; the leaf- 
ribs on the under side have spongy balls at the 
angles, as in the leaves of the lime tree. The 
male catkins are cylindrical, appear in 
autumn, and remain on the tree till spring. 
The female catkins are of a short conical form, 
like a small fir cone. 

[In England] the alder is often planted as a 
coppice-wood in wet and boggy places where 
no other trees will thrive, and cut down every 



ALDER TREE. 



ALDER TREE. 



tenth or twelfth year for poles. It may also 
be often used to advantage on swampy ground 
for fences, and may be conveniently trained to 
any desired height. The young trees may be 
planted to great advantage for securing the 
banks of water-courses from the torrents. We 
certainly know of no tree so well adapted to 
this purpose as the alder ; for, on account of 
the numerous suckers which it constantly 
sends up from the bottom, and the very fibrous 
nature of their roots, the banks become in 
time one mass of strongly interwoven roots. 

Wherever it may be desirable to complete a 
prospect by extending plantations over sterile 
cold ground, water-galls, or boggy swamps, no 
tree we know of is equal to the alder, even in 
a picturesque point of view. 

The generality of trees acquire picturesque 
beauty by age. Some of the largest alders to 
be seen in England are growing in the Bishop 
of Durham's park at Bishop-Auckland, and 
some very fine ones are to be found in his 
Grace the Duke of Northumberland's grounds 
atSion House. Mr. Beevor mentions an alder 
in his garden, which, at four feet from the 
ground, measured upwards of sixteen feet in 
circumference. 

Sir Thomas Dick Lauder says, "In very 
many instances we have seen the alder put on 
so much of the bold resolute character of the 
oak, that it might have been mistaken for that 
tree except for the intense depth of its green 
colour. 

The wood of the alder is used [in Europe] 
for making charcoal and heating ovens, and is 
valuable for piles, pumps, sluices, and in ge- 
neral for all works underwater; "because," 
says Pliny, " it will endure for many years." 
It is said to have been used under the Riallo 
at Venice ; and we are told that the morasses 
about Ravenna were piled with it in order to 
lay foundations for building upon. In Flan- 
ders and Holland it is raised in great quantities 
for this purpose. It serves also many domestic 
and rural uses, such as for cart-wheels, spin- 
ning wheels, milk-vessels, bowls, spoons, and 
other turnery ware, troughs, handles of tools, 
clogs, pattens, and wooden heels. The roots 
and knots furnish a beautiful veined wood for 
cabinets. The Scottish Highlanders often 
made chairs of it, which are very handsome, 
and of the colour of mahogany. 

Sir Thomas Dick Lauder tells us that the 
old trees, which are full of knots, cut up into 
planks, make very handsome tables. "We 
have seen some of these," says the baronet, 
"made from some enormous trees that grew 
at Dalwick, on the property of Sir John Nas- 
myth, in Peebleshire ; and no foreign wood we 
have ever seen can match them for beauty." 

The bark, though nearly superseded by log- 
wood, is iised by dyers, tanners, and leather- 
dressers; and also by fishermen for dyeing 
their nets. Both the bark and young shoots 
dye yellow, and with a little copperas, a yel- 
lowish grey, very useful in the demitints and 
shadows of flesh colour in tapestry. The 
shoots cut in March will dye a cinnamon 
colour ; and a fine tawny, if they be dried and 
powdered. The fresh wood yields a dye the 
colour of rappee snuff. The catkins dye green, 



and the bark is used as a basis for black. The 
bark and leaves have been sometimes employed 
in tanning leather, the whole tree being very 
astringent. 

The alder delights in a very moist soil, 
where few other trees will thrive : — 

" The Alder, owner of each waterish soil." 

Fairfax's Tasso. 

It is also an old opinion that it does not in- 
jure grass, but rather nourishes its growth : — 

*' The Alder, whose fat shadow nourisheth ; 
Each plant set neere to liiin long flourisheth." 

/r. Browne. 

Marshall is of a very different opinion. " In 
low swampy situations," he says, "Avhere the 
ground cannot be drained but at too great an 
expense, the alder may be planted with pro- 
priety and advantage ; but wherever the soil is 
or can be made pasturable, the alder should by 
no means be allowed to gain a footing. Its 
suckers and seedlings poison the herbage ; and 
it is a fact well known to the observant hus- 
bandman, that the roots of the alder have a 
peculiar property of rendering the soil they 
grow in more moist and rotten than it would 
be if not occupied by this aqueous plant. 
Plantations of alders should therefore be con- 
fined to swampy, low, unpasturable places ; 
except when they are made for the purpose of 
ornament ; and in this case the native species 
ought to give place to its more ornamental 
varieties, of which Hanbury makes five, 
namely, the log-leaved alder, the white alder, 
the black alder, the hoary-leaved alder, and the 
dwarf alder." ( On Planting, ii. 37.) The cut- 
leaved is a pretty variety. 

It is propagated by layers, cuttings, or 
truncheons, about three feet in length. Such 
truncheons are often employed for securing 
the banks of rivers, either by planting them 
very close, or crosswise. For general pur- 
poses, however, we approve of raising the 
young trees by layers. 

The distance at which these trees should be 
placed, if intended for a coppice, is a yard 
square ; and at the expiration of seven years, 
when they may be felled for poles, every other 
stool may be taken away ; and if the small 
lateral shoots be taken off' in the spring, it will 
very much strengthen the upright poles, pro- 
vided a few small shoots be left at certain dis- 
tances upon the trunk, to detain the sap for the 
increase of its bulk. 

The alder may be raised from seeds sown in 
beds in the same way as is usual for birch , 
but propagation by truncheons or layers is the 
most speedy process for obtaining young 
plants. 

The best time for planting alder truncheon;, 
is in February or March. They should be 
about three feet in length, sharpened at one 
end, and the ground loosened with an instru- 
ment before they are thrust into it, lest y the 
stiffness of the soil the bark should be torn off, 
which may prevent their growing. They should 
be put into the earth about two feet, to prevent 
their being blown out of the ground by strong 
winds. After they have made stout shoots, the 
plantations should be cleared from all such 
weeds as grow tall, otherwise they will over- 
bear the young shoots; but when they hav 

59 



ALDER TREE. 



ALDERNEY COWS. 



made good heads, they will keep down the 
weeds, and will require no further care. 

If they be raised by laying down the 
branches, it must be performed in October ; 
and by the October following, they will have 
taken root sufficiently to be transplanted out ; 
which mast be done by digging a hole, and 
loosening the earth in the place where each 
plant is to stand, planting the young trees at 
least a foot and a half deep, cutting off the 
top to about nine inches above the surface, 
which will occasion them to shoot out many 
branches. 

Mr. South, in the sixth volume of the Letters 
and Papers of the Bath and Went of Englaiid 
Society, has stated, that, on planting a wagon- 
load of truncheons in such situations as have 
been described above, they all appeared to suc- 
ceed by throwing out strong shoots the first 
summer, but that the year following they all 
died, not having struck a single root. Con- 
cluding that this did not depend on any defect 
in the soil, he planted it again with small- 
rooted slips, taken from old stubs, few of 
which failed, most of them having been since 
repeatedly cut for brush-wood, poles, and other 
purposes ; and of those planted single, he ob- 
serves, one has formed a conical top of great 
beauty, and that its bole is three feet seven 
inches in circumference midway between the 
branches and the ground. From this statement 
it Avould seem, that the best mode of securing 
the growth of those trees is the planting of 
the rooted slips, which can be easily done, as 
great quantities of young shoots are annually 
thrown out from about the roots of this sort of 
trees. 

Where there are plantations, or much of this 
sort of wood on a farm, Arthur Young advises 
that It should be cut when the bark will peel, 
and he immediately soaked in a pond for two 
months, as by this means the wood is so much 
hardened as to be greatly improved in its 
quality. 

[Among the species of alder found in the 
United States Michaux describes only two 
species, the Alnus serrulata, or Common Alder, 
abounding in the Northern, Middle, andWestern 
States on the borders of streams and especially 
in places covered with stagnant water. Its ordi- 
nary size is eight or ten feet in height, seldom 
attaining more than two inches in the diameter 
of its stem. It blooms in January, the sexes 
being separate on the same stock. The barren 
flowers resembling those of the birch. The 
common alder is too small to be applicable to 
any use in the arts, and from its inferiority of 
size, it M'ill probably one day give place to the 
European Alder. 

The Alnus Glaucn, or Black Alder, is one of 
the most beautiful species of the genus. It is 
unknown in the Southern, rare in the Middle 
States, and in the North-eastern States, where it 
is more frequently found, much less multiplied 
than the common alder. It grows a third taller 
than the latter species, attaining sometimes 
eighteen or twenty feet in height and eight 
inches in diameter. Its leaves are similar in 
jihapf , Dut a third larger. The bark of the trunk 
rtnd of the secondary branches is smooth, 
glcKisy, and of a deep brown colour sprinkled 
fiO 



with white. It is employed by hatters for dying 
black. (North American Si/lva.)] 

ALDERNEY COWS. This admired breed 
of cows is in general fine-boned, but small and 
ill-made, and of a light red or yellowish colour. 
Cows of this breed are most frequently met 
with in England about the seats of the opulent, 
from their milk, though smaller in quantity, 
being more rich in quality than that of most 
other kinds, and yielding from the same mea- 
sure a larger proportion of cream and butter, 
which is of a beautiful yellow colour and fine 
flavour. They are much inclined to fatten, 
and their beef has a very fine grain, and is well 
tasted, but rather more yellow or high-coloured 
than that of other sorts. 

Mr. Lawrence in his general treatise on 
cattle, however, supposes, "that the cattle of 
the islands on the French coast are collectively 
known by the name of Alderney;" and that 
" these are a variety of, and smaller than, the 
Norman ; light red, yellow, dun, and fawn- 
coloured; short, wild-horned, deer-necked, Avith 
a general resemblance to that animal ; thin, 
hard, and small-boned ; irregular, often very 
awkwardly shaped." But he considers this de- 
scription to refer chiefly to the cows. He 
thinks " they are amongst the best milkers in 
the world as to quality, and in that respect are 
either before or immediately next to the long 
horn, but that in weight of butter for inches 
they are far superior to all. He has been as- 
sured by a respectable friend, that " an Alder- 
ney strayed cow during the three weeks she 
was kept by the finder made nineteen pounds 
of butter each week ; and the fact was held so 
extraordinary, as to be thought worth a memo- 
randum in the parish books." And it is added, 
that " the Norman and island cattle make fat 
ver}^ quick, and for their bulk arrive at consi- 
derable weight. The beef," in his opinion, "is 
of the first class, very fine grained, in colour 
yellow, or of a high colour, with a bluish cast 
and elastic feel, which denotes the closest 
grained, most savoury, and finest meat." It is 
in his recollection, that, "some years since, a 
heifer, bred between Alderney and Kentish 
home-bred stock, and fattened on cabbages and 
carrots, made one hundred and fifty stone, 
dying uncommonly fat." On this ground he 
supposes, that "this species is, in course, a 
proper cross for the large and coarse-boned , 
but in that view he would prefer the real Nor- 
mans from the Continent, as generally better 
shaped than the islanders." He likewise 
states, that "many persons near the metropolis, 
and along the south and western coast, make 
a trade of importing these cattle, which are 
extremely convenient for private families, and 
make a good figure in parks and lawns." 

Mr. CuUey, however, remarks, that they are 
a breed of cattle too delicate and tender to be 
much attended to by the British farmer, and 
not capable of bearing the cold of this island, 
especially the northern parts of it. 

By an experiment which is stated in the Re- 
port for the County of Kent, made between a 
large home-bred cow of eight years old and a 
small Alderney of two years old, it appears 
that the home-bred cow in seven days gave 
thirty-five gallons of milk, which made ten 



ALE. 



ALEHOOF. 



pounds and three ounces of butter, and the 
Alderney cow, in the same length of time, gave 
only fourteen gallons of milk, but which made 
six pounds and eight ounces of butter. 

Very useful cattle may be bred by crossing 
these cows with short-horned bulls. The late 
Mr. Hunter also produced a very beautiful cow 
from the Alderney by a buffalo, which is said, 
in the Middlesex Report, to have kept plump 
and fat, both in summer and winter, on much 
less food than would be sufficient to support a 
beast of the same size of the ordinary breed. 

ALE (Sax. eale). A liquor obtained from 
the infusion of malt and hops by fermentation. 
Ale differs from beer chiefly by having a 
smaller proportion of hops. There are differ- 
ent sorts of ale brewed, such as strong ale, 
table ale, pale ale, and brown ale. The pale 
ale is made from malt which has only been 
slightly dried, and is generally considered as 
of a more viscid quality than the brown ale, 
which is produced from malt that has been 
roasted, or very hard dried. {Miller.) See 
Beer and Buewixg. The fertility of the soil 
in grain, and its being not proper for vines, 
put the Egyptians upon drinking ale, of which 
they were the inventors. {Arhuthnot.) 

A liquor made from fermented barley is 
mentioned by Herodotus (1. ii. c. 77) : the 
earliest manufactured kind of intoxicating 
liquid was probably, however, mead. Tacitus 
notices the use of beer by the Germans. Pliny 
'/escribes it as common to all the nations of 
the west. It has long been a favourite bever- 
age of the inhabitants of England. Our Saxon 
and Danish forefathers drank beer to excess. 
They regarded it as the drink allotted to those 
admitted into the Hall of Odin. Ale is named 
amongst the laws of King Ina; and it was 
long the custom, when the Norman princes 
were on the throne, to regulate its price by 
statute; thus, in 1272, it was ordained that a 
brewer should sell two gallons of ale in a city 
for a penny, or three or four gallons for the 
same price in the country. 

Hops were apparently first used for beer in 
Germany, and in the JDutch breweries about 
the year 1400 ; but they were not used gene- 
rally in England until about the year 1600. 
Henry VIII., in 1530, even forbade the brewers 
to mix hops in their beer ; and yet, according 
to Beckmann {Hist, of Inv. vol. iv. p. 336), 
plantations of hops had begun to be formed in 
England, a. n. 1552 : The distinction between 
ale and beer is thus stated by Dr. Thomson : 
"Both are obtained by fermentation from the 
malt of barley, but they differ from each other 
in several particulars, ale is light-coloured, 
brisk, and sweetish, or at least free from bit- 
ter; while beer is dark-coloured, bitter, and 
much less brisk. Porter is a species of beer, 
and is what was formerly called strong beer. 
The original difference between ale and beer 
was owing to the malt, from which they were 
prepared. Ale malt was dried at a very low 
heat, and consequently was of a pale colour; 
while beer or porter malt was dried at a higher 
temperature, and had in consequence acquired 
a brown colour. This incipient charring had 
developed a peculiar, and agreeable bitter 
taste, which was communicated to the beer 



along with the dark colour. This bitter taste 
rendered beer more agreeable to the palate, and 
less injurious to the constitution than ale. It 
was manufactured in larger quantities, and 
soon became the common drink of the lower 
ranks in England. When, during the wars of 
the French Revolution, the price of malt M'as 
very materially increased, the brewers found 
out that a greater quantity of wort of a given 
strength could be procured from pale malt, 
than from brown malt; the consequence was, 
that pale malt was to a considerable extent 
substituted for brown malt in the brewing of 
porter and beer. The wort now, however, 
was paler, and wanted tliat agreeable bitter 
flavour which characterized porter. Tlie por- 
ter brewers endeavoured to remedy these de- 
fects by several artificial additions, such as 
burnt sugar, quassia, &c., and most of which 
the chief London porter brewers have, I be- 
lieve, long since discontinued." Brewers are 
obliged, under the 6 Geo. 4, c. 81, to take out 
an annual license, for which they pay, if hrew- 
ers of strong beer, 

BirrrU. L. t. 

Of not cxceedin!; .... 20 10 

Of exceeding 1,000 and not exceeding - 2,000 3 

— 10.000 — 20,000 30 

— 30,000 — 40,000 60 
Exceeding 40,000 75 

Considering the increase of population in 
England, the consumption of beer has not 
materially increased since 1787, as the follow- 
ing table of the beer brewed in this country in 
various years will show. 



Years ending 
5lh July. 


Strong Beer. 


Table Beer. 


1787 
1797 
1807 
1817 
1825 


Barrels. 

4,426,482 
5,839,627 
5,577,176 
5,236,048 
6,500,664 


Barrels. 
485,620 

584,422 
1,732,710 
1,453,960 
1,485,750 



The number of barrels of beer exported 
from England is considerable and increasing, 
amounting in the years ending the 

5th of January, 1826 to 53,013 barrels. 
— 1828 — 59,471 — 

_ 1830 — 74,902 — 

{M'Culhch's Did. of Com.) 

ALEHOOF {Hedera terrestris. From ale, 
and hnoj.-r, head). Ground-ivy, so called by 
our Saxon ancestors, as being their chief in- 
gredient in ale. This wild plant creeps upon 
hedge banks, at the foot of trees, and in every 
shady place, flowering in spring. It takes root 
at every joint, like the strawberry runners, 
and its leaves are roundish and notched at 
their ed'-'cs, becoming a purple colour as the 
spring advances. Its flowers are blue, and its 
roots fibrous. This plant has a peculiar and 
strong smell ; and it is best gathered when in 
flower. It is an excellent vulnerary or wound- 
herb, applied outwardly, and taken inwardly. 
An ointment made from alehoof, or ground- 
ivy, is very healing to ulcers and fistula. The 
decoction of the herb drank daily for a con- 
tinuance is deemed useful for cleansing the 
stomach, promoting the proper secretions, and 
sweetening the blood. [The old writers are 
full of commendations of the medical v.'r:ae.> 
of ground-ivy, which are extolled for a great 
F 61 



ALEXANDER. 



ALKALI. 



variety of ailments and " griefs," operating as 
a diuretic, and being excellent in disorders of 
the lungs and breast.] It obtained its name of 
Alehoof among the poor, who infuse it in ale 
or beer, and drink it warm for all internal ail- 
ments. (L. Johnxon.) 

ALEXANDER (Hipposelinum). This gar- 
den vegetable has been superseded by celery, 
yet it is an excellent vegetable, and grows 
abundantly wild almost everywhere in Eng- 
land. The seeds and root are hot and dry like 
those of parsley, and preparations of them are 
much in use as a popular medicine. 

[Some wild species of Alexander are known 
in the United Stares. (See F/or. Ces.)] 

ALIMENT (Lat. allmentum). That which 
nourishes, nutriment or food. 

Of alimentary roots, some are pulpy and 
very nutritious, as turnips and carrots. These 
have a fattening quality. (Arbuth. on Aliments.) 
See Gases, Eaiith, Watkr, &c. 

The food of animals, whether of a solid or 
liquid kind, should be adapted to their different 
organs both in quantity and quality, in order 
that they may exist in thfi most perfect state. 
It is observed, that nature directs every animal, 
instinctively, to choose such substances for food 
as are best adapted to its health and support ; 
but as some are withdrawn from their natural 
condition for the convenience of man, and, in 
their domesticated state, are fed on artificial 
productions, not of their own choice, it be- 
comes a matter of serious importance to the 
OAvners of cattle, horses, &c., to make them- 
selves acquainted with their nature and habits, 
and also with the qualities of those substances 
which are usually designed as food for them, 
since there is no doubt but errors in the choice 
of the latter must be a fruitful source of disease. 
Besides, in the view of the grazier, some sorts 
of food may be much more advantageous in 
the quality of fattening animals than others — 
a circumstance of vast importance. See 
Food. 

ALKiALI. The word alkali comes from an 
herb dlilled by the Egyptians kali; by us glass- 
wort. This herb they burnt to ashes, boiled 
the ashes in water, and after having evaporat- 
ed the water, there remained at the bottom a 
white salt — this they called sal kali or alkali. 
{Todd's Johnson.) The word is of Arabic ori- 
gin ; according to Albertus Magnus it signifies 
"the dregs of bitterness." {Thomson, \o\. ii. 
p. 49.) 

The chief alkalies found in plants are potash 
and soda ; ammonia, it is true, is produced by 
the distillation of certain vegetables, but it is 
a pi'oduct of the distillation ; and again, mor- 
phia is obtained from opium, quinia from the 
Peruvian bark,' &c. ; but these alkaline sub- 
stances are but rarely met with by the cultivator, 
and do not involve any very important facts of 
vegetable chemistry. 

Potash is found in all vegetables growing at 
a distance fi-om the sea ; that of commerce is 
procured by merely burning the vegetable, 
washing the ashes in water, and evaporating 
the solution of potash thus obtained to dryness. 
In this manner the potash of commerce is 
made. The proportion, however, of potash, 
existing in plants varies very considerably, as 
62 



may be seen from the following table of the 
quantities of ashes and potash obtained from 
100 parts of various plants : — 



Sallow 






Ashes, 


Potash. 


2-8 


0-285 


Elm - 


. 


. 


236727 


039 


Oak - 


. 


. 


1-.^5I85 


015343 


Poplar 


_ 


. 


1 •23476 


007481 


Hornbeam - 


. 


. 


11283 


1254 


Beach 


. 




58432 


11572 


Fir 


. 




0-34133 




Rue branches 


. 




3-379 


055 


Common neltle 


. 




10-67186 


2 5033 


Common thistle 


- 




404265 


0-53734 


Fern - 


. 




4 00781 


0-6259 


Stalks of maize 


. 




8-86 


1 75 


Wormwood - 


_ 




9744 


7-3 


Fumitory 


_ 




21-9 


7-9 


Trifoliuiin pratense 






0-078 


Vetches 


. 






2-75 


Beans, with their stalks 




20 



Thomson^ s Chem. iv. 189. 

The potash thus obtained, however, must 
not be regarded as a pure alkali, for it contains 
almost always a small portion of various salts, 
such as the sulphate of potash, muriate of pot- 
ash, sulphate of lime, phosphate of lime, &c. 

Soda abounds in marine plants generally to 
a much greater extent than potash does in the 
vegetables of inland districts ; the barilla of 
Spain is extracted from the salsola sativa and 
vermiculata, and some of these plants yield 
nearly 20 per cent, of ashes, which contain 
about 2 per cent, of soda. 

The union of alkalies with acids forms the 
class of bodies known as the alkaline salts. 

[Plants, in their growth, derive certain ele- 
ments for their subsistence from the atmos- 
phere, namely, carbonic acid, water, and am- 
monia, the decomposition of the last furnish- 
ing their nitrogen. They, however, require other 
materials for the perfection of certain organs 
or parts appropriated to the performance of 
special functions, such, for example, as the 
perfection of the seed, which is destined to re- 
nev/ the plant. These elements are furnished 
by the soil, and consist of salts or alkaline 
substances, such as potash, soda, lime, alumine, 
magnesia, metallic oxids, and phosphates. The 
proportion of these contained in soils regulate, 
in a great degree, their capacities for the pro- 
duction of different plants. 

Connected with agricultural philosophy, the 
alkalies are subjects of the deepest interest. 

The salts of potash and soda, and of the al- 
kaline earths or minerals, lime, alumine, and 
even magnesia, can be obtained, by burning 
and certain chemical processes, from parts of 
the structure of all plants. This shows the 
great importance of alkalies, and alkaline sub- 
stances, to the growth and welfare of every pro- 
duct of the soil. It follows also that Avith every 
crop removed, a portion of the potash, etc., 
must be removed from the land. To compen- 
sate for such losses, ashes, farm-yard manure, 
&c., supply alkalies to the soil, along with 
other fertilizing substances. In rocky districts 
of country natura,! sources exist from whence 
the soil derives a regular supply of potash, 
namely, the disintegration of granite, and de- 
composition of its felspar and mica, both of 
which contain this alkali. 



ALKALI. 



ALKALL 



A few years after gypsum was introduced 
into general use, farmers began to observe a 
diminution of their hay crops, and to condemn 
it as an exhauster of the soil. But this charge 
against plaster was not well founded, at least 
in the sense it was made. 

The numerous instances given by Liebig, 
of the importance of the alkalies and metallic 
oxides on vegetation, show that their influence 
has been too much overlooked. It has been 
thought remarkable by some vegetable physi- 
ologists, that those cereal grasses which 
furnish food for man, should, as it were, 
follow him wherever he goes. The reason is 
to be found in the fact, that none of our grain 
plants can produce perfect seeds, or seeds 
yielding farina, without a greater supply of 
phosphate of magnesia and ammonia than 
can be found in regions where these salts, 
resulting from organized vitality, are less 
abundant. (Cultivator.) 

Plants growing on a soil, containing a due 
mixture of earthy ingredients, always select a 
proportion of each, according to their several 
capacities or wants. It is a fact of the highest 
practical value to the agriculturist to know, 
that where a soil which originally contained 
all the elements essential to the production of a 
crop, becomes exhausted of one alkaline or 
earthy element, another may be substituted so 
as to compensate for the privation. Where, 
for example, there is a deficiency in a soil of 
the alkaline earth — lime, the addition of potash, 
soda or magnesia, all of which exist in the 
ashes of wood and other vegetable substances, 
may be resorted to for the purpose of making 
it up. Thus, plants when growing in a soil 
where there is no potash will make up the 
deficiency by taking up soda, if this last alkali 
be present. 

Plants which grow on or near the sea-shore 
assimilate or take up soda instead of potash. 
Sea-salt consists almost entirely of soda, and 
the sea is therefore to be regarded as the great 
source of this alkali. It is, however, found in 
England and many other countries in the form 
of native rock salt, and also exists in most 
soils combined Avith potash. The soda of com- 
merce is usually obtained from the ashes of 
plants growing on the sea coast, just as potash 
is procured from the ashes of trees and other 
vegetables growing inland. (See Soda, Kelp,&c.) 

The sowing of the earth with salt has from 
the earliest times been deemed an infallible 
means of producing total barrenness, and the 
excess of any salt in a soil is still known to 
be destructive of fertility. 

The perfect developement of a plant is, never- 
theless, according to Liebig, dependent on the 
presence of due proportions of the alkalies or 
alkaline earths, since, when these substances 
are totally wanting, its growth will be arrest- 
ed, and when they are only deficient it must 
be impeded. "Let us compare," says this emi- 
nent chemist, " two kinds of trees, the wood of 
which contains unequal quantities of alkaline 
bases, and we shall find that one of these 
grows luxuriantly in several soils, upon which 
the others are scarcely able to vegetate. For 
example, 10,000 parts of oak wood yield 250 



parts of ashes, tne same quantity of fir-wood 
only 83, of linden-wood 500, of rye 440, and 
of the herb of the potato-plant 1500 parts. 

"Firs and pines find a sufficient quantity of 
alkalies in granitic and barren sandy soils, in 
which oaks will not grow ; and wheat thrives 
in soils favourable for the linden-tree, because 
the bases, which are necessary to bring it to 
complete maturity, exist there in sufficienV 
quantity. The accuracy of these conclusions, 
so highly important to agriculture and to the 
cultivation of forests, can be proved by the 
the most evident facts. 

" All kinds of grasses, the Equisetacex, for 
example, contain in the outer parts of their 
leaves and stalk a large quantity of silicic acid 
and potash, in the form of acid silicate of 
potash. The proportion of this salt does not 
vary perceptibly in the soil of corn-fields, be- 
cause it is again conveyed to them as manure 
in the form of putrefying straw. But this is 
not the case in a meadow, and hence we never 
find a luxuriant crop of grass on sandy and 
calcareous soils which contain little potash, 
evidently because one of the constituents in- 
dispensable to the growth of the plants is 
wanting. Soils formed from basalt, grau- 
wacke, and porphyry are, cxteris paribus, the 
best for meadow land, on account of the quan 
tity of potash which enters into their composi 
tion. The potash abstracted by the plants is 
restored during the annual irrigation.* That 
contained in the soil itself is inexhaustible in 
comparison with the quantity removed by 
plants. 

"But when we increase the crop of grass in 
a meadow by means of gypsum, we remove a 
greater quantity of potash with the hay than 
can, under the same circumstances, be restored. 
Hence it happens, that after the lapse of seve- 
ral years, the crops of grass on the meadows 
manured with gypsum diminish, owing to the 
deficiency of potash. But if the meadow be 
strewed from time to time with wood-ashes, 
even with the lixiviated ashes which have 
been used by soap-boilers, (in Germany much 
soap is made from the ashes of wood,) then 
the grass thrives as luxuriantly as before. 
The ashes are only a means of restoring the 
potash. 

" A harvest of grain is obtained every thirty 
or forty years from the soil of the Luneburg 
heath, by strewing it with the ashes of the 
heath-plants {Erica vulgaris) which grow on 
it. These plants during the long period just 
mentioned collect the potash and soda, which 
are conveyed to them by rain-water ; and it is 
by means of these alkalies, that oats, barley 
and rye, to which they are indispensable, are 
enabled to grow on this sandy heath. 

♦ A very high value is attached in Germany to the 
cultivation of grass as winter provision for cattle, and 
the greatest care is used in order to obtain the greatest 
possible quantity. In the vicinity of Liegen (a town in 
Nassau), from three to five perfect crops are obtained 
from one meadow, and this is effected by covering the 
fields with river-water, which is conducted over the 
meadow in spring by numerous small canals. This ia 
found to be of such advantage, that supposing a meadow 
not so treated to yield 1,000 lbs. of hay, then from one 
thus watered 4,500 lbs. are produced. In respect to the 
cultivation of meadows, the country around Liegen it 
considered to be the best in all Germany.—/,. 

63 



ALKALI. 

" The woodcutters in the vicinity of Heidel- 
berg have the privilege of cultivating the soil 
for their own use, after felling the trees used 
for making tan. Before sowing the land thus 
obtained, the branches, roots, and leaves are 
iu every case burned, and the ashes used as a 
manure, which is found to be quite indispen- 
sable for the growth of the grain. The soil 
itself, i;pon which the oats grow in this dis- 
trict, consists of sandstone ; and although the 
trees find in it a quantity of alkaline earths 
sufficient for their own sustenance, yet in its 
ordinary condition it is incapable of producing 
grain. 

" The most decisive proof of the use of strong 
manure was obtained at Bingen (a town on 
the Rhine), where the produce and develope- 
ment of vines were highly increased by ma- 
nuring them with such substances as shavings 
of horn, &c., but after some years the forma- 
tion of the Avood and leaves decreased to the 
great loss of the possessor, to such a degree, 
that he has long had cause to regret his de- 
parture from the usual methods. By the ma- 
nure employed by him, the vines had been too 
much hastened in their growth ; in two or 
three years they had exhausted the potash in 
the formation of their fruit, leaves, and wood, 
so that none remained for the future crops, his 
manure not having contained any potash. 

"There are vineyards on the Rhine, the 
plants of which are above a hundred years old, 
and all of these have been cultivated by ma- 
nuring them with cow-dung, a manure con- 
taining a large proportion of potash, although 
very little nitrogen. All the potash, in fact, 
which is contained in the food consumed by a 
cow is again immediately discharged in its 
excrements. 

"The experience of a proprietor of land in 
the vicinity of Gottingen offers a most remark- 
able example of the incapability of a soil to 
produce wheat or grasses in general, when it 
fails in any one of the materials necessary to 
their growth. In order to obtain potash, he 
planted his whole land with wormwood, the 
ashes of which are well known to contain a 
large proportion of the carbonate of that alkali. 
The consequence was, that he rendered his 
land quite incapable of bearing grain for many 
years, in consequence of having entirely 
deprived the soil of its potash. 

"The leaves and small branches of trees 
contain the most potash ; and the quantity of 
them which is annually taken from the wood, 
for the purpose of being employed as litter, 
contain more of that alkali than all the old 
wood which is cut down. The bark and foli- 
age of oaks, for example, contain from 6 to 
9 per cent, of this alkali ; the needles of firs 
and pines 8 per cent. 

" With every 2650 lbs. of fir-wood, which 
are yearly removed from an acre of forest, 
only from 0-114 to 0-53 lbs. of alkalies are 
abstracted from the soil, calculating the ashes 
at 0'83 per cent. The moss, however, which 
covers the ground, and of which the ashes are 
known to contain so much alkali, continues 
uninterrupted in its growth, and retains that 
potash on the surface, which would otherwise 
sc easily penetrate with the rain through the 
64 



ALKALL 

sandy soil. By its decay, an abundant provi- 
sion of alkalies is supplied to the roots of the 
trees, and a fresh suppl)' is rendered unneces- 
sary. 

" The supposition of alkalies, metallic oxides, 
or inorganic matter in general, being produced 
by plants, is entirely refuted by these well- 
authenticated facts. 

" It is thought very remarkable, that those 
plants of the grass tribe, the seeds of which 
furnish food for man, follow him like the do- 
mestic animals. But saline plants seek the 
sea-shore or saline springs, and the Chenopo- 
dium* the dunghill from similar causes. Sa- 
line plants require common salt, and the plants 
which grow only on dunghills, need ammonia 
and nitrates, and they are attracted whither 
these can be found, just as the dung-fly is to 
animal excrements. So likewise none of our 
corn-plants can bear perfect seeds, that is, 
seeds yielding flour, without a large supply of 
phosphate of magnesia and ammonia, sub- 
stances which they require for their maturity 
And hence, these plants grow only in a soil 
where these three constituents are found com- 
bined, and no soil is richer in them, than those 
where men and animals dwell together ; Avhere 
the urine and excrements of these are found 
corn-plants appear, because their seeds cannot 
attain maturity unless supplied with the con- 
stituents of those matters. 

"When we find sea-plants near our salt- 
Avorks, several hundred miles distant from the 
sea, we know that their seeds have been car- 
ried there in a very natural manner, namely, 
by wind or birds, which have spread them 
over the whole surface of the earth, although 
they groAv only in those places in which they 
find the conditions essential to their life. 

"The first colonists of Virginia found a 
country, the soil of which Avas similar to that 
mentioned above ; harvests of wheat and 
tobacco Avere obtained for a century from one 
and the same field without the aid of manure, 
but noAv whole districts are converted into un- 
fruitful pasture land, which Avithout manure 
produces neither wheat nor tobacco. From 
every acre of this land, there Avere removed in 
the space of one hundred years 1,200 lbs. of 
alkalies in leaves, grain, and straAv; it became 
unfruitful, therefore, because it Avas deprived 
of every particle of alkali, Avhich had been 
reduced to a soluble state, and because that 
which Avas rendered soluble again in the 
space of one year, was not sufficient to satisfy 
the demands of the plants. Almost all the cul- 
tivated land in Europe is in this condition; 
fallow is the term applied to land left at rest 
for further disintegration. It is the greatest 
possible mistake to suppose that the temporary 
diminution of fertility in a soil is owing to the 
loss of humus; it is the mere consequence of 
the exhaustion of the alkalies. 

" Let us consider the condition of the country 
around Naples, which is famed for its fruitful 
corn-land; the farms and villages are situated 
from eighteen to tAventy-four miles distant from 
one another, and betAveen them there are no 

* Chenopodium album, called in the United States 
Lamb's Quarter, a troublesome weed about gardens and 
housei. 



ALKALI. 



ALKALL 



roads, and consequently no transportation of 
manure. Now corn has been cultivated on 
this land for thousands of years, without any 
part of that which is annually removed from 
the soil being artificially restored to it. How 
can any influence be ascribed to humus under 
such circumstances, when it is not even known 
whether humus was ever contained in the 
soill 

"The method of culture in that district com- 
pletely explains the permanent fertility. It 
appears very bad in the eyes of our agricul- 
turists, but there it is the best plan which could 
be adopted. A field is cultivated once every 
three years, and is in the intervals allowed to 
serve as a sparing pasture for cattle. The 
soil experiences no change in the two j'cars 
during which it there lies fallow, further than 
that it is exposed to the influence of the wea- 
ther, by which a fresh portion of the alkalies 
contained in it are again set free or rendered 
soluble. The animals fed on these fields yield 
nothing to these soils which they did not 
formerly possess. The weeds upon which they 
live spring from the soil, and that which they 
return to it as excrements, must always be less 
than that which they extract. The field, there- 
fore, can have gained nothing from the mere 
feeding of cattle upon them ; on the contrary, 
the soil must have lost some of its constitu- 
ents. 

" Experience has shown in agriculture, that 
wheat should not be cultivated after wheat on 
the same soil, for it belongs with tobacco to 
the plants which exhaust a soil. But if the 
humus of a soil gives it the power of producing 
com, how happens it that wheat does not 
thrive in many parts of Brazil, where the soils 
are particularly rich in that substance, or in 
our own climate, in soils formed of mouldered 
wood ; that its stalk under these circumstances 
attains no strength, and droops prematurely 1 
The cause' is this, — that the strength of the 
stalk is due to silicate of potash, and that the 
corn requires phosphate of magnesia, neither 
of which substances a soil of humus can 
afford, since it does not contain them; the 
plant may indeed, under such circumstances, 
become an herb, but will not bear fruit. 

" Again, how does it happen that wheat does 
not flourish on a sandy soil, and that a calcare- 
ous soil is also unsuitable for its growth, 
unless it be mixed with a considerable quan- 
tity of clay ? It is because these soils do not 
contain alkalies in sufficient quantity, the 
gr nvth of wheat being arrested by this circum- 
stance, even should all other substances be 
presented in abundance. 

" Trees, the leaves of which are renewed 
annually, require for their leaves six to ten 
times more alkalies than the fir-tree or pine, 
and hence, when they are placed in soils in 
which alkalies are contained in very small 
quantity, do not attain maturity.* When we 
see such trees growing on a sandy or calcare- 

♦ One thousand parts of the dry leaves of oaks yielded 
55 parts of ashes, of which 24 parts consisted of a'ikalies 
soluble in water ; the same quantity of pine leaves gave 
only 29 parts of ashes, which contained 46 parts of 
soluble salts. (Z>e Saussure.) 



ous soil, — the red-beech, the service-tree, and 
the wild-cherry, for example, thriving luxuri- 
antly on limestone, we may be assured that 
alkalies are present in the soil, for they are 
necessary to their existence. Can we, then, 
regard it as remarkable, that such trees shcald 
thrive in America, on those spots on which 
forests of pines which have grown and col- 
lected alkalies for centuries, have been burnt, 
and to which the alkalies are thus at once 
restored; or that the Spartium scoparium. 
Erysimum latifulhim, Bliium capitatum, Senecio 
vi'scosus, plants remarkable for the quantity of 
alkalies contained in their ashes, should grow 
with the greatest luxuriance on the localities 
of conflagrations.* 

" Wheat will not grow on a soil which has 
produced wormwood, and, vice versa, worm- 
wood does not thrive wliere wheat has grown, 
because they are mutually prejudicial by ap- 
propriating the alkalies of the soil. 

" One hundred parts of the stalks of wheat 
yield l.'i-S parts of ashes {H. Dnvy) ; the same 
quantity of the dry stalks of barley, 8-54 parts 
(Schrfider) ; and one hundred parts of the 
stalks of oats, only 4-42; — the ashes of all 
these are of the same composition. 

" We have in these facts a clear proof of 
what plants require for their growth. Upon 
the same field, wdiich will yield only one har- 
vest of wheat, two crops of barley and three 
of oats may be raised. 

" All plants of the grass kind require silicate 
of potash. Now this is conveyed to the soil, 
or rendered soluble in it by the irrigation of 
meadows. The equisetiicepe, the reeds and 
species of cane, for example, which contain 
such large quantities of siliceous earth, or sili- 
cate of potash, thrive luxuriantly in marshes, 
in argillaceous soils, and in ditches, streamlets, 
and other places, where the change of water 
renews constantly the supply of dissolved 
silica. The amount of silicate of potash re- 
moved from a meadow, in the form of hay, is 
very considerable. We need only call to mind 
the melted vitreous mass found on a meadow 
between Manheim and Heidelberg after a 
thunder-storm. This mass was at first sup- 
posed to be a meteor, but was found on exami- 
nation (by Gmel'ni) to consist of silicate of 
potash ; a flash of lightning had struck a 
stack of hay, and nothing was found in its 
place except the melted ashes of the hay. 

" Potash is not the only substance necessary 
for the existence of most plants, indeed it has 
been already shown that the potash may be 
replaced, in many cases by soda, magnesia, 
or lime ; but other substances, besides alkalies, 
are required to sustain the life of plants. 

The soil in which plants grow furnishes 
them with phosphoric acid, and they in turn 
yield it to animals, to be used in the formation 
of their bones, and of those constituents of the 
brain which contain phosphorus. Much more 

* After the great fire in London, large quantities of the 
Erysimum latifolhtm were observed growing on the spots 
where a fire had taken place. On a similar occasion, the 
Blituvi capilalum was seen at Copenhagen, the Senecio 
visciisus in Nassau, and the Spartium scoparittm in Lan- 
Biiedoc. After the burnings of forests of pines in North 
America poplars grew on the same soil. (Frank-in.) 

f2 er 



ALKANET. 



ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. 



phosphorus is thus afforded to the body than it 
requires, when flesh, bread, fruit, and husks of 
grain are used for food, and this excess in 
them is eliminated in the urine and the solid 
excrements. We may form an idea of the 
quantity of phosphate of magnesia contained 
in grain, when we consider that the concre- 
tions in the coecum of horses consist of phos- 
phate of magnesia and ammonia, which must 
have been obtained from the hay and oats con- 
sumed as food. Twenty-nine of these stones 
were taken after death from the rectum of a 
horse belonging to a miller in Eberstadt, the 
total weight of which amoimted to 3 lbs. ; and 
Dr. F. Simon has lately described a similar 
concretion found in the horse of a carrier, 
which weighed l^ lb. 

"It is evident that the seeds of corn could 
not be formed without phosphate of magnesia, 
which is one of their invariable constituents ; 
the plant could not under such circumstances 
reach maturity." {Organic Chemistry.)] 

ALKANET {Anchusa, Lat.). this plant 
is a species of bugloss with a red root, brought 
from the southern parts of France, and used 
in medicine. It grows wild in Kent and Corn- 
wall, but in other counties only in gardens. 
It flowers in summer, and its root becomes red 
in Autumn. The root is astringent : the leaves 
not so much so. [The puccoon {Baischia 
Canadensis) is called alkanet in the United 
States. See Flor. Ces. p. 118, obs.] 

ALLIUM. See Onion, Garlic, Leek, Sha- 
LOT, Chivks, &c. 

ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. This designation 
has been applied in England to a plan for 
bettering the condition of the poor, by allotting 
to each family in a parish an extent of ground 
for the purpose of cultivation with the spade. 

Under the article Agriculture it is noticed, 
that in England, during the feudal times, an 
allotment system existed. Its object, however, 
was different ; the lords of the soil, having an 
interest in obtaining as many tenants as they 
could, for their power was proportionate to 
their number, portioned their estates into as 
many small allotments as they could obtain 
family tenants, receiving in return certain 
days of military or other service. 

When the feudal system was destroyed, the 
lords let their lands in a similar manner, re- 
ceiving as rent certain quantities of labour 
from the tenant, or produce of the land he 
rented ; although, it not being now an object 
to maintain the number of their tenants, but 
rather to acquire an increased retiirn of pro- 
duce, and to obtain a prosperous tenantry, no 
obstacle was thrown in the way of increasing 
the size of farms. Land was left like any 
other subject of investment, and a man ob- 
tained as much as his means of cultivating 
permitted, or as he found to be profitable. 
These were powerful limitations, for money 
was scarce, and the agriculturists were chiefly 
tenants, labourers for hire being few. 

In the fourteenth century occurred the great- 
est revolution that ever happened to the agri- 
culture of England. The increased demand 
lor wool in the Netherlands and at home, ren- 
<'?red the breeding of sheep much more profit- 
able than the growing of corn, and conse- 
66 



quently the arable lands were converted intc 
pastures. England had been very closely cul- 
tivated, and the small or cotter farms were 
extremely numerous. These were now gene- 
rally exterminated, and the land proprietor be- 
coming a great flock-master, converted them 
all into one breadth of grazing land. " Yo.xr 
sheep," says Sir Thomas More in his Utopia, 
"that were wont to be so meek and tame, and 
such small eaters, are now become such great 
devourers, and so wild, that they eat up and 
SAvallow down the very men themselves." — 
" One covetous and unsatiable cormorant, and 
very plague of his native country, compasses 
about and encloses many thousand acres of 
ground together within one pale or hedge, the 
husbandmen are thrust out of their own, or else, 
either by covin and fraud, or by violent op- 
pression, they are put beside it, or by wrongs 
and injuries they be so wearied that they be 
compelled to sell all ; by one means or other, 
either by hook or by crook, they must needs 
depart away, poor, silly, wretched souls, men, 
women, husbands, wives, fatherless children, 
widows, woful mothers and their young babes, 
and their whole household, small in substance 
and much in number, as husbandry requireth 
many hands. For one shepherd or herdsman 
is enough to eat up that ground, to the occu- 
pying whereof about husbandry jnany hands 
were required." 

Some few of the cotter farmers were reduced 
to the grade of hired shepherds ; others became 
artisans, a still smaller number retained a plot 
of land, but a large portion (for even monastic 
support was now abolished) became beggars, 
who, as all records agree, infested England. 
This gave birth to the poor laws, and the same 
reign of Elizabeth was the era of an effort to 
remedy the evils which had arisen from this 
destruction of small farms. 

It had been experienced that though the 
tenants of those small farms had been poor, 
yet none of them were paupers ; it was there- 
fore thought that every mode of recurring to 
such a system must be beneficial ; and in ac- 
cordance with this opinion an act of parlia- 
ment was passed, commanding that to every 
cottage that should be erected, four acres of 
ground should be allotted. This first sugges- 
tion of the allotment system failed. The quan- 
tity of ground allotted was too large, and from 
its interfering with the just liberties of the 
landed proprietors, this act was repealed in 
the last century. 

As the value of all farming produce in- 
creased from various causes, the profits be- 
coming commensurately large, cultivators re- 
quired more extensive forms, consolidation 
proceeded, and in 1709 the first enclosure act 
passed ; and from that time to the present 
the small occupiers have gradually further 
diminished, as their right of commonage 
and the like was taken away by the four thou- 
sand enclosure bills that have since been 
enacted. 

When small farmers are deprived of their 
tenements, they become, if they continue agri- 
culturists, farming labourers. It becomes a 
subject of very great political importance, 
therefore, to ascertain how the character 



ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. 



ALLUVIUM. 



and comfort of these, who are now by far 
the most numerous class in society, can be 
best promoted. It would be here misplaced 
to examine how the system of poor laws has 
served in various waj's to debase and depress 
them ; our present object must be to consider 
how the allotment system may be the best 
made to promote contrary effects. 

This system, we have noticed, suggested it- 
self to the legislature in the reign of Elizabeth, 
but it was of very limited operation. 

On the Continent, a system of larger allot- 
ments was partially adopted in the year 1707, 
in the Duchy of Clevos, but we are not aware 
that the example was followed, till, after the 
lapse of more than a century, the Dutch go- 
vernment, in 1818, divided tracts of poor soil 
at Frederick's Oord, and other places, into al- 
lotments of seven acres. The government 
provided overseers to notice the moral con- 
duct and industry of the tenants; advanced 
capital when needed, which was to be repaid ; 
and an annual rent was to be returned. Manual 
labour was exclusively adopted. The expense 
of establishing each individual was 22/. 6s. id. ; 
and the annual excess of produce over the 
subsistence of the family, after deducting the 
rent, twelve shillings per acre, was 8/. 2s. 
4d. (M. de Kirchoff. Jacob on f/ie Corn Trade, 
&c.) 

About the year 1800, Dr. Law, Bishop of 
Bath and Wells, commenced the allotment 
system ; Sir H. Vavasour communicated to 
the Board of Agriculture, about the same pe- 
riod, some experiments demonstrating the great 
benefit of "the Flemish," or "field-gardening 
husbandry;" and, in 1802, Charles Howard, 
Esq. followed the example. 

" On Pulley Common, in Shropshire," says 
Sir W. Pulteney, " there is, at least there was, 
a cottager's tenement of about 512 square 
yards, somewhat more than one-ninth of an 
acre. The spade and the hoe are the only 
implements used, and those chiefly by his 
wife, that he may follow his daily labour for 
hire. The plot of land is divided into two 
parcels, whereon she grows wheat and pota- 
toes alternately. In the month of October, 
when the potatoes are ripe, she takes off the 
stalks of the plants, which she secures to pro- 
duce manure by littering her pig. She then 
goes over the whole with a rake, to collect the 
weeds for the dunghill. She next sows the 
wheat, and then takes up the potatoes with a 
three-pronged fork ; and by this operation the 
wheat seed is covered deep. She leaves it 
quite rough, and the winter frost mellows the 
f arth ; and by its falling down in the spring it 
adds vigour to the wheat plants. She has pur- 
sued this alternate system of cropping for 
several years without any diminution of pro- 
duce. The potato crop only has manure. In 
1804, a year verj' noted for mildew, she had 
fifteen Winchester bushels of wheat from 272 
square yards, being four times the general 
averaging crop of the neighbouring farmers. 
It is to be wished such instances of cottage 
industry were more frequent; and more fre- 
quent they would be, were proper means made 
use of to invigorate the spirit of exertion in 
the laboui ing class." 



Since that period the patrons of the s)i.teia 
have been very numerous. The clergy have 
been especially promoters of this system. 

Where this system, well regulated, has been 
tried, and the experience is now very exten- 
sive, the results have been most happy. The 
condition of the poor has been ameliorated; by 
rendering them more independent, they have 
become more contented and more careful; bet- 
ter as citizens, and better as individuals. 

If the allotments much exceed a quarter of 
an acre, or in any way approach to the nature 
of cotter farms, a proportionate blow is made 
at that employment of capital and talent in 
agriculture which has raised it to its present 
improved state. 

" The advantages attending this system," 
says a clerical writer in the Christian Ob- 
server for 1832, "besides the comfort of the 
poor man, are the diminution of the poor's 
rate, and the moral improvement of the la- 
bourer. Since this plan has been in opera- 
tion, the poor-rate has been steadily declining 
from about 320/. to about 180/. per annum, 
with the prospect of still further diminution. 
When the farmer's work is scarce, the poor 
man finds profitable employment on his patch 
of ground, which if he had not to occupy him, 
he would be sent to idle upon the roads at the 
expense of the parish. The system has the 
further and very important effect of improving 
his character. When the labourer has his 
little plot of ground, from which he feels he 
shall not be ejected as long as he conducts 
himself with propriety, he has an object on 
which his heart is fixed ; he has something at 
stake in society; he will not hang loose on the 
community, ready to join those who would dis- 
turb it ; so much so, that in the late riots, no 
man in the parish showed any disposition to 
join them." 

From the year 1828 to the present time, nu- 
merous pamphlets upon this subject have ap- 
peared, and for further information readers are 
referred to those of Dr. Law, and of Messrs. 
Scobell, Scrope, Banfill, Denson, Blackiston, 
Withers, &c. 

ALLOWANCES TO TENANTS. Such as 
are agreed to be made to them on their quitting 
farms, or under any other circumstances. See 
Customs of Counties and Appraisement. 

ALLUVIUM, or ALLUVION (from the La- 
tin Alluvio, "an inundation"), is a term which, 
in the English language, has no very defined 
meaning. Some authors use it to designate all 
those rocks which have been formed by causes 
now acting on the surface of the earth, includ- 
ing those of volcanic origin ; while others, ad- 
hering to the literal meaning of the original 
term, confine its application to deposits, what- 
ever be their character, that have resulted 
from inundations. Neither of these definitions 
convey the same meaning as is usually ai- 
tached to the word, the one including lou 
much, the other too little. The term has been 
badly selected, but is used in its proper appli- 
cation to designate all those deposits recently 
formed, or now forming, by the agency of wa- 
ter, whether from an uninterrupted and con- 
stant stream, or from casual inundation. 

All streams, lakes, rivers, seas, and th** 

67 



ALLUVIUM. 



ALLUVIUM. 



ocean itself, hold a large quantity of earthy 
matter in mechanical solution, which they de- 
posit in their beds. The character of the sedi- 
ment is governed by the nature of the rocks 
over which the waters flow ; and the quantity 
depends partly upon the constitution of the 
rocks, and partly upon the power of the water. 
If the rock be easily destroyed, and a large 
body of water flow over it with a considerable 
velocity, the destructive efiect will be great, 
and much worn materials {detritus) being 
formed, the stream will have a thick and tur- 
bid appearance. The same effect is frequently 
produced by the discharge of a number of tri- 
butary streams into a river, all of which accu- 
mulate a greater or less quantity of the earths 
over which they flow. 

The distribution of water at the present 
time, and I more particularly refer to rivers, 
is very different from that of former periods. 
The majority of the v.alleys through which 
rivers are now flowing, have been produced 
by the action of water, which, running from 
higher lands, has not only scooped them out, 
but has spread over them the worn material 
which it accumulates in its passage. By the 
operations which have since been going on, 
the waters have been collected together in 
comparatively narrow channels of consider- 
able permanency. On this account, the influ- 
ence of water that flows over the portions of the 
earth inhabited by terrestrial animals is great- 
ly restricted ; and the production of new beds 
of rock or soil is rather an accidental than a 
necessary consequence. 

But, although the influence of water has 
been thus confined, all lands, and especially 
the surfaces of mountainous districts, are un- 
dergoing change, and the superficial covering 
of one district is conveyed to another. The 
showers of heaven are constantly sM-eeping 
away the soil and decomposed rocks of the 
uplands into the valleys, over which they are 
transported by streams and rivers, the larger 
and heavier particles falling to the bottom, the 
smallerbeingunited with the water in mechani- 
cal mixture. That portion of earthy matter 
which is carried away from a district by the 
running water, is, as far as the district itself 
is concerned, the most valuable, being (he 
superficial covering or soil, and would be for 
ever lost to that portion of the earth inhabited 
oy man, were it not arrested in its passage to 
the ocean, by deposition in the bed of the 
river, or on those lands which the waters may 
happen to overflow. 

It is well known to those who have visited 
elevated districts, that many mountains are 
already deprived of their soils, and are but the 
skeletons of the earth, without covering or life. 
By this action the valleys are in the process of 
elevation, and the mountains of depression; 
and if we could conceive it to proceed without 
limitation, we may imagine a time when all 
the varieties of elevation and depression, which 
now give beauty to the surface, will be de- 
stroyed, and an entirely different condition of 
I he distribution of land and water will be 
established. But, at the same time, it cannot 
be denied that these changes, as far as they 
have hitherto proceeded, have been advanta- 
fi8 



geous to man, whatever might be their resuTi 
under the conditions to which we have alluded. 
The mountainous regions are, from their ele- 
vation, less suited to the progression of so- 
ciety, so intimately connected with agricultu- 
ral prosperity, than the plains. As we rise 
above the level of the sea, the atmosphere be- 
comes more rarified, and the cold more in- 
tense, both of which are injurious to vegeta- 
tion in general, and unsuited to promote the 
comfort of animal life. The plains are, there- 
fore, preferred by men when they congregate 
together, and form societies. It cannot her 
considered an unwise or unfit result, that the 
lowlands should be enriched with alluvial 
soils, produced by the destruction of the rocks 
and natural soils of mountainous regions. It 
is reported of Dioclesian, that he told his col- 
league, Maximilian, he had more pleasure in 
the cultivation of a few potherbs which, in the 
gardens of Spalatro, grew in the soil that on 
the top of Mount Hcemus had only produced 
inoss and dittany, than in all the honours the 
Roman empire could confer. From the defini- 
tion I have given of the word "alluvium," I 
must include the gravels and sands that are of 
recent formation among the alluvial deposits ; 
but our attention is chiefly directed to the soils, 
or those beds which are suited to sustain vege- 
table life. It is true that the gravels may be 
made available for the cultivation of some 
plants, but the beds which are so used belong 
rather to that class of rocks denominated dilu- 
viul by geologists, than to the deposits of v/hich 
we are speaking. 

If we trace the circumstances under which 
alluvial soils are formed to their cause, we 
shall find that they have their origin in the fall 
of heavy rains, and the melting of snows, in 
mountainous regions. The water, in its pas- 
sage to the valleys, collects the superficial soil 
and decomposed earthy material that lies in its 
path, and transports them into the channels to- 
Avarfls which it flows. The streams that are 
formed on the mountain slopes are generally 
united together before they reach the plains, 
and form impetuous torrents, overcoming all 
obstacles, until their velocity is lost, when, in 
their winding courses, they meet each other, 
and form rivers. 

Rivers, in every part of their course, are 
subject to inundation; when, throwing their 
waters over a considerable space, they deposit 
the earthy materials they have accumulated. 
If such inundations had not occurred, the ac- 
cumulated worn materials (debris) would have 
been deposited in the bed of the river, or car- 
ried into the lake or sea where the waters 
themselves are discharged. There are abun- 
dant instances on record of the filling up of 
rivers by the worn materials {detritus), which 
have been carried into their courses ; and any 
river of our own country will afford a limited 
example of this result. Many rivers and es- 
tuaries, which a few years since were navi- 
gable, have ceased to be so on account of the 
large amount of alluvial matter deposited in 
their beds ; and many of our towns, which 
were once populous and wealthy, have on this 
account become poor and almost deserted. If 
we would see the effect of the transport of worn 



ALLUVIUM. 



ALLm^IUM. 



materials into lakes, we cannot have a more 
favourable opportunity than in Switzerland. 
Many of the lakes of this sublime and majestic 
country are rapidly filling from this cause ; 
and in some of them water plants are seen 
above the surface of the water. But when a 
river suffers inundation, the earthy matter, 
which is held in mechanical mixture, is ar- 
rested, and deposited on the land that is over- 
flowed, and a richly productive soil is formed. 
One or two examples may illustrate these re- 
marks. 

The Ganges annually overflows its banks, 
and deposits a rich alluvial soil over the 
country it inundates. This magnificent river 
was supposed to take its rise on the northern 
side of the Himalaya mountains, until it was 
proved, in 1819, by Lieutenant Webb, that all 
the streams which unite to give its existence, 
take their rise on the south side of the Hindoo 
Coast, or Snowy Mountains. The melting of 
the snows, and the heavy periodical rains aug- 
ment the volume of the water, and by the end 
of June, before the rainy season has com- 
menced in the low country, the river has ge- 
nerally risen fifteen feet; but after the rains in 
Bengal it usually attains a height of thirty-two 
feet above its ordinary level. By the end of 
July all the low countries adjoining the Ganges 
and the Burrampooter are overflowed, and no- 
thing but houses and trees are seen for many 
miles inward. The province of Bengal is 
divided into two nearly equal parts by the 
Ganges ; and as a large portion of the country 
on the banks of the river is low, it is especially 
exposed to inundation, from which circum- 
stance it probably derives its name, such dis- 
tricts being called beng. A deep bed of rich 
soil is deposited during the period of the over- 
flow, and the vegetable productions are of the 
most varied and luxuriant character. Rice, 
wheat, barley, tobacco, indigo, cotton, the mul- 
berry, and the poppy, are all cultivated with 
success on the alluvial soils. 

It is well known that Egypt has been from 
time immemorial indebted to the overflow of 
the Nile for a rich alluvial soil, as well as for 
the means of irrigating the land. The an- 
cients seem to have been altogether at a loss 
to account for the periodical overflow of this 
river; and when we consider the appearances 
before them, we are not surprised at the diffi- 
culties they experienced. They observed it in 
a countr}'^ that was not moistened by a drop of 
rain, and where it was unaided by a single 
stream, and yet, at its stated period, it began 
to lift its waters from their bed, and rising 
liigher and higher, overflowed its banks, and 
spread itself like a sea over Lower Egypt, re- 
freshing the parched earth with moisture, and 
aiding its productiveness with the formation 
of a superficial covering of rich loam. The 
philosophers speculated without success upon 
its cause ; but while they were disputing as to 
the origin of the phenomenon, year by year 
the Nile rose, and left the evidence of its be- 
neficial sway in the richness of the crops and 
the luxuriance of the country. From the in- 
vestigations that have now been made, we 
know that the rise of the Nile is occasioned 
by the rains which fall on the high mountains 



in the interior and tropical regions, and not, as 
many of the ancients supposed, from the Ete- 
sian winds, which, blowing periodically from 
the north, prevent the waters from reaching 
the sea. 

The great importance of rivers, as agents in 
the production of alluvial soils, cannot be 
more strongly proved by any positive evidence 
than by a consideration of the state of Austra- 
lia, a country remarkable for the fewness of 
its rivers, and the general poverty of its soil. 
Contrary to all precedents, the richest soils iu 
this land, excepting the alluvial, are found oa 
the summits of hills. The fires which so fre- 
quently happen on the plains, the peculiar 
character of the vegetation (chiefly consisting 
of ever-greens), and the sparing distribution 
of water, are the principal causes of the steri- 
lity of this otherwise desirable country. There 
are, however, spots which, covered with allu- 
vial soil, can rival the richest and most culti- 
vated districts of England; and the compari- 
son of these with other lands impresses the 
observer the more strongly with the great im- 
portance of the natural provision for the resti- 
tution of that portion of the earth inhabited by 
man, by the deposition of new earthy matter 
and a virgin soil. The alluvial flats of the 
Nepean, the Hawksbury, and the Hunter 
rivers, are spoken of by all writers as remark 
able for their fertility. The rich valley in 
which the Lake Alexandrina is situated may 
be noticed as another example of the influence 
of alluvial soils. The country around this 
lake appears to be one of the most beautiful 
and fertile in Australia; and a glance at the 
map will immediately inform the inquirer of 
the cause. It is so situated as to receive the 
worn materials of the mountain chain that 
ranges along the promontory of which Cape 
Jcrvis is the southern point, and also to obtain 
moisture at all times from the lake, and a re- 
novating soil whenever it may overflow its 
banks. 

Alluvial soils are produced by the discharge 
of mountain streams into valleys, as well as by 
the overflow of rivers. We have already ex- 
plained the manner in which they collect the 
superficial covering of mountainous districts, 
and being charged with earthy matter, bring it 
into the plains. This may be deposited before 
the streams are united together in an individual 
channel as well as after, and should this be 
done, the valley may be covered with alluvial 
products. The formation of a river is a pro- 
cess which requires time, and many changes 
must happen before the flowing waters can 
form for themselves a local habitation ; obsta- 
cles must be removed, a bed must be scooped 
out, and an outlet must be formed, in the per- 
formance of which earthy matter must be ac- 
cumulated, and extensive deposits be formed. 

A third cause in the production of alluvial 
deposits may be mentioned. Tho sea is mak- 
ing great inroads upon many of its shores, 
carrying on a destructive war against the 
cliffs that vainly endeavour to oppose its force; 
while on the other hand it is in some instances 
receding from the shores against which it once 
beat ; and thus, as though to recompense man 
for v/hat it takes away, gives to him a portion 



ALLUVIUM. 



ALLUVIUM. 



of its own territory. Those districts which are 
thus added to the land are usually superposed 
by a fine rich alluvial soil, as also are those 
which have at a former period been covered 
by the sea, and would be at the present day, 
were it not for the ingenuity and works of man. 

The districts in which are situated New Or- 
leans in America, and Missolonghi in Greece, 
are chiefly alluvial, and nearly the whole of 
Holland has the same character, and can only 
be described as a district of which man has 
robbed the ocean. That part of the coast of 
Germany which is bordered by the North Sea 
is alluvial, and additions are constantly made 
to the shores by the gradual depositions of 
earthy matter upon the immense flats which 
extend along them. The first sign of vegeta- 
tion on these lands is the appearance of the 
saltwort (Salicornia maritimaS, which is suc- 
ceeded by the sea grass (Foa rnarifima), and 
when the land is very rich, by the marsh star- 
wort {Aster Tripolium). The land is after- 
wards dyked, and used as pasture for sheep 
and cattle ; so that the spot over which the sea 
has perhaps for ages exercised an undisputed 
control, is brought under the power of man in 
a state most admirably adapted to suit his wants. 

In Lincolnshire and other parts of the Eng- 
lish coast, where the land is beneath the level 
of high-water mark, unfruitful districts are 
often restored to a state of fertility by the re- 
moval of the artificial banks that prevent the 
sea-water from floAving over it. In this 
way the land is thrown open to the sea, 
and as the tide rises, it is covered by water, 
which, being overcharged with earthy matter, 
deposits in two or three years a bed five or 
six feet thick of rich soil, which may be 
brought under cultivation by the exclusion of 
the agent that was instrumental in its produc- 
tion. (See Wahpisg.) 

But it may be asked, whence does the sea 
obtain the earthy matter with which it abounds 1 
Rivers discharge themselves into the ocean, 
and it has been already stated that their waters 
are charged, more or less, with the superficial 
soil of mountainous countries, and the de- 
stroyed materials of rocks. A part of this 
may be arrested by occasional or periodical 
inundations, and by deposition in the bed of 
the river, but a large quantity must still be 
carried into the ocean. It must also be re- 
membered that the water which is conveyed 
in a channel is constantly endeavouring so 
to arrange its course as to suff'er the least 
possible resistance. In this attempt, it attacks 
the banks that confine it, and widens its 
course, precipitating much earthy matter into 
the stream, to be removed by the flowing water. 
It frequently happens, and especially after the 
fall of heavy rains, that the water at the mouths 
oi" rivers is thick and turbid from the quantity 
of alluvial matter it holds in solution, and very 
many large rivers are rendered unsafe for na- 
vigation by the existence of large bars of sand 
or clay at their outlet. 

But the sea is not mere.y a passive recipi- 
ent of the product of destructive causes, but 
iS itselx" a cause. Sea coasts are constantly 
suffering depredation by the action of the 
waves that beat upon them. Whether we look 
70 



at the soft and almost unresisting rocks of the 
eastern coast of England, or the hard primary 
rocks of Devonshire, Cornwall, and the Shet- 
land Isles, the same results will be observed. 
During the stormy months of winter, when 
the waves are tossed upon the coasts with an 
almost uncontrolled violence, no rock is sufii- 
ciently hard to resist its energy, and when un- 
ruffled by a passing breeze in the months of 
summer, its influence upon the softer rocks is 
hardly less destructive, though more insidious, 
for it then attacks the base of the cliffs, and 
removing the support of the superincumbent 
mass, causes the precipitation of large portions 
into the sea. By these two causes the sea is 
provided with the materials for the formation 
of alluvial soils. Some estimate may be 
formed of the violence and extent of these 
causes, by an examination of the present 
state of the German Ocean, one fifth of which 
is covered by banks that appear to have been 
produced in the same way as the alluvial soils 
on the northern coast of Germany. 

Water, then, is a most powerful agent in the 
destruction and production of rocks, and were 
there no conservative principle, the changes 
that are going on would be more extensive 
than they are in the present day. The floods 
to which some rivers are subject are so impe- 
tuous that they frequently sweep away all op- 
posing objects, and involve an entire district 
in ruin. These effects, however, are much 
more common in countries that are thinly 
covered by vegetation than in those where it 
is luxuriant, for it acts as a conservative agent, 
increasing the power of the resistance, by 
binding the soil more closely together. This, 
therefore, will account for the diminished influ- 
ence of floods upon lowlands, and for the fre 
quent deposition of rich and fertile alluvial 
soils. 

The composition of the alluvial soils that 
have been brought under cultivation is exceed- 
ingly various ; but they are generally re- 
markable for their fertility, and are admirably 
suited for pasture lands. "In general," says 
Sir Humphry Davy, "the soils, the materials 
of which are most various and heterogeneous, 
are those called alluvial, or which have been 
formed by the deposition of rivers ; many of 
them are extremely fertile. I have examined 
some productive alluvial soils, which have 
been very different in their composition. A 
specimen from the banks of the river Parret in 
Somersetshire, afforded me eighty parts of 
finely divided matter, and one part of silicious 
sand ; and an analysis of the former gave the 
following result ; 
Carbonate oflime - . . . . 360 parts. 

Alumina ..-----25 

Silica 20 

Oxide of iron ..---- 8 
Vegetable, animal, and saline matter - - 19 

" A rich soil from the neighbourhood of the 
Avon, in the valley of Evesham, in the Wor- 
cestershire, afforded me three-fifths of fine sand 
and two-fifths of impalpable matter. This last 
consisted of — 
Alumina ..-----41 parts- 
Silica 42 

Carbonate of lime .... - 4 
Oxide of iron -.-... 5 
Vegetable, animal, and saline matteT - 8 



ALMOND. 



ALMOND. 



" A soil yielding excellent pasture, from the 
valley of the Avon, near Salisbury, afforded 
one eleventh of coarse silicious sand, and the 
finely divided matter consisted of — 

Alumina .....--7 parts. 

Silica -- 14 

Ci.rbonate of lime . ... - 63 
Oxide of iron .-.--. 2 
Vegetable, animal, and saline matter - 14." 

Another striking cause of the fertility of al- 
luTial soils will come more properly under In- 
BiGATi o N. — {Miller's Dictionary.) 

ALMOND, Silver-leaved (Lat. Ami/gdalns ur- 

fentea). A beautiful shrub originally from the 
levani. It grows from eight to ten feet high, 
and blows rose-coloured flowers in April. Its 
leaves are covered on both sides with a sil- 
ver)'-coloured down, but they do not appear 
till the flowers are gone. All the almond tribe 
are hardy, and will bear any situation, if the 
soil is tolerably good. Propagate by grafting 
upon the bitter almond or a plum stock. The 
double dwarf almond, Lat. Amygdalus pumila, 
is a smaller shrub, with pale, rose-coloured 
double flowers, blowing in May, and again in 
September. The common dwarf almond, Lat. 
Amygdalus nana, grows only three feet high, 
and is a native of Russia. It blows its pink 
flowers in March and April. Propagate by 
seed, or grafting upon the bitter almond or 
plum stocks. Trim away dead wood, but 
prune seldom; they rarely require pruning. 
(L. Johnson.) 

ALMOND TREE (Amygdalus, Linnaeus; 
amand, Fr.). Derived by Menage from amandala, 
a word in low Latin ; by others from Allemand, 
a German, supposing that almonds came to 
France from Germany. But the Spanish have 
almendra ,• and perhaps amand, amandula, and 
this, are all referable to amygdalum, as that is 
to djuiryfaxiov. {Todd's Johnson.) More than one 
species, and several varieties of this well 
known genus are cultivated in England, chiefly 
for the beauty of their early spring flowers. 
The common almond tree {Amygdalus com- 
munis, Linnseus) is a native of northern Africa, 
and so late as the time of Cato had not been 
introduced into Italy, as he calls the fruit 
Greek nuts {nuces Grascee). It was introduced 
into Britain about 1548. It will grow to the 
height of twenty or thirty feet, dividing into a 
head of numerous spreading branches. The 
leaves very much resemble those of the peach, 
but they proceed from buds both above and 
below tiie flowers. There are also small glands 
on the lower saw-toothing of the leaves. The 
form of the flowers is not very difierent from 
those of the peach, but they come out usually 
in pairs, and vary more in their colour, from 
the fine blush of the apple blossom to a snowy 
whiteness. The chief obvious distinction is 
in the fruit, which is flatter, with a leather-like 
covering, instead of the rich pulp of the peach, 
and the nectarine, and it also opens spontane- 
ously when the kernel is ripe. The shell of 
the almond is never so hard as a peach stone, 
and is sometimes even tender and exceedingly 
brittle. It is flatter, smoother, and the furrows 
or holes are more superficial than those of the 
peach stone. 

Varieties of the common almond. — 1. The nuts 



about an inch and a quarter long, with a hard 
smooth shell ; the kernel not valuable. The 
seedlings are used in France to bud peaches 
upon. 

2. Bitter : fruit of a large size. 

3. Bitter: with a tender shell; fruit of a 
large size. 

4. Bitter : with a hard shell ; fruit of a laige 
size. 

5. Sultan : fruit of a small size. 

6. Grand Sultan : fruit of a small size. 

7. Sweet ; with a tender shell, or tender- 
shelled Sultan ; fruit of a moderate size. 

8. Sweet : with a half hard shell. 

9. Sweet : with a hard shell. 

10. Long-fruited: hard-shelled; fruit of a 
large size. 

11. Peach almond: fruit of a large size. 

12. Brittle: fruit of a moderate size. 

We are not certain whether the French va- 
rieties, called, 1. Amunde douce a co/jue dure ,■ 
2. Amande douce a coque tendre ,- 3. Amande 
des dames,- and 4. Amande pr in cesse, coincide 
with any of the preceding. 

The whole of the varieties generally pro- 
duce a profusion of blossoms, w^hich vary a 
little in colour from a fine rose to a pale blush. 
They closely resemble each other in foliage, 
the principal distinction being in the fruit, 
which differs either as to its form, its size, or 
its taste. 

In the south of Europe, as in France, Spain. 
Portugal, and Italy, the almond is cultivated 
very extensively as a standard fruit tree, the 
varieties there being very numerous. They 
export the fruit to every quarter of the globe. 
The kernel of the almond is the part used, and 
when it is green, ripe, or dried, it furnishes a 
most agreeable addition to the dessert. It is 
also used to a very great extent in confection- 
SiTy, perfumery, cookery, and medicine. 

The general purpose of introducing the tree 
into gardens and pleasure grounds in England 
is for the great beauty of its blossoms, which 
are not only handsome, but being produced in 
such profusion as they usually are at so early 
a period of the spring season, before the foliage 
appears, become extremely conspicuous and 
highJy ornamental ; a circumstance which 
renders the tree a most desirable shrubby plant. 

The common almond, and its varieties, blos- 
som earlier than the dwarf kinds, from which 
circumstance the blossoms of the latter are 
very rarely damaged by spring frosts, but the 
other kinds, when planted in situations shel- 
tered from the east winds, are generally pre* 
served from sustaining damage. 

Propagation. — All the species and varieties 
are propagated by seeds, budding, grafting, 
layers, and occasionally they will produce 
suckers, which may be successfully planted 
out. When stocks for budding or grafting 
upon are wanted, or new varieties desired, 
these are obtained by sowing the fruit stones, 
though they may be budded or grafted on 
mussel-plum stocks. 

The stones of the last season's produce 
should be sown in October, upon a bed of light 
rich soil, about three inches apart, and coceret. 
four inches deep with fine soil. This is indis- 
pensable ; for when the soil is left in lumps, th< 

71 



ALMOND. 



ALOPECURUS. 



shoots are often forced into a crooked direc- 
tion, and this causes the trunk to be de- 
formed, and unfit to become a fine tree. 
When the surface of the seed-bed has been 
smoothed, a covering of rotten tanner's bark, 
or leaf mould, to the depth of two inches, 
must be laid upon it, which being light, pre- 
vents the fruit-stones from being damaged 
by any severity of winter. At the beginning 
of May this covering of bark or leaves must 
be raked clean off" the bed. The stones might 
be reserved till spring, and be sown at the end 
of March, but the plants do not come so cer- 
tainly as when sown in autumn. An addi- 
tional advantage of an autumn sowing is, that 
the plants come up about six weeks or two 
months earlier than those sown in spring; 
consequently the plants become vigorous and 
well rooted the first year, and thereby not liable 
to be thrown out of the ground by thaws suc- 
ceeding frost in the following winter. 

During summer, care must be taken to 
pull up all weeds, when very young, for if 
they be allowed to get strong before pulling 
out, this operation is apt to injure the roots 
of the almond plants. 

"When almond stones have been sown in 
spring, it will be necessary at the approach of 
the succeeding winter to have the beds covered 
with rotten tanner's bark, or leaf mould, scat- 
tering it an inch deep, or more, amongst the 
plants, a covering which will tend to prevent 
the plants being injured or thrown out by frost. 
In the second spring after the sowing, the 
plants should be taken up, carefully preserving 
all the fibrous roots, a care which, as they are 
but sparingly produced, will be essentially ne- 
cessary. The plants must be transplanted in 
rows, at two feet apart, row from row, and a 
foot and a half distant in the rows. Here they 
may be trained to form standards, half stand- 
ards, or dwarfs, and be regulated and prepared 
either for wall training or shrubbery planta- 
tions. For both purposes, attention will be 
requisite during summer and winter, to thin 
out the branches, reserving only a suitable 
number for the future limbs of the tree, and 
these so far apart that they may not, in any 
future stage of growth, be liable to rub against 
each other, which standard trees would be 
liable to ; for if this be not avoided, gum 
would be exuded at such injured parts, and 
the speedy decay of the tree be the conse- 
quence. 

Almond plants intended for training against 
walls should have some stakes fixed in the 
form of a trelis, to which the branches should 
be secured in a proper form, so that theyjnay 
be suited to the position of the wall on their 
final removal. {Miller's Dictionary.) 

[In many parts of the Middle and Southern 
United States, the climate admits the almond 
tree to mature its fruit. The kind with a hard 
and smooth shell will ripen ir New Jersey and 
the southern part of Pransylvania, near Phila- 
delphia. A communication published in the 
15th vol. of the American Farmer states that 
the more tender and valuable soft-shell kind 
have been brought to perfection at Cambden, 
Kent County, Delaware, which is about eighty 
miles south of Philadelphia.] 
72 



ALOPECURUS. A genus of grasses of the 
foxtail kind, of which there are several species, 
some of which maybe cultivated to advantage 
in the field. 

Aliipeciirus agrestis. Slender foxtail-grass. 
(Alopecurus myosuroides, Curt. Lond.) One of 
the most inferior species of this grass. The 
herbage it produces is comparatively of no 
value whatever. It appears to be left un- 
touched by every description of cattle. The 
seed is produced in considerable abundance, 
and is eaten by the smaller birds, as well as 
by pheasants and partridges. This annual 
species of foxtail-grass is distinguished from 
the perennial meadow foxtail {Alopecurus pra- 
teiisis) by the total want of woolly hairs on the 
spike, so conspicuous in that of the A. pra- 
tensis. The Rev. G. Swayne observes, that it 
is a very troublesome weed in many places 
among wheat, and execrated by farmers under 
the name of black bent. 

" I have always," says Mr. Sinclair, " found 
it prevalent in poor soils, particularly such as 
had been exhausted by avaricious cropping. 
It is most difficult to extirpate when once in 
possession of the soil ; for it sends forth flow- 
ering culms during the whole summer and 
autumn, till frost arrests it ; so that it can bear 
to be repeatedly cut down in one season, with- 
out suffering essentially by the process. In- 
deed, it will be found a vain and unprofitable 
labour to attempt the removal of this grass by 
any other means than the opposite to that 
which gave it possession of the soil, which is 
judicious cropping. To return land, in this 
state, to grass, in the hope of overcoming this 
unprofitable plant, will be found of little avail. 
I have witnessed this practice, and the slender 
foxtail, instead of disappearing in these in- 
stances, re-appeared with the scanty herbage, 
and in greater health and abundance. The 
soil must first be got into good heart by very 
moderate and judicious cropping, which in- 
cludes the proper application of manure, a 
skilful rotation of crops, and the most pointed 
attention to the destruction of weeds ; which 
last can only be effected, in this sense, by 
adopting the drill or row culture for the crops 
After this the land may be returned to grass 
for several years with every prospect of suc- 
cess. It flowers in the first week of July, and 
successively till October. 

Alopecurus arundiuaceus. Reed-like foxtail- 
grass. The substance of the culms and leaves 
of this grass is coarser than that of the Alope- 
curus pratensis ,- and the root is so powerfully 
creeping as to render its introduction into 
arable land a matter of great caution. The 
produce and nutritive powers are very consi- 
derable : it is an early grass, producing culms 
at an early period of the spring, and continu- 
ing to vegetate vigorously through the summer 
and autumn. It cannot be recommended as a 
constituent of permanent pasture ; but as a 
grass to cultivate by itself, to a certain extent, 
for green food, or for hay, it offers advantages? 
in the superior produce and nutritive powers 
above stated. It grows stronger, and attain* 
to a greater height, than the A. Tauntimiensis , 
but, owing to the roots spreading wide, being 
large, and requiring a consequent greater sup- 



ALOPECURUS. 



ALOPE GURUS. 



ply of nourishment from the soil, the produce 
stands thinner and proves less weighty than 
the crops afforded by that variety. It flowers 
in April or early in May, and continues to pro- 
duce flowering culms until the autumn. 

AlopecuTus- bulbosus geniculatus. Bulbous- 
rooted, knee-jointed, foxtail-grass. The pro- 
duce and nutritive powers of this perennial 
grass are so inconsiderable as to justify a con- 
clusion that it is comparatively of no use to 
the agriculturist. I have found it but seldom 
in a wild state. It grows on a soil of a drier 
nature than the fibrous-rooted variety, to be 
spoken of hereafter. When raised from seed 
on a moist soil, it still retains the bulbous root, 
which goes the length to prove, that if it is not 
a distinct species, it is at least a permanent 
xxiriety. 

Alopecurus geniculatus. Knee-jointed, foxtail- 
grass. There are two varieties of this species 
of foxtail-grass : the present, which is by far 
the more common, is distinguished from the 
other by its fibrous root and greater size ; the 
less common variety has a bulbous root. The 
A. bulhvsus may be distinguished from the bul- 
bous-rooted variety of the knee-jointed species, 
by its upright culms, which want the knee- 
jointed form so conspicuous in the culms of 
the former. (Sm, Engl. Flora.) It is a peren- 
nial, and grows commonly in surface drains, 
and at the entrance of cattle ponds, particu- 
larly where the soil is clayey. It does not 
appear to be eaten with much relish by either 
cows, horses, or sheep. Its nutritive powers 
are not considerable, and its sub-aquatic natural 
place of growth excludes any recommendation 
of it for cultivation. Flowers in the first 
week of June, and during the summer. [This 
species is designated by Professor Dewey as 
the true foitail-grass, which in Massachusetts 
grows in wet, muddy bottoms, flowering in 
July.] 

Alopecurus pratensis. Meadow foxtail-grass. 
[See Plate 5, of Pasture Grasses, g.] This 
grass is a native of Britain and most parts of 
Europe, from Italy, through France, Germany, 
Holland, to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and 
Russia. 

Under the best management, it does not at- 
tain to its fullest productive powers from seed 
till four years; hence it is inferior to the 
cock's-foot grass for the purposes of ultimate 
cropping, and to many other grasses besides. 
The herbage, however, contains more nutritive 
matter than that of the cock's-foot, though the 
weight of grass produced in one season is con- 
siderably less. It thrives well under irrigation, 
keeping possession of the croAvns of the ridges ; 
and is strictly permanent. Sheep are very 
fond of it ; when combined with white clover 
only, the second season on a sandy loam, it is 
sufficient for the support of five couple of ewes 
and lambs per acre. As it only thrives in per- 
fection on lands of an intermediate quality as 
to moisture and dryness, and also being some- 
what longer in attaining to its full productive 
state than some other grasses, its merits have 
been misunderstood in many instances ; and 
in others, as in the alternate husbandry, it has 
I ^en, by some persons, set aside altogether. 
10 



In many rich natural pastures, it constitutea 
the principal grass. Though not so well 
adapted, therefore, for the alternate husbandry, 
it is one of the best grasses for permanent pas- 
ture, and should never form a less proportion 
than one-eighth of any admixture of different 
grasses prepared for that purpose ; its merits 
demand this, whether in respect to early 
growth, produce, nutritive qualities, or perma- 
nency. It has been observed by the Rev. Mr. 
Swayne, (in his Gra/nina Pascua, a work 
which contains much valuable information on 
the subject of grasses), that nearly two-thirds 
of the seed is constantly destroyed by insects : 
according to my experiments, this evil may be 
almost entirely obviated by suffering the first 
culms of the season to carry the seed. It flowers 
in April, May, and June, according as it may 
have been depastured earlier or later. Seed 
ripe in June and July, according to the season 
of flowering. The meadow-foxtail constitutes 
part of the produce of all the richest pastures 
I have examined in Lincolnshire, Devonshire, 
and in the vale of Aylesbury. In Mr. West- 
car's celebrated pastures at Creslew I found it 
more prevalent than in those of Devonshire 
and Lincolnshire. 

Experiments tend to prove that there is 
nearly three-fourths of produce greater from a 
clayey loam than from a silicious sandy soil, 
and that the grass from the latter soil is of 
comparatively less value in the proportion of 
3 to 2. The culms produced on the sandy 
soil are deficient in number, and in every re- 
spect smaller than those from the clayey loam ; 
which satisfactorily accounts for the difference 
in the quantity of nutritive matter afforded 
by equal quantities of the grass. It is not the 
strength and rankness of the grass that indi- 
cates the fitness of the soil for its grov/th, hut 
the number and quality of the culms. The 
proportionate value in which the grass of the 
latter-math exceeds that of the flowering crop 
is as 4 to 3 ; a difference which appears extra- 
ordinary when the quantity of flowering culms 
is considered. In the Anthuxaalhuni <i<lnrukirn 
the proportional diflerence is still greater, the 
latter-math being to the flowering crop in nu- 
triment nearly as 9 to 4. In the Poa trivialis 
they are equal ; but in all the later-flowering 
grasses that have culms resembling tho. e of 
the meadow-foxtail and sweet-scented vernal, 
the greater proportional value is always, on the 
contrary, found in the grass of the flowering 
crop. Whatever the cause may be, it is evi- 
dent that the loss sustained by taking these 
grasses at the time of flowering is consider 
able. In ordinary cases, this seldom happens 
in practice, because these grasses perfect their 
seed about the season when hay-harvest gene- 
rally commences, unless where the pasture has 
been stocked till a late period in the spring, 
which cannot, in this respect, be productive 
of any ultimate advantage, but rather loss. 
The proportional value which the grass, at 
the time the seed is ripe, bears to that at the 
time of flowering is as 3 to 2. The superiority 
of the produce from a light loam over that 
from a clayey soil is as 4 to 3. 

Alopecurus Tauntonensis Taunton's meadow 
G 73 



ALPACA. 



ALPACA. 



foxtail-grass. This holds a middle station be- 
tween the Ahpecurus pratensis and Alopecurus 
arundinaceus. 

The produce and nutritive powers of the se- 



veral species of Ahpecurus, may easJy be seen 
by a reference to the following analytical 
classification {Sinclair's Hort. Gram.) : — 



Description of Grass. 



.Alopecurus agrestis, in flower - 
jj. bulbosus geniculatus, in flower 
A. pratensis^ in April, 

, in flower, 

, in flower 

, seed ripe 



Sandy loam 
Clayey loam 



Silicious sand 
Clayey loam 



Green Pro- 
duce per Acre. 



8,167 8 

5,445 5 

9,528 12 

20,418 12 

8,507 13 



Dry Product 
per Acre. 



3,164 14 8 
1,089 



6,125 10 
2,552 5 8 



12,931 14 5,819 5 8 



Produce per Acre 
of Mulrive malter. 



Ihs. 

223 5 4 

85 1 

483 14 

478 9 

132 14 5 

454 10 2 



ALPACA. A peculiar breed of .Peruvian 
sheep, for whose introduction into England 
considerable efforts have been recently made. 
A very excellent "Memoir" upon these inte- 
resting animals has recently (1841) been pub- 
lished by Mr. William Walton, from whose 
work are gathered the following interesting 
facts : — " When the Spanish adventurers under 
Pizarro crossed the isthmus of Panama and 
reached the shores of the Pacific, they bent 
their steps towards Peru, and arriving there 
found the inhabitants in possession of two do- 
mestic animals, the beauty and utility oi" which 
excited their admiration. They also ascer- 
tained that two others, alike in species, al- 
though varying in properties, existed in a wild 
state. Struck with the analogy, and always 
disposed to see objects of comparison with the 
productions of their own land, the Spaniards 
called this new breed of cattle Cameras de la 
tierra, or country sheep, and in their use of 
them imitated the natives. Acosta, one of 
the earliest naturalists who embarked for the 
New World, wrote an account of these inte- 
resting animals, derived from personal obser- 
vation ; and that account, which made its ap- 
pearance in 1590, is perhaps the best ever 
penned. He says (Hlstoria Natural y Moral de 
los Indiiis, lib. iv. c. 41), " There is nothing in 
Peru more useful, or more valuable, than the 
country sheep called llamas, and they are as 
economical as they are profitable. From them 
the natives obtain both food and clothing, as 
we do in Europe from sheep, and besides use 
them as beasts of burden. They require no 
expense in either shoeing, packsaddles, bridles, 
or even barley, serving their masters gratui- 
tously, and being satisfied wiih herbage picked 
up on the wastes. Thus did Providence pro- 
vide the Peruvians with sheep and beasts of 
burden united in the same animal, and on ac- 
count of their poverty, seems to have wished 
that they should enjoy this advantage, free 
from expense, as pastures in the highlands are 
abundant. These sheep are divided into two 
kinds ; the one called paco bears a heavy fleece 
of wool, Avhile the others have only a short coat, 
and are better adapted for carrying burdens. 
They have a long neck, similar to the camel, 
and this they require ; for being tall and up- 
right, they stand in need of an elongated neck 
to reach their food. The colours of both ani- 
mals vary, some being entirely white, others 
entirely black, and occasionally particoloured. 
The meat is good, that of the fawn is best and 
most delicate, although the Indians use it spa- 



ringly, their principal object in rearing this 
breed of cattle being to avail themselves of its 
wool for clothing and of its services to carry 
loads. The wool they were accustomed to 
spin and weave into garments, one of their 
kinds of cloth, called huasca, being coarse and 
in more general use ; while the other, known 
by the name of cumbi, was of a finer and more 
delicate quality. Of the latter they still make 
mantles, table-covers, quilts, and various arti- 
cles of ornamental dress, which are durable, 
and have a gloss upon them, as if partly made 
of silk. Their mode of weaving is peculiar to 
themselves, each side of the web being alike ; 
nor in a whole piece is it possible to discover 
an uneven thread or a knot. The Peruvian 
incas, or emperors, kept experienced masters 
to teach the art of making the cumbi, o\- superfin,! 
cloth, the principal part of whom resided in 
the district of Capachica, where tliey had pub- 
lic establishments, and with the aid of plants 
gave to it various colours, bright and lasting. 
The men and women in the highlands were 
mostly manufacturers, having looms in their 
own houses, which precluded the necessity of 
going to market to purchase clothing." 

"The Indians still possess large droves, con- 
sisting of 400, or 1000 head each, which they 
load, and with them perform journeys, travel- 
ling like a string of mules and carrying wine, 
coca, corn, chuno (a nutritive food made from 
potatoes, first frozen, and afterwards reduced 
to powder), quicksilver, and other articles of 
merchandise, and more especially that which, 
of all others, is the most valuable, viz., silver, 
ingots of which they bear from Potosi to Arica, 
a distance of seventy leagues, as they formerly 
did to Arequipa, more than twice as far. Often 
have I been astonished at seeing these droves 
carrying 1000 or 2000 ingots, valued at more 
than 300,000 ducats, journeying slowly on with 
no other guard than a few Indians, who chiefly 
served to load and unload, or, at most, two or 
three Spaniards. They sleep in the open 
country ; and though the journey is long, and 
the protection afforded so extremely weak, no 
part of the silver is ever missing. The load 
usually carried by each animal is from four to 
six nrrobtts, (each arrobn has twenty-five lbs.) ; 
and if the journey is long they do not travel 
beyond three or four leagues per day. The 
drivers have their known resting-places, where 
thej'- find pasture and water, and on arriving 
there, unload, pitch their tents, light a fire and 
dress their own food, while the bearers of their 
burdens are turned out loose." 



ALPACA. 



ALPACA. 



He further remarks that the flesh of these 
animals was jerked and made into cusharqui, 
or, as the Spaniards call it, cecina, which kept 
good for a considerable time, and was in very 
general request. " Both species," he says, 
" are accustomed to a cold climate, and thrive best 
VI the highlands. Often does it happen that 
they are covered with snow and sparkling with 
icicles, and yet healthy and contented." Speak- 
ing of the vicunas, the same author observes 
that they are wild and timid, inhabiting the 
punas, or snowy cliffs, and are affected by 
neither rain or snow. To this he adds that 
they are gregarious, extremely fleet, and that 
on meeting a traveller, or beast of the forest, 
they fly away, collecting and driving their 
young before them. He further affirms that 
the vicuna wool is as soft as silk, made into 
fine stuffs, and requires no dyeing ; adding, 
that many persons also considered it medici- 
nally useful in cases of pains in the loins and 
other parts of the body, in consequence of 
which they had mattresses made of it. 

IncaGarcilasso de la Vega, a native of Peru, 
was the next Spaniard of note who described 
the Carneros de la tien-a, and subjoined are his 
leading remarks: — "The domestic animals 
which God was pleased to bestow on the In- 
dians, congenial to their character and like 
them in disposition, are so tractable that a 
child may guide them, more particularly those 
accustomed to bear burdens. Generally they 
are called llamas, and the keeper llama-michec. 
As a distinction, the larger kind is called hu- 
unacu-llama, owing to its resembling the wild 
one of that name, from which it only differs in 
colour, the tame breeds being seen of all hues, 
whereas the wild ones have only one, and that 
is a light brown. The height of the domestic 
breeds is that of a deer, and to no animal can 
they be likened so justly as the camel, except- 
ing that they are smaller and have no hunch 
on the back. The skin was anciently steeped 
in tallow, in order to prepare it, after which 
the Indians used it for shoes, but the leather 
not being tanned, they were obliged to go bare- 
footed in rainy weather. Of it the Spaniards 
now make bridles, girths, and cruppers for 
saddles. The llama formerly served to bear 
loads from Cusco to the mines of Potosi, in 
droves of 800 or 1000, each animal carrying 
three or four arrobas. The paco was chiefly 
valued for its flesh, but more especially for its 
wool, long, but excellent, of which the natives 
made cloths, and gave to them beautiful and 
never-fading colours." 

The Peruvian sheep are peculiar to that 
part of South America, bordering on the Pa- 
cific, which extends from the equator beyond 
the tropic of Capricorn, that long and enor- 
mous range of mountains known as the Andes 
Cordilleras. Along this massive pile every 
imaginable degree of temperature may be 
found in successive gradation. Below stretches 
a narrow strip of land, washed by the sea, 
where the heat is intense and it never rains, 
but where, owing to heavy dews and filtration 
from the mountains, vegetation is luxuriant 
and an eternal spring reigns. As one ascends, 
the aspect of the country changes, and new 
plants appear; but no sooner are the middle 



summits gained, and the sun has lost his 
power, than those cold and icy regions rise up, 
one above the other, called by the natives 
punas, which are again crowned with rocky 
crests, broken by deep ravines and rugged 
chasms, and presenting a wilderness of crags 
and cliffs never trodden by the human footstep, 
and never darkened, except by a passing 
cloud, or the eagle's wing. In this land of mist 
and snow, or rather in the hollows which sur- 
round it, feed the guanaco and vicuna, at an 
elevation of 12,000 or 14,000 feet above the 
level of the sea; while in the lower regions, 
stretching immediately under the snowy belt, 
and where the Indian fixes his abode at a 
height from 8,000 to 12,000 feet, may be seen 
pasturing those flocks of llamas and alpacas 
which constitute his delight, and at the same 
time the principal part of his property. 

Here, amidst broken and precipitous peaks, 
on the parapets and projecting ledges, slightly 
covered with earth, or in the valleys formed 
by the mtiuntain ridges, like the Pyrenean 
chamois, the llama and alpaca pick up a pre- 
carious subsistence from the mosses, lichens, 
tender shrubs, and grassy plants which make 
their apppearance as the snow recedes ; or, 
descending lower down, revel in the pujimales, 
or, as they are called in some parts of the 
country, ichuales — natural meadows of the ichu 
plant, the favourite haunts of the tame and 
wild kinds. Thus the hand of man never pre- 
pares food for either species — both readily find 
it on their native mountains. Besides the ex- 
tremes of cold, these animals have equally to 
endure the severities of a damp atmosphere, 
for while below it seldom rains, in the summer 
months, when evaporation from the sea is 
abundant, clouds collect, and being driven 
over the lower valleys by strong winds from 
the south and west, and condensed by the cold, 
burst on the highlands, where the rain falls in 
torrents, amidst the most awful thunder and 
lightning. 

However bleak and damp the situation, little 
does it matter for an animal requiring neither 
fold nor manger, and living in wild and deso- 
late places, where the tender is often obliged 
to collect the dung of his flock to serve as fuel 
for himself. Although delicate in appearance, 
the alpaca is, perhaps, one of the hardiest ani- 
mals of the creation. His abstinence has 
already been noticed. Nature has provided 
him with a thick skin and a warm fleece, and 
as he never perspires, like the ordinary sheep, 
he is not so susceptible of cold. There is, 
therefore, no necessity to smear his coat with 
tar and butter, as the farmers are obliged to 
do with their flocks in Scotland, a process 
which, besides being troublesome and expen- 
sive, injures the wool, as it is no longer fit to 
make into white goods, nor will it take light 
and bright colours. In the severest winter the 
alpaca asks no extra care, and his teeth being 
well adapted to crop the rushes and coarse 
grass with which our moors abound, he will 
be satisfied with the refuse left upon them. In 
a word, he would live where sheep must be in 
danger of starving. 

The importations of Sheep's wool from Pern 
into Liverpool, principally alpaca, have stead 

75 



ALPACA. 

ily advanced since the article became known 
to the manufacturer, — the best proof of its 
>vorth. In 1835 the)^ amounted to 8,000 bales ; 
m 1836, to 12,800; in 1837, to 17,500: in 1838, 
to 25,765; in 1839, to 34,543; and in 1840, to 
34,224 — more than quadrupled in six years. 

In the Custom House returns, it is to be re- 
gretted that alpaca wool is not distinguished 



ALTITUDE. 

from the ordinary kinds arriving fi .m Peru, 
The total imports for the last five years of all 
sheep's wool, distinguishing from Peru (includ- 
ing alpaca) and other parts, and also of red, 
or vicuna wool, together with raw and thrown 
silks, and goat's hair or wool, and mohair 
yarn, are here subjoined : — 



Sheep's wool : 

From Peru 
Other parts 

Total 

Red Wool : 

From Peru 
Other parts 

Total 

Raw silk 
Thrown silk 
Goat's hair or wool 
Mohair yarn 


1S36. 


1837. 


1638. 


1839. 


1840. 


lbs. 

953,974 
63,284,677 


lbs. 
1,914,137 
46,464,957 


Its. 
2,303,794 
50,289,846 


lbs. 
2,145,106 
55,228,349 


lbs. 

2,762,439 
46,630,638 


64,238,651 


48,379,094 


52,593,640 


57,373,455 


49,393,077 


1,248 

78 


614 


294 
421 


4,465 
2,003 


7,940 
34,377 

42,317 


1,326 


614 


715 


6,468 


4,453,081 

396,660 

1,117,629 

89,298 


4,146,481 

231,203 

602,373 

29,199 


3,458,959 

265,130 

942,770 

20,546 


3,746,248 

225,268 

992,188 

13,645 


3,758,841 

•288,994 

989,257 

2,664 



With regard to the number of these sheep 
now in England, and their capability of being 
naturalized, Mr. Walton adds, "Mr. Bennett, 
of Farindon, had a pair of llamas sent to him 
from Peru twenty years ago, and fed them as 
sheep are usually fed, with hay and turnips in 
the winter. From his own experience he 
fouiid that they are particularly hardy and 
very long-lived. He increased his stock, and 
has actually had six females at a time which 
have had young ones. Of these very few have 
died. The number of Peruvian sheep in the 
kingdom at present (July 1841) [is short of 
100, chiefly distributed in parks]. The exist- 
ence of this number among us, supported by 
their healthy appearance, as reported to me 
from every quarter where I have been able to 
institute inquiries, is a better proof of the ca- 
pacity of Andes sheep to adapt themselves to 
our climate, than any further arguments or 
elucidations which I could adduce." 

[The demand for alpaca wool in England, 
which the table indicates is rapidly increasing, 
certainly shows that it is well worthy the atten- 
tion of North American farmers to make the ex- 
periment of raising Peruvian sheep. At a late 
meeting of the British Association for the Ad- 
vancement of the Arts and Sciences, Mr. Daw- 
son made a communication on the subject of 
the introduction into England, of a species of 
Auchenla, or Llama of South America, and 
presented specimens of alpaca wool, in its na- 
tural and manufactured states, resembling silk, 
and without being dyed, as black as jet. Na- 
turalists distinguish five species of the llama, 
all of which afford wool. But the alpaca alone 
has fine wool, from six to twelve inches long, 
and the vicuna wool, like the fur of the beaver, 
at tne ba.se of its coarser hair. It is capable 
()f tiie finest manufacture, and is especially 
adapted to such fabrics as the finest shawls. 
The yarns spun in England are mostly sold in 
France for the shawl trade, at from $1.50 to 
$3.50 per pound, according to quality, the price 
«)f the wool in a natural state being about fifty 
cents per pound. This wool is naturally free 
from grease, in which respect it differs materi- 
76 



ally from that of common sheep, and the ant 
mal requires no washing before shearing. Mr. 
Dawson remarked, that it was not certain 
whether the alpaca could be made to thrive in 
Great Britain. The last remark might raise a 
doubt whether it could be raised to advantage 
in the United States. Should it be proved that 
the alpaca was not adapted to any part of 
Great Britain, it would furnish no solid argu- 
ment against their adaptation to the climate of 
the United States, especially the Northern 
States, and the mountainous districts every- 
where. An interesting account of this animal 
will be found in the third volume of the Ameri- 
can Farmer.] 

ALTERATIVE MEDICINES. In farriery, 
are such medicines as possess a power of 
changing the constitution, without any sensi- 
ble increase or diminution of the natural 

ALTERNATE HUSBANDRY. That sort 
of management of farms, which has one part 
in the state of grass or sward, while the other 
is under the plough, so as to be capable of 
being changed as there may be occasion, or as 
the nature of the land may require. This sys- 
tem of management is supposed to lessen the 
expense of manure, and keep the land more 
clean. (See Husbandry.) 

ALTITUDE (Lat. alitudu, from alius, high). 
In vegetable physiology, altitude or elevation 
of surface above the level of the sea is equiva- 
lent to a receding, whether north or south, 
from the line of the equator, 600 feet of altitude 
being thought to be equal to a degree [of lati- 
tude.] Hence it follows that all varieties of 
climate, and consequently all varieties of 
vegetable habitat, may exist even in the same 
latitude, merely by means of variety in the 
altitude of the spot. This was found by Tourne- 
fort to be literally the fact, during his travels 
in Asia. At the foot of Mount Ararat he met 
with plants peculiar to Armenia; above these 
he met with plants which are found also in 
France ; at a still greater height he found him- 
self surrounded with such as grow in Sweden, 
and at the summit, with such as vegetate in 



ALTITUDE. 



ALUMINA. 



the polar regions. Baron Humboldt, in his 
Personal Narrative, gives us a similar account 
of the several zones of vegetation existing in a 
height of 3730 yards on the ascent of Mount 
Teneriffe. The first zone is the region of vines, 
extending from the shores of the ocean to a 
height of from 400 to 600 yards, well culti- 
vated, and producing date trees, plantains, 
olives, vines, and wheat. The second zone is 
the region of laurels, extending from about 
600 to 1800 yards, producing many plants with 
showy flowers, and moss and grass beneath. 
The third zone is the region of pines, com- 
mencing at 1920 yards, and having a breadth 
of 850 yards. The fourth zone is the region 
Retama, or broom, growing to a height of nine 
or ten feet, and fed on by wild goats. The last 
zone is the region of grasses, scantily covering 
the heaps of lava, with cryptogamic plants in- 
termixed, and the summit of the mountain 
bare. 

This accounts for the great variety of plants 
which is often found in no great extent of 
country; and it may be laid down as a botani- 
cal axiom, that the more diversified the surface 
of the country, the richer it will be in species, 
at least in the same latitudes. It accounts, 
also, for the want of correspondence between 
plants of different countries, though placed in 
the same latitudes ; because the mountains, or 
ridges of mountains, which may be found in 
the one and not in the other, will produce the 
greatest possible difference in the character of 
the genera and species. To this cause we 
may ascribe the diversity that often actually 
exists between plants growing in the same 
country and in the same latitudes ; as between 
those of the north-west and north-east coasts 
of North America, as also of the south-west 
and south-east coasts ; the former being more 
mountainous, the latter more flat. Sometimes 
the same sort of difference takes place between 
the plants of an island and those of the neigh- 
bouring continent ; that is, if the one is flat and 
the other mountainous ; but if they are alike 
in their geographical delineation, they are 
generally alike in their vegetable productions. 

[Meteorologists generally compute, that as 
land rises above the level of the sea or tide- 
water, the temperature of its climate grows 
colder at the rate of 1° Fahrenheit, for every 
300 feet or 100 yards of elevation. It has 
however been found that the decline of tem- 
perature on rising above the common level of 
the sea, is less where large tracts of country 
rise gradually than when the estimate is made 
either by balloon ascension, or scaling the 
sides of isolated and precipitous mountains. 
A striking illustration of this is offered by the 
ridges and valleys of the great Himmaleh 
mountains of Southern Asia, where immense 
tracts, which theory would consign to the 
dreariness of perpetual congelation, are found 
richly clothed in vegetation and abounding in 
vegetable and animal life. At the village of 
Zonching, 14,700 feet above the level of the 
sea, in lat. 31° 36 N. Mr. Colebrook found 
flocks of sheep browsing on verdant hills ; and 
at the village of Pui, at about the same eleva- 
tion, there are produced, according to Captain 
Gerard, the most luxuriant crops of barley, 



wheat, and turnips, whilst a little lower the 
ground is covered with vineyards, groves of 
apricots, and many aromatic plants. 

The effects of gradual elevation in lessening 
the falling off of temperature, is manifested 
upon a moderate scale in our own country. 
The [annual] mean temperature of Eastport, 
Me., for example, is 42°.95, whilst that of Fort 
Snelling in the same latitude, but far in the 
interior, with an elevation of some 600 or 800 
feet above the sea, is 2°.88 higher, namely, 
45°.S3, instead of being two or three degrees 
colder, to correspond with the law of eleva- 
tion. {Amer. Med. Jour. July. 1842.)] 

ALUM (Lat. Alumen). The sulphate of 
alumina and potash of the chemist, [or com- 
mon alum], is composed, according to the ana- 
lysis of Berzelius {Ann. de Chim. 82—258), of 

Sulphuric acid 3423 

Alumina ..--.- I0S6 

I'otash 981 

Water ..---. 4500 

99 90 

In veterinary practice, alum in powder is 
sometimes used externally for destroying 
trifling excrescences, arresting bleeding, &c. 
A little, very finely powdered, is occasionally 
blown through a quill into the eye for the pur- 
pose of removing specks of long standing. 

Alum lotion is prepared by dissolving from 
six to eight drachms of alum powder in two 
pints of water. This forms an inexpensive 
and tolerably efficacious application for mild 
forms of grease, cracks in the heels of horses, 
and for superficial solves of all kinds. It should 
not be used till the surrounding inflammation 
has been subdued by time or proper remedies. 
In its weakest state, the alum lotion is service- 
able in the cankered ear of dogs, and wounds 
or ulcers of the mouth in any animal. 

Alum ointment is composed of one drachm 
of the powder to one ounce each of turpentine 
and hog's lard, incorporated by heating. Thia 
supplies the place of the lotion when the sores 
are apt to become dry and hard. It is, how- 
ever, very little used. 

Burnt alum is made by boiling a solid piece 
of the salt on an iron plate over a fire till it 
becomes quite dry and white, taking care not 
to make the heat so strong as to decompose it 
This, in powder, is sometimes used for specks 
in the eye. {Miller's Dictionary.) 

ALUMINA. The pure earth of clay, was so 
named from having been obtained in a state 
of the greatest purity from aluin, in which 
salt it exists combined Math sulphuric acid, 
and potash. This earth when pure has but 
little taste, and no smell. The earthy smell 
which clay emits when breathed upon, is 
owing to the presence of oxide of iron. Its 
specific gravity is 2-00. When heated it parts 
with a portion of water, and its bulk is consi- 
derably diminished. Hence most clay lands 
are apt to crack, by their contraction in dry 
weather. There is little doubt, from the expe- 
riments of Davy, but that alumina is the oxide 
of a metal, which has been denominated 
aluminum, although he did not succeed in pro- 
curing it in a separate state. 

Of all the earths alumina is found in plants 
in the smallest proportions, 32 ounces of the 
g2 77 



ALVEARIUM. 



AMERICAN BLIGHT. 



seeds of wheat only contain 0-6 of a grain, and 
those of the barley and the oat only about 4 grains. 

If some clay be dissolved in water, and some 
aqua ammonia (hartshorii) be added to it, the 
mixture will assume a milky whiteness, and if 
left to stand awhile, a white substance will be 
precipitated, called in chemical language alu- 
mina. Prof. J. F. W. Johnston does not regard 
this as a nourishing element to plants. Its use 
in soils he considers entirely mechanical, bind- 
ing the other materials together by its tenacity, 
so as to furnish that degree of stiffness necessary 
for the support of plants. Liebig takes a differ- 
ent view of the subject. "It is known," he 
says, " that the aluminous minerals are the 
most widely diffused on the suface of the earth, 
and, as we have already mentioned, all fer- 
tile soils, or soils capable of culture, contain 
alumina as an invariable constituent. There 
must, therefore, be something in aluminous 
earth which enables it to exercise an influ- 
ence on the life of plants, and to assist in 
tlieir developement. The property on which 
this depends is that of its invariably containing 
potash and soda. 

" Alumina exercises only an indirect influ- 
ence on vegetation, by its power of attracting 
and retaining water and ammonia; it is itself 
very rarely found in the ashes of plants, but 
silica is always present, having, in most places, 
entered the plants by means of alkalies." {Lie- 
big.)] (See Earths ; their use to vegetation.) 
(Davy, El. Cheni. Phil.; T/tom.ion's System; 
Professor Schiihler, Jntir. Roy. Ag. Soc. vol. i. 
p. 177; [Lic/j'g's Organic Chan.']) 

ALVEARIUM. A term sometimes employed 
10 signify a bee-hive. 

AMAUROSIS. In farriery, is a total blind- 
ness, without any altered appearance in the 
eye. [This irremediable affection proceeds 
from a paralysis of the nerve of sight, or 
optic nerve.] 

AMBLE. In horsemanship, is a peculiar 
kind of pace, in which both the horse's legs of 
the same side move at the same time. In this 
pace the horse's legs move nearer to the 
ground than in the walk, and at the same time 
are more extended : but what is most extraor- 
dinary in it is, that the two legs of the same 
side, for instance, the off hina and fore leg, 
move at the same time ; and then the two near 
legs, in making another step, move at once ; 
the motion being performed in this alternate 
manner, so that the sides of the animal are 
alternately without support, or any equilibrium 
between the one and the other, which must 
necessarily prove very fatiguing to him, being 
obliged to support himself in a forced oscilla- 
tion, by the rapidity of a motion, in which his 
feet are scarcely off the ground. For if in the 
ambip he lifted his feet as in the trot, or even 
in a walk, the oscillation would be such, that 
he could not avoid falling on his side. 

Those who are skilled in horsemanship 
observe, that horses which naturally amble, 
never trot, and that they are considerably 
weaker than others. Colts often move in this 
manner, especially when they exert them- 
selves, and are not strong enough to trot or 
gallop. Most good horses, which have been 
over-worked, and rr. the decline, are also ob- 
served voluntarily t/; amiile, when forced to a 
78 



motion swifter than a walk. The amble may, 
therefore, be considered as a defective pace, 
not being common, and natural only to a very 
few horses, which, in general, are weaker than 
others. Add to this, that such amblers as 
seem the strongest are spoiled sooner tnan 
those which trot or gallop. 

AMEL-CORN. A diseased sort of grain, 
[resembling spelt.] 

AMELIORATING CROPS. In husbandrj, 
are such as are supposed to improve the lands 
on which they are cultivated. Carrots, turnips, 
artificial gi"asses, such as contain a large pro- 
portion of nutritious materials, and many other 
green vegetable products, especially if fed off, 
[or ploughed in,] are considered as ameliorat- 
ing ; but all kinds of crops, carried off the land, 
are in some degree or other exhausters of the 
ground ; and green crops, such as have been 
just mentioned, are only less so than crops of 
grain or other ripe vegetables. The improve- 
ment of lands, therefore, by Avhatare commonly 
termed ameliorating crops, depends, in a great 
measure, upon the culture which the ground 
receives while they are growing, and the 
returns which they make to it in the way of 
manure, after being consumed by animals. 

AMELIORATING SUBSTANCES. In agri- 
culture, are such substances, asf when applied 
to land, render it more fertile and productive. 

AMERICAN BLIGHT. [A popular, but 
very inappropriate name used in England to 
designate the injurious effects upon apple trees 
caused by a species of plant-louse or Aphis, 
(the Eriosdina miiU, of Leach, and the Aphis 
lanigera, of lUiger.) Its American origin is 
rendered doubtful from the fact that nursery- 
men in the Middle States have never witnessed 
the mischievous effects described as common 
in Europe from this kind of blight.] A de- 
tailed account of the insect is given in the 
Jonriial (if a Natural int, which, with the correc- 
tion of a few errors and oversights of the 
author, we shall now follow. 

Early in summer, and even in spring, about 
March, a slight hoariness is observed upon the 
branches of certain species of our orchard 
fruit. As the season advances this hoariness 
increases, and becomes cottony ; and toward 
the middle or the end of summer, the upper 
sides of some of the branches are invested with 
a thick, downy substance, so long as at limes 
to be sensibly agitated by the air. Upon exa- 
mining this substance, we find that it conceals 
a multitude of small, M'ingless creatures, which 
are busily employed in preying upon the limb 
of the tree beneath. This they are well enabled 
to do, by means of a beak terminating in a fine 
bristle; this being insinuated through the bark, 
and the sappy part of the wood, enables the 
creature to extract, as with a syringe, the 
sweet, vital liquor that circulates in the plant. 

This terminating bristle is not observable 
in every individual, from being usually, when 
not in use, so closely concealed under the 
breast of the animal, as to be invisible. In the 
younger insects it is often manifested by pro- 
truding, like a fine termination, to the vent 
{anus) ; but as their bodies become length- 
ened, the bristle is not in this way observable. 
The pulp wood (alburnum') being thus wound* 



AMERICAN BLIGHT. 



AMERICAN CRESS. 



ed, rises up in excrescences and nodes all 
over the branch, and deforms it; the limb, 
deprived of its nutriment, grows sickly; the 
leaves turn yellow, and the part perishes. 
Branch after branch is thus assailed, until 
they become leafless, and the tree dies. 

Plant lice (Aphides), in general, attack the 
younger and softer parts of plants ; but this 
insect seems ea:iily to wound the harder bark 
of the apple, and does not always make choice 
of the most tender branch. They give a pre- 
ference to certain sorts, but not always the 
most rich fruits, as cider apples, and wildings, 
are greatly infested by them ; and from some 
unknown cause, other varieties seem to be 
exempted from their depredations. The 
Wheeler's russet, and Crofton pippin, have 
never been observed to be injured by them ; 
and the insect is so fastidious in its selections, 
that it will frequently attack the stock or the 
graft, leaving the one or the other untouched, 
should it consist of a kind not to its liking. 
This insect is viviparous, or produces its 
young alive, forming a cradle for them by dis- 
charging from the extremities of its body a 
quantity of long, cottony matter ; which, be- 
coming interwoven and entangled, prevents the 
young from falling to the earth, and completely 
envelopes the parent and the offspring. In 
this cottony substance, we observe, as soon as 
the creature becomes animated in the spring, 
and as long as it remains in vigour, many 
round pellucid bodies, which at the first sight 
look like eggs, only that they are larger than 
we might suppose to be ejected by the animal. 
They consist of a sweet glutinous fluid, and 
are not the eggs but the discharges of the in- 
sects. In the autumn, the winds and rains of 
the season partly disperse these insects ; and 
we observe them endeavouring to secrete 
themselves in the crannies of any neighbour- 
ing substance. Should the savoy cabbage be 
near the trees whence they have been dis- 
lodged, the cavities of the under sides of its 
leaves are commonly favourite asylums for 
them. Multitudes perish by these rough remo- 
vals, but numbers yet remain ; and we may 
find them in the nodes and crevices, on the 
under sides of the branches, at any period of 
the year, the long, cottony vesture being nearly 
all removed; but still they are enveloped in a 
fine short downy clothing, to be seen by a mag- 
nifier, proceeding apparently from every suture 
or pore of their bodies, and protecting them in 
their dormant state from the moisture and 
frosts of our climate. This insect in a natural 
state, usually awakens and commences its 
labours very early in the month of March ; and 
the hoariness on its body may be observed in- 
creasing daily ; but if an affected branch be 
cut in the winter, and kept in water in a warm 
room, these creatures will awaken speedily, 
spin their cottony nests, and feed and discharge 
as accustomed to do in a genial season. [For 
further particulars relating to the habits of 
these and other similar insects, see Aphis and 
Aphi.dians.] 

Remedies. — A considerable number of me- 
thods have been proposed for getting rid of the 
insect in question. White-washing, or wash- 
ing with lime-water, has been tried, but is not 



so efficacious as the application of any gluti- 
nous substance, which may cover the insects 
and dry over them. Double size or glue, 
liquefied by heat, and applied by means of a 
brush, particularly in March, when the insects 
begin to show more cottony than in winter, is 
a very effectual remedy, if no crevice of a tree 
is left unsized. This, however, may be dis- 
solved by the rain, and therefore a varnish is 
recommended by Mr. Knapp, as follows : " Melt 
about three ounces of resin in an earthen pip- 
kin, take it from the fire, and pour it into three 
ounces of fish oil ; the ingredients perfectly 
unite, and when cold, acquire the consistence 
of hone}% A slight degree of heat will liquefy 
it, and in this state paint over every node or 
infected part in ycur tree, using a common 
painter's brush. This I prefer doing in spring, 
or as soon as the hoariness appears. The sub- 
stance soon sufficiently hardens, and forms a 
varnish, which prevents any escape, and stifles 
the individuals. After this first dressing, should 
any cottony matter appear round the margin 
of the varnish, a second application to these 
parts will, I think, be found to effect a perfect 
cure. The prevalence of this insect," adds 
this author, "gives some of our orchards here 
the appearance of numerous white posts in an 
extensive drying ground, being washed with 
lime from root to branch ; a practice, I appre- 
hend, attended with little benefit. A few of 
the creatures maybe destroyed by accident; 
but as the animal does not retire to the earth, 
but winters in the clefts of the boughs, far be- 
yond the influence of this wash, it remains un- 
injured, to commence its ravages again when 
spring returns." 

All oily or resinous substances, however, 
being prejudicial to trees, Mr. George Lindley 
recommends vinegar as a wash for young 
trees ; and, as less expensive for old trees, a 
sort of paint, composed of one gallon of quick- 
lime, half a pound of flowers of sulphur, and a 
quarter of a pound of lamp-black, mixed with 
boiling water to the consistence of whitening 
for white-washing, and laying it on rather 
more than blood warm Avith a brush. This 
should be done in March, and again in August 
when the winged insects spread from tree to 
tree. 

Mr. Couch, as a cheap and certain remedy, 
recommends three quarters of an ounce of sul- 
phuric acid [oil of vitriol], by measure, to be 
mixed with seven ounces and a half of water. 
It should be applied all over the bark by means 
of rags, the only parts excepted being the pre- 
sent year's shoots, which it would destroy. 
This destroys moss and lichens, as well as in- 
sects ; and if applied in showery Aveather, will 
be washed into every crevice in which they 
can harbour. 

AMERICAN CRESS {Lepidium virgini- 
cum). From asw/?, a scale, on account of the 
form of the seed-vessel. For the winter stand- 
ing crops, a light dry soil, in an open but warm 
situation, should be allotted to it, and for the 
summer, a rather moister and shady border is 
to be preferred. In neither instance is it re- 
quired to be rich. It is propagated by seed, 
which must be sown every six weeks from 
March to August, for summer and autumn, but 



AMERICAN GRASS. 



AMMONIA. 



only one sowing is necessary, either at the end 
of August, or beginning of September, for a 
supply during winter and spring. It may be 
sown broadcast, but the most preferable mode 
is in drills nine inches apart. Water may be 
given occasionally during dry weather, both 
before and after the appearance of the plants. 
If raised from broadcast sowings, the plants 
are thinned to six inches apart ; if in drills, 
only to three. In winter they require the 
shelter of a little litter or other light covering ; 
and to prevent them being injured by its pres- 
sure, some twigs may be bent over the bed, or 
some light bushy branches laid amongst them, 
which will support it. The only cultivation 
they require is to be kept clear of weeds. 

In gathering, the outside leaves only should 
be stripped off, which enables successional 
crops to become rapidly fit for use. When the 
plants begin to run, their centres must be cut 
away, which causes them to shoot afresh. For 
the production of seed, a few of the strongest 
plants raised from the first spring sowing are 
left ungathered from. They flower in June or 
July, and perfect their seed before the com- 
mencement of autumn. (G. W. Johnson's Kit- 
chen Garden.') 

[This plant in America is commonly called 
wild pepper-grass. It is frequent in fields and 
on roadsides in the Middle States.] 

AMERICAN GRASS. A term sometimes 
applied [in England] to a species of agrostis. 

AMMONIA. The name given by chemists 
to the volatile alkali, from its being first pre- 
pared in the East from camels' dung near to a 
temple dedicated to Jupiter Ammon. It is 
known in commerce under the name of harts- 
horn, sal volatile, &c., and is prepared by the 
dry or destructive distillation of animal sub- 
stances. It is formed also most commonly 
wherever animal substances undergo putre- 
faction. It is composed of 



Hydrogen 

Azote or nitrogen 



125 
175 



Ammonia is usually produced in the state 
of carbonate of ammonia, or united with car- 
bonic acid gas, and in this state, or in fact in 
combination with most other acids, it forms 
salts, which possess peculiarly fertilizing pro- 
perties. This alkali fulfils, there is little doubt, 
a very important part in many organic ma- 
nures. It is a very universally diffused sub- 
stance, has been detected in rain-water and 
even in snow, and there is little doubt but that 
it exists, and prejudicially too, to the health of 
ihe inhabitants, in the atmosphere of many 
[1 1 aces crowded with animal life. (Liebig's 
Organic Chem. 76, 77.) Wherever this alkali 
is detected in a substance, such as it commonly 
is, for instance, in urine, gas-water, &c., the most 
excellent effects may be anticipated to vegeta- 
tion by Its use. Fresh urine contains phosphate 
of ammonia, muriate of ammonia, and lactate of 
ammonia, and there is perhaps no fertilizer 
more powerful in its effects than this. 

[One of the most important discoveries bear- 
ing upon agriculture perhaps ever made, is 
that just promulgated by Liebig, of the exist- 
ence in the atmosphere of ammonia. Davy 
and other chemists of the highest celebrity had 



analyzed the air collected from the most sickly 
locations where impurities might certainly be 
expected to exist, but with their nicest tests 
and best conducted experiments they failed t( 
detect any essential difference in the composi 
tion of the insalubrious air taken from the 
deadly coast of Africa, and that collected from 
the most elevated and healthy parts of Europe. 
The analyses of the air of the dill'erent places 
all gave the same proportions of the gaseous 
constituents, namely, oxygen, nitrogen, and 
carbonic acid. It was evident, therefore, that if 
other matters, in addition to the gases named 
and watery vapour, existed in the air, some 
other means must be found to demonstrate their 
presence ; and happily, the genius of Liebig 
devised a plan by which this has been effected 
so far as the presence of ammonia is con- 
cerned. He knew that ammonia had a strong 
affinity for water, by which it i;^ promptly ab- 
sorbed, and that although it could be diffused 
through such a great bulk of air as to be 
placed beyond the reach of chemical tests, il 
might nevertheless be taken up by rain-water, 
and washed down in sufficient quantity to be- 
come apparent. Experiments made, in his 
laboratory at Geissen, with the greatest care 
and exactness, fully confirmed his views, and 
placed the presence of ammonia in rain-w-ater, 
and consequently in the atmosphere, beyond a 
doubt. It had hitherto escaped detection be- 
cause no one thought of searching for it in the 
same way. A single pound of rain-water con- 
tains as much of the gas of ammonia, as is 
diffused through 28,800 cubic feet of air, 
namely, only one-fourth of a grain. 

"All the rain-water employed in this inquiry," 
says Liebig, " was collected 600 paces south- 
west of Geissen, whilst the wind was blowing 
in the direction of the town. When several 
hundred pounds of it were distilled in a copper 
still, and the first two or three pounds evapo- 
rated with the addition of a little muriatic acid, 
a very distinct crystallization of sal-ammoniac 
was obtained ; the crystals had always a brown 
or yellow colour. 

" Ammonia may likewise be ahvays detected 
in snow-water. Crystals of sal-ammoniac were 
obtained by evaporating in a vessel with muri- 
atic acid several pounds of snow, which were 
gathered from the surface of the ground in 
March, when the snow had a depth of ten 
inches. Ammonia was set free from these 
crystals by the addition of hydrate of lime. 
The inferior layers of snow, which rested upon 
the ground, contained a quantity decidedly 
greater than those which formed the surface. 

" It is worthy of observation, that the ammo- 
nia contained in rain and snow-water pos- 
sessed an offensive smell of perspiration and 
animal excrements, — a fact Avhich leaves no 
doubt lespecting its origin. 

"Any one may satisfy himself of the presence 
of ammonia in rain, by simply adding a little 
sulphuric or muriatic acid to a quantity of rain 
water, and evaporating this nearly to dryness 
in a clean porcelain basin. The ammonia 
remains in the residue, in combination with 
the acid employed ; and may be detected either 
by the addition of a little chloride of platinum, 
or more simply by a little powdered lime, which 



AMMONIA. 



AMMONIA. 



separates the ammonia, and thus renders its 
peculiar pungent smell sensible. The sensa- 
tion which is perceived upon moistening the 
hand with rain-water, so dilTerent from that 
produced by pure distilled water, and to which 
the term softness is vulgarly applied, is also 
due to the carbonate of ammonia contained in 
the former. A small quantity of ammonia 
water, added to what is commonly called hard 
water, will give it the softness of rain or snow- 
water. 

" The ammonia which is removed from the 
atmosphere by rain and other causes, is as 
constantly replaced by the putrefaction of ani- 
mal and vegetable matters. A certain portion 
of that which falls with the rain evaporates 
again with the water, but another portion is, 
we suppose, taken up by the roots of plants, 
and, entering into new combinations in the 
different organs of assimilation, produces al- 
bumen, gluten, quinine, morphia, cyanogen, 
and a number of other compounds containing 
nitrogen. The chemical characters of ammo- 
nia render it capable of entering into such 
combinations, and of undergoing numerous 
transformations. We have now only to con- 
sider whether it really is taken up in the form 
of ammonia by the roots of plants, and in that 
form applied by their organs to the production 
of the azotized matters contained in them. 
This question is susceptible of easy solution 
by well-known facts. 

"In the year 1834, I was engaged with Dr. 
Wilbrand, professor of botany in the univer- 
sity of Giessen, in an investigation respecting 
the quantity of sugar contained in the different 
varieties of maple trees, which grew upon 
soils which were not manured. We obtained 
crystallized sugars from all, by simply evapo- 
rating their juices, without the addition of any 
foreign substance ; and we unexpectedly made 
the observation, that a great quantity of ammo- 
nia was emitted from this juice, when mixed 
with lime, and also from the sugar itself during 
its refinement. The vessels, which hung upon 
the trees in order to collect the juice, were 
watched with greater attention, on account of 
the suspicion that some evil-disposed persons 
had introduced urine into them, but still a large 
quantity of ammonia was again found in the 
form of neutral salts. The juice had no colour, 
and had no reaction on that of vegetables. 
Similar observations were made upon the juice 
of the birch-tree; the specimens subjected to 
experiment were taken from a wood several 
miles distant from any house, and yet the clari- 
fied juice, evaporated with lime, emitted a 
strong odour of ammonia. 

" The products of the distillation of flowers, 
herbs, and roots, with water, and all extracts 
of plants made for medicinal purposes, contain 
ammonia. The unripe, transparent, and gela- 
tinous pulp of the almond and peach emit 
much ammonia when treated with alkalies. 
(Robiquet.) The juice of the fresh tobacco- 
leaf contains ammoniacal salts. The water, 
which exudes from a cut vine, when evapo- 
rated with a few drops of muriatic acid, also 
yields a gummy deliquescent mass, which 
evolves much ammonia on the addition of 
lime. Ammonia exists in every part of plants, 
U 



in the roots (as in beet-root), in the stem (of 
the maple-tree), and in all blossoms and fruit 
in an unripe condition. 

"The juice of the maple and birch contain 
both sugar and ammonia, and therefore afford 
all the conditions necessary for the formation 
of the azotized components of the branches, 
blossoms, and leaves, as well as of those which 
contain no azote or nitrogen. In proportion as 
the developement of those parts advances, the 
ammonia diminishes in quantity, and when 
they are fully formed, the tree yields no more 
juice. 

"The employment of animal manure in the 
cultivation of grain, and the vegetables which 
serve for fodder to cattle, is the most convinc- 
ing proof that the nitrogen of vegetables is 
derived from ammonia. The quantity of gluten 
in wheat, rye, and barley, is very different; 
these kinds of grain also, even when ripe, con- 
tain this compound of nitrogen in very differ- 
ent proportions. Proust found French wheat 
to contain 12-5 per cent, of gluten; Vogel 
found that the Bavarian contained 24 per cent. ; 
Davy obtained 19 per cent, from winter, and 
24 from summer wheat; from Sicilian 21, and 
from Barbary wheat 19 per cent. The meal 
of Alsace wheat contains, according to Bous- 
singault, 17"3 per cent, of gluten; that of 
wheat grown in the " Jardin des Plantes" 26'7, 
and that of winter wheat 3*33 per cent. Such 
great differences must be owing to some cause, 
and this we find in the different methods of 
cultivation. An increase of animal manure 
gives rise not only to an increase in the num- 
ber of seeds, but also to a most remarkable 
difference in the proportion of the gluten which 
they contain. 

" Animal manure, as we shall afterwards 
show, acts only by the formation of ammonia. 
One hundred parts of wheat grown on a soil 
manured with cowdung (a manure containing 
the smallest quantity of nitrogen), afforded 
only 11*95 parts of gluten, and 64-34 parts of 
amylin, or starch ; Avhilst the same quantity, 
grown on a soil manured with human urine, 
yielded the maximum of gluten, namely 35'1 
per cent. Putrefied urine contains nitrogen in 
the forms of carbonate, phosphate, and lactate 
of ammonia, and in no other fonn than that of 
ammoniacal salts. 

" Putrid urine is employed in Flanders as a 
manure with the best results. During the 
putrefaction of urine, ammoniacal salts are 
formed in large quantity, it may be said exclu- 
sively ; for, under the influence of heat and 
moisture, urea, the most prominent ingredient 
of the urine, is converted into carbonate of am- 
monia. The barren soil on the coast of Peru 
is rendered fertile by means of a manure called 
Guann, which is collected from several islands^ 
on the South Sea. It is sufficient to add a 
small quantity of guano to a soil, which con- 
sists only of sand and clay, in order to procure 
the richest crops of maize. The soil itself 
does not contain the smallest particle of or- 
ganic matter, and the manure employed is 
formed only of urate, phosphate, oxalate, and 
carbonate of ammonia, together with a few 
earthy salts. {Boussingault, Ann. de Chim. e( 
de Phys. t. Ixv. p. 319.) 



AMMONIA. 

" Ammonia, therefore, must have yielded the 
nitrogen to these plants. Gluten is obtained 
not only from corn, but also from grapes and 
other plants ; but that extracted from the grapes 
is called vegetable albumen, although it is 
identical in composition and properties with 
the ordinary gluten. 

"It is ammonia which yields nitrogen to the 
vegetable albumen, the principal constituent 
of plants ; and it must be ammonia which 
forms the red and blue colouring matters of 
flowers. Nitrogen is not presented to wild 
plants in any other form capable of assimila- 
tion. Ammonia by its transformation, fur- 
nishes nitric acid to the tobacco plant, sun- 
flower, Chenopiidium, and Boraii<> officinalis, 
when they grow in a soil completely free from 
nitre. Nitrates are necessary constituents of 
these plants, which thrive only when ammonia 
is present in large quantity, and when they are 
also subject to the influence of the direct rays 
of the sun, an influence necessary to effect the 
disengagement within their stem and leaves 
of the oxygen, which shall unite with the am- 
monia to form nitric acid. 

" The urine of men and of carnivorous ani- 
mals contains a large quantity of nitrogen, 
partly in the form of phosphates, partly as 
urea. Urea is converted during putrefaction 
into carbonate of ammonia, that is to say, it 
takes the form of the very salt which occurs 
in rain-water. Human urine is the most pow- 
•erful manure for all vegetables containing 
nitrogen ; that of horses and horned cattle con- 
tains less of this element, but infinitely more 
than the solid excrements of these animals. In 
addition to urea, the urine of herbivorous ani- 
mals contains hippuric acid, which is decom- 
posed during putrefaction into benzoic acid 
and ammonia. The latter enters into the com- 
position of the gluten, but the benzoic acid 
often remains unchanged ; for example, in the 
Anthoxanthum odorutum. The late Professor 
'Gorham obtained from Indian corn a substance 
to which he gave the name Znne, according to 
whose analysis it contains no nitrogen; but 
ammonia has since been obtained from it." 

It has always been a popular opinion 
among husbandmen, that snow contained some 
fertilizing salts, as winter crops were gene- 
rally observed to thrive best after being long 
covered with snow. Common observation is 
here fully sustained by science, since ammo- 
nia, one of the greatest of fertilizers, may 
always be detected in snow-water, the inferior 
layers next the ground containing the largest 
proportion. 

The following interesting calculation is 
given by Liebig. " If," says he, " a pound of 
rain-water contain one-fourth of a grain of 
ammonia, then a field of 40,000 square feet 
must receive annually upwards of 80 pounds 
of ammonia, or 6.5 pounds of nitrogen ; for, by 
the observations of Schiibler, which were for- 
merly alluded to, about 700,000 pounds of rain 
fall over this surface in four months, and con- 
sequently the annual fall must be 2,-500,000 
pounds. This is much more nitrogen than is 
contained in the form of vegetable albumen 
and giuten, in 2,650 pounds of wood, 2,800 
pounds of hay, or 200 cwt. of beet-root, which 
82 



AMMONIA. 

are the yearly produce of such a field, but it is 
less than the straw, roots, and grain of corn 
which might grow on the same surface would 
contain." 

As to the source from which the ammonia 
diffused in the atmosphere is derived, it is suf- 
ficient to refer to the fact that ammonia is the 
last product of the putrefaction of animal bo- 
dies, all of which, whether large or infinitely 
small, yield their nitrogen to the atmosphere 
in the form of ammonia. This cannot remain 
long in the air, as every shower of rain must 
absorb and convey it to the earth. " Hence also, 
rain-water must, at all times, contain ammonia, 
though not always in equal quantity. It must 
be greater in summer than in spring or in 
winter, because the intervals of time between 
the showers are in summer greater ; and when 
several wet days occur, the rain of the first 
must contain more of it than that of the 
second. The rain of a thunder-storm, after a 
long protracted drought, ought for this reason 
to contain the greatest quantity which is con- 
veyed to the earth at one time." 

Is it asked what direct proof exists thai 
ammonia acts so favourably in promoting 
vegetation! The answer is furnished in the 
results of experiments made by Sir Humphry 
Davy, in which the beaks of retorts containing 
fermenting manures were introduced into the 
soil among the roots of grass, which was thus 
made to grow more luxuriantly than that in 
other places. The gases emanating from re- 
torts containing similar manure ^vere exa- 
mined and found to consist chiefly of ammonia. 
Sir Humphry considered such results as prov- 
ing conclusively the advantage of applying 
manures to soils in a recent and fermenting 
state. (See Azote or Nitrogen.) 

Dr. Liebig's discovery of the great fertilizer 
ammonia in rain-water has led to a most sim- 
ple and beautiful explanation of the manner in 
which gypsum or plaster of Paris acts in pro- 
moting the growth of plants, a matter which 
has been a subject of great speculation and 
controversy, but which would seem to be fully 
settled at last. 

"The evident influence of gypsum upon the 
growth of grasses,— the striking fertility and 
luxuriance of a meadow upon which it is 
strewed, — depends only upon its fixing in the 
soil the ammonia of the atmosphere, which 
would otherwise be volatilized Math the water 
which evaporates. The carbonate of ammonia 
contained in rain-water is decomposed by gyp- 
sum, in precisely the same manner as in the 
manufacture of sal-ammoniac. Soluble sul- 
phate of ammonia and carbonate of lime are 
formed ; and this salt of ammonia possessing 
no volatilitv is consequently retained in the 
soil. All the gypsum gradually disappears, 
but its action upon the carbonate of ammonia 
continues as long as a trace of it exists. The 
action of gypsum as well as that of chloride 
of lime (bleaching salts) really consists in 
their giving a fixed condition to the nitrogen, 
or ammonia which is brought into the soil, and 
which is indispensable to the nutrition of 
plants. 

" Water is absolutely necessary to effect the 
decomposition of the gypsum, on account of its 



AMYLACEOUS. 



ANALYSIS. 



difficult solubility (1 part of g}'psum requires 
400 parts of water for solution), and also to 
assist in the absorption of the sulphate of am- 
monia b)' the plants; hence it happens, that 
the influence of gypsum is not observable on 
dry fields and meadows. 

"The decomposition of gypsum by carbonate 
of ammonia does not take place instantane- 
ously; on the contrary, it proceeds very gradu- 
ally, and this explains why the action of the 
gypsum lasts for several years." {Org. Ckem.)] 

AMYLACEOUS. A term applied to such 
farinaceous seeds, grains, and roots, as contain 
much of the fine flour from which starch is 
made, and in which chiefly consists their nu- 
tritive principle. 

ANALYSIS (Gr.uvdxu^t;). In a general sense, 
signifies the resolution of compound bodies 
into their original or constituent principles. 

Am/lysis of Soils. — The means of ascertain- 
ing the nature, properties, and proportions of 
the diff"erent materials of which they are com- 
posed. The chemical examination of the soil 
affords perhaps more certain and more valua- 
ble information to the farmer, for the improve- 
ment of its fertility, than any other mode of 
investigation. The apparatus and the experi- 
ments, necessary for even the most accurate 
experiments, are by no means so difficult as it 
is often believed is the case. It is, in fact, a 
very erroneous conclusion, that an extensive 
or an expensive apparatus is necessary to 
carry on even the most valuable chemical 
researches. The laboratory of one of the most 
celebrated chemical philosophers of his day, 
that of Dalton of Manchester, contained appa- 
rently but a poor collection of glass bottles, re- 
torts, crucibles, fragments of wine-glasses, &c. 

The following descriptions of the philoso- 
phically-accurate mode adopted by Sir Hum- 
phry Davy for the analysis of soils, [and of 
the more easily repeated plans of the Rev. W. 
Rham, of England, and Dr. Dana, of Massa- 
chusetts, are given nearly in their own words. 
The first is taken from his Elements of Agri- 
cultural Chemistry, the second from the first 
volume of the Journal of the Royal Agricul- 
tural Society of England, p. 46, and the last 
from Priftssnr Hitchcock's Report of the Geologi- 
cal Survey of Mnssachusefts.] It may be well 
to premise that four earths are almost always 
the chief constituents of all cultivated soils, 
viz., silica (flint), alumina (clay), carbonate 
of lime (chalk), and carbonate of magnesia. 
These are mixed together in an endless variety 
of proportions, and are interspersed with ani- 
mal and vegetable remains, salts, &c., to an 
equally varying extent. It is to ascertain the 
presence and the extent of these substances 
that the analysis of soils is so necessary and 
so valuable to the farmer. 

"The instruments required for the analysis 
of soils," said the illustrious Davy, " are few 
and but little expensive. They are a balance 
capable of containing a quarter of a pound of 
common soil, and capable of turning when 
loaded with a grain ; a set of weights from a 
quarter of a pound troy to a grain ; a wire 
sieve sufficiently coarse to admit a mustard- 
seed through its apertures ; an Argand lamp 
and stand; some glass bottles ; Hessian cruci- ! 



bles ; porcelain or queen's ware evaporaiing 
basins ; a Wedgewood pestle and mortar ; 
some filters made of half a sheet of blotting- 
paper, folded so as to contain a pint of liquid, 
and greased at the edges ; a bone knife, and 
an apparatus for collecting and measuring 
aeriform fluids. 

" The chemical substances or re-agents re- 
quired for separating the constituent parts of 
the soil are muriatic acid (spirit of salt), sul- 
phuric acid (oil of vitriol), pure volatile 
(ammonia), dissolved in water, solution of 
prussiate of potash and iron, succinate of am- 
monia, soap-lye, or solution of potassa, solu- 
tions of carbonate of ammonia, of muriate of 
ammonia, of neutral carbonate of potash, and 
nitrate of ammonia. 

" In cases when the general nature of the 
soil of a field is to be ascertained, specimens 
of it should be taken from different places, two 
or three inches below the surface, and exa- 
mined as to the similarity of their properties. It 
sometimes happens that upon plains the whole 
of the upper stratum of the land is of the same 
kind, and in this case one analysis will be suffi- 
cient; but in valleys, and near the beds of 
rivers, there are very great diflferences ; and it 
now and then occurs that one part of a field is 
calcareous, and another part silicious, and in 
this case, and in analogous cases, the portions 
different from each other should be separately 
submitted to experiment." 

Soils, when collected, if they cannot be im- 
mediately examined, should be preserved in 
phials quite filled with them, and closed with 
ground glass stoppers. The quantity of soil 
most convenient for a perfect analysis is from 
two to four hundred grains. It should be col- 
lected in dry Aveather, and exposed to the at- 
mosphere till it becomes dry to the touch. 

The specific gravity' of a soil, or the relation 
of its weight to that of water, may be ascer- 
tained by introducing into a phial, which will 
contain a known quantity of water, equal 
quantities of water and of soil, and this 
may be easily done by pouring in water till it 
is half full, and then adding the soil till the 
fluid rises to the mouth ; the difference between 
the weight of the soil and that of the water 
will give the result. Thus if the bottle con- 
tains 400 grains of water, and gains 200 
grains when half filled with water and half 
with soil, the specific gravity of the soil will 
be 2-, that is, will be twice as heavy as water; 
and if it gained 165 grains, its specific gravity 
would be 1 825-, water being lOOO-. It is of im- 
portance that the specific gravity of a soil^ 
should be known, as it affords an indication of 
the quantity of animal and vegetable matter it 
contains ; these substances being always most 
abundant in the lighter soils. 

The other physical properties of soils should 
likewise be examined before the analysis is 
made, as they denote to a certain extent their 
composition, and serve as guides in directing 
the experiments. Thus silicious soils are 
generally rough to the touch, and scratch glass 
when rubbed upon it ; ferruginous soils are of 
a red or yellow colour, and calcareous soils arn 
soft. 

1. Soils, though as dry as they can be mad 



ANALYSIS. 



ANALYSIS. 



by continued exposure to air, in all cases 
contain a considerable quantity of water, 
which adheres with great obstinacy to the 
earths, and animal and vegetable matter, and 
can only be driven off from them by a consi- 
derable degree of heat. The first process 
of analysis is to free the given weight of 
soil from as much of this water as possible, 
without, in other respects, affecting its compo- 
sition, and this may be done by heating it for 
ten or twelve minutes over an Argand lamp 
in a basin of porcelain to a temperature equal 
to 300° Fahrenheit; and if a thermometer is 
not used, the proper degree may be easily as- 
certained by keeping a piece of wood in con- 
tact with the bottom of the dish ; as long as 
the colour of the wood remains unaltered the 
heat is not too high, but when the wood begins 
to be charred the process must be stopped. A 
small quantity of water will perhaps remain in 
the soil, even after this operation, bat it always 
affords useful comparative results ; and if a 
higher temperature were employed, the vege- 
table or animal matter would undergo decom- 
position, and, in consequence, the experiment 
be wholly unsatisfactory. The loss of weight 
in the process should be carefully noted, and 
when in 400 grains of soil it reaches as high 
as 50°, the soil may be considered as in the 
greatest degree absorbent and retentive of 
water, and will generally be found to contain 
much vegetable or animal matter, or a large 
proportion of aluminous earth. When the loss is 
only from 20° to 10°, the land may be con- 
sidered as only slightly absorbent and retentive, 
and silicious earth probably forms the greatest 
part of it. 

2. None of the loose stones, gravel, or large 
vegetable fibres should be divided from the 
pure soil till after the water is drawn off; for 
these bodies are often themselves highly ab- 
sorbent and retentive, and in consequence in- 
fluence the fertility of the land. The next 
process, however, after that of heating, should 
be their separation, which may be easily ac- 
complished by the sieve, after the soil has 
been gently bruised in a mortar. The weights 
of the vegetable fibres or wood, and of the 
gravel or stones, should be separately noted 
down, and the nature of the last ascertained ; 
if calcareous, they will effervesce with acids ; 
if silicious, they will be sufficiently hard 
to scratch glass ; and if of the common alumi- 
nous class of stones, they will be soft, easily 
cut with a knife, and incapable of effervescing 
with acids. 

3. The greater number of soils, besides 
gravel and stones, contain larger or smaller 
proportions of sand, of various degrees of 
fineness; and it is a necessar}' operation (the 
next in the process of analysis) to detach them 
from the parts in a state of more minute divi- 
sion, such as clay, loam, marl, vegetable and 
animal matter, and the matter soluble in water. 
This may be effected in a way sufficiently ac- 
curate, by boiiling the soil in three or four times 
its weight <,i water, and when the texture of 
the soil is broken down, and the water cool, by 
agitating the parts together, and then suffering 
Ihem 10 rest. In this case, the coarse sand will 
generally separate in a minute, and the finer in 

84 



two or three minutes, whilst the highly divided 
earthy, animal, or vegetable matter will remain 
in a state of mechanical suspension for a 
much longer time; so that by pouring the 
water from the bottom of the vessel, after one, 
two, or three minutes, the sand will be princi- 
pally separated from the otiier substances, 
which, with the water containing them, must 
be poured into a filter, and after the water has 
passed through, collected, dried, and weighed. 
The sand must likewise be weighed, and the 
respective quantities noted down. The water 
of lixiviation must be preserved, as it will be 
found to contain the saline, and soluble ani- 
mal or vegetable, if any exist in the soil. 

4. By the process of washing and filtration, 
the soil is separated into two portions, the most 
important of which is generally the finely di- 
vided matter. A minute analysis of the sand 
is seldom if ever necessary, and its nature 
may be detected in the same manner as that 
of the stones or gravel. It is always either 
silicious sand, or calcareous sand, or a mixture 
of both. If it consist wholly of carbonate of 
lime, it will be rapidly soluble in muriatic 
acid, with effervescence ; but if it consist 
partly of this substance, and partly of silicious 
matter, the respective quantities may be ascer- 
tained by weighing the residuum after the ac- 
tion of the acid, which must be applied till the 
mixture has acquired a sour taste, and has 
ceased to effervesce. This residuum is the 
silicious part ; it must be washed, dried, and 
heated strongly in a crucible ; the difference 
between the weight of it, and the weight of the 
whole indicates the proportion of calcareous 
sand. 

5. The finely divided matter of the soil is 
usually very compound in its nature ; it some 
times contains all the four pripiitive earths or 
soils, as well as animal and vegetable matter • 
and to ascertain the proportions of these with 
tolerable accuracy is the most difficult part of 
the subject. 

The first process to be performed in this part 
of the analysis, is the exposure of the fine 
matter of the soil to the action of muriatic 
acid. This substance should be poured upon 
the earthy matter in an evaporating basin, in a 
quantity equal to twice the weight of the earthy 
matter, but diluted with double its volume of 
water. The mixture should be often stirred and 
suffered to remain for an hour or an hour and a 
half before it is examined. If any carbonate 
of lime, or of magnesia, exist in the soil, they 
will have been dissolved in this time by the 
acid, which sometimes takes up likewise a 
little oxide of iron, but very seldom any alu- 
mina. 

The fluid should be passed through a filter, 
the solid matter collected, washed with rain- 
water, dried at a moderate heat, and weighed. 
Its loss will denote the quantity of solid matter 
taken up. The washings must be added to 
the sohuion, which, if not sour to the taste, 
must be made so, by the addition of fresh acid, 
when a little solution of prussiate of potassa 
and iron must be mixed with the whole. If a 
blue precipitate occurs, it denotes the presence 
of oxide of iron, and the solution of the prus- 
siate must be dropped in, till no farther effect 



ANALYSIS. 



ANALYSIS. 



IS produced. To ascertain its quantity it 
must be collected in the same manner as other 
solid precipitates, and heated red; the result 
is oxide of iron, which may be mixed with a 
little oxide of manganese. 

Into the fluid freed from oxide of iron a 
solution of neutralized carbonate of potash 
must be poured till all effervescence ceases in 
it, and till its taste and smell indicate a consi- 
derable excess of alkaline salt. The precipi- 
tate that falls down is carbonate of lime : it 
must be collected on the filter, and dried at a 
heat below that of redness. The remaining 
fluid must be boiled for a quarter of an hour, 
when the magnesia, if any exist, will be pre- 
cipitated from it, combined with carbonic 
acid, and its quantity is to be ascertained in 
the same manner as that of the carbonate of 
lime. If any minute proportion of alumina 
should, from peculiar circumstances, be dis- 
solved b}^ the acid, it will be found in the pre- 
cipitate with the carbonate of lime ; and it 
may be separated from it by boiling it for a 
few minutes with soap-lye, sufficient to cover 
the solid matter: this substance dissolves alu- 
mina, without acting upon carbonate of lime. 
Should the finely divided matter be suffi- 
ciently calcareous to effervesce very strongly 
with acids, a very simple method may be 
adopted for ascertaining the quantity of carbo- 
nate of lime, and one sufficiently accurate in 
all common cases- 
Carbonate of lime (chalk) in all its states 
contains a determinate proportion of carbonic 
acid, i. e. nearly 43 per cent ; so that when the 
quantity of this elastic fluid given out by 
any soil during the solution of its calcareous 
matter in an acid is known, either in weight or 
measure, the quantity of carbonate of lime 
may be easily discovered. 

When the process by diminution of weight 
is emploj^ed, two parts of the acid and one 
part of the matter of the soil must be weighed 
in two separate bottles, and very slowly mixed 
together till the eflfervescence ceases. The 
difference between the weight before and after 
the experiment denotes the quantity of carbonic 
acid lost: for every 4^ grains of which 10 
grains of carbonate of lime must be estimated. 
C. After the calcareous parts of the soil have 
been acted upon by muriatic acid, the next 
process is to ascertain the quantity of finely 
divided insoluble animal and vegetable matter 
that it contains- This may be done with sul- 
ficient precision, by strongly igniting it in a 
crucible over a common fire till no blackness 
remains in the mass. It should be often stirred 
with a metallic rod, so as to expose new sur- 
faces continually to the air : the loss of weight 
that it undergoes denotes the quantity of the 
substance that it contains destructible by fire 
and air. 

It is not possible without very refined and 
difficult experiments, to ascertain whether this 
substance is wholly animal or vegetable mat- 
ter, or a mixture of both. When the smell 
emitted during the incineration is similar to 
that of burnt feathers, it is a certain indication 
of some substance, either animal, or analo- 
gous to animal matter, and a copious blue 
tlame at the lime of ignition almost always de- 



notes a considerable proportion of vegetable 
matter. In cases when it is necessary that the 
experiment should be very quickly performed, 
the destruction of the decomposible substances 
may be assisted by the agency of nitrate of 
ammonia, which at the time of ignition may 
be thrown gradually upon the heated mass, in 
the quantity of 20 grains for every 100 of 
residual soil. It accelerates the dissipation of 
the animal and vegetable matter, which it 
causes to be converted into elastic fluids, and 
it is itself, at the same time, decomposed and 
lost. 

7. The substances remaining after the de- 
struction of the vegetable and animal matter 
are generally minute particles of earthy matter 
containing usually alumina and silica, with 
combined oxide of iron or of manganese. To 
separate these from each other, the solid mat- 
ter should be boiled for two or three hours 
with sulphuric acid, diluted with four times 
its weight of water; the quantity of the acid 
should be regulated by the quantity of solid 
residuum to be acted on, allowing for every 
100 grains two drachms, or 120 grains of 
acid. 

The substance remaining after the action of 
the acid may be considered as silicious, and it 
must be separated and its w-eight ascertained, 
after washing and drying in the usual manner. 
The alumina, and the oxide of iron and man- 
ganese, if any exist, are all dissolved by the 
sulphuric acid : they may be separated by 
succinate of ammonia added to excess, which 
throws down the oxide of iron, and by soap-lye, 
which will dissolve the alumina, but not the 
oxide of manganese ; the weights of the ox- 
ides ascertained after they have been heated to 
redness will denote their quantities. 

Should any magnesia and lime have escaped 
solution in the muriatic acid, they will be found 
in the sulphuric acid: this, however, is rarely 
the case ; but the process for detecting them 
and ascertaining their quantities is the same in 
both instances- The method of analysis by 
sulphuric acid is sufficiently precise for all 
usual experiments ; but if very great accuracy 
be an object, dry carbonate of potash must be 
applied as the agent, and the residuum of the 
incineration (6.) must be heated red for half 
an hour, with four times its weight of this sub- 
stance in a crucible of silver, or of well baked 
porcelain- The mass obtained must be dis- 
solved in muriatic acid, and the solution evapo- 
rated till it is nearly solid; distilled water must 
then be added, by which the oxide of iron and 
all the earths except silica will be dissolved 
in combination as muriates- The silica after 
the usual process of lixiviation must be heated 
red : the other substances may be separated in 
the same manner as from the muriatic and 
sulphuric solutions- This process is the one 
usually employed by chemical philosophers 
for the analysis of stones- 
• 8. If any saline matter, or soluble vegetable 
or animal matter, is suspected in the soil, i 
will be found in the water of lixiviation used 
for separating the sand. This water must be 
evaporated to dryness in a proper dish, at a 
heat below its boiling point. If the solid matter 
obtained is of a browTi colour and inflamma 
H 85 



ANALYSIS. 



ANALYSIS. 



ble, it may be considered as partly vegetable ex- 
tract. If its smell when exposed to heat be like 
thatof burnt feathers, it contains animal or albu- 
minous matter; if itbe white, crystalline, and not 
destructible by heat, it may be considered prin- 
cipally as saline matter. The saline compound? 
contained in soils are very various. The sul- 
phuric acid combined with potash or sulphate 
of potash is one of the most usual. Common 
salt is also very often found in them ; likewise 
phosphate of lime, which is insoluble in water, 
but soluble in muriatic acid. Compounds of 
the nitric, muriatic, sulphuric, and phosphoric 
acids, with alkalies and earths, exist in some 
soils. The salts of potash are distinguished 
from those of soda by their producing a pre- 
cipitate in solutions of platina ; those of lime 
are characterized by the cloudiness they occa- 
sion in solutions containing oxalic acid ; those 
of magnesia by being rendered cloudy by so- 
lutions of ammonia. Sulphuric acid is detected 
in salts by the dense white precipitate it forms 
in solutions of baryta; muriatic acid, by the 
cloudiness it communicates to solution of nitrate 
of silver; and when salts contain nitric acid, 
they produce scintillations by being thrown 
upon burning coals. 

9. Should sulphate or phosphate of lime be 
suspected in the entire soil, the detection of 
them requires a particular process upon it. 
A given weight of it, for instance, 400 grains, 
must be heated red for half an hour in a cruci- 
ble, mixed with one third of powdered char- 
coal. The mixture must be boiled for a quarter 
of an hour in a half pint of water, and the 
fluid collected through the filtre and exposed 
for some days to the atmosphere in an open 
vessel. If any notable quantity of sulphate of 
lime (gypsum) existed in the soil, a white pre- 
cipitate will gradually form in the fluid, and 
the weight of it will indicate the proportion. 

Phosphate of lime, if any exist, may be 
separated from the soil after the process for 
gypsum. Muriatic acid must be digested upon 
the soil in quantity more than sufiicient to sa- 
turate the soluble earths : the solution must 
be evaporated, and water poured upon the 
solid matter. This fluid will dissolve the com- 
pounds of earths with the muriatic acid, and 
leave the phosphate of lime untouched. It 
will not fall within the limits assigned to this 
article to detail any processes for the detection 
of substances which may be accidentally 
mixed with the matters of soils. Other earths 
and metallic oxides are now and then found in 
them, but in quantities too minute to bear any 
relation to fertility or barrenness, and the 
search for them would make the analysis much 
more complicated, without rendering it more 
useful. 

10. Where the examination of a soil is com- 
pleted, the products should be numerically 
arranged and their quantities added together, 
and if they nearly equal the original quantity 
of soil, the analysis may be considered as ac- 
curate. It must, however, be noticed that when 
phosphate or sulphate of lime are discovered 
by the independent process just described (9), 
a correction mrist be made for the general pro- 
cess, by subtracting a sum equal to their 
weight from the quantity of carbonate of lime 

86 



obtained by precipitation from the muriatic 
acid. In arranging the products the form 
should be in the order of the experiments by 
which they were procured. Thus I obtained 
from 400 grains of a good silicious sandy soil 
from a hop garden near Tonbridge Kent, — 

Grains. 

Of water of absorption . - . - . le 

Of loose stones and {;ravel, principally silicious 53 
Of undeconiposed vegetable fibres - - - 14 
Of fine silicious sand -..--- 212 
Of minutely divided matter, separated by agitation 
and filtration, and consisting of Grains. 

Carbonate of lime (chalk) - - 19 
Carbonate of magnesia - - - 3 
Matter destructible by heal, princi- 
pally vegetable - - - - 15 

Silica 21 

Alumina --...- 13 
Oxide of iron ----- 5 

Soluble matter, principally common 

salt and vegetable extract - - 3 
Gypsum ------ 2 

— 81 
Loss . - - . 21 

400 



The loss in this analysis is not more than 
usually occurs, and it depends upon the im- 
possibility of collecting the whole quantities 
of the different precipitates, and upon the pre- 
sence of more moisture than is accounted for 
in the water of absorption, and which is lost 
in the different processes. 

When the experimenter is become acquaint- 
ed with the use of the different instruments, 
the properties of the re-agents, and the rela- 
tions between the external and chemical quali- 
ties of soils, he will seldom find it necessary to 
perform, in any one case, all the processes 
that have been described. When his soil, for 
instance, contains no notable proportions of 
calcareous matter, the action of the muriatic 
acid (7.) may be omitted. In examining peat 
soils, he will principally have to attend to the 
operation by fire and air, and in the analysis 
of chalks and loams, he will often be able to 
omit the experiment by sulphuric acid (9,). 

In the first trials that are made (adds Davy) 
by persons unacquainted with chemistry, they 
must not expect much precision of result; ma- 
ny difficulties will be met with ; but, in over- 
coming them, the most useful kind of practical 
knowledge will be obtained ; and nothing is so 
instructive in experimental science as the de- 
tection of mistakes. The correct analyst 
ought to be well grounded in general chemical 
information; but perhaps there is no bettei 
mode of gaining it than that of attempting 
original investigations. In pursuing his ex- 
periments, he will be continually obliged to 
learn the properties of the substances he is 
employing or acting upon ; and his theoretical 
ideas will be more valuable in being connected 
with practical operations, and acquired for the 
purpose of discovery. 

Such were the excellent rules for analysis 
prescribed by Sir Humphry Davy. With the 
still more simple directions of the Rev. W. 
Rham, I shall conclude this paper. 

A portion of the earth to be analysed may 
be dried in the sun or near a fire until it i'eels 
quite dry in the hand. It is then reduced to 
powder by the fingers, or by rolling it on a 
deal board with a wooden roller, so as to sepa- 



ANALYSIS. 



ANALYSIS. 



rate the particles, but not to grind them : any- 
small stones above the size of a pea must be 
laken out. If these form a considerable part 
cf the soil, their proportion must be ascertained 
b}' weight ; their nature and quality may be 
afterwards examined : this being a very simple 
operation, and obvious to the sight, need not 
be described. Where the stones and pebbles 
are evidently accidental, they may be over- 
looked, as having little influence on the ferti- 
lity : the dry earth, cleared from stones, should 
be accurately weighed ; and it is convenient to 
take some determined quantity of grains, as 
1000, 500, or 250, according to the accuracy 
of the instruments at hand. This portion 
should be put into a shallow earthen or metal 
vessel, and heated over the fire, or a lamp, for 
about ten minutes, stirring it with a chip of 
dry wood; the heat should not be so great as 
to discolour the wood. It m.ay then be allowed 
to cool, and be weighed again ; the loss of 
weight indicates the water which I'emained 
uncombined after the soil appeared quite dry. 
This is the first thing to be noted. The power 
of retaining M'ater without any external appear- 
ance of moisture is greatest in humus (a mo- 
dern term for very finely divided organic 
matter), next in clay, both of which readily 
absorb it from the atmosphere; carbonate of 
lime does so in a less degree, and silicious 
sand least of all. This moisture occupies the 
pores of the soil, and is very different from the 
water, which is combined with clay as a part 
of its substance, and to which it owes its 
ductility ; for when this last is expelled by a 
great heat, the clay loses its quality, and ap- 
proaches to the nature of sand. Pounded brick 
will not bind with water, and porcelain reduced 
to fine powder has all the properties of silicious 
sand in the soil. The finer the division of the 
particles of the soil, the greater will be its 
power of absorbing and retaining water ; but 
in a soil where clay greatly predominates, the 
lumps sometimes become so hard and baked 
by the sun that the moisture cannot penetrate ; 
and in this case the power of absorption is 
much diminished. Hence loams in which 
there is a good proportion of humus have a 
greater power of absorption than the pure 
earths. Taking all circumstances into consi- 
deration, it will be found that the soils which 
most readily absorb moisture are also the most 
fertile, and therefore it is important to ascer- 
tain their power of absorption. This can be 
found by comparison. Equal portions of dif- 
ferent soils, dried as before, are placed in the 
opposite scales of a good balance, and left ex- 
posed for some time to a moist atmosphere ; 
that which preponderates has the greatest 
power of absorption ; the degree is measured 
by the difference of the acquired weights. 
Another important circumstance is the specific 
gravity of a soil. The different earths have 
very different specific gravities ; and humus 
being lighter than any mineral earth, the 
lightness of the soil is a sure indication of its 
richness, excepting where this lightness is 
occasioned by an excess of undecomposed 
vegetable matter, or peat. Humus, when 
nearly pure, has specific gravity varying from 
1-2 to 1-5; fine porcelain clay, 2; chalk, about 



2-3; silicious sand from 2-5 to 2*7; mixed 
soils have specific gravities varying according 
to the proportions of their component parts. 
Those in which clay, chalk, and humus abound, 
and which are generally the most fertile, are 
the lightest. The sandy soils are heavier, and 
the more so if they contain oxides of iron, or 
of other metals ; and it is well known that the 
ferruginous sands are the most barren. The 
common expression of light, when applied to a 
sandy soil, has no reference to its specific gra- 
vity, but )nerely to the force required to plough 
it. No carrier would say that a loose sandy 
road was a light one. The easiest and readiest 
method of determining the specific gravity of 
earth, or any substance which is of a loose 
texture, is that described by Dr. Ure in his 
PhlldSiiphy iif Manufaclures (p. 97), as employed 
by him to ascertain the specific gravities of 
cotton, wool, silk and flax. It is as follows : — 
Take a narrow-necked phial, capable of hold- 
ing four or five ounces of water; mark a line 
round the middle of the neck with the point of 
a diamond, or a file ; fill the phial up to the 
mark with river or rain water, and poise it 
with sand, or any other substance, in a scale ; 
then put 1000 grains' weight in the same 
scale with the phial, and pour out water till 
the equilibrium is restored. In the vacant 
space, which is evidently equal to the bulk of 
1000 grains of water, introduce the soil till the 
water rises to the mark in the neck; then put 
into the opposite scale grain weights sufficient 
to restore the equilibrium. The number of 
grains required for this purpose will denote 
the specific gravity of the soil compared to 
water as 1000. Suppose, for example, that 
silicious sand, which is 2-7 times denser than 
water, is poured into the vacant space, it will 
require 2-700 grains to fill the space occupied 
by the 1000 grains of water ; and thus we have 
the specific gravity without any calculation. 
If, instead of 1000 grains, we use only 500, or 
250, the result will be the same, if we multiply 
the grains in the other scale by 2 or 4. 

We will give a few examples of soils, of 
which the specific gravity has been carefully 
determined. 

A rich garden soil, which contained, per 
cent, — 



Clay .... 


- 


52-4 


Bilicious sand 


. 


36-5 


Calcareous sanil - 


. 


1-8 


Carbonate of lime 


. 


20 


Humus ... 


- 


7-3 


had a specific gravity of 2-332. 






A good loam, consisting of— 


- 




Clay ... - 


. 


51 ■« 


Silicious sand 


. 


4a7 


Calcareous sand - 


- 


0-4 


Carbonate of lime - 


. 


2-3 


Humus - - - 


- 


3-4 


had a specific gravity of 2-401. 






A poorer soil, of which the com 


ponent f artj. 


were, — 






Silicious sand 


. 


640 


Clay .... 


. 


32-3 


Calcarpnns sand - 


_ 


1-2 


CarlioiiHie of lime - 


. 


12 


Humus ... 


- 


16 


had a specific gravity of 2-526. 






These examples suffice to sh 


ow 


that the <:"e- 


cific gravity of a soil is some 


olerable ind ,^- 






87 



ANALYSIS. 



ANALYSIS. 



tion of its fertility. It cannot, however, be 
entirely relied upon in the absence of other 
proofs ; for there may be many different mix- 
tures of earths which will have the same spe- 
cific gravity, although they may differ greatly 
in their fertility ; but it will facilitate the 
analysis, and often detect mistakes in the pro- 
cess, if the result does not accord with the spe- 
cific gravity found. We proceed now to the 
analysis. The portion of soil which has been 
deprived of all its water, as described above, 
must be sifted through metallic sieves of dif- 
ferent fineness; the first is made of a perforated 
tin plate, the holes of which are about one- 
twentieth of an inch in diameter : whatever 
does not go through this is put by. The re- 
mainder is successively passed through two or 
three more sieves, increasing in fineness to the 
last; which is of the finest wire-cloth, having 
from 150 to 170 threads in an inch: whatever 
passes through this is an impalpable powder. 
Thus we have already a division of the soil, 
according to the size of its particles : — 1, the 
coarse grit left in the first sieve ; 2, the finer 
grit in No. 2 ; 3, fine sand in No. 3 ; and 4, im- 
palpable powder, which has passed through 
the last sieve. To facilitate this part of the 
operation, the sieves may be made so as to fit 
into one another, like the filterers in a coffee- 
biggin, the last fitting into a tin pot which will 
hold about a pint of water ; a cover being 
made to fit on the top sieve, the instrument is 
complete. (See fig.) Thus, all 
the sifting may be done at 
once without any loss. Any 
lumps which are not tho- 
1 roughly pulverized must be 
broken. The coarser sand 
left in the sieve. No. 1, must 
a now be washed with pure 
water, to detach any fine dust 
adhering to it ; what runs 

3 through may be used to wash 
No. 2, in the same manner; 
and then may pass through 
No. 3 to the impalpable mat- 
ter which passed through all 

4 the sieves. A sufficient quan- 
tity of water must be used to 

render the whole of this last nearly fluid. 
There will then be three different portions of 
the washed soil left in the sieves, and a por- 
tion of impalpable matter difl!'used through the 
water in the lower division of the instrument. 
This last is the principal object of anal^'sis, 
and that to which Sir Humphry Davy usually 
confined his attention, merely noticing the pro- 
portion of coarser sand in the soil. It contains, 
no doubt, the great principle of fertility and 
nutrition ; and the effect of the coarser parts 
may be considered as chiefly mechanical ; but 
they may much affect the fertility of the finer 
parts, and are of the greatest importance to 
the so.i in which they are blended : they con- 
sequently deserve a more minute examination, 
tn which we will return. 

In the mean time, our attention shall be di- 
lected to the composition of the finer earth in 
No. 4. which is mixed with water in a semi- 
fluid state. This is well shaken, and suddenly 
68 




poured into a deep glass vessel, and allowed 
to settle for a few minutes, when the heavier 
earth, which is sand, will be deposited, and the 
lighter may be poured off suspended in the 
water. It requires some little practice to effect 
this at once, but a few trials will soon enable 
any one to do it. This operation may be re- 
peated until all sand, of which the particles 
are visible to the naked eye, is separated. The 
earth and water decanted out of this last vessel 
are now poured into a glass tube, eighteen 
inches long, No. 1, the bore of which is less 
than an inch ; one end is stopped with a cork 
fitted into it, and the other has a small lip for 
the convenience of pouring out the contents. 
In a short time, there will be a further deposi- 
tion of earth, which will be principally alu- 
mina. What remains suspended in the water 
over it is gently poured off into another similar 
tube (No. 2) ; this will contain nearly the 
whole of the humus, which will take some 
hours to be deposited in the form of a fine 
brown mud. The contents of the tube No. 1 
may now have a little more water added to 
them: after being well shaken, the tube may 
be set upright, and left for half an hour to 
settle : what remains suspended in the water 
after this, must be added to the humus in the 
tube No. 2. After some time, this will also be 
deposited, and the clear water may be decanted 
off. The mud which remains is put on filtering 
paper in a glass funnel ; and when all the 
water has drained from it, it is dried over the 
fire, and weighed. 

This is the most important portion of the 
soil. The fine earths deposited in the tube 
No. 1 will consist of very fine particles of 
sand, clay, and perhaps carbonate of lime. 
The sand will appear deposited in the bottom 
of the tube. The clay may be easily diffused 
in the water above it, by stirring it carefully 
with a small rod, without reaching the sand. It 
may then be decanted with the water into 
another tube (No. 3), and allowed to settle. 
This part of the operation may be carried to 
much perfection by great care, and by examin- 
ing the results occasionally with a small mi- 
croscope ; but for all common practical pur- 
poses it is sufficient to separate the vegetable 
earth from the mineral, and the particles of 
sand from the finer. The contents of No. 1 
having been collected, as well as those of 
No. 3, are dried over the fire, and accurately 
weighed. The same is done with the earth 
which remains on the sieves. All the water 
in Avhich the earths have been diffused and 
washed is collected and passed through filter- 
ing paper, and then set over the fire in a com- 
mon saucepan. It is boiled away gently, until 
it is reduced to a small portion, which begins 
to look turbid. The complete evaporation is 
finished in an evaporating dish as slowly as 
possible ; and the residue is the soluble matter 
contained in the soil. It will be sufficient to 
dry and weigh this, jfs its further analysis 
would require more skill and chemical know- 
ledge than we suppose in the operation. Salts 
may be detected by the taste, or by the crystals 
formed in the evaporation ; but unless there is 
a decided saline taste, the whole may be consi 



ANALYSIS. 



ANALYSIS. 



dered as soluble humus, and the immediate 
fertility of the soil depends greatly on the 
quantity of it. 

To recapitulate what has been obtained, 
we shall have the coarse grit in sieve No. 1 ; 
the sand in Nos. 2 and 3; the fine earth 
separated in the tubes, Nos. 1 and 3 ; the 
humus in tube No. 2, and on the filtering 
paper, and on the soluble parts in the evapo- 
rating dish. Ail these substances must be 
well dried over the fire, as was done with the 
soil at first, and each separated part accurate- 
ly weighed: the sum of them ought to be 
equal to the original portion of soil subjected 
to analysis after the water was drawn off"; but 
there always is a loss, even with the most ex- 
perienced analyser ; this loss will be princi- 
pally in the finer parts which are dissipated in 
the operation. But the analysis is not yet 
completed: we have separated the sand, clay, 
and humus, but there may be a portion of car- 
bonate of lime in the form of sand, or of finely 
divided earth mixed with the other earths. To 
ascertain this, each portion, excepting the hu- 
mus, is put into a separate cup, and a little 
muriatic acid, diluted with four times its own 
weight of water, is poured on it : if there is 
any effervescence, it shows the presence of 
carbonate of lime ; diluted acid is then added 
gradually, as long as the effervescence is re- 
newed by the addition. When this ceases, 
and the water continues to have an acid taste, 
more pure water is added, and each portion 
separately filtered, dried, and weighed. The 
loss of weight in each of these gives the quan- 
tities of carbonate of lime dissolved by the 
muriatic acid, and which has passed with the 
water in the form of muriate of lime. The 
different weights being now collected, the re- 
sult of the operations may be set down. There 
may be many mineral substances in the soil, 
which this mode of analysing will not detect ; 
and some of these may materially affect the 
fertility. In most cases there will be some- 
thing to indicate the presence of metals. Iron 
abounds in most soils : when the quantity is 
considerable, it Avill be detected by pouring a 
decoction of gall-nuts into the water which 
has washed the earth ; it will immediately be- 
come of a bluish dark colour. The other me- 
tals are not of frequent occurrence. Sulphate 
of lime or gypsum, and also magnesia, are 
found in some soils; but the separation of 
them can only be effected by those who are 
well acquainted with chemistry : they fortu- 
nately occur very seldom, and the places 
where they are found are generally well 
known. For all practical purposes it is suf- 
ficient to ascertain the proportion of sand, 
clays, carbonate of lime, and humus, which 
any soil contains. Many soils which have 
been highly manured, contain portions of un- 
decomposed vegetable substances, and fibres 
of roots : these will be found mixed with the 
coarser earths separated by the sifting: not 
being a part of the natural soil, they need not 
be taken into the account ; but they may be 
separated by washing the earths, as they are 
much lighter, and will come over in the first 
decjintations. They may be dried and weighed, 
12 



and the quantity set down in the result, if it is 
desirable. Some very barren sands, contain- 
ing very little argillaceous earth or humus, 
may readily be known by the copious sandy 
deposit which they rapidly make when dif- 
fused through water. Good natural loams are 
not so easily judged of; but the preceding 
mode of anal3'^sis will in general detect their 
intrinsic value. When a soil contains peaty 
matter, it is easily discovered by the irregular 
black particles which are visible in it. Peat 
differs from humus only in being in a different 
state of decomposition, and containing a con- 
siderable portion of tannin : when acted upon 
by lime or alkalies, and brought into a state 
of greater decomposition, it is not to be dis- 
tinguished from humus in its qualities. The 
only instruments absolutely required for the 
foregoing analysis are, in the first place, two 
good balances, one capable of weighing a 
pound and turning with a grain, and one 
Aveighing two ounces and turning with the 
tenth part of a grain. Next, the combination 
of sieves which Ave have described, and which 
may easily be made by any tinsmith. But any 
sieves of the required fineness, whether of 
metal, horse-hair, or silk, provided they be of 
the proper texture, Avill ansAver the purpose 
for a trial. Some earthen or glass jugs, and 
tAvo or three glass tubes, 18 inches long, open 
at both ends, AA'hich may be obtained at any 
glass-bloAver's or chemist's, a glass funnel, 
and some filtering paper, Avill complete the 
apparatus. The only chemical substance in- 
dispensable to the analysis is some muriatic 
acid, commonly called spirit of salt. A little 
test-paper to detect acids in the water Avith 
Avhich the soil has been AA'ashed, and an infu- 
sion of gall-nuts to ascertain the presence ol 
iron, may be useful. A small glass phial will 
serve for the specific gravities. The whole 
of these instruments and materials may be 
procured for a A'ery small sum. If the fore- 
going process is carefully followed, any per- 
son, however unaccustomed to chemical ope- 
rations, Avill soon be enabled to satisfy him- 
self as to the composition of any soil of Avhich 
he desires to knoAV the comparative A^alue. He 
must not be disheartened by a few failures at 
first. However simple every operation may 
appear, it requires a little practice and much 
patience, if Ave Avould come to a verj^ accurate 
result. Every portion must be dried to the 
same degree before it is weighed : minute por- 
tions which adhere to the vessels Avhen dried 
must be carefully collected by scraping and 
brushing off with a feather : pieces of filtering- 
paper and linen must be weighed before they 
are used, that small portions of matter adher- 
ing to them may be ascertained by the in- 
crease of weight. By attending to these par- 
ticulars, it is surprising hoAv nearly the whole 
original weight is accounted for in the sum- 
ming up of the separate parts. If this mecha- 
nical analysis should be thought lightly of by 
experienced chemists, let them only carefully 
analyse a portion of soil by this process, and 
then another by any more perfect mode, and 
compare the importance of the results as re- 
gards practical agriculture. The object is to 
h2 8i 



ANALYSIS. 



ANALYSIS. 



ascertain the productive powers of the soils ; 
and for this purpose the separation of the dif- 
ferent earths is sufficient, in the present im- 
perfect state of our knowledge of the mysteries 
of vegetation. The process which we have 
described, simple as it is, may yet be too te- 
dious for the farmer who is desirous of speedily 
comparing different soils ; and we will indicate 
a still simpler method of ascertaining, nearly, 
the composition of a soil, and a simple instru- 
ment by which it may be done. Take a glass 
tube, |ths of an inch in diameter, and three 
feet long ; fit a cork into one end and set it 
upright ; fill it half full of pure water ; take 
nearly as much water as has been poured into 
the tube, and mix with it the portion of soil 
which is to be examined, in quantity not more 
than will occupy 6 inches of the tube ; pour 
the mixture rapidly into the tube, and let it 
stand in a corner of a room, or supported 
upright in any way ; in half an hour it may 
be examined. The earths will have been de- 
posited according to the size and specific gra- 
vity of their particles. The portion still sus- 
pended in the water may be allowed to settle; 
and there will appear in the tube layers of 
sand, clay, and humus, which may be mea- 
sured by a scale, and thus the proportion 
nearly ascertained. When a farmer is about 
to hire a farm of which the quality is not well 
known to him, he may be much assisted in his 
judgment by this simple experiment, if he has 
no time or opportunity for a more accurate 
analysis. For the glass tube may be substituted 
one of tin or zinc two feet in length, with a 
piece of glass tube a foot long joined to it by 
means of a brass collar or ferule with a screw 
cut in it, which is cemented to the glass, and 
screws on the metal tube ; and thus the instru- 
ment may be made more portable. When the 
water has been poured off, and the earths 
only remain, the cork may be taken out and 
the contents pushed out on a plate, by means 
of a rod and a plug which exactly fits the inter- 
nal diameter of the tube. They may thus be 
more particularly examined. The result of 
various accurate analyses of soils shows that 
the most fertile are composed of nearly equal 
quantities of silicious and argillaceous earths 
in various states of division, and a certain 
proportion of calcareous earth, and of humus 
in that state in which it attracts oxygen and 
becomes soluble, giving out at the same time 
some carbonic acid. No chemist has yet been 
able to imitate the process of nature in the 
formation of this substance ; and the circum- 
stances which are most favourable to it are 
not yet fully ascertained. Here is the proper 
field for the application of science and accu- 
rate chemical analysis. As an example of an 
analysis will be useful to those who may ae- 
sire to try the proposed method, we will add 
one actually made under very unfavourable 
circumstances, and without any apparatus ; 
the only instrument at hand were scales and 
weights of tolerable accuracy, three glasses a 
foot long, and 1^ inch in diameter, belonging 
lo French lamps, a tin coffee-strainer, a piece 
of fine gauze, and a very fine cambric pocket- 
handkerchief. A little muriatic acid was ob- 
90 



tained at the apothecary's. The soil to be 
analyzed was taken from a piece of good 
arable land on the south side of the slope of 
the Jura mountains in Switzerland. Its spe- 
cific gravity was taken as described before, 
and found to be 2-358 nearly. 500 grains of 
the dry soil were stirred in a pint of water, 
and set by in a basin. To save time, 500 
grains more of the same soil were weighed, 
after having been dried over the fire. It was 
well pulverized with the fingers, and sifted 
through the coffee-strainer, then through gauze, 
and, lastly, through the cambric handkerchief. 
Some portion was left behind at each sifting. 
The two first portions were washed in the 
strainer and the gauze. The residue was sand 
of two different degrees of fineness, which, 
when dried, weighed, the coarser, 24 grains, 
the next, 20 grains. The earth and water 
which had passed through the strainer and 
the gauze were now strained through the cam- 
bric, and left some very fine sand behind, 
which, dried, weighed, and added to what had 
remained on the cambric, when sifted in a dry 
state, weighed 180 grains. All that which had 
gone through the cambric was mixed with 
water in a jug and stirred about. The heavier 
earth subsided, and the lighter was poured in 
one of the lamp-glasses, which had a cork 
fitted into it, and was placed upright. In 
about two minutes there was a deposit, and 
the lighter portion was poured into a similar 
glass, where it was left some tiine to settle. 
In this a slower deposition took place, and in 
about a quarter of an hour the muddy water 
was poured off into the third glass. The three 
glasses were placed upright, and left so till the 
next day. In the first glass was some very 
fine earth, apparently clay; in the second the 
same, but more muddy; and in the third no- 
thing but thin mud. The contents of No. 2 
were divided between No. 1 and No. 3, by 
pouring off the muddy part into No. 3 after 
some of the pure water had been poured off, 
and the remaining earth into No. 1; they were 
then left to settle. As much water as appeared 
quite clear over the sediment was decanted off. 
The sediment was poured on a plate by taking 
the cork out of the tube, which was cleaned 
with a piece of fine linen, which had been 
carefully dried and accurately weighed. The 
plates were examined, and some of the lighter 
part, which floated on the least agitation, was 
poured from one plate to another, until it was 
thought that all the humus had been separated. 
Most of the water could now be poured off the 
earths, by inclining the plates gently, without 
any muddiness. It was, however, passed 
through a piece of filtering-paper, Avhich had 
been previously dried and weighed. The 
earth was slowly dried, by placing the plates 
on the hearth before a good fire, until they 
were quite dry, and so hot that they could not 
be easily held in the hand. The deposit left 
in the jug was poured on a plate, and a little 
muddy part, which was observed, was poured 
off with the water on another. This was again 
transferred, and the finer added to that which 
was in the second plate. Collecting now all 
the separate portions, there were found 



ANALYSIS. 



ANALYSIS. 



Of coarse sand ------ 24 

Finer sand ------ 20 

Very fine sand ------ 180 

Clay deposited in the jug, and first plate dried 240 

Deposit in the second plate - . - 24 

— on the filtering paper . - . li 

— on the linen rag - - - - OJ 

490 

Leaving 10 grains to be accounted for. 

Each portion, except the three last, was now- 
put into a cup, and diluted muriatic acid 
poured over them : an effervescence appeared 
in ail of them, which continued on the addition 
of diluted acid, and when the contents of the 
cups were stirred with a piece of tobacco-pipe 
They were left till the next day, when all effer- 
vescence ceased, and the calcareous part 
seemed entirely dissolved : pure water was 
added to dissolve all the muriate of lime which 
had been formed. After some time, the clear 
liquor was poured off, and the remainder was 
strained through filtering-paper, and dried on 
plates before the fire. The earths were now 
found to weigh, respectively, 20, 17, 162, and 
182-5 grains, having lost 4, 3, 18, and 57-5 
grains of calcareous earth dissolved by the 
acid. The soil and water which had been put 
by in a basin were now repeatedly stirred, and 
poured into a filter, and more water was passed 
through the earth to wash out all the soluble 
matter : all the water was boiled down and 
evaporated, and left two grains of a substance 
which had the appearance of a gum with a 
little lime in it. Thus the loss was reduced 
to eight grains, a very small quantity, consi- 
dering the means used in analyzing the soil. 
The corrected account, therefore, is as fol- 
lows : — 



Silicious 
sand. 

Calcareous 
sand. 

Impalpable 
earth. 



Specific gravity, 2-358. 

c Coarse 

} Finer - - - 
(_Very fine - 
'Coarse 

er - - 



rCoar! 
^ Finer 
(.Very 

rcia 

^ Cai 
(.Hu 



fine - 
'Clay - 
Carb. of lime 
iimus 
Soluble matter 
Loss 




Or, in round numbers, — 500 

40 per cent. Sand. 
36 — Clay. 
17 — Calcareous earth. 
5-5 — Vegetable earth, or humus. 
0-5 — Soluble matter. 

From the composition of this soil, it is evi- 
dent that it is a most excellent loam, capable 
of producing with good tillage and regular 
manuring every kind of grain, artificial 
grasses, and roots commonly cultivated. The 
field from which the soil was taken was 
always considered to be of superior quality. 
This simple rule will suffice to enable any one 
to analyze any soil of which he desires to know 
the component parts, so far as they afiect the 
general fertility. To ascertain minute por- 
tions of salts or metals, or any peculiar im- 
pregnation of the waters, must be left to 
practical chemists. To those who may be in- 
clined to try the analysis of soils, it may be 
interesting to compare the results of their own 
experiments with some which have been ob- 
tained with great care. Thaer in his very ex- 
cellent work on Rational Husbandry, whiten in 
German and translated into French, has given 
a table in which different soils analyzed by 
him are classed according to their compara 
tive fertility, which is expressed in numbers, 
100 being the most fertile. 



No. 


Clay. 


Sand. 


Carb. of 
Lime. 


Finely divided 

Organic Matter, 

or Humus. 


Comparative 
Value. 


Rich alluvial soils. 

f The value of this could not be fixed, as it was 
\ grass land ; perhaps bog-earth 

Good wheat and barley lands. 

Barley land not fit for wheat. 

Poor sand, fit only for oats or buckwheat. 


1 
2 
3 
4 

5 

6 

8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
1 16 


74 
81 
79 
40 

14 

20 
58 
56 

60 

48 
68 
38 
33 

2S 

23i 

18^ 


10 
6 
10 
22 

49 

67 
36 
30 
38 
50 
30 
60 
65 
70 
75 
80 


4 

4 
4 
36 

10 

3 
2 
12 

>!. V 

3.i 

*C 

-< — ° > 

bl 


Hi 

6i 

4 

27 
10 

4 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

n 

H 


100-1 
98 1 
96h 
90j 

781 
77 

75 y 
70 
65 J 
60-) 
60 V 
503 
40-) 
30 )- 
20 3 



The above table is the result of very patient 
Investigation, the natural fertility of each soil 
being ascertained by its average produce with 
common tilla-^e and manuring. 

[In describing his new method of analyzing 
soils. Dr. Dana, the distinguished American 
chemist, sets out by stating that gei77e consti- 
tutes the basis of all the nourishing part of 
vegetable manures. By the term geine, he 
means all the decomposed organic matter of 
the soil, chiefly derived from decayed vegetable 
matter. Animal substances, he says, produce 
a similar compound containing azote or nitro- 



gen. There may be undecomposed vegetable 
fibres so minutely divided as to pass through 
the sieve, but as one object of this operation 
is to free the soil from vegetable fibre, the por- 
tion will be quite inconsiderable, and can only 
affect the amount of insoluble geine. When 
so minutely divided, it will probably pass into 
soluble geine in a season's cultivation. Geine, 
or the vegetable nourishing matter of soils, 
exists in two states, in one of which it is solu 
ble in water, «&c., whilst in the insoluble state 
it resists the solvent power of water. Soluble 
geine he considers the immediate food of grow- 

91 



ANALYSIS. 



ANALYSIS. 



ing plants, whilst insoluble geine becomes 
food after sufficient exposure to air and mois- 
ture. Hence the reason and result of till- 
age. 

Rules cf Analysis. — " 1. Sift the soil through 
a fine sieve. Take the fine part; bake it just 
up to browning paper. 

"2. Boil 100 grains of the baked soil, with 
50 grains of pearl ashes, saleratus or carbonate 
of soda, in four ounces of water, for half an 
hour; let it settle; decant the clear; wash the 
grounds with four ounces boiling water; throw 
all on a weighed filter, previously dried at the 
same temperature as was the soil, (1) ; wash 
till colourless water returns. Mix all these 
liquors. It is a brown-coloured solution of all 
the soluble geine. All sulphates have been 
converted into carbonates, and with any phos- 
phates, are on the filter. Dry therefore that, 
with its contents, at the same heat as before. 
Weigh — the loss is soluble geine. 

" 3. If you wish to examine the geine ; pre- 
cipitate the alkaline solution with excess of 
lime-water. The geate of lime will rapidly 
subside, and if lime-water enough has been 
added, the nitrous liquor will be colourless. 
Collect the geate of lime on a filter ; wash with 
a little acetic or very dilute muriatic acid, and 
you have geine quite pure. Dry and weigh. 

"4. Replace on a funnel the filter (2) and 
its earthy contents; wash with two drachms 
muriatic acid, diluted with three times its bulk 
of cold water. Wash till tasteless. The car- 
bonate and phosphate of lime will be dissolved 
with a little iron, which has resulted from the 
decomposition of any salts of iron, beside a 
little oxide of iron. The alumina will be 
scarcely touched. We may estimate all as 
salts of lime. Evaporate the muriatic solution 
to dryness, weigh and dissolve in boiling 
water. The insoluble will be phosphate of 
lime. Weigh — the loss is the sulphate of 
lime ; (I make no allowance here for the dif- 
ference in atomic weights of the acids, as the 
result is of no consequence in this analysis.) 

"5. The earthy residuum, if of a grayish 
white colour, contains no insoluble geine — test 
it by burning a weighed small quantity on a 
hot shovel — if the odour of burning peat is 
given ofl", the presence of insoluble geine 
IS indicated. If so, calcine the earthy resi- 
duum and its filter — the loss of weight will 
give the insoluble geine ; that part which air 
and moisture, time and lime, will convert into 
soluble vegetable food. Any error here will 
he due to the loss of water in a hydrate, if one 
be present, but these exist in too small quan- 
tities in ' granitic sand' to affect the result. 
The actual weight of the residuary mass is 
' granitic sand.' 

" The clay, mica, quartz, &c., are easily dis- 
tinguished. If your soil is calcareous, which 
may be easily tested by acids ; then before 
proceeding to this analysis, boil 100 grains in 
a pint of water, filter and dry as before, the 
loss of weight is due to the sulphate of lime, 
even the sulphate of iron may he so consider- 
ed ; for the ultimate result iii cultivation is to 
convert this into sulphate of lime. 

" Test the soil with muriatic acid, and having 
ihus removed the lime, proceed as before, to 
92 



determine the geine and insoluble vegetable 
matter. 

" In applying Dr. Dana's rules given in the 
text, to the soils of Massachusetts, I found it 
necessarj' to adopt some method of carrying 
forward several processes together. I accord- 
ingly made ten compartments upon a table, 
each provided with apparatus for filtering and 
precipitations, also ten numbered flasks, ten 
evaporating dishes, and a piece of sheet-iron 
pierced with ten holes, for receiving the same 
number of crucibles. I provided, also, a sheet- 
iron oven, with a tin bottom large enough to 
admit ten filters, arranged in proper order, and 
a hole in the top to admit a thermometer. The 
sand bath was also made large enough for 
receiving the ten flasks. In this manner I was 
able to conduct ten processes with almost as 
great facility as one could have been carried 
forward in the usual way." 

As before stated. Dr. Dana regards geine as 
the basis of all the nourishing part of vegetable 
manures. The relations of soils to heat and 
moisture, he says, " depend chiefly on geine. 
It is in fact, under its three states of 'vegetable 
extract, geine, and carbonaceous mould,' the 
principle w"hich gives fertility to soils long 
after tlie action of common manures has 
ceased. In these three states it is essentially 
the same. The experiments of Saussure have 
long ago proved that air and moisture convert 
insoluble into soluble geine. Of all the pro- 
blems to be solved by agricultural chemistry, 
none is of so great practical importance as the 
determination of the quantity of soluble and 
insoluble geine in soils. This is a question of 
much higher importance than the nature and 
proportions of the earthy constituents and 
soluble salts of soils. It lies at the foundation 
of all successful cultivation. Its importance 
has been not so much overlooked as under- 
valued. Hence, on this point the least light 
has been reflected from the labours of Davy 
and Chaptal. It needs but a glance at any 
analysis of soils, published in the books, to see 
that fertility depends not on the proportion of 
the earthy ingredients. Among the few facts, 
best established in chemical agriculture, are 
these : that a soil, whose earthy part is com- 
posed wholly, or chiefly, of one earth ; or any 
soil, with excess of salts, is always barren ; 
and that plants grow equally well in all soils, 
destitute of geine, up to the period of fructifica- 
tion, — failing of geine, the fruit fails, the plants 
die. Earths, and salts, and geine, constitute, 
then, all that is essential ; and soils will be 
fertile, in proportion as the last is mixed with 
the first. The earths are the plates, the salts 
the seasoning, the geine the food of plants. 
The salts can be varied but very little in their 
proportions, without injury. The earths admit 
of wide variety in their nature and proportions. 
I would resolve all into ' granitic sand ;' by 
which I mean the finely divided, almost impal- 
pable mixture of the detritus of granite, gneiss, 
mica-slate, sienite, and argillite ; the last, 
giving by analysis, a compound very similar 
to the former. When we look at the analysis 
of vegetables, we find these inorganic prin- 
ciples constant constituents — silica, lime, mag- 
nesia, oxide of iron, potash, soda, and sulphuric 



ANALYSIS, 



ANBURY. 



and phosphoric acids. Hence, these will be 
found constituents of all soils. The phosphates 
have been overlooked from the known diffi- 
culty of detecting phosphoric acid. Phosphate 
of lime is so easily soluble when combined 
with mucilage or gelatine, that it is among the 
first prmciples of soils exhausted. Doubtless 
the good effects, the lasting effects, of bone 
manure, depend more on the phosphate of 
lime, than on its animal portion. Though the 
same plants growing in different soils are 
found to yield variable quantities of the salts 
and earthy compoimds ; yet I beliCT-e, that ac- 
curate analysis will show, that similar parts of 
the same species, at the same age, always 
contain the inorganic principles above named, 
when grown in soils arising from the natural 
decomposition of granite rocks. These inor- 
ganic substances will be found not only in 
constant quantity, but always in definite pro- 
portion to the vegetable portion of each plant. 
The effect of cultivation may depend, there- 
fore, much more on the introduction of salts 
than has been generally supposed. The salts 
introduce new breeds. So long as the salts 
and earths exist in the soil, so long will they 
form voltaic batteries with the roots of grow- 
ing plants ; by which, the ' grantic sand' is 
decomposed and the nascent earths, in this 
state readil)' soluble, are taken up by the ab- 
sorbents of the roots, always a living, never a 
mechanical operation. Hence, so long as the 
soil is granitic, using the term as above defined, 
so long is it as good as on the day of its depo- 
sition ; salts and geine may vary, and must be 
modified by cultivation. The universal diffu- 
sion of granitic diluvium will always afford 
enough of the earthy ingredients. The fertile 
character of soils, I presume, will not be found 
dependent on any particular rock formation 
on which it reposes. Modified they may be, to 
a certain extent, by peculiar formations ; but 
all our grantic rocks afford, when decomposed, 
all those inorganic principles which plants 
demand. This is so true, that on this point 
the farmer already knows all that chemistry 
can teach him. Clay and sand, every one 
knows : a soil too sandy, too clayey, may be 
modified by mixture, but the best possible 
mixture does not give fertility. That depends 
on salts and geine. If these views are correct, 
the few properties of geine which I have men- 
tioned, \vill lead us at once to a simple and 
accurate mode of analyzing soils, — a mode, 
which determines at once the value of a soil, 
from its quantity of soluble and insoluble 
vegetable nutriment, — a mode, requiring no 
array of apparatus, nor delicate experimental 
tact, — one, which the country gentleman may 
apply with very great accuracy ; and, with a 
little modification, perfectly within the reach 
of any man who can drive a team or hold a 
plough."] 

ANALYSIS OF VEGETABLES. The pro- 
cess or means by which such bodies are re- 
solved into their constituent or elementar)'^ 
principles. (See Chemistht, or Vegetable 
Chemistht.) 

ANBURY. In farriery, a kind of wen, or 
spongy soft tumour or wart, commonly full of 
blood, growing on any part of an animal's 



body. Substances of this kind may be re- 
moved either by means of ligatures being 
passed round their bases, or by the knife, and 
the subsequent application of some caustic 
material, in order to effectually destroy the 
parts from which they arise. 

ANBURY, THE, AMBURY, HANBURY, 
or CLUB-ROOT. The anbury, the correct 
name, is evidently derived from the Saxon 
word ambre, a wart, suffused with blood, to 
which horses are subject. In Holderness, a 
district of Yorkshire, this disease is knoAvn as 
"fingers and toes," from its causing the top 
root of the turnip to be divided into swollen 
fibres, resembling those members of the human 
body. On this, Mr. Spence, the entomologist, 
wrote a very sensible pamphlet, entitled " Ob- 
servations on the Diseases in Turnips, termed 
in Holderness Fingers and Toes, Hull, 1812." 
The deficiency of knowledge relative to the 
diseases of plants is well illustrated by the 
imperfect and inaccurate observations that 
have been adventured upon this disease. 
Where there is much difference of opinion 
there is little real knowledge, and both these 
are certainly the case in the instance before 
us. Some cultivators assert that the disease 
arises from a variableness and unfavourable 
state of the seasons ; a second party of theorists 
advance, that it is caused by insects ; and a 
third, that it is owing to a too frequent growth 
of the same crop upon the same site. Every 
man having formed an opinion, usually clings 
to it pertinaciously, and sets its estimate far 
above its real value or correctness. "It is 
with our opinions as our watches, none go just 
alike, yet each believes his own." The chief 
error appears to be in considering any of the 
above enumerated causes as the exclusive 
one ; for beyond doubt they each contribute, 
either immediately or remotely, to induce or 
exasperate the attacks of the anbury. [The 
disease attacks the hollyhock, and other plants, 
especially those belonging to the brassica or 
cabbage family.] Cabbage-plants are fre- 
quently infected with anbury in the seed-bed, 
and this incipient infection appears in the form 
of a gall or wart upon the stem, immediately 
in the vicinity of the roots; if this wart is 
opened it will be found to contain a small 
white maggot, the larva of a small insect called 
the weevil. If the gall and its tenant being 
removed, the plant is placed again in the earth 
where it is to remain unless it is again at- 
tacked, the wound usually heals, and the 
growth is little retarded. On the other hand, 
if the gall is left undisturbed, the maggot con- 
tinues to feed upon the alburnum, or young 
woody part of the stem, until the period arrives 
for its passing into the other insect form, pre- 
viously to which it gnaws its way out through 
the exterior bark. The disease is now almost 
beyond the power of remedies, the gall, in- 
creased in size, encircles the whole stem ; the 
alburnum being so extensively destroyed, pre- 
vents the sap ascending, consequently, in dry 
weather, sufficient moisture is not supplied 
from the roots, to counterbalance the transpi- 
ration of the leaves, and the diseased plant is 
very discernible among its healthy compa 
nions, by its pallid hue and flagging foliap 

93 



ANBURY. 



ANBURY. 



The disease now makes rapid progress ; the 
swelling continues to increase ; for the vessels 
of the alburnum and the bark continue to 
afford their juices faster than they can be con- 
veyed away. Moisture and air are admitted to 
the interior of the excrescence through the per- 
foration made by the maggot; the wounded 
vessels ulcerate, putrefaction supervenes, and 
death concludes the stinted existence of the 
miserable plant. The tumour usually attains 
the size of a large hen's egg, has a rugged, 
ichorous, and even mouldy surface, smelling 
strong and offensively. The fibrous roots, be- 
sides being generally thickened, are distorted 
and monstrous, from swellings which appear 
throughout their length, which apparently 
arise from an effort of nature to form recep- 
tacles for the sap, deprived as it is of its natural 
spissation in the leaves. These swellings do 
not seem to arise immediately from the attacks 
of the weevil, for I have never observed them 
containing its larva. Mr. Marshall very cor- 
rectly describes the form which this disease 
assumes when it attacks the turnip. It is a 
large excrescence appearing below the bulb ; 
growing to the size of both hands, and as soon 
as the hard weather sets in, or it is, by its own 
nature, brought to maturity, becoming putrid, 
and smelling very offensively. On the last day 
of August, when the bulbs of the turnips were 
about the size of walnuts in the husk, the an- 
buries were as big as a goose's egg. These 
were irregular and uncouth in their form, with 
excrescences resembling the races of ginger 
hanging to them. On cutting them, their gene- 
ral appearance is that of a hard turnip ; but on 
examining them through a magnifier there are 
veins, or string-like vessels, dispersed among 
the pulp. The smell and taste somewhat 
resemble those of turnips, but without their 
mildness, having an austere and somewhat 
disagreeable flavour resembling that of an old 
stringy turnip. The tops of those much affected 
turn yellow, and flag with the heat of the sun, 
so that in the daytime they are obviously dis- 
tinguishable from those which are healthy. 
These distortions manifest themselves very 
early in the turnip's growth, even before the 
rough leaf is much developed. Observation 
seems to have ascertained, that if the bulbs 
have attained the size of a walnut unaffected, 
they do not subsequently become diseased. 
Mr. Spence has clearly shown, from established 
facts, that the anbury does not arise from any 
imperfection of the seed sown : for experience 
demonstrates that, in the same field and crop, 
the attacks are very partial ; and crops in two 
adjoining fields, sown with seed from the same 
growth, will one be diseased, and the other 
healthy. Secondly, it does not arise from an 
unfavourable time of sowing, or from dry, un- 
propitious seasons, during their after-growth ; 
for on this supposition we might expect that in 
all turnip districts the disease would occasion- 
ally make its appearance, in consequence of 
variations in the period and mode of sowing, 
or from following droughts; yet we know that, 
m many parts of the country, it has never been 
heard of. Thirdly, it does not arise from the 
quality of the soil, for Sir Joseph Banks suffered 
from its infecting thin stapled, sandy fields ; 
94 



whilst all Holderness, which is generally a 
strong loamy soil, was found equally liable to 
the disease. It is occasioned by the poisonous 
wound inflicted by an insect in an earl}' stage 
of vegetation, or rather by its insinuating its 
egg into the tender plant. The maggot found 
in the turnip anbury, is the larva of a weevil 
called CurcuUo pleurostigma b)-^ Marshara, and 
Rhynchcenus sulckollis by Gyllenhal. " I have 
bred this species of weevil," says Mr. Kirby, 
from the knob-like galls on turnips, called the 
anbury, and I have little doubt that the same 
insects, or a species allied to ihem, cause the 
clubbing of the roots of cabb.iges." {Kirby and 
Spence's Introduction to Entomology.) Marsham 
describes the parent as a coleopterous insect, 
of a dusky, black colour, with the breast spot- 
ted with white, and the length of the body one 
line and two-thirds. 

A very full description of this insect is in 
the Insecta Svecica descripta, of Gyllenhal, vol. 
iii. p. 229, under the name of Rhynchienus stil- 
cicollis. 

The general experience of farmers and 
gardeners upon the subject, testifies that the 
anbury of the turnip and cabbage usually at- 
tacks these crops when grown for successive 
years on the same soil. This is precisely 
what might be expected ; for the parent insect 
always deposits her eggs in those situations 
where her progeny will find their appropriate 
food ; and in the fragments of the roots, &c., 
of preceding crops, some of these embryo 
ravagers are to be expected. That they never 
attack the plants upon a fresh site is not as- 
serted ; Mr. Marshall's statement is evidence 
to the contrary ; but it is advanced that the ob- 
noxious weevil is most frequently to be ob- 
served in soils where the turnip or cabbage 
has recently and repeatedly been cultivated. 
Another general result of experience is, that 
the anbury is most frequently observed in dry 
seasons. This is also what might be anticipated, 
for insects that inhabit the earth just beneath 
its surface are always restricted and checked 
in their movements by its abounding in moist- 
ure. Moreover, the plants actually affected by 
the anbury are more able to contend against 
the injury inflicted by the larva of the weevil 
by the same copious supply. The develope- 
ment of their parts, their growth is more rapid ; 
consequently the maggot has not to extend his 
ravages so extensively in search of food as in 
drier seasons, when the stem is less juicy and 
of a smaller growth. In wet periods, also, the 
affected plants show less the extent of the in- 
jury they have sustained, for their foliage does 
not flag; because their transpirations of watery 
particles is less, and their supply of nutriment 
from the soil is more free. 

In considering the best modes of preventing 
the occurrence of the disease, and of palliating 
its attacks, it is apparent that any addition to 
the soil that renders it disagreeable to the 
weevil will prevent the visits of this insect. 
The gardener has this in his power with but 
little difficulty ; for he can keep the vicinity of 
his cabbage, cauliflower, and brocoli plants 
soaked with water. Mr. Smith, gardener to 
Mr. Bell, of Woolsington in Northumberland, 
expresses his conviction, after several years' 



ANBURY. 



ANBURY. 



experience, that charcoal dust spread about 
half an inch deep upon the surface, and just 
mixed with it by the point of a spade, effectu- 
ally prevents the occurrence of this disease. 
( Trans, of Lon. Hort. Soc. vol. i. art. 2.) That 
this would be the case we might have sur- 
mised from analogy ; for charcoal dust is offen- 
sive to many insects, and is one of the most 
powerful preventives of putrefaction known. 
Soot, I have reason to believe, from a slight 
experience, is as effectual as charcoal dust. 
Judging from theoretical reasons, we might 
conclude that it would be more specific ; for in 
addition to its being like charcoal, finely divid- 
ed carbon, it contains ammonia, to which in- 
sects have an antipathy. Mr. Drurey, a practi- 
cal farmer at Erpingham, in Norfolk, consi- 
dered marl a certain preventive of this disease. 
He, and several other judicious farmers also, 
thought that teathing, that is, giving sheep and 
cattle their green food, turnips, &c., upon the 
barley stubbles, intended for turnips as the 
succeeding crop, will cause the anbury. {Mar- 
ihaWs Rural Economy of Norfolk, ii. 33, 35.) It 
is very evident that it would mix fragments 
with the soil that would be liable to contain 
the eggs of the weevil. The marl, approved 
by Mr. Drurey, is probably the calcareous 
marl which occurs at Thorp Market, in the 
Hundred of North Erpingham ; but as there is 
a slight doubt, owing to the deficiency of accu- 
racy in the statement, it affords me an opportu- 
nity to impress upon agriculturists in general, 
che great importance of employing more cer- 
tain terms than they usually do. What can 
be more indefinite than the statement, that 
marl is a certain preventive of the anbury ? 
For the very first question suggested to the 
reader's mind is, What marl is intended? Is it 
a chalky marl, or a clay marl 1 is it a mixture 
of chalk and clay, or of chalk and silicious 
sand 1 for all these varieties of marl are known 
to agriculture. The want of a correct nomen- 
clature is one of the drawbacks and deficiencies 
checking the improving progress of agriculture. 
Few farmers ever thought upon this point, and 
still smaller is the number who duly appreciat- 
ed its importance ; yet it is an incontrovertible 
fact, that no art or science can advance rapidly 
until its technical terms are fixed, terse, ex- 
pressive, and generally understood. Chemistry 
attained a greater aid to its advancement by the 
introduction of its new nomenclature by La- 
voisier, than by any series of discoveries that 
have since been made on its rapid and brilliant 
progress. If a sulphate, an acid, or a metal is 
mentioned, a chemist immediately has a defi- 
nite idea of the nature and properties of the 
substance alluded to ; but if a loam or marl is 
spoken of, would any two farmers agree in their 
idea of what description of earthy compound 
was intended ! To make it well understood, a 
long detail must be added ; and nothing checks 
the imparting of knowledge more, than the 
person capable of imparting it being conscious 
that he must define every term as he goes on, 
and that even then it is doubtful, if he shall 
succeed in making himself intelligible. The 
very name, anbury, usually applied to the 
disease, which is the subject of this paper, is 
another proof of the necessity of a reformed 



agricultural nomenclature ; for in Suffolk, tho 
same title is given to another disease which 
merely affects the leaves of the turnip. Sir 
Joseph Banks, Mr. Baker of Norfolk, and 
others, agree that marl is the best preventive 
of anbury. And another evidence of the e<!i- 
cacy of applications to the soil is afforded by 
a gentleman in Holderness, a Mr. Brigham, 
who had a highly manured clayey ridge, which 
he had levelled the year before, and this grew 
turnips entirely free of the disease, whilst in 
the natural rich loam of the field they were 
much infected. Francis Constable, Esq., of 
Burton Constable, had a field that had been in 
grass twenty years : this he pared, burned and 
sowed with turnips, obtaining a crop perfectly 
free from the disease. Two white crops were 
then taken, after which turnips were again 
sown ; a considerable portion of the crop was 
then infected with the disease. (Spetice's Ob- 
servations on the Disease of Turnips, termed in 
Holderness Fingers und Toes.) I have myself 
tried the efficacy of common salt in preventing 
the occurrence of this disease: its tendency 
to keep the soil moist, and to irritate the ani- 
mal frame, certainlj-^ checks the inroads of the 
weevil ; and its generally beneficial effects as 
a manure enables the plants better to sustain 
themselves under the weakening influence of 
the disease ; but it is not a decisive preven- 
tive. 

With regard to the use of salt as a cure for 
the disease, I am inclined to think, from the 
results of experiments which I have instituted, 
that unless the salt be applied very early, it 
would be useless ; for the root soon becomes 
so diseased as to be entirely past recovery. 
(C W. Johnson's Essay on Salt, p. 136.) 

I have a strong opinion that a slight dress- 
ing of the surface soil with a little of the dry 
hydro-sulphate of lime, that may now be ob- 
tained so readily from the gas-works intro- 
duced throughout England, would prevent the 
occurrence of the disease, by driving the wee- 
vils from the soil. It would probably as 
effectually banish the turnip-fly or flea, if 
sprinkled over the surface immediately after 
the seed is sown. I entertain this opinion of 
its efficacy in preventing the occurrence of 
the anbury, from an instance when it was ap- 
plied to some broccoli, ignorantly groM^n upon 
a bed where cabbages had as ignorantly been 
endeavoured to be produced in successive 
crops ; these had invariably failed from the 
occurrence of the anburj^ but the broccoli was 
uninfected. The only cause for this escape 
that I could trace was, that just previously to 
planting, a little of the hydro-sulphuret of lime 
had been dug in. This is a very letid, power- 
ful compound, and must be used with great 
caution. 

Where dry lime purifiers are employed at 
gas-works, it may be obtained in the state ot a 
dry powder; but where a liquid mixture of 
lime and water is employed, the hydro-sulphu- 
ret can only be had in the form of a thick 
cream. Of the dry hydro-sulphuret I would 
recommend eight bushels per acre to be 
spread regularly by hand upon the surface, 
after the turnip seed is sown, and before har- 
rowing. If the liquid is employed, I wo 

95 



ANDES GRASS. 



ANDES GRASS. 



recommend thirty gallons of it to be mixed 
with a sufficient quantity of earth or ashes, to 
enable it to be spread over an acre in a simi- 
lar manner. For cabbages twelve bushels, or 
fortj'-five gallons per acre, would not, proba- 
bly, be too much, spread upon the surface, 
and turned in with the spade or last ploughing. 
Although I specify the quantities as those I 
calculate most correct, yet in all experiments 
it is best to try various proportions : three or 
four bushels may be found sufficient ; perhaps 
twelve, or even twenty, may not be too much. 
Frequent hoeing has been recommended as a 
preventive of this disease; but I believe this 
to be unsustained either by reason or practice. 
{G. W. Johnson, Quar. Joum. Agric, vol. vii. 
p. 308, et seq.) 

[ANDES GRASS. The Holms avenaceus of 
some writers, and Avena elafior of others. Oat 
Grass, and sometimes Tall Meadow Grass. 
(Plate 5, ee.) A perennial cultivated grass, 
flowering in the Middle States in May, and 
ripening its seeds in July. (Flor. Cestrica.) 
Its name would imply that it came originally 
from the mountains of South America, whereas 
the English botanists treat of the Holcus avena- 
ceus, or Avena elafior, as a native of Britain. 
The Andes Grass was introduced to the notice 
of American farmers several years ago, when 
its merits were perhaps too highly extolled, 
which has contributed to its being now esti- 
mated much below its real worth. Perhaps, 
too, that those who have reported unfavour- 
ably of the value of Andes Grass, have mis- 
taken some other plant for it, a very common 
occurrence, leading to great discrepancy of 
opinion. This grass is certainly highly prized 
by many persons in the Middle States, where, 
especially in the state of Delaware, it is fre- 
quently, though not very extensively, cultivat- 
ed. It grows luxuriantly in soils of clay loam, 
even of a very light description, affording very 
early as well as late pasture. Even an open 
spell in winter, with a few warm days, will 
start this grass to vegetating so rapidly as to 
furnish a good bite to cattle. The grass grows 
very tall, and the hay, if left too late before 
cutting, is coarse. It grows in tufts, is very 
durable, and extremely difficult to eradicate 
from the soil when once well set. This last 
circumstance perhaps constitutes the most 
common objection to its introduction into 
fields and meadows. It stands drought well, 
and would probably be found a highly valu- 
able grass for southern pastures. It certainly 
deserves more attention than it now receives, 
and is, we think, destined to be much more ex- 
tensively cultivated as a permanent pasture 
grass. Its durability renders it unfit for alter- 
nate husbandry. 

From Colman's Fouith Report of the Agri- 
culture of Massachusetts the following pas- 
sage is extracted. 

" The lall meadow oat (Avena elatior) has 
been cultivated in the county. This grass is not 
familiar to our farmers, but the success which 
nas attended its cultivation encourages its ex- 
'ension. A Virginia farmer of the highest 
authority speaks of it, after fifteen years' ex- 
perience, as a hardy plant, bearing drought 
ikid frost, heat and cold, better than any other 
96 



grass known to him. A Pennsylvania farmer 
pronounces it of all other grasses the earliest, 
latest, and best for green fodder or hay. It 
blossoms about the middle of June, and is 
preferred to all others by horned cattle. It 
must be cut seasonably or it becomes hard 
like straw. A Middlesex farmer, w!io has cul- 
tivated it several years, and whose authority 
is of the highest character, confirms the above 
statements of its excellence both for grazing 
and hay. He says, from its early flowering it 
is adapted to be sown with red clover, and is 
fit to be cut about the first of June. His own 
account is as follows : 

" ' In the spring he sowed with barley a field 
of four acres, and put on 2A bushels of oat- 
grass seed, 5 lbs. of red clover, and 2 lbs. of 
white clover seed, to the acre. The soil was 
thin, and had been exhausted by long crop- 
ping. On the 3d of June in the following year 
it was cut, and gave two tons to the acre of 
the finest and best hay, either for cattle or 
horses, he ever had in his barn.' 

"He thinks three bushels of seed should be 
sown to the acre. It is \vell adapted for graz- 
ing on poor and exhausted lands, as well a? 
on those of a richer quality. It is a fortnight 
earlier than the common grasses, and through- 
out the dryest weather exhibits a green ap- 
pearance. From three-fourths of an acre, in 
good condition, he obtained over 20 bushels 
of well-cleaned seed. 

"The late John Lowell, a man behind no 
other in his intelligent, successful, and disin- 
terested efforts to advance the cause of an im- 
proved agriculture in Massachusetts and New 
England generally, says that, 'under his cul- 
tivation, it has proved a most valuable grass, 
and fully sustained its high character. It is a 
very early and tall grass, yielding a good bur- 
den. It will start rapidly after cutting. It is 
a perennial and enduring grass, and on his 
first experiment it lasted seven years without 
the necessity of renewal.' 

" A farmer in Waltham objects to sowing the 
tall meadow oats and the herdsgrass (Timothy) 
together, as they do not ripen at the same time. 
The tall meadow oats, when I visited him, 
would be ready for the scythe in ten days, or 
about the middle of June, while the herds- 
grass, at the same time, had not begun to show 
its head. 

" ' This grass — Avena elatior, tall oat grass — 
sends forth flower-straws during the whole 
season ; the latter math contains nearly an 
equal number with the flowering crop. It is 
subject to the rust, but the disease does not 
make its appearance till after the period of 
flowering. It affects the whole plant, and at 
the time the seed is ripe the leaves and straws 
are withered and dry. This accounts for the 
superior value of the latter math over the seed 
crop, and points out the propriety of taking 
the crop when the grass is in flower. The nu- 
tritive matter afforded by this grass, when 
made into hay, according to the table is very 
small.' (Geo. Sinclair.) 

"J. Buel speaks of his 'field experiments 
with this grass not being so successful as he 
expected — owing partly to the seed not vege- 
tating well ; and partly, he supposed, to the 



ANETHUM. 



ANIMALS. 



soil (a light sandy loam) not being sufficient- 
ly strong and tenacious.' 

" Taylor, of Virginia, says that, ' according 
to his experience, it will not succeed in lands 
originally wet, however well they are drained.' 

"The opinion of the farmers generally in 
this county is in favour of cutting herdsgrass 
(Timothy) early rather than late ; perhaps for 
the reason that the hay is then of a bright 
green, and on this account commands in the 
city market a higher price. If we can rely 
upon chemical examination in determining 
the nutritive properties of grasses, it will be 
found that the grain in this respect, in cut- 
ting herdsgrass when its seed is ripe over cut- 
ting it when in flower, is as 86'1 to 37"2."] 

ANETHUM. See Dili and Fexnel. 

ANEURISM. In farriery, a throbbing tu- 
mour, produced by the dilatation of the coats 
of an artery in some part of the body of an 
animal. Aneurisms in the limbs may be cured 
by making an incision, exposing the artery, 
and tying it above and below the tumour with 
a proper ligature. 

ANGELICA (Angelica Archangelica). This 
plant was formerly blanched and eaten like 
celery ; but at present its tender stalks are the 
only part made use of, which are cut in May 
for candying. 

It grows in gardens, and also wild. It 
flowers in July and August in England, and 
the roots perish after the seed has ripened. 
This plant grows as high as eight feet ; the 
stalks robust, and divided into branches. The 
flowers a,re small, and stand in large clusters 
of a globular form. Two seeds follow each 
flower. 

It may be grown in any soil and exposure, 
but flourishes best in moist situations ; conse- 
quently the banks of ponds, ditches, &c., are 
usually allotted to it. It is propagated by 
seed, which is to be sown soon after it is ripe, 
about September, being almost useless if pre- 
served until the spring, as at that season not 
one in forty will be found to have preserved 
its vegetative powers ; if, however, it be ne- 
glected until that season, the earlier it is in- 
serted the better. It may be sown either 
broadcast moderately thin, or in drills a foot 
asunder, and half an inch deep. When arrived 
at a height of five or six inches, they must be 
thinned, and those removed transplanted to a 
distance of at least two feet and a half from 
each other, either in a bed, or on the sides of 
ditches, &c., as the leaves extend very wide. 
Water in abundance must be given at the time 
of removal, as well as until they are establish- 
ed; but it is better to discontinue it during their 
further growth, unless the application is regu- 
lar and frequent. In the May or early June of 
the second year they flower, when they must 
be cut down, which causes them to sprout 
again ; and if this is carefully attended to, they 
will continue for three or four years, but if 
permitted to run to seed, they perish soon after. 
A little seed should be saved annually as a re- 
source in case of any accidental destruction 
of the crop. (G. W. Johnson's Kitchen Garden.) 

Angelica is fragrant when bruised, and every 
part of it is medicinal. The bruised seeds are 
the most powerful. They are cordial and su- 
13 



dorific. Three table-spoonfuls of the distilled 
water is a remedy for flatulence and pains in 
the stomach. A paste of the fresh root of an- 
gelica, beaten up in vinegar used to be carried 
by physicians in times of great contagion, to 
apply to the nose. Some preferred holding a 
dry piece in their mouths, to resist infection. 
It has always been celebrated against pestilen 
tial and contagious diseases. The stalks of 
the angelica candied are much esteemed in 
winter desserts as a sweetmeat in England. 
The Laplanders boil or bake the stalks till ex- 
tremely tender, and eat them as a delicacy. 
The seeds bruised are cordial, stomachic, and 
sudorific. (L. Johnson.) 

ANGINA. In farriery, a name sometimes 
applied to the quinsy, or what in animals is 
termed anticor. 

ANGLE-BERRY. In farriery, a sort of fleshy 
excrescence, to which cattle and some other 
animals are subject under diflerent circum- 
stances ; and are supposed to proceed from a 
rupture of the cutaneous vessels, which give 
vent to a matter capable of forming a sarcoma, 
or fleshy excrescence. They freqiiently appear 
upon the belly and adjacent parts, hanging 
down in a pendulous manner. 

ANGORA GOAT. A particular species of 
goat. 

ANIMAL. A creature that is endowed with 
life, and commonly with spontaneous motion, 
though in some cases without it. They are 
distinguished in general from vegetables by 
having motion, though this gives us no perfect 
definition, as there are entire classes of ani- 
mals which are fixed to a place, as the litho- 
phytes and zoophytes, which are produced and 
die upon the same spot; and on the other hand, 
certain vegetables have as much motion in 
their leaves and flowers as certain animals.. 
However, by attending to the most general 
characters, they may be defined to be bodies 
endued with sensation and motion necessary 
to preserve their life. They are all capable 
of reproducing their like : some by the union 
of the sexes, produce small living creatures ; 
others lay eggs, which require a due tempera- 
ture to produce young ; some multiply without 
conjunction of the sexes ; and others are re- 
produced when cut in pieces like the roots of 
plants. See Botany. For i-eriods ok Breeding 
and Hatching, with other interesting facts con- 
nected with the subject, see Gestation and In- 
cubation. 

ANIMALS, DANGEROUS. See Nuisance. 

ANIMALS, WILD, STEALING OF. In 
England no larceny at common law (says Mr, 
Archbold in his Crim. Law, p. 165) can be 
committed of such animals, in which there is 
no property either absolute or qualified; as of 
beasts that are ferx naturae, and unreclaimed, 
such as deer, hares, and conies, in a forest, 
chase, or warren ; fish, in an open river or 
pond ; or wild fowls, rooks for iastance (Hun- 
mnn v. Ihcketl, 2 B. & C. 934; 4 D. & R. 518) 
at their natural liberty. (I Hale, 511 ; Post. 
366.) But if they are reclaimed or confined 
and may serve for food, it is otherwise ; for of 
deer so enclosed in a park that they may be 
taken at pleasure, fish in a trunk or net, and 
pheasants or partridges in a mew, larceny ma 
I 97 



ANIMALS. 



ANIMAL MANURES. 



be committed. (1 Hale, 511 ; 1 Hawk. c. 33, 
s. 39.) Swans, it is said, if lawfully marked, 
are the subject of larceny at common law, al- 
though at large in a public river {Dalt. Jusl. 
c. 156); or whether marked or not if they 
be in a private river or pond. (76.) So, 
all valuable domestic animals, as horses, and 
all animals domitx naturse, which serve for food, 
as swine, sheep, poultry, and the like, and the 
product of any of them, as eggs, milk from the 
cow while at pasture {Foster, 99), wool pulled 
from the sheep's back feloniously {R. v. Martin, 
1 Leach, 171), and the flesh of such as are 
ferse nattirse, may be the subject of larceny. 
(1 Hale, 511.) But as to all other animals 
which do not serve for food, such as dogs, fer- 
rets though tame and saleable {R. v. Spearing, 
R. & R. 250), and other creatures kept for 
whim and pleasure, stealing these does not 
amount to larceny at common law. (1 Hale, 
512.) But now, to course, hunt, snare, or carry 
away, or kill or wound, or attempt to kill or 
wound, any deer kept or being in the enclosed 
part of any forest, chase, or purlieu, or in any 
enclosed land wherein deer are usually kept, is 
felony, punishable as simple larceny; and if 
committed in the unenclosed part of any forest, 
chase, or purlieu, the first offence is punishable 
upon summary conviction by fine not exceed- 
ing 50/., and the second after a previous con- 
viction is felony, and punishable as simple lar- 
ceny. (7 & 8 G. 4, c. 29, s. 27.) Summary 
punishment may also be imposed by fine, not 
exceeding 20/., upon any person who shall have 
in his possession, or upon his premises, with 
his knowledge, any deer, or the head, skin, or 
other part thereof, or any snare or engine for 
the taking of deer, without satisfactorily ac- 
counting for such possession (7 & 8 G. 4, c. 
29, s. 27) ; or who shall set or use any snare 
or ensrine whatsoever for the purpose of taking 
or killing deer in any part of any forest, chase, 
or purlieu, whether enclosed or not, or in any 
fence or bank dividing the same from any land 
adjoining, or in any enclosed land where deer 
are usually kept, or shall destroy any part of 
the fence of anv land where deer are then kept. 
(7 & 8 G. 4, C.29, s. 28.) To take or kill hares 
or coneys in the night-time, in any warren or 
ground lawfully used for the breeding or keep- 
ing of the same is a misdemeanor ; and to 
take and kill them in any warren or ground in 
the dajr-time, or at any time to set any snare 
or engine for the taking of them, is punisha- 
ble upon summary conviction by fine. (7 & 
3 G. 4, c. 29, s. 30.) Stealing dogs, or any 
beast or bird ordinarily kept in a state of con- 
finement, not being the subject of larceny at 
common law (7 & 8 G. 4, c. 29, s. 31) ; know- 
ingly being in possession thereof, or of the 
skin or plumage thereof (7 & 8 G. 4, c. 29, 
s. 32); killing, wounding, or taking any dove- 
house pigeon, under such circumstances as 
shall not amount to larceny at common law 
(..ee R. V. Brooke, 4 C. & P. 131 ; 7 & 8 G. 4, 
c 29, s. 33), is punishable upon summary con- 
viction by fine, imprisonment, and whipping, 
according to the nature of the offence. So, to 
take or destroy any fish in any water which 
shall run through, or be in any land adjoining 
or Belonging to the dwelling-house of any per- 
98 



son, being the owner of such water, and having 
a right of fishery therein, is a misdemeanor ; 
and to take and destroy fish in any other water, 
being private property, or in which there shall 
be any private right of fisher}- ; and to destroy 
fish bj'' angling, in the day-time, in either de- 
scription of water is punishable upon summa- 
ry conviction by fine, varying according to the 
nature of the offence. (7 & 8 G. 4, c. 29, s. 34.) 
And, lastly, to steal any oyster or oyster brood 
from any oyster bed, laying, or fishery, being 
the property of another, and sufficiently marked 
out or known as such, is larceny ; and to use 
any dredge or any net, instrument or engine 
whatsoever within the limits of such oyster 
fishery for the purpose of taking oysters or 
oyster brood, although none be taken, or to 
drag upon the soil of any such fishery with 
any net, instrument, or engine, is a misde- 
meanor. (7 & 8 G. 4, c. 29, s. 36.) 

ANIMAL CHEMISTRY. See Chemistry. 

ANIMAL MANURES. For the information 
I have to furnish with regard to animal ma- 
nures, I must refer the farmer to other heads 
of this work, such as FAnM-TAUD Manure, 
Night-soil, Bones, Liauin Manure, Fish, 
&c. A very elaborate paper by Dr. C. Spren- 
gel, translated by Mr. Hudson, will be found 
in the Juumnl of the Roy. Ag. Hoc. of Eng., vol. 
i. p. 455, and to that I am indebted for most of 
the general observations on animal manures 
in this article. The excrements of animals 
vary with the age of the animal, its food, &c. 
That of young animals is poorer than that of 
the aged, for the young and growing animal 
requires, for its nourishment and increase in 
size, a greater proportion of the phosphate of 
lime, and other solid ingredients of its food, 
than the more aged animal, because the excre- 
ments or refuse matters of the vegetables con- 
sumed are proportionately diminished in quan- 
'.it)-^ and in richness. The richer the food, too, 
the better is the quality of the manure. That 
from animals fed upon oil-cake is the richest; 
then that from corn-fed animals ; then that 
from green crops, hay ; and, lastly, that from 
straw-yard cattle is decidedly the poorest. 
Then again the water consumed by animals to 
some extent influences the quantity of their 
manure. In the water usually drank by an 
ox, amounting daily to about 80 lbs., is often 
found from half an ounce to an ounce of sa- 
line matter. These consist of gypsum, com- 
mon salt, carbonate of lime, and carbonate of 
magnesia. " It may be always regarded," as 
is observed by M. Sprengel, " as an indication 
that the excrements of animals contain many 
powerfully manuring substances when they 
pass quickly into the putrefactive state, and 
develope a large quantity of the offensive gases, 
ammonia; for in such cases they contain not 
only much sulphur, phosphorus, and nitrogen, 
but an abundance also of chlorine, soda, pot- 
ash, lime, and magnesia, the whole of which 
are so much the more important in vegetation, 
as the soil manured with the excrements is 
deficient in these particular substances." 

The mode in which animal fertilizers ope- 
rate, varies, however, according to their chemi. 
cal composition. Some are enriching from 
possessing peculiar saline substances, which 



ANIMAL POISONS 



AJOU CABBAGE. 



are direct food for plants. Thus bones abound 
with phosphate of lime. Night-soil and urine 
do the same. Farm-yard compost contains 
all the essential ingredients of the farmer's 
crops, and they all copiously yield, by their 
decomposition, the gases of putrefaction, 
such as the carburetted hydrogen, and car- 
bonic acid gas, as well as various easily 
decomposible salts of ammonia ; all of which 
are found to be highly nourishing when 
applied to the roots of the plants, or even to 
their leaves. And, in fact, some of the most 
powerful of the animal fertilizers, such as 
train-oil, whale-blubber, &c., can yield the 
plant nothing else : they do not contain either 
saline or earthy matters. It is their gaseous 
elements only, therefore, which, when applied 
10 the roots of vegetables, produces such a 
rankness of growth, such a dark green, as the 
farmer invariably finds to follow in moist sea- 
sons from their use. 

The quantity of animal manures employed 
in England besides that produced by the 
farmer's live stock, is annually increasing, and 
it is a happy circumstance that it is so. Not 
only are sprats and other cheap fish bought up 
in every direction, but all northern Europe, 
and even the South Sea, is searched for bones ; 
refuse train oil, and greaves are, to a conside- 
rable extent, also used, and there are several 
manufactories in the metropolis for the prepa- 
ration of manure powders of an animal de- 
scription, such as the urate of the London Ma- 
nure .Company, and the disinfected night-soil 
of M. Poittevin. These are both, especially 
the first, powerful enrichers, and are admirably 
adapted for application by the drill. 

ANIMAL POISONS. Several animals are 
furnished with liquid juices of a poisonous 
nature, which, when injected into fresh wounds, 
occasion the disease or death of the wounded 
animal. Well known examples are furnished 
by the sting of serpents, bees, scorpions, spi- 
ders, &c. The poison of the viper is a yellow 
liquid, which lodges in two small vesicles in 
the animal's mouth. These communicate by a 
tube with the crooked fangs which are hollow, 
and terminate in a small cavity. When the ani- 
mal bites, the vesicles are squeezed, and the 
poison forced through the fangs into the 
wound. This poisonous juice occasions the 
fatal effects of the viper's bite. If the vesi- 
cles be extracted, or the liquid prevented from 
flowing into the wound, the bite is harmless. 
It has a yellow colour, resembling gum, but no 
taste ; and when applied to the tongue occa- 
sions numbness. The poison of the viper, 
and of serpents in general, is most hurtful 
when mixed with the blood. Taken into the 
stomach, it kills if the quantity be considera- 
ble. Fontana has ascertained that its fatal ef- 
fects are proportional to its quantity compared 
with the quantity of the blood. Hence the 
danger diminishes as the size of the animal 
increases. Small birds and quadrupeds die 
immediately when they are bitten by a viper ; 
but to an adult the bite seldom proves fatal. 
« Sweet oil," says Mr. Beckford, "has long 
been esteemed as a certain antidote to the bite 
of a viper ; some should be applied to the part, 
and some taken inwardly ; but the common 



cheese-rennet, externally applied, is asserted to 
be a more efficacious remedy than oil. Ammo- 
nia, or spirits of hartshorn, has also been pro- 
posed as an antidote. It was introduced in con- 
sequence of the theory of Dr. Mead, that the 
poison was of an acid nature. The numerous 
trials of that medicine by Fontana robbed it 
of all its celebrity ; but it has been lately re- 
vived and recommended by Dr. Ramsay as a 
certain cure for the bite of the rattlesnake." 
{Phil. Mag. vol. xvii. p. 125.) 

The venom of the bee and the wasp is also 
a liquid contained in a small vesicle, forced 
through the hollow tube of the sting into the 
wound inflicted by that instrument. From the 
experiments of Fontana we learn that it bears 
a striking resemblance to the poison of the 
viper. That of the bee is much longer in 
drying when exposed to the air than the venom 
of the wasp. The sting of the bee should be 
immediately extracted ; and the best applica- 
tion is opium, and olive oil ; one drachm of 
the former finely powdered, rubbed down with 
an ounce of the latter, and applied to the part 
affected by means of lint, which should be 
frequently renewed. (See Bee.) The poison 
of the scorpion resembles that of the viper. 
But its taste is hot and acid, which is the case 
also with the venom of the bee and the wasp. 
No experiments upon which we can rely have 
been made upon the poison of the spider 
tribe. From the rapidity with which these 
animals destroy their prey, and even one 
another, we cannot doubt that their poison is 
sufficiently virulent. {Mead and Fontana on 
Poisons; Thomson's Chem. vol. iv. pp. 531 — 
533.) 

[Soft poultices of fresh flesh, bread and milk, 
or in the absence of these, even mud, are excel- 
lent applications to stings of insects and even 
the bites of the most venomous snakes. The 
vaunted specifics recommended in such cases 
for internal use, are not to be compared in effi- 
cacy with the timely application of a poultice of 
the flesh of a chicken or other animal recently 
killed. The flesh of the rattle-snake itself is in 
some parts of America reckoned to possess spe- 
cific virtues, and doubtless will answer nearly, 
if not quite as well, as any other good soft and 
moist poultice, which will seldom fail to eflfect 
a cure when promptly applied and frequently 
renewed. In this way the irritation and in- 
flammation induced by the poison in the part 
bitten is often arrested at once, and prevented 
from extending to vital parts. These conclu- 
sions are the results of experiments made with 
the poison of the rattle-snake, in which the 
most celebrated Indian and other specifics 
were used with little if any advantage.] 

ANJOU CABBAGE. An excellent vege- 
table both for the kitchen and the food of cattle. 

The great Anjou cabbage, said the Marquis 
de Turbilly, is one of the most useful legumin- 
ous plants for country use. It will grow in 
almost any soil, not excepting even the most 
indifferent, provided it be sufficiently dungod. 
The seeds of this cabbage are commonly sown 
in June, in a quarter of good mould, in the 
kitchen-garden, and watered from time to time 
in case of drought. The plants will rise pretty 
speedily, and should be thinned soon after 

99 



ANNONA. 



ANNOTTA. 



\rherevei they stand too thick. The next care 
is to keep them free from weeds whilst they 
continue, by hoeing the ground between them. 
About the first of November (probably Sep- 
tember or October would be better in this cli- 
mate), they should be transplanted into the 
field where they are to remain. They should 
be planted there in trenches dug with a spade, 
pretty deep; that is, they should be buried 
almost up to the leaves. The distance between 
them should be two feet or two feet and a half 
every way, according to the soil. Particular 
care should be taken never to plant them with 
a dibble, as gardeners plant other sorts of cab- 
bages. A layer of dung should be spread along 
the bottom of the trench, and the roots of the 
transplanted cabbages covered therewith. The 
mould taken out should then be relumed back 
ugon the dung ; and, as the trench will then 
no longer hold it all, there will remain a ridge 
between each row of cabbages. Towards the 
middle of the ensuing May, the ground should 
be well stirred between the plants with a spade, 
or some other proper instrument, and its whole 
surface laid quite level. After this, nothing 
more remains to be done, except pulling up 
the weeds, from time to time, as they appear. 

In the month of June, such of these cabbages 
as are already large, and do not turn in their 
leaves for cabbaging, but still continue green, 
begin to be fit for use, and soon arrive at their 
full perfection, which they retain till the next 
spring, when they begin to run up, and after- 
wards blossom. Their seeds ripen towards 
the end of July, and what is intended for sow- 
ing should then be gathered. In Anjou, when 
these cabbages are entirely run up, they gene- 
rally grow to the height of seven or eight feet ; 
sometimes they reach to eight feet and a half, 
or nine feet ; nay, some have even been seen 
of a greater height. From the month of June, 
when these cabbages begin to be fit for use, 
their leaves are gathered from time to time, 
and they shoot out again. They are large, 
excellent food, and so tender that they are 
dressed with a moment's boiling. They never 
occasion any flatulencies or uneasiness in the 
stomach ; and are also very good for cattle, 
which eat them greedily. They likewise 
greatly increase the milk of cows. Such are 
the properties of this kind of cabbage, which 
is greatly esteemed in the districts foi-merly 
denominated Anjou, Poitou,Brittany,Le Maine, 
and some other neighbouring provinces. In 
the first, farmers were formerly bound by their 
leases to plant early a certain number of these 
cabbages, and to leave a certain number of 
them standing when they quitted their farms. 

ANNONA (Triloba). The Norfh American 
Papaw. This is the only sort which will grow 
in the open air in England. [See Papaw.] 

ANNOTTA, or ARNOTTA (Fr. roam ,- 
Ger. orlean ,- It. oriana). In rural economy, 
anatto or amatto, for it is written in various 
ways, is a colouring substance, or dye, ob- 
tained from the skin or pulp of the kernel of 
the Bixa orellana of South America and the 
West Indies. 

Of the preparation of this matter from the 
red pulp which covers the seeds, Mr. Miller 
gives the following account : — ^The contents of 
100 



the fruit are taken out and thrown into a 
wooden vessel, where as much hot water is 
poured upon them as is necessary to suspend 
the red powder or pulp, and this is gradually 
washed off with the assistance of the hand, or 
of a spatula, or spoon. When the seeds appear 
quite naked, they are taken out, and the wash 
is left to settle ; after which the water is gently 
poured away, and the sediment put into shal- 
low vessels to be dried by degrees in the shade. 
After acquiring a due consistence, it is made 
into balls or cakes, (which are known in com- 
merce as the flag, or cuke, and roll arnolta, and 
comes chiefly from Cayenne,) and set to dry in 
an airy place until it be perfectly firm. Some 
persons first pound the contents of the fruit 
with wooden pestles ; then, covering them 
with water, leave them to steep six days. 
This liquor being passed through a coarse 
sieve, and after\\^ards through three finer ones, 
it is again put into the vat or wooden vessel, 
and left to ferment a week ; it is then boiled 
until it be pretty thick, and when cool spread 
out to dry, and afterwards made up into balls, 
which are usually wrapped up in banana 
leaves. 

Amotta, when of good quality, is of the co- 
lour of fire, bright within, soft to the touch, and 
capable of being dissolved in water. But the 
substance commonly met with under this name 
is a preparation made by the druggists, in 
which madder is probably a principal ingre- 
dient ; it is of a brick colour, and a hard com- 
pact texture. Amotta is much used in Glou- 
cestershire, and other cheese counties, and in 
the butter dairies. The method of using the 
soft, or genuine sort, is simply by dissolving 
such a quantity as is necessary in a small por- 
tion of milk ; allowing such particles as will 
not dissolve to settle to the bottom. The milk 
thus coloured is then poured off, and mixed 
with that which is to be made into cheese. 
But when the hard preparation is used, pieces 
of it are frequently under the necessity of being 
rubbed against a hard, smooth, even-faced 
pebble, or other stone, being previously wetted 
with milk to forward the levigation, and to 
collect the particles as they are loosened. For 
this purpose, a dish of milk is generally placed 
upon the cheese-ladder ; and, as the stone be- 
comes loaded with levigated matter, the pieces 
are dipped in the milk from time to time, until 
the milk in the dish appear to be sufficiently 
coloured. The stone and the " colouring" 
being washed clean in the milk, it is stirred 
briskly about in the dish ; and, having stood a 
few minutes for the suspended particles of 
colouring-matter to settle, is returned into the 
cheese-cowl ; pouring it oflf gently, so as to 
leave any sediment which may have fallen 
down in the bottom of the dish. The grounds 
are then rubbed with the finger on the bottom 
of the dish, and fresh milk added, until all the 
finer particles be suspended: and in this the 
skill in colouring principally consists. If any 
fragments have been broken off" in the opera- 
tion, they remain at the bottom of the dish : 
hence the superiority of a hard closely-textured 
material, which will not break off or cmmble 
in rubbing. The decoction of amotta has a 
peculiar smell and a disagreeable flavour. An 



ANNUAL MEAUOW-GRASS. 



ANTHOXANTHUM ODORATUM. 



ounce of aniotta will colour about twenty 
cheeses of 10 or 12 lbs. each. The rolls 
usually weigh 2 or 3 oz. each. In Gloucester- 
shire, it is usual to allow 1 oz. to a cwt. of 
cheese; in Cheshire, 8 pennyweights to a 
cheese of 60 lbs. By the Spanish Americans, 
it is mixed with their chocolate. The average 
annual import of arnotta [into England] in 
the three years ending in 1831, was 128,528 
lbs. (Comp. Farm. , M'Culluch'sCom.Did.,- 
Gray's Supplement ; Loudoii's Encyc. ,- Thom- 
son's Ckem.) 

ANNUAL MEADOW-GRASS. See Poa 
Annua. 

ANNUAL PLANTS. Such as are only of 
one year's duration, or which come up in the 
spring and die in the autumn. They are fre- 
quently denominated simply annuals. Wheat, 
oats, barley, beans, peas, &c., are of this kind. 

ANNULAR. Having the form or resem- 
blance of a ring. This appearance is observed 
in the wood of some kinds of trees after they 
have been cut down ; and in the horns of 
cattle and sheep, by which their ages may in 
some measure be ascertained. 

ANODYNE. Li farriery, a term applied 
to such medicines as ease pain and procure 
sleep. 

ANOREXY. la farriery, a term applied to 
a want of appetite. 

ANT. A sort of insect, extremely injurious 
to pasture lands and gardens ; in the former 
by throwing up hills, and in the latter by feed- 
ing on the fruit, &c. The best methods of 
keeping them from trees, are those of having 
the earth round them constantly dug up, and 
the application of saw-dust, coal-ashes, or 
other matters of the same kind, about their 
roots. The same purpose may be effected by 
covering the bottom part of the trees with tar ; 
but, as it is prejudicial to the trees, night-soil 
may, perhaps, answer better ; as it is found to 
destroy them when spread upon or put into 
their hills. A liquor, prepared by boiling rain- 
water with black-soap and sulphur, has been 
made use of for destroying those animals, it is 
said, with considerable success. Where this 
liquor is employed, care should be taken that 
the ground where they inhabit be perfectly 
saturated with it. 

ANT-HILLS. The habitations of ants, con- 
sisting of little eminences, composed of small 
particles of sand or earth, lightly and artfully 
laid together. These hills are very detrimental 
to the farmer, depriving him of as much land 
as the hills cover, which may often be com- 
puted at a tenth part, or more, of his grass- 
lands. And in some places, where negligence 
has suffered them to multiply, almost half of it 
has been rendered useless, the hills standing 
as thick together as grass-cocks in a hay-field : 
and what is very surprising is, that, by some, 
this indolence is defended, by affirming, that 
the area or superficies of their land is thereby 
increased ; whereas it is well known that very 
little or no grass ever grows thereon ; and, 
therefore, if the surface be increased, the pro- 
duce is proportionably decreased. 

In order to remove the hills, and destroy the 
insects, it has been a custom in some places, 
at the beginning of winter, and often when the 



weather was not very cold, to dig up the ant- 
hills three or four inches below the surface of 
the ground, and then to cut them in pieces, and 
scatter the fragments about. But this practice 
only disseminates the ants, instead of destroy- 
ing them, as they hide themselves among the 
roots of the grass for a little time, and then col- 
lect themselves together again upon any little 
eminence, of which there are great numbers 
ready for their purpose, such as the circular 
ridges round the hollows where the hills stood 
before. It is, therefore, a much better method 
to cut the hills entirely off, rather lower than 
the surface of the land, and to let them lie 
whole at a little distance, with their bottom up- 
wards : by this means the ants, who continue 
in their habitations until the rains, running 
into their holes of communication, and stag- 
nating in the hollows formed by the removal 
of the hills and the frosts, which now readily 
penetrate, will be destroyed. If a little soot is 
sown on the places, it will contribute to the 
intended effect. The hills, when rendered 
mellow by the frosts, may be broken and dis- 
persed about the land. By this method of 
cutting off the hills, one other advantage is 
gained : the land soon becomes even and tit 
for mowing, and the little eminences being re- 
moved, the insects are exposed to the rain, 
which is destructive to them. In wet weather 
these insects are apt to accumulate heaps of 
sandy particles among the grass, called by 
labourers sprout-hills, which quickly take off 
the edge of the scythe. These hills which are 
very light and compressible, may be removed 
by frequent heavy rolling. 

ANTHELMINTIC. In farriery, a term ap- 
plied to such remedies as are supposed to 
destroy or carry off the worms which lodge in 
the intestines of an animal. 

ANTHOXANTHUM ODORATUxM. The 
sweet-scented vernal grass. [See Plate 6, a.] 
This grass constitutes a part of the herbage 
of English pastures on almost every kind of 
soil, attaining its greatest perfection on the 
deep and moist, loving shady places, such as 
the skirts of woods. Its very early growth 
and hardiness, with the superior nutritive pro- 
perties of its latter-math, give it high claims 
in the composition of all permanent pastures. 
In England it comes into flower about the mid- 
dle of April, and in Pennsylvania about the 
middle of Maj-, the seed ripening in both coun- 
tries about the second week in June. In the 
moist climate of England it continues throw- 
ing up flower stalks till the end of autumn, 
but in Pennsylvania the efilorescence is con- 
fined to spring. When properly combined with 
other grasses, and mown at maturity, it gives 
to the hay a peculiarly delightful fragrance. 

The cause of the high flavour for which Phi- 
ladelphia " May butter" is so highly celebrated, 
has hitherto been a matter of vague specula- 
tion. This superior flavour, like that distin- 
guishing the Epping and Cambridge butter of 
the London market, has very naturally been 
ascribed to something eaten by the cows ; but 
this something has never yet been defined or 
specified so as to enable persons in other locali- 
ties to avail themselves of it for the improve 
ment of their own pastures and dairy products 
1 2 101 



ANTICOR. 



APHERNOUSLI. 



The Aoierican editor of the Farmer's Ency- 
clopaedia claims to have traced the source of 
the peculiar flavour of Philadelphia " May but- 
ter" to the sweet-scented vernal grass natural- 
ized and abounding in the pastures within 
marketing distance of the city. He assigns 
the following reasons for this conclusion. 1. 
In the dairy region around Philadelphia the 
vernal grass, with its vanilla fragrance, consti- 
tutes the predominant spring herbage on all 
pasture-fields and meadows left several years 
unploughed. The older the pasture the greater 
the proportion of the vernal grass, and the 
higher flavoured the butter. 2. The flavour 
continues during the development of this grass, 
and invariably declines with its seeding, after 
which the cattle push its dry stems aside in 
search of fresher herbage. 3. The sweet- 
scented vernal grass is shown by chemical ana- 
lysis to contain an aromatic essential oil, the 
basis of which is benzoic acid or flowers of ben- 
zoin. This is abundant, and can be distilled so 
as to furnish a delightful perfume. As the 
milk of animals is so very susceptible of ac- 
quiring disagreeable tastes from substances fed 
upon, it is natural to infer that it may be im- 



bued with agreeable flavours could the proper 
agents for this purpose be presented in their 
food. That the benzoic acid is the proximate 
cause of the peculiar fine flavour of butter 
made from pastures where the sweet-scented 
vernal grass abounds, he has shown by several 
experiments made in difi'erent places where the 
flowers of benzoin given to cows produced 
the characteristic flavour. From 20 to 30 grains 
of the benzoin was administered twice a day, 
previously mixed with a little rye or wheat 
flour, then stirred up with some hot water and 
mingled with the customary mess. 

Hitherto, but little, if any, exact knowledge 
has been acquired in regard to the efi'ects of 
particular grasses in improving the flavour of 
dairy products, or the meat of animals. The 
abundant presence of the sweet-scented vernal 
grass in pastures will, it is believed, not only 
contribute a rich flavour to dairy products, 
but to the mutton and beef of cattle and sheep 
pastured upon it. 

[See Dr. Emerson's communication to J. S. 
Skinner, on the subject of Philadelphia butter, 
originally published in the Farmer's Library 
for April, 1846.] 



DescriplioD of Gran. 



Anthoxanthum odoratum, on 1st Apfil 

, in flower - 

, seed ripe - 

, tatter-math 



Brown sandy loam 



Greeo Produce 
per Acre. 



lbs. 

3,488 

7,827 3 

6,125 10 

6,806 4 



Dry Produce 
per Acre, 



2,103 8 14 
1,837 11 



Produce per Acre 

of Nutritive 

Matter. 



lbs. 

95 
122 
311 
239 



ANTICOR. In farriery, a disease among 
horses, arising from an inflammation in the 
gullet and throat, or a kind of quinsy. The 
swelling sometimes extends as far as the 
sheath ; and is attended with fever, great de- 
pression, weakness, and a total loss of ap- 
petite. 

ANTIDOTE. See Poison, and Animal and 
Vkoetable Poisons. 

ANTIMONY, SULPHURET OF. In far- 
riery, a mineral substance, of a shining, stri- 
ated appearance, hard, brittle, and very heavy. 
It is employed as a remedy in many diseases 
of horses and other animals, and is said to 
have been given to fattening cattle and hogs 
with advantage. An ounce is the common 
quantity for a full-grown animal, which may 
be repeated according to circumstances. It is 
composed according to Dr. J. Davy {Phil. 
Trans. 1812, p. 231), of 



Antimony 
Sulphur 



100 
34-960 



ANTISEPTIC SUBSTANCES. In agricul- 
ture, are such substances as have a tendency 
to resist the putrefaction and decay of animal 
and vegetable matters. 

ANTISPASMODICS. In farriery, are such 
medicines as are suited to cure spasmodic af- 
fections. Opium, assafcEtida, and the essential 
oils of many vegetables, are the most powerful 
remedies of this kind. 

ANTLER (Fr. andouiller). Properly the 
first branches of a stag's horns ; but, popularly 
and generally, any of his branches, and so 
used, by poetic license, in all our modern 
authors. 
102 



AORTAL ARTERIES, of vegetables. The 

large vessels destined to convey the elaborated 
juice or blood of plants to the leaves and ex- 
tremities, are so denominated by Dr. Darwin. 

APERIENTS. In farriery, are such reme- 
dies as are calculated to keep the bowels of 
animals in a gentle open state. 

APHERNOUSLI, or ARKENOUSLI. A 
species of fir, pine, or pinaster, which grows 
wild on the Alps. 

The timber of this tree is frequently large, 
and has many uses for internal work. The 
branches resemble those of the spruce-fir : but 
the cones are more round in the middle, being 
of a purplish colour, shaded with black. The 
bark of the trunk, or bole of the tree, is not 
reddish like the bark of the pine, but of a 
whitish cast like that of the fir. The husk, or 
sort of shell, which encloses the kernels, is 
easily cracked, and the kernels are covered 
with a brown skin, which peels off; they are 
about as large as a common pea, triangular 
like buckwheat, and white and soft as a 
blanched almond ; of an oily agreeable taste, 
but leaving in the mouth that small degree of 
asperity which is peculiar to wild fruits, and 
is not unpleasant. These kernels sometimes 
make a part in a Swiss dessert ; they supply 
the place of mushroom-buttons in ragouts, and 
are also recommended in consumptive cases. 

Wainscoting, flooring, and other joiner's 
work, may be made with the planks of apher- 
nousli, which is a wood of a finer grain, and 
more beautifully variegated than deal, and the 
smell is more agreeable. The aphernousli is 
a tree of a healthy, vigorous growth, and will 
bear removing when it is young, even in dry 



APHIDIANS. 



APHIDES. 



warm weather. From this tree is extracted 
a white odoriferous resin. The wood also 
makes excellent tiring in stoves, ovens, and 
kilns. 

[APHIDIANS. A group of minute insects, 
which includes those commonly called plant- 
lice. Some of these insects have the power of 
'eaping, like the leaf-hoppers, from which, how- 
ever, they differ. These hoppers are by no 
means so prolific as other kinds of plant-lice, 
since they produce only one brood during the 
year. They live in groups, composed of about 
a dozen individuals each, upon the stems and 
leaves of plants, the juices of which they im- 
bibe through their tubular beaks. The young 
are often covered with a substance resembling 
fine cotton arranged in flakes. This is the case 
with some which are found on the alder and 
birch in the spring of the year. 

Another tribe of aphidians called Thrips, 
are very small and slender insects, exceed- 
ingly active in their motions. They live on 
leaves, flowers, buds, &c. Their punctures 
appear to poison plants, and often occasion 
deformities in the leaves and blossoms. The 
peach tree sometimes suffers severely from 
their attacks, as from those of the true plant- 
lice ; and they are found beneath the leaves, in 
little hollows caused by their irritating punc- 
tures. The same applications that are em- 
ployed for the destruction of plant-lice may be 
used with advantage upon plants infested with 
Thrips. (^Dr. Harris's Report on Destructive 
Insects.)] 

[APHIDES, or plant-lice, as they are com- 
monly called, are found upon almost all parts 
of plants, and there is scarcely a plant which 
does not harbour one or two kinds peculiar to 
itself. They are exceedingly prolific, and 
Reaumur has proved that one individual, in 
five generations, may become the progenitor 
of nearly six thousand millions of descendants. 
It often happens that the succulent extremi- 
ties and stems of plants will, in an incredibly 
short space of time, become completely coated 
with a living mass of little lice. These are 
usually wingless, consisting of the young and 
of the females only; for winged individuals 
appear only at particular seasons, usually in 
the autumn, but sometimes in the spring, and 
there are small males and larger females. 
After pairing, the latter lay their eggs upon or 
near the leaf-buds of the plant upon which 
they live, and, together with their males, soon 
afterwards perish. The genus to which plant- 
lice belong is called Aphis, from a Greek word 
signifying to exhaust. They hatch out in the 
spring and immediately begin to pump up sap 
from the tender buds, stems, and leaves,, in- 
crease rapidly in size and quickly come to ma- 
turity. 

" Plant-lice seem to love society, and often 
hird together in dense masses, each one re- 
maining fixed to the plant by means of its long 
tubular beak; and they rarely change their 
places till they have exhausted the part first 
attacked. The attitudes and manners of these 
little creatures are exceedingly amusing. 
When disturbed, like restive horses, they be- 
gin to kick and sprawl in the most ludicrous 
manner. They may be seen, at times, sus- 



pended by their beaks alone, and throwing up 
their legs as if in a high frolic, but too much 
engaged in sucking to withdraw their beaks. 
As they take in great quantities of sap, they 
would soon become gorged if they did not get 
rid of the superabundant fluid through the two 
little tubes or pores at the extremity of their 
bodies. When one of them gets running-over 
full, it seems to communicate its uneasy sen- 
sations, by a kind of animal magnetism, to the 
whole flock, upon which they all, with one ac- 
cord, jerk upwards their bodies, and eject a 
shower of the honeyed fluid. The leaves and 
bark of plants much infested by these insects, 
are often completely sprinkled over with drop.s 
of this sticky fluid, which, on drying, becomes 
dark coloured, and greatly disfigures the foliage. 
This appearance has been denominated honey- 
dew; but there is another somewhat similar 
production observable on plants, after very dry 
weather, which has received the same name, 
and consists of an extravasation or oozing of 
the sap from the leaves. We are often ap- 
prized of the presence of plant-lice on plants 
growing in the open air by the ants ascending 
and descending the stems. By observing the 
motions of the latter we soon ascertain that the 
sweet fluid discharged by the lice is the occa- 
sion of these visits. The stems swarm with 
slim and hungry ants running upwards, and 
others lazily descending with their bellies 
swelled almost to bursting. When arrived in 
the immediate vicinity of the plant-lice, they 
greedily wipe up the sweet fluid which has dis- 
tilled from them, and, when this fails, they 
station themselves among the lice, and catch 
the drops as they fall. The lice do not seem 
in the least annoyed by the ants, but live on 
the best possible terms with them ; and, on 
the other hand, the ants, though unsparing 
of other insects weaker than themselves, 
upon which they frequently prey, treat the 
plant-lice with the utmost gentleness, caress- 
ing them with their antennas, and apparently 
inviting them to give out the fluid by patting 
their sides. Nor are the lice inattentive to 
these solicitations, when in a state to gratify 
the ants, for whose sake they not only seem to 
shorten the periods of the discharge, but actu- 
ally yield the fluid when thus pressed. A sin- 
gle louse has been known to give it drop by 
drop successively to a number of ants, that 
were waiting anxiously to receive it. When 
the plant-lice cast their skins, the ants in- 
stantly remove the latter, nor will they allow 
any dirt or rubbish to remain upon or about 
them. They even protect them from their 
enemies, and run about them in the hot sun- 
shine to drive away the little ichneumon flies 
that are forever hovering near to deposit their 
eggs in the bodies of the lice." 

Plant-lice diff"er much in form, colour, length 
of tubes, &c. The Rose-louse (Aphis Rosas) 
has a long tube. The cabbage-louse {Aphij 
Brassicse) has also long honey-tubes, its body 
being covered with a whitish mealy substance. 
This species is very abundant on the lower 
side of cabbage-leaves in the month of Au- 
gust. The largest species of plant-lice ob- 
served by Dr. Harris, he found in clusters 
beneath the limbs of the pig-nut hickory. He 

103 



APHIDES. 



APHIDES. 



also found another large species living on the 
under side of the branches of various kinds 
of willows, and clustered together in great 
numbers. This species, the Doctor thinks, 
cannot be identical with the willow-louse de- 
scribed by Linnaeus. When crushed, it com- 
municates a stain of a reddish or deep orange 
colour. 

Some plant-lice live in the ground, and de- 
rive their nourishment from the roots of 
plants, which they often exhaust and destroy. 
Indian corn crops frequently suifer severely 
from their depredations, especially when the 
soil is light and reduced. They are generally 
of a white colour, and are closely clustered to- 
gether on the roots. Dr. Hairis, from whose 
Report all the information upon this subject is 
obtained, says that he never has been able to 
ascertain whether these are of the same spe- 
cies as the root-lice described by European 
writers. It is stated by those great entomolo- 
gists, Kirby and Spence, that ants bestow the 
same care upon the root-lice as upon their 
own oifspring, defending them from the attacks 
of other insects, bringing them in their mouths 
to the surface of the ground to give them the 
advantage of the sun, &c. The sweet fluid 
which exudes from them whilst pumping in 
the sap of the roots, forms the chief nourish- 
ment of the ants and their young. 

" The injuries occasioned by plant-lice are 
much greater than M'ould at first be expected 
from the small size and extreme weakness of 
the insects ; but these make up by their num- 
bers what they want in strength individually, 
and thus become formidable enemies to vege- 
tation. By their punctures, and the quantity 
of sap which they draw from the leaves, the 
functions of these important organs are de- 
ranged or interrupted, the food of the plant, 
which is there elaborated to nourish the stem 
and mature the fruit, is withdrawn, before it 
can reach its proper destination, or is conta- 
minated and left in a state unfitted to supply 
the wants of vegetation. Plants are diSerently 
affected by these insects. Some wither and 
cease to grow, their leaves and stems put on 
a sickly appearance, and soon die from ex- 
haustion. Others, though not killed, are great- 
ly impeded in their growth, and their tender 
parts, which are attacked, become stunted, 
curled, or warped. The punctures of these 
lice seem to poison some plants, and affect 
others in a most singular manner, producing 
warts or swellings, which care sometimes solid 
and sometimes hollow, and contain in their 
interior a swarm of lice, the descendants of a 
single individual, whose punctures were the 
original cause of the tumour. I have seen 
reddish tumours of this kind as big as a 
pigeon's egg, growing upon leaves, to which 
they were attached by a slender neck, and 
containing thousands of small lice in their in- 
terior. Naturalists call these tumours galls, 
Because they seem to be formed in the same 
way as the oak-galls which are used in the 
making of ink. The lice which inhabit or pro- 
duce them generally differ from the others, in 
having shorter antenntE, being without honey- 
lubes, and in frequently being clothed with a 
104 



kind of white down, which, however, disappears 
when the insect becomes winged. 

" These downy plant-lice are now placed in 
the genus Eriosoma, which means woolly body, 
and the most destructive species belonging to 
it was first described, under the name of Aphis 
laniffera, by Mr. Hausmann, in the year 1801, 
as infesting the apple-trees in Germany. It 
seems that it had been noticed in England as 
early as the year 1787, and has since acquired 
there the name of American blight, from the 
erroneous supposition that it had been import- 
ed from this country. It was known, however, 
to the French gardeners for a long time pre- 
vious to both of the above dates, and, accord- 
ing to Mr. Rennie, is found in the orchards 
about Harfleur, in Normandy, and is very de- 
structive to the apple-trees in the department 
of Calvados. There is now good reason to 
believe that the miscalled American blight is 
not indigenous to this country, and that it has 
been introduced here with fruit-trees from Eu- 
rope. Some persons, indeed, have supposed 
that it was not to be found here at all ; but the 
late Mr. Buel has stated that it existed on his 
apple-trees, and I have once or twice seen it 
on apple-trees in Massachusetts, where, how- 
ever, it still appears to be rare, and conse- 
quently I have not been able to examine the 
insects sufl^iciently myself. The best account 
that I have seen of them is contained in 
Knapp's 'Journal of a Naturalist,' from which, 
and from Hausmann's description, the follow- 
ing observations are chiefly extracted. 

" The eggs of the woolly apple-tree louse are 
so small as not to be distinguished without a 
microscope, and are enveloped in a cotton-like 
substance furnished by the body of the insect. 
They are deposited in the crotches of the 
branches and in the chinks of the bark at or 
near the surface of the ground, especially if 
there are suckers springing from the same 
place. The young, Avhen first hatched, are 
covered with a very short and fine down, and 
appear in the spring of the year like little 
specks of mould on the trees. As the season 
advances, and the insect increases in size, its 
downy coat becomes more distinct, and grows 
in length daily. This down is vet}' easily re- 
moved, adheres to the fingers when it is 
touched, and seems to issue from all the pores 
of the skin of the abdomen. When fully 
grown, the insects of the first brood are one 
tenth of an inch in length, and when the down 
is rubbed off, the head, antennse, sucker, and 
shins are found to be of a blackish colour, and 
the abdomen hone)^-yellow. The young are 
produced alive during the summer, are buried 
in masses of the down, and derive their nou- 
rishment from the sap of the bark and of the 
alburnum or young wood immediatelj^ under 
the bark. The adult insects never acquire 
wings, at least such is the testimony both of 
Hausmann and Knapp, and are destitute of 
honey-tubes, but from time to time emit drops 
of a sticky fluid from the extremity of the 
body. These insects, though destitute of wings, 
are conveyed from tree to tree by means of 
their long down, which is so plentiful and so 
light, as easily to be wafted by the ^vinds of 



APHIDES. 



APHIDES. 



autumn, and thus the evil will gradually spread 
throughout an extensive orchard. The nume- 
rous punctures of these lice produce on the 
tender shoots a cellular appearance, and wher- 
ever a colony of them is established, warts or | 
excrescences arise on the bark ; the limbs thus 
attacked become sickly, the leaves turn yellow 
and drop off; and, as the infection spreads 
from limb to limb, the whole tree becomes 
diseased, and eventually perishes. In Glou- 
cestershire, England, so many apple-trees were 
destroyed by these lice in the year 1810, that 
it was feared the making of cider must be 
abandoned. In the north of England the apple- 
trees are greatly injured, and some annually 
destroyed by them; and in the year 1826 they 
abounded there in such incredible luxuriance, 
that many trees seemed, at a short distance, as 
if they had been whitewashed. 

" Mr. Knapp thinks that remedies can prove 
efficacious in removing this evil only upon a 
small scale, and that when the injury has 
existed for some time, and extended its influ- 
ence over the parts of a large tree, it will take 
its course, and the tree will die. He says that 
he has removed this blight from young trees, 
and from recently attacked places in those 
more advanced, by painting over every node 
or infected part of the tree with a composition 
consisting of three ounces of melted resin, 
mixed with the same quantity of fish oil, which 
is to be put on while warm with a painter's 
brush. Sir Joseph Banks succeeded in extir- 
pating the insects from his own trees by re- 
moving all the old and rugged bark, and scrub- 
bing the trunk and branches with a hard brush. 
The application of the spirits of tar, of spirits 
of turpentine, of oil, urine, and of soft soap, 
has been recommended. Mr. Buel found that 
oil sufficed to drive the insects from the trunks 
and branches, but that it could not be applied 
to the roots, where, he stated, numbers of the 
insects harboured. The following treatment, 
I am inclined to think, will prove as success- 
ful as any which has heretofore been recom- 
mended. Scrape off all the rough bark of the 
infected trees, and make them perfectly clean 
and smooth early in the spring ; then rub the 
trunk and limbs with a stiff brush wet with a 
solution of potash, as hereafter recommended 
for the destruction of bark-lice ; after which 
remove the sods and earth around the bottom 
of the trunk, and with the scraper, brush, and 
alkaline liquor cleanse that part as far as the 
roots can conveniently be uncovered. The 
earth and sods should immediately be carried 
away, fresh loam should be placed around the 
roots, and all cracks and wounds should be 
filled with grafting cement of clay or mortar. 
Small limbs and extremities of branches, if 
infected, and beyond reach of the applications, 
should be cut off and burned." 

Dr. Harris found in Massachusetts several 
other species of Eriosoma or downy lice, in- 
habiting various forest and ornamental trees, 
some of which he thinks may have been in- 
troduced from abroad. 

Remedies. With regard to the best means 
of destroying plant-lice, Dr. Harris recom- 
mends as follows : " Solutions of soap, or a 
14 



mixture of soap-suds and tobacco water, used 
warm, and applied with a watering pot or with 
a garden engine, may be employed for the de- 
struction of these insects. It is said that ho» 
water may also be employed for the same pur- 
pose with safety and success. The water, 
tobacco-tea, or suds, should be thrown upon 
the plants with considerable force, and if they 
are of the cabbage or lettuce kind, or other 
plants whose leaves are to be used as food, 
they should subsequently be drenched tho- 
roughly with pure water. Lice on the extre- 
mities of branches may be killed by bending 
over the branches and holding them for seve- 
ral minutes in warm and strong soap-suds. 
Lice multiply much faster, and are more inju- 
rious to plants, in a dry than in a wet atmo- 
sphere; hence in green houses, attention shoulc" 
be paid to keep the air sufficiently moist ; and 
the lice are readily killed by fumigations with 
tobacco or with sulphur. To destroy subter- 
ranean lice on the roots of plants, I have fount 
that watering with salt water was useful, if 
the plants were hardy; but tender herbaceou? 
plants cannot be treated in this way, but may 
sometimes be revived, when suffering from 
these hidden foes, by free and frequent water- 
ing with soap-suds." 

A solution of whale oil soap, in the propor- 
tion of two pounds of soap to fifteen gallon? 
of water, is recommended as the best known 
means of destroying plant-lice, and other in- 
sects injurious to plants, flowers, and fruits. 
It was first made known by Mr. Haggerston, 
of Boston, who desij led it originally for the 
destruction of the rose slug, and received a pre- 
mium of $125 from the Massachusetts Horticul- 
tural Society for his discovery. In preparing 
the solution of soap, the weight required for use 
is to be taken and dissolved in boiling water 
in the proportion of a pound to a quart. Strain 
this strong solution through a fine wire or hair 
sieve, which takes out the dirt, and prevents 
its stopping the valves of the engine, or rose 
of the syringe. Then add cold water to bring 
it to the proper strength, namely, about two 
pounds of the soap to fifteen gallons of water, 
and apply to the rose bush, or other plant, with 
a hand engine or a syringe, using as mucn 
force as practicable, saturating every part of 
the foliage. What falls on the ground will not 
be lost, but do much good in destroying worms 
and enriching the soil. From its trifling cost, 
it can be used with profusion, a hogshead of 
136 gallons costing only about 45 cents. The 
soap sells for about 6 or 7 cents per pound. 
Early in the morning, or in the evening, is 
the proper time for making the application. 
Among other insects mentioned by Mr. Hag 
gerston as destroyed by the solution of whale 
oil soap, are the Aphis, or plant-louse, which 
goes by the name of the brown fly; an insect 
not quick in motion, very abundant on, and 
destructive to, the young shoois of the rose, 
peach trees, and many other plants ; and thr 
black fly, a very troublesome and destructive 
insect, that infests the young shoots of the 
cherry and the snowball tree. " I have never," 
he says, "known any positive cure for thia 
insect until this time." 

lull 



APIUM. 



APPRAISEMENT. 



" Two varieties of insects that are destruc- 
tive to and very much disfigure evergreens, 
the Balsam or Balm of Gilead fir in particular; 
one an aphis, the other very much like the 
rose-slug. 

" The above insects are all destroyed by one 
application, if properly applied to all parts of 
the leaves ; the eggs of most insects continue 
to hatch in rotation during their season; to 
keep the plants perfectly clean, it will be ne- 
cessary to dress them two or three times." 

As every plant has its insect destroyers, so 
have these their created enemies to keep them 
in check. If this was not so, the astonishing 
fecundity of plant-lice would make them far 
more formidable than at present. Indeed it is 
difficult to say where the plague might end. 
The destroyers of plant-lice described by Dr. 
Harris are of three kinds. — The first are the 
young or larvae of the hemispherical beetles 
.amiliarly known by the name of lady-birds, 
and scientifically by that of Cocdnella. These 
little beetles are generally yellow or red, with 
black spots, or black, with white, red, or yellow 
apots ; there are many kinds of them, and they 
are very common and plentiful insects, gene- 
rally diffused among plants, living upon plant- 
lice, and thus performing a great service to 
the husbandman and gardener. 

The second kind of plant-lice destroyers are 
the young of the golden-eyed lace-winged fly 
(Chrisopa perla), a fly of a pale green colour, 
with four wings resembling lace, and eyes of 
the brilliancy of polished gold, as its generic 
name implies. But, notwithstanding its bril- 
liancy, it is extremely disgusting, from the 
offensive odour it exhales. It makes great 
havoc among the plant-lice. 

The third and last enemy are the maggots 
or young of various two-winged flies belonging 
to the genus Syrphus, many of which flies are 
black, with yellow bands on their bodies. The 
eggs are laid and the destructive maggot 
hatched immediately among the sluggish lice 
which become its victims. 

The more minute account given by Dr. Har- 
ris, of the nature and habits of all these in- 
sects, is extremely interesting. (See his Report 
upon Destructive Insects submitted to the legis- 
lature of Massachusetts in 1841.)] 

APIUM. See Celehy and Parslet. 

APOPLEXY. In farriery, is a disease which 
is often called the staggers, to which horses 
and other animals are subject, and by which 
they drop down suddenly, without sense or 
motion, except a working of the flanks. (See 
Sheep, Diseases or.) 

APPETITE. Horses, more than most other 
creatures, are subject to diseases of the sto- 
mach, particularly to a want of appetite, and 
a vitiated or voracious appetite. 

Want of appetite is when a horse feeds poor- 
ly, and is apt to mangle his hay, or leave it in 
the rack, and at the same time gathers little 
flp..h, his dung being habitually soft, and of a 
pale colour. This state of the stomach evi- 
dently arises either from some error in respect 
of diet and management, want of grass, or from 
a relaxed constitution, in which the stomach 
lOfi 



and bowels are more particularly affected with 
debility. This weakness of the digestive or- 
gans may be either accidental or constitution- 
al ; and it may proceed from the use of food 
administered in an improper state, such as too 
much scalded bran, or hot meat of any kind, 
which relaxes the tone of the stomach and 
bowels, and ultimately produces a weak di- 
gestion, and consequently a loss of appetite. 
The best method to strengthen and recover 
horses in this state, is to give them gentle 
exercise in the open air, especially in dry 
weather; never to load their stomachs with 
large feeds ; and to keep them as much as 
possible to a dry diet, indulging them now and 
then with a handful of beans among their oats. 
But where the disorder has been caused by 
over-feeding with dry food, and the neglect of 
proper evacuation and exercise, mashes, with 
gentle saline purges, would seem to be the 
most suitable remedies ; and where horses do 
not gain strength under the above manage- 
ment, a run at grass will most probably be 
the readiest method of removing their com- 
plaints. 

APPLE. See Malus. 

APPLES OF LOVE {^Poma amoris; to- 
mato). These apples are juicy, and large fruit, 
growing upon a low plant in gardens. The 
flowers are yellow and small ; when the fruit 
ripens, it becomes red, containing soft juicy 
pulp and seeds. Its juice is cooling to the 
system, and is applied externally to remove 
eruptions upon the skin. (L. Johnson.) See 
Tomato. 

[APPLE-TREE BLIGHT, and Apple-tree 
lice. See Aphides and Blight.] 

[APPLE-TREE BORER. The larva of a kind 
of beetle. See Borers.] 

APPRAISEMENT. It is not only custom- 
ary, but essential to the maintenance of the 
good condition of a farm, that the outgoing 
tenant should be induced to carry on the pro- 
per course of husbandry up to the period of his 
quitting the farm ; notwithstanding that much 
of the labour and manure he bestows is for the 
benefit of crops which a succeeding tenant will 
reap. Hence the good practice has arisen, that 
the outgoing tenant shall be allowed for these 
matters, according to agreement, or, in its ab- 
sence, by the custom of the district, which 
varies considerably. (See Custom of thb 
Counties.) 

The following real appraisement of a farm 
in Surrey, by Mr. Hewitt Davis, an eminent 
appraiser of the Haymarket, London, will af- 
ford the young farmer a complete view of the 
matters usually included in such appraise- 
ments. It is usual for these valuations to be 
made by appraisers, one being appointed by 
the outgoing, and the other by the incoming 
tenants, who choose an umpire to decide in 
case of difference. 

[The document cannot fail to be acceptable 
to the American farmer, since it communicates 
so many interesting facts relating to the esti- 
mates of putting in crops, the value of manures, 
various workings, rent, rates, taxes, &c., in 
England.] 



APPRAISEMENT. 

Appraisement of the Tenant's Property on the Farm, County 

of Surrey, made this 29th September, 1841. 
From , outgoing tenant. 

To , incoming tenant. 

By , outgoing tenant's appraiser. 

And , incoming tenant's appraiser. 

Made according to the terms of the Lease, which says, " at leaving the Landlord or Incoming 
Tenant shall pay for the Turnips, Leys, Seeds sown, and Crops in or on the Ground, Plough- 
ings. Dressings, Half Dressings, Fallows, Half Fallows, and preparations of the Land for the 
Manure and Underwoods, according to their growth, and all other Matters and Things accord- 
ing to the Custom of the County." 

The farm is principally a light turnip soil, and consists of — 

Arable 227<^ acres. 

Grass 48 — 

Wood 24 — 

Hedges J0_ — 

And has been very highly cultivated on the Scotch Drill system. 
DRESSING AND TILLAGES, viz.. 



Lodge Fieid, 17 Acres. — Swedes. 



Ploughed, 2 horses, three times 

Ridging and splitting - 

Ox harrowed, four times 

Small harrowed, eight times - 

Rolled twice - - - 

Handpicking - - - 

Dung, 295 loads 

Seed, 2 lb. per acre, per lb. 

Drilling ... 

Scuffling twice 

Hand-hoeing ... 

Handpicking, rent, rates, and taxes. 



at 10s, 

- 14s. 

- Is. 6d. 

9d. 



6s. 
Is. 
Is. 

2s. 6d. 
8s. 
30s. 



Loweh Loam: Pit, 12 Acres. — Preparing for Wheat. 



Half dressing, 230 loads dung 
Ploughed twice, 2 horses 
Harrowed, Finlayson 
Ox harrowed twice 



at 3s. 

- 10s. 

- 35. 

- Is. 6d. 



Middle Loam Pit, 7^ Aches. — Seeds 

One year's ley - - - - at 60s. 

Upper Loam Pit, 10 Acres. — Seeds. 

Two year's ley - - - - at 40s. 

Lower Blighs, 7 Aches. — Pea Stubble. 
Half dressing, 1 10 loads dung - - - at 3s. 

North Blighs, 8 Acres. — Wheat after Clover. 

Clover ley - - - - - at 60s. 

Ploughed, 3 horses . - . - - 12s. 

Harrowed small, four times - - - - 9rf. 

Seed, 16 bushels - - - - - 10s. 

Drilling - - . - - - 3s. 

South Blighs, 7^ Acres. — Wheat. 

Composition earth and lime, 164 loads - at 3s. 

Ploughed, 3 horses - - • - - 12s. 

Harrowed small, four times - - - . 9d. 

Seed, 15 bushels - - . - - 10s. 

Drilling - . . . - 3s. 



Carry forward, 



s. d. 



25 10 

11 18 



17 
88 10 

1 14 
17 
4 5 
6 16 

25 10 



34 10 

12 

1 16 

1 16 



24 

4 16 

1 4 

8 

1 4 



24 12 

4 10 

1 2 6 

7 10 

1 2 6 



». d. 



177 15 



50 2 



22 10 



20 



16 10 



39 4 



38 i 



364 18 
107 



APPRAISEMENT. 





£ s. d. 


£ s. 


d. 


Brought forward 




364 18 





Upper Blighs, 13 Acres. — Tares. 








Ploughed, 2 horses ... - at 10s. 


6 10 






Harrowed small, four times . - - - 9rf. 


1 19 






Rolled, 2 horses - - - - - 1«. 6c?. 


19 6 






Seed, 26 bushels .... - 12s. 


15 12 






Drilling - - - - - 35. 


1 19 










26 19 


6 


East Blighs, 5 Acres. — Turnips, after Tares fed off. 








Tillages for the tares ...--- 


5 






Ploughed twice, 3 horses - - - at 12s. 


6 






Harrowed, ox, twice - - - - - Is. &d. 


15 






Harrowed small, four times - - - • M. 


15 






Ridging and splitting .... 14s. 


3 10 






Rolled, 2 horses, twice - - - - Is. 6rf. 


15 






Dung, 85 loads - - - - - 6s. 


25 10 






Seed, 2 lbs. per acres - - - - Is. 


10 






Drilling - - - - - - Is. 


5 






Scuffling three times - - - - 2s. 6c?. 


1 17 6 






Hoed twice - - - - - - 8s. 


2 






Rent, rates, and taxes ... 30s. 


7 10 






Ten Acres, 10 Acres. — Clover. 




54 7 


6 




One year's ley .... at 60s. 




30 





Ox House, 14 Acres. — Turnips. 








Ploughed three times, 2 horses . . at 10s. 


21 






Harrowed, ox, twice - - - - - Is. 6rf. 


2 2 






Harrowed small, four times - - - 9rf. 


2 2 






Rolled small, twice - ... - 9c?. 


1 1 






Ridging and splitting . - - - - 14s. 


9 16 






Dung, 220 loads - - - - - 6s. 


66 






Seed, 28 lb. - . - - - - Is- 


I 8 






Drilling - . - - - - Is. 


14 






Scuffling twice - - - - - 2s. 6(f. 


3 10 






Hoed twice - - - - - - %k. 


5 12 






Rent, rates, and taxes .... 30s. 


21 






Stack Yard, 12 Acres. — Winter Beans. 




134 5 







Ploughed, 3 horses - - - - at 12s. 


7 4 






Harrowed small, four times - - • ^d. 


1 16 






Beans, 24 Bushels - - - - - 5s. 


6 






Drilling - - - - - - 3s. 

West Field, 7 Acres. — Clover Seeds. 


1 16 


16 16 







Half dressing, 145 loads dung - - at 3s. 


21 15 






Half fallow 50s. 


17 10 






Seed and sowing .... - 16s. 


5 12 










44 17 





East Starve Acre, 8 Acres. — Swedes after Rye, Sheep fed. 








Tillages for the rye - - 


8 






Ploughed twice, 2 horses - - - at 10s. 


8 






Ridging and splitting ..... 14s. 


5 12 






Harrowing small, 4 times - - - - 9d. 


1 4 






Dung, 139 loads - - - - - 6s. 


41 14 






Seed, 16 lbs. Is. 


16 






Drilling . - - - - - Is. 


8 






Scuffling three times - - - - - 2s. 6rf. 


3 






Hoeing twice - - - - - 8s. 


3 4 






1 About 1^ acre reploughed and resown ... 


1 10 






Rent and taxes ..... 30s. 


12 






Carry forward, - £ 




85 8 







757 11 






li 



]08 



APPRAISEMENT. 



! Brought forward 

West Stabte Acre, 7J^ Acres. — Clover. 

Half dressing, 125 loads dung - - at 3s. 
Half dressing fallow .... 50s. 
Seeds ....... 16s. 

Sand Pit, 15 Acres. — Rye. 

Ploughed, 2 horses - - - - at 10s. 
Harrowed small, four times • - • • 9d. 
Seed, 30 bushels - - - - . 5«. 
Drilling, - . . - - - 3s. 

Upper Kestnel Field, 10 Acres. — Seed^. 

Half dressings, 165 loads dung - - at 3s. 
Half dressing fallow ..... 50s. 
Seeds mixed, and sowing . - . .16s. 

Lower Kennel Field, 14 Aches. — Seeds. 

Half dressings, 240 loads dung - - at 3s. 
Half dressing fallow ..... 50s. 
Seeds mixed, and sowing - - - . I6s. 

Upper Pond Field, 14 Acres. — Seeds. 

Ley one year old • • - - at 60s. 
Ashes, 1000 bushels ..... l^d. 
Carting, &c., 50 loads - . - .Is. 6c?. 

Lower Pond Field, 1 1 Acres. — Bean Stubble, 

Nothing. 

Middle Common, 7 Aches. — Potatoes. 
Crop laid at 49 tons . - - - at 50s. 

Manure. 

In West Blighs, dung 162 loads - - - 5s. 
In yards, dung 100 loads . - - - 4s. 
Ashes, 7 lumps ...... 

Straw. 

Wheat, 32 loads - - • - at 28s. 
Oat, 58 loads ..... 24s. 
Bean, 14 loads ..... 20s. 
Pea, 41 loads ..... 24s. 

Hay. 

Meadow, 18 loads «... at 80s. 
Rye grass, 14 loads ..... 85s. 
Clover, 27 loads ..... 90s. 

N. B. By the term of the lease, the tenant has the right to 
sell off the hay and straw, which is therefore put at a market 
price. 

Underwoods. 
The Grove, 7 acres, 9 years' growth - at 10s. 
The Lower Wood, 5 acres, 7 years' growth - 10s. 
The Shaw, 2 acres, 6 years' growth . - 10s. 
The Kennel Wood, 10 acres, 2 years' growth . 10s. 

The standing stufl' in hedge-rows, after allowing 
for re-making, all at 

(Signed) 

By for the outgoln 
By for the incomin 


£ 

18 

18 

6 


s. 

15 

15 




d. 






£ s. d. 
757 11 

43 10 

19 10 

57 15 

82 4 

50 19 2 


122 10 

64 

177 12 
253 

57 10 
16 j 


7 
2 
7 
2 


10 
5 

IC 
5 








24 
25 

8 


15 









36 
35 
11 




4 







42 
5 
3 




4 

15 



2 



40 

20 

3 


10 



10 







44 
69 
14 
49 


16 

12 



4 








72 

59 

121 



10 
10 







31 

10 

6 

10 


10 








«) 




5 tenant. 
J tenant. 


£ 


1702 1 2 


1 




K 






109 



APRICOT. 



ARBOR VIT^. 



APRICOT (Armeniaca vulgaris). The name 
of the apricot has been thought to be derived 
from apricus, open and exposed to the sun, or 
from prsecnx, early ripe ; but there can be no 
doubt that the word is a corruption of the Ara- 
bic name of the fruit. In England, it is one 
of the earliest wall-fruits, and held in the 
highest estimation. The fruit, when gathered 
young to thin the crop, makes an excellent 
tart; and when ripe, it is second to no fruit 
for preserves or jam : it gives an excellent 
flavour to ice, and makes a delicious liqueur .• 
of all the fruits used in pastry, none is more 
beautiful or agreeable than the ripe apricot. 
To prolong the enjoyment of this fruit in its 
natural state, we should be careful to plant the 
earliest variety in the warmest situation, as 
the frost often injures the blossoms unless it is 
protected by a glass shutter. The apricot, as 
well as the plum, may be kept for our dessert 
two or three weeks later, by gathering it when 
half ripe, and placing it in an ice-house, a 
dairy, or any cool place, where it slowly 
ripens. 

Apricots, if not too ripe, agreeably astringe 
and strengthen the stomach ; but like all other 
perfumed watery fruit, it loses its aromatic 
and tempting flavour, becomes clammy, and 
is less easy of digestion, when over-ripe : they 
should therefore be gathered at least twenty- 
four hours before they acquire the last degree 
of maturity. 

Of this excellent fruit, thirty-nine varieties 
have been described in the Horticultural So- 
ciety's catalogue. For a small garden, Mr. 
Lindley recommends the following selection. 



Breda 
Brussels. 
Hemskirke. 
Large early. 
Moorpark 



Peach apricot. 
Red masculine. 
Roman. 

Royal. 
Turkey. 



The Moorpark and Turkey have been recom- 
mended where variety is not wanted, the for- 
mer being fine, and a good bearer ; the latter 
not a good bearer, but very fine. The apricot 
requires a rich soil, rather lighter than the 
apple and pear. 

Budding is generally performed from the 
middle of June to the end of July, on mussel 
plum stocks two or three years old. The Breda, 
peach apricot, royal, and a few others are 
those generally budded upon the mussel, " and 
although," says Mr. Lindley," the Moorpark is, 
for the most part, budded upon the common 
plum, on which it takes freely, yet I am per- 
suaded that if it were budded on the mussel, 
the trees would be better, last longer in a state 
of vigour, and produce their fruit superior 
both in size and quality." 

In planting out trees for training, young 
plants, or those called maiden plants, should 
be made choice of, being far preferable to those 
which have been headed down, and stood two 
years in the quarters of the nursery ; observ- 
ing, in all cases, without exception, that the bud 
should stand outwards, and the wounded part 
where the stock has been headed down, in- 
ward?., or next the wall. The apricot in gene- 
ral bears chiefly upon the young shoots of the 
n receding year, and also upon small spurs 
110 



rising on the two or three year old fruit 
branches. The pruning of wall-apricots com- 
prehends both a summer and a winter course 
of regulation. In May, the summer pruning 
commences by the disbudding and removal of 
the superfluous shoots, and shortening the 
smaller shoots to half an inch, which will oc- 
casion many of them to form natural spurs 
for blossoms at the base. This should be 
carefully done with a sharp thin-bladed knife. 
Care must also be taken to select and train as 
many of the best placed young shoots as may 
be wanted to form the figure of the tree, pro- 
ceeding thus from year to year, till it is com- 
pletely furnished, both in its sides and middle, 
for there ought not then to be a blank space in 
any part within its extent. 

For the Avinter pruning of apricots, every 
shoot should be shortened according to its 
strength, none being permitted to exceed 18 
inches, while a few will require to be even less 
than 6. By pruning thus short, and training 
the branches thus, the trees will be kept in 
vigour, the fruit will always attain its full size 
under favourable circumstances, and its quality 
will be good. 

When the fruit is found to be too numerous 
and growing in clusters, thinning must be re- 
sorted to in May and June, leaving the most 
promising fruit singly, at three or four inches 
distance ; or from about two to six on the re- 
spective shoots, according to their strength. The 
retained fruit should in all instances be situated 
at the sides of their respective shoots, and no 
fore-right fruit be suffered to remain ; for these 
being exposed to the full power of the sun, 
will perish before they can arrive at maturity. 
The apricot is very liable to be attacked by 
wasps and large flies, which should be kept 
off" by a net. The other insects and diseases 
of this tree are the same as in the peach tree ; 
but it is not nearly so obnoxious to their at- 
tacks, probably owing to the comparatively 
hard nature of its bark and wood, and coria- 
ceous leaves. [The apricot is the earliest and 
tenderest of American fruits, the blossoms 
coming so early as to be commonly nipped 
by frost. The position of the trees should be 
such as tends to retard flowering.] (Phillip's 
Pom. Brit.; Lindley's Guide to the Orchard and 
Kitchen Garden.) 

ARBOR YITM (Tlmja). The generic 
name of this tree is a corruption from ®in of 
Theophrastus, or thya of Pliny, which were 
derived from the verb thyo, I perfume ; as the 
thya of the ancients gave out an aromatic 
smoke when it was burnt. It is called arbor 
vitae, or tree of life, because it keeps in full 
leaf winter and summer ; and not in allusion 
to the tree ef life mentioned in the book of 
Genesis. The first mention we have of it in 
England is by Gerard, in his History of Plants, 
which was published in 1597. He tells us that 
it was then growing plentifully in his garden 
at Holborn, where it flowered about May, but 
it had not then ripened seed. 

" The Thuja from China's fruitful lands," 

being of a brighter green and thicker verdure, 
has nearly superseded the arbor vitae of Ca- 
nada in our plantations. It is well adapted to 



ARBUTUS. 



ARROW-HEAD. 



screen private walks or low buildings, as it 
gives out flat spreading branches near the 
ground; but it has a sombre appearance, un- 
less associated with more cheerful foliage, or 
ornamented by some gay climbing plant, as 
the everlasting pea, the flaming nasturtium, or 
our native bindweed. 

The arbor vitse, which we have borrowed 
from the extremity of the east and of the west, 
as a mere ornament to our pleasure-grounds, 
forms an article of utility and profit to the in- 
habitants of its native soil. It is reckoned the 
most durable wood in Canada, where it is 
known by the name of the white cedar. All 
the posts which are driven into the ground, 
and the palisades round the forts, are made of 
this wood. The planks in the houses are made 
of it; and the thin narrow pieces of wood 
which form both the ribs and the bottom of the 
bark boats commonly made use of there, are 
taken from this wood, because it is pliant 
enough for the purpose, when fresh, and also 
because it is very light. The thuja wood is 
reckoned one of the best for the use of lime- 
kilns. Its branches are used all over Canada 
for brooms, which leave their peculiar scent in 
all the houses where they are used. The arbor 
vitee afl^ords [a popular remedy for rheumatic 
and some other complaints among the Indians 
and settlers of North America.] 

The finest trees are always raised by seed, 
but they are more easily propagated by layers 
or cuttings. (Phil. Syl. Flir.) 

ARBUTUS. A genus of evergreen shrubs 
which is characterized by its fruit being a 
berry, containing many seeds. The only va- 
riety necessary to be enumerated in these 
pages is the Arbutus unedo, or strawberry tree. 

In Pliny's time, when Rome abounded in 
wine and oil, they called the tree unedo, which 
was an abridgment of unum edo, meaning, 
** You will eat but one." It has the name of 
•strawberry-tree with us, because its berries so 
nearly resemble in appearance that delicious 
fruit. It is found growing spontaneously on 
rocky limestone situations in the west of Ire- 
land, particularly in the county of Kerry, near 
the lake of Killarney, where the peasants eat 
the fruit. The arbutus is a native of the south 
of Europe, Greece, Palestine, and many other 
parts of Asia. 

Horace celebrates the shade of this tree : — 

" Nunc viridi membra sub arbuto 
Stratus." 

But Virgil describes its foliage as rather thin 
{Ed. vii.), and recommends the twig as a 
winter food for goats. 

The arbutus tree succeeds best in a moist 
soil, for when planted in dry ground it seldom 
produces much fruit. It is therefore recom- 
mended to place it in warm situations ; and if 
the earth is not naturally moist, there should 
be plenty of loam and rotten neat's dung laid 
about its roots, and in dry springs it should be 
plentifully watered. 

The arbutus trees may be propagated by 
layers, but they are principally raised from 
seed ; and they require to be kept in pots for 
several years before they are ready for the 
plantation. We meet with a variety of this 



tree in our shrubberies with double blossoms, 
and another with red flowers. Alton enume- 
rates five different species of the arbutus, and 
there are several varieties of them in the Pari- 
sian gardens not to be seen in our shrubberies. 
The leaves of the arbutus are said to be use- 
fully employed by tanners in preparing their 
leather. {Phillips's Sylva Florifern.) 

This beautiful evergreen grows to the height 
of ten and fifteen feet. Its flowers, which are 
of a yellowish white or red colour bloom in 
September, October, and November, and are 
succeeded by the fruit, which remain till the 
flowers of the following year are full blown, 
thus giving the tree a beautiful appearance. 

ARCHED. A term employed among horse- 
men. A horse is said to have arched legs 
when his knees are bent archwise. This only 
relates to the fore-quarters, and the infirmity 
sometimes happens to such horses as have 
their legs spoiled in travelling. 

ARGILLACEOUS. [Clayey.] Containing 
clay. 

ARM OF A HORSE. A term applied to the 
upper part of the fore-leg. 

ARNOTTO. See Annotta. 

AROMATIC. An epithet applied to such 
plants, and other bodies, as yield a fragrant 
odour, and have a warm spicy taste. 

AROMATIC REED {Acoru.-^ calamus). The 
common sweet-flag. A marshy perennial plant 
of the easiest culture, flowering from June till 
August, which grows among rushes in moist 
ditches and watery places, about the banks of 
rivers, but not very general. Root, thick, 
rather spongy ; leaves, erect, two or three feet 
high, bright green, near an inch broad. It 
rarely flowers unless it grows in water, but 
when it does bloom, it puts forth a mass of 
very numerous, thick-set, brownish green 
flowers, which have no scent except when 
bruised. Every part of the herbage is stimu- 
lant, and very aromatic, but the roots are espe- 
cially so. The dried root powdered is used by 
the country people of Norfolk, [England,] for 
curing the ague. It is alfirmed to possess car- 
minative and stomachic virtues, having a 
warm, pungent, bitterish taste, and is fre- 
quently used in preparing bitters, though it is 
said to impart a nauseous flavour. It is the 
Calamus aromaticus of the shops, and LinniBUS 
says, the roots powdered might supply the 
place of foreign spices. {Eng, Ftor. vol. ii. p. 
157; Paxton's Bot. Did.; Willich's Dom. 
Encyc.) 

ARPENT. The French name for an acre. 
[The French arpent contains 51,691 square 
English feet, or very nearly one acre and three- 
quarters of a rood English measure.] 

ARROW-GRASS {Triglodiin). Perennial 
marsh herbs, of which there are two kinds, the 
marsh arrow-grass and the sea arrow-grass, 
both perennials, flowering from May till Au- 
gust. They grow in wet boggy meadows and 
salt marshes, &c., abundantly, and are very 
grateful to domestic cattle, the herbage con- 
taining a large proportion of salt. {Eiig. Flor. 
vol. ii. p. 200.) 

ARROW-HEAD {Sagittaria sagittifolia, 
from sagitta, an arrow ; because of the resem- 
blance of the leaves to the head of that weapon) 

111 



ARROW-ROOT. 



ARTICHOKE. 



[In England,] an indigenous, aquatic, perennial 
herb, flowering in July or August. Root, 
tuberous, nearly globular, with many long 
fibres. It is industriously cultivated in China 
for its esculent properties : its mealy nature 
rendering it easily convertible into starch or 
flour. It is much relished by most cattle. 
Nothing is more variable than the breadth and 
size of the floating leaves, which are dimi- 
nished almost to nothing when deeply im- 
mersed in the water, or exposed to a rapid 
current. Hence has arisen the several varie- 
ties mentioned by authors, but which the 
slightest observation will discover to be eva- 
nescent. This plant, especially the seed, was 
formerly supposed to possess medicinal pro- 
perties, which time and improved knowledge 
have demonstrated to be imaginary. The 
leaves, however, feel cooling when applied to 
the skin ; hence they have been used and may 
be serviceable as a dressing to inflamed sores. 
(Eng. Flor. vol. iv. p. 144 ; Willich's Darn. 
Encyc.) 

[ARROW-ROOT. This nutricious flour, 
which constitutes a very mild, light, agreeable 
and easily digested article of diet, so much 
resorted to for the sick and convalescent, and 
also for children, is the fecula or starch most 
commonly obtained from the root of a plant 
called Maranta arundinacea. It is a native of 
South America, where, as well as in the West 
Indies, it is extensively cultivated. It grows 
also in Florida, in the southern parts of which 
it is manufactured at the very low price of 6 
to 8 cents per lb. The low price at which 
arrow-root is sold at Key West and other parts 
of Florida, allows of its being used for the 
common purposes of starch, and also for the 
preparation of niceties for the table, being in 
fact often substituted for the ordinary bread- 
stuff's. Though thus cultivated in the south, 
still most of that used is imported from the 
West Indies and Brazil, the best coming from 
Bermuda. The mode generally pursued in 
the West Indies for obtaining the fecula from 
the root and subsequently preparing it, is as 
follows : — The roots are dug up when a year 
old, washed, and then beat into a pulp, which 
is thrown into water, and agitated so as to 
separate the starchy from the fibrous or stringy 
portion. The fibres are removed by the hand, 
and the starch remains suspended in the water, 
to Avhich it gives a milky colour. This milky 
fluid is strained through coarse linen, and allow- 
ed to stand that thf, fecula may subside, which 
is afterwards washed with a fresh portion of 
water and then dried in the sun. The powder 
IS a light white colour, sometimes having 
small masses easily crushed. It is a pure 
starch like that obtained from wheat, potatoes, 
and several other vegetable substances, espe- 
cially the plant called in the West Indies 
Jatropa Manihot, which yields the substance 
called Tapioca, used for similar purposes with 
arrow-root.] 

[ARROW-WOOD. A name given in the 
United States to a shrub (Viburnum) the 
young and straight branches of which were, 
according to Marshall, formerly used by the 
nborgines for making arrows. The slender 
sterai, when the pith is removed, afford good 
113 



fuse-sticks for blasting rocks. Ten or twelve 
species of Viburnum are enumerated in the 
United States, {^ee, Darlington's Flor. Cestrica.)] 

ARSENIC. See Poison. 

ARTEMISIA. See Wormm^oods. 

ARTESIAN WELLS have been so named 
from the opinion that they were first used in 
Artois, in France. These wells have been 
found extremely beneficial in the low lands of 
Essex and Lincolnshire, and in some other 
distri-its where good water is scarce, and that 
of the surface of indifferent quality. Some 
practical knowledge of geology is necessary in 
order to fix with judgment upen the most 
eligible spot for sinking these wells, or else 
much labour and expense may be uselessly 
applied. They are formed by boring with a 
long auger and rod to such a depth into the 
earth, that a spring is found of sufficient power 
to rise to and run over the surface. 

ARTICHOKE {Cynnra). From cm ere, ac- 
cording to Columella, because the land for 
artichokes should be manured with ashes. 
[" A plant little cultivated in America, but 
very well worthy of cultivation. In its look 
it very much resembles a thistle of the big- 
blossomed kind. It sends up a seed stalk, 
and it blows, exactly like the thistle that we 
see in the Arms of Scotland. It is, indeed, a 
thistle upon a gigantic scale. The parts that 
are eaten are, the lower end of the thick leaves 
that envelope the seed, and the bottom out of 
which those leaves immediately grow. The 
whole of the head, before the bloom begins to 
appear, is boiled, the pod leaves are pulled off 
by the eater, one or two at a time, and dipped 
in butter, with a little pepper and salt, the 
mealy part is stripped off by the teeth, and the 
rest of the leaf put aside, as we do the stem of 
asparagus. The bottom, when all the leaves 
are thus disposed of, is eaten with knife and 
fork. The French, who make salads of almost 
every garden vegetable, and of not a few of the 
plants of the field, eat the artichoke in salad- 
They gather the heads, when not much bigger 
round than a dollar, and eat the lower ends of 
the leaves above mentioned raw, dipping them 
first in oil, vinegar, salt and pepper ; and, in 
this way, they are very good. Artichokes are 
propagated from seed, or from offsets. If by 
the former, sow the seed in rows a foot apart, 
as soon as the frost is out of the ground. Thin 
the plants to a foot apart in the row; and, in 
the fall of the year, put out the plants in 
clumps of four in rows, three feet apart, and 
the rows six feet asunder. They will produce 
their fruit the next year. When winter ap- 
proaches, earth the roots well up ; and, before 
the frost sets in, cover all well over with litter 
from the yard or stable. Open at the breaking 
up of the frost; dig all the ground well be- 
tween the rows ; level the earth down from the 
plants. You will find many young ones, or 
offsets, growing out from the sides. Pull these 
oS, and, if you want a new plantation, put 
them out, as you did the original plants. They 
will bear, though later than the old ones, that 
same year. As to sorts of this plant, there are 
two, but they contain no difference of any con- 
sequence: one has its head, or fruit pod, 
round, and the other rather conical. As to the 



ARTICHOKE. 

quantity for a family, one row across one of 
the plats Avill be sufficient." ( CobbeWs Ame- 
rican Gardener.)'] 

Those plants produce the finest heads which 
are planted in a soil abounding in moisture, 
but in such they will not survive the winter. 
Manure must be applied every spring, and the 
best compost for them is a mixture of three 
parts of well-putrefied dung, and one part of 
fine coal-ashes. They should always have an 
open exposure, and, above all, be free from the 
influence of trees; for, if beneath their shade 
or drip, the plants spindle, and produce worth- 
less heads. For planting, these must be slipped 
olf in March or early in April, when eight or 
ten inches in height, with as much of their 
fibrous roots pertaining as possible. Such of 
them should be selected as are sound and not 
woody. The brown, hard part, by which they 
are attached to the parent stem, must be re- 
moved; and if that cuts crisp and tender, it is 
evidence of the goodness of the plant ; if it is 
tough and stringy, the plant is worthless. 
Further, to prepare them for planting, the large 
outside leaves are taken oflT so low, that the 
heart appears above them. If they have been 
some time separated from the stock, or if the 
weather is dry, they are greatly invigorated by 
being set in water for three or four hours be- 
fore they are planted. 

They produce heads the same year, from 
July to October, and will continue to do so 
annually, if preserved in succeeding years, 
from May until June or July ; consequently, it 
is the practice, in order to obtain a supply 
during the remainder of the summer and 
autumn, to make an annual plantation in some 
moist soil, as the plants are not required to 
continue. 

As often as a head is cut from the perma- 
nent bed, the stem must be broken down close 
to the root, to encourage the production of 
suckers before the arrival of winter. In No- 
vember or December they should receive their 
■winter's dressing. The old leaves being cut 
away without injuring the centre or side 
shoots, the ground must be dug over, and part 
of the mould thrown into a moderate ridge 
over each row, close about the plants, but 
leaving the hearts clear. If this dressing is 
neglected until severe frosts arrive, or even if 
it is performed, each plant must be closed 
round with long litter or pea haulm : it is, how- 
ever, a very erroneous practice to apply stable- 
dung immediately over the plants, previous to 
earthing them up, as it in general induces 
decay. Early in February all covering of this 
description must be removed. In March, or as 
soon as the shoots appear four or five inches 
above the surface, the ridges thrown up in the 
wmter must be levelled, and all the earth re- 
moved from about the stock to below the part 
from whence the young shoots spring. All of 
these but two, or at most three of the straightest 
and most vigorous, must be removed, care 
bemg taken to select from those which proceed 
from the under part of the stock ; the strong 
thick ones proceeding from its crown, having 
hard woody stems, are productive of indifferent 
heads. Those allowed to remain should be 
carefully preserved from injury. Every other 
15 



ARTICHOKE. 

sucker must be removed and every bud rubbed 
ofl", otherwise more will be produced, to the 
detriment of those purposely left. These must 
be separated as far apart as possible without 
injury, the tops of the pendulous leaves re- 
j moved, and the mould then returned, so as to 
cover the crowns of the stocks about two 
inches. Some gardeners recommend, as soon 
as the ground is levelled, a crop of spinach to 
be sown, which will be cleared oft' the grountl 
before the artichokes cover it ; but this mode 
of raising or stealing a crop is always in some 
degree injurious. 

Although the artichoke, in a suitable soil, is 
a perennial, yet after the fourth or fifth year 
the heads become smaller and drier. The beds, 
in consequence, are usually broken up after 
the lapse of this period, and fresh ones formed 
on another side. 

If any of the spring-planted suckers should 
not produce heads the same year, the leaves 
may be tied together and covered Math earth, 
so as just to leave their tops visible, and, on 
the arrival of frost, being covered with litter, 
so as to preserve them, they Avill afford heads 
either during the winter or very early in 
spring. 

As a vegetable, the artichoke is wholesome, 
but not very nourishing; and as a medicine, 
it is of little use. Sir John Hill, M. D., states 
having known patients cured of jaundice, by 
perseverance in this medicine alone, without 
combining its virtues with any other plant; 
but the statement of Sir J. Hill is of no value 
in the present day. The flowers of the arti- 
choke have the property of rennet in curdling 
milk. The heads of the second crop of arti- 
chokes, when dried, are excellent baked in 
meat pies, with mushrooms, as they dress 
them in France. (G. W.Juhnsnn's Kitchen Gar- 
den.) 

ARTICHOKE, JERUSALEM (Helianfhus 
tuberiisns, from 'V\Kiii, the sun, and avbc;, ajlower). 
It flourishes most in a rich light soil, with an 
open enclosure. Trees are particularly inimi- 
cal to its growth. As it never ripens its seeds 
in England, the only mode of propagation is 
by planting the middle-sized tubers or cuttings 
of the large ones, one or two eyes being pre- 
served in each. These are best planted towards 
the end of March, though it may be performed 
as early as Februarys or even in October, and 
continued as late as the beginning of April. 

They are planted by the dibble, in rows, 
three feet by two feet apart, and four inches 
deep. They make their appearance above 
ground about the middle of May. The onry 
attention necessary is to keep them free from 
weeds, and an occasional hoeing to loosen the 
surface, a little of the earth being drawn up 
about the stems. Some gardeners, at the close 
of July or early in August, cut the stems off" 
about their middle, to admit more freely the 
air and light ; in other respects it may oe 
beneficial to the tubers. 

The tubers may be taken up as wanted dui • 
ing September; and in October, or as soon as 
the stems have withered, entire for preserva- 
tion in sand, for winter's use. They should be 
raised as unbroken as possible, for the small- 
est piece of a tuber will vegetate, and appear 
K 2 113 



ARTIFICIAL GRASSES, 



ASH. 



in the spring ; for which reason they are often 
allotted some remote corner of the garden; but 
their culinary merits certainly demand a more 
favourable treatment. ( C. W. Juhnson's Kitchen 
Garden). 

The Jerusalem Artichoke thrives Avell in the 
United States on soft, moist, and it is said even 
on peaty soils. This root is abundant in the 
English and French markets, where it sells for 
a little more than the price of Irish potatoes. 
The fibres of the stems may be separated by 
maceration similar to hemp, so as to be capa- 
ble of being manufactured into cordage or 
cloth, as is practised in some parts of Europe, 
where the plant is an object of field culttire, 
especial^ on the poor and sandy soils. The 
artichoke will yield, with similar culture, 30 
per cent, more than the potato, and if the land 
be poor, they will yield at least double the 
quantity per acre that can be raised with the 
potato, and the expense of culture is no more. 
They are particularly adapted to the climate 
and soil of the Middle and Southern States, 
and being hardy, can be left during the fall 
and winter in the ground to be rooted up by 
hogs, great numbers of which may be thus 
fattened at little expense. Or they may be 
taken up and given to all kind of stock, for 
which purpose it is more requisite to steam 
them than potatoes. One of the chief objec- 
tions urged against their culture is, that not 
being killed in winter by the frost, they grow 
among the crops which succeed them. But 
this is a comparatively trifling objection. The 
Jerusalem artichoke certainly deserves more 
attention from farmers than it now gets in the 
United States. 

ARTIFICIAL GRASSES. See Grasses. 

ARUM. Common Cuckow-pint, or Wake- 
Robin {Arum maculatum). See Wake-Robin 
and IvniAX Turnip. 

ARLNDO. A genus of grasses in which a 
number of useful species was once compre- 
hended ; but in consequence of the altered 
views of botanists regarding the limits of ge- 
nera, it is now confined to the Arundo donax, 
and the species most nearly agreeing with it. 
These are grasses of considerable size, some- 
times acquiring a woody stem, and found only 
in the warm parts of the world. The Arundo 
is closely allied to the genus Sacchururn, the last 
of which includes the sugar-cane. {Penny 
Cyclop.) 

Arundo arenaria. Sea-reed, marram, starr, 
or bent. (See Plate 7, o.) The nutritive mat- 
ter of this grass affords a large portion of sac- 
■charine matter when compared with the pro- 
duce in this respect of other grasses. The 
Elymus arenarius, however, affords about one- 
third more sugar than the present plant. The 
quantity of nutritive matter afforded by the 
Elymus arenarius is superior to that afforded 
by the Arundo arenaria, in the proportion of 4 
to 5. From experiments as to the produce, it 
would appear that the A. arenaria is unworthy 
of cultivation as food for cattle, out of the in- 
fluence of the salt spray. But from the habit 
of the plant in its natural place of growth, it is 
of great utility, particularly when combined 
with the Elymus arenarius, in binding the loose 
*ands of the sea-shore, and thereby raising a 
114 



natural barrier, the most lasting against the 
encroachments of the ocean upon the land. So 
far back as the reign of William III., the im- 
portant value of the Elymus arenarius and 
Arundo arenaria was so well appreciated as to 
induce the Scottish parliament of that period 
to pass an act for their preservation on the 
sea-coasts of Scotland. And these provisions 
were, by the British parliament in the reign of 
George I., followed up by other enactments, ex- 
tending the operation of the Scottish law to the 
coasts of England, and in passing further penal 
ties for its inviolabilit)', so that it was rendered 
penal, not only for any individual, not even ex- 
cepting the lord of the manor, to cut the bent, but 
for any one to be in possession of any within 
eight miles of the coast. This plant is likewise 
applied to many economical purposes ; hats, 
ropes, mats, &c., being manufactured from it. 
{Sinclair's Hart. Gram. Wub.) 

ASCARIDES. See Worms, Intestinal. 

ASH {Frdxinu-1 excelsior). This tree was 
called by the Greeks /uo,iu, and by some /ue\it. 
The Latins, it is thought, named it Fraxinus, 
quia facile frangitur, to express the fragile na^ 
ture of the v/ood, as the boughs of it are easily 
broken. We are thought to have given the 
name of ash to this tree, because the bark of 
the trunk and branches is of the colour of 
wood-ashes, whilst some learned etymologists 
aflirm that the word is derived from the Saxon 
iere. Virgil tells us that the spears of the Ama- 
zons were of this wood, and Homer celebrates 
the mighty ashen spear of Achilles. Many of 
the ancient writers highly extolled the ash. It 
has been asserted that serpents have such an 
antipathy to the ash, that they will not ap- 
proach even within its morning or evening 
shadows; and Pliny tells us (he says upon ex- 
perience), that if a fire and serpent be sur- 
rounded by ash boughs, the serpent will sooner 
run into the fire than into the boughs. There 
are many other superstitious notions attached 
to the ash, which it would be foreign to our 
purpose to notice. 

There are several varieties of the ash, 
among which are, 1. The weeping, which forms 
a beautiful arbour when grafted upon a lofty 
stem • it is said to have originated incidentally 
in a field at Garntingay, Cambridgeshire : 2. 
The entire leaved : 3. The curl-leaved, which 
has a dark aspect : and, 4. The wasted. 

Ash plantations have Lately been formed in 
man}'^ parts of the kingdom to a very consider- 
able extent. The Romans used the ash-leaves 
for fodder, which were esteemed better for cat- 
tle than those of any other tree, the elm ex- 
cepted : and they were also used for the same 
purpose, before agriculture was so well un- 
derstood, and our fields clothed with artificial 
grasses. In Queen Elizabeth's time, the in- 
habitants of Colton and Hawkshead Fells re- 
monstrated against the number of forges in 
the country, because they consumed all the 
loppings and croppings which were the sole 
winter food for their cattle. In the north of 
Lancashire the farmers still lop the tops of the 
ash to feed their cattle in autumn, when the 
grass is on the decline ; the cattle peeling off 
the bark as food. The Rev. Mr. Gilpin tells 
us, that in forests the keepers make the deer 



ASH. 



ASHES. 



browse on summer evenings on the sprays of 
ash, that they may not stray too far from the 
walk. The branches are frequently given to 
deer in time of frost. The ash-tree, in early 
da)'s, served both the soldier and the scholar. 
It was also a principal material for forming 
the peaceable implements of husbandry, as it 
continues to be with us to this day, in the 
shape of carts, wagons, teeth and spokes of 
wheels, harrows, rollers, &c. The gardener 
recognises it in his rake-stem, spade-tree, and 
other tool handles. The hop-planter knows its 
value for poles, the thatcher for spars, the 
ouilder for ladders, the cooper for hoops, the 
turner for his lathe, the shipwright for pulleys, 
the mariner for oars and ship-blocks, the 
fisherman for tanning his nets and drying his 
herrings ; the wheelwright employs it usefully, 
and the coach-maker profitably, whilst the ca- 
binet-maker palms it off upon us as green 
ebony. The ashes of this wood afford very 
good potash, and the bark is used in tanning 
calf-skins, and dyeing green, black, and blue. 
The ash-keys were formerly gathered in the 
green state, and pickled with salt and vinegar, 
and served to table for sauce. 

Were we to transcribe all we have seen 
written on the medicinal virtues of this plant, 
it might naturally be asked how it happens 
that we do not meet our ancestors upon earth, 
who had in this tree a cure for every malady 1 
The Arabian as well as the Greek and Roman 
physicians, highly extol the medicinal proper- 
ties of the seed which the Latins named lingua 
avis, bird's tongue, which it resembles. l5rs. 
Taner, Robinson, and Bowles, are amongst the 
later physicians who commend the good quali- 
ties of this little seed. The common ash pro- 
pagates itself plentifully by the seed, so that 
abundance of young plants may be found in 
the neighbourhood of ash-trees, provided cattle 
are not suffered to graze on the land. It pro- 
duces its leaves and keys in spring, and the 
seeds ripen in September. The foliage changes 
its colour in October. (Baxter^s Lib. Ag. Kn.,- 
Phillips's SyL Flor.) [Michaux states that 
eight species of ash are mentioned by botanists 
as indigenous to Europe, whilst a much greater 
number exist in the United States. Probably 
more than thirty species can be found east of 
the Mississippi. A striking resemblance runs 
through the whole genus ; but it is the ivhite ash 
of America, the wood of which, by its strength 
and elasticity, is adapted to so many useful 
purposes, that bears the nearest resemblance 
to the common ash of Europe.] 

ASHES (Goth, a/zgo, azgo, dust ; Sax. apca ; 
Dutch and Germ, asche; Su. Goth. aska). 
" Ashes contain a very fertile salt, and are the 
best manure for cold lands, if kept dry, that 
the rains doth not wash away their salt." 
{Mnrt.Husb.; Todd's Johnson.) 

The use of ashes may be traced to a very 
early age. The Romans were well acquainted 
with paring and burning. Cato recommends 
the burning of the twigs and branches of trees, 
and spreading them on the land. Palladius 
says, that soils so treated would require no 
other manure for five years. They also burnt 
their stubbles, a practice common among the 
Jews. The ancient Britons, according to Pliny, 



used to burn their wheat-straw and stubble, 
and spread the ashes over the soil. And Con- 
radus Heresbachius, a German counsellor, in 
his Treatise on Husbandry, published in 1570, 
which was translated by Googe, tells us, p. 20, 
that " in Lombardy, they like so well the use 
of ashes, as they esteem it farre aboue any 
doung, thinking doung not meete to be used for 
the unholsomnesse thereof." 

Ii is the earthy and saline matters of the 
burnt soils, and combustibles employed, 
which constitute the substance of the ashes 
emplo3red in agriculture. Their use as a ma- 
nure is very general in most parts of England, 
although many errors are usually committed 
in their application, and much erroneous rea- 
soning wasted in accounting for their unsuc- 
cessful application in some districts, or their 
general success in others. Those usually em- 
ployed for agricultural and horticultural pur- 
poses in this country are, 1. The ashes of 
coal ; 2. Ashes of wood ; 3. Peat ashes ; 4. The 
ashes from turf, as in paring and burning; 
5. The ashes of burnt clay; 6. The ashes from 
soap-boilers. I will remark upon these, in the 
order in which I have enumerated them. 

1. Coal Ashes. — The only analysis of coal 
that I am acquainted with is that of earth-coal, 
by M. Klaproth : he found it to be composed of— 



Volatile matter 

Charcoal 

Liine 

Sulphate of lime 

Oxide of iron - 

Alumina 

Sand 



62 25? og.^ 

20-25 5—"'' •' 

0200 5 

0205 

01 00 J-=I7-5 

0005 

1105, 

100 



The combustion of the coals dissipates al- 
most all the gaseous matters, and much of the 
charcoal ; and the ashes, therefore, will consist 
almost entirely of the various earths, a small 
portion of charcoal, and the saline matters of 
which the sulphate of lime (gypsum) and lime 
constitute about a fourth. 

The presence of these last-named substances 
gives to the coal-ash almost all its value as a 
fertilizer, for these ashes are always most 
beneficially applied to those crops which con- 
tain sulphate of lime in sensible quantities, 
such as to lucern, sainfoin, red-clover, &c. la 
the garden, they are more often employed for 
the purpose of forming walks, and to prevent 
the ravages of garden-mice, than as a manure ; 
or, when they are employed as an addition to 
the soil, it is generally in considerable quanti- 
ties, on stiff clay soils, with the intention, by 
the mechanical operation of the cinders, of 
rendering the soil more friable and permeable 
by the gases of the atmosphere. As a top 
dressing for lucern, red clover, sainfoin, and 
other grasses, there is no application superior 
to coal ashes. This fact was clearly proved 
in some comparative experiments made by 
Lord Albemarle, with a variety of manures, 
as a top dressing for sainfoin. He found coal 
ashes far superior in value to any other ferti- 
lizer. As a manure for gardens, it is generally 
employed in quantities much too large ; and 
thence an idea has been entertained by many 
gardeners, that coal ashes are inimical to 
plants and trees. Mr. Loudon has given seve- 
ral experiments of this description. In these., 

115 



ASHES. 



ASHES. 



one gardener imbedded his potted chrysan- 
themums, by placing a "large handful" at 
the bottom of each of his pots, and then was 
surprised that other pots, not thus partly filled, 
produced better plants. Another "horticultural 
friend" states the case of a Scotch gardener, 
■who " coated over," for two successive years, 
his garden with coal ashes ; and then our ex- 
perimentalist, who was, doubtless, a persever- 
ing character, finding that, with this over-dose 
of cinders, the " fruit trees did not thrive so 
well as he expected," actually took them up, 
and placed them under a "substratum of ashes, 
in order to lay them," as he said, " dry and 
comfortable." The trees of course grew worse, 
and were taken up. {Gard. Mag. vol. yi. p. 
224.) It is to be lamented that such trials as 
these are ever brought forward; they are 
merely sources of erroneous conclusions, and 
strong proofs of the ignorance of those who 
have thus been wasting their master's time 
and property. 

Mr. Loudon has, in another place {Gard. 
Mug. vol. ii. p. 406), given some experiments 
of a very different character, which I shall 
give in his correspondent's own words : — " I 
sowed, on the 15th of May, 1826, three rows 
of Swedish turnips. No. 1, was manured with 
well-rotted dung from an old melon bed. No. 2, 
with the tops of cabbages just come into bloom. 
No. 3, with coal ashes. They vegetated about 
the same time, but the row manured with the 
cabbage-tops seemed to suffer most from the 
drought ; the season being hot and dry, they 
made little progress until the end of August, 
and in November they were a middling, or 
rather a bad crop. The row manured with 
coal ashes had, all along, a more luxuriant 
appearance than the other two. The rows 
were 20 yards in length, 3 feet apart, €and 15 
inches from plant to plant in the row. I took 
them up in February, and they weighed as fol- 
lows :— No. 1, 78 lbs.; No. 2, 88 lbs.; No. 3, 
121 lbs.; which is very much in favour of the 
coal ashes." It may be remarked, that sulphate 
of lime, which abounds in coal ashes, is found 
in very sensible quantities in turnips. In the 
garden, coal ashes are very useful Avhen spread 
over the surface, to prevent the depredations 
of garden-mice ; they cannot burrow through 
them ; and, in the case of early sown peas, it 
will be found that the peas covered on the sur- 
face of the ground, with coal ashes, say a 
quarter, or half an inch in thickness, will be 
three or four days earlier than those to which 
the ashes have not been applied. This may 
1)3 attributed to the greater heat absorbed from 
the sun by the black coal ashes. 

Wvod Ashes. — The wood of various trees, &c., 
has been analyzed by M. Saussure, Jun.; the 
following was the result (Chem. Rec. Veg.) : — 



1000 parts of the dry wood of a young 

oak, yielded ... - - 2 

1000 ditto of the bark of oak - - - 60 

1000 ditto of perfect oak wood - - - 2 

1000 ditto of poplar wood - ... 8 

1000 ditto of poplar bark . ... 72 

1000 ditto of wood of hazel ... 5 

1000 ditto bark of ditto - - - - 62 

1000 ditto wood of mulberry ... 7 
1000 ditto bark of ditto . . . .89 

1000 ditto wood of hornbeam ... 6 
U6 



1000 ditto bark of ditto - - - - 135 

1000 ditto wood of horse-chestnut - - 35 

1000 ditto straw of wheat - - - 43 

1000 ditto branches of the pine - - - 15 

100 parts of these ashes were found to consist 
of the following substances, in varj'ing propor- 
tions. I have arranged the results in a tabular 
form, by which my readers will readily ascer- 
tain the composition of the ashes procured by 
the combustion of various woods, barks, &c.: — 



100 parts of ashes of 
young oak dry wood, 
contain . . . - 
Bark of dirto, ditto - 
Perfect oak wood, do. 
Poplar wood, ditto - 
Poplar bark, ditto 
Wood of the hazel, do. 
Bark, ditto, djito - - 
Mulberry wood, ditto 
(Cut in November.) 
Bark of ditto, ditto - 
Wood of hornbeam - 
Bark, ditto - - 

Wood of chestnut - - 
Straw of whvat - - 
Branches of the pine - 



260 



28 5 



% Silica. 



45 

4-5 
16-75 
5-8 
24-5 35 



55 

22.i 

8-5 
23' 
4-5 



12-2.5 
63-25 
32- 
27- 
60- 
8- 
54- 
56- 

45- 
26- 
59- 



12 

1)2.^ 

•2- 

3 3 

4- 

025 

025 

012 

15-25 
1-2 
1-5 



6-2 .1- W-5 



I- 

1-75 

2-25 

1-5 

1-5 

0-12 

1-75 

025 

112 

2-25 
0-12 



-5» 
22-75 

■20 e6 

•24-5 

•23-2 

3-2-2 

•26- 

20-38 

•X 13 

■26-63 
30-38 



!• : T9 



The soluble salts of these ashes are chiefly 
carbonate and muriaie of potash. The earthy 
phosphates are the phosphates of lime and 
magnesia (or the principal salt of bones) ; the 
earthy carbonates are ihose of lime (chalk), 
and magnesia; silica is the pure eaith oi flint; 
and the oxides were those of iron and manga- 
nese. 

The cultivator Avill readily see, by the results 
of these valuable investigations, the reason 
why wood ashes are so much superior to those 
from coal as a manure. The ashes from 
wood, he will notice, contain a very consider- 
able proportion of the phosphates of lime and 
magnesia; those from the hazel, containing 35 
per cent., and those from the wood of young oak 
25 per cent., essential vegetable ingredients, of 
which the ashes from coal are entirely desti- 
tute. The phosphate of lime, it will be re- 
membered, is the chief fertilizing constituent 
of bones, in which valuable manure it is inva- 
riably present, in proportion varying from 37^ 
per cent, in the bones of the ox, to 35 per cent, 
in those of the hare. Wood ashes also contain 
a considerable proportion of carbonate uf pot- 
ash, a salt which is more or less present in all 
vegetable substances, and for which, therefore, 
it must be highly serviceable as a food. The 
carbonate of potash, too, promotes the disso- 
lution of dead vegetable substances, and it 
also, from its attraction of moisture from the 
atmosphere, must promote an increased sup- 
ply to the soil. Wood ashes are often very 
judiciously added to common manure, the 
quality of which is much improved by the mix- 
ture. The leaves of trees, when burnt, gene- 
rally produce more ashes, or potashes as they 
are called, (from being formerly produced by 
burning vegetable substances in large open 
pots), than the branches, and the stem of the 
tree the least of all ; herbs produce four or 
five times, and shrubs three or four times as 
much as either. All vegetables produce more 



ASHES. 



ASHES. 



ashes if burnt when green than when they are 
previously dried. Davy {Lectures, p. 113) has 
given a table of the quantity of potashes fur- 
nished by the combustion of various common 
vegetable substances, which I shall here insert, 
as the cultivator will see by it that there is a 
very remarkable difference in the quantity pro- 
duced by equal weights of different trees and 
plants. 

Parts of 
Fotashes. 

10,000 parts of the poplar produced - - 7 

— — beecli — - - 12 

— — oak — - - 15 

— — elm — - - 39 

— — vine — - - 55 

— — thistle — - - 53 

— — fern — - - 62 

— — cow thistle — - - 196 

— — beans — - - 200 

— — vetches — - - 275 

— — wormwood — - - 730* 

— — fumitory — - - 790 

Peat Ashes. — Peat ashes are made in many 
parts of England for the use of the farmer by 
burning peat in large heaps, after it has been 
sufficiently dried by the heat of the sun ; and 
for grass lands and turnips they have been 
found a very valuable manure. They are 
usually applied as a top dressing. The com- 
position of peat ashes more nearly resembles 
that of coal ashes than those from wood or 
vegetables — which is a result hardly to be ex- 
pected, when we consider that the immense 
beds of peat, or turf, as it is sometimes called, 
which are dispersed over Britain, are evidently 
composed of the remains of vegetable sub- 
stances ; trunks of trees, leaves, fruits, stringy 
fibres, the remains of water mosses, &c., and 
this in some places to a depth of 15 yards. 
Peat ashes were analyzed by Davy, with much 
care : he came to the conclusion that they owe 
most of their fertilizing properties to the pre- 
sence of gypsum (or sulphate of lime). In 
the Berkshire and Wiltshire peat ashes, he 
discovered a considerable portion of it. The 
Newbury peat ashes he found to be composed 
of from one-fourth to one-third gypsum, and in 
the peat ashes of Stockbridge and Hampshire, 
a still larger proportion of the same substance. 
The other constituents of peat ashes are cal- 
careous, aluminous, and silicious earths, with 
varying quantities of sulphate of potash, a 
tittle common salt, and occasionally oxide of 
iron, especially in the red varieties of peat 
ashes. 

" These peat ashes," said Davy, " are used 
as a top dressing for cultivated grasses, particu- 
larly sainfoin, clover, and rye-grass. I found 
that they afforded considerable quantities of 
gypsum, and probably this substance is inti- 
mately combined as a necessary part of their 
woody fibre ; if this be allowed, it is easy to 
explain the reason why it operates in such 
small quantities; for the whole of a clover or 
sainfoin crop on an acie, according to my esti- 
mation, would afford, by incineration, only 
three or four bushels of gypsum. In examin- 
ing the soil in a field near Newbury, which was 
taken from below a footpath, near the gate, 
where gypsum could not have been artificially 
furnished, I could not detect any of this sub- 

• Hence potash was formerly called " salt of worm- 
wcod." 



Stance in it, and at the very time I collected 
the soil, the peat ashes were applied to the 
clover in the field. I have mentioned certain 
peats, the ashes of which afford gypsum : but 
it must not be inferred from this, that all peats 
agree with them. I have examined various 
peat ashes from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and 
the northern and western parts of England, 
which contained no quantity that could be 
useful; and these ashes abound in silicious, 
aluminous earths, and in oxide of iron. Lord 
Charleville found in some Irish peat ashes, 
sulphate of potash. Vitriolic matter is usually 
found in peats ; and if the soil or substratum 
is calcareous, the ultimate result is the produc- 
tion of gypsum. In general, when a recent 
potash emits a strong smell resembling that of 
rotten eggs (sulphuretted hydrogen), when 
acted upon by vinegar, it will furnish gypsum." 
(Agrie. C/iem. p. 336.) 

In the valley of the Kennet, in Berkshire, 
where the peat ashes are made in very consi- 
derable quantities, and are used by the farmers 
as a manure for both grass and turnips, they 
are sold at three-pence per bushel, and are ap- 
plied at the rate of 40 or 50 bushels an acre 
broadcast On most grass lands there is no 
dressing equal to them ; and on some soils, 
near to Hungerford, they produce the most 
luxuriant crops of grass, in cases where the 
effects of common farm-yard manure are 
hardly perceptible. As a manure for turnips, 
they answer best in wet seasons. In very dry 
weather, the crops growing on the ashed land 
are described by the farmers as putting on a 
"burned" appearance. 

Peat ashes are extensively employed in 
Flanders as a manure ; they are carefully pre- 
served by the householders, who burn turf or 
peat, and are sold to the farmers by the bushel, 
in the same way that those of Newbury are in 
England. Their use is chiefly confined to clo- 
ver, for which purpose they are an excellent 
top dressing. Mr. Radcliffe, in his Agriculture 
of Flanders, has given an analysis of these 
ashes, from which the farmer will see they owe 
nearly all their fertilizing properties to the 
presence of 12 per cent of gypsum. 100 parts 
are composed of — 

Silicious earth ...--. 32 
Sulphate of lime ---..- 12 
Sulphate and muriate of soda ... 6 
Carbonate of lime ..... 40 

Oxide of iron ...... 3 

Loss --..-...7 

100 



Paring and burning Ashes. — ^This is hardly 
the place to enter into the often argued and 
yet undecided question, as to the advantages 
of paring and burning. It is pretty universally 
agreed, that the practice is highly injurious tn 
sandy soils, beneficial to clay lands, and sti . 
more advantageous to those of a peaty descrip- 
tion ; that is, to soils where there is an excess of 
inert vegetable remains. The cultivator of tht 
soil will see, by the results of the analysis by 
Davy of the ashes produced by the paring and 
burning of three different descriptions of soil, 
the usual products of paring and burning. 200 

117 



ASHES. 



ASHES. 



grains of the ashes from paring and burning a 
chalk soil in Kent, yielded that great chemist 

80 grains of chalk, 



11 



82 
200 



gypsum, 

charcoal, 

oxide of iron, 

saline matter, consisting of sulphate of 
potash, muriate of magnesia, and ve- 
getable alkali, 

alumina (clay), and silica (flint). 



According to the estimate of Mr. Boys, who 
has published a treatise upon paring and burn- 
ing, it appears that on the chalk soils of Kent, 
about 2660 bushels of ashes are usually pro- 
duced by paring and burning an acre of ground, 
and that this quantity of ashes, which he cal- 
culates will weigh 172,900 lbs., will contain 

Chalk 69,160 lbs. 

Gypsum .-.-.. 9,509 

Oxide of iron 12,967 

Saline matter ----- 2,594 
Charcoal 7,781 

The second specimen of ashes was from a 
soil at Colerton, in Leicestershire, composed 
of three-fourths sand, one-fourth clay, and 
about 4 per cent, of chalk. 

100 grains of the ashes yielded 

6 grains charcoal, 

3 — common salt, sulphate of potash, and a 

trace of vegetable alkali, 
9 — oxide of iron, 
82 — sand, clay, and chalk. 

100 

The third variety of ashes was produced by 
paring and burning a stiff clay soil at Mount's 
Bay, in Cornwall. 

100 grains of these were found to contain 

8 grains of charcoal, 

2 — common salt, and other saline matters, 

7 — oxide of iron, 
2 — chalk, 

81 — clay and .sand. 

100 

Such are the ashes from paring and burning. 
The cultivator of the soil will judge whether 
any of these products are required by his land, 
and whether all the good results of paring 
and burning might not be generally obtained 
by other means-, without destroying that large 
portion of the vegetable matters of the turf, 
destroyed during combustion. In those cases, 
however, where it is practicable to transfer the 
ashes produced by paring and burning a chalk 
soil to a clay, or, vice versa, the ashes of a clay 
soil to a chalk, the result must, in general, be 
highly and permanently beneficial to both. 

The Ashes vf burnt Clay. — The composition 
of the ashes of burnt clay, although varying 
according to the earthy proportions of the soil, 
will be found pretty generally to accord with 
tl>° analysis of the ashes from the clay soil, 
^'rom Mount's Bay, given above under the head. 
Paring and Imrning Ashes. Clay burning is 
practised with decided success in many dis- 
tricts of England, and, in every point of view, 
is by far the most eligible mode of producing 
ashes for manure ; for the soil of the field is 
not thereby impoverished of its vegetable re- 
mains, the clav which is burnt being generally 
118 



procured from ditches, banks, hedgerows, &c. 
The account of clay burning, given several 
years since by General Vavasour, of Melbourne 
Hall, in Yorkshire, is so practical and satisfac- 
tory, that I cannot do better than quote his own 
words: — " I would recommend to a beginner, 
that the kiln should be made small, about 
three yards wide, and six yards long in the in- 
side; as he becomes more skilful, they ir ay 
be made larger. The walls of the kiln are to 
be made of sods, two feet thick at the bottom, 
and one foot thick at the top, leaving two flues 
on each side, and one at each end, about one 
foot square ; these walls may be built at first 
four feet high. We then put in the wood, be- 
ginning with the larger pieces at the bottom, 
particularly near the flues, supported by sods 
to keep them open, adding tops of firs, or any 
brushwood, until the kiln is nearly filled. It 
might be burnt with coal or peat, if more con- 
venient. Cover the wood with a layer of clay 
taken from some bank or ditch in the field, and 
which has been digged sometime before to dry ; 
it is not nece.ssary that it should be very dry. 
The fire is then to be lighted at the flue by 
means of straw previously placed there. The 
greatest care is required that the fire shall not 
escape at the top; but fresh clay constantly 
thrown on, wherever it seems likely to burn 
out, at the same time not overloading the kiln, 
so as to put out the fire. As the quantity of 
clay is increased, the walls should be raised, 
keeping them a foot higher than the clay. 
About six feet will be as high as can be conve- 
niently burned. The chief art seems to be, to 
procure a great mass of fire at first, and to let 
the fire rise through the clay as you go, to let it 
smoke in every part at the top, but not to burn 
out. My men, who burnt by contract, watch 
the idlns by night and day. I have applied the 
ashes almost exclusively for wheat, upon a clay 
soil, spreading them on a fallow after the last 
ploughing, and harrowing them in with the 
seed, at the rate of 30 tons per acre, on 80 
acres. The longer the ashes remain upon the 
land, before harrowing, the better, that the 
lumps may fall, and mix with the soil. If the 
walls are well made, one end may be taken 
down, and, after the kiln is emptied, rebuilt for 
a second burning ; if not likely to stand, they 
may be entirely burned in a succeeding kiln. 
If the weather should not be moist, the kilns 
will burn for some weeks, as the clay will con- 
tinue hot long after the wood is consumed." 

Clay ashes have been used to a very con- 
siderable extent by Mr. Hewitt Davis, of Spring 
Park, near Croydon, on several of his farms, 
and with the most decided success. This ex- 
cellent fanner and land-agent has the clay dug 
out in pits, that it may be more readily dried. 
He burns in heaps ; and employs as fuel col- 
lections of hedge-clippings, furze, &c.: and 
these he thinks it best not to use in too dry a 
state, since one great object in clay-burning, 
he is of opinion, is to produce a steady moul- 
dering heat, not too fast. A fire, therefore, 
should not be suffered to flame. The fire in 
the heaps usually works against the wind, 
when those heaps are properly made. He ap- 
plies about 150 bushels of the ashes per acre; 
pays Id. to l^d. per bushel for burning; dress- 



ASHES. 



ASHES. 



fng with them with great advantage all kinds 
of soil, for turnips, &c. 

Mr. Poppy, of Witnesham, in a pamphlet 
published in 1830, after giving various direc- 
tions for burning clay, adds: — "Salt (the only 
inexhaustible universal manure, besides burnt 
earth) does not increase the bulk of straw; 
and although it may be, and is, beneficial to 
corn, it will not be very extensively used, be- 
cause its benefit is not apparent to the eye : 
burnt earth produces an abundance of straw. 
I have seen the corn so luxuriant on the sites 
of the heaps, where due caution was not used 
in laying a floor of earth under the fire, that it 
was rotted on the ground, and destroyed the 
clover plant. I have seen the beans on the 
site of a burnt-earth heap even too luxuriant ; 
and potatoes and mangel wurzel a double pro- 
duce to the rest of the crop. There is no limit 
to burning earth on stiff clay soils, because 
the most sterile subsoil, brought up purposely by 
the plough will, by the action of fire, be con- 
verted into useful manure. If it is converted 
into staple, it increases the depth of titheable 
soil, and acts both physically and mechani- 
cally." The SuflTolk plan of clay-burning is 
similar to that adopted in Yorkshire. " The 
common mode of burning earth is to dig old 
borders, surfaces of banks, &c.; turn it over, 
and, when dry, cart it to a heap, and burn ; 
formerly much wood was used, but haulm, 
straw, dry weeds, and a few bushes, whins, or 
any thing of that kind, may be employed ; then 
build a circular wall of turfs around it, cover 
the heap slightly with turfs and earth, and set 
fire to it in several places ; feeding with the 
most inflammable materials at first, afterwards 
clay or any earth will burn ; when all the earth 
is on the heap, the walls may be pulled down 
and thrown on, raising it by degrees as the fire 
ascends, in the shape of a cone, till all is con- 
sumed." 

The expense of this kind of clay-burning is 
thus estimated by Mr. Poppy : — 

£ s. d. 
Labour, digging, and burning 100 loads, at 9d. 

per load 3 15 

Filling, Is. 6d. per score — 7s. 6(Z. ; carting three 

horses and two carts, 16s. - - - - I 3 6 
Filling and spreading after burning, 3<2. per acre 15 
Carting, and laying out over two acres - - 16 



Total per 100 loads 



£6 9 6 



Or 3/. 4s. 9rf. per acre for 50 loads, or Is. ^d. 
per load. 

Claj'-burning, according to Mr. Poppy, is 
certainly not a modern SuflTolk improvement. 
"I have constantly seen it practised for half 
a century; and the oldest man I ever con- 
versed with on the subject, spoke of it as com- 
aion as long as he could remember. I have a 
workman on the farm who is, I think, upwards 
of eighty years of age, and has always followed 
the vocation of burning earth." 

The Ashes from Soap Boilers. — Soap boilers' 
ashes are a mixture of a peculiar description ; 
they are principally the insoluble portion of 
the barilla, potashes, or kelp, employed in 
soap-making, mixed with cinders, lime, salt, 
and other occasional additions ; and also with 
muriate of potash, common salt, and other 
saline matters. 



The quantity of pearl and potashes import- 
ed into the United Kingdom is very consider- 
able ; in 1837, it amounted to 147,329 cwts. : 
in 1838, to 127,101 cwts.: of barilla and alkali 
in the same year were imported 102,135 cwts. 
and 72,587 cwts. (M'Cutloch's Dictionary of 
Commerce.) 

The insoluble portion of barilla consists 
principally of lime, charcoal, sand, and oxide 
of iron. The insoluble portion of potash, or 
ashes, as they are denominated by the trade, 
will consist of a considerable portion of the 
same ingredients, added to a varying portion 
of phosphate of lime. Much difference of 
opinion has subsisted among farmers with re- 
gard to the advantages of soap-makers' ashes. 
It has been recommended as very useful upon 
strong, cold soils, on peat moss, and on cold, 
wet pastures. The quantity recommended to 
be applied per acre by Arthur Young, was 60 
bushels for turnips ; to be harrowed in with 
the seed. For wet grass lands, six loads per 
acre. For wet arable soils, seven loads per 
acre. He describes the immediate effects as 
very great. For poor loamy land, ten loads 
per acre : the effect very satisfactory. Dr. Co- 
gan, who has written a paper on the use of 
soap ashes, has given this letter of one of his 
correspondents, whom he describes as a plain, 
sensible farmer: — "My experience of soaper's 
ashes is confined to the application of it as a 
top dressing on pasture land. About twelve 
years ago, I agreed with a soap boiler for 1500 
tons of soapers' ashes. I used to apply about 
twenty wagon loads per acre, and a single 
bushing would let the whole in. I M'as laughed 
at, and abused by every body for my folly : 
these wiseacres alleging that my land would be 
burned up for years, and totally ruined ; all 
which I disregarded, and applied my soaper's 
ashes every day in the year, reeking from the 
vat, without any mixture M'hatever. 

" I tried a small quantity (say six acres), 
mixed up with earth ; but I found it was only 
doing things by halves. My land never burned, 
but, from the time of the application, became 
of a dark green colour, bordering upon black, 
and has given me more, but never less than 
two tons per acre, ever since, upon being 
hayned, forty-two days, viz. from May 31 to 
July 11. The ground I so dressed was 
twenty-four acres ; and I have had 120 sheep 
(hogs of the new Leicester breed), upon the 
ground from last August to this day (March 2); 
but I allowed them plenty of hay: and although 
they were culled in August last, as the worst I 
had out of 700 lambs, and selected for this 
ground on purpose to push them, they are now 
as good as the best I have." 

As by far the most considerable portion of 
soap ashes is lime and chalk, wherever lime 
or calcareous matter is a fertilizer to the soil, 
soap-makers' ashes will generally, if not in- 
variably, succeed ; but they must be applied 
in quantities nearly as large as if lime was 
employed. 

Such ate the chief agricultural properties 
of the various ashes hitherto emploved in 
agriculture. The research is, however, by no 
means nearly exhausted, for these fertilizers 
have showed the fate generally attendant upo« 

119 



ASHES. 



ASPARAGUS. 



all agricultural or horticultural investigations : 
they have been lauded as equally beneficial to 
every description of soil, and in all situations ; 
or they have been condemned, with equal 
folly, by the results of blundering trials — be- 
gun in ignorance, continued without care, and 
perhaps nearly forgotten in the hurry of a con- 
clusion. 

They furnish ingredients, such as the car- 
bonate of lime, carbonate of potash, charcoal, 
phosphate of lime, sulphate of lime, &c., 
which, in limited q-uantities, enter into the 
composition of all plants, as an absolute con- 
stituent part ; and for these they must, accord- 
ing to the natural deficiency of the soil in 
these ingredients, be extremely useful. They 
absorb moisture from the atmosphere, too, in 
quantities much superior to what is generally 
believed, and in this property the ashes of 
burnt clay and coal ashes considerably ex- 
ceed both chalk, lime, gypsum, and even 
crushed rock salt, as will be seen by the re- 
sult of the experiments given under the head 
Manures. 

Some very valuable comparative experi- 
ments on the influence of ashes upon the 
growth of potatoes were made by the Rev. Ed- 
mund Cartwright, of Hollenden House, in 
Kent. ( Com. Board of Agric, vol. iv. p. 370.) 
" The soil on which these experiments were 
made was previously analyzed: 400 grains 
gave — 
"Silicioiis sand, of different degrees of 

fineness -..-.. 260 grs. 

Finely divided matter - - - - 104 
Loss in water ..-.-- 16 

400 

"The finely divided matter contained — 

"Carbonate of lime . . - . - 18 grs. 
Oxide of iron . . . - - 7 
Loss by incineration (probably vegetable 

decomposing matter) - - - - 17 

Silex, alumina, &c. ... - 62 

104 

" It will appear," says Mr. Cartwright, " from 
the above analysis, that these experiments 
could not have been tried upon a soil better 
adapted to give impartial results; for of its 
component parts there is no ingredient (the 
oxide of iron possibly excepted) of sufficient 
activity to restrain or augment the peculiar 
energies of the substances employed." The 
beds were laid out and planted on the same 
day, the 14th of April ; they were manured as 
in the following table. These beds were each 
forty yards in length, and one yard wide. 
Every bed was planted with a single row of 
potatoes, "and, that the general experiment 
might be conducted with all possible accuracy, 
each bed received the same number of sets." 
The potatoes were taken up on the 21st of Sep- 
tember wnen the produce of the beds were as 
follows : — 

Potatoes in 
Bushels. 
Land without any manure produced, per 

acre ... - 157 
— with 60 bushels of wood-ashes - - 187 

60 bushels of wood-ashes, salt 8 

bushels ... 217 

peat 363 bushels - - - 159 

— peat ashes 368 bushels, salt S 

bushels ■ . - 185 

peat 363 bushels, salt, 8 bushels - 171 

120 



Another series of experiments was made by 
Dr. Cartwright, upon a cold, wet, tenacious 
clay, with burnt clay, wood-ashes, and soot ; in 
all of which t'ne clay ashes had a decided supe- 
riority of eflfect. The following table shows 
the quantity of manure applied per acre, and 
the produce of the land thus fertilized. (Trans. 
Soc. Arts, vol. xxxvi.) 



Per Acre. 


Produce per Acre. 


Swedes. Potatoes | Barley 


Burnt clav. 400 bushels - 
Wood ashes, 100 bushels 

Soot 50 

Soil simple - - . 


tons. cwts. 
25 2 
23 12 
16 12i 
10 4 


bush. 

480 
456 
432 
340 


qrs. lbs. 

4 4 
4 2 
4 2 
3 



The operation of burning clay produces but 
a slight chemical alteration in the composition 
of the clay ; its tenacity is merely destroyed, 
and a portion of soot and of carbonized animal 
and vegetable remains are diffused through 
the ashes ; added to which, the ashes of the 
wood employed for the burning, which usually 
contain a quantity of phosphate of lime and 
potash, are mixed up with the mass. {Johnson 
on Fertilizers, 296 ; Brit. Farm. Mag., vol. i. 
p. 58.) 

ASPARAGUS (from the Greek A^7ripu.yr,;, a 
young shoot before it expands). There are 
only two varieties, the red-topped and the 
green-topped; the first is principally culti- 
vated. There are a few sub-varieties which 
derive their names from the places of their 
growth, and are only to be distinguished for 
superior size or flavour, which they usually 
lose on removal from their native place. The 
soil best suited to this vegetable is a black, 
fresh, sandy loam, made rich by the abundant 
addition of manure ; it should be neither tena- 
cious from the too great preponderance of 
clay, nor too dry from a superabundance of 
silica, but should be retentive of moisture 
chiefly by reason of its richness. To raise 
fine roots for hot-beds, they may be raised in a 
much moister soil (Miller^s Dictionary); but 
for natural productions this will not answer, as 
such plants are much shorter lived. The site 
of the beds should be such as to enjoy the in- 
fluence of the sun during the whole of the day, 
as free as possible from the influence of trees 
and shrubs, and, if choice is allowed, ranging 
north and south. The subsoil should be dry, 
or the bed kept so, by being founded on rubbish 
or other material to serve as a drain. The 
space of ground required to be planted with 
this vegetable for the supply of a small family 
is at least eight rods, if less, it will be incapa- 
ble of affording one hundred heads at a time 
(Marshall says six rods will afford this quan- 
tity), so that part must be kept two or three 
days after it is cut, especially in ungenial sea- 
sons, to allow time for the growth of more to 
make a sufficient number for a dish. Sixteen 
rods will, in general, afford two or three hun- 
dred every day in the height of the season. 
To raise plants the seed may be sown from the 
middle of February to the beginning of April ; 
the most usual time is about the middle of 
March. The best mode is to insert them by 
the dibble, five or six inches apart and an inch 
below the surface, two seeds to be put in each 



ASPARAGUS. 



ASPARAGUS. 



hole ; or they may be sown in drills made the 
same distance asunder, or broadcast. If dry 
weather,, the bed should be refreshed with mo- 
derate, but frequent waterings, and if sown as 
late as April, shade is required by means of a 
little haulm during the meridian of hot days, 
until the seeds germinate. Care must be taken 
to keep them free from weeds, though this 
operation should never commence until the 
plants are well above ground, which will be in 
the course of three or four weeks from the 
time of sowing. If two plants have arisen from 
the same hole, the weakest must be removed 
as soon as that point can be well determined. 
Towards the end of October, as soon as the 
stems are completely withered, they must be 
cut down, and well-putrefied dung spread over 
the bed to the depth of about two inches : this 
serves not only to increase the vigour of the 
plants in the following year, but to preserve 
them during the winter from injury by the 
frost. About March in the next year, every 
other plant must be taken up, and transplanted 
into a bed, twelve inches apart, if it is intended 
that they should attain another, or two years' 
further growth, before being finally planted 
out ; or they may be planted immediately into 
the beds for production. It may be here re- 
marked, that the plants may remain one or two 
years in the seed-bed ; they will even succeed 
after remaining three, but if they continue four 
they generally fail : it is, however, nearly cer- 
tam that they are best removed when one year 
old, for the earlier a plant can possibly be re- 
moved, the more easily does it accommodate 
itself to the change, and less injury is it apt to 
receive in the removal. Some gardeners sow 
the seed in the beds where they are to remain 
for production. This mode, too, has the sanc- 
tion of Miller. The time for the final removal 
is from the middle of February until the end 
of March, if the soil is dry and the season 
warm and forward ; otherwise it is better to 
wait until the commencement of April. The 
plan which some persons have recommended, 
to plant in autumn, is so erroneous, that, as 
Miller emphatically says, the plants had better 
be thrown away. Mr. D. Judd has mentioned 
(Trans. Hort. Sac. Lond., vol. ii. p. 236) a very 
determinate signal of the appropriate time for 
planting, which is, when the plants are begin- 
ning to grow : if moved earlier, and they have 
to lie torpid for two or three months, many of 
them die, or in general shoot up very weak. 

Immediately that the buds begin to swell 
they should be removed, and this may easily 
be ascertained by occasionally opening the 
ground down to the stool. A successful expe- 
riment, tried by Mr. J. Smith, gardener to the 
Earl of Kintore, would evince that one year 
old asparagus plants may be removed even as 
late as June. The stems of his plants, at the 
time of removal in that month, were twelve or 
fifteen inches high : they were removed and 
treated with the greatest care, the earth being 
gently pressed round the root, and water given 
plentifully ; but although the experiment per- 
fectly succeeded, for none of them died, and 
although they surpassed in growth those left in 
the seed-bed— so much so, that they might have 
been cut from — yet still, for many reasons, we 
16 



are justified in considering that this must hr ; 
been tried under accidental or very favourai-.j 
circumstances of soil and season, and it re- 
quires repeated experiments from different 
counties before the practice is confirmed. 
(Caled. Hort. Mem., vol. i. p. 71.) In forming 
the beds for regular production, it is customary 
to have them four or five feet wide. In the 
first instance, they have three rows of plants, 
in the latter four. The site of the bed being 
marked out, the usual practice is to trench the 
ground two spades deep, and then to cover it 
with well-rotted manure from six to ten inches 
deep; the large stones being sorted out and 
care taken that the dung lies at least six inches 
below the surface. To mix the manure with 
the soil effectually, Mr. D. Judd, before men- 
tioned, trenches his ground two feet deep, three 
times successively during the autumn or win- 
ter, at intervals of a fortnight, and then lays it 
in ridges until wanted, performing the work in 
the absence of rain or snow: he justly ob- 
serves, that the preparation of the soil is of 
more consequence to be attended to than all 
the after management. (Trans. Hort. Sue 
Lond., vol. ii. p. 234.) 

In France, however, where the beds are cele- 
brated for the number of years they continue 
in production, a pit is dug five feet in depth, 
and the mould that is raised from it sifted, 
care being taken to reject all stones, even as 
small as a filbert ; the best part of the mould is 
laid aside for making up the bed. The bed is 
then formed as follows, beginning at the bot- 
tom ; six inches deep of common manure — 
eight of turf, very free from stones — six of 
manure — six of sifted earth — eight of turf — 
six of very rotten dung — eight of best earth ; 
finally, this last layer of mould is well incor- 
porated with the adjoining one of dung. The 
bed is then ready for the reception of the 
plants. (Dr. M'Culloch, in t/ie Caled. Hort. 
Mem.) The plants being taken from the seed- 
bed carefully with a narrow, prolonged dung- 
fork, with as little injury to the roots as possi- 
ble, they must be laid separate and even to 
gether, for the sake of convenience whilst 
planting, the roots being apt to entangle, and 
cause much trouble and injury in parting 
them. They should be exposed as short a time 
as possible to the air ; and to this end it is ad- 
visable to keep them until planted in a basket, 
with a little sand, and covered with a piece of 
mat. The mode of planting is to form drills 
or narrow trenches, five or six inches deep 
and a foot apart, cut out with the spade, the 
line side of each drill being made perpendicu- 
lar, and against this the plants are to be 
placed, with their crowns one and a half or 
two inches below the surface, and twelve 
inches asunder: in France eighteen are al- 
lowed. The roots must be spread out wide in 
the form of a fan, a little earth being drawn 
over each to retain it in its position whilst the 
row is proceeded with. If the plants have bf 
gun to shoot, it is the practice in France to 
remove the sprouts, and with this precaution 
the planting is successfully performed as late 
as July, and if any of those die which were 
first planted, they are replaced at that season. 
This is a practice to be avoided as much as 
L 12 



ASPARAGUS. 



ASPARAGUS. 



possible, for it obviously must weaken the | 
plants, and be particularly detrimental to such ] 
young plants. For the sake of convenience, | 
one drill should be made at a lime, and the 1 
plants inserted and covered completely before 
another is commenced; the two outside drills 
must be each six inches from the side of the 
bed. When the planting is completed the bed 
is to be lightly raked over, and its outline dis- 
tinctly marked out. Care must be had never 
to tread on the beds — they are formed narrow 
to render that unnecessary — for every thing 
tending to consolidate them is injurious, as, 
from the length of time they have to continue 
without a possibility of stirring them to any 
considerable depth, they have a natural tend- 
ency to have a closer texture than is beneficial 
to vegetation. Water must be given occasion- 
ally in dry weather until the plants are estab- 
lished. The paths between the beds are to be 
two and a half feet wide. Throughout the 
year care must be taken to keep the beds clear 
of weeds. In the latter end of October or com- 
mencement of November the beds are to have 
their winter dressing: the stalks must be cut 
down and cleared away, and the weeds hoed 
off into the paths, care being taken not to com- 
mence whilst the stems are at all green, for if 
they are cut down whilst in a vegetating state, 
the roots are very prone to shoot again, and 
consequently are proportionably weakened. 
This habit might perhaps be taken advantage 
of in assisting our forcing this esculent ; cut- 
ting down the summer-produced stems of such 
stools as are intended for the hotbed, a consi- 
derable time before they lose their verdant co- 
lour, Avould give them a natural tendency to 
shoot again, and consequently assist the effect 
of the artificial heat employed. It is generally 
recommended not to add any manure until the 
bed has been two or three years in production, 
and then only to apply it every other year ; but 
I consider it much more rational to manure 
regularly every year from the time of forming 
the bed, though in less quantity than if done 
every other year. I put on about two inches 
of well decayed hotbed. By this means a con- 
tinued and regular supply of decomposing 
matter is kept up, which is not so perfectly 
effected by the usual mode ; and from the ex- 
periments purposely instituted by Miller, we 
learn, that on the richness of the ground and 
warmth of the season the sweetness of aspara- 
gus depends ; in proportion to the poverty of 
the soil "it acquires a strong flavour. The 
dung needs merely to be laid regularly over 
the bed, and the weeds, as well as some ma- 
nure, to be sl'ghtly pointed into the paths, 
some of the mould from which must be spread 
to the depth of two inches over the dung just 
laid upon the beds. In France the asparagus 
beds: at this season are covered with six inches 
depth of manure and four of sea sand if pro- 
curable, otherwise, of river sand or fine earth. 
No forking is required ; but the boundaries of 
the bed must be marked out distinctly, as they 
should be kept, indeed, at all times. In the 
end of March or early in April, before the 
plants begin to sprout, the rows are to be 
stirred between to a moderate depth with the 
asparagus fork, running it slantingly two or 
122 



three inches beneath the surface, as the object 
is merely to stir the surface and slightly mix 
it with the dung. Great care must be taken 
not in the least to disturb the plants. Some 
gardeners recommend that the beds should 
only be hoed again, so fearful are they of the 
injury which may be done to the stools ; but 
if it be done carefully as above directed, the 
fork is the best implement to be employed, as 
by more effectually loosening the soil, it is by 
far the most beneficial in its effects upon the 
plants. This course of cultivation is to be 
continued annually, but with this judicious 
modification, that earth be never taken from 
the paths after the first year, but these merely 
be covered with dung, and which is only to be 
slightly dug in; for every gardener must have 
observed that the roots of the outer row extend 
into the alleys, and are consequently destroyed 
if they are dug over; and rather than that 
should take place, the beds should have no 
winter covering, unless mould can be obtained 
from some other source, as asparagus does not 
generally suffer from frost, as is commonly 
supposed. In May the beds are in full pro- 
duction of young shoots, which, when from 
two to five inches high, are fit for cutting, and 
as long as the head continues compact and 
firm. Care must be taken, in cutting, not to 
injure those buds which are generally rising 
from the same root, in various grades of suc- 
cessional growth within the ground. The 
knife ought to be narrow-pointed, the blade 
about nine inches in length, and saw-edged: 
the earth being carefully opened round the 
shoot, to observe whether any others are 
arising, the blade is to be gently slipped along 
the stalk until it reaches its extremity, where 
the cut is to be made in a slanting direction. 
It almost always occurs that the same stool 
produces a greater number of small heads 
than large ones, but the latter only should be 
cut ; for the oftener the former are removed, 
the more numerously will they be reproduced, 
and the stools will sooner become exhausted- . 
Great attention must be paid to the seed. For 
the obtaining it, some shoots should be marked 
and left in early spring, for those which are 
allowed to run up after the season of cutting 
is over, are seldom forward enough to ripen 
their seeds perfectly. In choosing the shoots 
for this purpose, those only must be marked 
which are the finest, roundest, and have the 
closest heads ; those having quick opening 
heads, or are small or flat, are never to be left. 
More are to be selected than would be neces- 
sary if each stem would assuredly be fruitful ; 
but as some of them only bear male or unpro- 
ductive blossoms, that contingency must be 
allowed for. Each chosen shoot must be fas- 
tened to a stake, which, by keeping it in its 
natural position, enables the seed to ripen 
more perfectly. The seed is usually ripe in 
September, when it must be collected, and 
left in a tub for four or six weeks, for the pulp 
and husk of the berry to decay, when it may 
be well cleansed in water. The seeds sink to 
the bottom, and the refuse floats and will pass 
away with the water as it is gently poured off- 
By two or three washings the seeds will be • 
completely cleansed ; and when perfectly dried • 



ASPARAGUS. 



ASPARAGU 



by exposure to the sun and air, may be stored 
for use. Some gardeners keep them in the 
pulp until the time of sowing, unless required 
f£) be sent to a distance. 

To force Asparagus. — Such plants must be 
inserted in hotbeds as are five or six years' 
old. and appear of sufficient strength to pro- 
duce vigorous shoots : when, however, any old 
natural ground plantations are intended to be 
broken up at the proper season, some of the 
best plants may be selected to be plunged into 
a hotbed or any spare corner of the stove 
bark-beds. When more than ten years old, 
they are scarcely worth employing. To plant 
old stools for the main forcing crop, is, how- 
ever, decidedly erroneous ; for, as Mr. Sabine 
remarks, if plants are past production, and 
unfit to remain in the garden, little can be ex- 
pected from them when forced. The first 
plantation for forcing should be made about 
the latter end of September: the bed, if it 
works favourably, will begin to produce in the 
course of four or five weeks, and will continue 
to do so for about three ; each light producing 
in that time 300 or 400 shoots, and affording a 
gathering every two or three days. To have 
a regular succession, therefore, a fresh bed 
must be formed every three or four weeks, the 
last crop to be planted in March or the early 
part of April : this will continue in production 
until the arrival of the natural ground crops. 
The last-made beds will be in production a 
fortnight sooner than those made about Christ- 
mas. 

The bed must be substantial, and propor- 
tioned to the size and number of the lights, 
and to the time of year — being constructed of 
stable dung, or other material. The common 
mode of making a hotbed is usually followed ; 
but, as Mr. Sabine remarks, the general ap- 
pearance of forced asparagus in December 
and the two following months, gives a sufli- 
cient indication of defective management. The 
usual mode he considers erroneous, inasmuch 
as that the roots of the plants come in contact 
with, or are over, a mass of fermenting matter; 
and the mode of raising potatoes practised by 
Mr. Hogg, which will be hereafter stated, first 
suggested the plan for obviating this defect, and 
it has been confirmed as correct by the suc- 
cessful practice of Mr. Ross, gardener to E. 
EUice, Esq., of Brentford, who, by planting his 
asparagus in the tan of his exhausted pine 
pits, which consist of eighteen inches of 
leaves, and over that the same depth of tan, 
and applying hot dung, successively renewed, 
round the sides, and thus keeping up a good 
heat, produced in five weeks asparagus so 
fine, and by admitting as much air as possible 
during the day, of such good colour and so 
\[ strong, as nearly to equal the natural ground 
1 1 crops. It is the best practice to plant the as- 
I' paragus in mould laid upon the tan, which, or 
! some other porous matter, is indispensable for 
the easy admission of the heat from the linings. 
' The bed must be topped with six or eight 
i inches of light rich earth. If a small family 
I is to be supplied, three or four lights will be 
suflicient at a time ; for a larger, six or eight 
< will not be too many. Several hundred plants 
'i may be inserted under each, as they may be 



crowded as close as possible 'ogether; from 
500 to 900 are capable of being -nserted under 
a three-light frame, according to their size. 
In planting, a furrow being drawn the whole 
length of the frame, against one side of it the 
first row or course is to be placed, the crowns 
upright, and a little earth drawn on to the 
lower ends of the roots ; then more plants 
again in the same manner, and so continued 
throughout, it being carefully observed to keep 
them all regularly about an inch below the 
surface ; all round on the edge of the bed some 
moist earth must be banked close to the out- 
side roots. 

If the bed is extensive, it will probably ac- 
quire a violent heat ; the frames must there- 
fore be continued off until it has become regu- 
lar, otherwise the roots are liable to be de- 
stroyed by being, as it is technically termed, 
scorched or steam-scalded. When the heat has 
become regular the frames may be set on, and 
more earth be applied by degrees over the 
crowns of the plants, until it acquires a total 
depth of five or six inches. The glasses must 
be kept open an inch or two, as long and as 
often as possible, without too great a reduction 
of temperature occurring, so as to admit air 
freely and give vent to the vapours, for on this 
depends the superiority in flavour and appear- 
ance of the shoots. The heat must be kept up 
by linings of hot dung, and by covering the 
glasses every night with mats, &c. The tem- 
perature at night should never be below 50°, 
and in the day its maximum at 62°. In gather- 
ing, for which the shoots are fit when from two 
to five inches in height, the finger and thumb 
must be thrust down into the earth, and the 
stem broken off" at the bottom. This excellent 
vegetable possesses some diuretic properties. 
Its juice contains a peculiar crystallizable 
substance, which was discovered by Vauquelin 
and Robiquet, and named by them Asparagine. 
It is hard, brittle, colourless, and in the form 
of rhomboidal prisms : its taste is nauseous. 
The decoction of the plant is sometimes used 
on the Continent as a diuretic ; but it is rarely 
or never prescribed in England. M. Dubois, 
of Paris, has submitted asparagus berries to 
fermentation, and procured a spirit from them 
by distillation, with which he makes an excel- 
lent liqueur. {Diet, des Drogues ,- G. W. John- 
son's Kitchen Garden, 81 ; Miller s Dictionary ; 
Trans. Hort. Soc. Land. vol. ii. pp. 234, 263, 
361 ; Dr. Maccnlloch, Caled. Horl. Mem. vol. i.) 

ASPEN TREE {Populas Tremula). This i? 
a branch of the poplar family, which derives 
its Latin name from the incessant trembling 
of its leaves. The English name is from the 
German espe, which is the general name for 
all poplars. The heart-shaped leaves adhere 
to the twigs by a long and slender stalk, the 
plane of which is at right angles to that of the 
leaf, and consequently allows them a much 
freer motion than other leaves that have their 
planes parallel with their stalks. This, with 
their cottony lining below, and their hairy 
surface above, causes that perpetual motion 
and quivering, even when we cannot perceive 
by other means the least breath of air stirring 
in the atmosphere. This trepidation is attended 
of course with a rustling noise, on which ao 

123 



ASPEN, AMERICAN. 

count country people often call it rattler. The 
aspen tree may be planted so as to ornament 
large grounds, but its effect is lost when 
crowded. When it meets the eye as a fore- 
ground to plantations of firs, it has both a 
pleasing and singular appearance, as its foliage 
changes with the wind from a silver gray to 
a bright green, for when the sight goes with 
ihe wind, it catches only the under side of the 
leaves which are covered with a pale floss ; 
but when it meets the current of air, the tree 
presents the upper surface of its foliage to the 
view ; thus its tints are as changeable as its 
nature is tremulous. Like its relative, the 
poplar, this tree is of speedy growth, and will 
thrive in any situation or soil, but worst in clay. 
It is cultivated to the greatest advantage on 
such as are inclined to be moist, without hav- 
ing much stagnant surface water. In such 
situations they sometimes grow to a conside- 
rable size. It is accused of impoverishing the 
land, and its leaves are charged with destroy- 
ing the grass, whilst its numerous roots, which 
spread near the surface, will not, it is said, 
permit any thing else to grow. The wood is 
extremely light, white, soft, and smooth, but it 
is of little value as timber, being chiefly used 
for making milk-pails, wooden shoes, clogs, 
and pattens, «fec. From its lightness it might, 
however, probably be used to advantage for 
the construction of common field-gates. The 
bark is the favourite food of beavers, whilst 
the leaves and the stalks form the nourishment 
and birthplace of the tipula juniperina, a spe- 
cies of long-legged fly. The aspen tree will 
not bear lopping, like other species of the pop- 
lar. {Phillip's Sylva Florifera.) 

[ASPEN, AMERICAN {Populus Tremu- 
loide.s). This species of poplar is common in 
the northern and middle sections of the United 
States, and Michaux thinks, still more common 
in Lower Canada. The same author remarks, 
that in the vicinity of New York and Phila- 
' Iphia, where he observed it, it appeared to 

•fer open lands of a middling quality. Its 
V dinary height is about 30 feet, and its diame- 
ter 5 or 6 inches. It blooms about the 20th of 
April, 10 days or a fortnight before the birth 
of the leaves. Of all the American poplars, 
this species has the most tremulous leaves, 
the gentlest air being sufficient to throw them 
into great agitation. 

The wood of the American aspen is light, 
soft, and without either strength or durability. 
The most useful purpose which the wood sub- 
serves, is perhaps the furnishing of thin 
laminae, for the manufacture of women's hats, 
light baskets, <fec. The tree is considered very 
inferior to several species of the same genus, 
the Virginia poplar, for example, which is 
three times as large, more rapid in its growth, 
and of a more pleasing appearance. 

The large American aspen (Populus grandi- 
dentala), belongs rather to the Northern and 
Middle, than to the Southern States. In the 
most northerly districts it is rather a rare tree, so 
that a person may perhaps travel several days 
without seeing one. For this reason, Michaux 
thinks it has been confounded with the preced- 
ing species, which is more multiplied. It sur- 
passes the trembling aspen in height, on which 
124 



ASS. 



P 



account it has received from Michaux r 
name. It grows as favourably on uplands as 
on the border of swamps, and attains a height 
of about 40 feet, with 10 or 12 inches in di- 
ameter. In the spring, the leaves are covered 
with a thick white down. The wood is light, 
soft, and unequal to that of the Virginia and 
Lombardy poplars. It possesses few, if any 
valuable qualities for the arts, and is only 
valuable for its agreeable foliage, which enti- 
tles it to a place in yards and ornamental gar- 
dens. {Michaux^s Am, St/lva.)] 

ASS (Fr. Ane ; Ger. Esel; It. Asino ,■ Lat- 
Asinus). A well-known and useful domestic 
animal, whose services might be rendered even 
still more useful for various purposes of hus- 
bandry, if it were properly trained and taken 
care of. Buffbn has well observed, that the 
ass is despised and neglected, only because we 
possess a more noble and powerful animal in 
the horse ; and that if the horse were unknown, 
the care and attention which are lavished upon 
him being transferred to his now neglected 
and despised rival, would have increased the 
size, and developed the mental qualities of the 
ass, to an extent which it would be difficult to 
anticipate, but which Eastern travellers, who 
have observed both animals in their native 
climates, and among nations by whom they are 
equally valued, and the good qualities of each 
justly appreciated, assure us to be the fact. 

Indeed the character and habits of these two 
quadrupeds are directly opposed in almost 
every respect. The horse is proud, fiery, and 
impetuous, nice in his tastes, and delicate in 
constitution; like a pampered menial, he is 
subject to many diseases, and acquires artifi- 
cial wants and habits which are unknown in 
a state of nature. 

The ass, on the contrary, is humble, patient, 
and quiet, and bears correction with firmness. 
He is extremely hardy, both with regard to the 
quantity and quality of his food, contenting 
himself with the most harsh and disagreeable 
herbs, which other animals will scarcely touch. 
In the choice of water he is, however, very 
nice ; drinking only of that which is perfectly 
clear, and at brooks with which he is ac- 
quainted. 

This animal is very serviceable to poor cot- 
tagers, and those who are not able to buy or 
keep horses ; especially where they live near 
heaths or commons, the barrenest of which 
will keep the ass, who is contented with any 
kind of coarse herbage, such as dry leaves, 
stalks, thistles, briers, chaff, and any sort of 
straw. Animals of this sort require very little 
looking after, and sustain labour, hunger, and 
thirst, beyond most others. They are seldom 
or never sick; and endure longer than most 
other kinds of animals. They may be made 
useful in husbandry to plough light lan'^i, to 
carry burdens, to draw in mills, to fetch water, 
cut chaff, or any other similar purposes. They 
are also very serviceable in many cases for 
their milk, which is excellent for those who 
have suffered from acute diseases, and are 
much weakened ; and they might be of much 
more advantage to the farmer, were they used, 
as they are in foreign countries, for the pur 
pose of breeding mules. 



ASS. 



ATMOSPHERE 



The subjugation of the ass appears, from the 
records of the Bible, to have preceded that of 
the horse ; and we infer from the same autho- 
rity, that this subjugation took place prior to 
that of the dog. 

The structural difference between the horse 
and the ass are trilling ; perhaps that on which 
the very different tones emitted by the voice 
depends is one of the most striking. In all 
other essential points the organization of the 
horse and ass is the same ; and, with the ex- 
ception of the lengthened ears of the ass, their 
form, size, and proportions in a wild state, they 
differ but little ; consequently, they possess 
conditions more favourable to the multiplica- 
tion of species than those afforded by any 
other nearly allied animals. The ass is, pro- 
perly speaking, a mountain animal ; his hoofs 
are long, and furnished with extremely sharp 
rims, leaving a hollow in the centre, by which 
means he is enabled to tread with more secu- 
rity on the slippery and precipitous sides of 
hills and precipices. The hoof of the horse, 
on the contrary, is round and nearly flat under- 
neath, and we accordingly find that he is most 
serviceable in level countries ; and indeed ex- 
perience has taught us that he is altogether 
unfitted for crossing rocky and steep moun- 
tains. As, however, the more diminutive size 
of the ass rendered him comparatively less 
important as a beast of burden, the ingenuity 
of mankind early devised a means of reihedy- 
ing this defect, by crossing the horse and ass, 
and thus procuring an intermediate animal, 
uniting the size and strength of the one with 
the patience, intelligence, and sure-fooiedness 
of the other. 

The varieties of the ass in countries favour- 
ab.c to their developement are great. In Guinea 
the asses are large, and in shape even excel 
the native horses. The asses of Arabia (says 
Chardin) are perhaps the handsomest animals 
in the world. Their coat is smooth and clean ; 
they carry the head elevated, and have fine and 
well formed legs, which they throw out grace- 
fully in walking or galloping. In Persia, also, 
they are finely formed, some being even stately, 
and much used in draught and carrying bur- 
dens, while others are more lightly propor- 



tioned, and used for the saddle by person.*! of 
quality, frequently fetching the large sum of 
400 livres ; and being taught a kind of easy 
ambling pace are richly caparisoned, and used 
only by the rich and luxurious nobles. With 
us, on the contrary, the ass unfortunately ex- 
hibits a stunted growth, and appears rather to 
vegetate as a sickly exotic, than to riot in the 
luxuriant enjoyment of life like the horse. 

The diseases of the ass, as far as they are 
known, bear a general resemblance lo those 
of the horse. As he is more exposed, however, 
and left to live in a state more approaching to 
that which nature intended, he has few dis- 
eases. Those few, however, are less attended 
to than they ought to be ; and it is for the ve- 
terninary practitioner to extend to this useful 
and patient animal the benefit of his art, iu 
common with those of other animals. The ass 
is seldom or never troubled with vermin, pro- 
bably from the hardness of its skin. {Blaine's 
Encyc. Rural Sports.) 

ASTRINGENT {Aslrlniro, Lat.). In farriery, 
a term applied to such remedies as have the 
property of constringing or binding the parts. 

ATMOSPHERE. The name given to the 
elastic invisible fluid, which, to a considerable 
height, surrounds our globe. It is composed 
chiefly of two simple or undecomposed gases, 
viz. : — 



Azote, or nitrogen 
Oxygen 



7916 
20-84 



It contains, also, about Tu^iiyth of its weight 
of carbonic acid gas, or fixed air, a considera- 
ble portion of aqueous vapour (which is always 
the most considerable in amount in dry wea- 
ther), and occasionally foreign substances, 
called Aerolites. The average propoinion in 
which these exist in the atmosphere, are — 



Air 

Watery vapour 

Carbonic acid gas 



100- 



{Thomson's Chem. vol. iii. 181.) It fulfils a 
very essential office with regard to the growth 
of plants. (See Gases, tbeih Use to Vege- 



M0NTH1.T Atmospherical Obsekvations. 





Jan. 


Feb. 


March. 


April. 


M.y. 


June. 


July. 


Aug. 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


Dec. 


Barovieter, average mean 7 


29-921 


30067 


29843 


29881 


29-SS8 


30036 


29-874 29-891 


29-931 


1 
29-774 29-776 


29-693 


height in inches 


J 


30-770 


30-820 


30770 


30 540 


30 280 


30-460 


30-SOO .SO^OO 


30-410 


30 610 


30-270 


30-320 


Lowest 


. 


28-890 


29170 


28-870 


29-200 


29160 


29 600 


29-390 29-350 


29-410 


28-740 


29 080 


29120 


Thermometer, avera 
mean temperature 


gel 


31 1 


3&- 


43-9 


49-9 


54- 


58-7 


61- 


616 


57-8 


489 


42-9 


39'3 


degrees 

Highest - 
Lowest 


3 


52- 


53- 


6fi- 


74- 


70- 


90- 


76- 


82- 


76- 


68- 


62- 


55- 


. 


11- 


21- 


24- 


29- 


33- 


37- 


42- 


41- 


36- 


27- 






Rain, mean quantity 
inches 


>.j 


1-483 


0-746 


1-440 


1-786 


1-853 


1-830 


2-516 


1-453 


2193 


2 073 


2-400 


2-426 


Evaporation of earth 
inches (mean) 


•n 


0-413 


0-72 


1-488 


2-290 


0-266 


3-760 


3-293 


3-327 


2 620 


1-488 


0-770 


0-516 


H'inds in days: 




























North - - - 


. 


3i 


li 


2^ 


2^ 


3 


5 


n 


1 










North-east - 




4^ 


4f 


4 


H 


4 


H 


3 


2* 


4 


i^ 


3 


2i 


East - - . 


. 


U 


2i 




3 


4i 


2 


2 


H 








3i 


South-east - 


. 


2i 


2J 


2 


3^ 


4 


4 


4 


3 


4 


H 


2 


4 


South ... 


. 


If 


2J 


"ij 


2J 


1 


1 "i 


2y 


. 


2J 


3 




South-west - 


. 


6i 


5 


Qi 


4 


6i 


3i 7 


6 


6 


51 


6 


?* 


West - 


_ 


6i 


H 


6i H 


5i 


3 5 


.'/ 


6 


5 


5 


6 


North-west - 


- 


4i 


3i 


4i 5i 


3 15 1 Si- 


2 


6 


H 


5 1 1 



£ 2 



British Almanac. 
125 



ATMOSPHERE. 

tation) The composition of the atmosphere 
is always the same, although it has been ana- 
lyzed when obtained from the most elevated 
mountains, the lowest marshes, from crowded 
cities, and the surface of the ocean, in all 
winds, and in all states of the barometer. 

The following table exhibits the atmosphe- 
ric mean temperatures in various parts of the 
United States and Territories, not only for the 
whole year, but for each month. It is abridged 
from Dr. Forry's Treatise upon the Climato- 
logy of the United States. The mean tempe- 
ratures of some other celebrated places in the 
old world, are subjoined for the purpose of 
comparison. 

The mean temperatures of the various mili- 
tary posts, are the results of 90 observations 
for each month, and 1095 for each year. The 
rule followed for computing the mean, was that 
adopted by the regents of the University of 
New York, viz. :— Take the lowest morning 
temperature, the highest afternoon tempera- 
ture, and the temperature an hour after sunset. 
The mean of these observations for the day is 



ATMOSPHERE. 

found, by adding together the first, twice the 
second and third, and the first of the next day, 
and dividing the same by six. To most common 
observers this will appear rather an intricate 
mode of attaining an object which is so con- 
veniently, and, in general, so satisfactorily ac- 
complished by the very simple process of 
dividing the sum of the highest and lowest ob- 
servations during the day. Strictly i^peakingL 
the mean temperature of a day is equal to thi 
sum of the temperature observed by the ther- 
mometer every hour or every minute, divided 
by the number of hours or minutes in the day. 
The hourly changes of atmospheric tempera- 
ture have actually been observed for a con- 
tinued year in some instances, among which 
we may mention that at the Arsenal at Frank- 
ford, near Philadelphia, in the year 1835—6, 
conducted under the superintendence of CapU 
Mordecai, of the United States army. The 
results of these hourly observations are pub- 
lished in the 19th volume of the Journal of the 
Franklin Institute. New Series. 



OBSERVATION. 



Fort Vancouver, Oregon Territory, - • - ■ 
fort Brady, Gullet of Lake Superior, - • - 
Hancock Barracki, Houlton, Maine, . . • . 
Fori Snelling, at the confluence of the SI . 

Peter's and MiMisaiopi, ! 

Fort Sullivan, Easlpon, Maine, 

Fort Howard, Green Wj, Wiiconsin, • • • 

Fort Preble, Portland, Maine, 

Flirt Niagara, Youiigsloivn, N. Y. 

Fort Conslilution, Portsmouth, N. H. . • • 

Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien, 

Council BlufTs, near the junction of the PUtle j 

and Missouri, ] 

Fort Wolcotl, Newporl, R. I. • • - • ■ • 
Fori Armstrong, Rock Island, Illinois, • ■ - 

West Point, New York, 

Fort Trumbull, New London, Conn., ■ • ■ 
Fort Columbus, New York Harbour, - - . . 

Fori Mifflin, near Philadelphia, 

Washington City, D. C. 

Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, . - - . 
Fort Monroe, Old Point Comfort, Vi., - - • 

Fort Gibson, Arkans-w, 

Fort Johnston, CoasI of North Carolina, - • 

Augusta Arsenal, Georgia, 

Fort Moultrie, Charleston Harbor, . . . . 
Fort Jessup, near Sabine River, Louisiana, - • 
Cantonment Clinch, near Pensacola, . . . . 
Petite Coquille, near New Orleans, - . - ■ 
Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida, . . . . 
Fort King, Interior of F.asI Florida, - ■ • • 
Fort Brooke, Tampa Bay, Florida, - ■ • 
Key West, or Thompson's Island, 



Foreign CUmata, dcsigntd for tke purpose 
of compariion. 

Edinburgh, Scotland, - • 

London, England, 

Environs of London, .-.---*-• 

Paris, France, . . . . 

Nice, Italy, 

Montpelier, France, 

Rome, Italy, 

Naples, Italy, 

Madeira, Island of ••••••■•■• 

Cairo, Egypt, ■ 



46 10 
44 53 
44 44 
44 40 
43 3S 
43 IS 
43 4 
43 3 
41 45 
41 30 
41 28 
41 22 
41 22 
40 42 
39 51 
3S 53 
38 28 
37 2 
35 47 
34 . . 
33 28 
32 42 
31 30 
30 24 
30 10 
29 50 
29 12 
27 57 
24 33 



48 50 
43 41 
43 36 
41 S4 
40 50 
32 37 
30 2 



67 50 
93 8 



71 18 
90 33 
73 57 



76 55 
90 8 
76 12 
95 10 

78 5 
61 53 

79 56 
93 47 
87 14 
89 3S 

SI n 

82 12 
82 35 
81 52 



3 58 
12 29 
14 20 



51 75 

41 39 
41-21 
45-83 

42 95 
44-92 
46-67 
51-69 
47-21 
45-52 
51-02 
50-61 
51-t)4 
52-4 
55 — 
53-- 
55-28 
5b-5' 
5S14 
61-43 
62 90 
66 96 
66-01 
65-78 
6803 
69.44 
71 2 
72-66 
72-66 
73-42 
76-09 



MEAN TEMPERATURE OF EACH MONTH. 



'?-|43- 



13-58 
20-83 
18-14 
21-82 
^6-86 
24-60 
1972 
22-61 

29-93 
23 78 
27-97 
34-50 
30-OS 
33-54 
36 11 
34-59 
42-83 
45-4 
51-42 
48-63 
5073 
52-30 

54 36 

55 91. 
60-73 
6081 
63-(iS 
67 93 



47 31 
50-39 
48-Sll 
51-50 
59-48 1 
57-60 
60 70 
61-40 
64 56 
72 12 



40-17 
37-36 
34-16 
35-60 
45-85 
42 — 
47-65 
46-50 
.^9-50 
58-10 



20-68 
20-16 
2494 
25-20 
27-10 
21-93 
26-59 
31 06 
26-28 
30 27 
39-53 
31-22 
28-67 
37-81 
36-36 
•I4-S'6 
41 25 
52 19 
53-16 
46-24 
54 09 
56-98 
60-12 
64 97 
65-28 
6i-7l 
72-1: 



30-98 
31-19 
33-41 
34-39 
31-60 
32 4 
37-43 
37-94 
37-47 
39-30 
•12-77 
39-61 
3S-69 
45-96 
47-76 
50-67 
.3-51 



61-79 
62-92 
63-56 
67-55 
65-56 
68-56 



39 54 
40-44 
39-78 
40-50 



49-45 
54-50 
58 50 
56-12 



4S— 
3h-50 
43-85 

46- 

39-69 

43-28 

45-44 

47-52 

453 

43-92 

51-82 

46-41 

51 26 
51-57 
51-— 
49-89 61-27 

52 16163 46 
55-73^66-88 
69 69i68 90 
5S-24 167-83 
61-28|7-2-69 
65-28 ;73-70 
65-78 73-31 
6547 
66-81 
68-62 
70-— 
70-06 
73 31 
7279 



54 — 
52-56 
53-45 
62-11 
49-65 
57-13 
54-48 
5977 
55-55 
59-45 
66 56 
57-32 
63-83 
61 91 
59 22 



74-92 
75-20 
76-24 
76-35 
7689 
78-SP 
77-09 
79-22 



39-60 45-84 
42-64 48— 
41-51 46 89 
43-50 49-60 
51-45 57 
47-— 53-— 
52-05,56-40 



52-- 



157- 



48-67 
55-64 
55-70 
58-10 
63— 
60— 
64-50 
66-50 
63— 
78-26 



708375-47 
57-92,64-55 

38] -2-25 
64 29 69-71 
68-90,74-60 
62-80 67-^9 

57 72-40 
73-9$' 77 38 
65-54171-45 
73 59 77-92 
70 48 74-14 

67 73 87 
70 52 76-— 
75-23 81 67 
75-07 78-51 
6-58 7904 
75.78 79-65 
78 65 81-49 

98,81-57 
79-88 82-17 
78-86 81-09 



80-95 
81-50 
82-95 
81-41 
84-94 
80-79 
80-51 



83-54 
82-96 
83-95 
82-81 
84-03 
81-74 
82 .59 



66 — 
64-52 
6343 
71 98 
63 82 
68 83 
67-19 
73-06 
66-47 
71 41 
76 11 
70-18 
76-21 
73-96 
73-12 
74-58 
77-— 
76 63 
79-74 
79-50 
83-28 
80-39 
81-14 
79-96 
82 96 
82 27 
83-47 
82 67 
"3-63 



61 — 
56 25 
51-58 
59-41 

57-28 
57-61 
59— 
63-85 
59-09 
61-50 
65-24 

63-68 
63-67 
62-87 
68 02 
66-72 
73-35 
68-50 
68-57 
72 72 
74 61 
76 32 
74 26 
76 19 
77-14 
78-35 
80 58 
80 16 
81-52 



57-74 

63 52 

61-35 

65-20 

74-30 

75-- 

74-02 

76 50 

73-- 

85-82 



49 27 33-36 15-60 



53-65 38 50 24 21 
54-45 [43-3 
54-5S'3C|f 
53-11 43-f 
58-UV46--; 
55-^ 44-C 
57 20141.4 
57-17 44c 
56-84 1 47-3 
63-78 53-4 
05-95 54-1 
69-Il;601 
65-84156-3 
67-32:57-= 
6829 SR-- 
70-27 bl-1 
72-12 6?-f 
73-83 63-; 
-2-SI 61-' 
75-23 69-t 
76-76 73- 



55-61 
58-80 
56-22 
60-40 
69-35 
71-- 
69-50 
72-50 
71-60 
179-16 



48 37, 39- 
51-78 43- 
50-24 40 
.52-40 44- 
61 85 53- 
,61-- :52- 
63 60t59- 
65— '54 
67 50 62 
72-32 62 



'60138-.50 
47i 39-58 
93137 66 
20J39-20 
70148-60 
— 46— 
80l<962 
■,iO:50 50 
70; 60 50 
96161-34 



For further information relative to weather, 
and atmospheric conditions in general, see Ba- 
noMETF-R, Climate, Temperature, &c. 

ATROPHY. In farriery, a morbid wasting 
and emaciation, attended with a great loss of 
strength in animals. 

AUGER, BORING. An implement for bor- 
ing into the soil. An auger of the above kind, 
when made of a large size, and with different 
pieces to fix on to each other, may be very 
usefully applied to try the nature of the under 
soil, fhe discovering springs, and drawing off 
•26 



water from lands, &c. In order to £tecomplish 
the first purpose, three augers will be neces- 
sary ; the first of them about three feet long, 
the second six, and the third ten. Their diame- 
ters should be near an inch, and their bits 
large, and capable of bringing up part of the 
soil they pierce. An iron handle should be 
fixed crossways to wring it into the earth, from 
whence the instrument must be drawn up as 
often as it has pierced a new depth of about six 
inches, in order to cleanse the bit, and examine 
the soil. 



AUGER, DRAINING. 



AVENA. 



AUGER, DRAINING. An instrument em- 
ployed for the purpose of boring into the bot- 
toms of drains or other places, in order to 
discover and let off water. It is nearly similar 
to that made use of in searching for coal or 
other subterraneous minerals. The auger, 
shell, or wimble, as it is variously called, for 
excavating the earth or strata through which 
it passes, is generally from two and a half to 
three and a half inches in diameter ; the hollow 
part of it one foot four inches in length, and 
constructed nearly in the shape of the wimble 
used b)' carpenters, only the sides of the shell 
come closer to one another. The rods are 
made in separate pieces of four feet long each, 
that screw into one another to any assignable 
length, one after another as the depth of the 
hole requires. The size above the auger is 
about an inch square, unless at the joints, 
where, for the sake of strength, they are a 
quarter of an inch more. 

There is also a chisel and punch, adapted 
for screwing on, in going through hard gravel, 
or other metallic substances, to accelerate the 
passage of the auger, which could not other- 
wise perforate such hard bodies. The punch 
is often used, when the auger is not applied, 
to prick or open the sand or gravel, and give 
a more easy issue to the water. The chisel is 
an inch and a half or two inches broad at the 
point, and made very sharp for cutting stone ; 
and the punch an inch square, like the other 
part of the rods, with the point sharpened also. 

As it is remarked by Johnstone, in his ac- 
count of Elkington's mode of draining, to judge 
when to make use of the borer is a difficult 
part of the business of draining. Many who 
have not seen it made use of in draining, have 
been led into a mistaken notion, both as to the 
manner of using it and the purpose for which 
it is applied. They think, that if by boring 
indiscriminately through the ground to be 
drained, water is found near enough the sur- 
face to be reached by the depth of the drain, 
the proper direction for it is along these holes 
where water has been found ; and thus make 
it the first implement that is used. The con- 
trary, however, in practice, is the case, and the 
auger is never used till after the drain is cut; 
and then for the purpose of perforating any 
retentive or impervious stratum, lying be- 
tween the bottom of the drain and the reser- 
voir or strata containing the spring. Thus it 
greatly lessens the trouble and expense that 
would otherwise be requisite in cutting the 
trench to that depth to which, in many in- 
stances, the level of the outlet will not admit. 
The manner of using it is simply thus : — in 
working it, two, or rather three men, are ne- 



cessary. Two stand above, on each side of 
the drain, who turn it round by means of the 
wooden handles, and when the auger is full 
they draw it out ; and the man in the bottom 
of the trench clears out the earth, assists in 
pulling it out, and directing it into the hole, 
and who can also assist in turning with the 
iron handle or key when the depth and length 
of rods require additional force to perform the 
operation. The workmen should be cautious 
in boring not to go deeper at a time, without 
drawing, than the exact length of tlie shell, 
otherwise the earth, clay, or sand, through 
which it is boring, after the shell is full, makes 
it very ditlicult to pull out. For this purpose 
the exact length of the shell should be regu- 
larly marked on the rods, from the bottom up- 
wards. Two flat boards, Avith a hole cut into 
the side of one of them, and laid alongside of 
one another over the drain, in the time of 
boring, are very useful for directing the rods 
in going down perpendicularly, for keeping 
them steady in boring, and for the men stand- 
ing on when performing the operation. 

AVENA. A genus of grasses ; the oat- 
grass. Some of the species may be cultivated 
to advantage in suitable situations, intermixed 
with a due proportion of other grasses. 

Avena Jlavescens. Golden oat, or yellow oat- 
grass. This is one of those grasses which 
never thrives when cultivated simply by itself; 
it requires to be combined with other grasses 
to secure its continuance in the soil, and to 
obtain its produce in perfection. It thrives 
best in England when combined with the Hor- 
deum pratense (meadow barley), Ci/nosurus 
crislalus (crested dog's-tail), and Anthoxantum 
odoratum (sweet-scented vernal -grass). It 
affects most a calcareous soil, and that which 
is dry. It grows naturally, however, in al- 
most every kind of meadow : it is always 
present in the richest natural pastures in Eng- 
land where its produce is not, however, very 
great, nor its nutritive qualities considerable. 
The nutritive matter it affords from its leaves, 
(the properties of which are of more import- 
ance to be known than those of the culms, for 
a permanent pasture grass,) contains propor- 
tionally more bitter extractive than what is con- 
tained in the nutritive matters of the grasses 
with Avhich it is more generally combined in na- 
tural pastures, and which have just now been 
mentioned. This latter circumstance is the 
chief claim it has to a place in the composition 
of the produce of rich pasture land ; but more 
particularly, if the land be elevated, and with- 
out good shelter, this grass becomes more 
valuable, as it thrives better under such cir- 
cumstances than most other grasses, and sheep 



Avena jlavetcens, in flower 

, in seed ripe 

, latter-math 

A. pralensis, in flower 

, in seed, ripe - 

A. pubescens, in flower 
■ , in seed, ripe 



Clayey loam 
Sandy loam 



Green Produce 
per Acre. 



8,167 8 

12,251 4 

4,083 12 

6,806 4 

9,528 12 

15,654 6 

6,806 4 



Dry Produce 
per Acre. 



2,858 10 

4,900 8 

1,871 M 8 

2,858 10 

5,870 6 4 

1,361 4 



Produce per Acre 

of Nutritive 

Matter. 



lbs. 

478 9 
430 11 
79 12 
239 4 
148 14 
366 14 
212 U 



(Sinclair's Hort. Gram. Wob.^ 
137 ' 



AVENA. 



AVENUE. 



eat it as readily as they do most others. The 
seed is very small and light ; but it vegetates 
freely if sown in the autumn, or not too early 
in the spring. I have sown the seeds of this 
grass in almost every month of the year, and 
after making due allowance for the state of the 
weather, the third week in May, and the first 
week of August to September, were evidently 
the best. It flowers in England in the first, 
and often in the second week of July, and ri- 
pens the seed in the beginning of August. The 
value of the grass, at the time of flowering, is 
to that at the time the seed is ripe, as 5 to 3. 

The value of the grass, at the time of flower- 
ing, exceeds that of the latter-math, as 3 to 1 ; 
and the value of the grass at the time the seed 
is ripe is to that of the latter-math, as 9 to .5. 

Avena praiensis. Meadow oat-grass. This 
species of oat-grass is much less common 
than the Avena pubescens, or Avena Jlavescens. 
It is found more frequent on chalky than on 
any other kind of soils: I have also found it 
in moist meadows as well as on dry heaths. 
This property of thriving on soils of such 
opposite natures is not common to the difl'er- 
ent species of grass. When this grass was 
planted in an irrigated meadow, the produce 
did not appear to exceed that which it afford- 
ed on a dry elevated soil, though it appeared 
more healthy, by the superior green colour 
of the foliage ; and it thus appears to thrive 
under irrigation. The produce and nutri- 
tive powers, however, seem to be inferior to 
many other species of the secondary grasses. 
The produce or value of the yellow oat is su- 
perior to that of the meadow oat in the pro- 
portion nearly of 7 to 3. The downy oat-grass 
is also superior to the meadow oat-grass 
in the quantity of nutritive matter it affords 
from the crops of one season, in the proportion 
nearly of 3 to 2. From these facts and obser- 
vations it cannot justly be recommended for 
cultivation in preference to either of the two 
species with which it has now been compared. 
J[ts nutritive matter contains a less proportion 
of bitter extractive and saline matters than 
any other of the oat-grasses that have been 
submitted to experiment. It flowers in July, 
and the seed is ripe in August. 

Avena pubescens. Downy oat-grass. [See 
Plate 6, b.] This grass has properties which 
recommend it to the notice of the agriculturist, 
being hardy, and a small impoverisher of the 
soil ; the reproductive power is also consider- 
able, though the foliage does not attain to a 
great length if left growing. Like the Poa 
j'raiensis, it seldom or never sends forth any 
(lowering culms, after the first are cropped, 
which is a property of some value for the pur- 
pose of permanent pasture, or dry soils, whi'^h 
are sooner impoverished by the growth of 
plants than those that are moist. Among the 
secondary grasses, therefore, I hardly know 
one whose habits promise better for the pur- 
pose now spoken of. The nutritive matter it 
jiflbrds contains a greater proportion of the 
bitter extractive principle than the nutritive 
matter of those grasses that afl^sct a similar 
soil, which lessens its merits in those respects 
and must prevent its being employed in any 
considerable quantity as a constituent of a 
128 



mixture of grasses for laying down such soils 
to grass. In one part of Woburn Park, where 
the soil is light and silicious, the downy oat 
grows in considerable abundance. The downy 
hairs which cover the surface of the leaves of 
this grass when growing on poor, dry, or 
chalky soils, almost disappear wiien cultivated 
on richer soils. The crop at the time of flower- 
ing is superior to that at the time the seed is 
ripe, in the proportion nearly of 5 to 3. The 
grass of the latter-math, and that at the time 
the seed is ripe, are of equal proportional va- 
lue. It flowers in the second or third week 
of June, and the seed is ripe about the begin- 
ning or in the middle of July. 

[Avena elatior. See Andes Grass. 

Avena saliva. Cultivated oats. 

Avena slerilis. Animated oats, grown in 
gardens as a curiosity.] 

AVENS, COMMON, or HERB BENNET 
(Geuni urbanum). An indigenous perennial 
plant, which grows plentifully in woods and 
about shady dry hedges, producing small bright 
yellow flowers from May till August. The 
stalks of this useful plant attain two feet high, 
they are erect, round, finely, hairy branched at 
the upper part, bearing several flowers. The 
root consists of a root-stock and many stout 
brown fibres, which are astringent, and in some 
degree aromatic in spring. They are said to 
impart an agreeable clove-like flavour when 
infused in beer or wine. In medicine, the 
powdered root of the common avens has been 
employed with good effect in conjunction with 
Peruvian bark, or quinine, in cases of ague 
and intermittent fever, and it is also valuable 
in long-standing cases of diarrhea, and in the 
last stage of dysentery. The dose is from 
thirty to sixty grains. Sheep are extremely 
fond of its herbage, which may likewise, when 
young, be used for culinary purposes, and 
especially in the form of salad. It is stated 
{Trans, of Sived. Acnd.) that if a portion of the 
dried root be placed in a bag and hung in a 
cask of beer, it will prevent the beer from 
turning sour. There is a variety of this plant 
called the great-flowered avens. (Eng. Flora, 
vol. ii. p. 429 ; Willich's Dom. Ency.) 

AVENS, W^ATER. A variety of the before- 
named plant, which is common in moist mea- 
dows and woods, especially in mountainous 
countries, and is not rare in the north of Eng- 
land, Scotland, Wales, nor even in Norfolk. 
It has drooping flowers, which distinguish it 
from the common avens. It is readily pro- 
duced by transplanting the wild roots into a 
dry gravelly soil, by which the flowers become 
red, as well as double and proliferous, with 
many strange changes of leaves into petals, 
and the contrary. {Smithes Eng. Flora.) 

AVENUE (Fr.). An alley or walk planted 
on each side with trees. These kinds of walks 
were formerly much more the fashion than 
they are at present. When they are to be 
made, the common elm answers wery well for 
the purpose in most grounds, except such as 
are very wet and shallow, and is preferred to 
most other trees, because it bears cutting, 
heading, or lopping in any manner. The rough 
Dutch elm is approved by some, because of its 
quick growth; and it is a tree that will nr 



PLih- J\ 




VAKiri lES OF HAHIEY. OAT5>, l^rCKWMKA'r AND Ml I, LET. 



AVERAGES. 



AZOTE. 



only bear removing very well, but that is green 
in the spring almost as soon as any plant what- 
ever, and continues so equally long. It makes 
an incornparaiiie hedge, and is preferable to 
all other trees for lofty espaliers. The lime i.s 
very useful on account of its regular growth 
and fine shade ; and the horse-chesnut is pro- 
per for such places as are not too much ex- 
posed to rough winds. The commcm chesnut 
does very well in a good soil, or on warm gra- 
vels, as it rises to a considerable height when 
planted somewhat close; but, when it stands 
single, it is rather inclined to spread than grow 
tall. The beech naturally grows well with us 
in its wild stale, but it is less to be chosen for 
avenues than others, because it does not bear 
transplanting well. The abele may also be 
employed for this use, as it is adapted to al- 
most any soil, and is the quickest grower of 
any forest tree. It seldom-fails in transplant- 
ing, and succeeds very well in wet soils, in 
which the others are apt to suffer. The oak is 
but seldom used for avenues, because of its 
slow growth. 

The old method of planting avenues was by 
regular rows of trees, a practice which has 
been adhered to till lately; but now, when they 
are used, a much more ornamental way of 
planting them is adopted, which is by setting 
the trees in clumps or platoons, making the 
opening much wider than belnre, and placing 
the clumps of trees from one to three hundred 
feet distant from each other. In these clumps 
there should always be planted either seven or 
nine trees; but it must be observed that this 
method is only proper to be practiced where 
the avenue is of considerable length, as in short 
walks such clumps will not appear so sightly 
as single rows of trees. The avenues made 
by clumps are the most suitable for large 
parks. The trees in the clumps in such should 
be planted thirty feet asunder; and a trench 
thrown up round each clump to prevent the 
deer from coming to the trees and barking 
them. 

AVERAGES (Fr. aver; Lat. averagium). 
In the corn trade, is the average amount of the 
prices at which the several kinds of corn are 
sold in the chief corn markets of England, as 
ascertained by the returns of certain inspec- 
tors, according to the act of the 9 G. 4, c. 60. 
(See Coiiv Laws.) 

AVERDUPOIS, or AVOIRDUPOIS 
WEIGHT (Avoir du poid, Fr., Dr. Johnson 
says, but he should have added, averia ponde- 
ris, Lat., literally goods of weight, goods sold 
by weight; uver in old French, and amir in 
modern, signifying goods, like the low Lat. 
averium, avenim, avere). That kind of weight 
commonly made use of for weighing most 
kinds of large and coarse goods, as cheese, 
butter, salt, hops, flesh, wool, &c. According 
to it, sixteen drachms make an ounce, sixteen 
ounces one pound, one hundred and twelve 
pounds one hundred weight, and twenty hun- 
dred weight one ton. It is most commonly 
written avoirdupois. 

AVIARY (Lat. avis, a bird). A place set 
apart for the feeding and propagating birds. 

AWNS (Goth, ahana,- Sw. agri). The nee- 
dle-like bristles which form the beards of 
17 



wheat, barley, and other grasses. The word 
is in some parts of England pronounced ails 
and ilc/i. 

AXIS (Lat., axel, Sw.), or axle-tree. The 
strong piece of wood or iron which supports 
the weight of wagons, carts, carriages, &c., and 
round the extremities of which the wheels 
turn. 

AZALEA. American honey-suckle ; the 
white-flowered (Lat. Azalea viswsa). A hardy 
shrub growing tluec feet high, and blowing its 
while tlowers in June anrl July. Azalea nudl- 
Jlira, also a native of North America, grows 
three feet high, with red flowers, blooming in 
May and June; and Azalea pimtica, a native 
of the neighbourhood of the Black Sea, bloom- 
ing yellow flowers in May : it grows three feet 
high. These hardy shrubs love shade and a 
moist soil. Propagate by layers and suckers: 
the seed does not ripen well in this climate. 
Do not prune, only cut out the dead wood. 
Remove the young weli-rooted plants with a 
good ball of earth in the autumn or early in 
spring. 

AZOREAN FENNEL {Anethum azorieum, 
or Finochio; from avyibov, on account of its run- 
ning up straight). A plant kept in kitchen 
gardens ; it is not in much esteem here, its 
peculiar flavour being agreeable to few pa- 
lates. In Italy, and sf)me other countries, it is 
served with a dressing like salads. 

AZOTE is as commonly known by the name 
of nitrogen. The name of azote (derived from 
the Greek «, from, and ^oe, life), was given to 
it by the French chemists, from animals being 
unable to breathe it [in a state of purity.] This 
gas, which constitutes 79*16 parts per cent, of 
the air we breathe, was discovered in 1772 by 
Dr. Rutherford. Before his time there had been 
much confusion with regard to the composi- 
tion of the atmospheric and other gases ; they 
were chiefly regarded by the old chemists as 
being all of the same kind, but mixed with 
various unknown substances. When all the 
oxygen is absorbed from a confined portion 
of atmospheric air, the remainder is nearly 
pure azote; it is known only in the state of 
gas. Azotic gas is invisible and elastic, and 
has no smell ; its specific gravity is 0.969. 
Animals cannot breathe it [in a pure state :] 
when they are placed in a jar of it, they die 
as rapidly as if immersed in water; neither 
will it support combustion. It unites with 
oxygen in various proportions : thus, — 

l'»rli Tarts. 

l-75azotn and 2 oxygen forms nitrous gas. 

1-75 — 5 — nitric acid, or aquarortis. 

1-75 _ 4178 — nitrous acid. 

Azote, or nitrogen, abounds in animal sue 
stances, for it forms 16-998 per cent, of gela 
tine; 1.5-705 per cent, of albumen (white of 
egg), &c., and these are commonly present in 
all animal substances. Azote unites also with 
hydrogen gas, and forms the volatile alkali 
ammonia, which is composed of — 



Azote - 
Hydrogen 



25 parts 
74 



Now, as both these substances exist in an: 
mal matters, when such substances putrefy, or 
are subjected to the destrucuve distillation, 

.29 



AZOTE. 

they readily unite and form the volatile alkali 
ammonia. 

Azote exists also in gluten ; and wherever 
this substance is present in vegetable matter, 
there, in consequence, azote is to be found, 
but otherwise it does not often enter into the 
composition of vegetable substances. And yet 
it is worthy of remark, that although azote can- 
not be regarded as a direct food of plants, yet 
most of those substances which contain it are 
exceedingly grateful to them, such as ammo- 
nia, saltpetre, animal matter, &c.; and again, 
vegetables certainly emit, and probably inhale, 
this gas. Thus some plants of Vinca minor 
being made to vegetate in a confined portion 
of air for six days, and the composition of the 
air being ascertained by M. Saussure (Reck. 
Chim. p. 40), the following were the results in 
cubic inches : — 



Azote 
Oxygen - 
Carbonic acid 



Composition of atmosphere, 
kThen put in. when taken out. 

211-92 - - - 218.95 
56-33 - - - 71-05 
21.75 - - - 0-00 



290- 



290. 



The plants, therefore, had evidently in- 
creased the proportion of azote and oxygen, 
but had entirely exhausted the air of its car- 
bonic acid gas. 

Similar experiments made with the Mentha 
aqualica, Cactus opuntia, Lythrum salacaria, 
and the Pinus genevensis, afforded similar re- 
sults. 

Azote, therefore, evidently fulfils a more con- 
siderable office in vegetable economy than we 
are yet exactly aware of, and it is more than 
probable that considerable discoveries are yet 
to be made in the investigation of its uses to 
vegetable life. See Gases, their use to vege- 
tation. {Davy\'< Cfiem. Pkil. p. 2.55 ; Thomson's 
Chnn.) 

[The chief element contained in vegetable 
substances resorted to for the support of ani- 
mals, is azote or nitrogen. On the other hand 
we see, in the vegetable kingdom, plants ap- 
propriating carbon as the prime element of 
their structure. The quantity of food which 
animals take for their nourishment diminishes 
or increases in the same proportion as it con- 
tains more or less of the substances yield- 
ing nitrogen. A horse may be kept alive by 
feeding it with potatoes, which contain a very 
small quantity of nitrogen ; but life thus sup- 
ported is a gradual starvation; the animal in- 
creases neither in size nor strength, and sinks 
under every exertion. The quantity of rice 
which an East Indian eats astonishes the Eu- 
ropean 01 American ; but the fact that rice 
contains less nitrogen than any other grain, at 
once explains the circumstance. 

" We cannot suppose," says Liebig, " that 
a plant would attain maturity, even in the rich- 
est vegetable mould, without the presence of 
matter containing nitrogen ; since we know 
that nitrogen exists in every part of the vege- 
table structure. The first and most important 
question to be solved, therefore, is : How and 
m what form does nature furnish nitrogen to 
vegetable rlbumen, and gluten, to fruits and 
<peds 1 

13'' 



AZOTE. 

"This question is susceptible of a very sim 
pie solution. 

" Plants, as we know, grow perfectly well in 
pure charcoal, if supplied at the same time 
with rain-water. Rain-water can contain nitro- 
gen only in two forms, either as dissolved at- 
mospheric air, or as ammonia. Now, the nitro- 
gen of the air cannot be made to enter into 
combination with any element except oxygen, 
even by employment of the most powerful 
chemical means. We have not the slightest 
reason for believing that the nitrogen of the 
atmosphere takes part in the processes of as- 
similation of plants and animals ; on the con- 
trary, we know that many plants emit the nitro- 
gen, which is absorbed by their roots, either in 
the gaseous form, or in solution in water. But 
there are, on the other hand, numerous facts, 
showing that the formation in plants of sub- 
stances containing nitrogen, such as gluten, 
takes place in proportion to the quantity of 
this element which is conveyed to their roots 
in the state of ammonia, derived from the pu- 
trefaction of animal matter. 

"Ammonia is a compound gas, consisting 
of one volume of nitrogen and three volumes 
of hydrogen. It is produced during the de- 
composition of many animal substances. It 
is given off when sal-ammoniac and lime are 
rubbed together. It was formerly called vola- 
tile alkali. 

"Ammonia, too, is capable of undergoing 
such a multitude of transformations, when in 
contact with other bodies, that in this respect 
it is not inferior to water, which possesses the 
same property in an eminent degree. It pos- 
sesses properties which we do not find in any 
other compound of nitrogen ; when pure, it is 
extremely soluble in water ; it forms soluble 
compounds with all the acids ; and when in 
contact with certain other substances, it com- 
pletely resigns its character as an alkali, and 
is capable of assuming the most various and 
opposite forms." 

With regard to the sources from which 
vegetables draw those supplies of nitrogen, so 
essential to their growth and developement, 
Liebig makes the following observations :— - 

" Let us picture to ourselves the condition 
of a well-cultured farm, so large as to be in- 
dependent of assistance from other quarters. 
On this extent of land there is a certain quan- 
tify of nitrogen contained both in the corn and 
fruit which it produces, and in the men and 
animals which feed upon them, and also in 
their excrements. We shall suppose this quan- 
tity to be known. The land is cultivated with- 
out the importation of any foreign substance 
containing nitrogen. Now, the products of 
this fann must be exchanged every year for 
mone)', and other necessaries of life, for bodies 
therefore which contain no nitrogen. A cer- 
tain proportion of nitrogen is exported with 
com and cattle; and this exportation takes 
place every year, without the smallest com- 
pensation ; yet after a given number of years, 
the quantity of nitrogen will be found to have 
increased. Whence, we may ask, comes this 
increase of nitrogen 1 The nitrogen in the 
excrements cannot reproduce itself, and the 



BACCIFEROUS. 



BAKING. 



earth cannot yield it. Plants, and consequent- 
ly animals, must therefore derive their nitro- 
gen from the atmosphere." (Org, Chem,) 

B. 

BACCIFEROUS (from haaicu, a berry, and 
fero, to bear). A term applied to trees bear- 
ing berries. 

BACK, the spine. The back of a horse 
should be straight, in order that it may be 
strong : when it is hollow, or what is termed 
saddle-hacked, the animal is generally weak. 

Buck sore. A complaint which is very com- 
mon to young horses when they first travel. 
To prevent it, their backs should be cooled 
every time they are baited, and now and then 
washed with warm water, and wiped dry with 
a linen cloth. The best cure for a sore back 
is a lotion of 1 oz. of Goulard's extract (sugar 
of lead and vinegar), 1 oz. of turpentine, 1 oz. 
of spirit of wine, and I pint of vinegar. 

Back sineivs, sprain offhe. This is often oc- 
casioned by the horse being overweighted, and 
then ridden far and fast, especially if his pas- 
terns are long ; but it may occur from a false 
step, or from the heels of the shoes being too 
much lowered. Sprain of the back sinews is 
detected by swelling and heat at the back of 
the lower part of the leg; puffiness along the 
course of the sinews ', extreme tenderness, so 
far as the swelling and heat extend ; and very 
great lameness. 

The first object is to abate the inflammation, 
and this should be attempted by bleeding from 
the plate vein; by means of which blood is 
drained from the inflamed part. Next, local 
applications should be made to the back of 
the leg, in the form of fomentations of water 
sufficiently hot and frequently repeated. At 
the same time, as much strain as possible 
should be taken from the sinew, by putting a 
high calkin on the heel of the shoe. 

BACON. Probably from taken, that is, dried 
flesh. Dr. Johnson says, and Mr. Home Tooke 
contends, that it is evidently the past participle 
of the Saxon bacan, to bake or dry by heat. 
{Div. of Pur. vol. ii, p. 71.) I may, however, 
refer perhaps as strongly to the old French 
bacon, which means dried flesh and pork. The 
Welsh also have bacwn. The flesh of the hog 
after it has been salted and dried, and it is 
either smoked or kept without smoking, when 
it is termed green bacon. {Todd.) 

Such hogs as have been kept till they are 
full grown, and have then attained to a large 
size, are for the most part converted to the 
purpose of bacon. The seasons for killing 
hogs for bacon are between October and 
March, but it of course varies according to 
custom and circumstances in peculiar districts. 
The process of curing bacon is so well known 
throughout the country, that it is scarcely ne- 
cessary to add any thing on the subject; but 
the following practical hints may not be with- 
out their utility. In order to have good bacon, 
the hair should be Kwealed ofl", not scalded, the 
flesh will be more solid and firm. The best 
method of doing this is to cover the hog thinly 
with straw, and to set light to it in the direction 
of the wind. As the straw is burnt off, it 



should be renewed, taking care, however, not 
to burn or parch the skin. After both side.s 
have been treated in this way, the hog is to be 
scraped quite clean, but water must not be 
used. After the hog has been properly cut up, 
the inside, or flesh-side of each flitch is to be 
well rubbed with salt, and placed above each 
other in a tray, which should have a gutter 
round its edge to drain off the brine. Once in 
four or five days the salt should be changed, 
and the flitches frequently moved, putting the 
bottom one at top, and then again at the bot- 
tom. Some persons, in cviring bacon, add for 
each hog half a pound of bay salt, and a 
quarter of a pound of saltpetre, and one pound 
of very coarse sugar or treacle. Very excel- 
lent bacon may, however, be made with com- 
mon salt alone, provided it be well rubbed in, 
and changed sufficiently often. Six weeks, in 
moderate weather, will be time sufficient for 
the curing of a hog of twelve score. Smoking 
the bacon is much better than merely drying 
it. The flitches should, in the first place, be 
rubbed over with bran or fine saw-dust (not 
deal), and then hung up in a chimney out of 
the rain, and not near enough to the fire to 
melt. The smoke must be from wood, stubble, 
or litter. If the fire is tolerably constant and 
good, a month's smoking will be suflicient. 
The flitches are afterward frequently preserved 
in clear, dry wood ashes, or very dry sand. 

The counties of England most celebrated for 
bacon, are Vork, Hants, Berks, and Wilts. 
Ireland produces great quantities, but it is 
neither so clean fed, nor so well cured as the 
English, and is much lower priced. Of the 
Scotch counties, Dumfries, Wigtown, and 
Kirkcudbright, are celebrated for the excel- 
lence of their bacon and hams, of which they 
now export large quantities, principally to the 
Liverpool and London markets. The imports 
of bacon and hams from Ireland have increas- 
ed rapidly of late years. The average quan- 
tity imported during the three years ending the 
25th of March, 1800, only amounted to 41,948 
cwt. ; whereas during the three years ending 
with 1820, the average imports amounted to 
204,380 cwt. ; and during the three years ending 
with 1825, they had increased to 338,218 cwt. 

In 1825 the trade between Ireland and Great 
Britain was placed on the footing of a coasting 
trade ; and bacon and hams are imported and 
exported without any specific entry at the 
Custom-house. We believe the imports of 
bacon into Great Britain from Ireland amounts, 
at present, to little less than 500,000 cwt. a 
year. The quantity of bacon and hams ex- 
ported from Ireland to foreign countries is 
inconsiderable, not exceeding 1500 or 2000 
cwt, a year. The duty on bacon and haras 
being 8s. the cwt. is in efl^ect prohibitory. 
See Provisions Traiie. 

BAIT (Sax. baran, German, baitzen). A feet! 
of oats, or any other material given to an ani- 
mal employed in travelling or labour. These 
should always be proportioned to the condition 
of the animal, and the nature of his labour. It 
also signifies any thing applied with the view 
of catching an animal. 

BAKING. The application of heat in the 
preparation of bread. See Bread. 

131 



BAKING OF LAND. 



BALSAM. 



BAKING OF LAND. A term applied to 
such kinds of land as are liable, from the large 
proportions of clayey or other matter which 
they contain, to become hard and crusty on the 
surface. In order to prevent this, the best 
practice is to lessen the tenacity of such soils 
by the application of substances capable of 
rendering them more open and friable, as 
lime, and other calcareous materials, rich 
earthy composts, sand, &c. 

BALL. Whatever was round was called by 
the ancients either bal, or bcl, and likewise bol 
and bill. In farriery, a well-known form of 
medicine, for horses or other animals, which 
may be passed at once into the stomach. They 
should be made of a long oval shape, and 
about the size of a small egg, being best con- 
veyed over the root of the tongue by the hand. 
This method of administering medicines is 
preferable in most cases to that of drenches. 
I subjoin the recipes for a few of those balls 
most commonly used by the farmer. 

Mild Physic Ball. 

Barbadoes aloes . - - . 6 drachms. 

Powdered ginger - - - - 2 

Castile soap ... .2 

Oil of cloves ... . 30 drops. 

Syrup of buckthorn aufiicient to form a ball. 

Strong Physic Ball, 

Barbadoes aloes .... 8 drachms. 

Ginger, powdered . - - - 2 

Castile soap .... 2 

Oil of cloves ... . 20 drops. 

Syrup of buckthorn sufficient to form a ball. 

Calomel Ball for a Riding Horse. 




Calorael .... 

Aloes, powdered ... 
Ginger, powdered . . - 
Castile soap ... 

Oil of cloves ... 

Syrup of buckthorn sufficient to make into' a ball. 

Calomel Ball for a Cart Horse. 

Aloes, powdered .... 8 drachms. 
Otherwise same as the last. 

Diuretic Ball. 

Castile soap .... 4 ounces. 

Nitre, powdered .... 2 

Rosin, powdered • - - - i 

Oil of juniper .... ^ 

Aniseed powder and treacle sufficient to make into 
eight balls. 



Cordial Ball. 



Cummin seed, powdered 
Aniseed, powdered 
Caraway seed, powdered 
Liquorice powder 
Ginger, powdered 
Honey sufficient to make into balls the size of a 
hen's egg. 



4 ounces. 

4 

2 



BALM, or BAUM {Mellsfsa officinalis. From 
Gr. /uttKt, honey, on account of the bee being 
sxipposed to collect it abundantly from their 
ticwers). Balm is used both as a medicinal 
and culinary herb. The leaves are employed 
green, or dried. 

The soil best suited to its growth is any poor 
Iriable one, but rather inclining to clayey than 
silicious. Manure is never required. An 
eastern aspect is best for it. It is propagated 
L>y offsets of the roots, and by slips of the 
oung shoots. The first mode may be prac- 
132 



tjsed any time during the spring and autumn, 
but the latter only during May or June. If 
offsets are employed, they may be planted at 
once where they are to remain, at ten or twelve 
inches; but if by slips, they must be inserted 
in a shady border, to be thence removed, in 
September or October, to where they are to 
remain. At every removal, \vater must be 
given, if dry weather, and until they are esta- 
blished. During the summer they require only 
to be kept clear of weeds. In October the old 
beds require to be dressed, their decayed leaves 
and stalks cleared away, and the soil loosened 
by the hoe or slight digging. 

Old beds jnay be gathered from in July, for 
drying, but their green leaves, from March to 
September ; and those planted in the spring 
will even afford a gathering in the autumn of 
the same year. For drying, the stalks are cut 
with their full clothing of leaves to the very 
bottom, and the process completed gradually 
in the shade. (G. W. Jnhnaon's Kitchen Gar- 
den.) 

This ver}' common and well-known plant in 
our kitchen gardens is fragrant in smell, and 
its root creeps and spreads rapidly and abund- 
antly. It flowers in July, and is best taken as 
an infusion when fresh, as it loses considerable 
power when dried. Its medicinal qualities are 
derived principally from the proportion of vola- 
tile oil, resin, and bitter e.xtractivc, which it 
contains. It is occasionally used in conse- 
quence of its moderately stimulant powers, in 
conjunction with more potent drugs, to produce 
profuse perspiration. Mixed with honey and 
vinegar, it forms a good gargle for an inflamed 
sore throat. 

BALSAM (Impatiens Balsaminu). This fa- 
vourite flower is a native of the East Indies 
and Japan, where the natives, according to 
Thunberg, use the juice prepared with alum 
for dyeing their nails red. It is a tender an- 
nual, rising from one to two feet high, with a 
succulent branchy stem, serrated leaves, and 
various coloured flowers. It blows from July 
to October, and its flowers are single and 
double, red, pink, white, or variegated. It 
loves a good soil, and shelter from a hot sun. 
It blooms very handsomely in a window. Sow 
the seed early in March in a hot bed. Put the 
plants singly, and accustom them by degrees 
to the open air. Place them in larger pots, or 
put them out in the garden in May. They wii! 
require no watering, after being well rooted. 
Stir the earth round each plant frequently, and 
do it gently, with a small trowel. 

The varieties are infinite, but not so marked 
or permanent as to have acquired names. 
The seed from one plant will hardly produce two 
alike. 

This plant, which has been introduced 
into almost every flower-garden in the coun- 
try, is commonly called Lady's Slipper. Seve- 
ral species of the genus are found in the 
United States, and have been described by 
Pursh, Nuttall, Darlington, and other botanists. 
One of these, the Fale Impniiens, known by the 
popular names of Yellow Balsam, Snap-weed, 
and Touch-me-not, is frequent in Pennsylva- 
nia, and other states, in moist, shaded grounds 
and along streams, where its gamboge yellow 



BALSAM. 



BARB. 



flowers appear from July to September. The ' 
most common species, however, is the Fulvous \ 
or Tawny Impatiens, or Touch-me-not, the 
flowers of which are of a deep orange colour, 
with numerous reddish brown spots. The 
tender and succulent stems of this plant af- 
ford a domestic application to inflamed tu- 
mours, being bruised in the form of a poultice. • 
It has sometimes been used for dying salmon- 
red. {NuttalVs Genera, Darlington's Flora Ces- 
trica.) The popular name of this plant must 
not lead to its being confounded with another, 
also called Lady's Slipper, the Stemless Cypri- 
pedium, a very different plant. 

BALSAM TREE {Tacamaharca). This tree 
possesses considerable medicinal virtues. It 
is known among us as the Tacamahac tree., 
from its similitude to the real tree of that name, 
which is a native of the East and of America. 
The leaves of our balsam tree are long, of a 
dusky green on the outside, and brown under- 
neath. The buds of the tree in spring are very 
fragrant, and a sticky substance surrounds 
each bud, which adheres to the fingers on 
touching them. (See Tacamahacca.) 

BAN-DOG. A corruption of band-dog, a 
large kind of fierce dog, which was formerly 
kept chained up as a watch-dog. 

BANDS. The cords by means of which 
sheaves and trusses are tied. They are formed 
of twisted straw or hay. 

Bands, where the straw is tender, should be 
made in the morning, that they may not crack ; 
for the straw will not twist so well after the 
sun is up. The turning of three or four of the 
stubble or bottom ends of the straw to the ears 
of the band sometimes tend greatly to add to 
their strength and toughness. 

The bands for the sheaves should not be 
spread out, except in fair weather, because 
they will grow sooner than any other part of 
the corn if rain should come ; for they cannot 
dry, on account of their lying undermost. But 
though the bands may be made while the morn- 
ing dew is upon them, the sheaves ought never 
to be bound up wet; for, if they are, they will 
grow mould}^ 

BANE. The disease in sheep generally 
termed the rot. 

BANE BERRIES {Adxa), and BLACK 
BANE BERRIES {Herb Christopher). Pe- 
rennial herbs, natives of cold countries, with 
compound or lobed cut leaves and clustered 
white flowers. The berries of the former 
are black, red, or white, of the latter, purplish, 
black, juicy, the size of currants, and have 
fetid, nauseous, and dangerous qualities. In 
England these herbs are found sometimes in 
bushy, mountainous, limestone situations. — 
{Smith's Engl. Flora.) 

Several species of Actcea, or Bane-berry are 
found in the United States. Among those 
mentioned by Dr. Darlington, as met with in 
Chester county, Pennsylvania, are the Race- 
mose Actsea, commonly called Block Snakeroot, 
a perennial, common in rich woodlands, in 
which the white flowers rising above most 
other surrounding plants, are very conspicuous 
in the month of June. The plant has an op- 
pressive, disagreeable odour when bruised. 
The root is sjmewhat mucilaginous and as- 



tringent ; and is a very popular medicine for 
man and beast. For the former, it is used in 
infusion or decoction, chiefly as a remedy in 
diseases of the breast. Many persons consider 
it almost a panacea for a sick cow. Its virtues, 
however, are probably overrated. Another 
species is the White Actsea, or White Cohosh, 
found in rocky woodlands, flowering in May, 
and not so common as the former. Its berries 
also diflfer from those of the Black Snakeroot, 
being oval, about a fourth of an inch in diame- 
ter, milk white, or often tinged with purple 
when fully ripe. {Fbr. Cestrica.) 

BANE-WORT. See Dkahlv NiGHTSnArE. 

BANGLE-EARS. An imperfection in the 
ears of horses. 

BANKS, of rivers and marshes, &c., (banc. 
Sax.). In agriculture, are heaps or mounds of 
earth piled up to keep the water of rivers, 
lakes, or the sea, from overflowing the grounds 
which are situated contiguous to them on the 
inside. (See Embankments.) 

The common law of England is very severe 
against those who wantonly or maliciously in- 
jure or destroy embankments. 

The 7 & 8 G. 4, c. 30, s. 12, enacts that if 
any person shall unlawfully and maliciously 
break down or cut down any sea-bank, or sea- 
wall ; or the bank or wall of any river, canal, 
or marsh, whereby any lands shall be over- 
flowed or damaged, or shall be in danger of 
being so, or shall unlawfully and maliciously 
throw down, level, or otherwise destroy any 
lock, sluice, or flcod-gate, or other work on any 
navigable river or canal, every such offender 
shall be guilty of felony ; and, being convicted 
thereof, shall be liable, at the discretion of the 
court, to be transported beyond the seas for 
life, or for any term not less than seven years, 
or to be imprisoned for any terra not exceeding 
four years ; and if a male, to be once, twice, or 
thrice publicly or privately whipped (if the 
court shall so think fit), in addition to such im- 
prisonment. 

For protecting embankments exposed to 
water washing against them, a thick coat of 
the joint grass, or, as it is likewise called, the 
Bermuda grass, {Cyvodon dactybn, PI. 7, k,) 
is one of the best means that can be adopted 
It is of a remarkably creeping nature, and 
grows very luxuriantly where no other grass 
will live, as on the sea-coast, and on poor loose 
soils. It is taken advantage of by the rice 
planters of the Southern States, whose exten- 
sive embankments are much exposed to the 
washing of water against them, and which are 
greatly protected from injury by the dense mat 
of joint grass made to grow upon them. Its 
extirpation is extremely difficult where it has 
once got possession. Mr. Nuttall says there 
is only one species (the C. dactylon) common 
to Europe, North America, and the West India 
Islands. (NultalPs Genera.) 

BANNOCK. The Scotch name for a small 
loaf or cake. 

BARB. A general name for horses import 
ed from Barbary. The barb, one of the most 
celebrated of the African racers, is to be met 
with throughout Barbary, Morocco, Fez, Tri- 
poli, and Bornou. It seldom exceeds fourteen 
hands and a half in height. The countenance 
M 133 



BARBERRY. 



BARBERRY. 



of the barb is usually indicative of its spirit, 
and the facial line, in direct contradiction to 
that of the Arabian, is often slightly rounded ; 
the eyes are prominent ; the ears, though fre- 
quently small and pointed, are occasionally ra- 
ther long and drooping : the neck is of sufficient 
length ; the crest is generally fine and not over- 
laden with mane ; the shoulders are flat and 
oblique ; the withers prominent, and the chest 
almost invariably deep ; the back is usually 
straight ; the carcass moderately rounded only ; 
the croup long, and the tail placed rather high ; 
the arms and thighs being commonly muscu- 
lar and strongly marked ; the knee and hock 
are broad and low placed ; the back sinews 
singularly distinct and well-marked from the 
knee downwards ; the pasterns rather long, 
and the feet firm, and but moderately open. 

The barb requires more excitement to call 
out his powers than the Arabian; but when 
sulTiciently stimulated, his qualities of speed 
and endurance render him a powerful antago- 
nist, while the superior strength of his fore- 
hand enables him to carry the greater weight 
of the two. The Godolphin barb, which M'as 
imported from France into England, at the con- 
clusion of the last century, about 25 years 
after the Darley Arabian, was one of those 
most worthy of note. The former appears to 
have rivalled the latter in the importance of 
his get. He was the sire of Lath, Cade, Ba- 
braham, Regulus, Bajazet, Tarquin, Dormouse, 
Sultan, Blank, Dismal, and many other horses 
of racing note ; and without doubt, the Eng- 
lish blood-breeds were more indebted to the 
Darley Arabian and the Godolphin barb than 
to all the other eastern horses which had pre- 
viously entered the country. Among other 
barbs of some notoriety introduced in the 18th 
century, Ave may mention the Thoulouse, the 
Curwen Bay, Old Greyhound, St. Victor's, 
Tarran's Black, Hutton's Bay, Cole's Bay, and 
Compton's Barb. {Blaine's Encyc. Rural Sports, 
p. 243.) 

BARBERRY, COMMON, or PIPPERIDGE 
BUSH {Berberls vulgaris). In England an in- 
digenous thorny shrub, bearing bunches of 
pale yellow drooping flowers in May, which 
are succeeded by oblong scarlet berries, ripen- 
ing in September. The branches are flexible, 
covered with alternate tufts ot deciduous, egg- 
shaped, pinnated leaves, finely fringed on the 
edge. Sharp, three-cleft thorns rise at the 
base of each leaf-bud. The barberry likes 
any kind of soil, and makes good hedges. It 
may be propagated by seed, or by layers, 
which should remain two years before they 
are removed. The gross shoots, if the shrub 
stands singly, should be pruned away, and it 
will fruit better. The berries are gratefully 
acid, and the juice, when diluted with water, 
may be used as lemonade in fevers. The 
leaves, eaten in salad, are like sorrel. The 
fruit, made into conserve, is good. It is also 
excellent as a pickle and a preserve. 

The common barberry bush is a native of 
England ; and notwithstanding the high state 
of cultivation that kingdom has now arrived 
at, it is still to be found growing wild in manv 
parts of the northern counties. Gerarde says 
in his time (1597), most of the hedges near 
134 



Colnbrook were nothing else but barberry- 
bushes. It is now very properly introduced 
into our gardens and shrubberies, being both 
ornamental and useful ; but it should not be 
planted near the house or principal walks, on 
account of its offensive smell when in blossom. 
The flowers are small, but beautiful ; and, on 
their first appearance, have a perfume similar 
to that of the cowslip, which changes to a pu- 
trid and most disagreeable scent, particularly 
towards the evening, and at the decay of the 
flowers. Barberries are of an agreeable, cool- 
ing, astringent taste, which creates appetite. 
The fruit and leaves give an agreeable acid to 
soap. The Egyptians were used to employ a 
diluted juice of the berries in ardent and pesti- 
lential fevers ; but it is merely an agreeable 
acidulous diluent. The inner bark, with alum, 
dyes a bright yellow, and in some countries is 
used for colouring leather, dyeing silk and cot- 
ton, and staining wood for cabinet and other 
purposes. Cows, sheep, and goats are said to 
feed on the leaves : but horses and swine re- 
fuse them. A very singular circumstance has 
been stated respecting the barberry shrub : 
that grain sown near it becomes mildewed, 
and proves abortive, the ears being in general 
destitute of grain; and that this influence is 
sometimes extended to a distance of 300 or 
400 yards across a field. This, if correct, is 
a just cause for banishing it from the hedge- 
rows of our arable fields, for which otherwise 
its thorny branches would have made a desir- 
able fence. 

I will cite a few instances which have been 
brought forward in proof of the injurious 
effects of this plant upon standing corn. Mr. 
Macro, a very respectable fanner at Barrow, 
in SuflTolk, planted a barberry bush in his gar- 
den, on purpose to ascertain the disputed fact. 
He set wheat round it three succeeding years, 
and it was all so completely mildewed, that 
the best of the little grain it produced was 
only about the size of thin rice, and that with- 
out any flour. He adds, that some which he 
set on the opposite side of his garden on one 
of the years before mentioned, produced very 
good grain, although the straw was a little 
mildewed. From this observation, Mr. Phillips 
was induced to try the experiment by sow- 
ing clumps of canary seed in his shrubbery. 
Those which were planted immediately under 
the barberry-bush certainly produced no seed ; 
but other plants of this grass yielded seed, al- 
though not at many yards' distance. The cele- 
brated Duhamel and M. Boussonet, who have 
paid such particular attention to agriculture, 
assure us that there is no just reason for as- 
cribing this baneful effect to the barberry- 
bush; and Mr. G. W. Johnson is of the same 
opinion. (See Mildew.) On the other hand, 
we have it afSrmed to be most destructive and 
injurious to all kinds of crops of grain and 
pulse, as proved by various observations, ex- 
periments, and testimonies, made in Branden- 
burgh, Hanover, Prussia, and Germany. (See 
Com. Board of Agr., vol. vii. pp. 18 — 126 ; and 
the writer there says, towards the conclusion 
of his article, " To those still inclined to re- 
gard the barberry as innocent, notwithstanding 
all the above proofs to the contrary, I would 



BARILLA. 



BARK. 



only make the request that they no longer urge 
their opinion on abstract and general grounds, 
until they have collected the result of impar- 
tial observation and careful experiment." 

The Rev. Dr. Singer, in the Trans. High. Sue, 
vol. vi. p. 340, in considering the barberry as 
the cause of rust or mildew on corn crops, 
says, when quoting the survey of Dumfries- 
shire, " On one farm alone, that of Kirkbank, 
the tenant lost about 100/. in his oat-crops 
yearly; and altogether the annual damage in 
the county was considerably above 1000/. The 
views of Sir Joseph Banks, and of some intel- 
ligent practical farmers, relative to the evil 
influence of the Berheris vulgaris, induced the 
late Admiral Sir William Johnstone Hope to 
give orders for the total extirpation of the 
barberry bushes which grew intermixed with 
thorns in his hedgerows; and since that was 
done, and for above twenty years, no such dis- 
temper has appeared in these fields. The same 
thing has been done in some parts of Ayrshire, 
ajid the like result has followed. These facts," 
adds Dr. Singer, "appear to indicate some con- 
nection between the occurrence of rust or mil- 
dew on growing corn and the neighbourhood 
of barberry bushes." Phillips inquires (Pom. 
Brit.), whether the blighting effects of this 
shrub may not in some degree be accounted 
for b)' its May-flowers alluring insects, which 
breed on the branches, and then feed their 
progeny on the nutritious juices of the sur- 
rounding blades of young corn? 

BARILLA. See Soda. 

BARING Roots of Trees. A practice former- 
ly much adopted, but which later experience 
has shown to be highly injurious and hurtful 
to their growth. 

BARK (Dan. barck; Dutch, berck; from the 
Teutonic bergen, to cover). The rind or cover- 
ing of the woody parts of a tree. The bark of 
trees is composed of three distinct layers, of 
which the outermost is called the epidermis, 
the next the parenchyma, and the innermost, or 
that in contact with the wood, the cortical layers. 
The epidermis is a thin, transparent, tough 
membrane ; when rubbed ofi", it is gradually 
reproduced, and in some trees it cracks and 
decays, and a fresh epidermis is formed, push- 
ing outwards the old: hence the reason why 
so many aged trees have a rough surface. 
The parenchyma is tender, succulent, and of 
a dark green. The cortical layer, or liber, con- 
sists of thin membranes encircling each other, 
and these seem to increase with the age of the 
plant. The liber, or inner bark, is known by 
its whiteness, great flexibility, toughness, and 
durability: the fibres in its structure are lig- 
neous tubes. It is the part of the stem through 
which the juices descend, and the organ in 
which the generative sap from whence all the 
other parts originate is received from the 
leaves. The bark in its interstices contains 
cells which are filled with juices of very vary- 
ing qualities ; some, like that of the oak, re- 
markable for their astringency; others, like 
the cinnamon, abounding with an essential oil: 
others, as the Jesuits' bark, containing an al- 
kali ; some mucilaginous ; many resinous. Se- 
veral of these barks have been analysed by 
Tarious chemists: they have found them to 



consist chiefly of carbon, oxygen, and hydro • 
gen, with various saline and earthy substances. 
{Thorn. Chem. vol. iv. p. 231.) 

M. Saussure (Chem. Rec. Feg.) found in 100 
parts of the ashes of the barks of various 
trees the following substances : — 





Oik. 


H-i. p„p,„.^ M-J'; 


Horri- 
besni. 


Soluble salts - 
Earthy phosphates 
Earthy carbonates 
Silica 
Metallic oxides 


3- 
66- 
1-5 
2- 


125 
55 

54- 
025 
1-75 


6- 
5-3 
60- 
4- 
1-5 


8-5 
45- 
15 12 

112 


45 
45 
59 
1-5 
0-12| 



From this analysis the farmer will see that 
the earthy and saline ingredients of the bark 
of forest trees must be considerable fertilizers : 
it is only to the slowness with which refuse 
tanner's bark undergoes putrefaction that its 
neglect by the cultivator must be attributed. 
It might certainly, however, be mixed with 
farm-yard compost with very considerable 
advantage, as has been often done with saw- 
dust and peat, in the manner so well described 
by Mr. Dixon of Hathershew (Journ. uf Roy. 
Eng. Agr. Soc. vol. i. p. 135), see Farm-Yard 
Manure; and in its half putrefied or even fresh 
state it produces on some grass lands very ex- 
cellent effects as a top dressing; and in in- 
stances where carriage is an object, even its 
ashes would be found, from the quantity of 
earthy carbonates and phosphates whfch they 
contain, a very useful manure. 

The different uses of barks in tanning and 
dyeing are numerous and important. The 
strength or fineness of their fibres is also of 
consequence : thus, woody fibres are often so 
tough as to form cordage, as exemplified in the 
hark of the lime, the willow, and the cocoa- 
nut; the liber of some trees, as for example 
the lime and the paper mulberry, is manufac- 
tured into mats ; and it is scarcely requisite to 
refer to hemp and flax for spinning and weav- 
ing. The bark of the papyrus, or flag of the 
Nile, was first used for paper; that of the 
mulberry is still employed in the cloth of Ota- 
heite ; that of the powdered Swedish pines, as 
bread for the poor peasants of Scandinavia. 
In England, the bark of the oak is used for 
affording tannic acid in the manufacture of 
leather; but other barks, such as that of the 
Spanish chestnut and the larch, are also em- 
ployed. The following table of Davy will 
show the relative value of different kinds of 
bark to the tanner: it gives the quantity of 
tannic acid afforded by 480 lbs. of diflTerent 
barks in that great chemist's own experiments 
(Led. p. 83.) 



Average from the entire hark of- 
Middle-sized oak, cut in sprins - 
• cut in autumn 



Spanish chestnut . . . - - 
Leicester willow (large size) - . . 
Elm -------- 

Common willow (large) - - - . 

Ash 

Beech ---..-. 

Horse chestnut ------ 

.Sycamore ------- 

Lombardy poplar - - . - . 

Birch 

Hazel -------- 

Blackthorn ---..-..ifi 
Coppice oak ------- 32 

Larch, cut in autumn ---.--? 
White interior conical layers of oak bark - 73 

135 



BARKING. 



BARKING. 



The difference of seasons makes a consider- 
able variation in the produce of tannic acid ; 
it is the least in cold springs. The tannic acid 
most abounds when the buds are opening, and 
least in the winter; 4 or 5 lbs. of good oak 
bark of average quality are required to form 
1 lb. of leather. The consumption of oak bark 
in Great Britain is about 40,000 tons, more 
than one half of which is imported from the 
Netherlands. 

Cork is the outer bark of a species of oak, 
which grows abundantly in the south of Eu- 
rope. The average quantity imported annually 
is about 44,551 cwts. 

The quantity of Quercitron bark, which is 
the production of black oak (Quercus nigra), 
is 22,625 cwts. 

The quantity of Cinchona, or Peruvian bark, 
is on an average about 300,000 lbs., but the 
consumption does not exceed 45,000 lbs. : the 
remainder is re-exported. 

The bark of trees is best cleansed from the 
parasitical mosses with which it is wont to be 
infected, by being washed with lime-water or 
a solution of common salt in water (4 oz. to a 
gallon), applied by a plasterer's brush. 

BARK-BEETLES, see Pine-tree Beetle, 
or Weevil. 

BARK-BOUND. A disease common to 
some fruit and other trees, which is capable of 
being cured by making a slit through the bark, 
from the top of the tree to the bottom, in Fe- 
bruary or March ; where the gaping is pretty 
considerable, fill it up with cow-dung, or other 
similar composition. 

BARKING IRONS, are instruments for re- 
moving the bark of oak and other trees. They 
consist of a blade o>- Knife for cutting the bark, 
while yet on the trunk, across at regular dis- 
tances, and of chisels or spatulas, of diiferent 
lengths and breadths for separating the bark 
from the wood. 

BARKING OF TREES, the operation of 
stripping off the bark or rind. It is common 
to perform the operation of oak-barking in the 
spring months, when the bark, by the rising of 
the sap, is easily separated from the wood. 
This renders it necessary to fell the trees in 
these months. The tool commonly made use 
of in most countries is made of bone or iron. 
If of the former, the thigh or shinbone of an 
ass is preferred, which is formed into a two- 
handed instrument for the stem and larger 
boughs, with a handle of wood fixed at the end. 
The edge being once given by the grinding- 
stone, or a rasp, it keeps itself sharp by wear. 

In Europe, two descriptions of persons are 
usuall}'^ employed in this business, the hagmen 
or cutters, and the barkers. The latter chiefly 
consists of women and children. The cutters 
should be provided with ripping-saws, widely 
set, with sharp, light hatchets, and with short- 
handled pruning-hooks. The barkers are pro- 
vided with light, short-handled, ashen mallets, 
the head being about eight inches long, three 
inches diameter in the face, and the other end 
blunt, somewhat wedge-shaped; with sharp 
asher wedges, somewhat spatula-shaped, and 
which may either be driven by the mallet, or, 
b« ing formed with a kind of handle, may be 
pushed with the hand; and with a smooth- 
13? 



skinned whin, or other land-stone. The cut- 
ters are divided into two parties ; hatchet-men, 
who sever the stem, and hook-men, who prune 
it of small twigs, and cut it into convenient 
lengths. Small branches and twigs are held by 
one hand on the stone; the bark is then strip- 
ped off, and laid regularly aside, as in reaping 
of corn, till a bundle of convenient size be 
formed. The trunk and branches, as large as 
the leg, &c. are laid along the ground ; the bark 
is started, at the thick end, by thrusting or 
driving in the wedge, which, being run along 
the whole length, rips it open in an instant; 
the wedge is applied on both sides of the in- 
cision, in the manner of the knife in skinning 
a sheep. A skilful barker will skin a tree or 
branch as completely as a butcher a beast. 
But the point most particularly to be observed 
in this art is, to take off the bark in as long 
shreds or strands as possible, for the con- 
venience of carriage to, and drying it on, the 
horses. These are formed of long branches ; 
and pieces of a yard in length, sharpened at 
one end, and having a knag at the other to re- 
ceive and support the end of the former. 

The horses or supports may stand within 
four or five feet of each other, and are always 
to be placed on a dry, elevated spot, that the 
bark may have free air in drying. At the end 
of each day's work, the bark is carried to, and 
laid across, the horses, to the thickness ol 
about six or eight inches. The large pieces 
are set up on end, leaning against the horses, 
or they are formed into small pyramidal stacks. 
Due attention must be paid to turning the bark 
once, or perhaps twice a day, according to the 
state of the weather. Good hay weather is good 
barking weather. Gentle showers are bene- 
ficial ; but long continued rains are productive 
of much evil ; nor is the bark the better for 
being dried too fast. A careful hagman will 
take pains to lay the strong pieces of the trunk 
in such a manner as to shoot off the wet, in 
continued rains, from the smaller bark of the 
extremities ; at the same time, preserving as 
much as possible the colour of the inner bark, 
and consequently the value of the whole, by 
turning the natural surface outwards. For it 
is chiefly by the high brown colour of the inner 
rind, and by its astringent effect upon the pa- 
late when tasted, that the tanner or merchant 
judges of its value. These properties are lost, 
if through neglect, or by the vicissitudes of the 
weather, the inner bark be blanched or ren- 
dered white. 

After it becomes in a proper state, that is, 
completely past fermentation, if it cannot con- 
veniently be carried off the ground and housed, 
it must be stacked. An experienced husband- 
man who can stack hay can also stalk bark. 
But it may be proper to warn him against 
building his stalk too large, and to caution him 
to thatch it well. 

The method of drying bark in Yorkshire is 
generally the common one of setting it in a 
leaning posture against poles lying horizontally 
on forked stakes. But in a wet season, or 
when the ground is naturally moist, it is laid 
across a line of top-wood, formed into a kind 
of banklet, raising the bark about a foot from 
the ground. By this practice no part of the 



BARK-LICE. 



BARK-LICE. 



bark is suffered to touch the ground ; and it is, 
perhaps, upon the whole, the best practice in 
all seasons and situations. 

BARK-LICE. The mischiefs effected 
through these minute insects, to fruit and other 
valuaiole trees, are far greater than is generally 
supposed, and hence every farmer and gar- 
dener must be interested in becoming inti- 
mately acquainted with the nature and habits 
of so formidable an enemy. For the following 
exceedingly interesting account of bark-lice 
commonly met with in the eastern states, we 
are indebted to our eminent countryman, Dr. 
Thadeus William Harris of Massachusetts, 
who was employed by that extremely liberal 
and enlightened state to write an account of 
the " Insects Injurious to Vegetation" and made 
his report to the legislature in 1841. His 
treatise upon the subject forms a large octavo 
volume of 460 pages. 

" The celebrated scarlet in grain, which has 
been employed in Asia and the South of Eu- 
rope, from the earliest ages, as a colouring 
material, was known to the Romans by the 
name of Coccus, derived from a similar Greek 
word, and M'as, for a long time, supposed to be 
a vegetable production, or grain, as indeed its 
name implies. At length it was ascertained 
Uiat this valuable dye was an insect, and others 
agreeing with it in habits, and some also in 
properties, having been discovered, Linnaeus 
retained them all under the same name. Hence 
in the genus Coccus are included not only the 
Thofa of the Phoenicians and Jews, the Kermes 
of the Arabians, or the Coccus of the Greeks 
and Romans, but the scarlet grain of Poland, 
and the still more valuable Cochenille of 
Mexico, together with various kinds of bark- 
lice, agreeing with the former in habits and 
structure. These insects vary very much in 
form ; some of them are oval and slightly con- 
vex scales, and others have the shape of a 
muscle ; some are quite convex, and either 
formed like a boat turned bottom upwards, or 
are kidney-shaped, or globular. They live 
mostly on the bark of the stems of plants : some, 
however, are habitually found upon leaves, 
and some on roots. In the early state, the 
head is completely withdrawn beneath the 
shell of the body and concealed, the beak or 
sucker seems to issue from the breast, and the 
legs are very short and not visible from above. 
The females undergo only a partial transforma- 
tion, or rather scarcely any other change than 
that of an increase in size, which, in some 
species indeed, is enormous, compared with 
the previous condition of the insect ; but the 
males pass through a complete transformation 
before arriving at the perfect or winged state. 
In both sexes we find threadlike or tapering 
antennoe, longer than the head, but much 
shorter than those of plant-lice, and feet con- 
sisting of only one joint, terminated by a single 
claw. The mature female retains the beak or 
sucker, but does not acquire wings ; the male 
on the contrary has two wings, but the beak 
disappears. In both there are two slender 
threads at the extremity of the body, very short 
in some females, usually quite long in the 
males, which moreover are provided with a 
18 



stylet at the tip of the abdomen, which is re 
curved beneath the body. 

" The following account drawn up by me in 
the year 1828, and published in the seventh 
volume of the 'New England Farmer,' p. 186, 
187, contains a summary of nearly all that is 
known respecting the history and habits of 
these insects. Early in the spring the bark- 
lice are found apparently torpid, situated lon- 
gitudinally in regard to the branch, the head 
upwards, and sticking by their flattened infe- 
rior surface closely to the bark. On attempt- 
ing to remove them they are generally crushed, 
and there issues from the body a dark co- 
loured fluid. By pricking them with a pin, 
they can be made to quit their hold, as I have 
often seen in the common species. Coccus hes- 
peridum, infesting the myrtle. A little later the 
bod)^ is more swelled, and, on carefully raising 
it with a knife, numerous oblong eggs will be 
discovered beneath it, and the insect appears 
dried up and dead, and only its outer skin re- 
mains, which forms a convex cover to its 
future progeny. Under this protecting shield 
the young are hatched, and, on the approach 
of warm weather, make their escape at the 
lower end of the shield, which is either slightly 
elevated or notched at this part. They then 
move with considerable activity, and disperse 
themselves over the young shoots or leaves. 
The shape of the young Coccus is much like 
that of its parent, but the body is of a paler 
colour and more thin and flattened. Its six 
short legs, and its slender beak are visible 
under a magnifier. Some are covered with a 
mealy powder, as the Coccus cacti, or cochenille 
of commerce, and the Coccus adonidum, or 
mealy bug of our green-houses. Others are 
hairy or woolly ; but most of them are naked 
and dark-coloured. These young lice insert 
their beaks into the bark or leaves, and draw 
from the cellular substance the sap that nou- 
rishes them. Reaumur observed the ground 
quite moist under peach-trees infested with 
bark-lice, which was caused by the dripping 
of the sap from the numerous punctures made 
by these insects. While they continue their 
exhausting suction of sap, they increase in 
size, and during this time are in what is called 
the larva state. When this is completed, the 
insects will be found to be of different magni- 
tudes, some much larger than the others, and 
they then prepare for a change that is about to 
ensue in their mode of life, by emitting from 
the under-side of their bodies numerous little 
white downy threads, which are fastened, in 'a. 
radiated manner, around their bodies to the 
bark, and serve to confine them securely in 
their places. After becoming thus fixed they 
remain apparently inanimate ; but under these 
lifeless scales the transformation of the insect 
is conducted ; with this remarkable difference, 
that, in a few days the large ones contrive to 
break up and throw off, in four or five flakes, 
their outer scaly coats, and reappear in a very 
similar form to that which they before had; 
the smaller ones, on the contrary, continue 
under their outer skins, which serve instead 
of cocoons, and from which they seem to 
shrink and detach themselves, and then he- 
M 2 137 



BARK-LICE. 

come perfect pupffi, the rudiments of wings, 
antennae, feet, &c., being discoverable on rais- 
ing the shells. If we follow the progress of 
these small lice, which are to produce the 
males, we shall see, in process of time, a pair 
of threads and the tips of the wings protruding 
beneath the shell at its lower elevated part, 
and through this little fissure the perfect in- 
sect at length backs out. After the larger lice 
have become fixed and have thrown off their 
outer coats, they enter upon the pupa or 
chrysalis state, which continues for a longer 
or shorter period according to the species. 
But when they have become mature, they do 
not leave the skins or shells covering their 
bodies, which continue flexible for a time. 
These larger insects are the females, and are 
destined to remain immovable, and never 
change their place after they have once be- 
come stationary. The male is exceedingly 
small in comparison to the female, and is pro- 
vided with only two wings, which are usually 
very large, and lie flatly on the top of the 
body. After the insects have paired, the body 
of the female increases in size, or becomes 
quite convex, for a time, and ever afterwards 
remains without alteration ; but serves to 
shelter the eggs which are to give birth to her 
future off"spring. These eggs, when matured, 
pass under the body of the mother, and the 
latter by degrees shrink more and more till 
nothing is left but the dry outer convex skin, 
and the insect perishes on the spot. Some- 
times the insect's body is not large enough to 
cover all her eggs, in which case she beds 
them in a considerable quantity of the down 
that issues from the under or hinder part of 
her body. There are several broods of some 
species in the year ; of the bark-louse of the 
apple-tree at least two are produced in one 
season. It is probable that the insects of the 
second or last brood pair in the autumn, after 
which the males die, but the females survive 
the winter, and lay their eggs in the following 
spring. 

" Young appie-trees, and the extremities of 
the limbs of older trees are very much subject 
to the attacks of a small species of bark-louse. 
The limbs and smooth parts of the trunks are 
sometimes completely covered with these in- 
sects, and present a very singularly wrinkled 
and rough appearance from the bodies which 
are crowded closely together. In the winter 
these insects are torpid, and apparently dead. 
They measure about one-tenth of an inch in 
length, are of an oblong oval shape, gradually 
decreasing to a point at one end, and are of a 
brownish colour very near to that of the bark 
of the tree. These insects resemble in shape 
one which was described by Reaumur in 1738, 
who found it on the elm in France, and 
Geoffroy named the insect Coccus arborum 
linearis, while Gmelin called it conchiformis. 
This, or one much like it, is very abundant 
upon apple-trees in England, as we learn from 
Dr. Shaw and Mr. Kirby; and Mr. Rennie 
states that he found it in great plenty on cur- 
rant-bushes. It is highly probable that we have 
received this insect from Europe, but it is 
somewhat doubtful whether our apple-tree 
bark-louse be identical with the species found 
13» 



BARK-LICE. 

by Reaumur on the elm ; and the doubt seems 
to be justified by the diflference in the trees and 
in the habits of the insects, our species being 
gregarious, and that of the elm nearly solitary. 
It is true, that on some of our indigenous 
forest-trees bark-lice of nearly the same form 
and appearance have been observed ; but it is 
by no means clear that they are of the same 
species as those on the apple-tree. The first 
account that we have of the occurrence of 
bark-lice on apple-trees, in this country, is a 
communication by Mr.Enoch Perle)^ of Bridge- 
town, Maine, written in 1794, and published 
among the early papers of the Massachusetts 
Agricultural Society. These insects have now 
become extremely common, and infest our nur- 
series and young trees to a very great extent. In 
the spring the eggs are readily to be seen on 
raising the little muscle-shaped scales beneath 
which they are concealed. These eggs are of a 
white colour, and in shape nearly like those 
of snakes. Every shell contains from thirty 
to forty of them, imbedded in a small quantity 
of whitish friable down. They begin to hatch 
about the 25th of May, and finish about the 
10th of June, according to Mr. Perley. The 
young, on their first appearance, are nearly 
white, very minute, and nearly oval in form. 
In about ten days they become stationary, and 
early in June throw out a quantity of bluish 
white down, soon after which their transforma- 
tions are completed, and the females become 
fertile, and deposit their eggs. These, it seems, 
are hatched in the course of the summer, and 
the young come to their growth and provide 
for a new brood before the ensuing winter. 

" Among the natural means which are pro- 
vided to check the increase of these bark-lice, 
are birds, many of which, especially those of 
tlie genera Parus and Regulus, containing the 
chickadee and our wrens, devour great quan- 
tities of these lice. I have also found that 
these insects are preyed upon by internal 
parasites, minute ichneumon flies, and the 
holes (which are as small as if made with a 
fine needle), through which these little insects 
come forth, may be seen on the backs of a 
great many of the lice which have been de- 
stroyed by their intestine foes. The best ap* 
plication for the destruction of the lice is a 
wash made of two parts of soft soap and eight 
of water, with which is to be mixed lime 
enough to bring it to the consistence of thick 
white-wash. This is to be put upon the trunks 
and limbs of the trees with a brush, and as 
high as practicable, so as to cover the whole 
surface, and fill all the cracks in the bark. 
The proper time for washing over the trees is 
in the early part of June, when the insects are 
young and tender. These insects may also be 
killed by using in the same way a solution 
of two pounds of potash in seven quarts of 
water, or a pickle consisting of a quart of com- 
mon salt in two gallons of water. 

"There has been found on the apple and 
pear tree another kind of bark-louse, which 
differs from the foregoing in many important 
particulars, and approaches nearest to a spe- 
cies inhabiting the aspen in Sweden, of which 
a description has been given by Dalman in the 
I ' Transactions of the Royal Academy of Sci- 



BARK-LICE. 



BARLEY. 



ences of Stockholm,' for the year 1825, under 
the name of Coccus cryptogamus. This species 
is of the kind in which the body of the female 
is not large enough to cover her eggs, for the 
protection whereof another provision is made, 
consisting, in this species, of a kind of mem- 
branous shell, of the colour and consistence 
almost of paper. In the autumn and through- 
out the winter, these insects are seen in a dor- 
mant state, and of two different forms and 
sizes on the bark of the trees. The larger 
ones measure less than a tenth of an inch in 
length, and have the form of a common oyster- 
shell, being broad at the hinder extremity, but 
tapering towards the other, which is surmount- 
ed by a little oval brownish scale. The small 
ones, which are not much more than half the 
length of the others, are of a very long oval 
shape, or almost four-sided with the ends 
rounded ; and one extremity is covered by a 
minute oval dark-coloured scale. These little 
shell-like bodies are clustered together in great 
numbers, are of a white colour and membran- 
ous texture, and serve as cocoons to shelter 
the insects while they are undergoing their 
transformations. The large ones are the pupa- 
cases or cocoons of the female, beneath which 
the eggs are laid ; and the small ones are the 
cases of the males, and differ from those of the 
females not only in size and shape, but also in 
being of a purer white colour, and in having 
an elevated ridge passing down the middle. 
The minute oval dark-coloured scales on one 
of the ends of these white cases are the skins 
of the lice while they were in the young or 
larva state, and the white shells are probably 
formed in the same way as the down which 
exudes from the bodies of other bark-lice, but 
which in these assumes a regular shape, vary- 
ing according to the sex, and becoming mem- 
branous after it is formed. Not having seen 
these insects in a living state, I have not been 
able to trace their progress, and must therefore 
refer to Dalman's memoir above mentioned, 
for such particulars as tend to illustrate the 
remaining history of this species. The body 
of the female insect, which is covered and 
concealed by the outer case above described, 
is minute, of an oval form, wrinkled at the 
sides, flattened above, and of a reddish colour. 
By means of her beak, which is constantly 
thrust into the bark, she imbibes the sap, by 
which she is nourished ; she undergoes no 
change, and never emerges from her habita- 
tion. The male becomes a chrysalis or pupa, 
and about the middle of July completes its 
transformations, makes its escape from its 
case, which it leaves at the hinder extremity, 
and the wings with which it is provided are 
reversed over its head during the operation, 
and are the last to be extricated. The perfect 
male is nearly as minute as a point, but a 
powerful magnifier shows its body to be divided 
into segments, and endued with all the im- 
portant parts and functions of a living animal. 
To the unassisted eye, says Dalman, it appears 
only as a red atom, but it is furnished with a 
pair of long whitish wings, long antennae or 
horns, six legs with their respective joints, and 
two bristles terminating the tail. This minute 
insect perforates the middle of the case cover- 



ing the female, and thus celebrates its nuptials 
with its invisible partner. The latter subse- 
quently deposits her eggs and dies. In due 
time the young are hatched and leave the case, 
under which they were fostered, by a little 
crevice at its hinder part. These young lice, 
which I have seen, are very small, of a pale 
yellowish brown colour, and of an oval shape, 
very flat, and appearing like minute scales. 
They move about for a while, at length become 
stationary, increase in size, and in due time 
the whitish shells are produced, and the in- 
cluded insects pass from the larva to the pupa 
state. The means for destroying these insects 
are the same as those recommended for the 
extermination of the previous species. (See 
Aphis, Thrips, &c.) 

" Many years ago, when on a visit from 
home, I observed on a fine native grape-vine, 
that was trained against the side of a house, 
great numbers of reddish brown bark-lice, of a 
globular form, and about half as large as a 
small pea, arranged in lines on the stems. An 
opportunity for further examination of this 
species did not occur till tlie last summer, 
when I was led to the discovery of a few of 
these lice on my Isabella grape-vines, by see- 
ing the ants ascending and descending the 
stems. Upon careful search I discovered the 
lice, which were nearly the colour of the bark 
of the vine, partly imbedded in a little crevice 
of the bark, and arranged one behind another 
in a line. They drew great quantities of sap, 
as was apparent by their exudations, by which 
the ants were attracted. Further observations 
were arrested by a fire which consumed the 
house and the vines that were trained to it." 
{Harris' sTreatise on Insects.) 

BARLEY (Lat. hordeum). A species of 
bread corn, which in Europe ranks next to 
wheat in importance, and of which there are 
several varieties. The generic name seems 
either hordeum, from korreo, on account of its 
long awns, or, as it was anciently written, 
fordeum, rather from sfs^/Ja, to feed or nourish, 
whence po^fix and forbeu, and, changing the b 
into d, fordeum. ( Vossius.) The name is, how- 
ever, derived by Junius from the Hebrew -13. 
The plant belongs to the natural order Granii^ 
nex, or grasses. It readily accommodates 
itself to any climate, bearing the heat of the 
torrid zone, and the cold of the frigid, and 
ripening in both equally well. Of the genus 
Hfjrdeum, says Professor Low, the following 
species may be enumerated as cultivated for 
their seeds : — 

1. Two-rowed barley {Hordeum distichum). 
Pi. 3, a. 

2. Two-rowed naked barley {H. Gymnodis- 
tichurn). 

3. Two-rowed sprat, or battledore barley 
{H. disticho-zeocrilon). PI- 3, d. 

4. Six-rowed winter barley (//. hexastichum). 

PI. 3, b. 

5. Six-rowed naked barley {H. Gymno-hexa- 

slichum). 

6. Six-rowed sprat, or battlebore barley {H 
hexasticho-zeocriton). 

The two leading species of this grain in cul- 
tivation are (No. I.) the two-rowed, or common 
barley, and (No. 4.) the six-rowed barley. Th« 

139 



BARLEY. 



BARLEY. 



minor varieties of two-rowed barley are nume- 
rous, and are distinguished chiefly by the 
quality of the grain, and by their habit of early 
or later ripening; and some varieties are more 
productive than others : effects apparently de- 
pendent upon differences of climate and situ- 
ation. 

Barley is an annual plant, but like wheat it 
may be sown in autumn, and then it acquires 
the habit of later ripening, and is termed winter 
barley. 

Two-rowed naked barley is said to have 
been introduced into England in the year 1768. 
It is now little cultivated, and is by some as- 
serted, though without any evidence, to merge 
into the common species. 

The next species, two-rowed sprat, or battle- 
dore barley, is scarcely cultivated in England, 
the shortness of the straw being regarded as 
an objection ; but it is much esteemed in Ger- 
many, where it is termed rice barley, owing to 
its smelling like rice in boiling, when it is de- 
corticated. 

The fourth enumerated species is six-rowed 
barley. When sown before winter, this species 
acquires the habit of late-ripening, and is then 
termed winter barley. 

One of the kinds of six-rowed barley, and 
the best known in this country, is here, bear, 
or bigg. Bigg ripens its seeds in a shorter 
period than the two-rowed barleys. It is culti- 
vated very generally in the north of Scotland, 
in Denmark, Sweden, and other parts of Eu- 
rope, and in the south of England for green 
iood in spring, and for this purpose is sown 
early in the autumn. The number of its grains 
is greater than in the two-rowed kinds, but 
they do not weigh so heavy in proportion to 
their bulk. It is hence regarded as an inferior 
crop, and is only cultivated in the more elevated 
parts of the country. It ripens very early when 
sown in spring, thence the advantages which it 
possesses in a late climate. {Lino's Prnc. A^r. 
p. 240.) 

The six-rowed naked barley is cultivated in 
various parts of Europe, and is greatly es- 
teemed for its fprtility. In some parts of Ger- 
many it is regarded as the most valuable kind 
of barley, and by the French, on account of 
its supposed productiveness, it has been termed 
ort^e celeste. An excellent variety of this naked 
barley has been produced by Mr. C. Alderman, 
of Kintbury, in Berkshire, and M. Mazucco, 
in a French paper, earnestly recommends the 
more general cultivation of naked barley, as 
he states that it weigh« a« much as the best 
wheats, and its quality resembles them so much 
that it may be used for the purpose of making 
good bread, and also for pearl barley. In 
mountainous countries, its produce is twenty- 
four to one. {Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. iii. p. 
373.) This and the other superior kinds of 
barley deserve more attention than they have 
yet received. Mr. Warren Hastings, (in an 
article in the Com. to the Board of Agr. vol. vi. 
p. 304), after twelve years' experience in the 
cultivation of naked barley, very justly ob- 
i-erves, " that it is of the greatest importance 
to promote the culture of this sort of grain." 
" It is," he adds, " the corn that,, next to rice, 
gives the greatest weight of flour per acre, and 
140 



it may be eaten with no other preparation than 
that of boiling. It requires little or no dress- 
ing when it is sent to the mill, having no husk, 
and consequently produces no bran. It is 
gathered into the barn, and may even be con- 
sumed, when the seasons are favourable, in 
about eighty or ninety days after being sown; 
and there is no species of grain better calcu- 
lated for countries where the summer is short, 
provided the vegetation be rapid." 

The last of the species to be mentioned, 
says Professor Low, is six-rowed sprat, or 
battledore barley. This has been sometimes 
termed six-rowed barley ; whereas the charac- 
ter of six-rowed barley does not belong to it 
alone. An examination of the plant will show 
that it is the common battledore barley, with 
all the florets entire. Much confusion Hias 
arisen in the arrangement by agriculturists of 
the cultivated barleys, and in an especial de- 
gree, bj' their speaking of four-rowed and six- 
rowed kinds. There is, however, no barley to 
which the term four-rowed can be applied- 
Barley is termed two-rowed, or six-rowed, ac- 
cording to the number of its fertile florets. In 
two-rowed barley, one row of florets on each 
of the two sides of the spike is fertile, and 
consequently one row of seeds on each side is 
perfected. 

In six-rowed barley, three rows on each side 
are perfected. In this sense only it is termed 
six-rowed barley. But there is no species 
known to us in which only two rows on each 
side of the spike are fertile. Slightly examined, 
indeed, six-rowed barleys frequently present 
the appearance of four rows ; but this is in 
appearance only, for such barleys have always 
the three rows on each side perfect. In poor 
soils and unfavourable situations, two of the 
rows run much into each other, and this has 
perhaps given rise to the mistake ; but the 
two rows which thus run into each other in 
appearance are on the opposite sides of the ra- 
chis. I have ventured, adds Professor Low 
(from whose work the above preliminary ob- 
servations are taken), to propose a new ar- 
rangement of the cultivated barleys ; under 
which it will be seen that the Hordtiim vulgare 
of some botanists is Hordeum hexital ichum, and 
that of the Hordeum hexadichum, of some bota- 
nists is Hordeum bexasllcho-zeocriton. Particu- 
lar varieties have been in great repute at difl^er- 
ent times, when first introduced, and then seem 
to have, on many soils, lost their superiority. 
" Of this kind is the Moldavian barley, which 
was much sought after some years ago ; and 
lately, the CheiuHer barley, so called from the 
gentleman who first brought it into notice, has 
risen into great repute. It is said, that, having 
observed an ear of barley in his field, greatly 
superior to the rest, he carefull}' sowed the 
seed, and cultivated it in his garden, till he had 
a suflicient quantity to sow a field. It has 
since been extremely multiplied and diffused 
through the country. Some eminent maltsters 
and brewers have declared, that it forms more 
saccharine matter than any other sort; and 
the trials hitherto made have convinced most 
agriculturists that it is not only heavier in the 
grain, but more productive. In 1832 Lord 
Leicester, who was always foremost in all agri- 



BARLEY. 

cultural experiments andimprovem,'nts, sowed | 
a considerable portion of land with this b 'rley, 
and the result is said to have been perfb-.tly 
satisfactory. In 1833 two acres of Chevaix°r 
barley vvere sown in the same field with somv" 
of the best of the common barley. The soil 
was poor, light sand, but in good order and 
very clean. The produce of the whole was nearly 
the same, 4 quarters per acre ; but the Cheva- 
lier barley weighed 57 lbs. per bushel, while 
the common barley weighed only 52. This 
gives the farmer an advantage often per cent. 
The sample was very fine, and the whole that 
the cultivator could spare was eagerly pur- 
chased by his neighbours for seed at his own 
price. It is long in the ear, and very plump, 
and the plant tillers so much, that half a bushel 
of seed may be saved per acre. This is proba- 
Dly owing to its grains being all perfect, and 
vegetating rapidly. The straw, like that of the 
other long-eared barleys, appears weak in pro- 
portion to the ear ; it is said also to be harder, 
and not so palatable to cattle. These are cir- 
cumstances which experience alone can as- 
certain. That hitherto it has a decided supe- 
riority over the common sorts, no one who has 
tried it fairly in well-prepared lands seems to 
deny." {Penny Cyc.) 

A nev/ and seemingly very superior variety 
has lately been introduced, called the Annat 
barley. (See Quart. Joum. of Agr. vol. v. p. 
618.) It is the produce of three ears which 
were picked by Mr. Gorrie in a field in Perth- 
shire, in the harvest of 1830, since which pe- 
riod it has been grown at Annat Gardens, 
thence its name. In 1834, it was sown on a 
ridge in the middle of a field, with common 
barley on the one side and Chevalier barley on 
the other. In bulk of straw it seemed to have 
the advantage of both these kinds ; it was five 
days earlier ripe than the former, and about a 
fortnight before the latter, and it was also 2A 
lbs. per bushel heavier than the Chevalier. At 
a meeting of the Stoke Ferry Farmers' Club, 
in February of the present year (1841), it was 
stated by one of the members, that the Cheva- 
lier was decidedly the best stock for good bar- 
ley land ; but for very poor soils he preferred 
the Moldavian ; though, probably even this was 
surpassed by the stock usually known as the 
old field barley. The Annat barley was allud- 
ed to by one gentleman who had tried it last 
season ; but not having thrashed it, he could 
only say that from its appearance it augured 
well. He always adopted the drill system, 
using wide, winged coulters, so as to disperse 
the grain in the rows as much as possible, giv- 
ing the field the appearance of having been 
ploughed in. Very little diflference of opinion 
existed as to the superiority of the Chevalier 
over any other variety, on the average of soils. 
One member had grown 15 coombs an acre on 
it; but he acknowledged it was on very excel- 
lent land. A curious fact was elicited in con- 
nection with this stock of barley; which was, 
that however much the crop might be laid and 
beaten down, either by storms or its own weight, 
the grain did not receive that injury to which 
any other sort under similar circumstances 
vnuld be liable. (JSn7. Farm. Mag.vol. v. p. 190.) 



BARLEY. 

There can be no doubt of the general supe- 
riority of the Chevalier as a malting barley. 
Its introduction has occasioned a complete re- 
volution in certain districts, v/here formerlv no 
such thing as malting barley was thought of. 
It is one of the greatest improvements of mo- 
dern times, and now commands a higher price 
in the market than other barleys by two or 
three shillings a quarter. 

Barley is evidently a native of a warmer cli- 
mate than Britain; for in this moist atmosphere 
it is observed to degenerate, when either ne- 
glected or on a poor soil. We have the best 
authority for its having been cultivated in 
Syria so long back as 3153 years; therefore 
that part of the world may be fairly fixed as 
its native soil. We find that the Romans ob- 
tained barley from Egypt, and other parts of 
Africa, and Spain. It was also grown in 
France, as Columella calls one variety of bar- 
ley Giiluticutii. 

Barley, like all grains, is liable to diseases, 
namely smut, the burnt ear, blight, and mil- 
dew : for an account of which I must refer the 
reader to these words. It is also apt to germi- 
nate in the ear even before it is reaped, in wet 
weather, giving the ear a singular appearance, 
and rendering the grain, even when kiln-dried, 
unfit for malting, and only of use to feed fowls 
or pigs. The diseases of barley are not so nu- 
merous or fatal as those of wheat. It is at- 
tacked by the larvce of certain flies. The smut, 
which attacks it in a partial degree, i" gene- 
rally the fungus uredo segefum. 

Barley is now extensively cultivated in most 
European countries, in America, and in the 
temperate districts of Asia and Africa. It may 
also be raised between the tropics, but not at 
a lower elevation than from 3000 to 4000 feet, 
and then it is not worth cultivating. In Spain 
and Sicily it produces two crops in the year. 
Large quantities of barley have been for a 
lengthened period raised in Great Britain. Re- 
cently, however, its cultivation has been sup- 
posed, though probably on no good grounds, to 
be declining. In 1765, Mr. Charles Smith esti- 
mated the number of barley consumers in 
England and Wales at 739,000 ; and as a large 
proportion of the population of Wales, West- 
moreland, and Cumberland continue to subsist 
chiefly on barley bread, I am inclined to think 
that this estimate may not, at present, be very 
wide of the mark. " Barley" (husked), says 
Pliny, "was the most ancient food in old times, 
as will appear by the ordinary custom of the 
Athenians, according to the testimony of Me- 
nander, as also by the surname given to the 
sword fencers, who, from their allowance or 
pension of barley, were called Hordearii, bar- 
ley men." (Book xviii. chap. 7). It was not 
until after the Romans had learned to cultivate 
wheat, and to make bread, that they gave bar- 
ley to their cattle. They made barley-meal 
into balls, which they put down the throats of 
their horses and asses, after the manner of fat 
tening fowls, which was said to make them 
strong and lusty. 

There are no means of ascertaining whether 
barley was cultivated in Britain when the Ro- 
mans discovered that country ; but as Cassar 

141 



BARLEY. 



BARLEY. 



found corn growing on the coast of Kent, it is 
probable that this species of grain had been 
obtained from Gaul. 

In the rotation of crops, barley may succeed 
to summer fallow, to potatoes, turnips, or any 
other green crop, and to any of the pulse crops. 
It now generally follows turnips in England, 
and is a very important crop in the rotation, 
best adapted to light soils. The principal bar- 
ley counties of England are Norfolk, Suffolk, 
Cambridge, Bedford, Herts, Leicester. Notting- 
ham, the upper parts of Hereford, Warwick, 
and Salop. The produce varies according to 
soil, preparation, season, «&c., from about 25 
to 60 or 70 bushels an acre. The usual crop 
is from 28 to 36 or 38 bushels. The Winches- 
ter bushel of good English barley generally 
weighs about 50 lbs.; but the best Norfolk bar- 
ley sometimes weighs 53 or 54 lbs. Its pro- 
duce in flour is about 12 lbs. to 14 lbs. of the 
grain. 

Barley is said to contain 65 per cent, of nu- 
tritive matter; wheat contains 78 per cent. A 
bushel of barley weighing 50 lbs. will there- 
fore contain about 32 lbs. of nutriment; while 
a bushel of wheat weighing 60 lbs. contains 
47 lbs. Good oats weighing 40 lbs. contain 
about 24 lbs. of nutritive matter; so that the 
comparative value of wheat, barley, and oats, 
in feeding cattle, may be represented by 47, 
32, and 24, the measure being the same. The 
experiments on which this calculation is 
founded were carefully made by Einhof, and 
confirmed on a large scale by Thaer, at his 
establishment at Mogelin, the account of the 
results being accurately kept. 

Barley is a tender plant, and easily hurt in 
any stage of its growth. It is more hazardous 
than wheat, and is, generally speaking, raised 
at a greater expense, so that its cultivation 
should not be attempted except where the soil 
and climate are favourable for its growth. 
There is no grain perhaps more affected (says 
Baxter, in his Lib. of Agr. Knowledge, p. 36,) 
by soil and cultivation than barley, the same 
species exhibiting opposite qualities, modified 
by the nature of the soil from which it is pro- 
duced ; these opposite productions of the same 
individual will, if sown at the same period, on 
the same land, and under the same course of 
cultivation, exhibit corresponding differences, 
which are manifested during the growth of the 
crop, and subsequently in the quality of the 
sample when in hand. Thus the finest sam- 
ples, the growth of suitable and well-cultivated 
lands, would, if sown on a poor and sterile 
soil, become alike coarse in appearance, and 
indifferent in quality. This fact, however im- 
portant, has hitherto but little engaged the at- 
tention of the farmer; and the spring or early 
barley is therefore indiscriminately sown, as 
being Tound more productive for the purpose 
of malting than any of the afore-mentioned 
varieties. The sprat, or battledore barley, 
makes good malt; and being short and erect 
1(1 the ear, and tapering in the stem, is, on 
otrong lands, less liable to injury from falling, 
and is consequently preferred by a few indi- 
viduals. The common, or long-eared barley, 
being long in the ear and weak in the straw, 
IS very liable to lodge early, whereby the grain 
142 



is rendered inferior in quality, and is, there- 
fore, not extensively cultivated. Naked bar- 
ley, or wheat barley, is so termed in conse- 
quence of the grain separating readily from 
the chaff when thrashed. It is a native of the 
north, and will bear sowing early in the sea- 
son ; it is not, however, in much estimatiori 
in the south of England, and is seldom culti- 
vated, although it makes strong malt, and is 
excellent for fattening of hogs and cattle. Win- 
ter barley, or square-eared barley, is grown to 
a considerable extent in the north-western part 
of England, and in Scotland. It is usuall)' 
sown for the feeding of sheep in the south of 
England, and mixed with tares for the soiling 
of cattle. As food for sheep, it is far more 
productive than rye, as it admits of being fed 
down every two or three days during summer; 
and if intended for seed, it may previously be 
fed off by sheep early in the season, without 
injury to the crop. 

The land that produces the best barley is 
generally of a silicious, light, dry nature ; for 
a good mellow preparation and free soil are 
essential to the growth of malting barleys. 
Cold, wet soils, which are peculiarly retentive 
of water, are ill adapted to the growth of this 
grain, both in reference to its weight and its 
malting qualities. The whole matter of bar- 
ley and its straw contains more silicious par- 
ticles than that of any other grain cultivated 
by the British farmer ; and hence one reason 
why a sandy soil is most congenial to the 
growth of this plant. Barley is propagated by 
seed, sown either broadcast or in drills, the 
quantity varying according to the quality of 
the soil, cultivation, and time of sowing ; less 
being required on rich mellow lands than on 
poor soils ; early sowing, with good tillage, re- 
quiring less seed than the late sowing with in- 
different tillage. The quantity of seed gene- 
rally varies from 2^ to 4 bushels the acre (or 
sometimes more), when sown broadcast; but 
when drilled, the quantity of seed need not ex- 
ceed two bushels to the acre. 

Barley is an early ripening ^rain. It may 
be sown at a late period, but The sooner the 
better. The more early that barley can be 
sown, the produce in grain is the surer, though 
the bulk of the straw will be less. The com- 
mon sprat barleys may be sown from the 
second week in March, if the weather prove 
dry, until the 10th of May. The bigg, a variety 
of the winter barley, will stand against the 
wind, and may be sown either in the autumn 
or the beginning of March. The bear, or 
square barley, should be sown as early in the 
autumn as the clearing of the harvest will 
admit, and may be sown after wheat, barley, 
oats, or any pulse crop, being a plant of sturdy 
growth. In the choice of seed, great care 
should be taken that it is not of a reddish hue, 
as in that case it is more than probable that a 
great part of it will never vegetate ; the sample 
should be of a pale, lively colour, and uniform. 
Some farmers, not aware of its importance, are 
in the habit of sowing thin corn ; but unless 
the land is quite adapted, from its nature and 
cultivation, for the fullest encouragement of 
the plant, it will in the end be found a "penny- 
wise and pound-foolish" speculation. In all 



BARLEY. 



BARLEY. 



cases it will be well for the farmer to select 
the finest samples and the plumpest grain ; for 
in unfavourable seasons the crop from thin 
grain is always delicate, and assumes an un- 
kindly hue, whilst, on the contrary, plump seed 
throws up strong, healthy stems, capable of 
resisting the effects of inclement seasons, and, 
in more congenial weather, pushing forth with 
renewed vigour and redoubled strength. In 
England, barley, for the most part, succeeds 
best after turnips, tares, potatoes, carrots, man- 
gel wurzel, or other green ameliorating crops ; 
but does not succeed so well after wheat or 
other white straw crops, nor after rape so well 
as other green crops, except on the South 
Downs of Sussex, and certain lands adjoining 
the sea-coast, where both the quantity of grain 
is greater, and the quality better, after wheat 
(particularly wheat sown upon a clover ley), 
and also after rape, than from any other course 
of tillage. The lands require more or less 
ploughing, according to the quality of the soil, 
and the state in which it is found after the sea- 
son for the working of it commences. On re- 
tentive soils, as compact gravelly clay, if the 
turnips have been fed off during wet weather, 
the earth breaks up in large clods, and requires 
to be reduced by the roller, and at least a se- 
cond ploughing should be given before the 
barley can be safely sown. On light soils of 
the best quality one ploughing may be suffi- 
cient ; but if the land is twice ploughed in the 
spring, as soon as it is sufficiently dry for that 
purpose, it will be found amply to repay both 
the labour and expense. After the grass-seeds 
are sown, the barley-land admits of no further 
tillage. Should any larger Aveeds appear, they 
may be pulled up by the hand; but it is the 
evidence of bad husbandry if a spring-sown 
barley crop requires weeding during the com- 
paratively short period in which it is on the 
ground. If weeding be necessary, it should be 
attended to early, or the crop will be injured 
by treading, and the roller should be used be- 
fore the blade becomes spindled. 

In the harvesting of barley more care is re- 
quisite than in taking any other of the white 
crops, even in the best of seasons ; and in bad 
years it is often found very difficult to save it. 
When the period of harvest arrives, barley 
must be allowed to be sufficiently ripe, but not 
become what is termed " dead ripe." It may 
be cut either by the scythe or the sickle. Bar- 
ley, says Professor Low, on account of the 
softness of its stem, and the tendency of its 
ears to vegetate, is more apt to be injured, and 
even destroyed, by wet weather than any of 
the other cereal grasses. For this reason the 
safer course, in a humid climate like ours, is 
to place it when cut down in sheaves and 
shocks, and not to allow it, as is frequently 
practised, to lie loose upon the ground. By 
some farmers, however, it is suffered to lie in 
the fields until the straw is quite dry, being 
turned over early in the morning while the 
dew is still upon it. This practice, they say, 
is found to improve the colour of the skin, and 
thereby render the grain of more value to the 
maltster. It should never be carried unless 

Serfectly dry, otherwise it is in danger of being 
eated in the mow, which reduces the value 



very materially, for the undue action of the 
heat destroys the spear, or germination of the 
grain ; the malting process is consequently 
very unequally performed, and as the duty has 
to be paid upon the whole bin, maltsters will 
scarcely purchase such samples, unless for 
the purpose of grinding, and then always at 
an inferior price. It Avill be prudent, there- 
fore, not to carry barley until the heat of the 
sun has evaporated the dew from it, when it 
should be carried in a perfectly dry state the 
remainder of the day, until the dew is again 
deposited in the evening. It is a very common 
practice to sow clover and other grass seeds 
with this crop ; but great care must be taken 
that they are thoroughly harvested, for other- 
wise considerable fermentation will be created, 
and the sample injured. It not unfrequently 
occurs, that when it is supposed to be well 
harvested, heat is soon found to subsist in the 
mows, which should be daily examined, by 
placing a long iron spit, that should be kept for 
that purpose, deep into the mow ; when, if the 
heat is found to increase, no delay should take 
place, but the middle should be instantly cut 
asunder, and taken out in proportion to the 
size of the mow, when it will generally escape 
without further injury. This operation, how- 
ever, must not be deferred, as the injury sus- 
tained rapidly increases. By healing in the 
stalk, it quickly becomes discoloured and in- 
jured. When barley is grown in large quan- 
tities, it is usual to tread the mows with horses 
or oxen, to get as much as possible into the 
barns, in which case more guarded caution is 
necessary than when thrown losely over the 
floor. 

This grain should never be thrashed by a 
machine, as the injury done thereby is fre- 
quently of a very serious nature ; it bruises 
the malting spear, which is as injurious to the 
maltsters as if heated in the mow, and, there- 
fore, should be guarded against. Care must 
also be taken not to have too large heaps lying 
together without frequent examination, as, un- 
til it has undergone a proper fermentation in 
the mow, it will be very apt to heat in the 
heap ; in order to prevent which it requires to 
be moved daily, or every other day, till cleaned 
up from the chaff, which, from the fineness of 
its texture, scarcely admits the introduction of 
air, and consequently promotes fermentation. 

The principal demand for barley in Great 
Britain is for conversion into malt, to be used 
in the manufacture of ale, porter, and British 
spirits ; and though its consumption in this 
way has not certainly increased proportionally 
to the increase of wealth and population, still 
there does not seem to be any grounds for sup- 
posing that it has diminished. 

But it is not only the most useful for making 
into malt, it is the best food for promoting the 
fattening of hogs, after they have been fed to a 
certain extent with beans, peas, &c., from 
which it has been found that the meat is not 
only more tender, but increases in boiling 
whilst the meat of those fed on beans and 
peas alone has not only been hard, but has not 
yielded any increase. Barley is employed for 
various other purposes. It is excellent for 
fattening poultry. The flour is snll used in 

43 



BARLEY. 



BARLEY. 



some parts for bread; but the bread, though 
sufficiently nutritious, is dark and strong- 
tasted. Barley, in its green state, especially 
the Siberian winter-barley, makes excellent 
spring food for milch cows, as is Aveli known 
to the cow-keepers about London ; it comes in 
early, and greatly increases the milk. For 
sheep it is more nourishing than rye, and is 
earlier. When fed off quite close in April, it 
will spring up again, and on good land pro- 
duce a fair crop of grain in August ; but, in 
general, it is ploughed up as soon as it is fed 
ofl^, and succeeded by spring tares or turnips. 
Tt is also good food for horses, when given in 
the spring of the year in small proportion with 
oats, sparingly at first, and after being soaked 
in water, and allowed to vegetate. It is in ge- 
neral use in the south of Europe (Com. Board 
of Agr. vol. vi. p. 298). Mixed with other 
grain, in its ground state, it has been found an 
excellent food for fattening bullocks. The 
straw is employed partially for fodder, but 
chiefly for litter. It is lighter than the straws of 
oats and wheat, and less esteemed than either. 
The awns are given to stock, either in their 
natural state or boiled. Malt is the great pur- 
pose, however, to which barley is applied in 
this country. To understand the process of 
malting, it may be necessary to observe, that, 
in the germination of grasses and grains be- 
fore the young plant is produced, the fecula 
of the seed is changed by the heat and moist- 
ure of the earth into sugar and mucilage. 
Malting grain is only an artificial mode of 
effecting this object. The grain is steeped in 
cold water during a certain period ; the water 
is then allowed to drain off, the grain is spread 
out into a deep heap : it gradually heats, the 
rootlets begin to shoot out, afterwards the plu- 
mula begins to grow ; and when this has grown 
to a certain extent within the grain, the further 
germination is checked by exposing the grain 
on a kiln, heated by fire to such a degree as 
extinguishes the vitality of the seed. At this 
period it is found that the starch is, in a great 
measure, converted into saccharine matter, 
and by subsequent fermentation, or distillation, 
either beer or spirits is obtained. (See Feh- 
MKNTATioN, Maltinb, and Brewing.) It is 
only necessary to add here that malt requires 
the best and heaviest barley, with its germinat- 
ing powers entire. 

Barley was formerly in general use in Eng- 
land as bread corn : it is still, for this pur- 
pose, much used on the Continent. It is gene- 
rally used in the warmer climates as the food 
for horses, for which purpose, in fact, it ap- 
pears to answer equally as well as oats. In 
this countrj^, in some seasons, a considerable 
saving may be made by using for this purpose 
inferior barley. This was done in the season 
of 1840 by Mr. Hewitt Davis, of Spring Park, 
who sold his oats at the same price that he 
gave for the barley. And to this end the farmer 
should remember, that two parts of barley are 
tully equal, in feeding properties, to three parts 
vf oats. In Germany they grind the barley, 
and form it into cakes, with which they feed 
rheir horses; and it is no unusual circum- 
ptance, in travelling in that country, to see the 
144 



driver take a slice of the loaf with which he 
baits his horses. 

Wine made from malt, when kept to a pro- 
per age, has a good body, and a flavour nearly 
as agreeable as the geneiality of Madeira 
wines. The wort of malt is useful in scurvy, 
but it is apt to increase the diarrhcea which 
attends that disease. Barley Avas used by the 
ancients for many medicinal purposes. Pot 
barley, pearl barley, and French barley, are 
only barley freed from the husk by a mill ; the 
distinction between them being, that the pearl 
barley is reduced to the size of small shot, all 
but the very heart of the grain being ground 
away. For a description of the mode of ma- 
nufacture, I refer the reader to the Penny Cy- 
clop, vol. iii. p. 466. Barley-water is a decoc- 
tion of either of these, and is reputed soft and 
lubricating; a very useful cooling drink or 
gruel in many disorders, and is recommended 
to be taken with nitre in fevers. Its use is of 
great antiquity, as Hippocrates wrote a Avhole 
book on the merits of gruel made of barley. 
Barley-water is an admirable liquid to admi- 
nister any medicine in, being pleasant, emol- 
lient, and cooling. The French or Scotch 
barley is principally used to thicken broth 
and soup. 

The German chemist, Einhof, has analysed 
ripe barley, and found 100 parts to consist of 
70-05 parts of meal, 18-75 of hmk, and 11-20 
of water. The meal he found to contain 67-18 
parts of starch, 5-21 of uncrystulUzahle sugar, 
4-62 of gum, 3-52 of gluten, 1-15 of albumen, 
0-24 of superphosphate of lime, and 10-79 of 
water and loss, in 100 parts. The husk con- 
tains a bitter principle which is tasted in the 
decoction of entire barley. 

M. Saussure has carefully analysed the ashes 
produced by burning barley and its straw, and 
the result of his experiments is given in Re- 
cherches Chem. sur la Veg., Paris, 1804. 

The grain reduced to ashes, with its skin, 
gave, out of 100 parts, 18 of ashes, which con- 
tained : — 

Potash 18- 

Phosphate of potash - - - - 92 
Sulphate of potash - - - - TS 

Muriate of potash ----- 0-25 

Earthy phosphates ----- 325 

Silica -....-- 35-5 
Metallic oxides . . . - . 0-25 
Loss ....--- 28 

100- 

1000 parts of the straw produced 42 of ashes, 
containing : — 

Potash ------- 16- 

Sulphate of potash ----- 35 

Muriate of potash ----- 0-5 

Earthy phosphates . . - - . 7-75 

Earthy carbonates ----- 12 5 

Silica ------- 57- 

Metallic oxides ----- 05 

Loss 2-25 

100- 

These products no doubt vary in different 
soils ; but the proportion of silica in the straw 
and in the skin of barley is remarkable. This 
barley grew on a chalky soil. In addition to 
these the cubic saltpetre, or nitrate of soda, is 
usually found in minute proportions in barley. 



BARLEY GRASSEa 

The average price in England, per Win- 
chester quarter of barley, according to M'Cul- 
"lOch, was in 

£ s. d. £ s. d. 

1771 - - 1 5 8 1815 - - I 10 3 

1775 - - 1 6 1819 - - 2 6 8 

1780 - - 17 

1785 - - 1 4 Per Imp. Quar. 

1790 - - 1 5 6 1820 - - 1 13 10 

1795 - - 1 17 8 1825 - - 2 1 

1800 - - 3 1830 - - 1 12 7 

1805 - - 2 4 8 1835 - - 1 9 11 

1810 - - 2 7 U 1840 - - 1 12 8 

The account in imperial quarters of the fo- 
reign barley and barley-meal entered for home 
consumption every five years since 1815, was 
iM'CullocKs Com. Did.)— 

Qrs. 

1815 160- 

1820 

1825 270679 

1830 ...--.- 52-107 

1835 137-374 

The annual average, from 1801 to 1825, of 
barley imported into England, in Winchester 
quarters, was from 

Qrs. 

Russia ....--- 7-112 

Sweden and Norway - . . - 987 

Denmark 18-808 

Prussia 18-718 

Germany 24839 

Netherlands 9500 

France and Southern Europe - - 1097 

United States - - - - - 31- 

British North America - - - - 51- 

Other countries - - . . . 2194 

Ireland 33-331 

For further particulars as to its consumption 
and culture, see Smith's Tracts on the Corn 
Trade, 2d edit. p. 182 ; Penny Cyclop., vol. iii. 
p. 461; Brown on Rural Affairs, vol. ii. p. 42; 
and Elements of Prac. Agr., by Prof. Low, p. 
246, &c. ; to which last-named valuable work 
I have, in this and other articles, been under 
very considerable obligation. 

(Phillip's Cult. Veg.; iWCulloch's Com. Diet..- 
Corn. Board of Ag. vol. vi. ; Hitchin, in Baxter's 
Ag. Lib. ; Professor Low's El. of Ag. ,- Brande's 
JJict. of Science.) 

Barley, in the United States, is cultivated 
almost exclusively for the breweries, the grain 
being rarely given to cattle, and barley-bread 
being unknown to native Americans. 

BARLEY GRASSES. Some coarse kind 
of grasses which are known under the several 
names of meadow barley grass (Plate 7, d), 
wall barley grass, way-bennet, and mouse bar- 
ley, and are of little use to the farmer. (See 
HoHPEtJM murinum, and H. pretense.) 

BARLEY HUMMELLER. This is an in- 
strument worked by the hand, which is em- 
ployed when the threshing machine is not in 
use, or performs its work imperfectly. It con- 
sists of a set of parallel iron plates fixed to a 
frame, and worked by the hand like a paver's 
instrument. The barley to be hummelled is 
laid upon the barn-floor, and by repeated 
strokes of the hummeller, is freed from its 
awns. Messrs. Grant, wheelwrights of Aber- 
deenshire, have described this instrument very 
fully, with some improvements, in Trans, High. 
Soc. vol. iv. p. 334. 

BARM. The foam or froth of beer or any 
other liqaor in a state of fermentation, which 
is used as a leaven in the making of bread, 
&c. (See Yeast.) 

19 



BARN OWL. 

BARN. A covered building, constructed for 
the purpose of laying up grain, &c. Farms 
should always be furnished with barns pro- 
portioned to the quantity of grain they produce; 
but since the practices of stacking and thrash- 
ing by mills have become more general, there 
is much less need of large barns. They should 
have a dry situation, and be placed on the 
north or north-east side of the farm yard, so 
that the sun at noonday may shine on th-^ 
thrashing-floor, and the lean-toos for stock in 
the yard be thus open only to the south. Every 
farm should have at least two thrashing-floors, 
that different kinds of grain may be thrashing 
at the same time. Barns may either be con- 
structed of timber, or be built of brick or stone, 
whichever the country affords in the greatest 
plenty, but wooden barns are the best for the 
corn ; and in either case there should be such 
vent-holes or openings in their sides or walls as 
to afford free admittance to the air, in order to 
prevent the mouldiness that would otherwise 
occur from the least dampness lodging in the 
grain. The foundations, and for two feet out 
of the ground, are best made of brick or stone, 
on account of greater solidity, and the protec- 
tion from vermin ; the whole may be roofed 
with either thatch, slate (which is ihe best of 
all), or tiles, as can be most conveniently pro- 
cured. They should have two large double 
folding doors facing each other, one in eaclx 
side of the building, for the convenience of 
carrying in or out wagon-loads ; and these 
doors should be of the same breadth as the- 
thrashing-floor, to afford the more light and 
air. Formerl)', a much larger expenditure in 
the number and size of these buildings was in- 
curred than is now requisite, since the practice 
of stacking has become general. It is found' 
that all grain is a better sample from stacks 
than from barns ; vermin have less chance 
of injuring it, indeed may be set at defiance, 
and at harvest the corn may admit of being, 
carried two days sooner for stacking than, for 
housing. 

BARNACLES. A name given to horse- 
twitchers or brakes, a sort of instrument used 
by farriers to put upon horses' noses, when 
they will not stand quietly to be shod, bled, or 
dressed. 

BARN OWL (Strlx Jlommea). The white, 
or screech owl, unlike soirie of the species, is- 
resident in England throughout the year, 
and is so peculiar in the colour of its plumage, 
and so generally diffused, that it is probably the 
best known of all the British species of owls. 
It inhabits churches, barns, old malting kilns,, 
or deserted ruins of any sort, and also holes in 
decayed trees. If unmolested, the same haunt.-j 
are frequented either by parent birds or their 
off'spring, for many years in succession. As a 
constant destroyer of rats and mice, and that 
to a very considerable extent, the services per- 
formed by barn owls for the agriculturists have 
obtained for these birds toleration at least, 
while by some they are, as they deser\'^ to be, 
strictly protected in return for benefits received. 
Unless disturbed, these birds seldom leave their 
retreat during the day ; and, if the place of 
concealment be approached with caution, and 
a view of the bird obtained, it will generally 
N 145 



BAROMETER. 



BAROMETER. 



be observed to have its eyes closed as if 
asleep. About sunset, the pair of owls, par- 
ticularly when they have young, issue forth in 
quest of food, and may be observed flapping 
gently along, searching lanes, hedgerows, or- 
chards, and small enclosures near outbuildings. 
" In this irregular country," says White of 
Selborne, " we can stand on an eminence and 
see them beat the fields over like a setting dog, 
and often drop down in the grass or corn." 
Besides rats and mice, they feed on shrews, 
small birds, insects, &c., and have sometimes 
been known to capture and eat fish. It is said 
of this owl, that when satisfied, it will hide 
the remainder of its meat like a dog. The 
barn owl lays from three to five eggs, which 
are oval and white, measuring one inch six 
lines in length, and one inch three lines in 
breadth. Young birds are found from July to 
September, and occasionally as late as Decem- 
ber. The young birds are easily tamed, and 
live in harmony with other birds. The barn owl 
is common in most, if not all the counties of 
England, and, according to Mr. Thompson, it 
is also the most common owl in Ireland. In 
Scotland, it is less numerous. Over the tem- 
perate part of the European continent, and in 
North America, it is generally diffused. Its 
form and colour are too common to need de- 
scription. The whole length of the bird is 
about fourteen inches. ( YarrelVs Brit. Birds, 
vol. i.) 

BAROMETER. The word is derived from 
two Greek words, which signify the measurer 
of weight. This, the most valuable instrument 
for meteorological observations in the farmer's 
possession, was invented about the middle of 
the 17th century, by Torricelli, an Italian phi- 
losopher. Some observations of Galileo had, 
perhaps, led the way to the discovery ; the at- 
tention of this great philosopher, according to 
a well knoAvn story, having been drawn to the 
fact that water would not rise higher than 32 
feet in a tube exhausted of air, by some work- 
men of the Duke of Florence, who had vainly 
endeavoured to construct a comon lifting pump 
;to raise water a greater height. Galileo ex- 
plained the phenomenon, by saying that nature 
■had a horror of a vacuum, but that this horror 
'had its limits. It was found by Torricelli, that 
a column of water of about 32 feet exactly 
balanced the weight of the atmosphere which 
surrounds our earth, and that this was equal 
to the weight of a column of mercury of about 
28 inches. Now this column of mercury, 
under various outward shapes, forms the ba- 
rometer, or weather-glass, so useful to the far- 
mer. For as the pressure of the atmosphere 
commonly varies with approaching changes in 
the weather, the consequent rise or fall of the 
;mercury merely marks its amount : one end of 
themereurial tube is hermetically sealed and is 
void of air, so that the quicksilver rises or 
falls in it unresisted ; but the other end of the 
tube is open, and the atmosphere forces the 
mercury through this, by pressure on the sur- 
face of the fluid mercury in the cistern. Thus, 
■th^ atmosphere operates by its varying pres- 
sure. When, therefore, the quicksilver rises, 
the atmospheric pressure is increasing ; when 
'A falls, the pressure is diminishing. 
146 



The more dense the state of the atmosphere, 
the higher the mercury will rise in the instru- 
ment. It is a popular notion that the atmos- 
pheric pressure must be greatest when the air 
is thick and cloudy. The term demiti/, when 
applied to the condition of the atmosphere and 
its relations with Ihe barometer, means specific 
weight, without reference to its clearnes,? or 
cloudiness. Vapour or moisture in the air al- 
ways lessens its weight, and the more vapour, 
whether this be invisible, or in the condensed 
states constituting fogs and clouds, the less the 
weight or density and pressure upon the ba- 
rometer. 

It is more from this rising and falling of the 
barometer, observes Mr. Forster, than from its 
heighi or lowness, that we are to infer fair or 
foul weather. In very hot weather the falling 
of the mercury indicates thunder: in winter, 
the rising indicates frost ; and in frost}^ weather, 
if the mercury fall three or four divisions, 
there will follow a thaw; but in a continued 
frost, if the mercury rises it will snow. When 
foul weather happens soon after the falling of 
the mercury, it will not continue ; and, on the 
contrar)', you may expect, if the weather be- 
comes fair as soon as the mercury rises, that 
it will be of short duration. In foul weather, 
when the mercury rises much and high, and 
so continues for two or three days before the 
foul weather is quite over, then expect a con 
tinuance of fair weather to follow. 

The words usually inscribed on the scale 
plates of barometers, such as " Very Dry," " Set 
Fair," " Fair," etc., etc., are extremely falla- 
cious, and have tended to bring the instrument 
into great discredit as a weather glass. We 
may perhaps except " Stormy," for Avhen the 
lowest falls happen, they are always the pre- 
cursors of very high winds and storms. The 
words inscribed are, perhaps, better indica- 
tions of the Mf^eather in England than on the 
American side of the Atlantic. It must be 
evident that when a barometer, Avith a scale 
plate marked as usual, is carried to high 
and mountainous positions, the mercurial co- 
lumn falls, and has its relations with the words 
on the scale plate entirely changed. The per- 
son Avho wishes to make the barometer useful 
in foretelling the changes of weather in the 
United States must throw aside all dependence 
upon inscriptions, with the exception mention- 
ed, and study its fluctuations with reference 
to the prevailing winds, dew-point, and other 
conditions of the weather at the time. Rain or 
snow is frequently preceded by a rise, instead 
of a fall, of the mercurial column, and a fall 
of the barometer often indicates the cessation 
of rain. 

The rise in the mercurial column generally 
indicates a northerlj' wind. The highest con- 
ditions of the barometer in the Unitei States, 
near the Atlantic, commonly preceae north- 
easterly storms of rain and snow. The very 
highest elevations have been attended with 
very cold weather and a light wind from the 
north, followed by snow or rain within fort)''- 
eight hours. A subsidence of the mercury ge 
nerally indicates wind from a southerly point, 
and should this be so far round as to blow from 
land, the fall of rain or snow will commonly 



BARREL. 

cease, for a while at least. When, during a 
wet spell of weather, the wind has veered to 
the south-easterly points, with a cessation of 
rain, the wind rising to east and north-east is 
generally preceded or attended by a rise of the 
barometer and a renewal of the rain. When 
the wind has been from the south and south- 
west, with a moib,t condition of the atmosphere, 
or high dew-point, a rise of the barometer in- 
dicates that the wind is coming from a point 
north of west, and a clearing up shower about 
to ensue. 

The following tabular view is intended to 
show the manner in which the mercurial 
column of the barometer fluctuates at Phila- 
delphia, a position in the United States, which 



BARROWS. 

may he regarded rather central and removed 
from the extremes of more northerly and 
southerly situations. The higher north, the 
greater the fluctuations of the barometer. The 
observations were carefully made during the 
year 1842, by Mr. Owen Evans, a member of 
the Committee on Meteorology, of the Franklin 
Institute of Pennsylvania. The graduation of 
his barometer agrees with that of the standard 
constructed for the Committee on Meteorologj', 
by which the instruments distributed to the va- 
rious counties of Pennsylvania are regulated. 
The elevation of the place of observation is 
about 30 feet above high-water mark of the 
Delaware. The means are corrected for tem- 
perature to 42° Fahr. 



Mean of Barditieter for each month of \ 
the year 184.;, - - - - j 

Greatest height at the hours of obser- \ 
valion, -. - - - - ) 

Lowest fillip at the hours of observa- ) 
tion, ---.--) 



Jan. 


Feb 


March 


Apiil 


lUy. 


30*1 


300O 


30-04 


29-. 5 


2.) i 


30fi3 


30-47 


3051 


30-4. 


.S031 


29-53 


29 12 


29-52 29 57 


•J9-60 



29-92 
30-41 
2.1 :o 



July 
2S.-96 



Aug. 

29-9t 



30-30 30-3' 

J 
29-78 29-75 



Sept. OcL Nov. 

29 97 30-00 3001 

30-22'30-34l30-43 

I I 

29-63 29-66 29-3' 



Dec. I Year. 

29-99 29-98| 



30-47 
29 -i2 



30-63 
29-12 



Many are the natural indications of vegetables 
which portend changes in the weather ; thus, 
the Pimpernel, or Red Chickweed (Anagal/is 
arvensix), is styled the poor man's weather- 
glass. This little plant blooms in June, in 
stubble fields and gardens, and continues in 
flower all the summer. When this plant is 
seen in the morning with its little red flowers 
widely extended, we may generally expect a 
fine day ; on the contrary, it is a sign of rain 
when its petals are closed. {The Farmer's Al- 
manac.) 

The following table has been constructed 
from a long series of observations made in 
London ; they will apply, however, to a consi- 
derable distance around the metropolis : — 







Thermometer, 


Mean quantity 


January - 


mean Heigtit. 




Inchet. 


29-921 


36-1 


1-483 


February - 


30-067 


38- 


0-746 


March 


29-843 


43-9 


1-440 


April 


29-881 


49-9 


1-786 


May 


29-898 


54- 


1-853 


June 


30 020 


58-7 


1-830 


July 


29-874 


61- 


2-516 


August 


29-891 


61-6 


1-453 


September 


29*<)31 


57-8 


2-193 


October 


29-774 


48-9 


2 073 


November 


29-776 


42-9 


2-400 


December - 


29-693 


39-3 


2-426 



BARREL. A cask or vessel for holding 
liquids, particularly ale and beer. Formerly 
the barrel of beer in London, contained only 
33 ale gallons =• 32^ Imperial gallons. By a 
statute of I W. & M., the ale and beer barrels 
were equalized for every part of England, ex- 
cept London, and ordered to contain 34 gallons ; 
but it was enacted by 43 Geo. 3, c. 69, that 36 
gallons of beer should be taken to be a barrel ; 
and by the 6 Geo. 3, c. 58, it is enacted, that 
whenever any gallon measure is mentioned in 
any excise law, it shall always be deemed and 
talien to be a standard Imperial gallon. At 
present, therefore, the barrel contains 36 Impe- 
rial gallons. It may Ite worth while observing, 
that the barrel or cask is exclusively the pro- 



duce of European ingenuity, and that no such 
article is known to any nation of Asia, Africa, 
or America, who have not derived it from Eu- 
ropeans. The term barrel Avas formerly used 
to denote, in a rough way, other sorts of goods. 
Thus, a barrel of salmon was 42 gallons ; a 
barrel of soap, 256 pounds. In common lan- 
guage, any hollow cylinder is called a barrel. 
Air and water-tight iron barrels coated with 
waterproof composition are now used in the 
navy, and might be made useful to the farmer. 
(M'Culloch's Com. Diet.; Braude's Diet, of 
Science.) 

A measure for Indian corn, in Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, and other Southern States, containing 
10 bushels in the ear = to 3 flour barrels. 

BARREN FLOWERS are those which 
either have stamens and no pistil, or which 
have neither stamens nor pistil. The latter 
are the production of art. 

BARREN SOILS, in general, owe their 
sterility to the presence of too great a propor- 
tion of particular earths — saline, or organic mat- 
ters. No soil can be productive in which 19 
parts out of 20 are composed of any one earth or 
other substance. The improvement of such 
soils constitutes the great art of all manuring 
and tillage. Lands containing an excess of 
calcareous matter may be improved by tne ad- 
dition of clay or sand. Sands may be dressed 
with clay or marl, or vegetable matter. Where 
organic matters are in excess, tne earths may 
be applied. Water must be removed by drain 
ing. {Davifs Lectures, p. 203.) See Soils. 

BARROWS. The common term for tumuli, 
or huge mounds of earth which were raised in 
former times over the bodies of heroes and 
warriors : many of which exist to the present 
day on the plains of Wilts and the downs of 
Dorset, Surrey, Sussex, and other counties. 
Barrow is also the name for a hog, and for any 
kind of carriage moved or borne by the hand. 
The most common barrows in use at present 
are the wheel-barrow, which is employed for 
the carriage of light loads, as of earth to short 
distances, lime for building, manure from the 

14" 



BARS. 



BASS. 



heaps for spreading, and the like. The hand- 
barrow is, under certain circumstances, substi- 
tuted for the wheel-barrow. The load-barrow 
is used for carrying filled sacks to and from 
the granary, «&c. 

BARS. In farriery, a term applied to those 
portions of the crust or hoof of horses that are 
reflected inwards, and which form the arches 
that are situated between the heels and the 
frog. 

Bars of a Horse's Mouth. — The fleshy rows 
that run across the upper part of the mouth, 
and reach almost quite to the palate, very dis- 
tinguishable in some young horses. They 
form that part of the mouth on which the bit 
should rest, and have its effect. 

BAR-SHOE. A particular kind of shoe, 
which is sometimes of necessity used to protect 
a tender frog from injury, the hinder part of the 
shoe being thickened and hollowed over the 
frog ; but unless it is made exceedingly heavy, 
it will soon be flattened down, and in the mean 
time it will most injuriously pres3 upon the 
heels. 

BARTER (Sf an. baratar ,- Ft. barrater ; Ital. 
harratare, which signify to cheat as well as to 
barter: hence also our word barratry). The 
exchanging one commodity for another, Avith- 
out the payment of money. The term barter 
seems to have been derived from the lan- 
guages of southern Europe. This rude mode 
of trade grows into desuetude as a country or 
nation advances in commercial knowledge, 
and progresses in civilization ; and even where 
an actual exchange of commodities does take 
place between merchants and traders, their 
comparative value is expressed by certain 
current moneys, and balanced accordingly, and 
not by the proportionate value one article bears 
to another. The exchange of a civilized peo- 
ple amongst themselves, or with other coun- 
tries, are principally carried on by bills of 
exchange. The actual money payments in a 
country, by no means represent the amount of 
its commercial transactions. {Ptnny Cyclop.) 

BARTH. A provincial term, which sig- 
nifies a warm enclosed place or pasture for 
calves, lambs, and other young animals. 

BARTON, or BARKEN (Sax. bepe-run, an 
area). A term employed in some districts to 
signify the yard of a farm-house. Blount de- 
scribes this word as meaning the demesne 
lands of a manor; the manor-house itself, and 
sometimes the out-houses. Most of our old 
lexicographers explain it as an enclosed place, 
or inner yard, where poultry is kept, or hus- 
bandry used. Blount's is the provincialism of 
the west of England; the latter is still used in 
other places. 

BASIL, SWEET {Ocymum. Probably from 
o<a and /Aam, on account of its lasting fra- 
grance). A culinary aromatic exotic used in 
salads and soups ; the peculiar flavour of 
mock-turtle soups is chiefly derived from this 
valuable pot-herb. There are two species com- 
monly cultivated, both annuals, and originally 
coming from the East Indies. 1. The sweet- 
scented or larger basil (O. basilicum), and, 
2. The dwarf-bush oasil (0. minimum). They 
thrive most in a rich light soil, entirely free 
from anv overshadowing body; but they re- 
148 



quire, especially for the earliest plants, a she* 
tered border. In wet earth, the seed always 
rots. 

BASIL, COMMON WILD {Clietwpodium 
vulgare). This is also slightly aromatic, and 
is a perennial succulent herb, growing in 
bushy places, about hedges, and by road sides, 
on a gravelly or chalk)' soil, 'i'he herb rises 
about a foot high on a wavy, light green, hairy 
stem, with ovate leaves, an inch long, serrated, 
and the ribs beneath armed with bristly hairs. 
The whole of the flowers are also brisll}% on 
branched hairy stalks, both arising from the 
axilla of the leaves and the top of the stem, of 
a light purple colour. The flowers blow in 
July and August. This plant flourishes abun- 
dantly in gardens. It is well known among 
kitchen herbs. Its very odour is fragrant and 
refreshins;. 

BX^IL -Thyme. Field Thyme {Thymus 
acina). A leafy, small annual plant, much 
branched and spreading, but scarcely nine 
inches high, with acute, bluntly serrated 
leaves, rough at the edges, and slightly aro- 
matic. The flowers are in axillary whoils of a 
bluish colour, variegated at the tip with white 
and dark purple ; six on a whorl on simple 
stalks. It grows luxuriantly in cultivated 
fields, especially on a sandy, gravelly, or 
chalky soil. (Smith's Eng. Flur.) 

BASIL. The skin of a sheep tanned. 

BASILISK. (Lat.) The name for a serpent. 

BASIN, or BASON (Fr. ba^sln ,- It. bucino). 

In agriculture, a natural or artificial hollow or 

excavation in the ground, for the reception and 

preservation of water. See Pond. 

BASKETS (Ba!>ged, Welsh ; buscauda, Lat. 
probably from bass, of which baskets were often 
made). They are made principally of the in 
terwoven twigs of willow, osier, and birch, &c., 
but frequently also of grass, rushes, splinters 
of wood, straw, &c. They are made to hold 
all sorts of dry goods, and constructed of every 
variety of quality and shape, from the small 
fruit-pottle to the bushel basket. For market 
baskets the osiers are used whole. Besides 
the vast quantities made in England, some of 
the finer kinds are imported under an ud vah- 
rem duty of 20 per cent. In 1832 this duty pro- 
duced 1044Z. 7*. 9c?., showing that the value of 
the foreign baskets entered for home consump- 
tion in the same year had been 5221/. ISs. 9rf. 
The fishing basket, pannier, or creel for the 
angler, should be made of wicker-work, with 
two openings for a leather strap to pass 
through, which strap should encircle one 
shoulder and be buckled, so th.ii it may be let 
down or taken up as occasion may suit. There 
are great varieties of these panniers; some are 
made of sufficient width to carrj' a fish of four 
or five pounds at full length. 

BASS. The material of which packing 
mats are made. It consists of the bark of the 
lime tree. 

The American Bass wood, or American 
Lime, or Linden {Tilia Americana), abounds 
in the forests east of the Mississippi. It exists 
in Canada, but is most common in the more 
northern portions of the United States. It be- 
comes less frequent towards the south, and in 
Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, is found 



BASTARP ALKANET. 



BAY OF A BARN. 



only on the mountains. Michaux says he 
found this species of lime tree most abundant 
in the Genessee country, bordering on Lakes 
Erie and Ontario, where it frequently consti- 
tutes two-thirds, and sometimes the whole of 
the forests. The sugar maple, the white elm, 
and the white oak are the trees with which it 
most frequently associates. On newly cleared 
land its stump and roots frequently sprout, 
causing no little trouble to the settler 

The presence of the lime tree indicates a 
loose, deep, and fertile soil. It is sometimes 
more than eighty feet high and four feet in 
diameter. Its straight and even trunk, termi- 
nating in an ample and tufted summit, forms 
a beautiful tree. 

The wood is white and soft. In the Northern 
States, where the tulip poplar does not grow, it 
is used for the pannels of carriage bodies and 
the seats of Windsor chairs. It is, however, 
apt to split, and is not considered equal to pop- 
lar for such and other useful purposes. {North 
Ainer. Sylva.) The American Lime tree or 
Linden is extensively cultivated in Europe, 
where its larger leaves easily distinguish it 
from the European Lime or Linden, which 
last bears such sweet blossoms, perfuming the 
air like the mock orange. The European Lin- 
den is so much the prey of insect borers and 
caterpillars as to make its preservation ex- 
tremely difficult, especially in cities. The 
American Linden escapes much better. 

BASTARD ALKANET (Corn Gromwell, 
Lithospermuia arvense). An annual weed com- 
mon in waste grounds and corn-fields, espe- 
cially among rye, flowering in May and June. 
It may be easily known by its tapering root, 
with a bright red bark, which communicates 
its colour to oily substances, as well as to pa- 
per, linen, and pale faces ; and it is therefore 
occasionally used by the young girls in Sweden 
to colour their cheeks. This colouring matter 
is also used to tinge some ointments, especi- 
ally lip-salves, of a red colour. From the root 
usually rises a single stem, about a foot high, 
rough, and generally branched and spreading 
at the top ; sometimes decumbent. The flowers 
are small and white, surrounded with five long, 
narrow, hairy leaves. Wildenow says, he has 
seen a variety with blue flowers. {Smith's 
En a. Flor.) 

BASTARD -TOADFLAX (Tkesium lino- 
■phyllum). An English perennial wild plant, 
with terminal clusters of whitish or yellowish 
blossoms, many-flowered, erect, generally 
branched or subdivided, flowering in July. Its 
root is \voody and yellowish, stems widely 
spreading, angular, leafy, a span or more in 
length ; leaves turned to one side, rough-edged, 
light-green, an inch long at most. Found in 
high open chalky pastures. The only species 
of this genus known in the United States is 
the Thesium umbellalum. (See Darlington's 
Flam Cestrica.) 

BAT, or FLITTERMOUSE (Cheiroptera, a 
hand and wing). A mammiferous animal 
which has a body like a mouse, with wmgs 
not feathered, but consisting of a membranous 
skin extended. These wings of the bat, osteo- 
logically considered, are hands ; the bony 
stretchers of the cutaneous membrane being 



the digital phalanges, or fingers; extremely 
elongated; one digit or finger of each wing is 
tipped with a small nail." Bats are widely 
spread over the globe; they are to be found in 
the Old and New World, and in New Holland. 
A tolerably temperate climate seems necessary 
for them, and the greatest developement of the 
form takes place in warm countries. Gene- 
rally speaking, they remain in concealment 
during the day in caverns, ruinous buildings, 
hollow trees, and such hiding places, and flit 
forth at twilight or sunset to take their prev. 
They feed mostly on flies, insects, &c., but do 
not refuse raw flesh, so that the notion that 
bats go down chimneys and gnaw men's bacon 
is no improbable story. 

Bats are divided into two classes, the omni- 
vorous or fruit-eating, and the insectivorous. 
Those who are desirous of further investigating 
the subject will find ample particulars under 
the head " Cheiroptera" in the Penny Cyclo. 
vol. vii. p. 19. 

BATEABLE HERBAGE. Provincially, 
such herbage as has the tendency of readily 
fattening stock of diflferent kinds. 

BAT FOWLING. A particular manner of 
bird-catching in the night, while they are at 
roost under the eaves of barns, or upon trees 
or hedges. The fowler lights torches or straw, 
and beats the bushes, upon which the birds, 
dazzled by the light, fly into the flames, and 
are then knocked down with sticks, or caught 
either with nets or by other means. 

BATING. An abbreviation of abating. 
From bate, to lessen any thing, to retrench, to 
sink the price. Thus Locke says, " When the 
landholder's rent falls, he must either bate the 
labourer's wages, or not employ or not pay 
him." It is also used synonymously with 
barring, to except. 

BATTEN (probably from the French baton, 
from its slender width). A name in common 
use for a slip or scantling of wood from two to 
four inches broad and one inch thick, the 
length inconsiderable, but undefined. If above 
seven inches wide, it is called deal. 

It also signifies strong broad fencing rails. 
It is sometimes written button. 

BAY (Lat. badius ; old Fr. baye, bai, rouge 
brun; Ital. 6ajo). The term for a colour in- 
clining to a chestnut. In reference to the horse 
this colour has various shades, from the very 
light bay, to the dark bay, which approaches 
nearly to the brown ; but it is always more gay 
and shining. There are also colouted horses 
that are called dappled bays. All bay horses 
are commonly called brown. Bay horses have 
black manes, which distinguish them from the 
sorrel, that have red or white manes. There 
are light bays, and gilded bays, which are 
somewhat of a yellowish colour. The chestnut 
bay is that which comes nearest to the colour 
of the chestnut. 

The bay is one of the best colours of horses, 
and horses of all the different shades of bays 
are commonly good. 

BAYARD. A provincial term for a bay 
horse. 

BAY OF A BARN. That part where th«> 
mow is placed. Hence such barns as have 
the thrashing-floor in the middle, and a space 
N 2 )49 



BAY-SALT. 



BEAGLE. 



for a mow on ench side, are called barns of 
two bays, &c. 

BAY-SALT. The salt made naturally on 
the sea-shore at St. Ubes and other bays, in the 
natural hollows of the sea-shore which are 
only overflowed at spring tides. The salt thus 
made at a low temperature by the action of the 
sun and wind is the strongest and best for but- 
ter and other agricultural purposes. {Bruwn- 
rigg on Salt; Brandes Did. of Science.) 

Bay-salt is in large, moderately white cubes. 
St. Ubes' salt contains 960 parts of pure 
chloride of sodium in 1000 parts; the remainder 
consists of 28 parts of sulphate of lime and of 
magnesia; 3 parts of chloride of magnesia, or 
bittern ; and 9 of insoluble matter. It is con- 
sequently very pure. Similar salt, but less 
pure, is made at St. Martin and Oleven. (For 
its dietetical uses and as a manure, see Salt, 
Salting.) 

BAY-TREE (Laurus nobilis). This plant, 
the laurel of antiquity, is a native of classical 
ground. We cannot ascertain at what exact 
period the bay-tree was first cultivated in this 
country ; but in all probability it was planted 
by the Romans, and fell with their villas. 
Chaucer, who wrote in the time of Edward IIL, 
mentions it; and Turner, our oldest writer on 
plants, says, in 1564, "the ba)^-tre in England 
is no great tre, but it thryueth there many parts 
better, and is lustier than in Germany." We 
find that during the reign of Elizabeth it was 
common to strew the floors of distinguished 
persons in England with bay-leaves. And we 
may conclude that it was rare in this country, 
even so late as the beginning of the eighteenth 
century, for Bradley says, in 1716, " they (bay- 
trees) should be put in pots or cases, and 
housed in the winter, that their beauty may be 
preserved." He states, that " he has seen pyra- 
mids and headed plants of bays introduced in 
parterre work, but he cannot advise the doing 
it, lest they should be injured by the weather." 
There need be no such care taken now, for 
they have become thoroughly hardy and accli- 
mated. Bradley adds, the finest bay-trees he 
had ever seen, either abroad or in England, 
were then in the royal gardens of Kensington, 
and were of very great value. 

The bay is a small tree, seldom exceeding 
fifteen to twenty feet in height. The bark is 
greenish, smooth, and aromatic : the leaves 
lanceolate, sharp-pointed, wavy on the edge, 
and leathery and smooth on both sides. The 
.lowers are four or six in a cluster, of a yel- 
lowish white, glandular, and dotted. The fruit 
is about the size of a large pea, black, and 
succulent. 

Observation instructs us to place this tree in 
situations where it is sheltered from north and 
north-east winds, which affect its beauty, and 
often its growth. It thrives under the very 
wings of larger trees, where it is difficult to 
make other shrubs prosper, and this is of im- 
portance in our plantations. A warm, dry, 
sandy, or gravelly soil is recommended for the 
bay ; but it thrives well on a rich loam. We 
are told by Mortimer, that bay-trees, whose 
branches are killed by the weather, or other 
accident, if cut down to the ground, will send 
np strong, shoots, which we'know by experi- 
150 



ence to be correct ; therefore, the roots should 
not be grubbed up too hastily. This tree should 
never have a branch taken from it but in the 
spring. The directions for raising these trees 
from seed are given in the same manner by all 
writers on the subject, from Pliny down to 
Miller. It is, to gather the fruit when quite 
ripe, which is not before January or February. 
The berries are then to be preserved in dry 
sand until the middle of March, when they 
may be sown in a shady border of rich, loose, 
undunged earth. The berries, should be drop- 
ped in rows as French beans are planted, and 
covered with fine, rich mould about an inch 
thick. The young plants will require frequent 
but moderate watering for the first two years. 
The French nurserymen raise them under 
glass, or in an orangery. The bay-tree will 
grow by cuttings, but these should be planted 
in a moderate hot-bed, and kept moist and co- 
vered from the heat of the sun during summer, 
and from the frost in winter. April is the pro- 
per time to plant cuttings, but layers may be 
laid down either in March or August, which, 
by the second spring, will make good plants. 

The variegated bay is increased by budding 
it on the common sort. Neither the broad nor 
the narrow-leaved varieties are so hardy as 
the common bay. The leaves and berries of 
the bay-tree have an aromatic, bitter, astrin- 
gent taste, and a fragrant smell: and are ac- 
counted stomachic, carminative, and narcotic; 
but they are not much used in medicine at the 
present day, although old writers are very 
voluminous in describing their virtues. {Phil- 
lips's Syl. Flor.) 

This well-known evergreen is always hand- 
some in shrubberies, and grows well. It pre- 
fers a northern aspect: indeed, we may almost 
consider the bay-tree a native of England, 
since gardens and shrubberies are now rarely 
formed without their presence. The leaves 
and berries are used as medicine ; the leaves 
should be dried in the proper way, pounded, 
and kept in glass bottles ; they are said to be 
cordial and beneficial in nervous complaints, 
and in paralysis : in large doses they prove 
emetic. The green leaves applied to the part 
allays the pain of the sting of bees. The ber- 
ries of the bay-tree contain both volatile and 
fixed oil, wax, resin, uncrystallizable sugar, 
gums, starch, some salts, and a peculiar sub- 
stance, which has been named laurin, and 
bears some resemblance to camphor. The 
dried berries are given in powder or infusion 
in flatulent colic ; but they are of little value. 

BEAGLE (Fr. iigle). A small well-propor- 
tioned hound, slow but sure, having an excel- 
lent nose and most enduring diligence ; form- 
erly much in fashion for hunting the hare, but 
now comparatively neglected, its place being 
occupied, where hare-hunting is patronized, by 
the harrier. There are still several varieties 
of beagles, but formerly there appear to have 
been many more, from the deep-flewed dimi- 
nutive type of the old southern hound, to the 
fleet and elegant fox-hound beagle, to which 
we may add the pigmy breed called lap-dog 
beagles. Beagles were formerly distinguished 
into the rough and the smooth. The rough. 
wire-haired, or terrier beagle, is now seldom 



BEAM. 



BEANS. 



met with, although it was a hardy, and alto- 
gether a vermin-loving breed, and very strongly 
formed. (Blalne^s Encychpsedia of Rural 
Sports.) 

BEAM. The principal piece of timber 
which supports a building. 

BEAM OF A PLOUGH. The upper prin- 
cipal timber into which the handles and all the 
other parts of the tail of the plough are fixed. 
It is most commonly made of ash wood, some- 
what bent in its form, and of diflTerent lengths 
according to the nature of the plough. (See 
Ploughs.) 

BEAM-TREE. The Pyrus aria of botanists. 
The white beam-tree or wild pear-tree, is a de- 
ciduous British tree of small growth inhabiting 
the mountainous parts of the country, and re- 
sembling a small apple-tree with berries like 
those of the mountain ash. Its leaves are 
strongly veined, in a plaited manner, and white 
underneath ; the wood is hard, compact, and 
tough, and is used for axle trees, naves of 
wheels, and cogs of machinery. (Brande's 
Diet. Science.) 

BEANS ( Vicia Faba). A well-known vege- 
table of the pulse species, largely cultivated 
both in gardens and fields. Sax. bean ; vicia is 
the Latin name for the tare or vetch ; derived, 
according to Varro, a viciardo, because its ten- 
drils entwine or bind round other plants. The 
bean was called in Greek Kyx^oc; by the Fa- 
lisci, a people of Etruria (now Tuscany), Ilaba, 
whence the name Faba seems to be taken. 
Martinius derives the word from jtu*, to feed, 
as if it were Paba ,• Isidorus from pa>a>, to eat. 
Its cultivation is of much importance in rural 
economy, inasmuch as it has gone far to super- 
sede fallows on strong loams and clays. The 
bean is a plant of considerable importance to 
the farmer, as affording him a valuable food for 
both horses and swine ; its varieties are nu- 
merous, but as it is cultivated both for agricul- 
tural and horticultural purposes, it will be ne- 
cessary, in treating of its cultivation, to adopt 
the following arrangement: — 1. Field beans; 
2. Garden beans. The English growth of beans 
has 01 late years diminished, a large portion 
of the consumption of this country now com- 
ing from abroad ; yet I am of opinion that beans 
or peas, according to the soil, should enter 
into the rotation of the crops of all English 
farms : for if drilled and well horse-hoed, it is 
one of the finest preparations for wheat. And 
it may be well to observe, that the Russian or 
winter bean may be successfully cultivated on 
moist soils. 

The flowers of the bean emit a most agree- 
able perfume. Of all the pulse kind, this was 
held in the first rank in ancient times. We 
find the Athenians used beans sodden, in their 
feasts dedicated to Apollo ; and the Romans 
presented beans as an oblation in their solemn 
sacrifice called Fabaria. Pliny informs us 
that they ofiTered cakes made of bean meal 
unto certain gods and goddesses in these an- 
cient rites and ceremonies. Lempriere states 
that bacon was added to the beans in the offer- 
ings to Cama, not so much to gratify the pa- 
late of the goddess, as to represent the simpli- 
city of their ancestors. One of the most noble 
aad powerful families of Rome derived the 



name of Fabii from some of their ancestors 
having cultivated the bean called Faba. The 
meal of beans is the heaviest made from pulse, 
and was called in Latin loTnentum. This was 
mingled with frumentii corn, whole, and so 
eaten by the ancients; but they sometimes 
bruised it first; it was considered a stron-^ 
food, and was generally eaten with gruel or 
pottage. Many superstitious customs and 
notions were in olden times attached to this 
pulse. The ancients made use of beans in 
gathering the votes of the people, and for 
electing the magistrates. A white bean signi- 
fied absolution, and a black one condemnation. 
From this practice, no doubt, was derived the 
plan of black-balling obnoxious persons. The 
Roman husbandman had a religious ceremony 
respecting this pulse, somewhat remarkable : 
when they sowed corn of any kind, they took 
care to bring some beans from the field for 
good luck's sake, superstitiously thinking that 
by such means their corn would return home 
again to them ; these beans were then called 
Refrinas or Referinac. The Romans carried 
their superstition even further, tor they thought 
that beans mixed with goods ofiTered for sale 
at the ports would infallibly bring good luck to 
the seller. 

In some places bean meal is still mixed v/ith 
other meal in making coarse bread ; or the 
beans are boiled into a mess with fat meat, in 
which state they are very nutritious. Bean 
meal given to oxen soon makes them fat; 
mixed with water and given as a drink to 
cows, it greatly increases their milk. A small 
quantity of beans is generally mixed with new- 
wheat when ground to flour : the millers pre- 
tend that soft wheat will not grind well with- 
out beans, and they generally contrive thai 
there shall be no deficiency in the necessary 
proportion. Thus a quantity of beans is con- 
verted into what is considered as wheaien 
flour. 

The bean came originally from the east, and 
was cultivated in Egypt and Barbary in the 
earliest ages of which we have any records. 
It spread thence into Spain and Portugal, from 
whence some of the best varieties have been 
introduced into this countr}^ The proportion 
of nutritive matter in beans, compared with 
other grain, is, according to Einhof, as fol- 
lows : — 



By wei-ht. 
Wheat - 74 per cent. 
Rye - 70 — 

Barley - 65 — 
Oats - 58 — 
Beans - 68 — 
Peas - 75 — 
French beans 84 — 



Or in » bushel. 
about 47 lbs. 

— 39 

— 33 

— 23 

— 45 

— 49 

— 54 



The same chemist obtained from 3840 parts 
of marsh beans {Vicia Faba), of 

Starch 1312 

Albumen -------31 

Ottier matters, nutritive, gummy, starchy, 
fibrous, analogous to animal matter - 1204 

And from kidney beans (Phseseolus vulgaris) 
of 

Starchy matters 1805 

Albumen, and matter approaching to ani- 
mal matter in its nature - - . - 651 
Mucilage - 799 

(Davy, Ag. Chem.. p. 1.32.) 



BEANS. 



BEANS. 



Beans are best given broken, especially to 
aged live stock. An excellent bean mill 
constructed by the Messrs. Ransome of Ips- 
wich, will break one quarter of beans in an 
hour. It is also made with an extra roller and 
plate for malt ; and is sometimes constructed 
so as to render it suitable for horse power. 
Field Beans. — In England, the sorts usually 
cultivated in the fields are, the tick bean, the 
horse bean, and the small Dutch Heligoland, 
or prolific bean. In some situations the ma- 
zagon, longpod, and winter or Russian bean, 
have produced good crops in the field : the 
first three are, however, best suited for general 
cultivation. The last, a new and useful va- 
riety, has been more recently introduced, and 
has lately come into very general cultivation 
in various parts of the kingdom. It is planted 
in autumn in the usual manner, and is supe- 
rior to the common bean, inasmuch as it is 
capable of resisting the severest frost, and is 
ready for harvesting two months earlier. 

There are several varieties of beans, which 
differ but little in their appearance. Ex- 
perience is the best guide in choosing the seed 
which suits particular soils and situations. 
The small, round, regular-shaped beans are 
generally prefferred, as obtaining the best prices 
in the markets, especially in large towns where 
there is a great consumption of beans by hard- 
working horses. 

All the varieties thrive best on strong clay 
soils, heavy marls, and deep loams of a moist 
description. In such soils the produce is 
sometimes 30 to 60 bushels per acre, but an 
average crop on moderate land is about half 
that quantity. The Heligolands, and espe- 
cially the Russian bean, have been found very 
productive when grown upon hazel moulds, 
and deep chalk soils intermixed with loam, as 
they do not require so close a soil as the other 
varieties. The last-named varieties seldom 
succeed sufficiently to repay the grower, if at- 
tempted to be raised on light lands ; indeed, 
sandy soils or late climates are ill adapted to 
the successful cultivation of the bean. On 
very rich land, beans have produced extraor- 
dinary crops, by being sown broadcast and 
very thick, the stems being brought up to a 
great height in favourable seasons. A small 
field of very rich land, in the county of Sussex, 
was sown in the year 1832 with four bushels 
of the small tick bean, which came up so 
thick, that the proprietor thought of thinning 
out the plants by hoeing ; but he Avas advised 
to see what the produce would be, and when 
they were thrashed out, there Avere ten quar- 
ters and one bushel of beans. He had the 
ground accurately measured, and it was found 
to be one acre and tAventy-nine perches, which 
makes the crop above sixty-eight bushels per 
a<^re. 

Beans are propagated by seed, which mav 
be sown broadcast, drilled, or dibbled; if sown 
broadcast, three or four bushels of seed per 
acre wili be required, which should be 
ploughed or harrowed in ; if drilled, two and 
a half or three bushels per acre will be sufii- 
cient. Beans are tolerably hardy, and will 
bear moderate dry frosts; but they suffer much 
from alternate frosts and thaws, which in this 
159 



climate are so common in February. The enc 
of February or the beginning of March is, 
therefore, generally preferred for bean sowing. 
When the season is remarkably mild, early 
sowing is a great advantage. As a general 
rule, spring beans may be sown from the mid- 
dle of February to the middle of March. There 
are two modes of drilling beans. In one of 
these the lands or ridges are divided by the 
plough into ridgelets, or "one bout-stitches," 
at intervals of about twenty-seven inches. 

If dung is applied to beans, the seed ought 
to be deposited first, as it is found inconvenient 
to run the drill machine afterwards. The dung 
may then be drawn out from the carts in small 
heaps, one row of heaps serving for three or 
five ridgelets ; which is evenly spread and 
equally divided among them. The ridgelets 
are next split back or reversed, either by 
means of the common plough, or one with two 
mould-boards, which covers both the seed and 
the manure in the most perfect manner. When 
beans are sown by the other method in the 
bottom of a common furrow, the dung must be 
previously spread over the surface of the win- 
ter or spring ploughing. Three ploughs then 
start in succession, one immediately behind 
the other, and a drill-harrow either follows the 
third plough, or is attached to it, by which the 
beans are sown in every third furrow, or at 
from 24 to 27 inches asunder, according to the 
breadth of the furrow-slice. 

Another improved mode of sowing beans 
when dung is applied at seed time, is to spread 
the dung and plough it down with a strong fur- 
row; after this, shallow furron's are drawn, 
into which the seed is deposited by the drill 
machine. Whichever of these modes of sow- 
ing is followed, the whole field must be care- 
fully laid dr)% by means of channels formed 
by the plough, and when necessary, by the 
shovel ; for neither then nor at any former pe- 
riod should water be allowed to stagnate on 
the land. It is a common practice with many 
farmers to mix and sow with beans a propor- 
tionate part of peas, about one-fourth, which, 
when growing, are called Polts, and are thus 
cultivated both on the drill and broadcast sys- 
tem. In either case the seed should be put 
into the ground by the latter end of January, 
or as soon after as the weather and state of the 
land Avill permit. By this intermixture of peas 
and beans, the straw or haulm is said to be 
greatly improved. In some places the peas are 
sown on the headlands, and the haulm is used 
to tie the beans with ; but peas cling round 
the bean-stalks and impede the setting of the 
pods ; they also interfere Avith the hoeing and 
Aveeding, so that the practice is not to be re- 
commended. Peas require a lighter soil, and 
are best sown separately, except when they are 
sown broadcast, mixed Avith beans, in order to 
be mown in a green state as fodder for cattle 
or pigs. Sowing beans for this last-mentioned 
purpose is not much practised in England, but 
is found very useful on the Continent, espe- 
cially in Flanders ; in this case they are mown 
like tares, soon after the pods are formed. In 
order to have a succession of this green food, 
they should be sown at difierent times within 
a week or a fortnight of each other. By this 



BEANS. 



BEANS. 



means a great deal of grass is saved, which 
may be reserved for hay. The cattle fed in the 
stables or yards thrive well on this food, and 
produce a quantity of rich manure, chiefly in 
a liquid state, which fills the tanks and reser- 
voirs, which are indispensable appendages to 
every farm-yard. By having winter tares 
when the turnips are consumed, peas and 
beans after the first crop of clover, and sum- 
mer tares to succeed them, cattle may be fed 
in the stables all the year round with great ad- 
vantage ; the land may be tilled at the best 
season of the year and prepared for wheat, as 
well as by a clear fallow, while the green crop 
will fully repay all the expenses. Three 
bushels of beans and two of peas, mixed to- 
gether, are required per acre, when sown 
broadcast or drilled in each furrow after the 
plough. It is often advantageous to cut in a 
green state those beans which were sown for 
a general crop, when food for pigs is scarce. 
They will go nearly as far in this way in feed- 
ing store pigs, as the beans Avould have done 
when ripe : and the ground is left in a much 
better state for the following crop. {Penny 
Cyclop, vol. iv. p. 82.) 

Many farmers have long and advantageously 
adopted the practice of dibbling in their beans, 
by which a great saving of seed is effected ; 
neither are they required to be planted so early 
as by the old system. Besides being more 
evenly deposited in the soil, and properly co- 
vered over, they are better preserved from 
rooks, and other vermin that would destroy 
them. Drilling, however, is still preferred by 
most agriculturists, as being a less expensive 
course. Both drilling and dibbling have each 
great advantages over the broadcast system, 
as by the latter method the land cannot be 
kept clean. 

Some parties recommend the topping of 
beans just as the blossoms are set, and assert 
that it not only improves the quality, but in- 
creases the quantity, and causes them to ripen 
sooner. They may be SAvitched off with an old 
scythe-blade, set in a wooden handle, with 
which one man can easily top two acres a 
day. Others object, and with much justice, to 
this indiscriminate hacking and topping. The 
reason for doing this in garden culture is, that 
when a plant has borne pods a certain time, 
it is most advantageous to remove it, and the 
top blossoms, of course, never come to perfec- 
tion. In the field this is not the case, there 
being no succession of plants; and, unless the 
top blossoms are very late, or the black dol- 
phin {aphis) begins to appear, which is shown 
by the honey-dew on the upper shoots, no ad- 
vantage is gained by topping the plants, and 
the labour is thrown away. The bean crop is 
generally harrowed to destroy annual weeds : 
sometimes just before the plants make their 
appearance, and sometimes after the beans 
have got their first green leaves, and are fairly 
above ground. After the beans have made 
some growth, the horse-hoe is employed in the 
intervals between the rows, and followed by 
the hand-hoe, for the purpose of cutting down 
such weeds as the horse-hoe cannot reach ; all 
the weeds that grow among the beans should 
be pulled up with the hands. The same ope- 
20 



rations are repeated as often as the condition 
of the land in regard to cleanliness may re- 
quire. 

When the leaves of the beans begin to lose 
their green colour, and the pods to turn black, 
the crop should be reaped with tlie sickle, and 
made into small sheaves, tied with straw-bandi 
or tarred twine, and set up in the field to dry. 
But if the haulm is short, as that of the long- 
pod and mazagan generally are, it is a more 
profitable course to pull them up by the roots, 
and lay them in sheaves, the same as if cut, by 
which means the lowest and earliest pods are 
better preserved and harvested. Mr. J. C. 
Curwen, M. P. {Com. to the Board of Agr., vol. 
iv. p. 390) gives some details of the result of 
experiments made in 1803 and 1804, of cutting 
beans whilst in a perfectly green and fresh 
state. Fortj'^ acres of beans were drilled in 
February, 1804, and from May to the middle of 
July the ploughs and harrows were constantly 
at work in it. By the 10th of August, the beans 
had shot the black eye, which is the criterion 
of seeds being perfectly formed. The weather 
proving unfavourable, prevented their being 
reaped immediately, but they were eventually 
cut on the 20th of August, spread thinly, and 
exposed two days to the sun previous to bind- 
ing and removing to an open pasture, where 
they remained three Aveeks, and were then 
found perfectly dry and fit for stacking. Mr. 
Curwen adds, as a strong proof of the benefit 
resulting from these early cuttings, that he 
was enabled, previous to drilling with wheat, 
to give the ground two ploughings, harrow- 
ings, &c., and in some parts three (the extreme 
foulness of this piece of land requiring Avhat in 
ievr instances Avould be necessary) ; and to 
cart and spread sixty loads of compost per 
acre, and to complete the AAdiole by the 20th of 
September. Mr. John Sherif, of Haddington 
{Com. Board of Agr., \o\. iv. p. 172), also says 
of harvesting beans, "This crop should be cut 
down as soon as the eye has attained its 
deepest dye, and instantly, if dry weather, 
sheaved. The sheaves of any grain or pulse 
ought not to exceed nine inches in diameter ; 
and I think that sheaves from six to eight 
inches would be far safer in this variable cli- 
mate. By cutting at this period of the state of 
the crop, the bean-straw will be of triple value 
of Avhat stands till the leaves fall off; the grain 
too will be superior to that bleached by the 
Aveather for weeks, after the haulm and grain 
of the first is secured in the rick. Shocks of 
any crop of pulse or grain ought not to exceed 
six sheai'es of the above-mentioned size." 
The Rev. John Ramsay, of Ayrshire, and Mr. 
John Boys, of Kent, also give the result of their 
observations on bean husbandry {Com. Board 
of Agr., voL vi. p. 141 — 146), which, though 
valuable, are of too confined and local a na- 
ture for me to notice. 

The diseases to which beans are subject iu 
England, are the rust, or mildcAV, Avhich is a 
minute fungus that grows on the stems of 
leaves, attributed to cold fogs and frequent 
sudden transitions of weather, and the black 
dolphin or fly, also called the collier, an insect 
of the aphis tribe. For the mildew no remedy 
has yet been found. Whenever it has attacked 

;r.3 



BEANS. 



BEANS. 



the plants, generally before the pods are filled, 
the best raethod is to cut down the crop in its 
green state ; and if it cannot be consumed in 
the farm-yard, to plough it into the ground, 
•where it will decay rapidly, and be an excel- 
lent manure for the succeeding crop of wheat. 
If allowed to stand, the crop will not only be 
unproductive, but the weeds will infest the 
ground, and spoil the wheat crop by their 
ieeds and roots, which will remain in the soil. 
Whenever the tops of the beans begin to be 
moist and clammy to the feel, it is the fore- 
runner of the aphis. They should then be im- 
mediately cut off, and this, if done in time, 
may save the crop from the ravages of the 
insects ; but the most effectual way to prevent 
any disease from attacking the plants in their 
growth, is to have the ground in good heart, 
and well tilled ; to drill the beans at a suffi- 
cient distance between the rows, to allow the 
use of the horse-hoe, and thus to accelerate the 
growth of the plants, and enable them to out- 
grow the effect of incipient disease, which 
seldom attacks any but weak plants. In the 
3'ear 1831, there were imported from abroad 
23,388 qrs. of beans. The largest proportion 
came from the following countries ; Denmark, 
1299 qrs. ; Prussia, 1157 qrs. ; Germany, 7664 
qrs.; the Netherlands, 7070 qrs.; France, 1454 
qrs.; Italy, 3691 qrs.; Malta, 1031 qrs. The 
total quantity of pulse (for beans and peas are 
included in the return) entered for home con- 
sumption in 1834, was 102,080 qrs. ; in 1835, 
94,540 qrs. {Appendix 1o Second Agr. Report 
for 1836, p. 282.; Phillips's Cultivated Vege- 
tables ; Penny Cyc. vol. iv. ; Baxter's Agr. 
Lib.; Prof. Lotus work on Agr. ,- Com. Board of 
Agr., vols. iv. and vi. ; M'CiiUoch's Com. Diet.) 

Garden Beans. — The following varieties are 
those principally cultivated: — Early mazagan, 
a great bearer, and a good sort. Early Lisbon, 
or Portugal bean, a small and sweet kind. 
Common sword, and other long-pods, the 
most abundant bearers, and consequently 
more generally found in the cottager's garden 
than any other sort. Small Spanish. Broad 
Spanish. Toker, a good bearer, middling 
large. White and black blossomed, good sorts, 
and bear well ; middling size: the seed, when 
old, is apt to degenerate if not saved with care. 
Windsor, one of our best-tasted beans when 
}-oung ; but not a hardy kind. Green nonpa- 
reil, smallish. Besides these, there are the 
Munford, Dwarf-cluster, or Fan, and the Red 
blossomed, varieties of little value. In some 
places the Fan is, however, much grown. It 
grows only from six to twelve inches high ; 
the branches spread out like a fan, and the 
pods are produced in clusters. The soil 
should vary with the season. For the winter- 
standing and early crops, a moderately rich 
and dry soil is best adapted to them, since, if 
00 moist, the seed is apt to decay, &c., whilst 
a moist aluminous one is best for the spring 
and summer insertions. Although the bean 
■tt -.11 succeed in much lighter soils than is ge- 
nerally imagined, yet, if such are allotted to it 
when thus late inserted, the produce is much 
diminished. The situation cannot be too un- 
incumbered, but still a protection from violent 
.vinds is very beneficial, as no plant is more 
154 



liable to suffer if its leaves are much injured. 
It is propagated by seed. For the first produc- 
tion, in the following year, a small plantation 
may be made at the close of October, or during 
November, and a rather larger one in Decem- 
ber. These should be inserted on a south 
border, in a row, about a foot from the fence, 
or in cross-rows. If intended for transplanting, 
the seed may be sown likewise during these 
months. Regular plantations may be continued 
to be made from the beginning of January to 
the end of June, once every three weeks. 
Early in July and August the two last crops 
must be inserted. The Windsor, which is the 
principal variety then planted, should have a 
south border allotted ; it comes into production 
about Michaelmas. 

The experiments of Bradley serve as a guide 
in some respects, whereby to apportion the 
extent of the plantations. He found that a rod 
of ground, containing fourteen rows, in pairs, 
at two feet distance, the plants in which are 
six inches apart, or thirty-four in number, will 
yield forty-seven quarts of broad beans. 
Smaller varieties only from one-half to one- 
third as many. (General Treat, on Husband, 
and Garden., vol. iii. p. 16.) If the plants are 
intended to be transplanted, which is only 
practised for the early crops, the seed must be 
sown thick, about an inch apart, in a bed of 
light earth, in a sheltered situation, and of such 
extent as can be covered with a frame. If 
frames and hand-glasses are deficient, matting 
or litter, kept from pressing on and injuring 
the plants, by means of hooping, &c., are 
sometimes employed. These, however, afford 
such imperfect shelter, that there is scarce any 
advantage superior to the mode of sowing at 
once, where the plants are to remain, since the 
intention of this practice is to keep them in 
vigour, and to forward their growth, by secur- 
ing them from ungenial weather. Care must 
be taken that they are not weakened from a 
deficiency of air or light ; to guard against 
this, the lights should be taken entirely off 
every day that excessive wet or cold does not 
imperatively forbid their removal. The usual 
time for removing them into the open ground, 
in a south border, is February; if, however, 
the season is inclement, they may be kept 
under the frame until May; but then a week 
previous to their removal, Bradley informs us, 
they ought to be cut down within two inches 
of the ground. {Gen. Treat, oti Husband, and 
Garden.) When removed, as much earth as 
possible should be retained round the roots of 
plants ; and they must be set at similar dis- 
tances as the main crops. No water is re- 
quired, unless the season be very dry. When 
sown to remain, the seed may be inserted in 
rows, by a blunt dibble, or in drills, drawn by 
the hoe, from two and a half to three feet 
apart, from two to four inches apart in the 
row, and two deep, the earliest crops and 
shortest varieties being set at the smallest dis- 
tances. These spaces may be considered as 
large by some gardeners ; but the beans. Miller, 
from experience, asserts, are more productive 
than if set twice as close. Previous to sowing, 
in summer, if dry weather, ihe seed should be 
soaked for two or three hours in water, or if 



BEAN, KIDNEY. 



BEAN, KIDNEY. 



sown in drills, these must be well watered im- 
mediately before the insertion. When advanced 
to a height of two inches, hoeing between, and 
drawing earth about the stems of the plants 
may commence. This must be often repeated, 
and even sooner begun to the early and late 
crops, as it affords considerable protection from 
frost and wind. As soon as the various crops 
come into blossom, two or three inches length 
of each stem is broken off; this, by preventing 
its increase in height, causes more sap to be af- 
forded to the blossom, consequently causing it to 
advance with more rapidity, and set more abun- 
dantly. Some gardeners recommend the tops 
to be taken off when the plants are young, not 
more than six inches high, declaring it makes 
them branch, and be more productive. This 
may be ultimately the effect, but it is certainly 
incorrect to state that it brings them into pro- 
duction sooner : the effect in this respect is 
much the contrary. The winter-standing crops 
require, in the early stages of their growth, the 
shelter of dry litter, prevented touching the 
plants by small branches, &c. This is only 
requisite during very severe weather; it must 
be constantly removed in mild open days, 
• therwise the plants will be spindled and 
weakened. For the production of seed, plan- 
tations of the several varieties should be made 
about the end of February, in a soil lighter 
than that their produce is afterwards to be 
grown upon. No two varieties should be grown 
near each other ; and in order to preserve the 
early ones as uncontaminated as possible, 
those plants only which blossom and produce 
their pods the first should be preserved. Water 
ought to be given two or three times a week, 
from the time of their blossoming until their 
pods have done swelling. None of the pods 
ought to be gathered for the table from them ; 
the after-production of seed is never so fine, 
and the plants raised from it are always defi- 
cient in vigour. They are fit for harvesting 
when the leaves have become blackish, which 
occurs at the end of August or early in Sep- 
tember. They must be thoroughly dried, being 
reared against a hedge until they are so, before 
the seed is thrashed out and stored ; and those 
only should be preserved that are fine and per- 
fect. Some gardeners even recommend the 
pods from the lower part of the stem alone to 
be selected. Seed beans will sometimes vege- 
tate after being kept for eight or ten years, but 
are seldom good for any thing when more than 
two. The plants arising from seed of this age 
are not so apt to be superluxuriant as from 
that produced in the preceding year. 

BEAN, KIDNEY (P/mseoIus vulgaris, from 
its pods resembling a species of ship, supposed 
first to have been invented at Phaselis, a town 
of Pamphylia). Of this vegetable there are two 
species, the one being a dwarf bushy plant, the 
other a lofty climbing one. 

Of the Dwarfs there are twelve varieties : — 

Black speckled. 
Brown speckled. 
Streaked or striped. 
Large white. 
Dun-coloured. 
Tawny. 



Early liver-coloured. 
Early i^ed-speckled. 
Early while. 
Earl}r negro, or black. 
Canterbury white. 
Battersea white. 



Of the Runners there are six varieties : — 

Scarlet runner. Canterbury small white. 

Large white. Small white. 

Large Avhite Dutch. Variable runner. 

The soil for them may be any thing rather 
than wet or tenacious, for in such the greater 
part of the seed, in general, decays without 
germinating; whilst those plants which are 
produced are contracted in their produce and 
continuance. A very light mellow loam, even 
inclining to a sand, is the best for the earliest 
sowings, and one scarcely less silicious, 
though moister, is preferable for the late sum- 
mer crops; but fcr the later ones a recurrence 
must be made to a soil as dry as for the early 
insertions. In ail cases the subsoil must be 
open, as stagna ■! moisture is inevitably fatal 
to the plants or seed. For the early and late 
crops a sheltered border must always be allot- 
ted, or in a single row about a foot from a 
south fence, otherwise the situation cannot be 
too open. 

Dwarfs. — The sowing commences with the 
year. They may be sown towards the end of 
January in pots, and placed upon the flues of 
the hot-house, or in rows in the mould of a hot- 
bed, for production in March ; to be repeated 
once every three weeks in similar situations 
during February and March, for supplying the 
table during April, May, and June. At the end 
of March and April a small sowing may be 
performed, if fine open weather, under a frame 
without heat, for removal into a sheltered bor- 
der early in May. During May, and thence 
until the first week in August, sowings may 
be made once every three weeks. Ii.. Septem- 
ber, forcing recommences : at first merely un- 
der frames without bottom heat, but in Octo- 
ber, and thence to the close of the year, m hot- 
beds, &c., as in January. Sowings, when a re- 
moval is intended, should always be performed 
in pots, the plants being less retarded, as the 
roots are less injured, than when the seed is 
inserted in patches or rows in the earth of the 
bed. It is a good practice likewise to repeat 
each sowing in the frames without heat after 
the lapse of a week, as the first will often fail, 
when a second, although after so short a lapse 
of time, will perfectly succeed. In every in- 
stance the seed is buried one and a half or two 
inches deep. The rows of the main crops, if 
of the smaller varieties, may be one and a 
half, if of the larger, two feet apart, the seed 
being inserted either in drills or by the dibble 
four inches apart ; the plants, however, to be 
thinned to twice lliat distance. 

If any considerable vacancy occurs, it may 
always be filled by plants which have been 
carefully removed by the trowel from where 
they stood too thick. A general remark, how- 
ever, may be made, that the transplanted beans 
are never so productive or continue so long in 
bearing (although sometimes they are earlier) 
as those left where raised. The rows of the 
earlier crops are best ranged north and south 
The seed inserted during the hottest period of 
summer, should be either soaked in water foi 
five or six hours, laid in damp mould for a day 
or two, or the drills be well watered previous 
to sowing. The only after-cultivation requ'rp<^ 

155 



BEAN, KIDNEY. 

.'s the destruction ^of weeds, and earth to be 
drawn up round the stems. 

The pods of both species are always to be 
gathered while j^oung ; b}' thus doing, and care 
being had not to injure the stems in detaching 
them, the plants are rendered as prolific and 
long-lived as possible. 

Forcing. — The hotbed must be of moderate 
size, and covered with earth eight or nine 
inches thick. When the heat has become re- 
gular, the seed may be inserted in drills a foot 
apart, and the plants allowed to stand six 
inches asunder in the rows. Some gardeners 
erroneously sow thick in a hotbed, moulded 
over about six or seven inches deep, and re- 
move the plants, when two or three inches 
high, to the above-mentioned distances in an- 
other for producing, water and shade being 
alforded until they have rooted. Air must be 
admitted as freely as to the melon. The same 
precautions are likewise necessary as to keep- 
ing up the temperature, taking the chill off the 
water, &c., as for that plant. When the seed 
begins to sprout, the mould should be kept re- 
gularly moistened ; and when grown up, wa- 
ter may be given moderately three times a 
week. The temperature should never be less 
than 60°, nor higher than 75°. 

Some plants of the hotbed sowing at the end 
of March, are often, after being gradually har- 
dened, planted in a M^arm border ; this will at 
most hasten the plants in production a fort- 
night before those sown in the open ground in 
May. 

Those sown under frames in March for 
transplanting into a border, when two or three 
inches in height, must in like manner be har- 
dened gradually for the exposure, by the plen- 
tiful admission of air, and the total removal 
of the glasses during fine da)'^s. If any are 
raised in pots in the hot-house, they must in a 
like manner be prepared for the removal, by 
setting them outside in fine days, and there 
watering them with colder water. If the sea- 
son is too ungenial after all to remove them 
even to a warm border, the plants are often 
inserted in patches, to have the protection of 
frames or hand-lights at night, or as the wea- 
ther demands. It has been lately stated in a 
provincial paper, that kidney-beans appear of 
a perennial nature. In Somersetshire, they 
have been observed to vegetate for several 
3'^ears — the plants being in the vicinity of a 
steam-engine, and so situated that the frost 
could not penetrate to the roots. I have not 
yet had an opportunity of putting this state- 
ment to the test of experiment. 

Kunnerx. — As these are more tender, and the 
seed is more apt to decay than those of the 
Dwarfs, no open ground crop must be inserted 
before the close of April, or early in May, to 
be contmued at intervals of four weeks 
through June and July, which will ensure a 
supply from the middle of this last month until 
October. Some gardeners force them in a 
similar manner to the Dwarfs : they certainly 
require similar treatment; but they will en- 
dure a higher temperature by a .few degrees. 
They are so prolific, and such permanent 
^earers, that three open-ground sowin?" of a 
15t 



BEARD-GRASS. 

size proportionate to the consumption will, in 
almost every instance, be sufficient. 

The runners are inserted in drills, either 
singly, three feet apart, or in pairs, ten or 
twelve inches asunder, and each pair four feet 
distant from its neighbour. The seed is buried 
two inches deep and four inches apart in the 
rows, the plants being thinned to twice that 
distance. If grown in single rows, a row of 
poles must be set on the south side of each, 
being fixed firmly in the ground ; they may be 
kept together by having a light pole lied hori- 
zontally along their tops, or a post fixed at 
each end of a row, united by a cross-bar at 
their tops ; a string may be passed from this 
to each of the plants. If the rows are in pairs, 
a row of poles must be placed on each side, so 
fixed in the ground that their summits cross, 
and are tied together. They are sometimes 
sown in a single row down the sides of bor- 
ders, or on each side of a walk, having the 
support of a trellis-work, or made to climb poles 
which are turned archwise over it. 

As the plants advance to five or six inches 
in height, they should have the earth drawn 
about their stems. Weeds must be constantly 
cleared away as they appear. When they 
throw up their voluble stems, those that strag- 
gle away should be brought back to the poles, 
and twisted round them in a direction contrary 
to that of the sun : nothing will induce them 
to entwine in the contrary direction, or from 
left to right. 

For the production of seed, forty or fifty 
plants of the Dwarf species will be sufficient 
for a moderate-sized family, or thirty of the 
Runner. They must be raised purposely in 
May, or a like number from the crop in that 
month may be left ungathered from; for the 
first pods always produce the finest seeds, and 
ripen more perfectly. In autumn, as soon as 
the plants decay, they must be pulled, and, 
when thoroughly dried, the seed beaten out 
and stored. (G. W. Johnson's Kitchen Garden.) 

BEAN-FLY. A beautiful bluish black fly, 
generally found on bean flowers. It is some- 
times called the collier. The aphides of beans 
are invariably brought on by very dry weather; 
they are most prevalent on the summits of the 
plants. (See Beans.) The larvae of the lady- 
bird, or lady-cow (Coccinella septempunctata), 
as well as the perfect insects, devour the aphis 
greedily, feeding almost entirely upon these in- 
sects. Several of the English summer birds 
also live upon them. 

BEAR. A species of barley, called also 
winter barley, square barley, and big. It is 
sometimes written here. This grain is chiefly 
cultivated in Scotland, the northern parts of 
England, and Ireland. It yields a very large 
return, but is not esteemed so good for malt- 
ing as the common barley, for which reason it 
is very little cultivated in the southern parts 
of England. 

BEAR-BIND. See Black Bind-wked. 
BEARD (Sax. beapo). The same with the 
awn of a plant. 

BEARD-GRASS {Polypogon). There are 
two sorts, the annual beard-grass (P. monspe- 
Hensis) and the perennial beard-grass (P. litto- 



BEARDED OAT-GRASS. 



BEECH. 



ralis). They are found in moist pastures and 
near the sea, in muddy salt-marshes, but are 
not often met with. 

BEARDED OAT-GRASS. See Wild Oats. 

BEAR'S-FOOT. See Hellebork. 

BEAST (Su. Goih. beesi, Ger. besfie, Fr. beste, 
Lai. besliu). A term generally applied to all 
such quadrupeds, or four-footed animals, as are 
made use of for food, or employed in labour ; 
but farmers apply the term more paiticularly 
to neat cattle. 

BED-STRAW, YELLOW, LADIES' {Ga- 
lium verum). It is sometimes termed cheese- 
renni.nic and nmid's hair, or pet/y mui^uet or 
mugiLort, and yellow goosf-gras-i. A perennial 
weed, flowering from June till October, more 
common in the hedges and waysides than in 
the body of pastures. Its slender stalks rise 
to about a foot in height. The leaves come 
out in whorls, eight or nine together. They 
are long, narrow, and of a green colour. Two 
little branches generally come out near the 
lop of the stalk, supporting a considerable 
number of small golden yellow flowers, con- 
sisting of one petal divided into four parts, and 
succeeded by two large kidney-shaped seeds. 
The flowers of this plant are said to coagulate 
boiling milk, and the better sorts of Cheshire 
cheese are sometimes prepared with them. A 
kind of vinegar is stated to have been dis- 
tilled from the flowering tops. The French 
prescribe them in epileptic and hysteric cases ; 
but they are ot no value. Boiled in alum- 
water, they tinge wood yellow. The roots dye 
a fine red not inferior to madder, and are used 
for this purpose in the island of Jura. Sheep 
BJid goats eat the plant ; horses and swine re- 
fuse it ; cows are not fond of it. Smith enu- 
merates seventeen species of bed-straw : — 

I. Ci oss-wort bed-straw, or mugweed; 2. White 
water bed-straw ; 3. Rough heath bed-straw ; 
4. Smooth heath bed-straw ; 5. Rough marsh 
bed-straw ; 6. Upright bed-straw ; 7. Gray 
spreading bed-straw ; 8. Bearded bed straw ; 
9. Warty-fruited bed-straw ; 10. Rough-fruited 
corn bed-straw, or three-flowered goose-grass ; 

II. Smooth-fruited corn bed-straw ; 12. Least 
mountain bed-straw; 13. Yellow bed-straw; 
14. Great hedge bed-straw ; 15. Wall bed-straw ; 
16. Cross-leaved bed-straw; 17. Goose-grass, 
or cleavers. {Hort, Gram. Wob.^. 329; Smith's 
Eng. Flora, vol. i. pp. 199—210.) 

Dr. Darlington, in his Flora Cestrica, enu- 
merates twenty-one species of this plant found 
in Chester county, Pennsylvania. Among 
these are the wild madder (Galium tincloriuin), 
sometimes called Dyer's goose-grass, frequent 
in low grounds. The roots of this and another 
species of galium (boreale) are used by the 
Indians in dying their porcupine quills, and 
Jther ornaments, of a red colour. Wild liquo- 
'ice {Galium Circsezans), frequent in rich 
ivoodlands and having a sweet taste. Common 
;leavers,Robin-run-the-hedge, or Yellow goose- 
grass (Pi. 10, g), a troublesome weed. 

BEECH (Fagus sylvatica, Sax. bece or hoc'). 
The beech is one of the handsomest of our 
native forest trees, and in stateliness and 
grandeur of outline vies even with the oak. 
Its silvery bark, contrasting with the sombre 
trunks of other trees, renders its beauties 



conspicuous in our woods ; Avhile the grace- 
fully spreading pendulous boughs, with their 
glossy foliage, mark its elegance in the park 
or paddock. There is only one species, the 
difference in the wood arising from the elTects 
of soil and situation. The beech is a native 
of the greater part of the north of Europe and 
America. The finest beeches in England are 
said to grow in Hampshire. The tree is also 
much grown in Wiltshire, Surrey, Sussex, 
and Kent. The forest of St. Leonard's, near 
Horsham, Sussex, abounds with noble beech 
trees. The shade of the beech tree is very 
injurious to most sorts of plants that grow 
near it, but it is believed by the vulgar to be 
very salubrious to human bodies. The wood 
of this tree, which is hard, and rather hand- 
some, Brande tells us (in his Did. of Science, 
p. 139), is brittle and perishable, and liable to 
become worm-eaten. Phillips admits, that it 
is subject to worms, when exposed to the air 
without paint; but says, that the timber of 
these trees, in point of actual utility, follows 
next to the oak and the ash, and is little inferior 
to the elm for water-pipes. It is used, he adds 
{Hist, of Fruits, p. 60), by wheelwrights and 
chairmakers, and also by turners for making 
domestic wooden ware, such as bowls, shovels, 
churns, cheese-vats, dressers, shelves for dai- 
ries, &c. it being as white as deal, free from 
all disagreeable smell, and without any incon- 
venient softness. Bedsteads and other furni- 
ture are often made with this timber ; and no 
wood splits so fine, or holds so well together, 
as beech, so that boxes, sword-sheaths, and a 
variety of other things, are made from it. The 
baskets called pottles, in which strawberries 
or raspberries are usually sold in London, are 
made from beech twigs and cuttings, and the 
wood is also much in use for poles, stakes, 
hoops, &c. Near large towns it is in great 
demand for billet wood. It afl!brds a large 
quantity of potash and good charcoal. It is 
manufactured into a great variety of tools, for 
which its great hardness and uniform texture 
render it superior to all other sorts of wood. It 
is not much used in building, as it soon rots in 
damp places, but it is useful for piles in places 
which are constantly wet. The purple and 
copper beeches seen in plantations are seed- 
ling varieties of Fagus sylvatica. The beech- 
tree thrives best and attains to a great size on 
clayey loams incumbent on sand: silicious 
sandy soils are also well adapted for its 
growth, and it will prosper on chalky, stony, 
and barren soils, where many other timber 
trees will not prosper ; and it is found to resist 
winds on the declivities of hills better than 
most other trees. Where the soil is tolerably 
good, beech will become fit to be felled in 
about twenty-five years. The tree bears .op- 
ping, and may, therefore, be trained to form 
very lofty hedges. 

The leaves of the beech, gathered in autumn 
before they are much injured by the frost, are 
said to make better mattresses than straw or 
chaflT, as they remain sweet and continue soft 
for many years ; they are also profitably em- 
ployed in forcing sea-kale, asparagus, &c. in 
hot-beds. The beech is propagated by sowing 
the nuts, or mast, which should be gathere?^ 
O 157 



BEECH. 



BEE cm 



about the middle of September, when they are 
ripe, and begin to fall, and spread out on a 
mat in an airy place for a week to dr)% when 
they may be sown. It is, however, recom- 
menied to keep them dry in sand until the 
spring, as there is less danger of their being 
then destroyed by field mice and other vermin. 
These nuts do not require to be covered more 
than an inch deep in mould, and it wall be ob- 
served that only a part of them germinates the 
first year. Two or three bushels of seed are 
sufficient for an acre, to be sown mixed with 
sand, in the same manner as the ash. 

The flowers of this tree come forth in May, 
and its kernels ripen in September. The Ro- 
mans used beech leaves and honey to restore 
the growth of hair which had fallen off; but 
the moderns have not found it efficacious. 

The nuts or seed of this tree, termed beech 
mast, are the food of hogs, and of various small 
quadrupeds. They are often called buck-mnst 
in England, from the eagerness with which 
deer feed on them. 

An oil, nearly equal in flavour to the best 
olive oil, with the advantage of keeping longer 
without becoming rancid, may be obtained 
from the nuts by pressure. It is very common 
in Picardy, and other parts of France, where 
the mast abounds ; in Silesia it is used by the 
country people instead of butter. And in the 
reign of George I. we find a petition was pre- 
sented, praying letters patent for making but- 
•.er from beech nuts. 

The cakes which remain from the pressure, 
after the oil is made, are given to fatten swine, 
oxen, or poultry. A bushel of mast is said to 
produce a gallon of clean oil ; but the beech 
tree seldom produces a full crop of mast 
oftener than once in three years. This nut is 
palatable to the taste, but when eaten in great 
quantities occasions headache and giddiness ; 
nevertheless, when dried and ground into meal, 
it makes a wholesome bread. Like acorns, 
the fruit of the beech was long the food of 
mankind before the use of corn. Roasted, the 
mast has been found a tolerable substitute for 
coffee. {Phillips's Hist, of Fruits, p. 56; 
il/' Cul/dch's Cam. Diet. ; Baxters Agr. Li- 
brary ,- Brande's Diet, of Scienee.) 

In North America, as in Europe, the beech 
is one of the common trees of the forest. Two 
distinct species are found in the Northern 
States, which have been often treated by bota- 
nists as varieties. Michaux, who makes this 
distinction, calls one the white beech, {Fagtis 
sj/luestris), and the other the red beech (Fngtis 
ferrugiiiea), both the popular names being de- 
rived from the colour of the wood. In the 
Middle Western, and Southern States the red 
beech does not exist, or is very rare. A deep 
moist soil and a cool atmosphere are necessary 
to the utmost expansion of the white beech. In 
the Middle State:,, east of the mountains, it is 
insulated in the forests, whilst in the Northern 
parts of Pennsylvania, the Genessee district 
in New York, and in the stages of Kentucky 
and Tennessee, it composes large masses of 
(he primitive forests. The soils on which the 
licech mostly abounds have generally a stra- 
tum of clay or gravel, termed hard-pan, which 
]>revents any roots from descending. This 
158 



forces the trees to obtain their subsistence from 
the upper soil, and the roots spread around the 
trees to a distance sometimes of a hundred 
feel or more, and so numerous withal as to be 
greatly in the way of the settler when he first 
clears his grounds. But he has the satisfaction 
of knowing that they soon rot awa}' and yield 
to his plough. The white beech is more slen- 
der and less branchy than the red beech ; but 
its foliage is superb, the green being of the 
most agreeable shade, and its general appear- 
ance very beautiful. On the banks of the Ohio 
and in some parts of Kentucky, where the oak 
is too rare to furnish enough bark for tanning, 
the deficiency is supplied by that of the white 
beech. The leather made with this is white 
and serviceable, though avowedly inferior to 
what is prepared with the bark of the oak. 

The red beech bears a greater resemblance 
to that of Europe than the white species. It 
equals the white beech in thickness, but not in 
height, has a more massive and spreading 
summit, and more tufted foliage. The leaves 
are very similar, but tjiose of the white beech 
are not quite so thick and large, with rather 
shorter teeth. To these differences must be 
added a more important one in the wood. The 
red beech 15 or 18 inches in diameter consists 
of 3 or 4 inches of white wood and 13 or 14 
inches of red wood or heart, the inverse of 
which proportion is found in the white beech. 
The wood of the red beech is stronger, tougher, 
and more compact. In the state of Maine and 
in the British Provinces where oaks are rare, 
it is employed with the sugar maple and yel- 
low birch for the lower part of the frame of 
vessels. As it is extremely liable to injury 
from worms, and speedily decays when ex- 
posed to alternate dryness and moisture, it is 
rarely used in the construction of houses. In 
the state of Maine the hickory is rare, and the 
white oak does not exist, and when the 3 ellow 
birch and black ash cannot be procured in 
sufficient abundance the red beech is selected 
for hoops. 

Experience has demonstrated the advantage 
of felling the beech in the summer, whilst the 
sap is in full circulation. Cut at this season 
it is very durable, but felled in winter, it de- 
cays in a few years. The logs are left several 
months in the shade before they are hewn, care 
being taken that they do not repose immedi- 
ately upon the ground. After this they are 
hewn and laid in water for three months, 
which process, it is said, renders them inac- 
cessible to worms. 

The beech is very durable when preserved 
from moisture, and incorruptible when con- 
stantly in the water; but the white or exterior 
portion of the wood decays rapidly when ex- 
posed to alternations of dryness and dampness. 
The interior red Avood, or heart, as it is usually 
called, is very durable. In the northern por- 
tion of the United States, the red beech consti- 
tutes a large proportion of the fuel consumed, 
and, as in Europe, the wood of the beech sub- 
serves a great variety of useful purposes. 

The ashes of both species of beech yield a 
very large proportion of potash. 

Michaux, who describes the process of ex 
tracting the oil, says that it equals one-sixth 



jl 



BEEF. 



BEER. 



cf the nuts used. The quality of the oil de- 
pends upon the care with which it is made, 
and upon the purity of the vessels in which it 
is preserved. It should be twice drawn off 
during the first three months, without disturb- 
ing the dregs, and the third time at the end of 
six months. It arrives at perfection only when 
it becomes limpid, several months after its ex- 
traction. It improves by age, lasts unimpaired 
for ten years, and may be preserved longer 
than any other oil. 

The manner of making beech nut oil most 
commonly pursued in the districts of the United 
States where the tree abounds, is somewhat 
different from that described in Michaux's 
Sylva. Instead of resorting to the rather te- 
dious process of gathering the nuts and press- 
ing them through screw-presses, the farmers 
turn out their hogs immediately after the first 
frost, who secrete the oil under their skin. In a 
favourable year they become perfect masses of 
blubber. Unless they be fed, sometime before 
killing, on Indian corn, the bacon has little 
solid consistency, becomes liquid upon the 
slighest application of heat, and keeps that 
state, — resembling in this respect the lard 
of hogs fed upon acorn mast. The nuts are 
only plentiful about every third or fourth year, 
and every farmer keeps a number of half- 
starved swine in the intervening period to take 
advantage of the happy event. 

BEEF (Fr. bceuf), is used either fresh or 
salted. Beef is also sometimes used for the 
name of an ox, bull, or cow, considered as fit 
for food. Formerly it was usual for most 
families, at least in England, to supply them- 
selves with a stock of salt beef in October or 
November, which served for their consumption 
until the ensuing summer; but in consequence 
of the universal establishment of markets 
where fresh beef may be at all times obtained, 
the practice is now nearly relinquished, and 
the quantity of salted beef made use of as 
compared with fresh beef is quite inconsider- 
able. Large quantities of salted beef are, 
however, prepared at Cork and other places 
for exportation to the East and West Indies. 
During the war large supplies were also re- 
quired for victualling the navy. The vessels 
engaged in the coasting trade, and in short 
voyages, use only fresh provisions. The Eng- 
lish have at all times been great consumers of 
beef; and at this moment more beef is used in 
London, as compared with the population, than 
anywhere else in Europe. 

BEELD, or BIELD (Sax. behiimn; Icel. 
boele, a dwelling). A term provincially applied 
ui the north of England to any thing which 
affords shelter, such as a clump or screen of 
trees planted for the protection of live-stock. 

BEER (Welsh, blr ; Germ, bier .■ Sax. heap ; 
Goth, bar, barley). A liquor made from malt 
and hops, which is distinguished from ale 
either by being older or smaller. It may be 
prepared from any of the farinaceous grains, 
but barley is most commonly employed. 

Beer is, properly speaking, the wine of bar- 
ley. The meals of any of these grains being 
extracted by a sufficient quantity of water, and 
remaining at rest in a degree of heat requisite 
for this fermentation, are changed into a vinous 



liquor. But as these matters render the water 
mucilaginous, fermentation proceeds slowly 
and imperfectly. On the other hand, if the 
quantity of farinaceous matter be so dimi- 
nished that its extract or decoction may have 
a convenient degree of fluidity, this liquor will 
be impregnated with so small a quantity of 
fermentable matter, that the beer or wine of 
the grain will be weak, and have little taste. 
These inconveniences are therefore remedied 
by preliminary operations which the grain is 
made to undergo. These preparations consist 
in steeping it in cold water, that it may soak 
and swell to a certain degree ; and in laying it 
in a heap with a suitable degree of lieat, by 
means of which, and of the imbibed moisture, 
a germmation begins, which is to be stopped 
by a quick drying, as soon as the bud shows 
itself. To accelerate this drying, and to prevent 
the farther vegetation of the grain, which would 
impair its saccharine qualities, the grain is 
slightly roasted, by means of a kiln, or making 
it pass down an inclined canal sufticiently 
heated. This germination, and this slight 
roasting, change considerably the nature of the 
mucilaginous fermentable matter of the grain, 
and it becomes the malt of commerce. This 
malt is then ground; and all its substance, 
which is fermentable and soluble in water, is 
extricated by means of hot water. This ex- 
tract or infusion is evaporated by boiling in 
cauldrons ; and some plant of an agreeable 
bitterness, such as hops, is added to heigliten 
the taste of the beer, and to render it capable 
of being longer preserved. Lastly, this liquor 
is put into casks, and fermented, assisted by 
the addition of barm. 

Beer is nutritious from the sugar and muci- 
lage it contains, exhilarating from the spirit, 
and'Strengthening and narcotic from the hops. 
Mr. Brande obtained the following quantities 
of alcohol from 100 parts of different beers : — 
Burton ale, between 8 and 9 ; Edinburgh ale, 
6 to 7 ; Dorchester ale, 5 to 6. The average 
of strong ale being between 6 and 7 ; brown 
stout, 6 to 7; London porter about 4 (average) ; 
London brewers' small beer between 1 and 2. 
(See Brewixg.) "The distinction between 
ale and beer, or porter, has been," says Mr. 
M'Culloch, " ably elucidated by Dr. Tliomas 
Thomson in his valuable article on brewing in 
the supplement to the Encyc. Brit." 

" Both ale and beer are in Great Britain ob- 
tained by fermentation from the malt of barle)% 
but they differ from each other in several par- 
ticulars. Ale is light-coloured, brisk, and 
sweetish, or at least free from bitter; while 
beer is dark-coloured, bitter, and much less 
brisk. What is called porter in England is a 
species of beer; and the term 'porter,' at pre- 
sent signifies what was formerly called strong 
beer. The original difference between ale and 
beer was owing to the malt from which thev 
were prepared ; ale malt was dried at a very 
low heat, and consequently was of a pale co- 
lour , while beer or porter malt was dried at a 
higher temperature, and had of consequence 
acquired a brown colour. This incipient 
charring had developed a peculiar and agree- 
able bitter taste, which was communicated to 
the beer along with the dark colour. This bit 



BEES. 



BEES. 



ler taste rendered beer more agreeable to the 
palate and less injurious to the constitution 
than ale. It was consequently manufactured 
in greater quantities, and soon became the 
common drink of the lower ranks in England. 
When malt became high priced, in conse- 
quence of the heavy taxes laid upon it, and the 
great increase in the price of barley which 
took place during the war of the French revo- 
lution, the brewers found out that a greater 
quantity of wort of a given strength could be 
prepared from pale malt than from brown 
malt. The consequence was, that a consider- 
able proportion of pale malt was substituted 
for brown malt in the brewing of porter and 
beer. The wort, of course, was much paler 
than before, and it wanted that agreeable bitter 
flavour which characterized porter, and made 
it so much relished by most palates. At the 
same time various substitutes were tried to 
supply the place of the agreeable bitter com- 
municated to porter by the use of brown malt ; 
quassia, cocculus indicus, and we believe even 
opium, were employed in succession ; but none 
of them was found to answer the purpose suffi- 
ciently." The use of the articles other than 
malt, referred to by Dr. Thomson, has been ex- 
pressly forbidden under heavy penalties by 
repeated acts of parliament. In England, the 
classification of the diffeient sorts of beer ac- 
cording to their strength, originated in the 
duties laid upon them ; and now that these du- 
ties have been repealed, ale and beer may be 
brewed of any degree of strength. 

The duty on beer being repealed in 1830, 
there are no later accounts of the quantity 
brewed. 

The number of baireis of strong beer 
brewed in Scotland in the five years ending 
1830, was 597,737 ; table beer, 1,283,490 ; 
amount of duty paid thereon, 393,136/. {Pari, 
Paper, No. 190, Sess. 1830.) 

No accovint has been kept of the quantity 
of beer brewed in Ireland since 1809, when it 
amounted to 960,300 barrels. {Moreivood on In- 
toxicating Liquors, p. 353.) Perhaps it may 
now amount to from 1,000,000 to 1,200,000 bar- 
rels. Ale or beer exported to foreign parts is 
allowed a drawback of 5s. the barrel of 36 
gallons. Imperial measure. The number of 
barrels of strong beer annually exported is, 
from England, about 70,000 barrels ; Ireland, 
15,000, and Scotland, 3,000. {M'Culloch's Com. 
Die/.) 

BEES (Sax. oeo, Lat. apies). These indus- 
trious and useful insects are worthy the atten- 
tion of all classes, and will repay the utmost 
care that can be taken in their management. 

No farm or cottage garden is complete with- 
out a row of these busy little colonies, with 
their warm, neat straw roofs, and their own 
particular, fragrant bed of thyme, in which 
they especially delight. Select a sheltered part 
of the garden, screened by a wall or hedge 
from the cutting north and easterly winds ; let 
them enjoy a southern sun, but do not place 
ihem facing his early beams, because bees 
must never be tempted to quit their hive in 
the heavy morning dew, which clogs their 
limbs and impedes their flight. Place them, if 
possible, near a running stream, as they de- 
16^ 



light in plenty of water ; but if none is within 
their easy reach, place pans of fresh water 
near the hives, in which mix a little common 
salt ; and let bits of stick float on the surface, 
to enable bees to drink safely, instead of slip- 
ping down the smooth sides of the vessel, and 
perish. Never place hives in a roofed stand : 
it heats them, and induces the bees frequently 
to form combs outside of their hives instead 
of swarming. Let the space before the hives 
be perfectly clear of bushes, trees, and every 
impediment to their movement, that they may 
wing their way easily to seek for food, and re- 
turn without annoyance. Bees, returning 
heavily laden and wearied, are unable to bear 
up against any object, should they hit them 
selves and fall. Let their passage to and from 
their hives be clear; but trees and bushes in 
the vicinity of their residence are advisable, 
as they present convenient spots for swarms 
to settle which might otherwise go beyond 
sight or reach. A swarm seldonr goes far 
from home, unless the garden is unprovided 
with resting-places, to attract the queen, who 
takes refuge in the nearest shelter. In the 
month of November remove your hives upon 
their stools, into a cool, dry, and shady room, 
outhouse, or cellar, where they will be protect- 
ed as well from the winter sun as from the 
frosts. Warm days in "winter often tempt bees 
to quit their cells, and the chilling air numbs 
and destroys them. Let them remain thus un- 
til February or March, should the spring be 
late and cold. Do not be satisfied with stop- 
ping the mouth of the hive with clay; the bees 
will soon make their way through it. Remove 
them. Bees are very subject to a disease in the 
spring, similar to dysenter3^ Before you place 
the hives in their summer quarters, examine 
the state of the bees by turning up the hive, 
and noticing the smell proceeding from it. If 
the bees are healthy, the odour will be that of 
heated wax ; but if diseased, it will appear 
like that of putrefaction. In this case, a small 
quantity of port wine or brandy mixed with 
their food will restore them. In the early 
spring feed them, and do the same when the 
flowers pass away in autumn, until they 
are taken into the house ; then disturb them 
no more. The proper food is beer and sugar, 
in the proportion of one pound to a quart ; boil 
it five minutes only. In May, bees begin to 
swarm, if the weather is warm. New and dry 
hives must be prepared without any doorway ; 
the entrance must be cut in the stool. This is 
recommended by " An Oxford Conservative 
Bee Keeper." 

Sticks across the inside of the hive are use- 
less, and very inconvenient. Let the hive be 
well washed with beer and sugar before you 
shake the bees into it. After swarming, place 
it upon a cloth with one side raised tipon a 
stone ; shade it with boughs, and let it alone 
till quite dusk, then remove it to the stool 
where it is to stand. The " Oxford Bee Keeper" 
advises food to be given to a swarm after hiv- 
ing, for three or four days. Large hives are 
best: they do not consume more food than 
small ones ; this is a fact, and the same writer 
mentions it. Smarts and casts are the second 
and third swarms from a hive : they seldom 



BEES. 



BEES. 



Ave through the winter, and ought to be united 
to each other, or to a weak hive. This is the 
plan recommended by several writers ; as 
also returning a smart or cast to the parent 
hive, if you have no hive weak enough to re- 
quire an increase of numbers. In this last 
case, Huish recommends the following plan : 
Place the back of a chair parallel with the 
entrance of the hive, over which spread a 
sheet ; then holding the hive containing the 
smart over it, give a few sharp knocks at the 
top, and the bees will immediately fall down 
on the cloth ; proceed then, either with your 
finger or a stick, to guide a few of the bees to 
the entrance of the parent hive, and they will 
instantly crowd into it. The queen bee should 
be caught and secured as they proceed ; if this 
is not done, they kill her, but in a less merciful 
way. 

To form a junction of two weak hives, or a 
swarm and a hive, Huish discovered the fol- 
lowing method : Smoke each hive, as if for 
taking, only with a less destructive fume, 
which will be mentioned presently. Spread 
all the bees of one hive upon a table, and 
search carefully for the queen ; destroy her ; 
sweep the bees of both hives together into one, 
sprinkling them with some beer and sugar 
mixed ; replace the hive. The fungus used 
for smoking bees is that called frog's cheese, 
found in damp meadows ; take the largest, and 
put it into a bag ; squeeze it to half its size, 
then dry it in an oven or before the fire, but 
not by a very quick heat. Take a piece of 
this dried fungus, the size of two eggs, and put 
it in a stick split at one end, and sharp at the 
other, which is to be fixed into the bottom of an 
empty hive turned upside down, to receive the 
stupified bees as they fall. 

To prevent swarming, the "Oxford Bee 
Keeper" recommends this treatment : — 

" You see in the following figure a wooden 





bottom board, with the doorway a a cut in it. 
It has another doorway, b b, on the right side. 
The ring is meant to show where a hive stands 
on it. The other bottom board is just like it, 
only the second doorway is on the left hand, so 
as to fit exactly to the side entrance of the first 
board, when pushed close together. As soon 
as the bees begin to hang out, in May, push the 
two boards close together. In the evening, 
■when they are all in, stop up the entrance a a, 
and open the right hand one b b. Put an empty 
hive on the new board, with a glass worked 
into the back for observation. Each doorway 
has a bit of tin laid over as much of it as juts 
out beyond the hive. The bees must then find 
their way out by the new doorway ; rub it with 
a little honey, and they will soon take to it. 
When the second hive is full, remove it thus : 
in the heat of the day, when many bees are out, 
sUp a piece of tin or card between the two 
doorways, shut up the doorway c c, and open 
21 



the old doorway a a. If the bees go on w orkii ^ 
quietly all day, you will be sure that the queen 
is in the old hive, and all is right. About half 
an hour before dusk, open again the doorway 
c c, and the bees, frightened by their long im- 
prisonment, will hurry from one doorwav to 
another to join the queen. As soon as they are 
gone, take away the full hive for yourself. If 
the old hive is very uneasy all day, you may 
be sure the queen is shut up in the new hive ; 
if so, draw out the card or tin to join them 
again, and wait till another day." 

Never destroy a bee ; this is the first great 
principle in their treatment. Bees only live 
one year, therefore, by killing them in Septem- 
ber, you destroy the young vigorous ones 
ready to work the following spring : the year- 
old bees die in August. When a hive is to be 
taken, smoke the bees as directed for joining 
hives ; replace them in a fresh hive, taking 
care to ascertain that the queen is safe among 
them, and feed them through the autumn and 
spring; they will be ready to work with the 
rest, and a hive is thus added to the general 
stock. The queen is easily knoMrn from the 
working bees, as the size is larger. 

By fumigating the bees with tobacco smoke 
while operating upon a hive, they are rendered 
perfectly harmless. It is well to protect the 
face, neck, and hands, to prevent alarm or the 
chance of accident. When stung, extract the 
sting, and apply Goulard water immediately,, 
or laudanum, or sweet oil. In February bees- 
first begin their labours. May is their busiest 
month. In November their labours end, and 
they remain torpid for the winter. For more 
particular instructions, see Huish on Bees,- The 
Conservative Bee Keeper's Letter to Cottagers ; 
Wild/nan s Treatise on Bees ; The Honey Bee, by. 
Dr. Bevan ; Penny Cyclo.,- Quart. Joum. ofAgr. 
vol. ii. p. 594 ; Boaster's Agr. Lib. pp. 46 — 53. 

Several of these treatises have been repub- 
lished in the United States, where, besides 
separate works upon the subjects, the agricul- 
tural periodicals and newspapers abound with 
suggestions and instructions relative to the 
management of bees, &c. 

Loudon, in his lately published Encyclbpsedia 
of Agriculture, says, that after all that has been 
done in England, France, and Italy, the Dee 
is still more successfully managed and finer 
honey produced in Poland, by persons who 
never saw a work on the subject, or heard of 
the mode of depriving bees of their honey 
without taking their lives. Much as has been 
written in France and England upon this sub- 
ject, it is, he observes, still found' tiae best 
mode to destroy the bee in taking the honey, a 
practice for which he thinks tinanswerable 
reasons are given by La Grenee, a Fi-encb. 
apiarian, and which is allovyed to be' consiu- 
sive as to profit even by Huish. 

" Suffocation is performed when the season 
of flowers begins to decline, and generally in 
October. The smoke of paper, or rag soaked 
or smeared with melted sulphur, is introduced 
to the hive, by placing it in a hole in the 
ground where a few shreds of these articles 
are undergoing a smothering combustion ; or 
the full hive may be placed on an empty one, 
inverted as in partial deprivation, and the sui 
o2 161 



BEES. 



BEES. 



phurous smoke introduced by fumjgating bel- 
lows, &c. The bees will fall from the upper 
to the lower hi\ e in a few minutes, when they 
may be removed and buried to prevent re- 
suscitation. Such a death seems one of the 
easiest, both to the insects themselves and to 
human feelings. Indeed, the mere deprivation 
of life, to animals not endowed with sentiment 
or reflection, is reduced to the precise pain of 
the moment, without reference to the past or 
the future ; and as each pulsation of this pain 
increases in effect on the one hand, so, on the 
other, the susceptibility of feeling it diminishes. 
Civilized man is the only animal to whom 
death has terrors, and hence the origin of that 
false humanity which condemns the killing of 
bees in order to obtain their honey, but which 
might, with as much justice, be applied 
to the destruction of almost every other ani- 
mal used in domestic economy, as fow'e. 
game, fish, cattle, &c." (Encyc, of Agriculture, 
7614.) 

As to the best situation for bees during 
their working season, this must depend upon 
circumstances of climate and locality. In 
southerly latitudes and warm exposures, — 
where the climate will admit of the hives re- 
maining upon the stands during winter, — it 
may still be advisable to give some shelter, 
and the principal object should be to ward 
off the sun, the warmth from which invites 
the bees to fly abroad at an unprofitable sea- 
son, and makes them sensitive to the sudden 
spells of cold experienced throughout the 
United States. In summer, the extreme heat 
of the sun should certainly be warded off by 
sheds and suitable shades, although it is im- 
proper to oblige the bees to pass through bar- 
riers of boughs and bushes. The heat accu- 
mulated by objects exposed to the direct rays 
of the sun often increases to 130° or 140° of 
■Fahrenheit, a temperature which must be in- 
jurious, not only to the bees themselves, but 
'lO their honey and wax. Whitewashing the 
'hives and stands will tend much to prevent 
the accumulation of heat. The hives may 
front the east, south-east, or south-west, ac- 
cording to circumstances. 

In the northerly portions of the United 
States, means are generally used to protect the 
.swarms in winter, by removal to some cool and 
:dry out-house or cellar. Some bury the hives 
either partly or entirely under ground, as is 
practised with many kinds of vegetables. The 
place should be very dry, and the hives set 
upon clean straw, without any bottom board 
to rest on, one side being raised about two 
inches by means of a stick or stone. An 
■empty space must be left around, three times 
the size of the hive, covered over with bridging 
and earth, six, eight, or ten inches in depth, 
heaped up well so as to turn off water. They 
may remain thus covered about three months. 

Whilst some persons contend for the ne- 
cessity of protecting bees against the extreme 
cold of American winters, others deem it not 
only useless, Ijut destructive to the health and 
welfare of swanms to remove the hives from 
their usual situations, however exposed these 
may be. Among apiarians who disapprove of 
'.he removal ol hives in the winter, is Dr. J. 
162 



V. C. Smith, of Boston, who, in a neat little 
duodecimo volume of about a hundred pages, 
" On the Practicability of Cultivating the Ho- 
ney Bee in Maritime Towns and Cities, as a 
source of Domestic Economy and Profit," 
holds the following testimony : — 

•' During the season of rest, from the first of 
October to the first or middle of April, the 
quantity of honey consumed by such a hive 
as has been spoken of, as worth keeping, 
varies according to the average temperature 
of the weather, from ten to twenty pounds. It 
is better that the bees should have too much 
than too little in store. They are very econo- 
mical in the expenditure of food, and therefore 
there is no risk in trusting them with well 
stocked granaries. All hives should have the 
weight marked on the back, which will enable 
the manager to judge pretty accurately of the 
quantity of honey and wax on hand. Taking 
five pounds as the standard weight of the bees, 
and a half pound of wax to every fifteen 
pounds of honey, almost the exact quantity of 
hone}^ can thus be ascertained. My rule has 
invariably been, to let the bees remain in win- 
ter, wherever they have stood through the sum- 
mer; all attempts on my part to prepare them 
for the inclemencies of approaching cold were 
invariably anticipated, and seasonably attend- 
ed to by the bees themselves. 

" Feeling peculiar commiseration for a 
swarm, two years since, whose bleak locality, 
I feared, would be the certain destruction of the 
hive before spring, they were placed in the lob- 
by of an adjacent building for comfort. In the 
month of March, discovering that thousands 
of them were dead on the floor, and that the 
bees were sickly, they were carried back to 
their old stand in the open air, at the summit 
of a high, exposed hill, where they were per- 
fectly restored to health in about twelve days. 
If they are housed in winter, the torpidity which 
seems to be constitutionally requisite, both for 
the future health of the bee, and the saving of 
its honey, is obviated, and indisposition, in 
consequence of constantly feeding, without ex- 
ercise, is the invariable result. The colder 
they are, the better: I am fully persuaded that 
bees, in their hive, cannot be frozen to death. 
Animation may be suspended several weeks 
or months with impunity — vitality may merely 
appertain to organized matter; but, when the 
genial warmth of spring comes gently on, the 
little spark of life is again rekindled into vigo- 
rous flame. 

"On the 21st of March, 1831, in company 
with Mr. J. S. C. Greene, we examined a hive 
of bees that had, probably, died for want of 
proper ventilation. There were two thousand 
two hundred bees. A common flint tumbler 
contained one thousand, weighing six ounces 
and a half. It was obvious they did not die 
of starvation, as there was a good supply of 
beautiful honey, which, together with the comb, 
weighed twenty-two pounds. Allowing one 
half pound of cell comb for holding every fif- 
teen pounds of honey, the quantity was easily 
ascertained. Taking this in connection with 
that which was taken from them in the autumn, 
and at the same time admitting that five hun- 
dred bees were lost by high autumnal winds, 



BEES. 



BEES. 



storms, and early frosts, the whole colony con- 
sisted, orijjinally, of thirty-two hundred bees, 
which, in eight weeks, or thereabouts, collect- 
ed the wax, constructed the cells, and niade 
over one hundred pounds of honey, in a gar- 
den on Pemberton's Hill, nearly in the centre 
of Boston ! It should be remarked, that a bee 
answering the general description of the queen, 
as it relates to external appearance, was found 
in a cluster of dead ones. Not a drone was 
discovered, nor a young bee in any stage of 
infancy." 

It is probable that bees can preserve their 
vittlity in ordinary hives exposed to the most 
intense cold, so long as they remain in the torpid 
condition in which they are prepared for the 
worst. But when roused from this conditicm 
by the occurrence of a premature warm spell, 
they are then rendered sensitive to the effects 
of cold, and when this comes upon them sud- 
denly and with severity, they perish under it. 
The great object therefore appears to be, to 
place the swarms during winter in some dry 
situati(m where they may be kept at a cool and 
equable temperature. A good dry and cool 
cellar must answer all the purposes admira- 
bly, and from such a situation it is easy to 
remove them occasionally, in good mild wea- 
ther, and give them an airing. 

Loudon, who adopts the views of Howison 
and Huish, says that the heyf. material and form 
for hives is a straw thimble, or flower-pot, 
placed in an inverted position. Hives made 
of straw, as now in use, have a great advan- 
tage over those made of wood and other mate- 
rials, from the effectual defence they afford 
against the extremes of heat in summer and 
cold in winter. A full-sized straw hive will 
hold three pecks ; a small-sized, from one and 
a half to two pecks. (Enci/c. of Agn'c.) 

The feeding of bees is generally deferred till 
winter or spring; but this is a most erroneous 
practice: hives should be examined in the 
course of the month of September, or about 
the time of killing the drones ; and if a large 
hive does not weigh thirty pounds, it will be 
necessary to allow it half a pound of honey, 
or the same quantity of soft sugar made into 
syrup, for every pound that is deficient of that 
weight; and in like proportion to smaller hives. 
This work must not be delayed, that time may 
be given for the bees to make the deposit in 
their empty cells before they are rendered tor- 
pid by the cold. Sugar simply dissolved in 
water (which is a common practice"), and su- 
gar boiled in water into a syrup, form com- 
pounds very differently suited for the winter 
store of bees. Vv'^hen the former is wanted for 
their immediate nourishment, as in spring, it 
will answer equally as a syrup; but if to be 
laid up as a store, the heat of the hive quickly 
evaporating the water, leaves the sugar in dry 
crystals, not to be acted upon by the trunks 
of the bees. Hives may be killed with hunger 
while some pounds' weight of sugar remain 
in this state in their cells. The boiling of su- 
gar into syrup forms a closer combination with 
the water, by which it is prevented from flying 
off, and a consistence resembling that of honey 
retained. Howison has had frequent experi- 
ence of hives, not containing a pound of honey, 



preserved in perfect health through the winter 
with sugar so prepared, when given in proper 
time and in sufficient quantity. 

In the article from Loudon, from which we 
are now quoting, it is recommended to protect 
hives from cold, by covering them with straw 
or rushes, about the end of September, or 
later, according to the climate and season. 
This perhaps only applies to board hives, as 
those made of thick rye-straw or rushes will 
do without additional covering. Well protect- 
ed hives always prosper better the following 
season than such as have not been covered. 
In October, the aperture at which the bees 
enter should generally be narrowed, so that 
only one bee may pass at a time. Indeed, as 
a very small portion of air is necessary for 
bees in their torpid state, it were better during 
severe frosts to be entirely shut up, as num- 
bers of them are often lost from being enticed 
to quit the hive by the sunshine of a winter 
day. It will, however, be proper at times to 
remove, by a crooked wire or similar instru- 
ment, the dead bees and other filth, which the 
living at this season are unable to perform of 
themselves. To hives whose stock of honey 
was sufficient for their maintenance, or those 
to which a proper quantity of sugar had been 
given for that purpose, no further attention 
will be necessary until the breeding season 
arrives. This, in warm situations, generally 
takes place about the beginning of May ; and 
in cold, about a month after. The young bees, 
for a short time previous to their leaving their 
cells, and some after, require being fed with 
the same regularity that young birds are by 
their parents ; and if the store in the hive be 
exhausted, and the weather such as not to ad- 
mit of the working bees going abroad to col- 
lect food in sufficient quantity for themselves 
and their brood, the powerful principle of 
affection for their young compels them to part 
with what is not enough for their support, at 
the expense of their own lives. To prevent 
such accidents, it is advisable, if during the 
breeding season it rain for two successive 
days, to feed all the bees indiscriminately, as 
it would be difficult to ascertain those only 
which reqttire it. 

The swarming of bees generally commences 
in June, in some seasons earlier, and in cold 
climates or seasons later. The first swarming 
is so long preceded by the appearance of 
drones, and hanging out of working bees, that 
if the time of their leaving the hive is not ob- 
served, it must be owing to want of care. The 
signs of the second are, however, more equi- 
vocal, the most certain being that of the queen, 
a day or two before swarming, at intervals of 
a few minutes, giving out a sound a good deal 
resembling that of a cricket. It frequently 
happens that the swarm will leave the old 
hive, and return again several times, which is 
always owing to the queen not having accom- 
panied them, or from having dropped on the 
ground, being too young to fly to a distance. 
Gooseberry, currant, or other low bushes, 
should be planted at a short distance from the 
hives, for the bees to swarm upon, otherwise 
they are apt to fly away ; by attending to thii, 
Howison has not lost a swarm by straying for 

163 



BEES. 



BEES. 



several years. When a hive yields more than 
two swarms, these should uniformly be joined 
to others that are weak, as, from the lateness 
of the season, and deficiency in number, they 
will otherwise perish. This junction is easily 
formed, by inverting at night the hive in which 
they are, and placing over it the one you in- 
tend them to enter. They soon ascend, and 
apparently with no opposition from the former 
possessors. Should the weather for some days 
after swarming be unfavourable for the bees 
going out, they must be fed with care until it 
clears up, otherwise the young swarm will run 
a great risk of dying. 

The honey may be taken from hives of the 
common construction by three modes, partial 
deprivation, total deprivation, and suffocation. 
Partial deprivation is performed about the 
beginning of September. Having ascertained 
the weight of the hive, and consequently the 
quantity of honeycomb which is to be ex- 
tracted, begin the operation as soon as evening 
sets in, by inverting the full hive, and placing 
an empty one over it ; particular care must 
be taken that the two hives are of the same dia- 
meter, for if they differ in their dimensions it 
will no be possible to effect the driving of the 
bees. The hives being placed on each other, 
a sheet or large table-cloth must be tied round 
them at their place of junction, in order to 
prevent the bees from molesting the operator. 
The hives being thus arranged, beat the sides 
gently with a stick or the hand, but particular 
caution must be used to beat it on those parts 
to which the combs are attached and which 
will be found parallel with the entrance of the 
hive. The ascent of the bees into the upper 
hive will be known by a loud humming noise ; 
in a few minutes the whole community will 
have ascended, and the hive with the bees in 
it may be placed upon the pedestal from which 
the full hive was removed. The hive from 
which the bees have been driven must then 
be taken into the house, and the operation of 
cutting out the honeycomb commenced. Hav- 
ing extracted the requisite quantity of comb, 
this opportunity must be embraced of inspect- 
ing the hive, and of cleaning it of any noxious 
matter. In cutting the combs, however, par- 
ticular attention should be paid not to cut into 
two or three combs at once, but having com- 
menced the cutting of one, to pursue it to the 
top of the hive ; and this caution is necessary 
for two reasons. If you begin the cutting of 
two or three combs at one time, were you to 
abstract the whole of them you would perhaps 
take too much ; and secondly, to stop in the 
middle of a comb will be attended Avith very 
pernicious consequences, as the honey would 
drop from the cells which have been cut in 
two, and then the bees, on being returned to 
their native hive, might be di-owned in their 
own sweets. The bees also, in their return to 
their natural domicile, being still under the 
impression of fear, would not give so much 
attention to the honey which flows from the 
divided cells; and as it would fall on the board, 
and from thai on the ground, the bees belonging 
to the other hives would immediately scent the 
■wasted treasure, and a general attack on the de- 
rrivated hive might be the consequence. The 
164 



deprivation of the honeycomb being effected, 
the hive may be returned to iis former position, 
and reversing the hive which contains the 
bees, and placing the deprivated hive over it, 
they may be left in that situation till morning, 
when the bees will be found to have taken 
possession of their native hive, and, if the 
season proves fine, may replenish what they 
have lost. (Huish's Treatineun Bees.) 

Total deprivatiiin is effected in the same 
manner, biit earlier in the season, immediately 
after the first swarm ; and the bees, instead of 
being returned to a remnant of honey in their 
old hive, remain in the new empty one: which 
they will sometimes, though rarely, fill with 
comb. By this mode it is to be observed, very 
little honey is obtained, the bees in June and 
July being occupied chiefly in breeding, and 
one, if not two, swarms are lost. {Luudon's 
Encyc. of Agriculture.) 

The mode of suffocation to be adopted by 
those who prefer destroying bees in taking 
honey, has already been given. 

Particular attention should be paid to the 
culture of such plants as supply the bees with 
the best food and materials for making honej', 
such as thyme, clover, broom, and mustard, &c. 

As a good deal of difference of opinion exists 
relative to the constniction of hives and ma- 
nagement of bees, we have endeavoured to 
condense the views upon the subject enter- 
tained by the most respectable authorities. It 
is a great desideratum that honey be brought 
to market without removal from the hive in 
which it is originally deposited, which enables 
the purchaser to keep it in fine condition for 
any length of time. Few persons will pur- 
chase the contents of a very large hive, when 
honey in small boxes generally sells readily. 
Hence one great advantage of having the hives 
constructed in sections, which, being of the 
same size, can always be fitted over or under 
each other. According to the views of Mr. 
Harasti, a skilful bee-cultivator, a good bee- 
hive ought to possess the following properties : 
First, it should be capable of enlargement or 
contraction according to the size of the swarm. 
Secondly, it should admit of being opened 
without disturbing the bees, either for the pur- 
pose of cleaning it from insects, increasing or 
dividing the swarm, &c. Thirdly, it should 
be so constructed, that the produce may be 
i-emoved without injury to the bees. Fourthlv, 




Fig. 1. 



BEES. 



BEES. 



it should be internalj}' clean, smooth and free 
from cracks or flaws. All these properties 
seem best united in the seclion-hive, which is 
constituted of two, three, four, or more square 
boxes of similar size as to width, placed over 
each other. Such hives are cheap, and so 
\ simple that almost any one can construct 
them. (See Fig. 1.) 

The boxes A, B, C, D, may be made -from 
ten to fourteen inches square and about five 
inches in depth, inside measure. Every bee- 
keeper should have his boxes made of the 
same size, so as to fit on to each other. 
Every hive must have a common top-board, 
a, which should project over the sides of the 
hive. The top-board of each section should 
have about sixteen holes bored through at equal 
distances from each other, and not larger than 
I or smaller than f of an inch. Or, instead of 
such holes, chinks of proper size may be cut 
through to allow the bees to pass up and down. 
At the lower part of each box or section, in front, 
there must be an aperture or little door, c, c,c,d, 
just high enough to let the bees pass, and about 
an inch and a half wide. The lowermost aper- 
ture, d, is to be left open at first, and when the 
hive is filled the upper ones may be succes- 
sively opened. By placing over the holes in the 
top of the upper section, glass globes, jars, 
tumblers, or boxes, the bees will rise into and 
fill them with honey. These may be removed 
at any time after being filled. The holes in 
the tops of the hive which do not open into the 
glasses or boxes should of course be plugged 
up. These glass jars, &c. must be covered 
over with a box so as to keep them in the dark. 
Every box or section, on the side opposite the 
little door, should have a narrow piece of glass 
inserted, with a sliding shutter, by drawing 
out which the condition of the hive can always 
be inspected. To make the bees place their 
combs in parallel lines, five or six sticks or bars 
may be placed at the top of every section, 
running from front to rear. The bees will at- 
tach their combs to these 
bars, and the intermediate 
space will afford suffi- 
cient light to see them 
work. The slides cover- 
ing the glasses should 
never be left open longer 
ijian is just necessary 
for purposes of inspec- 
Fk'- 2. tion. 

When one section is removed from the top, 
a wire or long thin knife must be previously 
run between this and the one immediately be- 
low, so as to destroy the attachments. Then 
remove the upper section, placing the top upon 
the one below, which is now the highest divi- 
sion of the hive. Another section is to be 
placed beneath, lifting up the whole hive for 
the purpose. Sometimes a second section has 
to be put under during a good season. If the 
swarm is not very large three or even two 
boxes will be sufficient for its accommodation. 
The boxes or sections may be secured upon 
each other by buttons, 6, b, or rabbits, and the 
joints closed with cement. 

A good swarm of bees should weigh five or 
six pounds, and one weighing eight pounds is 




considered large. The weight diminishes to 
one pound. Such as are less than four pounds 
weight should be strengthened by a small ad- 
ditional swarm. The hives ought not to be too 
large, as bees are apt to lose time in filling up 
vacancies with wax instead of making honey. 

Honey collected from flowers growing in 
meadows, pasture lands, trees, and cultivated 
crops, is ahnost as limpid as the purest oil, and 
the wax nearly as white as snow. Honey 
collected from buckwheat has a harsh taste. 
When taken once in two years, it is considered 
richer and more solid, and will keep better 
than what is taken every year. 

Some of the plants from which bees collect 
their stores possess poisonous properties and 
impart these to the honey. The late Dr. B. S. 
Barton wrote an interesting and valuable pa- 
per upon this subject, which is published in the 
Transactions of the American Philosophical So- 
cieti/, volume .5th. The plants which, in the 
United States, most frequently, afford poi- 
sonous honey, are the dwarf laurel (Kalmia 
ans;ustifolia), and the great laurel (Kalmia lati- 
folia),ihe mountain laurel (Rhododendron maxi- 
mus), wild honey-suckle (Azalia nudijiora'), 
Jamestown weed, and broad-leaved moorwort 
of the south (Andromeda mariana). Most of 
these plants are known to produce poisonous 
honey, whilst a few of them are only suspi- 
cious. Of the trees and shrubs resorted to by 
bees, some furnish them with the farina or 
flower-dust which yields the spring food 
for their young, — some, the gummy or re- 
sinous exudations or secretions from which 
they derive the propolis or wax for sealing the 
hives of fresh swarms, — whilst others yield 
them honey in greater or less purity. The 
willow is much resorted to by bees for all the 
objects mentioned, furnishing the farina, the 
propolis, and honey-dew (the last from their 
aphides), in regular succession. When swarms 
are in the vicinity of the American sweet gum 
or styrax, they make their propolis from its 
fragrant gum. At other times they resort to 
the Athenian poplar. The sweet box myrtle 
blooms very early in the spring, and its flowers 
are always thickly beset by bees. The Eu- 
ropean, or sweet-flowered linden or lime tree, 
is likewise greatly resorted to by bees when 
in bloom, and also various kinds of fruit trees, 
especially the cherry and apple. The sweet 
juice exuded by the hickory is eagerly sought 
after by bees, but there is no American 
forest tree which affords them such ample 
supplies of the most limpid honey as the tulip 
poplar of the Middle States. This stupendous 
tree sometimes rises, in fertile bottom lands, 
above one hundred feet in height, hav'.ng a 
trunk five or six feet in diameter. Such a 
tree, with every branch from the ground to the 
summit covered with splendid tulips is a 
magnificent sight, and a most valuable acqui- 
sition when Mathin reach of the apiary. 

Among the very great variety of plans 
which have been adopted by American inge- 
nuity to improve the bee culture, there is one 
which has acquired much celebrity from its 
enabling the surplus honey to be taken with- 
out destroying the bees, which most persons 
prefer doing. The plan referred to, is that of 

165 



BEES. 



BEES. 



Mr. Luda, of Connecticut. By it the bees are 
made to build their cells and deposit their ho- 
ney in the chamber of a dwelling-house appro- 
priated for the purpose, in neat little drawers, 
from which it may be taken fresh by the 
owner, without killing the bees. The hive has 
the appearance of, and is in part, a mahogany 
bureau or sideboard, with drawers above and 
a closet below, with glass doors. This case or 
bureau is designed to be placed in the cham- 
ber of a house, or any other suitable building, 
and connected with the open air or outside 
of the house by a tube passing through the 
wall. The bees work and deposit their honey 
in drawers. When these or any of them are 
full, or it is desired to obtain honey, one or 
more of them may be taken out, the bees al- 
lowed to escape into the other part of the hive, 
and the honey taken away. The glass doors 
allow the working of the bees to be observed ; 
and it is said that the spaciousness, cleanli- 
ness, and even the more regular temperature 
of such habitations, render them the more in- 
dustrious and successful. 

A recent plan called the " Kentucky Bee- 
house," has been highly commended for its 
successful adaptation, convenience and cheap- 
ness. One is described in the Farmer's Cabi- 
net, for June, 1839, by Mr. F. C. Fisher. 

" The building is twelve feet long, eight 
wide, and seven feet high from the floor to the 
plate or ceiling (the tioor being eighteen inches 
from the ground), and consists of four posts, 
eleven feet six inches long, let in the ground 
three feet, which is weather-boarded round, 
and covered in so as to prevent the bees from 
getting in the house, they being confined in six 
boxes, three on either side of the house, placed 
fifteen inches one above another. 

" The draw- 
ing (fig. 3) re- 
presents a side 
of the house, 
viewed from 
without. Nos. 
1, 1, are copper 
troughs run- 
ning round the 
post, halfway 
between the floor and ground, which are kept 
filled with water to prevent ants and other 
insects from getting in the house. Nos. 2, 3, 
and 4 are tubes eight inches wide, and one-eighth 
of an inch deep, to convey the bees through 
the wall into the long boxes, and entering them 
at the bottom, there being three to each long 
box. The drawing (fig. 4) represents one 
side of the house, viewed from the inside. 
Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are 
long boxes, eighteen 
inches wide and 
twelve deep, extend- 
ing the whole length 
of the house, with 
eight holes, four 
inches square, in 
each box, upon which 




±U-> 



Fijr. 3. 



r\ n, rs r \ (^ r^ /-^ r\ 



3 



nr\ 



B^ 



l^r\ r^ 



Fig. 4. 

IS set two gallon caps, with two half inch holes 
in each, one near the top, the other about the 
centre of the cap, in which the smoke of a 
turning rag is blown to drive the bees from 
166 



the cap into the long box. When they are alJ 
in the long box, — which can be known by strik- 
ing the caps, — a knife or wire should be drawn 
under the bottom of the cap to separate the 
comb from the box. The cap of honey may 
then be removed, and an empty one put in its 
place. Nos. 4 and 5 are tubes three inches 
square, to convey the bees from one box to 
another, that one swarm of beei may do the 
whole work, or if one or more swarms be put 
in each box, that they may become as one, as 
they will not permit more than one queen when 
put together, by which they are prevented 
from destroying themselves by fighting. A 
house of this description, when the long boxes 
are filled, will aflTord, at a moderate calcula- 
tion, ninety-six gallons of honey in the comb 
annually." 

A hive under the very pompous name of 
" Patent Fortified Transparent Royal Bee Pa- 
lace," invented a few years since by Mr. 
William Groves, of Cleaveland, Ohio, is said 
to possess real merits, notwithstanding its un- 
promising and ridiculous name. It is so con- 
structed that the bees never swarm, and are 
enabled to reject and roll off" all oflfensive mat- 
ters, besides defending themselves against 
intruders. For the preservation of the bees it 
is said to be preferable to any other hive, and 
it admits of the convenient removal of honey 
in any desirable quantity, at all times without 
disturbing the bees, which are kept clean, well- 
ventilated, and healthy. 

A correspondent of the Farmer's Cabinet 
residing in Western Pennsylvania furnishes 
the following description of an improved hive, 
which he says embraces more advantages than 
any other he has ever seen. Among these are 
the following : — 

"1.7/ prevents the ravages of the miller, whose 
worm is the bee's most fatal enemy. Tlie 
miller deposits its eggs in the bee dirt ; which 
in the common hive is constantly accumulating 
on the bottom. This difficulty is obviated by 
the slanting bottom of the stand ; the dirt fall- 
ing on this rolls out at D, and the bottdm is 
kept clean. 

" 2. The cruel practice of destroying the bees is 
entirely superseded by the use of this hive. 
By blowing a small quantity of tobacco smoke 
into the upper box, through a hole made for 
that purpose, the bees will descend into the 
box next below ; the upper box can be remov- 
ed ; fifty or sixty pounds of honey, entirely free 
from dead bees and dirt, can thus be taken 
from a good hive ; and enough remain to win- 
ter the bees without any risk of loss. 

" 3. The swarming nf the bees can be regulated 
by the rise of this hive, and the new swarms 
taken at the season of the year when they are 
most valuable. The bees can be prevented 
swarming again for the season, by additional 
boxes as the young bees increase. 

"4. This hive is cheap and requires but little 
mechanical knowledge in its construction ; any 
farmer with ordinary tools can make it from 
the following description:" — 

Fig. 5, A, is the stand of Mr. Groves's hive, the 
legs of which are sixteen inches high, the stand 
itself eighteen inches square. B represents 
a three-cornered box, open on the top, with a 



BEES. 



BEES. 



slanting bottom c, c ; a space is to be left open 
in the Iront of the hive the whole length at D, 
to admit the bees and allow the dirt to slide 
off the slanting bottom. 





li|ii|liPffi 


^ 




l'|/r'-'^M,2VN..!i, ■'./ 






iLul.;.^.. ■■'r'^ . •■ 




1 


1 iB, jl 
1 1 K -^ 




i 






=::p','!i'lllllllliy||iHllllir!lllllil'llllllt1i:flUI1tl|i||! 


^ 






i 




^ 





Fif. 5. 

" 1, 2, and 3, are boxes or hives, nineteen 
inches square, and seven inches high, with 
slats nailed across, a sufficient distance from 
each other to admit the free passage of the 
bees ; bars are to be put across the hive to 
support the comb. The top is to be secured by 
a tight cover. The bees enter at D, and pass 
up the slanting bottom of the stand into the 
boxes above, and the boxes can be increased 
by adding others, always placing the additional 
boxes nearest the stand." 

Mr. T. Afflick, of Cincinnati, has recently 
published an interesting pamphlet on bees and 
their hives, entitled " Bee-Breeding in the 
West," which contains much useful informa- 
tion. His plan for constructing and placing 
hives seems to combine economy, simplicity, 
and durability, with the great desideratum of 
securing the bees against the moth. 

The invention is called the Subtended hive, 
and may be constructed by any farmer who 
can handle a saw, a plane, and a hammer, by 
pursuing the following directions. " The boxes 
of which it is to be composed, must be formed 
of well-seasoned boards, free from knots and 
wind-shakes, one inch thick ; they may be ten, 
eleven, or twelve inches square in the clear, 
well-dressed on each side, and joined on the 
edges, so as to fit close, without being tongued 
or grooved. Before nailing together at the 
sides, lay a strip of thick white-leiui paint on 
the edge, which will render the joint impervi- 
ous to the ovipositor of the moth. In the top 
of each box cut two semicircular holes, at the 
front and back, one inch and a half in diame- 
ter, the straight side being in a line with the 
back and front of the box, so that the bees may 
have a straight road in their way from one 
story to the other; the top of the upper box 
must have an extra cover fixed with screws, 
that it may be easily removed in case of 
need, so as to form a second box when requir- 
ed : pour a little melted bees-wax over the in- 



side of the top, which will enable the bees to 
attach their comb more firml}'. We will sup- 
pose the boxes thus made, to be a cube of 
twelve inches inside measure ; in that case, 
the tunnel-stand will be made thus : — take a 
piece of two-inch pine plank, free from knot.s 
and shakes, twenty-six inches long and eigh'- 
een inches broad ; now, ten inches from one 
end, and two inches from the other and from 
each side, mark off a square of fourteen 
inches; from the outside of this square, the 
board is dressed off with an even slope until 
its thickness at the front edge is reduced to 
half an inch, and at the other three edge^, t 
about an inch. The square is then to be re- 
duced to twelve inches, in the centre of which 
is bored an inch auger-hole, and to this hole 
the inner square is gradually sloped to the 
depth of an inch — thus securing the bees from 
any possibility of wet lodging about their hive, 
and atfording them free ventilation. There 
will then be a level, smooth strip, of one inch 
in width, surro-mding the square of twelve 
inches, on which to set the box or hive. Two 
inches from the .""ront edge of the stand, com- 
mence cutting a channel two inches in width, 
and of such a depth as to carry it out on an 
even slope half-way between the inner edge of 
the hive and the ventilating hole in the centre ; 
and over this, fit in a strip of wood as neatly 
as possible, dressing it down even with the 
slope of the stand, so as to leave a tunnel two 
inches in width and a quarter of an inch deep. 
Under the centre hole, and over the outlet of 
the tunnel, hang small wire grates, the first to 
prevent the entrance of other insects, and the 
other to be thrown over to prevent the exit of 
the bees, or fastened down to keep them at 
home, in clear, sunshiny days in winter. For 
feet to the stand, use four or five inch screws, 
screwed in from below far enough to be firm ; 
and the whole should have two coats of white 
paint, sometime before it is wanted, that the 
smell may be dissipated, as it is very offensive 
to the bees." (Farmers Cabinet.) 

A great variety of patent and fancy hives 
are from time to time vaunted for their very 
superior qualities, but in general the simplest 
construction answers best, and there is per- 
haps no hive which combines so many advan- 
tages as that composed of sections. 

In most of the oldest settled parts of the 
United States, the larva or maggot of 'he bee- 
moth {I'hij/asnn cereana), a small graj miller, 
commits great devastation among the swarms 
of bees. In many places in New England, the 
farmers have been induced to abandon the 
bee-culture entirely on account of the destruc- 
tion caused by the bee-moth. These lay their 
eggs in the corners and other interior parts of 
the hive, which they enter at night. In due 
time these eggs are hatched out into maggots, 
and growinginto worms with strong mandibles, 
they gnaw their way in any direction they 
choose to go, making destructive tracks through 
the honey-comb. After this destructive course, 
the worm envelopes itself in a thick, soft case 
or web, and there awaits the final change by 
which it is converted into the perfect winged 
miller. Numerous are the expedients resoriuJ 
to and recommended to obviate the destruction 

167 



BEES. 



BEE-MOTH. 



produced through the moth. Some of the most 
intelligent apiarians put their chief trust in the 
strength of the swarms, and when these become 
reduced and weak, unite them so as to enable 
the bees to defend their hive against intruders. 
Placing boxes for wrens near the apiary is 
also strongly recommended, and with good 
reason, since these little birds are very active 
in catching all kinds of moths. To enable the 
wren to get under the hive, it has been recom- 
mended to raise these an inch or an inch and 
a half above the stand, by means of small 
blocks. 

Another plan frequently adopted, and, it is 
said, with much success, consists in placing, 
early in the evening, a burning lamp in a pail, 
near the hive-stand. Some fresh honey or 
molasses and water may be spread upon the 
bottom as a bait. A keg with only one head 
is thought preferable to a pail for this purpose, 
owing to the curvature of the staves, which 
serves to prevent the insect from flying out so 
readily, and before it has met its destruction 
from the flame of the lamp. A small fire kept 
up early in the evening near the apiary is also 
frequently resorted to for attracting and de- 
stroying the night-flying miller. Placing shal- 
low vessels containing sweetened water, with 
one gill of vinegar added for each pint, is said 
to attract and drown the moths in great num- 
bers. Shutting up the apertures for the exit 
and entrance of the bees, early in the evening, 
is also advised, as the moth intrudes itself in 
the evening and night. But when this is done 
the apertures must be opened again very early 
in the morningi When millers are numerous, 
each hive should be raised at least twice a 
week, upon one side, and the worms sought 
for and destroyed. In this operation a puff" of 
smoke under the hive keeps the bees quiet 
during the search, which should be performed 
with as little jarring or disturbance to the 
swarm as possible. 

A correspondent of the Farmer's Register 
recommends, that as soon as the bees com- 
mence working in the spring, the hives are to 
be examined, and with a piece of hoop- 
iron or other suitable implement, the stand 
well scraped immediately under the hive, 
especially around the mner edge of the box. 
The whole secret of keeping ofl" the moth con- 
sists, he thinks, in keeping the hives free from 
the web formed by the moth. After this ope- 
ration, four small blocks of wood are to be 
placed under each corner of the hive so as to 
raise it not quite half an inch from the stand. 
This will permit the hive and stand to be 
cleaned without raising the box. This scraping 
operation must be repeated every three or four 
days, especially if there be any appearance of 
web. In winter the blocks must he removed, 
and the hive let down upon the stand as a se- 
curity against mice, and other depredators 
upon the honey. The person who recommends 
this plan as a certain security against the 
ravages of the Avorm, advises that an entrance 
be made for the bees, by cutting a perpendi- 
cular slit, one-eighth of an inch wide and two 
and a half inches long, situated about halfwav 
from the bottom. Just under this a small 
snf If i= to be placed as a resting-place for the 
168 



bees in going out and returning to the hive. 
The bees soon get accustomed to this new 
place of entrance. The plan has, it is said, 
often proved an effectual security against the 
worm, after every other remedy has failed. 

Some persons have contrived drawers under 
the hives into which the millers enter by night. 
The diau-ers are slipped out every mcrning, 
and the moths found in them destroyed. 

In the western country and in the new set- 
tlements of the Atlantic states, the bee-moth is 
rarely met with. 

Some interesting views relative to the ma- 
nagement of bees and construction of apiaries, 
by Henry ZoUickoff'er of Philadelphia, may be 
found in the Farmer's Cabinet for the year 
1843. 

BEE-MOTH. The following interesting 
details relative to the natural history of the bee- 
moth or wax-moth, are from Dr. Harris's Trea- 
tise on Destructive Insects. This pernicious 
insect belongs to a group called Cambrians, 
and was well known to the ancients, as it is 
mentioned under the name of Tinea, in the 
works of Virgil and Columella. " In the winged 
state, the male and female ditfer so much in 
size, colour, and in the form of their fore-wings, 
that they were supposed, by Linnteus and by 
some other naturalists, to be difl!erent species, 
and accordingly received two different names. 
(Tortrix cereana, the male ; Tinea mellonella, the 
female.) T© avoid confusion, it will be best to 
adopt the scientific name given to the bee-moth 
by Fabricius, who called it Gallena cereana, 
that is, the wax Galleria, because in its cater- 
pillar state it eats beeswax. Doubtless it was 
first brought to this country, with the common 
hive-bee, from Europe, where it is very abun- 
dant, and does much mischief in hives. Very 
few of the Tineae exceed or even equal it in 
size. In its perfect or adult state it is a winged 
moth or miller, measuring, from the head to 
the tip of the closed wings, from five-eighths 
to three quarters of an inch in length, and its 
wings expand from one inch and one-tenth to 
one inch and four-tenths. The male is of a 
dusty gray colour. The female is much larger 
than the male, and much darker coloured. 
There are two broods of these insects in the 
course of a year. Some winged moths of the 
first brood begin to appear towards the end of 
April, or early in May; those of the second 
brood are most abundant in August; but be- 
tween these periods, and even later, others 
come to perfection, and consequently some of 
them may be found during the greater part of 
the summer. By day they remain quiet on the 
sides or in the crevices of the bee-house ; but, 
if disturbed at this time, they open their Avings 
a little, and spring or glide swiftly away, so 
that it is very difficult to seize or to hold them. 
In the evening they take wing, when the bees 
are at rest, and hover around the hive, till, 
having found the door, they go in and lay their 
eggs. Those that are prevented by the crowd, 
or by any other cause, from getting within the 
hive, lay their eggs on the outside, or on the 
stand, and the little worm-like caterpillars 
hatched therefrom easily creep into the hive 
through the cracks, or gnaw a passage for 
themselves under the edges of it. These cater- 



BEE-MOTH. 



BEET. 



pillars, at first are not thicker than a thread, 
tliey have sixteen legs. Their bodies are soft 
and tender, and of a yellowish white colour, 
sprinkled with a few little brownish dots, from 
each of which proceeds a short hair; their 
heads are brown and shelly, and there are two 
brown spots on the top of the first ring. Weak 
as they are, and unprovided with any natural 
means of defence, destined, too, to dwell in the 
midst of the populous hive, surrounded by 
watchful and well-armed enemies, at whose 
expense they live, they are taught how to 
shield themselves against the vengeance of 
the bees, and pass safely and unseen in every 
direction through the waxen cells, which they 
break down and destroy. Beeswax is their 
only food, and they prefer the old to the new 
comb, and are always found most numerous in 
the upper part of the hive, where the oldest 
honey-comb is lodged. It is not a little won- 
derful, that these insects should be able to get 
any nourishment from wax, a substance which 
other animals cannot digest at all ; but they 
are created with an appetite for it, and with 
such extraordinary powers of digestion that 
they thrive well upon this kind of food. As 
soon as they are hatched they begin to spin ; 
and each one makes for itself a tough silken 
tube, wherein it can easily turn around and 
move backwards and forwards at pleasure. 
During the day they remain concealed in their 
silken tubes ; but at night, when the bees can- 
not see them, they come partly out, and devour 
the wax within their reach. As they inciease in 
size, they lengthen and enlarge their dwellings, 
and cover them on the outside with a coating of 
grains of wax mixed with their own castings, 
which resemble gunpowder. Protected by this 
coating from the stings of the bees, they work 
their way through the combs, gnaw them to 
pieces, and fill the hive with their filthy webs ; 
till at last the discouraged bees, whose dili- 
gence and skill are'of no more use to them in 
contending with their unseen foes, than their 
superior size and powerful weapons, are com- 
pelled to abandon their perishing brood and 
their wasted stores, and leave the desolated 
hive to the sole possession of the miserable 
spoilers. These caterpillars grow to the length 
of an inch or a little more, and come to their 
full size in about three weeks. They then spin 
their cocoons, which are strong silken pods, of 
an oblong oval shape, and about one inch in 
length, and are often clustered together in great 
numbers in the top of the hive. Some time 
afterwards, the insects in these cocoons 
change to chrysalids of a light brown colour, 
rough on the back, and with an elevated dark 
brown line upon it from one end to the other. 
When this transformation happens in the au- 
tumn, the insects remain without further 
change till the spring, and then burst open 
their cocoons, and come forth with wings. 
Thosd which become chrysalids in the early 
part of summer are transformed to winged 
moths fourteen days afterwards, and immedi- 
ately pair, lay their eggs, and die. 

Bees sufi'er most from the depredations of 

these insects in h >t and dry summers. Strong 

and healthy swarms, provided with a constant 

supply of food near home, more often escape 

22 



than small and weak ones. When the moth- 
worms have established themselves in a hive, 
their presence is made known to us by the lit- 
tle fragments of wax and the black grains 
scattered by them over the floor." 

BEESTING or BIESTIN(J, written also, 
BEESTNING {Flem. biesf, biestmekfi). The 
first milk taken from cows after calving. It is 
thick and yellow. This milk is commonly in 
part taken away from the cow upon her first 
calving, lest, when taken in too large a quan- 
tity by the calf, it should prove purgative. 

BEET (Lat.6e<fl;Celt./;e//,red; aisosaidto be 
so named from the Greek character 6eA/, which 
its seeds resemble when they begin to svvell). 
The sweet succulent root of Beta vu/garh; a 
chenopodiaceous plant of biennial duration. 
It is used in the winter as a salad, for which 
purpose the red and yellow beets of Castelnan- 
dari are the best ; for the food of cattle, that 
which is named mangel worzel being most 
used; and for the extraction of sugar, a white- 
rooted variety with a purple crown is the most 
esteemed. Sea beet (Beta marititna) is a well 
known and excellent substitute for spinach. 
(Brande's Diet, of Science, p. 139.) 

The genus beta comprehends several bien- 
nial species. Miller enumerates five. 1. The 
common white beet. 2. The common green 
beet. 3. The common red beet. 4. The turnip- 
rooted red beet. 5. The great red beet. 6. The 
yellow beet. 7. The Swiss, or chard beet- 
We have now nine varieties of this esculent, 
which are described with considerable discrimi- 
nation by Mr. Morgan, gardener to H. Browne, 
Esq., Mimms Place, Herts. (Hort. Trans. 
vol. iii.) Of the red beet, Mr. Morgan enume- 
rates seven varieties ; of these, the three fol- 
lowing are generally chosen for cultivation : 
1. The long-rooted, which should be sown in a 
deep sandy soil. 2. The short or turnip-rooted, 
better adapted to a shallow soil. 3. The green- 
leaved, red-rooted, requiring a depth of soil 
equal to that of the long-rooted. There are 
two distinct species of beet comn.only cultivat- 
ed, each containing several varieties ; the one 
called Ci'cla or Hurtensis, or white beet, produc- 
ing succulent leaves only, the other the red 
beet (Beta vulgaris); distinguished by its large 
fleshy roots. 

The white beet is chiefly cultivated in gar- 
dens as a culinary vegetable, and forms one 
of the principal vegetables used by agricultu- 
ral labourers, and small occupiers of land in 
many parts of Germany, France, and Switzer- 
land. A variety known by the name of Swiss 
chard produces numerous large succulent 
leaves, which have a very solid rib running 
along the middle. The leafy part being 
stripped off and boiled is useful x=. a subUitute 
for greens and spinach, and the nb and , stalk 
are dressed like asparagus or scorzenera; they 
have a pleasant, sweet taste, and are more 
wholesome than the cabbage tribe. In a 'good 
soil the produce is very abundant ; and if cul 
tivated on a large scale in the field, this specie. > 
would prove a valuable addition to the plants 
raised for cattle. By cultivating it in rows, 
and frequently hoeing and stirring the inter 
vals, it would be an excellent substitute for a 
fallow on good light loams. All cattle are 
P 169 



BEET, WHITE. 



BEET, WHITE. 



fond of the leaves of this beet, which add much 
lo the milk of cows, without giving it that bad 
taste which is unavoidable when they are fed 
with turnips or cabbages, and which is chiefly 
owing to the greater rapidity with which the 
latter undergoes the putrefactive fermentation. 
[f sown in May, in drills two feet wide, and 
thinned out to the distance of a foot from plant 
to plant in the rows, they will produce an 
abundance of leaves, which may be gathered • 
in August and September, and will grow again 
rapidly, provided a bunch of the centre leaves 
be left on each plant. They do not sensibly 
exhaust the soil. These leaves when boiled 
or steamed with bran, cut with chaff or refuse 
grain, are an excellentfoodfor pigs or bullocks 
put up to fatten. {Penny Cyclo. vol. iv. p. 158.) 

The white beet is an excellent root, and is 
preferred by many to the larger and more com- 
mon intermediate varieties. It has lately been 
in great repute in France and Belgium, and 
indeed all over the continent of Europe, for 
the manufacture of sugar. The process is 
given in detail by Mr. Samuel Taylor in the 
sixth vol. of the Gardeners Magazine,- and 
there are some able articles, entering exten- 
sively into detail on the subject, in the Quat-f. 
Joiirn. Agr. vol. i. p. 624, and vol. ii. pp. 892 
and 907. (For an account of the common 
field beet for cattle, see Manoel Wuhzel.) 

BEET, WHITE (Beta cicla). This is also 
known as the chard, or carde. We have two 
species in common cultivation, the green and 
the white. They receive their names from the 
colour of their footstalks ; but the variation is 
considered by some as fugitive, and that both 
are produced from seed obtained of the same 
plant : but this the experience of Mr. Sinclair 
denies. The French have three varieties of 
the white — the white, the red, and the yellow — 
which only differ from ours in having a larger 
foliage, and thicker, fleshier stalks, but they 
are less capable of enduring frost. They are 
cultivated for then- stalks, which are cooked as 
asparagus. Mangel wurzel is sometimes 
grown for the same purposes; but as it is 
much inferior, the notice that it may be thus 
employed, is sufficient. Beets require a rich, 
mouldy, deep soil ; it should, however, be re- 
tentive of moisture, rather than light, without 
being tenacious, or having its alluminous con- 
stituent too much predominating. Its richness 
should preferably arise from previous applica- 
tion than from the addition of manure at the 
time of sowing ; and to effect this, the compart- 
ment intended for the growth of these vegeta- 
bles is advantageously prepared as directed for 
celery. On the soil depends the sweetness and 
tenderness of the red and yellow beets, for 
which they are estimated ; and it may be re- 
marked, that on poor, light soils, or heavy ones, 
the best sorts will taste earthy. Again, on some 
soils the better varieties will not attain any 
useful size, or even a tolerable flavour, whilst 
in the same compartment inferior ones will at- 
tain a very good taste. The situation should 
be open, and as free from the influence of trees 
as possible ; but it is of advantage to have 
the bed shaded from the meridian sun in sum- 
mer. I have always found it beneficial to dig 
llie ground two spades deep for these deep- 
170 



rooting vegetables, and to turn in the whole or 
part of the manure intended to be applied, ac- 
cording to the richness of the soil near the sur- 
face, with the bottom split, so as to bury it ten 
or twelve inches within the ground. Salt is a 
beneficial application to this crop, one reason 
for which undoubtedly is, their being natives 
of the sea shore. Both species are propagat- 
ed by seed, and may be sown from the close 
of February until the beginning of April : it 
being borne in mind that they must not be in- 
serted until the severe frosts are over, which 
inevitably destroys them when in a young stage 
of growth. The best time for inserting tlie 
main crop of the beet root for winter supply is 
early in March ; at the beginning of July or 
August, a successional crop of the white beet 
may be sown for supply in the winter and fol- 
lowing spring. 

It is best sown in drills a foot asunder, and 
an inch deep, or by dibble, at the same dis- 
tance each way, and at a similar depth, two 
or three seeds being put in each hole : it 
may, however, be sown broadcast and well 
raked in. 

During the early stages of its growth, the 
beds, which, for the convenience of cultivation, 
should not be more than four feet wide, must 
be looked over occasionally, and the largest 
of the weeds cleared away by hand. In the 
course of May, according to the advanced state 
of their growth, the beds must be cleared 
thoroughly of weeds, both by hand and small 
hoeing ; the beet roots thinned to ten or twelve 
inches apart, and the white beet to eight or ten. 
The plants of this last species which are re- 
moved may be transplanted into rows at a 
similar distance, and will then often produce a 
finer and more succulent foliage than those re- 
maining in the seed bed. Moist weather is t© 
be preferred for performing this operation : 
otherwise, the plants must be watered occa- 
sionally until they take root : they must be fre- 
quently hoed and kept clear of weeds through- 
out the summer. 

It is a great improvement to earth up the 
stalks of the white beet in the same manner as 
celery, when they are intended to be peeled, 
and eaten as asparagus. 

In October, the beet-root may be taken up 
for use as wanted, but not entirely for preser- 
vation during the winter until November or 
the beginning of December, then to be buried 
in sand in alternate rows, under shelter ; or, 
as some gardeners recommend, only part at 
this season, and the remainder in February ; 
by this means they may be kept in a perfect 
state for use until May or June. If prevented 
running to seed, they will produce leaves 
during the succeeding year ; but as this second 
year's production is never so fine or tender, an 
annual sowing is usually made. For the pro- 
duction of seed some roots must be left where 
grown, giving them the protection of litter in 
very severe weather, if unaccompanied with 
snow ; or if this is neglected, some of the finest 
roots that have been stored in sand, and have 
not had the leaves cut away close, may be 
planted in February or March. Each species 
and variety must be kept as far away from the 
; others as possible, and the plants set at least 



BEETLE. 



BEETLE. 



two feet from each other. They flower in Au- 
gust, and ripen their seed at the close of Sep- 
tember. Seed of the previous year is always 
to be preferred for sowing, but it will suc- 
ceed, if carefully preserved, when two years 
old. 

As a medicine, the seed of the beet is diure- 
tic. The juice of beet-root snutfed up into the 
nostrils promotes sneezing, and is beneficial 
HI headache and toothache. 

BEETLE (Scaraboeldese ; Sax. byrei). The 
generic name of a class of insects, of which 
there are a great many species, all of them 
having elytra or sheaths over their wings to 
defend them from hard bodies, which they may 
meet with in digging holes in the ground, or 
gnawing rotten wood with their teeth, to make 
themselves houses or nests. These insects are 
extremely destructive to many sorts of crops. 
The beetles most destructive to vegetables and 
animals are the weevil beetle, the tumip-Jlea 
beetle, the wood-boring beetle, and some others, 
which are described at length by Mr. J. Dun- 
can in the Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. ix. p. 394. 

American beetles. — Passing over many groups 
into which the extensive beetle family is divid- 
ed, such as the ground-beetles, earth-borers, 
and dung-beetles, which last, in all their states, 
are found in excrement; the skin-beetles, which 
inhabit dried animal substances, and the gigan- 
tic Hercules-beetles, which live in rotten wood 
or beneath old dung-heaps, we come to those 
groups which require more particular notice 
from their depredations upon plants, fruits, and 
trees. 

One of the most common, and at the same 
time most beautiful of the tree beetles of the 
United States, is the Woolly Areoda, sometimes 
called the goldsmith {Areoda lanigera), which 
is thus described by Dr. Harris, in his highly 
interesting and valuable " Treatise upon In- 
sects injurious to Vegetation." — 

"It is about nine-tenths of an inch in length, 
broad oval in shape, of a lemon-yellow colour 
above, glittering like burnished gold on the top 
of the head and thorax; the under side of the 
body is copper-coloured, and thickly covered 
with whitish wool ; and the legs are brownish- 
yellow, or brassy, shaded with green. These 
fine beetles begin to appear in Massachusetts 
about the middle of May, and continue gene- 
rally till the twentieth of June. In the morning 
and evening twilights they come forth from 
their retreats, and fly about with a humming 
and rustling sound among the branches of 
trees, the tender leaves of which they devour. 
Pear-trees are particularly subject to their at- 
tacks, but the elm, hickory, poplar, oak, and 
probably also other kinds of trees, are fre- 
quented and injured by them. During the 
middle of the day they remain at rest upon 
the trees, clinging to the under-sides of the 
leaves ; and endeavour to conceal themselves 
by drawing two or three leaves together, and 
holding them in this position with their long 
unequal claws. In some seasons they occur 
in profusion, and then may be obtained in 
great quantities by shaking the young trees on 
which they are lodged in the daytime, as th^y 
do not attempt to fly when thus disturbed out 
fall at once to the ground. The larvae of these 



insects are not known ; probably they live in 
the ground upon the roots of plants." 

Another member of the Rutiliau tribe, to 
which the goldsmith belongs, is the Spotted 
Pelidnota, a large beetle found on the cultivat- 
ed and wild grape-vine, sometimes in great 
abundance, in the summer months. " It is," 
says Dr. Harris, " of an oblong oval shape, 
and about an inch long. The wing-covers are 
tile-coloured, or dull brownish yellow, with 
three distinct black dots on each; the thorax is 
darker, and slightly bronzed, with a black dot 
on each side ; the body beneath, and the legs, 
are of a deep bronzed green colour. These 
beetles fly by day, but may also be seen at the 
same time on the leaves of the grape, which 
are their only food. They sometimes prove 
very injurious to the vine. The only way to 
destroy them is to pick them ofl" by luuiil, and 
crush them under foot. The larvce live in 
rotten wood, stumps, and roots." 

Among the tree-beetles, those commonly 
called dors, chafers, Ma3'-bugs, and rose-bugs, 
are the most interesting to the farmer and gar- 
dener, on account of their extensive ravages, 
both in the winged and larva states. Whilst 
the powerful and horny jaws possessed by 
most of these, are admirably fitted for cutting 
and grinding the leaves of plants upon which 
they subsist, their notched and double claws 
support them securely on the foliage ; and 
their strong and jagged fore-legs, being formed 
for digging in the ground, point out the placf. 
of their transformations. 

" The general habits and transformations oi 
the common cock-chafer of Europe have been 
carefully observed, and will serve," says Dr. 
Harris, " to exemplify those of the other in- 
sects of this family, which, as far as they are 
known, seem to be nearly the same. This in- 
sect devours the leaves of trees anb shrubs. 
Its duration in the perfect state is v* ry short, 
each individual living only about a week, and 
the species entirely disappearing in the course 
of a month. After the sexes have paired, the 
males perish, and the females enter the earth 
to the depth of six inches or more, making 
their way by means of the strong teeth which 
arm the fore-legs ; here they deposit their 
eggs, amounting, according to some wi iters, 
to nearly one hiuidred, or, as others assert, to 
two hundred from each female, which are 
abandoned by the parent, who generally as- 
cends again to the surface, and perishes in a 
short time. 

" From the eggs are hatched, in the spacs 
of fourteen days, little whitish grubs, each 
provided with six legs near the head, and a 
mouth furnished with strong jaws. When in 
a state of rest, these grubs usually curl them 
selves in the shape of a crescent. They sub- 
sist on the tender roots of various plants, com- 
mitting ravages among these vegetable sub- 
stances, on some occasions of the most 
deplorable kind, so as totally to disappoint the 
best founded hopes of the husbandman. Dui 
in°- the summer, they live under the thin coal 
of vegetable mould near the surface, but, a3 
winter approaches, they descend below the 
reach of frost, and remain torpid until the sue 
ceeding spring, at which time they change 

.'71 



BEETLE. 

their skins, and reascend to the surface for 
food. At the close of their third summer, (or, 
as some say, of the fourth or fifth), they cease 
eating, and penetrate about two feet deep into 
the earth ; there, by its motions from side to 
side, each grub forms an oval cavity, which is 
lined by some glutinous substance thrown 
from its mouth. In this cavity it is changed 
to a pupa by casting off its skin. In this state 
the legs, antennoe, and wing-cases of the future 
beetle are visible through the transparent skin 
which envelopes them, but appear of a yellow- 
ish white colour; and thus it remains until the 
month of February, when the thin film which 
encloses the body is rent, and three months 
afterwards the perfected beetle digs its way to 
the surface, from which it finally emerges dur- 
ing the night." 

Some account of the destruction occasion- 
ally wrought by these insects may be found 
under the head of Cock-chafeii. 

In their winged state, many species of tree- 
beetles act as conspicuous a part in injuring 
trees as their grubs do in destroying herbage. 
" During the month of May they come forth 
from the ground, whence they have received 
the name of May-bugs or May-beetles. They 
pass the greater part of the day upon trees, 
clinging to the under-sides of the leaves, in 
a state of repose. As soon as evening ap- 
proaches, they begin to buzz about among the 
branches, and continue on the wing till to- 
wards midnight. In their droning flight they 
move very irregularly, darting hither and thi- 
iher with an uncertain aim, hitting against ob- 
jects in their way with a force that often causes 
them to fall to the ground. They frequently 
enter houses in the night, apparently attracted, 
as well as dazzled and bewildered, by the 
lights. Their vagaries, in which, without hav- 
ing the power to harm, they seem to threaten 
an attack, have caused them to be called dors, 
that is, darers; while their seeming blindness 
and stupidity have become proverbial in the 
expressions ' blind as a beetle,' and ' beetle- 
headed.' Besides the leaves of fruit-trees they 
devour those of various forest-trees and shrubs, 
with an avidity not much less than that of the lo- 
cust, so that in certain seasons, and in particular 
districts, they become an oppressive scourge, 
and the source of much misery to the inhabit- 
ants. Mouffet relates that, in the year 1574, 
such a numherof them fell into the river Severn, 
as to stop the wheels of the water-mills ; and, 
in the Philosophical Transactions, it is stated 
that, in the year 1688, they filled the hedges 
and trees of Galway in such infinite numbers 
as to cling to each other like bees when 
.swarming ; and, when on the Aving, darkened 
the air, annoyed travellers, and produced a 
sound like distant drums. In a short time the 
leaves of all the trees, for some miles round, 
were so totally consumed by them, that at mid- 
summer the country wore the aspect of the 
depth of winter." 

The animals and birds appointed to check 
the ravages of these and other insects so de- 
structive to vegetation, are different in differ- 
ent countries. In Europe, according to the 
great French naturalist Latreille, they are the 
badger, weasel, martin, bats, rats, common 
172 



BEETLE. 

dung-hill fowl, and the goat-sucker, or night- 
hawk. In the United States, various birds may 
be always seen in the spring of the year fol- 
lowing the plough, among which the black- 
bird family is by far the most numerous. 
These ought to meet with the utmu.si protec- 
tion, and by no means to be stoned, shot at, 
killed, and frightened away, as is too often 
done by the idle and inconsiderate. The fol- 
lowing view of the subject will serve to set 
the subject in the important light it deserves. 
In "Anderson's Recreations," it is stated that 
"a cautious observer, having found a nest of 
five young ja3'S, remarked that each of these 
birds, while yet very young, consumed at least 
fifteen of these full-sized grubs in one day, 
and of course would require many more of a 
smaller size. Say that, on an .average of sizes, 
they consumed twenty a-piece, these for the 
five make one hundred. Each of the parents 
consume, say fifty; so that the pair and family 
devour two hundred every day. This, in three 
months, amounts to twenty thousand in one 
season. But, as the grub continues in that 
state four seasons, this single pair, with their 
family alone, without reckoning their descend- 
ants after the first year, would destroy eighty 
thousand grubs. Let us suppose that the half, 
namely forty thousand, are females, and it is 
known that they usually lay about two hundred 
eggs each ; it will appear that no less than 
eight millions have been destroyed, or pre- 
vented from being hatched, by the labours of a 
single family of jays. It is by reasoning in 
this way that we learn to know of what im- 
portance it is to attend to the economy of na- 
ture, and to be cautious how we derange it by 
our short-sighted and futile operations." Our 
own country abounds with insect-eating beasts 
and birds, and without doubt the more than 
abundant Melolonthte form a portion of their 
nourishment. (Harris.) 

The very numerous varieties of the beetle 
family may be imagined from the fact taught 
us by naturalists, that of the genus Melo- 
lontha to which the beetles belong, more than 
two hundred have been described. Several 
of these found in the United States, produce 
injuries in the perfect grub state which rival 
those of the European cock-chafer. The May- 
beetle, as it is generally called {Phyllophaga 
querdna), is the most common species. 

"It is of a chestnut-brown colour, smooth, 
but finely punctured, that is, covered with little 
impressed dots, as if pricked with the point 
of a needle; each wing-case has two or three 
slightly elevated longitudinal lines ; the breast 
is clothed with yellowish down. The knob of 
its antennoe contains only three leaf-like joints. 
Its average length is nine-tenths of an inch. la 
its perfect state it feeds on the leaves of trees, 
particularly on those of the cherry-tree. It flies 
with a humming noise in the night, from the 
middle of May to the end of June, and fre- 
quently enters houses, attracted by the light. 
In the course of the spring, these beetles are 
often thrown from the earth by the spade and 
plough, in various states of maturity, some 
i "ing soft and nearly while, their superabun* 
dai. * juices not having evaporated, while others 
exhiljlt the true colour and texture of the per- 



BEETLE. 



BEETLE. 



feci iasect. The grubs devour the roots of 
grass and of other plants, and in many places 
the turf may be turned up like a carpet in con- 
sequence of the destruction of the roots. The 
grub is a white worm with a brownish head, 
and, when fully grown, is nearly as thick as 
the little finger. It is eaten greedily by crows 
and fviwls. There is a grub, somewhat resem- 
bling this, which is frequently found under old 
manure heaps, and is commonly called muck- 
worm. It differs, however, in some respects 
from that of the May-beetle, or dor-bug, and is 
transformed to a dung-beetle called Scaraliseus 
relictus by Mr. Say. The beetles are devoured 
by the skunk, whose beneficial foragmg is de- 
tected in our gardens by its abundant excre- 
ment filled with the wing-cases of these insects. 
A writer in the ' New York Evening Post,' 
says that the beetles, which frequently commit 
serious ravages on fruit-trees, may be efl'ectu- 
ally exterminated by shaking them from the 
trees every evening. In this way two pailsful 
of beetles were collected on the first experi- 
ment; the number caught regularly decreased 
until the fifth evening, when only two beetles 
were to be found. The best time, however, 
for shaking trees on which the May-beetles are 
lodged is in the morning, when the insects do 
not attempt to fly. They are most easily col- 
lected in a cloth spread under the trees to re- 
ceive them when they fall, after which they 
should be thrown into boiling water to kill 
them, and may then be given as food to swine." 
( Harris. ) 

In some parts of Massachusetts the beetle 
called the Georgian leaf-eater takes the place 
of the qutrc'wu. It is extremely common in 
some places in May and June. Its colour is a 
ba)'-brown. The upper side is entirely covered 
with very short yellowish gray hairs, and mea- 
sures seven-tenths of an inch, or more, in 
length. These beetles, with some others of 
the same genus, are commonly found in Ame- 
rican gardens, nurseries, orchards, and fields, 
where they are more or less injurious depre- 
dators. They also devour the leaves of various 
forest-trees, such as the elm, maple, oak, &c. 
They are all nocturnal insects, never appear- 
ing, except by accident, in the day, during 
which they remain under shelter of the foliage 
of trees and shrubs, or concealed in the grass. 
(^Harris.) 

Of the American diurnal or day-flying 
beetles, which belong to the Melolonthians, one 
is described by Professor Gemar, which he 
proposes to call ccelebs. It resembles the vine- 
chafer of Europe in its habits, and is found in 
the months of June and July on the cultivated 
and wild grape-vines, the leaves of which it 
devours. During the same period these chaf- 
ers may be seen in still greater numbers on 
various kinds of sumach, which they often 
completely despoil of their leaves. They are 
very variable in colour. The head and thorax 
of the male are greenish black, margined with 
dull ochre or tile-red, and thickly punctured; the 
wing-covers are clay-yellow, with punctured 
furrows. The males are sometimes entirely 
black, and they commonly measure nearly, and 
the females rather more than seven-tenths of an 
inch in length. Should these beetles increase 



m numbers, Dr. Harris thinks they will be 
found as diflicult to check and extirpate as the 
destructive vine-chafers of Europe. 

An account of the natural history and habits 
of the Ri)se-/)ug or chafer, which belongs to the 
family of day-fliers, will he found under the 
head RosE-nu(i. 

Very few of the beetle tribes which usually 
subsist upon flowers are injurious to vegeta- 
tion. Some of them are said to eat leaves, but 
the greater number live on the pollen and the 
honey of flowers, or upon the sap which ooze? 
from the wounds of plants. The flower-beetles, 
belong chieflv to a group called Cihmiuns. 
They are easily distinguished from other bee- 
tles by their lower jaws, which are generally 
soft on the inside, and are often provided 
with a flat brush of hairs that serves to collect 
the pollen and juices on which they subsist. 
Most of the bright-coloured kinds are day- 
fliers ; those of dark and plain tints are gene- 
rally night-fliers. Some of them are of im- 
mense size, and have be.m styled the princes 
of the beetle tribes; such are the Incas of South 
America, and the Goliah beetle of Guinea, the 
latter being more than four inches long, two 
inches broad, and thick and heav^y in propor- 
tion. (Harris.) 

A family of beetles called the Lucanians, 
includes the insects called stag-beetles, horn- 
bugs, and flying-bulls, vulgar names derived 
from the great size and peculiar form of their 
upper jaws, which are sometimes curved like 
the horns of cattle, and sometimes branched 
like the antlers of a stag. "These beetles," 
says Dr. Harris, "fly abroad during the night, 
and frequently enter houses at that time, some- 
what to the alarm of the occupants ; but they 
are not venomous, and never attempt to bite 
without provocation. They pass the day on 
the trunks of trees, and live upon the sap, for 
procuring which the brushes of their jaws an(J 
lip seem to be designed. They are said also 
occasionally to bite and seize caterpillars and 
other soft-bodied insects, for the purpose of 
sucking out their juices. They lay their eggs 
in crevices of the bark of trees, especially near 
the roots, where they may sometimes be seen 
thus employed. The larvae hatched from these 
eggs resemble the grubs of the Scarabseians 
in colour and form, but they are smoother, or 
not so much wrinkled. The grubs of the large 
kinds are said to be six years in coming to 
their growth, living all this time in the trunks 
and roots of trees, boring into the solid wood, 
and reducing it to a substance resembling 
very coarse "sawdust ; and the injury thus 
caused by them is frequently very consider- 
able. When they have arrived at their full 
size, they enclose themselves in egg-shaped 
pods, composed of gnawed particles of wood 
and bark, stuck together and lined with a kind 
of glue ; within these pods they are trans- 
formed to pupas, of a yellowish-white colour, 
having the body and all the limbs of the future 
beetle encased in a whitish film, which being 
thrown ofi" in due time, the insects appear in 
the beetle form, burst the walls of their prison, 
crawl through the passages the larvae had 
gnawed, and come forth on the outside of the 
trees. 

p 2 173 



BEETLE. 



BEETLE. 



"The largest of these beetles in the New 
England States, was first described by Lin- 
ncELis under the name of Lucanus ca/ireahis, 
signifying the young roe-buck ; but here it is 
called the horn-bug. Its colour is a deep ma- 
hogany-brown ; the surface is smooth and po- 
lished; the upper jaws of the male are long, 
curved like a sickle, and furnished internally 
bej'ond the middle with a little tooth; those of 
the female are much shorter, and also toothed; 
the head of the male is broad and smooth, that 
of the other sex narrower and rough with 
punctures. The body of this beetle measures 
from one inch to an inch and a quarter, ex- 
chisive of the jaws. The time of its appear- 
ance is in July and the beginning of August. 
The grubs live in the trunks and roots of va- 
rious kinds of trees, but particularly in those 
of old apple-trees, willows, and oaks. 

"Several other and smaller kinds of stag- 
beetles are found in New England, but their 
habits are m.uch the same as those of the more 
common horn-bug." 

Another great tribe of beetles is described 
by naturalists under the name of serricurn, or 
saw-horned beetles, because the tips of the 
joints of their antenna usually project more 
or less on the inside, somewhat like the teeth 
of a saw. The beetles belonging to the family 
of Btiprestians have antennoe of this kind. The 
popular name for these in England is burn- 
cow, a very inappropriate appellation for a 
perfectly harmless insect. The French call 
them richards, on account of the rich and bril- 
liant colours wherewith many of them are 
adorned. Thr;se beetles are frequently seen 
on the trunks and limbs of trees, basking in 
the sun. They walk slowly, and at the ap- 
proach of danger, fold up their legs and anten- 
noe and fall to the ground. Their flight is swift, 
and attended with a whizzing noise. They 
keep concealed in the night, and are in motion 
only during the day. (Harris.) 

The larvEe of these saw-horned beetles, are 
wood-eaters or borers, and orchards and forest 
trees are more or less subject to their attacks, 
especially after trees have passed the prime of 
life. The transformations of these insects 
take place in the trunks and limbs of trees. 
The larvffi that are known have a close resem- 
blance to each other; a general idea of them 
can be formed from a description of that Avhich 
attacks the pig-nut hickory. These grubs are 
found under the bark and in the solid wood of 
trees and sometimes in great numbers. They 
frequentl}'' rest with the body bent side-wise, so 
that the head and tail approach each other. 
They appear to pass several years in this lar- 
vcB state, before they cast off the pupa-coat 
and cut out through the bark in the form of a 
beetle. 

" Some of these beetles are known to eat 
leaves and flowers, and of this nature is pro- 
bably the food of all of them. The injury they 
may thus commit is not very apparent, and can- 
wot bear any comparison with the extensive 
ravages of their larvse. The solid trunks 
and limbs of sound and vigorous trees are 
often bored through in various directions 
by these insects, which, during a long-con- 
'inued life, derive their only nourishment from 
174 



the woody fragments they devour. Pines an3 
firs seem particularly subject to their attacks, 
but other forest-trees do not escape, and even 
fruit-trees are frequently injured by these 
borers. The means to be used for destroying 
them are similar to those employed against 
other borers, and will be explained in a subse- 
quent part of this essay. It may not be amiss, 
however, here to remark, that wood-peckers are 
much more successful in discovering the re- 
treats of these borers, and in dragging out the 
defenceless culprits from their burrows, than 
the most skilful gardener or nurseryman. 

" Until within a few years the Buprcstians 
were all included in three or four genera. A 
great number of kinds have now become 
known, probably six hundred or more." 

The largest of these beetles known to Dr. 
Harris, is called the Virginian Bupestris, or 
saw-horn beetle. It is of an oblong shape, 
brassy, or copper-coloured ; sometimes almost 
black, with hardly any metallic reflections. On 
each wing-cover are two small square im- 
pressed spots. It measures eight-tenths of an 
inch to one inch or more in length. This beetle 
appears in Massachusetts towards the end of 
May, and through the month of June, on pine 
trees and on fences. In the larvoe state, it 
bores into the trunks of the different kinds of 
pines, and is often times very injurious to these 
trees. (Harris.) 

The wild-cherry tree (Prunus serotina) and 
also the garden cherry and peach trees, suffer 
severely from the attacks of borers, which are 
transformed to beetles [called Buprestis divnri- 
cata, from the wing-covers parting a little at the 
tips. These beetles are copper-coloured, some- 
times brassy above, and thickly covered with 
little punctures. They measure from seven to 
nine-tenths of an inch. 

Other species of American wood-eaters or 
borers are described by Dr. Harris, among 
which are those attacking the hickory, oak, 
and white pine. When trees are found to be 
very much infested by borers, and are going 
to decay in consequence of their ravages, it 
will be better to cut them down and burn them 
immediately, rather than to suffer them to stand 
until the borers have completed their transfor- 
mations and made their escape. (I/arris.) 

The family of Spring-beetles, or Elattrs, are 
closely related to the Buprestians. They derive 
their name from the well known faculty of 
throwing themselves up with a jerk when laid 
on their backs, the legs being too short to ena- 
ble them to turn over by their assistance. 

" The larvcB or grubs of the Elaters," says Dr. 
Harris, "live upon wood and roots, and are often 
very injurious to vegetation. Some are confined 
to old or decaying trees, others devour the roots 
of herbaceous plants. In England they are 
called wire-worms from their slenderness end 
uncommon hardness. They are not to be con- 
founded with the American wire-worm, a spe- 
cies of lulus, which is not a true insect, but be- 
longs to the class Myriapoda, a name derived 
from the great number of feet with which most 
of the animals included in it are furnished ; 
whereas the English wire-worm has only six 
feet. The European wire-worm is said to live, 
in its feeding or larva state, not less than five 



BEETLES, 



BELLADONA. 



years; during the greater part of which time it is 
supported by devouring the roots of wheat, rye, 
oats, and grass, annually causing a large dimi- 
nution of the produce, and sometimes destroy- 
ing whole crops. It is said to be particularly 
injurious in gardens recently converted from 
pasture lands. We have several grubs allied 
to this destructive insect, which are quite com- 
mon in land newly broken up ; but fortunately, 
as yet, their ravages are inconsiderable. "We 
may expect these to increase in proportion as 
we disturb them and deprive them of their 
usual articles of food, while we continue also 
to persecute and destroy their natural enemies, 
the birds, and may then be obliged to resort to 
the ingenious method adopted by European far- 
mers and gardeners for alluring and capturing 
these grubs. This method consists in strewing 
sliced potatoes or turnips in rows through the 
garden or field ; women and boys are employed 
to examine the slices every morning, and col- 
lect the insects which readily come to feed on 
the bait. Some of these destructive insects, 
which I have found in the ground among the 
roots of plants, were long, slender, worm-like 
grubs, closely resembling the common meal- 
worm ; they were nearly cylindrical, Avith a 
hard and smooth skin, of a buff or brownish 
yellow colour, the head and tail only being a 
little darker; each of the first three rings was 
provided with a pair of short legs : the hind- 
most ring was longer than the preceding one, 
was pointed at the end, and had a little pit on 
each side of the extremity ; beneath this part 
there was a short retractile wart, or prop-leg, 
serving to support the extremity of the body, 
and prevent it from trailing on the ground. 
Other grubs of Elaters differ from the forego- 
ing in being proportionally broader, not cylin- 
drical, but somewhat flattened, with a deep 
notch at the extremity of the last ring, the 
sides of which are beset Avith little teeth. 
Such grubs are mostlj'' wood-eaters, devouring 
the woody parts of roots, or living under the 
bark and in the trunks of old trees. 

" After their last transformation, Elaters or 
spring-beetles make their appearance upon 
trees and fences, and some are found on 
flowers. They creep slowly, and generally 
fall to the ground on being touched. They fly 
both by day and night. Their food, in the 
beetle state, appears to be chiefly derived from 
flowers ; but some devour the tender leaves of 
plants." 

The largest of the American springing- 
beetles is of a black colour, covered with a 
whitish powder, and having a large oval velvet- 
black spot, like an eye, on each side of the 
middle, from which the insect derives its name 
of Oculatus, or eyed. This large beetle mea- 
sures from one inch and a quarter to one inch 
and three quarters in length. It undergoes its 
transformations in the trunks of trees, and Dr. 
Harris has found many in old apple trees. 
These larvce or worms are reddish yellow 
grubs. One of them found in April fully grown, 
measured no less than two inches and a half 
m length. Soon after this grub was found, it 
cast its skin and became a pupa, and in due 
lime the latter was transformed to a beetle. 
(^Harrit.) 



Among the night-shining Elaters is the cele- 
brated C'icurli), or fire-beetle, of the West In- 
dies, from whence it is often brought alive to 
this country as a curiosity. It resembles con- 
siderably the insect just described, being an 
inch or more in length. It gives out, even by 
day, a strong light f^rom two transparent eye- 
like spots on the thorax, and from the seg- 
ments of its body beneath. It feeds upon 
the sugar-cane, and its grub is said to be 
very injurious to this plant, by devouring its 
roots. 

Dr. Harris states that above sixty dilferent 
kinds of spring-beetles are now known to in- 
habit Massachusetts. 

The utility of a knowledge of the natural 
history of insects in the practical arts of life, 
was perhaps never more strikingly and tri- 
umphantly displayed than by the great Lin- 
naeus himself, who, while giving to natural 
science its language and its laws, neglected 
no opportunity to point out its economical ad- 
vantages. On one occasion, this great natu- 
ralist was consulted by the King of Sweden, 
upon the cause of the decay and destruction 
of the ship-timber in the royal dock-yards, and, 
having traced it to the depredations of insects, 
and ascertained the history of the depredators, 
by directing the timber to be sunk under water 
during the season when these insects made 
their appearance in the winged state, and were 
busied in laying their eggs, he eflectually se- 
cured it from future attacks. The name of 
these insects is Lymexyhn navale, or the naval 
timber-destroyer, which Dr. Harris thinks 
cannot be far removed from the tribe of spring- 
beetles. The odd-looking, long, and slender 
grubs of the Lymexylon, inhabit oaks, and 
make long cylindrical burrows in the solid 
wood. They are also found in some other 
kinds of trees. Dr. Harris considers insects 
of this family rather rare in New England, and 
describes only two kinds of American timber- 
borers. (See his Treatise.) 

BEETLE. A large wooden instrument in 
the form of a mallet, with one, two, or three 
handles for as many persons, used in driving 
piles, wedges, hedge-stakes, and in splitting 
wood, &c. 

BEETLE, CLODDING. A sort of imple- 
ment made use of in reducing the clods of 
tillage-lands, in clayey and other stiff tena- 
cious soils, to a fine powdery condition. This 
business may be much sooner performed, and 
at less expense, by means of rollers construct- 
ed for the purpose. (See Roller.) 

BEEVES. The plural of beef. A general 
name employed by farmers for oxen or black 
cattle. 

BEGGAR'S LICE (Echinaspernum Virgini- 
cum). An obnoxious weed found along the 
borders of woods, bearing a small bluish-white 
flower, frequent in pastures and along fence- 
rows, the bur-like fruit or nuts of which are 
furnished with hooked prickles, and often form 
a matting in the fleeces of sheep, and the manes 
and tails of horses. {Flor. Cestrica.) 

BELLADONNA (Atropa belladonna). In bo- 
tany, the Deadly Nightshade. It is an acro- 
narcotic poison. This name, belladonna (sig- 
nifying Handsome Lady), according to Ray, 

17.5 



BELL-WETHER. 



BENT-GRASS. 



was given to it by the Italians, because the 
Italian ladies make a cosmetic of the juice. 

The belladonna, although perennial in re- 
ference to the root, is annual in its herbage, 
which is of quick growth, blanching, and 
shrub-like. The leaves are lateral, generally 
two together, ovate, acute, entire, smooth, and 
clammy. The flowers are solitary, stalked, 
rising in the axilla2 of the leaves, bell-shaped, 
and of a lurid purple colour. The fruit is a 
shining, black, sweetish berry, seated in the 
permanent calyx, about the size of a cherry. 
The plant is poisonous, having a peculiar al- 
kali, named atropia, which, in combination with 
malic acid, is found in every part of the plant. 
Its influence is chiefly exerted on the brain and 
nervous system, causing delirium, movements 
of the body resembling intoxication, confused 
speech, uttered with pain, and other symptoms 
of narcotic poisoning. Buchanan, the Scotish 
historian, informs us, that the Scots under 
Macbeth intoxicated the Danes under Sweno 
by mixing their wine with the juice of the ber- 
ries of belladonna during a truce, which en- 
abled Macbeth readily to overcome them. 
Shakspeare alludes to it in the interview be- 
tween Macbeth and the witches, when the for- 
mer says — 

Or have we drank 
Of the insane root which takes the reason prisoner^ 
Macbeth, Act 1. 

The beauty of the berries frequently entices 
children to eat them ; and, although not often 
fatal, they cause very distressing effects to the 
little siifTerers. In such cases, the stomach 
should be quickly emptied by an emetic, and 
afterwards vegetable acids and decoction of 
nut-galls should be given. Belladonna is an 
excellent medicine ; but it should not be en- 
trusted to the ignorant. 

BELL-WETHER. A sheep which leads the 
flock, with a bell on his neck. 

BELT. To belt, in some districts, signifies 
tr shear the buttocks and tails of sheep. 

BELT. In planting, a strip or portion of 
land planted with trees for the purpose of or- 
nament, or warmth and shelter. Much advan- 
tage may be derived in this way in improving 
the climate of the district. (See Plantation.) 

BENE PLANT {Sesamum oricnUde). The 
bene or sesamum has been introduced into Ja- 
maica and other West India islands, where it 
is quite extensively cultivated in many places. 
It is commonly called Fano-/o or oil-plant, from 
the oil which it yields to pressure. The seeds 
are frequently used in broths, and by some in- 
troduced into cakes. Many of the Oriental na- 
tinns look upon the seed as a hearty and 
wholesome food, and express an oil from them, 
not unlike, or inferior to, the oil of almonds. 
Attempts have even been made to manufacture 
oil from U in England, but with little success. 

Sesamum orientale, or bene, is frequently 
cultivated in the eastern parts of the Mediter- 
ranean as a garden vegetable. The seeds have 
been introduced into the Carolinas, and other 
Southern States, by the African negroes. The 
seeds are used by the blacks for food ; they 
parch them over the fire, then mix them 
with water, and then stew them up with other 
'ngredients. A kind of pudding is also made 
176 



of them, similar to such as are made of rice or 
millet. The oil pressed from the seeds will 
keep many years without acquiring any rancid 
taste, but in two years becomes quite mild, so 
that the warm taste of the oil when first drawn 
is worn off, and it can be used for salads and 
all the ordinary purposes of sweet oil. In Ja- 
pan, China, and Cochin-China, where they have 
no butter, they use the oil for frying fish, and 
preparing other dishes ; as a varnish, and for 
some medicinal purposes. Nine pounds of 
seed are said to yield upwards of two pounds 
of fine oil. 

The sesamum is an annual plant. It grows 
like cotton, from three to six feet high, bearing 
numerous square pods about an inch and a 
half long, filled with seeds about the size of 
flaxseeds. In its growth it requires no sticks, 
or other support. The product of seed is 
about twelve or fifteen bushels per acre, and 
the proportion of oil yielded to pressure has 
been estimated as equal to one-half the mea- 
sure of the seed, and some estimate the propor- 
tion as far greater. The oil may be extracted 
by bruising the seed and immersing them in 
hot water, when the oil rises on the surface 
and may be skimmed off. But the usual mode 
of extraction is similar to that practised in the 
expression of linseed oil. In the Southern 
States many planters cultivate the bene 
largely, sowing in drills about four feet apart, 
in the month of April, and gathering the crop 
of seed in September. The pods ripen suc- 
cessively, and not all at one time. Bene has 
been raised in Virginia, Maryland, and the 
lower part of the peninsula between the Dela- 
ware and Chesapeake Bays, just as far north 
as cotton admits of cultivation. In higher lati- 
tudes, even in the vicinity of Philadelphia, the 
plant will grow, but seldom ripens its seed. 
The leaves of the plant are in great repute as 
a remedy in dysentery, and especially the 
cholera infantum or summer complaint of 
children. The freshly gathered leaves are 
merely dipped into a tumbler of cold water, 
which immediately becomes ropy, without 
losing its transparency or acquiring any un- 
pleasant taste, on which account it is readily 
and even gratefully received by the little suf- 
ferers, who are allowed to sip it in moderate 
quantities instead of other drinks. Sesamum 
is indeed a valuable plant, and should be cul- 
tivated wherever it will grow, for its medicinal 
and domestic uses, if not for its oil ; which 
last, however, must, under proper management, 
prove a profitable product of the soil. 

BENT, or STARR. Names applied in Eng- 
land to the common reed (the Arundo prag- 
mites of Dr. Darlington, and the A. arenaria 
of some other botanists). Sinclair calls the 
upright sea lyme grass, starr, or bent. (See 
Plate 7, 1.) One of the chief uses this coarse 
grass is made to subserve in the United States, 
as well as in European countries, is to protect 
banks and sea-dykes exposed to the wash- 
ings of waves and currents. See Arundo 
Ahenarti. 

BENT-GRASS. A species of Agroslis very 
common in pasture grounds, the bent or creep- 
ing stems of which are very difficult to eradi- 
cate. (See AuHosTis.) 



BENTS. 



BIND-WEED. 



BENTS. The withered stalks of grass 
standing in a pasture after the seeds have 
dropped. It also sometimes signifies a species 
of rush {Juncus sqwirrosus), which grows on 
moorland hills. 

BERBEREN. A yellow bitter principle 
contained in the alcoholic extract of the root 
of the barberry tree. 

BERBERRY (Berhen.s). See BAnBF.nnr. 

BERE (Goth, bar; Sax. bppe). The com- 
mon name for a species of barley, which is 
also frequently termed big, bear, and square 
barley. Thus, in Huloet, an old writer, we 
find " beer-corn, barley-bygge, or moncorne," 

BERGAMOT (Fr. 'bergamotte). A species 
of citron, the fruit of the Citrus beriramia (Ris- 
so). This tree is cultivated in the south of 
Europe. It is a moderate-sized tree with ob- 
long, acute, or obtuse leaves, with a pale un- 
derside, and supported on winged footstalks. 
The flowers are small and white ; the fruit is 
pyriform, of a pale yellow colour, and the rind 
studded with oil vesicles ; the pulp is slightly 
acidulous. The oil, which is procured from 
the rind, is imported from the south of Europe, 
under the name of^ oil or essence of bergamot. It 
is of a pale greenish colour, lighter than water, 
and used merely as an agreeable perfume. A 
species of mint, having a highly agreeable 
odour {Mentha odoratu, Smith), is popularly 
called bergamot in the United States. 

BERRY {Hacr,u). A succulent pulpy fruit, 
which contains one or more seeds, or granules, 
imbedded in the juice. 

BETHLEHEM, STAR OF {Ornithogalum). 
Smith points out four varieties of this llower : 
the yellow star of Bethlehem, 0. liiteum ,- the 
common star of Bethlehem, O. umbel/afnrn, 
(commonly called ten o'clock) ; the tali star of 
Bethlehem, 0. pyrenaicum ,- and the drooping 
star of Bethlehem, O. nutans. The first is met 
with sometimes, but not very frequently, in 
grove pastures. The second is found in mea- 
dows, pastures, and groves in various parts of 
England. The last is found mostly in fields 
and orchards, probably naturalized. All are 
elegant spring flowers. The last is comn^on 
in country gardens, whence it may have 
escaped into the fields. Yet the plant may as 
well be a native of England as of Denmark, 
Austria, or other parts of Europe and America, 
where it is found in similar situations. One 
of the species, commonly called ten o'clock 
(Ornithogalum umbellatum), Dr. Darlington 
says, is a foreigner that has escaped from gar- 
dens, and has become a nuisance on many 
farms in the Middle States. Although it rarely 
perfects its seed, it propagates itself with great 
rapidity by means of lateral bitlbs. These 
bulbs are extremely difficult to eradicate. {Flor. 
Cestrica.) An American species of the star of 
Bethlehem (O. virens) was found by Lindley 
on the Delaware Bay. The sea-squill, so ex- 
tensively used in medicine, belongs to this 
bulbous-rooted family of plants. (Smith's Eng. 
Flora, vol. ii. p. 141—145.) 

BEVER (Ital. bevere,- old French, beivre). 
To drink : a word now almost obsolete, but 
from which we derive beverage. The provin- 
cial term amongst labourers for the meal be- 
tween dinner and tea. 

23 



BIENNIAL (Lat. bien7iis). Any thing that 
continues or endures two years. This term is 
usually applied to plants which grow one year 
and flower the next, after which they perish. 
They only diff'er from annuals in requiring a 
longer period to fruit in. Most biennials, if 
sown early in the spring, will flower in the au- 
tumn and then perish, thus actually becoming 
annuals. (Brande's Diet, of Science.) 

BIG. A term sometimes applied in Eng- 
land to here or square barlev. 

BILBERRY, or BLEABERRY. See Whor- 

TLKHKHnr. 

BILL {Bilk; Sax. ninie, a two-edged axe). 
A kind of hatchet with a hooked point, and a 
handle shorter or longer, according to the par- 
ticular uses for which it is intended. It is 
mostly employed by husbandmen for cutting 
hedges and felling underwood; and Johnson 
tells us it takes its name from its resemblance, 
in form, to the beak of a bird of prey. 

BILLET (Fr. bilot). A small log of wood 
for the chimney. 

BIN (Sax. binne). A small box or other con- 
trivance in which grain of any kind is kept. 
It is sometimes written binn. Bin also signi- 
fies a sort of crib for containing straw or other 
bulky fodder in farm-yards. 

BIN, CORN-. A sort of convenient box or 
chest fixed in the stable for the purpose of con- 
taining grain or other provender for horses. 
We have also hop-bins, wine-bins, &c. 

BIND-WEED (Lat. convolvulus). A trouble- 
some genus of weeds, of which there are in Eng- 
land three species, the smaller, the great, and the 
sea bind-weed. The climbing buckwheat {Poly 
gonum convolvulus) is also known by the nam? 
of black bind-weed. The first or smaller bind 
weed (C. urvensis), frequently called gravel 
bind-weed, is very common in hedges, fields, 
and gardens, and upon dry banks and gravelly 
ground in most districts, and is an almost un- 
conquerable weed. Its presence is generally a 
sign of gravel lying near the surface. Its 
branching, creeping roots penetrate to a great 
depth in the soil. The flowers are fragrant like 
the heliotrope, but fainter, very beautiful, of 
every shade of pink, with paler or yellowish 
plaits, and stains of crimson in the lower part; 
sometimes they are nearly white. They close 
before rain. The second kind, or great bind-weed 
( C. septum), is also an equally troublesome and 
injurious weed to the husbandman. It grows 
luxuriantly in moist hedges, osier holts, ami 
thickets, in an open, clear spot of ground, when 
the plants are kept constantly hoed down for 
three or four months, it may sometimes be effect 
ually destroyed; as when the stalks are broken 
or cut, a milky juice exudes, by which the roots 
are exhausted and decay. Every portion of 
the root will grow. The roots of this specie^ 
are long, creeping extensively, and rather 
fleshy; the stems twining, several feet long, 
leafy, smooth, and slightly branched. Flowers 
solitary, large, purely white for the most part, 
occasionally of a uniform flesh or rose colour. 
It is a perennial, flowering in July and August 
in England, and a month earlier in Pennsylva- 
nia, where it is occasionally found. It is so 
injurious to crops that farmers should try ail 
means to get rid of it. The black bind-wed, 

177 



BIRCH. 



BIRCH. 



{PlcLie 10, d), called also climbing buck-wheat, 
iind bear-bind, is an annual, flowering in June 
and September. Its root is small and tapering, 
and the stem twines from left to right, round 
every thing in its way to the height of five or 
six feet. The flowers are drooping, greenish 
white, or reddish. 

Several plants of the convolvulus family 
are highly valuable for the food and medicines 
they furnish. That most active purgative 
scammony is obtained from C. scammonia, and 
jalap from a species of Ipnmcea. Occasionally 
the purgative principle is so much diffused 
among the fsecula of the root, as to be almost 
inappreciable, as is the case in the C. batatas, 
or sweet potato of America. The root of the 
great bind-weed is a strong purgative, fresh 
gathered and boiled in a little warm liquid, 
being near akin to the acrid and violent scam- 
mony. The humbler classes boil it in beer or 
ale, and find it a never-failing remedy. Among 
delicate constitutions it should be taken with 
caution, as its effects are very powerful. In 
Northamptonshire it grows most abundantly. 
A decoction of the roots also causes perspira- 
tion. 

BIRCH (Sax.bipc; Lat. betula). The Eng- 
lish word birch seems, however, to be derived 
from the German blrke, or the Dutch berk. All 
the European languages are similar in the pro- 
nunciation of the name of this tree. A very 
hardy, ornamental, and, in some respects, a 
useful tree, inhabiting the north of Europe, 
Asia, and America. There are many species 
of hir^h, but that best known, and most gene- 
rally cultivated in this country, is the common 
birch (Betula alba). The common birch is 
valuable for its capability of resisting extremes 
of both heat and cold: its timber is chiefly 
employed for fire-wood. Its bark is extremely 
durable : it consists of an accumulation often or 
twelve skins, which are white and thin like pa- 
per, the use of M-hich it supplied to the ancients ; 
and as a proof of its imperishable nature, we 
are told that the books which Numa composed, 
about 700 years before Christ, which were 
■written on the bark of the birch tree, were 
found in a perfect state of preservation in the 
tomb of that great king, where they had re- 
mained 400 years. Although this species is 
not much valued for its timber, it is extremely 
useful for many other purposes. Russia skins 
are said to be tanned with its bark, from which 
the peculiar odour of such leather is derived ; 
and it is said to be useful in dyeing wool yel- 
low, and fixing fugacious colours. The High- 
landers weave it into ropes for their well- 
buckets. The poor people of Sweden were 
formerly accustomed to grind the bark to 
mingle with their bread corn. And in Den- 
mark, Christopher III. received the unjust sur- 
name of Berka Kanung (king of bark), because 
(n his reign there was such a scarcity, that 
the peasants were obliged to mix the bark of 
this tree with their flour. Cordage is obtained 
from it by the Laplanders, who also prepare a 
red dye from it; the young shoots serve to 
nourish their cattle, and the leaves are said to 
dflford good fodder for horses, kine, sheep, and 
goats. The vernal sap of these trees is well 
known to have a saccharine quality, and from 
178 



it the forest housewife makes an agreeable and 
M'holcsome Avine. During the siege of Ham- 
burgh, in 1814, by the Russians, almost all the 
biich trees of the neighbourhood were de- 
stroyed by the Bashkirs and other barbarian 
soldiers in the Russian service, by being tap- 
ped for their juice. Vinegar is obtained from 
the fermented sap. The inhabitants of Fin- 
land use the leaves for tea ; and both in Lap- 
land and Greenland, strips of the young and 
tender bark are used for food. From the tim- 
ber are manufactured gates and rails, packing- 
cases, hoops, j'okes for cattle, turners' ware, 
such as bowls, wooden spoons, wooden shoes 
and clogs, and other articles in which light- 
ness without much durability is sufficient. 
Baskets, hurdles, and brooms are often made 
of part of its shoots. The broom-makers are 
constant customers for birch in all places in the 
vicinity of London, or where it is near water- 
carriage ; but in most other parts the hoop- 
benders are the purchasers. The larger trees 
are often bought by the turners. In some of 
the northern parts of Europe, the wood of this 
tree is likewise greatly used for making of 
carriages and M^heels, being hard and of long 
duration. The most general and the most 
profitable use to which birch at present can be 
turned is, unquestionably, the manufacture of 
small casks, as herring barrels, butter tubs, 
&c. For the latter purpose it is admirably 
suited, because it is stout, clean, and easily 
wrought, and communicates no particular taste 
or smell to the butter. The timber of the birch 
was more used and more valued in former 
times. It was not so strong as the ash for har- 
rows and other farming implements, but it was 
not so ready to split, and for roofing cottages 
it is still held in estimation. In Russia, Po- 
land, and other northern countries, the twigs 
of this tree cover the dwellings of the peasant, 
instead of tile or thatch. It aflx)rded our an- 
cestors arrows, bolts, and shafts, for their war 
implements. The whole tree is adapted for 
burning into charcoal of the best quality, and 
suited for the manufacture of gunpowder. 

The birch will grow in any soil, but best in 
shady places. It may, therefore, in some situar 
tions, be turned to good account, since it will 
grow to advantage upon land where other tim- 
ber will not thrive. Miller says, it loves a dry 
barren soil, where scarcely any thing else will 
grow ; and will thrive on any sort of land, dry 
or wet, gravelly, sandy, rocky, or boggy, and 
those barren, heathy lands which will scarcely 
bear grass. It is said to attain sometimes the 
height of seventy feet, with a diameter of two 
feet ; in England it does not acquire such con- 
siderable dimensions. The birch is propagated 
by seeds, which are easily taken from bearing 
trees, by cutting the branches in August, before 
they are quite ripe. The seed may be thrashed 
out like corn, as soon as the branches dry a 
little ; they should be then kept in dry cool 
sand until they are sown, either in the autumn 
or spring. A great deal of nicety and atten- 
tion is required in rearing the birch from the 
seed; they must be sown in the shade, and 
covered very lightly with soil made as fine as 
possible, and watered according to the wetness 
or dryness of the season. The planting out 



BIRCH. 

of this tree is performed in the same manner 
as in the ash. If planted for underwood, it 
should be iVlled before March to prevent its 
bleeding. The tree bears removing with 
safety, after it has attained the height of six 
or seven feet ; and is readj^ to plash as hedges 
in four years after planting. When old they 
are transplanted with con.^iderable difficulty. 

The other European birches are the weep- 
ing birch (B> /u/a pe7idit/a),v,'hich is very com- 
mon in different parts of Europe, along with 
the last, in the properties of which it appears 
to participate, and with which it is often im- 
properly confounded. It differs from the com- 
mon birch not onl}'^ in its weeping habit, but 
also in its young shoots being quite smooth, 
bright chestnut brown when ripe, and then 
covered with little Avhite warts. The Betula 
pontica of the nurseries is a slight variety, of 
a less drooping habit. 

The third species is the downy birch (fie- 
tiila pubiisrens), a smaller species than the first, 
found in the bogs of Germany ; a variety of it 
is called Belula urtldfoUa in gardens. 

The fourth and last European species is the 
dwarf birch {Betula nana), a small bush found 
in Lapland and the mountainous parts of other 
northern countries. To the people of the south 
this plant has no value, but to the Laplanders 
it affords a large part of their fuel, and its 
•winged fruits are reported to be the favourite 
food of the ptarmigan. The Asiatic species 
are the Indian paper birch (B. Bhojpattra) ; 
tapering-leaved birch (S. acuminafa) ; shining 
birch (B. nitida) ; cylindrical spiked birch {B. 
cyllndrostachyct). The principal American 
birches are, 1. The poplar-leaved or white 
American birch {B. popuHfolia). It is very 
like the European B. pcndiilu. 2. The red 
birch {B. nigra). In this country it is gene- 
rally called B. unguluta, and by some B. rubra. 
The Messrs. Loddiges, of Hackney, v/ere the 
first importers of this fine but little known 
species. 3. The yellow birch (B. excehu). 
4. The paper or canoe birch (S. papyracea), 
which is employed by the North American 
Indians for a variety of useful purposes. 5. 
The soft black or cherry birch {B. lenta). 
None of the American birches produce timber 
so valuable as this, whence one of its Ame- 
rican names is mountain mahogany. Its wood 
is hard, close-grained, and of a reddish brown ; 
it is imported into England in considerable 
quantities, under th^ name of American birch, 
for forming the sides of dining tables, and for 
similar purposes. It is rarely seen in Eng- 
land, although it is perhaps one of the best 
suited to that climate. All the species of 
birches, except the common and weeping, are 
multiplied by layers in the usual way. 

The juice of the birch tree, produced from 
punctures in the spring of the year, is diuretic. 
The wane made from this sap is said to be 
aperitive, and detersive. Old medical writers 
tell us that the wood Avas esteemed the best to 
burn in times of pestilence and contagious 
distempers ; but, like many old medical saws, 
that opinion is of no value. {Phillips's Syl. 
Flor. vol. i. p. 123; Pen. Syc. vol. iv. p. 348; 
Baxter^s Agr. Lib.) 

BIRDS. A few of the feathered tribes may 



BIRD-CHERRY. 

be regarded as mischievous depredators upon 
the farmer and gardener, eating his fruit, as the 
robin ; pulling up the corn when just sprouted, 
or eating it from the ear when nearly matured, 
as is so often done by the crow, the black-bird 
or grakle. But if account be made of all the 
services derived from birds in destroying those 
insects which in their larva or worm state, or 
their more perfect winged state, commit such 
serious depredations upon orchards and fields, 
it will be found that we owe the feathered fa- 
mily a very large balance. Upon this subject 
we must refer for further illustration to the 
articles Bketle, BonERs, Aphis, and others 
relating to destructive insects. That distin- 
guished naturalist, Mr. Nuttall, has the follow- 
ing beautiful tribute to birds in his interesting 
Manual of f he Ornifhohigy nf the United Siate.%. 

"In whatever way we vieM^ the feathered 
tribes which surround us, we shall find much 
both to amuse and instruct. We hearken 
to their songs with renewed delight, as the 
harbingers and associates of the season they 
accompany. Their return, after a long ab- 
sence, is hailed with gratitude to the Author 
of all existence; and the cheerless solitude of 
inanimate nature is, by their presence, attuned 
to life and harmony. Nor do they alone ad- 
minister to the amusements and luxury of life ; 
faithful aids as well as messengers of the sea- 
sons, they associate round our tenements, and 
defend the various productions of the earth, 
on which we rely for subsistence from the de- 
structive depredations of myriads of insects, 
which, but for timely riddance by unnumbered 
birds would be followed by a general failure 
and famine. Public economy and utility, then, 
no less than humanit}'- plead for the protection 
of the feathered race, and the wanton destruc- 
tion of birds, so useful, beautiful, and amusing, 
if not treated as such by law, ought to be con- 
sidered as a crime by every moral, feeling, and 
reflecting mind." 

BIRD-BOLT. A short arrow, having a ball 
of wood at the end of it, and sometimes an 
iron point, formerly used for shooting birds. 

BIRD-CHERRY {Prunus padus). The ber- 
ries are eagerly sought after by birds, and as 
the leaf and fruit resemble that of the cherry 
tree, hence the name of bird-cherry. In Scot- 
land it is called hogberry. This aboriginal of 
our English woods possesses beauties that 
should oftener secure it a situation in the 
shrubbery, and more frequently a place in or- 
namental hedge-rows. The bird-cherry rises 
from ten to fifteen feet in height, spreading to 
a considerable distance its branches, which 
are covered with a purplish bark. It flowers 
in April and May, and the small black fruit, 
which hangs in bunches, ripen in August. 
Although the fruit is austere, and bitter to the 
taste, it gives an agreeable flavour to brandy, 
and many persons add it, for the same reason, 
to their made wines. Birds soon devour the 
fruit, which is nauseous and probably danger- 
ous, though perhaps, like that of the cherry 
laurel, not of so deadly a quality as the essen- 
tial oil, or distilled water of the leaves, which 
is highly dangerous from containing much 
Prussic acid. The wood is hard and close- 
grained, and is used for whip and knife handles 

179 



BIRD'S-EYE. 



BIRD'S-FOOT TREFOIL. 



Linnaeus says, that kine, sheep, goals, and 
swine eat the leaves, but that horses refuse 
them. The scent of the leaves, when bruised, 
resembles rue. The variety with red fruit, 
commonly called the Cornish cherry, flowers 
two or three weeks earlier, and is therefore 
not so desirable for the shrubbery. The bird- 
cherry may be propagated by layers, which 
should be performed in autumn, but the hand- 
somest trees are raised from seed, which may 
be sown at the same season. A wet soil is not 
congenial to this tree. {Phillips's St/l. Flur. 
vol. i. p. 134; Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. ii. p. 
354.) 

BIRD'S EYE {Veronica chamasdrys). The 
Germander Speedwell, or wild germander. A 
troublesome weed in fields. It is found very 
commonly in groves, meadows, pastures, and 
hedges. It is a perennial, flowering in May 
and June. Herbage light green. Flowers 
numerous, transient, but very beautiful, bright 
blue with dark streaks and a white centre ; 
their outside pale and flesh coloured. The 
flowers expand in fine weather only. Some 
take this for the German "forget-me-not." It 
vies in beauty with the true one, MyosoHs pa- 
lustris. {Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. i. p. 23.) See 
Speedwell. 

BIRD'S FOOT, COMMON {Ornithopus per- 
pusillus). A weed found most generally in 
sandy or gravelly pastures. Root fibrous, an- 
nual, though it is sometimes propagated by 
subterraneous lateral knobs in the manner of 
a potato, in which case the seeds are abortive. 
The stems, often numerous, are procumbent, 
from three to ten or twelve inches long. 
Leaves alternate, of from five to ten or twelve 
pair, of small uniform elliptical leaflets. 
Flowers three or four in each little head or 
tuft. 

The species of bird's foot are curious on 
account of their jointed pods, but not worth 
culture as plants of ornament. 0. sotivus is, 
however, a most valuable agricultural plant, 

BIRD'S-FOOT TREFOIL, or CLOVER 
{Lotus). The common name of a genus of 
plants that flourishes in a singular manner in the 
most exposed and dry situations. On bowling- 
greens and mown lawns it forms a fine green 
close herbage, even in hot seasons ; and in 
meadow and pasture grounds it is frequently 
abundant. Its very strong deep tap root is the 
cause of its resisting drought. Smith describes 
four species : — 1. Common bird's-foot trefoil 
(L. corniculatus), a perennial, flowering in the 
second week of June, and ripening the seed 
about the end of July, and successively to the 
end of autumn; common in open grassy pas- 
tures. [PI. 9, g.] Some botanists have con- 
sidered the following species (L. mnjor) to be 
a variety of the camiculatus, but the difference 
between them is obvious at first sight; and 
this difi'erence remains permanent when the 
p.ant is raised from seed, and cultivated on 
different soils. What renders a specific dis- 
tinction here of most importance to the farmer, 
is the difference which exists betweep them in 
an agricultural point of view. Heads de- 
pressed, of few flowers, root branching, some- 
what woody ; the fibres beset with small gra- 
nulacions ; stems several, spreading on the 
180 



ground in every direction, varying in length 
from three to ten inches, siniple or branched 
Flower stalks erect or recumbent, five time? 
as long as the leaves, each bearing from two 
to five bright yellow flowers, dark green when 
dried, and they change to orange when verging 
towards decay. This species is recommended 
for cultivation, though under the erroneous 
names of milk-vetch z.nA Astrugalas glycf/phyl- 
lus, by the late Dr. Anderson, in his Agriculmrai 
Essays, as being excellent for fodder as Avell as 
for hay. Mr. Curtis and Mr. Wood also re- 
commended it. Linna;us says that cows, 
goats, and horses eat it; and that sheep and 
swine are not fond of it. With regard to 
sheep (says the late Mr. G. Sinclair, Hurt. 
Gram. Wub. p. 310), as far as my observations 
have extended, they eat it in common with the 
herbage ^vith which it is usually combined ; 
the flowers, it is true, appeared always un- 
touched, and in dry pastures little of the plant 
is seen or presented to the cattle, except the 
flowers, on account of its diminutive growth 
in such situations. This, however, is nearly 
the case with white or Dutch clover; sheep 
seldom touch the flowers while any foliage is 
to be found. Mr. Woodward informs us that 
it makes extremely good hay in moist mea- 
dows, where it grows to a greater height than 
the trefoils, and seems to be of a quality equal, 
if not superior, to most of them. Professor 
Martyn observes, that, in common with several 
other leguminous plants, it gives a substance 
to hay, and perhaps renders it more palatable 
and wholesome to cattle. The clovers contain 
more bitter extractive and saline matter than 
the proper natural grasses, and the bird's fool 
trefoils contain more of these vegetable prin- 
ciples than the clovers. In pastures and mea- 
dows, therefore, where the clovers happen to 
be in small quantities, a portion of the trefoil 
(L. corniculiilus) would doubtless be of advan- 
tage ; but it appears to contain too much of 
the bitter extractive and saline matters to be 
cultivated by itself, or without a large inter- 
mixture of other plants. It does not spring 
early in the season, but continues to vegetate 
late in the autumn. In irrigated meadows, 
where the produce is generally more succulent 
than in dry pastures, this plant cannot with 
safety be recommended, at least in any con- 
siderable quantity. It is more partial to dry 
soils than the next species {L. maju?-) ; it at- 
tains to a considerable height when growing 
among shrubs, and seems to lose its prostrate 
or trailing habit of growth entirely in such 
situations. 2. The greater bird's-foot trefoil 
(L. miijfir) flourishes in wet bushy places, osier 
holts and hedges ; very different from the fore- 
going species in general habit, and now techni- 
cally distinguished by several clear and sutfi- 
cient characters. The stems are from one to 
two or three feet high, upright, clothed more 
or less with long loosely-spreading hairs. 
Leaves fringed with similar hairs ; flowers 
from six to twelve in each head, of a duller 
orange than the former. The weight of green 
food or hay is triple that of the foregoing spe- 
cies, and its nutritive powers are very little in- 
ferior, being only as 9 to 8. These two species 
of bird's-foot trefoil may be compared to each 



BIRD'S-FOOT TREFOIL. 



BISCUIT. 



other with respect to habits in the same man- 
ner as the white clover and perennial red 
clover; and were the latter unknown, there 
appear to be no plants of the leguminous order, 
that, in jioint of habits, would so well supply 
their place as the common and greater bird's- 
foot trefoil. They are, however, greatly in- 
ferior to the clovers. The white clover is 
superior to the common bird's-foot trefoil in 
the quantity of nutritive matter it affords, in 
the proportion of .5 to 4. It is much less pro- 
ductive of herbage, and is much more difficult 
of cultivation, the seed being afforded in much 
smaller quantities. The produce of the greater 
bird's-foot trefoil is superior to that of the 
perennial red clover on tenacious or moist 
soils, and on drier and on richer soils of the 
first quality ; but the produce is inferior in tiie 
proportion of nutritive matter it contains as 5 
to 4. The nutritive matter is extremely bitter 
to the taste. It does not appear to be eaten by 
any cattle when in a green state, but when 
made into hay, sheep, oxen, and deer, all eat it 
without reluctance, and rather with desire. It 
does not seem to perfect so much seed as the 
former species, but this is abundantly remedied 
in its propagation by the creeping or stoloni- 
ferous roots which it spreads out in all direc- 
tions. In moist clayey soils it would doubtless 
be a most profitable substitute for red clover; 
but the excess of bitter extractive and saline 
matters it contains seems to forbid its adop- 
tion without a considerable admixture of other 
plants. It flowers about the third week of 
June, and the seed is ripe about the end of the 
following month. The following analysis will 
show the comparative value of the two spe- 
cies : — 



Lulus cnrniculatus 
— major 



Green Prod, 
per acre. 



10,209 6 
;21,780 



lbs. 
3,190 6 
8,142 8 



358 4 9 
680 10 



3. Spreading bird's-foot trefoil (L. decutnbens) 
is, like the two preceding species, a perennial, 
flowering in England inJuh% It is found in fields 
and meadows. The flower-stalks are four or 
five times the length of the leaves, smooth, 
stout, and firm, each bearing an umbel of from 
three to six bright yellow flowers. 4. Slender 
bird's-foot trefoil (L. angufstissinius) is an an- 
nual flowering in May and June, found in 
meadows towards the sea on the south and 
western coasts of England. It is smaller, in 
general, than any of the foregoing species. A 
species of trifolium {T. ornithopodidides) also 
bears the name of bird's-foot trefoil; but Sir 
J. Smith very justly observes {Engl. Flar. vol. 
iii. p. 298), it can scarcely, without violence, 
be retained in the genus Trifolhmi ,- yet no 
one has thought fit to make it a distinct one, 
however plausible might be the reasons for 
such a measure. It is an annual plant flower- 
ing in June and July, found in barren, gravelly, 
grassy pastures ; root fibrous, stems several, 
spreading flat on the ground, flowers two or 
three, long, pale, reddish. (Smith's Eng. Flor. 
vol. iii. pp. 298, 312; Sinclair's Hort. Gram. 
Wob.) 

Two species of lotus, not referred to in the 
preceding accouat, are a good deal cultivated 



in France, on light soils. These are the vil- 
lous (L. villosus) and the cultivated lotus (Lotier 
cullive, or Lotus tetragonolobus, PI. 9, h). The 
last is an annual sown in gardens. 

BIRDLIME. This glutinous vegetable pro- 
duct is procured either by boiling misletoe ber- 
ries in water until they break, pounding them 
in a mortar, and washing away the husky re- 
fuse with other portions of water ; or, which is 
the chief mode in which it is made (chiefly in 
Scotland) for the purposes of bird-catching, &c., 
from the middle bark of the holly. The bark 
is stripped in June or July, and boiled for six 
or eight hours in water, until it becomes ten- 
der ; the water is then separated from it, and it 
is left to ferment for two or three weeks, until 
it becomes a mucilage, which is pounded in a 
mortar into a mass, and then thoroughly rubbed 
by the hands in running water till all the 
branny matters and other impurities are 
washed away ; the birdlime is then suffered to 
remain fermenting by itself in an earthen ves- 
sel for some weeks. (The bird-catchers, when 
they make their own, place the vessel in a 
dunghill.) The bark of the wayfaring tree is 
sometimes employed. The fragrant gum which 
exudes from the Styrax, or American Sweet 
Gum, a large tree, growing in the Middle and 
Southern States, also makes a good birdlime, 
being extremely tenacious. (Gray's Supple- 
nitnt, p. 226; Nich. Joum. b. xiii. p. 145; Thom- 
son, vol. iv. p. 119.) 

BIRD'S NEST, YELLOW (Monotropa hypo- 
pitys). A weed occasionallj'^ met with in poor 
and gravelly soils. It is also found sometimes 
about the roots of beeches and firs, in woods, 
frequent in all the midland counties. Root 
fibrous, much branched, and somewhat creep- 
ing, growing among dead leaves, or in half de- 
cayed vegetable mould. Stem solitary, five or 
six inches high, flowers in a drooping cluster. 
(Smith's Engl. Flor. vol. ii. p. 249.) 

The species of this plant found in the Middle 
States, are, that called the Indian Pipe (M. uni- 
floni), and the woolly monotropa, Pine-sap, or 
False Beach-drops. Both these singular 
plants are called parasitic. (See Flor. Cestric.) 

BIRD PEPPER. A species of small capsi- 
cum, which affords the best Cayenne pepper. 
See Capsicum. 

BISCUIT (Lat. /«s, twice ; Fr. cu/7, baked, 
Ital. biscoto). A kind of hard dry bread cake 
Biscuits are more easily kept than other kinds 
of bread, and as they contain no ferment, they 
are better fitted than loaf bread for persons of 
weak stomachs, and for the pap of infants, who 
are under the misfortune of being brought up 
bj' hand. 

The best biscuits and the most wholesome, 
are those prepared for the use of the navy. 
They are of two kinds, captains' and seamen's 
biscuit. The latter are composed of wheaten 
flour, from which the bran only has been taken ; 
consequently they are more nutritive than the 
finer sort. In the government bake-houses at 
Weevil and Deptford, the biscuits are prefera- 
ble to those baked by ordinary bakers, owing 
to the extent of the operations, and the purity 
of the wheat-meal: 102 lbs. of perfectly dry 
biscuits are procured from 112 lbs. of meal. 

BISHOPING. A cant term made use of 
Q 181 



BISON. 



BISON. 



among horse-jockeys, implying the practices 
employed to conceal the age of an old horse, 
( r the ill properties of a bad one. See Age 
OF Houses. 

BISON, AMERICAN (Bos Americmut). 
This species of the ox kind is peculiar to the 
temperate latitudes of North America, where 
it is universally, though incorrectly called the 
Buffalo, a name properly belonging to a differ- 
ent species of the ox tribe common to Eastern 
Asia. The bison was found by the first colo- 
nists of the Carolinas, and other of the South- 
ern and Middle States, from -which parts of the 
North American Continent they have long 
been exterminated or frightened away. So 
late as the year 1766, they were seen in a wild 
state in Kentucky. At present none are to be 
met with east of the Mississippi river, having 
retired beyond this great stream, and concen- 
trated in the praries of the Missouri and other 
rivers of the far west. Here they often unite 
in immense flocks, some of which, travellers 
and hunters inform us, contain eight or ten 
thousand. Generally speaking, the bison is 
rather timid, ilying from the hunter, except in 
the rutting season, about the middle of June, 
when the males become very fierce, and often 
kill each other in their terrible combats. 

The qualities of buffalo beef are highly ex- 
tolled, and the hump upon the shoulders is re- 
garded as a particularly choice morsel. The 
tongues, which constitute a regular article of 
trade, are exceedingly rich and tender. The 
thick and rough hairy skins of the bison are 
tanned by the Indians and trappers, and then 
sold to be formed into bufl"alo robes and other 
articles of comfort, so useful during the severe 
winters of the United States. 

The following highly interesting account of 
the American Bison is taken from the Ameri- 
can Farmer, (vol. vi. p. 260), under the head 
of Buffalo Oxen. 

"The animal known by the name of the 
Buff'alo throughout the valleys of Missouri and 
Mississippi differs materially from the buffa- 
lo of the Old World. At first view, his red 
fiery eyes, his shaggy mane, and long beard, 
the long lustrous hair upon his shoulders and 
fore-quarters, and the comparative nakedness 
of his hind-quarters, strongly remind a specta- 
tor of the lion. 

"In the size of his head, in bulk, in stature, 
and in fierceness, he resembles the buffalo of 
Buffon ; but the humps or protuberance be- 
tween his shoulders, the shape of his head, his 
curled forehead, short thick arms, and long hind 
legs, mark a much stronger affinity to the bison. 

" He carries his head low like the buffalo, 
and this circumstance, together with his short 
muscular neck, broad chest, and short thick 
arms, designate him as peculiarly qualified for 
drawing : the whole weight of his body would 
thus be applied in the most advantageous man- 
ner to the weight drawn. The milk of the fe- 
male is equal in quality to that of the cow, but 
deficient in quantity. It has been supposed 
that the smallness of the udders is more re- 
markable in those that have the hump large, 
and that the diminished size of the hump is 
evidence of a more abundant secretion of 
milk The hump, when dressed, tastes like 
]83 



the udder of a cow, and is deemed a delicacy 
by the Indians. But there is one other particu- 
lar which distinguishes the buffalo of the 
New World from its eastern namesake more 
distinctly than any variety of conformation 
could do. The cow refuses to breed with the 
buffalo of Europe ; and such is the fixed 
aversion between these creatures, that they 
always keep separate, although bred under 
the same roof and feeding in the same pas- 
ture. The American buffalo, on the contrary, 
breeds freely with the domestic cattle, and 
propagates a race that continues its kind. 
Many of the landholders in Louisiana, like 
the patriarchs of old, possess thousands of 
cattle which graze at liberty in the unculti- 
vated prairies. These herds cost their owners 
little more than the trouble of marking them, 
and the expense of salting once or twice in a 
month, to prevent them from becoming wild. 
By occupying the same pastures, they have be 
come so much intermixed Avith the buffalo 
that it is difficult to say to which race they are 
most nearly allied. 

"In procuring the cross, it is necessary lo 
observe one precaution. The domestic breed 
must furnish the male, and the buffalo the 
female. The wild bull and the cow can be 
brought together without difficulty, and the im- 
pregnation is perfect; but the pelvis of the 
cow is not sufficiently capacious to allow the 
passage of the buffalo's foetus with its hump. 
The pelvis is the circular bone which connects 
the spine with the thigh bones, and when the 
foetus, from disease or any other cause, is too 
large to pass through it, the female must neces- 
sarily die in labour. This fact constitutes the 
principal obstacle to the introduction of the 
half breed in the old settlements. It would be 
easy to catch and tame a single male of the 
wild breed, and to obtain any number of im- 
pregnations from him ; but it is difficult to pro- 
cure, and still more to confine a. sufficient 
number of wild females. The amazing strength 
of the head and breast enables them to overset 
the strongest fences by running against them ; 
and unless they are caught very young, they 
can never be effectually tamed. Nevertheless, 
some enterprising farmers in this state and 
Missouri are introducing the breed. Captain 
Jenkins of Rutherford county, has one three 
years old and one tM'o years old of the half 
blood, and several calves of the quarter blood, 
all of which are large for their age, and pro- 
mise well. The advantages proposed by the 
introduction of this breed are, that the oxen 
thus raised will be stronger, less sluggish, more 
hardy, and more easily kept, and (if it be 
true that the buffalo goes twelve months with 
)'oung) they will probably last longer than the 
common breed. In addition to these conside- 
rations, the hides are larger and applicable to 
a greater number of uses, and the leather is 
thicker, softer, and more impervious to water. 
The full grown buffalo on the Missouri are 
said to be from sixteen to eighteen hands high, 
and as the body is larger in proportion to the 
height, than in the domestic cattle, they must 
greatly exceed the finest of the imported breed 
in strength and weight. In the neighbourhood 
of the settlements, the hunter's dogs and 



BISSI.INGS. 



BLACKBIRD. 



prairie flies conspire to prevent them from nt- 
tainiiig either lull size or iniiture age." 

BISSLINGS. A provincial \vt;rd, applied, 
like biestings, to tlie fust milk ol' the neviiy 
calved cow. See BKKsxiNfi. 

BITTER PRINCIPLE. This term has been 
applied to certain products of the action of ni- 
tric acid upon animal and vegetable matters 
of an intensely bitter taste. {Bruude's Did. "f 
Science.) The most important of the plants 
cultivated with us for their bitter principle are 
the hop, the common broom, mugwort, ground 
iv}'', marsh trefoil or buck-bean, and the gen- 
tian family of plants. Quassia, the wood of a 
tree, is also a very intense bitter, and is used 
in medicine, and clandestinely in the brewing 
of beer. The chief combinations of the bitter 
principle used in medicine are narcotic, aro- 
matic, astringent, acid, and purgative bitters. 
(Lowe's EL of Ag. pp. 371— 373.) 

BITTERS. A spirituous liquor in which 
bitter herbs or roots are steeped. An excessive 
habit of taking bitters may finally prove detri- 
mental to the stomach, by over-excitement, or 
by inducing a kind of artificial demand for 
food in greater quantity than is salutary to the 
general health. Habitual drunkenness has 
often been the sequel of the insiduous practice 
of taking bitters. 

BITTER-SWEET, or WOODY NIGHT- 
SHADE {Solanum dulcamara). This wild 
plant loves moist places, therefore grows most 
freely in hedges and thickets, near ditches, 
rivers, and damp situations. It flowers in 
June and July, and ripens its berries in August, 
which are of a red colour, juicy, bitter, and 
poisonous. Its flowers are an elegant purple, 
with yellow threads in their middle, and the 
berries are oval or oblong in shape. The 
stalks are shrubby, and run, when supported, 
to ten feet in length ; of a bluish colour, and 
when bruised or broken have an odour not 
very fragrant or desirable, savouring of rotten 
eggs. A decoction of its wood, and the young 
shoots sliced, is a valuable medicine, but not 
to be trifled with. (S/j^. Flor., vol. i. p. 317.) 

BITTERWORT. The old English name for 
the yellow gentian. See Gestian. 

BIXA. See Annotta. 

BLACK. (Sax.) A common colour in horses. 
Horses of this colour are most esteemed when 
they are of a shining jet black, and well 
marked, without having white on their legs. 
The English black horses have generally more 
white about them than the black horses of 
other countries. Those that partake most of 
the brown are said to be the strongest in con- 
stitution ; for the English black cart horses are 
found not to be so hardy as the bays or chest- 
nuts. 

BLACKBERRY. See Bramble. 

BLACKBIRD. This is a species of bird so 
generally known, that but little need be said 
of its habits or its haunts. Numbers are bred 
in England every season, and those thus 
reared, it is believed, do not migrate. Its food 
varies considerably with the season. In spring 
and early summer, larvas of insects, worms, 
and snails ; as the season advances, fruit of 
various sorts. When the enormous number 
of insects and their larvae, with the abundance 



of snails and slugs, all injurious to vegetation, 
be duly considered, it may fairly be doubted 
whether the value of the fruit is not counter- 
balanced by the services performed. 

The American blackbird diflTsrs consider- 
ably from the European. The species found 
in the United States bear the names of the 
great crow, the common crow, the cow, the 
red-winged, and the rusty. The following in- 
teresting details relative to birds which so often 
occupy attention in rural life, are from Mr. 
Nuttall's Manual of the Ornithology of the 
United States. Treating of the great crow 
blackbird, {The Quiscalis major oi Bonaparte) 
Mr. Nuttall says : 

"This large and crow-like species, some- 
times called the jackdaw, inhabits the southern 
maritime parts of the Union only, particularly 
the states of Georgia and Florida, where thev 
are seen as early as the close of January or 
beginning of February, but do not begin to 
pair before March, previously to -which season 
the sexes are seen in separate flocks. Bui 
about the latter end of November, they quit 
even the mild climate of Florida, generally, 
and seek winter quarters probably in the West 
Indies, where they are known to be numerous, 
as well as in Mexico, Louisiana, and Texas ; 
but they do not ever extend their northern mi- 
grations as far as the Middle States. Previous 
to their departure, at the approach of winter, 
they are seen to assemble in large flocks, and 
every morning flights of them, at a great 
height, are seen moving away to the south. 

" Like most gregarious birds, they are of a 
very sociable disposition, and are frequently 
observed to mingle with the common crow- 
blackbirds. They assemble in great numbers 
among the sea islands, and neighbouring 
marshes on the main land, where they feed at 
low water, on the oyster-beds and sand-flats. 
Like crows, they are omnivorous, their food 
consisting of insects, small shell-fish, corn, and 
small grain, so that by turns they may be 
viewed as the friend or plunderer of the 
planter. 

"The note of this species is louder than that 
of the common kind, according to Audubon, 
resembling a loud shrill whistle, often accon ■ 
panied by a cry like crick crick cree, and in 
breeding season changing almost into a war 
They are only heard to sing in the spring, 
their concert, though inclining to sadness, 
not altogether disagreeable. Their nests j 
built in company, on reeds and bushes, in ti j 
neighbourhood of salt marshes and ponds , 
they lay about three to five eggs which are 
whitish, blotched and lined nearly all over with 
dusky olive. They begin to lay about the be- 
ginning of April; soon after which the males 
leave their mates not only with the care of in- 
cubation, but with the rearing of the young, 
moving about in separate flocks, like the cow 
birds, without taking any interest in the fate of 
their progeny. 

" The general appearance of the male is 
black, but the head and neck have bluish-pur- 
ple reflections ; the rest presents shades of 
steel-blue, excepting the hack, rump, and mid- 
dling wing coverts, which are glossed with 
cofier-green ; the vent, inferior tail cov«rts 

183 



BLACKBIRD. 



BLACKBIRD. 



and thighs are plain black. The tail, Avedge- 
shaped, is nearly eight inches in length, and 
like that of the common species, is capable of 
assuming a boat-shaped appearance. Iris pale 
yellow. The bill and feet black. The female 
is of a light dusky brown, with some feeble 
greenish reflections, and beneath of a dull 
brownish white. The young, at first, resemble 
the female, but have the irids brown, and 
gradually acquire their appropriate plumage." 

Of the Common Crow-Blackbird, (The Qnts- 
calis versicolor of Audubon), Mr. Nuttall says : 
*' This very common bird is an occasional or 
constant resident in every part of America, 
from Hudson's Bay and the Northern interior 
to the great Antilles, within the tropic. In most 
parts of this wide region the)'^ also breed, at 
least from Nova Scotia to Louisiana, and pro- 
bly farther south. In the states north of Vir- 
ginia they begin to migrate from the beginning 
of March to May, leaving those countries again 
in numerous troops about the middle of No- 
vember. Thus assembled, from the north and 
west in increasing numbers, they wholly over- 
run, at times, the warmer maritime regions, 
where they assemble to pass the winter in the 
company of their well known cousins the red- 
winged troopials or blackbirds ; for both, im- 
pelled by the same predatory appetite, and love 
of comfortable winter quarters, are often thus 
accidentally associated in the plundering and 
gleaning of the plantations. The amazing 
numbers in which the present species asso- 
ciate are almost incredible. Wilson relates 
that on the 20th of January, a few miles from 
the banks of the Roanoke, in Virginia, he met 
with one of those prodigious armies of black- 
birds, which, as he approached, rose from the 
surrounding fields with a noise like thunder, 
and descending on the stretch of road before 
him, covered it and the fences completely with 
black: rising again, after a few evolutions, 
they descended on the skirt of a leafless wood, 
so thick as to give the whole forest, for a con- 
siderable extent, the appearance of being 
shrouded in mourning, the numbers amount- 
ing probably to many hundreds of thousands. 
Their notes and screams resembled the distant 
sound of a mighty cataract, but strangely at- 
tuned into a musical cadence, which rose and 
fell with the fluctuation of the breeze, like the 
magic harp of ^olus. 

" Their depredations on the maize crop or In- 
dian corn commence almost with the planting. 
The infant blades no sooner appear than they 
are hailed by the greedy blackbird as the sig- 
nal for a feast; and, without hesitation, they 
descend on the fields, and regale themselves 
with the sweet and sprouted seed, rejecting 
and scattering the blades around as an evi- 
dence of their mischief and audacity. Again, 
about the beginning of August, while the grain 
is in the milky state, their attacks are renewed 
with the most destructive efiect, as they now 
assemble as it were in clouds, and pillage the 
fields to such a degree that in some low and 
sheltered situations, in the vicinity of rivers, 
where they delight to roam, one-fourth of the 
crop is devoured by these vexatious visitors. 
The gun, also, notwithstanding the havoc it 
produces, has little more effect than to chase 
184 



them from one part of the field to the other. 
In the Southern States, in winter, they hover 
round the corn-cribs in swarms, and boldly 
peck the hard grain from the cob through the 
air-openings of the magazine. In consequence 
of these reiterated depredations they are de- 
tested by the farmer as a pest to his industry ; 
though, on their arrival, their food for a long 
time consists wholly of those insects which are 
calculated to do the most essential injury to 
the crops. They, at this season, frequent 
swamps and meadows, and familiarly follow- 
ing the furrows of the plough, sweep up all the 
grub-worms, and other noxious animals, as 
soon as they appear, even scratching up the 
loose foil, that nothing of this kind may escape 
them. Up to the lime of harvest, I have uni- 
formly, on dissection, found their food to con- 
sist of these larvce, caterpillars, moths, and 
beetles, of which they devour such numbers, 
that but for this providential econom)^, the 
whole crop of grain, in many places, would 
probably be destroyed by the time it began to 
germinate. In Avinter they collect the mast of 
the beech and oak for food, and maj' be seen 
assembled in large bodies in the woods for this 
purpose. In the spring season the blackbirds 
roost in the cedars and pine trees, to which in 
the evening they retire with friendly and mu- 
tual chatter. On the tallest of these trees, as 
well as in bushes, they generally build their 
nests, which work, like all their movements, is 
commonly performed in society, so that ten or 
fifteen of them are often seen in the same tree, 
and sometimes they have been known to thrust 
their nests into the interstices of the fish- 
hawk's eyry, as if for safety and protection. 
Occasionally they breed in tall poplars near to 
habitations, and, if not molested, continue to 
resort to the same place for several years in 
succession. They begin their breeding opera- 
tions from the commencement of April to Ma}'. 
The nest is composed outwardly of mud, 
mixed with stalks and knotty roots of grass, 
and lined with fine dry grass and horse-hair. 
The eggs, usually five or six, are of a dull 
green, like those of the crow, blotched and 
spotted with dark olive, more particularly to- 
wards the larger end. According to Audubon, 
the same species in the Southern States nests 
in the hollows of decayed trees, after the man- 
ner of the woodpecker, lining the cavity with 
grass and mud. They seldom produce more 
than a single brood in the season. In the au- 
tumn, and at the approach of winter, numerous 
flocks after foraging through the day, return 
from considerable distances to their general 
roosts among the reeds. On approaching their 
station, each detachment as it arrives, in strag- 
gling groups like crows, sweeps round the 
marsh in waving flight, forming circles ; 
amidst these bodies, the note of the old recon- 
noitring leader may be heard, and no sooner 
has he fixed upon the intended spot, than they 
all descend and take their stations in an in- 
stant. At this time they are also frequently 
accompanied by the ferruginous species, with 
which they associate in a friendly manner. 

"The blackbird is easily tamed, sings in 
confinement, and may be taught to articulate 
some few words pretty distinctly. Among the 



BLACKBIRD. 



BLACK GUM. 



variety of its natural notes, the peculiarly 
affected sibilation of the starling is heard in 
the woltiskee, wottltshce, and whistle, which 
often accompanies this note. Their intestines 
and stomach are frequently infested by long, 
cylindric, tapering worms, which ))robably in- 
crease sometimes in such numbers as to de- 
stroy the bird. 

"The male is twelve inches long, and eight- 
een in alar extent. The prevailing black 
colour of the body is relieved hy glossy reflec- 
tions of steel blue, dark violet, and green ; the 
violet is most conspicuous on the head and 
breast, and the gi^een on the hind part of the 
neck. The back, rump, and whole lower parts, 
with the exception of the breast, reflect a cu- 
preous gloss. The wing-coverts, secondaries, 
and coverts of the tail, are light violet, with 
much of the red ; the rest of the wings and 
rounded tail are black, with a steel-blue gloss. 
Iris silvery. The female is rather less, but 
very similar in colour, and glossy parti- 
coloured reflections." 

The Rusty Blackbird. "This species," says 
Mr. Nuttall, " less frequent than the preceding, 
is often associated with it, or with the red- 
winged troopial or the cow-pen bird, and, ac- 
cording to the season, they are found throughout 
America, from Hudson's Bay to Florida and 
westward to the Pacific ocean. Early in April, 
according to Wilson, they pass hastily through 
Pennsylvania, on their return to the north to 
breed. In the month of March he observed 
them on the banks of the Ohio, near Kentucky 
river, during a snow-storm. They arrive in 
tlie vicinity of Hudson's Bay about the begin- 
ning of May, and feed much in the manner of 
the common crow-blackbird on insects, which 
they find on or near the ground. Dr. Richard- 
son saw them in the winter as far as the lati- 
tude of 53°, and in the summer they range to 
the 68th parallel or to the extremity of the 
wooded region. They sing in the pairing sea- 
son, but become nearly silent while rearing 
their young ; though when their brood release 
them from care they again resume their lay, 
and may occasionally be heard until the ap- 
proach of winter. Their song is quite as 
agreeable and musical as that of the starling, 
and greatly surpasses that of any of the other 
species. I have heard them singing until the 
middle of October. 

"They are said to build in trees and hushes, 
at no great distance from the ground, making 
a nest similar to the other species, and lay five 
eggs, of a pale blue spotted with black. The 
young and old, now assembling in large troops, 
retire from the northern regions in September. 
From the beginning of October to the middle 
of November, they are seen in flocks through 
the Eastern States. During their stay in this 
vicinity, they assemble towards night to roost 
in or round the reed marshes of Fresh Pond, 
near Cambridge. Sometimes they select the 
willows by the water for their lodging, in pre- 
ference to the reeds, which they give up to 
their companions the crow-blackbirds. Early 
in October they feed chiefly on grasshoppers 
and berries, and at a later period pay a tran- 
sient visit to the corn-field. They pass the 
winter in the Southern States, and like their 
24 



darker relatives, make familiar visits to the 
barn-yard and corn-cribs. Wilson remarks, 
that they are easily domesticated, and in a few 
days become quite familiar, being reconciled 
to any quarters while supplied with plenty of 
food. 

"The male is about nine iuclies in length, 
and fourteen in alar extent; black, crlossecl 
with dark green ; with the tail somewhat 
rounded; iris silvery. The /ewa/e is of about 
the same size with the male, and the yjung of 
the first season, of both sexes, are nearly of 
the same colour." 

BLACK CANKER. A disease in turnip 
and other crops, produced by a species of ca- 
terpillar. See BoxE Dust. 

BLACK COUCH GRASS, or BLACK 
TWITCH. Provincial names for the marsh 
bent grass, or As;roslis alba. See Agrostis. 

BLACK DOLPHIN. A term applied to a 
small insect which is frequently very destruc- 
tive to bean, turnip, and some other green 
crops. 

BLACK FLY. An insect of the beetle tribe, 
very injurious to turnips in their early stage. 
See Fly. 

BLACK GUM (Nyssa sylvatica). This 
North American tree is variously designated 
in different parts of the United States by the 
names of the Black gum, Yellow gum, and Sour 
gum, the last of which appellation is doubtless 
derived from the extremely acid taste of its 
fruit. This consists of deep blue berries of an 
oval shape. Each stem has twin-berries, and 
each berry contains a very hard slightly con- 
vex stone. The leaves are five or six inches 
long, entire, of an elongated oval shape, with 
downy stems. The river Schuylkill, in the vi- 
cinity of Philadelphia, may be assumed as the 
northern limit of the black gum, which is very 
common in Delaware, Maryland, and other 
Middle and Southern States, both east and west 
of the Alleghany mountains. In Maryland, 
Virginia, and the Western States, Michaux in- 
forms us, it grows without any peculiar form 
on high and level grounds, with the oaks and 
walnuts. In the lower parts of the Carolinas 
and Georgia, where it is found only in wet 
places, with the small magnolia or white-bay, 
the red-bay, the loblolly-bay, and the water- 
oak, it has a pyramidal base resembling a 
sugar-loaf. 

The black gum frequently attains a height 
of sixty or seventy feet, with a diameter of 
eighteen or twenty inches, being larger in the 
upper part of Virginia, in Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee, than in the marshy grounds of the 
maritime parts of the Southern states. 

The bark of the trunk is whitish and similar 
to that of the young white oak. The wood is 
fine-grained but tender, and its fibres are in 
terwoven and collected in bundles ; an arrange 
ment characteristic of the genus. The albur- 
num or sap part, as it is commonly designated, 
of stocks growing upon dry and elevated lands 
is yellow. This complexion is considered by 
wheel-wrights as a proof of the superior 
quality of the wood, and has probably given 
the tree one of its popular names. It is ex- 
tensively employed in Richmond, Baltimore, 
and Philadelphia, for the naves or hubs of 
4,2 185 



BLACK GUM. 



BLACK THORN. 



coach and wagon ■wheels, as well as for hatters' 
blocks, being so little liable to split ; a quality 
which also causes it to be chosen by ship- 
wrights for the cap, or piece which receives 
the top-mast. 

Tupdo. — The black gum is often confounded 
with another tree of the same genus, the Tupelo 
or Ny^:-a (iquuticn, also called gum tree, sour 
gum, and peperidge. The first of these appel- 
lations, Michaux says, is most common, the 
second is AvhoUy misapplied, as no self-con- 
densing fluid distils from the tree, and the 
third which more appropriately belongs to the 
common barberry-bush, is used only by the 
descendents of the Dutch settlers in the neigh- 
bourhood of New Yoi'k. The tupelo extends 
much higher north than the black gum, ap- 
pearing in the loiver part of New Hampshire 
near the sea; but it is most abundant in the 
southern parts of New York, New Jersey, and 
Pennsylvania. It grows only in wet grounds. 
Li Delaware, where the black gum and tupelo 
are found together, the former name is univer- 
sally applied to both. In New Jersey it is con- 
stantly seen on the borders of the swamps with 
the sweet gum, the swamp white-oak, the 
chestnut white-oak, and the white elm. It 
rarely exceeds forty or forty-five feet in height, 
and its limbs, which spring at five or six feet 
from the ground, grow in a horizontal direc- 
tion. The trunk is of a uniform size from its 
base. While it is less than ten inches in diame- 
ter the bark is not remarkable, but on full- 
grown and vigorous stocks it is thick, deeply- 
furrowed, and, unlike the bark of any other 
tree, divided into hexagons, which are some- 
times nearly regular. 

The leaves are about lialf the length of those 
of the black gum, viz.: three inches long, ob- 
oval, smooth, alternate, and often united in 
bunches at the extremity of the young lateral 
shoots. The flowers are small and scarcely 
apparent. The fruit, which is abundant, is, 
like that of the black gum, of a deep blue co- 
lour, about the size of a pea, and attached in 
pairs. It is ripe towards the beginning of No- 
vember, and remaining after the falling of the 
leaf, it forms a part of the nourishment of the 
robins and other birds in their autumnal mi- 
gration to the south. The stone is flattened on 
one side, a little convex on the other, and 
striated lengthwise. Bruised in water the 
berries yield an unctuous, greenish juice, of a 
slightly bitter taste, which is not easily mingled 
with the fluid. 

The tupelo holds a middle place between 
trees with soft and those with hard wood. 
When perfectly seasoned, the sap part is of a 
light reddish tint, and the heart, of a deep 
brown. Of trees exceeding fifteen or eighteen 
inches in diameter more than half the trunk is 
generally hollow. 

The woody fibres which compose the body 
of trees in general are closely united, and 
usually ascend in a perpendicular direction. 
By a caprice of natui-e, they sometimes pursue 
an undulating course, as in the red and sugar 
maples, or, as in the last mentioned species, 
form riplings so fine, that the curves are only 
one, two, or three lines in diameter ; or lastly, 
they ascend spirally, as in the twisted elm 
186 



(Orme tnrtillard) following the same bent for 
four or five feet. In these species, however, 
the deviation is only accidental, and to be 
sure of obtaining this form it must be perpe- 
tuated by grafting or by transplanting young 
stocks from the shade of the parent tree. The 
genus which we are considering exhibits, on 
the contrary, a constant peculiarity of organi- 
zation ; the fibres are united in bundles, and 
interwoven like a braided cord. Hence the 
wood is extremely difficult to split unless cut 
into short billets ; a property which gives it a 
decided superiority for certain uses. In New 
York, New Jersey, and particularly at Phila- 
delphia, the wood of the tupelo is almost ex- 
clusively employed for the hubs of wheels. In 
a very few places white oak is used for this 
purpose, probably because the tupelo is of a 
bad quality or cannot be readily obtained. 
Michaux thinks that from its limited size and 
strength, the tupelo can never be substituted 
for the twisted elm, where very large naves or 
hubs are required for wagons destined to sup- 
port immense burdens. In France, he says, 
the wheels of their heavy vehicles have naves 
twenty inches in diameter at the insertion of 
the spokes, with an axle-tree of three hundred 
and fifty pounds weight, and are laden for dis- 
tant transportation with nine thousand pounds. 
If, to its own organization, the tupelo joined 
the solidity of the elm, a more rapid vegetation 
and the faculty of growing on dry and elevated 
lands, and of expanding to three or four times 
its present size, it would be the most precious 
to the mechanical arts of all the forest-trees of 
Europe and North America. In Nsw Jersey 
and Pennsylvania, many farmers prefer the 
tulepo for the side-boards and bottom of carts, 
as experience has proved its durability. 
Wooden bowls are made of it, and also the 
mortars in which Indian corn is beaten with 
an iron pestle in the process of preparing ho- 
miny. It burns slowly and throws out a good 
heat, which makes it a favourite with those 
who keep wood fires, especially for the back 
log, a purpose to which it is almost exclusively 
devoted. {American Sylca.) See Tupelo. 

BLACK LEGS. A provincial name given 
in some places to a disease frequent among 
calves and sheep. In StaflTordshire it is called 
the wood evil. It is a bloody gelatinous hu- 
mour, settling in their legs, and often in the 
neck between the skin and the flesh, making 
them carry their necks awry. 

BLACK MUZZLE. See Sheep, Diseases of. 

BLACK OATS. A species of oats much 
cultivated in some parts of England. The oats 
of this habit have the corolla very dark, are 
awned, and the seeds are small. They are 
rather an inferior class of oats, but are hardy 
and ripen early, and it is this property wiiich 
suits them for cultivation in cold and elevated 
climates. {Prof. Low. Ele. Ag., p.-ft56.) See 
Oats. 

BLACK THORN, or SLOE {Prunus spi- 
nosa). This rigid bushy shrub is well known, 
growing commonly in hedges and thickets. It 
is frequently used in making fences, especially 
in exposed situations. But it is not reckoned 
so good for this purpose as the white thorn, 
because it is apt to run more into the ground, 



BLACK TWITCH. 



BLEND-WATER. 



and is not so certain of growing; however, 
when cut, the bushes are much the best, and 
most lasting of any for dead hedges, or to 
mend gaps ; cattle are not so apt to crop 
fences of this kind as those of the white thorn. 

The fruit is well known in the country, and 
from its acid, astringent, and very austere fla- 
vour, it is not eatable except when baked, or 
boiled Avith a large proportion of sugar, and 
then II is not good. The juice, when inspis- 
sated over a slow fire, is a substitute for the 
Egyptian acacia, or Indian catechu. In some 
form or other this juice is used in adulterating 
port wine. The leaves also are reckoned 
among the adulterated substitutes for tea in 
England. A water distilled from the blossoms 
of the sloe is said to be used medicinally in 
Switzerland and Germany. 

The juice of sloes checks purgings when no 
inflammation is present. (_Smith's Eng. Flor. 
vol. ii. p. 357.) 

What is commonly called the black thorn in 
the United States is not the sloe or black haw, 
(a species of viburnum), but the yellow Cratae- 
gus of botanists, one of the species of thorn com- 
monly used for hedges. (See Flor. Ceatrica.) 

BLACK TWITCH (Agrostis alba). A nox- 
ious weed of the sub-aquatic marsh bent genus. 
It chokes up drains and underwood, and flou- 
rishes even in extremely dry situations, prov- 
ing very injurious to many crops. It is also 
known under the names of black couch and 
black vjrnck. See Mahsh Bent Grass. 

BLACK WALNUT. See Walnut. 

BLACK WASH. A lotion composed of ca- 
lomel and lime water. 

BLACK WATER. See Sheep, Diseases of. 

BLADE (Sax. biae©, bw-o; Fr. bled,- Low 
Lat. bLdiifi). The spire of grass before it 
grows to seed ; the green shoots of corn which 
rise from the seed. {Todd.) 

BLADE-BONE. In farriery, the popular 
name for the shoulder-blade {scapula), of an 
animal. 

BLAIN (Sax. blesene; Dutch, bleyne, from 
the Icelandic blina, a pustule). In farriery, in- 
flammation of the tongue, a disease in cattle, 
which frequently aflects them in the spring of 
the )'-ear or beginning of summer. The disease 
(says Clater) is neither so frequent nor so 
fatal in the horse as it is in cattle ; but it does 
sometimes occur, and the nature of it is fre- 
quently misunderstood. The horse will refuse 
his food, hang his head, and a considerable 
quantity of ropy fluid will be discharged from 
the mouth. On examining the mouth, the 
tongue will be found considerably enlarged, 
and, running along the side of it, there will 
be a reddish or darkish purple bladder, and 
which sometimes protrudes between the teeth. 
The neighbouring salivary glands are en- 
larged, and the discharge of saliva is very 
great, while the soreness of the swelled and 
blistered part causes the horse obstinately to 
resist every motion of the jaws. The cure is 
very simple : the bladder must be deeply 
lanced from end to end : there will not be any 
great flow of blood. This will relieve or cure 
the horse in twenty-four hours. If he can be 
spared from his work, a dose of physic will 
rsmove the stomach aflfection and any slight 



degree of fever that may have existed. If the 
disease is neglected, the swelling will at length 
burst, and corroding ulcers will eat deeply into 
the tongue, and prove very difficult to heal. 
{Clater'';; Farriery, p. 64.) 

BLAST. A vegetable disease, the same as 
blight. In farriery, it is also a vulgar name 
for any circumscribed swelling or iutlamma 
tion in the body of an animal. See Mili>ew. 

BLASTING OF STONES. The operation 
of tearing asunder large stones or rocks which 
are in the way of the plough, or other instru- 
ment employed in breaking up ground, by 
means of gunpowder. Logs of wood, the roots 
of trees, and other obstructions, are removed 
by the same agent. In stone quarries, blast- 
ing is a necessary business. Perhaps one of 
the greatest and most successful blasts ever 
eflTected was at Craigleith quarry, Scotland, on 
the 18th of October, 1834, when, by 500 lbs. of 
Sir Henry Bridge's double-strong blasting pow- 
der, a mass of upwards of 20,000 tons of solid 
rock was displaced. ( Quart. Journ. ifAgr. vol. 
vi. p. 463.) 

BLAZE. A white mark or star in the face 
of a horse. 

BLEEDING (Sax. bie«an). An operation 
frequently necessary in the disorders of differ- 
ent kinds of cattle, particularly horses. Such 
horses as stand much in the stable, and are 
full-fed, require bleeding more than those 
which are in constant exercise ; but especially 
when their eyes look heavy and dull, or red 
and inflamed ; and when they look yellow, and 
the horse is inflamed in his lips and the inside 
of his mouth ; or when he seems hotter than 
usual, and mangles his hay. These indica^ 
tions not only show that bleeding is required, 
but likewise the lowering of the diet. The 
spring is the common season for bleeding 
horses ; but periodical bleeding, without its 
necessity being indicated, should never be 
practised. In summer, it is often necessary 
to prevent fevers, always choosing the cool of 
the morning for the operation, and keeping 
them cool the remaining part of the day. Some 
farriers bleed horses three or four times a year, 
or even oftener, by way of prevention, taking 
only a very small quantity at a time, as a pint 
or a pint and a half. There is, however, this 
inconvenience from frequent bleeding, that it 
grows into a habit, which, in some cases, can- 
not be easily broken off without hazard ; and 
besides, horses become weak from frequent 
bleeding. 

BLEMISH. In farriery, any kind of imper- 
fection in a horse or other animal. 

In horses, they consist of broken knees, loss 
of hair in the cutting places, mallenders and sal- 
lenders, cracked heels, false quarters, splents, 
or excrescences which do not occasion lame- 
ness ; and wind-galls and bog-spavins, where 
they prevail to any great degree. 

In planting, the knots on the outside of trees, 
and shakes internally, are termed blemishes. 

BLENDINGS. A provincial word applied 
to mixed crops, such as peas and beans when 
grown together. 

BLEND-WATER. In farriery, the name 
of a distemper incident to neat or black cattle, 
in which the liver is affected. 

187 



BLIGHT. 



BLIGHT. 



BLIGHT. The general name for various 
injuries received by, and diseases incident to, 
corn, fruit-trees, plants, &c. The terms blight 
and blast, are indiscriminately applied to plants 
injured by fungi, insects, disease, frost, &c. 
Blight (in'irinaliiig in cold, which, congealmg the 
sap of the tender shoots and leaves of plants, 
causes these to perish from the bursting of their 
sap-vessels. Blight sometimes results from 
causes the very opposite of this, namely during 
the prevalence of very sultry, or very dry winds, 
the effects of which are popularly termed Ji>-e- 
blights, and are similar to those which some- 
times injure the vineyards of Italy, and the hop- 
grounds of England. What is called in England 
the white blight is supposed to originate from 
want of nourishment. It is most commonly met 
with in grain fields during very dry spells of 
weather, especially on thin gravelly soils, 
when the plants get into head or blossom pre- 
maturely, and the head or seed-pod ripens 
without filling. 

The mildew, one of the greatest enemies that 
the agriculturist has to contend with, is nothing 
more than several species of parasitical fungi, 
or very minute plants of the mushroom species, 
which attack different kinds of plants, grain, &c. 
It varies in its nature and appearance, accord- 
ing to the plants attacked. (See P1.2,/,7rt,«,&c.) 

Blight originating in fungi, attacks the leaves 
or stems both of herbaceous and woody plants, 
such as the common barberry and buckthorn, 
but more generally grasses, and particularly 
our most useful grains, wheat, barley, and 
oats. It always appears in the least ventilated 
parts of a field and has generally been pre- 
ceeded by cold, moist weather, which happen- 
ing in the warm month of July, suddenly 
chills and checks vegetation. It generally as- 
sumes the appearance of a rust3'^-looking 
powder that soils the finger when touched. In 
March, 1807, some blades of wheat attacked 
by this species of blight were examined by 
Keith; the appearance was that of a number 
of rusty-looking spots or patches dispersed 
over the surface of the leaf, exactly like that 
of the seeds of dorsiferous ferns bursting 
their indusium. Upon more minute inspec- 
tion, these patches were found to consist of 
tliousands of small globules collected into 
groups beneath the epidermis, which they 
raised up in a sort of blister, and at last burst. 
Some of the globules seemed as if embedded 
even in the longitudinal vessels of the blade. 
They were of a yellowish or rusty brown, and 
somewhat transparent. But these groups of 
globules have been ascertained by Sir J. Banks 
to be patches of a minute fungus, the seeds of 
which, as they float in the air, enter the pores 
of the epidermis of the leaf, particularly if the 
plant is sickly ; or they exist in the manure or 
soil, and enter by the pores of the root {Sir 
J. Banks on Blight.) This fungus has been 
figured by Sowerby and by F. Bauer and Grew. 
I' is known among farmers by the name of red 
rust, and chiefly affects the stalks and leaves. 
But there is another species of fungus known to 
the European farmer by the name of red gum, 
which attacks the ear only, and is extremely 
prejudicial. In the aggregate it consists of 
groups of minute globules interspersed with 
188 



transparent fibres. The globules are filled 
with a fine powder, which explodes when they 
are put into water. It is very generally accom- 
panied with a maggot of a yellow colour, which 
preys also upon the grain, and increases the 
amount of injury. Grisenthwaite ct)njectures 
that in many cases in which the Ijlight and 
mildew attack corn crops, it ma}' be for want 
of the peculiar food requisite for perfecting the 
grain ; it being known that the fruit or seeds 
of many plants contain primitive principles 
not found in the rest of the plant. Thus the 
grain of wheat contains gluten and phosphate 
of lime, and where these are wanting in the 
soil, that is, in the naanured earths in which 
the plant grows, it will be unable to perfect its 
fruit, which of consequence becomes more 
liable to disease. {New Theory of Agr.) 

Smut is a disease incidental to cultivated 
corn, by which the farina of the grain, together 
with its proper integuments and even part of 
the husk, is converted into a black soot-like 
powder. If the injured ear be struck with the 
finger, the powder will be dispersed like a 
cloud of black smoke ; and if a portion of the 
powder be wetted by a drop of water and put 
under the microscope, it will be found to con- 
sist of millions of minute and transparent 
globules, which seem to be composed of a clear 
and glairy fluid encompassed by a thin and 
skinny membrane. This disease does uol 
afi:"ect the whole body of the crop, but the 
smutted ears are sometimes very numerously 
dispersed throughout it. Some have attributed 
it to the soil in which the grain is sown, and 
others have attributed it to the seed itself, alleg- 
ing that smutted seed will produce a smutted 
crop; but in all this there seems to be a great 
deal of doubt. Wildenow regards it as originat- 
ing in a small fungus, which multiplies and 
extends till it occupies the whole ear {Princip. 
of Bot. p. 356); but F. Bauer, of Kew, seems 
to have ascertained it to be merely a morbid 
swelling of the ear, and not at all connected 
with the growth of a fungus. {Smith's Introd 
p. 282.) It is said to be prevented by steeping 
the grain, before sowing, in a weak solution 
of arsenic. But, besides the disease called 
smut, there is also a disease analogous to it. 
or a different stage of the same disease, known 
to the farmer by the names of bags or smut 
balls, in which the nucleus of the seed only 
is converted into a black powder, whilst the 
ovai-y, as well as the husk, remains sound. 
The ear is not much altered in its external ap- 
pearance, and the diseased grain contained in 
it will even bear the operation of thrashing, 
and consequently mingle with the bulk; but 
it is always readily detected by the experienced 
buyer, and fatal to the character of the sample. 
It is said to be prevented as in the case of 
smut. This disorder, so very fatal to the cha- 
racter of wheat from the injury it does to flour, 
is known in some of the United States by the 
very homely name of bust. 

Mildeiv is a thin and whitish coating with 
which the leaves of vegetables are sometimes 
covered, occasioning their decay and death, 
and injuring the health of the plant. It is fre- 
quently found on the leaves of hops, hazlenut, 
and the white and yellow dead-nettle. It is 



BLIND, MOON-. 

found also on wheat in the shape of a glutinous 
exudation, particularly when the da3's are hot 
and the nights without dew. J. Robertson 
(Hort. Trans, v. 178), considers it as a minute 
fungus, of which different species attack difler- 
rent plants. Sulphur he has found to be a 
specific cure. 

In cultivated crops mildew is said to be pre- 
vented by manuring with soot; though by some 
this is denied, and soot, by rendering the crop 
more luxuriant, is said to be an encourager of 
mildew, the richest part of a field being always 
most infected by it. As it is least common in 
airy situations, thinning and ventilation may 
be considered as preventives. See Mildew. 
( Loudon'' s Encyc. of Agricult.) 

Mr. Haggerston, who obtained a premium 
from the Massachusett's Horticultural Society 
for the discovery of a mode of destroying the 
rose-slug, says — that a weak solution of vhale- 
oil soap, in the proportion of two pounds of soap 
to about fifteen gallons of water, or weaker, 
will check and entirely destroy the mildew on 
the gooseberry, peach, grape vine, &c. &c. 
For further particulars in regard to the appli- 
cation of this remedy see Aphis, Rust, and 
Smut. 

BLIND, MOON-. In farriery, a disease in 
the eyes of horses, which is commonly the 
forerunner of cataract, and generally ends in 
blindness. 

BLINDNESS. A deprivation or want of 
sight, originating from various causes ; a com- 
plaint more frequent in horses than in neat- 
cattle or sheep. 

Blindness in homes may be discerned by the 
walk or step being uncertain and unequal, so 
that they dare not set down their feet boldly ; 
but when they are mounted by an expert horse- 
man, the fear of the spurs will frequently make 
them go resolutely and freely, so that their 
blindness can hardly be perceived. Another 
mark by which horses that have lost their 
sight may be known, is, that when they hear 
anybody enter the stable, they prick up their 
ears, and move them backwards and forwards 
in a particular manner. 

Blindness in sheep. A complaint that some- 
times occurs in these animals, from their being 
much exposed to either great dampness or long 
continued snows. 

BLIND NETTLE. A provincial term for 
the wild hemp plant. 

BLINDWORM. A term sometimes applied 
to the slow-worm (Anguis fragilis). See Slow 

WORM. 

BLINKERS. Expansions of the sides of 
the bridle of a horse, intended to prevent him 
from seeing objects on either side, but at the 
same time not to obstruct his vision in front. 

BLISTERING (Butch, bluyster). In farriery, 
the operation of stimulating the surface of 
some part of the body of an animal, by means 
of acrid applications, so as to raise small ve- 
sications upon it. It is frequently employed 
for the purpose of removing local aflections 
of different kinds, such as hard indolent tu- 
mours. 

BLISTER FLY. The Cantharis, or Spa- 
nish fly. 

BLISTER LIQUID is composed of pow- 



BLOODWORT. 

dered alkanet two ounces, and a gallon of spi- 
rit of turpentine ; adding, on the fourth day, a 
pound of powdered Spanish flies ; and mace- 
rating the whole for a month, when the clear 
fluid will form a strong liquid blister. If so 
powerful an external stimulant be not required, 
this liquid may be diluted with an eqial part 
of spermaceti oil. (Cl'/fer's Farriery.) 

BLISTER OINTMENT. One ounce of 
powdered Spanish flies; half an ounce of 
powdered euphorbium; four ounces of lard. 
One ounce of this well rubbed in is sutRcient 
to blister a horse's leg. That commonly sold 
by farriers generally contains oil of vitriol 
(sulphuric acid), to make it raise the blister 
without the trouble of rubbing in the ointment; 
and, in consequence, a blemish is produced. 

BLOOD (Sax.blod; old French, i/o^Y^). The 
fluid which circulates in the bodies of all ani- 
mals. Blood, when drawn from the body, and 
allowed to rest, speedily separates into two 
portions, viz. the fluid, or serum, and the solid 
clot, crassameutum, or cruor. 

In quadrupeds, in general, the temperature 
of the blood is higher than in man. In the 
sheep, it ranges from 102° to 103°; in man 
it is 98° in a state of health. The equal 
distribution of the blood in the animal system 
is as essential to the health of quadrupeds as 
of man. When it is irregularly circulated, 
and more sent to any organ than it should 
share, that part becomes oppressed, diseased 
action is set up in it ; and if the organ be a 
vital one, life is endangered or destroyed 
through the violence of inflammation. 

Blood is an excellent manure for fruit trees; 
and, mixed with earth, forms a very rich com- 
post. {Ann. of Phil. vol. ii. p. 202.) 

BLOOD-ROOT. See Bloodwort. 

BLOOD-SHOT. In farriery, a popular term 
for that red appearance which the eye exhibits 
when inflamed. The best treatment is to bathe 
the eye with a lotion composed of one drachm 
of white vitriol (sulphate of zinc) dissolved in 
half a pint of water. 

BLOOD-SPAVIN or BOG-SPAVIN. In 
farriery, a swelling of the vein that runs along 
the inside of the hock of the horse, forming a 
little soft tumour in the hollow part, often at- 
tended with weakness or lameness of the hock. 
Clater {Farriery, p. 272) says, a blister is the 
proper application. 

BLOODWORT {Sanguinaria canadensis). 
A hardy American perennial, flowering in 
April. It loves a shady situation and bog soil; 
and may be propagated by parting the roots in 
spring or autumn. The root of bloodwort 
thVows out a bright red juice, when pressed, 
which the Indians paint themselves with. It 
operates as an emetic and narcotic. 

BLOODWORT {Runiex sanguineus). This 
is a beautiful dock, growing wild in many 
parts of England, but introduced lately into 
gardens, for its fine deep-red appearance. It 
grows from two to three feet high, and the 
stalks are firm, stiflF, reddish, and branched. 
The leaves are long and narrow, heart-shaped 
at the base, and taper gradually towards their 
point. Sometimes the leaves are a deep green, 
only stained, or veined with red ; sometimes 
they are entirely a deep blood colour, which 

189 



BLOOM. 



BLUE-BIRD. 



The large flesh-fly (Musca 



gives them a beautiful appearance. The 
flowers are in terminal clusters, small and 
numerous. They blow in June and July, and 
the seed ripens in August. The dried root, 
either in powder or in decoction, is astringent; 
and may be used in spitting of blood, and vio- 
lent purgings. 

BLOOM or BLOSSOM. A general name 
for the flowers of plants, but more especially 
of fruit-trees. The office of the blossom is 
partly to aff"ord protection, and partly to draw 
or supply nourishment to the fertilizing organs 
of the plant, for the perfecting of the embr3ro, 
fruit, or seed. 

Bloom is a term applied to the delicate 
powder which coats the outer surface of such 
smooth-skinned fruits as the grape and plum. 
In gathering such fruits, care should always 
be observed to prevent this bloom from being 
removed by handling or otherwise, as it injures 
the appearance. 

BLOSSOM. A colour in horses, formed by 
the intermixture of white hairs with sorrel and 
bay ones. 

BLOW-BALL. A local name for the flower 
of the dandelion 

BLOW-FLY. 
cam aria). 

BLOW-MILK. The milk from which the 
cream has been blown off". 

BLOWN. In farriery, a diseased state of 
the stomach and bowels of cattle, caused by 
the sudden extrication of air in large quantities 
from some of the grosser kinds of green food. 
See HovEN. 

BLOWS. A provincial term used to signify 
the blossoms of beans, &c. 

BLUBBER. See Fish. 

BLUE-BELLS (Scilla nutans). A common 
name given to a bulbous-rooted plant of the 
hyacinth kind, frequently met with in woods 
and other places. Its bulb is globular, white, 
and coated; its leaves linear, channelled, 
shining, and drooping in their upper half; the 
flowers form a cluster on an upright stalk, 
drooping in the upper half; they are blue, 
pendulous, nearly an inch long, and scented. 
The bulb is acrid, but loses its acrimony in 
drying, in which state it answers as a substi- 
tute for gum-arabic in the art of dyeing, by 
being simply dried and powdered. 

BLUE-BIRD. Mr. Kuttall describes three 
species of the blue-bird (Sialia), found in 
America. That which is most familiarly 
known in the United States (the Si/lvia sin/is 
of Wilson), is an insectivorous bird, inhabiting 
almost every section of the continent east of 
the Rocky Mountains, from the forty-eighth de- 
gree of latitude to the tropics. Although they 
generally spend their winters in the Southern 
States, they sometimes remain in well-protected 
warm situations in the southern parts of Penn- 
sylvania. They breed and pass the summer 
from Labrador to Natchez. " In the Middle 
and Northern States," says Mr. Nuttall, " the 
return of the blue-bird to his old haunts round 
the barn and the orchard is hailed as the first 
agreeable presage of returning spring, and he 
Li no less a messenger of grateful tidings to 
the farmer, than an agreeable, familiar, and 
useful companion to all. Though sometimes 
190 



he makes a still earlier flitting visit, from the 
3d to the middle of March, he comes hither as 
a permanent resident, and is now accompanied 
by his mate, who immediately visits the box in 
the garden, or the hollow in the decayed 
orchard-tree, which has served as the cradle 
of preceding generations of his kindred. Af- 
fection and jealousy, as in the contending and 
related thrushes, have considerable influence 
over the blue-bird. He seeks perpetually the 
company of his mate, caresses and soothes her 
with his amorous song, to which she faintly 
replies ; and, like the faithful rook, seeks oc- 
casion to show his gallantry by feeding her 
with some favourite insect. If a rival makes 
his appearance, the attack is instantaneous, 
the intruder is driven with angry chattering 
from the precincts he has chosen, and he now 
returns to warble out his notes of triumph by 
the side of his cherished consort. The busi- 
ness of preparing and cleaning out the old nest 
or box now commences ; and even in October, 
before they bid farewell to their favourite 
mansion, on fine days, influenced by the anti- 
cipation of the season, they are often observed 
to go in and out of the box as if examining 
and planning out their future domicile. Little 
pains, however, are requisite for the protection 
of the hardy young ; and a substantial lining 
of hay, and now and then a few feathers, is all 
that is prepared for the brood beyond the 
natural shelter of the chosen situation. As the 
martin and house-wren seek out the favour 
and convenience of the box, contests are not 
unfrequent with the parties for exclusive pos- 
session ; and the latter, in various clandestine 
ways, exhibits his envy and hostility to the 
favoured blue-bird. The eggs are five or six, 
of a very pale blue, and without spots. As 
they are very prolific, and constantly paired, 
they often raise two and sometimes probably 
three broods in the season ; the male taking 
the youngest under his affectionate charge, 
while the female is engaged in the act of incu- 
bation. 

" Their principal food consists of insects, 
particularly beetles, and other shelly kinds ; 
they are also fond of spiders and grasshoppers, 
for which they often, in company with their 
)'oung, in autumn, descend to the earth, in open 
pasture-fields or waste grounds. Like our 
thrushes, they, early in spring, also collect the 
common wire-worm, or lulus, for food, as well 
as other kinds of insects, which the)^ commonly 
watch for, while perched on the fences or low 
boughs of trees, and dart after them to the 
ground as soon as perceived. They are not, 
however, flycatchers, like the Sylvicolas and 
Muscicapas^,hi\l?ii'e rather industrious searchers 
for subsistence, like the thrushes, whose habits 
they wholly resemble in their mode of feeding. 
In the autumn, they regale themselves on va- 
rious kinds of berries, as those of the sour- 
gum, wild-cherry, and others ; and later in the 
season, as winter approaches, they frequent 
the red cedars and several species of sumach 
for their berries, eat persimmons in the Middle 
States, and many other kinds of fruits, and 
even seeds, the latter of which never enter into 
the diet of the proper flycatchers. They have 
also, occasionally, in a state of confinement. 



BLUE-BOTTLE. 



BLUE GRASS. 



been reared and fed on soaked bread and ve- 1 
getable diet, on which the}' thrive as well as 
the robin." {NuttaWs Ornilholo^y.) 

The Western Blue-bird {Sialiu occidentalis 
of Townsend), is found along the Pacific coast 
west of the Rocky Mountains. It possesses 
many of the habits of the common kind, his 
sons: being, however, described as more varied, 
sweet, and tender than that of the common 
blue-bird of the Atlantic states. 

The Arctic Blue-bird (the Sialia artica of 
Audubon), is a beautiful species found in the 
highest latitudes of the North Western portions 
of the American continent. See Nuttull's Orni- 
thology of American Land Birds, Audubon, 
Wilson, &c. 

BLUE-BOTTLE (Centaurea). This is a 
large herbaceous genus, which contains seve- 
ral species known as weeds ; that, however, 
which is peculiar to corn-fields is the coi-n 
blue-bottle (Centaurea cyanus). It grows 
amongst corn, and its presence indicates care- 
less farming. It is an annual, ripening its 
seeds in autumn. It is also known by the 
names of knapweed, matfellon, centaury, corn- 
flower, and hurt-sickle. The expressed juice 
of its blue flower, when mixed with cold alum- 
water, may be used as a water colour for 
painting, being a permanent colour. See 
Centaury. 

This pretty wild flower has been introduced 
into our gardens for its elegance. The blue- 
bottle gi'ows a foot high ; the stalk is firm and 
white, and the leaves are narrow, and of a 
whitish-green. The root is hard and fibrous. 
A decoction of the flowers with galls and cop- 
peras aflxirds a good writing ink. This plant 
is sometimes known among the common peo- 
ple by the name of " wound herb." Any reli- 
ance on the styptic properties of the leaves 
might prove dangerous by losing time, and a 
consequent waste of blood, before proper as- 
sistance can be procured in extensive wounds. 
Small wounds can unite without its aid. An 
infusion of the flowers is slightly diuretic. 

BLUE-GRASS, wire-grass {Poa comprensa, 
compressed or flattened poa. Plate 7, h). A 
very common perennial grass in the United 
States, found in fields, pastures, &c. It aff"ords 
a good nutritious pasture for cattle, but is not 
so much esteemed as the green meadow-grass, 
{Poa pratensis). Its great tenacity of life 
makes it sometimes very troublesome in the 
tillage of certain crops. (F/or. Caestrica.) 

The famous Kentucky blue-grass, Dr. Dar- 
lington says, is the Poa pratensis, smooth- 
stalked meadow-grass; green grass; (Plate 
•'), h) decidedly the most valuable of all the 
American pasture grasses. It comes in spon- 
taneously, in all rich, calcareous soils. 

The best time for sowing, says a writer in 
the Western Farmer and Gardener, is as soon 
as you can get ready after October; or any 
time before the middle of March. 

Old fields, on which the sun can exert full 
power, produce blue grass in the greatest 
abundance, and of the best quality. Animals 
feeding thereon without grain, keep better and 
become fatter than on any other treatment; 
but even wood-lands will produce good grass. 

If intended for old or permanent pasture, the 



fields should be broken up in February or 
March, and sown in oats. Then sow ten pound 
of blue-grass seed, half a gallon of red clover- 
seed, and if a little timothy or orchard-grass 
be sprinkled on, so much the better. The 
timothy or orchard-grass will give a quick 
pasture, and afford protection to the blue-grass 
until it gets a strong foot-hold, after which no 
other grass can contend with it. The rains 
will cover the seed sufliciently to insure vege- 
tation. 

The following account of the blue grass is 
from the Franklin Farmer. 

" This grass, which constitutes the glory of 
Kentucky pastures, is esteemed superior to all 
others for grazing. It flourishes only on cal- 
careous soils. Opinions and practice vary 
here, as to the best time of sowing it — some 
preferring September, for the same reasons, 
chiefly, which relate to timothy or other 
grasses, others preferring February or March, 
to obviate the danger of the tender roots being 
winter-killed. It is sown either on wood-land 
or open ground — in the latter case most gene- 
rally after a succession of exhausting crops in 
old fields. If sown on woodland, the leaves, 
brush, and trash must be raked off or burnt. It 
is particularly important to burn the leaves, 
else the seed may be blown away with them 
by the wind, or if not blown away, the leaves 
may prevent the seed reaching the earth and 
thus defeat their germination. Many of those 
who sow in winter, prefer casting the seed on 
the snoM% as it enables them to elfect the ope- 
ration with more neatness and uniformity. In 
woodlands, the grass must not be grazed the 
first year, or at all events till after the seeds 
have matured. In open land, the practice has 
been adopted by some, of mixing timothy and 
clover with blue grass, in which case, half a 
bushel of the latter seed to the acre is suffi 
cient. The advantage resulting from this is, 
that it secures at once, a well-covered pasture 
that will bear considerable grazing the first 
year. The blue grass, in a few years, expels 
the other grasses, and takes entire possession 
of the field. On open ground, it is frequently 
sown in March upon wheat, rye, or oats. If the 
season is favourable, it may be sown in April ; 
but should the weather prove dry, a great por- 
tion of the seed will be lost. It is the practice, 
we believe, of most graziers, to put upon a 
given pasture as much stock as it will main- 
tain, without shifting them during the season, 
as, besides saving labour, it renders the cattle 
more quiet and contented. Others, however, 
fence off" their pastures into separate divisions,- 
to undergo a regular succession of periodical 
grazings. This plan secures a constant sup- 
ply of fresh grass, very grateful to the animals, 
and is believed to be more economical, as 
much less is trampled and rejected by the 
cattle. The number of animals to the acre 
must depend upon their size and the quality 
and quantity of grass. The grass on open 
ground is much more abundant, sweet and 
nutritious, than on woodland, and consequently 
will maintain much more stock, perhaps nearly 
twice as much ; while open woodland will 
produce much more and better grass than that 
which is deeply shaded. The best grazier'* 

191 



BLUE MILK. 



BONES. 



extirpate, as fast as possible, every tree not 
valuable for timber or wanted for fuel, and 
some even prune the branches of those which 
are allowed to remain." {^Farmer s HtaUier.') 

BLUE MILK. Milk that has been skim- 
med, or had the cream taken otf. In large 
dairies it is chiefly used for feeding hogs. 

BLUE STONE. The common name for 
blue vitriol, or sulphate of copper. 

BOAR (Sax. bap ; Dutch, 6eer). The male 
of the swine-tribe of animals. See Hog and 
Swine. 

In horsemanship, a horse is said to boar when 
he shoots out his nose level with his ears, and 
tosses his nose in the wind. 

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. A society 
established in London in 1794, under the pa- 
tronage of his Majesty, Geo. III., " For the 
Encouragement of Agriculture, and Internal 
Improvement," consisting of a president, and 
thirty ordinary members, with proper officers 
for conducting the business of the institution. 
The plan and design of this highly useful 
establishment, though previously suggested by 
several writers on rural improvements, was 
chiefly brought forward, and carried into exe- 
cution by the unwearied efforts and persever- 
ing industry of Sir John Sinclair, to whom the 
nation is certainly under much obligation. It 
was discontinued about the year 1812, in con- 
sequence of the withdrawal by government of 
the annual parliamentary grant of 3000/. for its 
support, chiefly owing to the society's inter- 
ference with political themes, foreign to the 
improvement of agriculture. A full account 
of the nature, origin, and plan, with the charter 
of incorporation of this excellent institution, 
may be seen in the first volume of the " Com- 
munications" published by the Board, which 
extended to seven vols. ; and these contain 
some excellent papers on various important 
matters connected with husbandry and agri- 
culture in general. 

BOG, and BOG GRASSES. See Peat 
Sons. 

BOG-BEAN. See Buck-eean. 

BOG-RUSH, BLACK (Schcenus nigricans). 
Is found on turfy bogs. Root scarcely creep- 
ing, of very long, strong fibres, crewned with 
black, shining, erect, folded sheaths, a few of 
which bear very narrow, acute, upright leaves, 
and embrace the bottom of the otherwise naked 
stem, which is from eight to twelve inches 
high. Head black. Anth. long, yellow. Stigm. 
three, dark purple. Seed white and polished. 
(Smith's Engl. Flor. vol. i. p. 50.) 

Nuttall, in his Genera of North American 
Plants, mentions three species of the bog-rush 
or saw-grass. This remarkable grass, as he 
calls it, was discovered in the West Indies b)' 
Schwartz, and extends a considerable distance 
northward beyond Wilmington, North Caro- 
lina, often almost exclusively occupying con- 
siderable ponds. The leaves are almost as 
sharply serrated as those of a Bromelia, and 
hence it is very properly called saw-grass. The 
genuine species of this genus are principally 
confined to Europe and Barbary. 
BOG-SPAVIN. See BLoon-SpAviif. 
BOIL (Sax. bile). In farriery, an inflam- 
matory suppurating tumour aflfecting cattle or 
192 



sheep. In order to cure this sort of tumour, 
it will be necessary to bring it to a head by the 
application of plasters composed of wheat- 
flour and tar ; and when tlie boil feels soft 
under the finger, to open it with a lancet, and 
let out the matter or pus. 

BOLE. A term signifying the body or trunk 
of a tree, and sometimes the stalk or stem of 
corn. This word is written and pronounced 
in the north of England hull, and "boilings" is 
the name for pollards, trees whose tops and 
branches are lopped off". 

BOLE, or BOLL (Lat. bnllu). In Scotland, 
a common measure of grain, containing four 
bushels. In the old measure of Scotland, for 
oats and barley. 



4 lippies 


= 


1 peck. 


4 pecks 


r= 


1 firlnt. 


4 firlots 


=: 


1 boll. 


16 bolls 


=; 


1 chald 



The boll of oatmeal weighs 140 lbs. For 
wheat, peas, and rye, three oat firlots make 
one boll. (Brit. Hush. vol. ii. p. 500.) 

BOLE OF SALT. A measure that contains 
two bushels. 

BOLETUS. A genus of mushroom, of which 
several species have been subjected to che- 
mical analysis, by the French chemists Bra- 
connot and La Grange. They yield bolitic 
acid. 

BOLSTERS. In horsemanship, those parts 
of a great saddle which are raised on the bows 
both before and behind, to rest the rider's thighs, 
and keep him in a posture to withstand the 
irregular motions of the horse. 

BOLT and BOLTING. Terms provincially 
applied to the trussing of straw. 

BOLTER. A sort of framed sieve, having 
its bottom made of linen stulf, hair, or wire, 
according to circumstances. The bakers em- 
ploy bolters that may be worked b}^ the hand, 
but millers have larger ones that move by the 
machinery of the mill. It is sometimes called 
boulter. 

BOLTING, or BOULTING. The operation 
of separating flour or meal of any kind from 
the husks or bran, by means of a bolter. 

BOLTING CLOTH. Linen or hair-cloth 
made for the purpose of sifting meal or flour 
through. They are made of different degrees 
of fineness, and numbered accordingly; hence 
we have cloths of No. 2, No. 3, &c. 

BOLTING FOOD. This is a very common 
vice in greedy horses, especially when they 
feed out of the same manger. The only re- 
medy is not to let them fast too long, and to 
mix chaff" in their corn. The teeth of such 
horses ought to be examined, to see whether 
the bolting of the corn arises from any uneven- 
ness of the grinders. 

BOLTING MILL. A mill or machine hav- 
ing much lateral or circular motion, by which 
means the business of sifting meal or flour 
can be performed with great facility and ex- 
pedition. The framed sieve that moves within 
it is termed a bolter. 

BOLUS. See Bali. 

BONASUS. A kind of bufl'alo, or wild bull. 

BONES (Sax. ban; Su. Goth. 6een ,• Germ. 
bein). The more solid parts of the body of ani- 
mals. When crushed, a valuable manure. 



BONES. 



BONES. 



The introduction of bones as a fertilizer is 
perhaps one of the most important and suc- 
cessful agricultural efforts of modern days, 
and has been certainly one great means of 
sufficiently increasing the national production 
of corn to keep pace with an annually enlarg- 
ing population. It required, however, like all 
other agricultural improvements, much perse- 
verance and unshaken energy in the promoters 
of this manure, to induce its general adoption; 
many a long and stubborn argument had to 
be answered; many hundred loads of the bone 
refuse of Sheffield and Birmingham had to be 
given away, before the cautious and suspi- 
cious Yorkshire farmers could be generally 
persuaded of the fallacy of the assertion, that 
" there is no good in bones." To this tardy 
conviction the erroneous mode of employing 
them originally adopted mainly contributed, for 
they were at first used without even roughly 
breaking them, and, in consequence, they de- 
composed so very slowly in the soil that the 
farmer's patience was naturally exhausted : he 
sought in vain for immediate and striking re- 
sults.* 

The introduction of machinery, however, by 
enabling the cultivator to procure them in a 
crushed state, did away with this objection, 
for when crushed, they decompose with much 
greater rapidity; and this has long since in- 
duced a consumption of this manure more 
than adequate to the national produce of 
bones. It has been necessary, in consequence, 
to search in other countries for a supply; and 
for the last fifteen years the quantity of bones 
imported from abroad has been steadily in- 
creasing. Thus the declared value of all the 
bones imported into England — 

£ s. d. 

In the year 1821 was - - 15,898 12 11 

— 1824 — - - 43,y'10 17 II 

— 1827 — - - 77,956 6 8 

— 1830 — - - 58,223 16 8 

— 1833 — - - 97,900 C 4 

— 1835 — - - 127,131 14 10 

— 1836 — - - 171,806 

— 1837 — - - 254,600 

Into the port of Hull alone, in 1815, were im- 
ported about 8000 tons; this had increased to 
17,500 tons in 1833, and to 25,700 tons in 
1835. These came principally from the Ne- 
therlands, Denmark, and the Baltic, but they 
have been imported from much more distant 
places, such as Buenos Ayres and the Medi- 
terranean ; and I am confident that if the seal 
fishermen of North America and other distant 
stations were aware of the fact that the bones 
of fish are nearly, if not quite, as valuable for 
the farmer as those of other animals, they 
would not suffer any falling off in the supply. 
By the 3 & 4 W. 4, c. 56, a duty of one pound 
per cent, on the declared value is payable on 
all bones imported for farming or other pur- 
poses. 

The following table, extracted from one by 
Richard Tottie, Esq., of Hull, will show to the 

♦ It is said, in the Doncaster Agricultural Society'a 
Report upon the use of bones, "Colonel St. Leger, llieii 
residing al Warmsworth, was the first person who is 
known to have used them, and his introduction of iheni 
was in 1775; the early progress does not seem to have 
been rapid, from the practice of laying them on almost 
unbroken, and in very large quantities." 
25 



farmer from whence the great supply cf fo- 
reign bones is derived. This table contains 
the imports during 1827, in which year the 
following number of vessels entered the port 
of Hull loaded with bones : — 







Vesse 


s. 


Tods of Boon 


From Russia - - - 


- 


6 


carrying 


822 


— Prussia 


- 


9 


— 




1174 


— Sweden and Norway 


- 


6 


— 




362 


— Denmark 


- 


57 


— 




3778 


— Hanseatic towns - 


. 


61 


— 




3760 


— Netherlands 


. 


76 


— 




6110 


— Mecklenberg"i 












— Hanover > 


- 


33 


— 




1702 


— Oldenberg J 













348 17,718 

The import of bones into Hull has since been 
regularly increasing: it was, according to a 
letter with which Mr. Tottie favoured me, equal 
to 23,900 tons in 1834, and to 25,700 in 1835. 
It would certainly be well to look to other 
quarters besides the Continent for a future 
supply, since in some of the German states a 
duty on their export has been recently im- 
posed. So considerable, indeed, has the de- 
mand become, that by many unprincipled deal- 
ers several kinds of adulterations are used^ 
These, according to Mr. Halkett (Quar. Journ. 
of Agric. vol. ii. p. 181), are the lime that has 
been used in tan-works to take off the wool 
and hair, old plaster lime, soap boilers' waste, 
saw-dust, rotten wood, oyster-shells, &c. The 
best remedy for these frauds is for the farmer 
to deal with only respectable crushers, and to 
pay a fair price for the bones. 

There is, perhaps, no manure of whose 
powers the chemical explanation is more easy ; 
for of the earthy and purely animal matters of 
which bones are composed, there is not a sin- 
gle particle which is not a direct constituent 
or food of vegetables ; thus, if carbon, hydro- 
gen, and oxygen, are found in the abounding 
oil and cartilage of bones, they are equally, 
common, nay, ever present, in all vegetable 
matters ; and if carbonate and phosphate of 
lime are almost equally common in plants, 
they are still more universally present in all 
bones. 

The bones of animals do not vary much ia 
composition ; they all contain phorphate and 
carbonate of lime, with a portion cf cartilage 
or animal matter, with other minor ingredients^ 
The bone of the ox has been analyzed by M. 
Berzelius : he found that, by calcining these 
bones, every 100 lbs. lost 38 lbs. in weight; 
100 parts of these bones, before calcination,, 
consisted of — 

Paris. 

- 33-3 

- 55-35. 

- 3. 

- 3-85. 

- 205 

- 2-45 



Cartilage 

Phosphate of lime - - - 
Fluale of lime (Derbyshire spar) 
Carbonate of lime (chalk) 
Phosphate of magnesia - 
Soda, with a little common salt 



100- 



Bones, however, vary slightly in composi- 
tion, according to the age and condition of 
the animal, for MM. Fourcroy and Vauquelin 
found some ox bones which they analy^f^i, to 
be composed of — 



BONES. 



BONES. 



P»rb. 
Gelatine and oil - . - - . 51 

Phosphate of lime . . . - - 37'7 
Carbonate of lime ----- 10 
Phosphate of magnesia - - - - 13 

100- 

The enamel of teeth is the only portion of 
bones hitherto analyzed, -which is entirely des- 
titute of cartilage. It is true that fossil bones 
contain none ; but these have probably, in a 
former state of the earth, been acted upon by 
fire; for Mr. Hatchett found in some bones 
from Hythe in Kent, taken out of a Saxon 
tomb, the same proportion of cartilage as in a 
recent bone. Teeth have been analyzed by 
Mr. Pepys : he found them to be composed of 

Adults'. Childreirs. 

Phosphate of lime - - - 64 62 

Carbonate of lime . - - 6 6 

Cartilage 20 20 

Loss - - . - 



10 
100 



12 
100 



M. Merat Guillot has furnished us with a 
statement of the earthy constituents of 100 
parts of the bones of different animals ; from 
which the farmer will perceive that the com- 
position of the bones of all animals is very 
similar. 



Bo.e. 


Phosphate of 


Carbonate of 


Animal 


Lime. 


Lime. 


>latler. 


Calf 


54 


_ 


46 


Horse 


67-5 


1-25 


31-25 


Shee.i - 


70 


5 


25 


Elk 


90 




9 


Hog 


52 




47 


Hare 


85 




14 


Pullet 


72 


1-5 


26-5 


Pike 


64 




35 


Carp 


45 


5 


50 


Teeth of the 








Horse - 


85-5 


205 


— 


Ivory 


64 


1 


■35 



Lobster shells, egg shells, &c., are all com- 
posed of the same ingredients as bone. The 
poor of Dublin are often employed for the pur- 
pose of pounding oyster shells for the use of 
the cultivators of the soil; and a similar plan 
might, I should imagine, be verj' advanta- 
geously adopted in some of the populous dis- 
tricts of this country : for, although such shells 
do not contain the same proportion of phos- 
phate of lime as bone, yet they contain a suffi- 
cient quantity to render them highly valuable 
as fertilizing substances. 100 parts of lobster 
shells yield — 

Paris. 

- 60 

- 14 

- 2(3 



Carbonate of lime (chalk) - 
Phosphate of lime 
Cartilage - - - - 



100 



too parts of cray-fish shells contain — 

"^ Parts. 

Carbonate of lime ----- 60 
Phosphate of lime ----- 12 
Cartilage 28 

100 
ICO parts of hens' egg-shells contain — 

Parts. 

Carbonate of lime ----- 896 
Phosphate of lime ... - - 57 
Animal matter ...... 4-7 

100- 

194 



There is yet another source from whence the 
phosphate of lime might be obtained in large 
quantities for the use of the farmer, viz., the 
fossil bones or native phosphate of lime, which 
is found in various districts of this country, in 
very considerable quantities, and would only 
require crushing or powdering to render it 
nearly as useful to the farmer as the recent 
bones. That the cartilage or oily matter of the 
bone does not constitute the chief fertilizing 
quality is shown by the fact, that the farmers 
who use bone dust will as readily employ that 
which has first been steamed, and all its fatty 
portion extracted by the preparers of cart 
grease, as they will the unused fresh bones. 
It is acknoAvledged, says the Doncaster Agr, 
Sue. in their Report, to be a prevalent opinion 
amongst intelligent farmers, that manufactured 
bones are equal, in their effects, to the raw 
bones. Mr. Short, in the year 1812, "boned 
twenty-four acres, at the rate of fifty bushels 
an acre. On one part of the field he put Lon- 
don bones, which had the oil stewed out of 
them ; and another part was tilled with bone.5 
collected from Nottingham, which were full of 
marrow, and a third part with horses bones, 
having much flesh upon them. He could not 
see any difference in the turnips )>ioduced 
from these : they all produced a good crop. 
But the next crop was not so good where the 
fleshy bones had been laid." And Mr. Horn- 
castle adds, " A strong fermentation takes place 
in the boiled bones ; when thrown in a heap 
they become extremely offensive, and whcti 
they obtain this bad smell, I consider they are 
in a state to break up for manure." — And, says 
Mr. Halkett, of New Scone, in Perthshire, 
"After numerous trials between what we call 
green bones with all the marrow and fat in 
them, and dry ones free from it, I have always 
found that the latter raised by far the best 
crops. Therefore, I have arrived at the con- 
clusion that the less animal fat in them the 
better, and that the boiling of them before 
crushing, instead of impairing them is a bene- 
fit." (Quar. Jiiurn. (if Agric. vol. ii. p. 180.) 

The mineral substance called the Apatite, 
found in the Cornish tin mines, is nothing but 
phosphate of lime; 100 parts being composed 
of— 



Phosphoric acid 
Lime 



Parts. 

- 45 

- 55 



100 



The phosphate of lime is also found in ma- 
ny parts of the north of England, in Hungary, 
and, in immense beds, in Spanish Estrema- 
dura, where it is said to be so common in many 
places, that the peasants make their walls and 
fences of it. 100 parts of this substance, 
called by mineralogists the phosphorite, con- 
tain — 

Partf 

Phosphoric acid and lime - - - - 93 

Carbonate acid ------ 1 

Muriatic acid ------ 0-5 

Fluoric acid ...... 25 

Silica -.....-2 

Oxide of iron -..-.- 1 

IOC 



BONES. 

The horns of the deer are similar in compo- 
sition to bones ; but those of black cattle are 
totally diiferent ; they approach nearer in com- 
position 10 animal muscle, as may be seen by 
the following analysis of Dr. John; 100 parts 
of the horns of black cattle yielding this 
chemist — 

Parts. 
- 90 



Albumen 
Ditto with Gelatine 
Fat . . . . 
Various salts, &c., &c. 



100 



100 parts, however, of a fossil horn, ana- 
lyzed by M. Braconnot, yielded — 

Parts. 
Phosphate of lime .... - 692 

Water U 

Gelatine 46 

Carbonate of lime ----- 4 5 
Bitumen ------- 4'4 

Silica -4 

Phosphate of magnesia - - - - 1 

Alumina ------- 0-7 

Oxide of iron ------ 0-5 

.100- 

The excrements of those birds and animals 
which feed upon animal matters approach very 
nearly to bone in chemical composition ; and 
I have little doubt but that the dung of sea 
birds might be profitably collected from some 
of the rocky islands on our coasts. This is 
actually done among the South Sea Islands by 
the Peruvian farmers, and to such an extent, 
that, according to M. Humboldt, fifty vessels, 
each carrying from fifteen hundred to two 
thousand cubic feet, are annually loaded with 
this manure at the island of Chinche alcme. 
This manure is known in South America under 
the name of Guano, and is too powerful to be 
used in large quantities. It abounds in phos- 
phate of lime. (A quantity has recently been 
imported into England : it contains 36 per cent, 
of phosphate of lime.) Some of the dung of 
sea-fowl collected on a rock on the coast of 
Merionethshire, was tried at the request of Sir 
Humphry Davy, at Nannau, by Sir Robert 
Vaughan, and produced a very powerful, 
though transient effect, on some grass land. 
The very soil of some of the rocks, which 
have been for so many ages tenanted by these 
water-fowls, must be completely impregnated 
with the earthy matters of bones. See Guaxo. 

All the constituent parts of bones are found 
in vegetable substances. The cartilage of 
bones is composed, according to the examina- 
tions of Mr. Hatchett, of a substance nearly 
identical in all its properties with solid albu- 
men. Now, 100 parts of albumen are com- 
posed of — 

Carbon ------- 52888 

Oxygen - - 23872 

Hydrogen .---.. 754 

Azote --..--. 15-705 

100 

" The primary sources from which the bones 
of animals are derived, are the hay, straw, or 
other substances which they take as food. 
Now if we admit that bones contain .55 per 
eent of the phosphates of lime and magnesia 



BONES. 

(Berzelius), and that hay contuins as much of 
them as wheat-straw, it will follow that 8 lbs. 
of bones contain as much phosphate of lime 
as 1000 lbs. of hay or wheat-straw, and 3 lbs. 
of it as much as 1000 lbs. of the grain of wheat 
or oats. These numbers express pretty exactly 
the quantity of phosphates which a soil yields 
annually on the growth of hay and corn. Now 
the manure of an acre of land with 40 lbs. of 
bone dust is sutficient to supply three crops of 
wheat, clover, potatoes, turnips, &c., with 
phosphates. But the form in which they are 
restored to a soil does not appear to be a mat- 
ter of indifference. For the more finely the 
bones are reduced to powder, and the more in- 
timately they are mixed with the soil, the more 
easily are they assimilated." (Liebig^s Organ. 
Chem.) 

It is perfectly needless to specify any vege- 
table substances into which the three first of 
these substances enter, for the vegetable wor'd 
is almost entirely composed of them, and < c- 
casionally a portion of azote is also found in 
vegetable substances, but the three first are 
invariably present. The flour of wheat, the 
poison of the deadly night-shade, the oxalic 
acid of the wild sorrel, the narcotic milk of 
the lettuce, the stinking odour of the garlic, 
and the perfume of the violet, are, by the con- 
trivance of their divine architect, only some of 
the results of the mixture of carbon, osygen, 
anil hydrogen. 

But the chief constituent present ai all 
bones we have already seen is the phosphate 
of lime; and how absolutely necessary this 
substance is for the healthy vegetation of 
plants, will be apparent from the following ta- 
ble, which contains the results of the exami- 
nation by MM. Saussure, Vauquelin, and a few 
other distinguished chemists, of the ashes or 
solid contents of a number of vegetable sub- 
stances : — 

Parts. 

I (10 parts of the ashes of the grain of the oat yielded 

of phosphate of lime - . . 39-3 
straw of wheat yielded of phosphates 
of lime !ind magnesia - - - 6'2 

— seeds of wheat ----- 445 

— bran ------- 465 

— seeds of vetches - - - - 27'99 

— golden rod (Solidago virgaurea) - 11* 

— plants of turnsole (Helianthus annns), 

bearing ripe seeds - - - - 225 

— chaff of barley ----- 7'75 

— seeds of barley ----- 325 

— seeds of oats - - - - - 24' 

— leaves of oak ----- 24' 

— wood of oak ----- 4'5 

— bark of oak - - - - - 4-5 

— leaves of poplar - - - - 13' 

— wood of poplar - - - - 16-"5 

— leaves of har.el ----- 23' 

— wood of hazel ----- 35- 

— bark of hazel ----- 55 

— wood of mulberry - - - . 2-25 

— bark of mulberry - - - - 8-5 

— wood of hornbeam - . • - 83* 

— bark of hornbeam - - - - 4'5 

— seeds of peas ----- 17-5 

— bulbs of garlic 8-9 

Phosphate of lime has also been found in 
the marsh bean {Vicia faba), and in the pea- 
pod or husk, by Einhof ; in rice, by Braconnot; 
in the Scotish fir, by Dr. John ; in the quin 
quina of St Domingo, by Fourcroy; in the 
fuci, by Gaultier de Claubry, and in many 
others; in short, as Dr. Thomson remarks 

195 



BONES. 

(^System of Chem. vol. iv. p. 319), "phosphate 
oflime is a constant ingredient in plants." 

The cultivator of the soil will not be incre- 
dulous as to the power of vegetables to dissolve 
and feed upon the hard substance of the 
crushed bones of animals, when he is remind- 
ed that the ashes of the straw of wheat are 
composed of 61^ percent, of silica (flint), a 
still harder substance than the hardest bone. 
And this is not a solitary instance ; for the 
same earth abounds in a still greater propor- 
tion in the straw of other grain. Vauquelin 
found 60| per cent, of it in the ashes of the 
seeds of the oat ; and the Dutch rush contains 
it in such abundance that it is employed by 
the turner to polish wood and even brass. 

To the mode and effect of applying bones 
as a manure, either whole, broken, or in a 
state of powder, the Doncaster Agricultural 
Association paid considerable attention, and 
they have made a very valuable report of the 
result of their inquiries, in which they say: — 
" The returns received by the Association sa- 
tisfactorily establish the great value of bones 
as a manure. Our correspondents, with only 
two exceptions, all concur in stating them to 
be a highly valuable manure, and on light dry 
soils superior to farm-yard dung and all other 
manures. In copying the language of one of 
them, in reference to dry sandy soils, we ex- 
press the opinions repeated in a far greater 
number — 'I consider bone tillage one of the 
most useful manures which has ever been dis- 
covered for the farmer's benefit. The light- 
ness of carriage, its suitableness for the drill, 
and its general fertilizing properties, render it 
peculiarly valuable in those parts where dis- 
tance from towns renders it impossible to pro- 
cure manures of a heavier and more bulky 
description.' For, as stated by another far- 
mer, the carting of six, eight, or ten loads of 
manure per acre is no trifling expense. The 
use of bones diminishes labour at a season of 
the year when time is of the first importance ; 
for one wagon load, or 120 bushels of small 
drill bone-dust is equal to forty or fifty loads 
of fold manure. Upon very thin sand land its 
value is not to be estimated; it not only is 
found to benefit the particular crop to which 
it is applied, but extends through the whole 
course of crops." The report adds, that bones 
have been found highly beneficial on the lime- 
stone soils near Doncaster, on peaty soils, and 
on light loams ; but that on the heavy soils and 
on clay they produce no benefit. The late Mr. 
George Sinclair, of New Cross, has given 
{Trans. High. Sue. vol. i. p. 78), the analysis of 
two soils on which bone manure produced 
very opposite results. 400 parts of the soil on 
which the bone manure had very beneficial 
t ffects consisted of — 

Par's 

Silicious sand ------ Ifi7 

Calcareous sand . . - - - 43 

Water of absorption ----- 99 

Animal and vegetable matter - - - 24 

Carbonate of lime ----- 25 

Silica (tlint) 23 

Alumina (clay) ------ t> 

Oxide of iron ------ 3 

Sjluble vegetable and animal matter - 5 

Moisture and loss - - - ... 2 



BONES, 

The soil on -h nich the bone manure had nc 
such beneficial effect, contained, in 400 parts. 

Parti. 
Calcareous sand and gravel (nearly pure 
carbonate of lime) ----- 217 

Animal and vegetable matters . - - 17 
Carbonate of lime ----- 39 

Silica --------85 

Alumina ------- 20 

Oxide of iron ------ 5 

Soluble matter with gypsum - - - 4 
Moisture or loss - - - - - 13 

400 



The mode of tipplying them, adds the Don- 
caster Report, is either by sowing broadcast or 
by the drill ; either by themselves, or, what is 
much better, previously mixed with earth and 
fermented. Bones which have been thus fer- 
mented are decidedly superior to those which 
have not been so. Mr. Turner, of Tring, 
adopted the practice of mixing with his bone- 
dust an equal quantity of the dung of the 
sheep, collected for the express purpose, at an 
expense of 2^rf. per bushel for labour. He 
prepared the mixture in winter, by laying the 
sheep-dung in heaps with the crushed bones, 
and allowing them to ferment together for 
some months. By this plan the two manures 
are thoroughly incorporated, and he considers 
that thirty-five bushels of the mixture are fully 
equal in effect to twenty-five bushels of the 
bones. (My Essai/ on Crushed Bones, p. 14.) 
The quantity applied per acre is about twenty- 
five bushels of bone-dust and forty bushels of 
large broken bones. The dust is best for im- 
mediate profit; the broken half-inch bones for 
more continued improvement. Mr. Birks says, 
" If I were to till for early profit, I would use 
bones powdered as small as saw-dust ; if I 
wished to keep my land in good heart, I would 
use principally half-inch bones, and in break- 
ing these I should prefer some remaining con- 
siderably larger." The reason for this is very 
obvious ; the larger the pieces of bone, the 
more gradually will a given bulk dissolve in 
the soil. 

Crushed bones are employed with decided 
success for turnips. The ease with which Ihey 
are applied by the diill, the ample nourishment 
they afford the young plants, on the very poor- 
est soils, and the avidity with which the roots 
of the turnip encircle and mat themselves 
around the fragments of ciaished bone, clearly 
evinces how grateful the manure is to this 
valual>le crop. The evidence in its favour is 
copious, and decisive of its merits. In a re- 
cent report of the East Lothian Agricultural 
Society, Mr. John Brodie, of Aimsfield Mains, 
has given the result of his experiments upon 
the compaialive cost of crushed bones and 
other commonly employed manure for tar- 
nips, which is worthy of attention : — 

£ s. 
1st exp. — 20 cart loads of street dung, per Scotch 

acre, at 5s. 6rf. per load - - - - - 5 10 
2ii exp. — half a ton of rape-dust, at 110s. 2 15 

three quarters crushed bones, at 19s. 2 17 



400 



196 



3d exp. — 16 loads of farm-yard dung at 7s. - - 5 12 
"The whole turnips," says Mr. Brodie, 
"brairded beautifully, and from the first to 
the time of lifting, it was impossible to decide 
which was the weightiest crop I therefor* 



BONES. 



BONES. 



determined, in the last week in November, to 
take up alternate rows of the whole, and weigh 
each separately after the roots and tops were 
taken off, and the result was found to be as 
follows : — 

CWL lbs, 

1st exp. — The portion examined of a Scotch 
acre, manured with the street dung, produced 
of lonimon globe lurni|) .... 301 92 

2d exp. — Thesaiiiequaiitity of ground manured 

with the rape and bone-dust, produced - 301 99 

3d exp.— I>illo with farm-yard dung - - 312 30 

"Mr. Watson, of Keilor," says the Hon. 
Capt. Ogilvy, of Airlie (Trans. High. Sac. vol. 
iv. p. 238)» "introduced the use of bone ma- 
nure in Strathmore, The great deficiency of 
farm-yard dung in 1827 (consequent on the 
almost failure of the crop of the previous 
year), first induced me to try four acres of tur- 
nip without other manure, sown with fifteen 
bushels of bone-dust per acre : it cost 3.^'. per 
Dushel, or 2/. .5.s-. per acre. The crop of turnips 
en these four acres was, at least, equal to the 
rest raised with farm-yard manure ; but as the 
whrle of the turnips were pulled, and the land 
received some dung before the succeeding 
crop, much stress cannot be laid on the cir- 
cumstance of the following white crop and 
grass being good. 

"Next year, 1828, eight acres were sown 
with turnip, solely with bone-dust; the soil a 
light sandy loam; the subsoil gravel and sand, 
coming in some places nearly to the surface, 
which is very irregular, but in general has a 
south exposure. This field had been broken 
up with a crop of oats in 1827, after having 
been depastured six years, principally by 
sheep. The quantity of bone-dust applied was 
twenty bushels per acre, and cost 2s. 6d. per 
bushel, or 2/. 10s. per acre. The turnip crop 
was so heavy, that, notwithstanding the very 
light nature of the soil, it was judged advis- 
able to pull one-third for the feeding cattle, 
two drills pulled, and four left to be eaten on 
the ground by sheep. The following year, 
1829, these eight acres were sown with barle}^ 
and grass-seeds ; and the produce was fifty- 
seven bolls one bushel, or seven bolls one 
bushel nearly per acre, of grain eqvial in qua- 
lity to the best in the Dundee market, both in 
weight and colour. Next year, a fair crop of 
hay for that description of land was cut, about 
150 stones an acre; and though I am now con- 
vinced that the field should rather have been 
depastured the first year, yet the pasture was 
better than it had ever been known before for 
the two following seasons, 1831 and 1832. It 
is worthy of remark, as a proof of the efiicacy 
of the bone manure, that in a small angle of this 
field, in which I had permitted a cottager to 
plant potatoes, well dunged, and which, after 
their removal, was included in one of the flak- 
ings of sheep, and had (one might have sup- 
posed) thereby had at least an equal advan- 
tage with the adjacent bone-dust turnip land, 
both the barley and grass crops were evidently 
inferior, and this continued to be observable 
until the field was again plouglied up. A very 
bulky crop of oats has been reaped this season, 
probably upwards of eight bolls per acre, but 
no part of it is yet thrashed. 

" Having detailed what may be considered a 



fair experiment, during the whole rotation of 
the above eight acres, I may add, that turnip 
raised with bone manure and fed off with 
sheep, has now become a regular part of the 
system on this farm. Fifteen, twenty, and last 
year twenty-five acres were fed off, and invari- 
ably with the same favourable results, with 
the prospect of being able to adopt a five-shift 
rotation, and to continue it without injury to 
the land. Every person in the least acquainted 
with the management of a farm, of which a 
considerable portion consists of light, dry, 
sandy loam, at a distance from town manure, 
must be aware of the importance of this, from 
knowing the expense at which such land was 
formerly kept in a fair state of cultivation : in- 
deed, the prices of corn, for some years past, 
would not warrant the necessary outlay ; and 
large tracts of land, capable of producing bar- 
ley little inferior to that of Norfolk, must 
speedily have been converted into sheep pas- 
ture, but for the introduction of bone manure." 

In the valuable experiments of Mr Robert 
Turner, of Tring, in Hertfordshire, tht soil on 
which they were made, hitherto a ci nmon, 
producing only furze, is sandy, with a substra- 
tum of clay, and then chalk. He began the 
use of bone manure in 1831 on this land, and 
has continued its employment for the last three 
years on a very bold scale, and with unvaried 
success. The quantity generally employed 
was from twenty-four to thirty bushels per 
acre, of the description of half-inch and dust, 
and the bones were invariably applied to the 
turnip crop. The bones were usually drilled 
with the seed at a distance of eighteen inches, 
and the turnips were always horse-hoed. The 
year 1831 was a peculiarly good season fur 
this crop generally. The turnips manured 
with bone-dust, like most others in the district, 
Avere very luxuriant. About 2000 bushels of 
bone manure were this j-ear used by Mr. Tur- 
ner. In 1832, the turnips were, in general, a 
very bad plant, the fly committing general de- 
vastation; many cultivators unsuccessfully 
sowing four or five times. On the turnip land 
of Mr. Turner, seventy-four acres were ma- 
nured with bones, and of this breadth only the 
last sown four acres were a failure, and there 
was, in no instance, any necessity to repeat 
the sowing. The turnips were a much better 
crop than in 1831. In 1833, the turnips in the 
neighbourhood of Tring were a very partial 
crop. On the farm of Mr. Turner, about fifty 
acres were manured with bones. The effect, 
with the exception of the very last sown tur- 
nips, was again most excellent, the crop being 
very heavy, and that too on land now first culti- 
vated. In 1835 and 1836, Mr. Tumer conti- 
nued the use of bones for his turnips, to the 
same extent, and with equal success. These 
experiments the cultivator Avill deem of ihe 
very first importance. The soil was not ma- 
nured with any other fertilizer except bones, 
and in drilling, every now and then, for the 
drill's breadth, the bones were omitted. 

On the soil not boned, the failure of the tur 
nips was general and complete : they vege 
tated, it is true, and came up, but they were 
wretchedly small, and of no use. The turnips 
being fed off, and the sheep folded on the soi' 
b2 197 



BONES. 



BONES. 



without any distinction between boned and un- 
boned land, the comparative experiments upon 
the succeeding crop were rendered uncertain. 
The experience of two more years, Mr. Turner 
informs me (1836-7), has confirmed all his 
former experiments : he continues the use of 
this valuable fertilizer, with the most satisfac- 
tory results ; his plot of turnips drilled with 
bones having been, in that dry season, most 
excellent. 

In no part of England is the use of bone 
dust more extensive, and more absolutely es- 
sential to the growth of turnips than in Lin- 
colnshire. A brief account of its introduction 
will be found in the following extract from a 
letter with which 1 was favoured in the spring 
of 1836, from Thomas Brailsford, Esq., of 
Barkwith. 

" The use of bones crushed small enough to 
pass the drill, began in Lincolnshire about 
twenty or twenty-five years ago, and may now 
be considered as general over the greatest part 
of the county, and universal over the great na- 
tural divisions — the heath, and (the corn brash 
and upper oolite) the cliff, and the wolds (ihe 
chalk and green sand-stone measures of 
geologists). The effect produced has been 
wonderful : it has converted large tracts of 
thin-skinned and weak lands into the most fer- 
tile districts. The quantity now drilled varies 
from twenty strikes of half-inch bone, loith the 
dust in it, per acre ; and it is used almost ex- 
clusively for turnips, experience having proved 
that it is more profitably adapted to the culti- 
vation of that crop than any other. It may be 
right to add, that, in this county, it is consi- 
dered that the feeding quality of turnips raised 
from bones exceeds that produced by dung. 
Last year," adds Mr. Brailsford, "I used sul- 
phur with my crushed bones, mixing 7 lbs. of 
the former with 100 lbs. of the latter: a few 
days before I drilled them with the turnip seed, 
a moderate fermentation took place, which 
rendered the sulphur active, and produced a 
pretty considerably smell of brimstone, and 
had the effect of mast effectually defending the 
young turnip plants from the fly." 

An opinion has been sometimes entertained, 
that the black grub or caterpillar, which has 
for the last two or three years been so de- 
structive of the turnip crop, has been intro- 
duced in the bones imported from abroad for 
manure ; and many equally idle and learned 
papers have appeared to warn the farmer of 
the dangers he was incurring by their use. A 
more absurd supposition, perhaps, was never 
entertained; for, saying nothing of the total 
absence of every thing like proof of a single 
black grub being discovered in an imported 
bone, all the accurate experiments, and long 
experience of those who have used bones, ren- 
der the supposition laughable. 

In the numerous experiments at which I 
have assisted and witnessed, it has been al- 
ways found that the black grub appeared 
equally numerous among the boned and un- 
boned turnips : that in those portions of the 
field, or in the entire field, where bones were 
Irilled with the turnips, the grubs were not 
(Tore numerous than on those lands which 
198 



were manured with common manure, or drilled 
without any manure at all. 

Again, the very habits of this black grub 
betray the fact that he is not of animal origin ; 
he lives, he feeds upon, he is composed of 
vegetable matter. The farmer well knows 
that the grub or caterpillar which is bred on a 
cabbage or turnip cannot sustain life, nay, 
cannot eat animal matters ; it would perish if 
placed on the most dainty bone. And on the 
contrary, if a grub bred in a bone is placed, 
however cautiously and skilfully, on a turnip 
or cabbage, he dies of absolute starvation, for 
vegetable matters are not food for him ; his 
habits, his very nature, make him revolt from 
the novel food presented to him. 

And again, if he really be imported from 
Belgium in the bones, he must be able to resist 
a very considerable temperature ; for it has 
been clearly established, that the turnip fields 
which have been manured with the refuse 
bailed bones of the size and cart-grease makers 
have been just as much covered with the black 
caterpillars as those which have been manured 
with fresh bones. He can live, therefore, even 
in boiling hot water: or, if he come in the 
shape of caterpillar eggs, then the believers in 
this absurd doctrine must be convinced that 
caterpillar eggs can be hatched even after they 
have been boiled for hours in a temperature 
of 212°. 

But grubs and black caterpillars are not the 
first living substances which have been sup- 
posed to have been imported in the foreign 
bones. Thus, the Nottingham and Lincoln- 
shire farmers, many years since, found that, 
by the use of bones, the growth of white clover 
was surprisingly encouraged ; and that, in fact, 
wherever a load of crushed bones was spread, 
in that place the clover sprung up as if by 
magic. " They appeared," says his Grace the 
Duke of Portland, in a letter with which he 
honoured me in February 1836, "so much to 
encourage the growth of white clover, that I 
had almost formed the opinion that it was su- 
perfluous to soM'- the seed." The honest farm- 
ers of that fine district naturally had many a 
puzzling learned cogitation upon this strange 
yet regular appearance of the white clover, 
wherever bones were applied ; but then, they 
recollected that the bones came from the very 
land of fine white clover seed ; and that the 
seed must, therefore, as a natural consequence, 
come hid in the bones. The Lancasterian and 
Cheshire farmers, however, did not fall into 
this mistake, since they found that the white 
clover sprung up just as copiously after the 
use of the boiled bones, as upon the lands ma- 
nured with those in a fresh or green state. 

The chemical explanation will occur to 
every scientific farmer. The white clover 
abounds in phosphate of lime ; it cannot, there- 
fore, grow vigorously in soils which do not 
contain it. Bones supply this necessary food, 
or constituent; and enable the white clover to 
contend successfully in the turf with other and 
coarser grasses, and finally extirpate them. 
There are few soils in England which do not 
contain the seeds of this plant; it has been 
noticed to spring up in the most unlikely situ- 



BONES. 



BONES. 



ations, even in London, after a fire ; and for 
precisely the same reason — the ashes of wood 
abound in phosphate of lime. Bones have 
been hitherto principally employed upon the 
turnip crop, but there is another, the potato 
plant, to which they seem admirably adapted ; 
and of this opinion was Mr. Knight, the late 
President of the Horticultural Society ; he ob- 
served to me in a communication dated March 
26, 1836, written with his usual anxious 
solicitude to assist on every occasion in 
any researches which tended to the improved 
cultivation of the earth,— "I have one large 
farm, upon which rises a sufficient quantity 
of spring water to work a thrashing machine 
and a bone mill, at all seasons ; and upon that 
I have erected a machine for crushing bones, 
which my tenant has used largely. The soil 
is generally strong and argillaceous, but upon 
this the bone manure operates well, and it is 
applied by a drill to the turnip ground. My 
tenant finds that it acts according to the quan- 
tity of oleaginous matter wOiich it contains ; 
and I cannot help thinking, that taking away 
that part must destroy to a very great extent 
the operation of the manure during at least 
one year ; particularly if the bones be crushed 
nearly to dust before boiling. I have tried 
other animal substances, such as hair, feathers, 
and the parings and dust of white leather, and 
none of these have operated till they have had 
some weeks to decompose. The white leather 
parings, being almost entirely composed of 
gelatine, I expect operate very soon, but I found 
that turnips drilled in over a very sufficient 
quantity of it did not begin to grow kindly till 
September; and I do not entertain a shadow 
of a doubt but that if bones, after being crushed, 
were mixed with four or five times their 
weight of earth, their operation, as a manure, 
immediately, would be greatly increased. It 
could not, however, then be conveniently 
drilled in with the seed, and that process, 
■whenever the soil is poor, is very important, 
because by being placed close to the seedling 
plant, that gets well nourished while young. 
I cannot doubt but the bone manure must con- 
tinue to operate as long as decomposition of 
the original substance continues, and under 
this impression I am willing to find capital to 
purchase it, upon the tenant's paying a fair 
amount of increased rent. Much would, of 
course, depend upon the bones being more or 
less crushed; but I cannot think that a good 
manuring of bone-dust can, under any circum- 
stances, be soon entirely expended. I have 
seen bone-dust applied in considerable quanti- 
ties in planting stone fruit trees, as peaches and 
plums, with good efiect, though such are al- 
ways greatly injured or destroyed by the appli- 
cation of stable-yard dung in the same way. 
My tenant applies his bone manure wholly to 
his turnips, and the stable-yard manure to the 
wheat field, in opposition certainly to my opi- 
nion ; as I think wheat crops yield best when 
the soil is firm, and turnip crops best when it 
is hollow, and he purposes to try the eff'ect of 
reversing the process. If the turnip plant is 
capable of deriving nourishment from frag- 
ments of bones, which have been boiled, after 
being crushed, their roots must, I conceive, 



have a power of decomposing the substanc*; 
of the bone ; which appears very improbable, 
though many plants appear to exercise such 
power on silicious earth. I ha.ve somewhere 
read an account of experiments, which appeared 
to prove that the silex found in the epidermis 
of the different species of Equisetum, grapes, 
&c., is really dissolved and taken up from the 
soil, and subsequently deposited in an organic 
form ; but as the plants which were subjected 
to experiment might, owing to having been 
feeble and sickly, not have deposited any, or 
the usual portion of silex, I am not satisfied 
that the remaining half of flint, after its oxy- 
gen has been driven off, is a simple substance. 
The number of simple elements (admitting the 
existence of matter) I suspect to be very 
small ; such was the opinion of my late la- 
mented friend. Sir H. Davy. I think it proba- 
ble that quicklime, if applied to bones contain- 
ing much oily matter, would operate power- 
fully by reducing such oil to the state of soap, 
readily soluble in water; but a part of the 
ammonia might by this process be dissipated 
and lost. Valuable as bone-dust certainly is 
as a manure to the turnips, I doubt whether it 
may not be employed with more advantage as 
a manure for the potato ; and my tenant is in- 
clined to think that the potato crop, though 
wholly consumed upon the farm, will best re- 
pay him. The bone manure, when employed 
to nourish the potato plant, might be buried 
in the soil two months before it would be ma- 
terially wanted; and the crops of barley and 
oats, upon all except light soils, are much bet- 
ter after potatoes than after turnips, both being 
carted off the ground. Early varieties which 
do not blossom are the most valuable, as they 
aflbrd the most certain crops, and will be 
quite ready to be taken up in August, after 
which the ground may be well prepared for 
wheat. Of such potatoes I have obtained a 
produce equivalent to 963^ bushels of 80 lbs., 
and 1248^ bushels of 60 lbs. But early pota- 
toes vegetate again late in autumn, and they 
then become much better food without being 
steamed, than previously." 

The way in which bone-dust is usually em- 
ployed as a manure for potatoes is decidedly 
wrong ; it is used in much too fresh a state. 
This error long deceived and perplexed the 
turnip growers of the east of England, who 
now invariably let the bone-dust ferment, 
either by itself, or mixed with earth, for some 
weeks before it is applied to the soil. And all 
my experiments have concurred in their re- 
sult with those of my neighbours in Essex, 
that if the bones are mixed with five or six 
times their bulk of earth, and are turned over 
and mixed together some weeks before they are 
spread on the potato ground, the more valuable 
is the application. And this remark is not 
confined to its use for potatoes ; oats and bar- 
ley are proportionally benefitted by the pre- 
vious fermentation and partial dissolution of 
the bones in the mixed earth. The same ob- 
servation must apply to Indian corn. 

It is impossible, in any agricultural experi- 
ment, to give very minute directions for the 
farmer's guidance, since soil, climate, and situ- 
ation, as regards temperature and easy access 

199 



BONES. 



BONES. 



to the proposed fertilizer, must be of necessity 
taken into the agriculturist's consideration ; 
and these observations particularly apply to 
those manures of a purely animal nature, 
whose value I have been endeavouring to il- 
lustrate. Thus, with regard to bones, the 
quantity applied per acre must of necessity 
vary with circumstances ; but, by many care- 
fully conducted experiments, at some of which 
I have personally assisted, it has been found 
tliat the bones remain in the soil for a length 
of time proportionate to the size of the pieces, 
the dust producing the most immediate effect, 
the larger description showing the longest ad- 
vantage ; thus, on arable lands, the good ef- 
fects of the half-inch or inch bones are obser- 
vable for four or five years ; while, on pasture 
land, the advantage derived from their appli- 
cation is observable for eight or nine. But, as 
practical experience is alone the substitute for 
our want of general scientific knowledge 
founded on experiments, the farmer should, in 
experimenting upon all manures, for the sake 
of correct information, apply them in varying 
quantities per acre, and on no account omit to 
leave, by Avay of comparison, a fair portion of 
the field without any manure. 

There is no delusion more common than that 
a correct agricultural experiment is easily ac- 
complished — that it may be taken up as a 
mere amusement, carried on without care, and 
concluded without any laborious attempts at 
accuracy. Some experience in these delight- 
ful pursuits, amongst some of the most talented 
farmers of the east of England, has long con- 
vinced me of the folly of such a conclusion, 
and of the extreme care and caution necessary 
for such valuable researches ; for, otherwise, 
all kinds of errors are almost sure to arise. In 
applying weight and measure, also, to the crop, 
there is no need for the farmer to weigh and 
measure large plots ; a square rod or two care- 
fully examined, furnishes results nearly as ac- 
curate and valuable as the examination of 
acres. 

The application of bones to grass land is 
very common in Cheshire and Lancashire. I 
have already noticed its effect in the produc- 
tion of white clover, a phenomenon well knoM-n 
to the farmers in the neighbourhood of Man- 
chester, who are also fully aware of the amaz- 
ingly increased produce of their grass lands 
by the application of the refuse bones of the 
size makers. The quantity which they em- 
ploy is very large, varying from forty-five to 
eighty bushels per acre. The result, however, 
is fully commensurate with the outlay, for they 
calculate that the produce of their grass fields 
is nearly doubled by the application. 

I cannot give a better account of its applica- 
tion for grass than that very kindly communi- 
cated to me in March, 1836, by Dr. Stanley, the 
present Bishop of Norwich. " Bone-dust has 
been used in Cheshire," said his lordship, " as 
a manure, to a very considerable extent, for 
the last seven years, but partially for a much 
longer period. Formerly, it was laid on pas- 
ture ground only, and in large quantities, and 
in large pieces, which rendered it very ex- 
pensive, and the advantage comparatively 
.ow • but some pastures that were bone-dusted 
200 



twenty years ago now show, almost to a yard, 
where this manure was applied. Bones are 
now used on every description of soil in Eng- 
land with the best results, provided the wet 
sands are first effectually drained. Some 
thousands of tons are annually consumed, and 
the demand is daily increasing. The quantity 
per statute acre varies ; but the average may 
be, on pasture, from 30 to 40 cwt. of Man- 
chester or calcined bones or 20 CAvt. of raw or 
ground bones, to the statute acre. For turnips, 
from 20 to 30 cwt. of calcined bones. For 
oats or barley (of this latter, however, the 
quantity grown in Cheshire is verj'^ trifling), 
with clover and grass seeds, 20 to 30 cwt. of 
calcined bones, or one ton of raw or ground 
bones. Pasture ground should be well scari- 
fied or harrowed previous to sowing the bones, 
and immediately afterward rolled with a heavy 
roller. For turnips the bones should be 
pounded, or ground very small, and drilled in 
with the seed. With spring grain they should 
be rolled in with clover and seeds. It should 
be here remarked, that raw bones particularly 
should be allowed to remain for some days in 
heaps to ferment before they are applied. 
They have been used for potatoes ; but expe- 
rienced persons say they prefer dung. I am 
also informed, though my informant states his 
observations to be limited, that on old mea- 
dows the result has not been found to be so 
satisfactory as on pastures. On clover, bones 
have a most extraordinary effect. On old pas- 
tures that have been boned, although previous- 
ly the clover was not to be seen, luxuriant 
crops have soon shown themselves. The best 
proof, indeed, of their beneficial effect, is the 
fact, that the farmers, six years ago, in this 
immediate neighbourhood, had so strong a 
prejudice against bones that it was with some 
difficulty they were induced to use them, al- 
though given byway of reduction of rent; but, 
for the last three years, they have been most 
anxious to obtain them, and are now quite 
willing to be at half the expense. The rents 
have latterly been well paid, and there is good 
reason for believing that it is in a great mea- 
sure owing to the advantage they are deriving 
from the boned land. On some estates in the 
county, the proprietors have boned a consider- 
able quantity of the pasture land, the tenants 
willingly agreeing to pay, as an increased rent, 
from eight to ten per cent, on the cost of bones. 
There is some difference of opinion as to the 
most advantageous sorts of bones for use, 
some preferring the dust to the ground bones. 
The dust, or calcined bones, are 3/. per ton, 
and the ground bones ll. per ton. For turnips, 
the dust is generally preferred, as being more 
immediate in its effects. On a very poor peat 
soil, about 35 cwt. of bone-dust was applied to 
a statute acre for Swedish tnmips. The crop 
was a fair average one. The turnips were 
carted off, and the ground sown with wheat, 
which produced nearly twenty-five measures 
(of 75 lbs. per measure) to the statute acre. 
Oats succeeded with seed, principally red 
clover, a most excellent crop of oats ensuing 
The clover, also, proved a very heavy full 
crop, and was mown twice. No manure was 
applied for this course, except the first set of 



BONES. 



BONES. 



bones for the turnips. The remainder of the 
field, of exactly the same description of soil, 
was well manured with farm-yard dung, for 
potatoes, mangel wurzel, and vetches, to be 
used for soiling. This was then sown with 
wheat; but, being first well set over with a 
compost of lime and soil, the wheat plant on 
this part during winter and spring looked much 
better than the boned part of the field, but did 
not prove so good a crop ; but the difference 
in favour of the bones was not much. Oats 
succeeded here, also, with seeds, but the oat 
crop bid not prove half so productive any- 
where as on the part boned; and the clover 
was still more inferior, and mowed only once, 
the second crop not being considered worth 
mowing, while the part boned, alongside of it, 
was as much as could be well mown." 

There appears to be on many grass soils 
some care requisite to ensure the greatest ad- 
vantage from the application of the bones ; 
and this observation is not confined to any 
particular district, since it is strongly alluded 
to in the following extract from a letter of Mr. 
William Lewis, of Trentham in StaS'ordshire, 
transmitted to me in September last, in an 
f bJiging communication of his Grace the Duke 
of Sutherland: — 

"I have never," says this intelligent farmer, 
■'applied less than one ton of crushed bones 
per acre for turnips drilled in, and have been 
generally successful in growing that crop ; and 
their good eff'ects (I mean the bones) are most 
conspicuously shown and felt on the grass 
crop that follows the turnips, showing to an 
mch how far the ground has been manured 
with them. I have no genuine fertile land, it 
being nearly all of a light, dry, sandy, hungry 
nature ; but I have now excellent pastures for 
sheep, which I greatly ascribe to the use of 
bones ; for the pastures following barley M'hich 
have been manured with dung I find very in- 
ferior to that manured with bones — (the differ- 
ence in the barley crop not being perceivable) 
— so much so, that I am upon the eve of break- 
ing up some of my pasture fields which have 
lain three years, and were intended for perma- 
nent pasture ; for those manured at the same 
time with bones are still looking beautiful, 
with a close, fine, even bottom. I have also 
applied bones to pastures, and they have gene- 
rally improved the herbage and verdure very 
greatly. The top-dressing with the bones I 
would recommend to be done in moist weather, 
when the ground is pretty well covered with 
grass. I consider from one and a half to two 
tons per acre to be a fair dressing. After sow- 
ing them, the ground should be well brushed, 
harrowed length and breadthways, then heavily 
rolled, and all stock taken from the field for at 
least ten days. I have seen bones applied to 
bare pastures, with little or no covering, done 
in hot, dry weather, showing no beneficial 
effects whatever afterwards." There is no 
doubt of the superior advantage of rolling the 
bones into the soil ; for fresh, or green bones, 
as they are called in Cheshire, when they are 
exposed to the atmosphere for some time, lose 
from one fifth to one fourth of their weight ; 
and even boiled bones, under similar circum- 
stances, ars reduced one third in weight. A 
26 



bushel of crushed green bones, of the three- 
quarter of an inch size, weighs about 45 lbs. — 
the same bulk of hone-dust 54 lbs. : 75 bushels 
of crushed green bones weigh about one ton 
and a half, the same bulk of boiled bones about 
two tons. The average weight of the bones 
of an ox is about 2 cwt., or about one fourth of 
the carcase free from offal ; the bones of a sheep 
about 21 lbs., supposing the carcase to average 
84 lbs. So that, according to this calculation, 
allowing twenty bushels of crushed bones to 
manure an acre, the bones of five bullocks or 
horses, or fifty sheep, are requisite to supply 
the necessary dressing. 

Liebig recommends the following method as 
the one by which the benefits may be most 
speedily derived from bone applications. "The 
most easy and practical mode of effecting their 
division is," he says, " to pour over the bones, 
in a state of fine powder, half of their weight 
of sulphuric acid diluted with three or four 
parts of water, and after they have been di- 
gested for some time, to add one hundred parts 
of water, and sprinkle this mixture over the 
field before the plough. In a few seconds, the 
free acids unite with the bases contained in the 
earth, and a neutral salt is formed in a verv 
fine state of division." 

A convenient mode of preparing vitriolized 
bones, or super-phosphate of lime, is to make a 
hollow in the centre of a heap of tine mould, 
and place in this crater the bones to be dis- 
solved. Upon these apply, gradually, sul- 
phuric acid, in weight equal to half the weight 
of the bones. These will soon be dissolved, 
after which the heap of mould and bones 
is to be thoroughly mixed by shovelling to- 
gether. 

Another method is described by Mr. Spooner, 
in which the ground bones, being placed in a 
hogshead, have poured upon them one-third 
of their weight of oil of vitriol ; that is to say, 
60 lbs. of the sulphuric acid, to 180 lbs. or about 
4 bushels of bones. The acid, mixed with 
half its bulk or measure of water, previously to 
putting upon the bones, will suddenly produce 
very gre;it heat, equal to about :jOO° of Fahren- 
heit's thermometer. Too much care cannot be 
taken to prevent the acid from Ijurning the 
clothes or skin of those employed in this work. 
After the bones are sufficieiitl3' dissolved, they 
are mixed with ashes, so as to bring them to a 
state convenient for applic.ition by the drill or 
otherwise. Prepared in this way, the fertilizing 
properties of bones are rendered much more 
soluble. Mr. Spooner cites a case in which 
two bushels of the vitriolized bones, with ashes, 
gave as good a crop as sixty bushels of com- 
mon ground bones. 

In manuring the light lands, cultivated on 
the four-course system, with bones and with 
bones only, for a long series of years, I would 
advise the farmer, whenever he finds any symp- 
toms of his ground failing to produce clover 
so well as it was once used to do, to add in. 
that case a dressing of gypsum, either with 
the bones or with the grass seeds. The value 
of this latter manure, which is amply suffi« 
cient, when applied in quantities of not ex 
ceeding 2 cwt. per acre, being in most silua 
tions trifling. There is every reason to believe 

201 



BONES. 



BONES. 



that ii those cases which have puzzled some 
farmers, where land, after a long course of suc- 
cessful bone-dressing, has at last refused to pro- 
duce clover, the gradual exhaustion of sulphate 
of lime, and perhaps of potash and other elements 
of fertility, removed by previous crops, may 
account for the failure. 

For ornamental plantations of trees there can 
be no manure more advantageous than bones. 
There is a considerable portion of phosphate of 
lime in all timber trees, and there is no manure 
of a mixed animal, earthy, and saline nature 
which remains so long in the soil, mixed yith 
earth ; and thus previously fermented bones are 
an excellent dressing for vines, and have been 
used with decided advantage. As a manure for 
the use of the conservatory and the flower-gar- 
den, there is no fertilizer more useful than bone- 
dust; or, what is a still more elegant application, 
the turnings and chippings of the bone turners. 
Their use not only promotes the luxuriance of 
the plant, but the beauty of the flowers. The 
Sheffield florists are well aware of the value of 
bone turnings. 

As it is desirable that American farmers should 
be instructed in the various and most simple 
modes of preparing vitriolized bones or super- 
phosphate of lime — mentioned in a preceding pa- 
graph — we subjoin a few more of the plans 
adopted in England. 

The bones, in the form of bone-dust, or, 
where bone-mills are not at hand, simply broken 
in pieces with a hammer, may be put into a 
cast-iron, stone, earthenware, or strong wooden 
trough, cask, or other vessel, mixed with half 
their weight of boiling water, and then with half 
their weight of the strong oil of vitriol of the 
shops, stirring constantly while the latter is 
slowly poured in. A powerful boiling up, or 
effervescence at first takes place, but which 
gradually subsides. By occasional stirring, the 
whole assumes the appearance of a thick paste ; 
the pieces of bone disappear by degrees, and 
after a week or ten days the whole may be taken 
out and mixed with a little sawdust, charcoal- 
powder, charred peat, or fine dry earth, to make 
it dry enough to pass through the drill, and 
thus be immediately applied to the land. It 
would be better to prepare the bones a month 
at least before using them, and to lay them up 
in a heap for awhile, with a view to their more 
perfect decomposition. Where the pieces of bone 
are large this is especially desirable, as other- 
wise they will not be fully decomposed without 
a larger addition both of water and of acid. Or, 
the mixture of acid and bones, as above, may 
after a couple of days be further mixed with a 
quantity of light friable soil, and laid up into a 
heap for seven or eight weeks, with occasional 
turning ; the bones thus heat, decompose, and 
dry up, so as to be ready for putting into the drill 
withoui further preparation. This method, how- 
ever, requires more acid, and it is not unusual, 
in employing it, to take equal weights of acid 
and of bones. Professor J. F. W. Johnston re- 
commends the following plan for preparing bones 
into a liquid manure : Take equal weights of 
bone- oust, of boiling water, and of acid, and mix 
together, occasionally stirring them for a week 
or ten days ; when the particles of bone have 
nearly disappeared, from 50 to 100 times more 
water may be added to the mixture, and the 
liquid thus diluted applied by a water cart. If 
202 



it is to be used upon grass land, in the spring, 
or to young grain, it will be safer to dilute it 
with 200 waters, but 50 waters (by weight) will 
be enough if it be applied to the turnip drills. 

Mr. Tennant thus describes the method he 
adopts : — " I put 25 bushels into three old boilers, 
and next pour in two bottles of acid of about 170 
lbs. each, and 36 Scotch pints (18 imperial gallons) 
of boiling water into each boiler. It boils away 
at a great rate for some time, and in a day or 
two we empty the boilers into two cart loads of 
light mould, and turn the mixture over. At this 
stage the bones are only partially dissolved, 
but they heat and decompose in the heap, after 
being turned over three or four times; and in 
the course of seven or eight weeks the compost 
becomes dry, and breaks down with a shovel." 

It is important to know that oil of vitriol 
varies in strength, from water added purposely 
or attracted from the atmosphere, as will always 
be the case when left in open vessels, which, 
when partly empty, will soon become full again 
from the water attracted. The purest oil of 
vitriol has a specific gravity of about 1.85, one 
gallon weighing as much as 1.7 or 1.8 gallons 
of water. That of commerce ought to have a 
specific gravity of about 1.45 or 1.5, that is to 
say, be about half as heavy again as water, 
so that one gallon of oil of vitriol shall weigh 
as much as a gallon and a half of water. More 
of it must be used if weak. The price varies 
with the strength, from 2| to 3 cts. per lb. 
The great heat produced by the mixing of 
oil of vitriol and water, acting on the animal 
portions of the bones, makes these of a dark 
colour ; but, if a small quantity of acid only be 
employed, the mixture is white, from the car- 
bonate of lime which then predominates. The 
fat, gristle, and other organic matter united with 
bones, in the state in which these are usually 
employed by farmers, constitutes about 1-3 of 
their weight. Mr. Hannum reckons the soft 
parts of bone, when very fresh, at 45 per cent. 
Four bushels of ground bones, which may be 
considered a fair allowance for an acre, will 
weigh, in a fine state, from 168 to 180 lbs. 
This last-named quantity contains 12| lbs. of 
carbonate of lime, and the first action of the 
acid is to seize upon this, displace its car- 
bonic acid, and convert the lime into sulphate 
of lime or gypsum. The quantity of the acid re- 
quired for this first change is 10 lbs. The acid 
having thus decomposed the carbonate 6f lime 
in the bones and converted it into plaster of Pa- 
ris, next turns upon the phosphates, of which 
the 4 bushels contains about 106 lbs., 47 lbs. 
being lime and 59 lbs. phosphoric acid. 33 lbs. 
of the vitriolic acid unites with half the lime, or 
23| lbs., to form more gypsum. The other half 
of the lime unites with a double portion of phos- 
phoric acid to produce the desired super-phos^ 
phate. Thus about 43 lbs. of acid will be re- 
quired to effect the necessary changes in the 4 
bushels of bones. 

Instead of the sulphuric acid, muriatic acid 
has been substituted in similar quantity, diluted 
and treated in the same manner. The cost per 
acre and the produce obtained were very much 
the same. Where no manure was applied, and 
the produce per acre was only about 7 tons of 
turnips, the superphosphate of lime made from 4 
bushels of bones increased the produce to 17^ 
tons. See Phosphates. 



BONE SPAVIN. 



BORECOLE. 



Tt is harJIy necessary for us to add more 
authorities in favour of bone manure. The 
reader may refer, however, to the experiments 
of Captain Ogilvv, of Airlie Castle ( Trans, of 
High. Soc. vol. iv'. p. 238) ; of Mr. Watson, of 
Keillor, Cupar-Angus (Quart. Jown. of Agr. 
vo,. vi. p. 41 — 43) ; and of Mr. Boswell, of 
Kingcaussie {Trans, of High. Snc. vol. i. p. 73 ; 
Comparative Trial of Bones, Farm-yard Ma- 
nure, and Rape Cake) : to those of Mr. Billyse 
on their use for the pastures of Cheshire 
{Joarn. of Roy. Agr. Soc. of Eng. vol. ii. p. 91.) 
See also Johnson, On Fertilizers, p. 125. (Brif. 
Farm. Mug. vol. vi. p. 308.) The bone mill is 
described by Mr. Anderson, of Dundee (Trans, 
of High. Soc. vol. i. p. 401), and again in the 
Penny Cyclopaedia. 

BONE SPAVIN (Fr. espavent ,- Ital. spava- 
no), in horses, is a disease of the hock joint, 
usually brought on by over-exertion, accele- 
rated by bad shoeing. When this is forming, 
there is commonl)' lameness, but this dimi- 
nishes or ceases when the bony matter, whose 
deposit causes the spavin, is completely 
formed, at least when the horse is warm with 
exercise. It impedes his rising when down, 
and in consequence spavined horses lie down 
with reluctance. A spavined horse generally 
does slow work well enough, and when used 
in the farm, his disease is commonly amelio- 
rated or cured. Repeated blisters will either 
entirely remove or ameliorate the symptoms. 
Tt is only as a last resort that the hot iron 
hould be used. 

BOOK-KEEPING. As the merchant, the 
manufacturer, and the tradesman all find it 
necessary to keep a set of account books which 
shall show them the amount of capital em- 
ployed, the debts owing to and by them, and 
the profit ur loss arising from their different 
transactions, so to the farmer is this good 
practice equally essential. The Dutch have a 
proverb, that no one ever goes to ruin who 
keeps a correct set of accounts. There is 
great truth in this sagacious observation of the 
plodding Dutchmen ; for by consulting correct 
accounts the farmer will be either warned to 
retrace his steps, or to persevere in the path 
he is pursuing. The time required for keep- 
ing these books is always to be found of an 
evening after the labours of the day are over. 
The necessary books to give him this informa- 
tion are, first, a cash book, in which shall be 
entered on one side all the moneys received, 
and from whom ; and on the other side, all 
payments, and to whom made ; secondly, a 
journal, in which should be entered all deli- 
veries, and articles received ; and, thirdly, a 
stock book, in which should be every week 
entered all addition to or substraction from the 
stock of the farm ; fourthly, an invoice book, 
to receive all bills of account ; fifthly, a wages 
book, to keep each labourer's time and wages ; 
and, sixthly, a ledger, which should contain 
every person's account with whom the farmer 
has transactions. With these statements care- 
fully kept, and an account and valuation of his 
stock in trade made annually, as if he were 
about to quit the farm, no farmer's affairs can 
reasonably go wrong; for not only by good 
Docking is fraud prevented, and economy pro- 



moted, but by this means the farmer always 
knows his real position. I am supported in 
these opinions by a very considerable farmer 
and land-agent, Mr. Hewitt Davis, of Spring 
Park, in Surrey. 

BORAGE (Borago pfficinalis). Supposed to 
be derived from corago, or cur, the heart, and 
ago, to give, alludmg to the renovating power 
of which it was supposed to be possessed. 
This ii a well-known plant in all gardens, 
growing two feet high, with large leaves, and 
bright blue flowers. The stalks are round, 
juicy, and thick, and so hairy that they are 
almost prickly to touch. The leaves are broad, 
rough, wrinkled, and hairy. The flowers have 
five bright blue petals or parts, with a black 
centrt ; they blow all through the summer, and 
continue till late in autumn. They will begin 
to flower about June, and when their seed is 
perfectly ripe, the stalks must be gathered and 
dried completely before it is rubbed out. (G. 
W. Johnson's Kitch. Gard.) Borage was for- 
merly considered cordial. The leaves and 
flowers tied in a bundle, and warmed up in 
beer, is a great remedy in England among the 
poor. They consider them cordial, opening, 
and cooling ; and in many parts of England 
they make borage one of their materials in 
brewing. The whole plant, says Smith (Eng. 
Flor. vol. i. p. 265), has an odour approaching 
to cucumber and burnet, which gives a flavour 
to a cool tankard ; but its supposed exhilarat- 
ing qualities, which caused borage to be reck- 
oned one of the lour cordial llowers along 
with alkanet, roses, and violets, may justly be 
doubted. The flavour is nauseous in any 
other beverage. 

BORDER (Germ, and Fr. bord; Sax. bono). 
A term which signifies the portion of land next 
the hedges in fields ; but in ploughed grounds 
is mostly applied to the parts at the ends on 
which the teams turn. 

BORECOLE (Brassicaoleraceajiinbriata.) A 
species of winter cabbage, of which the follow- 
ing are the principal varieties commonly cul- 
tivated in the garden: — I.Brussels borecole. 

2. Green borecole (Brasaicu okracea selenisia). 

3. Purple borecole (B. o. lacinialu). 4. Varie- 
gated borecole. 5. German, or curled kale or 
curlies. 6. Scotch or Siberan kale (B. o.sahel- 
lica). 7. Chou de Milan. 8. Egyptian, or Rabi 
kale. 9. Ragged Jack. 10. Jerusalem kale. 
11. Buda, Russian, Prussian, or Manchester 
kale. 12. Anjou kale. Like the other mem- 
bers of the cabbage tribe, it is propagated by 
seed. The first crop to be sown about the 
close of March, or early in April ; the seed- 
lings of which are fit for pricking out towards 
the end of April, and for final planting at the 
close of May, for production late in autumn 
and at the commencement of winter ; the sow- 
ing must be repeated about the middle of May, 
for final planting during July, and lastly in Au- 
gust, for use during winter and tany spring. 
If transplanting is adopted, their fitness for 
pricking out is known when their leaves are 
about two inches in breadth ; they must be set 
six inches apart each way, and watered fre- 
quently until established. In four or five weeks 
they will be of suflicient growth for final re- 
moval. When planted, they must be set in 

203 



BORER. 



BORERS. 



rows two feet and a half apart each way; the 
last plantations may be six inches closer. 
They must be watered and weeded, as directed 
for the other crops ; as they are of large 
spreading growth, the earth can only be drawn 
about their stems during their early growth. 
If, during stormy weather, any of those which 
acquire a tall growth are blown down, they 
must be supported in their erect posture by 
stakes, when they will soon firmly re-establish 
themselves. For the production of seed, such 
plants of each variety as are of the finest 
growth, and are true to the characteristics 
primarily given, must be selected, and either 
left where grown, or removed during open 
weather in November, or before the close of 
February, the earlier the better, into rows three 
feet apart each way, and buried down to their 
heads. The seed ripens about the beginning 
of August. (G. W. Johnyon's Kifche7i Garden.) 

BORER. See Augeh. 

BORERS. The wood-eating worms called 
borers, are grubs of various species of the 
beetle tribe, several of which have been 
already referred to. Some live altogether in 
tlie trunks of trees, boring into the most solid 
wood; others take up their residence in the 
limbs. Some devour the wood, others the 
pith ; some are found only in shrubs, some in 
stems of herbaceous plants, and others confine 
themselves to the roots. Certain kinds restrict 
themselves to plants of one species, others live 
indiscriminately upon several plants, provided 
these belong to the same natural family ; for 
the same borer is not known to inhabit plants 
differing essentiall}'^ from each other in their 
natural characters. The beetles produced 
from these worm-borers are of verj' many 
kinds, nearly one hundred species having been 
already found by Dr. Harris in Massachusetts, 
belonging to the Capricorn family alone. This 
family of beetles derive their name from their 
long and tapering antennae, which are curved 
like the horns of a goal. The head is short 
and armed with powerful jaws. Most of this 
family remain upon trees and shrubs during 
the daytime, and fly abroad at night. Some, 
however, fly by day, and may be found on 
flowers feeding on the pollen and even the 
blossoms. When annoyed or taken into the 
hands, they make a squeaking sound by rub- 
bing the joints of the thorax and abdomen 
together. " The females are generally larger and 
more robust than the males, and have rather 
shorter antennas. Moreover they are provided 
with a jointed tube at the end of the body, ca- 
pable of being extended or drawn in like the 
joints of a telescope, by means of which the}' 
convey their eggs into the holes and chinks of 
the bark of plants. 

"The larvae hatched from these eggs are 
ong, whitish, fleshy grubs, with the trans- 
verse incisions of the body very deeply marked, 
so that the rings are very convex or hunched 
both above and below. The body tapers a 
little behind, and is blunt-pointed. The head 
is much smaller than the first ring, slightly 
bent downwards, of a horny consistence, and 
is provided with short but very powerful jaws, 
by means whereof the insect can bore, as with 
a c« ntre-bit, a cylindrical passage through the 



most solid wood. Some of these borers have 
six very small legs, namely, one pair under 
each of the first three rings ; but most of them 
want even these short and imperfect limbs, 
and move through their burrows by the alter- 
nate extension and contraction of their bodies, 
on each or on most of the rings of which, both 
above and below, there is an oval space co- 
vered with little elevations, somewhat like the 
teeth of a fine rasp ; and these little oval rasps, 
which are designed to aid the grubs in their 
motions, fully make up to them the want of 
proper feet. Some of these borers always 
keep one end of their burrows open, out of 
which, from time to time, they cast their chips, 
resembling coarse saw-dust ; others, as fast as 
they proceed, fill up the passages behind them 
with their castings, well known here by the 
name of powder-post. These borers live from 
one year to three, or perhaps more years 
before they come to their growth. The)'- un- 
dergo their transformations at the farthest 
extremity of their burrows, many of them pre- 
viously gnawing a passage through the wood 
to the inside of the bark, for their future 
escape. The pupa is at first soft and whitish, 
and it exhibits all the parts of the future beetle 
under a filmy veil which inwraps every limb. 
The wings and legs are folded upon the breast, 
the long antennae are turned back against the 
sides of the body, and then bent forwards be- 
tween the legs. When the beetle has thrown 
off" its pupa-skin, it gnaws away the thin coat 
of bark that covers the mouth of its burrow, 
and comes out of its dark and confined retreat, 
to breathe the fresh air, and to enjoy for the 
first time the pleasure of sight, and the use of 
the legs and wings with which it is provided. 
{Hirris's Treatise on Insects.) 

One family of the Capricorn or goat-horned 
beetles, derives its name of Priomdse from a 
Greek word signifying saw. It is said that 
some of these saw-beetles can saw off large 
limbs by seizing them between their jaws, and 
flying or whirling sidewise round the enclosed 
branch, till it is completely divided. One of 
the largest species is the broad-necked prio- 
nus. It is from one inch and a quarter, to an 
inch and three-quarters in length, of an oval 
form and pitchy black colour. The grubs of 
this beetle, when fully grown, are as thick as a 
man's thumb. They live in the trunks and 
roots of the balm of Gilead, Lombardy poplar, 
and probably in other kinds of poplar. 

In the second family of the Capricorn beetles, 
called the Cerambycians, there is one which 
inhabits the hickory, in its larva state forming 
long galleries in the trunk of this tree in the 
direction of the fibres of the wood. 

" The ground beneath black and white oaks,'' 
says Dr. Harris, "is often observed to be 
strewn with small branches, neatly severed 
from these trees as if cut off with a saw. Upon 
splitting open the cut end of a branch, in the 
autumn or winter after it has fallen, it will be 
found to be perforated to the extent of six or 
eight inches in the course of the pith, and a 
slender grub, the author of the mischief, will 
be discovered therein. In the spring this grub 
is transformed to a pupa, and in June or July 
it is changed to a beetle, and c<</nes out of the 



BORERS. 



BORERS. 



branch. The history of this insect was first 
made public by Professor Peck, who called it 
the oak-pruner, or Stenocoms {Elaphidion) 
putator. In its adult state it is a slender long- 
horned beetle, of a dull brown colour, sprinkled 
with gray spots, composed of very short close 
hairs ; the antenna are longer than the body, 
in the males, and equal to it in length in the 
other sex, and the third and fourth joints are 
tipped with a small spine or thorn ; the thorax 
is barrel-shaped, and not spined at the sides ; 
and the scutel is yellowish white. It varies in 
length from four and a half to six-tenths of an 
inch. It lays its eggs in July. Each egg is 
placed close to the axilla or joint of a leaf- 
stalk or of a small twig, near the extremity of 
a branch. The grub hatched from it penetrates 
at that spot to the pith, and then continues its 
course towards the body of the tree, devouring 
the pith, and thereby forming a cylindrical 
burrow, several inches in length, in the centre 
of the branch. Having reached its full size, 
which it does towards the end of the summer, 
it divides the branch at the lower end of its 
burrow, by gnawing away the wood trans- 
versely from within, leaving only the ring of 
bark untouched. It then retires backwards, 
stops up the end of its hole, near the trans- 
verse section, with fibres of the wood, and 
awaits the fall of the branch, which is usually 
broken off and precipitated to the ground by 
the autumnal winds. The leaves of the oak 
are rarely shed before the branch falls, and 
thus serve to break the shock. Branches of 
five or six feet in length and an inch in diame- 
ter are thus severed by these insects, a kind 
of pruning that must be injurious to the trees, 
and should be guarded against if possible. By 
collecting the fallen branches in the autumn, 
and burning them before the spring, we pre- 
vent the developement of the beetles, while we 
derive some benefit from the branches as fuel. 
" It is somewhat remarkable that, while the 
pine and fir tribes rarely suffer to any extent 
from the depredations of caterpillars and other 
leaf-eating insects, the resinous odour of these 
trees, offensive as it is to such insects, does 
not prevent many kinds of borers from bur- 
rowing into and destroying their trunks. Se- 
veral of the Capricorn-beetles, while in the 
grub btate, live only in pine and fir trees, or in 
timber of these kinds of wood. They belong 
chiefly to the genus Callidium, a name of un- 
known or obscure origin. The larvoc are of 
moderate length, more flattened than the grubs 
of the other Capricorn-beetles, have a very 
broad and horny head, small but powerful 
jaws, and are provided with six extremely 
small legs. They undermine the bark, and 
perforate the wood in various directions, often 
doing immense injury to the trees, and to new 
buildings, in the lumber composing which 
;hey may happen to be concealed. Their bur- 
rows are wide and not cylindrical, are very 
winding, and are filled up with a kind of 
compact sawdust as fast as the insects ad- 
vance. The larva state is said to continue 
two years, during which period the. insects 
cast their skins several times. The sides of 
the body in the pupa are thin-edged, and finely 
notched, and the tail is forked. 



" One of the most common k'jids of Calli' 
dium found here is a flattish, rusty black 
beetle, with some downy whitish spots across 
the middle of the wing-covers ; the thorax is 
nearly circular, is covered with fine whitish 
down, and has two elevated polished black 
points upon it; and the wing-covers are very 
coarsely punctured. It measures from four- 
tenths to three-quarters of an inch in length. 
This insect is the Callidium bujulus ,■ the 
second name, meaning a porter, was given to 
it by Linnaeus on account of the whitish patch 
which it bears on its back. It inhabits fir, 
spruce, and hemlock wood and lumber, and 
may often be seen on wooden buildings and 
fences in July and August. We are informed 
by Kirby and Spence that the grubs sometimes 
greatly injure the wood-work of houses in 
London, piercing the rafters of the roofs in 
every direction, and, when arrived at maturity, 
even penetrating through sheets of lead which 
covered the place of their exit. One piece of 
lead, only eight inches long and four broad, 
contained twelve oval holes made by these in- 
sects, and fragments of the lead were found in 
their stomachs. As this insect is now com- 
mon in the maritime parts of the United States, 
it was probably first brought to this country by 
vessels from Europe." {Harris.) 

The violet Callidium, is of a Prussu.a blue 
or violet colour, its length varying from four 
to six-tenths of an inch. It is found in great 
numbers on piles of pine wood, from the 
middle of May to the first of June, and the 
maggots and pupoe are often met with in 
splitting the wood. They live mostly just 
under the bark, where their broad and winding 
tracks may be traced by the hardened saw- 
dust with which they are crammed. Just 
before they are about to be transformed, the 
larva or worms bore into the solid wood to the 
depth of several inches. In Maine and other 
places they are said to be very injurious to the 
sapling pines. Professor Peck supposed this 
species of borer to have been introduced into 
Europe in timber sent from this country, as 
it is found in most parts of that continent 
that have been much connected with North 
America by navigation. It is somewhat sin- 
gular that Europe and America should have 
thus interchanged the porter and violet Cal- 
lidium, which, by means of shipping, have 
now become common to the two continents. 
{Harris.) 

Sugar Maple Borer.— The sugar-maple, l ne 
of the most beautiful and noble trees of the 
American forest, sufl^ers much from the attacks 
of a borer, the largest known species of Clytus, 
by which it is sometimes entirely destroyed. 
In order to check the devastations of these 
borers they should be sought for in the spring, 
when they may be readily detected by the saw- 
dust thrown out of their burrows ; and, by a 
judicious use of a knife and stiff" wire, they 
may be cut out or destroyed before they have 
gone deeply into the wood. (Harris.) 

Locust-tree Borer. — The locust tree or acacia, 
is also preyed upon by a borer of the Clytus 
family, the larva of a painted beetle often seen 
in abundance feeding by day upon the blos- 
soms of the golden rod (Solidago), in the monfh 
S 205 



BORERS 



BORERS. 



of September. If the trunks of the common 
locust-tree are examined at this time, a still 
frreater number of these beetles will be found 
upon them, and most often paired. This Ca- 
pricorn-beetle has the form of the beautiful 
maple Clj'tus. It is velvet-black, and orna- 
mented with transverse yellow bands. The 
legs are nasty red, and the length of the insect 
is from about half an inch to three quarters 
of an inch. "In the month of September," 
says Dr. Harris, " these beetles gather on the 
locust trees, where they may be seen glittering 
in the sunbeams with their gorgeous livery 
of black velvet and gold, coursing up and 
down the trunks in pursuit of their mates, or 
to drive away their rivals, and stopping every 
now and then to salute those they meet with a 
rapid bowing of the shoulders, accompanied 
by a creaking sound, indicative of recognition 
or defiance. Having paired, the female, at- 
tended by her partner, creeps over the bark, 
searching the crevices with her antennte, and 
dropping therein her snow-white eggs, in clus- 
ters of seven or eight together, and at intervals 
of five or six minutes, till her whole stock is 
safely stored. The eggs are soon hatched, and 
the grubs immediately burrow into the bark, 
devouring the soft inner substance that suflfices 
for their nourishment till the approach of win- 
ter, during which they remain at rest in a tor- 
pid state. In the spring they bore through the 
sap-wood, more or less deeply into the trunk, 
the general course of their winding and irregu- 
lar passages being in an upward direction from 
the place of their entrance. For a time they 
cast their chips out of their holes as fast as 
they are made, but after a while the passage 
becomes clogged, and the burrow more or less 
filled with the coarse and fibrous fragments of 
wood, to get rid of which the grubs are often 
obliged to open new holes through the bark. 
The seat of their operations is known by the 
oozing of the sap and the dropping of the saw- 
dust from the holes. The bark around the part 
attacked begins to swell, and in a few years 
the trunks and limbs will become disfigured 
and weakened by large porous tumours, caused 
by the eflforts of the trees to repair the injuries 
they have suffered. According to the observa- 
tions of General H. A. S. Dearborn, who has 
given an excellent a,ccount {Mass. Agric. Rtpos. 
and Jour n. vol. vi. p. 272), of this insect, the 
grubs attain their full size by the twentieth of 
July, soon become pupre, and are changed to 
beetles and leave the trees early in September. 
Thus the existence of this species is limited to 
one year. 

" Whitewashing, and covering the trunks 
of the trees with grafting composition, may 
prevent the female from depositing her eggs 
upon them; but this practice cannot be carried 
to any great extent in plantations or large nur- 
series of the trees. Perhaps it will be useful 
to head down young trees to the ground, with 
the view of destroying the grubs contained in 
them, as well as to promote a more vigorous 
growth. Much evil might be prevented by 
employing children to collect the beetles while 
in the act of providing for the continuation of 
their kind. A common black bottle, contain- 
ing a little water, would be a suitable vessel 
206 



to receive the beetles as fast as they were ga- 
thered, and should be emptied into the fire in 
order to destroy the insects. The gathering 
should be begun as soon as the beetles first 
appear, and should be continued as long as 
any are found on the trees, and furthermore, 
should be made a general business for several 
years in succession. I have no doubt, should 
this be done, that, by devoting one hour every 
day to this object, we may, in the course of a 
few years, rid ourselves of this destructive 
insect." 

In noticing the locust-borer, Mr. Coleman 
states, that Allen C. Metcalf, of Lennox, Mas 
sachusetts, washed his locust trees with spirits 
of turpentine, and in that way, as he believes, 
compelled the borer to leave them, after they 
had made severe ravages. The trees were 
examined by Mr. Coleman, who found them 
much perforated, but without any signs indi- 
cating the presence of the worm. (See Mr. 
Coleman's Second Report.) 

The poplar tribe of trees, both in Europe and 
America, are subject to the attacks of certain 
kinds of borers, differing essentially from all 
the foregoing when arrived at maturity. They 
belong to the genus Saperda. The largest kind 
found in America is the Saperda calcarala of 
Say, so called because the tips of the wing- 
covers end with a little sharp point or spur. It 
is covered all over with a short and close nap, 
which gives it a fine blue-gray colour ; it is 
finely punctured with brown ; there are four 
ochre-yellow lines on the head, and three on 
the top of the thorax. It is from one inch to 
an inch and a quarter in length. The grubs 
of this beetle, with those of the broad-necked 
Prion us, already mentioned, have in some parts 
of the United States, in the vicinity of Boston, 
for instance, almost entirely destroyed the Lom- 
bardy poplar. They also live in the trunk of 
American poplars. These grubs are of a yel- 
lowish-white colour, and, when full}' grown, 
measure nearly two inches in length. The 
beetles proceeding from these may be found 
on the trunks and branches of the vaiious 
kinds of poplars, in August and September ; 
they fly by night, and sometimes enter the 
open windows of houses in the evening. 

Apple-tree Borer. — "The borers of the apple 
tree," says Dr. Harris, "have become noto- 
rious, throughout the New England and Mid- 
dle States, for their extensive ravages. They 
are the larvns of a beetle called Saperdn blvit- 
tiita by Mr. Say, the two-striped, or the brown 
and white striped Saperda; the upper side of 
its body being marked with two longitudinal 
white stripes between three of a light brown 
colour, while the face, the antennce, the under- 
side of the body, and the legs are white. This 
beetle varies in length from a little more than 
one-half to three-quarters of an inch. It comes 
forth from the trunks of the trees, in its per- 
fected state, early in June, making its escape 
in the night, during which time only it uses its 
ample wings in going from tree to tree in 
search of companions and food. In the day- 
time it keeps at rest among the leaves of the 
plants which it devours. The trees and shrubs 
principally attacked by this borer are the 
apple tree, the quince, mountain ash, haw- 



BORERS, 



BOTANY. 



thorn and other thorn bushes, the June-berry 
or shad-bush, and other kinds of Amelanchier 
and Aronia. Our native thorns and Aronias 
are its natural food; for I have discovered 
the larvae in the stems of these shrubs, and 
have repeatedly found the beetles upon them, 
eating the leaves, in June and July. It is in 
these months that the eggs are deposited, being 
laid upon the bark near the root, during the 
night. The larvis hatched therefrom are fleshy 
whitish grubs." 

The larva or grub state continues two or 
three years, during which the borer will be 
found to have penetrated eight or ten inches 
upwards in the trunk of the tree, its burrow, at 
the end approaching to, and being covered 
only by, the bark. Here its transformation 
from larva to pupa takes place, and its final 
change from pupa to beetle or winged insect, 
which occurs about the first of June, soon 
after which the beetle gnaws through the bark 
that covers the end of its burrow, and leaves 
its place of confinement in the night. 

"Notwithstanding," says Dr. Harris, "the 
pains that have been taken by some persons 
to destroy and exterminate these pernicious 
borers, they continue to reappear m our or- 
chards and nurseries every season. The rea- 
sons of this are to be found in the habits of 
the insects, and in individual carelessness. 
Many orchards suffer deplorably from the want 
of proper attention ; the trees are permitted to 
remain, year after year, without any pains be- 
ing taken to destroy the numerous and various 
insects that infest them ; old orchards, espe- 
cially, are neglected, and not only the rugged 
trunks of the trees, but even a forest of un- 
pnmed suckers around them, are left to the 
undisturbed possession and perpetual inherit- 
ance of the Saperda. On the means that have 
been used to destroy this borer, a few remarks 
only need to be made; for it is evident that 
they can be fully successful only M'hen gene- 
rally adopted. Killing it by a wire thrust into 
the holes it has made, is one of the oldest, 
safest, and most successful methods. Cutting 
out the grub with a knife or gouge is the most 
common practice ; but it is feared that these 
tools have sometimes been used without suffi- 
cient caution. A third method, which has 
more than once been suggested, consists in 
plugging the holes with soft wood. If a little 
camphor be previously inserted, this practice 
promises to be more effectual ; but experi- 
ments are wanting to confirm its expediency." 
The zealous and able naturalist who has 
furnished the foregoing information relative 
to insects which so frequently carry destruc- 
tion among the forest, fruit, and ornamental 
trees of the United States, has also described 
many others of the beetle tribe which attack 
trees and plants not yet named. Among these 
may be mentioned the borers which infest the 
pitch pine tree, and even the blackberry and 
raspberry bushes ; together with various leaf- 
beetles which prey upon the foliage of fruit- 
trees, the linden-tree, potato, cucumber, and 
pumpkin vines, the leaves of turnips, horse- 
radish, milk-weed, &c., most of which will be 
referred to in noticing the several trees and 
plants named, together with the best means 



known of destroying them or preventing their 
ravages. 

BORING. A practice sometimes employed 
in order to ascertain the nature of the difllerent 
strata that lie beneath the soil ; and also for 
the purpose of discovering springs, and tap- 
ping them, so as to draw oflT the water, that 
injures the grounds below or in the neighbour- 
hood. See Dhainino. 

BOS. The generic name for quadrupeds 
whose horns are in the form of a crescent. See 
Cattle. 

BOSCAGE. A word borrowed from the 
French, signifying a woody grove, or woodland. 
BOTANY (from the Gr. /gcTavw, an herb), 
in the most confined sense of the term, is the 
science which teaches us the arrangement of 
the members of the vegetable kingdom in a 
certain order or system, by which we are 
enabled to ascertain the name of any indivi- 
dual plant with facility and precision. Such 
arrangement is only to be considered as useful 
in proportion as it facilitates the acquirement 
of a knowledge of their economical and medi- 
cinil qualities, which cannot be perfectly 
ascertained without an acquaintance with 
vegetable physiology, the parts of plants, their 
functions, and uses. Botany, in its most com- 
prehensive form, teaches us the names, ar- 
rangement, parts, functions, qualities, and uses 
of plants. 

This science may be consulted by the agri- 
culturist with considerable benefit. For in- 
stance (and several other advantage, win 
readily suggest themselves to the intelligent 
farmer), the plants growing wild on a soil ever 
afford some tolerable indication of the nature 
of the soil and its subsoil. Thus, the heath on 
elevations indicates a dry soil ; the fern that it 
is deep as well as dry. The deer hair {Scirpus 
cxspitosus) grows commonly over hogs, resting 
on clay. In the lower situations the broom 
(Spariitim scnpariuin) tenants the deep light 
gravels. The whin, coarser gravels upon a 
clay subsoil. The rush {Juncus congluTueratiis) 
tells the negligent farmer that good land is ren- 
dered useless for want of drainage. The com- 
mon sprit (Juncits artictilatus), that the land is 
not fertile. Sweet gale {Myrlca Gale), that it 
is still worse. The rag weed {Senecio jacobxd) 
in arable land betrays an ill-cultivated loam. 
The marsh marigold (Caltha palusiris) or the 
wild water-cress in water meadows, tells the 
OMmer that the land is fully irrigated. The 
common rattle {Rhinanthus christi), that a 
meadow is exhausted. The pry {Carex clioica), 
that water is stagnating beneath its surface, 
and these are only a few of the truths which 
wild flowers teach the intelligent cultivator. 
Botanists have, indeed, long been at work for 
the farmer— a fact no one will be willing to 
dispute who remembers that the sloe, the black- 
berry, and the crab are nearly all the fruits 
indigenous to England; and that hardly a 
"•rass, a flower, or a vegetable that is now cul- 
tivated is a native of the island. 

In 1825 and 1827, the Highland Society of 
Scotland offered as a prize theme, " The indi- 
cations to be formed regarding the nature and 
qualities of soils and subsoils, according tr 
the plants growing upon them, having regarv? 

207 



BOTANY. 



BOTANY. 



lo elevatiwn, exposure, climate, «&c." And in 
the first volume of their transactions will be 
found several valuable essays on the subject, 
by Mr. Macgillivray, p. 81, Mr. Gorie, p. 113, 
Dr. Singer, p. 264, Mr. Hogg, p. 271, all ably 
illustrating the value of the study of plants to 
the cultivator. 

The definition of a plant to a superficial ob- 
server may appear easy; but those who have 
Htudied natural history are aware of the diffi- 
culty of drawing a just line of distinction be- 
tween the animal and the vegetable kingdoms. 
It is easy to distinguish a horse, or even a 
worm, from a rose-tree or a fungus ; but to 
distinguish a sensitive plant, &c., by descrip- 
tive marks from many zoophytes, has hitherto 
baffled the acutest botanists. Many plants, as 
will be presently seen, are gifted with sponta- 
neous motion ; whilst many animals, as the 
corallines, are devoid of locomotion ; so that 
neither of these qualities avails us in distin- 
guishing the two kingdoms. In short, whilst 
the zoophytes, most of which take root, grow 
up into stems, and multiply by buds and slips, 
must still be considered as animals, no one 
can correctly define how plants differ from 
them. It is, however, fortunate, that the stu- 
dent is seldom placed in a situation where 
these nice distinctions are to be made. Where 
specimens are to be examined which admit of 
the doubt whether they belong to the lower 
classes of animals or to the vegetable tribes, 
chemistry maj^ be called to our aid ; if, when 
burnt, they omit an ammoniacal smell resem- 
bling that of feathers, similarly treated, we 
need not hesitate to consider them as animal 
products; if that of burning wood, we may 
consider them as fit objects for our botanical 
researches. 

A few facts will demonstrate that it is im- 
possible to deny that vegetables possess some 
degree of sensation. The Venus's fly-trap 
(Dionaea musdpula) has jointed appendages to 
the leaves, which are furnished on their edges 
with a row of strong prickles. Flies, attracted 
by honey, which is secreted in glands on their 
surface, venture to alight upon them ; no 
sooner do their legs touch these parts than the 
sides of the leaves spring up, and locking their 
rows of prickles together, squeeze the insects 
to death. The well-known sensitive plant 
(^Mimosa sensifiva and pudica) shrink from the 
slightest touch. Oxalis sensitiva and Smithia 
sensitiva are similarly irritable ; as also are the 
stamens of the flower of the barberry. One of 
this tribe {Hedysarum gyrans) has a sponta- 
neous motion — its leaves are frequently mov- 
ing in various directions without order or 
co-operation. When an insect inserts its pro- 
boscis between the converging anthers of a 
kind of dog's bane (Apocynuvi andrussEmi fo- 
lium), they close with a power usually suffi- 
cient to detain the intruder until his death. If 
from these, and many other considerations 
which we shall notice as we pursue our study, 
we conclude that plants are endowed with a 
certain degree of sensation, or at least of irri- 
tability, we can pursue that path of the science 
no further. Such are the results of life ; what 
constitutes the living principle no human eye 
can discover. 
208 



We gaze on a rose as it waves in the pleni* 
tude of its vigour, admire the tints of its petals, 
the verdure of its foliage, the gracefulness of 
its form, the delicacy of its fragrance. We 
may come on the morrow, and it has been 
blasted — those petals are scattered on the bor- 
ders — those leaves are withered and sapless — 
and scarcely a vestive of its loveliness remains. 
Wherefore is this change? The same compo- 
nents remain — the same food was ready for its 
nourishment; but some invisible governing 
principle — some unknown agent — has silently 
departed, without one vacancy to point out 
where it had resided, but a total ruin, to shon 
that it had pervaded the whole. Let a few 
more hours pass away, when the air, and 
moisture, and heat, external agents which 
were subservient to its welfare, now concur in 
completing its destruction — it is partly dissi- 
pated in pestilential exhalations, partly reduced 
to a few earthy and saline particles. Life, 
whilst it continued, prevented this ruin ; but 
still, like its Great Author, " no one hath seen 
it at any time." 

To explore our path satisfactorily, and that 
one step may naturally explain the way to 
the succeeding, we had better first consider 
the most obvious parts cf plants, and their 
functions. 

The root and its uses. — A root usually consists 
of two parts, the caudex or body, and the fibres 
or radicula. The last only are essential for 
the imbibing of nourishment, but the whole 
serves to steady or fix the plant firmly in a 
commodious situation and position. Roots are 
annual, biennial, or perennial. The first be- 
long to those plants whose term of existence 
is confined to a portion of a year, as barley; 
the second to such as, being raised during one 
year, survive its winter, and produce flower? 
during a succeeding year, as wheat. Perennia" 
roots belong to such plants as live for severa' 
years. All plants are considered as biennial.* 
that are raised from seed one year, and flowei 
during another, whether that year is the next, 
or whether the flowering is deferred during 
several, provided the flowers occur but once. 
This is often the case with the tree mallow 
( Lavatern urborra), &c. Attention must be paid 
to these circumstances, or we may often mis- 
take the natural term of a plant's existence. 
Mignionette {Reseda odorata), in our borders, 
is an annual ; but in the shelter of a room or 
green-house, it may be made, by proper ma- 
nagement, to blossom during several succes- 
sive seasons. The nasturtium (Tropasolum), 
naturally a shrubby perennial, is an annual in 
our gardens. 

Plants search for food by means of their 
roots, and to obtain it have been known, by 
their aid, to overturn walls by piercing their 
foundations. A tree growing on the top of a 
wall has been observed to extend its roots 
down the sides, until they reached the earth at 
its bottom. If a flower-pot, divided by a per- 
pendicular section, be on one side filled with 
common earth, and on the other with similar 
earth mixed with a little potass, the roots of a 
geranium or other plant, growing in it, will, 
by degrees, all move into the alkaline portion. 
It has also been proved that the root is gifted 



BOTANY. 



BOTANY. 



with the power of rejecting what is hurtful, 
and selecting what is beneficial to its parent 
plant, from any mixed solution of substances 
not corrosive or poisonous. 

Botanists distinguish seven kinds of roots. 

1. The fibrous root {radix fibrosa), consist- 
ing of fibres alone, either branched or undi- 
vided, as that of the Poa annua, that species 
of grass so troublesome in gravel walks, &c. 

2. The creeping root {R. repenn). This 
spreads and branches horizontally, throwing 
out fibres in its course, as some kinds of mint 
(^Mentha), and the couch-grass, or twitch {Tri- 
ticuin repens). 

3. Tapering root {R. fust for mis), as that of 
the carrot, &c. 

4. Abrupt root {R. prsemorsa), appears in- 
clined to be a tapering one, but, from some 
natural decay or habit, becomes abrupt, or ap- 
parently bitten off, as in the devil's-bit sca- 
bious (Scahiosa sticcisa), and several of the 
hawk-weeds. 

5. Tuberous root (R. tuherosa), consists of 
fleshy tubers connected by fibres, as in the po- 
tato {Solcmiini tuberosum). It is the premature 
formation of the tubers which prevents the 
blooming of the Jerusalem artichoke, and some 
of the early varieties of the potato. If the tu- 
bers are removed as soon as they are formed, 
the plants blossom. 

6. Bulbous root (J?. bulbusa), is solid, as in 
the crocus ; tunicate, composed of concentric 
layers, as in the Onion {Allium cepu) ; or 
scaly, as in the lilies. 

7. Jointed or granulated root (R. urticuluta 
or granulal a), is a cluster of either little bulbs 
or scales, connected by a common fibre, as in 
the wood-sorrel (Oxalis acefosella), and white 
saxifrage {Saxifraga granulata). 

The roots of plants sometimes change their 
form with the situation in which they grow. 
Those of some grasses are bulbous in a dry 
situation, and fibrous in a moist one. Thus 
we see the care of Providence is manifested 
even in providing for the welfare of a weed ; 
bulbous roots being, as it were, reservoirs of 
moisture, enable such plants to perfect their 
seed in the driest season. Again, the fibrous 
roots of grasses growing in sandy sterile places 
are remarkably downy; by this means they re- 
tain firmly their hold in so yielding a medium, 
and their absorbing surfaces are likewise in- 
creased, not unnecessarily, where nourishment 
is so scanty. 

Seven kinds of stalks or stems are distm- 
gnished by botanists; — 1. A stem (caulis) is 
confined to such as bear both leaves and 
flowers, which is the case with the trunks of 
all trees. It is either simple, as in the white 
lily, or branched, as in most cases. In gene- 
ral it grows upright, but sometimes it is more 
or less recumbent. Some cling to other bodies 
by fibres for support, as the ivy (Hedera helix) ; 
or by tendrils, as the vine. Others twine round 
such plants as come in their way. A remark- 
able distinction is to be observed in twining 
plants. Honeysuckles, &c., twine from left to 
right; whilst others, as the kidney-bean, twine 
from right to left, nor can any art induce them 
to alter their course. Some trail along the 
ground ; some are jointed, as in the samphire 
27 



and Indian fig. They are of various forms, 
round, three-sided, square, &c. Their surfaces 
are smooth, viscid, rough, bristly, hairy, &c. 
Internally they are solid or hollow. Plants 
without stems are termed acaules. 

2. A culm or straw {culmus), is only a va- 
riety of the caulis, but, being peculiar to the 
grasses, rushes, and other plants nearly allied 
to them, has been deemed worthy of a separate 
name. It is without joints, as in the common 
rushes ; jointed, as in wheat, &c. ; bent like a 
knee, as in Alapecurus geniculatus. It varies 
in being hollow, solid, hairy, &c. 

3. A stalk (scnpus), springing from the root, 
bears only flowers and fruit, as that of the 
primrose (Primula vulgaris), and cowslip (P. 
veris). In the first it is simple, in the lattier 
subdivided and many-flowered. It is some- 
times scaly; in which case the scales are apt 
to sport into leaves, and thus render it a proper 
caulis. It greatly varies as to length, manner 
of growth, &c. 

4. A flower stalk (pedunculus), springing 
from the stem, bears only fruit and flowers. A 
partial flower stalk (pedicellis), is the ultimate 
division of a general one, as in the cowslip be- 
fore instanced. Flowers without stalks are 
termed sessile, as the dodders, &c. 

5. The leaf stalk (peiiolus), signifies the 
stalk of a leaf only. It is solitary or simple, 
as in the lilac, and all other simple leaves. It 
is common in the rose, «Stc. It is usually chan- 
nelled on its upper side. 

6. A frond (frons), is now used only in de- 
scribing the class Cryptngamia, and signifies a 
leaf which produces both flowers and fruit, as 
in the ferns, lichens, &c. 

7. A stipe (stipes), is the stem of a frond. 

It will be better to defer the consideration 
of the functions of roots and stems until we 
take a connected view of the phenomena of 
vegetable life. 

Leaves are a very general, but not a uni- 
versal part of the vegetable body; they are 
wanting in the samphires, creeping cereus, 
&c. Such plants are called plantseaphyllse 
(leafless plants). The situations, forms, in- 
sertions, and surfaces of leaves are of great 
use in botanic descriptions; a few must at 
present suffice: — 

Fulia radiailia spring from the root, as in the 

primrose. 
Fulia caulinn and rnmea spring respectively 

+v,MM the stem or branch. 
Folia Una terna, &c., leaves in pairs, or three 

together, &c. 
Fnlia verficillata, whorled, several opposite, or' 

growing in a circle round the stem. 
Foliii. pellata, peltate, having the foot-stalk in 

the centre, as the nasturtium. 
Folia sessilia, sessile, having no foot-stalk. 
Folia perfuliata, perfoliate, when the stem run.* 

through their centre. 

Leaves are nearly circular, roundish, egg 
shaped or ovate, oblong, lanceolate, &c.; thev 
terminate abruptly, or are sharp, jagged, point- 
ed, cirrhose (i. e. tipped with a tendril), &c. 
Their margins are entire, spinous, toothed, 
wavy, &c. Their surfaces are dotted, rugged, 
veiny, coloured (i. e. tinted with any colour 
s 2 209 



BOTANY. 



BOTANY. 



but green, white, or yellow ; in the two latter 1 as in the pea; incomplete, when some part, 



cases they are termed variegated), &c. They 
are tubular, awl-shaped, three-edged, ever- 
green, &c. Compound leaves consist of two 
or more leaflets, combined by a common foot- 
stalk, as in the rose; they are binale when 
they consist of two leaflets ; ternate, of three, 
&c. ; pinnate when several proceed sideways 
or laterally from the common footstalk, as in 
the rose. Leaves are sometimes twice and 
thrice compounded. 

The/oit-er is the most essential, yet the most 
transitory part of plants. By means of the 
seed, which it is the great agent in producing, 
plants may be indefinitely multiplied and per- 
petually renewed; whereas all other modes of 
propagation, by cuttings, grafts, &c., are but 
extensions of an individual. Hence, though 
many plants, from unfavourable modes of cul- 
tivation, &c., are seldom known to blossom, 
3'Ct Providence has wisely ordained that no 
plant is incapable of producing and perfecting 
seed. As our systems of botany are founded 
chiefly upon the flower, we will proceed to 
consider it at large. A flower is divided into 
seven parts: — 

1. The calyx, or outer covering, resembling 
leaves in texture ; is not present in many 
flowers, as the tulip. 

There are six kinds of calyx : — 1. The peri- 
anth is close to, and forms part of, the flower, 
as in the rose, and is, in fact, the only true 
calyx. 2. The involucre is an appendage to 
the one form of inflorescence, namely the um- 
bel It is remote from the corolla, as in all 
the umbelliferous plants, carrot, &c. 3. The 
spathe is a floral appendage which bursts lon- 
gitudinally, being more or less remote from 
thf flower, as in the snow-drop, narcissus, &c. 
4. The glume, or husk, is the peculiar calyx or 
chafTof the grasses, as in wheat, &c. 5. Pere- 
chactiuni, a scaly sheath, enclosing the fertile 
flowers of some mosses. 6. Vulva is the mem- 
brane that covers the parts of fructification or 
gills of the fungi, as in the common mush- 
,room; but it is also applied to the fleshy cover- 
ing which encloses some fungi when young. 

2. The coriilla, or more delicate coloured 
J-javes or leaf, properly called petals, is situ- 
ated within the calyx. This is absent in many 
flowers. It comprehends both the peful and 
the nectary. By petal is meant what are com- 
monly called the coloured leaves of a flower. 
By nectary is meant an appendage to the co- 
rolla, supposed to be for the purpose of secret- 
ing honey. The little cells, for example, at 
the bottom of the flower of the crown imperial, 
each full of a sweet liquid, are called necta- 
ries, but they vary in form and situation in 
difierent flowers. When a corolla is formed 
of one petal, it is said to be monopetalous. It 
may be bell-shaped, as in the Canterbury bell ; 
fimnel-shaped, as in lungwort {Pulmonaria') ; 
talver-shaped, as in the primrose ; wheel-shaped, 
the same as the preceding, only with a short 
tube, as in the borage ; ringent, like the mouth 
<if an animal, as in the dead nettle ; personate, 
like the mask of an animal, as in snap-dragon. 
Corollas of more than one petal are termed 
j>olypetalous. It is cruciform, as in the wall- 
flower; rosaceous, as in the rose; papilionaceous, 

SIO 



found in kindred flowers, is wanting 

3. The stainen or stamens are essential for 
the perfecting of the seed, and are only absent 
in double flowers, in which they are changed 
into petals. They vary in different species, 
from a single one to several hundreds, and 
surround the pistil or pistils, which occupy 
the centre of the flower. A stamen usually 
consists of two parts; the filament, or slender 
stem, which is sometimes absent, bearing 
otherwise on its summit the anther, a cellular 
organ of various forms in diflferent species of 
plants, being the part for holding the pollen. 

4. The pistil or pistils are in the centre of 
the flower, and usually fewer in number than 
the stamens. They are sometimes situated in 
flowers distinct from the stamen, and even on 
diff"erent plants. No seed can be perfected 
without the pistil, which consists of the ger- 
men, or rudiment of the fruit and seed, and, of 
course, is never absent. The style, or little 
stem proceeding from the germ, which is not 
essential, serving chiefly to elevate the stigma — 
this must always be present : it varies in form 
and size, being either scarcely more than a 
point, or forming an orbicular head, or being 
variously lobed. 

5. The seed-vessel is the germen enlarged, va- 
rying in form, texture, and size in almost every 
species. What old botanists called naked seeds 
are seed-vessels or carpels containing only one 
seed, and which do not open when ripe ; the 
strawberry, wheat, maize, are examples. The 
only naked seeds are those of the fir cones, and 
the Cycadccp. 

There are seven kinds of seed-vessels: — 1. 
A capsule is woody or membranous, containing 
one or more cells, as in the popp}^ 2. A pod 
is long, dry, and solitar)', formed of two valves, 
divided by a linear partition into two cells, as 
in the wall-flower. 3. A legume is solitary, 
formed of two oblong valves without any par- 
tition, consequently is one-celled, as the pea. 
4. A drupe has a fleshy coat, closely enclosed 
in a hard nut, as the cherry, peach, &c. 5. A 
po77}e has a fleshy coat, enclosing a capsule, as 
the apple, pear, &c. 6. A berry is fleshy, con- 
taining its seed or seeds within its pulp, with- 
out valves, as the currant. A compound berry 
is instanced in the blackberry, &c. 7. A cone 
is a catkin hardened into a seed-vessel, as in 
the fir, birch, &c. 

6. The seed. To the perfecting of this part 
all the other parts of the fructification, and 
even of the whole plant, are subservient; an- 
nuals perish immediately after it is perfected, 
and in our climate evenperennials begin todroop 
as soon as it is ripe. A seed consists of seve- 
ral parts: — 1. The e7ubryo is the part the wel- 
fare of which all the other parts unite in pro- 
moting. It is the rudiment of the future plant. 
It is very apparent in the bean, pea, &c., and 
has the form of a heart in the walnut. It is 
usually within the substance of the seed, as in 
the above instance ; in the grasses, however, 
it is on the outside. 

Upon removing the skin of a pea or bean, 
it divides easily into two parts ; these are the 
cotyledons: this is the usual number. In the 
pine tribe they are four ; in the grasses, &c,, 



BOTANY, 



BOTANY. 



only one; hence the last are called mvnomty- 
kdons. The cotyledons, when the seed has 
sprouted, usually rise, in the course of germi- 
nation, out of the ground, and perform the 
functions of leaves for a while : this is never 
the case in wheat, or any other of the mono- 
cotyledons ; their seeds consist chiefly of the 
albumen or white, which is either farinaceous, 
horny, or fleshy, and remains in the ground 
nourishing the embryo, until its leaves and 
roots are sufficiently perfected for that pur- 
pose. Athough the albumen is wanting in a 
distinct form in several tribes, as those with 
compound and cruciform flowers, &c., yet the 
farinaceous matter lodged in the cotyledons is 
evidently intended to supply the embryo with 
nourishment during the first efiorts of germina- 
tion. Many plants have it distinct from the 
cotyledons. Jltellns, the yolk, like the albu- 
men, serves to nourish the embryo in the com- 
mencement of germination. If the albumen, 
as a distinct organ, is present also, the vitellus 
is situated between it and the embryo. 

Testa, the skin, envelopes all the preceding 
parts, and gives them their form, being itself 
of a permanent shape, whilst they are in a 
liquid state. It is of various textures and sub- 
stance ; sometimes single, but usually lined 
with a finer membrane. Hiluni, or scar, marks 
where the seed was connected with the seed- 
vessel or receptacle. In describing the form 
or external parts of a seed, it is always to be 
considered as the base. 

There are several occasional appendages to 
seeds, which may as well be considered in this 
place. The pellide closely adheres to some 
seeds, so as to conceal their actual skin. It 
varies, being downy, membranous, and muci- 
laginous, or not perceptible until moistened. 
The iunic envelopes the seed more or less 
loosely, being attached only at the base. The 
seed-doion is the chaffy, bristly, or feathery 
crown, originating from the partial calyx re- 
maining attached to the summit of a seed, 
somewhat resembling a parachute, which we 
see bearing along the seed of the dandelion, 
thistle, &c. A tail is the permanent style which 
remains as an elongated, feathery termination 
to some seeds, as clematis. A uing, a mem- 
branous appendage, serving, as the seed-down, 
to transport the seed it is attached to through 
the air. It is solitary, except in some umbel- 
liferous plants. 

We may now proceed to the last division of 
the flower, which is, Tthly, the receptacle. — 
This is the common base or point of connec- 
tion of the other parts. In compound flowers 
it serves as a distinguishing mark, and there- 
fore is of importance. In the daisy it is coni- 
cal; in the chrysanthemum, convex; carduus 
has it hair}"-; chamomile, scaly; picris, naked; 
onopordum, cellular. 

A compound flower is formed by the union 
of several sessile florets, or lesser flowers, 
within a common calyx; each, however, must 
possess five stamens, their filaments divided, 
but their anthers united into a cylinder, 
through which passes the style of a solitary 
pistil, much longer than the stamens, and hav- 
ing a stigma divided into two parts, which 



roll backwards. There are various forms, as 
the thistle, daisy, sunflower, &c. 

When the flowers are collected round a stem 
in a complete ring, or merely on two of its 
sides, it is denominated a whorl, as in the dead 
nettle (Lammm). Flowers on their own stalks, 
standing somewhat distant from each other on 
a common one, or axis, are denominated a ra- 
ceme, as a bunch of currants. When they are 
placed together on one common axis, they 
foDn a spike, as in lavender (Lavandula). If 
flowers standing on a common stalk have, in 
proportion as they stand on it lower down, 
longer foot-stalks, so that the flowers all stand 
nearly on a level, it is denominated a corymb, 
as in Spirasa opulifolia, common in our gardens; 
in the common cabbage, a corymb of flowers 
becomes a raceme of fruit. Flowers on par- 
tial stalks variously divided and inserted, col- 
lected closely together and level at top, is a 
fascicle, as in the Sweet William (Dianthus bar- 
liitm). Sessile flowers collected together in a 
globular figure form a head or tuft, as in Statice 
armcria. When several flowers on stalks of 
nearly equal length spring from a common 
centre on a general stalk, they form an umbel, 
as in the parsley. This is either general or 
partial ; the latter is termed an umbellulc. 
When flowers on separate foot-stalks, spring- 
ing from a common centre, have their foot- 
stalks variously subdivided, it is termed a 
cyme, as in the elder (Samburus). Flowers 
growing on partial foot-stalks without any or- 
der, but loosely spread on a common one, form 
a panicle, as in the oat {Avena). When the 
flowers of a panicle grow closely together, 
somewhat approaching an ovate form, as a 
bunch of grapes, the lilac, &c., it is termed a 
thyrsus, or bunch. When the flowers are all 
barren and sessile upon a common axis, it 
forms the amentum. ' 

The exterior covering of plants is called the 
epidermis or cuticle, answering the same purpose 
as the scarf-skin or cuticle of animals, viz. 
protecting the interior and more tender parts 
from the injuries that might arise from exces- 
sive heat, cold, &c.; yet, being porous, it al- 
lows the absorption and emission of moisture 
and air, and the admission of light. It cannot 
but have been observed how the epidermis 
varies in different plants ; how smooth it is 
over the petals of most flowers — how downy 
on the fruit of the peach — how rough on the 
the oak— on the nettle, clothed with perforated 
poisonous hairs. The cuticle peels off in some 
plants, as in the cork tree. In some plants, 
especially the Dutch rush (Eguisetuvi hyemale), 
it is so "impregnated with silicious or flinty 
matter as to serve as a polish for the cabinet- 
maker, &c. 

Immediately beneath the epidermis is the 
cellular integument : this is usually the seat of 
colour, being red in the petals of the red rose, 
blue in the common violet, &c. Leaves appear 
to be little else than masses of cellular integu- 
ment, enclosed in a case of epidermis, and tra- 
versed by numerous sap-vessels. Next to the 
cellular integument occurs the bark. In stems 
and branches but one year old this consists but 
of one layer; in older ones there are to be 

211 



BOTANY. 



BOTAIVY. 



observed a layer for every year of age ; these, 
however, are of little import to the plant, the 
vital functions for the time being are carried 
on in the layer immediately in contact with 
the wood. This innermost ring is termed the 
liber. The bark is very conspicuous in some 
roots, as the parsnip, carrot, &c.; the thick 
outer ring, observable when these are cut 
transversely, is the bark. The bark consists 
of woody fibres, chiefly running longitudinally, 
but beautifully interwoven. In one of the me- 
zereon tribe, a native of Jamaica, and called 
the lace bark, it may be separated into elegant 
layers of lace-work. In the bark the peculiar 
properties of the plant principally reside ; wit- 
ness the resin in the pine, the fragrant oil of 
the cinnamon, &c. 

Next to the liber occurs the tvooci, which 
forms the chief bulk of trees. A layer or more 
of this occurs in all exogenous plants, for in 
the portion of it which adjoins the liber, and 
is named the alburnum, are the sap-vessels 
which convey the fluid from the root to the 
leaves, whence it descends into vessels situ- 
ated in the liber, as we shall see hereafter. In 
trees, a fresh layer of wood is deposited every 
year adjoining the liber, from which it is 
formed or deposited ; hence the age of a tree 
may be known by counting the concentric 
rings. In the middle of the wood occurs the 
medulla or pith, commonly a porous, juicy, yel- 
lowish or greenish substance; even the hollow 
stems of the onion, &c., are lined with a film 
of it. It seems to be an extra reservoir of 
nourishment, required for the formation of the 
leaves and more recent parts of plants; at all 
events, in old stems and branches it is usually 
obliterated. Botanists are not determined as 
to its uses. 

When a seed is committed to the ground, 
if moisture, air, and heat are not all present in 
certain favourable proportions, it refuses to 
germinate. (See Water, its uses to vegeta- 
tion.) No seed will vegetate in dry earth, nor 
in a temperature at or below the freezing 
point; all require a free admission of air. 
These circumstances being favourable, the 
seed swells — the skin bursts — and the radicle, 
or embryo root, makes its appearance, and 
sinks into the earth. The cotyledons, if the 
seed has more than one, by degrees develope 
themselves, and rise above the surface, afford- 
ing nourishment to the embryo stem, situated 
between them, until the radicle has become 
sufficiently a root to supply food for its growth; 
when thus rendered useless, they decay. 

Animal and vegetable matters rendered so- 
luble in water by putrefaction, various salts 
and earths, and water, are the chief nourish- 
ment plants derive from the soil ; but it is also 
certain that the roots absorb air, which in part 
accounts for the benefit afforded to them by 
loosening the soil about them, and for plant- 
ing them near the surface. When a plant has 
got its leaves developed, it possesses another 
source of acquiring nourishment from the at- 
mosphere. See Gases, their use to vegetation. 

The atmosphere, which to our eyes appears 

a siniple uniform fluid, has been demonstrated 

by chemists to be composed of three different 

gases or airs with which is constantly mixed 

213 



the vapour of water. The gases are known as 
oxygen, carbonic acid, and azote or nitrogen. 
Carbonic acid gas is carbon or charcoal com- 
bined with oxygen. Water is composed of 
hydrogen and oxygen gases. These facts, by 
a little attention, will be easily remembered, 
and render all that follows comprehensible. 
The nourishment which is absorbed by the 
roots being in a fluid state, proceeds alor.g the 
sap-vessels situated in the alburnum of the 
wood, and spreads through the leaves, flowers, 
&c. Here, and during its course up the stem, 
by the varied absorption and decomposition of 
water and carbonic acid, and the emission of 
oxygen, the sap is converted into various sub- 
stances, varying in every species of plants ; 
gum is formed in the cherry, resin in the fir, 
&c.; these are deposited as the sap descends 
through the vessels of the liber. From the sap 
likewise is derived the nourishment from 
whence is formed the wood, &c.; in fact, it is 
the source of the growth of the parts. Our 
knowledge of chemistry and vegetable physio- 
logy is yet too imperfect to enable us to mark 
the various shades of difference in the pro- 
cesses of each plant with any degree of pre- 
cision. We know that in the light all plants 
absorb carbonic acid gas, and emit oxygen 
whilst in the dark; on the contrary, they ab- 
sorb the latter and give out the former by the 
same surfaces ; but we are utterly unable to 
point out how the same organs secrete a poi- 
son in the nightshade and a wholesome food 
in the potato, which so closely resembles the 
first in form. A few very simple experiments 
will serve to fix the above facts upon our me- 
mories. We may prove that the sap rises 
through the alburnum, and descends through 
the bark, by placing the cut end of a leafy 
twig of the fig tree in an infusion of Brazil 
wood; after some hours cut off about half an 
inch of the extremity, when a circle of red dots 
will mark where the infusion ascended, and 
an outer circle of white dots will show where 
the juices descend. 

That leaves throw off moisture, or perspire, 
is demonstrated by inverting a tumbler over two 
or three leaves placed in the light; the inside 
of the glass will soon be perceptibly covered 
wilh dew. 

That leaves throw off gas from their sur- 
faces is demonstrated by plunging one in a ves- 
sel of water; air-bubbles will soon be perceived 
to be emitted by and attached to it. 

In due course of time the flowers of a plant 
open; the anthers of the stamens swell, burst, 
and scatter a dust, termed pollen, secreted by 
them, and which is caught immediately by the 
moist stigmas of the pistils, or is carried to 
them by the wind, or accidental contact of 
some insect. This contact of the pollen with 
the stigma is found to be absolutely necessary 
before the seed can be perfected. This course 
of vegetation is repeated for a series of years 
in perennials, but the plant decays as soon as 
the seed is perfected in annuals. 

Botanists at present are acquainted with 
nearly 100,000 species of plants; and the care 
with which Providence has provided for the 
well-being of plants is an earnest of their im- 
portance. That they may never become ex 



BOTANY. 



BOTS. 



tinct,ihe number oftheir seeds is often immense: 
Ray counted 32,000 in one poppy-head ! Where 
the seeds are less numerous, their safety is se- 
cured by the extra strength of the seed-vessel, 
their nauseous, poisonous nature, and other 
means. The various modes in which they are 
spread over the face of the country is equal 
evidence of a peculiar providential care. The 
seed-down bears some through the air to a dis- 
tance ; some cling by their rough appendages 
to the coats of animals ; others are borne by 
neighbouring streams, or by the winds, to an 
immense distance; cocoa-nuts float from the 
tropics to the shores of Norway; African seeds 
are blown over the southern coasts of Spain ; 
birds, animals, and even the seed-vessels them- 
selves, by an ejective power, all perform a part 
in the office of dissemination. Then, again, 
the various kinds of defence with which they 
are endowed; cuticles, woolly, and thorny, and 
flinty, to preserve an equable temperature and 
to prevent injurious wounds. The buds which 
contain the embryo of leaves to appear the 
following j'^ear, how enveloped are they in 
scales, and often coated with resin or gum ! 

Independent of any general arrangement, 
plants are divided into species, genera, and 
varieties. 

By species is to be understood a plant which 
by certain permanent signs can be distinguished 
from all others; for instance, every one can 
determine that the damask rose differs from 
every other; and botanists, having shown by 
what specific marks it may always be distin- 
guished, have determined it to be a species: but 
there are many other roses which, though hav- 
ing specific points of difference, very closely 
resemble the damask rose ; these, botanists 
have therefore collected into one family, which 
they term a genus, under the general name of 
Rosa. Rosa, then, is the generic or family 
name; but, to distinguish the species, every 
one has a separate second or specific name: — 
thus, the damask rose is liosa centi folia ,■ the 
dog rose, i\osrt ranina; these second names are 
therefore termed the specific names. By variety 
is meant a plant varying in an established 
species, but which cannot produce an exact 
resemblance of itself by seed. Thus, all our 
apples are varieties of one species, the crab 
(Pyrus) ; and all plants raised from their seed 
invariably differ from each other and their 
parent. The whole vegetable kingdom, then, 
>s divided into families, or genera, composed 
of a greater or less number of species. In 
botany the varieties are little noticed. These 
genera are distributed by Linn«us into classes, 
in what, from him, is denominated the Linna^an 
System of Botany. 

These classes are twenty-four in number, 
founded on the number, situation, or propor- 
tion of the stamens. 

The plants of the twenty-four classes are 
further arranged in subdivisions, denominated 
orders. The orders of the first thirteen classes 
are founded on the number of pistils the plants 
belonging to them contain. 

The orders of the 14th class are distinguished 
by their seed-vessels. 

The two orders of the 15th class are distin- 
-uished by the form of the seed-vessels. 



The orders of the 16th, 17th, and 18th classes 
are founded on the number of the stamens, that 
is, on the characters of the first thirteen classes. 

The orders of the 19ih class (Syngenesia) are 
marked by the nature of the florets. 

The orders of the 2(Jth, 2lst, and 22d classes 
are distinguished by the characters of some of 
the classes that preceded them: that is, by the 
number or proportion of the stamens, the union 
of the anthers not being attended to. 

The orders of the 23d class are distinguished 
upon the principles of the two preceding classes 

The 24th class {Cryptogamia) is divided into 
five orders : — 

1. Ferns, 3. Liverworts, 

2. Mosses, 4. Algae, 

5. Mushrooms. 

The natural system of M. Jussieu. — Every per^ 
son must have observed, that plants in many 
instances are arranged by nature in families ; 
for instance, the grasses, liliaceous plants, the 
umbelliferous plants, mosses, sea-weeds, ferns, 
&c., are composed of individuals bearing a 
very striking resemblance to each other in 
their forms. The same resemblance holds in 
their internal qualities, between such plants as 
resemble one another in configuration. Thus 
the grasses are all nutritious; the liliaceous 
plants in general poisonous; umbelliferous 
plants growing on high dry soils are generally 
wholesome ; those of wet situations are gene- 
rally poisonous. The importance of keeping 
these families undivided in a botanical classi- 
fication is evident; and if plants were univer- 
sally separable into such distinct families as 
those above mentioned, a natural system would 
be easy and perfect. But plants are too diver- 
sified; they approach each other in such va- 
rious shades, that it is certain a complete 
natural system can never be perfected, or must 
be too intricate for general use. Jussieu's sys- 
tem, with all its merit, is open to both these 
objections ; it is imperfect, were it only from 
being founded upon the structure of the seed, 
that part of plants which is, perhaps, more sel- 
dom than any other capable of being observed 
by the botanist. 

There are fifteen classes and one hundred 
orders. The classes have no particular names, 
but are distinguished by numbers, with a short 
statement of essential characters. The orders 
are named after some principal genus in each. 
There are some inaccuracies in the arrange- 
ment ; many plants, considered by Jussieu as 
monocotyledon ous, are now known to be with- 
out any cotyledons. 

At the end Jussieu places a large assemblage 
of genera, consisting of plants, the construction 
of whose seed is undetermined. This, of course, 
is an imperfection, but not peculiar to Jussieu'.'' 
system. It must be the case with all systems 
founded on nature, unless their contrivers 
could have at once before them a specimen of 
every species of plant that the various portions 
of our globe produce. This system has been 
greatly modified and improved by Decandolle, 
Lindley, and others ; and it is now justly pre- 
ferred to the artificial system of Linnaeus. 
(G. W.Johnson; Dr. Lindley; G.Sinclair; Trans. 
High. Soc. vol. i. p. 81.) 

BOTS. In farriery, a kind :f worms verv 

S13 



BOT-FLIES. 



BOT-FLIES. 



troublesome to horses. Bots are the larvce or 
iiaggots of a species of gad-fly (the (Estrus 
equi), which deposits its eggs on the legs, mane, 
or those parts of the horse that the animal is 
most apt to lick. The egg is immediately 
hatched by the warmth and moisture of the 
tongue, and the little worm conveyed into the 
mouth, whence it crawls down the oesophagus 
into the stomach. It adheres to the culicular 
coat of the stomach by means of little hooks, 
with which its mouth is furnished ; and there 
it remains from the summer of one year to the 
spring of the next, nourished by the mucus of 
the stomach, or the food which it contains. 
Then having attained its full size as a maggot, 
it loosens its hold, and is carried along the in- 
testines with the other contents of the stomach, 
and evacuated with the foeces. Before it drops, 
it generally clings for a while to the verge of 
the anus, and tickles and leases the horse to a 
very great degree. Except they exist in most 
unusual numbers, bots do neither good nor 
harm during their residence in the stomach of 
the horse. It is the habitation which nature 
has assigned to them ; and the safety of so 
noble an animal as the horse would not have 
been compromised for the sake of a maggot 
and a fly. The best advice that can be given, 
therefore, is to let them alone, or at most to be 
content with picking them off when they appear 
under the tail. There are two good reasons 
for this. The first is, that there is not any me- 
dicine that will expel them ; the strongest and 
even the most dangerous purgative is insuffi- 
cient. The second reason is, that if the bots 
are let alone, they will, in due time, come all 
away without our help or meddling. {Cla/er^s 
Farriery, p. 168 — 170.) Green food, however, 
expels them readily, as does common salt in 
the proportion of two to four ounces to a quart 
of water. The most simple and efficient reme- 
dy is a quart of milk, mixed well with A quar- 
ter of a pound of honey or brown sugar, given 
fasting. This is mucli better than aloes. 

BOT-FLIES. The various insects, impro- 
perly called bot-bces, are two-winged flies, be- 
longing to the order Diptera and the family 
(Estridos. Bot-flies do not seem to have any 
mouth or proboscis ; for, although these parts 
do really exist in them, the opening of the 
mouth is extremely small, and the proboscis 
is very short, and is entirely concealed in it, 
so that these insects, while in the winged state, 
do not appear able to take any nourishment. 
The larvEe or young of bot-flies live in various 
parts of the bodies of animals. They are thick, 
lieshy, whitish maggots, without feet, tapering 
towards the head, which is generally armed 
with two hooks, and the rings of the body are 
surrounded with rows of smaller hooks or 
prickles. When fully grown, they drop to the 
ground and burrow in it a short distance. 
After this, the skin of the maggot becomes a 
nard and brownish shell, within which the in- 
sect turns to a pupa, and finally to a fly, and 
comes out by pushing a little piece like a lid 
from the small end of the shell. 

More than twenty different kinds of bot-flies 

are already known, and several of them are 

found in the United States. Some of them have 

bcpcn brought here with our domesticated ani- 

214 



mals from abroad, and have multiplied a. 1 
increased. Three of them attack the horse. 
The large bot-fly of the horse (Gasterophilu» 
equi) has spotted wings. She lays her eggs 
about his knees ; the small red-tailed species 
(G. hwmorrhoidalis), on his lips; and the brown 
farrier bot-fly (G. veterinus'), under his throat, 
according to Dr. Roland Green. By rubbing 
and biting the parts where the eggs are laid, 
the horse gets the maggots into his mouth, and 
swallows them with his food. The insects 
then fasten themselves in clusters to the inside 
of his stomach, and live there till they are fully 
grown. The following are stated to be the 
sj'mptoms shown by the horse when he is 
much infested by these insects. He loses flesh, 
coughs, eats sparingly, and bites his sides ; at 
length he has a discharge from his nose ; and 
these symptoms are followed by a stifi'ness of his 
legs and neck, staggering, difficulty in breath- 
ing, convulsions, and death. No sure and safe 
remedy has yet been found sulficient to remove 
bots from the stomach of the horse. The pre- 
ventive means are very simple, consisting only 
in scraping off" the eggs or nits of the fly every 
day. Bracy Clark, Esq., who has published 
some very interesting remarks on the bots of 
horses and of other animals, maintains that 
bots are rather beneficial than injurious to the 
animals they infest. (Dr. Harris.) 

If a piece of the maw or stomach of a horse 
that has died while affected with bots be 
cut out, it may be held under the jet of the 
strongest fountain or hydrant, without the 
maggots or bots leaving go, or loosing their 
hooks. Experiments have been made to de- 
stroy them out of the body with spirits of tur- 
pentine, alcohol, and a great many of the most 
stimulating and acrimonious substances, in 
liquid and other forms, all, however, with little 
apparent etfect upon an insect so very tena- 
cious of life. The bot-maggot is even said to 
live a considerable length of time in oil of vi- 
triol and nitric acid or aquafortis. After such 
results, the chance of destroying them in the 
body must be small, through means which 
Avould not destroy the horse. The following 
ingenious method has, however, been pursued 
with success. A full drench has been admi- 
nistered, consisting of a mixture of milk sweet- 
ened with molasses, followed soon after by an 
active purgative drench. The milk and mo- 
lasses tempt the bot-maggots to let go their 
holds in order the better to partake of the milk, 
in which condition they are worked off" quickly 
by the brisk operation of the medicine. 

The maggots of the (Estrus bovis, or ox bot- 
fly, live in large open boils, sometimes called 
wornils or wurmals, that is, worm-holes, on 
the backs of cattle. The fly is rather smaller 
than the horse bot-fly, although it comes from 
a much larger maggot. The sheep bot-fly 
(Cephalemyia avis) lays its eggs in the nostrils 
of sheep, and the maggots crawl from thence 
into the hollows in the bones of the forehead. 
Deer are also afflicted by bots peculiar to them. 
Our native hare, or rabbit, as it is commonly 
called, sometimes has very large bots, which 
live under the skin of his back. The fly 
((Esf7'us buccatus) is as big as our largest 
humble-bee, but is not hairy. It is of a reddish- 



BOUND. 

black colour; the face and the sides of the 
hind-body are covered with a bluish-white 
bloom ; there are many small black dots on 
the latter, and six or eight on the face. This 
fly measures seven-eighths of an inch or more 
in length, and its wings expand about three- 
quarters of an inch. It is rarely seen ; and 
my only specimen was taken in the month of 
July, many years ago. 

At the very end of this order is to be placed 
a remarkable group of insects, which seems 
to connect the flies with the true ticks and spi- 
ders.. Some of these insects have wings ; but 
others have neither wings nor poisers. Of 
tlie winged kinds there is one (Hippobosca 
equina) that nestles in the hair of the horse; 
others are bird-flies (Ornithmnyia), and live in 
the plumage of almost all kinds of birds. The 
wingless kinds have sometimes been called 
spider-flies, from their shape ; such are sheep- 
ticks {Mellophagus ovis) and bat-ticks {Nyderi- 
bia). These singular creatures are not pro- 
duced from eggs, in the usual way among in- 
sects, but are brought forth in the pupa state, 
enclosed in the egg-shaped skin of the larva, 
which is nearly as large as the body of the 
parent insect. This egg-like body is soft and 
white at first, but soon becomes hard and 
brown. It is notched at one end, and out of 
this notched part the enclosed insect makes its 
way, when it arrives at maturity. (Dr. Harris.) 

BOUND (Sax. bunoe, from hjnoan, to bind). 
In veterinary medicine, a term of various ap- 
plication. Any part of an animal that is em- 
braced with an unnatural force is said to be 
bound: thus horses are liable to be hoof-bouiul, 
hide-bound, &c. Or the bowels may be con- 
stricted so as not to part with the fasces, in 
which case the belly is said to be bound. 

BOWEL DISEASES (Mod. Fr. boyaux ; 
old Fr. boailles). The horse and other quadru- 
peds are liable to various diseases affecting 
the bowels. Of inflammation of the bgwels 
there *re two kinds; that of the external and 
that of the internal coat. The former is a verj'^ 
frequent and fatal disease, and is recognised 
by the farrier under the name of ted coin: It is 
frequently caused by the application of cold to 
the belly of the horse, either by taking him 
into the water, or washing him about the belly 
with cold water, or suffering him to drink 
plentifully of it when he is heated, or by expo- 
sure to rain, over-exertion on a full stomach, 
&c. From whatever cause it arises, it runs 
its course with fearful rapidity, and sometimes 
destroys the horse in less than twenty-four 
hours. The symptoms should be carefully 
studied. One of the earliest is the expression 
of very acute pain. The animal paws, rolls, 
struggles violently, lies upon his back, groans ; 
his legs and mouth are cold, the flanks heave 
violently, the horse shivers and sweats, &c. 
The violence of the symptoms soon abates, 
and the horse becomes weak, and scarcely 
able to stand. Prompt and copious bleeding 
should be at first resorted to, until fainting 
nearly or quite succeeds; and mild aperients 
may be next administered. The whole of the 
belly should be stimulated with the strong blis- 
tering liquid, or with spirit of turpentine ; and 
these appliances should be rubbed in as hardly 



BOX-TREE. 

and thoroughly as the tender state of the belly 
will allow. The horse should be kept quiet, 
warmly clothed, and his legs bandaged. In- 
flammation of the inner coat of the bowels is 
usually the consequence of physic, either of 
bad quality or given in an over-dose ; or the 
horse may have been ridden or driven far and 
fast with nothing but green meat in his belly. 
This disease can scarcely be confounded with 
the foregoing. The horse does not roll so vio- 
lently nor kick so desperately, nor is there any 
heat nor much tenderness of the belly. At the 
same time he is purged, instead of exhibiting 
the obstinate costiveness which generally ac- 
companies the former. Plenty of tolerably 
thick gruel or starch should be forced down, 
which will possibly sheathe the coats of the 
stomach from the effect either of some portion 
of the physic or the acrimony of the secretion, 
and the purging will graduallj^ stop. If this 
should have no effect, bleeding, carefully 
watched, and stopped when the pulse falters, 
must be resorted to ; and thicker gruel and 
astringent medicine must be administered. 
As in the last species, warm clothing and 
bandages about the legs will be of essential 
service. (Claler^s Farriery, p. 173 — 178.) 

BOWLDERS, or BOULDERS. A term in 
gefilogy, implying rounded masses of rock; it 
is also provincially applied to a kind of round 
stone, common in the soils of the midland dis- 
tricts. In the north of England it is pronounced 
sometimes bowdcr or booder, and also boolhcr. 

BOWLDER-WALL. A wall generally on 
the sea-coast, constructed of large pebbles or 
bowlders of flint, which have been rounded by 
the action of water. 

BOW-LEGGED. In horsemanship, is a de- 
fective conformation or posture of the fore-legs 
of a horse. 

BOWS OF A SADDLE are two pieces of 
wood laid archwise to receive the upper part 
of the horse's back, to give the saddle its due 
form, and keep it steady. 

BOX DRAIN. An underground drain, re- 
gularly built, with upright sides, and a flat 
stone or brick cover; so that the close section 
has the appearance of a square box. See 
DitAiNs and Duaixing. 

BOX TREE (Sax. box ; It. bosso ,■ Fr. buis ; 
Lat. Ihixv-s scnipcrvircns). We consider the 
English name of this plant to be a coiTuption 
of the Latin word Imxvs, or from the Spanish 
I'ox, and that it gave the name to the wooden 
cases made by the carpenter and turner, rather 
than derived its own from these cases. The 
box was formerly much more plentiful in 
England than at present. Boxwel, in Glou- 
cestershire, was named from this tree, and it 
also gave the name of Boxhillto those delight- 
ful downs near Dorking, in Surry, where this 
shrub seems to have grown naturally, as it is 
known to have abounded there long before the 
time that the Earl of Arundel retired to that 
spot, and, as it is stated, planted the box. In 
1815 the box trees cut down on Boxhill pro- 
duced upwards of 10,000/. This evergreen 
bush, or small tree, is found all over Europe, 
as well as upon the chalk hills of England ; 
but it acquires its largest dimensions in the 
south. The duty on box-wood is quite oppres- 

215 



BOX. 



BRAMBLE. 



sive; being 5i. a ton if brought from a foreign 
country, and IZ. a ton if from a British pos- 
session. It is from Turkey that the principal 
part of the wood is imported into England; 
whether or not all this is really furnished by 
Buxus sempervii-ens is not known. It is not im- 
probable that Buxus balearica, a larger species, 
too tender to thrive in this country, may fur- 
nish a part, at least, of that which comes from 
the Mediterranean. It is said, that the wood 
of this species is coarser, and of a brighter yel- 
low than that of the common species. At an 
average of the three years ending with 1831, 
the entries of box-wood for home consumption 
amounted to 382 tons a year. In 1832, the 
duty produced 1867/. 17s. 4r/. Turkey box- 
wood sells in the London market for from 71. 
to 14/. a ton, duty included. Box is a very 
valuable wood. It is of a yellowish colour, 
close-grained, very hard, and heavy ; it cuts 
better than any other Avood, is susceptible of a 
very fine polish, and is very durable. In con- 
sequence it is much used by turners and ma- 
thematical and musical instrument makers. It 
is too heavy for furniture. It is the only wood 
used by the engravers of wood-cuts for books; 
and, provided due care be exercised, the num- 
ber of impressions that may be taken from a 
box-wood cut is very great. In France, box- 
wood is extensively used for combs, knife 
handles, and button moulds. The value of 
the box-wood sent from Spain to Paris is re- 
ported to amount to 10,000 fr. a year. 

Where box trees are required, they should 
be raised from seed, which should be sown 
soon after it is ripe, in a shady border of light 
loam, or sand; but it is generally propagated 
by cuttings planted in the autumn, and kept 
moist, until they have taken root. The box 
plant is best known for its use in gardens as 
hedgings to borders ; the kind so employed is 
a dwarf variety. It is very useful, as it grows 
freely under the drip and shade of trees. 
Dwarf box is increased by parting the roots, or 
planting the slips. The best time for trans- 
planting this shrub is October; though it may 
be removed almost at any time, except sum- 
mer, if it be taken up with a good ball of 
earth. 

With respect to its medicinal properties, 
box-wood has been substituted for guaiacuvi 
as a sudorific in rheumatism ; but is now seldom 
prescribed. Oil of box root is a popular reme- 
dy for the toothache, when dropped on cotton, 
and put into a carious tooth. (Phillips's Sylv. 
Flor. vol. i. p. 44 ; Brande's Did, of Scieitre ; 
M'Culloch's Com. Did.) 

BOX of a Wheel. The aperture wherein the 
axis turns. 

BOX of a Plough. The cross-piece in the 
head of the plough which supports the two 
crow-staves. 

BRACE. The general name for a couple, 
or pair, of such animals as bucks, hounds, 
partridges, &c. It is also applied to any thing 
that serves to strengthen or support. 

BRACKEN. It is written also braken, and 
sometimes pronounced breckin in the north of 
England. The same with brake or fern. See 
Fekn. 

BRAIRD. In the agriculture and gardening 
216 ^ * 



of Scotland, the term braird is applied to the 
springing up of seeds, which, when they come 
up well, are said to have a fine braird. 

BRAKE. The name of a wooden instru- 
ment for dressing hemp and flax, used to bruise 
or break the bun or stem, &c. in order to 
separate the cortical part or rind from it. It 
is sometimes applied to a thicket, or the 
place where fern grows ; and is another name 
for the barnacles, or pincers, used by farriers. 
Brake is also a sharp bit, or snaffle for horses. 
A smith's brake is a machine in which horses 
unwilling to be shod are confined during that 
operation. Some species of large heavy har- 
rows are frequently called brakes. See Har- 
row. 

BRAMBLE, FLOWERING {Rubus odora- 
tus). A hardy exotic shrub, five or six feet in 
height, blowing apinkish violet-coloured flower 
in June and August. It loves shade and moist- 
ure, and is propagated by suckers. It is known 
also as the flowering raspberry. 

BRAMBLE or BRAMBLE-BERRY (Sax. 
iira^inbei, formerly written brcinble ; Lat. Ru- 
bvs). The bramble, or blackberry, the generic 
name of a large family of shrubs which creep 
along the hedge in every soil. The common 
bramble (Rubus fntticosus) derives both its La- 
tin and English common name from the colour 
of its fruit at diff"erent stages of ripeness. 
However generally the bramble is reprobated 
as a troublesome weed, we must acknowledge 
that, when either in fruit or flower, it forms a 
principal among the numberless hedgerow 
beauties, and is not without its utility in par- 
ticular soils, especially in poor sandy lands, 
where the growth of other hedges is slow, and 
where, by reason of the looseness of the soil, 
the ditch is no defence. When planted in 
such situations, it will, by its quick growth, 
soon entwine its thorny branches in the dead 
hedge, and form an almost impervious fence 
against the invasions of cattle, sheep, and 
other trespassers. Brambles mixed with other 
hedge plants will render them thicker and 
stronger. The objections urged against the 
more general adoption of bramble fences are, 
that, by the yearly decay of a portion of the 
shoots, they soon fill the hedge with dead wood, 
which has not only an unsightly appearance, 
but is also hurtful to the other plants; and 
again it is said, that the leaves are so broad 
and numerous as to smother every other plant, 
by depriving it of both sun and air. When 
brambles are in considerable abundance, as is 
often the case in waste and other lands that 
require to be brought into cultivation, they 
should always be grubbed or hoed up ; and if 
the land be afterwards ploughed with a good 
furrow, the remaining roots will be torn up, 
and the plants at length destroyed. This shrub, 
which is only used by the chance passenger 
occasionally plucking its fruit, possesses, how- 
ever, several advantages which deserve our 
attention. Its long branches can, in case of 
need, be employed as cords ; and its fruit pro- 
duces an excellent wine, the mode of making 
which is as follows : — Five measures of the 
ripe fruit, with one of honey and six of wine, 
are taken and boiled; the froth is skimmed 
off, the fire removed, and the mixture being 



BRAMBLE. 



BRAMBLE. 



fiassed through a linen cloth, is left to ferment. 
t is then boiled anew, and allowed to ferment 
in a suitable cask. In Provence bramble-ber- 
ries are used to give a deep colour to particu- 
lar wines. (Mlgern. Forst und Jagd-Zeitung, Feb. 
1828, p. 104.) The juice of the blackberry, 
mixed with raisin wine before it has fermented, 
will give it both the colour and flavour of 
claret. " The berries," says Pliny, " have a 
desiccative and astringent virtue, and are a 
most appropriate remedy for the gums and 
inflammation of the tonsils." The flowers as 
well as the berries of the bramble were igno- 
rantly considered by the ancients as remedies 
against the most dangerous serpents. They 
are diuretic; and the juice pressed out of the 
tendrils, or young shoots, and afterwards re- 
duced to the consistency of honey by standing 
in the sun, is, adds the above author, " a sin- 
gularly efficacious medicine, taken inwardly 
or applied outwardly, for all the diseases of 
the mouth and eyes, as well as for the quincy, 
&c." But Pliny has lost his celebrity as a 
medical authority, if he ever had any ; and 
modern blackberries have also lost their 
virtue. Boerhaave affirms, that the roots taken 
out of the earth in February or March, and 
boiled with honey, are an excellent remedy 
against the dropsy. 

Syrup of blackberries, picked when only red, 
is cooling and astringent in common purgings 
or fluxes. The bruised leaves, stalks, and un- 
ripe fruit, applied outwardly, are said to cure 
ringworm. 

Billington, in his work on Planting, says, 
"To the poor in the vicinity of Newcastle it is 
of great importance ; many of whom go a 
great number' of miles to gather blackberries 
while they are in season, and carry them from 
ten to twenty miles, to Newcastle, Shields, and 
Sunderland, where they sometimes sell them 
as high as 3d. and id. per quart, for puddings, 
tarts, preserves, or jellies, and even making of 
wines." The fruit is, in particular, much 
esteemed and sought after by the wives and 
mothers of sailors, to send on board the ships, 
as it is found to be very healthful to the men 
to eat with their biscuits, as well as for pud- 
dings, much more so than their common fare 
of salt beef and pork. All through the season, 
after the gooseberries are over (for apples, 
plums, &c., are often scarce and dear), the 
people are regaled with the fruit of the bram- 
ble as the greatest domestic luxury, and would 
probably lay in a store for future consumption 
if sugar were cheaper. The leaves of the dwarf 
crimson bramble (Rubus ardims) are often used 
to adulterate tea. See WHonxLEBEHnT. 

Of the Rubus fruticosus, or common bramble, 
we have (says Phillips) five varieties ; and as 
one has been discovered in a hedge near Ox- 
ford by Bobart which produces a white fruit, 
it will be necessary to adopt the proper name 
of bramble-berry for this fruit, to avoid the 
contradictory appellation of white blackberry. 
The variety with a double flower is now one 
of the ornaments of the shrubbery ; the other 
varieties are, one with variegated leaves, one 
•with cut leaves, and the bramble without 
thorns. Smith, in his English Flora, describes 
fourteen species of bramble (Rubus) ; which 
28 



include the raspberry, cloudberry, and dew- 
berr)''. Several reputed varieties of the com- 
mon bramble have also been observed in 
Britain (says Smith, vol. ii. p. 400), diff'ering 
in the shape and pubescence of their leaflets, 
not to mention other characters. These have 
recently been proposed as species in a very 
able work, with excellent plates partially co- 
loured, by Dr. A. Weihe and Prof Ch. G. Nees 
ab Esenbeck of Bonn, under the title of Rubi 
Germanica. Notwithstanding the colour of the 
flowers, I cannot suppose the British R. fruti- 
cosus to differ from theirs. {Smithes Engl. Flora, 
vol. ii.; Phillips's Hist, of Fruits, p. 63; Quar- 
terly Journ. of Jgr. vol. i. p. 816; vol. iii. p. 
182.) 

The Rubus brier, or bramble genus, consists 
of about fifty species, which are very widely 
dispersed over the various continents, extending 
from the arctic circle to the equatorial limits. 
Mr. Nuttall enumerates twenty species as found 
in America, among which are the following: 
Rubus Idaus, indigenous, according to Pursh and 
others, throughoutUpperCanada and the north- 
ern parts of the United States. Dr. Darlington 
calls this the Antwerp raspberry, so advantage- 
ously known from its large and finely flavoured 
berries which are cultivated in most gardens. 
He doubts its being a native of America. 
There are several varieties of this species of 
Rubus. The Rubus occidentalis, common black 
raspberry, or thimble-berry, is common in the 
Middle States and other portions of the Union, 
growing along fence-rows, borders of woods, 
&c. Ruhus villosus, common brier, or black- 
berry bush, is often a great nuisance on farms, 
from the rapidity with which it spreads and 
takes possession of neglected fields. R. Cunei- 
forms, or wedge-leaved rubus or brier, bearing 
an oval-shaped, small, and well-flavoured 
blackberry, very common in New Jersey. R. 
Trivvilis, dewberry, or running brier. The 
black, sweet, and succulent fruit of this 
species of rubus is a very great favourite. It 
is not, however, the same as the English dew- 
berry, which is produced by the Ruhus Caslvs. 
In treating of the American dewberry, or run- 
ning brier. Dr. Darlington says, "the plough- 
boy is apt to get well acquainted with this 
species, — by the long trailing stems, %vith their 
recurved prickles, drawing across his naked 
ankles!" R. odorutus, found on the banks of 
the Wisahickon, near Philadelphia, abundant 
in mountainous districts, always among 
rocks. 

The tall blackberry {R. Villosvs) is some- 
times cultivated near Boston and other large 
cities, for the sake of its fruit, and richly re- 
pays the care bestowed upon it. Dr. Harris, 
in his report to the Massachusetts legislature 
upon destructive insects, says, that this plant 
and its near relation, the raspberry, suffer from 
borers that live in the pith of the stems, a fact 
which does not appear to be generally known. 
The beetle is a species oi Saperda, and finishes 
its transformations towards the end of July, 
laying its eggs early in August, one by one, on 
the stems of the blackberry and raspberry, 
near a leaf or small twig. The grubs proceed 
ing from these eggs burrow directly into the 
pith, which they consume as they proceed, so 
T 217 



BRAN. 



BREAD. 



that the stem for several inches is completely- 
deprived of its pith, and consequently withers 
and dies before the end of the summer. In 
Europe, one of these slender saperdas attack 
the hazle-nut bush, and another the pear tree 
in a similar manner. 

The dewberry and blackberry are very plea- 
sant fruits and make fine jelly. All the species 
are readily propagated both by seed and layers, 
and are wonderfully improved by culture. 

There is a double white flowering bramble 
(Rubus dho-pleno) which is a beautiful and or- 
namental variety. 

BRAN (Old Fr. bren; Ital. brenna). The 
thin skin or husks of corn, particularly wheat, 
ground and separated from the meal by a sieve 
or boulter. It is generally laxative ; owing to 
the mechanical irritation it excites. An infu- 
sion of it, under the name of bran tea, is fre- 
quently used as a domestic remedy for coughs 
and hoarseness. Infusions of bran also re- 
move scurf and dandriff. Calico-printers em- 
ploy bran and warm water with great success, 
to remove colouring matter from those parts 
of their goods that are not monlanted. Bran 
is a useful ingredient, when well scalded, and 
employed occasionally in moderate quantities, 
in mashes for horses; but the constant use of 
it, whether raw or scalded, is prejudicial, as it 
is apt to weaken the horse's bowels, and there- 
by expose him to many disorders. It is also 
highly useful in stall-feeding cattle, and for 
sheep, when given as a dry food. According 
to the analysis of M. Saussure, 100 parts of 
the ashes of the bran of wheat contain {Chem. 
Rec. Veg.),~ 

" ^ Paris. 

Soluble salts ----- 44 15 
Earthy phosphates ... - 46-5 

Silica 0-5 

Metallic oxides ----- 0-25 
Loss ------- 8b 

BRAND-GOOSE, or BRENT-GOOSE. A 

kind of wildfowl, less than a common goose, 
having its breast and wings of a dark colour. 
See GoosK. 

BRANK. A provincial name sometimes 
applied to buckwheat, which see. 

BRAWN. The flesh of the boar, after being 
boned, rolled up, or collared, boiled, and pick- 
led. Brawn is made of the flitches, and some 
other parts, the oldest boars being chosen for 
the purpose, it being a rule that the older the 
boar the more horny the brawn. 

The method of making it is generally as 
follows: — The bones being taken out of the 
flitches, or other parts, the flesh is sprinkled 
with salt, and laid in a tray, that the blood may 
drain off"; after which it is salted a little, and 
rolled up as hard as possible. The length of 
the collar of brawn should be as much as one 
side of the boar will bear ; so that, when rolled 
up, it may be nine or ten inches in diameter. 
After being thus rolled up, it is boiled in a 
copper or large kettle, till it is so tender that 
you may almost run a stiff" straw through it; 
when it is set by till thoroughly cold, and then 
put mto a pickle composed of water, salt, and 
wheat-bran, in the proportion of two handfuls 
of each of the latter to every gallon of water; 
which, after bei'.ng well boiled together, is 
strained off" as clear as possible from the bran, 
218 



and when quite cold, the brawn put into it. 
( Willich's Dom. Encycl.) 

BREACHY, or BREECHY WOOL, is the 
short coarse wool of a sheep, such as that 
which comes from the breech of the animal. 

BREAD (Sax. bpeoo; Ger. brod). This 
forms an important and principal article in the 
food of most civilized nations, and consists of 
a paste or dough formed of the flour or meal 
of diff"erent sorts of grain, mixed with water, 
with or without yeast or ferment, and baked. 

Bread may be divided, in the first instance, 
into leavened and imleavened bread. When stale 
dough or yeast is added to the fresh dough of 
flour and water to make it swell, it is said to 
be leavened ; when nothing of this sort is 
added, the bread is said to be unleavened. 
These may again be subdivided into various 
kinds and qualities. The principal sorts in use 
are white, ivheaten, household, and brown bread, 
which differ from each other in their degrees of 
purity. In the first, all the bran is separated 
from the flour ; in the second, only the coarser 
parts of it ; and in the third scarcely any at all ; 
so that fine bread is made only of flour ; whealen 
bread of flour, with a mixture of fine bran ; and 
household bread of the whole substance of the 
grain, without taking out scarcely any either of 
the coarse bran or the fine flour. We have also 
manchet or roll-bread, and French bread, 
which are fine white breads made of the purest 
flour; in roll-bread there is sometimes an ad- 
dition of milk, and in French bread butter is 
used. There is likewise ginger-bread, maslin- 
bread, made of wheat and rye, or sometimes 
of wheat and barley; and other breads made 
with various substitutes for flour, as oat-bread, 
rye-bread, pea and bean-bread, &c. 

The President de Goguet has endeavoured 
(Origin of Laws, ^c, vol. i. pp. 95—105, Eng. 
trans.) to trace the successive steps by which 
it is probable men were led to discover the 
art of making bread; but nothing positive is 
known on the subject. It is certain, however, 
from the statements in the sacred writings, 
that the use of unleavened bread was common 
in the days of Abraham (Gen. xviii. 8); and 
that leavened bread was used in the time of 
Moses (Exod. xii. 15). The method of grind- 
ing corn by hand-mills was practised in Egypt 
and Greece from a very remote epoch ; but 
for a lengthened period, the Romans had no 
other method of making flour than by beating 
roasted corn in mortars. The conquests of 
the Romans diffused, amongst many other use- 
ful discoveries, a knowledge of the art of pre- 
paring bread, as followed in Rome, through the 
whole south of Europe. 

The use of yeast in the raising of bread 
seems, however, from a passage of Pliny (lib. 
xviii. c. 7), to have been taken advantage of 
by the Germans and Gauls before it was prac- 
tised by the Romans ; the latter, like the Greeks, 
having leavened their bread by intermixing 
the fresh dough with that which had become 
stale. The Roman custom seems to have su- 
perseded that which was previously in use in 
France and Spain ; for the art of raising bread 
by an admixture of yeast was not practised in 
France in modern times till towards the end 
of the seventeenth century. 



BREAD. 



BREAD. 



For the formp.tion of bread, a certain degree 
of fermentation, not unlike vinous fermenta- 
tion, is requisite, care being taken to avoid the 
acetous fermentation, which renders the bread 
sour, and, to most persons, disagreeable. This 
fermentation is called panary. If dough be left 
to itself in a moderately warm place (between 
80° and 120°), a degree of fermentation comes 
on, which, however, is sluggish, or, if rapid, is 
apt to run into the acetous; so that, to effect 
that kind of fermentation requisite for the pro- 
duction of the best bread, a ferment is added, 
which is either leaven, or dough in an already 
fermenting state, which tends to accelerate the 
process of the mass to which it is added, or 
yeasl, the peculiar matter which collects in the 
form of scum upon beer in the act of fermenta- 
tion. See YiiAST. Of these ferments, leaven 
is slow and uncertain in its effects, and gives 
a sour and often slightly putrid flavour to the 
bread. Yeast is more effective, and, when 
clean and good, it rapidly induces panary fer- 
mentation ; but it is often bitter, and sometimes 
has a peculiarly disagreeable smell and taste. 
Bread well raised and baked differs from un- 
fermented bread, not only in being spongy, less 
compact, lighter, and of a more agreeable taste, 
but also in being more easily miscible with 
water, with which it does not form a viscous 
mass ; and this circumstance is of great im- 
portance to health. All, then, that is essential 
to make a loaf of bread, is dough to which a 
certain quantity of yeast has been added. This 
mass, or sponge, in the language of the baker, 
is put into any convenient mould or form, or 
it s merely shaped into one mass; and, after 
being kept for a short time in rather a warm 
place, so that fermentation may have begun, it 
is subjected to the process of baking in a pro- 
per oven. Carbonic acid is generated, and the 
viscidity or texture of the dough preventing 
the immediate escape of that gas from the in- 
numerable points where it forms, the whole 
mass is puffed up by it, and a light porous 
bread is the result. Along with the carbonic 
acid alcohol is evolved, but the quantity is so 
insignificant and the spirit so impure as not to 
be worth notice; thence the attempts which 
have been made to collect it upon a large scale 
have entirely failed in an economical point of 
view. 

The general process of making househcild 
bread is this: — To a peck of meal or flour is 
to be added about three ounces of salt, half a 
pint of yeast, and three quarts of water, cold 
in summer, but warm in winter, and temperate 
between the two: the whole being then well 
kneaded in a bowl or trough, and being set by 
m a proper temperature, rises in about an hour, 
according to the season. It is then moulded 
into loaves, and put into the oven to be baked. 
In placing the dough aside, it is proper to cover 
it; this is termed setting the sponge, and it under- 
goes a second kneading before it is baked. 

For French bread, take half a bushel of fine 
flour, ten eggs, a pound and a half of fresh 
butter (the eggs and butter, however, are very 
seldom used), and the same quantity of yeast 
used in making the finest rolls or manchet ; 
and, tempering the whole mass with new milk, 
Dretty hot, let it lie half an hour to rise ; which 



done, make it into loaves or rolls, and wash 
these over with an egg beaten with milk, tak 
ing care that the oven is not too hot. 

Other flour, besides that of wheat, will, under 
similar circumstances, undergo panary fer- 
mentation ; but the result is a heavy, unpala- 
table, and often indigestible bread; so that the 
addition of a certain quantity of wheat flour is 
almost always had recourse to. It is the gluten 
in wheat which thus peculiarly fits it for the 
manufacture of bread, chiefly in consequence 
of the tough and elastic viscidity which it con- 
fers upon the dough. 

Wheat flour is composed chiefly of starch 
and gluten ; the proportion of these and other 
substances which it contains, according to 
Vogel, are — 

Paris. 

Starch 68-0 

Gluten 24-0 

Gummy sugar . . - . - S-O 
Vegetable albumen - - - - 1-5 

Sir H. Davy states, that wheat sown in au- 
tumn contains 77 per cent, of starch, and 19 
of gluten ; while that sown in spring yields 70 
of starch and 24 of gluten. The wheat of the 
south of Europe contains a larger proportion 
of gluten than that of the north; and hence its 
peculiar fitness for making macaroni and ver- 
micelli. Oats yiekfed, according to Davy's 
analysis, 59 of starch, 6 of gluten, and 2 of 
saccharine matter; while the same quantity of 
rye gave only 6-1 parts of starch, and half a 
part of gluten. 

Like all other farinaceous substances, bread 
is very nourishing, on account of the gluten 
which it contains ; but if eaten too freely, it is 
productive of acidity, which deranges the in- 
testines, and lays the foundation of dyspepsia. 
Stale bread, in every respect, deserves the pre- 
ference over that which is newly baked ; and 
persons troubled with flatulency, cramp of the 
stomach, or indigestion, should abstain from 
new bread, and particularly from hot rolls. 
Bread made from the best flour is necessarily 
costly, but is more wholesome for those per- 
sons who are liable to a relaxed state of the 
bowels. Brown bread, on the contrary, is the 
cheapest and most desirable for persons whose 
habit of body is of the contrary nature : but 
there is an intermediate kind made from flour, 
in which the finer portion of the bran is retain- 
ed, called locally "seconds," which is prefer- 
able to either of the above. (Qiiar. Jour. Jgr. 
vol. ix. p. 585.) It is a prevailing idea that 
yeast reproduces itself, just as seeds reproduce 
"similar seeds. But chemical investigation has 
shown that such an opinion is not to be enter- 
tained. See Yeast. 

The species of bread in common use in a 
country depends partly on the taste of the in- 
habitants, but more on the sort of grain suita- 
ble for its soil. The superiority of wheat to 
all other farinaceous plants in the manufacture 
of bread is so very great, that wherever it is 
easily and successfully cultivated, wheaten 
bread is used to the nearly total exclusion of 
most others. Where, however, the soil or cli- 
mate is less favourable to its growth, rye. oats, 
&c., are used in its stead. A very great changf; 
for the better has, in this respect, taken place 
in Great Britain within the last century. It i.s 

219 



BREAD. 

mentioned by Harrison, in his Description of 
England (p. 168), that in the reign of Henry 
VIII. the gentry had wheat sufficient for their 
own tables, but that their households and poor 
neighbours were usually obliged to content 
themselves with rye, barley, and oats. It ap- 
pears from the household-book of Sir Edward 
Coke, that in 1596 rye bread and oatmeal 
formed a considerable part of the diet of ser- 
vants, even in great families, in the southern 
counties. In 1626 barley bread was the usual 
ordinary food of the great bulk of the people. 
At the Revolution, the wheat produced in Eng- 
land and Wales was estimated by Mr. King 
and Dr. Davenant to amount to 1,750,000 quar- 
ters. {DavenanVs Works, vol. ii. p. 217.) Mr. 
Charles Smith, the very well informed author 
of the Tracts on the Corn Trade, originally pub- 
lished in 1758, states that in his time wheat 
had become much more generally the food of 
the common people than it had been in 1689 ; 
but he adds (2d edit. p. 182. Lond. 1766). that, 
notwithstanding this increase, some very intel- 
ligent inquirers were of opinion that even then 
not more than half the people of England fed 
on wheat. Mr. Smith's own estimate, which 
is very carefully drawn up, is a little higher ; 
for, taking the population of England and 
Wales, in 1760, at 6,000,000, he supposes that 
3,750,000 were consumers of wheat, 739,000 
of barley, 888,000 of rye, and 623,000 of oat 
bread. He further supposed that they indivi- 
dually consumed — the first class, 1 qr. of wheat ; 
the second, 1 qr. and 3 bushels of barley; the 
third, 1 qr. and 1 bushel of rye; and the fourth, 
2 qrs. and 7 bushels of oats. About the mid- 
die of last century, hardly any wheat was used 
in the northern counties of England. In Cum- 
berland the principal families used only a 
small quantity about Christmas. The crust of 
the goose-pie, with which almost every table 
in the county is then supplied, was, at the 
period referred to, almost uniformly made of 
barley meal. (Eden, On llic Poor, vol. i. p. 564.) 
Every one knows how inapplicable these 
statements are to the condition of the people 
of England at the present time. Wheaten 
bread is now almost universally made use of 
in towns and villages, and almost everywhere 
in the country. Barley is no longer used; oats 
are employed for bread only in the northern 
parts of the island ; and the consumption of 
rye bread is comparatively inconsiderable. 
The produce of the wheat crops has been, at 
the very least, trebled since 1760. And if to 
this immense increase in the supply of wheat 
we add the still more extraordinary increase 
in the supply of butcher's meat (see Cattle), 
the fact of a very signal improvement in the 
condition of the population, in respect of food, 
will be obvious. When flour is converted 
into bread, it is found, on weighing it when 
taken from the oven, that it has increased from 
28 to 34 per cent, in weight (3 lbs. of flour 
make 3 lbs. 10 oz. of dough) ; but when it has 
been kept thirty-six hours, that which had 
gained 28 will lose about 4 per cent. There 
are, however, several circumstances which 
nfluence the quantity of bread obtained from 
a given weight of flour, such as the season in 
which the wheat was grown and the age of the 
S20 



BREAD. 

flour : the better th^ flour is, and the older, 
within certain limits, the larger is the quantity 
of the bread produced. 

According to the assize acts, a sack of flour 
weighing 280 lbs. is supposed capable of being 
baked into 80 quartern loaves; one-fifth of the 
loaf being supposed to consist of water and 
salt, and four-fifths of flour. But the number 
of loaves that may be made from a sack of 
flour depends entirely on its goodness. Good 
flour requires more water than bad flour. 
Sometimes 82, 83, and even 86 loaves have 
been made from a sack of flour, and sometimes 
hardly 80 : 96 are generally made, at 4 lbs. 
6 oz. before going into the oven, by the London 
bakers. 

It is well known that home-made bread and 
baker's bread are very difl'erent ; the former is 
usually sweeter, lighter, and more retentive of 
moisture, and will keep well for three weeks, 
especially if a little rye meal is mixed with it; 
the latter, if eaten soon after it has cooled, is 
pleasant and spongy; but if kept more than 
two or three days, it becomes harsh and unpa- 
latable, and mouldy. Small quantities of 
alum are invariably used by the London 
bakers, with the view of whitening or bleach- 
ing the bread; for it will be observed, that 
whatever may be the quality of the flour which 
is used, home-made bread is always of a com- 
paratively dingy hue. By some respectable 
bakers it was formerly in extensive use, and 
might still be used, with perfect safety ; for in 
so small a quantity as a quarter of a pound of 
alum to 1 cwt. of flour, it could not be in the 
least degree injurious. According to Mr. Ac- 
cum {On the Adulteration of Food), i\\e requisite 
quantity of alum for this purpose depends 
upon the quality of the flour. The mealman, 
he says, makes different sorts of flour from the 
same kind of grain. The best flour is chiefly 
used for biscuits and pastry, and the inferior 
kinds for bread. In London, no fewer than 
five kinds of wheaten flour are brought into 
the market ; they are called fine flour, seconds, 
middlings, coarse middlings, and twenty- 
penny. 

Beans and peas are also, according to the 
same authority, frequently ground up with 
London flour. The smallest quantity of alum 
used is from three to four ounces to the sack 
of flour of 240 lbs. Alum may easily be de- 
tected in bread, by pouring boiling water on it, 
pressing out the water, boiling it away to one- 
third, allowing it to cool, filtering it through 
paper, and adding to the clear liquor some 
solution of muriate of lime {chloride of calciuni). 
If considerable muddiness now appear, it is 
proof of adulteration, and none other can well 
be suspected than alum. Another article oc- 
casionally employed in bread and ginger-bread 
making is carbonate of ammonia. As it is 
wholly dissipated by the heat of the oven, none 
remains in the baked loaf. It renders the 
bread light, and perhaps neutralizes any acid 
that may have been formed (exclusive of car- 
bonic acid) ; but it is too dear to be much 
employed. To some kinds of biscuits it gives 
a peculiar shortness, and a few of the most 
celebrated manufacturers use it largely. Ac- 
cording to Mr. E. Davy, bread, especially that 



BREAD. 



BREAD. 



of indifferent flour, is materially improved by 
the addition of a little carbonate of magnesia, 
in the proportion of twenty to thirty grains to 
the pound of flour; it requires to be very in- 
timately mixed with the flour. Salt, which, in 
small quantity, is absolutely necessary to the 



were procured, ground into meal, ai. d baked 
in various proportions into bread; such as 
wheat, rye, rice, barley, buckwheat, maize, 
oats, peas, beans, and potatoes. Many of these 
form the principal nourishment of mankind 
in various countries. Buckwheat, made into 



flavour of the bread, is used by fraudulent thin cakes, is the chief article of food in Bre- 
persons as an adulteration ; for a large portion | tagne and parts of Normandy. Rice nourishes, 
of it added to dough imparts to it the quality j probably, more human beings in the East than 



of absorbing and retaining a much greater 
quantity of water than it otherwise would, thus 
making the loaf heavier. The taste of such 
bread is a sufficient index to its bad quality. 
It is rough in its grain. (Domestic Economy, 
vol. i.) A long list of other articles which 



all other articles of food taken together ; and, 
for its bulk, is supposed to be the most nutri- 
tious of all the sorts of grain. Maize is a 
principal article throughout the south of Eu- 
rope, and is made into bread in Italy and in 
America. Peas and beans have rarely, it is 



are said to be used in the adulteration of bread i believed, been used alone as bread; but, it is 



might be given, but no advantage could result 
from such a statement. 

Making bread at home is an operation very 
easy of acquirement; and, doubtless, most of 
our farming friends are fortunate in possess- 
ing worthy helpmates or experienced servants 
who provide the families with this daily ne- 
cessary. To such a practical method of per- 
forming the art would be deemed needless ; 
but others of our readers, who may not have 
considered the expediency of this bread, its 
superior salubrity, its decided economy, and 
the feasibility of its preparation, may be pleased 
to meet with its details. We may refer them, 
therefore, to the Quar. Journ. of Jig?: (vol. ix. 
pp. 289 and 583), a work which is probably in 
the hands of the greater number of the British 
farmers; or they may consult with advantage 
any of the works cited at the end of this ar- 
ticle, for our limits will not permit us to go 
into the particulars. The writer there states, 
that the addition of potatoes is wholly unne- 
cessary, unless it be the intention of a house- 
wife that her product shall resemble that of 
the baker in insipidity and whiteness ; both 
qualities will result from the use of that root, 
which enters largely into the composition of 
all bread that is purchased. Notwithstanding 
the prejudice in favour of the use of potatoes, 
it has been proved, by careful calculation, that 
although even a third part of the flour be 
exchanged for potatoes, so immense is the 
quantity of water which they contain, that the 
substitute would cause a loss rather than a 
gain. 

Substitute for wheat flour. — Various sub- 
stances have been used for bread, instead of 
wheat. In the year 1629-30, when there was a 
dearth in England, bread was made in London 
of turnips. And again in 1693, when corn 
was very dear, a great quantity of turnip bread 
was made in several parts of the kingdom, 
but particularly in Essex. The process is, to 
put the turnips into a kettle over a slow fire, 
till they become soft; they are then taken out, 
squeezed, and drained as dry as possible, and 
afterwards mashed and mixed with an equal 
weight of flour, and kneaded with yeast, salt, 



suspected, they enter largely, though clandes- 
tinely, into its composition in various districts. 

To ascertain the respective qualities of all 
these grains, and to discover their operation 
on each other, in correcting by means of one 
the defects of another, would be an inquiry 
deserving great attention, but it has not yet 
been experimentally investigated. With al- 
most all the several kinds of grain enumerated, 
experiments were made on seventy sorts of 
bread. But as all these sorts were made at 
once, by several bakers, in order to be ex- 
amined at the same time, the execution, it is 
observed, was by no means such as gave the 
Board of Agriculture, who instituted the in- 
quiry, satisfaction. One general result, how- 
ever, was, that very few, if any, of the loaves 
then exhibited, were too bad for human food 
in times of scarcity ; and it may be observed, 
that though at first a change may prove dis- 
agreeable, yet the practice of a few days soon 
reconciles the stomach to almost any species 
of food, by which, at least in the same country, 
other individuals can be supported. These 
experiments were followed by others, which I 
will explain under distinct heads. 

Rice. — Of all the mixtures, none has made 
bread equally good with rice, not ground, but 
boiled quite soft, and then mixed with wheaten 
flour. One-third rice and two-thirds wheat 
make good bread ; but one-fourth rice makes 
a bread superior to any that can be eaten, better 
even than all of wheat ; and as the gain in 
baking is more than of wheat alone (since rice 
contains 8.5 per cent, of starch), there can be 
no doubt of its nutritive quality. Rice bread 
thus formed is sweetish to the taste, and very 
agreeable ; but, as the proportion of gluten is 
considerably less than in wheaten bread, it is 
less nutruive. Excellent biscuits are formed 
of the mixture. 

Potatoes.— The experiments made with this 
root were similar. It makes a pleasant pala- 
table bread with wheat in the proportion of 
one-third, but one-fourth still lighter and better. 
Specimens of barley and potatoes, and also of 
oats and the same root, made into bread, were 
submitted to the Board, which promise well. 



and a little warm water. A series of interest- In some cases the potato was not boiled, but 
ing experiments were made some years ago merely grate 1 down into a pulp and mixed 
by the Board of Agriculture to determine , with wheaten flour, in which mode it made 
what were the best substitutes for wheaten j excellent bread. It has been found by other 
flour in the composition of different kinds of I trials, that good bread may be made from 
bread. For this purpose, all the sorts of grain, J equal quantities of flour and potato meal, 
&c. commonly sold in the markets in London i which has been greatly the practice in thosti 

T 2 221 



BREAD. 



BREAD. 



countries most remarkable for the plentiful 
-ulture of the potato. 

Various experiments have teen made to 
combine the meal of wheat, barley, oat, bean, 
and pea flour with vegetable substances, and 
which have been found to produce very whole- 
some and nutritive bread. 

Using the potatoes after boiling, steaming, or 
baking, and reducing them into a sort of pow- 
der, seems, however, to be the most ready me- 
thod of making them into bread. 

Odts. — It appears, from some experiments 
made by Dr. Richard Pearson of Birmingham, 
that oats answer better mixed with potatoes 
than has been commonly apprehended. 

He found that three pints (dry measure) of 
fine oatmeal, three pints of seconds flour, and 
one quart of potato pulp kneaded into a dough, 
with a proper quantity of yeast, salt, and milk 
and water, made a bread of excellent quality. 

Barley. — Mixed with an equal proportion of 
wheat, or one-fourth potatoes and three-fourths 
barley, barley bread is good. The following 
method of making bread of wheat and barley 
flour has been strongly recommended. To 
four bushels of wheat ground to one sort of 
flour, extracting only a very small quantity of 
the coarser bran, add 3^ bushels of barley 
flour. The oven should be hotter than when 
bread is made of wheat alone ; and the loaves 
should remain in the oven about two hours or 
more. The off"al of the barley is good food 
for hogs. This bread appears to be improved 
by being baked in half-gallon loaves. 

Bye. — In several parts of the kingdom a 
mixture of rye and wheat is reckoned an ex- 
cellent species of bread. In Nottinghamshire 
even opulent farmers consume one-third wheat, 
one-third rye, and one-third barley ; but their 
labourers do not relish it. As rye is well 
known to be a wholesome and nutritious grain, 
its consumption cannot be too strongly recom- 
mended. The astringent quality of rice, mixed 
with rye, corrects the laxative quality of the 
latter, and makes it equally strong and nourish- 
ing with the same weight of common wheaten 
bread. The principal objection to rye is the 
circumstance of the grain being sometimes 
ergotted, which renders the bread unwhole- 
some. 

Indian Com. — The flour of maize or Indian 
corn, by itself, makes a heavy bread. The 
right mode of manufacturing it is to boil the 
flour to the consistency of paste, and then, 
when mixed with wheat flour, it makes a most 
excellent bread. If used by itself, it is said to 
have at first a laxative effect, but that dimi- 
nishes by use, and at any rate can easily be 
corrected by a mixture either of barley or rice. 
It is stated, on very respectable authority, as 
the general opinion of the inhabitants of the I 
United States, but more particularly of the 
people of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and | 
Kentucky, where Indian corn is raised in the i 
largest quantity, and applied to the greatest j 
variety of uses, that rather more nutriment is j 
contained in a bushel of Indian corn than of 
wheat. In the four states above-mentioned it 
constitutes the almost entire food of the labour- 
ing class of the people, and has supplanted the 
use of wheaten bread. : 

222 



There are several sorts of Indian corn in 
America. The yellow flinty corn is reckoned 
the sweetest and most nutritive. The white 
ground corn of the southern states makes the 
fairest, but considerably the weakest flour. 
Of this last species there is one variety called 
the flour-corn, which is scarce, but very valu- 
able. 

Buchcheat. — This is not kiln-dried, but dried 
in the sun, being reaped in October, a month 
remarkably dry and serene in America. The 
husk is taken off by what is called running it 
through the mill-stones. Tlie farinaceous part 
of the grain is then easily separated from the 
husk by winnowing; and, being afterwards 
ground fine, forms an agreeable and nutritive 
aliment, and may be made into bread with 
wheat flour or other substances. 

Beans and peas. — When these are used as 
bread, in some places the flour is steeped in 
water to take off the harsh flavour, and after- 
wards, when mixed with wheat flour, the taste 
is hardly to be perceived. Specimens of very 
good bread have been produced, mixed as fol- 
lows : — 1 lb. bean flour, I lb. potatoes, and 4 
lbs. of wheat flour. The flour or meal both of 
beans and peas, by being boiled, previous to 
its being mixed with wheaten flour, incorpo- 
rates more easily with that article, and is pro- 
bably much more wholesome than it otherwise 
would be. 

Bran may in times of scarcity be advan- 
tageously employed in the making of common 
household bread ; this is effected by previously 
boiling the bran in water, and then adding the 
whole decoction in the dough ; thus the bran 
will be sufliciently softened and divested of its 
dry husky quality, while the nutritive part, 
which is supposed to contain an essential oil, 
is duly prepared for food. It is asserted, that 
the increase in the quantity of bread, by the 
addition of one-fourth bran, or 14 lbs. 14 oz. 
of bran to 56 lbs. of flour, is from 34 lbs. to 
36 lbs. of bread beyond what is produced by 
the common mode. 

Dr. Davison considers that there are many 
vegetables which would afford wholesome 
nutriment either by boiling or drying and 
grinding them, or by both these processes. 
Amongst these may be reckoned, perhaps, the 
tops and bark of gooseberry trees, holly, haw- 
thorn, and gorse. The inner bark of the elm 
may be converted into a kind of gruel ; and 
the roots of fern, and probably those of many 
other plants, such as some of the grasses, and 
clovers, might yield nourishment, either by 
boiling, baking, and separating the fibres from 
the pulp, or by extracting the starch from 
those which possess an acrid mucilage, such 
as the white bryonj'. If, in these days of im- 
proved chemical knowledge, a quartern loaf 
of very good bread can be made out of a deal 
board (see Quart. Rev. No. civ., quoted also in 
Quart. Journ. of Jlgr. vol. v. p. 626), there is no 
reason why many of our native herbs and 
shi-ubs, which are now comparatively useless, 
should not, as their various nutritive proper- 
ties become better known, be turned to consi 
derable advantage in the production of a 
greater or less proportion of cheap and whole- 
some food. There are many other substances 



BREAD-ROOT. 



BREEDING-PONDS. 



which may be formed, by a proportionate ad- 
mixture of wheaten flour, into palatable bread, 
and advantageously employed in the manufac- 
ture of this indispensable article of human 
sustenance. {Brandes Did. of Science and Art; 
M'Cullocns Com. Diet. ; Penny Cyc. vol. V. ; 
Willich's Domes, Encyc.) 

BREAD -ROOT {Psoralea esculenta). A 
shrubby or herbaceous perennial plant found 
on the elevated plains of the Missouri. Its 
roots are eaten both raw and boiled, the latter 
being the most common way of cooking it 
adopted by the Indians. By cultivation it is 
made to produce abundant crops. The taste 
of the root is rather insipid, its texture being 
laminated, always tenacious, solid, but never 
farinaceous, like the potato. It is somewhat 
medicinal, operating as a diuretic. 

Other species of Psoralea are also found on 
the Missouri and tributaries, among which are 
the P. canescens, and P. cuspidata, both of which 
are described as having large, tuberous, and 
ramified roots. The last species is known 
among the Canadian boatmen by the name of 
" Pomme de Prairie," or meadow potato. The 
P. lanceolata, or elliplica, grows in great quan- 
tities together on the sandy banks of the Mis- 
souri, from the river Platte to the mountains, 
flowering in July and August. It sends up 
shoots in every direction through the sand, in 
which soil it is exclusively met with. The 
stem is about a foot high and the leaves aro- 
matic when bruised. The P. lupinellus is 
• found from South Carolina to Florida, though 
not in abundance. It is a very singular plant, 
the leaves being so narrow as scarcely to be 
distinguished from the petiole, and two or three 
inches long, extremely deciduous when dry. 
The P. virgata is met with in West Florida. 
With very few exceptions, says Nuttall, this 
genus of plants producing esculent roots is 
indigenous to North America and the Cape of 
Good Hope. 

BREAKING (Goth, brikan: Sax. bn'-crcen). 
In rural economy, the bringing of an animal 
under subjection. The breaking of a colt is 
commonly, especially for race-horses, com- 
menced when he is much too young ; for this, 
as for all other breeds of horses, too much 
caution and gentleness can hardly be used. 
(Da,rvill. On Training). Of dogs, spaniels 
should begin to be broken in at five or six 
months old. The water-spaniel, according to 
old Markham, as soon as "even when you first 
weane him ;" and, according to Blaine (Encyc. 
of Rural Sporls), the education of a pointer or a 
setter should commence at five or six months. 

BREAKING UP. A term that is often ap- 
plied to such lands as are ploughed from leys, 
or which are cut or pared for the purpose of 
being burned. 

BREAST-PLATE. The strap of leather 
that runs from one side of the saddle to the 
other over the horse's breast, in order to keep 
the saddle tight, and hinder it from sliding 
backwards. 

BREASTS. Part of the bows of a saddle. 

BREED (Sax. bpsesan). A sort or variety 
of any kind of live-stock. The breeds of most 
domestic animals are numerous, and distin- 
guished by certain invariable marks or ap- 



pearances peculiar to each, as in cattle, sheep, 
horses, and swine. See these different heads. 

BREEDER. In agriculture, a farmer who 
is much employed in breeding and rearing 
animals of any of the domestic kinds. 

BREEDING IN AND IN. The breeding 
from close relations. "This plan," says Pro- 
fessor Youatt (Cattle, p. 525), "has many 
advantages to a certain extent. It may be 
pursued until the excellent form and quality 
of the breed are developed and established. It 
was the source whence sprung the fine cattle 
and sheep of Bakewell, and the superior cattle 
of Colling ; but disadvantages attend breeding 
'in and in,' and to it must be traced the speedy 
degeneracy, the absolute disappearance of the 
new Leicester cattle, and in the hands of many 
an agriculturist, the impairment of constitution 
and decreased value of the new Leicester 
sheep and the short-horned beasts. It has 
therefore become a kind of principle with the 
agriculturist to effect some change in his stock 
every second or third year: and that change 
is most conveniently effected by introducing a 
new bull or ram. These should be as nearly 
as possible of the same sort, coming from a 
similar pasturage and climate, but possessing 
no relationship, or at most a very distant one, 
to the stock to which he is introduced." These 
remarks apply to all descriptions of live-stock. 
In cattle, as well as in the human species, de- 
fects of organization and permanent derange- 
ments of function obtain, and are handed 
down when the relationship is close. In Spain 
the deformed and feeble state of the aristocracy 
arises from the alliances being confined to 
the same class ; whilst in England, which can 
boast the finest aristocracy in the world, the 
higher classes are improved by constant alli- 
ances being formed with the daughters of 
inferior classes, where wealth has been accu- 
mulated. See the heads. Cattle, Hokse, 
Shv.kp, &c. 

BREEDING-PONDS. Such ponds as are 
employed for breeding fish. The qualities of 
a pond, to make it profitable for breeding fish, 
are very different from those which are suffi- 
cient for the feeding of them ; inasmuch as 
some particular ponds serve only for one of 
these purposes, and others for the other; and 
scarcely ever the same pond is found to an- 
swer for both. In general it is much more 
rare to find a good breeding-pond than a good 
feeding one. The indications of a good breed- 
ing-pond are these, — a considerable quantity 
of rushes and grass about its sides, with gra- 
velly shoals, such as horse-ponds usually 
have. The spawn of fish is prodigiously great 
in quantit)'; and where it succeeds, one fish is 
able to produce some millions. Thus, in one 
of these breeding-ponds, two or three melters 
and as many spawners will, in a very little 
time, stock the whole country. When these 
ponds are not meant entirely for breeding, but 
the owner wishes to have the fish grow to 
some size in them, tne method is to thin their 
numbers ; for they would otherwise starve one 
another. It may also be necessary to put in 
other fish that will prey upon the young, and 
thin them in the quickest manner. Eels and 
perch are the most useful on this account, ^e- 

22a 



BREWING. 



BREWING. 



cause they prey not only upon the spawn 
itself, but upon the young fry from the first 
hatching to the time they are of a considerable 
size. Some fish are observed to breed indiffer- 
ently ill all kinds of waters ; of this nature are 
the roach, pike, and perch. 

The introduction of certain voracious fish, 
stich as the pike or pickarel, into ponds or 
lakes well stocked with trout, white and yellow 
perch, &c., has been attended with serious 
consequences, and even led to the total ex- 
tinction of some kinds and the diminution of 
all. The mischief in such cases has perhaps 
been less owing to the exceeding voracity of 
the pike or pickarel, than to its habits of 
thrusting itself into the shallows and retired 
breeding places of other fish, and there break- 
ing up the spawn or devouring the small-fry, 
without allowing them a chance to live or in- 
crease. The trout contents itself with preying 
upon such bait as it can catch away from the 
shallows, leaving the breeding places and 
spawn of other fish undisturbed. Hence, in 
lakes where plenty of bait is seen along the 
shores, trout may be found in abundance and 
in fine condition. Trout and perch both mul- 
tiply in the same ponds or lakes, provided no 
pike or pickarel be present. 

BREWING. The process of obtaining the 
saccharine solution from malt, or other mat- 
ters, and converting this solution into spiritu- 
ous liquors, ale, porter, or beer. There is little 
doubt of the antiquity of this art. The Egyp- 
tians are said to have been the inventors of 
beer. The early Germans, and our Saxon 
forefathers, were as fond of beer as the mo- 
dern citizens of Lubec and Rnstock are now, 
or the English of all ages. It is hardly neces- 
sary, in this work, to go deeply into the de- 
scription of a process which most country 
persons understand so well. The directions 
may be divided into several heads. 1. The 
grinding of the malt: in this there is, as in 
many other parts of brewing, considerable 
difference of opinion ; some prefer it ground 
between stones, others crushed by rollers ; 
some prefer a fine grist, others a coarse one. 
2. The mashing is usually performed in a 
vessel of wood, with a false bottom pierced 
full of holes ; on this bottom the malt is laid ; 
the water is then admitted, which, for pale ale, 
or pale spirits, should be of the temperature 
of from 170° to 185°, according to the quan- 
tity mashed ; the heat being increased as the 
mass diminishes. For porter, not higher than 
165°, or lower than 156°. For the second 
mash, an increased temperature of 15° or 20° 
will be advisable. For the first mash : for 
every quarter of malt, a barrel and a half of 
water may be used, and the grist well mixed 
with the water. The mash is permitted to 
rest for some time, and then allowed to run 
off into an auderback, whence it is pumped 
into the boiler, where it is raised to the boiling 
temperature. When the wort is sufficiently 
drained from the mash-tub, another portion of 
hot water is added for a second mash. The 
hops are next added, and the boiling is com- 
pleted, which in general requires an hour and 
a half, "or until the wort breaks bright from 
the hops, when a sample is taken from the 
224 



copper." The wort is let off into coolers, 
either of wood or iron ; where, when sufficient- 
ly cooled, or else in proper fermenting tuns, 
the yeast or barm is added. The fermentation 
speedily begins ; and when it is thought that a 
sufficient quantity of alcohol is formed, the 
fermentation is stopped, and the yeast is sepa- 
rated by running it into smaller vessels, and 
skimming off the barm ; or else by allowing 
it to run oft' from the bung-holes of the casks, 
which are, for this purpose, kept completely 
filled. A small portion of salt is commonly 
added, and, occasionally, especially by the 
professional brewer, a portion of isinglass or 
other finings. In all these operations, cleanli- 
ness is a most essential part, for without this 
it is impossible to have good beer. 

The quantity of hops to be added varies 
with the quality of the beer. 4 lbs. to the 
quarter of malt is suflficient for beer for present 
use, and from this to 28 lbs. have been used 
for beer for long keeping, a.s for exporta- 
tion, &CC. 

The temperature of the fermentation should 
range between 56° and 62°. Not more than 
60° for ale wort, nor more than 62° for porter. 
Great care should be taken to have good, 
sound, healthy, and new yeast, — and of this 
about 2 lbs. per barrel are commonly needed- 
Good malt and hops, of course, are requisite; 
but the quality of the water is not of so much 
consequence as is ^•ery often considered to be 
the case. Some of the best ales in England 
are brewed either with soft or with hard water, 
and from rivers, or springs, or ponds. From 
those issuing from the limestones of Notting- 
hamshire, the chalks of Dorsetshire, the clays 
of Staffordshire, the gravels and sands of Sur- 
rey and Middlesex, is made some of the most 
excellent beer in the United Kingdom. T' 
quantity of alcohol, upon an average, in br- 
stout is about 6-80, in ale S-88, and in sma.l 
beer from 2 to 3 per cent. {Brande.) B r 
came under the excise in the year 164.^, . .t 
the duties were repealed in 1830. The ex- 
portation of beer from England was in — 



1830 
1832 
1834 



10.212 
11,330 
10,406 



The specific gravity of the wort, when it is 
placed in the fermenting vessels, varies from 
1'060, when it contains 14-25 per cent, of solid 
matter, to 1*127, when it contains 28-2 per cent. 
That of small beer varies from 1-015 to 1-040, 
the first containing about 3-5 per cent, of solid 
matter, the latter about 9-5 per cent. The 
chief use of the hops (ground ivy and other 
herbs were used by our Saxon ancestors for 
this purpose) is to communicate the peculiar 
bitter flavour from the oil which is contained 
in them ; partly to hide the sweetness of the 
saccharine matter, and partly to counteract the 
tendency which wort has to run into acidity. 
(Thomson's Chcm. vol. iv. p. 376.) 

" Hops," says Dr. Lardner {Domestic Econo- 
my, vol. i.), "are by no means the only bitter 
which may be made use of for preparing and 
flavouring ales ; others can be much more 
conveniently procured in certain situations. 
Mixtures, in various proportions, of worm- 



BRICKS. 



BRISTLES. 



wood, powdered bitter oranges, gentian root, 
and the rind of Seville oranges, will afford an 
excellent bitter, perhaps more wholesome than 
hops, and, if skilfully combined, to the full as 
palatable ; in this position the brewers cannot 
refuse to bear me out." Strasburg beer, which 
is much prized on the continent, owes much 
of its excellence to the use of avens (Geum 
urbanum). It has been shown by Mr. Dubrun- 
fault, that a good beer can be produced from 
potatoes grated to a pulp, mixed with barley 
malt. In Ireland, beer is made from parsnips. 
Cane sugar answers admirably (14 lbs. of 
cane sugar, dissolved in ten gallons of boiling- 
water, with 1^ lbs. of hops). The beer made 
in this way is pale coloured, it is true; but 
colour may be given readily by scorched 
treacle, or the raspings of an over-baked loaf. 
{Quart. Jouni. of Agr. vol. ii. p. 6.34.) Beer 
"which would not disgrace a nobleman's table" 
has also been made from mangel vvurzel 150 
lbs., and I lb. of hops in sixteen gallons of 
water. {Mcrhanirs Mag.) It may also be 
made from the seeds of the Fiorin grass (Do- 
novon. Domestic Economy), Indian and other 
corn. (Baxtcr^s Lib. of Jlgrictdture.) 

BRICKS are building materials often em- 
ployed by the farmer for the construction of 
drains, besides the ordinary purposes, for 
which they answer very well ; but tliey are 
more expensive than draining tiles, which see. 
By the 17 G. 3, c. 42, under a penalty of 20.«., 
and 10s. per 1000, all bricks made in England 
for sale shall be H^ inches long, four inches 
wide, and 2^ inches thick ; and all pantiles 
13^ inches long, 9^ inches wide, and ^ an inch 
thick. If the farmer wishes to make his own 
bricks, the London plan is to mix fifty chaldrons 
of coal ashes, or breeze, with 240 cubic yards 
of cla)^ which makes 100,000 bricks; and to 
burn these, fifteen chaldrons of coarse sifted 
breeze are required. The soils called brick 
earths vary much in their composition ; they 
contain alumina in different proportions. Pot- 
ters' clay is perhaps the richest in that earth, 
being composed, according to M. Vauquelin, 
{Bull. Phil, xxvi.) of— 



Silica (flint) 

Alumina 

Lime 

Oxide of iron 

Water 

Loss 



43-5 

33-2 

3-5 

10 

180 

0-8 

lOO-O 



BRIDLE. A contrivance made of straps 
or thongs of leather, and pieces of iron, in 
order to keep a horse in subjection, and direct 
him in travelling. The several parts of a 
bridle are, the bit or snaffle ; the head-stall, or 
leather from the top of the head to the rings 
of the bit; the fillet, over the forehead and 
under the fore-top ; the throat-band, which 
buckles from the head-band under the throat ; 
the nose-bands, going through the loops at the 
back of the head-stall, and buckled under the 
cheeks ; the reins, or long thongs of leather 
that come from the rings of the bit, and, being 
cast over the horse's head, the rider holds in 
his hand. 

BRIDLE-HAND is the horseman's left 
29 



hand; the right bemg called the spear or 
sword hand ; and that in which the whin is 
held. ^ 

BRIDON. A sort of snaffle, with a very- 
slender mouth-bit, without any branches. They 
are much used in England. It is semetimes 
written bridoon, 

BRILLS. In horsemanship, a vulgar name 
for the hair growing on the horse's eye-lids. 

BRIM. A term applied to a sow when she 
goes to the boar, which is called going to 
brim. It is sometimes written brimvie. 

BRINING OF GRAIN is the practice of 
steeping it in pickle, in order to prevent smut 
or other diseases. The steep is made with 
common salt and water, of sufficient strength 
to float an e^g; or of sea-water, with salt 
added to it till it is of the requisite strength. 
The seed is then put into it, and well stirred 
about; the light grains rise to the surface, and 
are skimmed off; the rest is put upon a sieve 
to drain, and new-slaked lime sifted upon it: 
after being carefully mixed, and when a little 
dried, it is put into the earth. Urine, when 
kept stale, is used in the same manner ; and, 
if the seed be sowed directly, with good effect. 
Brining the seed wheat is commonly believed 
by the farmers to be a prevention of smut, a 
disease which has been shown by Sir Joseph 
Banks to be a parasitical fungus. Recent ex- 
periments have suggested that it may even be 
of use, when employed in larger quantities, as 
a preventive of mildew — the most dreadful 
of the numerous diseases to which the cul- 
tivated grasses are exposed. The experiments 
of the late Rev. E. Cartwright strongly evi- 
dence, that when salt and water are sprinkled 
with a brush upon diseased plants, it is actually 
a complete cure, even in apparently the most- 
desperate cases. The proportion, "one pound 
to a gallon of water, laid on with a plasterer's 
brush, the operator making his casts as when 
sowing corn : it is instant death to the fungus^ 
but it also destroys some plants. The time andS 
expense are trifling. It appeared, in the course 
of some inquiries made by the Board of Agri- 
culture, that a Cornish farmer, Mr. Sickler, and 
also the Rev. R. Hoblin, were accustomed to 
employ refuse salt as a manure, and that their 
crops were never infected tvith. Ike rust or blight.. 
The farmer may see most of the authorities 
collected together on this important fact in 
Johnson, On Salt, p. 50. If potatoes are im- 
mersed in a solution of ammoniacal water for 
four or five days (one ounce of the common 
liquor ammonite to a pint of water), they 
will have, according to Mr. Webster, their 
.vegetative power completely checked or de- 
stroyed, and may be in this way preserved 
throughout the year, without the least injury 
to their general qualities — the same effect is 
produced by immersing them in a strong brine.. 
This merely requires subsequent ablution, and 
repeated changes of water. (Quart. Journ.of 
Agr. vol. vii. p. 438.) 

BRISTLES (Dut. borstels; Ger. borsfen). The 
strong glossy hairs growing upon cne baclr of 
the wild boar and the hog. Those f-r the use 
of brushmakers, saddlers, shoemakers, &c., 
are imported to a very considerable extent 
from Russia, those of the Ukraine being th« 



BRITTLE HOOF. 



BROCCOLI. 



best. At an average of three years ending 
with 1831, says Mr. M'Culloch, the entries for 
home consumption in England amounted to 
1,789,801 lbs. annually. They contain a con- 
siderable quantity of gelatine, which may be 
separate* from them by boiling water. 

BRITTLE HOOF is an affection of the 
horse's hoof, very common, especially in sum- 
mer, in England, from bad stable management. 
A mixture of one part of oil of tar and two of 
common fish oil, well rubbed into the crust 
and the hoof, will restore the natural pliancy 
and toughness of the horn, and very much 
contribute to the quickness of its growth. 
(Youatt, On the Horse, p. 282.) 

BRIZA MEDIA. See Plate 6, n. Common 
quaking grass; ladies' tresses: a perennial 
grass, flowering in May and June. It is dis- 
tinguished by the panicle of short spikelets, 
tinged with purplish brown. The spikelets 
are ovate, on very slender stems, which makes 
the panicle tremulous. This grass, says Sin- 
clair, is best fitted for poor soils ; its nutritive 
powers are considerable, compared with other 
grasses tenanting a similar soil. It is eaten 
by horses, cows, and sheep; and for poor 
sandy and tenacious soils, where improvements 
in other respects cannot be sufficiently effected, 
to fit them for the productions of the superior 
soils, the common quaking grass will be found 
of value. 

BRIZE LANDS. A provincial term for 
lands which have remained long without til- 
lage. Brizc is also a name for the gad-fly, used 
commonly in the days of Shakspeare and Ben 
Jonson. (Tr. and Cress.: Poetaster, iii. 1.) 

BROAD-CAST SOWINCJ. The primitive, 
rapidly diminishing method of putting grain, 
turnip, pulse, clover, grasses, &c., into the soil, 
performed by means of the hand. This mode 
of sowing seems better adapted to the stony 
and mure stiff kinds of land than that by ma- 
chines; as in such grounds they are liable to be 
constantly put out of order, and to deposit the 
seed unequally. In this way, however, the 
seeds are scattered over the ground, and not 
confined in regular rows, as is the case with 
the drill husbandry, which is in several ways 
more advantageous to the farmer. This mode 
of sowing, perhaps from its being that mads 
use of in the infancy of agriculture, has often 
been called the old method. 

In this method of sowing, the usual practice, 
especially where the ridges are equal in breadth, 
and not of too great a width, as five or six 
yards, is that of dispersing the seed regularly 
over each land or ridge, in once walking over; 
the seedsman, by different casts of the hand, 
sowing one-half in going and the other in re- 
turning. In doing this, it is the custom of some 
seedsmen to fill the hand from the basket or 
hopper which they carry along with them, as 
they make one step forward, and disperse the 
seed in the time of performing the next; while 
others scatter the seed, or make their casts, as 
they are termed by farmers, in advancing each 
«tep. It is evident, therefore, that in accom- 
'plishing this business with regularity and ex- 
ismess, upon which much of the success of 
the crop must depend, there is considerable 
difficulty, and the proper knowledge and habit 
226 



of which can only be acquired by experience. 
This, however, by long practice, is done with 
surprising regularity and precision. The 
broad-cast system not only requires more seed, 
but it renders the hoeing, so essential to the 
most profitable growth of grain, much moro 
difficult. Machines have been invented for 
distributing the seed broad-cast, which they 
perform with perfect precision : these are more 
especially useful for the grass seeds, and arc 
simple and economical ; a plate of one may be 
seen in Professor Low's Prac. Ag. p. 108, and 
another in British Hitsb, vol. ii. p. 14. These, 
hov/ever, require some attention in their work- 
ing, to prevent the clogging of the seed. 

BROAD-WHEELED WAGON. A four- 
wheeled carriage, in which the parts of the 
wheels that act upon the road are of considera- 
ble breadth. By the acts 3 G. 4, c. 126, s. 12, 
and 4 & 5 W. 4, c. 81, wagons, wains, and 
other four-wheeled carriages, whether on 
springs or not, whose wheels have their fellies 
of not less than four and a half inches at the 
bottom or soles, are considered to be broad- 
wheeled. 

BROCCOLI {Brassica olerarea botrytis). The 
varieties of this cabbage are now numerous, 
and are chiefly the fruits of the great attention 
which has been paid to its cultivation of late 
years. For an uninterrupted supply, scarce 
any of these varieties can be dispensed with ; 
but the purple and white are those most gene- 
rally cultivated. With respect to their quality, 
it has been remarked that they have less of 
the peculiar alkalescent taste, and are more 
palatable, in proportion as they approach a 
pale or white colour. (Transact. Hort. Soc. 
Loud. vol. i. p. 116.) 

1. Purple cape, or autumnal broccoli. 2. 
Green cape, or autumnal broccoli. 3. Grange's 
early cauliflower broccoli. 4. Green, close- 
headed winter broccoli. 5. Early purple broc- 
coli. 6. Early white broccoli. 7. Dwarf brown 
close-headed broccoli. 8. Tall, large-headed 
purple broccoli. 9. Cream-coloured, or Ports- 
mouth broccoli. 10. Sulphur-coloured broc- 
coli. 11. Spring white, or cauliflower broccoli. 

12. Late dwarf close-headed purple broccoli. 

13. Latest green, Siberian, or Spanish broccoli. 
Broccoli is propagated by seed. As all of 

the kinds are not general!}'' at command, the 
following times and varieties are specified as 
being those employed in general practice, and 
by which a supply nearly unfailing is accom- 
plished. A first sowing maybe made under a 
frame at the close of January, and a second at 
the end of February, or earl}' in March, on an 
eastern wall-border, of the purple cape and 
early cauliflower varieties, for production at 
the close of summer and during autumn ; the 
seedlings from these sowings are respectively 
fit for pricking out, if that practice is followed, 
in March and early in April, and for final plant- 
ing at the close of the latter month and May. 
In April, another crop of the same varieties 
may be sown, for pricking out in May and 
planting in June, to produce at the close of 
autumn and in early winter. During the mid- 
dle of May, a fourth and larger crop than any 
of the preceding, of the early purple and white t 
varieties, to be pricked out in June and planted ' 



BROCCOLI. 



BROCCOLI. 



in July ; and, finally, the last open-ground crop ' 
may be sown in June, to be pricked out in the ! 
succeeding month, and planted in August and 
September; the plants will follow from the 
others in succession throughout winter and 
spring. In a frame, however, they may be 
sown, like the cauliflower, in the last days of 
August, to remain until the following March, 
to be then planted out for production in early 
summer. By these repetitions, which, if for a 
family, should be small, an almost continued 
supply is afforded ; but in general, for domes- 
tic use, especially if the establishment is small, 
three sowings of moderate extent will be suf- 
ficient; the first in the second week of April, 
the second in the third week in May, and the 
third in the middle of August, in a frame. 
Each variety should be sown separately, and 
the sowing performed thin; the beds not more 
than three or four feet wide, for the convenience 
of weeding, which must be performed as often 
as weeds appear, as they are very inimical to 
the growth of this vegetable. The seed must 
not be buried more than half an inch, and the 
beds be netted over to keep away the birds, 
which, especiall}' in shower)'' weather, are very 
destructive. The fitness of the plants for prick- 
ing out is intimated by their having five or six 
leaves, rather more than an inch in breadth ; 
they are set four or five inches apart each way, 
and water given every night until they have 
taken root. They must have four or five 
weeks' growth before they are again moved ; 
or not until they have leaves nearly three 
inches in breadth. When planted out, they 
must be set on an average two feet asunder 
each way, in summer a little wider, in winter 
rather closer. Water to be given at the time 
of planting, and occasionally afterwards, until 
they are established ; during the droughts of 
summer it may be given plentifully with the 
greatest advantage. They must be hoed be- 
tween frequently, and the mould drawn up 
about their stems. To force forward the win- 
ter standing varieties, it is a successful prac- 
tice to take them up in November, and at'ter 
trimming off the outer leaves, to lay them on 
their sides in a sloping position, in a bank or 
terrace of light earth, so much space being left 
between every two plants that their heads do 
not come in contact. To continue the supply 
uninterrupted, even in the mid-winter of the 
severest years, Mr. Maher recommends that 
when the crop sown about the third week in 
May has been planted out, the weaker plants 
which remain should be left eight or ten days 
to acquire strength, and then planted in pots 
(sixleens) filled with ver)'^ rich compost; to be 
shaded, and watered until struck. These are 
to be plunged in the ground at similar distances 
as the main crops, and about three inches be- 
low the surface, so as to form a cup for retain- 
ing water round each; these cups are filled up 
by the necessary earthings, which must be 
pressed firmly down, to prevent the wind loos- 
ening them. A few of the plants generally 
flower early, and, to guard against the first 
frosts, must have the leaves broken over them : 
but on the approach of settled frost in Decem- 
ber and January, the pots must be taken «p 
and removed into a frame, shed, or any place 



of shelter from the extreme severity of the 
weather; but to have air v/hen mild. (Tra. 
Hort. Soc. L. vol. i. p. 118.) 

To those crops which have to withstand the 
winter in the open ground, salt is beneficially 
applied, as it preserves them from heing frosted 
in the neck, and also their roots from being 
worm-eaten ; which may also be effected, Mr 
Mackay of Errol House, N. B., informs us, by 
pouring soap-suds between the rows, which 
application is also very beneficial to the plants. 
{Mem. Ceded. Hort. Soc. vol. i. p. 275.) 

To preserve the winter standing crops from 
destruction by severe weather, it is also a 
practice, early in November, to take them up. 
injuring the roots as little as possible, and to 
lay them in a sloping direction in the soil, with 
their heads to the north. A modification of 
this plan, adopted by the distinguished presi- 
dent of the Horticultural Society, is, however, 
much prefer.able, as it obviates the defect of 
few roots being produced, and consequently 
diminutive heads. A small trench is made in 
the first week of September, at the north end 
of each row, in which the adjoining plant is 
laid so low, that the centre of its stems at the 
top is put level with the surface of the ground, 
the root being scarcely disturbed ; it is then 
immediately watered, and its roots covered 
with more mould. Thus every plant is in 
succession treated ; and by the beginning of 
November, it is scarcely perceptible that they 
have been thus treated, though it certainly 
checks their growth. Before the arrival of 
snow, a small hillock must be raised round 
each plant, to support its leaves, and prevent 
their being broken. (Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. 
vol. ii. p. .304.) If snow accompanies severe 
frost, advantage should be taken of it, and the 
plants be heaped over with it, which will 
afford them an effectual protection. 

For the production of seed, such plants of 
each variety must be selected, in March or 
April, as most perfectly agree with their pecu- 
liar characteristics, and are not particularly 
forward in advancing for seed. As the stems 
run up, some gardeners recommend the leaves 
to be taken away ; but this must be injurious. 
Mr. Wood of Queensferry, North Britain, is 
particularly careful that no foliage appears on 
the surface of the flower; he always lifts his 
plants, and plants them in another bed, water- 
ing abundantly; as this, from his long expe- 
rience, he finds, prevents their degenerating, 
or producing proud seed ; and when the head 
begins to open, he cuts out its centre, and 
leaves only four or five of the outside shoots 
for bearing. The sulphur-coloured he always 
finds the most difficult to obtain seed from. 
(Me?v. Caled. Hort. Soc. vol. ii. p. 266.) As the 
branches spread, four or six stakes should be 
placed at equal distances round each plant, 
and hooped with string, to support them and 
prevent their breaking. When the pods begin 
to form, water should be given repeatedly, and 
occasionally some thrown over the whole 
plant, which t<?nis to prevent mildew. Before 
the pods begin to change colour, those from 
the extremity of every shoot must be taken 
away; as these yield seed which product 
plants very apt to run to seed without heading, 

227 



BROKEN-KNEES. 

and by an early removal the others are bene- j 
fited. The branches are to be gathered as 
soon as the pods upon them ripen. Varieties 
must never be planted near each other, or they 
will reciprocally be contaminated. The seed 
ripens in August or September ; and it is often 
recommended to preserve it in the pod until 
■wanted ; but the general practice is to beat it 
out, and store it as soon as it is perfectly dry. 
The plants raised in frames are managed as 
directed for cauliflowers in the same situation. 
(G. W. Johnson's Kitchen Garden.) 

BROKEN-KNEES, in horses. The best 
medical treatment, in slight cases, is to cleanse 
them from dirt and gravel by a sponge and 
warm water. In bad cases a veterinary sur- 
geon is absolutely necessary, who will exa- 
mine with his probe, and apply bandages, and 
even, in need, the hot iron. 

BROKEN -WIND, in horses, is, says Pro- 
fessor Youatt, the rupture, dilatation, or run- 
ning together of some of the air cells, — the 
inspiration by one effort, and the expiration by 
two ; and is thus easily distinguishable from 
thick wind, in which the inspirations and the 
expirations are equal in amount. In healthy 
lungs, when the lungs are expanded, the air 
will rush in easily enough, and one effort of 
the muscles of expiration is sufficient for the 
purpose of expelling it; but when these cells 
have run into each other, the cavity is so irre- 
gular, and contains so many corners and blind 
pouches, that it is exceedingly difficult to force 
it out again, and two efforts are scarcely com- 
petent fully to effect it. A dry husk-y cough 
accompanies this disease, of a peculiar sound. 
Broken wind is usually caused by smart exer- 
cise on a full belly. We do not, therefore, 
find broken-winded horses on the race-course ; 
for, although every exertion of speed is re- 
quired from them, their food lies in a small 
compass ; the stomach is not distended, and 
the lungs have room to play ; and care is taken 
that their exertion shall be required when the 
stomach is nearly empty. Carriage and coach 
horses, from a similar cause, are not often 
broken -winded. The majority of broken- 
winded horses come from those for whose use 
these pages are principally designed ; the far- 
mer's horse is the broken-winded horse, from 
being fed on bulky food ; and because, after 
many hours' fasting, the horses are often suf- 
fered to gorge themselves, and then, with the 
stomach pressing upon the lungs, and almost 
impeding ordinary respiration, they are put 
again to work, and sometimes to that which 
requires considerable exertion. But the pres- 
sure of the distended stomach upon the lungs 
is sufficient to do this, without exertion ; many 
a horse goes to grass or the straw-yard sound, 
and returns broken-winded. The cure of a 
broken-winded horse no one has witnessed, 
yet much may be done in the way of pallia- 
tion ; the food should consist of much nutri- 
ment in linle compass ; the oats should be 
increased, and the hay diminished; occasional 
mashes will be found useful ; water should be 
given sparingly except at night, and the horse 
should never be exercised on a full stomach. 
Carrots are excellent food for him. (The 
Horse ; Lib. of Useful Know. p. 195.) 
228 



BROOD MARES. 

BROMUS. The brome grasses; a genus of 
which the chief species are as follow : — 

Bromus arvensis, taper field brome grass, has 
a spreading, drooping, compound panicle, with 
lanceolate, sharp -pointed spikelets. Each 
spikelet consists of eight imbricated, smooth 
florets, with two close ribs at each side. The 
leaves are hairy, and the whole plant about 
three feet high. It is confined to rich pastures 
and meadows ; while the next two, Bromus mul- 
tijlorus and Bromus mollis, known by the leaves 
being soft and downy, abound most on poor or 
exhausted grass lands : they are all annuals. 
The farmer considers them to be bad grasses ; 
the field brome grass, however, affords an 
early bite in the spring for sheep and lambs ; 
it does not exhaust the soil ; the roots do not 
extend to any depth; its seeds, which it sheds, 
readily and speedily take root and yield food ; 
and it withstands the frost well: in England 
it flowers on the second week in August. At 
the time of flowering, the produce of its grass 
grown on a sandy loam per acre is 2.3,821 lbs.; 
of nutritive matter, 1488 lbs. 

Bromus diandrvs, upright annual orome 
grass. 

Lromus erectus, upright perennial brome 
grass. 

Bromus inermis, smooth awnless brome grass. 
Bromus littoreus, sea-side brome grass. 
Bromus mollis, soft brome grass. 
Bromus muUiflorus, many-flowered brome 
grass (named from the spikelets containing 
from ten to fifteen florets). 

Bromus sterilis, barren brome grass. It grows 
principally under hedges in the shade; cattle 
refuse it. 

Bromus tectorum, nodding-panicled brome 
grass. 

These were all examined with much skill 
by Sinclair, but he had evidently a poor opi- 
nion of them as field grasses. (Hort. Gram, 
Wob.) 

There are many other varieties of this family, 
the respective merits of which are pointed out 
by Sinclair in his Hort. Gram. Wob. That 
which is perhaps most interesting to the Ame- 
rican farmer is the Bromus sccalinus, common- 
ly called cheat, so frequently found growing 
among the wheat or rye crops. 

BRONCHITIS. A disease in horses. It is, 
says Professor Youatt, a catarrh extending be- 
yond the entrance of the lungs. Symptoms, 
quicker and harder breathing than catarrh, pe- 
culiar wheezing, coughing up mucus. Treat- 
ment, moderate bleeding, chest blistering, 
digitalis. Neglected bronchitis often leads to 
thick wind. (On the Horse, p. 189.) 

BROOD MARES. Mares generally com- 
mence breeding at three or four years of age. 
Some commence at two years, which is much 
too early. A mare will, if only moderately 
worked, continue to breed till nearly twenty. 
She is in heat in the early part of the spring ; 
averages about eleven months in foal; but 
this varies considerably; some have been 
known to foal four or five weeks before this 
time, others five or six later. In race-horses, 
the colt's age is calculated the same, whether 
he is born in January or May. It is desirable 
that the mare should go to the horse as earl- 



BROOKLIME. 



BRYONY. 



as possible. But in ordinary cases May is the 
best month ; for then the mare foals at a period 
■when there is an abundance of her natural 
food. 

BROOKLIME (Myositis palustris). This 
herb loves shallow streams and wet ditches, 
like the M'ater-cress, which it resembles in 
taste. It flowers and seeds in June, July, and 
August. Brooklime is known by its thick 
stalk, roundish leaves, and its spikes of small 
bright blue flowers. It grows about a foot in 
height, and it strikes root at the lower joints, 
and the roots are fibrous. The leaves are 
broad, oblong, slightly indented, round at their 
edges, and blunt at the point, to use an Irishism. 
The flowers stand singly upon short foot-stalks, 
one over another, forming a sort of loose spike. 
Brooklime possesses slight medicinal virtues; 
but it should be used fresh, as it loses its pro- 
perties when dried. It is often eaten in salads, 
which is a pleasant mode of administering it ; 
but its flavour is in any form warm and 
agreeable. 

In many parts of the United States, the M. 
palustris is called Forget-me-not, Marsh scor- 
pion grass. In French it is the Oreille cle souris. 
In swampy places and spring heads, it remains 
vigorously green through the winter. It flow- 
ers from May to September. (Flor. Cestric.) 

BROOM (the S^uirtium scoparimn or Cyticus 
sco^anits of botanists). PI. 9, f/. An evergreen- 
branched shrub, native of sandy soils through- 
out Europe. The broom, with its gay yellow 
flowers, blooming from April to June, its tough 
stalks, and flat hairy pods, is well known on 
all barren and waste grounds, growing abun- 
dantly in dry gravelly thickets and fields, and is 
often admitted into shrubberies, for its delicate 
blooms and curious appearance. It is sown 
extensively in England as a shelter for game. 
Its branches, which are tough, are made up 
into brooms, to which they have given their 
name. The green stalks and tops of brooms 
are medicinally employed. They have a bitter 
nauseous taste, and a peculiar odour when 
green. The green twigs, when burned, yield 
a large quantity of carbonate of potasli, and 
several other salts. Broom tops, administered 
in strong infusion, are emetic and purgative : 
in smaller doses they are diuretic; and as such 
have been long employed to excite the action 
of the kidneys in dropsy ; but its efficacy de- 
pends on the nature of the dropsy, and its 
cause. When inflammation is present, broom 
tops do much harm; and, therefore, like other 
remedies, its use should not be intrusted to 
non-professional persons. It may be useful 
to know that its action is promoted by dilu- 
tion. 

BROOM-GRASS. The Jndropogon purpv- 
rescens, A. furcatum, or forked spike-grass, and 
the j1. nutans, or beard-grass, are all known in 
the Eastern States, where they flower in Au- i 
gust. I 

BROOM-RAPE {Orobanche major). This is ' 
a parasitical plant which is found amongst 
the red clover ; " meaning, perhaps," says Mr. 
Main, "a robber of broom, from its being fre- 
quently found on waste grounds growing on 
the roots of the common broom, and in fields 
on the roots of clover." In its first appearance 



it resembles the roots of asparagus, just as 
they break through the ground; the stems rise 
from six to ten inches high, and without proper 
leaves, having what are called bractes instead. 
The flowers are arranged on the stem like 
those of a hyacinth, but not so showy, being 
of a dingy brown colour, succeeded by oblong 
capsules of seeds. A straggling individual 
plant is sometimes met with amongst ley- 
wheat feeding on a clover plant, which has 
escaped destruction by the plough and harrow 
at wheat sowing ; but it never appears again 
until the field is sown with clover. From a 
note by Mr. Rham, quoting Von jlelbrock's Agri- 
culture of Flanders, p. 283, it would seem that the 
minute seeds of the broom-rape, which can 
hardly be observed with the' naked eye, exude 
a glutinous substance, by which they adhere 
to the seeds of the clover, and with which they 
are in consequence often sown. {Journ. Roy, 
E'ig. Jig. Soc. vol. i. p. 175.) Orobanche is a 
powerful astringent, and might be advantage- 
ously used in chronic diarrhraas. 

BROOM, SPANISH (Spartiumjunceum). PI. 
9, e. A handsome shrub, with fragrant yellow 
blossoms, which appear in July; Miller says, 
that in cool seasons it will keep blowing until 
September. It loves a sheltered situation. If 
raised by seed, sow it as soon as it is ripe, in 
a shady bed of common earth, kept free from 
weeds. Plant out the seedlings the following 
autumn. The white Spanish broom (Spartium 
nioiwspermum) is more tender; therefore it should 
be sheltered during the winter. It grows well 
in shrubberies not exposed to a hot sun. Raised 
from seed. Phillips recommends the Spanish 
broom for shrubberies,from its longcontinuance 
in bloom, from July to October; and he adds, 
the common broom (S. scoparimn) may as judi- 
ciously be placed at the foot of towering trees, 
where it will shine as gay in the gloom as a 
cypress fire in a forest (Shrubbery, vol. i. 
p'. 151.) 

BRYONY, BLACK (Tamus communis, Gr. 
I'^^uoD, I grow rapidly). This is a wild native 
plant, and climbs like the white bryony; but it 
wreathes its stalk around the bushes, having 
no tendrils. The stalk also runs fifteen feet 
in length. The leaves are broad, shaped like 
a triangle, smooth, polished, and of a black 
green colour. The flowers and berries re- 
semble the white bryony. 

BRYONY, WHITE (Bryonia dioica). This 
plant, with its tendrils and leaves, somewhat 
resembles the vine, and clings like it around 
the trees and bushes in its progress. It grows 
in many parts of England under hedges and 
thickets. The leaves are hairy and broad. 
The flowers small, and of a greenish white 
colour, blowing from May till August. The 
berries are red, and full of seeds. The root 
is large, rough, and white, and the stalks from 
ten to twelve feet in length. The root contains 
a peculiar bitter principle, which has been 
termed hryonin. The root is poisonous, being 
both violently emetic and purgative, producing 
symptoms resembling those of cholera. It is 
sold by herbalists under the name of Mandran.. 
root. Many ignorant persons have been de- 
stroyed by the employment of bryony root, in 
diseases in which it is said to be useful in old 
U 229 



BUCK. 



BUCK HUNTING. 



berbals. Decoctions made with one pound of 
the fresh root are purgatives for cattle. This 
is a powerful medicine, and should be given 
cautiously in small doses, even to cattle. 

BUCK. The male of the deer, hare, rab- 
bit, &c. 

BUCK-BEAN (Menyanthcs trifoliata). This 
is a beautiful wild flower, and deserving of 
cultivation. It naturally inhabits turbaries, 
and marshy places. In a garden it will live 
for many years, if planted in a pot filled with 
peat earth mixed with sphagnum or bog moss, 
and plunged in a pan of water; or better still, 
if planted out in rich soil, where it can be 
supplied with Avater from a pond or tank. Il 
is not only a beautiful, but a valuable gift of 
Providence, — for it possesses powerful effects 
as a remedy against the fevers prevalent in 
marshy districts. {Gardener s Chronidc.) Wi- 
thering, in speaking of this plant, says it is 
possessed of powerful medicinal properties ; 
an infusion of the leaves is extremel)' bitter, 
and is prescribed in rheumatism and dropsies; 
it may be used as a substitute for hops in 
making beer, and is employed as a purgative 
for calves. It is easily recognised, possessing 
a very singular appearance. It grows a foot 
high ; the leaf-stalks rise from the roots, and 
upon each stalk stand three large oblung 
leaves, somewhat resembling the garden bean 
leaves. The stalks themselves are round, 
thick, and smooth. The flowers are small, 
white, with a delicate tinge of purple, and 
hairy inside. They grow together, forming a 
short, thick spike, and stand upon thick, round, 
whitish, and naked stalks. The root is long, 
thick, and of a whitish colour. Buck-bean 
leaves should be gathered before the flo^ver- 
stalks appear, and dried. Their powder, taken 
in tea, or any liquid, is considered excellent 
for rheumatism and ague. 

BUCKEYE. Under this name, Michaux 
describes two species of trees in the United 
States, viz. the large buckeye or yellow pavia, 
(Pavia hiteu) ; and the Ohio buckeye or Ohio 
horse-chestnut {Pavia ohioensis). ' 

The yclloir pat-ia, or large American buckeye, 
is first observed on the Alleghany Mountains in 
Virginia, near the 39th degree of latitude. It 
becomes more frequent in following the chain 
towards the southwest, and is most profusely 
multiplied in the mountainous districts of the 
Carolinas and Georgia. It abounds, also, upon 
the rivers that rise beyond the mountains and 
flow through the western part of Virginia, and 
the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, to meet 
the Ohio. It is much less common along the 
streams which have their sources east of the 
AUeghanies, and may therefore be considered 
as a stranger to the Atlantic slates, with the 
exception of a tract thirty or forty miles wide 
in the Southern States, as it were beneath the 
shadow of the mountains. It is here called 
big buckeye, to distinguish it from the Pavia 
rubra, which does not exceed eight or ten feet 
in height, and which is called small buckeye. 

Michaux states, that he had seen no situation 
««rhich appeared more favourable to the deve- 
lopement of the big ouckeye, than the declivi- 
ties of the lofty mountains" in North Carolina, 
and particularly of the Great Father Mountain, 
23« 



the Iron Mountain, and the Black Mountain, 
vv'here the soil is generally loose, deep, and 
fertile. The coolness and humidity which reign 
in these elevated regions, appear likewise to be 
necessary to its utmost expansion ; it here 
towers to the height of sixty or seventy feet, 
with a diameter of three or four feet, and is 
considered a certain proof of the richness of 
the land. 

The flowers of this tree are of a light, 
agreeable yellow, and the numerous bunches, 
contrasted with the fine dense foliage, lend it a 
highly ornamental appearance. The fruit is 
contained in a fleshy, oval capsule, the surface 
of which, unlike that of the horse-chestnut of 
Asia and Ohio, is smooth. Each capsule 
contains two seeds or chestnuts, of unequal 
size, flat upon one side and convex on the 
other. They are larger and lighter-coloured 
than those of the common horse-chestnut, and, 
like them, are not eatable. 

Of American trees, the large buckeye is one 
of the earliest to cast its leaves, which begin 
to fall near Philadelphia about the 15th of 
August, and whilst the other horse-chestnuts 
are still clothed Avith their finest verdure. Its 
foliation and flowering are also tardy, which 
is deemed an essential defect in a tree, the 
greatest merit of which is its beauty. The 
wood, from its softness and want of durability, 
cannot be made to subserve any useful pur- 
pose. In beauty, this species is reckoned in- 
ferior to that magnificent tree, the 

Ohio buckeye, or common American horse- 
chestnut, which is not a native of any of the 
Atlantic states, where, however, it is a favourite 
ornamental tree. The ordinary stature of the 
American horse-chestnut is ten or twelve feet, 
but it sometimes equals thirty or thirty-five 
feet in height, and twelve or fifteen inches in 
diameter. 

The foliage of this tree appears very early 
in spring, being very quickly followed by its 
flowers, which almost cover the tree in white 
bunches, making a very brilliant appearance. 
The fruit is of the same colour with that of 
the foreign horse-chestnut and of the large 
buckeye, and of about half the size: it is con- 
tained in fleshy, prickly capsules, and is ripe 
the beginning of autumn. Horse-chestnuts 
are said to injure swine and other stock which 
eat them. 

The bark of the larger trees is blackish, and 
endowed with a disagreeable odour and highly 
acrimonious properties. The wood is white, 
soft, and Avholly useless. The value of the 
Ohio buckeye or American horse-chestnut 
consists mainly in the beauty of its abundant, 
precocious, and beautiful foliage and flowers, 
qualities which bring it into great request as 
an ornamental tree. (North Amer. Sylva.) 

For some notice of the European or Asiatic 
horse-chestnut, see Chestnut, Hofse. 

BUCK-HEADING and BUCK-STALLING. 
Provincialisms applied to the cutting hedge- 
fences off, fence-height. 

BUCKHORN. See Plantai?^, Star of 

THE EaHTH. 

BUCK HUNTING. " In common parlance," 
says Mr. Blaine, "the hunting of a fallow 
deer, whether male or female, is said to be 



BUCKLE-HORNS. 



BUCKWHEAT. 



buck hunting." This, according to Mr. Cha- 
fing, in the reign of James II., was formerly 
practised after dinner ; it was so fashionable, 
and so generally delighted in at that period, that 
even the judges on the circuit were accustomed 
to partake in it. {Sroti's Field Sports, p. 435.) 

BUCKLE-HORNS. A provincial name for 
short crooked horns turning inward in a hori- 
zontal manner. 

BUCKTHORN, COMMON (Rhamnus ca- 
tharlic-us). A hardy indigenous prickly shrub, 
common in hedge rows in England ; flowering 
in May, and ripening its fruit in September. 
The leaves have strong lateral nerves, are 
ovate, toothed, with linear stipules ; the flowers 
are yellowish-green, and are succeeded by a 
black berry, which is glossy, and the size of a 
large pepper-corn, containing three or four 
seeds, and a violet-red pulp. The bark is 
glossy and dark-coloured. This shrub likes a 
sheltered situation, and succeeds in any soil. 
It is propagated by seed, layers, and grafts. 
The juice of the unripe berries is a deep green 
dye, if boiled with a little alum. The juice 
contains a purgative principle, which enables 
it to operate as a powerful cathartic ; but its 
action is accompanied with much griping and 
thirst. It was formerly often used as a domes- 
tic purgative ; but the frequent violence of its 
action has caused its disuse. 

The rJiamnus or buckthorn genus of plants 
is very numerous, ten species being found in 
the United States, chiefly in the warmer parts. 
The leaves of a species found in China, the 
Rhamnus iheezans, resemble those of the tea- 
plant, and pass as a substitute for tea among 
the indigent population of that country. The 
buckthorn family of plants are all either very 
small trees or shrubs with the smaller branches 
often terminating in spines or thorns, qualities 
which fit them for hedges, for which purpose 
the common buckthorn (Rha7nnus catharlicus) 
is a favourite about Boston and other parts of 
New England, where the English and Virginia 
thorns will not stand the climate. The buck- 
thorn, on the contrary, will grow in almost 
any climate and upon every variety of soil. 

A species of rhamnus, called the broadleavcd 
alalernus, a native of the south of Europe, is 
an ornamental evergreen, the blossoms of 
which are greatly frequented by the honey- 
bee. It is a rapid growing shrub, and useful 
for thickening screens, clothing walls, &c. 

The sea or common sallow thorn, the Hip- 
pophcB rhamnoides of Linnaeus, is a very important 
shrub, growing wild on sandy shores, in vari- 
ous parts of the British coast, where it some- 
times attains the height of eight or ten feet. 
Its bark is light brown, the wood white, the 
small leaves of a sea-green colour, but silvery 
white below. The leaves appear early in 
spring; the yellow flowers in June and July; 
the .fine red berries late in autumn. 

In situations contiguous to the sea-shore, or 
the banks of rivulets, this shrub eminently 
deserves to be cultivated, as it is well calcu- 
lated to bind a sandy soil, and to prevent the 
water from penetrating through banks and 
fences. It may be raised from seeds, but more 
expeditiously by planting layers, or propagat- 
ing it from the very abundant spreading roots. 



On account of its thorny points, it afibrds ex- 
cellent hedges, even on a sandy soil. 

Although cows refuse the leaves of the sea- 
buckthorn, yet they are browsed upon by goals, 
sheep, and horses. The berries are strongly 
acid, with an austere vinous flavour : in Lap- 
land they are pickled and used as spice, but 
the fishermen of the Gulph of Bothnia prepare 
from them a rob, which, added to fresh fish, 
imparts a very grateful flavour. 

From the leaves of this shrub, M. Suckow 
obtained an agreeable dark-brown dye for wool 
and silk, first treated with vitriol of iron (cop- 
peras) : Dambourney succeeded in producing 
a similar colour on cloth that had been pre- 
viously steeped in a solution of bismuth. 

BUCKWHEAT (Germ, btichweizen). The 
name of a particular species of grain, of which, 
for the sake of their seeds, there are two spe- 
cies cultivated in Europe : — I. The common 
buckwheat (Polygoimm fagopyrum), PI. 3, g; 
2. The Tartarian buckwheat (P. tutarimm), h; 
and another in China and Tartary (P. emargi- 
nalvm), i. A new kind of buckwheat, known 
to the peasants of Germany by the name of 
Wild Ilalian buckwheat, they prefer to the com- 
mon buckwheat, because it is more productive, 
hardier, and has whiter and more savoury meal. 
This is described in the J nil. des Sciou jlgr., 
April, 1831. (Quart. Journ. Jgr. vol. iii. p. 368.) 
Its flower is said to be deeper-coloured, and 
smaller. 

Buckwheat is a plant known in almost every 
part of the world. It has been supposed tc 
have been first known in Europe after the iimp 
of the Crusades. The French, in fact, call it 
ble Sarrazin. In China, Japan, and Russia, it 
forms a very considerable portion of the food 
of the inhabitants; it is likewise generally 
eaten in Switzerland and the southern parts of 
France, and in Flanders it is a considerable 
branch of husbandry. Gerard speaks of it as 
cultivated in England about the year 1597, 
particularly in the counties of Lancashire and 
Cheshire. It appears, however, to have made 
small progress in this kingdom, and has re- 
ceived less attention than it deserves. It thrives 
well in almost any dry soil, even those of the 
poorest kinds : and in most of the arable dis- 
tricts it is sown on the inferior sorts of land; 
as, when cultivated on the richer kinds of soil, 
it is found to run too much to straw. It is 
well adapted to light sandy lands. The quan- 
tity of seed sown varies from five to eight 
pecks per acre. Buckwheat is an annual. It 
has a strong, cylindrical, reddish, branching 
stem, about two feet in height, with alternate 
ivy-shaped leaves; the flowers, which are 
white, tinged with red, are in bunches at the 
end of the branches, and are succeeded by 
black angular seeds. Its flowers are very at- 
tractive to bees. It begins flowering in July, 
and is generally fit to mow about the beginning 
of October. If put together, says Mr. Main, a 
little green or damp, it does not much signify ; 
for, although ever so mouldy, the grain is never 
damaged, and the more mouldy it is, the earlier 
it can be thrashed. It is the easiest of all barn- 
work for the thrasher. (^Quart. Journ. Agr. vol. 
vii. p. 180.) 

In England, the proper time for sowing 

231 



BUCKWHEAT. 



BUCKWHEAT. 



buckwheat is in May, when there is no longer 
any danger to be apprehended from the frosts ; 
for so tender is this vegetable at its first ap- 
pearance, as to be unable at an earlier period 
to withstand the vernal cold. The slightest 
frost in their infant state would infallibly cut 
off the young shoots ; and as, from this circum- 
stance, it must be sown at a season when dry 
weather may be expected, the crop, on that 
account, not unfrequently fails. The produce, 
which varies with the seasons (and this is ra- 
ther an uncertain crop), ranges from two to 
four quarters per acre. It is commonly grown 
in England in preserves, as food for pheasants 
and partridges. It is an excellent food for 
poultry; pigs thrive upon and are fond of it 
(it is commonly given to them mixed with po- 
tatoes); and when bruised, it is good food for 
horses, two bushels being equal, for this pur- 
pose, it is said, to three of oats (a bushel 
weighs about forty-six pounds). Cows, when 
fed with it, yield a large increase of milk. 
Sheep, when fed upou the plant when in blos- 
som, stagger and tumble about as if drunk. It 
is sometimes made into hay, which is nutritive, 
but tedious to make, and should be consumed 
before the winter. It is often grown on poor 
exhausted soils, and ploughed in when in 
bloom; in this way it increases very materially 
the fertility of the soil, and is a mode often 
practised in Essex, Sufl^olk, Norfolk, and in 
Scotland. Mr. Ballingal has given an account 
of his experiments with it upon a clay loam 
recently limed ; from the result of which he 
warns his brother farmers that it is " needless 
lO attempt to grow it upon damp soils, or to 
expect full crops upon lands exhausted by 
over-cropping." {Trans. High. Soc. vol. ii. 
p. 125.) 

In reaping buckwheat, many farmers prefer 
pulling it, as less likely to shed the seed. The 
morning, or late in the evening, should be 
chosen for this purpose, when the dew is upon 
the plant. M.Vauquelin found 100 parts of its 
straw to contain 29-5 of carbonate of potash, 
3-8 of sulphate of potash, 17*5 carbonate of 
lime, 13-5 carbonate of magnesia, 16-2 of silica, 
10*5 earth of alum, and 9 of water. 

Vast quantities of this grain, says Mr. Main, 
are annually imported into England from Hol- 
land and other northern countries, for the use 
of the gin-distilleries, who also consume con- 
siderable quantities of British growth, which, 
not being kiln-dried, as most of the Dutch grain 
is found to be, is more valued. The average 
quantity of buckwheat imported into England 
is about 10,000 quarters annually. It pays the 
same duty as barley. (M'CuUoch's Com. Diet.) 
For illustrations of the varieties of buckwheat, 
see PI. 3. 

Buckwheat is extensively cultivated in the 
United States, the species usually sown being 
the Polygonum fagopxjritm of botanists. The 
grain affords a favourite article of food. It is 
generally thought to be a severe crop upon 
land, and for this reason is seldom sown on 
highly improved ground. Rough and hilly 
districts are considered peculiarly favourable 
to the culture of buckwheat, which is admira- 
bly adapted to subdue new or wild lands. Be- 
sides the Climbing Buckwheat (Polygonum 
232 



scandens), found in the Middle States and else 
where, twining round bushes in moist thickets, 
&c., eight or ten additional varieties are enu- 
merated in the United States. (Flora Ccstrica.) 
Buckwheat comes to maturity so quickly, 
that it is usual to sow it upon the same ground 
from which wheat or other grain crops have 
been taken. It flourishes best in a mellow, dry, 
loose, sandy soil, but even on the poorest land, 
so that it be not moist, it will produce a tole- 
rable crop in from three to four months after 
sowing. When intended for seed, it is best to 
put in the crop early enough to allow the grain 
to become perfectly matured before frost. For 
this purpose June or the first of July is soon 
enough in the Middle States. In the state of 
New York, buckwheat is frequently sown in 
August along with winter wheat, affording a 
ripe crop in the fall, without injury to the 
wheat, which grows along with and succeeds 
it. When sown broad-cast, the usual manner, 
a bushel of buckwheat is generally put upon 
the acre. Half the quantity is said to answer 
when put in with a proper drill machine. 
When harvested, it is usual to mow it with the 
scythe, and allow it to remain some time 
before it is taken from the field. Being very 
liable to heat, it is advisable to put it into 
small stacks of about four to six loads each. 
Larger stacks, or close housing, would subject 
it to spoiling. The quantity of produce varies 
greatly, according to circumstances of soil and 
season. In the northern part of Pennsylvania 
and still farther north, it is so often nipped 
before maturity by autumnal frosts, as to be a 
precarious crop. From thirty to forty-five 
bushels per acre may be considered an average 
yield in a favourable season, but sixty or eighty 
bushels are not unfrequently produced. Its 
flowers bloom and fade successively for a long 
time. It is thought that the crop would be 
much more productive, if the same uniformity 
in blowing and ripening existed that is observed 
with other grains. The buckwheat Hour most 
preferred in the southern cities, where it com- 
mands a higher price, is that which comes 
from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It is 
common, especially in New Jersey, to grind 
up M'ith the buckwheat a fifth or sixth part of 
Indian corn, a peciiliar kind of which, being 
very soft and white, is raised for the purpose. 
The form in which it is brought to the table is 
almost universally that of flat cakes, made of 
batter raised by means of yeast, or, what is still 
preferable, and requires but a few minutes in 
the preparation, adding a seidlitz powder to the 
mixture of flour and water, which causes the 
batter to rise at once, from the carbonic acid gas 
disengaged. These cakes are soft and spongy, 
and absorb a large quantity of butter, which is 
always put on while they are very warm. Con- 
sidering the large amount of butter used, they 
cannot be regarded as economical food, except 
where butter is very cheap. Persons troubled 
with feeble digestion should never eat buck- 
wheat prepared in this way. In Tuscany, 
buckwheat is mixed with barley, ground, and 
the flour made into bread, which possesses the 
properly of retaining its moisture much longer 
than that of pure wheat; and, though of a 
darker colour, it is thought to be equally nou- 



BUD. 



BUDDING. 



rishing. In German)^ a very palatable grit, 
or coarse-grained meal, is made of it, which 
serves as an ingredient in pottage, puddings, 
&c. In Brandenburg, not only ale and beer 
are brewed from buckwheat mixed with malt, 
but likewise a very excellent spirit, of a bluish 
shade, is obtained by distillation, in flavour 
resembling French brandy. 

The seeds of buckwheat afford excellent 
food for cattle, and are very fattening to poul- 
try and hogs, though it is said to make them 
liable to a scabby eruption. When cut in pro- 
per season, that is to say, about the time of 
flowering, when the stems and leaves are suc- 
culent and tender, it affords an excellent pro- 
vender for cattle, especially for milch cows, 
which are very fond of it. Some intelligent 
farmers have thought it, for the last purpose, 
superior to timoihy hay. 

One of the purposes to which buckwheat 
has been applied, — and for which it appears, 
from the rapidity and exuberance of its growth, 
peculiarly adapted, — is the ploughing down to 
add fertility to the land. This can be done 
when the soil is too far exhausted to produce 
clover for a similar purpose. "We cannot," 
says the editor of the Theatre of Agriculture, 
" too much recommend, after our old and con- 
stant practice, the employment of this precious 
plant as a manure. It is certainly the most 
economical and convenient the farmer can 
employ. A small quantity of seed, costing a 
mere trifle, sows a large surface and gives a 
great crop. When in flower, first roll, and 
plough it in, and it is soon converted into ma- 
nure." This crop is recommended by Mr. 
Taylor, in the Maine Farmer, as an effectual 
destroyer of that frequent pest of the field called 
couch-grass, quii-k-grass, &c. For this purpose 
it must be sown as early in the season as frost 
will permit, and as soon as it gets into flower, 
rolled down and turned under with the plough. 
Another crop is then sown on top of the first, 
and harrowed in ; and, if the season be not 
unfavourable, it will ripen and afford a harvest 
before frost sets in. 

The fresh blossoms and succulent stems of 
buckwheat have been applied in Europe to the 
purposes of dyeing wool, &c. The infusion, 
by the addition of preparations of bismuth and 
tin, produces a beautiful brown colour. From 
the dried flower-bundles different shades of 
green are obtained. The Siberian species of 
buckwheat, in particular, yields a fine yellow, 
which, upon boiling the wool still longer in the 
dye, changes into a golden tint, and at length 
becomes a beautiful yellow. 

BUD (Fr. bouton). The germ or first fruit 
of a plant, which is the organized rudiment of 
a branch or flower. Buds proceed from the 
extremities of the young shoots, and also along 
the branches, sometimes single, sometimes two 
and two, either opposite or alternate, and some- 
iimes collected in greater numbers. In gene- 
ral, we may distinguish three kinds of buds ; 
the leaf-hud, the flower-bud, and mixed buds which 
contain both in one covering. The first spe- 
cies (foliferous buds) contains the rudiments of 
several leaves, which are variously folded over 
each other, and surrounded by scales. The 
second species, or flower-bud {floriferous buds), 
30 



contains the rudiments of one or several flow- 
ers, folded and covered in a similar manner. 
The third sort, which is the most common of 
any, produces both flowers and leaves. A 
leaf-bud is constructed thus : — in its centre it 
consists of a minute conical portion of soft, 
succulent cellular tissue (the plumule or rudi- 
ment of the new twig), and over this are ar- 
ranged rudimentary leaves, in the form of 
scales. These scales are closely applied to 
each other; those on the outside are the largest 
and thickest, and those in the interior are 
smaller and more delicate. In cold countries, 
the external scales are often covered with hair, 
or a resinous varnish, or some other contri- 
vance, which enables them to prevent the access 
of frost to the young and tender centre which 
they protect, for they are strictly hybernacula; 
but in warm countries, where such a provision 
is not required, they are green and smooth, and 
much less numerous. The cellular centre of 
a bud is the seat of its vitality ; the scales that 
cover it are the parts towards the developement 
of which its vital energies are first directed. 
(Penny Cyrlopadia, vol. v. p. 524.) 

BUD. A term made use of in some districts 
for a weaned calf of the first year ; probably 
from the horns then beginning to bud or shoot 
forth. 

BUDDING, or grafting by germs, says Mr. 
Loudon {Enryr. of Gard. p. 2050), consists, in 
ligneous plants, in taking an eye or bud at- 
tached to a portion of the bark of different sizes 
and forms, and generally called a shield, and 
transporting it to a place in another or a differ- 
ent ligneous vegetable. In herbaceous vege- 
tables the same operation may be performed, 
but with less success. It may also be per- 
formed with buds of two or three years' stand- 
ing, and on trees of considerable size, but not 
generally so. The object in view in budding 
is almost always that of grafting, and depends 
on the same principle, all the difference be- 
tween a bud and a scion being, that a bud is a 
shoot or scion in embr3'o ; in other respects, 
budding is conducted on the same principles 
as grafting. In every case, the bud and the 
stock must be botanically related. An apple 
may be budded on a pear or thorn, but not 
upon a plum or peach. Common budding is 
performed from the beginning of July to the 
middle of August. 

It is indispensable that the bud to be inserted 
should be fully formed, or ripe. After the in- 
cision of the stock, great care must be taken 
in raising the bark that the cambium be not 
scraped or injured. The cambium is that soft 
portion between the wood and the bark des- 
tined to give support to the descending fibres 
of the buds, which fibres subsequently become 
embedded in it. In budding, therefore, the 
bark must be very carefully lifted up, and not 
forced from the wood with a bone or metal 
blade as is too often done. 

For propagating choice fruit, the operation 
of budding possesses several advantages over 
that of grafting. " It is," says Buel, " more 
readily performed, with fewer implements, 
less preparation, and with greater success ; it 
does not injure the stock if unsuccessful, and 
the operation may be twice or thrice repeated 
v2 233 



BUDDING. 



BUDDING. 



the same year, as the season for its perform- 
ance is protracted, for some one or other of 
the varieties, for some three months. Although 
July and August constitute the ordinary season 
for budding, the plum and the cherry may 
often be budded in the latter part of June, and 
the peach, apricot, and nectarine as late as the 
middle of September. Youth may readily ac- 
quire the art, by little practice, under the direc- 
tions we are about to give; and we know a 
young la ly who is an adept in it, and who 
practises it annually as a pleasant recreation, 
as well as a useful labour. We have often 
been treated with delicious peaches produced 
by the buds which she has inserted. 

The first consideration is to provide stalks, 
if this provision has not already been made. 
Seeds may be collected the coming season in 
almost every family. Those of stone fruit 
may be mixed with earth, or deposited in a 
hole in the garden, and in the autumn buried 
superficially in the earth, to expose them to the 
expanding influence of the frost; and in the 
spring those of the peach and plum that have 
not burst the shell should be cracked, and 
the whole sown in a well-prepared seed-bed. 
The cherries may be sown immediately after 
they are taken from the fruit, and the apple, 
pear, and quince either in autumn or spring. 
All the kinds will generally grow the first sea- 
son. The same rule applies to plants as to 
animals : the better condition they are kept in 
■while young, the more profitable they will be- 
come at maturity. Thus two or three roods 
of ground will suffice a farmer for a nursery 
of choice fruit, from which he may replenish 
his orchard and his garden at pleasure, and 
readily appropriate to his use every new va- 
riety which comes under his observation. No 
one will regret the trifling labour and attention 
which he has bestowed on a little plantation 
of this kind, after he has begun to realize the 
fruits of it. Ornamental shrubs and trees, to 
embellish the grounds about his buildings, 
may be added without cost and with trifling 
labour. 

A bud is an organized yilant in embryo, with 
roots, branches, and foliage, and, like a seed, 
possesses individual vitality capable of deve- 
lopement and the reproduction of its species. 
The process of budding is the transferring this 
embryo plant from its parent tree to another 
tree, which must at least be of the same genus, 
if not of the same species. The apricot and 
nectarine may be, and generally are, budded 
upon the peach ; the plum and the peach are 
budded on each other, and the pear and apple 
may be worked on the wild crab and haw- 
thorn ; and the former is put on the quince to 
produce dwarf trees. To render the transfer 
or budding successful, three things are requi- 
site : 1. That the bud be in a proper condition 
to transfer; 2. That the stalk be in condition 
to receive and nourish it; and, 3. That the 
transfer be skilfully made. The bud ought to 
be matured, i. e., of full growth, and yet not so 
hard and firm as to cause injury in separating 
it from its parent. The stock must peel 
freely, as this is necessary for the insertion 
of the bud, and indicates the presence of 
whai is termed the cambium, which is the soft 
234. 



partially-formed woody matter uiderlaying the 
bark, and which ripens into indurated wood. 
It is the source of nourishment to the bud, and 
the bond of union between it and the stock. 
The operator must therefore use caution that 
he injures neither the bud, the bark, nor the 
cambium, as these all exercise important offices 
in eflfecting the union ; and he must withal 
take care to apply his ligatures properly. It 
will be seen, from these remarks, that both the 
stock and the graft should be in a state of ac- 
tive growth, and the more vigorous the better, 
when the budding process is performed. It is 
also preferable to bud when the weather is 
cloudy, but not wet. Twigs for budding may 
be preserved for many days with care. They 
should be immediately divested of their leaves, 
but not wholly of their leaf-stalks or petioles, 
to prevent the exhaustion of moisture, and 
may then be wrapped in fresh grass, wet cloths, 
or with their butt ends preserved in moisture. 



Fiff. 2. 

The only implement necessary is a budding- 
knife (fig. 2), and the only preparation some 
bass matting, or the inner bark of the bass- 
wood or linden. Filaments torn from the husk 
of Indian corn are also recommended. 

Professor Thouin enumerates twenty spe- 
cies or varieties of grafting, most of which are 
only practised by amateurs and professional 
gardeners. We shall describe only the com- 
mon mode, which is in general practice in 
nurseries. We take it from the Encyclopedia 
of Gardening. 

Shield-budding, or T budding, is thus per- 
formed : Fix on a smooth part of the side of 
the stock, rather from than towards the sun, 
and of a height depending, as in grafting, on 
whether dwarf, half, or whole standard trees 
are desired ; then, with the budding-knife, 
make a horizontal cut across the rind, quite 
through to the firm wood ; from the middle of 
this transverse cut make a slit downward, per- 
pendicularly, an inch or more long, going also 
quite through to the wood. This done, pro- 
ceed with all expedition to take oflT a bud ; 
holding the cutting or scion in one hand, with 
the thickest end outward, and, with the knife 
in the other hand, enter it about half an inch 
or more below a bud, cutting nearly halfway 
into the wood of the shoot, continuing it with 
one clear slanting cut about half an inch or 
more above the bud, so deep as to take a part 
of the bud along with it, the whole about an 
inch and a half long (a, fig. 1); then directly 
with the thumb and finger, or point of the 
knife, clip oflT the woody part remaining to the 
bud ; which done, observe whether the eye or 
germ of the bud remain perfect; if not, and 
a little hole appears in that part, it is impro- 
per, or, as gardeners express it, the bud has 
lost its root, and another must be prepared. 
This done, placing the back part of the bud or 
shield between your lips, expeditiously with 
the flat haft of the knife separate the back of 
the stock on each side of the perpendicular cut 
clear to the wood (c), for the admission of the 
bud, which directly slip down, close between 



BUFFALO. 



BUGLE, COMMON. 



the wood and bark, to the bottom of the slit (d). 
The next operation is to cut off the top part of 
the shield (6) even with the horizontal first- 
made cut, in order to let it completely into its 
place, and to join exactly the upper edge of the 
shield with the transverse cut, that the de- 
scending sap may immediately enter the back 
of the shield, and protrude granulated matter 
between it and the wood, so as to effect a 
living union. The parts are now to be imme- 
diately bound round with a ligament of fresh 
bass (e), or other suitable substance, previ- 
ously soaked in water to render it pliable and 






Fig. 1. 

tough, beginning a little below the bottom of 
the perpendicular slit, proceeding upward 
closely round every part, except just round the 
eye of the bud, and continue it a little above the 
horizontal cut, not too tight, but just sufficient 
to keep the whole close, and exclude the air, 
sun, and wet. 

Future Treatment. — In a fortnight, at far- 
thest, after budding, such as have adhered 
may be known by their fresh appearance 
at the eye ; and in three weeks all those 
which have succeeded well will be firmly 
united with the stocks, and the parts being 
somewhat swelled in some species, the band- 
age must be loosened, and a week or two 
afterward finally removed. The shield and 
bud now swell in common with the other parts 
or the stock, and nothing more requires to be 
done till spring, when, just before the rising 
of the sap, they are to be headed down close 
to the bud, by an oblique cut, terminating 
about an eighth or quarter of an inch above 
the shield. In some cases, however, as in 
grafting, a few inches of the stalk is left for 
the first season, and the young shoot tied to it 
for protection from the winds." 

BUFFALO (from the Italian ; 1.2iX.bubalis). 
A term originally applied to a species of ante- 
lope ; but afterwards transferred, in the age of 
Martial, to different species of the ox. In mo- 
dern zoology, the buffaloes, or the "bubaline 
group" of the genus Bos, include those species 
which have the bony core of the horn exca- 
vated with large cells or sinuses, communicat- 
ing with the cavity of the nose; the horns are 
flattened, and bend laterally with a backward 
direction, and are consequently less applicable 
for goring than in the bisons or taurine group 
of oxen. The buffaloes are of large size, but 
low in proportion to their bulk; they have no 
hunch on the back, and only a small dewlap 
on the breast; the hide is generally black, the 
tail long and slender. The buffaloes occupy 
the warm and tropical regions of the earth ; 
they avoid hills, and prefer the coarse vegeta- 
tion of the forest and swampy regions to those 
of open plains ; they love to wallow and lie for 
hours sunk deep in water; they swim well, 



and cross the broadest rivers without hesita- 
tion. Their gait is heavy, and they run almost 
always with the nose horizontal, being princi- 
pally guided by the sense of smelling. They 
herd together in small flocks, or live in pairs, 
but are never strictly gregarious in a wild 
state. The females bear calves two years fol- 
lowing, but remain sterile the third ; they pro- 
pagate at four and a half years old, and 
discontinue after twelve. "The common buf- 
falo (says Professor Low) has come to us, be- 
yond a question, from Eastern Asia. He seems 
to have been introduced into Italy about the 
sixth century, and is now an important animal 
in the rural economy of that country. He is 
used by the Italians as food and as the beast 
of labour, and may be said to form the riches 
of the inhabitants in many parts of the country. 
He is cultivated, too, in Greece and Hungary. 
The milk of the female is good, but the flesh is 
held in less esteem than that of the common 
ox. The pace of the animal is sluggish; but 
from the low manner in which he carries his 
head, throAving the weight of his great body for- 
ward when pulling, he is well suited for heavy 
draught. But this is not a property sufficiently 
important to cause the introduction of the buf- 
falo into the agriculture of northern Europe, 
and he is not likely, therefore, to be carried 
beyond the countries where he is now reared." 
Buffalo hunting on elephants is one of the field 
sports of the East; and this animal is also 
hunted on foot with avidity by the Cafli'res at 
the Cape of Good Hope, as well to get rid of a 
dangerous foe as to furnish themselves with 
food from his flesh and leather from his hide. 
(Brande's Diet, of Science ; Blaine's Encyc. of Rio- 
ral Sports ; Elements of Practical Agriculture,') 
For American Buffalo, see Bison. 

BUFFALO BERRY TREE {Shepardia mag- 
noides). Silver-leaved Sheperdia. A very 
beautiful tree, discovered by Mr. Nuttall in 
Missouri. The tree is of upright growth and 
thorny, the leaves small and of a delicate and 
silvery appearance. The fertile and barren 
flowers are produced on different trees. The 
fruit consists of berries about the size and ap- 
pearance of large currants, of a fine scarlet 
colour, and very beautiful, enveloping the 
branches in profuse clusters. It has a rich 
taste, and is considered valuable for making 
into tarts and preserves. 

BUGLE, COMMON {Jljvga rcptans). This 
very pretty wild plant grows in woods, copses, 
moist pastures, and shady places, flowering in 
April, May, and June. It is a perennial ; has 
blue flowers, upright leafy stalks, and glossy 
leaves, of a deep purplish-green colour, oblong, 
broad, blunt at the point, and slightly indented 
round the edges, some growing immediately 
from the root. The flower-stalks rise eight or 
ten inches high, of a pale green— often pur- 
plish — and have two leaves at each joint, 
which joints are far apart from each other. 
The joint leaves are as large as those growing 
from the root. The scentless flowers are blue 
and white, sometimes entirely white, growinjr 
round the upper part of its stalk, forming a. 
kind of loose spike. The cups remain, when 
the flower has fallen ofi", to hold its seed^: 
This plant is often denominated sicklewort, an« ■ 

235 



BUGLE-HORN. 



BURGLARY. 



herb carpenter. The roots (says Smith) are 
slightly astringent ; but the herb has little taste 
or smell, and still less of any healing or vul- 
nerary property. The white variety abounds in 
the Isle of Wight; and a flesh-coloured one has 
sometimes been observed. In dry mountain- 
ous situations the plant acquires a consider- 
able degree of hairiness. The French, who 
are great herbalists, athrm, that "with bugle 
and sanicle, no one needs a surgeon." 

Besides the common bugle, Smith, in his 
English Flora, (vol. iii. p. 65—67), enumerates 
three other species, the alpine bugle, pyrami- 
dal bugle, and ground pine or yellow bugle 
{^.djvga chamapilys). 

BUGLE-HORN (from bucula, a heifer). A 
wind-instrument, much more commonly em- 
ployed in the sports of the field formerly than 
at present. It has been, however, in our days, 
much improved for musical purposes by the 
introduction of keys. 

BUGLE -WEED (Virginian lycopus), a 
creeping perennial found in the Middle States, 
frequenting swamps and moist woodlands, 
producing minute white flowers in June and 
Jul)'. It constitutes a prominent article in the 
materia medica of certain German empirics, 
in the city of Lancaster, and other parts of 
Pennsylvania, — who prescribe an infusion as 
a certain remedy for a "dry liver," an infirmity 
which, they allege, afflicts a large proportion 
of those credulous persons who consult them. 
(See Flor. Ccslrica.) 

BULB (Lat. bulbus ; Gr. /2af«). A bud 
usually formed under ground, having very 
fleshy scales, and capable of separating from 
its parent plant. Occasionally it is produced 
upon the stem, as in some lilies. It contains 
the rudiments of the future plant, and partakes 
of the character of the bud (which see). In 
bulbous plants, as the tulip, onion, or lily, 
what we generally call the root is in fact a 
bulb or hybernaculum, or winter case, which 
incloses and secures the embryo or future 
shoot. At the lower part of this bulb may be 
observed a fleshy disk, knob, or tubercle, 
whence proceed a number of fibres or threads. 
This knob, with the fibres attached to and 
hanging from it, is, properly speaking, the true 
root; the upper part being only the cradle or 
nursery of the future stem, which, being re- 
placed a certain number of times, the bulb 
perishes ; but not till it has produced at its 
sides a number of smaller bulbs or cloves for 
perpetuating the species. In bulbous plants, 
where the stalk and former leaves of the plant 
are sunk below, into the bulb, the radicles or 
small fibres that hang from the bulb are to be 
considered as the root ; that is, the part which 
furnishes nourishment to the plant: the several 
rinds and shells whereof the bulb chiefly con- 
sists successively perish, and shrink up into 
so many dry skins, betwixt which, and in their 
centre, are formed other leaves and shells, and 
thus the bulb is perpetuated. There are several 
kinds of bulbs; namely, 1. The tunicated bulb 
(Bulbus tunlcotus), formed of thin membranous 
layers, as, foi example, the owion ,■ 2. The scaly 
bulb (B. squammosus), formed of fleshy abortiv i 
leaves, not in layers, as in the lily. The clove <, 
which are produced between the scales rf 
936 



bulbs, are often, as it were, starved, when the 
bulb throws up a vigorous flowering stem ; 
thence, in order to propagate bulbs, the flower- 
ing stem should be destroyed as soon as it 
appears. 

BULLACE TREE, WILD (Prunus insititia). 
A small tree, chiefly growing in hedges and 
plantations, with irregularly-spreading round 
branches, for the most part tipped with a sharp 
straight thorn. There are several varieties of 
the black kind, diff'ering in size and flavour, 
some good even in a fresh state, and of more 
or less excellence when dressed. (Smith's 
Eng. Flor. vol. ii. p. 356). 

BULLEN. A provincial name applied to the 
herapstalk when the bark is stripped from it. 

BtlLRUSH (Scirpv.s lacustris). A peren- 
nial found commonly in clear ditches, ponds, 
and the borders of lakes and rivers ; flowers 
in July and August. (Smith's Flora, vol. i. 
p. 56.) From this plant the bottoms of chairs, 
mats, &c. are made. The common bulrushes 
of the English marshes, which bear masses 
of brown flowers, are the Typha latifolia and 
angustifolia. See Rush. 

BUNIAS. The oriental bunias (Eunias 
orientalis, PI. 9, k) is a perennial plant, with 
leaves, branches, and its general habit of 
herbage, not unlike the wild chiccory. It is a 
native of the Levant or eastern shores of the 
Mediterranean, and has been cultivated by 
way of experiment in the grass garden at 
Woburn. It is less productive than chiccory, 
bears mowing well, and affords the same nu- 
triment, in proportion to its bulk, as red clover. 
(Loudon's Enry.of Jlgr.') 
BUR. The rough head of the burdock, &c. 
BURDOCK (Arctium). There are two spe- 
cies, the J., lappa, common burdock or clot- 
bur, and the A. lardana, woolly-headed bur- 
dock. This very cumbrous weed is removed 
the first year of its growth by stubbing, like 
other things comprehended by farmers under 
the name of docks, and paid for accordingly to 
the weeder. It is also very commonly found 
in waste ground, by waysides, and among 
rubbish. (Smith's Eng. Flora, vol. iii. p. 379.) It 
grows a yard high, Avith large leaves of a tri- 
angular shape, and of a whitish green colour. 
The stalks are round, solid, and tough. The 
florets are small and red, and the}'^ grow among 
the prickles of those heads called burs, which 
stick to the clothes of passers-by. The root 
is long and thick, brown outside, and whitish 
within. The plant is a biennial, and flowers 
in July and August. The root in decoction is 
a diuretic and sudorific; but it is of little va- 
lue, except as a vehicle for more important 
medicines in some afi"ections of the skin. This 
is a great remedy among village doctresses, 
who sometimes apply the bruised leaves to the 
soles of the feet in hysterics. Either the root 
or seeds decocted, or infused, are equally use- 
ful with the legives. The root of the lesser 
burdock, or xanthium (Bardana minor), has a 
bitter and acrid flavour, and is useful in scro- 
fulous disorders. A decoction of the root 
should be persevered in for a considerable 
length of time. 

BURGLARY. The breaking mto a dwell- 
ing-house in the night with a felonious intent. 



BURGOT. 



BURNING. 



The 7 W. 4, & 1 Vict. c. 86, s. 2, enact, that 
whosoever shall burglariously break and enter 
into any dwelling-house, and shall assault with 
intent to murder any person being therein, or 
shall stab, cut, wound, beat, or strike any such 
person, shall be guilt)'' of felony, and being 
convicted thereof shall sufTer death. S. 3 en- 
acts, that whosoever shall be convicted of the 
crime of burglary shall be liable, at the dis- 
cretion of the court, to be transported beyond 
the seas for the term of the natural life of such 
offender, or for any term not less than ten 
years, or to be imprisoned for any term not 
exceeding three years. S. 4 enacts, that, so 
far as the same is essential to the offence of 
burglary, the night shall be considered to 
commence at nine of the clock in the evening 
of each day, and to conclude at six of the 
clock in the morning of the next succeeding 
day. (./Irrh bald's Crinu Law.) 

BURGOT. A provincial wowl applied to 
yeast. It is sometimes pronounced burgood. 

BUR-MARIGOLD {Bidens). This is an 
herbaceous, mostly annual, genus of plants, 
flowering in August and September. It is met 
with very frequently in watery places, and 
about the sides of ditches and ponds. There 
are Iavo species, with one or two varieties in 
each. In the three-lobed bur-marigold (7^. 
tripartita), the root is tapering with many 
fibres ; stem two or three feet high, erect, 
solid, smooth, leafy, with opposite axillary 
branches. Leaves dark green, strongly ser- 
rated, in three deep segments, sometimes five. 
Flower, terminal, solitary, of a brownish-yel- 
low, somewhat drooping, devoid of beauty and 
of fragrance. Seeds with two or three prickly 
angles, and as many erect bristles ; likewise 
prickly with reflexed hooks, by which they stick 
like burs to any rough surface, and are said 
sometimes to injure fish by getting into their 
gills. The herb of this species gives a yellow 
colour to woollen or linen. The nodding bur- 
marigold (B. cernua) has a root with many 
stout fibres, herb more erect and taller, with 
less extended branches than the foregoing 
species. Leaves undivided, pointed, and less 
deeply serrated. Flowers drooping, .though 
their stalks are quite straight to the very sum- 
mit; larger and handsomer than the last. 
{Smith's Eng. Flora, vol. iii. p. 398.) 

Among the species of bidens or bur-mari- 
gold, found in the United States, are the follow- 
ing : the chrysanthemum-like bidens, common- 
ly called beggar-ticks, an annual ; and the 
bipinnate bidens, popularly called Spanish 
needles. These and the other American spe- 
cies of bidens or burweed are noted for mature 
akenes adhering, by their barbed awns, to the 
clothing of those who go among them in au- 
tumn. The)' are rather troublesome weeds 
along fence-rows, &c., and bloom and ripen 
their seeds late in the season. 

BURNET, COMMON {Pimpinella saxi- 
fraga). There are three species of burnet; 
namely, burnet saxifrage, dwarf burnet, and the 
greater burnet. The common burnet plant 
(Plate 9, o) was, a quarter of a century since, 
much cultivated as a green crop, from its 
being able to thrive on very poor, thin, and 
sandy soils, but it has been gradually super- 



seded by better grasses. Its growth is rather 
slow. Cattle prefer it to clover and rye-grass, 
but sheep do not. (Jnn. of Jgr, vol. i. p. 394.) 
It is sown in spring-time, the same as other 
grass seeds, and withstands severe weather. 
It should be fed off when young {Ibid. vol. ii. 
p. 176); and then, says Arthur Young, "it is 
one of the best grasses for sheep" {Ibid. p. 369), 
who are at that stage of its growth exceed- 
ingly fond of it. About 7 lbs. of seed sufRce 
for an acre {Ibid. vol. xvi. p. 3.55) ; and the 
produce is six or seven bushels per acre, on 
moderate land. {Itnd. vol. xx. p. 237.) 

BURNET, SALAD, SMALL or UPLAND 
{Poterium sanguisorba, from the Greek rroTnpw, a 
cup, used in cool tankards). The stem, which 
is angular, smooth, and leafy, rises one to two 
feet high, furnished with glaucous-green, 
smooth, pinnated leaves, with sharply cut 
stipules, in pairs at the base of the lootstalk. 
The flowers are fertile and barren; the latter 
with crimson stamens resembling elegant silk 
tassels. {Smith.) It delights in a dry, poor 
soil, abounding in calcareous matter; any light 
compartment that has an open exposure, there- 
fore may be allotted to it, the only beneficial 
addition that can be applied being bricklayers' 
rubbish or fragments of chalk. A small bed 
will be sufficient for the supply of a family. It 
may be propagated either by seed, or by slips 
and partings, or offsets of the roots. The 
seed may be sown towards the close of Febru- 
ary, in open weather, and thence until the close 
of May; but the best time is in autumn, as 
soon as it is ripe ; for if kept until the spring, 
it will often fail entirely, or lie in the ground 
until the same season of the following year, 
without vegetating. It may be inserted in 
drills, six inches apart, or broadcast ; in either 
mode, thin, and not buried more than half an 
inch. The plants must be kept thoroughly 
clear of weeds throughout their growth. 
When two or three inches high, they may be 
thinned to six inches apart, and those removed 
placed in rows at the same distance, in a poor, 
shady border, water being given occasionally 
until they have taken root, after which they 
will require no further attention until the au- 
tumn, when they must be removed to their 
final station, in rows a foot apart. When of 
established growth, the only attention requisite 
is to cut down their stems occasionally in 
summer, to promote the production of young 
shoots, and in autumn to have the decayed 
stems and shoots cleared away. If propagated 
by partings, &c. of the roots, the best time for 
practising it is in September and October. As 
it grows freely from seed, this is not usually 
practised. They are planted at once where 
they are to remain, and only require occa- 
sional watering until established. The other 
parts of their cultivation are as for those 
raised from seed. For the production of seed, 
some of the plants must be left ungathered 
from, and allowed to shoot up early in the 
summer ; they flower in July, and ripen abun 
dance of seed in the autumn. The leaves 
taste and smell like cucumbers, thence the 
plant is used to flavour salads. (G. W. John- 
son's Kitchen Garden.) , 

BURNING. See Ansox. 

237 



BURNING OF LIME. 

BURNING OF LIME. See Lime. 

BURNS, in live stock, are best treated by a 
lotion composed of lime-water and linseed-oil, 
equal parts, applying it frequently ; this allays 
the inflammation very rapidly. 

BURNT CLAY. See Ashes. 

BUR-REED (Sparganium). Smith (Evg. 
Flora, vol. iv. p. 73) enumerates three species : 
1. The branched bur-reed (S. ramosum) ; 2. The 
unbranched upright bur-reed (S. simplex); 3. 
The floating bur-reed (S. natans). They are 
all creepingM-ooted, aquatic, juicv, smooth, up- 
•-ight, or floating herbs, and found in pools and 
ditches, and the margins of ponds and rivers : 
common : the last named principally in muddy 
fens, or slow rivers. The bur-reed is a peren- 
nial, flowering in July and August ; the stems 
of some of the species attain to the height 
of three or four feet. The herbage of the 
branched bur-reed serves for package along 
with similar coarse grassy plants, and is softer 
and more pliant than most of them, not cutting 
the hand by any sharp edges, like carices or 
ferns. The unripe burs are very astringent. 
A strong decoction of the burs makes a wash 
or old ulcers. Dr. Darlington describes an 
American species of bur-reed, frequent in 
ditches, sluggish streams, «fcc., in the Middle 
States. (Flor. Ces.) 

BURROW (Teut. bergen, to cover). A pro- 
vincial word, signifying a heap or hillock, 
hence stone-burrows, peat-burrows, &c. 

BUR -WEED {Xanthium strumarium). The 
broad-leaved bur-weed is an annual plant, 
flowering in August and September, found in 
rich moist ground, or about dunghills in the 
south of England ; but rare. It is herba- 
ceous or somewhat shrubby, rather downy, 
of a coarse habit, root fibrous; stem solitary, 
erect, branched, leafy, two feet high, solid; 
leaves on long stalks, heart-shaped, two or 
three inches wide ; clusters of four or five fer- 
tile green flowers, and one or two barren ones, 
making no show. Old tradition reports that 
the xanthium is good for scrofulous disorders, 
as the specific name seems to indicate; but it 
is now out of use. The generic appellation 
alludes to a quality of dyeing yellow, which 
Dioscorides mentions. {Smitlis Eng. Flora, \'o\. 
iv. p. 136.) 

The scrofulous xanthium, clot -weed, or 
cockle-bur is an obnoxious weed, found in the 
United States about farm-yards, road-sides, &c. 
It is an annual not much inclined to spread, 
and therefore, by a little attention, could ge- 
nerally be easily got rid off". The burs are a 
great annoyance in the fleeces of sheep. {^Flor. 
Cestrica.) 

BUSH (Teut. busch ; Dan. busk). A thick 
shrub, or a collection of shrubs or plants, 
growing close together, so as to form a sort of 
clump. It is also a provincial word, signify- 
ing the box of the nave of a wheel. 

BUSH-DRAINING. A term applied to a 
kind of draining, which is done by putting in, 
or filling the drains with bushes. See Drain- 
ing. 

BUSHEL (Old Fr.buschel; low L at. bussel- 

lus). A measure of capacity for dry goods, as 

grain, fruit, pulse, and many other articles, con- 

'rtining t pecks, 8 gallons, or 32 quarts, and is 

2^8 



BUSH-HARROW. 

the eighth of the English quarter. The name 
seems to be derived from an old English word, 
buss, signifying a box or vessel. 

The bushel, by a statute made in the twelfth 
year of Henry the Seventh, is to contain 
2150-42 cubic inches, or 8 gallons of wheat; 
the gallon of wheat to weigh 8 lbs. troy- 
weight; the pound, 12 oz. troy-weight; the 
ounce, 20 sterlings ; and the sterling, 32 grains. 
By 5 Geo. 4, c. 74, the imperial gallon is de- 
clared the standard measure of capacity, and 
is directed to be made such as to contain 10 
lbs. avoirdupois of distilled water, weighed in 
air at the temperature of 62° of Fahrenheit's 
thermometer, the barometer standing at 30 
inches, or to contain 277 cubic inches, and 
274 thousandth parts of a cubic inch ; conse- 
quently, the imperial bushel contains 80 lbs. 
of distilled water, or 2218*192 cubic inches. 
By the same act (§ 7), the bushel is declared 
the standard measure of capacity for coals, 
culm, lime, fish, potatoes, or fruit, and all other 
goods or things commonly sold by heaped 
measure, and is prescribed to contain 2815 
cubic inches, to be made round with a plain 
and even bottom, and being 18^| inches in the 
interior diameter by 8 in depth, andl'Jpnches 
from outside to outside ; the goods to be 
heaped up in the form of cone, to a height 
above the rim of the measure of at least three- 
fourths of its depth. 

Besides the standard orlegal bushel, there are 
in England several local bushels, of difllerent 
dimensions in different places. At Abingdon 
and Andover, a bushel contains 9 gallons : at 
Appleby and Penrith, a bushel of peas, rye, 
and wheat, contains 16 gallons ; of barley, 
big malt, mixed malt, and oats, 20 gallons. A 
bushel contains, at Carlisle, 24 gallons: at 
Chester, a bushel of wheat, rye, «S£C., contains 
32 gallons, and of oats 40 ; at Dorchester, a 
bushel of malt and oats contains 10 gallons; 
at Falmouth, the bushel of stricken coals is 
16 gallons ; of other things 20, and usually 21 
gallons : at Kingslon-upon-Thames, the bushel 
contains 8A ; at Newbury, 9 ; at Wycomb and 
Reading, 8|; at Stamford 16 gallons. The 
contents of the bushel seems to have been 
gradually increasing; the Winchester bushel, 
used in England from the time of Henry 
VII. to 1826, contained 2150-42 cubic inches. 
The imperial bushel is therefore to the Win- 
chester bushel as 2218-192 to 2150-42, or as 1 
to -969447. Hence to convert Winchester 
bushels into imperial, multiply by -969447. 
To convert prices per Winchester bushel 
into prices per imperial bushel, multiply by 
1-0315157. 

The heaped bushel was abolished by 4 & 5 
Will. 4, c. 49, an act which took effect from 
the first of January, 1835. (Brande's Diet. 
Science : Penny Cyclopedia ; M'Culloch's Com. 
Die.) 

BUSH-HARROW. An implement consti- 
tuted of any sort of bushy branches, inter- 
woven in a kind of frame, consisting of three 
or more cross-bars, fixed into two end pieces 
in such a manner as to be very rough and 
brushy underneath. To the extremities of the 
frame before are generally attached two wheels, 
about twelve inches in diameter, upon which 



BUSH-HAIIROWING. 



BUTTER. 



it moves ; sometimes, however, wheels are not 
employed, but the whole rough surface is ap- 
plied to, and dragged on, the ground. See 
Hakrow. 

BUSH-HARROWING. The operation of 
harrowing with an instrument of the kind just 
described. It is chiefly necessary on grass- 
lands, or such as have been long in pasture, for 
the purpose of breaking down and reducing 
the lumps and clods of the earth or manures 
that may have been applied, and thereby ren- 
dering them more capable of being washed 
into the ground, or for removing the worm- 
casts and mossy matter that may have formed 
on the surface. 

BUSH-VETCH {Vida sepmm). A plant of 
the vetch kind, which may probably be culti- 
vated to advantage by the farmer, where lu- 
cerne and other plants of a similar nature 
cannot be grown. Its root is perennial, fibrous, 
and branching ; the stalks many, some of them 
shooting immediately upwards, others creep- 
ing just under the surface of the ground, and 
emerging, some near to, and others at a con- 
siderable distance from, the parent-stock. The 
small oval leaves are connected together by a 
mid-rib, with a tendril at the extremity ; the 
flowers are in shape like those of the common 
vetch, of a reddish-purple colour; the first that 
blossom usually come in pairs, afterwards to 
the number of four at a joint; the pods are 
much shorter than those of the common vetch, 
larger in proportion to their length, and flatter, 
and are of a black colour when ripe ; the seeds 
are smaller than those of the cultivated spe- 
cies, some speckled, others of a clay colour. 
It yields, from a brown sandy loam, 17,696 lbs. 
per acre of grass, and of nutritive matter 976 
lbs. It flowers in the middle of May, and 
maintains its place when once in possession 
of the soil, but appears unfit for clayey soils. 
The seeds are sown in April or the beginning 
of May. (Hort. Gram. Wob. p. 210.) iJeing a 
perennial plant, Mr. Swayne deems it to be a 
proper kind to intermix with grass seeds for 
laying down lands intended for pasture; and 
that it is as justly entitled to this epithet as 
any herbaceous plant whatever, having ob- 
served a patch of it growing in one particular 
spot of his orchard for fourteen or fifteen 
years past. It is not only a perennial, but an 
evergreen : it shoots the earliest in the spring 
of any plant eaten by cattle -with which he is 
acquainted ; vegetates late in autumn, and 
continues green through the winter, though the 
weather be very severe : add to this, that cat- 
tle are remarkably fond of it. The chief rea- 
son that has hitherto prevented its cultivation 
has l)een the very great difliculty of procuring 
good seed in any quantity. The pods, he finds, 
do not ripen altogether; but as soon almost 
as they are ripe, they burst with great elasticity, 
and scatter the seed around ; and after the 
seeds have been procured, scarce one-third 
part of them will vegetate, owing, as he sup- 
poses, to an internal defect, occasioned by cer- 
tain insects making them the nests and food 
for their young. It seems, also, that a crop of 
this kind of vetch may be cut three or four 
times, and in some cases even so early as the 
beginning of March — a circumstance of much 



importance to farmers who have a large stoCil 
of cattle. (Trans. Bath and West of England 
Society, vol. iii.) 

BUTT. A provincial term applied to such 
ridges or portions of arable land as run out 
short at the sides or other parts of fields ; also 
to a vessel holding 126 gallons of wine, 108 of 
beer; and to a measure of from 15 to 22 cwts. 
of currants. To butt, from Dutch bolten, to 
strike. Butt-land is the place where, in days 
of archery, the butts for practice were placed. 
It is also applied provincially to a close- 
bodied cart : hence a dung-butt, or wheel- 
cart, gurry-butt, or sledge-cart, ox-butt, horse- 
butt, &c. 

BUTTER (Ger. butter: Dut. botcr). A well- 
known article of domestic consumption, com- 
monly procured by churning the milk of the 
cow. It was not an article employed by the 
early Greeks and Romans. "The ancient Ro- 
mans," says Mr. Alton {Quart. Journ. Jlgr. vol. 
V. p. 357), "knew nothing of making butter 
until they were taught by the Germans how to 
make it, and it was not used by them as food, 
but merely as oil." Herodotus says, that the 
Scythians formed butter by agitating mare's 
milk; and the poet Anaxandrides says, that the 
Thracians ate butter, at which the Grecians 
were surprised. When Julius Caesar invaded 
England, he found that the inhabitants had 
abundance of milk, from which they made 
butter, but could not make cheese till they 
were taught that art by their invaders. The 
Arabs, it seems (Burckhardt' s Travels in Nubia, 
p. 441), are very large consumers of fresh 
butter, and they are in the habit of drinking 
every morning a cupful of melted butter, or 
ghee, as it is called in the East. In India, ghee 
is made from the milk of the buffalo, and a 
very considerable traffic is carried on with it. 
It is usually conveyed in leather bottles or 
duppers, holding from ten to forty gallons ; 
some are made of hide. The colour of butter 
is yellow ; it possesses the propert}' of an oil, 
and mixes readily with other oil}- bodies; it 
melts and becomes transparent at 90° Fahren- 
heit, and if it is kept in this state for some time, 
it assumes exactly the appearance of oil, loses 
its peculiar flavour, and some curds and whey 
separate from it. Milk, in fact, is composed 
of cream, curd, and whey. The cream and 
the milk are merely united mechanically, and 
when, therefore, the new milk is allowed to 
rest, the cream, being the lighter of the two, 
rises gradually to the" top; the curd separates 
from the milk, too, with the assistance of a 
very slight degree of acidity. Butter may be 
made by the agitation of either cream or new 
milk: fresh cream is not commonly used, be- 
cause it requires four times the churning that 
stale cream does. (Fourcroy, .^Jin. de Chem. 
torn. vii. p. 169.) The contact of the atmo- 
spheric air is not absolutely essential to the 
production of butter from cream, although 
the oxygen of the air is usually absorbed in 
churning: according to Dr. Young, there is 
an increase in the temperature during the ope- 
ration of four degrees. Buttermilk is merely 
milk deprived of its cream, in which it rapidly 
becomes sour, and the curdy or cheesy part is 
separated from the whey or serum. Cream of 

239 



BUTTER. 



BUTTER. 



the specific gravity 1.0244 was found by Ber- 
zelius to contain — 

Parts 

Butter --..--. 4-5 
Cheese ------- 3-5 

Whey 920 

Curd, which is easily separated from creamed 
milk b}' rennet, has many of the properties of 
coagulated cdbumen : it is composed, accord- 
ing to the analysis of MM. Gay Lussac and 
Thenard, of 

Parts. 

Carbon -....- 59-781 

Oxygen 11-409 

Hydrogen ------ 7-429 

Azote - 21 381 

100- 



Curd, adds Dr. Thomson (System of Chem. 
vol. iv. p. 499), as is well known, is used in 
making cheese, and the cheese is the better, 
the more it contains of cream, or of that oily 
matter which constitutes cream. It is well 
known to cheese-makers, that the goodness of 
it depends in a great measure on the manner 
of separating the whey from the curd. If the 
milk be much heated, the coagulum broken in 
pieces, and the whey forcibly separated, as is 
the practice in many parts of Scotland, the 
cheese is scarcely good for any thing; but the 
whey is delicious, especially the last squeezed 
out whey; and butter may be obtained from it 
in considerable quantities. But if the whey is 
not too much heated (100° is sufficient), if the 
coagulum be allowed to remain unbroken, and 
the whey be separated by very slow and gentle 
pressure, the cheese is excellent, but the whey 
is almost transparent and nearly colourless. 
(Journal de Phys.) 

When milk is deprived of its cream, it is 
composed, according to M. Berzelius, of 

Parts. 

Water - - 928 75 

Curd with a little cream - - - - 28- 

Sugar of milk ------ 35- 

Muriate of potash (chloride of potassium) - 1'70 

Phosphate of potash ----- 25 

Lactic acid and acetate of potash . - - 6- 

Earthy phosphates - - ... 30' 

1000- 
(Thomson, vol. iv. p. 501.) 

From some valuable experiments on the 
temperature at which butter may be best pro- 
cured from cream, by Dr. John Barclay and 
Mr. All#n, it appeared " that cream should not 
be kept at a high temperature in the process 
of churning. In the experiment when the tem- 
perature was lowest, the quantity of butter 
obtained was in the greatest proportion to the 
quantity of cream used ; and as the tempera- 
lure was raised, the proportional quantity of 
butter diminished; while, in the last experi- 
ment, when the mean temperature of the cream 
had been raised to 70°, not only was the quan- 
tity of butter diminished, but in quality it was 
found to be very inferior, both with regard to 
taste and appearance. That the lowest possi- 
ble temperature should be sought in churning, 
appears likewise from another result of these 
experiments, the specific gravity of the churned 
milk having been found to diminish as the 
temperature of the cream was increased; thus 
showing, that at the lower temperature, the 
butter, which is composed of the lighter parts 
240 



of the cream, is more completely collected than 
at the higher temperature, in which the churned 
milk is of greater specific gravity." The con- 
clusion to which they came therefore was, thai 
the most proper temperature at which to com- 
mence the operation of churning butter is from 
50° to 55°, and that at no time of the operation 
ought it to exceed 65°; while, on the contrary, 
if at any time the cream should be under 50° 
in temperature, the labour will be much in- 
creased, without any proportional advantage 
being obtained; and a temperature of a higher 
degree than 65° will be injurious as well to the 
quality as the quantity of the butter. (Trans. 
High, Soc. vol. i. p. 194.) One of these experi- 
ments it may be well to abridge: — 15 gallons 
of cream at the temperature of 50° were 
churned ; each gallon (equal to holding 8 lbs. 
4 oz. of water) weighed 8 lbs. 4 oz. ; by churn- 
ing for two hours, the temperature of the cream 
rose to 56°; at the end of the churning it was 
60°. The butter obtained weighed 29^ lbs. 
avoirdupois, or nearly 2 lbs. for each gallon 
of cream: the butter was firm, rich, and plea- 
sant. A gallon of the churned milk weighed 
8 lbs. 9 oz. 

Mr. J. Ballantyne found that the greatest 
quantity of butter from a given quantity of 
cream is obtained at 60°, and the best quality 
at 55° in the churn just before the butter came; 
when the heat exceeded 65°, no washing could 
etach the milk from the butter without the aid 
f salt; but when a quantity of salt was 
wrought well into it, and the mass allowed to 
stand for twenty-four hours, and then well 
washed, the milk was separated. (Trans. High, 
Soc. vol. i. p. 198.) 

The method of making the best butter all 
over the dairy district of Scotland, is thus de- 
scribed by Mr. Aiton (Quarl. Journ. jlgr, vol. v. 
p. 351) : The milk, when drawn from the cow, 
is placed from six to twelve hours in coolers, 
the same as when set aside to cast up its cream ; 
but this is merely to let the milk cool; and 
whenever it is divested of its natural heat, the 
whole meal of milk is emptied from the cool- 
ers into a stand vat or tub sufficient to contain 
the whole. If the vat is large, and a second 
meal of milk has become cold before the for- 
mer meal of milk has begun to acidify, the 
second may be turned into the first. It is then 
placed in a vat, covered over, and allowed to 
remain undisturbed, till the milk has not only 
acidified, but until it has been formed into a 
coagulum (or tapper, in dairy language). It is 
now ready to be churned; and, provided the 
lapper is not broken (which makes it ferment), 
it may remain, without injury, unchurned for 
some days. 

Milk prepared in this way is churned in up- 
right or plunge churns, of a size to suit the 
magnitude of the dairy. Where only a few 
cows are kept, the churns will hold about 100 
quarts, from 200 to 240 quarts, and some still 
more. These large churns are on some large 
farms moved by machinery of various con- 
structions, but in most dairy farms, churns of 
200 quarts are wrought by hand-labour only. 
After the clotted milk is put into the churn, as 
much hot water is poured amongst the milk as 
to raise the temperature from 50° or 55°, which 



BUTTER. 



BUTTER. 



is about the ordinary temperature of a good ' 
spring or milk-house. Experiments instituted 
for the purpose have determined this as the 
best temperature at which to commence the 
operation of churning, and that at no lime 
during the operation ought it to exceed 65°. 
If the temperature be higher, it will be attended 
with injury to the quality and quantity of the ; 
butter. If lower than 50°, the butter will not ', 
" come." After the butter has formed, warm 
water may be gradually added, so as to raise j 
the temperature to 70° or 75°, one person agi- | 
tating while another throws in the water. The 
temperature must be raised to or above 70° 
before the butter can be separated from the 
milk; and this cannot be accomplished in any 
way so well as by pouring in boiling water 
after it has begun to be churned. If the milk 
is too cold, when churning it swells, has a pale 
white colour, throws upon the surface many 
air-bubbles, and emits a rattling noise; the 
time of churning is from 2^ to 2| hours ; the 
milk being of ordinary quality, 24 pints impe- 
rial yield 24 ounces of buUer. 

In the makingof butter, care and cleanliness 
are requisite. The cows should be milked in 
the cool of the morning and evening; they 
should be driven very gently, and if brought to 
the milking-place some little time previously, 
it will be all the better. In some countries 
they milk them in their pastures, a practice 
commonly followed in mountainous districts, 
and where they are distant from the dairy. 
The teats of the cow should be washed often 
with water, and the dairy floors (which are 
best of brick) and all the dairy utensils cannot 
be too frequently washed, not only because dirt 
is exceedingly noxious to the production of 
good butter, but from the coolness which it 
produces in the dairy. 

When the milk is brought into the dairy, it 
is strained through a sieve, to remove any me- 
chanically diffused matters, and then placed in 
shallow pans and coolers, cr leaden troughs. 
Some are made of iron tinned, others of brass. 
There is, however, an objection to leaden 
troughs, for at the point of contact between the 
air and the cream, the latter aids the oxidize- 
ment of the lead; and carbonic acid being 
attracted, a ca,rbonate of lead (ivhite had) is 
formed, and communicates a poisonous pro- 
perty to the cream. Painters' colic has been 
thus sometimes communicated to dairymaids. 
Zinc, or iron tinned, is preferable to lead for 
dairy vessels. The same objection applies to 
brass as to lead. Metal ones are regarded as 
the best, from their rapidity of cooling in sum- 
mer, and from their being more easily warmed 
in the winter; they are besides (and the same 
remark applies to the milk pails, &c.) more 
readily and completely cleaned than those of 
wood or earthenware. The dhiry should be 
well ventilated by wire-gauze windows, and 
protected by either trees or buildings from the 
heat of the sun. In twelve hours the finest 
portion of the cream has risen to the surface, 
which, if then separated from the milk and 
churned, produces a very delicate butter. It is 
commonly left, however, for twenty-four hours, 
and then skimmed off and deposited in an 
earthen vessel. In the dairies of the usual 
31 



size, the cream collected is churned every two 
days, and the formation of the butter is found 
to be materially accelerated by the cream ac- 
quiring a slight acidity; indeed, it has been 
sometimes contended that, without the presence 
of an acid, butter cannot be made. Lactic acid 
indeed is always present in buttermilk ; an 
acid quality is even, in some cases, imparted 
to it by the dairywomen, who add a small 
quantity of vinegar or lemon-juice; this, how- 
ever, does not improve the flavour of the but- 
ter, and it injures it considerably for salting. 
To effect the separation of the butter from the 
cream, a considerable degree of agitation is 
necessary, varying with the electrical state of 
the atmosphere, and other circumstances. Of 
the influence of electricity no one will doubt 
who has witnessed the effect of a thunder-storm 
on a dairy of milk. The agitation or churning 
is produced by various-sized churns, the most 
common shaped of which is the upright wooden 
churn, with an upright plunger; others are 
made of barrels, turning on an axle by means 
of a common winch ; some are made like cra- 
dles, and rock much in the same manner: 
these are worked chiefly by hand. But it is 
sometimes done by horse power, and very 
commonly now in Cheshire by small portable 
high-pressure steam-engines: these last might 
easily be made to cut chaff, bruise corn for 
stock, crush bones, and a variety of other use- 
ful purposes. 

In the course of a period varying from one 
hour to several hours, according to circum- 
stances, the butter begins to make its appear- 
ance in small lumps or kernels, which are 
gradually increased in number as the churn- 
ing proceeds ; these are collected and placed 
in a shallow wooden vessel, or washing-tub, 
and when all the butter is "come" or extracted, 
little else remains but the buttermilk. The 
butter placed in the washing-tub is worked by 
the hand into a mass, the buttermilk squeezed 
out, and the butter washed in » -ater, an opera- 
tion which, when it is intended for keeping, 
cannot be too carefully performed; and if the 
person who works it has not a very cool hand,. 
it should be kept as cool as possible by fre- 
quent ablutions in cold water. A large portion 
of the butter made at a distance from large 
towns is salted and put into casks or firkins, 
which weigh about 56 lbs.; about 3 or 4 lbs. 
of salt are required for this purpose, which 
should be of the finest and purest description, 
totally free from the bitter deliquescing salts 
which commonly abound in that made by 
artificial heat from sea water. The casks also 
should be made of clean wood, and before the 
butter is placed in them they should be well 
washed with hot brine. " If," says a writer in 
the Penny CydojycEdia, "there is not a sufficient 
quantity' to fill the cask at once, the surface 
is made smooth, some salt is put over it, and 
a cloth is pressed close upon it to exclude the 
air. When the remainder is added at the next 
churning, the cloth is taken off, and the salt 
which had been put on the surface is care- 
fully removed with a spoon. The surface is 
then made rough with a small wooden spad?' 
and left so, and the newly salted butter is 
added, and incorporated completely. This 
X 241 



BUTTER. 



BUTTER. 



prevents a streak which would otherwise ap- 
pear at the place where the two portions joined. 
When ;he cask is full, some salt is put over it, 
and the head is put on. If the butter is well 
freed from all the buttermilk, and the salt 
mixed with it quite dry, it will not shrink in 
the cask, and it will keep its flavour for a long 
time." Dr. Anderson recommended for pre- 
serving butter a composition of salt 2 parts, 
saltpetre 1 part, sugar 1 part; 1 oz. of this 
mixture to 16 oz. of butter. It seems that 
butter thus treated will keep sweet for a 
lengthened period; but that for the first fort- 
night it does not taste well. 

In Devonshire the method of making butter 
is peculiar to the count)'. The milk is placed 
in tin or earthen pans, and twelve hours after 
milking, these pans (each holding about eleven 
or twelve quarts) are placed on an iron plate, 
over a small furnace. The milk is not boiled, 
but heated until a thick scum arises to the sur- 
face ; if when a small portion of this is re- 
moved bubbles appear, the milk is removed, 
and suffered to cool. The thick part is then 
taken off the surface, and this is the dovted 
cream of Devonshire, which is known all over 
England. By a gentle agitation this clouted 
cream is speedily converted into butter. 

In Holland they churn the cream and milk 
together, after it has been kept sufficiently long 
for a slight acidity to appear. They churn, it 
seems, sometimes with a horse, sometimes by 
a dog, or turnspit, working on a wheel ; a plan 
which I think might be well adopted, in many 
cases, in England, to the saving of the labour 
of many a poor dairy-maid. In the large 
dairies, however, about Dixmunde and Furnes, 
the cream only is churned three times a week. 
{Flemish Hvsb. p. 61.) 

On an average, four gallons of milk pro- 
duces a pound of butter, and a good cow 
should produce six pounds of butter per week 
in summer, and three pounds in winter. Of 
English butter, that of Cambridge and Epping 
is the most celebrated. But the consumption 
in England is much greater than the farmers 
can supply : very large quantities are in con- 
sequence annually imported into England; 
thus, in 182.5, the import from Ireland amount- 
ed to 422,883 cwts., and from foreign countries 
159,332 cwts.; this last in 183.5 was 134,.346 
cwts., of which 106,776 cwts. came from Hol- 
land. (31'Culloch's Cow. Diet.; Trans. High. 
Soc. ; Quart. Journ. .Agr."^ 

To prepare Butter for a warm climate. — When 
butter is to be exposed to the heat of a warm 
climate, it should be purified by melting before 
it is salted and packed up. For this purpose 
let it be put into a proper vessel, and this im- 
mersed into another vessel containing water. 
Let the water be heated until the butter is tho- 
roughly melted. Let it continue in this state 
for some time, when the impure parts will sub- 
side, leaving at the top a perfectly pure trans- 
parent oil. This, when it cools, will become 
opaque, and assume colour nearly resembling 
that of the original butter, being only some- 
what paler, and of a firmer consistence. When 
tnis refined butter is become a little stiff, but 
while it is still somewhat soft, the pure part 
'■•lust be separated from the dregs, and be salted 
242 



and packed up in the same manner as other 
butter ; it will continue sweet much longer in 
hot climates, as it retains the salt better than 
in its original state. It may also be preserved 
sweet, without salt, by adding to it a certain 
portion of fine honey, perhaps one ounce to a 
pound of butter, and mixing them together 
thoroughly, so that they may be perfectly in- 
corporated. A mixture of this sort has a sweet 
pleasant taste, and will keep for years without 
becoming rancid : there is no doubt, therefore, 
but that butter might thus be preserved in long 
voyages without spoiling. 

As butter made in winter and even at other 
times is mostly pale or white, and at the same 
time of a poorer quality than that made during 
the summer months under the most favourable 
circumstances, various articles have been 
mixed with it in order to produce the rich yel- 
low colour associated with excellence. Those 
most commonly used are the juice of the car- 
rot, or flowers of the marygold, carefully ex- 
pressed and strained through a linen cloth, or a 
small portion of arnotta. When the juices of 
the carrot and marygold are used, a small 
quantity (to be determined by experience) is to 
be diluted with a little cream, and this mixture 
is added to the rest of the cream when put into 
the churn. The quantity of colouring matter 
required is so small as not to impart any par- 
ticular taste to the butter. When arnotta is 
used instead of these vegetable juices a por- 
tion about the size of a pea is sufficient to co- 
lour sufficiently 25 lbs. of butter. It must be* 
first mixed with a little water and put into the 
cream at the commencement of churning. 
The best Spanish arnotta should be used. 

The butter most esteemed in London is that 
of Epping and Cambridge ; the cows which 
produce the former feed during summer in the 
shrubby pastures of Epping forest, and the 
leaves of the trees and numerous wild plants 
which there abound are supposed to improve 
the flavour of the butter. It is brought to mar- 
ket in rolls from one to two feet long, weighing 
a pound each. The Cambridgeshire butter is 
produced from the milk of cows that feed one 
part of the year on chalky uplands, and the 
other in rich meadows or fens ; it is made up 
into long rolls like the Eppins: butter, and 
generall}' salted, not cured, before brought to 
market. By washing it, and working the salt 
out of it, the London cheesemongers often sell 
it at a high price for fresli Epping butter. 
• The butter of the mountains of Wales an 
Scotland, and the moors, commons, and heat'- 
of England, is of excellent quality, when it is 
properly managed ; and though not equal in 
quantity, it often is confessedly superior to that 
produced from the richest meadows. Bad but- 
ter is more frequently the result of mismanage- 
ment, want of cleanliness, and inattention, than 
of any other cause. Ireland would produce 
the finest butter in the empire, were it not for 
the intolerably filthy state of their cows, and 
the want of cleanliness in their dairies. 

In packing fresh butter, prepared for imme- 
diate use or sale, the leaves of cabbage, white 
beet, or of the garden orache, are preferred in 
England. The bottom of the basket should ne 
bedded with a thick cloth, folded two or three 



BUTTER-CUP. 



BUTTERNUT. 



limes ; then a thin gauze clipped in cold water, 
spread over it, on Avhich tlie prints or rolls of 
butter are to be placed, each with one or more 
leaves beneath, and smaller ones over it. The 
lowermost layer being adjusted, fold half of the 
gauze cloth over it, put in another layer in the 
same way, and then cover witli the remainder 
of the gauze. The butter should be put into and 
taken from the basket without being touched. 

Whey butter, as its name implies, is butter 
made from the whey which is tjikeu from the 
curd, after the milk is coagulated for the manu- 
facture of cheese. It is cliielly made in those 
counties wliere clieese is manufactured, and 
where it forms no inconsiderable part of the pro- 
fits of the dairy. In Derbyshire more butter ia 
said to be made from wliey than from the cream 
cf milk, or from milk churned altogether. 

Under the head of Anlliox<iiit!i.iim Odoratum, 
reasons are given for ascribing to its presence 
in pastures, a certain rich liavour for which 
the butter made in some districts is celebrated, 
such as Uie " M.ny butter" of Philadelphia, and 
the Epping and Cambridge butter of London. 
The sweet-scented vernal grass owes its aro- 
matic qualities chiefly to the presence of ben- 
zoic acid or flowers of benzoin, and this when 
administered to cows mixed with their food has 
been found to conitnuniL-.-.te tlie peculiarly plea- 
sant flavour comniiin tu riiiladeljdiia "May 
butter," not met with at present in the butter 
of any otiier piirt of the United States, and so 
highly prized by epicures that when good fresh 
bu'tter sells in the Thiladeljihia market for 20 
and 25 cents, the high-flavoured spring grass 
butter will bring 40 or 50 cents per pound. 
Very agreeable flavours may be given to butter 
by adding to cream, before churning, certain 
agents, as flowers of benzoin, vanilla, etc. See 
Anthoxanthum Odoratum, Dairy, Whey. 

BTITTER-CUP, butter-flower, or upright 
meadow crow's foot {Ranunculus bxdbosns. 
Smith). (PI. 10, t,) A common perennial 
weed, abounding in meadows and pastures, 
and blooming in May. The whole plant is 
e.xtremely acrid, so as often to be employed by 
country people to raise a blister. Bees are, 
however, very fond of it; it is eaten by sheep 
and goats; but horses, cows, and swine refuse 
it; drying destroys its acrimony. The roots 
are perennial, and bulbous; the stem rises a 
foot high, and bears its yellow flowers on the 
ends of its branches. 

Dr. Darlington says that sonae fifteen or 
twenty species of ranunculus have been enu- 
merated in the United States. (Flor. Cestrira.) 

BUTTERFLY. The common English name, 
says Brande {Diet, of Science), of an extensive 
group of insects, as they appear in their last 
and fully developed state, when they constitute 
the most beautiful and elegant examples of 
their class. These insects belong to the order 
Lepidoptera, and to the section Diurna of La- 
treille, or the genus Papilio of Linnaeus. The 
eggs of the butterfly are deposited on such 
plants as afford the nutriment most appropriate 
to the caterpillars, that are to be excluded 
from them ; thus, the common white butterfly 
{Picris brassicce) and other species, oviposit 
upon cabbages, and hence have been termed 
brassicaria ; the gaudy peacock butterfly lays 



her eggs upon the nettle. The eggs are coated 
with a glutinous secretion as they are excluded 
from the parent, and thus they are provided 
with the means of adhesion to the leaves or 
stems of the plants selected. See Cater- 
pillars. 

BUTTERNUT {Juglans cathartica vel Cine- 
rea). A species of walnut growing in the 
United States, in different parts of which it is 
known by different names. In the New Eng- 
land States it generally takes the name of oil- 
nut; in some of the Middle States it is called 
white walnut; but from New York to the Caro- 
linas, and from Pennsylvania to Ohio, the most 
common name is butternut. The region of 
this tree is very extensive, as it is found from 
Upper and even Lower Canada to the Flo- 
ridas, and from the Atlantic to the Missouri. 
Even in Vermont and other cold regions its 
growth is so luxuriant that it attains acircum- 
terence of eight or ten feet. Michaux mea- 
sured some in New Jersey nearly opposite 
New York, growing on the steep and elevated 
banks of the Hudson, where the soil was cold 
and unproductive, and found them, five feet 
from the ground, ten or twelve feet in circum- 
ference, and fifty feet high, -with roots running 
along the surface of the ground in a serpentine 
direction, and with little variation in size, to 
the distance of forty feet. The limbs gene- 
rally branch off" at a small height above the 
base, and spread themselves widely, which 
gives the tree a striking appearance. 

In the spring its vegetation is forward, and 
its leaves unfold a fortnight earlier than those 
of the hickory. The black walnut and butter- 
nut, when young, resemble each other, in their 
foliage, and in the rapidity of their growth ; 
^ but when arrived at maturity, their forms are 
so different as to be distinguishable at first 
sight. Remarkable peculiarities are also found, 
on examining their wood, especially when 
seasoned. The black walnut is heavy, strong, 
and of a dark-brown colour ; while the butter- 
nut is light, of little strength, and of a reddish 
hue. But they possess in common the great 
advantage of lasting long, and of being se- 
cure from the annoyance of worms. The 
wood of the butternut is used for the sleepers 
and posts of frame houses and barns, for post 
and rail fences, troughs for cattle, &c. For 
corn-shovels and wooden dishes, it is preferred 
to the red-flowering maples, because it is lighter 
and less liable to split; consequently hollow 
ware and other articles made of it sell at 
higher prices. In Vermont the wood is used 
for the panels of coaches and chaises, being 
well adapted for this purpose, not only from 
its lightness, but because it is not liable to 
split. It receives paint in a superior manner, 
its pores being very open, more so than those 
of poplar and bass-wood. 

The hark of the butternut possesses medi- 
cinal properties of a cathartic nature which 
have been highly recommended both by the 
testimony of the regular faculty and popular 
practice. An extract prepared from the bark 
is prescribed by American physicians in dose* 
of from half a drachm to a drachm to aduits 
In the revolutionary war when supplies of 
foreign medicines were cut off", the extract of 

i43 



BUTTERWORT. 



BUTTONWOOD. 



butternut was considered an admirable sub- 
stitute for jalap. At present it is but little 
resorted to except in domestic practice in the 
country, where many of the farmer's wives 
make a preparation in the spring for the use 
of themselves and their neighbours. They 
usually boil the bark entire in water, till the 
liquid is reduced, by evaporation, to a thick, 
viscid substance, which is almost black. 
This is a faulty process; the exterior bark 
should first be removed, for by continuing the 
boiling, it soaks up nearly four-fifths of the 
liquid, already charged with rich extractive 
matter. In the country the bark is sometimes 
employed for dyeing wool of a dark-brown 
colour ; but the bark of the black walnut is 
preferable for this purpose. 

If the trimk of the butternut is pierced in 
the month which precedes the unfolding of the 
leaves, a pretty copious discharge ensues of a 
slightly sugary sap, frem which, by evapora- 
tion, sugar is obtained of a quality inferior to 
that of the sugar maple. (^Michaux's American 
Sylvn.) 

BUTTERWORT {Pinguicula vulgaris). A 
perennial weed growing in moist soils, as bogs 
and wet heaths. The viscid exudation of the 
leaves, which are thick and glutinous, says 
Smith (Eng. Flor. vol. i. p. 29), is reputed to 
be good for the sore teats of cows, whence the 
Yorkshire name of this plant, sanicle. The 
country people make it into a syrup as a pur- 
gative, and boil it with their garden herbs in 
broth as a remedy in colds. An ointment 
made from butterwort is also used for chapped 
hands, and to rub upon animals when bitten 
by an adder or slow-worm. 

Mr. Nuttall enumerates four species of this 
plant found in the United States, all of which, 
he says, grow nearly on a level with the ocean, 
in moist pine-barrens. {Goiera of North Am. 
Plants.) 

BUTTONWOOD, or SYCAMORE, the Pla- 
tanus ocddentalis, or western plane tree, of na- 
turalists. 

Among trees with deciduous leaves, none 
in the temperate zones, either on the old or 
new continent, equals the dimensions of the 
planes. The species which grows in the West- 
ern World is not less remarkable for its am- 
plitude and for its magnificent appearance than 
the plane of Asia, whose majestic form and 
extraordinary size was so much celebrated by 
the ancients. 

In the Atlantic States this tree is commonly 
known by the name of buttonwood, and some- 
times, in Virginia, by that of water-beech. 
On the banks of the Ohio, and in the states of 
Kentucky and Tennessee, it is most frequently 
called sycamore, and by some persons plane- 
tree. The French of Canada and of Upper 
Louisiana give it the name of cotton tree. 

The buttonwood is abundant and very vigor- 
-us along the great rivers of Pennsylvania and 
of Virginia; though in the more fertile val- 
leys of the West, its vegetation is perhaps still 
more luxuriant, especially on the banks of the 
Ohio and rivers emptying into it. The bottoms 
watered by these rivers are covered with dark 
forests, composed of trees of extraordinary 
size The Foil is very deep, loose, of a brown 
244 



colour, and unctuous to the touch, formed ap. 
parently of the slime deposited in the course 
of ages by the annual overflowing of the rivers. 
The fertility derived from this source is in- 
creased by accumulations of decayed vegetable 
matter furnished by leaves and the trees them- 
selves. A degree of fertility is thus attained 
by the vegetable mould without example in 
Europe, and which is manifested by prodigies 
of vegetation. In such situations the button- 
wood is found to be the largest tree in the 
United States, although in point of loftiness it 
is exceeded by the tulip poplar, and still more 
the white pine. Often, with a trunk of several 
feet in diameter, the plane tree begins to branch 
out at the height of sixty or seventy feet, near 
the summits of surrounding trees ; and often 
the base divides itself into several trunks 
equally vigorous and superior in diameter to 
all other trees in the vicinit)^ "On a little 
island in the Ohio, fifteen miles above the 
mouth of the Muskingum, my father," says 
Michaux, " measured a buttonwood which, at 
five feet from the ground, was forty feet and 
four inches in circumference, and consequently 
more than thirteen feet in diameter. Twenty 
years before, General Washington had mea- 
sured the same tree, and found it to be of 
nearly the same size." The same distinguished 
naturalist mentions another tree which he and 
his travelling companion had measured, and 
found, at the height of four feet above the 
ground, forty-seven feet in circumference 
This tree, which grew on the right bank of the 
Ohio, about thirty-six miles from Marietta, still 
exhibited the appearance of vigorous vegeta- 
tion, and began to shoot out its limbs twenty- 
feet above the ground. A buttonwood of equal 
size is mentioned, as existing in Tennessee. 
"The extraordinary dimensions of these trees 
recalls," says Michaux, " the famous plane 
tree of Lycia, spoken of by Pliny, the trunk 
of which, hollowed by time, nfl^orded a retreat 
for the night to the Roman Consul Licinius 
Mutianus, with eighteen of his followers. The 
interior of this grotto was represented to be 
seventy feet in circumference, and the summit 
of the tree resembled a small forest." 

The most striking resemblance, in the ma- 
jesty of their form and in the enormous size 
of their trunk, thus appears to exist between 
the only two species of plane that have been 
discovered. It is difficult to mark any differ- 
ence in the colour and organization of their 
wood. The American species is generally 
thought, in Europe, to possess a richer foliage 
and to afford a deeper shade than the Asiatic 
plane. Its leaves are of a beautiful green, 
alternate, from five to ten inches broad, less 
deeply lobed, and formed with more open an- 
gles than those of the plane of the Eastern 
continent. In some places where this tree is 
very abundant, it has been a source of alarm 
to the neighbouring inhabitants, who believe 
that the fine down from the leaves, floating in 
the air, produces an irritation of the lungs and 
predisposes to consumption. There appears 
to be little if any foundation for such an ap- 
prehension. 

According to Michaux's observations, the 
buttonwood does not venture towards the north- 



BUXUS. 

«asi, beyond Portland, in the latitude of 40° 30' ; 
but farther west, in 73° of longitude, it is found 
two degrees farther north, at the extremity of 
Lake Champlain and at Montreal. Proceed- 
ing from Boston and the shores of Lake 
Champlain towards the west and the south- 
west, the buttonwood is continually met with 
over a vast tract, comprising the Atlantic and 
Western States, and extending beyond the 
Mississippi. 

The wood of the plane tree speedily decays 
when exposed to the atmosphere. Hence it is 
only adapted for work that is sheltered from 
the weather, and when thoroughly seasoned, 
it may be usefully employed in the interior of 
houses for joists, &c. Though never used in 
the construction of large vessels, it has been 
hollowed out into canoes, one of which, former- 
ly on the river Wabash, made of a single tree, 
was sixty-five feet long, and carried nine thou- 
sand pounds. {Michaux's Am. Sylva.) 

BUXUS. The boxwood, of which botanists 
commonly enumerate three species : 1. The 
arborcsreiis, with oval leaves. 2. The angusti- 
folia, with narrow leaves. 3. The snffrn'icosa, 
the species usually employed in the bordering 
of flower-beds. The first two, when allowed 
to grow in a natural manner, are deciduous 
shrubs of fine appearance. All the species 
are easily cultivated. The wood is extremely 
hard and capable of being wrought with great 
neatness by the turner. It is also used by the 
engravers on wood to cut figures upon. 

BYRE. A term made use of in some places 
to signify a cow-house. It is commonly em- 
ployed in the northern parts of England, and 
in Scotland ; and they are differently denomi- 
nated, according to the uses to which they are 
applied : thus, there are feeding-byres, turnip- 
bj'res, &c. 

BYSLINS. A provincial word signifying 
the first milk of a new-calved cow. 



c. 

CABBAGE (Fr. mbtis; probably from cab, 
old Fr. for head, top, or extremity. Ital. cabuccio ,■ 
Dutch, kabuys. "But the form of the cabbage, 
resembling a head, shows caput to be the ori- 
ginal." — TodcCs Johnson. Lat. brasska ; from 
7rpa.^i)(yi. a garden herb; or perhaps from brachia, 
from its numerous sprouts). A biennial genus 
of plants, of which there are a large number 
of species and innumerable varieties. Many 
are extensively cultivated in the vicinity of 
London ; and several kinds are also grown by 
the farmer for the purpose of feeding his cattle 
and sheep. Our field and garden cabbages, 
with their varieties, have originated from the 
Brassica okracea, or culinary cabbage, an indi- 
genous sort of colewort growing principally 
on cliffs near the sea-coast It is found abun- 
dantly at Dover. (Smithes English Flora, vol. iii. 
p. 220.) The cabbage, says Mr. Amos (Comm. 
to Board of Agriculture, vol. iv. p. 178), is a most 
invaluable plant, very productive, accessible 
at all times, and is an infallible supply for 
sheep-feeding during the spring months, espe- 
cially for ewes in lamb. Beasts and sheep are 



CABBAGE. 

all exceedingly fond of cabbages. It may be 
of some importance to the farmer to be in- 
formed that among all the plants of the natural 
order to Avhich the cabbage belongs, not one 
perhaps is possessed of any really deleterious 
property. Among nearly one thousand spe- 
cies (as Dr. Lindley observes), scattered over 
the face of the world, all are harmless, and 
many highly useful. The innumerable varie- 
ties arise /rom difference of soil and cultiva- 
tion ; and as all the cabbage tribe form hybrids, 
new varieties are continually produced. This 
is effected by the bees, when different sorts are 
in flower. Hence, only one variety should be 
in flower at the same time in any garden or 
field, when we wish to keep the sort unadulte- 
rated, particularly if some sorts have expanded 
leaves, and others close heads. It is thus only 
that the excellent small miniature cabbage, 
which grows on the stem of the Brussels 
sprout, can be kept in perfection. The diflfer- 
ent sorts of cabbage most prized for the gar- 
den are chiefly divided into the close-hearting 
and the spreading. Of the first, the York and 
the savoys are the most common; of the latter, 
the coleworts and Scotch kale. (Penny Cyclo. 
vol. vi. p. 92.) Of the genus brassica, or cab- 
bage, the species chiefly interesting to the 
farmer, and the objects of cultivation, are, 
1. Common turnip (B.Rapa); 2. Wild navew 
{B. campestris) ; 3. Rape or cole (5. Napus); 
4. Early cole (B. prcecox) ; 5. Cabbage {B. ole- 
racca). These species may be cultivated nearly 
in the same manner, but they may produce 
small fusiform roots when they are cultivated 
for their leaves, or for their seeds, which yield 
oils; or they may produce large esculent roots 
when they are cultivated chiefly for their roots. 
{Lows Elem. of Prac. Jgric. p. 290.) The dif- 
ferent kinds of cabbage in cultivation may, 
adds Professor Low (p. 307), be arranged in 
different classes, according to their general 
aspect and more popular characters : — 1. Those 
which bear their leaves or stalks without their 
being formed into a head. Some of these have 
crisped leaves, and are a class of hardy pot- 
herbs everywhere familiar in the culture of 
the garden; others have smoothish leaves, with 
long branched stems. These comprehend the 
largest and most productive of all the cabbages, 
— the Jersey cole, the thousand-headed cab- 
bage, and others. 2. Those whose leaves are 
formed into a large head. These comprehend 
the larger cabbages cultivated in the fields. 
The savoys of our gardens are allied to this 
class. 3. Those whose roots become napiform, 
as the kohl-rabe. 4. Those in which the stem 
divides, and forms a corymbose head, as in 
the cauliflower and broccoli. 

The cabbages of the first class, with crisped 
leaves, frequently termed greens, are very 
hardy. They are cultivated pretty extensively 
in some parts of the north of Europe ; but in 
others they are chiefly regarded as potherbs, 
and confined to the garden. The branched 
kinds with smoothish leaves are the most pro- 
ductive ; but at the same time they demand a 
good soil and favourable climate. Their leaves 
are stripped off as they are required for use ; 
and as these are constantly supplied by fresh 
leaves, the plants yield a succession of forage 
I 2 245 



CABBAGE. 



CABBAGE. 



•hroughout a great part of the season, and they 
remain growing for several j'ears. 

There are different varieties of these larger 
cabbages, which are more or less valued in 
the places where they are cultivated. The 
thousand-headed cabbage, chou a milk teles, is 
remarked as possessing a greater number of 
shoots ; the cow cabbage, Cesarian cole or 
tree cabbage, as growing more to one stem, 
and producing cream-coloured flowers ; the 
Jersey cole, as being similar in its growth, and 
producing yellow flowers. In the Netherlands, 
and the Channel Islands, where the cultivation 
of these plants is well understood, they are 
sown in beds in autumn, and planted out in 
succession from November till February. 
About the month of April the farmers begin 
with the first sown, to strip off their under 
leaves for use. They give them to their cows, 
hogs, geese, and other stock, cutting them in 
small pieces, and mixing them with braii and 
other farinaceous substances. During the 
summer they continue this process of strip- 
ping off the leaves, the plant in the meantime 
rising to the height of several feet. {Gurd. 
Mag. vol. V.) This plant requires a good soil 
and plentiful manure, and is regarded as a 
great exhauster of the soil. It perhaps yields 
a larger proportion of nutriment within the 
same period than any other forage plant. It 
may be presumed that it is not well fitted for 
general cultivation, and in England will only 
succeed in favourable situations, as the south 
of England and Ireland, and the beautiful little 
islands where it is now cultivated. When fed 
to milch cows, the decayed leaves should be 
carefully removed, as when eaten they impart 
an unpleasant taste to the milk. 

The next class (continues Professor Low) 
consists of those in which the root becomes 
napiform. The principal variety is the kohl- 
rabe or purple turnip cabbage {Brussica olcracea 
var. caulo-rapa). This plant is cultivated in 
Germany and the north of Europe. It is valued 
as a resource for cattle in winter. While it 
produces a root like a turnip, it at the same 
time sends forth stems bearing leaves like a 
cabbage. It is not only hardy, but keeps better 
in store than anj' plant of the cabbage kind. 
It may be cultivated in the same manner as 
the Swedish and yellow turnips ; but the expe- 
riments that have been made with it in this 
country lead to the inference that it is not 
equal to those turnips for the purpose of feed- 
ing. The cabbages of the last-mentioned class, 
as the cauliflower and the broccoli, are entirely 
limited to the garden. The kinds of the cab- 
bage which are best suited for field-crops and 
the support of cattle, are the York, or large 
Scotch, the ox-head, the drum-head, the red- 
veined, and the American, which commonly 
produce heads of 10 to 20 lbs., and not unfre- 
quently arrive to upwards of 30 lbs. weight. 
The above and other names, however, are fre- 
quently applied where there is no real distinc- 
tion. The most productive of these are the 
drum-headed and x\merican ; but the red-veined 
and Scotch stand the winter best. They are 
all known by their large leaves, which, as the 
plant advances, collapse and form a dense 
head. The large field cabbages are those 

246 



Woody 
Fibre, 



which are generally considered as the best 
suited to farm culture, and are therefore those 
most commonly planted; but the species 
known as the sugar-loaf cabbage, and so called 
from its pointed form, though rarely exceeding 
from 5 to 7 lbs., may yet be in many cases 
found more advantageous, for it can be grown 
on land of more ordinary quality than the other 
kinds ; it is hardier in constitution, more solid 
and nutritive, and the inferiority of its weight 
may be in a great degree made up by the 
smallness of its size allowing of the plants 
being set closer together. (Brit. Hmb. vol. ii. 
p. 255.) Of the different kinds, therefore, it 
appears that the large field cabbage, whatever 
name it may receive, is that which is best 
suited for common field culture. This plant 
impoverishes the soil very much. In collect- 
ing the produce for consumption, the plants 
(says the late Mr. Sinclair) should be drawn 
up by the roots, and not merely cut over, as is 
often practised to the detriment of the soil. 
The different varieties above enumerated afford 
about equal quantities of nutritive matter. The 
nutritive matter of the cabbage is wholly solu- 
ble in water; that of the potato only partially 
so, for a great proportion of the potato consists 
of starch. According to Mr. Sinclair's experi- 
ments — 

Nutr. 

Mailer, 

S"- 

7000 grs. or 1 lb. of the drum-head cab- 
bage (B. oleraeea capitata) contains 430 

7000 grs. Early Yorli cabbage (B. oler., 
var.) 430 

7000 grs. Woburn perennial kale(£. oler. 
Jimbriata peremiis) - - - . 438 

7000 grs. Green curled kale(B.oier.j)iri<Jis) 440 

Purple borecole, or kale (B. oler. 

taciiiiata) ------ 448 

7000 grs. bulb of turnip-rooted cabbage 
(B. rapa, var.) 400 

7000 grs. leaves or tops of ditto - - 252 

And upon an analysis of the respective ave- 
rage nutritive qualities of each species of root, 
cabbages were generally found superior to 
common turnips, in the proportion of 107^ to 
80, and inferior to Swedes in that of 107^ to 
110. Carrots are more nutritive than cabbages, 
in the proportion of 187 to 107^. {Hort. Gram. 
Wob. p. 407, 408.) It is, however, the opinion 
of an experienced farmer (Mr. Brown of Mar- 
kle), that the culture of cabbage, taking into 
consideration the greater consumption of ma- 
nure, and the superior nature of the requisite 
soil, does not afford advantages to be compared 
with the scourge it occasions to the land. 
{Bnt. Husb. vol. ii. p. 258.) 

It is no uncommon thing to raise single cab- 
bages that weigh 40 lbs.: calculating the roots 
upon an acre to average each 20 lbs., and one 
to be planted on every square yard, the produce 
would yield 43 tons. Although it frequently 
averages 30 tons, few crops, except under very 
favourable circumstances, would reach to that 
extent. Cabbages are greatly esteemed by 
those farmers who have land capable of grow- 
ing them, from their forming a substitute for 
turnips during frosty weather, and also afford- 
ing an admirable change of food for cattle, by 
whom they are much relished ; and they are 
also found to be very nutritious for stall-feed- 
ing, or for the dairy, when used with the addi- 
tion of sound hay. Hogs prefer them to turnips^ 



-\ 




280 










C3 


312 


s 










m'f. 


■a 


880 


'5 










120 






Q> 


320 
360, 


S 

H 



CABBAGE. 



CABBAGE. 



and they are excellent for rearing calves and 1 April until the end of June. The best mode is 
toothless crones. An acre of good cabbages to sow thin, in drills two feet and a half apart, 
is therefore considered by many as worth two \ and allow the plants to remain where sown. 



of turnips, and is certainly equal to one and 
a half. 

Wolnira perennial kale is a valuable variety 
of the open-growing cabbage, which has been 
recently introduced, and appears far superior 
in amount of produce to either the green, pur- 
ple, or borecole, and requires less manure. It 
has also this advantage, that it continues highly 
productive for many years, without further 
trouble or expense. Propagated by planting, 
in beginning of April, cuttings taken from the 
stems and branches of old plants. The seed 
is apt to produce spurious plants. For the 
table it is not inferior to the best kinds of 
greens or kale ; and for the farm and cottage 
garden, its highly productive powers and 
cheapness of culture promise to render this 
plant highly valuable. Its perennial habit 
places it out of the reach of the yearly acci- 
dents of weather, bad seed, and depredations 
of insects, to which all other varieties sown 
annually are subject. (Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. 
vol. V. art. 40.) 

The turnip-rooted or bulb-stalked cabbage (J5. 
oleracea, van) is distinguished by its irregularly- 
shaped root, and the swelling of the stalk in 
upper part, which forms a kind of round fleshy 
head at the end of the stem on which the leaves 
are produced. It is a native of Germany, and 
was first introduced from thence bySirThomas 
Tyrwhitt, under the name of kuhl-rabe. {De- 
candolle, in Trans. Hort. Soc. vol. v. art. 1.) The 
produce is nearly the same as that of Swedish 
turnips, and the soil that suits the one is equally 
good for the other. Two pounds of the seed 
will produce a sulficiency of plants for one 
acre : 64 drs. of the bulb of kohl-rabe afford 
105 grs. of nutritive matter. (Hort. Gram.Wob. 
p. 411.) 

The turnip-rooted cabbage is a hybrid pro- 
duction between the cabbage and turnip, which 
both belong to the same genus; and the various 
kinds which have becomedisseminated through- 
out Europe are so confused in nomenclature, 
that it has become diflicult to state their pro- 
perties with any great degree of precision, or 
to draw any certain inferences to guide us in 
their use. {Brit. Husb. vol. ii. p. 259.) 

These species of brassica are but little cul- 
tivated, and at most a very small quantity of 
each is in request. The bulbs, for which they 
are cultivated, must have their thick outer skin 
removed, and in other respects treated as tur- 
nips in preparing them for use. Of the turnip 
cabbage, which is so named on account of the 
round fleshy protuberance that is formed at the 
upper end of the stem, there are four varieties : 
1. White turnip cabbage; 2. Purple turnip 
cabbage ; 3. Fringed turnip cabbage ; 4. Dwarf 
early turnip cabbage. 

Of the turnip-rooted cabbage, which is dis- 
tinguished from the above by its root having 
the protuberance near the origin of the stem, 
there are two varieties, the white and the red. 
(Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. vol. v. p. 18 — 24.) They 
are propagated by seed, which may be sown 
broadcast or in drills, at monthly intervals, in 
small quantities, from the commencement of 



the plants being thinned to a similar distance 
apart; or, if sown broadcast, to allow them to 
remain in the seed-bed until of sufficient size 
to be removed into rows at similar distances 
for production, rather than, as is the practice 
of some gardeners, to transplant them, when 
an inch or two in height, into a shady border, 
in rows three inches apart each way, to be 
thence removed as above stated. 

Water must be given every night after a re- 
moval, until the plants are again established ; 
and afterwards in dry weather occasionally, as 
may appear necessary. 

Earth may be drawn up to the stem of the 
turnip cabbage, as to other species of brassica; 
but the bulb of the turnip-rooted must not be 
covered with the mould. 

For directions to obtain seed, &c., see Baoc- 
coLi, Tunifip, &c. (G. W. Johnson.) 

The red cabbage differs from the common 
cabbage in nothing but its colour, which is a 
purplish or brownish red. The varieties are 
three in number; the large, the dwarf, and the 
Aberdeen red. It is chielly used for pickling, 
and the dwarf red is considered the best sort. 
Cultivated precisely similar to the white cab- 
bage. The cabbage is not nearly so exten- 
sively cultivated in this country as it ought to 
be. It is not only a valuable food for live 
stock, rarely misses plant, and is come-at-able 
in all weathers ; but it is exceedingly useful to 
fill up the spaces on the ridges where the 
Swedes and common turnips have missed 
plant. 1000 parts of cabbage contain 73 parts 
of nutritive matters. ( Irlt. Husb. vol. ii. ; Bax- 
ter's Jgr. Lib.; Sinclair''s Hort. Gram. Wob.; 
Lows El. .Agr.; Com. Board of Jgr., vol. iv.; 
Quart. J. Jgr., vol. vii. p. 76.) 

The cauliflower is considered the easiest to 
be digested of all the various species of cab- 
bage. It is not destitute of utility in a medici- 
nal way; a decoction of red cabbage being 
supposed capable of relieving acrimonious hu- 
mours in some disorders of the breast, and also 
in hoarseness. ( IVtllich's Doni. Encyc.) A cab- 
bage leaf placed on any fleshy part acts in 
keeping open a blister; but it should be fre- 
quently changed, as it speedily becomes cor- 
rupt. "The seed, bruised and boiled, is good in 
broth. 

Garden Cabbages.— For the seed-bed the soil 
should be moist, mouldy, and not rich; but for 
final production it should be a fresh, moderately 
rich, clayey loam, though very far removed 
from heavy, as they delight in one that is fret; 
and mouldy. Such crops as have to withstand 
the winter may have a lighter compartment 
allotted to them; the savoy, in particular, re- 
quires this, though it may be as rich as for the 
other crops, without any detriment: an extreme 
of richness is, however, for all the crops to be 
avoided. The ground is advantageously dug 
two spades deep, and should be well pulverized 
by the operation. Stable manure is usually 
employed in preparing the ground for this 
genus ; but Mr. Wood, of Queensferry, N. B., 
who has for the greater part of his life paid 
particular attention to the cultivation of broc- 

347 



CABBAGE. 



CABBAGE. 



coli, recommends the following compositions 
in preference for that vegetable, and we are 
justified in concluding that they would be 
equally beneficial to all the other species. The 
manure collected from the public roads, used 
alone, causes the plants to grow strong, but 
with small heads. A mixture of road-rakings, 
sea-weed, and horse-dung is better. A manur- 
ing of the compartment on which they were 
intended to be planted with sea-weed in au- 
tumn, digging it up rough, repeating the appli- 
cation in spring, and pointing the ground before 
planting, produced the finest heads he had ever 
seen; but the compost of all others most suita- 
ble to them is one composed of the cleanings 
of old ditches, tree leaves, and dung. {Mem. 
Caled. Hort. Soc. vol. ii. p. 265.) The situation 
must in every instance be free and open, 
though, for the summer crops, it is advanta- 
geous to have ihem shaded from the meridian 
sun. They must never, however, be under the 
drip of trees, or in confined situations ; for in 
such they, and especially savoys, are most 
subject to be infested with caterpillars, and to 
grow weak and spindling. In planting cab- 
bage, it should be observed whether the roots 
of the plants are knotted or clubbed, as such 
should be rejected, or the excrescence entirely 
removed. 

The numerous varieties of the cabbage, adds 
Mr. G. W. Johnson, may be divided into three 
classes, as most appropriate for sowing at an 
equal number of periods of the year. It may 
be here remarked, that, for family use, but fe\v 
should be planted of the early varieties, as 
they soon cabbage, harden, and burst ; on the 
contrary, the large York, and others that are 
mentioned in the middle class, though not far 
behind the others in quick cabbaging, never 
become hard, and continue long in a state fit 
for the table. 

For First Cropa. — Early dwarf; York; early 
dwarf sugar-loaf; early Battersea ; early im- 
perial ; East Ham. 

Midsummer Crops. — Large early York ; large 
sugar-loaf; early Battersea ; early imperial : 
these mentioned again as being valuable for 
successional crops also. Penton, this is valu- 
able in late summer, when other varieties are 
strongly tasted. Antwerp, Russian ; to have 
this in perfection, the seed must be had from 
abroad, as it soon degenerates in this country. 
Early London hollow. Musk is excellent at 
any period, but is apt to perish in frosty 
Weather. 

For Autumn, ^-c. — Large hollow sugar-loaf; 
large oblong hollow ; long-sided hollow, and 
any of the preceding ; red Dutch for pickling. 
The cabbage is propagated by seed, the sow- 
ing of which commences with the year. To- 
wards the end of January, on a warm border, 
or under a frame, a small portion of the early 
and red cabbages may be sown, to come first 
in succession after those which were sown in 
the August of the preceding year. A sowing 
may be repeated after intervals of a month 
during February, and until the close of July 
of the second or larger class, and from May to 
July of the third class of varieties. In August 
a full and last cjop must be sown of the first 
class, as well as of the second, both to plant 
248 



out in October, November, and December, as 
to remain in the seed-beds for final removal in 
the February and two succeeding months of 
the next year: this sowing is best performed 
during the first or second week of the month ; 
if sown earlier, they are apt to run in the 
spring; and if later, will not attain sufllicient 
strength to survive the winter. By these va- 
rious sowings, Avhich, of course, must be small 
ones for a private family, a constant supply is 
afforded throughout the year. The seed is 
inserted broadcast rather thin, and raked in 
evenly about a quarter of an inch deep. The 
bed is advantageously shaded with mats, and 
occasionally watered until the plants are well 
above ground ; and the waterings may after- 
wards be beneficially repeated two or three 
times a week until they are ready for removal, 
if dry hot weather continues. The seedlings 
arising from these various sowings, when of 
about a month's growth, or when they have 
got four or five leaves an inch or so in breadth, 
are, by those who are advocates for transplant- 
ing, pricked out in rows four or five inches 
asunder each way; they must be shaded and 
watered until completely established : those of 
the August sowing that are pricked out are to 
remain until the next spring, and those which 
are left in the seed-bed are employed for plant- 
ing in October and two following months. 

When of six or eight weeks' growth, they are 
of sufficient size for planting, which they are 
to be in rows from one and a half to two and a 
half feet asunder each way; the smaller early 
kinds being planted the closest. The red cab- 
bage, the principal plantation of which should 
be made in March for pickling in September, 
is benefited by having the distances enlarged 
to three feet. They must be well watered at 
the time of removal, and frequently afterwards, 
until fully established, in proportion as dry 
weather occurs. They must be frequently 
hoed to keep under the weeds, as perhaps no 
plant is more injured by them than the cab- 
bage ; and as soon as their growth permits it, 
the earth should be drawn round the stems of 
the plants. To promote the cabbaging of the 
plants, when requisite, it is useful to draw the 
leaves together with a shred of bass-mat, 
which forwards it about a fortnight. If any 
plants advance to seed whilst very young, the 
deficiencies should be immediately filled up. 
The stems of the summer and autumn crops, 
if left after the main head has been cut, will 
produce numerous .sprouts during those sea- 
sons, and continue to do so throughout the 
winter. For the production of seed in Octo- 
ber, which is the preferable season, and from 
thence until the close of Febrnary, some of 
the finest and best cabbage plants must be 
selected ; or in default of these, though not by 
any means to be recommended, such of their 
stalks as have the strongest sprouts. They 
must have the large outer leaves removed, and 
then be inserted up to their heads, in rows 
three feet asunder each way. Each variety 
must be planted as far from any other as pos- 
sible, as indeed from every other species of 
brassica ; and this precaution applies equally 
to those which will be subsequently dwelt 
upon. The red cabbage especially must be 



CABBAGE. 



CALAMINT, COMMON. 



kept distinct. Some plants of the early varie- 
:ies should be planted in sheltered situations, 
as in severe winters thny are apt to run pre- 
maturely. 

Frame Seedlings. — The first sowing of the 
year in a hotbed must be carefully attended to. 
The heat must never exceed 55°, nor sink 
more than two or three degrees beneath 50°, 
which is the most favourable minimum ; other- 
wise the plants will be weak and tender, or 
checked and stunted. Air should be admitted 
freely in the day, and the glasses covered, as 
necessity requires, at night with matting; the 
other offices of cultivation are the same as for 
plants raised in the open ground. 

Coleworts. — One of the Latin names for cab- 
bage is cauUs, and from this is derived cale or 
cole and colewort. Coleworts now merely 
signify cabbages cut young, or previously to 
their hearts becoming firm, the genuine cole- 
wort or Dorsetshire cale being nearly extinct. 
The varieties of cabbage principally employed 
for the raising coleworts are the large York 
and sugar-loaf, as they afford the sweetest; 
but the early York and East Ham are also em- 
ployed, as also occasionally the Battersea, im- 
perial, Antwerp, and early London hollow. 
When large coleworts are in request, the great 
spreading varieties should never be employed. 

Sowings may be performed during the mid- 
dle of June and July, to be repeated at the end 
of the latter month, for transplanting in August, 
September, and October, for a continual sup- 
ply in September until the close of March. A 
fourth must be made the first week in August, 
for succeeding the others in spring; but, if of 
sufficient extent, these various plantations 
may be made from the seed-beds of the cab- 
bage crops made at these several periods, as 
directed under that head ; as the chief object 
in growing coleworts is to have a supply of 
greens sooner than can be obtained from the 
plantations of cabbages if left to form hearts. 

The observations upon transplanting, and 
the directions for cultivating cabbages, apply 
without any modification to coleworts ; but the 
distance at which the plants may be set is 
much less : if the rows are a foot apart, and 
the plants seven or eight inches distant from 
each other, an abundant space is allowed. As 
mentioned for cabbages, the heading is greatly 
forwarded by their leaves being drawn to- 
gether so as to enclose the centre. They may 
be cut when the leaves are five or six inches 
in breadth. The most preferable mode of 
taking them is to pull up or cut every other 
one ; these openings are beneficial to the re- 
maining plants ; and some, especially of the 
August-raised plants, may be left, if required, 
for cabbaging. 

Colewort, or Dorsetshire cale, is now nearly 
superseded by the new cabbages of modern 
limes. The wild coleworts grow in ditches 
and moist places. 

Savoy — (Brassica oleracea sabauda). — The 
savoy, which is one of the best and chief of 
our vegetable supplies during the winter, de- 
rives its name either from being an introduc- 
tion from that part of Europe with which it 
bears a similar name, or, otherwise, is a cor- 
ruf icn from the French savourer. All its 
32 



varieties may be denominated hardy, being 
generally rendered more sweet and tender by 
frost, though not all equally capable of with- 
standing the rigour of winter. There are three 
varieties of savoy, — the yellow, the dwarf, and 
the green : and of each of these there are like- 
wise two sub-varieties, the round and the 
oval-headed, the first of which is the most 
permanent. Each variety has been described 
by Mr. Morgan, gardener to H. Brown, Esq., 
of North Mimms. Like the other members 
of this tribe, it is propagated by seeds ; the first 
sowing to take place at the close of February, 
the plants of which are ready for pricking out 
in April, if that practice is adopted, and for 
final planting at the end of May for use in 
early autumn ; this to be repeated about the 
middle of March, the plants to be pricked out 
in May for planting in June, to supply the table 
in autumn and early winter ; lastly, the main 
crops must be sown in April and early May, 
to prick out and plant after similar intervals 
for production in winter and spring. The seed 
is sown broadcast thinly, and raked in as men- 
tioned for other species of brassica. The 
plants are fit for pricking out when they have 
four or five leaves about an inch in breadth ; 
they must be set three or four inches asunder 
each way, being both here and in the seed-bed 
kept well cleared of weeds. When finally re- 
moved, the plants of the first crops should be 
set out two feet apart each way from one an- 
other; but the winter standing crops are better 
at two feet by eighteen inches. Both before 
and after every removal they should be 
watered abundantly, if the weather is at all 
dry ; and this application to be continued until 
the plants are well established. The only 
after-culture required is the keeping them 
clear of weeds by frequent broad-hoeing and 
the earth drawn up two or three times about 
their stems. For the production of seed, such 
plants must be selected of the several varieties 
as are most true to their particular character- 
istics, and as are not the first to run. These, 
in open weather, from early in November to 
the close of Februarj', (the earlier, however, 
the better,) may be taken up with as little injury 
as possible to the roots, and the large under 
leaves being removed, planted entirely up to 
the head in rows two feet and a half each way, 
each variety as far from the other as possible. 
They flower in May or June, and ripen their 
seed in July and August. (G. W. Johnson's 
Kitchen Garden.^ 

CABBAGE CATERPILLAR. This belongs 
to a genus of butterflies called the potherb 
pontia (Ponha o/fraccfl"). See Caterpillau. 

CABBAGE-CUTWORM. See Cutworm. 

CABBAGE-LICE. See Aphis. 

CABBAGE TREE {Chamaops palmetto). See 
Palmetto. 

CAG, or KEG. A vessel of the barrel kind, 
containing four or five gallons. 

CAIRN (Welsh cam). A heap of stones. 

CAKE. See Oat Cake and Rape Cake. 

CALAMINT, COMMON {Thymus cala- 
mintha, Smith). This is a wild plant, growing 
in England in hedges and dry places, flowering 
from June till autumn. It is eight or ten inches 
high; has roundish dark-green leaves, and 

249 



CALANDRE. 



CAMELLIA 



whitish flowers standing in whorls or little 
clusters surrounding the stalks, which are 
square and very much branched. Calamint 
should be gathered and dried just as it is com- 
ing into flower. This herb is grown in almost 
every garden ; it is strong-scented, and of an 
agreeable odour. Coles says it preserves meat 
from taint. 

Pennyroyal calamint {Mentha pulegium, Eng. 
Flor. vol. iii. p. 87) is a medicinal herb, and 
should be planted in every herbalist's garden. 
It grows a foot high, with firm stalks, small 
leaves of a light green colour, and hairy, and 
small white purplish flowers. The pennyroyal 
calamint is more erect than its elder sister, and 
has a stronger but less pleasant smell. It 
must be dried with care, and given in infusion. 
It is a popular remedy for hysterics, and in 
deficiency of the periodical change in females; 
but the plant and its infusion is rarely ordered 
by professional men. A water arising from 
the distillation of the plant, to produce its vola- 
tile oil, is used as a vehicle for more important 
drugs ; and the oil dropped on sugar and rub- 
bed up with water as an oleosaccharum is 
sometimes employed as a carminative and an 
antispasmodic, in doses of two to five drops. 
There is, also, an officinal spirit of pennyroyal, 
which is used for the same purposes as the oil. 
This aromatic plant must not be confounded 
with the common pennyroyal of the United 
States. See Pexnyrotal. 

CALANDRE. A name given by French 
writers to an insect of the scarabeeus or beetle 
tribe, which frequently does great injury in 
granaries. It has two antennae or horns, form- 
ed of a great number of round joints, and 
covered with a soft and short down ; from the 
anterior part of the head there is thrust out 
a trunk, which is so formed at the end that the 
creature easily makes way with it through the 
coat or skin that covers the grain, and gets at 
the meal or farina on which it feeds; the inside 
of the grain is also the place where the female 
deposits her eggs. See Corxweevil. 

CALCAREOUS MARL. A mineral ferti- 
lizer, exte.isively used in many parts of Europe 
and the United Stales. See Marl. 

CALCAREOUS SOILS (from the Latin 
calx) are soils which contain carbonate of 
lime (chalk of limestone) in such a proportion 
as to give it a determinate character. Calca- 
reous sand is merely chalk or limestone di- 
vided into pieces of the size of sand. This 
variety abounds on the seashore in some parts 
of the east of England, and is employed in 
Devonshire and Cornwall to a very large ex- 
tent as a manure, especially about Padstow 
Harbour, from which bay many thousand tons 
are annually carted by the Cornish farmers, 
which they take free of toll, under a grant from 
Richard Duke of Cornwall, another of the 
45th of Henry III., a. d. 1261. {Joh*,ison on 
Fertilizers, -p 17) See Chalk; Earths, their 
Uses to Vegetation; and Soils. 

CALF, DISEASES OF (Sax. cealj.-, calr; 
Dutch, kalf). See Cattle. The most com- 
mon diseases of calves are — 

1, Navel III. — The best treatment for this 
dangerous disease is, 1st, to administer two or 
ihree doses (each about a wine-glassful) of 
250 



castor oil (linseed oil does just as well, and 
is much cheaper) ; and, 2dly, cordials, which 
may be made of 2 drachms of caraway-seeds, 
2 do. of coriander-seeds, 2 do. powdered gen- 
tian ; bruise the seeds, and simmer them in 
beer or gruel for a quarter of an hour ; give 
these once or twice a day. 

2. Constipation of the Bowels. — For this doses 
of castor oil (or linseed oil), of 2 or 3 oz., are 
the best remedy. 

3. Diarrhcea, or Scouring. — The farmer may 
rely on the following mixture. Let him keep 
it always by him; it will do for all sucking 
animals : — 



Prepared chalk 

Canella bark, powdered 

Laudanum 

Water - - . . 



4 ounces 
1 — 
1 — 
1 pint. 



Give two or three table-spoonfuls, according 
to the size of the animal, two or three times a 
day. A table-spoonful or two of powdered 
chalk may be given daily or every other day, 
to calves whilst sucking, mixed in a little warm 
milk. It prevents the milk from turning acid, 
and thus checks the tendency to diarrhoea or 
looseness. 

4. Hoosc, or Catarrh. — Good nursing, bleed- 
ing, and then a dose of Epsom salts, with half 
an ounce of ginger in it. (Youatt on Cattle, 
p. .557.) 

CALKERS. A name given to the prominent 
or elevated part of the extremities of the shoes 
of horses, which are forged thin, and turned 
downwards for the purpose of preventing their 
slipping. It is sometimes written calkins or 
cawkins. 

CALLUNA VULGARIS. The common 
heath or ling. It abounds in peaty soils. (See 
Peat Soils.) Its uses are considerable in 
some districts for litter, and, when young, sheep 
eat it. It is also shelter for grouse, and food 
for bees. See Ling. 

CALVING OF COVINS. The treatment be- 
fore calving is to keep the cow moderately 
well, neither too fat nor too lean ; remember 
that she commonly has the double duty of 
giving milk and nourishing the foetus; dry 
her some weeks before calving ; let her bowels 
be kept moderately open ; put her in a warm 
sheltered place, or house her; rather reduce 
her food ; do not disturb her when in labour, 
but be ready to assist her in case of need ; let 
her have warm gruel ; avoid cold drinks. A 
pint of sound good ale in a little gruel is an 
excellent cordial drink. 

CALYCANTHUS FLORIDUS, the sweet- 
scented shrub, or, as it is also sometimes called, 
Carolina allspice. See Sweet-scented Shrub. 

CAM. A provincial term for a mound of 
made earth. 

CAMELLIA JAPONICA. A beautiful ever- 
green greenhouse shrub; but if carefully at- 
tended to it will blow in the open air. It bears 
single, double, and semi-double flowers, in Feb- 
ruary and March ; and they are red, white, 
blush-coloured, and various other tints. Plant 
it under a south wall, in good rich garden 
mould mixed with sand ; and shelter it during 
winter with mats, or keep it in a large poL 
It cannot endure the broiling mid-day sun. 
Propagate by cuttings, layers, and grafts; 



CAMLET. 



CAMOMILE. 



and water the plants plentifully when in 
flower. 

CAMLET (Fr. camelot : Ital. ciambelotto ; 
Span, camlote ; from the Gr. Kct/An\u>T)i). A 
stuff or cloth made of wool, silk, and some- 
times of hair combined, especially that of 
goats and camels. The real oriental camlet 
is made from that of the Angola goat. No 
camlets are made in Europe of goat's hair 
alone. France, Holland, Flanders, and Eng- 
land are the chief places where this manufac- 
ture is carried on. The best are made in 
England, and those of Brussels stand next in 
repute. It has been occasionally written came- 
lot and camblct. 

Gammas, a new species of plant found 
in the valley of the Columbia river. It has a 
truncated root in the form of an onion, and 
grows in moist rich land. It is prepared for 
eating by first roasting, then pounding, after 
which it is made into loaves like bread. It 
has a liquorice taste, and is a food of great 
importance among the Indians. 

CAMMOCK (Sax). The name of a weed 
infesting arable, especially chalky soils, gene- 
rally known by the name of rest-harrow. See 
Rest-Harrow. 

CAMOMILE, CHAMOMILE, COMMON or 
SWEET (Jlnthcmis nobilis. From uvfiau, on ac- 
count of its abundance of flowers, or luxuri- 
ance of growth. Fr. camotnille : Lat. chamo- 
milla). A hardy perennial, growing on open 
gravelly pastures or commons, in England, 
flowering from June to September, and well 
known for its use in medicine. Cattle do not 
appear to touch any part of this plant. Most 
of what is brought to the London market is 
cultivated about Mitcham, in Surrey. Every 
part of the plant is intensely bitter, and grate- 
fully aromatic, especially the flowers, whose 
stomachic and tonic powers are justly cele- 
brated. {Eng. Flora, vol. iii. p. 546.) In gar- 
dens there are two varieties, — the common 
single and the double-flowering. They require 
a poor dry soil, otherwise they grow very 
luxuriant, and become not only less capable 
of withstanding severe winters, but also less 
powerful in their medicinal qualities. They 
will grow in any situation almost, but the more 
open the better. They are generally propa- 
gated by parting the roots, and by offsets, 
which may be planted from the close of Feb- 
ruary until the end of May; the earlier, how- 
ever, it is performed the better : this is the 
most favourable season, but it may be prac- 
tised in the autumn. They are also raised 
from seed, the proper time of sowing which is 
in any of the early spring months ; but as the 
former mode is so easily practised and with 
much less trouble, it is generally pursued; 
though it is advisable after a lapse of several 
years to raise fresh plants, the old ones often 
declining in production after such lapse of 
time. Being shrubby, with extending lateral 
branches, they should not be planted nearer to 
each other than eighteen inches, as that also 
gives an opportunity to employ the hoe. Wa- 
ter must be given moderately at the time of 
planting, if dry weather, otherwise it is not at 
all required. If raised from seed, they require 
no further cultivation than to be kept free of 



weeds in the seed-bed; and when three or four 
inches high, to be thinned to about six inches 
apart; after which, they may remain thus 
until the following spring, then be thinned and 
remain, or be removed to the above-mentioned 
distance apart. A very small bed will supply 
the largest family. In July the flowers are 
generally in perfection for gathering ; the pe- 
riod for performing it, however, must be go- 
verned by the aspect of the flowers themselves, 
as the best time is when they are just opened. 
Particular care must be taken to dry them 
thoroughly before they are stored ; otherwise 
they will not keep. If seed is required, the 
only attention necessary is to leave some of 
the first opening flowers ungathered ; the seed 
will ripen early in September, when the plant 
may be cut, and the seed dried, and rubbed 
out. (G. W. Johnson^ Kitchen Garden.) 

Camomile flowers, fresh or dried, are tonic. 
They contain volatile oil, bitter extractive, tannic 
acid, and piperina, a resinoid which was dis- 
covered in them by Dr. A. T. Thomson, and 
which, in conjunction with the volatile oil, ex- 
plains their power of curing agues. The leaves 
and flowers dried are also anodyne applied to 
the bowels outwardly in fomentations. Camo- 
mile tea if strong promotes vomiting. The 
flowers of camomile distilled yield a fine blue 
oil, like that from yarrow, which becomes yel- 
low by time. It is used for cramps, &c. The 
double flowers have not the same virtue which 
the single ones possess. The infusion is a 
useful stomachic in weakened states of the 
stomach, and as a general tonic. The strong 
warm infusion is a useful emetic in low states 
of the habit, and to promote the action of other 
emetics. Combined with any astringent, ca* 
momile is an antiperiodic and cures ague. 

Smith (Engl. Flor. vol. iii. p. 457) enumerates 
four other species. The sea camomile (J.ma- 
ritima) ; annual, met with on the sea-coast, but 
rare ; flowers smell like tansy, the leaves like 
mugwort. Corn camomile (.^. nrvensis) ; an- 
nual or biennial, in cultivated fields, as well as 
waste ground, chiefly on a gravelly soil. The 
herbage has little or no smell, but the flowers 
are pleasantly scented. The stinking may- 
weed, or camomile {A. i jtula) ; an annual, 
found in the same situation as the last. Every' 
part of the plant is fetid and acrid, blistering 
the skin when much handled, which Dr. Hooker 
justly attributes to the minute resinous dots 
sprinkled over its surface. And the ox-eye 
camomile {A. linctmia), found sometimes in 
stony mountainous places, growing on a bushy 
stem eighteen inches high. The flowers afford 
a fine yellow dye, for which, Linnajus says, 
they are much used in Sweden. There are 
several handsome exotic species nearly akin 
to this. 

CAMOMILE, WILD, or FEVEE FEW 
{Matricaria camomilla, PI. 10, w w). Found in 
cultivated and waste ground, on dunghills, and 
by roadsides ; very common about London. 
Root annual, rather large and woody; flower- 
ing from May till August; stem a foot high; 
flowers numerous, about the size of the com- 
mon sweet camomile, and with some portion 
of the same scent, of which the herbage, though 
faintly, partakes. The greatest part of the oil 

251 



CAMPHOR TREE. 



CANARY-GRASS. 



of camomile found in the shops is procured 
fronfi this plant. 

CAMPHOR TREE (Laurus camphor a). 
Among the vegetable productions of the Old 
Continent which possess a high degree of in- 
terest for the United States, the camphor tree 
holds an eminent place. It especially deserves 
attention from the inhabitants of the Floridas, 
of the lower part of the Carolinas, and of lower 
Louisiana. Its multiplication in these climates 
would be so easy, that after a few years it might 
be abandoned to nature. 

The camphor tree belongs to the same fa- 
mily as the common sassafras of the United 
States, though in its general character it i? 
most nearly related to the red bay, so com- 
mon throughout the southern regions just re- 
ferred to, both being evergreens of similar 
height, and at a small distance looking so much 
alike as to be easily mistaken for each other. 

The camphor tree is a native of China, Ja- 
pan, and some other parts of the East Indies, 
where it often attains forty or fifty feet in height, 
with a proportional diameter. The leaves are 
two or three inches long, pointed at their ex- 
tremities, about an inch broad, with long petioles 
or stems. The young branches are green. 
The flowers are small and whitish. The 
leaves, bark, wood, and roots are all strongly 
impregnated with the odour of camphor. The 
roots especially yield this substance in great- 
est quantity. They are cut to pieces, boiled 
in water in large iron retorts, &c. (See Mi- 
chaux's Sylva.) 

Camphor may likewise be obtained from 
certain plants or herbs of the class of labice, 
such as lavender and mint, out not in sufficient 
quantities to form an article of commerce. 

CANADA ONION. See Onion. 

CANADA THISTLE (Carduus arvensis). 
This plant is widely spread in the northern 
part of the state of New York, and has been 
introduced into Pennsylvania and many other 
parts of the Middle States, the seeds having 
been sometimes mixed in timothy seed, and 
sometimes entangled in the fleeces of sheep 
driven from the North. The root of the Ca- 
nada thistle is perennial, creeping and exceed- 
ingly tenacious of life, which, with its prolific 
character, for it springs up from, the filaments 
of the roots as well as from seed, makes it the 
vilest pest in the form of a weed that has ever 
invaded American farms. It is a foreigner. 
The utmost vigilance will be required to pre- 
vent its spread wherever it may be disco- 
vered. 

A great many devices have been resorted to 
for the eradication and destruction of the Ca- 
nada thistle. Some aim at the entire removal 
of the root by means of extirpating machines, 
contrived to cut ofl!" and harrow up the roots. 
Others rely upon mowing down the thistles 
when they are in full bloom, as a most certain 
method. Not content with simply cutting 
down, some apply common salt to the stems 
or crowns of the roots which makes the de- 
struction more sure. It is an admitted fact 
thai the life of trees and plants, when these are 
not in the torpid state in which they are en- 
abled to exist in winter, depends upon a func- 
v^n performed by their leaves. These are in 
252 



fact their lungs, deprived of the use of which 
for a given time, during the season of their 
growth, trees and plants inevitably die. Low 
and frequent cutting down in summer about 
the blooming period, will doubtless destroy 
plants however tenacious of life they may 
be, since the roots are as much indebted for 
life to their leaves or lungs as the leaves are to 
the roots. Neither can subsist long without 
the aid of the other important members of the 
system. The most usual methods, resorted to 
in England, for the eradication of thistles, 
couchgrass, and other weeds with creeping 
and tenacious roots, will be found mentioned 
under the head of Thistles. A highly inte- 
resting article upon this subject, originally 
published in that valuable agricultural periodi- 
cal, The Geyiessee Farmer, and republished in 
Riiffin's Farm. JRcg. vol. ii. p. 29, contains a 
great deal of information relative to the ex- 
termination of this pest of our plough fields. 

CANARY-GRASS, CAT'S TAIL. See 
Cat's Tail. 

CANARY-GRASS (Phalaries canariensis— 
PI. 4, a) is cultivated in a few parts of the south 
of England, and chiefly in the Isle of Thanet. 
The plant (says Prof. Low) is easily raised, 
but it is of little economical importance ; it is 
a native of the Canary Islands, but is found 
frequently wild in cultivated and waste ground, 
and has probably become naturalized. It is 
an annual, with a stem from a foot to eighteen 
inches high, and lively green leaves about half 
an inch in width. In England it flowers from 
June to August, and ripens its seed from Sep- 
tember to October The seeds are sown in 
February, in rows about a foot apart, four or 
five gallons per acre. The reaping commences 
in September. The common yield is from 
thirty to thirty-four bushels per acre. The 
chaff is superior to that of every other culmi- 
nous plant for horse food, and the straw, though 
short, is also very nutritive. From Mr. Sin- 
clair's experiments, it appears, that at the time 
of flowering, the produce of this grass per 
acre, from a rich clayey loam, on a tenacious 
subsoil, was 54,450 lbs. ; which yielded in dry 
produce 17,696 lbs. 4 oz., nutritive matter 
1,876 lbs. 2 oz. The herbage is but little nu- 
tritive, and the plant cannot be recommended 
for cultivation, but for the seeds only, which 
are principally in demand in the neighbour- 
hood of large towns, as food for small singing- 
birds, particularly canaries, whence it derives 
its name. The produce is generally from three 
to five quarters an acre, and the actual price 
is from 40s. to 42s. per quarter. The straw or 
haulm is a most excellent fodder for horses. 
(Hort. Gram. Wob. p. 399 ; Lotv's El. Prac. Jg. 
p. 266 ; Brit. Husb. vol. ii. p. 329.) 

The reed canary-grass (Ph. arundinacea. 
Smith's Engl. Flora, vol. i. p. 74) is very com- 
mon in ditches, pools, and the margins of ri- 
vers. At the time of flowering, the produce 
from a black sandy loam incumbent on clay 
was, — 

lbs. oz. 

27,225 

12,251 4 

1,701 9 

On a strong tenacious clay, the produce 
was, — 



Green produce per acre 
Dry produce - 
Nutritive matter - 



CANCER IN CATTLE. 



CANDLE. 



Green produce per acre 


34,031 





Dry produce . - - 


17,015 


8 


Nutriuve matter 


2,126 


15 



From this, it appears to be much more pro- 
uuctive on a tenacious clay soil than on a 
rich sandy loam ; the superior nutritive powers 
which this grass possesses recommend it 
therefore to the notice of occupiers of such 
soils. The foliage cannot be considered 
coarse, when compared with other grasses 
which afford a produce equal in quantity. 
Dry straw is a much coarser food than the hay 
made from this grass, and the objection may 
i)6 met by reducing this hay to chaft". The 
: triped reed canary-grass has not yet been 
found in a wild state; it is cultivated in gar- 
dens for the beauty of its striped leaves : — the 
common wild variety wants this distinguish- 
ing feature, it grows to a greater height than 
the striped-leaved variety, does not appear to 
be eaten by cattle, but birds are fond of the 
seeds. It comes into flower about the first and 
second weeks of July, and ripens about the 
middle of August. (Hort. Gram. Wob. p. 359.) 
CANCER, IN CATTLE (Lat.; Sax. can- 
cepe.) A virulent swelling or sore. Cancer 
of the eye, or a perfect change of its mecha- 
nism into a fleshy half-decomposed substance, 
that ulcerates and wastes away, or from which 
fungous growths spring that can never be 
checked, is a disease of occasional occurrence 
in cattle. The remedy should be extirpation 
of the eye, if it were deemed worth while to 
attempt it. (Lib. of Usef. Know., Cattle, p. 293.) 
CANDLE (Lat." candela ,• Sax. cancel ; Ital. 
candclh ; Fr. cbandelle ; Welsh, canwyU). A 
taper or cylinder of tallow, wax, or spermaceti, 
the wick of which is commonly of several 
threads of cotton spun and twisted together. 
Candles in England were subject for a length- 
ened period to an excise duty of 3^rf. per lb., 
but this was repealed in 1831. Good tallow 
candles ought to be made with equal parts of 
sheep and ox tallow ; care being taken to avoid 
any mixture of hog's lard, which occasions a 
thick, black smoke, attended with a disagree- 
able smell, and also causes the candle to run. 
The farmer, if far from any town, may make 
his own candles. The cotton for making the 
wicks is sold, ready prepared, in balls. When 
it is intended to be used for candles, a certain 
number of pieces of it of equal length are to 
be cut, and stripped through the hand to re- 
move any knots or inequalities. They are 
next to be affixed by one end to a rod about 
three feet long, leaving about two inches be- 
tween each wick. The v/hole is then to be 
dipped into a vessel, large enough, and filled 
with fluid tallow ; and this is to be repeated 
three times for the first layer or coat. They 
are then to be suspended in a rack over the 
vessel to drain and solidify ; after which they 
are to be dipped twice, and again hung up to 
drain ; and so on, successively, until they ac- 
quire the desired degree of thickness. 

The first part of the process is the sorting 
of the tallow. Mutton suet with a proportion 
of ox-tallow is selected for mould candles, be- 
cause it gives them gloss and consistence. 
Coarser tallow is reserved for the dipped can- 



dles. After being sorted, it is cut into small 
pieces, preparatory to its being melted or ren- 
dered ; and the sooner this is done after the fat 
is taken from the carcase the better, because 
the fibrous and fleshy matters mixed with it 
promote its putrefaction. Tallow is too com- 
monly melted by a naked fire applied to the 
bottom of the vessel, whereas it should be done 
either in a cold set pan, where the flame plays 
only round the sides a little way above the bot- 
tom, or in a steam-cased pan. After being 
fused a considerable time, the membraneous 
matters collect at the surface, constituting the 
cracklings used sometimes for feeding dogs, 
after the fat has been squeezed out of it by a 
press. The liquid tallow is strained through 
a sieve into another copper, where it is treated 
with water at a boiling temperature in order 
to wash it. After a while, when the foul water 
has settled to the bottom, the purified tallow is 
lifted out, by means of tinned iron buckets, 
into tubs of a moderate size, where it con- 
cretes, and is ready for use. 

Wax Ca«(//es.— Next to tallow, the substance 
most employed in the manufacture of candles 
is wax. Wax candles are made either by the 
hand or with a ladle. In the former case, the 
wax, being kept soft in hot water, is applied 
bit by bit to the wick, which is hung from a 
hook in the wall ; in the latter, the wicks are 
hung round an iron circle, placed immediately 
over a large copper-tinned basin full of melted 
wax, which is poured upon their tops, one after 
another, by means of a large ladle. When the 
candles have by either process acquired the 
proper size, they are taken from the hooks, 
and rolled upon a table, usually of walnut tree, 
with a long square instrument of box, smooth 
at the bottom. 

In June, 1825, M. Gay Lussac obtained a 
patent in Eug'and for making candles from 
margaric and sttaric acids, improperly called 
stcarine, by converting tallow into the above 
fat acids by the following process : — Tallow 
consists, by Chevreul's researches, of stearine, 
a solid fat, and elaine, a liquid fat ; the former 
being in much the larger proportion. When 
tallow is treated with an alkaline body, such 
as potash, soda, or lime, it is saponified : that 
is, its stearine and elaine become respectively 
stearic and elaic acids, and, as such, form 
compounds with these bases. When by the 
action of an acid, such as the sulphuric or 
muriatic, these combinations are decomposed, 
the fats reappear in the altered form of 
stearic and elaic acids; the former body being 
harder than tallow, and of a texture somewhat 
like spermaceti, the latter body being fluid, 
like oil. "The decomposition of the soap 
should be made," says the patentee, "in a 
large quantity of water, kept well stirred dur- 
ing the operation, and warmed by steam intro- 
duced in any convenient way. When the 
mixture has been allowed to stand, the acid of 
the tallow or fat will rise to the surface, and 
the water being drawn off will carry the alka- 
line or saline matters with it; but if the acids 
of the tallow should retain any portion of the 
salts, fresh water may be thrown upon it, and 
the whole well agitated, until the acids have 
become perfectly free from the alkaline mat 
Y 253 



CANDLE-BERRY MYRTLE. 



CANKER. 



.ers ; and when allowed to cool, the acids will 
De formed into a solid mass. This mass is 
DOW to be submitted to considerable pressure 
in such an apparatus as is employed in ex- 
pressing oil from seeds ; when the liquid acid 
will run off in the form of a substance resem- 
bling oil, leaving a solid matter, similar, in 
every respect, to spermaceti, which is fit for 
making candles. 

The wick to be used in the manufacture of 
these improved candles, and which forms one 
of the features of this invention, is to be made 
of cotton yarn, twisted rather hard, and laid in 
the same manner as wire is sometimes coiled 
round the bass strings of musical instruments. 
For this purpose, straight rods or wires are to 
be procured, of suitable lengths and diameters, 
according to the intended size of the candles 
about to be made; and these wires, having 
been covered with cotton coiled round them as 
described, are to be inserted in the candle- 
.nioulds as the common wicks are ; and when 
the candle is made, and perfectly hard, the 
wire is to be withdrawn, leaving a hollow 
cylindrical aperture entirely through the mid- 
dle of the candle. See Steauink. 

For the process of making mould candles, 
which is even more simple than that for 
dipping, see Urc^s Dkl'miary of Arts, ^c, art. 
Caxdle: where also may be found a drawing 
and description of an ingenious machine for 
making dipped candles, much used in Edin- 
burgh. 

Candles ought never to be used until several 
weeks have elapsed after they are made; other- 
wise they are apt to gutter and run. (M'CuI- 
loch's Cnm. Dir. ; WiUirli's Dom. Enryr.') 

CANDLE-BERRY MYRTLE {Myrira gale). 
A hardy shrub, native of Britain, which grows 
to four feet high, and bears a small red blos- 
som in May and June. It loves heath mould, 
and is propagated by seed, or by dividing the 
roots. 

The species called candle-berry myrtle in the 
United States, is the inyrica rcrifcra of botanists. 
It grows on the lands bordering on the sea and 
bays of the Atlantic States, where the wax 
which surrounds the clusters of berries is 
often collected by the poor either for their own 
use in mixing with tallow to make candles, or 
to sell. The berries \vhen gathered are put 
into hot water, which melts the wax by which 
each is enveloped, and which, rising to the top, 
is skimmed oft'. It is of an olive-green colour 
and fragrant odour. As a popular remedy in 
dysentery it has acquired considerable repu- 
tation. 

Almost every region of the United States 
produces varieties of the wax myrtle. Mi- 
chaux considers them all as belonging to one 
species, a conclusion which is warranted by 
the great number of intermediate sizes and 
forms of leaf, which may be observed between 
the differert, extremes. Pursh, however, has 
chosen to distinguish three species which bear 
wax, and which he names cerifera after Lin- 
naus, Carohmciisis Irom Willdenow, and Penn- 
sylvanica from Lamarck. The wax myrtle or 
bayberry, as it is often called, which is com- 
mon in New England, varies in height from 
one to seven or eight feet. It is found in everv 



kind of soil from the borders of swamps to the 
tops of barren hills, and is very much influ- 
enced in its size and appearance, by the place 
in which it happens to grow. 

The wax myrtle is found bearing fruit at 
every size, from the height of one foot, to six 
or eight. In Louisiana, it is said, to grow to 
twelve feet. The top is much branched, and 
covered with a grayish bark. Every young 
part of the wax myrtle has a fragrant, balsamic 
smell, which it communicates to the fingers 
when rubbed by them. 

Dr. J. F. Dana has published, in Silliman's 
Journal, an account of some experiments made 
to ascertain the proportion of wax, and of the 
other parts which compose the entire berry. 
He found the wax to constitute nearly a third 
of the whole, or thirty-two per cent ; the kernels 
47-00, the black powder 15-00, with about 5-00 
of a resino-exlractive matter. 

The myrtle wax is useful for many of the 
purposes for which bees wax and tallow are 
employed, particularly for candles. It burns 
with a clear flame, though less vivid than that 
of common oil, and emits a considerable fra- 
grance. It was former.ly much in demand as 
an ingredient in a species of blacking ball, to 
which it communicated a temporary lustre and 
power of repelling water. It has occasionally 
been used in pharmacy in various composi- 
tions intended for external use, and is mild or 
stimulating according as it is more or less 
pure and freed from the colouring matter. 

In some parts of Europe plantations of this 
shrub have been raised with a view to the profit 
to be derived from the wax. In this country, 
where the shrub abounds, the berries are often 
neglected, their collection and the separation 
of the wax being deemed too laborious to 
compensate the trouble. The bark of the wax 
myrtle considered medicinally is an acrid 
stimulant and astringent. (Dr. Bigdow^s Am. 
Med. Buliuiy.) 

CANE. A provincial term used to signify 
a hollow place, where water stands. It also 
implies a wood of alder, or other aquatic trees, 
in a moist boggy situation. 

In the South-western States of America there 
are extensive and almost impenetrable cane- 
brakes, consisting of a rank growth of a sub- 
aquatic species of cane or reed (Animlo pntg- 
mites?). These cane-brakes resemble in many 
respects the jungles of the East Indies. 

CANINE MADNESS. See HrnnopiioBiA. 

CANKER, OR ULCER (Lat. f«»to-, Sax. 
cancer"^', of cancpe). In the vegetable creation, 
a disease to which our apple, pear, elm, and 
other trees are subject. 

"This disease," says Mr. G. W. Johnson, "is 
accompanied by different symptoms, accord 
ing to the species of the tree which it infects 
In some of those whose true sap contains 
a considerable quantity of free acid, as in 
the genus Pyrus, it is rarely accompanied by 
any dischai-^e. To this dry form of the dis 
ease, it would be well to confine the term 
canker, and to give it the scientific name of 
GangrcEna sicca, or dry gangrene. In other 
trees, whose sap is characterized by abounding 
! in astringent or mucilaginous constituents, it 
is usually aUrnd^d by a sanious discharge. In 



CANKER. 

such instances, it might be strictly designated 
ulcer, or Gangrcena saniosa. This disease has a 
considerable resemblance to the tendency to 
ossification, which appears in aged animals, 
arising from their marked appetency to secrete 
the calcareous saline compounds that chiefly 
constitute their skeletons. The consequence 
is an enlargement of the joints, and ossifica- 
tion of the circulating vessels, and other parts ; 
phenomena very analogous to those attending 
the cankering of trees. As in animals, this 
tendency is general throughout their system ; 
but, as is observed by Mr. Knight, 'like the 
mortifications in the limbs of elderly people,' 
it may be determined, as to its point of attack, 
by the irritability of that part of the system. 
This disease commences with an enlargement 
of the vessels of the bark of a branch, or of the 
stem. This swelling invariably attends the 
disease when it attacks the apple tree. In the 
pear, the enlargement is less, yet is always 
present. In the elm and oak sometimes no 
swelling occurs, and in the peach I do not re- 
member 10 have seen any; I have never ob- 
served the disease in the cherry tree, nor any 
of the pine tribe. The swelling is soon com- 
municated to the wood ; which, if laid open to 
view, on its first appearance, by the removal 
of the bark, exhibits no marks of disease be- 
yond the mere unnatural enlargement. In the 
course of a few years, less in number in pro- 
portion to the advanced age of the tree, and the 
unfavourable circumstances under which it is 
vegetating, the swelling is greatly increased in 
size, and the alburnum has become extensively 
dead: the superincumbent bark cracks, rises 
in disQoloured scales, and decays even more 
rapidly than the wood beneath. If the caries 
is upon a moderately sized branch, the decay 
soon completely encircles it, extending through 
the whole arburnum and bark. The circula- 
tion of the sap being thus entirely prevented, 
all the parts above the disease of necessity 
perish. In the apple and pear, the disease is 
accompanied by scarcely any discharge ; but 
in the elm this is very abundant. The only 
chemists who have examined these morbid 
products are Sir H. Davy and Vauquelin ; the 
former's observations being confined to the 
fact, that he often found carbonate of lime on 
the edges of the canker in apple trees. (Elcnt. 
of Ag>\ Chemistry, 2d edit. p. 264.) 

Vauquelin has examined the sanies dis- 
charged from the canker of an elm with much 
more precision. He found this liquor nearly 
as transparent as water, sometimes slightly 
coloured, at other times a blackish-brown, but 
always tasting acrid and saline. From it a 
soft matter, insoluble in water, is deposited 
upon the sides of the ulcer. The bark over 
which the transparent sanies flows attains the 
appearance of chalk, becoming white, friable, 
crystalline, alkaline, and effervescent with 
acids. A magnifier exhibits the crystals in 
the forms of rhomboids and four-sided prisms : 
when the liquid is dark-coloured, the bark ap- 
pears blackish, and seems as if coated with a 
varnish. It sometimes is discharged in such 
quantities as to hang from the bark like sta- 
lactites. The matter of which these are com- 
posed is alkaline, soluble in water, and with 



CANKER. 

acids eflfervesces. The analysis of this dark 
slimy matter shows it to be compounded of 
carbonate of potassa and ulmin, a product pe 
culiar to the elm. The white matter depositef] 
round the canker was composed of — 



Vegetable matter - 
Carbonate of potassa - 
Carlionate of lime 
Carbonate of magnesia 



Parts. 
60-5 
342 

5 

03 

1000 



Although young trees are liable to this dis- 
ease, yet their old age is the period of exist- 
ence most obnoxious to its attacks. It must 
be remembered, that that is not consequently 
a young tree which is lately grafted. If the 
tree from which the scion was taken is an old 
variet)^ it is only a multiplication of an aged 
individual. The scion may for a few years 
exhibit signs of increased vigour, owing to the 
extra stimulus of the more abundant supply^of 
healthy sap supplied by the stock; but the 
vessels of the scion will, after the lapse of that 
period, graduall)'' become as decrepid as th- 
parent tree. The unanimous experience ol 
naturalists agrees in testifying that every or- 
ganized creature has its limit of existence. In 
plants it varies from the scanty period of a 
few months to the long expanse of as many 
centuries: but of all, the days are numbered; 
and though the gardener's, like the physician's 
skill, may retard the onward pace of death, he 
will not be permanently delayed. In the last 
periods of life they show every symptom that 
accompanies organization in iis old age — not 
only a cessation of growth, but a decay of for- 
mer developements, a languid circulation, and 
diseased organs. 

The canker, as already observed, attends es- 
pecially the old age of some fruit trees, and of 
these, the apple is most remarkably a sufferer. 
" I do not mean," says Mr. Knight, " to assert 
that there ever was a time when an apple tree 
did not canker on unfavourable soils, or that 
highly cultivated varieties were not more ge- 
nerally subject to the disease than others, where 
the soil did not suit them; but I assert, from 
my own experience and observation within the 
last twenty years, that this disease becomes 
progressively more fatal to each variety, as the 
age of that variety beyond a certain period 
increases ; that all the varieties of the apple 
which I have found in the catalogues of the 
middle of the seventeenth centur)^, are unpro- 
ductive of fruit, and in a state of debility and 
decay." {Some Doubts relative to the Efficacy 
of Mr. Forsyth's Plaster, by T. A. Knight, Esq. 
1802.) 

Among the individuals particularly liable to 
be infected, are those which have been marked 
by an excessively vigorous growth in their 
early years. I have in my garden a maiden 
standard peach, which is now about sixteen 
years old. The size and abundance of its 
annual shoots, until within the last quarter of 
its existence, were unnaturally large. It is 
now grievously affected by canker. Tree.s 
injudiciously pruned, or growing upon an un 
genial soil, are more frequently attacked than 
those advancing under contrary circumstances 
The oldest trees are always the first attacked 

255 



CANKER. 



CANKER. 



cf those similarly culti^iated. The golden pip- 
pin, the oldest existing variety of the apple, is 
more frequently and seriously attacked than 
any other. The soil has a very considerable 
influence in inducing the disease. If the sub- 
soil is a ferruginous gravel, or if it is not well 
drained; if the soil is aluminous, and effective 
means are not adopted to free it of superabun- 
dant moisture, — the canker, under any one of 
these circumstances, is almost certain to make 
its appearance among the trees they sustain. If 
an old v,'orn-out orchard is replanted with fruit 
trees, the canker is almost certain to appear 
among them, however young and vigorous they 
were when first planted. How inducive of this 
disease is a wet, retentive subsoil, if the roots 
penetrate it, appears from the statement of Mr. 
Watts, gardener to R. G. Russell, Esq., of Che- 
quer's Court, in Buckinghamshire. A border 
beneath a south wall had a soil three feet and 
a half in depth, apparently of the most fertile 
staple; twice remade under the direction of 
the late Mr. Lee, of the Vineyard, Hammer- 
smith. In this the trees, peaches and nectar- 
ines, flourish for the next three or four years 
after they are planted, but then are rapidly de- 
stroyed by the canker and gum. The subsoil 
is a stiff sour clay, nearly approaching to a 
brick earth ; and the disease occurs as soon as 
it is reached by the roots of the trees. (Gar- 
dener's 3Ia!;aziue, vol. vi. p. 617.) Pruning has 
a powerful influence in preventing the occur- 
rence of canker. I remember a standard rus- 
set apple tree, of not more than twenty years' 
growth, with a redundancy of ill-arranged 
branches, that was excessively attacked by this 
disease. I had two of its three main branches 
removed, and the laterals of that remaining 
thinned carefully, all the infected parts, at the 
same time, being removed. The result was a 
total cure. The branches were annually regu- 
lated, and for six years the disease never reap- 
peared. At the end of that time the tree had 
to be removed, as the ground it stood upon was 
required for another purpose. John Williams, 
Bsq., of Pitmaston, from long experience con- 
cludes that the golden pippin, and other apples, 
may be preserved from this disease by pruning 
away, every year, that part of each shoot which 
is not perfectly ripened. By pursuing this 
method for six years, he brought a dwarf golden 
pippin tree to be as vigorous and free from 
canker as any new variety. {Trans. London 
Hort. Soc. vol. vi. art. 64.) 

All these facts unite in assuring us that the 
canker arises from the tree's weakness ; from 
a deficiency in its vital energy, and consequent 
inability to imbibe and elaborate the nourish- 
ment necessary to sustain its frame in vigour, 
and much less to supply the healthy develope- 
ment of new parts. It matters not whether its 
energy is broken down by an unnatural rapidity 
of growth, by a disproportioned excess of 
branches over the mass of roots, by old age, or 
by the disorganizatiim of roots in an ungenial 
soil; they render the tree incapable of extract- 
ing sulncient r.purishmenl from the soil, con- 
sequently incapable of developing sufficient 
foliage, and therefore unable to digest and ela- 
borate even the scanty sap that is supplied to 
them 

256 



The reason of the sap becoming unnaturally 
saline appears to be, that in proportion as thjp 
vigour of any vegetable declines, it loses this 
power of selecting by its roots the nourishment 
congenial to its nature. M. Saussure found in 
his experiments that the roots of plants grow- 
ing in saline solutions absorbed the most of 
those salts that were injurious to them, evi- 
dently because the declining plant lost the sen- 
sitiveness and energy necessary to select and 
to reject. Thus, when plants of Polygonum 
Pcrsicaria and of Bidens cannabina were grown 
in a solution containing sulphate of soda (Glau- 
ber salt), acetate of lime, and chloride of sodium 
(common salt), they altogether rejected the 
acetate of lime ; but when grown in a solution 
of sulphate of copper and acetate of lime, they im- 
bibed the latter abundantly. Now, sulphate of 
copper M. Saussure found to be the most dele- 
terious to the plants of all the salts, in a solu- 
tion of which he plunged their roots. Suppos- 
ing the portion originally in solution to be 100, 
the proportions of each absorbed were as fol- 
lows : — 

Pa. 

I Chloride of sodium - - - - 10 

< Sulphate of soda ... - 6 

(.Acetate of lime ----- 

C Sulphate of copper - - - - 34 

i Acetate of lime ----- 31 

M. Saussure also found, that if the extremi- 
ties of the roots were removed, the plants ab- 
sorbed all solutions indiscriminately. (Saus- 
surc's Jxcchcrches Clumiqucs sur la Vegetation, 260.) 
An ungenial soil would have a debilitatmg 
influence upon the roots in a proportionate, 
though less violent degree than the sulphate 
of copper; and these, consequently, would 
absorb soluble bodies more freely, and without 
that discrimination so absolutely necessary for 
a healthy vegetation ; so the other most essen- 
tial organs of nutrition, the leaves of the weak- 
ened plant, would promote and accelerate the 
disease. These, reduced in number and size, 
do not properly elaborate the sap ; and I have 
always found that, under such circumstances, 
these stunted organs exhale the aqueous parti- 
cles of the sap very abundantly, whilst their 
power of absorption is greatly reduced. The 
sap, thus deficient in quantity and increased in 
acridity, seems to corrode and afiect the vascu- 
lar system of the tree in the manner already 
described. These facts afford us most impor- 
tant guides in attaining the desired objects, the 
prevention and cure of the disease. If super- 
luxuriance threatens its introduction, the best 
remedy is for the cultivator to remove one of 
the main roots of the tree, and for him to be 
particularly careful not to add any fertile addi- 
tion to the soil within their range. On the 
contrary, it will be well, if the exuberant growth 
shows its necessity, for the soil to be reduced 
in fertility by the admixture of one less fertile, 
or even of drift sand. If there is an excess of 
branches, the saw and the pruning-knife must 
be gradually applied. It must be only trees of 
weak vital powers, such as the golden pipnin, 
that will bear the general cutting of the annual 
shoots, as pursued by Mr. Williams. A new 
vigorous variety would exhibit itself in the 
following year in the production of new wood. 

Having completely headed down, if the can- 



CANKER, 



CAPERS. 



ker is generally prevalent, or duly thinned the 
branches, entirely removed every small one 
that is in the least degree diseased, and cut 
away the decayed parts of the larger, so as not 
to leave a single speck of the decayed wood, I 
cover over the surface of each wound with a 
mixture, whilst in a melted state, of equal parts 
of tar and rosin, applying with a brush imme- 
diately after the amputations have been per- 
formed, taking care to select a fine dry day. 
I prefer this to any composition with a basis 
of cow-dung and clay, because the latter is 
always more or less absorbent of moisture, and 
is liable to injury by rain and frost, causing 
alternations of moisture and dryness to the 
wounds, that promote decay rather than their 
healing, by the formation of new wood and 
Dark. The resinous plaster seldom or never 
requires renewal. Mr. Forsyth, the arch-advo- 
cate of alkaline plasters, finding they promoted 
decay, if applied to the wounds of autumn- 
pruned trees, recommends this important act 
of cultivation to be postponed to the spring. 
Such a procrastination, however, is always 
liable to defer the pruning till bleeding is the 
consequence. If a resinous plaster is employed, 
it excludes the wet, and obviates the objection 
to autumnal pruning. Mr. Forsyth's treatment 
of the trunks and branches of the trees, namely, 
scraping from them all the scaly, dry exuvite 
of the bark, is to be adopted in every instance: 
he recommends them to be then brushed over 
with a thin liquid compound of fresh cow-dung, 
soapsuds, and urine. But I very much prefer 
a brine of common salt : each acts as a gentle 
stimulus, which is their chief source of benefit, 
and the latter is more eflicacious in destroying 
insects, and does not, like the other, obstruct 
the perspiratory vessels of the tree. The brine 
is advantageously rubbed in Math a scrubbing 
or large painter's brush. Some persons recom- 
mend a liquid wash, containing, as prominent 
ingredients, quicklime and wood-ashes; which, 
as the disease arises from an over-alkalescent 
state of the sap, cannot but prove injurious 
and aggravate the disease. Mr. Forsyth's 
composition, used as a plaster for the wounds 
made when cankered matter had been extract- 
ed, was — 

1 bushel of fresh cow-dung, 
^ bushel of lime rubbish, 
i bushel of wood ashes, 
■j-'g- bushel of finely-sifted sand. 

Mr. Knight well observed of this quackery 
(for which Forsyth was rewarded with a grant 
of money), that "it afforded a much better 
proof that he was paid for a discovery than 
that he made one." (G. W.Johnson; Qiiar. 
Journ. of Agr. vol. viii. p. 470 ; J. Pearson, ibid. 
vol, ii. p, 379 ; A. Drummond, On the Canker in 
the Larch, ibid. p. 231.) 

Canker in horses is a separation of the horn 
from the sensible part of the foot, and the 
sprouting of fungous matter instead of it, and 
occupying a portion of, or even the whole of 
the sole and frog. (The Horse, p. 308, Lib. of 
Useful Knowledge.) The whole secret of the 
treatment of canker consists in the use of su- 
perfioial caustics or stimulants, — pressure as 
33 



firmly and as equably as it can be made, and 
the careful avoidance of all greasy applica- 
tions, and all moisture, either applied imme- 
diately to the foot, or suffered to penetrate 
to it through the dressing. {Claterh Farriery, 
p. 324.) 

CANKERED. A word sometimes used to 
signify mildewed or blighted. 

CANKERS. A local name in some parts 
of England for caterpillars, 

CANKER-WORM. The insects, called in 
the Eastern States canker-worms, are caterpil- 
lars with ten legs, the larvae of a natural group 
of moths called hybernians. They belong to the 
tribe of geometers, commonly called earth-mea- 
surers, span-worms, and loopers. See Span- 
worms. 

CANTER. (Said to be an abbreviation of 
Canterbury gallop, and derived from the pil- 
grims riding to Canterbury on easy ambling 
horses. — Todd^s Johnson.) A well-known pace 
of the horse, which is not, generally, a natural 
pace. When the horse is excited to move his 
station from one place to another, he performs 
it with a velocity proportionate to the exciting 
cause. Thus, he changes from the walk to 
the trot, and from the trot to the gallop, ac- 
cording to his inclination. In each of these 
changes he acquires a'.i addition of speed; but, 
as the trot is equal in speed to the canter, he 
seldom adopts the canter, but changes to the 
gallop, when he wishes to accelerate his mo- 
tion. The horse is taught to perform the canter 
by shortening the gallop. The canter is to the 
gallop very much what the walk is to the trot, 
though probably a more artificial pace. The 
exertion is much less, the spring less distant, 
and the feet come to the ground in more regu- 
lar succession : it is a pace of ease, quite in- 
consistent with any exertion of draught. (Lib. 
Use. Knoic, The Horse, p. 413.) Some persons, 
and among them Nimrod, do not consider this 
pace injurious to horses. " A canter," he ob- 
serves, " is much more easy, as well as safer 
to the rider, than a trot : the horse having his 
haunches more under him in the canter than 
when he trots, is hereby more likely to recover 
himself in case of m.aking a mistake, which 
the best is sometimes subject to. Fast trotting 
also distresses a horse more than cantering, 
because, in the one, he is going at the top of 
his speed, and in the other much below it." 
(Blaine's Ency. of Rural Sports, p. 297.) 

CAPERS. The caper is a small prickly 
shrub, cultivated in Spain, Italy, and the south- 
ern provinces of France. The flowers are 
large roses of a pretty appearance, but the 
flower-buds alone are the objects of this culti- 
vation. 

They are plucked before they open, and 
thrown into strong vinegar slightly salted, 
where they are pickled. The crop oi ♦'ach 
day is added to the same vinegar tub, so that, 
in the course of the six months during which 
the caper shrub flowers, the vessel gets filled, 
and is sold to persons who sort the capers (the 
smallest being most valued) by means of cop 
per sieves. This metal is attacked by the acid, 
wherefrom the fruit acquires a green colour, 
much admired by ignorant connoisseurs. 
t2 257 



CAPES. 

The capers, as found in the French market, 
are distinguished into five sorts; the nonpareille, 
the capucine, the capote, the second, and the third; 
this being the decreasing order of their quality, 
which depends upon the strength of the vine- 
gar used in pickling them, as also the size and 
colour of the buds. 

The caper shrub grows in the driest situa- 
tions, even upon walls, and does not disdain 
any soil ; but it loves a hot and sheltered ex- 
posure. It is multiplied by grafts made in 
autumn, as also by slips of the roots taken off 
in spring. 

CAPES, or CAPPS, provincial words, ap- 
plied to the ears of corn broken off, either 
wholly or in part, in thrashing; as well as to 
the grain to which the chaff adheres. 

CAPITAL (Lat. capitalis). The capital re- 
quired by a farmer, to a great extent, varies 
with the soil and country in which he is placed; 
all practical observations in this place, there- 
fore, can only be of a general nature. The 
first and best direction, however, to a farmer 
mu5t be, " do not take more land than your 
capital will enable you to farm well." For this 
purpose, the observations of the author of the 
British Husbandry, vol. i. p. 41, may very well 
be introduced in this place. "Most farmers 
are anxious for large occupations, and many 
are thus betrayed into the error of renting a 
greater quantity of ground than they have the 
means of managing to advantage; some, in 
the delusive hope of acquiring those means 
by future savings ; others, from the vanity of 
holding more land than their neighbours: 
hence arises deficiency of stock, imperfect til- 
lage, and scanty crops ; with all the consequent 
train of rent in arrear, wages ill-paid, and debts 
unsatisfied — distress, duns, and final ruin. 
Whereas, he who is prudently content to com- 
mence with only such a number of acres as 
he has the power of cultivating with proper 
•effect, is certain of obtaining the full return 
from the soil ; Avhile, not being burdened with 
more land than he can profitably emplo}-, his 
■engagements are withm his means, and thus, 
while enjoying present ease of mind, he lays 
the surest foundation for his future prosperity." 
And, as it is well observed (Quart. Journ. of 
~Jgr. vol. iii. p. 452), "Or if, to save appear- 
ances, he borrows money to complete his ne- 
cessary arrangements, his condition is not 
improved ; because the interest he will have to 
pay for the borrowed money will operate as an 
additional yearly rent, and thus take from him 
all the advantages which he was led to expect 
he would enjoy under a moderate one." Un- 
der the head Apphaiseme:\t will be found the 
amount of the valuation of the crops, and other 
things commonly paid by the incoming to the 
outgoing tenant on a farm of 309 acres, 
amounting to 1702Z. This, however, varies 
considerably according to the Custom of 
•Counties, which see. To this must be added 
the expenses incurred of stocking the farm for 
the first year. Wages, seed, keep of family, 
rent, taxes, rates, &c. On a farm of 500 acres, 
Professor Low {Prac Agr. p. 674) estimates 
the capital required for the first year to be (in 
Scotland)— 
258 



CAPON. 

£ $. i.. 

1. Implements - - - - - 470 4 4* 

2. Live stock 1423 15 

3. Seed - - -- - - -273 00 

4. Manure - - - - • - 516 10 

5. Labour, &c. - - - - - 528 17 6 

6. Maintenance of horses ... 343 7 11 

7. Burdens 31 15 9 



Furniture of house 
Family expenses, U years 



3488 8 6 

200 

150 

3838 8 6 



From this he deducts for produce sold 7 „„, ._ „ 



in this time 
Required net capital 



- 2842 10 9 



or 51. 13s. 9^d. per acre. In this calculation, 
he supposes that no rent is paid till the crop is 
reaped. The estimate for the capital required 
for a Scotch farm of 500 acres (allowing no- 
thing for payments to outgoing tenant) is, ac- 
cording to a statement in the Quart. Journ. of 
Jgr. vol. iii. p. 475, as follows : — 

£ s. d. 

Value of implements for farm work - - 228 2 2 

— do. livestock - 43 19 4 

— do. barn work - - 17 14 4 

— Thrashing machine - - - - 170 

— Horses 450 00 

— Cattle 511 

— Sheep - - - - - - 420 

— Other live stock -.... 700 

— Grass seeds - - - - - 87 10 

— Tares 680 

— Peas ------- 400 

— Turnips 12 15 

— Potatoes .-.-.. 2 16 

— Corn 215 03 

— Labour 865 6 10 



Rent 500 acres, at 40«. 



3041 17 11 
1000 



4041 17 11 



From which, however, dedi ct the value of 
the following articles, derived from the 
farm before the period of paying the se- 
cond half year's rent, viz. 
Prnlit on 20 fat cattle, fJ. each - - £100 
Wintering 20 kyloes for 24 weeks, at 2s. 

6(/. per week ----- 30 
Sold 30 dinniots anj gewmers at 25s. 

eacb, and 20 draft ewes at 30s. each 130 
Profii on turnijiin? 120 hogs 24 weeks, 

at 3rf. per head per week - - - 36 

Sold 14 pips 14 

Produce of 4 cows over what required 

by family ------ 10 

Wool sold ------ 152 

472 

3569 17 U 

At p. 658, of Zoif's Prac. Agr. will be found a 
catalogue of the various implements of a farm 
of 500 acres, from a thrashing machine worth 
100?. to a grease pot valued at Is. 6f/., amount- 
ing altogether to 474/. 4s. 4(/. And this in- 
cludes hardly a single article that the young 
farmer can well do without. As a general 
rule on the chalks of Hampshire, they deem 
51. per acre to be a sufficient capital; but on 
some of the rich highl}' cultivated soils cf 
Surrey, Kent, and Essex, 10?. per arable acre 
is not too much. Grazing farms require less 
in proportion than arable lands. 

CAPON (Sax. capun; Fr. chapon; Lat. copo). 
If cocks, when young, are em.asculated, it has 
a prodigious effect upon their condition, and a 
similar effect may be produced upon young 
hens by the abstraction of their egg-bags. 
These operations have been practised upon 



CAPON. 

poultry from the earliest antiquity, for the pur- 
pose of improving the flesh. In England, it is 
chiefly practised in the great poultry-breeding 
counties of Sussex, Essex, and Berks, but is 
little known anywhere else. There are, in- 
deed, persons who make a trade of it, and it is 
best to employ one of those when they can be 
had; but it is not uncommon for the poultry- 
farmers' wives and daughters to acquire dex- 
terity in performing the operation. This, in- 
deed, seems to be no new thing, for Mascall, 
in his minute but very quaint directions, uses 
the feminine gender throughout. "To cut 
young cockrels," he says, "to make them ca- 
pons, the time thereof best to cut and carve 
them is soone after their dam has left them, or 
when they cry or pule no more after her, as 
when they begin to crowe and waxe bote to 
tread the pullets. The common way of cutting 
or carving is not to be dispraysed, and is most 
knowne as this waye : they take them in the 
morning, commonly in the wane of the moone, 
and laye the cocke in her lappe, upon his back, 
trussing up his legges by his sides. Then the 
carver pluckes first awaye the feathers above 
the vent, and takes up the upper skin on the 
point of a needle, and slits it over-thwart an 
inche long, and then takes up the under thin 
skinne nexte the guts, and slits that likewise. 
Then the carver annoyntes her fore finger of 
her right hande with oyle or butter, and puts it 
gently to the raines of the cock, on the left 
side, and with her finger bringes forthe the 
stone. Then she annoyntes the fore finger of 
her left hande, and puts it into the stone on the 
right side of the cocke, and with her finger 
bringes it forthe. So done, she placeth the 
guts, and sowes the skinne up again with a 
threade, and then annoyntes that place with 
some fresh butter, and lets him go." 

The art of caponing fowls forms a part of 
rural econom)'', and as the mode of operating 
is very little understood in the United States, 
we propose giving such ample and minute 
instructions upon the subject, as, with the aid 
of original drawings, will enable any one to 
succeed who possesses common dexterity. 

The chickens intended for capons should be 
of the largest breed that can be obtained, and 
in the United States there is not perhaps one 
better suited in this respect than the celebrated 
large Buck's county breed, well known in the 
Philadelphia market, where capons made from 
these fowls have been sold weighing 25 lbs. 
the pair. As in breeding with a special view 
to making capons, male chickens alone are 
required, those eggs should be selected to set 
under hens which produce males, namely, 
such as have the sharpest points. The altera- 
tion of the chicken into a capon will, in about 
a twelvemonth, nearly double the size of the 
bird. Persons wishing to become expert in 
the operation of making capons would do well 
o imitate surgeons, who always try their hand 
upon dead subjects before performing on the liv- 
ing. It is, however, quite simple, and in France 
and Italy is often allotted to mere children. 

The Chinese mode of operating we think 
preferable not only to the old one described by 
Mascall, but to any other of which we have 
ever heard. 



CAPON. 

Chickens intended for capons may be ope- 
rated upon at any age, though when between 
two and three months old is considered much 
the best time. Old fowls seldom survive the 
operation. Previous to cutting, the chickens 
must be kept entirely from food, and even 
water, for about thirty-six hours, as experi- 
ments have determined this time to insure the 
best chance of success by causing the bowels 
to be empty and lessening the tendency to 
bleeding. The fowl may be secured either in the 
Chinese mode, — that is to say, lying on its left 
side with its wings folded back till they meet, 
and pressed under the foot of the operator, 
whose other foot is placed upon the legs ; — or, 
it may be held by an assistant in a similar 
position ; or, what adds greatly to the con- 
venience of the operator, especially in reliev- 
ing him from the necessity of stooping low, 
the fowl may be confined by straps, &c. to a 
table one of which, of a highly ingenious con- 
struction, has been invented by a Philadelphian, 
and will be subsequently described and de- 
lineated. (See Figs. 2 and 3.) 

The chicken being secured with its left side 
downwards, wings clasped behind its back, 
legs extended backwards, the upper one be- 
ing drawn the furthest back (see fig. 3), the 
head and neck left perfectly free, the feathers 
are next to be plucked from '^s right side 
near the hip joint, in a line between that 
and the shoulder joint; the spa«.e uncovered 
(i7, fig, 3) may be a little over an inch square. 
Having first drawn the skin of the part back- 
ward, so that when left to itself after the ope- 
ration, it will cover the wound in the flesh, 
make an incision with the bevel-edged knife, 
(fig. 1. a,) between the last two ribs, commenc- 
ing about an inch from the backbone, and ex- 
tending obliquely downwards about an inch or 
inch and a half, just going deep enough to 
separate the ribs, and taking good care not to 
wound the intestines. A pair of broad blunt 
hooks (fig. 1, r, c) attached to a piece of elastic 
whalebone or ratan (A) about six inches long 
are then applied, one hook to each side of the 
cut, and these being stretched apart by the 
spring bow, keep the wound open wide enough 
to give room for the operation. Then care- 
fully cut open the skin covering the intestines, 
which last, if not sufficiently drawn up inconse- 
quence of the previous fasting, maybe pushed 
forwards or towards the breastbone, by means 
of a flat instrument contrived for the purpose, 
or, what answers equally well, the handle of a 
teaspoon. When the testicles are exposed to 
view, they will be found to be connected with 
the back and sides by means of a thin skin 
which passes over them. This tender cover- 
ing must be seized with the pincers a, n, and 
torn open with the assistance of the sharp- 
edged hook h; after this, with the lell hand, 
introduce the curved spoon under the lower or 
left testicle (which is generally a little nearer 
the rump than the right one) : then take the 
tube i, and with the right hand pass the loop n, 
over the small hooked end of the spoon h, run- 
ning it down under the spoon and included, 
testicle, so as to bring the loop to act upon the 
part which fastens the testicle to he back 
Then by drawing the ends of the hair-locp 

259 



CAPON. 



CAPOK. 



lackwards and forwards, and at the same time 
pushing the lower end of the tube towards the 
rump of the chicken, the cord or fastening of 
the testicle is sawn oif. The same process is 
to be followed with the uppermost or right 
testicle, after which the separated testicles, 
together with any blood in the bottom of the 
wound are to be scooped out with the crooked 
spoon. When performed properly, little or no 
blood of consequence is observed, neither does 
the fowl seem to experience any pain, after the 
first incision, but will eat if food be given to 
it. To enable the operator to produce the 
sawing movement, the hair or other ligature 
used may be tied in a knot so as to allow the 
index or fore finger of the operator's right 
hand to pass through it. This finger being 
then turned or rolled repeatedly from side to 
side, communicates to the loop below the saw- 
ing motion which contributes to cut off the 
testicle. The reason for cutting off the lower- 
most testicle first, is to prevent the blood which 
may issue, from covering the remaining one, 
and rendering it difficult to be seen. After 
this operation which, if skilfully performed, 
occupies very few minutes, the hooks are to 
be taken out, the skin drawn over the wound, 
and this covered with the feathers plucked off 
at the commencement of the operation. The 
chicken is then released, and as soon as let go 
will take grain or other food eagerly, and in a 
day or two be restored to its usual health. A 
person well skilled may operate on fifty 
chickens without killing more than one or two. 

In some fowls the fore part of the thigh 
covers the last two ribs ; in which case care 
must he taken to draw the fleshy part of the 
thigh well back, to prevent its being cut, as this 
might lame the fowl or even cause its death. 

For ligatures nothing answers so well as 
that commonly employed by the Chinese, 
namely, the fibre of the cocoanut husk. This 
is rough, and makes a loop which saws off and 
separates the testicle very readily. The next 
best substance for this purpose is horse-hair. 
Experiments with fine wire, silk, silk-gut, &c. 
show that these are all inferior to cocoanut 
fibr'. and horse-hair. 

Sometimes a portion of the testicle adheres 
and is left behind, in which case the fowls will 
not prove capons, as will soon be evident, and 
may be killed for use as soon as the head be- 
gins to grow large and get red, and they show 
a disposition to chase the hens. The real 
capon will make itself known by the head 
remaining small, the comb and gills losing 
their bright redness and appearing withered; 
the feathers of the neck and tail will also 
grow longer. They should be kept to the age 
of fifteen or eighteen months, which will bring 
them in the spring and summer, when poultry 
is scarce and bears a high price. But they 
should not be killed near moulting time, as 
all poultry then is very inferior. The opera- 
tion fails principally in consequence of the 
bursting of the skin which encloses the soft 
matter of the testicle, some of which remains 
in the bird. 

Fowls of five or six months are less liable 
<■■ have the testicles burst in the operation than 
260 



younger ones, but they are also more apt to 
bleed to death than those of from two to four 
months old. As the large vessel that supplies 
the entrails with blood passes in the neighbour- 
hood of the testicles; there is danger that a 
young beginner may pierce this with the 
pointed instrument in taking off the skin of 
the lower testicle, in which case the chicken 
would die instantly. There are one or two 
smaller vessels to be avoided, which is very 
easy, as they are not difficult to be seen. If 
properly managed, no blood ever appears 
until a testicle is taken off: so that should any 
appear before that, the operator will know that 
he has done something wrong. 

If a chicken die during the operation by 
bleeding, it is of course as proper for use as 
if bled to death by having its throat cut. They 
very seldom die after the operation unless they 
have received some internal injury, or the flesh 
of the thigh has been cut through, from not 
being drawn back from off the last two ribs, 
where the incision is made ; all of which acci- 
dents may be liable to occur with young prac- 
titioners. 

Where the testicles are found very large, the 
silver tube may be too small for the opera- 
tion ; in this case a larger one made of small 
bamboo or elder, about |ths of an inch in dia- 
meter, may be substituted, with a strong cocoa- 
nut string or ligature. But for chickens of 
small and medium sizes, the silver tube, with 
a horse-hair in it, will answer perfectly well. 

When a chicken has been cut, it is neces- 
sary, before letting it run, to put a permanent 
mark upon it; otherwise it would be impossi- 
ble to distinguish it at first from others not ope- 
rated on. Cutting off the outside or the inside, 
toe of the left foot, will enable one to distin- 
guish them at a distance. Another mode is to 
cut off the comb, then shave off the spurs 
close to the leg, and stick them upon the bleed- 
ing head, where they will grow and become 
ornamental in the shape of a pair of horns. 
This last mode is perhaps the best, but it is 
not so simple and ready as the first. Which- 
ever plan is adopted, the fowl should be marked 
before performing the operation. 

It is very common, after the operation, and 
whilst the wound is healing, for the side to puff 
out with a windy swelling. This may be re- 
lieved by making a small incision or puncture 
in the skin, which will let the wind escape. 

Those fowls make the finest capons which 
are hatched early in the spring; as they can 
be cut before the hot weather comes, which is 
a great advantage. 

The operator should not be discouraged with 
the first difficulties ; for with practice they will 
disappear; every year's experience will render 
one more expert, until the cutting of a dozen 
fowls before breakfast will be a small matter. 

It may be well to give a warning against 
becoming dissatisfied with the instruments. A 
raw hand, when he meets with difficulties, is 
apt to think the tools are in fault, and sets about 
to improve them and invent others; but it may 
be only himself that lacks skill, which practice 
alone can give. Those who have devoted 
much time and attention to the subject say 



CAPON. 

»nat they have found the old Chinese instru- 
ments, a drawing of which is given in fig. 1, 
preferable to all others. 

In addition to these instruments, a regular 
Chinese set contains a flat kind of spatula 
something like the upper part of a spoon 
handle. This is about four inches long and 
half an inch wide, and slightly curved at each 

Fj 



CAPON. 

end in opposite directions. It is for the pur- 
pose of pushing the intestines cut of the way, 
an office very well performed by the handle of 
a teaspoon. 

Fig. 1 represents the instruments used ia 
making capons, according to the Chinese me- 
thod, reduced only about one-fourth their actual 
sizes. 



.1 




The operating table contrived in Philadelphia, 
and before referred to, is represented in the 
following cut, fig. 2. 



a, a knife, the edge of which resembles that of a chisel with a bevel or slanting edge, half an inch in the 
greatest width ; the other end or handle consists of two forcep blades terminating at a, a, in slender points, and 
forming spring forceps. The whole length from the cutting edge to the end of the pliers is about six inches. 

c, c, two broad blunt hooks of silver or other metal, each half an inch in width and one and a half in length. 

b, an elastic bow, si.x inches long, made of whalebone or ratan, about the thickness of a large quill, and split hori- 
zontally into two pieces. To the ends of this bow the broad hooks are attached by strong cords about half an inch 
long. At the end rf, the cord embraces only the lower half of the split bow, whilst both pieces are included in 
the string, at the end e. 

/, is a small ring which encircles both portions of the how. When the hooks are first put in and only half the 
strength of the bow is required to act upon them, this ring is slipped to the end e. But if the whole strength of 
the how is needed to force the hooks apart and stretch the wound open, the ring is passed towards the end d. 
Thus, by means of the split bow and sliding ring, the strain upon thi^ hooks can be increased or slackened at 
pleasure. 

i, a tube of silver or other metal three or four inches long, made square at the upper, and flattened at the 
lower end A-, to the width of three-tenths of an inch; thirs tube is for the purpose of passing the fibre or hair 
ligature m, forming the loop n. 

g, a narrow curved spoon, the slender handle of which lapors off and has a steel point fitted into it, furnished 
at the extremity witli a very small hook, ft; the inner edge of this hook is sometimes sharpened. 

This table may be about 2^ feet long by 1^ 
feet wide, and 2^" feet high. At two of its cor- 
ners it can have a raised moulding about ^ an 
inch high, extending along the sides six or nine 
inches, for the purpose of placing the instru- 
ments at one corner and at the other some of 
the feathers under a stone, to keep them from 
being blown away. On one side there is a 
slit c passing through the table, about IJ inch 
long by i an inch wide, running diagonally; 
being about three inches from the end and 6^ 
from the side. Through this slit the padded 
band or soft list, d, d, for confining the wings, 
passes below to be attached to the lever c. 
This lever has a 4 or 5 lb. weight hung to it, 
and works on a screw or pin, by which it is 
attached to the leg. When not in use the lever 
rests on a pin or ledge in the other leg. On 
being led down, the attached band clasps the 
wings of the chicken lying on the table, with 
greater or less force as the weight is drawn lo 
or from the end of the lever. The next thing 
to be described is the lever, h, upon the table, 

261 







CAPON. 



CARAWAY. 



the object of which is to hold down the legs as 
these are extended backwards. This lever is 
padded beneath, and is furnished with a hinge 
at i, which admits of being raised at the end k ; 
it projects beyond the edge of the table, and 
has also a 5 lb. weight suspended by the string 
I, which increases or diminishes the pressure 
by being moved to or from the table. Through 
one portion of the hinge an iron screw, »n, 
passes beneath the table where the end is se- 
cured by a nut. This screw or pin allows the 
lever to move sidewise, whilst the hinge ad- 
mits of its being raised or lei down. A range 
of holes, about 3 of an inch wide, are made 
through the table to receive the pin of the 
lever, as this has to be placed nearer to or 
further from the slit c, according to the size of 
the chicken. The first hole is about eleven 
inches from the nearest end; the second, four- 
teen inches; the third, seventeen inches. The 
last is adapted to very large cocks or even 
turkeys. 

In fig 3, the position of the fowl when se- 
cured, lying upon its left side upon the table, 
is represented, d being the wing-band, h the 
lever placed over the legs, and a the place 
where the incision is made. 




The table is a refinement in the art of ca- 
poning which we believe is altogether new, 
notwithstanding the thousands of years which 
have elapsed since the operation has been 
habitually practised. The difficulty of making 
a subject, apparently simple, well understood 
by persons to whom it is entirely new, is, we 
think, a sufficient apology for the length of the 
details given. 

In France and other countries, besides fur- 
nishing a luxurious food, capons are made 
useful in taking care of broods of young 
chickens, ducklings, turkeys, and pheasants, 
which they are said to do much better than 
hens, owing to their larger size and thicker 
coats of feathers. The moment the chickens 
are hatched they are taken from the hens and 
given to a capon, who rears them with all the 
care of a parent, often having a small bell 
attached to his neck, the tinkling of which 
serves the purpose of keeping the brood about 
him, similar to the clucking and maternal 
sounds of the mother. Should he show a dis- 
position to treat the young chickens roughly 
263 



at first, he may be confined alone for a day or 
two in a dark place, after which if they be put 
with him he will be pleased with their com- 
pany and continue to take care of them. The 
hen is cooped, and well fed until she regains 
the flesh and strength lost whilst setting, and 
then turned out to lay again. In this way the 
poulterer is enabled to raise a large number 
of chickens from a few hens. The capon 
generally brings double or treble the price of 
common poultry. 

CAPILLARY VESSELS OF VEGETA- 
BLES. The fine hair-like vessels that assist 
in the absorption and circulation of the juices 
of plants. 

CAPSICUM. (Supposed either from Ka.9rre», 
mordeo, to bite ; or from capsa, a chest.) Cap- 
sicum amniuni. Of this there are five varieties, 
1. Long-podded. 2. Heart-shaped. 3. Short- 
podded. 4. Angular-podded, 5. Round short- 
podded. Of the Capsicum cerasiforme there are 
three varieties. 1. Cherry-shaped. 2. Bell- 
shaped, or Ox-heart. 3. YelloM'-podded. The 
soil best suited for them is a rich, moist, 
mouldy loam, rather inclining to lightness than 
tenacity. When completely ripe, the pods are 
cut and hung up in the sun, or in a warm room, 
until completely dry, in which slate they are 
kept until the seed is wanted for sowing. (G. 
IF. Johvson's Kitchen Garden.) 

The capsicum loses some of its aromatic 
odour by drying, its taste, both recent and dry, 
is hot and acrid, depending on a fixed acrid oil, 
not volatile and distinct from that oil which 
gives the odour to the fresh pod. Capsicum is 
used as a condiment in cookery; it is more 
excitant than pepper ; but its effects are less 
permanent. 

CARAWAY, or CARRAWAY (Fr. and lu 
carvi; Lat. caruni carui). A naturalized bien- 
nial plant, with a taper root like a parsnip, 
but much smaller ; stem about two feet high, 
growing wild in meadows and pastures. This 
plant is extensively cultivated in several parts 
of Essex and some other counties, for the sake 
of its seeds, which are in daily use as a grate- 
ful and wholesome aromatic, and are largely 
consumed in confectionaiy and medicinal pre- 
parations ; but its root was formerly much 
esteemed when boiled, and it is not easy to 
account for its tailing into disuse. The seeds, 
which are grayish-brown, and ribbed, are too 
well known to need description. They should 
be chosen large, new, of a good colour, not 
dusty, and of a strong agreeable smell. Cara- 
way is sometimes sowed with coriander and 
teasel, and harvested the second year. The 
produce of this seed has often been very great; 
even as much as 20 cwt. per acre, which al- 
ways finds a market in London. On account 
of their aromatic smell and warm pungent 
taste, the seeds of caraway may be classed 
among the first stomachics and carminatives 
of our climate. To persons aflflicted with fla- 
tulency, and liable to colic, if administered in 
proper quantities, they generally aflbrd con- 
siderable relief. Their virtue depends on a 
volatile oil, which is procured in a separate 
state, by distillation with water. The water 
retains some of the oil, and is used as a vehi- 
cle for other medicines. 



CARBON. 



CARBONIC ACID. 



Caraway delights in a deep, rich, tvcist 
loam. The ground for this, as well as other 
deep-rooting plants, is advantageously dug 
two spades deep. An open situation is most 
suitable to it; but in extensive orchards, 
where the trees are far apart, it may be grown 
with success. It is propagated by seed, which 
may be sown in March or April, either broad- 
cast and raked in, or in drills six inches apart ; 
in either case being performed thin, and buried 
about half an inch deep. When well distin- 
guishable, the plants must be thinned to six 
inches apart, and carefully hoed. The hoeing 
must be several times repeated in the early 
stages of their growth, to extirpate the weeds, 
which at a later period cannot be conveniently 
got at. The plants flower in June, and ripen 
their seed at the close of summer. (G. W. 
Johnson's Kitch. Gard. ; English Flora, vol. ii. 
p. 86 ; M'CullocKs Cam. Diet. ; Willich's Dam. 
Encyc. ; Brande's Diet. Science.) 

CARBON (Fr. car bone ; Lat. carbo). A 
hitherto undecompounded combustible body, 
which enters into the composition, in some 
form or other, of all vegetable substances. In 
a perfectly pure state, carbon constitutes dia- 
mond. Carbonaceous substances are usually 
more or less compounded, containing hydrogen, 
or sometimes oxygen, and azote, along with 
earthy and metallic matters. Carbon, tolerably 
pure, abounds in the mineral kingdom ; and, 
in a combined slate, it forms a main consti- 
tuent of vegetable and animal bodies. Anthra- 
cite is a mineral charcoal, differing from 
common pit-coal in containing no bitumen, 
and therefore burning without flame or smoke. 
Coke is the carbonaceous mass which remains 
after pit-coal has been exposed to ignition for 
some time out of contact of air; its volatile 
parts having been dissipated by the heat. It 
is a spongy substance, of an iron-black colour, 
a somewhat metallic lustre, and does not easily 
burn unless several pieces are kindled toge- 
ther. With a good draught, however, it pro- 
duces a most intense heat. It is readily 
obtained in the form of charcoal by heating 
wood (and any kind of wood will answer the 
purpose) red-hot, covered with sand, in a cru- 
cible. The covering with sand is added to 
prevent the wood undergoing combustion by 
coming in contact with the atmosphere. In 
this state when reduced to pcnvder, charcoal 
constitutes an excellent manure for most soils, 
either when applied by itself, or mixed with 
decomposing animal and vegetable substances. 
In such cases it absorbs a considerable volume 
of the gases which such substances constantly 
emit. Thus, reckoning the bulk of the char- 
coal to be 1, it absorbs of 

Volumet. 

Ammoniacal gas ...... 90 

Sulphuretted hydrogen - - - - 55 

Carbonic acid gas . . - . . 35 

When burnt, charcoal unites with the oxygen 
of the atmosphere, and forms, in the state of 
carbonic acid gas, a very important portion 
of the gases required by all plants for their 
healthy vegetation. (See Gases, theih Use 
TO Vegetation.) Carbon constitutes about 
42-47 per cent, in sugar, 41-906 per cent, in 
gum, 43-55 per cent, in wheat starch, 52-58 per 
cent, in the wood of the oak, and 51-45 in that 



of the beech ; 46-83 in pure acetic acid or vine- 
gar, 36-167 in tartaric acid, and 41-369 in the 
citric. In the state of carbonic acid gas, and 
in various organic matters, it is found in all 
cultivated soils, in all waters, and in the atmo- 
sphere ; and in each situation, as will be more 
particularly described under the head Gases, 
it is absorbed by and becomes the food of 
plants. 

CARBONATES. A peculiar class of salts 
formed by the combination of carbonic acid 
gas with various earths, alkalies, and metallic 
oxides. The composition of those most com- 
monly met with by the farmer is as follows : — 

Acid. Base. 
Carbonate of lime, chalk, lime- 
stone, &.c. . - - - 66-2 33-8 
Carbonate ef magnesia - - 68*5 SViS 
Bicarbonate of potash - - - 46-19 53'8I 
Carbonate of soda - - - 4014 5986 
Carbonate of ammonia - - 5641 4359 

CARBONIC ACID GAS. A peculiar gas, 
the same as that emitted by fermenting beer, 
or other liquors ; it is inhaled by, and its car- 
bon is the food of plants. It is composed of 
carbon 72-73, oxygen 27-27. See Gases, tueik 
Use to Vegetation, 

It is important to know, that carbonic acid 
gas is poisonous, if breathed. If, for example, 
a person descends into a tun where fermented 
liquor occupies the bottom, and an atmosphere 
of carbonic acid gas floating over it; as soon 
as his mouth is immersed in it, he is suffo- 
cated in the same manner as if his mouth and 
nostrils were closed. He dies from the defect 
of atmospheric air in the lungs, and the circu- 
lation of black blood through the brain. This 
is the manner also in which death occurs 
when persons descend into old wells and cel- 
lars that have been long closed. When the 
gas is diluted with air, as for instance, when a 
person dies by burning charcoal in a chafing- 
dish in a bed-room, he is not suffocated ; but 
he dies from the sedative influence of the di- 
luted carbonic acid, which is breathed, on the 
nervous system. When such accidents hap- 
pen, persons should not venture to bring out 
the bodies, until a quantity of pure lime mixed 
with water to the thickness of milk, has been 
thrown into the tun, well, or cellar; or in the 
event of death from burning charcoal, until a 
current of air has been sent through the apart- 
ment. The bodies should be laid on their 
backs, with the heads moderately elevated; 
cold water dashed on the chest, and frictions 
employed over the whole body ; and the aid of 
a medical practitioner quickly procured. 

This is the heaviest of all gases, its 
weight, compared with the common air of 
the atmosphere, being about one-half greater. 
This is the reason why it always subside:, 
to the bottom of apartments, wells, sinks, &c., 
where it may have been formed, or gained 
access. Its weight even admits of its being 
poured from one vessel to another. Hence 
it was at first called aerial acid. From its 
existing copiously, in a solid state, in lime- 
stones and the mild alkalis, it was styled 
fixed air by its proper discoverer. Dr. Black. 
About one volume of it exists in one thou 
sand volumes of common atmospheric air, 
which rnay be made manifest by the crust „' 

263 



CARBONIC ACID. 



CARDOON. 



carbonate it occasions upon the surface of 
lime-water. Carbonic acid gas is found accu- 
mulated in many caverns of volcanic districts, 
and particularly in the grotto del cani at Pau- 
silippo, near Puzzuoli ; being disengaged in 
such circumstances by the action of subterra- 
nean fire, and, possibly, of certain acids, upon 
the limestone strata. It often issues from 
fountains in copious currents, as at Franzens- 
brunn, near Eger, in Polterbrunnen ; near Trier ; 
and Byrreshorn. This acid gas occurs also 
frequently in mines and wells, being called 
choke damp, from its suffocating quality. Its 
presence may, at all times, be detected, by 
letting down a lighted candle, suspended from 
a string, into the places suspected of contain- 
ing this mephitic air. It exists, in consider- 
able quantities, in the water of every pump- 
well, and gives it a fresh and pleasant taste. 
Water, exposed some time to the air, loses 
these aerial particles, and becomes vapid. 
Many springs are highly impregnated with 
carbonic acid gas, and form a sparkling beve- 
rage ; such as the Selterswasscr, from Selters, 
upon the Ijahn, in the grand duchy of Nassau ; 
of which no less than two millions and a half 
of bottles are sold every year. The amount 
in Saratoga water is very great. A prodigious 
quantity of a similar water is also artificially 
prepared under the name of aerated or soda 
water. 

Carbonic acid occurs in nature, combined 
with many salifiable bases; as in the carbo- 
nates of soda, baryta, strontia, magnesia; the 
oxides of iron, manganese, zinc, copper, lead, 
&c. From these substances it may be sepa- 
rated, generally speaking, by strong ignition, 
or more readily, by the superior affinity of mu- 
riatic, sulphuric, or nitric acid, for the earth 
or metallic oxyde. It is formed whenever ve- 
getable or animal substances are burned with 
free access of air, from the union of their car- 
bonaceous principle with atmospheric oxygen. 
It is also formed in all cases of the spontane- 
ous decomposition of organic substances, par- 
ticularly in the process of fermentation ; and 
constitutes the pungent, noxious, heavy gas 
thrown off, in vast volumes, from beer vats. 
See Distillation and Fkiimkntation. Car- 
bonic acid is also generated in the breathing 
of animals; from 4 to 5 per cent., in volume, 
of the inhaled oxygen being converted, at each 
expiration, into this gas, which contaminates 
the air of crowded apartments, and renders 
ventilation essential to health, and even to life ; 
witness the horrible catastrophe of the Black- 
hole at Calcutta. 

Carbonic acid gas is destitute of colour, has 
a sourish, suffocating smell, an acidulous pun- 
gent taste, imparts to moist, but not dry, litmus 
paper, a transient reddish tint, and weighs per 
100 cubic inches, 46^ grains ; and per cubic 
foot, 803^ grains ; a little more than 3J oz., 
avoirdupois. A cubic foot of air weighs 
about two-thirds of that quantity, or 527 grains. 
It may be condensed into the liquid state by a 
pressure of 40 atmospheres, and this liquid 
may be then solidified by its own sudden 
!:pontaneous evaporation. If the air contain 
more than 15 per cent, in bulk of this gas, it 
lu-comes unfit for respiration and combustion, 
264 



animal life and candles being speedily extin- 
guished by it. 

Before a person ventures into a deep well, 
or vault containing fermenting materials, he 
should introduce a lighted candle into the 
space, and observe how it burns. Carbonic 
acid being so much denser than common air, 
may be drawn out of cellars or fermenting 
tubs, by a pump furnished with a leather hose, 
which reaches to the bottom. Quicklime, 
mixed with water, may be used also to purify 
the air of a sunk apartment, by its affinity for, 
or power of, absorbing this aerial acid. {Ure's 
Dill, of Arts, (fc.) 

CARBURETTED HYDROGEN. A com- 
pound of carbon and hydrogen gases, of which 
there are several species ; such as oil gas, coal 
gas, olcfanl gas, oil of lemons, otto of roses, oil or 
spirits of turpentine, petroleum, naphtha, naphtha- 
line, oil of wine, caoiUchounne, and caoutchouc or 
Indian rnhhcr. {lire's Diet, of Arts, §r.) 

CARDINAL, SCARLET (Lobelia curdinalis). 
An herbaceous hardy plant, a native of Virgi- 
nia. It blows its scarlet flowers in July, and 
again in October. It loves bog earth and 
shade, and the root should be parted every 
spring. Ripen the flower intended for seed 
under a glass hung over it, for it rarely ripens 
in this climate without assistance. This 
superb wild flower is worth a place in every 
garden. It continues blooming a long time. 
Five or six species are known in the United 
States. 

CARDOON, or CHARDON (Span, cardo, 
an artichoke ; Lat. Cynara cardu7tculus). A 
kind of Avild artichoke, which is principally 
confined to garden culture, as it has net yet 
been employed as an article of food for any 
sort of live stock. 

The stalks of the inner leaves, when ren- 
dered tender by blanching, are used in stews, 
soups, and salads. A light rich soil is most 
suitable to this vegetable, dug deep and well 
pulverized. The situation must be open, and 
free from trees, for, like the artichoke, it is im- 
patient of confinement. It is propagated by 
seed, which may be sown at the close of 
March ; but, for the main crop, not until the 
early part of April ; those plants raised from 
earlier sowings being apt to run at ihe close 
of autumn: for a late crop, a soAving may be 
performed in June. The best practice is to 
sow in patches of three or four rows, four feet 
apart each way, to be thinned finally to one in 
each place, the Aveakest being removed. The 
seedlings are nearly a month in appearing. 
If, however, they are raised in a seed-bed, they 
will be ready for transplanting in about eight 
or ten weeks from the time of sowing, and 
must be set at similar distances as are speci- 
fied above. The plants of the first sewing are 
generally three Aveeks before they r.dke their 
appearance ; those from the later ones, about 
two. If, after a lapse of these times, they do 
not appear, it should be ascertained if the seed 
is decayed, and in that case the sowing may 
be rencAved. The seed must be soAvn rather 
thin, and covered with about half an inch 
depth of mould. When about a month old, 
the seedlings, if too crowded, must be thinned 
to four inches apart ; and those removed may 



CAREX. 



CARRIAGE, 



be placed out at a similar distance, if there is 
any deficiency of plants. When of the age 
sufficient for their removal, they must be taken 
up carefully, and the long straggling leaves 
removed. The bed for their reception must 
be dug well and laid out in trenches as for 
celery, or a hollow sunk for each plant ; but 
as they are liable to suffer from excessive wet, 
the best mode is to plant on the surface, and 
form the necessary earthing in the form of a 
tumulus. Water must be applied abundantly 
at the time of planting as well as subsequently, 
until they are established; and also in August, 
if dry weather occurs, regularly every other 
night, as this is found to prevent their running 
to seed. The only other necessary point to be 
attended to is, that they may be kept free from 
weeds during every stage of their growth. 
When advanced to about eighteen inches in 
height, which, according to the time of sow- 
ing, will be in August, and thence to October, 
the leaves must be closed together by encir- 
cling them with a hay-band, and earth placed 
round each plant, a dry day being selected for 
performing it. As they continue to grow, 
fresh bands and earth must be constantly ap- 
plied, until they are blanched to the height of 
two feet, or about two-thirds of their stems. 
They will be fit for use in eight or ten weeks 
after the earthing first commences. Care must 
be had in earthing them up, to prevent the 
earth falling in between the leaves, which is 
liable to induce decay. The surface of the 
soil should likewise be beaten smooth, to 
throw off the rain. In severe weather their 
tops should be covered with litter, it being re- 
moved as invariably in mild weather : by this 
treatment, they may be preserved in a service- 
able state throughout^ the winter. For the pro- 
duction of seed, which in England seldom 
conies to maturity except in dry seasons, a few 
plants should be set in a sheltered situation, 
of the April sowing; of course not earthed up, 
but allowed the shelter of mats or litter in 
frosty weather. In the spring, the ground may 
be dug round them to destroy weeds, as well 
as to encourage the growth of the roots. The 
flowers make their appearance about the be- 
ginning of July, and the seed is ripe in Sep- 
tember. (G. W. Johnson^s Kitchen Garden.') 

CAREX. A vast genus of grasses com- 
prehending more than two hundred species, 
nearly all of which are indigenous to America. 
It includes sedges, and a vast variety of grasses 
found in salt-water marshes. See Skdge. 

CARLICK. A provincial term applied in 
some places to charlock. 

CARNATION, or CLOVE PINK (Lat. 
carries: Dianthus caryophylhs), A beautiful and 
odoriferous perennial, blowing in July and Au- 
gust, and cultivated in beds or in pots. The 
wild D. caryophyllus is the origin of our fine 
garden carnations. (Smitk's Eng. Flor. vol. ii. 
p. 287.) There are three distinct varieties ; 
the flake, the bizarre, and the picotee. The 
flake has two colours only, with large stripes ; 
the bizarre is variegated with irregular stripes 
and spots, of not less than three colours ; and 
the picotee has a white grouid, spotted with 
every variety of scarlet, red, purple, and pink. 
Thry love a light, rich earth nixed with sea- 
34 



sand, and never bloom very handsomely with- 
out a proportion of the latter. Carnations are 
propagated by layers, pipings, and from seed, 
which produce new sorts. There is an im- 
mense collection of fine prize carnations, well 
known to the public, too lengthy to insert here ; 
but they are easily procured at a reasonatle 
price. If you raise flowers from seed, sow it 
in pots of light earth in April ; cover the seed 
very lightly with mould filtered through the 
fingers ; shade the seedlings from the sun, and 
prick them out when each seedling has six 
leaves. Pot or plant for blowing in autumn. 
They will not blow well if moved in the spring. 
Carnations must be sheltered from excessive 
rains and hard frosts, and they should be placed 
in warm sunny borders. 

CARNATION GRASS. In agriculture, a 
term applied to some grasses, as the hair grass 
(Jlira), probably from their having this kind 
of colour in their flowers. Any coarse species 
of carex is so named in the north of England 
and Scotland. 

Cx\ROB (Ceratoria carouhier). A tree cul- 
tivated extensively in the south of Europe, the 
pods produced by which contain a sweet, eat- 
able faecula. The tree attains a medium size, 
and the flowers, which are of a deep purple 
colour, are disposed in clusters. The fruit- 
pods are a foot long, contain a reddish pulp, 
of an agreeable sweet taste when dry; and are 
supposed to be "the husks (^ts^ar/st) that the 
swine did eat," (Luke xv. 16). They are used 
as food for man and horse. The carob tree is 
raised from seeds. 

CARPET {J)nXc\\,karpet; liaX.carpctta). A 
covering for floors, &c., manufactured of wool, 
or other materials, worked with the needle or 
by the loom. Carpets are generally composed 
of linen and worsted, but the Kidderminster or 
Scotch carpets are entirely fabricated of wool. 
Persian and Turkish carpets are the most es- 
teemed. In England carpets are principally 
manufactured at Kidderminster, Wilton, Ciren- 
cester, Worcester, Axminster, &c.; and in 
Scotland at Kilmarnock. Those made at Ax- 
minster are believed to be very little, if any 
thing, inferior to those of Persia and Turkey. 
{M'Ciilloclis Com. Did.: Willich's Dom. Encyc; 
Brandc's Dirt, of Science.) 

CARRIAGE" (Fr. cariage). A general name 
applied to carts, wagons, and other vehicles, 
employed in conveying passengers, goods, 
merchandise, &c., from one place to another, 
and which are usually constructed with two or 
four wheels. Wheel-carriages first came into 
use about 1381; they were called ivhirlicotes, 
and were little better than litters or cots (cotes) 
placed upon wheels. 

Carriage, in irrigation, is a conduit made of 
timber or brick : if the latter, an arch is turned 
over the stream that runs under it, and the 
sides bricked up ; if the former, which it com- 
monly is, it is constructed with a bottom and 
two sides, as wide and as high as the main it 
lies in. It must be made very strong, close, 
and well-jointed. Its use is to convey the 
water in one main over another which runs at 
right angles with it ; its depth and breadth are 
of the same dimensions with the main it be- 
longs to; its length is in proportion to the 
Z 265 



CARRIAGE DRAIN. 



CARROT. 



breadth of the main it crosses. It is the most 
expensive conveyance belonging to the irrigat- 
ing of land. 

CARRIAGE DRAIN. See Drains. 

CARROT (Fr. carote). A well-known an- 
nual or biennial root, common alike to the 
field and the garden. The wild carrot, from 
whence all those now commonly cultivated 
came, is a native of England, found chiefly on 
chalky hills. The kinds now preferred for 
field culture are the long red, the Altringham, 
and the orange. It is a crop which, for the 
heavier description of soils, is becoming more 
and more cultivated in this country; for its 
produce is not only large, but it can be grown 
on lands not suited to turnip culture ; for 
although the soils best adapted to it are deep 
sandy loams, yet it can be grown successfully 
on sands and peats. The carrot delights, how- 
ever, in a deep soil, and thus land intended for 
it can hardly be ploughed too deep. It is usual 
to trench plough or subsoil for it ; and in Hol- 
land they are even at the pains to deepen with 
the spade the furrows made by the plough. It 
may be sown, like the turnip, on ridges, by the 
drill or otherwise, or broadcast. The seed 
should be of the previous season's growth ; if 
mixed a fortnight before sowing with two 
bushels of sand or mould, kept wetted and 
turned over once or twice, they will grow all 
the better (Com. to Board of ^gr. vol. vii. p. 70 — 
299) ; and it keeps the seed from clinging to- 
gether. (Jour, of Roy, Agr. Sac. of Eng. p. 40.) 
The quantity proper to be sown per acre (April 
is the best period) is two pounds by the drill, 
and about five when sown broadcast. The 
plants should be hoed out like turnips, and dug 
up in October for storing ; but they may be 
left in the ground if preferred, and dug up as 
they are wanted. They may be stored either 
in a building covered with straw or haulm, or 
in pits piled in heaps four feet deep. (Brit. 
Husb. vol. ii. p. 287.) The common produce is 
from 280 to 450 bushels per acre— 9000 lbs. 
(Com. Board of Jigr. vol. vi. p. 141.) It is ad- 
mirable food for all kinds of stock. (Lou: Jlgr. 
p. 326.) Either the tops mown otf green, which 
is said not to injure the roots (Com. Board of 
jlgr. vol. V. p. 211), or the roots, for horses, 
half a bushel a da)^, sliced in chaff, is admira- 
ble food. (Youatt on the Horse, p. 358, 392, 213 ; 
Brit. Husb. vol. i. p. 125.) 1000 parts of the 
carrot contain 98 of nutritive matter. (Davifs 
Led.) It should be well manured with either 
farm-yard dung (20 cubic yards per acre) ; or 
pigeons' dung is excellent (Quar. Jour, of Jlgr. 
vol. V. p. 144) ; or a mixture of salt, 6^ bushels, 
and soot 6^, trenched in (Sinclair; Johnson on 
Salt, 31, 146; Rev.E. Cartwright, Com. Board of 
Agr. vol. iv. p. 376) ; or sea-weed trenched in 
fresh as collected from the shore (Quar. Jour, 
of Agr. vol. vii. p. 268) ; or turf trenched in 
deep (Com. Board of Agr. vol. iv. p. 191); or 
stieet sweepings, mixed with one-third of pigs' 
dung and 20 hogshead of liquid manure. (Flem. 
Husb. 40.) The white or Belgian carrot has 
been recently tried as a field crop with consi- 
derable success ; Sir C. Burrell having grown 
-f this variety in 1840, "on a very indifferent 
field," 1000 bushels per acre (Brit. Farm. Mag. 
vol. iv. p. 464) ; Lord Ducie, 26 tons 3 cwt. ; 
266 



and from 20 to 32 tons by Mr. Harris ; and in 
Jersey 38 tons per acre. It is described in the 
Report of the Yoxford Farmers' Club as well 
adapted for strong or mixed soil lands, as keep- 
ing well, and as excellent food for horses. 
(Journ. of Royal Agr. Soc. vol. ii. p. 42.) 

CARROT, the GARDEN (Davcus carota; 
as some imagine from S^ue, though its taste is 
far from being pungent. Perhaps from inav^, 
on account of the thickness ci its root). There 
are a considerable number ct varieties of the 
carrot, which are divided by horticulturists 
into two families : those with a regular fusi- 
form root, which are named long carrots; and 
those having one that is nearly cylindrical, 
abruptly terminating, but continuing with a 
long slender tap-root, which are denominated 
horn carrots. The first are employed for the 
main crops ; the second, on account of their 
superior delicate flavour, and are advantage- 
ously grown for early use. They are likewise 
commonly recommended for shallow soils. 
Horn carrots, — early red horn, common early 
horn, long horn : this last is the best for the 
summer crop. Long carrots, — white, yellow, 
long yellow, long red, Chertsey or Surrey, su- 
perb green-topped or Altringham : the last two 
are the best for main crops. Carrots should 
have a warm, light, sandy, fertile soil, dug full 
two spades deep, as they require to be deeper 
than any other culinary vegetable. With the 
bottom spit it is a good practice to turn in a 
little well-decayed manure ; but no general ap- 
plication of it to the surface should be allowed 
in the year they are sown. A spot should be 
allotted them which has been made rich for 
the growth of crops in the previous year, or 
else purposely prepared bv manuring and 
trenching in the preceding autumn. The fresh 
application of manure is liable to cause their 
growing forked, and to expend themselves in 
fibres, as well as to be worm-eaten. If, how- 
ever, the want of manure must be obviated at 
the time of sowing, it should be used in a 
highly putrescent state, ar.d but in small quan- 
tities, finely divided and well mixed with the 
soil. If the soil is at all binding, it should be 
well pulverized by digging very small pits at a 
time, &c. Mr. Smith of Keith Hall, N. B., re- 
commends pigeons' durg as the best manure 
for this crop : it not only prevents the maggot, 
but causes them to grow finer. He applies it 
in the same proportion as is usually done of 
stable manure. (Mem. Caled. Hort. Soc. vol. i. p. 
129.) Carrots are jropagated by seed. The 
first sowing for the production of plants to 
draw whilst young should take place in a mo- 
derate hotbed during January, and in a warm 
border at the conclusion of February or early 
in March. At the close of the last month, or 
more preferably in the early part of April, the 
main crop must b3 inserted ; though, to avoid 
the maggot, it is even recommended not to do 
so until its close. In May and July the sowing 
may be repeated for production in autumn ; 
and lastly, in August, to stand through the 
winter, and produce in early spring. For sow- 
ing, a calm day should be taken advantage of; 
and, previous to commencing, the seeds should 
be separated by rubbing them between the 
hands, with tke admixture of a little sand; 



CARROT. 



CARROT. 



otherwise, by reason of their adhering by the 
nairs that surround their edges, they are clot- 
ted together, and cannot be sown regular. The 
^urface of the bed should likewise be laid 
smooth ; otherwise, in raking it, the seed will 
l)e drawn together in similar heaps. To avoid 
this, before raking, it may be gently trod in. 
The seed should be sown thin, and the beds 
not more than four feet wide, for the conve- 
nience of after-cultivation. The larger weeds 
must be continually removed by hand; and 
when the plants are seven or eight weeks old, 
or when they have got four leaves two or three 
inches long, they should be thinned ; those in- 
tended for drawing young to four or five inches 
apart, and those to attain their full growth to 
eight or ten ; at the same time, the ground must 
be smali-hoed, which operation should be re- 
gularly performed every three or four weeks, 
until the growth of the plants becomes an ef- 
fectual hinderance to the growth of the weeds. 
The crop to stand through the winter should, 
in frosty weather, be sheltered with a covering 
of litter, as, if frost occurs with much severity, 
it often destroys them. The hotbed for the first 
sowing of the year must be moderate, and 
earthed about sixteen inches deep ; two or 
three linings of hot dung, as the heat decreases, 
will be sutficient to bring them to a state fit for 
use. These are the first in production, but are 
closely followed by those that have withstood 
the winter. The temperature must never ex- 
ceed 70°, or fall lower than 65° : if it rises 
higher, it is a certain cause of weakness ; if 
lower, it checks the advance of the root. They 
need not be thinned to more than three inches 
apart. 

At the close of October, or early in Novem- 
ber, as soon as the leaves change colour, the 
main crop may be dug up, and laid in alternate 
layers, with sand, in a dry outhouse ; previous 
to doing which, the tops, and any adhering 
earth, must be removed. A dry day should 
always be chosen for taking them up. 

For the production of seed, it is by much the 
best practice to leave some where raised. If, 
however, this is impracticable, some of the 
finest and most perfect roots should be select- 
ed, and their tops not cut so close as those for 
storing ; these likewise must be placed in sand 
until February or March, though some gar- 
deners recommended October or November, 
then to be planted out two feet asunder in a 
stiff" loamy soil. Those left where grown, or 
those planted at the close of autumn, must, 
during frosts, have the protection of litter ; it 
being invariably removed, however, during 
mild weather. As the seed ripens in August, 
which is known by its turning brown, about 
the end of August each umbel should be cut; 
for if it is waited for until the whole plant de- 
cays, much of the seed is often lost during 
stormy weather. It must be thoroughly dried 
by exposure to the sun and air, before it is 
rubbed out for storing. For sowing, the seed 



should always be of the previous year's growth; | the acre 



Carrots, are much cultivated in many parts 
of the United States, where many farmers pre- 
fer them over every other vegetable for fatten- 
ing swine, cattle, and even as feed for horses. 
To fatten swine they should be given boiled, to 
store-hogs, raw. 

The following remarks upon the culture ana 
use of carrots in New England, are extracted 
from Mr. Colman's Second Report on the Agri- 
culture of Massachusetts. 

" Jno. Merrill, of South Lee, has been a very 
successful cultivator of carrots. He states the 
yield on two acres at 600 bushels to the acre; 
and the cost of cultivation, exclusive of manure 
and rent of land, at twenty-five dollars per 
acre ; or a little more than four cents per 
bushel. For feeding horses, he says, he should 
prefer one hundred bushels of carrots and one 
hundred bushels of oats to two hundred bushels 
of oats. He applied them in a raw state to the 
feeding of his team horses, and horses in pre- 
paration for market; and they were kept by 
them in high health and spirits. Oats followed 
his carrot crop on the same ground with great 
success. The experience of J. C. Curwen, 
Eng., in the use of carrots for horses, corres- 
ponds with that of Mr. Mtrnll. The authority 
of Curwen is unquestionable ; and he was in 
the habit of employing constantly as many as 
eighty horses on his farm and in his extensive 
coal mines. 

" ' I cannot omit,' he says, ' stating the great 
profit of carrots. I have found by the experi- 
ence of the last two years, that where eight 
pounds of oat-feeding was allowed to draft 
horses, four pounds might be taken away and 
supplied by an equal weight of carrots ; and 
the health, spirit, and ability of the horses to do 
their work be perfectly as good as with the 
whole quantity of oats. With the drill hus- 
bandry and proper attention, very good crops 
of carrots may be obtained upon soils not 
generally supposed suitable to their growth.' 

"He adds in another place. 'The profits 
and advantages of carrots are in my opinion 
greater than any other crop. This admirable 
root has, upon repeated and very extensive 
trials for the last three years, been found to 
answer most perfectly as a part substitute for 
oats. Where ten pounds of oats are given per 
day, four pounds may be taken away; and 
their place supplied by five pounds of carrots. 
This has been practised in the feeding of eighty 
horses for the last three years, with the most 
complete success, and the health and condition 
of the horses allowed to be improved by the 
exchange. An acre of carrots supplies a quan 
tity of food for working horses equal to sixteen 
or twenty acres of oats.' 

" My own experience of the value of carrots, 
which has not been small, fully confirms these 
statements. I have obtained at the rate of 
more than a thousand bushels to the acre oJi 
three quarters of an acre ; but on several acres 
ray crop has usually averaged 600 bushels to 



if it is more than two years old, it will not ve- 
getate at all. (G. W. Johnson's Kitchen Garden.) 
The boiled carrot forms a good poultice in foul 
and cancerous ulcers. 



Smith of Middlefield, Hampshire coun- 
ty, from three-fourths of an acre obtained 900 
bushels. 

"Charles Knowlton of Ashfield, Frankliu 

26" 



CARROT. 



CART 



CtDunty, this year obtained 90 bushels on twelve 
rods of ground. This was at the rate of 1200 
bushels to the acre. 

"D. Moore, of Concord, Middlesex county, 
from six rods of land, obtained this year 56 
bushels ; or at the rate of 1493 bushels to the 
acre. 

"According to Josiah Quincy's experience in 
Quincy, Plymouth county, charging labour at 
one dollar per day his carrots cost him eleven 
cents per bushel. David and Stephen Little, 
in Newbury, Essex county, in 1813, obtained, 
961 bushels to the acre, at an expense of 
$79.50 every expense included, excepting rent 
of land. This was at a rate less than nine 
cents to a bushel." 

Mr. Colman subjoins, in an Appendix, an 
account of an experiment made in feeding 
swine, illustrating the value of this vegetable, 
upon the authority of Arthur Young. 

"The great objection to the cultivation of 
carrots lies in the difficulty of keeping them 
while growing free from weeds. If sown 
without any preparation, the seed is a long 
time in germinating; and a plentiful crop of 
weeds is liable to get possession of the land 
before the carrots make their appearance. 
There is another difficulty. The carrot seed 
from its minuteness is liable to be sown too 
thickly. To obviate in a degree these objec- 
tions, let the ground be ploughed deeply, well 
manured, and put in fine tilth ; and let the first 
and perhaps the second crop of weeds be 
ploughed in. After this let the land be thrown 
into ridges two feet apart, and the seed sown 
on top of the ridges either in a single line, or 
the ridges be made so wide as to receive two 
rows of carrots, eight inches or one foot apart. 
In the mean time the seed should be freely 
mixed with fine sand ; and the sand kept so 
moist that the seed shall germinate. As soon 
as it is sprouted it should be sown. This may 
be so arranged that the sowing shall take place 
about the first of June. They will then have 
the start of the weeds. The mixture with sand 
will prevent their being sown too thickly. After 
the first thinning and weeding is over, if done 
with care, the battle may be considered as won. 
Afterwards let them be cultivated with a 
plough or cultivator and kept clean. When 
the time of digging arrives, the work will be 
greatly facilitated by passing a plough directly 
along the side of the carrots ; and they are 
easily thrown out by the hand." 

CARROT, WILD (Daucm carola, PI. 10, o). 
This common plant is abundant in pastures, 
and about hedges, in a gravelly soil. It is 
a biennial plant, flowering in June and July. 
Its root is small, slender, aromatic, and sweet- 
ish. It grows two feet high, branched, erect, 
leafy ; the stalks are firm and striated ; the 
leaves are divided into fine and numerous par- 
titions, of a pale-green colour, being also hairy. 
The flowers are in large umbels, with large, 
pinnatifid involucres, and undivided involu- 
cels, small and white, except the central flower, 
which is red ; and they are succeeded by rough 
seeds. This is one of those plants in which 
we are able to perceive design. The seeds 
-equire to be protected, to produce which all 
■.h'l flower-stalks become incurvated, making 
268 



the umbel hollow, or giving it the aspect of a 
cup or nest. The seed is medicinally used ; it 
is a powerful diuretic. An infusion of the 
seeds in white wine is very restorative in hys- 
terical disorders. 

The wild carrot is found in pastures, road- 
sides, &c. in Pennsylvania and the Middle 
States. Although much esteemed in Europe 
as a food for milch-cows, it is regarded as ra- 
ther a nuisance by the farmers in the United 
States, and requires great exertion to destroy 
and keep under when once introduced into 
fields. {Flor. Cest.) 

CARRUCAGE (from caruca, an old name 
for the plough). In husbandry, denotes the 
ploughing of ground, either ordinary, as for 
grain, hemp, flax ; or, extraordinary, as for 
woad, dyer's weed, rapeseed, &c. 

CARRUSATE. A term that anciently de- 
noted the quantity of arable land capable of 
being tilled in one year with one plough. 

CARRYING. A term used in horsemanship 
A horse is said to carry low, when, having na- 
turally an ill-shaped neck, he lowers his head 
too much. This fault may be remedied by a 
proper bridle. A horse is said to carry well, 
when his neck is raised or arched, and he holds 
his head high and firm, without constraint. 
Carrying in the mind, is applied to horses which 
frequently toss their noses as high as their 
ears, and do not carry their heads hand- 
somely. 

CARSE. A provincial term applied to such 
lands as lie in the hollows near large rivers or 
estuaries of the sea, and have a deep rich soiL 
The carse of Gowrie, in Scotland, yields the 
heaviest crops of grain north of the Tweed. 
Such lands are either of the deep clayey loamy 
kind, or alluvial soils in a state of aration. 

CART. A vehicle constructed with two or 
more \vhcels, and drawn by one or more horses. 
Half a century since, Lord Robert Seymour 
advocated the cause of the single-horse cart: 
he observed, that the advantages of single-horse 
carts are universally admitted, wherever they 
have been attentively compared with carriages 
of any other description. By his own observa- 
tion he was led to think that a horse when he 
acts singly, will do half as much more work 
as when he acts in conjunction with another; 
that is to sa}^ that two horses will, separately, 
do as much work as three conjunctively : this 
arises, he believes, in the first place, from the 
single horse being so near the load he draws ; 
and, in the next place, from the point or line 
of draught being so much below his breast — ■ 
it being usual to make the wheels of single- 
horse carts very low. A horse harnessed sin- 
gly has nothing but his load to contend with; 
whereas, when he draws in conjunction with 
another, he is generally embarrassed by some 
difference of rate, the horse behind or before 
him being quicker or slower than himself; he 
is likewise frequently inconvenienced by the 
greater or lesser height of his neighbour: 
these considerations gave, he conceived, a de- 
cided advantage to the sort of cart he recom- 
mended. If any other is wanted, that of the 
very great ease with which a low cart is filled 
may be added ; as a man may load it with the 
help of a long-handled shovel or fork, by means 



CART. 



CAST. 



of his hands only : whereas, in order to fill a 
higher cart, not only the man's back, but his 
arms and whole person must be exerted. To 
the use of single horses in draught he has 
heard no objection, unless it be the supposed 
necessity of additional drivers created by it: 
the fact, however, is, that it has no such effect; 
for horses once in the habit of going singly, 
will follow each other as uniformly and as 
steadily as they do when harnessed together ; 
and accordingly we see, says he, on the most 
frequented roads in Ireland, men conducting 
three, four, or five single-horse carts each, 
without any inconvenience to the passengers: 
such, likewise, is the case in England, in 
which lime and coal are generally carried. 
(Young's Ann. of jlgr. vol. xxvii. p. 337.) And 
he might likewise have added, the single-horse 
carts in some of the northern counties, where 
one man manages two or three, and sometimes 
more. 

The subject of carts has recently engaged 
the attention of the Royal Agricultural Society 
of England. Mr. Baker of Gloucestershire, 
says, in their Joum. vol. i. p. 429, " My land is 
on a stiff clay ; my carts are on six-inch wheels, 
and made to hold half the quantity that my 
neighbours carry in theirs. My land is hilly ; 
my carts generally go with one horse; but up 
hill, when loaded, another is put on before, 
which comes down the hill with the next re- 
turning cart. Thus, on a level ground, with 
two carts, and two or perhaps with three horses, 
I take out the same quantity of dung that my 
neighbours carry in their carts with never less 
than three horses, and sometimes with four." 
And in the Joum. of the Boy. Jlgr. Soc. of Eng. 
vol. ii. p. 73, is a very good article by Mr. Han- 
nam of Burcott, illustrated by engravings of the 
one-horse cart, and of a new one of his own 
construction. "The counties of Cumberland 
and Westmoreland," he observes, " have uni- 
versally and immemorially used the one-horse- 
cart. They have no other carriage for any 
kind of agricultural produce, and never is the 
addition of another horse on any occasion 
seen." The practice, apparently originating 
in economy, has long since spread into Dum- 
friesshire ; and, according to Mr. Wilkie of 
Uddingston, it is all but universal at the present 
moment throughout the west of Scotland. 
"My dung-carts," he adds, "are taken from the 
improved Cumberland cart, which measures 
60 inches long X 47^ inches wide X 17 inches 
deep = 1 cubic yard = 21 bushels ; and it tills 
with a spring key-stick, which adjusts itself 
as the horse moves forward ; the wheels are 
about 4 feet 6 inches high, and are set so far 
apart as to conveniently span two 27-inch 
ridges ; it weighs 8 cwt." There are a variety 
of carts peculiar to different counties, most of 
which are described, and drawings given, in 
Brit. Husb. vol. i. p. 159 ; from the heavy one- 
horse cart of the vicinity of London, to the 
light simple Irish or Yarmouth car, as well as 
the improved car first introduced into Leices- 
tershire by Bakewell. 

The carts of Pennsylvania are perhaps un- 
surpassed in the United States for neatness 
and strength. Either one, two, or three horses 
tre used, as circumstances may require, and 



broad or narrow wheels, but the former are 
preferable for farmwork. 

CARTER. An inferior sort of farm servant, 
who has the care, of driving and foddering the 
team. He should always be chosen as steady, 
regular, sober, and trustworthy as possible, and 
be perfectly gentle and humane in his disposi- 
tion. It is of great importance to the farmer 
to have a carter with these qualifications ; for 
otherwise his horses may be ill-treated, ne- 
glected, overworked, or overfed, and much 
fodder wasted. {Bril. Husb.vo\. i. p. 170.) Le- 
onard Mascal, nearly two centuries since, told 
the carter of his day to " have patience in mo- 
derate useing of his horses; and at all other 
times he ought to bear a love alwayes to his 
cattel, that his cattel may love him, not fearing 
him too much ; let him never use to beat them 
with the stock of his whip, but whip them with 
the lash, and use them to the sound thereof, 
and yet not often for dulling of them." 

CARTHAMUS, or SAFFLOWER (Charlha- 
mus tinrtorius), an annual plant cultivated in 
Spain, Egypt, and the Levant, for its flower, 
which is used in dyeing silks, &c., and in 
makin? rouge. See Saffiiok. 

CART LODGE. A small outhouse for 
sheltering carts from the weather. Farmers 
should be very careful to place their carts, &c. 
under proper shelter, when out of use, as they 
will last much longer by this means than if 
left exposed in the yard to the effects of the 
weather; for, as they are thus sometimes wet, 
and sometimes dry, they soon rot, and become 
unfit for use. The dust and dirt should also 
be constantly washed off before they are laid 
up. There are some excellent observations on 
the necessity of care in the preservation of 
agricultural implements by Mr. Crosskill cf 
Beverley. (Joum. of Roy. Agr. Sor. vol. ii. p. 
150.) He advises that the implements should 
all be placed under the care of one workman 
on the farm, who should be encouraged to feel 
a pride in showing his master's implements in 
fine order. 

GARY'S CATTLE GAUGE. An instru- 
ment made in the form and on ihe principle of 
a slider rule, for ascertaining the weight of 
live cattle, which is indicated in stones of 8 lbs. 
and 14 lbs. (See Brit. Husb. vol. ii. foot note 
at p. 393.) 

CASINGS. A provincial term, signifying 
dried cow's dung, which is used in several 
parts of England for fuel. 

CASK. A vessel of capacity, for holding 
different sorts of liquids, or other matters. 
See Barrel. 

CASSAVA. See Tapioca. 
CAST. A term applied to a swarm or flight 
of bees (see Bees); and to poultry when they 
lose their feathers or moult. It is also used to 
denote the changing of the hair and hoofs of 
horses. Horses cast or shed their hair at least 
once a year. Every spring they cast the win- 
ter coat, and gain a summer one ; and some- 
times in the end of autumn they put on their 
winter hair, in case they have been ill-fed, 
curried, or clothed, or kept in a cold stable. 
Occasionally they cast their hoofs : when this 
happens, let them be turned out ''nto a pa-"*- 
ture. 

z 2 26« 



CASTING. 



CAT. 



CASTING. The operation of throwing a 
horse down, which should be performed with 
great care on straw. Take a long rope, double 
it, and cast a knot a yard from the bow; put 
the bow about his neck, and the double rope 
betwixt his fore legs, about his hinder pasterns, 
and under his fetlocks : when you have done 
this, slip the ends of the rope underneath the 
bow of his neck, and draw them quick, and 
they will overthrow him ; then make the ends 
fast, and hold down his head. 

CASTING A COLT. A term which implies 
a mare's proving abortive. 

CASTOR OIL. The well known medi- 
cinal oil obtained from the seeds or beans 
of the Palma Christi, a plant indigenous to 
the West Indies. The cultivation of the Pal- 
ma Christi and the manufacture of castor oil 
is extensively carried on in some parts of the 
United States, and continues on the increase. 
A single firm at St. Louis has worked up 18,500 
bushels of beans in four months, producing 
17,750 gallons of oil, and it is stated that 800 
barrels have been sold at $50 the barrel. This 
oil may be prepared for burning, machinery, 
soap, i&c, and is also convertible into stearin. 
It is more soluble in alcohol than lard-oil. 

CASTRATION. In farriery, a term signify- 
ing, in regard to animals, the operation of geld- 
ing in males, and spaying in females. The 
operation may be performed at any age, but, in 
general, the earlier the better. For cattle, be- 
tween two and eight months ; for sheep, before 
they are twenty-one days old; in horses, be- 
tween four and twelve months. 

CAT (Felis cdhis, L.). A genus of animals 
comprising twenty-one species, and belonging 
to the same class as the lion and the tiger. 
Though originally a variety of the wild cat, one 
of the most ferocious brutes, this animal is 
now domesticated. The former inhabits hollow 
trees, especially the oaks of large forests, and 
in winter retreats to the deserted holes of foxes 
and badgers. Its skin is an excellent fur, but 
by no means compensates the damage done by 
wild cats to game and poultry. 

The domestic cat, when suffered to retire to 
thickets, easily returns to a wild state. Its 
colour is uncommonly diversified ; but the most 
beautiful varieties are the reddish Spanish cat, 
and that of Angora, with long silken hair. A 
tame cat generally attains the ag^i of about 
twelve years ; the female breeds in the first 
year, though it grows till eighteen months old ; 
she usually produces from four to six blind 
kittens, after a gestation of fifty-five days ; and 
carefully conceals them, apprehensive of the 
unnatural voracity of the male. It is further 
remarkable, that the female also has been ob- 
served to devour her oflfspring, when it hap- 
pened to be deformed or monstrous. 

The flesh of animals or fish is the most 
agreeable food to cats; lor they partake of 
vegetable aliment only from necessity. As 
they chew with difficulty, frequent drink is in- 
Uspensably requisite to the preservation of 
their health. There are, however, some plants 
of which they are excessively fond, and when 
indulged with them, present a variety of whim- 
sical gesticulations ; of this nature is the vale- 
370 



rian root, and the herb called nep, or catmint, 
the Nepeta cataria, L.; on the contrary, they 
shun other vegetables as their mortal enemies, 
for instance, the common rue, or Ituta graveo- 
lens, L. Any substance rubbed with the leaves 
of this plant is said to be perfectly secure from 
their depredations : for the communication of 
this useful fact in domestic life we are indebt- 
ed to C. P. Funke, a German naturalist. 

Cats enjoy a warm temperature and a soft 
couch; moisture and filth, as well as water and 
cold, are equally repugnant to their nature; 
hence they are continually cleaning themselves 
with their paws and tongue. Another pecu- 
liarity is the purring of these animals, when 
they are cajoled or flattered, by passing the 
hand over their backs ; this singular noise is 
performed by means of two elastic membranes 
in the larynx, or the upper part of the wind-pipe. 
Their hair is so electric that the expanded skin 
of a cat makes an excellent cushion for the 
glass cylinder or globe of an electrifying ma- 
chine. 

The flesh of cats is eaten by several nations, 
but the substance of the brain is said to be poi- 
sonous. From the intestines of these animals 
are manufactured the celebrated Roman chords 
for covering the violin. 

They are manufactured out of the guts of rab- 
bits and sheep also; they are cleaned, soaked 
in water, stretched by a machine, and dried. 
The name catgut comes from the circumstance 
of cats being used as food in many parts of 
Italy, and their guts applied to the making of 
strings. ( WiUick's Dom. Encyc.) 

Several species of the cat kind are found wild 
in America. Dr. Harlan, in his "Fauna Ame- 
ricana," describes the following: 

\. The Cougar of Bufl^on, the Pouma of some 
travellers, vulgarly called the Antericun Limu 
This is of a deep yellow colour, without a mane 
or a tuft at the end of the tail. Its total length is 
about three feet six inches, including the tail, 
which is over two feet long. The body is long 
and slender, head small, legs strong and short, 
tail long and trailing, colour grayish about the 
eyes, hairs within the ears white slightly tinged 
with yellow. This animal inhabits both Ame- 
rican continents, from Paraguay and Brazil to 
Canada. Dr. Harlan thinks the Pennsylvania 
Cougar, Panther or Wild-cat a variet}' of the 
Pouma. The ferocity of these animals is fami- 
liarly known, and the pioneers often suffer 
from their depredations upon pigs, sheep, 
calves, and even colts. 

2. The Jaguar, or South American panther, is 
also met with in the southwestern portions of 
the United States, and has occasionally been 
found east of the Mississippi. It is much 
larger than the North American panther, being 
four and a half feet long, including the tail, 
the length of which is two feet two inches. 
Their proportions are thick and clumsy. The 
hairs are short, strong, compact, silky- The 
fur yellowish, and covered with spots either 
entirely black, or yellow encircled with black. 
Like all wild cats they rove by night, and re- 
tire into thick swamps by day. 

3. The Spotted Mountain Cat, the Felis parda- 
lis of Linnaeus, and Ocelet of Buffon, inhabits 



CATALPA. 



CATCH-WEED. 



Mexico and the southwestern parts of the 
[Jnited States, though it has not been found 
east of the Mississippi. Its general colour is 
gray, marked with large fawn-coloured spots, 
bordered with black, forming oblique bands on 
the flanks. It is about two feet long from the 
end of the snout to the origin of the tail, which 
measures about two feet. 

4. The Canadian Lynx, or Felis Canadensis of 
BufTon, inhabits the Canadas, Labrador, &c. 
Its tail is very short, and black on the posterior 
half. The ears are terminated by a small tuft 
of hairs. The colour of the body is grayish, 
with yellowish or pale brown points below, 
and some black lines on the head. Total 
length two feet three inches, the included tail 
being only three or four inches long. 

5. Another species of wild cat, called by na- 
turalists Felis rufa, or Red Cat, the Chat-cervier 
of furriers, is found in the forests of New York, 
Pennsylvania, and Ohio. This is rather smaller 
than the common lynx, the head and back be- 
ing of a deep red, with small spots of blackish 
brown, throat whitish, breast and belly of a 
clear reddish white. 

6. Another lynx of large size, found on the 
northwestern coast by Lewis and Clarke, has 
been called by naturalists Felis fasciata. This 
Dr. Harlan thinks is probably the same as that 
described by Mr. Nuttall in his Travels in Ar- 
kansas. Its tail is very short, while, with the 
point black. The ears are furnished with pen- 
cils of hair, and black externally. The fur 
is very thick, of a brownish-red colour, with 
stripes and points above. 

7. The common American Mountain Cat or 
Catamount {Felis montana), has been also 
named the Mountain Lynx and Mississippi Ly>ix. 
It is found in the Alleghany mountains, from 
New York to Florida. The tail is very short, 
and in colour gray. The ears are destitute of 
pencils of hair, and externally blaclcish, with 
whitish or yellow spots within. Length three 
or four feet including the tail. 

8. Another species has been found on the 
borders of the Yellowstone river, in size about 
one half larger than the domestic cat, the tail 
being only two inches long. It is the Lynx 
aurens or Golden Lynx of Rafinesque, so named 
from its clear, brilliant yellow colour. It is 
spotted with black and white. The ears are 
without pencils. 

CATALPA {Bignonia catalpa), A shrub 
growing in England thirty or forty feet high ; 
its beautiful pendulous flowers bloom in Au- 
gust. It has a peculiarly large bright green 
leaf; loves heat, and does not blow in wet 
summers. It is tolerably hardy; easily raised 
from layers or seed. 

The catalpa is an American tree which Mi- 
chaux says begins to be found in the Atlantic 
States, on the banks of the Savannah river, 
near Augusta, Georgia, and west of the AUe- 
ghanies, on the banks of the Cumberland, be- 
tween the 35th and 36th degrees of latitude. 
Further south it becomes still more common, 
and abounds near the borders of all the rivers 
which empty into the Mississippi, or which 
water West Florida. Michaux expresses sur- 
prise that this tree should not have been 
naturally distributed in the lower part of the 



Carolinas and Georgia, and in East Florida, 
which lie so near the country of its primitive 
growth. This is the more strange from the 
fact that the catalpa manifests a great tend- 
ency to spread itself abroad by means of its 
winged seeds, and has in so many instances 
left the vicinity of dwellings where it was 
planted as a shade tree and mixed with the 
natives of the forest. It may, for example, be 
seen along the banks of the Schuylkill, ana 
many other places, growing wild. 

In the South it frequently exceeds fifty feet 
in height, with a diameter of eighteen to twenty- 
four inches. Its ample heart-shaped leaves, 
clusters of rich and beautiful flowers, long 
bean-shaped seed-pods, and wide spreading 
summit, give a strong character to this tree, 
which differs from all others in the fewness 
of its branches. 

That the catalpa is a tree of rapid growth 
is proved by the distance of the annual con- 
centrical circles. Its wood is of a grayish 
white colour, of a fine texture, very light, and 
very brilliant when polished. It resembles the 
butternut wood, with the exception that the 
butternut wood is of a reddish hue, and is less 
durable when exposed to the weather. Posts 
of the catalpa perfectly seasoned have been 
proved to be very lasting. In the spring, if a 
bit of the cellular integument of the bark be 
removed, a very offensive odour is exhaled. 
The honey collected from the flowers of this 
tree is somewhat poisonous, its effects, though 
less alarming, being similar to those produced 
by eating that collected by bees from the yellow 
jasmine {Geselminutn nitiduni). 

In the Southern States the catalpa is called 
Catawba tree, after the name of the Indian 
tribe that formerly inhabited a large part of 
the country from which the tree was first pro- 
cured. The French of Upper Louisiana call 
it Bois Shavanon, from the Shavanon or Shaw- 
nee nation which once existed in West Ten- 
nessee, watered by the Cumberland river. (M- 
chaux.') 

The rapid growth of the catalpa in almost 
every situation in which it can be placed in 
the Middle States, and the adaptation of its 
wood to posts and other useful purposes, make 
it deserving the attention of the farmer wher- 
ever other kinds of wood are scarce, especially 
the kinds suitable for fences. 

CATARACT. In farriery, a disease in the 
eyes of horses, in which the crystalline humour 
is rendered opaque, and the vision impeded or 
destroyed. The only certain method of cure 
in these complaints is to remove the lens by 
means of extracting or couching. By the first 
mentioned operation, an incision is made into 
the eye, and the opaque lens taken out ; by the 
second, it is depressed by the point of a couch- 
ing needle thrust into the eye, and, being car 
ried to the lower part of the chamber of the 
eye or vitreous humour, it is left there to be 
absorbed. The first operation is the more 
efl^ective, but the more hazardous of the two, 
owing to the inflammation which succeeds. 
The second is tedious and sometimes fails, but 
it is fret trom the risk of inflammation. 

CATCH- WEED, CLEAVERS, or GOOSE- 
GRASS {Galium Apanru, Eng. Flor. vol. i. p 

271 



CATCH-WORK. 



CATERPILLAR. 



21). PI. 10, h. A weed growing in hedges and 
by roadsides. See Hariff. 

CATCH-WORK. A term employed in irri- 
gation for the works for throwing the water 
over such lands as lie on the declivities of hills. 

CATCH-WORK MEADOW. That sort of 
meadow which is formed by turning the water 
of a spring or small rivulet along the side of a 
hill or declivity, so as to water the lands be- 
tween the cut or main carriage and the original 
water-course, which in this case becomes the 
main drain. See Irkiuation. 

CATERPILLAR. The name given to the 
larva state of butterflies and moths. 

The natural history of insects so universally 
destructive as caterpillars, which in voracity 
are only inferior to locusts, cannot fail to inte- 
rest all, whether residents of town or country; 
and it is evident that persons acquainted with 
the precise nature and habits of destructive 
insects, their times and seasons of multiplica- 
tion and transformation, must be enabled to 
devise the most effectual means of protection 
against their ravages. Thanks to the intelli- 
gent policy and liberal patronage of the Legis- 
lature of Massachusetts, the most exact and 
valuable information upon this branch of the 
history of destructive insects has been placed 
before the public, through the labours of the 
distinguished American entomologist, Doctor 
Harris. 

Caterpillars are the larvae or young of moths 
and butterflies, of which. Dr. Harris says, 500 
species are already known to him as natives of 
Massachusetts ; and he thinks there may be as 
many more yet undiscovered in the limits of 
that state. As each female usually lays from 200 
to 500 eggs, 1000 different kinds of butterflies 
and moths will produce, on an average, 300,000 
caterpillars. If one-half of this number, when 
arrived at maturity, are females, they will give 
45,000,000 of caterpillars in the second, and 
6,750,000,000 in the third generation. These 
data, whilst they suffice to show that the actual 
number of these insects existing at any one 
time is far beyond the limits of numerical cal- 
culation, explain their formidable capacity to 
destroy vegetation. Whilst most caterpillars 
feed upon the leaves of plants, some devour 
the solid wood of trees, some live only in the 
pith of plants, and some confine themselves to 
grains and seeds. Certain species attack wool- 
lens, furs, and other animal substances ; for 
even leather, meat, wax, flour, and lard afford 
nourishment to particular kinds of caterpillars. 
"Some species herd together in great numbers, 
and pass the early period of their existence in 
society; and of these there are kinds which 
unite in their labours, and construct tents serv- 
ing as a common habitation, in which they live, 
or to which they retire occasionally for shelter. 
Others pass their lives in solitude, either ex- 
posed to the light and air, or sheltered in leaves 
folded over their bodies, or form for themselves 
silken sheaths, which are either fixed or porta- 
ble. Some make their abodes in the stems of 
plants, or mine in the pulpy substances of 
leaves ; and others conceal themselves in the 
ground, from which they issue only when in 
search of food. 
"Caterpillars usually change their skins 
272 



about four times before they come to their 
growth. At length they leave off eating entirely, 
and prepare for their first transformation. Most 
of them, at this period, spin around their bodies 
a sort of shroud or cocoon, into which some 
interweave the hairs of their own bodies, and 
some employ, in the same way, leaves, bits of 
wood, or even grains of earth. Other caterpil- 
lars suspend themselves, in various ways, by 
silken threads, without enclosing their bodies 
in cocoons; and, again, there are others which 
merely enter the earth to undergo their trans- 
formations. 

"When the caterpillar has thus prepared it- 
self for the approaching change, by repeated 
exertions and struggles it bursts open the skin 
on the top of its back, withdraws the forepart 
of its body, and works the skin backwards till 
the hinder extremity is extricated. It then no 
longer appears in the caterpillar form, but has 
become a pupa or chrysalis, shorter than the 
caterpillar, and, at first sight, apparently with- 
out a head or limbs. On close examination, 
however, there may be found traces of a head, 
tongue, antennfE,wings, and legs, closely pressed 
to the body, to Avhich these parts are cemented 
by a kind of varnisn. Some chrysalids are 
angular, or furnished with little protuberances; 
but most of them are smooth, rounded at one 
end, and tapering at the other extremity. While 
in the pupa state, these insects take no food, 
and remain perfectly at rest, or only move the 
hinder extremity of the body when touched- 
After a while, however, the chrysalis begins to 
swell and contract, till the skin is rent over the 
back, and from the fissure there issues the 
head, antennce, and body of a butterfly or moth. 
When it first emerges from its pupa skin, the 
insect is soft, moist, and weak, and its wings are 
small and shrivelled ; soon, however, the wings 
stretch out to their full dimensions, the super- 
fluous moisture of the body passes ofl', and the 
limbs acquire their proper firmness and elas- 
ticity. 

"The conversion of a caterpillar to a moth or 
butterfly is a transformation of the most com- 
plete kind. The form of the body is altered, 
some of the legs disappear, the others and the 
antennce become much longer than before, and 
four wings are acquired. Moreover, the mouth 
and digestive organs undergo a total change; 
for the insect, after its final transformation, is 
no longer fitted to subsist upon the same gross 
aliment as it did in the caterpillar state : its 
powerful jaws have disappeared, and instead 
thereof we find a slender tongue, by means of 
which liquid nourishment is conveyed to the 
mouth of the insect, and its stomach becomes 
capable of digesting only water and the honeyed 
juice of flowers. 

"Ceasing to increase in size, and destined to 
live but a short time after their final transfor- 
mation, butterflies and moths spend this brief 
period of their existence in flitting from flower 
to flower and regaling themselves with their 
sweets, or in slaking their thirst with dew or 
with the water left standing in puddles after 
showers, in pairing with their mates, and in 
laying their eggs ; after which they die a natu- 
ral death, or fall a prey to their numerous 
enemies. 



CATERPILLAR. 



CATERPILLAR. 



"These insects belong to an order called Le- 
piDOPTEUA, which means scaly wings ; for the 
mealy powder with which their wings are co- 
vered, when seen under a powerful microscope, 
is found to f onsist of little scales, lapping over 
each other like the scales of fishes, and im- 
planted into the skin of the wings by short 
stems. The body of these insects is also more 
or less covered with the same kind of scales, 
together with hair or down in some species. 
The tongue consists of two tubular threads 
placed side by side, and thus forming an in- 
strument for suction, which, when not in use, 
is rolled up spirally beneath the head, and is 
more or less covered and concealed on each 
side by a little scaly or hairy jointed feeler. 
The shoulders or wing-joints of the fore-wings 
are covered on each side by a small triangular 
piece, forming a kind of epaulette, or shoulder- 
cover; and between the head and the thorax is 
a narrow piece, clothed with scales or hairs 
sloping backwards, which may be called the 
collar. The wings have a few branching veins, 
generally forming one or two large meshes 
on the middle. The legs are six in number, 
though only four are used in walking by some 
butterflies, in which the first pair are very 
short, and are folded like a tippet on the breast; 
and the feet are five-jointed, and are terminated, 
each, by a pair of claws. 

"It would be difficult, and indeed impossible, 
to arrange the Lepidopterous insects according 
to their forms, appearance, and habits, in the 
caterpillar state, because the caterpillars of 
many of them are as yet unknown ; and there- 
fore it is found expedient to classify them 
mostly according to the characters furnished 
by them in the winged state. 

"We may first divide the Lepidoptera into 
three great sections, called butterflies, hawk- 
moths, and moths, corresponding to the genera 
Papilio, Sphinx, and Phalana of Linnseus. 

"The butterflies (Papiliones) have threadlike 
antennffi, which are knobbed at the end; the 
fore-wings in some, and all the wings in the 
greater number, are elevated perpendicularly 
and turned back to back, when at rest ; they 
have generally two little spurs on the hind-legs, 
and they fly by day only. Their caterpillars, 
when about to transform, suspend themselves 
by the tail, and are not enclosed in cocoons. 

" The hawk-raoths (Sphinges) generally have 
the antennae thickened in the middle and taper- 
ing at each end, and most often hooked at the 
tip; the wings are narrow in proportion to 
their length, and are confined together by a 
bristle or bunch of stiff" hairs on the shoulder 
of each hind-wing, which is retained by a cor- 
responding hook on the under side of each 
fore-wing. All the wings, when at rest, are 
more or less inclined like a roof, the upper 
ones covering the lower wings : there are two 
pairs of spurs on the hind-legs. A few fly by 
day, but the greater number in the morning 
and evening twilight. 

"In the moths (PhalceneE) the antennae are 
neither knobbed at the end nor thickened in 
the middle, but taper from the base to the ex- 
tremity, and are either naked, like a bristle, or 
are feathered on each side. The wings are 
confined together by bristles and hooks, the 
35 



first pair covering the hind- wings, and are 
more or less sloping when at rest; and there 
are two pairs of spurs to the hind-legs. These 
insects fly mostly by night." 

Among American destructive caterpillars de- 
scribed by Dr. Harris, are the larvae of those 
butterflies called Asterias, seen in great abun- 
dance upon certain flowers in the month of 
July — particularly on the sweet-scented phlox. 
These flies, which are of a black colour with a 
double row of yellow dots on the back, lay 
their eggs, in this and the following month, on 
various umbellate plants, placing them singly 
on the different parts of the leaves and stems. 
The fly is large, its wings expanding from 
three and a half to four inches. The hinder 
wings are tailed, and have seven blue spots, 
with an eye-like spot of an orange colour near 
their hinder angle. The caterpillars of this 
tribe, Dr. Harris has found on various garden 
vegetables and plants, such as the carrot,parsley, 
celery, anise, dill, caraway, and fennel ; also 
upon nightshade, hemlock, and other plants of 
the same poisonous family, which, he observes, 
constituted the appropriate food for these in- 
sects, before the exotics just named became 
abundant and furnished them in greater varie- 
ty and profusion. 

"Their injury to these cultivated plants," 
says the doctor, " is by no means inconsider- 
able ; they not only eat the leaves, but are 
particularly tbnd of the blossoms and young 
seeds. I have taken twenty caterpillars on one 
plant of parsley which was going to seed. The- 
eggs, laid in July and August, are hatched 
soon afterwards, and the caterpillars come to 
their growth towards the end of September, or 
the beginning of October; they then suspend 
themselves, become chrysalids, in which state 
they remain during the winter, and are not 
transformed to butterflies till the last of May 
or the beginning of June in the following 
year." 

"I know of no method so effectual for de- 
stroying these caterpillars as gathering them 
by hand and crushing them. An expert per- 
son will readily detect them by their ravages 
on the plants which they inhabit; and a few 
minutes devoted, every day or two, to a care- 
ful search in the garden, during the season of 
their depredations, will suffice to remove them 
entirely. 

" In Europe there are several kinds of cater- 
pillars which live exclusively on the crucife- 
rous or oleraceous plants, such as the cabbage, 
broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radish, turnip, and 
mustard, and oftentimes do considerable injury 
to them. The prevailing colour of these cater 
pillars is green, and that of the butterflies pro 
duced from them, white. They belong to a 
genus called Pontia ; in which the hind-wings 
are not scolloped nor tailed, but are rounded 
and entire on the edges, and are grooved on 
the inner edge to receive the abdomen." 

In the northern and western portions of 
Massachusetts, there is a white butterfly, the 
wings of which expand about two inches. This 
in all its states agrees with the character of 
the European insect. It is the potherb pontia 
{Pontia oleracea), a white butterfly, described 
by Dr. Harris in the New England Farmer in 



CATERPILLAR. 



CATERPILLAR. 



1829 (page 402). "About the last of May 
and beginning of June, it is" he says, "seen 
fluttering over cabbage, radish, and turnip 
beds, and patches of mustard, for the purpose 
of depositing its eggs. These are fastened to 
the undersides of the leaves, and but seldom 
more than three or four are left upon one leaf. 
The eggs are yellowish, nearly pear-shaped, 
longitudinally ribbed, and are one fifteenth of 
an inch in length. They are hatched in a 
week or ten days after they are laid, and the 
caterpillars produced from them attain their 
full size when three weeks old, and then mea- 
sure about one inch and a half in length. 
Being of a pale green colour, they are not 
readily distinguished from the ribs of the 
leaves beneath which they live. They do not 
devour the leaf at its edge, but begin indiscri- 
minately upon any part of its under-side, 
through which they eat irregular holes. When 
they have completed the feeding stage, they 
quit the plants, and retire beneath palings, or 
the edges of stones, or into the interstices of 
walls, where they spin a little tuft of silk, entan- 
glethehorns of their hindmostfeet in it,and then 
proceed to form a loop to sustain the forepart 
of the body in a horizontal or vertical position." 

The next day after attaching itself it casts 
off its caterpillar skin and becomes a chrysalis, 
sometimes of a pale green, and sometimes of a 
white colour, regularly and finely dotted with 
black. The chrysalis state lasts eleven days, 
at the expiration of which comes out the white- 
winged butterfly. The chrysalids produced 
from an autumnal brood of these insects sur- 
vive the winter, and the butterflies from them 
make their appearance in May or June. " In 
gardens or fields infested by the caterpillars, 
boards, placed horizontally an inch or two 
above the surface of the soil, will be resorted 
to by them when they are about to change to 
chrysalids, and here it will be easy to find, col- 
lect, and destroy them, either in the caterpillar 
or chrysalis state. The butterflies also may 
easily be taken by a large and deep bag-net of 
muslin, attached to a handle of five or six feet 
in length ; for they fly low and lazily, especially 
when busy in laying their eggs. In Europe 
the caterpillars of the white butterflies are 
eaten by the larger titmouse (^Parus major), and 
probably our own titmouse or chickadee, with 
other insect-eating birds, will be found equally 
useful, if properly protected. 

" We have several kinds of small six-footed 
butterflies, some of which are found, during 
the greater part of summer in the fields and 
around the edges of woods, flying low and fre- 
quently alighting, and oftentimes collected to- 
gether in little swarms on the flowers of the 
clover, mint, and other sweet-scented plants." 

The heads of the common hop are frequently 
eaten ~oy the small green and downy caterpil- 
ars r. a very pretty little dusky brown butter- 
fly, ;o which Dr. Harris has given the name 
of Hc^'-vine Thecla (Thecla huniili). 

The caterpillars of many of the four-footed 
butterflies are spiny, or have their backs armed 
with numerous projecting points, beset all 
around with small stiff hairs, and sometimes 
long, hard, and sharp prickles disposed in 
bunches. 
274 



The poplar, the willow, and the elm are in- 
fested with caterpillars in great numbers, pro- 
duced by a butterfly called the Antiopa, the 
wings of which are purplish brown above, 
with a buff-yellow margin, near the inner side 
of which there is a row of pale blue spots. 
The wings of this Antiopa butterfly expand 
from three to three and a half inches. It comes 
out from its winter retreats with the first 
warmth of spring, and may be seen, even in 
Massachusetts, sporting in warm and sheltered 
spots at the beginning of March, at which time 
its wings look ragged and faded. Wilson, the 
ornithologist, in his beautiful lines upon the 
well known American harbinger of spring — 
the blue bird — alludes to its coming: 

" Wtien first the lone butterfly flits on the wing." 

The caterpillars of the Antiopa butterfly are 
black, minutely dotted with white, with a row 
of eight dark, brick-red spots on the top of the 
back. When fully grown they measure an 
inch and three quarters in length, and appear 
very formidable with their thorny armature, 
doubtless intended to defend them from their 
enemies. It was formerly supposed that they 
were venomous, and capable of inflicting dan- 
gerous wounds, and poplar trees about dwell- 
ings have frequently been cut down from fear 
of these worms. "This alarm was unfounded; 
for although," says Dr. Harris, " there are some 
caterpillars that have the power of inflicting 
venomous wounds with their spines and hairs, 
this is not the case with those of the Antiopa 
butterfly. The only injury which can be laid 
to their charge, is that of despoiling of their 
foliage some of our most ornamental trees, and 
this is enough to induce us to take all proper 
measures for exterminating the insects, short 
of destroying the trees that they infest. I have 
sometimes seen them in such profusion on the 
willow and elm, that the limbs bent under their 
weight ; and the long leafless branches which 
they had stripped and deserted gave sufficient 
proof of the voracity of these caterpillars. 
The chrysalis is of a dark brown colour, with 
large tawny spots around the tubercles on the 
back. The butterflies come forth in eleven or 
twelve days after the insects have entered upon 
the chrysalis state, and this occurs in the be- 
ginning ol July. A second brood of caterpil- 
lars is produced in August, and they pass 
through all their changes before winter." 

There is a species of caterpillar which 
comes from a butterfly called the Semicolon 
(Vanessa intcrrof^ationis). It lives on the Ame- 
rican elm and lime trees, and also on the hop- 
vine ; and on this last they sometimes so 
abound as to destroy its produce. In the latter 
part of August the hop-vine caterpillars attain 
their full growth, and suspend themselves be- 
neath the leaves and stems of the plant, and 
change into chrysalids. " This fact," says Dr. 
Harris, " affords a favourable opportunity for 
destroying the insects in this their stationary 
and helpless stage, at some loss, however, of 
the produce of the vines, which, when the in- 
sects have become chrysalids, should be cut 
down, stripped of the fruit that is sufliciently 
ripened, and then burnt. There is probably 
an early brood of caterpillars in June or July 



CATERPILLAR. 



CATERPILLAR. 



but I have not seen any on the hop-vine before 
August, the former are therefore confined to 
the elm and other plants in all probability. 
The caterpillar is brownish, variegated with 
pale yellow, or pale yellow variegated with 
brown, v/ith a yellowish line on each side of 
the body ; the head is rust-red, with two blackish 
branched spines on the top ; and the spines of the 
body are pale yellow or brownish and tipped 
with black. The chrysalis is ashen brown, 
with the head deeply notched, and surmounted 
by two conical ears, a long and thin nose-like 
prominence on the thorax, and eight silvery 
spots on the back. The chrysalis state usually 
lasts from eleven to fourteen days ; but the 
later broods are more tardy in their transfor- 
mations, the butterfly sometimes not appear- 
ing in less than twenty-six days after the change 
to the chrysalis. Great numbers of the chrysa- 
lids are annually destroyed by little maggots 
v/ithin them, which", in due time are transformed 
to tiny four-winged flies (Pteromalus vanessee), 
which make their escape by eating little holes 
through the sides of the chrysalis. They are 
ever on the watch to lay their eggs on the 
caterpillars of this butterfly, and arc so small 
as easily to avoid being wounded by the branch- 
ing spines of their victims." 

The semicolon butterfly which produces this 
caterpillar expands its wings from two and a 
half to two and three-quarter inches, and even 
more. The colour of the wings is orange-taw- 
ny on the upper sides, with black spots in the 
middle. The under sides of the wings in 
some are rust-red, in others reddish white, 
with a pale gold-coloured semicolon on the 
middle of the hinder part, which last gives its 
specific name. 

Another species of caterpillar living upon 
the hop, also proceeds from a butterfly having 
wings of an orange-tawny colour on the upper 
side ; the hinder wings having a silvery comma 
in the middle of the under side. The wings 
expand from 2^ to 2| inches. This comma 
butterfly, as it is called {Vanessa comma), re- 
sembles the white comma of Europe, for which 
it has probably been mistaken. In habits, &c. 
the American comma resembles the preced- 
ing species. 

Among American caterpillars, which attract 
the particular notice ot the farmer, are several 
appertaining to the family of insects called 
hawk-moths, or sphwges, the latter name having 
been applied by Linnaeus, from a fancied re- 
semblance that some of the caterpillars, when 
at rest, have to the Egyptian sphynx. The 
attitude of these caterpillars is indeed remark- 
able. Supporting themselves by their four or 
six hind legs, they elevate the fore part of the 
body, and remain immovably fixed in this 
posture for hours together. In the winged 
state, the true sphinges are known by the name 
of humming-bird moths, from the sound they 
make in flying, and hawk-moths from their 
habit of hovering in the air while taking their 
food. They may be seen during the morning 
and evening twilight, flying with great swift- 
ness from flower to flower. Their tongues, 
when ancoiled, are, for the most part, exces- 
sively long, and with them they extract the 
honey from the blossoms of the honeysuckle 



and other tubular flowers, while on the wing. 
There are other sphinges which fly during the 
daytime only, and in the brightest sunshine. 
Then it is that the large clear-winged scsu: 
make their appearance among the flowers, the 
fragrant phlox being their special favourite. 
From the size and form of these last, their fan- 
like tails, brilliant colours, and mode of taking 
their food whilst poised above the blossoms 
upon rapidly vibrating wings, they might readi- 
ly be mistaken for humming-birds. (Harris.) 

Among the caterpillars of the sphinges, is 
that commonly called the potato-worm, a large 
green caterpillar, with a kind of thorn upon 
the tail, and oblique whitish stripes on the sides 
of the body. "This insect, which devours the 
leaves of the potato, often to the great injury 
of the plant, grows to the thickness of the fore- 
finger, and the length of three inches or more. 
It attains its full size from the middle of Au- 
gust to the first of September, then crawls down 
the stem of the plant and buries itself in the 
ground. Here, in a few days, it throws off" its 
caterpillar-skin, and becomes a chrysalis, of a 
bright brown colour, with a long and slender 
tongue-case, bent over from the head, so as to 
touch the breast only at the end, and somewhat 
resembling the handle of a pitcher. It re- 
mains in the ground through the winter, below 
the reach of frost, and in the following sum- 
mer the chrysalis-skin bursts open, a large moth 
crawls out of it, comes to the surface of the 
ground, and mounting upon some neighbouring 
plant, waits till the approach of evening in- 
vites it to expand its untried wings and fly in 
search of food. This large insect has gene- 
rally been confounded \vith the Carolina 
sphinx (Sphinx Carolina of Linnaeus), which 
it closely resembles. It measures across the 
wings about five inches ; is of a gray colour, 
variegated with blackish lines and bands ; and 
on each side of the body there are five round, 
orange-coloured spots encircled with black. 
Hence it is called by English entomologists 
Sphinx quinquemaculatus, the five-spotted sphinx. 
Its tongue can be unrolled to the length of five 
or six inches, but, when not in use, is coiled 
like a watch-spring, and is almost entirely 
concealed, between two large and thick feelers, 
under the head. 

"Among the numerous insects that infest our 
noble elms the largest is a kind of sphinx, 
which, from the four short horns on the fore- 
part of the back, I have named Ceratomia 
quadricornis, or four-horned ceratomia. On some 
trees these sphinges exist in great numbers, 
and their ravages then become very obvious ; 
while a few, though capable of doing consider- 
able injury, may escape notice among the thick 
foliage which constitutes their food, or will 
only be betrayed by the copious and regularly- 
formed pellets of excrement beneath the 'rees. 
They are very abundant during the months oi 
July and August on the large elms which sur- 
round the northern and eastern sides of the 
common in Boston; and towards the end of 
August, when they descend from the trees for 
the purpose of going into the ground, they may 
often be seen crawling in the mall in consider- 
able numbers. These caterpillars, at this period 
of their existence, are about three inches and 

"75 



CATERPILLAR. 

a half in length, are of a pale green colour, 
With seven oblique white lines on each side 
of the body, and a row of little notches, like 
saw-teeth, on the back." (Harris.) 

The grape-vine suffers from the ravages of 
a sphinx caterpillar, which, not content with 
eating the leaves alone, in their progress from 
leaf to leaf, down the stem, stops at every 
cluster of food, nips oif the stalks of the half- 
grown grapes, and allows these to fall to the 
ground untasted. I have, says Dr. Harris, 
gathered under a single vine above a quart of 
unripe grapes thus detached during one night 
by these caterpillars. They are naked and 
fleshy, and generally of a pale-green colour, 
(sometimes, however, brown), with a row of 
orange-coloured spots on the top of the back, 
six or seven oblique darker green or brown 
lines on each side, and a short spine or horn 
on the hinder extremity. It is found on the 
vine and also upon the creeper in July and 
August. When fully grown it descends to the 
ground, conceals itself under fallen leaves, 
which it draws together by a few threads so as 
to form a kind of cocoon, or covers itself with 
grains of earth and rubbish in the same way, 
and under this imperfect cover changes to a 
pupa or chrysalis, to reappear in the winged 
state in the month of July of the following 
year. See Ghape-viwe CATRnpiLLAii. 

Among this section of insects, naturalists 
have placed a group, many of which in the 
winged state bear a resemblance to bees, 
hornets, wasps, with their narrow wings. 
They fly only in the daytime, and frequently 
light to bask in the sunshine. Their habits, in 
the caterpillar state, are entirely different from 
those of the sphinges ; the latter living ex- 
posed upon plants the leaves of which they 
devour, while the caterpillars of the cegereans, 
as they are called, conceal themselves within 
the stems or roots of plants, and derive their 
nourishment from the wood and pitch. (Har- 
ris.) 

The ash tree suffers very much from the 
attacks of borers of this kind, which perforate 
the bark and sap-wood of the trunk from the 
roots upwards, and are also found in all the 
branches of any considerable size. The trees 
thus infested soon show symptoms of disease, 
in the death of the branches near the summit ; 
and then the insects become nnmerous, the 
trees no longer increase in size and height, 
and premature decay and death ensue. These 
borers assume the chrysalis form in the month 
of June, and the chrysalids may be seen pro- 
jecting half way from the round holes in the 
bark of the tree in this and the following month, 
during which time their final transformation 
is effected, and they burst open and escape 
from the shells of the chrysalis in the winged 
or moth state. 

"During the month of August, the squash 
and other cucurbitaceous vines are frequently 
found to die suddenly down to the root. The 
cause of this premature death is a little borer, 
which begins its operations near the ground, 
perforates the stem, and devours the interior. 
It afterwards enters the soil, forms a cocoon 
of a gummy substance covered with particles 
cf earth, changes to a chrysalis, and comes 
276 



CATERPILLAR. 

forth the next summer a winged insect. This 
is conspicuous for its orange-coloured body, 
spotted with black, and its hind legs fringed 
with long orange-coloured and black hairs. 
The hind wings only are transparent, and the 
fore wings expand from one inch to one inch 
and a half. It deposits its eggs on the vines 
close to the roots, and may be seen flying 
about the plants from the tenth of July till the 
middle of August. This insect, which may be 
called the squash-vine asgeria, was first de- 
scribed by me in the year 1828, under the 
name of jEgeria cucurbita, the trivial name in- 
dicating the tribe of plants on which the cater- 
pillar feeds. See New England Farmer, vol. 
viii. p. 33; Dr. Harris's Discourse before the 
Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in 1832, p. 
26 ; and Sillitnan's Journal, vol. xxxvi. p. 310." 
(Harris.) 

The pernicious borer, which, during many 
years past has proved so very destructive to 
the peach trees throughout the United States, 
belongs to this group of the sphinx family. See 
Peach Thee Worm and Boheh. 

In Europe there is a species of (Pgcria which 
has long been known to inhabit the stems of 
the currant-bush. There is an American in- 
sect, resembling this, found in the cultivated 
currant-bush, with which it may have been in- 
troduced from Europe. See CunuAST-BusH 
Borer. 

Several caterpillars belonging to the family 
of tiger-moths are very destructive to vegeta- 
tion, as, for example, the salt-rnarsh caterpillar, 
the ijellow bear catci-pillar of our gardens, and 
ihe full web-caterpillar. These well-known in- 
sects are covered with coarse hairs, spreading 
out on all sides like the bristles of a bottle- 
brush. They creep very fast, and when han- 
dled roll themselves almost into a ball. When 
about to transform, they creep into the chinks 
of walls and fences, or hide themselves under 
stones, logs, or fallen leaves, where they en- 
close themselves in rough oval cocoons, made 
of hairs, plucked from their own bodies, inter- 
woven with a few silken threads. 

The caterpillars of the jlrge, a species of 
tiger-moth, sometimes make great devastation 
among the young Indian corn in the Southern 
and Middle States. Their ordinary food con- 
sists of the leaves of the plantain and other 
herbaceous plants. It appears in Massachu- 
setts, sometimes in large swarms, in the month 
of October. When fully grown they measure 
about an inch and a half in length. Their co- 
lour is a dark greenish-gray, although they 
appear almost black from the multitude of 
black spots with which they are dotted. They 
have three longitudinal stripes of fleshy white 
on the back, and a row of kidney-shaped spots 
of the same colour on each side of the body. 
The warts are dark gray, each one producing 
a thin cluster of spreading blackish hairs. The 
moth into which this caterpillar is finally con 
verted, has flesh-coloured wings which expand 
about from If to 2 inches. 

Of all the hairy caterpillars frequenting 
American gardens, there are none so common 
and troublesome as that which Dr. Harris calls 
the Yellow Bear. "Like most of its genus," he 
observes, " it is a very general feeder, devour- 



CATERPILLAR. 



CATERPILLAR. 



ing almost all kinds of herbaceous plants, with 
equal relish, from the broad-leaved plantain at 
the door-side, the peas, beans, and even the 
flowers of the garden, and the corn and coarse 
grasses of the fields, to the leaves of the vine, 
the currant, and the gooseberry, which it does 
not refuse when pressed by hunger. This 
kind of caterpillar varies very much in its 
colours ; it is perhaps most often of a pale 
yellow or straw colour, with a black line along 
each side of the body, and a transverse line of 
the same colour between each of the segments 
or rings, and is covered with long pale yellow 
hairs. Others are often sepn of a rusty or brown- 
ish yellow colour, with the same black lines on 
the sides and between the rings, and they are 
clothed with foxy red or light brown hairs. 
The head and ends of tlie feet are ochre-yellow, 
and the under side of the body is blackish in 
all the varieties. They are to be found of dif- 
ferent ages and sizes from the first of June till 
October. When fully grown they are about 
two inches long, and then creep into some con- 
venient place of shelter, make their cocoons, 
in which they remain in the chrysalis state 
during the winter, and are changed to moths in 
the months of May or June following. Some 
of the first broods of these caterpillars appear 
to come to their growth early in summer, and 
are transformed to moths by the end of July or 
the beginning of August, at which time I have 
repeatedly taken them in the winged state ; but 
the greater part pass through their last change 
in June. The moth is familiarly known by the 
name of the white miller, and is often seen 
about houses. Its scientific name is Ardia Vir- 
ginica, and, as it nearly resembles the insects 
commonly called ermine-moths in England, 
we may give to it the name of the Virginia 
ermine-moth. It is white, with a black point 
on the middle of the fore-wings, and two black 
dots on the hind-wings, one on the middle and 
the other near the posterior angle, much more 
distinct on the under than on the upper side; 
there is a row of black dots on the top of the 
back, another on each side, and between these 
a longitudinal deep yellow stripe ; the hips and 
thighs of the fore-legs are also ochre-yellow. 
It expands from one inch and a half to two 
inches. Having been much troubled with the 
voracious yellow bears in the little patch, (I 
cannot call it a garden,) where a few beans, 
and other vegetables, together with some 
flowers, were cultivated, I required my children 
to pick off the caterpillars from day to day and 
crush them, and taught them not to spare 'the 
pretty white millers,' which they frequently 
found on the fences, or on the plants, laying 
their golden yellow eggs, telling them that, 
with every fem.ale which they should kill, the 
eggs, from which hundreds of yellow bears 
would have hatched, would be destroyed. In 
some parts of France, and in Belgium, the 
people are required by law to khcnUler, or un- 
caterpillar, their gardens and orchards, and are 
punished by fine if they neglect the duty. 
Although we have not yet become so prudent 
and public spirited as to enact similar regula- 
tions, we might find it for our advantage to 
offer a bounty for the destruction of caterpil- 
lars; and though we should pay for them by 



the quart, as we do for berries, we should be 
gainers in the end ; while the children, whose 
idle hours were occupied in the picking of 
them, would find this a profitable employment." 
(^Harris.) 

" The salt-marsh caterpillar, an insect by far 
too well known on our sea-board, and now 
getting to be common in the interior of the 
state, whither it has probably been introduced, 
while under the chrysalis form, with the salt 
hay annually carried from the coast by our in- 
land farmers, closely resembles the yellow 
bear in some of its varieties. The history of 
this insect," says Dr. Harris, "forms the subject 
of a communication made by me to the ' Agri- 
cultural Society of Massachusetts,' in the year 
1823, and printed in the seventh volume of the 
' Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and 
Journal,' with figures representing the insect 
in its ditferent stages. At various times and 
intervals since the beginning of the present 
century, and probably before it also, the salt 
marshes about Boston have been overrun and 
laid waste by swarms of caterpillars. These 
appear towards the end of June, and grow 
rapidly from that time till the first of August. 
During this month they come to their full size, 
and begin to run, as the phrase is, or retreat 
from the marshes, and disperse through the 
adjacent uplands, often committing very exten- 
sive ravages in their progress. Corn-fields, 
gardens, and even the rank weeds by the way- 
side afford them temporary nourishment while 
wandering in search of a place of security 
from the tide and weather. They conceal 
themselves in walls, under stones, in hay- 
stacks and mows, in wood-piles, and in any 
other places in their way, which will afford 
them the proper degree of shelter during the 
winter. Here they make their coarse hairy 
cocoons, and change to chrysalids, in which 
form they remain till the following summer, 
and are transformed to moths in the month of 
June. In those cases where, from any cause, 
the caterpillars, when arrived at maturity, have 
been unable to leave the marshes, they conceal 
themselves °neath the stubble, and there 
make their cov nms. Such, for the most part, 
is the course aud duration of the lives of these 
insects in Massachusetts; but in the Middle 
and Southern States, two broods are brought 
to perfection annually; and even here some 
of them run through their course sooner, and 
produce a second brood of caterpillars in the 
same season ; for I have obtained the moths 
between the 15th and 20th of May, and again 
between the 1st and the 10th of August. Those 
which were disclosed in May passed the winter 
in the chrysalis form, while the moths which 
appeared in August must have been produced 
from caterpillars that had come to their growth, 
and gone through all their transform atioris 
during the same" summer. This, however, m 
Massachusetts, is not a common occurrence , 
for by far the greater part of these insects ap- 
pear at one time, and require a year to com- 
plete their several changes. The full-grown ca 
terpillar measures one inch and three-quarters 
or more in length. It is clothed with long 
hairs, which are sometimes black and some- 
times brown on the back and forepart of the 
2 A 277 



CATERPILLAR. 



CATERPILLAR. 



body, and of a lighter brown colour on the 
sides. The hairs, like those of the other 
Arctias, grow in spreading clusters from warts, 
which are of a yellowish colour in this species. 
The body, when stripped of the hairs, is yel- 
low, shaded at the sides with black, and there 
is a blackish line extending along the top of the 
back. The breathing-holes are white, and very 
distinct even through the hairs. These cater- 
pillars, when feeding on the marshes, are 
sometimes overtaken by the tide, and when 
escape becomes impossible, they roll them- 
selves up in a circular form, as is common 
with others of the tribe, and abandon them- 
selves to their fate. The hairs on their bodies 
seem to have a repelling power, and prevent 
the water from wetting their skins, so that they 
float on the surface, and are often carried by 
the waves to distant places, where they are 
thrown on shore, and left in winrows with the 
wash of the sea. After a little time most of 
them recover from their half-drowned condi- 
tion, and begin their depredations anew. In 
this way these insects seem to have spread 
from the places where they first appeared to 
others at a considerable distance. Although 
these insects do not seem ever entirely to have 
disappeared from places where they have once 
established themselves, they do not prevail 
every year in the same overwhelming swarms ; 
but their numbers are increased or lessened- at 
irregular periods, from causes which are not 
well understood. These caterpillars are pro- 
duced from eggs, which are laid by the moths 
on the grass of the marshes about the middle 
of June, and are hatched in seven or eight days 
afterwards, and the number of eggs deposited 
by a single female is, on an average, about 
eight hundred. The moths themselves vary in 
colour. In the males, the thorax and upper 
side of the fore-wings are generally white, the 
latter spotted with black ; the hind-wings and 
abdomen, except the tail, deep ochre-yellow, 
the former with a few black spots near the 
hind margin, and the abdomen with a row of 
six black spots on the top of the back, two 
rows on the sides, and one on the belly ; the 
under-side of all the wings and the thighs are 
deep yellow. It expands from one inch and 
seven-eighths to two inches and a quarter. The 
female diifers from the male either in having 
the hind wings white, instead of ochre-yellow, 
or in having all the wings ashen gray with the 
usual black spots. It expands two inches and 
three-eighths or more. Sometimes, though 
rarely, male moths occur with the fore-wings 
ash-coloured or dusky. Professor Peck called 
this moth pseuderminea, that is, false ermine, 
and this name was adopted by me in my com- 
munication to the ' Agricultural Society.' " 
(Harris.) 

In order to lessen the ravages of the salt- 
marsh caterpillars, and to secure a fair crop 
of hay when these insects abound. Dr. Harris 
recommends that " the marshes should be 
mowed early in July, at which time the cater- 
pillars are small and feeble, and being unable 
to wander far, will die before the crop is ga- 
thered in. In defence of early mowing, it may 
be said that it is the only way by which the 
(rrass may be saved in those meadows where 
278 



the caterpillars have multiplied to any extent; 
and, if the practice is followed generally, and 
continued during several years in succession, 
it will do much towards exterminating these 
destructive insects. By the practice of late 
mowing, where the caterpillars abound, a 
great loss in the crop will be sustained, im- 
mense numbers of caterpillars and grasshop- 
pers will be left to grow to maturity and 
disperse upon the uplands, by which means 
the evil will go on increasing from year to 
year ; or they will be brought in with the hay 
to perish in our barns and stacks, where there 
dead bodies will prove offensive to the cattle, 
and occasion a waste of fodder. To get rid 
of 'the old fog' or stubble, which becomes 
much thicker and longer in consequence of 
early mowing, the marshes should be burnt 
over in March. The roots of the grass will 
not be injured by burning the stubble, on the 
contrary, they will be fertilized by the ashes ; 
while great numbers of young grasshoppers, 
cocoons of caterpillars, and various kinds of 
destructive insects, with their eggs, concealed 
in the stubble, will be destroyed by the fire. 
In the province of New Brunswick, the bene- 
fit arising from burning the stubble has long 
been proved; and this practice is getting into 
favour in New England. 

" The caterpillars of all the foregoing Arc- 
tians (or harnessed moths) live almost entirely 
upon herbaceous plants ; those which follow 
(with one exception only), devour the leaves 
of trees. Of the latter, the most common and 
destructive are the little caterpillars known by 
the name of fall web-worms, whose large webs, 
sometimes extending over entire branches 
with their leaves, may be seen on our native 
elms, and also on apple and other fruit trees, 
in the latter part of summer. The eggs, from 
which these caterpillars proceed, are laid by 
the parent moth in a cluster upon a leaf near 
the extremity of a branch ; they are hatched 
from the last of June till the middle of August, 
some broods being early and others late, and 
the young caterpillars immediately begin to 
provide a shelter for themselves, by covering 
the upper side of the leaf with a web, which is 
the result of the united labours of the whole 
brood. They feed in company beneath this 
web, devouring only the upper skin and pulpy 
portion of the leaf, leaving the veins and lower 
skin of the leaf untouched. As they increase 
in size, they enlarge their Aveb, carrying it 
over the next lower leaves, all the upper and 
pulpy parts of which are eaten in the same 
way, and thus they continue to work down- 
wards, till finally the web covers a large por- 
tion of the branch, with its dry, brown, and 
filmy foliage, reduced to this unseemly condi- 
tion by these little spoilers. These caterpil- 
lars, when fully grown, measure rather more 
than one inch in length ; their bodies are more 
slender than those of the other Arctians, and 
are very thinly clothed with hairs of a grayish 
colour, intermingled with a few which are 
black. The general colour of the body is 
greenish yellow dotted with black ; there is a 
broad blackish stripe along the top of the 
back, and a bright yellow stripe on each side. 
The warts, from which the thin bundles of 



CATERPILLAR. 



CATERPILLAR. 



spreading, silky hairs proceed, are black on 
the back, and rust-yellow or orange on the 
sides. The head and feet are black. I have 
not observed the exact length of time required 
by these insects to come to maturity ; but to- 
wards the end of August and during the month 
of September they leave the trees, disperse, 
and wander about, eating such plants as hap- 
pen to lie in their course, till they have found 
suitable places of shelter and concealment, 
where they make their thin and almost trans- 
parent cocoons, composed of a slight web of 
silk intermingled with a few hairs. They re- 
main in the cocoons in the chrysalis state 
through the winter, and are transformed to 
moths in the months of June and July. These 
moths are white, and without spots ; the fore- 
thighs are tawny-yellow, and the feet blackish. 
Their wings expand from one inch and a 
quarter to one inch and three-eighths. 

" During the months of July and August, 
there may be found on apple trees and rose- 
bushes, and sometimes on other trees and 
shrubs, little slender caterpillars of a bright 
yellow colour, sparingly clothed with long and 
fine yellow hairs on the sides of the body, and 
having four short and thick brush-like yellow- 
ish tufts on the back, that is on the fourth and 
three following rings, two long black plumes or 
pencils extending forwards from the first ring, 
and a single plume on the top of the eleventh 
ring. The head, and the two little retractile 
warts on the ninth and tenth rings are coral 
red ; there is a narrow black or brownish 
stripe along the top of the back, and a wider 
dusky stripe on each side of the body. These 
pretty caterpillars do not ordinarily herd to- 
'^^her, but sometimes our apple trees are 
•h infested by them, as was the case in the 
mer of 1828. When they have done eat- 
ing, they spin their cocoons on the leaves, or 
on the branches or trunks of the trees, or on 
fences in the vicinity. The chrysalis is not 
only beset with little hairs or down, but has 
three oval clusters of branny scales on the 
back. In about eleven days after the change 
to the chrysalis is effected, the last transforma- 
tion follows, and the insects come forth in the 
adult state, the females wingless, and the 
males with large ashen-gray wings, crossed 
by wavy darker bands on the upper pair, on 
which, moreover, is a small black spot near 
the tip, and a minute white crescent near the 
outer hind angle. The body of the male is 
small and slender, with a row of little tufts 
along the back, and the wings expand one 
inch and three-eighths. The females are of a 
lighter gray colour than the males, their bodies 
are very thick, and of an oblong oval shape, 
and, though seemingly wingless, upon close 
examination two little scales, or stinted wing- 
lets, can be discovered on each shoulder. 
These females lay their eggs upon the top of 
their cocoons, and cover them with a large 
quantity of frothy matter, which on drying be- 
comes white and brittle. Different broods of 
these insects appear at various times in the 
course of the summer, but the greater number 
come to maturity and lay their eggs in the lat- 
ter part of August, and the beginning of Sep- 
tember ; and these eggs are not hatched till 
279 



the following summer. The name of this 
moth is Orgyia* leucostigma, the white-marked 
Orgyia or tussock-moth. It is to the eggs of 
this insect that the late Mr. B. H. Ives, of Sa- 
lem, alludes, in an article on ' insects which 
infest trees and plants,' published in Hovey's 
'Gardener's Magazine.' Mr. Ives states, that 
on passing through an apple orchard in Feb- 
ruary, he 'perceived nearly all the trees 
speckled with occasional dead leaves, adher- 
ing so firmly to the branches as to require 
considerable force to dislodge them. Each 
leaf covered a small patch of from one to two 
hundred eggs, united together, as well as to 
the leaf, by a gummy and silken fibre, peculiar 
to the moth.' In March, he 'visited the same 
orchard, and, as an experiment, cleared three 
trees, from which he took twenty-one bunches 
of eggs. The remainder of the trees he left 
untouched until the tenth of May, when he 
found the caterpillars were hatched from the 
egg, and had commenced their slow but sure 
ravages. He watched them from time to 
time, until many branches had been spoiled 
of their leaves, and in the autumn were en- 
tirely destitute of fruit ; while the three trees, 
which had been stripped of the eggs, were 
flush with foliage, each limb without exception 
ripening its fruit.' These pertinent remarks 
point out the nature and extent of the evil, and 
suggest the proper remedy to be used agains; 
the ravages of these insects." 

In the New England States there is found a 
tussock or vaporer moth, seemingly the same 
as the Orgyia antiqua, the antique or rusty va- 
porer-moth of Europe, from whence, possibly 
its eggs may have been brought with imported 
fruit trees, for a description of which, and 
other tussock moths, see Dr. Harris's treatise, 
and also Mr. Abbott's work on the insects of 
Georgia. Also communications by Miss Dij. 
to Silliman's Journal, vol. xix. p. 62. 

"To this group of hairy caterpillars belong 
those which swarm in the unpruned nurseries 
and neglected orchards of the slovenly and im- 
provident husbandman, and hang their many- 
coated webs upon the wild cherry trees that 
are suffered to spring up unchecked by the 
way-side, and encroach upon the borders of 
our pastures and fields. The eggs from which 
they are hatched are placed around the ends of 
the branches, forming a wide kind of ring or 
bracelet, consisting of three or four hundred 
eggs, in ihe form of short cylinders, standing on 
their ends close together, and covered with a 
thick coat of brownish water-proof varnish. 
The caterpillars come forth with the unfolding 
of the leaves of the apple and cherry tree, dur- 
ing the latter part of April or the beginning of 
May. The first signs of their activity appear 
in the formation of a little angular web or tent, 
somewhat resembling a spider's web, stretched 
between the forks of the branches a little be- 



* This name is derived from a word which signifies to 
stretch oat the hands, and it is applied to this kind of 
moih on account of its resting with the 'ore-legs ex- 
tended. The Germans call these moths streckfiissi^t 
Spinner, the French pattes etendties, and the English va- 
porer-moths, the latter probably because the males ari? 
seen flying about ostentatiously, or vaporing, by dav 
when most other moths keep concealed. 



CATERPILLAR. 



CATERPILLAR. 



low the cluster of eggs. Under the shelter of 
these tents, in naaking which they all work to- 
gether, the caterpillars remain concealed at all 
times when not engaged in eating. In crawl- 
ing from twig to twig and from leaf to leaf, 
they spin from their mouths a slender silken 
thread, which is a clue to conduct them back 
to their tents ; and as they go forth and return 
in files, one after another, their pathways in 
time become well carpeted with silk, which 
serves to render their footing secure during 
their frequent and periodical journeys in va- 
rious directions to and from their common 
habitation. As they increase in age and size 
they enlarge their tent, surrounding it from 
time to time with new layers or webs, till at 
length it acquires a diameter of eight or ten 
inches. They come out together at certain 
stated hours to eat, and all retire at once when 
their regular meals are finished; during bad 
weather, however, they fast, and do not venture 
from their shelter. These caterpillars are of a 
kind called lackeys in England, and livrees in 
France, from the party-coloured livery in 
which they appear. When fully grown they 
measure about two inches in length. Their 
heads are black ; extending along the top of 
the back from one end to the other is a whitish 
line, on each side of which, on a yellow ground, 
are numerous short and fine crinkled black lines, 
that lower down become mingled together, and 
form a broad longitudinal black stripe, or rather 
a row of long black spots, one on each ring, in 
the middle of each of which is a small blue 
spot; below this is a narrow wavy yellow line, 
and lower still the sides are variegated with 
fine intermingled black and yellow lines, which 
are lost at last in the general dusky colour of 
the under side of the body; on the top of the 
eleventh ring is a small blackish and hairy 
wart, and the whole body is very sparingly 
clothed with short and soft hairs, rather thicker 
and longer upon the sides than elsewhere. The 
foregoing description will serve to show that 
these insects are not the same as either the 
Neustria or the camp lackey caterpillars of 
Europe, for which they have been mistaken. 
From the first to the middle of June the}' begin 
to leave the trees upon which they have hither- 
to lived in company, separate from each other, 
wander about a while, and finally get into some 
crevice or other place of shelter and make their 
cocoons. These are of a regular long oval 
form, composed of a thin and very loosely 
woven web of silk, the meshes of which are 
filled with a thin paste, that on drying is 
changed to a yellow powder, like flour of sul- 
phur in appearance. Some of the caterpillars, 
either from weakness or some other cause, do 
not leave their nests with the rest of the swarm, 
but make their cocoons there, and when the 
webs are opened these cocoons may be seen 
intermixed with a mass of blackish grains, 
like gunpowder, excreted by the caterpillars 
during their stay. From fourteen to seventeen 
days after the insect has made its cocoon and 
changed to a chrysalis, it bursts its chrysalis 
skin, forces its way through the wet and soft- 
ened end of it.s cocoon, and appears in the 
winged or milier form. Many of theni, how- 
ever, are unable to finish their transformations 
28^) 



by reason of weakness, especially those re- 
maining in the webs. Most of these will be 
found to have been preyed upon by little mag- 
gots living upon the fat within their bodies, 
and finally changing to small four-winged ich- 
neumon wasps, which in due time pierce a hole 
in the cocoons of their victims, and escape infx) 
the air. 

"The moth of our American lackey-cater- 
pillar is of a rusty or reddish brown colour, 
more or less mingled with gray on the middle 
and base of the fore-wings, which, besides, are 
crossed by two oblique, straight, dirty white 
lines. It expands from one inch and a quarter 
to one inch and a half or a little more. 

"The moths appear in great numbers in July, 
flying about and often entering houses by night. 
At this time they lay their eggs, selecting the 
wild cherry in preference to all other trees for 
this purpose, and next to these apple trees, the 
extensive introduction and great increase of 
which in this country afford an abundant and 
tempting supply of food to the caterpillars in 
the place of the native cherry trees that forr 
merly, it would seem, suflJiced for tlieir nourish- 
ment. These insects, because they are the 
most common and most abundant in all parts 
of our country, and have obtained such noto- 
riety that in common language they are almost 
exclusively known among us by the name of 
the cntcrpillars, are the worst enemies of the or- 
chard. Where proper attention has not been 
paid lo the destruction of them, they prevail to 
such an extent as almost entirely to strip the 
apple and cherry trees of their foliage, by their 
attacks continued during the seven weeks of 
their life in the caterpillar form. The trees, in 
those orchards and gardens where they have 
been sufiered to breed for a succession of years^ 
become prematurely old in consequence of the 
etforts they are obliged to make to repair, at an 
unseasonable time, the loss of their foliage, and 
are rendered unfruitful, and consequently un- 
profitable. But this is not all; these perni- 
cious insects spread in every direction from 
the trees of the careless and indolent to those 
of their more careful and industrious neigh- 
hours, whose labours are thereby greatlj' in- 
creased, and have to be followed up year after 
year without any prospect of permanent relief. 

" Many methods and receipts for the destruc- 
tion of these insects have been, published and 
recommended, but have failed to exterminate 
them, and indeed have done but little to lessen 
their numbers. Mr. Lowel has justly said that 
• the great difficulty is the neglect to do any 
thing, till after the caterpillars have covered 
the trees with their nests. Then the labours 
of the sluggard commence, and one tree, let 
his receipt be ever so perfect and powerful, 
will cost him as much time and labour as ten 
trees would have required three weeks sooner.' 
The means to be employed may be stated under 
three heads. The first is, the collection and 
destruction of the eggs. These should be 
sought for in the winter and early part of the 
spring, when there are no leaves on the trees. 
They are easily discovered at this time, and 
may be removed with the thumb-nail and fore- 
finger. Nurseries and the lower limbs of large 
trees may thus be entirely cleared of eggs dur- 



CATERPILLAR, 



CAT'S-TAIL. 



ing a few visits made at the proper season. 
If a liberal bounty for the collection of the 
eggs were to be offered, and continued for the 
space of ten years, these destructive caterpil- 
lars would be nearly exterminated at the end 
of that time. Under the second head are to be 
mentioned the most approved plans for destroy- 
ing the caterpillars after they are hatched, and 
have begun to make their nests or tents. It is 
well known that the caterpillars come out to feed 
twice during the day time, namely, in the fore- 
noon and afternoon, and that they rarely leave 
their nests before nine in the morning, and re- 
turn to them again at noon. During the early 
part of the season, while the nests are small, 
and the caterpillars young and tender, and at 
those hours when the insects are gathered toge- 
ther within their common habitation, they may 
be effectually destroyed by crushing them by 
hand in the nests. A brush, somewhat 
like a bottle-brush, fixed to a long handle, as 
recommended by the late Colonel Pickering, or, 
for the want thereof, a dried mullein head and 
its stalk fastened to a pole, Avill be useful to re- 
move the nests, with the caterpillars contained 
therein, from those branches which are too 
high to be reached by hand. Instead of the 
brush, we may use, with nearly equal success, 
a small mop or sponge, dipped as often as ne- 
cessary into a pailful of refuse soap-suds, ley, 
strong white-wash, or cheap oil. The mop 
should be thrust into the nest and turned round 
a little, so as to wet the caterpillars with the 
liquid, which will kill everyone that it touches. 
These means, to be efl!ectual, should be em- 
ployed during the proper hours, that is, early 
in the morning, at mid-day, or at night, and as 
soon in the spring as the caterpillars begin to 
make their nests ; and they should be repeated 
as often, at least, as once a week, till the insects 
leave the trees. Early attention and perseve- 
rance in the use of these remedies will, in 
time, save the farmer hundreds of dollars, and 
abundance of mortification and disappoint- 
ment, besides rewarding him with the grateful 
sight of the verdant foliage, snowy blossoms, 
and rich fruits of his orchard in their proper 
seasons. Under the third head, I beg leave to 
urge the people of this commonwealth to de- 
clare war against these caterpillars, a war of 
extermination, to be waged annually during 
the month of May and the beginning of June. 
Let every able-bodied citizen, who is the owner 
6f an apple or cherry tree, cultivated or wild, 
within our border, appear on duty, and open 
the campaign on the first washing-day in May, 
armed and equipped with brush and pail, as 
above directed, and give battle to the common 
enemy; and let every housewife be careful to 
reserve for use a plentiful supply of ammuni- 
tion, strong waste soap-suds, after every week- 
ly wash, till the liveried host shall have de- 
camped from their quarters, and retreated for 
the season. If every man is prompt to his 
duty, I venture to predict that the enemy will 
be completely conquered in less time than it 
will take to exterminate the Indians in Florida. 
"Another caterpillar, whose habits are simi- 
lar to those of the preceding, is now and then 
met with, in Massachusetts, upon oak and wal- 
nut trees, and more rarely still upon apple trees. I 
36 



According to Mr. Abbot, • it is sometimes so 
plentiful in Virginia as to strip the oak-trees 
bare.' It may be called Cllsiocampa sylvatica, 
the tent-caterpillar of the forest. With us il 
comes to its full size from the tenth to the 
twentieth of June, and then measures about 
two inches in length." (Harris.) 

Those who wish to become more intimately 
acquainted with the natural history of the cater- 
pillar tribe against which such incessant war 
is waged both in country and town, wherever a 
tree or a plant is found, will meet with abun- 
dant information in Dr. Harris's Treatise upon 
Insects destructive to vegetation. 

Some others of the caterpillar tribe will be 
found noticed under the several heads of Case- 
BEAHEHS, or Basket-worms, Curuajtt-bush 
Borer, Cutworm Caterpillar, Leaf-rollers, 
Appletree and Nursery Caterpillars, Oak 
AND Walnut Caterpillars, Hop-vine and 
Grape-vine Caterpillars, Locust Tree 
and other caterpillars infesting hickory and 
elm trees, &c., Turpentine Moth, infesting the 
fir and pine, caterpillars living upon reeds, flags, 
and other aquatic plants, ^PA.svfO'&Tis, Loopers, 
or Geometers, among M^hich are the insects 
commonly called canker worms; Grease-moth 
Caterpillars, &c. 

CATKIN. A name given to such amenta- 
ceous flowers as consist of a great number of 
chaffy scales and flowers, dispersed along a 
slender thread-like axis or rachis, hanging 
downward, in the form of a rope or cat's tail. 
It is the male flower of the trees which pro- 
duce them, as the birch, beech, pine, fir, poplar, 
walnut, hazel, &c. They drop as soon as the 
pollen is shed. 

CATMINT, or NEP {Nepeta cataria, Smith, 
vol. iii. p. 70). This is a common plant, grow- 
ing in borders of fields and in moist places, 
flowering in June and July. It grows a yard 
high, with broad whitish leaves, and white 
flowers, not unlike mint. The plant has a 
strong and rather unsavoury smell. It is easi- 
ly recognised by its hoary, square, and erect 
stalks ; its leaves slightly indented on the 
edges, of a whitish-green on their outside, and 
almost perfect white underneath; and its flowers 
growing in spiked clusters around the stalk at 
certain distances. Cats are exceedingly fond 
of rolling upon this plant, and they chew it 
eagerly. This has obtained for it the familiar 
name of catmint. 

CAT'S-FOOT. A term sometimes provin- 
cially applied to ground-ivy. 

CAT'S-MILK. A common name for the 
plant wartwort, which see. 

CAT'S-TAIL, or TIMOTHY GRASS 
(Phleum pratense, PI. 5, k). This grass flou- 
rishes best in moist deep loams. Perennial, 
native of Britain. At the time of flowering, 
in the end of June, Sinclair found the produce 
per acre was, from a clayey loam, 40,837 lbs. ; 
of nutritive matter 1595 lbs. This is a great 
American grass, and is called timothy from Mr. 
Timothy Hanson, who first introduced its seeds 
into Maryland. Seeds ripe in July. It pro- 
duces an abundance of early feed, but its pro- 
duct of aftermath is poor. See Grasses. 

Timothy is undoubtedly one of the most 
valuable grasses known to American farmers 
2 A 3 281 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



Mixed in the field with red clover, it affords 
excellent hay. The seed is usually sown in 
the autumn, among and immediately after 
wheat, and rye, though it succeeds very well 
when sown in the spring at the same time 
clover is sown. The clover dies out after the 
second year, leaving the ground in possession 
of the timothy, which requires a good soil and 
is considered an exhausting crop to land. 

The smaller Meadow Cat's-tail (Phleum minus). 
Indigenous to England, on tenacious soils. 

The Bulbous-jointed Cat's-tail Grass (Phleum 
nodosum). Perennial; native of Britain, but 
rare ; found on a clayey soil at Woburn. Flow- 
ers in beginning of July. Seeds ripe at the 
end of the same month. 

Purple-stalked Cat's-tail Ch-ass {Phleum boeh- 
meri). Indigenous and perennial ; grows best 
on a sandy loam. Flowers in July. 

In the New England States timothy, or P. 
pratense, is called herd's grass, a name applied 
in the Middle States exclusively to the Jlgrostis 
vulgaris or red-top, a kind of grass so very un- 
popular among Pennsylvania farmers, that in 
selecting clover and other grass seeds, they 
reject all samples containing herd's grass. 

CATTLE. Under this head I propose to 
include the ox tribe, Bovidce, of the class Mam- 
malia, having teats or mammce; these are of the 
order Ruminantia, or ruminating, or cud-chew- 
ing animals. Of this tribe there are eight spe- 
cies : — 1. Bos urus or .^uroch, the ancient bison ; 
2. B. bison, the bison, or American buffalo; 3. 
B. moschatus, or musk ox ; 4. B. frontalis, or 
gayal ; 5. B. grunniens, or grunting ox ; 6. B. 
caffer, or buffalo of southern Africa ; 7. B. bu- 
bubiSfOT common buffalo; 8. B.taurus, or com- 
mon domestic ox. That the ox has been do- 
mesticated, and in the service of man from a 
very remote period, is quite certain. We learn 
from Gen. (iv. 20.) that cattle were kept by the 
early descendants of Adam. Preserved by 
Noah from the flood waters, the original breed 
of our present oxen must have been in the 
neighbourhood of Mount Ararat ; and from 
thence, dispersing over the face of the globe, 
altering by climate, by food, and by cultivation, 
originated the various breeds of modern ages. 
That the value of the ox tribe has been in all 
ages and climates highly appreciated, we have 
abundant evidence. The natives of Egypt, 
India, and of Hindostan seem alike to have 
placed the cow amongst their deities ; and, 
judging by her usefulness to all classes, no 
animal could perhaps have been selected whose 
value to mankind is greater. Of the old race 
of British cattle, some remains of which are 
yet to be found in Chillingham Park, in North- 
umberland, in a state of tolerable purity, and 
in one or two other places in Great Britain, 
improved by judicious or accidental crossings, 
came most of our modern breeds. George 
CuUey, in his valuable work on cattle, de- 
scribes these aboriginals as being of a creamy 
•white, with black muzzles, white horns with 
black tips bending upwards. The cows weigh- 
ing from twenty-five to thirty -five stone. They 
hide for a week or ten days their calves, in 
some sequestered place ; and these, when they 
are disturbed, put their heads to the ground, 
and lie close like a hare. Their wildness pre- 
282 



vents the introduction of them into any situ- 
ation not surrounded by stone walls ; and the 
mode in which they were wont to be killed by 
the keepers was by a rifle ball. See also two 
excellent papers by Dr. Knox on the wild ox 
of Scotland {Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. ix. p. 
367) ; and on the ox tribe, in connection with 
the white cattle of the Hamilton and Chilling- 
ham breeds, by the Rev. Dr. Patrick {IbvL 
p. 514). 

In nearly all parts of the earth cattle are 
employed for their labour, for their milk, and 
for food. In southern Africa they are as much 
the associates of the Caffres as the horse is of 
the Arab. They share his toils, and assist him 
in tending his herds ; they are even trained to 
battle, in which they become fierce and cou- 
rageous. In central Africa the proudest ebony 
beauties are to be seen on their backs. They 
have drawn the plough in all ages ; in Spain 
they still trample out the corn ; in India raise 
the water from the deepest wells to irrigate the 
thirsty soils of Bengal. When Ccesar invaded 
England they constituted the chief riches of 
its inhabitants (C«sar, lib. v. c. 10); and they 
yet form no inconsiderable item in the estimate 
of that country's abounding riches. Accord- 
ing to the estimate of Mr. Youatt, to whom in 
this and other articles on live stock I am so 
much indebted {On Cattle, p. 9), it would seem 
that 1,600,000 head of cattle are consigned to 
the butcher every year in the United King- 
dom, and the value of the entire national stock 
of all kinds of cattle, sheep, and pigs, he is of 
opinion, amounts to nearly 120,000,000/. ster 
ling. An excellent paper on the origin and 
natural history of the domestic ox and its allied 
species, by Professor Wilson {Quart. Journ. of 
J.gr. vol. ii. p. 177), may be consulted with 
advantage by those who wish for more infor- 
mation on this head. 

The breeds of cattle in England are remark- 
able for their numerous varieties, caused by 
the almost endless crossings of one breed with 
another, often producing varieties of the most 
mongrel description, and which are rather dif- 
ficult to describe. I will in this place touch 
upon the principal varieties; and in these we 
should, in looking for the chief points of excel- 
lence, regard, as Mr. Youatt well observes, 
" wide and deep girth about the heart and 
lungs ; and not only about these, but above the 
whole of the ribs must we have both depth and 
roundness ; the hooped as well as the deep 
barrel is essential. The beast should also be 
ribbed home ; there should be little space be- 
tween the ribs and the hips. This is indispen- 
sable in the fattening ox, but a largeness and 
drooping of the belly is excusable in the cow. 
It leaves room for the udder, and if it is also 
accompanied by swelling milk-veins, it gene- 
rally indicates her value in the dairy. This 
roundness and depth of the barrel, however, is 
most advantageous in proportion as it is found 
behind the point of the elbow, more than be- 
tween the shoulders and legs; or low down 
between the legs, than upwards towards the 
withers ; for it diminishes the heaviness before, 
and the comparative bulk of the coarser parts 
of the animal, which is always a very great 
consideration. 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



"The loins should be wide, for these are the 
prime parts ; they should seem to extend far 
along the back ; and although the belly should 
not hang down, the flanks should be round and 
deep, the hips large, without being ragged, 
round rather than wide, and present, when 
handled, plenty of muscle and fat; the thighs 
full and long, and, when viewed from behind', 
close together ; the legs short, for there is al- 
most an inseparable connection between length 
of leg and lightness of carcass, and shortness 
of leg and propensity to fatten. The bones of 
the legs and of the frame generally should be 
small, but not too small ; small enough for the 
well-known accompaniment, a propensity to 
fatten ; small enough to please the consumer, 
but not so small as to indicate delicacy of con- 
stitution and liability to disease. Finally, the 
hide, the most important thing of all, should be 
thin, but not so thin as to indicate that the ani- 
mal can endure no hardships, movable, mellow, 
but not too loose, and particularly well covered 
with fine and soft hair." 

On the points by which live stock are judged, 
some very excellent papers have appeared in 
the Ellin. Quart. Jonrn. of Agr., by Mr. James 
Dickson, cattle-dealer of Edinburgh. He very 
truly observes (vol. v. p. 159), that, "were an 
ox of fine symmetry and high condition placed 
before a person not a judge of live stock, his 
opinion of its excellences would be derived 
from a very limited view, and consequently 
from only a few of its qualities. He might 
observe and admire the beautiful outline of its 
figure, for that would strike the most casual 
observer. He might be pleased with the tint 
of its colours, the plumpness of its body, and 
the smoothness and glossiness of its skin. He 
might be even delighted with the gentle and 
complacent expression of its '•,ountenance ; — 
all these properties he might judge of by the 
eye alone. On touching the animal with the 
hand, he could feel the softness of its body, 
occasioned by the fatness of the flesh. But no 
man not a judge could rightly criticise the pro- 
perties of an ox farther. He could not possibly 
discover without tuition those properties which 
had chiefly conduced to produce the high con- 
dition in which he saw the ox. He would 
hardly believe that a judge can ascertain merely 
by the eye, from its general aspect, whether the 
ox were in good or bad health; from the colour 
of its skin, whether it were of a pure or cross 
breed; from the expression of its countenance, 
whether it were a quiet feeder ; and from the 
nature of its flesh, whether it had arrived at 
maturity. The discoveries made by the hand 
of a judge might even stagger his belief. He 
could scarcely conceive that the hand can feel 
a hidden property. The touch, which of all 
tests is the most surely indicative of fine qua- 
lity of flesh and of disposition to fatten, can 
find whether that flesh is of the most valuable 
kind; and it can foretell the probable abundance 
of fat in the interior of the carcass. In short, 
a judge alone can discriminate between the 
relative values of the different points, or appre- 
ciate the aggregate value of all the points of 
an ox. These 'points' are the parts of an ox 
by which it is judged." The first point to be 
ascertaiaed in examining an ox, is the purity 



of its breed, whatever that breed may be ; for 
that will give the degree of the disposition to 
fatten of the individuals of that breed. The 
purity of the breed may be ascertained from 
several marks : the colour or colours of the 
skin of a pure breed of cattle, whatever those 
colours are, are always definite. The colour 
of the bald skin on the nose and round the eyes, 
in a pure breed, is always definite, and without 
spots. This last is an essential point. When 
horns exist, they should be smooth, small, tam- 
pering, and sharp-pointed, long or short, ac- 
cording to the breed, and of a white colour 
throughout in some breeds, and tipped with 
black in others. The shape of the horn is a 
less essential point than the colour. Applying 
these remarks on the different breeds in Scot- 
land, as illustrations of the point which we 
have been considering, we have the definite 
colours of white and red in the short-horns. 
The colour is either entirely white or entirely 
red, or the one or the other predominates in 
their mixture. The skin on the nose and 
around the eyes is uniformly of a rich cream 
colour. The Ayrshire breed, in its purity, is 
also distinguished by the red and white colour 
of the skin, but always mixed, and the mixture 
consists of spots of greater or smaller size not 
blended together. The colour of the skin on 
the nose and around the eye is not definite, but 
generally black or cream-coloured. In other 
points, these two celebrated breeds dilfer from 
one another more th :n in the characters which 
I have just describe (. In the West Highland, 
Angus, and Galloway breeds, the colour of the 
skin of the nose and around the eyes is indica- 
tive of the pure blood of black-coloured cattle, 
but a cream-coloured nose may frequently bs 
observed amongst the other colours of skin 
The characters above given will certainly 
apply to the purity of the blood in the short- 
horn and Ayrshire breeds, if not to the Wes' 
Highlanders. 

" The second yoint to be ascertained in an ox 
is the form of its carcass. It is found that tha 
nearer the section of the carcass of a fat ox, 
taken longitudinally vertical, transversely ver- 
tical, and horizontally, approaches to the figure 
of a parallelogram, the greater quantity of flesh 
will it carry within the same measurement. 
That the carcass may fill up the parallelogram 
as well as its rounded form is capable of filling 
up a right-angled figure, it should possess the 
following configuration :— The back should be 
straight from the top of the shoulder to the taiL 
The tail should fall perpendicularly from the 
line of the back. The buttocks and twist should 
be well filled out. The brisket should project 
to a line dropped from the middle of the neck- 
The belly should be straight longitudinally, and 
round laterally, and filled at the flank.: 'T'he 
ribs should be round, and should project Ho- 
rizontally, and at right angles to the back. 
The hooks should be wide and flat ; and he 
rump, from the tail to the hooks, should & so 
be filled and well filled. The quarter from the 
itch-bone to the hook should be long. The loin 
bones should be long, broad, and flat, and well 
filled ; but the space betwixt the hooks and the 
short ribs should be rather short and well 
arched over, with a thickness of beef lietween 

283 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



the hooks. A long hollow from the hooks to 
the short ribs indicates a weak constitution and 
an indifferent thi-iver. From the loin to the 
shoulder-blade should be nearly of one breadth, 
and from thence it should taper a little to the 
front of the shoulder. The neck-vein should 
be well filled forward to complete the line from 
the neck to the brisket. The covering on the 
shoulder-blade should be as full out as the but- 
tocks. The middle ribs should be well filled, 
to complete the line from the shoulders to the 
buttocks along the projection of the outside of 
•Jie ribs ; these constitute all the points which 
are essential to a. fat ox. 

"The first of the points in judging of a lean 
ox, is the nature of the bone. A round thick 
bone indicates both a slow feeder and an in- 
ferior description of flesh. A flat bone, when 
seen on a side view, and narrow when viewed 
either from behind or before the animal, indi- 
cates the opposite properties of a round bone. 
The whole bones in the carcass should bear a 
small proportion in bulk and weight to the 
fiesh, the bones being only required as a sup- 
port to the tlesh. The texture of the bone 
should be small-grained and hard. The bones 
of the head should be fine and clean, and only 
covered with skin and muscle, and not with 
lumps of fat and flesh, which always give a 
heavy-headed, dull appearance to an ox. The 
fore-arm and hock should also be clean and 
full of muscle, to endure travelling. Large 
joints indicate bad feeders. The neck of an 
ox should be, contrary to that of the sheep, 
small from the back of the head to the middle 
of the neck. A full, clear, and prominent eye 
is another point to be considered, because it is 
a nice indication of good breeding. It is al- 
ways attendant on fine bone : the expression 
of the eye is an excellent index of many pro- 
perties in the ox. A dull, heavy eye clearly 
indicates a slow feeder. A rolling eye, show- 
ing much white, is expressive of a restless 
capricious disposition, which is incompatible 
with quiet feeding. A calm, complacent ex- 
pression of eye and face is strongly indicative 
of a sweet and patient disposition, and of 
course kindly feeling. The eye is frequently 
a faithful index of the state of health. A cheer- 
ful clear eye accompanies good health : a con- 
stantly dull one proves the probable existence 
of some internal lingering disease; the dull- 
ness of eye, however, arising from internal 
disease is quite different in character from a 
natural or constitutional phlegmatic dullness. 

" The state of the skin is the next point to be 
ascertained; the skin affords what is techni- 
cally and emphatically called the touch — a cri- 
terion second to none in judging of the feeding 
properties of an ox. The touch may be good 
or bad, fine or harsh, or, as it is often termed, 
hard or mellow. A thick, firm skin, which is 
generally covered with a thick-set, hard, short 
hair, always touches hard, and indicates a bad 
feeaer. A thin, meager, papery skin, covered 
with thin, silky hair, being the opposite of the 
one just described, does not, however, afford a 
good touch. Such skin is indicative of weak- 
ness of constitution, though of good feeding 
properties. A perfect touch will be found with 
thick, loose skin, floating, as it were, on 
281 



a layer of soft fat, yielding to the least press- 
ure, and springing back to the finger lik.? a 
piece of soft, thick, chamois leather, and cover- 
ed with thick, glossy, soft hair. It is not un- 
like a bed of fine soft moss, and hence such a 
skin is not unfrequently styled 'mossy.' A 
knowledge of touch can only be acquired by 
long practice ; but after having acquired it, it 
is of itself a sufficient means of judging of the 
feeding quality of an ox, because, when present, 
the properties of symmetrical form, fine bone, 
sweet disposition, and purity of blood are the 
general accompaniments. These are the es- 
sential points in judging lean cattle, but there 
are other and important considerations in form- 
ing a thorough judgment of the ox. The head 
should be small, and set on the neck as if easi- 
ly carried by the animal ; this shows the ani- 
mal to advantage in the market. The face long 
from the eyes to the point of the nose. The 
skull broad across the eyes, contracted a little 
above them, but tapering considerablj^ below 
them to the nose. The muzzle fine and small; 
the nostrils capacious ; the ears large, a little 
erect, and transparent; the neck short and light. 
A droop of the neck from the top of the shoul- 
der to the head indicates a weakness of consti- 
tution, arising frequently from breeding too 
near akin. The legs below the knees should 
be rather short than long, and clean made ; 
stand M'here they apparently bear the weight 
of the body most easily, and wide asunder. 
The tail rather thick than otherwise, as that 
indicates a strong spine, and a good weigher. 
It should be provided with a large tuft of long 
hair. The position of the fesh is important: that 
part called the spare rib in Edinburgh, and the 
fore and middle ribs in London, the loins and 
the rump, or hook-bone, are of the finest qua- 
lity, and are generally used for roasts and 
steaks ; consequently the ox which carries the 
largest quantity of beef on these points is the 
most valuable. Flesh of fine quality is actu- 
ally of a finer texture than coarse flesh. The 
other desirable objects in a fat ox are a full 
twist, lining the division between the hams 
called ' the closing' with a thick layer of fat, 
a thick flank, and a full neck bend; thfese 
generally indicate internal tallow. The last 
points generally covered with fat are the 
point of the shoulder-joint and the top of the 
shoulder: if these parts are, therefore, felt to 
be well covered, the other and better parts of 
the animal may be considered ripe. It is pro- 
per, in judging of the weight of a fat ox, to 
view his gait while walking towards you, 
which will, if the ox has been well fed, be ac- 
companied with a heavy rolling tread on the 
ground. In this way a judge can at once come 
very near to its weight." (Quart. Journ. of Agr, 
vol. V. p. 167.) At the end of this paper will 
be found an account of the mode of ascertain- 
ing the weight of stock by admeasurement. 

When we survey the frame of a short horn 
ox, adds Mr. Dickson {Ibid. vol. vi. p. 267), we 
have a straight, level back from behind the 
horns to the top of the tail, full buttocks, and 
a projecting brisket; we have, in short, the 
rectangular figure, as represented in a side 
view by fig. 1. We have also the level loin 
across the hook bones, and the level top of the 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



shoulder across the ox, and perpendicu- 
lar lines down the hind and fore-legs 
on both sides, these constituting the 
square form when the ox is viewed 
before and behind, as represented in 
figures 2 and 3 ; and we have straight 
parallel lines from the sides of the 
shoulders, along the outmost points of 
the ribs, to the sides of the hind quar- 
ters ; and we have these lines connect- 
ed at their ends by others of shorter 
and equal length, across the end of the 
rump and the top of the shoulder, thus 
constituting the rectangular form of the 
ox when viewed from above down upon 
the back, as represented by fig. 4 ; the 
form of the short ox and heifer, in per- 
fect accordance with the diagrams of 
the rule. Farther, I should be inclined 
to assert, though I have not directed 
my attention sufficiently to the fact to 
be able to prove the assertion from ex- 
amples, that the carcass of a full fed, 
symmetrical, short-horn ox, included 
within the rectangle, is in length dou- 
ble its depth, and in depth equal to its 
breadth ; hence figures 2 and 3 are 
squares, and figures 1 and 4 each two 
similar squares, placed in juxtaposi- 
tion. The form of the short-horn breed 
is perfect according to this rule. 

The cow goes with calf about forty 
weeks, and is often capable of breed- 
ing when only a year old ; but she 
should not be allowed to do so until 
she is above two years old. When 
the calves are intended for veal, Janu- 
ary, February, and March are the best 
months for calving. On the question 
of breeding live stock in general, and 
upon the difficult question of the com- 
parative influence of the male and fe- 
male parents in impressing their off- 
spring, a theme propounded by the Highland 
Society, there are some excellent papers by 
Mr. Boswell, Mr. Christian, and Mr. Mill (High. 
Soc. Trans, vol. i. p. 17), by the Rev. Henry Ber- 
ry (Brit. Farm. Mag. vol. i.), and by Mr. Knight 
(Trans. Pyoy. Soc. 1809), in which they all seem 
to uphold the superior influence of the male ; 
and on the selection of the male animal in 
breeding there is a paper by Lord Spencer 
(Jourri. Boy. Agr. Soc. vol. i. p. 22); another on 
the gestation of cows (Ibid. 165); and on the 
means of calculating the number of calves 
which will probably be produced by a herd of 
cows, by the same noble lord (Ibid. vol. ii. p. 
112); and on the detection of pregnancy in the 
horse and cow by Professor Youatt (Ibid. p. 
170) ; on a method of obtaining a greater num- 
ber of one sex at the option of the owner in the 
breeding of livestock (Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. 
i. p. 63) ; on the rearing of calves, in which the 
writer recommends that skimmed milk should 
have a piece of red-hot iron plunged into it, not 
only to warm it, but to give an astringent qua- 
lity (Com. Board of Agr. vol. iv. p. 382); on the 
mode of fattening them in Strathaven there is 
an account by Mr. Aiton in the Quart. Joum. of 
Agr. p. 249 ; and of the mode of fattening them 
near London by Mr. Main (Ibid. vol. v. p. 608). 




" Every cow is made to suckle her own calf 
three times a day for the first three or four 
days, and afterwards twice a day, and, in need, 
her bag is emptied by another calf. If a calf. 
goes on thriving and well, it will be what is 
esteemed in England prime veal in about ten 
weeks, and weigh from 17 to 20 stones of 8 lbs. 
each." 

The North Devon. — Of this breed the bull 
should have yellow horns, placed neither too 
low nor too high, nor be too thick, but grow- 
ing gradually less towards the points ; the eye 
clear, prominent, and bright; the forehead 
small, flat, and indented ; the muzzle fine ; the 
cheek small ; the nose of a clear yellow, the 
nostril high and open ; the neck thick, and the 
hair about the head curled. The head of the 
ox is smaller, otherwise he does not differ ma- 
terially from the shape of the bull ; his action 
is free, and he is quicker in his movements 
than any of our oxen ; but his legs are appa- 
rently placed too much under his chest for 
speed, yet he possesses this property in an 
eminent degree ; his legs are straight ; the fore- 
arm is large and strong; the bones of the leg, 
especially below the knee, very small ; the tail 
is set on high, on a level with the back, rareiy 
much elevated, never depressed, is long and 

285 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



taper, with a bunch of hair at the end; the 
skin is very elastic, mellow, and rather thin ; 
some have smooth hair, which should be fine 
and glossy; some curly, and these are rather 
the most hardy and fatten the best ; red is the 
most favourite colour; many, however, are 
brown, and others are approaching to chest- 
nut. Those of a yellow colour are reported to 
be subject to the steal (diarrhoea.) The draw- 
ing, Plate 12, fig. 3, is taken from Low's splen- 
did work upon British animals. It represents a 
young Devon bull, two years and nine months 
old, of a deep red colour. 

The Devon cow is much smaller than the 
bull; she has a full, round, clear eye, the 
coutitenance cheerful, the muzzle orange or 
yellow, the jaws free from thickness, and the 
throat from dewlap. On all soils, except the 
very heavy, the Devon ox is very superior at 
the plough, for its quickness of action, docility, 
good temper, stoutness, and honesty. It is 
always worked in yokes. Four Devon oxen 
are considered equal in their work to three 
horses : they are commonly worked from two 
years old until they are four, five, or six, and 
then in ten or twelve months, on grass and 
hay, they are fit for market ; neither corn, 
cake, nor turnips are needed for them during 
the first winter. They fatten faster and with 
less food than most others ; their flesh is ex- 
cellent. Some comparative experiments be- 
tween the Devon and other cattle were made 
by the Duke of Bedford, of which the following 
table gives the result : they were fed from No- 
vember 16, 1797, until December 10, 1798. 









Coosumed 






Firet 
Weight 


Gained. 






Oil 
Calie. 


Turnips. 


Hay. 




lbs. 


Ihs. 


Ibj. 


1. Hereford - 


17 1 


24 3 


— 


2700 


487 


2. 


18 1 


41 5 


423 


2712 


432 


3. Devon 


U 1 7 


45 4 


438 


2668 


295 


4. — 


14 2 4 


64 (i 


442 


2056 


442 


5. Sussex 


16 2 


45 4 


432 


2655 


302 


6. Leicester - 


15 2 14 


40 2 


434 


2652 


400 



There is much difference of opinion with re- 
gard to the fitness of Devon cows for the dairy, 
it being pretty generally asserted that their 
acknowledged grazing qualities render them 
unfit for the dairy, that their milk is rich, but 
deficient in quantity ; but there are many very 
superior judges who prefer them even for 
the dairy. Of the calves, those which are 
dropped about Michaelmas time are preferred 
to those which are calved in January or Feb- 
ruary. They allow the calf to suck three 
times a day for a week ; then new warm milk 
is given it for three weeks longer ; then it has 
warm scalded milk mixed with a small portion 
of finely divided linseed cake, and its meals 
are gradually lessened, and at four months 
old it is entirely weaned. (Youatt On Cattle, 
p. 7—25.) 

The Hereford.— The oxen of Herefordshire 
are much "larger than the Devon, and of a 
darker red, some are dark yellow, and a few 
brindled ; they generally have white faces, 
bellies, and throats. They have thicker hides 
than those of Devonshire, and they are more 
hardy, and shorter in the carcase and leg; are 
286 



higher, heavier, and broader in the chine; 
have more fat, and are rounder and wider 
across the hips ; the thigh is more muscular, 
the shoulders larger. (Ibid. p. 31.) Marshall 
long since described them pretty correctly as 
follows : — " The countenance pleasant, cheer- 
ful, open ; the forehead broad ; eye full and 
lively ; horns bright, taper, and spreading ; 
head small ; chap lean; neck long and taper- 
ing ; chest deep ; bosom broad, and projecting 
forward ; shoulder-bone thin, flat, no way pro- 
tuberant in bone, but full and mellow in flesh ; 
chest full ; loin broad ; hips standing wide, 
and level with the spine ; quarters long and 
wide at the neck ; rump even with the general 
level of the back, not drooping nor standing 
high and sharp above the quarters ; tail slen- 
der, and neatly haired; barrel round and 
roomy, the carcase throughout deep and well 
spread ; ribs broad, standing close and flat on 
the outer surface, forming a smooth even bar- 
rel, the hindmost large and of full length ; 
round bone small, snug, not prominent ; thigh 
clean, and regularly tapering; legs upright 
and short ; bone below the knee and hough, 
small ; feet of middle size ; cod and twist 
round and full ; flank large ; flesh everywhere 
mellow, soft, yielding pleasantly to the touch, 
especially on the chine, the shoulder, and the 
ribs ; hide mellow, supple, of a middle thick- 
ness, and loose ; coat neatly haired, bright, 
and sillc}'' ; colour of a middle red with a bald 
face, characteristic of the true Herefordshire 
breed." 

"They fatten," says Mr. Youatt, "to a much 
greater weight than the Devons, and run from 
fifty to seventy score ; a tolerable cow will 
average from thirty-five to fifty score ; a cow 
belonging to the Duke of Bedford weighed 
more than seventy; an ox of Mr. Westcar's 
exceeded one hundred and ten score. The 
Hereford ox fattens speedily at an early age. 
They are not now much used for husbandry, 
although their form adapts them for the hea- 
vier work, and they have all the honesty and 
docility of the Devon ox, and greater strength, 
if not his activity. 

" The Hereford cows are worse milkers than 
those of Devon, but then they will grow fat 
where a Devon would starve. The beef is 
sometimes objected to from the largeness of 
the bone, and the coarseness of some of the 
inferior pieces, but the best sorts are generally 
excellent. Mr. Youatt gives an account of an 
experiment in feeding, made in the winter of 
1828-9, between the Herefords, and the im- 
proved short-horns, which, although by no 
means decisive of the merits of either breed, 
yet is worthy of notice by the grazier. 

"Three Herefords and three short-horns 
were put together into a straw yard, December 
2d, 1827, and each had, in the open yard, a 
bushel of turnips per day, besides straw, until 
May 2, 1828 ; they then were weighed, and 
sent to grass : — 



No. cwts. qra. lbs, 

I.Hereford 8 3 

2. — 7 3 

3. — 7 



No. cwts. qra. Ibt. 

1. Short-horn 9 2 

2. — 8 2 

3. — 9 



When taken from grass, November i, they 
weighed — 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



No. cwti. qrs. lbs. 

1. Hereford 11 3 

2 — 10 2 

3. — 10 3 



No. cwts. qrs, lbs. 

1. Shorl-horn 12 3 14 

2. — 12 2 

3. — 12 3 



Swedish TurDips. 
lbs. 

- 46,655 

- 59,430 


Hjy. 

lbs. 
5,065 
6,779 


No. cwts. 


qrs. lbs. 


1. Short-horn 14 

2. - 14 

3. — 14 


2 

1 14 

2 14 



From this time till the 25th March, 1829, they 
consumed — 

The Herefords - 
The Shorl-horns 

They then weighed — 

No. cwts. qrs. lbs- 

1. Hereford 13 14 

2. — 12 

3. — 12 

making a difference in favour of the short- 
horns of 3 cwts. 3 qrs. 14 lbs.; but then they 
consumed more turnips by 12,775 lbs., and 
more hay by 1,714 lbs. When they were sold 
at Smithfield on the 30th of March, the short- 
horns realized 97/., and the Herefords 96Z." 
(On Cattle, p. 34.) 

The Sussex. — One of the best descriptions, 
says Mr. Youatt, that we have of the Sussex 
ox is given by that excellent agriculturist, Mr. 
Ellman. He speaks of the Sussex ox as hav- 
ing a small and well-turned head; and so it 
has, compared with many other breeds, and 
even with the Hereford, but evidently coarser 
than that of the Devon, the horns pushing for- 
wards a little, and then turning upwards, thin, 
tapering, and long, not so as to confound the 
breed with the long-horns, and yet in some 
cases a little approaching to them. The eye 
is full, large, and mild in the ox, but with 
some degree of unquietness in the cow. The 
throat clean ; and the neck, compared with 
either the long or short-horns, long and thin, 
ye* evidently coarser than that of the Devon. 
The shoulder is the principal defect. There 
is more wideness and roundness on the with- 
ers ; it is a straighter line from the .summit of 
the withers towards the back ; there is no pro- 
jecting point of the shoulder when the animal 
is looked at from behind, but the whole of the 
fore-quarter is thickly covered with flesh, giving 
too much weight to the coarser and less profit- 
able parts ; but then the fore-legs are wider 
apart, straighter, and more perpendicular than 
in the Devon, and are placed more under the 
body than seeming to be attached to the sides. 
The fore-arm is large and muscular; the legs, 
though coarser than those of the Devon, are 
small and fine downwards, particularly below 
the fetlock. The barrel is round and deep. 
In the back, no rising spinal processes are to 
be seen, but rather a central depression ; and 
the line of the back, if broken, is only done so 
by a lump of fat rising between the hips ; the 
belly and flank are capacious ; there is room 
before for the heart and lungs, and there is 
room behind in the capacious belly for the full 
exercise of its functions ; yet the beast is well 
ribbed home ; the space between the last rib 
aai the hip-bone is often very small, and there 
is no hanging heaviness of the belly or flank. 
The loins of the Sussex ox are wide ; the hip- 
bone does not rise high, nor is it ragged ex- 
ternally ; but it is large and spread out, and 
the space between the hips is well filled up. 
The tail fine, and thin, is set on lower than in 
the Devon, yet the rump is nearly as straight. 
The hind-quarters are cleanly made, and if the 



thighs appear to be straight without, there is 
plenty of fulness within. The Sussex ox has 
all the activity of the Devon, and the strength 
of the Hereford, the propensity to fatten, and 
the beautiful fine-grained flesh of both. It pos- 
sesses as many of the good qualities of both as 
can be combined in one frame. By crossing 
them with the Herefords, a heavier animal, 
but not fattening so profitably, or working so 
kindly, is produced. When the Sussex has 
been crossed with the Devon, a lighter breed 
has resulted, but not gaining in activity, while 
it is materially deteriorated in its grazing pro- 
perties. The colour of the Sussex ox is a deep 
chestnut-red, or blood bay. The black, or 
black and white, generally indicate some 
strain in the breed, as a cross from the Welsh. 
The hide of the true Sussex ox is soft and mel- 
low, the coat short and sleek. The Sussex ox 
does much of the farming labour of the Weald 
of Sussex. From ten to twelve of these are 
usually kept on a farm of 150 to 200 acres. 
These are fed with grass and straw till they 
begin to work, and then they have cut hay 
mixed with straw. There are, however, two 
breeds: the coarser Sussex is always slow; 
the lighter, or true Sussex is as light and fast 
as most cart-horses ; of their speed proof was 
given by a Sussex ox which ran four miles 
against time, over the Lewes race-course, in 
sixteen minutes. Many farmers, if they have 
ten oxen at work, sell five or six every year, 
and break in an equal number to succeed 
them ; the beasts will thus be broken in at 
three years old, and fatted at five or six. 
They are commonly taken from work when 
spring seed-time is over, and turned into the 
meadows, and thus prepared for winter stall- 
feeding. These are gradually accustomed to 
being constantly tied up. Some farmers, Mr. 
Ellman amongst the rest, are of opinion that 
there is a saving of one-fourth the food by 
stall-feeding, but many other farmers maintain 
that the cattle fatten faster when only confined 
to the yard. They average at Smithfield 
about one hundred and twenty stones ; but 
they occasionally attain to much greater 
weights ; one of Mr. EUman's weighed two 
hundred and fourteen stones. 

The Sussex cow is not a favourite with the 
generality of farmers. She does not answer 
for the dairy, for her milk, although of very 
good quality, is far inferior in quantity to 
either the Holderness or the Suffolk cow. 
They are, moreover, what their countenance 
indicates, of an unquiet temper, and are com- 
monly restless and dissatisfied, especially if 
not bred on the farm on which they are kept. 
They are, therefore, chiefly kept as breeders ; 
are generally in fair condition, even while 
milking ; and no cows, except the Devon or 
Hereford, will thrive so fast after being dried ; 
they fatten even faster than the ox. Nearly 
all the calves are reared, adds Mr. Youatt —the 
males for work, and the females for breeding 
or early fattening. By the best breeders, the 
bull is changed every two years. (On Cattle, 
p. 40.) The Hereford and Sussex cattle have 
so many points in common that in Loudon's 
Encyclopadia of Agriculture, both breeds arr 
illustrated by one figure. 

287 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



The Welch. — The cattle of Wales are princi- 
pally of thcAniddle-horns, and stunted in their 
growth from the poverty of their pastures. Of 
these there are several varieties. The Pem- 
brokeshire are chiefly black, with white horns; 
are shorter legged than most other Welch cat- 
tle; are larger than those of Montgomery, and 
have round and deep carcasses ; have a lively 
look and good eyes ; though short and rough, 
not thick; have not large bones, and possess, 
perhaps, as much as possible, the opposite 
qualities of being very fair milkers, with a pro- 
pensity to fatten. The meat is equal to the 
Scotch. They will thrive, says Mr. Youatt, 
where others starve, and they rapidly outstrip 
most others when they have plenty of good 
pasture. The Pembroke cow has been called the 
poor man's cow. The Pembroke ox is a speedy 
and an honest worker, and when taken from 
hard work fattens speedily. Many are brought 
to London, and rarely disappoint the butcher. 

The Glamorganshire breed were patronised 
by George IIL, and were held in great estima- 
tion. They were, however, allowed to degene- 
rate during the period of the late war, and have 
not since, in spite of the exertions of Mr. David 
of Radyr, been entirely restored. The counties 
of Carmarthen, Cardigan, Brecon, and espe- 
cially Radnor, also produce many excellent 
black cattle, which have been materially im- 
proved of late by the introduction of other 
breeds, especially b)^ crossing with the Here- 
fords. Of North Wales, the cattle are rather 
more approaching to the long-horns than those 
of the south. In the counties of Anglesea, Car- 
narvon, and Merioneth, the chief attention of 
the farmer is directed to the rearing of stock. 
In Denbigh, Flint, and Montgomery, the dairy 
is chiefly regarded. The cattle of Anglesea, 
says Mr. Youatt, are small and black, Avith 
moderate bone, deep chest, rather heavy 
shoulders, enormous dewlap, round barrel, high 
and spreading haunches, flat face, horns long, 
almost invariably turning upwards ; the hair 
coarse ; the hide mellow ; hardy, easy to rear, 
and well disposed to fatten when transplanted 
to better pastures than those of their native 
island. Attempts have been made, with little 
success, to improve the breed by crossing them 
with others ; but it is diflicult to find any other 
sufficiently hardy to withstand the climate and 
the privations of Mona. Many yearlings are 
brought from the island, and very few are kept 
in the island after they are three years old. 
They were formerly not castrated till they were 
a year old ; this gave them a peculiar bull-like 
appearance. This operation, however, is now 
practised earlier. There is still with them, 
iiowever, adds Mr. Youatt, a striking contrast 
with the mild intelligence of the Devon and 
the quiet submission of the Hereford. The 
Anglesea cows are not kept for the dairy to a 
greater extent than for home consumption. 
The cheese is negligently made, and, in con- 
sequence, poor and worthless. The cattle of 
the other Welch counties, bred amongst the 
rocks of Carnarvon, and the hills of Merioneth, 
Montgomery, and Denbigh, have little distin- 
guishing features from other Welch cattle. 
They are small, hardy, and rapidly fatten, when 
2S8 



transferred to richer pastures. The beef they 
produce is excellent. {Ibid. p. .58.) 

The Scotch. — Of this valuable and improving 
race of cattle there are several varieties, all of 
Avhich are thus classed by Mr. Youatt, and are 
to be considered as belonging to the middle- 
horns. Of these the chief varieties are, 

1. The West Highlanders, which, whether 
we regard those found in the Hebrides or in 
the county of Argyle, seem to retain most of the 
aboriginal character. They have remained 
unchanged, or improved only by selection, for 
many generations, or, indeed, from llie earliest 
accounts that we possess of Scottish cattle. 

2. The North Highlanders are a smaller, 
coarser, and in every way inferior race, and 
owe the greater part of what is valuable about 
them to crosses from the western breed. 

3. The northeastern cattle were derived 
from, and bear a strong resemblance to the 
West Highlander, but are of considerably 
larger size. 

4. The Fife breed are almost as valuable for 
the dairy as for the grazier, and yield to few in 
activity and docility. 

5. The Ayrshire breed are second to none as 
milkers ; many of the varied mingled breeds 
of the Lowlands are valuable. 

6. The Galloways, which, scarcely a century 
ago were middle-horned, and with difficulty 
distinguished from the West Highlanders, are 
now a polled breed, increased in size, with 
more striking resemblance to their kindred the 
Devons ; with all their aptitude to fatten, and 
with a hardness of constitution which those 
of Devon never possessed. 

The West Highlanders, or kyloes, as they 
are called (supposed to be from a corruption 
of a Gaelic word pronounced k-acl, signifying 
Highlands), are bred in great abundance in, 
and exported from, the Hebrides. The true 
bull of this breed is described by Mr. M'Neil 
of Islay as black ; the head not large, the ears 
thin, the muzzle fine, and rather turned up; 
broad in the face; eyes prominent; counte- 
nance calm and placid ; the horns should taper 
to a point, neither drooping too much nor 
rising too high, of a waxy colour, widely set at 
the root; the neck fine, particularly where it 
joins the head, and rising with a gentle curve 
from the shoulder ; the breast wide, and pro- 
jecting well before the legs; the shoulders 
broad at the top, and the chine so full as to 
leave but little hollow behind them ; the girth 
behind the shoulder deep; the back straight, 
wide, and flat ; the ribs broad, the space be- 
tween them and the ribs small ; the belly not 
sinking low in the middle, yet, in the whole, 
not forming the round and barrel-like carcass 
which some have described ; the thigh tapering 
to the hock-joint; the bones larger in propor- 
tion to the size than in the breeds of the south- 
ern districts ; the tail set on a level with the 
back; the legs short and straight; the whole 
carcass covered with a long thick coat of hair, 
and plenty of hair also about the face and 
horns, and that hair not curly. They are 
hardy, easily fed; the proportion of their off'al 
is not greater than in the most approved larger 
breeds ; they lay their fat and flesh equally on 



Piatt' /^ 




'.^ifef, #■ 



<3feJ:?<«- 







, ^ 



^^w'msm 


Wlltgirii "•■••" 







I SIkiiiHoiii.'.I Hull .2 Avrsl.ii-f Cow._ S.Devon BiiU, 2 5fears old. 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



the best parts, and when fat, the beef is fine in 
the grain, and so well mixed or marbled that it 
commands a superior price in every market. 
About 30,000 of these are annually sent from 
the Hebrides to the main land. {On Cattle, p. 67.) 
In the Hebrides, the dairy is only attended to 
so far as to serve the family with milk, butter, 
and cheese. The milk of the Western High- 
land cow is small in quantit}', but excellent in 
quality; she does not yield, however, more 
than one-third of that of the Ayrshire. The 
oxen of the Hebrides are never worked. (Ihid. 
p. 71.) 

The Argyleshire breed are larger than those 
of the Hebrides, and are bred according to 
what the soil and the food will best support. 
The Highlander, however (says the gentleman 
whom I have in this article quoted so often), 
"must be reared for the grazier alone ; every 
attention to increase his weight, in order to 
make him capable of agricultural labour, 
every effort to qualify him for the dairy, will 
not only lessen his hardiness of constitution 
and propensity to fatten, but will fail in ren- 
dering him valuable for the purpose at which 
the farmer aims. The character of the High- 
lander must still be, that he will pay better for 
his quantity of food than any other breed, and 
will fatten where any other breed will scarcely 
live." (Ibid. p. 79.)" 

Of the North Highland cattle, those of the 
Shetland islands are the smallest; dwarfish, 
ill-shaped, and covered with hair ; they some- 
times are not more than 35 or 40 lbs. to the 
quarter. When they are taken to the north of 
Scotland, they thrive and fatten on very poor 
food with great rapidity ; but when brought 
further to the south, the change is too great for 
them ; they languish and sicken. The Shet- 
land calf suffers privations from her birth ; it 
is, in fact, killed often as soon as it is born. It 
is never allowed to suck its mother, but, if 
reared, is fed at first with milk, and afterwards 
with bland, a wretched kind of buttermilk; and 
when it grows up it has nothing to subsist upon 
but moss, heath, and sea-weed. The cows are 
housed at night, and, in the absence of straw, 
are littered with heath and the dust of peat. 
Their milk, which is exceedingly rich, is very 
small in quantity. 

In the northerly counties of Scotland, there 
is nothing very peculiar in the breed of their 
cattle. The introduction of sheep, and of bet- 
ter modes of cultivating the soil, have gone far 
to diminish the stocks of poor, ill-fed, and 
worse managed breeding herds of this once 
desolate extremity of the island. These im- 
provements, however, were long opposed by 
the husbandmen and the tenders of cattle as 
bold innovations, which were, at all events, to 
be opposed. Mobs, therefore, collected ; the 
sheep were driven away; fences destroyed; the 
new farmers intimidated: the laws alone sup- 
ported these national improvements to a suc- 
cessful issue. 

The county of Aberdeen breeds more cattle 
than any other in Scotland. Its stock has been 
estimated at 112,000, and its annual sale of 
both fat and lean cattle is equal to more than 
20,000. These vary in character with the soil 
and elevation: amongst the hills, they arc 
37 



chiefly of the Highland breed; in the plains, a 
better description has been produced, by breed- 
ing from these by bulls from Fifeshire. The 
horns of these, says Mr. Youatt, do not taper 
so finely, nor stand so much upwards, as in 
the West Highlanders ; and they are also 
whiter; the hair is shorter and thinner; the 
ribs cannot be said to be flat, but the chest is 
deeper in proportion to the circumference, and 
the buttocks and thighs are likewise thinner. 
The colour is usually black, but sometimes 
brindled ; they are heavier in carcass ; they 
give a larger quantity of milk, but they do not 
attain maturity so early as the West High- 
landers, nor is their flesh quite so beautifully 
marbled ; yet, at a proper age, they fatten as 
readily as the others, not only on good pasture, 
but on that which is somewhat inferior. They 
are rarely used for husbandry work, or, at 
most, for only one year. They are sent to grass 
at four years old for six months, after which 
they will weigh from 5 to 6 cwt. "The breed," 
adds Mr. Youatt, " has progressively improved, 
and this by judicious selections from the native 
stock : it has increased in size, and become 
nearly double its weight, without losing its 
propensity to fatten, and without growing above 
its keep."- There is also in this great agricul- 
tural county an excellent breed of poll cattle; 
they are not so handsome, yet larger than the 
horned cattle; the quality of their meat is alsO' 
said not to be so good. The calves are reared' 
in Aberdeenshire much in the ordinary way^ 
They are commonly fed with milk warm from 
the cow, and they are even sometimes reared 
partly on oil-cakes. 

In Fifeshire the breed of cattle are of a very 
superior description. " They are generally," 
says Dr. Thompson, " of a black colour; the 
horns small and white, generally pretty erect, 
or, at least, turned up at the points, and bend- 
ing rather forward ; the bone small in propor- 
tion to the carcass ; the limbs clean but short, 
and the skin soft; wide between the extreme 
points of the hock-bones ; the ribs narrow and 
wide set, having a greater curvature than in 
other kinds, which gives the body a thick round 
form; they fatten quickly, and fill up well at 
all the choice points ; are hardy, fleet, and tra- 
vel well ; are docile, and excellent for work." 
Whatever may be the explanation of the fact, 
it is certain that, at the present day, the Fife- 
shire breed of cattle is peculiarly her own. 
That they were centuries since improved by a 
cross with the then small cattle of England, is- 
pretty certain; but whether English cattle 
formed part of the dowry of Margaret, the 
daughter of Henrv VII. of England, when she 
married .lames IV. of Scotland, or whether 
English cattle were sent as a present to Scot- 
land by James II. of England, is almost mere 
matter of conjecture; but, be that as it may, 
" the Fifeshire farmers," says Mr. Youatt, in 
his valuable work on cattle, "are convinced 
that their cattle cannot be further improved 
as a whole by any foreign cross, and they con- 
fine themselves to a judicious selection from 
their own." The pure Durhams have been 
established in some parts of Fife, but not al- 
ways without difficulty. 

Ayrshire has a peculiarly fine breed of dairr 
2B 289 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



cattle, which is thus described by Mr. Aiton, in 
his excellent treatise (p. 26) on the dairy breed 
of cows: — "The most approved shapes in the 
dairy breed are, small head, rather long, and 
narrow at the muzzle ; eye small, but smart 
and lively ; the horns small, clear, crooked, and 
their roots at considerable distance from each 
other; neck long and slender, tapering towards 
the head, with no loose skin below; shoulders 
thin ; fore-quarters light ; hind-quarters large ; 
back straight, broad behind ; the joints rather 
loose and open ; carcass deep, and pelvis ca- 
pacious and wide over the hips, with round 
fleshy buttocks ; tail long and small ; legs 
small and short, with firm joints; udder capa- 
cious, broad, and square, stretching forward, 
and neither fleshy, low hung, nor loose ; the 
milk-veins are large and prominent ; teats short, 
all pointing outwards, and at considerable dis- 
tance from each other, skin thin and loose ; 
hair soft and woolly ; the head, bones, horns, 
and all parts of least value, small ; and the 
general figure compact and well proportioned. 
See PI. 12, fig. 2. (Youalt, On Cattle,p. 127.) 

" The qualities of a cow," adds Mr. Aiton in 
another place, " are of great importance. 
Tameness and docility of temper greatly en- 
hance the value of a milch cow. Some degree 
of hardiness, a sound constitution, health, and 
a moderate degree of spirits, are qualities to be 
wished for in a dairy cow, and what those of 
Ayrshire generally possess. The most valua- 
ble qualities which a dairy cow can possess 
are that she yields much milk, and that of an 
oily, butyraceous and caseous nature; and that 
after she has yielded very large quantities of 
milk for several years, she shall be as valuable 
for beef as any other breed of cows known ; 
her fat shall be much more mixed through the 
whole flesh, and she shall fatten faster than 
any other." And again, " the best Scotch dairy 
cows yield 1000 gallons of milk in one year; 
and in general, from 3J to 4 gallons of their 
milk will yield 1^ lbs. of butter, and about 27^ 
gallons will produce 1^ stone imperial of full 
milk cheese." 

Lanarkshire is noted for its calves, whose 
veal is highly esteemed in the markets of Glas- 
gow and Edinburgh. These, according to Mr. 
Aiton (Survey of Ayrshire, p. 441), are fed on 
milk from a dish, not suckled. This is often 
given to them sparingly at first, to improve 
their appetite and relish for their food ; but it 
is gradually increased till the calf has a full 
supply. Other farmers allow them as much 
as they please from the first. For the first 
week or two a calf consumes about half a 
good cow's milk ; at a month old the whole of 
a cow's milk ; and at two months old the 
greater part of that of two cows. Those which 
are reared for stock have commonly the first 
drawn milk ; those which are fattening, the last 
drawn from two or three cows. When the 
calves are costive, they have a little bacon or 
mutton broth given them ; if they purge, a little 
rennet in their milk cures the complaint. They 
are used to have, also, a lump of chalk in their 
"Cribs 

The Galloway polled cattle are a peculiarly 
fin-? and valuable breed. They are described 
•by Mr. Youatt, on the authority of the author 



of the Survey of Galloway, as straight and broad 
in the back, and nearly level from the head to 
the tail — round in the ribs, and also between 
the shoulders and the ribs, and the ribs and the 
loins — broad in the loins, without any large pro- 
jecting hook-bones — long in the quarters and 
deep in the chest, but not broad in the ribs, and 
twist. There is much less space between the 
hook or hip-bones and the ribs than in most 
other breeds. They are short in the leg and 
moderately fine in the shank-bone. The happy 
medium seems to be preserved in the leg, se- 
curing hardihood and a disposition to fatten 
With the same cleanness and shortness of 
shank, there is no breed so large and muscular 
above the knee, while there is more room for 
the deep, broad, and capacious chest. They are 
clean, not fine and slender, but well propor- 
tioned in the neck and chaps ; a thin and deli- 
cate neck would not correspond with the broad 
shoulders, deep chest, and close, compact form 
of the breed. The neck of the Galloway bull 
is thick even to a fault. The Galloway has a 
loose, mellow skin, of medium thickness, with 
long, soft, silky hair. The skin, which is thin- 
ner than the Leicester, is not so fine as the 
improved Durham: it handles soft and kindly. 
Their colour is commonly black, but there are 
several varieties ; the dark-coloured are pre- 
ferred, from their being considered to indicate 
hardness of constitution. 30,000 of these are 
estimated to be sent yearly out of Gallowa} to 
the south. (Youatt, On Cattle, p. 158.) The 
Galloway breeders prefer allowing the calves 
to suck the cow; they consider they thrive ma- 
terially better than those fed from the pail, and 
that fewer die of stomach complaints. An- 
other valuable breed of polled cows is bred in 
Angus, Avhich much resemble in appearance 
those of Galloway ; they are, however, rather 
larger and longer in the leg, flatter sided, and 
with thinner shoulders. 

In Norfolk and Suffolk a polled breed of 
cows prevails, which are almost all descended 
from the Galloway cattle, " whose general 
form," says Mr. Youatt (p. 172), " they retain, 
with some of, but not all their excellences; 
they have been enlarged, but not improved, by 
a better climate and soil. They are commonly 
of a red or black colour, with a peculiar golden 
circle around the eye. They are taller than 
the Galloways, but thinner in the chine, flatter 
in the ribs, and longer in the legs ; rather better 
milkers; of greater weight when fattened; 
though not fattening so kindly, and the meat is 
not quite equal in quality." 

The Suflx)lk dun cow, which is also of Gal- 
lowa)' descent, is celebrated as a milker, and, 
there is little doubt, is not inferior to any other 
breed in the quantity of milk which she yields ; 
this is from six to eight gallons per day. The 
butter produced, however, is not in proportion 
to the milk. It is calculated that a Suffolk cow 
produces annually about 1^ cwt. of butter. 

The Sufl"olk duns derive the last part of their 
name from their usual pale yellow colour. 
Many, however, are red, or red and white. 
They are invariably without horns, and small in 
size, seldom weighing over 700 lbs. when fat- 
tened. The male and female are nearly of the 
same height, and seldom exceed 4} to 4| feet 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



They are rather rough about the head, with 
large ears. Their bodies are long and legs 
short, hip-bones high, and generally deficient 
in the points of the finer breeds. Still many 
of the cows fatten well, and produce beef of 
superior quality. In proportion to their size, 
the Suffolk dun cows yield a great abundance 
of milk ; and as a dairy stock, there are very 
few breeds that are preferable. 

Irkh Cattle. — Of the Irish cattle there are 
two breeds, the middle and the long-horns. 
The middle-horns are the original breed, and 
tenant the forests and most mountainous dis- 
tricts, " They are," says Mr. Youatt, " small, 
light, active, and wild; the head commonly 
small; the horns short but fine, rather upright, 
and frequently, after projecting forward, turn- 
ing backward ; somewhat deficient in hind- 
quarters ; high-boned, and wide over the hips, 
yet the bone not commonly heavy; the hair 
coarse and long, black or brindled, with white 
faces. Some are finer in the bone and in the 
neck, with a good eye and sharp muzzle, and 
great activity; are hardy, live upon very scanty 
fare, and fatten with great rapidity when re- 
moved to a. better soil : they are good milkers. 
The Kerry cows are excellent in this respect. 
These last, however, are wild and remarkable 
leapers. They live, however, upon very little 
food, and have often been denominated the 
poor man's cow." 

The other breed is of a larger size. It has 
much of the blood of the old Lancashire or 
Craven breed, or true long-horn. Their horns 
first turn outwards, then curve, and turn in- 
wards. Of each of these kinds, an immense 
number of both lean and fat stock are annually 
exported to England; in 1825 it amounted to 
63,524. 

The long-horus. — The long-horns of England 
came originally from Craven in Yorkshire, and 
derived their name from a length of horn, 
which often extended to an unbecoming degree. 
Bakewell, CuUey, and other great breeders im- 
proved upon, and have long sinc6 destroyed, 
the chief traces of the old, l<5ng-bodied, coarse, 
large boned breed. It is, needless, therefore, to 
follow this breed through the various counties 
in which it once predominated, for it has long 
been rapidly disappearing, and has almost 
everywhere given place to better kinds. 

The improved breed of Leicestershire, is 
said to have been formed by Webster of Cau- 
ley, near Coventry, in Warwickshire. Bake- 
well, of Dishley, in Leicestershire, afterwards 
got the lead as a breeder, by selecting from 
Cauley's stock ; and the stocks of several other 
eminent breeders have been traced to the same 
source. 

The Lancashire breed of long-horned cattle 
may be distinguished from other cattle by the 
thickness and firm texture of their hides, the 
length and closeness of their hair, the large 
size of their hoofs, and their coarse, leathery, 
thick necks. They are likewise deeper in their 
fore quarters, and lighter in their hind quarters 
than most other breeds; narrower in their 
shape, less in point of weight than the short- 
horns, though better weighers in proportion to 
rheir size ; and though they give considerably 
less milk, it is said to yield more cream in pro- 



portion to its quantity. They are more varied 
in colour than any other breeds ; but, whatever 
the colour may be, they have in general a 
white streak along their back, which the breed- 
ers term finched, and mostly a white spot on the 
inside of the hough. {Culky, p. 53.) "In a ge- 
neral view," says Loudon, " this race, notwith- 
standing the singular efforts that have been 
made towards its improvement, remains with 
little alteration ; for, except in Leicestershire, 
none of the subvarieties (which differ a little 
in almost every one of those counties where 
the long-horns prevail) have undergone any 
radical change or any obvious improvement." 
(Loudon's Encyc. of Jlgr. p. 1015.) 

The short-horns. — Of this noble breed of cattle, 
which seems to be annually increasing in fa- 
vour with the dairyman and the grazier, we 
are mainly indebted to the description of the 
late Rev. Henry Berry. Durham and York- 
shire have for ages been celebrated for a breed 
of these possessing extraordinary value as 
milkers, "in which quality," says Mr. Youatt, 
" taken as a breed, they have never been 
equalled. The cattle so distinguished were 
always, as now, very different from the im- 
proved race. They were generally of large 
size, thin skinned, sleek haired, bad handlers, 
rather delicate in constitution, coarse in the 
offal, and strikingly defective in the substance 
of girth in the fore-quarters. As milkers they 
were most excellent, but when put to fatten, as 
the foregoing description will indicate, were 
found slow feeders, producing an inferior 
quality of meat, not marbled or mixed as to fat 
and lean; the latter sometimes of a very dark 
hue. Such, too, are the unimproved short-horns 
of the present day." 

About the year 1750, in the valley of the 
Tees, commenced that spirit of improvement 
in the breeders of the old short-horns, which 
has ended in the improved modern breed. 
These efforts, begun by Sir William Quintin, 
and carried on by Mr. Milbank of Barming- 
hara, were nearly completed by Mr. Charles 
Colling. The success of this gentleman was, 
from the first, considerable. He produced, by 
judicious selections and crossings, the cele- 
brated bull Hubback, from whom are descend- 
ed the best short-horns of our A&y. Of this 
breed was the celebrated Durham ox, which 
was long shown in a travelling van at country 
fairs, and which, when slaughtered in April, 
1807, at eleven years of age, weighed 187 
stone ; and the Spottiswoode ox, probably the 
largest ever exhibited. In June, 1802, he 
measured— height of shoulder, 6 feet 10 inches; 
girth behind the shoulder, 10 feet 2 inches ; 
breadth across the hooks, 3 feet 1 inch ; com- 
puted weight, 320 stones of 14 lbs. (Quart. 
Journ. of Jgr. vol. vi. p. 271.) 

Besides Mr. Colling, his brother Mr. Robert 
Colling, Mr. Charge, and Mr. Mason were 
hardly second to him in skill and success as 
breeders of the short-horns. 

With the pure improved short-horns, crossed 
with a red polled Galloway cow, was produced 
a variety of this breed, which was long named 
" the alloy," but for which at Mr. C. Collings's 
sale, October 11, 1810, some most extraordinary 
prices were obtained : thus a cow called 

SOI 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



Lady, 14 years old, sold for 
Countess, her daughter, 9 years 
Laura, ditto 4 years 

Major, her son, 3 years 

George, ditto, a calf 



Guineas. 
206 
400 
210 
200 
130 



In short, at this sale, forty-eight lots produced 
7115?. 17s., Comet, a six year old bull, selling 
for 1000 guineas. (See Collikg, Robert and 
Chahles.) 

The colours of the improved short-horns are 
red or white, or a mixture of both ; " no j>ure im- 
proved short-horns," adds Mr. Youatt, " are 
found of any other colour but those above 
named." That the matured short-horns are an 
admirable grazier's breed of cattle is undoubt- 
ed : they are not, however, to be disregarded 
as milkers ; but they are inferior, from their 
fattening qualities, to many others as workers. 

" In its points," says Mr. James Dickson 
(Quart. Joitrn. of Jlgr. vol. vi. p. 269), for quan- 
tity and well laid on beef, the short-horn ox is 
quite full in every valuable part; such as 
along the • back, including the fore-ribs, the 
sirloin and rump, in the runners, flanks, but- 
tocks, and twist, and in the neck and brisket as 
inferior parts. In regard to quality of beef, the 
fat bears a due and even preponderating pro- 
portion to the lean, the fibres of which are fine 
and well mixed, and even marbled with fat, 
and abundantly juicy. The fine, thin, clear 
bone of the legs and head, with the soft mellow 
touch of the skin, and the benign aspect of the 
eye, indicate, in a remarkable degree, the dispo- 
sition to fatten ; while the uniform colours ol 
the skin, red or white, or both, commixed in 
various degrees, bare, cream-coloured skin on 
the nose and around the eyes, and fine, taper- 
ing, white, or light-coloured horns mark dis- 
tinctly the purity of the blood ; these points 
apply equally to the bull, the cow, and the 
heifer. The external appearance of the short- 
horned breed," adds Mr. Dickson, " is irresist- 
ably attractive. The exquisitely symmetrical 
form of the body in every position, bedecked 
with a skin of the richest hues of red, and the 
richest white approaching to cream, or both 
colours, so arranged or commixed as to form a 
beautiful fleck or delicate roan, and possessed 
of the mellowest touch ; supported on clean 
small limbs, showing, like those of the race- 
horse and the greyhound, the union of strength 
with fineness; and ornamented with a small, 
lengthy, tapering head, neatly set on a broad, 
firm, deep neck, and furnished with a small 
muzzle, wide nostrils, prominent, ' mildly beam- 
ing' eyes, thin, large biney ears set near the 
crown of the head and protected in front with 
semicircularly bent, white, or brownish co- 
loured, short (hence the name), smooth pointed 
horns ; all these parts combine to form a sym- 
metrical harmony, which has never been sur- 
passed in beauty and sweetness by any other 
species of the domesticated ox." 

An excellent paper by Mr. Dickson on cross- 
mg the short-horns with other cattle, may be 
consulted with advantage by the breeder in 
the Edin. Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. vii. p. 495, 
and on crossing in general, ^Ibid. p. 247. 

In the first plate a representation is given 
of short-horned cows ; in Plate 12, fig. 1, is a 
drawing of a short-horned bull, Avhich may re- 
292 



present the breeds variously termed, Dutch, 
Holderness, Teeswater, Yorkshire, Durham, 
Northumberland, &c. The Teeswater breed, 
a variety of short-horns established on the 
banks of the Tees, at the head of the vale of 
York, is at present in the highest estimation, 
and is alleged to be the true Yorkshire short- 
horned breed. Bulls and cows from this slock, 
purchased at most extraordinary prices, are 
spread over all the north of England and the 
border counties of Scotland. The bone, head, 
and neck of these cattle are fine; the hide is 
very thin ; the chine full ; the line broad ; the 
carcass throughout large and well fashioned ; 
and the flesh and fattening quality equal, or 
perhaps superior, to those of any other large 
breed. The short-horns give a greater quan- 
tity of milk than any other cattle ; a cow 
usually yielded 24 quarts of milk per day, 
making 3 firkins of butter during the grass 
season. {CvUcij, p. 48.) 

The Yorkshire row. — With Mr. Youatt's ac- 
count of the Yorkshire cow (and this article 
is, in fact, hardly any thing else but an abridg- 
ment of his excellent work "On Cattle" in the 
Library of Useful Knowledge) we shall conclude. 
The Yorkshire cow is that generally found in the 
great dairies in the vicinity of London, and in 
these the character of the Holderness and the 
Durham unite. "A milch cow good for the 
pail as long as she is wanted, and then quickly 
got into marketable condition, should have a 
long and rather small head; a large-headed 
cow will seldom fatten or yield much milk. 
The eye should be bright, yet with a peculiar 
placidness and quietness of expression; the 
chaps thin, and the horns small. The neck 
may be thin towards the head ; but it must 
soon begin to thicken, and especially when it 
approaches the shoulder. The dewlap should 
be small ; the breast, if not so wide as in some 
that have an unusual disposition to fatten, yet 
should be very far from being narrow, and it 
should project before the legs ; the chine to a 
certain degree fleshy, and even inclining to 
fulness; the girth behind the shoulder should 
be deeper than is usually found in the short- 
horn ; the ribs should be spread out wide, so 
as to give as globu.ar a form as possible to the 
carcass, and each should project farther than 
the preceding one, to the very loins. She 
should be well formed across the hips, and on 
the rump, and with greater length there than 
the milker generally possesses, or if a little too 
short not heavy. If she stands a little long on 
the legs, it must not be too long. The thighs 
somewhat thin, with a slight tendency to crook- 
edness or being sickle-hammed behind; the 
tail thick at the upper part, but tapering below; 
and she should have a mellow hide, and but 
little coarse hair. Common consent has given 
to her large milk-veins. A large milk-fein 
certainly indicates a strongly dei'eloped vas- 
cular system, one favourable to secretion gene- 
rally, and to that of the milk amongst the rest. 
The udder should rather incline to be large in 
proportion to the size of the animal, but not 
too large ; its skin thin and free from lumps in 
every part of it ; the teats of a moderate size. 
The quantity of milk given by some of these 
cows is very great ; it is by no means uncora- 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



mon for them in the beginning of the summer 
to yield thirty quarts a day. There are rare 
instances of the cow yielding thirty-six quarts; 
the average is about twenty-two to twenty-four 
quarts. The milk, however, is not so rich in 
its produce of butter as that of the long-horns, 
the Scotch, or the Devons." (For the Alderney 
cow, see Alderney.) 

The quantity of cattle annually sold in Sraith- 
fisld is very great: it was (according to M'Cul- 
locWs Diet, of Commerce) in — 



Year. 




Cattle. 


Sheep. 


\m 


. 


76,210 


514,700 


1742 


- 


79,601 


503,260 


175U 


. 


73,708 


642, 100 


1762 


. 


102,83! 


772,160 


1772 


. 


89,503 


609,540 


1782 


. 


101,176 


728,970 


1792 


- 


107,348 


760,859 


1802 


- 


126,389 


743,470 


IS12 


. 


133,854 


953,630 


1822 


- 


142,043 


1,340,160 


1832 


- 


166,224 


1,364,160 


ed calves — 








1822 


- 


24,255 




1632 


- 


19,522 



The quantity of cattle in various European 
countries has been estimated to be as follows: 



Great Britain 

Russia . - . 

Netherlands 

Denmark . . . . . 

Austria - . . - . 
France . . . . . 

Spain -....- 

Portugal . . - . . 
Italy ------ 

United States of America in 1840 



Catlle. 
5,100,000 

19,000,000 
2,500,000 
1,607,000 
9,912,500 
6,681,900 
2,500,000 
650,000 
3,500,000 

14,971,586 

lAve and dead weight of cattle. — Salesmen 
commonly calculate that the dead weight is 
one-half of what the animal weighs when alive; 
but the butcher knows that the produce is 
greater : it often approaches to three-fifths ; 
and by an extensive stock bailiif of the late Mr. 
Curwen, it was found that the dead weight 
amounted to fifty-five per cent, of the live. But 
the amount differs strangely, as may be seen 
by the following statement of Mr. Ferguson of 
Woodhill. (Brit. Husb. vol. ii. p. 392.) 





Live 

Weight. 


Dead 

Weight. 


Tallow. 






^^— ^^^ 


^— -^^-p 




St. lbs. 


sL lU 


S lib 


An Aberdeenshire ox - 


132 11 


84 6 


Itj 5 


A short-horned jx 


132 


90 1 


14 


A short-horned heifer - 


120 4 


77 9 


15 8 


A short-horned steer - 


120 5 


67 7 


14 12 



In asccrtsis'ng the weight by admeasure- 
ment, th« «rtb is taken by passing a cord just 
behind t^et shoalder-blade and under the fore- 
legs: tius gives the circumference, and the 
length M lancii along the back from the fore- 



most corner of the blade-bone of the shoulder, 
in a straight line to the hindmost point of the 
rump. (See engraving below.) 

Table for Admeasurement of Cattle. 



Girth. 


Uneth. 


Weight. 


Girth. 


l«ngth. 


Weight. 


"/TIT 


ft. in. 


It. 


lbs. 


ft. in. 


ft. in. 


tt. lit. 


4 3 


3 


12 


12 


6 6 


4 6 


45 3 




3 3 


13 


13 




4 9 


47 10 




3 6 


15 







5 


50 4 




3 9 


16 


1 




5 3 


52 11 




4 


17 


2 




5 6 


55 4 


4 6 


3 


14 


6 




5 9 


57 11 




3 3 


15 


9 




6 


60 4 




3 6 


16 


12 




6 3 


63 




3 9 


18 


1 


6 9 


4 6 


48 11 




4 


19 


4 




4 9 


51 7 




4 3 


20 


6 




5 


54 3 


4 9 


3 3 


17 


6 




5 3 


56 13 




3 6 


18 


11 




5 6 


59 9 




3 9 


20 


2 




5 9 


62 6 




4 


21 


6 




6 


65 1 




4 3 


22 


11 




6 3 


67 11 




4 6 


24 


2 


7 


4 9 


55 6 




4 9 


25 


7 




5 


58 4 


5 


3 3 


19 


5 




5 3 


61 3 




3 6 


20 


12 




5 6 


64 2 




3 9 


22 


7 




5 9 


67 1 




4 


23 


12 




6 


69 13 




4 3 


25 


5 




6 3 


72 12 




4 6 


26 


13 




6 6 


75 11 




4 9 


28 


6 


7 3 


4 9 


59 6 




5 


30 







5 


62 8 


5 3 


3 3 


21 


4 




5 3 


65 9 




3 6 


22 


13 




5 6 


68 11 




3 9 


24 


8 




5 9 


71 13 




4 


26 


3 




6 


75 1 




4 3 


27 


12 




6 3 


78 3 




4 6 


29 


7 




6 6 


81 4 


1 


4 9 


31 


2 


7 6 


5 


66 13 


1 


5 


32 


11 




5 3 


70 4 


5 6 


3 6 


25 


2 




5 6 


73 9 




3 9 


27 







5 9 


77 




4 


28 


11 




6 


80 5 




4 3 


30 


8 


6 3 


S3 9 




4 6 


32 


5 


6 6 


87 




4 9 


34 


2 


: € 9 


90 5 




5 


36 





7 9 


5 


71 7 




5 3 


37 


a 




5 3 


75 1 


5 9 


3 9 


29 


7 




5 6 


78 9 




4 


31 


6 




5 9 


82 3 




4 3 


33 


6 




6 


85 11 




4 6 


35 


5 




6 3 


89 5 




4 9 


37 


5 




6 6 


92 13 




5 


39 


5 




6 9 


96 7 




5 3 


41 


4 




7 


100 




5 6 


43 


4 


8 


5 3 


80 


6 


4 3 


36 


6 




5 6 


83 11 




4 6 


38 


8 




5 9 


87 8 




4 9 


40 


10 




6 


91 6 




5 


42 


12 




6 3 


95 3 i 




5 3 


45 







6 6 


99 I 




5 9 


47 


2 




6 9 


102 12 




5 9 


49 


4 




7 


106 9 




6 


51 


8 


8 3 


5 6 


89 1 


6 3 


4 6 


41 


11 




5 9 


93 2 




4 9 


44 


2 




6 


97 3 




5 


46 


7 




6 3 


101 3 




5 3 


48 


11 




6 6 


105 4 




5 6 


51 


2 




6 9 


109 5 




5 9 


53 


6 




7 


113 6 




6 


55 


11 




7 3 


117 6 1 




6 3 


58 


2 






1 



(M'Derment''s Farmer's Assistant.) 




3b2 



299 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



The breeds of cattle which stock the farms 
of the United Stales are all derived from Eu- 
rope, and, with few exceptions, from Great 
Britain. The highest breeds at the present 
day are comparatively of recent origin, since 
the great improvements commenced by Bake- 
well only date about the period of the American 
Revolution. The old importations made by the 
primitive settlers must consequently have been 
from comparatively inferior grades. In some 
sections of the Union, and more particularly in 
New England, the primitive stock is thought 
to have undergone considerable improvement, 
whilst in many parts of the Middle, and espe- 
cially of the Southern States, a greater or less 
depreciation has ensued. The prevailing stock 
in the Eastern Stales is believed to be derived 
from the North Devons, most of the excellent 
marks and qualities of which they possess. 
Hence they are very highly esteemed, and have 
been frequently called the "American Devons." 
The most valuable working oxen are chiefly 
of this breed, which also contributes so largely 
to the best displays of beef found in the mar- 
kets of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. 
The prevailing colour of the New England 
cattle is a deep red. Sometimes, however, 
they are dark-brown, or brindle, or nearly 
black. Their horns are moderately long, 
smooth, and slender. The oxen are remarka- 
ble for their docility, strength, quickness, and 
powers of endurance. The cows are fair milk- 
ers, and both kinds are hardy and fatten readily. 
By means of this fine domestic stock, and the 
importations still so extensively made of selec- 
tions from the short-horned, and other of the 
finest European breeds, the cattle, not only of 
New England, but of other sections, are rapidly 
improving, especially in the Middle and West- 
ern States. 

The graziers of Kentucky and other parts 
of the West have heretofore generally shown 
the greatest preference to the short-horned 
breed, which, with various crosses, is now per- 
haps the predominant stock of the country. 
Since Durhams have become so common, the 
extravagantly high prices they once brought 
are no longer maintained; and, indeed, the 
farmers now not only think of changing the 
breed, but have actually commenced doing so. 
They have been led to this chiefly for the rea- 
son, that the short-horned cattle, which take on 
fat so readily when well fed, and become so 
heavy, are unable to retain their fat and flesh 
on being driven some 1000 or 1200 miles to 
the Eastern markets, where they generally 
arrive in such a meager condition as to bring 
only the price of lean stock. The Western 
graziers, therefore, wish to adopt some breed 
which will be able to carry their beef alotig with 
them. The English Herefords have been sought 
after, and as much as $500 paid for an imported 
cow. Captain Barclay, a. sentleman owning a 
large estate in Scotland, called Ury, and who 
has recently made a tour through the United 
States, says that he thinks our Western farm- 
ers will find themselves mistaken in this selec- 
tion from the British breeds, and that they 
would derive more advantage by importing 
Angus or Aberdeenshire Daddies, which are 
kindred breeds of well-formed, moderate-sized, 
294 



active animals ; or, perhaps still better, the 
small and peculiarly symmetrical West High* 
land cow; and to cross them with a short-horn 
or Durham bull. The West Highlander, he 
says, possesses all the points of a good feeder; 
and being hardy, and active as a deer, would 
suflTer little from being driven even 1000 miles. 
In its native glens it may feed to 20 or 25 stones, 
Amsterdam ;* but the heifers, on being trans- 
planted to a rich and sheltered pasture, attain 
to nearly double that weight. This he says he 
has demonstrated by introducing a herd of forty 
West Highland heifers on his farm at Ury, 
where they were crossed with short-horned 
bulls, and the experiment, on repeated trials, 
has been attended with great success ; for while 
the mothers, by removal to better pasture, have 
greatly increased in size, the cross has produced 
strong and handsome animals, kindly feeders, 
rising to a great weight, and bringing high 
prices. It is a great desideratum for the gra- 
ziers of Kentucky and other parts of the West, 
where pastures of the richest kind abound, 
could they find some active breed which would 
be able to perform the long journeys to the 
Eastern markets, and carry their beef with 
them. 

A very general impression now exists in the 
United States in favour of breeding a cross 
from the best short-horned bulls with the finest 
native cows. 

Mr. Colman, in his Reports upon the agricul- 
tural interests of Massachusetts, recently made 
to the legislature of that state, has collected a 
fund of valuable information in relation to 
American neat cattle, showing their distin- 
guishing characteristics for dairy and other 
purposes, together with the improvements made 
and still making by the introduction of select 
cattle from Europe, and the results of feeding 
in various ways. Several books and periodi- 
cals published in the United States, and devoted 
to agriculture, are rich in details relating to 
American and European neat stock. But, 
instead of culling from these, we prefer draw- 
ing upon Mr. Colman's Report to the Legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts, as we regard it a high 
source of authentic information, and calculated 
to be the more highly useful from the exactness 
of the details. We regret that our limits will 
not admit of some particular notice of nume- 
rous mammoth beasts which have been raised 
and fattened in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and 
elsewhere. Particular accounts of these, with 
the modes of management and feeding, are 
duly recorded in more or less of the periodicals. 

Stall-fed a7iimals. — It appears that the stall- 
feeders in Massachusetts usually select cattle 
brought from Vermont, New Hampshire, and 
New York, choosing such as are small-boned, 
neat, and thrifty. Rather than keep these on 
hand a long time, they generally find it most 
advantageous to "turn them soon," and after 
thus disposing of their fat stock early in the 
season, many purchase an additional supply 
pretty far advanced for the market, and finish 
these so as to be ready to send them olT in the 
spring. In the hilly districts, where Indian 



* The Amsterdam stone is only about 10 Itw. of Eng- 
lish troy weight. 



CATTLE. 

corn is not raised to any considerable extent, 
the cattle are generally fed upon hay and 
potatoes, whilst in the river valleys Indian 
meal is generally and most advantageously 
substituted for potatoes. When potatoes are 
chiefly depended upon in stall-feeding, a 
bushel of these well washed, are usually given 
in a day to each head, at two or more times, 
along with as much good hay as the animal 
can consume, but no water is allowed. Many 
farmers think that a yoke of oxen put up in 
good condition, may be well fatted or finished 
off for market with one hundred bushels of po- 
tatoes, in addition to the hay they will con- 
sume. Cattle fed upon potatoes will, it is said, 
in general prove as well, that is, have as much 
tallow, as those fed in any way, and the beef 
of such cattle is thought by many to have a 
peculiar juiciness or sweetness. In driving 
to market, however, the cattle fed upon pota- 
toes will fall away more than those fed upon 
hay and corn ; and when they come into mar- 
ket by no means appear as well. Several 
farmers are in the practice of boiling or 
steaming the potatoes which they give to their 
cattle, and profess to find a great advantage in 
it. The experiments which have come within 
my own knowledge have not yet satisfied me 
that the advantages are a compensation for 
the labour and expense incurred by such 
operation. 

"The articles usually employed in fattening 
cattle are hay and Indian meal, or corn and 
rye meal mixed, or pease and oats, or oats and 
corn ground together. Besides this, many 
farmers are in the practice of giving their 
stall-fed cattle occasionally certain quantities 
of potatoes. An excellent farmer, of fifty 
years experience in the fatting of cattle, is of 
opinion that potatoes are good feed for fatting 
cattle in the fall and spring, when the weather 
is warm ; but that they do no good in cold 
weather unless they are cooked. I rely much 
upon his judgment and experience. The value 
of potatoes is differently estimated by different 
individuals; some considering five bushels, 
others rating four bushels, as equivalent to one 
bushel of corn. 

" In the feeding of cattle for market a great 
deal of practical skill is required, and constant 
observation of their condition, otherwise they 
may be surfeited and their appetite destroyed ; 
or their digestive powers be overtasked and 
the feed fail of its object. 

" A farmer in Charlemont, of large experience 
in the fatting of stock, considers the common 
English or flat turnip of little value for fatten- 
ing stock. The cattle fed upon them appear 
healthy and in fine condition, but yield very 
little tallow. A pair of cattle fatted by him 
and much admired by the butchers, which 
weighed eighteen hundred pounds when 
dressed, had only thirty pounds tallow each. 

" I presume the experiment has never been 
fairly tried, of the value of turnips for fattening 
stock. This is likely to have been only a soli- 
tary instance ; besides this, we want to know 
in the case, how many turnips were given ; 
under what circumstances they were given; 
and with what other feed accompanied. 

The same farmer is of opinion, that oil-meal 



CATTLE. 

for fattening cattle is of great value. He is 
quite content to pay twenty to twenty-three 
dollars per ton, the current price for it in his 
town. A farmer in Conway concurs in this 
opinion ; and believes that for a beneficial 
change a farmer can well afford to buy oil- 
meal with corn at bushel for bushel. The 
price here rises sometimes to thirty dollars 
per ton. The weight of oil-meal is abou;. fortv- 
five pounds to the bushel." 

In England and Scotland, turnips are freely 
given to growing and fattening cattle, though 
more sparingly to milch cows, in consequence 
of the flavour they impart to milk and butter.* 

Mr. Colman furnishes the results of expe- 
rience gained by many persons who have 
been long in the practice of stall-feeding. A 
few of these we shall notice. 

" A. R. has twenty head of cattle in the stall 
They are of good size and calculated to aver 
age over eleven hundred pounds each, whev 
dressed in Brighton. 

"He has tried a variety and a mixture of feed, 
such as oats, broom-corn seed, &c., but he pre 
fers Indian meal to every other feed. He dis 
approves of excessive feeding; and thinks it j 
great error to give too much. He deems fou; 
quarts with hay ordinarily enough ; and te*^. 
quarts a day sufficient for any animal. H< 
feeds twice a day with great regularity. Hi: 
present cattle have never received over eigh 
quarts per day each ; and at first puttuig up i 
much less quantity. He deems it best to re 
duce their feed of provender a few days befort 
starting for market. He buys his cattle for 
feeding in the fall ; and his present ;.;tocn 
averaged in the cost seventy-five dollars pei 
pair. 

"S. W. is of opinion that one bushel of corn 
one year old for feeding any kind of stock, is 
equal to one bushel and one peck of new corn, 
or corn before it becomes perfectly sound and 
dry. 

" T. C. has in stall, 27th February, five pairs 
of oxen, which were purchased in Brighton, in 
June last. When purchased, they were thin 
in flesh and were immediately put into good 
pasture. The cost was as follows : 



Two pairs en?! 60 riollars per yoke 
One pair cost 46 50 " " - 

" 47 00 " 

" 45 00 " 



120 00 

46 50 

47 00 
45 00 



" These cattle were put into a good pasture 
until the 20th of November, when they were 
brought to the stall. From that time until the 
20th December, they were fed with hay only. 
From that time until the first of January, they 
received six quarts of provender each, daily. 
From the first of January, they received each 



* Turnips, though used extensively as an auxiliar> in 
feeding cattle and other stock in Europe, and especially 
in Great Britain, do not seem to answer so well in the 
United States, unless perhaps it may be in some portions 
of New England. The general complaint against them 
in the Middle States, is that they do not appear to pos- 
sess sufficient nourishing and fattening qualities. Hence 
the sugar beet, ruta baga, mangel-wurtzel, and carrot 
are greatly preferred, all of which roots may be given 
with very great advantage to stock, as auxiliaries. 
Testimonials of their value when thus employed are 
numerous and conclusive. For information relative to 
the feeding of cattle on turnips, see Stephens's "B«o/k 
of the Farm." 

29i 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE 



eight quarts daily. This provender consists 
of one-half oil-meal, one quarter oats and one 
quarter corn ; the two last ground together 
and the whole intermixed when given to the 
cattle. 

" The oil-meal in this case cost forty dollars 
per ton. It weighs about forty-five pounds to 
a bushel. If ground very fine, it will not 
weigh more than thirty-eight or forty pounds 
to the bushel. It is best, therefore, to buy it 
by weight. This fanner is of opinion that his 
oxen, if now killed, would return him one 
thousand pounds of beef each. 

" Meal made from the seed of broom-corn," 
Mr. Colmansays, "is occasionally used, mixed 
with other provender, but for neat cattle it is not 
approved by the best farmers. Flaxseed jelly, 
that is, half a pint or a pint of flaxseed formed 
into a jelly by boiling, as an allowance for a 
stall-fed animal per day, has been used for fat- 
tening cattle by some farmers with remarkable 
success. It does not supersede the use of meal, 
but is best mixed with it. It is believed that 
no article, according to cost, can be used with 
more advantage than this for this object ; and 
that none is known, which is more nutritious. 
This jelly, which I have myself used with great 
advantage, is prepared as follows: 'to seven 
parts of water let one part of linseed be put for 
forty-eight hours ; then boil it slowly for two 
hours, gently stirring the whole lest it should 
burn. Afterwards it ought to be cooled in 
tubs ; and mixed with meal, bran, or cut chaff, 
in the proportion of one bushel of hay to the 
jelly produced by one quart of linseed well 
mashed together. This quantity given daily 
with other food will forward cattle rapidly, but 
it must be increased when they are intended 
to be completely fattened.'" 

The quantity of Indian corn meal required 
to fatten cattle, usually varies a little. One 
experienced feeder gives it as the result of his 
observation that a yoke of good cattle, to be 
well stall-fed, will take from twenty to twenty- 
five bushels of meal, besides the usual allow- 
ance of hay. 

Some farmers have ground their corn for 
fattening cattle on the cob. In such cases it is 
suggested that the miller has it in his power to 
take advantage by drawing his measure of toll 
from the lowermost portion of the grist to 
which the corn usually settles. There can be 
little doubt that corn cobs will serve the pur- 
pose of coarse hay for distension, etc., since 
cattle are often quickly fattened upon nubbins 
or the smaller ears of corn. They will thus 
often be found a useful auxiliary-. 

The Massachusetts stall-feeders consulted 
by Mr. Colman are almost universally agreed 
upon one point — namely, that a mixture of 
provender is best. "While Indian meal is to be 
considered as the basis, certain proportions of 
rye, or oats, or pease and oats, are always 
deemed best to be mixed with it. An excel- 
lent farmer, whose fat cattle do him much 
credit, is of opinion that the meal given should 
always be scalded. Oxen from four to six 
years old are generally selected for fattening, 
though some prefer young stock of from three 
to five years old. With regard to the particu- 
lar breeds preferred, Mr. Colman says that the 
296 



small-boned, medium-sized animals, of good 
length, strongly marked with the Devon blood, 
are those which are chosen. In considering 
the capacities of cattle for fattening, a wide 
chest has been regarded as an unerring sign 
of a good and quick feeder. Bearing upon this 
point. Dr. Jenner, the great benefactor of man- 
kind, made an observation, the truth of which 
appears to have been fully confirmed by fur- 
ther examination — namely, that no animal 
whose chest was narrow could easily be made 
fat. This observation applies not only to neat 
cattle, but to sheep, goats, and hares. It even 
holds good in the human species. The experi- 
enced farmer is seldom at a loss to distinguish 
the most thrifty cattle, in respect to which there 
are great differences among individuals of the 
same breed. To the assistance of the eye is 
added the sense of touch by the operation tech- 
nically called handling, the mode of conducting 
which, according to the most approved English 
authorities, has been already detailed. In re- 
ference to the several breeds of cattle and their 
distinguishing qualities, Mr. Colman makes the 
following remarks as the result of his observa- 
tions and inquiries : — 

"The pastures in New England are short, 
and the winters long and severe, and therefore 
ill-adapted to a race of large size, of tender 
habits, and requiring extraordinary keeping 
and the most particular care to maintain their 
condition. The most celebrated breeds in Eng- 
land are the improved Durham short-horn, the 
Hereford, the Ayrshire, and the North Devon. 
Of these different races, highly improved ani- 
mals of each sex, for the purposes of breeding, 
have been introduced into the country and into 
the state ; and each race has found strong ad- 
vocates, who have preferred it to every other. 
For dairy purposes, as far as my own limited ex- 
perience and observation go, I have no doubt that 
the Ayrshire, or a first cross with the improved 
Durham and the Devon, are to be preferred. 
For early maturity and size as beef animals, 
the improved Durham short-horn appears to me 
to take the lead. But they are tender, and re- 
quire extraordinary keeping and care to main- 
tain theirgoodqualities. Theyseem betteradapt- 
ed to the rich prairies and feeding grounds of 
the Western States than to our scanty pastures. 
The Hereford, of which some remarkably 
beautiful animals have been imported into Al- 
bany, have warm advocates both here and 
abroad, and come in strong competition with the 
improved Durhams. Those of the Herefords, 
which I have had the pleasure of seeing, 
seemed to me considerably larger than the 
Devons, but smaller than the Durhams. These 
were choice specimens, and were remarkably 
thrifty and beautiful animals, clean about the 
limbs, not so straight on the back and square 
behind as the Durhams, but exhibiting upon 
the whole admirable constitution and symme- 
try. Having had no farther personal observa- 
tion or experience with this breed of animals, 
I will not venture to speak of them with any 
confidence. Of their particular qualifications 
for the dairy I know nothing. For our pur- 
poses as working oxen and for stall-feeding, 
the North Devon cattle are most generally ap- 
proved. This itndoubtedly is the prevalent 




^vT iS 




pa 
c 

K 
o 
W 



^^Hil^! 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



stock of the country, though diversified and 
contaminated by various mixtures. No pains 
have been taken, by systematic efforts, by judi- 
cious selection, and by perseverance in endea- 
vours to combine the best qualities and to era- 
dicate or remedy defects, in order to form, from 
what we call our native stock, a distinct 
and valuable breed. Indeed, where the im- 
proved blood has been introduced, it has been 
suffered, after a short time, to run out through 
neglect, or to become degenerate by poor keep- 
ing." 

As regards the capacity for thrift in the differ- 
ent breeds, Mr. Colman thinks that the perfec- 
tion of any animal depends essentially upon his 
good keeping from his birth ; and that severity 
or hard fare, or negligence while in a growing 
state, do an injury to the constitution, and so 
stint the growth, that no after keeping can ever 
repair it. The animal constitution always suf- 
fers essentially by reverses. It is said that a 
sheep is never fat but once. Perhaps this as- 
sertion is to be received with some qualifica- 
tion, but still it must be admitted as a difficult 
task to raise an animal from a low condition. 
"The farmers prejudice very greatly their own 
interest in suffering their milch cows to come 
out in the spring in low condition. During the 
time they are dry, they think it enough to give 
them the coarsest fodder, and that in limited 
quantities ; this, too, at a time of pregnancy, 
when they require the kindest treatment and 
the most nourishing food. The calf itself un- 
der this treatment of the cow is small and 
feeble. He finds comparatively insufficient 
support from his exhausted dam ; and the re- 
turn which the cow makes in milk during the 
summer is much less than it would be, if she 
came into the spring in good health and flesh. 
It requires the whole summer to recover what 
she has lost. The animal constitution cannot 
be trifled with in this way. 

"It is so with all live-stock, and especially 
with young animals at the period of their most 
rapid growth. They should not be prematurely 
forced ; but, on the other hand, they should not 
be stinted or checked. It is a very important 
question, whether it is more profitable to fatten 
young animals than older ones. I have given 
the different opinions of different farmers on 
this subject. In England, it seems an almost 
universal opinion, that the sooner an animal 
can be made fit for the market the better, and 
their fatted animals, especially of the im- 
proved breeds, are slaughtered at two and three 
years old. They are often brought to market 
at even an earlier age than this ; but it is con- 
sidered, and with reason, that the meat of such 
animals is not so good as when they have at- 
tained a full growth. It is natural to suppose 
that the animal can only be in perfection when 
he has ceased to grow, and if killed before that 
period, there would seem to be a loss of that 
enlargement of size and weight, separate from 
an increase of fatness, to which he might at- 
tain. While an animal is growing and well 
fed at the same time, there is evidently a 
double gain ; and if he increases one pound a 
day by his extra feed, he may be supposed to 
increase another pound by his ordinary growth. 
After this period, however, it may be advisable 
38 



to send him to market as soon as he can be 
put into condition. Farmers often make great 
mistakes in keeping their cattle too long. 
There is a reasonable calculation to be made 
in respect to the markets, which are generally 
higher in the spring than in the autumn ; but 
the advance in price does not always meet the 
increased expense of keeping. It is import- 
ant, as a general rule, that the animal should 
go to market as soon as the gain which he 
makes ceases to pay the expense of his keeping. 

" It has been made a question, whether 
heifers are not more profitable than steers. 
They are as thrifty, and, in general, pay as well 
for their keeping. It is the practice of some 
farmers, to allow them to come in with calves 
at two years old ; if at that time they promise 
well as cows, a good market can almost always 
be found for them ; but, if otherwise, after 
suckling the calf three months or more, they 
are turned out to be fatted for beef, and are 
either sold immediately at the close of the pas- 
turing season, or otherwise, after being stall- 
fed for a short time. Their meat, if well fed, 
is always highly esteemed. This proves, in 
general, a good operation. In England, heifers 
designed for the stall are very freqtiently 
spayed, by which their thrift is greatly assisted. 

" This is often done in Kentucky and some 
other of the Western Stales ; but I have never 
known more than one instance of its being 
practised in New England, I do not feel au- 
thorized, therefore, to pronounce upon its ad- 
vantages. 

" It is sometimes asked, whether oxen are 
injured in their growth from being worked. If 
their strength is prematurely and too severely 
taxed, or if they are subjected to severe usage, 
undoubtedly it must prove injurious; but, if 
otherwise, if reasonably worked and carefully 
and kindly attended, there is no doubt that 
their health and growth are promoted by it- 
It is often matter of inquiry, whether fatting 
cattle should be kept in close stalls, or be suf- 
fered to lie out-doors. The experience of all 
the farmers whom I have consulted, who have 
made any trial, is conclusive in this case, in 
favour of the superior thrift of animals kept 
constantly in the barn, or turned out only for 
watering and immediately put up again, over 
those which are kept in open sheds, or tied up 
for feeding only, and at other times allowed 
to lie in the yard. No exact experiments have 
been made in this country in relation to this 
subject; but experiments made abroad lead to 
the conclusion, that cattle thrive best in a high 
and equable temperature, so warm as to keep 
them constantly in a state of active perspira- 
tion, and that their thrift is much hindered by 
an exposure to severe alternations of heat and 
cold. It is certain, that in order to thrift, cattle 
cannot be made too comfortable ; their man- 
gers should be kept clean ; their stalls be well 
littered; and the cattle protected from currents 
of air blowing through crevices or holes in the 
floors or the sides of the stables, which prove 
often much more uncomfortable than an opea 
exposure." 

As at present conducted in Massachusetts, 
and at the present prices of provender and 
beef, Mr. Colman thinks the business of faU 

297 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



tening cattle for market any thing but profita- 
ble, and that if extensively and exclusively 
carried on by individuals, the result must 
generally be embarrasment and ruin. " From 
the best observation which I have been able to 
make, I have," he says, " found very few in- 
stances in which a pair of cattle or a single 
ox kept for any length of time in the stall have 
ever made compensation for the produce which 
they or he consume, even at prices consider- 
ably below the current prices in the market. 
There are occasional and accidental excep- 
tions, but they are very seldom to be met 
with." In the estimates presented to Mr. Col- 
man, Indian corn-meal is reckoned at from 
60 to 75 cts. per bushel, potatoes 25 cts. per 
bushel, a mixture of peas and oats at 50 cts. 
per bushel, and hay at $10 per ton. 

"It has been supposed that farmers by going 
extensively into the cultivation of esculent 
roots, such as carrots, ruta-baga, parsnips, or 
mangel-wunzel, could fatten cattle to much 
more advantage, or rather at much less ex- 
pense than on hay or corn. This deserves 
great consideration. On this subject we want 
light, and that which springs from actual and 
intelligent experience. My belief is, that for 
the fatting of cattle, where the coarse fodder is 
well saved, few crops are more profitable to the 
farmer than a crop of Indian corn at the rate 
of seventy bushels to the acre. Next to corn, 
potatoes at the rate of four hundred bushels 
to the acre would be a profitable crop. In 
number of bushels to the acre, there is no 
doubt that more can be produced and at a less 
expense of cultivation and harvesting of 
common turnips, of ruta-baga, and of mangel- 
wurtzel, than of potatoes. But it is believed 
that more nutritive matter can be obtained 
from one hundred bushels of potatoes than 
from two hundred of common turnips. Ruta- 
baga and mangel-wurtzel have undoubtedly a 
great superiority over the common white tur- 
nip, but these are much inferior to the best and 
most farinaceous potatoes. Hay is without 
question one of the best articles which can be 
given to fattening animals; but where an 
abundance of meal or of esculent vegetables 
is given, the nature of the long feed to be given 
them seems of much less importance. Rye, 
wheat, or oat straw, in such case, is found to 
be given with an almost equal advantage as 
the best ha}\ Many of the best beasts in 
England are fatted upon straw and turnips. 
In England, it is considered as doing well, if 
an acre of turnips will fatten an ox for market. 
An experienced farmer here is of opinion, that 
one hundred bushels of potatoes with a small 
amount of hay will fatten an ox. Another 
says, that he allows twenty-five bushels of 
corn to fatten an ox, and but little hay will be 
required. 

"It is curious to compare the gain of fattening 
cattle with the actual cost of keeping. Two 
pounds live weight per day in an ox are con- 
sidered a large gain. The largest gain men- 
tioned in this report is a little more than three 
pounds per day. At seven dollars per hundred, 
this would be equal to twenty-seven cents. To 
make this, we suppose the animal to receive 
one peck of Indian meal, which, at 66f cents 
^98 



per bushel, would be 16f cents, and 28 lbs. of 
hay, which, at 8 dollars per 2000 lbs., would 
be 11 cents and 2 mills, or both about 28 cents. 
Or suppose him to gain only 2 lbs. per day, 
which would be 14 cents ; and his daily al- 
lowance of meal be reduced to 4 quarts, and 
hay the same as befo.'e, the daily cost of keep- 
ing would be about 20 cents ; in which case, 
if we place the manure as an offset for the 
attendance, interest, and commissions on sale, 
&c., there will be a loss of about six cents per 
day. I believe the result is often much worse 
than this ; and it is much to be regretted that 
farmers are not willing to look these facts in 
the face. I do not mean to deny that there are 
instances of success in this department of 
husbandry, instances in which the farmer is 
well paid for his trouble and attendance, and 
receives a full compensation for the feed sup- 
plied to them ; but these instances are compa- 
ratively rare, and so much matter of contin- 
gency, that even the most skilful farmers cannot 
always rely upon their best judgment. The 
farmer always feels satisfied, if he can, as he 
terms it, double his money; that is, if he re- 
ceives for his cattle in the market twice as 
much as they cost him when he first put them 
into the stall. This is sometimes done. It is 
seldom exceeded ; and fatteners often fall 
short of it." 

At Mr. Colman's request, a careful farmer 
made experiments for the purpose of ascertain- 
ing the actual quantity of hay ordinarily con- 
sumed by a fatting ox. In conducting these, 
the hay was first weighed, and then the weight 
of the leavings deducted. Five oxen consumed 
150 lbs. hay per day. Two of these oxen had 
at the same time 20 quarts of provender — half 
Indian corn and half broom-seed meal; two of 
them 24 quarts of the some provender per day; 
and one of them eight quarts per day. Upon a 
second experiment with the same cattle, fed as 
just stated, the consumption of hay by each 
ox averaged 25 lbs. per day. 

It is stated in the Complete Grazier, that an 
un worked ox for several days together consumed 
33 lbs. of hay per day. In the New York Me- 
moirs of Agriculture, it is stated that an ox will 
eat every twenty-four hours 14 lbs. of hay, half 
a bushel of potatoes, and 8 quarts of Indian 
meal. It hence appears that the capacities 
of cattle for the consumption of food vary 
according to circumstances of size, age, con- 
dition, &c. Many farmers who engage in 
fattening cattle only expect to get paid in the 
operation for their grain, without taking into 
account the hay consumed. They, however, 
derive the great advantage of consuming their 
crops upon the ground, and reserving the ma- 
nure to keep up the productiveness of the soiL 
The farmer who annually sells off" the produce 
of his land in the form of grain, hay, &c., soon 
finds the necessity of making a considerable 
outlay for manure, to compensate for certain 
and often rapid deterioration. It is freely ad- 
mitted that with respect to hay, straw, and all 
kinds of what is called " long feed," it is always 
better to consume the produce on the farm, 
even at a nominal loss of twenty-five per cent, 
than to carry it off any distance to market; 
that is to say, a farmer had best feed his hay 



CATTLE. 

at home, although it may net him only $6 per 
ton in fattening his cattle, than carry it even 
a short distance to market and obtain $8 for 
it. Such estimates would seem to indicate 
that the value of articles consumed in fattening 
stock ought not to be valued so high as the 
current market prices. 

If the hay consumed on the farm nets the 
farmer $5 per ton, and the average product is 
two tons, it will pay a remunerating profit, 
allowing the land to be valued at $75 and even 
much higher, per acre. 

Gain of stall-fed cattle. — Colman gives some 
interesting estimates showing the actual gain 
per day in stall-fed cattle, a matter generally 
left to conjecture. 

"Example 1. — A pair of cattle owned by S. C. 
weighed 

Oct. 16, 2305 lbs. and 2110 lbs, together - - 4415 lbs. 
Jan. 17, 2435 " 2185 " - - 4620 " 

The gain, therefore, in 3 months and 1 day, was 205 " 

" The same cattle weighed on the following 
March 11th, 

One 2590 and one 2345 lbs., together - - 4935 lbs. 
The gain, then, in this 1 month and 22 days, " 

was ....... 315 " 

The whole gain in 4 mos. 23 days, being - 520 " 

The gain during 146 days was at the rate of 
3*56 lbs. per day. 

" These cattle had, besides hay, a small al- 
lowance of meal, and ran in a good pasture 
through the summer. They were put up to be 
stall-fed early in the autumn, and were soon 
brought to receive together one bushel of meal 
per day, even measure ; one-third pease and 
oats, two-thirds corn, with a liberal allowance 
of hay. 

"Example 2. — A pair of oxen belonging to 
R. D. weighed 

Nov. 8, 1995 lbs. and 1985 lbs., together - - 3980 lbs. 
Mar. 12, ensuing, 2250 lbs. and 2255 lbs., to- 
gether 4505 " 

"The whole gain in 124 days, was 525 lbs. 
or at the rate of 4'33 lbs. per day. 

" Example 6. — One pair of cattle fed by R. D. 
weighed in the first part of Nov. 3765 lbs. 
Dec. 15, 4220 lbs. Jan. 15, 4410 lbs. The 
gain in one month was 190 Ib.s. March 7, 
weighed 4730 lbs. The gain from the com- 
mencement was 965 lbs.; from Dec. 15 to 
March 7, was 510 lbs. 

"The average gain of the above, from Dec. 
15 to March 7, 81 days, being 510 lbs. is 6-29 
lbs. per day. The gain from Dec. 15 to Jan. 
15, 30 days, being 190 lbs. is 6-33 lbs. per day. 

"These cattle were old, and at the time of 
being purchased appeared to have been hardly 
driven and poorly fed." 

Loss of weight in driving.— The loss of cattle 
in driving to market is generally estimated at 
from 50 to 100 lbs. dead weight, in a distance 
of some seventy-five or eighty miles. Cattle 
fatted upon potatoes lose more than others 
during the journey, which is ascribed to the 
difiiculty of getting them to eat upon the road. 
The drover usually receives from the farmer 
a commission of two dollars ahead for driving 
and selling the cattle, with no allowance for 
feeding. He is therefore but little interested 



CATTLE. 

in the fare or treatment they are to receive on 
the way. 

The respectable and responsible officer em- 
ployed to take an account of all the cattle and 
other stock brought to the Brighton market, 
note the average prices, and report weekly 
these and other interesting particulars, states 
that the ordinary allowance for shrinkage, in 
cattle driven to market, is from thirty to thirty- 
fi,ve per cent. Some which have come a long 
distance, or are very fat or hollow from want 
of food, will not shrink more than twenty-five 
per cent. ; while others thin of flesh, or full of 
food, will shrink forty per cent. In sheep, the 
wethers usually shrink fifty per cent, and some- 
times more. It depends very much upon the 
state of the animal at the time of weighing. 
Oxen fresh from the pasture at night have 
frequently been weighed and reweighed on the 
following morning at nine o'clock, and found 
to have shrunk 80 or 100 lbs. each. 

Live and dead weight of cattle. — In England, 
the diiference between the dead and live weight 
is calculated at eleven-twentieths; this, how- 
ever, only includes the four quarters ; the fifth 
quarter, as it is there termed, being the hide, 
loose tallow, and offal, goes to the butcher as 
his perquisite. In New England, five quarters 
are also made, the hide and tallow being 
weighed, and the amount of it and the meat 
returned to the owner. That is to say, the 
cattle brought to market by the farmer or 
drover, being sold, the purchaser turns them 
over to a slaughtering establishment to be 
killed and dressed, for which he pays what 
amounts in money and perquisites to about two 
dollars per head. The meat is then sold to the 
retailing butchers. The heart and liver are 
valued at 50 cents, excepting in the barrelling 
season ; the tongue is considered worth .2 cents ; 
the tripe 50 cents; the head, which ha- on it a 
large piece of the neck, being of late years cut 
off at the second joint from the crown, furnish- 
ing some good meat for cooking, and when 
boiled given to swine with great advantage, 
and also the feet, from which oil and glue are 
obtained, valued at 40 cts., go among the offal, 
and of course are lost to the farmer or drover. 
Some cunning butchers are said to have a way 
by which, after cutting through the shoulders, 
in splitting down the chine they turn the edge 
of the axe outwards, thus leaving a large por- 
tion of the neck attached to the head, h, perqui- 
site of the slaughterer. With respect to the 
value of the hide at different seasons, a skilful 
farmer informed Mr. Colman that the hide of 
an ox, which, if the animal was killed in De- 
cember, might weigh 100 lbs., would not weigh 
more than 85 lbs. if kept till .Tune, such is the 
loss from shedding the hair, an.'i perhaps from 
the thinning of the hide itself. 

The offal or perquisites of the slaughterer 
consist of the entrails, feet, head, a strip from 
the foreskin, and the blood. The tongue, 
cheeks, and heart of the bullock go to the 
butcher. The slaughterer sells the leet and 
head to the tallow-chandler and s^oap-boiler, 
who extract the tallow and oil ; the claws go 
to the comb-maker, the bones and pith of the 
horns to the bone-mill for manure or for the 

299 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



Eurpose of making animal charcoal, and the 
lood to the sugar-refiners. 

In New York only four quarters are made 
by the slaughterer, and the hide and tallow are 
not weighed or reckoned in the price : facts 
which are to be remembered in making com- 
parisons of prices in the different markets. 

The following are some examples of live and 
dead weights of New England cattle, killed at 
home and after having been driven from the 
Connecticut river to Brighton, the Boston beef 
market, a distance of 75 or 80 miles. 

"Example 1.— One ox, live weight in market 
2393 lbs.; quarters weighed 418 lbs., 415 lbs., 
324 lbs., 331 lbs.; hide, 150 lbs.; tallow, 173 
lbs. = 1811. Difference 582 lbs. 

"Example 2.— Two oxen of A. S., killed at 
home, weighed as follows : 

^i«ed— 1400 lbs. 
1341 " 

loss on a hundred of the live 



Live— One 1979 lbs. 
" 1910 " 



About 29-4 lbs. 
weight. 

"Example 3. — An ox owned by A. S., con- 
veyed to Brighton on a sled, weighed at home 
about 2630 lbs. ; the precise number of pounds 
not recollected. On being slaughtered, his 
weight was as follows : quarters, 480 lbs., 479 
lbs., 374 lbs., 383 lbs.; hide, 154 lbs.; tallow, 
250 lbs. Total, 2120 lbs. Loss, 510 lbs. 

" Example 4. — Ox belonging to R. D. ; when 
he left Connecticut river weighed 2435 lbs. 
Weight at Brighton when dressed, 1588 lbs. 
Loss of weight, 867 lbs. This is a little more 
than :.ne-third, and is a remarkable result. 

"Example 5. — An ox weighing on Connecti- 
cut river 2250 lbs. weighed in market 1472 lbs. 
Loss, 778 lbs. 

"Example 6. — An ox weighing as above 
2255 lbs., weighed in market 1487 lbs. Loss 
768 lbs. 

" Example 7.— A fat bull of D. S., killed at 
home, weighed alive 1495 lbs.; dead 1051 lbs. 
Loss, 444 lbs. 

"Example 8.— A fat heifer of E. W., killed at 
home, weighed alive 1120 lbs.; dead, 832 lbs. 
Loss, 288 lbs. 

"Example 9.— An ox belonging to S. C. 
weighed on Connecticut river, alive, 2590 lbs.; 
at Brighton, dressed, as follows : quarters, 394 
lbs., 350 lbs., 362 lbs., 358 lbs.; hide, 120 lbs.; 
tallow, 207 lbs. Total, 1791 lbs. Difference 
between live and dead weights, 799 lbs. 

"Example 10. — An ox belonging to S. C. 
weighed as above 2345 lbs.; at Brighton, 
dressed, as follows: quarters, 352 lbs., 310 
lbs., 364 lbs., 308 lbs.; hide, 115 lbs.; tallow, 
217 lbs. Total, 1666 lbs. Difference between 
live and dead weights, 679 lbs." 

Pashirage. — The cost of pasturage is difficult 
to estimate, since the qualities of soil and faci- 
lities afforded differ so much in different sec- 
tions of country, and even in the same neigh- 
bourhood. In Conway, situated a little west 
of the Connecticut river, the pasturage is ex- 
cellent; tnat IS to say, 30 acres will keep 
twei"f cattle, consisting of cows and oxen, the 
year round. Oxen from four to six years of 
age are taken to be pastured at from 50 to 67 



week each. Sheep are pastured at 3 cents each 
per week, and lambs at 1^ cents. 

In Buckland, in the same county, cows are 
pastured at 25 cents per week, including salt. 
Pasturing of an average quality will feed eight 
cows upon 30 acres. A yoke of oxen require 
half as much again as two cows. In Hawly 
two acres of pasturage are considered suffi- 
cient for a cow. 

In the fattening of cattle, universal experi- 
ence, Mr. Colman remarks, shows the import- 
ance of a scrupulous punctuality as to the 
times of feeding. Under the influence of that 
mighty despot, habit, which reigns throughout 
the animal creation, these animals measure 
time with great exactness ; and if at the cus- 
tomary hour the feed is not ready for them, 
they become restless, uneasy, and fretful, dis- 
positions exceedingly unfriendly to all cases 
of thrift. During the time of feeding they 
should have little given to them at once, that 
their food may not become loathsome by being 
frequently tossed over and blown upon. 

In regard to the native stock of New Eng- 
land, in which various bloods and breeds are 
intermingled, Mr. Colman remarks that "many 
of them are indeed miserable in appearance, 
in shape, in condition, and every other quality. 
This comes in general from neglect and indif- 
ference, because we kill or sell to the butcher 
our best calves, and commonly leave what we 
do attempt to raise 'to shift for themselves.' 
Yet at the same time without presumption, I 
think, New England may challenge the world 
to produce finer teams of oxen, by fifties and 
hundreds of pairs, than are to be found at our 
cattle-shows. Let any intelligent judge of stock 
go into Worcester county, Mass. ; into New 
Haven and Hartford counties, in Connecticut; 
or especially to Saccarappa, in Maine, where 
ox teams are constantly employed in carting 
lumber to Portland, and if he will find any su- 
perior oxen for labour and condition than are 
to be found there, he would do a signal favour 
to the agricultural public in letting us know 
where we may look for them. I have seen 
none. I believe we should search the world 
over in vain to find any. 

"Our native cows are of every variety, but 
there are several parts of the state where, 
though it cannot be said that any scientific or 
systematic improvement has been undertaken, 
yet by a long-continued selection from the best, 
whole families or breeds are to be found dis- 
tinguished for their excellent properties as 
dairy stock. The list of native cows which I 
have given shows conclusively that we have 
those which, for the quantity of milk they give, 
are scarcely inferior to any, and for the amount 
of butter and cheese which they produce are 
surpassed by none. The numbers referred to 
prove that they are not rare. 

"Whether any thing would be gained by 
substituting the improved short-horns for our 
present stock is, to say the least, questionable. 
The short-horns are great consumers. Though 
animals do not always consume in proportion 
to their size, yet this must be considered as a 



r.ents per week ; farrow cows at 25 cents per j general rule. They require most particular 
*eek ; steers at two years old at 75 cents per ' attention and liberal feeding to bring them to 
300 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



maturity, though we admit that they arrive at 
maturity early. Many of the short-horned pre- 
mium young animals which have been exhi- 
bited at our cattle-shows have had the benefit 
of two wet-nurses for six months. Most of our 
native calves are put off with tv/o teats, and at 
eight or ten weeks old are turned adrift into 
tlie pasture to live or die as they please. Our 
own stock has never had fair play; and if 
treated in the same manner as the best short- 
horned stock, they would not perhaps fall so far 
behind them as might be supposed. Our pas- 
tures are in general short, and our winters long. 
A smaller race of cattle, therefore, and a more 
hardy stock would seem better adapted to our 
condition. 

"The London milk establishments are main- 
ly supplied with the short-horns, because, it is 
said, they give more milk, and, after becoming 
dry, take on flesh sooner than other races, and 
are therefore more easily disposed of to the 
butcher. The size of these animals would na- 
turally indicate a larger yield of milk, and, at 
the same time, a greater consumption of food. 
But the yield of milk is put down at an ave- 
rage of nine quarts daily. These are presumed 
to be wine quarts, and deducting one-fifth, it 
does not much exceed the yield of some milk 
establishments among us. Besides, in the Lon- 
don dairies, cows are not suffered to become 
with calf. 

" One of the most extraordinary short-horn 
cows known in England, it is said, produced 
373 pounds of butter in 32 weeks: 17 pounds 
being the largest quantity made in any one 
week. This is quoted as quite remarkable : 
but this, as far as it goes, does not equal the 
Oakes, the Nourse, the Adams, or the Spring- 
field cow. One of the best-informed and most 
ardent advocates for the short-horns, the late 
Henry Berry, remarks: — 'That their milk does 
not contain the same proportionate quantity of 
butter as that from the long-horns, ihe Scotch 
cattle, or the Devons, is probably true ; but we 
have reason to believe that the difference has 
been much exaggerated, and is more than com- 
pensated by the additional quantity of milk.' 

"The quantity of cheese made in a year 
from a cow in the celebrated cheese district 
of Wiltshire, England, is thus stated: — 'The 
quantity of cheese that is made from each cow 
in this district is greater than is common in 
any other cheese-making country, sometimes 
as much as 4| cwt. or 5 cwt. per cow, seldom 
lower than 3 cwt. Perhaps 3^ cwt. is a fair 
average in a good cheese-making year on 
every cow that calves in proper time.' In the 
famous district of Cheshire, in England, the 
average amount of cheese to a cow is stated 
at 2^ cwt. The old breed of Irish cattle, much 
valued for the dairy, will produce from 84 to 
112 lbs. of butter per year; a very good cow 
will yield 1^ cwt., that is, 168 lbs. net. Of the 
Ayrshire cows, kept in the highest condition 
for giving milk, it is stated that the yearly ave- 
rage in milk may be 650 gallons or 2600 quarts, 
(wine measure, I presume, is intended), and 90 
gallons will make 24 lbs. of butter, or 15 quarts 
(wine measure) to a pound. In another case 
it is said ' that a well-fed cow of a good breed 
will produce on an average 180 lbs. of butter 



in the season, though the common calculation 
is 150 lbs. In the Epping district, where there 
is an indiscriminate mixture of Devon, Suffolk, 
Leicester, Holderness, and Scotch, the calcula- 
tion in a well managed dairy amounts to 212 
lbs. per year to a cow. In one case in Sussex, 
upon an actual trial, the cows produced only 
136 lbs. per season.' 

"As far, then, as we can depend on these 
accounts, our own native cattle for dairy stock 
will not suffer by comparison with the best 
English stock of any of those races most dis- 
tinguished for their milking properties. Our 
own Cheshire cheese dairies certainly yieln 
the palm to none. 

"The cross of the Durham short-horns with 
the Devon has produced in many cases an ex- 
cellent stock. But, if of no other value to the 
country, their introduction will prove an im- 
mense benefit by showing our farmers what 
can be done in improving the size, form, and 
condition of their own stocks, by a most care- 
ful selection from the very best, by persevering 
attempts to amend defects and engraft good 
properties in the animal constitution, and by 
constant care and good keeping. 

"It cannot be denied that a vast proportion 
of our cows are wretched in their form, health, 
and condition. There is no reason, on the 
other hand, to doubt that by breeding only from 
the best on both sides, and by a liberal mode 
of keeping, we may produce a dairy stock and 
a stock for labour as well adapted to our pas- 
tures, climate, and husbandry as can be found. 
Perhaps I should be authorized to add for beet 
also, that is, producing as many pounds accord 
ing to the expense of their keep. The average 
weight of bullocks slaughtered at Smithfield, 
the great cattle market of England, is 656 lbs. 
At Brighton, in this county, the average weight 
of oxen is 875 lbs., and of steers 600 lbs. each. 
The last is thought by some persons to be 
overrated. The weight "used at Brighton is net 
weight; 1 cwt. being now reckoned at 100 lbs. 
avoirdupois. 

" The great cattle fair of the state, and indeed 
of New England, is held at the beautiful village 
of Brighton, about six miles from Boston, on 
the Monday of every week. Here capacious 
pens are erected for the reception of such live- 
stock as may be brought in, and the drovers 
and butchers assemble from all directions. The 
business of selling and buying is principally 
got through with on Monday, though cattle and 
other stock, when prices are not satisfactory to 
the seller, are frequently kept over, for a week 
or fortnight, for a better market. Wuh the ex- 
ception of a small fair at Danvers, m Essex 
county, held occasionallv in the fall, I know 
of no other cattle fair in New England. Cattle, 
sheep, and swine are brought here from the 
interior of the state, from Maine, New Hamp- 
shire, Vermont,— from New York, and some- 
times from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and 
Kentucky. 

" I ascertained some time smce at the Bull s 
Head Market, in New York, that the expense 
of a drove of cattle, consisting of one hundred 
head, from the vicinity of Lexington, Kentucky, 
to that place, including the expenses of one 
night and a day in New York, was 1,300 dollars 
2 C 301 



CATTLE. 

gives the following information upon this sub- 
ject, derived from his observations in Massa- 
chusetts. "A farmer of my acquaintance in 
the interior raises all his calves from a large 
stock of cows. His cows are known to be of 
prime quality. His heifers are allowed to come 
in at two years old, and are then sold with 
their first calf generally for thirty-five dollars, 
which he deems a fair compensation for the 
expense of raising. His calves are raised 
mainly upon skim-milk and whej', until they 
can support themselves on hay and grass. His 
steers pay a proportional profit when sold at 
three to four years old. 

" The English authorities say, that upon two 
cows calving at different times, seven calves 
may be fattened for the butcher in the course 
of the year. More than this may be done if 
the calves are to be reared for stock, and if 
some little addition of meal or vegetables is 
added to their feed. 

" Mr. Jaques remarks, on the subject of rais- 
ing calves, that ' he generally lets them take a 
portion of milk from the cows for about three 
months, and prefers keeping them in the stall 
until they are about a year old, thinking that 
he gets better forms, rounder barrels, straighter 
backs, greater broadness on the loin and hips, 
by this management. Calves turned to grass at 
two and three months old become pot-bellied, 
their backs bent, acquire a narrowness in the 
loins, and seldom get over the defect entirely.' 
"I believe that it is decidedly better to raise 
them in the stall or yard the first season, as 
their feed is much more uniform, and their 
growth not interrupted by sudden changes. 
They soon learn to eat hay; and carrots or po- 
tatoes cut fine for them will be found highly 
beneficial. In all cases the calf should be 
taken from the cow as soon after his birth as 
the cow's udder is brought into good condition 
and her milk fit for use, and then should be fed 
by hand. ' In my opinion,' says a highly in- 
telligent farmer of Stockbridge, 'calves raised 
for other purposes than veal should be early 
weaned from the dam, and nursed at least one 
year upon food adapted to give firmness and 
expansion of muscle, rather than to fatten 
them.' The observation of another fanner, a 
plain man. but one of the most observing and 
practical farmers in the state, is deserving of 
attention. 'One of the most important points,' 
says he, 'in the feeding of the calf, is to feed 
him well when the grass first fails in the fall 
by frost. If suffered to fall off then, he does not 
i recover, and suffers more by scanty food than 
other animals.' " 

There are many able papers on subjects re- 
lating to cattle dispersed in the best agricul- 
tural periodicals, which the bi-eeder may wish 
to refer to, such as " On Stall-feeding Cows in 
Summer," by Mr. Collett of Christiana in Nor- 
way (Com, Board of j9gi: vol. vi. p. 60; "On 
Soiling," by Mr. Curwen (Ihich p. 49) ; " On 
their Treatment in Winter," (Quart. Journ. of 
..■Sgr. vol. ii. p. 228; "On Fattening Cattle on 
proved and .select stock, it is deemed highly | different Kinds of Food," by Mr. Brodie, {Ibid. 
important that they should raise their own I vol. viii. p. 327) ; "On Feeding Cattle on Su- 
calves; and this is rendered the more import- ' gar," by Mr. Ellis, {Com. Board of Agr. vol. viL 
ant from the high prices usually to be obtained p. 327) ; and " On Potatoes," by Sir C. Burrell 
for calves of the best breeds. Mr. Colman {Ibid. p. 323) ; " On House and Yard-feeding 
302 



CATTLE. 

or 13 dollars per head. This was at a season 
when the drovers could avail themselves of 
pasturage. The price of corn is not recollect- 
ed. They came in in good condition. 

" Store hogs or shoats, driven moderately in 
the mild season and well fed on the road, will 
gain in flesh, it is said by some, almost suffi- 
ciently to pay the expenses of their drift." 

The number of cattle of all descriptions 
brought to Brighton frequently exceeds 8,000 
head on a market day. Many of these, and the 
proportion increases, instead of being slaugh- 
tered, are sold on the hoof. The mathematical 
rules and tables, so much in use in England 
for determining the live weight of animals, are 
seldom resorted to in the United States, al- 
though they arc said to give very exact results. 
A diagram and table have been given in the 
preceding part of this article, to show the mode 
and facilitate the process of making estimates 
of live weight. 

By the revised statutes of Massachusetts it 
is declared that "All beef cattle, except bulls, 
sold in market by weight, shall, M'hen slaugh- 
tered, be prepared for weighing in the follow- 
ing manner: — the legs shall be taken off at the 
knee and gambrel joint, the skin shall be taken 
from all other parts of the animal, the head 
shall be taken off at the second joint of the 
neck, the entrails taken out, and all the fat of 
the same be taken off and weighed as rough 
tallow; and every other part of the animal, in- 
cluding the hide and rough tallow (the udder 
of cows excepted), shall be weighed. 

"All beef shall be weighed upon the first 
week-day succeeding that on which it may be 
slaughtered," &c. 

Rearing Calves. — As so many different opi- 
nions are entertained upon the subject of rear- 
ing calves, some of the views derived from 
high sources of intelligence will be stated. 

In Pennsylvania, heifers intended for milch 
cows are generally put to the bull at fifteen to 
eighteen months of age, in preference to leaving 
them run to a greater age. Mr. Isaac W. Ro- 
berts, of Montgomery county, has been very suc- 
cessful in raising and fattening cattle, chiefl)'^ of 
the Durham breed. It is his practice to take 
the calves of this fine breed, and, when two or 
three weeks old, put them with common native- 
bred cows. He weans at three or four months 
old, when the calf is able to thrive well on 
grass alone, and the native cow, going dry, is 
soon fit for the butcher, at a price that will 
nearly, if not quite, pay for her first cost and a 
fair allowance for pasturage. He thinks that 
calves thus raised and entering the winter in 
good condition, being properly housed and fed 
during cold and inclement weather, gain nearly 
a year on such as are prematurely weaned or 
fed on skimmed milk. He entirely disapproves 
of letting calves run three or four months with 
valuable cows intended for breeding, and espe- 
cially where milching properties are to be re- 
tained. 

With all those who desire to possess an im^ 



1 



CATTLE, DISEASES OF. 



CATTLE SHEDS 



Milch Cows for the Supply of Milk," by Mr. 
Harley, (Quart. Joum. Agr. vol. i. p. 170) ; see 
also "The Harleian Dairy System" by the 
same gentleman, and " On a celebrated Yard- 
fed Cow," the property of Mr. Cramp of 
Lewes, {Com. Board of Jlgr. vol. vii. p. 53). It 
will, perhaps, surprise an English farmer to 
learn to what coarse unnatural kind of food 
use will accustom animals. The cows of 
Shetland live upon the coarsest moss and sea- 
weed ; those of still more northerly regions on 
even animal food. In Lapland and Iceland, 
according to Mr. De Broke, the cattle are uni- 
formly fed on psh. "The English farmer's 
surprise," says Mr. Broke, " will not be les- 
sened when he learns that the animals not 
only devour this kind of food with the greatest 
eagerness, but thrive and do well upon it; it 
seems that fish heads and bones are boiled to- 
gether with some hay into a kind of soup, and 
poured into the mangers of the poor beasts." 
(Quart. Joum. of .^gr. vol. X. p. 299.) There 
is a paper " On Live-Stock and Crossing," by 
Mr. Ferguson, (Ibid. vol. i. p. 33) ; " On the 
Comparative Advantages of Feeding Stock 
with Mangel- Wurzel, Turnips, and Potatoes," 
by Mr. Howden, (Trans. High. Soc. vol. iii. 
p. 268) ; and "On Raw and Prepared Food," by 
Messrs. Walker, Howden, Boswell, and Walk- 
er, (Ibid. vol. iv. p. 253) ; and again by Mr. 
Walker, (Ibid. vol. v. p. 52) ; and " On different 
Descriptions of Food," by Mr. Stephenson. 
(Ibid, vol.vi. p. 61.) On the disease called the 
" Muir-ill," by Mr. M'Farlane, (Ibid. vol. iv. 
p. 388) ; on the disease called "The Tail-slip," 
by Mr. Dick, (Quarterly Journal of Agricidturc. 
vol. iii. p. 308) ; "On Calculi," (Ibid. p. 642) ; 
"On Diseases of the Udder," (Ibid. p. 871) ; 
"On the Navel-ill," by Mr. Sitwell, (Com. 
Board of Jgr. vol. vi. p. 401) ; "On acclimating 
Cattle, by Dr. Smith of Kentucky, (Ibid. vol. ii. 
p. 93 ; On determining the Weight of Cattle by 
Admeasurement, (Quart. Joum. of Agr. vol. v. 
p. 612); and Mr. Ferguson "On the value of 
Live-Stock with relation to the Weight of Of- 
fal, (Ibid. vol. ii. p. 207) ; " On their External 
Conformation," by Mr. Sparrow, (Veterinarian 
for 1839; Farmer's Mag. vol. iii. p. 95, w. 5 ; 
Baron Malthus ; M'Cnlloch's Diet. Com. ; Youatt 
on Cattle ; Quart. Joum. of Agr. : Farmer's Mag. : 
Trans, of Highland Soc. ; Lowe's Illustrations of 
(he Breeds of Domestic Animals.) 

CATTLE, REMEDIES FOR DISEASES 
OF. 

Abortion. See Aeortiow. 

Blackwater is the concluding and commonly 
fatal stage of redwater. See Red water. 

Cleansing drink. — 1 oz. of bayberry powdered, 
1 oz. of brimstone powdered, 1 oz. of cummin- 
seed powdered, 1 oz. of diapente. Boil these 
together for ten minutes ; give when cold in a 
gruel. 

Colic. — ^The best remedy is 1 pint of linseed 
oil mixed with ^ oz. of laudanum. 

A cordial is easily made by 1 oz. of caraway 
seeds, 1 oz. of aniseeds, ^ oz. of ginger pow- 
dered, 2 oz. of fenugreek seeds. Boil these in 
a pint and a half of beer for ten minutes, and 
administer when cold. 

Diarrhaa. — Give ^ oz. of powdered catechu, 



and 10 grs. of powdered opium, in a little gniel 
See DiARHHCEA. 

Dysentery. — The same as for diarrhcna. 

Fever. — Bleed; and then if the bowels are 
constipated, give ^ lb. of Epsom salts in three 
pints of water daily, in gruel. 

Hoove or Hoven. — Use the elastic tube ; as a 
prevention, let them be well supplied with 
common salt, and restrained from rapid feed- 
ing when first feeding upon rank grass or clo- 
ver. See Hoove. 

Mange. — ^ lb. of black brimstone, i pint of 
turpentine, 1 pint of train oil. Mix them to- 
gether, and rub the mixture well in over the 
affected parts. 

Milk fever, or Garget. — 2 oz. of brimstone, 
1 oz. of diapente, 1 oz. of cummin-seed pow- 
dered, 1 oz. of powdered nitre. Give this daily 
in a little gruel, and well rub the udder with a 
little goose-grease. See Garget. 

Murrain. — ^ lb. of salts, 2 oz. of bruised co- 
riander-seed, 1 oz. of gentian powder. Give 
these in a little water. See Murrain. 

Poisons swallowed by* oxen are commonly 
the yew, the water dropwort, and the common 
and the water hemlock. 1^ pint of linseed oil 
is the best remedy. 

Purge, in poisoning — either 1 lb. of salts in a 
quart of water or gruel, or a pint to a pint and 
a half of linseed oil. 

Redwater. — Bleed, says Youatt, first, and then 
give a dose of 1 lb. of Epsom salts, and 3 lb. 
doses repeated every eight hours until the 
bowels are acted upon. In Hampshire they 
give 4 oz. bole armeniac and 2 oz. of spirits 
of turpentine in a pint of gruel. 

Sprains. — Embrocation : 8 oz of sweet oil, 
4 oz. spirits of hartshorn, ^ oz. i ' of thyme. 

Sting of the adder, or slowworm —Apply im- 
mediately to the part strong spirits of harts- 
horn ; for sting of bees apply chalk or 
whitening mixed with vinegar. See Biter and 
Bees. 

Worms. — Bots : give ^ lb. of Epsom salts 
with 2 oz. of coriander-seed bruised in a quart 
of water. See Bots. 

YcUoivs. — 2 oz. of diapente, 2 oz. of cummin- 
seed powdered, 2 oz. of fenugreek powdered. 
Boil these for ten minutes in a quart of water, 
and give daily in a little gruel. See Yellows. 

CATTLE SHEDS. The cow-house should 
be a capacious, well-lighted, and well-venti- 
lated building, in which the cows or oxen can 
be kept dry, clean, and moderately warm ; a 
temperature of about 60° is perhaps the besu 
It is a mistaken idea that cattle suffer materi- 
ally by dry cold. It is the wet and the damp 
walls, yard, and driving rains, and fogs of 
winter, that are so injurious to them. In this 
respect the Dutch farmers are very par.icular. 
They have their cows regularly groomed, and 
the walks behind them sprinkled with sand. 
A clean and dry bed, a portion of a trough to 
o-ive them water, and another portion for their 
oil cake, or mangel, or turnips, and a rack for 
their dry food, will all be necessary comforts. 
These, with regular feeding, a lump of rock- 
salt in the manger, and occasional variations 
if possible in the food, are the chief points to 
be attended to in the stall management of cat- 

303 



CAUF. 



CAULIFLOWER. 



lie. {Brit. Hush. vol. i. p. 202; vol. ii. p. 399.) 
See Ventilation. 

CAUF. A chest with holes in the top to 
keep fish alive in the water. 

CAUKER, or CALKERS. A term employed 
in farriery to signify bending or turning up of 
the heels cf the shoes of horses, and intended 
to prevent the animal slipping. This method, 
though once general, is now commonly limited 
to the outside heel of the shoes of the hind 
feet. 

CAULIFEROUS (From caulis, a stalk, and 
fero, to bear). A term applied to such plants 
as are furnished with a stalk which bear 
shoots, as the cauliflower, cabbage, &c. 

CAULIFLOWER (From Lat. cait/is; Bras- 
sica olcracea botrytis). A species of brassica, of 
which there are two varieties; — the early, 
which is smallest and most fit for growth under 
lights, for the winter-standing crop; and the 
large, for the open ground plantations. Cauli- 
flower is propagated by seed; the first sowing 
to take place at the close of January or early 
in February, in a slight hot-bed, or warm bor- 
der, in either situation to have the protection 
of a frame. The plants are fit to be pricked 
out in March in similar situations, and for 
final removal into the open ground during 
April and May; and some to be placed under 
hand-glasses for more immediately succeeding 
the winter-standing crop. At the beginning of 
March and April another sowing is to be per- 
formed in a sheltered border, the seedlings of 
which may be pricked out in Ma3% and planted 
finally in June for protection at the end of 
summer. Again, another sowing may be done 
in the last week of May ; for pricking out, in 
June; and for final planting, the end of July; 
to produce during October and November, and 
in favourable seasons until Christmas. The 
seed of these sowings must be inserted broad- 
cast, and covered half an inch thick with fine 
mould. The seedlings are of sufficient size for 
pricking out when they have four or five 
leaves, about an inch in breadth ; they must be 
set three or four inches apart each way. Water 
must be given moderately, both in the seed-bed 
and at the time of removal, if the weather is at 
all dry. When finally set out, they must be 
planted in rows two inches and a half apart 
each way. The mould must be frequently 
loosened by the hoe, and drawn up about their 
stems. In dry weather during summer, a cup- 
like hollow should be formed round each plant, 
and filled twice a week with water ; but as soon 
as the flower makes its appearance, it must be 
applied every other day. As the head appears 
exposed, it is advantageous to break some of 
the leaves, and turn them over it as a shelter 
from the sun : this preserves then from becom- 
ing of a yellow hue, as well as retards their 
advancing to seed. 

Winter-standing crop. — The seed for this crop 
must be sown in the third week of August, in 
a warm border or an old hot-bed, with the pro- 
tection of a frame or hand-glass. That the 
cauliflower, though the most tender of the 
brassica tribe, is not so impatient of cold as 
.some gardeners are led to imagine, is demon- 
strated by the fact, that the imperfect covering 
rf mats will almost always preserve the plants 
304 



uninjured through the winter ; and the practice 
of Mr. Bull, of Rossie Priory, North Britain, 
proves that it is scarcc?5' more so than the 
broccoli. He sows in the last wecK oi August, 
transplants in the middle or end of November, 
and often does not even afford the plants the 
protection of a south wall, and no description 
of covering. Plants thus raised are healthier, 
and produce finer heads than those which 
have additional shelter, though they are not so 
forward, neither are they subject lo be black- 
shanked. {Mem. Calcd. Hort. Soc. vol. iii. p. 192.) 

The seed-bed, if not one that has grown cu- 
cumbers, &c., must be well manured with dung 
from a cucumber bed, or, as is sometimes re- 
commended, a basis five or six inches thick of 
dung in a perfectly decayed state must be 
formed, firmly trodden down, and covered with 
a similar thickness of light rich mould: in this 
the seed is to be sown and buried a quarter 
of an inch deep, and, during the meridian of 
hot days, shaded with matting. Moderate 
waterings must be given, as may seem neces- 
sary. The plants appear in about a week, and 
the shading and watering must in like manner 
be afforded. 

The plants are fit for pricking out at the 
close of September, when their leaves are 
rather more than an inch wide. They should 
be placed in a similar soil and situation to that 
from which they were removed. Towards the 
end of October, or first week in November, 
they must be removed, and planted in patches 
of from three to six together, these clusters 
being in rows three feet apart each way are to 
be sheltered with hand-glasses until the spring. 
At the end of February, if an open season, or 
not until March if otherwise, part of the plants 
may be removed from under the hand-glasses, 
two strong ones being left under each glass, 
and set out in the open ground; the soil and 
sheltered situation being as nearly similar to 
that from which they are taken as possible. 
Some, also, may be planted out from the 
frames ; but from either situation these re- 
movals must be concluded by the middle of 
April. Care must be taken to remove the 
plants with as much earth as possible retained 
to their roots, and they are to be planted at a 
similar distance as was recommended for the 
other open-ground crops. 

Those continued under the glasses must 
have air admitted as freely as possible, and 
other precautions adopted that were recom- 
mended during their winter grow^th. Earth 
should be drawn carefully about their stems, 
without any being allowed to fall into their 
hearts. When they fill the glasses, these last 
are easily raised by a circular mound, four or 
five inches high, thrown up round them. In 
mild weather, hot sunny days, and during ge- 
nial showers, the glasses may be taken com- 
pletely off, but replaced at night. The plants 
being thus hardened by degrees, and when all 
danger of frost is past, about the end of April 
or early in May the glasses may be entirely 
removed. The leaves are to be broken down 
over the heads, as before directed. For the 
production of seed, some plants of the winter- 
standing crop which have fine and firm head 
must be selected, as these will produce ''- 



CAUSTIC. 



CELERY. 



best seed, though not in such quantity as those 
of a looser texture. For the necessary treat- 
ment, see Broccoli. The seed ripens in Sep- 
tember, and the branches should be gathered 
as soon as this occurs, and not allowed to re- 
main until the whole is fit for collecting. The 
seed remains, if carefully preserved, in a good 
state for use until it is three or four years old. 
(G. W. JohnsorCs Kitchen Gard.) 

CAUSTIC. In farriery, a substance which, 
by its powerful operation, destroys the texture 
of the part to which it is applied. Corrosive 
sublimate is the best caustic ; but that requires 
skilful hands, for it is a dangerous remedy ex- 
cept in the hands of the veterinarian. Mix one 
drachm of powdered verdigris with one ounce 
of basilicon ointment; apply this upon a piece 
of tow: or a drachm of blue stone (sulphati- of 
copper), dissolved in one ounce of water may 
be used; or lunar caustic in a quill maybe 
rubbed on to the diseased part. 

CAUTERY, or CAUTING-IRON (Old Fr. 
cautere). In farriery, a name given to a searing- 
iron, which is made wldte hot, and used to de- 
stroy fungous flesh, &c. 

CAVESSON, or CAVEZON (Fr.). In 
horsemanship, a term applied to an apparatus 
resemblmg the musrol, which is used in the 
breaking of horses. From its formation, it 
binds and pinches the nose, and regulates the 
action of the animal to which it is applied. 

CAZZONS. A provincial word used to sig- 
nify the dried dung of cattle for fuel. 

Cedars. See Ctpress. 

CEDARS OF LEBANON (Mks ccdrus). 
This sovereign of the forest appears to have 
been indigenous to Mount Lebanon : but at 
what period it was first introduced into Eng- 
land is not known. This noble tree is now so 
well naturalized in England, that the seeds not 
only ripen, but propagate themselves without 
care or trouble. One of the cedars at Chiswick 
measures 13 feet 4 inches in circumference, 
and is 80 feet high ; but the largest now re- 
maining on Lebanon is 9 feet in diameter, or 
27 in circumference. Cedar wocd is known 
to be very durable ; the ancients believed it to 
be imperishable. But according to Mr. Drum- 
mond Hay's observations at Tangier, the in- 
destructible cedar wood is the timber of the 
Sandarac tree (Thuja arliadata). 

CEDAR, RED (Junlperus Virgimann). This 
North American tree belonging to the junipers, 
is the most common species of its genus in the 
United States, and the only one which attains 
a size adapting it to the useful arts. Next to 
that found in Bermuda, it is the largest of the 
junipers hitherto discovered. It is found along 
the lands bordering the Atlantic, from Maine 
to the extreme South, and even passing round 
Cape Florida, shows itself beyond St. Bernard's 
Bay in the Gulf of Mexico. In retiring from 
the shore, it becomes gradually less common 
and less vigorous, and in Virginia and the 
more Southern States it is rare above tide- 
water. Farther inland, it is seen only in the 
form of a shrub in open, dry, sandy places. In 
the most favourable situations along the 
southern sea shore, it attains a height of 40 or 
45 feet, with a diameter of 12 or 13 inches. 

The leaves are evergreen, numerously sub- 
39 



divided, and when bruised diffuse a resinous, 
aromatic odour. The seeds are small ovate 
berries, bluish when ripe, and coated with a 
whitish exudation. They arrive at pefection 
in the beginning of the fall, and are greedily 
devoured by cedar birds, robins, &c. If sown 
immediately, the greater part of them will come 
up the following spring; but they will not 
shoot before the second year if they are kept 
for several months. 

The wood is odorous, compact, fine-grained 
and very light, though heavier and stronger 
than that of the white cedar and cypress. To 
these qualities it unites the still more precious 
character of durability, and is consequently 
highly esteemed for such purposes as require 
it in an eminent degree. But as it is procured 
with difficulty, and is every day becoming more 
scarce, it is reserved exclusively for the most 
important uses. The name of lied Cedar is 
only applicable to the perfect wood, which is 
of a bright tint ; the sap is perfectly white. The 
nearer the red cedar grows to the sea and the 
farther southward, the better is its wood. The 
chief supply now comes from East Florida.. 
(Mirhatcx.) See Ctphess, and Fir. 

CELANDINE, COMMON (Chelidonium ma- 
jvs). Celandine is a wild plant with large 
leaves and bright yellow flowers, growing in 
shady places, waste and untilled lands, and' 
thickets, &c.. especially on a chalky soil, and 
flowering from April through the summer. It 
grov^'s two feet high, and the stalks are round 
and green. The leaves are large, long, and 
deeply divided at the edges, and of a yellowish 
green, standing two at each joint. The flowers 
are small ; several together upon long foot- 
stalks. Every part is brittle, and if >ou crush 
the stalk or leaves an orange-coloured acrid 
juice is expressed, which is medicinal. 

There are two species of celandine., or horned 
poppy, found in the United States. The greater,, 
or common celandine, (C. viajvs), nas an ac- 
rimonious juice of a saffron colour, which is 
a popular remedy for warty excrescences, as 
well as for ring-worms, tetter, the itch. &c. 

The ycff celandine, (C glnunim), or yellow- 
homed poppy, flourishes in the sandy soil along 
the sea and bay shores where it is quite orna- 
mental. Its juice is said to be poisonous. 

CELERY (Jpitmi gravcolens). This if- the 
wild original of cultivated celery. The name 
probably proceeded from apex, a tuft or crest, 
which its umbels form). This class of plants- 
flourish best in a moist soil, friable, and rather 
inclining to lightness ; it must be rich, and: 
that rather from prior application than the im- 
mediate addition of manure; celery and cele- 
riac, however, appear benefited even by its 
abundant application at the time of sowing 
and planting. The parsleys, likewise, prefer 
their soil to incline rather to dryness. For all 
it must be deep, and all equally refuse to thriva 
on a strong clayey soil. The situation they 
thrive the most in is one that is as open and as 
free from the influence of trees as possible. 
The common parsley is the one that bears best 
a confined or shady compartment. 

There are six varieties of celery in general 
cultivation: — the gigantic, the dwarf-curled, tb^ 
common upright, red-stalked uprignt, giant ho. 
2 c 3 305 



CELERY. 



CELERY. 



;OW upright, and the solid-stalked (red and 
white). The red is reared chiefly for soups, 
the while being much more delicate in flavour. 
It is propagated by seed. The first sowing 
should be performed either in a hotbed or on a 
warm, light border, towards the end of Febru- 
ary; some gardeners even insert it as early as 
the middle of January. The border is by many 
gardeners considered the best situation, inas- 
much as the plants are more hardy, and with 
proper care come forward with scarcely any 
difference as to time. This is to be repeated 
in March; but the principal sowings must take 
place in April and May, and the last one in 
June. As the produce of the early sowings 
will not continue long in a state fit for use, 
from their leaf-stalks becoming piped or hol- 
low, they must be proportionably small ; they 
must all be inserted broadcast, and the seed 
scattered thinly. The seed-beds of the early 
sowings should be light and dry, with the full 
enjoyment of the sun throughout the day, but 
for the three last in a moist situation ; and it 
is advantageous for them to have a free ex- 
posure to the morning sun only, yet free from 
the drip of trees; so advantageous is it to have 
the plants of these sowings as luxuriant as pos- 
sible in their first stage of growth, that to afford 
them as regular and unstinted a supply of nou- 
rishment as possible, the mould of the seed-bed 
is often formed artificially. Mr. Walker, gar- 
dener to J. Walker, Esq., of Longford, Scotland, 
recommends it to be formed of black loamy 
soil and old hotbed dung in equal parts. (Man. 
Cakd.Ho)-:. Sor. vol. ii.'p. 29.5.) The plants 
from these several sowings will in general be 
ready for pricking out in four or six weeks 
from the time of insertion, and for final plant- 
ing after a further continued growth of two 
months. A more determinate datum for judg- 
ing the appropriate time for performing these 
opeii.tions is the size of the plants, they being 
'fit for the first removal when three or four 
inches in height, and for the second when 
seven or eight. From the above enumerated 
sowings, monthly plantings may be succession- 
ally made from the commencement of June un- 
til September closes; but for the supply of a 
family, a sowing at the close of February for 
production during the same year, and another 
about the middle of May, to yield a produce in 
the winter and the following spring, will in 
general be amply sufficient. 

They are usually planted out finally in 
trenches, from twelve to eighteen inches wide, 
and at least four feet apart. To cut the trench 
straight and with firm sides, the spade should 
be thrust down all along the line which marks 
the boundary on each side, previous to digging 
out the earth : the top spit of mould through- 
out the length must be turned alternately on 
either side, for this is required in the after cul- 
tivation for earthing up the plants. Some well 
putrefied dung, two or three inches thick, must 
be then spread along the bottom and dug in, 
care being taken that its surface is not more 
than four inches below the regular surface of 
uie soil. Mr. Walkej here recommends the 
same unsparing application of manure; he 
forms the soil in his trenches of three parts 
aung and one part fresh, strong soil. (Mem. 
306 



Caled. Hort. Soc. vol. ii. p. 296.) By this abun- 
dant application of manure his celery un- 
doubtedly obtains a fine growth, being often 
4^ feet long, and averaging 6 lbs. weight; but 
at the same time it is to be remarked, that 
many soils will grow it equally fine without 
i such immoderate application. 

Celery, as before mentioned, delights in a 
soil abounding in fertilizing matter; the mode 
adopted to effect this, as practised by Mr. Judd, 
gardener to C. Campbell, Esq., of Edmonton, is 
one which with equal advantage may be adopt- 
ed for any crop requiring a very rich soil ; he 
prepares his ground in the winter preceding 
the time of planting, or as long before as con- 
venient, by manuring and trenching it two 
spades deep, performing this last operation 
twice, that the dung may be better incorporated 
with the soil, and then leaves it as rough as 
possible until the time arrives for forming the 
trenches, at the bottom of Avhich he also turns 
in some manure. (Trans. Hort. Soc. Land. voL 
iii. p. 46.) As celery is very apt to decay in 
winter on account of excessive moisture, it 
would undoubtedly be a good practice, after 
preparing the groimd as just detailed, to plant 
in rows five or six feet apart on the surface, 
taking the mould required for earthing them 
up from this allotted space. 

Before planting, the long straggling leaves 
are to be cut away, and any side offsets re- 
moved ; but if the plants are older or larger in 
growth than before mentioned, the tops of the 
leaves maybe generally removed, which serves 
to check their running to seed, which they are 
otherwise apt to do. After this preparation, 
they may be planted, a single row in each 
trench, about eighteen inches apart. Mr. Judd 
says that he finds the plants much injured in 
their future growth if, during any of their re- 
movals, their roots become at all dry; there- 
fore, when taking them either from the seed- 
bed or for final planting, he lays them, as he 
draws them from the ground, in a garden pan 
containing a little water. (Ibid. p. 45.) Plant- 
ing is best performed in the evening, and water 
should be given plenteously at the time, as well 
as every other day subsequently until they are 
well established. Earthing them up must com- 
mence when they arc about a foot high, and 
may be continued until the plants are fit for 
use, or are one foot and a half high and up- 
wards. In performing it one person must hold 
the bases of the plants together, whilst a second 
regularly follows and throws in the soil, other- 
wise the mould separating the leaves breaks 
them and induces decay, and ofttimes destroys 
them by injuring the heart. (Ibid. p. 47.) 

The earthing is best performed gradually, a 
few inches being added once a week, and a dry 
day always selected to perform it in. In very 
severe weather the winter standingcrops should 
be covered with straw or other litter, care being 
taken always to remove it in mild days. On 
the arrival of frost a quantity may be taken up 
and buried in sand under shelter. As celery 
will not continue in perfection except in winter 
more than three or four weeks after bleaching, 
it is advisable for family use only to make 
small plantations of the early crops at a time. 
To raise seed, some plants must be left where 



CELERY. 



CHAFF-ENGINES. 



grown ; or in February or March some may be 
carefully taken up, and, after the outside leaves 
are cut off and all laterals removed, planted in 
a moist soil a foot apart. Those which are 
most solid and of a middling size are to be se- 
lected. When they branch for seed they must 
be each attached to a stake, to preserve them 
from being broken by the violence of winds. 
The flower appears in June, and when the seed 
13 swelling in July, if dry weather occurs, they 
should be watered every other night. In Au- 
gust the seed will be ripe, and when perfectly 
dry, may be rubbed out and stored. A variety 
of celery with a roundish root {Apium ropace- 
iim), is sometimes cultivated in gardens. (G. 
W. Johnso7i's KUch. Card. ; Erit. Hush. vol. ii. p. 
575 ; Willicli^s Dom. Encyc.) 

CELERY, WILD, or SMALLAGE PARS- 
LEY {Jlpium gruveokns). This is a biennial, 
found in ditches and marshy ground, especially 
towards the sea; root tap-shaped, herb smooth 
and shining. Flowers numerous, small, green- 
ish white. The seeds and whole plant in its 
native ditches are acrid and dangerous, with a 
peculiar strong taste and smell ; but by culture 
it becomes the mild and grateful garden cele- 
ry, for which and its name we are indebted to 
the Italians, and which has now supplanted 
our native Alexanders {Smymitmn olusulmm). 
(Smitli's Eng. Flnra, vol. ii. p. 75.) 

CELL (Lat. rdla). In botany, the hollow 
part of a capsule in which the seeds are lodged, 
and also the pari of the anthers which contains 
the pollen, 

CELLS. The small divisions in honej-- 
combs, which have been observed to he al- 
ways regular hexagons. They also denote the 
hollow places between the partitions in the 
pods, husks, and other seed-vessels of plants. 

CENTAURY (Sahhatia angidaris). An an- 
nual and biennial, of which there are seven or 
eight additional species found in the United 
States. Centaury is commonly found in bar- 
ren fields, is intensely bitter, and deservedly a 
popular tonic. 

CENTAURY, COMMON {Erythrmi nntau- 
rium). From erythros, red, alluding to the pink 
colour of the flowers. The species of this ge- 
nus are pretty, but not eas}- of cultivation; the 
herbaceous species require an open, loamy 
soil, and may be increased by divisions. The 
annuals and biennials require sowing in the 
open border in autumn, or they will not come 
up. {Pax'oiCs Bot. Diet.) In England there are 
three native species of centaury, viz. the broad 
leaved tufted (£'.Ai///b?ia), the dwarf tufted (E. 
littoralis), and the common centaury, to the last 
of which the following observations more es- 
pecially apply. The two first-named varieties 
are found mostly in sandy ground near the sea 
shore. (Smith's Eng. Flora, vol. i. p. 320.) This 
pretty plant (£. centaurium), grows in sunny, 
drj' places, and in gravelly pastures; its roots 
are to be taken up in autumn, when out of 
flower. It is about eight or ten inches high. 
The leaves are radicle, or grow in a cluster 
from the root, and are about an inch long; the 
stalks divide towards the top into sev^eral 
branches, and the flowers, which are of a 
bright pit k, are long and slender, and stand in 
a cluster. The leaves growing upon the stalk 



are oblong, broad, and acute at the point. Com- 
mon centaury has all the medicinal properties 
which distinguish the family (the Gentianacea), 
to Avhich it belongs. Its bitter is agreeable ; 
and it might be advantageously used as a sto- 
machic instead of gentian root. The dose of 
the plant in powder is from a scruple to a 
drachm. 

CENTIPEDE (Lat. centum, a hundred, and 
pes, foot). The name of the myriapodous 
insects belonging to the genus Scolopendra of 
Linnseus. They are wingless ; and the largest 
species possess, when full grown, more than 
fifty, and less than two hundred pairs of feet; 
they are sometimes caWei forty-legs. (Brande's 
Diet, of Science.') 

CERATE (derived from rem, wax.) Cerates 
are ointments of rather stiff consistence; sim- 
ple cerate is made b}' melting together sweet oil 
and beeswax, or hog's lard and beeswax, or 
all three together. The oil or lard employed 
should alwaj-s be fresh, as nothing irritates or 
prevents the healing of wounds more than 
rancid applications. 

CERES. The Roman Pagan goddess of 
corn and harvests; the Isis of the Egyptians. 
The festivals to her honour were denominated, 
at Rome, the Cerealia or Cerealion, hence the 
term Cerealian grass ; and Sicily, long cele- 
brated for its corn, was supposed to be her 
favourite retreat. 

CEREAL, relating to com or grain. Cereal 
plants are the various kinds of grain. Cereal 
grasses are all those raised to supply bread- 
stuffs, such as wheat, rye, Indian corn, &c. 

CERINE. A substance which forms from 
seventy to eighty per cent, of beeswax. It 
may be obtained by digesting wax, for some 
time, in spirits of wine, at a boiling tempera- 
ture, after which the cerine is decanted with 
the liquor, from which it is cleared by evapo- 
ration. It is white, analogous to wax, and 
melts at 134° Fahrenheit. 

CHACK. A term used in horsemanship 
when a horse beats upon the hand, and does not 
hold his head steady, but tosses up his nose, 
and shakes it all of a sudden, to avoid the sub- 
jection of the bridle. In order to fix and secure 
his head, it is only necessary to put under his 
nose-band a small flat ligature of iron, bent 
archwise, which serves as a martingale. 

CHAFF (Sax.ceap; Dutch, in/). The husks 
of corn which are separated by thrashing and 
winnowing. It likewise implies hay, straw, 
&c. cut small, for the purpose of being given 
to horses and other cattle. 

CHAFF-ENGINES. That chaff has been 
employed as provender for live-stock from a 
very early period, we have abundant evidence. 
Cato (lib. 54) recommends it for oxen ; and 
two centuries since, Hartlib recommended its 
use, mixed with cut oats and peas. The mode 
of preparing the chaff, however, from hay and 
straw by the knife, was a later improvement, 
and the first machines were rude and incom- 
plete. 

We are not aware (says Mr. J. A. Ransome 
of Ipswich, to whom I am indebted for this and 
other valuable articles on the implements of 
agriculture) of any attempt to improve upcii 
the plan of pressing the hay in a trough, and 

307 



CHAFF-ENGINES. 



CHAFF-ENGINES. 



by hand bringing it by small portions to the 
front edge, where it was severed by a long 
knife attached to the end of a lever, till in 
] 794-5 the Rev. J. Cooke of Holborn, London, 
and W. Naylor of Langstock, respectively ob- 
tained patents for machines for expediting the 
process. 

In the year 1797 we find Robert Salmon, of 
Woburn, whose inventive talent and practical 
experience added many and various original 
ideas and improvements to the then limited 
knowledge of agricultural mechanics, con- 
structed a chaff-engine, which, although cum- 
brous in its appearance, was effective in its 
operation,, and furnished the original idea, 
which was subsequently improved upon; first, 
by Rowntree, and afterwards by Thos. Pass- 
more of Doncaster; the latter of whom, in 
1S04, patented the machine known as the Don- 
caster engine, upon the plan of which, for 
many years, most of the engines in the mid- 
land and eastern counties were made ; and 
even at the present time, few of the machines 
in general use are found more effective. A 
reward of thirty guineas was conferred on 
Salmon by the Society for the Encouragement 
of Arts, &c. for this improved machine. 

Passmore's machine was a simplification 
and improvement on Salmon's straw-cutter. 

In 1800 and 1801, W. Lester of Paddington 
patented a straw-cutter, which, with some alte- 
rations, is much used at the present day, and 
is known as the "Lester engine." If is a very 
simple machine, having but one knife, placed 
on a fly-wheel ; the fly-wheel turns on a cranked 
spindle, which communicates motion to a rat- 
chet-wheel fixed at the end of one of the feed- 
ing-rollers by means of a small hook or catch, 
which is capable of being so adjusted as to lift 
one, two, three, or four teeth at each revolution, 
and by this is regulated the length of the straw 
projected in front.of the face-plate, and which 
is severed by the knife. On the roller was 
fixed a revolving cloth or endless web, which 
passed over another roller at the hinder end of 
the box ; a heavy block was used to compress 
the straw. In the more modern engines the 
rolling-cloth is entirely dispensed with, as the 
purpose for which it was intended is effected 
by the introduction of an upper feeding-roller, 
to which motion is communicated by a pair of 
cog-wheels, one of which is attached to the 
lower feeding-roller before described; the heavy 
block is substituted by a pressing-piece, which 
receives its motion from the cranked spindle, 
alternately presses down the straw previous to 
the cut, and rises afterwards to allow the straw 
free passage. The improved machine is made 
of different sizes, and the larger are frequently 
used with horse-power. 

This is the best modern chaff-engine; it will 
adjust and vary the work to the following 
lengths of cut: — ^ inch, ^ inch, and J inch. 

Bushels nf focider 
ptT hour. 

At i inch It will cut from 18 to 20 
■h — 40 to 50 

I — 50 to 60 

Another chaff-cutter is made on the same 
nrinciple, but a size smaller, which 
308 



Bushels of fodder 
per hour. 



at i inch will cut from 



10 to 12 

^ — 30 to 40 

I — 40 to 50 

A still smaller engine can also be had, cut- 
ting ^ inch lengths only, suited to gentlemen's 
stables and small establishments, made entirely 
of metal, and adapted for hot climates. This 
will cut from 15 to 20 bushels of fodder per 
hour. 

Passing by several, which in the course of 
the next fifteen years were introduced, but 
which, however ingenious, were too compli- 
cated and cumbrous for general use, in 1818 
we find a simple invention Avas patented by 
Thomas Heppenstall, of Doncaster. It con- 
sisted in the application of a worm to turn two 
wheels, which in their revolution meet each 
other. These wheels are attached to two feed- 
ing-rollers, which convey the straw forwards 
to the 'knives. Two of these knives are placed 
on a fly-wheel, which is fixed upon the same 
spindle as the worm. This is the simplest 
form of chaff-engine, and, with a slight altera- 
tion, substituting wheels with the cogs on the 
face instead of on the outer edge, is the com- 
mon form for the small engines now in use. 

Two patents have also, within the last year 
or two, been taken out for considerable im- 
provements on this machine, one by Lord 
Ducie in connection with Messrs. Clyburn and 
Budding, two engineers residing at Ule}'. 

The only remaining machine we have to 
bring before the notice of our readers, is one 
for which a patent was obtained a few months 
ago by Mr. Charles May, engineer of Ipswich, 
a partner in the house of Ransome. We saw 
this among the machines exhibited at the Royal 
Agricultural Society's meeting at Cambridge, 
where it appeared to perform its work admira- 
bly. It is intended to be used by horse-power, 
and is so contrived that cog-wheels of different 
diameters may be placed on the spindle to 
which motion is first communicated; these, 
working in different movable wheels upon an- 
other spindle, will regulate the speed of the 
feeding-rollers, so as to vary the length of the 
chaff to be cut, from three-eighths of an inch 
to three inches. Its capabilities are estimated 
to cut 8 cwt. of straw per hour in half-inch 
lengths. 

A chaff-cutter is indispensable on a large 
farm establishment. This implement, as has 
been shown, is either constructed with a good 
deal of expensive machinery, or of very simple 
mechanism ; it may be made up at the cost of 
only 1/. or 1/. 5s. 

Patent straw-cutters in great variety are to 
be found in the United States. They are per- 
haps in most general use in the Eastern States, 
lor which reason we extract the opinions of 
their respective merits held by an Eastern au- 
thority of high repute, Mr. T. G. Fessenden, 
editor of that valuable periodical, the New Eng- 
land Farmer. In his very instructive little 
volume, "The Complete Farmer," Mr. Fessen- 
den makes the following remarks : — 

"There is not only much saving and gain in 
cutting fodder when hay is low, but the animal 
is kept in better health, more particularly old 



CHAFF ENGINES. 



CHAFF-ENGINES. 



horses, and such as may have been injured in 
their wind. 

"It is a fact that horses will live and continue 
serviceable much longer when fed on cut fod- 
der. The machine invented and manufactured 
by Willis, known as ' Willis's Improved Straw 
and Hay-Cutter' is the most durable and best 
operating machine that has come to our know- 
ledge ; and, what is worthy of notice, they re- 
quire but one person to work them, which is not 
the case with many other machines ; in this re- 
spect there is a great saving in cutting feed, and 
likewise the fodder may be cut of any length 
required : the knives, being placed in front of 
the machine, can be at all times examined 
and put in good order. The feeding-rollers 
are so constructed, that while the machine is 
in the act of cutting, the rollers cease to 
feed, which renders the cutting operation very 
easy. When properly constructed, this ma- 
chine works free and easy, and is not liable to 
gel out of order. It will cut from thirty-five to 
forty bushels per hour. Price thirty-five dollars. 

" Eastman's Slratv-Cutter,-whh improved side- 
gearing and cylindrical knives. This machine 
is well calculated for large and extensive esta- 
blishments. Price, fifty to sixty dollars. 

" Tlie Cainmon Dutch Hand Cutting-Machine is 
one of those implements in common use, and 
known to every practical farmer; and is con- 
sidered as good a machine for a small esta- 
blishment as any in use. It will cut from ten 
to twenty bushels per hour. 

"Safford's Improved and Common Straw-Cutter 
with side-gearing. Well approved, and is in 
very general use. 

"Green's Patent Straw-Cutter, one of the most 
approved machines now in use for cutting fod- 
der : very simple in its construction, and not 
liable to get out of order ; does the work with 
great ease and despatch." 

" Green's Patent Straw, Hay, and Stalk-Cutter," 
says another excellent authority, " is very sim- 
ple in its construction, and being made and 
put together very strong, is not liable to get 
out of order. By the application of a mecha- 
nical principle not before applied to any imple- 
ment for this purpose, the ma.chine will cut 
easily two bushels per minute, requiring only 
the strength of a boy to work it. The knives 
require less sharpening than those of any other 
straw-cutter, owing to the peculiar manner in 
which they cut." 

The Albany Cultivator states, on the author- 
ity of an intelligent and worthy farmer, that 
two active men will, with this machine, by the 
application of manual power alone, cut five tons 
of hay per day.' The machine called No. 2, 
which cuts three-fourths of an inch long, is 
now sold for thirty-three dollars. 

The saving effected by the use of straw-cut- 
ters often amounts to 50 per cent. The profits 
and advantages accruing from cutting proven- 
der, especially when this happens to be a high 
price, is strikingly demonstrated by the follow- 
ing statement 

Mr. Benjamin Hale's account of the savings made 
by the use of Straw-Cutters, employed to cut hay 
and straw as fodder for horses. 

Mr. Hale is proprietor of a line of stages 



running between Newburyport and Boston. 

He says, 

The whole amount of hay purchased 

from April 1 to Oct. 1, 1816 (six 

months), and used at the stage Tons. cwt. qrs. Iba. 

stable, was 32 4 10 

At twenty-five dollars per ton (the 

lowest price at which hay was 

purchased in 1816,) £800 00 

From dot. 1, 1816, to April 1, 1817, 

whole amount of hay and straw 

purchased for and consumed by 

the same number of horses, viz. 
T. ewt. qrs. lbs. Cost. 
Straw 16 13 3 10 $160 23 
Hay 13 14 1 00 350 00 

S510 23 
Deduct on hand April 1, 1817, by esti- 
mation, four tons more than there 
was Oct. 1, 1816, at twenty-tive 
dollars per ton, 100 «410 23 

Saving by the use of the straw-cut- 
ler, four months out of the last six 
months, or the ditTerence in ex- 
pense in feeding with cut fodder 
and that which is uncut $389 77 

Whole amount of hay used for the 
horses nf the .Salem stage, twenty- 
five in number, from April 1 to Oct. T. cwt.qrs.lbs. 
1, 1816, viz. 22 

At thirty dollars per ton (the lowest 
price in Salem), ^660 00 

Whole amount consumed by the 
same number of horses from Oct. 
1, 1816, to April 1, 1817, 

T. cwt. qrs. lbs. Cost. 

Straw 15 13 $187 80 

Hay 2 15 81 00 

' $268 80 



$391 20 



389 77 
391 20 



Saving in using chopped fodder five 
months, 

Total saving in using the straw-cut- 
ter nine months, viz. at Newbury- 
port four months 

At Salem five months 



Total, $789 97 

The members of the board of trustees of the 
Massachusetts Agricultural Society,towhom the 
above account was communicated by Mr. Hale, 
were informed by that gentleman that he used 
no more grain from Oct., 1816, to April, 1817, 
than was used from April, 1816, to Oct., 1816, 

At a late exhibition of the Philadelphia Agri- 
cultural Societ}^ a premium was awarded for 
a new chaff or straw-cutter, invented by Mr. 
C. T. Botts, editor of the " Southern Planter," 
published at Richmond, Va. The improve- 
ment upon other machines for a similar pur- 
pose consists chiefly in shortening the knives, 
which are not wider than a common carpen- 
ter's plane-iron, and like them can be easily 
ground and set. It is a self-feeder, the operator 
having nothing else to do but turn the crank. 
The inventor remarks, that many straw-cutters 
at present in use are sufficiently eflective whilst 
in order, but from the difficulty of bringing 
them within the power of common manage- 
ment, they have generally been abandoned for 
the imperfect cutters made by the common 
blacksmiths of the country. The inventor 
therefore applied himself to the construction 
of an implement which, if less rapid in execu- 
tion, would be more durable, and within the 
control of the simplest capacity. These are 
the strongest testimonials in favour of the ex- 
cellence of Mr. Botts's straw-cutter, the cost 
of which varies from $25 for the smallest to 
$30 for the largest size. 

An extensive farmer residing near Pbila- 

309 



CHALDRON. 



CHALK. 



delphia, who enjoys a high reputation for his 
agricultural management, and especially for 
his success in feeding cattle, has returned to 
the common old cutting-knife and box, so long 
used by the German farmers in Pennsylvania, 
an improvement of which is certainly a very 
efficient implement. He says that he has ex- 
pended much money for what were pronounced 
the best patent straw-cutters, and finds it to his 
advantage to lay them aside and return to the 
old and simple machine, which costs but five 
or six dollars. He had not seen the machine 
invented by Mr. Botts. 

CHALDRON. An English measure, contain- 
ing 36 bushels, or 12 sacks of 3 bushels each. 

CHALK (Sax. cealc; Welsh, calck ; Celtic, 
cal or kal). The carbonate of lime, or lime 
united with carbonic acid. See Lime. Car- 
bonate of lime exists abundantly in various 
parts of the earth's surface in the stute of 
chalk, limestone, and marble ; and in smaller 
masses, as the arragonite, &c., of which be- 
tween one and two hundred varieties (all car- 
bonate of lime) are known to mineralogists. 
For the purposes of agriculture they may be 
all classed under one head. Common chalk 
has a dull white colour, is soft, adhesive when 
applied to the tongue, stains the fingers, and 
thence is in common use for marking. In Eu- 
ropean agriculture chalk is perhaps the most 
extensively employed of the limestone species ; 
it varies slightly in composition, containing 
usually some silica (flint), alumina (clay), and 
some red oxide of iron, and the remainder car- 
bonate of lime, 100 parts of which contain, 

Paris 

Carbonic acid ------ 45 

Lime -------55 

100 parts of common limestone are com- 
posed, according to MM. Thenard and Biot, of 

Paris. 

Carbonate of lime .... 9505 

Water .--..-- 163 

Silica 112 

Alumina . - . - - - 1" 

Oxide of iron ..... -75 

100 

These carbonates, when burnt, form lime, 
for the heat drives off the carbonic acid. By 
exposure to the air the lime absorbs carbonic 
acid gas, and again becomes converted into 
carbonate of lime. A knowledge of these facts 
is of considerable value to the farmer even on 
the score of carriage, independent of the greater 
value of lime as a manure ; for in some cases 
the object of the needless weight of water and 
carbonic acid in chalk is very material, as will 
be readily seen by the following analysis of the 
chalk of Kent, which is the variety largely em- 
'iloyed in the county of Essex, although it has 
.0 be brought by sea nearly 70 miles, and then 
often carted several miles. I found by careful 
experiment 100 parts of chalk from Kent, in the 
state in which it was carted on the land in De- 
cember, contained, besides some oxide of iron 
and silica. — 

Parts. 

Water ....... 24- 

Carbonic acid ..... 342 

Lime ---.... 41-8 

100 

dlO 



So that, when the farmer carts 41 tons of fresh 
lime, he conveys as much real manure to his 
soil as if he carried 100 tons of chalk. This 
must be assuredly a question of the highest 
importance to those farmers who have to carry 
the earth a considerable distance, especially if 
they can procure lime at a reasonable rate ; 
which, in the large quantities required for agri- 
cultural purposes, must in most situations be 
the case. 

Carbonate of lime is found in almost all 
vegetables ; it is an essential food of plants. 
The cultivator will see, by the results of the 
experiments which I shall give under the head 
Lime, that the quantity of carbonate of lime 
contained in the cultivated grasses is very con- 
siderable, and still more so in trees ; and that, 
as might be expected, the proportion increases 
with the quantity of this substance found in the 
soil. To the planter this fact ofiers an unan- 
swerable reason in favour of the addition of 
chalk, marl, or limestone to all poor soils in- 
tended for plantations, in the manner long suc- 
cessfully practised on the black heathy sands 
of Norfolk by Mr. Withers of Holt, and which 
he has shown to be equally advantageous to 
trees, whether planted for ornamental or profit- 
able purposes. 

There is no fact more necessary to be un- 
derstood by the agriculturist, than that no land 
can be productive which does not contain a 
fair proportion of carbonate of lime. It is, 
perhaps, even in excess much less prejudicial 
to any cultivated soil than either silica or alu- 
mina. But, on the other hand, no soil can be 
productive if it contain more than nineteen 
parts in twenty of chalk. The earth of the fine 
sandy hop gardens near Tonbridge, in Kent, 
contain about five per cent, of chalk. The good 
turnip soils near Holkham, in Norfolk, are 
seven-eighths sand and the remaining eighth 
is composed of 

Parte. 

Carbonate of lime or chalk - - - 63 

Silica (flint) ---... 15 

Alumina (clay) ----- 11 

Oxide of iron ------ 3 

Vegetable and saline matter - - - 5 

Water 3 

100 

The soil at Sheffield Place, in Sussex, which 
is so admirably adapted for the growth of the 
oak, contains three per cent, of chalk. The 
fine wheat soils of West Drayton, in Middle- 
sex, contain more than ten per cent. That of 
Bagshot Heath contains less than one per cent. 
The richest soils on the banks of the Parret, in 
Somersetshire, contain more than seventy per 
cent. Those of the valley of Evesham about 
six per cent. A specimen of a good soil from 
Tiviotdale, examined by Davy, was composed 
of five-sixths sand and the remainder of the 
following substances {Lectures, 202) : — 

Parts. 
Clav 41 

Silica (flint) 43 

Chalk 4 

Oxide of iron .---.. 5 
Vegetable, animal, and saline matter - - 8 

A soil yielding excellent pasture, from the 
banks of the Wiltshire Avon, near Salisbury, 
yielded the same chemist one-eleventh of its 



CHALK. 



CHARCOAL. 



weight of siliceous sand. The remainder was 
composed of 

Parts. 

Chalk 63 

Silica (flint) 14 

Vegetable, animal, and fiallDe matter - - 14 

Alumina (clay) ---... 7 

Oxide of iron ----.. 2 

Many soils also contain a small proportion 
of carbonate of magnesia; but it very rarely 
amounts to a sufficient quantity to be worth 
estimating in the mode of analysis I shall pre- 
sently give. 

It is difficult to say in what form the carbo- 
nate of lime enters the system of plants, as it 
is an insoluble compound : unless we can sup- 
pose that it attracts an excess of carbonic acid 
from the air, becoming a bicarbonate, in which 
state it is soluble in water. But whatever 
may the cause of its being taken up by plants, 
its influence on soils is undoubted." 

The mode of applying chalk as a manure. In 
the county of Essex, where chalking is prac- 
tised to a very large extent, the chalk is 
brought in sailing barges from the Kentish 
shore of the Thames, at an expense of about 
two shillings per ton, and afterwards carted for 
some miles into the country. It is applied in 
quantities which vary from ten to thirty tons 
per acre, according to the description of the 
soil ; the poor light soils requiring a larger 
addition of chalk than the richer lands. It is 
usually applied without any preparation ; the 
larger lumps of chalk are not even broken, and 
the chalk being once ploughed in, the action 
of the frost, the plough, and the harrow, in 
time sufficiently pulverizes it. It is often 
mixed in smaller proportions with common 
farm-yard manure, ditch scrapings, pond mud, 
&c., and suffered to remain some time before 
it is carried into the field. An equally excel- 
lent plan is followed by some of the best Essex 
farmers, who spread quantities of chalk over 
head lands, banks, &c., which require lower- 
ing, and then fallow those portions of land, 
ploughing them often, and letting the chalked 
earth remain as long as possible, incorporating 
before they carry and spread the mixed chalk 
and earth on to the field; by this means the 
effects of a few loads of chalk are diffused over 
a field. It is a plan admirably adapted for 
those situations where chalk is very expen- 
sive. 

The good effects of chalk are more perma- 
nent than immediate ; for, although a good 
dressing with chalk will remain in the soil for 
from ten to twenty years, yet, on some soils, 
one or even two years will elapse before the far- 
mer perceives a decided improvement. There 
is hardly any manure that answers better for 
grass than chalk, especially on light, sandy 
soils. If, however, the soil already contains 
an abundance of chalk, its addition to that 
land cannot constitute a manure. The culti- 
vator can easily form a rough estimate of the 
quantity of chalk in a soil, by taking a quantity 
of it from three inches beneath the surface, 
well drying it in an oven, and adding to, say 
400 grains, 800 grains of muriatic acid ; the 
mixture, which weighs 1200 grains, will, if it 
contains chalk, effervesce ; and the carbonic 
acid of the chalk being expelled, will, of 



course, lessen the weight of the mixture. 
When the effervescence has entirely ceased, 
weigh the mass ; every 4^ grains deficient the 
experimenter may consider to indicate the pre- 
sence of 10 grains of chalk in the soil. The 
agriculturist will then be able to judge, by 
comparing the quantity of chalk existing in 
the examined soils with that in other lands, the 
analyses of which I have given, whether his 
land requires the addition of chalk. In the 
United States chalk is nowhere found, and the 
lime applied to agricultural purposes, except 
it be in the form of gypsum or plaster of Paris, 
is obtained from burning limestone, marble, 
shells, either recent or fossil — and lastly from 
bones and calcareous deposits called marl. 
(C. W. Johnson's work On FerlUizers, p. 256 ; 
Brit. Farm. Mag. vol. iii. p. 129.) 

CHAMPIGNONS (Jgariats arcades). A 
species of mushroom, growing wild in Eng- 
land, having a much higher flavour than the 
common mushroom, but tough and leathery 
and consequently very indigestible. They are 
chiefly used for making catsup, or in the form 
of powder to flavour sauces, &c., for all which 
purposes they are admirable. 

CHAR. A species of lake trout found in 
Windermere ; in length never exceeding fif- 
teen or sixteen inches spotted like a trout, 
with very few bones. {Walion, p. 17.3.) It is 
also found in Loch Tay, in Scotland. 

CHARBON. 'i'he little black spot or mark 
remaining after the large spot in the cavity of 
the corner tooth of a horse is gone. 

CHARCOAL (From chark, to burn, and was 
formerly written charke coal). The remaining 
portion of wood after it has been heated to red- 
ness for some time, which dissipates all the 
hydrogen and oxygen of which, with carbon, 
it is composed. (See Carbon.) Charcoal- 
burning is a regular trade, followed in some 
of the woody districts by persons who do 
hardly any thing else. 

For making gunpowder-charcoal, the lighter 
woods, such as the willow, dogwood, and alder 
answer best; and in their carbonization care 
should be taken to let the vapours freely 
escape, especially towards the end of the ope- 
ration, for when they are re-absorbed, they 
greatly impair the combustibility of the char- 
coal. 

By the common process of the forests, about 
18 per cent, of the weight of the wood is ob- 
tained ; by the process of Foucauld about 24 
percent, are obtained,with20 of crude pyrolig- 
neous acid of 10 degrees Baume. 

The charcoal of some woods contains silica, 
and is therefore useful for polishing metals. 
Being a bad conductor of heat, charcoal is em- 
ployed sometimes in powder to encase small 
furnaces and steam-pipes. It is not affected 
by water ; and hence the extremities of char- 
red stakes driven into moist grounds are not 
liable to decomposition. In like manner casks 
when charred inside preserve water much 
better than common casks, because they fur- 
nish no soluble matter for fermentation or for 
food to animalcules. 

Lowitz discovered that wood charcoal re- 
moves offensive smells from animal and 
vegetable substances, and counteracts thei- 

Jli 



CHARCOAL. 



CHARCOAL. 



putrefaction. He found the odour of succinic 
and benzoic acids, of bugs, of empyreumatic 
oils, of infusions of valerian, essence of 
wormwood, spirits distilled from bad grain, 
and sulphureous substances were all absorb- 
a.ble by freshly calcined charcoal properly 
applied. A very ingenious filter has been 
constructed for purifying water, by passing it 
through strata of charcoal of different fineness. 

When charcoal is burned, one-third of the 
heat is discharged by radiation, and two-thirds 
b}"^ conduction. 

The following table of the quantity of char- 
coal yielded by different woods was published 
by Mr. Mushet, as the result of experiments 
carefully made upon the small scale. He says, 
the woods before being charred were tho- 
roughly dried, and pieces of each kind were 
selected as nearly alike in every respect as 
possible. One hundred parts of each sort 
were taken, and they produced as under : — 

Lignum VitiB afforded 26 of charcoal of a grayish co- 
lour, resembling coke. 

Mahogany - - 25-4 tinged with brown, spongy 
and porous. 

Laburnum - - 245 velvet black, compact, very 
hard. 

Chestnut - - 2S 2 glossy black, compact, firm. 

Oak . - - 226 black, close, very firm. 

Walnut - - - SO 6 dull black, close, firm. 

Holly - . - 19'9 dull black, loose and bulky. 

Beech . - - 199 dull black, spongy, firm. 

Sycamore - - 19-7 fine black, bulky, moderately 
firm. 

Elm ... 19-5 fine black, moderately firm. 

Norway Pine - - 19'2 shining black, bulky, very 
soft. 

Sallow or willow - 18-4 velvet black, bulky, loose, 
and soft. 

Ash ... 17 9 shining black, spongy, firm. 

Birch ... 17-4 velvet black, bulky, firm. 

Scotisb Pine - - 164 tinged with brown, mode- 
rately firm. 

Messrs. Allen and Pepys, from 100 parts of 
the following woods, obtained the quantities 
of charcoal as under : — 

Beech - 15-00 I Oak - - - 1740 

Mahogany - 15 75 Fir - - -' 18 17 
Lignum ViiiB - 17 25 | Box ... 20-25 

It is observable that the quantities obtained 
by Messrs. Allen and Pepys are in general less 
than those given by Mr. Mushet, which may 
be owing to Mr. Mushet not having applied 
sufficient heat, or operated long enough, to dis- 
sipate the aqueous matter of the gaseous pro- 
ducts. 

To those persons who buy charcoal by 
weight, it is important to purchase it as soon 
after it is made as possible, as it quickly ab- 
sorbs a considerable portion of water from the 
atmosphere. Different woods, however, differ 
in this respect. Messrs. Allen and Pepys 
found, that by a week's exposure to the air, the 
charcoal of 

Lignum Vitie gained - - - 96 per cent. 

Fir 130 ditto. 

Box -...-- 140 ditto. 

Beech . - . . - 16-3 ditto. 

Oak 16-5 ditto. 

Mahogany ..... 180 ditto. 

The following is a tabular view of the vo- 
lume*; of the different gases which were ab- 
sorbea in the course of twenty-four hours, by 
one volume of charcoal, in the experiments of 
M.Theodore de Saussure, which were conduct- 
^ in a wav likely to produce correct results. 
S12" 



Each portion of charcoal was heated afresh to 
a red heat, and allowed to cool under mercury. 
When taken from the mercury, it was instantly 
plunged into the vessel of gas: 

Ammoniacal gas - 90 i Bicarbureted hydrogen 35-00 

Muriatic acid gas - 85 Carbonic oxyde - 9-42 

Sulphurous acid - 65 | Oxygen gas - - 925 

Sulphureied hydrogen 55 | Nitrogen - - - 7-!iO 

Nitrous oxyde - 40 ; Carbureted hydrogen 5-00 

Carbonic acid gas - 35 Hydrogen gas - - 1'75 

(lire's Diet, of Jrts.) 

In England charcoal is prepared in two dif- 
ferent ways. In one, billets of wood are formed 
into a heap, which is covered with turf, and a 
few small openings only left for the admi.'ision 
of the air requisite to maintain it in a state of 
low combustion after it is lighted. When the 
whole heap is on fire, the holes are stopped ; 
and, after the mass has cooled, the residue is 
charcoal. In the other mode the wood is 
distilled in iron cylinders, in which case the 
products are pyroligneous acids, and empy- 
reumatic oil ; and what remains in the retort 
is charcoal. The quantity of the distilled pro- 
ducts, as well as of the charcoal, depends on 
the kind of wood employed. 100 parts of dried 
oak yields, of 

PutL 
Pyroligneous acid . - - . . 43* 
Carbonate of potassa .... 4-5 
Empyreumatic oil - - - - - 906 
Charcoal 26-2 

The charcoal thus procured is lighter than 
common charcoal. Charcoal should be black, 
sonorous, brittle, and retain the texture of the 
wood. It has a powerful attraction for water, 
gases, and odorous and colouring principles. 
It is a powerful antiseptic, and well adapted 
for preserving animal substances from putre- 
faction. In fine powder it is much used as a 
tooth-powder, for which purpose, however, it 
is exceptionable, since, being insoluble, it gets 
between the teeth and gums and thus leads to 
their separation and much mischief. 

Ivory, or bone black, is animal charcoal, 
prepared in the same manner as the second 
kind of vegetable charcoal. It has a remarka- 
ble property of abstracting colour from many 
vegetable solutions, on which account it is 
much used by sugar refiners. 

" Plants," says Liebig, " thrive in powdered 
charcoal, and may be brought to blossom and 
bear fruit, if exposed to the influence of the 
rain and the atmosphere ; the charcoal may 
be previously heated to redness. Charcoal 
is the most unchangeable substance known; 
it may be kept for centuries without change, 
and is therefore not subject to decomposition. 
The only substances which it can yield to 
plants are some salts which it contains, 
amongst which is silicate of potash. It is 
known, however, to possess the power of 
condensing gases within its pores, and parti- 
cularly carbonic acid. And it is by virtue of 
this power that the roots of plants are supplied 
in charcoal exactly as in humus, with an at- 
mosphere of carbonic acid an.i air, which is 
renewed as quickly as it is abstracted 

" In charcoal powder, which had been used 
for this purpose by Lukas for several years, 
Buchner found a brown substance soluble in 
alkalies. This substance was evidently due 



CHARD. 



CHEESE. 



to the secretions from the roots of the plants 
which grew in it. 

" A plant placed in a closed vessel in which 
the air, and therefore the carbonic acid, cannot 
be renewed, dies exactly as it would do in the 
vacuum of an air-pump, or in an atmosphere 
of nitrogen or carbonic acid, even though its 
roots be fixed in the richest mould. 

" Plants do not, however, attain maturity, 
under ordinary circumstances, in charcoal 
powder, when they are moistened with pure 
distilled water instead of rain or river water. 
Rain water must, therefore, contain within it 
one of the essentials of vegetable life; and it 
will be shown, that this is the presence of a 
compound containing nitrogen, the exclusion 
of which entirely deprives humus and char- 
coal of their influence upon vegetation." (^Lie- 
big's Organic Chemistry.) 

" Dr. Webster, editor of the American edi- 
tion of Liebig's Organic Chemistry, observes : 
' A few years since, I had an opportunity of ob- 
serving a striking instance of the effect of car- 
bonic acid upon vegetation in the volcanic 
island of St. Michael (Azores). The gas is- 
sued from a fissure in the base of a hill of tra- 
chyte and luffa from which a level field of 
some acres extended. This field, at the time 
of my visit, was in part covered with Indian 
corn. The corn at the distance of ten or fif- 
teen yards from the fissure, was nearly full 
grown, and of the usual height, but the height 
regularly diminished until within five or six 
feet of the hill, where it attained but a few 
Inches. This effect was owing to the great 
specific gravity of the carbonic acid, and its 
spreading upon the ground, but as the distance 
increased, and it became more and more min- 
gled with atmospheric air, it had produced less 
and less effect." 

CHARD. See Beet. 

CHARLOCK (Sax. cepiice). PI. 10 g. A 
troublesome weed, which abounds in most ara- 
ble soils, and is very ditflcult to expel. In Eng- 
land it is frequently called chadlock, callock, cor- 
lock, corii-kulc, and white-rajpe. There are four dif- 
erent species of plants,says Sinclair, confounded 
under the name of charlock, viz. Sinapis arvcn- 
sis, or common wild mustard ; yellow blossom, 
in May; annual. S. nigra, black, or Durham 
mustard ; blossom, pale yellow, in June ; an- 
nual. Ruphanus raphanistnnn, wild radish ; 
straw-yellow blossom, in June and July ; an- 
nual. Brassica napus, wild navew (this last is 
the least common) ; yellow blossom, in May ; 
biennial. 

The seeds derived from the hard pods of 
the variety of the yellow-flowered charlock, 
called wild mustard, are collected in England 
and sold under the name of Durham Mustard. 
They furnish by expression an excellent oil, 
which it has been thought might be rendered 
profitable. In Germany 30 lbs. of pure lamp- 
oil has been obtained from 100 lbs. of seed. 

Charlock has been introduced from Europe, 
and has become quite extensively naturalized in 
several parts of the United States. Being an 
annual plant it is very difiicult to get rid of, 
and when once in possession of a spot will 
long bid defiance to all attempts made for its 
total extirpation. It infests clayey grounds, 
40 



such as are particularly well adapted to the 
culture of wheat and other most valuable 
grains. Its seeds contain a preservative oil, 
which, with their great firmness enables them 
to remain sound under ground for an almost 
unlimited period. Those only which are 
brought by tillage within a certain distance of 
the surface, sprout and grow, whilst the deeper 
covered remain for the production of another 
crop when brought up by the plough sufli- 
ciently near the surface. The only practicable 
mode of eradicating this and other pests of an- 
nual growth, is to prevent the plants from coming 
to seed, by cutting down when in blossom. The 
greatest care should be taken to inspect seed- 
grain before sowing, and see that no seeds of 
charlock or other troublesome weeds are in 
the samples. The leaves, flowers, long, round 
and irregular seed-pods and odour of the root 
are very similar to those of the common 
radish. Farm stock generally are fond of the 
plant, and especially sheep, which, when it is 
possible to turn upon the field sufliciently 
early, will keep it from growing up to seed. 

In Ireland and the northern parts of Europe, 
as well as in some parts of America, young 
charlock is boiled for greens in the same man- 
ner as cabbage-sprouts, &c. The flowers are 
much frequented by bees. ( Weeds of JlgricuU 
turc, p. 45 ; SmUh's Flora, vol. iii. p. 321-6.) 

CHARRING OF POSTS. The reducing 
that part of the surface of posts which is to be 
put into the ground to the stale of charcoaL 
This method is highly useful where the parts 
are to be placed in wet situations, or to stand 
between wet and dry. This was a practice 
common to the ancients. 

CHEAT AND CHESS. See Darnel. 

CHEDDER CHEESE. A kind of cheese so 
named from its being made at Chedder, a vil- 
lage near the Mendip-hills in Somersetshire, 
famotis for its pastures. The richness and 
fine flavour of Chedder cheese is supposed to 
be derived chiefly from a species of Agrostis 
upon which the cows feed. 

CHEESE (Lat. cascvs: Sax. c^re). A well- 
known kind of food, prepared from milk by 
coagulation, and separated from the serum or 
whey, by means of pressure, after which it is 
dried for use. See Butter. Cheese has been 
made from a very ancient period ; it is men- 
tioned by Job, and also by Homer. According 
to Strabo, our British ancestors did not under- 
stand how to make cheese, a deficiency with 
which their descendants cannot now well be 
charged. 

Good cheese, says Dr. Thomson, melts at a 
moderate heat ; but bad cheese, when heated, 
dries, curls, and exhibits all the phenomena of 
burning horn. From this it is evident that 
good cheese contains aquantity of the peculiar 
oil of cream; hence its flavour and smell. 
Proust found in cheese a peculiar acid, which 
he called the caseic. (System of Chem. vol. iv. p. 
499.) 

The best season for makmg cheese is during 
those months when the cows can be fed on the 
pastures ; that is, from the beginning of May 
till towards the end of September, or, in favour 
able seasons, the middle of October. In Eng 
land, on many of the large dairy farms, in se 
2 D 313 



CHEESE. 



CHEESE. 



reral districts, cheese is frequently made 
throughout the year ; but that made during the 
winter months is considerably inferior in qua- 
lity, and much longer in becoming fit for sale, 
or for use, than that which is made within the 
periods which have been just mentioned. In 
Gloucestershire, the season of making thin 
cheese is from April to November; but the 
principal one for making thick is during the 
months of May, June, and the beginning of 
July. If made late in the summer, the cheese 
does not acquire a sufficient degree of firmness 
to be marketable in the ensuing spring. 

The milking in Cheshire, during the summer 
season is at six o'clock, both morning and 
evening ; and in winter, at daylight in the 
morning, and immediately before dark in the 
evening. But in other districts, as Wilts, Suf- 
folk, &c., the people are frequently employed 
in milking by four o'clock in the morning in 
summer ; and the business in a dairy of forty 
or fifty cows is nearly completed before the 
usual period at which it commences in Che- 
shire. 

The colouring of cheese has been so long 
common in the cheese districts, that it is pro- 
bable that cheese of the best quality would be 
in a great measure unsaleable if it did not pos- 
sess the requisite colour. The degree of colour 
is regulated chiefly by the name under which 
it is intended the cheese should be sold, as Glou- 
cester, Cheshire, &c. The object of the introduc- 
tion of this practice was no doubt to convey an 
idea of richness which the cheese did not really 
possess. This is the more evident, as it is 
universally allowed that the poorest cheese 
always requires the greatest quantity of dye to 
bring it to the proper degree of colour. The 
material which is employed for this purpose is 
the Spanish annotta. (See Anxotta.) The 
weight of a guinea and a half of it is consi- 
dered in Cheshire sufficient for a cheese of 60 
lbs. ; and in Gloucestershire an ounce is the 
common allowance to 1 cwt. 

In regard to the rennet, it maybe observed, 
that milk may be coagulated, or curdled, by 
the application of any sort of acid; but the 
substance which is most commonly used is the 
maws or stomachs of young calves prepared 
for the purpose. These are most generally de- 
nominated rennets : but they are also often pro- 
vincially called veils, and in Scotland yearnings. 
See Rennet. 

In Cheshire? after the rennet is added to the 
milk, and as soon as the curd is firm enough 
to discharge its whey, the dairy woman plunges 
her ha^s to the bottom of the vessel, and, 
with a wooden dish, stirs the curd and whey ; 
then lets go the dish, and by her hand agitates 
the whole, carefully breaking every part of the 
curd; and, at intervals, stirring it hard to the 
bottom with the dish, so that no curd remains 
unbroken larger than a hazel-nut. This is 
done to prevent what is called slip-curd, or 
lumps of curd, which, by retaining the whey, 
do not press uniformly with the other curd, but 
in a few days, if it happens to be situated 
towards the rind of the cheese, turns livid and 
jelly-like, and soon becomes faulty and rotten. 
In a few minutes the curd subsides. The 
dairy-woman then takes her dish, and lades off 
314 



the whey into a milk-lead to stand for cream, 
to be churned for whey-butter. This is a prac- 
tice peculiar to the cheese counties. In Nor- 
folk the whey, even from new milk, passes 
from the cheese-vessels immediately to the hog- 
tub. Having laded ofi" all the whey she can, 
she spreads a straining cloth, and strains the 
whey through it, returning the curd retained in 
the cloth into the cheese-tub. When she has got 
all the whey she can by pressing the curd with 
her hand and the lading-dish, she takes a knife 
and cuts it into square pieces of about two or 
three inches. This lets out more of the whey, 
and makes the curd more handy to be taken 
up in order to be broken into the vats. 

Having made choice of a vat or vats pro- 
portioned to the quantity of curd, so that the 
cheese when fully pressed shall exactly fill the 
vat, she spreads a cheese-cloth loosely over 
the mouth of the vat, into which she rebreaks 
the curd, carefully squeezing every part of it 
in her hands ; and having filled the vat heaped 
up, and rounded above its top, she folds over 
it the cloth and places it in the press, on the 
construction and power of which much de- 
pends. 

When the vat is properly placed in the press, 
the ordinary degree of pressure is applied, 
which is more or less, according to the sizes 
of the cheeses usually made. At all large 
dairies, there are two or three presses, all va- 
rying in respect to weight or pressure. There 
are various kinds of cheese-presses ; one 
made entirely of iron by the Shotts Foundry 
Company is described in the Trans. High. Soc 
vol. iv. p. 52. As soon as the vat is placed in 
the press, and the weight applied, skewers are 
thrust in through the holes in the side of the 
vat; this is done repeatedly during the first 
day when the vat is in the press. From the 
time the vat is first placed in the press till it is 
again taken out does not, in ordinary cases, 
exceed two or three hours. When taken out, 
the cheese is put into a vessel with hot whey, 
with a view of hardening its coat or skin, 
where it stands for an hour or two ; it is then 
removed, wiped dry, and after having remain- 
ed some time to cool, is covered with a clean 
cloth ; and the vat being wiped dry, and the 
cheese replaced, it is again put into the press. 
In the evening, supposing the cheese to have 
been made in the morning, which is the usual 
time, it is again taken out of the vat; and an- 
other dry cloth being applied, it is turned and 
replaced ; what was formerly the upper becom- 
ing now the under side. In this manner it is 
taken out, wrapped in clean cloths, and turned 
in the vat twice a day for two days, when it is 
finally removed. 

The salting is the next operation. The 
cheese, on being for the last time taken out of 
the vat, is carried to the salting-house, and 
placed in the vat in a tub filled to a consider- 
able depth with brine, in which it stands for 
several days, being regularly turned once at 
least every day. The vat is then removed from 
the brine-tub; and the cheese being taken out, 
is placed on the salting-bench, where it stands 
for eight or ten days, salt being carefully rub- 
bed over the whole every day during the period- 
When the cheese is of a large size, it is com- 



CHEESE. 

monly surrounded with a wooden hoop or fillet 
of cloth to prevent renting. After it is sup- 
posed to be sufficiently salted, it is washed in 
warm water or whey, and when well dried with 
a cloth, is placed on what is called the drying- 
bench, where it remains a like period before it 
is removed to the keeping-house or cheese- 
chamber. 

The last part of the business is the manage- 
ment in the cheese-room. In Gloucestershire the 
young cheeses are turned every day, or every 
two or three days, according to the state of the 
weather, or the fancy or judgment of the dairy- 
woman. If the air be cold and dry, the win- 
dows and door are kept shut as much as may 
be ; if close and moist, as much fresh air as 
possible is admitted. Having remained about 
ten days in the dairy (more or less, according 
to the space of time between the washings), 
the cheeses are cleaned ; that is, washed and 
scraped. 

The produce of a dairy of cows, where the 
milk is converted into cheese, is very various- 
ly stated by different writers. In some districts 
2^ cwts. from each cow, whether a good or a 
bad milker, if at all in milk, is considered a 
good return. In others, the average runs as 
high as 3 cwt. ; and in the county of Wilts in 
particular, from 3^ to 4 cwts. is the usual 
quantit}^ From accurate calculations made 
by Mr. Marshall, and these several times re- 
peated, he found that in Gloucestershire about 
15 gallons of milk were requisite for making 
little more than 11 lbs. of two-meal cheese, and 
that one gallon of new milk produced a pound 
of curd. It is the general opinion of dairy 
farmers that the produce from two and a half 
to three and a half acres is necessary to main- 
tain a cow all the year round. Taking, there- 
fore, the medium of the three averages of 
cheese above mentioned (amounting to 355 lbs. 
from each cow), the quantity of cheese by the 
acre is 118 lbs. Every calculation of this kind 
must, however, be extremely vague and un- 
certain. See Dairy. 

In the making of Parmesan cheese, we are 
informed by Mr. Price, in the Papas of the Bath 
and W. Engl. Society (vol. vii.), that the method 
is "to put, at ten o'clock in the morning, five 
brents and a half of milk, each brent about 
forty-eight quarts, into a large copper, which 
turns on a crane over a slow wood fire, made 
about two feet below the surface of the ground ; 
the milk is stirred from time to time, and about 
eleven o'clock, when just lukewarm, or con- 
s' l-rably under a blood-heat, a ball of rennet, 
■ig as a large walnut, is squeezed through 
a cloth into the milk, which is kept stirred. 
By the help of the crane the copper is turned 
from over the fire, and left till a few minutes 
past twelve ; at which time the rennet lias 
sufficiently operated. It is now stirred up, and 
left for a short time. Part of the whey is then 
taken out, and the copper again turned over a 
fire sufficiently brisk to give a strongish heat, 
but below that of boiling. A quarter of an 
ounce of saff'ron is now put into the milk to 
give it a little colour ; and it is well stirred 
from time to time. The dairy-man frequently 
feels the curd. When the small, and, as it 
■were, granulated parts, feel rather firm, which 



CHEESE. 

is in about an hour and a half, the copper is 
taken from the fire, and the curd left to fall to 
the bottom. Part of the whey is taken out, and 
the curd brought up in a coarse cloth, han^'in'^ 
together in a tough state. It is then put Into 
a hoop, and about a half hundred weight laid 
upon it for about an hour; after which the cloth 
is taken oflT, and the cheese placed on a shelf 
in the same hoop. At the end of two, or from 
that to three days, it is sprinkled all over with 
salt ; the same is repeated every second day 
for about forty or forty-five days, after which 
no further attention is required. While salt- 
ing, they generally place two cheeses one upon 
another ; in which state they are said to take 
the salt better than singly. The country be- 
tween Cremona and Lodi, says Mr. Evans, 
comprises the richest part of the Milanese. 
The irrigation, too, is brought to the highest 
degree of perfection ; the grass is cut four 
limes a year as fodder for the cows, from whose 
milk is made the well-known Parmesan cheese. 
The cows, which are kept in the stall nearly 
all the year round, are fed during summer on 
two of these crops of grass or clover, which 
are cut green; and in the winter on the other 
two, which are hayed. The milk of at least 
fifty cows is required for the manufacture of 
one Parmesan cheese. Hence, as one farm 
rarely affcirds pasture for such a number, it is 
usual for the farmers or metayers of a district 
to club together. {Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. v. 
p. 622.) 

Cream cheese is made in various places ; but 
that which is generally known by the name of 
Stilton is made in Leicestershire, in the follow- 
ing manner, according to the Agricultural Re- 
port of that county : — The night's cream is put 
into the morning's new milk with the rennet ; 
but when the curd is come it is not broken, as 
is done with other cheeses, but is taken out 
with a soildish altogether, and placed in a 
sieve to drain gradually ; and, as it drains, it 
is pressed, till it becomes firm and dry; being 
then placed in a wooden hoop, and afterwards 
kept dry on boards, it is turned frequently, 
with cloth binders round it, which are tightened 
as occasion requires. Cream cheese of good 
quality is likewise made, in some districts, by 
adding the cream of one meal's milk to the 
milk which is immediately taken from the 
cow. This, after being made and pressed 
gently two or three times, and carefully turned 
for a day or two, is fit for use. 

Since the late reduction of duties in England 
upon provisions introduced from abroad, cheese 
has been among the articles extensively ship- 
ped from the United Stales to that countr)', 
where the complaint against American cheese 
is, that it is generally insufficiently pressed, a 
fault which gives it, when cut, a porous or 
honeycomb appearance. Its flavour is also 
rendered unpleasant by the too free use of 
rennet. The removal of these defects would 
very much enhance the value of American 
cheese both at home and abroad. Neverthe- 
less, cheese of excellent qualities as to richness, 
flavour, and other requisites, is made in the 
northern portions of the Middle and Western 
States and throughout Nev England. See 
Daibt. 



CHEESE. 



CHEESE. 



Pine Apple Cheese.— E. Perkins, of Herkimer 
county, New York, a fine dairy district, gives 
the following description of the mode of mak- 
ing those cheeses moulded in the pine-apple 
form. These weigh from 7 to 8 lbs., and are 
chiefly made in the small dairy establishments. 
The cheese-making process, until fit for the 
press, is pretty much like that usually pursued 
in making common cheeses. Some add a little 
more salt. The pressing is performed in wooden 
blocks, griped together, and, after this process, 
the cheeses are suspended in nets, till so har- 
dened as to stand on a trencher made for the 
purpose, where they remain till fit for market. 
This kind of cheese is chiefly made under 
contract. If the purchaser finds the pressers, 
nets, and trenchers, the price is from 7 to 7^ 
cents per lb. When the maker finds every 
thing he gets about 8 or 9 cents per lb. In the 
preparation of pine-apple cheese, more al- 
lowance is made for shrinkage than in the 
manufacture of common cheese. (Farmer's 
Instruclor.) 

All new cheeses require to be well dried to 
fit them for the market, and when taken out 
of the moulds must be laid upon a shelf and 
turned every day for some time. This opera- 
tion was formerly done by hand, which proved 
very laborious. But contrivances have been 
invented by which the work can now be done 
very quickly and without the least exertion of 
strength. Some of these will be found men- 
tioned under the head Dairy. 

After the cheeses have passed through the 
different processes, and the drying is com- 
pleted, they are to be deposited in the cheese 
or store-room. This should be dry and airy, 
and the hard and soft cheeses ought not to be 
kept in the same room. In some of the best 
dairy districts in the United States, it is thought 
best not to darken the cheese rooms, or attempt 
to keep out the flies, but in hot, sultry weather, 
the doors and windows are opened to admit 
the air freely. Cool dry air blowing directly 
upon the cheeses, is apt to crack them. These 
cracks are to be filled up with pepper, either 
black or cayenne. To mature cheese fast, the 
room should be kept warm in the fall and 
spring. 

We learn from the Transactions of the High- 
land Agricultural Society in Scotland, that the 
flavour of an old cheese may be communicated 
to a new one of whatever species, by the in- 
sertion of some portions of the old into the 
new cheese. Small pieces are to be extracted 
with a sample-scoop from each cheese, and 
those taken from the old are to be inserted into 
the new, and those from the new put into the 
old. After this interchange, the new one, if 
kept well excluded from the air, will, in a few 
weeks, become thoroughly impregnated with 
the mould, and have a flavour hardly to be 
distinguished from the old one. The cheese 
selected must be dry, and the blue mould 
should be free from any portion of a more de- 
cayed appearance. 

A great variety of cheeses are made in 
Switzerland, the most celebrated of which are 
ihe Schabzieger, (or sap-sago as we commonly 
call it.) and the Gruyere. Of the quantity of 
cheeses exported from Switzerland, we have 
316 



no information that can be relied upon ; but it 
is computed that 30,000 cwt. of Gruyere cheese 
alone, fit for exportation, is annually made ; 
and that, from the middle of July to October, 
300 horses, weekly, are employed in transport- 
ing Swiss cheese over Mount Grias. (For, 
Rev, and Cont. Misc.) 

" The 'Schabzieger cheese is made by the moun- 
taineers of the canton of Glarus alone; and, ia 
its greatest perfection, in the valley of Kloen. 
It is readily distinguished by its marbled ap- 
pearance and aromatic flavour, both produced 
by the bruised leaves of the melilot. The 
dairy is built near a stream of water; the ves- 
sels containing the milk are placed on gravel 
or stone in the dairy, and the water conducted 
into it in such a manner as to reach their 
brim. The milk is exposed to the tempera- 
ture of about six degrees of Reaumur (forty-six 
degrees of Fahrenheit), for five or six days, 
and in that time the cream is completely 
formed. After this it is drained off, the case- 
ous particles are separated, by the addition 
of some sour milk, and not by rennet. The 
curd thus obtained is pressed strongly in bags, 
on which stones are laid ; when sufficiently 
pressed and dried, it is ground to powder in 
autumn, salted, and mixed with either the 
pressed flowers, powdered and sifted, or the 
seeds of the melilot trefoil (Meliloius officinalis, 
PL 10,/). The practice of mixing the flowers 
or the seeds of plants with cheese was com- 
mon among the Romans, who used those of 
the thyme for that purpose. The entire sepa- 
ration of the cream or unctuous portion of the 
milk is indispensable in the manufacture of 
Schabzieger. The unprepared curd never sells 
for more than three halfpence a pound; 
whereas, prepared as Schabzieger, it sells for 
sixpence or seven-pence. (For. Eev. and Cont. 
Misc.) 

" The Grvyire cheese of Suitzerland is so named 
alier a valley, where the best of that kind is 
made. Its merit depends chiefly on the herb- 
age of the mountain pastures, and partly on 
the custom of mixing the flowers of bruised 
seeds oi Meliloius officinalis v/ith the curd, before 
it is pressed. The mountain pastures are 
rented at so much per cow's feed from the 15th 
of May to the 18th of October; and the cowa 
are hired from the peasants, at so much, for 
the same period. On the precise day both 
land and cows return to their owners. It is 
estimated that 15,000 cows are so grazed, and 
30,000 cwt. of cheese made fit for exportation, 
besides what is reserved for home use. 

" Ewe-milk cheese of Switzerland. One measure 
of ewe's milk is added to three measures of 
cow's milk ; little rennet is used, and no acid. 
The best Swiss cheese of this kind is made by 
the Bergamese sheep-masters, on Mount Splu- 
gen." (For. Rev. and Cont. Misc.) 

Sage Cheese, an humble imitation of the Swiss 
green cheese much relished in some parts of 
the United Slates. " To make this cheese, take 
the tops of young red sage, and having pressed 
the juice from them by beating in a mortar, 
do the same with the leaves of spinach, and 
then mix the two juices together. After put- 
ting the rennet to the milk, pour in some of this 
juice, regulating the quantity by the degree of 



CHEESE CLOTHS. 

colour and taste it is intended to give the 
cheese. As the curd appears, break it gently, 
and in an equal manner, then emptying it into 
the cheese vat, let it be a little pressed, in order 
to make it eat mellow. Having stood for about 
seven hours, salt and turn it daily for four or 
five weeks, then it will be fit for the table. 
The spinach besides improving the flavour, 
and correcting the bitterness of the sage, will 
give it a much more pleasing colour than can 
be obtained from sage alone." 

Cream Cheese. — Excellent cream cheeses are 
supplied to the Philadelphia market by the 
neighbouring Pennsylvania farmers. They 
are round, generally from six to ten inches in 
diameter, and about one inch thick. The mode 
of preparing cream cheese is as follows. Ex- 
pose cream to the air and it will be found to 
grow thick gradually, so that in three or four 
days the vessel containing it may be turned 
upside down without loss. In eight or ten 
days more, its surface will become coated over 
with a kind of mucus and a woolly moss or 
byssi. After this, it no longerretains the flavour 
of cream, but of a very fat cheese. This rich 
daint}' differs from butter in containing both 
curd, and scrum or whey, together with the 
oily matter; whereas in butter the oil is ob- 
tained separate from the whey and curd or 
cheesy matter. 

Another mode of making cream cheese is 
the following, given by the late Judge Cooper, 
whose endorsement makes it worthy of the 
highest credit. "Take of the top or surface 
cream that has been collected for three or four 
days in the cream-croak so as to be slightly 
acid, one pint: on each of two common plates 
lay a dry napkin four-doubled : put half a pint 
of cream on each napkin. Next day have 
ready another plate covered with a folded wet 
napkin, turn the two cheeses one on top of the 
other upon the wet napkin, cover them over 
with the ends of this wet napkin, and change 
it every day for a week till the cheese is ripe. 
It must not be done in a cellar or damp place, 
but in a room, otherwise it will mould." 

In Lincolnshire, England, as well as in the 
neighbourhoods of Bath and York, rich and 
excellent cream cheeses are made. These, 
like all such kind of soft and rich cheeses, are 
used when but a few days old, to be eaten with 
radishes, salad, &c. 

For the mode of preparing the celebrated 
Still oil cream cheese see p. 315. 

There are papers, by Mr. P. Miller, " On 
making cheese resembling that of Gloucester 
and Wiltshire" (Trans. High. Soc. vol. iii. p. 
228); and "In Imitation of Double Glouces- 
ter," by Mr. Bell (Ibid. vol. i. p. 15.5) ; and " On 
communicating the Flavour of old to new 
Cheese by Inoculation," by Mr. Robinson (Ibid. 
p. 232). "On making Cheese from Potatoes 
in Thuringia." (Farmer's Mag. vol. viii. 
p. 14^.) 

CHEESE CLOTHS are large towels to put 
inside the chessel or vat, while the cheese is 
pressing. They are of home manufacture, and 
should be of strong and open texture : every 
time they are used for this purpose, they should 
be wrung out of boiling water, and dried in the 
sun, or before the fire. 



CHEESE-PRESS. 

CHEESE COLOURING. See Annotta 

CHEESE-FLY and MAGGOT (Piophila ca- 
sei). The small white larvae found in old 
and putrescent cheese, produce a small twc- 
winged fly, about two lines in length, which 
has a greenish-black, smooth, and shinin<' 
body. It is fully described in the Quart. Jounu 
of Agr. vol. xii. p. 125. 

Dr. Harris describes the cheese-maggots 
found in Massachusetts as the young of a fly 
(Piophila casci) not more than three-twentieths 
of an inch long, of a shining black colour, with 
the middle and hinder legs mostly yellowish, 
and the wings tranapsrent like glass. See his 
Kcport, &c. 

CHEESE-KNIFE. A large sort of knife, 
or spatula, made use of in dairies for the pur- 
pose of cutting or breaking down the curd 
whilst in the cheese-tub. 

CHEESE-LEP. The bag in which dairy- 
women keep the rennet for making cheese. 

CHEESE-MITES. This is the Acarus siro, 
an almost microscopic apterous insect, fur- 
nished with eight legs, on the four first of 
which, between two claws, is a vesicle with a 
long neck, to which the insect can give every 
kind of inflexion. "When it sets its foot 
down, it inlarges and inflates ; and when il 
lifts it up, it contracts it, so that the vesicle 
almost entirel}' disappears." (Dc Geer, quoted 
by Kirby, vol. xxxiv. p. 321.) It is not pos- 
sible to say how this insect gets into cheeses. 
The brown powder, so valued by epicures, in 
which the mites live, is their excrement. 

CHEESE-PRESS. A press employed in 
cheese dairies, to force the whey from the curl 
when in the cheese vat. 

Cheese presses are of different forms. The 
most simple and primitive press is merely a 
long beam, one end of which is placed in a 
hole of the wall, and frequently it is fixed to a 
bolt, or in the trunk of a tree. The sinker forms 
the fulcrum, a weight consisting of two or three 
undressed stones being placed on the other end 
of the lever. A second kind is formed by a 
large square stone, suspended by a screw be- 
tween the side posts of a timber frame. The 
chessel is placed underneath it, and the stone 
is lowered upon the sinkes by turning the 
screw to the left hand. The c.ieese vat is re- 
moved at pleasure by turning the screw to the 
right hand, which elevates the stone. To pre- 
serve the screw, a small block of timber is 
placed underneath the stone during the period 
that cheese-making is suspended. 

Another kind of press consists of a timber 
frame formed of two perpendicular side posts 
and a cross top with a parallel beam, which is 
suspended from the top by two screws. The 
cheese vat is placed upon the beam, which is 
lifted up when the screws are turned to the 
right hand; and the sinker of the chessel or vat 
feeing pressed against the cross top, squeezes 
or stanes the cheese. When the chessel re- 
quires to be removed, the screws are turned to 
the left hand. 

But more complicated presses, and thereforo 
in many instances more convenient, can be 
adopted. The most complete, effective, and 
approved press consists of a frame of cast iron 
with a perpendicular piston, flat below to cover 
2 D 2 317 



CHEESE RENNET. 

±e sinker of the chessel. The piston is raised 
or depressed by a small pinion attached to a 
ratchet wheel and malleable iron lever, three 
feet in length. The lever is grooved in seve- 
ral places on the upper side to hold the ring of 
the weight for increasing or diminishing the 
power, in proportion to its distance from the 
ratchet wheel. The weight of this press is 
about two stone, cost 11. 4s. pressure 20 tons. 
{Martin Doyle's Pract. Husb. ; Prof. Lowe's Elcm. 
of A^r.) See Dairy. 

CHEESE RENNET, or YELLOW B^B- 
^TRKW {Galmmverum), is a perennial plant, 
common in waste places and the borders of 
fields, flowering in July and August. The 
stem, which is woody and much branched, 
rises eighteen inches, and sends off, in the 
same plane, narrow, deep green, deflexed 
.eaves, rough with minute points, each tipped 
with a hair. The flowers are golden yellow, in 
dense tufted panicles, and smell strongly of 
honey in the evening and before rain. The 
flowers of this weed were formerly used in 
Cheshire for curdling milk. (Paxton's Eot. Diet.; 
Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. i. p. 208.) 

CHELIDONIUM. From chelcdon, a swallow; 
it being said to flower at the arrival and wither 
at the departure of the swallows. See Celan- 
dine. 

CHELONE {Chchne barbata. From chclone, 
a tortoise ; to the back of which the helmet of 
the flowers is fancifully compared). Known 
in Pennsylvania and other Middle States by the 
names of Shell-flower, and Snake-head. This 
plant is a native of North America, and a 
hardy perennial; blowing beautiful red flowers 
in July and August. It loves shade and mois- 
ture, and grows three feet high. The white 
chelone is hardy, and likes any soil. The 
downy chelone blows a flower which is yellow 
inside, and light purple outside. It is propa- 
gated by seed, and by separating the roots in 
autumn. It belongs to a -hardy herbaceous 
genus, that ought to have a place in every col- 
lection : the species succeed well in a mixture 
of peat and loam. (Pazlon's Eot. Diet.) 

CHEMISTRY. The importance of this 
science to the agriculturist no intelligent mo- 
dern farmer will doubt. Its triumphs in the 
cause of the cultivator have been far too many 
for him to hesitate in acknowledging the obli- 
gation. I have, in this work, under the heads 
Earths, Analysis o;f Soils, Gases, Water, 
Salts, Organic Chemistry, &c., endeavoured, 
to the best of my power, to illustrate some of 
the many chemical facts on which the success- 
ful practice of agriculture depends ; and to 
these I must refer the farmer. Most of the 
substances belonging to our globe, says Davy, 
{Chem. Philosophy, p. 1), are constantly under- 
going alterations in sensible qualities, and one 
variety of matter becomes, as it were, trans- 
muted into another. Such changes, whether 
natural or artificial, whether slowly or rapidly 
performed, are called chemical ; thus, the gra- 
dual and almost imperceptible decay of the 
leaves and branches of a fallen tree exposed to 
the atmosphere, and the rapid combustion of 
wood in our fires, are both chemical operations. 
The object of chemical philosophy is to ascer- 
tain the causes of all phenomenaof this kind, 
318 



CHEMISTRY. 

and to discover the laws by which they are 
governed. The ends of this branch of know- 
ledge are the applications of natural substances 
to new uses, for increasing the comforts and 
enjoyments of man ; and the demonstration of 
the order, harmony, and intelligent design of 
the system of the earth. The foundations of 
chemical philosophy are observation, experi- 
ment, and analogy. By observation, facts are 
distinctly and minutely impressed on the mind. 
By analogy, similar facts are collected. By 
experiment, new facts are discovered; and, in 
the progression of knowledge, observation, 
guided by analogy, leads to experiment ; and 
analogy, confirmed by experiment, becomes 
scientific truth. To give an instance, — who- 
ever will consider with attention the slender 
green vegetable filaments {Conferva rivularis) 
which in the summer exist in almost all 
streams, lakes, or pools, under the difierent 
circumstances of shade and sunshine, will dis- 
cover globules of air upon the filaments ex- 
posed under water to the sun, but no air on the 
filaments that are shaded. He will find that, 
the eflect is owing to the presence of light 
This is an observation ; but it gives no informa- 
tion respecting the nature of the air. Let a 
wine-glass filled with water be inverted over 
the conferva thus acted upon by the light. The 
air-bubbles, as they rise, will collect in the 
upper part of the glass ; and, when the glass is 
filled with air, it may be closed with the hand, 
placed in its usual position, and an inflamed 1 
taper introduced into it: the taper will burn I 
with more brilliancy than in the atmosphere. 
This is an experiment. If the phenomena are 
reasoned upon, and the question is put, whether 
all vegetables of this kind, in fresh or in salt 
water, do not produce such air under like cir- 
cumstances, the inquirer is guided by analogy; m 
and, when this is determined to be the case by f 
new trials, a general scientific truth is esta- 
blished, — that all conferva; in the sunshine 
produce a species of air (oxygen gas) which 
supports flame in a superior degree : a fact 
which has been shown to be the case by vari- 
ous minute investigations. 

By such researches the chemist ascertains 
the composition and uses of the various other 
gases, and also of the earths, metals, and salts, oi 
which the materials of the earth we inhabit are 
composed ; delightful inquiries, which will well 
repay the cultivator in more ways than one for 
the labour he may bestow upon them. They 
will speedily teach him that nothing in this 
world of ours is ever lost or destroyed ; that the 
decaying materials of his most noisome ma- 
nures speedily again make their appearance in 
new forms, and in salubrious and fragrant 
plants ; that the expired breath of himself and 
his live-stock is the inhaled food of all vegeta- 
tion ; and that vegetables purify the very air 
which animals have vitiated. And again, the 
correct rotation of crops, the use of permanent 
or earthy additions to the soil, (which see), the 
fattening of live-stock, the origin of diseases, 
are a few only of the facts connected with the 
cultivation of the soil which the chemist's 
operations illustrate. "The nature of soils" 
(as it is remarked by Mr. G. W. Johnson), "of 
manures, of the food and functions of plants, 



CHEMISTRY. 



CHERRY TREE. 



would all be unknown but from the analyses 
which chemists have made." We know that 
every plant has a particular temperature in 
which it thrives best, a particular modification 
of food, a particular degree of moisture, a par- 
ticular intensity of light ; and those particulari- 
ties vary at different periods of their growth. 
It is certain that plants are subject, like all 
other organized bodies, to various influences. 
Acids are injurious to some, alkalies to others; 
the excess of some of their constituents, and 
the deficiency of others, insure disease to the 
plants to which such irregularities occur. Dis- 
ease is accompanied by decay more or less 
extensive and rapid; and if these cannot be 
checked by salutary applications and treat- 
ment, death ultimately ensues. Now, if it was 
possible for any science or sciences to teach 
the cultivator of plants how to provide for 
ihem all the favourable contingencies, all the 
appropriate necessaries above alluded to, and 
to protect them from all those which are 
noxious to them, the art of cultivation would 
be far advanced to perfection. Such sciences 
are botany and chemistry. It is not asserted 
that they can, at present, do all that is desired 
of them, — all of which they are capable ; but 
they can do much. As evidence of what can 
be effected by a combination of chemical and 
practical knowledge in the cultivation of the 
soil, we may quote the example of Lavoisier. 
He cultivated 240 acres in La Vendee, actuated 
by the beneficent desire of demonstrating to his 
countrymen the importance of sustaining the 
art of cultivation on scientific principles. In 
nine years his produce was doubled, and his 
crops afforded one-third more than those of or- 
dinary cultivators. It is unnecessary to dwell 
upon the importance of such improvements. 
Science can never supersede the use of the 
dunghill, the plough, the spade, and the hoe ; 
but it can be one of their best guides, — it can 
be a pilot even to the most experienced. (Bax- 
ter's Lib. of ^gr.; Gard. Mag. vols. iii. and iv.; 
Davy's Chem. Phil.: Lcihig's Organic Chemistry.') 

So many important facts bearing upon agri- 
cultural subjects have been discovered of late 
years through chemical experiments and re- 
searches, as to render it imperative upon every 
well-instructed farmer to make himself ac- 
quainted with them. It has long been known 
to common observers, that certain crops will 
grow in some situations and not in others, and 
that after having flourished in a place for a 
considerable period, crops will decline in 
quality and quantity, and finally cease to com- 
pensate for the expenses of seed and tillage. 
That certain kinds of manure are most benefi- 
cial to some soils and plants, whilst another 
produces the best effects upon others. But the 
causes operating in the production of such 
effects have not been understood, and hence, 
great waste of means and labour have resulted 
in experiments often useless, for want of that 
chemical knowledge through which the precise 
defects of the soil could be detected and the 
deficiencies directly supplied. 

Agricultural chemistry points out the re- 
spective elements entering into the formation 
of plants, and even those required at each stage 
of thi^^'r growth from germination to the perfec- 



tion of the seed or fruit. It shows which of 
these elements are absorbed from the gases of 
the atmosphere, and what saline and other 
materials are furnished by the soil. The seed 
itself, like the egg, contains the first supply of 
nourishment for the roots of the infant germ 
of the plant. To assist its first growth before 
it rises above ground, the humus of the soil 
supplies carbonic acid, and the looser the soil 
the more of this essential food for the young 
plant can be retained. When it rises above 
the surface, and its stems and leaves are fully 
developed, its main, and, according to Liebig 
and others, — its entire dependence for nourish- 
ment, is upon the atmosphere. Chemistry 
points out the different gases which plants ab- 
sorb from the atmosphere or the soil in the 
progress of their growth. It also shows that 
plants have other constituents, such as potash, 
soda, lime, magnesia, &c., without which, in 
due quantities, they cannot come to perfection. 
The proportions of these, though often very 
minute, are all important. The chemical pro- 
cesses described for analyzing soils, will show 
what elements for the growth of plants are 
present and what are wanting. Knowing this, 
the object of the skilful farmer will be to sup- 
ply the deficiencies, in a way the most accept- 
able to plants. Some crops may be repeated 
on the same soil morefrequentlythan others, be- 
cause some consume more of the alkalies than 
others. One hundred parts of the stalks of wheat 
yield 15*5 parts of ashes. The same quantity of 
barley, 8-54 parts ; and of oats, only 4-42 parts 
Thus, as the demands of each of these plant? 
for the alkaline elements of their growth is 
different, one may be raised on ground which 
has ceased to produce the others ; and this is 
what is daily witnessed, — land, refusing to 
yield wheat, and yet affording good crops of 
barley and oats ; — and when ceasing to yield 
compensating crops of wheal and barley, stiU 
affording excellent crops of oats, the proportion 
of alkali required by which is so comparatively 
small compared with the demands of the 
wheat-crop. How readily, then, may a good 
soil for oats be rendered productive in wheat 
by the simple addition of some alkaline dress- 
ing, all the other requisites of fertility having 
been before present. Chemistry teaches that 
the salts and other organic constituents re- 
moved from soils in the crops, is returned in 
the dung of animals fed upon such crops. It 
teaches the precise proportions of these, and 
explains the well-known facts, — that the ex- 
crements of some animals, such as man, are 
more fertilizing than those of others ; that those 
of men living upon animal food are stronger 
than those of men confined to vegetable food. 
All these matters may be found explained 
under the different heads of Animal Manures, 
Ammonia, Nitrogen, &c. Men of science en- 
gaged in these useful subjects of investigation, 
are every day unfolding new and important 
facts, and what at one time was regarded as 
inscrutable mystery becomes so well under 
stood as to be comprehended by a child. 

CHERRY TREE {Prunus Cerasus). It de 

rives its name from Cerasus, a city of Pontus, 

whence the tree was brought by LucuUus, 

about half a century before the Christian era. 

319 



CHERRY, WILD. 

It soon after spread into most parts of Europe, 
and is supposed to have been carried to Bri- 
tain about a century after it came to Rome. 
The cherry is pretty generally cultivated 
throughout the kingdom, as an agreeable 
summer fruit. The varieties are very nume- 
rous. The Horticultural Society's Catalogue 
embraces 346 ; but the following list is recom- 
mended by Mawe, as containing the best varie- 
ties for general cultivation, the whole being 
arranged in the order in which they ripen in 
England: — June: Early May, May Duke, 
Knight's Early Black, and Late Duke. July: 
Archduke, Black Tartarian, White Tartarian, 
Black Eagle, Kentish, Bigarreau, Holmon's 
Duke, Elton, Herefordshire Heart, Bleeding 
Heart, Carnation, and Waterloo. August : Har- 
rison's Heart, Black Heart, Waterloo, Cou- 
ronne, Lukeward, Black Geen, Small Black, 
Small Red Wild, White Swiss, Lundie Geen, 
Transparent Geen, Cluster, Yellow Spanish. 
Septctnbcr : Florence, Amber Heart, Flemish 
Heart, Red Heart, White Heart. October: 
Morello or Milan. For small gardens, either 
as wall trees, espaliers, or standards, the fol- 
lowing varieties are recommended : — The May 
Duke, Morello, Archduke, Black Heart, White 
Heart, Bigarreau, Harrison's Heart, and Ken- 
tish Cherries. Miller considers the common 
Red or Kentish, the Duke, and the Lukeward 
as the best trees for an orchard ; they are plen- 
tiful bearers. This tree prefers a light dry 
sandy loam, with a free exposure. The wood 
of the cherry tre^e is close, takes a fine polish, 
and is not liable to split. It is used in the 
manufacture of chairs, musical instruments 
&c., and stained to imitate mahogany. The 
principal supplies of cherries for the London 
market are brought from the cherry orchards 
in Kent and Herts. The wild cherry tree is 
found frequently in the woods and hedges of 
England, and has round branches with a po- 
lished ash-coloured bark. The leaves, in all 
the v^^rieties are simply folded flat while 
young, by which cherries differ from the Bul- 
lace tribe. (Phil. Hist. Fruits, p. 76 ; Willich's 
Domestic Encychpwdia ; M'Culloch^s Commercial 
Dictionary ; Baxter's Library of Agriculture : 
Smith's Eng. Flora, vol. ii. p. 354; American 
Orchardist^s Companion; Kenrick's Neto American 
Orchardist, &c.) 

CHERRY, WILD. Several kinds of wild 
cherry are found in the United States, and Mi- 
chaux describes the following species. 

Red Cherry Tree (Cerasus boi-ealis'). Red 
cherry. Small cherry ; common only in the 
Northern States, (including the highlands in the 
northern parts of Pennsylvania), in Canada, 
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia. The tree at- 
tains a height of twenty-five or thirty feet, with 
a diameter of five or six inches. Flowers are 
collected in small white bunches, and the fruit, 
which is of a bright red colour, considerable 
size, and intensely acid taste, ripens in the 
month of July. The wood is fine grained and 
of a redish hue, but its inferior size limits its 
use in the mechanical arts. This species of 
cherry tree offers the same remarkable pecu- 
liarity with the canoe birch of reproducing 
itself, as it were, spontaneously in cleared 
grounds, and in such forests as have been 
320 



CHERRY-LAUREL. 

burnt, which is observable in spots where fire 
has been kindled by travellers. Of all the na- 
tive species of North America, Michaux thinks 
the red cherry tree bears the greatest analogy 
to the cultivated cherry tree of Europe, and 
hence the most proper for receiving grafts, 
though it has been found difficult to make the 
grafts succeed. 

Wdd Cherry (Cerasus Virginiana). This is 
one of the largest productions of the American 
forests. Its wood is of an excellent quality 
and elegant appearance, and is usefully em- 
ployed in the arts. In Maine, where the winter 
is long and intense, it hardly exceeds thirty 
or forty feet in height, and eight to twelve 
inches in diameter; in the southern and mari- 
time parts of the Carolinas and of Georgia, 
where the soil is arid and sandy, it is rarely 
seen, and even when found on the banks of 
rivers its growth is stinted. A milder climate 
and more fertile soil favour its growth, and it 
abounds in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and all the 
Atlantic States, and also in Western New 
York, and Illinois, uniting with the overcup 
white oak, black walnut, honey locust, red elm, 
and coffee tree of the forests covering the fertile 
regions of the West. On the banks ol' the Ohio 
Michaux measured trees twelve to sixteen feet 
in circumference, and from eighty to one hun- 
dred feet in height, with undivided trunks of 
uniform size to the height of twenty-five or 
thirty feet. 

The flowers of the wild cherry are white and 
collected in spikes. The fruit is about the size 
of a pea and nearly black, at maturity, soon 
after which, notwithstanding its abundance 
and bitterness, it is devoured by birds. It is 
employed either alone or mixed with cultivated 
cherries, — generally ihe moriilos or mazzards 
— in making a domestic cordial called cherry 
bounce, which consists of an infusion of the 
cherries in rum or brandy with a certain quan- 
tity of sugar. It is a faint imitation of the 
Kirschenvasser of the Germans, and JMarasquin 
of the Venetians, both of which liqueurs or cor- 
dials are prepared by distillation, from wild 
cherries found in the north and south of Europe, 

The wood of this tree is highly valuable, 
being compact, fine-grained and brilliant, and 
not liable to warp when perfectly seasoned. 
When chosen near the ramification of the 
trunk it rivals mahogany in the beauty of its 
curls. The bark of the wild cherry tree in- 
fused in cold water and drank to the extent of 
half a pint or a pint a day is a popular and 
useful tonic. 

Wdd Orange Tree (^Cerasus Caroliniana). This 
beautiful species of cherry tree is found in the 
Bahama Islands, to which, with the islands on 
the coast of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Flo- 
rida it appears to be nearly confined. The 
fruit is small, oval, and nearly black, the 
greenish pulp which covers the soft stone not 
being eatable. The wild orange, as it is there 
called, is one of the most beautiful productions 
of the Southern States on the sea-board, where 
it is a favourite ornamental and shade tree. 
The flowers are more frequented by bees than 
those of any other southern tree. 

CHERRY TREE BORER. See Bobbbs. 

CHERRY-LAUREL (^Ceiasus lauro-cerasm). 



CHERRY TREE WEEVIL. 

This shrub is an exotic, although it is now 
naturalized to this climate, and was brought to 
Europe from Trebisonde, in 1576. It is an 
evergreen, with smooth bark, and short-stalked, 
oblong, lanceolate, remotely serrated, coriace- 
ous, shining leaves, with two or four glands at 
their base. The flower is white, with round 
spreading petals, and the fruit a small, black 
drupe or cherry. The leaves of the cherry- 
laurel have long been employed both in medi- 
cine and in confectionary, on account of the 
agreeable odour and flavour of the bitter 
almond which they possess. They lose their 
odour after they are dried, but retain their 
flavour. 

CHERRY TREE WEEVIL. See Plum 
Tree Weevil and Curculio. 

CHERVIL, GARDEN {ChcErophyllum sati- 
vum). This herb grows in gardens, and 
sometimes wild in waste ground ; perhaps the 
outcast of gardens. The flowers are while, 
and bitter-tasted; the seeds are smooth, fur- 
rowed, and large; altogether the plant resem- 
bles parsley, only the leaves are paler and 
more divided. The roots are given in decoc- 
tion. Chervil is slightly diuretic ; the cutters 
of simples distil a water from its leaves, which 
they consider excellent in colics. It is much 
used in France for salads ; and is mentioned 
as a potherb by Gerarde. The parsley-leaved 
chervil (Scandix cerifolium) and fern-leaved 
chervil (S. odorata), are still cultivated by the 
Dutch for soups, salads, &c.; but in this coun- 
try they are not often found in the kitchen gar- 
den. Seed may be said to be the only means 
of propagation, and the only sowing of this 
that can be depended upon must be performed 
in early autumn, immediately after it is ripe ; 
for if kept until the following spring, it will 
seldom germinate ; or if this first grade of 
vegetation takes place, the seedlings are gene- 
rally weak, and die away during the hot 
weather. 

The seed may be sown in drills eight inches 
apart, or broadcast ; in either mode being 
only just covered. The plants are to be thin- 
ned to eight inches asunder, and to remain 
where they are raised. The only after-culti- 
vation required by them is the keeping them 
clear of weeds. 

CHESSEL. The mould or vat in which the 
cheese is formed. It is made of thick staves, 
generally of white or American oak, bound 
with two strong iron hoops to withstand the 
necessary pressure. The chessel is perforated 
with many small holes in the bottom and sides 
to let the whey drain out of the curd. 

CHEST. The breast; or that part of an 
animal's body which contains the heart and 
the lungs. 

CHEST-FOUNDER. In farriery, a disease 
incident to horses, which proceeds from in- 
flammation about the chest and ribs. 

CHESTNUT, or CHESNUT {Fa^us-casta- 
nea). The species cultivated in England are 
the common or sweet chestnut, of which there 
are two kinds, the Spanish (Cas. vescu) and the 
American (Cas. .Americana) ; — and the horse 
chestnut, which belongs to a distinct genus. 
The true chestnut tree flourishes on poor gra- 
velly or sandy soils, and will thrive in any but 
41 



CHESTNUT. 

moist or marshy situations. It has been much 
questioned whether the chestnut is indigenous 
or exotic. It was at one time very common in 
England, and a great many chestnuts have 
been planted within the last thirty years. It is 
long-lived, grows to an immense size, and is 
very ornamental. The wood is hard and com- 
pact; when young, it is tough and flexible; 
but when old it is brittle and often shaky! 
When divested of its sap wood, this timber 
will stand in situations exposed to wet and dry 
longer than oak ; and for gate-posts it ranks in 
durability next after the acacia, the yew, and 
probably it lasts longer than the larch. The 
nuts form an article for our dessert. In some 
parts of the continent they are frequently used 
as a substitute for bread, and form a large pro- 
portion of the food of the inhabitants. In Eng- 
land, during the three years ending with 18.31, 
the entries of foreign chestnuts for home con- 
sumption averaged 20,948 bushels a year, and 
they pay a duty of 2s. per bushel. 

The fruit is used either boiled, roasted, or in 
a raw state. Phillips informs us that in the 
south of France, in Italy, and Savoy, they are 
made into puddings, cakes, and bread. And 
" chestnuts stewed with cream make a much 
admired dish ; they make excellent soup ; and 
ste\ved and served with salt fish they are much 
admired." We are also further informed that 
there is now at Fortsworth, in Gloucestershire, 
a great chestnut tree, fifty-two feet round, 
which in 1150 was so remarkable that it was 
called The great chestmil of Forts-worth. And 
Marsham states that this tree is 1100 years old. 
Lastly, the timber of this tree is almost incor- 
ruptible, and more durable than oak. Its dura- 
bility is commensurate with the long life of the 
tree. Corsica, it is said, exports annually of 
this fruit to the amount of 100,000 crowns. 
The American chestnut diflers very little from 
that of Europe. The fruit is smaller, but 
equally good. Its growth is very rapid. The 
bark for tanning is superior to oak. 

The chestnut is raised from the seeds,, 
planted in autumn ; the second year, they are 
transplanted, and fine varieties are extended 
by grafting. A sandy or gravelly loam, with 
a dry subsoil, best suits them. < 

The Spanish or Portuguese chestnut suc- 
ceeds M'ell in the United States, and produces 
fruit in about seven years from the seed. Its 
growth is more rapid than that of the native kind> 
The fruit is more than four times larger, and 
brings a much higher price in the market. It 
may be budded on the common chestnut, but 
is apt to overgrow the stock. The large Spa- 
nish chestnut deserves to be extensively propa- 
gated. 

Michaux, in his North .American Sylva, vol 
iii., gives the following directions for the cul- 
ture of the chestnut : 

"After the ground has been carefully loos- 
ened with the plough and harrow, lines are 
drawn six feet apart, in which holes about a 
foot in depth and diameter are formed, at the 
distances of four feet. A chestnut is placed in 
each corner of the hole, and covered with about 
three inches of earth. As the soil has been 
thoroughly subdued, the nuts will spring and 
strike root with facility. Early in the second 

321 



CHESTNUT, HORSE. 



CHICK PEA. 



year, three of the young plants are removed | bus). An English perennial weed, the wild 
from each hole, and only the most thriving is 
left. The third or fourth year, when the 
branches begin to interfere with each other, 
every second tree is suppressed. To insure 
its success, the plantation should be begun in 
March or April, with nuts that have been kept 
in the cellar during the winter, in sand or ve- 
getable mould, and that have already began to 
germinate." 

Mr. Hopkins of Cayuga county, made some 
experiments in planting chestnuts. In his first 
attempt, he kept the nuts till the setting in of 
winter, or December, when he planted them 
four feet apart every way, and not one of them 
grew. The next year he procured a quantity 
of nuts as soon as gathered, planted them im- 
mediately, and covered them superficially with 
leaves and light earth, at the same distance as 
before. Most of them came up and grew well. 
There can be no doubt, where the ground is 
so situated as to be free from the attacks of 
squirrels, mice, &c., that immediate planting 
after the nuts are gathered is the best mode, 
otherwise the plan of Michaux may be pre- 
ferred. The best soil is a clay loam. (Trcd- 
gold's Frinap. of Carpentry ; M'CuUocli's Com. 
Diet. ; WiUich's Dam. Ency. ; Phillip's Hist, of 
Fruits, p. 84.) 

CHESTNUT, HORSE (JEscubis hippocasi a- 
num). This ornamental tree, now so common 
throughout Europe, is a native of Asia. The 
first plant is said to have been brought into 
Europe by the celebrated botanist Clusius in a 
portmanteau. It is too well known tb require 
description. The wood is soft and of little 

value. The fruit contains much nutritive mat- 
ter, but it is combined %vith a nauseous bitter 

extractive, which renders it unfit for the food 

of man ; but horses, kine, goats, and sheep 

are fond of it. The bark of the tree contains 

an as:ririgent, bitter principle, which operates 

as a tonic. It has cured agues, and some au- 
thors affirm that it might be a substitute for 

the Peruvian bark; but trials and experience 

have not justified their opinion. Given in a 

decoction, made with an ounce of the bark to 

a pint of Avater, it may be advantageously 

taken, to strengthen the habit weakened by 

previous disease. See Buckeye. 
CHEVIOT SHEEP. See Sheep. 
CHEWING-BALL. In farriery, the name 

of a medicine in the form of balls adapted to 

restore lost appetite in horses. 

CHEWING THE CUD. The operation of 

leisurely re-chewing or masticating the food in 

ruminating animals, as the cow, sheep, &c. : 

by this means the food is more effectually 

broken down, and mixed with the saliva. If a 

ruminant animal ceases to chew the cud, im- 
mediate illness may be expected, as the diges- 
tive organs cannot act without this natural 

process. See an excellent article " On Rumi- 
nation, or Chewing the Cud," in the Quart. 

Journ. of Agr., p. 344. Rumination, in certain 

graminiverous animals, has plainly for one 

object a renewed and repeated introduction of 

oxygen, for a more minute mechanical division 

of the food only shortens the time required for 

<olution. (Liibig's Animal Chemistry.) 

CHICCORY, or SUCCORY (Cichorium inty- 
322 



endive, common on the borders of corn-fields 
and poor gravelly soils ; extensively cultivated 
in Belgium, Holland, and Germany. The cul- 
tivated variety was much brought into notice 
by the late Arthur Young, as a forage plant. 
He brought the seed from France in 1788, and 
grew it extensively on his own farm ; and re- 
ports {Annals of Agr. xxxix.), " The quantity 
of seed required to sow one acre is 13 lbs. 
The root runs deep into the ground,' and is 
white, fleshy, and yields a milky juice. On 
the Continent, the dried root is roasted and 
used instead of coffee, and it is now allowed 
by the excise to be mixed with coffee. The 
root contains a strong bitter, which may be 
extracted by infusion ; it is also used in the 
brewing of beer to save hops." Mr. Gorrie 
{Quart. Journ. of Agr. N. S. vol. iv. p. 206) 
says, "No plant cultivated in this country will 
bring the cow-feeder nearly an equal return 
with the chiccory." It should be added, how- 
ever, that the leaves give a bad taste to the 
milk of the cows which eat them. (Erit. Hush. 
vol. iii. art. " Flem. Husb." p. 42.) And Von 
Thiier, in his Principles of Agriculture (2d ed. 
vol. iv. p. 322), asserts that it is extremely dif- 
ficult to eradicate from the land, and has been 
found to materially impoverish the soil. 

Wild succory, or chiccory is becoming ex- 
tensively naturalized in many parts of the 
United States. The species called Endive, 
(C. endiva), especially the variety called Crispa, 
with very narrow and ragged leaves, is much 
cultivated in the vicinity of Philadelphia as an 
early salad. There are no native species of 
chiccory in the United States. (Flor. Cest.) 

When cultivated for soiling or feeding 
horses and cattle in the farm-yard, for which 
purpose it is admirably adapted, its rapid and 
luxuriant growth admits of its being cut three 
or four times a year. 

When the roots are used as a substitute for 
coffee, they should be first cleaned, then put 
into an oven after the bread has been taken 
out, and allowed to remain until cool. Should 
once baking be not sufficient, the process is to 
be repeated, after which, mix with one-half of 
coffee. 

The fresh root of chiccory, when sliced and 
pressed, yields a juice which is slightly tonic ; 
and has been used in chronic affections of the 
stomach, connected with torpid liver. See 
]5?f DIVE. (Sinclair's Horf. Gram. Wob. p. 412 ; 
M^CuUoch's Com. Diet.; WiUich's Dom. Eneye.; 
Brit. Husb. vol. ii. p. 303.) 

CHICK, or CHICKEN. See Poultht. 
CHICK PEA (Cicer arictinum). PI. 7, U 
A plant too delicate for field culture in Eng- 
land ; but in the south of France it is grown 
for the same purpose as vetches in England. 
The seeds are used in Germany and some 
other parts of Europe as a substitute for coffee, 
and the plant is sometimes called the coffee-pea. 
It is called by the Spaniards, who cultivate it 
largely, Garbanza. It is likewise a great fa- 
vourite with the French, who call it Poiselnehe. 
It grows well in several of the Middle States, 
where it might doubtless be made a valuable 
crop, as it maintains a high price in European 
markets. 



CHICKWEED. 

In every part of America and the West In- 
dian islands settled by Spaniards, they have 
always made the culture of the garbanza a 
primar}'^ object, and it is somewhat singular 
that it has not become better known and ap- 
preciated in the United States, in most parts of 
which it grows well. Trials made with it in 
the vicinity of Dover, Delaware, have proved 
very successful. The Spanish pea or garbanza, 
is perhaps the most delicious vegetable of its 
class ever placed upon the table, possessing, 
when served up in the manner of green peas, 
[he flavour of these, mixed with that of green 
corn, or, as others think, something between 
the marrow fat pea and Lima bean. They do 
not yield so abundantly as the common pea, 
but both in a green and dry state are much su- 
perior in flavour and richness. A meal made 
of the dried garbanzas is much used in Paris 
and other parts of Europe for thickening soup, 
which it renders extremely fine. In Provence 
and other parts of southern Europe, the chick 
pea is a great favourite when roasted or 
parched, like ground or pea nuts, and hawked 
about the streets. In Paris, the dried garbanzas 
retail for about twenty-four cents per pound. 
They grow best in a rich sandy loam, and may 
be cultivated in rows, much after the manner 
of the common pea. Not being a trailing vine, 
they require no sticking, the pfants growing 
only about eighteen or twenty inches high, and 
branching out so as very much to resemble a 
small locust tree or bunch of rue. The pods 
are very short and round, containing only two, 
three, or four peas each, somewhat larger than 
common pulse. Being very tender, they will 
not, perhaps, bear to be planted at the same 
time with common peas. In Spain, where the 
chick pea is very abundant and in general use, 
two kinds are distinguished by the names of 
garbanzos and garbanzas, the last being the 
largest, most delicate, and tender. Those raised 
in Spain are considered superior to such as 
are the product of the south of France. The 
pellicle which covers them seems to be almost 
entirely removed by the process of cooking. 
After being dried they require soaking in cold 
water during the night previous to the day 
they are used. They do not seem to be the 
prey of any insect, and will keep sound and 
sweet for years. It is the gram of India. (Pax- 
tori's Bot. Diet.; Loiv's Jgr. p. 286.) 

CHICKWEED. A low, creeping weed, of 
which there are several varieties. The com- 
mon chickweed, or stitch-wort (Stellai-ia media), 
has an annual, small, tapering root ; flowering 
from March to December. Small birds and 
poultry eat the seeds, and whole herb; whence 
its name. Swine are extremely fond of it ; and 
it is eaten by cows and horses ; but is not re- 
lished by sheep, and is refused by goats. The 
herb may be boiled for the table like spinach : 
it is reported to be nutritive. This foreigner 
is extensively naturalized in the United States. 
It is a hardy little plant, and when the winters 
are mild in the Middle States, may be found in 
flower in every month of the year. (Flor. Ces- 
trica.) The field chickweed (Cerastium arvense) 
is a perennial, from four inches to a foot in 
length, found in fields and on banks and hil- 
locks, on a gravelly or chalky soil. In this 



CHINCAPIN. 

order there are seven other species of mouse- 
ear chickweed, viz., two kinds of broad-leaved 
(C. vulgatum and C. latifolium) ; the narrow- 
leaved (C.viscossum); the little mouse-ear (C. 
semi-decandwm) ; the four-cleft (C. letrandum) ; 
the alpine (C. alpinum) ; and the water (C 
aquaticum). These call for no observation. 
The berry-bearing sort, which grows with 
smooth erect stalks, and the stamens longer 
than the petals, is the wild lychnis, or white 
behen, and is a very rambling weed, natural to 
most parts of England, frequently called spat- 
tling-poppy. Its roots are perennial, and strike 
so deep into the earth that they are not easily 
destroyed by the plough ; for which reason, 
bunches of this plant are too common among 
corn, in land which has not been perfectly well 
tilled. Summer-fallowing, and carefully har- 
rowing out the roots, which should then be 
burnt, is the best and most eflfectual remedy. 

The common chickweed grows in almost 
every situation, in damp or even boggy woods, 
and on the driest gravel-walks in gardens. In 
its wild state, this plant frequently exceeds 
half a yard in height; and varies so much from 
the garden chickweed, that if a person were 
acquainted only with the latter, he would with 
difficulty recognise it in the woods. Its small 
white flowers, and pale green leaves spreading 
in all directions, sufficiently point it out to our 
notice. It may be considered as a natural 
barometer; for if the flowers are closed, it is a 
certain sign of rain, while, during dry weather, 
they are regularly open from nine o'clock in 
the morning till noon. The plant boiled in 
vinegar and salt is said to cleanse breakings- 
«ut or eruptions of the hands and legs. (Smith's 
Eng. Flor. vol. ii. p. 301 ; Sinclair's Weeds, p. 
52 ; Willich's Dom. Encyc.) 

CHILIAN CLOVER. This plant, which is 
called Spanish clover, and in South America, 
.Alfalfa, is identical with luzerne. Two com- 
munications upon the subject, by a person who 
had spent some time in Chili, may be found in 
the 14th volume of the American Farmer, 
pages 108 and 153. 

CHINCAPIN, or CHINQUEPIN (Castatiea 
pumila). The limits of this American tree, 
which bears a very small kind of round and 
pointed chestnut, is bounded northward by the 
river Delaware, on which it is found to the 
distance of nearly 100 miles from Cape May. 
It is very common in Delaware and Maryland, 
still more so in the lower part of Virginia and 
other southern and Southwestern States both 
east and west of the Mississippi. It abounds 
most where the common chestnut is wanting. 
Though in its northern limits, this dwarf 
chestnut seldom rises higher than from six to 
ten feet ; much further south it often grows to 
the height of thirty or forty feet, with a diame- 
ter of twelve or fifteen inches. The leaves, 
flower, and fruit-bur, resemble those of the 
common chestnut in miniature, being about 
half the size. The wood of the chincapin is 
finer-grained, more compact, heavier, and evert 
more durable than that of the chestnut, and is 
admirably adapted for fence-posts, lasting iu 
the ground more than forty years. But the 
tree rarely attains a size adapting it to such a 
useful purpose in agriculture. 

923 



CHINCH BUG. 

A species of the chincapin (Castanea alni- 
folia), remarkable for its dwarf growth, is 
found in the Carolinas and Floridas. Mr. 
Nuttall, who met with it in the vicinity of 
Charleston, S. C, says it grows in small 
patches in sandy pine barrens, has creeping 
roots, and seldom exceeds a foot in height. 
The nut is larger than that of the other species 
of chincapins. (See NuttaU's Supplement to 
Michaux.) 

CHINCH BUG. A name, which, from some 
resemblance to the bed-bug, especially in the 
disgusting smell, has been popularly applied 
to an insect often of late years occasioning 
wide-spread destruction in the wheat, Indian 
corn, and other graii! fields of the South and 
Southwestern States. Not being able to find 
any scientific description of this insect and its 
habits, we shall of course be compelled to cull 
the best information we can collect from the 
most intelligent correspondents of agricultural 
periodicals, &c. 

In the 7th volume of Ruffin's Farmer's Re- 
gister, there are several communications rela- 
tive to the chinch bug, some of which draw a 
most deplorable picture of its ravages in the 
old counties of Virginia, where they not only 
often destroy the com, wheat, and other grain- 
crops, but lay waste the pastures. They are 
described as small and black, with white 
wings ; in their form, close and compact, and 
about the size of a bed-bug. They creep on 
the ground, seldom using their wings, and ap- 
pear to be hardy. Whatever crop they get 
into, they generally stick about the plants near 
the ground, although they may sometimes be 
seen scattered all over stalks of Indian corn, 
the blades, and even down into the bud. When 
they attack wheat, oats, &c.,they cluster around 
the stalk in incredible numbers, and seem to 
suck out its substance, so that it soon withers 
and falls to the ground. When they take to 
the Indian corn, the stalk and leaves sometimes 
become perfectly black with them, for two feet 
from the ground, leaving not a spot of green to 
be seen, except about five or six inches of the 
tips of the blades, the bugs hanging to the 
lower portions like bees when swarming. 
" We are," says one of Dr. Ruffin's corres- 
pondents,, " harvesting our wheat crop, in 
which they got rather too late to destroy it en- 
tirely, but on many farms have seriously in- 
jured it, many places in the fields being quite 
destroyed. On following after the scythes, you 
may see millions of the bugs, of all sizes and 
colours, red, black, and gray, running in the 
greatest consternation in every possible direc- 
tion, seeking shelter under the sheaves of 
wheat, and bunches of grass, which may hap- 
pen to be near. But all those on the borders 
of the field, and indeed on every part of it, very 
oon quit the dry and hard stubble for the more 
lender and juicy corn or oats, whichsoever 
may be nearest at hand ; and now commences 
their havoc and dreadful devastation. We see 
tne healthy, dark-green, luxuriant oat, which a 
few days before looked so beautiful and rich, 
turn pale, wither and die, almost at their very 
touch. It would seem exaggeration and almost 
incredible i.o state how very prolific this de- 
Viduing insect is, their increase being so pro- 
324 



CHIVES. 

digiously great a:5 to appear to be the work of 
magic. 

" In one day and night they had been known 
to advance fifteen or twenty yards deep in a 
field, destroying as they proceed. Unless some 
kind dispensation of Providence delivers us 
from this ruthless enemy to the farming in- 
terest, it is impossible to say to what extent 
their ravages will, and may extend, in the 
course of a year or two. To us fanners, who 
are dependent on the productions of the earth, 
for our every thing, it is truly awful. And if 
their increase in future is commensurate with 
the past, it must be but a short time before this 
section of country will be laid waste by this 
dreadful depredator, and its inhabitants re- 
duced to want and miser}^ Every attempt 
hitherto made to arrest their progress, or de- 
stroy them, has proved abortive. Some have 
attempted to drive them from their corn by 
pouring boiling water over them ; a remedy, 
for the com, as bad as the disease. Others 
try to stop their ingress to the corn-fields by 
digging ditches around the fields ; but with no 
avail, as they are furnished with wings in a 
short time after they are hatched, and of course 
can easily fly over tlie ditches. Would it not 
be advisable always to sow clover, or some 
other tender,grass, with all small grain, to in- 
duce the bug to remain in the field after the 
grain is taken away long enough to enable the 
com crop to get size and age, so as not to be 
seriously injured by them ? I have observed 
that the older the plant, the much less liable it 
is to be either injured or attacked." (Famier^s 
Register.') 

Among the remedies proposed against this 
destructive insect, are the following : — Burn- 
ing up the leaves and rubbish of any woods in 
the vicinity of grain fields, so as lo kill the in- 
sects in their winter retreats; also the stalks 
of corn, &c., where they are often found. It is 
said that they are natives of the forest, and 
that where these are occasionally burnt they 
never become troublesome. Digging ditches 
so as to intercept the progress of the bugs, fill- 
ing the excavations with straw in which the 
insects generally halt a little while, during 
which time the straw is to be burnt so as to 
carry destruction to the enemy. This opera- 
tion is to be repeated during the day. Burning 
them up, com and all, has been attended witlr 
advantage in preventing further destruction, 
and also put an end to the further multiplica- 
tion of the swarm. 

CHINE. In horsemanship, the back-bone, 
or ridse of the back. In pork, that part of the 
back which contains the back-bone. 

CHISLEY LAND. Soil between sandy and 
clayey, containing a large admixture of small 
1 pebbles or gravel. 

i CHIVES or CIVES (^Mium schcenoprasum). 

I This plant is a perennial, flowering in May and 

June. It is easily propagated by oflTsets of the 

roots. The time for making plantations is 

January or February: however, March is the 

! month to be preferred to either; but if pre- 

'\ viously neglected, it may be performed as late 

as June. It is also planted in the autumn. 

They are to be inserted by the dibble, eight or 

ten inches apart, and eight or ten oflTsets in 



I 



CHLORIDE OF LIME. 



CHOCOLATE. 



each hole. The only cultivation required is to 
keep them free from weeds. By autumn they 
multiply into large-sized bunches ; and if re- 
quired may be taken up as soon as the leaves 
decay, and be stored, after the necessary 
jirecautions, as a substitute for the onion : 
the leaves, which are fit for use as long as they 
remain green, must, when required, be cut 
down close to the ground, when they will 
speedily be succeeded by others. (G. W. John- 
ton's Kitch. Garden.) 

CHLORINE. One of the elements found al- 
ways ill vegetable substances, among the inor- 
ganic or mineral constituents derived from the 
so.l. It is a kiml of gas of a greenish colour, 
with a peculiarly strong odour, and so much 
heavier tliaii common air, that, like carbonic 
acid gas. it may be poured from one vessel into 
another. A taper will burn in it, giving a fee- 
ble reddish light, which soon goes out. It exists 
in ail f'rtile soils, not separate, but combined 
with soda, in the familiar form of common salt, 
every 10 lbs. of which contains about 6 lbs. of 
chlorine gas. 

CHLORIDE OF SODIUM: Muriate of Soda, 
or Cuiiunoii Salt. This mineral production, so 
necessary to the wants of mankind, is universally 
distributed over the globe, either in solution, as 
in sea water and mineral springs, or in beds and 
solid rocks, forming mountains, from which it 
is procured in masses by blasting and regular 
mining operations. Most animals have an in- 
stinctive taste for this salt, and all fertile soils 
contain it, so that to the growth and well-being 
of both animals and vegetables, salt is indis- 
pensable. For its uses as a fertilizer, see Salt. 

CHLORIDE OF SODA. A well known pow- 
erful disinfectant or destroyer of offensive smells, 
discovered and brought into use by a French 
chemist, who prepared from it a solution sold 
extensively under the name of Labarkaque's 
DisiNFECTivE Solution. It is employed by 
sprinkling in sick rooms, privies, &c. Like the 
chloride of lime, it possesses the extraordinary 
property of preventing or arresting animal and 
vegetable putrefaction, and of destroying those 
effluvia which are not only offensive to the smell 
but injurious to the health of men and other 
animals. To preserve animal bodies from pu- 
trefaction, or correct their offensive odours, the 
solution of chloride of soda may be applied by 
ypiinkling or covering them with wet cloths. The 
chloride of soda, in which chlorine gas is com- 
bined with the alkali soda, must not be con- 
founded with chloride of sodium, in which the 
same gas is united with the metallic base sodium, 
to form common salt. 

CHLORIDE OF LIME. Commonly known 
as Bleacking Salt, or Uleaching Powder, is a 
dry grayish-white powder, possessing a hot pe- 
netrating taste, and, when pure, soluble in water. 
It is used by putting a few tablespoonsful of the 
salt in a plate or shallow earthen vessel, and 
pouring on, from time to time, a little oil of vit- 
riol or vinegar, which brings out the chlorine 
gas, that corrects offensive smells and deleterious 
airs in houses, privies, stables, &c. It has been 
proposed as a fertilizer. 

Davy reports that he steeped some radish 
seeds for twelve hours in a solution of chlorine, 
some in nitric acid, some in very dilute oil of 
vitriol, some in a weak solution of green vitriol, 
and some in common water. " The seeds in so- 



lutions of chlorine and ox-sulphate of iron 
threw out the germ in two days, those in »itric 
acid in three days, in sulphuric acid in five, 
and those in water in five. But in every case 
of premature germination, though the plume 
was very vigorous for a short time, yet it be- 
came at the end of a fortnight weak and sickly, 
and at that period less vigorous in its growth 
than the sprouts which had been naturally de- 
veloped, so that there can be scarcely any 
useful application of these experiments. Too 
rapid growth and premature decay seem in- 
variably connected in organized structures, 
and it is only by following the slow operations 
of natural causes that we are capable of 
making improvements." i^Jigr. Chem. p. 217.) 

Chloride of lime is prepared in large quan- 
tities for the service of the bleachers in most 
of the manufacturing districts. It is composed, 
according to the analysis of Dr. Marcet, of 

Paris. 

Chlorine 63 23 

Lime 36-77 



Dr. Ingenhouz, in a paper published by the 
Board of Agriculture in 1816, remarks, in al- 
luding to some experiments he had tried at 
Hertford in company with the Baron Dimsdale 
with various salts, — " Be it sufficient to say 
here, that of all the neutral salts we tried, the 
glauber salt did seem to be one of the best in 
promoting vegetation; and the steeping the 
seeds in water, impregnated with oxygenated 
marine salt (which is now employed in bleach- 
ing linen in an expeditious way), had a par- 
ticularly beneficial effect in producing vigorous 
and early plants. We were somewhat as- 
tonished that those seeds, viz. of wheat, rye, 
barley, and oats, which had 'been steeped in 
the above mentioned oxygenated muriatic 
liquid, even during forty-eight hours, did thrive 
admirably well; whereas, the same seeds 
steeped during so long a time, in some of the 
other medicated liquids, were much hurt, or 
had lost their vegetative power. The same 
oxygenated liquid poured upon the ground had 
also a beneficial effect." These experiments 
of Ingenhouz were made, it appears, in 1795. 
See Salts, their uses to vegetation. Leibig 
regards chloride of lime as a fertilizing salt, 
its virtues being similar to that of plaster of 
Paris, both of which, he says, fix the ammonia 
which is brought into the soil in rain water, 
which ammonia is indispensable for the nou- 
rishment of plants. A few table-spoonfuls of 
chloride of lime or bleaching salts, sprinkled 
occasionally in privies and other places where 
it may be required, corrects offensive odours. 
{Brit.' Farm. Mag. vol. ii. p. 258 ; " On Ferti- 
lizers,^^ p. 366.) 

CHOCOLATE is an alimentary preparation 
of very ancient use in Mexico, from which 
country it was introduced into Europe by the 
Spaniards in the year 1520, and by them long 
kept a secret from the rest of the world. Lin- 
naeus was so fond of it, that he gave the spe- 
cific name, tlieobroma, food of the gods, to the 
cacao tree which produced it. The cacao- 
beans lie in a fruit somewhat like a cucumber 
about five inches long and three and a half 
2E 325 



CHOCOLATE. 



CHRYSALIS. 



thick, which contains from 20 to 30 beans, ar- 
ranged in five regular rows with partitions 
between, and which are surrounded with a 
rose-coloured spongy substance, like that of 
water-melons. There are fruits, however, so 
large as to contain from 40 to 50 beans. Those 
grown in the West India islands, Berbice and 
Demarara, are much smaller, and have only 
from 6 to 15; their developement being less 
perfect than in South America. After the ma- 
turation of the fruit, when their green colour 
has changed to a dark-yellow, they are plucked, 
opened, their beans cleared of the marrowy 
substance, and spread out to dry in the air. 
Like almonds, they are covered with a thin 
skin or husk. In the West Indies they are imme- 
diately packed up for the market when they are 
dried; but in the Caraccas they are subjected 
to a species of slight fermentation, by putting 
them into tubs or chests, covering them with 
boards or stones, and turning them over every 
morning, to equalize the operation. They emit 
a good deal of moisture, lose the natural bit- 
terness and acrimony of their taste by this 
process, as well as some of their weight. In- 
stead of wooden tubs, pits or trenches dug in 
the ground are sometimes had recourse to for 
curing the beads; an operation called earlhmg 
(toTer). They are lastly exposed to the sun, 
and dried. The latter kind are reckoned the 
best; being larger, rougher, of a darker brown 
colour, and, when roasted, throw off their husk 
readily, and split into several irregular frag- 
ments ; they have an agreeable, mild, bitterish 
taste, without acrimony. The Guinea and 
West India sorts are smaller, flatter, smoother- 
skinned, lighter-coloured, more sharp and 
bitter to the taste. They answer best for the 
extraction of the butter of cacao, but afford a 
less aromatic and agreeable chocolate. Ac- 
cording to Lampadius, the kernels of the West 
India cacao beans contain, in 100 parts, besides 
water, 53"1 of fat or oil, 16'7 of an albuminous 
brown matter, which contains all the aroma of 
the bean, 10-91 of starch, 7J of gum or muci- 
lage, 0-9 of lignine, and 2'01 of a reddish dye- 
stuff somewhat akin to the pigment of cochi- 
neal. The husks form twelve per cent, of the 
weight of the beans; they contain no fat, but, 
besides lignine, or woody fibre, which consti- 
tutes half their weight, they yield a light-brown 
mucilaginous extract by boiling in water. The 
fatty matter is of the consistence of tallow, 
white, of a mild, agreeable taste, called butter 
of cacao, and not apt to turn rancid by keeping. 
It melts only at 122° Fahr., and should, there- 
fore, make tolerable candles. It is soluble in 
boiling alcohol, but precipitates in the cold. 
It is obtained by exposing the beans to strong 
pressure in canvass bags, after they have been 
steamed or soaked in boiling water for some 
time. From five to six ounc?s of butter may 
be thus obtained from a pound of cacao. It 
has a reddish tinge wnen first expressed, but 
it becomes white by boiling with water. 

"The beans, being freed from all spoiled and 
mouldy portions, are to be gently roasted over 
a tire in an iron cylinder, with holes in its 
ends for allowing the vapors to escape; the 
apparatus being similar to a coffee-roaster. 
When the aroma begins to be well developed, 
326 



the roasting is known to be finished; and the 
beans must be turned out, cooled, and freed by 
fanning and sifting from their husks. The 
kernels are then to be converted into a paste, 
by trituration in a mortar heated to 130° Fah. 
The chocolate paste has usually in France a 
little vanilla incorporated with it, and a con- 
siderable quantity of sugar, which varies from 
one-third of its weight to equal parts. For a 
pound and a half of cacao, one pod of vanilla 
is sufficient. Chocolate paste improves in its 
flavour by keeping, and should therefore be 
made in large quantities at a time. But the 
roasted beans soon lose their aroma, if exposed 
to the air. 

"Chocolate is flavoured with cinnamon and 
cloves, in several countries, instead of the 
more expensive vanilla. In roasting the beans, 
the heat should be at first very slow, to give 
time to the humidity to escape ; a quick fire 
hardens the surface, and injures the process. 
In putting the paste into the tin plate, or other 
moulds, it must be well shaken down, to in- 
sure its filling up all the cavities, and giving 
the sharp and polished impression so much 
admired by connoisseurs. Chocolate is some- 
times adulterated with starch ; in which case 
it will form a pasty consistenced mass when 
treated with boiling water. The harder the 
slab upon which the beans are triturated, the 
better; and hence porphyry is far preferable 
to marble. The grinding rollers of the mill 
should be made of iron, and kept very clean." 
( Ure's Did. of jSrts, &c.) 

A substance called tbeobromm has been re- 
cently obtained from chocolate by a European 
chemist. It contains thirty-five per cent, of 
nitrogen, a larger proportion than that con- 
tained in caffeine. 

CHOKE-DAMP, a common term applied to 
a kind of foul air, often met with in wells, pits, 
mines, &c. It consists of carbonic acid gass, 
with or without a mixture of nitrogen. It is a 
source of great danger to persons descending 
into wells and pits. See Carbonic acid Gass. 

CHOLIC, or COLIC. See Horses, Cattle, 
Sheep, Diseases of. 

CHOPPER, HAY. See Chaff-engines. A 
new and very efficient straw-cutter under the 
title of the " Canadian Straw and Hay-chop- 
per," is figured and described in the Trans. 
High. Soc. vol. vi. p. 336. One person driving 
the machine can, it is said, cut with ease 5 cwu 
of hay or straw in an hour. 

CHOUGH, or RED LEGGED CROW 
(Fregihis graculus). The plumage of this Bri- 
tish bird is uniformly black, glossed with blue; 
beak,legs,and toes, vermilion red; claws,b]ack. 

CHRONIC COUGH. In horses, this is a 
frequent consequence of chest diseases. In a 
few instances this seems to be connected with 
worms ; and if the coat is unthrifty, the flanks 
tucked up, and there is mucus around the anus, 
it will be proper to put the connexion between 
the worms and the cough to the test; other- 
wise a sedative medicine may suffice to allay 
the irritation. (Clater's Far. p. 123.) 

CHRYSALIS. Many worms or larvae, after 
they have attained their full growth, leave off 
eating entirely and remain at rest in a death- 
like sleep. This is called the pupa state, from 



CHURN. 



CIDER. 



a fancied resemblance to the manner in which 
the Roman children were trussed in bandages. 
The pupiE from caterpillars are most common- 
ly called chrysalids and aurelia. Grubs, after 
tJieir transformation, are often called nymphs. 
Having passed through its change, the insect 
merges from its chrysalis, or pupa, perforates 
the shell and silken envelope, and makes its 
appearance in a winged form, which is its last 
or perfect state. 

" In every species there may be distinguished 
two sides ; the one of which is the back, and 
the other the belly of the animal. On the an- 
terior part of the latter there may always be 
observed certain little elevations running in 
ridges : the other side, or the back, in most of 
the chrysalises, is smooth, and of a rounded 
figure : but some have ridges on the anterior 
part and sides of this part, usually terminating 
in a point and making an angular appearance. 
From this difference is drawn the first general 
distinction of these bodies, by which they are 
divided into two classes ; the round and the 
angular. The first, French naturalists call 
fcves ; the chrysalis of the silk-worm being of 
this description, and so named. This division 
is extremely convenient to classification, the 
phalancE or moths being almost universally pro- 
duced by the rounded chrysalises, and the papi- 
lios, day-flies, from the angular. Among the 
latter, are some whose colours are as worthy 
of observation as the forms of others. Many 
of them appear superbly clothed in gold. 
These species obtained the names of chrysalis 
and aurelia; derived, the one from a Greek, the 
other from a Latin word, signifying gold." 
(^Domestic Ency.) 

CHURN (cepnan ; Goth, kcrna ; Dutch, kemcn. 
Our old authors wrote it cherne, and kern is yet 
a local word, and generally used north of the 
Tweed). A vessel in which cream is coagu- 
lated by long and violent agitation. There are 
many different kinds of churns, but those most 
generally used are the upright or Dutch plunge 
churn and the barrel-churn. In large dairies 
churns are frequently turned by means of a 
horse; this is particularly the case in Flan- 
ders, where churns are used which will make 
forty or fifty pounds of butter at a time. In 
the large dairies of Cheshire they are now often 
driven by small high pressure steam-engines. 
On such farms as have thrashing-mills, churns 
might be very conveniently attached to and 
wrought by them. An improved butter-churn 
by Mr. C. Harley of Fenchurch-street, and an- 
other by Mr. W. Bowler, to which the Society 
for the Improvement of the Arts, &c., awarded 
a prize of thirty guineas, are described in Wil- 
lich's Domestic Encyc. Churns should admit the 
air; and hence it has been argued that the 
common churn, which allows this most con- 
veniently, is, after all, the best. 

CIBOULE, or WELSH ONION. See Onioj^. 

CICADA. See Grasshopper and Locusts. 

CIDER, or CYDER (Fr. cidre ; Ger. zider : 
Ital. «rfro; Russ. sirfor; Span, sir/ra). A sharp 
and vinous beverage made by fermenting the 
juice of apples. 

Cider, or the fermented juice of the apple, 
constitutes the principal vinous beverage of the 



citizens of New England, of the Middle States, 
and of the older states of the West. Good cider 
is deemed a pleasant, wholesome liquor, during 
the heats of summer ; and Mr. Knight has as- 
serted, and also eminent medical men, that 
strong, astringent ciders have been found to 
produce nearly the same effect in cases of pu- 
trid fever as Port wine. 

The unfermented juice of the apple consists 
of water and a peculiar acid called the malic 
acid, combined with the saccharine principle. 
Where a just proportion of the latter is want- 
ing, the liquor will be poor and watery, with- 
out body, very difficult to preserve and manage. 
In the process of fermentation, the saccharine 
principle is in part converted to alcohol. 
Where the proportion of the saccharine prin- 
ciple is wanting, the deficiency must be sup- 
plied, either by the addition of a saccharine 
substance before fermentation, or by the addi- 
tion of alcohol after fermentation ; for every 
one must know that all good wine or cider 
contains it, elaborated by fermentation, either 
in the cask or in the reservoirs at the distillery. 
The best and the cheapest kind is the neutral 
spirit — a highly rectified and tasteless spirit, 
obtained from New England rum. Some, how- 
ever, object to an}' addition of either sugar or 
alcohol to supply deficiencies, forgetful that 
these substances are the very elements of 
which all wine, cider, and vmous liquors are 
composed. 

The strength of the cider depends on the 
specific gravity of the juice on expression: 
this may be easily ascertained by weighing, 
or by the hydrometer. 

According to the experiments of Major Ad- 
lum, of Georgetown, District of Columbia, it 
appeared that when two pounds of sugar were 
dissolved in a gallon of rain water, the bulk 
occupied by 1000 grains of rain water weighed 
1087 grains. From this it would appear that 
the juice produced by the best known apple 
contains about two pounds of sugar in a gal- 
lon. Mr. Marshall has asserted that a gentle- 
man, Mr. Bellamy, of Herefordshire, England, 
has by skill "produced cider from an apple 
called Hagloe Crab, which, for richness, fla- 
vour, and price on the spot, exceeds, perhaps, 
every other liquor which nature or art has pro- 
duced. He has been offered sixty guineas for 
a hogshead of 110 gallons of this liquor." 
Newark, in New Jersey, is reputed one of^ the 
most famous places in America for its cider. 
The cider apple most celebrated there is the 
Harrison apple, a native fruit; and cider made 
from this fruit, when fined and fit for botthng, 
frequently brings $10 per barrel, accordmg to 
Mr. Coxe. This and the Hughs' Virginia Crab 
are the two most celebrated cider apples of 
America. Old trees, growing in dry soils, pro- 
duce, it is said, the best cider. A good cider 
apple is saccharine and astringent. 

To make good cider, the first requisite is 
suitable fruit'; it is equally necessary that tht 
fruit should be not merely mellow, but thorough- 
ly mature, rotten apples being excluded; and 
ripe, if possible, at the suitable period, or about 
the first of November, or from the first to the 
middle, after the excessive heat of the seaso" 

''27 



CIDER. 



croER. 



j» past, and while sufficient warmth yet re- 
mains to enable the fermentation to progress 
slowly, as it ought. 

The fruit should be gathered by hand, or 
shaken from the tree in dry weather, when it 
is at perfect maturity; and the ground should 
be covered with coarse cloths or Russia mats 
beneath, to prevent bruising, and consequent 
rottenness, before the grinding commences. 
Unripe fruit should be laid in large masses, 
protected from dews and rain, to sweat and 
hurry on its maturity, when the suitable time 
for making approaches. The earlier fruits 
should be laid in thin layers on stagings, to 
preserve them to the suitable period for mak- 
ing, protected alike from rain and dews, and 
Avhere they may be benefited by currents of 
cool, dry air. 

Each variety should be kept separate, that 
those ripening at the same period may be 
ground together. 

In grinding, the most perfect machinery 
should be used to reduce the whole fruit, skin, 
and seeds to a fine pulp. This should, if pos- 
sible, be performed in cool weather. The late 
•Joseph Cooper, of New Jersey, has observed 
emphatically, that " the longer a cheese lies after 
being ground, before pressing, the better for the 
cider, provided it escapes fermentation until the 
pressing is completed ;" and he further observes, 
" that a sour apple, after being bruised on one 
side, becomes rich and sweet after it has 
changed to a brown colour, while it yet re- 
tains its acid taste on the opposite side." 
When the pomace united to the juice is thus 
suffered for a time to remain, it undergoes a 
chemical change ; the saccharine principle is 
developed; it will be found rich and sweet; 
sugar is in this case produced by the prolonged 
union of the bruised pulp and juice, which 
could never have been formed in that quantity 
had they been sooner separated. 

Mr. Jonathan Rice, of Marlborough, who 
made the premium cider so much admired at 
Concord, Massachusetts, appears so sensible 
of the important effects of mature or fully ripe 
fruit, that, provided this is the case, he is 
•willing even to forego the disadvantage of 
having a portion of them quite rotten. Let 
me observe, that this rottenness must be the 
effect, in part, of bruises by improper modes 
of gathering, or by improper mixtures of ripe 
and unripe fruit. He always chooses cool 
weather for the operation of grinding ; and, in- 
stead of suffering the pomace to remain but 
twenty-four or forty-eight hours at most before 
pressing, as others have directed, he suffers it 
to remain from a tveek to ten days, provided the 
weather will admit, stirring the mass daily till 
it is put to the press. See his communication 
in vol. vii. p. 123, N. E. Farmer. 

The first fermentation in cider is termed the 
vinous ; in this the sugar is decomposed, and 
loses its sweetness, and is converted into alco- 
hol ; if the fermentation goes on too rapidly, 
the cider is injured ; a portion of alcohol passes 
off with the carbonic acid. 

The design of frequent rackings is princi- 
pally to restrain the fermentation ; but it seems 
to be generally acknowledged that it weakens 
the liquor. It is not generally practised, al- 
A28 



though the finest cider is often produced by 
this mode. 

Various other modes are adopted with the 
view of restraining fermentation, one of which 
is the following. After a few gallons of cider 
are poured into the hogshead into which the 
cider is to be placed when racked off, a rag six 
inches long, previously dipped in melted brim- 
stone, is attached by a wire to a very long, 
tapering bung; on the match being lighted the 
bung is loosely inserted; after this is con- 
sumed, the cask is rolled or tumbled till the 
liquor has imbibed the gas, and then filled 
with the liquid. This checks the fermentation. 
Yet the French writers assure us that the effect 
of much sulphuring must necessai'ily render 
such liquors unwholesome. 

Black oxide of manganese has a similar 
effect; the crude oxide is rendered friable by 
being repeatedly heated red hot, and as often 
suddenly cooled by immersion in cold water. 
When finely pulverised, it is exposed for a 
while to the atmosphere, till it has imbibed 
again the oxygen which had been expelled by 
fire. An ounce of powder is deemed sufficient 
for a barrel. If the cider is desired to be very 
sweet, it must be added before fermentation, 
otherwise not till afterwards. Mr. Knight, from 
his long experience and observation in a coun- 
try (Herefordshire, England) famous for its 
cider, has lately, in a letter to the Hon. John 
Lowell, stated that the acetous fermentation 
generally takes place during the progress of 
the vinous, and that the liquor from the com- 
mencement is imbibing oxygen at its surface. 
He highly recommends that new charcoal, in a 
finely pulverized state, be added to the liquor 
as it comes from the press, in the proportion of 
eight pounds to the hogshead, to be intimately 
incorporated; "this makes the liquor at first 
as black as ink, but it finally becomes remark- 
ably fine." 

Dr. Darwin has recommended that tlie liquor, 
as soon as the pulp has risen, should be placed 
in a cool situation, in casks of remarkable 
strength, and the liquor closely confined from 
the beginning. The experiment has been tried 
with good success ; the fermentation goes on 
slowly, and an excellent cider is generally the 
result. 

A handful of well-powdered clay to a barrel 
is said to check the fermentation. This is 
stated by Dr. Mease. And with the view of 
preventing the escape of the carbonic acid, and 
to prevent the liquid from imbibing oxygen 
from the atmosphere, a pint of olive oil has 
been recommended to each hogshead. The 
excellent cider exhibited b)' Mr. Rice was pre- 
pared by adding two gallons of New England 
rum to each barrel when first made. In Feb- 
ruary or March it Avas racked off in clear wea- 
ther, and two quarts more of New England 
rum added to each barrel. Cider well ferment- 
ed maybe frozen down to any requisite degree 
of strength. In freezing, the watery parts are 
separated and freeze first, and the stronger 
parts are drawn off from the centre. — I finish 
by adding the following general rules ; they 
will answer for all general purposes ; they are 
the conclusions from what is previously stated; 
1. Gather the fruit according to the foregoing 



CIDER. 

rales ; let it be thoroughly ripe when ground, 
which should be about the middle of Novem- 
ber. 2. Let the pomace remain from two to 
four days, according to the state of the wea- 
ther, stirring it every day till it is put to the 
press. 3. If the liquor is deficient in the sac- 
charine principle, the defect may be remedied 
in the beginning by the addition of saccharine 
substances or alcohol. 4. Let the liquor be 
immediately placed in a cool cellar, in remark- 
ably strong, tight, siveet casks ; after the pulp has 
all overflown, confine the liquor down by driv- 
ing the bung hard and by sealing; a vent must 
be left, and the spile carefully drawn at times, 
but only when absolutely necessary to prevent 
the cask from bursting. The charcoal, as re- 
commended by Mr. Knight, deserves trial. 

Fresh and sweet pomace directly from the 
press, and boiled or steamed and mixed with 
a small portion of meal, is a valuable article 
of food, or for fattening horses, cattle, and 
swine. 

Sour casks are purified by pouring in a 
small quantity of hot water, and adding un- 
slacked lime; bung up the cask, and continue 
shaking it till the lime is slacked. Soda and 
chloride of lime are good for purifying. When 
casks are emptied to be laid by, let them be 
thoroughly rinsed with water and drained, then 
pour into each a pint of cheap alcohol, shake 
the cask and bung it tight, and it will remain 
sweet for years. Musty casks should be con- 
demned to other uses. Cider should not be 
bottled till perfectly fine, otherwise it may burst 
the bottles. The bottles should be strong, and 
filled to the bottom of the neck. After standing 
aa hour, they should be corked with velvet 
corks. The lower end of the cork is held for 
an instant in hot water, and it is then instantly 
after driven down with a mallet. The bottles 
must be either sealed or laid on their sides in 
boxes, or in the bottom of a cellar, and covered 
with layers of sand. 

Most of the above information relative to 
cider-making is derived from the American Or- 
chardist, by W. Kenrick, of Boston, Massachu- 
setts, whose list of apple and other nursery 
trees comprehends almost every kind desirable 
for any purpose. 

The reader will find very explicit instruc- 
tions for the manufacture of cider in the Penny 
Cyclop, vol. vii p. 161; in the Lib. of Useful 
Know.; Brit, Hm'^. vol. ii. p. 364; Low^s Pract. 
Agr. p. 379; Croker, On the Art of Making and 
Managing Cyder: in the Quart, journ. of Agr. 
vol. viii. p. 332, by Mr. Towers ; and in Bax- 
ter's Agr. Lib. p. 135, by Andrew Crosse, Esq., 
of Somerset. The following instructions for 
making cider are by a Devonshire lady. 

Gather the fruit when ripe ; let it remain in 
a heap till the apples begin to get damp, then 
grind them in a mill (similar to a malt mill) ; 
take the pulp and put it into a large press like 
a cheese-press, only on a much larger scale 
place a layer of reed in the bottom of the vat 
and a layer of pulp alternately until the vat is 
full. The vat is square, and the ends of the 
reed must be allowed to turn over every layer 
of pulp, so as to keep it from being pressed 
out at the sides : the layers of pulp must be 
five or six inehes thick. When you have 
42 



CINQUE-FOIL. 

finished making your cheese, press it as hard 
as you can, and let it remain three or four 
hours ; then cut down the corners of it, and 
lay them on the top with reed as before ; then 
press it again, and allow it to remain for an- 
other three or four hours. Repeat this process 
as long as necessary, or until the cheese is 
quite dry. It takes seven bags of apples for 
one hogshead of cider, and the vat ought to be 
large enough to make from three to four hogs- 
heads at a time. The best sort of apple to 
make mild cider is the hard bitter-sweet. Any 
sort of sour apple will do to make the harsh 
cider. The liquor must be strained through a 
fine sieve into a large vessel, and allowed to 
ferment for three or four days, taking off the 
scum as it rises; then rack it, and put it into 
casks stopped down quite close. Before the 
cider is put into the cask, a match made of new 
linen and attached to a wire is lighted and put 
into the cask, and the bung is put in to keep the 
wire from falling into it. After a few minutes 
the match is removed, and the cider poured 
into the cask while yet full of the smoke. 

A person would require three or four years' 
experience before he would be qualified to 
superintend the making of sweet or made 
cider. Much depends on the year, or rather 
on the ripening of the apples ; it should be the 
second, not the frst falling : and the " green 
bitter-sweet" and the " pocket apple" are the 
best for making it. After pounding, isinglass 
and brimstone are used to sweeten and fine it, 
and many other ingredients. (A. M. K.) 

The sweet cider, above described, is distinct 
from the other two kinds of cider (the harsh 
and mild). Cider, according to Brande, con- 
tains about 9-87 parts per cent, of alcohol. It 
is a wholesome beverage for those who use 
much bodily exercise. (Willirh's Dom. Ency.; 
M^Cidloch's Com. Diet.) 

CINQUE-FOIL, COMMON CREEPING, or 
FIVE FINGERED GRASS {PotenliUa rep- 
tans). This creeping plant is common about 
waysides, and in meadows and pastures in 
England, where it is a perennial, flowering in 
June. Its stalks are round, smooth, and red, 
h-ing upon the ground, and taking root at the 
joints. The leaves stand five in number on 
each foot-stalk, long and narrow in form, and 
indented at the edges. The flowers are large, 
of a bright yellow colour, standing upon long 
foot-stalks. The root is long and large, cover- 
ed with a brown rind. Smith (Eng. Flora, voL 
ii. p. 423) describes this and ten other species 
of cinque-foil, all belonging to the same genus. 
The root is the medicinal part, and once was 
an officinal plant; hut is now discarded : dig 
it up in April, take off the outer bark or rind, 
and dry it. The powdered bark of the root is 
astringent. 

There are a dozen or more species of cinque- 
foil in the United States, among which is thai 
usually called the barren strawberry {Potew- 
tilla Pennsylvanica). It is a small, perennial, 
creeping plant, very frequent on road-sides, 
fence-rows, and banks, having thick, branch 
ing, fibrous roots. The petals of the flower^ 
are bright-yellow, the first flowers often ap- 
pearing when the stems are very short, but 
others appear afterwards on runners, which 
2 E 2 320 



CINQUE-FOIL 



CLIMATE. 



runners resemble those of the strawberry. 
This common kind of cinque-foil in the Middle 
and Northern States is frequent in worn-out 
and neglected fields, and, where abundant, indi- 
cates thriftless farming. The Latin name of 
the genus is derived from potens, powerful; 
in reference to the supposed medical virtues 
of the cinque-foil family. Another species, 
commonly called five-fingers (Potentilla sim- 
plex), is also a very common, yellow flowered 
perennial, along the borders of woods, &c. 

CINQUE-FOIL, PURPLE MARSH {Coma- 
rium palustre). A perennial, found in spongy, 
muddy bogs and ditches. Root, creeping ex- 
tensively, Math many long fibres. Stems, round, 
reddish, a foot or more in height. Flowers, 
several, without scent, but handsome, an inch 
broad, all over of a dark purplish blood colour, 
as well as the fruit. They appear in June. 
(Smith's Eng. Flora, vol. ii. p. 433.) 

CITRIC ACIDS. Acids contained in le- 
mons and some other kinds of fruit. See 
Acids, Veoetable. 

CLARY, or SAGE {Salvia). Smith {Eng. 
Flora, vol. i. p. 34) describes two kinds, the 
meadow clary (S.pra^ewsis), and wild English 
clary {S. verbcnaca). The first is very uncom- 
mon, but sometimes met with in dry meadows 
and about hedges ; grows three feet high, erect; 
not very aromatic; leaves, dark-green ; flowers, 
large and handsome, of a fine purplish blue. 
The second species is more common on gra- 
velly or chalky soils, a foot or eighteen inches 
high; leaves, grayish-green; flowers, small, 
violet-blue. Seeds, black, smooth; blows from 
June to October. This plant is of great vir- 
tue, and is kept in gardens on account of its 
excellent flavour. The whole herb is medi- 
cinal, and is equally good, freshly gathered, 
or dried. It is cordial and astringent in its 
quality. 

CLASPERS. The threads or tendrils of 
creeping plants. 

CLASS, an appellation used to denote the 
most general divisions of which any thing is 
susceptible. Thus in the Linnoean system of 
natural history, the animal kingdom is divided 
into six great classes, of mammalia, or ani- 
mals which suckle their young; aves, or birds; 
pisces, or fishes ; insccta, or insects ; vermes, or 
worms. 

In botany, the term class implies the primary 
division of plants into large groups, each of 
which is to be subdivided by a regular down- 
ward progression, into orders, genera, and spe- 
cies, with occasional intermediate subdivisions, 
constituting varieties, &c., all being subordi- 
nate to the division which stands immediately 
above them. Each class is divided into orders, 
each order into genera, each genus into species, 
and each genus and species sometimes into 
subgenera or subspecies. The term family is 
sometimes used instead of genus, and objects 
are often arranged in families, which again are 
distingu; shed into varieties. 

CLAY. A well known constituent of soils, 
adding to them compactness and tenacity. 
Under the head of Analysis, p. 91, is a table 
showing a classification of soils, from which it 
appears, that as a general rule, those exhibiting 
the highest per-centage of clay, are esteemed 
330 



the most valuable. Although what is commonly 
called clay, constitutes from 14 to 81 per cent, of 
soils, its basis, alumina, or pure clay, exists only 
in the proportion of from 72-lOOths of 1 per 
cent, in light sandy soils, to 5-25 per cent, in 
heavier lands. Where it exists, as it often does 
in sub-soils, in the proportion of 9 or 10 per 
cent, good draining-tiles and building bricks may 
be made of it. The clay from which the best 
building bricks in Baltimore are made, contains 
19| per cent, of alumina. iSee Bricks.) 

Clays have various colours, owing to admix- 
ture with diflferent substances. Yellow and red 
clays are silicates of alumina with small propor- 
tions of peroxide (or rust) of iron, united with 
lime, magnesia, sometimes potash, and very 
rarely soda. 

Strange to say — in what are commonly called 
on the Eastern shore of Maryland, and elsewhere 
in the United States, "pipe clay or white oah 
soils,'' very little pure clay exists, seldom over 
3'75 per cent., in the upper stratum, and some- 
times only about 1 per cent. According to Dr. 
Higgins's analysis, 90 per cent, of this soil con- 
sists of sand so fine as to lose its grittiness, whilst 
the pure clay constitutes only about 2 or 2\ per 
cent. These white oak soils commonly rest on 
a bed of white or mottled clay, which should 
never be turned up in ploughing. They can ge- 
nerally be rendered very productive by perfect 
draining, with the addition of lime, ashes, or 
guano. Such land is very unprofitable, unless 
kept dry hy numeroiix small ditches running into 
a main ditch. See Ashes, Mixture of Soils. For 
the modes of burning clay in kilns, or clod-burn- 
ing, see Paring and B^irning. 

CLICKLING. An unpleasant noise known 
also by the term " overreach," which arises 
from the toe of the hind foot of a horse knock- 
ing against the shoe of the fore foot. If the 
animal is young, the action of the horse may 
be materially improved; otherwise nothing 
can be done. 

CLIMATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 
The temperature of the atmosphere constitutes 
the principal element of climate. If the tem- 
peratures of places depended solely upon the 
position of the earth in relation to the sun, 
then would every place receiving the rays at 
a similar angle be similarly heated, and places 
in the same latitude in every part of the globe 
would have similar climates, so far as heat 
was concerned. It would therefore be very 
easy to classify climates according to relative 
distances from the equator or proximity to the 
poles. But observations made in different 
parts of the world show that in similar latitudes 
climates diflfer greatly, as is exemplified on the 
two sides of the northern Atlantic, where the 
mean temperatures of places on or near the 
ocean are found to differ in some cases ten de- 
grees of Fahrenheit, the climate of the European 
coast being that much warmer, in its annual 
mean temperature, than the American in the 
same latitude. When, instead of mean tempe- 
ratures, extremes of heat and cold are com- 
pared, the difference is still more striking. 

Now, in explaining the rationale of this 
well known fact, we are compelled to refer to 
a grand natural phenomenon, which we shall 
designate the great atmospheric circulation. 
This commences in the tropical region where 



CLIMATE. 



CLIMATE. 



th; accumulated heat of the sun rarefies the 
air, which, ascending into the higher regions 
of the atmosphere, flows off towards the north 
and south. To compensate for the loss by this 
successive flowing off of the heated and rare- 
fied portion, and maintain that equilibrium 
which the barometer informs us always sub- 
sists in the atmosphere throughout the globe, 
lower currents of heavier air sweep into the 
tropical regions from the northward and south- 
ward. These last have been denominated the 
polar currents, whilst the uppermost are de- 
signated as the tropical currents; and these, 
it is well known, do not flow directly north or 
south, but slantwise, a fact which is ascribed 
to the influence exerted by the motion of the 
globe upon its axis, and the different velocities 
existing at different parts of its surface. Owing, 
therefore, to the combined agencies of solar 
heat and diurnal rotation, the lower winds in 
the equatorial region have a slanting direction 
from the eastward, constituting the trade winds, 
which blow the year round between the tropics, 
except where changed into monsoons by the 
interposition of some influences by which a 
change is wrought in their direction during 
six months of the year. Whilst the winds 
within the tropics thus blow interminably from 
the eastward, those without the tropical limits 
have a prevailing direction from the Avest. 
Here then we find the solution of the problem, 
that in extra-tropical latitudes all countries 
situated to the eastward of seas or other great 
bodies of water have milder climates than 
those occupying the eastern portions of con- 
tinents. Large bodies of water never become 
so cold in winter or so warm in summer as the 
earth. Hence, whenever the predominant 
winds sweep from the sea, they carry with 
them the temperature of the water to a greater 
or less distance inland, and thus obviate ex- 
tremes. When, however, the prevailing winds 
pass over large tracts of country, they must 
necessarily bear with them the greater or less 
degrees of cold induced by congelation, and 
still more through radiation, whilst in summer 
they will convey the accumulated heat ab- 
sorbed by the earth. This view enables us to 
understand why the proximity of the Gulf 
Stream, — that mighty lake of warm water, as 
Major Reynell calls it, not inferior in size to 
the Mediterranean, — does not shed upon the 
shores of the United States a larger portion of 
its high temperature, the greatest proportion 
of the warmth communicated by it to the 
atmosphere being actually wafted to the distant 
shores of Europe. 

The celebrated Humboldt, who has devoted 
so much attention to the investigation of cli- 
mate, and especially to the laws and agencies 
concerned in the distribution of heat over the 
surface of the globe, has formed a system of 
lines of equal temperature encircling the globe, 
and passing through places having the same 
mean temperature, either throughout the year 
or during particular seasons. Those passing 
through places having similar annual means 
are called isothermal lines. As, however, it is 
frequently found that where the annual tem- 
peratures agree there is a great difference in 
the means of particular seasons, other lines 



have been drawn to show this, such as pass 
through places having equal summer tempera- 
tures being called isotheral, and those represent- 
ing equal winter means isocheimal lines. 

These lines, which from their generally 
crooked forms are also called curves, demon- 
strate to the eye in a striking manner the well 
known fact, that the distribution of temperature 
on both sides of the equator is by no means in 
exact conformity to latitude or distance from 
the equinoctial line. Let us, for example, take 
Humboldt's isothermal line drawn through 
different points around the globe, having a 
mean annual temperature of 55°*40 Fahr., 
and we shall find it in the eastern part of North 
America passing near Philadelphia, in latitude 
39° 56'; in the eastern part of Asia, near Pekin, 
in the same latitude with Philadelphia ; whilst 
on the western side of Europe it runs near 
Bourdeaux, in latitude 45° 46'; and on the 
western coast of North America, it is found at 
Cape Foulweather, a little south of the mouth 
of the Columbia river, latitude 44° 40'. Be- 
tween the western part of Europe and the 
eastern portion of North America, the follow- 
ing differences in the mean temperature are 
found in similar latitudes, the increase in 
latitude being attended by a very great increase 
in the difference of the means : 



Latilude. 


Mean temp, of E. 


Mean l?mp. W. 


Differences io 




coast N. Am. 


coast of EuTOpe. 


Diean temp. 


30" 


66° -62 


70° 52 


3° 60 


40° 


54°-50 


63°14 


8° -64 


50° 


37°-91 


50° -90 


12° -96 


60° 


23° -72 


40°-60 


16° -88 



Now all the great varieties in the lines of 
equal temperature are mainly dependent upon 
the operation of those extensive natural move- 
ments which we have styled the great atmos- 
pheric circulation. 

The climate of the United States is distin- 
guished by its extremes of heat and cold. It 
might be naturally expected that the greatest 
heat would be registered at the most souther- 
ly, and the severest cold at the most northern 
posts. But the exact instrumental observations 
now furnished prove this not to be the case, 
especially in the vicinity of the sea, where it 
would seem the proximity of water tends to 
moderate the heat of summer in the south, and 
the cold of winter in the north. It is in some 
of the western regions, remote from the ocean 
and inland seas, those, for example, in which 
forts Snelling, Gibson, and Council Bluffs, are 
situated, that the mercury rises highest and 
sinks the lowest. On the 15th of August, 1834, 
at Fort Gibson, two thermometers observed by 
Dr. Wright of the army, rose in the shade, 
carefully excluded from reflected or radiated 
heat, the one to 116°, and the other to 117" 
Fahrenheit. 

It is a law applicable to all parts of the 
world, wherever no inland lakes or seas exist, 
to interpose a modifying influence, — that on 
leaving the coast and going into the interior, 
the difference between the mean temperature 
of summer and winter increases, the climates 
being more subject to extremes of heat and 
cold. To show that no exception to this law 
is furnished in the United States, we may ad- 
duce the instance of Fort Sullivan, Eastporl, 

331 



CLIMATE. 

Me., on the ocean in latitude 44° 44', -where 
the winter mean temperature is 17°"45 Fah- 
renheit above that of Fort Snelling in Iowa, 
the latitude being the same. The climate of 
Fort Snelling, Dr. Forr}' informs us, is the 
most excessive among all the military posts in 
the United States, resembling that of Moscow in 
Russia, as regards the extremes of the seasons, 
notwithstanding the latter is 11° further north. 
But at Moscow the mean temperature both 
of winter and summer is lower, — that of winter 
being as 10°-78 to 15°-95, and that of summer 
as 97°-10 to 72°-75. That the influence of 
the lakes in modifying the climate in their 
vicinities is not less than that of the ocean, is 
demonstrated by a comparison of the summer 
and winter means of posts situated near them 
in about the same latitude. The difference 
between the mean temperature of summer and 
winter at Fort Preble, on the Atlantic, is 41°-03, 
and of Fort Niagara on Lake Ontario, 41°-73. 
At the excessive post. Fort Crawford, Wis- 
consin, a few minutes further south than the 
two places first mentioned, the difference 
amounts to 50°-89. Again, a comparison of 
tlie difference between the winter and summer 
means of some other posts situated in the 
same latitude shows the following results, by 
which the increase in extremes on going west 
is strikingly demonstrated. The difference 
between the mean temperature of summer and 
winter at Fort Wolcott, Newport, Rhode Island, 
is 36°-55; at West Point, New York, 40°-75; 
Fort Armstrong, Illinois, 49°'05; and at Coun- 
cil Bluffs, near the junction of the rivers Platte 
and Missouri, 51°-35. The highest, lowest, 
and annual range of the thermometer at three 
of the posts just mentioned is as follows : — 

Annual 
Highfst, Lnwtgt rangi". 

Fort Wolcott, Newport, R. I. 65° 2° 83° 

Fort Armstrong, Illinois - S6° 10° 106° 

Council Bluffs - - - 104° 10° 120° 

Although the mean temperature of winter on 
the sea-coast is 6° higher, and of summer 8°-71 
lower than in places situated on the same pa- 
rallel in the interior, beyond the influence of 
the lakes, the means of spring are 4°'13, and 
of autumn 0°*40 higher in the interior situa- 
tions. This is the result of a comparison made 
in the latitude of about 43°. 

How strongly are all these views of the east- 
ern climate of the United States contrasted with 
the equable temperature found in the Pacific 
region. At Fort Vancouver, for example, situ- 
ated on the Columbia river, about seventy-five 
miles above its mouth, the difference between 
the winter and summer means is only 23°-67, 
although a degree farther north than Fort Snel- 
ling, five degrees more northerly than New 
York, and nearly on the same parallel with 
Montreal. During a year passed at Fort Van- 
couver, the lowest fall of the thermometer was 
to 17°. On nine days only was the tempera- 
ture below the freezing point in the month of 
January, so that ploughing is carried on whilst 
the vegetables of the preceding season are still 
standing in the gardens untouched by frost. 
And why does not New York, situated directly 
on the Atlantic Ocean, derive as much warmth 
from this magazine of heat as Fort Vancouver 
does from the more distant Pacific 1 Simply 
332 



CLIMATE. 



1 



because the predominant westerly winds sweep 
upon one place the chilling blasts of extensive 
districts of land, cooled to congelation, or co- 
vered with snow, whilst over the other they 
waft the genial warmth of the sea. For simi- 
lar reasons the ameliorations of climate expe- 
rienced in the vicinity of the interior lakes 
must always be felt most to the eastward. 

The classification of climates distinguished 
by Dr. Forry in the United States and territo- 
ries, is founded upon a general division into 
Northern, Middle, and Southern regions ; the 
first being characterized by the predominance 
of a low mean temperature, the Southern by a 
high temperature, and the Middle vibrating to 
both extremes. Each of these general divisions 
is subdivided into classes or systems sufficiently 
marked. 

The Northern System has three classes, the 
first embracing the coast of New England, 
extending as far south as the harbour of New 
York; the second including the districts in the 
proximity of the northern lakes ; the third, 
portions of country alike remote from the ocean 
and inland seas. 

The Middle division has two classes, the 
first embracing the Atlantic coast from Dela- 
ware Bay to Savannah ; the second, interior 
stations. 

The Southern division has also two classes, 
the first including those parts in which the 
military posts on the Lower Mississippi are 
situated, and the second the peninsula of East 
Florida. 

It is the Northern region which presents at 
the same time the greatest diversity of physical 
character and the most strongly marked varia- 
tions in climate. East of the great lakes, the 
several mountain ranges seldom exceed the 
height of 2500 feet above the level of the sea — 
the table-lands, upon which the ridges rest, ris- 
ing, perhaps, on an average, to half the height 
named. We have already adverted to the fact, 
that on the coast of New England the influence 
of the ocean is manifested in moderating ex- 
tremes of temperature. Advancing into the 
interior, the extreme range of the thermometer 
increases, and the seasons are violently con- 
trasted, until getting within the influence of the 
lakes, when a climate like that of the sea-board 
is found. That the lakes have this capacilj' to 
modify the climate in their vicinity will be evi- 
dent to any one who considers that they occupy 
not less than 94,000 square miles, having a 
depth varying from 20 to 500 feet. Beyond the 
modifying agency of these inland seas, tempe- 
ratures still more excessive are exhibited, a 
comparative view of which, including exact 
estimates for the sea-coast and regions of and 
beyond the great lakes, has been already given. 

When the climates on the sea-coast and in- 
terior country remote from the lakes are com- 
pared in relation to the proportion of fair and 
cloudy weather, rain and snow, the following 
results appear. During the year, the propor- 
tion of fair days on the sea-coast, compared 
with those of the interior, are as 202 to 240 : 
cloudy days, 108 to 77; rainy days, 45 to 31 ; 
snowy, 9 to 16. 

Comparing the climate of the lakes with that 
of the same region beyond their influence, the 



CLIMATE. 



CLIMATE. 



contrast is yet more striking, the prevailing 
■weather of the former being cloudy, and the 
latter fair ; thus, during the year, the propor- 
tion of days is. 



Lakes 

Remote from lakes 



- 117 

- 216 



Clnudy. Rain. 
139 03 

73 46 



Snow. 
45 
29 



The relative proportion of rainy and cloudy 
days during the year is, therefore, in the former 
locality 247, and in the latter 148, giving the 
far west about 100 more sunshiny days out of 
the annual sum of 36.5. 

Thus much for the Northern division. 

In considering the climate of the Middle di- 
vision of the United States, Dr. Forry thinks 
himself justified by the results of the meteoro- 
logical observations in his possession, in dis- 
tinguishing two classes, designated as uniform 
and excessive climes, the first being slightly 
under the influence of the Atlantic Ocean, 
whilst the southwestern stations show the 
powerful influence of the Gulf of Mexico. 

In proceeding south, the seasons, as a gene- 
ral rule, appear more uniform, the annual mean 
temperature increasing as a matter of course. 
Some of the eastern posts in this middle divi- 
sion present such great contrasts between their 
summer and winter temperatures, as almost to 
place them in the list of excessive climes. The 
modifying influence of the adjacent ocean and 
bays are, however, still apparent, since, farther 
westward on the same parallels, greater ex- 
tremes are common. 

"The region of Pennsylvania, as though it 
were the battle-ground on which Boreas and 
Auster struggle for mastery, experiences, in- 
deed, the extremes of heat and cold. But, pro- 
ceeding south along the Atlantic Plain, climate 
soon undergoes a striking modification, of 
which the Potomac forms the line of demarca- 
tion. Here the domain of snow terminates. 
Beyond this point, the sledge is no more seen 
in the farmer's barnyard. The table-lands of 
Kentucky and Tennessee, on the other hand, 
carry, several degrees farther south, a mild 
and temperate clime. Although very few ther- 
mometrical observations have been made upon 
the table-land lying in the centre of the middle 
division, or upon the ridges which crest this 
long plateau, thus rendering it impracticable 
to determine fully the interesting question of 
their influence upon temperature; yet we are 
enabled to supply this deficiency, in some mea- 
sure, by observations made upon the differences 
in vegetable geography. Thus, in Virginia, as 
the limits of the state extend quite across the 
Apalachian chains, four natural divisions are 
presented ; viz., 1. The Atlantic Plain, or tide- 
water region, below the falls of the rivers ; 
2. The Middle region, between the falls and 
the Blue Ridge ; 3. The Great Valley, between 
the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany Mountains ; 
and, 4. The Trans-Alleghany region, west of 
that chain. In each of these, the phenomena 
of vegetation are modified in accordance with 
the climatic features. On the Atlantic Plain, 
tobacco is the principal staple ; in the Great 
Valley, it is cultivated only in the southern 
portion; and beyond the Alleghany, its culture 
is unknown. In the first only is cotton culti- 
vated, and in its southern part quite extensive- 



ly. In North Carolina, the Atlantic Plain ex- 
tends sixty or seventy miles from the coast, 
whilst the Middle region, corresponding to that 
described in Virginia, gradually merges into 
the mountainous regions farther west. A.s 
these table-lands are elevated from 1000 to 
1200 feet above the sea, upon which rise many 
high crests, one of which (Black Mountain) is 
the highest summit of the Alleghany system, 
the diversity of climate on the same parallels 
causes a corresponding difference in the vege- 
table productions. Whilst the lowlands yield 
cotton, rice, and indigo, the western high coun- 
try produces wheat, hemp, tobacco, and Indian 
corn. In South Carolina, three strongly-marked 
regions are also presented ; but as the tempe- 
rature increases, as a general law, in propor- 
tion as we approach the equator, cotton is 
cultivated throughout the state generally. Geor- 
gia, Alabama, and Mississippi, like the Caroli- 
nas, are divided into three well-defined belts, 
exhibiting similar diversities in vegetable geo- 
graphy. Cotton and rice, more especially the 
former, are the great agricultural staples ; and 
on the Atlantic Plain of these three states, as 
well as its continuation into Florida and Lou- 
isiana (which last two will be more particularly 
adverted to in the southern division), sugar 
may be advantageously cultivated. In North 
Carolina and Virginia, the Atlantic Plain form.s, 
as it were, a chaos of land and water, con.'sist- 
ing of vast iwamps, traversed by sluggish 
streams, expanding frequently into broad ba- 
sins with argillaceous bottoms. Throughout 
its whole extent, as already remarked, it is 
characterized by similar features, besides being 
furrowed with deep ravines, in which the 
streams wind their devious way. The hot and 
sultry atmosphere of these lowlands, in which 
malarial diseases in every form are dominant, 
contrasts strongly with the mild and salubrious 
climate of the mountain regions. 

"It may not be amiss, as illustrative of the 
comparative temperature of the Atlantic Plain 
and the adjacent mountain region, to present 
here a few thermometrical data, however limit- 
ed in extent, noted during the summers of 1839 
and 1840, at Flat Rock, Buncombe county, 
North Carolina. 



Places of Observation. 


Latitude. 


Mean Temperature. 1 


July. 


Au?. 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Fort Monroe, coast of 

Viraiiiia- - - 37° 00' 
Flat Rock, Buncombe, 

N. C. - - - 35" ."iO' 
Charleston, S. C. - 3i° 4f>' 


80° 

69° 

81° 


70° 

70° 
81° 


72° 

62° 

77° 


64° 

61° 
71° 



" Flat Rock is about 250 miles from the At- 
lantic, and is elevated perhaps 2500 feet above 
the level of the ocean, whilst the latitude given 
is also a mere approximation derived from 
general knowledge. The obseivations made 
at Charleston embrace the same vears as those 
at Flat Rock, but the data at Fort Monroe com- 
prise the years 1828, 1829, and 1830. It is thus 
seen that the difference of temperature at Flat 
Rock and the other two points, taking an ave- 
rage of the latter, is in July li°, August 10°, 
September 13°, and October 6°. As regards 
the monthly range of the thermometer, littl*' 
difference is presented." {Forry.) 

33a 



CLIMATE. 



CLIMATE. 



Along the Atlantic coast of the United States, 
the mean temperature of the year diminishes 
in a very unequal ratio. Between Charleston 
and Philadelphia, the difference of means is 
10^° Fahr., or in the proportion of about 1^° 
of temperature to 1° of latitude. Between 
Philadelphia and Eastport,Maine, the difference 
in means is much greater, namely, 12°.33 
Fahr. being in the increased proportion of 
nearly 2°-5 of mean temperature per degree of 
latitude. Again, between Charleston, S. C, 
and New York harbour, the difference of means 
is 12°-78, or l°-59 per degree of latitude. Be- 
tween New York harbour and Eastport, Maine, 
the difference is 11°, or about 2|° Fahr. per 
degree of latitude. The average proportion 
between Charleston, S. C, and Eastport, Maine, 
is equal to about 2° of temperature for each 
degree of latitude. 

In approaching south, the extremes of win- 
ter and summer grow less, and the seasons 
glide more imperceptibly into each other. At 
p>Drt Snelling, situated in the excessive climate 
of the west, in latitude 44°-53, the difference 
between the summer and winter means is, as 
has been before stated, no less than 56°'60 ; at 
Eastport, Maine, 39°-15, at West Point, N. Y., 
40°-75, at Charleston, S. C, 30°-34, at St. Au- 
gustine, Florida, 20°, whilst at Key West, it is 
only ll°-34. 

" There is," says Dr. Forry, " little difference 
between the thermometrical phenomena pre- 
sented at Key West and the Havana. In the 
West India islands, the mean annual tempera- 
ture near the sea is only about 80°. At Bar- 
baioes, the mean temperature of the seasons 
is — winter, 76°, spring 79°, summer 81°, and 
autumn 80°. The temperature is remarkably 
uniform ; for the mean annual range of the 
thermometer, even in the most excessive of the 
islands, is only 13°, and in some it is not more 
than 4°. Contrast this with Hancock Bar- 
racks, Maine, which gives an average annual 
range of 118°, Fort Snelling, Iowa, 119°, and 
Fort Howard, Wisconsin, 123°! 

" The peculiar character of the climate of 
East Florida, as distinguished from that of our 
more northern latitudes, consists less in the 
mean annual temperature than in the manner 
of its distribution among the seasons. At Fort 
Snelling, for example, the mean temperature 
of winter is 15°'95, and of summer 72°'75, 
whilst at Fort Brooke, Tampa Bay, the former 
is 64°-76, and the latter 84°-25, and at Key 
West, 70°-05, and 81°-39. Thus though the 
winter at Fort Snelling is 54°-10 colder than at 
Key West, yet the mean temperature of sum- 
mer at the latter is only 8°'64 higher. In like 
manner, although the mean annual tempera- 
ture of Petite Coquille, Louisiana, is nearly 2° 
lower, that of Augusta arsenal, Georgia, nearly 
8°, and that of Fort Gibson, Arkansas, upwards 
of 10° lower than that of Fort Brooke ; yet at 
all, the mean summer temperature is higher. 
Between Fort Snelling on the one hand, and 
Fort Brooke and Key West on the other, the 
relative distribution of temperature stands 
thus : — ^Difference between the mean tempera- 
ture of summer and winter at the former 56°'60, 
and at the two latter 16°-49 and ll°-34; dif- 
i«r^nce between the mean temperature of the 
334 



warmest and coldest month, 61°-86 ctrnpared 
with 18°-66 and 14°-66 ; difference between the 
mean temperature of winter and spring, 30°-83 
to 8°-35 and 5°-99 ; and the mean difference of 
successive months, 10°-29 to 3°-09 and 2°-44." 

A comparison in regard to equality and 
mildness of climate drawn between the sea- 
sons of Florida and those of the most favoured 
places on the European continent, those of 
Italy and southern France, results generally in 
favour of the Florida Peninsula. At Key West 
the annual range of the thermometer is but 37°. 
See table of monthly mean temperatures, under 
the head of Atmosphere. 

CLIMATE, CHANGES OF. The question 
has been much debated, whether the tempera- 
ture of the crust of the earth or of the incum- 
bent atmosphere has undergone any perceptible 
changes since the earliest records, either from 
the efforts of man in clearing away forests, 
draining marshes, cultivating the ground, or 
other causes. La Place has demonstrated very 
satisfactorily, that since the days of Hipparchus, 
an astronomer of the Alexandrian school, who 
flourished about 2000 years ago, the earth can- 
not have become a single degree of heat warmer 
or colder, as otherwise the sidereal day must 
have become either lengthened or shortened, 
which is not the case. 

As to the question of changes in atmospheric 
temperature affecting the seasons, M. Arago 
thinks that sufficient proofs exist to justify the 
conclusion that in Europe, at least, a sensible 
elevation of the annual mean temperature has 
resulted from the conquests of agriculture. 
The thermometer is comparatively a modern 
instrument, invented by Galileo in 1590, but 
still left so imperfect, that it was not till 1700 
that Fahrenheit succeeded in improving and 
rendering it a correct and perfect instrument. 
It is evident that the want of exact instrumental 
observations prior to the commencement of 
agricultural improvements must render it ex- 
tremely difficult to determine with any preci- 
sion, what changes may have been effected 
through these in the mean temperatures of the 
year or particular seasons. Hence, notwith- 
standing the expression of his belief in the 
changes of atmospheric temperature, M. Arago 
looks to America for the necessary data by 
which the point must be definitely settled. 

"Ancient France," he remarks, "contrasted 
with what France now is, presented an incom- 
parably greater extent of forests ; mountains 
almost entirely covered with wood, lakes and 
ponds, and morasses, without number; rivers 
without any artificial embankment to prevent 
their overflow, and immense districts, which 
the hands of the husbandman had never 
touched. Accordingly, the clearing away of 
the vast forests, and the opening of extensive 
glades in those that remain ; the nearly com- 
plete removal of all stagnant waters, and the 
cultivation of extensive plains, which thus are 
made to resemble the stepes of Asia and Ame- 
rica — these are among the principal modifica- 
tions to which the fair face of France has been 
subjected, in an interval of some hundreds of 
years. But there is another country which is 
undergoing these same modifications at the 
present day. They are there progressing 



CLIMATE. 



CLIMATE. 



under the observation of an enlightened popu- 
lation; they are advancing with astonishing 
rapidity ; and they ought, in some degree, sud- 
denly to produce the meteorological alterations 
which many ages have scarcely rendered ap- 
parent in our old continent. This country is 
North America. Let us see, then, how clear- 
ing the country affects the climate there. The 
results may evidently be applied to the ancient 
condition of our own countries, and we shall 
find that we may thus dispense with d priori 
considerations which, in a subject so compli- 
cated, would probably have misled us." 

There is great force in the following remarks 
of Dr. Forry, and the facts adduced in their 
support: — 

" Dense forests and all growing vegetables 
doubtless tend considerably to diminish the 
temperature of summer, by affording evapora- 
tion from the surface of their leaves, and pre- 
venting the calorific rays from reaching the 
ground. It is a fact equally well known that 
snow lies longer in forests than on plains, be- 
cause, in the former locality, it is less exposed 
to the action of the sun ; and hence, the win- 
ters, in former years, may have been longer 
and more uniform. As the clearing away of 
the forest causes the waters to evaporate and 
the soil to become dry, some increase in the 
mean summer temperature, diametrically con- 
trary to the opinion of Jefferson and others, 
necessarily follows. It is remarked by Um- 
freville that, at Hudson's Bay, the ground in 
open places thaws to the depth of four feet, and 
in the woods to the depth only of two. More- 
over, it has been determined by thermometrical 
experiments that the temperature of the forest, 
at the depth of twelve inches below the surface 
of the earth, is, compared with an adjacent 
open field, at least 10° lower, during the sum- 
mer months ; whilst no difference is observable 
during the season of winter. 

" It may, therefore, be assumed, that although 
cultivation of the soil may not be productive 
of a sensible change in the mean annual tem- 
perature, yet such a modification in the distri- 
bution of heat among the seasons may be 
induced as will greatly influence vegetation." 

Bearing upon this point, Dr. Forry furnishes 
a table exhibiting a comparative view of the 
atmospheric temperature at Philadelphia, at 
intervals of about a quarter of a century, (from 
1771 to 1824,) which shows a successive de- 
crease in the mean of winter, and an increase in 
the means of spring, summer, autumn, and 
whole year. Some allowance must be made in 
these estimates for the effects of increase in the 
size of the city, and the additional shelter in 
winter, and opportunity of accumulating heat 
in summer thus afforded. All towns are ob- 
served to grow warmer as they extend their 
limits. When, therefore, we find a decline in 
the mean temperature of winter, notwithstand- 
ing the extension of the city limits, we must 
infer that it can arise from no other cause than 
a general diminution in the winter temperature 
throughout the country. 

Any changes in the climate of the United 
States as yet perceived, are very far from 
justifying the sanguine calculations indulged 
in a few years ago by a writer on the climate 



and vegetation of the fortieth degree of Nortk 
latitude, who, in concluding his essay, says: 

" But there will doubtless be an amelioration 
in this particular," (severity of cold,) " when 
Canada and the United States shall become 
thickly peopled and generally cultivated. In 
this latitude, then, like the same parallels in 
Europe at present, snow and ice will become 
rare phenomena, and the orange, the olive, 
and other vegetables of the same class, now 
strangers to the soil, will become objects of the 
labour and solicitude of the agriculturist." 

Had this writer extended his inquiries a 
little further, he might have found that the 
region of Oregon, lying west of the Rocky 
Mountains, though as yet in a primitive state 
of nature, has a climate even milder than that 
of highly cultivated Europe in similar lati- 
tudes. And again, China, situated precisely 
under the same conditions as the United States 
in regard to the sea, though long since sub- 
jected to the highest state of agricultural im- 
provement, possesses a winter climate as 
rigorous, and some assert even more so, than 
that of the United States in similar latitudes. 
See table of mean temperature under the head 
Atmospherk, page 126. 

CLIMATE, INFLUENCE OF, ON THE 
FRUITFULNESS OF PLANTS. The fol- 
lowing observations upon a topic of natural 
history of great interest to the agriculturist, 
are quoted from the same sensible and elo- 
quent American writer, to whom reference has 
been made under the head of the Acclimatino 
Principle of Plants. 

"The cultivated plants yield the s^reatest 
products near the northernmost limit in which 
they will grow. 

" I have been forcibly impressed with this fact, 
from observing the productions of the various 
plants, which are cultivated for food and cloth- 
ing in the United States. The following instances 
will go far to establish the principle, viz. : — 

"The cotton, which is a tropical plant, yields 
the best staple and surest product in the tem- 
perate latitudes. The southern parts of the 
United States have taken the cotton market 
from the East and West Indies, both as regards 
quantity and quality. This is partly owing to 
the prevalence of insects within the tropics, 
but principally to the forcing nature of a verti- 
cal sun. Such a degree of heat developes the 
plant too rapidly — runs it into wood and foli- 
age, which become injuriously luxuriant; the 
consequence is, there are but few seed pods, 
and these covered with a thin harsh coat of 
wool. The cotton wool, like the fur of animals, 
is, perhaps, designed for protection ; and will 
be thick and fine in proportion as the climate 
is warm or cool. Another reason is to be 
found in the providence of the Deity, who aims 
to preserve races rather than individuals, and 
multiplies the seeds and eyes of plants, exactly 
as there is danger of their being destroyed by 
the severity of the climate, or other caiLses. 
When, therefore, the cares and labours of man 
counteract the destructive tendency of the cli- 
mate and guaranty their preservation, they 
are, of course, more available and abundant. 

"The lint plants, flax, hemp, &c., are culti- 
vated through a great extent of latitude , but 

33.=> 



CLIMATE. 



CLIMATE. 



their bark, in the southern climates, is harsh 
and brittle. A warm climate forces these 
plants so rapidly into maturity, that the lint 
does not acquire either consistency or tenacity. 
We must go far north in Europe, even to the 
Baltic, to find these plants in perfection, and 
their products very merchantable. Ireland is 
rather an exception as to latitude ; but the in- 
fluence of the sun is so effectually counteracted 
there by moisture and exposure to the sea air, 
that it is always cool : hence, the flax and po- 
tato arrive at such perfection in that region. 

"It holds equally true in the farinaceous 
plants. Rice is a tropical plant ; yet Carolina 
and Georgia grow the finest in the world ; 
heavier grained, better filled, and more mer- 
chantable, than any imported into Europe from 
the Indies. The inhabitants of the East Indies 
derive their subsistence almost exclusively 
from rice ; they must be supposed, therefore, 
to cultivate it with all skill and care, and the 
best contriv^ances for irrigation. Such is, how- 
ever, the forcing nature of their climate, that 
the plant grows too rapidly, and dries away 
before the grain be properly filled. Indian 
corn, or maize, if not a tropical plant, was ori- 
ginally found near the tropics ; and although it 
now occupies a wide range, it produces the 
heaviest crops near the northern limit of its 
range. In the West Indies it rises thirty feet 
in height; but with all that gigantic size, it 
produces only a few grains on the bottom of a 
spongy cob, and is counted on only as rough 
provender. In the southern part of the United 
States, it reaches a height of fifteen feet, and 
will produce thirty bushels to the acre ; in the 
rich lands of Kentucky and the Middle States 
it produces fifty or sixty bushels to the acre ; 
but in New York and New England, agricul- 
tural societies have actually awarded pre- 
miums for one hundred and fifty bushels to the 
acre, collected from stalks only seven feet 
high. The heats of a southern sun develope 
the juices of this plant too quickly. They run 
into culm and blade, to the neglect of the seed, 
and dry away before fructification becomes 
complete. 

"Wheat is a more certain crop in New 
York, the northern part of Pennsylvania, and 
Ohio, and in the Baltic regions of Europe, than 
in the south either of Europe or America. In 
the north, snows accumulate, and not only 
protect it from the winter colds, but from the 
weevil, Hessian fly, and other insects that in- 
vade it ; and in the spring it is not forced too 
rapidly into head, without time to mature fully, 
and concoct its- farina. 

"A cold climate also aids the manufacturing 
of flour, preserving it from acidity, and ena- 
bles us to keep it long, either for a good mar- 
ket, or to meet scarcities and emergencies. 
Oats grow in almost every country ; but it is in 
northern regions only, or very moist or ele- 
vated tracts, that they fill -with farina suitable 
for human sustenance. Rye, barley, buck- 
wheat, millet, and other culmiferous plants, 
might be adduced to illustrate the above prin- 
ciple; for all their habits require a more 
northern latitude than is necessary to their 
mere growth. 

"The grasses are proverbially in perfection 
33t) 



only in northern and cool regions, although 
they will grow everywhere. It is in the north 
alone that we raise animals from meadows, 
and are enabled to keep them fat, and in good 
condition, from hay and grass alone, without 
grain. It is there the grasses acquire a succu- 
lence and consistency enough, not only to ma- 
ture animals, but to make the richest butter 
and cheese, that contribute so much to the 
tables of the luxurious. The grasses which 
do, often, in the south, grow large enough, are 
without richness and nutriment ; in hay, they 
have no substance; and when green, are too 
washy to fatten animals ; the consequence is, 
most animals in those latitudes browse from 
necessity, and are poor, and without size or 
beauty. It is the same hot sun which forces 
them to a rapid fructification, before they have 
had time to concoct their juices. The sugar- 
cane produces, perhaps, better where it never 
seeds, than in the tropics ; for the juices will 
never ripen so as to granulate, until checked 
by frost or fructification. In the tropics, the 
cane grows twenty months before the juices 
ripen ; and then the culm has contracted a 
woody, fibrous quality, to such a degree as to 
resist the pressure of the mills, and yields but 
little juice, and that to an increased effort. In 
Louisiana we succeed well with the sugar 
culture; because, while the culm is succulent 
and tender, a white frost checks the growth, 
ripens the juices, and in five months gives us 
a culm, tender, full of juice, easy to press, and 
yielding much grain of sugar. When Louisi- 
ana, therefore, acquires all the necessary skill, 
she M'ill most probably grow this article 
cheaper than the West Indies. 

"Tobacco is a southern plant, but there it is 
always light and chafly ; and although often 
well-flavoured, it never gains that strong 
narcotic quality which is its only peculiar 
property, unless you grow it as far north as 
Virginia. In the south, the heal unfolds its 
bud or gem too soon, forces into full expansion 
the leaf, and drives it to seed before the narco- 
tic quality can be properly elaborated. We 
may assert a general rule applicable to all 
annual plants, that neither the root, nor the 
leaf, acquires any further size or substance 
after fructification. 

"The tuberose, bulbous, and other roots, 
cultivated for human and animal subsistence, 
are similarly affected by climate, and manifest 
habits in corroboration of the above principle. 
The Irish potato, although from or near the 
tropics, will not come to perfection but in 
northern or cool countries, or in moist, insular 
situations, as Ireland. It is in such climates 
alone, that its roots acquire a farinaceous con- 
sistence, and have size, flavour, and nutriment 
enough to support, in the eminent way in 
which they are susceptible, animal life. In 
the south, a forcing sun brings the potato to 
fructification before the roots have had time to 
attain their proper size, or ripen into the pro- 
per qualities for nourishment. In Ireland the 
plant grows slow, through a long and cool 
season, giving time for its juices to be elabo- 
rated and properly digested ; hence that fine 
farina and flavour which characterizes them. 
The sweet potato produces larger, better fla- 



I 



PUiie 8. 





PLANTS. CULTIVATED FOR HAY OR HERBAGE. 



n 



CLIMATE. 



CLIMATE. 



voured, and more numerous roots in Carolina, 
where it never flowers, than in the West Indies. 
In the latter place this plant runs wild, covers 
the whole face of the earth with its vines, and 
is so taken up in making foliage, that the root 
becomes neglected, and is small and woody. — 
In order to have the onion in perfection, it 
must grow through two years, swelling all the 
time its bulbs. In the south, however, it seeds 
in one year, and before it has made much bulb. 
Beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips, radishes, and 
other roots, are equally affected by a hot sun, 
and scarcely worth cultivating far to the south. 
They all fructify before they have formed per- 
fect roots, and make foliage at the expense of 
their bulbs ; hence they will always be articles 
of commerce ; the south will have to depend 
upon the north for them. 

"The salad plants are in like manner af- 
fected by climate, and give further proofs of 
our assumption. Cabbages, lettuces, endive, 
cellery, spinage, plants whose leaves only are' 
eat, to protect their germs from cold (through 
a kind of instinct), wrap them up in leaves, 
which form heads, and render many of their 
other parts tender and crisp for use. These 
leaves, thus protected, are not only tender, but 
more nutritious, because their growth has been 
slow and their juices well digested. In the 
south, a relaxing sun lays open the very buds 
of such plants, gives a toughness and thinness 
to the leaves, and they are too unsubstantial 
for animal support, because of such quick and 
rapid developement. 

"The delicious and pulpy fruits are, in a 
still more striking way, illustrative of our prin- 
ciple. The peach, nectarine, plum, apple, 
cherry, currant, gooseberry, apricot, and many 
other such families, are not in perfection in 
the south. It is in Pennsylvania, Virginia, 
Maryland, Jersey, and in the north of Europe, 
that we enjoy them, although, originally, they 
came from places near the tropics. The peach 
of the Carolinas is full of larvae, gum, and 
knots, and too stringy and forced to be juicy 
and flavoured. The apple of the south is too 
acerb to be either eaten or preserved. The 
plums, apricots, cherries, currants, goose- 
berries, &c., will not even mature until we go 
far north. All the trees which bear these de- 
licious fruits will grow luxuriantly in the south, 
make much foliage and wood, with but little 
pulp, and that unsavoury. The kernel in the 
one-seeded fruit seems to be the first object of 
nature in southern climes : that becomes 
strong, oily, and enlarged ; and one of the 
peach family has so entirely neglected the 
pulp, that it has only a husky matter around 
the kernel, as the almond. The changeable- 
ness of the weather in the south, in the spring 
season, throws plants off" their guard ; the 
frosts attendant on those changes destroy the 
young fruit; and it is only one year in three 
that the crop hits at all. The desiccated or 
dried state of these fruits enables us to enjoy 
them through the year; but in the south their 
acidity carries them into fermentation or de- 
composition before they can be divested of 
their aqueous parts. The climate of the south 
is equally against converting them into cider, 
or any other fermented liquor, because the 
43 



heat forces their compressed juice so rapidly 
into an active fermentation, that it cannot 
easily be checked until it passes into vinegar. 
For the same reason distillation goes on badly 
in hot climates, and cannot be checked lono- 
enough at the proper point to give much alco- 
hol: and whether we aim to enjoy the delicious 
freshness of these fruits themselves, sip the 
nectarin of their juices, refresh ourselves with 
their fermented beverage, stimulate our hearts 
with their brandies and cordials, or feast 
through the winter upon the dried or preserved 
stores of their fruits, we are continually 
balked by the severity of a southern climate, 
and for such enjoyment must look to the north. 

"The melons are always affected by too 
great a degree of heat, even though their vines 
flourish so much in southern latitudes. The 
forcing sun hurries them on to maturity before 
they have attained much size, or acquired that 
rich saccharine and aromatic flavour for which 
they are so much esteemed. The cantelope- 
melon will rot, or have its sides baked by a hot 
sun, before it is fully formed ; and the water- 
melon is always woody, dry, and devoid of its 
peculiar sweetness and richness in the south. 
Vines have been known to run one hundred 
feet, and bear no melon. It is in Philadelphia, 
and its neighbourhood, and in similar latitudes, 
that the markets are loaded with delicious me- 
lons of all sorts, whose flavour so much refresh 
and delight us. It is there, near their northern 
limit, that we cultivate them with such uniform 
success. 

"The orange, strictly a tropical plant, is 
more juicy, large, and delicious, at St. Augus- 
tine (Florida), than at Havana ; and fruiterers, 
in order to recommend an orange, will say that 
it is from some place out of the tropics. In 
the West Indies, the pulp of the orange is 
spungy, badly filled with juice, and has too 
much of a forced flavour to be pleasant. The 
hot-house forcers of Europe, or at Rome, an- 
ciently at first produced bad fruit ; too dry, too 
small, and without flavour ; because they over- 
acted. They have lately found out that fact, 
and now the productions of the hot-houses of 
London, Paris, «Stc., astonish and delight us 
with the quantity and excellence of the fruit. 
They have found out that gradual and uniform 
heat is the desideratum ; countervailing the 
cold, rather than imparting much heat. Fruit 
thus produced is pronounced better than any 
grown in the natural way, however perfect the 
climate. 

" The juices of the grape are best matured for 
wine near the northern limit of their growth. On 
the Rhine, in Hungary, the sides of the Alps, 
and in other elevated or northern situations, the 
wine is strongest, richest, and most esleemed, 
The French wines rank before the Spanish 
and Italian ; and in no southern country of 
Europe or Africa, except Madeira, where ele- 
vation makes the difference, is the wine in 
much repute. The grapes of France are more 
delicious for the table than those of Spain or 
Madeira. In the southern part of the United 
States, the excess of heat and moisture blights 
the grape to such an extent that all attempu 
have° failed in its cultivation. The grape-vinf, 
however, whether wild or cultivated, grows 
2F 337 



CLIMATURE. 



CLOTTED CREAM. 



there very luxuriantly. The vinous fermenta- 
tion can also be best conducted in a climate 
comparatively cool ; and all the pressing, fer- 
menting, and distillation of the juice of this 
delicate fruit can be safer and more profitably 
managed in a mild region. 

"The olive, and other oleaginous plants, 
yield more fruit, of a richer flavour, and can 
be better pressed, and the oil preserved, in a 
mild climate. In France the tree is healthier, 
and the fruit and oil better than in Spain or 
Italy ; and the Barbary States are known to 
import their oil from France and Italy. 

"Many other plants might be named, whose 
habits would equally support our position. It 
is presumed, however, that enough have been 
cited to call the attention of philosophy to this 
curious subject, and enable us to give proper 
attention to it, in all the practical operations 
of agricultural pursuit. Much time and ex- 
pense might be saved, and profits realized, if 
this were more generally understood. 

"We have already observed, that the heat 
of the sun in southern climes forces plants to 
a false maturity, runs them on too rapidly to 
fructification, and renders dry and woody the 
culms, stalks, and leaves of the plants, where 
these parts are used. Hence the chaffiness of 
the leaf, the dryness of the culm, the lightness 
of the grain, and the unsavoury, spongy quality 
of the pulp of the plants in those latitudes. 
Hence the difficulty of fermenting their juices, 
distilling their essences, and preservdng for 
use the fruit, juice, or blades of such plants. 
The prevalence of insects is another bar to the 
productiveness of southern plants : swarms 
of them invade and strip the leaves, bore the 
fruit, and lead to blight and decomposition ; 
and just in proportion as the labours of man 
have rendered plants succulent, and their 
fruits and seeds sweet and pleasant, do these 
insects multiply on them, devour their crops, 
and defeat the objects of husbandry. 

"The labour of man loo is more conserva- 
tive in northern climates, because his arm is 
better nerved for exercise, his health and 
spirits more buoyant; and instead of saying, 
■• Go and work,' he says, ' Come and work ;' 
treads with a cheerful heart upon his own soil, 
and assists in the cultivation, collection, and 
preservation of his own productions. It is in 
lemperate climates that man can be most fami- 
liar with nature ; it is there he has the best 
opportunities of observing the guarantees 
which nature has for the preservation of her 
animals and plants against the devastation of 
the elements ; he sees an occasional apparent 
■neg.ect of individuals, but a constant parental 
care of races. In every thing he sees the wis- 
dom and benevolence of God." 

CLIMATURE. A word sometimes employ- 
ed in much the same way as climate. It is a 
term made use of by some agricultural writers. 

CLOG SHOES. The country name for 
wooden shoes. 

CLOTBUR. SeeCoMMOS Burdock. 

CLOTHING. In horsemanship, the prac- 
tice of covering the animals with cloths, with 
Jhe view of keeping them healthy, and giving 
a fine coat. 

CLOTTED or CLOUTED CREAM. Under 
338 



the head of Butter, the process of making this 
preparation is described; but as the subject is 
one of particular interest to the American 
dairy, the following more detailed account is 
inserted, taken from the Library of Useful Knoio- 
ledge, 2d vol. of British Husbandry. The dair)'* 
maids of the western counties of England think 
that clouted cream furnishes one-fourth more 
cream from the same quantity of milk than 
can be obtained in any other way. The process 
is simply this. " The milk while warm from 
the cow is strained into either large shallow 
brass pans, well tinned, or earthen ones, holding 
from two to five gallons, in which should be a 
small quantity of cold water. This is thought 
to prevent the milk from burning, and to cause 
the cream to be more completely separated and 
thrown to the top. 

" The morning meal of milk stands till about 
the middle of the day ; the evening meal until 
the next morning. The pans are now steadily 
carried to, and placed over a clear, slow fire; 
if of charcoal, or over a stove, the cream is 
not so apt to get an earthy or smoky taste as 
when the milk is scalded over a turf or wood 
fire. The heat should be so managed as not 
to suffer the milk to boil, or, as they provin- 
ciaily term it, 'to heave;' as that would injure 
the cream. The criterion of its being sutfi- 
cientiy scalded is a very nice point ; the earthen 
pan, having its bottom much smaller than the 
top allows this point to be more easily ascer- 
tained; because when the milk is sufficiently 
scalded, the pan throws up the form of its bot- 
tom on the surface of the cream. 

"The brass pan, if almost as big at the bot- 
tom as at the top, gives no criterion to judge 
by, but the appearance and texture of the sur- 
face of the cream, the wrinkles upon which 
become smaller and the texture somewhat 
leathery. In summer, it must be observed, the 
process of scalding ought to be quicker than 
in the winter, as in very hot weather, if the 
milk should be kept over too slow a fire, it 
would be apt to run or curdle. 

"This process being finished, the pans are 
carefully returned to the dairy; and should it 
be the summer season, they are placed in the 
coolest situation; if on stone floors or slate 
benches, the better; but should it be the winter 
season, the heat should rather be retained, by 
putting a slight covering over the pans, as 
cooling too suddenly causes the cream to be 
thin, and consequently yield less butter; the 
mode of making which is this : The cream 
should, in hot weather, be made into butter the 
next day ; but in winter it is thought better to 
let the cream remain one day longer on the 
milk. The cream, being collected from the 
pans, is put into wooden bowls, which should 
be first rinsed with scalding, then with cold 
water. It is now briskly stirred round one 
way, with a nicely cleaned hand, which must 
have also been washed in hot and then in cold 
water, for these alternate warm and cold ablu- 
tions of bowl and hand are not only for the 
sake of cleanliness, but to prevent the butter 
from sticking to either. 

"The cream being thus agitated, quickly 
assumes the consistence of butter, the milky 
part now readily separates, and being poured 



CLOUT. 



CLOVER. 



off, the butter is washed and pressed in several 
cold waters ; a little salt is added to season it ; 
and then it is well beaten on a wooden trencher 
until the milky and watery parts are separated, 
when it is finally formed into prints for the 
markets." (Surv. of Cornwall, p. 141.) 

"If the quantity of cream be considerable, 
the cream will be an inch or more thick upon 
the surface, and it is then divided into squares 
and taken off. The remaining milk, however, 
contains little besides the watery particles in 
its original composition." {Complete Grazier, 
tixth edition, p. 137.) 

CLOUT. An iron plate put on the axletree 
of a cart or other carriage. 

CLOVER. One of the most valuable spe- 
cies of the artificial grasses, of which there are 
several varieties, all too well known to need a 
particular description. 1. White clover, white 
trefoil, or Dutch clover (Trifoliiim 7-epens), grow- 
ing on almost all soils and situations. PI. 8, a. 
2. Perennial red clover (T. pratense pcrcnne) b; 
is found wild near Wainfleet, and in other rich 
natural English pastures. 3. Marl clover, cow 
grass (T.medium), c; when in flower it yielded 
Sinclair per acre, from a rich black loam, 
20,418 lbs. ; of nutritive matter, 717 lbs. 4. 
Long-rooted clover (T. macrohizum,) k; a rich 
clayey loam yielded of this grass when flower- 
ing, 74,868 lbs.; of nutritive matter, 2,924 lbs. 
5. Crimson clover (r.incar«ah«wi),/. 6. Egyp- 
tian clover (r. ahxandrinum') ; see Quart, Journ. 

Alsike clover, or hybrid trefoil, is a white- 
flowered species, cultivated very extensively in 
Sweden, in the district of Alsike, from whence 
its common name. It possesses the strength 
and vigour of the red, with the permanency of 
the white clovers. 

The creeping white clover is a perennial 
common to Europe and America, growing in 
the United States spontaneously in pastures, 
meadows, and upon woodlands, to the height 
of from 4 to 12 inches. The soil is so full of 
the seeds that the plant springs up wherever 
and whenever circumstances are favourable 
to its germination; and hence, when the season 
is good, it often furnishes a fine fall pasture 
after other grasses have almost disappeared. 
Though rarely cultivated in the United States, 
it is esteemed an excellent pasture at least in 
the Middle and Northern States, where it is 
sometimes sown with timothy and other grass 
for a regular hay crop. Mr. Eliott speaks un- 
favourably of it in the South. There is rather 
more difficulty in saving the seed of white clo- 
ver than of the common red, and hence the 
seed of the former sells for at least double the 
price of the latter. 

The yellow or shamrock clover (Trifolium 
procumbens), Plate 10, d, is an annual, not very 
common in the United States, but found in the 
Middle States in dry, sandy soils, blooming its 
yellow flowers from May to August. The stem 
is from 3 to 8 inches long, sometimes trailing, 
at others nearly erect. It is a foreigner, and 
IS gradually extending itself. 

The common red clover is extensively culti- 
vated in the United States, sometimes alone, 
sometimes with other grasses. With timothy 
It makes hay of a very superior kind, especially 
for neat cattle. The seed is usually sown with 



Avinter wheat or other grain crops, late in Feb- 
ruary or early in March, whilst the ground is 
still subject to freezing and thawing, and the 
seed can thus gain admission into the soil. Or 
it may be sown with the oat or other spring or 
summer crop, in which case, having the ad- 
vantage of being harrowed in, it can generally 
be sown with even greater success than when 
put with a crop of winter grain. Too little 
seed is generally applied, and the best quantity 
is from 10 to 12 or 14 lbs. per acre. The bushel 
weighs about 60 to 64 lbs., very nearly the 
same weight with good wheat. 

Clover is frequently turned under in the fall 
to enrich the ground preparatory to a crop of 
wheat, or in the ensuing spring for the benefit 
of the Indian corn. Some persons think the 
best time for turning down clover is in the 
rankest and most succulent stage of its growth, 
whilst others maintain that it is best to leave 
it to the period of its decline, when its extract- 
ive matter is most abundant. This last plan 
is undoubtedly the best in most if not all cases, 
and this opinion is founded upon the results of 
actual experiments. Being a biennial plant, 
clover of course leaves the field after the se- 
cond year, unless allowed to seed itself. When 
timothy has been sown with it, this perennial 
grass then obtains exclusive possession of the 
field, where it is generally allowed to remain 
two or more years longer, affording the richest 
of all kinds of hay for horses, although for neat 
cattle the mixture of red clover and timothy is 
generally preferred. 

Clover hay, when fed unmixed to horses, 
often produces a cough. This can always be 
removed by substituting timothy for a few 
weeks, after which the feed may consist of 
half clover and half timothy, with little or no 
danger of producing cough. Experience has 
shown that when the clover hay is fed from 
large troughs or mangers instead of racks 
above the head, horses escape the cough. 
Many of the most careful farmers in Pennsyl- 
vania have entirely excluded racks from their 
barns and stables, and substituted mangers or 
large troughs. 

Clover, by which is understood the common 
red clover {trifolmm pratense), is of immense 
importance in the improved system of Ameri- 
can husbandry, taking the place of almost 
every other kind of ameliorating crop. Its tap 
roots penetrate and loosen the soil, whilst the 
leaves and stems produce abundance of nutri- 
tious food for the farm stock ; and both roots 
and stems, when turned under by the plough, 
are extremely enriching to the soil. The first 
year's growth of clover is sometimes mown 
for hay and sometimes pastured, whilst the 
second crops are devoted to hay and furnish- 
ing seed. When the second crop is pastured 
in spring, the stock must not be turned on be- 
fore the ground has become so firm that hoofs 
will not sink into the sod, nor until the growth 
is such as to enable the cattle to thrive. The 
pasturage may be continued from the middle 
of April or first of May for about six weeks, 
when the cattle are to be withdrawn, and the 
second crop allowed to go to seed for saving. 
Some farmers think that the closer the first 
growth of the second season is cut or cropped 

339 



CLOVER. 



CLOVER. 



'be better. By many, mowing the first crop is 
jonsidered preferable to grazing it, since the 
jcythe takes off weeds which cattle would 
Jeave. 

In the humid climate of England it is often 
Ufficult to cure the clover properly after it is 
cut. But in the United States the greater dry- 
ness of the atmosphere renders it much more 
easy to save the crop, and consequently the 
practice of mixing it, layer upon layer, with 
dry wheat straw, &c., may generally be dis- 
pensed with. In saving clover, the object to 
be obtained is to cure the hay in the cheapest 
and best manner. 

"The common practice of spreading clover 
hay from the swath," says Buel, " causes the 
leaves and blossoms to dry and crumble before 
the haulm or stems are sufficiently cured. Thus 
either the finer parts of the hay are lost, or the 
crop is housed with so much moisture as to 
cause it to heat, and often to spoil. Clover 
should only be spread when it has become wet 
with rain in the swath, and should be gathered 
again before the leaves dry and crumble. Both 
these evils may be avoided, and labour saved 
withal, by curing the grass wholly in swath 
and cock. After experiencing the serious dis- 
advantages of the old method, I adopted the 
one I am about to recommend, and have pur- 
sued it satisfactorily ten or a dozen years. My 
practice has been to leave the clover to wilt in 
the swath, and, when partially dried, either to 
turn the swaths or to make grass-cocks the 
same day, so as to secure the dried portions 
from the dew. That which is not put into 
cocks the first day is thus secured the second 
da}', or as soon as it has become partially 
dried. These grass-cocks are permitted to 
stand one, two, or three' days, according as the 
weather is, and as the curing process has pro- 
gressed, when they are opened at nine or ten 
o'clock on a fair day, the hay again turned 
over between eleven and three, and, soon after 
turning, gathered for the cart. Thus cured, the 
hay is perfectly bright and sweet, and hardly a 
blossom or leaf is wasted. Some care is required 
in making the cocks. The grass is collected 
with forks and placed on dry ground between 
the swaths, in as small a compass as conve- 
nient at the base, say two or three feet in dia- 
meter, and rising in a cone to the height of 
four or five feet. 

"The advantages of this mode of curing clo- 
ver are, 

" 1. The labour of spreading from the swath 
is saved. 

"2. The labour of the hand-rake is abridged, 
or may be wholly dispensed with, if the horse- 
rake is used to glean the field when the hay is 
taken off, the forks sufficing to collect it tole- 
rably clean in the cocking process. 

"3. It prevents, in a great measure, injury 
from dew and rain ; for these cocks, if rightly 
constructed (not by rolling), will sustain a rain 
of some days — that is, they have done this with 
me — without heating or becoming more than 
superncially wet. 

"4. Clover hay made in this way may al- 
most invariably be housed in good condition; 
and if rain falls after the grass is mown, the 
quality of the hay is infinitely superior in 
340 



cocks to what it would be under the old \ re- 
cess of curing." {Cultivator.') 

Many prefer mowing the clover before it 
gets very ripe, as then so much of the seed 
would not be shaken ofi" during the processes 
of curing, removing, &c. As the hay of the 
seed-crop is seldom considered of much value 
except for litter and manure, it is frequently 
left long in the field to become thoroughly dry, 
so as to insure it against heating in the mow 
or stack, as this would be far more injurious 
to the seed than exposure to weather. 

Besides mowing the seed crop in the usual 
manner for hay, several other methods have 
been devised. The one most commonly re- 
sorted to in Pennsylvania is the employment 
of a scythe and cradle to cut off the heads, 
which are caught by a kind of bag attached 
to the lower fingers, the rest being removed. 
Or the upper fingers being removed, the lower 
ones may be placed sufficiently close to catch 
the heads. 

Among other contrivances which have been 
devised for gathering the heads in the field, 
one originally described by Mr. L'Homidieu, 
and since modified, is simple, cheap, and has- 
been found very efiectual. A description of 
the original machine, illustrated with a cut, 
may be found in the fifth volume of the Culti- 
vator. It consists of an open box about four 
feet square at the bottom, and three feet high 
on the sides. To the fore part, which is open, 
fingers are fixed at the bottom, somewhat like 
those of a wheat cradle (or large points may 
be substituted resembling saw-teeth or a comb) ; 
these fingers or jagged points are about thir- 
teen inches long, and so arranged as to catch 
and tear off between them the heads from the 
clover stems, which are thrown back into the 
box as the horse advances. This box is fixed 
on an axletree provided with low wheels six- 
teen inches in diameter. Two shafts, each 
four feet four inches long, are attached to the 
axletree between the wheels and sides of the 
box. At the back part of the box, which is 
closed, there are two handles three feet long 
and twenty inches apart, resembling those of 
the wheelbarrow. The machine may be com- 
pared to a scraper, supposing this placed on 
low wheels, and to have high sides. The 
driver, by means of the handles, raises or 
lowers the fore part of the box, the notched 
bottom or fingers of which catch and tear off 
the clover heads. As often as the box gets 
filled with these it is emptied, and the horse 
moves on as before. 

This machine has been advantageously mo- 
dified, especially by Mr. James L. Bowman, of 
Brownsville, Pennsylvania, who, finding the 
wheels of the original contrivance too high, 
substituted runners of three-inch scantling 
These runners, he says, ought to be about twc 
inches deeper behind than before, so as to ele- 
vate that part of the box, and give the teeth a 
depression towards the ground. The teetV 
ought to be left flat on the top, and the edges 
made sharp; underneath they should be bevelled 
dovetail fashion. Though wood will answer 
for these, it would be an improvement to have 
them made of iron, shaped like dirk blades 
Mr. Bowman also thinks the box should be 



I 



CLOVER. 



CLUB MOSS. 



made larger than that described, say six feet 
wide and five deep, as one of such a size can 
easily be drawn by a single horse, and would 
do more work. With the machine as modified 
by him, Mr. B. says the clover heads may be 
gathered cleaner and in half the time that 
would have been required to mow and save 
the hay. He sums up the advantages of em- 
ploying the machine as follows: — "1st The 
stalks are all left on the ground to benefit the 
land. 2d. The heads are immediately taken 
to the barn, ready for the hulling machine, 
without the delay and labour of separating the 
heads from the stalks by flails or tramping. 
3d. A man with a horse can strip double the 
quantity in a day that he could cut. 4th. The 
seed is better, inasmuch as the heads are taken 
to the barn and secured from the weather, the 
dampness of which frequently causes them to 
sprout when exposed to the usual rotting pro- 
cess, as it is termed. For the use of this ma- 
chine the clover ought to be permitted to get 
fully ripe^ and if the spaces between the teeth 
become clogged, they can quickly be freed by 
a sharp spade or shovel, which the operator 
has with him in shovelling the heads to the 
back of the box." 

In getting the seed from the heads, it has 
been common to employ the flail, and to clear 
it from the husk and chaff recourse has been 
had to a clover-mill, worked either by water, 
steam, or horse-power. A clover-mill adapted 
to horse-power, with the advantage of being 
portcrt)le, has been patented by Rittenhouse & 
Co., and is much used in the Northern and 
Eastern States, where the average product of 
seed per acre is four or five bushels. The 
cost of the mill is about $60. 

The old method of thrashing out clover seed by 
the flail or by the tramping of horses has been ge- 
nerally regarded as very tedious and disagreea- 
ble, so much so, indeed, as to have discouraged 
most farmers from attempting to gather the seed 
at all. Those who were within the vicinity of 
clover-mills conveyed the seed in the hull to 
them to have it separated and cleaned. This 
was costly and troublesome, and the refuse 
was lost to the farmer. Of latter time the in- 
troduction of thrashing machines has obviated 
all difiiculty of this kind, and farmers can now 
thrash out their clover seed with nearly the 
same expedition that they thrash their grain. 
The dried clover stalks and heads are put 
through the machine in the same manner as 
wheat ; a proper sifter separates the stems from 
the heads, when, by introducing an additional 
set of teeth into the machine to work closer, 
the heads or chaiF are again put through the 
machine, by which process the seed is shelled 
from the hull with great expedition and very 
effectually, when it is cleaned by the fan in the 
usual manner. Many of the thrashing ma- 
chines now in use have been constructed with 
the additional set of teeth for this purpose, and 
if they were all thus supplied, it would be a 
means of encouraging the cultivation of clo- 
ver for seed on a much more extended scale, 
cheapen the article, and promote the sowing 
of it more extensively and thicker than is often 
done, by which fewer bald places would be 
seen in the fields, and the stalks would not be 



so gross and succulent, and the hay and pas- 
ture would be sweeter and better and in greater 
abundance than when it stands thin on the 
ground. (Sinclair's Hort, Gram.; Quart. Journ. 
of Agr. vol. xi. p. 249 ; "On turning the second 
crop of Clover;" Com. to Board of Agr. vol. iv. 
p. 197 ; Davy.) 

CLOVER, BOKARA. See Mellilotus Alba. 
CLOVER BOX. A contrivance for sowing 
clover seed, of very simple construction, easily 
made and at trifling expense, was invented by 
the late Mr. Bordley, of Maryland. It is called 
the Clover box, and in some sections of the 
country it is in general use. It not only scat- 
ters the seed over the ground with entire cer- 
tainty and equality, but makes a much less 
quantity answer than is usually required in the 
old process of sowing broadcast. It is stated 
that, " by the use of this box, one bushel has 
seeded fifteen acres, the clover well set, the 
plants in sufficient numbers, and the whole 
field evenly seeded. 

" The box is eight or ten feet in length, about 
four inches in breadth, divided into partitions 
of six inches long. In the bottom of each 
partition is an opening of about three inches 
square, in which is inserted a piece of tin, 
parchment, or stiff paper, perforated with a 
number of holes of sufficient size for the clo- 
ver seed to pass freely through. 

"The seed is placed in each partition. To 
the box is affixed a strap, which is passed over 
the shoulders of the sower, and, carrying the 
box before him, he walks over the field, agitat- 
ing the box by his hand if it requires more 
movement than it receives from his walk. In 
this manner the seed is equally distributed over 
all the ground. 

"A very thin piece of b^)ard may be hooked 
at the bottom of the box, to prevent the seed 
dropping out before the sowing commences. 
The box may be made of light cedar, and not 
weigh more than six or eight pounds without 
the seed." See Am. Farmer, vol. ii. p. 60. 

CLOVER, STONE {TrfoUumarvensc),VV?Aii\i 
clover. Rabbit-foot. This is frequent in Penn- 
sylvania and other Middle States, on sandy, 
barren fields. Though supposed to be a nati\-e 
of America, it is found on both sides of the 
Atlantic. It is a worthless plant, and indicative 
of careless farming. (Flor. Cestric.) 

CLUB GRASS (Corynephorus). An unin- 
teresting species of grass, requiring only to be 
sown in common soil. The last articulation 
of the jointed beard is club-shaped, whence its 
name. 

CLUB MOSS (Lycopodium, from kuho; a 
wolf, and mv; a foot, because of the resem- 
blance of the roots). This moss grows abun- 
dantly on mountainous heaths or stony moors; 
some of the species, which are numerous, reach 
to a foot high, in watery, healthy, mountainous 
situations. The seeds are often highly inflam- 
mable, like powdered sulphur. The nardy 
species of club moss require to be eultivated 
in peat soil, in a moist situation ; some of them 
succeed in pots of water. They are readily in- 
creased by suckers. 

The planed or flatted lycopodium grows iU 
the United States, in woods and thickets. It is 
the well-known trailing variety so often col- 
2 F 2 34- 



CLUB RUSH. 



COCHINEAL. 



lected as an ornamental evergreen, lO be hung 
in festoons around churches, ball-rooms, mir- 
rors, picture-frames, &c. {Flora Cestriea.) 

CLUB RUSH. See Rush. 

CLUMP {Ger. klump). A number of shrubs 
or trees growing together. 

CLUSTER-GRAPE. The small black or 
currant grape. See Vine. 

CLUSTER-SOWING. That method of sow- 
ing grain, in which a number of corns are 
placed together. 

CLYSTER. See Gltsteh. 

COAGULATION (Lat. coagulatio). A term 
signifying that chemical change which takes 
place when a fluid, or some part of it, is ren- 
dered more or less solid. 

COAGULUM. A term applied to the curdled 
concretion formed by the mixture of two 
liquors. It sometimes also means rennet. 

COB. A kind of wicker basket, made so as 
to be carried on the arm. Hence a seed-cob, 
or seed-lip, is a basket for sowing from. Cob 
was formerly the name for a spider, hence we 
have cobweb. Cob is also applied provincially 
in England to a round sort of stone, to a mud 
wall, and sometimes to a particular kind of 
horse. In the United States it is the common 
name given to that portion of the ear of In- 
dian corn to which the grains are attached. 
When burned, corn-cobs yield a large propor- 
tion of potash. 

COBBLE. A provincial term for a round 
sort of stone found in the fields. It also signi- 
fies a small kind of fishing-boat. 

COBBLE-TREES. A sort of double swingle- 
trees, whippins, or splinter-bars. 

COCCIFEROUS PLANTS (from kckko,, 
and fcro to bear). Such plants or trees as af- 
ford nutrition to, and a habitation for, the insect 
called a coccus. 

COCCUS. A genus of insects frequenting 
certain plants. Naturalists enumerate more 
than twenty species. Among these are the 
cochineal insect of the tropical parts of Ame- 
rica, and the scarlet-grain of Poland {Coccus 
polonicus) which thrives only in cold climates. 
This last is sometimes called the Cochineal of 
the North, and is collected in great abundance 
for the use of dyers, from the roots of the 
polygonum cocciferum. It is much inferior to the 
American cochineal. 

Some interesting information relative to in- 
sects of the Coccus family may be found under 
the head of Bahk-Lice. 

COCCULUS INDICUS, or INDIAN BERRY, 
is the fruit of the Menispermum cocculus, a large 
tree, which grows upon the coasts of Malabar, 
Ceylon, &c. The fruit is blackish, and of the 
size of a large pea. It owes its narcotic and 
poisonous qualities to the vegeto-alkaline che- 
mical principle called pkrotoxia, of which it 
contains about one-fiftieth part of its weight. 
It is sometimes thrown into waters to intoxi- 
cate or kill fishes ; and it is said to have been 
employed to increase the inebriating qualities 
of ale or beer. Its use for this purpose is pro- 
hibited by act of Parliament, under a penalty 
of 2001. upon the brewer, and 500Z. upon the 
seller of the drug. 

COCHINEAL. An America -. insect greatly 
valued on account of its use in dying crimson, 
342 



scarlet, &c., and preparing carmine. When 
first discovered it was taken to Europe as a 
seed, but was proved by the observations of 
Lewenhoeck to be an insect, being the female 
of that species of shield-louse, or coccus, disco- 
vered in Mexico, so long ago as 1518. It is 
brought to us from Mexico, where the animal 
lives upon the cactus opuntia or nopal. Two 
sorts of cochineal are gathered — the wild, from 
the woods, called by the Spanish name grana 
silveslra ; and the cultivated, or the grana fina, 
termed also mesteque, from the name of a Mexi- 
can province. The first is smaller, and co- 
vered with a cottony down, which increases its 
bulk with a matter useless in dyeing ; it yields, 
therefore, in equal weight, much less colour, 
and is of inferior price to that of the fine cochi- 
neal. But these disadvantages are compen- 
sated in some measure to the growers by its 
being reared more easily and less expensively; 
partly by the efiect of its down, which enables 
it belter to resist rains and storms. 

The wild cochineal, when it is bred upon 
the field nopal, loses in part the tenacity and 
quantity of its cotton, and acquires a size 
double of what it has on the wild opuntias. It 
may, therefore, be hoped that it will be im- 
proved by persevering care in the rearing of 
it, when it will approach more and more to fine 
cochineal. 

The fine cochineal, when well dried and well 
preserved, should have a gray colour, border- 
ing on purple. The gray is owing to the pow- 
der, which naturally covers it, and of which a 
little adheres ; as also to a waxy fat. The 
purple shade arises from the colour extracted 
by the water in which they were killed. It is 
wrinkled with parallel furrows across its back, 
which are intersected in the middle by a longi- 
tudinal one ; hence, when viewed by a magni- 
fier, or even a sharp naked eye, especially after 
being swollen by soaking for a little in water, 
it is easily distinguished from the factitious, 
smooth, glistening, black grains, of no value, 
called East India cochineal, with which it is 
often shamefully adulterated by certain London 
merchants. The genuine cochineal has the 
shape of an egg, bisected through its long axis, 
or of a tortoise, being rounded like a shield 
upon the back, flat upon the belly, and without 
wings. 

These female insects are gathered off the 
leaves of the nopal plant, after it has ripened 
its fruit, a few only being left for brood, and 
are killed, either by a momentary immersion 
in boiling water, by drying upon heated plates, 
or in ovens. The last become of an ash-gray 
colour, constituting the silver cochineal, or 
jaspeada ; the second are blackish, called negra. 
and are most esteemed, being probably driest ; 
the first are reddish brown, and reckoned in- 
ferior to the other two. The dry cochineal 
being sifled, the dust, with the imperfect insects 
and fragments which pass through, are sold 
under the name oi granillo. 

Cochineal keeps for a long time in a dry 
place. Hellot says that he has tried some 130 
years old, which produced the same effect as 
new cochineal. 

Much adulteration is practised in England 
upon cochineal. In the republics of Mexico, 



COCK. 



COFFEE. 



Guatimala and other parts of Central America, 
where the temperature of the climate through- 
out ten months of the year seldom falls so low 
as 50° Fahr., the circumstances are peculiarly 
favourable to the culture of the cochineal in- 
sect. A large amount of the capital of the 
country is invested in the necessary plantations 
and fixtures. 

The true cochineal insect has been found in 
South Carolina by the late Dr. Garden, and 
Mr. Raphael Peale of Philadelphia also identi- 
fied it on the island of Little St. Simons, coast 
of Georgia. The Cactus opuntia grows abun- 
dantly on all the calcareous islands near the 
Southern coast. Still it is not very probable 
that cochineal will soon becom-e an object of 
culture in the extreme Southern Slates, as it is 
an employment of a very tedious and fatiguing 
nature, exacting more attention than the ma- 
nagement of the silkworm, which last bids fair 
to be a far more profitable resource. 

COCK (Sax. coec; Fr. coq). A name applied 
to the male of chickens and other birds. 

COCKCHAFFER (Melolonthavnlgaris). One 
of the common names for a species of European 
tree beetle, whose food consists almost entirely 
of leaves. They come rather late in the vernal 
season, about May 20th, but occasionally ap- 
pear at uncertain intervals in amazing swarms. 
White says, they abound only once in three 
years. They are also known by the provincial 
Bames of May-bug, dor, and dummador. Cock- 
chaflfers are sometimes used as baits in angling. 
The larva or grub of the common cockchafier 
is one of the great ravagers of the English 
meadows and grass lands. It remains in the 
grub state for four years. "It undermines," 
says Kirby, " the richest meadows, and so 
loosens the turf, that it will roll up as if cut 
with a turfing spade. These grubs did so much 
injury seventy years ago to a poor farmer near 
Norwich, that the court of that city, out of 
compassion, allowed him 25?., and the man and 
his servant gathered eighty bushels of the 
beetles. The damage done by them in 1785 
was so great in France, that the government 
offered a reward for the best mode of eradicat- 
ing them." The rooks are great friends to the 
farmer in destroying this grub, to procure 
which they follow the plough. (Kirby and 
Spence's Introd. to Entomology, vol. i. p. 180.) 

COCK-FIGHTING. A very old and barba- 
rous common pastime and amusement, which 
is happily growing into disuse in civilized 
England and America, and becoming super- 
seded by more manly and noble sports. 

COCKLE, CORN, or CORN CAMPION 
(Sax. coccel; Lat. Agrostemma githago). PI. 10, a. 
A well-known troublesome annual weed, of 
rather an ornamental appearance, growing in 
grain-fields in summer, bearing purplish red 
flowers. It stands two feet and a half high, the 
stalk firm, hairy, slender, and round, with one 
large flower upon each top. The leaves stand 
two at a joint, long, narrow, and of a bright 
green colour. The flowers, which are of a 
violet-purple colour, stand in a cup composed 
of linear hairy sepals, which are longer than 
the corolla. The seeds, which are numerous, 
are black and rough, and nearly as big as I 



small wheat kernels; they are filled with white 
flour, and very heavy. The miller's objection 
to these seeds is, that their black husks break 
so fine as to pass the boulters, and render the 
flour specky; also because the seed is bulky, 
and if there be much in the sample, it detracts 
considerably from the produce in flour. Being 
easily distinguished, this weed should be era- 
dicated from the field by the hand before 
flowering. (Smith's Eng. Flora, vol. ii. p. 325 ; 
Sinclair's Weeds, p. 9 ; Elements of Agriculture, 
441 ; Willich's Dom. Encyc.) 

COCK'S-FOOT GRASS (Dactylis glomerata) 
PI. 5, b. Commonly called Orchard Grass in the 
Middle and Northern States. A species of 
grass, which, from the experiments of Sinclair, 
appears to become by cultivation superior to 
rye grass and some others as a pasture grass, 
if kept closely cropped by cattle or the scythe; 
and also when made into hay. Oxen, horses, 
and sheep eat it readily. It flowers from June 
till August, and perfects its seed in July. The 
produce of herbage per acre, at the time of 
flowering, is 27,905 Ins., which affords of hay 
11,859 lbs., and the proportion of nutritive 
matter is 1089 lbs. The produce is something 
less when the seed is ripe, and it loses about 
one-half its weight in drying. See Hat Grasses. 
(Sinclair's Horl. Gram. p. 136; Smith's Eng. 
Flora, vol. i. p. 134.) 

COCK-SPUR. A common name in Eng- 
land for the Virginian hawthorn ; a species of 
medlar. See Hawthoux. 

COCOON. The fibrous web round a chry- 
salis. 

COD. A term used sometimes for pod. 
CODLIN. A well-known kind of baking 
apple. See Malus. 

COFFEE. The seed of a tree of the family 
rubiacecE. There are several species of the genus, 
but the only one cultivated is the Coffcsa Arabica, 
a native of Upper Ethiopia and Arabia Felix. It 
rises to the height of fifteen or twenty feet. Its 
trunk sends forth opposite branches in pairs 
above and at right angles toeach other ; the leaves 
resemble those of the common laurel, although 
not so dry and thick. From the angle of the 
leaf-stalks small groups of white flowers issue, 
which are like those of the Spanish jasmine. 
These flowers fade very soon, and are replaced 
by a kind of fruit not unlike a cherry, which 
contains a yellow, glairy fluid, enveloping two 
small seeds or berries convex upon one side, 
flat and furrowed upon the other, in the direc- 
tion of the long axis. These seeds are of a 
horny or cartilaginous nature ; they are glued 
together, each being surrounded with a pecu- 
liar coriaceous membrane. They constitute 
the coffee of commerce. 

It was not till towards the end of the fifteenth 
century that the coffee tree began to be culti- 
vated in Arabia. Historians usually ascribe 
the discovery of the use of coffee as a beverage 
to the superior of a monastery there, who, de- 
sirous of preventing the monks from sleeping 
at their noctural services, made them drink the 
infusion of coffee upon the reports of shepherds 
who pretended that their flocks were more 
lively after browsing on the fruit of that plant 
The use of coffee was soon rapidly spread, uU' 

J43 



COFFEE. 



COFFEE. 



it encountered much opposition on the part of 
the Turkish government, and became the occa- 
sion of public assemblies. Under the reign 
of Amurath III. the mufti procured a law to 
shut all the coffee-houses, and this act of sup- 
pression was renewed under the minority of 
Mahomet IV. It was not till 1554, under Soly- 
man the Great, that the drinking of coffee was 
accredited in Constantinople ; and a century 
elapsed before it was known in London and 
Paris. Solyman Aga introduced its use into 
the latter city in 1669, and in 1672 an Armenian 
established the first cafe at the fair of St. Ger- 
main. 

The use of coffee became general among 
the English sooner than it did with the French. 
The first mention of coffee on the English sta- 
tute books is in 1660, when a duty of M. is laid 
upon every gallon of coffee bought or sold. 
Ray informs us that in 1688 London might 
rival Cairo in the number of coffee-houses. 

When coffee became somewhat of a neces- 
sary of life, from the influence of habit among 
the people, all the European powers who had 
colonies between the topics, projected to form 
plantations of coffee trees in them. The Dutch 
were the first who transported the coffee plant 
from Moka to Balavia, and from Batavia to 
Amsterdam. In 1714, the magistrates of that 
city sent a root to Louis XIV., which he caused 
to be planted in the Jardin du Roi. This be- 
came the parent stock of all the French coffee 
plantations in Martinique. 

The most extensive culture of coffee is still 
in Arabia Felix, and principally in the king- 
dom of Yemen, towards the cantons of Aden 
and Moka. Although these countries are very 
hot in the plains, they possess mountains where 
Ihe air is mild. The coffee is generally grown 
naif way up on their slopes. When cultivated 
jn the lower grounds, it is always surrounded 
by large trees, which shelter it from the torrid 
sun, and prevent its fruit from withering be- 
fore their maturity. The harvest is gathered 
at three periods; the most considerable occurs 
in May, when the reapers begin by spreading 
cloths under the trees, then shaking the 
branches strongly, so as to make the fruit drop, 
which they collect, and expose upon mats to 
dry. They then pass over the dried berries 
a very heavy roller, to break the envelopes, 
which are afterwards winnowed away with a 
fan. The interior bean is again dried before 
oeing laid up in store. 

In Demarara, Berbice, and some of the Eng- 
lish West India islands, where much good coffee 
is now raised, a different mode of treating the 
pulpy fruit and curing the beans is adopted. 
See Ureh Diet, of the Arts, &c. 

The most highly esteemed coffee is that of 
Moka. It has a smaller and a rounder bean ; 
a more agreeable taste and smell than any 
other. Its colour is yellow. Next to it in 
European reputation are the Martinique and 
Bourbon coffees : the former is larger than the 
Arabian, and more oblong; it is rounded at the 
^nds ; its colour is greenish, and it preserves 
almost always a silver gray pellicle, which 
comes off" in the roasting. The Bourbon coffee 
approaches nearest to the Moka, from which 
344 



it originally sprung. The Saint Domingo 
coffee has its two extremities pointed, and is 
much less esteemed than the preceding. 

The coffee tree flourishes in hilly districts, 
where its root can be kept dry, while its leaves 
are refreshed with frequent showers. Rocky 
ground, with rich decomposed mould in the 
fissures, agrees best with it. Though it would 
grow, as we have said, to the height of fifteen 
or twenty feet, yet it is usually kept down by 
pruning to that of five feet, for increasing the 
production of the fruit, as well as for t.he con 
venience of cropping. It begins to yield fruit 
the third year, but is not in full bearing till the 
fifth, does not thrive beyond the twenty-fifth, 
and is useless in general at the thirtieth. In 
the coffee husbandry, the plants should be 
placed eight feet apart, as the trees throw oul 
extensive horizontal branches, and in holes ten 
or twelve feet deep, to secure a constant supply 
of moisture. 

Coffee has been analyzed by a great many 
chemists, with considerable diversity of re- 
sults. The best analysis perhaps is that of 
Schrader. He found that the raw beans dis- 
tilled with water in a retort communicated to 
it their flavour and rendered it turbid, whence 
they seem to contain some volatile oil. On 
reboiling the beans, filtering and evaporating 
the liquor to a syrup, adding a little alcohol 
till no more matter was precipitated, and then 
evaporating to dryness, he obtained 17-58 per 
cent, of a yellowish-brown transparent extract, 
which constitutes the characteristic part of 
coffee, though it is not in that state the pure 
proximate principle called cafeine. Its most 
remarkable reaction is its producing, with both 
the protoxyde and the peroxyde salts of iron, a 
fine grass-green colour, while a dark-green 
precipitate falls, which redissolves when an 
acid is poured into the liquor. It produces on 
the solution of the salts of copper scarcely any 
effect, till an alkali be added, M'hen a very 
beautiful green colour is produced, which may 
be employed in painting. Coffee beans con- 
tain also a resin, and a fatty substance some- 
what like suet. According to Robiquet, ether 
extracts from coffee beans nearly ten per cent, 
of resin and fat, but he probably exaggerates 
the amount. The peculiar substance cafeine 
contained in the above extract is crystallizable. 
It is remarkable in regard to composition, that 
after urea and the uric acid, and theobromin 
from chocolate, it is among organic product.'* 
the richest in azote. It was discovered and de- 
scribed in 1820 by Runge. It does not possess 
alkaline properties. Pfaff obtained only ninety 
grains of cafeine from six pounds of coffee 
beans. There is also an acid in raw coffee, to 
which the name of cafeir. acid has been given. 
When distilled to dryness and decomposed, 
it has the smell of roasted coffee. 

Coffee undergoes important changes in the 
process of roasting. When it is roasted to a 
yellowish-brown, it loses, according to Cadet, 
12^ per cent, of its weight, and is in this state 
difficult to grind. When roasted to a chestnut 
brown, it loses 18 per cent., and when it be- 
comes entirely black, though not at all carbo- 
nized, it has lost 23 per cent.. Schrader has 



corrEE. 



COFFEE. 



analyzed roasted coffee comparatively with 
raw coffee, and he found in the first 12^ per 
cent, of an extract of coffee, soluble in water 
and alcohol, which possesses nearly the pro- 
perties of the extract of the raw coffee, although 
it has a deeper brown colour, and softens more 
readily in the air. He found also 10-4 of a 
blackish-brown gum ; 5-7 of an oxygenated 
extract, or rather apotheme, soluble in alcohol, 
insoluble in water; 2 of a fatty substance and 
resin ; 69 of burnt vegetable fibre, insoluble. 
On distilling rcasted coffee with water, Schra- 
der obtained a product which contained the 
aromatic principle of coffee ; it reddened litmus 
paper, and exhaled a strong and agreeable 
odour of roasted coffee. If we roast coffee in 
a retort, the first portions of the aromatic prin- 
ciple of coffee condense into a yellow liquid 
in the receiver ; and these may be added to the 
coffee roasted in the common way, from which 
this matter has been expelled and dissipated 
in the air. 

Of late years much ingenuity has been ex- 
pended in contriving various forms of appa- 
ratus for making infusions of coffee for the 
table. I have tried most of them, and find, 
after all, none so good as a caffetiere a la Belloy, 
the coffee biggin, with the perforated tinplate 
strainer, especially when the filtered liquor is 
kept simmering in a close vessel, set over a 
lamp or steam pan. The useful and agreeable 
matter in coffee is very soluble : it comes off 
with the first waters of infusion, and needs no 
boiling. 

To roast coffee richly, we should keep in 
view the proper objects of this process, which 
are to develope its aroma, and destroy its tough- 

>s, so that it may be readily ground to pow- 
i ;r. Too much heat destroys those principles 
which we should wish to preserve, and substi- 
tutes new ones which have nothing in common 
with the first, but add a disagreeable empyreu- 
matic taste and smell. If, on the other hand, 
the rawness or greenness is not removed by 
an adequate heat, it masks the flavour of the 
bean, and injures the beverage made with it. 
When well roasted in the sheet-iron cylinders 
set to revolve over a fire, it should have a uni- 
form chocolate colour, a point readily hit by 
experienced roasters, who now manage the 
business very well for the principal coffee- 
dealers both of London and Paris, so far as 
my judgment can determine. The develope- 
ment of the proper aroma is a criterion by 
which coffee-roasters frequently regulate their 
operations. When it loses more than 20 per 
cent, of its weight, coffee is sure to be in- 
jured. It should never be ground till immedi- 
ately before infusion. (C/re's Diet, of Arts and 
Manuf.) 

Coffee may be cultivated in the peninsula 
of Florida. A climate the temperature of which 
seldom falls below 55°, and where the soil is 
on gentle declivities, afford the most favourable 
circumstances. The trees may be set five or 
six feet asunder; they begin to yield good crops 
at three years of age, and the average produce 
of a tree is two and a half pounds. 

The consumption of coffee is very great in 
Mohammedan countries, and especially in Tur- 
44 



key, where their religion forbids the use of 
wine and spirituous liquors. In the United 
States, its consumption is already very great 
and is rapidly increasing ; being not less than 
15,000 tons annually. 

In Paris, the best coffee in the world is made 
by the following process. This is the cele- 
brated liquor there called cafe au lail. The 
coffee is generally roasted in a rotary cylinder, 
over a small furnace of charcoal, and usuall}"- 
in the open air, until it becomes of a brown 
cinnamon colour; it is then turned into a 
wooden tray, and stirred till nearly cool. The 
pot in which coffee is usually made, is com- 
pound, and formed of two parts, of equal di- 
mensions ; the lower pot being made of the 
usual form; the spout being kept covered and 
closed during the process, by a small cap, 
thimble formed. The upper pot is nicely fitted 
to the top of the lower pot, of which it forms a 
lid ; it is pierced at the bottom with very fine 
holes, and thus forms a fine strainer ; in the 
bottom of this pot, and on this strainer, the 
fresh and finely ground coffee is placed, and 
the top of this pot is closed by the insertion of 
a shallow tin cup, full of larger holes, which 
serves for a coarser strainer; and through this, 
either boiling water, or, most commonly, a 
strong infusion of boiling coffee, is poured, 
which has been formed by boiling the grounds 
of the former day, which had still retained a 
large portion of their original strength ; thence 
the whole fluid slowly and gradually descends 
to the lower pot. Thus a very strong, clear, 
and black infusion is prepared, which, on 
being brought to the table, is reduced by the 
addition of at least an equal quantity or more 
of boiling milk ; sugar being added to suit the 
taste. Nothing can be more fragrant and de- 
licious than coffee thus made. {Kenrirk.) 

In the Eastern countries of the old world and 
in Europe ^ snerally, at present, coffee is always 
taken in small cups as a cordial and restora- 
tive, — and not swilled in large vess?l.s as a 
beverage at meals, as is so frequently done in 
the United States, especially by the interior 
population. The French mode of preparing 
coffee for use having been given, we will sub- 
join a description of the process pursued in 
Arabia, as related by Mr. Buckingham, who 
had ample opportunities of learning it from 
personal observation. 

"It is found that the only certain mode of 
retaining the pure flavour of the coffee, is to 
roast, pound, and boil it, all in quick succes- 
sion, the roasted berries soon losing their fla- 
vour if laid by for a day, and the pounded coffee 
becoming insipid, even in a few hours. The 
Arabs of the desert, who are from necessit> 
economical in the use of this article, follow the 
same process, even if they require only two 
cups of the liquid, roasting a handful of bei ries 
on an iron plate, pounding them in a pes le 
and mortar while warm, and the instant tho» 
water boils, which it will generally do by the 
time the other preparations are completed, so 
that no time is lost, putting the pounded pow 
der into it, and suffering it to boil, stirring it at 
the same time for about a minute or two, when 
it is poured out to drink. As the beverage is 

345 



COFFEE TREE. 

taken vithout sugar or milk, the slightest dif- 
ference in the flavour is perceptible ; and long 
experience having shown this to be the best 
way of preserving it in perfection, it is per- 
haps worth mentioning in detail, particularly 
as the use of this article has become so 
general." 

COFFEE TREE (Gymnocladus Canadensis). 
This native North American tree is found as 
high northward as Upper Canada beyond Mon- 
treal, and on the southern shores of Lakes Erie 
and Ontario. It is, however, much less abun- 
dant in these climes than in the states of Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee, and in the tract watered 
by the Ohio and Illinois rivers, between the 
35th and 40lh degrees of latitude. 

By the French of Canada this tree is called 
Chicot ; by those of the Illinois Gros Fevier, 
whilst the inhabitants of the Western States 
call it Coffee Tree. 

The presence of this tree, is an evidence of 
the richest lands, on which it habitually grows 
in company with the black walnut, red elm, 
poplar, blue ash, honey locust, and hackberry. 
These trees it equals in height, but not in bulk; 
for a coffee tree fifty or sixty feet high does not 
generally exceed twelve or fifteen inches in 
diameter. "In summer," says Michaux, "this 
tree when fully grown has a fine appearance : 
its straight trunk is often destitute of branches 
for thirty feet, and supports a summit not very 
widely spread, but of a regular shape and of 
tufted foliage ; such at least is its form in pri- 
mitive forests, where it is confined by the trees 
which grow around it. In the winter when its 
leaves are fallen, the fewness of its branches 
and the size of the terminal ones, which are 
very large in comparison with those of other 
trees, give it a peculiar appearance, somewhat 
resembling a dead tree, which it retains in the 
spring long after other trees are clothed in 
foliage. This is probably the reason of its 
being called Chicot, stump tree, by the French 
Canadians. To this peculiar character is 
added another of the epidermis, which is ex- 
tremely rough, and which detaches itself in 
small, hard, transverse strips, rolled backward 
at the ends, and projecting sutficiently to ren- 
der the tree distinguishable at first sight. I 
have also remarked that the live bark is very 
bitter, so that a morsel no bigger than a grain 
of maize chewed for some time produces a 
violent irritation of the throat." 

The foliage of the coffee tree bears some 
resemblance to that of the black walnut. The 
flowers are white, and the fruit consists of 
large bean-like crooked pods, of a reddish 
brown colour, and of a pulpy consistency 
within. They contain several large, gray 
Stjeds, which are extremely hard. The French 
ia Upper Louisiana call them Gourganes. 

" The name of the coffee tree was given by 
the early emigrants to Kentucky and Tennes- 
see, who hoped to find in its seeds a substitute 
for coffee : but the small number of persons 
who made the experiment abandoned it, as 
soon as it became easy to obtain from the sea- 
ports the coffee of the West Indies. 

" The wood of the coffee tree is very com- 
pact and of a rosy hue. The fineness and 
346 



COINS, FOREIGN. 

closeness of its grain fit for cabinet-making, 
and its strength renders it proper for building. 
Like the locust, it has the valuable property of 
rapidly converting its sap into perfect wood, 
so that a trunk six inches in diameter has only 
six lines of sap, and may be employed almost 
entire. These qualities recommend it for pro- 
pagation in the forests of the north and of the 
centre of Europe. 

" The coffee tree was sent to France more 
than fifty years since. It thrives in the envi- 
rons of Paris, where there are trees that ex- 
ceed forty feet in height ; but it does not yield 
fruit, and is multiplied only by shoots obtained 
by digging trenches round the old trees. The 
divided roots produce shoots three or four feet . 
long, the first year. The young trees are 
sought, on account of their beautiful foliage, 
for the embellishment of parks and pictu- 
resque gardens." 

A communication from Mr. M. D. Hardin, 
of Franklin county, Kentucky, published in 
the American Farmer (vol. 2), makes us ac- 
quainted with some interesting facts relative to 
the sensible properties of the fruit of the coffee 
tree, and its effects when eaten. 

The subjoined preparation of the nut of the 
native coffee bean tree, or pea locust tree, 
" has," says Mr, Hardin, " been found to de- 
stroy flies more certainly than any preparation 
I ever saw. It is now used by many in this 
neighbourhood. I never heard of it until this I 
season. There is no danger to children or any I 
animal from the preparation. I have been fa- ■ 
miliar with the nut for more than thirty years ; 
it grew in my father's yard, and is in abun- 
dance in my wood pastures. I have several 
times eaten the kernel of the nut raw, but 
never of many at a time — when roasted many 
are fond of them, and I have eaten a good many 
that way, I have never myself seen them used 
for coffee, but have heard of their being so 
used as a matter of curiosity not of choice or 
economy. The cattle eat the pods including the 
nuts in the winter, as they do the wild honey 
locust pods; but the nut owing to its hard 
shell does not digest, but passes off whole. I 
have known children eat the green glutinous 
matter within the pod, as they would that of 
the wild honey locust, but it brings on sickness 
and puking. The nut itself is so well under- 
stood to be harmless and eatable, that the cof- 
fee-mill has been most usually made use of to 
prepare the nut for the flies. 

" For destroying flies. — Take the nuts of the 
native pea locust or coffee-nut tree, crack them 
and take out the kernel raw ; reduce them to 
meal or powder (a coffee-mill or mortar are 
commonly used), put this into as much sweet 
milk as would make it into a paste. To this 
add some sugar to make the flies more readily 
eat it, put it into a plate or other vessel, and 
set it where you want to destroy the flies." 

COFFIN-BONE. In farriery, that bone 
which lies encircled within a horse's hoof as 
in a coffin. 

COINS, FOREIGN. The following tables 
will show the values and weights of various 
foreign coins in federal money of the United 
States : 



COLCHICUM. 



COLLING. 



Table of various Foreign Coins, with tlieir Value 1 
in Money of the United States. Also, the Value 
of Gold Coins per pennyweight. 

Value per dwt. Value by tale. 

Oold. c. m. D. c. D. c. 

British sovereign, or pound 

sterling - . - - 946 483 to 486 

French twenty-franc piece - 92-9 384 to 3-85i 

German ten-thaler piece - 7'84 to 7'97 

Doubloon of Spanish America 887 to 90- 1539 to 15-62 

The value by tale depends upon the age, reign, section 
of country, and other qualifying circumstances, so that 
it cannot be precisely expressed in so small a compass. 

Val. by tale. 

Silver. c. m. 

Dollar of Mexico and South America, about - - 1000 

French five-franc piece ------ 930 

Prussiitn thaler 68'3 to 693 

English shilling (since 1816) ----- 217 

Milreis of Portugal, about . - - - -112-0 

Rupee of British India - - - - - - 44-5 

Spanish-American quarter-dollar, unworn - - 250 
Do. do. worn by circulation 23-5 

By the Mint Laws passed by Congress in 
1837, the eagle is to weigh 258 troy grains, the 
half and quarter in proportion; the dollar 412^ 
grains, the parts in proportion. The relative 
value, therefore, of silver to gold, is 15-9984 to 1, 
or nearly 16 of silver for 1 of gold. In making 
this comparison, both the silver and gold are 
to be of the fineness of nine-tenths. 

The coinage of silver in the United States, 
from 1826 to 1833, was nineteen and a half 
millions ; that from 1834 to 1841 was twenty 
millions. 

COLCHICUM {Colchicum autumnak). Com- 
mon meadow saffron. A bulb throwing up a 
reddish purple flower without leaves in Sep- 
tember and October: grows three or four 
inches high: found in moist rich meadows, 
but not common. It may be propagated from 
offsets in July. Every part of the plant con- 
tains an alkaline principle named Colchicia, 
which is a most violent purgative as well as 
narcotic. This active matter is extracted by 
wine, spirits of wine, and vinegar. A tincture 
of the bulb or of the seeds of colchicum, in the 
dose of twenty to thirty drops twice a day, has 
been found very useful in gout and rheuma- 
tism. It has been too commonly taken without 
medical advice, and much mischief has re- 
sulted. In an overdose colchicum is a virulent 
poison. (Smith's Eng. Flora, vol. ii. p. 202.) 

COLD (Sax. coit>; Dan. knald). See Ca- 
TARHH, and Diseases of Cattle, Horses, &c. 

COLE, or COLESEED (Celt, caal ; Welsh, 
caivl; Lat. Brassica napus). A variety of the 
cabbage genus, much cultivated in the east of 
England; it is sown from the middle of July 
to the end of August, either for autumn sheep- 
feed, or for seed (which is very rich in oil) for 
the following summer. The ashes of the burnt 
straw of coleseed are excellent dressing for 
clover. (Brit. Husb. vol. ii. p. 312.) See Colza 
and Rape. 

COLEWORT. See Cabbage. 

COLIN, THE VIRGINIAN PARTRIDGE 
(Ortyx Virginiana). This bird has been intro- 
duced into England from the United States, 
and is a species of partridge. It lives on the 
borders of woods, among brushwood, or on the 
thick grassy plains. (YarrelVs Brit. Birds, vol. 
ii. p. 448.) 

COLLAR (Span, collar; Lat. collare). That 



part of the harness of a horse or other animal 
that goes round his neck and rests on the 
shoulders. For horses, they are mostly made 
of canvass, &c. stuffed with hair, tow, or straw, 
and covered with leather. 

COLLEY, or COLLY. A kind of dog much 
prized by the Scotish drovers. See Dog, Shep- 
herd's. 

COLLEY SHEEP. A name for sheep that 
have black faces and legs. The wool of these 
sheep is generally very harsh, having hairs 
mixed with it. 

COLLING, ROBERT and CHARLES. Two 
celebrated farmers of the county of Durham, 
who, by their skill, enterprise, and public spirit, 
not only secured for themselves the plaudits 
of after generations of farmers, but did honour 
to their country by the improvement which they 
effected in the Durham breed of short-horns, 
perhaps the most celebrated of all our modern 
breeds of cattle. It is not in my power to give 
any details with regard to their private history; 
their public efforts is all in which my readers 
will feel interested. The following account 
of the sale of their stock, and the enormous 
amount which it produced, will afford a much 
better view of their success as breeders than 
any eulogium of mine. 

Charles Colling, of Ketton, near Darlington, 
made a very ample fortune. The prices he 
obtained for his stock could hardly indeed have 
failed to have produced such a result : thus at 
his sale of improved short-horns, Oct. 11, 1810, 
the following were some of the prices obtain 
ed:— 

Cows. Age. Guineas, 

Cherry - - H - - - 83 

Peeress - - 5 - . - ]70 

Countess - - 9 - - - 400 

Celina - - 5 - - - 200 

Lady - . 14 - - - 206 

Lilly - - 3 - - - 410 

Bulls. Guineas. 

Comet - - 6 - - - 1000 

Major - - 9 - - - 900 

Petrarch - - 2 - - - 365 

Alfred - - 1 - - - 110 

Duke - - 1 - - - 105 

Bull calves under one year olJ. Guineas. 

Young Favourite ----- 140 

Geerse .-_-.-. 130 

Sir Dimple 90 

Cecil 170 

Heifers. Age. Guineas. 

Phcebe - . 3 - - - 105 

Young Duchess . 2 - - - 183 

Young Countess - 2 - - - 206 

Lucy - - - 2 - - - 132 

Charlotte - . 1 - - - 132 

Heifer calves under one year old. Guineas. 

Lucilla ------- '2S 

Calista ------- 50 

White Rose ------ 75 

Altogether it appears that — 

L J. 

17 cows sold for - - - - 2802 9 

„ bulls .. . . - - 2361 9 

7 bull calves " ... - bH7 15 

7 heifers " - - - - 942 18 

5 heifer calves - - - _ 321 6 

47 lots 7115 17 

Robert Colling's stock was sold at Barmpton, 
near Darlington, September 29, 1818, when it 
produced for — 

J47 



COLT. 



COLZA. 



Guineas. 
34 cows -_---. 4141 

17 heifers -..-.- 1287 

6 bulls 1343 

4 bull calves . . - . - 713 



61 head of cattle - - . 

One 2 year old cow sold for - 
One 4 " " 

One 5 " " 

One 1 " bull calf 

One 4 " bull 



7464 

331 
300 
370 
270 
621 



(^Youatt on Cattle, p. 231—233.) 

Charles Colling, after his retirement from 
business, resided at Croft, in the North Riding 
of Yorkshire, where he died January 16, 1836, 
aged 85. Robert Colling died in his 70th 
year, at Barmpton, near Darlington, March 7, 
1820. 

COLT (Sax, coir). A term applied to young 
horses. See Houses. 

COLT-EVIL. In farriery, a distemper to 
which young horses are subject, consisting of 
a swelling in the sheath. 

COLTS-FOOT, COMMON. iTussilago far- 
fara). PI. 10, /. This is an herb of peculiar 
growth, very common in England on chalky or 
marly soil, in moist situations. It is mostly 
found in fields that are over-cropped or ex- 
hausted, and often severely exercises the pa- 
tience of the farmer. It may be eradicated by 
ploughing up the soil, carrying the plant away 
when rooted out, and laying the fields down to 
grass. The flowers rise in spring on stalks 
six or eight inches high, round, large, and yel- 
low, like the dandelion ; their stalks being 
thick, fleshy, scaly, and red coloured. Each 
stalk supports one flower. When the flowers 
have decayed, then the leaves appear on erect 
furrowed footstalks, broad and cordate, lobed 
and toothed, resembling the form of a horse's 
foot, whence the name. They are green above, 
and white and downy underneath. The leaves 
are used medicinally, and they dry well. A 
decoction of the leaves and roots, or a syrup 
of the juice, is useful in coughs, whence the 
generic name. The ancients inhaled the 
smoke for the relief of coughs. 

There are two species of the colts-foot, butter- 
bur, or Tussilago genus in the United States. 
See NuttalVs Genera. The plant known in 
Pennsylvania and some other Middle States 
by the name of colts-foot is not of the same 
genus, but an Asarum. See Ginger, Wild. 

COLZA. Though comparatively but little 
cultivated in England, and hardly known in 
the United States, colza is an article of im- 
mense importance in French and Flemish hus- 
bandry. It belongs to the cabbage family, and 
is cultivated for its oily seed, which are crushed 
and pressed for their oil, similar to flax-seed. 
The oil is used to burn in lamps, and for a 
great variety of useful purposes. The cake 
left after pressing the seeds, like that of rape, 
is an article regularly in the markets of Eng- 
land, France, Germany, &c., being purchased 
by farmers, who use it, either alone or mixed 
with other substances, as food for cattle, or 
to make into manure for various crops. In 
France, Germany, and the Netherlands, the 
cake is very often thrown into their urine-cis- 

rns, where it soon becomes a very valuable ma- 
.948 



terial for manure. The haulm, or stems, after 
the seeds are thrashed off, is frequently burned 
for the ashes, which are considered of treble 
the value of other ashes employed as manure. 
Two species of colza are cultivated in 
France ; the one a biennial, sown in summer 
or autumn, standing out all winter, and matur- 
ing its growth and seed the following summer. 
This is called winter colza, and is the Lrassica 
campestris of botanists. The other species, or 
rather variety, is a spring crop, maturing its 
seeds the same year, and is the Brasska urven- 
sis of naturalists. Neither of these must be 
confounded with rape, which the French term 
navette, and which is the Brassica tiapus, being 
the species most cultivated for similar purposes 
in England. Whether the winter colza will 
resist the intense cold of the winters in the 
more northern states may be doubtful ; but 
should it not, the spring colza (B. arvensis) will 
doubtless succeed in any part of the United 
States not favourable to the winter species. As 
the plant may become of consequence to the 
American agriculturist, we subjoin, from Dom- 
basle's Farmer's Calendar, a description of the 
French modes of managing the colza crops. 

It is generally considered indispensable that 
the ground on which colza is sown should be 
rich, light, new, well manured, and prepared 
by much working. " Nevertheless," says Dom- 
basle, "many years' experience has taught me 
that, by pursuing a good system of culture, 
very satisfactory crops may be procured from 
light and gravelly soils. The plant is not 
afraid of a slightly clayey soil, which, in fact, 
is the one best adapted to it, provided this be 
very light in its texture. It is indispensable 
that the ground, of whatever nature its soil 
may be, shall be perfectly well drained during 
the winter, as frosts are fatal to colza in soils 
which retain water." 

There are three methods of sowing colza : — 
1. Broad-cast ; 2. In rows or drills; 3. In beds 
for transplantation. The last method can onl 
be pursued where labour — and especially f 
male labour — is extremely cheap. The sowin 
in rows is done by the use of drills, the lines 
being placed about eighteen inches apart. This 
method admits of hand-hoeing, and even the 
use of the cultivator, to destroy weeds or 
loosen the soil. When sown broad-cast, about 
14 lbs. of seed are required for one hectare 
(equal to about 2^ acres). Much less is re- 
quired where sown by drills, when the seeds 
are dropped about an inch apart in the direc- 
tion of the rows. The sowinof broad-cast or in 
rows generally takes place from the middle of 
July to the middle of August. When the plants 
are picked from beds to be planted out, this is 
done in September or early in October, so 
that they may have time before winter to form 
good roots. They are placed in holes dibbled 
by means of a planter with points from 9 to 12 
I inches apart, and so formed that a man makes 
I two rows at a time, whilst a second person 
i puts the plants in the holes, pressing the earth 
i well around them with his feet. Sometimes 
I rows are run with the plough, and two or three 
' women are employed after each plough, in dis- 
tributing plants along the open furrow, which 
is covred up by the plough in returning. 



COLZA. 



COLZA. 



When this is skilfully performed, the planta- 
tion may be effected with great regularity. In 
soils of moderate fertility, the plants need not 
be more than 9 inches apart in every direction. 
"When the grpund is very rich, they may stand 
about 12 inches apart; and when planted with 
the plough, every other furrow is left vacant, 
and the plants placed 9 or 10 inches apart. 

In moderately fertile soils, the product of the 
colza is generally equal to, and sometimes a 
little greater than that of wheat. Thus, in soils 
which produce 20 bushels of wheat to the acre, 
20 or 25 bushels of colza are obtained, and the 
product of rape has been nearly equal. But in 
more fertile soils the colza, when it has been 
well managed, far surpasses the product of 
wheat on the same soil, it being not unusual 
to obtain 28 or 30 bushels to the acre, on 
ground that will not yield more than 18 or 20 
bushels of wheat. Sometimes, by very careful 
cultivation, and on ground of a very deep soil, 
especially when this is newly broken up, as 
much as 40 bushels of colza can be got from 
an acre, a larger product than could be expect- 
ed from lape. 

The chaff of colza and rape form very good 
food for woolly animals during winter. When 
given to horned cattle, it should be in the form 
of slop, made by mixing it in boiling water. 
Sheep eat the straw or stems very freely, when 
well kept and not too coarse. 

When planted in rows, a hoeing or harrow- 
ing, by means of the cultivator, is generally 
given in the month of March. About the be- 
ginning of July, and sometimes even at the end 
of June, the navette, or rape, and winter colza 
arrive at maturity, the rape almost always 8 
or 10 days the earliest. As the seeds of these 
plants shatter off very easily, it is necessary 
that, in harvesting, they should be cut before 
they become completely ripe. The most pro- 
per time is when the seed-pods begin to turn 
yellow and become transparent, and when the 
seeds are of a dark-hrown, though still tender. 
Though the grains of all the pods may yet be 
green, the greatest number will ripen in the 
stack or mow. Sometimes, when the crop has 
become very ripe, to prevent the loss of the 
seed, it should only be cut in the evening or 
morning, whilst it is covered with dew, or dur- 
ing a bright moonlight night. Twenty-four 
hours after reaping, or sometimes immediately 
after, if the plants are quite ripe, the colza is 
put into cocks, the sheaves being carried to an 
elevated part of the field, and placed in cocks, 
the height of which must be double that of the 
stock of colza. In laying them down, the first 
sheaves are placed on the outside, and the next 
towards the centre. The cock gradually dimi- 
nishes in diameter, till raised to the height of 
five or six feet. When the cock is two or three 
feet high, the stalks or stems have an inclina- 
tion on the outside downwards. This increases 
successively to the top, which is thus made to 
form a perfect cone. To keep out the rain, the 
top may be tied with a band of straw, willow 
twig, or branch of any other pliant wood. The 
cocks remain in this state until all the grains 
are matured. This generally requires from 8 
to 12 days. If carefully put up, the cocks will 
be sufficiently protected against bad weather, 



except in case of powerful and continued rains, 
which would occasion still more damage to the 
crop in any other situation. The colza may 
also be put into large stacks, like those of 
wheat and other grain, very soon after it has 
been cut, and remain in this situation for a 
month or two. This is, in fact, the safest way 
of keeping the colza. But this method is more 
expensive than that of cocking, as it requires 
to be wagoned to the stack. The fermentation 
which always takes place in the cocks is very 
favourable to the grain, giving it a fine colour, 
and contributing qualities which are very de- 
sirable. The grain will only be injured, if it is 
heaped up whilst it is yet green or wet. 

When the crop is small, it may be taken at 
once into a barn and thrashed off. In its trans- 
portation the seed is very apt to be shaken off, 
on which account it is necessary to carry them 
to the wagons in cloths, and the wagon itself 
should be lined with some coarse and cheap 
stuff. 

Large crops of colza or rape are generally 
thrashed in the field by the feet of horses, the 
place being covered with strong hempen cloth, 
stretched upon a spot from which all stones, 
&c., are carefully removed. If the colza has 
been put up in cocks, we carry the whole cock 
in a linen cloth eight feet square, which four 
men suspend to two long poles of light wood, 
eleven feet in length, attached to the two sides 
of the '-pen. After spreading the cloth along 
the side i'" the cock, two other poles, of the 
same length as those described, are passed 
under the cock, which is thus raised up altoge- 
ther and placed upon the cloth, to be carried 
to the thrashing-floor. When this is sufficiently 
filled with colza, spread evenly about two feel 
in thickness, and first beaten down by the feet 
of the workman who arranges it, three unshod 
horses are put upon the floor, or three two-year- 
old colts. These are trotted circularly around 
a man who occupies the centre, and who holds 
them by a rein. After they have been round 
several times, the colza is turned with hay- 
forks, and the horses brought on again. In 
this way the thrashing is done very quickly. 
If a very large crop, two thrashing-floors should 
be made, so that when one bed is preparing, 
another may be thrashing and emptying. After 
being thrashed, the seeds may be housed, either 
in the chaff or partially screened through rid- 
dles. When put into granaries, the colza 
should be spread in small beds, and turned 
frequently for some time, being subject to 
heating, by which much of their value is lost. 
It should only be completely cleaned when 
perfectly dry, or when it is desirable to sell, as 
it keeps so much better when mixed with more 
or less chafl". It is scarcely necessary to ob- 
serve that colza may be thrashed by means of 
the common thrashing machine.5 used for grain. 

Spring Colza.— In clayey and new soils, the 
spring colza is generally more productive 
than the rape, yet it is always a very uncertain 
crop, like those of all oily grains which are 
sown in the spring. It is one of the most pro- 
fitable plants that can be grown in the soils 
of newly-drained ponds and meadows. Some 
persons, however, have obtained abundant 
crops from ground adapted to the growth of 
2G 349 



COLTS-FOOT. 

wheat, but this has been in particularly favour- 
able seasons. 

The spring colza should not be sown as late 
as the rape, as its growth is much slower. "In 
one very favourable year," says Dombasle, 
" when I had sown colza on the 2d of June, it 
did not arrive at maturity soon enough to admit 
of being harvested." 

After the soil has been well prepared by two 
or three ploughings, the seed may be sown 
broad-cast, at the rate of 7 or 8 lbs. per acre 
on very light ground, covering it with the har- 
row. Some sow the colza in drills eighteen 
inches apart, and till between the rows with a 
horse-hoe. But, in general, cultivation, which 
is so beneficial to winter colza and rape, pro- 
duces but a poor effect on a crop which occu- 
pies the soil so short a time. 

COMFREY, COMMON (Symphytum offici- 
nale). This wild plant grows by the sides of 
ditches and in moist places to a height of three 
feet. The leaves are a deep green colour, 
pointed, long, and rough to the touch. The 
stalk is green, thick, and upright, and winged 
at the bases of the leaves. The flowers are 
sometimes white, and often reddish in colour. 
The root is thick, black externally, and white 
within. It is full of a slimy juice when crushed 
or broken. The root is the part used medici- 
nally. It contains much mucilage, and may 
be used as a demulcent. Conserve of comfrey 
is the best way of preserving it through the 
year. The tuberous-rooted comfrey (S. tubero- 
sum) is an herb of much humbler stature than 
the last-named root; knobbed and branched; 
externally whitish ; flowers fewer, drooping, 
yellowish-white, tinged with green. (Smith's 
Eng. Flora, vol. i. p. 263.) The prickly com- 
frey (S. asperrimum) is a hardy perenni.al of 
gigantic growth, introduced from Caucasus as 
an ornamental plant, in 1811, by Messrs. Lod- 
diges, of Hackney. (See Curtis's Bot, Mag. No. 
929.) The attention of the agriculturist has 
recently been directed to the cultivation of 
comfrey as green food for cattle, by Mr. Grant, 
of Lewisham, who speaks highly of its merits. 
(Baxter'' s Agr. Lib.) 

COMPOSITION FOR TREES. See Can- 
ker. 

COMPOST (Fr.; Lat. composUum). That 
sort of manure which is formed by the union 
or mixture of one or more different ingredients 
with dung, or other similar matter. An excel- 
lent essay, by Mr. James Dixon, on making 
compost heaps from liquids and other sub- 
stances, written on the evidence of many years' 
experience, was awarded a premium of 10/. in 
July, 1839, by the Royal Agr. Soc. of England, 
and is published in their Quart. Journ. vol. i. 
p. 135. See also Farm-yard Manure. 

CONDITION (Fr. and Lat.). In horseman- 
ship, a term supposed to imply a horse's being 
in a state of strength and power, so much above 
the purpose he is destined to, that he displays 
it in his figure and appearance : this, according 
to Taplin, signifies "fine in coat, firm in flesh, 
high in spirits, and fresh upon his legs." 

CONIFEROUS PLANTS AND TREES. 
Such plants and trees as bear cones; as the 
fir, pine, cedar, &c. 

CONSERVATORY (Lat.). A glazed struc 
350 



CORD-WOOD. 



ture, in which exotic trees and shrubs are 
grown in a bed or floor of soil. It is distin- 
guished from an orangery by its having a 
glazed roof, while that of the latter is opaque, 
and from a green-house by the plants being set 
in the fine soil, instead of in pots placed on 
shelves. The largest conservatory in the world 
at the present time (close of 1841), is that 
erected in Chatsworth, in Derbyshire, for palms 
and other tropical plants, which covers above 
an acre of ground, and is sixty feet high. 
(Bratide's Diet, of Science and Art.) 

CONTRACTION OF THE HOOF. In far- 
riery, is a distorted state of the horny substance 
of the hoof in cattle, producing all the mis- 
chiefs of unnatural and irregular pressure on 
the soft parts contained in it, and consequently 
a degree of lameness which can only be cured 
by removing the cause. Contraction of the 
hoof rarely happens, however, except to those 
animals whose hoofs, for the convenience of 
labour, are shod. 

CONVERTIBLE HUSBANDRY, or mixed 
husbandry, a term implying frequent change in 
the same field from tillage crops to grass, and 
from grass back to tillage crops ; an alterna- 
tion of wheat, rye, &c., with root and grass 
crops. 

COOP, or COUP (Icelkuppa; But kuype). 
A provincial name for a tumbrel or cart, en- 
closed with boards to carry dung, sand, grains, 
&c. It is also a pen or enclosure where lambs, 
&c., are shut up to be fed or fattened; and a 
kind of cage in which poultry are enclosed for 
the same purpose. 

COPPICE, or COPSE (supposed from the 
Fr. coupcr ; or Nor. copper, to cut off). Low 
woods cut at stated times for poles, fuel, &c. 
A place overrun with brushwood. Its wood is 
called coppice-wood. 

CORDGRASS (Spartina stricta. From stpar- 
tine, a rope made of broom). A genus of pe- 
rennial maritime grasses found in muddy salt 
marshes on the sea coast, of which this is the 
only native variety. They are very easy of 
culture, and increased by divisions and seeds. 
Roots, creeping, with strong fibres ; whole 
plant, hard, tough, and rigid; stems ten to 
twenty inches high, several together; leaves, 
numerous, striated, of a dull green colour and 
smooth. (Eng. Flora, vol. i. p. 135; Paxlon's 
Bot. Bid.) 

Spartina juncea. — According to the experi- 
ments of Sinclair, this grass is very late in the 
production of foliage, and inferior in nutritive 
qualities to most other kinds of grass. It, how- 
ever, yields well as a single crop, the produce 
from a rich, silicious, sandy soil, at the time 
of flowering, being 33,350 lbs., which afforded 
of nutritive matter 1433 lbs. It has been tried 
for the purpose of forming into flax ; and Sin- 
clair tells us, the results were favourable, inas- 
much as the clear fibre was equal in strength 
and softness to that of flax, but it was deficient 
in length. The only advantage that appears 
would result from this plant affording flax is, 
that it could be produced on a soil unfit for the 
growth of flax or the production of corn. It 
flowers the second week in August, and the 
seed is ripe by the middle of September. (Hort. 
Gram, Wob. p. 373.) Three or four species of 



nro ■ 



CORD-WOOD. 



CORN, BROOM-. 



Spartina are found in the United States, chiefly- 
confined to the salt water districts along the 
sea coast. 

CORD-WOOD. Small pieces of wood bro- 
ken up for fuel. It also signifies top-wood, 
roots, &c., cut up and set in cords ; so deno- 
minated from its being formerly measured 
with a cord. A statute cord of wood should 
be eight feet long, four feet high, and four 
feet broad. 

COREOPSIS, EAR-LEAVED, (Coreopsis au- 
riculata). A hardy perennial, a native of North 
America. It grows three or four feet high, and 
its yellow flowers bloom in August. The Co- 
reopsis delphinifolia is also a native of North 
America, growing about eighteen inches high, 
with yellow flowers. Blooms from July to 
October. Divide the roots, and plant it in open 
situations. 

CORIANDER, (^Coriandrum sativum. From 
Kcg/f, a bug; the fresh leaves, when bruised, 
emitting an odour very similar to that of this 
vermin). Coriander thrives best in a mode- 
rately rich but sandy loam: excessive moisture 
is equally inimical to it as the want of a regu- 
lar supply. It must have an open and rather 
sheltered situation. It is propagated by seed, 
which, if it is required early, must be sown 
during February, in a warm border or mode- 
rate hotbed, in either situation with the protec- 
tion of a frame. This may be repeated at the 
close of March. Afterwards small crops may 
be successionally inserted every month in an 
open bed or border until September, in which 
month, and October, if required for winter's 
supply, final crops must be sown under a 
frame, as in February. The summer sowings 
should always be of small extent, as the plants 
at that season are very apt to run. 

The sowings are generally performed in 
drills eight inches apart, and half an inch 
deep ; the plants to remain where sown. The 
only cultivation required is to thin them to four 
inches' distance and to have them kept clear 
of weeds throughout their growth. For the 
production of seed, some plants of the early 
spring sowings must be left ungathered from, 
at about eight inches apart each way ; they 
will perfect their seed in early autumn, being 
in flower during June. (G. W. JohnsorCs 
Kitchen Garden.') 

CORK OAK (QitercMS suber). The tree pro- 
ducing the thick, light, and soft bark, out of 
which corks are made, is a species of oak 
found in the southern parts of Europe, in 
Spain, France, and Italy. Both public and 
private interest, says Michaux, requires the in- 
habitants of the southern coast of the United 
States, and especially of the neighbouring 
islands, to introduce and rear the cork oak, in 
places unfit for the culture of cotton. It should 
also, he thinks, be introduced into West Ten- 
nessee, and with the more reason as the vine 
is there cultivated successfully. It will grow 
wherever the live oak is found. 

In size this oak seldom grows higher than 
forty feet, with a diameter of three feet. Its 
leaves are evergreen, but the greater part of 
them fall and are renewed in the spring. The 
aoorns are large and oval, of a sweetish taste, 
and eagerly devoured by swine. The wood is 



hard, compact and heavy, but not so durable as 
that of some other kinds of oak. The bark be- 
gins to be taken off at the age of twenty-five 
years, the first growth being of little value. It 
is not, however, till the tree is forty-five or fifty 
years old, that the bark possesses all the quali- 
ties requisite for good corks, and from that pe- 
riod it is collected every eight or ten years. 
The length of time which thus elapses between 
planting and reaping compensation renders it 
very improbable that the cork oak will ever 
be extensively introduced by individual enter- 
prise, into those parts of the United States 
where it would thrive. Nothing short of go- 
vernment patronage could effect the object re- 
commended by Michaux. The consumption 
of corks is exceedingly great; in France alone 
it amounts annually to 125 or 150,000,000. 

CORN. A term which in Europe is applied 
alike to wheat, barley, and the other small 
grains, whilst in the United States it is used 
almost exclusively to designate Indian corn or 
maize. 

CORN BINDWEED. See Bindweed. 

CORN, BROOM-. The following account of 
the broom-corn, its culture and uses, is the 
substance of a communication made by Mr. 
William Allen of Northampton, Massachtxsetts, 
to Mr. H. L. Ellsworth, Commissioner of Pat- 
tents. 

Of the genus sorghum (broom-grass) there 
are four or five species. Sorghum saccharatum 
is the broom-corn, abundantly cultivated in 
this country, both for the seed and for its large 
panicles, which are made into the brooms. 
The whole plant is saccharine. Attempts have 
been made in France to extract sugar from it, 
but with little success. 

The other species are the following: Sorg- 
hum dora (or holcus dora), common Indian 
millet, a native of the East Indies, but culti- 
vated in the south of Europe; S.bicolor, or two- 
coloured Indian millet; S. caffroruni, caifres 
Indian millet, and S. nigrum, coal-black Indian 
millet. 

Of the sorghum saccharatum (or holcus saccha- 
ratus), broom-corn there are several varieties 
raised in Hampshire county, Massachusetts, 
in the valley of the Connecticut river, princi 
pally in the broad meadows of Northampton, 
Hadley, and Hatfield. The pine tr^e kind is 
regarded as the poorest kind, or the least advan 
tageous for cultivation ; yet, as it is the earliest 
(being three weeks earlier than the large kind), 
in a short season, when its seed will ripen, 
while the seeds of the other kind fail to ripen, 
this may prove the most profitable crop. The 
North river crop is ordinarily the best crop; it 
is ten days earlier than the large kind, and 
yields about 720 lbs. of the brush per acre- 
"the brush meaning the dried panicles, cleanefl 
of the seed, with eight or twelve inches of the 
stalk. The New Jersey, or large kind, yields 
a thousand or eleven hundred pounds of brush 
per acre. The stalks and seed are large. In 
good seasons, this is the most profitable crop. 
But in the present season (1842), owing to an 
early frost (about September 23), much of the 
seed of this kind will fail to ripen. There is 
also the shirley, or black brush. Soil rich> 
alluvial lands are best adapted for the broom- 

351 



CORN, BROOM-. 

corn, more especially if warmly situated, pro- 
tected by hills, and well manured. 

Method of planting. — The broom-corn is 
planted in rows, about 2| or 3 feet apart, so 
that a horse may pass between them with a 
plough, or cultivator, or harrow. The hills in 
each row are from 18 inches to 2 feet apart, 
or farther, according to the quality of the soil. 
The quantity of seed to be planted is estimated 
very differently by different farmers — some say 
that half a peck is enough per acre, while others 
plant half a bushel, and some a bushel, in or- 
der to make it sure that the land shall be well 
stocked. The rule with some is to cast a tea- 
spoonful, or 30 or 40 seeds, in a hill ; the ma- 
nure at the time of planting should be put into 
the hill, and old manure or compost is preferred, 
as being most free from worms. 

Cultivation. — The broom-corn should be 
ploughed and hoed three times — the last time 
when about three feet high, though some hoe 
it when it is six feet high, and when they are 
concealed by it as they are toiling in the field. 
The number of stalks in a hill should be from 
seven to ten. If there are only five or six stalks, 
they will be larger and coarser; if there are 
about eight, the brush will be finer and more 
valuable. In the first hoeing, the supernume- 
rary stalks should be pulled up. 

Harvesting. — As the frost kills the seed, the 
broom-corn is harvested at the commencement 
of the first frost. The long stalks are bent 
down at 2 or 2^ feet from the ground; and by 
laying those of two rows across each other 
obliquely, a kind of table is made by every two 
rows, with a passage between each table, for 
the convenience of harvesting. After drying 
for a few days, the brush is cut, leaving of the 
stalks from 6 to 12 inches. The longer it is 
cut, of course, the more it will weigh; and, if 
the purchaser does not object, the benefit will 
accrue to the farmer. However, the dry stalk 
weighs but little ; if its weight is excessive, the 
purchaser sometimes requires a deduction 
from the weight. As it is cut, it is spread on 
the tables, still farther to dry. As it is carried 
into the barn, some bind it in sheaves ; and 
this is a great convenience for the further ope- 
ration of extracting the seed. Others throw 
the brush into the cart or wagon, unbound. 

Scraping. — The process of extracting the 
seed is called " scraping the brush." Two iron 
horizontal scrapers are prepared — one movable, 
to be elevated a little, so that a handful of 
brush may be introduced between them. The 
upper scraper is then pressed 
down with one hand, and the 
I) rush drawn through with the 
other, the seed being scraped 
off. This is the old method. A 
newly invented scraper is su- 
perseding the old one. It is an 
upright instrument, of elastic 
wood or steel, inserted in a 
bench of a convenient height 
for the operator. 

The form is as follows : 
_ a is a piece of wood or steel, 
immovable ; b and c are pieces 
•which are elastic, movable to 
the right and left at the top, but 
353 




CORN, BROOM-. 

fastened to the central piece below. The de 
gree of elasticity may be regulated by Avedges 
in the planks d and / — wedges in the hole 
through which the pieces pass. 

A quantity of brush is taken in the hand, and 
brought down upon the top of this instrument. 
As it is forced down, and drawn towards the 
body, it separates the elastic sticks from the cen- 
tral piece, but their elasticity presses sufficient- 
ly on the brush, so that the seed is scraped off. 

The advantage of this scraper is, that both 
hands may be applied to the brush, instead of 
only one hand, as in the other kind, and the 
elastic power of nature is substituted for the 
pressure of one of the hands. The instru- 
ment also seems to double the scraping 
surface. The instrument was invented at 
Hartford. I have been told it has not been 
patented. 

The following plan may therefore be useful. 
The operator stands at the end A. 




The lower plank may rest on the barn floor, 
or have short legs. The upper oblique has a 
hole, through which the scraper passes, and 
down which the seed may fall. Each side of 
the instrument, a wedge may be inserted, to 
regulate its elasticity, or by some other con- 
trivance this object may be secured. In scrap- 
ing, the panicles must first be laid evenly 
together, and the stalks taken in the hand. If 
this is not done in the field, and bundles not 
formed, then must it be done with considerable 
labour at the time of scraping in the barn. 

Product. — A common crop is 700 to 800 lbs. 
per acre. There have been raised 1000 and 
1100 lbs. per acre, with 80 to 100 bushels of 
seed. The large kind grows eleven feet high. 

Value of the crop. — About the year 1836 or 
1837, the brush sold for 124 cents a pound; 
and one farmer in Northampton sold his crop 
standing, unharvested, at §100 per acre. Since 
then, the price has been decreasing. This year 
it has been 4 and 5 cents. At 6 cents, the 
farmer, for 800 lbs., gets $48 an acre, besides 
60 or 70 bushels of seed, worth a third of a 
dollar a bushel — so that he receives $70 or up- 
wards from an acre. 

Good farmers regard the seed alone as equal 
to a crop of oats from the same land. Some 
land owners have rented their land for broom- 
corn, at $25 per acre, they putting on five or 
six loads of manure. 

One farmer, who, a few years ago, cultivated 
50 acres in broom-corn, must have had an al- 
most unequalled income for a New England 
farmer. 

Quantity. — In Northampton, probably 200 
acres are raised ; in Hatfield, 300 ; in Hadley, 
400; in other towns, Whateley, Deerfield, 
Greenfield, Easthampton, Southampton, South- 
Hadley, Springfield, and Longmeadow, perhaps 
300 or 400 acres more ; in all, in the valley of 



CORN CALE. 



CORN LAWS. 



the Connecticut, 1200 or 1300 acres ; the pro- 
duct, in brush and seed, worth $1,000,000. 

Manufacture of brooms. — Individuals tie up 
brooms with wire or twine. The expense is 
greater for materials and labour when wire is 
used. 

The turned broom handles cost, as delivered, 
only one dollar a hundred — one cent each. The 
expense of other materials and labour in making 
a broom is 6 cents, or on the whole about 7 cents. 
In a good broom a pound and a half of brush 
is employed, which at the present price of 5 
cents, would be 7^ cents, so that a broom made 
with wire costs now about 14^ cents. A ma- 
nufacturer recently went to Boston, and could 
get an offer of only 12 cents, or $12 per hun- 
dred, for his brooms ; at which rate he could 
not afford to sell them and chose to retain them. 
Brooms are made with brush weighing | of a 
pound, 1 pound. Impound, and 1^ pound. The 
brush is whitened by the manufacturer. It is 
placed in a large tight box, and bleached by the 
fumes of sulphur; but this process is said to 
weaken the brush. Who would think of whiten- 
ing broom brush, for beauty ? Thus it is that 
fashion descends into the vale of life, and to the 
humblest of concerns. Why should not the 
housemaid wield a beautiful broom, with white 
brush and variously interlaced wire, and po- 
lished and variously coloured handle ? 

Miscellaneous. — A few remarks will be added, 
some of which were omitted in their proper 
places. If the stalks are cut before the seed 
is ripe, they are better, stronger, more durable, 
than if cut after the seed is ripe. In this case, 
the farmer would lose the value of the seed. 
He of course will not submit to this loss, un- 
less it is made up to him by the increased 
price of the brush. 

The seed is used for feeding horses, cattle, 
and swine. It is ground and mixed with In- 
dian meal, and is regarded as excellent food — 
it weighs forty pounds a bushel. 

Mr. Shipman of Hadley is the greatest ma- 
nufacturer of brooms in the valley of the Con- 
necticut. If he employs, on an average, ten 
hands, and each hand makes 25 brooms per 
day, the number made in a year would be 
78,000. It is said he has made"l00,000. 

The brush, when it is put in the barn, should 
be placed on a scaffold, so as to be exposed to 
a circulation of the air, that it may dry and 
not mould. For all the purposes of use, a 
broom made with twine is equal to one made 
with wire ; and a man can make several more 
of them in a day. 

Mr. Shipman uses 300 or 400 lbs. of large 
twine, at 20 to 30 cents a pound, and 2,000 lbs. 
of small twine, at 31 cents. Perhaps he ma- 
nufactures only i part of the brooms manu- 
factured in Hadley. 

At the price of 20 cents, the price of brooms 
a few years ago, the broom manufacture of 
Hadley would thus amount to $160,000. 

It is probable that the extended cultivation 
of the broom-corn will reduce the profits on 
this product to the average profits of good 
farming. 

CORN CALE. A provincial name for char- 
ock. 

CORN-CROWFOOT (^Ranwnculus arvensis). 
45 



A weed very common among corn. Root 
fibrous. It has an upright stalk ; the leaves are 
of a pale, shining green, and cut into long, nar- 
row, acute segments. The lemon-coloured 
flowers are much smaller and paler than those 
of the crowfoot which is found in pasture- 
grounds, and the seed-vessels are very remark- 
able, being covered all over with prickles. It 
is very acrid and dangerous to cattle, though 
they are said to eat it greedily. M. Brugnon, 
Avho has given a particular account of its quali- 
ties, relates, that three ounces of the juice killed 
a dog in four minutes. (Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. 
iii. p. 53.) See Crowfoot. 

CORN-CUTTING MACHINES. Machines 
for cutting wheat and other grains by horse 
power, of which none have hitherto been pro- 
duced in England whose merits have insured 
their adoption by the farmer. Of the several 
English patents obtained, that called Smith't 
Reaping Machine, is perhaps the most approved. 
For a minute description of this, with drawings, 
see Encyc. Britunnica, vol. 2, part 1. te.x Mow- 

INO AND ReAPINR MaCHINE. 

CORNEL TREE. See Dogwood. 

CORNET. In farriery, a name sometimes 
given to the instrument used in venesection, 
called a fleam. 

CORN, INDIAN. See Maize. 

CORN LAWS. The regulation of the sup- 
ply, and consequently, the value of corn in 
different countries in Europe, has been an ob- 
ject of legislation from a very remote period; 
a public interference, varying, however, in de- 
gree, from that of protective taxation, to that 
which was intended to be prohibitory. Of the 
first kind are the modern English corn laws; 
of the last are the present local regulations of 
Paris, by which bread is sold always at the 
same price, both in bountiful seasons or in 
those of scarcity. It would occupy tf.o much 
space to follow these, generally necessary in- 
terferences with the sale of corn, which have 
occurred from the days of the Athenians (who 
depended upon Thrace for their daily bread), or 
from the popular broils about bread, which 
were long a source of disorder to Rome, even 
in its splendour. In England, there are traces 
of a corn law nearly six centuries since. By 
the statute Judicium Pilhrie, 51 Hen. 3 (1266), 
it is directed that the municipal authorities of 
certain towns should inquire of the price of 
corn. By the 34 Ed. 3, c. 20 (1360), the ex- 
portation of corn was prohibited; but in 1436, 
by the 15 H. 6, c. 2, it was allowed. In 1463, 
however, by the 3 Ed. 4, c. 2, the necessity 
(which was declared in the preamble) arose 
of preventing "the labourers and occupiers of 
land from being grievously endamaged by 
bringing corn out of other lands when corn 
of the growing of this realm is at a low price." 
It then declares that wheat shall not be import- 
ed, unless wheat be sold at the place of import 
for 6s. Sd. per quarter. In 1532, by the 25 H. 
8, c. 2, it was enacted that the exportation of 
corn should cease, and the price be regulated 
by the lords of the council, the preamble of the 
bill very sensibly remarking, that "dearth, 
scarcity, good and cheap and plenty of, &c., 
victuals necessary for man's sustenance hap- 
peneth, riseth, and chanceth of so many and 
2 o 2 353 



CORN LAWS. 



CORN LAWS, 



bis. 
55s. 
56j. 
57«. 
58s. 
59s. 
60«. 
6U. 
62s. 
63s. 
64s. 
65s. 
66». 
69s. 
70s. 
71s. 
72«. 



55s. 
56s. 
57s. 
58s. 
59». 
60s. 
6Is. 
62s. 
63s. 
64s. 
65s. 



70s. 
71s. 
72s. 
73s. 



£ 

1 
19 
18 
17 
16 
15 
14 
13 
12 
11 
10 
9 
8 
7 
6 
5 
4 
3 
2 
1 



in amount to the duty payable on a quarter of oats. 

Maize or Indian Corn, Buckwheat, Bear or Bigg. — For 
every quarter, a duty equal in amount to the duty 
payable on a quarter of barley. 

See Wheat. 

An Account showing the total Quantities of Wheat 
and Wheat Flour imported from Foreign Coiwi- 
tries and from British Colonies. 



1 
2 
6 
10 
13 
16 
18 



per quarter - 



8 — 



73s. and upwards . - - - 
JJoWcw— Whenever the average price of barley, made 
up and published in the manner required by law, shall 



be for every quarter 
lUnder 26s. the duty shall be for every quarter 
26s. and under 27s 
27s. 
30s. 
31s. 
32s. 
33s. 
34s. 
35s. 



11 
10 
9 



30s. 

31s. 8 

32s. 7 

33s. 6 

34s. 5 

35s. 4 

36s. 3 

37s. - - - - - 2 

37s. and upwards - - - - - 1 
Oats.— Whenever the average price of oats, made up 
and published in the manner required by law, shall be 

for every quarter -c ^ .i 
lUnder 19s. the duty shall be for every quarter 
19s. and under 20s. 



20s. 
23s. 
24s. 
25s. 
26s. 



23s. 
24s. 
25s. 
26s. 
27». 



27s. and upwards - - - ■ 

iRye, Pease, and Beans.- Whenever the average price of 

rve or of pease, or of beans, made up and published in 

the manner required by law, shall be for every quar- 



?5nder 30s. the duty shall be for every quarter 
30s. and under 33s. - - - - - 



33s. 





34s. 


34s. 





35s. 


35s. 





36s. 


S6s. 


— 


37s. 


37s. 


— 


38s. 


38s. 


— 


39s. 


39s. 


— 


40s. 


W«. 


— 


41s. 


41 «. 


— 


42*. 


«2*. 


and upwards 




354 





£ 

11 

10 

9 





















Quantities entered for Home 
Consumption in the United Kiog- 
doin from the passing of the Act 
9 Geo. 4. c. 60, (15th July, 182Sj, 
to the 5tb January, 1841. 



„4„v>c tV-ot it ic ,ror~,T harA and rliffi- fVheat Meal and Flour.— Tot every barrel, being 196 lb., 

nvers occasions, that it is very hard ana aim ^ ^^^^ ^^^^i .^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^yMe on 38i gal- 
cult to put any certain prices to any bucn ions of wheat. 

things." In 1534 (1 P. & M. C. 5), corn was Oatmeal.-FoT every quantity of 18|i lbs., a duty equal 
again allowed to be exported when the price .... 

of wheat did not exceed 6s. 8d. per quarter. 
This standard was increased to 10s. by the 5 
Eliz. c. 5 (1562) ; and in 1571 (13 Eliz. c. 13), 
the exportation was directed to be regulated 
from average prices by the lords of the council. 
In 1807, the bounty upon the exportation of 
grain finally ceased. 

According to the English Corn Law Act, 
existing in 1842, corn inspectors are appointed 
in 287 towns, to transmit returns to the Board 
of Trade, who compute the average weekly 
price of each description of grain, and the ag- 
gregate average price for the previous six 
weeks, and transmit a certified copy to the 
collectors of customs at the different out-ports. 
The aggregate average regulates the duty on 
importation according to the following scale : — 

If imported from any Foreign Country. 
fVheat.— Whenever the average price of wheat, made up 
and published in the manner required by law, shall b^e 
for every quarter '^ 

Under 51s. the duty shall be for every quarter 
51s. and under 52s. 



i 



Wheat. 



1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 

1 8 
1 9 
I 10 
1 11 
1 12 
1 13 
1 14 
1 15 
1 16 
1 17 
1 18 

1 19 

2 
2 2 
2 3 
2 4 
2 5 
2 6 
2 7 
2 8 
2 9 

12 10 
Admitted at an ad valorem 

duty, being damaged - 
Admitted duty free, being 

damaged - - - 
Admitted duty free, for 

seed . - - - 



3,907,981 

2,788,277 

1,994,102 

783,280 

548,348 

298,677 

76,200 

377,667 

107,005 

13,664 

138,775 

37,329 

27,153 

4,724 

1,882 

134,275 

61,649 

13,955 

1,496 

432 

908 

385 

154 

326 

314 

154 

151 

3 

7 

4 

16 

62 

10 

7 

3 

2 



2,629 



Wheat Flour. 



cwls. 

1,276,731 

835,406 

518,897 

238,592 

466,4.^2 

213,707 

44,788 

96,538 

5,861 

5,940 

56,530 

2,070 

1,555 

654 

690 

1,377 

101 

756 

87 

63 

511 

164 

24 

42 

24 

72 

51 

3 
7 
13 
33 
155 
17 
2 
36 
56 



Total 



71 



11,322,085 I 3,768,335 



British Colonial. 



Whent!.erate|(,6perqr. 
of duty on (^ q _ 
wheal was j 



129,858 
393,407 



I 523,265 



426,!?(it 
596,996 



1,023,805 



s. d. 

The average price of wheat in Great Britain in 
the year 1840 was - - - - per qr. 66 4 

Average price of wheat at Rotterdam - - 49 11 
" " at Odessa - - - 24 9 

" " at Dantsic - - - 39 6 

Total number of quarters of wheat and wheat 
flour imported and entered for home con- 
sumption ..---. qrs 2,401,366 

Total number of quarters of colonial wheat 
and wheat flour imported . - - - 148,720 

Total number of quarters of foreign wheat and 
wheat flour imported ----- 2,284,482 

Total number of quarters of wheat and wheat 
flour imported 2,433,202 

Grain, if the produce of, and imported from 
any British possessions in North America, or 



CORN LAWS. 



CORN MOTH. 



elsewhere out of Europe, are charged the fol- 
lowing rates of duty; — 

Wheat. — Whenever the average price, made according to 
law, shall be 

" ' d. \ s. d. 

I 56s. and under 57s. 3 

I 57s. and under 58s. 2 

I 58s. and upwards, 1 



Under 55s. for every s. 
quarter, the duty 

per qt. shall be 5 

5s. and under 56s. 4 



Barley. — Whenever the average price of barley, made 
up according to law, shall be 

Under 2tis. per quar- s. d. I s. d. 

ter, the duly per qt. I 29s. and under 30s. 1 6 

shall be 2 6 I 30s. and under 31s. 1 

28s. and under 29s. 2 I 31s. and upwards, 6 

Oats. — Whenever the average price of oats, made up 
according to law, shall be 

Under 22s. for every s. d. 1 s. d. 

quarter, the duty 22s. and under 23s. 1 6 

per qt. shall be 2 | 23s. and upwards, 6 

Hye, Peas, and Beans. — Whenever the average price of 



s. d. 
32s. and under 33s. 1 6 
[ 33s. and under 34s. 1 
34s. and upwards, 6 



these articles shall be. 

Under 30s. for every s. d. 
quarter, the duty 

per qt. shall be 3 

30s. and under 31s. 2 6 

31s. and under 32s. 2 

iVkeat-meal and Flour. — For every barrel, being 196 lbs. 

a duty equal to that payable on 38^^ gallons of wheat. 
Oatmeal. — 181^ lbs. pays a duly equal to that charged on 

a quarter of oats. 
Maize or Indian Corn, Buckwheat, Bear or Bigg, pay 

a duty equal per quarter to that charged per qr. on a 

quarter of barley. 

Average Prices of Wheat from 1670. 

The Mean of two half-yearly Prices ( Winchester 
measure"), from the Register kept in the Books of 
Eton College. 



Feirs. 




t. 


d. 


Vrare. 


, 


d. 


Years. 


I. d. 


1670 


- 


37 





1704 


- 41 


2 


1738 


- 31 6 


1671 


. 


37 


4 


1705 


- 26 


8 


1739 


- 33 2 


1672 


- 


37 





1706 


- 23 


1 


1740 


- 48 10 


1673 


. 


41 


5 


1707 


- 25 


2 


1741 


- 41 9 


1674 


. 


61 





1708 


- 36 


8 


1742 


- 28 5 


1675 


- 


52 


1 


1709 


- 69 


7 


1743 


- 22 


1676 


- 


33 


9 


1710 


- 69 


4 


1744 


- 22 


1677 


. 


37 


4 


1711 


- 48 





1745 


- 24 3 


1678 


- 


52 


5 


1712 


- 41 


2 


1746 


- 34 8 


1679 


. 


48 





1713 


- 45 


4 


1747 


- 30 11 


1680 


. 


40 





1714 


- 44 


8 


1748 


- 32 10 


1681 


. 


41 


5 


1715 


- 38 


2 


1749 


- 32 10 


1682 


_ 


39 


1 


1716 


- 42 


8 


1750 


- 28 10 


1683 


. 


35 


6 


1717 


- 40 


5 


1751 


- 34 2 


1654 


. 


39 


1 


1718 


- 34 


8 


1752 


- 40 8 


1685 


. 


41 


5 


1719 


- 30 


11 


1753 


- 39 8 


5686 


. 


30 


2 


1720 


- 32 


10 


1754 


- 30 9 


J 687 


. 


31 


8 


1721 


- 33 


4 


1755 


- 29 11 


1688 


. 


23 


1 


1722 


- 32 





1756 


- 40 1 


1689 


. 


26 


8 


1723 


- 30 


9 


1757 


- 53 4 


1690 


. 


30 


9 


1724 


- 32 


10 


1758 


- 44 5 


1691 


. 


29 


11 


1725 


- 43 


1 


1759 


- 35 3 


1692 


_ 


41 


9 


1726 


- 40 


10 


1760 


- 32 5 


1693 


. 


60 


1 


1727 


- 37 


4 


1761 


- 26 9 


1694 


. 


56 10 


1728 


- 48 


3 


1762 


- 34 8 


1695 


. 


47 


1 


1729 


- 42 


2 


1763 


- 36 1 


1696 


_ 


56 





1730 


- 32 


5 


1764 


- 41 5 


1697 


- 


53 


4 


1731 


- 29 


4 


1765 


- 48 


1698 


. 


60 


8 


1732 


- 23 


8 


1766 


- 43 1 


1699 


. 


56 





1733 


- 25 


2 


1767 


- 57 4 


1700 


- 


35 


6 


1734 


- 33 


5 


1768 


- 53 9 


J701 


. 


31 


8 


1735 


- 38 


2 


1769 


- 40 7 


1702 


. 


26 





17.36 


- 35 


10 


1770 


- 43 6 


1703 


- 


32 





1737 


- 33 


5 






{Parliamentary Paper, 


No. 100.— Session 1826.) 



The average Prices as published by the Receiver of 
Corn Returns from 1771 to 1840. 



Winchester 












Measure. 












Yean. f. d. 


Veare. 


«. d. 


Years. 


,. 


d. 


1771 - 47 2 


1779 - 


33 8 


1787 


- 4i 


2 


1772 - 50 8 


1780 


35 8 


1788 


. 45 





1773 - 51 


1781 


44 8 


1789 


51 


2 


1774 - 62 8 


1782 


- 47 10 


1790 


■ 53 


2 


1775 - 48 4 


1783 


- 52 8 


1791 


- 47 


2 


1776 - 38 2 


1784 


■ 48 10 


1792 


- 41 


9 


1777 - 45 6 


1785 


- 41 10 


1793 


- 47 


10 


1778 - 42 


1786 


38 10 


1794 


. 50 


8 



Years. 
1795 
1796 


J. d. 

- Ti 11 

- 76 3 


Years. 

1811 

1812 


». d. 

- 92 5 

- 122 8 


Imperial 
Measure. 

Years. i. A 


1797 


- 52 2 


1813 


- 106 6 


1827 


- 66 9 


1798 


- 50 4 


1814 


- 72 1 


182S 


- 60 5 


1799 


- 66 11 


1815 


- 63 8 


1829 


- 66 3 


1800 


- 110 5 


1816 


- 76 2 


1830 


- 64 3 


1801 


- 115 11 


1817 


- 94 


1831 


- 66 4 


1802 


- 67 9 


1818 


- 83 8 


1832 


- 58 8 


1803 


- 57 1 


1819 


- 72 3 


1833 


- 52 11 


1804 


- 60 5 


1820 


- 65 10 


1834 


- 46 2 


1805 


- 87 1 


1821 


- 54 5 


1835 


- 39 4 


1806 


- 76 9 


1822 


- 43 3 


1836 


- 48 6 


1807 


- 73 1 


1823 


- 51 9 


1837 


- 55 10 


1808 


- 78 11 


1824 


- 62 


1838 


- 64 7 


1809 


- 94 5 


1825 


- 66 6 


1839 


- 70 8 


1810 


- 103 3 


1826 


- 56 11 


1840 


- 66 4 



{Thornton on the Corn Laws ; Pari. Papers; Sta- 
tutes at large.) 

By an act of Congress, approved in August, 
1842, the duties payable on grain, &c., imported 
into the United States, are as follows : — 

On wheat, 25 cents per bushel ; barley, 20 
cents; rye, 15 cents; oats, 10 cents; Indian 
corn or maize, 10 cents ; wheat flour, 70 cents 
per 112 lbs.; Indian meal, 25 cents per 112 
lbs.; starch, 2 cents per lb.; pearl, or hulled 
barley, 2 cents per lb.; (potatoes, 10 cents per 
bushel.) 

CORN MARYGOLD {Chrysanthemum st^"- 
turn). In Scotland, this is called yellow gowans, 
quills, gools .; in Kent, England, yellow bottle; hi 
Norfolk, 6Mrf^«/i(i; midland counties, g'oZ(/s,g-o«/o's, 
or gou-ls; north of England, gowlans, goldens, 
gules. Linnaeus says there is a law in Denmark 
which obliges the farmers to extirpate this 
weed. He recommends the land to be manured 
in autumn, summer-fallowed, and harrowed in 
about five days after sowing. Martyn says it 
can only be eradicated by hand before the 
seeds ripen. It is abundant in grain and turnip 
fields, with its blue-green leaves, and broad, 
brilliant, yellow flowers. The stalks are 
round, stiff, and branched, growing two feet 
high. The leaves stand irregularly, and they 
are deeply indented at the sides, besides being 
long and very broad, smallest at their base, and 
growing broader as they advance to the end. 
The root is tapering and fibrous. {Smith's Eng. 
Elm: vol. iii. p. 450.) See Ox-Eyk Daisy. 

CORN MOTH {Tinea granella). Among the 
insects most injurious in their attacks on grain, 
when laid up in magazines, is the larva of this 
small moth (the mottled woollen moth of Ha- 
worth), the caterpillar of which is also called 
in England the white corn tvorm. The perfect 
moth measures, from the head to the tips of the 
wings, six or seven lines. The insect appears 
in that country as a moth in May, June, and 
.luly. It frequents granaries and other build- 
ings where grain is stored, sits at rest in the 
day-time, and only flies about at night. It is in 
the summer months, from May to August, and 
sometimes in September, that the larvas devour 
the different sorts of grain ; and they attack rye, 
oats, and barley, with the same zest as wheat. 
From September to May the larva is sought 
for in vain in the corn-heaps; it has retired 
into the cracks and fissures of the floor and 
walls, and moreover has concealed itself in its 
cocoon. It does not reappear till April or May 
and then in a very different form ; namely, as 
a moth, which flutters about the heaps of store- 
corn, and deposits upon them the invisible 
germ of future destruction. After a few days 

355 



CORN MOTH. 



CORN MOTH. 



have elapsed, small whitish worm maggots, or 
more properly speaking larvae, proceed from 
the eggs, and immediately penetrate into the 
grain, carefully closing up the opening with 
their white roundish excrement, which they 
glue together by a fine web. 

"The European grain-moth (Tinea granella), 
in its perfected state, is," says Dr. Harris, " a 
winged insect, between three and four-tenths 
of an inch long from the head to the tip of its 
wings, and expands six-tenths of an inch. It 
has a whitish tuft on its forehead ; its long and 
narrow wings cover its back like a sloping 
roof, are a little turned up behind, and are 
edged with a wide fringe. Its fore-wings are 
glossy like satin, and are marbled with white 
or gray, light brown, and dark brown or 
blackish spots, and there is always one dark 
square spot near the middle of the outer edge. 
Its hind wings are blackish. Some of these 
winged moths appear in May, others in July 
and August, at which times they lay their 
eggs ; for there are two broods of them in the 
course of the year. The young from the first 
laid eggs come to their growth and finish their 
transformations in six weeks or two months ; 
the others live through the winter, and turn to 
winged moths in the following spring. The 
young moth-worms do not burrow into the 
grain, as has been asserted by some writers, 
who seem to have confounded them with the 
Angoumois grain-worms; but, as soon as they 
are hatched, they begin to gnaw the grain and 
cover themselves with the fragments, which 
they line with a silken web. As they increase 
in size they fasten together several grains 
with their webs, so as to make a larger cavity, 
wherein they live. After a while, becoming 
uneasy, in their confined habitations, they 
come out, and wander over the grain, spinning 
their threads as they go, till they have found a 
suitable place wherein to make their cocoons. 
Thus, wheat, rye, barley, and oats, all of which 
they attack, will be found full of lumps of 
grains cemented together by these corn-worms, 
as they are sometimes called ; and when they 
are very numerous, the whole surface of the 
grain in the bin will be covered with a thick 
crust of webs and of adhering grains. These 
destructive corn-worms are really soft and 
naked caterpillars, of a cylindrical shape, 
tapering a little at each end, and are provided 
with sixteen legs, the first three pairs of which 
are conical and jointed, and the others fleshy 
and wart-like. When fully grown, they mea- 
sure four or five-tenths of an inch in length, 
and are of a light ochre or buff colour, with a 
reddish head. When about six weeks old they 
leave the grain, and get into cracks, or around 
the sides of corn-bins, and each one then makes 
itself a little oval pod or cocoon, about as large 
as a grain of wheat. The insects of the first 
brood, as before said, come out of their co- 
coons, in the winged form, in July and August, 
and lay their eggs for another brood: the 
others remain unchanged in their cocoons, 
through the winter, and take the chrysalis form 
ni March or April following. Three weeks 
afterwards, the shining brown chrysalis forces 
■.tself part way '-"ut of the cocoon, by the help 
356 



of some little sharp points on its tail, and b irsts 
open at the other end, so as to allow the moth 
therein confined to come forth. 

" The foregoing account will probably enable 
the readers of this essay to determine whether 
these destructive insects are found in our own 
country. From various statements, deficient 
however in exactness, that have appeared in 
some of our agricultural journals, I am led to 
think that this corn-moth,or an insect exactly like 
it in its habits, prevails in all parts of the coun- 
try, and that it has generally been mistaken for 
the grain-weevil, which it far surpasses in its de- 
vastations. Many years ago I remember to 
have seen oats and shelled corn (maize) af- 
fected in the way above described, and have 
observed seed-corn, hanging in the ears, to 
have been attacked by insects of this kind, the 
empty chrysalids of which remained sticking 
between the kernels ; but, for some time past, 
no opportunity for further investigation has 
offered itself. 

" There is another grain-moth, which, at va- 
rious times, has been found to be more destruc- 
tive in granaries, in some provinces of France, 
than the preceding kind. It is the Angoumois 
moth {Anaravipsis? cercalella). The winged 
moths of this group have only two visible 
feelers, and these are generally long, slender 
and curved over their heads. Their narrow 
wings most often overlap each other, and 
cover their backs horizontally when shut. The 
Angoumois grain moth probably belongs to the 
modern genus Jlnacampsis, a word derived from 
the Greek, and signifying recurved, in allusion 
to the direction of the feelers of the moths. In 
the year 1769, Colonel Landon Carter, of Sa- 
bine Hall, Virginia, communicated to the Ame- 
rican Philosophical Society at Philadelphia, 
some interesting ' observations concerning the 
fly-weevil that destroys wheat.' These were 
printed in the first volume of the 'Transactions' 
of the Society, and were followed by some re- 
marks on the subject by ' the Committee of 
Husbandry.' It is highly probable that this 
fly-weevil is no other than the destructive An- 
goumois grain-moth ; for Colonel Carter's ac- 
count of it, though deficient in some particu- 
lars, agrees essentially with what has been 
published respecting the European insect. Mr. 
E. C. Herrick has recently sent to me, from 
New Haven, Connecticut, some wheat, that has 
been eaten by moths precisely in the same way 
as grain is attacked by the Angoumois grain- 
moth; and a gentleman to whom this moth- 
eaten wheat was shown, informed me that he 
had seen grain thus affected in Maine. Unfor- 
tunately the insects contained in this wheat 
were dead when received, having perished in 
the chrysalis state ; had they lived to finish 
their transformations, I have good reason to 
think that they would have proved to be identi- 
cal with the Angoumois moths. The following 
particulars respecting the latter are chiefly 
gathered from Reaumur's ' Memoires,' and from 
a work by Duhamel du Monceau and Tillet, 
who were commissioned by the Academy of 
Sciences of Paris, in the year 1760, to inquire 
into the nature of the insect, on account of its 
ravages in Angoumois, a part of France wher 



CORN MOTH. 



CORN SALAD. 



it had long been known, and had multiplied to 
an alarming extent. The Angoumois moth, or 
Anacumpsis ccrealdla, in its perfected state, is a 
four-winged insect, about three-eighths of an 
inch long, when its wings are shut. It has a 
pair of tapering curved feelers, turned over its 
head. Its upper wings are narrow, of a light 
brown colour, without spots, and have the 
lustre of satin ; they cover the body horizon- 
tally above, but droop a little at the sides. The 
lower wings and the rest of the body are ash- 
coloured. This moth lays its eggs, which 
vary in number from sixty to ninety, in clus- 
ters, on the ears of wheat, rye, and barley, most 
often while these plants are growing in the 
field, and the ears are young and tender; some- 
times also on stored grain in the autumn. 
Hence it appears that they breed twice a year; 
the insects from the eggs laid in the earl}' part 
of summer, coming to perfection and providing 
for another brood of moth-worms in the autumn. 
The little worm-like caterpillars, as soon as 
they are hatched, disperse, and each one se- 
lects a single grain, into which it burrows im- 
mediately at the most tender part, and remains 
concealed therein after the grain is harvested. 
It devours the mealy substance within the hull ; 
and this destruction goes on so secretly, that it 
can only be detected by the softness of the 
grain or the loss of its weight. When fully 
grown this caterpillar is not more than one- 
fifth of an inch long. It is of a white colour, 
with a brownish head; and it has six small 
jointed legs, and ten extremely small wart-like 
projlegs. Duhamel has represented it as 
having two little horns just behind the head, 
and two short bristles at the end of its tapering 
bod)'. Having eaten out the heart of the grain, 
which is just enough for all its wants, it spins 
a silken web or curtain to divide the hollow, 
lengthwise, into two unequal parts, the smaller 
containing the rejected fragments of its food, 
and the larger cavity serving instead of a co- 
coon, wherein the insect undergoes its trans- 
formations. Before turning to a chrysalis it 
gnaws a small hole nearly or quite through the 
hull, and sometimes also through the chaft'y 
covering of the grain, through which it can 
make its escape easily when it becomes a 
winged moth. The insects of the first, or sum- 
mer brood, come to maturity in about three 
weeks, remain but a short time in the chrj'salis 
state, and turn to winged moths in the autumn, 
and at this time may be found, in the evening, 
in great numbers, laying their eggs on the 
grain stored in barns and granaries. The 
moth-worms of the second brood remain in the 
grain through the winter, and do not change to 
winged insects till the following summer, when 
they come out, fly into the fields in the night, 
and lay their eggs on the young ears of the 
growing grain. When damaged grain is sown, 
it comes up very thin ; the infected kernels 
never sprout, but the insects lodged in them 
remain alive, finish their transformations in the 
field, and in due time come out of the ground 
in the winged form. 

"It has been proved by experience that the 
ravages of the two kinds of grain-moths, whose 
history has been now given, can be efiectually 



checked by drying the damaged gram in an 
oven or kiln; and that a heat of one hundred 
and sixty-seven degrees, by Fahrenheit's ther- 
mometer, continued during twelve hours, will 
kill the insects in all their forms. Indeed, the 
heat may be reduced to one hundred and four 
degrees, with the same eff"ect, but the grain 
must then be exposed to it for the space of two 
days. The other means, that have been em- 
ployed for the preservation of grain from these 
destructive moths, it is unnecessary to de- 
scribe ; they are probably well known to most 
of our farmers and millers, and are rarely so 
effectual as the process above mentioned." 
{Harris's Treatise on Insects.) 

From these considerations, the means which 
the agriculturist must employ to secure his 
grain from so dangerous an enemy, are clearly 
deducible. First of all, the lofts, before the 
corn is placed in them, must be carefully ex- 
amined, and the cocoons, if any are discover- 
ed, got rid of. Sprinkling the floor with i» 
mixture of strong white wine vinegar and salt, 
before laying up the corn, is strongly to be re- 
commended. Sweeping the floor and walls 
thoroughly should not be neglected; and the 
dust should be removed immediately, in order 
that the larvae may not find their way back into 
the corn-heaps. Common salt will also purify 
the infested grain. One of the surest remedies 
appears to be a free ventilation, by means of 
an artificial degree of cold, as the larvffi can 
only live in a temperature of 55° to 60° of Fahr. 
Bats and spiders are the principal natural ene- 
mies of the corn-moth, and some small birds 
also feed on them. See Grais Weevil. (Trea- 
tise on Insects, ^c, by J. and M. Loudon.) 

CORN POPPY (Pr.paver rhwus). PI. 10, s. 
Indifferently called red-poppy, corn rose, cop- 
rose, head-wark, red-weed, red-mailkes, &;c. A 
troublesome weed in corn fields. Annual, 
flowering from June to July. Beautiful varie- 
ties of this species, with semi-double flowers, 
variegated with rose-colour and white, are 
easily cultivated for ornament, but liable to de- 
generate in luxuriance. (Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. 
iii. p. 11 ; Sinclair's Weeds, p. 46.) See Poppt, 
Field. 

CORN SALAD, or LAMB'S LETTUCE 
(Fcdia o/i^ona. Smith ; Valeriana locusta, Lin). 
A well-known annual weed in corn fields and 
light cultivated ground, which probably took 
its common English name from the circum- 
stance of the plants appearing in flower about 
the time that lambs are dropped. There is a 
second species (F. dentata), oval fruited corn 
salad. The common variety is cultivated for 
winter and spring salads, and for this purpose 
has been long known. The first dish formerly 
brought to table was a red herring set in a corn 
salad. The plant will flourish in any soil that 
is not particularly heavy. It is propagateil by 
seed, sown in February and the two following 
months, and once a month during the summer; 
but it is not so palatable during this season. 
Lastly, during August and early in September, 
the plants from which will be fit for use Iii 
early spring, or during the winter if mild. The 
seed may be sown in drills six inches apfart, or 
broadcast, and raked in. Keep them free from 

357 



CORN WEEVIL. 



COTTAGES. 



weeds by frequent hoeings, previously thinned 
to four inches asunder. They should always 
be eaten quite young. In summer, the whole 
plant may be cut, as it soon advances to seed 
at this season ; but in spring and winter the 
cuter leaves only should be gathered. For the 
production of seed some of the spring-raised 
plants must be left ungathered. They flower 
in June, and perfect their seed during the two 
following months. (G. W.Johnson's Kitch.Gard.; 
Smithes Eng. Flor. vol. i. p. 44 ; Sinclair's Weeds, 
p. 54.) 

CORN WEEVIL (Calandra granaria, Clair- 
ville ; Curculio granaria, Linn.). This is an- 
other extremely injurious insect to grain. See 
Grain Weevil. 

CORNS, IN HORSES' FEET. This dis- 
ease is produced by some hard substance press- 
ing on the sole at the quarters, as from shoes 
left on till the heels become buried in the hoof; 
the fibrous substance which lies between the 
sensible foot and the absolute horny hoof be- 
comes inflamed by the pressure, and the infla- 
mation produces a hardness of the spot, simi- 
lar, if I may so express it, to a knot in a piece 
of soft timber. Palliate the evil as well as you 
can, by keeping the hoof constantly pared away 
between the corn and the ground, but do not 
wound in your vain endeavours to cut it out; 
avoid the hot irons, &c.; let a bit of sponge be 
softly put in, merely to keep out gravel and 
keep the spot moist ; and when the season ar- 
rives, turn the horse out without any shoes, 
into a soft marshy place, where his feet must 
be in a constant moist state for three months 
at least: by that time the hoof will be altogether 
renewed, the diseased part will have grown out, 
and if there is no new injury, there will be no 
new corns. (E. Mavmell. See also. Lib. Use. 
Ktww. The Hohse, p. 305. 

CORONET-BONE. The second of the con- 
solidated phalanges of the horse's foot. 

COSSART, or COSSET (It. cassiccio, from 
casa, the house). A lamb left by the death of 
its dam before it is capable of providing for 
itself; or a lamb taken from a ewe that brings 
more than one. The term is also applied to a 
colt, calf, &c. and sometimes written cot-lamb. 

COSTIVENESS. In farriery, a complaint 
to which horses are often subject, occasioned 
sometimes by violent or hard exercise, espe- 
cially in hot weather; and at other times by 
standing long at hard meat without grass or 
other cleansing diet, and with very little ex- 
ercise. 

COTTAGES. These for labourers are com- 
monly constructed merely with a regard to 
economy ; the comfort and health of their fu- 
ture tenants being too often disregarded. Sych 
cottages should never consist of less than two 
bedrooms, and a kitchen, and outhouse. They 
will be found to be considerably more healthy 
with wooden floors, raised above the level of 
the surrounding ground. They should be well 
furnished with windows, and the ceilings of 
the rooms of a fair height, eight or nine feet 
will not be too much to allow; they should 
have as good gardens as possible. The plans 
for their formation, and the materials of which 
>,Aey aie composed, must vary with the locality. 
358 



Mr. Gillespie has given one for a cottage with 
a roof without wood, which he asserts could be 
built in Scotland for 30Z. (Com. Board of jigr. 
vol. iv. p. 469.) There is also an essay by 
Mr. Smith, on cottages for the labouring classes, 
which may be consulted with advantage 
(Trans. High. Soc. vol. iv. p. 205), and on cot- 
tage windows (Quart. Journ. of Agr, p. 116), 
and also on cottage premiums, and on the cot- 
tages built on the estate of Lord Roseberry. 
(Trans. High. Soc. vol. vi. p. 527.) 

By the erection of small, comfortable cot- 
tages on poor waste lands, and the allotment 
to each of a few acres of land, a field is opened 
for the rapid recovery by the spade of barren 
lands, and the profitable employment of the 
landowner's capital, too little understood. By 
merely deepening and mixing the soil, the cot- 
tager can bring into cultivation lands, which 
seem to defy all the powers of even the subsoil 
plough. 

The following information relative to the 
best modes of building cheap cottages is from 
a report made to Congress by Henry L. Ells- 
worth, see pp. 55 — 57. 

"After selecting a suitable spot of ground, as 
near the place of building as practicable, let a 
circle of ten feet or more be described. Let the 
loam be removed, and the clay dug up one foot 
thick, or, if clay is not found on the spot, let it 
be carted in to that depth. Any ordinary clay 
will answer. Tread this clay over with cattle, 
and add some straw cut six or eight inches long. 
After the clay is well tempered with working it 
with the cattle, the material is duly prepared 
for the making of brick. A mould is then 
formed of pfank, of the size of the brick de- 
sired. In England, they are usually made 
eighteen inches long, one foot wide, and nine 
inches thick. I have found the more conve- 
nient size to be one foot long, seven inches 
wide, and five inches thick. The mould should 
have a bottom. The clay is then placed in the 
moulds in the same manner that brick moulds 
are ordinarily filled. A wire or piece of iron 
hoop will answer very well for striking off" the 
top. One man will mould about as fast as an- 
other can carry away, two moulds being used 
by him. The bricks are placed upon the level 
ground, where they are suffered to dry two days, 
turning them up edgewise the second day, and 
then packed up in a pile, protected from the 
rain, and left to dry ten or twelve days, during 
which time the foundation of the building can 
be prepared. If a cellar is desired, this must 
be formed of stone or brick, one foot above the 
surface of the ground. For cheap buildings 
on the prairie, wood sills, twelve or fourteen 
inches wide, may be laid on piles or stones. 
This will form a good superstructure. Where 
lime and small stones abound, grout made of 
those materials (lime and stones) will answer 
very well. 

" In all cases, however, before commencing 
the walls for the first story, it is very desirable, 
as well in this case as in walls of brick, to lay 
a single course of slate ; this will intercept the 
dampness so often rising in the walls of brick 
houses. The wall is laid by placing the brick 
lengthwise, thus making the wall one foot thick. 



COTTAGES. 



COTTAGES. 



Ordinary clay, such as is used for clay mortar, 
will suffice, though a weak mortar of sand and 
lime, when these articles are cheap, is recom- 
mended as affording a more adhesive material 
for the plaster. The wall may safely be car- 
ried up one story, or two or three stories ; the 
division walls may be seven inches, just the 
width of the brick. The door and window 
frames being inserted as the wall proceeds, the 
building is soon raised. The roof may be 
shingles or thatch. In either case, it should pro- 
ject over the sides of the house, and also over the tivo 
ends, at least two feet, to guard the walls from verti- 
cal rains. The exterior wall is plastered with 
good lime mortar, and then with a second coat 
pebble-dashed. The inside is plastered without 
dashing. The floor may be laid with oak 
boards, slit, five or six inches wide, and laid 
down without jointing or planing, if they are 
rubbed over with a rough stone after the rooms 
are finished. Doors of a cheap and neat ap- 
pearance may be made by taking two single 
boards of the length or width of the doors ; 
placing these vertically, they will fill the space. 
Put a wide batten on the bottom and a narrow 
one on the top, with strips on the side, and a 
strip in the middle. This door will be a batten 
door, but presenting two long panels on one 
side and a smooth surface on the other. If a 
porch or verandah is wanted, it may be roofed 
with boards laid with light joints and covered 
with a thick paper dipped in tar, and then add- 
ing a good coat, after sprinkling it with sand 
from a sand-box or other dish with small holes. 

" Houses built in this way are dry, warm in 
winter, and cool in summer, and furnish no re- 
treat for vermin. Such houses can be made 
by common labourers, if a little carpenter's work 
is excepted, in a very short time, with a small 
outlay for materials, exclusive of floors, win- 
dows, doors, and roof. 

" The question will naturally arise, will the 
wall stand against the rain and frost 1 I answer, 
they have stood well in Europe, and the Hon. 
Mr. Poinsett remarked to me that he had seen 
them in South America, after having been erect- 
ed three hundred years. Whoever has noticed 
the rapid absorption of water by a brick that has 
been burned, will not wonder why brick walls 
are damp. The burning makes the brick po- 
rous, while the unburnt brick is less absorbent; 
but it is not proposed to present the unburnt 
brick to the weather. Whoever has erected a 
building with merchantable brick will at once 
perceive the large number of soft and yellow 
brick, partially burned, that it contains — brick 
that would soou yield to the mouldering influ- 
ence of frost and storms. Such brick are, 
however, placed within, beyond the reach of 
rain, and always kept dry. A good cabin is 
made by a single room twenty feet square. A 
better one is eighteen feet wide and twenty-four 
feet long, cutting off eight feet on one end for 
two small rooms, eight by nine each. 

"How easily could a settler erect such a cabin 
on the Western prairie, where clay is usually 
found about fifteen inches below the surface, 
and where stone and lime are often both very 
cheap. The article of brick for chimneys is 
found to be quite an item of expense in wood- 
houses. Id these mud houses no brick are 



needed, except for the top of the chimneys, the 
oven, and casing of the fireplace — though this 
last might be well dispensed with. A cemem, 
to put around the chimneys, or to fill any other 
crack, is easily made by a mixture of one part 
of sand, two of ashes, and three of clay. This 
soon hardens, and will resist the weather. A 
little lard or oil may be added, to make the 
composition still harder. 

" Such a cottage will be as cheap as a log 
cabin, less expensive than pine buildings, and 
durable for centuries. I have tried the experi- 
ment in this city by erecting a building eighteen 
by fifty-four feet, two stories high, adopting the 
different suggestions now made. Although 
many doubted the success of the undertaking, 
all nov/ admit it has been very successful, and 
presents a convenient and comfortable build- 
ing, that appears well to public view, and oilers 
a residence combining as many advantages i»s 
a stone, briak, or wood house presents. I will 
add what Loudon says in his most excellent 
work, the Encyclopedia of Agriculture, pp. 74 
and 75 : 

"' The great art in building an economudl 
cottage is to employ the kind of materials and 
iabour which are cheapest in the given locality. 
In almost every part of the world the cheapest 
article of which the walls can be made will be 
found to be the earth on which the cottage 
stands, and to make good walls from the earth 
is the principal art of the rustic or primitive 
builder. Soils, with reference to building, may 
be divided into two classes : clays, loams, and 
all such soils as can neither be called gravels 
nor sands, and sands and gravels. The former, 
whether they are stiff or free, rich or poor, 
mixed with stones, or free from stones, may 
be formed into walls in one of these modes, 
viz., in the pise manner, by lumps moulded in 
boxes, and by compressed blocks. Sandy and 
gravelly soils may be always made into excel- 
lent walls, by forming a frame of boards, leav- 
ing a space between the boards of the intended 
thickness of the wall, and filling this with 
gravel mixed with lime mortar, or, if this 
cannot be got, with mortar made of clay and 
straw. 

" ' In all cases, when walls, either of this 
class or the former, are built, the foundations 
should be of stone or brick, and they should be 
carried up at least a foot above the upper sur- 
face of the platform. 

'"We shall here commence by giving one 
of the simplest modes of construction, from a 
work of a very excellent and highly estimable 
individual, Mr. Denson, of Walerbeach, Cam- 
bridgeshire, the author of the Peasant's Voice, 
who built his own cottage in the manner de 
scribed below : 

"'Mode of building the mud imlls of cottages tn 
Cambridgeshire.— After a labourer has dug a 
sufficient quantitv of clay for his purpose, he 
works it up with straw ; he is then provided 
with a frame eighteen inches in length, six 
deep, and from nine to twelve inches in diame- 
ter, 'in this frame he forms his lumps, in the 
same manner that a brickmaker forms his 
bricks ; they are then packed up to dry by the 
weather ; that done, they are fit for the use, a» 
a substitute for bricks. On laying the founda 

359 



COTTAGE-CHEESE. 



COW-BANE, SPOTTED. 



tion of a cottage, a few layers of brick are ne- 
cessary, to prevent the lumps from contracting 
a damp from the earth. The fireplace is lined 
and the oven is built with bricks. I have 
known cottagers, where they could get the 
grant of a piece of ground to build on for them- 
selves, erect a cottage of this description at a 
cost from £15 to £30. I examined one that 
was nearly completed, of a superior order: it 
contained two good lower rooms and a cham- 
ber, and was neatly thatched with straw. It is 
a warm, firm, and comfortable building, far su- 
perior to the one I live in ; and my opinion is, 
that it will last for centuries. The lumps are 
laid with mortar, they are then plastered, and 
on the outside once roughcast, which is done 
by throwing a mixture of water, lime, and 
small stones, against the walls, before the 
plaster is dry, which gives them a very hand- 
some appearance. The cottage I examined, 
cost £33, and took nearly one thousand lumps 
to complete it. A labourer will make that 
number in two days. The roofs of cottages 
of this description are precisely the same as 
when built with bricks or with a wooden frame. 
Cow-house sheds, garden walls, and partition 
fence, are formed with the same materials ; but 
in all cases the tops are covered with straw, 
which the thatchers perform in a very neat 
manner.' " {Benson's Peasant's Voice, p. 31.) 

COTTAGE-CHEESE. See Whet Butter. 

COTTON-GRASS (Eriophorum. Ital. co- 
tone; Fr. colon). A perennial native genus of 
grasses, comprising seven species, which have 
no particular merit to warrant their recom- 
mendation for the purpose of the agriculturist ; 
their productive and nutritive powers being 
very inferior. Sinclair gives us the result of 
his experiments on two sorts, the common long- 
leaved cotton-grass {E. angusti folium), and the 
hare's-tail, or sheathed cotton-grass (£. vagi- 
natum.) 

COTTON PLANT. See Gosstpicm. 

COTTON TREE (Populus argentea). See 

POPLAB. 

COTTON-WOOD (Populus Canadensis). See 

POPLAH. 

COTTON, WILD (Jsclcpias Sy7iaca), popu- 
larly called silk-weed and swallow-wort. An Ame- 
rican plant growing in low grounds and on 
road-sides, to the height of three or four feet. 
{Flora Ccstrica.) 

COTYLEDON. The seed leaf See Botany. 

COUCH, or CREEPING WHEAT GRASS 
{Triticum repens, PI. 10, i.) Named from the 
French coucher, to lie down. Sometimes called 
dog-grass and knot-grass. Until of late years, 
when botanical science has afforded us better 
information, it was generally supposed that 
all couch or twitch was the roots of one spe- 
cies of grass. But many persons observed that 
some of these roots, on wet soils, were black 
and much smaller, and they had locally ob- 
tAmed the name of black twitch. This, on soils 
where it prevails, is much worse than the other, 
because it is wiry and small, and not so easily 
discharged from the soil ; it is also more brittle, 
and by harrowing breaks short. This is the 
.dgrostis repens. There are two Qther grasses 
■which have strong creeping roots, and are in- 
differently called couch : these are the creep- 
360 



ing-rooled soft grass (Hokus mollis), and the 
smooth-stalked meadow grass (Poa pratensis). 
There is but one way of destroying couch, and 
that is by ploughing up the soil and pulverizing 
it. (Sinclair's Weeds, p. 27.) See Agrostis Re- 
pens. Couch or quitch grass, or creeping triti- 
cum, is a troublesome perennial, fortunately but 
little known in the United States. Dr. Darling- 
ton has only been able to find it in one place, 
the Weston school farm, in Chester county, 
Pennsylvania. (See Flora Cestrica.) 

COUGH (Goth, kueff, a catarrh ; kof, suffo- 
cation ; Dutch, A:mc/i). in farriery, a convulsive 
motion of the lungs, being an effort of natur^ 
to throw up some offending matter from 
the air tubes. This is best treated, in mild 
cases, by cold bran mashes with linseed. But 
coughs arise from so many different causes 
that it is impossible to prescribe any general 
remedy. 

COULTER OF A PLOUGH. See Plough. 

COUNTER. In horsemanship, the breast 
of a horse, or that part of his fore-hand which 
lies between the shoulders and under the 
neck. 

COUPLES. A term applied to ewes and 
lambs. Couple is also a chain or tie that 
holds dogs together. 

COUPLINGS, or CUPLINGS. Thongs of 
untanned leather, or other material, which are 
used to connect the handle or handstaff and 
swiple of a flail. 

COVER, or COVERT (Fr. couvrir). A term 
applied to a place sheltered, not open or ex- 
posed. In sportsman's phrase, the cover is the 
chosen resort of the fox for kennelling; and 
such as lie high and dry are seldom without 
one or more, particularly if the underwood be 
thick and plenty. Artificial covers are often 
formed of broom and gorse, intermixed. 
(Blaine's Rural Sports, p. 452.) 

COVEY (Fr. couvee, from the Lat. cubo). 
Provincially applied to a cover of furze, &c., 
for game. It is also applied to an old bird 
with her young ones, but is generally used to 
designate a number of partridges or other 
game. 

COW (Sax. cu; Dutch, koe ; Pers. goto). 

SG6 4.TTLE 

COW-BANE, WATER, or WATER HEM- 
LOCK (Cicula virosa). A perennial, fetid, poi- 
sonous aquatic herb, found in ditches, and 
about the margins of rivers, not very common. 
Root tuberous, hollow. Stems two or three 
feel high, hollow, leafy, branched, furrowed. 
Leaves bright green, tapering at each end, 
from one to two inches long. Umbels large, 
bearing purplish flowers ; fruit roundish, 
smooth. This is a fatal plant to cattle, if 
they happen to meet with it before it rises out 
of the water, in which state only they will eat 
the young leaves. (Eng. Flor. vol. ii. p. 62). 

COW-BANE, SPOTTED (Cicit-ta vmculata}. 
Water hemlock, a perennial root frequently 
found in low grounds and the margins of 
streams in Pennsylvania and other Middle 
States. The mature fruit of this plant is 
highly aromatic, — the odour something be- 
tween that of aniseed and the kernels of the 
black walnut. The root is an active poison ; 
and numerous lives have been lost, for want 



COW-CLAGS. 



CRAB TREE. 



of sufficient botanical knowledge to distinguish 
the plant from the oxmorhiza or sweet cicely- 
The herb is also destructive to cattle, when 
eaten by them. There is one other species in 
the United States. (Flor. Cestric.) 

COW-CLAGS. A provincial name for the 
clotted lumps of dirt that hang to the buttocks 
of cattle and other animals. 

COW-HERD. A person whose office it is 
to attend upon the herds of cows in places 
where they run in common fields. 

COW-HOUSE. See Cattle Shed. 

CO WISH. A new species of plant, called 
biscuit-root, found growing on dry land in the 
valley of the Columbia river. Its size is about 
that of a walnut, though sometimes larger. Its 
taste resembles that of the sweet potato, and it 
is prepared for food by the same process as 
the cammas, in which state it forms a tolerable 
substitute for bread. 

COW-KEEPING. The business of keeping 
cows for the advantage of the milk, by dispos- 
ing of it in large towns. The principal cow- 
keepers of the British metropolis have their 
establishments in the suburbs, where they are 
connected with pasture fields, in which their 
animals are turned out a portion of every day 
throughout the year, when practicable. The 
cows are fed in the house with grains, mangel- 
wurzel, hay, tares, &c., and as the animals get 
air and exercise, the milk may be considered 
wholesome. But there are other cow-keepers 
in the metropolis, who confine their cows in 
back houses, and even dark cellars, and while 
they feed them with rich food, give them no 
exercise ; hence, the milk of such cows can- 
not be considered wholesome. (Harleian 
Dairy System ; Brit. Husb.) See Cattle, 

COW PARSNIP, or HOG WEED (Hera- 
cleum sphondylium). A biennial pasture weed, 
which in England is found in hedges, the bor- 
ders of fields, and rather moist meadows, very 
common. Root tap-shaped, whitish, aromatic, 
sweetish, and rather mucilaginous. Stem four 
to six feet high, erect, branched, leafy, fur- 
rowed, and hollow. The leaves proceed from 
a large membrane or sheath. The flowers, 
which grow in large umbels, are either white 
or reddish ; the fruit is abundant, and light 
brown. The whole plant is wholesome and 
nourishing food for cattle, and is gathered in 
Sussex for fattening hogs, hence its name of 
hog-weed. It is also frequently known by the 
name of wild parsnip, meadow parsnip, and 
madrep. (Sinclair's Weeds, p. 65 ; Eng. Flora, 
vol. ii. p. 102.) 

The only ascertained species of this genus 
found in the United States is the Heracleum la- 
natam, or woolly cow parsnip, a perennial root, 
the stem of which sometimes grows six or 
eight feet high. It is frequent in low grounds 
in Pennsylvania. See Flor. Cest. 

COW PEA. A kind of pea much culti- 
vated in the Southern States as a field crop, 
and substitute for clover. See Peas. 

COW-POX. In farriery, is a disease aflfect- 
ing the teats of cows. This disease appears 
in the form of small bluish vesicles surrounded 
by inflammation, elevated at the edge and de- 
pressr'd in the centre, and containing a limpid 
fluid. By the use of the virus of this disease, 
46 



has originated the present excellent system of 
vaccination. 

COWSLIP, AMERICAN {Dodccatheon 
Meadia). A hardy perennial from South Ame- 
rica, loving shade and moisture. It blows in 
April and May. Propagated by seed and ofi"- 
sets. Sow the seed in pots in autumn. Phmt 
out the following autumn. 

COWSLIP, THE COMMON, or PAIGLE 
(Primula veris). A native English perennial 
weed, growing in meadows and pastures, 
chiefly on a clay or chalky soil. It produces 
sweet-scented yellow flowers, which appear in 
April, and are used for making cowslip wine 
or balsamic tea. Its roots have a fine odour, 
similar to 'that of anise, and give additional 
strength to ale or beer, when immersed in the 
cask. The leaves and flowers are excellent 
food for silk-worms, and are eaten eagerly by 
cattle. The leaves are also used as a pot- 
herb, and in salads. 

The flowers, leaves, and roots are all medi- 
cinal portions of the cowslip, and are made 
into tea, wine, and conserve. It is anodyne in 
its quality, and the ancient writers upon herbs 
speak highly of its effects ; but their opinions 
have lost their value by time. (Eng. Flora, 
vol. i. p. 271 ; WiUich's Dom. Encyc.) 

COWSLIP OF JERUSALEM, or LUNG- 
WORT PULMONARIA (Fubnonaria offici- 
nalis). This plant is perennial and flowers in 
May. It grows eight or ten inches high, with 
long, broad, hairy leaves, of a deep green, 
spotted on the upper side with white spots. 
The stalks are slender and hairy, with small 
leaves upon them. The flowers are reddish 
in the bud but blue when blown, small, grow- 
ing in clusters at the top of its stalk. The 
root is fibrous. The leaves have been used 
medicinally, from the idea that they resemble 
the lungs, and therefore must be useful in dis- 
ease of those organs. They are inert, and 
consequently useless. Several species of 
lungwort are found indigenous to the United 
States. 

COW-TIE. A provincial term applied to a 
short thick hair rope, with a wooden nut at 
one end and an eye in the other, being used 
for tying the hind legs of the cows while 
milking. 

COW-WHEAT (Melampyrum pratcnse). PI. 
7, q. A plant cultivated in Flanders for feeding 
stock. 

There are some species of this plant found 
.in the United States. One has been called by 
botanists American melampyrum. This is found 
in dry, hilly woodlands, and on mica-slate hills, 
where it flowers in June and July. A narrow- 
leaved variety is abunuant m the pines of New 
Jersey. (Flora Ccstnca.) 

CRAB TREE, or WILD APPLE TREE 
(Pyrtis malus). There are in England several 
varieties among the wild crab.;, some of which 
are of excellent flavour when baked with plenty 
of sugar, even surpassing cultivated apples. 
(Eng. Flora, vol. ii. p. 362.) Crab apples and 
sloes are the only fruits naturally belonging to 
the soil, and both are medicinal. The ex 
pressed juice of any of them, called verjuice, 
kept by good housewives in the country, being 
excellent as an astringent gargle in sore throats 
2H 361 



CRAB APPLE. 



CRANBERRY. 



and in thrush and ulceration of the mouth and 
gums. It is sometimes mixed with beer-yeast, 
and applied outwardly, in inflammations, bad 
legs, burns, sprains, and scalds ; but cold water 
and rest are better. 

CRAB APPLE (Mains coronaria). This 
species of wild apple tree is found in North 
America, and at the time Michaux wrote his 
Sylva Americana, he says its nature had not 
been modified by cultivation. The wild apple 
tree of Europe, in a long series of years, has 
yielded a great number of species and varie- 
ties of fruit, which, in France alone, amount 
to nearly three hundred. Except the district 
of Maine, the state of Vermont, and the upper 
part of New Hampshire, the crab apple is 
found, on both sides of the mountains, through- 
out the United States : but it appears to be 
most multiplied in the Middle States, and espe- 
cially in the back parts of Pennsylvania and 
of Virginia. It abounds, above all, in the 
Glades, which is the name given to a tract 15 
or 18 miles wide, on the summit of the AUe- 
ghanies, along the road from Philadelphia to 
Pittsburgh. 

The ordinary height of the crab apple tree 
is 15 or 18 feet, with a diameter of 5 or 6 
inches ; but it is sometimes found 25 or 30 feet 
high, and 12 or 15 inches in diameter. The 
two stocks which I found by measurement to 
be of this size, stood in a field which had long 
been under cultivation, and this circumstance 
may have contributed to their extraordinary 
growth. They were insulated trees that in ap- 
pearance exactly resembled the common apple 
tree. I have universally remarked that the 
crab apple grows most favourably in cool and 
moist places, and on fertile soils. 

The leaves of this tree are oval, smooth on 
the upper surface, and, when fully developed, 
very distinctly toothed : some of them are im- 
perfectly three-lobed. While young, they have 
a bitter and slightly aromatic taste, which 
leads to the belief that, with the addition of 
sugar, they would make an agreeable tea. Like 
the common apple tree, this species blooms 
very early in the spring. Its flowers are white 
mingled with rose colour, and are collected in 
corymbs ; they produce a beautiful effect, and 
diff'use a delicious odour, by which, in the 
glades where the tree is abundant, the air is 
perfumed to a great distance. The apples, 
which are suspended by short peduncles, are 
small, green, intensely acid, and very odorife- 
rous. Some farmers make cider of them, 
which is said to be excellent: they make very 
fine sweet-meats also, by the addition of a large 
quantity of sugar. 

No attempts have been made in the United 
States to improve the fruit of the crab apple 
tree, nor any experiments of uniting it, by 
grafting, with the species imported from Eu- 
rope. These species succeed so perfectly, and 
furnish such excellent new varieties, that much 
time would be spent upon the crab apple, with- 
out bringing it to as high a state of improve- 
ment. Perhaps it might be cultivated with ad- 
vantage for cider ; but, aside from its utility in 
this way, it must be regarded only as a tree 
highly agreeable for the beauty of its flowers 
and for the sweetness of its perfume. 

3ca 



CRAB-GRASS (Eleusine Indica). Dog's-tail 
grass. Wire grass. The grass described under 
these several names in the Flora Cestrica, 
makes a fine carpeting in yards, lanes, and 
foot-paths, flowering in the Middle States in 
August. Cattle and hogs are very fond of it, 
and it is recommended as making excellent 
hay. 

Another species of grass which in some 
places goes under the name of Crab-grass, is 
the Dlgitaria sanguinalis, or Finger-grass (see 
plate 7, /). This is a very troublesome an- 
nual in gardens and cultivated grounds, being 
very difficult to keep in subjection in the latter 
part of summer. (Flor. Cestrica.) 

CRACKS IN HEELS OF HORSES. In 
farriery, little clefts which are said to be 
sometimes constitutional, but more frequently 
owing to the want of cleanliness and proper 
attention. 

CRADLE. A frame consisting of long fin- 
gers arranged above a scythe, for the purpose 
of receiving the grain when harvesting. The 
scythe and cradle is comparatively a modern 
invention, by the aid of which a hand can cut 
five or six times as much grain as could be 
harvested in the same time with a sickle. 

CRANBERRY (Vaccinium oxyroccus). See 
Whortleherht. 

The species of Cranberry most commonly 
found in the United States is the Oxyroccus ma- 
crocarpus. It is an indigenous, low trailing 
vine, growing wild in bogs and meadows, bear- 
ing a beautiful red berry of an exceedingly 
sour, though agreeable taste, much used in do- 
mestic economy for tarts and sweet-meats. 
The cranberry, says Mr. Kenrick, of Boston, 
is a plant of easy culture; and with but little 
expense, not a doubt exists that meadows which 
are now barren wastes, or yield nothing bu' 
coarse herbage, might be converted into pro 
fitable cranberry fields. According to Loudon. 
Sir Joseph Banks, who obtained this plant 
from America, raised, in 1831, on a square 
of 18 feet each way, 3^ Winchester bushels, 
which is at the rate of 460 bushels to the 
acre. Any meadow will answer. Captain 
Henry Hall, of Barnstable, has cultivated the 
cranberry 20 years. They grow well on sandy 
bogs after draining; if the bogs are covered 
with brush, it is removed, but it is not neces- 
sary to remove the rushes, as the strong roots 
of the cranberry soon overpower them. It 
would be well if, previous to planting, the land 
could be ploughed ; but Capt. Hall usually 
spreads on beach sand, and digs holes four feet . 
asunder each way, the same distance as for 
corn ; the holes are, however, deeper. Into 
these holes, sods of cranberry roots are planted, 
and in the space of three years the whole ground 
is covered. The planting is usually performed 
in autumn. Mr. F. A. Hayden, of Lincolii, 
Mass., is stated to have gathered from his farm, 
in 1830, 400 bushels of cranberries, which 
brought him, in Boston market, §400. 

An acre of cranberries in full bearing will 
produce over 200 bushels ; and the fruit gene- 
rally sells in the markets of Boston for $1*50 
per bushel, and much higher than in former 
years. Although a moist soil is best suited to 
the plant, yet, with a suitable mixture of bog 



CRANE'S BILL. 



CRESS, INDIAN. 



earth, or mud, it will flourish, producing abun- 
dant crops, even in any dry soil. There is 
said to be a variety of cranberry in Russia of 
a superior size. 

Cranberries abound in vast quantities in the 
moist prairies in Michigan and some of the 
Western States. By means of a newly invented 
rake, very simple in its construction and not 
expensive, 40 bushels may be gathered by one 
man in a day; and a cargo of 1500 bushels 
has been sent to one of the Atlantic States, 
from the northern part of Indiana, in a flat- 
boat, at one time. The price which this pro- 
duct often commands in the markets of the 
cities along the Atlantic varies from $1 50 
even up to $2 50 or $3 50 per bushel. They 
can be gathered at the west at an expense of 
not more than 50 cents per bushel. The duty 
on them in England is not more than 2 cents 
per gallon by direct trade. 

The cranberry tree, or shrub, commonly 
called the Highbush Cranberry {Viburnum oxy- 
coccuni), is also indigenous to North America, 
and among other places in which it is found, 
are some of the western counties of New 
York. The blossoms are white, disposed in 
cymes, forming a flat surface from a common 
centre, and very beautiful. Its fruit is a berry 
about the size of the common cranberry, of a 
bright red colour, and very austere taste. 
They are valuable for pies, tarts, preserves, &c. 
The tree is propagated by seeds, layers, and 
suckers. (Kenrick^s Am. Orchardist.) 

It may, with great ease, be transferred from 
its native forest to the yard or garden, flourish- 
ing in every kind of soil, whether wet, dry, 
sand, or clay. The shrub so much resembles 
the snow-ball as to be distinguished from it 
with difficulty. The fruit is but little if any 
inferior in flavour to that of the swamp cran- 
berry, from which it differs in having a small 
pit or stone. For some purposes it is^ even 
preferable to the common cranberry. It grows 
in clusters which will remain on the bush all 
winter. 

In the valley of the Columbia river, a new 
species of bush-cranberry has been discovered, 
called Pambina. 

CRANE'S BILL (Geraniwn). A genus of 
plants comprising a large number of species, 
of which, according to Smith (Eng. Flor. vol. ii. 
p. 221), only thirteen are indigenous. The 
blue meadow crane's bill (G. pratense) is found 
in rich, rather moist pastures, and thickets, es- 
pecially in the hilly parts of England. It is a 
perennial, flowering in June and July; flowers, 
of a fine blue, often irregularly striped or 
blotched with white, sometimes entirely white. 
The species of crane's bill called Herb Robert 
(G. Robertianum,') possesses most medicinal 
virtues, and is found under hedges and in un- 
cultivated places, flowering all through the 
summer. The stalks, and indeed the whole 
plant, is often quite red, as are the flowers, and 
the fruit is long and slender, resembling a 
crane's bill, after which it is named. The 
leaves are large, divided into many parts, and 
stand in pairs at every joint of their long-footed 
stalks. It is a very powerful astringent, and 
may be given in any form, decocted fresh, or 



powdered when dry. Several indig<^noas spe- 
cies are found in the United States. 

CRAP. A local name in some places for 
darnel, and in others for buckwheat, 

CRAPULA. See Hotex. 

CREAM. A thick, unctuous, yellowish co. 
loured substance which collects on the surface 
of milk, when this is allowed to stand some 
time at rest. See Butteh. 

CREAM GAUGE, or GLASS. A graduated 
glass tube to ascertain the produce of cream- 
In a tube containing ten inches' depth of milk, 
every tenth of an inch will of course indicate 
one per cent, of cream. It may be used for 
many purposes, such as to ascertain the state 
of the animal's health, regular and quiet feed- 
ing, &c. {Quart. Journ. Agr. vol. ii. p. 245.) 

CREAM-SLICE. A sort of wooden knife, 
twelve or fourteen inches in length. 

CREOSOTE. A term derived from Greek 
words signifying " flesh preserver." It is the 
most important of the five new chemical pro- 
ducts obtained from wood-tar, by Dr. Reichen- 
bach. The other four, are Paraffinc, Evpione, Pi- 
camar, and Pittacal, none of which have, as yet, 
been applied to any use in the arts. Creosote 
may be prepared either from tar or from crude 
pyroligneous acid. Its flesh-preserving quality 
is rendered of little use, from the diflSculty of 
removing the rank flavour which it imparts. 

CRESS. See Ameiiicax Cress. 

CRESS, BITTER WINTER {Barbarea vul- 
garis). See WixTER Cress. 

CRESS, INDIAN, or MAJOR NASTURTI- 
UM {Tropaolum majus, diminutive of tropceum, 
a trophy; and T. minus). The major nasturti- 
um being the most productive, as well of flow- 
ers and leaves as of fruit, is the one that is 
usually cultivated in the kitchen garden; the 
fruit being used in pickling, and the flowers 
and leaves in salads and for garnishing. They 
will flourish in almost any soil, but the one in 
which they are most productive, is a light fresh 
loam. In a strong rich soil, the plants are 
luxuriant, but they aflfbrd fewer berries, and 
those of inferior flavour. They like an open 
situation. Sow from the beginning of March 
to the middle of May ; the earlier, however, the 
better. The seed may be inserted in a drill, 
two inches deep, along its bottom, in a single 
row, with a space of two or three inches be- 
tween every two, or they may be dibbled in at 
a similar distance and depth. The minor is 
likewise often sown in patches. The major 
should be inserted beneath a vacant paling, 
wall, or hedge, to which its stems may be 
trained, or in an open compartment with sticks 
inserted on each side. The runners at first 
require a little attention to enable them to climb, 
but they soon are capable of doing so unassist- 
ed. The minor either may trail along the 
ground, or be supported with short sticks. If 
water is not afforded during dry weather, tbey 
will not shoot so vigorously or be so produc- 
tive. They flower from June until the close 
of October. The fruit for pickling must bd 
gathered when of full size, and whilst green 
and fleshy, during August. For the production 
of seed, some plants should be left ungathered, 
as the first produced are not only the finest ui 

363 



CRESS. 

general, but are often the only ones that ripen. 
They should be gathered as they ripen, which 
they do from the close of August to the begin- 
ning of October. They must on no account 
be stored until perfectly dry and hard. The 
finest and soundest seed of the previous year's 
production should alone be sown ; if it is older, 
the plants are seldom vigorous. (G. W. John- 
son^s Kitchen Garden). 

CRESS, WALL, or ROCK CRESS (Jrabis). 
A genus of plants of very different habit from 
the last, of which the species are numerous, 
and chiefly natives of the northern hemisphere. 
There are six species described by Smith (Evg. 
Flor. vol. iii. p. 209), but the wall cress {Jra- 
bis thaUana) is preferred. All the species 
have a pungent flavour. The plants are adapt- 
ed for ornamenting rock work, and are propa- 
gated from seeds or cuttings. The wild sorts 
are found frequent on old walls, stony banks 
or rocks, dry sandy ground, and cottage roofs. 

CRESS, WATER (Nasturtium). There are 
several native species of water cress, which 
may be included in the following summary. 
Creeping yellow cress, annual yellow cress, 
amphibious yellow cress, or great water radish, 
and common water cress. They are branching 
herbs, almost invariably smooth, throwing out 
numerous radicles, and either altogether aqua- 
tic or at least growing in wet ground. (Eng. 
Flor. vol. iii. p. 191 — 5). Water cress {N. 
officinale) was seldom admitted as an object 
of cultivation, and then never to any extent, 
until Mr. Bradbury, of West Hyde, Herts, un- 
dertook its cultivation for the London market. 
Mr. Bradbury considers that there are three 
varieties, — the green-leaved, which is easiest 
cultivated ; small brown-leaved, which is the 
hardiest ; and the large brown-leaved, which is 
the best, having most leaf in proportion to the 
stalk, and is the only one that can well be culti- 
vated in deep waters. {Trans. Hart. Soc. Loud. 
vol. iv. p. 538.) The plants thrive best in a 
moderately swift stream, about an inch and a 
half deep, over a gravelly or chalky bottom, 
and the nearer its source the better: when there 
is choice, such situations, therefore, should be 
exclusively planted. If mud is the natural 
bottom, it should be removed, and gravel sub- 
stituted. The plants are to be set in rows, 
which is most conducive to their health and 
good flavour, inasmuch as that they are regu- 
larly exposed to the current of water, of which, 
if there is not a constant stream, they never 
thrive. In shallow water, as above mentioned, 
the rows may be made only eighteen inches 
apart, but in deeper currents from five to seven 
feet are sometimes necessary. The beds must 
be cleared and re-planted twice a year, for in 
the mud and weeds which quickly collect, the 
plants not only will not grow freely, but it is 
difficult to separate them ingathering; it is 
likewise rendered imperative by the heads be- 
coming small from frequent cutting. The 
times for planting and renewal are in succes- 
sional insertions during May and June, the 
plants from which will come into production 
in August ; and again from September to No- 
vember, those in the last month being ready in 
the spring. In renewing the plantations, the 
bed of the stream, commencing towards its 
364 



CRICKET. 

head, being cleared of mud and rubbish, from 
the mass of plants taken out the youngest and 
best rooted must be selected. These are re- 
turned into the stream, and retained in their 
proper order, by a stone placed on each. After 
the plants have been cut about three times, 
they begin to stock, and then the oftener they 
are cut the better. In summer they must be 
cut very, close. The situation being favour- 
able, they will yield a supply once in a week. 
In winter the water should be kept four or five 
inches deep ; this is easily effected, by leaving 
the plants with larger heads, which impedes 
the current. The shoots ought always to be 
cut off; breaking greatly injures the plants. 
{Trans. Hart. Lond. Soc. vol. iv. p. 537 — 42.) 

CRIB. In England sometimes applied to a 
rack for hay or straw for cattle, and sometimes 
to a manger for corn or chaff; also to a small 
enclosure in a cow-house or shed for calves or 
sheep. In the United States it is commonly 
used to designate the building or apartment in 
which Indian corn is stored in the ear. 

CRIB-BITING. A vice to which some 
horses are subject; consisting in their catch- 
ing hold of the manger, and it is said sucking 
in the air. It generally proceeds from a de- 
ranged state of the stomach, but it is sometimes 
brought on by uneasiness occasioned by dis- 
eases of the teeth, or by roughness in the per- 
son who currycombs them. {Brande.) There 
are several straps or muzzles in use to prevent 
crib-biting, one of the best being that invented 
by Mr. Stevv^art. {Blaine's Encyc. p. 318, 319.) 

CRICK. In farriery, is when a horse can- 
not turn his neck any way, and when thus af- 
fected he cannot take his meat from the ground 
without great pain. 

CRICKET. The common or hearth cricket 
{Gryllina). This insect in England frequents 
kitchens and bakers' ovens, on account of the 
warmth of those places. An easy method of 
destroying them is to place phials half full of 
beer or any other liquid near their holes, and 
they will crawl into them, and can then be 
easily taken. A hedgehog soon clears a kitchen. 

There are, as yet, no house-crickets in the 
United States, where the species inhabiting 
gardens and fields enter dwellings only by ac- 
cident. The American crickets belong to a 
group of insects {Achetadce) which naturalists 
have placed in the same class as the grasshop- 
pers and locusts. They are distinguished by 
having wing-covers horizontal, and furnished 
with a narrow, deflexed outer border; antennae 
long and tapering ; feet with not more than 
three joints, and two tapering downy bristles 
at the end of the hoAj, between which, in most 
of the females, is a long spear-pointed piercer. 

"There may be sometimes seen," says Dr. 
Harris, " in moist and soft ground, particularly 
around ponds, little ridges or hills of loose, 
fresh earth, smaller than those which are 
formed by moles. They cover little burrows, 
that usually terminate beneath a stone or clod 
of turf. These burrows are made and inhabit- 
ed by mole-crickets, which are among the most 
extraordinary of the cricket kind. The com- 
mon mole-cricket of this country is, when fully 
grown, about one inch and a quarter in length, 
of a light bay or fawn colour, and covered with 



CRICKET. 



CRICKET. 



a very short and velvet-like down. The wing- 
covers are not half the length of the abdomen, 
and the wings are also short, their tips, when 
folded, extending only about one-eighth of an 
inch beyond the wing-cavers. The fore-legs 
are admirably adapted for digging, being very 
short, broad, and strong; and the shanks, which 
are excessively broad, flat, and three-sided, 
have the lower side divided by deep notches 
into four finger-like projections, that give to 
this part very much the appearance and the 
power of the liand of a mole. From this simi- 
larity in structure, and from its burrowing 
habits, the insect receives its scientific name 
of Gryllotalpa, derived from Gryllus, the ancient 
name of the cricket, and Talpa, a mole ; and 
our common species has the additional name 
oi brevipennis, or short-winged, to distinguish it 
from the European species, which has much 
longer wings. Mole-crickets avoid the light of 
day, and are active chiefly during the night. 
They live on the tender roots of plants, and in 
Europe, where they infest moist gardens and 
meadows, they often do great injury by burrow- 
ing under the turf, and cutting off" the roots of 
the grass, and by undermining and destroying, 
in\his way, sometimes whole beds of cabbages, 
beans, and flowers. In the West Indies, ex- 
tensive ravages have been committed in the 
plantations of the sugar-cane by another spe- 
cies, Gryllotalpa didactyla, which has only two 
finger-like projections on the shin. The mole- 
cricket of Europe lays from two to three hun- 
dred eggs, and the young do not come to matu- 
rity till the third year ; circumstances both 
contributing greatly to increase the ravages of 
these insects. It is observed that, in proportion 
as cultivation is extended, destructive insects 
multiply, and their depredations become more 
serious. We may, therefore, in process of 
time, find mole-crickets in this country quite 
as much a pest as they are in Europe, although 
their depredations, have hitherto been limited 
to so small an extent as not to have attracted 
much notice. Should it hereafter become ne- 
cessary to employ means for checking them, 
poisoning might be tried, such as placing, in 
the vicinity of their burrows, grated carrots or 
potatoes mixed with arsenic. It is well known 
that swine will eat almost all kinds of insects, 
and that they are very sagacious in rooting 
them out of the ground. They might, therefore, 
be employed with advantage to destroy these 
and other noxious insects, if other means 
should fail. 

"Crickets are, in great measure, nocturnal 
and solitary insects, concealing themselves by 
day, and coming from their retreats to seek 
their food and their mates by night. There are 
some species, however, which diflJer greatly 
from the others in their social habits. These 
are not unfrequently seen during the day-time 
in great numbers, in paths and by the road-side ; 
but the other kinds rarely expose themselves 
to the light of day, and their music is heard 
only at night. With crickets, as with grass- 
hoppers, locusts, and harvest-flies, the males 
only are musical; for the females are not pro- 
vided with the instruments from which the 
sounds emitted by these different insects are 
produced. In the male cricket these make a 



part of the wing-covers, the horizontal and 
overlapping portion of which, near the thorax ■ 
is conve.:, and marked with large, strong, and 
irregularly curved veins. When the cricket 
shrills (we cannot say sings, for he has no 
vocal organs), he raises the wing-covers a little, 
and shuffles them together lengthwise, so that 
the projecting veins of one are made to grate 
against those of the other. The English name 
cricket, and the French iri-cri, are evidently 
derived from the creaking sounds of these in- 
sects. Mr. White, of Selborne, says that 'the 
shrilling of the field-cricket, though sharp and 
striduious.yet marvellously delights some hear- 
ers, filling their minds with a train of summer 
ideas of everything thatis rural, verdurous, and 
joyous ;' sentiments in which few persons, if 
an3% in America will participate ; for with us 
the creaking of crickets does not begin till 
summer is gone, and the continued and mono- 
tonous sounds, which they keep up luring the 
whole night, so long as autumn lasts, are both 
wearisome and sad. Where crickets abound, 
they do great injury to vegetation, eating the 
most tender parts of plants, and even devour- 
ing fruits and roots, whenever they can get 
them. Melons, squashes, and even potatoes 
are often eaten by them, and the quantity of 
grass that they destroy must be great, from the 
immense numbers of these insects which are 
sometimes seen in our meadows and fields. 
They may be poisoned in the same way as 
mole-crickets. Crickets are not entirely con- 
fined to a vegetable diet ; they devour other 
insects whenever they meet with and can over- 
power them. They deposit their eggs, which 
are numerous, in the ground, making holes for 
their reception with their long, spear-pointed 
piercers. The eggs are laid in the autumn, 
and do not appear to be hatched till the ensu- 
ing summer. The old insects, for the most 
part, die on the approach of cold weather ; but 
a few survive the winter, by sheltering them- 
selves under stones, or in holes secure from 
the access of water. 

"The scientific name of the genus that in- 
cludes the cricket is Acheta, and our common 
species is the Acheta abbreviata, so named from 
the shortness of its wings, which do not extend 
beyond the wing-covers. It is about three- 
quarters of an inch in length, of a black co- 
lour, with a brownish tinge at the base of the 
wing-covers, and a pale line on each side above 
the deflexed border. The pale line is most dis- 
tinct in the female, and is oftentimes entirely 
wanting in the male. 

" We have another species with very short 
or abortive wings ; it is entirely of a black co- 
lour, and measures six-tenths of an inch in 
length from the head to the end of the body. It 
may be called Achda nigra, the black cricket. 

" A third species, differing from these two in 
being entirely destitute of wings, and in having 
the wing-covers proportionally much shorter, 
and the last joint of the feelers (palpi) almost 
twice the length of the preceding joint, is fur- 
thermore distinguished from them by its greatly 
inferior size, and its different colouring. I: 
measures from three to above four-tenths of an 
inch in length, and varies in colour from dusky 
brown to rusty black, the wing-covers and hind- 
2 H 2 365 



CRICKET. 



CROW. 



most thighs being always somewhat lighter. In 
the brownish-coloured varieties, three longitu- 
dinal black lines are distinctly visible on the 
top of the head, and a black line on each side 
of the thorax, which is continued along the 
sides of the wing-covers to their tips. This 
black line on the wing-covers is never want- 
ing, even in the darkest varieties. The hind- 
most thighs have on the outside three rows of 
short oblique black lines, presenting somewhat 
of a twilled appearance. This is one of the 
social species, which, associated together in 
great swarms, and feeding in common, fre- 
quent our meadows and roadsides, and, so 
far from avoiding the light of day, seem to 
be quite as fond of it as others are of darkness. 
It may be called Achcta vittala, the striped 
cricket. 

"These kinds of crickets live upon the 
ground, and among the grass and low herbage; 
out there is another kind which inhabits the 
stems and branches of shrubs and trees, con- 
cealing itself during the daytime among the 
leaves or in the flowers of these plants. The 
males begin to be heard about the middle of 
August, and do not leave us until after the 
middle of September. Their shrilling is ex- 
cessively loud, and is produced, like that of 
other crickets, by the rubbing of one wing- 
cover against the other. These insects have 
been separated from the other crickets under 
the generical name of (Ecanthus, a word which 
means inhabiting flowers. They may be called 
climbing crickets, from their habit of mounting 
upon plants, and dwelling among the leaves 
and flowers. According to M. Salvi, the female 
makes several perforations in the tender stems 
of plants, and in each perforation thrusts two 
eggs quite to the pith. The eggs are hatched 
about midsummer, and the young immediately 
issue from their nests and conceal themselves 
among the thickest foliage of the plant. When 
arrived at maturity, the males begin their noc- 
turnal serenade at the approach of twilight, 
and continue it, with little or no intermission, 
till the dawn of da}'. Should one of these little 
musicians get admission to the chamber, his 
incessant and loud shrilling will effectually 
banish sleep. Of three species which inhabit 
the United States, one only is found in Massa- 
chusetts. It is the (Ecanthus niveus, or white 
climbing cricket. The male is ivory-white, 
with the upper side of the first joint of the an- 
tennas, and the head between the eyes, of an 
ochre-yellow colour; there is a minute black 
dot on the under-sides of the first and second 
joints of the antennae ; and, in some indivi- 
duals, the extremities of the feet and the tinder- 
sides of the hindmost thighs are ochre-yellow. 
The body is about half an inch long, exclusive 
of the wing-covers. The female is usually 
rather longer, but the wing-covers are much 
narrower than those of the male, and there is 
a great diversity of colouring in this sex ; the 
body being sometimes almost white, or pale 
greenish yellow, or dusky, and blackish be- 
neath. There are three dusky stripes on the 
head and thorax, and the legs, antennoe, and 
piercer are more or less dusky or blackish. 
The wing-covers and wings are yellowish 
white, sometinxed with a tinge of green, and 
366 



the wings are rather longer than the covers.** 
(Harris on Destructive Insects.) 

CROCUS. A well-known bulbous plant, of 
which there are many varieties, all handsome. 
Plant in clumps; move them once in three 
years, to separate the off'sets ; they like a good 
light soil. Plant them two inches deep in the 
ground. Smith (Eng. Flor. vol. i. p. 46, and vol- 
iv. p. 262), describes four species of native 
English crocuses, viz., the saffron crocus, pur- 
ple spring crocus, naked flowering crocus, and 
net-rooted crocus. See Saffron. 

CRONES. A provincial word applied to 
the diff'erent descriptions of old ewes. 

CROOK. A provincial term applied to a 
hook, as a ynt-crook means a gate-hook. 

CROOM. A provincial term applied to an 
implement with crooked or hooked prongs. 
There are muck-crooms, turnip-crooms, &o™ 
It is sometimes written Crome. 

CROP. The produce or quantity of grain, 
roots, or grass, &c. grown on a piece of land 
at one time ; hence we have grain, root, and 
green crops. There is an able paper in the 
Quart. Journ. of ^gr. vol. i. p. 55, by Mr. Henry 
Stephens, on the causes of destruction to crops, 
which may be consulted with advantage by the 
farmer. For course of crops, see Rotation of 
Chops. 

CROPPING. An operation performed with 
a pair of shears, on the ears of horses, dogs, or 
other animals. 

CROSS-FURROW. The grip or furrow 
which receives the superfluous rain-water 
from the outer furrows, and conveys it from 
the land into a ditch or other outlet. The ope- 
ration of making these cross-furrows is some- 
times performed by the spade, and at others by 
the plough. 

CROTCH. A country term for a hook. 
CROW, THE CARRION (Corvus corone). 
The carrion crow, like the raven which it so 
much resembles, is a denizen of nearly every 
part of the world. Crows are even found in 
New Holland and the Phillipine islands of the 
Pacific Ocean. They are comparatively rare 
in northern latitudes, where the raven most 
abounds. The crow is exceedingly mischiev- 
ous in his depredations about farms and dwell- 
ings, where he sucks eggs, carries off chickens 
and other young broods. But the most serious 
mischief of which the crow is guilty in the 
United States, is that of pillaging the fields of 
Indian corn. He commences at the planting 
time, by rooting out the grain as soon as the 
sprout shows above the ground, and in autumn, 
when the crop ripens, flocks, sometimes suffi 
cient to blacken the fields, do extensive da- 
mage. 

" The crow," says Nuttall, " like many other 
birds, becomes injurious and formidable only 
in the gregarious season, at other times they 
live so scattered, and are so shy and cautious, 
that they are but seldom seen. But their ar- 
mies, like all other and terrific assemblies, have 
the power, in limited districts, of doing verj" 
sensible mischief to the agricultural interests 
of the community; and, in consequence, the 
poor crow, notwithstanding his obvious ser- 
vices in the destruction of vast hosts of insects 
and their larvae, is proscribed as a felon in all 



CROW. 



CROW. 



civilized countries, and, with the wolves, 
panthers, and foxes, a price is put upon his 
head. In consequence, various means of en- 
snaring the outlaw have been had recourse 
to. Of the gun he is extremely cautious, and 
suspects its appearance at the first glance, per- 
ceiving with ready sagacity the wily manner 
of the fowler. So fearful and suspicious are 
they of human artifices, that a mere line 
stretched round a field is often found suflicient 
to deter these wily birds from a visit to the 
corn-field. Against poison he is not so guard- 
ed, and sometimes corn steeped in hellebore is 
given him, which creates giddiness and death. 
According to Buff'on, pieces of paper in the 
form of a hollow cone, smeared inside with 
bird-lime, and containing bits of raw meat, 
have been employed. In attempting to gain 
the bait, the dupe becomes instantly hood- 
winked, and, as the safest course out of the 
way of danger, the crow flies directly upwards 
to a great height, but becoming fatigued with 
the exertion, he generally descends pretty near 
to the place from which he started, and is then 
easily taken. 

"Another curious method, related by the 
same author, is that of pinning a live crow to 
the ground by the wings, stretched out on his 
back, and retained in this posture by two sharp, 
forked sticks. In this situation, his loud cries 
attract other crows, who come sweeping down 
to the prostrate prisoner, and are grappled in 
his claws. In this way each successive prisoner 
may be made the innocent means of capturing 
his companion. The reeds in which they roost, 
when dry enough, are sometimes set on fire 
also to procure their destruction ; and, to add 
to the fatality produced by the flames, gunners 
are also stationed round to destroy those that 
attempt to escape by flight. In severe winters 
they suffer occasionally from famine and cold, 
and fall sometimes dead in the fields. Accord- 
ing to Wilson, in one of these severe seasons, 
more than six hundred crows were shot on the 
carcass of a dead horse, which was placed at 
a proper shooting distance from a stable. The 
premiums obtained for these, and the price 
procured for the quills, produced to the farmer 
nearly the value of the horse when living, 
besides afl^ording feathers suflicient to fill a bed ! 

" The crow is easily raised and domesticated, 
and soon learns to distinguish the different 
members of the family with which he is asso- 
ciated. He screams at the approach of a 
stranger; learns to open the door by alighting 
on the latch ; attends regularly at meal times ; 
is very noisy and loquacious ; imitates the 
sound of various words which he hears ; is 
very thievish, given to hiding curiosities in 
holes and crevices, and is very fond of carry- 
ing off" pieces of metal, corn, bread, and food 
of all kinds ; he is also particularly attached 
to the society of his master, and recollects him 
sometimes after a long absence. 

"It is commonly believed and asserted in 
some parts of this country, that the crows en- 
gage at times in general combat; but it has 
never been ascertained whether this hostility 
arises from civil discord, or the opposition of 
two diflferent species, contesting for some ex- 
clusive privilege of subsisling-ground. It is 



well known that rooks often contend with each 
other, and drive away, by every persecuting 
means, individuals who arrive among them 
from any other rookery. 

"The crow is much smaller than the raven, 
and is of a deep black with violet reflections. 
The bill and feet are also black. The iris 
hazel. (The European bird is twenty inches, 
or nearly, and has the feathers of the neck 
narrow and distinct.)" 

Soaking seed-corn for 24 or 48 hours in a 
strong solution of glauher's salts, is said to 
effectually prevent crows, black-birds, and 
squirrels from pulling up the grain. 

Wilson was the first ornithologist who dis- 
covered an American species differing from 
the common crow, and which he called the 
fish crow {corvus ossift-agus). It is met with 
along the coast of the Southern States and as 
high up as New Jersey. It keeps apart from the 
common species, from which, however, it dif- 
fers but slightly in appearance, being about 
16 inches in length whilst the common crow 
measures about 18^ inches. Instead of as- 
sembling to roost among the reeds at night, it 
retires, toward evening, from the shores which 
afford it a subsistence, and perches in tlie 
neighbouring woods. Its notes, probably va- 
rious, are at times hoarse and guttural, at 
others weaker and higher. They pass most part 
of their time near rivers, hovering over the 
stream to catch up dead and perhaps living 
fish, or other animal matters which float with- 
in their reach ; at these they dive with con- 
siderable celerity, and seizing them in their 
claws, convey them to an adjoining tree, and 
devour the fruits of their predatory industry 
at leisure. They also snatch up water lizard? 
in the same manner, and feed upon small crabs, 
at times they are seen even contending with the 
gulls for their prey. It is amusing to see with 
what steady watchfulness they hover over the 
water in search of their precarious food, having, 
in fact, all the traits of the gull; but they subsist 
more on accidental supplies than by any re- 
gular system of fishing. On land they have 
sometimes all the familiarity of the magpie, 
hopping upon the backs of cattle, in whose 
company they, no doubt, occasionally meet 
with a supply of insects when other sources 
fail. They are also regular in their attendance 
on the fishermen in New Jersey, for the pur- 
pose of gleaning up the refuse of the fish. 
They are less shy and suspicious than the 
common crow, and, showing no inclination for 
plundering the corn-fields, are rather friends 
than enemies to the farmer. They appear 
near Philadelphia, from the middle of March 
to the beginning of June, during the season 
of the shad and herring fishery. 

They breed in New Jersey in tall trees, hav- 
ing nests and eggs very similar to those of the 
preceding species, and rear a brood of four ;r 
five young, with whom they are seen in com 
pany in the month of July. 

This species bears some resemblance to the 
rook in general appearance, and by the bare 
space near the bill, but it is smaller, longer 
tailed, and wholly different in its habits and 
mode of living. 

The Hooded Crow (Corvux cornix) resembles 

367 



CROW-FOOT. 



CUCUMBER. 



the carrion crow in appearance ; but is only a 1 
constant resident of the northern parts of Eng- 
land and the western islands of Scotland ; it is 
more destructive to the farmers' lambs, i&c. 
than the carrion crow. Its colour is black. 
Length, twenty inches. {Yarrdl's Brit. Birds, 
vol. ii. p. 79—83.) 

CROW-FOOT, or Crane's Bill. The spe- 
cies usually known by this name in England, 
is the Ranunculus acris of botanists. This, with 
all its varieties, are poisonous. The common 
medicinal crow-foot is the medicinal plant, 
which, however, is only used externally, the 
application of the recent leaves or root pro- 
ducing a blister. The most poisonous variety 
is that called spear-wood. The plant known 
in the United States by the name of crow-foot, 
or spotted crane's-bill, is the spotted geranium 
{Geranium mamlatum), a perennial tuberous 
root, found along fence-rows, in meadows, 
woodlands, &c., flowering in May and June. 
The root is astringent and has been found use- 
ful in diarrhoea, hoemorrhages, &c. See Flora 
Ccstrica. 

CROW NET. A net made of double thread 
or fine packthread, principally used for catch- 
ing wildfowl in the winter season ; but which 
may also be employed on newly sown corn- 
fields for catching pigeons, crows, and other 
birds ; and, even in stubble-fields, if the stubble 
conceals the net from the birds. 

CROWN IMPERIAL (FrUiUaria impcria- 
lis). Native of Persia, with a large, scaly, 
bulbous, or orange-coloured, disagreeably 
smelling root. Blows pendent red flowers in 
April and May. There are three varieties, the 
red-flowered, the red striped-flowered with 
striped leaves, and the yellow-flowered; that 
blowing a yellow flower is the handsomest. 
Propagate by offsets every third year, taking 
up the bulbs in July for that purpose. It loves 
a sandy loam, and is averse to manure or wet. 
See Ff.utillaht. 

CRUCIFORM-PLANTS {Crucifera), a class 
comprehending such garden vegetables as the 
cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, sea-kale, turnip, 
radish, mustard, and in fact almost every culi- 
nary article, except spinach. The class de- 
rives its name from the flowers having four 
petals or flower-leaves, disposed in the form 
of a cross, as exemplified in the wall-flower. 
It is remarked by botanists, that not a single 
species included in this group is poisonous. 
Even that great pest among weeds, charlock, 
or wild radish, which belongs to the cruciform 
class, aflfords when young most excellent and 
wholesome greens. 

CRUPPER. A term applied to the rump of 
a horse ; also to a roll of leather put under a 
horse's tail, and drawn up by a strap to the 
buckle behind the saddle. 

CRUSHERS FOR GRAIN, are evidently 
coming fast into use ; the saving of food, by 
giving the grain in a broken state, being cer- 
tainly very considerable. It is a practice at 
least as old as the days of Samuel Hartlib, 
who mentions it with approbation in his " Le- 
gacie." Machines for cracking and crushing 
Indian corn by hand for feed, are quite com- 
mon in the United States. 

CUCKOO PINT. See Ahum. 
368 



CUCKOO SPIT. Applied to a kind of 
frothy substance frequently found on plants, 
containing insects. See Fkoguoppetis. 

CUCUMBER (Cucumis sativus. From x^xi/oc 
or eriKvo;. Varro says, "Cucumeres dicunlur a 
curvore, ut curvimere dicti"). The following 
are the chief varieties : — 1. Early short green 
prickly; 2. early long green prickly ; 3. most 
long green prickly; 4. early green cluster; 5. 
white Dutch prickly ; 6. long smooth green 
Turkey ; 7. large smooth green Roman ; 8. 
Flanegan's; 9. Russian; 10. white Turkey; 
11. Nepal; 12. fluted (from China); 13. the 
snake. 

The early short prickly is about four inches 
long, and is often preferred for the first crop, as 
being a very plentiful bearer, quick in coming 
into production, and the hardiest of all the va- 
rieties. The early long prickly is about seven 
inches long ; it is a hardy, abundantly bearing 
variety, but not quick in coming into produc- 
tion. It is generally grown for main crops. 
The longest prickly is about nine or ten inches 
in length; it is a hardy, good bearer. There is 
a white sub-variety. The early green cluster 
is a very early bearer. Its fruit is about six 
inches long. It is chiefly characterized by its 
fruit growing in clusters. The whole plant 
grows compact, and is well suited for hand- 
glass crops. The white Dutch prickly is about 
six inches long; it has an agreeable flavour, 
though differing from most of the others. It 
comes quickly into bearing. 

The other varieties are slow in coming into 
production, and are chiefly remarkable for their 
great size. The Nepal often weighs twelve 
pounds, being occasionally eight inches in dia- 
meter and seventeen in length. It is a native 
of Calcutta. The snake encumber is very small 
in diameter, but attains the length, it is said, 
of several feet. 

A fresh loam, rather inclining to lightness 
than tenacity, as the top-spit of a pasture, is 
perhaps as fine a soil as can be employed for 
the cucumber. It will succeed in any open 
soil of the garden for the hand-glass and natu- 
ral ground crops. 

The out-door culture of cucumbers practised 
throughout the United States is so familiarly 
known as to require no particular description. 
In the neighbourhood of large cities the large 
demand for cucumbers causes these to be in- 
cluded among the articles of field-culture, and 
this is done to great profit by the Long Island 
and New Jersey truck farmers, lor the supply 
of the New York and Philadelphia markets. It 
is a great object to get the produce into market 
as early as possible, as only a few days advan- 
tage makes a great difference in the value of 
this, in common with most other articles sup- 
plied by gardeners, fruiterers, and truckmen. 
Thomas G. Bergen, an intelligent and experi- 
enced gardener on Long Island, communicated 
to the editor of the Cultivator the following ac- 
count of his method of raising cucumbers, to- 
gether with his estimate of the produce and 
profits of the crop. 

" Cucumbers will grow on any good soil, but 
to have them early we require a rich sandy 
one, of a dark colour; yellow and light-coloured 
ones being later. The field, if possible, re- 



CUCUMBER. 



CUCUMBER. 



quires to be protected from the ro"th ?v aorth- 
west winds, and be situated near the oay or 
river, where there is always less dan? r from 
late frosts. The south winds, with us, in May 
and June, retard vegetation more than ai y other, 
in consequence of their being chilly a'.id cool, 
which qualities they receive from the ocean. 

"Ground intended for cucumbers we prefer 
ploughing in August or the beginning of Sep- 
tember of the preceding year, and sowing with 
rye ; the pasture which this produces pays for 
the labour, and among its advantages are, the 
prevention of weeds going to seed and troubling 
us in the spring; the soil not blowing about in 
winter, especially on the knolls ; neither is it 
so liable to blow when ploughed in the spring, 
in consequence of the roots of the plants, and 
the sustenance afforded to the crop by the de- 
cay of the rye. Previous to ploughing for the 
crop, there should be spread about seven two- 
horse loads of street or horse manure to the 
acre ; but if the soil is poor, more will be ne- 
cessary, and the ploughing should take place 
immediately after the spreading. The ground 
is then harrowed over two or three times until 
it is mellow, furrowed shallow, with a plough, 
into hills four and a half feet asunder, manured 
with half a shovelful in a hill, which is flat- 
tened down with a hoe and covered about an 
inch thick with fine soil. Short hog manure, 
carted out of the pen the preceding fall, and 
cut over early in the spring once or twice, and 
made fine, is preferred for the hills; but this 
not being generally sufficiently abundant, we 
procure the manure of cows which have been 
fed on distillers' slops, mixed with that of 
horses, so as to make it sufficiently firm to 
handle with a fork, from New York in the fall, 
which we mix with the hog manure. The ma- 
nure should be cool, for fermentation in the 
hills is injurious to the plants. 

"The sooner the seed is planted after plough- 
ing the better; the time of planting depends 
upon the forwardness of the season, and it is 
generally commenced when single apricot blos- 
soms are open, but some seasons earlier. About 
a week is occupied in putting in the first seed, 
and nearly the same period in planting over 
the first and second times. The casualties to 
which the seeds and plants are subject induces 
us to continue putting in seed almost everyday 
for this space of time, so as to make certain 
work. It sometimes happens, when the wea- 
ther has been unfavourable, that every hill in 
some fields is planted over the third, and even 
single hills the fourth time. I prefer spreading 
the first seed in the south half of the hills, the 
first planting over in the northwest, and the 
second in the northeast quarters ; if it becomes 
necessary to plant over the third time, I put the 
seed in the south half, where the first seed by 
that time is rotten. If this plan is properly 
followed, the different plantings will not inter- 
fere with each other. We generally put in 
from thirty to forty seeds each time, and cover 
them with fine soil from three-quarters to an 
inch deep. Sprouting the seed previous to 
planting does not succeed well early in the 
season, but does sometimes when the weather 
is favourable in the latter part. Cucumber 
seed is the tenderest of the vine kind, for if, 
47 



after planting at the usual depth, wet weather 
should follow, it is almost certain to rot; if dry, 
it dries out; if, when favourable to their vege- 
tating, and the plants have advanced so as to 
be breaking ground, a storm should occur, they 
generally perish ; a northeaster of three or four 
days' continuance destroys the plants when 
young, and in some instances when more than 
a week old ; if up too early, a late frost is apt 
to sweep them clean. Seed to vegetate re- 
quires to be near the surface of the wet soil, 
not buried deep into it; our ignorance of 
the weather which \nll follow after planting, 
causes most of our errors; when planted in a 
heavy soil, it is less liable to rot and dry out 
than in a sandy one, but the fruit is later. If 
it happens that there are more plants in a hill 
than we require, we find it an easy matter to 
eradicate them with the hoe and fingers, but it 
is not so easy to place them in the hills when 
deficient. 

When the first rough leaves of the plants 
are about the size of a twenty-five cent piece, 
a cultivator is run through the rows both ways, 
and they receive the first hoeing ; the plants are 
also thinned out, so as not to crowd each other.. 
In hoeing, the soil between the plants should not. 
be disturbed ; large weeds (if any) must be pull- 
ed out; and fine soil drawn around the plants up' 
to the seed leaves, so as to cover small weeds. 
The hill must be made flat and not concave. 
We are careful not to hoe while the plants are 
very young, for if a storm should occur shortly 
after the operation has been performed, the 
hills soak in too much water, which is inju- 
rious. Ten or twelve days after the first hoe- 
ing, the plants (if good) are thinned to six or 
eight in a hill, leaving the largest ones, and if 
possible three or four inches apart. About 
eighteen days after the first hoeing, or about 
the time when single blossoms open, we run a 
one-horse plough twice through a row each 
way (if the ground is hard, three times), 
throwing the furrow from the hills, and then 
commence the second hoeing, which is per- 
formed in the same manner as the first, care 
being taken not to earth up higher than ihe 
seed leaves, and to scrape out the crust be- 
tween the plants, if the ground is hard or co- 
vered with weeds ; they are also, if the plants 
are fair, thinned down to five in a hill. 

"When the vines extend so that single ones 
meet each other between the hills, to prevent 
injury they are carefully laid aside by hand, or 
with a short stick, and the cultivator for the 
last time is run once through a row each way. 
They then receive the third and last hoeing, the 
ground being loosened and drawn up around 
the hills with the hoe, and broken between the 
plants with the fingers. It is customary to 
leave five plants in a hill, standing from four 
to five inches apart, but some reduce them fo 
four; have tried no experiment to test whicn 
is the best. 

" Cucumber vines will yield fruit about eight 
weeks, and the fields are picked over at least 
every second and sometimes everv iay. In 
picking, a light stick with a cross-piece framed 
to it so as to resemble the letter T, is made use 
of to push the leaves aside and more readily 
to discover the fruit. 

»fi9 



CUCUMBER. 



CUCUMBER. 



« We are acquainted with the system of ro- 
tation of crops, and it has been practised 
among our farmers for years, but cucumbers, 
as well as some other vegetables, do not seem 
to require it. I have a piece of about half an 
acre on which I have cultivated them for the 
last ten successive years, ploughing in the 
usual quantity of street manure every second 
year, and they have flourished as well as on the 
adjoining ground, which has been similarly 
manured, and on which the crops have been 
changed. 

"The following is the quantity planted, pro- 
duce, and amount of sales, for the last four 
years, viz. 



Year. 


Hills planted. 


Cucumbers sold. 


Am'l receive.l 


1835 


6,000 


104,965 


$823 84 


1636 


6,600 


99,670 


820 90 


1837 


7,370 


130,735 


532 00 


1838 


7,110 


118,600 


734 87 



" During each of these years large quantities 
of cullings, and, Avhen unsaleable, good ones, 
were fed to the hogs and cattle, of which no 
account was kept." (Cultivator, v.) 

CUCUMBER, INSECTS ATTACKING. In 
Ihe United States the vine of the cucumber is 
preyed upon at all ages, but more especially 
when very young and tender, by various in- 
sects, which make it necessary to replant fre- 
quently, and very often entirely destroy the 
hopes of the gardener and truckman. Among 
the most destructive of these is the beetle ge- 
nerally known by the names of striped bug, 
cuattnbcr bug, and striped Galeruca. It is of a 
Hght yellow colour above, with a black head, 
and a broad black stripe on each wing-cover. 
Its length is rather more than one-fifth of an 
inch. It belongs to the extensive tribe of leaf- 
eating beetles, called by naturalists Chrysome- 
lians, a word applied to designate gulden bee- 
tles, many of which are of the most brilliant 
colours, with the finest metallic lustres. 

Dr. H.irns informs us that the striped cu- 
cumber bug in early spring devours the ten- 
der leaves of various plants, before the cucum- 
ber, squash, and melon vines are out of the 
ground. As soon, however, as the leaves of 
■ these come up and begin to expand, they are 
attacked by the bug ; and, as several broods 
are produced in the course of the summer, it 
may be found at various times on these plants, 
till the latter are destroyed by frost. " Great 
numbers of these little beetles may be obtained 
in the autumn from the flowers of squash and 
pumpkin vines, the pollen and germs of which 
they are very fond of They get into the blos- 
soms as soon as the latter are opened, and are 
often caught there by the twisting and closing 
of the top of the flower, and when they want 
to make their escape, they are obliged to gnaw 
a hole through the side of their temporary pri- 
5:on. The females lay their eggs in the ground, 
and the larvte probably feed on the roots of 
plants, but they have hitherto escaped my re- 
searches. 

"Various means have been suggested and 
tried to prevent the ravages of these striped 
cucumber beetles, which have become noto- 
rious throughout the country for their attacks 
upon the leaves of the cucumber and squash. 
Dr. B. S. Barton, of Philadelphia, recommend- 
ed sprinkling the vines with a mixture of to- 
370 



bacco and red pepper, which he stated to be 
attended with great benefit. Watering the vines 
with a solution of one ounce of Glauber's salts 
in a quart of water, or with tobacco water, an 
infusion of elder, of walnut leaves, or of hops, 
has been highly recommended. Mr. Gourgas, 
of Weston, has found no application so useful 
as ground plaster of Paris ; and a writer in the 
'American Farmer' extols the use of charcoal 
dust. Deane recommended sifting powdered 
soot upon the plants when they are wet with 
the morning dew, and others have advised sul- 
phur and Scotch snuff to be applied in the same 
way. As these insects fly by night as well as 
by day, and are attracted by lights, lighted 
splinters of pine knots or of staves of tar- 
barrels, stuck into the ground during the night 
around the plants, have been found useful in 
destroying these beetles. The most eifectual 
preservative both against these insects and the 
equally destructive black flea-beetles which in- 
fest the vines in the spring, consists in cover- 
ing the young vines with millinet stretched 
over small wooden frames. Mr. Levi Bartlett, 
of Warner, N. H., has described a method for 
making these frames expeditiously and econo- 
mically, and his directions may be found in 
the second volume of the New England Farmer, 
p. 305, and in Fessenden's New American Gar- 
dener, sixth edition, p. 91." (Harris.) 

A correspondent of the Cultivator says that 
a thin layer of tow spread over cucumber and 
melon plants when they first appear will save 
them from the striped yellow bug. To this the 
editor appends the following observation : — 
" Our remedy for the bug, and for the worm in 
the garden, is to put a coop with a hen and 
good brood of chickens there, and these intrud- 
ers, and most others of the insect depredators, 
will soon become scarce." The thin layer of 
tow doubtless suggested the millinet frame pro- 
tectors just referred to. 

Mr. Bergen, whose mode of cultivating cu- 
cumbers has been given, makes the following 
observations in relation to the insect enemies 
of the plant: — 

"The insects which trouble and destroy the 
plants are the black worm and striped bugs ; 
the first is apt to be numerous in ground which 
was occupied the preceding year with red clo- 
ver; they cut off" the plants at or above the sur- 
face in the night, and are generally hunted out 
early in the morning, when their burrowing is 
fresh and they lie near the surface, until the 
ground is cleared of them: the striped bug or 
yellow fly eats the plants in the day time, and 
is sometimes very destructive on land where a 
crust is formed on the surface, which, being 
raised up by the young plants, aflfords them a 
harbour. The best remedy is, with the fingers 
to catch and destroy them in the morning when 
the dew is on them and they are chilled, which 
prevents their flying and escaping as freely as 
when the sun has warmed them. Sandy land, 
having no crust to shelter these pests, is gene- 
rally exempt from their depredations." 

The cucumber flea-beetle referred to, is a 
little, black, jumping insect, well known from 
the injury done by it in the spring, not only to 
the young plants of the cucumber, but to those 
of the cabbage, turnip, ruta baga, mustard, 



CUCUMBER 



CUCUMBER TREE. 



radish, cress, potato, and some others of tne 
cruciferous family. It is closely allied to the 
turnip-fly or more properly the turnip flea- 
beetle, which lays waste the turnip fields in 
Europe, devouring the seed-leaves of the 
plants as soon as they appear above ground, 
and continuing their ravages upon new crops 
throughout the summer. It is stated in Young's 
Annuls of Agriculture (vol. vii.), that the loss in 
Devonshire, England, in one season, from the 
destruction of the turnip crops by this little 
insect, was estimated at £100,000 sterling. 
These turnip flies belong to a family of beetles 
to which naturalists have applied the name 
haltica, derived from a word signifying to leap. 
In the American cucumber flea-beetle, the 
surface of the body is smooth, generally po- 
lished, and often prettily or brilliantly coloured. 
See Flea-Beetles. 

"The flea-beetles," says Dr. Harris, "con- 
ceal themselves during the winter, in dry 
places, under stones, in tufts of withered grass, 
and in chinks of walls. They lay their eggs 
in the spring, upon the leaves of the plants 
upon which they feed. The larvse, or young, 
of the smaller Ifinds burrow into the leaves, 
and eat the soft pulpy substance under the 
skin, forming therein little winding passages, 
in which they finally complete their trans- 
formations. Hence the plants sufl>r as much 
from the depredations of the larvas, as from 
those of the beetles, a fact that has too often 
been overlooked. The larvce of the larger 
kinds are said to live exposed upon the surface 
of the leaves which they devour, till they have 
come to their growth, and to go into the ground, 
where they are changed to pupce, and soon 
afterwards to beetles. The mining iarvie, the 
only kinds which are known to me from per- 
sonal examination, are little slender grubs, 
tapering towards each end, and provided with 
six legs. They arrive at maturity, turn to 
pupae, and then to beetles in a few weeks. 
Hence there is a constant succession of these 
insects, in their various states, throughout the 
summer. The history of the greater part of 
our halticas or flea-beetles is still unknown; 
I shall, therefore, only add, to the foregoing 
general remarks, descriptions of two or three 
common species, and suggest such remedies 
as seem to be useful in protecting plants from 
their ravages. 

"The most destructive species in this vicinity 
(Boston) is that which attacks the cucumber 
plant as soon as the latter appears above the 
ground, eating the seed-leaves, and thereby de- 
stroying the plants immediately. Supposing this 
to be an undescribed insect, I formerly named 
it Haltica cucumeris, the cucumber flea-beetle; 
but Mr. Say subsequently informed me that it 
was the pubescens of lUiger, so named because 
it is very slightly pubescent or downy. It is only 
one-sixteenth of an inch long, of a black colour, 
with clay-yellow antennae and legs, except the 
hindmost thighs, which are brown. The upper 
side of the body is covered with punctures, 
which are arranged in rows on the wing-cases; 
and there is a deep transverse furrow across 
the hinder part of the thorax. 

"The wavy-striped flea-beetle, Haltica stHo- 
luta, may be seen in great abundance on the 



horse-radish, various kinds of cresses, and on 
the mustard, and turnip, early in May, and in- 
deed at other times throughout the summer. 
It is very injurious to young plants, destroying 
their seed-leaves as soon as the latter expand. 
Should it multiply to any extent, it may, in 
time, become as great a pest as the European 
turnip flea-beetle, which it closely resembles 
in its appearance, and in all its habits. Though 
rather larger than the cucumber flea-beetle, 
and of a longer oval shape, it is considerably 
less than one-tenth of an inch in length. It is 
of a polished black colour, with a broad wavy 
buff-coloured stripe on each wing-cover, and 
the knees and feet are reddish-yellow. Spe- 
cimens are sometimes found having two bufi'- 
yellow spots on each wing-cover instead of 
the wavy stripes. 

" In England, where the ravages of the tur- 
nip flea-beetle have attracted great attention, 
and have caused many and various experi- 
ments to be tried with a view of checking them, 
it is thought that 'the careful and systematic 
use of lime will obviate, in a great degree, the 
danger which has been experienced,' from this 
insect. From this and other statements in 
favour of the use of lime, there is good reason 
to hope that it will effectually protect plants 
from the various kinds of flea-beetles, if dusted 
over them, when wet with dew,in proper season. 
Watering plants with alkaline solutions, it is 
said, will kill the insects without injuring the 
plants. The solution may be made by dissolv- 
ing one pound of hard soap in twelve gallons 
of the soap suds left after washing. This 
mixture should be applied twice a day with a 
water pot Kollar very highly recommends 
watering or wetting the leaves of plants with 
an infusion or tea of wormwood, which pre- 
vents the flea-beetles from touching them. 
Perhaps a decoction of walnut leaves might 
be equally serviceable. Great numbers of the 
beetles may be caught by the skilful use of a 
deep bag-net of muslin, which should be swept 
over the plants infested by the beetles, after 
which the latter may be easily destroyed. 
This net cannot be used with safety to catch 
the insects on very young plants, on account 
of the risk of bruising or breaking their tender 
leaves." {Harris.) 

Dr. Harris says, that several years ago he 
observed cucumber vines much infested by 
some minute jumping insects, rather less than 
one-tenth of an inch long, of a broad oval 
shape, and black colour, without wing-covers 
or winj^s, but furnished with short, thick hinder 
thighs.'' Thev injured the vines very much 
by eating holes into or puncturing the leaves 
and were expelled bv dusting the plants with 
flower of sulphur, these cucumber-skippers 
were so soft and tender, and withal so agile, 
that it was difficult to catch without crushing 
them. Consequently he was unable to examine 
them thoroughly, and failed to preserve spe- 
cimens of them. 

Since the time referred to they have escaped 
the doctor's observation. He, however, thinks 
they were very different from the little flea 
beetles just described as belonging to the halnca 
family. 

CUCUMBER TREE. There are three spe- 

371 



CUCUMBER TREE. 



CUDWEED. 



cies of the magnolia, natives of the U). /ted 
States, which go under this name; from the re- 
semblance of their cones to the green fruit of 
the cucumber. One of these, the Magnolia 
acuminata, is a tree of considerable size, some- 
times exceeding eighty feet in height and three 
or four feel in diameter. The trank is per- 
fectly straight, of a uniform size, and often 
destitute of branches for two-thirds of its 
length. The tree is one of the most splendid 
ornaments of the American forests. The leaves 
are six or seven inches long and three or four 
broad, upon old trees, and often twice the 
size upon saplings. Their form is oval, entire, 
and very sharp pointed, from which last cha- 
racteristic the tree derives its specific name of 
acuminata. They fall off in autumn. The 
flowers are five or six inches in diameter, 
bluish, and sometimes white with a tint of 
yellow. They have a feeble odour, and being 
large and numerous, give a fine effect in the 
midst of the elegant foliage. It makes a superb 
ornamental tree in lawns, &c. 

The cones or fruit are about three inches 
long, and one inch in diameter, nearly cylin- 
drical in shape, and often a little longer at the 
extremity than at the base. When green, they 
very much resemble a young cucumber. They 
have cells, each of which contains one rose- 
coloured seed, which, before it escapes, remains 
suspended on the outside by a filament, like 
those of the great and small magnolias. Most 
of the inhabitants of the country bordering on 
the Alleghanies gather the cones about mid- 
summer, when half ripe, and steep them in 
whisky ; a glass or two of this liqvior, which 
is extremely bitter, they habitually take in the 
morning, under the alleged excuse of preserv- 
ing them against autumnal fevers. 

The most northeni point at which Michaux 
observed the cucumber tree, was on the Nia- 
gara river, in the latitude of 43°. It abounds 
along the whole mountainous tract of the Alle- 
ghanies, to their termination in Georgia, a 
distance of 900 miles. It is, however, rarely 
met with at a greater distance than 40 or 50 
miles from the mountains, either eastward or 
westward. Michaux concludes that it is a 
stranger to all the Atlantic parts of the United 
States, to the distance of 100, 150, and 200 
miles from the sea, the nature of the soil and 
extreme heat of the climate being utterly un- 
congenial to its growth. It may, however, be 
found in a highly flourishing condition at the 
seats of the Messieurs Dupont, on the banks 
of the Brandywine, and would doubtless grow 
anywhere in the vicinity of Philadelphia, es- 
pecially on the banks of the Schuylkill, and 
perhaps still further north. 

Another species of magnolia, which, in its 
general appearance and in the form of its 
fruit, very nearly resembles the preceding, has 
been' confounded with it by the inhabitants of 
the regions in which it grows. Michaux calls 
it the heart-leaved cucumber tree {Magnolia 
cordata). He found it on the banks of the Sa- 
vannah river in Upper Georgia, and also on 
the streams in the back parts of South Caro- 
lina, approaching within twelve miles of Au- 
gusta. It grows to the height of forty or fifty 
feet, with a diameter of twelve or fifteen inches. 
373 



The bark is rough ani deeply furrowed like 
that of the sweet gum and young white oak. 

The flowers, which appear in April, are 
yellow, and nearly four inches in diameter. 
The succeeding cones are about three inches 
long and one inch thick, and with the seeds, 
resemble those of other magnolias. The beauty 
of its yellow flowers form an agreeable con- 
trast with its luxuriant foliage, and, logedier 
with its capacity to resist intense cold, recom- 
mend it highly as an ornamental tree in north- 
erly situations. 

The long-leaved cucumber tree, {Magnolia auri^ 
culata) is also remarkable for the beauty of its 
foliage and for the size of its flowers, which 
possess an agreeable odour. Michaux states 
that it appears form his observations to be 
confined to that tract of the Alleghany Moun- 
tains which traverse the Southern States, at 
the distance of nearly 300 miles from the sea. 
Besides the popular name already given, it is 
also called Indian physic 

The growth of this is far below that of the 
first named tree, nor does it even attain the 
size of the heart-leaved species. Its limbs are 
widely spread and sparingly branched, which, 
when the tree is stripped of its leaves, give it 
a pec-uliar effect. The leaves are eight or nine 
inches long, and much larger on the youngest 
trees. They are broader at the top than to- 
wards the bottom, or base, which is divided into 
rounded lobes, resembling the ears of some 
animals, whence the tree derives its specific 
name of aurimlata. The flowers are three or 
four inches in diameter, of a fine, white colour, 
of an agreeable odour, and situated at the 
extremity of the young shoots, which are of a 
purplish-red, dotted with white. The cones 
are oval, three or four inches long, and, hke 
those of the umbrella tree, another species of 
magnolia, of a beautiful rose colour when ripe. 
Each cell contains one or two red seeds. The 
bark has an agreeable aromatic odour, and is 
infused in spirits as a popular remedy in rheu- 
matic affections. Inasmuch as the virtues as- 
cribed to this spirituous preparation are very 
doubtful, and the practice of using it fraught 
with great danger, not only from misapplica- 
tion at improper stages of disease, but from its 
tendency to form a vicious taste for ardent 
drinks, it had best be dispensed with, and other 
better and less mischievous remedies resorted 
to. The tree flourishes in Europe, where it is 
a popular ornamental tree. {Michaux.) 

CUD. In cattle, the food in the first sto- 
mach, which is to be chewed over again and 
passed into the second to be digested. See 
Chewing the Cun. 

CUDWEED, or EVERLASTING. A shrub- 
by or herbaceous plant belonging to a genus 
{Gnn}ihalium) containing one hundred and 
twenty species, most of which are indigenous 
to the Cape of Good Hope. There are a few 
species in Europe, India, and in South as well as 
North America. The generic name is derived 
from a Greek word signifying soft down, or 
wool, with which the plants are clothed. The 
species known in the Middle States are the 
Purple Gnaphalium, a biennial growing in dry, 
open woodlands, &c., to the height of six, 
twelve, or fifteen inches, producing dingy pur 



CULLEV. 



CULTIVATOR. 



piisfi flowers in July and August. The Miry, 
or Marsh Gnaphalmm, or Marsh Cttdweed, with 
an annual root, and stem four to six or eight 
inches high, bearing flowers in dense clusters, 
of a yellowish-tawny; growing in low grounds, 
dried-up pods, &c. German Gnaphalium, or 
Common Cudweed, an annual root, producing a 
stem six to nine inches high : growing on dry 
hills, old fields, &c., bearing flowers of a pale 
tawny, or straw-colour. Many-headed Gnapha- 
lium, called Life Everlasting, with an annual 
root, and stem one to two feet high, growing in 
old fields and pastures, flowering in August 
and September, the blossoms being slender 
and of a yellowish colour. An infusion of 
this pJant has enjoyed much reputation as a 
popular remedy for dysentery. Pearly Gna- 
phalium (G. margarilicum), a very handsome 
species, with a perennial root, stem one to two 
feet high, and beautiful white flowers. Dioicous 
Gnaphalium, commonly called Mouse-ear Cud- 
weed, with a perennial root, stem two or three 
to six inches high. The White Plantain, or 
Plantain-head Cudweed, is a variety of this last 
species. (See Flor. Cestric.) 

CULLEY. The name of a distinguished 
family of farmers, to whom the agriculture of 
England is under very considerable obliga- 
tions. Two brothers of the family, Matthew 
and George Culley, were seated originally on 
their paternal property of Denton, at Gains- 
ford, near Darlington (now, 1841, in the pos- 
session of Mr. Matthew Culley), whence they 
migrated in June, 1767, to Fenton, in Glendale, 
county of Northumberland ; and "on the 4th 
of August in that year, on nty road to a fair at 
Kelso," says Mr. George Culley, in a letter to 
Arthur Young (^Ann. of Agr. vol. xx. p. 162), 
"I first saw a field of drilled turnips." "They 
carried with them into Glendale," says Mr. 
John Grey (Journ. of Roy, Jlgr. Soc. vol. ii. p. 
152), "superior knowledge and intelligence, 
which they at once brought to bear in their ex- 
tensive undertakings with unremitting applica- 
tion and perseverance. That they were suc- 
cessful in their eff'orts is an undoubted fact. 
Thus on the farm of Wark, near Coldstream, 
which they entered in May, 1786, the crop was 
valued to them from the preceding tenant, and 
was estimated at 15 bushels per acre for oats, 
and 9 for wheat. But the crop on the same 
farm, after being in their occupation for fifteen 
years, was estimated at 84 bushels per acre for 
oats, 62 for wheat, and 72 for barley. {Ibid. p. 
158.) The rent of this farm of 1200 acres in 
1786 was 800;.; in 1812 it was 3200/. Matthew 
Culley died in 1805, in the 73d year of his age, 
and George in 1814, aged 79, both in Glendale. 
The Culleys were the warm friends and cor- 
respondents of the celebrated Bakewell, of 
Dishley, from whose flock they introduced the 
breed of Leicester sheep, which is still a pre- 
vailing kind in Northumberland ; and this breed 
is still preserved in a state of purity by the pre- 
sent owner of Denton, Mr. Matthew Culley, to 
whom I am indebted for several of the facts of 
this m emoir. The attention which they paid 
to the improvement of their breed of live-stock 
was unremitting, and with a success which was 
equal to their labours. They had the public 
•-"irit, too, not to conceal the improvements 



which they effected : they published one or two 
valuable works, and were not unfrequently con- 
tributors to the agricultural periodicals of the 
day. Thus in the Ann. of Agr. vol. xiv. p. ISO, 
there is a letter from Mr. George Cullev in 
praise of the Dishley breed of sheep; and at 
p. 470, on the wool, sheep, and corn of Nortn- 
umberland ; again on sheep, in vol. xvii. p. 347, 
and vol. xix. p. 147; on turnips, vol. xx. p. 167. 

In 1786, George Culley published a useful 
practical little book (Observations on Live Stock), 
which was reprinted in 1795. Arthur Young 
describes its author (Ann. of Agr. vol. xxiii. p. 
519), as " a man of the most extensive prac- 
tice, and the deepest knowledge of his art." 
He also published, in conjunction with Mr. 
Bailey, the agricultural reports of Northumber- 
land, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, 1797 — 
1805. 

CULM. Among botanists, signifies straw or 
haulm ; defined by Linnssus to be the proper 
stem of grasses, scitamineous plants, and the 
like, which elevates the leaves, flower, and 
fruit. This sort of stem is tubular or hollow, 
and has frequently knots or joints, distributed 
at certain distances through its whole length. 

CULMIFEROUS PLANTS. Such as pro- 
duce culms, or have a smooth jointed stalk, 
and their seeds enveloped in chaffy husks, 
grass-like. 

Culmiferous crops include wheat, barley, 
oats, rye, Indian corn, tobacco, cotton, &c., all 
of which have stems mostly jointed. They are 
all regarded as robbers and exhausters of the 
soil, some in a far greater degree than others. 
If cut green, or when in blossom, they are far 
less so than when allowed to mature their 
seeds. 

CULTIVATOR. A name given to imple- 
ments of the horse-hoe kind, invented for stir- 
ring the earth. The implements called culti- 
vators are very extensively used in the United 
States, being found particularly serviceable in 
running between the rows of Indian corn, su- 
gar beets, and other root crops planted in drills 
or rows. They stir up and loosen the earth, 
and at the same time keep it free from weeds 
and grass. Their operation is somewhat be- 
tween those of the plough and the harrow, and 
as they do not penetrate very deep, they 
leave below the manure and vegetable matter 
of the sod turned under by the plough, and 
at the same time do no injury to the roots of the 
plants under culture, unless these are too far ad- 
vanced in their growth. The cultivator should 
generally be run through a crop twice at a dress- 
ing, and if the soil be stiff" or grassy, it may be 
passed oftener or renewed at short intervals. 
The implements most preferred in the United 
States bear a strong resemblance to the horse- 
hoes of Europe. They are made with teeth of 
difi'erent forms, best adapted to the various pur- 
poses, of skimming the surface and destroying 
weeds, or for doing this and also breaking up 
and pulverizing the earth. The best kind of 
cultivators are those which are constructed 
so as to admit of being made wide or narrow, 
according to the width of the rows. They per- 
form so much of the labour for which the hoe 
and the plough were once resorted to, as to have 
greatly lessened the expenses of tillage in th*. 
2 1 373 



CULTOR. 



CURCULIO. 



Indian corn crop, to say nothing of their great 
importance in the culture of root crops. Among 
implements of this kind in high repute in the 
United States, is Bement's Improved Cultiva- 
tor and Horse-hoe, which not only admits of 
being widened and contracted at pleasure, but 
is so constructed as to be easily adapted to soils 
of different textures, being furnished with 
teeth or shares of various forms, suited to 
the nature of the soil to be operated on. An 
excellent cultivator, not protected by patent, is 
in general use among the Pennsylvania far- 
mers near Philadelphia, where it can be pro- 
cured at the agricultural implement stores for 
about $5. See Giiubber and Scarifier. 

CULTOR or COULTER. The strong sharp- 
ened bar of iron that is fixed in ploughs, for 
the purpose of cutting open the earth before 
the share. See Plough. 

CUMIN SEED. The seed or fruit of the 
Cuminum cyminum, which is imported from 
Sicily and Malta. It has been occasionally 
grown in England, but as it does not produce 
its seeds until the second year, and requires a 
rich, and consequently high-rented soil, the 
double rent adds heavily to its culture. ( Ihit. 
Husb. vol. ii. p. 328.) Cumin is a plant of lit- 
tle beauty, and in a garden merely requires to 
be sown in any open border to succeed. 

CURCULIO (Ciirculionida). A name applied 
by naturalists to designate a family of beetles, 
distinguished from other insects of the same 
tribe by their shortness and thickness, and 
from each other by the length and direction of 
their snouts. The cora-weevil, so destructive 
to grain in the stack and garners, belongs to 
this family, together with the larvas or maggots 
found so often in chestnuts, acorns, hickory- 
nuts, and filberts ; as well as unripe plums, 
apricots, peaches, and cherries. 

The destruction of fruit occasioned annually 
by these species which bore into fruits and oc- 
casion them to fall from the tree before ripen- 
ing, is so great as to make it a matter of great 
importance to acquire the most accurate know- 
ledge in regard to the appearance and habits 
of these insects, as the only means by which 
their efiects can be counteracted. Often in 
gardens and orchards, trees loaded with young 
plums lose the whole of their fruit from the 
depredations of grubs, which have been ascer- 
tained by naturalists to be the larvoe or young 
of a small beetle of the weevil tribe, called the 
Nenuphar, or plum-weevil, and still more com- 
monly in the United States, the curculio. Dr. 
Harris states that he has found the beetles in 
Massachusetts as early as the 30th of March, 
and as late as the 10th of June, and at various 
intermediate times, according to the advanced 
or retarded state of vegetation in the early part 
of the season. He has frequently caught them 
flying in the middle of the day. 

"They are from three-twentieths to one-fifth 
of an inch long, exclusive of the curved snout, 
which ii rather longer than the thorax, and is 
bent under the breast, between the forelegs, 
when at rest. Their colour is a dark brown, 
variegated with spots of white, ochre-yellow, 
and black. The thorax is uneven ; the wing- 
coven have several short ridges upon them, 
ihoie on the middle of the back forming two 
374 



considerable humps, of a black colour, behind 
which there is a wide band of ochre-yellow 
and white. Each of the thighs has two little 
teeth on the under side. They begin to sting 
the plums as soon as the fruit is set, and, as 
some say, continue their operations till the first 
of August. After making a suitable puncture 
with their snouts, they lay one egg in each 
plum thus stung, and go over the fruit on the 
tree in this way till their store is exhausted ; so 
that where these beetles abound, not a plum 
will escape being punctured. The irritation 
arising from these punctures, and from the 
gnawings of the grubs after they are hatched, 
causes the young fruit to become gummy, 
diseased, and finally to drop before it is ripe. 
Meanwhile the grub comes to its growth, and, 
immediately after the fruit falls, burrows into 
the ground. This may occur at various times 
between the middle of June and of August ; and, 
in the space of a little more than three weeks 
afterwards, the insect completes its transforma- 
tions, and comes out of the ground in the beetle 
form. The history of the insect thus far, is the 
result of Dr. Harris's own observations ; the 
remainder rests on the testimony of other per- 
sons. 

"In an account of the plum-weevil, by Dr. 
James Tilton of Wilmington, Delaware, pub- 
lished in Mease's 'Domestic Encyclopedia,' 
under the article Fruit, and since republished 
in the ' Georgical Papers for 1809,' of the 
Massachusetts Agricultural Society, and in 
other works, it is stated, that peaches, necta- 
rines, apples, pears, quinces, and cherries, are 
also attacked by this insect, and that it remains 
in the earth in the form of a grub, during the 
winter, ready to be matured as a beetle, as the 
spring advances. These statements," says Dr. 
Harris, " I have not yet been able to confirm. 
It seems, however, to have been fully ascer- 
tained by Professor Peck, Mr. Say, and others, 
in whose accuracy full confidence may be 
placed, that this same weevil attacks all our 
common stone-fruits, such as plums, peaches, 
nectarines, apricots, and cherries ; Dr. Burnett 
has recently assured me that he has seen this 
beetle puncturing apples ; and it is not at all 
improbable that the transformations of some 
of the grubs may be retarded till the winter is 
passed, analogous cases being of frequent oc- 
currence. Those that are sometimes found in 
apples must not be mistaken for the more com- 
mon apple-worms, which are not the larvoe of 
a weevil. The Rev. F. V. Melsheimer remarks 
in his Catalogue, that this, insect lives under 
the bark of the peach tree. Professor Peck 
raised the same beetle from a grub found in the 
warty excrescence of a cherry tree, and from 
this circumstance named it Rhyncheenus cerasi, 
the cherry-weevil. The plum, still more than 
the cherry tree, is subject to a disease of the 
small limbs, which shows itself in the form of 
large irregular warts, of a black colour, as if 
charred. Grubs, apparently the same as those 
that are found in plums, have often been de- 
tected in these warts, which are now generally 
supposed to be produced by the punctures of 
the beetles, and the residence of the grubs. 
Professor Peck says that ' the seat of the dis- 
ease is in the bark. The sap is diverted from 



CURCULIO. 



CURCULIO. 



its regular course, and is absorbed entirely by 
the bark, which is very much increased in 
thickness ; the cuticle bursts, the swelling be- 
comes irregular, and is formed into black 
lumps, with a cracked, uneven, granulated sur- 
face. The wood, besides being deprived of its 
nutriment, is very much compressed, and the 
branch above the tumour perishes.' The 
grubs found by Professor Peck in the tumours 
of the cherry-tree, went into the ground on the 
sixth of July, and on the thirtieth of the same 
month, or twenty-four days from their leaving 
the bark, the perfect insects began to rise, and 
were soon ready to deposit their eggs in healthy 
branches. (See Professor Peck's account of 
Insects which affect Oak and Cherry trees, with 
a plate ; in the " Massachusetts^ Agi-icultural Re- 
pository and Journal, vol. V. p. 312.) {Harris.) 

In order to account for the occurrence of 
these insects both in the fruit and in the 
branches of the trees, Dr. Harris ventures the 
following explanation, although it rests only 
upon conjecture. The final transformation of 
the grubs, living in the fruit, appears to take 
place at various times during the latter part 
of summer and the beginning of autumn, when 
the weevil, finding no young fruit, is probably 
obliged to lay its eggs in the small branches. 
The larvae or grubs from these eggs live in the 
branches during the winter, and are not per- 
fected till near the last of the following June. 
Should the fall of the fruit occur late in the 
autumn, the developement of the beetles will be 
retarded till the next spring ; and this I suppose 
to be the origin of the brood which stings the 
fruit. These suggestions seem to receive some 
confirmation from the known habits of the cop- 
per-coloured plum-weevils of Europe, which, 
" in default of plums, make use of the soft 
spring shoots of the plum and apricot trees." 
XKollar's Treaiise, p. 238.) 

" It has been noticed, that trees situated in 
lanes and extensive yards, where numerous 
cattle are confined, generally escape the attacks 
of the curculio. This is supposed to be in part 
owing to the ground being trodden so hard as 
to render it difficult for the worm to enter the 
earth, and to the annoyance and fright to which 
this timid insect is subjected, by the cattle rub- 
bing against the trees. The insects, according 
to Dr. Tilton, in such cases of fright, roll them- 
selves into a little ball, and fall to the ground, 
where they become liable either to be trodden 
to death, or devoured by the farm-yard poultry 
as a delicious morsel. Poultry of all species 
have been recommended as very useful, from 
the multitudes of insects they devour, they 
being particularly fond of the beetle tribe. 

"A case is mentioned by Dr. Tilton (see 
Dom. Encyc), of Colonel T. Forest, of German- 
town, who, having a fine plum tree near his 
pump, tied a rope from the tree to his pump 
handle, so that the tree was gently agitated 
every time there was occasion to pump water. 
The consequence was, that the fruit on this tree 
was preserved in the greatest perfection. 

" Hogs are stated to be extremely useful in 
orchards, by devouring at once the fallen fruit 
and the insect which it contains. And provided 
the hogs are sufficiently numerous to devour 
every fallen fruit, they will shortly exterminate 



the insects from the orchard in which they are 
permitted to roam. 

"Paving the ground is said to be a most effect- 
ual mode of preserving fruit from the attacks 
of the curculio. By preventing its descent into 
the earth, it finds no winter habitation. The 

round should first be well manured, and the 
whole surface well paved with the common 
stones which so often encumber the fields. The 
trees, in this case, may be set very close. The 
excess of rain being carried off by the pave- 
ment, and their luxuriance being thus re- 
strained, such trees must not only produce 

reat crops, but from the effect of the sun on 
the naked pavement, the fruit must be of the 
finest quality. 

"Another and ingenious mode of destroying 
the curculio has lately been devised by Dr. 
Joel Burnet, of Southboro', Massachusetts, 
and in the single instance only, in which he 
has tried the experiment, it has proved com- 
pletely successful. There stood in his garden 
a young plum tree of the prince's imperial 
gage, which was filled with blossoms every 
year, but bore no fruit. Early in spring, a hen, 
with an early brood of chickens, was placed in 
a coop beneath the tree. Thus were all the 
curculiones destroyed in the interval, soon after 
they arose from the earth, and before they had 
recovered strength sufficient to take to their 
wings or ascend the tree. This plum tree, in 
that year, bore, in consequence, a very large 
crop of fruit. He observed that the curculio 
often ascended by aid of its wings." (Kenrick's 
Jlmerican Orchardist.) 

The wings of the curculio, plum, or cherry- 
weevil are so small as to assist it in climbing, 
but not to enable it to fly to a distance. This 
explains the reason why trees standing so near 
each other as almost to interlace their branches 
will some escape, whilst others lose a"l their 
fruit. 

Col. Forest's remedy may be partially applied 
by shaking the trees suddenly and briskly so 
as to produce a jar that will extend among the 
branches. This may be done morning and 
evening, and as much ofteiier as convenient, 
during the time when the weevils or beetles are 
engaged in stinging the fruit. Those which 
fall may be gathered in a sheet and thrown into 
the fire. All the fallen wormy plums should 
be immediately gathered and given to hogs, or, 
when this is not convenient, boiled or steamed, 
so as to kill the enclosed grubs. Diseased ex- 
crescences should be cutout and burned every 
year before the last of June. The moose-plum 
tree {Primus Americana), Dr. Harris says, 
seems to escape the attacks of insects, since 
no warts are found upon it, even when growing 
in the immediate vicinity of diseased foreign 
trees. It would, therefore, he thinks, afford the 
best stocks for budding or engrafting upon. It 
can easily be raised from the stone, and grovvs 
rapidly, but does not attain a great size. This 
might secure the body of the tree, but it is evi- 
dent that the branches, being of different wood, 
must be exposed to the attacks of the weevii. 
See Mat Beetles, p. 173. (The 18th vol. of 
the "New England Farmer" contains a pape*' 
upon this insect, by Dr. Burnett, which mav 
be read with advantage.) 

3/' 



^URU 



CUSTOMS OF COUNTIES. 



CURD. The cjagulum of milk, from which 
cheese is made. See Cheese. 

When milif sours, free acetic acid is formed, 
and by its action the coagulation of the caseous 
part of the milk takes place ; rennet causes 
the same effect in milk which is not sour, which 
probably depends on the gastric fluid in the 
rennet. Curd is a white, insipid, inodorous 
substance, insoluble in water, but soluble in 
alkalies. By alcohol it is converted into a 
substance like spermaceti, which gives out a 
very fetid odour. 

When dry curd procured from sour milk is 
well washed, and then mixed with its own bulk 
of alcohol, and the soluble matter filtered and 
separated from the insoluble, and thickened 
by gentle evaporation, it becomes viscid, and 
forms an excellent cement for glass and china. 
CURING BEEF and PORK. See Salting. 
A report of the committee for the premium 
offered for curing beef and pork, appears in the 
Trans. High. Soc. vol. v. p. 56. 

CURRANT. The fruit of two species of 
Ribes, viz., R. rubrum, which furnishes the 
common red and white currants, and R. ni- 
grum, which produces the black currant. 
There are five or six species of this indige- 
nous plant. The rock currant {R. petraum), 
the acid mountain currant {R. spicatum), and 
the tasteless mountain currant (R. alpinum), 
all grow wild in woods in the north of Eng- 
land ; and the common red and black currants 
are also found wild in many parts of the coun- 
try, but Iheir fruit is insipid. The pale currant 
is a variety between the red and white. 

The white, black, and red currant ripen 
their berries very early in July, in which 
month currant jelly should be made. All the 
currants may, by being matted, be preserved 
till the middle of winter, and on north walls 
and shaded situations sometimes hang, and 
are good till the end of November. They 
will thrive on almost any soil; but their fruit 
is more savoury when produced in a dry and 
open ground. They are very easily propa- 
gated by planting slips or cuttings at any time 
from September to March. After standing 
about two years, they will be fit to be removed 
to those places where they are intended to 
remain. 

The currant, one of the most wholesome and 
grateful of fruits, has medicinal properties. 
Red currants are very cooling in fevers. They 
quench thirst, and create appetite. When the 
fruit is not to be had fresh, red currant jelly, 
mixed in water, is equally refreshing. Black 
currants are useful in sorethroats. {Erande's 
Did. ; Phillip's Fruits ; WiUich's Dom. Encyc. ; 
Eng. Flor., vol. i. p. 330.) 

In addition to the varieties of gooseberries 
(Ribes iivcB crispa) and currants met with in 
gardens, seventeen or eighteen additional spe- 
cies are found in the United States. A black 
currant resembling those in gardens grows 
wild in Pennsylvania, whilst a red species 
on a trailing vine is found i 
counties. See Gooseberrt. 



supposed to be derived from the Saxon cusce- 
ate, from aisc, chaste, in allusion to the conju- 
gal fidelity of this bird. 

CUSTOMS OF COUNTIES. With regard 
to the usual relation of landlord and tenant in 
England, these vary considerably. But in 
cases where there is a written agreement, no 
inquiry can be made as to the custom of the 
county {Liebcnrood v. Vines, 1 Mer. 15) ; and 
when an express stipulation is made, the cus 
tom of the county is excluded entirely. (Ro 
berts V. Parker, 1 iC. & M. 808.) The follow 
ing epitome of usages in a few counties, chiefly 
abridged from the work of Kennedy and 
Grainger on the Tenancy of Land, must, of 
course, he regarded as having only a very 
general application. 

Bedford. — The tenant commonly enters, in 
this county, at Michaelmas, some at Lady-day. 
Leases seven years. Rents paid half-yearly. 
Tenant generally restricted from breaking up 
pastures, or selling hay and straw, quitting at 
Michaelmas, is at liberty to plough and sow 
wheat, if at Lady-day ; then may sow spring- 
grain till day of quitting ; but in either case has 
the option to do it himself or let his successor 
do it. When the outgoer sows, they are va- 
lued to the incomer so as to include all labour; 
has barn allowed him, but cannot carry away 
straw. Incomer takes all dung found on pre- 
mises free of charge ; but pays for grass-seeds, 
and that of the labour, and for fallow-plough- 
ing, or spring-ploughing, which his predeces- 
sor, quitting at Lady-day, had not time to sow; 
but with respect to any fallow, either for wheat 
or turnips, when the outgoer takes the crop, 
there is no demand made upon the incoming 
tenant. 

Berks. — Farms commonly lease for 7 or 14 
years from Michaelmas, entering to plough 
fallows at Lady-day: from which time the 
incomer has part of the house allowed him, 
and room for one team ; the outgoer retains 
the rest of the premises till May-day or Mid- 
summer. The rents are commonly paid half- 
yearly, and in general there is no restraint 
upon the tenant's cultivation, except that he 
covenants to leave a stated number of acres 
for fallow. Usually he has power of selling 
hay and wheat straAV, although in other por- 
tions of the county only to exchange it for 
dung. Wheat straw he must leave to his suc- 
cessor as well as the hay. Incomer has to 
pay for clover or other grass-seeds, the seed, 
and labour, and hay-crop, at a feeding-out 
price. 

Carmarthen. — Farms were here formeily let 
upon leases for three lives ; but terms "jf 14 
years are now more common. The entry 
is made upon both house and land at Michael- 
mas. The tenant is under no restriction, cul- 
tivates as he pleases, and sells hay, straw, and 
dung. 

Cheshire. — Farms let upon leases, but many 



only by the year, and this is a much more 

the northern i common practice than formerly. Tenant 

I takes from Candlemas, but only gets posses- 

CURRANT-BUSH BORER. An insect ca- i sion of the house at May-day. The tenant is 

•erpillar belonging to the genus ^geria. See 1 commonly restrained from having more than 

Caterpillars. j a given proportion of land, usually one-third, 

CUSHAT. A local name for the ring-dove, i under plough. This portion, however, he may 

376 



CUSTOMS OF COUNTIES. 



CUSTOMS OF COUNTIES. 



till in his own way ; sometimes may dispose 
of his hay and straw, sometimes not. Outgoer 
ceases to work on the farm at Candlemas ; 
but cuts the wheat crop at harvest ; if the 
wheat was after a fallow he takes two-thirds 
of the crop, otherwise only one-half, and he 
houses his own portion. He is commonly not 
paid for grass-seeds, but where the custom va- 
ries, he cuts the clover or grass, and takes 
half the hay; the incomer taking the remain- 
der, and paying the rent : he has no valuation 
to pay of any kind. The dung he does not 
pay for. 

Cornwall. — Leases generally from 14 to 21 
years. The outgoing tenant leaves the dung 
for the incoming tenant. 

A tenant is bound not to exceed two white 
crops without manure, using one hundred and 
one bushels of lime per acre for the first crop. 
When the land is sown with grass-seeds it 
must remain down for three years, and, except 
in water meadows, he can only cut his grass 
once in the season, unless he dresses it with 
manure. He may sell hay, but the straw of 
wheat only ; he is obliged also to feed a cer- 
tain number of acres of grass, and whatever 
manure he makes must be left by the outgoing 
tenant free of charge. 

Cumberland. — Tenants enter at Lady-day into 
the farm, but not into the house till May-day. 
Leases commonly for three, seven, or nine 
years. The tenant commonly bound to plough 
the land in such proportions that a certain 
part may remain in grass for three years. Is 
prohibited from having two white crops in 
succession, and must leave as much land 
sown with grass-seeds as he found on the 
farm. Cannot sell hay or straw, and must ap- 
ply not less than sixty bushels of lime per 
acre for his wheat or turnips after a fallow. 
The outgoer retains possession of the house 
and premises for cattle till May-day. Is paid 
for whatever crops he leaves which he him- 
self paid for when he took the farm. Leaves 
all the straw and manure for the incomer's 
benefit. 

Derby. — Tenants chiefly yearly tenants from 
Lady-day. The land almost entirely pastu- 
rage. The tenant is usually restricted from 
breaking these up without permission, even if 
he lays down arable land in lieu of it. He 
cannot sell either hay or straw. The outgoing 
tenant is not paid for either manure or straw ; 
he always sows the wheat, but is not paid for 
any fallows or ploughings which may have 
been done at his expense to promote the 
growth of it ; he receives, however, two-thirds 
of the wheat if a fallow crop, or one-half if a 
brush cropland for the seed crops he is allowed 
for seed and labour. 

Devon. — In the west, entry at Michaelmas ; 
in the east at Lady-day, with privilege of entry 
on the land at Midsummer to prepare for 
wheat. The tenant usually restrained from 
taking more than two white crops for a fallow, 
or sowing two wheat crops successively, with- 
out a fallow or green crop between them. 
Must use a certain quantity of lime per acre 
for his barley or wheat crop, and leave the 
same quantity of land for wheat at the expira- 
tion of his lease that he found on taking pos- 
48 



session. He has the liberty of selling ha> 
and wheat straw, and at the end of his lease 
the hay also. A Lady-day holder receives 
from his successor the value of the wheat 
upon the ground, and the young clovers or 
other grass seeds by valuation. A Michael- 
mas tenant can only receive the value of the 
seeds ; but in either case he freely leaves all 
the dung for his successor. 

Essex. — The farmer in Essex commonly 
holds by leases of 7 or 14 years ; entry at 
Michaelmas both of house and land. He 
usually covenants to farm on the four-shift 
system, dressing and fallowing after every 
third crop, and never to take two white crops 
in succession : on pasture land, however, he 
is commonly unrestrained. He may carry 
also hay or straw, but for every load of either 
he is bound to bring back a load of dung, and 
near London t\vo loads are required for every 
load of straw, and one for every load of hay. 

The outgoing tenant sows the Michaelmas 
crop, and is paid by valuation for one year's 
improvement, which includes the labour, the 
seed, and the manure he has laid out upon the 
ground from the preceding Michaelmas- He 
is allowed for the seeds, for ploughing, harrow- 
ing, and rolling, which a summer fallow has 
undergone, for the manure laid on, and for the 
carting of it, and for all the unspread dung, or 
other manure on the farm. The outgoer has 
the use of the barns for his crop. The in- 
comer claims the straw and chaff on condition 
of his thrashing the corn, and carrying it to 
market. The incomer has the Michaelmas 
crops, the hay, turnips, and young seeds valued 
to him, with all the seed, labour, and manure 
bestowed upon them. 

Hertford. — Leases 7 or 14 years from I ady- 
day. Mode of cultivation varies ; sometimes 
two crops and a fallow, in others, the four- 
course system. The tenant may sell hay and 
wheat straw, but no other straw. The out- 
going tenant takes an offgoing crop of both 
spring and Michaelmas crops, and pays for 
the ground they stand upon till harvest. He 
must use, however, the last year's straw upon 
the premises, and he leaves all the dung for 
the incoming tenant. 

Kent. — Miich of the land of Kent, as in other 
counties, is held by the year, bnt a larger por- 
tion is rented under leases of 7 to 14 years; 
the tenant entering at Michaelmas. 

The farmer is usually restrained from sell- 
ing hay or straw; or, if he is allowed to dispose 
of them, it is on condition of his bringing on to 
the farm a certain quantity of dung. He is 
usually not much restricted in his mode of 
cultivation. He is commonly prevented from 
having more than two white crops to a fallow 
The outgoing tenant thrashes his last crop, 
and sells the straw to the incomer; and if he 
is obliged to feed the hay upon the premises, 
this is commonly valued also at a feeding out 
price. He is paid also for the labour bestowed 
upon the summer fallows, which he has the 
privilege of sowing up to the time of his quit- 
ting the farm ; he is also paid for the seed and 
labour both for the turnips and the grasses ; 
for the whole of the manure, and labour of 
carting and spreading the manure of th*? las 
2 I 2 377 



CUSTOMS OF COUNTIES. 



CUSTOMS OF COUNTIES. 



year, and for half of the preceding. These, 
with the hop-poles, make the payments required 
of an incoming tenant rather heavy. 

Leicester is chiefly farmed by yearly tenants, 
who enter at Lady-day, and occasionally at 
Michaelmas. They are not allowed to break 
up their pastures or sell either hay or straw. 
Sometimes they engage to lay an annual amount 
of lime on the land. 

The outgoing tenant is paid for all clear fal- 
lows, for which he is allowed three ploughings ; 
but if he has taken a green crop, he is allowed 
nothing. For his wheat crop — if it has been 
sown on a clear fallow, for instance — he is 
allowed for seed and labour, and for the plough- 
ings, but otherwise only for seed and labour. 
He is allowed for his seed crop, labour, and 
seed; but nothing for a turnip fallow, either 
fed or pulled: if he leaves at Michaelmas, 
however, he is allowed for his turnips one 
year's rent. The incomer cannot enter to 
plough without permission till Lad)'-day. 

Lincoln. — Farms commonly held by lease of 
from 7 to 14 years from Lady-day. 

The tenant is usually restrained from selling 
either hay or straw, or from taking more than 
two white crops to a fallow. These restric- 
tions, however, do not apply to the fen land. 

The outgoing tenant has commonly the right 
of sowing spring-grain until Lady-day, and of 
taking an off-going crop, both of wheat and 
other corn, all of which, however, he must 
thrash on the premises. But a very common 
way is for the outgoer to be paid for all his 
crops, the value of seed and labour, and also 
for the manure. The crops are valued at har- 
vest-time, and the price is set according to the 
average of three market-days, taken once a 
month, between harvest-time and the ensuing 
Lady-day. 

Norfolk. — Farmers hold chiefly by leases of 
7 or 14 years, some for 21, and they enter at 
Michaelmas. They generally covenant to farm 
on the four-course system, are often restrained 
from sowing above a certain number of tares 
and oats. This crop being considered to be 
much more impoverishing to the land than 
barley, he is not allowed to sell either hay or 
straw. The outgoing tenant either thrashes 
his harvest himself, or he agrees with his suc- 
cessor, who carries out the grain and keeps the 
straw and chaff"; the incomer pays for the 
growing crops on the ground, but not for the 
labour; thus, if the turnip crop fails, he re- 
ceives nothing for the labour. 

The incomer sows the wheat crop, but he 
cannot enter the farm before Michaelmas-day; 
to do this without leave, he has to pay for the 
hay on the farm; but he takes the dung free. 

Nottingham is cultivated chiefly by yearly 
^nants, who enter at Lady-day. They are 
commonly not allowed to sell either hay or 
straw, not to take more than three crops to a 
fallow, and never two white ones in succes- 
sion. When the incomer enters at Michael- 
mas, the outgoer is paid by valuation, either 
upon wheat or turnips, for all the seed and 
labour he has bestowed upon that crop, and for 
all the p.oughing he has done before the time 
he quits ; for all artificial manure, such as 
bones, &c., if for the first crop, then the full 
378 



tillage ; if the second, only half a tillage, and 
so on ; but for dung in or on the land he ia 
allowed nothing; but if he enters at Lady-day, 
then he is paid for both, for seed and for labour. 

Salop. — Farms are generally held by yearly 
tenants, who enter at Lady-day; but on to the 
meadow land, in some places, at Candlemas, 
that he may water or manure. He is restrained 
from selling hay or straw, but not to any parti- 
cular mode of cultivation. When he quits, he 
is allowed for any lime he may have brought 
on to the land within the last two years ; the 
whole value for that of the last year, half the 
value for that of the preceding: he receives 
two-thirds of the value of the wheat crop, the 
value of the seed crops, but nothing for either 
fallows or dung. He cannot plough for fallows 
or spring crops without the authority of the 
incomer, who cannot enter himself to plough 
without leave before Lady-day. 

Sotnerset. — Farmers have usually leases of 8 
or 12 years from Lady-day, the outgoer retain- 
ing the wheat crop, thrashing it on the premi- 
ses, and leaving the straw, chaff", and dung for 
the incomer ; and for this purpose he commonly 
holds on till the Midsummer twelvemonth after 
he quits possession. A tenant cannot sell 
either hay or straw, or take more than two 
white crops and a green one without a fallow. 
He is restrained from breaking up pastures, 
and he very commonly consents to spend an- 
nually a certain sum in lime or some other 
kind of manure. The incoming tenant sows 
the spring corn, but he cannot enter before 
Lady-day without leave from the outgoer. 

Stafford. — The farmers in this county usually 
hold from year to year. The tenant is com- 
monly restrained from selling either hay or 
straw, and there are very few restrictions of 
any kind as to the mode of cultivation. The 
outgoing tenant is usually paid for all the dung 
he leaves upon the farm, and for all clear sum- 
mer fallows, but nothing for bastard fallows, 
even if the seeds or turnips are fed off". For 
all the wheat on a clean fallow, sown previous- 
ly to his notice to quit, he receives two-thirds 
of the crop; if a brush crop, only one-half; but 
for all he sows after notice, only the value of 
the seed and labour. The incomer cannot 
enter to plough before Lady-day: he pays for 
both the dung and straw left on the farm. 

Westmoreland. — Leases in this county aie 
commonly granted for 7, 9, 11, or 21 years 
from Lady-day. The house, and one field, 
however, is usually retained till May-day : he 
has the privilege, however, of going upon the 
land at old Candlemas to plough for his fallow 
and spring crop. 

The tenant is commonly restricted from 
having more than two white crops before he 
sows the land with seed, and that between the 
two white crops he is to have either a green 
one or a fallow. He is to manure his meadow 
ground once in three years, and leave the farm 
in the same working plight as he found it. The 
outgoer retains che house and one field till 
May-day, paying rent and taxes, however, for 
what he thus holds ; with this exception, he is 
bound to free the land by the 6th of April. la 
the south of this county, the outgoer receives 
for the wheat crop on the ground, two-thirds if 



CUT. 



CUT-WORM. 



fallowed for, and one-half after a bastard fal- 
low. He pays for this, however, no rent after 
the 6th of April. He may plough for barley 
and take half the crop, but not for any other 
spring crop. 

Yorkshire. — In this great county, the customs 
vary with the Riding. In the W. R. the entry 
is Old Candlemas, or New Year's day. In the 
N. R. it is Lady-day : may go on to the land at 
Candlemas, and into the house at May-day. 
In the E. R. the entry is at Lady-day. In all 
three Ridings a yearly tenancy is the most 
common. 

In the N. R. the outgoing tenant sows his 
wheat, and has an offgoing crop, which ,he 
may either thrash himself, or sell to his suc- 
cessor or to a stranger; but he cannot carry 
away straw, but has barn and yard room to 
consume it on the premises until the following 
May-day twelvemonth. 

The outgoer, however, cannot in the last 
year of his tenancy sow more than one-third 
of his arable land ; but that third he may sow 
at whatever time and in whatever way he may 
think proper ; for all the ground that he sows 
he pays a corn standage, that is, rent, till har- 
vest time : if he sows more than his propor- 
tion, the incomer takes the crop, and the mea- 
surement is very nicely calculated. The in- 
comer enters at Candlemas to plough for his 
spring crop and fallows : he takes the young 
seeds. In the upper part of the West Riding, 
the customs between the incomer and outgoer 
are the same as in the north ; but below Aber- 
ford the customs are quite different, being, as 
the people say, " good ones to come out with, 
but bad ones to enter upon." For there the 
outgoer sows the wheat crop, which the in- 
comer is obliged to pay for, together with the 
grass-seeds, and tc pay for the tillage and half 
tillage of those crops and on the turnips, and 
for all the manure laid upon the lands, or about 
the premises; the incomer who enters at Can- 
dlemas has two and a half year's manure, and 
one and a half year's tillage to pay for. In the 
East Riding, the outgoer sows the wheat crop 
and the spring corn, until Lady-day, and takes 
what he sows as an offgoing crop along with 
the wheat, paying no rent after Lady-day : he 
must thrash them, however, on the premises, 
and leave the manure. An incomer has here 
only to pay for seeds. (Kennedy and Grainger 
on Tenancy of Land.) See Apphaisement. 

CUT. In farriery, a hurt or clean wound 
made with any sharp-cutting instrument. The 
way of treating such an accident is to bring 
the two incised surfaces together, and bind 
them up, if possible, with a little lint or tow, 
without any balsams or spirituous applidations 
being used. 

CUT-WORM. In almost every section of 
the United States, great complaints are annu- 
ally made of green crops destroyed or injured, 
more or less, by what is popularly termed the 
cut-worm. The young Indian corn is an espe- 
cial sufferer ; but several other plants having 
tender stems, such as beans and cabbages, are 
liable to be cut off near the ground, or just be- 
neath the surface, when beginning to grow. 
As all such mischief is ascribed to the cuUworm, 
it might be inferred that an insect thus spoken 



of in the singular number would be well 
known. And yet the opinions upon the sub- 
ject of its identity, or how many species there 
may exist, are various and conflicting. After 
a toilsome search through many of the American 
agricultural publications. Dr. Harris says he 
became convinced that these insects and their 
history are not yet well known to some of the 
very persons who have suffered from their de- 
predations. Various cut-worms, or more pro- 
perly subterranean caterpillars, wire-worms, or 
luli, grub-worms or the young of May-beetles, 
and even spindle or bud-worms, or the young 
of a species of moth called corn Gortyna, are 
often confounded together or mistaken for each 
other ; sometimes their names are interchanged, 
and sometimes the same name is given to each 
and all of these different animals. Hence, the 
remedies that are successful in some instances 
are entirely useless in others. " The name of 
cut-worm," says Dr. Harris, "seems originally 
to have been given to certain caterpillars that live 
in the ground about the roots of plants, but come 
up in the night, and cut off and devour the 
tender stems and lower leaves of young cab- 
bages, beans, corn, and other herbaceous 
plants. These subterranean caterpillars are 
finally transformed to moths belonging to a 
group which may be called agrotidians (jigi-o- 
tididce), from a word signifying rustic, or per- 
taining to the fields. Some of these rustic 
moths fly by day, and may be found in the 
fields, especially in the autumn, sucking the 
honey of flowers ; others are on the wing only 
at night, and during the day lie concealed in 
chinks of walls and other dark places. Their 
wings are nearly horizontal when closed, the 
upper pair completely covering the lower 
wings, and often overlapping a little on their 
inner edges, thus favouring these msects in 
their attempts to obtain shelter and conceal- 
ment. The thorax is slightly convex, but 
smooth or not crested. The antennos of the 
males are generally beset with two rows of 
short points, like fine teeth, on the under-side, 
nearly to the tips. The fore-legs are often 
quite spiny. Most of these moths come forth 
in July and August, and soon afterwards lay 
their eggs in the ground, in ploughed fields, 
gardens, and meadows. In Europe it is found 
that the eggs are hatched early in the autumn, 
at which time the little subterranean caterpil 
lars live chiefly on the roots and tender sprouts 
of herbaceous plants. On the approach of 
winter they descend deeper into the ground, 
and, curling themselves up, remain in a torpid 
state till the following spring, when they ascend 
towards the surface, and renew their devasta- 
tions. The caterpillars of the Agrotidians are 
smooth, shining, naked, and dark-coloured, 
with longitudinal pale and blackish stripes, 
and a few black dots on each ring ; some of 
them also have a shining, horny, black spot on 
the top of the first ring. They are of a cylin- 
drical form, tapering a little at each end, rather 
thick in proportion to their length, and are pro- 
vided with sixteen legs. They are changed to 
chrysalids in the ground, without previously 
making silken cocoons. The most destructive 
kinds in Europe are the caterpillars of the coni 
rustic or winter dart-moth (Agrotis segetum) the 

379 



CUT-WORM. 



CUT-WORM. 



wheat dart-moth (Jgrotis tritid), the eagle-moth 
{AgrUis aquilina), and the turf rustic or antler- 
moth (Charceas graminis). The first two attack 
both the roots and leaves of winter wheat ; the 
second also destroys buckwheat; and it is 
stated that sixty bushels of mould, taken from 
a field where they prevailed, contained twenty- 
three bushels of the caterpillars ; those of the 
sagle-moth occasionally prove very destructive 
in vineyards ; and the caterpillars of the 
antler-moth are notorious for their devastations 
in meadows, and particularly in mountain 
pastures. 

" The habits of our cut-worms appear to be 
exactly the same as those of the European 
Agrotidians. It is chiefly during the months 
of June and July that they are found to be most 
destructive. Whole corn-fields are sometimes 
laid waste by them. Cabbage-plants, till they 
are grown to a considerable size, are very apt 
to be cut off and destroyed by them. Potato- 
vines, beans, beets, and various other culinary 
plants suffer in the same way. The products 
of our flower-gardens are not spared; asters, 
balsams, pinks, and many other kinds of 
flowers are often shorn of their leaves and of 
their central buds, by these concealed spoilers. 
Several years ago I procured a considerable 
number of cut-worms in the months of June 
and July. Some of them were dug up among 
cabbage-plants, some from potato-hills, and 
others from the corn-fields and the flower-gar- 
den. Though varying in length from one inch 
and a quarter to two inches, they were fully 
grown, and buried themselves immediately in 
the earth with which they were supplied. 
They were all thick, greasy-looking caterpil- 
lars, of a dark ashen gray colour ; but I 
neglected at first to examine them carefully in 
order to see if they were marked exactly alike. 
Some of the last found were observed to have 
one or two blackish stripes on each side of the 
body, and a pale stripe on the back, with four 
little black dots on each ring. The head was 
also blackish. They were soon changed to 
chrysalids, of a shining mahogany-brown co- 
lour ; and between the 20th of July and the 
15th of August they came out of the ground in 
the moth state. Much to my surprise, how- 
ever, these cut-worms produced five different 
species of moths ; and, when it was too late, I 
regretted that they had not been more carefully 
examined, and compared together before their 
transformation." 

The largest of these moths expanded its 
wings more than two inches, and bore a close 
resemblance to one called in Europe the dark 
sword rustic {Agroiis suffusa). Dr. Harris 
named the American moth the lance rustic, 
(Agrotis tdifera), and gives the following de- 
scription of it. 

"The fore-wings are light brown, shaded with 
dark brown along the outer thick edge, and in 
thi middle also in the female; these wings are 
divided into three nearly equal parts by two 
transverse bands, each composed of two wavy 
dark brown lines: in the middle space are 
situated the two oramary spots, together with a 
third oval spot, which touches the anterior 
band ; these spots are encircled with dark 
Drown, and the kidney-spot bears a dark brown 
380 



lance-shaped mark on its hinder part; the 
hindmost third of the wing is crossed by a 
broad pale band, and is ornamented by a nar- 
row wavy or festooned line, and several small 
blackish spots near the margin. The hind- 
wings are pearly white, and semi-transparent, 
shaded behind, and veined with dusky brown. 
The thorax is brown or gray-brown, with the 
edge of the collar blackish. The abdomen is 
gray. The wings expand two inches or more." 
{Harris's Treatise on Insects.^ 

Two other species resemble the one just de- 
scribed, and are counterparts of European 
species. The fourth is the smallest of the five, 
expanding its wings an inch and a quarter. 
The fore-wings are dark ash-coloured, exhibit- 
ing very faint traces of the transverse wavy 
lines or bands more or less distinctly visible 
on the other species. The two ordinary spots 
are large and pale, and alternate, with a trian- 
gular and a square deep black spot. The hind- 
wings are brownish-gray in the middle, and 
blackish behind. Dr. Harris calls this last the 
checkered rustic {Agrotis tesselata). 

The fifth species answered very well to the 
description of the American cabbage cui-ivorm, 
described by Mr. J. P. Brace, in the first vo- 
lume of Silliman's "American Journal of Sci- 
ence," and somewhat resembles Dr.Boisduval's 
figures of a European moth called Agrotis latens. 
The fore-wings are of a dark ashen colour, 
with a lustre like satin; they are crossed by 
four narrow, wavy whitish bands, edged on 
each side with black. There is a transverse 
row of while dots, followed by a row of black, 
arrow-shaped spots, between the third and 
fourth bands, and three white dots on the outer 
edge near the tip ; the ordinary spots are 
edged with black and white. The hind-wings 
are light brownish-gray, almost of a dirty 
white in the middle. The head and thorax are 
chinchilli-gray, and the abdomen is coloured 
like the hind-wings. The wings expand from 
one inch and five-eighths to one inch and 
three-quarters. This kind of moth is very 
common between the 10th of July and the mid- 
dle of August. Like all the foregoing species, 
it flies only at night. According to Mr. Brace, 
this moth lays its eggs in the beginning of 
autumn, at the roots of trees, and near the 
ground; the eggs are hatched early in May; 
the cut-worms continue their depredations 
about four weeks, then cast their skin and be- 
come puppe or chrysalids in the earth, a few 
inches below the surface of the ground; the 
pupa state lasts four weeks, and the moth 
comes out about the middle of July ; it con- 
ceals itself in the crevices of buildings and 
beneath the bark of trees, and is never aeeu 
during the day; about sunset it leaves its^ 
hiding-place, is constantly on the wing, is very 
troublesome about the candles in houses, flies 
rapidly, and is not easily taken. From what 
is known respecting the history of the other 
kinds of Agrotis, and from the size that the 
cabbage cut-worms are found to have attained 
in May, I am led to infer that they must gene- 
rally be hatched in the previous autumn, and 
that, after feeding a while on such food as they 
can find immediately under the surface of the 
soil, they descend deeper into the ground and 



CUT-WORM. 



CUT-WORM. 



remain curled up, in little cavities which each 
one makes for itself in the earth, till the follow- 
ing spring." 

Such are the descriptions given by the natu- 
ralists of the cut-worms and their moths found 
in the Eastern States. We wish it was in eur 
power to furnish as much accurate information 
upon the subject of the cut-worms found in the 
other portions of the United States, provided 
any essential differences exist. The deficiency, 
so far as a portion of the Middle States is in- 
terested, has been supplied in a great measure 
through the researches of Dr. F. E. Melsheimer, 
of York county, Pennsylvania, who, in a 
communication made to Dr. Harris, gives the 
following information. 

"There are several species of Jlgrotis, the 
larvae of which are injurious to culinary plants; 
but the chief culprit with us is the same as 
that which is destructive to young maize. 
The corn cut- worms make their appearance in 
great numbers at irregular periods, and confine 
themselves in their devastations to no particu- 
lar vegetables, all that are succulent being 
relished by these indiscriminate devourers ; 
but, if their choice is not limited, they prefer 
maize plants, when not more than a few inches 
above the earth, early-sown buckwheat, young 
pumpkin-plants, young beans, cabbage-plants, 
and many other field and garden vegetables." 
" When first disclosed from the eggs they sub- 
sist on the various grasses. They descend in 
ine ground on the approach of severe frosts, 
and reappear in the spring about half-grown. 
They seek their food in the night or in cloudy 
weather, and retire before sunrise into the 
ground, or beneath stones or any substance 
which can shelter them from the rays of the 
sun; here they remain coiled up during the 
day, except while devouring the food which 
they generally drag into their places of con- 
cealment. Their transformation to pupce oc- 
curs at different periods, sometimes earlier 
sometimes later, according to the forwardness 
of the season, but usually not much later than 
the middle of July." " The moths, as well as the 
larvae, vary much in the depth of their colour, 
from a pale ash to a deep or obscure brown. 
The ordinary spots of the upper wings of the 
moth are always connected by a blackish line; 
where the colour is of the deepest shade these 
spots are scarcely visible, but when the colour 
is lighter they are very obvious." This moth. 
Dr. Harris informs us, is very abundant in the 
New England States, from the middle of June 
till the middle or end of August. The fore- 
wings are generally of a dark ash-colour, with 
only a very faint trace of the double transverse 
wavy bands that are found in most species of 
Agrolis. These expand one inch and three- 
quarters. When shut they overlap and cover 
the back so flatly and closely as to allow the 
moth to creep into very narrow chinks and cre- 
vices. During the day they lie hidden under 
the bark of trees, in the chinks of fences, and 
even under the loose clapboards of buildings. 
When the blinds of houses are opened in the 
morning, a little swarm of these insects which, 
on the arrival of day, had crept behind them 
for concealment, is sometimes exposed, and 
suddenly roused from their beginning slumbers. 



This kind of moth. Dr. Harris aays, has the 
form and general appearance of some species 
of the genus Poraphila. He has named it the 
clandestiiic owlet-moth. 

The fact of the identity established by na- 
turalists between this moth as found in New 
England and Pennsylvania, affords strong 
reason to infer that the same species of cut- 
worms are to be met with over most, if not all, 
portions of the United States. 

Having thus described these insects under 
their various forms of destructive larvse or ca- 
terpillars, winged moths into which these are 
converted, and mentioned their times and sea- 
sons of coming, going, and changing, so far at 
least as naturalists have traced these out, — we 
shall proceed to notice the remedies which 
have been tried and proposed to destroy them, 
or prevent tlieir ravages. 

Among the various means resorted to for the 
protection of Indian corn and other plants, is 
the soaking of the seed in copperas or other 
poisonous solution previous to planting or 
sowing. Rolling the seed in quick-lime, or 
unleached ashes, has also been recommended. 
Any one of these remedies may have some ef- 
fect in protecting the seed against wire-tvorms 
(Inli) which only attack the grain or its root, 
but cannot answer against cut-worms which 
do not eat the seed or root, but prey upon the 
sprouts and young stalks.* They may, how- 
ever, as Dr. Harris observes, be of some bene- 
fit by stimulating the young plant and pro- 
moting its more rapid growth, by which it will 
be sooner placed beyond danger from the at- 
tacks of cut-worms. Fall-ploughing of sward- 
lands, which are intended to be sown with 
wheat or planted with corn the following year, 
will turn up and expose the insects to the in- 
clemency of the winter, whereby many of them 
will be killed. Some will be destroyed at the 
time by birds. This remedy, however, may be 
objectionable in stiff clay soils, which would 
become very much packed or baked during 
the winter. 

Among other remedies, one proposed by Mr. 
Park Shee of Delaware county, Pennsylvania, 
is said to be a simple and expeditious mode of 
destroying cut-worms. A pair of old wheels 
are to be fitted with projections like the cogs 
of a spur-wheel in a mill, which must be so 
formed as to make holes in the earth during 
the turning of the wheel, four inches deep. 
The smooth track which the wheels make on 
the soft ground, induces the worm in its noc- 
turnal wanderings, to follow on till it tumbles 
into the pit. It cannot climb out, and is de- 
stroyed by the hot sun. 

The only effectual remedy at present known, 
Dr. Harris thinks, consists in turning a suffi- 
cient force into the fields infested, to scratch 
up and destroy the worms by hand. This 
may require several days, but will generally b« 
successful in securing the crop, when replant- 
ing is performed at the same time. Estimates 
of "the cost of labour and time thus expended. 



* In regard lo wire-worms, care must be taken not to 
confound the American insects with those bearing a 
similar name in England. See Spring-Beetles, under 
the head of Beetle, p. 174. 

3s: 



CUT-WORM. 

show that the farmer is a great gainer by the 
outlay. 

Mr. Deane once prevented the depredations 
of cut-worms in his garden by manuring the 
soil with sea-mud. The plants generally es- 
caped, although every one was cut off in a 
?5pot of ground contiguous. He acknowledges, 
however, that the most effectual remedy, even 
in field culture, is to go round every morning 
ctnd open the earth at the foot of the plant, 
vhere, if present, the worm will be found at 
he root, within four inches of the surface. 
Mr. Preston of Stockport, Pennsylvania, pro- 
tected his cabbage-plants by wrapping a hickory 
or walnut leaf around the stem between the 
root and leaves before planting. A piece of 
rag would answer equally well ; but care must 
be taken to remove any such bandage when 
the plant has attained a size to resist the at- 
tacks of worms. Paper has been successfully 
used for this purpose by Mr. Fiske of Massa- 
chusetts. 

Salt is known to be highly obnoxious to 
naked worms and caterpillars. Some farmers 
have found great protection from the depreda- 
tions of these by mixing salt with the manure 
put upon the ground as mentioned by Mr. 
Colman in his " Third Report," where, how- 
ever, no definite proportion is stated. Some 
Pennsylvania farmers place the greatest reli- 
ance in a mixture of equal parts of salt, ashes, 
and plaster of Paris, about a gill of which mix- 
ture is applied on each corn hill. The experi- 
ment has been tried on alternate rows which 
were exempt from the attacks of worms, whilst 
the rows to which no application was made 
suffered greatly. The plaster might probably 
be dispensed with. 

Dr. Harris describes another naked caterpil- 
lar which is often found to be injurious to cab- 
bages, cauliflowers, spinach, beets, and other 
garden vegetables with succulent leaves. It 
does not conceal itself in the ground, but lives 
exposed on the leaves of the plants which it 
devours. It is of a light yellow colour, with 
three, broad, longitudinal, yellow stripes, one 
on each side, and the third on the top of the 
back ; and the head and feet are tawny. Dr. 
Melsheimer calls it the zebra-caterpillar, on 
account of its stripes. It comes to its full size 
m Massachusetts in September, and then mea- 
sures about two inches in length. Early in Oc- 
tober it leaves off eating, goes into the ground, 
changes to a shining brown chrysalis, and is 
transformed to a moth about the first of June. 
It is probable that there are two broods of this 
kind of caterpillar every summer, in some, if 
not all, parts of this country; for Dr. Mel- 
sheimer says that it appears in Pennsylvania in 
June, goes into the ground and is changed to a 
chrysalis towards the end of June or the be- 
ginning of July, and comes forth in the moth 
stale near the end of August. The moth may 
be called Mamcstra picta, the painted Mamestra, 
in allusion both to the beautiful tints of the ca- 
terpillar. anH <n the softly blended shades of 
dark and light brown with which the fore- 
wings of the moth are coloured. It is of a 
light brown colour, shaded with purple brown ; 
thp ordinaiy spots on the fore-wings, with a 
third oval spot behind the round one, are edged 
^82 



CYPERUS, 



1 



with gray ; and there is a transverse zigzag 
gray line, forming a distinct W in the middle, 
near the outer hind margin. The hind-wings 
are white, and faintly edged with brown around 
the tip. It is evident that this insect cannot be 
included in either of the foregoing groups of 
the owlet-moths. It belongs to a distinct fa- 
mily, which may be called Mamestrada, or 
Mamestrians. The caterpillars in this group 
are generally distinguished by their bright co- 
lours ; they live more or less exposed on the 
leaves of plants, and transform in the ground- 
The moths fly by night only; most of them 
have the thorax slightly crested ; and they are 
easily known by the zigzag line, near the outer 
hind margin of the fore-wings, forming a W or 
M in the middle. 

As the caterpillar of the painted Mamestra 
does not seek concealment, it may easily be 
found, and destroyed by hand." {Harris.) 
See Grubs, Wire-Worms, Spindlk or Bud 
Worms. 

CUTTING. When a horse cuts or wounds 
one leg with the opposite foot. The best re- 
medy is to put on the cutting foot a shoe of 
even thickness from heel to toe, not projecting 
in the slightest degree beyond the crusp, and 
the crusp itself to be rasped a little at the 
quarters. This shoe should only have one nail 
on the inside, and that almost close to the 
toe. {Lib. Useful Know., The Horse, pp. 252. 
341.) 

CYDER. See Cider. 

CYNOSURUS. The dog's tail grass, from 
Kuaiv, a dog, and cvpu, a tail. There are three 
commonly known varieties of this grass in 
England, and two in the United States. One 
of which was found by Mr. Nuttall in the plains 
of Missouri. Very little value is attached to 
this grass by the American farmer. 

Cyiiosu7-n« cristnlus. Crested dog's tail grass. 
PI. 6,/. This is an excellent sheep grass. Sin- 
clair found the produce per acre, from a brown 
loarn with manure, at the time of flowering, to 
be 612.5 lbs., containing nutritive matter 406 
lbs. He says of it, "In all the most celebrated 
pastures, which I have examined, it constituted 
a very considerable portion of the produce." 

Cyiiosurus crucceforniis. Linear-spiked dog's 
tail grass, flourishes best on a rich deep lo.am; 
next best on a clayey loam ; in which soil 
Sinclair obtained of this grass, when in flower, 
6806 lbs. per acre, containing nutritive matter 
365 lbs. 

Cyiiosurus echinatus. Rough dog's tail grass. 
It is a scarce, and an inferior grass. When in 
bloom, it yielded Sinclair per acre from a 
sandy loam 5445 lbs., containing of nutritive 
matter 191 lbs. (Paxton^s Eat. Diet.; Sinclair's 
Hort. Gram. Wob.) 

CYPERUS (Cyprus-grass). This is a natu- 
ral order, embracing some of the sedge tribe 
somewhat allied to grasses. The stems are 
either solid or filled with a spongy pith-like 
substance, generally without joints, or nodes, 
tapering, cylindric, or angular (often triangu- 
lar), and the sheaths of the leaves which em- 
brace the stem are not slit, but entire. The 
roots of some species of cypenisses possess 
an aromatic odour, especially those of the C. 
longus. A few others produce tubers said to 



CYPERUS-GRASS, MILLET. 



CYPRESSES. 



be esculent. From the integuments of the C. 
papyrus of Egypt, the ancients first obtained a 
convenient substitute for skins to write upon, 
and the paper since invented still retains the 
name of paper, derived from Papyrus. 

Although the genus Cyperus appears to be 
■widely dispersed over the world, North Ame- 
rica and the West Indies possess far the larg- 
est proportion. About twenty-five or thirty 
species are found in the United States. (Nui- 
talFs Genera.) 

CYPERUS-GRASS, MILLET {Srirpus syl- 
vaticus). The wood clubrush. See Scirpus. 

CYPERUS, SWEET, or ENGLISH GA- 
LINGALE (Cyperus longus). This is a wild 
perennial plant, growing, but not common, in 
marshes and moist places, two or three feet 
high. Its stalk is green and leafless, except 
two or three small leaves at the top from 
which the tufts of flowers rise. The root 
leaves are a foot long, narrow, grassy, and 
bright green. The flowers are brown. The 
root is long, moderately creeping, highly aro- 
matic, and astringent. There is a smaller 
species, the brown cyperus (C. fuscus), which 
is an annual, and grows much smaller, not 
reaching to above six inches high ; root of 
many simple fibres. (Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. i. 
p. 53.) 

CYPRESS TREE (Cupressus sempervirens). 
A hardy shrub, native of the Levant; growing 
from fifteen to twenty feet high, which throws 
out yellow blossoms in May. Its wood is red, 
very hard, and sweet-scented. It likes a good 
soil. It is the symbol of sorrow all over 
Europe, in the East, and even in China. Its 
wood, from being sonorous, is used for harps, 
violins, and other musical instruments. 
Worms never attack it. (Phillip's Shrub, vol. 
i. p. 188; M'CuUoch's Com. Did.) 

CYPRESSES. The researches of botanists, 
says Michaux, have made us acquainted with 
only seven species of cypresses, of which two 
are indigenous to the United States, namely, 
the Cypressus disticha, called, in the Southern 
and Middle States, Bald Cypress, Black Cypress, 
and White Cypress, the last popular names 
being applied in the Carolinas. The second 
species of American cedar is called by bota- 
nists, Cvpressus thyoides, and popularly the 
White Cedar. Both are highly important trees, 
for the many useful purposes to which their 
wood is applied. 

Michaux says of the black or bald cypress, 
that the bahks of Indian river in the southern 
part of the state of Delaware may be assumed 
as its northern limit. In proceeding south- 
ward from this point it becomes constantly 
more abundant in swamps ; but in Maryland 
and Virginia is confined to the vicinity of the 
sea, where the winter is milder. Beyond Nor- 
folk, its limits correspond exactly with those 
of the Pine Barrens, and in the Carolinas and 
Georgia it occupies a great part of the swamps 
which border the rivers after they have passed 
from among the mountains and entered the 
low lands. 

The Mississippi from its mouth to the river 
Arkansas, a distance of more than six hun- 
dred miles, following the windings, is bordered 
by marshes, which, at the annual overflowing 



of this mighty stream, form a vast expanse of 
waters. In Louisiana, those parts of the 
marshes where the cypress grows almost 
alone are called Cyprieres, cypress swamps, 
and they sometimes occupy thousands of 
acres. 

In the deep, miry soil of the swamps in the 
Southern States, the bald cypress attains its 
utmost developement, rising sometimes to the 
height of one hundred and twenty feet, with a 
circumference of twenty-five and even forty 
feet, at the conical base, which, at the surface 
of the earth, is always three or four times as 
large as the continued diameter of the trunk. 
On this account, in felling them the negroes 
are obliged to raise themselves upon scaffolds 
five or six feet above the ground. The base is 
generally hollow for three-quarters of its bulk. 
The summit is not pyramidal like that of 
spruces, but is widely spread ard even depress- 
ed or drooping upon old tree. The foliage 
is open, light, and of a fresh aiiv agreeable 
tint, the leaflets being small and fine. In au- 
tumn they change from a light green to a dull 
red, and are shed soon after. Boiled during 
three hours in water, they afford a fine, durable 
cinnamon colour. To bunches of very minute 
flowers, succeed cones about the size of the 
thumb, roundish and uneven on the surface, 
filled with irregular seeds containing cylindri- 
cal kernels. The seeds retain their productive 
virtue for two years. 

The stocks which grow in places where for 
half the j'ear they are surrounded with three 
or four feet of water, have the bark lighter 
coloured than trees not so much exposed to 
w^ater. Hence they are called White Cypresses, 
whilst those less exposed to water, and having 
browner bark, and heavier, more resinous, and 
darker wood, are named Black Cypresses. When 
destined to be employed in the arts, both kinds 
should be felled in winter, and kept a sufficient 
length of time for the wood to become perfectly 
dry. The wood of the cypress is far more 
durable than that of the pine, and is especially 
useful for making shingles to cover buildings 
of all kinds. Cedar rails for post and rail- 
fences are also in great demand in every por- 
tion of the Middle States where the oak and 
chestnut trees have become scarce. A large 
trade in cedar shingles is carried on between 
the southern parts of Norfolk, Wilmington, &< , 
with the West Indies. 

It would be unavailing, says Michaux, to n- 
commend the preservation and multiplication 
of the cypress in the maritime districts of the 
Carolinas and Georgia, though for an extent 
of more than nine" hundred miles they have 
neither stone nor slate for building; it becomes 
daily more profitable for the increasing popu 
lation to convert the marshes into rice-groundi , 
which afford a sure subsistence to the inhabit 
ants and swell the mass of exported produce 
Instead of wood, the houses will be constructed 
of brick, which is already beginning to b<; 
done, and covered with slate imported from the 
Northern States or from Europe. It is highly 
probable that in less than two centuries, the 
cypress will disappear from the Southern 
States. 

The White Cedar (Cypressus thyoides) is or.c 

383 



DACTYLIS. 



DAIRY. 



of the most interesting trees in the United 
States for the varied utility of its wood. It 
grows only in wet grounds. In New Jersey, 
Maryland, and Virginia, it nearly fills the ex- 
tensive marshes which lie adjacent to the salt 
meadows, and are exposed in high tides to be 
overflown by the sea. Farther south, it is 
mingled with the cypress, by which it is at 
length entirely supplanted. The white cedar 
is not to be mistaken for the white cypress, a 
variety of the bald cypress. In lower Jersey 
and Maryland, the swamps in which the white 
cedar grows, are only accessible during the 
dryest periods of summer, and whilst frozen 
in winter. The trees stand so thick in these 
swamps that the light can hardly penetrate the 
foliage. The white cedar grows seventy or 
eighty feet high, and rarely more than three 
feet in diameter, unless perhaps in the Great 
Dismal Swamp, near Norfollc, where it flou- 
rishes in company with the bald or black cy- 
press. When the white cedars are close and 
compressed, the straight and perpendicular 
trunks are free from branches to the height of 
fifty or sixty feet. They are observed to choose 
the centre of the swamps, and the cypresses 
the outside. 

The foliage is evergreen, each leaf consisting 
of a little branch numerously subdivided, and 
the flowers, which are scarcely visible, produce 
very small rough cones of a greenish tint, 
which changes to bluish towards the fall, 
when they open to release the fine seeds. 

The wood is light, soft, fine-grained, and 
easily worked. When perfectly seasoned and 
exposed some time to the light, it is of a rosy 
hue. It preserves its aromatic odour for a 
very long time, when kept dr}', and resists the 
destructive tendencies of alternate moisture 
and dryness longer than any other wood, for 
which quality shingles made of it are prefer- 
red in Baltimore and Philadelphia to those of 
the bald cypress. In the first named city they 
are generally called juniper shingles. They 
will last on a roof for thirty or thirty-five 
years. The great domestic consumption and 
exportation has raised the price of "cypress 
shingles from four and five dollars per thousand 
in 1808, to thirty or forty dollars per thousand 
in 1842. Swamps producing white cedar, so 
useful for fence timber and other important 
purposes, constitute a valuable species of pro- 
perty. {Michaux.) 

D 

DACTYLIS. A genus of grasses which, 
with one exception, are of but little value for 
cultivation. See Cock's-foot Grass. 

DAIRY. The place where milk is kept, and 
butter and cheese prepared and preserved. 
The proper construction and management of 
. a dairy are questions of considerable import- 
ance to the farmer. It should be situated, if 
possible, on a dry porous soil. The room 
should be made of brick or stone, with a floor 
of the same materials, for the sake of its being 
more readily and frequently washed with cold 
water not only on the score of cleanliness, but 
.hat the temperature of the place may in sum- 
384 



mer be kept down to the most advantageous 
degree. And to this end, the dairy is com- 
monly placed on the northern side of the 
house, where it may be readily shaded from 
the sun by other more elevated buildings, or 
by trees. \ temperature between 50° and 60° 
is the best, and the less occasion there is to 
reduce the temperature of the dairy by wash- 
ing the floor with cold water the better, since, 
amongst other disadvantages, the damp air 
thus produced is not so advantageous as a dry Ij 
atmosphere for the retention of sweetness II 
in milk and cream, and, therefore, the dairy- 
house in England is generally covered with 
thatch, and can hardly be too well ventilated. 
It should be far removed from stagnant ponds 
and oflfensive drains; and furnished with wire 
gauze windows, by which insects are readily 
excluded without impairing the necessary ven- 
tilation. Adjoining to it should be placed a 
wash-house, furnished with a chimney, a large 
copper kettle to heat the water, or in cheese 
dai'ries the milk. This is commonly supported 
by a crane. 

The wash-house should have an o^uter door, 
near to which the dairy utensils may be set on 
benches, to be dried by the sun and air. In 
Holland the dairy rooms are kept with the 
greatest order, neatness, and comfort; so much 
so, that the farmer's family often take their 
meals in them. On the economy of the dairy 
the following excellent direction, abridged from 
those drawn up by the Agricultural Society of 
Aberdeenshire, may be studied by the farmer 
with advantage. They refer chiefly to salted 
butter : — 

1. The milk-house or dairy should have no in- 
ternal communication with any other building. 
It must be kept free from smoke, well aired, 
and clean, and no potatoes, fish, onions, 
cheese, or any thing likely to impart a strong 
or bad smell, should be kept therein ; in short, 
nothing but the dairy utensils, which must 
also be kept sweet and clean. 2. I^he milk, 
when brought in from the cows, should be 
strained through a fine hair searce or drainer, 
and when cool put into sweet, well-seasoned 
oaken kegs, keelers, or milk pans, the latter to 
be preferred. A tin skimmer with holes in it 
is the best for taking off the cream, which 
should always be churned while the cream is 
fresh. 3. The churn, whether plunge or barrel, 
should be made of the best well-seasoned white 
oak, and as cleanliness is of the first import- 
ance, great attention should be paid to the 
washing, drying, and airing of the churns im- 
mediately after use, otherwise they are sure to 
contract a sour and unwholesome smell, which 
must injure the quality of the butter. 4. The 
butter immediately after being churned should be 
thrown into fresh spring xirnter, where it should 
remain one hour at least, that it may grow_^rw. 
5. The butter should be immediately salted. 6. It 
is a very injurious practice to keep a mak- 
ing of butter uncured till the next churning, 
for the purpose of mixing the tw^o together. It 
invariably injures the flavour of the whole, and 
renders it of too soft a quality ever afterwards 
to get firm. 7. The milk of new-calved cows 
should never be set for butter, until at least 
four days after calving, as a small quantity of 



DAIRY. 



DAIRY. 



biestmilk butter will injure a whole firkin. 
The practice of scalding cream in cold wea- 
ther should also be avoided, as cream thus 
treated will never make good butter. 8. Great 
care should be taken not to steep the firkins, or 
other dairy vessels, in boggy or unwholesome 
water ; only the purest spring or clear running 
water should be used. 9. Old butter should 
never be mixed with new. 

Lime-tree yields perhaps the best wood for 
butter firkins; and the St. Ubes' Bay or ma- 
rine sweet salt, free from bittern, is the best 
salt to use for dairy purposes : this should be 
kept in a dry, clean cask, in a place where 
smoke (which is apt to impart a bad flavour 
to it) cannot reach it. The management and 
construction of the dairy of necessity varies 
with the articles for which it is chiefly intend- 
ed to be devoted, as Butter, Cheese, Milk : 
see these heads. 

In the United States one of the most cele- 
brated dairy districts is that of Western Re- 
serve, in Ohio, peopled generally by settlers 
from New England. It is computed that this 
fine grazing country sells, annually, cheese to 
the amount of a million and a half of dollars, 
besides large quantities of butter, and a great 
amount of beef and pork. 

There is reason to believe that the exporta- 
tion of butter and cheese from the United 
States to other countries will annually in- 
crease, and especially to England, where a 
great reduction of duties on these and other 
articles of the provision trade has recently 
taken place. From the objections made to 
American butter and cheese sent abroad, it 
seems highly desirable that more pains should 
be taken at home to improve their qualities, 
which can only be done by paying more at- 
tention to their manufacture. There is no dis- 
guising the fact, says a late writer in the Cul- 
tivator, " tViat immense quantities of butter find 
their way to market in a condition which ren- 
ders it unfit for any thing but grease. Hot 
weather, or the shortest voyage, renders it in- 
tolerably rancid. Now, butter made in Holland 
may be carried to any distance, and in any cli- 
mate, without sutTering material deterioration, 
and hence it is in such demand for exportation. 
Vast quantities annually find their way to Great 
Britain for domestic consumption and other- 
wise, and the high prices demonstrate the esti- 
mation in which it is held. There are no finer 
pastures in the world than in the United States, 
particularly those north of the Ohio, and if pro- 
per attention and skill were given to the pro- 
ducts of the dairy, those products might be un- 
rivalled. There is a considerable amount of 
excellent butter made in the country, but it is 
used for domestic consumption, and the pro- 
portion of the first rate article bears but a slight 
comparison with the whole. There is less dif- 
ference in the cheeses of this country and the 
European ones than there is in the butter, and 
consequently less difierence in the prices. But 
in both butter and cheese, so far as the great 
mass of these products are concerned, there is 
room for a decided improvement, and we doubt 
not our dairy women would consult their own 
interest, as well as the credit of the country, in 
49 



giving more care to the production of superior 
articles ; but to the extract. 

" At a public sale of American butter at Liver- 
pool, it brought, the best sorts, 84s., seconds 73 
to 74s. per cwt., duty paid, while inferior sold 
only at 43 to 44s. in bond, of which the parcel 
chiefly consisted. The quantity arrived at the 
London market shows the same results, the 
principal part being sold for greasy purposes. 
The American makers of butter are very far 
behind the Irish, English, or Dutch ; from the 
first operation to the last, all seems to be done 
without system or care. The same materials 
would, if managed by experienced hands, bring 
in this market 25 or 30s. more money. There 
is evidently no proper attention paid to the 
making, salting, putting down, or packing. A 
correspondent of one of our commercial papers 
says, — 'The best American butter imported in- 
to England this year has sold not higher than 
95s., while the best from the continent has 
brought 110 to 115s. per cwt.; this latter will 
keep for years.' " (London Commercial Journal 
for March, 1841.) 

As a large portion of the United States is 
favoured with all the advantages requisite for 
dairy purposes, such as good pastures, excel- 
lent cows, fine spring-houses or facilities for 
making them, there is no apparent reason why 
good butter and cheese should not be produced 
in the greatest abundance. Among other in- 
structions for improving the manufacture of 
butter, given in a recent volume of the CultwtX' 
tor, the following merit particular attention : — 

"Every thing connected with the making of 
butter should be perfectly sweet and clean. No 
smoke, dust, or disagreeable smells should ever 
exist in the milk-house or dairy. Every thing 
of this kind has its effect on the cream, and 
leaves its taint on the butter. The milk should 
be skimmed, and the cream churned at the pro- 
per time and the proper temperature. The but- 
termilk should be promptly separated ; and in 
salting, none but salt of the finest, purest kind 
is admissible. Next to leaving milk c* whey 
in the butter to putrefy, the use of bad salt has 
the most influence in making this article worth- 
less. Many reconimend washing butter in clear 
cold water to free it from the milk, and this 
mode is practised in some of the best butter 
districts of Europe or the United States. If the 
milk is thoroughly separated, however, the par- 
ticular method is of very little consequence 
and perhaps a machine for working the butter- 
milk out, such as has been figured in the Cul- 
tivator, or some similar contrivance, will be 
found as effectual as any thing. But butter, if 
made ever so perfectly, will rot keep well un- 
less it is also packed well. Total exclusion 
from the air seems necessary, and wlieu this 
is combined with a low temperature, butler can 
be kept for an indefinite period of time. It is 
the adventitious circumstances only thai make 
poor butter, for, as it is a pure animal oil, if 
freed from those things that have a tendency to 
spoil it, it would keep as long and with as little 
trouble as tallow or lard. It is the difficulty 
of freeing butter from the substances connect- 
ed with it, that have a constant tendency to 
putrefaction, that renders the packing of butter 
2 K 386 



DAIRY. 



DAIRY. 



of so much consequence to its preservation. 
Stone jars we have found superior to any thing 
else for packing butter. They are sweet, cool, 
impervious to air, and, from their shape, leave 
but a small surface to be exposed or covered 
with brine. The butter, whether packed in jars 
or firkins, must be beat solid, and the vessel, 
whatever it may be, should be filled at once. 
The difficulty attending firkins is, that all wood 
contains more or less acid, and this, decom- 
posing the salt, imparts an unpleasant taste 
and flavour to the butter in the cask. This is 
partly remedied by filling the firkin with strong 
brine, and allowing them to stand a few days 
before using; but the cause is never entirely re- 
moved. Experiments made in Scotland proved 
that the wood of the linden or basswood con- 
tained the least acid, and this is supported by 
the fact that, in the Tyrolese salt-works, where 
water is brought to the point of saturation by 
percolating through bundles of twigs or fagots, 
those of the basswood are always preferred to 
any other. In this country firkins of heart-ash 
are preferred, and perhaps are as good as any 
that can be used. We have known a firkin of 
butter, properly' headed, thrown into a well 
where the water was of the temperature of 
about 50° to 55°, and when taken out, after a 
submersion of a year, was as sweet as when 
put in. Perhaps, where circumstances admit, 
butter might be advantageously kept in this 
way in vats filled with running spring water 
of the proper temperature. Jars or firkins, 
when filled with butter, should have some pure 
strong brine poured on the top of the butler, 
and kept there for the purpose of excluding the 
air until the article is wanted for use. Instead 
of the brine some use salt, and others prefer a 
linen cloth saturated in brine for this purpose. 
But whatever is used, the top of the jar or fir- 
kin should be carefully covered with a board, 
or what is much belter, a clean, flat stone. 
They should stand on flat stones, in a cool 
place in the cellar, and may be occasionally 
looked to, to see that the surface is properly 
secured, and the air excluded." 

Some of the defects of American cheese 
have been referred to under the head of 
Cheese. A very common one arises from its 
being too often sent to market in a very green 
state, frequently when but three weeks old. 
The best English cheeses, we are told, are not 
considered as ripe and marketable until two 
years old. " A great improvement," says Mr. 
Colman, "is thought by some to have been 
made in capping the cheeses, as it is termed ; 
*hat is, as soon as they are taken from the 
press, covering them completely with cotton 
cloth, sewed over them tightly; or else drawn 
round the sides of the cheese and over the 
edges, leaving the centre partially exposed. 
Where the cheeses are covered entirely, the 
cloth itself is completely covered and saturated 
with the usual unguent of whey-butter and 
some simple and harmless colouring matter. 
The eflfect is to preserve the cheese against the 
attacks of flies, and to render the daily turning 
of the cheeses not indispensably necessary, be- 
sides preventing their spreading and cracking. 
1 1 is said by some persons that the cheese does 
386 



not cure so perfectly in this way as when ex- 
posed, and that the sale is not so ready. Such 
contradictory statements are made in this case, 
however, by those who have tried, and those 
who refuse to try it, that I cannot decide on its 
expediency. It impressed me favourably. 

" I have much pleasure in saying that many 
of the Berkshire dairies are most exemplary 
in respect to neatness ; and in this matter pre- 
sent beautiful models of domestic management. 
There are exceptions, however, to this com- 
mendation. In some instances there is any 
thing but neatness. The sink and the pig- 
stye, with all their offensive exhalations, on 
account of what is called convenience, which 
is only an apology in such cases for gross lazi- 
ness, are in much too intimate proximity with 
the dairy-room ; and there are cases — I shall 
not venture to say whether I saw them or only 
heard of them — where, if the pigs should per- 
chance mistake their own apartment and go 
into the next door, they would never suspect 
their error, unless they were ordered out. Ad- 
monition, however, seems lost upon such per- 
sons. Slovenliness and sluttishness are incor- 
rigible vices; and the fate of such persons 
seems, as it were, in despair of reformation, 
irrevocably pronounced. 

"Wilbur's semi-revolving slide cheese shelves 
is an admirable contrivance to save labour in 
the cheese-dairy. By it two men can easily 
turn twenty-four heavy cheeses in a minute, 
and are enabled to rub them without their be- 
ing lifted from the shelves. The model con- 
sists of an upright frame, suspended by an axis 
passing through its horizontal centre ; and into 
which slide eight pair of shelves, the distance 
of which may be graduated to the size of the 
cheeses. The cheeses are placed alternately 
above and below the axis. Slats are fixed upon 
the back of the frame to prevent the cheeses 
falling out when the frame revolves. The 
frame is made stationary by a pin, and when 
this is withdrawn, it is made to revolve half 
round upon its axis, which turns the cheeses. 
The shelves over them, and upon which the 
cheeses have lain the preceding day, may theji 
be withdrawn, and left to dry till the next day, 
when they may be returned, the turning pro- 
cess repealed, and the other shelves cleaned 
and dried in turn. The improvement is a valu- 
able one in large dairies. Henry Wilbur, of 
Richfield, Otsego Co., N. Y., is the inventor. 

"The saving in labour and risk of the cheese 
is great, and the expense of fitting up a new 
room on this plan would not greatly exceed 
that in common use, as the room may be much 
smaller. One rack with six shelves, six feet 
long, twenty-four inches wide, set eleven inches 
apart, will hold eighteen cheeses weighing from 
100 to 140 lbs. each, suspended by a wooden 
shaft two inches square, resting on two rails 
extending the whole length of the room, three 
and a half feet high, or if only a single rack, 
on two posts ; each rack requires about four 
feet on the length of the rails to turn well, — 
and its cost will not exceed six dollars, includ- 
ing the materials of which it is made. On 
this system the cheese dries much faster, as it 
is turned on the dry side of the shelf every day, 



DAIRY. 

and has a sound and dry rind. He has one set 
of extra shelves, which are slipped in close 
above the cheeses before turned, on which 
shelf the cheeses lay when turned over; the 
others are then liberated for another rack, and 
so on through the room. By the aid of these 
six extra shelves, the cheeses in turning need 
not fall but a trifle, if any." 

The qualities of the butter generally produced 
by the New England dairies are even more 
defective than those of the cheese. These de- 
fects are chiefly owing to causes easily reme- 
died, — by observing perfect ventilation and 
cleanliness in the milk-room and all its uten- 
sils, taking the cream from the milk whilst this 
is still fresh, and churning soon after the skim- 
ming. The working is a matter of primary 
importance, and is too often but half done. 
The operation should be continued till every 
trace of the buttermilk is removed, since, if 
any of this be left, the butter will quickly ac- 
quire a rancid or otherwise unpleasant flavour. 
The salting also is of much consequence. In 
general too much salt is added, and that not 
always of the very best kind for the purpose. 
Much salt destroys the delicacy of fine butter. 
The additions of saltpetre and sugar, often made 
in New England dairies, is sanctioned by the 
practice in Scotland and other countries. See 
Butter. The noted richness and superior fla- 
vour of much of the Pennsylvania butter, found 
in the Philadelphia market, is chiefly to be as- 
cribed to the fine sweet and clean spring-houses 
so common in that section of the United States, 
together with good old pasture fields, and great 
attention to working. This last, when well 
done, renders very little salt necessary, and 
hence the fine and delicate flavour of the butter 
can be perceived. The processes followed in 
the dairy districts in England are well worth 
the attention of persons interested in this sub- 
ject. Some of these are referred to under the 
heads of Butter and Cheese. 

Mr. Colman, in his able Reports upon the 
Agriculture of Massachusetts, has furnished 
some highly interesting details in regard to 
dairy affairs in the Eastern States. Treating 
of the interests of Berkshire county, the dairy 
products of many farms in which is not sur- 
passed by anj' accounts of other parts of our 
country, or of foreign countries, which he had 
been able to obtain, he observes : " The dairy 
business has always been a great business. 
For a time it gave way to the raising of fine 
wool, when the prices of that staple were high. 
Since the abatement of the demand for wool, 
with that caprice for which mankind always 
have been, and there is reason to think always 
will be remarkable, many farmers have sacri- 
ficeij their flocks ; and are now giving their 
exclusive attention to the daily husbandry. 
These changes, in matters so important as the 
dairy or the sheep husbandry, involving as they 
do a considerable investment of capital, and 
many expensive fixtures, cannot be suddenly 
or frequently made without risk of serious loss 
and disadvantage." 

Mr. Colman gives the following statements 
in relation to dairy products, expenses, net 
profits, &c. 

A farmer residing about twenty-five miles 



DAIRY. 

from the Hudson, who with a stock of eighteen 
cows, turned his attention to making butter 
for the New York market, to which it was sent 
every week, sold in one year 2400 lbs. of but- 
ter, at 23 cts. per lb. With the refuse milk he 
fed seventeen spring pigs until October, when 
their average weight was 177 lbs. each. Half 
of this pork, say 88 lbs. was to be credited to 
the cow. Reckoning the pork at $10 per 100 
lbs. (a much higher price, however, than it 
will now bear), the account would stand thus : 

Cow, Cr. 

133 lbs. of butter, at 23 cts. $30 59 

Pork --8 00 

38 59 
Cow, Dr. 
Wintering ...... ji2 00 

Pasturing - - - - - -500 

Salt 25 

Interest on S'25, at 10 per cent., risks in- 
cluded a 50 19 75 

Annual profits of a cow - . - . $18 84 
This calculation is made without including 
any extra feed for the cow, and upon the sup- 
position that the butter and milk used by the 
family pays for the attendance. The profit 
here allowed, Mr. Colman thinks, less than 
that actually derived. He mentions another 
dairy, in which nine cows yielded 1540 lbs. of 
butter per annum, and 300 lbs. of cheese ; and 
athird, where twenty cows produced — of butter, 
500 lbs. ; and of new milk cheese, 4000 lbs. 

In the neighbourhood where these dairies are 
found, two acres of land are deemed sufficient 
for pasturing a cow or fattening a steer. 
Twenty head of cattle, made up of cows and 
three year old steers, were fattened upon thirty 
acres of land. 

In the town or township of Ot'S, twenty cows 
gave 5000 lbs. of new-milk cheese, besides ave- 
raging 25 lbs. of butter each, for the family, 
which also used 600 lbs. of cheese. The credit 
and debtor account in this dairy may be reck- 
oned thus : — 

Cow, Cr. 
280 lbs. cheese, at 8 cts. per lb. - ■ - $22 40 
25 lbs. butter, at 20 cts. - ■ - - 5 00 
Calf 400 

Pork, 26 lbs. at 6 cts. - . - ■ - - 1 56 

32 96 
Cow, Dr. 

Wintering f 12 00 

Pasturing 5 00 

Interest on cost of cow, $15, at 10 per cent, 

including risks .... 1 50 
Labour and attendance - - - - 2 16 20 66 

Balance in favour of cow ^12 24 

In Sandisfield, the average yiild of a cow 
in ordinary seasons is rated at 250 lbs. of 
cheese, with common keeping. By extra keep- 
ing, the quantity is increased to 350 or 400 lbs. 
The quantity of butter in addition to the new 
milk cheese, is supposed to be 40 or 50 lbs. 
each cow. The amount of cheese made in 
this township, in 1837, was estimated by com- 
petent authority, at 300,000 lbs. The popula 
tion is 1493. 

"Another farmer in the same neighbourhood, 
with a dairy of fifteen cows, states the average 
product of a cow, if she raises her calf, at 250 
lbs. ; if otherwise, 300 lbs. ; and 25 lbs. butter, 
also, from each cow. Four hogs may be kept to 
twenty cows. In this "'ay, weighing 100 lbs. ;a 

387 



DAIRY. 



DAIRY. 



the spring, they will weigh 300 lbs. in the fall. 
140 lbs. of pork is to be credited to five cows. 

" The cost of wintering a cow here, is rated at 
IPIO ; pasturage, $4. A good dairy woman will 
take charge of thirty cows, with assistance in 
milking and in handling cheese. Her wages 
will be $1 50 per week, with board. 

" In Tyringham, the average yield of a cow 
is reckoned at — new milk cheese, 283 lbs., 
and butter at the same time, 57 lbs. A dairy 
of twenty-eight cows gave 7912 lbs. new milk 
cheese, and 1600 lbs. butter. A large amount 
of pork was fattened on this farm ; but it is 
difficult to say what portion of it is to be 
credited to the dairy. 

" In Sheffield, the average product of twenty- 
eight cows was 394 lbs. new milk cheese, and 
50 lbs. of butter each. 

" The product of a cow is thus stated by this 
excellent manager : 

Cow, Cr. 
400 lbs. new milk cheese at 8 cts. ... j)32 00 

Calf, (killed at 3 days old) 100 

50 lbs. butter, at 16| 8 33 

Whey and butter-milk make 100 lbs. pork - - 8 00 

«49 33 
Supra, Dr. 

Winter keeping $12 00 

One acre of land costing $50 will pasture 

the cow - - - - - -3 50 

Salt 35 cts., 3 ba. of bran $3 - - - 3 25 
Int. on the value of cow at $25, 10 per ct. 2 50 
Labour of milking, making butter, cheese, &c. 4 00 25 25 

Balance in favour of cow .... $24 08 

" The quantity of land estimated for pastu- 
rage in this case seems small. It must be small 
for a general rule ; another farmer in the same 
town assured me that he kept one yoke of oxen 
all the season, and one horse half the season, 
on two and a half acres of land, which he 
showed me. The land had been greatly bene- 
fitted by plaster. 

" In New Marlboro', the yield of a cow is 
estimated at 300 lbs. new milk cheese ; four 
hogs are kept to 20 cows ; two tons of hay are 
deemed requisite for a cow; value of hay sold 
$10 ; but if the farmer can realize $6 per ton 
for it used on the place, he deems it better than 
to sell it. Eight to ten acres of land here, with 
the use of plaster, is deemed sufficient for the 
pasturage of four cows. 

"In Great Barrington, nine cows produced 
1900 lbs. new milk cheese, and 800 lbs. butter. 
In another case from eight cows were sold — of 
butter, 200 lbs., of new milk cheese, 1225 lbs. 
In another case 5 cows, through the season, and 
an additional cow half the season, from 1st of 
June to 10th Nov., produced 651 lbs. butter — 
ind 200 lbs. new milk cheese. In this case the 
weekly returns were given. The same farmer 
says, that his cows will average one pound of 
butter per day through the season. He states 
his cow account thus : 

Cow, Cr. 

200 lbs. Outter at 20 cts. $40 00 

Calf raised 2 00 

Buttermilk, and skim milk for pork, equal to all 

the care 

$42 00 

Supra, Dr. 
Wintering, 2 tons of hay - - - ■ - $16 00 
Pasturing, 25 cts. per week, 26 weeks - 6 50 
'pt. on cost of cow, $20, at 10 per ct. - 2 00 24 50 

Profits of a cow - - - - $17 00 

388 



"In Alford, the actual yield of a cow was as 
follows : Butter, 240 lbs. sold. Cheese, 100 
lbs. sold, besides using what milk and butter 
were required by two persons. She had her 
own skimmed milk, but no meal or grain. She 
consumed, as ascertained, two tons of hay, and 
her pasturage was 25 cents per week." 

The following estimates apply to the town- 
ship of Cheshire, which is devoted almost ex- 
clusively to the dairy husbandrv,and celebrated 
for the excellence and abundance of its pro- 
duce. 

"A farmer with twenty-five cows, states their 
average yield at 300 lbs. cheese, and 20 lbs. 
butter to a cow. He says likewise that 1500 
lbs. pork are to be credited to his cows. 

"The average cost or value of his cows is 
$.30 each ; wintering §14; pasturing 26 weeks 
$6 25 ; he raises some calves upon whey. It 
requires the whey of two or three cows to raise 
a calf. His hogs at 18 mos. average 350 lbs.; 
they run in a pasture and have the refuse of 
the dairy until about six weeks before it is in- 
tended to kill them, when they are shut up and 
fed with corn and meal. 

"The dairy of another farmer consists of 20 
cows. The year before last they yielded 400 
lbs. new milk cheese ; the last year 400 lbs. 
each, besides an ample .supply of butter for 
the family. He calculates upon the proportion 
of one hog to four cows; with the above cows 
he made 1200 lbs. of pork, 600 lbs. of which he 
credits to the cows ; he deems three acres ne- 
cessary for the pasturage of a cow. His cows 
during the spring have an allowance of rye- 
meal and whey. 

"In another case the produce of 23 cows 
was 12,000 lbs. new milk cheese and 500 lbs. 
butter. 

"In another case 30 cows made 14,000 lbs. 
new milk cheese ; and 500 lbs. butler. In this 
case some calves were raised ; but most of 
them were killed at four days old. Throughout 
the county of Berkshire this mode of dealing 
with the calves is termed 'deaconing' them. 
What is the particular propriety of this pro- 
vincialism, I am unable to determine; and 
whether it had its origin in any superstition 
among the aborigines or the first settlers of the 
county, I shall leave to the antiquaries to as- 
certain. It is a peculiarity, and prevails no 
where else. 

" The practice, with this farmer, is to give 
boiled corn in the ear to his cows ; perhaps a 
dozen ears to a cow per day. When it is con- 
veniently had, he gives a mess of rye-meal to 
each cow, at the rate of two quarts per day, for 
three weeks in the spring. He is anxious to 
let his cows go to the grass as soon as the 
ground is bare. He thinks cows are liable to 
suffer from excessive feeding in the barn. 

The wintering of a cow requires 1| tons of hay $14 00 
Pasturing, 20 cts. per week for 26 weeks - 5 20 

" In 40 days of the best of the season on this 
farm, 30 cows produced 4000 lbs. butter. The 
land required for the pasturage of a cow is 
considered to be three acres. 

" From thirty cows, an average of 425 lbs. 
of cheese has been produced to each cow, and 
ten lbs. of butter ; or 300 the whole. 



DAIRY. 



DAIRY. 



"On one farm, where 18 cows were kept, 
11,385 lbs. ncAV milk cheese were made in a 
season, which gives the extraordinary average 
of 632^ lbs. to a cow. 200 lbs. of butter were 
made the same season from the same cows. 
One of these cows produced 1000 lbs. new milk 
cheese. 

"During the first part of the season, for two 
months, two quarts of rye-meal were given to 
each cow. Half of this quantity of meal was 
given them for one month during the last of the 
season ; and the greater part of the time they 
had their whey. 1000 lbs. pork were made on 
the farm ; and half of this was credited to the 
cows. 

" The same individual, when on another farm 
in South Adams, with 21 cows, made 626 lbs. 
new milk cheese to a cow, in a season. 1700 
lbs. of pork were raised in connection with the 
dairy. Half the pork was considered as due 
to the cows. 

"The process of making cheese began the 
25th April, and ended the 1st December. As 
soon as the cows calved, the cows received 
3 qts. of meal per day each — principally rye, 
with some Indian ; and each had some whey, 
though not half what was yielded was given to 
them. Three or four of the cows received 
meal all the summer. He commenced feeding 
again with meal on the 25th July, and continued 
to give them two quarts of meal until the 25th 
August On the 25th August, he began feeding 
the cows with corn-stalks until 10th September. 
Then the cows had the after feed of the fields ; 
and from the 1st October, these cows had half 
a load of pumpkins per day. In November, 
fed every cow fully with meal ; two and three 
quarts per day until 1st December. After that, 
the cows had nothing but hay until spring. 
From the same cows, at the same time, butter 
enough was made, and milk enough used, for 
a family of six persons. The cheese sold in 
New York for $10 dollars per 100 lbs. 

"These products are certainly remarkable, 
and show what may be done by attention, skill, 
and good treatment of the animals under our 
care. The pasturage in Cheshire is of an ex- 
cellent description. The soil is generally of 
a rich gravelly loam resting upon limestone, 
and abounding in vegetable mould. It is like- 
wise sensitive to the application of plaster, 
v/hich is very commonly used." 

The same excellent authority who has fur- 
nished the foregoing details, enables us to pre- 
sent the following views of farmers in those 
sections of Massachusetts most celebrated for 
dairy products in regard to dairy stock. 

"The farmers are unanimous in their pre- 
ference of the common native stock of the 
country, in which the Devon blood predomi- 
nates, to any foreign stock with which they are 
acquainted. They are in general as decided 
in their preference of small, over large-sized 
cows. They are not, however, raisers of stock ; 
and buy their cows wherever they can find 
them, according to their best judgment. The 
remarkable produce, if so it be considered, is 
to be attributed to extraordinary good manage- 
ment and keeping; and on this account, de- 
serves the more attention, as showing what 
mav be done. 



"The dairy stock in England which seems 
to have the preference over all others, is the 
Ayrshire. The origin of this stock is not well 
ascertained ; but though it has some of the 
qualities of the improved Durham, is a race 
distinct from that. Great pains have been 
taken and great expenses incurred, in order to 
introduce this fine Ayrshire race of cows into 
our state, by the Massachusetts Agricultural 
Society, and by an intelligent and public-spi- 
rited friend to agricultural improvement in 
Waterstown. I regret that I am not able to 
obtain such returns as would enable me to 
speak confidently of the merits or defects of 
this stock, so far as these cases go ; — but I am 
safe in saying, that some slight disappoint- 
ment has been experienced. It is probable, 
from the celebrity which they had obtained 
abroad, too much was expected from them here. 
Extravagant statements have been made re- 
specting their produce in Scotland. One of the 
advocates for this stock, and a man upon whose 
authority great reliance is placed, has under- 
taken to calculate precisely the number of 
quarts of milk given, and the number of pounds 
of cheese made from what is stated to be in 
money the average produce of an Ayrshire 
cow. This is certainly rather a loose way of 
reaching the result. Entire reliance cannot 
be placed upon it. This, another distinguish- 
ed Scotch farmer and dairyman admits ; and 
says that ' those statements are far too high 
and not well founded.' 

" He refers to a farmer, on whose exactness 
he entirely relies ; whom he pronounces a 
man of superior intelligence and accuracy; 
and who has devoted himself to dairj hus- 
bandry ; and, further, whose stock were par- 
ticularly select, and ' who had every inducement 
to keep them in the highest condition requisite 
for giving the largest product in milk.' The 
farmer referred to, states, that at the best of 
the season the average milk from each cow is 
9 Scots pints (4^ gallons), and in a year, 1300 
Scots pints or 650 gallons. A Scots pint is 
two quarts. Now, allowing these cows to be 
in milk 320 days, the average yield of a cow 
would be 8| of a quart per day. But if we 
understand this to be wine measure, which is 
the usual standard of measurement in Eng- 
land, and compare it with our customary 
admeasurement of milk in Massachusetts, 
which is always beer measure, we must deduct 
one-fifth; and then the average product of an 
Ayrshire cow, compai-ed with ours, is 6^ quarts 
per day for 320 days. Such a yield is often 
surpassed by cows of our native stock. I 
have before me the case of a cow of native 
stock among us, who, in 268 days, yielded 
2923 beer quarts of milk; and of another, that 
produced 3975 beer quarts of milk m ten 
months. I can produce, within my own know- 
ledge, a list of nearly fifty cows of native 
stock, almost as productive as these. I do 
not mean to undervalue the imported stock. 
Far from it. I deem the introduction of the 
Ayrshire stock and the improved Durham 
short-horn, a great benefaction to the country. 
Their tendency to fatten, their early maturity, 
their beautiful proportions, highly commend 
them to our good will and our interests. As 
2 K. 2 389 



DAIRY. 



DAIRY. 



fct, we have not had, by any means, a suffi- 
ciently fair trial of their dairy properties so as 
10 determine fully, either for or against them ; 
and it has been found here, in repeated in- 
stances, as it has proved abroad, that a cow, 
from a cross of an improved Durham, with 
the Devon, has given a valuable animal for 
the dairy. But among the great advantages 
which is to result from the introduction of this 
improved and beautiful stock, is this : to give 
our farmers a knowledge of what can be done 
by skill, intelligence, care, selection, and per- 
severance in the art of breeding animals for 
any purpose ; in obviating defects of form, 
constitution, and habit; and in perpetuating 
and transmitting excellent and desirable pro- 
perties. In the Ayrshire stock, and in the 
improved short-horns, the most shrewd and 
persevering elforts have been exerted, and the 
highest practical skill and philosophy have 
been taxed to carry this race to as great a de- 
gree of perfection as any thing of the kind can 
be ; and the success has been decisive and 
wonderful. Excepting in one instance, to 
which I shall hereafter refer at large, perhaps 
there cannot be found in the whole of New 
England, a single instance of any enlightened, 
determined, and systematic attempt to form a 
race of animals of particular and desirable 
properties. It is most important that this 
should be attempted in different parts of our 
country, with what are called our native stock, 
which have become, in various ways, so crossed 
and mixed up, that there is in truth no par- 
ticular race among them. A large portion of 
them are as ungainly, unthrifty, and unpro- 
ductive as can well be represented or imagined. 
Yet there are among them so many extraordi- 
nary animals, — extraordinary for their produce 
in milk, butter, and cheese, — that a few years 
of careful and intelligent selection from the 
materials already to our hand, and a strict 
observance of those philosophical principles 
of breeding which are well ascertained and 
understood, would undoubtedly give us a breed 
of animals, a stock or race of animals, greatly 
superior to that which now exists among us. 
This has been attempted in one instance by 
a highly intelligent breeder; and he is now 
able to show three generations of animals 
of as extraordinary character for the creamy 
or butyraceous quality of their milk as has 
ever been known. Two quarts of what is 
called the strippings, the last part drawn off 
of the milk of one of these cows, having re- 
peatedly produced one pound of butter; and 
the cream, as it came from the pans, as I have 
seen myself, becoming by churning converted 
into butter of the finest description in less than 
one minute by the watch ; and this process 
repeated at pleasure. 

"Let us now compare the amount of cheese 
made by the English dairies, with some in this 
county of which I have given here an ac- 
count. 

" An Ayrshire cow, it is said by the English 
authorities, will yield 257 lbs. of butter per 
annum, or about 5 lbs. per week, all the year 
round, besides raising the calf; or of new milk 
;Cheese, about 514 lbs. These returns are cer- 
vainly large ; but they rest upon a calculation 
390 



.<.' the quantity of milk which the cow is sup- 
posed to yield, rather than upon any account 
cf an actual yield. None at least is given. 
This, therefore, is not so satisfactory as it 
would be, if it were a precisely ascertained 
result. One of the best authorities says, that 
in England, ' a well-fed cow of a good breed 
will produce, upon an average, 180 lbs. of 
butter in the season. The common calculation 
is indeed 150 lbs.; but this is made upon 
mixed stock, which affords no certain data. 
In the Epping district, where there is an indis- 
criminate mixture of Devon, Suffolk, Leicester, 
Holderness, and Scotch, the calculation, in a 
well-managed dairy amounts to 212 lbs.; that 
is, 6 lbs. per week during 26 weeks, and 4 lbs. 
per week, during 14 weeks. The average pro- 
duct of cheese in the best dairies, where the 
whole milk and cream are used, cannot be 
estimated at more than 4 cwt. — that is, 448 lbs. 
On deep grazing soils, that carry a heavy stock, 
a well-managed cow is reckoned to make from 
360 lbs. to 600 lbs. In Somersetshire, the 
average is 4^ cwt., or 540 lbs. ; in Essex not so 
high, and in the midland counties something 
more than 3 cwt.' It will be seen, in looking 
back upon the dairy returns in some parts of 
this country, that they are inferior to these, not 
frequently passing beyond 250 or 300 lbs. of 
new milk cheese. On the other hand, the re- 
turns of some of the dairies in Cheshire show 
an actual amount of annual produce of more 
than 500 lbs. to a cow, and in some cases 627 
and 632 lbs. It may be said that this is owing 
to the fine pasturage which is to be found in 
Cheshire and its vicinity ; to the particular care 
which is taken of the cows ; and the system 
of high feeding adopted. But it shows con- 
clusively that the cows are capable of being 
brought to this productive yield ; and the feed 
and management are matters which can be 
adopted anywhere. 

" A farmer in Sandisfield has a dairy of 
24 cows ; and they produce a cheese per 
day, weighing about 100 lbs. Supposing that 
it requires a gallon of milk to produce one 
pound of cheese, this would give 400 quarts 
of milk per day, or at the rate of 16f of a quart 
to a cow. These cows are all of native stock ; 
most of them raised by himself. His average 
product of new milk cheese to a cow in a 
season, is between 500 and 600 lbs. Last 
year the actual yield was 598 lbs. to a cow. 
Of his 24 cows last year, two were heifers of 
two years old, just come in. Four years since 
he was the owner of a cow, whose milk in the 
best season amounted by actual weight to 70 
lbs. per day. During the time of her greatest 
yield, she was fed with four pails of cheese 
whey, and some rye-meal. She was of native 
stock. This farmer has a heifer from her, 
which gives, as he supposes, 60 lbs. of milk 
per day. He gives an opinion, which from his 
successful experience certainly deserves at- 
tention ; that heifers which ' come in' with 
their first calf at two years old, do better than 
when their coming in is delayed until three 
years old. Their milking propeilies are in 
this way improved. Probably he is right in 
this matter ; but the general experience of the 
best farmers recommends that, if a heifer 



DAIRY. 



DAIRY. 



comes in at two years old, she should not be 
allowed to have another calf, under at least 
eighteen months from this lime." 

In regard to the improvements in neat cattle 
made and still making in New England, Mr. 
Colman furnishes the following results, obtain- 
ed at Ten Hills Stock Farm, near Boston, under 
the enterprising efforts of Samuel Jaques, than 
whom, he thinks, no man, perhaps, in New 
England or the whole country, has more prac- 
tical skill or better judgment in relation to this 
kind of live-stock, his experience having been 
long, and marked by critical observation. The 
following extract contains Mr. Jaques's own 
account of his enterprise and success, as com- 
municated to Mr. Colman : 

" It has," Mr. J. observes, " been my object 
to effect such an improvement in milch cows 
as should produce the greatest quantity of rich 
milk, affording the largest quantity of butter. 
There is a greater difference in pecuniary 
profit between a good or a poor cow than 
among any other domestic animals. In some 
yards there may be found those which will 
not produce more than three pounds per week, 
and others that would make nine, and all on 
the same keep. As we sometimes hear of cows 
which have produced seventeen pounds of but- 
ter per week, and even more, it occurred to 
me to inquire why a breed or race could not 
be formed with the same valuable properties. 
This I have attempted, and have carried it to 
the third generation; and I am confident of 
success. I have a cow whose milk has pro- 
duced nine pounds of the best butter in three 
days, and this on grass feed only. This I call 
my Cream-Pot breed. I have bred my cream- 
pots with red or mahogany-coloured hair, yel- 
low noses, with mahogany-coloured teats, yel- 
low skin, silky and elastic to the touch. I have 
obtained the breed by the cross of a Durham 
short-horned bull on a selected native cow with 
certain extraordinary points and properties, 
anxious to retain as much of the form of the 
Durham as to insure capacious udders, and 
with the valuable property of affording rich 
milk. Though an admirer of the Durham 
short-horns, I have not found them producing 
so rich milk nor making so much yellow butter 
as I could wish. The Durham race are round 
and straight in the barrel, full in the twist, and 
inclining to be thick in the thigh. I have 
wished for some improvement in the form of 
the bag. But I would premise, that whatever 
I may say in respect to breeding animals, I 
only desire to express my own private notions, 
without a wish to dictate to any one from the 
experience I have had, which I am sensible is 
very limited. Generally, cows which I have 
examined, giving the largest amount of the 
richest milk, have had capacious bags, full be- 
hind, extending far up into the twist, and also 
well formed; hanging moderately deep when 
full in milk, and after the milk is drawn, quite 
the reverse ; for I would avoid a fleshy bag. 
My cream-pot breed are full in the body, drop 
deep in the flank, are not quite so straight in 
the belly, nor as full in the twist, nor as thick 
in the thigh; but in other respects I wish them 
to approach the Durham as near as may be. 
My cream -pot breed excel particularly in afford- 



ing a great quantity of rich cream, and that 
cream capable of being formed into butter in 
a short time, and with little labour, leavin<^ a 
small proportion of buttermilk. Their cream 
produces more than eighty per cent, of pure 
butter; and it is not infrequent to form the 
cream into butter in one minute. It has been 
done in forty seconds. 

" I have a heifer designated as Betty Cream- 
Pot, one of the third generation, which pro- 
duced her first calf at two and a half years 
old. Mr. Brown, my foreman, made the fol- 
lowing experiment upon her milk, without 
my knowledge at the time. After milking, 
he took two quarts of her milk out of the 
pail, and, having strained it into a pan, al- 
lowed it to stand twenty-four hours. Having 
then skimmed the cream into a bowl, he 
churned it with a table-spoon, and in one mi- 
nute, by the clock, he formed the butter. It 
was then pressed and worked in the usual way, 
and amounted to half a pound of pure butter. 
After this, the following practice was pursued, 
for eight or ten weeks in succession. At each 
of four successive milkings, two quarts of the 
strippings were strained into a pan, making 
eight quarts in the whole. All was mixed to- 
gether in the same pan, and then churned. The 
average lime of churning did not exceed ten 
minutes; in some instances the butter was 
formed in five minutes. After being properly 
worked over, it was weighed, and never fell 
short of two pounds. The remainder of her 
milk was for family use, and, when set for 
cream, produced the usual quantity. These 
experiments were made on grass feed only. 
She did not give a large mess ; only about 
twelve quarts per day. I have forty cows and 
heifers, ten bulls and bull-calves of different 
grades of this cream-pot breed, all bred and 
raised by myself. I keep my bulls, selected as 
breeders, until I have proof of the quality of 
their oflspring. My old cre,am-pot bull is ten 
years old. My Don Cream-Pot, from which I 
am now breeding with some of my cows and 
heifers, is three years old." 

"It will be seen," says Mr. Colman, "that 
Mr. Jaques speaks with all the enthusiasm of 
an amateur. I cannot endorse, certainly to 
their full extent, all his doctrines respecting 
the power of breeding, at pleasure, any animals 
of any desired shape or colour, and of forming 
them as a statuary would mould his plaster; 
but the approaches which a scientific and ex- 
perienced breeder can make to such a power 
as this are very considerable, as all the im- 
proved races of animals show, whether among 
neat cattle, horses, sheep, or swine. 

"The dam of this stock was a noble-sized 
cow, raised in Groton, Mass.; but the owner 
there knew nothing particularly of her origin. 
She was sold to a gentleman by the name of 
Haskins, residing in Dorchester, about five 
miles from Boston; and her cream was of such 
extraordinary richness, that it would become 
separated into butter by the motion of the car- 
riage in bringing it into the city. 

" Mr. Jaques is entitled to great credit fcr hi-j 
care and judicious selection in continuing and 
improving the stock. I have repeatedly seen 
the cream from tnese cows, and its I'ellownes'* 

'391 



No. 4, 1 oz. 10 dwls. 

5, 1 " 14 " 

6, 1 " 6 " 



DAIRY. 

and consistency are remarkable ; and in com- 
pany with several genilemen of the legislature, 
I saw a portion of it converted into butter with 
a spoon in one minute. The colour of Mr. 
Jaques's stock is a deep red, a favourite colour 
in New England. They are well formed, and 
thrifty upon common feed ; and, if they conti- 
nue to display the extraordinary properties by 
which they are now distinguished, they promise 
to prove themselves, for dairy purposes, the 
most valuable race of animals ever known 
among us, and as remarkable as any of which 
we have any information. They have now 
reached the third generation, and maintain 
their high character. 

"From six cows taken promiscuously in a 
dairy of improved short-horn stock, in England, 
with a view to test the quality of the milk, it 
was found that they gave in the following pro- 
portion of butter to one quart of milk 

No. 1, 3 oz. d dwts. 

2, 1 " 6 " 

3, 1 " 12 " 

"These measures, it will be perceived, are 
given in troy weight, of which it requires 175 
lbs. to make 144 lbs. avoirdupois. It is not 
stated whether the quart was wine or beer 
measure, and it is therefore difficult to adjust 
the proportions. A variety of circumstances, 
likewise, would affect, in some degree, the 
result; as, whether the milk was taken at the 
beginning or the last part of the milking; and 
how long the cows had been in milk from the 
time of calving; and what was the kind of feed 
given them at the time of the experiment. Still, 
I have quoted the result, as, under any circum- 
stances, showing by comparison the extraordi- 
nary product of the cream-pot breed." 

Mr. Colman has added to his report of the 
dairy produce of the county of Cheshire, a 
table showing the number of cows kept on 45 
farms in 1838, with their produce, the amount 
sold, and prices obtained. The whole number 
of cows was 91.3; the amount of new-milk 
cheese sold, 300,000 lbs.; skim-milk cheese, 
11,050; cheese used, 7,500 lbs.; butter sold, 
19,050 lbs. The average price for the new- 
milk cheese was 7| cts. ; of skim-milk cheese, 
3 cts., and of butter, 17 cts. per pound. 

In the dairy establishments about Boston, 
good hay, and corn-fodder are the general feed, 
with sometimes carrots, ruta-baga, and mangel- 
wurtzel. The ruta-baga, and all the turnip 
family, are apt to impart a turnip taste to the 
milk, which is very generally disliked. Mr. 
Colman was informed by a very careful milk- 
man that no objection of this sort is found 
against ruta-baga, if they be given to the cows 
directly after, and not just before being milked. 
Before the next milking comes, the disagree- 
able odour is entirely got rid of. The best 
milkmen prefer good clover hay for cows in 
milk to any other. "Potatoes and mangel- 
wurtzel," says Mr. Colman, "increase the 
quantity without improving the quality of the 
milk. Carrots, parsnips, and sugar-beets im- 
prove the quality. — A milk farm, well situated 
and with a good custom, is a profitable hus- 
bandry where the milk brings 5 cents in sum- 
jner and 6^ cents in winter. A good deal of 
milk is sold by the farmers to the milkmen for 
392 



DAIRY. 



1 



3 cents per quart, of the profits of which man- 
agement to the farmer I have strong doubts. 
If we suppose that it rajuires 10 quarts of 
milk to make one pound of butter, this at 3 
cents per quart would be 30 cents. Suppose 
the milk to be made into butter, there is a 
pound of butter worth 25 cents, and, if of su- 
perior quality, 33; there are the skim-milk and 
butter-milk remaining, worth certamly for 
young pigs I5 cent per quart — say 9 quarts, 
13 cents; and there is the manure made by 
the swine kept, which is of considerable value. 

" The amount of milk furnished by a herd 
of cows through the year is very differently 
estimated by different persons. Rare indivi- 
dual cows may be occasionally met with, 
giving ten, and perhaps, in some remarkable 
case, even eleven quarts of milk per day 
through the year — that is, 365 times 11 quarts, 
or more than 4000 quarts per annum ; but such 
cases are very few in number. In Curwen's 
dairj' of 28 cows, kept and fed with great care 
for 220 days, the average was eight wine 
quarts per day, or a little more than six beer 
quarts. In the Harleian dairy, where a hun- 
dred cows were kept, it is said that twelve wine 
quarts were about the daily average ; but the 
statement, in the form in which it is made, is 
very imperfect and doubtful. Twelve wine 
quarts would a little exceed nine beer quarts. 
Nothing could surpass the pains used in the 
selection of these cows, the care taken of them, 
and the abundance with which they were fed. 
If the statement were positive, I should regard 
it differently ; but as it seems to be rather mat- 
ter of conjecture than of proof, I place little 
dependence upon it. In a private letter to a 
respected friend from the celebrated Fellen- 
berg, it is stated that, at that institution, the 
cows, which are considered amongst the best 
milch cows in the world, average through the 
year about six quarts per day. But here again 
we are left at a loss to know, whether the year 
includes only the season while they are in 
milk, or 365 days. These are foreign state- 
ments. I wish I had those from among our- 
selves, on which entire reliance can be placed. 
Men in these cases are so in the habit of deal- 
ing in conjecture instead of facts, that it is ex- 
ceedingly difficult to arrive at the truth. I have 
been so often deceived in these matters that I 
place little confidence in any thing which is 
not matter of actual measurement and positive 
verification. The most intelligent and careful 
milkmen whom I have consulted are of opi- 
nion, that their cows average about six quarts 
per day for 365 days, and go dry in that time 
from two to three months. A veiy careful 
milkman, who may be entirely relied on, from 
20 cows produced 11,131^ gallons of milk in 
a year. This was at the rate of 6^ quarts per 
day for 365 days, or 7^ quarts per day for 300 
days. These cows were native stock, ex- 
tremely well selected and well fed. Succes- 
sive trials on this same farm give about the 
same result. 

"On a milk establishment in Medford, under 
excellent management for many years, with 
twenty cows in summer and more than thirty 
in winter, the average product for 365 days is 
from five to six quarts to a cow per day. The 



DAIRY. 



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cows are fed in winter upon clover hay, an 
allowance of a peck and a half each of succu- 
lent vegetables, and some Indian or oil-meal 
cake. The summer feed is not stated, but 
great advantage has been derived from green 
Indian corn fodder. Oil-meal cake is not con- 
sidered of equal advantage with Indian. It is 
deemed too dear if more than §25 per ton. 
Carrots are preferred to all other vegetables 
when the quality of the milk and the condition 
of the animal are regarded. Since the use of 
the most powerful hydrostatic presses in ex- 
tracting the oil from the flax-seed, the cake is 
by no means so valuable as formerly, and the 
price should be proportional. 

" In the case of a milk establishment in the 
vicinity of Salem, on an average of thirty-five 
cows in milk, the product in one year was 
17,171 gallons of milk, beer measure ; in an- 
other year, it was 17,530 gallons. In the first 
case it would be about 5^ quarts to a cow ; in 
the latter, 5^ to a cow per day through the 
year." 

Several enterprising individuals have im- 
ported some of the very finest bulls and cows, 
of the Ayrshire breed, generally reputed the 
most celebrated dairy stock in England. In 
regard to the qualities of these and their pro- 
geny, Mr. Colman remarks that they are said 
to yield large quantities of milk and produce 
large amounts of butter and cheese ; besides 
keeping themselves in good condition, and 
being easily made ready for the butcher. The 
cows are eminently beautiful. In size, how- 
ever, and symmetry, they are decidedly inferior 
to the improved Durham short-horns ; but 
there is good reason to think them a hardier 
race of animals. 

Of the improved Durham short-horn race, 
we have, Mr. Colman remarks, had some of 
the best animals ever brought into the United 
States, and their blood has been considerably 
diffused throughout the country. In point of 
size according to their age, in respect to sym- 
metry and perfection of form, these animals 
are, in my opinion, not surpassed, indeed not 
equalled by any others. "The Herefords," he 
says, "are extremely beautiful; in neatness 
and fineness of form perhaps superior to the 
improved short-horns. The Devons likewise, 
though considerably smaller in size, yield, in 
compactness of shape, in quickness of move- 
ment and muscular strength, and in softness 
of hair and beauty of colouring, to no other 
race known among us. They are the preva- 
lent race of our country ; and in an extraordi- 
nary instance, when I had the singular 
pleasure of seeing three hundred yoke of 
these cattle — that is, all more or less of this 
breed — in one team, in Connecticut, I could 
not resist the conclusion that a finer team, of 
the same number of cattle, could not be found 
in the whole country. Yet I am ready to admit 
lliat I have seen some few yokes of oxen of 
mixed blood, of the improved Durham, as fine 
in appearance, and in reputation as good ani- 
mals for work, as any that I have met with ; 
and some individual animals of the improved 
Durham short-horns, both pure and half-blood, i 
bulls, oxen, and cows, when all points have 
been considered, have surpassed any thing 
50 



which I have seen. They have approached as 
nearly to what I imagine the perfection of 
form in this race of animals as is to be looked 
for. With good keeping, they come early to 
maturity, and attain a large weight. The but- 
chers, however, whom I have consulted, give 
it as their opinion that they do not tallow so 
well, in proportion to their size, as our own 
smaller cattle. In my observation, no animals 
degenerate sooner under neglect and poor 
keeping; and they require extraordinary feed 
and the most careful attendance to keep up 
their character and condition. 

"So much sensibility exists in reference to 
this subject, the dairy properties of the im- 
proved short-horns, and so much of private 
interest and speculation is now mingling itself 
in the judgments which are formed or the 
opinions given in the case, that, if it is not 
difiicult to speak with calmness and sobriety, 
it may be unreasonable to expect to be heard 
with candour and impartiality." 

With this judicious remark, Mr. Colman 
proceeds to give well authenticated reports 
made of the milking exploits of the short-horns 
and their crosses, followed by the most cele- 
brated performances of native cows, in yield- 
ing milk, butter, and cheese. 

From the numerous examples recorded of 
superior dairy qualities exhibited in native 
cows, we cannot omit the following: — 

" The Oakes CO w, in Danvers, Mass., produced 
in 1813, 180 lbs. of butter; in 1814, 300 lbs.; 
in 1815, over 400 lbs.; in 1816, 484^ lbs. 
During this time, one quart of the milk was 
reserved daily for family use, and she suckled 
four calves for four weeks each, in the course 
of those years. She produced in one week 19^ 
lbs. butter; and an average of more than 16 
lbs. of butter per week, for three months in 
succession. The largest amount of milk given 
by her in one day, was 44^ lbs. She was 
allowed 30 to 35 bushels of Indian meal per 
year, and all her own skimmed milk and most 
of the buttermilk. At one time, the owner 
gave her potatoes, which increased her milk, 
but not her butter. In the autumn, he gave 
her about six bushels of carrots. 

"A cow owned by Thomas Hodges, in North 
Adams, produced last year 425 lbs. of butter; 
400 lbs. of this amount were made in nine 
months. Her feed consisted of one quart of 
rye-meal, and half a peck of potatoes per day ; 
and very good pasturing. 

" Cow of Ralph Haskins, Dorchester, Mass., 
1827. Eighteen quarts per day— average 14 
to 15 quarts. Before grass feed in April, the 
cream of two days made 2| lbs. butter, and 
was made from 2/^- quarts of cream. Two 
or three minutes in churning. This was the 
mother of Mr. Jaques's famous Cream-pol 
breed. 

" Cow of H. G. Newcomb, Greenfield, Mass., 
1830, from March 27th to May 25th, made 
100 lbs. of butter, and reserved 160 quarts 
milk. In 14 days, made 29y\ lbs. Dutter. 

" Cow of Shelburn, Vt., has yielded 26 quarts 
beer measure, in a day ; and at two milkings 
in 24 hours, produced 3 lbs. 14 oz. of butter 
This cow was raised in Vermont. Some per 
sons, from her great product, call her English- 

393 



DAIRY. 



DAIRY. 



but the admixture of blood is very small if any ; 
and if any. it is not known, whether Durham, 
or Ayrshire, or what. There is nothing but 
her colour, which indicates any difference from 
our best formed native stock. She has some 
progeny by an Ayrshire bull, which are very 
promising. 

« Cow of S. Henshaw, Springfield. 17| lbs. of 
butter per week, and in one case, 21 lbs. of ex- 
cellent butter. In 4^ days, that is 4 days and 
one milking, she produced 14 lbs. 3 oz. of but- 
ter, at the rate of 22^ lbs. per week. 

Cow of 0. Morris, Springfield. "The summer 
after she was seven years old, the quantity of 
butter made from her between the first day of 
April and the first of September, five months, 
was 206 lbs. During the time, we -used milk 
and cream in the family freely. Some weeks 
we have made 14 lbs., exclusive of milk and 
cream used for family purposes. I have often 
weighed her milk in the month of June, and 
she has frequently yielded 31 lbs. at one milk- 
ing at night. We have been particular to have 
her milked in the summer at five o'clock in the 
morning and at seven o'clock in the evening, 
and always by the same person. I think much 
of regularity in the times of milking ; and that 
one person only should be permitted to milk 
the same cow the same season. My cow has 
always had a good milker, and her milk has 
been rapidly drawn. Her food in the winter is 
good hay, and in addition thereto from 2 to 4 
quarts of rye-bran at noon. I feed and give 
her water three times each day. In the sum- 
mer, besides the pasture, she has 4 quarts of 
rye-bran at night. From the experience I have 
had with this cow, I feel quite sure that many 
cows which have been considered as quite or- 
dinary, might, by kind and regular treatment, 
good and regular feeding and proper care in 
milking, have ranked among the first-rate." 

For their dairy products these examples of 
native New England cows are certainly admir- 
able. They do not, however, equal those re- 
ported of many Durhams in our country, 
among which may be mentioned the Belina of 
Mr. John Hare Powell of Pennsylvania, an im- 
proved Durham, which yielded repeatedly 26 
quarts of milk in 24 hours, and produced in 
three days 8 lbs. 13 oz. of butter ; or at the rate 
of 20^ lbs. per week ; the feed consisted of 
slop composed of Indian meal, with clover and 
orchard-grass. One quart of the cream pro- 
duced 1 lb. 5^ oz. of butter. In one instance 
two minutes, and in another only three se- 
conds were required to convert the cream into 
butter. 

The celebrated Blossom, also an improved 
Durham short-horn cow, owned by Mr. Canby, 
in Delaware, gave 253^ quarts per week, being 
an average of 36 quarts per day ; from which 
were made 17i^ lbs. of well-worked butter. 

The famous Durham cow Dairy Maid, be- 
longing to Mr. James Gowen of Germantown 
near Philadelphia, yielded 33^ quarts of milk 
per day. 

Neither do any of these distinguished milch 
cows equal in dairy qualities the celebrated 
Cramp cow, owned in Lewes, England, which 
snll bears the palm both abroad and at home. 
She was of the Sussex breed, and came of a 
?S4 



celebrated stock. Her performances recorded 
were as follows .- — 

"From the first iay of May, 1805, the day she 
calved, to the second day of April, 1806, a 
space of forty-eight weeks and one day, her 
milk produced 540 lbs. of butter. The largest 
amount made in any one week, was 15 lbs. 
From May to June, she gave 20 quarts per 
day. From 20th June, to 10th September, 
18^ quarts. In forty-seven weeks, she pro- 
duced 4,921 quarts of milk. 

"In the next year, from 19th day of April, 

1806, the day she calved, to the 27th February, 

1807, forty-five weeks, she produced 450 lbs. of 
butter. The largest amount per week was 12 
lbs. The quantity of milk for the time was 4,137 
quarts. During this year, she was sick and 
under a farrier's care three weeks after calv- 
ing. She went dry seventeen days only. 

"In the third year, from the 6th,of April, 1807, 
the day she calved, up to the 4th April, 1808, 
fifty-one weeks and four days, she produced 
675 lbs. of butter. The largest amount made 
in a week was 18 lbs. The quantity of milk 
given in that time was 5,782 quarts. In the 
fourth year, from the 22d April, 1808, the day 
she calved, to the 13th February, 1809, forty- 
two weeks and three days, she produced 466 
lbs. of butter. The quantity of milk given in 
the time was 4,219 quarts. In the fifth year, 
from April 3d, 1809, to May 8th, fifty-seven 
weeks, her produce in butter was 594 lbs. The 
amount of milk given in the time was 5,369 
quarts. The largest quantity of butter in any 
week was 17 lbs. This is the most extraordi- 
nar}' cow of which we have any record. 
Though it has been presented to the public 
before, yet the account may not be accessible 
to all ; and I deem it useful to state the modn 
of her treatment. 

"In the summer season, she was fed on clo- 
ver, lucerne, rye-grass and carrots, three or 
four times a day ; and at noon, about four gal- 
lons of grains and two of bran, mixed together, 
always observing to give her no more feed 
than she eats up clean. In the winter season, 
she was fed with hay, grains, and bran, mixed 
as before stated, feeding her often, viz., five 
or six times a day, as was seen proper, and 
giving her food when milking ; keeping the 
manger clean, where she is fed with grains ; 
not to let it get sour; wash her udder at milk- 
ing three times with cold water, winter and 
summer; never tied up ; lies in or out the bam 
as she likes ; particularly careful to milk her 
regularly and clean. Milch cows are often 
spoiled for want of patience at the latter end 
of milking them." 

With regard to the merits of the Durham 
breed, about which such a variety of opinions 
have been entertained, Mr. Colman expresses 
himself as follows : — 

" The beauty of the improved Durham short- 
horns and their perfection of form are admira^ 
ble. They come with good' keeping early to 
maturity. They have a tendency to keep them- 
selves in good condition ; and, with extraordi- 
nary feeding and care, they arrive at a large 
size, and some individuals, all points consider- 
ed, have surpassed any thing within my know- 
ledge. The Claremont ox, a half-blood Dnr- 



DAIRY. 



DAIRY. 



ham, whose pedigree is not known, which was 
sent from this country to England for exhibi- 
tion three years since, was pronounced by 
competent judges the finest animal of the kind 
ever seen there. His live weight was reported 
as not far from 3700 lbs. The Greenland ox 
was nearly as heavy, and singularly beautiful. 
A native ox exhibited in Boston, in 1840, did 
not differ much from these in size, fulness, and 
weight ; but compared with them in appear- 
ance, he was misshapen and deformed. The 
Durham cows, in general, especially the se- 
lected ones, which have been imported on ac- 
count of these qualities, are large milkers ; but 
their milk seems generally inferior as to rich- 
ness or butyraceous properties. The milking 
properties of Mr. Whitney's stock, at New 
Haven, are very remarkable. The Durham 
cows are large animals, and should be expected 
to secrete largely of milk ; but many of them, 
however, are inferior as inilkers ; and, upon as 
calm and impartial a view of the subject as I 
can take, from my own personal observation, I 
cannot pronounce them, as a race, distinguish- 
ed and preferable to all others for their dairy 
qualities. I have come to this conclusion with 
very strong prejudices in their favour; and as 
I measure my words in this case, I wish to be 
judged only by what I say. Whenever a short- 
horn cow proves an inferior milker, the enthu- 
siastic advocates of the race are pleased to tell 
us that it is because she has no pedigree, and 
is not a herd-book animal ; but admitting that 
her genealogy is somewhat mixed, it is singu- 
lar that the virtues of the blood should not 
show themselves to a degree, and that the im- 
purity or defect should always predominate. It 
is certain, however, that many mixed bloods 
have in every respect excelled many of the 
pure bloods." 

Such are the respective merits of the short- 
horned and common breeds for dairy purposes, 
according to the experience of one who has 
had extensive opportunities for observation, 
and who is to be regarded as a candid and im- 
partial witness. We think, however, that the 
most just view of the subject is presented in 
the following extract from the Edinburgh Quar- 
terly Journal of Agriculture, and we are pleased 
to find this opinion sustained by no less an 
authority than the late Judge Buel, who has 
endorsed the sensible views of the European 
writer, by imbodying them in his Farmer's 
Instructor. 

"It has been frequently asserted that short- 
horned cows are bad milkers ; indeed, that no 
kind of cattle are so deficient in milk. Those 
who say so do not know the still greater defi- 
ciencies of the Herefords, a species of cattle 
quite unknown in Scotland. The highest bred 
stocks of the Messrs. Collins, Mr. Mason, and 
Mr. Robertson, yielded little milk. Indeed, Mr. 
Robertson's could not supply milk sufficient 
for their own calves, at least not in the quan- 
tity which it was desired by him they should 
receive. Cows were kept for the purpose of 
supplying the deficiency of milk of the high- 
bred cows. But this deficiency of milk did 
not altogether proceed from the circumstance 
of the cows being of the short-horned breed ; 
because those eminent breeders devoted their 



whole attention to the developement of flesh, 
and not at all to the developement of milk. 
Had the flesh been neglected as much as the 
milk, and the property of giving milk as much 
cherished as the developement of flesh, their 
short-horned cows would have been deep 
milkers. As it is, the generality of short-horned 
cows are not bad milkers. Indeed, it is not 
to be doubted that where the general secreting 
powers of the animal system have been in 
creased, as it has been in that of the short-horns, 
the power of secreting milk will be increased 
with the power of secreting flesh and fat; all 
that seems requisite is to encourage the power 
of that secretion which for the time is most 
wanted. I have no doubt that it is completely 
in the power of the breeders of short-horns to 
make them good milkers. It would be to de- 
sire an impossibility, to desire the full develope- 
ment of flesh, fat, and milk at the same lime; 
but there is no absurdity in desiring a large 
secretion of flesh and fat at one lime, and a 
large secretion of milk at another, from the 
same cow. Accordingly, this is the very cha- 
racter which has been acquired by short-horned 
cows. They will yield from si.x to sixteen quarts 
a day throughout the season ; and they are so 
constant milkers that they seldom remain dry 
above six weeks or two months before the time 
of calving. 

" But the practice of the owners of public 
dairies in towns, were there no other proof, 
would prove the milking powers of short-horn 
cows. They prefer them as the greatest and 
most steady milkers ; and it is now difficult to 
see cows of any breeds but short-horns or 
crosses with them in these dairies. In London, 
Edinburgh, and Liverpool, fine short-horn cows 
may be seen at the public dairies. They are 
bought by the milkmen whenever they come 
of age, that is, five or six years old. They give 
milk till they attain the age of eight or nine, 
and are then fed off fat for the butcher. These 
cows can be fed off fat. This property, and 
that of milking, prove clearly that short-horns 
possess both in a remarkable degree. They 
do not, it is true, possess both in an eminent 
degree at the same time ; but they exhibit either 
property separately when it is desired. They 
thus give a return in flesh for part of their 
original high price, while they remunerate 
their owners in the mean time with an abund- 
ance of milk for their food." 

Dairies in Holland. — Holland has i> Mg been 
celebrated for its fine dairies, and the Highland 
Society of Scotland, considering thai the Scotch 
dairies might derive some advantages from 
an acquaintance with the management of those 
of Holland, offered a premium for the best 
report upon that subject, founded upua perso- 
nal observation. The premium was in 1833 
awarded to John Mitchell, whose report, filled 
with interesting facts and details, is j.ublished 
in the Transactions of the Highland Society for 
that year. In the quotation formerly made 
from the London Commercial Journal, the 
superior qualities and higher market value of 
Dutch butter were referred to. Some idea of 
the dairy produce of Holland may be gained 
by considering, that in addition to the home 
consumption of a populous country, and the 

3Q3 



DAIRY. 



DAIRY. 



vast quantities sent to other parts of Europe, 
to the West and East Indies, and other parts 
of the world, England imported in 1830 no less 
than 116,833 cwt. of Dutch butter, and 167,913 
cwt. of Dutch cheese. 

The pastures in Holland, as is generally 
known, have been reclaimed from the ocean, 
the waters of which are kept off by artificial 
embankments. The lands, of course, lie very 
low and flat, and as the water in the numerous 
canals is always near the top, the soil must be 
moist. The ground is seldom broken up with 
the plough, but is kept in good condition by 
top dressings, consisting chiefly of the solid, 
and especially the liquid manures collected in 
the cow-houses, mixed with the scrapings of 
the small canals. The first year after such 
dressing the land is generally mown for hay. 

The Hollanders make careful selections of 
their cows for the dairy, the price of good ones 
being usually from $40 to $45. "They are 
generally fattened and turned oflf to the butcher, 
at eight years old, and bulls at four or five. 
The cows are turned to pasture in March or 
April, and are at first covered with a very thick 
cloth of tow, covering the upper half of the 
body from the shoulders to the tail, to prevent 
diseases from cold. They are pastured about 
thirty weeks. Hay is their common food in 
winter, though rape-cake and brewer's grains 
are sometimes added. The byers or cow- 
houses are generally lofty, airy, paved with 
large square bricks, and kept perfectly clean. 
The roof is about ten feet high. There are no 
racks or mangers, but the food placed in gut- 
ters, always clean, near their heads. Gutters 
in the rear serve to carry off the urine and 
dung, and these gutters are also kept clean. 

" Process of matwfacture. — The cows are al- 
ways milked by the men, and the butter and 
cheese made by the women, generally of the 
family. Ninety cows are managed by nine 
men and two women. There is generally one 
man required to ten cows ; while two women 
are considered enough for any dairy. The 
farmer reckons that he can make 100 guilders, 
about #40, per annum, by each cow. 

" Butter. — There are three distinct kinds of 
butter made in Holland; grass butter, made 
when the cows are at grass ; tvhcy butter, from 
the whey of sweet milk cheese ; and hay butter, 
made in winter. 

" Grass butter. — The cows being carefully 
milked to the last drop, the pitchers containing 
the milk are put into the koclbak. When the 
cream has been gathered and is soured, and if 
there is a sufficient quantity from the number 
of cows, they churn every twenty-four hours, 
the churn being half filled with the soured 
cream. A little boiled warm water is added 
in winter, to give the whole the proper degree 
of heat, and in very warm weather the milk is 
first cooled in the koelbak or cooler. In small 
dairies the milk is sometimes churned, when 
soured, without separating the cream. The 
butter, immediately after being taken out of 
the churn, is put into a shallow tub, called a 
vhot, and carefully washed with pure cold 
Water. It is then worked with a slight sprink- 
ling of fine salt, whether for immediate use or 
'He barrel. When the cows have been three 
396 



weeks at grass, the butter is delicious, is made 
in fanciful shapes of lambs, stuck with the 
flowers of the polyanthus, pyramids, &lc., and 
sells as high as 44 stivers, 60 to 70 cents, the 
17 oz. or Dutch pound. If intended for bar- 
relling, the butter is worked up twice or thrice 
a day, with soft, fine salt, for three days, in a 
flat tub, there being about two pounds of this 
salt allowed for fourteen pounds of butter; the 
butter is then hard packed by thin layers into 
casks, which casks are previously carefully 
seasoned and cleaned. They are always of 
oak, well smoothed inside. Before being used, 
they are allowed to stand three or four days, 
filled with sour whey, and thereafter carefully 
washed out and dried. Each cow, after being 
some time at grass, yields about one Dutch 
pound (17^ oz.) of butter per day. 

" We beg our dairy-women," says Judge 
Buel, "to mark two points in the preceding 
process. 1. No salt is used but what is incorpO' 
rated with and dissolved in the butter, and which is 
necessary to give it flavour ; and, 2. The butter 
intended for keeping is worked from six to ten 
times, to incorporate the salt, and to separate 
from it every particle of liquid, which, if left in 
it, would induce ranciditJ^ 

" Hay butter undergoes a like process. 

" Whey butter. — The whey is allowed to stand 
three days or a week, after being separated 
from the curd, when the cream is skimmed off, 
or the whey itself put into the churn, and the 
butter is formed in about an hour. By this 
process, in winter, one pound of butter is ob- 
tained from each cow in a week, and in sum- 
mer one pound and a half. The relative prices 
are generally, grass butter 8^ stivers, hay but- 
ter 7, and whey butter 6. 

Cheese. — There are four kinds of staple cheese 
made in Holland ; the Edam and Gouda, both 
made from unskimmed milk ; and two kinds, 
Kantcr cheese, made from milk once or twice 
skimmed. 

"Edam cheese. — The process of manufacture 
of the Edam cheese is as follows : 

" The milk being yearned as soon as taken 
from the cow, when coagulated, the hand or a 
wooden bowl is passed gently two or three 
times through the curds, which are then al- 
lowed to stand a few minutes. The bowl or 
finger is again passed through them, and 
they stand a few minutes. The whey is 
then taken ofl!" with the wooden bowl, and the 
curd is then put into a wooden form (of the 
proper size and shape of the cheese to be 
made). This form is cut out of the solid wood 
by a turner, and has one hole in the bottom. 
If the cheese is of the small size (about 4 lbs.), 
it remains in this form about ten or twelve 
days ; if the large sized, it remains about four- 
teen days. It is turned daily, the upper part 
during this time being kept sprinkled with 
about two ounces of purified salt of the large 
crystals. It is then removed into a second box 
or form of the same size, with four holes in 
the bottom, and put under a press of about 
50 lbs. weight, where it remains from two to 
three hours if of the small size, and from four 
to six if of the large size. It is then taken 
out, and put on a dry, airy shelf in the cheese 
apartment, and daily turned over for about four 



DAIRY. 



DAIRY. 



weeks, when they are generally fit to be taken 
to market. 

" Alkmaar, in North Holland, is the great 
market for Edam cheese. It is not uncommon 
to see 800 farmers at the market, and 470,000 
cheeses for sale on one day. The price there 
averages about 30s. per cwt. ($6 66). (Culti- 
vator.) 

" Gouda cheese. — This kind of cheese is also 
made from the milk immediately on its being 
taken from the cow. After gradually taking 
off the principal part of the whey, a little Avarm 
water is put upon the curd, which is left stand- 
ing for a quarter of an hour. By increasmg 
the heat and quantity of water, the cheese is 
made hard and more durable. All the whey 
and water is then taken off, and the curd is 
gradually packed hard into a form cut out by 
the turner, flatter and broader than the form 
for the Edam cheese. A wooden cover is 
placed over it, and the press, with a weight of 
about 8 lbs., put upon it. It is here frequently 
turned, and altogether remains under the press 
about twenty-four hours. The cheese is then 
carried to a cool cellar, put into a tub contain- 
ing pickle, the liquid covering the lower half 
of it. The water for the pickle is boiled, and 
about three or four handfuls of salt melted in 
about thirty imperial pints of water. The 
cheese is not put in until the water is quite 
cold. After remaining twenty-four hours, or, 
at most, two days, in the pickle-tub, where it is 
turned every six hours, the cheese, after being 
rubbed over with salt, is placed upon a board 
slightly hollowed, having a small channel in 
the centre, to conduct the whey which runs off 
into a tub placed at one end. This board is 
called the zouttank, upon which several cheeses 
are placed at a time. About two or three 
ounces of the large crystallized salt is placed 
upon the upper side of the cheese, which is 
frequently turned, the side uppermost being 
always sprinkled with salt. It remains on the 
zouttank about eight or ten days, according to 
the warmness of the weather; the cheese is 
then washed with hot water, rubbed dry, and 
laid upon planks, and turned daily, until per- 
fectly dry and hard. 

"The cheese-house is generally shut during 
the day, but must be open in the evening and 
early in the morning. 

" Gouda is the principal market for this kind 
of cheese, where it sells at about 35s. per cwt. 

"Each cow at grass in Holland is calculated 
to give about three or four pounds sweet milk 
cheese per day. 

" We omit the method of making the Kanter 
cheese, which is similar to our skim-milk cheese, 
and of the cheese utensils. 

" The milk-houses are generally between the 
dwelling and cow-house, in a square apart- 
ment, in a corner of which is the cooler ; it is 
airy, roomy, and paved with square bricks, the 
upper part serving for churning,making cheese, 
&c. ; and descending a few steps, into a sort 
of cellar, is the milk-room, having two or four 
windows, which are opened or shut according 
to circumstances. 

" The cheese-houses are also generally cel- 
lars, kept clean and well ventilated. 

« The Dutch are remarkably particular as to 



the quantity and quality of their salt, of which 
there are three kinds manufactured; and it is 
this, our reporter thinks, which is the principal 
cause of the sweet and delicious flavour of 
their butter, which, although well-flavoured, 
hardly tastes of salt, or, rather, of that acrid 
quality which is perceptible in the butter of 
Great Britain. 

" Cleaiiliiiess governs in all the Dutch dairies. 
Every dwelling-house is a model and a pattern. 
They seem to vie with each other on this point. 
The cow-house is pure and clean, not a par- 
ticle of filth being to be seen in it; the cows, 
says Mr. M., are as clean as if they were in a 
dining-room ; the milk and cheese-houses, and, 
in short, every part of the house, are free from 
dust and dirt of any kind. The whole apart- 
ments, even the byre (stalls) and hay-house, 
are generally under one roof; and the cleanly 
sj'stem and the admirable arrangement give 
that comfort and pleasure which are too often 
wanted in other conntries." See i'l/c/'s Far- 
mers^ Iiistrnclcr. 

The Journal of the English Agricultural So- 
ciety contains an article on the rural affairs 
of some parts of Holland, in which an excel- 
lent account is given of the Holstein mode of 
making the butter which is so very famous. 
The Holstein dairies are very extensive, vary- 
ing from 100 to 400 cows, and provided with 
buildings and every necessary accommodation 
on a corresponding scale. Whenever practi- 
cable, the milk room or cellar is made to face 
the north, and sufficiently capacious to hold 
the proceeds of at least four milkings. The 
brick or tile floors have already been described. 
Numerous windows or air passages are pre- 
pared so as to secure the most perfect ventila- 
tion ; they are furnished with glass sashes and 
shutters, and within have gauze curtains to ex- 
clude insects. 

When, as is sometimes the case, both cheese 
and butter are made at the same dairy, the 
apartment for cheese is always kept separate 
from that devoted to butter-making, from the 
vicinity of which last every thing is carefully 
kept away which by any possibility could exer- 
cise a sinister influence on the very suscepti- 
ble substances of milk and butter, which suffer 
to a degree those unaccustomed to observe it 
little suspect from an impure atmosphere. The 
dairy is managed by women, of whom there is 
the superintendent, or head dairy woman ; and 
one dairy maid to every eighteen cows. There 
is besides the owner or overseer, and one or 
more men who attend to the feeding of the 
swine. There are others whose business is to 
attend to the cows, see that they are properly 
fed,and every thing in its proper place and keep- 
ing. The overseer sees that the cows are fully 
milked, as on this the quantity and excellence 
of the cream is greatly depending. It has been 
ascertained by carefully repeated experiments 
that the first drawn milk contains five, the se- 
cond eight, and the fifth seventeen per cent, of 
cream. 

The business of the head dairy woman 13 
arduous, and demands a full acquaintance with 
the various processes. " She must not only 
thoroughly understand, but accurately observe 
the precise time when the milk should be 
2 L 397 



DAIRY. 



DAIRY. 



creamed; the degree of acidity it must attain 
in the cream barrels ; its temperature, whether 
requiring the addition of warm water or cold 
to the churn ; as well as the all-important ope- 
rations of kneading, beating, salting, and pack- 
ing the butter." The milking commences at 
four in the morning (the milkers rising at 
three), in the field, and the milk is conveyed 
to the dairy by a one horse wagon, from hooks 
on which large vessels are suspended. To pre- 
vent the milk from flying over the brim of 
these vessels in moving the wagon, thin pieces 
of wood, of nearly the size of the vessel, float 
on the milk, and this practice is adopted when 
pails are carried by the hand. 

The effect which vessels made of different 
materials has on the promoting or retarding 
the acidity of milk, has received much atten- 
tion in Holland, and the vessels most generally 
preferred on all accounts are shallow wooden 
kcclers, holding about eight quarts. In some few 
instances glass vessels are used, and some of 
the reports speak of them highly. It has been 
found that cream, to make first rate butter, 
must be removed from the milk before the 
latter gets at all sour, and that the cream will 
not fully rise under thirty-six hours ; to pre- 
vent souring before that time, especially in 
sultry weather or during thunder storms, re- 
quires particular attention to temperature. 

A cellar temperature of from 60 to 62 de- 
grees gives the best and the most cream, the 
rising being completed in thirty-six hours; a 
greater degree of warmth hastens the process, 
but lessens the quantity of the butter; a lower 
temperature preserves the milk forty-eight or 
sixty hours, but imparts an unpleasant flavour 
to the cream and butter. The commencement 
of souring in milk is marked by a slight 
wrinkling of the cream, and a slightly acid 
taste. When this appears, whether the milk 
has stood a longer or a shorter time, skimming 
commences. As fast as it is collected, it is 
poured through a hair sieve kept for this pur- 
pose alone, into large barrels of 240 quarts 
each, in which it remains till the necessary 
sourness is attained, which in summer usually 
takes twenty-four hours, and in winter thirty- 
six or forty-eight hours. During this advance 
to acidity, the cream is frequently stirred, to 
prevent its coagulating or becoming cheesy, 
and when fit for churning, the skill of the dairy 
woman is required to determine the proper 
temperature to make good butter. In warm 
weather the churn is rinsed with the coldest 
water, and if necessary cold spring water is 
added to the cream, but if the cellar is properly 
made, this is rarely necessary. In cold weather 
the churn is washed in warm water, and is 
sometimes applied to the cream itself. The 
churning being completed, the butter is imme- 
diately carried to the butter cellar, where, in a 
large tray or trough made of beech or oak 
highly polished, and provided with a plug at 
the lower extremity to let oflT the milk, the but- 
ter is slightly worked and salted with the purest 
salt, moulded with a ladle into a mass at the 
upper end of the trough, and left for some 
hours to drain. In the evening it is thoroughly 
kneaded and beat, the dairymaid lifting a piece 
of 'hree or four pounds, and slapping it against 
398 



the trough with great force to beat out the milky 
particles. After the whole mass has thus, piece 
by piece, been freed from the buttermilk, it is 
again spread out, and receives its full salting 
(in all about l^ ounce of salt to a pound of 
butter), which is worked with the utmost care 
equally through the whole, and is then mould- 
ed into a compact mass. Butter in Holstein is 
seldom washed, though in some other parts of 
Holland it is practised with the greatest suc- 
cess. When enough is made to fill a cask, the 
several churnings are once more kneaded and 
beat thoroughly together, a very little fresh salt 
is added, and it is then packed in the barrel, 
which is made of red beech wood, water tight, 
and previously well washed with water and 
salt. The cask must be filled at a single pack- 
ing, each layer pounded down, and care being 
taken that no interstice is left between the but- 
ter and the sides of the cask. This packing 
of a cask at a time gives the butter of large 
dairies the advantage over small ones, as it 
must be left longer exposed to air before the 
quantity requisite to fill the barrel is obtained. 

"The qualities of first rate butter are consi- 
dered to be, 1st, a fine yellow colour, neither 
pale nor orange tinted ; 2d, a close, waxy tex- 
ture, in which extremely minute and perfectly 
transparent beads of brine are perceptible ; butl 
if these drops be either large, or in the slight-B 
est degree tinged with colour, it indicates an 
imperfect working of the butter; while an en- 
tirely dry, tallowy appearance is equally dis- 
approved ; 3d, a fresh, fragrant perfume, and a 
sweet, kernelly taste ; 4th, good butter will, 
above all, be distinguished by keeping for a 
considerable time, without acquiring an old or 
rancid flavour. 

" The quantity of food which can be afforded 
to the cows during winter is determined at the 
beginning of the season, when the harvest re- 
turns are known ; and in plentiful years the 
calculation is, that each cow should be allowed 
three sacks of grain (generally oats, at 140 
pounds the sack), 3,000 pounds of straw, in- 
cluding bedding or litter for the stable, and 
1,800 pounds of hay of good quality; while for 
every 100 pounds of hay deducted she must 
receive 25 pounds of grain more, and vire versa." 

During the winter the requisite colour is 
given to the butter by some colouring mate- 
rial ; and the best for this purpose is found to 
be a mixture of annatto and turmeric, in the 
proportion of five ounces of the latter to one 
pound of the former. 

The average quantity of milk from the Hol- 
stein cows is about 2500 quarts per annum; 
much depending on the food and care ; and it 
is calculated that every 100 pounds of milk 
will give 3| pounds of butter, 6 pounds of 
fresh cheese, 14 pounds of buttermilk, and 76J 
pounds whey, where cheese is made. Fifteen 
quarts of milk are considered a fair average 
for a pound of butter, though sometimes a cow 
gives milk so rich that 12 quarts make a pound. 
" On the whole, it is considered a fair return 
from the Holstein dairies when the produce 
amounts to 100 pounds of butter and 150 
pounds of cheese per annum to each cow." 
(Buel.) 

The farmer will find a good article on the 



DAISY. 



DANGEROUS ANIMALS. 



dairy in Professor Low's Breeds of British Ani- 
mals, — a beautifully illustrated work, which 
should be patronised by all the Farmer's Clubs, 
as well as by those agriculturists to whom its 
price is not an object. The following authori- 
ties may also be consulted with advantage : 
" On the Meadows and Dairies of Holland." 
(Trans. High. Soc. vol. i. p. 202) ; "Reports up- 
on Dairy Management," (Ibid.) p. 341 ; vol. ii. 
p. 254; vol. iv. p. 406); Mr. Alton "On the 
Making of Butter and Cheese in the Dairy Dis- 
trict of Scotland," (Qttart. Journ. of Agr. vol. v. 
p. 350, and Com. to Board of .Agr. vol. iv. pp. 
214-337) ; also the article "Dairy" in vol. viii. 
of the Penny Cyc. in Baxter'' s Lib. of Agr. Know., 
and in vol. iii. of British Husbandry, Lib. of Use. 
Know.) 

DAISY, COMMON, or DAY'S EYE (Bellis 
perenni-s). These large white gawkyAooking 
flowers are so universal in English pastures 
and meadows, that description is almost need- 
less. They flower all the year, principally dot- 
ting the meadows early in May; in March they 
begin to be common, and after Midsummer to 
be less numerous. The root is slender, and 
the plant flowers from March to September. 
Double as well as proliferous daisies are com- 
mon in gardens, and the proliferous variety is 
now and then found wild. Domestic cattle 
scarcely touch this plant. Notwithstanding 
its beauty and its celebration by poets, the 
daisy is thought a blemish or intruder in neat 
grass-plats, and can be overcome by perpetual 
stubbing only. (Eng. Flor. vol. iii. p. 448.) 
The most common daisies in the United States 
are that called Flea-bane, and by botanists Eri- 
geron strigiosus, and the Horse-weed or B%titer- 
weed {Erigeron Canadensis). This last has an 
annual root, the stem growing from six inches 
to five or six feet in height, very hairy and 
much branched above. The flowers are white, 
and disposed in rays. In the Middle States it 
is a common weed in fields and on roadsides, 
flowering in August and September. 

The daisy called Flea-bane has a biennial 
root, as some botanists believe, and is common 
in pastures and upland meadows, flowering in 
June and August. The flower consists of white 
ra3's. It is a very common and worthless weed, 
especially in the first crop of upland meadows 
after a course of grain crops. (Flor. Cest.) 

Another species of daisy called the Handsome 
Erigeron (E. ptdchellus), is common on the bor- 
ders of woods and thickets, where it flowers in 
the Middle States in May and June. Its root is 
perennial, and the whole plant is somewhat 
hoary. The rays composing the flowers, which 
are large, are of a pale bluish purple. 

Some ten or twelve additional species of eri- 
geron have been found in the United States. 
(Flor. Cest. ; NuttalVs Genera.) 

DAISY, MOON, or MIDSUMMER DAISY 
(Chrysanthemum leucanthemum) . The Ox-eye 
Daisy, or white-Jlotvered chrysanthemum (PI. 10, ««), 
is a vile weed introduced into the United States 
from Europe. In many parts of the country it 
is sprea^d wide and far, constituting a serious 
nuisance. 

DAM. The mother of any young domestic 
animal. Also a mole or bank to confine water. 
See Embankmext. 



DAMSON. A small, useful, black phra, 
brought originally from Damascus, whence the 
name. 

DANDELION, COMMON (Leontodon taraxa- 
cum). A corruption of the French name detit 
de leon, or lion's tooth. An indigenous, peren- 
nial plant, growing in meadows and pastures, 
on roadsides, ditch banks, and indeed every- 
where. Root tap-shaped, very milky, exter- 
nally black, difficult of extirpation ; leaves nu- 
merous, spreading, of a bright shining green, 
quite smooth, and they may be called lion- 
toothed ; flowers one and a half inches wide, 
of a uniform yellow colour, which blow from 
April to August, and have the remarkable pro- 
perty of expanding early in the morning in fine 
weather only, and closing in the evening. (Eng, 
Flora, vol. iii. p. 349.) It is a valuable medi- 
cine, is aperient, powerfully diuretic, and alte- 
rative in its qualities, and, if persevered in, is 
excellent in liver complaints; it must be taken 
in decoction, or in the form of extract. Its de- 
obstruent influence in torpid conditions of the 
liver is striking; but its use must be persisted 
in for a considerable length of time. It should 
now and then be omitted for a few days, as it 
is apt to derange the stomach. 

By culture, and especially by blanching, this 
herb, though, like the garden lettuce and en- 
dive, originally full of bitter milk, becomes 
sufficiently mild to be eaten in a salad, nor is 
its bitterness of a disagreeable kind. In France 
the roots and leaves are eaten with bread and 
butter. The marsh dandelion (L. palustris), is 
a distinct species, smaller in size than the fore- 
going, and naturally a bog plant, growing in 
low boggy meadows. Dandelion is relished by 
goats, and especially by hogs, who devour it 
eagerly; but sheep and cows dislike it, and 
horses totally refuse it. (Willich^s Dom. Encyc.) 

DANDELION HAWKBIT (Jpargia tarax- 
aci). See Hawkhit. 

DANDRIFF. A species of scurf which is 
brushed out in grooming the horse, and con- 
sists of scales or portions of the cuticle, or 
scarf skin, detached in its gradual change or 
renewal. 

DANE-WORT, orDWARF ELDER WALL- 
WORT (Sambunts ebulus). The green leaves of 
this European plant have a narcotic smell, and 
are said to expel mice from granaries; nor will 
moles come where these leaves or those of the 
common elder are laid. Cattle will not eat the 
foliage. Its berries impart a violet colour, and 
their juice, mixed with vinegar, dyes raw linen, 
as well as morocco leather, of an azure blue, 
(Eng. Flora, vol. ii. p. 108 ; Willich's Encyc.) 
This perennial plant is frequently mistaken for 
the common elder. It grows four or five feet 
high, and dies away every autumn to the 
ground. The stalks are green and round, very 
like the shoots of common elder ; but having 
no woody part about the plant, they rise green 
from the ground. The leaves are longer than 
common elder leaves, and they are serrated 
round their edges. The flowers are small and 
white, succeeded by black berries, which the 
birds rarely suffer to ripen. It loves untilled 
ground, hedgeways, &c., flowering in summer, 
and ripening its berries in autumn. 

DANGEROUS ANIMALS. See Nuisasce. 



DANNOCKS. 



DARNEL. 



DANNOCKS. A provincial name for hedg- 
iiig-gloves. 

DAPPLE. A term sometimes used to sig- 
nify marked with various colours. 

DARGUE. A local word signifying the quan- 
tity of peat turf one man can cut and two men 
wheel in a day. 

DARNEL (Brornus secalinus). Smooth rye 
brome-grass. (Bromus mollis, PI. 7, b.) Soft 
brome-grass. Both these grasses pass in Eng- 
land under the common name of darnel. Pro- 
fessor Martyn supposes the annual bearded 
rye-grass (Loliiim tcnmlentum, PI. 7, c), to be 
the darnel of the Romans {Virg. Gcorg. i. 153). 
Mr. Holdich, of the Farmer^ Journal (Essay on 
Weeds), observes that he never found this grass 
among corn crops. Sinclair {Hort. Gram. p. 32), 
says, "I have found the Bromus mollis and Alo- 
pecurus agrestis, with the Bromus secali7ius to be 
the most prevalent v/eeds (of the annual grass 
kind) in corn fields ;" these, therefore, may be 
considered the darnel of the British farmer. 
In the Essay of Mr. Pitt, he treats of darnel as 
a plant which he had often seen in wheat 
crops, and perfectly well knew. Dr. Wither- 
ing, in his Botany, also mentions this darnel 
(Loliumtemulenlum), as "common in corn-fields, 
mostly among barley and flax;" and that it is a 
very troublesome weed among wheat, in Nor- 
folk and Suffolk. The doctor also describes 
another species of Lolium (X. arvcnse), as being 
much like the other, only it is smooth, and calls 
it white darnel. (PI. 7, d.) He observes that 
it is common in many parts and places, and 
"very injurious to a crop of wheat," for which 
he quotes Mr. Pitt's authority. Mr. Pitt, indeed, 
names his darnel white darnel, but immediately 
calls it L. teviulentum. Both these are annuals, 
and flower in July and August. Now it seems 
never to have occurred to writers on this sub- 
ject, that, when they were in any ditiiculty about 
agricultural weeds, they should have recourse 
to the characters of the seeds of the plants. It 
is quite impossible that any grass seed should 
be darnel, either ancient or modern, unless the 
seeds are heavy enough to resist the operation 
of dressing, and to remain in the wheat in part, 
in spite of all efflirts to get rid of them. The 
ancients had wind and sieves, and they no 
doubt exerted themselves as much as possible 
to rid their wheat of such seeds as those of the 
L. temulentum, while such deleterious effects are 
ascribed to them if baked in bread, «&c. Whe- 
ther these plants be common in corn fields in 
any part of England, or whether, if they be, 
their seeds are heavy enough to remain in sam- 
ples of wheat and barley, must here be left un- 
decided. I can only say that, in all my expe- 
rience, and as far as I have ever seen or heard 
from practical authority, I know of no darnel 
in England but the Bromus secalinus, and, less 
generally, the Bromus mollis. (Eng. Flora,\o\. i. 
p. 151-3; Hort. Gram. Woh.; Sinclair's Weeds, 
p. 4.) 

DARNEL (Lolinm). There are in England 
three species of darnel enumerated by Smith 
(Eng. Flora, vol. i.Y>. 173). Theperennial darnel 
(X. perenne), common in meadows, pastures, 
and waste ground, and well known to the far- 
mer by the name of rye-grass or ray-grass. It 
/ields an early crop of hay upon high or sandy 
400 



lands, and makes a fine turf, which, however, 
is said not to be lasting except upon a rich 
soil. Much valuable information concerning 
its cultivation and merits is collected by Pro- 
fessor Hooker in his continuation of the Flora 
Londinensis. The result seems to be, that the 
grass is best suited to the light land of Norfolk, 
where it first obtained its reputation. See Rtk 
Grass. 2. The bearded darnel (L. temulentum'), 
the seeds of which are of very evil report for 
causing intoxication in men, beasts, and birds, 
and bringing on fatal convulsions. Haller 
speaks of them as communicating these pro- 
perties to beer. 3. Short-awned annual darnel 
(£. arvense), rather smaller and smoother than 
the preceding, of which it is probably but a 
variety. (Eng. Flora, vol. i. p. 172-5.) 

It would appear that different countries 
attached the name of darnel to different 
plants. Thus, in England darnel is referred 
to under the head of Rye-Grass, or Lolium, 
and also described as a species of Bromus. 
In some parts of continental Europe it appears 
the seeds of darnel have the reputation of 
causing intoxication in men, beasts, and birds, 
the effects being sometimes so violent as to 
produce convulsions. In Scotland the name 
of Slecpies, is applied to darnel, from the seeds 
causing narcotic effects. In England and 
America these effects have never been known 
to arise from eating flour made from wheal 
containing cheat. It is evident that the enemy 
of the grain crops called darnel, chess, and 
cheat is not the same plant in all countries, 
probably for the reason that different species 
of grasses somewhat resembling each other 
in external characters may be more favoured 
by circumstances of soil and climate and ex- 
posure in some places than in others. Cheat 
or chess is evidently a more hardy plant in re- 
sisting the effects of frost than wheat or rye, 
which often die in situations exposed to cold 
or other unfavourable influences, leaving the 
darnel, which, from some resemblance in the 
plant before heading, is thus supposed to he 
degenerated wheat, barley, or rye. When, 
however, the soil is rich and the other circum- 
stances favourable to the growth of wheat and 
other winter grains, these spread first over the 
ground and keep down the cheat or chess, or 
brome and rye-grasses, at least until after 
harvest. Not only does the idea prevail that 
wheat and other cereal grains degenerate to 
darnel, but also to spelt, well known to be a 
peculiar and very inferior species of wheat, of 
hardy growth, and much cultivated in some 
parts of Europe, especially in mountainous 
districts. Thus, we find that to believe the 
evidence of common observation, wheat de- 
generates into spelt in some countries, and in 
others into a species of bromus, fescue, or that 
species of rye-grass (the lolium temulentum) 
which is endowed with intoxicating qualities, 
all being designated as the wheat enemy, darneL 
Nothing analogous to such metamorphosis can 
be found in nature, neither can it be fairly 
believed that such degeneration is possible, 
until some one makes a crucial experiment. 
It belongs to the credulous to afford the de- 
monstration. For more particular information 
in regard to cheat or chess in, the United 



DARTARS. 



DECIDUOUS. 



States, see Dr. Darlington's Flora Cestrica, un- 
der the head of Bromiis sccalinus, Rye bromus, 
Cheat or Chess. 

DARTARS. In farriery, a sort of scab or 
ulceration taking place on the chin, to which 
lambs are subject. 

DAUBING. A word meaning provincially 
plastering with clay. 

DAUBY. A word applied to land when wet, 
signifying clammy or sticky. 

DAVYING. A provincial word applied to 
the getting of marl out of the face of the clitTs 
on the sea-coasts, when it is drawn up by a 
wince. 

DEADLY NIGHTSHADE, See Beli-a- 
DONNA and Nightshade. 

DEAD-NETTLE (Lamium). A genus of 
perennial or annual European herbs, of which 
twenty species are described. Among which, 
are the white dead-nettle (X. album) and red 
dead-nettle (L. puypureuni) to which medicinal 
properties are ascribed. The herbage of the 
former is scarcely eaten by cattle, and has a 
slightly fetid scent. The flowers abound with 
honey. Low says (Frac. ^r. p. 446) it is 
sometimes common in corn"elds, and having 
a strong, creeping, perennial root, it should be 
carefully extirpated. 

DEAD-TOPS. A disease incident to young 
trees, which may be cured by cutting off the 
withered parts close to the nearest sound twig 
or shoot, and claying them over, in the same 
manner as practised in grafting. 

DEAF. A provincial word signifying blast- 
ed or barren, as a deaf ear of grain, a deaf-nut, 
&c. or such as have no grain or kernel. In 
such cases it is probable that the pollea has 
been scattered, and never communicated the 
fertilizing principle to the seed, which resem- 
bles in this respect an addle egg. 

DEAL (Sax. oeian, to divide ; Ger. dielen ; 
Dutch, (leelcH : Dan. daeler). The small thick- 
ness into which a piece of timber of any sort 
is cut up ; but in England the term is now im- 
properly restricted in its signification to the 
wood of the fir tree, cut up into thicknesses in 
the countries whence deals are imported. 

DEATH-WATCH (Jnobium tessellalum ; 
Termes pulsatorium, Lin.). The popular name 
in England for a small insect that harbours 
chiefly in old wood. It is produced from a 
very minute white egg, hatched in March ; in 
the perfect state these insects are about -pg^ths 
of an inch in length, and of a dark brown, spot- 
ted colour. They make a ticking noise, 
which is an expression of mutual affection 
between the male and female, but which has 
and is still superstitiously imagined by some 
to be an omen of death. See Penny CycJo. 
vol. viii. 

DEBRIS (Fr.debree). In geology, any worn 
materials, such as fragments of i ocks, ruins, or 
rubbish. 

DECAY. All vegetable as well as animal 
substances undergo two processes of decompo- 
sition after death. One of these is named 
fermentation, the other decay, putrefaction, or 
eremacausis. The decay of woody fibre (the 
principal constituent of all plants) is accom- 
panied by a phenomenon of a peculiar kind. 
This substance, in contact with air or oxygen 
51 



gas, converts the latter into an equal volume 
of carbonic acid, and its decay ceases upon 
the disappearance of the oxygen. If the car 
bonic acid is removed, and oxygen replaced, 
its decay recommences, that is, it again con 
verts oxygen into carbonic acid. Woody fibre 
consists of carbon and the elements of water; 
and if we judge only from the products formed 
during its decomposition, and from those form 
ed by pure charcoal, burned at a high tempe- 
rature, we might conclude that the causes were 
the same in both : the decay of woody fibre 
proceeds, therefore, as if no hydrogen or 
oxygen entered into its composition. 

A very long time is required for the comple- 
tion of this process of combustion, and the 
presence of water is necessary for its main- 
tenance : alkalies promote it, but acids retard 
it ; all antiseptic substances, such as sulphur- 
ous acid, the mercurial salts, empyreumatic 
oils, &c., cause its complete cessation. 

Woody fibre, in a state of decay, is the sub- 
stance called humus. 

The property of woody fibre to convert sur- 
rounding oxygen gas into carbonic acid di- 
minishes in proportion as its decay advances, 
and at last a certain quantity of a brown coal}^- 
looking substance remains, in which this pro- 
perly is entirely wanting. This substance is 
called mould ; it is the product of the complete 
decay of woody fibre. Mould constitutes the 
principal part of all the strata of brown coal 
and peat. 

Eremacausis (from ti^iui. slow, and kavs-is, 
combustion) is the act of gradual combination 
of the combustible elements of a body with the 
oxygen of the air ; a slow combustion or oxida- 
tion. 

The conversion of wood into humus, the 
formation of acetic acid out of alcohol, nitri- 
fication, and numerous other processes, are of 
this nature. Vegetable juices of every kind, 
parts of animal and vegetable substances, 
moist sawdust, blood, «Stc., cannot be exposed 
to the air, without sufferin.,Mmmediately a pro- 
gressive change of colour and properties, 
during which oxygen is absorbed. These 
changes do not take place when water is 
excluded, or when the substances are exposed 
to the temperature of 32°, and different bodies 
require different degrees of heat, in order to 
effect the absorption of oxygen, and, conse- 
quently, their eremacausis. The property of 
suffering this change is possessed in the high- 
est degree by substances which contain ri- 
trogen. {Liebig, Org. Chem. Part 2d.) 

In the Appendix to the Third Report of the 
.Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1840, Dr. S. L. 
Dana adduces the following example, to shinw 
that even with the presence of moisture, vege- 
table matter will not decay, if air is excluded. 
A piece of a white birch tree was taken from 
a depth of twenty-five feet below the surface, 
in Lowell. " It must have been inhumed there 
probably before the creation of man, yet this 
most perishable of all wood is nearly as sound 
as if cut from the forest last fall." See Ni- 
trification. 

DECIDUOUS (Lat. decido, I fall off). In 
zoology, a term applied to parts which have 
but a temporary existence, and are shed during 
2 L 2 401 



DECOMPOSITION 



DEER. 



the lifetime of the animals, as certain kinds of 
hair, horns, and teeth. In botany, it is applied 
to such trees and plants as shed their leaves in 
the autumn, in contradistinction to evergreens. 
Thus the oak, the elm, the beech, &c., are 
called deciduous trees. 

DECOMPOSITION (Lat. decompositus). The 
reduction or dissolution of any mixed body to 
the separate parts of which it is composed. It 
is of great importance to be assured, that, in 
every process of decomposition, whether by 
heat, air, or putrefaction, nothing is lost, no- 
thing is ultimately destroyed ; the components 
of the decomposed substance form new com- 
pounds. Decomposition is therefore not, in 
strict language, a I'l-structive process; but 
merely a change of allinities, and a transform- 
ation of old into new compounds. 

DEER (Sax. ■oeop ; Swed. diur ; Lat. cerui/s). 
The general name of animals of the stag kind, 
of which there are several species. These 
may be primarily divided into two groups; of 
which one includes those with antlers more or 
less flattened, the others those with rounded 
antlers. The elk is the most characteristic 
species of the first group. The reindeer 
differs from the rest of the genus in the pre- 
sence of antlers in both sexes, and in the great 
developement of the brow-antlers. The third 
species of deer, referable to the flat-horned 
group, is the English park, the fallow-deer 
(Cervus dama, Lin.). The period of gestation 
in the fallow-doe is eight months. We have 
in England two varieties of the fallow-deer, 
which are said to be of foreign origin ; the 
beautiful spotted kind, and the deep brown sort. 
These have multiplied exceedingly in many 
parts of the kingdom, which is now become 
famous for venison of superior fatness and fla- 
vour to that of any other country in the world. 
The spotted deer of the Dama species must not 
be cuiifounded with the spotted deer brought 
from India, which is a distinct species, namely 
the Cervvs (./?.ris) niaculalus, and never changes its 
spots, whereas the spotted fallow-deer becomes 
a uniform brown in winter. This species has 
been domesticated in England, and propagates 
freely in parks. It is smaller and more elegant 
in form than the fallow-deer, and furnishes as 
good venison. Of the species of deer of which 
the beam of the antler gives a rounded form in 
section, the red deer (C. elaphus) and the roe- 
buck (C. capreolus) are indigenous species. 
The male red deer, in the language of "the 
noble art of venerie," is called a " hart," and the 
female a "hind." She goes with young about 
a week longer than the fallow-doe; and brings 
forth in May a single fawn, rarely two. The 
young of both sexes are at first styled "calves." 
In the common stag, or red deer, the shedding 
of the horns takes place about the end of Feb- 
ruary, or during March. The fallow-deer 
sheds his horns from about the middle of April 
to the first weeks of May. The roe-buck is 
the smallest species of European deer; the 
male is monogamous, and the female brings 
forth two fawns. They are not confined to the 
tJcotish mountains, being still found in some 
of the rugged woods of Westmoreland and 
Cumberland. The roe-buck in its native wilds 
ices not keep in herds in its perambulations ; 
402 



but it only congregates in low coverts. The 
food of the roe-buck in the Highlands of Scot- 
land is the Rubus saxatilis, or roe-buck-berry ; 
but in winter they browse on the tender twigs 
of the birch and the fir. The flesh of the roe- 
buck is tender and delicate, when the animal 
has been hunted. The horns are used for 
handles of knives, and other instruments 
Three varieties of the genus Cemts are pro- 
fessed objects of the chase ; the stag, the fal- 
low-deer, and the roe-buck ; each of which 
have long been followed with great ardour, 
according to the tastes of different sportsmen, 
and their means of gratifying them : the roe- 
buck is, however, becoming scarce. 

The following notice of the several kinds of 
deer found in the United States, is chiefly con- 
densed from Dr. Harlan's "Fauna Americana." 

1. The Moose (Cerviis (ikes'), is by some called 
elk. It is the largest species of the deer kind, 
and is distinguished from all others by having 
broad and flattened horns, and a hairy tuft and 
protuberance under the throat. In size, these 
animals are sometimes larger than a common 
sized horse. Th^^per lip is square, very broad, 
deeply furroweajind hangs over the mouth. 

The length of the moose, measured from the 
tip of the nose to the base of the tail is 6 feet 
10 inches: height of fore-part 5 feet 2 inches; 
behind 5 feet 4 inches : horns 3 feet 1 inch 
long ; breadth betAveen these at their summits, 
3 feet 10 inches : those on the male sometimes 
weigh 60 lbs. They consist of a simple and 
flattened expansion furnished with numerous 
prongs on the external border. The tail is ex- 
ceedingly short. The neck is short, and the 
female has no horns. Both sexes have a tuft 
of long hair, like a beard, beneath the throat, 
the male having a protuberance in the same 
place. The general colour is fawn-brown on 
the top of the head, the back, and rump ; and a 
deeper brown beneath the lower jaw, neck, &c. 
The under part of the tail is whitish. The 
young animal is of a reddish brown colour 
without spots. 

Moose live in small troops, in swampy 
places. Their gait, which is commonly a trot, 
is much less active than that of other deer. 
They live upon the buds of trees, moss, and 
some kinds of plants. In eating from the 
ground they are compelled, from the shortness 
of iheir necks, either to kneel or separate their 
fore-legs. They rut about the end of August 
and all the month of September. The females 
bring forth from the middle of May to the mid- 
dle of June, generally two and sometimes three 
and occasionally only one at a time. The old 
moose shed their horns annually, in January 
and February, and the young in April. They 
live 15 or 20 years. This species of deer is 
met with at present only m the more northern 
parts of the United States, and beyond the 
great lakes. 

2. The Rein-deer (Cervus tarandus), has a total 
length of 5 feet 6 inches ; the horns are 2 feet 
10 inches long, and 2 feet 2 inches apart at 
their summits. Their size is about that of the 
common deer, the legs being thicker in pro- 
portion, and the hoofs shorter and thicker, the 
neck is very short. The colour varies accord- 
ing to the seasons and age of the animal. The 



DEER, 



DENMARK. 



adult is of a deep brown in the spring, passing, 
as the season advances, to a grayish-brown, 
and grayish-white, and during the wannest 
portion of the summer, is almost white. 

The Rein-deer is the only animal of the deer 
genus which has been subjugated by man. 
The Laplanders have large troops of them. 
The greater part of the males are castrated 
and harnessed to sledges. The females fur- 
nish milk, the flesh food, the skins clothing, 
cordage, &c. 

In America, however, the Rein-deer has 
never been domesticated for use. The male 
adults and sterile females lose their horns in 
winter, and the new ones are not perfectly 
hard and matured till August. They carry 
their young 33 weeks, at the end of which 
time, generally in the month of May, they 
bring forth. They abound in the northern re- 
gions, but are not found in the United States 
south of the state of Maine. 

3. The Elk (Ccrviis Canadensis) called also 
the Canadian or American stag, inhabits Cana- 
da, Missouri, and other western states. The 
head of this species very much resembles that 
of the common deer. Its height at the withers 
is 4 feet; length of its branched horns 3 feet 
to 3 feet 10 inches ; length of the tail only 2 
inches. A black spot or mark descends from 
the corner of the mouth on each side of the 
lower jaw. The prevailing colour of the body 
above the flanks is a clear bloody-red. The 
female has no horns, and its colours are less 
strong. The elks associate in families. The 
females bring forth in the month of July. A 
fine specimen preserved in the Philadelphia 
museum, 13 years old, measures from the tip of 
the nose to the base of the tail 7 feet 7 inches. 

4. The Virginian Deer (Cervti^ Virginiatius'), 
is the common deer found throughout the 
United States wherever extensive forests re- 
main. It is met with as high north as Canada, 
and passing southwards through the Isthmus, 
is even seen on the river Oronoco, in South 
America. Its total length is 5 feet 5 inches ; 
the horns, measured following the curvatures, 
are 1 foot 10 inches long; these are provided 
with antlers or branches; the tail is 10 inches 
in length ; the weight of the animal ranges 
from 90 to 120 lbs. Its form is light, and its 
motions quick and exceedingly graceful. The 
colour of the young animal is of a deep brown, 
with small white spots ; the adults in summer 
are of a beautiful brown or fawn colour, whilst 
the belly, insides of the thighs, and lower part 
of the (ail are white. They take their winter 
coat in October; their summer dress in March 
and April ; their horns fall off in February ; 
they carry their young nine months, and bring 
forth in July or August. Towards autumn the 
fawn loses its spots, and the hair becomes 
grayish, a state to which the hunters apply the 
phrase in the gray. The coat is shed in the 
latter part of May and beginning of June, and 
is then substituted by the reddish coat ; in this 
state the animal is said to be in the red. To- 
wards the last of August, the old bucks begin 
to change to the dark bluish colour ; the doe 
commences this change a week or two later; 
in this state they are said to be in the bliie ; this 
coat gradually lengthens until it comes to the 



gray. The skin is said to be toughest in the 
red, thickest in the blue, and thinnest in the 
gray; the blue skin is most valuable. The 
horns are cast in January; they lose the velvet 
the last of September, and beginning of October. 

This species displays great enmity towards 
the rattlesnake, which enemy they attack and 
destroy with singular dexterity and courage ; 
when the deer discover one of these reptiles, 
they leap into the air to a great distance above 
it, and descend with their four feet brought to- 
gether, forming a solid square, and light on the 
snake with their whole weight, when they im- 
mediately bound away ; they return and repeat -j 
the same manoeuvres until their enemy is com- 
pletely destroyed. 

In Pennsylvania, by act of Assembly, the 
killing of deer is restricted to the period be- 
tween the 1st of August and the 1st of January, 
and similar enactments exist in other states. 
Deer are very timorous animals, and the 
hunter must be intimately acquainted with 
their habits and haunts. To approach them, 
even with the rifle, he exercises an instinct, 
which he has patiently cultivated, but little 
inferior to his dog. During or after a shower 
is chosen as the most favourable season for 
deer-stalking; both as a time when the deer 
will be more readily met with on the ridges, 
and that the noise made by the steps of the 
hunter may be drowned in the droppings from 
the trees. Their fondness for salt is also often 
employed for their destruction. A rotten log 
is salted, and when the hunter perceives that 
it is much frequented, he conceals himself 
within rifle-shot near it; or if it bears the 
marks of being recently visited, with a keen 
and tutored eye, he traces them to their lair 
In October, November, and December the ve- 
nison is best, if the weather has been mild ; but 
after the country has been covered for some 
time with snow, it generally acquires an un- 
pleasant taste, from theirbrowsing upon the lau- 
rels (rhododenrons and kalmias) of the swamps. 

5. Great eared Deer (the Cervus macrotis of 
Say), and by others called the Black Tailed 
Deer, and Mule Deer, inhabits the most remote 
northwestern territories of the United States. 
{Fauna Amcr. ; also Long's Expedition to the 
Rocky Mountains, vol. 2.) 

6. The sixth species of the American deer, 
having become extinct, is now only met with 
in a fossil state. Part of a skeleton having 
been sent by President Jefferson to the late 
Professor Wistar, the bones are described by 
the latter in the Transactions of the American 
Philosophical Society, vol. i., new series. It pos- 
sessed many of the characters of the elk 
(Cervus Canadensis). The bones of this fossil 
elk have hitherto been discovered only in the 
morass near the falls of Ohio, called Big-bone- 
lick, in company with the bones of the masto- 
don, &c. (Harlan^s Fauna Americana.) 

DEER-NECK, in horsemanship, signifies a 
thin ill-formed neck. 

DENMARK. The agriculture of Denmark, 
especially of the duchies of Sleswic, Holstein, 
and Lauenberg, has been described by Mr. 
Garr. A large portion of this extensive dis- 
trict is alluvial soil, of a very fertile descrip- 
tion, composed of — 

<JQ3 



DENSHIRING. 



DEW. 



Parti. 

SiliciouB earth - ... - 0860 

Clay 0040 

Oxide of iron 030 

Challt 0002 

Gypsum 0009 

Organic matters ----- 0-014 

Loss - ----- 0045 

1000 

The size of the farms varies between 50 and 
aOO acres, a portion of which is commonly left 
for eight or ten years in pasture. The mea- 
dows in the marshes are not uncommonly let 
for two guineas per acre. The usual rotation 
of crops commonly followed is, after grass, 
oats, fallow, winter barley, rape for seed, 
wheat, oats, beans, oats. The Danes plough 
deep, with four heavy horses ; crops usually 
heavy, often returning as much per English 
acre, according to Mr. Carr, as — 



Rape seed 
Wheat - 
Winter barley 
Oats 



lbs. 

- 20 sacks of 200 

- 12 to 14 — 220 

- 25 to 30 — 200 

- 30 to 36 — 160 



This, however, seems an enormous produce. 
Their horses, sheep, and cattle are large, but 
coarse. Jutland is the greatest breeding dis- 
trict, the cows commonly yield from thirty to 
forty quarts of milk per diem. Their imple- 
ments of husbandry are poor. The wheel 
ploughs, with wooden mould-boards, are drawn 
by two horses. The harrows, with the excep- 
tion of the brake, have generally wooden teeth. 
The rotation on arable lands, is fallow dunged, 
rape seed, wheat or rye, barley, oats. In re- 
ference to seeds, red clover is sown in the pro- 
portion of 8 lbs., timothy or rye-grass 6 lbs. 
per acre. Clover is made into hay ; and then 
pastured for four years. There are three dis- 
tinct breeds of cattle in these duchies. 1. The 
native cow, middle sized with not very long 
legs, fine head and horns, moderately thick 
neck, colour usually red or brown : these give 
most milk in proportion to their food. 2. The 
marsh cows, of a larger size, larger boned, co- 
lour red, requiring luxuriant pasturage, giving, 
when in full milk, twenty-four to thirty-two 
quarts per day, but their butter is smaller in 
quantity and of inferior quality to the others. 
3. The Jutland cow, of fine bone, rather long 
body, colour gray or dun, more valued for its 
fattening than its milking qualities. (Jonrn. 
of Roy. Jgr. Soc. vol. ii. p. 371.) 

DENSHIRING or DEVONSHIRING. A 
term formerly used for the operation of paring 
and burning. 

DEVIL'S-BIT SCABIOUS (Srabiosasuccisa). 
This perennial weed, delighting in moist pas- 
tures, woods, and hedgeways, grows a foot 
high, with slender stalks and dark purplish- 
blue flowers, often milk white, resembling the 
garden scabious. It is also frequently seen in 
grain-fields. The stalks are round, firm, and 
upright, divided into several branches, and 
having two small leaves at each joint. The 
"■•aves which grow from the root are four 
mches long, dark green, harsh, and somewhat 
hairy. The root is blackish, tapering, the end 
appearing bitten off. It was called "Devil's- 
bit,'' from the idea among the superstitious of 
(he olden time that the devil had endeavoured 
404 



to seize upon a plant so useful in its properties 
to mankind, but could not eflTect his purpose. 
He only bit off a piece of the root in the strug- 
gle, and carried with it all the virtue of the 
plant. (Eng. Flor. vol. i. p. 194.) 

The plant known by this name in the Middle 
States, is the Helonias dioica of Pursh, the 
Veratrum luteum of Muhlenburg, commonly 
called Blazing Star. It has a perennial root, 
and is frequent in woodlands and meadows, 
M'here it flowers in May and June. The root 
of this plant is bitter, and a tonic of some 
value. {Flor. Cestric.) 

DEW (Sax. tseap; Dutch daaw: Germ, than, 
moisture). The deposition of water from the 
atmosphere during the night upon the ground, 
leaves of trees, and plants, blades of grass and 
other objects on or near the surface of the 
earth. The phenomena of dew have been 
considered by all writers on Meteorology, from 
Aristotle downwards ; but they were first suc- 
cessfully investigated by the late Dr. Wells, 
who gave the true theory of the meteor in an 
admirable essay on the subject, first published 
in 1814. Dew does not fall from the atmo- 
sphere like rain, but Ibrms in very different 
quantities on different substances ; thus, on 
metals, it is sparingly deposited; on glass it 
forms abundantly, as it does also on straw, 
grass, cloth, paper, and other similar substances. 
Animal substances are among those which ac- 
quire dew in the greatest quantity. The tem- 
perature of grass covered with dew is always 
lower than that of the surrounding air. On 
calm and very clear nights (the period when 
dew is deposited most abundantly). Dr. Wells 
very frequently found the grass seven, eight, or 
nine degrees, and on one occasion, fourteen 
degrees, colder than the air about four feet 
above the ground. In England dew proba- 
bly begins to appear upon grass, in places 
shaded from the sun, during clear and calm 
weather, soon after the heat of the atmosphere 
has declined; that is, three or four hours after 
midday. 

Very erroneous notions in regard to the man- 
ner in which dew is formed or deposited, have 
existed until a very recent period. This im- 
portant agent in the promotion of vegetable life 
has been supposed by some to rise from the 
ground, whilst the phrase "falling dew," com- 
mon in all languages, would seem to imply an 
almost universal belief that dew falls from the 
air, similar to the finest rain or mist. These 
general impressions have, however, been de- 
monstrated to be incorrect, by the experiments 
of Dr. Wells ; whose explanation of the causes 
operating in the production of dew is as simple 
as it is satisfactory. When substances not 
perfectly transparent, are exposed to the sun, 
they gain more or less heat; but when the sun 
goes down they part with their heat and become 
cold. The surrounding air, however, with its 
invisiblevapouror moisture, being transparent, 
does not radiate or shoot off its heat, and hence 
remains comparatively warmer than bodies not 
transparent. Hence grass, leaves, wood, or 
stone, by growing cold in the absence of the 
sun, have moisture to settle on them precisely for 
the same reason that it ii^deposited on the outside 
of a pitcher or glass containing very coW water 



DEW. 



DEW. 



The dew, therefore, is a deposit from that por- 
tion of vapour which enters into the composi- 
tion of common air, and which is swept in 
contact with objects at or near the surface of 
the earth, like breath thrown upon the blade 
of a knife or other polished surface. When 
the sky is clear, as in starry and moonlight 
nights, then do grass, leaves, and other objects, 
throw off their heat most rapidly and become 
cooler than the air immediately above them, and 
the colder they get the more dew is condensed 
upon them. Different substances part with 
their heat more or less rapidly, and this ex- 
plains the cause why different proportions of 
dew are observed on objects similarly exposed 
to the atmosphere. A gravel walk will have 
little or no dew upon it, whilst the grass on 
each side will be reeking wet : because the 
grass not only radiates its heat more rapidly 
than the walk, but does not derive warmth 
from below to compensate for the loss. Be- 
sides, the moisture falling upon the gravel 
walk is absorbed more rapidly than the dew de- 
posited upon plants. 

The temperature at which dew begins to 
form is called the dew-point, and may be ascer- 
tained very accurately. Thus, by laying a 
thermometer on the grass in the evening, as the 
herbage parts with the warmth collected 
through the day, and gets colder, the moment 
little globules or particles of dew are observed 
on the grass, the degree at which the mercury 
in the thermometer stands shows the dew-point 
or temperature at which the watery vapour 
sondenses. It has been observed already, 
that grass possesses a faculty of radiating or 
parting with its heat very rapidly, on which 
account it quickly becomes considerably colder 
than the air immediately above. If, when a 
thermometer is placed upon the herbage, an- 
other is suspended in the air two or three feet 
above, this last will not fall so low by many de- 
grees, the difference being sometimes as great 
as 10 or 15 degrees of Fahrenheit. 

In making this experiment, the instrument 
suspended in the air mustof course have its bulb 
covered from the sky by means of a piece of 
tin-foil, or other non-radiating substance, to pre- 
vent its heat from passing off, in which case 
the instrument would itself radiate, and thus 
represent its own temperature and not that of 
the surrounding air. It may be often observed 
that in the morning, whilst the grass is reeking 
wet with dew, a polished substance, lying upon 
it, such as the blade of a knife, will have little 
or no moi-^ture on its surface. This shows that 
polished surfaces part with heat and become 
cooled down to the dew-point very slowly. The 
most dew will of course always be found on 
substances which have the power of cooling 
most rapidly, and few objects do this so readily 
as grass and the leaves of plants and trees. 

The degree of cold necessary to be acquired 
by grass and other objects, before they can 
have dew deposited on them, can always be 
ascertained beforehand. Thus, take a thin 
tumbler of cut-glass, having polished sides ; 
fill this about half full of pump or ice-water. 
Plunge into it the bulb of a thermometer, and 
the moment a film of dew or misty cloud is 
seen to form on the polished outside surface. 



note the degree at which the thermometet 
stands, and this will be the deiv-point. ShouM 
pump-water not be sufficiently cool to produce 
a cloudiness on the polished surface of the 
glass, some ice may be added ; or common salt 
and nitre, sal ammoniac, or some other sub- 
stance employed in the production of artificial 
cold. The temperature at which atmospheric 
vapour condenses to form dew is generally 
several degrees below the temperature of the 
atmosphere. But this is only the case during 
clear weather, since, when there is a fog, or a 
rain, the dew-point will be found to correspond 
with the temperature of the air ; showing that 
any cause which contributes to bring down the 
atmospheric temperature to the dew-point, will 
directly promote the condensation of its vapour 
or moisture into mist, cloud, rain, snow, or hail. 
The many relations which the dew-point, or de- 
gree at which vapour condenses, holds with 
atmospheric phenomena, may be understood 
from this. And let it be borne in mind that 
the dew-point is almost continually rising or 
falling, like the temperature of the atmosphere, 
being usually, in clear weather, some four, six, 
eight, or ten degrees lower than common air, as 
indicated by the thermometer. 

The very simple means just described, bj 
which the dew-point can be ascertained, ap- 
proximately, with the aid of a tumbler and 
thermometer, is by no means the only mode 
practised for the purpose. On the contrary, it 
is the most primitive plan, and one requiring 
great skill and judgment to ensure tolerable 
accuracy. Mr. Daniells, a learned meteorolo- 
gist, of London, several years since invented 
a contrivance called a Hygrometer, for deter- 
mining the dew-point, which is rather compli- 
cated and too costly for general use. It will, 
we think, be entirely superseded by an instru- 
ment very recently invented by Prof. A. D. 
Bache, of Philadelphia, of which the following 
general description may furnish some idea. 

One of the forms of this instrument consists 
of a square bar of highly polished steel, about 
half an inch in depth and breadth, and ten inches 
long, one end of which fits into a case attached 
to a box of tinned iron or copper. This box is to 
contain cold water, ice, or a freezing mixture, 
according to the season or rather to the tempera- 
ture of deposition, or dew-point. The end of 
the bar which fits into the case has its tempera- 
ture brought below the dew-point, while the 
other end is at the temperature of the air; one 
of the sections of the bar is, therefore, at the 
dew-point. Between this section and the box 
vapour is deposited on the side of the bar, and 
beyond it, in the highly burnished surface of the 
steel, appears in strong contrast, the line of 
junction being very well defined. To ascer- 
tain the temperature of the line where the de- 
posit of dew commences, cylindrical holes are 
made perpendicularly downwards in the bar, 
at intervals of about half an inch apart, 
throughout the whole length, large enough to 
admit the bulb of a very small thermometer, 
and deep enough to carry the bulb entirely 
into the substance of the bar. If the line 
of deposition is opposite the middle of ont^ 
of these holes, the thermometer then gives 
the dew-point; if between two of them, the 

405 



DEW-BERRY. 



DIBBLE. 



jemperature at each hole is taken, by the same 
ihermometer, or by two thermometers, and the 
proportional part of the difference correspond- 
mg to the distance of the dew-point line from 
the lower thermometer is added to the tempera- 
ture observed by it. Care should be taken in 
making this observation to let the temperature 
of the different parts of the bar become sta- 
tionary before attempting to register them. In 
another form of the instrument, an iron or 
copper trough containing mercury is substi- 
tuted for the bar; one side of the trough, which 
is best made square in its section, is of polished 
steel or gilded. The trough is attached to a tin 
vessel, as in the other instrument. When the 
surface is cooled down so as to obtain the line 
of deposit on the face of the trough, the bulb 
of a small thermometer, which may be moved 
along in the mercury within, is brought oppo- 
site to the line. The temperature which it de- 
notes is, of course, the dew-point. See Atmo- 
SPHEHE and Htghometeu. 

DEW-BERRY. The fruit of the blue bram- 
ble (Rubus cassius), so termed from the resem- 
blance of the glaucous bloom, or waxy secre- 
tion upon the black shining berries, to dew. 
(E)ig. Flor. vol. ii. p. 409.) See Buamble. 

DEWLAP (from lapping or licking the 
dew). A term applied to the membranous 
fleshy substance that hangs down from the 
throats of neat cattle. 

DEY. An old English word for milk, now 
obsolete, but from whence we derive dairy. 

DIARRHCEA. See Diseases of Sheep, Cat- 
tle, and Horses. 

DIASTASE. When cold water is poured 
upon barley newly malted and crushed, is per- 
mitted to remain over it for a quarter of an 
hour, is then poured off, filtered, evaporated to 
a small bulk over boiling water, again filtered 
if necessary, and then mixed with much alco- 
hol, a white tasteless powder falls to the bot- 
tom, to which the name of diastase has been 
given. 

If unmalted barley be so treated, no diastase 
is obtained. This substance, therefore, is 
formed dtiring the process of malting. 

If wheat, or barley, or potatoes, which by 
steeping in water yield no diastase, be made to 
germinate or sprout, and be afterwards bruised 
and treated as above, diastase will be obtained. 
It is therefore -produced during germination. (J. F. 
W. Johnston's Lectures.) 

Diastase, like sulphuric acid, possesses the 
property of transforming starch entirely, first 
into gum, and then into grape-sugar. One 
part of diastase will convert into sugar 2000 
parts of starch. Seeds which have germinated 
always contain much more diastase than is 
necessary for the conversion of their starch into 
sugar. This excess of diastase Liebig thinks 
can by no means be regarded as accidental. 
One of the functions for which diastase ap- 
pears to be created in the living seed to sub- 
serve, is to contribute to the wants of the 
young plant. " The starch in the seed," says 
Johnston, " is the food of the future germ, pre- 
pared and ready to minister to its wants when- 
ever heat and moisture concur in awakening 
It to life. But starch is itself insoluble in 
water, and could not, therefore, accompany the 
406 



fluid sap when it begins to move and circulate. 
For this reason diastase is formed at the point 
where the germ first issues from the mass of 
food. There it transforms the starch, and ren- 
ders it soluble, so that the young vessels can 
take it up and convey it to the point of growth. 
When the starch is exhausted, its functions 
cease. It is then itself transformed and carried 
into the general circulation. Or when, as in 
the potato, much more starch is present than 
is in many cases requisite, its function ceases 
long before the whole of the starch disappears. 
Its presence is necessary only until the leaves 
and roots are fully formed, when the plant is 
enabled to provide for itself, and becomes in- 
dependent of the starch of the seed. When 
this period arrives, therefore, the production of 
diastase is no longer perceived. 

" This I have said is one of the purposes 
which appears to be served by diastase in the 
vegetable economy. That it is the only one 
we have no reason to believe. There may be 
others quite as interesting which we do not as 
yet understand. This is rendered more pro- 
bable by the fact that the diastase contained in 
one pound of malted barley is capable of con- 
verting into sugar five pounds of starch. 
(Liebig.) It is the diastase in malt which dis- 
solves the starch of the barley in the process 
of brewing, but as the diastase contained in 
malt is sufficient to dissolve so large a quan- 
tity of starch, it is obviously a waste of labour 
to malt the whole of the barley employed. One 
of malt to three of barley would probably be 
sufficient in most cases to obtain a wort con- 
taining the whole of the starch in solution. 
Advantage is taken of this properly in the 
manufacture of the white beer of Louvain, and 
of other places in Flanders, and in Germany, 
where the light colour is secured by adding a 
large quantity of flour to a decoction of a small 
quantity of barley. And though at the tempera- 
ture at which the seed germinates, more of this 
substance may be necessary to transform the 
same weight of starch than is required in our 
hands, when aided by artificial heat, — yet as 
we never in the ordinary course of nature find 
any thing superfluous or going to waste, there 
is reason to believe that the diastase may be 
intended also to contribute directly to" the nou- 
rishment and growth of the plant. As it con- 
tains nitrogen, it must be derived from the 
gluten or vegetable albumen of the seed ; and 
as a young plant of wheat, when already 
many inches from the ground, contains no 
more nitrogen than was originally present in 
the seed itself (BoussitigauW), this diastase 
may only be the result of one of those trans- 
formations of which gluten is susceptible, and 
by which it is rendered soluble, and capable 
of aiding in the production of those parts of 
the substance of the growing plant into which 
nitrogen enters as a necessary constituent." 
(J. jF. W. Johnston's Lectv.res.') 

DIBBLE (from dipfel, Dutch, a sharp point). 
An instrument or conical stick to make holes 
in the ground for setting grain, plants, &lc. 
"The subject of drilling by machinery," say 
the Messrs. Ransome of Ipswich, " naturally 
suggests the consideration of whether the ope- 
ration of dibbling may not be similarly accom- 



DIBBLING. 



DIGITARIA. 



pliihed. Many ingenious contrivances have 
from time to time been projected for this pur- 
pose, and several patents have also been ob- 
tained, but we are not aware of any that have 
been successfully and advantageously used. 

DIBBLING is a mode of sowing grain, es- 
pecially wheat, much practised in some parts 
of England, II is found to answer the best 
on the clover leys of the lighter descriptions 
of land. It is performed by a man walking 
backwards with an iron dibble into each hand, 
with which he makes the holes, on the furrow 
slice, into which the seed is dropped by child- 
ren, who place one or two seeds into each hole. 
By this mode there is a very considerable 
saving of seed, the quantity employed of wheat 
being usually from three to five pecks. The 
wheat plant obtains a more solid soil, and con- 
siderable additional employment is afforded to 
the labourer and his family. It is, however, 
a rather tedious process, and is not adapted to 
the stiffer descriptions of soil, for on these the 
dibble forms little cups, in which the, rain is 
apt to lodge to the destruction of the seed 
grain. A good dibbler with three active at- 
tendants will plant about half an acre per day. 
The expense for labour is commonly about 7s. 
to 9s. per acre for wheat. 

Dibbling was first pretty extensively intro- 
duced into the east of England about the 
commencement of the present century. It is 
spoken of as a novel practice in 1805, by Mr. 
Curtis of Lynn {Com. Board of Jigr. vol. iv. p. 
158), and by Mr. Pung of Sudbury, and Mr. 
Jones of Wellington, in Somersetshire {Ibid. 
159); they had previously to this time made 
some rude attempts to employ the dibble near 
Yarmouth, in Norfolk, for, in 1784, Mr. Oxley 
describes the farmers of that district dibbling 
six, seven, and eight pecks per acre, in two 
rows on each furrow, by three or four droppers 
to one dibbler, at an expense of half a guinea 
per acre. {Youno^s Annals of Agr. vol. iii. p. 
220.) 

In Norfolk, and the neighbouring counties, 
broad-casting is now almost unknown. Mr. J. 
Barton, of East Leigh, Hampshire, says, 1836 
{Hints to Schoolmasters, p. 2), I brought a man 
from Norfolk, twelve months ago, for the pur- 
pose of instructing my labourers in dibbling, 
and he brought with him the implements, 
which are made in the following manner. The 
body of the dibble is a core of hard steel, 
round which is soft iron, so as always to wear 
itself sharp ; at the upper end is a handle. 

The instrument is three feet long, all iron 
excepting the handle ; it weighs six pounds ; a 
man walks with one in each hand backwards, 
and makes from 3000 to 3050 holes in a day, 
giving a slight twist with the wrist at the mo- 
ment of plunging the iron into the ground, 
which makes a hole that does not again fill 
up by the crumbling in of the earth. The 
ground should be even, then the rows are 
dibbled, the holes four inches apart, so that 
four of them can be covered at once by the 
foot ; the rows are about four and a half inches 
apart; the holes are filled by a rake, or har- 
row with a few bushes woven into it. I pay 
nine shillings per acre of 160 rods for the 
work, out of which the dibbler pays the child- 



ren who drop the wheat; three grains should 
be dibbled in each hole, which will take about 
one bushel and a half per acre. The Norfolk 
farmers say the yield by dibbling exceeds that 
by broad-casting by four bushels per acre. 

Dibbling costs in Hertfordshire only 6s., and 
in Norfolk and Suffolk from 7s. to 10s. per 
acre, according to the distance of the holes, 
but where they are thickest, and three or four 
grains placed in each hole, it does not use 
more than two bushels of seed per acre. 

A writer in the Mark Lane Express says, 
drilling wheat is the most generally practised 
in the eastern part of the county of Suffolk, 
and dibbling wheat has been upon the decline 
for the last twenty years ; I believe, because it 
is more trouble to attend to dibblers than to 
drilling; but I was in the habit of dibbling 
wheat when I took business for myself in 1807, 
and I continue the practice to the present day, 
for the following reasons: — 1st, It encourages 
the poor man and his family, by increasing his 
wages, and gives employment to his children 
which they would not have if wheat was 
drilled. 2dly, It shows the children, when 
young, that Providence has ordained them to 
get their bread by the sweat of their brow ; 
and I grow upon the four-course shift 100 acres 
of wheat every year. For wheat I pay for 
dibbling 7s. per acre, which is done by seven 
men that have the largest families: those men 
earn 5/. each in five weeks, generally, but if 
the weather be fine in less time. Another and 
3d reason why I prefer dibbling is, that the 
men and children tread the land with their 
feet, which makes the land firmer and better 
for the crop. 4thly, It is better to clean the 
land, because you can only hoe between the 
rows of the drilled wheat, when you can hoe 
all round the dibbled plant. 5thly, The seed 
goes farther into the ground from dibbling than 
drilling, the small end piercing deeper than it 
appears, while the drill appears deeper than it 
really is, the coulter of the drill raising mould 
on each side, so that when harrowed the corn 
is not so deep as when dibbled. 6thly, There 
is always more under-corn, that is, small ears, 
from the drill than from the dibble, and dib- 
bling takes less seed. Six pecks is about the 
quantity of seed it takes, unless it be very 
early in the season. I am a great advocate for 
dibbling, for the above reasons ; I have tried 
both on the same field, and generally found the 
dibbled wheat the most productive; and it 
stands up better against the wind and rain: — 

Thus dibbling saves half the 3 bushels usually 
broiid-cast -------- li 

And the gain in the crop being - - - - 4 

Makes -------- 5i 

Worth at 80s. per quarter ----- 55s. 
And after paying per acre for dibbling - - - 7». 

Leaves, per acre ------ 48 

And even at 5s. gives a gain over broad-cast wheat flf 
upwards of 20s. 

DICK, DIKE, or DYKE. A provincial word 

applied to the mound or back of a ditch, and 

dick-hole is the excavation or ditch itself. In 

Scotland it means a stone wall. See Ditch. 

•DIGGING. See Spapf, Husbandbt. 

DIGITARIA SANGUINALIS. PI. 7,/. Slen 

407 



DILL. 



DISTEMPER. 



der spiked finger-grass, or cock's-foot finger- 
grass. See FiNGEK-GHAss and Crab Grass. 

DILL {Anethum graveolens, from avxSov, on ac- 
count of its running up straight). A plant 
kept in kitchen gardens in England. It floAvers 
and seeds in August; the stalk is round, hol- 
low, and upright, three feet high, and divided 
into many branches. The flowers are yellow 
and small, and stand in umbels on the top of 
its branches ; the root is long. Its leaves and 
umbels are used in pickling, and the former 
in soups and sauces. It is a hardy plant, and 
if grown merely for domestic use may be cul- 
tivated in any open compartment : but if for 
seed, a sheltered situation, and a soil rather 
dry than damp, is to be allotted for it. It is 
propagated by seed, which is best sown imme- 
diately it is ripe, for if kept out of the ground 
until the spring, it is often incapable of germi- 
nating, or if plants are produced they usually 
decay without perfecting their seed ; if neglect- 
ed until the spring, it may be sown from the 
close of February until the commencement of 
May : the earlier, however, the better. Dill 
may be sown in drills a foot apart, or broad- 
cast, very thin and raked in. The plants are 
to remain where sown, as they will not bear 
removing. When of three or four weeks' 
growth they must be thinned to about ten 
inches apart ; for if not allowed room, they 
spindle, their leaves decay, no lateral branches 
are thrown out, and their seed is not good. 
To prevent these bad effiects, in every stage of 
growth, they require to be kept clear of weeds. 
The leaves are fit for gathering as wanted, and 
the umbels about July and August. In Sep- 
tember their seed ripens, when the umbels 
must be immediately cut and spread on a 
cloth to dry, as the seed is very apt to scatter. 
A volatile oil and a distilled water are pro- 
cured from the seeds. Both are used as car- 
minatives ; the water is a good vehicle for 
powders prescribed for children. (G. W. 
Johnson's Kitch. Garden.) The kindred species 
called sweet fennel (jjnethum faniculuni) is by 
far the most esteemed. See Fennel. 

Dill. A name sometimes given to the two- 
seeded tare, a species of large vetch. 

DINDLES. A provincial word applied to 
the common and corn sow-thistles, as well as 
to the taller hawk-weed. 

DINGLE (from the Sax. oen, or »in, a hol- 
low). A small clough or valley between two 
steep hills. 

DISEASES OF CATTLE. See Sheep, 
Horses, and Cattle. 

DISHLEY BREED. This name, applied to 
certain well-known breeds of cattle, and espe- 
cially sheep, is derived from the title of the 
paternal estate of the celebrated Robert Bake- 
well. The Dishley, is, therefore, synonymous 
with the Bakewell breed. 

The name of this celebrated original im- 
prover of stock is too intimately associated 
with the history of a great agricultural interest, 
to be passed over without some particular no- 
tice. 

Robert Bakewell was born about the year 
1725, on his paternal estate at Dishley, in Lei- 
cestershire, and died there, October 1st, 1795. 
Though it does not appear that he contributed 
408 



any thing to literature, even on the subjects to 
which he devoted his life, yet his eflTorts, par- 
ticularly to improve the breed of sheep, justly 
procured for him a widely extended reputation. 
The cross breed which he introduced is well 
known as the Dishley, or new Leicestershire 
breed. He is to be distinguished from a Mr. 
Robert Bakewell, who, in 1808, published 
Observations on Wool, with notes, by Lord So- 
merville. (Penny Cyclop. ; Gent. Mag. vol. Ixv. 
p. 969.) Of his cattle, Arthur Young remark- 
ed, in 1783 (and Young was no flatterer), when 
speaking of another excellent farmer — "His 
cattle are of Bakewell's breed, which is giving 
them sufficient praise." {Ann. vol. ii. p. 156.) 
And in the same volume, p. 379, when noticing 
his breed of sheep, he says, " I have not a 
doubt that it is, without any exception, the 
first in the world." To attain this excellence 
Bakewell devoted himself, travelling in search 
of stock to breed from, not only over England, 
but into Ireland and Holland. In 1787 his 
fame enabled him to reap some reward for 
these labours ; for in that year he let three 
rams for 1250^., and was offered 1050/. for 
twenty ewes. The principles which guided 
him in the breeding of stock are given, in Ann. 
of Agr,, vol. vi. p. 466, by Arthur Young, who 
twice visited him at Dishley. He kept con- 
stantly in view, in all his exertions, these ob- 
jects — the most meat from the least food — the 
least offal, and the size of the best joints. He 
thought, it seems, that the pale-coloured beasts 
yielded finer meat than the dark ones : he was 
one of the first who generally introduced the 
practice of feeling stock under examination; 
not but what it was a practice partially adopt- 
ed, even in the days of old Holinshed. Young 
describes, vol. viii. p. 473, the Dishley sheep, 
and Bakewell's neat cattle at p. 486, which 
were, perhaps, the finest of his day ; and then 
his great heavy black cart horses, speaking of 
them as " by far the finest I have seen of that 
breed." Bakewell did much, too, in the con- 
struction of water-meadows (Ibicl. p. 490), and 
it is evident from his variotis observations re- 
ported by Young, that he was an enlightened 
and successful agriculturist, as Well as breeder. 
The Dishley sheep have long been celebrated 
for their aptness to fatten, their quietude, and 
the smallness of their bones — they will long 
hand down the name of Bakewell as one of the 
farmer's best benefactors. Bakewell made no 
secret of his modes of improving stock, and 
rarely, if ever, entered into controversies with 
rival breeders. He wrote nothing himself, and 
the first scientific work on the subject was 
written by George CuUej^ in 1792, who formed 
himself on Bakewell's model. The examples 
of opulent and spirited proprietors have since 
continued to spread the improvements com- 
menced by Bakewell, and followed up by Culley, 
Collins, Kline, and others too numerous to 
mention. 

DISTEMPER is frequently used in the same 
sense as disease, but is particularly applied to 
cattle. In racing stables it is the distinguish- 
ing names for epidemic catarrh or influenza 
in horses. Bleeding in the early stage is re- 
commended, and it is important that the bowels 
should be evacuated, and sedative medicines 



DITCH. 



DOG. 



given. {The Horse, p. 189.) In dogs distemper 
is one of the most fatal diseases ; a little emetic 
powder (3 grains of tartar emetic and 1 grain 
of opium) is recommended to be given {Clater's 
Far. p. 392), followed by a dose once a day of 
4, 5, or 6 grains of Turpith's mineral. 

DITCH (Sax. Die). A trench cut in the 
ground, usually round the fences of a field. 
Trenches of this kind are formed differently in 
various localities, but they should always be 
made so as to keep the water in them as pure 
as possible. 

DIURETICS. In farriery, such remedies as 
nave the power of forcing urine, that is, of 
stimulating the kidneys to a moderate degree, 
so as to augment their secreting power. Nitre, 
iodide of potassium, turpentine, cubebs, and 
juniper are diuretics. See Ball. 

DOCK (Ilumex). A large genus of peren- 
nial plants, of which ten are natives of Eng- 
land. The bloody-veined dock (R. sanguineus) 
has already been described under the head 
Bloodwort. The curled dock (R. crispus), a 
very troublesome and unprofitable weed, 
abounds in waste grounds, pastures, and by 
road-sides ; root tapering, yellowish stem, two 
or three feet high, somewhat zigzag; leaves 
smooth, of a lightish green ; clusters of nume- 
rous rather crowded tufts or whorls of drooping 
pale green flowers. The sharp dock (R. acutus) 
is also not uncommon in low meadows and 
watery places. Root blackish and rather slen- 
der. The broad-leaved dock {R. obtusifoUus) is 
a rank and very troublesome weed, common 
everywhere, which can only be conquered by 
sttabbing up the root. Mowing is to little pur- 
pose ; stems a yard high ; root black ; many 
headed; yellowish within. The other docks 
are the golden dock {R. maritimus), the yellow 
marsh dock (R. palustris), and the great water 
dock {R. Hydrolapathmn). (Eng. Flor. vol. ii. p. 
190.) All these docks are purgatives, and 
may be used instead of rhubarb. A decoction 
made with an ounce of the root of Runiex obtu- 
sifoUus and a quart of water, reduced by boil- 
ing to a pint, then strained and sweetened, is a 
valuable remedy in that peculiar cutaneous 
affection called fish-skin disease (Ichthyosus). 

Dock. A term signifying to trim the but- 
tocks, &c. of sheep. 

DOCKING. In farriery, the art of cutting 

off the tails of horses ; and for a description 

of which see The Horse (Lib. Use. Know., p. 327). 

DODDED SHEEP. Such as are without 

horns. 

DODDER (Cuscuta Europcea). PI. 10, e. The 
name of a species of bird-weed, which is not 
very commonly met with. This curious plant 
is unlike all others in appearance, having no 
leaves. The thread-shaped, red, or purple 
stalks, twining about other plants, headed with 
small reddish flowers, are easily to be recog- 
nised ; they grow upon heaths and commons, 
intersecting the furze and nettles, and twisting 
themselves round every thing they can meet 
with. The common people, who speak truly, 
but not in courtly terms, call it devil's-guts and 
hell-weed, because it does great damage among 
their tares and flax. The lesser dodder (C. epi- 
thymum) is of a similar habit, but smaller than 
the preceding. 

52 



This is the curious creeping plant or vme 
which was formerly so frequent and injurious 
to flax-crops in the United States, often en- 
tangling and spoiling whole lots of it ; but since 
the culture of flax has so much diminished, 
dodder has become rare. 

The American Cuscuta, Dodder, or Love-Vine, is 
also a singular parasite, which seizes upon any 
herbaceous plant which may be within its 
reach ; but it is most commonly found in lo- 
calities where the snap-weed, spearmint, and 
false-nettle occur. Its thread-like naked stems 
have some resemblance to brass, or copper- 
wire, and twine constantly against the apparent 
course of the sun, — or west, south, east. (Flor, 
Cestrica.) 

DOE. In the technical language of the 
hunter, the female of the buck or fallow deer. 
The female of the red deer is called a hind. 

DOG (Lat. Canis). An extensive genus of 
animals, consisting of more than thirty species, 
of which that most generally known is the do- 
mestic dog (C. farmliaris). The arrangement 
of M. Cuvier classes the dogs of the present 
day into three groups, dogs properly so called, 
wolves, and jackals. It will be suflicient for our 
present purpose to speak of the dogs under 
three heads : 1. Farm dogs ; 2. Hunting dogs ; 
3. Shooting dogs. The first includes the shep- 
herd's dog, the mastiff, and the bull-dog. The 
second, the terrier, the hound, the harrier, the 
beagle, and the greyhound. The third class 
includes the pointer, the setter, and the spaniel. 
All these will be found noticed under their se- 
parate heads. That ingenious naturalist Mr. 
James Wilson has entered into the question of 
the origin of our domestic breed of dogs. 
(Quart. Journ. of Jgr. vol. vii. p. 539 — 681.) 
Col. Hamilton Smith has also taken up the 
natural history of dogs. (Naturalist's Lib. vols. 
XXV. xxvi. See a notice in the Quart. Journ. 
of Jgr. vol. ii. p. 511.) All zoologists agree 
that there is no trace of the dog to be found in 
its primitive state of nature, although wild dogs 
exist in India and America. The great atfinity 
to the wolf, and the period of gestation being 
the same, have led some to believe that the 
wolf is the original dog. The two animals will 
breed together ; the young of both are born 
blind, and at the expiration of the same time, 
namely, 10 or 12 days, the puppies of both ac- 
quire the power of vision. But one fact ren- 
ders this supposition at least doubtful, — none 
of the wild dogs, living in a state of nature, 
have ever returned to the true form of the wolf. 
The minute examination of this question, how- 
ever, would be out of place in this publication. 
In all the varieties of the dog, the following 
circumstances in his ecanomy are constant: 
he is born with his eyes closed, he opens them 
on the 10th or 12th day; his teeth commence 
changing in the fourth month ; and his full 
growth is attained at the expiration of the se- 
cond year. The period of gestation is 63 days, 
and from 6 to 12 pups are produced at a birth. 
The dog is old at 15 years, and seldom lives 
beyond 20 ; his vigilance and bark are univer- 
sally known. The dog is liable to so many 
diseases, that to treat of them here would be 
impossible. Amang the principal are the dis- 
temper, rabies, canker in the ear, the mange 
2M 409 



DOG BRAMBLE. 



DOGWOOD. 



diseases of the eyes, fits, diarrhoea, &c., all of 
which are treated of under their several heads. 

In England, the shepherd's dog (C, fam. do- 
mesticus, Lin.) offers the example of one of the 
purest races of this domesticated animal, and 
tliat which, in its straight ears, its hair and 
tail, approaches nearest to the original stock. 
The sagacity of this variety in the peculiar 
department in which his services are rendered 
to man is well known, and has been illustrated 
by a hundred interesting anecdotes. It is a 
curious fact, that the brain of the shepherd's 
dog is larger than that of any other of the race; 
but how far this is connected with his sagacity 
we shall not pretend to affirm. Notwithstand- 
ing the great variations in size met with in the 
pasture or shepherd's dog, in different coun- 
tries of the globe (for he is probably the most 
extensively diffused of the race), yet he every- 
where preserves some personal characteristics, 
which mark his adherence to the original type 
in a greater degree than in any other breed 
over which man has so arbitrarily exercised 
his dominion. One of these characteristics is 
his quantity of covering, which is invariably 
great, particularly about the neck. The large 
drover's dog, which attends the beast-markets, 
is larger, and usually of a stronger build than 
the sheep-dog. The sagacious colly of Scot- 
land is a dog deservedly prized, though much 
smaller than either the English sheep-dog or 
the drover's cattle-dog. The ears are never 
wholly pendent in any of the race ; but in the 
British varieties, and many others also, they 
are half-erected, or half-pricked, as it is called. 
The prevailing colour is very generally gray, 
more or less dark ; the tail is bushy, somewhat 
pendent, and recurved; visage more or less 
pointed. 

DOG BRAMBLE (Ribes cynosbati). One of 
a valuable genus of plants, which contains the 
gooseberry and the currant: some of the spe- 
cies are well suited for ornamenting shrubbe- 
ries. They will grow in any soil, propagated 
by cuttings planted in autumn, or early in 
spring. 

DOG-BRIER and DOG-ROSE {Rosa canina). 
The wild brier bearing the hip or hep. 

DOG-DAYS, or CANICULAR DAYS. The 
name given to certain days of the year, during 
which the heat is usually the greatest. They 
are reckoned about forty, and are set down in 
the almanacs as beginning on the 3d July, and 
ending on the 11th August. In the time of the 
ancient astronomers, the remarkable star Si- 
rius, called also canicular, or the dog-star, rose 
heliacally, that is, just before the sun, about 
the beginning of July; and the sultry heat 
which usually prevails at that season, with all 
its disagreeable effects, among which the ten- 
dency of dogs to become rabid is not one of 
the least disagreeable, were ascribed to the 
malignant rage of this star. Owing to the pre- 
cession of the equinoxes, the heliacal rising of 
Sirius now takes place later in the year, and 
m a cooler season ; so that the dog-days have 
not now that relation to the particular position 
of the dog-star, from which they obtained their 
name. 

DOG -FENNEL. One of the provincial 
names of the weed corn-camomile. 
410 



DOG-FLY {Cynomia, Lin.). A genus of 
insects common in woods and among bushes, 
that is particularly troublesome to dogs, fasten- 
ing upon their head and ears. They sting very 
severely, and always raise a blister in the part 
they touch. 

DOG POISON, FOOL'S PARSLEY [JEthu. 
sa cynapium). PI. 10, q. An umbelliferous 
plant, frequently found in gardens. It is easily 
distinguished from the other umbellifera by 
the partial umbels, consisting of three narrow, 
long, linear leaflets, which hang down. The 
leaves have short sheathing footstalks, are 
doubly pinnate, with decurrent, pinnatifid leaf- 
lets. It has been eaten for parsley, and has 
proved fatal. The stem and leaves are poi- 
sonous, and contain a peculiar alkali, called 
cy7iapia. 

DOG'S-BANE {Cynanchum monspeliacum), A 
perennial, native of Montpelier, which loves 
warmth and a good soil. Blows pale pink 
flowers in July and August. Cover the roots 
in frosts. Propagate by suckers. 

A plant under the same popular name is 
described by Dr. Darlington, as found in 
Chester county, Pennsylvania. (Flor. Cest.) 

DOG'S CABBAGE {Thdygonum cynobrambe). 
A common garden soil suits this species ; pro- 
pagate by seeds. 

DOG'S GRASS. See Couch. 

DOG'S TAIL GRASS. See Ctnosurus. 

DOG'S TONGUE {Cynoglossum). See 
Hound's-tonoue. 

DOG'S TOOTH GRASS, CREEPING (Cy- 
nodon dactylon). PI. 7, k. This grass was 
identified by A. R. Lambert, Esq. (Trans. Linn, 
Soc. vol. vi.) as the celebrated hallowed doob- 
grass of the Hindoos. In the East Indies this 
grass grows luxuriantly, and is highly valued 
as food for horses, &c. ; in England, however, 
it scarcely begins to vegetate till the month of 
June, and experiments made by Sinclair and 
others show that its produce and nutritive 
powers here are not sufficiently great to hold 
out any hope that its valuable properties in the 
East Indies can be made available in the 
climate and soil of Britain. The doob-grass 
flowers in September, and the seed is ripe 
about the end of October, and sometimes in 
November. The plants, natives of the English 
coasts, flower about a month earlier than the 
above. It is found on the sandy shores of 
Cornwall abundantly, and was first noticed by 
Mr. Newton, in the time of Ray. (Hort. Gram. 
Wob. p. 290 ; Evg. Flor. vol. i. p. 94.) 

DOG-WHEAT. See Couch. 

DOGWOOD. A name applied to^wo differ- 
ent plants: in England to any of the shrubby 
species of Cornus ; in the West Indies to the 
Piscidia erythrina. The former are of little 
interest, except as ornamental shrubs ; the 
latter is a powerful narcotic, the real value of 
which in medicine has still to be determined. 

There are two indigenous species of cornel 
or dogwood ; the C. sanguinea, a bush of four 
or five feet high, with smooth branches of a 
dark red when full grown; fruit dark purple, 
very bitter, like every other part of the plant; 
found common in hedges and thickets, espe- 
cially on a chalk or limestone soil : and the 
dwarf cornel (C. suecica), growing in moist 



I 



DOGWOOD. 



DOLPHIN-FLY. 



alpine pastures, on the herbaceous stem four 
to six inches high. (Eng. Flora, vol. i. p. 221.) 
The English names of this shrub, says Phil- 
lips {Syl. Flora,vol. i. p. 183), are scarcely less 
numerous than the tints of its leaves. It is 
often called female cornel, to distinguish it 
from Cornus mascula, and hound's berry tree, 
dogberry, &c. (because, says Parkinson, the 
fruit is not even fit for the dogs), and hence 
the name of dogwood. 

The Cornelian cherry (Cornus mascula) is a 
native of Austria, growing from fifteen to 
twenty feet high. See ConNELiAN Cherrt. 

The American dogwood {Cormis Florida) is 
a small North American tree, the botanical 
name of which is derived from the horny 
toughness of its close-grained and firm wood. 
It is a very common undergrowth in woods, 
composed of deciduous trees. Very early in 
the spring, before the trees by which they are 
overtopped put ont their leaves, the dogwood 
expands its beautiful white blossoms, and in 
such profusion as sometimes, at a distance, to 
resemble a snow-bank. The wood of this 
small tree is highly prized for a variety of 
useful purposes, among which is the making 
of cogs for mill-wheels. The bark is an ex- 
cellent tonic, thought by some almost equal to 
Peruvian bark in its efficacy in curing inter- 
mittent fevers. A preparation called comine 
has been extracted from it, very much resem- 
bling quinine. The unfolding of the blossoms 
of the dogwood is the signal to the American 
farmers to plant Indian corn. 

"Among the eight species of dogwood which 
have been observed in North America, this 
alone is entitled by its size to be classed with 
the forest trees. It is the most interesting, too, 
for the value of its wood, the properties of its 
bark, and the beauty of its flowers. In the 
United States at large, it is known by the name 
of dogwood, and in Connecticut it is also 
called box wood. 

"The dogwood is first seen in Massachusetts 
between the 42° and 43° of latitude, and in 
proceeding southward, it is met with uninter- 
ruptedly throughout the Eastern and Western 
States, and the two Floridas, to the banks of the 
Mississippi. Over this vast extent of country 
it is one of the most common trees, and it 
abounds particularly in New Jersey, Pennsyl- 
vania, Maryland, and Virginia, wherever the 
soil is moist, gravelly, and somewhat uneven ; 
farther south, in the Carolinas, Georgia, and 
the Floridas, it is found only on the borders of 
swamps, and never in the pine barrens, where 
the soil is too dry and sandy to sustain its 
vegetation. In the most fertile districts of 
Kentucky and West Tennessee it does not 
appear in the forests, except where the soil is 
gravelly and of a middling quality. 

"The dogwood sometimes reaches thirty or 
thirty-five feet in height, and nine or ten inches 
in diameter; but it does not generally exceed 
the height of eighteen or twenty feet," and the 
diameter of four or five inches. The trunk is 
strong, and is covered with a blackish bark, 
chapped into many small portions, which are 
often in the shape of squares more or less 
exact. The branches are proportionally less 
numerous tha n on other trees, and are regu- 



larlji disposed nearly in the form of crosses. 
The young twigs are observed to incline up- 
wards in a semicircular direction. 

"The leaves are opposite, about three inches 
in length, oval, of a dark green above, and 
whitish beneath : the upper surface is very 
distinctly sulcated. Towards the close of 
summer they are often marked with black 
spots, and at the approach of winter they 
change to a dull red. 

" In New York and New Jersey the flowers 
are fully blown about the lOlh or 15th of May, 
while the leaves are only beginning to unfold 
themselves. The flowers are small, yellowish, 
and collected in bunches, which are surround- 
ed with a very large involucre composed of 
four white floral leaves, sometimes inclining 
to violet. This fine involucre constitutes all 
the beauty of the flowers, which are very nu- 
merous, and which, in their season, robe the 
tree in white, like a full blown apple tree, and 
render it one of the fairest ornaments of the 
American forests. 

"The seeds, of a vivid, glossy red, and of an 
oval shape, are always united. They remain 
upon the trees till the first frosts, when, not- 
withstanding their bitterness, they are devour- 
ed by the Robin, Tnrdus migratoriits, which, 
about this period, arrives from the northern 
regions. 

"The wood is hard, compact, heavy, and 
fine-grained, and is susceptible of a brilliant 
polish. The sap is perfectly white, and the 
heart is of a chocolate colour. This tree is 
not large enough for works which require 
pieces of considerable volume : it is used for 
the handles of light tools, such as mallets, 
small vices, &c. In the country, some farmers 
select it for harrow teeth, for the hames of 
horses' collars, and also for lining the runners 
of sledges; but to whatever purpose it is ap- 
plied, being liable to split, it should never be 
wrought till it is perfectly seasoned. The 
shoots, when three or four years old, are found 
proper for the light hoops of small, portable 
casks ; but the consumption in this way is in- 
considerable. In the Middle States, the cogs 
of mill-wheels are made of dogwood, and its 
divergent branches are taken for the yokes 
which are put upon the necks of swine, to 
prevent their breaking into cultivated enclo- 
sures. Such are the profitable uses of this 
tree; it aflbrds also excellent fuel, but it is too 
small to be brought into the markets of the 
cities." {Mirhanx's Nni-th Jlnier. Sylva.) 

DOLPHIN-FLY. The name in England of 
an insect of the aphis tribe, very destructive to 
beans. (See Beans.) It is sometimes called 
the collier. The destruction which this insect 
causes is not wonderful when we reflect on 
the astonishing fecundity of all the aphides 
family. The sexual intercourse of one original 
pair serves for all the generations which pro- 
ceed from the female in the succeeding year; 
and Reaumur informs us, that, in five genera- 
tions, one aphis may be the progenitor of 
5,904,900,000 descendants : in one year there 
may be twenty generations. At one season 
they are viviparous, at others oviparous. The 
dolphin-fly or collier is of a black colour : it 
begins its depredations at the top of the bean , 

411 



DOOB-GRASS. 



DRAINING. 



and continues multiplying downwards. The 
only method of preserving the crop is to top 
the plants, and to burn the tops. 

DOOB-GRASS. See Dog's Tooth Grass. 

DOSS (a corruption of toss). A provincial 
word signifying to strike with the horn or gore 
slightly, as cattle frequently do each other. 

DOVE. A species of pigeon, of which the 
principal varieties are the ring-dove or wood 
pigeon, the stock-dove, the rock-dove, and the 
turtle-dove. See Pigeon. 

DOVE-COTE. A structure usually erected 
of wood for the accommodation and rearing 
of lame pigeons ; the only essential difference 
between which and a common poultry house 
is, that the entrance for the birds must be 
raised to a considerable height from the ground, 
because pigeons fly higher in the atmosphere 
than most other birds. 

The utmost cleanliness ought to prevail in 
pigeon houses, hence the holes should be care- 
fully examined before the breeding season 
arrives. They should be frequently well 
washed out, and the dung and other impurities 
removed ; but this should be done early in the 
day, when the birds are out, so that they may 
not be disturbed. Some old dove-cotes are 
circular buildings, of considerable size, with 
ranges of square holes formed in the anterior 
wall, in which the birds make their nests. 
From this feature in old dove-cotes, the term 
pigeon-holes in desks is arrived. These dove- 
cotes are entered by a door below ; and by 
means of a ladder the young pigeons are easily 
taken from the nests. Many dove-cotes of this 
kind exist in Scotland. (Brande's Did. of 
Science, &c. ; Willich's Dom. Encyc.') 

DOWNS (Sax.wun; Erse, (/w»(e, a hill). In 
European agricultural parlance, large, open, 
elevated, unenclosed tracts of land, generally 
reserved for grazing purposes. 

DOWNY LIME TREE (Tilia pubescens). A 
tree belonging to the southern United States. 
See LiNiiEN, and Limk Tube. 

DOWNY OAT GRASS. See Avena. 

DRAG. An implement of the harrow kind 
used in breaking down and reducing land into 
a fine slate. Also an iron catch to fix on the 
wheels of heavily laden carls or carriages 
when descending steep hills or declivities. 

DRAGON-FLY. A common name for the 
Neuropterous insects belonging to the genus 
Agrion or Lobcllula. 

DRAINING. The very first care of the 
farmer, that on which the success of his future 
crops almost entirely depends, is the removal 
of unnecessary supplies of water — whether 
arising from the tenacity of the surface retain- 
ing too much water, or from springs exuding 
to the surface. For it is evident that as dif^ 
ferent crops require very varying quantities, 
so the cultivator must adapt the moisture of 
the soil to the crops he purposes to produce ; — 
the supply which is necessary, for instance, 
for the profitable growth of the rice plant 
would destroy the meadow grasses of Eng- 
land : — and again the damp soils, of which 
many of the richest meadows of England are 
formed, would be much too moist for the cereal 
crops. The nature of the climate, the soil, and 
Uie subsoil must all be taken into account. 
412 



The plants growing on sandy soils, of course, 
will bear a much larger proportion of water 
than those vegetating on clay soils : — and thus 
the very soil which, in the dry eastern side of 
England, grows excellent crops of corn, would, 
in the western counties, where twice the 
amount of rain falls, on an average, than ir 
the east, be found materially to injur** the 
plants. (See Water, its Uses to Vegetnt.wn.) 
Placed as the farmer is under such a "ariety 
of circumstances, cultivating lands of a^l kinds, 
it is useless, in this article, to attempt to assis: 
him with more than general direction^-. 

The water carried off the soil by artificial 
drainage is either by boring, by open or by 
under-ground drainage, or by both. Boring 
was first recommended by Elkington. It is 
chiefly adapted for low situations, surrounded 
by high lands, and merely consists in boring 
with an auger, or digging a well in the land 
intended to be drained, until a spring of water 
is pierced, whose head is lower than that of the 
surface of the field ; and hence it fallows that 
when the water is suffered to drain into the 
hole made by the auger, or the well, it of ne- 
cessity drains from the land out of the bottom 
of the well, as fast as it flows into it at the top. 
This plan might be profitably employed to a 
much greater extent than at present. When 
combined with surface draining, it saves, by 
shortening the water channels, a considerable 
portion of the expense. 

In open surface drains, the nature of the 
soil, its declinations, and its chemical compo- 
sition can alone guide the farmer. In either 
case too much care can hardly be bestowed 
upon it; it is a question that the legislature 
has deemed to be of even national importance; 
for by the 3 & 4 Vict. c. 5.5, landowners pos- 
sessing only limited interests in estates are 
empowered to raise money, by way of mort- 
gage, on such property, to be employed for the 
purposes of improving them by drainage; and 
the government has promoted the use of drain 
tiles by exempting them from duty. I shall 
confine my observations, therefore, chiefly to 
the formation of under-drains. These common 
ly vary in depth from 2^ to 4 feet; and, in peat 
soils, on account of the very material settling 
which takes place, as they are brought into 
cultivation, from this to 6 or 7 feet. The first 
operation necessary upon a field intended to 
be drained, is the examination of the strata, 
or veins of earth of which it is composed; 
and this is commonly effected with the boring 
auger, or by digging small pits, or open drains, 
as by this means the oozings or weepings will 
speedily display themselves, and indicate pretty 
correctly the source whence the superabun- 
dant water proceeds. This being ascertained, 
the direction of the under-drains will be the 
more easily decided. If the soil is of such a 
description that the subsoil plough can be used 
with advantage, then the top of the stones, 
bricks, or tiles by which the drain is formed 
and preserved, should not be less than 2^ feet 
from the surface of the soil. In the formation 
of these drains the workman always com 
mences on the lowest extremity; by this means 
besides other advantages, the water, as he ar- 
rives at it, drains away from him, and shows 



DRAINING. 



DRAINING. 



him, by its escape, that he is preserving a 
proper fall. When the drain is cut to the 
requisite depth, he proceeds to fill it up with 
the materials through which the drainage wa- 
ters are to flow, to within such a distance only 
as is out of the reach of the plough ; and then 
the earth is shovelled back again over the 
drainage materials. The description of these 
materials, of necessity, varies with the nature 
of the country and its produce ; in Essex, 
brushwood and straw are chiefly employed ; 
in the northern parts of the island, stones, 
broken lime, or sandstone are used. Bricks 
and tiles are resorted to in districts where 
cheaper materials are not to be procured; and 
these are made in a variety of forms ; and re- 
cently one or two valuable improvements have 
taken place in the construction of them by 
machinery; so that, by those of the Marquis 
of Tweeddale and Mr. Beart, draining tiles are 
now made at a very reduced price. Upon tile- 
making, in general, there is a good paper by 
Mr. Wiggins, Jonrn. Roy. jlgr. Soc. vol. i. p. 315. 
The tiles of the Marquis of Tweeddale are 
described Trans. High. Soc, vol. vi. p. 50, and 
Journ. Eoy. Ji;r. Soc. vol. ii. p. 148; and those 
of Mr. Beart, with engravings of his machine, 
in the Joum. of the Roy. Eng. Jlgr. Soc. vol. ii. p. 
93 ; by which it seems that in Huntingdonshire 
the cost of the tiles made by his apparatus is 
about 15s. per 1000: this varies, of course, 
with the price of coals, of which variation Mr. 
Pusey has constructed the following table. 



Price of coals 


Making the tiles at the proprietor's 


Selling price 


per Ion. 


yard, per 1000 


per 1000. 


f. d. 


». 


, 


6 


li 


18 


9 6 


12 


19 


13 


13 


20 


16 6 


14 


21 


20 


15 


22 


23 6 


16 


23 


27 


17 


24 


30 6 


18 


25 




These are commonly used with the flat or 
sole tiles, which cost, in Huntingdonshire, from 
8s. to 10s. per 1000. The clay best adapted 
for tiles is that which contains a small pro- 
portion of sand, or sand may be mixed 
with the clay. The an- 
nexed cut gives the shape 
of the Tweeddale patent 
drain tile. It is common- 
ly made 3 inches deep, 3^ 
wide, and about 12 in 
'Win length. 

The subject of under-draining is, compara- 
tively, so little understood in the United States, 
and its importance so great, that we are in- 
duced to subjoin the following additional 
information, chiefly condensed from that ex- 
cellent work " The Book of the Farm, by H. Ste- 
phens" now publishing in Edinburgh. 

The dimensions of tile-drains, depends entirely 
on the way these are to be constructed. If the 
bottom be hard and no soles are to be placed 
under the tiles, the drain may be cut narrower; 
and if nothing else but tile and sole are to be 
put into them before the earth is returned, 
they may be shallower. In regard to the em- 
ployment of soles where the drain has a clay 
boi'tom, Mr. Stephens is strenuous in his as- 



sertions that they are always necessary. What 
ever may be the nature of the earthy bottom 
to be occupied by the tiles, these should always 
have soles, or something equivalent, to protect 
the earth from the destructive effects of water 

Where soles are employed their icidth must deter 
mine the width of the bottom of the drain. As yet 
no regular width has been agreed upon gene- 
rally, though it would be a matter of some im- 
portance to have this done. The breadth of 
soles made in the neighbourhood of Kilmar- 
nock, at the tile-kilns belonging to the Duke of 
Portland in Ayrshire, as well as those made by 
Mr. Boyle, tile-maker in Ayr, is 7 inches ; and 
this breadth is made to answer tiles varying 
from 4 to 3 inches in width, inside measure. 
For a 4-inch tile, a narrower width than 7 
inches M'ould not answer; as the tile is | of 
an inch thick, only | of an inch is left beyond 
each side of the tile when placed on the sole, 
which is as little space as it can stand on secure- 
ly. For the smaller sized tile of 3 inches, the 
width IS ample ; but still, it is no disadvantage 
to a tile to have plenty of room on a sole, as 
its position can easily be fixed by wedging in 
stones on each side against the walls of the 
drain, when stones are used above the tiles ; 
or it leaves sufficient room for a lapping of 
turf over, and wedging of earth on each side 
of, the top of the tile. In the case of a 5-inch- 
wide drain at bottom, the smallest size of tile, 
2^ inches wide inside, must be used, as only | 
of an inch would be left on each side of that 
width of tile. 

Soles are usually made flat, but Mr. Boyle 
makes them curved; not because they are bet- 
ter suited for the purpose, but merely because 
they are more easily dried in the sheds ; but a 
curved sole is objectionable, as it is more diffi- 
cult to form a smooth bed for it to lie upon, 
and it is more apt to break when it happens 
not to be firmly laid upon its bed than a flat 
sole. 

As to tiles, their perfect form is thus well de- 
scribed by Mr. Boyle: "All tiles should be a 
fourth higher than wide; the top rather quickly 
turned, and the sides nearly perpendicular. 
Tiles which are made to spread out at the 
lower edge and flat on the top, are weak, and 
bad for conveying water. Some people prefer 
tiles with flanges instead of soles; but if 
placed, even in a drain with a considerably 
hard bottom, the mouldering of the subsoil by 
the currents of air and water causes them to 
sink and get deranged." Tiles should be 
smooth on the surface, heavy, firm, and ring 
like cast-iron when struck with the knuckle. 
They should be so strong when set, as to allow 
a man not only to stand, but to leap upon them 
without breaking. The introduction of ma- 
chinery in the manufacture of drain-tiles, by 
compressing the clay, and working it tho- 
roughly in a pug-mill to prepare it for being 
compressed, has greatly tended to increase the 
strength of tiles. I have seen drain-tiles so 
rough, spongy, crooked, and thin, as to be shi- 
vered to pieces by a night's frost when laid 
down beside the drain. The use of machinery 
has caused a great deal more clay to be put into 
them, and their greater substance has been the 
cause of improvement in the construction of 
2x2 113 



DRAINING. 

kilns, in which they are now burned to a uni- 
form texture, as well as some avoidance of 
breakage in the manufacture, by all which, of 
course, their cost is lessened. An under-burnt 
as well as an over-burnt tile is bad, the former 
being spongy and absorbing water, and ulti- 
mately falling down ; and the latter is so brit- 
tle as to break when accidentally struck 
against any object. 

The length of drain-tiles varies in different 
parts of "the country. Mr. Boyle's are 13 
inches; the Duke of Portland's, in Ayrshire, 
and Mr. Beart's Godmanchester, Hertfordshire, 
12 inches ; and those from the Marquis of 
Tweeddale's machine, 14 inches, when burnt. 
If the price is the same per 1000, of course the 
14-inch tile is cheaper than the 12-inch; but 
otherwise, the 12-inch is the handiest article 
in the manufacture, as being less apt to waste 
in handling, and twist when in the kiln ; and 
their number is much more easily calculated 



DRAINING. 



in any given length of drain. The following 
table shows the number of tiles required for 
an imperial acre, of the different lengths made, 
and placed at the stated distances : 

Drains at 12 in. 13 in. 14 in. 15 in. 

12 feet apart require 3630 3351 3111 2904 per acre. 

15 — 2904 2681 2489 2323 — 

18 — 2420 2234 2074 1936 — 

21 — ii074 1914 1777 1659 — 

24 — 1815 1675 ir.56 1452 — 

27 — 1613 1480 1383 1291 — 

30 — 1452 1340 1245 1162 — 

33 — 1320 1218 1131 1056 — 

36 — 1210 1117 1037 908 — 

The numbers of each length of tile required at 
intermediate distances can easil)'^be calculated 
from these data. 

A representation of what Mr. Stephens con- 
siders the best formed drain-tile, and the man- 
ner of setting this on the soles, is given in a 
cut, where a, and 6, are two 12-inch tiles, of 
the most correct shape, placed upon the sole- 
tiles, c. 




The length of the tiles and soles being equal, 
their joinings are made in the middle of the 
soles, and this course is to be continued 
throughout. It is the practice of some tile- 
drainers, Mr. Stephens observes, to put a ^ 
inch sole under every joining of 2 tiles, leaving 
the intermediate space of the bottom without 
any sole, imagining that this will insure suffi- 
cient steadiness to tiles on what they call hard 
clay, whilst only half the number of soles are 
used. But this he pronounces a precarious 
practice. 

In making the side-joinings of the tiles it has 
been usual to break a piece of the corner of 1 
or 2 main-drain tiles, where side-drains are led 
into them. In breaking off the corners, there 
is a risk of breaking the entire tile. Another 
plan is to set 2 main-drain tiles so far asunder 
as the inside width of a common-drain-tile, and 
the opening on the other side of the tiles, if 
not occupied in the same manner by the tiles 
of another drain, is filled up with pieces of 
broken tiles or stones, or p.ny other hard 
substance. This is perhaps a better plan than 
running the risk of breaking a number of tiles, 
and, after all, failing in making the opening 
suitable for the reception of the adjoining 
drain tiles. Both plans, however, Mr. Ste- 
phens pronounces very objectionable, and 
never to be resorted to where tiles, formed for 
the purpose of receiving others in their sides 
can be procured. Main-drain tiles of this de- 
scription are made with openings on purpose 
to receive the shouldered end of the smaller 
sized side-drain tiles- To answer a similar 
purpose in particular situations where such 
tiles cannot be conveniently joined, main and 
furrow or side-drain tiles are made of ^ and i 
lengths, which may be so arranged in regard 
to one another's position, as to conjoin the 
openings of both at the same place. 

The junction of a common tile with a main- 
irain one is represented in the following cut, 
414 



in which b represents the common tile, and a, 
the opening in the main-drain tile. 




Mr. Stephens says there should be always a 
decided fall from the outlet, whether it be af- 
fected by natural or artificial means. The 
open ditch into which the main-drain issues 
should be scoured deep enough for the pur- 
pose, even for a considerable distance ; and it 
will moreover be necessary to see every year 
that the outlet is kept open ; and the ditch 
scoured as often as necessary for the purpose. 

It is, says Mr. Stephens, a frequent charge 
of neglect against farmers, that they allow 
open ditches almost to fill up before they are 
again scoured out, and a not unfrequenl ex- 
cuse for the neglect is, that scouring of ditches 
to any extent incur considerable labour and 
expense. No doubt the)^ do, and no wonder, 
since so much work has to be done, when it is 
done. Were the ditches scoured out when 
they actually required it, nay every year, if 
that is found necessary for the welfare of 
stock, fences, or drains, so little expense would 
be incurred at one time, as to remove every 
complaint against the labour as a burden; but 
much better, in every case where it can be 
done, to incur the expense at once of convert- 
ing an open ditch into a covered drain, than 
grudge the expense of keeping it in a proper 
state. 

Should the fall from the mouth of the main- 



DRAINING. 



DRAINING. 



drain to a river be too small, and there be risk, 
at times, of the overflowings of the river send- 
ing back-water into the drain, the drain should 
be carried down as far by the side of the river 
as will secure a sufficient fall for the outlet. 
Rather be at the expense of carrying the drain 
tmder a mill-course or rivulet than permit back- 
water toenter it. 

A spirit level 
(see cut) has been 
found a very con- 
venient instru- 
ment for ascer- 
taining such a 
point, and gene- 
rally for taking 
levels in fields. It 
is furnished with 
eye-sights a b, and 
when in use is 
placed into a 
framing of brass, 
which operates as 
a spring to adjust 
it to the level po- 
sition d, by the 
action of the large 
headed brass 

screw c. A stud 
is affixed to the 
framing, and 

pushed firmly 
into a gimblet- 
hole in the top 
of the short rod 
€, which is pushed 
or driven into the 
ground at the spot from whence the level 
is desired to be ascertained. It need scarce- 
ly be mentioned that the height of the eye- 
sight from the ground is to be deducted 
from the height of observation, and which 
quantity is easily obtained by having the rod 
marked off" in inches and feet; but it may be 
mentioned that this instrument should be used 
in all cases of draining on level ground, even 
where one is confident that he knows the fall 
of the ground, for the eye is a very deceitful 
monitor for informing you of the levelness of 
ground. Such a spirit level, well finished, 
costs in England, 15 shillings, (about §4). Its 
whole length is 8 inches, depth 1| inches, 
width or breadth, 1 inch. It is so light as to 
admit of being carried in the pocket, whilst its 
rod may be used as a staflT or cane. 

The cutting of the main-drain should be en- 
tirely finished before the tiles are laid in it; and 
immediately after it is finished, it should be 
measured with the drain-guage, to ascertain 
whether it contains the specified dimensions 
and fall. This drain-guage is an excellent sub- 
stitute for the tape-line or foot-rule, which are 
both inconvenient for the purpose of measur- 
ing the dimensions of a drain. This simple 
instrument consists of a rod divided into feet 
and inches, with two arms fixed cross-wise, the 
length of which is to correspond with the re- 
quired width of the drain. When this rod is put 
down to ascertain the depth, it is afterwards 
turned partially round, whilst its end rests on 
♦he bottom of the drain , until the ends of its arms 




touch the earth on both sides. If the arms can- 
not come round square to the sides of the drain, 
the drain is narrower than intended ; and if 
they cannot touch both sides, it is wider than 
necessary. When made larger than intended, 
a greater expense may be incurred in filling up 
with stones, &c. 

The person intrusted with the laying of the 
soles and tiles into drains, should be one who 
has been long accustomed to that kind of work, 
or otherwise a good workman, possessing judg- 
ment and common sense. He should remain 
constantly at the bottom of the drain and have 
a boy or other assistant to hand him the tiles 
and tools. After laying three soles in length, 
he must examine to see if they are straight in 
the face, and neither rise nor fall more than the 
fall in the drain. As a safe guide to him, where 
the fall is not decidedly cognisable by the 
senses, a mason's plumb-level will be found a 
convenient instrument. After three soles are 
thus placed, two tiles are set upon them, being 
so placed that their joinings shall meet on the 
intermediate spaces between the joinings of the 
soles. 

The tiles for small drains are usually made, 
according to Mr. Stephens, about 3 inches 
wide and 5 inches high, inside measurement, 
which may be considered a large tile in places 
where those of 2| inches wide by 3A inches 
high are used. The soles for small drains are 
made of different breadths, varying from 5 to 7 
inches. They usually shrink about one-eighth 
in the kiln. 

Several ingenious and efficient machines 
have been invented in Great Britain, which 
have greatly facilitated the manufacture of 
drain tiles and soles, and reduced their cost to 
the very moderate prices stated in the esti- 
mates presented. In the 12th volume of the 
Prize Essays and Transactions of the Highland 
^gricultiiral Society, descriptions of some of 
these will be found, illustrated with drawings. 
That invented by the Marquis of Tweeddale, 
and for which a gold medal was awarded him, 
will make 12,000 tiles in a day of ten hours, 
it being understood that the clay is previously 
prepared and milled, as in the common way, 
when three or even four men can only produce 
1500 tiles in the same time. The machine re- 
quires a power only equal to one horse, and the 
assistance of one man and two boys, one of 
these to feed in the clay and two to remove the 
tiles to the shelves. 

The Essays, in the same volume, of Mr. 
Boyle and Mr. Taylor, upon the manufacture 
of draining tiles are well worth the attention 
of persons particularly interested in the sub- 
ject, as they not only treat of the minutiae 
of the operations, but are illustrated with 
very numerous figures of the implements, 
mode of placing the tiles in the furnace, 
&c., &c. 

Much capital has been wasted in the erection 
of tile-works, by those who have not at first 
known the best modes of proceeding, and em- 
ployed men to manage them who knew little 
about the processes. Like most other kinds 
of business, tile-making and baking require a 
regular apprenticeship, in order to succeed 
properly. As the machine of Mr. Beart hai 

415 



DRAINING. 

oeen highly approved of in Scotland, and seems 
so simple in its construction and mode of ma- 
nagement, we think it perhaps better adapted 
to common purposes than the more formidable 
contrivance of the Marquis of Tweeddale. A 
description and cut of the instrument, by which 
3000 tiles can be made in a day, with an ex- 
planation of the mode in which it is managed, 
will also be found in the 12th volume of the 
work to which we have just referred. 

Mr. Stephens thinks that the very best me- 
thod of draining land, is by the unmi of stones 
and tiles in the same drain. The width of the 
bottom of the drain covered with the sole, may 
be 7 inches ; width at the top 12 inches ; total 
depth 2^ feet, consisting of the drain-tile and 
covering of stones, packed with the hand 
above and on each side, extending 12 inches 
above the sole, leaving 18 inches to be filled in 
with turf and earth. Such a drain, when properly 
constructed, is pronounced the ne plus ultra of 
the art. But it is seldom done, either for 
want of the necessary supply of stones of the 
proper size, or the additional expense in- 
curred. 

Judge Buel was among the first who em- 
ployed tiles in draining in the United Slates, 
being, he says, led to it by necessity, having no 
stone. He has laid some 10,000 feet of tiles, at 
an expense of about $15 per 1000 feet, and 
found them to answer an excellent purpose. 
Dr. J. J. Spencer, of Moorestown, New Jersey, 
has also drained a piece of low ground by 
means of tiles, and can now drive carts, plough 
and raise heavy crops of Indian corn, «&c., 
where before there was a useless, unsightly, 
and unhealthy morass. 

In general, under-drains may be dug no 
broader than is just necessary to afford room 
to work in, the sides being left straight or per- 
pendicular. The ditch should be commenced 
at the lowest end or outlet, and opened up to 
higher ground. Where stones are employed 
either as a conduit at the bottom, or to form the 
drain of themselves, they should be broken to 
so small a size, that moles or ground-mice can- 
not penetrate among them, as they are very 
much inclined to do, opening holes through 
which the surface water enters, mixed with 
clay and earth, by which the interstices of the 
drain will be ultimately choked up. Judge 
Buel recommends the stone to be broken so 
as not to exceed 4 inch pieces. The expense 
of doing this, he says, will not be more than 
25 or 30 cts. the cubic yard. 

The use of draining tiles is evidently on the 
increase, and every improvement which is 
made in them naturally extends their field of 
usefulness ; they are by far the most perma- 
nent and effective of all the materials used 
for draining land. Of drain- 
ing bricks there are various 
shapes; the annexed figures 
represent a few of the most 
common, and the mode of 
placing them. 

In fig. 1 and la, 84 bricks are required for 
every eight yards. In fig. 2, 55 bricks are re- 
quired for every eight yards. In fig. 3, 110 
bricks are required for every eight yards. Figs. 
416 




DRAINING. 

4 and 5 have been found very useful in the 
drainage of peat-bogs or quicksands. They 




are all, however, for most purposes inferior to 
the draining tile. 

In the formation of drains, a shovel taper- 
ing to a point, and scoops of a peculiar shape, 
are commonly used. These are represented 



\ 




in the figures 6, 7, 8. The old-fashioned way 
of forming a drain is depicted in figures 9 and 





10; in these the bottom of the drain was filled 
up partially with brushwood, stones, long ropes 
of twisted straw, others of ling or heath, which 
arc much more tough and permanent. The 
expense of digging and filling in any of the 
above drains (exclusive of the brushwood or 
other materials) varies from 4s. &d. to 5s. 6rf. 
per score rods (120 yards local measure). The 
expense per acre will be, according to Mr. S. 
Taylor {Brit. Farm. Mag. vol. ii. p. 359), 

£ s. d. 
If the drains are 8 yards distant 1 13 9 



7 


_ 




1 


17 


6 


6 


— 


— 


2 








5^ 


— 


— 


2 


5 





5 





— 


3 


8 


9 


4 


— 


— 


9 


17 


6 




Di-ill Hopper 
tor Bono Dust 



DRAINING. 



DRAINING. 




In many situations, where a spring is to be 
reached, it is very de- 
sirable to form a well 
by the side of the drain, 
according to the annexed 
outline. (Trans. High. 
Soc. vol. i. p. 223.) A 
very common modern 
mode of constructing 
the drain is according to ihe form 
in flg. 12. Loose mould or gravel 
is placed at the top to the depth of 
1 foot. Sod, straw, heath, or rushes 
4 inches; and then land stones 1 
foot 8 inches thick surround the 
draining tiles. 
The drain tiles, bricks, or other materials, 
are covered with any porous material that the 
locality affords. Stones, gravel, scoria, refuse 
of the foundries, ashes, peat, moss, sods, brush- 
wood, straw, heath, ling, rushes, &c. Instead 
of draining-tiles of the horseshoe form, pipes 
are now substituted in many parts of England, 
as much more economical, and equally effectual 
in conveying oif the surplus water. At first, the 
pipes were made by bringing the edges not quite 
together, leaving an open seam at the under part 
for the admission of water. But it is now 
generally thought better to close the seam, and 
form a complete pipe, with a bore of sufficient 
diameter, say 1 or 1| inches. Some of the 
machines for moulding these pipes will turn off 
eleven at one operation, all of uniform thickness 
of bore, and in length about 12 to 15 inches. A 
machine invented by Mr. Scragg, of Calvely, 
Cheshire, is equivalent to the easy manufacture 
of more than 20,000 pipes of an inch bore per 
day of 10 hours, and soon in proportion for other 
sizes. Whether tiles or pipes are ennployed, the 
opinion is very generally in favour of laying 
both at a greater depth than was formerly 
recommended, seldom, if ever, less than 4 feet. 
The substitution of small pipes for tiles, has 
lessened the cost of draining, from $2.5, and 
sometimes S50, to $10 or $15 per acre- 
Square or triangular tubes, made of larch- 
wood of the following shapes, so as to give a 
water way of 2 or 2| inches, with sides fastened 
together with wooden pegs, and pierced with 
auger holes, have been recommended for their 
economy. 




Mr. Wilson calculates the average expense 
with stones per rood to be 7s. 8d. (Quart. Journ. 
Jgr. vol. i. p. 242.) Mr. Yule at per rood of 
21 feet, 2 feet 9 inches deep with 3 inch tiles, 
at Is. Oid.; with 4 inches, 4^ to 5 feet deep. 
Is. 3^d. ; with 6 inch tiles, the same depth. Is. 
5^rf. (Ibid. p. 397.) 

The expense of tile draining has been thus 
estimated by Mr. Carmichael (Trans. High. Sot. 
vol. vi. p. 98) at per imperial acre ; tiles being 
2». 6d. per 100, and soles Is. 6d. per 100. 
63 



On an Aluminous Clav. 



806 
806 
806 
691 
691 
691 



2500 
2500 
2500 
2080 
2080 
2080 
1780 
1780 
1780 



1250 
1250 
2500 
1040 
1040 
890 
890 
1780 



d. 

If 

4i 

7i 

8 

6i 
10 

8 

3^ 
11* 



On a mix«d Clay. 



18 


5 


968 


2500 




20 


.<) 


968 


2500 




22 


5 


968 


2500 




24 


a 


998 


2500 


1250 


18 


5 


806 


2080 




20 


5 


806 


2080 




22 


5 


806 


2080 




24 


5 


806 


2080 


1046 









On Alum Clay. 


18 


20 


5 


806 


44 4-5* . . . 


18 


24 


5 


806 


43 4-5 


18 


27 


5 


806 


43 4-6 



5 


14 


4 


5 


18 


10 


6 


1 


8 


7 


6 


10 


4 


15 


6 


4 


19 


1 


5 


1 


6 


6 


4 


2 


5 


11 


lit 


5 


17 


u 


6 


3 


u 



With regard to the cost of thorough draining 
in Scotland, Mr. Stephens gives the following 
details, drawn from actual experiments : — 

Opening drains 33 inches deep and 7 inches wide at bot- 
tom, at 5jrf. per rood or rod of 6 yards. 
Preparing stones, 4 inches in diameter, at id. per rood. 
Carriaee of stones, at Hd. per rood. 
Unloading carts and moving screen-barrow, Jt?. per rood. 
Filling in earth, id. per rood. 
E.xtra e.tpense in the main drains about \0s. per acre. 

Another statement for drains of rather smaller 
size, viz. : — 

28 inches deep, 7 inches wide at bottom, allows id. pet 

rood of 6 yards for opening. 
Preparing stone, at ^^d. per rood. 
Carriage of stones, at 2Jrf. per rood. 
Unloading carts and moving screen-barrow, at SJd. per 

rood. 
Filling in earth, at ]id. per rood. 
Extra expense in ihe main drains, 10s. per acre. 

In computing the cost in Scotland of the la- 
bour in draining with stones, the hire of the 
horse is put down at 3s. 4(/., the man's wages 
1.'. Sd., and that of the driver \0d. per day. 
Taking into consideration the necessary num- 
ber of drains required, the first estimate makes 
the cost, supposing each imperial acre to con- 
tain 70 roods of drains of 6 yards each, £4, 12s. 
G^d.; the second estimate £3, 8s. 4f/. per acre. 

Mr. Stirling estimates the expense of drain- 
ing per imperial acre (Trans. High. Soc. vol. vi. 
p. Ill), to be, — 



Distance 


Number of 


With broken 


With broken 


With Tilm 


hetwern 


chains 


Slorjes 


Stones 


a..d 


Ihe Drains. 


per Acre. 


screened . 


riddled. 


St.l.». 


feet. 




£ s d. 


£ s. d. 


£ «. d. 


14 


47-14 


7 18 4 


8 2 5i 


9 13 5i 


16 


41-25 


6 18 6i 


7 2 U 


8 9 3J 


18 


36-66 


6 3 1 


6 6 3 


7 10 6 


20 


33- 


5 10 10 


5 13 8i 


6 15 5i 



Brushwood and Straw Draining. — When liles, 
stones, and other materials best adapted to the 
constructionofdrains cannot be procured, brush, 
straw, or even sod, has been employed to fib 



•Carts of stones. 



t Stooe drains. 
417 



DRAINING. 



DRESSING. 



the bottom of under-drains. When brushwood 
is used, the trench may be dug from eighteen 
to twenty-four inches wide, and three or four 
feet deep. Saplings from two to six inches 
thick at the butt may he cut into lengths of 
four or five feet, and, commencing at the upper 
end of the ditch, placed diagonally or slantwise, 
the butts down and towards the outlet. When 
this is done the trench is apparently full. The 
brush is then all brought within the edges of 
the ditch, well trodden down, and the earth 
thrown in. Bundles of fagots are sometimes 
employed to lay at the bottom of the trench, 
and at other times large straw ropes. When 
the ground is marshy, coarse hay or straw 
should be put upon the bottom of the trench 
before laying the brush, and also upon the top 
of the brush after this is stamped down. 

Wedge Braining is another method sometimes 
resorted to. The general mode of performing 
this is to form a narrow trench with a long, 
narrow shovel. The spit being taken out as 
deep as the shovel can go, a scoop is employed 
to clear out the mud and loose earth at the bot- 
tom. Then another shovel corresponding with 
the first is used, and a second spit is taken out, 
and then a narrower shovel still to clear the 
whole out, thus forming a trench with a ledge. 
A piece of sod, with the grass-side below, is 
then forced down, and, resting upon the ledge, 
a space is thus left for the water below. Some- 
times the ledge is dispensed with, and the sod 
is merely formed into a wedge, narrowed to- 
wards the grassy side, and thi^, when the little 
trench is cleared out, is pressed into it and 
covered with earth ; and, as it does not reach 
the narrow bottom, a channel remains below 
through which the water percolates. It is evi- 
dent that where such under-drains can be con- 
structed the bottom must be hard. This and 
the brush and straw drains are formed at com- 
parati\-e!y little expense, and for a while ope- 
rate very efficiently in conveying oflTthe super- 
fluous water. Still, as the materials are more 
or less perishable, and, moreover, liable to be- 
come closed up, they are an indifferent substi- 
tute for stone, and yet more so for the proper 
draining tile. 

On the heavy clay soils, the drainage is some- 
times effected by a drain or mole plough, which 
on some soils answers very well at a moderate 
expense. In this the plough draws a long tu- 
bular orifice in the clay by a heavy sharp- 
pointed rod instead of a share, which on some 
adhesive soils remains open, provided the fall 
for the water is sufficient, for years. It is, 
however, liable to too many casualties for ge- 
neral introduction. It is commonly worked, 
either with a windlass or otherwise, by 18 or 
•20 horses drawing from strong whippletrees. 
(Brit. Husb. vol. i. p. 455.) 

An excellent and improved imitation of the 
mole plough sys'em is sometimes practised on 
heavy clay lands. A stout piece of rope or 
cable, four or five yards long, is laid at the bot- 
tom of the newly cut drain (one of the narrow 
wedge-formed drains); to the ends of this piece 
of rope is fastened a cross or T-headed piece 
of wood, by means of which it is drawn along 
the bottom of the drain after the clay and other 
materials have been filled over it; an arch or 
418 



opening is thus left, similar to that formed bjr 
the mole plough ; the expense in this case is 
merely that of digging and filling up the drain. 
{Brit. Farm. Mag. vol. ii. p. 367.) 

In spite, however, of open and under-ground 
drainage, and of all that these and the boring 
system can effect, there are yet many thousands 
of acres in the east of England that, without 
the aid of the pump and the steam-engine, 
would still be covered with water. These were 
recommended many years since for this pur- 
pose by Mr. Savory, of Downham. (Cow;. Board 
of J[gr. vol. iv. p. 52.) The gigantic powers of 
these great engines will be readily seen from 
the report of Mr. Glynn {Brit. Farm. Mag. vol. 
iii. p. 289.) Deeping Fen, near Spalding, con- 
taining 25,000 acres, is effectually drained by 
two steam-engines of 60 and 80 horse power. 
Littleport Fen, near Ely, of about 28,000 acres, 
is drained by two engines of 30 and 80 horse 
power. By this last engine, on July 18th, 1830, 
in a trial of eight hours, by the combustion of 
only 87 bushels of coals, 51,230 tons of water 
were raised. Before the introduction of steam- 
engines, windmills were employed to a consi- 
derable extent. They were maintained, it is 
true, at a less expense, but the certain powers 
of the steam-engine have induced its general 
adoption. The carriage drain is an open, ca- 
pacious drain, used very commonly in irriga- 
tion, and is usually made of wood, for the pur- 
pose of carrying the flood waters across ditches, 
hollow drains, &c. 

DRAINING-PLOUGHS. Such ploughs as 
are contrived for the purpose of cutting drains, 
in order to carry off" the water from wet soils. 
See Ploughs. 

DRANK, or DRAUK. A very common name 
in many parts of England for darnel ; but is 
properly only the provincial name for the scaly 
brome-grass, cheat, or chess. 

DRENCH. In farriery, a large drink or 
draught of any liquid remedy given to an ani- 
mal, usually by means of a horn properly cut 
for the purpose. A very able paper on drench- 
ing horses, by Mr. John Stewart, veterinary sur- 
geon, appears in the Quart. Journ. of ..igr. vol. 
X. p. 626, which may be consulted with advan- 
tage. A drink is not so portable as a ball ; it 
is more troublesome to give, and a portion of 
it is usually wasted. {The Horse, p. 392.) Mr. 
Stewart strenuously urges the following propo- 
sitions : 1. That draughts, particularly when 
pungent or disagreeable, are dangerous. 2. 
That by no care can the danger be altogether 
avoided. 3. That no draught should be given 
unless the horse be in danger of dying without 
it. 4. That the safest way of administering 
draughts is to give them when the horse is 
lying. 5. That a draught is seldom or never 
absolutely necessary but in diseases which 
make the horse lie. 6. That a bottle is a better 
drenching instrument than a horn. 

DRESSING. Any sort of manure applied to 
land for the purpose of its improvement. Top- 
dressing is that sort of fertilizer which is spread 
over or applied upon the surface of the land, 
either when the crop is upon the ground or 
not. 

DRILL. A small track or longitudinal open- 
ing in the form of a slight furrow, made in 



DRILL-HUSBANDRY. 



DRILL-MACHINES, 



tillage lands for the purpose of receiving any 
kind of seeds. 

DRILL-HUSBANDRY. The practice of sow- 
ing or planting grain and other seeds or roots 
with a machine, in regular rows or drills, in 
place of scattering them by the hand, by which 
means they are dropped at more equal dis- 
tances, and lodged at better depths, than can 
be done in the latter way. " Of our modern 
improvements," says Dr. Fothergill (Com. Board 
ofjlgr. vol. iv. p. 156), "the introduction of drill- 
husbandry has been generally allowed to be the 
most important." Horse-hoeing is intimately 
connected with it, and for the most part forms 
part of the same system. 

DRILLING. The act of putting different 
kinds of crops into the ground in the drill- 
method. Mr. Bramston gives the result of an 
experiment on the comparative advantages of 
narrow and wide drilling. (Journ. of Roy. Eng. 
Agr. Sac. vol. i. p. 294.) 

DRILL-MACHINES. Implements for dis- 
tributing seed and manure easily, and at regu- 
lar distances. A rude kind of drill has been 
used in agriculture from a very remote period. 
The cultivators of China, Japan, Arabia, and 
the Carnatic, have drilled and dibbled in their 
seed from time immemorial. (The Chinese 
drill, or drill-plough, is noticed Quart. Journ. of 
jlgr. vol. i. p. 675.) After the Hindoos have 
thus deposited their seed, they use a kind of 
subsoil plough, which passes under and loosens 
the soil to the depth of about eight inches three 
drills' breadth at a time. (Com. Board of Jgr. 
vi. 355). Gabriel Platte, m 1638-1653, de- 
scribes a rude dibbling machine formed of iron 
pins, "made to play up and down like Virginal 
jacks;" and John Worlidge, in his Husbandry, 
published in 1669, not only advocated the use 
of the seed drill, but of the manure drill. Eve- 
lyn, in the same year (Trans. Jloy. Soc. vol. v. 
p. 1056), mentions with much commendation 
a drill-plough which had been invented in Ger- 
many, whence it had found its way into Spain, 
and had been noticed by the Earl of Sandwich, 
the English ambassador, who forwarded it to 
England as the invention of a Don Leucatilla, 
JethroTull at a later period (1730-40), devoted 
all his energies to promote the introduction of 
this machine, more especially as it admitted 
the use of the horse-hoe. The united advan- 
tages of these excited in him the highest en- 
thusiasm. But it was not until the drill had 
been gradually improved by the labour of suc- 
ceeding mechanists, that this invaluable ma- 
chine, principally through the exertions of Lord 
Leicester and others, became generally used in 
England. Thence it appears that the method 
of sowing corn and other seeds by machines in 
England is not (as is well remarked by Mr. J. 
A. Ransome, the eminent agricultural machine- 
maker of Ipswich, to whom I am indebted for 
almost the whole of this article), a modern 
idea, though the machines have been so much 
improved within the last century as to make 
them bear but little resemblance to those for- 
merly in use. 

Passing by those of more ancient date, we 
come to the inventions of Jethro TuU, for the 
purpose of carrying out his system of drill- 



husbandry, about 1733. His first invention 
was a drill-plough to sow wheat and turnip 
seed in drills, three rows at a time. There 
were two boxes for the seed, and these, with 
the coulters, were placed one set behind the 
other, so that two sorts of seed might be sown^ 
at the same time. A harrow to cover in the 
seed was attached behind. 

Jethro TuU also invented a turnip-drill some- 
what similar to the other in general arrange- 
ment, but of lighter construction. The feed- 
ing spout was so arranged as to carry one 
half of the seed backwards after the earth had 
fallen into the channel ; a harrow was pinned 
to the beam; and by this arrangement one half 
of the seed would spring up sooner than the 
other, and so part of it escape the turnip fly. 
When desirable to turn the machine, the har- 
row was to be lifted and the feeding would 
stop. The manner of delivering the seeds to 
the funnels in both the above drills was by 
notched barrels, and TuU was the first who used 
cavities in the surfaces of solid cylinders for the 
feeding. Nothing material in the history of the 
driU occurred afterwards till 1782, and but little 
progress appears to have been made to that 
period in drill-husbandry. 

About this time Sir John Anstruther, near 
Edinburgh, presented the model of an improved 
drill-plough of his own invention to the Bath 
and West of England Society, having had one 
in use for eight years previous without its get- 
ting out of order. It was a double drill-plough 
of simple construction, by which two furrows 
could be sown at a time, the horse walking 
between them, and by this means the injury 
usually done by the horse's feet to the fine 
ground was avoided. Within the next ten 
years twelve patents were taken out for drill- 
machines, two of which were for depositing 
manure with the seed ; but the most approved 
appear to have been those invented by James 
Cooke, a clergyman of Heaton Norris, in Lan- 
cashire ; and ihe general principles of these 
machines, from their simplicity, have been 
adopted in the construction of some of the most 
approved of the present day. 

For a cut of Cooke's grain-drill, see PI. 14, 

fig. 1. 

The seed-box of Cooke's drill, is of a pecu- 
liar shape, the hinder part extending lower 
than the fore part. It is divided by partitions, 
and so supported by adjustable bearings as to 
preserve a regular delivery of the seed whilst 
the machine is passing over uneven ground. 
The feeding cylinder is made to revolve by a 
tooth-wheel, which is fixed on each end of the 
main axle, and gears with other toothed wheels 
on each end of the cylinder; the surface of the 
cylinder is furnished with a series of cups 
which revolve therewith, and are of various 
sizes, according to the different seeds. These 
deposit the seed regularly in funnels, the lower 
ends of which lead immediately behind the 
coulters, which are connected by a beam, so as 
to be kept in an even line, and are capable of 
being held out of working when desired by a 
hook and link in the centre. The seed, as it ir, 
deposited, is covered in by a harrow fixed be- 
hind. The carriage wheels are larger in size 

419 



DRILL-MACHINES. 



DRILL-MACHINES. 



than usual, by which means the machine is 
more easily drawn over uneven ground ; and 
the labour of working is reduced. 

" Of corn drills," says Loudon, " Cooke's im- 
proved drill and horse-hoe, though not the most 
fashionable, is one of the most useful imple- 
ments of this kind on light dry soils, on even 
surfaces, and in dry climates. It has been 
much used in Norfolk and Suffolk, and many 
other parts of England. 1 he advantage of this 
machine are said to consist, — 1. In the wheels 
being so large that the machine can travel on 
any road without trouble or danger of break- 
ing ; also from the farm to the field, &c., with- 
out taking to pieces. 2. In the coulter-beam (a), 
with all the coulters moving with great ease, 
on the principle of the pentagraph, to the right 
or left, so as to counteract the irregularity of 
the horses' draught, by which means the drills 
may be made straight; and, where lands or 
ridges are made four and a half, or nine and a 
half feet wide, the horse may always go in the 
furrow, without setting a foot on the land, 
either in drilling or horse-hoeing. 3. In the 
seed supplying itself regularly, without any 
attention, from the upper to the lower boxes, as 
it is distributed. 4. In lifting the pin on the 
coulter-beam to a hook on the axis of the 
wheels, by which means the coulters are kept 
out of the ground, at the end of the land, with- 
out the least labour or fatigue to the person 
who attends the machine. 5. In going up or 
down steep hills, in the seed-box being elevated 
or depressed accordingly, so as to render the 
distribution of the seed regular ; and the seed 
being covered by a lid, and thus screened from 
wind or rain. The same machine is easily 
transformed into a cultivator, horse-hoe, scari- 
fier, or grubber, all which operations it per- 
forms exceedingly well ; and by substituting a 
corn-rake, stubble-rake, or quitch-rake, for the 
beam of coulters, or hoes («), it will rake corn- 
stubbles, or clean lands of root weeds. When 
corn is to be sown in rows, and the intervals 
hoed or stirred, we scarcely know a machine 
superior to this one ; and from being long in 
a course of manufacture, few can be made so 
cheap. But these advantages, though consi- 
derable in the process of drilling, are nothing, 
when compared with those which arise from 
the use of the horse-hoe ; with which from 8 
to 10 acres of land may be hoed in one day, 
with one man, a boy, and one horse, at a tri- 
fling expense, in a style far superior to, and 
more effectual than, any hand-hoeing whatever; 
also at times and seasons when it is impossible 
for the hand-hoe to be used at all. PI. 14, fig. 2. 

" The Norfolk drill, or improved lever drill, is 
a corn drill on a larger scale than Cooke's, as 
it sows a breadth of nine feet at once : it is 
chiefly used in the light soils of Norfolk and 
Suffolk as being more expeditious than Cooke's, 
but it also costs about double the sum. 

" Morton's improved gi'ain drill-machine is de- 
cidedly the simplest and best of corn drills. In 
this machine three hoppers are included in 
one box, the seed escaping out of all the three 
by the revolution of three seed cylinders upon 
one axle ; and drills of different breadths are 
produced simply by the shifting of a nut, that 
files a screw moving in a groove in the under- 
420 



frame, by which the distance between the two 
outside conductors and the central one (which 
is fixed) can be varied from 9 to 10 or 11 
inches; and that the two small wheels may 
always be at the same distances respectively 
as the conductors, there are two washers (hol- 
low cylinders), an inch in breadth, on the axle- 
arms of each, which may be transferred either 
to the outside or inside of the wheels, so as to 
make their distances from the outside con- 
ductors 9, 10, or 11 inches respectively also. 
The small wheels may be raised or depressed, 
so as to alter the depth at which the seed shall 
be deposited, by the action of a wedge, which 
retains the upright part of the axle in any one 
of a number of notches, which are made simi- 
larly in both, and which are caught by an iron 
plate on the upper side of the arms which carry 
the axles. This machine may be still farther 
improved b)'^ increasing the number of con- 
ductors to five instead of three ; the latter 
number giving too light work to the horses." 
(Highland Sac. Trans, vol. vii.) 

About the year 1790, Henry Baldwin of 
Mendham, near Harleston in Norfolk, a farmer, 
aided by an ingenious workman named Samuel 
Wells, then in his employment, improved upon 
the drill known as Cooke's drill, which by this 
time was in use in several parts of Norfolk. 
The improvement consisted — first, in making 
a sliding axlelree, by which the carriage wheel 
could be extended at pleasure to the width of 
the " stetches" or lands, and by which means 
another box with cups and more coulters could 
be used. Thus a drill containing 14 coulters 
could be enlarged to one of 18 or 20. Second, 
in making self-i-cgulaling levers, to which the 
coulters were attached; this was done by hang- 
ing each coulter on a distinct lever, placed at 
right angles with the cross bar of the framing, 
upon which each lever was made to swing by 
an ordinary hinge joint, and had a movable 
weight at its opposite end, to press the coulter 
into the soil. By the levers being thus con- 
trived to work independently of each other, 
they accommodated themselves to the irregu- 
larity of the surface of the land, and the impe- 
diments which they might meet, without dis- 
turbing the whole. The above were two very 
important improvements ; and they are both in 
use in England, to this day. 

Svffolk Corn and Manure Drill. — Following 
the improvements just referred to, are those by 
James Smyth of Peasenhall, and his brother 
Jonathan Smyth of Swefling, who have been 
engaged in the manufacture upwards of 40 
years. A brief summary of which is as fol- 
lows : — 1. A mode of adjusting the coulters to 
distances apart from each other, from four and 
a half inches and upwards. 2. An improved 
manure-box and cups, for the delivery of ma- 
nure with the grain. 3. A plan to drill in ma- 
nure and grain, and sow small seeds at the 
same time. 4. The swing steerage, by which 
means the man attending the drill can move 
the coulters to the right or to the left hand, so 
as to keep the straight and parallel lines for 
sowing the seeds. 5. Various improvements 
in gearing and driving the wheels, barrel, &c. 
An engraving taken from one of Smyth's most 
perfect grain and manure drills is given in 



DRILL-MACHINES. 



DRILL-MACHINES. 



Plate 14, fig. 3, by the description we have 
given of Cooke's and of the subsequent im- 
provements by Baldwin, Wells, and Smyth, the 
plan will be fully understood. 

The Suffolk grain and manure drill may also 
be arranged for sowing turnips and manure at 
the same time. In such cases the corn-box 
has to be exchanged for a double one, in one 
part of which runs a spindle with brushes, 
where the turnip-seed is contained. There are 
small copper slides, with different numbers, 
from one to six holes pierced in them, through 
which the seed is delivered as required. The 
other part of the box contains the manure, 
which is thrown into the funnels, and these are 
so arranged that it drops into the earth just 
before the seed. 

Morton's improved grain drill, is spoken of 
in the Highland Society's Transactions, (vol. 
vii.) as decidedly the simplest and best of grain 
drills. A description and cut of this machine 
which drills 3 rows, is given in Loud. Encyc. 
of Jgr., p. 409. 

Hornsby's Patent Drop Drill is intended for 
dropping seed with manure at intervals, but 
the construction of it is very different from the 
Suffolk. In this, the manner of regulating the 
delivery is by having a coulter of a peculiar 
form inside, in which a circular box revolves 
on an axle which passes through one side 
thereof. This box is divided into compart- 
ments closed by small doors, which are kept 
shut by a spring to each ; the compartments in 
the box are supplied through a series of fun- 
nels, the end of the lower one entering one 
side of the box below the centre. 

On the machine being moved forwards, this 
box revolves by means of appropriate cog- 
wheels ; and as each spring arrives at the 
ground, the door to which it is attached opens, 
and the contents of that compartment are depo- 
sited, to be again replaced, when it arrives at 
the part of its rotation at the end of the funnel, 
and so on successively. 

GrouiiseWs Patent Drop Drill. — This drill is 
for the purpose of depositing corn, grain, pulse, 
and manure at intervals, the distances of which 
may be regulated at pleasure. (PI. 14, fig. 4.) 

To effect the purposes above mentioned, a 
circular iron ring is fixed about midway be- 
tween the nave and rim of the drill carriage- 
wheel. In this there is a number of holes to 
carry a series of studs, which may be varied 
according to circumstances ; and as these 
studs come in succession, when the wheel 
turns they open valves for the delivery of the 
seed and manure, which close again immedi- 
ately the stud has passed. A further improve- 
ment is by the adoption of projecting arms or 
shovels, to draw the manure and grain to the 
funnels, instead of taking the same up in cups 
in the way adopted in other drills. 

The Messrs. Ransome give the following 
sketch of the chief modern improvements made 
in the drill, which have greatly added to its 
usefulness, without having increased its cost. 
The drills usually made by the best makers 
in England, are of several kinds ; but their de- 
scription may be briefly comprehended under 
three or four heads. 

I. The ('ommon Lever Drill. This invaluable 



machine, which is the one in the most general 
use, is adapted for drilling grain, on either level 
grounds or ridges, and on all descriptions of 
soil. These are, as we have stated in our pre- 
vious description, furnished with independent 
levers, by which the coulters are each readily 
and separately made to avoid any rocks or ir- 
regularities of the ground, and a " press steel- 
yard," to force the coulters, in case of need, 
into hard ground, with a varying degree of 
pressure, according to the texture of the soil. 

These coulters can now be set so as to drill 
the corn at any width, from 4 inches to a 
greater distance ; they also, if required, readily 
allow of the introduction of the horse-hoe ; 
and from being placed, by another excellent 
improvement, in double rows, they admit, when 
at work, of large stones, &c., passing between 
them, of a size that was not possible under the 
old plan of placing the coulters in one line. 
These are also, in the most complete drills, 
furnished with a " swing steerage," by which 
the drill-man keeps the rows at exact or even 
distances from those which have been previ- 
ously drilled in the centre of the ridge, or out 
of the furrows, &c. The " corn-barrel " of this 
drill is made to deliver from two pecks to 6 or 
7 bushels or strikes per acre of any kind of 
grain ; and they have an additional barrel for 
drilling turnips and mangel-wurzel, &c. And 
again, these barrels, by a peculiarly simple, yet 
excellent "regulator," are kept on unequal, 
hilly ground, on the same level; so that the 
grain is evenly delivered, in whatever situation 
the drill may be placed. 

A " seed engine" is also sometimes added to 
this drill, by which the grass-seeds and clover 
are sown at the same time as the grain, and 
each kind of seed, if required, separately ; by 
which plan any quantity per acre of the seeds 
may be much more evenly distributed, than by 
mixing them up together. For these seeds, 
being of different sizes and weights, are in the 
ordinary seed engines very apt to separate in 
the boxes; and thus the brushes too often 
deliver them in unequal proportions. 

The weight of these drills necessarily varies 
with the number of coulters ; they are usually 
from about 3 to 10 cwts., and are drawn, accord- 
ing to circumstances, by either one, two, or three 
horses; and have, if required, slip axletree , 
with which, by merely adding to the number 
of the coulters, &c., the drill is adapted to any 
breadth of land. 

2. The next description of drill to which I 
shall allude, is The Manure Drill. This drill is 
formed very readily, by merely adding to the 
common corn drill, an operation which any 
husbandman can perform, " a manure box." 
It is a simple yet accurately working appara- 
tus for delivering ihe manure, which, in the 
best drills, it does with great evenness, and in 
quantities varying as " the slip " is placed, from 
6 to 8 bushels per acre. In the best drills, also, 
a very important improvement has been made 
within the last few years, which consists in the 
use of separate coulters for manure and 
seed. The manure is now deposited according 
to the mode preferred by the cultivator, not 
only from 2 to 3 inches deeper in the ground 
than the seed, but from 10 to 12 inches in ad- 
2N 421 



DRILL-MACHINES. 



DRILL-MACHINES. 



vance cf it, so as to give the soil time to cover 
the manure before the next coulters deposit the 
seed ; — whereas, on the old plan of depositing 
the seed and the fertilizer together down one 
pipe, an evil was liable to arise when it was 
used with some of the more powerful artificial 
manures ; the seed and the manure were too 
close together, and the manure was not always 
dropped in what is commonly its best position, 
v/iider the seed. 

3. The third variety of drill which 1 shall no- 
tice, is The Northumberland Frame Manure and 
Turnip Ridging Drill. This excellent drill is 
furnished with pressing rollers (one to each 
coulter), which form the land into ridges — and 
precede the coulters. These deliver in separate 
coulters, 1st, the manure; and 2dly, the seed; 
and the drill is provided with a second roller, 
which follows the coulters and closes the rows. 
This machine drills two rows at a time — 
weighs only about 1 cwt. — and one man and 
a horse can easily drill from 8 to 10 acres per 
day. 

Besides these three most commonly used 
drills, there are several others — such as the 
Two Coulter Seed and Manure Lever Drill; 
this has a swing steerage, to which we have be- 
fore alluded, and a slip axletree to vary the 
distances of the ridges — (for this valuable im- 
plement a prize was awarded to Mr. Garret at 
the Cambridge meeting). To this a set of hoes 
is occasionally attached, furnished with inde- 
pendent levers either for ridge-work or other- 
wise. 

There are in England many other varieties 
of drills, but they involve no particularly use- 
ful principles, if we except the drop drills, the 
chief object of which is to save the quantity 
of manure. In these the seed or corn is mixed, 
and deposited with the manure. 

From this brief enumeration the farmer will 
see that the modern drill-makers have not ne- 
glected their duty, in the adoption of every im- 
jprovement calculated to simplify and render 
more serviceable the common and the manure 
drill ; and I am highly gratified to be able to 
add, that there is now every prospect of their 
skill and enterprise being rewarded by the cul- 
tivators of our country ; for I find, from an 
eminent maker, that the demand for manure 
drills has within the last two years been greater 
than ever was remembered before. 

The chief advantages of the use of the drill, 
are the regular deposition of the seed at a 
uniform regulated depth, from which arises a 
considerable saving of seed (at least one-third) 
— and the facility afiforded in cleaning the land 
either by the hand or horse-hoe. The import- 
ance of these results is, happily for our coun- 
try, rapidly becoming generally understood : 
and the result of experiments which I witnessed 
to a considerable extent, upon some of the poor- 
est gravelly soils of Surrey, by Mr. Hewitt Da- 
vis and others, convince me that, by the use 
of this machine, combined with careful hoeing 
and weedmg the crops, a saving even of half 
the usual quantity of seed now used by the 
drill may be effected. And again, 1 cannot too 
often urge upon the farmer of the upland soils, 
lar away Irom supplies of manure, the use of 
the manure drill, and those fertilizers expressly 
422 



prepared for its use ; since by these one ton of 
manure is sufficient for three acres. And let 
the* farmer remember, that it is not only the 
first cost of all manures which makes them 
expensive, but the comparative labour saved 
in their application, which must also be taken 
into the account when the cultivator is esti- 
mating their value. And further, let him re- 
member that the best and richest farm compost 
is likely to convey to his fields a multitude of 
weeds, the cost of whose removal too rarely 
forms a portion of such comparative esti- 
mates. 

The patents which have been taken out in 
England, during the last half century, for drill 
ploughs and improvements in sowing machines 
form a long list. 

The advantages derived from using drill 
machines for sowing wheat and the other small 
grains have been summed up by Mr. Binns, at 
a meeting of an English agricultural society, 
as follows : — 

1. The seed is delivered with regularity. 

2. It is deposited at proper depth. 

3. The weeds, during the growth of plants, 
are destroyed with great facility. 

4. The plants cultivated receive the undi- 
vided benefit of the soil and manure, and have 
not to maintain a constant struggle with 
weeds. 

5. The land by the process of hoeing, is un- 
dergoing preparations for another crop. 

6. The necessity of summer fallowing is 
avoided. 

7. By admission of the sun and air between 
the rows, a stronger and healthier plant is pro- 
duced, and of course a heavier crop. 

8. By stirring the soil it is more susceptible 
of benefit from the atmosphere, imbibing more 
oxygen, and being both warmed and enriched 
by the sun. 

9. The roots shoot freely in pulverized soil. 

10. By drilling, the fanner is enabled to have 
heavier crops of beans and wheat on light 
land. 

11. Clover and grass-seeds answer incom- 
parably better in the pulverization produced 
by hoeing, independent of the clearness from 
weeds. 

12. The drills give facility for depositing 
smaller portions of manure with greater effect. 

" These advantages," says the editor of the 
Cultivator, " axe all self-evident to a good far- 
mer; and it might have been added, as a thir- 
teenth advantage, that drilling economizes seed, 
though Mr. Binns rejects it, on the ground that, 
if the plants are thin, they throw out side- 
shoots, which produce imperfect grain, and ri- 
pen unequally. In drill husbandry, Mr. Binns 
affirms, fifty-six bushels of wheat per acre 
have been raised on the light soils of Norfolk." 

It is believed by some that the plan of sow- 
ing wheat by drill machines is a refinement in 
agriculture which cannot be profitably adopted 
in the United States, where the price of grain 
is of late years much lower than in England. 
The introduction of the practice will perhaps 
be slow, but there cannot, we think, be a doubt 
of its final general adoption in all the best cul- 
tivated wheat-growing districts. The first ex- 
pense of the machine is doubtless the princi 



DRILL-MACHINES. 

pal obstacle to their general introduction, as to 
import a good one costs between $150 and 
$200. 

An admirable drill for sowing wheat has 
been invented and patented by Moses Pennock 
and son Samuel, of Kennett Square, Chester 
county, Pennsylvania. (See Plate 14, fig. 5.) 
It has been used for several years in the south- 
ern parts of Pennsylvania and adjoining states, 
and the greatest satisfaction has been expressed 
for its performance. 

Pennock's drill is capable of sowing 8 acres 
of wheat, or planting 15 acres of Indian corn, 
per day. The wheat is placed in boxes, con- 
necting with sowing tubes which penetrate 
into the ground, scattering it in rows 9 inches 
apart, and covering about an average depth 
of 2^ inches. If one or more of the tubes 
comes in contact with a stone, root, or other 
obstacle beneath the surface, a small chain to 
which it is attached breaks a wooden peg, and 
thus saves the machine from any serious 
injury, the detention being only a few seconds 
when pegs are kept on hand. The prepara- 
tion of the ground is similar to that adopted in 
the broad-cast method. The machine is drawn 
with great ease by one horse, and requires but 
one attendant, in sowing wheat. For every 
bushel sown by hand in the ordinary way, the 
drill saves from 8 to 12 quarts. The machine 
is easily managed and not liable to get out of 
order. Besides covering the wheat much more 
effectually than can be done by the harrow, it 
raises ridges about 3 inches high on each side 
of the tubes. These ridges crumble down by 
the action of the frost and rains, and thus 
cover the young plants and prevent them from 
being thrown out during the freezing and thaw- 
ing of the ground and killed, as so commonly 
occurs in the winters of the United States. 
Samuel Pennock, the junior inventor, has for 
several years been using the drill extensively 
in putting in crops. His usual charge, for 
the use of a machine, including the horse and 
his own services, is $4 per day, or 50 cents 
per acre. When wheat sells for $1,25 or $1,50 
per bushel, the seed saved will pay all the 
expense of drilling, (especially when the 
farmer owns the drill), the crop being placed 
in a far better condition than can be effected 
by the broad-cast method, as will be evident 
from a consideration of the various advan- 
tages enumerated, and these constitute the 
chief profit. 

When the machine is used for planting 
Indian corn, (for which purpose it is singu- 
larly well adapted), some of the levers are 
thrown out of gear, leaving the remainder so 
arranged as to strike out two rows, 4^ feet apart, 
in which the corn is dropped at regular dis- 
tances and covered with about 3^ inches of 
earth, or less if desired. It may be afterwards 
thinned, but must of course be always tilled 
in one direction. The ground is flushed and 
harrowed, after which rows 9 feet apart are 
run with a plough and one horse, in which 
rows the horse drawing the drill walks in going 
and returning. In this way about 15 acres of 
Indian corn may be planted in a day, and thus 
a considerable saving of labour is effected by 
the owner of a drill, since to plant the same 



DRILL-MACHINES. 

number of acres by hand, in the usual way. 
would require 5 hands equal to fifteen days 
work, with the addition of a second plough to 
run out furrows, and two droppers. Although 
Pennock's drill costs $100, it seems evident 
that the saving of labour in planting the corn 
crop will more than pay the interest and wear 
and tear of the machine, leaving none of these 
charges to be placed against the wheat crop. 
Persons who have watched the progress of 
corn crops planted by the drill, and compared 
the results with those of crops planted by hand, 
say, that under ordinary circumstances, a gain 
of 5 bushels per acre may be fairly credited to 
the drilled corn. Some even go so far as to 
say that drilling has added one-fourth to the 
crop. The deep covering is regarded, where 
the soil is perfectly dry, and of a light texture, 
as a very great advantage. The corn will at 
first appear backward, but is soon observed to 
catch up and outstrip that which has been co- 
vered more superficially. It is also placed 
more out of the reach of birds, and escapes 
injury from the cut-worm, and heart-worm, or, 
as it is also called, bud-worm. The cut-worm 
usually commits its depredations by night, 
taking off the plants at, or very near, the sur- 
face of the ground, whilst by day it cuts a 
little below the surface. Now, when corn is 
deeply covered it admits of being topped, with- 
out being entirely killed, and suffers little fur- 
ther injury than retardation. 

Pennock's drill, besides sowing beans, peas, 
and all kinds of round seeds, including ruta- 
baga, is, like Cooke's English drill, capable of 
being adapted to the purposes of a horse-hoe, 
cultivator, extirpator, and harrow, by the ad- 
justment of hoes, harrow-teeth, &c. Besides 
the approbation bestowed on Pennock's drill 
by individual farmers, for some of whom they 
have sown as much as 100 acres a season, 
several public institutions have awarded pre- 
miums to the inventors, among which we may 
mention the Philadelphia Agricultural Society, 
Franklin Institute of Pennsylvania, and Ame- 
rican Institute of New York. 

It would be a desideratum in the United 
States to have drills like those used in England, 
adapted to sowing seeds and sprinkling with 
them at the same time some of the concen- 
trated manures, such as bone-dust, poudrette, 
&c. But this again, like every other addition, 
must increase the cost, already so great an 
obstacle. 

As yet the drill system in the United States 
has been principally confined to sowing tur- 
nips and beets, and sometimes Indian corn. 
The results with many who have had good im- 
plements and known how to use them, ha« 
been a conviction of their utility and economy, 
especially where the root culture has been ex- 
tensively carried on. One-rowed drills are 
almost the only kind to be met with in the 
warehouses where agricultural implements are 
kept for sale. 

Drill-barrows are implements furnished with 
handles, similar to those of a wheel-barrow, 
and designed to be propelled by hand. Among 
these Willis's Latest Improved Sced-soicer is said 
to be the best, as it puts the seed into tht* 
ground with regularity and in the best manne: 

i23 



DRILL-ROLLER. 



DRY ROT. 



It opens the furrow, drops the seed, covers 
and rolls them down. It will sow almost 
any kind of garden seeds, such as beets, ruta- 
baga, mangel-wurtzel, carrots, turnips, pars- 
nips, onions, &c., and costs $14. 

Buckminster^s Seed-planter is of simple con- 
struction, and has been found to answer well 
for planting corn, sugar-beet, &c. It deposits 
the seed either in drill-rows or hills, as may be 
desired. When the ground is properly pre- 
pared, a man, with one horse, it is said, can 
furrow out, drop, cover, and press down the 
seed on an acre of ground in one hour, or 
10 acres in a day. The seed is covered by 
falling into the furrow of the soil, which is 
finely pulverized by a row of cultivator teeth. 
The machine will bury the seed 3 inches deep, 
if desired — one inch being the general rule for 
Indian corn, and only one-fourth of an inch 
for turnips. By simply turning a screw one 
way or the other the depth is regulated. 

Bemcnl's Improved Turnip Drill, which is a 
modification of the English Northumberland 
Drill, enjoys a good reputation. It sows beets, 
peas, and, generally, all kinds of round or oval- 
shaped seeds. 

Merchants Drill Barrmv, is said to perform 
well, and is recommended by its simplicity of 
construction and cheapness. By multiplying 
the wheels, or rather by uniting several ma- 
chines, it may be adapted to horse power, and 
thus applied to field culture for sugar-beets, 
ruta-bagas, &c., and, even, it is said, for wheat 
and other small grains. 

DRILL-ROLLER. A roller so contrived as 
to form regular small incisions or drills in the 
ground at proper depths for the seed. It is 
merely a common cylinder roller, generally of 
iron, about seven feet long, around which are 
put cutting-wheels of cast iron, each of which 
generally weighs about a ton. The cutting 
wheels, being movable, may be fixed at any 
distance, by means of washers. 

DROPSY. In farriery, a disease incident to 
horses, and sometimes called water-farcy. See 
Horses and Sheep, Diseases of. 

DROPWORT, WATER ((Enanthe). Smith 
{Eng. Flor. vol. ii. p. 68), describes five species 
in England. The common water-dropwort ; 
the parsley water-dropwcrt ; sulphur-wort wa- 
ter-dropwort ; the fine-leaved water-dropwort; 
and the hemlock water-dropwort. They are 
aquatic herbs, perennials, and biennials ; fetid, 
and often poisonous ; found in ditches, ponds, 
and other watery places. The first three spe- 
cies are not reckoned poisonous ; but the last 
{(Enanthe crocata), is perhaps, in its fresh state, 
the most virulent of British plants. Brood 
mares, according to Sir Thomas Frankland, 
sometimes eat the root, and are poisoned by 
it. The root consists of many fleshy knobs, 
resembling parsnips externally, abounding 
with an orange-coloured, fetid, and very poi- 
sonous juice, such as exudes less plentifully 
from all parts of the herb when wounded. The 
stem is from two to five feet high, much branch- 
ed, somewhat forked, and hollow. The leaves 
are of a dark shining green, and doubly 
pinnate. The flowers are white, or tinged 
with purple, very numerous and crowded. 
Two or three species of cowbane are enu- 



merated in the United States, where the plant 
is believed to be an active poison, particularly 
to horned cattle, when eaten by them ; for which 
reason it should be eradicated from all pas- 
tures where it is discovered. (Darlingtons 
Flor. Ces.) 

DROSOMETER (from the Greek). An in- 
strument constructed for measuring the quan- 
tity of dew that collects on the surface of a body 
exposed to the open air during the night. The 
first instrument for this purpose was proposed 
by Weidler. It consisted of a bent balance 
which marked in grains the preponderance 
which a piece of glass of certain dimensions, 
laid horizontally in one of the scales had ac- 
quired from the settling and adhesion of the 
globules of moisture, A simpler and more 
convenient drosometer would be formed on 
the principle of the rain guage ; and in order 
to facilitate the descent of the dew down the 
sides of the funnel into the tube, a coat of 
deliqueate salt of tartar may be spread over 
the shallow surface. Dr. Wells, in making 
his celebrated experiments on dew, exposed a 
small quantity of wool to the open sky, and the 
difference in its weight when laid down and 
taken up showed the quantity of moisture it 
had imbibed in the interval. {Brande's Diet. 
of Science.) 

DROUGHT. The efiect of long-continued 
dry weather, or the want of rain : when appli- 
ed to animals, it signifies thirst, or want of 
drink. 

DRUDGE. An implement of the rake or 
harrow kind, peculiar to West Devonshire. It 
is a sort of long heavy wooden-toothed rake, 
the teeth being broad, and placed with the 
wide or flat side foremost. It is drawn by 
horses or oxen, and made use of, in paring and 
burning operations, to collect the broken parts 
or fragments of the sward which have been 
loosened by the operation of the plough and 
harrow. 

DRY ROT. The name of a disease which 
attacks wood, rendering it pulverulent by de- 
stroying the cohesion of its parts. It fre- 
quently depends on fungous plants, which are 
nourished upon the sap in the wood, and by 
taking that away destroy the cohesive property 
of the woody particles. The fungi most de- 
structive are the Mtmlms Incrymuns, the Poly- 
porus destructor, and several species of Spwo- 
tricliium. The production of these fungi is 
favoured by whatever causes the sap remain- 
ing in the wood to ferment; as, for example, 
defect of ventilation. In the old cathedrals 
and other public edifices, the dry rot never ap- 
peared, because care was taken to ventilate the 
beams. It occurs among the timbers of ships, 
where it sometimes commits the most serious 
damage and in damp ill-ventilated houses. Mr. 
Batson, in the Trans, of Sor. for Encour. of Arts, 
recommended charring as a preventative. 
Some excellent advice is also given on this 
subject in a paper by Mr. Hart, " On the Cause 
of Dry Rot in the Larch and other Trees" 
(Trans. High. Soc. vol. iv. p. 395). The process 
which has been patented by Mr. Kyan, namely, 
steeping the wood for a week or two in a strong 
solution of corrosive sublimate, which coagu- 
lates the albumen of the wood, and destroys the 



DUCK. 



DUCK. 



fungus, appears to be the best preventative at 
present known. Sir W. Burnet has recently- 
invented another process for rendering wood, 
cordage, and all descriptions of woollen, free 
from the effects of dry rot, which has lately 
been tested and found very elRcacious by go- 
vernment. I understand the active matter in 
Sir William Burnet's solution is sulphate of 
copper. ( IVillich's Dom. Ency.) 

DUCK (Dutch Duckcr, to dip; Lat. anas). 
There are many varieties of ducks described 
by naturalists, but only two are to be found in 
our farm-yards ; namely, the common duck 
and the Muscovy duck. The common duck is 
a useful and economical bird, requiring little 
care. It is perfectly independent, if there is 
only a pond or mud hole to dabble in ; for 
moisture is its element, and it cannot thrive 
without it. One drake is sufficient for eight or 
ten ducks. Duck hovels should be kept very 
clean and warm, with a row of boxes inside 
to induce the duck to lay her eggs in them ; 
otherwise in the laymg season she drops her 
egg in the water, or on the bare ground, or 
seeks by-places, where the eye of the vigilant 
housewife cannot penetrate. For this reason, 
it is better not to let them out very early in the 
morning during the laying months, which are 
March, April, and May. Their hovel should 
be well secured from the entrance of foxes, 
polecats, weasels, &c., and it should be de- 
fended from wind and weather. Ducks " feed 
themselves" a great part of the year, as they 
are gross eaters ; loving every sort of garbage, 
such as offal, earthworms, caterpillars, sweep- 
ings of barns, residue of breweries, slugs, toads, 
spiders, and insects. In this particular, they 
are admirable gardeners, effecting more in one 
night than two gardeners could perform in a 
week towards clearing a garden of slugs, snails, 
and caterpillars. The waters which ducks 
frequent should contain no leeches. If a pond 
has any leeches in it, put in a few tench, which 
will soon devour them. The herb henbane 
should also be carefully rooted up from the 
neighbourhood of ducks and poultry in gene- 
ral, from its poisonous qualities. A duck lays 
from 50 to 60 eggs between the months of 
March and May, which are as nourishing in 
their quality as hen's eggs. The duck is not 
naturally inclined to sit, but let her always sit 
upon her oion eggs if possible. It is observed 
that they do not like sitting upon strange eggs, 
and that they even suffer pain by it. Let her 
nest be remote and quiet from alarms. While 
the duck is sitting, her food should be placed 
near her, and doled out sparingly. They sit 
closer if not fed too profusely. The food 
should be very moist. The young ducklings 
are hatched in a month, and then the mother 
should be put in a coop for some time, or she 
will carry her brood immediately to the water, 
and tire them ; besides which, many perish 
with cold. They should be allowed to get 
strong first. Many housewives prefer setting 
duck eggs under hens and hen turkeys, in or- 
der to prevent this; but if the duck is secured, 
the end is answered. Let the ducklings have 
dishes of water near the coop to dabble in, 
and feed them when out of the egg-shell with 
54 



bread crumbled in milk, for a few days. Nettle- 
leaves boiled tender and chopped very small, 
made into a paste with barley meal, is also a 
warm, wholesome food. When the duck- 
lings gain strength, give them plenty of raw 
potherbs well chopped, mixed with soaked 
bran, barley, mashed potatoes, mashed acorns, 
or fish, if near the coast. Ducklings intended 
for the table should not be allowed to swim 
about much ; it keeps them lean. Earh' duclis 
are valuable. They should be confined to their 
hovel or to a coop during the process of fat- 
tening, and fed there for one month upon oats 
and water in clean troughs. It is of no use 
giving them musty oats : they will no more 
fatten upon musty oats than we can thrive 
upon musty bread. Do not try to fatten them 
either upon garbage. It gives the flesh a bad 
taste. Boiled rice is a nice delicate variety 
of food. The fine, white Aylesbury breed are 
the most profitable and the handsomest duck. 
They are also the earliest in laying and setting. 

I will give a recipe for salting ducks, as they 
are done in Brittany : it is economical and 
excellent food. Two days after the well-fatted 
ducks are killed, cut them open at the inferior 
part, and draw away the thighs, wings, and 
flesh of the stomach and rump. Put the 
whole, with the neck and tip of the rump in a 
tub of salt, with a little nitre and a few bay 
leaves mixed in it, to give the flesh a fine red 
colour. Cover it up in the salt a fortnight; 
then cut the fowl in four quarters, lard it with 
cloves, and put it into a pot or pots, with some 
spice. 

Duck feathers are very profitable, and, 
mixed with those of the goose, make good 
pillows, &c. The feathers should be plucked 
in May and September, while the duck is yet 
warm after death. Dry the fi-,i!iii;'is in bags in 
the oven after ihe bread has h^cn withdrawn, 
and repeat the process several times. See 

DUCK, THE MUSCOVY (Jnas Moschala), 
a native of South America, is a gaudy-looking 
large bird, often introduced into our farm- 
yards, but not much approved ; more for show 
than use. Their flesh is not so good to eat as 
that of the common duck, and the drake is 
very tyrannical in attacking the poultry, and 
causing an uproar in the peaceful homestead, 
besides spoiling a superior breed. 

DUCK, THE WILD {Anas bosckas, Linn.), 
is rather less in size than the tame duck, but 
differs little in plumage ; it weighs usually 
about 2j lbs., but has been known to reach 3j 
In-shore shooting of wild ducks is considered 
to be legitimate sporting about the middle of 
August, when the flappers, or young ducks, 
have begun to take wing. The last Game Act 
in England has a clause to prevent wild-fowl 
being killed from the last day of March to the 
1st of October, and this applies equally to 
shooting and taking them in decoys. The wild 
ducks pair in the spring, build their nest 
among rushes near the water, and lay from 10 
to 16 eggs. {WilUchh Dom. Ency.) For descrip- 
tions of the numerous species of the wild 
duck found in the United States, see NuttalVi 
Ornithology of Water Birds. 

2 K 2 425 



DUCK'S FOOT. 



EAR. 



DUCK'S FOOT (Podophyllum ; a. bridged. 
from anapodophyllum, a word signifying a duck's 
foot, as the leaves bear some resemblance to 
it). This plant requires a moist, shady situa- 
tion, and to be grown in peat soil ; increased 
by division at the root. (Paxton's Bat. Diet.) 

DUCKWEED (Lemna). A genus of minute, 
herbaceous, floating plants, consisting of four 
species, all of which are natives of England, 
and grow abundantly in ponds, ditches, and 
stagnant waters. They are in flower from 
June to August. Duckweed is a small green 
herb, consisting of little roundish leaf-like 
disks. It is not, perhaps, generally known that 
duckweed, if allowed to spread itself over 
ponds and stews, in«vvhich fish are preserved, 
will ultimately destroy them, by its forming a 
compact mat upon the surface, thereby prevent- 
ing the fish, when they rise to the surface of 
the water for air, from breathing. It should 
on this account be abstracted diligently with a 
rake, or some such implement, and kept under 
before it attains an ascendency, which it will 
do in a very short time if n.ot seasonably with- 
drawn. The quantities of fish that perish 
under the influence of this weed are incal- 
culable. Ducks feed upon the " lemna" with 
surprising avidity, and thence it derives its 
name (duck's meat or duckweed). Ducks, by 
dabbling and grovelling in foul pools, where it 
predominates, and its adhering to their feathers, 
are in the habit of introducing it into other 
waters, where it never appeared before. (Eng. 
Flora, vol. i. p. 31 ; Willich's Bom, Ency.) 

DUN (Sax. Bun). A colour partaking of 
brown and black, frequent in horses. 

DUNES (Ang.-Sax. low hills). Hills of 
movable sand, which are met with along the 
sea coast in various parts of Great Britain, 
Ireland, and the Continent. (Brande's Did. of 
Science,') 

DUNG and DUNGHILL. See Faum-taku 
Dung and Compost. 

DURHAM CATTLE. See Cattle. 

DUST BRAND. One of the local names 
for the smut in wheat. 

DUTCH ASHES. See Ashes. 

DUTCH ELM (Ulrmis subcrosa). See Elm. 

DWARF BAY. See Mezereon. 

DWARF ROSE BAY. See Mountain 
Laurel. 

DWARF BERRIES. See Nightshade. 

DWARF OAK. A shrub, sometimes em- 
ployed for making live fences. It grows very 
fast, and becomes thick by cutting very ra- 
pidly. 

DYKE (Sax. t>ic; Erse, dyk). A sort of wall 
or mound formed of earth or turfs. In Scot- 
land it is applied to any wall round a field. 
See Ditch. 

DYNAMOMETER (Gr. Sum^n, power, and 
f^tr^iv, measure). An instrument for measur- 
ing power of any kind, as the strength of men 
and animals, the force of machinery, &c. 
Some interesting results relating to the average 
strength of men at different ages, and of dif- 
ferent weights and sizes, have been produced 
by M. Quetelet of Brussels, from numerous 
experiments with Regnier's dynamometer, one 
of the most convenient that is made. 

It consists of two flat plates of steel of a 
426 



curved form, increasing in thickness towards 
the ends, which unite into solid cylindrical 
loops ; the curved sides of the plates being 
placed opposite to each other, and the whole 
forming an entire elliptic spring. On the ap- 
plication of this instrument as a link in the 
line of draught, the oval becomes lengthened 
in proportion to the degree of force acting on 
the loops in opposite directions, and ihe curved 
sides approach more nearly towards each 
other accordingly. The degree of approxima- 
tion in the plates is shown on the scale, in 
divisions corresponding to half and whole hun- 
dred weights, by means of a cross rod secured 
to one plate acting on a crank attached to the 
opposite one, thus communicating its effect to 
the lever index, which, moving over the divi- 
sions of the scale, marks the varying degree 
of force exerted each moment by the draught 
to which the instrument is subjected. 

Messrs. Cottam and Hallen, engineers and' 
agricultural implement makers, of Winsley 
street, Oxford street, London, have recently 
patented an improved dynamometer, contrived 
with the intention of obviating the continual 
vibration of the indicator of the dynamometer 
formerly in use, which was caused (with refer- 
ence to the plough) by the obstructions met 
with in the soil through which it was passing. 
These vibrations were so incessant, that the 
indicator could scarcely be discerned during 
the experiment. The improvement consists in 
the attachment of a small brass pump filled 
with oil, the piston of which has one or two 
small apertures. There being no outlet from 
the pump, it is evident that when any shock 
occurs, caused by a stone, root, &c., the oil 
having to pass from one side of the piston to 
the other, the suddenness is greatly diminished 
by the resistance, producing a corresponding 
effect upon the pointer, which, as these shocks 
are rapid, vibrates nearer the actual draught 
of the machine ; which is the object in view, 
and not the measurement of any impediment, 
but a mean result of the whole. Mr. Pusey, in 
his "Experimental Inquiry on Draught in 
Ploughing" (Journ. Roy. Eng. Agr. Soc. vol. i. p. 
219), speaks very favourably of this draught- 
guage, and remarks (Ibid. p. 222): "Such is 
the goodness of Mr. Cottam's new draught- 
guage, that we scarcely ever, I believe, differed 
by more than a quarter of a hundred weight, 
and often agreed to an eighth, or one stone." 

DYSENTERY (Fr. dysenterie). See Shekp, 
Diseases of. 

E. 

EAR (Sax. eape; Lat. auris). The organ of 
hearing in animals. In a horse, the ears should 
be small, narrow, straight, and the substance 
of them thin and delicate. They should be 
placed on the very top of the head; and their 
points, when stiled or pricked up, should be 
nearer together than their roots. When a 
horse carries his ears pointed forwards, he is 
said to have a bold or brisk ear. In travelling, 
it is considered an advantage when the horse 
keeps them firm. The exterior ears of the 
horse are merely organs for collecting sound 



EAR MARK. 



EARTHS. 



consequently, he has a complete power over 
the muscles .attached to them, and can turn 
them in every direction. It is probable that 
the organ of hearing is the safeguard of the 
horse in his natural state. He is ill adapted for 
combat ; his swiftness of foot and his acute- 
ness of hearing are therefore requisites to him 
of the utmost importance. 

EAR MARK. A mark on the ear by which 
shepherds know their sheep. Cattle, hogs, and 
other animals are sometimes marked in the 
same way, by notching, clipping, or slitting 
the ear. 

EARNEST (Sax. eopner^: ; Tr.arrhes; Dan. 
ernitz penge). In commercial law, the sum ad- 
vanced by the buyer of goods in order to bind 
the seller to the terms of the agreement. As to 
what amounts to sufficient earnest, Blackstone 
lays it down, that " if any part of the price is 
paid down, if it is but a penny, or any portion 
of the goods is delivered by way of earnest, it 
is binding." To constitute earnest, the thing 
must be given as a token of ratification of the 
contract, and it should be expressly stated so 
by the giver. {Cbitty's Com. Law, vol. iii. p. 289 ; 
M'Culloch's Com. Diet.) 

EARS of Corn (Sax. shhep.). The spike 
or head containing the seeds of wheat, &c. 

In the United States the term ear as applied 
to grain, refers almost exclusively to that of 
Indian corn. 

EARTH (Sax. eapo.). This word was an- 
ciently employed to signify one of the four 
elements of which all matter was supposed to 
be formed ; namely air, fire, water, and earth. In 
the present period, the word in common lan- 
guage has two meanings ; it implies either the 
globe we tenant, or the soil on which plants 
vegetate. In this work it has reference to the 
latter. The soil, as well as the rocks, &c., of 
•which our planet is formed, is composed of a 
variety of substances, such as lime, silica, 
alumina, magnesia, &c., to which chemists 
long since gave the name of earths ; and 
although by the researches of Sir H. Davy and 
others, these earths have been shown to be, in 
reality, metallic oxides — that is, metals united 
with oxygen — yet the term earth is so well and 
so extensively known, that I should, even if 
this was intended to be a chemical dictionary, 
retain it. The following is the composition of 
the four earths most commonly met with by 
the farmer in his land, or in the crops which it 
supports : — 

Lime: a compound of a peculiar metal called 



Silica, which is by modern chemists c.assed 
with the acids, is a compound of a metal called 



Calcium 
Oxygen 



Alumina (clay) ; 

Aluminum - 
Oxygen 



a compound of, 



56-895 
43105 



100 



Magnesia : a compound of the metal 

Magnesium ..... 

Oxygen ..... 



100 



Silicon 
Oxygen 



In this place, however, our business is with 
the earths only so far as their uses to vegeta- 
tion are concerned. 

EARTHS, their Use to Vegetation. In the in- 
vestigation of the use of the earths to vegeta- 
tion, not only as regards their position as 
necessary portions of all cultivated soils, but 
as forming the essential constituents of most 
vegetable substances, several very important 
circumstances will present themselves to the 
notice of the cultivator. The order and the 
regularity with which these earths are found in 
plants is most remarkable ; the harmony, too, 
with which the various chemical ingredients 
are arranged, the uniform manner in which 
they are absorbed by the roots of the plant and 
distributed in its juices, cannot escape our at- 
tention, nor fail to excite our gratitude for the 
benevolence and the wisdom displayed in the 
contrivance. Thus we shall find, as we pro- 
ceed in our researches (to give only a single 
instance), that the earth silica (flint) abounds 
in the strata of the wheat plant, where its pre- 
sence helps to impart the requisite degree of 
strength and hardness to the stem ; but scarce- 
ly a chemical trace of this earth is discoverable 
in the flour of the seeds of the same plant, for 
there its presence in our food would be worse 
than useless. 

Let not, however, the reader, when he is 
considering the discoveries of vegetable che- 
mistry, feel surprised that more has not been 
accomplished by the chemical philosopher in 
that important branch of science. There are 
many reasons why the discoveries in this 
branch of chemistry have been gradual, and 
only by slow degrees : he may be assured that 
the difficulties which attend the chemist when 
he is investigating the properties of organic 
matter, are more than usually numerous ; for 
the living plant, in many instances, seems en- 
dowed with powers that appear even to neu- 
tralize the effects of chemical attraction and 
repulsion : thus the earths and alkalie;:, to give 
one instance only, are often found in juxtapo- 
sition with uncombined vegetable acids. The 
roots of most plants, also, are endowed with a 
remarkable capacity of absorption ; not only 
do they absorb water, the gases of the atmo- 
sphere and those formed by putrefaction, but 
they take up earths, alkalies, and saline sub- 
stances ; and, besides doing this with a regu- 
larity which is almost unvaried, they exercise 
a power of absorbing certain saline bodies 
when dissolved with others in water, and of 
leaving the others in solution, which shows 
them to be endowed with properties of a very 
remarkable nature. Some curious experiments 
were long since made by M. Saussure on this 
interesting question. " When various salts 
were dissolved at once in the same solutions,' 
says Dr. Thomson, " and plants made to vege 
tate in them, it was found that different propor- 
tions of the salts were absorbed. The follow- 

427 



EARTHS. 



EARTHS. 



ing table exhibits the results of these trials, 
supposing the original weight of each salt to 
have been 100. Each solution contained one 
hundredth part of its weight of each salt — 







Proportion 






absorbed. 


J j Glauber salt 
( Coinnion salt 


. 


- 11-7 


. 


- 220 


f Glauber salt 


. 


- 60 


9. < Comuion salt 


- 


- 100 


(.Acetate of limei - 


- 


- 00 



On examining the plants the salts absorbed 
were found in them unaltered." (Chemistry, 
vol. iv. p. 325.) In these experiments the cul- 
tivator will observe that the plants (which were 
Spotted Persicaria (Polygonum Persicaria) and 
the Bur-marigold (Bidens tripurtita), with their 
roots attached) absorbed the common salt with 
avidity, but that they rejected entirely the ace- 
tate of lime. The earths are, in all probability, 
always imbibed by the plant in a state of solu- 
tion ; we know, in fact, that both lime and 
silica are, to a certain extent, soluble in water, 
and alumina is also very probably absorbed as 
a component of some of the soluble salts which 
contain this earth. 

The part which the earth fulfils in the sup- 
port of plants early attracted the attention of 
philosophers. The earthy ashes produced by 
the combustion of vegetable substances must 
have very soon indicated to mankind the real 
truth of the case, that there were certain solid 
substances found in vegetables which they 
could only derive from the earth they tenanted. 
That the soil furnished its earthy matter to the 
plant was, therefore, the natural conclusion of 
some of the Greek philosophers ; and although 
their observations in this way were commonly 
very loose, and always general, yet when they 
decided, which they did with all gravity, that 
earth, air, fire, and water composed every thing 
on the earth, the vegetable world was of course 
included in the list ; they still, however, thought 
that the chief use of the earth to plants con- 
sisted in keeping them upright, and furnishing 
them with a sufficient supply of moisture. 

When the ancient naturalists came to the 
conclusion that the whole earth was composed 
of four elements, they founded their decision 
upon certain rude observations ; but they did 
not stop there, they proceeded to confuse them- 
selves by various incomprehensible or delu- 
sive phrases, such as more modern observers 
have too often imitated. Fire they regarded as 
the active principle of the universe, the source 
of both animal and vegetable life, the cause 
of renovation and decay. Earth they consi- 
dered as the principle of fixity, of hardness, 
and of solidity. These rude, though sagacious 
observations, the early chemists, and then the 
alchemists, strongly confirmed by the mode in 
which they analyzed vegetable substances. 
They had only one mode of effecting this, that 
of subjecting them in a retort to dry or de- 
structive distillation. By this mode the results 
are almost always the same ; first the water 
of the plant comes over ; then a volume of 
carburetted hydrogen and carbonic acid gases 
is driven off"; and finally a quantity of earthy 
matters, mixed with various salts and potash 
remains at the bottom of the retort. We need 
hardly feel surprised, therefore, that after such 
42S 



an analysis, the chemists of old readily agreed 
with the naturalists that earth, air, and Avater, 
alone formed the vegetable world. 

Evelyn, in 1674, wrote a work upon earth, 
in which he lauded its powers with much en- 
thusiasm. " What shall I say," he exclaims, 
" Quid Divinum 1 the original of all fecundity ; 
nor can I say less, since there was nor sacri- 
fice nor discourse without it." And in another 
place he says (for Evelyn was exceedingly 
credulous), "Whatever then it be, which the 
earth contributes, or whether it contains uni- 
versally a seminal virtue, so specified by the 
air, influences, and the genius of the climate, 
as to make that a cinnamon tree in Ceylon 
which is but a bay in England, is past my skill 
to determine ; but it is to be observed with no 
little wonder, what M. Bernier in his history of 
the empire of the Mogul affirms to, as of a 
mountain there, which being on one side of it 
intolerably hot produces Indian plants, and on 
the other as intemperately cold, European and 
vulgar plants." There is much valuable mat- 
ter, however, in The Terra of Evelyn, whose 
modesty enhanced his great merits. Thus, in 
conclusion, he told his Fellows of the Royal 
Society, to whom his valuable essay was ad- 
dressed, that it was merely "a dull discourse 
of earth, mould, and soil." 

Fitzherbert, the earliest English writer upon 
agriculture (1532), did not pay any attention 
to earths, beyond the usual necessary routine 
of the farm; he confined himself entirely to 
practical details : not a trace of any thing like 
scientific inquiry is to be found in his Boke of 
Husbandrye. John Worlidge, who published 
his System of Agrinihvre in 1669, thought it ne- 
cessary, as he professed to " unveil the mystery 
of agriculture," to give the cultivator an expla- 
natory chapter on the food of plants, in what 
he called "a plain and familiar method," and 
this he did in the true jargon of the alchemists; 
for the age of " the transmuters " was not yet 
over when "Worlidge wrote. He gave, there- 
fore, the husbandmen of those days a disserta- 
tion upon "the universal spirit, or spirit of 
mercury, the universal sulphur, and the uni- 
versal salt;" but still, after all, he thought that 
the earth was the true food of plants, and that 
all the operations of the husbandman only 
tended to enable the roots of the plant to take 
up more earthy matter, and he devotes a chap- 
ter of his book to the " Soyls and Manures 
taken from the Earth." But his ideas, like those 
of the alchemists, were usually a mixture of 
common sense and absurdity, too close]}^ united 
to be always readily distinguishable bv 'he 
good sense of the cultivator. 

Jethro Tull, who wrote between 1730 and 
1740, considered earth to be the sole food of 
plants. " Too much nitre," he tells us (p. 13, 
of his valuable Book on Husbandry), "cor- 
rodes a plant, too much water drowns it, too 
much air dries the routs of it, too much heat 
burns it ; but too much earth a plant can never 
have, unless it be therein wholly buried: too 
much earth or too fine can never possibly be 
given to their roots, for they never receive so 
much of it as to surfeit the plant." And again, 
he tells us in another place, "That which nou- 
rishes and augments a plant is the true food 



EARTHS. 



EARTHS. 



of it. Every plant is earth, and the growth and 
true increase of a plant is the addition of more 
earth." And in his chapter on the " Pasture of 
Plants," TuU told his readers with great gravity, 
that "this pasturage is the inner or internal 
superficies of the earth ; or, which is the same 
thing, it is the superficies of the pores, cavi- 
ties, or interstices of the divided parts of the 
earth, which are of two sorts, natural and arti- 
ficial. The mouths or lacteals of roots take 
their pabuluin, being fine particles of earth, 
from the superficies of the pores or cavities, 
wherein their roots are included." 

TuU wrote with all the enthusiasm of genius, 
and carried his admiration of the powers of the 
earth to support vegetation much too far ; he 
was deceived, in fact, by the effects of his finely 
pulverizing system of tillage, and did not suffi- 
ciently attend to the fact, that there are many 
other substances in the commonly cultivated 
soils of the farmer besides the earths, and that 
so far from their being always the chief con- 
stituents of the soil, they very often form the 
smallest portion of even a highly productive 
field. 

That the four earths of which all cultivated 
soils are composed are all the necessary food 
or constituents of vegetables, has, long since 
Tull wrote, been decided by the accurate in- 
vestigations of the chemist. Of these, lime, 
either as a carbonate, or an acetate, or a sul- 
phate, is by far the most generally present in 
plants; indeed, in one form or another, it is 
rarely absent from them. The presence of 
silica (flint) is almost equally general. Mag- 
nesia is less usually present, or, at least, it ex- 
ists in smaller proportions ; and the same re- 
mark applies to alumina (clay). 

The quantity of the earths which is present 
in various viegetables is, therefore, a primary 
question for the cultivator's guidance. This 
will be seen from the following tables : — 

Parts. 

1000 parts of the oak contain of the earths 1-030 

— beech — 04.53 

— fir — 0.003 

— Turkey wheat (Indian corn) T'llO 

— sunflower — 3-720 

— vine branches — 2-850 

— box — 2674 

— willow — 2-515 

— elm — 1-960 

— aspen — 1-146 

— fern — 3-221 

— wormwood — 2444 

— fumitory — 14000 

The proportions of the earths contained in 
the commonly cultivated crops of the farmer 
have been ascertained by M. Schrajder : this 
able chemist obtained from thirty-two ounces 
of the seeds of wheat {^Triticum hybernum), of 
rye {Secale cereale), barley (Hordeum vulgare), 
oats {Avena sativa), and of rye-straw the fol- 
lowing results : — 





Wheat. 


Rye. 


Barley. 


Oats. 


Rye 
Straw. 


Silica ... 
Carbonate of lime 

" of magnesia 
Alumina 

Oxide of manganese 
Oxide of iron 


13-2 
12-6 
13-4 
0-6 
50 
2-5 


15-6 
13-4 
14-2 
1-4 
3-2 
0-9 


66-7 
248 
25-3 
4-2 
6-7 
3-8 


144-02 
33-75 
33-09 
4-05 
6 95 
405 


1520 
46-2 

28-2 
3-2 
6-8 
2-4 




47-3 


48-7 


131-5 


227-8 238-8 | 



(fiehlen, Journ. vol. iii. p. 525.) 



The earth silica or flint abounds in almost 
every (h^scription of vegetable matter, espe- 
cially in the grasses and Equiselum (horse-tail). 
In the Dutch rush it is so plentiful that that 
plant is used by the turner to polish wood, bone, 
and even brass. It forms so considerable a 
portion of the ashes of wheat-straw, that when 
these are exposed to the action of the blow- 
pipe, it unites with the potash found also in the 
straw, and forms an opaque glass. Davy found 
it most copiously in the epidermis or outer 
bark of the plants he examined. 

Par's 

100 parts of the epidermis of bonnet-cane contain 

of silica -- 90-0 

100 parts ot'ttie epidermis of bamboo-cane contain 

of silica ........ 7i'4 

100 parts of the epidermis of common reed contain 

of silicH .----.-. 48-1 
100 parts of the epidermis of stalks of wheat cnn- 

lain of silica ---.-.. 65 

In the joints of the bamboo a concrete sub- 
stance is found, which Fourcroy and Vauque- 
lin examined, and ascertained that it consists 
of 70 parts of silica, and 30 parts of potassa. 
This substance, which is named tabashcer, can 
only be furnished by the soil. (Gelden, vol. ii. 
p. 112.) 

This earth, according to M. Saussure, consti- 
tutes 3 per cent, of the ashes of the leaves of 
oak gathered in May, 14-5 per cent, of those 
gathered in September, and 2 per cent, of the 
wood. In the ashes obtained by burning the 
wood of the poplar, it exists in the proportion 
of 3-3 per cent.; of the hazel, 0-25 percent.; 
of the mulberry, 0-12 per cent. ; of the horn- 
beam, 0-12 per cent.; 0-5 per cent, in peas (Pi- 
sum sativum) ; 61 '5 in the straw of wheat; 0*25 
in the seeds ; 57-0 per cent, in the chaff of bar- 
ley; 35-5 in its seeds; and in the oat plant 60 
per cent. 

Lime is, if possible, still more generally 
present in all plants than silica. " The salsola 
soda," says Dr. Thomson, " is the only plant in 
which we know for certain it does not exist." 
(Syst. of Chem. vol. iv. p. 190.) It is, however, 
united with carbonic acid as carbonate of lime; 
or it exists as the base of some other salt, 
such as in oxalate of lime, or in sulphate of 
lime (gypsum). It was found in the ashes re- 
maining after the combustion of oak wood, at 
the rate of 32 per cent., by M. Saussure. In 
that of the poplar at the rate of 27 per cent. 
He discovered also 8 per cent, in those from 
the wood of the hazel ; 56 in those of the mul- 
berry wood ; 26 in the hornbeam; 14 in the 
ripe plant of peas ; 1 per cent, in the straw of 
the wheat, but not any in its seeds; 12 in the 
chaff of barley, but none in either its flour or 
its bran ; neither did he find any in the oat 
plant ; but then, in the ashes of the leaves of 
the fir (Pinns abies), raised on a limestone hill, 
he found 43-5 per cent. 

Alumina, as I have elsewhere observed, is 
found in most vegetables, but in much smaller 
proportion than either silica or carbonate of 
lime, and the same remark applies to magne- 
sia. M. Schrafider found, as we have before 
seen, in 2 lbs. weight of the seeds of wheat 
only jVths of a grain of alumina, in rye 1^ 
grains, in barley 4y2_ grains, in oats 4^ grains, 
and in rye-straw 3^^^ grains. In 12 ounces o 
wormwood there are about 5 grains of alu 

429 



EARTHS. 



EARTHS. 



mina. This earth, however, necessarily exists 
in all fertile soils as the food of plants ; for 
although the proportions in which it is found 
are rather small, yet still there is no reason to 
believe that its presence is not essential to the 
healthy growth of the plant. M. Saussure 
found the ashes of the Finns abies, growing on 
a granitic and on a calcareous soil, to contain 
nearly the same quantity of alumina (15 per 
cent, on the calcareous and 16 per cent, on the 
granitic), although these soils differed widely 
in the proportion of the alumina they contained; 
for 100 parts of each wood were composed of: 

The Granitic Soil. Parts. 

Silica "5-25 

Alumina ------- 13-25 

Lime - 174 

Iron and manganese .... 900 

9924 

The Cilcareoui Soil. 
Carbonate of lime .... 98-000 

Alumina 0-625 

Oxide of iron 625 

Petroleum 025 

99-275 
{Thomson^ Chem. vol. iv. p. 317.) 

Such are the earths which constitute all 
cultivated soils, and such is the necessary pro- 
portion in which they form the constituent 
elements of some of the plants which they sup- 
port. In the soils of the cultivator, however, 
they exist in an endless variety of proportions : 
thus, I found 68-5 per cent, of silica in the 
gravelly soils of Great Totham, in Essex, and 
62 in those of Kintbury, in Berkshire. Davy 
discovered about .'30 per cent, in the soil of the 
Endsleigh Pastures in Devonshire, .54 in that 
near Shefheld Place in Sussex, 15 in the turnip 
soils of Holkham in Norfolk, 32 in the finely 
divided matters of the wheat soils of West 
Drayton, and about 97 per cent, in the soil of 
Bagshot Heath. Mr. George Sinclair found 
about 66 per cent, in the grass garden of Wo- 
burn Abbey. 

Of alumina, or pure earth of clay, the pro- 
portions ai-e equally varying. I ascertained 
the presence of 4*5 per cent, of this earth in a 
gravelly soil of Thurstable in Essex, and 8*5 in 
one at Kintbury in Berkshire. Mr. G. Sinclair 
found 14 per cent, in the soil of the grass gar- 
den at Woburn Abbey. Davy detected 8*5 per 
cent, in that at Endsleigh, 6-25 in one at Croft 
Church in Lincolnshire, 7 in that in Sheffield 
Place, 11 in that of Holkham, 29 in a field at 
West Drayton, and about 1 per cent, in the soil 
of Bagshot Heath. 

Of carbonate of lime, the presence is just 
as varying in amount as that of the other 
earths. I found 18 per cent, in a soil at To- 
tham, and 19 per cent, in a soil at Kintbury; 
Sinclair, 2 per cent, in the soil of the Woburn 
Abbey grass garden. Davy discovered 8 per 
cent, in that from Croft Church, 3 per cent, in 
that of Sheffield Place, 63 per cent, in the finely 
divided matters of the soil from Holkham, 
and about 1 per cent, only in the soil from 
Bagshot. 

The farmer, however, must not conclude, that 
by merely mixing the pure earths, silica, lime, 
and alumina together in the most fertile pro- 
431 



portion, a soil can be formed on which plants 
will flourish, for such is a very erroneous con- 
clusion. All attempts which have been made 
to make plants flourish in the pure earths have 
failed utterly when they have been watered 
with pure water; yet a totally difl^'erent result 
I have invariably experienced when I have 
employed an impure solution or liquid manure. 
My trials have been entirely supported by 
those of M. Giobert, -who having formed' of the 
four earths, silica, alumina, lime, and magne- 
sia, a soil in the most fertile proportion, in vain 
essayed to make the plants flourish in it when 
watered with pure water only; but every diffi- 
culty was removed when he moistened it with 
the water from a dunghill, for they then grew 
most luxuriantly; and M. Lampadius still fur- 
ther demonstrated the necessity for, and the 
powers of siich an addition to the soil ; for he 
formed plots composed only of a single earth — 
namely, pure lime, pure alumina, or pure 
silica — and planted in each different vegeta- 
bles, watering them with the liquid drainings 
from a dunghill, and he found that plants on 
all of them flourished equally well. The solu- 
ble matters of a soil ever constitute, in fact, its 
most fertilizing portion ; and if by any artificial 
means the richest mould is deprived of these, 
as by repeated washings in cold or boiling 
water, the residuum or remaining solid matter 
is rendered nearly sterile. This fact, first ac- 
curately demonstrated by M. Saussure, I have 
since confirmed by a variety of experiments. 
Neither must the cultivator imagine that these 
carefully considered conclusions, the results 
of often-repeated laborious experiments, are 
erroneous, because transparent water, appa- 
renihj pure, when viewed in water-glasses, or 
in irrigation, promotes the growth of bulbs, 
grass, &c., since the very purest spring water, 
even rain water, contains foreign substances; 
and when only chemically pure water is em- 
ployed to water plants, they cannot be made 
to flourish. I have fruitlessly varied the at- 
tempt in several ways. All the experiments of 
Dr. Thomson were equally unsuccessful, the 
plants vegetating only for a certain time, and 
never perfecting their seeds. Similar experi- 
ments were made by Hassenfratz, Saussure, 
and others, with the same unfavourable result. 
Duhamel found that an oak, which he had 
raised from an acorn in common water, made 
less and less progress every year. The florist 
is well aware that bulbous roots, such as those 
of hyacinths, tulips, &c., which are made to 
grow in water, unless they are planted in the 
earth every other year, at first refuse to flower, 
and finally they cease even to vegetate. More- 
over, it has been unanswerably shown by 
many very accurate experiments, at the repe- 
tition of which I have personally assisted, that 
the quantity of nourishment or solid matters 
absorbed by the roots of plants is always in 
proportion to the impurity of the water with 
which they are nourished ; thus some common 
garden beans were made to vegetate under 
three different circumstances ; the first were 
grown in distilled water, the second were 
placed in sand and watered with rain water, the 
third were sown in garden mould. The plants 
thus produced, when accurately analyzed, 



EARTHS. 



EARTHS. 



were found to yield the following proportion 
of ashes — 



1. Those fed by distilled water - 

2. Those fed by rain-water 

3. Those grown in the soil - 



Parts. 

- 3-9 

- 7-5 

- 12 



The mode in which the earths are absorbed 
by the roots of the plant is, it is almost certain, 
by means of their solution in water, for both 
carbonate of lime and silica are, in small pro- 
portions, soluble in water ; they exist together 
in many springs ; and they were both found in 
the water of the Clyde by Dr. Thomson, in that 
of the Thames by Dr. Bostock, and in the 
springs of Upsula, celebrated for their purity, 
by Bergman. Alumina, as far as we know, is 
not soluble in water, but then it exists in very 
small proportions in plants ; and the soluble 
salts of which it is the base may serve to yield 
this earth to vegetables : the earth itself is so- 
luble in ammonia. 

The way in which soils are gradually formed 
by the action of the atmosphere upon the hard 
primitive rocks has been well explained by 
Davy, and is a natural process which cannot 
but be interesting to the farmer. I merely 
slightly alter his words in the following account 
of this important natural phenomenon. It is 
not difficult to comprehend the manner in which 
this change is effected, and rocks converted 
into soils, by referring to the instance of soft 
granite or porcelain granite. This substance 
is composed of three ingredients, quartz, feld- 
spar, and mica. The quartz is almost pure 
silicious earth in a crystalline form. The 
feldspar and mica are very compound sub- 
stances ;* both contain silica, alumina, and 
oxide of iron:, in the feldspar there is usually 
lime and potash; in the mica, lime and mag- 
nesia. 

When a granitic rock of this kind has been 
long exposed to the action of the atmosphere, 
the lime and the potash contained in its consti- 
tuent parts are acted upon by water or carbonic 
acid; and the iron, which is almost always in 
its least oxidized state, tends to combine with 
more oxygen ; the consequence is, that the 
feldspar decomposes, and likewise the mica, 
but the first the most rapidly. The feldspar, 
which is, as it were, the cement of the stone, 
forms a fine clay; the mica, partially decom- 
posed, mixes with it as sand, and the undecom- 
posed quartz appears as gravel, or sand of 
different degrees of fineness. As soon as the 
smallest layer of earth is thus formed on the 



* Oommon felspar is composed of— 

Silica ...... 62-83 

Alumina ...... 1702 

Lime . 300 

Oxide of iron . . . - - TOO 

Potash 1300 

Loss ....... 3-50 

100- 

Common mica is composed of— 

Silica ...... 47'00 

Alumina ...... 200O 

Oxide of iron - - . . . 15-50 
Oxide of manganese . . - 175 

Potash 14-50 

IiOB8 ---.-.. 1-25 

100- 



surface of a rock, the seeds of lichens, mosses, 
and other imperfect vegetables, which are con- 
stantly floating in the atmosphere, and which 
have made it their resting-place, begin to veo-e- 
tate ; their death, decomposition, and decay 
afford a certain quantity of organic matter, 
which mixes with the earthy materials of the 
rock. In this improved soil, more perfect 
plants are capable of subsisting; these in their 
turn absorb nourishment from water and frpm 
the atmosphere, and as these, too, decay, afford 
more new materials to those already provided; 
and the decomposition of the rock still conti- 
nues. At length, by such slow and almost 
imperceptible processes, a soil is formed in 
which even forest trees can fix their roots, and 
which is fitted to reward the labours of the cul- 
tivator. 

Where successive generations of vegetables 
have grown upon a soil, unless they have been 
carried off by man or consumed by animals, 
the vegetable matter increases to such an ex- 
tent that the soil approaches to peat in its 
nature. Poor and hungr}'- soils are commonly 
produced by the decomposition of the granite 
and sandstone rocks : such soils usually remain 
for ages with only a thin covering of vegetation. 
The soils produced by the same gradual means 
on the limestones, chalks, and basalts, are often 
clothed by nature with the perennial grasses 
and afford, when ploughed up, a rich bed of 
vegetation for every species of cultivated crop 

The quantity of moisture which a soil, or the 
earths of which it is chiefly composed, contain 
influences to a very material extent its fertility 
This not only differs in different seasons, but 
this power varies very considerably indeed in 
soils, according to their chemical composition. 
This was experimentally decided by Professor 
Schubier, of the University of Tubingen, in his 
" Agronomy, or Principles of Agricultural Che- 
mistry," for a translation of which the English 
farmer is indebted to Mr. Hudson, the present 
excellent Secretary to the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England, — a translation of which 
I have largely availed myself in this paper. 
(Jown. of Roy. Ag. Sac. vol. i. p. 177.) M. Schu- 
bier found that a cubic foot of different soils, 
when thoroughly saturated with water and 
when completely dried, weighed as follows : — 







Weight 


if a cubic 


Kind of Earth. 


Specific 
Gravity 


fool, 


n lbs. 




Dry. 


Wet. 


Calcareous sand ... 


2-722 


113-6 


141-3 


Silicious sand ... 


2-653 


111-3 


136-1 


Gypsum powder ... 


2-331 


Pl-9 


127 6 


Sandy clay - . . - 


2-601 


97-8 


129-7 


Loamy clay - - . . 


2-581 


88-5 


124-1 


Stiff clay or brick earth 


2-560 


80-3 


119-6 


Pure gray clay - . - 


2553 


75-2 


115-8 


Pipe clay .... 


2-440 


47-9 


1021 


Fine carbonate of lime (chalk) 


2-468 


53-7 


103-5 


Garden mould . . - 


2-332 


68-7 


102-7 


Arable soil .... 


2-401 


84-5 


119-1 


Fine slaty marl . . - 


2631 


1120 


140-3 



The result of these trials will be useful to 
the farmer in explaining to him the reason 
why, on account of their requiring more or les.** 
moisture, certain crops flourish best on parti- 
cular soils ; and even in the carriage of the 
earths he will perceive that their weight in th« 
wet or dry state is much greater than som* 
persons suppose. 

431 



EARTHS. 

The next important inquiry instituted by the 
same excellent chemist, was the relative degree 
of tenacity with which different soils retain the 
moisture when exposed under similar circum- 
stances to the action of the atmosphere ; and 
he found that they parted with their moisture 
accordinsr to the followinsr rate : — 



EARTHS. 



KiDd of Earth. 


Evaporation from 100 parts of 
absorbed water in four hours. 


1 


Parts. 


Silicious sand - . - 


88-4 


Calcareous sand - - - 


75 9 


Gypsiim powder - - - 


71'7 


Sandy clay - - - - 


520 


Loamy clay - - - - 


45-7 


Stiff clay or brick earth 


34-9 


Pure pray clay • . - 


31-9 


Fine lime - - - - 


280 


Garden mould - . - 


24-3 


Arable soil - - . - 


320 


Slaty marl . - - . 


680 



In these experiments the soils were spread 
out to dry very thinly over a plate of metal ; 
but in the following comparative trials (to ren- 
der the results in all respects more similar to 
those which the cultivator would experience), 
the soil was exposed to the atmosphere in 
masses of an inch in depth : — 



Kind of Earth. 

1 


Water evaporated in 
four days. 


Calcareous sand ... 
Light garden mould - - . 
Gypsum powder ... 
Very light turf soil . - - 
Slaty marl ----- 
Arable soil ----- 
Fine magnesia - - - - 
Black turf soil not so light 
White fine clay - - - . 
Gray fine clay - . . - 


Grains 
146 
143 
136 
132 
131 
131 
129 
128 
123 
123 



The amount of the relative contraction of 
different soils, when they are deprived of their 
moisture, is another equally important question 
to the farmer to be ascertained. " Many of 
them," says M. Schubler, " become contracted 
into a narrower space in drying, and in conse- 
quence of this circumstance cracks and fissures 
frequently occur in land, and have an injurious 
effect on the vegetation, as the finer roots, which 
often ramify horizontally, and not unfrequently 
supply to the plants the greater part of their 
means of nourishment, are, by such contrac- 
tions, either laid bare of soil or torn asunder. 
In order to subject soils to comparative expe- 
riments on this point, the following plan may 
be adopted. We either form of the earths, in 
their wet state, large cubic pieces of equal 
size, being at least ten-twelfths of an inch in 
height, breadth, and length, or we let such 
earths be fitted and dried one after another in 
an accurately worked cubic inch; after some 
time, when the weight of these cubes of earth 
ceases to change by further drying, we measure 
the dimensions of the cube by means of a rule 
on which the tenths of lines can be distin- 
Ruished, and may thus calculate easily the 
volume of the earth, and consequently ascer- 
tain the diminution in bulk Avhich has been 
caused by the drying. The experiments which 
I tnade with the following earths exhibited on 
Or.s point the subjoined differences : — 
43* 



Sillcjoiis sand 

Calcareous earth 

Fine lime - - - 

Sandy clay 

Loamy clay 

Stiff clay or brick earth 

Gray pure clay - 

Carbonate of magnesia 

Garden mould 

Arable soil - - - 

Slaty marl - - - 



1000 parts diminiilMd 
in volume bf 



Farts. 

no change, 
no change. 

50 

60 

89 
114 
183 
154 
149 
120 

35 



Such is the effect upon various soils of de- 
priving them of their moisture. In these cii-- 
mical investigations the farmer will see how 
entirely they confirm his own observati-ons. 
The heavy clay soils, he well knows, are the 
most contracted by exposure to the heats of 
summer; the sands the least afiected of any. 

A still more important property of soils, 
their attraction for the aqueous vapour of the 
atmosphere, is next to be considered — a pro- 
perty the importance of which to the cultiva- 
tor. Sir H. Davy long since saw in its true 
light, and his observations cannot be too often 
quoted, since they Avell illustrate and enforce, 
amongst other things, the truth of the great 
Tullian system of agriculture: of the advan- 
tages of finely dividing the soil, of the subsoil 
plough, and of the horse-hoe husbandry. "The 
power of the soil to absorb water by cohesive 
attraction," said this great chemist, "depends 
in a great measure on the state of division of 
its parts; the more divided they are, the great- 
er is their absorbent power. The different 
constituent parts of soils likewise appear to 
act, even by cohesive attraction, with different 
degrees of energy: thus vegetable substances 
seem to be more absorbent than animal sub- 
stances, animal substances more so than com- 
pounds of alumina and silica, and compounds 
of alumina and silicia more absorbent than 
carbonates of lime and magnesia; these dif- 
ferences may, however, possibly depend upon 
the differences in their state of division, and 
upon the surface exposed. The power of soils 
to absorb water from air is much connected 
with fertility ; when this power is great, the 
plant is supplied with moisture in dry seasons; 
and the effect of evaporation in the day is 
counteracted by the absorption of aqueous 
vapour from the atmosphere by the exterior 
parts of the soil during the night. The stiff 
clays, approaching to pipe-clay in their nature, 
which take up the greatest quantity of water 
when it is poured upon them in a fluid form, 
are not the soils which absorb most moisture 
from the atmosphere in dry weather; they 
cake, and present only a small surface to the 
air, and the vegetation on them is generally 
burnt up almost as readily as on sands. The 
soils that are most efficient in supplying the 
plant with water by atmospheric absorption 
are those in which there is a due mixture of 
sand, finely divided clay, and carbonate of 
lime, with some animal or vegetable matter; 
and which are so loose and light as to be 
freely permeable to the atmosphere. With 
respect to this quality, carbonate of lime and 
animal and vegetable matter are of great use 



EARTHS. 



EARTHS. 



in soils ; they give absorbent power to the soil 
without giving it tenacity: sand, which also 
destroys tenacity, on the contrary, gives little 
absorbent power. I have compared the ab- 
sorbent powers of many soils with respect to 
atmospheric moisture, and I have always found 
it greatest in the most fertile soils ; so that it 
affords one method of judging of the produc- 
liveness of land. 1000 parts of a celebrated 
soil from Ormiston, in East Lothian, which 
contained more than half its weight of finely 
divided matter, of which eleven parts were 
carbonate of lime, and nine parts vegetable 
matter, when dried at 212° gained in an hour, 
by exposure to air saturated with moisture at 
a temperature of 62°, 18 parts ; 1000 parts of 
a very fertile soil from the banks of the river 
Parret, in Somersetshire, under the same cir- 
cumstances, gained 16 grains ; 1000 parts of a 
soil from Mersea, in Essex, worth forty-five 
shillings an acre, gained 13 grains; 1000 grains 
of a fine sand from Essex, worth twenty-three 
shillings an acre, gained 11 grains ; 1000 of a 
coarse sand, worth fifteen shillings an acre, 
gained only 8 grains; 1000 of the soil of Bag- 
shot Heath gained only 3 grains." 

In my own experiments upon the absorbent 
powers of various earths, I extended the ex- 
amination to various organic and saline fer- 
tilizers. The result of these may be seen in 
the following table : — 

Parts. 

1000 parts nftiorse dung dried in a temperature of 
100 degrees, absorhed, by exposure for three 
hours til air saturated with moisture and of the 
temperature of 62 degrees ----- 145 
1000 parts of cow dung, under the same circum- 
stances, absorbed -.-..- 130 

1000 parts pig dung 120 

1000 — sheep dung 81 

1000 — pigeon's dung ----- 50 
1000 — of a rich alluvial soil, worth two guineas 
per acre (rent), -------14 

The following were dried at 212 degrees: — 

1000 parts fresh tanner's bark - - - - 115 

1000 — putrefied tanner's bark - - - - 145 

1000 — refuse marine salt sold as manure - 49i 

1000 — soot 36 

1000 — burnt clay ------ 29 

1000 — coal ashes ------ 14 

1000 — lime 11 

1000 — sediment from saltpans - - - 10 

1000 — crushed rock salt 10 

1000 — gypsum -- 9 

1000 — chalk _ - - 4 

(Johnson on Fertilizers, p. 41.) 

Davy's experiments and my own are con- 
firmed by those of M. Schubler, who varied his 
observations at intervals of three days ; his 
results were as follows : — 



1 


1000 grains on a surface, of 50 square 






Kind of Earth. 




1 


t2 hours. 


24 hours 


48 hours. 


72 hours. 




P* 


gr». 


grs. 


gri. 


Silicious sand 














Calcareous sand - 


2 


3 


3 


3 


Gypsum powder - 


1 


1 


1 


1 


Sandy clay - . . 


21 


26 


28 


28 


Loamy clay - - - 


25 


30 


34 


35 


Stiffclay - - - 


30 


36 


40 


41 


Gray pure clay 


37 


42 


48 


49 


Fine lime - . . 


26 


31 


35 


35 


Fine magnesia 


69 


76 


80 


8-2 


Garden mould 


35 


45 


50 


52 


Arable soil . . - 


16 


22 


23 


23 


Slat^ marl - . - 


24 


29 


32 


33 



sphere and of putrefaction, is a power equally 
worthy of the consideration of the farmer. It 
was long since shown, in some experimental 
researches of Mr. Hill, that when oxygen gas 
is supplied to the roots of plants, their growth 
and vigour are very considerably increased. 
Some years since, also, Alexander Von Hum- 
boldt announced that the earths possess the 
property of absorbing this gas from the atmo- 
sphere (Gilbert's Jin. of Phil. vol. i. p. 512); and 
although the fact was doubted at the time, yet 
later researches have shown that 7>wist earth 
has the property assigned to it by Humboldt, 
and the amount absorbed by various earths has 
since been ascertained by, and will be seen in 
the following table of M. Schubler: — 







In the wet state ab. 
sorbed in 30 days by 




Absorbed 


1000 grams of earth 


KiDiiof Eirth. 


in Ibe 


from 15 cubic inches 




dry state. 


of atmospheric air, 
coDtaioing 21 per 






cent, of oxygen. 


Silicious sand - - - 





grains. 

010 


Calcareous sand 





0-35 


Gvpsum powder 





017 


Sandy clay . - - 





0-59 


Loamy clay . - - 





0-70 


Stiff clay or brick earth 





0-86 


Gray pure clay - - - 





0-97 


1 Fine lime - - - - 





0-69 


1 Magnesia - . - - 





108 


Garden mould - . - 





110 


Arable soil - - - 





103 


Slaty marl - - - 





0-70 



Another property possessed by all cultivated 
soils, that of absorbing the gases of the atmo- 
55 



This attractive power of the earths and 
of the plants for the aqueous vapour and the 
oxygen gas of the atmosphere are, as I .have 
on more than one occasion contended, two of 
the most important facts to be kept in mind by 
the farmer, with regard to the deepening and 
pulverization of his soils. The power of ab- 
sorbing moisture is a power which all plants 
possess in a certain measure, but some in such 
a perfect degree as to depend entirely upon ii 
for all the moisture they need. The aloe, the 
agave, and many of the native plants of the 
East, nearly support themselves in the same 
way ; the lichens and some of the mosses of 
this country also do the same. The quantity 
of water consumed by plants, when in a state 
of healthy vegetation, is in fact so great that, 
if it was not for the gentle steady supply thus 
imperceptibly furnished to the soil by the at- 
mosphere, vegetation would speedily cease, or 
only be supported by incessant rains. Thus 
Dr. Hales ascertained that a cabbage transmits 
into the atmosphere, by insensible vapour, 
about half its weight of water daily; and that 
a sunflower, three feet in height, transpired in 
the same period nearly two pounds' weight. 
(Veg. Stat. vol. i. pp. 5—15.) Dr. Woodward 
found that a sprig of mint, weighing 27 grains, 
in seventy-seven days emitted 2543 grains of 
water. A sprig of spearmint, weighing 27 
grains, emitted in the same time 2558 grains , 
a sprig of common nightshade, weighing 49 
grains, evolved 3708 grains, and a Lathyrus of 
98 grains emitted 2501 grains. (Phil. Trans. 
1699, p. 193.) "The power of soils to absorb 
moisture," says Davy, "ought to be much 
greater in warm or dry countries than in cold 
or moist ones, and the quantity of clay or vege- 
table or animal matter greater. Soils, also, on 
2 O 433 



EARTHS. 



EARTHS. 



declivities ought to be more absorbent than in 
plains, or in the bottom of valleys. Their pro- 
ductiveness, likewise, is influenced by the na- 
ture of the subsoil, or the stratum on which 
they rest. When soils are immediately situ- 
ated upon a bed of rock or stone, they are 
much sooner rendered dry by evaporation than 
where the subsoil is of clay or marl ; and a 
prime cause of the great fertility of land in the 
moist climate of Ireland is the proximity of 
the rocky strata to the soil. A clayey subsoil 
will sometimes be of material advantage to a 
sandy soil ; and, in this case, it will retain 
moisture in such a manner as to be capable 
of supplying that lost by the earth above, in 
consequence of evaporation or the consump- 
tion of plants." (Davy's Lectures, p. 186.) 

It has been shown by the experiments of M. 
Saussure, with some sprigs of peppermint, that 
when supported by pure water only, and allow- 
ed to vegetate for some time in the light, they 
nearly doubled the portion of carbon which 
they originally contained. (Recherchcs sur la 
Veg. 51.) This they could have procured only 
from the atmosphere; and, under these circum- 
stances, there is now little doubt of the cor- 
rectness of the conclusion of M. Berthollet, that 
plants, by means of their roots and leaves, 
have the power of decomposing the water as 
well as the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, 
and furnisliing, with these elements, new com- 
binations. How essential a free access of the 
atmosphere is to the roots of plants was long 
since shown by M. Saussure, who found that 
•oxygen gas is absorbed by the roots of plants 
as well as by their leaves, and that it is at the 
roots united with carbon, and transmitted to 
the leaves to be decomposed. Even the branches 
absorb oxygen ; in its absence flowers will not 
even expand. (Tlwmson's Chcm. vol. iv. p. 353.) 
It has been proved that their vegetation is 
greatly increased by nourishing them with 
water impregnated with oxygen gas; hence, 
too, the superiority of rain-water. Some re- 
markable experiments were made by Mr. Hill, 
demonstrative of the great benefits plants de- 
rive from oxygen gas being applied to their 
roots : hyacinths, melons, Indian corn, &c., 
were the subjects of the experiments. The 
first were greatly improved in beauty, the se- 
cond in flavour, the last in size, and all in vi- 
gour. This, too, is another use of increasing 
the moisture of the soil, by deep and complete 
ploughings, for M. Humboldt and M. Schubler 
have clearly shown that a dry soil is quite in- 
capable of absorbing oxygen gas. Thus, it 
must be evident to the most listless observer, 
that the more deeply and finely a soil is pul- 
verized, and its earths rendered permeable, the 
greater will be the absorption by them of both 
oxygen and watery vapour from the surround- 
ing atmosphere. 

It is perhaps needless to prove that the roots 
of commonly cultivated plants will penetrate, 
under favourable circumstances, much greater 
depths into the soil in search of moisture than 
Ihey can, from the resistance of the case-hard- 
ened subsoil, commonly attain. Thus, the 
roots of the wheat plant, in loose deep soils 
have been found to descend to a depth of two 
or three feet, or even more : and it is evident 
434 



that if plants are principally sustainftd in dry 
weather by the atmospheric aqueous vapour 
absorbed by the soil, that then that supply of 
water must be necessarily increased, by enabl- 
ing the atmospheric vapour and gases, as well 
as the roots of plants, to attain to a greater 
depth ; for the earth, «&c., of the interior cf a 
well pulverized soil, be it remembered, con- 
tinues steadily to absorb this essential food of 
vegetables, even Avhen the surface of the earth 
is drying in the sun. 

By facilitating the admission of air to the 
soil another advantage is obtained, that of in- 
creasing its temperature. The earths are na- 
turally bad conductors of heat, especially down- 
wards : thus, it is a well-known fact, that at the 
siege of Gibraltar, the red hot balls employed 
by the garrison were readily carried from the 
furnaces to the batteries in wooden barrows, 
whose bottoms were merely covered with earth. 
Davy proved the superior rapidity with which 
a loose black soil was heated, compared with 
a chalky soil, by placing equal portions of each 
in the sunshine ; the first was heated in an 
hour from 65° to 88°, while the chalk was only 
heated 69°. This trial, however, must not be 
regarded as absolutely conclusive, since the 
surface of the black soils naturally increases 
more rapidly in temperature when exposed to 
the direct rays of the sun than those of a 
lighter colour. A free access of the air to the 
soil also adds to their fertility, by promoting 
the decomposition of the excretory matters of 
plants and other organic substances of the soil. 

In the truth of these conclusions and labori- 
ous experimental researches of the chemist, 
does not the practical testimony of the ablest 
cultivators of all ages and in all countries con- 
cur 1 Thus, in enforcing the advantages of 
rendering the soil more completely permeable 
by the atmosphere, nearly two thousand years 
since, Cato asked the Italian farmers, "What 
is good tillage]" To plough. "What is the 
second 1" To plough. The third is to ma- 
nure. Cato, however, mistook the cause of the 
benefit, for he says, " He who stirs his olive 
ground oftenest and deepest will plough up the 
very slender roots ; if he ploughs ill, the roots 
will become thicker, and the strength of the 
olive will go to the root." (Lib. 61.) Virgil, 
when giving an erroneous explanation of the 
advantages of paring and burning, says, "The 
heat opens more ways and hidden vents for the 
air, through which the dews penetrate to the 
embryo plant." (Gcorg. i. 90,91.) 

And at this very period do not the best of 
England's agriculturists find the greatest ad- 
vantage from stirring the ground between their 
rows of drilled turnips, which only operates so 
beneficially to the plants, by promoting the 
access of the air to their roots ; and that, too, 
on soils where a weed is hardly to be seen 1 Is 
not one great object of fallowing to produce by 
pulverizing and deepening the soil the same 
result 1 Did not Jethro Tull labour long, and 
sometimes too sanguinely, in illustrating the 
same position 1 And does he not support 
almost all the observations of the chemist, as 
to the attraction of the earth for the gasses and 
aqueous vapour of the atmosphere, when he 
says — " I have had the experience of a multi- 



EARTHS. 



EARTHS. 



tnde of instances, which confirms it so far that 
I am in no doubt that any soil (be it rich or 
poor) can ever he made too fine by tillage. 
For it is without dispute, that one cubical foot 
of this minute powder may have more internal 
superficies than a thousand cubical feet of the 
same or any other earth tilled in the common 
manner: and I believe no two arable earths in 
the world do exceed one another in their natu- 
ral riches twenty times; that is, one cubical 
foot of the richest is not able to produce an 
equal quantit}^ of vegetables, ccBleris paribus, to 
twenty cubical feet of the poorest; therefore, it 
is not strange that the poorest, when by pul- 
verizing it has obtained one hundred times the 
internal superficies of the rich untilled land, 
should exceed it in fertility; or, if a foot of the 
poorest was made to have twenty times the su- 
perficies of such rich land, the poorest might 
produce an equal quantity of vegetables with 
the rich. Besides, there is another extraor- 
dinary advantage when a soil has a larger in- 
ternal superficies in a very little compass, for 
then the roots of the plants in it are better sup- 
plied with nourishment, being nearer to them — 
on all sides within reach — than they can be 
where the soil is less fine, as in common til- 
lage, and the roots in the one must extend much 
farther than in the other; to reach an equal 
quantity of nourishment they must range, per- 
haps, above twenty times more space, to col- 
lect the same quantity of food. But, in this 
fine soil, the weak and tender roots have free 
passage to the utmost of their extent, and have 
also an easy, due, and equal pressure every- 
where, as in water." (Tvirs New Husbandry, 
p. 43.) The farmer, too, is aware that when 
the inert substratum of most cultivated soils 
is first brought to the surface, it is entirely 
barren, and that yet, by mere exposure to 
the atmosphere, it becomes readily produc- 
tive. 

The comparative rapidity with which soils 
absorb heat by exposure to the rays of the sun 
is also a question of much importance. M. 
Schubler found that when the temperature of 
the upper surface of the earth was 77° in the 
shade, earth, &c., exposed to the sun in ves- 
sels four inches square and half an inch deep, 
from eleven till three o'clock, attained the sub- 
joined temperature : — 



Rind of Eartb. 



Silicious sand, bright yellowish- 
gray 

Calcareous sand, whitish-gray 
Gypsum bright white-gray - 
Sandy clay, yellowish - - - 
Loamy clay, yellowish - - - 
Stiff clay or brick earlh, yellowish- 
gray 

Fine bluish-gray clay . - - 
Lime, white - - . . . 
Magnesia, pure white - - - 
Garden mould, blackish-gray 
Arable soil, gray - - . - 
Slaty marl, brownish-red 



Wet 


Diy. 


991 


112-6 


99-3 


112-1 


97-3 


110-5 


98-2 


111-4 


99- 1 


1121 


99-3 


112 3 


99-5 


113-0 


961 


109-4 


95-2 


108-6 


995 


1135 


97-7 


1117 


101-8 


1153 



As different soils absorb heat with varying 
rapidity, so they retain it with more or less 
tenacity, as displayed in the following table 
by Pro/essor Schubler:— 





Kind of Earth. 


Period required by 30 cubic 
iocfaes of earth to coot 
dowofrom MJiotoTOJo, 
io a lurroundiog tempe- 
rature of 6!io. 


Houra, 


MiDutea. 

30 
20 
34 
41 
30 
24 
19 
10 
20 
16 
27 
26 


Calcareous sand - - . 
Silicious sand - - - . 
Gypsum powder ... 
Sandy clay .... 
Loamy clay .... 
Stiff clay or brick earth . 
Gray pure clay ... 
Fine lime - - . . - 
Fine magnesia - - - . 
Garden mould .... 
Arable soil . - . . 
Slaty marl - . . . 


8 

3 

2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
1 
2 

2 
3 



From these experiments, the farmer will 
perceive that the popular ideas, with regard to 
the quality of soils when they are denominated 
hot and cold, are nearly accurate. He will see 
that sandy soils absorb the heat of the sun 
faster than any others, but then their rate of 
cooling is equally great; — more rapid in their 
transitions from heat to cold than any others, 
the crops which they produce are commonly 
thin ; and to these rapid transitions we may 
assign one reason for the poverty of the pro- 
duce. The clays, on the contrary, which im- 
bibe the sun's rays more slowly, retain their 
heat much longer. 

There are several other properties of the 
earths with which it is highly desirable that 
the cultivator should be acquainted : thus, the 
resistance which soils oflTer to the plough or the 
spade, in their wet and dry state, is a question 
on several accounts highly interesting to the 
farmer. This property of the soil has also 
been examined by Professor Schubler, and the 
result of his experiments will be found in the 
following table : — 





In dry 
itate. 


Ib wet stale. 




Adhesion to agri- 


Kiud of Earth. 


Firmnen, 


cultural iitiplenienis 




that of 


on a surface of one 




cJay being 
100. 


fquare foot with 


Iron. 


Wood. 






lbs. 


lbs. 


Silicious sand - 


0-0 


38 


4-3 


Calcareous sand 


0-0 


4-1 


4-4 


Fine lime ... 


5-0 


143 


15-6 


Gypsum powder 


7-8 


10-7 


11 8 


Sandy clay - . _ 


57-3 


7-9 


8-9 


Loamy clay - - - 


68-8 


10-6 


11-4 


Stiff clay or brick earth - 


83-3 


172 


18-9 


Gray pure clay 


1000 


27-0 


29-2 


Garden mould 


7-6 


6-4 


7-5 


Arable soil ... 


330 


5-8 6-4 1 


Slaty marl - . - 


23 


4-9 ' 5-5 



From these laborious researches of the che- 
mical philosopher the intelligent farmer may 
derive many new and important conclusions 
with regard to the improved cultivation of the 
earth. They may serve to explain to him one 
great reason why fallowing and pulverizing 
the soil, either by machinery or by the mixture 
of chalk or sand with the heavier clay soils, 
promotes so decidedly, or so permanently, their 
fertility. And, again, the advocate for all old 
customs and obsolete modes of tillage may 
hence, among other things, learn why it is thai 
deep ploughing, either by the common or by 

435 



EARTH-BOARD. 



EARTH-WORMS. 



the subsoil plough, produces such beneficial 
results ; how the gases and aqueous vapour of 
the air are hence rendered more serviceable to 
the roots of his crops ; and hmv it is that this 
free passage of these elastic fluids, first caused 
by the action of the plough, is preserved and 
facilitated by that of the common or the horse- 
hoe. Such researches, too, into the important 
properties with which the Creator has endowed 
the soil will be serviceable to the cultivator in 
even an indirect manner. These investigations 
will, assuredly, suggest to him the very reason- 
able conclusion, that there may be yet other 
chemical properties hidden in the land, which 
will serve to awaken the curiosity, and reward 
the labours of future scientific cultivators for 
many succeeding generations. (Btit. Farm. 
Mag. vol. V. p. 1.) See Mixture or Soils, 
Analysis of Soils, ABSonPTOx, Chalk, Hu- 
mus, &c. 

EARTH-BOARD. That part of a plough 
which turns over the earth. It is generally 
termed the mould-board. See Plough. 

EARTH-BUILDINGS. Buildings formed 
by rammed or compressed earth or clay. This 
kind of building is supposed to have been 
known at a very early period, and is still much 
in use in the southern parts of France. Not 
only the walls of the houses, but garden walls 
are formed in the same manner, and of the 
same materials in many parts of Normandy. 
In some instances, boards are placed between 
the layers of clay, and form a kind of frame- 
work, which increases the strength of the wall. 

Clay cottages are not uncommon in some 
parts of England ; but they are not constructed 
in the above-mentioned manner. 

EARTH, EATING OF. Stall-fed cattle, and 
horses which have not the opportunity of 
plucking up the roots of grass, evince a great 
partiality for earth. It is seldom that a cow 
will pass a newly-raised mole-hill without 
muzzling into it, and devouring a considerable 
portion of it. This is particularly the case 
when there is any degree of indigestion, and it 
probably acts as a sort of gentle purgative. It 
is stated by Mr. Youatt {On Cattle) that the 
celebrated Kinton ox always had a basket of 
earth standing near him, of which he ate a 
considerable quantity. When decomposition 
commenced, and the acescent principle began 
to be developed, and the animal felt uneasiness 
on that account, he had recourse to the mould; 
and the acid uniting itself to the earth, the un- 
easy feeling was relieved. It is also probable 
that a purgative neutral salt was manufactured 
in the paunch, but this would depend on the 
nature of the earth. The absorbent or alkaline 
earth taken up with the roots of grass by sheep, 
also neutralizes the acids of the stomach. {Lib. 
of Use. Know. "Sheep," p. 3 ; " Cattle," p. 104 
— 317.) It is usual to allow sucking calves to 
have access to chalk. In the stomachs of al- 
most all young animals, man not excepted, 
there is a tendency to form superabundant acid, 
which, il not corrected, impairs digestion, and 
interferes with the assimilative function, that 
which converts the chyle into the animal tissue 
or substance of the body. The importance, 
therefore, of correcting this, by the administra- 
tion of absorbed earths, is obvious. 
436 



It might become a matter of curious nquiry, 
how far this desire of earth in cattle has affi- 
nity to that of the human stomach, which leads 
the Otomacs, a South American tribe, to eat 
clay. It is an unctuous clay, containing an 
oxide of iron ; and during some months, when 
provisions are scarce, an Otomac devours 
about three-quarters of a pound of clay daily, 
and he does not suffer nor become lean upon 
it. The negroes on the coast of Guinea, and 
the natives of Java, and of some of the other 
islands of the Indian Archipelago, are also 
earth-eaters ; and in this and many European 
countries, pregnant women, and young girls in 
a state of disease connected with the uterine 
function, also evince a strong inclination to eat 
earth. 

Among quadrupeds, earth-eating is not con- 
fined to the horse and ox tribes ; for, when 
pressed for food, wolves in the north-east of 
Europe, reindeer and kids in Siberia, all eat 
clay. It is probable that the earth operates as a 
mechanical stimulus to the stomach, and abates 
the sensation of hunger, which always attends 
certain diseased conditions of the stomach. But, 
whatever may be the cause, this instinctive 
longing for earth in horses, cows, and oxen 
shouldnotbe overlooked, and the animalsshould 
be supplied with it when they are stall-fed. 

EARTH-NUT {Bunimn flcxuosum). The 
common earth-nut, kipper, or pig-nut, for it is 
known by all these names, is a perennial plant 
growing in sandy or gravelly meadows, pas- 
tures, orchards, and woods ; flowering in May 
or June. The root is eatable, nearly globular, 
black, internally white, aromatic, sweet, and 
mucilaginous, with some acrimon3% The stem 
is a foot high or more, striated, with long, nar- 
row, acute leaves ; the radicle leaves are twice 
or thrice pinnatifid. The flowers are in um- 
bels; they are pure white. The roots are 
at present searched for only by hogs, who de- 
vour them with avidity; but as they are little 
inferior to chestnuts, they might form an agree- 
able addition to winter desserts, eaten either 
raw, boiled, or roasted. (W'dlidis Dom. Enryc.) 

EARTH-WORMS {LvmbrkusJAnn.). Well- 
known molluscous animals, which are common 
in all parts of the countr}% at little depths be- 
neath the surface of the earth. White, in his 
Nat. Hist, of Selhorne, speaking of their effects 
on the soil in promoting vegetation, says, 
" The most insignificant insects and reptiles 
are of much more consequence, and have much 
more influence in the economy of nature, than 
the incurious are aware of; and are mighty in 
their effect from their minuteness, which ren- 
ders them less an object of attention, and 
from their numbers and fecundity; earth- 
worms, though in appearance a small and des- 
picable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, 
would make a lamentable chasm. For, to say 
nothing of half the birds and some quadru- 
peds which are entirely supported by them, 
worms seem to be equal promoters of vegeta- 
tion, which would proceed but lamely without 
them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the 
soil, and rendering it pervious to the rain and 
the fibres of plants, by drawing straws and 
stalks of leaves and twigs into it ; and most of 
all, by throwing up siich infinite numbers of 



EARTHY MANURES. 



EDDER. 



lumps of earth, called worm-casts, which being 
their excrement, is a fine manure for grain and 
grass. Worms probably provide new soil for 
hills and slopes, where the rain washes the 
earth away, and they aflect slopes probably to 
avoid being ilooded. Gardeners and farmers 
express their detestation of worms : the former, 
because they render their walks unsightly, and 
make them much work; and the latter, because. 
as they think, worms eat their green corn. But 
they would find that the earth without worms 
would soon become cold, hard-bound, and void 
of fermentation, and consequently sterile ; and 
besides, in favour of worms it should be hinted 
that green corn, plants, and flowers are not so 
much injured by them as by many species of 
Cokoptcru (scarabs) and Tipulee (loiig-kgs) in 
their larvae or grub state, and by unnoticed 
myriads of small shell-less snails, called slugs, 
which silently and imperceptibly make amaz- 
ing havoc in the field and garden. Worms 
work most in the spring, and are out every 
mild night in the winter : they are very pro- 
lific." (Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. ii. p. 145.) 
Worms are readily destroyed by the applica- 
tion of common salt, sown broadcast at the 
rate of five or six bushels per acre ; or on grass 
plats, by the application of lime-water, or ra- 
ther milk of lime, which is readily made by 
stirring for ten minutes a pound of hot lime in 
four or five pailsful of water. But, for the 
reasons already given, they should not be de- 
stroyed. Earth-worms are viviparous, their 
eggs are hatched in the body, and the young 
are expelled alive. They generally come out 
of the earth during the night in June to copulate. 
EARTHY MANURES. These are the most 
universal of all fertilizers. In England they 
are chiefly limited to three, viz. chalk and lime, 
clay or alumina, sand or silex. In the United 
States, where no chalk is found, its place is well 
supplied by lime and calcareous marls, which 
last, in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and 
Virginia, are used to the greatest advantage 
by farmers. Then again the green sand or 
silicate of potash, found in the states men- 
tioned, proves, in many situations, a powerful 
mineral fertilizer. With these may be classed 
the coal, or other ashes produced by the com- 
bustion of peat, turf, and other vegetable sub- 
stances, the composition of which is usually 
similar to that of the soils on which the com- 
bustible matter is produced. Ashes from chalk 
soils usually abound in carbonate of lime and 
gypsum, which is produced in the chalk by the 
gradual decomposition of the iron pyrites 
which most chalk contains ; while those from 
clay lands as generally abound with alumi na and 
sand. Those which are brought from the sea- 
shore almost always contain a considerable 
quantity of soda, and some common salt. There 
are no researches more likely to amply repay 
the cultivator than the investigation of the 
composition of his soils. All the difference 
between a fertile soil and the poorest cultivated 
land consists in the presence of the indispen- 
sable constituents of a soil in proportions that 
are more or less profitable. The addition of 
the desired substance, whether organic or in- 
organic, constitutes the fertilizing ingredient. 
Davy long since remarked that "Fertility 



seems to depend upon the state of division an^ 
mixture of the earthy materials and the vege- 
table matter. In ascertaining the compositioD 
of fertile soils, with a view to tljeir improve- 
ment, any particular ingredient which is the 
cause of their unproductiveness should be par- 
ticularly attended to ; if possible, they should 
be compared with fertile soils in the same 
neighbourhood, and in similar situations, as 
the difference of composition may, in many 
cases, indicate the most proper methods of im- 
provement." (.Agricultural Chemistry, ■;. 203.) 
Thus, either peat, or chalk, or clay is an excel- 
lent permanent addition to sandy soils. Chalk 
and sand improve the texture and productive- 
ness of clays. To peat, the earths are all more 
or less permanent fertilizers ; lime removes the 
excess of sulphate of iron (green vitriol) ; 
chalk is equally efficacious in what the farmer 
calls acid or sour soils. This class of manures 
differs from the organic and saline, in this 
highly important yet seldom sufficiently re- 
membered quality, that as they are more fre- 
quently employed in larger quantities than 
either of the other two, so their beneficial in- 
fluence on the soil far exceeds in duration all 
others. 

EARWIG (Forficida atiricrdaris, Linn.). A 
well-known insect, which is common in damp 
places, and often found in numbers under 
stones, and beneath the bark of trees. They 
do much damage in gardens, by preying upon 
the fruit. The Englisl^ common name, and 
also the French picrcc-m-'eille, relate to a habit 
absurdly attributed to these insects, of pene- 
trating the ears. (Brandc's Diet, of Art.) 

It is a curious fact that the earwig sits upon 
her eggs like a hen ; and when the young are 
hatched, they creep under the mother, like a 
brood of chickens under a hen. De Geer, 
who has observed the habits of this insect, 
says, the parent will sit over them for hours. 
She usually carries them about on her back, 
until they are able to provide for themselves. 
One of the species of forficula, namely, F. 
minor, has wings, and flies in groups. 

They are very injurious to flowers, eating 
holes in the blossoms, and otherwise disfigur- 
ing them, particularly the dahlia: and Mouffet 
says that "ox hoofs, hog's hoofs, or old cats 
things are used as traps for them by the Eng- 
lish women, who hate them exceedingly, be- 
cause of clove-gilliflowers that they eat and 
spoyl." It is common with English gardeners 
to hang up, among the flowers and fruit-trees 
subject to their attacks, pieces of hollow reeds, 
lobster claws, and the like, which offer en- 
ticing places of retreat for these insects on the 
approach of daylight, and by means thereof 
great numbers of them are obtained in the 
morning. The little creeping animal, with 
numerous legs, commonly, but erroneously, 
called earwig in America, is not an insect; 
but of the true earwig we have several spe- 
cies, though they are by no means commcn, 
and certainly never appear in such numbers 
as to prove seriously injurious to vegetation, 
(Harris's Treat, of Insects.) 

EDDER. A "small straight shoot of ash, 
hazle, oak, or any other kind of flexible wood 
ured for binding the tops of hedges. 

2 o 2 " 43- 



EFT. 



EGLANTINE. 



EFT, NEWT, or EVET (Salamandra). A 
small kind of lizard, that chiefly lives in the 
water. As the newt is an amphibious animal, 
It requires to ascend frequently to the surface 
of the Avater, to take fresh air into its lungs. 

EGGS (Fr. aufs; Germ, ei; Lat. ava). The 
ova of birds and oviparous animals. The 
shell of the egg is lined throughout with a 
thin but tough membrane, called pellicula ovi ; 
which, dividing at or near the obtuse end, 
forms a small bag — the air follicule. This 
membiane weighs about 2'35 grains in an egg 
of 1000 grains in weight. It contains what is 
called the albumen or white, and the vitellus or 
yellow. The white consists of two distinct 
parts, one of which is a delicate membrane 
forming a series of cells, which enclose the 
other, or fluid part. It has the well-known 
property of being coagulated by heat. It con- 
sists of 12 parts of albumen, 2-7 of mucus, 0-3 
of salts, and 85 of water, in a hundred parts. 
The yolk consists of oil, suspended in water 
by means of albumen, and held in a membra- 
nous sac — the yolk-bag, each end of which is 
twisted, to form what is called the chalaza, in- 
tended to preserve the yolk in such a position 
that the cicatricula, or rudimental embryo, shall 
always be uppermost. The yolk consists of 
28-75 of yellow oil and crystallizable fat, with 
traces of sulphur; 17"47 of albumen, contain- 
ing phosphorus, and 53-8 of water. The re- 
lative weights of these parts, in an egg weigh- 
ing 1000 grains, are, 106*9 shell and membrane, 
604-2 albumen, and 288-9 yolk. The egg loses 
2 or 3 per cent, of its weight when boiled in 
water. The white is more easily digested than 
the yolk ; and both are more digestible in the 
soft than in the hard state. The changes 
which the hen's egg undergoes during incuba- 
tion have been described by Sir E. Home (Phil. 
Trans. 1822, p. 339), and illustrated by a beau- 
tiful series of plates, after drawings by Bauer. 
The same volume also contains a valuable 
paper, by Dr. Prout, on this subject, but chiefly 
treating of the chemical changes of the egg 
during that process. The egg does not receive 
its outer coat, or pellicule, until it arrives at 
that part of the oviduct which is called the 
uterus ; and not its shell until it has passed 
through one half of the uteras. Eggs are 
sometimes expelled without shells, and are 
called oon-eggs. The specific gravity of new- 
laid eggs at first rather exceeds that of water, 
varying from 1-08 to 1-09; but they soon be- 
come lighter, and swim on water, in conse- 
quence of evaporation through the pores of 
the shell. The mean weight of a hen's egg is 
about 875 grains. 

Hen's eggs are decidedly wholesome ; and, 
when new laid, are an agreeable and nourish- 
ing food. Vast quantities of eggs are brought 
from the country to London, and other great 
towns. It is stated in the Quart. Journ. of Agr. 
vol. iii. p. 1077, that, about 15 years ago, the 
number of eggs exported from Berwick-upon- 
Tweed to London amounted to 30,000/. worth 
a year. 

The trade in eggs is of great value and im- 
portance. It appears from oflficial statements, 
that the eggs imported into England from 
France amounted to 60,000,000 a year; and 
433 



presuming them to cost, on an average, 4d.per 
dozen, it follows that the English pay the 
French above 83,000?. a year for eggs ; and 
supposing that the freight, importer's and re- 
tailer's profit, duty (lOf/. per 120), &c. raise 
their price to the consumer to \M. per dozen, 
their total cost will be 213,000/. The number 
of eggs imported into England from various 
parts of the Continent, for the year ending 
January 5, 1839, was 83,74.5,723; and the 
gross amount of duty received for the same 
Avas 29,111/. The Netherlands and the Chan- 
nel islands furnish a large quantity of the eggs 
consumed in England. {M^CuUoch's Com. Did.) 
See Fowls. 

A new method of preserving eggs, by pack- 
ing them in salt with the small end downwards, 
and by which they have been kept perfectly 
good for eight or nine months, will, it is be- 
lieved, enable the inhabitants of portions of 
our country where these abound to make them 
profitable. Thousands of bushels may be sent 
off to the Atlantic markets. Great quantities 
are used in France ; and as the duty on them 
in England is so low, (not 2 cents per dozen,) 
they might bear exportation. They have been 
gathered and sold at the West as low as 90 
cents per bushel ; which, as a bushel contains 
45 dozen, is but 2 cents per dozen. (Ellsworth's 
Report, 1843.) 

EGG-PLANT (Solanum melongena). This is 
a tender annual, a native of Africa. It loves 
a light rich soil, and blows violet flowers in 
June and July, which are succeeded by fruit, 
shaped and coloured like an egg. The plant 
is propagated by seed. In French and Italian 
cookery it is used in soups, and for the same 
purposes as the love-apple. 

Two varieties of this annual plant are com- 
monly met with in the United States ; one of 
these bears a very large purple oval-shaped 
fruit, which is highly relished as a delicious and 
rich tasted vegetable. It is cooked by frying 
transverse sections or slices, and in other forms 
and ways. In size and shape the fruit resembles 
an ostrich egg, though it frequently attains a 
size many times larger, even to that of a small 
Avater-melon. The second variety is white, 
and the shape bears a striking resemblance to 
the eggs of the domestic fowl. To raise them 
in the Middle and Northern States, the seed 
must be sown in a hot-bed in March, and 
transplanted into the open air as soon as there 
is no danger from frost, placing them about 
two feet apart. A pretty high degree of heat, 
blended with a good supply of moisture, are 
required to make the seeds germinate and 
bring forward the young plants. 

The insane egg-plant (Solanum insamum). 
Mad-apple, or purple egg-plant, called by the 
French Aubergine rmtge, is occasionally culti- 
vated in the United States as a culinary vege- 
table. The whole plant is coated with a downy 
nap. The flowers are purplish and pubescent, 
and the berries very large, ovoid-oblong, mostly 
of a dark purple colour when mature, and 
sometimes pale-green. (Flora Cestrica.') 

EGIiANTINE (liosa rubiginosa ; Fr. eglantin). 
The old English name of the sweetbrier rose. 
The odour which is so agreeable, is exhaled 
from reddish, viscid glands, which cover the 



ELATERS. 



ELECTRICITY. 



under surface of the leaflets. This odour en- ; Farmer.) Some persons have found a very 
ables it to be readily recognised from all our j effectual plan for destroying elders by taking a 
other wild roses, except the small-flowered pole or staff and beating them down whilst in 
sweetbrier (Rosa micrantha), which some Ije- 1 full blossom. 

lieve to be only a variety of R. ruhiginosa. The \ The species of elder most common in the Uni 
term eglantine is improperly applied by Milton j ted States, is called by botanists, Sumbucus Cana 



to the honeysuckle. 

ELATERS. See Bietlb, Spring-beetlk. 
ELBOWS. A term applied to the shoulder- 
points of cattle. 

ELDER (Sambucm nigra). It appears (says 
Phillips) that we have taken the word elder 
from holder, the Dutch name of this tree. The 
common elder tree is a native of England, and 
is found also in most parts of Europe, as it 
will grow on any soil, and in situations where 
few other trees would thrive. The stem is 
much and oppositely branched ; the branches 
being covered with a smooth, gray bark, and 
having a large spongy pith ; the leaves con- 
sist of two pair of leaflets, with an odd one. 
The flowers are in cymes ; the berries globular, 
deep purple. It may be observed, that our un- 
certain summer is established by the time the 
elder is in full flower, and entirely passed 
when its berries are ripe. An infusion of the 
leaves proves fatal to the various insects 
which thrive on blighted or delicate plants, nor 
do many of this tribe, in the caterpillar state, 
feed upon them. Cattle scarcely touch them, 
and the mole is driven away by their scent; 
but sheep eat the leaves greedily, and it is said 
to be a cure for the rot. The Rev. Mr. Farqu- 
harson, in an able paper in the Trans. High. Soc. 
vol. iv. p. 336, advocates the cultivation of the 
elder for hedges, from its rapidity of growth, 
hardihood, and cheapness. The only objection 
appears to be, that it does not thicken and 
close up its branches, so as to form an imper- 
vious fence, like the white thorn. M. Wehrle 
of Vienna has found, by a series of experi- 
ments, that the berries of the elder tree produce 
a much greater quantity of spirit than the best 
wheat. The spirit is obtained by pressing the 
berries, the juice of which is treated in the 
same way as the must of the grape, and after- 
wards distilled. If the results obtained by M. 
Wehrle are confirmed, it will be an additional 
motive for cultivating a plant which possesses 
many other useful qualities. (Quart. Journ. Agr. 
vol. iii. p. 183.) An odorous water is pre- 
pared by distilling the flowers ; it is used as a 
perfume. The inspissated juice of the berries 
is laxative and diuretic ; and, mixed with wa- 
ter, forms a cooling beverage in fevers. The 
inner bark is purgative and emetic. 

A correspondent of the Nciv England Farmer 
says that the expressed juice of elder leaves 
will kill skippers in cheese, bacon, &c.; and 
strong decoctions of the leaves or roots are 
fatal to insects, which depredate on plants in 
gardens and fields. Dr. Willich observes, that 
the leaves of the elder are eaten by sheep, to 
which they are of great service when diseased 
with the rot ; for if placed in a situation where 
they can easily reach the bark and young 
shoots, they will speedily cure themselves. Dr. 
Elliott observes in his Essay on Field Husbandry, 
that elder bushes are stubborn and hard to sub- 



densis. It is often a great nuisance along fence 
rows and hedges, where its straight stems at- 
tain a height of 5, 8, or 10 feet, being filled 
with a large pith. The flowers bloom in July 
and August, the peduncles spreading out so as 
to display the blossoms somewhat like an um- 
brella. The berries are very abundant, small, 
juicy, and dark purple, or nearly black when 
fully ripe. The long roots are very tenacious 
of life, and very much disposed to spread from 
lateral joints. The inner bark is a popular 
ingredient in making ointments for sores. An 
infusion of the bruised leaves is often used to 
expel insects from young cucumber and other 
vines. The ripe berries, according to M. Coz- 
zens, afford a delicate re-agent, or chemical 
test, for detecting acids and alkalies. There is 
one other species in the United States, called 
Sambucus pubens, which is found on the moun- 
tains in the north-eastern part of Pennsylva- 
nia. In this the flowers do not spread out like 
those of the common elder of the M ddle States. 
but are crowded together so as li form dense 
ovoid heads or panicles. The t ;rries are a 
scarlet red. 

ELDER, BOX. In some parts of the United 
States, the name of box elder is popularly ap- 
plied to the ash-leaved maple (.drer vcgundo). 
See Maple. 

ELDER, THE WATER (Viburnum ojnUus). 
Commonly called Snow-bull. See Gueldek Rose. 
ELECAMPANE (Inula Helenium). Called 
by the French Aunee. This is a plant with a 
perennial root and annual stem, which has 
been naturalized in the United States, where, 
in the old settled parts, it is frequent about 
houses, road-sides, &c., flowering in July and 
August. The stem or stalk is downy, and 
grows to the height of 3 to 6 feel, branching 
near the top. The leaves are long and large, 
with much down on the under surface. The 
flowers are large, and of a golden yellow. The 
roots, which constitute the medicinal part of the 
plant, should be dug up in autumn and in the 
second year of their growth, as when older they 
are apt to be stringy and woody. The dried root 
has a very peculiar and agreeable aromatic 
odour, slightly camphorous. The taste at first 
is glutinous and somewhat similar to that of 
rancid soap; upon chewing, it becomes warm, 
aromatic, and bitter. A peculiar principle, 
resembling starch, has been discovered in 
elecampane, by that distinguished German 
chemist, Rose, of Berlin, who named it alantin; 
but the term inulin is most generally adopted. 
It has been found in the roots of several other 
plants. In its medical properties elecampane 
is tonic and gently stimulant, &c. By the an- 
cients it was much employed, especially m 
complaints peculiar to females. In the United 
States, its use is mostly confined to diseases of 
the lungs. It has also been extolled for its 
virtues when applied externally for the cure 



due, yet I know by experience, that mowing j of itch, tetter, and other diseases of the skin. 
them five times a year will kill them. (N. E. ELECTRICITY. The application of this 

•139 



ELM. 



ELM. 



science to the cultivation of the earth has 
hitherto not been very practically useful. Its 
operations — the very nature of electricity — are 
as yet much too little understood for the culti- 
vator to derive instruction from its study. 
"Electrical changes," said Davy (Elements of 
Agr. Chem. p. 41), "are constantly taking place 
in nature on the surface of the earth, and in the 
atmosphere : but as yet the effects of this 
power in vegetation have not been correctly 
estimated. It has been shown, by experiments 
made by means of the voltaic battery (the in- 
strument in which electricity is evolved by the 
mutual action of zinc, copper, and water), that 
compound bodies in general are capable of 
being decomposed by electrical powers ; and it 
is probable, that the various electrical pheno- 
mena occurring in our system must influence 
both the germination of seeds and the growth 
of plants. I found that corn sprouted much 
more rapidly in water positively electrified by 
the voltaic instrument, than in water nega- 
tively electrified; and experiments made upon 
the atmosphere show that clouds are usually 
negative ; and as when a cloud is in one stale 
of electricity, the surface of the earth beneath 
is brought into the opposite state, it is probable 
that, in common cases, the surface of the earth 
is positive. Different opinions are entertained 
amongst scientific men respecting the nature 
of electricity : by some, the phenomena are 
conceived to depend upon a single subtile fluid, 
in excess in the bodies said to be positively 
electrified, in deficiency in the bodies said to 
be negatively electrified ; a second class sup- 
pose the effects to be produced by two different 
fluids, called by them vitreous and resinous; and 
a third set regard them as affections, or mo- 
tions of matter, and merely an exhibition of 
attractive powers, similar to those which pro- 
duce chemical combination and decomposition, 
but usually exerting their action on masses." 

ELEVATION, ATMOSPHERIC. The 
height of land above the sea or common level, 
exerts a very great influence upon the growth 
of plants. One of the main causes operating un- 
der such circumstances to diminish the size of 
plants. Professor Dobereiner believes to be the 
diminution of atmospheric pressure. Experi- 
ments have been made in order to prove this 
by placing seeds of barley in vessels, contain- 
ing soil, water, and air, under different degrees 
of atmospheric pressure ; and the result has 
been, that, where the pressure was greatest, 
the vigour of the plants was also greatest. See 
Altitude. 

ELM (Ulmus). A genus of forest trees, 
common in Great Britain, of which there are 
several varieties. The characters of the genus 
are flowers, bisexual ; calyx, bell-shaped, four 
to five toothed, coloured persistent ; stamens, 
three to six ; stigmas, two , fruit, sub-globular, 
with a broad membranous margin. Sir James 
i3. Smith (Eng. Flor. vol. ii. p. 19), describes 
five species of native elm: — viz. 1. The com- 
mon small-leaved elm (U. campcstris"), which, is 
found chiefly in the southern parts of England. 
The wood is hard and tough, particularly dura- 
ble in wet situations, and is greatly preferred 
in Norfolk (where it is the most common spe- 
cies) to any other, and sells for nearly double 
440 



the price, serving more especially for the 
naves of wheels. In other parts of England, 
and particularly about London, the wood of the 
common elm is used for coflins. 2. The ;rwi- 
mon cork-barked elm ([/. svberosa'), which is 
taller and more spreading than the foregoing. 
The bark when a year old is covered with very 
fine dense cork in deep fissures ; whence the 
name. It is far inferior to the former in value. 
There are various cultivated varieties raised 
from seed. 3. The Dutch cork-barked elm {U. 
major) ; a doubtful native. The branches 
spread widely in a drooping manner, and the 
bark is rugged, much more corky than even 
the foregoing. Miller says this elm was 
brought from Holland in King William's reign, 
and being recommended for its quick growth, 
Avas a fashionable tree for hedges in gardens, 
but afterwards fell into disuse. He adds, that 
" the wood is good for nothing, so its use is 
almost banished in this country." 4. The 
broad-leaved Scotch elm, or wych hazel {U. mon- 
tana). It is sometimes called the Hertfordshire 
elm, being very frequent and luxuriant in that 
county. The large hop-like fruit is abundant, 
and very conspicuous in May or June ; and 
the seeds appear to be usually perfected. This 
is one of the most general species of elm 
throughout Europe. It is a large spreading 
tree, of quicker growth than the common 
small-leaved elm, and the wood is consequently 
far inferior in hardness and compactness, and 
more liable to split. The branches are in 
some individuals quite pendulous, like the 
weeping willow. The bark is smooth, and 
downy in a young state. 5. The smooth-leaved, 
or wych elm (U. glabra). A tall, elegant tree, 
with spreading, rather drooping, smooth, black- 
ish branches, and smaller leaves than any of 
the preceding, except the first. 

The elm (says Brande) is valued for the ra- 
pidity of its growth, its hardness, and its capa- 
bility of thriving in poor soil unfit for tillage. 
Tredgold {Princip. of Carp.), however, says the 
elm is of slow growth. The elms of England 
are scarcely less remarked for their age, bulk, 
and beauty than the British oaks. The colour 
of the heart-wood of elm is generally darker 
than that of oak, and of a redder brown. The 
sap wood is of a yellowish or brownish white, 
with pores inclined to red. It has a peculiar 
odour, is in general porous and cross-grained — 
sometimes coarse-grained, and has no large 
septa. It twists and warps much in drying, 
and also shrinks considerably both in length 
and breadth. It is difficult to work, but not 
liable to split, and bears the driving of bolts 
and nails better than any other timber. What 
is known in Europe as the twisted elm (Orme 
torlillard), is not a distinct species but only a 
variety of the European elm. The twisted 
form of the fibres is secured by culture, the 
young stalks being properly grafted and plant- 
ed separately from the parent tree. In Scot- 
land, chairs and other articles of household 
furniture are frequently made of elm wood; 
but in England, where the wood is inferior, 
besides the purposes already specified, it is 
chiefly in demand for the manufacture of casks, 
mill-wheels, pumps, water-pipes, axletrees, &c. 
It is appropriated to these purposes because of 



ELM. 



EJ.M. 



its great durability in water, which also occa- 
sions its extensive use as piles and planking 
for wet foundations. A second-rate charcoal 
is made from this wood ; and rails and gates 
of elm, thin sawed, Evelyn tells us in his Sylva, 
are not so apt to rive as oak. Elm is said to 
bear transplanting belter than any other large 
tree. It is propagated by seed, layers, or 
suckers, and by grafting and budding. Suck- 
ers, however, generally disfigure those trees 
raised from layers or suckers. As the value 
of this timber consists more in the length and 
bulk of the shaft than in the irregular growth 
of its branches, it is the business of the planter 
to train them up tall and straight, and not to 
suffer them to branch till within a few feet of 
the top. The leaves of the elm are eagerly 
eaten by cattle, sheep, and hogs. The inner 
bark of the elm is nearly as valuable a medi- 
cinal agent as the much-vaunted sarsaparilla. 
The decoction of it forms an excellent vehicle 
for minute doses of corrosive sublimate in 
some obstinate skin diseases ; and in combi- 
nation with vinegar or muriatic acid, it is a 
useful gargle in inflamed throats. 

Several species of the Ulmus family are 
found in the United States. Among these the 
white or weeping elm (Ulmus Americana), is 
met with over a very extensive tract of the 
continent. Michaux says that his father no- 
ticed it as high north as latitude 48° 20', near 
the entrance of the river Mistassin into Lake 
St. John, and that he had himself observed it 
from Nova Scotia to the extremity of Georgia, 
a distance of at least 1200 miles. It abounds 
in all the Western states. The district of coun- 
try in which it seems to flourish best is com- 
prised between the 42d and 46th degrees of 
latitude, in Western New York, the Eastern 
States, and adjoining British provinces. It de- 
lights in low and humid soils, and is frequently 
met with on the borders of swamps and fertile 
bottoms, associated with the white maple and 
buttonwood. On the banks of rivers its base 
is frequently overflowed by freshets, and its 
diameter often increases to four feet. But it 
is where the primitive forests, in which it 
has been once insulated, have been cleared 
away, that the American elm when left appears 
in its greatest majesty, towering to the height 
of 80 or 100 feet, with a trunk 4 or 5 feet in 
diameter, regularly shaped, naked, and insen- 
sibly diminishing to the height of 60 or 70 feet, 
where it divides into two or three primary 
limbs. These limbs do not part so suddenly 
as those of most other trees, but approach and 
cross each other, interlacing and bending their 
flexible branches so as to form regular arches 
of the Gothic character, floating lightly in the 
air. Michaux mentions a singularity in this 
tree he had found in no other, namely, that 
two small limbs, 4 or 5 feet long, grow in a 
reversed position near the first fork, and de- 
scend along the trunk. 

The American white elm differs essentially 
from the red elm and the European elm in its 
flowers and seeds. The flowers appear before 
the leaves, and are very small and of a purple 
colour. The seeds are contained in a flat, 
oval, fringed capsule, being mature from the 
l=th of May to the 1st of June. 
.56 



The buttonwood astonishes the eye by the 
size of its trunk and the amplitude of its head; 
but the white elm has a more majestic appear- 
ance, owing to its greater height, and the dis- 
position of its principal limbs. When grow- 
ing alone, the limbs generally branch off" at 8, 
10, or 12 feet from the ground. 

"The trunk of this elm is covered with a 
white, tender bark, very deeply furrowed. The 
wood, like that of the common European elm, 
is of a dark brown, and, cut transversely or 
obliquely to the longitudinal fibres, it exhibits 
the same numerous and fine undulations ; but 
it splits more easily, and has less compactness, 
hardness, and strength. This opinion was given 
me by several English wheel-wrights establish- 
ed in the United States, and I have since proved 
its correctness by a comparison of the two spe- 
cies. The white elm is used, however, at New 
York and farther north, for the naves of coach- 
wheels, because it is difficult to procure the 
black gum, which at Philadelphia is preferred 
for this purpose. It is not admitted into the 
construction of houses or of vessels, except 
occasionally in the district of Maine for keels, 
for which it is adapted only by its size. Its 
bark is said to be easily detached during eight 
months of the year; soaked in water and sup- 
pled by pounding, it is used in the Northern 
States for the bottoms of common chairs. 

"Such are the few and unimportant uses of 
the white elm in the United States ; it is far in- 
ferior to the European elm, which is a tree of 
very extensive utility, and it deserves attention 
in the old world only as the most magnificent 
vegetable of the temperate zone." {M'ulumx.) 

The Red or Tawny dm {Ulmus rubra), called 
also the slippery dm. — " Except the maritime 
districts of the Carolinas and Georgia, this spe- 
cies of elm is found in all parts of the United 
States and of Canada. It bears the names of 
red elm, slippery elm, and moose elm, of which 
the first is the most common; the French of 
Canada and Upper Louisiana call it Orme gras, 

"The red elm, though not rare, is less com- 
mon than the oaks, the maples, ihe sweet gum, 
and the sassafras ; it is also less multiplied 
than the white elm, and the two species are 
rarely found together, as the red elm requires 
a substantial soil, free from moisture, and even 
delights in elevated and open situations, such 
as the steep banks of rivers, particularly of the 
Hudson and the Susquehanna. In Ohio, Ken- 
tucky, and Tennessee it is more multiplied 
than east of the mountains, and with the 
hickories, the wild cherry tree, the red mul- 
berry, the sweet locust, the coffee tree, and 
some other species, it constitutes the growth 
upon the richest lands of an uneven surface. 

"This tree is 50 or 60 feet high, and 15 or 
20 inches in diameter. In the winter it is distin- 
guished from the white elm by its buds, which 
are larger and rounder, and which, a fortnighj 
before their developement, are covered with a 
russet down. 

"The flowers are aggregated at tne extre- 
mity of the young shoots. The scales which 
surround the bunches of flowers are downy like 
the buds. The flowers and seeds differ from 
those of the preceding species ; the calyx is 
downy and sessile, and the stamina are shor* 

441 



ELM. 



ELYMUS. 



and of a pale rose colour; the seeds are larger, 
destitute of fringe, round, and very similar to 
those of the European elm ; they are ripe to- 
wards the end of May. The leaves are oval- 
acuminate, doubly denticulated, and larger, 
thicker, and rougher than those of the white 
elm. 

"The bark upon the trunk is brown; the 
heart is coarser-grained and less compact than 
that of the white elm, and of a dull red tinge. 
I have remarked that the wood, even in branches 
of one or two inches in diameter, consists 
principally of perfect wood. This species is 
stronger, more durable when exposed to the 
weather, and of a better quality than the white 
elm ; hence in the Western States it is em- 
ployed with greater advantage in the construc- 
tion of houses, and sometimes of boats on the 
banks of the Ohio. It is the best wood of the 
United Stales for blocks, and its scarceness in 
the Atlantic Slates is the only cause of its 
limited consumption in the ports. It makes 
excellent rails, which are of long duration, and 
are formed with little labour, as the trunk di- 
vides itself easily and regularly; this is pro- 
bably the reason that it is never employed for 
the naves of wheels. 

"The red elm bears a strong likeness to a 
species or a variety in Europe known by the 
name of Dutch elm. The leaves and the bark 
of the branches, macerated in water, yield, like 
those of the Dutch elm, a thick and abundant 
mucilage, which is used for a refreshing drink 
in colds, and fur emollient plasters in place of 
the marsh-mallow root, which does not grow 
in the United States. 

" Though the red elm is superior to the 
white elm, it is not equal to our European 
species, and its culture cannot be generally 
recommended. 

" Observation. In the district of Maine and 
on the banks of Lake Champlain I have found 
another elm, which I judged to be a distinct 
species. Its leaves were oval-acuminate, rough, 
and deeply toothed, but I have not seen its 
flowers or its seeds. The length of its young 
shoots announced a vigorous vegetation. It 
is confounded in use with the white elm, to 
which it is perhaps superior; it is found in the 
nurseries of France, and probably it came ori- 
ginally from Canada." {Michaux.) 

The red elm of the United States bears so 
strong a resemblance to the Dutch elm, both in 
foliage and fruit, that it is not always easy to 
tell them apart. The species of elm known in 
the South by the Indian name of Wahoo, is the 
Ulmus alala of Michaux. It is a stranger to 
the Northern and Middle States, and to the 
mountainous regions of the Alleghanies; being 
found almost exclusively in the lower part of 
Virginia, in the maritime districts of the South- 
ern States, in West Tennessee, and in some 
parts of Kentucky. It prefers the banks of 
rivers and great swamps, and attains a middle 
size, commonly not rising higher than 30 feel, 
with a diameter of 9 or 10 inches. The branches 
of the wahoo are furnished throughout their 
whole length, on two opposite sides, with a 
fungous appendage or ridge, two or three lines 
wide, from which the specific name, alata, 
winged, is derived. The wood is fine-grained, 
442 



more compact, heavier and stronger than that 
of the American white elm. The heart is of a 
dull red, approaching to chocolate-colour, and 
always bears a large proportion to the sap. In 
those parts of the country where it grows, it is 
employed for coach-wheels, and is even pre- 
ferred fur this purpose to the black gum, as 
being more hard and tough. 

Another American species of elm has been 
discovered by Mr. Nuttall, who calls it the 
Opaque-leaved elm. He found it in Arkansas, 
on the plains of the Red river, 1100 miles 
above its mouth, where it forms a majestic 
forest tree. It is distinguished for the small- 
ness and thickness of its oblique and usually 
blunt leaves, which, with their short stalks, are 
only about an inch in length by half an inch in 
breadth, and very numerous. The taste of the 
plant is astringent, and it is not mucilaginous. 

Mr. Nuttall considers this remarkable tree 
to be nearly allied to the Chinese elm (Ulmus 
Chmensis^ Of the uses and quality of its wood 
he does not speak. The density of shade pro- 
duced by it, so crowded with rigid leaves, and 
the peculiarity of its appearance, he says, en- 
title it to a place in the nurseries of the curi- 
ous, as he thinks it quite hardy enough for all 
temperate climates. To this species, he re- 
marks, Virgil's epithet, 

"Faecundse frondibus ulmi," 

might be more justly applied than to any other. 
(NuttaU's Sup. to Michaux.) 

An American species called Thomas's elm 
(Ulmus racemosa), which has hitherto been con- 
founded with other elms, is, according to Pro- 
fessor Torrey, abundant in the western part of 
the State of New York, and probably of the 
Western States generally. Mr. Thomas, its 
discoverer, found it in Cayuga county, New 
York, and the adjacent country. G. B. Emer- 
son, Esq., says that specimens have also been 
obtained from Vermont, collected by Dr. Rob- 
bins, so that it is probably both a northern and 
western species. 

The lowermost stout branches, according to 
Mr. Thomas, produce corky excrescences like 
the Wahoo elm. For a further description, 
see Eaton's North Amcr. Botany : Silliman's Jour- 
nal, vol. xix. p. 170, with a plate ; NuttaU's Sup- 
plement, p. 37. 

ELYMUS. The lyme grass. A genus of 
large, rigid, or coarse grasses, mostly peren- 
nial, growing frequently on the sea-coast- 
Smilh (Eng. Flora, vol. i. p. 177), describes 
three nativ^e species: — 1. Upright sea lyme 
grass (E. arenarius). 2. Pendulous sea lyme 
grass (E. geniculatus). 3. Wood lyme grass 
(E. EuropcBus). The last is found in woods, 
thickets, and hedges, on a chalky soil ; herb- 
age of a grassy green ; stem erect, two feet 
high, and striated. As Sinclair has treated 
copiously of the proportional value of the dif- 
ferent native and foreign species of Elymus, I 
shall follow his classification. 

Elymus arenarius (Germ. Sand-haargras, PI, 
7, o). Upright sea lyme grass, Starr, or bent, 
named from its upright, close spike. Its stalk 
is not winged, and the leaves are spinous, 
pointed. The calyx is lanceolate, the length 
of the spikelets. "The nutritive matter afforded 



ELYMUS. 



ELYMUS. 



by this lyme grass is remarkable for the large 
quantity of saccharine matter which it con- 
tains, amounting to more than one-third of its 
weight ; this grass may, therefore, be consider- 
ed as the sugar-cane of Britain. The saccha- 
rine matter must render the hay made from 
this grass very nutritious, particularly when 
cut into chaff, and mixed with corn or common 
hay. Its natural soil (if soil it can be called) 
is the sands of the sea-coast. This grass, when 
combined with the Arundo arenaria, seems ad- 
mirably adapted by nature for the purpose of 
forming a barrier to the encroachment of the 
sea. The culms are very deficient, both on its 
natural soil and when cultivated. A greater 
proportion of saccharine matter is alTorded by 
the culms of this grass than by the leaves. It 
flowers about the third week in July. 

Elymus geniculattis. Knee-jointed or pendu- 
lous lyme grass. The stem is winged, and the 
spikes bent directly downwards. At the time 
of flowering, the produce from a sandy loam is 
20,418 lbs. per acre. The foliage is tough and 
coarse, and the quantity of nutritive matter it 
affords is not considerable. The Elymus are- 
narius is nearly allied to this species in its 
general habit ; but differs specifically in the 
spikelets being pubescent, more compact, and 
the spike perfectly upright. The leaves are 
broader, the culms taller and stronger, and the 
root is more powerfully creeping. This spe- 
cies is greatly superior to the above in produce 
and nutritive properties, but neither appear to 
have merits sufficient to recommend it for cul- 
tivation ; for even though both were early in 
the produce of fine foliage, and grew rapidly 
after being cut, their strong creeping roots, 
which exhaust the soil very much, would pre- 
clude their introduction on the farm. This 
species flowers in the second week in July, 
and the seed is perfected in about three weeks. 

Elymus hysirix. Rough lyme grass. At the 
time of flowering, the produce from a rich, sili- 
cious, sandy loam was 27,225 lbs., of which 
half the weight is lost in drying. The nutritive 
matter afforded by the produce of an acre is 
only 1063 lbs. The harsh, broad, thin, light- 
green leaves of this species, and of those of the 
E, striutus and E. sibincus, indicate that they 
are naturally inhabitants of woods, or wet, 
shady places. Grasses of this description are 
generally (indeed in ever)'^ instance that has 
come under my observation) deficient in nu- 
tritive matter, and contain an excess of bitter 
extractive. Cattle appear to dislike these 
grasses. Oxen eat the Philadelphian lyme 
grass when it is offered to them, but they re- 
fuse the striated, Siberian, and rough lyme 
grasses. From the above details, there is no 
authority for recommending the rough lyme 
grass to the notice of the agriculturist. It 
flowers in the second week in July, and ripens 
the seed in about a month. 

Elymus Philadelphicus. Philadelphian lyme 
grass. At the time of flowering, the green pro- 
duce per acre from a clayey loam and reten- 
tive subsoil is 30,628 lbs., dry produce 15,314 
lbs., nutritive matter, 2033 lbs.; so that it is a 
very productive grass, and contains a consi- 
derable quantity of nutritive matter. With re- 
spect to foliage, it is rather early in the spring. 



From the large size it attains, the produce ih 
rank and proportionably coarse, and is unfit 
for pasture. It appears that for soiling, or hay 
to be used in the form of chaflT, this and some 
other of the gigantic grasses would be profit- 
able plants on soils unfit for the production of 
the superior pasture grasses, or of corn. A 
comparison of the quantity of nutritive matter 
contained in hay of the best quality with that 
made from this grass, will show nearly their 
comparative value. One pound of hay com- 
posed of the best natural grasses contains of 
nutritive matter 57 drs.; one pound of hay of 
the E. Philadelphicus 34 drs. With regard to 
nutritive powers, therefore, five tons of the hay 
of this grass are scarcely equal to three tons 
of that of the superior grasses. But the soil 
that will produce this grass and others of the 
same class at the rate of six tons per acre, 
would not produce one-fifth the quantity of the 
superior grasses ; consequently the adoption of 
the tall fescue and Philadelphian lyme grasses 
on soils of this description for the uses now 
described, might be found a profitable measure. 
This grass flowers in the first and second weeks 
of July, and successively till the end of sum- 
mer. The seed ripens in about three weeks 
after the time of flowering. 

Elymus Sibericus. Siberian lyme grass. At 
the time of flowering, the produce per acre 
from a rich sandy soil is 16,335 lbs., dry pro- 
duce 5,717 lbs., nutritive matter 574 lbs. The 
produce of this grass is very coarse, and the 
weight of the crop, therefore, though consider- 
able, is comparatively of no value. It is a 
native of Siberia, and withstands the effects of 
the severest continued frost, but not sudden 
changes from frost to fine weather. It requires 
to be sown every year, and treated as an an- 
nual. It comes into flower the second season, 
about the second or third week in June, and 
continues to emit flowering culms till autumn. 
A light, rich, silicious soil appears to be best 
adapted to its growth. 

Elymus striatus. Striated lyme grass. At the 
time of flowering, the green produce per acre 
of this grass from a clayey loam is 20,418 lbs., 
dry produce 8,933 lbs., nutritive matter 1276 
lbs. From these details, therefore, this species 
is inferior in nutritive powers to the Philadel- 
phian lyme grass in the proportion of 17 to 16 
It is also much later in the production of 
foliage in the spring, and does not come into 
flower till after that species has nearly per- 
fected its seed. It cannot, therefore, be recom- 
mended for the purposes of the agriculturist 
Flowers about the latter end of July, and ripens 
the seed in August. {Hort. Gram. Wob. p. 365 — 
371.) 

About eight American species of the lyme 
grass have been enumerated by botanists, found 
along streams or on the sea-shore, where, as in 
Europe, they often prove extremely useful in 
resisting the encroachment of the water. 

The Virginian lyme grass is sometimes called 
wild rye, although its spikes, like those of the 
Canadian lyme grass, more resemble at a little 
distance the heads of barley. It is a perennial, 
found along the banks of the Brandywine and 
in other parts of the Middle States, where i 
attains a height of three or four feet. 

443 



EMBANKMENT. 



ENDIVE. 



The Canadian lyme grass is also a peren- 
nial, growing to a similar height with the spe- 
cies just mentioned, found in similar localities, 
and resembling it in most other respects, ex- 
cept in having its flowerets and their receptacle 
clothed with stitfish hairs. The variety glau- 
cifolius of Torrey is generally a taller plant, 
with longer spikes, the awns long and some- 
what cui-ved, and the whole plant covered with 
a greenish-white or silvery appearance. It is 
found on the Schuylkill, near Black Rock. 

The villous or hairy lyme grass is a species 
also found on the banks of the Brandy wine. 

The species called Porcupine lyme grass 
(£. hystrix), is remarkable for its expanded, 
bristly spike, somewhat resembling an apothe- 
cary's bottle-washer. It is a perennial, fre- 
quently found in the southern parts of Penn- 
sj'lvania and other Middle States, in rich, 
moist, and rocky woodlands, where it tlowers 
in July and ripens its seed in August. (See 
Flor. Cesli-ic.) 

EMBANKMENT. A large mound or bank 
of earth, thrown up for the purpose of protect- 
ing or reclaiming lands from being injured or 
inundated by the water of the sea, rivers, or 
lakes. Mr. P. Howard narrates in the Com. to 
the Board of Agr. vol. vi. p. 148, the methods in 
use for embankments abroad. 

In Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, 
and other places in England, many hundred 
thousands of acres have been taken in by em- 
banking. In Holland, the whole country has 
in a great measure been gained in this way. 
Near Chester, the River Dee Company have 
also reclaimed some thousands of acres from 
the sea, which are now divided into several 
beautiful farms. Mr. A. W. Maddocks, of Car- 
narvon, enclosed 1080 acres from the sea, by 
an embankment of two miles in extent. {^Ihuh 
vol. vi. p. 159.) Lord Boringdon also reclaim- 
ed a large tract of land from the sea by em- 
banking. {Ihii. p. 252.) Mr. D. Sheriff, of In- 
verness-shire, likewise describes {Ibid. vol. vii. 
p. 59), the plan he pursued in taking in from 
the sea 100 acres of valuable carse land. In 
the Lih. of Useful Know., "Brit. Husb." vol. i. p. 
447-449, will be found some excellent observa- 
tions on the embankment of rivers, and the cost 
of an operation of the kind. In the Quart, Journ. 
of .Agr.voX. viii. p. 377, will also be found some 
interesting details on the same subject. 

There are many other parts of the United 
Kingdom in which capital might be advan- 
tageously employed for the same purpose. It 
is a question of even national importance, and, 
as in the proposed embankment of the Wash, 
may be carried in some districts to a much 
greater extent than is commonly supposed. It 
is an improvement which must be so much 
varied, according to the situation in which 
the farmer is placed, that it would be impos- 
sible, in this work, to go into engineering 
details; for, as Mr. Blackie remarks {Trans, 
of High. Soc. vol. ii. p. 745,) " It would be an 
Herculean task to attempt to lay down rules, 
or give directions for raising the requisite 
structures in every situation. So many local 
impediments occur, so many unlooked-for ob- 
stacles must be surmounted, and there are 
always so many circumstances to be attended 
444 



to and provided for, that much must ever de- 
pend on the ingenuity and ability of the direc- 
tor." See also Rev. G. Hamilton, Mr. Sidney, 
and Mr. Macleod. (J6iri. p. 97 — 103); Johnstone 
on Draining and Embanking, and Stephens on 
Irrigation. 

EMBROCATION {Gr.iyfi^ix"')- In farriery, 
it is a liquid application, usually prepared of 
volatile and spirituous ingredients, chiefly used 
by friction to relieve pains, numbness, &c. 

EMOLIENTS (Lat. emolUcns). In farriery, 
such remedies as relax and diminish the hard- 
ness and rigidity of the parts to which they 
are applied. 

ENCHANTER'S NIGHTSHADE {Circaa). 
Of this perennial herbaceous genus of plants 
there are two indigenous species, the common 
enchanter's nightshade (C. lutetiana), and the 
mountain enchanter's nightshade (C. alpind). 
The former grows in moist, shady places, hedge- 
bottoms, church-yards, orchards, &c.: the root 
is tenaciously creeping; the stem 18 or 20 
inches high ; round and branching: the leaves, 
of a darkish dull green, waved, with short 
teeth, one rib, and many veins ; the flowers are 
in clusters, many, small, and scentless, white 
or reddish, with a brownish-green calyx ; the 
fruit is a bur, cloihed with hooked bristles. 
Two species of this plant are known in the 
United States. The one commonly found in 
moist, rich wood-lands in Pennsylvania and 
other Middle States, varies somewhat, Dr. Dar- 
lington says, from the circa?a of Europe. (Flor. 
Ccst. and Eng. Flor. vol. i. p. 15.) 

ENDIVE {Cichorium endivia). This plant is 
too well known to require description. There 
are three varieties. The green-curled is the 
only one cultivated for the main crops. When 
the larger seedlings have been transplanted, 
the smaller ones which remain may be cleared 
of weeds, and have a gentle watering; by 
which treatment, in 12 or 14 days they will 
have attained a sufficient size to afford a se- 
cond successional crop ; and by a repetition 
of this management, in general, a third. The 
plants are generally fit for transplanting when 
of a month's growth in the seed bed ; but a 
more certain criterion is, that when 5 or 6 
inches high, they are of the most favourable 
size. They must be set in rows 12 or 15 inches 
apart each way ; the Batavian requires the 
greatest space. Some gardeners recommend 
them to be set in trenches or drills, 3 or 4 
inches deep; this mode is not detrimental in 
summer and dry weather; but in winter, when 
every precaution is to be adopted for the pre- 
vention of decay, it is always injurious. About 
three months elapse between the time of sow- 
ing and the fitness of the plants for blanching. 
This operation, if conducted properly, will be 
completed in from ten to fourteen days in sum- 
mer or in three or four weeks in winter. In 
hot weather, the blanching is completed in half 
the time that is required if the season is cold. 
To blanch the plants, it is the most common 
practice to tie the leaves together ; to place 
tiles or pieces of board upon them ; or to cover 
them with garden pots ; whilst some recom- 
mend the leaves to be tied together, and then 
to be covered up to their tips with mould, 
making it rise to an apex, so as to throw off 



ENGRAFTING. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



excessive rains. All these methods succeed 
in dry seasons, but in wet ones the plants 
treated according to any of these plans are 
very apt to decay. The one which succeeds 
best in all seasons, is to fold the leaves round 
the heart as much as possible in their natural 
position, and being tied together with a shred 
of bass mat, covered up entirely with coal 
ashes in the form of a cone, the, surface being 
rendered firm and smooth with the trowel. 
Sand will do; but ashes are equally unreten- 
tive of moisture, whilst they are much superior 
in absorbing heat, which is so beneficial in the 
hastening of the process. If the simple mode 
of drawing the leaves together is adopted to 
effect this etiolation, they must be tied very 
close ; and in a week after the first tying, a 
second ligature must be passed round the 
middle of the plant, to prevent the heart-leaves 
bursting out. A dry afternoon, when the plants 
are entirely free from moisture, should be se- 
lected, whichever mode is adopted for this 
concluding operation. For the production of 
seed, the finest and soundest plants should be 
selected of the last plantation, and which must 
agree with the characteristics of the respective 
varieties. For a small family, three or four 
plants of each variety will produce sufficient. 
These should be taken in March, and planted 
beneath a south fence, about a foot from it, and 
18 inches apart. As the flower-stems advance, 
they should be fastened to stakes ; or if they 
are placed beneath palings, the supporting 
string can be nailed to them. They must be 
kept clear of weeds. In July the seed will 
begin to ripen ; and here it must be observed, 
that each lateral branch is to be gathered as 
the seed upon it ripens ; for if none are gather- 
ed until the whole plant is changing colour, the 
first ripened and best seed will have scattered 
and be lost, so wide is the difference of time 
between the several branches of the same 
plant ripening their seed. Each branch must 
be laid, as it is cut, upon a cloth in the sun, 
and Avhen perfectly dry, the seed beaten out, 
cleansed, and stored. Endive seed will vege- 
tate after being kept five or six years. 
ENGRAFTING. See Grafting. 
ENTOMOLOGY. A term signifying the 
knowledge of insects. The importance of 
such knowledge to those interested in agricul- 
ture or rural affairs, must be obvious to every 
one who refiects upon the advantages derived 
from the useful labours of some insects, and 
the devastations committed by others. The 
first step in proof of the utility of this science, 
might be to show that insects do a great deal 
of harm. Besides wire-worms and other in- 
sects which eat the seed in the ground, and 
weevils which destroy the contents of the gra- 
naries, flies torment the domestic animal whilst 
alive and blow their flesh when dead. Cater- 
pillars eat cabbages, and moths riddle holes in 
cloth. Clover-seed is destroyed by a small 
weevil (Jpion flavi-femoratum) ; Dutch clover 
by the Jpion flavipes ; peas in the pod by the 
small beetle (Bruchus granarius). The turnip- 
fly is properly a beetle— a little jumping beetle 
(^Haltica nemoruni). 

The problem of course is, how to destroy this 
legion of enemies. Now to do this with the 



greatest efl^ect, we must watch them tla^ixigh 
all their changes. There may probably be 
many persons ignorant that most insects pass 
through four stages of existence (of which the 
silkworm affords a familiar instance) : — 1. The 
egg; 2. The caterpillar; 3. The chrysalis; and, 
4. The butterfly or imago. It is in the second 
stage that insects generally do the most mis- 
chief. In the egg and the chrysalis they do 
none; and in the imago, some do and some do 
not. Though we are all familiar with the in- 
sect in the shape in which its ravages compel 
our attention, we are frequently unconscious 
of its identity under other shapes. We look 
on the cockchalTer, without suspecting that its 
issue is the grub which eats the roots of the 
grass. But however desirable a knowledge 
of entomology may be, no single individual 
could acquire it all for himself. He would 
need the eyes of Argus, the patience of Job, 
and the years of Methuselah. The diligence 
and sagacity of men who have passed their 
lives in this study have at length accumulated 
a body of facts of the highest value ; being 
printed, they have become the property of 
everybody who will take the trouble to read 
them ; and thus a school-boy may learn in a 
few months facts which the labours of his 
whole life might have been vainly exerted in 
seeking. 

Messrs. Kirby and Spence in Europe, and 
Dr. Harris in America, are the great authori- 
ties upon this subject, and from their books 
most of the facts stated in this encyclopaedia 
have been taken. They themselves suggest a 
similar application to practice of the truths 
of their favourite science. " With respect to 
noxious caterpillars in general," say they, 
"farmers and gardeners are not u;,aally aware 
that the best mode of preventing iheir attacks 
is to destroy the female fly before she has laid 
her eggs ; to do which, the moth proceeding 
from each must be first ascertained ; but if 
their research were carried still farther, so as 
to enable them to distinguish the pupa, and 
discover its haunts (and it would not be diffi- 
cult to_ detect that of the greatest pest of our 
gardens, the cabbage butterfly), the work might 
be still more effectually accomplished." 

The process of destroying noxious insects by 
attacking them in their early stages is not new. 
P. Musgrave collected the chrysalids in the 
spring, so as to become acquainted with them, 
and then employed people to catch and kill the 
moths and butterflies. If you catch 200 in a 
day, you destroy 10,000 eggs, which would give 
120,000 in a fortnight. Might not boys and 
girls be well employed in doing this 1 They 
have all the organ of destructiveness. 

In short, it is abundantly evident, that if we 
knew them in all their changes, and know 
where they are concealed in autumn, winter, 
and spring, we might exterminate those multi- 
tudes which are now as the sands which are 
upon the sea-shore. And if not all the know 
ledge required be yet in our possession, a greal 
deal is, and might be easily imparted to the 
young farmer, if we could catch him in his 
chrysalis state ; and what little is still wanting 
would soon be accumulated when we had set 
so many keen and interested eyes to obser'* 
2P 445 



EPIDEMIC. 



ERYNGO. 



a fly could scarcely move but they would be 
watching him. (Farmer's Register.) 

EPIDEMIC (Gr.6«-/ and Jii/u'.r,Fr.epidemique). 
In farriery, a term applied to such fevers, or 
other distempers of cattle, as attack great num- 
bers at certain seasons, or any time, if many 
suffer in the same manner. The term is fre- 
quently confounded with infectious, which is 
perfectly distinct, and implies a disease com- 
municated, not from the atmosphere, but from 
one individual to another. Horses are liable 
to epidemic fevers, and to several distempers 
of that kind, such as the epidemical catarrh or 
influenza, strangles, staggers, &c. 

EPIDERMIS (Gr. £« and Sipjuu, the true skin). 
In botany, the exterior cellular coating of the 
bark, leaf, or stem of plants and trees. It is 
composed of cells compacted together into a 
stratum, varying in thickness in ditTerent spe- 
cies, and is often readily separable by gentle 
violence. It is believed to be intended by 
nature as a protection of the subjacent parts 
from the drying effects of the atmosphere. 
{Brande's Diet, of Science.) 

EPILEPSY (Gr. £7n\«4<?). A disease which 
occurs in various animals. See Sheep, Dis- 
eases OF. 

EREMACAUSIS (from yi^i/m^, slow, and nauir;?, 
combustion). A term applied in organic che- 
mistry to denote one of the changes which 
vegetable and other organic matters undergo 
after death. 

The conversion of wood into humus, the 
formation of acetic acid out of alcohol, nitrifi- 
cation, and numerous other processes, are of 
this nature. Vegetable juices of every kind, 
parts of animal and vegetable substances, moist 
sawdust, blood, &c., cannot be exposed to the 
air, without suffering immediately a progress- 
ive change of colour and properties, during 
which oxygen is absorbed. These changes do 
not take place when water is excluded, or when 
tke substances are exposed to the temperature 
of 32° ; and different bodies require different 
degrees of heat, in order to effect the absorption 
of oxygen, and. consequently, their eremacau- 
sis. The property of suffering this change is 
possessed in the highest degree by substances 
which contain nitrogen. 

The decay of woody fibre (the principal con- 
stituent in all plants) is accompanied b}' a 
phenomenon of a peculiar kind. This sub- 
stance, in contact with air or oxygen gas, con- 
verts the latterinto an equal volume of carbonic 
acid, and its decay ceases upon the disappear- 
ance of the oxygen. If the carbonic acid is 
removed, and oxygen replaced, its decay re- 
commences, that is, it again converts oxygen 
into carbonic acid. Woody fibre consists of 
carbon and the elements of water ; and if we 
judge only from the products formed during 
its decomposition, and from those formed by 
pure charcoal, burned at a high temperature, 
we might conclude that the causes were the 
same in both : the decay of woody fibre pro- 
ceeds, therefore, as if no hydrogen or oxygen 
entered into its composition. 

In the Appendix to the Third Report of the 

Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1840, Dr. S. L. Dana 

adduces the following example, to show that 

pven a moist plant will not decay, if air is ex- 

446 



eluded. A piece of a white birch tref ^^ ' 
taken from a depth of twenty-five feet I slow 
the surface, in Lowell. " It must have been 
inhumed there probably before the creation of 
man, yet this most perishable of all wood is 
nearly as sound as if cut from the forest last 
fall." 

A very long time is required for the comple- 
tion of this process of combustion, and the pre- 
sence of water is necessary for its maintenance : 
alkalies promote it, but acids retard it ; all an- 
tiseptic substances, such as sulphurous acid, 
the mercurial salts, empyreumatic oils, «fec., 
cause its complete cessation. 

Woody fibre, in a state of decay, is the sub- 
stance called humus. 

The property of woody fibre to convert sur- 
rounding oxygen gas into carbonic acid dimi- 
nishes in proportion as its decay advances, 
and at last a certain quantity of a brown coaly- 
looking substance remains, in which this pro- 
perty is entirely wanting. This substance is 
called mould ; it is the product of the complete 
decay of woody fibre. Mould constitutes the] 
principal part of all the strata of brown coal 
and peat. (Lichigs Organic Chemistry.) 

The eremacausis or putrefaction of sub- 
stances containing nitrogen, is the process ^ 
technically called nitrification. 

ERGOT (Spermccdia clavus). A parasitic] 
fungus, which most frequently appears upoaj 
the ears of rye, but sometimes upon other 
plants of the gramineous order. It most com- 
monly appears in hot, damp summers. It is 
known to be present by the change which thei^ 
affected grains assume; but these seldom ex- I' 
cced five or six in an ear. The grain length- 
ens to more than double its natural size, be- 
comes angled, of a deep purplish-brown colour, 
and curved at its apex, where the ergot is seat- 
ed. The surface, when viewed through a mag- 
nifying glass, appears studded with transparent, 
shining, white, angular dots; and when sliced 
and viewed in water under the microscope, it J| 
is seen to consist of white, flocculent threads, f 
bearing globular sporules. The ergotted grains 
have a heavy, unpleasant odour, and an acrid, 
nauseous taste, leaving a slight sensation of 
heat in the palate. Ergotted rj-e is poisonous 
both to man and other animals. When, in bad 
seasons, it has prevailed, and has been ground 
into flour with the rye, and baked in bread, it 
has caused many fatal depopulating epidemics 
in the north of Europe. On quadrupeds its use 
is followed by emaciation, palsy of the hind- 
legs, and extreme debility; mules in South 
America lose their hoofs and hair when fed on 
ergotted maize; and hens who have ergotted 
r)'e mixed Avith their food, lay eggs without 
shells, owing to its excitement of the oviduct. 
It is employed as a medicine in diflicult partu- 
rition, but it ought not to be administered with- 
out the greatest caution and discretion. (Edin. 
Med. and Surg. Journ. vol. liii.) See Mildew. 

ERICA VULGARIS. The common heath, 
ling, or heather. See Heath. 

ERIOPHORUM. The genus of cotton grass- 
es, which see. 

ERYNGO (Eryngium). A genus of plants 
consisting of eleven species, two of which are 
perennials, natives of England, viz., 1. The sea 



ESCULENT. 



EVAPORATION. 



holly, or sea eryngo (E. maritimum), which 
grows on the sandy sea-shore, where it strikes 
its long creeping roots eighteen or twenty feet 
deep into the soil ; the radical leaves are more 
or less sheathing, stiff, spinous, three-lobed ; it 
blows a bright blue flower in July or August. 
Stem a foot high ; root whitish, of a pungent 
aromatic flavour, with a mixture of mucilage ; 
herb smooth, glaucous, with an elegant blue 
tint. The roots, reckoned stimulating and re- 
storative, are either sold candied or adminis- 
tered in decoctions variously prepared. 

2. The field eryngo {E. campestre) grows on 
waste ground chiefly near the sea, and is not 
so common as the last. It is more bushy and 
slender, and of a paler glaucous green than the 
foregoing; radical leaves larger; flowers white 
or purplish. The leaves of both are somewhat 
sweet, and of a pungent flavour. 

Mr. Nuttall notices five species of the eryngo 
or sea-holly, as found in the United States : 
1. E. Virginianum ; 2. E. virgatum ; 3. E. fceti- 
dum ; 4. E. aquaticum. His general description 
of the foregoing is, — Stem rather low ; leaves 
sword-shaped, distinctly margined with setose 
spines ; setae frequently in pairs, »fec. ; flowers 
greenish-white. 5. E. gracile, without spines. 
This last was found in Florida by Dr. Baldwyn. 
Many other species are submarine ; some exist 
in inland depressions, and a considerable num- 
ber grow in arid wastes. (NuttaWs Genera.) 

ESCULENT (Lat. esadenttis). A term ap- 
plied to edible roots and plants, as carrots, 
turnips, cabbages, &c. 

ESPALIERS (Fr. espalier), in horticulture, 
are trees trained by lattice-work or other sup- 
ports on the borders of beds, or as hedges to 
enclose plots of ground. They may serve to 
defend in a great measure many tender plants 
from the inclemencies of wind and weather. 
The trees chiefly planted for espaliers are 
apples, pears, and plums. The principal ob- 
jects aimed at, however, in espaliers, are to 
expose the foliage and fruit of the plants or 
trees more perfectly to the light and sun, to 
prevent the branches from being blown about 
by the winds, and to economize space by con- 
fining them within definite limits. (^Loudon's 
Sub. Gard. p. 232.) 

ESPARCET. A local name for Sainfoin, 
which see. 

ESTATE (Fr. estat), in common parlance, is 
applied to the landed property held by indivi- 
duals ; and a man is said to be of good or of 
small estate, according to the magnitude of his 
landed property. Estates vary exceedingly in 
size and value, in most parts of England. The 
largest estate in the kingdom may be worth 
100,000^., or upwards, a year; and there are 
estates of most inferior degrees of magnitude, 
down to the annual value of 40s. In some 
counties the property is more, and in others it 
is less subdivided. 

EUDIOMETER. The name of any appara- 
tiis Or contrivance by which the purity of the 
air can be tested. It implies a measure of purity, 
and is chiefly employed to determine the pro- 
portion of oxygen which the air may contain. 

EVAPORATION is the process by which 
substances in the fluid or other form are con- 
'-erted into vapour and steam. Ice, camphor. 



carbonate of ammonia, and many other so- 
lids evaporate readily in the open air. The 
evaporation of water is, however, the most in- 
teresting consideration in its relations to agri- 
culture, as will be more particularly shown 
when treating of the evaporating qualities of 
soils, &c. 

Water, when expanded into vapour, is high- 
ly elastic, and spreads itself by a force of its 
own. The amount of vapour existing at any 
time in a given place is determined by the 
degree of heat present. According, therefore, 
to the temperature of the water from which 
the vapour emanates, will be the elastic force 
and density of the vapour, provided the process 
be carried on in an open vessel. 

The pressure of the air and of other vapours 
upon the surface of water in an open vessel, 
does not prevent evaporation of the liquid ; it 
merely retards its progress. Experience shows 
that the space filled with an elastic fluid, as air 
or other gaseous body, is capable of receiving 
as much aqueous vapour as if it were vacuous, 
only the repletion of that space with the vapour 
proceeds more slowly in the former predica- 
ment than in the latter, but in both cases it 
arrives eventually at the same pitch. Dr. Dal- 
ton has very ingeniously proved, that the par- 
ticles of aeriform bodies present no permanent 
obstacle to the introduction of a gaseous atmo- 
sphere of another kind among them, but merely 
obstruct its diffusion momentarily, as if by 
a species of friction. Hence, exhalation at 
atmospheric temperatures is promoted by the 
mechanical diffusion of the vapours through 
the air with ventilating fans or chimney 
draughts ; though, under brisk ebullition, the 
force of the steam readily^ overcomes that me- 
chanical obstruction. 

The atmosphere has seldom as much watery 
vapour as it is capable of holding, and there- 
fore the process of evaporation is almost always 
going on wherever there is a source of mois- 
ture ' present. Under certain circumstances, 
however, evaporation is checked and even 
suspended. Suppose the temperature of the 
water to be midway between freezing and boil- 
ing, viz., 122° Fahrenheit; also, that the air in 
contact with it be of the same temperature, but 
filled with moisture, so that its interstitial spaces 
are full of vapour of corresponding elasticity 
with that given off by the water ; it is certain 
that, under such circumstances, no fresh for- 
mation of vapour could take place. The air 
would then be said to be saturated, as it is at 
times when clothes hung out at common tem- 
peratures remain without drying, and the 
grass, leaves, and grain remain soaked in 
moisture. But the moment a portion of vapour 
escapes, or is drawn off by condensation into 
dew, cloud, rain, &c., an equivalent portion of 
vapour will immediately be enabled to rise, 
and the process of exhalation or evaporation 
recommences. The water exhaled at low tem- 
peratures, that is to say, below the boiling point, 
is commonly called vapour. When the tern 
perature of fresh water in an open vessel, at or 
near the common level of the sea or tide-water, 
rises to 212° Fahrenheit, the water begins to 
boil and evaporate with exceeding rapidity, 
producing what is commonlv tpr»ned steam. 

447 



EVAPORATION. 



EXUVIAE. 



In such case the evaporation takes place, not 
only from the surface, but from every point in 
the interior of the vessel. This indicates that 
the evaporating force of the water gained from 
the increase of heat has become greater than 
the pressure of the atmosphere, which is suffi- 
cient to sustain a column of mercury thirty 
inches high in the barometer. If the pressure 
of the atmosphere be removed by the air-pump, 
the turbulent evaporation or boiling of water 
will take place at a much lower temperature 
than 212°, even down to the freezing point. 
But under the common pressure of the atmo- 
sphere, and below the temperature at which 
water boils, evaporation goes on quietly and 
slowly. In deep mines, \v^ich descend below 
the level of the sea, water requires a greater 
heat than 212° to make it boil. But on high 
mountains, or districts rising far above the 
level of the sea, the pressure of the air is less- 
ened, and boiling takes place, as in the air- 
pump, at lower degrees. 

The vapours exhaled from a liquid at any 
temperature contain more heat than the fluid 
from which they sprung; and they cease to 
form whenever the supply of heat into the 
liquid is stopped. Nevertheless, a thermome- 
fer held in the steam proceeding from hot water 
rises no higher than when placed in the water 
itself. The additional heat, therefore, contained 
by the vapour, is in a latent or concealed state, 
and does not become sensible to the thermome- 
ter until the vapour condenses. Any quantity 
ot water requires, for its conversion into vapour 
or steam, five and a half times as much heat 
as is sufficient to heat it from the freezing point 
of 32° to the boiling point of 212°. The quan- 
tity of heat absorbed by one volume of water 
in its conversion into steam, is about 1000° 
Fahrenheit; it would be adequate to heat 1000 
volumes of water one degree of th.? same scale ; 
or to raise one volume of boiling water, con- 
fined in a non-conducting vessel, to 1180°. 
Were the vessel, charged with water so heated, 
jpened, it would be instantaneously emptied 
by vaporization, since the whole caloric equi- 
valent to its constitution as steam is present. 
When, upon the other hand, steam is condensed 
by contact with cold substances, so much heat 
is set free as is capable of heating five and a 
half times its weight of water, from 32° to 212° 
Fahrenheit. If the supply of heat to a copper 
be uniform, five hours and a half will be re- 
quired to drive oflT its water in steam, provided 
one hour was taken in heating the water from 
the freezing to the boiling point, under the at- 
mospherical pressure. 

It thus appears that evaporation is a cooling 
process, because the water is obliged to take 
up an additional supply of heat to expand and 
keep it in a state of invisible vapour. It is 
equally plain, that when vapour is condensed 
into mist, cloud, dew, rain, snow, and ice, it 
must give out that extra supply of heat required 
to convert it into vapour. Hence, in summer 
and mild weather, evaporation is a cooling 
process, whilst in winter the condensation of 
vapour and congelation of water must tend to 
prevent more excessive cold, by throwing out 
latent heat into the atmosphere. The 1000 
degrees of heat absorbed by watery vapour on 



its expansion into vapour, must of necessity 
be set free on its condensation and conversion 
into water. 

EVERLASTING-PEA, BROAD-LEAVED 
(Lathynis latifolius). A perennial plant of the 
vetch kind, which grows naturally in some 
places ; is easily cultivated, and annually 
yields a great burden of excellent provender, 
and might be cultivated to advantage as a 
green food for cattle, on any of the more strong 
sorts of soil. See Vetch and Vetchling. 

EVERLASTING, PEARLY (Gnuphalium 
margaritaceurn). One of the names of the 
American cudweed. See Cudweed. 

EVERY-YEAR'S-LAND. Such lands as 
have been cropped with a brown and white 
crop, or pulse and grain in alternation, for a 
length of time, without any intervening fallow. 
There are extensive common fields in Glou- 
cestershire and other parts of England, which 
have been conducted under this management 
for perhaps centuries past. 

EXOTICS (Gr. (^a>T>Ko;, foreign). In gar- 
dening, a name given to plants which are not 
natives, but have been introduced from some 
other countrv. 

EXTRACTS (Fr. Extraits; Ger. Extracten). 
The older apothecaries used this term to de- 
signate the product of the evaporation of any 
vegetable juice, infusion, or decoction; whe- 
ther the latter two were made with water, 
alcohol, or ether; whence arose the distinc- 
tion of aqueous, alcoholic, and ethereous ex- 
tracts. 

Fourcroy made many researches upon these 
preparations, and supposed that they had all a 
common basis, which be called the extractive 
principle. But Chevreul and other chemists 
have since proved that this pretended principle 
is a heterogeneous and very variable com- 
pound. By the term extract, therefore, is now 
meant merely the whole of the soluble matters 
obtained from vegetables, reduced by careful 
evaporation to either a pasty or solid consist- 
ence. The watery extracts, which are those 
most commonly made, are as various as the 
vegetables which yield them ; some containing 
chiefly sugar or gum in great abundance, and 
are therefore innocent or inert; while others 
contain very energetic impregnations. The 
conduct of the evaporating heat is the capital 
point in the preparation of extracts. They 
should be always prepared, if possible, from k 
the juice of the fresh plant, hy subjecting its 1 
leaves or other succulent part, to the action of 
a powerful screw or hydraulic press ; and the 
evaporation should be effected by the warmth 
of a water-bath, heated not beyond 100° or 120° 
Fahr. Steam heat may perhaps be applied 
advantageously in some cases, where it is not 
likely to decompose any of the principles of 
the plant. But by far the best process for 
making extracts is in vacuo, upon the princi- 
ples involved in the process of evaporation. 

For exceedingly delicate purposes, the con- 
centration may be performed in the cold, by 
placing saucers filled with the expressed juice 
over a basin containing sulphuric acid, putting 
a glass receiver over them and exhausting 
its air. 

EXUVI^ (Lat.). The cast-off parts or co 



EYE. 



FAIR. 



vering of animals, and also the shells and other 
marine productions naet with in the bowels of 
the earth, having been deposited there for a 
vast length of time. The lobster casts his shell, 
the toad and snake shed their skin periodically, 
leeches and fishes seem to cast off exuvial 
layers of mucus only ; but in most reptiles the 
epidermis is periodically moulted, either entire 
or in large coherent masses. The periodi- 
cally moulted feathers of birds, and hairs of 
various species of mammalia, may also be re- 
garded as exuvias. Substances of these kinds, 
where they can be procured in sufficient quan- 
tities, are highly valuable as manures, and 
capable of extensive application, especially on 
all the clay soils. 

EYE (Sax. eas; Ice. eizo). In the manage- 
ment of fruit-trees, implies the germ, small 
bud. or shoot inserted into a tree. 

EYE-BRIGHT (Euphrasia officinalis). An 
elegant plant, indigenous to England, very com- 
mon in mountainous pastures and dry heaths, 
varying in height from one to six inches. It 
flowers from .July to September; its stalk is 
square and hard ; the leaves of a bright green, 
flat, broad, and inde'nted at the edges. The 
flowers are small and white, streaked and 
spotted with dark colours. On the mountains 
of Scotland there is a more slender variety, 
with smaller but more richly tinted blossoms; 
on the Alps a dwarf, large-flowered, more pur- 
pled variety is common. It must be gathered 
about September, when it has done flowering. 
The distilled water is spoken of by the old 
herbalists as a fine eye-water to strengthen 
and improve the sight. This reputation gave 
it the name of eye-bright, but, like many other 
ancient opinions respecting the virtues of 
plants, the value of the reputation is worn out. 
The eye-bright will not grow in gardens ; it 
loves to hide itself in grass or heath, and will 
not thrive unless it be surrounded by plants 
that are taller than itself. It is eaten by cattle 
and sheep, but refused by hogs. (Eng. Flora, 
vol. iii. p. 122.) 

Two herbs are known in the United States 
by this popular name. One is the Hypericum- 
leaved Euphorbia (Euphorbia hypericifolia), a 
milky annual plant common in pastures and 
on road-sides. The juice applied to the eye 
causes severe smarting. The severe saliva- 
tion to which grazing horses are subject is 
said to be caused by their eating this species 
of Euphorbia. 

The other plant also sometimes called eye- 
bright, is the Indian tobacco, or Lobelia injlata, a 
biennial found abundantly in pastures, or road- 
sides, &c., flowering in July and August, and ri- 
pening its seeds in August and October. This 
plant is possessed of highly acrimonious pro- 
perties, and is an active emetic, cathartic, and 
narcotic. These properties render it capable 
of doing much harm or good according to the 
judgment and discrimination with which it is 
employed in diflerent diseases and the proper 
stages. Without such attention, and in the 
hands of ignorant professed quacks and rash 
pretenders, the indiscriminate use of this po- 
tent herb has been fraught with serious injury 
to the constitution, and not unfrequently with 
death more or less speedy. 
57 



EYE OF THE HORSE. The eye of the 
horse appears to be naturally more disposed 
to disease than that of any other animal. The 
diseases of the eye, although few in number, 
are frequent in their appearance, obstinate, 
and generally baffle all the skill of the vete- 
rinarian. The following are the principal: 
common inflammation, specific ophthalmia or 
moon blindness, cataract, and gutta serena or 
amaurosis. For the last there is no cure. — Moon 
blindness, as it is termed, is brought on in a 
great measure by close confinement in dark, 
heated, and unwholesome stables. No specific 
remedies can be given for these diseases. (The 
Horse, p. 113; Lib. Use. Know.) See Blindness 
and Catauact. 



F. 

FACTOR (Lsit. f actor, -Fr.facteur). In mer- 
cantile law, an agent who is intrusted with the 
property of others, which he is commissioned 
to dispose of. In Scotland the word factor is 
used synonymously with steward in England, 
signifying one who has the overlooking or 
management of an estate or a farm for another 
person. 

FAGOT (Welsh fagod; Fr. fagot). A 
bundle of small cut wood tied together closely 
for fuel or other purposes. They are made up 
from the cuttings or thinnings of coppices or 
hedges ; and, in many districts, are sold to the 
bakers. 

FAIR (Old Fr.yJere ,• hal. feri(B or forum) . A 
public place where merchants, traders, and 
other persons assemble from remote parts on 
some fixed day in the year to buy and sell 
commodities, and to partake of the diversions 
usually to be met with on such occasions. See 
Market. Fairs and markets are very closely 
allied. A fair, as the term is now generally 
understood, is only a greater species of market 
recurring at more distant intervals. Both are 
appropriated to the sale of one or more kinds 
of goods, the hiring of servants or labourers, 
<fcc.; but fairs are in most cases attended by a 
greater concourse of people, for whose amuse- 
ment various exhibitions are got up. 

Fairs originated in England in monkish 
days, when proud bishops and mitred abbots 
were not unwilling to increase their revenues 
by the tolls which they were empowered by 
royal charter to levy on the crowds who com- 
monly attended the festivals of their patron 
saints. Spreading rumours with an intent to 
increase the price at fairs or markets is in 
England an offence at common law. (Re.x v^ 
Waddiyrgton, 1 East, 143.) 

Various statutes have been passed to regu- 
late fairs.— By the 2 & 3 P. and M. c. 7, the 
owner or keeper of every fair must appoint a 
certain open place for the sale of horses, and 
must, under a penalty of 40 shillings, appoint 
some one to attend to take toll, from 10 a. m. 
till sunset ; must keep a book, and enter there- 
in the marks, price, colour, &i, , . : ller's and 
buyer's name and residence, or forfeit 40 shil- 
lings. — By the 31 Eliz. c. 12, if the parties are 
strangers to the book-keeper, they must pro- 
cure a person to vouch for them ; his fee for 
2 p2 449 



FAIRY RINGS. 



FALLOW. 



entering in the book, where there is no toll, is 
one penny, for giving a certificate two-pence. 

A list of the fairs and markets of the United 
Kingdom will be found in several almanacs, 
particularly that entitled The Farmer^s Almanac, 
by Johnson and Shaw. {M'Culloch's Com. Diet. 
&c.) 

FAIRY RINGS. Whoever has passed over 
our down lands in search of the vegetable 
treasures of creation, or in pursuit of the ra- 
tional employments of a country life, cannot 
fail to have noticed, says the Rev. G. Smith, 
the circles of verdant grass, and correspondent 
circles of fungi, most abundant upon turfy 
hills, and known under the name of fairy rings. 
The various superstitions and poetical fancies 
connected with these phenomena need not be 
detailed. These circles have been accounted 
for by various theories, of which no one, how- 
ever, is alone sufficient to embrace all the facts. 
The recent discovery of the habitual rejection 
by the roots of any substance injurious to the 
growth of vegetables, has made it evident in 
what manner a race of plants may occupy one 
spot, until they can no longer exist on it, in 
consequence of the excretions their roots have 
deposited, rendering the land altogether de- 
structive to them ; while, on the other hand, 
the change thus effected in the soil may render 
it more nutritious and desirable for some other 
race of plants, than before any such change 
had taken place. This theory, based upon a 
series of familiar facts, explains the necessity 
for a rotation of crops. The fungi, it is ascer- 
tained, soon render the land on which they 
grow unfit to support themselves; but they 
enrich the soil for other plants, especially for 
the grasses, which grow up in rank luxuriance 
in the space left bare by the extinction of the 
fungi. The circumstance of the plants taking 
a circular form, may perhaps arise from a 
single fungus first throwing its seed all around 
it, and as a single crop of fungi is sufficient to 
exhaust the soil, the grass springs up in the 
space it has occupied, and the second year's 
■crop of fungi appears in a small ring round the 
original centre. The rings go on extending in 
circumference year after year, until something 
occurs in the soil or its products to check their 
progress, or the species wears out or becomes 
dormant for a season. A similar mode of 
growth takes place in some of the crustaceous 
lichens. The rings have been observed to be 
frequent on hill-sides, and then almost always 
with the lower part of the circle open. They 
sometimes contain a small circle within the 
larger one, but not always in the centre. With- 
in such circle the herbage is very luxuriant 
and rank, consisting of the Anthoxanthum odo- 
ratum, and the common daisy; without the 
•circle there is not any very apparent change 
in the vegetation; but on the circumference. 
Thymus serpyllum, T. monotropa, Carex recurva, 
and Hieracium pilosella, have all been observed. 
(The Wild Garland, by S. Waring.) 

FALLOW. Such land as has been re- 
peatedly ploughed over, and exposed to the 
influence of the atmosphere, for the purpose 
of rendering it friable, clearing it from weeds ; 
.eaving it to rest after the tillage before it is 
«eraia sown. 
4.50 



Fallows have different names given to them, 
and are of different kinds, according to the 
purposes for which they are intended, and the 
manner in which they are made. Thus, a 
naked fallmv is that in which the ground is 
ploughed and harrowed at suitable intervals 
for several successive times, according to the 
kind of crop that is ultimately to be grown, but 
without being sown till it has remained in fal- 
low for some length of time. A green fallow 
is that M'here the land has been rendered mel- 
low and clear from weeds by means of some 
kind of green crop, such as turnips, peas, tares, 
potatoes, &c. In this mode of fallowing, no 
time is lost by the land being left idle, or in an 
unproductive state. Fallows are also some- 
times distinguished by the season of the year 
in which the business is chiefly or wholly per- 
formed, hence we have SMWiwicr and winter fal- 
lows ; and likewise from their being in some 
cases only done in a partial manner, we have 
bustard fallows. Fallows are also named after 
particular crops, as wheat, turnip, and potato 
fallows. 

" The chemical theorj' of fallowing," ob- 
serves Sir H. Davy (Elem. of Jlgr, Chem. p. 23), 
"is very simple; fallowing affords no new 
source of riches to the soil, it merely tends 
to produce an accumulation of decomposing 
matter, which, in the common course of crops, 
would be employed as it is formed ; and it is 
scarcely possible to imagine a single instance 
of a cultivated soil, which can be supposed to 
remain fallow for a year with advantage to the 
farmer; the only case where this practice is 
benefici.il seems to be in the destruction of 
weeds, and for cleansing foul soils." It has 
been indeed recently contended by Liebig in 
his Organic Chemistry, that during a fallow, a 
quantity of ammonia is collected from the at- 
mosphere, potash disengaged from its combi- 
nations, and other chemical effects produced, 
which it is hardly necessary to examine at 
much length. He says (Organic Chem. p. 156), 
"The fallow time is that period of culture, 
during which land is exposed to a progressive 
disintegration by means of the influence of the 
atmosphere, for the purpose of rendering a 
certain quantity of alkalies capable of being 
appropriated by plants. Now it is evident, 
that the careful tilling of fallow land must in- 
crease and accelerate this disintegration. For 
the purpose of agriculture, it is quite indiffer- 
rent whether the land is covered with weeds, 
or with a plant which does not abstract the 
potash enclosed in it. Now many plants of 
the family of the Lcguminosce are remarkable 
on account of the small quantity of alkalies 
or salts in general which they contain; the 
Vicia faha, for example, contains no free alka- 
lies, and not one per cent, of the phosphates 
of lime and magnesia. The bean of the Pha- 
seolus vulgaris contains only traces of salts. 
The stem of the Medicago satitJa contains only 
0-83 per cent., that of the Ervam lens only 0-57 
per cent, of phosphate of lime, with albumen. 
Buckwheat dried in the sun yields only 0-681 
per cent, of ashes, of which 0-09 parts are 
soluble salts. These plants belong to those 
which are termed fallow crops, and the cause 
why they do not exercise any injurious in- 



FAN. 



FARM. 



fluence on corn which is cultivated immedi- 
ately after them is, that they do not extract the 
alkalies of the soil, and only a very small 
quantity of phosphates." 

FAN, FANNER. See Winnowing Machine. 

FAR (Sax. Keop). In horsemanship, a term 

used to denote a horse's right side ; thus the 

far foot, far shoulder, &c. is the right foot, 

right shoulder, &c. 

FARCY. In farriery, a disease of the ab- 
sorbents affecting the skin and its blood-vessels, 
by which, when inveterate, their coats inflame 
and are so thickened that the}'' become like so 
many cords. Farcy is intimately connected 
with glanders, and they will frequently run 
into each other. The treatment varies with 
the form it assumes. In the button, or bud 
farcy, in which indolent boils appear, a mild 
dose of physic should be first administered. 
The buds should then be carefully examined, 
and, if any of them have broken, the budding 
iron, of a dull red heat, should be applied to 
them, and the buds all opened as soon as they 
appear to contain matter, and afterwards 
washed with a lotion composed of a drachm 
of corrosive sublimate, dissolved in an ounce 
of rectified spirit. Daily exercise and green 
food are also essential to the animal's recovery. 
FARCY, WATER. See Dropsy. 
FARDING-BAG. The first stomach of a 
cow, or any other ruminant animal. It is a 
mere receptacle for receiving and retaining 
the green food, until the animal has time to 
repose and chew the cud. 

FARINA (Lat./ar, corn, of which it is made). 
Meal or flour obtained by grinding and sifting 
wheat and other seeds, or by pulverizing and 
preparing edible roots, &c. ; hence the term 
farinaceous food. 

FARM. A portion of ground cultivated for 
the purpose of profit. There are different 
kinds of farms. Where the principal part of 
the land is under the plough, they are termed 
arable farms; but where the fattening of cattle 
or otl^^r live-stock is more immediately the 
object, They are distinguished by the title of 
grazing farms ; where the chief intention is 
the obtaining different animal products, such 
as milk, butter, and cheese, they are denomi- 
nated dairy farms; and where the two systems 
of arable and grass management can be com- 
bined, they are called convertible farms. As 
manure must be had in order to render farms 
of any kind productive, the last may probably, 
in general, be considered as the most advan- 
tageous. Besides these, in districts where hay 
is the principal produce, there are hay or grass 
farms, and there are also what are denominated 
breeding or cattle farms. 

The old writers on husbandry, who lived in 
warm countries, where the heat and moisture 
of the air had sensible and frequently very 
dangerous effects on the health of the inhabit- 
ants, were very particular in their directions 
for the choice of farms or estates, and of the 
spots whereon houses should be built, so as to 
avoid the inconveniences arising from the 
climate, or from the quality or situation of the 
ground. The Romans had generally pleasure 
as well as profit in view, when they bought 
and stocked a farm; and therefore they laid it 



down as a rule, that no degree of fertility 
should tempt a man to purchase in an unhealthy 
country, nor the pleasantest situations in a 
barren one. " Buy not too hastily," said Cato, 
" but view again and again the purchase you 
intend to make ; for, if it be a good one, the 
oftener you see it the better it will please you. 
Examine how the neighbouring inhabitan's 
fare. Let the country it lies in be a good one ; 
the ways to and from it good ; and the air tem- 
perate. Let your land, if you can choose your 
situation, be at the foot of a hill, facing the 
south, in a healthy place where a sufficiency 
of labourers, of cattle, and of water may be 
had. Let it be near a flourishing town, the 
sea, or a navigable river ; or bordering upon a 
good and well-frequented road. Let the build- 
ings upon your ground be strong and sub- 
stantial. Do not rashly condemn the methods 
of others. It is best to purchase from a good 
husbandman and a good improver." 

Besides the healthfulness of the situation, 
three other things should be particularly at- 
tended to in the choice of a farm or estate ; 
these are, the air, the water, and the soil. The 
air should be pure and temperate, the water 
wholesome and easily come at, and the soil 
fertile; and the farm should be at a reasonable 
distance from good markets, both for the sale 
of the produce and the purchase of manure. 
See Farm Buildings. 

The ancients were particularly attentive to 
the quality of their water, and to the ease of 
coming at it. They advised bringing into the 
farm-houses the water of such springs as nevier 
dried up ; or, if there was no such spring 
within the farm, to bring running water as near 
to it as possible ; or to dig for well-water, not 
of a bitter or brackish taste. If neither of 
these was to be found, they directed large 
cisterns to be provided for men, and ponds for 
collecting and retaining rain-water for cattle. 
They esteemed that running water to be best 
for drinking which had its source in a hill ; 
spring or well-water from a rising ground was 
deemed the next best; well-water in the bottom 
of a valley was held to be suspicious ; and 
marshy or fenny water, which creeps slowly 
on, was by them rightly regarded as the worst 
of all. 

The nature of the soil of a farm may be as- 
certained either by analysis (see Analysis), 
by observation of the weeds which flourish 
upon it (see Botany and Weeds), and of the 
trees growing in the hedge rows (see Planta- 
tions). In England the elm and the oak are 
commonly tenants of good soils; the birch, 
the holly, and the ash indicate those which are 
poor. And again, the productiveness of a soil 
may be estimated from the degree of its attrac- 
tion for the insensible moisture of the atmo- 
sphere ; by the substratum on which it rests 
(see Geoloky); and by its inclination. There 
are many other circumstances, also, which the 
farmer in search of a farm should regard, 
most of which he will find treated of in this 
work under the heads Appraisement, Agree- 
ment, Customs of Counties, Capital re- 
quired. Rain, Lease, &c. Let him also closely 
examine the state of the buildings, the mode 
in which the farm has been cultivated, and the 

451 



FARM ACCOUNTS. 



FARM 3UILDINGS. 



course of cropping which the out-going tenant 
has followed. This last inquiry is one very 
material point to be carefully and accurately 
ascertained. 

The number of farms in the United Kingdom 
is estimated to be about 2,000,000, and the 
property annually derived from agriculture at 
215,817,624/. 

There are in — 





1- 
u 


Uncultivated 
wastes 
capal)le of 
improve- 
ment. 


II 

il 

5f 


ToUl. 


England 
Wales 
Scotland 
British 
iaies 

Total 


25,632,000 
3,117,000 
5,265,000 

383,690 


3,454,000 

530,000 

5,950,000 

166,000 


3,256,400 
1,105,000 
8,523,930 

569,469 


32,342,400 
4,752,000 
19,441,944 

1,119,159 


46,922,970 


14,600,000 


15,871,463 


77,394,433 



In England and Wales it is calculated that 
there are 



3,250, 

1,250, 
.1,200, 
1,200, 
1,200, 

2,100, 

47, 

18, 

17,300, 

1,200, 

1,300, 
5,029, 



,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 

,000 
,000 
,000 
000 
,000 

,000 
,000 



,C acres employed in \ 
I the cultivation of > 



wheat. 

barley and rye. 
oats, beans, and peas, 
clover, rye, grass, &c. 
roots and cabbages by 

the plough, 
fallows, 
hop grounds, 
pleasure grounds, 
depastured by cattle, 
hedge rows, copses, and 

woods, 
ways and water-courses, 
common andwaste lands. 



FARM ACCOUNTS. The necessity and 
utility of correct and detailed particulars of all 
matters concerning the farm, have already been 
spoken of under the head Book-keepisg. Let 
any farmer make the experiment, and he will 
find it both interesting and useful, to know 
from year to year the actual products of his 
farm. Let every thing, therefore, which can 
be measured and weighed, be so tested; and 
let that which cannot be brought to an exact 
standard be estimated, as if he himself were 
about to sell or to purchase it. Let him like- 
wise, as near as possible, measure the ground 
which he plants, the q.uantity of seed which he 
uses, and the manure which he applies. The 
labour of doing this is nothing compared with 
the satisfaction of having done it, and the 
benefits which must arrive from it. Conjec- 
ture, in these cases, is perfectly wild and un- 
certain — varying often, with different indivi- 
duals, almost 100 per cent. Exactness enables 
a man to form conclusions which may most 
essentially, and in innumerable ways, avail to 
his advantage. It is that alone which can give 
any value to his experience ; it is that which 
will make his experience the sure basis of 
improvement; it will put it in his power to 
give safe counsel to his friends ; and it is the 
only ground on which he can securely place 
confidence in himself. 

FARM BUILDINGS. In the construction 
of farm buildings, the first thing to be regarded 
is the convenience of their situation ; and to this 
end must be considered the best shelter, feeding 
and watering of live-stock ; the carriage of the 
crop, and of manure, and the preservation of 
the produce. To combine all these advan- 
452 



tages together is rarely attainable; the object 
with the practical farmer is to obtain as many 
of them as possible. The improved economi- 
cal construction of farm buildings some years 
since engaged the attention of the Highland 
Society in Scotland, and from their report 
(Trans, vol. ii. p. 365), the reader who wishes 
for working plans will derive abundant infor- 
mation. The committee say, very justly, "one 
of the most common errors in these designs is 
the crowding the buildings together, under the 
idea of giving them greater compactness, and 
the not sufficiently extending the shelter sheds 
for the feeding of cattle. This is a fault so 
universal that it is only on the larger class of 
breeding and feeding farms in ihe border coun- 
ties of England and Scotland that experience 
has taught builders fully to avoid it. In giving 
designs of the outhouses of a farm, little more 
can be done than to give general useful ex- 
amples. Although a certain similarity must 
exist in the form and arrangement of the parts 
of all such buildings, yet these must be modi- 
fied according to the circumstances of the farm 
itself, the nature of the soil, the situation with 
regard to markets, and the particular kind of 
management to be pursued. No one rule that 
can be given is of general application, and the 
judgment of the architect must be shown, in 
adapting the size, form, and arrangements of 
the buildings to the nature of the farm, and the 
wants of the occupier. While every suitable 
accommodation should be afforded to the te- 
nant, it is the province of the architect to take 
care that the heavy cost of such buildings be 
not unnecessarily enhanced, either by erecting 
buildings that are useless, or by giving unne- 
cessary dimensions to such as are requisite. 
It may be particularly remarked that the giving 
unnecessary breadth to the buildings adds 
materiall)' to the expense, by increasing the 
dimensions of the timbers, and adding to the 
size of the roofs. At the same time care must 
be taken that in the cow-houses and stables 
the animals shall not be cramped from the 
want of necessary room. In general, it may 
be said that the most convenient arrangement 
of the outhouses of a farm is in the form of a 
rectangle, the side to the south being open, and 
the farm-house being placed at some conve- 
nient distance in front of it. And again, the 
most approved mode of keeping and feeding 
the larger and finer kinds of cattle is in small 
sheds with open yards attached, each capable 
of holding two animals. It is recommended 
that the water-course from the stables, cow- 
houses, and yards should be carried off by 
causewayed open channels to a pond or tank 
near to the buildings. This mode of convey- 
ing away and receiving the urine is conceived 
to be better in ordinary cases than sewers be- 
low ground, which, even when executed in the 
best manner, will be subject to be choked up 
from want of necessary attention to cleaning; 
and such sewers become nurseries for rats, 
notwithstanding every precaution that can be 
taken. Should the situation of the buildings 
incline to the north, conduits can be made 
through the north range below the floors, at 
proper places, for discharging the liquids. 
"For watering cattle, if a stream cannot be 



1 



FARMER. 



FARMS, OLD AND NEW. 



obtained, there are few situations where water 
cannot be got by sinking a well ; the best way 
is to raise it into a cistern, which may be 
placed in any of the shelter yards, and from 
this be conveyed by pipes to the different yards, 
furnished wilh proper cisterns and ball-cocks. 
The passages and entrances to the buildings 
should be wide ; the gates hung on wooden 
posts or hewn stone pillars. 

FARMER (Sax. veormiep, Fr. fermier). A 
person whose business or employment is the 
cultivation of land, the breeding, rearing, and 
feeding of different sorts of live-stock, and the 
management of the various products which 
are afforded by them ; hence those engaged in 
this way may be further distinguished into 
arable, grazing, dairy, hay, and other kinds of 
farmers, according to the modes in which their 
farms are cultivated or emplo^i«d. 

The farmers of Great Britain, who are ge- 
nerally men of superior intelligence to those of 
Flanders or other parts of Europe, may be ar- 
ranged into the following classes : 1. The great 
proprietors and country gentlemen. 2. Yeo- 
men and farmers, properly so called. 3. Pos- 
sessors of small farms. 4. Cottagers, includ- 
ing different descriptions of people, who culti- 
vate small farms, and a few acres adjoining to 
towns and villages. 

FARM-HOUSE. The dwelling occupied by 
a farmer. The principal objects to be attended 
to in erecting a farm-house are, convenience 
and a salubrious situation. Besides the gene- 
ral salubrity of the spot where dwellings are 
to be erected, the air, water, and soil also re- 
quire to be particularly attended to : the first 
should be pure and temperate ; the second 
wholesome and easily obtained. The most 
healthy and convenient site on the farm ought 
to be selected for building the house ; easy ac- 
cess and central situation being taken into con- 
sideration. An abundant supply of water for 
domestic purposes, and for live-stock, is indis- 
pensable. The water, however, should not be 
stagnant. Ponds in the immediate vicinity of 
a house are not essentially injurious, unless 
they become dry in summer, or towards au- 
tumn ; for at the period between the drying up 
and the complete dryness of ponds, or stag- 
nant pools, the decomposition of animal and 
vegetable matter which is then proceeding 
evolves miasmata that generate disease. A 
dry gravelly soil, through which the rain can 
freely percolate, is to be preferred. The degree 
of dampness of a locality may be always pretty 
correctly estimated by observing the quantity 
of moss and lichens upon the trees ; and the 
weeds being those that grow in marshy situa- 
tions. 

FARMING. The business or management 
of a farm, comprehending the whole circum- 
stances and conduct of it 

It is a practice that demands constant care 
and attention, as well as much activity and 
judgment, to conduct it in a proper and advan- 
tageous manner. It requires an intimate and 
practical knowledge of all the arts of cultiva- 
tion and management, as well as of the nature 
and value of every kind of live-stock ; and 
ttill further, a perfect acquaintance with the 

arious modes of buying and selling, and the 



constant state of different markets and fairs. 
In addition to all these, there are several other 
minutiae of much consequence to the success 
of the farmer, which will be treated of under 
their respective heads. 

Farming, once regarded as a profession easy 
to be understood and successfully followed only 
by the empiric, has long since been viewed in 
a different, in a wiser manner. It has been 
justly said that no pursuit requires more talent, 
perseverance, and more careful observation, 
than the cultivation of the earth ; that so far 
from its being an empirical business, it is, in 
fact, one that several other sciences illustrate 
and assist — one, whose professors cannot too 
often examine the practice of other cultivators ; 
and hence, since it has been found that the la- 
bours of the chemist, the botanist, the mecha- 
nist, and the geologist, are all available in the 
service of the farmer, it has followed as a na- 
tural consequence, that the farmers of our age 
have become a more scientific, more educated, 
and afar more enlightened class than those of 
any previous generations. 

FARMS, OLD AND NEW. Whether it is 
more profitable in the United States, to lay out 
money in the purchase and improvement of 
exhausted farms, or in the clearing and im- 
provement of new land, is a question which 
requires more mature consideration than has 
been generally given to it. Calculations em- 
bracing the several expenses required in the 
two operations would seem to sliow, that the 
intelligent farmer, versed in the various pro- 
cesses of producing manure and taking ad- 
vantage of green fallow crops, will lay out his 
means most profitably in restoring worn-out 
land to fertility; provided he does not commit 
the common error of endeavouring to improve 
more land than his resources will enable him 
to do justice by. 

On the other hand, the man of more limited 
means, who cannot buy an old farm or get one 
on a sufficiently long lease, may, by going west, 
purchase land at §1-25 per acre, or 200 acres 
for §250, which will be already in the highest 
state of fertility, but seriously encumbered 
with heavy timber or other natural besetment. 
This he clears and brings under cultivation 
little by little, working, perhaps, a certain por- 
tion of his time for others, in order to obtain sub- 
sistence previous to the coming inof his crops. 
Every acre cleared may cost him some 15 or 
20 dollars, which, however, adds the same 
amount to the value of the farm, whilst every 
bushel of grain and every addition to his stock 
is so much gained. It may be several years 
before the pioneer will accumulate much pro- 
perty. Still, however, the prospect of an ulti- 
mate independence thus held out to the poor 
and industrious settler, is a good one. 

He who has the advantage of sufficient 
means to enable him to purchase exhausted 
lands at from 5 to 10, 20, and even 30 or 40 
dollars per acre, may, by a judicious applica- 
tion of lime, marl, plaster, and other mineral 
fertilizers, aided by green fallow crops ploughed 
under to form a mould, soon resuscitate a farm 
and render it again highly productive and 
valuable. The following facts will demonstrate 
the practicability of what is here asserted. More 

453 



?ARMS, OLD AND NEW. 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



ini tances could be produced, but this, being on 
unquestionable authority, is ample for present 
illustration. 

Mr. George W. Cummins, of Smyrna, Dela- 
ware, purchased a farm near that place, con- 
taining about 200 acres. The land had been 
under cultivation for half a century or more, 
and its soil so completely exhausted as not to 
be capable of compensating for the labour and 
seed expended upon crops. It had, neverthe- 
less, been rented, up to the time of purchase, 
and one of the conditions was the payment, 
annually, of two-fifths of the Indian corn 
crop. From a thirty acre field, the rent paid 
the last year was only about 30 bushels ! Clo- 
ver refused to grow upon this land, and wheat 
would not yield much more than the seed sown. 
The soil was a sandy loam. The first step 
taken by Mr. Cummins for the restoration of 
this land to fertility, was, to sow one bushel of 
grouad plaster per acre, flush it up in the 
spring, and spread upon it 70 bushels of slaked 
lime per acre. Oats were then sown at the 
rate of 2 or 3 bushels to the acre, and in July, 
when nearly fit for harvest, the straw being 
partly yellow and partly green, they were 
ploughed under, an ox-chain having been rigged 
in front of the coulter, so as to turn them down 
before the plough. Previous to this ploughing, 
IJ bushel more of ground plaster of Paris was 
sprinkled upon the ground. A second crop of 
oats sprung up in a thick mat from those 
ploughed under, and about the first of October, 
these were turned down by the plough like the 
first growth. Wheat was now sown, about 1^ 
bushel to the acre, and harrowed in, followed 
by clover early in the spring. The crop of 
wheat averaged about 8 bushels to the acre, 
and this, it will be observed, without a shovel- 
full of stable or other kind of animal manure. 
The clover had a bushel of ground plaster 
sprinkled upon it in the spring, and yielded 
the second season of its growth, about a ton 
per acre at the first mowing. Thus, land from 
which the vegetable mould had been entirely 
exhausted was, in a comparatively short time, 
and without the assistance of barn-yard or any 
other kind of animal manure, brought into a 
condition to yield compensating crops of wheat, 
corn, and vigorous clover. By the assistance 
of the ordinary quantity of barn-yard manure, 
the produce of wheat would average about 25 
bushels, and of Indian corn 40 or 50 bushels 
per acre. The ground was very light and easy 
to work, and Mr. Cummins estimated the ac- 
tual expenses incurred per acre in this improv- 
ing course, as follows : — 



First ploughing - - - - - -$0 50 

70 bushels lime, slalied, at 13 cts. - - 8 50 

2J bushels oats, sown, 31J cts. - - - 81i 

Sowing and harrowing do. - - - 37^ 

Various plaster applications - - - 67^ 

Second ploughing under of oats - - 1 00 

li bushels wheat sown - - - - 1 50 

Harrowing and sowing do. - . - 37J 

Total expenses per acre - - - $13 73} 

Thus the whole expenses incurred prepara- 
tory to the wheat and clover crops, amounted 
to $13"73| ; and as the wheat raised was about 
8 bushels, and sold for $1-50, and the clover 
mown about 1 ton per acre, worth about 8 or 
454 



10 dollars the ton, the expenses were abun- 
dantly repaid by the first crops, and the land left 
in good heart for future profitable tillage. 

When farms are situated near towns, ani- 
mal manures can generally be obtained at fair 
prices, and hence the usual productiveness ex- 
hibited by lots and fields in the proximity of 
towns. But with large farms situated at too 
great distances from such places to admit of 
the transportation of stable manure or street 
dirt at fair prices, the farmers are left to the 
fertilizing substances at hand, or to the pur- 
chase of concentrated manure that will bear 
the cost of transportation, such as lime, ashes, 
soot, plaster, crushed bones, poudrette prepared 
from night soil, &c., the salts of nitre, soda, am- 
monia, etc. Those who live near enough to 
marl-beds to admit of the hauling of such heavy 
substances at a fair cost, are indeed fortunate. 
Then there are the manures or composts pre- 
pared from peat or bog-weed, by the addition 
of ashes, the salts of potash, soda, &c., the me- 
rits of all which can now be readily ascertained 
from results of actual experiments, reported in 
numerous recent publications, upon agricul- 
tural matters, and especially in that highly 
valuable little treatise by Dr. Dana, " The 
Muck Manual.^'' 

FARM YARD. The area or court in which 
the farm buildings are situated, and which ge- 
nerally adjoins the farm-house. It is the place 
where cattle are foddered, dung prepared, and 
several other necessary operations belonging 
to the farm performed. 

FARM-YARD MANURE. Of all fertilizers 
the most universal and most valuable to the 
cultivator, and yet the most generally misma- 
naged, is farm-yard manure, which has been 
often well described as the farmer's sheet an- 
chor. From this fertilizer, man must have 
derived some benefits, even before he was 
compelled, by the increase of population, to 
cultivate and manure his land. It is the earliest 
mentioned of all manures ; although, at first, 
the only notice we meet with of dung and 
dunghills, describes them as employed in Pa- 
lestine for fuel ; and, to this day, in the barren 1 
deserts of the East, that of the camel, after I 
being dried in the sun, is the only combustible 
article the natives possess. (Ezekiu, iv. 12, 15 ; 
Niebiihr's Voyage, i. 121.) This manure is no- 
ticed by the earliest agricultural writers. M. 
P. Cato tells us, in his fourth chapter, to 'study 
to have a large dunghill ; keep your ci mpost 
carefully ; when you carry it out, scattei it and 
pulverize it : carry it out in the autumn. Lay 
dung round the roots of your olives in autumn." 
And in his 29th chapter, "Divide your manure; 
carry half of it to the field where you sow your 
provender : and if there are olive trees, put 
some dung to their roots." And in c. 37, he 
advises the use of pigeons' dung for gardens, 
meadows, and corn land, as well as amurca, 
which is the dregs of oil ; and recommends the 
farmer to preserve carefully the dung of alt 
descriptions of animals. These directions 
were given 150 years e.g.; after a lapse of 
nearly 2000 years, the direction to the farmer 
must still be the same ; little can be added to 
the advice of Cato, when he said, "Study to 
have a large dunghill." Virgil is still more 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



particular ; in his description of fertilizers, he 
mentions with common manure, ashes (Georg. 
I. i. V. 80). Pumice-stone and shells (1. ii. v. 
346—350, and 350—358). Varro (c. 38, 1. i.) 
mentions many kinds of animal manure, and 
is particularly minute in his enumeration of 
the dung of birds, and includes even that of 
blackbirds and thrushes kept in aviaries. Co- 
lumella (1. ii. c. 5) advises the cultivator not 
to carry out to the field more dung than the 
labourers can cover with the soil the same 
day, as the exposure to the sun does it consi- 
derable injury ; and he enumerates (1. ii. c. 15), 
as well-known fertilizers, night-soil the excre- 
ments of birds and sheep, urine (especially for 
apple-trees and vines), dregs of oil, the excre- 
ments of cattle, of the ass, the goat, of pigs ; 
ashes, chopped stalks of the lupine leaves, of 
trees, brambles, &c., and mud from sewers or 
ditches. 

Of the early inhabitants of Britain, Pliny 
tells us (b. xvii. c. 6, 7, 8), that they highly 
valued the use of marl for particular soils, but 
on other lands they never employed it. We 
are told that they grew corn, and lived in 
houses thatched with straw, which would ne- 
cessarily require an attention to fertilizers. 
They had also, according to Strabo (Geogra- 
phy, p. 306), gardens, which could not have 
been cultivated, neither could their apple 
orchards have flourished, without manure. 
The Roman invasion taught the original inha- 
bitants better modes of using fertilizing mate- 
rials ; but their Saxon successors, in all pro- 
bability, knew less of agriculture than the 
natives. War and fighting was their profes- 
sion ; they held the husbandman in much con- 
tempt. The confusion attendant upon British, 
Saxon, and Danish inroads, still farther retard- 
ed, in England, the progress of agricuUure, 
which never prospers in a poor disturbed 
country. The very laws made in those days 
for its encouragement show to what a low ebb 
the art of cultivating the land was then re- 
duced. Thus it was provided, that if any one 
laid dung upon a field, the law allowed him, if 
the owner of it consented, to use it for one 
year; and if the quantity of manure conveyed 
was in considerable quantities, so as to render 
it necessary to emploj^ a cart, he was then en- 
titled to use the land for three years ; and if 
any person, with the consent of the owner of 
the soil, folded his cattle on it for the space of a 
year, he was then entitled to cultivate it for 
four years for his own benefit. (Leges Wallia, 
p. 298.) All these laws were evidently for the 
purpose of encouraging the better manuring 
of the land ; but the necessity of such an in- 
ducement betrays the poverty of the farmers 
of those days, and the insufficiency of their 
live-stock. In the middle ages little was done 
for agriculture. The monks, after the intro- 
ducdon of Christianity, were the most learned 
ani skilful in the best modes of applying ma- 
nures. They early excelled in their gardens. 
The population of England in those days, how- 
ever, was too limited to require the cultivation 
of inferior soils. 

In 1570, Conrad Heresbach, a learned Ger- 
man, published his four books of husbandry, 
which were translated by Googe: he there 



mentions the several descriptions of manure 
employed in his days. His book is a strange 
mixture of good sense and superstition. He 
speaks of the dung of poultry and pigeons with 
much approbation ; but reprobates the use of 
that of geese and ducks. Human fceces, he 
says, when mixed with rubbish, is good; but, 
by itself, is too hot. Urine he commends 
highly for apple trees and vines. Of the dung 
of animals, he mentions that of the ass as first 
in order for fertilizing effects ; then that of 
sheep, goats, oxen, horses ; lastly, swine, "very 
hurtful to corne, but used in some places for 
gardens." Green manure was used in his 
days. " Where they have no store of cattle, 
they used to mend their ground with straw, 
fern, and the stalks of lupines, and the branches, 
laid together in some ditch. Hereunto you may 
cast ashes, the filth of sinks and privies, «&c." 
And again he says, " The weeds growing about 
willow trees and fern, &c., you may gather and 
lay under your sheep." He speaks of the 
practice of placing turfs and heath clods in 
heaps, with dung; much in the same way as 
Lord Meadowbank has advised with peat. He 
also advises the placing of the same turf-par- 
ings in sheep-folds. " This is also to be noted," 
says our author, " that the doung that hath iyen 
a yeere is best for corne, for it both is of suffi- 
cient strength and breedeth less weedes ; but, 
upon meadowe and pasture you must iaye the 
newest, because it brings most grasse, in Feb- 
ruarie, the moone increasing, ft)r that is the 
best time to cause increase of grasse." When, 
however, the manure is applied for corn lands, 
" looke that the winde be westerly, and the 
moone in the wane." 

The manure commonly iurnished by the 
farm-yard is compounded of a mixture of ani- 
mal and vegetable substances of the putrefy- 
ing straw of various descriptions of grain, 
mixed with the excrements and urine of cattle, 
horses, and swine. The mixture forms no new 
substance, neither does the putrefaction which 
ensues add to the bulk of the dung ; on the 
contrary, it causes a considerable loss of 
weight. Neither is the manure produced equal 
to the amount of food the stock consume. "If," 
says Dr. Sprengel " we weigh the dry food 
given the cattle to eat, and also dry and weigh 
the resulting excrements, we shall find the 
weight of the latter considerably less than that 
of the former. Block, who has lately made a 
great number of experiments on this circum- 
stance, found that 100 lbs. of rye-straw yielded 
only 43 lbs. of dried excrement (liquid and 
solid), while 100 lbs. of hay gave 44 lbs. Food 
which contains many watery parts furnished, 
as may be naturally supposed, a still smaller 
proportion. Thus, for instance, 100 lbs. of po- 
tatoes gave only 14 lbs. ; 100 lbs. of mangel- 
wurzel, 6 lbs.; and 100 lbs. of green clover, 9| 
lbs. of excrement." (Transl. by Mr. Hudson, 
Jour. Roy. Jgr. Soc. vol. vi. p. 460.) 

It will assist us very materially in our exa- 
minations of various modes of preparing and 
applying manure, if we first examine its che- 
mical composition ; and for that purpose I will 
give the analysis of straw and the feces and 
urine of animals. 

1000 parts of dry wheat straw being buruk, 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



FARM- YARD MANURE. 



fielded M. Saussure 48 parts of ashes ; the 
same quantity of the dry straw of barley yielded 
42 parts of ashes. The portion dissipated by 
the fire would be principally carbon (char- 
coal), carburetted hydrogen gas, and water: 
100 parts of these ashes are composed of — 

P»rls. 

Various soluble salts, principally carbon- 
ate and sulphate of potash - - - 22'50 
Phosphate of lime (earthy salt of bones) - 6-2 
Chalk (carbonate of lime) - - - 1 

Silica (flint) o}'50 

Metallic oxide (principally iron) - - 1 
Loss -------- 7» 

100 

The straw of barley contains the same in- 
gredients, only in rather different proportions. 

The fresh urine of the cow has been ana- 
lyzed by Mr. Brande ; he found in 100 parts 
the following ingredients : — 

Parts 

Water --------65 

Phosphate of lime ------ 3 

Muriate of potash, muriate of magnesia - 15 
Sulphate of potash ... - - 6 

Carbonate of potash, carbonate of ammonia 4 
Urea ...-----4 

Loss ........3 

The urine of cattle, after it had been putre- 
fying for a month, was analyzed by Dr. Spren- 
gel, and found to contain the following ingre- 
di mts : — 

Parli by 
Weight. 

Water 95-442 

Urea, and resinous matter - - - r 
Mucus .-.----•04 

Benzoic acid "1 Combined with C - - "SS 

Lactic acid t potash, soda,] . - -5 

Acetic acid j and ammonia,] - - -001 

Carbonic acid J forming salts t - - -lOS 

Ammonia partly uncombined - - - -487 

Potash -664 

Soda ....-.- -554 

Sulphuric acid ...... -338 

Phosphoric acid - . - . . -026 

Chlorine -272 

Lime 002 

Magnesia -..--.- •02'i 

Sulphuretted hydrogen - - - . -001 

Silica 005 

Oxide of iron 001 

Sediment (phosphate and carbonate of 

lime,and magnesia, alumina, &.c.) - -18 

100-000 
{Jour. Roy. .Sgr. Soc. vol. vi. p. 467.) 

According to Block, 100 lbs. of chopped rye 
straw, given as fodder to horses, yield 42 lbs. ; 
100 lbs. of hay, 45 lbs.; 100 lbs. of oats, 51 
lbs. ; 100 lbs. of rye, 53 lbs. of dried excre- 
ments (fluid and solid). The solid excrements 
of horses fed on hay, oats, and straw, contain, 
according to the analysis of M. Zierl, in 1000 
parts — 

Partt. 

Water - 698 

Picromel and salts .... - 20 
Bilious and extractive matter . - - 17 
Green matter, albumen, mucus, &c. - - 63 
Vegetable fibre, and remains of food - 202 

1000 

These, when burnt, yielded to the same 
chemist 60 parts by weight of ashes, which 
were composed of — 

Parti. 

Carbonate, sulphate, and muriate of soda 5 
Carbonate and phosphate of lime - - 9 
Silica ........46 



1 000 parts of the urine of the horse contain, 
according to the analysis of MM. Fourcroy and 
Vauquelin (Thomson's Chem. vol. iv. p. 348). 

Farli. 

CAtbonate of lime (chalk) - - - - 11 

Carbonate uf soda ..... 9 

Benzoatc of soda ..... 34 

Muriate of potash ..... 9 

Urea 7 

Water and mucilage - . - - . 940 

1000 

The faeces of cattle fed principally on turnip? 
have been analyzed by M. Einhof. 100 parts 
evaporated to dryness yielded 28^ parts of 
solid matter; the 71f parts lost in drying 
would consist principally of water and some 
ammnniacal salts. In half a pound, or 3840 
grains, he found 45 grains of sand ; and by dif- 
fusing it through water he obtained about 600 
grains of a yellow fibrous matter, resembling 
that of plants, mixed with a very considerable 
quantity of slimy matter. By evaporating the 
faeces to dryness, and then burning them, he 
obtained an ash which contained, besides the 
sand, the following substances : — 

Paris. 

Lime 12 

Phosphate of lime ..... ia-5 
Magnesia -----.-2 
Iron .--..-.-5 
Alumina, with some manganese - - 14 

Silica 52 

Muriate and sulphate of potash - - 12 

The ingredients of which the urine and 
faeces of cattle are composed, will, of course, 
differ slightly in different animals of the same 
kind, and according to the different food upon 
which they are fed; but this difference will not 
in any case be found very material. 

The excrements of the sheep have been ex- 
amined by Block ; according to him, every 100 
lbs. of rye-straw given as fodder to sheep yield 
40 lbs. of excrements (fluid and solid) ; from 
100 lbs. of hay, 42 lbs.; from 100 lbs. of pota- 
toes, 13 lbs.; from 100 lbs. of green clover, 8^ 
lbs.; and from 100 lbs. of oats. 49 lbs. of dry 
excrement. The solid excrements of sheep 
fed on hay were examined by Zierl : 1000 parts 
by weight, being burnt, yielded 96 parts of 
ashes, which were found to consist of — 

Parle. 

Carbonate, sulphate, and muriate of soda 16 
Carbonate and phosphate of lime - .20 
Silica 60 



100 parts of the urine of sheep kept at grass 
contained — 

Part*. 
Water ... . - 96 

Urea, albumen, &.c. .... 2'8 

Salts of potash, soda, lime, magnesia, ice. 1-2 

1000 
(.Joum. Roy. Jigr. Soc. vol. i. p. 482.) 

The urine of the pig has been examined by 
Dr. Sprengel {ibid. p. 492) ; he found in 100 
parts of that of the animal fed on corn off'al — 



(,J<nir. Rov. Jigr. Soc vol. i. p. 489.) 
456 



60 



Water 

Urea, mucus, albumen, &c. . . - 

Common salt, muriate of potash, gypsum, 

chalk, and glauber salt ... 



926 
5 64 



Such are the principal constituents of the 
manure from a farm-yard ; but of these, most 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



of the soluble salts are usually washed away 
by the rain, or are suffered to drain away into 
ditches, whilst a considerable quantity of the 
salts of ammonia and some of the carbon are 
commonly lost by being either over-heated, or 
by being allowed to remain too long in a putre- 
fying state. 

Farm-yard manure has a very considerable 
attraction for the moisture of the atmosphere : 
some experiments to ascertain its extent are 
given under the head Manure. 

There have been many arguments and much 
difference of opinion among cultivators, with 
regard to the advantages of employing dung in 
a fresh or in a putrid state ; and, as is too often 
the case, both parties have run into extremes, 
the one side contending for the propriety of 
employing it quite fresh from the farm-yard, 
the other contending that it cannot well be too 
rotten. The mode employed by Lord Leicester 
is the medium between these equally erroneous 
extremes. He found that the employment of 
the fresh dung certainly made the dung go 
much farther ; but then a multitude of the seeds 
of various weeds were carried on to the land 
along with the manure. He has, therefore, 
since used his compost when only in a half 
putrefied state (called short dung by farmers) ; 
BJid hence the seeds are destroyed by the 
effects of the putrefaction, and the dung still 
extends much farther than if suffered to re- 
main until quite putrefied. 

Putrefaction cannot go on without the pre- 
sence of moisture. Where water is entirely 
absent there can be no putrefaction ; and 
hence many farmers have adopted the practice 
of pumping the drainage of their farm-yards 
over their dung-heaps ; others invariably place 
them in low damp situations. This liquid por- 
tion cannot be too highly valued by the culti- 
vator. The soil where a dunghill has lain in 
a field is always distinguished by a rank luxu- 
riance in the succeeding crop, even if the 
earth beneath, to the depth of six inches, is 
removed and spread with the dunghill. 

The controversy, too, which once so keenly 
existed, as to the state of fermentation in which 
dung should be used on the land, has now 
pretty well subsided. There is no doubt but 
that it cannot be applied more advantageously 
than in as fresh a state as possible, consistent 
with the attainment of a tolerably clean hus- 
bandry, and the destruction of the seeds of 
weeds, grubs, &c., which are always more or 
less present in farm-yard dung. These are 
the only evils to be apprehended from the de- 
sirable employment of this manure in the 
freshest state ; for otherwise the loss of its 
most valuable constituents commences as 
soon as ever fermentation begins. This was 
long since demonstrated by Davy, whose ex- 
periments I have often seen repeated and 
varied. He says, "I filled a large retort, 
capable of containing three pints of water, 
with some hot fermenting manure, consisting 
principally of the litter and dung of cattle ; I 
adapted a small receiver to the retort, and con- 
nected the whole with a mercurial pneumatic 
apparatus, so as to collect the condensible and 
elastic fluids which might arise from the dung. 
Th« receiver soon became lined with dew, and 
58 



drops began, in a few hours, to trickle down 
the sides of it. Elastic fluid likewise was 
generated ; in three days thirty-five cubical 
inches had been formed, which, when analyzed, 
were found to contain twenty-one cubical 
inches of carbonic acid; the remainder was 
hydrocarbonate, mixed with some azote, pro- 
bably no more than existed in the common air 
in the receiver. The fluid matter collected in 
the receiver at the same time amounted to 
nearly half an ounce. It had a saline taste, 
and a disagreeable smell, and contained some 
acetate and carbonate of ammonia. Finding 
such products given off from fermenting litter, 
I introduced the beak of another retort, filled 
with similar dung very hot at the time, in the 
soil amongst the roots of some grass in the 
border of a garden ; in less than a week a very 
distinct effect was produced on the grass : 
upon the spot exposed to the influence of the 
matter disengaged in fermentation it grew with 
much more luxuriance than the grass in any 
other part of the garden." {Lectures, p. 204.) 

Nothing, indeed, appears at first sight so 
simple as the manufacture and collection of 
farm-yard dung; and yet there are endless 
sources of error into which the cultivator is 
sure to fall, if he is not ever vigilant in their 
management. The late Mr. Francis Blakie, 
in his valuable tract upon the management of 
farm-yard manure, dwells upon several of 
these ; he particularly condemns the practice 
"of keeping the dung arising from different 
descriptions of animals in separate heaps or 
departments, and applying them to the land 
without intermixture. It is customary," he 
adds, " to keep the fattening neat cattle in 
yards by themselves ; and the manure thus 
produced is of good quality, because the ex- 
crement of such cattle is richer than that of 
lean ones. Fattening cattle are fed with oil- 
cake, corn, Swedish turnips, or some other 
rich food; and the refuse and waste of such 
food thrown about the yard increases the value 
of the manure : it also attracts the pigs to the 
yard. These rout the straw and dung about, in 
search of grains of corn, bits of Swedish turnips, 
and other food: by which means the manure in 
the yard becomes more intimately mixed, and 
is proportionally increased in value. The feed- 
ing-troughs and cribs in the yard should, for 
obvious reasons, be shifted frequently." 

"The horse dung," continues Blakie, "is 
usually thrown out at the stable doors, and 
there accumulates in large heaps. It is some- 
times spread a little about, but more generally 
not at all, unless where necessary for the con- 
venience of ingress and egress, or perhaps to 
allow the water to drain away from the stable 
door. Horse dung, lying in such heaps, very 
soon ferments, and heats to an excess ; the 
centre of the heap is charred or burned to a 
dry white substance, provincially termed fire- 
fanged. Dung in this state loses from 50 to 75 
per cent, of its value. The diligent and atten- 
tive farmer will guard against such profligate 
waste of property, by never allowing the dung 
to accumulate in any considerable quantity at 
the stable doors. The dung from the feeding 
hog-sties should also be carted and spread 
about the store cattle-yard, in the same manner 
2Q 457 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



as the horse dung. (^Blakie on Farm-yard Dung, 
p. 6.) There is no doubt of the superior ferti- 
lizing effects of horse-dung. In an experiment 
with beans, in which six acres were manured 
with horse-dung, and nine with that from a 
cow-yard, the six yielded more beans than the 
nine, {Jgr. Rep. of Essex, vol. ii. p. 280.) The 
same observation was made in Lincolnshire. 
(Sinclair's Jgr. p. 214.) The heat produced by 
the fermentation of the dung of different ani- 
mals has been made the subject of repeated 
experiment. When the temperature of the air 
was 40°, that of 

Common farm-yard dung was - - - - 70" 
A mixture of lime, dung, and earth ... 55° 
— swine and fowls' dung - . - 85° 

(Farmer's Magazine, vol. X. iv. p. 160.) 

The cultivator will readily allow the advan- 
tages of the plan thus recommended by Mr. 
Blakie ; and the student must see from the fol- 
lowing experiments, that the dung of different 
animals vary very much in their fertilizing 
powers. 

The subjoined table contains the results of 
the experiments made with three different ma- 
nures on the growth of potatoes, by Mr. Oliver, 
of Mid-Lothian ; the cow and horse-dung were 
recently made ; the potatoes were of the de- 
scription called Pinkeyes, and forty loads of 
about eighteen cwt. per acre were employed 
of each manure. (Ency. Metrop. vol. vi. p. 61.) 



Distance 
between 


Kind of 
Manures 


Produce 


^"^ 


Value 


Cost 
pro- 


f 


Price of 

Manure 


Rows. 


used. 


per acre. 


li 


per 




duct ior 




pr Cart. 






B. F. PL. 




L. 


1. d. 






f. </. 




Cow 


42 


8 


16 


16 


25 8 


6 


4 


12) 


Horse 


47 


8 


18 


17 6 


23 8 





3 




Street 


42 


8 


16 


16 


24 8 





3 6 




Cow 


60 


8 


24 





24 8 





4 


isj 


Horse 


51 2 8 


8 


23 





22 8 





3 




Street 


45 


8 


18 





23 8 





3 6 




Cow 


60 1 


8 


24 


20 


22 





3 


24) 


Horse 


61 3 


8 


24 


9 6 


24 





4 




Street 


39 


8 


15 


12 


23 





3 6 




Cow 


66 2 2 


8 


2G 


13 


23 13 





4 


30] 


Horse 


66 2 2 


8 


26 


13 6 


21 13 





3 




Street 


46 3 2 


8 


18 


15 


22 13 





3 6 




Cow 


63 3 


8 


25 


5 6 


23 10 





4 


36^ 


Horse 


67 2 2 1 


8 


27 


7i 


21 10 





3 




Street 


47 


8 


18 


16 


22 10 





3 6 



Malcolm (see Brit. Husb. vol. i. p. 260) has 
given an estimate of the number of cubic yards 
or tons of farm-yard compost necessary for 
various soils per acre, which is as follows : — 



Od strong Land. 


Loams. 


Gravels. 


Clialks. 


Sands. 


For Wheat 30 


20 to 25 


25 


20 


20 


Barley 25 


20 


22 


i6 


18 


Turnips 30 


20 


25 


20 


20 


Clover 15 to 20 


15 


20 


16 


16 


Sainfoin — 


— 


— 


20 


— 


Pasture 15 to 20 


15 


16 


16 


16 



Some experiments of Mr. Wright, made upon 
plots of ground of equal size, indicate the num- 
ber of stems of barley produced by various fer- 
tilizers : each plot was dibbled with 60 corns 
of barley. (Jgr. Mag. vol. i. p. 328.) 



1. No manure 

2. Manured with 5 tons of cow-dung per acre 



3. 


— 


— horse do. 


4 


— 


— pig do. 


6. 


— 


— sheep do. 


6 


— 


80 bush, coal ashes 


7 


— 


— wood do. 


a. 


— 


— goose-dung 


y. 


— 


— hen do. 


10. 


— 


— duck do. 



458 



No. of 
Items. 
159 
167 
226 
233 
244 
233 
211 
185 
303 
283 



With regard to the form of dung-yards, thero 
is some little difference of opinion. " Some 
theorists," says Blakie, " recommend the yards 
to be made so concave, as almost to amount to 
a well-sha.j)e, giving, as a reason in support of 
their opinion, that the virtues of dung can only 
be preserved by being saturated in urine, or 
some other moisture. Others, again, assert 
that dung-yards should be formed convex, and 
assign as their reason, that farm-yard dung 
should be kept dry. Practical experience 
points out that a medium between those two 
extremes is the best ; and a yard a little hol- 
lowed is the most common shape. 

I will here introduce the description recom- 
mended by Mr. Blakie, of the best mode of 
forming dung-heaps or pies in turnip-fields, so 
as to prevent, as much as possible, the waste 
of gaseous matters, during the fermentation of 
the manure. " When," said this intelligent 
agriculturist, " it is found necessary to empty 
the dung-yards early in the season, I recom- 
mend that preparation should be made, in the 
usual way, for the reception of the dung-heaps 
in the intended turnip-fields, by collecting large 
heaps of clay marl, or such other materials. 
The bottoms for the heaps should not, however, 
be laid above six or eight inches thick of the 
earthy material, and a good quantity of it should 
be placed in rows on each side of the bottoms 
marked out; the dung should then be drawn 
out of the yards, and placed upon the bottoms, 
but not in the usual way of throwing it up 
loosely, to cause fermentation; on the contrary, 
by drawing the carts with their loads upon the 
heaps, for the purpose of compressing the dung, 
and thereby retarding fermentation. One or 
two men should remain constantly at the heaps, 
while the teams are at work, on purpose to 
spread and level the dung regularly, so as to 
render the ascent easy for the succeeding teams, 
as they come with their loads. If the dung has 
not been previously mixed in the yards, it 
should be so in drawing to the heaps, by taking 
up a few loads from one yard, and then a few 
from another, alternately ; and even from the 
same yard, the loads of dung should be taken 
from different parts alternately; for the dung 
is not of equal quality, nor made with the same 
regularity, in all parts of the yard. 

" The coal-ashes, road-scrapings, and all 
other collections of manure about the farm- 
house, should also be carried to these dung- 
heaps ; and when the heaps are raised as high 
as convenient for the horses to draw up, seve- 
ral loads should be shot up at the ends of the 
heaps, for the purpose of making them up to 
the square of the centre. The whole heaps 
should then be completely covered with the 
marl and clay, or soil previously collected in 
rows by the sides of the heaps, so as effectually 
to enclose the dung-heaps in crusts, and they 
are thenceforth denominated ^ics. In these, the 
dung will be preserved in a very perfect state, 
with little or no fermentation, and without loss 
by exhalation or evaporation. The pies, within 
ten days or a fortnight of the time the compost 
is wanted for the turnip ground, should be 
turned carefully over, and the crust, top, bottom, 
and sides intimately mixed up with the dung. 
When the turning is completed, with the natu- 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



ral soil around the heaps, again coat the heaps 
all over ; the pies will then undergo a gentle 
fermentation ; the earth, intermixed with and 
covering the dung, will absorb the juices and 
gaseous matters produced, and the compost 
come out in a fine state of preparation for 
using on the turnip lands. When the dung is 
taken out of the yards late in the spring, or 
only a short time before it is required for the 
turnip ground, the preparation should be some- 
what different, because of the compost heaps 
having less time to incorporate. Thus the 
dung should not be carted upon the heaps to 
compress them, and prevent fermentation, as 
in winter. On the contrary, the dung should 
be thrown up lightly with the fork upon the 
bottoms, and the side-heaps of earth mixed in- 
timately along with the dung. Turf turned up 
for a year preceding on wastes by the sides of 
roads makes excellent pie-meat." 

The temperature of the dung-heap is a pretty 
sure criterion of the state of its fermentation. 
If a thermometer, plunged into it, does not rise 
above 100°, there is little danger of too much 
gaseous matter being lost. If the temperature 
is higher, means should be taken to check the 
fermentation; and the same overheating may 
be regarded as going on, if, when a piece of 
paper moistened with muriatic acid is held 
over a dunghill, dense fumes appear, for then 
ammonia is disengaging. (Davy, p. 307.) With 
skilful management, and under ordinary cir- 
cumstances, one ton of dry straw is found to 
produce three tons of manure ; so that, as the 
common weight of straw per acre is about one 
ton and a half, the straw grown upon that ex- 
tent of land should yield about four tons and a 
half of compost. The quantity of manure pro- 
duced by stock necessarily varies with the 
quantity and quality of the food upon which 
the animals are fed. In an experiment made 
at the Cavalry Depot, at Maidstone, a horse 
consumed in a week — 

Lbs. 
Oats -.-...-70 
Hay .......84 

Straw .......56 

210 

He drank, within this time, 27 gallons of water. 
The weight of the dung and litter produced 
was 327^ lbs. 

In another experiment, on a large-sized York- 
shire milch cow, she consumed in 24 hours — 

Lba. 
Brewers' grains - - . . .81 
Raw potatoes - . - - .30 
Meadow hay - . - - .15 

126 

And during this period she drank two pailfuls 
of water. The urine was allowed to escape. 
She had no litter of any kind. The weight of 
the solid dung she produced was 45 lbs. When 
fed, on another day, with 

n Lbs. 

Raw potatoes ..... 170 
Hay 28 

I9S 

she produced, under the same circumstances, 
73 lbs. of solid manure. {British Husbandry, 
vol. i. p. 255.) Taking, therefore, the average 



produce to be equal to 60 lbs. per day, it follows 
that a cow will make about 9 tons of solid 
dung in the course of the year. 

The quality of farm-yard compost naturally 
varies with the food of the animals by which 
it is made: that from the cattle of the straw- 
yard is decidedly the poorest ; that from those 
fed on oil-cake, corn, or Swedes, the richest. 
Of stable-dung, that from corn-fed horses is 
most powerful — from those subsisting on straw 
and hay, the poorest ; the difference between 
the fertilizing effects of the richest and the in- 
ferior farm-yard dung is much greater than is 
commonly believed — in many instances the 
disparity exceeds one-half; thus, that produced 
by cattle fed upon oil-cake is fully equal in 
value to double the quantity fed upon turnips. 
My friend, Mr. Hewitt Davis, of Spring Park, 
near Croydon, an excellent scientific practical 
farmer, had occasion to notice this in an ex- 
periment which commenced in 1834. In that 
year, on half of a field of turnips fed off with 
sheep, he gave them oil-cake ; on the other 
half they fed only on the turnips. The succeed- 
ing crops were all distinguished by their supe- 
riority on the half of the field where the sheep 
had oil-cake; and in 1838, when the field had 
again a crop of turnips, the half of the field, on 
which four years previously the sheep were 
fed with oil-cake, had by far a better crop of 
turnips than that which had been manured in 
common with the rest of the field and fed off in 
the ordinary manner. And as the food con- 
sumed so materially influences the quality of 
the manure, it follows, as a natural conse- 
quence, that that made in summer by the clo- 
ver, grass, and tare-fed stock is much superior 
to that produced during the winter months by 
the store-fed cattle of the straw-yard, which is 
usually still further impoverished by the rains 
and snows. Hence, too, the superior richness 
of the manure of fatting swine to those of pigs 
in a lean state, and the far superior strength 
of night soil to any manure produced from 
merely vegetable food. Chemical examina- 
tions are hardly necessary to prove these facts. 
Every farmer who has had stall-fed cattle will 
testify to their truth — every cultivator will 
readily acknowledge the superiority of "town- 
made," that is, corn-produced stable-dung, to 
that from horses fed only on hay and straw, 
and that night-soil is far superior in "strength" 
to either. The relative quantities employed by 
the cultivator betray the same fact; for on the 
soils where he applies 20 loads of good farm- 
yard compost per acre, he spreads not half that 
quantity of night-soil. Mr. Dixon, whose ob- 
servations I have quoted at some length in this 
paper, deems " six tons of night-soil in com- 
post with peat amply sufficient for an acre." 
Mr. H. Davis is of the same opinion. It is not, 
as the farmer is well aware, the mere straw of 
the farm-yard manure which influences its fer 
tilizing quality, but the excrements with which 
that straw is mixed. Thus other substances, 
when thoroughly saturated with the stercora- 
ceous matters of cattle, are found to be just as 
fertilizing as straw : sawdust, peat, tanners' bark, 
or turf, are as serviceable in this respect as 
the best straw. Arthur Young found this to be 
the case when turf was employed mixed with 

459 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



urme. (Annals of Jgric. vol. ix. p. 652. — Ibid. 
vol. iii. p. 67 — 69.) Lord Meadowbank, Mr. 
Dixon, and others have successfully employed 
peat in a similar way (English Jgric. Soc. Journ. 
vol. i. p. 138), and the latter agriculturist often 
makes his excellent compost heaps of merely 
peat and urine. The liquid or soluble portion 
of farm-yard manure constitutes, in fact, its 
richest portion. Of the powerful effect pro- 
duced by the urine of cattle, and other liquid 
fertilizers, I shall have hereafter occasion to 
speak, when treating on liquid manure. 

It is usual for the farmer, although not so 
common a practice as is desirable, to increase 
the bulk, if not the quality, of his dung-heaps, 
by adding to them various other substances ; 
thus, as to enlarging them, by adding to that 
of the farm-yard, peat-moss, the late Lord Mea- 
dowbank made many experiments with suc- 
cess ; and his directions are of a very simple 
and easily followed description. "Let the peat- 
moss," he says, "be thrown out of the pit for 
some weeks or months, in order to lose its re- 
dundant moisture. By this means it is render- 
ed the lighter to carry, and less compact and 
heavy when made up with fresh dung for fer- 
mentation ; and, accordingly, less dung is re- 
quired for this purpose than if the preparation 
is made with peat taken recently from the pit; 
the peat taken from near the surface or at a 
considerable depth answers equally well. Take 
the peat-moss to a dry spot convenient for con- 
structing a dunghill, to serve the field to be 
manured; lay the cart-loads of it in two rows, 
and of the dung in a row between them. The 
dung thus lies nearly on an area of the future 
compost dunghill, and the rows of peat should 
be near enough each other that workmen, in 
making up the compost, may be able to throw 
them together by the spade. In making up, let 
the workmen begin at one end, and at the ex- 
tremity of the row of dung (which should not 
extend quite so far at that end as the rows of 
peat on each side of it do), let them lay a bottom 
of peat six inches deep and fifteen feet wide, 
if the ground admits of it; then throw forward 
and lay on about ten inches of dung above the 
bottom of peat, then add from the side rows 
about six inches of peat, then four or five of 
dung, and then six more of peat; then another 
thin layer of dung, and then cover it over with 
peat at the end where it was begun, and at the 
two sides. The compost should not be raised 
above four feet or four feet and a half high, 
otherwise it is apt to press too heavily on the 
under parts, and check the fermentation; when 
a beginning is thus made, the workmen will 
proceed working backwards, and adding to the 
column of compost, as they are furnished with 
the three rows of materials directed to be laid 
down for them. They must take care not to 
tread on the compost, or render it too compact; 
and, of consequence, in proportion as the peat 
is wet, it should be made up in lumps, and not 
much broken. In mild weather, 7 cart-loads 
c'f common farm dung, tolerably fresh made, is 
sufficient for 21 cart-loads of peat-moss; but, 
in cold weather, a larger proportion of dung is 
desirable. To every 28 cart-loads of the com- 
post when made up, it is of use to throw on 
above it a cart-load of ashes, either made from 
460 



coal, peat, or wood ; or, if these cannot be had^ 
half the quantity of slaked lime may be used, 
the more finely powdered the better: but these 
additions are nowise essential to the general 
success of the compost. The dung to be used 
should either have been recently made or kept 
fresh by compression, as by the treading ol 
cattle or swine, or by carts passing over it ; 
and if there is little or no litter in it, a smaller 
quantity will serve, provided any spongy vege- 
table matter is added at making up the com- 
post, as fresh weeds, the rubbish of a stack- 
yard, potato-shaves, sawings of timber, &c. ; 
and as some sorts of dung, even when fresh, 
are much more advanced in decomposition 
than others, it is material to attend to this ; for 
a much less proportion of such dung as is less 
advanced will serve for the compost, provided 
care is taken to keep the mass sufficiently open, 
either by a mixture of the above-mentioned sub- 
stances, or, if these are wanting, by adding the 
peat piecemeal; that is, first making it up in 
the usual proportion of three to one of dung, 
and then adding, after a time, an equal quantity 
more or less of moss. The dung of this quality 
of greatest quantity is shamble dung, with 
which, under the above precautions, six times 
the quantity of peat, or more, maybe prepared- 
The same holds as to pigeons' dung and other 
fowl dung, and, to a certain extent, also, as to 
that which is collected from towns, and made 
by animals that feed on grains, refuse of dis- 
tilleries, &c. 

"The compost, after it is made up, gets into 
a general heat sooner or later, according to the 
weather and the condition of the dung : in sum- 
mer, in ten days or sooner; in winter, not per- 
haps for many weeks, if the cold is severe. It 
always, however, has been found to come on 
at last; and in summer it sometimes rises so 
high as to be mischievous, by consuming the 
materials (Fire-Fanging). In that season a 
stick should be kept in it in different parts, to 
pull out and feel now and then; for, if it ap- 
proaches to blood heat, it should either be 
watered or turned over, and, on such an occa- 
sion, advantage may be taken to mix it with a 
little fresh moss. The heat subsides after a 
time, and with great variety, according to the 
weather, the dung, and the perfection of the 
making up of the compost, which then should 
be allowed to remain untouched till within 
three weeks of using, when it should be turned 
over upside down, and outside in, and all lumps 
broken ; then it comes into a second heat, but 
soon cools, and should be taken out for use. 
In this state the whole, except bits of the old 
decayed wood, appears a black, free mass, and 
spreads like garden mould. Use it weight for 
weight as farm-yard dung, and it will be found 
in a course of cropping fully equal to stand the 
comparison." After a long-continued observa- 
tion and successful use of peat, Mr. H. Davis 
is of opinion that peat, in common with most 
organic manures, has a strong tendency to rise 
to the surface of all cultivated soils, thus fol- 
lowing a rule directly opposite to those of 
earthy fertilizers, which certainly descend into 
the land. (Young's .Annals, vol. xli. p. 547.) 

Compost, if made up before January, has 
hitherto been in good order for the spring- 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



crops ; but this may not happen in a long frost. 
In summer, it is ready in eight or ten weeks ; 
and, if there is an anxiety to have it sooner 
prepared, the addition of ashes, or of a little 
lime rubbish of old buildings, or of lime slack- 
ened with foul water, applied to the dung used 
in making up, will quicken the process con- 
siderabl}'. "Peat prepared with lime alone 
has not been found to answer as good manure; 
in one instance, viz. on a bit of fallow sown 
with wheat, it was manifestly pernicious." 
(Eilinburgk Enryc. vol. i. p. 279.) The opinion 
of Lord Meadowbank in favour of the use of 
peat or sawdust as a mixture with farm-yard 
compost, has been recently confirmed by Mr. 
Dixon, of Hathershaw, in Lancashire, who, in 
his Prize Essay, thus describes the result of 
his long experience (Journ. of the English ^gric. 
Society, vol. i. p. 135): — 

'•My farm is a strong, retentive soil, on a 
substratum of ferruginous clay. My object 
was to improve its texture at the least cost. 
For this purpose we carted great quantities of 
fine sawdust and peat-earth, or bog; we had so 
far to go for the latter, that two horses would 
fetch little more than three tons in one day ; 
one horse would fetch three cart-loads of saw- 
dust in the same time. Having brought great 
quantities of both peat and sawdust into my 
farm-yard, I laid out, for the bottom of a com- 
post heap, a space of considerable dimensions, 
and about three feet in depth; three-fourths of 
this bottom was peat, the rest sawdust; on this 
we conveyed, daily, the dung from the cattle- 
sheds; the urine, also, is conducted through 
channels to wells for its reception (one on each 
side of the compost heap); common water is 
entirely prevented from mixing with it. Every 
second day the urine so collected is thrown 
over the whole mass with a scoop, and at the 
same time we regulate the accumulated dung. 
This being continued for a week, another layer, 
nine inches or a foot thick, of peat and saw- 
dust (and frequently peat without sawdust) is 
wheeled on the accumulated heap. These 
matters are continuously added to each other 
during winter ; and, in addition, once in every 
week, never less than 25 cwt., more frequently 
50 cwt., of night-soil and urine : the latter are 
always laid next above the peat or bog earth, 
as we think it accelerates their decomposition. 
It IS, perhaps, proper here to state, that the 
peal is dug and exposed to the alternations of 
the weather for several months before it is 
brought to the heap for admixture : by this it 
loses much of its moisture. Some years' ex- 
perience has convinced me of the impropriety 
of using recently dug peat: used in the man- 
ner I recommend, it is superior and more con- 
venient on every account; very much lighter 
to cart to the farm-yard, or any other situation 
where it is wanted; and so convinced am I of 
its utility in composts for every description of 
soil, except that of its own character, that wher- 
ever it can be laid down on a farm at less than 
4 shillings per ton, I should recommend every 
agriculturist and horticulturist that can com- 
mand it, even at the cost here stated, to give it 
a fair trial. So attractive and retentive of mois- 
ture is peat, that, if liberally applied to an arid, 
sandy soil, that soil does not burn in a dry 



season, and it so much improves the texture 
and increases the produce of an obdurate clay 
soil, if in other respects rightly cultivated, that 
actual experience alone can fairly determine 
its value. 

"For the conveyance of night-soil and urine, 
we have the largest and strongest casks, such 
as oils are imported in; the top of which is 
provided with a funnel to put the matters 
through, and the casks are fixed on wheels like 
those of a common dung-cart. For the conve- 
nience of emptying this carriage, the compost 
heaps are always lower at one end ; the high- 
est is where we discharge the contents, in order 
that they may, in some degree, spread them- 
selves over the whole accumulation. The situ- 
ation on which the wheels of these carriages 
stand while being discharged, is raised consi- 
derably; this we find convenient, as the com- 
post heap may be sloped six or seven feet high; 
low compost heaps, in my opinion, should be 
avoided. The plan here recommended I have 
carried on for some time. I find no difficulty 
in manuring my farm over once in two years ; 
by this repetition I keep up the fertility of my 
land, and it never requires more than a mode- 
rate application of manure. 

" I am fully aware that there are many loca- 
lities where neither peat nor night-soil can be 
readily obtained; but it is worth a farmer's 
while to go even more than 20 miles for the 
latter substance, provided he can have it with- 
out deterioration: the original cost is often 
trifling. On a farm where turnips or mangel 
are cultivated to some extent, the system here 
recommended will be almost incalculably ad- 
vantageous. A single horse is sufficient for 
one carriage ; mine hold upwards of a ton 
each; six tons of this manure in compost with 
peat, or, if that is not convenient, any other 
matters, such as ditch scourings, or high head- 
lands which have been properly prepared and 
laid dry in a heap for some time, would be am- 
ply sufficient for an acre of turnips or mangeL 
This manure is by far the most invigorating 
of any I have ever yet tried ; bones in any 
state will bear no comparison to it for any 
crop ; but it must be remembered that I write 
on the supposition that it has not been reduced 
in strength before it is brought. 

"Convenience frequently suggests that com- 
post heaps should be raised on different parts 
of a farm ; but, unless in particular instances, 
it is well to have them in the yard. In the 
farm-yard, all the urine from the cattle-stalls 
may be employed with the greatest economy; 
and, be it remarked, that the urine from ani- 
mals, in given weights, is more powerful than 
their solid excrements. How impor'ant, then, 
must it not be to the farmer to make the most 
extensive and the most careful use of this 
liquid ! It is sometimes carted on the lanu ; 
but that practice will not bear a comparison 
with making it into composts in the manner 
here recommended. Great waste is often made 
in putrescent manures after they are carted on 
the land ; instead of being immediately covered 
or incorporated with the soil, we not'unfre- 
quently see them exposed for days together in 
the hot rays of a scorching sun, or to the inju- 
rious influences of a dry wind. I have befor** 
2% 2 461 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



stated that compost heaps should, on many 
considerations, be raised in the farm-yard; 
still, circumstances are frequently such that it 
is more proper to make them at some distance 
in the fields. If a headland becomes too high 
by frequent ploughings or working of the land, 
in that case it should be ploughed at the time 
when clover or mixed grass-seeds are sown 
with a white crop ; for instance, barley or oats, 
and clover for the year following : a headland 
might then be ploughed, and a number of cart- 
loads of some manure heaped from one end to 
the other. Immediately after this it should be 
trenched with the spade (or what is sometimes 
called digging), and ridged high, in order that 
an action may take place between the soil and 
the manure; by this means the mass would 
soon be in a condition for turning over, and 
any ditch scourings, or other matters which 
had not in the first instance been used, might 
now be added to the mixture. The heap should 
then be allowed to remain closed for a few 
weeks, then turned over again; at this turning, 
in all probability, the mass would be much re- 
duced; and if so, raise the ridge of compost 
well on both sides ; but, instead of its top be- 
ing pointed, make a trench or cavity on the top 
from one end of the heap to the other. This 
cavity should be made tolerably retentive of 
moisture, which may be effected by treading 
with the feet ; carriages of night-soil, or urine 
from the cattle-stalls, may then be emptied into 
the trench, and the bulk of the heap would de- 
termine how many were required. This being 
done, a little earth should be thrown into the 
trench, and the heap allowed to remain in that 
state until the middle or latter end of autumn ; 
it will then be ready for another turning; but 
at this time care must be taken to have the 
heap well made up at the sides, and pointed at 
the top ; in this situation rain will be thrown 
oflT, and the compost preserved dry until winter 
presents some favourable opportunity for lay- 
ing it on the young clover, wheat, or any other 
crop which may require it. 

"In the year 1826," adds Mr. Dixon, "my 
attention was first directed to raising compost 
heaps from urine. This I now do frequently, 
without the help of any dung from the cattle- 
stalls. The same occasion called my mind to 
another matter, well worthy every farmer's at- 
tention. I allude to the great superiority of the 
manure raised in summer soiling, to that pro- 
duced in the stalls during winter." 

"The strength and consequent value of all 
cattle-dung," says Mr. Burke, in a note upon 
this paper, " will of course depend upon the 
nature of their food; if soiled, during the sum- 
mer, upon clovers, tares, sainfoin, &c., there 
can be no doubt that the manure will have a 
proportionately greater effect upon the land, 
than if the beasts be kept in the straw-yard ; 
and if stall-fed, either in winter or in summer, 
for the purpose of fatting, it will be still better. 
Thus, it was found, on comparing the effects 
of dung voided by animals fed chiefly on oil- 
cake with that of store-stock, 12 loads of the 
former exceeded in superiority of product 24 
of the latter." (See The Complete Chazier, 6th 
edit. p. 103.) 

I verily believe the difference is 50 per cent., 
462 



unless stock are fed, in a great measure, during 
winter, with artificial food. In an arrange- 
ment for making compost heaps from urine, I 
would recommend a receptacle to be made at 
the back of the cattle-stalls, just outside the 
building: this should hold about 20 cart-loads 
of mould, or any other matters to be employed ; 
if its situation were a little lower than the cat- 
tle-sheds, all the urine would pass into it, and 
remain there until the mass is completely sa- 
turated, which will be sufficient ; when the 
earthy matters are covered over, the compost 
may then" be thrown out, and the proceeding 
again renewed. In order to show part of the 
benefits of this practice, I beg here to observe, 
that the most foul or weedy mould may be 
used ; the action of the urine, if not reduced by 
water, is so powerful, that wire-worms, the 
black slug, many other destroying insects, and 
all vegetables, weeds, &c., when in contact 
with the urine for a time, are killed. The 
situation for raising this compost should be 
protected from the weather by a covering, 
similar to a cart-shed ; indeed, the deteriorating 
influences of rain, sun, and arid winds, on all 
putrescent manures or compost, are so serious, 
that, in my humble judgment, it would be 
worth while to have places under cover where 
these are usually laid down. 

The urine of the cow far exceeds in quantity 
that of the (lung, bning as 18 or 19 lbs. of the former 
to 8 lbs. of the latter, and likewise in fertilizing 
power. Professor Johnson found that to pro- 
duce the same effect, it required of cow-du?ig 
125 parts, but of the uri?ie only 91 parts ; of 
the dung of the horse, 73 parts were required, 
but of its nriiie only 16, so that the amount of 
the urine of live stock is not only much larger 
than that of the more solid excrements, but it is 
possessed of much greater fertilixiiig powers. 

The farmer cannot be too careful to prevent 
the loss of the most fertilizing principles of his 
manures, which so often ensues from washing 
away in rain water, or the flying off of the am- 
monia during its fermentation. To prevent the 
loss of this ammonia, stables and dung heaps 
should be sprinkled frequently with powdered 
gypsum, or charcoal, or a mixture of both. 

A gallon of the dark-coloured drainings from a 
heap of cow-dung, says Professor J. F. W. John- 
ston, when evaporated to dryness, left about 480 
grains, or 1 oz. of dry solid matter. This beini^ 
analyzed gave: ammonia, 9-6 grs.; organic mat- 
ter, 200-8 grs. ; inorganic, (ash) 268-8 grs. The 
inorganic portion contained alkaline salts 207-8 
grs. ; phosphates of lime and magnesia 25-1 grs. ; 
carbonate of lime (or chalk) 18-2 grs.; carbonate 
of magnesia and loss 4-3 grs. ; silica and a little 
alumina 13-4 grs. ; total 268-8 grains. This de- 
monstrates most clearly, the great waste in- 
curred where manure heaps are much exposed 
to rain. 

Peat, which has been so successfully em- 
ployed as a manure or compost, is composed 
principally of the inert, long accumulating ve- 
getable remains of either wood, moss, or heath ; 
it abounds also with earthy and saline matters ; 
those of Berkshire and Wiltshire contain from 
one-fourth to one-third of their weight of gyp- 
sum ; their earthy matters are always analogous 
to the stratum of earth on which it reposes ; 
where that is chalk, the peat abounds with 



FARM- YARD MANURE. 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



calcareous earth and gypsum, and but little 
alumina or silica. "Different specimens of 
peat, that I have burnt,"says Davy, "from the 
granitic and schistose soils of different parts 
of these islands, have always given ashes 
principally silieious and aluminous ; and a 
specimen of peat from the county of Antrim 
gave ashes which afforded very nearly the 
same constituents as ihe great basaltic stratum 
of the county." (Chemistry, p. 192.) In those 
instances, where the farmer finds such excel- 
lent results from dressing young clover with a 
mixture of peat and compost, as noticed by 
Mr. Dixon, with the Lancashire peat, it may 
be reasonably concluded to contain gypsum; 
(Journ. Eng. Agr. Soc. vol. i. p. 138) ; and, if it 
requires the addition of a portion of lime, 
before it is found to promote very decidedly 
the growth of clover, it then is very likely to 
be saturated with sulphate of iron. 

The too general neglect of peat as a mixture 
with farm-yard dung is not owing to its being 
a very modern discovery, for it was publicly 
recommended in England nearly half a cen- 
tury since. " In Sweden, as in other countries," 
says the Baron de Schulz, when writing to Sir 
John Sinclair in 1796, " farmers have endea- 
voured to increase the quantity of manure by 
mixtures of all kinds of vegetables and soils, 
and by collecting urine in cow-houses well 
adapted for that purpose ; they likewise, in 
some parts of the country, lay below their cat- 
tle soil from the shores of the lakes, leaves, 
moss, saw-dust, chopped alder, and pitch fir, 
brushwood, reeds, and straw. They often now 
place their dunghills on a slope instead of the 
former hollow, and by means of pumps, water 
them with urine and dung-water. Many farm- 
ers, however, still prefer the fresh dung to that 
which is fermented, and which they suppose 
has lost in the process a great part of its vege- 
tating power." {Com. Board of Agr. b. i. p. 326.) 

On the sea-shore, it is usual for the farmers 
to mix sea-weed with their dung ; in Essex 
they mix it with chalk ; in Suffolk, with a pe- 
culiar red shelly sand or marl ; and in the west 
of England, with the calcareous sand of the 
sea-shore; a practice which is thus described 
by Edward Bennet: — 

" The quantity of sand which a barge usu- 
ally contains is about 90 horse teams of 2^ cwt. 
each ; the price varies according to the distance 
it is carried up the rivers Notter and Tamar, 
from 18s. to 25s., and 3s. drinking money, or 
three gallons of cider. It is dragged for in 
Plymouth sound in three to six fathom water. 
In summer the barges frequently run on the 
sand bank in Whitsand Bay at two hours be- 
fore low water; when the tide leaves them, 
they load, waiting for the flood to bring them 
off. For arable land, the sand is thought to be 
best mixed with old earth, or manure collected 
in roads ; but for pasture it is best mixed with 
stable muck ; the proportion is two teams of 
muck to one of sand ; a barge load thus mixed 
is thought to be good manure for an acre." 
{Annals of Agr. vol. xii. p. 35.) 

Farm-yard dung is usually employed in all 
experiments upon manures, as the basis upon 
which comparative results are most usually 
obtained ; and it is not often that any substance 



can be found to exceed it in fertilizing effects. 
It was compared with salt, lime, and oil-cake, 
by Mr. George Sinclair, most of whose elabo- 
rate experiments are given under the head 
Salt. In my own experiments with potatoes 
in a light gravelly soil, I found that when the 
soil simply produced 120 bushels per acre, 
that manured with 20 tons of stable dung it 
yielded 219 bushels; and with 20 bushels of 
salt only 192J bushels. {My Essay on Salt, p. 
84). In those of my brother, Mr. George John- 
son, where 20 tons per acre of stable dung 
produced 23 tons of carrots, 20 bushels ot sal; 
applied to a similar space produced 18 tons 
{Ibid. p. 146) ; and, with the same proportions, 
when the salted soil produced 4^ tons of red 
beet-root, the spit manure yielded 63 tons. 
{Ibid. p. 149.) In those of the Rev. E. Cart- 
wright upon potatoes, when the soil simply 
produced 157 bushels per acre, the same quan- 
tity of land when dressed with 



363 bushels 


f fresh dung, yielded 


192 bushels 


30 — 


soot — 


192 — 


60 — 


wood ashes — 


187 — 


60 — 


malt dust — 


184 — 


363 - 


decayed leaves — 


175 — 


363 — 


peat — 


159 — 


363 — 


saw-dust — 


155 — 



(.Com. Board of .^gr. vol. iv. p. 370.) 

Some valuable experiments on farm-yard 
dung, compared in various proportions with 
other manures, applied to potatoes and oats, 
were made by Arthur Young, of which the fol- 
lowing was the result : — 

"In the last week in March, 1787," he says, 
" the white champion potato was planted in 
beds, each containing a square perch of a good 
sandy loam, on a wet clay marie bottom, the 
sets being planted one foot apart. 





Quantity per Acre 


Produce in Busbeli 




of Manure. 


per Acre. 


Soil simple - 


. 


180 


Farm-yard dung - 


16 cubic yards 


240 


— 


21 — 


200 





32 — 


280 


— 


32 — 


400 


— 


42 — 


360 


— 


53 — 


400 


Soot - 


160 bushels 


360 


Wood ashes - 


160 — 


210 



"At the same time, and on the same ground, 
12 square perches were planted with the same 
potatoes, and manured as described in the fol- 
lowing table, which also gives their respective 
products. 













els per Acre. 


Soil simple - 


. 


280 


Dung - - - 


32 cubic yards 


400 


Wood ashes - 


40 bushels 


400 


Slaked lime - 


160 — 


380 


Rotten straw, with 






some little ani- 






mal manure 


32 cubic yards 


400 


Urine and soap- 






water in equal 






moieties - 


1440 gallons 


240 


Barley straw 


li tons 


300 


Potash - 


340 lbs. 


380 1 


Dung - - - 
Salt - 


32 cubic yards 1 
160 lbs. i 


400 ! 


Dung . - - 


32 cubic yards I 
160 bushels j 


480 


Lime - - - 


Dung - - - 


32 cubic yards ? 
480 gallons 3 


530 



Urine - - - 



463 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



FARRIER. 



"The great product," adds Young, "which 
attends the addition of urine to dung, affords a 
very important lesson; which is, to manage 
dunghills in such a manner as to save, if pos- 
sible, every drop ; this is a point too much 
neglected, and, indeed, by most common farm- 
ers very little attended to." (^Annals of Agr. vol. 
ix, p. 652.) 

A rood of a poor blue pebbly gravel, which 
yielded turnips in 1770, in June, 1771, was 
marked in spaces for manures, each of two 
square perches, by Arthur Young, and sown 
with oats. 



2 Square Perches. 


Per Acre. 


Produc 
per 


of Oats 
Acre. 


Manure. 


Cubic Tardi. 


Bushels. 


Pecks. 


Soil simple ... 


- 


30 


2^ 


Farm-yard compost 


80 


40 


2^ 


— - - - 


40 


51 


1 


— ... 


i20 


45 





— ... 


20 


46 


1 


Bones .... 


25 


63 


1 


— .... 


50 


57 





Slaked lime - - - 


200 bush. 


38 


11 


Chalk .... 


80 


31 


1 


— . ■ . . 


160 


25 


n 


— - - - - 


240 


27 


2 


Turf mixed with train oil 


80/ 


33 


i 


Chalk and urine - 


80 


37 


2 


Chalk .... 


80 \ 
80 i 






Turfalone - 


33 


i 


Farm-yard earth from 








under dung - 


80 


35 





Red hungry gravel 


240 


29 


u 


— 


320 


31 


1 



" I observe," adds Young, " that dung in ge- 
neral much exceeds all the manures but bones, 
the superiority of which is very remarkable. 
(His following remarks show how little was 
then known of bones as manure.) It is a ma- 
nure not uncommon in this neighbourhood; 
all are brought from London, where are people 
who make it their business to collect them and 
break them in small pieces for those who boil 
them for the grease : this operation, one would 
suppose, would leave them of not much value, 
but the contrary is the fact. When I found, by 
this and other trials, that their effect was so 
very great, I bought all I could get ; the price 
10s. 6rf. a wagon-load, at London 96 bushels, 
which by the time they were on the farm (for I 
generally went on purpose for them) amounted 
from 25s. to 30s. a load. Five-and-twenty cart 
loads in this trial being superior to 50, was 
owing to the latter quantity being too great a 
dressing. For this miserable soil, which with 
a summer fallow yielded but 30 bushels, to 
produce 63 by a moderate manuring of bones, 
jhows their amazing effect. 

"The advantage of using fresh long dung," 
adds Arthur Young, " appears very strong ; nor 
can any thing be clearer than the benefit of re- 
taining the drainings of the dunghill. The 
lime without mixture appears to more advan- 
tage than it has generally done with me ; but 
even here, irj the profitable view, it has done 
nothing." {Jnn. of Jgr. vol. iii. p. 67 — 77.) 

The turf composts have nothing decisive in 
their effect The urine appears to have the 
superiority. A portion of the same soil was 
planted wit^ potatoes : the following table gives 
the result : 
464 



Manure. 


Per Acre. 


Prodiice per Acre 








Bushels. 


Soil simple ... 


. 




135 


\ cubic yard farm-yard 








compost ... 


33J 




168 J 


i ditto ... 


77i 




371i 


} ditto ... 


lOli 




278J 


y ditto ... 


135 




37H 


)i ditto 


168i 




345i 


IMiito . . - 


202^ 




422 


U ditto ... 


236i 




405 


2 ditto 


270 




422 


; ditto, saturated with 








yard drainings - 


33J 




270 


1 ditto - - . . 


lOU loads 


} 


354i 


I bushel slaked lime - 


135 bush. 


2 bushels lime 


270 ditto. 




253i 


i cubic yard long fresh 








stable dung 


6-i 




405 



As manures are often applied in cubic yards, 
it might be well for the farmer to know the 
respective weight of various measures of ma- 
nures. {Farmer^ Mag, vol. xiv. p. 102). 



cwt. qri. lbs. 



A cubic yard of garden mould - - - 19 3 

— water - - - - - 15 

— compost of (lung, with weeds 

and lime, which had been 

once turned over in 9 mns. 14 

— new dung - - - - 9 3 

— leaves and sea-weed - - 9 



There have been many excellent suggestions 
for the improvement of farm-yard manure. The 
late Mr. Blakie published an excellent essay, 
of which I have largely availed myself. Mr. 
Kirk, of Preston Mains (Quart. Joum. of Jlgr. 
vol. viii. p. 483), has suggested that the straw 
produced by different soils should be kept se- 
parate, and, when made into manure, applied 
to different soils. Mr. Pearson has very pro- 
perly (Quart. Journ. of Jlgr. vol. ix. p. 299), con- 
demned the careless way in which farm-yard 
manure is often flooded with the rain water 
from buildings, &c. Mr. Baker is an advocate 
for using farm-yard manure in its freshest 
state. (Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. vii. p. 584, and 
ix. p. 597.) Mr. W. Sim has reported several 
comparative experiments at Drummond, in 
Ross-shire, with barley. The soil a good deep 
loam on a gravelly subsoil ; the previous crop, 
peas. (Journ. Royal Agr. Soc. vol. i. p. 419.) 



Kind of 


Qu.intity per 
Scnich Acre, 


Produce of 
Giain per 


Weight 


Straw per 
Acre, in 


Manure. 


equal to I t-t 




stones of 





English. 






16 lbs. 
s*. lbs. 




qrs. bis. ps. 


lbs. 


Farm-yard 










manure - 


18 double Ids. 


8 1 1 


53 


226 8 


Rape dust - 


10 cwt. 


7 3 


5\i 


252 8 


Bone dust - 


10 bushels 


7 5 2 


53 


211 14 


Nitrate of 










soda 


140 lbs. 


7 5 


52;i 


213 


Saltpetre - 


140 lbs. 


6 2 


J3^ 


166 



A treatise recently published at Lowell, Mas- 
sachusetts, by Dr. S. L. Dana, under the title 
of " Muck Manual," contains much highly in- 
teresting matter relative to the preparation and 
qualities of farm-yard and other kinds of ma- 
nures. 

FARRIER (Fr. ferrier; Lat. ferrarius). A 
person who forges horses' shoes. As the errors 
committed by ignorance in this art were the 
cause of many diseases in the feet of horses, 
it naturally followed that farriers were resorted 
to for the cure of them. Hence the whole of 
the diseases of these animals came by degrees 



ARRIERY. 



FELLING TIMBER. 



to be treated by farriers, who are, however, 
now superseded in England by a more en- 
lightened class of veterinary practitioners. 

FARRIERY. The art of preventing, curing, 
or alleviating the disorders to which horses 
and cattle are subject. The practice of this 
useful profession in England was, until within 
the last half century, almost entirely confined 
to a class of men who were utterly ignorant 
of the anatomy and physiology of the horse, 
&c., and the general principles of the art of 
healing. Their prescriptions were as absurd 
as the reasons they assigned for administering 
their boluses and drenches. But the establish- 
ment of a veterinary college, and a better edu- 
cated class of persons having taken up the 
profession, has created a new era in veterinary 
science. 

FARROW. A sow is said to farrow when 
she brings forth pigs; and the pigs brought forth 
are called a litter or farrow. 

FARTHING-BOUND. A provincial term 
for a stoppage or obstruction in the intestines 
of the cow. 

FARTHING-DALE. The fourth part of an 
acre of land, now generally called a rood. It 
is sometimes written farding-dale. 

FAT {Tent, vet; Ice. feits ; Sax. ser). An 
unctuous, solid substance, or, more properly, 
a concrete oil, deposited in little membranous 
cells in various parts of animal bodies. It is 
generally white or yellowish, with little taste 
or smell, and varies in consistency according 
to the relative quantities of stearine and oleine 
which it contains. Goats' fat, besides these 
principles, contains also hircine, to which it 
owes its peculiar smell. Different kinds of fat 
liquefy at different temperatures. Lard is softer 
than tallow, melts at 97°; but the fat extracted 
from meat by boiling requires a heat of 127°. 
The ultimate elements of animal fat are the 
same as those of vegetable oils. According 
to the analysis of Chevreul, 100 parts of hu- 
man fat are composed of 79-0 carbon, 11'4 hy- 
drogen, and 9-6 oxygen. Hog's lard and mut- 
ton suet are very similarly constituted. Fat is 
insoluble in water, alcohol, and ether. The 
strong acids dissolve, and gradually decompose 
it. With the alkalies it combines and forms 
soap; hard with soda, and soft with potassa. 
Fat serves to defend the muscles and bones 
against cold, to temper the acids of aliments, 
and to invigorate and support the whole frame. 

FAT HEN. A provincial name for the wild 
spinach {Chenopodium album), commonly called 
in the United States Lamb's-quarter, and some- 
times Goose-foot. 

FATHOM (Sax. paenem). A measure of 
length containing six feet or two yards ; chiefly 
used for measuring the length of cordage and 
the depth of water and mines. 

FEATHER-GRASS {Stipa pennata). This 
is a doubtful native ; it is found sometimes on 
dry, mountainous rocks. It is a perennial, 
flowering in June. The root is fibrous ; stems 
a foot high, covered with dense tufts of long, 
narrow, acute, dark green, roughish leaves ; 
sheaths striated and very long; stipules ob- 
long, obtuse; flowers in panicles, simple, erect, 
six to seven flowers ; awns nearly a foot long. 
At the time of flowering, the produce per acre 
59 



from a heath soil was 9528 lbs., dry produce 
3454 lbs., nutritive matter 409 lbs. This pro- 
duce was taken from a heath soil that had been 
planted with the grass, for the wild seed does 
not vegetate ; but it may be propagated to any 
extent by parting the roots. Its agricultural 
merits appear to be so inconsiderable as to 
rank it among the inferior grasses. The beau- 
tiful feather-like awns which terminate the 
larger valves of the blossom, and adhere to the 
seed, serving as a sail to waft it from rock to 
rock, have procured it a place in the flower- 
gardens of the curious, and serve to distinguish 
it from all other grasses. The feathered awns 
are sometimes worn by ladies instead of fea- 
thers, which they resemble. The seed is ripe 
about the middle of September. 

Nuttall describes several American species 
of feather-grass, which abound in some of the 
warmer portions of the United States and Ter- 
ritories. One species, the Juncea, grows very 
commonly on the grassy plains of the Missouri, 
as well as the Stipa Virginica, both being very 
troublesome when in seed, adhering by the 
sharp stipe to every thing which comes in their 
way. Not a single species is useful in agri- 
culture. In Barbary and Upper Louisiana they 
appear in many places the prevailing herbage, 
communicating to the desert plains the colour- 
ing of harvest, called payjonul by the Ameri- 
can Spaniards. {NultaWs Genera.) 

FEATHERS (Sax. F^«ep; Germ, fedeni). A 
general name applied to the exterior covering 
or plumage of birds, and by which they are 
enabled to fly. Feathers vary in form, size, 
and function in different parts of the bird, and 
have accordingly received distinct names in 
ornithological science. The quill part consists 
of coagulated albumen. Great quantities of 
goose and other feathers are annually imported 
into England from the north of Europe, which, 
however, are insufficient for the demand; hence 
poulterers dispose of vast numbers of the fea- 
thers of other domestic poultry, all of which 
are much inferior to those of geese. The fea- 
thers, after they are plucked, are generally dried 
in an oven. Notwithstanding every apparent 
caution, the feathers will frequently be found 
to be tainted, either from carelessness in pluck- 
ing, or by neglecting to attend to them after- 
wards. In this case, the only method to ren- 
der them sweet is to boil them a few moments 
in stout calico or canvass bags in a copper, 
and afterwards dry them in the open air. In 
about a fortnight, if the weather be fine, they 
will become perfectly sweet and ready for use 

FEBRIFUGE (Fr.) In farriery, such medi- 
cines as are beneficial in cases of fever. See 
Fever. 

FEED (Sax. pe©an). The quantity ol cats 
or grain given to a horse or other animai at 
one time. It also signifies to fatten animals, as 
cattle or sheep. 

FELL. The skin or hide of an animal. 

FELLING TIMBER. The act of cutting 
down trees for the purposes of timber. This 
term is only used in respect to full-grown 
trees, and is never applied to young trees nor 
to bushes, underwood, or hedges. Much has 
been written respecting the proper season for 
felling trees ; some arguing in favour of mia 

465 



FELLMONGER'S POAKE. 



FEN LANDS. 



winter, and others in favour of midsummer. 
The question principally turns upon the quan- 
tity, and the value of the soft or outer wood in 
•the trunk of the tree to be felled, known by 
foresters and carpenters as the sap-wood. As 
this sap, or outer wood is the only portion of 
the trunk in which the sap or juices of the tree 
flow, it is evident that if no value be set upon 
it, the tree may be cut doM'n at any season ; 
because the truly valuable part of the trunk, 
the mature timber, is impermeable to the sap 
in its ascent through the soft wood, and is 
therefore in the same slate at every season of 
the year. On the other hand, where much 
value is attached to the soft or outer wood, 
where this outer wood is to be made as valua- 
ble as possible, or where, as in the case of 
comparatively young trees, the greater part of 
the trunk consists of sap-wood, felling ought 
to take place when there is least sap in the 
course of ascending. This season is without 
doubt mid-winter, which, all other circum- 
stances being equal, is unquestionably the best 
season for felling timber ; the next best being 
midsummer, when the sap is chiefly confined 
to the young shoots, the circumference of the 
soft wood and the bark. The worst time for 
felling timber is the spring, just before the de- 
velopement of the buds, when the tree is fullest 
of sap, and receiving constantly fresh supplies 
from the root ; and in autumn, immediately 
before the fall of the leaf, when there is a su- 
perabundance of sap, from its being as it were 
thrown out of employment by the falling of the 
leaf In general, all the softwoods, such as the 
elm, lime, poplars, willows, &c., should be 
felled during winter : hard woods, like the oak, 
"beech, ash, &c., when the trunks are of large 
size, and valued chiefly for their heart wood, 
may be felled at any time. When the bark, 
however, is to be taken into consideration, as 
in the oak, the tree should be felled in spring, 
•as then the bark contains four times the 
quantity of astringent matter to that felled in 
winter. See Timber and Woods. {Brande's 
Dirt, of Snenre.) 

FELLMONGER'S POAKE AND CLIP- 
PINGS. Poake is the waste arising from the 
preparation of skins, and is compounded of 
various proportions of lime, oil, and hair. It 
is commonly used as a manure, in the state of 
compost with earthy substances, and some- 
times, when it is thought expedient to increase 
the powers of farm manure, also with stable 
dung. The clippings are the parings and 
scrapings of the skins. When ploughed in 
upon a summer fallow for wheat, these clip- 
pings have been found highly serviceable to 
deep loamy land, and to strong soils which are 
not too wet, for they not only produce a full 
clean grain, with a bright straw, but the bulk 
of the crop is also greatly increased. Care 
should, however, be taken to cover them well 
with the soil, for if left near the surface, the 
putrid eflluvia, which they soon emit, attract 
the crows in swarms, and great quantities are 
thus .ost out of the ground. From thirty to 
forty bushels per acre is the usual quantity 
applied; the price varies in different places 
from 4d. to 9rf. per bushel, heaped loose. {Brit. 
ffusb. vol. i. p. 423, 424.1 
466 



FELLY. A provincial word meaning ^u 
break up a fallow. It also signifies a part of a 
wheel. 

FELON, or FETLOW. In farriery, a term 
for a sort of inflammation in animals similar 
to that of whitlow in the human subject. 

FELT. A kind of stuflf formed of fur or 
wool alone, or of a mixture of these artick's 
with camel's hair, which are blended into a 
compact texture used principally in the manu- 
facture of hats. Hare and rabbit's fur, wool 
and beaver, are the chief materials used ; they 
are mixed in proper proportions and tossed 
about by the strokes of a vibrating string or 
bow, till they become duly matted together. 
Felt strongly compressed is now used as cloth. 
It has one advantage over woven cloth, it does 
not become threadbare by use. 

FEN. The name of a distemper to which 
hops are subject. It consists of a quick grow- 
ing mould, or moss, which spreads itself with 
much rapidity, and occasions great injury. 

FENCE. In rural economy, is any kind of 
erection made for the purpose of enclosing 
ground; as a hedge, wall, ditch, bank, paling, 
&.C., or any continuous line of obstacle inter- 
posed between one portion of the surface of 
land and another, for the purpose of separation 
or exclusion. The kind of obstacle or material 
diflers according to the animals which are to be 
separated, excluded, or confined, and the nature 
of the soil and situation. In the early state of 
husbandry, fences were little known or wanted, 
except in particular places, as near houses or 
yards. The introduction of fences into agri- 
culture was about as great an improvement in 
the progress of that art, as that of the principle 
of the division of labour into the art of manu- 
facture. The subject of fences is one of high 
interest to the farmer, an immense amount of 
whose capital is annually expended chiefly for 
the purpose of preventing the depredations of 
stock belonging to other persons. Many valu- 
able observations on this topic will be found in 
various American agricultural periodicals. 

FEN LANDS, or FENS. Boggy or marshy 
lands, the subsoil of which is constantly in a 
state of saturation with water, and the surface 
liable to be overflown by rivers or streams 
during spring or autumn. The soil of these 
lands is generally black, light, and rich to the 
depth of two or three feet ; and as the surface 
water readily filtrates through this soil to the 
subsoil, fen lands generally produce, when pro- 
perly drained and cultivated, bulky crops of 
grass and corn. As they have A^ery seldom 
any natural outlet for their drainage, this is 
usually performed by machinery ; and when 
this is the case fen lands are more productive. 
(See Draining and Warping.) The principal 
fens in England are those of Lincolnshire, 
Cambridgeshire, and the adjoining counties, a 
very full account of which will be found in 
M'CuUoch's Geogr. Bid., art. "Bedford Level." 
(See also Brit. Husb. vol. i. p. 466—469. " On 
the Course of Cropping in the Fens," vol. ii. p. 
107.) Fens generally abound with saline 
plants, which are very nourishing to cattle. 
See Irrigation. 

FENNEL, COMMON (Meum fosniadum. 
Smith). This is a well-known biennial plant. 



FENNEL. 



FERMENTATION. 



cultivated in our kitchen gardens as a garnish. 
It is likewise used as a domestic medicine. 
The taste and aromatic qualities of the garden 
fennel are well known. The sweet and warm 
seeds are a common carminative for infants. 

FENNEL, SWEET (F(rnkulum duke). This 
species of fennel is an annual plant, a native 
of Italy and Portugal, where it is cultivated as 
a pot-herb, as well as for the seeds and the oils 
which these afford. It is a smaller plant than 
the common fennel. The stem is somewhat 
compressed at the base. The fruit is much 
longer than that of the common fennel, being 
nearly five lines long, less compressed, some- 
what curved and paler, with a greenish tinge. 
The turions are also sweeter and less aromatic, 
and the fruit (seed) has a more agreeable odour 
and flavour. 

The fruit is imported, and affords the oil of 
fennel and the fennel water of the druggists. 
Both are useful in flatulent colic ; and the latter 
is a pleasant vehicle for administering other 
medicines to children. 

FENUGREEK (TrigoncUa, Fcc>iumgra;cum), 
Fenugreek is a species of trefoil sometimes 
cultivated in fields for its seed; but it yields a 
very uncertain crop, owing to the variable na- 
ture of the weather in England. The stem is 
a foot high, erect, with round branched stalks, 
trifoliate leaves, toothed ; the flowers small and 
white ; the fruit a sessile, straight, erect, some 
curved, acuminate, flat pod ; containing a num- 
ber of yellowish seeds having a strong, disa- 
greeable smell, and an unctuous, farinaceous, 
and somewhat bitter taste. ' These seeds are 
very emollient, and useful in cataplasms and 
fomentations. 

FENUGREEK, RUSSIAN (TrigoncUa »-,<- 
thenica). A hardy perennial native of Siberia, 
blowing yellow papilionaceous blossoms in 
July and August. It loves a strong loamy soil, 
and an open situation. It is propagated either 
by parting the roots in spring, or from seed. 

FERMENT (Lat./crcfo, I boil). Any sub- 
stance employed to raise or produce fermenta- 
tion when mixed with or applied to another. 
Ferments are therefore either such substances 
as are naturally present in the vegetable juice, 
as in the grape and apple ; or are added, as in 
the manufacture of beer and bread, where 
yeast and leaven constitute the ferment. Fer- 
mentation is met with in fermenting liquors of 
different kinds, as wine and beer, and the froth 
or head thrown up by them, and its principles 
are contained in the newly expressed saccha- 
rine juices of various summer fruits. 

Ferments are of an albuminous and glutinous 
character; and the presence of nitrogen seems 
essential in their composition. 

FERMENTATION. When certain vegeta- 
ble substances are dissolved in water and sub- 
jected to a temperature of 65° to 85°, they un- 
dergo a series of changes which terminate in 
the production of alcohol or spirit; these 
changes constitute the phenomena of vinous 
fermentation. Sugar and some ferment are es- 
sential to the process, and during the forma- 
tion of the alcohol the sugar disappears, and 
carbonic acid is more or less abundantly 
evolved. The simplest case of fermentation is 
that of must, or of the expressed juice of the 



grape, which, when exposed either in close or 
open vessels to a temperature of about 70°, 
soon begins to give off carbonic acid, and to 
become turbid and frothy; after a time a scum 
collects upon the surface, and a sediment is de- 
posited ; the liquor which had grown warm 
gradually cools and clears, loses its sweet taste, 
and is converted into wine. The chief compo- 
nent parts of must are water, sugar, mucilage, 
gluten, and tartar (bitartrate of potassa). Dur- 
ing the fermentation carbonic acid escapes, the 
sugar disappears, and with it the greater part 
of the mucilage: the gluten chiefly forms the 
scum and a portion of the sediment ; and the 
tartar originally in solution is thrown down in 
the form of a coloured deposit. Sugar and 
water alone will not ferment ; the ingredient 
requisite to the commencement of the change 
is the gluten, which absorbs in the first in- 
stance a little oxygen from the air, becomes in- 
soluble, and induces the subsequent changes. 
The reason why grapes never ferment till the 
juice is expressed, seems to depend upon the 
exclusion of air by the husk or membranes. 
In beer the alcohol is derived from the sugar 
in the malt. When wine is exposed to air and 
a due temperature, a second fermentation en- 
sues, which is called the acetous fermentation, 
and which terminates in the production of 
vinegar. During this process oxygen is ab- 
sorbed, and more or less carbonic acid is 
evolved ; but the apparent cause of the forma- 
tion of vinegar is the abstraction of hydrogen 
from the alcohol, so as to leave the remaining 
elements in such proportions as to constitute 
acetic acid. Thus alcohol is theoretically con- 
stituted of charcoal, water and hydrogen, and 
acetic acid of water and charcoal only ; the 
oxygen of the air, therefore, converts the hy- 
drogen of the alcohol into water, and so effects 
the change into vinegar. See Alcohol and 
Brewing. (Brande's Dirt, of Science, ^c.) 

To illustrate these facts let us suppose that 
the following substances are put together to 
undergo fermentation : — 300 parts sugar, 600 
parts water, 60 yeast ; — the products will be 
771-5 parts of weak spirit, of which 171-5 is 
alcohol of spec. grav. 0-822 ; 94-6 carbonic 
acid, which flies off and carries with it 41-9 of 
water, 12 nauseous residue, and 40 residual 
yeast. 

Or it may be illustrated in reference to the 
formation of the alcohol and the carbonic acid, 
which are the only real products of vinous fer- 
mentation, by the changes which take place in 
the chemical components of the sugar. If we 
take 162 parts of sugar, and 18 of water, re- 
garding any yeast employed as merely the 
means of commencing the fermentation, the 
product should be 92 of alcohol and 88 of car- 
bonic acid — 



162 parts of sugar consist of 
18 parts of water consist of 

Ingredients - - - - 

92 parts of alcohol consist of 
88 parts ofcarbonic acid con- 
sist of . . . - 

Products - - . . 


Carbon. 


HydrogeTi, 


Oxygen. 


72 


10 
2 


80 
16 


72 


12 


96 


48 
24 


12 


32 

64 


72 


12 


96 






46r 





FERMENTED LIQUORS. 

Thus we see that the 72 parts of carbon of 
the sugar is divided between the alcohol and 
the carbonic acid ; that the whole of the hydro- 
gen both of the sugar and the water enter into 
the composition of the alcohol, and only 32 
parts of the ogygen of the sugar, and none of 
that of the water. Fermentation, therefore, 
effects merely a change in the distribution of 
the components of the bodies subjected to its 
action ; the yeast or ferment being the agent 
which effects these changes without itself en- 
tering into the products resulting from them. 
The yeast, if added, remains as residual matter, 
but where no yeast is required, that substance 
is one of the products of the process. 

But this is only that species of fermentation 
which is denominated vinous. If the fermen- 
tation proceeds beyond the point which has 
been described, such changes, as already 
stated, take place ; and vinegar or acetic acid 
is generated, and the process is then termed 
acetous fermentation. A third kind of fermen- 
tation also follows in most vegetable matters, 
namely, the putrefactive, in which there is a 
large production of gases, and vegetable mould 
or humus. In general parlance, however, the 
term fermentation implies either the vinous or 
the acetous fermentation. 

FERMENTED LIQUORS are those liquors 
obtained by the process described in the pre- 
ceding article. See also Bekh, Cideii, Wine, 
Alcohoi., &c. All liquors which have under- 
gone the vinous fermentation are considered as 
great antidotes to putrefaction ; for it has been 
remarked that since the custom of brewing and 
distilling liquors has prevailed in Europe, 
many of those cutaneous and putrid diseases 
with which our forefathers were afflicted have 
been less frequent and severe than they for- 
merly were. The total abstinence from fer- 
mented liquors by the Turks is further assigned 
as one of the chief causes why they are more 
liable to the plague and other contagious dis- 
eases, than those nations among whom beer or 
wine is the common beverage. (Willich's Dam. 
Encyc.) This opinion, however, is purely hy- 
pothetical. 

FERN. An acotyledonous or flowerless 
class of weeds, of which there are many spe- 
cies in Great Britain. They grow chiefly in 
mountainous tracts of natural pasture. Fern 
is extremely difficult to eradicate, as the roots 
in deep soils have been found at the depth of 
seven or eight feet. But however troublesome 
this plant may prove to the industrious hus- 
bandman, it is not altogether useless. It forms 
a good litter for cattle, and may be used as 
thatch ; for though inferior to many other ma- 
terials, it will last ten or twelve years. It 
forms a good manure for potatoes, when dug 
into the soil ; and serves for fuel, where it is 
plentiful, for brewing, baking, heating ovens, 
burning lime, &c. The ashes, which the 
plant affords in great abundance, yield potash ; 
and tne poor in some districts mix the ashes 
with water and form lye balls for scouring 
linen, which are a useful and cheap substitute 
for soap. In Norway, the dried leaves are in- 
fused in hot water, and thus afford a whole- 
some and relishing food for all domestic cattle, 
468 



FERN. 

which eat them eagerly, and manage to thrive 
and grow fat upon them. 

In a botanical point of view, it would be im- 
possible and useless to describe all the species 
of ferns in this work ; we shall therefore notice 
particularly those only which are applicable 
to other uses than thatching, or the production 
of alkali from their ashes, or constituting ma- 
nure, as they may all be employed for these 
purposes. 

1. Male Shield Fern {^Aspidium filix^nas) is a 
perennial, growing in woods, dry ditches, and 
on shady banks. Its roots are tufted, large, 
scaly ; its fronds or herbage are several from 
one root, three feet high, doubly pinnate, erect; ; 
the midribs scaly, and the leaflets obtuse, ser- j 
rated, partly confluent; the masses of seminal 
capsules near the midrib, and not occupying 
more than the half of each leaflet ; and the 
capsular cover orbicular. 

The root is nauseous, and was at one time, 
much used as a remedy for tape worm ; it 
indeed was the principal ingredient in the 
celebrated remedy of Madame Nouffer, who 
received 18,000 francs from Louis XVI. for 
her secret: but since the introduction of the 
oil of turpentine, as a remedy for tape worm, 
fern root has ceased to be employed. 

2. Maidenhair {Adiantum capdlus veneris) is 
a perennial found on moist rocks and old walls 
near the sea. It is an elegant fern ; the roots 
are blackish, shaggy, creeping; the fronds 
from 6 to 12 inches high, doubly comjiound ; 
the leaflets alternate on capillary stalks, wedge- 
shaped, lobed, deep green, smooth, and each 
segment terminated in a roundish, flat scale, 
with the cover transversely oblong. 

This fern as well as another species of the 
same genus, Jl. pedatum, is employed for mak- 
ing the well-known syrup called capiUairc,v/'hic\i 
is, when diluted with water, a pleasant beve- 
rage in fever. 

3. Fir Club Moss (Lycopodium selugo). A 
perennial, common on the Derbyshire and 
Yorkshire hills, and in the Highlands of Scot- 
land. The root is fibrous ; the stem 5 to 10 
inches high, once or twice forked, and level at 
the top. The leaves uniform, crowded in eight 
rows, lanceolate, obtuse, entire, slightly spread- 
ing; capsules on the uppermost shoots, kidney- 
shaped. See Clue Moss. 

The Highlanders use this fern instead of 
alum to fix colours in dyeing. The root is a 
powerful emetic and purgative; but its action 
is attended with giddiness and convulsions, 
consequently it is dangerous. 

4. Greater Rough Horsetail (Equisctum Ji^e- 
male). A perennial, found in boggy woods. 
The root is black and variously branched ; the 
stem 2 to 3 feet high, erect, naked, rough, 
branching at the top, embraced by tight whitish 
sheaths, black at the top and bottom ; and the 
teeth deciduous. The fruit is in a terminal cat- 
kin, and abounds with whitish powdery seeds. 

This fern is well known for its use as a 
polisher, owing to the flinty particles {silex) 
deposited in the furrows of the cuticle. It is 
usually imported from Holland, and is there- 
fore called Dutch rushes. {WilUch.''s Dom. En- 
cyc, Low's Prac. jigr.) 



FERN. 



FESTUCA. 



FERN SWEET (Comptonia asplenifolia) is \ 
commonly found in Pennsylvania and other 
Middle States, where it is most abundant on 
dry slaty hills ; but rare elsewhere. The 
bruised leaves emit a strong resinous, aromatic 
odour ; and the plant is reputed medicinal. 
The infusion is a popular remedy in dysentery. 
This is the only known species of the genus 
Comptonia. {Floi: Ccstrica.) 

FERRET {Mustela furo, Linn.). A useful 
animal, which came originally from Africa, 
whence it was introduced into Spain, and sub- 
sequently into England. It has red, fiery eyes ; 
the colour of its whole body is of a pale yel- 
low; and its length from the nose to the end 
of the tail is about 19 inches. The female is 
rather smaller in size, and produces, twice 
annually, from five to eight or nine young 
ones, after a gestation of six weeks. Ferrets 
are principally employed for the purpose of 
hunting rabbits, to which they are mortal ene- 
mies, and of destroying vermin in corn stacks 
and outbuildings. These animals are always 
kept confined in a box or cask, and fed upon 
bread, milk, &c. 

FERRUGINOUS SOILS. Soils which con- 
tain a large proportion of iron. 

FESCUE GRASSES. See Festuca. 

FESTUCA. A very extensive genus of 
grasses, of which the meadow fescue (Fes- 
tuca pratensis) and the hard or smooth fescue 
(Festuca duriuscula, vel glabra) are those of 
the greatest use in permanent pasture. Com- 
bined with cock's-foot or orchard grass, and 
some other of the natural grasses, these two 
species of festuca will be found well adapted 
for the alternate husbandry, and secure the 
most productive and nutritive pasture in alter- 
nation with grain crops. Sir J. E. Smith, in 
his Eng. Bot., observes, " that in this geniis it 
is hard to say what may, or what may not, be 
a species ;" and with his usual force and 
clearness he reduces the F. glauca, F. glahrn, 
F. cambrica, F. duriuscula, and F. rubra of Hud- 
son, Lightfoot, Withering, Winch, and Stilling- 
fleet, &c. into one species. All these grasses 
vary much from change of soil and situation; 
the flowers are particularly apt to vary in 
number as well as in the length of their awns. 
There is one character, however (says Sin- 
clair), which I have never found to change 
under any variety of culture, which is the 
creeping root; and this is also an agricultural 
distinction which is never to be lost sight of, as 
it always produces a specific effect upon the 
soil, very distinct indeed from that of the 
fibrous-rooted kinds. It will be sufficient, 
therefore, for the purposes of the agriculturist, 
to consider these grasses as two distinct spe- 
cies, the fibrous-rooted and the creeping-rooted, 
noting at the same time their varieties from 
other parts of the plant. Following the expe- 
riments instituted by Sinclair, in his valuable 
work on the grasses, I shall proceed to notice, 
seriatim, the different species of festuca, and 
point out their relative properties. 

Festuca alopecuris. — Foxtail-like fescue grass. 
Root annual. Although sometimes classed as 
a Bromus, this grass is evidently a Festuca. 
From the amount of produce and nutritive 
powers afforded by this annual fescue, it will 



be found much inferior to the soft brorae-grass 
(Bromus mollis), many flowered brome-grass 
B. nmltiflortis), and other of the annual indige- 
nous grasses, and it does not therefore appear 
suitable for agricultural purposes. 

Festuca bromoides. — Barren fescue grass. A 
pale, smooth, slender, insignificant grass of 
short duration, at least after it has flowered. 

Festuca calamaria. — Reed fescue grass. This 
species, which is too large and coarse to pos- 
sess any agricultural merits, is found in moun 
tainous woods in Scotland, Ireland, and the 
north-west part of England. There is a smaller 
variety, with much narrower leaves sometimes 
met with in Scotland. 

Festuca Cambrica. — Welsh fescue. This con- 
stant variety of jF. rubra (see Stnitli's Engl. Flora, 
vol. i. p. 142) is readily distinguished from the 
F. ovina, and the varieties of F. rubra and F. 
duriuscula, by the pale green colour of the 
panicle and culms. Experiments tend to prove 
that this grass is greatly inferior to the F. duri- 
uscula in the quantity and nutrient qualities of 
its produce. 

Festuca dumctorum. — Pubescent wood-fescue 
grass. Root perennial, slightly creeping. This 
grass, which appears to belong to the inferior 
kinds, is a native of woods, where the soil is 
dry and sandy. 

Festuca duriuscula. — Hard fescue. PI. 6, fig. g-. 
Panicle unilateral, oblong, much spreading 
when in flower; florets longer than their awns; 
stem round, upper leaves flat, root fibrous, 
perennial ; scarcely creeping, though sometimes 
throwing out short lateral shoots. Stem I^ or 
2 feet high, erect, leafy, striated, smooth. The 
hard fescue early attains to maturity; the culms 
are succulent and nutritious ; it grows quickly 
after being cropped, and springs pretty early. 
From the above details, although very defi- 
cient in the weight of produce, it appears to 
be one of the chief of the fine or dwarf-grow- 
ing grasses. This grass is most prevalerU on 
light rich soils; but it is also continually found 
in the richest natural pastures where the soil 
is retentive of moisture, and is never absent 
from irrigated meadows that have been pro- 
perly formed. It attains to the greatest perfec- 
tion when combined with the F. pratensis and 
Poa trivialis. From its property of withstand- 
ing drought in rich natural pastures better than 
many other grasses, added to the merits above- 
mentioned, this grass is entitled to a place in 
the composition of the best pastures, but not 
in any very large proportion on account of its 
inferior productive powers. 

When cuUivated on a poor silicious soil, or 
on a thin heath soil, the culms become very 
fine and slender, and promise to be valuable 
for the manufacture of straw hats. This grass 
flowers about the middle of June, and the seed 
is ripe late in July. 

Festuca elatior, var. fertilis. Fertile-seeded 
tall fescue grass. This is a coarse but nu- 
tritious grass, forming sometimes a consider- 
able proportion of the crop of marsh land 
hay. Root somewhat creeping, with downy 
fibres penetrating deeply into the mud or clay. 
Stem about 4 feet high, reedy, striated, smooth, 
and leafy. Panicle a foot or more in length, 
repeatedly compound, spreading widely. This 
2R 469 



FESTUCA. 



FESTUCA. 



grass differs from the common variety of tall 
fescue in having the panicle somewhat droop- 
ing; spikelets six-flowered, more ovate and 
flat ; the larger husks of the calyx often un- 
covered, and the awn is fixed on the apex more 
in the manner of a bromus than of a fescue. 
Leaves smoother, and of a less dark-green 
colour. For damp soils, that cannot conve- 
niently be thoroughly drained, this would be a 
most valuable plant, either to be cut for soil- 
ing, or made into hay, and reduced to chaff as 
it might be M^anted. This grass (which is 
nearly allied to the common F. elatior next to 
be described) perfects an abundance of seed 
(though not entirely free from diseased por- 
tions), and is therefore not liable to the objec- 
tion which takes so much from the value of 
that variety. It is equally early in the produce 
of foliage, and the nutritive properties are 
about the same. It flowers early in July, and 
the seed is ripe in the first Aveek in August. 

A species is described under the name of 
floating fescue {Fcstuca Jluitans) in Lotidon's 
Ency. of^gr. and there said to be found in rich 
swamps, especially in Cambridgeshire, Eng- 
land, where it is thought to give the peculiar 
flavour to Cheddar and Cottenham cheese. It 
is also found in the ditches and ponds in most 
parts of England. PI. 5, h 

Festuca elalior, var. sterilis. — PI. 5, c. Barren- 
seeded tall fescue. This species greatly re- 
sembles the F. pralensis, but is larger in every 
respect, and flowers eight or ten days later. 
This is a grass admirably adapted for tena- 
cious clay soils, and might be cultivated with 
advantage by the farmer combined with some 
of the other highly productive grasses, in such 
moist spots of the soil as are peculiarly suited 
to the growth of this species, although less 
fitted for the growth of proper pasture grasses. 
It is nutritive and very productive, and one of 
the 4irst grasses in the production of foliage 
early in spring. The produce, like that of all 
grasses which yield a great weight of crop, 
may be considered coarse when compared 
with the F. pratensis and jilopecuris pralensis ; 
but this objection may be overcome by reduc- 
ing the hay to chaff, and mixing it with clover- 
hay. The nutritive matter contains but little 
bitter extractive or saline matter, while the 
clover contains an excess. In England it 
flowers in the second week in July ; the seed 
is universally affected with the disease termed 
clavus, and consequently unfertile; it can only, 
therefore, be propagated by parting and plant- 
ing the roots. 

Festuca gigantea. — Tall fescue grass. This 
species is confined to woods in its natural state; 
but it continues in the soil, and appears to 
thrive equally Avell when cultivated in open 
situations. It is a coarse grass, and but little 
nutritive, although greatly superior to the 
spiked and wood fescue grasses. 

Festuca glabra, var. — Smooth fescue. PI. 6, h. 
Panicle branched, upright, compact ; spikelets 
spear-shaped, 4-6-flowered, smooth, awned; 
root fibrous; perennial. This grass is nearly 
allied to the F. duriuscula and F. rubra. Ac- 
cording to Sir J. Smith, it is a variety of the 
last-named. From the trials made with this 
grass, it seems to be inferior both in produce 
470 



and nutritive matter to the F. duriuscula, bat is 
superior in regard to early produce, and the 
herbage is uncommonly fine and succulent. 
These merits, however, appear hardly suffi- 
cient to compensate for the deficiency of pro- 
duce. If it be compared with some of the 
early grasses, Anthoxantwn adoratum, for in- 
stance, it will be found superior in nutritive 
matter in the proportion of about one-third. 
While this grass cannot be recommended in 
preference to the F. duriuscula, yet, among the 
fine-leaved fescues, it will be found the best 
substitute for that species when wanting. 

Festuca glauca. — Glaucus fescue grass. This 
is a native of alpine situations, but thrives 
better when cultivated on lower ground than 
most other species having the same origin. 
Although its merits do not appear sufficiently 
great to entitle it to a prominent place among 
the superior grasses for light soils, yet its 
hardy and nutritive nature, and properly of 
forming a thick turf, prevent it from being 
altogether rejected as of no value. It flowers 
in the second week of June, and the seed is 
ripe about the first week of July. 

Festuca loliacca. Darnel-like fescue grass. 
PI. 5, /. Spike two-ranked, drooping; florets 
cylindrical, awnless, pointed with fine slight 
ribs at the top. Root fibrous, perennial. At a 
casual glance this grass bears a near resem- 
blance to the Lolium peremie (rye-grass), and 
affects the same kind of soil ; but, on a more 
minute inspection, the calyx or outer husk so 
conspicuous in the spikelets of the rye-grass, 
in this grass will be found almost wanting. 
Another mark of difference is, that in the rye- 
grass the spikelets are arranged so as to stand 
facing the spike-stalk ; while in the darnel-like 
fescue they stand with their back towards 
it. This grass possesses all the valuable pro- 
perties of rye-grass, and few of its defects. 
Its produce is larger; it springs earlier and im- 
proves by age, which is not the case with com- 
mon rye-grass. It would, doubtless, be the best 
substitute for that species in alternate cropping; 
but, unfortunately, it does not perfect a suffi- 
ciency of seed, the flowers generally proving- 
abortive, which renders its propagation incon- 
venient and expensive. In rich meadows this 
grass is very common, particularly where the 
land is periodically overflown. 

Festuca myurus. Wall-fescue, Capon's tail- 
grass. Panicle drooping, elongated, rather 
close; florets tapering, shorter than their awns, 
rough at the top ; leaves awl-shaped ; stem 
leafy to the very summit. It is, perhaps, the 
" trembling rye-grass" of poets. Root annual. 
The flowers have only one stamen, which dis- 
tinguishes it from all other species of fescue. 
This grass has great affinity to the barren fes- 
cue (F. bromoides), but the whole plant is larger 
and stouter, the stem clothed with leaves to the 
top, and the panicle four times as long. The 
inner valve of the blossom is fringed towards 
the top; the awns are longer than those of the 
F. livomoides. This grass is found on walls, 
and dry, barren, sandy places. As soon as the 
seeds are ripe, they fall out of the husks, and 
vegetate quickly after, without any covering of 
earth. The plants are of the finest green co- 
lour, and retain their verdure during the winter. 



FESTUCA. 



FESTUCA. 



This circumstance seems to have led to the 
supposition that it was a biennial grass. The 
seeds being numerous, the young plants form 
a most beautiful dark green turf, surpassing, 
in this respect, every other grass. But this 
property declines with the spring, when the 
growth of other grasses becomes general; and 
before the time of flowering it is invariably 
attacked with the rust, which renders its pro- 
duce of small value, even were it afforded in 
a quantity sufficient to induce its cultivation. 
It flowers in the first week of July, and the seed 
is ripe about the last day of that month. Birds 
appear to be very fond of the seed. 

Festuca ovina. Sheep's fescue-grass. (PI. 
6, k.) Panicle small, erect, unilateral, rather 
close; florets four or five, nearly cylindrical, 
pointed or awned, smooth at the base and at 
the edges of the inner valve ; stem from 6 to 
12 inches high, erect, slender, rather rigid, 
smooth, leafy below, square in the upper part; 
leaves very numerous, composing dense tufts, 
folded, bristle-shaped; stipulce very short and 
obtuse; root fibrous, perennial. The awns ap- 
pear to be an uncertain character in this grass, 
as it is frequently awnless, and there are varie- 
ties of it having awns. All the varieties, how- 
ever, may be distinguished at first sight from 
the F. duriuscula, glauca, rubra, &c., to which it 
is nearest allied, by the compact though simple 
appearance of the panicle, which more dis- 
tinctly faces one way. 

Linnseus affirms that sheep have no relish 
for hills and heaths that are destitute of this 
grass. Emelin, in his Flora Siberica, also in- 
forms us that the Tartars select places for pas- 
turage during the summer where this grass is 
in the greatest plenty, because it affords a most 
wholesome food for all sorts of cattle, but chiefly 
sheep. Dr. Anderson, in his Jlgricultural Essays, 
affirms that it is capable of affording an im- 
mense quantity of hay. Mr. Curtis, however, 
in his Practical Observations on British Grasses, 
very justly combats this opinion, and asserts 
that it is more fitted for forming grass-plats; 
but even for this purpose it will only succeed 
on soils which are nearly as dry and light as 
that on which it is spontaneously produced. 
From trials which have been made, the sheep's 
fescue does not appear to possess the nutritive 
powers usually ascribed to it. It has, however, 
the advantage of a fine and succulent foliage, 
and may, on that account, be better adapted 
to the masticating organs of sheep than the 
larger grasses, whose nutritive powers are 
greater. Hence it may be of some value as a 
pasture for sheep in situations where it grows 
naturally. In England it flowers in the third 
week of June, and ripens the seed about the 
last day of July. 

Festuca ovina hordeiformis. Long-awned 
sheep's fescue-grass. (PI. 6, t.) Panicle com- 
pact; branches subdivided, upright. Spikelets 
crowded, 6-IO-flowered. Root-leaves thread- 
shaped, stem-leaves very long. Root fibrous, 
perennial. This grass is much superior to the 
F. ovina, of which it is considered a variety. It 
flowers earlier than any of the other fescues, 
and appears to possess sufficient merit to en- 
title it to a place in the composition of the best 
pastures, particularly as a substitute for the F. 



dwMscula, on soils of a drier or sandy nature. 
Its nutritive qualities are nearly the same as 
those of the F. duriuscula, but it is superior to 
that species, and to most others, in the produce 
of early herbage in the spring; and the herb- 
age is very fine, tender, and succulent. The 
culms are well adapted for the manufacture 
of the finest straw plait, being very distant in 
the joints, and of an equal thickness through 
out. In England this grass flowers in the last 
week of May, and the seed is ripe in June. 

Fcstnca pinnata. Spiked heath fescue-grass. 
This grass grows chiefly in dry, hilly wood- 
lands, particularly where the soil is calcareous. 
It cannot as yet be considered in any other light 
than a noxious weed; for, though the weight 
of the produce is considerable, it is neither 
early, nor nutritive, nor relished by cattle. 
This, and the F. sylvatica, which is also an in- 
habitant of woods where the soil is silicious, 
may be considered the least useful of the Bri- 
tish grasses. It flowers about the third week 
of July, and ripens the seed late in August 

Festuca pratcnsis. {PI. 5, d,d.) The meadow 
or fertile fescue-grass. Panicle nearly up- 
right, branched, spreading, turned to one side; 
spikelets linear, compressed; florets numerous, 
cylindrical, obscurely ribbed; nectary four- 
cleft; root fibrous, perennial. 

Dr. Withering makes this grass a variety of 
the F. elatior; but it is more justly made a dis- 
tinct species by Sir J. E. Smith. It differs from 
the F. elatior in being only half as high, the 
leaves only half as broad, and the panicle 
shorter, and containing only half the number 
of flowers. The panicle is but once branched, 
droops but slightly, and leans to one side when 
in flower, and the flowers grow all one way. 
In the elatior the panicle branches both ways, 
it droops much at first, and the flowers grow 
more loosely; the spikelets are rounder, ovate, 
and pointed, while in the pratensis they are 
somewhat linear, flat, and obtuse. 

The F. pratcnsis is eaten by horses, cattle, 
and sheep, which are all very partial to it. In 
point of early produce in the spring, this grass 
stands next to the meadow fox-tail (jllopecurus 
pratensis), and is superior in this respect to the 
cock's-foot. 

The meadow fescue constitutes a very con- 
siderable portion of the herbage of all rich 
natural pastures and irrigated meadows; it 
makes excellent hay, and though a large plant, 
yet the herbage is succulent and tender, and 
much relished by cattle, as it does not form 
rank tufts like the larger grasses. Although 
essential for permanent pasture, yet this grass 
is not by itself very well adapted for the alter- 
nate husbandry, but should be combined with 
cock's-foot, rye-grass, and rough-stalked mea- 
dow-grass. The F. pratensis is not so abun- 
dant in the deep alluvial soils of Lincoln as in 
the clay districts. In the vale of Aylesbury it 
constitutes a considerable portion of the must 
valuable and fattening pastures of that rich 
grazing district. Mr. Taunton's experience of 
this grass, grown on a stiff, clayey soil, proved 
that a copious crop of seed-stalks may be ob- 
tained the second year from sowing. In Eng- 
land It flowers in June, and ripens the c-eeA 
late in July or early in the following month. 

47: 



FESTUCA. 



FEVERFEW. 



Fcstuca rubra. Creeping or purple fescue- 
grass. There are two varieties of this species ; 
one with narrow bristle-shaped root-leaves, and 
the other with broader leaves. It has much 
affinity to the F. duriusmla, from which it is 
however distinguished by the leaves, which are 
broader and longer, and the branches of the 
panicle are also longer. 

The creeping fescue has no sufficient merit 
over those species it resembles in habit to 
compensate for the impoverishing effects of its 
roots to the soil. 

Fcstitca sylvatica. Slender wood fescue-grass, 
or the wood brome-grass of some botanists. 
The general appearance of this grass promises 
but little to reward the labours of the experi- 
mentalist. 

Fesluca nniglumis. Single -husked fescue- 
grass, found on the sandy sea-coast, chiefly of 
Sussex; it possesses no agricultural merits, 
and Sinclair does not even notice it. 

Fcstuca vivipara. Viviparous fescue-grass. 
The roots, leaves, and general habit nearly 
agree with the F. ovina, of which most botanists 
have esteemed this a variety. This grass forms 
a curious exception to the general law of na- 
ture in the propagation of plants by their seed. 
It has every part of a flower, except the two 
most essential ones, for its propagation, namely 
stamens and pistils. Yet from this imperfect 
flower it produces perfect plants. The rudi- 
ment of the future plant originates in the upper 
floret of each spikelet, and in its first stage ap- 
pears like a minute globule of water, scarcely 
visible to the naked eye ; but after the spike is 
developed, it gradually assumes an oblong 
figure, becomes pointed, and at last puts forth a 
single leaf, after the manner of perfect seed of 
. grasses ; other leaves succeed to this, till the 
weight of these (now a perfect plant of grass, 
except the root) forces it to fall from the spike 
to the ground, or bends down the spike, where 
it soon strikes root. This grass continues vi- 
viparous on all soils. Many other grasses are vi- 
viparous, as Ahpccurus pratensis, Cynosurns a-is- 
tatus, Poa alpina, Phlnnn pratoisCj Anthoxanthum 
odor at urn, &c.; but in these the seed is first 
perfected, and merely vegetates in the husk 
from accidental circumstances, such as grow- 
ing in shaded places, and from long continu- 
ance of moist warm weather. 

This grass, which is natural to alpine situa- 
tions, can only be propagated by parting the 
roots, or by planting the young plants formed 
in the ear. But from the trials that have been 
made of it, it appears to have no excellence 
that can recommend it to the notice of the 
agriculturist. 

The species found in the United States, are, 
1. F. teneUa, little, or slender fescue, frequent 
on dry sterile banks, and the borders of woods, 
a slender, wirv bule plant of little or no value 
to the farruer, and generally confined to poor 
soils. 2. F. clatior, or Fall fescue, a perennial, 
found frequently in swampy meadows and low 
grounds, flowering like the former in June and 
July. According to Dr. Darlington, this species, 
which he supposes to come from Europe, is a 
larger plant than the slender fescue, to which 
it is nearly allied, but not so valuable. 3. 
Meadow fescue, a much more valuable grass, 
472 



according to Dr. Darlington, than the F, elatior, 
to which it is so closely allied that it may be 
doubted whether it is more than a variety. It, 
is a naturalized foreigner that has found its^ 
way into all the best meadows and pastures of \| 
the Middle and many other States of the Union.] 
4. Nodding fescue {F. nutans) found in moistJI 
woodlands. It is not a grass of much value,/! 
being rather solitary in its habits, and chiefly* 
confined to woodlands. Eight or nine addi«^ 
tional species of fescue have been described in 
the United States. (See Darlington's Flor. Ces- 
trica ; Nuttall's Genera.) 

FETLOCK. In horsemanship, the part of 
the leg where the tuft of hair grows behind 
the pastern joint of horses : those of low size 
have scarcely any tuft. In working horses, 
which have them large with much hair, care 
should be taken to keep them clean, in order 
to prevent the grease. The fetlock-joint is a 
very complicated one, and from the stress 
which is laid on it, and its being the principal 
seat of motion below the knee, it is particularly 
subject to injury. An affection of this part 
should be well fomented and immediately 
blistered. (The Horse, p. 252; Claier's Far. 
p. 2.58.) 

FETTER. A term applied to the chain used 
for confining the legs of animals. 

FEVERFEW (Pyrethrum ,■ from pyr, fire, 
the roots being hot to the taste). Of this in- 
teresting European genus of plants, the Matri- 
caria of Linnaeus, three species only are in- 
digenous to England. 

1. The common feverfew (P. parthenium), 
a biennial which grows in waste grounds, 
hedges, and walls, flowering in June or July. 
Root tapering, small, and white; stem erect, 
branched, leafy, round, many flowered, about 
two feet high; leaves stalked, of a hoary 
green, pinnatifid. Flowers numerous, like 
daisies, white or )'ellowish, in a corymbose 
panicle, sometimes compound, on long naked 
stalks, erect, about half an inch broad. The 
whole plant has a strong disagreeable smell, 
a bitter taste, and yields a volatile oil by dis- 
tillation. It was formerly reckoned tonic, 
stimulating, and anti-hysterical, and the oil 
is still regarded as such. It contains much 
tannic acid; and in Germany it has been 
usefully employed in tanning and currying 
leather. 

2. The corn feverfew, or scentless May 
weed (P. inodorum), is very common in culti- 
vated fields, and by waysides, on gravelly soils. 
Root tapering, rather large, annual, flowering 
in August or September. Herb nearly desti- 
tute of the peculiar agreeable or disagreeable 
odours of its tribe. Stem branched, spreading, 
leafy, angiilar, smooth. Leaves sessile, pin- 
nate. Flowers as in the last. The seeds 
crowned with a membrane, the best diagnostic 
character of the species. 

3. The sea feverfew {P. nun-it inum), a peren- 
nial, flowering in July or August, is found on 
the sea coast in sandy or stony ground. The 
thick, woody, long-enduring root runs deep 
into the ground, producing a number of hollow 
stems, spreading circularly on the ground, of- 
ten tinged with purple. Leaves crowded, ses- 
sile, doubly pinnate, of a dark shining green* 



FIAR. 



PIG. 



crown of the seeds lobed ; stem diffuse. Flow- 
ers not quite so broad as those of P. modorum. 
The whole herb is slightly aromatic. 

The common wild chamomile {Matricaria 
chamomilla, PI. 10, iv, iv), was formerly classed 
as a feverfew. The greenhouse kinds of 
feverfew grow in any rich light soil, and 
young cuttings root readily when planted under 
a glass. Any common soil suits the hardy 
kinds, which are increased by divisions or 
seeds. It possesses the properties of the real 
chamomile in a marked degree, and might be 
substituted for it as a medicinal agent. (Eng. 
Flor. vol. iii. p. 451.) 

FIAR. A word of Gothic origin, applied, in 
the northern parts of Great Britain, to certain 
averaged returns of the prices of grain for the 
current year in the different counties, which 
are fixed by the sheriffs respectively, with the 
assistance of juries, in the month of February. 
When the jury has been called, evidence of 
the prices of the different grains raised in the 
county must be laid before them : and the 
averages struck by the jury and sanctioned 
by the judge are termed fiars of the year in 
which they are struck, and regulate the prices 
of all grain stipulated to be sold at the fiar 
prices. These fiars also regulate (where 
no price has been otherwise agreed upon) 
the contract price upon delivery for grain 
grown in the county. Having the prices of 
grain, &c., ascertained in each county has 
greatly facilitated the introduction into Scot- 
land of the practice of letting land for corn 
rents, convertible at the prices of the day. 
In England, where there are no such au- 
thentic local returns, there is great difficulty in 
converting corn rents into money rents, as 
reference can only be made to the prices of 
some particular market, which would be too 
limited a criterion, or to the kingdom at large, 
which, on the other hand, would be too exten- 
sive. (Bell's Law Diet.) 

FIELD (Sax. pels; Germ. /eW,- Dutch. wW). 
A portion of land enclosed by a fence, or ren- 
dered distinct by some line of separation, and 
set apart either for tillage or pasture. In for- 
mer times, and until within the last two cen- 
turies, almost all the land cultivated with the 
plough throughout Europe was unenclosed ; 
and the term "field" was then applied, in Bri- 
tain at least, to the lands under culture by the 
plough. Subsequently, when farmers enclosed 
and subdivided a portion of the lands near the 
farm-yard, these portions were called fields, 
and the more distant portion which remained 
open was called open field, or common field, 
while grass lands unenclosed were called 
commons. In the present improved state of 
agriculture, every farm is divided into fields, 
either simply by lines of demarcation, which 
are sufficient when no animals are to be grazed 
on the farm, or by lines of separation which 
will act as fences, such as walls, hedges, 
ditches, &c., where cattle are to be grazed. 
Each field on a farm is always known by a 
particular distinguishing name. Without some 
regular fixed division of arable lands, it would 
be next to impossible to conduct a rotation or 
succession of crops. It is interesting to ob- 
serve that, as agriculture in a rude state had 
60 



no fences, so this is also beginning to be the 
case in agriculture in its most refined form ; 
because it is found much more advantageous, 
both for the production of butcher's meat and 
manure, to consume the grass and herbage 
grown on farm-lands in farm-yards, with the 
single exception of that portion w-hich is eaten 
by sheep ; and these are now often merely con- 
fined to successive portions of grass and other 
green crop lands by light netting or hurdles, 
scarcely visible at a short distance. (See 
Folding. By thus getting rid, to a moi'e con- 
siderable extent, of fences of every description, 
from a tenth to a fifth will be added to the con- 
tents of the greater number of corn-farms ; and 
a very considerable first cost and annual ex- 
pense will be saved in planting hedges or 
building walls, and in keeping them in repair 
afterwards. (Brande^s Did. of Science, Sfc.) 

FIELDVOLE (Jrvicola agrcstis). A name 
of the short-tailed field mouse or meadow 
mouse; a species which subsists exclusively 
on vegetable productions ; and being, like the 
rest of the rat tribe, extremely prolific, multi- 
plies occasionally to such a degree, even in 
England, as to become the most injurious of 
wild quadrupeds. "After having followed the 
labours of the reaper, and taken their share of 
the harvest," the fieldvoles, says Mr. Bell, "at- 
tack the newly-sown fields, burrowing beneath 
the surface, and robbing the husbandman of 
his next year's crop, and at length, retreating 
to the woods and plantations, commit such 
devastations on the young trees as would 
scarcely be credible, were not the evidence 
too certain to be doubled. In the years 1813 
and 1814, these ravages were so great in the 
New Forest and the Forest of Dean, as tc 
create considerable alarm, lest the whole of 
the young trees in those extensive wood* 
should be destroyed by them." A timely anc 
assiduous attention to restraining the increase 
of this pernicious species, by the aid of terriers 
ferrets, and traps, is imperative on those who 
have the charge of young plantations ; but 
when the numbers of the fieldvole have sur 
passed the usual bounds, then it is recom- 
mended to dig holes about a foot in depth, and 
the same in diameter, taking care to make 
them much wider at the bottom than at the 
top, so that the animal once in canrot easily 
get out again. In holes of this kind, Mr. Jesse 
states that at least thirty thousand fieldvoles 
were caught in the course of three or foui 
months in Dean Forest plantations ; that num 
ber having been counted out and paid for by 
the proper officers of the forest. (Brande's Diet, 
of Science.) 

FIG (Fims). The genus to which the com- 
mon fig tree belongs is of considerable extent; 
and its species are among the most noble ob- 
jects belonging to the vegetable kingdom. In 
tropical countries the trees which yield caout- 
chouc (India rubber) of the finest quality be- 
long to this species, particularly F. dastica. 
The celebrated ban-yan tree (F. religtjsa) of '" 
India is a kind of fig tree. It is remarkable 
that the common fig tree (F. carica), although 
it produces so agreeable a fruit, is in some 
measure poisonous, particularly the milky 
juice which exudes from the leaves and the 
2 a 2 473 



FIGWORT. 



FINGER GRASS. 



branches when wounded, and which is acrid to Kent many hundred acres are planted with fil. 
the taste. The fruit of the fig tree is of a dif- 1 berts, for which the county is celebrated, and 
ferent nature from the orange, apple, and other \ whence the London market is principally sup- 



fleshy seed vessels ; being a hollow receptacle, 
containing a multitude of minute flowers ; the 
ripe fruit of which is the seed, as it is wrongly 
called, that is imbedded in the pulp. The fig 
is a native of Asia and Barbary, and also in- 
habits the south of Europe ; according to the 
Hortus Kcwcnsis, it was first planted in this 
country in 1548. The varieties in fig coun- 
tries are almost as numerous as those of the 
grape. Those held most in esteem in England 
are the brown chestnut-coloured Ischia, the 
black Genoa fig, the small white early fig, the 
large white Genoa fig, the black Ischia, brown 
and black small Italian figs, the Malta fig, the 
Murrey or brown Naples fig, the green Ischia, 
the Madonna, the Brunswick or Hanover fig, 
the common blue or purple fig, the long brown 
Naples fig, the small brown Ischia fig, the yel- 
low Ischia fig, and the Gentile fig. According 
to Forsyth, the figs proper for a small garden 
are the large white Genoa, the early white, the 
Murrey fig, the small brown Ischia, and the 
black Ischia. Figs may be propagated from 
seed, cuttings, layer^, suckers, roots, and by in- 
grafting; the most generally approved method 
is by layers or cuttings, which come into bear- 
ing the first or second year. Standard fig trees 
require protection during winter, and should 
be covered with matting, reed, pease-haulm, 
straw, or any other light covering. 

The only orchards of standard fig trees in 
England are at Tarring and Sompton, near 
Worthing : the produce is great, and the figs 
of a very superior quality. The fig has been 
analyzed by Bley, and found to contain the fol- 
lowing substances, 62-5 of sugar, 0-9 fatty mat- 
ter, 0-4 extractive with chloride of calcium, 5-2 
gum with phosphoric acid, 150-0 woody fibre 
and seeds (achenia). Figs are nutritive and 
laxative. The oldest cataplasm on record was 
composed of figs. In the illness of Hezekiah, 
Isaiah said, " Take a lump of figs ; and they 
took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered." 
(2 Kings, chap. xx. ; Loudon's Ency. of Gar d.; 
Brando's Diet, of Science.) The cultivation of 
the fig has been too much neglected in the 
United States. In the Middle and more North- 
ern States they require protection in winter. 
With a good soil and plenty of water in the 
summer the yield of this wholesome fruit is 
great. 

FIGWORT (Scrophularia). There are, in 
England, four kinds of indigenous figwort, all 
perennial; the species found in the United 
States is called S. Marylandica, Maryland S. or 
Carpenter's Square: it is perennial, frequent in 
fence rows, woodlands, &c. The root bruised 
into the form of a poultice, is a popular appli- 
cation to boils and other inflammatory gather- 
ings. One or two varieties of this plant are 
also met with. (Fhr. Ccstrica.) 

FILBERT, or FILBERD (Corylus avellana, 
so named from Abella or Avella, a town of 
Campania, where the best were cultivated. 
Pliny, b. xv. c. 22). In England the best known 
varieties of the filbert are the white, the red, 



plied. When quite ripe, filberts will keep for 
several years in a dry room ; and if the air is 
excluded, or the nuts placed in an air-light jar, 
they will keep good and retain their flavour for 
an indefinite period. 

In a late number of that excellent Journal, 
the Boston Magazine of Horticulture, &c., there 
is a paper by Mr. Downing, of Newburgh, N. 
Y., on the cultivation of this nut. From the 
great quantities annually imported, there can 
be little doubt a ready market would be found 
for the product of a filbert garden or orchard, 
and the ease and certainty with which they 
may be grown, should recommend them to fa- 
vour. 

Mr. Downing recommends a soil naturally 
dry rather than moist, but a dry gravelly loam 
or sandy loam is preferable. They will suc- 
ceed, however, in any good soil. The kinds 
preferred by Mr. Downing for cultivation in 
this country, are the Cosford, Frizzled, and 
Northampton prolific. There are other varie- 
ties, but these have been well tested, and will 
abundantly repay the grower. The cultivation 
of such nuts is a great object in some parts of 
England, and the average crop is considered 
about 800 lbs. per acre, though at times, when 
the soil and season is favourable, more than 
three times that quantity have been gathered. 

There are two species of the filbert found in 
the United States. One of these (the Corylus 
Americana) is very commonly found in the 
Middle States, growing wild along the borders 
of thickets, fence rows, &c., flowering in March 
and April. It grows to the height of 4 to 6 
feet, and the nuts, which it bears very abun- 
dantly, are pleasantly flavoured, though con- 
siderably smaller than the European hazelnuts. 
FILLER, or THILLER. A term provincially 
applied to the horse which is fastened immedi- 
ately to the cart, and which supports the shafts. 
It is most commonly written thiller. 

FILLY. A young mare, or female of the 
horse kind. 

FILMY-FERN, TUNBRIDGE (Hymen ophyU 
lum Tunbridgense ; from hymen, a membrane, 
and phyllon, a leaf; alluding to the leaves). 
The genus to which this species belongs ranks 
among the most elegant of the ferns ; it is a 
native of wet mossy rocks or trunks of trees, 
most plentiful in tropical countries. This spe- 
cies is the only one of European growth, and 
flourishes amongst moss in watery shady 
places, in the rocky or mountainous parts of 
Great Britain, and grows in most parts of Eu- 
rope from Norway to Italy. 

FIN. A term applied to the sharp or cut- 
ting plate, fixed upon a sock or coulter of a 
plough. It is also a provincial name for the 
troublesome weed called Rest-harrow. 

FINCHED, or FINCHBACKED. A term 
signifying streaked with white in cattle. 

FINGER GRASS, COCK'S-FOOT (Digitaria 
sanguinalis, from digitus, a finger ; the head is 
divided so as fancifully to resemble fingers). 
PI. 7,/. This must not be confounded with 



and the frizzled. The white is the kind most \ the Dactylis glomerata, cock's-foot or orchard 
commonly grown. In the neighbourhood of | grass. 
474 



FINGERS AND TOES. 



FIRES. 



It is an uninteresting native wild grass, iound | 
in sandy cultivated fields, in England, but not 
common ; like all other plants it is variable in 
its places of growth. Leaves broad, pointed, 
striated, wavy at the edges, besprinkled, like 
their long iwelling sheaths, with little warts, 
many of which bear bristly hairs. Flowers in 
pairs, dark purplish, erect. 

FINGERS AND TOES, The common name 
for a disease in turnips. See Anbury. 

FIORIN GRASS. A name under which a 
variety of the longer leaved creeping bent 
(_jlgrostis vulgaris, or stolonifera, var. latifolia) 
was introduced about 27 years ago by Dr. 
Richardson, of Clonfeale, in the county of Ty- 
rone, Ireland. (PI. 5, n.) That gentleman la- 
boured with great zeal, by his writings and 
practice on a large scale, to prove the superi- 
ority of this grass over every other for meadow 
purposes. One of his modes of propagating 
florin was to plant the stoles of the grass, 
which are as vivacious as those of couch grass, 
on fallow ground, and thus create a meadow ; 
but his favourite and most expeditious system 
was to encourage its spontaneous growth on 
alluvial and flat peaty ground. Unquestiona- 
bly Dr. Richardson did exhibit extraordinary 
crops of florin on the level surface of denuded 
and cut-out bog land of little value, and for 
several years mowed enormous crops. Fiorin, 
being one of the indigenous grasses of Ireland, 
especially on peaty soil, is seen abundantly on 
the black shallow bogs which have been 
drained in any degree, and particularly on the 
margins of pools and ditches. Cows relish it 
much if it be not soured by stagnant water, and 
yield milk abundantly when fed upon it. 
However, though it has produced from six to 
ten tons per acre when top dressed and pre- 
served from the poaching of cattle, the attempt 
to keep any land under the occupation of this 
grass for meadows, to the exclusion of all 
others, has been totally abandoned. Two great 
objections to florin are, the difficulties of mow- 
ing it, as it lies flat and entangled, and of 
saving it at the very late season when it is ripe, 
for the scythe. Some writers very erroneously 
describe the jlgrostis albn as florin ; and add, 
"it sometimes passes under the name of black 
couch grass." I am surprised that any person 
of experience should mistake florin for black 
couch grass (though the Woburn reports make 
a similar remark), to which it scarcely bears 
any resemblance, and from which in some re- 
spects it is essentially different. Fiorin is a 
soft silky-like grass, with a very narrow or 
linear leaf, and, although rough on both sides, 
yet not creeping, throwing out roots with its 
joints under the surface : it is very easily 
pulled out, and has not those knotted and viva- 
cious roots which characterize black couch. 
The varieties may sometimes be mistaken for 
one another, but the different species have al- 
ways some broad distinguishing marks of dif- 
ference. As it is of great importance to the 
farmer to be able to distinguish florin from the 
other species of bent grass, which are unpro- 
fitable and pernicious weeds, I will here point 
out a few distinguishing characteristics. In 
fiorin the body of the seed is covered with the 
husks of the blossom, which do not open : it is 



cylindrical, but tapers to a point at each end. 
The seed of the clayey couch grass {A. alba) 
is very slender and smooth, one half the size 
only of the florin, and more slender than the 
Jl. xmlgaris. The seed of the .4. canina is fur- 
nished with a jointed awn of a brown colour, 
which readily distinguishes it from the other 
species. There is an awnless variety of the 
A. canina which is distinguished by being 
shorter and more plump than the florin of the 
clay couch bent. The seed oi \.\\e A. fasicularis 
is not one-third of the size of that of the fiorin, 
more rounded at the bottom, and of a light 
straw colour. The A, palustris has seed about 
one-flfth shorter than that of the florin, of a 
lighter brown colour, and more plump and 
rounded. The variety of florin called arcstata 
has an awn which distinguishes it at once from 
the seed of the more valuable variety. The 
distinguishing characters of the different spe- 
cies of agrostis are well set forth in the late 
Mr. G. Sinclair's valuable work on grasses ; but 
it would rather tend to perplex than inform 
were I to attempt any further notice, which 
must necessarily be a mere abridgment. See 
AcHosTis. (Hort. Gram. Wob.) 

FIRE-BLAST. A term of very doubtful 
meaning, like the word blight, but generally 
implying an accident to which hops are very 
liable: it usually occurs in the month of July, 
and sometimes scorches up whole plantations 
from one end of the ground to the other, when 
a hot gleam of sunshine has come immediately 
after a shower of rain ; while at others it only 
afliects them partially, or in a particular por- 
tion of the plant. When the lower leaves 
of hops aru shrivelled up and unhealthy, they 
are said to be fire-blasted. This is stated to 
arise from the want of sufficient nourishment 
in the root, the whole supply of the sap juice 
being required to complete the growth of the 
hops on the top of the pole, but little can re- 
turn to the lower leaves : this is particularly 
observable when the hops are ripening, on 
those hills which have too long a pole put to 
them. {Brit. Husb. vol. ii. p. 354 ; The Hop 
Farmer, p. 89.) 

In the United States, the term fire-blast is 
generally used to designate that destruction so 
often witnessed in the branches of the apple, 
and especially the pear tree. For the discovery 
of the cause and remedy for this blast or 
blight, agricultural and horticultural societies 
have offered the highest premiums, which as 
yet have never been awarded. 

FIRES. Sax. pyn. In England, the legisla- 
ture has wisely afforded very considerable fa- 
cilities to the insurance of farming stock. 
"The Farmer's Insurance Institution" insures 
it at Is. Gt/. per cent., iw7/(0Jt/ the average clause; 
thus easily repaired are the ravages of the in- 
cendiary, of accidental fires, and lightning. 

Causes of Fire. Mr. J. Murray has recently 
published a letter in a Liverpool paper on the 
frequency, causes, and prevention of fire, which 
contains many facts well worthyof attentive con- 
sideration. Among other observations, he says : 

" There is far too little attention paid to the 
locomotive engine on our railroads. The 
ignited coals that fall below are often blown to 
considerable distances, carried into the adjoiu- 

475 



FIRES. 

tng fields, and may, in contact with farming 
stock, prove a serious evil ; and I have wit- 
nessed brushwood and tufts of grass consumed 
by this means. A green taper, coloured as it 
is by means of oxide of copper, when blown 
out, acts on an aphlogistic principle, and may 
continue to the end of the coil in an ignited 
Ihough flameless state, and, in contact with 
combustible materials, may prove seriously 
destructive. It has set a mahogany table on 
fire — providentially discovered in time. Damp 
rags, en masse, may spontaneously take fire, 
and have consumed the premises. Linseed 
and other oils, but especially that of linseed, 
have been the fruitful sources of conflagration 
in cotton factories and the warehouses of the 
merchants. Nets dipped in oil, and cast over 
the rafters in an outer shed, set them on fire; 
and a bale of cotton wool burst into a flame 
from linseed oil being poured upon it. Even 
animal matters, such as woollen, under such 
circumstances, come within the precincts of 
danger, I find that strong red fuming nitrous 
acid will set fire to straw ; and an accident of 
this kind once occurred to myself. The vapour 
of sulphuric ether, instead of being volatile, 
and ascending, as is generally supposed, falls 
to the ground like water ; and accidents in the 
laboratory and shop of the druggist, from igno- 
rance of this fact, are by no means unfrequent. 
I am personally acquainted with three distinct 
cases, wherein the premises were set on fire 
originating in this source. Specks or bull's 
eyes in window glass may, on the principle of 
burning lens, ignite inflammable substances 
brought within the limits of their focus; hence 
the curtains used in some factories may be 
easily ignited: thus, too, a water-bottle left in 
a window may in sunshine be the means of 
setting premises on fire, especially in a house 
shut up during the absence of the family ; and 
I have seen a silk curtain consumed to tinder 
by the concentrated rays of the sun, in passing 
through the show-bottle in the druggist's win- 
dow. Spirits of turpentine will inflame if 
poured out in the hot sunbeam ; and I am in- 
formed by the distillers of tar and turpentine 
that the head of the still cannot be safely re- 
moved for 30 hours after the fire has been ex- 
tinguished, as an explosion might be otherwise 
anticipated. Lucifers, or Congreve matches, 
are one of the fruitful sources of fires. Those 
that are called Dutch, containing phosphorus, 
and having a very foetid phosphoric smell, are 
exceedingly dangerous : they may ignite spon- 
taneously at the temperature of summer heat; 
and it may now suffice to say that a recent 
conflagration has been traced to this cause. 
The cigar and the pipe are pre-eminent sources 
of modern conflagration ; and I have no doubt 
that of the seat of the Marquis of Londonderry, 
and the late one of York Minster, are entirely 
attributable to the pipe or cigar used by the 
Avorkmen engaged in repairs. It is r.ot gene- 
rally known that tobacco contains nitre, and 
that, like "touch-wood," it may continue ignited 
for hours Fires occurring from this cause 
are, i apprehena, too notorious to need specific 
detail. It is clear that the end of a cigar drop- 
ped among wood shavings might be fanned 
into a flame by a current of air; and tossed 
4V6 



FIR TREE. 

from the top of the coach into an adjoining field, 
and carried by the breeze into a farmer's stack- 
yard, hay-ricks and wheat stacks may even 
burst into a flame. I believe many a cigar 
smoker is an unintentional incendiary." 

Fires in farm yards, also, may originaie from 
quid lime left in a cart under a shed, and 
moist '> re getting to it. Heat suflicient to cause 
combi-stion* is developed. The spontaneous 
com) '.stion of haystacks from the dampness 
ofthi hay, is a danger to which the negligent 
farmer is often exposed. In our present state 
of chemical knowledge it is idle to attempt to 
follow this phenomenon through its course, or 
explain the reasons for the heat produced in 
fermentation. As water must be present in 
fermentation, it is probable that it is decom- 
posed, and it is commonly said that the flame 
produced is the result of intense chemical 
action ; but, as Dr. Thomson remarks (System 
of Cheni. vol. iv. p. 364), "All the phenomena 
of fermentation lay for many years concealed 
in complete darkness, and no chemist was 
bold enough to hazard an attempt even to ex- 
plain them. They were employed, however, 
and without hesitation too, in the explanation 
of other phenomena; as if giving to one pro- 
cess the name of another of which we are 
equally ignorant, could, in reality, add any 
thing to our knowledge." 

FIRE-WEED (Hieracwm-leaved Senecio). An 
American plant with an annual root, growing 
in moist grounds, and remarkable for its preva- 
lence in recent clearings, especially in and 
around spots where brushwood has been 
burned, from whence it derives its popular 
name. The stem grows 2, 4 or 5 feet high, 
stout, succulent and tender when young, more 1; 
or less hairy, sometimesnearly smooth. Flowers ■! 
whitish. (Flor. Ccslrica.) See Alkali. 

FIRING. In farriery, an operation perform 
ed on different parts of the horse, but which is 
growing into disuse. It is principally resorted 
to in bad cases of sprains. In firing about the 
sinews and nervous parts, great care should 
be taken not to go too deep, for if the fire once 
touches the sinew the horse will go lame for 
life. Firing is sometimes resorted to in cattle, 
in order to remove bony tumours about the 
region of the eye, which incommode or obstruct 
the vision. In general, this operation is per- 
formed in a manner calculated to excite great 
pain to the horse. When the iron is white hot, 
and is rapidly applied, the life of the part is 
instantly extinguished, and all sensation being 
destroyed, no pain, except when the iron is ap- 
proaching the part, is experienced; but much 
pain follows the application of an imperfectly 
heated iron. 

FIRKIN. A measure of capacity in Eng- 
land, being the fourth part of a barrel, or con- 
taining 9 ale gallons, or 7^ imperial gallons 
that is, 2538 cubic inches. 

FIR, SCOTCH. See Pines. 

FIR TREE (Lat. Mies; Sax. runh; Welsh, | 
fyrr ; fir-wood). " The fir, the pine, and the 
larch," says Mr. Baxter, " constitute a perfectly 
natural genus or family, and, next t) the oak, 
are the most valuable of our timber trees ; but, 
independently of their value in this respect, 
their beautiful foliage and magnificent appear 



FIR TREE 



FIR TREE. 



ance have at all times rendered them objects 
of admiration and attention. They constitute 
the greater part of the natural order Conifera. 
The term fir is often indiscriminately applied 
both to the fir and the pine, or Jlbies and Pinus, 
and hence we frequently hear the Scotch pine 
improperly called the Scotch fir, by those who 
are unacquainted with botanical nomenclature. 
The most obvious and ready character of dis- 
tinction between the different genera Jlbics and 
Pimis is to be found in the natural arrangement 
of the leaves. The firs (Jlbies), have the leaves 
solitary, or issuing from one scale or sheath on 
the bark of the branches, over which they are 
scattered." The catkins of male flowers are 
also solitary, not racemose; the scales of the 
cone are imbricated, and thin at the apex, and 
are all turned to one side. They are further 
distinguished from the pine by their more py- 
ramidal form. The spruces have also the 
leaves growing singly round the branches, and 
all spreading equally. 

The larches have the leaves growing in clus- 
ters, which are deciduous. 

The cedars and pines have from two to five 
leaves issuing from one sheath at their base, 
growing also in little bundles or tufts, but they 
are evergreen. Of these four natural tribes, 
into which the firs resolve themselves, the 
silver fir may be taken as the representative of 
the first, the Norway spruce of the second, the 
Larch of the third, and the Cedar of Lebanon of 
the fourth. As all the others are noticed under 
their separate heads, we have only to confine 
our attention in this place to the firs. One pro- 
perty is common to all the species of this 
genus, that of affording resinoHs matter, either 
from the wood, bark, or cones. 

The silver fir {A.picea, or pectinata) is grown 
in England for ornament generally. The 
name of silver fir is derived from the colour of 
its leaves on the under side, which are shorter, 
broader, and set much thicker on the spray 
than those of other firs and pines, and have a 
beautiful silvery appearance when the under 
side is viewed, or when the wind turns the 
branches from the eye ; whilst the upper sur- 
face is of the brightest and handsomest green 
of all the species of fir. It is a fine majestic 
tree, and the most beautiful, but at the same 
time the most delicate, of the fir tribe usually 
cultivated in Britain. This tree is very rapid 
in its growth, and soon attains to a great size ; 
but the timber is not so valuable as that of the 
pine and the spruce fir. It yields, however, 
Burgundy pitch (whence its name of picca) 
and Strasburgh turpentine ; and it is much 
used on the Continent both for carpentry and 
ship-building. The silver fir likes a deep soft 
soil, and a sheltered situation. From its ex- 
treme tendency to lose its leader it does not 
appear to be well suited for exposed grounds. 
Some of the finest trees in Englnnd are in the 
vale of Mitcham, between Dorking and Guild- 
ford, where the soil is nothing more than a deep 
soft sand lying on chalk. The well-known 
disease of the larch, commonly called Ameri- 
can blight (see this head), or plant lice, proves 
fatal to the silver fir. Col. Miller says he has 
cured the disease with a wash of lime-water; 
but recommends, in advanced stages of the 



disease, free and early pruning. This doctrins 
may startle many wood growers ; but the Colo- 
nel, in proof of the soundness of his opinion, 
adds, that he has adopted it successfully foi 
many years. No large branch should, how- 
ever, be removed when the tree is near matu- 
rity. The Swedes and Norwegians prune their 
trees freely, and hence the reason why they 
produce such a large quantity of sound tim- 
ber, and are so free from knots. A weak solu- 
tion of spirits of turpentine and tobacco liquor 
appears to be a useful wash for the disease. 

2. The balm of Gilead fir {A. balsamea). 
This is also a delicate ornamental tree, but it 
rarely attains to any considerable size. This 
species and the silver fir are often confounded, 
but may be distinguished thus: "the leaves of 
the silver fir are arranged nearly on opposite 
sides of the branch, comb-like. The under 
sides of the leaves have a white line running 
lengthwise on each side of the mid-rib, which 
gives them a silvery hue. The leaves of the 
balm of Gilead fir are shorter, blunter, and 
stand nearly upright in double rows, on the 
upper side of the branches ; while in the silver 
fir they are flattened and irregularly single- 
rowed." The balm of Gilead fir is so called 
because the clear transparent turpentine which 
is obtained from the wounds of this tree is 
very similar to the true balm of Gilead of the 
shops, which is the production of the Bahama- 
dcndron Gileadensc. It commonly passes under 
the name of Canadian balsam. The wood of 
this tree is of a pale yellow colour, and but 
slightly resinous ; its principal use is to split 
up into staves for fish barrels, for which the 
wood of some of the other species is much 
preferable. 

3. The Norway or spruce fir {Jl. excelsa), 
when standing singly, with its regular pyra- 
midal figure, and its long drooping branches 
reaching to the ground, forms a beautiful ob- 
ject; but it does not thrive well generally in 
exposed situations. It grows best in moist 
and springy places, and likes a deep soil. The 
spruce is readily known by its leaves of one 
uniform dull green colour, spread equally 
round the branches, and by its long pendant 
cones. All these firs may be raised from seed, 
which can be separated from the cones by a 
moderate heat before a fire, care being taken 
not to destroy the vegetative power. Or the 
separation may be facilitated by steeping the 
cones a k\v hours in warm water. The seed 
ripens in December, and the cones should be 
preserved till April, which is the proper period 
for sowing. The seeds must be only covered 
about half an inch deep. The soil be tole- 
rably rich. The seedlings must be transplanted 
the second year; for if left longer it will be 
completely spoiled. For the Scotch pine or 
fir I must refer the reader to the head Pines 
(Pinus) ; and other information on the subject 
of firs will also be found under the head Larch. 
It may, however, be well to enumerate the 
principal other firs : anything like a descrip- 
tion in this place would be needless. 

1. Firs. The Siberian silver fir (J. Sibtrica). 
The great Californian fir (A. grandis) The 
large-bracted fir (A. nobilis). The double bal- 
sam fir (j1. Frazeri). "Webb's fir (./?. Wehbiana) 

477 



FIR TREE. 



FIR TREE. 



The hemlock spruce fir (J. Canadensis). The 
deciduous silver fir (^. Brunoniana). The sa- 
cred Mexican fir (J. religiosa). The hairy fir 
(J. hirtella). The Indian silver fir (^J. Smithi- 
ono). 

2. Spruces. The oriental fir (J. orientalis). 
The white spruce fir (J. alba). The black or 
red, spruce fir (J. nigra). The Douglas fir 
(J. Doitglassii). The Menzies fir (J. Menziesii). 

3. Larch Ks' The common larch fir (J. larix). 
The red larch fir (J. mia-ocarpa). The black 
larch fir (A.pendula). 

4. Cedars. The cedar of Lebanon fir (J. 
ccdrus). The sacred Indian fir {A. deodara). 
See Cedar of Lebanox. 

Michaux enumerates 14 species of pines 
and spruces including firs, as found in differ- 
ent portions of the United States and Canada. 
His methodical arrangement of these is as 
follows : — 

Two-leaved Pines with smooth Cones. 
Red (Norway) pine, or Finns rubra. Com- 
mon in Canada and the Northern Sections of 
the United States, but not seen in Pennsylvania 
south of Wilkesbarre. It is called in the state 
of Maine Scrub-pine. This species is found 
farther northward than any other pine, being 
seen in the environs of Hudson's Bay. Yelloiv 
pine {Piims 7nilis). This species abounds in 
the Middle States. In the south it is called 
Spruce pine, and Short-leaved pine. 

Txvo-leaved Pines with thorny Cones. 
Jertey pine (Pinus Inops). This species is 
not confined to the southern portion of New 
Jersey, but is seen in Maryland, Virginia, and 
others of the Southern and Western States. 
Table mountain pine {P. pun gens). Found only 
on the Table mountain in North Carolina. 

Three-leaved Pines with smooth Cones or very small 
Thorns. 
Long-leaved pine {Pinus aufiralis). This tree 
so extremely valuable for its timber, tar, and 
other resinous products, is known in the coun- 
tries where it grows, and the places to which 
it is exported, by different names. In the 
Southern Slates, where it abounds, it is called 
Yellow pine, Pitch pine, and Brown pine. In Eng- 
land and the West Indies, Georgia pitch pine. 
Pitch pine (P. rigida), is found throughout the 
United States except the region west of the 
Alleghanies. It abounds on those mountains 
as they traverse Pennsylvania and Virginia. 
Loblolly Pine (P. Tceda). This is common in 
lower Virginia and more Southern States. 

Five-leaved Pines. 

White pine (P. strobus). One of the most in- 
teresting of American pines. It is diff"used 
over a great extent of country in the Northern 
and Eastern States, being the loftiest and most 
majestic nroduction of the American forest. 
Its wood is most valuable for building and 
other purposes. 

Spruces. 

Thest have very short leaves disposed singly 
round the branches. The American species 
are, black or double spruce (Mies nigra), common 
in the Northern States and British provinces ; 
also in the northeastern parts of Pennsylvania, 
478 



and Black Mountain of South Carolina, and 
sometimes in the White Cedar Swamps in 
New Jersey near Philadelphia and New York. 
In the northern sea-ports the spars of ships 
are mostly of black spruce. It is largely ex- 
ported to Europe. White, or single spruce (jl. 
alba). Common in the same northern regions 
of the Stales. Pond pine (P. serotina), com- 
mon to the maritime parts of the Southern 
States. 

Spruces with lateral Leaves. 

Hemlock spruce (Mies Canadensis), natural to 
the coldest regions of the United States and 
British Provinces. It is always larger and 
taller than the black spruce. American silver 
fir {Abies balsamifera), or Balm of Gilead; 
common in the state of Maine and the British 
Provinces. 

FISH (Lat. Pisces; Germ. Fische ; Du. Fis- 
chcr ; Dan. and Swed. Fisk). A term used in 
natural history to denote every variety of ani- 
mal inhabiting seas, lakes, rivers, ponds, &c. 
that cannot exist for any considerable time out 
of the water. The most natural and popular 
division of this subject is into fresh and salu 
water fish. 

According to Linnaeus, there are about 6,000 
species of fish with which naturalists are ac- 
quainted, but those yet unknown are supposed 
to be still numerous, and many species will 
probably remain forever undiscovered. Thei 
anatomy and physiology of fish offer a wide! 
field of study for the inquiring mind. Their' 
extraordinary fecundity is truly astonishing. 
Fish in general are less nourishing than other 
animal food, but are not difficult of digestion, 
when in a fresh state, to a healthy stomach. 
To a dyspeptic stomach, however, fish is apt to 
prove irritating. Except in London and a few 
sea-port towns, the consumption of fish in 
England is not great. See Breedixg Poxns. 

FISH, AS a Manure. The fish which are 
usually employed as manures in England are 
sprats, pilchards, herrings, sticklebacks, and 
whale blubber. These are very rich ferlili-1 
zers ; the fleshy or muscular portions abound-1 
ing in oil. The scales are composed of coagu 
lated albumen and phosphate of lime; their 
bones are full of oil, and the solid portion is 
composed of phosphate of lime and carbonate 
of lime, in different proportions. 

Sprats. — In the English counties of Essex, 
Kent, and Suffolk, the use of this manure is 
very general, although the practice is not of 
very long standing. The quantity applied per 
acre varies from 25 to 45 bushels, the poor 
gravelly soils requiring more than the loamy 
lands. They are spread by hand, from seed 
baskets, and on winter fallows intended for 
oats, on which, especially if the summer is 
not too dry, it produces most luxuriant crops, 
of a peculiar dark-green colour, yielding 10 or 
11 quarters per acre, and that on land of a 
very second-rate description. The effect of the 
application, however, remains only for one 
crop. They produce an equally good result if 
mixed with earth, and suffered to remain and 
dissolve, for some time, in the heap, before 
they are carted on the land. In this way they 
answer exceedingly well for turnips. They 



FISH, 



FISH. 



are nsually obtainable at the rate of from 6rf. 
to 8rf. per bushel. 

The extent to which this manure is used 
may be judged by that of the Stovv-boat fishery, 
which is solely devoted to catching these fish. 
Upon this fishery the committee of the House 
of Commons of the session of 1833 reported: 
— " This fishery, which prevails principally 
upon the Kentish, Norfolk, and Essex coasts, 
have been proved to your committee to occasion 
very extensive injury to the span and brood 
of fish. The nets used in it are of a very fine 
description, so small as not to let a pen pass 
through, and they enclose not only sprats, but 
the span and young brood of all other kinds 
of fish ; and as these nets are frequently drawn 
along the ground, and in shallow waters, during 
the breeding season, and in the winter months 
before the young fish are gone into deep wa- 
ters, an immense destruction of the spawn and 
breed of fish is the inevitable consequence; 
whilst, from the almost unlimited demand for 
this species of manure for land, and there be- 
ing a ready sale for all that can be procured, 
this branch of fishing has greatly increased; 
and there are at present from 400 to 500 boats 
engaged in Stow-boating on the Kentish coast 
only, which remain upon the fishing grounds 
frequently for a week together, not for the 
purpose of catching sprats or any other fish to 
be sold as food in the market, but until they 
have obtained full cargoes of dead fish for the 
purpose of manuring the land." 

The Farmers of Essex and Suflblk purchase 
these fish by thousands of bushels at a time, 
and carry them in wagons 10 or 15 miles into 
the inland districts. 

Pilchards are extensively employed in Corn- 
wall and Devonshire, both in the fresh and in 
the salted state. The pilchard is a small fish 
not larger than a herring ; it visits part of the 
coast of Cornwall and Devon in large shoals, 
during the months of August and September, 
and again in November or December. The 
refuse fish, which are those principally used 
by the cultivator, are usually mixed with earth, 
sea-sand, sea-weed, or some other substance, to 
prevent them from causing too rank a growth. 
The effects of these pilchards, according to 
Sir H. Davy, are apparent for several years. 
The pilchard is a very oily fish, and may be 
had in almost inexhaustible quantities. Be- 
tween 8000 and 9000 persons, at sea and on 
shore, are employed in this fishery, and about 
30,000 hogsheads are annually exported either 
to the West Indies or the Mediterranean. 

The herring. — The employment of this value- 
able fish for the purpose of manuring the 
ground is limited to those districts near the 
sea to which the shoals of herrings are regu- 
larly visiters; and even there, their use is 
confined to those seasons in which there is an 
annual glut, as occasionally happens on the 
coasts of Scotland and the eastern side of 
England. They are a very oily fish, and pro- 
duce the same rank luxuriance of growth as 
.sprats or pilchards. Arthur Young has given 
us an account of an experiment, in which some 
wheat, manured with these fish, grew so luxu- 
riantly, that it was entirely laid before the 

eriod of harvest Very numerous or accurate 



comparative experiments with this fish can 
hardly be expected, for its use must necessarily 
be confined to peculiar districts ; and when 
obtained, it is generally ploughed in with con- 
siderable expedition, or dug into earth heaps, 
which is a mode found to answer extremely 
well. And it has been found, in the case of 
spoiled red herrings, that their application is 
extremely advantageous to the hop plantations. 
{Essay on Salt, p. 101.) 

Sticklebacks. — The use of the stickleback is 
principally confined to the neighbourhood of 
the Fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridge, in 
which it breeds with great rapidity, and in 
shallow waters they are caught at certain sea- 
sons entirely as an article for manure. They 
are used in much the same proportions, either 
by themselves or mixed with earth, &c., as 
sprats, and are not more durable in their good 
effects. 

The Fat or Blubber of the Whale.— Whale 
blubber was employed by the late Lord So- 
merville, at his farm at Fairmile, in Surrey, as 
a manure, and produced the richest crops. It 
was mixed with the sandy earth, and suffered 
to dissolve in the heap. It cost at the wharf in 
London 20 shillings, and, with the expenses of 
carriage, about 2?. per ton. It answered equally 
well upon arable and pasture lands, producing 
most luxuriant crops ; and its good effects were 
visible for two or three years. Its general high 
price, however, rarely admits of its employ- 
ment by the farmer 

Whale blubber is composed principally of 
train oil and other animal matters ; but the oil 
is by far the largest portion of the blubber ; 
and to the presence of this fish oil, which does 
not appear to differ materially in composition 
from whatever fish it is obtained, must be at 
tributed the chief fertilizing value of all fish 
Train oil has been analyzed by Dr. Thomson 
He found in 100 parts {Chemistry, vol. iv. p 
433),— 

Parts. 

Carbon 6S-87 

Hydrogen ..--.. 1610 
Oxygen 1503 

100 

Spermaceti oil, according to Dr. Ure, con 
tains, in 100 parts, — 

Parts. 

Carbon ....... 78' 

Hydrogen - . - . - - . I1'8 
Oxygen 102 

100. 

Fish oils, therefore, are composed of exactl) 
the same materials that constitute almost al 
vegetable substances, differing only in the pro 
portions ; for sugar, starch, gluten, gum, &c 
&c., are all composed of these three substancei 
— carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen ; blubber, 
therefore, may be regarded as the most con- 
densed manure that it is possible to apply to a 
soil : it contains little, if any, water, and every 
portion of it is food for plants. The same re 
mark will apply to the dregs of train oil, «fcc., 
which are sometimes applied, mixed with 
earth, to the same purpose ; but it is seldom 
that these substances can be procured, in any 
quantity, at a suflUciently reasonable rate. 

479 



FISH. 



FISH. 



It is evident, from the experience of all who 
have tried blubber, that it is best used when 
previously mixed with from 10 to 20 times its 
weight of earth, and turned over once or twice 
during three or four months. In its uncombined 
state it is evidently too powerful. When mixed 
with mould, it speedily undergoes a strong fer- 
mentation, and the mass becomes of the most 
friable and fertilizing description. Train oil 
has also been employed with the most decided 
success ; it has been used united with screened 
earth, and produced the most luxuriant of 
crops. In an experiment made by Mr. Mason, 
of Chilton, which is described by Lord Spen- 
cer, in a communication furnished to the Don- 
caster Agricultural Society, 40 gallons of un- 
refined train oil, which cost 8|f/. per gallon, 
were mixed with 120 bushels of screened earth 
about a month before it was applied to one acre 
of a tenacious soil, sown with turnips ; and on 
an adjoining acre of similar land were applied 
40 bushels of bones, broken small, and mixed 
with 80 bushels of burnt earth ; the crop pro- 
duced was as follows : — 



Produce of turnipa per acre, 
tons. cwt. 6t. 
Oil, 40 gallons ' ' ' X 
Screened earth, laObushels - j 
Bones, 40 Imshels 
Burnt earth, 80 bushels 



1 



23 5 

21 18 



6 



And in The Mark Lane Express of February 8, 
1841, Mr. W. Sharp, of Scarthing Moor, in Not- 
tinghamshire, thus describes his experiments 
with fish oil, mixed with bone dust: — "I will 
give you my experiment with oil. The soil is 
a poor gravel, — the farm in the parish of Ed- 
winstow, and enclosed off the old Forest, near 
to Thorseby Park. 

"My attention was drawn to the use of oil in 
consequence of the serious expense (3/. to 4/. 
per acre) I was obliged to go to in bones and 
rape dust, for I never use yard manure for tur- 
nips, as the soil is so poor, I cannot get wheat 
without manure ; I therefore save it all for my 
wheat. My first trial was in 1839, on 2 acres, 
in a 9-acre field, and nearly in the middle of it. 
I give you the cost of one acre, — 



5 strikes of half inch bones, the dust in (2s. lid. 

per strike), per acre - - - - - 13 

3 gallons of train-oil, at 2s. 6d. per gallon - 7 

10 strikes of coal ashes - - - - - 



Remainder of the field as below, — 

£ s. d. 
16 strikes of bones, as above, at 2s. 7jd. per 

strike 2 2 

5 h\indred of rape-dust, at 6s. 9d. per hundred 1 13 9 

3 13 
With oil . - - - 1 7i 

Balance in favour of oil - 2 15 H 

"The oil turnips were as good as the re- 
mainder of the field ; and all as fine as I could 
wish, for the land. The barley as good,— and 
the clover is now excellent. My next trial in 
1840, on 9 acres, — 

£ s. d. 
1 1 strikes of half inch bones, dust in, al 2». fid. 

per strike, per acre - - - - -176 
i gallons of train-oil, at 2«. 6d. per gallon - 7 6 



" 1 1 acres, dressed as below, is a trial against 
oil,— 

£ $. i. 

16 strikes of bones, at 2s. 6rf. per strike, per 

acre -117 6 

5 hundred of rape-dust, at 6s. 9d. per hundred 1 13 9 

I6strikesof pigeon manure, at Is. 6(i. per strike 14 



4 15 3 
1 15 



1 15 



480 



With oil - - - 

Balance in favour of oil - 3 3 

"I think the 9 acres with oil rather the best 
field, and the turnips are decidedly better. The 
rape-dust I sow broadcast on the surface; it ia 
then drawn in its proper place b}'' ridging; I 
then drill my bones on the ridges 22 inches 
apart, — the turnips were white tops. I do not 
like the ashes mixed with the oil ; it makes it 
dirty and bad to drill; the 11 strikes of bones 
carefully mixed will absorb the oil, so as to 
drill excellent. I let them lie about two days 
after mixing. I know your readers will say, 
how is barley grown after so light a dressing? 
I answer — with my feeding sheep I use oil- 
cake, and with my store sheep malt-coombs, 
and the straw in the yard is all consumed — 
with oil-cake I take my seeds up for wheat. 

"Some farmers may possibly doubt the cor- 
rectness of my assertion, that all the principal 
vegetable substances are composed of precise- 
ly the same ingredients as oil and other purely 
animal matters ; and as it is of the first im- 
portance that the cultivator should clearly un- 
derstand the reason why the decomposition of 
animal matters furnishes such admirable food 
for vegetation, I must beg of him to compare 
the analysis of the oils which I have already 
stated, with that of the following common vege- 
table substances, as ascertained by the most 
careful analysis. I will merely give that of 
three substances : — sugar, 100 parts of which 
are composed, according to M. Berzelius, of — 

Paris. 

Oxygen - - - - - - - 5147 

Carbon 41-48 

Hydrogen ...... 705 

10000 
(^Jlnn. of Phil. vol. v. p. 262.) 

In 100 parts of starch from wheat flour are 
found — 

Parts. 

Oxygen 49-68 

Carbon 4335 

Hydrogen ...... 6-77 

10000 
(Ot(j/ itissoe, iJecA. vii. p. 291.) 

The wood of oak is composed of — 

Parts. 

Oxygen 4178 

Carbon ....... 5253 

Hydrogen - - - - - .5 69 

10000 
{Ibid. vol. ii. p. 294.) 

"All oily and other animal substances, there- 
fore, as they decompose in the soil, are slowly 
converted into those gaseous substances which 
are the food or breath of vegetable life, such as 
carbonic acid gas (fixed air) or carburetted 
hydrogen (the gas employed for illumination), 
and which are absorbed either by the roots or 
the leaves of the plant as they are formed. 
j There is little or no waste in these, for when 
I the decomposition of the oils and fibrous mat- 



FISH. 



FIXTURES. 



ters of fish is finished, there is very little or no 
earthy or solid matter remaining useless in the 
soil. In this, again, the experience of the far- 
mer substantiates the chemist's doctrines, for 
he uniformly tells us, in answer to our in- 
quiries, that the fish only last for one crop." 

In the east of England, the farmers of those 
soils conveniently situated for water carriage, 
employ to a very considerable extent, as manure, 
several kinds offish besides sprats, such as five- 
fingers, cockles, muscles, &c., and this use is 
only limited by the supply, or what is com- 
monly a more important impediment, the diffi- 
culty of transporting them any distance while 
sufliciently fresh. When once the fish begin 
to putrefy, their fertilizing properties rapidly 
diminish ; the oil from the fermenting sprats I 
have seen dripping from the wagons as they 
travelled along : thus they speedily lose in 
weight, and become intolerably obnoxious to 
the district through which they pass ; several 
convictions have, indeed, taken place among 
my neighbours in Essex, fir carrying putrefy- 
ing fish through towns and populous villages. 

This is hardly a matter of astonishment, 
since the farmer, who has to convey a freight 
of several hundred bushel of sprats, perhaps 
ten or twelve miles, has often much too little 
time allowed him for that purpose. The fish, 
perhaps, arrive stale. It is a load detained by 
contrary winds, or prevented by circumstances 
from reaching another destination? the farmer 
has to be informed of their arrival ; he cannot 
despatch his teams as speedily as the nature 
of the case requires, the fish become offensive, 
and his ardour for the improvement of his land 
is checked by a njagistrate's summons and a 
conviction for a nuisance. These are the rea- 
sons which retard the use of these kinds of fish 
as a manure, but cannot entirely prevent their 
being employed. Their use is still, in spite 
of all impediments, annually increasing, espe- 
cially in the neighbourhood of those places to 
which the fishing smacks find a ready access. 

By the general formation of railroads, the 
culivator, even of the inland soils of England, 
will have all these valuable sources of im- 
provement offered for his service — fertilizers 
of even national interest, since they are drawn 
from an inexhaustible source, aflx)rd employ- 
ment to a branch of industry invaluable in a 
maritime point of view, as a nursery for sea- 
men, and have, moreover, this great and para- 
mount advantage, that they add to the perma- 
nent riches of the land, and are not, as is the 
case with other fertilizers, drawn from one dis- 
trict of the state to enrich another. There need 
be no fear of the supply not keeping pace with 
the demand, for the ocean is inexhaustibly 
tenanted with fish. As fresh agricultural mar- 
kets arise and are furnished by the railways, 
fresh sources of supply will be discovered, 
other coasts explored, and increased fisheries 
established. (Johnson on Fertilizers, p. 113.) 

On Long Island and those parts of the New 
England States bordering upon the sound, or 
the sea, fish are very extensively and profitably 
used as manure. In the Chesapeake and tribu- 
taries, where herring fisheries abound, these 
fish are also often appropriated to the same 
purpose. 

61 



FISTULA (Lat.). A long sinous ulcer, often 
communicating with a larger cavity, and hav- 
ing a small external opening. 

All animals are liable to fistulas, but the 
horse more particularly so ; they attack the 
withers and the poll. They are produced by 
blows, by bruises from the saddle, and what- 
ever causes inflammation ; also by the pre- 
sence of extraneous substances. 

In curing this disease, it is requisite, in the 
first instance, to ascertain the direction the fis- 
tula pursues, and whether it materially inter- 
feres with any of the larger blood-vessels, so 
as to render a full incision into the parts a 
matter of too much hazard to be attempted. 
When secure from any danger of this nature, 
the most efl^ectual practice is, to lay the fistula, 
or fistulas, when more than one, so thoroughly 
open as to have a complete view of their inter- 
nal surfaces. It is not, however, necessary in 
the simple sinus, where the matter is in a 
healthy state, and requires only a sufficient 
passage ; but in cases where the discharge, by 
having been long detained, indurates and cor- 
rodes the contiguous parts ; as the means fully 
adequate to remove the former avail little in 
the radical cure of the latter, a more severe 
practice of course becomes necessary. 

When the fistular cavities have been fully 
laid open by the knife, they should be dressed 
with powerful caustic compositions, until the 
unsound parts slough away, and the wound 
presents a healthy appearance. Cleanliness,, 
with more mild applications, should now be 
had recourse to, taking care that the wound he 
not closed before the cavities are properly aDid-. 
uniformly healed. 

FIVE-FINGER. See CiNauE-FoiL. 

FIXTURES. In Law, a term generally ap^ 
plied to all articles of a personal nature a^xed: 
to land. This annexation must be by the arti- 
cle being let into, or united with the land, or 
with some substance previously connected 
therewith. Thus a barn built on a frame not 
let into the earth, is not a fixture ; a brewer's 
stills set in brickwork resting on a foundation^ 
are fixtures, and the application of the- same 
principle gives in every case the true rule to 
judge whether a thing be a fixture or not^. What- 
ever is thus fixed becomes by law parcel of the 
freehold or realty. It is, therefore, on. general 
principles, not removable; but there are ex- 
ceptions to this rule established by, customj 
(lyrandc's Diet, of Science.) 

The English common law with: regard to 
fix;tures or any thing afltixed to the freehold, is- 
by no means so clear and defined as is desira-f- 
ble ; and what is granted in favour of trade, to 
the removal of fixtures erected for the purpose 
of manufacture, does not extend- to the erec- 
tions made by tenants for agricultural purposes.. 
The agreement made between the farmer ancb 
his landlord should therefore ahvays contain. a 
covenant by which this power should be clearly- 
defined. The celebrated judgment of Lord; 
Ellenborough in Elwcs v. Mawe^ 3 East, 38, con 
tains such an epitome of the law of fixtures, 
that I shall insert at length the opening portiou 
of it:— 

"This was an action upon. the case in, the 
nature of waste by a landlord,. the reversionei 
2 8 481. 



FLAG. 



FLANDERS. 



in fee against his late tenant, who had held un- 
der a term for twenty-one years a farm, con- 
sisting of a messuage and lands, outhouses 
and barns, &c., and who at the case reserved, 
stated that during the term, and about fifteen 
years before its expiration, he erected at his 
own expense a beasthousc, carpenter's shop, a 
fuel house, a cart-house, a pump-house, and a 
fold-yard. The buildings were of brick and 
mortar, and tiled, and the foundations of them 
were about a foot and a half deep in the ground. 
The carpenter's shop was closed in, and the 
other buildings were open to the front, and 
supported by brick pillars. The fold-yard wall 
was of brick and mortar, and its foundation loas in 
the ground. The tenant previous to the expira- 
tion of his lease, pulled down the erections, 
dug up the foundations, and carried away the 
materials, leaving the premises in the same state as 
when he entered upon them. The case further 
stated these erections were necessary and conve- 
nient for the operation of the farm ; and the ques- 
tion for the opinion of the court was whether 
the tenant had a right to take away those erec- 
tions 1 Upon a full consideration, we are all 
of opinion that he had not a right to take away 
those erections." 

Without any special agreement, a tenant 
cannot remove a border of box planted by 
himself; neither can ordinary tenants remove 
fruit trees, though planted by themselves, but 
nurserymen may. If the freehold is sold with- 
out any stipulation about the fixtures, they pass 
with the land. Neither can the fixtures be 
taken in execution by the sheriff". Ranges and 
ovens are fixtures. But a pump erected by a 
tenant, and so fixed as to be removable without 
injury to the freehold, may be taken away by 
him at the expiration of his term, as being an 
article of domestic use or convenience. A 
conservatory on a brick foundation, affixed to 
and communicating with rooms in a dwelling- 
house by windows and doors cannot be re- 
moved by the tenant, even if he erected them. 

FLAG, THE WATER; or FLEUR-DE-LIS. 
See Iris. 

FLAG, THE SWEET. See Aromatic Reed 
{Calamus aromalirus), 

FLAG. A term sometimes applied to the 
turf, or surface of the ground, which is pared 
off for burning. It also signifies a large flat 
paving stone, and the furrow-slice of ley lands, 
when under the plough. See Parikg and 
BcEjrisTG. 

FLAIL (Lat. flagellum). A wooden imple- 
ment for thrashing com by hand. It anciently 
was truly a whip, and sometimes had two or 
more lashes : the modern flail consists of the 
handle or handstaff, which the labourer holds 
in his hand, and uses as a lever, to raise up 
and bring down the swiple, or part which strikes 
the corn, and beats out the grain and chaff from 
the straw. The swiple is joined to the hand-staff 
by the caplins or couplings, which are thongs 
of untanned leather, and sometimes the skins 
of eels or of other fish. These thongs are 
passed through holes in the ends of the handle 
and swiple, and made fast by being sewed to- 
gether. The whip-flail was in use among the 
Romans, though the prevailing mode of sepa- 
rating corn from, straw among the nations of 
482 



antiquity was by treading it out with cattle in 
the open air. (See Agriculture.) In the 
colder parts of Europe, this could never have 
been generally the case, for obvious reasons ; 
and hence the flail was the universal thrashing 
implement till the introduction of the thrashing 
machine, which is now taking the place of the 
flail in all countries where capitalists engage in 
farming. See Thrashing Machine. 

FLANDERS, the Aghiculture of: The 
mode of tillage adopted by the cultivators of 
Flanders has long and beneficially engaged 
the attention of the British farmer; who, what 
ever may be his superiority to the Fleming in 
most respects, yet in some particular instances 
has learnt, and in others (such as in the careful 
husbanding and preparation of manure, the 
succession of crops, the deepening of the soil, 
&c., ) may still profitably imitate the practices 
of the small industrious cultivators of Flan- 
ders. The best report of the modern agricul- 
ture of the Flemish farmers is that drawn up 
for the Societ}' for the Diffusion of Useful 
Knowledge, by the Rev. W. Rham, from which, 
and from his paper in the Journ. of Roy. Agr. 
Soc. of Eng. vol. ii. the chief facts of this arti- 
cle are obtained. The climate of Flanders 
pretty closely resembles that of Kent and Es- 
sex in England : it is, however, rather warmer 
in summer, and the snow lies longer in winter. 
The soil is various ; there are extensive dis- 
tricts of sand which are brought into cultiva- 
tion by dressing them with mud. In propor- 
tion to the quantity of the mud, which is a very 
fine clay, a portion of decayed shells and or- 
ganic matter, the soil is more or less fertile; 
and when the mud enters ii»to it in considera- 
ble proportion, it forms a rich compact loam. 
In many places there are alternate narrow 
strata of sand and loam, which, being mixed 
together, form a very productive soil. A small 
portion of carbonate of lime produced from the 
decomposition of sea shells, is found in the mud 
when it is analyzed; but there is no chalk, nor 
marl, in any portion of this coast. 

The industry of the tenants of these sands is 
proverbial. The poor sandy heaths which 
have been converted into productive farms, 
evince their indefatigable industry and perse- 
verance. The sand in the Campine can be 
compared to nothing but the sands on the sea- 
shore, which they probably were originally. It 
is highly interesting to follow step by step, the 
progress of improvement. Here you see a 
cottage and rude cow-shed, erected on a spot 
of the most unpromising aspect. The loose 
white sand, blown into irregular mounds, ir 
merely kept together by the roots of the heath; 
a small spot only is levelled, and surrounde<' 
by a ditch. Part of this is covered with youn^ 
broom; another part is covered with potatoes; 
and perhaps a small patch of diminutive clover 
may show itself; but there is a heap of dung 
and compost forming. The urine of the cow 
is collected in a small tank, or, perhaps, in a 
cask sunk in the earth ; and this is the nucleus 
from which, in a few years, a little farm will 
spread around. 

Of their use ofliquid manure, I shall hereafter, 
under that head, have occasion to speak. Their 
implements of husbandry are much inferior 



FLANDERS. 



FLANDERS. 



to the English. They employ, however, the 
spade to a much greater extent than is done in 
England ; thus it is a common practice with 
them to deepen the trenches between the lands 
with the spade, and spread the earth over the 
surface of the ground ; by this means the land 
is gradually completely trenched, and the im- 
mediate good effect by keeping the soil of the 
field dry is very considerable. 

Their rotation of crops on sandy soils is 
commonly, 1. Flax and carrots; 2. Rye and 
turnips ; 3. Rye and turnips ; 4. Potatoes, peas, 
and carrots; 5. Oats and rye; 6. Clover; 7. 
Rye, or barley and turnips; 8. Turnips, oats, 
and potatoes ; 9. Flax and carrots ; 10. Rye 
and turnips. 

In a stiff loam near Alost, the following rota- 
tion is adopted : 1. Potatoes, with 20 tons of 
dung per acre ; 2. Wheat, with 3^ tons and 50 
barrels of urine ; 3. Flax, with 12 tons of dung, 
50 barrels of urine, and 5 cwt. of rape-cake ; 4. 
Clover, with 20 bushels of wood-ashes ; 5. Rye, 
with 8 tons of dung, and 50 barrels of urine. 
6. Oats, with 50 barrels of urine; 7. Buck- 
wheat without manure. 

They grow large quantities of hemp and 
tobacco ; and are large exporters of seeds of 
all kinds. With such exhausting crops, there- 
fore, an attention to the careful saving of all 
kinds of manure is absolutely essential to the 
preservation of the fertility of the soil; and no 
cultivators are more particular in this respect 
than those of Flanders. 

They keep large quantities of cattle. "A 
beast for every three acres of land is a com- 
mon proportion ; and in very small occupa- 
tions, where much spade husbandry is used, 
the proportion is still greater. These are 
maintained on turnips, potatoes, carrots, &c., 
which are chopped together in a tub, with 
beans, rj^e, or buckwheat meal, and mixed 
with boiling water (which they call brassin), 
about two pails full are given each cow. 

" The horses of Flanders have been long 
noted for their bulk. Flanders mares were at 
one time in request for the heavy town car- 
riages of the nobility and men of fortune in 
England and on the continent. Since the im- 
provement in the roads, and in the paving of 
streets, activity has been preferred to strength, 
and the English carriage horses now partake 
more of the breed of hunters, and are more 
nearly allied to full blood. The Flanders 
horses are probably the same at this time as 
they were a century ago; but compared with 
the present breeds of coach and cart-horses in 
England thej'- are inferior. They are in gene- 
ral large in the carcass, and pretty clean in the 
leg; patient and enduring, if not too much 
hurried. They are steady in the collar, and 
good at a dead pull, in consequence of their 
weight ; but they are very heavy in the fore- 
hand, inclined to get fat, and deficient in activity, 
rhey fall off in the rump, and the hips stand 
out too much from the ribs. The worst point 
in most of them is the setting on of the tail, 
which is low, and pointing downwards. These 
are the general characters of the real Flemish 
horse. A more useful kind of horse, although 
not so sleek, is found in the provinces of Bra- 
bant and Namur, where they draw heavy loads i 



of stones and coal over bad roads. The feet 
of the Flemish horses are generally flat, de- 
noting the moist pastures in which they are 
fed when young, or the dung of the stables in 
which they have stood : for many of them have 
never been turned out loose, and have been 
reared and fed in the stable as the cows are. 
This will account for the want of vigour and 
muscle, as well as for the propensity to get fat. 
The food of the farmer's horses is not calcu- 
lated to produce hard flesh : green clover in 
summer, and roots with cut straw in winter, 
are the chief provender." 

Of the spade-husbandry of Flanders, the fol- 
lowing description is given by the author whom 
I have already quoted so freely: — 

"The husbandry of the whole of the north- 
eastern part of East Flanders, where the soil is 
a good sandy loam, may be considered as a 
mixed cultivation, partly by the plough, and 
partly by the spade. Without the spade, it 
would be impossible to give that finish to the 
land, after it is sown, which makes it appear 
so like a garden, and which is the chief cause 
of the more certain vegetation of the seed. 
There is great saving of seed by this practice, 
as may be seen by comparing the quantity 
usually sown in Flanders with that which is 
required in other countries, where the spade is 
more sparingly used. In large farms in Eng- 
land, the spade is only used to dig out water- 
furrows, and to turn heaps of earth, which are 
m.ade into composts with diffei-ent kinds of 
manure. But in Flanders, where the land is 
usually laid in stitches of about six or seven 
feet wide, the intervals are always dug out with 
the spade, and the earth spread evenly (sifted, 
as they call it) over the seed which has been 
harrowed in. The earth may not be of a fer- 
tile nature below the immediate surface ; some- 
times it is only a poor sand, or a hard till ; but 
this is no reason why it should not be dug out. 
If it is very light and poor, a good soaking with 
urine, a few days before it is dug out, will im- 
part sufficient fertility to it. If it is very stiff, 
the clods must be broken as small as possible 
in the digging, as is done when stiff ground is 
trenched in gardens ; and what is left unbroken 
on the surface, and not pulverized by passing 
the traineau (a kind of heavy broad wooden 
sledge, made of beams of wood and boards) 
over it, will inevitably be reduced to a powder 
by the frost in winter. Thus the land is not 
only perfectly drained, but the seed, being co- 
vered by an inch or more of earth, is placed 
out of the reach of birds, without danger of 
being buried too deep. The soil from the bot- 
tom of the trench contains few seeds of weeds, 
and the root-weeds are necessarily cleaned out 
in the spreading. This earth, spread over the 
surface of the land, keeps it clean, by burying 
the smaller seeds, which the harrows may have 
brought to the surface, and preventing their 
vegetating. It is for this reason that the roller, 
or the traineau, is made to press the surface, or 
that, in very light soils, men and women tread 
it regularly with their feet, as gardeners do 
after they have sown their beds. The trench, 
which is thus dug, is a foot wide, or, more pro- 
perly, one-sixth part of the width of the stitch, 
or bed; and the depth is from a fool to 18 

483 



FLAX. 



FLAX, COMMON 



inches, according to the soil. Thus, a layer 
of earth, about two inches deep, at least, is 
thrown over the seed, which has been sown on 
a surface made even by the small harrows, or 
the bush-harrow. These two inches gradually 
incorporate with the soil below ; and thus, at 
every such operation, the soil is deepened so 
much. 

The trenches are so arranged, that every 
year a fresh portion of the ground is dug out, 
and in six years the whole land will have been 
dug to the depth of at least one foot. In the 
next course, the trench is dug a few inches 
deeper, which brings up a little of the subsoil; 
and, after four or five such courses of trench- 
ing, the whole soil comes to be of a uniform 
quality to the depth of 18 or 20 inches ; a most 
important circumstance to the growth of flax, 
potatoes, and carrots, all of which are very 
profitable crops to the farmer, and the last tw© 
indispensable to the maintenance of the la- 
bourers and the cattle. In the Waes country, 
they proceed differently, for they have a soil 
which, by repeated trenchings, has long been 
uniform in quality to the required depth. There 
they regularly ti-ench one-sixth part of the land 
every year, and plant it with potatoes, or sow 
carrots in it. 

"From this outline of Flemish husbandry," 
concludes Mr. Rham, " the general principles 
which pervade the whole system are easily 
discovered. The garden has evidently been 
the model for the operations of the farm. The 
spade has originally been the chief instrument 
of cultivation ; and when a greater extent of 
farms necessarily introduced the plough, the 
favourite spade was not entirely laid aside. A 
Flemish farm of 40 or 50 acres must still be 
looked upon as an enlarged garden ; and if a 
comparison is instituted with the cultivation 
of land in England, we can only compare the 
Flemish husbandry, as far as tillage is con- 
cerned, with those large unenclosed gardens 
which are found in the neighbourhood of Lon- 
don, where the common vegetables are raised 
which supply the markets ; where green crops 
are cut early for horses and cows kept in Lon- 
don ; and where the soil is continually enriched 
by the manure which is brought every time a 
cart returns from having carried out the pro- 
duce. In these grounds, the system is similar 
to the Flemish — deep digging, or trenching, 
abundant manuring, and a rapid succession of 
crops." {Flemish Hush, ; Journ. of Roy. Jgr. Soc. 
of Eng. vol. ii. p. 43.) 

FLAX (Lat. Linum, from the Celtic word 
llin, a thread ; whence the Greek linon, the Ital. 
and Span. Ujio, and Fr. lin). An extensive 
genus of plants, of which more than 70 species 
are enumerated by botanists. It belongs to the 
natural order Linacea. The plants are distin- 
guished by the tenacity of their fibres, the mu- 
cilage of their seeds, and, generally, by the 
beauty of their flowers. 

Four species only are indigenous to England, 
of which the common flax (i. usitatissimum) to 
be next noticed, is the most important and use 



do well in any light soil. The hardy he; oa- 
ceous species are well suited for ornamenting 
flower-borders; but the dwarf kinds do best on 
rock-work, or in pots, that they may be pro- 
tected by a frame in frosty or very wet wea- 
ther; they may be increased by divisions of 
the root, by cuttings, or by seeds. The annual 
and biennial species should be sown in the 
open ground in April. — 1. Common flax (i. 
usitatissimuni) is an annual, rising one to 
two feet high, with a smooth, slender, upright 
stem, branched near the top, narrow lanceolate 
leaves, rather glaucous, blowing in July a 
corymbose panicle of pale purplish-bkie flow- 
ers. The testa or skin of the seed abounds 
with mucilage ; the cotyledons with oil, easily 
procured by pressure. The mucilage extracted 
by hot water is demulcent, the oil a mild laxa- 
tive. The use of linseed oil in the arts is very 
extensive. 2. Perennial blue flax (L.percnne). 

3. Narrow-leaved pale flax (i. angv.slifolivm'). 

4. Purging flax {L.calhariicuin). The first and 
fourth species are mentioned further in detail 
in articles which follow. The others require 
little notice ; they are found growing in sandy 
or chalky soils, and are perennial, flowering in 
June or Julv. 

FLAX, BASTARD TOAD. See Bastard 
Toad-flax. 

FLAX, COMMON (Sax. vi ax or i-Kx, Ger. 
flachs ; Dutch, I'/usf/i). The fibre of the ini?(m 
iisitatissimum, which, after undergoing the pro- 
cess of washing, beating, and other operations, 
is spun into thread, and woven into linen tex- 
tures, lace, &c. The seed is also crushed for 
oil ; and the refuse husk, after the oil is ex- 
pressed, is made into oilcake for cattle. The 
fibres of the bark of this important plant have 
been applied to the manufacture of thread and 
cloth in this and other countries from the re- 
motest periods. " Flax," says Professor Low, 
"being a native plant, is sufficiently hardy to 
endure the climate of this and other northern 
countries. It has, indeed, a wide range of tem- 
perature, being cultivated, and for the like 
purposes, from Egypt almost to the polar cir- 
cle." The wild flax grows in corn-fields, and 
gravelly or sandy pastures ; but, when culti- 
vated, it thrives most luxuriantly in deep rich 
mould, but particularly in untilled alluvial soils. 
Its roots sink very deep when it has room ; 
and it is generally said that the roots of good 
flax should strike into the soil to a depth equal 
to half the length, at least, of the stem above 
ground. A porous subsoil, or one that is well 
drained, is therefore essential. In Flanders, 
flax may be considered as a staple commodity, 
and a great portion of the population of that 
country is employed in preparing large quan- 
tities for exportation ; the cultivation and pre- 
paring of it, is, therefore, most perfectly under- 
stood, and the Dutch flax is always well dressed, 
and of the finest quality. The premiums given 
by the legislature of England to force the 
cultivation of flax have had very little effect, it 
being one of the most exhausting crops when 
allowed to ripen its seed; and its culture being 



ful. As ornamental plants, they are well worth i found to be much less profitable than corn, 
cultivating in every collection. The green- j The native growth of flax being quite insuffi- 
house and frame kinds grow best in a mixture cient to the demand for home consumption, &.c., 
of loam and peats ; the hardy shrubby kinds 1 England has long been in the habit of import- 
484 



FLAX, COMMON. 



FLAX, PURGING. 



ing a large proportion of her supplies. The 
principal countries from whence these are ob- 
tained are Russia, the Netherlands, Prussia, 
and France, with small quantities from Ame- 
rica, Italy, Nev\' South Wales, &c. The duty 
in England is at present Id. per cwt. 

In Ireland, flax usually follows potatoes. In 
Scotland, land that has been several years in 
pasture, and from which one crop of grain has 
been taken, is preferred. In Flanders, the crops 
which immediately precede flax, in light soils, 
are barley or rye, with turnips after them the 
same year. All these crops are more highly 
manured than usual, and before the flax-seed 
is sown, peat ashes, at the rate of 30 bushels 
per acre, are spread and harrowed in, and a 
few days afterwards 10 hogsheads of strong 
liquid manure is poured regularly over the 
land, and left for a week or 10 days to soak 
thoroughly into the soil. The seed is then 
sown very abundantly ; cloudy or showery 
weather is the time chosen ; the quantity 
varies, but the general proportion is 160 lbs. 
to the acre. It is lightly covered in by a bush- 
harrow, drawn over the land, for if the seed 
were buried more than half an inch deep it 
would prevent its vegetating. The choice of 
seed requires great care and circumspection: 
good fresh seed should be of a bright colour, 
with a sweet taste, and it will feel smooth, 
slippery, and plump, and, on being broken, 
should appear of a greenish yellow colour, and 
should sink in water. Genuine seed will 
average 18 lbs. per peck, but good Riga seed 
is somewhat lighter. Hand weeding should be 
attended to when the stems are from two to 
three inches above the surface, for when the 
flax is higher, it is liable to be injured by the 
weeders. The proper time for pulling flax, 
when not intended for seed, is when about two- 
thirds of the stalk is observed to turn yellow, 
and to lose the leaves. If intended for seed, 
the flax should not be pulled until the capsules 
have acquired a brown colour, and the points 
have become firm, and so sharp as to fix them- 
selves in the hand when pressed, and when 
nearly all the leaves and foliage have withered 
and fallen from the stem. 

When flax is raised both for the seed and 
stalk, it is submitted to an operation called 
fippUng, which consists in separating the seed 
from the stalk, by passing the flax through a 
kind of comb, before it is steeped in water. 
The iron teeth of these combs are placed so 
close together that the heads cannot pass 
through, and are consequently pulled off. An- 
other practice is to beat out the seed in the 
field with a piece of wood, or a heavier stick 
than that of the common flail, and then to sift 
the seed into a large sheet. In preparing flax 
for the manufacturer, the first operation it un- 
dergoes is that of steeping it in water, to loosen 
the bark and separate it from the stalk ; for this 
purpose it is tied into small bundles, and then 
placed in a pond or reservoir of soft water. 
The sheaves are slightly covered with straw, 
fern, rushes, or coarse herbage (kept down by 
stones or heavy bodies), to prevent the flax 
from being discoloured by the sun. In the 
course of seven or eight days the rind will be 
sufficiently loosened, and the flax must be 



taken out of the water and spread out to dry. 
Phillips says there is an act of parliament in 
force, which forbids the steeping of flax in 
rivers, or any waters where cattle are accus- 
tomed to drink, as it is found to communicate 
a poison destructive to the cattle which drink 
of it, and to the fish which live in such waters. 
The odour it exhales is most disagreeable, and 
has often been productive of fever. Another 
but far more tedious process, resorted to for 
separating the bark from the stalk, is called 
dew retting, and consists in spreading the flax 
upon grass lands, and exposing it to the con- 
stant action of rain and dew. Hot water and 
soft soap are said to decorticate the stalk in a 
few hours. Grassing or bleaching the flax on 
old grass ground is the next operation, and is in- 
tended to rectify any defect in the steeping. 
The last process is that of bruising and scutch- 
ing, previous to which it should be mode- 
rately dried. The woody part of the stem was 
formerly beaten or bruised with a hand mallet; 
but this operation is now more eflTectually per- 
formed by machinery. Flax-mills, with suita- 
ble wheels and rollers, now greatly facilitate 
the processes of bruising and scutching. Mr. 
James Durno (then British consul at Munich) 
gives an interesting account in the sixth volume 
of the Com. to Board ofAgr. p. 75, of " the mode 
of cultivating flax and hemp in Russia, Prussia, 
and Poland ;" and Mr. Robert Somerville, of 
Haddington, has also a very excellent paper in 
the same volume (p. 84), urging very strenu- 
ously the necessity for a more general home 
cultivation of those essential articles, hemp 
and flax, and suggesting improvements in the 
processes of dressing, &c., many of which 
have since been carried out. {Bril. Husb. vol. 
iii. p. 42; Quart. Jouriu Jlgr. vol. iv. p. 159; 
M'CullocKs Com. Did.) 

In the United States flax, which was once 
considered a crop so indispensable among the 
crops of our farmers, is now but little cul- 
tivated; its linty product being superseded by 
the cotton of the South. It is a crop which in- 
volves a good deal of troublesome labour, and, 
without being profitable, is generally believed 
to be injurious to the soil; an opinion as old 
as the time of Virgil, — who says "Urit enim 
LiNi campum seges, urit avense." — Georg. 1, 71. 
The seeds, besides yielding a most valuable 
oil, afford one of the best mucilaginous drinks 
for coughs, and dysenteric affections. Two or 
three other species are enumerated in the 
United States. {Flor. Cestrica.) 

FLAX, PURGING. Mill mountain. Dwarf 
wild flax {Linum catharticum). This is a pretty 
herb, seldom more than eight or ten inches 
high, growing in the English parks, warrens, 
and dry hilly pastures. The stalk is slender 
and delicate, round, firm, and divided into 
small branches. The leaves are small, obtuse, 
bright green, and standing two at each joint. 
The tremulous flowers are small and white, 
pendulous before expansion, and not unlike 
chickweed. The root is small and tapering. 
This plant is bitter and cathartic. Dr. Wither- 
ing found two drams or more in a dose, of the 
dried herb, useful in obstinate rheumatism. It 
is purgative in doses of three scruples. The 
country people boil it in their a/e or beer for 
2 s -2 iS.'S 



FLAX-SEED. 



FLEECE. 



the cure of rheumatism ; but it is not so use- 
ful as a dose of colchicum. 

FLAX-SEED. See Linseed. 

FLAX, WILD (L. Virginianum). A plant 
growing one to two feet high, often with three 
or four slender and angular stems from the 
same root, bearing pale yellow flowers, is often 
found in the old fields and open woodlands of 
the Middle States. Authors generally describe 
the root of the American wild flax as annual, 
but Muhlenburg, Bigelow, and Darlington 
think it perennial. {Flor. Ceslrica.) 

FLEA (Pulex). The flea tribe (Pulicidce) 
was placed among the bugs (or Hemiptera) by 
Fabricius. These very annoying insects are 
destitute of wings, have a mouth fitted for suc- 
tion, and are provided with several lancet-like 
pieces for making punctures. They undergo 
a complete transformation ; their larvas are 
worm-like and without feet ; and their pupa? 
have the legs free. The flea may almost be 
considered as a wingless kind cf fly. Its pro- 
boscis seems to be intermediate in its forma- 
tion between that of flies and bugs ; its antennae 
are concealed in holes in the sides of its head, 
like those of certain water-bugs, which they 
somewhat resemble in shape ; whilst the trans- 
formations of the flea are not very much unlike 
those of the flies, whose maggots cast olT their 
skins on becoming pupae. (^Harris.) 

Want of cleanliness contributes greatly to 
the multiplication of fleas, and hence the pro- 
priety of the frequent removal of straw and 
rubbish from about houses and yards, and re- 
course to sweeping of floors, especially when 
carpeted. Various devices are adopted for the 
purpose of expelling fleas. Frequent sprinkling 
of a room with a simple decoction of worm- 
wood, or sassafras, will soon extirpate the 
whole breed of these troublesome vermin ; and 
the best remedy to expel them from bed-clothes, 
is a bag filled with dry moss, the odour of which 
is to them extremely oflensive. Others cover 
the floors of the rooms where fleas abound 
with the leaves of the alder tree, while the dew 
is on the foliage, to which these insects fondly 
adhere, and thus may be easily destroyed Fu- 
migation with the leaves of pennyroyal, or the 
fresh gathered foliage of that plant, sewed up 
in a bag, and laid in the bed, are also remedies 
pointed out for the expulsion of fleas. Sprinkle 
with camphorated whisky or other ardent 
spirits. 

Dogs and cats may be efiectually secured 
from the persecutions of these vermin, by oc- 
casionally anointing their skin with sweet oil. 
The fleas and lice of poultry are destroyed 
by a decoction of sassafras wood. (^Domestic 
Encyc.') 

FLEABANE (Erigeron, from er, spring; 
and geron, an old man ; the plants become old 
in the beginning of the season). This exten- 
sive genus comprehends many exceedingly 
handsome species, varying from a few inches 
to two feet or more high, and producing a 
great and copious display of blossom; they 
will grow in almost any soil, and are increased 
with facility from either seeds or divisions. 
The fleabane has lost its reputation both for 
banishing fleas and insects by its smell, and 
answering other sunerstitious incantations, for 
86 



which it was celebrated in former times. There 
are four indigenous species. The Canada 
fleabane (£. Canadensis), and blue fleabane (E. 
acris), which are diuretic. The alpine flea- 
bane (E. alpinus), and pale-rayed mountain 
fleabane (£. uniflorus.) The first is annual, 
the second biennial, the third and fourth 
perennial. 

Several species are found in the United 
States, among which are the E. Canadensis, 
called Horse^weed, and Butter-weed, an annual 
common in fields and road-sides in the Middle 
States, where it flowers in August and seeds in 
September and October. E. st7-igosus, called 
Fleabane and Daisy, a very common and worth- 
less weed in the Middle States, where it fre- ' 
quenis the pastures, flowering in June and 
July, and maturing its seed in September. It 
is particularly injurious to the first crop of up- 
land meadows, after a course of grain crops. 
E. Philadelphicus. E. Pulchcllus, or Handsome 
Erigeron. E, HeterophyUus or various -leaved 
Erigeron, together with some eight or ten addi- 
tional species. See Daisy. {Flor. Ceslrica.) 

FLEABANE, COMMON (Imdadysenterica). 
This plant is very abundant in clear ditches 
and in watery places about road-sides. It is a 
perennial, with a creeping root ; herb more or 
less woolly or cottony, glutinous, with a pecu- 
liar acid aromatic scent, somewhat like the 
flavour of peaches. The stem is 12 or 18 
inches high, branched and leafy, corymbose at 
the summit, with many bright yellow flowers. 
Linnaeus records, on the authority of General 
Keith, that the use of this plant cured the Rus- 
sian army of dysentery ; — hence the specific 
name. Its medical properties, however, an 
simply diuretic. The small fleabane (I.puHca- 
ria), is an annual, and is said to banish insects 
by its smell. It grows on moist sandy spots, 
especially where water has stagnated during 
winter. There is another species, the sam- 
phire-leaved fleabane, which grows on the sea- 
coast, in a muddy soil. (-Eng. Flor. vol. iii. p. 
440—443.) 

FLEABANE, GREAT. Ploughman's Spike- 
nard. See Spikenard. 

FLEA-BEETLE (Haltica). Several of these 
have been described among the insects de- 
structive to the cucumber. Some others 
known in the United States and described by 
Dr. Harris, will be referred to under different 
heads. See Turnip Fly, Vine Beetle, &c. 

FLEAM. In farriery, an instrument used 
for letting blood in horses or other animals. 

FLEA-WORT (Plantago). A genus, the 
greater number of the species of which are 
mere weeds, of the easiest culture and propa- 
gation. See Plantain. 

FLECKED. A provincial tenn used to sig- 
nify pied, as cattle. 

FLEECE. The woolly covering shorn from 
ofl!"the body of the sheep. Mr. James Dickson 
of Edinburgh contributed a very able prize 
essay to the Highland Society (Trinis. vol. vi 
p. 205), "on the treatment of sheep, with a 
view to the improvement of the fleece." The 
earliest and rudest method of obtaining the 
fleece was to drive the flocks hastily through 
a narrow passage, when by their pressure 
. against each other the greater part of the fleece 



FLEMISH HUSBANDRY. 



FLIES. 



was loosened, or completely detached. To this 
succeeded another more inhuman mode. Tlue 
sheep was caught, and the fleece pulled from 
its back. This barbarous practice prevailed 
to a very recent date in the Orkney Islands. 
In England the average value of the fleece in 
1315 was 6d. (7s. 6d. of the present money), 
being nearly half as much as the value of the 
carcass. (The Sheep, Lib. of Use. Knoto. p. 33, 
205.) See Hair, SHEEP-SHEAniNo, and Wool. 

FLEMISH HUSBANDRY. See Flanders, 
Agriculture of. 

FLESH. Muscular flesh, which is too well 
known to need any particular description, is 
composed of a number of white or red fibres, 
compounded of still smaller fibres. It is united 
in ordinary cases with a variety of substances, 
such as blood, fat, ligament, sinew, and nerves. 
It has been analysed by M. Berzelius who 
found in it — 

Parts. 

Fibrin vessels and nerves - - - - - 15-8 

Cellular matter - - - - - - -TQ 

Muriate and lactate of soda .... 180 

Albumen and colouring matter of the blood - 220 

Phosphate of soda ...--- 0-90 

Extract - 015 

Albumen holding in solution phosphate of lime - 0-08 

Water and loss .-.--.- 77-17 

100 

The chief nutriment afforded by animal 
food is derived from muscle or flesh. That of 
adult animals is more nutritive than that of 
young animals ; hence beef and mutton are 
better adapted to support the frame than veal 
or lamb. The latter yield most gelatin ; but 
the popular idea of the nutritive property of 
animal jellies is erroneous. 

FLIES. "A host of flies," says Harris, 
" forming nearly one-third of the whole num- 
ber of species in the order Diptera, will be 
found to have a short and soft proboscis, end- 
ing with large fleshy lips, enclosing only two 
bristles, and capable of being drawn up within 
the cavity of the mouth. Their antennas are 
generally short, hang down over the face, and 
end with a large oval joint, bearing a little 
bristle. Their larvae, or young, are fleshy, 
whitish maggots, which never cast their skins, 
but when the pupa-state comes on, shorten, 
take the oblong oval form of an egg, and be- 
come brown, dry, and hard on the outside. 
This immense tribe includes the various kinds 
of flesh-flies, blow-flies, house-flies, dung-flies, 
flower-flies, fruit-flies, two-winged gall-flies, 
cheese-flies, and many others, for which we 
have no common names, but all composing 
the tribe of Muscans, or MicscaJm. Some of 
these flies do not strictly conform to the fore- 
going characters of the tribe, in all respects ; 
but the exceptions are few in number, and the 
most remarkable of them will be noticed in the 
following pages. 

" Many flies of this tribe are parasitic in their 
larvK state, their young living and undergoing 
their transformations within the bodies of 
other insects, particularly in caterpillars, which 
they thereby destroy. These flies belong chiefly 
to the family of Tachinadce, a name applied 
to them on account of the swiftness of their 
flight. In form they somewhat resemble 
house-flies ; like them they have very large 



winglets, and their wings spread apart when 
they are at rest. They are easily distinguish- 
ed, however, by the stiflT hairs wherewith they 
are more or less covered, and by the bristles 
on their antennae, which are not usually 
feathered. A large fly of this kind, the Tachuui 
vivida of my ' Catalogue,' is often seen on 
fences, and on plants, and sometimes in houses, 
towards the end of June and during the month 
of July. Its large, oval hind-body is of a clear 
light-red colour, with two or three black spots 
in a row, on the top of it, and a thick row 
of black bristles across each ring. The face 
is grayish white, like satin, and the eyes 
are copper-coloured. The thorax is gray, with 
brownish lines upon it. The antennae, pro- 
boscis, and legs are light red. Its body is short 
and thick, and is about half an inch long, and 
its wings expand rather more than nine-tenths 
of an inch." 

Viviparous Flesh-flies. — "Most insects are 
hatched from eggs which are laid by the mother 
on the substances that are to serve for the food 
of her young. Some flesh-flies produce their 
young alive, or already hatched, and drop them 
on the dead and putrefying animal matter, 
which they are obliged to consume and remove 
in the shortest possible time. An exception 
from the usual course among insects appears 
therefore to have been made in favour of these 
viviparous flesh-flies, to enable their young 
promptly to perform their appointed tasks. 
These insects produce an immense number of 
young, as many as 20,000 having been ob- 
served by Reaumur in a single fly. Our largest 
viviparous American flesh-fly is the Sarcophaga 
Georgina of Wiedemann. It appears towards 
the end of June, and continues till the middle 
of August, or perhaps later. Its face is silvery 
white, and there is an oblong square black spot 
between the eyes, which are copper-coloured. 
The thorax is light gray, with seven black stripes 
upon it. The hind-body is nearly conical, has 
the lustre of satin, and is checkered with square 
spots of black and white, shifting or inter- 
changing their colours according to the light 
wherein they are seen. The legs are black, 
and the hindmost pair are very hairy in the 
males. The female is about half an inch long; 
and the male is rather smaller. In the Sarco- 
phagans, or flesh-eaters, as the name implies, 
the bristles on the antennce are feathered." 

Stable-fly. — "The flies that abound in Ameri- 
can stables in August and September, and some- 
times enter houses on the approach of rain, 
might be mistaken for house-flies,wereitnot for 
the severity of their bites, which are often felt 
through our clothing, and are generally followed 
by blood. Upon examination they will be found 
to differ essentially from house-flies in their 
proboscis, which is very long and slender, and 
projects horizontally beyond the head. The 
bristles on their antennae are feathered above. 
Cattle suffer sorely from the piercing bites of 
these flies, and horses are sometimes so much 
tormented and enraged by them as to become 
entirely ungovernable in harness. The name 
of this kind of fly is Stomoxys calritrans ; the 
first word signifying sharp-mouthed, and the 
second kicking, given to the fly from the efleci 
it produces on horses. It lays its eggs lu 

4.97" 



FLINT. 



FLOUR. 



dung, where its young are hatched, and pass 
through their transformations. The larvae and 
pupsB do not differ much in appearance from 
those of common house-flies." 

Meat-flies.— "h is found all summer about 
slaughter-houses, butchers' stalls, and pantries, 
which it frequents for the purpose of laying its 
eggs on meat. The eggs are commonly called 
fly-blows; they hatch m two or three hours 
after they are laid, and the maggots produced 
from them come to their growth in three or 
four days, after which they creep away into 
some dark crevice, or burrow in the ground, 
if they can get at it, turn to egg-shaped pupse, 
and come out as flies, in a few days more; or 
they remain unchanged through the winter, if 
they have been hatched late in the summer. 
A smaller fly, of a brilliant blue-green colour, 
with black legs, also lays its eggs on meat, but 
more often on dead animals in the fields. It 
seems hardly to diflfer from the Musca (LuciUa) 
Ccesar of Europe. The house-fly of this coun- 
try has been supposed to be the same as the 
European Musca domestica; but I cannot satisfy 
myself on this point for the want of specimens 
from Europe. It is possible that our sharp- 
biting stable-flies, the meat-flies, and the house- 
fly, may really be distinct species from those 
which are found in Europe." 

House-fly. — The American house-fly is the 
Musca harpyia, or ha.rpy-Ay of Dr. Harris's Cata- 
logue. It begins to appear in houses in July, be- 
comes exceedingly abundant in September, and 
does not disappear till killed by cold weather. It 
is probable that, like the domestic fly of Europe, 
it lays its eggs in dung, in which its larvae live, 
and pass through their changes of form. The 
Americans are accused of carelessness in re- 
gard to flies, and apparently with some reason. 
But, if these filthy, dung-bred creatures swarm 
in some houses, covering every article of food 
by day, and absolutely blackening the walls by 
night, in others comparatively few are found; 
for the tidy house-keeper takes care not to 
leave food of any kind standing about, unco- 
vered, to entice them in, and makes a business 
of driving out the intruders at least once a 
day. If a plateful of strong green tea, well 
sweetened, be placed in an outer apartment 
accessible to flies, they will taste of it, and be 
killed thereby, as surely as by the most ap- 
proved fly-poison. In the first volume of The 
Transactions of the Entomotogiral Society of Lon- 
don, Mr. Spence gives an account of a mode 
of excluding flies from apartments, which has 
been tried with complete success in England. 
It consists of netting, made of fine worsted or 
thread, in large meshes, or of threads alone, 
half of an inch or more apart, stretched across 
the windows. It appears that the flies will not 
attempt to pass through the meshes, or between 
the threads, into a room which is lighted only 
on one side ; but if there are windows on 
another side of the room, they will then fly 
through ; such windows should therefore be 
darkened with shutters or thick curtains. 
{Harris.') 

FLINT. Common flints are nearly pure 

iilica, which is composed of a metal (silicium) 

and oxygen gas ; it is tasteless, insoluble in 

water, or fluoric acid, ani dissolvable only by 

48i< 



means of potash. Flints usually occur in 
irregular nodules in chalk. They abound 
considerably in some sorts of soils. Sand is 
commonly chiefly composed of flint. A spe- 
cimen of flint analyzed by M. Klaproth con- 
tained 

Farts. 

Silica ------ 98 

Alumina ----- 0-25 

Oxide of iron - - - - 0-25 

Water loO 

100 

Flint, when exposed to intense heat, becomes 
opaque, and forms a kind of porcelain. This 
was well illustrated in the fire in the Tower of 
Loudon, in 1841. The flints of the muskets 
were all thus changed. See Earths. 

FLOAT. A raft of timber bound together 
to be conveyed by water. It also signifies 
locally to turn water upon meadow land for 
improving it; and likewise to pare ofi" the sur- 
face or sward. 

FLOATING OF MEADOWS. See Inni- 

GATIOX. 

FLOUR (Span, flor ; It. fore; Fr. fleur de 
farnie). The meal of wheat corn or other grain, 
separated from the husk or bran, and finally 
ground and sifted. There are in England three 
qualities of flour, denominated yi;s/, seconds, and 
thirds, of which the first is the purest. (See 
Bread.) The proportion of flour which a 
bushel of grain aficirds greatly varies. A 
bushel of Essex wheat, Winchester measure, 
weighs upon an average about 60 lbs., which, 
when ground, will yield (exclusive of the loss 
incurred by the grinding and drying) 45^ lbs. 
of the flour called seconds, which alone is used 
for baking throughout the greater part of Eng- 
land, and affords the most wholesome, though 
not the whitest bread. Besides the seconds, 
such a bushel of wheat yields 13 lbs. of pollard 
and bran ; the total loss in grinding seldom 
exceeds one pound and a half. 

The corn of the different species of grair^ 
produces, when ripe, nearly the following 
quantities of meal or household flour and bread 
per bushel : viz. 

Wheat if weighing CO lbs., of flour 48 lbs. of bread 64 lbs. 
Rye — 54 — 42 — 56 

Barley — 49 — .STi — 50 

Oats — 40 — 22i — 30 

The flour of wheat which is cut before it is 
quite ripe is whiter than that which is allowed 
to come to maturity, and bears a higher price in 
the markets. The grain which is intended for 
the miller should, therefore, be reaped before 
it has reached its utmost growth; but that 
which is meant for seed should be allowed to 
stand until the last moment at which it can be 
cut with safety. The corn is ground into 
meal of various degrees of fineness, and a 
bushel of 60 lbs. generally yields, when dressed, 
about the following quantities, viz. 

Fine flour .... 25^1)8. 

Household flour ... 22^ 

Pollards 8 

Bran - - - . . .i 

A bushel of wheat, therefore, averages 48 lbs. 
of both kinds of flour of the sort called " se- 
conds," and a sack of marketable flour should 
by law weigh 280 lbs. These products must, 



FLOWER DE LUCE. 



FLY IN TURNIPS. 



however, vary according to the quality of the 
grain ; some will produce more or less bran, 
as the husk may be more or less thick ; and 
the bakers admit they can make two or three 
more quartern loaves than the usual quantity 
from one sack of flour, when it is the genuine 
produce of good wheat. Thus it was found 
upon a comparative trial between English and 
Scotch wheat, of apparently equal quality, that 
there was a diSerence in favour of the former 
of no less than 13 lbs. of bread upon 2^ cwts. 
of flour. (Willich's Dom. Ency.; Biit, Husb. 
vol. ii.pp. 137, 155.) 

FLOWER DE LUCE, or LIS. FLAG. See 
Iris. 

FLOWERING ASH (Scopoli). All the spe- 
cies of the genus scopoli are ornamental and 
useful ; they are easily cultivated, and may be 
raised from seeds, like the common ash, or 
they may be increased by budding or grafting 
on the c(>mmon ash. 

FLOWERING RUSH, COMMON (Butomus 
umbellalus). This beautiful aquatic plant is in 
England a nauve of ponds, ditches, and the 
margins of rivers on a gravelly soil. It flowers 
in July and August. The leaves are narrow, 
acute, nearly a yard long. The stalk is still 
taller, round, and very smooth, and bears a large 
bracteated umbel of handsome rose-coloured 
flowers, each about an inch broad, without 
scent. This rush may be increased with little 
difficulty. The leaves of this plant are said to 
cause the mouths of cattle to bleed that crop 
it; hence the name, from hous, ox, and temno, to 
cut. It was some years since much celebrated 
in Russia as a remedy for hydrophobia ; but 
like all specifics, its fame was destroyed by 
excess of praise. It has no influence in curing 
that disease. 

FLOWERS. The most beautiful parts of 
plants and trees, which contain the organs of 
fructification. (See Botaxt.) From their 
frequent utility as medicinal drugs, as well as 
their external beauty, the cultivation of flowers 
in our gardens becomes an object of some im- 
portance. Flowers are many of them excel- 
lent indicators of the approaching weather by 
expansion or closing, and other motions. It is 
an established fact, that flowers as well as 
fruits grow larger in the shade, and ripen and 
decay soonest when exposed to the sun. The 
immediate cause of the various colours pre- 
sented by some flowers, such as poppies, has 
not hitherto been distinctly ascertained. Co- 
louring matter is contained in almost every 
flower and root of vegetables, and may be 
extracted by a very simple process. Flowers 
which are to be used or preserved for medi- 
cinal purposes should, with a few exceptions, 
be gathered in full bloom, and dried as speed- 
ily as possible. The rose, Rosa Gallica, is 
gathered before it is fully blown. In drying 
flowers, the calyces, claws, &c. should be pre- 
viously taken ofi": when the flowers are very 
small, the calyx is left, or even the whole 
flowering spike, as in the greatest portion of 
the labiate flowers. In some instances, as in 
the baulistines, or pomegranate flower, the active 
matter resides chiefly in the calyx. Compound 
flowers with pappous seeds, as colt's-foot, ought 
to be dried very high, and before they are en- 
62 



tirely open, otherwise the slight moisture that 
remains would develope the pappus, and form 
a kind of cottony nap, which would be very 
hurtful in infusions, by leaving irritating par- 
ticles in the throat. Flowers of little or no 
smell may be dried in a heat of 75 to 100° 
Fahr. The succulent petals of the liliaceous 
plants, whose odour is very fugacious, cannot 
well be dried, as their mucilaginous substance 
rots and grows black. Several sorts of flower- 
ing tops, as those of lesser centaury, worm- 
wood, melilot, water germander, &c., are tied 
in small parcels and hung up, or else exposed 
to the sun, wrapped in paper cornets, that they 
may not be discoloured. After some time, blue 
flowers, as those of violets, bugloss, or borage, 
grow yellow, and even become entirely disco- 
loured, especially if they are kept in glass 
vessels that admit the light: if, however, they 
are dipped for a moment in boiling water, 
and slightly pressed before they are put into 
the drying stove, the blue colour is rendered 
permanent. (Grai/s Svp. to Pharmacop.') It 
is probable that varieties in the colours 
of single flowers raised from seeds may be 
generally obtained by sowing those which 
already possess different shades contiguous to 
others of the same species ; or by bending the 
flowers of one colour, and shaking the anther- 
dust over those of another. The origin of 
double flowers is believed to result from the 
luxuriant growth of the plant, in consequence 
of excessive nourishment, moisture, and 
warmth ; they arise from the increase of some 
parts of the flower, and the consequent exclu- 
sion of others : thus the stamens are often 
converted into petals. Botanists very pro- 
perly term such multiplied flowers vegetable 
monsters, because they possess no stamens or 
pistils, and therefore cannot produce seeds. 
There subsists (says Dr. Darwin) a curious 
analogy between these vegetable monsters and 
those of the animal world; for a diiplicature 
of limbs frequently attend the latter, as chickens 
and turkeys with four legs and four wings, 
and calves with two heads, &c. The science 
of floriculture, or the culture, propagation, and 
general management of plants, divides itself 
into five sections, viz. 1. Stove plants; 2. 
Greenhouse plants; 3. Hardy trees and shrubs; 
4. Hardy herbaceous plants; 5. Annuals and 
biennials. 

FLUKE WORM (Distoma hcpatimm : Fas- 
ciola hepatica, Linn.). A small flat entozoon or 
worm, about an inch long, which infests the 
ducts of the liver and gall-bladder of different 
animals, especially sheep. In those that have 
died of the rot, it is generally found fixed by 
two points, one at one extremity, and the other 
about the middle of the abdomen of the worm, 
it bears some resemblance to the seed of the 
common gourd, and thence is often called the 
gourd-worm. See Shebp, Diseases of. 

FLY IN SHEEP. See Sheep, Diseases of. 

FLY IN TURNIPS (Mtica nemorum). A 
species of flea-beetle, which in England attacks 
the turnip crop in the cotyledon, or seed leaf, 
as soon as it appears : it is sometimes called 
the black jack, and sometimes the flea, or 
black fly. All the species are among the 
smallest insects; several are scarcely a '.'ue 

489 



FLY IN TURNIPS. 



FLY IN WHEAT. 



long : the length of the largest is hardly two 
lines, and one in breadth. The greatest num- 
ber are shining green, with a brown or yel- 
lowish hue. Early in spring they are seen 
sitting on walls in great numbers ; in winter 
they live under leaves, stems of plants, and in 
chinks in walls : during summer they are the 
most dangerous enemies of various vegetables, 
particularly the cabbage tribe. They also 
attack different sorts of the root genus Brassica, 
such as the turnip, &c., as well as the radish, 
ihe common cress, and the water cress. Be- 
sides these sorts of vegetables, they also prey 
upon flax, tobacco, hops, seedling clover, and 
sainfoin, but more especially the summer and 
winter turnips, which are left for seed, and 
often entirely spoil the future harvest during 
the flowering season, when the weather is 
warm and dry. The turnip beetle belongs to 
the order Coleopteha, from its wings with 
which it flies being folded beneath two horny 
cases. It is included in the family Chutso- 
MELiD^, or golden beetles, for certain scientific 
reasons, in conformity with its structure, and 
IS one of about 100 species forming the genus 
Altica, sometimes written Haltica. 

The striped turnip beetle is named in the Eng- 
lish catalogues Altica nemorum. The former 
word, derived from the Greek, alludes to the 
leaping powers of the genus, and the latter 
signifying that this species inhabits woods and 
groves, which were more especially its haunts 
before turnip cultivation became general. See 
Cucumber Insects. 

The remedies recommended are numerous, 
among which, hoeing and rolling may harass 
and kill many of the beetles ; and as this pro- 
cess promotes the more rapid growth of the 
plants, it must be attended with no slight ad- 
vantages. From the dislike the fly has to 
repeated wet, frequent watering the turnips 
would evidently be very beneficial, particularly 
with brine (not strong enough to injure the 
plants) or liquid manure, which would stimu- 
late the growth most effectually ; and many of 
the beetles would necessarily be forcibly brush- 
ed off, and get set fast in the earth, and die. 
Sulphuric solutions sprinkled by machinery 
would also have a powerful effect. Nitrate of 
soda has been tried in a few instances on crops 
of Swedish turnips with very beneficial results. 
A net (called after its inventor the Paul net) 
dragged over the field has been usefully em- 
ployed ; and a board newly painted with white 
paint, or tarred, drawn over the turnips, will 
catch multitudes of the beetles ; for, on being 
disturbed, they leap against it, and cannot re- 
lease themselves. 

The rapid growth of the plant appears to be 
the best security against the ravages of the 
insect; and to insure this, plenty of seed should 
be sown, all of the same year's growth. Deep 
ploughing will be found advantageous when 
the chrysalides are in the soil. Drilling is far 
superior to broadcast sowing, and in Scotland 
is believed to keep away the beetles. Early 
sowing is attended with disadvantages ; for 
the same warmth and sunshine that make the 
seed vegetate will also bring the hungry 
swanns of beetles from their winter quarters. 

In England, where the ravages of the flea- 
490 



beetle have attracted so much attention, it is 
thought that the careful and systematic use of 
lime will obviate, in a great degree, the danger 
which has been experienced from this insect. 
As soon as the plants appear above ground 
they are to be dusted with quicklime, and this 
is to be repeated as often as rain or wind beats 
it oft' and the fly reappears. Watering plants 
with alkaline solutions, it is said, will kill the 
insects without injuring the plants. To make 
the solution, 1 lb. of hard soap may be dissolved 
in 12 gallons of soap-suds left after washing 
clothes. This may be sprinkled twice a day 
by means of a watering pot. The solution of 
whale oil soap as recommended for the destruc- 
tion of Aphides or plant-lice, would doubtless 
answer an excellent purpose in destroying the 
turnip fly. 

The turnip saw-fly {Mialia spinarum), is a 
less common depredator, but in England is oc- 
casionally found in company with the former. 
A very minute account of it is given by Mr. 
Duncan. (Quart, Journ. of Agr. vol. vii. p. 558.) 
It receives its name from the use and appear- 
ance of the instrument with which it deposits 
its eggs. This is placed at the extremity of the 
abdomen of the female, on the under side, and 
is so constructed that it combines the proper- 
ties of a saw and auger. {Kollar on Insects inju- 
rious to Farmers, Miss Loudon's Transl. ; Doncas- 
ter Report ; Mr. Curtis on Insects affecting the 
Turnip Crop; Pract. Husbandry ; Harris on De- 
structive Insects.) 

FLY IN WHEAT (Tipula tritici, Kirby; 
Cecidomyia tritici, Latr.). See PI. 2, i. In Eng- 
land when the wheat is in blossom, it is some- 
times attacked by this small beautiful fly, with 
an orange-coloured body and while wings, 
which lays its eggs in the middle of the blos- 
som, by means of a long retractile ovipositor. 
When the eggs are hatched, the larvae, which 
are very small, from 10 to 14 being sometimes 
found in one grain, prevent the fructification 
of the grains, probably by eating the pollen, 
and thus frequently destroy some part of the 
harvest. Mr. Shirreff (Quart. Journ. of Agr. 
vol. iii. p. 501) says the fly generally appears 
when the wheat plant comes into ear. In 1829 
and 1830, flies were first seen by him on the 
21st of June, and, in 1831, on the 10th of the 
same month. The larvae, after a period, fall to 
the ground, and burrow in the earth, where 
they remain till the following summer. Ac- 
cording to Mr. Gorrie (Mag. Nat. Hist., Sept., 
1829, p. 324), all the larvas have quitted the 
ears of wheat and descended to the earth by 
the 1st of August; going into the ground to 
about the depth of half an inch, where it is pro- 
bable that they pass the winter in the pupa state. 

The extraordinary smallness of this insect, 
both in its larva and perfect state, with the 
circumstance that the destruction of the wheat 
takes place when it is in blossom, and that not 
all the ears on one and the same field are at- 
tacked, allows of but little that can be effected 
by human aid against this enemy of grain. The 
safest and almost only certain means of dimi- 
nishing such an evil for the succeeding year, 
consists in not sowing wheat again on the same 
field, nor in its neighbourhood ; for, in all pro- 
bability, the pupae lie in the earth, and will 



FLY IN WHEAT. 



FLY IN WHEAT. 



only become flies next year at the season when 
the corn is in blossom. Fortunately, nature 
has in this case provided another still smaller 
parasitic insect, allied to the family of Ichneu- 
mons, to keep the midge also within its pro- 
per bounds. Mr. Kirby, who first made us ac- 
quainted with the natural history of this insect, 
calls the parasite Ichneimwn Tipulce. It is a spe- 
cies of the genus Platygaster of Latreille, be- 
longing to the family Proctotrupidce. 

Mr. Gorrie states that, from the experiments 
which he made in the season 1831, the variety 
of wheat cultivated under the name of Cone 
wheat {Triticum turgidum, PI. 2, d), is not liable 
to the attacks of the fly. (Quart. Journ. of Jgr. 
vol. iii. p. 639.) Mr. Shirrefi" (Ibid. p. 305), also 
considers the Polish wheat (T. Polonicum, PI. 2, 
c), to be in a measure secure from its attacks. 

The ravages committed by the wheat-fly in 
Scotland are sometimes very extensive. It is 
stated by Mr. Shirreif, that throughout the whole 
of East Lothian, during the years 1827, 1828, 
1829, and 1830, the fly injured the wheat crop 
to the amount of 30 per cent. Should the fly 
abound in this proportion throughout the king- 
dom in successive years, the loss to the com- 
munity would be incalculable. Mr. Gorrie 
seems to think that the wheat-fly maggot might 
be so buried as not to be able to work their 
way up through the superincumbent soil ; if, 
in ploughing in the wheal stubble, a scarifier 
or skiniiner were fixed upon the beam before 
the coulter, so constructed as to lay about an 
inch of the surface in the bottom of the furrow. 
There is another kind of fly or midge (Tipula 
cerealis, Sauter), which is particularly injurious 
to spelt (a kind of dwarf wheat) and barley. 
(Kollar on Insects injurious to .Bgricidture. Quart. 
Journ. of jigr. vol. ii. p. 3; Westwood on Wheat 
Flies, in Gard. Mag. vol. xiii. p. 289.) 

An insect resembling the European wheat- 
fly in its habits, and known, in its maggot 
form, by the name of " the grain-worm," has 
been observed for several years in the north- 
ern and eastern parts of the United States 
and in Canada. (See PI. 2, ?', whei-e the maggot 
and fly are represented as highly magnified.') " It 
seems," says Dr. Harris, " to have been mis- 
taken by some for the grain-weevil, the Angou- 
mois grain-moth, and the Hessian fly, and its 
history has been so confounded with that of 
another insect, also called the grain-worm in 
some parts of the country, that it is difficult to 
ascertain the amount of injury done by either 
of them alone. The wheat-fly is said to have 
been first seen in America about the year 1828, 
in the northern part of Vermont, and on the 
borders of Lower Canada. From these places 
its ravages have gradually extended in various 
directions from year to year. A considerable 
part of Upper Canada, of New York, New 
Hampshire, and of Massachusetts has been 
visited by it; and, in 1834, it appeared in 
Maine, which it has traversed, in an easterly 
course, at the rate of 20 or 30 miles a year. 
The country over which it has spread has con- 
tinued to suffer more or less from its alarming 
depredations, the loss by which has been found 
to vary from about one-tenth part to nearly the 
whole of the annual crop of wheat ; nor has 
the insect entirely disappeared in any place 



till it has been starved out by a change of agri- 
culture, or by the substitution of late-sown 
spring wheat for the other varieties of grain. 
Many communications on this destructive in- 
sect have appeared in the Genesee Farmer and 
in the Cultivator, some of them written by the 
late Judge Buel, by whom, as well as by the 
editors of the Ya7ikee Farmer, rewards were 
offered for the discovery of the means to pre- 
vent its ravages. Premiums have also been 
proposed for the same end by the Kennebec 
County Agricultural Society, in Maine, which 
were followed by the publication in the Maine 
Farmer of three "Essays on the Grain- Worm," 
presented to that Society. These essays were 
reprinted in the 17th volume of the New Eng- 
land Farmer, wherein, as well as in some other 
volumes of the same work, several other arti- 
cles on this insect maybe found. 

"The American wheat-insect, in its winged 
form, has not yet fallen under my notice. It is 
stated by Judge Buel, Mrs. Gage, and others, 
to agree exactly with the description of the 
European wheat-fly (Cevidomyia tritici), being 
a very small, orange-coloured gnat, with long, 
slender legs, and two transparent wings, which 
reflect the tints of the rainbow. Immense 
swarms of these orange-coloured gnats infest 
fields of grain towards the last of June. While 
the sun shines they conceal themselves among 
the leaves and weeds near the ground. They 
take wing during the morning and evening twi- 
light, and also in cloudy weather, when they 
lay their eggs in the opening flowers of the 
grain. New swarms continue to come forth 
in succession, till the end of July; but Mr. 
Buel says that ihe principal deposit of eggs is 
made in the first half of July, when late sown 
winter-wheat and early sown spring-wheat are 
in the blossom or milk. The flies are not con- 
fined to wheat alone, but deposit in barley, rye, 
and oats, when these plants are in flower at the 
time of their appearance. The eggs hatch in 
about eight days after they are laid, when the 
little yellow maggots or grain-worms may be 
found within the chafiy scales of the grain. 
Being hatched at various times during a period 
of four or five weeks, they do not all arrive at 
maturity together. Mrs. Gage informs me that 
they appear to come to their growth in 12 or 
14 days. Specimens of these maggots which 
she has sent to me were found to agree, in 
every respect, with the descriptions and figures 
of those of the European wheat-fly. They do 
not exceed one-eighth of an inch in length, and 
are not provided with feet. From 2 to 15 or 
20 have been found within the husk of a single 
grain, and sometimes in every husk in the ear. 
After a shower of rain they have been seen in 
such countless numbers on the beards of the 
wheat, as to give a yellow colour to the whole 
field. These insects prey on the grain in the 
milky state, and their ravages cease when the 
grain becomes hard. They do not .burrow 
within the kernels, but live on the pollen and 
on the soft matter of the grain, which they pro- 
bably extract from the base of the germs. It 
appears, from various statements, that verj 
early and very late wheat escape with compa- 
ratively little injury; the amount of which, in 
other cases, depends upon the condition of the 

491 



FLY IN WHEAT. 



FLY IN WHEAT. 



grain at the time when the maggots are hatched. 
When the maggots begin their depredations 
soon after the blossoming of the grain, they do 
the greatest injury, for the kernels never fill 
out at all. Pinched or partly filled kernels are 
the consequence of their attacks when the 
grain is more advanced. The hulls of the im- 
poverished kernels will always be found split 
open on the convex side, so as to expose the 
embryo. This is caused by the drying and 
shrinking of the hull, after a portion of the con- 
tents thereof has been sucked out by the mag- 
gots. Towards the end of July and in the be- 
ginning of August the full-grown maggots leave 
off eating, and become sluggish and torpid, pre- 
paratory to moulting their skins. This process, 
which has been alluded to by Judge Buel and 
some other writers, has been carefully observed 
by Mrs. Gage, who has sent to me the maggots 
before and after moulting, together with some 
of their cast skins. Within two or three days 
after moulting, the maggots either drop of their 
own accord, or are shaken out of the ears by 
the wind, and fall to the ground. They do not 
let themselves down by threads, for they are 
not able to spin. Nearly all of them disappear 
before the middle of August, and they are very 
rarely found in the grain at the time of harvest. 
" Several cases of the efficacy of fumigation 
in preventing the depredations of these insects 
are recorded in our agricultural papers. For 
this purpose brimstone has been used, in the 
proportion of one pound to every bushel of 
seed sown. Strips of woollen cloth, dipped in 
melted brimstone, and fastened to slicks in 
different parts of the field, and particularly on 
the windward side, are set on fire, for several 
evenings in succession, at the time when the 
grain is in blossom; the smoke and fumes thus 
penetrate the standing grain, and prove very j 
offensive or destructive to the flies, which are 
laying their eggs. A thick smoke from heaps 
of burning weeds, sprinkled with brimstone, 
around the sides of the field, has also been re- 
commended. Lime or ashes, strown over the 
grain when in blossom, has, in some cases, ap- 
peared to protect the crop; and the Rev. Henry 
Colman, the Commissioner for the Agricultu- 
ral Survey of Massachusetts, says that this 
preventive, if not infallible, may be relied on 
with strong confidence. For every acre of 
grain, from one peck to a bushel of newly 
slaked lime or of good wood ashes will be re- 
quired; and this should be scattered over the 
plants when they are wet with dew or rain. 
Two or three applications of it have some- 
times been found necessary. Whether it be 
possible to destroy the maggots after they have 
left the grain, and have betaken themselves to 
their winter quarters, just below the surface 
of the ground, remains to be proved. Some 
persons have advised burning the stubble, and 
ploughing up the ground, soon after the grain 
is harvested, in order to kill the maggots, or to 
bury them so deeply that they could not make 
their escape after they were transformed to 
flies. Perhaps thoroughly liming the soil be- 
fore it is ploughed may contribute to the de- 
struction of the insects. It is stated that our 
crops may be saved from injury by sowing 
early in the autumn or late in the spring. By 
49i 



the first, it is supposed that the grain will be- 
come hard before many of the flies make their 
appearance ; and by the latter, the plants do 
not come into blossom until the flies have dis- 
appeared. In those parts of New England 
where these insects have done the greatest in- 
jury, the cultivation of fall-sown or winter 
grain has been given up ; and this, for some 
years to come, will be found the safest course. 
The proper time for sowing in the spring will 
vary with the latitude and elevation of the 
place, and the forwardness of the season. 
From numerous observations made in this 
part of the country, it appears that grain sown 
after the 15th or 20th of May generally escapes 
the ravages of these destructive insects. Late 
sowing has almost entirely banished the wheat- 
flies from those parts of Vermont where they 
first appeared; and there is good reason to ex- 
pect that these depredators will be completely 
starved out and exterminated, when the means 
above recommended have been generally adopt- 
ed and persevered in for several years in suc- 
cession. 

" Mrs. Gage has discovered another perni- 
cious insect in the ears of growing wheat. It 
seems to agree with the accounts of the Thrips 
ccrcalium, which sometimes infests wheat in 
Europe to a great extent. This insect belongs 
to the order Hemiptera. In its larva state it 
is smaller than the wheat maggot, is orange- 
coloured, and is provided with six legs, two 
antennce, and a short beak, and is very nimble 
in its motions. It is supposed to suck out the 
juices of the seed, thus causing the latter to 
shrink, and become what the English farmers 
call pungled. This little pest may probably 
be destroyed by giving the grain a thorough 
coating of slaked lime. 

" Our agricultural papers contain some ac- 
counts of an insect or insects much larger than 
the maggots of the wheat-fly, growing to the 
length of three-eighths of an inch or more, and 
devouring the grain in the ear, and after it is 
harvested. The insects to which I allude have 
received the names of wheat-worms, gray 
worms, and brown weevils ; and, although 
these different names may possibly refer to 
two or more distinct species, I am inclined to 
think that all of them are intended for only one 
kind of insect. Sometimes this has also been 
called the grain-worm ; whereby it becomes 
somewhat difficult to separate the accounts of 
its history and depredations from those of the 
Cccidomyia, or wheat-insect, described in the 
foregoing pages. It may, however, very safely 
be asserted that the wheat-worm of the western 
part of New York and of the northern part of 
Pennsylvania is entirely distinct from the 
maggots of our wheat-fly, and that it does not 
belong to the same order of insects. From 
the description of it, published in the sixth 
volume of the Cultivator, by Mr. Willis Gayiord, 
this depredator appears to be a caterpillar, or 
span-worm, being provided with twelve feet, 
six of which are situated near each extremity 
of its body. Like other span-worms, or Geo- 
meters, it has the power of spinning and sus- 
pending itself by a thread. Mr. Gayiord says 
that it is of a yellowish-brown or butternut 
colour ; that it not only feeds on the kernel in 



FLY IN WHEAT. 



FLY IN WHEAT. 



the milky state, but also devours the germi- 
nating end of the ripened grain, without, how- 
ever, burying itself within the hull ; and that 
it is found in great numbers, in the chaff, when 
the grain is thrashed. He says, moreover, that 
it has been known for years in the western 
part of New York ; and that it is not so much 
the new appearance of this insect, as its in- 
crease, which has caused the present alarm 
respecting it. The transformations and the 
appearance of this insect in its perfected state 
have not yet been described. Mr. Nathaniel 
Sill, of Warren, Pennsylvania, has given a 
somewhat different description of it. On 
thrashing his winter-wheat, immediately after 
harvest, he found among the screenings a vast 
army of this new enemy. He says that it was 
a caterpillar, about three-eighths of an inch in 
length, when fully grown, and apparently of a 
straw-colour; but, when seen through a mag- 
nifier, was found to be striped lengthwise with 
orange and cream colour. Its head was dark 
brown. It was provided with legs, could sus- 
pend itself by a thread, and resembled a cater- 
pillar in all its motions. This insect ought not 
to be confounded with the smaller worms 
found by Mr. Sill in the upper joints of the 
stems of the wheat, and within the kernels, 
until their identity has been proved by further 
observations. It appears highly probable that 
Mr. Gaylord's and Mr. Sill's wheat-caterpillars 
are the same, notwithstanding the difference in 
their colour. Insects, of the same size as these 
caterpillars, and of a brownish colour, have 
been found in various parts of Maine, where 
they have done much injury to the grain. 
Unlike the maggots of the wheat-fly, with 
which they have been confounded, they remain 
depredating upon the ears of the grain until 
after the time of harvest. Immense numbers 
of them have been seen upon barn-floors, 
where the grain has been thrashed, but they 
soon crawl away, and conceal themselves in 
crevices, where they probably undergo their 
transfoimations. These wheat -worms, or 
wheat-caterpillars, as they ought to be called, 
if the foregoing accounts really refer to the 
same kind of insect, are supposed by some 
persons to be identical with the clover-worms, 
which have been found in clover, in various 
parts of the country, and have often been seen 
spinning down from lofts and mows where 
clover has been stowed away." 

Flies Destructive to Barley. Several 
communications respecting a disease of bar- 
ley-straw, produced by the punctures of in- 
sects, were published in Fessenden's Neiv 
E/nglaml Farmer, in 1829 and 1830 (vol. 8th). 
In one of these,-, from the Hon. J. Merrill, 
of Newburyport, it is stated that the barley 
in that vicinity yields not much more than 
the seed sown. Most of the stalks were found 
to have a number of small worms within 
them, near to the second joint, and had become 
hardened in the part attacked. During several 
years previous to this date the crops of barley 
in various parts of Essex and Middlesex coun- 
ties, had been more or less injured in the same 
way, so as in some places to induce farmers to 
abandon the culture. It was supposed that the 
insects had been imported from Bremen, or 



some other port in the north of Europe The 
maggots were found to be transformed into 
small flies, which were thought by some to be 
the same as Hessian flies. In the summer of 
1831, myriads of these flies were found alive 
in straw beds in Gloucester, the straw having 
been taken from the fields the year before. 
Complaints were made that the insects in these 
straw beds stung those that slept upon them. 
But Dr. Harris thinks that the stings must 
have come, not from the grain-fly itself, but 
from parasites, vast numbers of which, closely 
resembling the Eurytoma Deslrudor, have been 
found to come out of the diseased straw. 

When the barley is about 8 or 10 inches 
high, the effects of the disease in it begin to be 
visible by a sudden check in the growth of the 
plants, and the yellow colour of their lower 
leaves. If the butts of the straw are now ex- 
amined, they will be found to be irregularly 
swollen, and discoloured, between the second 
and third joints, and, instead of being hollow, 
are rendered solid, hard, and brittle, so that the 
stem above the diseased part is impoverished, 
and seldom produces any grain. Suckers, 
however, shoot out below, and afterwards yield 
a partial crop, seldom exceeding one-half the 
usual quantity of grain. "It is evident," says 
Mr. Gourgas, "that the soundness of the grain, 
raised in a blighted field, is not affected thereby 
in the slightest degree; the seed (eggs) to per- 
petuate the disease from year to year is lodged 
in the straw, which, when hatched, are the 
worms" before mentioned. Dr. Andrew Ni- 
chols, of Danvers states, that these worms are 
about one-tenth of an inch in length, and of a 
yellow or straw colour ; and that in the month 
of November, they appeared to have passed to 
the chrysalis state. They live through the 
winter unchanged in the straw, many of them 
in the stubble in the field, while others are car- 
ried away when the grain is harvested. When 
the barley is thrashed, numerous small pieces 
of diseased straw, too hard to be broken by the 
flail, will be found among the grain. Some of 
these may be separated by the winnowing ma- 
chine, but many others are too large and heavy 
to be winnowed out, and remain with the grain, 
from which they can only be removed by the 
slow process of picking them out by hand. 

Dr. Harris, who examined portions of the 
diseased barley-straw, states that he found each 
piece to contain several small, whitish mag- 
gots, each maggot imbedded in the thickened 
and solid substance of the stem, a little longi- 
tudinal hollow, of the shape of its own body ; 
and its presence was known by an oblong 
swelling upon the surface. In some pieces of 
straw the swellings were so numerous as 
greatly to disfigure the stem, the circulation in 
which must have been very much checked if 
not destroyed. Early in the following spring, 
these maggots entered the pups or chrysalis 
state, and on the 15th of June the perfected 
insects began to make their escape through 
minute perforations in the straw, which they 
gnawed for this purpose. Seven of these little 
holes were counted in a piece of straw only 
half an inch in length. The insects continue(' 
to release themselves from their confinement 
till the 5th of July, after which no more wpr»' 
2T 493 



FLY, HESSIAN. 

seen. Much to his surprise they proved to be 
minute, four-winged Ichneumon-flies, which 
are parasitical, or prey, in the larva state, on 
the bodies of other insects. He had hoped to 
have obtained the true culprits, the cause of 
the disease, supposing that the latter were al- 
lied to the Hessian fly; but these little insects, 
while in the larva state, had destroyed them 
all, and, having finished their appointed task, 
and undergone their transformations, now- 
made their escape from the straw in the 
winged form. The scientific name, given to 
this newly discovered parasite, was Etirytoma 
Hordei, so called from Hordeum, the Latin 
name for barley. It is very much like the 
parasite (Evrytoma destrvclor) of the Hessian 
fly, described by Mr. Say, but is rather larger, 
of a jet black colour, except the legs, which 
are blackish, with pale yellow joints. The head 
and thorax are somewhat rough, and slightly 
hairy ; the hind-body is smooth and polished. 
The female is thirteen-hundredths of an inch 
long ; the male is rather smaller. It often 
moves by little leaps, but the hindmost thighs 
are not thickened. This minute insect is to 
be reckoned among our friends, being ap- 
pointed, by an all-wise and provident Creator, 
to check the increase of the destructive fly 
that attacks our barley. Though disappointed 
in my attempts to obtain the latter, in its per- 
fected state, I hail with pleasure the appear- 
ance of its mortal enemy. " Although," says 
Dr. Harris, " the barley-fly has not yet been 
seen by me, there does not exist the smallest 
doubt in my mind that it is a two-winged gnat, 
like the Hessian fly and wheat-fly. Any one, 
who will compare the history of the latter two 
with what is known of the barley insect, Avill 
arrive at the same conclusion. Both the Hes- 
sian fly and the barley insect attack the culms 
or straw of grain, which they injure to a great 
extent; and both have a similar four-winged 
parasite appropriated to them. It is probable 
that the barle3'-fly is a species of Cccidomyia, 
distinct from the Hessian and the wheat-flies." 

We have reason to believe, that the maggots 
of the barley-fly remain in the straw during 
the winter, and that they take the winged form 
in the spring, in season to lay their eggs on 
the young barle}^. It is therefore important to 
prevent them from completing their transform- 
ations. This may be don'e by burning the 
stubble, which contains many of the insects, 
in the autumn ; by destroying in the same wa}', 
all the straw and refuse which is unfit for fod- 
der ; and by keeping the grain in close vessels 
over one year, whereby the insects, which are 
disclosed from the small heavy pieces of straw 
remaining unwinnowed from the grain, will 
perish without an opportunity to escape. 

FLY, HESSIAN. One of the most formida- 
ble enemies of the wheat crop in the United 
States, is the far-famed Hessian fly, a small 
gnat or midge, which naturalists have placed in 
the family of gall-gnats (Cecidomyiadce). The 
insects of this family are very numerous, and 
most of them in the maggot state live in galls, 
or unnatural enlargements of the stems, leaves, 
and buds ot plants, caused by the punctures 
of the winged insects in laying their eggs. 
Tlie following account of the Hessian fly, the 
494 



FLY, HESSIAN. 

dread of farmers wherever wheat is cultivated 
in North America, is chiefly taken from Har- 
ris's Report on Destructive Inserts, and Her- 
rick's valuable paper upon this insect, pub- 
lished in Silliman's American Journal of Science, 
vol. 42. The brief history of the habits and 
transformations of the Hessian fly will be 
found to agree essentially with the excellent 
observations on this insect, written in 1797, 
by Dr. Isaac Chapman, and published in the 
Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting 
Agriculture. 

" The head and thorax of this fly are black. 
The hind-body is tawny, and covered with fine 
grayish hairs. The wings are blackish, but 
are more or less tinged with yellow at the base, 
where also they are very narrow : they are 
fringed with short hairs, and are rounded at 
the end. The body measures about one- 
tenth of an inch in length, and the wings 
expand one-quarter of an inch, or more. 
Two broods or generations are brought to 
maturity in the course of a year, and the flies 
appear in the spring and autumn, but rather 
earlier in the Southern and Middle States than 
in New England. The transformations of 
some in each brood appear to be retarded be- 
yond the usual time, as is found to be the case 
with many other insects; so that the life of 
these individuals, from the egg to the winged 
state, extends to a year or more in length, 
whereby the continuation of the species in 
after years is made more sure. It has fre- 
quently been asserted that the flies lay their 
eggs on the grain in the ear; but whether this 
be true or not, it is certain that they do lay their 
eggs on the young plants, and long before the 
grain is ripe ; for many persons have witnessed 
and testified to this fact. In the New England 
States, winter wheat, as it is called, is usually 
sown about the 1st of September. Towards 
the end of this month, and in October, when 
the grain has sprouted, and begins to show a 
leaf or two, the flies appear in the fields, and, 
having paired, begin to lay iheireggs, in which 
business they are occupied for several weeks. 
Thefollowinginterestingaccountof the manner 
in which this is done, was written by Mr. Ed- 
ward Tilghman, of Queen Ann county, Mary- 
land, and was published m the eighth volume 
of the Cultivator, in May, 1841. ' By the se- 
cond week of October, the first sown wheat 
being well up, and having generally put forth 
its second and third blades, I resorted to my 
field in a fine warm forenoon, to endeavour to 
satisfy myself, by ocular demonstration, whe- 
ther the fly did deposit the egg on the blades of 
the growing plant. Selecting a favourable 
spot to make my observation, I placed myself 
in a reclining position in a furrow, and had 
been on the Avatch but a minute or two, be- 
fore I discovered a number of small black 
flies alighting and sitting on the wheat plants 
around me, and presently one settled on the 
ridged surface of a blade of a plant completely 
within my reach and distinct observation. She 
immediately began depositing her eggs in the 
longitudinal cavity between the little ridges of ■ 
the blade. I could distinctly see the eggs eject- I 
ed from a kind of tube or sting. After she 
had deposited eight or ten eggs, I easily caught 



FLY, HESSIAN. 



FLY, HESSIAN. 



her upon the blade, and wrapped her up in a 
piece of paper. I then proceeded to take up 
the plant with as much as I conveniently could 
of the circumjacent earth, and wrapped it all 
securely in a piece of paper. After that I 
continued my observations on the flies, caught 
several similarly occupied, and could see the 
eggs uniformly placed in the longitudinal cavi- 
ties of the blades of the wheat ; their appear- 
ance being that of minute reddish specks. My 
own mind being thus completely and fully 
satisfied as to the mode in which the egg was 
deposited, I proceeded directly to my dwelling, 
and put the plant with the eggs upon it in a 
large glass tumbler, adding a little water to the 
earth, and secured the vessel by covering it 
with paper, so that no insect could get access 
to the interior. The paper was sufficiently 
perforated with pin-holes for the admission of 
air. The tumbler with its contents was daily 
watched by myself to discover the hatching of 
the eggs. About the middle of the fifteenth 
day from the deposit of the eggs, I was so for- 
tunate as to discover a very small maggot or 
worm, of a reddish cast, making its way with 
considerable activity down the blade, and saw 
it till it disappeared between the blade and 
stem of the plant. This I have no doubt, was 
the produce of one of the eggs, and would, I 
presume, have hatched much sooner, had the 
plant remained in the field. It was my inten- 
tion to have carried on the experiment, by en- 
deavouring to hatch out the insect from the 
flax-seed state into the perfect fly again ; but 
being called from home, the plant was suff"ered 
to perish. The fly that I caught on the blade of 
the wheat, as above stated, I enclosed in a letter 
to Mr. John S. Skinner, the editor of the Ameri- 
can Farmer, of Baltimore, who pronounced it 
to be a genuine Hessian fly, and identical in 
appearance with others recently received from 
Virginia.' 

" Dr. Chapman agrees with the writer, in 
saying that the Hessian fly lays her eggs in 
the small creases of the young leaves of the 
wheat. Mr. Havens, in an article on this in- 
sect, which will again be referred to, states, 
that the fly lays her eggs on the leaves. In the 
fortieth number of The Connecticut Farmer's 
Gazette, Mr. Herrick says, 'I have repeatedly, 
both in autumn and spring, seen the Hessian 
fly in the act of depositing eggs on wheat, and 
have always found that she selects for this pur- 
pose the leaves of the young plant. The eggs 
are laid in various numbers on the upper sur- 
face of the strap-shaped portion (or blade) of 
the leaf.' His remarks in Professor Silliman's 
Journal are to the same effect. Other authori- 
ties on this point might be mentioned ; but the 
foregoing are sufficient, in my opinion, to 
establish the fact, that the Hessian fly lays her 
eggs on the leaves of wheat soon after the 
plants are up. ♦ The number on a single leaf,' 
says Mr. Herrick, ' is often twenty or thirty, 
and sometimes much greater. In these cases 
many of the larvas must perish. The egg is 
about a fiftieth of an inch long, and four-thou- 
sandth of an inch in diameter, cylindrical, 
translucent, and of a pale red colour.' Mr. 
Tilghman v as correct in supposing that the 
eggs would hatch in less than fifteen days, 



under favourable circumstances ; for, if the 
weather be warm, they commonly hatch in ibur 
days after they are laid. The maggots, when 
they first come out of the shells, are of a pale 
red colour. Forthwith they crawl down the 
leaf, and work their way between it and the 
main stalk, passing downwards till they come 
to a joint, just above which they remain, a 
little below the surface of the ground, with the 
head towards the root of the plant. Having 
thus fixed themselves upon the stalk, they be- 
come stationary, and never move from the 
place till their transformations are completed. 
They do not eat the stalk, neither do they pene- 
trate within it, as some persons have supposed, 
but they lie lengthwise upon its surface, 
covered by the lower part of the leaves, and 
are nourished wholly by the sap, which they 
appear to take by suction. They soon lose 
their reddish colour, turn pale, and will be 
found to be clouded with whitish spots ; and 
through their transparent skins a greenish 
stripe may be seen in the middle of their 
bodies. As they increase in size, and grow 
plump and firm, they become imbedded in the 
side of the stem, by the pressure of their bodies 
upon the growing plant. One maggot thus 
placed seldom destroys a plant ; but when two 
or three are fixed in this manner around the 
stem, they weaken and impoverish the plant, 
and cause it to fall down, or to wither and die. 
They usually come to their full size in five or 
six weeks, and then measure about three-twen- 
tieths of an inch in length. Their skin now 
gradually hardens, becomes brownish, and 
soon changes to a bright chestnut colour. This 
change usually happens about the first of De- 
cember, when the insect may be said to eijter 
on the pupa state, for after this time it takes no 
more nourishment. Mr. Herrick informs me, 
that the brown and leathery skin, within which 
the maggot has changed to a pupa or chrysalis, 
is long, egg-shaped, smooth, and marked with 
eleven transverse lines, and measures one- 
eighth of an inch in length. In this form it 
has been commonly likened to a flax-seed. It 
appears, then, from the remarks of Dr. Chap- 
man, Mr. Herrick, and other careful observers, 
that the maggots of the Hessian fly do not cast 
ofl^ their skins in order to become pupas, where- 
in they differ from the larvae of most other 
gnats, and agree with those of common flies ; 
neither do they spin cocoons, as some of the 
Cecidomyians are supposed to do. Mr. Her- 
rick, in one of his letters, observes, that ' the 
pupa gradually cleaves from the dried skin of 
the larva, and, in the course of two or three 
weeks, is wholly detached' from it. Still en- 
closed within this skin, which thus becomes 
a kind of cocoon or shell for the pupa, it 
remains throughout the winter, safely lodged 
in its bed on the side of the stem, near the 
root of the plant, and protected from the cold 
by the dead leaves. Towards the end of April 
and in the forepart of May, or as soon as the 
weather becomes warm enough in the spring, 
the insects are transformed into flies. They 
make their escape from their winter-quarters 
by breaking through one end of their shells 
and the remains of the leaves around them. 
" Very soon after the flies come forth in the 

i95 



FLY, HESSIAN. 



FLY, HESSIAN. 



spring, they are prepared to lay their eggs on 
the leaves of the wheat sown in the autumn 
before, and also on the spring-sown wheat, that 
begins, at this time, to appear above the surface 
of the ground. They continue to come forth 
and lay their eggs for the space of three weeks, 
after which they entirely disappear from the 
fields. The maggots hatched from these eggs 
pass along the stems of the wheat, nearly to 
the roots, become stationary, and turn to pupas 
in June and July. In this state they are found 
at the time of harvest, and when the grain is 
gathered, they remain in the stubble in the 
fields. To this, however, as Mr. Haven re- 
marks, there are some exceptions ; for a few 
of the insects do not pass so far down the side 
of the stems as to be out of the way of the 
sickle when the grain is reaped, and conse- 
quently will be gathered and carried away with 
the straw. Most of them are transformed to 
flies in the autumn, but others remain un- 
changed in the stubble or straw till the next 
spring. Hereby, says Mr. Havens, ' it appears 
evident, that they may be removed from their 
natural situation in the field, and be kept alive 
long enough to be carried across the Atlantic ; 
from which circumstance it is possible that 
they might have been imported' in straw from 
a foreign country. In the winged state, these 
flies, or more properly gnats, are very active, 
and, though very small and seemingly feeble, 
are able to fly to a considerable distance in 
search of fields of young grain. Their 
principal migrations take place in August and 
September in the Middle States, where they 
undergo their final transformations earlier than 
in New England. There, too, they sometimes 
take wing in immense swarms, and, being 
probably aided by the wind, are not stopped in 
their course either by mountains or rivers. On 
their first appearance in Pennsylvania, they 
were seen to pass the Delaware like a cloud. 
Being attracted by light, they have been known, 
during the M'heat harvest, to enter houses in 
the evening in such numbers as seriously to 
annoy the inhabitants. 

"The old discussion, concerning the place 
where the Hessian fly lays her eggs, has lately 
been revived, in consequence of a communica- 
tion made by Miss Margaretta H. Morris, of 
Germantown, Pennsylvania, to ' The American 
Philosophical Society,' of Philadelphia. The 
following remarks upon it are extracted from 
a report made to the same society, and pub- 
lished in their Proceedings for November and 
December, 1840. 'Miss Morris believes she 
has established that the ovum (egg) of this 
destructive insect is deposited in the seed of 
the wheat, and not in the stalk or culm. She 
has watched the progress of the animal since 
June, 1836, and has satisfied herself that she 
has frequently seen the larva within the seed. 
She has also detected the larva, at various 
stages of its progress, from the seed to between 
the body of the stalk and the sheath of the 
leaves. According to ner observations, the 
recently hatched larva penetrates to the centre 
of the straw, where it may be found of a pale 
gveenish-white, semi-transparent appearance, 
in form somewhat resembling a silk-worm. 
From one to six of these have been found at 
496 



various heights from the seed to the third joint." 
Miss Morris's communication has not yet beea 
published in full ; but, from the foregoing re- 
port, we are led to infer that the egg, being 
sown with the grain, is hatched in the ground, 
and that the maggot afterwards mounts from 
the seed through the middle of the stem, and 
having reached a proper height, escapes from 
the hollow of the straw to the outside, where it 
takes the pupa or flax-seed state. The fact 
that the Hessian fly does ordinarily lay her 
eggs on the young leaves of wheat, barley, and 
rye, both in the spring and in the autumn, is 
too well authenticated to admit of any doubt. 
If, therefore, the observations of Miss Morris 
are found to be equally correct, they will serve 
to show, still more than the foregoing history, 
how variable and extraordinar}' is the economy 
of this insect, and how great are the resources 
wherewith it is provided for the continuation 
of its kind." (Harris.) 

Dr. B. H. Coates of Philadelphia, whose at- 
tention has been recently drawn to the Hessian 
and other flies destructive to wheat crops, 
states that a number of examinations made in 
the vicinity of Philadelphia during the summer 
of 1841, showed the presence of a pale yellow 
larva in the hollow of the straw of wheat, 
which he considered as proved to be the same 
with that which is ultimately converted into 
the Cecidomyia Destructor of Say, and the 
Hessian fly of our cultivators. In many in- 
stances, "communicated to him by Miss Mor- 
ris," referable, perhaps, to a peculiarity in the 
season, the animal went through all its stages 
before escaping from the cavity; "thus afford- 
ing," says Dr. Coates, "irrefragable evidences 
of the identity of the species." In no case 
known to Dr. C. had any thing resembling a 
caterpillar or maggot, or any thing apparently 
capable of locomotion, been found under the 
sheath of the leaf: the body observed was 
alwaj's immovable and fixed in a depression of 
the straw. (Proceedings of the Am. Plul. Soc.) 

" Various means have been recommended 
for preventing or lessening the ravages of the 
Hessian fly ; but they have hitherto failed, 
either because they have not been adapted to 
the end in view, or because they have not 
been universally adopted; and it appears 
doubtful whether any of them will ever en- 
tirely exterminate the insect. It is stated in 
the before-mentioned report to ' the Philoso- 
phical Society,' that Miss Morris advises ob- 
taining ' fresh seed from localities in which 
the fly has not made its appearance,' and that 
' by this means the crop of the following year will 
be uninjured; but in order to avoid the intro- 
duction of straggling insects of the kind from 
adjacent fields, it is requisite that a whole neigh- 
bourhood should persevere in this precaution 
for two or more years in succession.'" (Hnrris.) 

It seems to be generally admitted that the 
variety of wheat called Mediterranean, intro- 
duced a few years since into the United States, 
where it is now extensively cultivated, resists 
the attacks of the Hessian fly. Hence it may 
be sown very early in the fall, long before it 
would be safe to sow the common varieties, 
by which another great advantage is gained, 
in its escaping the rust and mildew so apt to 



FOAL. 



FOG. 



affect crops which are backward in the time 
of ripening. 

FOAL (Su. Goth. /o?c ; Sax. j^oia). The 
young of the horse kind ; the male being term- 
ed a colt foal, and the female a filly. The foal 
and its mother should always be well fed, and 
two feeds of corn, at least, be added to the 
green food which they get, when turned out 
after their work at night. The growing colt 
should continue to have liberal nourishment; 
bruised oats and bran should form a consider- 
able part of his daily provender. In five or 
six months, according to the growth of the foal, 
it may be weaned. It should then be housed 
for three weeks or a month, or turned into 
some distant rick-yard. The process of break- 
ing in should commence from the very period 
of weaning ; and the foal should be daily 
handled, partially dressed, accustomed to the 
halter, led about, and even tied up; for on this 
much of the traclability, good temper, and 
value of the horse will depend. After the se- 
cond winter, the work of breaking in may com- 
mence in good earnest. 

Management of Foals after IVcaning. — The 
principal object with most breeders is to have 
their stock large and powerful at an early age. 
It is really wonderful what may be done to- 
wards effecting this by means of good food 
judiciously supplied, proper shelter, and liberty 
of range in favourable weather. It is natural 
to suppose, when a foal is first taken from its 
dam, that it will, in some degree, fall away in 
condition and lose flesh; the nutritive proper- 
ties of its " mother's milk" cannot be taken 
from it without aff'ecting its yet tender constitu- 
tion. To guard against this, every attention 
must be directed to the quality as well as quan- 
tity of food which is presented to it ; that which 
contains most nourishment must be provided, 
and although the bulk of hay which a foal con- 
sumes is very trifling, it should be of the best 
quality. For foals, when they are first weaned, 
linseed gruel should be their constant beverage, 
and, indeed, it cannot be too highly recom- 
mended for all horses. A liberal allowance of 
oats is likewise necessary; foals, if in health, 
will eat at least two quarterns per day ; and, as 
they increase in age, this allowance may be 
augmented. The seeds which are left from the 
linseed-gruel, should be given with the corn. I 
have frequently recommended the practice of 
bruising the oats, and must certainly repeat it, 
even in opposition to the arguments of some 
persons who are averse to it. Bran mashes 
may be given at least once a week, and in 
some instances more frequently. Carrots will 
likewise be found a very proper food for young 
stock, and should be given once or twice a 
day. Too long a continuance of the same 
food cloys the appetite. Boiled barley is found 
to be very nutritious food, and most horses are 
very fond of it. As an alterative, it may be 
given with great advantage, if foals do not 
consume their corn with their usual appetite. 
It requires to be well boiled for two or three 
hours in a small quantity of water, frequently 
replenishing it that the grain may not burn, 
and constantly stirring it that every grain may 
undergo an equal process ; it may be consider- 
ed sufficiently boiled when all the corns have 
63 



burst, and, when given, should have a little 
bran or finely-cut hay mixed with it. About 
ten days or a fortnight after they are weaned, 
each foal should have a gentle dose of physic 
— one drachm to a drachm and a half of aloes, 
with a drachm of Castile soap, and the same 
quantity of ginger, will generally be found suf- 
ficient. 

FOALING. A term applied to the act of 
parturition, or bringing forth young in the 
mare. Good feeding and moderate exercise 
are found to be the best preventives against 
slinking, which is most prevalent when half 
the time of pregnancy has elapsed. See Abor- 
tion. If a mare has been regularly exercised, 
and apparently in health while she was in 
foal, little danger will attend the act of parturi- 
tion. If there be false presentations of the 
foslus, or difliculty in producing it, it will be 
better to have recourse to a well-informed 
veterinary practitioner, rather than injure the 
mother by the violent and injurious attempts 
which are often made to relieve the animal. 
As soon as the mare has foaled, she should be 
turned into some well sheltered pasture, with 
a hovel or shed to run into when she pleases ; 
and as, supposing she has foaled in April, the 
grass is scanty, she should have a couple of 
feeds of corn daily. The mare may be put to 
moderate work a month after foaling. 

FODDER (Germ. /W/pr; Sax. ):ooeop; from 
pocnan, to eat; Irish, /orff/-, straw ; lce\. fodr). 
In agriculture, the ordinary food given to cat- 
tle, which consists of the stems and leaves of 
plants, such as clover, hay, chopped straw, 
dried blades and tops of Indian corn, &c. ; the 
culmiferous stems of the grasses, the haulm 
of legumes, potatoes, &c. Grain, beans, tur-- 
nips, and other articles which present nourish-- 
ment in a more concentrated form, are not: 
included under the term fodder, but are rather- 
known as solid food. See Foon. 

FOG (Dan. fog). In meteorology, a dense 
vapour near the surface of the land or water. 
Fogs in general are the consequence of the 
nocturnal cooling of the atmosphere. The air, 
by its rapid cooling, becomes surcharged with 
moisture; a part of which being condensed in 
the form of a cloud, gives rise to the ordinary 
fog. During the day the heat of the sun gene- 
rally disperses the fog, because the quantity of 
moisture which the air is capable of holding 
becomes considerable in proportion as its tem- 
perature is increased. In calm weather the 
surfaces of rivers, lakes, &c., are frequently 
covered with fog. The reason is this. During 
the night the air is colder than the water; the 
strata of air in contact with the water are con- 
sequently heated, and become saturated with 
moisture. The mixture of the vapour with the 
air, together with its elevation of temperature,. 
renders the air specifically lighter. It rises in 
consequence, and mixing with the cold air in 
the sui)erior strata, is cooled, and has its mois- 
ture condensed. The cloud or fog resulting 
from this precipitation can only rise to a small 
height, because the uniformity of temperature 
is soon restored. Hence it is easy to see how 
winds, or a great agitation of the water,. pre- 
vent the formation of fogs over the surface of 
water. In the equinoctial regions, fogs some- 
2 T 2 497 



FOGGAGE. 

times continue during a considerable part of 
the year. In the Polar seas thick fogs often 
prevail, even during the warmest months ; and 
they are so dense that objects frequently can- 
not be distinguished at the distance of a few 
yards. (Brande's Diet, of Science.) 

FOGGAGE (Low Lat. fogagium). Coarse 
or rank grass not eaten down in the summer 
or autumn. The practice of fogging grass- 
lands for the winter support of stock has been 
found highly useful. 

FOGGE. A common word in the north, that 
properly signifies the grass which immediately 
springs after the hay-crop has been taken, but 
it is sometimes used for the long grass remain- 
ing in the pastures till winter. (See Aftkr- 
Grass.) It is also used for moss, in some parts 
of Scotland : thus a fog-house means a house 
built or lined with moss. 

FOGGING. A peculiar practice in the ma- 
nagement of grass-lands, confined chiefly to the 
district of South Wales. It consists in keep- 
ing the whole growth of grass in upland mea- 
dows free from either scythe or stock, and eat- 
ing it in the following winter. Arthur Young 
states, that many years ago, he knew a Suffolk 
clergyman, who was in the regular habit of 
this singular practice, and spoke of it as a 
most profitable one. He has, he says, tried it 
thrice, and with success ; and he finds that it 
thickens the herbage greatly, and yields far 
more valuable winter and spring food than 
any person would expect, who never tried it. 
But it should be practised only on dry or toler- 
ably dry land. 

FOLD (Sax. pealoe). A temporary pen or 
enclosure for keeping cattle or other agricultu- 
ral animals together, either for the purpose of 
confinement during the night, or jointly for 
protection and feeding. Sometimes, also, sheep 
are folded for the purpose of manuring. Sheep- 
folds are of two kinds; either houses or sheds 
set apart for that purpose adjoining to the farm- 
yard, or movable folds formed by hurdles, &c. 
On the Continent, sheep are principally folded 
in sheds, &c., the floors of which are strewed 
with straw, sand, or clean dry earth, by which 
an additional quantity of manure is obtained. 
The temporary fence or barrier of which mova- 
ble folds are constructed, is most commonly 
wooden hurdles; but sometimes, when the fold 
is only to contain ewes and lambs, netting 
stretched between posts is made use of, there 
being a strong rope fixed to the lower parts of 
the post, close to the ground, to which the under 
edge of the netting is attached, while its upper 
edge is fastened to a rope stretched along the 
•tops of the same post. Netting is by far the 
cheapest and neatest substance for barriers for 
folds. (See Hurdles.) Mr. Children has 
recently advocated a system of shed-feeding 
(Jour. Roy. Jgr. Soc. vol. i. p. 40) ; and there is 
little doubt that sheep, in common with all live 
stock, suflTer more from the efiects of wet and 
cold, when feeding in exposed situations, than 
is commonly supposed. 

FOLDING. The practice of confining sheep 
and other animals upon land, by means of hur- 
dles, &c., for the purpose of feeding on and 
manuring it. The practice of folding sheep on 
•jaked fallows, with a view to manuring them, 
498 



FOOD. 



1 



is still common in several parts of England ; 
but the more improved sheep farmers consider 
that it deteriorates the wool and impedes the 
fattening of the sheep, by keeping them for the 
greater part of every night wholly without food. 
Others, however, assert that folding is not inju- 
rious to sheep, if they are kept in a good pas- 
ture during the day, and not folded too early in 
the evening, or kept in the fold too long in the 
morning. In some large arable land farms in 
Hampshire and other counties, folding is still 
considered necessary, and large flocks of breed- 
ing ewes are kept specially for that purpose. 
Sheep are occasionally penned or folded on 
young wheat, but more commonly on turnips, 
a certain portion being enclosed, sufficient for 
them to eat off in one or two days. 

FOLD-YARD. The yard where cattle of 
different sorts are confined and fed during the 
winter season. Yards of this nature should be 
properly fitted up with convenient sheds and 
racks for the animals to eat their fodder from, 
and have suitable divisions for containing dif- 
ferent denominations of cattle, or other live 
stock. See Farm-Yard. 

FOOD (Sax. yo-o). All substances suscepti- 
ble of digestion and assimilation may come 
under the denomination of food. Animals 
require, for their support and developement, 
atoms or elements highly organized. The food 
of all animals, under all circumstances, con- 
sists of portions of organized matter. Vegeta- 
bles, on the contrary, require for their support 
elemeiHs derived from the complete destruction 
of organized substances, whether animal or 
vegetable, through the processes of putrefac- 
tion and decay. The proximate principles of 
organic bodies, on which their nutritive powers 
depend, are comparatively few. Although the 
articles employed in different countries for the 
support of animal life are almost infinitely 
various, their sustaining powers may be re- 
ferred to certain substances capable of being 
separated and identified by chemical analyses 
and tests. Amongst the proximate elements 
of vegetable food, gluten and its modifications, 
starch, gum, sugar, and lignin or woody fibre, 
are by far the most important ; and amongst 
those of animal food, fibrin, albumen, gelatin, 
and their modifications, together with fats and 
oils, which are common to both kingdoms of 
nature. To illustrate the actual simplicity of 
our food, as compared with its apparent multi- 
fariousness and complexity, it may suffice to 
state that wheat, and almost all the esculent 
grains, consist principally of starch and gluten ; 
that the same ingredients are found in many 
fruits and roots ; that sugar, gum, or a relation 
of gum, which is called vegetable jelly, together 
with minute traces of aromatic principles which 
give flavour, and more or less abundance of 
water and of vegetable acids, are the chief 
component parts of apples, peaches, currants, 
&c., and all pulpous and juicy fruits; a very 
few also contain oil. Then, as regards animal 
food, the muscular fibres of various animals 
closely resemble each other in composition and 
nutritive power : in some cases texture merely, 
and in others minute additions of foreign mat- 
ters, confer upon them their relative digestibi- 
lities and their different aspects and flavours. 



FOOD. 



FOOD. 



Albumen or fibrin and gelatin, small propor- 
tions of saline bodies, and a large quantity of 
water, are found in them all. 

It often happens that the truly nutritious 
part of food is so combined with or protected 
by indigestible matters as to escape the solvent 
powers of the stomach, unless previously pre- 
pared and modified by various chemical and 
mechanical agents. Indurated woody fibre, for 
instance, or ligniii, as chemists call it, will often 
resist the joint action of the stomach and bow- 
els, and pass through the alimentary canal with 
scarcely any alteration. The husks of many 
seeds and fruits are composed almost exclu- 
sively of this material. This is the case with 
{he kernels of the apple, pear, &c. ; the seeds 
of the currant, gooseberry, melon, and so on ; 
the skin or husk of peas, beans, &c., and of 
wheat, barley, and oats ; so that unless the 
woody part is either broken down by the teeth 
or previously removed, the food which it enve- 
lopes is protected in some degree from the sol- 
vent action of the secretions of the stomach. 
This is a wise and curious provision in nature, 
for birds in this way become the carriers of 
seeds, which pass through them not only un- 
digested, but even retaining their vegetative 
powers ; and in this way uninhabited and ste- 
rile portions of the globe may gradually become 
clothed with verdure, and shrubs, and trees; 
hence the advantage derived from bruising the 
com given to live-stock. Bones are highly 
nutritive, but, unless broken into veiy small 
fragments by the masticatory powers of the 
animals which eat them, thej' too would elude 
digestion. 



There is another important point in the his- 
tory of food, which is, its ultimate composition. 
Four elements only are principally concerned 
in the production of the food of animals ; these 
are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. 
Among vegetable substances, gluten (including 
vegetable albumen) is the only one which 
abounds in nitrogen ; gum, sugar, starch, and 
the rest, are constituted of carbon, hydrogen, 
and oxygen only. There are two very singular 
points in reference to the chemical history of 
food: the one is, that no animal can subsist for 
any length of time upon food which is destitute 
of nitrogen ; and the other, that a certain mix- 
ture of different food is absolutely essential. 
Habit, as is well known, will do much in ac- 
customing the stomach to particular descrip- 
tions of food: many persons live exclusively, 
or almost so, on vegetables, others on animal 
matters, and particular kinds of diet are forced 
on the inhabitants of many regions of the globe ; 
but as far as we are concerned, a due mixture 
of vegetable and animal matter is not only most 
palatable, but most conducive to health. No- 
thing is fit for food which has not already un- 
dergone organization ; and water, though an 
essential part of the food of ail animals, is ob- 
viously not in itself nutritious, though it per- 
forms the extremely important function of dis- 
solving nutritive matter, so as to render it con- 
veyable by the lacteals and other absorbents 
into the blood. 

The subjoined table will serve to show the 
comparative value of the principal cereal and 
other grasses, legumeo, roots, &c. (Davy, Elem. 
Ag. Chenu 150.) 



I. Table of the Quantities of Soluble or Nutritive Matters afforded by 1000 Parts of different 
Vegetable Substances examined in their green state. 



Vegetable SubstaDC«3. 



Middlesex wheat, average crop 
Spring wheat . . . - 

Mildewed wheat of 1806 
Blighted wheat of 1804 - 
Thick-skinned Sicilian wheat (1810) 
Thin-skinned Sicilian wheat (1810) 
Wheat from Poland ... 
North American Wheat 
Norfolk barley . - . . 
Oats, from Scotland ... 
Rye, from Yorkshire ... 
Common bean .... 

Dry peas ..... 

Potatoes ..... 

Linseed cake . . . . - 

Red beet ..... 

White beet ..... 

Parsnips - . _ _ . 

Carrots ...... 

Cabbage ..... 

Swedish turnip .... 

Common turnip .... 

Broad-leaved clover ... 
Long-rooted clover ... 
White clover . . _ . 

Sainfoin ..... 

Lucerne --..-. 
Meadow fox-tail grass or timothy 
Perennial rye-grass ... 
Fertile meadow-grass ... 
Roughish meadow-grass 
Crested dog's-tail grass 
Spiked fescue-grass ... 
Sweet-scented soft grass 
Vernal grass - - . . . 
Fiorin ...... 



Whole Quan- 
tity of Soluble 
or Nutrilire 
Matter. 



955 
940 
210 
650 
955 
961 
950 
955 
920 
743 
792 
570 
574 
260 to 200 
151 
148 
136 

99 

98 

73 

64 

42 

39 

39 

32 

39 

23 

33 

39 

78 

39 

35 

19 

82 

50 

54 



765 
700 
178 
520 
725 
722 
750 
730 
790 
641 
645 
426 
501 
200 to 155 
123 

14 

13 
9 
3 

41 



Saccharioe 

Matter, or 

Sugar. 



22 

20 to 1 

11 

121 

119 

90 

95 

24 

51 

34 

3 

4 

I 

2 

1 

3 

4 

6 

5 

3 

2 

4 

4 

5 



190 
240 

32 
l.W 
236 
239 
206 
225 

66 

87 
109 
103 

35 
40 to 30 

17 

14 
4 



Extract, or 
matter rendered 
iMoIuble duriug 

evaporation. 



499 



FOOD. 



FOOD. 



The following table represents the relative 
proportion of solid digestible matter contained 
in 1000 parts of the different articles of food 
which are enumerated. Upon an average, the 
nutritive matter in a pound of meat is not more 
than four ounces. This, however, applies only 
to raw meat ; for, when dressed, a considerable 
portion of its constituent water is dissipated. 

II. Table shounng the average Quantity of Nutritive 
Matter in 1000 parts of several varieties of Ani- 
mal Food. 



Bones - - 510 

Mutton - - 290 

Beef - . 260 

Chicken - 270 

Brain - - 200 

Haddock - 180 



Veal - - 250 

Pork - - 240 

Blood - - 215 

Cod and sole - 210 

White of egg - 140 

Milk - - 72 



A very interesting report on the nutritive 
properties of food was recently presented to 
the French Minister of the Interior, by MM. 
Percy and Vauquelin, two members of the In- 
stitute. The result of their experiments is as 
follows : — 

In bread, every 100 lbs. weight is found to 
contain 80 lbs. of nutritious matter. Butchers' 
meat, averaging the various sorts, contain only 
35 lbs. in 100. French beans (in the grain), 
92 lbs. in 100; broad beans, 89 ; peas, 93; An- 
tilles, 94 in 100. Greens and turnips, which 
are the most aqueous of all vegetables used 
for domestic purposes, furnish only 8 lbs. of 
solid nutritious substance in 100. Carrots, 14 
lbs. ; and what is very remarkable, as being in 
opposition to the hitherto acknowledged theory, 
100 lbs. of potatoes only yield 25 lbs. of sub- 
stance valuable as nutritious. 1 lb. of good 
bread is equal to 2^ lbs. or 3 lbs. of the best 
potatoes ; and 75 lbs. of bread and 30 of meat 
are equal to 300 lbs. of potatoes ; or, to go more 
into detail, | of a lb. of bread and 5 oz. of meat 
are equal to 3 lbs. of potatoes. 1 lb. of pota- 
toes is equal to 4 lbs. of cabbage and 3 lbs. of 
turnips ; but 1 lb. of rice, broad beans, or French 
beans (in grain), is equal to 3 lbs. of potatoes. 

In the esculent roots, such as carrots, &c., 
but especially turnips, sugar is the leading nu- 
tritive matter ; and the common fruits contain 
.sugar, gum, albuminous matter, and acids, to- 
gether with a highly attenuated form of woody 
fibre or lignin, which in that state is probably 
digestible. The comparative nutritive proper- 
ties of the most common fruits will be seen by 
a reference to the annexed table. 

III. Table showing the average Quantity of Nutri- 
tive Matter in 1000 Parts of several varieties of 
Vegetable Food. 

Morels - - 896 Peaches - - 200 

Almonds - 650 Gooseberries - 190 

Tamarinds - 340 Apples - - 170 

Plums - - 290 Pears - - 160 

Grapes - - 270 Strawberries - 100 

Apricols - 260 Melon - - 30 

Cherries - 250 

On fattening Animals. — There is a very great 
difference in the quantity of food which ani- 
mals require, and in the time which they can 
pass without it. In general, those animals 
which are the most active require most, and 
those which are most indolent require least 
food. The cause of this is pretty obvious ; the 
bodies of animals do not remain stationary, 
Oiey are constantly wasting, and the waste is 
5uO 



proportioned to the activity of the animal ; 
hence the body must receive, from time to time, 
new supplies in place of what has been carried 
off. The use of food answers this purpose. 
Almost all the inferior animals have particular 
substances on which they feed exclusively. 
Some are herbivorous, some are granivorous, 
and others, again, are carnivorous. 

From various experiments we have the fol- 
lowing result: — 

A horse will consume as much food, besides 

corn, as 8 sheep. 

A cow .--..---12 — 

A faUening ox ...... 10 — 

A three year old heifer ----- 8 — 

A two year old heifer ----- 6 — 

A one year old heifer ----- 4 — 

A calf 2 — 

There are some rules which may be advan- 
tageously adopted in feeding animals, which, 
however obvious the}' may be, are too often 
neglected. 1. Food should be so prepared that 
its nutritive properties may be all made avail- 
able to the use of the animal ; and not only so, 
but appropriated with the least possible expendi- 
ture of muscular energy. The ox that is obliged 
to wander over an acre to get the food he 
should find in two or three square rods — the 
horse that is two or three hours eating the 
coarse food he should swallow in fifteen mi- 
nutes if the grain were ground or the hay cut 
as it should be — the sheep that spends hours 
in making its way into a turnip, when, if it 
were sliced, it -would eat it in as many mi- 
nutes — the pig that eats raw potatoes or whole 
corn, when either cooked could be eaten in one 
quarter of the time, may indeed fatten, but 
much less rapidly than if their food were given 
them in a proper manner. All food should be 
given in such a state to fattening animals, that 
as little time as possible, on the part of the ani- 
mal, shall be required in eating. 

2. From the time the fattening process com- 
mences, until the animal is slaughtered, he 
should never be without food. Health and ap- 
petite are best promoted by change of diet 
rather than by limiting the quantity. The ani- 
mal that is stuffed and starved by turns may have 
streaked meat, but it will be made too slowly 
for the pleasure or the profit of the good farmer. 

3. The food should be given regularly. This 
is one of the most essential points in feeding 
animals. If given irregularly, the animal will 
consume his food, but he soon acquires a rest- 
less disposition, is disturbed at every appear- 
ance of his feeder, and is never in that quiet 
state so necessary to take on fat. It is surpris- 
ing how readily any animal acquires habits of 
regularity in feeding, and how soon the influ- 
ence of this is felt in the improvement of his 
condition. When at the regular hour the pig 
has had his pudding, or the sheep his turnips, 
they compose themselves to rest, their digestion 
is not unseasonably disturbed, or their quiet 
broken by unwonted invitation to eat. 

4. The animal should not be needlessly in- 
truded upon during the hours of eating. All 
animals fatten much faster in the dark than in 
the light, a fact only to be accounted for by 
their greater quiet. Some of those creatures 
that are the most irritable and impatient of re- 
straint while feeding, such as turkeys and 



FOOD OF PLANTS. 



FORCING PITS. 



geese, are found lo take on fat rapidly when 
confined in dark rooms, and only fed at stated 
hours by hand. There is no surer proof that 
a pig is doing well than to see him eat his meal 
quickly and then retire to his bed till the hour 
of feeding returns. Animals, while fattening, 
should never be alarmed, never rapidly driven, 
never be fed at unseasonable hours, and, above 
all things, never be allowed to want for food. 

The following table will show the ultimate 
composition of those proximate principles 
which have been already adverted to as con- 
stituting the nutritive parts of food. 

IV. Table shotcing the ultimate elementary compo- 
sition of 1000 parts of the following proximate 
principles of Animal and Vegetable Food. 



Albumen 


Carbon. 


Hydrogen. 


Oiygen. 


Nitrogen. 


516 


76 


258 


150 


Uelatin 


483 


80 


276 


161 


Fat -, 


780 


122 


98 




Curd of milk 


609 


73 


116 


203 


Sugar of milk 


454 


61 


485 




Gluten 


557 


78 


220 


145 


Starch 


438 


62 


500 




Gum - . - 


419 


68 


513 




Sugar - - - 


444 


62 


494 




Lignin 


500 


56 


444 





See also the heads Cattle, Fodder, Sheep, 
Swine, Horses, &c. See Ve.ntu.atiox and 
Food, AGRicuLXtTKAL Products. 

FOOD OF PLANTS. See Earths, Gases, 
Salts, Water, and Manures, their tjses to 
Vegetation. Plants absorb their nutriment 
from the air and from the soil ; they become the 
food of the gramniverous tribes, and from these 
man derives the great bulk of his animal sus- 
tenance. 

FOOL'S PARSLEY. Common Lesser Hem- 
lock {^thusa cynapium'), PI. 10, q. A numhel- 
liferous plant, common in gardens, waste 
grounds, and cultivated fields, and so called 
from its resembling parsley enough in appear- 
ance to deceive ignorant persons. It is an an- 
nual weed, with a tapering whitish root; stem 
round, often purplish, a foot high ; flowers 
pearl white; the herbage of a dark livid green, 
and fetid. The plant is poisonous, acting like 
hemlock upon the human system, and is easily 
known by the involucels having each three 
linear leaflets, which are placed next the cir- 
cumference of the umbel. It is eaten by cattle 
and sheep, but is pernicious to the latter. 

FOOL'S STONES {Orchis morio). See 

T WAT blade. 

FOOT (Sax. For. Germ./usg,- Dutch /w/e). 
A linear measure, which, since the term is em- 
ployed in almost all languages, has doubtless 
been derived from the length of the human 
foot. Though the denomination is the same, 
the measure itself varies considerably in dif- 
ferent European countries. In all of them, 
however, it is divided, like the English foot, 
into 12 equal parts, or inches. See Weights 
and Measures. 

Foot is also the lower part of the limbs of an 
animal, which afford support, and enable it to 
move with ease and convenience from place 
to place. An excellent article on the anatomy 
and diseases of the foot of the horse, by Mr. 
Dick, will be found in the second volume of 
the Quart. Journ. of Agr. p. 214. The best and 



most natural form of the foot of the horse js 
that where the bottom approaches to a circle : 
it is most complicated in its structure, and lia- 
ble to a variety of diseases. See the heads 
Canker, Corns, Cracks, Shoeing, and Dis- 
eases OF THE Horse. 

FOOT-ROT. See Sheep, Diseases of. 

FOOT-TRENCHES. A term signifying 
small superficial drains, about a foot wide. 

FORCING. In horticulture, the art of ac- 
celerating the growth of plants so as to obtain 
fruit, vegetables, or flowers at seasons when 
they are not produced naturally in the open 
air. The practice appears to be as old as the 
time of the Romans. In England forcing seems 
to have been practised from a very early pe- 
riod. At the present time forcing is carried 
on in Britain, and in analogous climates 
throughout Europe and North America, chiefly 
under glass roofs. Structures for forcing are 
known, as frames, pits, and houses, all of 
which have glass roofs : but there are also 
structures for forcing without glass roofs, such 
as cellars and sheds for growing mushrooms 
in the winter season ; and also sea-kale, rhu- 
barb, blanched succory, and such other stalks 
or leaves of plants as are eaten in a blanched 
state, and consequently do not require much 
light. 

FORCING PITS. Instead of forming hot- 
beds with open sides, pits of brick-work and 
other materials are very generally constructed 
for containing the fermenting mass of dung 
necessary for forcing. 

Mr. Flanagan, gardener to Sir T. Hare, of 
Stow Hall, Norfolk, and Mr. West, who holds 
the same situation under the Marquis of North- 
ampton, at Castle Ashby, have each proposed 
plans of pits, of which that of the first horti- 
culturist is the least expensive ; that of the 
latter more economical in other respects, not 
only as preventing the waste of heat, but the 
best mode of applying it. It may be laid down 
as a fundamental principle that, in applying 
heat, it should always be brought to the bottom 
of the body to be heated. 

Mr. Flanagan only allows the heat of fer- 
menting dung to be employed, the steam being 
prevented entering the frame. One advantage 
arising from this he states to be, that fresh- 
made dung may be employed, and, conse- 
quently, the loss sustained by any preparation 
is prevented. If, however, it be a fact that the 
steam of dung is rather beneficial than other- 
wise, fresh fermenting dung can be used, with- 
out any detriment that I am aware of, in other 
pits of which we have plans. Mr. F. describes 
his pit as follows :— It is 4 feet deep within ; 
the lowest 10 inches of solid brick-work sunk 
in the earth; the remainder is a flue, 3 inches 
wide in the clear, carried entirely round the 
pit; the inner wall of which, forming the sides 
of the pit, is 4-inch work, well bedded in mor- 
tar, and pointed, to prevent the steam penetra- 
ting; the outer wall of the flue is also 4-inch, 
but open-work, to admit the steam and that of 
dung-coatings into the flue, the top of which is 
rendered tight by a covering of tiles, &c. The 
frame rests on the external wall of the flue. 
The cavity of the p:t, which is kept dry by 
means of drains, is 9 feet 2 inches long, 2 futft 

501 



FOREHAND. 



FOWL. 



8 inches wide, and 4 feet deep. It is filled 
with broken bricks, to within 18 inches of the 
top ; then a foot of short cold dung, 6 inches of 
very rotten dung, trod down so as to admit half 
an inch depth of coal ashes, for preventing the 
intrusion of any worms that may be in the 
dung, complete the structure. (G. W. John- 
son's Kitchen Garden.) 

FOREHAND. In horsemanship, that part 
of the animal which is before the rider. 

FOREST (Germ, forst ; Fr. forit ; Ital. for- 
esta). Strictly an extensive surface covered 
naturally by trees and undergrowth, as op- 
posed to a plantation which has been made by 
art, but indiscriminately used for any very ex- 
tensive tract covered with trees. The utility 
of timber plantations to a commercial nation 
is very great, as, by the quantity of timber they 
afford, a considerable expense may be saved 
which must otherwise be incurred by the im- 
portation of materials for ship-building. (See 
PLAifTATioN.) In former times the greater 
part of every country in the temperate parts of 
Europe was undoubtedly covered with forests ; 
and these, by harbouring and nourishing wild 
animals of every description, particularly wild 
swine, afforded a principal part of the food of 
man. With civilization, however, they grad- 
ually disappear before the increase of pasture 
or arable land. In every country a large por- 
tion of the forests belonged to the government, 
and formed a main source of its revenue. 
This is still the case in France and Germany, 
and, till lately, it was also the case to a certain 
extent in Britain. Hence extensive tracts in 
England still bear the name of forest, though 
they are now in a state of cultivation, and in a 
great measure without trees. 

The royal forests of Britain occupy about 
125,000 acres of land. There are 32,768 acres 
of forest land enclosed and planted, principally 
with oak, and with other trees where the soil 
is not adapted to oak. There are 6211 acres 
of other freehold land belonging to the crown, 
which are also appropriated to the growth of 
timber, making in all 38,979 acres, the whole 
of which have been enclosed and planted with- 
in the last twenty years. 

For an account of the existing forests of 
England, see "Statistics of the British Em- 
pire." {Brit. Husb. vol. iii. article "Planta- 
tions," pp. 83, 85; Brande's Did. of Science.) 

FOSSE. A large ditch or moat; also a 
waterfall. 

FOWL. Cock and hen {Phasianus gcdlus). 
Fowls were originally natives of Persia and 
India. They are most valuable to the farmer 
as yielding profit in eggs, broods, and feathers. 
The varieties of the common fowl in England 
are verj- numerous, and are distinguished 
from one another by their size, colour, and 
fecundity. Fowls should be kept very clean 
and dry in the hen-house, and particular care 
must be taken to furnish them with clean, 
sweet water; foul water produces that fatal 
disorder among chickens called roup, or gapes, 
which is known by the chick gasping for 
breath, and dying in a few hours. No remedy 
has yet been discovered for this disorder ; 
therefore care and cleanliness should prevent 
it. Foul water, and a scarcity of water, are 
502 



also causes of the pip in hens, and originate 
all their diseases. Poultry of all sorts should 
have clean, sweet houses to retire into during 
the night, and in seasons of wet. Warmth is 
necessary to the comfort and well-doing of 
poultry. If hens are kept with care, and have 
clean, quiet places to deposit themselves in, 
they will lay regularly, and repay all trouble. 
One cock is sufficient for ten hens. He should 
be chosen with care. A good cock should be 
well-sized, carrying his head high ; he should 
have a quick, animated look, a strong shrill 
voice, the comb of a fine red, broad breast, 
strong wings, legs thick, and his bill thick and 
short. {Mcun's Domesiic Poullry, p. 230.) The 
vigour of the cock lasts three years; he must 
then be superseded, and a fine spirited youth- 
ful successor installed in his room. A cock is 
at full age at three months old. Three sorts 
of hen are useful. The common hen, whose 
proper signs should be in having a large head, 
blueish feet, sharp eyes, and pendant comb. 
The tufted hen, for eating, as she does not lay 
much, therefore fattens well ; and the large 
white Dorking breed, which always fetches a 
higher price in the market. The Dorking 
fowls are distinguished by having five claws 
on each foot. Equal to the Dorking in esti- 
mation (says Professor Low) are the Poland 
fowls. Their colour is black, their heads flat, 
and surmounted with a crown of feathers. 
They are a very useful variety; prolific of 
eggs, but less inclined to sit than those of any 
other breed. All others are kept more for 
show than for use. The bantam is a little In- 
dian breed, very delicate to eat, but, from the 
smallness of its size, not of any economical 
importance. 

The Chitagong, or Malay fowl, is the largest 
breed that has yet been brought to England, 
but the flesh is regarded as inferior to that of 
the Dorking and Poland. Fowls should not be 
allowed to wander much : they lay better and 
more regularly when confined to their own 
yard. Their food should be given with great 
regularity at sun-rise and sun-set, and they 
should be fed under cover during rain or high 
winds. During harvest their portion of food 
is always diminished. All sorts of pot-herbs, 
boiled, in the washings of dishes, mixed with 
bran, and then drained, is excellent; the paste 
warmed up as required, while sweet. Well 
boiled mealy potatoes, buckwheat, barley, 
whole or ground, refuse of fruit, bread, offal 
from the kitchen, &c., is taken greedily. Let 
all their food be fresh of its kind. 

The laying time in England begins about 
February. A hen gives notice of her intention 
by being busy and restless, and talking to Iter' 
self for some time, and her comb becomes very 
red. Her cackling soon gives notice that the 
deed is done. Let her have a dark, quiet box 
to lay in. The moulting season begins in au- 
tumn, when the hen ceases to lay for some 
time : the whole feathered tribe are then droop- 
ing and dull, till the new feathers have replaced 
the old ones. A hen is old at four years of 
age: for three )'ears she is valuable, and in 
her fourth year she must make way for younger 
birds. A hen sits three weeks ; her disposition 
to sit is soon discovered, by her placing her- 



FOWL. 



FOWL. 



self upon any eggs she can find, and remain- 
ing thereon instead of roosting. She should be 
placed upon fresh eggs, unless allowed to sit 
as nature directs upon her own natural num- 
ber, which rarely exceeds eighteen ; but if one 
egg alone is allowed to remain in the nest she 
will continue to lay many more before she 
wishes to sit. If the brood is hatched irregu- 
larlj', the firstlings should be kept in flannel 
near a fire all day, till the others come forth, 
but they should be returned to the mother at 
night. The hen and her brood should be kept 
warm, and be cooped out of doors only in dry, 
fine weather. They should be fed for some 
days on bread crumbs, with some finely chop- 
ped leeks, and be carefully supplied with clear, 
clean water daily. Boiled barley, and boiled 
rice, &c. succeeds, till in about three weeks 
they are sufficiently strong to be turned into 
the poultry-yard. When the young chickens 
get their head feathers, they are out of danger 
of all infantine disorders. Nothing is so re- 
quisite for all poultry as warmth, cleanliness, 
and good water. Fowls fattened for the table 
should be put into coops for a fortnight or three 
weeks, and fed upon good barley-meal, moist- 
ened with milk or water, and lard. Give it 
four or five times per day, sufficiently moist to 
require no drink with the food. 

Eggs are preserved any length of time, by 
greasing them well over with butter or lard, 
when warm from the nesL It keeps out the 
air. Fresh laid eggs are easily known by 
holding them up to the light of a candle. If 
the inside appears transparent and fluid, and 
the yolk in the centre, it is a fresh egg. If 
it looks turbid, it is a stale one. If, also, an 
egg held up against a candle shows a small 
vacancy at the top of it within, it will produce 
a male bird : if the little vacancy is' observed 
at the side of the egg, it will prove a female. 
(Mam's Dow. PowZ/ry, p. 253.) See Eggs. Every 
poultry-yard should have a bed of ashes de- 
posited in a corner: the fowls delight in a 
dunghill and an ash-hole ; the former produces 
seeds and insects, and the latter calcareous 
matter, and destroys their vermin by its sharp- 
ness, as they revel in its rough particles. See 
Capon. 

There is a communication in the Farmer's 
Cabinet, (vol. ii. p. 95,) upon keeping hens, and 
the profits from eggs, from a poulterer in Eaton, 
Massachusetts, which contains much useful 
information. On the 1st of January, says the 
writer, I had ten hens and one cock. In the 
spring three of the hens were sufl^ered to set, 
which left seven to experiment with. The 
three which set raised 24 chickens, which 
were sold for 12^ cents each, when about the 
size of quails. The sooner, he observes, you 
sell chickens the better, since they do not 
bring prices corresponding with their increase 
in size. The seven hens which did not set, 
laid 100 dozen of eggs. During half the time 
in winter the fowls were fed upon boiled pota- 
toes and bran or meal mixed together with 
warm water, and as the place where they were 
kept was well sheltered, none were lost by the 
dough freezing in their craws or crops. For 
the remainder of the time oats were given 
them, which the writer considers better for 



fowls than Indian corn, having tried both. Tht 
oats were first allowed to soak in warm water 
for three or four hours, till well swelled, after 
which they were given to the fowls. Treated 
in this way he considers one bushel of oats 
will go as far as a bushel and a half of corn. 
Hens, &c. should never be allowed to roost in 
stables or kept near cattle, as they communi- 
cate their vermin to these, which worries and 
prevents them from growing fat. 

FOWL, GUINEA, or Pintauo (Numida 
meleagris). These birds are very wild and 
restless in their nature, owing to their native 
habits. They are shy, and love to make their 
nests in dark, obscure places, far from home; 
for which reason their eggs are generally 
placed under a common hen to be hatched 
and fostered. They give no notice of laying 
or setting. A brood of Guinea fowls is an 
excellent guard. They love roosting in the 
trees; and at night, if any footstep disturb 
them, their loud cries are sure to give notice 
to the farmer that a trespass is committing. 
The Guinea fowl is delicate eating, and is in 
fine season about Lent. The young chickens 
must be treated in the same manner and with 
the same food as young turkeys, and they must 
be kept warm and dry. In fatting, they should 
be shut up in a house for a fortnight, and fed 
four or five times a day with sweet barley-meai, 
moistened with milk and good lard. They pine 
if confined any length of time. The great 
drawbacks to the rearing of Guinea fowls are 
the vigilance required to watch for their nest, 
and the harsh screaming of their cry. 

FOWL, PEA (Phasianus lo). Native of 
India, tender in infancy, but soon inured tc 
our climate, as they become older. From 
their native wild habits, they love lo lay their 
eggs in woods or coppices far from home. As 
the hen covers her eggs over with dead leaves 
after laying them, and generally deposits them 
under a bush, without the ceremony of making 
a nest, she must be closely watched, and each 
day her fresh egg should be withdrawn, and 
an egg cut in chalk substituted, and covered 
over again with the leaves. The eggs should 
be placed under a common hen for safety, both 
on account of the fox, and because the pea-hen 
would lead the young ones to ramble as soon 
as they had escaped from the shell. The best 
food for pea-chicks is barley-meal made into 
a paste, and mixed with sweet curd, and finely 
chopped, hard-boiled eggs. They are also ex- 
ceedingly fond of the large horse ant and its 
eggs, which in England are found in woods, 
deposited in little hillocks of small leaves and 
twigs. All the tribes of wild birds, such as 
pea-fowl, turkeys, pheasants, &c. love ants: it 
is their natural food. Two or three handfuls 
of their eggs twice a day, makes a good variety 
with their usual food. Keep the young pea- 
fowls well housed while under the mother's 
care : when they grow up, they prefer roosting 
in trees or on buildings If a pea-hen is al- 
lowed to brood her own (.hickens, she should 
be kept under a coop for three weeks at least, 
to prevent her rambling. Pea-fowl will feed 
well on any kind of corn. They are exceed- 
ingly destructive in a garden. Our ancestvi-s 
considered them very delicate eating. 

503 



FOWL'S DUNG. 



FRANCE, AGRICULTURE OF. 



FOWL'S DUNG. See Guano and Pigeon's 

DUNO. 

FOX-EVIL. A disease in which the hair 
falls off. 

FOXGLOVE, COMMON (Digitalis purpu- 
rea). A very handsome biennial plant, blow- 
ing purplish-crimson, or occasionally white 
flowers, from June to September. In England 
it is found wild in pastures and about hedges 
or banks, on a gravelly, sandy, or chalky soil. 
In gardens it is easily propagated b)'- seed. 

The lesser yellow foxglove (D. parviflora) 
is a native of Italy, and perennial : grows 
three feet high, blooming yellow flowers in 
June and July. It may be propagated from 
seed. 

The large yellow foxglove {D, ambigua), with 
larger flowers, is also a perennial, growing 
three feet high. 

The medicinal qualities of the foxglove are 
diuretic, powerfully emetic, and narcotic ; and, 
under proper management it is a most useful 
medicine. The leaves are inert in the first 
year of the growth of the plant. They are 
sometimes used externally as cataplasms for 
resolving scrofulous tumours. As every part 
of the foxglove is poisonous, children ought to 
be warned against chewing it. No person not 
qualified to practise medicine should venture 
to prescribe foxglove. 

FOX-TAIL GRASS (Setnria glaum). A 
common American grass, with a bristly head, 
found in cultivated grounds, old stubble-fields, 
orchards, &c., flowering in July. Its root is 
annual, and the stem grows 2 or 3 feet high. 
When mature it has a tawny, or orange 
colour. 

Another species of fox-tail is popularly called 
green fox-tail, or butter-grass {Selaria viridis). 
Its general resemblance to the species first- 
named, render it liable to be passed by as a 
green variety of that plant. 

A species of Setaria (S. vcrticiUata), com- 
monly found about gardens and cultivated lots 
in the Middle States, has teeth on the bristles, 
which cause the spikes to adhere to objects 
with which they come in contact. 

Another species called German Setaria, millet 
or Bengal grass, is occasionally found in fal- 
low fields. Dr. Muhlenburg supposed this an- 
nual plant might be a variety of the green 
fox-tail, to which Dr. Darlington thinks it cer- 
tainly allied. Some years ago, the Bengal 
grass was introduced into the Middle States as 
an object of culture, and, for a time, excited 
much interest among farmers. It was soon 
found, however, not to be as valuable as the 
usual summer crop, of which it occupied the 
place, and its cultivation is now pretty much 
abandoned. The seed is sown in the early part 
c/f May. 

Several other species of this genus are 
found in the United States, of which one called 
the Italian Setaria is met with along the river 
Delaware, distinguished by its very large 
spikes. The others are southern plants. None 
of them, except the German setaria, possess 
any value to the agriculturist. (Flor. Cestric.) 
See Alopecuhus. 

FRANCE, THE AGRICULTURE OF.— 
Although the two kingdoms of Britain and 
£04 



France, are such near neighbours, and enjoy 
a soil so similar, yet the agriculture of each 
differs very materially. The chief features in 
the farming system of France which strike an 
Englishman are the almost total absence of 
hedges, and the smallness of the farms or 
plots ; the minute divisions of landed property 
having been long encouraged by the laws of 
France in every possible way. The end has 
been attained ; considerable comfort has been 
diffused amidst the mass of the people, but 
with injurious results to agriculture. For in a 
country where the farms generally do not com- 
prise more than from 15 to 20 acres, all the 
common evils of a land of small holdings are 
naturally felt. The capital required for them 
being limited, the competition to obtain them 
is naturally considerable ; the charge for the 
labour to cultivate them is also great ; the live- 
stock kept on them inferior ; the rotation of 
crops bad, and agricultural improvements of 
all kinds but slowly adopted. The government 
of France, it is true, in the absence of large 
landed proprietors, and opulent, en tei"p rising, 
and scientific farmers, does all it can, by ex- 
pensive state agricultural institutions, to sup- 
ply their place ; but these are not attended with 
the general advantages which are derived in 
other countries from the exertions of private 
individuals. Of these small farms, Mr. Deni- 
son has given the following graphic descrip- 
tion (Jour. Roy. .4gr. Soc. vol. i. p. 263); — "In 
comparison with the English system of enclo- 
sures, France may be called one vast open 
field ; you may travel from Calais to Paris, 
from Paris to the German frontier, to the Alps, 
to the Pyrenees, and scarcely see a hedge or 
a partition fence of any sort. This vast open 
field (unlike the open districts of England, 
where the operations of farming are generally 
conducted on the largest scale) is cut up into 
the smallest conceivable plots of every variety 
of produce. As far as the eye can reach, over 
vast plains bounded by sloping hills, you see 
the surface varied by every description of 
crop ; none, perhaps, above an acre or two in 
size, the larger portion not more than the 
fourth or the eighth of an acre. Here a vine- 
yard 100 yards by 20 ; there a strip of wheat, 
lucerne, bar!e3% oats, potatoes, clover, and 
vetches. Few roads intersect this extensive 
garden, which, from the nature of the cultiva- 
tion, must be traversed every day in all direc- 
tions by the proprietors and cultivators of the 
various lots. The residences of these proprie- 
tors are almost invariably congregated into 
villages or towns, and lie, therefore, for the 
most part, wide of their respective allotments." 
The advocates of such a general system of 
cultivation will hence see that this mode of 
tillage is attended with sundr}' insuperable dis- 
advantages. The public agricultural establish- 
ments maintained entirely by the French 
government are — 1. Sheep farms; 2. Model 
farms ; 3. Veterinary schools ; 4. Haras, or 
studs. And it assists, by its patronage and 
with funds — 1. Public lectures; 2. Agricultu- 
ral societies ; 3. Local associations ; 4. De- 
partmental model farms. 

There are three public sheep farms ; viz., at 
Rambouillet, Perpignan, and La Hayevatvx. 



FRANCE. AGRICULTURE OF. 

At these, sheep are bred, and experiments in 
crossing tried. The chief breeds are the me- 
rino, the naz, a race with small frames and fine 
•wool, and the English long-woolled sheep. 

Of the model farms, Grignon, founded in 
1829, and containing 1100 acres of land of dif- 
ferent qualities, is the chief. It consists of 
arable, pasture, meadow, water meadow, and 
wood. Pupils are taken here, who pay in the 
house from 30/. to 60/. per annum, or, if they 
only attend the courses of instruction, from 8/. 
to 20/.: the shortest course occupies two years; 
and after attending this period, and passing a 
public examination, the pupil may receive a 
diploma, taking rank as a sort of master of 
arts of Grignon. 

The chief veterinary schools are at Alfort, 
near Paris, Toulouse, and Lyons. The three 
chief haras, or breeding studs, are at Dupin in 
Normandy (English blood horses), at Rozieres 
(a mixed breed called the " race ducale"), and 
at Pompadour (Arab and Persian). These 
contain together about 1300 horses. Of tho- 
rough-bred stock, in 1840, they had 167 stal- 
lions, 98 mares, and 121 colts and fillies; for 
the use of the departments 870 stallions are 
kept at diflferent stations. These are allowed 
the following amount of forage at three dif- 
ferent stations : — 



FRANCE, AGRICULTURE OF. 



Abbeville - 

Angers 

Aurillac 


Oats. 


Hay. 


Straw. 1 


Pints. 

16 
14 
14 


It». oz. 
6 11 
11 
11 


Ifai. oz. 
17 10 
13 4 
15 7 



These various public objects cost the govern- 
ment 119,452/.; viz., sheep farms, 20,303/.; 
veterinary schools, 11,263/.; haras, or studs, 
70,526/. ; "other items of expense, 32,000/. ; de- 
partment of government, 3,360/. 

Sir Charles Lemon has given the result of 
the returns of the agricultural survey of 21 out 
of the 84 departments of France, comprehend- 
ing the whole of the north-eastern portion of 
the kingdom, or the whole or the greater part 
of the old provinces of Flanders, Artois, Picar- 
die. Isle de France, Champagne, Lorraine, and 
Alsace, equal to a surface of 31,720,000 acres, 
or about the area of all England. {Jour, of Roy. 
jigr. Soc. vol. i. p. 415.) 

The following table shows the number of 
English acres tilled with each sort of grain, 
the produce, and the seed sown, in the 21 de- 
partments before alluded to : — 



Wheat - 

Barley 

Oats 

Meteil (mixture 

of wheat and 

rye) 
Rye - 
Potatoes - 


Acres. 


Produce in 
Busheh. 


Amount of 
Seed sown. 


3,913,789 
1,115,916 
3,129,359 

630,321 

1,124,909 

645,233 


59,075,391 
17,532.87.'; 
54,179,336 

9,526,777 
13,332,935 
93,649,112 


9,458,471 
2,734,799 
8,298,751 

1,494,236 

2,675,389 
10,748,567 



Total grown 
Seed - 



- 19,205,914 quarters 

- 3,082,702 — 



The average produce per acre of the 21 de- 
partments, is as follows : — 
64 





Average 


Hishest 


Lowest 






Produce pr. 
Acre in 


Depart, 
nientsl 


Depart- 
mental 


Seed. 


Wheat - 


Dusheli. 


Average. 


Average. 




15 


23 


10-5 


2-6 


Barley - 


17 


35 


8 


2-6 


Oats 


18i 


44i 


11 


2-8 


Meleil - 


13i 


aai 


8 


25 


Rye 


13 


20i 


8 


2-6 


Potatoes 


127 


257 


67 





In these departments were contained — 

Cattle - • - - - - - - 2,628,924 

Sheep 6,764,107 

Pigs and goals 1,399,599 

Horses 974.918 

Mules and asses ----- 99,660 

The food of the small French Farmers* 
especially in Normandy, is very poor. " Many 
(says a writer in the Qriart. Jour, of Agr. vol. 
xii. p. 2), like the common labourers, live upon 
a k\v apples or pears, and a bit of bread, with- 
out the formality of sitting down to a table, 
and are content with a drink of their own 
home-made miserable cider." The breed of 
sheep is very inferior. Although many of the 
sheep are kept in flocks, yet there is little or 
no free range for them ; they are usually kept 
in small lots of three or four, or half-a-dozen, 
and generally tied together by the legs. The 
average price of mutton is 2^d. per pound. Of 
the cattle, the Alderney blood seems to pre- 
dominate. Bullocks are worked to a consi- 
derable extent, both in the plough and in the 
wagon. "Some centuries ago, Normandy 
was the source whence our Henries, and Ed- 
wards, and the flower of European chivalry, 
obtained their chargers ; which were then a 
breed of large, powerful, active horses, able to 
bear the weight of an armed knight, with suffi- 
cient speed for the purposes of war. That 
breed has long since degenerated into ?d\ active 
and hardy horse, but totally devoid of those 
qualifications as to size and general appear- 
ance which we should think essential in a 
charger even for a common soldier; they sel- 
dom attain 15 hands in height, and are very 
short-necked; they are rather large in the 
head, have good forelegs, but are frequently 
imperfect in the hind ones, being too long from 
the hock to the hoof, and they are often diseased 
in those limbs from curb or spavine, and defi- 
cient in width and muscle in the thigh. They 
have generally, however, good shoulders, back, 
and loins, many of them possessing very use- 
ful and short actions in the trot; and consi- 
dered generally as a breed, they are able to go 
faster, and do more work than their appear- 
ance at first indicates : they are commonly 
worked at two years of age." With regard to 
the rotation of crops, there is little worthy of 
observation. In Normandy, a very commor 
rotation is a three-shift of wheat, barley, clover 
wheat; in others, a four-shift of potatoes, barley, 
clover, wheat. Their agricultural implements 
are few and defective. Dombasle's plough, mo- 
delled from that of Small's English plough, is 
the favourite plough in France; it has co.n- 
monly, however, wheels added. The spade is 
employed to a considerable extent in the field 
culture of this great country, and the greatest 
portion of the country partakes of the nature 
of garden husbandry The consumption of 
2U 505 



FRANCE, AGRICULTURE OF. 

vegetables of all kinds is much greater in 
France than in England; and the same remark 
applies to bread, the price of which, in Paris, 
is regulated by the public authorities. 

The care which is taken in France, by the 
government, to husband every particle of or- 
ganic manure, is well worthy of the conside- 
ration of the public authorities in England, for 
nowhere is there a greater waste of the richest 
fertilizing matters than from the large cities 
and towns of England ; a great and public loss, 
to which Dr. Granoitte, in his report to the 
Thames Improvement Company, thus alludes : 
" In no part of France, Wurtemberg, Bavaria, 
Bohemia, Prussia, Saxony, the Confederated 
States of Germany, Holland, and Belgium, is 
there a city in which, as in London, the gene- 
ral mass of filth, of every description, created 
by a vast population, is first allowed to enter 
the river which may happen to traverse that 
city, and is then returned, diluted with the 
water of that river, to the houses of the inhabi- 
tants, to be used either for domestic or culinary 
purposes : although, by avoiding the latter dis- 
gusting alternative, foreign cities are less free 
from unpleasant smells than London is. In this 
respect it may be truly said, that foreigners smell 
the filth of their cities, but do not swallow it ; 
whereas the Londoner swallows it, but seldom 
smells it. 

"In no large city of that part of Europe 
which I have recently visited, possessing a 
river, is any portion of the contents of closets 
and cesspools suffered to find its way, or to be 
emptied into it ; except at Amsterdam, Ant- 
werp, Brussels, Stuttgard, and Leipzig ; and 
even there, only in a partial manner. In Paris 
the Seine is contaminated by one large drain 
only, conveying the urine from the large reser- 
voirs of night-soil at Montfaucon, and by tAvo 
smaller ones proceeding from cesspools. To 
convey generally, or to empty, even partially, 
any such matter into the river, is a practice 
against which the laws have provided by heavy 
fines and incarceration ; and such is the pre- 
sent feeling of all the governments on that 
subject, even in the great cities I have just 
enumerated as exceptions, that the authorities 
are seriously engaged in devising means for 
preventing, in future, every possible infraction 
of those laws ; not because it is desirable to 
preserve pure the water of such rivers (since 
no domestic use is made of it), but on account 
of the loss of a material, deemed most valua- 
ble, which such infractions must necessarily 
entail. 

"In Paris extensive improvements in regard 
to drainage are now in progress, at the conclu- 
sion of which, that capital will have subterra- 
neous drains and sewers in as complete a state 
as those of London, and something better. 
More than two-fifths of that city are now so 
drained. When this great undertaking was in 
agitation, it was suggested that all the latrines, 
public as well as private, should, as in London, 
communicate, by proper drains with the great 
sewers, which are intended to be emptied into 
the Seine. As the project of supplying pure 
water, direct to the houses, is simultaneously 
to be carried into effect, and as the water for 
Uiai purpose is to be derived from other 
506 



FROG OF A HORSE. 

sources than the river, there could have been 
no objection on that score, to the adoption 
of so general and so complete a drainag'. 
But when scientific men, agriculturists, and 
political economists were consulted, it was 
agreed that, by adopting the London system, the 
city would lose a revenue of nearly 800,000 
francs, and agriculture the means of producing 
four times as much. The government, there- 
fore, came to the resolution of not suffering any 
portion of the contents of the latrines to enter 
the common sewers ; but, alive to the great im- 
portance of saving them, enacted a police 
regulation, strictly enjoining that every house 
should have its cesspool (whether new or old, 
and within a given lime) made water-tight, in 
order that none of those contents should be 
wasted. In consequence of this regulation, 
all cesspools must be emptied once in four 
years." 

FRANKLINIA (Gordonia pubescens). This 
species of Gordonia, appears to be restricted 
by nature, within very narrow bounds, having 
hitherto, says Michaux, been found only on the 
banks of the Altamaha, in the slate of Georgia. 
It was discovered there in 1770, by John Bar* 
tram, who gave it its specific name. In height it 
rarely exceeds 30 feet, with a diameter of 6 
or 8 inches. It blooms in Carolina about 
the beginning of July, and a month later near 
Philadelphia. The flowers are more than an 
inch in diameter, white, and of an agreeable 
odour. They have a slight resemblance to 
those of the dogwood (Comus Florida). Like 
those of the Loblolly bay (Gordonia lasyanthus), 
they open in succession during two or three 
months, and begin to appear when the tree is 
only 3 or 4 feet high. The fruit is in the form 
of round, ligneous capsules, which, when ripe, 
open at the summit in four seams to release 
the small angular seeds. 

Although the Franklinia is found 2 or 3 de- 
grees farther south than the Loblolly bay, it 
appears to be far less sensible to cold, and 
stands the climate well near Philadelphia, and 
will perhaps resist the winters higher north. 
(Mirhaitx.) 

FRENCH BEANS. See Beans. 

FRENCH CLOVER. See Lucerne. 

FREE-MARTIN. A name given by breed- 
ers to a twin cow calf born with a bull calii 
which generally proves an hermaphrodite, and 
therefore barren ; but in some cases, there not 
being this admixture of the organs of different 
sexes, or those of the female prevailing, she is 
capable of breeding. (Yuvait on Cattle, p. 539.) 

FRINGE-TREE (Chionanlhus Virguiica), a 
beautiful, small, American tree, abounding in 
the Southern States, and as high up as the vi- 
cinity of Dover, in the state of Delaware. It 
has been even met with on the banks of the 
Brandywine. The specific name is derived 
from its snow-white flowers, which are pendu- 
lous and fringe-like. There is another variety 
in the United States (the maritima of Pursh), 
which Lindley considers a distinct species. 
{Flor, Cestrica.) 

FROG OF A HORSE. In farriery, is a tri- 
angular portion of horn projecting from the 
sole almost on a level with the crust, and de- 
fending a soft euid elastic substance called the 



FROG-HOPPERS. 



FROST. 



sensible frog. The sensible frog occupies the 
■whole of the back part of the foot, above the 
horny frog and between the cartilages. See 
Shoeing. 

FROG-HOPPERS. The familiar name ap- 
plied to singular insects (Cercopididce), which 
pass their whole lives on plants, upon the 
stems of which the eggs are deposited in au- 
tumn. "The followingsummertheyare hatched, 
and the young immediately perforate the bark 
with their beaks, and begin to imbibe the sap. 
They take in such quantities of this, that it 
oozes out of their bodies continually, in the 
form of little bubbles, which soon completely 
cover up the insects. They thus remain en- 
tirely buried and concealed in large masses 
of foam, until they have completed their final 
transformation, on which account the names 
of cuckoo-spittle, frog-spittle, and frog-hoppers 
have been applied to them. We have," says 
Dr. Harris, "several species of these frog-hop- 
pers in Massachusetts, and the spittle, with 
which they are sheltered from the sun and air, 
may be seen in great abundance, during the 
summer, on the stems of our alders and wil- 
lows. In the perfect state they are not thus 
protected, but are found on the plants, in the 
latter part of summer, fully grown and prepar- 
ing to lay their eggs. In this state they pos- 
sess the power of leaping in a still more re- 
markable degree than the tree-hoppers ; and, 
for this purpose, the tips of their hind shanks 
are surrounded with little spines, and the first 
two joints of their feet have a similar coronet 
of spines at their extremities. Their thorax 
narrows a little behind, and projects somewhat 
between the bases of the wing-covers ; their 
bodies are rather short, and their wing-covers 
are almost horizontal and quite broad across 
the middle, which, with the shortness of their 
legs, gives them a squat appearance." 

FROGS (Rana, Linn.). A genus of amphi- 
bious reptiles, consisting of 17 species, but two 
only require to be here noticed : — 

1. The Common Frog (R. temporaria), which 
is too well known to need description. Some 
of its properties are very singular, particularly 
its powers of leaping and swimming. Its body 
is naked, and without any tail ; the fore limbs 
are very lightly made, while the hind legs and 
thighs are remarkably long, and furnished with 
strong muscles. As soon as the spawn is vi- 
vified, the future frog becomes a tadpole, in 
which state it is wholly a water animal, breath- 
ing by bronchia or gills, like fish ; but as soon 
as it is changed into a frog, and attains its 
])roper shape, it acquires lungs, by which it 
breathes, and then immediately migrates to the 
shore. 

2. The Gibbous, Green, or Edible frog (/?. 
esculenta), which differs from the former spe- 
cies only in having a high protuberance in the 
middle of the back, which forms an acute 
angle. Its colours likewise are more vivid, 
and its marks more distinct, the ground colour 
being a pale or yellowish green, marked with 
rows of black spots from the head to the rump. 
The flesh of the hind thighs is used as a re- 
storative food. The flesh of the Surinam frog 
(i?. paradoxa) is also used as food. Frogs are 

1 recommended by Walton as bait for pike, but 



frogs retaliate by feeding on the spawn and 
young fry of fish in ponds and rivers. 

Of the utility of frogs, in destroying insects 
injurious to gardens and farms, the following 
view presented in a French periodical, is highly 
favourable to those much despised animals. 

" Gardeners wage the same war against frogs 
as with moles and all other insects mischievous 
to their crops. But they are wrong in including 
frogs in the general proscription, since they 
not only do them no injury, but render them, 
on the contrary, important services ; for they 
are carnivorous as well as herbivorous, and 
greatly prefer insects to vegetable food. They 
are particularly fond of snails, and swallow 
them even with their shells on, when they are 
not too large. If you open a frog, you will find 
his stomach full of insects hurtful to agricul- 
ture, and especially snails. The shells they 
digest, or rather dissolve in their stomachs, in 
the same way that dogs do bones, and turkeys 
the shells of nuts." {Jlmcrican Fanner.) 

FROND. A combination of stem and leaf 
in one organ, as in ferns, Marchuntia, and such 
like plants. 

FROST. In meteorology is the cause of the 
congelation of water or the vapours of the at- 
mosphere. Water begins to freeze when the 
temperature of the air is such that Fahrenheit's 
thermometer stands at 32°.- At this tempera- 
ture ice begins to appear, unless some circum- 
stance, for example, the agitation of the water, 
prevents its formation. As the cold increases 
the frost becomes more intense, and liquids 
which resist the degree of cold required to con- 
geal water at length pass into the solid state. 
When water remains at complete rest it may 
be cooled down to 28° Fahrenheit without 
freezing ; but the moment it is agitated, the 
thermometer rises to 32° and the water freezes. 
In this case the insensible heat of the water is 
retained when the fluid is at rest. No experi- 
ments have hitherto ascertained to what depth 
frost will extend, either in earth or water, but 
its effects will of course vary according to the 
degree of coldness in the air, the longer or 
shorter duration of the fro' t, the texture of the 
earth, the nature of the fluids with which the 
ground is impregnated, &c. In England the 
frost rarely extends in the ground below 18 
inches from the surface- Frost is peculiarly 
destructive to vegetatioi. During severe frost 
almost all vegetables fall into a state of decay, 
and even a moderate degree of frost is suffi- 
cient to destroy many of the more tender kinds. 
The injury which vegetables sustain from frost 
is greatest when it is preceded by a thaw or 
copious rains ; for the plants are then turgid 
with moisture, which, expanding in bulk as it 
passes into the solid state, produces the rup- 
ture of the vegetable fibres. Therefore it is 
that a sharp, north wind, or any thing which 
dries the sap or juices of vegetables previous 
to frost, tends to their preservation. The great 
power of frost on vegetables is well known. 
Trees are sometimes destroyed by it as if by 
fire, and split with a noise resembling the ex 
plosion of artillery, since the juices of the tree 
expand with great force, as they are converted 
into ice. In winter, however, trees generally 
have neither leaves nor flowers, and their buds 

507 



FROST, 



FRUiT. 



are so hard as to withstand the effects of con- 
gelation; but hard frosts late in spring are 
often very injurious, as the buds are then ap- 
pearing. Fruits are in like manner destroyed 
by frost. Their watery portion being changed 
into crystals of ice, occupying a greater space 
than the fluid from which they were produced, 
burst the small vessels in which they are 
formed; hence the fruit is deprived of its fla- 
vour, and when thawed putrefies. 

The hoar-frost or white frost, which appears 
in the mornings chiefly in autumn and spring, 
is merely frozen dew. It is generally the con- 
sequence of a sudden clearing up of the M'ea- 
ther after rain, when a considerable degree of 
cold is produced by the rapid evaporation. In 
northerly climates, it usually happens that 
after a fall of rain the wind shifts into a north- 
ern quarter, and the atmosphere suddenly clears 
up. When this takes place during the night, or 
early in the morning, a strong radiation of heat 
from the earth commences, the cooling effect 
of which is increased by the copious evapora- 
tion from the wet surfaces of the plants and 
the grass. The influence of evaporation on 
the phenomenon is obvious from this, that the 
moisture which appears in the form of dew be- 
fore sunrise, is often changed into rime, or hoar- 
frost, on the appearance of that luminary. The 
reason is, that as the atmosphere begins to be 
warmed by the sun's rays, the evaporation is 
accelerated, and consequently the cold at the 
wet surface of the ground augmented ; hence, 
we see one reason why frosty nights are so 
much more prejudicial to the tender shoots of 
plants when they are succeeded by very bright 
mornings. Hence, also, hoar-frost is found 
on grass or plants, when the thermometer, 
placed a few feet above the ground, indicates 
a temperature three or four degrees above the 
freezing point. 

In late autumnal frost, the effect of evapora- 
tion by the heat of the sun is often exemplified 
on the stems of potatoes. If a hoar-frost be 
immediately succeeded by the influence of the 
sun, the dew liquefies, and by the process of 
evaporation the stalks lose their vitality ; for 
although plants, as \vell as animals, have an 
inherent power of resisting cold, yet it is in the 
former only to a very limited degree. If the 
hoar-frost be brushed off (and this can easily 
be done by two men moving along the beds or 
drills with a rope between them, very early in 
the morning, before the evaporation takes 
place), the stalks will sustain no injury. The 
destructive power of evaporation appears to 
be proportioned to the degree of humidity ia 
the body on which it acts. 

The following is recommended as a simple 
and easy method of securing fruit trees from 
the effects of frost: — 

If a thick rope be intermixed among the 
branches of a fruit tree in blossom, the end of 
which is directed downwards so as to terminate 
in a pail of water, should a slight frost take 
place during the night, it will not in the small- 
est degree affect the tree, while the surface of 
the pail which receives the rope will be cover- 
ed with thin ice ; though the water placed in 
another pail by the side of it, by way of expe- 
rijnent, may not, from the slightness of the 
608 



frost, have any ice on it at all. In this case 
the rope aids the evaporation of the water, and 
thereby cools it down to the freezing point. 
Frost is merely the effect of cold, which, itself, 
is a negative quality ; namely, the absence of 
heat. As evaporation carries off heat and re- 
duces temperature, whatever aids this is fa- 
vourable to freezing. {Qtuirt. Journ. of Jgr. vol. 
viii. p. 421.) Early hoar-frost may, it is said, 
be rendered harmless in its effects by pouring 
fresh spring water on the trees and vines thus 
covered before the sun rises. Various other 
projects have been proposed at different times 
to avert the disastrous effects of the morning 
frosts on vegetation in spring; but, unfortu- 
nately, it is only on a very limited scale that 
any means can be adopted for the purpose. 
Whatever prevents the formation of dew will 
protect plants ; hence a covering of net or thin 
gauze will often preserve the blossoms of wall- 
fruit. But the most effectual means is to check 
the radiation, by screening the plant from the 
chilling aspect of the clear sky. See Dew. 
Every farmer knows that frost in winter is 
serviceable to the soil, by breaking down and 
pulverizing land, and that a failure of crops 
frequently takes place after a Avinter of ex- 
treme mildness. The principle is this :— in the 
process of congelation, the water, as it freezes, 
expands, and, therefore, necessarily separates t 
the particles of earth in which it is held: frost 
thus operates better than any instrument of 
human construction, for its action reaches to 
the minutest particles, and thus renders them ' 
friable. In dry earth it has little or no effect 7 
in this way, but is beneficial in destroying 
grubs and insects. On sand it makes no im- 
pression. On ploughed clay-land frost has the 
most beneficial effect. Therefore, where the I 
soil is close, stiff, or of an obstinate clayey na-f 
ture, it should be turned up in ridges in the I 
autumn or at the beginning of winter, which • 
tends greatly to separate its particles, and ren- 
der it more fine and mellow. 

Hard winters seldom injure winter grain iu 
any respect, especially where the land has been 
thoroughly drained, and is covered much with 
snow. By leaving the earth in a loose and 
finely divided stale, frost adapts it better for the 
extension of the roots as the warmth of spring 
approaches, and thereby enables them to pro- 
duce strong plants. (Brande's Diet, of Science.') 

FRUIT (Fr. fruit .- It. frutta : Span, fruta ; 
hat. fructimi). In botany, comprehends many 
kinds of what are commonly called seeds ; as 
those of corn, buckwheat, caraway, parsley, 
&c., as well as the succulent inflorescence of 
the pine-apple, which is a mass of ovaria and 
envelopes in a consolidated condition. But in 
horticulture the term fruit is restricted to the 
pulpy and juicy seeds of trees and shrubs, &c., 
as the apple, the peach, the currant, &c. 

The fruits of vegetables are equally various 
with the seeds. They almost all contain an 
acid ; and this acid is usually either the tar- 
taric, the oxalic, the citric, or the malic, or a 
mixture of two or more of them. Hardly any 
other, except, perhaps, the acetic, has hitherto 
been found in fruits. They usually contain 
likewise a portion of saccharine gummy mat- 
ter, sometimes starch; and the flerhy fruits 



i 



I 



FRUIT-MAGGOTS. 



FRUIT-MOTH. 



contain also a fibrous matter, not yet accu- 
rately examined. The colouring matters of 
fruits, especially the red, dissolve freely both 
in water and alcohol, but very speedily decay 
when exposed dry to the action of the sun 
and weather. Hence they cannot be used as 
dyes. 

The diseases of fruit-trees are various, and 
for these the reader is referred to the different 
heads of Blirht, Canker, Mildew, &c. As 
the culture and propagation of the different 
fruits are also treated of in separate articles, 
it will suffice in this place to enumerate a few 
i of the principal works which maybe consulted 
with advantage for fuller details than the limits 
of this work will enable me to give ; among 
these are Phillips's Hist, of Fruits; Rogers's 
Fruit Cult. ; Hoare on the Vine ; Abercrombie' s 
Fruit GarcL; Lindlcy's Guide to the Orchard and 
Kitchen Gard. ; Loudon's Encyc. of Gard. ^c. ; 
Bliss's Fruit Grower's Instructor. 

Several American works have been pub- 
lished of great value, upon the culture of fruit- 
trees, &c.: among these are included Coxe on 
Fruit-trees : Thatcher's American Orchardist ; 
Hovey's Magaz. of Horticulture, ^c. ; Kenrick's 
Am. Orchardist ; Fessenden's Am. Farmer and 
Gardener; Hoffey's Orchardist' s Companion, the 
I last a splendid original work with plates. 
' FRUIT MAGGOTS. The little white mag- 
gots often found in our ripe whortleberries, 
: raspberries, cherries, and other fruits, are the 
young of small tWo-winged flies, some of 
which family deposit their eggs in the stems, 
buds, and leaves of plants, thereby producing 
; large tumors or galls wherein their young re- 
side. The larvce of those laying their eggs in 
fruit, live upon the pulp. The family of insects 
has received the name of Ortalidians, from a 
word signifying to shake or flap the wings, 
these being kept in motion all the time. Some 
of them are in the habit of suddenly raising 
their wings perpendicularly above their backs, 
and running along a few steps with them spread 
1 like the tail of a peacock. Their powers of 
flight are feeble, and they are rarely found 
sporting on flowers in the sunshine, but gene- 
rally prefer shady and damp places. The 
wings of the ortalidians are often beautifully 
variegated, striped or spotted, with shades of 
brown or black. (Harris.) 

FRUIT-MOTH, or CODLING-MOTH. The 
insect, the eggs of which produce the well- 
known apple-worm, which has been brought 
from Europe to America, and naturalized 
wherever the apple tree has been introduced. 
This mischievous creature has som.etimes 
been mistaken for the plum-weevil (see Cur- 
culio), but it may, says Dr. Harris, be easily 
distinguished from it by its shape, habits, and 
transformations. The plum-weevil is, how- 
ever, sometimes found in apples; but the 
apple-worm has never yet been found in 
plums, so far as Dr. Harris has been able to 
learn. The apple-worm is not a grub, but a 
true caterpillar, the product of a moth, and not 
of a beetle, as grubs are. An anonymous 
writer in the Entomological Magazine of London, 
has well remarked of this moth (Carpocapsa 
pomonella), that "it is the most beautiful of the 
tribe to which it belongs ; yet, from its habits 



not being known, it is seldom seen in the moth 
state ; and the apple-grower knows no more 
than the man in the moon to what cause he is 
; indebted for his basketfuls of worm-eaten 
windfalls in the stillest weather." 

A good account of the apple-worm and its 
transformations, by Joseph Tufts, Esq., of 
Charleston, Massachusetts, was published in 
the Massachusetts Agr. Rep. and Journ., vol. v., 
and some remarks by Mr. Burrelle, of Quincy, 
Massachusetts, may be found in the New Eng- 
land Farmer, vol. xviii. At various times be- 
tween the middle of June and first of July, the 
apple-worm moths may be found in New Eng- 
land. "They are sometimes seen in houses 
in the evening, trying to get through the win- 
dows into the open air, having been brought in 
with fruit while they were in the caterpillar 
state. Their fore-wings, when seen at a dis- 
tance, have somewhat the appearance of brown 
watered silk; when closely examined they will 
be found to be crossed by numerous gray and 
brown lines, scalloped like the plumage of a 
bird ; and near the hind angle there is a large, 
oval, dark brown spot, the edges of which are 
of a bright copper colour. The head and 
thorax are brown, mingled with gray ; and the 
hind-wings and abdomen are light yellowish 
brovvm, with the lustre of satin. Its wings ex- 
pand three-quarters of an inch. This insect 
is readily distinguished from other moths by 
the large, oval, brown spot, edged with copper 
colour, on the hinder margin of each of the 
fore-wings. During the latter part of June and 
the month of July, these fruit-moths lly about 
apple trees every evening, and lay the'r eggs 
on the young fruit. They do not puncture the 
apples, but they drop their eggs, one by one, in 
the eye or hollow at the blossom end of the 
fruit, where the skin is most tender. They 
seem also to seek for early fruit rather than 
for the late kinds, which we find are not so apt 
to be wormy as the thin-skinned summer 
apples. The eggs begin to hatch in a few 
days after they are laid, and the little apple- 
worms or caterpillars produced from them im- 
mediately burrow into the apples, making their 
way gradually from the eye towards the core. 
Commonly only one worm will be found in the 
same apple ; and it is so small at first, that its 
presence can only be detected by the brownish 
powder it throws out in eating its way through 
the eye. The body of the young insect is of a 
whitish colour; its head is heart-shaped and 
black; the top of the first ring or collar and 
of the last ring is also black ; and there are 
eight little blackish dots or warts, arranged in 
pairs, on each of the other rings. As it grows 
older its body becomes flesh-coloured; its 
head, the collar, and the top of the last ring, 
turn brown, and the dots are no longer to be 
seen. In the course of three weeks, or a little 
more, it comes to its full size, and meanwhile 
has burrowed to the core and through the apple 
in various directions. To get rid of the refuse 
fragments of its food, it gnaws a round hole 
through the side of the apple, and thrusts them 
out of the opening. Through this hole also'the 
insect makes its escape after the apple falls to 
the ground; and the falling of the fruit is well 
known to be hastened by the iniary it hA.\- 
2 c 2 b\3d 



FRUIT-WEEVIL. 

received within, which generally causes it to 
ripen before its time. 

" Soon after the half-grown apples drop, and 
sometimes while they are still hanging, the 
worms leave them and creep into chinks in 
the bark of the trees or into other sheltered 
places, which they hollow out with their teeth 
to suit their shape. Here each one spins for 
itself a cocoon or silken case, as thin, delicate, 
and white as tissue paper. Some of ihe apple- 
worms, probably the earliest, are said by Kollar 
to change to chrysalids immediately after their 
cocoons are made, and in a few days more 
turn to moths, come out, and lay their eggs for 
a second generation of the worms ; and hence 
much fruit will be found to be worm-eaten in 
the autumn. Most of the insects, however, 
remain in their cocoons through the winter, 
and are not changed to moths till the following 
summer. The chrysalis is of a bright maho- 
gany-brown colour, and has, as usual, across 
each of the rings of its hind-body, two rows 
of prickles, by the help of which it forces its 
way through the cocoon before the moth 
comes forth. 

"As the apple-worms instinctively leave the 
fruit soon after it falls from the trees, it will 
be proper to gather up all wind-fallen apples 
daily, and make such immediate use of them 
as will be sure to kill the insects, before they 
have time to escape. Mr. Burrelle says that if 
any old cloth is wound around or hung in the 
crotches of the trees, the apple-worms Avill 
conceal themselves therein ; and by this means 
thousands of them may be obtained and de- 
stroyed, from the time when they first begin to 
leave the apples, until the fruit is gathered. 
By carefully scraping off the loose and rugged 
bark of the trees, in the spring, many chrysa- 
lids Avill be destroyed; and it has been said 
that the moths, when they are about laying 
their eggs, may be smothered or driven away, 
by the smoke of weeds burned under the trees. 
The worms, often found in summer pears, ap- 
pear to be the same as those that affect apples, 
and are to be kept in check by the same 
means." {Hnrris.) 

FRUIT-WEEVIL. See Curculio; Plum- 

•WKEVIL. 

FUEL (Norm. Fr. fuayle). Any combusti- 
ble substance which is used for the production 
of heat constitutes a species of fuel ; but the 
term is more propexly limited to coal, coke, 
charcoal, wood, and a few other substances. 

In England, coal, from its abundance and 
cheapness, is the commonly employed fuel ; 
but where wood is abundant, or where its 
value is little more than that of felling it, it is 
used either in its original state, or in the form 
of charcoal. It is essential to good and profit- 
able fuel that it should be free from moisture ; 
for unless it be dry, much of the heat which it 
generates is consumed in converting its moist- 
ure into vapour; hence the superior value of 
old, dense, and dry wood, to that which is por- 
ous and damp. A pound of dry wood will, for 
instance, heat 35 pounds of water from 32° 
to 212°, and a pound of the same wood in a 
moist or fresh state will not heat more than 25 
Bounds from the same to the same tempera- 
'ire; the value, therefore, of different woods 
510 



FUMITORY. 

for fuel is nearly inversely as their moisture, 
and this may be roughly ascertained by finding 
how much a given weight of their shavings 
loses by drying them at 212°. 

The following table exhibits at one view the 
power of various species of wood in producing 
heat. 

The number indicates the quantity of timber 
in pounds, required to raise the temperature 
of a cubic foot of water from 52° to 212°. 

lbs. 

Oak chips - 4-20 

Elm 3-52 

Fir - _ . 3-52 

Ash 3-50 

Hornbeam ..----- 337 
Cherry tree- ...... 320 

Beech 316 

Lime tree -..-..- 310 

Poplar 3 10 

Maple 300 

Service tree 300 

The value of turf and peat, as fuel, is liable 
to much variation, and depends partly upon 
their density, and partly upon their freedom 
from earthy impurities. A pound of turf will 
heat about 26 pounds of water from 32° to 212°, 
and a pound of dense peat about 30 lbs. : ' 
compressing and drying peat its value as a 
fuel is greatly increased. Dr. M'CuUoch has 
divided peat into five classes : — mountain peat 
marsh peat, lake peat, forest peat, and marin 
peat ; the names implying the locality of theii 
production. Of these the mountain peal, from 
its loose, spongy texture, is the least produc- 
tive of heat, although it soonest inflames. The 
reader is referred to an excellent essay "on 
economizing Fuel and Lighting," &c. by the 
Rev. P. Bell, in the Trans, of High. Soc. vol. iv. 
p. 149. See Charcoal and Peat. {Brande's 
Dirt, of Science ; Willich's Dom. Encyc.) 

FULLER'S THISTLE (Dipsacus fullomim). 
A name sometimes applied to a plant used by 
the makers of cloth. See Teasel. 

FULLER'S EARTH. A native sapona- 
ceous mineral of the aluminous kind, found in 
many parts, but the best comes from the south 
of England and Saxony. It is much used by 
fullers in cleaning and scouring their cloth, 
from its property of absorbing grease. It is 
of a very soft, unctuous nature, falls to pieces 
in water, and appears to be capable of pro- 
moting the growth of plants in a high degree; 
consequently may be used with advantage as 
manure, on some of the lighter sorts of land. 
Its constituents, according to Klaproth, are as 
follows : — 







Specimen from 


Spe 


imen fron 






Reigate, Surrey. 


N 


mptch, ia 
Silesia. 


Silica 


. 


- 53 







48-5 


Alumina - 


, 


- 10 







155 


Lime 


. 


- 


5 




— 


Magnesia - 


. 


- 1 


25 




1-5 


Oxide of iron 


. 


- 9 


75 




7 


Common salt 


. 


- 


1 




— 


Water - 


. 


- 24 






25-5 


Loss - 


- 


- 1 


4 




20 



FUMITORY (Fumaria, from fumus, smoke, 
alluding to the disagreeable smell of the plant, 
Our English word fumitory is derived from the 
French name of the genus Fumelerre). There 
are six indigenous species of fum.itory, among 
which are : — 



FUNDUNGI. 



FUNGI. 



Common /umitory (F. officinalis), an annual, 
very common in cultivated ground and about 
hedges ; root tapering, herb glaucous, stem 
much branched, leaves mostly alternate, twice 
or thrice pinnate. Flowers in clusters, rose- 
coloured or pale red. The leaves are succu- 
lent, saline, and bitter. The plant is eaten by 
cows and sheep ; goats dislike it, except the 
young shoots, and horses totally refuse it. 

Ramping fumitory (F. capreolata). This 
species is much like the common fumitory, but 
larger in every part; the leaves less glaucous; 
their tendrils twisting round other plants, by 
which the branching stem climbs to the height 
of 3 or 4 feet. The flowers are on the whole 
paler, and the plint also less common. 

This species and the white climbing fumi- 
tory are the only ones worthy of extensive 
culture. They do best sown under a hedge, to 
which they will attach themselves and make 
a beautiful appearance. The common fumi- 
tory is the only species found in the United 
States, where it has been naturalized to some 
extent, being not unfrequently cultivated in 
gardens. (Eng. Floi: vol. iii. p. 2f)2 — 257 ; 
Paxton's Bot. Diet.) 

FUNDI, or FUNDUNGI. An African 
gi*ain produced by a plant of Lilliputian 
growth, which is described by Mr. Clarke, in 
the proceedings of the London Linntsan So- 
ciety. This grain is represented as about the 
size of mignonette-seed, and is cultivated in 
the village of Kissy and in the neighbourhood 
of Waterloo by industrious individuals of the 
Soosoo, Foulah, Bassa, and Joloff nations, by 
whom it is called "hungry rice." The ground 
is cleared for its reception by burning down 
the copse-wood and hoeing between the roots 
and stumps. It is sown in the months of May 
and June, the ground being slightly opened 
and again lightly drawn together over the seed 
with a hoe. In August, when it shoots up, it 
is carefully weeded. It ripens in September, 
growing to the height of about 18 inches, and 
its stems, which are very slender, are then bent 
to the earth by the mere weight of the grain. 
They are reaped with hooked knives. The 
patch of land is then either suffered to lie fal- 
low, or planted with yams or cassada in rota- 
tion. Manure is said to be unnecessary or 
even injurious, the plant delighting in light soils, 
and being raised even in rocky situations, 
which are most frequent in and about Kissy. 
"When cut down it is tied up in small sheaves 
and placed in a dry situation within the hut, 
for if allowed to remain on the ground or to 
become wet the grains become agglutinated to 
their coverings. The grain is trodden out with 
the feet, and is then parched or dried in the 
sun to allow of the more easy removal of the 
chaff in the process of pounding, which is 
performed in wooden mortars. It is after- 
wards winnowed with a kind of cane fanner 
on mats. 

In preparing this delicious grain for food, 
Mr. Clarke states that it is first thrown into 
boiling water, in which it is assiduously stirred 
for a few minutes. The water is then poured 
off, and the natives add to it palm oil, butter, or 
milk; but the Europeans and negroes con- 
nected with the colony stew it with fowl, fish, 



mutton, adding a small piece of salt pork for 
the sake of flavour, and the dish thus prepared 
is stated to resemble kous-kous. The grain is 
also made into a pudding with the usual con- 
diments, and eaten either hot or cold with milk; 
the Scotch residents sometimes dress it as 
milk-porridge. Mr. Clarke is of opinion that 
if the fundi grain were raised for exportation 
to Europe, it might prove a valuable addition 
to the list of light farinaceous articles of food 
in use among the delicate or convalescent. 

Specimens of the grass have been examined 
by Mr. Kippist, Librarian to the Linncean So- 
ciety. It is a slender grass with digitate 
spikes, which has much of the habit of Digita' 
ria, but which, on account of the absence of 
the small outer glume existing in that genus, 
must be referred to Paspalum. Mr. Kippist 
regards it as an undescribed species, and dis- 
tinguishes it by the name of Pmspalum exile 
{Proceedings of Lin. Soc.) 

FUNGI (Lat.). A large natural tribe of plants 
of a very low organization, consisting chiefly 
of cellular tissue, sometimes intermixed with 
flocculent matter, and very rarely furnished 
with spiral vessels. They form, as it were, a 
link between the animal and vegetable king- 
doms. They inhabit dead and decay i ng organic 
bodies, and are also a common pest to living 
plants, upon which they are parasites, and prey 
in the same manner as vermin and intestinal 
worms upon animals. A vast number of spe- 
cies are described by writers upon fungi, and 
they are often of great importance to man, 
either for their use or their mischievous qua- 
lities. The common mushroom {Agmicus cam- 
pestris), the truffle (Tuber cibaritim), and morel 
(Morchclla esculenta), (see these heads) are 
delicacies well known at table. Not less than 
thirty-three species of fungi are eaten in Rus- 
sia. Ergot, one of the tribe, is valuable in ob- 
stetric practice as a uterine stimulant; very 
many of the species are dangerous poisons. 
Blight, mildew, rust, &c. (see these articles), 
are diseases caused by the ravages of micro- 
scopic fungi; and, finally the destructive ef- 
fects of dry-rot are owing to the attacks of Me- 
rulius lachrymans, and many' other species. 
The best general work on Fungi is Fries's 
Systema Micologicum. Numerous species are 
figured in the works of Greville, Bulliard, 
Sowerby, Corda, and Nees von Esenbeck. (See 
Fairt Rittgs.) Dr. Christison gives the fol- 
lowing general directions for distinguishing 
the esculent from the poisonous varieties. "It 
appears that most fungi which have a warty 
cap, more especially fragments of membrane 
adhering to their upper surface, are poisonous. 
Heavy fungi, which have an unpleasant odour, 
especially if they emerge from a vulva or bag, 
are also generally hurtful. Those which grow 
in woods and shady places are rarely esculent, 
but most are unwholesome ; and if they are 
moist on the surface they should be avoided. 
All those which grow in tufts or clusters from 
the trunks or stumps of trees ought likewise to 
be shunned. A sure test of a poisonous fungus 
is an astringent styptic taste, and perhaps also 
a disagreeable, but certainly a pungent odour. 
Those, the substance of which becomes blue 
soon after being cut, are invariably poi?onou.'j 



FUNGUS. 



FURZE. 



Agarics, of an orange or rose-red colour, and 
boleti, which are coriaceous or corky in tex- 
ture, or which have a membranous collar 
round the stem, are also unsafe. These rules 
for knowing deleterious fungi seem to rest on 
fact and experience ; but they will not enable 
the collector to recognise every poisonous spe- 
cies." The general rules laid down for dis- 
tinguishing wholesome fungi are not so well 
founded, but the most simple and easy mode 
of testing the quality of field fungi is to intro- 
duce a silver spoon or piece of coin of that 
metal, or an onion, into the vessel in which 
mushrooms are seething : if on taking either 
of them out, they assume a bluish black, or 
dark discoloured appearance, there are cer- 
tainly some dangerous fungi among them ; if, 
on the other hand, the metal or onion, on being 
withdrawn from the liquor, wears its natural 
appearance, the fungi may be considered 
wholesome and innoxious. The symptoms in- 
dicating poisoning by fungi are nausea, vomit- 
ing, purging, and colic, in general accompa- 
nied with great depression of the pulse, cold 
extremities, clammy sweats, stupor, delirium, 
convulsions, sometimes paralysis. In such 
cases immediate means should be taken to 
clear the stomach, and a medical practitioner 
sent for, as the subsequent treatment must vary 
according to the symptoms in each individual 
instance. (Christison on Poisons ; Bi^ande's Did. 
of Scicnrc.) 

FUNGUS. In farriery, a spongy excres- 
cence which arises in wounds and ulcers, 
commonly known by the name of proud Jlcsh. 
It may be destroyed and removed by caustic 
applications, such as nitrate of silver, or sul- 
phate of copper, blue vitriol, and the use of 
tight bandages. 

FURLONG (Sax. Kupianj). An English 
measure of length containing forty poles, the 
eighth part of a mile. 

FURMENTY, or FRUMENTY (from fm- 
mentum, corn). A kind of country pottage pre- 
pared of wheat, which is first wetted, and 
beaten to deprive it of its husks, and after- 
wards boiled. When boiled up with milk, 
sugar, and a little spice, it forms a wholesome 
and agreeable food. This preparation was 
well known to the Roman farmers. Cato, the 
earliest of the agricultural writers whose 
works have escaped to us, gives (lib. Ixxxvi.) 
the modern mode of making it under the name 
of wheat frumenty. 

FURRIER'S REFUSE, or CLIPPINGS; 
are sometimes applied as a fertilizer to light 
chalks and gravelly soils, either ploughed in 
or laid upon the surface, in the proportion of 
twenty-four to thirty bushels to the acre. They 
are usually sold by the quarter, which com- 
monly contains as much as two five-bushel 
sacks will hold when closely pressed. The 
price is said to be about 14s. to 16s. per quar- 
ter. {Brit. Husb. vol. i. p. 43G.) 

FURROW (Sax. j:u)ih ; Dan. /«»•; Lat. fo- 
rus). In agriculture, a term not very properly 
defined, as it has three or four distinct signifi- 
cations ; viz. 1. The soil turned up by the 
plough; 2. The trench left by this operation; 
3. The interval between two ridges; and 4, 
The cross drain which receives the rain water 
512 



collected by these intervals. Dr. Johnson adds 
a. fifth; but he obviously mistakes furrow for 
drill. According to Mr. Marshall there are 
three ideas which lay claim to the word fur- 
row. 1. The trench made by the plough, which 
may be called a jofot/g/i/?(?Toty / 2. The collate- 
ral drains, or an inter-furrow ; and 3. The 
transverse drains, or the cross-furrow. See 
Ploughing and Fuhrow, Wateii. 

FURROW-SLICE. The narrow slice ot 
slip of earth turned up by the plough. By the 
Scotch writers on husbandry, it is mostly 
termed fur-slice. 

FURROW, WATER-. That kind of deep, 
open furrow which is made by the plough in 
tillage-lands, for the purpose of drawing off and 
draining them, in order to favour the healthy 
growth of the crops. Furrows of this kind 
should always be drawn in such directions as 
will the most readily take off the water, and be 
kept open during the winter months, especially 
on the wheat-grounds. The making of these 
furrow-drains should be performed immediate- 
ly after the ploughing and sowing have been 
finished; and this is particularly necessary on 
all the more stiff and retentive kinds of soil. 

FURZE, COMMON; GORSE, or WHIN 
(Ulex Eurnpceus). PI. 9, f. This hardy ever- 
green shrub is indigenous to most parts of 
Great Britain, and grows abundantly on sandy 
or gravelly heaths and commons; and when 
viewed in the light of a weed it is one of the 
most determined growers, and most difficult to 
get rid of that the agriculturist can meet with. 
The stem of the furze varies from 2 to 5 feet 
high; but in Cornwall and Durham it some- 
times grows to the height of 8 or 9 leet. It bears 
innumerable dense, roughish, green, furrowed 
or ribbed branches, spinous at the ends, and 
beset with large, compound, striated, permanent 
thorns. The leaves are few, scattered, small, 
awl-shaped, deciduous. Flowers large, soli- 
tary or in pairs, of a bright golden yellow, with 
a very peculiar oppressive scent. One of our 
poets has well described the beautiful appear- 
ance of this shrub in blossom — 

"And what more noble than the vernal furze, 
With golden baskets hungi Approach it not. 
For every blossom has a troop of swords 
Drawn to defend it." 

The legumes are downy, bursting elastically 
in dry, hot weather, with a crackling noise, and 
scattering their seeds extensively. The wood 
of furze is very hard. Furze is chiefly used for 
fences, as food for cattle, and for fuel. Its 
preference for sterile soil has caused it to be 
extensively employed for fences in such land, 
and as a cover for game, and shelter for young 
plantations. With common care furze fences 
last for a very long period, but they require 
peculiar management to prevent the roots be- 
coming exposed. Sowing in three tiers on a 
bank is perhaps the best mode, as it allows of 
one tier to be kept low by the shears or bill, 
the second of higher growth, and the last to at- 
tain its natural stature. 

There are generally two objections advanced 
against the adoption of whin-fences. The first 
is, that the wall or mound required for raising 
the whin is of such dimensions as to occasion 
a great waste of ground ; and the second is. 



FURZE. 



GAD-FLY. 



that the whins have a great tendency to spread 
over and injure the adjoining grounds. But 
with a slight, well trimmed wall-fence of furze 
these objections may easily be obviated. 

The formation and management of whin- 
fences have b;en treated of by a number of 
agricultural and botanical writers, as Lord 
Kames, Dr. Anderson, Marshall, Billington in 
his work On Planting, Dickson in his Modern 
Musb., and others ; there is also an essay on 
this subject in the Trans, of the High. Soc. vol. 
V. p. 466, by Mr. W. Bell, and it is noticed in 
a number of the County Reports. 

Furze has long been known as a plant highly 
nutritious as food for horses, sheep, and cattle, 
and has only been neglected from the supposed 
diihculty of converting it into a state fit to be 
comfortably eaten by domestic animals ; the 
process of cutting, gathering, and bruising the 
young shoots, when taken from the old stunted 
bushes, being both laborious and expensive. 
These difficalties are, however, comparatively 
easily ovejrcome when gorse is allowed the 
privilege of a cultivated spot, and the most 
worthless part of the farm is good enough for 
it to vegetate upon. 

Respecting the merits of furze as a fodder, a 
good deal has been written, as by Duhamel in 
France, Evelyn in England, and Dr. Anderson 
in Scotland ; and it is now extensively culti- 
vated for this purpose by Mr. Attwood of Bir- 
mingham, who has devoted an hundred acres 
to French furze; {U. provuicialis, which is near- 
ly allied to the common furze). These are 
regularl}' mown with a scythe for a corres- 
ponding number of milch cows, and bruised in 
a mill: mixed with chopped straw or hay, this 
constitutes the entire food of his cows. Bruised 
furze is also an excellent substitute for hay for 
horses, and it is even asserted that they prefer 
it to corn ; but they should at the same time 
have oats and beans to counteract the relaxing 
properties of the gorse. Dr. Anderson says 
that when properly bruised, cattle are very 
fond of it, and increase in fatness as fast as on 
turnips. Cows yield as much milk as when 
fed on grass, without any bad taste, and the 
butter made on such food is very superior. 
The small holder bruises the furze for his soli- 
tary cow or pair of horses, in a trough, with a 
wooden pounder, furnished at the lower end 
with a sharp piece of iron. The farmer on a 
large scale should have a mill worked by 
horses or by water-power. In 1802 and 1803, 
the Duke of Richmond fed his deer, sheep, and 
horses extensively on whins. In the Peninsu- 
lar war the forage consumed by the horses of 
the British army was principally furze. Mr. 
F. Tytler, in an account of experiments which 
he made on feeding horses, between the years 
1812 and 1815 (Trans. High. Soc. vol. v.), 
states, that one of the chief kinds of food he 
used was furze. But the principal use of furze 
is for the purpose of fuel. In many parts of 
Great Britain it forms the main dependence 
for the supply of fagots for the poor man's 
hearth and the baker's oven. The common 
furze generally attains its full size in 4 years, 
and it ought not to be cut more frequently. An 
acre of land sown with the French furze will 
yield between 4 and 5000 fagots, which are 
65 



chiefly consumed in the heating of ovens. The 
fresh and dried flowers of this plant afford ia 
dyeing a fine yellow colour. The medicinal 
qualities of furze are attenuant, diuretic, de- 
termining to the skin, and occasioning nausea. 
Furze may be propagated by seed sown from 
February to May. Young plants or even slips 
planted in Spring or October will grow readily. 
It should be cut the year after sowing, begin- 
ning in September or October; it will grow 
again until Christmas, and be fit for use till 
March. Besides the common furze there are 
two other species : 

1. The dwarf whin or furze (U. nanus) which 
is less common than the preceding, and only 
grows to half the size. It blossoms chiefly in 
autumn, has the leaves or spines shorter and 
closer, and the branches decumbent, the flow- 
ering ones more cylindrical and elongated; 
and the flowers are paler. These points of 
structure distinguish this species from the 
others at first sight. Its value is estimated in 
comparison to that of the common, as two to 
one inferior. 

2. The French or Provence furze (U. pro- 
viucialis), is a native of the South of Europe. 
It closely resembles the common furze. In 
Devonshire the common furze, and in some 
other parts the dwarf furze, are frequently 
called French furze. (Phillips's Syl. Flor. vol. 
i. p. 247 ; Brit. Husb. vol. iii.. On Planting, p. 
100; Eng. Flora, vol. iii. p. 265; Quart. Journ. 
of Agr. vol. ii. p. 731, vol. viii. p. 591 ; Willkh't 
Dom. Encyc.') 

G. 

GAD-FLY, or BREEZE (CEstrus equx et 
bovis, Lin.). Insects with spotted wings and a 
yellow breast, which have a long proboscis, 
with a sharp dart. These flies are particularly 
troublesome to cattle by their sting or dart. 
The horse-bot (CEstms eqtii) deposits its eggs 
on such parts of the horse as the animal can 
reach with his tongue. They are thus licked 
up, and introduced into the stomach ; are there 
hatched and form bots. Another more torment- 
ing fly of the saiue genus is the fundament-bot 
(CE. hcemorrhoi(lalis) , which lays its eggs on the 
lips of the horse, causing so much irritation to 
the animal, as to induce him to gallop and seek 
refuge in the water. In Sweden, the grooms 
are accustomed to clean the mouths and 
throats of the horses daily with a peculiar kind 
of brush, which prevents the lar\ se of this in- 
sect getting into the stomach oi (he animal. 
The ox-warble ((E. bovis) deposits its eggs on 
the back of oxen, causing great ti rture to the 
animal, and much agitation to the herd, if 
many are attacked at once. The :)vipositor 
of the insect pierces the skin on the back cf 
the ox, and there drops the eggs. At the sea 
son when the gad-fly infests them, the narness 
should be so managed as to allow the animals 
to be easily let loose. The ovipositor of the 
GJ. bovis is furnished with teeth, and acts like 
an augur or gimlet; and when this comes in 
contact with a nerve of sensation, the oxen 
seem to be driven almost to a state of mad- 
ness : the tail is stretched out, and they gallop 
about the pasture, lowing and seeking for 

51? 



GALLIC ACID. 



GALLOP. 



water, into which they instinctively enter. 
Hence Virgil, describing this, says : — 

" The universal herds In terror fly ; ^^ 

Their lowings shake the woods and shake the sky. 

Humboldt mentions a species of CEstrus which 
is found in the low regions of the torrid zone, 
and has been named CEstrus hominis, from its 
attacking man, and depositing its eggs in his 
skin, causing there painful tumours. {La Gcog. 
des Plantes, p. 186.) 

Of the large Gad-flies, or Horse-flies found in 
America, one of the most common is of a black 
colour, having its back covered with a whitish 
dust or bloom^ like a plum. The eyes are very 
large, and almost meet on the top of the head ; 
they are of a shining purple-black or bronzed 
black colour, with a narrow, deep black band 
across the middle, and a broad band of the 
same hue on the lower part. The body of this 
fly is seven-eighths of an inch or more in 
length, and the wings expand nearly two 
inches. The Tubanus cinrtus, of Fabricius, or 
orange-belted horse-fly, is not so common, and 
is rather smaller. It is also black, except the 
first three rings of the hind-body, which are 
orange-coloured. The most common of our 
smaller horse-flies is the Tabanus lineola, so 
named by Fabricius, because it has a whitish 
line along the top of the hind-body. Besides 
these flies, we have several more kinds of Ta- 
/>a?jws, some of which do not appear to have 
been described. These blood-thirsty insects 
begin to appear towards the end of June, and 
continue through the summer, sorely torment- 
ing both horses and cattle with their sharp 
biles. Their proboscis, though not usually 
very long, is armed with six stiff, and exceed- 
ingly sharp needles, wherewith they easily 
pierce through the toughest hide. It is stated 
that they will not touch a horse whose back 
lias been well washed with a strong decoction 
of w;iluut leaves. The eyes of these flies are 
very beautiful, and vary in their colours and 
■markings in the difl^erent species. 

The golden-eyed forest flies are also distin- 
guished for the brilliancy of their spotted eyes, 
and for their clouded or banded wings. They 
are much smaller than the horse-flies, but re- 
semble them in their habits. Some of them 
are entirely black {Chrysops ferrugalus, Fabri- 
•cius), others are striped with black and yellow 
{Chrysops vittatus, Wiedemann). They fre- 
quent woods and thickets, in July and August. 
{Hmris.) 

GALLIC ACID. An acid obtained from 
;galls and several other vegetable astringents, 
chiefly from the bark. The following table 
will serve to show the iproportions of this acid 
in diflferent plants : — 



Willow trunk - 
'Oak, cut in winter" 
vWillow (boughs) 
Plum tree 
Cherry tree 
Sallow 
Mountain ash 
Poplar 
Elm 
Beech 
Sycamore 
Birch 
Elder 



each 8 



each 7 

- 6 

each 4 



Hut although the above-named barks yield 
514 



the quantities of gallic acid mentioned, yet it 
is uncertain whether they actually contain any 
ready formed. Gallic acid is procured by ex- 
posing tho decoctions of galls, or of any astrin- 
gent bark, to the air, until it becomes mouldy, 
and the tannic acid attracts the oxygen of the 
air, and is converted into the gallic acid. In 
this state the acid forms in crystals, mixed 
with crystals of another acid, the ellagic, which 
are easily separated from it, being insoluble in 
water. 

Pure gallic acid has a weak, sour, astringent 
taste. It is soluble in 100 parts of cold water, 
and forms an ink with solution of green vitriol 
(sulphate of iron). It is distinguished from 
tannic acid, which is ready formed in astrin- 
gent barks, by not precipitating solution of 
glue. It is a powerful astringent, and may be 
administered in doses of two or three grains in 
internal bleedings. 

GALLINACEOUS FOWLS. One of the 
two divisions of domestic poultry reared in 
Europe, comprehending, among others, the 
common cock and hen, the turkey, the guinea- 
fowl, the peacock, and the pigeon. 

GALL FLIES. See Fruit Maggots. 

GALL NUTS {Fr. gallis ,- h.galle). Excres- 
cences produced by the Cynips, or Diplolepsis 
galla tinctoria, a small insect which deposits its 
eggs in the tender shoots of the Qucrms inferto- 
ria, a species of oak abundant in Asia Minor, 
&c. When the maggot is hatched, it feeds on 
the morbid excrescence formed by the irrita- 
tion of the deposited ovum on the surrounding 
parts, and ultimately, when perfected as the 
fly, it eats its way out of the nidus thus formed. 
Good gall nuts are of a bluish-green hue, 
heavy, and break with a flinty fracture. When 
they are white, light, with a hole in one side, 
they are useless. Gall nuts are employed in 
dyeing, and in medicine. 

GALLON. An English measure of capacity, 
containing 4 quarts. By act of parliament the 
imperial gallon is to contain 10 lbs. avoirdu- 
pois of distilled water weighed at the tempe- 
rature of 62° of Fahrenheit, and the barometer 
standing at 30 inches. This is equivalent to 
277-274 cubic inches. The old English gallon, 
wine measure, contained 231 cubic inches, 
and held 8 lbs. avoirdupois of pure water; ale 
and beer measure, 282 cubic inches, and held 
10 lbs. 3} oz. avoirdupois of water; and the 
gallon for corn, meal, &c., 272 cubic inches, 
containing 9 lbs. 13 oz. of pure water. Hence 
the English imperial gallon is about | larger 
than the old wine gallon, and about 75^*,; less than 
the old ale gallon. See Weights and Mea- 

SUHES. 

GALLOP. In horsemanship, a well-known 

pace to which horses are trained, and of which 
many kinds are enumerated, but two only are 
worthy of regard, namely the hand gallop and 
the full gallop. And these distinctions are 
founded on the different degrees of velocity in 
which the animal is impelled, rather than on 
any peculiarity in the pace itself. In the gal- 
lop, the horse leads with one fore-leg some- 
what advanced, but not so much beyond the 
other, as happens in the canter; and, when he 
is urged to his utmost speed, his legs are al- 
most equally placed. The fleetest horses 



GALLOWAY. 



GARDENING. 



when ga\/oping, carry their bodies perfectly in 
a horizontal posture, and the fewer curves or 
successive arches are described, the more 
rapid of course is their progress. 

In galloping, the fore-legs are thrown for- 
ward nearly simultaneously, and the hind-legs 
brought up quickly and nearly together; it is, 
in fact, a succession of leaps, by far the greatest 
interval of time elapsing while the legs are ex- 
tended after the leap is taken. The canter is 
to the gallop very much what the walk is to the 
trot, though probably a more artificial pace. 
The exertion is much less, the spring less 
distant, and the feet come to the ground in 
more regular succession. {The Horse, p. 413.) 

GALLOWAY. The usual name for a poney 
or saddle-horse, between 13 or 14 hands in 
height. The original galloways are a pure 
breed of small, elegant horses from the south 
of Scotland, said to be of Spanish extraction. 
See Horse. 

GALLOWAYS. See Cattle. 

GALLOWS OF A PLOUGH. A part of the 
plough-head, so named by farmers, from its 
resemblance to the common gallows. It con- 
sists of three pieces of timber, of which one is 
placed transversely over the heads of the other 
two. See Plough. 

GALLS. In farriery, a term signifying an 
abrasion or rubbing off of the skin by the hai'- 
ness, saddle, &c. The little tumours resulting 
from the pressure of the saddle are called war- 
bles, and when they ulcerate they frequently be- 
come sit-fasfs. For saddle galls there is no 
belter application than strong salt and water, 
mixed with a fourth part of tincture of myrrh. 
The saddle and the collar, when they are found 
to rub or gall, should be padded or chambered. 
A mixture of white-lead moistened with milk is 
stated (Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. ix. p. 299), to 
be an excellent liniment for galled backs in the 
early stages of the wound. It is a common 
American remedy. " For the information of 
other travellers, we may mention," says Mr. 
Keating, "that, after having tried many appli- 
cations to the backs of horses when galled, we 
have found none that have succeeded so well 
as white-lead moistened with milk. When milk 
is not to be procured, oil may be substituted. 
Whenever the application was made in the 
early stage of the wound, we have found it to 
be very effectual ; and it is likewise a conve- 
nient one, as two ounces of white-lead sufficed 
for the whole of our party for more than a 
month." {Expedition to St. Peter's River, p. 190.) 

GALLS. In agriculture, a term signifying 
vacant or bare places in a crop. 

GAMA GRASS {Tripsamm daclyloides), Fin- 
der-like Tripsacum, called also Sessame grass 
and Rough-seeded gama grass. (See PI. 7, n.) 
This stout and very remarkable grass has a 
perennial root. The culm rises to the height 
of 4, 5, or 6 feet, is somewhat compressed, 
channelled on one side, smooth, solid with pith, 
furnished with 'nodes or knots, smooth, slightly 
raised, with a dark-brown contracted ring. The 
leaves are large, often measuring 3 feet, and 
an inch to an inch and a half wide, smooth be- 
neath, roughish on the upper surface, serrulate 
or finely jagged on the edges. Flower a dark 
purple ; seed ovoid and smooth. 



" A few years ago," says Dr. Darlington, in 
his Flora Cestrica, "this grass was much ex- 
tolled by some writers in the West, as an arti- 
cle of fodder for stock. The leaves and young 
plant may probably answer very well where 
better cannot be had ; but any one who will 
examine the coarse culms of the mature plant 
may soon satisfy himself that it can never su- 
persede the good hay of this region (the Middle 
States), nor be as valuable in any respect as 
common Indian corn fodder." It is the only 
species of the genus Tripsacum which is indi- 
genous in the United States, the T. nionostachyon 
of some authors being only a variety. It has 
been found in Chester County, Pennsylvania. 

From some communications in American 
periodicals, the gama grass appears to be par- 
ticularly well adapted to Southern culture. It 
is exceedingly productive, being said to admit 
of at least six cuttings in a season, and to fur- 
nish a large quantity of palatable and nutri- 
cious food for cattle and horses. It is a hardy 
perennial plant, and its duration, according to 
a Spanish proverb, coeval with the "age of 
a man and a mule." {Silk Culturist.) The 
modes of culture are by planting the seeds and 
transplanting the roots. Mr. Beekman, of Kin- 
derhook, N. Y., gives the following directions : 
"Sow in drills 18 inches apart, and cover about 
2 inches deep. In a month it will come up like 
oats, and when about 8 inches high and two 
suckers appear, one on each side, then trans- 
plant about 3 by 2 feet. The second year in 
Georgia the first cutting may be made in May, 
and once every month to 1st October, say six 
cuttings. The blades will be 3 feet or upwards 
— each forming a large bunch, which may be 
annually divided into from 40 to 50 plants." 

The variety of gama grass so much vaunted 
in the Southern and Western States is said to 
be a hermaphrodite plant from the island of 
Jamaica, where it is extensively cultivated as 
a forage grass. 

GARDENING. There is not in the arts and 
sciences one link of their circle so suitable for 
the occupation of man in a state of innocence, 
as that which embraces the cultivation of 
plants ; and it is an instance of the beneficent 
providence of the Deity, that he assigned a gar- 
den as the dwelling of our first-created parents. 
It is no consequence of the fall of Adam that 
plants require cultivation : he was placed in 
Paradise to till and to keep it. Then the weed 
had not sprung up to render the tillage toil- 
some ; fruit trees which God had "planted" 
were the cnief objects of care, and it was an 
employment without much labour, combining 
the preservation of health with amusement, 
pure without insipidity, constant without same- 
ness. From that period gardens have never 
ceased to engage the attention of 'nan ; and 
even now that their labours are manilold, they 
still afford the " purest of human pleasures." 

To be an efficient cultivator of plants, a 
knowledge of botany is requisite. Whilst that 
science remained the chaos of unarranged 
facts, and ill-classified individuals, which it 
was until the master-mind of Linnasus reduced 
its confusion and discord to harmony in 1V37, 
it required for its acquisition the devotion of a 
life. Such acquisition the new system of classi- 

515 



GARDENING. 



GARDENING. 



fication rendered comparatively easy in a few 
months. That gardeners availed themselves 
of the advantage needs no further instance 
than Philip Miller, in whom the perfect bota- 
nist and horticulturist were combined, and who 
was a correspondent of the chief men of sci- 
ence then living. 

For the working with full effect of the spirit 
of the immortal Swede, our own Ray had pre- 
pared the arena. Indefatigable, enthusiastic in 
his pursuits, of clear and comprehensive mind, 
he gave an impetus to botany and its correla- 
tive arts, more effectual to their advancement 
than they had received during ages of years 
preceding. For 50 years he most successfully 
laboured to clear the path of this science and 
to increase her stores. Nor does he enjoy his 
fame only among his countrymen ; it is afforded 
to him by all Europe. Haller says, he was the 
improver and elevator of botany into a science, 
and dates from his life a new era in its history. 
In little more than 20 years, Ray recorded an 
increase in the English Flora of 550 species. 
His Calulogus Plantarum jingUce, in 1670, con- 
tains 1050 species: his Synopsis, in 1696, de- 
scribes more than 1600 species. A phalanx 
of botanists were then contemporaries which 
previous ages never equalled, nor succeeding 
ones surpassed. Ray, Tournefort, Plumier, 
Plukenet, Commelin, Rivinus, Bobart, Petivir, 
Sherard, Boccone, Linnaeus, may be said to 
have lived in the same age. 

I will not pass unnoticed, as being of this 
period, Abraham Cowley, the well-known poet, 
physician, and author of The Four Books of 
Plants. Although he deserves little praise as a 
botanist or as a gardener, he merits notice as 
assisting in their advancement, by winning to 
them and encouraging the attention of the 
literary. Of the influence which botanists 
possess over the forwarding the interests of 
horticulture, I shall quote but one more in- 
stance. Sir Arthur Rawdon was so gratified 
with the magnificent collection of West Indian 
plants possessed by Sir Hans Sloane, that he 
despatched a skilful gardener, James Harlow, 
to Jamaica, who brought thence a vessel nearly 
freighted with vegetating and dried plants, the 
first of which Sir Arthur Rawdon cultivated in 
his own garden at Moira in Ireland, or distri- 
buted amongst his friends, and some of the 
continental gardens. His taste for exotic plants 
was probably much encouraged by his intimacy 
with Dr. William Sherard, who, being one of 
the most munificent patrons and cultivators of 
exotic botany during that " golden age" of the 
science, appeared, as Hasselquist observed, 
" the regent of the botanic garden" at his house 
at Sedekio, near Smyrna, where he was British 
consul : for here he cultivated a very rich 
garden, and collected the most extensive herba- 
rium that was ever formed by the exertions of 
an individual. It contained 12,000 species. 
His younger brother, Dr. James Sherard, also 
cultivated at Eltham, in Kent, one of the richest 
gardens England ever possessed. (PuUney's 
Sketches of Bot. vol. ii. p. 1 50.) 

But it was not on'y in the collecting and ar- 
ranging of plants that butany was adding fresh 
stores and zest to gardening. Previous to this 

eriod little was known of the structure of 
51G 



plants, and the uses of their several parts- 
Grew, Malpighi, Linnasus, Hales, Bonnet, Du 
Hamel, Hedwig, Spallanzani, &c., cleared away, 
in a great measure, the ignorance which en- 
veloped vegetable physiology. Previous to 
their days the male bearing plants of dioecious 
plants, as spinach, and the male flowers of cu- 
cumbers, &c., were recommended to be re- 
moved as useless ; they taught the importance 
of checking the return of the sap ; the mode of 
raising varieties : in short, all the phenomena 
of vegetable life, which throw so much light 
upon the practice of the gardener, were first 
noted and explained by the labours of these 
philosophers. Another class of philosophers 
who contributed a gigantic aid to the advance 
of horticulture, were those chemists who espe- 
cially devoted themselves to the vegetable 
world. Such men were Ingenhouz, Van Hel- 
mont, Priestley, Sennebier, Schraeder, Saus- 
sure, «&c. To them we are indebted for the 
most luminous researches into the food of 
plants, the influence of air, of heat, of light, and 
of soils. Previous to their researches the im- 
mense importance of the leaves of plants was 
unknown. Cultivators were unaware that by 
removing one of them they were proportionably 
removing the means of breathing and of nou- 
rishment from the parent plant ; and mankind 
in general were ignorant that it is by the gas 
which plants throw off that the animal creation 
is alone enabled to breathe. 

The scientific institutions of previous years, 
which had merely existed, were now in a state 
of vigorous exertion. The Botanic Garden at 
Chelsea was especially distinguished under its 
curator Philip Miller. This garden, as pre- 
viously stated, was founded in 1673, though the 
inscription over the gateway is dated 1686, 
until which year it was not effectually ar- 
ranged. It was strengthened and rendered 
permanent by Sir Hans Sloane, in 1721. He, 
having purchased the manor, gave the site, 
which is a freehold of four acres, to the com- 
pany, on condition that they should pay 5/. per 
annum for it, and that the demonstrator of the 
company, in their name, should deliver annu- 
ally 50 new species of plants to the Royal So- 
ciety, until the number amounted to 2,000. 
This presentation of plants commenced in 
j 1722, and continued until 1773, at which time 
they had presented 2550 species. 

If old botanical institutions improved, so also 
new ones were formed. The Kew Gardens 
were commenced in 1760, by the Princess 
Dowager of Wales, mother of George III. The 
exotic department was established chiefly 
through the influence of the Marquis of Bute, a 
great patron of gardening. It was placed under 
the care of Mr. W. Alton, and it has since be- 
come one of the most celebrated botanical in- 
stitutions in the world. 

The Cambridge Botanical Garden was also 
founded in 1763, by Dr. Walker, vice-master 
of Trinity College. He gave the site, com- 
prising nearly five acres, in trust to the chan- 
cellor, masters, and scholars of the university, 
for the purpose of establishing the garden. 
Thomas Martyn, the titular professor of botany, 
was appointed reader on plants, and Charles, 
son of the celebrated Philip Miller (who had 



GARDENING. 



GARDENING. 



aided Dr. Walker in selecting the ground), was ] 
made first curator* {Loudon's Encijr. of Gard. 
pp. 86, 1071, edit. 5.) " I 

Previous to this period, the number of exotics 
cultivated in England probably did not exceed 
1000 species; during this century above 5000 
new ones were introduced. Some tolerably 
correct idea may be formed of the improve- 
ment arising tc horticulture, from this spirit 
of research after plants, by a knowledge that 
in the first edition of Mtllei-'s Didionury, in 
1724, but 12 evergreens are mentioned. The 
Christmas flower and aconite were rare, and 
only to be purchased at Mr. Fairchild's nur- 
sery at Hoxton. Only seven species of gera- 
nium were then known. In the preface to the 
eighth edition of the Dictionary, in 1768, the 
number of plants cultivated in England are 
staled to be more than double those which 
were known in 1731. The publication of the 
seventh edition of that work, in 1759, was of 
the greatest benefit to horticulture. In it was 
adopted the classical system of Linnaeus. It 
gave a final blow to the invidious line of dis- 
tinction which had existed between the gar- 
dener and the botanist, and completed the 
erection of the art of the former into a science, 
which it had been long customary to esteem as 
little more than a superior pursuit for a rustic. 
From being merely practised by servants, it 
became more extensively the study and the de- 
light of many of the most scientific and noble 
individuals of England. Miller improved the 
cultivation of the vine and the fig, and was 
otherwise distinguished for his improvement 
of the practice, as he had been of the science, 
of gardening. Having thus decisively gained 
the attention of men of science, the rapid pro- 
gress of horticulture from this era is no longer 
astonishing. The botanist applied his re- 
searches to the increase of the inhabitants of 
the garden, and the better explanation of their 
habits. The vegetable physiologist adapted 
his discoveries to practical purposes, by point- 
ing out the organs and functions which are of 
primary importance ; and the chemist, by his 
analysis, discovered their constituents, and was 
consequently enabled to point out improve- 
ments which practice could only have stum- 
bled on by chance, and perhaps during a lapse 
of ages. 

The general introduction of forcing houses 
likewise gave to our science a new feature. 
Green-houses, we have seen, were in use in the 
17th century; but no regular structures, roofed 
with glass, and artificially heated, existed until 
the early part of the succeeding one. Though 
a pine-apple had been presented by his gar- 
dener to Charles II., it is certain that they were 
only successfully cultivated here about 1723, 
by Mr. Henry Talende, gardener to Sir Matthew 
Decker at Richmond ; Mr. Loudon gives the 
date as 1719. Mr. Bradley says, that Mr. 
Talende having at length succeeded in ripen- 
ing them, and rendered their culture " easy and 
intelligible," he hopes bananas may flourish for 
the future in many of our English gardens. 
(^Bradley's Gen. Treatise on Husb. and Gard.) 
That forcing was rare, and but of late introduc- 
tion, is further proved by Mr. Lawrence, who, 



in 1718, observes, that he had heard that the 
Duke of Rutland, at Belvoir Castle in Lincoln- 
shire, hastened his grapes by havirng fires 
burning from Lady-day to Michaelmas behind 
his sloped walls, a report to which he evidently 
does not give implicit credence, but which " it 
is easy to conceive." {Lawrence's Fruit Gard. 
Cat. p. 22.) That such, however, was the fact, 
is confirmed by Switzer, who further adds, in 
1724, that they were covered with glass. The 
walls were erected, he says, at the suggestion 
of Mr. Facio, whom we have before mentioned. 
The walls failing in their anticipated effect 
were covered with glass, and thus led to the 
first erection of a regular forcing structure of 
which we have any account. (Switzer's Practi- 
cal Fruit Garden, p. 318.) Lady Wortley Mon- 
tagu, in 1716, mentions having partaken of 
pine-apples at the table of the elector of Hano- 
ver ; and speaks of them as being a thing she 
had never seen before, which, as her ladyship 
moved in the highest English circles, she must, 
had they been introduced to table here. 

Mr. Fowler, gardener to Sir N. Gould at 
Stoke Newington, was the first to raise cucum- 
bers in autumn, for fruiting about Christmas. 
He presented the king, George I., with a brace 
of full-grown ones on new year's day, 1721. 
(Bradley's General Treatise on Husb. and Gard. 
vol. ii. p. 61.) 

Even as late as the commencement of the 
century we are tracing, every garden vegetable, 
in a greater cu' less degree, was obtained from 
Holland. The purveyors of the royal family 
sent thither for fruits and pot-herbs ; and the 
seedsmen obtained from thence all their seeds. 
But in 1727, Switzer boasts of the improve- 
ments made in his art. Cucumbers, that 25 
years before were never seen at table until the 
close of May, were then always ready in the 
first days of March, or earlier if tried for. Me- 
lons were improved both in quality and earli- 
ness. " The first, owing to the correspondence 
that our nobility and gentry have abroad, now- 
equalling, if not excelling, the French and 
Dutch in their curious collections of seed; but 
the second is owing to the industry and skill 
of our kitchen gardeners." Melons were now 
cut at the end of April, which before were rare 
in the middle of June. The season of the cau- 
liflower being in perfection was prolonged 
from three or four, to six or seven months. 
Kidney-beans were now forced. The season 
of peas and beans was extended to a period 
from April until December, which previously 
only lasted two or three months, &c. (Preface 
to Switzer's Pract. Fruit Gard.) 

The early part of this century witnessed the 
labours of Professor Bradley, who was one of 
the first to treat of gardening and agriculture 
as sciences. Although deficient in discoveries, 
his works are not destitute of information de- 
rived from contemporary gardeners and other 
writers. He wrote luminously on the buds of 
trees, on bulbs, and especially on the mode of 
obtaining variegated plants and double flowers. 
He must be looked upon as a benefactor of 
horticulture, for ho at least made himself ac- 
quainted with the discoveries of others, and, 
recording them in his widely-circulated works, 
2X 517 



GARDENING. 



GARDENING. 



ne spread such increased knowledge, and dif- 
fused over the whole such philosophic views, 
as the science of the age afforded. 

Some of our most celebrated nurserymen 
flourished during this century. Fairchild, Gor- 
don, Lee, and Gray introduced many plants 
during its first half. Hibbert of Chalfont, and 
Thornton of Clapham, deserve particular men- 
tion for their encouragement of exotic botany. 
The garden and hothouse of the latter were 
among the best stocked about London. 

We have seen under what favourable auspi- 
ces and with what great improvements garden- 
ing was on the advance at the close of the 18th 
century ; but the present century was ushered 
in with even greater promise of success, for 
the light of science was still more powerfully 
concentrated upon its practice, and began to 
be felt and appreciated. This especially ap- 
plies to the labours of tha chemist and physi- 
ologist. Such combination of horticultural art 
and science was especially promoted by the 
institution of the Horticultural Societies of 
London and Edinburgh. The first of these 
societies began to be formed in 1804, the latter 
in 1809. Nothing can more conspicuously 
display the high estimation in which garden- 
ing is held, nothing can afford a greater gua- 
rantee tor its improvement, than the lists of 
the fellows of the above societies. In them are 
enrolled the names of the most talented, the 
most noble, and the most wealthy individuals 
of the United Kingdom. 

The increase of the inhabitants of our plea- 
sure grounds within the last few years places 
the taste and patronage which are bestowed on 
gardening in a very conspicuous point of view. 
Of stove plants we nov.' cultivate about 1800 
species and varieties. Of green-house plants, 
nearly 3000. Of hardy trees and shrubs, 
nearly 4000. Of hardy perennial flowers, 
nearly 3000. Of biennial and annual flowers 
together, about 800. To particularize the dif- 
ferent genera of these would exceed the limits 
I have prescribed to this article. I have not 
includesi the varieties of florist's flowers in the 
above general list. They are more than pro- 
portionably numerous. Of hyacinths we have 
about 300 varieties, whereas in 1629 Parkinson 
mentions but 50. The passion for this flower, 
however, has much abated; for Miller, in the 
early part of the last century, says the Dutch 
gardeners had 2000 sorts. Of tulips, we have 
nearly 700 varieties. The cultivation of this 
flower has also declined of late years. It was 
at its height both in England and in Hol- 
land towards the middle of the 17th century. 
In Holland nearly 600/. was agreed to be given 
*br a single root. Of the ranunculus we have 
nearly 500 varieties. Of the anemone, about 
200. Of dahlias, between 200 and 300 ; nar- 
cissi, 200 ; auriculas, more than 400 ; pinks, 
300; carnations, about 350. Of roses, in- 
cl'ided in the list we have given of hardy trees 
and shrubs, there are more than 1450. An- 
other instance of the progress made in increas- 
mg the number of our cultivated plants is 
furnished by the genus Eriat. But five kinds 
of heath were described by Mille*, as known 
in England about 60 years since we now cul- 
' vate nearly 350. 
518 



Mr. Loudon makes the number of plants 
cultivated by gardeners at present amount to 
13,140. Of "these 1400 are natives of Great 
Britain ; 47 were exotics introduced previous 
to and during the reign of Henry VIII.; 7 dur- 
ing that of Edward VI.; 533 during that of 
Elizabeth. In that of James L, 20. Charles I., 
331. During the usurpation, 95. Charles II., 
152. James II., 44. William and Mary, 298. 
Anne, 230. George I., 182. George IL, 1770. 
George III., 6756. During the first 16 years of 
this century, on an average, 156 plants were 
annually introduced. The ardour of research 
is not the least abated now. 

The style in which grounds in England are 
now usually laid out may be characterized in 
one sentence. Convenience is endeavoured to 
be rendered as attractive as possible, by com- 
bining it with the beautiful and appropriate. 
The convenience of the inmates of the mansion 
is studied by having the kitchen and fruit gar- 
dens near the house, fully extensive enough to 
supply all their wants, and kept in the appro- 
priate beauty of order and neatness; without 
any extravagant attempt at ornament by the 
mingling of useless trees, or planting its cab- 
bages, &c., in waving lines. In the flov/er 
garden which immediately adjoins the house, 
dry walks — shady ones for summer, and shel- 
tered, sun-gladdened ones for the more intem- 
perate seasons — are conveniently constructed. 
Their accompanying borders and parterres, 
are in forms, such as are most graceful, whilst 
their inhabitants, distinguished for their fra- 
grance, are distributed in grateful abundance ; 
and those noted for their elegant shapes and 
beautiful tints are grouped and blended as the 
taste of the painter and the harmony of colours 
dictate. The lawn from these glides insensibly 
into the more distant ground occupied by the 
shrubberies and the park. Here the genius of 
the place dictates the arrangement of the levels 
and of the masses of trees and water. Com- 
mon sense is followed in planting such trees 
only as are suited to the soil. A knowledge 
of the tints of their foliage guides the landscape 
gardener in associating them, and aids the 
laws of perspective in lengthening his distant 
sweeps. If gentle undulations mark the sur- 
face, he leads water among their subdued diver- 
sities, and blends his trees in softened groups, 
so as to form light glades to harmonize with 
the other parts. If high and broken ground 
has to be adorned, the designer mingles water- 
falls with broader masses of darker foliaged 
trees, and acquires the beauty peculiar to the 
abrupt and the grand, as in the former he 
aimed at that which is secured by softer 
features. 

He is no philosopher who neglects a certain 
present good for fear that in some fiiture period 
it may be abused ; but in the encouragemen' 
of gardening, whilst an immediate good is ob- 
tained, there is no fear of its perversion in 
after days. Its diffusion among the poorer 
classes is an earnest or means of more impor- 
tant benefits, even than the present increase of 
their comfort. The labourer who possesses 
and delights in the garden appended to his cot- 
tage is generally among the most decent of his 
class; he is seldom a frequenter of the ale- 



GARGET. 



GARLIC. 



house ; and there are few among them so 
senseless as not readily to engage in its culti- 
vation when convinced of the comforts and 
gain derivable from it. Gardening is a pursuit 
adapted alike to the gay and the recluse, the 
man of pleasure and the lover of science. To 
both it offers employment such, as may suit 
their taste ; all that can please by fragrance, 
by flavour, or by beauty ; all that science may 
illustrate ; employment for the chemist, the 
botanist, the physiologist, and the meteorolo- 
gist. There is no taste so perverse as that 
from it the garden can win no attention, or to 
which it can afford no pleasure. He who 
greatly benefited or promoted the happiness of 
mankind in the days of paganism was invoked 
after death and worshipped as a deity: in these 
days we should be as grateful as they were 
without being as extravagant in its demonstra- 
tion ; and if so, we should indeed highly esti- 
mate those who have been the improvers of 
our horticulture; for, as Socrates says, "it is 
the source of health, strength, plenty, riches, 
and honest pleasures." "It is the purest of 
human pleasures," says Lord Verulam. It is 
amid its scenes and pursuits that "life flows 
pure, the heart more calmly beats." (G, W. 
Johnson's History of Gardening.) 

GARGET. In farriery, a disease in the ud- 
ders of cows, arising from inflammation of the 
lymphatic glands. It is also a distemper inci- 
dent to hogs ; and which is known by their 
hanging down their heads, and carrying them 
on one side, moist eyes, staggering, and loss of 
appetite. 

In order to remove the disease in cows, 
where the inflammation is great, the cow 
should be bled, a dose of physic administered, 
the udder well fomented, and the milk drawn 
gently but completely off, at least twice a day. 
XYouatt on Cattle, p. 553.) When the disease 
happens to hogs, they may also be bled, and 
should have warm, stimulating cordial drinks. 

GARLIC {Allimn, from the Celt.; all, hot or 
burning). Under this name Sir J. Smith, 
(Eng. Flor. vol. ii. p. 133) enumerates seven 
native species ; viz.: — 

1. The great rounded-headed garlic, {Ji. am- 
peloprasum). A rare plant, found occasionally 
in open hilly places. The stem is two or three 
feet high, and the herbage somewhat similar 
to that of the leek ; the white globose bulbs or 
cloves increase rapidly in a garden, by lateral 
offsets, till they compose a mass as big as a 
man's head, resembling a bunch of grapes. 
The scent of the whole plant is strong, and of 
the most disagreeable kind. 

2. The sand garlic {A. arenarium), found in 
mountainous woods and fields in the north, on 
a sandy soil ; stem two or three feet high, 
bulbs small, ovate, with many purplish off- 
sets. 

3. The mountain garlic {A. caritiatum) 
which is nearly related to the next following 
species, though differing in the flatter form of 
its leaves. 

4. The streaked field or wild garlic (J. olera- 
ceum) found in pastures, meadows, corn fields, 
and their borders — producing whitish green 
blossoms in July. The whole plant has an 
unpleasant scen^ i^i garlic, and is a very 



troublesome weed, difficult of extirpation, 
though not of common occurrence. It is eaten 
by cattle, sheep, and hogs, and the tender 
leaves, boiled in soups, or fried with other 
herbs, form a wholesome article of food. 

5. The crow garlic (A. vineale) which grows 
in dry pastures, corn fields, and waste ground 
among ruins, especially on a chalky or gravelly 
soil. The stem is slender, about two feet high, 
bulb small, ovate, white, flowers small, pale 
rose-coloured. 

This species of garlic has generally been 
considered perennial, but Dr. Darlington re- 
gards the common garlic of our American 
fields as biennial, propagated every year by 
new lateral bulbs, the old ones, after once 
sending up a stem and flowering, dying away. 
This species is a foreigner which has been 
extensively naturalized in the United States, 
constituting in many places a great nuisance, 
not only by imparting a disgusting flavour to 
milk, butter, cheese, &c., but seriously injuring 
flour, and rendering its manufacture diflicult. 
Farmers are however able to subdue it by a 
judicious rotation of crops. The oat and other 
spring crops, are highly instrumental in the 
destruction of garlic. 

The species called meadow garlic (Allium 
Canadense), is found in the Middle States, being 
frequent on the banks of the Brandy wine, in 
which last mentioned locality the ihrec-berried 
or three-seeded garlic, is also met with. The 
bulbs of this last are of an oblong oval shape, 
pointed, and rather large. The leaves are 5 to 
8 inches long, and 1^ to 3 inches wide, taper- 
ing to the base. This species, says Dr. 
Darlington, differs remarkably from all other 
alliums found in the United States, and has 
much resemblance to the A. ursinum, of Eu- 
rope. The large leaves die, and disappear, 
early in the season — before the flowers are de- 
veloped. The -bulbs emit a fetid, disagreeable 
odour, whilst drying. Three or four additional 
species of garlic are found in the United States. 
(Flor. Ccstrica.) 

6. The broad-leaved garlic or ramsons (A 
ursinnm), which grows in moist woods, hedges, 
and meadows, and produces large white 
flowers, that blow in the month of May and 
June. Every part of the plant, when trodden 
upon, or otherwise bruised, exhales the strong 
odour of its genus. This species is eaten by 
cows; but if they feed on it ever so sparingly, 
it communicates its nauseous flavour to the 
milk and butter to such a degree as to render 
those articles offensive during the spring. It 
should therefore be carefully eradicated as an 
intolerable nuisance from all pastures. It af- 
fords an excellent remedy for driving away 
rats and moles, and it is said the plant will not 
suffer any other vegetable to thrive near it. 

7. Chive garlic (A schtznoprasum), which is 
rare, but sometimes found in meadows and 
pastures, and was formerly in great request as 
an ingredient in salads, but has been 'ejterly 
neglected. 

The cultivated varieties are — Common gai 
lie (A. sativum), which is a hardy plant, and 
though generally known in the United States 
by the name of English garlic, it is a native ol 
Sicily, capable of growing in almost any soil. 

519 



GAKNER. 



GASES. 



It is generally propagated by the cloves ob- 
tained by parting the root, but may be raised 
from the bulbs produced on the stems. The 
planting may be performed any time in Feb- 
ruary, March, and early in April, but the mid- 
dle of the second is the usual lime of insertion, 
A single clove to be placed in each one of 
holes made 6 inches apart and 1^ deep, in 
straight lines, 6 inches distant from each other, 
care being taken to set the root end down- 
wards ; to do this with the greatest facility, it 
is the best practice to thrust the finger and 
thumb, holding a clove between them, to the 
requisite depth, without any previous hole be- 
ing made. 

The only cultivation required is to keep 
them clean of weeds, and in June the leaves to 
be tied in knots, to prevent their running to 
seed, which would greatly diminish the size of 
the bulbs. A few roots may be taken up as 
required in June and July, hut the whole must 
not be lifted until the leaves wither, which oc- 
curs at the close of July, or in the course of 
August. It is usual to leave a part of the stalk 
attached, by which they are tied into bun- 
dles, being previously well dried by exposure 
to the sun and air, for keeping during the 
winter. 

Rochambole, or, as it is sometimes called 
Spanish garlic (^. scorodoprasum), ha.s its bulbs 
or cloves growing in a cluster, forming a kind 
of compound root. The stem bears many 
bulbs at its summit, which, as well as those of 
the root, are often preferred in cooking to gar- 
lic, being of much milder flavour. It is best 
propagated by the root bulbs ; those of the 
stem being slower in production. The plan- 
tation may be made either in February. March, 
or early part of April, as well as throughout 
the autumn. They may be inserted either in 
drills or by the dibble, in rows 6 inches apart 
each way, and usually 2 inches within the 
ground, though this, as well as the preceding 
variety, would thrive better if grown on the 
surface. A very small bed is sufficient for the 
supply of the largest family. See Sualot and 
Leer. 

Besides the above, there are large, numbers 
of different foreign species, most of which are 
pretty : they increase abundantly from offsets. 
The onion, leek, garlic, shalot, chives, &c., all 
agree in their stimulant, diuretic, and expecto- 
rant effects, differing in degree of activity. 
See Osriosr. 

GARNER. A term used provincially to sig- 
nify a granary, or repository for corn ; also a 
binn or a mill. See GnANAnx. 

GAS, AMMONIACAL. See Saline Sdb- 
STANciis; their uses to vegetation. 

GASES, their uses to vegetation. It is not, I 
think, necessary, hi drawing the cultivator's 
attention to the uses of that great portion of the 
food of plants which they imbibe in the state 
of gas, or of aqueous vapour, to enlarge upon 
the importance of the question, since that is a 
truth which, as illustrating the value of certain 
modes of cultivation, I hope to render intelli- 
gible in the following paper, as I examine in 
succession the advantages of the gases and 
vapour of the atmosphere, as well as those 
emitted during putrelaction, to the commonly 
520 



cultivated crops of the farmer. And even if 
the accomplished farmer shall dissent from 
some or all of my conclusions, he will yet 
readily admit that all such observations, with 
regard to the habits and food of plants, and 
their ready absorption by the soil, cannot be 
too generally understood and acted upon by 
the cultivators of the soil. 

That the atmospheric air exerts an exten- 
sive and very important influence upon vege- 
tation, is a fact which has been well known 
from the earliest days of agriculture. Too 
many circumstances combine to render this 
truth apparent to the very meanest cultivator 
for it long to escape observation. The supe- 
rior luxuriance of the borders of all growing 
crops, from those of the field to the outer cir- 1 
cle of timber in a wood, naturally pointed out I 
that something was gained by these, of which 
the inner sheltered portions were partially de- 
prived. And that this something was the air 
of the atmosphere, appears to have been the 
conclusion of the early Italian cultivators who, 
on all occasions, were attentive to let their 
crops enjoy as much of the breeze as possible ; 
an object which they endeavoured to attain, not 
only by an attentive consideration of the natu- 
ral and acquired habits of the plants in trans- 
planting them, but also by increasing the ac- 
cess of air to their roots by deep and regular 
periodical stirrings of the soil around them. 
Thus Cato, the earliest of their agricultural 
writers, whose works remain to us, when in- 
structing the Roman farmers as to the best 
mode of cultivating the vine and the olive, ad- 
vised them, if they wished their vines and 
olive-trees to grow luxuriantly, to stir the 
trenches around them once a month, until they 
were three years old ; and he adds, " bestow 
the same care upon other trees :" (lib. xliii.J 
And Virgil, when commending the very doubt- 
ful plan of paring and burning lands, alludes 
to the same well-known advantage of a free 
and copious supply of air to the roots of plants, 
when he says, " the heat opens more ways and 
hidden rents for the air, through which the 
dews penetrate to the embryo plants." {Gcorg. 
i. 90, 91.) They, in fact, considered, in com- 
mon with the Greek philosophers, that air was 
one of the four elements of which all sub- 
stances were composed; but then, as in those 
days, the air of the atmosphere was considered 
to be a simple body, we need not search in the 
works of the early agricultural writers for any 
evidence of very definite ideas of the mode of 
its action. That the air they breathed was 
highly serviceable to plants of all kinds was 
the extent of their information; they had no 
knowledge of the existence of three distinct 
gases in the atmosphere. That was a dis- 
covery reserved for modern ages — for the days 
of Priestley, and the dawn of pneumatic chem- 
istry in England. When, therefore, the early 
cultivators made the observation, that the free 
supply of air to the leaves and roots of plants 
materially promoted their growth, they did 
what too many modern agriculturists have 
since done, merely noticed the effect, without 
making any very accurate inquiries as to the 
cause of the benefit ; they were too often con- 
tent, in fact, with merely substituting words as 



GASES. 



GASES. 



n explanation of facts. It is probable that 
'he early Greek and Italian philosophers were 
farther led to this knowledge of the advantages 
of air to vegetation, from noticing the power 
"hch some eastern plants possess, such as the 
Flos (eris and others, of entirely supporting 
\ themselves upon the nourishment they derive 
•rom the atmosphere, even when suspended by 
a string from the ceiling of a room, — many 
larasitical plants subsist upon hardly any 
liing else ; thus, some of the mosses of this 
country cling to life, and even grow well, in 
situations where hardly any thing except air 
and moisture can nourish them : some of the 
lloe tribe do the same. 

Carbonic acid gas. — When, however, later 
ages had acquired the knowledge that it was 
only a portion of the air that maintained vege- 
table and animal life, or supported combus- 
tion, new views opened upon the chemical 
philosopher. It became then a question of 
•onsiderable interest to ascertain which por- 
tion of the atmosphere it was that the plant ab- 
sorbed ; and it was speedily ascertained by 
t)r. Priestley and other chemists, that the por- 
tion of the .atmosphere which the leaves of all 
plants absorb in the light is the carbonic acid 
gas or fixed air — a gas composed of 27-27 parts 
carbon, and 72-73 parts oxygen, — and that this 
carbonic acid gas is always contained in the 
atmosphere, in the proportion of about one part 
in 500. The question thus became one of some 
•nterest to ascertain, whether a larger volume 
of carbonic acid gas would promote, in a still 
greater degree, the growth of plants, such as in 
an impure, confined portion of air spoiled by the 
breathing of animals, or exhausted of its oxy- 
gen gas or vital air by combustion, since both 
these varieties of air contain a very consider- 
ably increased proportion of carbonic acid gas. 
Many very accurate experiments speedily de- 
monstrated that such foul air materially in- 
creased the luxuriance of vegetables confined 
in them, and that plants possessed also the 
power of restoring to such exhausted air the 
portion of oxj'^gen which either fire or the 
breathing of animals had removed: thus, a 
confined pi^rtion of air, in which a mouse had 
died in ten minutes for want of air, having had 
a sprig of mint introduced into it for some 
houl-s, was then found to be so replenished 
with vital air, that a second mouse being placed 
in it lived as long as the former mouse ; and, 
by similar treatments, a lighted taper being 
merely substituted for the mouse, the same ef- 
fect was produced — the exhausted air was 
again replenished with oxygen gas. 

These facts naturally opened new views. It 
then became an interesting object to ascertain 
the proportion of the carbonic acid gas in the 
atmospheric air, which possessed the maxi- 
mum advantage to vegetation ; and it was 
found that, in pure carbonic acid gas, plants 
would not vegetate at all, or in air containing 
75 per cent, of it, but that, when the proportion 
present in common air was reduced to 50 per 
cent., then the plants confined in it slowly vege- 
tated, and that they grew more freely when the 
proportion was 25 per cent.; still better when 
it was 12^ per cent.; and that when it was re- 
duced to only 9 per cent., then they flourished 
66 



much better than in common atmospheric air. 
It was remarked, however, that the increased 
presence of carbonic acid gas was only bene- 
ficial to plants when they were vegetating in 
the light, but that, when this was excluded, the 
carbonic acid gas was rather prejudicial to 
their growth than otherwise; that, in fact, all 
plants, though they absorb it in the light, ytt in 
the dark mnf this gas. It was ascertained, 
however, that the presence of it in their atmo- 
sphere was absolutely essential to all plants 
vegetating in the light; that they grew when 
it was present, and that all vegetation was 
stopped by its withdrawal. 

These results naturally led to the additional 
inquiry, Whether the presence of carbonic acid 
gas in water produced the same results on 
plants, since it was well known that, when 
plants were immersed in water and exposed to 
the sun's rays, they emitted bubbles of oxygen 
gas, by decomposing the carbonic acid gas, and 
setting its oxygen free. Various kinds of water 
were tried, containing different proportions of 
carbonic acid gas ; and the beneficial result 
upon vegetation was found to be exactly pro- 
portionate to the quantity of carbonic acid gas 
which they contained. In pump-water, they 
yielded the most oxygen ; from river water a 
smaller quantity; but from boiled water little 
or none. Now, by boiling, all the gases are 
driven out of water, and this is the reason why 
such water is flat and insipid. And yet it was 
found that when the boiled water was again 
impregnated with carbonic acid gas, those 
plants confined in it emitted as much oxygen 
gas as they did before it was boiled; and, 
finally, that when the plants had exhausted the 
water of carbonic acid gas, then they ceased 
to emit oxygen. 

The quantity of carbonic acid gas which is 
emitted by plants vane'=' m different species. 
Thus, M. Saussure found that the purple loose- 
strife (Lythriim saliraria) absorbed in 12 hours 
7 or 8 times its bulk ; while the Cactvs opuntia, 
in common with other fleshy-leaved plants, did 
not absorb above one-fifth of that amount. In 
these experiments, however, the atmosphere in 
which the plants were confined contained 7^ 
per cent, of this gas ; so that when they are 
vegetating in the open atmosphere, in which 
the proportion of this gas does not exceed one 
part in 1000, the quantity absorbed is consider- 
ably less. 

This absorption of the carbonic acid gas, the 
cultivator should clearly understand, influences 
in a great degree the composition of the plant 
All those vegetable, carbonaceous, nutritious 
substances which are found in plants, such as 
gum and sugar, are increased in quantity by 
its copious supply; for when this gas is no 
longer secreted by the plant, its health becomes 
languid, and its compositon more water}'. Thus 
a Byssus vegetating in the dark (when carbonic 
acid gas is emitted by plants), was analyzed by 
M. Chaptal, and found to contain only l-89th 
of its weight of carbonaceous matter; but when, 
after it had been aJowed to vegetate for 30 days 
in the light, it was again examined, it was found 
to contain l-24ih of its weight of carbonaceous 
matter. Similar results were obtained by M 
Sennebier, who found that when plants were 
2x2 521 



GASES. 



GASES, 



made to vegetate in the dark, they contained 
much less oil than those vegetating in the 
light, — their resinous matter being then as 2 to 
5^ compared with those vegetating in the light. 
They had even less earthy matters by one half; 
but then they had exactly double the quan- 
tity of water that the light-growing plants pos- 
sessed. 

Such, then, are the results of the free access 
of the carbonic acid gas of the atmosphere to 
the leaves of plants, — it promotes their growth, 
increases their vigour, and enriches their se- 
cretions. The application of the same gas to 
their roots, although it has not been examined 
with the same care as its action upon their 
leaves, is yet evidently attended with the high- 
est advantage. Thus, this gas is one of the 
constant products of putrefaction, wherever 
this is going on ; as over stagnant drains, 
dung-heaps, and other putrefying matters : 
tliere vegetation is sure to be rankly luxuriant, 
and that, too, in situations where the roots of 
the plants are far removed from immediate 
contact with the decomposing organic matters. 
This may be easily shown by the repetition of 
a very simple experiment, which was first made 
by Davy. This great chemist filled a glass re- 
tort, capable of containing three pints, with the 
hot, fermenting dung and litter of cattle, and 
examined the elastic fluids which were gene- 
rated. In 35 cubic inches which were thus pro- 
duced in 3 days, he found 21 of carbonic acid 
gas, the remainder being chiefl)'^ nitrogen ; and 
after thus ascertaining the composition of these 
gases, he introduced the beak of another re- 
tort, filled in a similar manner, in the soil un- 
der the roots of some grass growing in the 
border of a garden. In less than a week, a 
very remarkable effect was produced on the 
grass exposed to the action of these gaseous 
matters of putrefaction ; their colour became 
deeper, and their growth was much more luxu- 
riant than the grass in any other part of the 
garden. And hence, too, is derived one of the 
chief advantages of applying organic matters 
to the soil, and that in as immediate contact 
with the crop as possible, just as is efl^ected 
when manures are added to the soil by the 
drill ; for the roots or leaves of the plants are, 
by the adoption of this plan, immediately in 
contact with the evolved carbonic acid, and 
other gases of putrefaction ; they are thus rea- 
dily absorbed as they are generated, and no- 
thing is lost by escaping into the atmosphere. 
The gas, in fact, is instantly yet gradually 
transmuted from the putrefying products of the 
farm-yard into the flour of the wheat or the 
nutritive matters of the grasses. And there is 
yet another chemical reason why the manure- 
drill or any other machine should be adopted 
by the farmer to bring, as closely as possible, 
every plant into immediate contact with the 
decomposing manure he applies to his soil ; 
and that is, the superior readiness with which, 
ill all cases of decomposition, the disengaged 
substance enters into new combinations at the 
very instant of its disengagement than it does 
after it has been completely formed. Thus, to 
give an instance, during the putrefactive fer- 
mentation of vegetable substance, a quantity 
vf nitrogen is disengaged; an^ i*" this takes 
522 



place under certain favourable circumstances 
— such as the presence of calcareous matters, 
potash, and a dry, warm temperature at the 
moment it is formed — the nitrogen combines 
with oxygen, forms nitric acid, which unites 
with the potash, and thus nitrate of potash, or 
saltpetre, is formed ; but if the nitrogen is once 
fairly disengaged, almost every endeavour of 
the chemist nas failed in making it unite with 
oxygen so as to form the acid of saltpetre. 

In every way, therefore, in which the ques- 
tion of applying manures in immediate contact 
with the roots of plants can be viewed, the 
more advisable does the adoption of the prac- 
tice appear. 

The important services of the carbonic acid 
gas of the atmosphere to vegetation have been 
illustrated in various ways by more than one 
able chemist. That given by Professor J. F. 
Johnston, in his able Lectures on Agricultural 
Chemistry, Y>- 218, is perhaps the most recent 
and the most practical. He observes, "If we 
were to examine the soil of a field on which 
we are about to raise a crop of corn, and should 
find it to contain a certain per centage, say 10 
per cent, of vegetable matter (or 5 per cent, of 
carbon), and after the crop is raised and reaped 
should, on a second examination, find it to con- 
tain exactly the same weight of carbon as be- 
fore, we could not resist the conviction that, 
with the exception of what was originally in 
the seed, the plant, during its growth, had 
drawn from the air all the carbon it contained. 
The soil having lost none, the air must hav-* 
yielded the whole supply. Such was the priiv 
ciple on which Boussingault's experiments 
were conducted. He determined the per cent- 
age of carbon in the soil before the experiment 
was begun; the weight added in the form of 
manure; the quantity contained in the series 
of crops raised during an entire rotation or 
course of cropping, until, in the mode of cul- 
ture adopted, it was usual to add manure again ; 
and, lastly, the proportion of carbon remaining 
in the soil. By this method he obtained the 
following results, in pounds per English acre: 
— From a course of, 1. Potatoes or red beet, 
with manure; 2. Wheat; 3. Clover; 4. Wheat; 
5. Oats. Carbon in the manure, &c., 2513 lbs.; 
carbon in the crops, 7544 lbs. ; difference, or 
carbon derived from the air, 5031 lbs." 

The result of this course indicates that the 
land, remaining in equal condition at the end 
of the four years as it was at the beginning, 
the crops collected during these years contain- 
ed three times the quantity of carbon present 
in the manure, and therefore the plants, durinic 
their growth, must, on the whole, have derived 
two-thirds of their carbon from the air. 

Oxygen. — Oxygen gas, or vital air, which con- 
stitutes 21 per cent, of the bulk of the air we 
breathe, is absolutely essential to the growth 
of plants. If this is withdrawn from the atmo- 
sphere, they will no longer vegetate, — their 
leaves can no longer perform their functions. 
But this use of oxygen by the leaves of vege- 
tables is confined to the night; it is only in the 
dark that they absorb it. During this absorp- 
tif^n the leaves of some plants, such as the 
Cactus opwntia, and the houseleek (Sempervivum 
tectorum), do not emit any ;iotti(';n of carbonio 



GASES. 



GASES. 



acid gas ; but the common oak (Quercus robur), 
the yellow stone crop {Sedum rejlexum), and the 
great majority of plants, emit a considerable 
portion, not equal, however, in amount to the 
oxygen gas which has been imbibed ; and this 
absorbed oxygen enters, there is little doubt, 
into immediate combination with other sub- 
stances, and forms vegetable matters in other 
shapes. A variety of experiments have, in 
fact, been made to ascertain this. Thus, the 
leaves of plants which have but recently ab- 
sorbed a portion of oxygen gas have been ex- 
posed in the exhausted receiver of an air-pump. 
Other leaves have been submitted to the great- 
est heat they could bear without undergoing 
combustion, but in neither case was any oxy- 
gen gas extricated from them. And it has 
been noted that those plants which absorb the 
greatest proportion of ox3'gen during the night 
are precisely those which evolve the most con- 
siderable quantity of carbonic acid gas during 
the day. 

Plants of different kinds vary very much in 
the quantit}' of oxygen which they absorb. 
Fleshy-leaved plants, which emit little or no 
carbonic acid gas, absorb very little oxygen ; 
and these plants, it may be remarked (says 
Dr. Thomson), can vegetate in elevated situa- 
tions, where the air is very rarefied. Next in 
order come the evergreen trees, which, al- 
though they absorb more oxygen than the 
fleshy-leaved plants, yet require much less than 
those which lose their leaves during winter. 
Those plants which flourish in marshy ground 
likewise absorb but little oxygen. M. Saussure 
tried a great number of experiments on this 
subject, with a variety of plants of different 
kinds. The following are some of his results: 
in every case the weight of the leaves is sup- 
posed to be equal to 1*00, and the bulk of oxy- 
gen is expressed in the table. (Rechoxhcs, p. 
99.) 

Quantity of Oxygen 
absorbed. 

- May aw 

- June 1-50 



Leaves of Evergreens. 
Prunus lauro-cerasus 
Vinca minor (lesser periwinkle) 



Pinus abies (the fir) - 
Juniperus Sablna 



- Sept. 3-00 

- June 2-60 



Leaves of Trees which lose them in Winter. 
Quercus robur (the oak) - - - May 550 
Populus alba (the abele) - - . May 6-20 

— ... Sept. 4-36 

AmygdaluB Persica - - - - June 660 

— — . . . . Sept. 4-20 
Rosa centifotia ----- June 5'40 

Leaves of Herbaceous Plants. 

Solanutn tuberosum (the potato) - Sept. 250 

Brassica oleracea (the cabbage) > oor,. O/in 

— — young leaves I '*«?'• "^ ■»" 

— — old leaves - - .Sept. 200 
Vicia faba (vetch), before flowering - 370 

— in flower - - - - 200 

— after flowering - - 160 
Brassica rapa (the turnip), in flower 125 
Avena sativa (the oat) - - - June 2-70 
Trilicum a;stivuni - - - - May 500 
Pisum sativum (the pea) - - - May 372 
Ruta graveolens - . . . Aug. 200 

Leaves of Aquatic Plants. 

Allsma plantago . . - - Aug. 070 

Polyg.onum persicaria . - - Sept. 200 

Lythnim salicaria - . - - May 230 

Carex acuta ----- May 225 

Ranunculus reptans- - - -Sept. 150 

Leaves of the Fleshy Plants. 

Cactus opuntia - - - - -Aug. TOO 

Agave Americana - . . . Aug. 080 

Sempervivum tectorum ... July I'OO 

Stapelia variegata - - - . July 063 



Saussure continued his researches upon the 
uses of oxygen gas to vegetation. He found 
that it was essential to many of its functions, 
that it was absorbed not only by the leaves, but 
by the roots of plants, — that it then combined 
with carbon, and the carbonic acid gas thus 
formed was thence transmitted to the leaves to 
be decomposed : the very stems and branches 
of plants absorb it, and its presence is essen- 
tial to the expansion of flowers ; in its absence, 
seeds will not germinate, and hence the reason 
why they will not vegetate when placed beyond 
a certain depth in the soil. The quantity of 
oxygen gas consumed during their germina- 
tion, by equal weights of diiferent seeds, varie.s 
considerably. Wheat and barley consume 
less oxygen than pease, and pease less than 
common broad and kidney-beans — the latter 
consuming y^^yth part of their weight, while 
wheat and barley,during their germination, only 
absorb from xisW*'^ ^° anVo'^h their weight of 
oxygen gas. Recent experiments have .shown 
also, that the more water is impregnated with 
oxygen gas, the more excellent are -i.i effects 
when employed for the purpose oi vatering 
plants ; and hence one of the causes o the su- 
periority of rain-water, every 100 cubic inches 
of which contain 3-5 of oxygen gas. Some 
recent experiments were made by Mr. Hill, 
which clearly demonstrated these facts. Hya- 
cinths, melons, Indian corn, and other plants, 
were watered for some time with water im- 
pregnated with oxygen gas; the first grew with 
additional beauty and luxuriance, the melons 
were improved in flavour, the Indian corn 
increased in bulk., so as " to equal in size most 
of those imported from North America," and 
all of them grew more vigorously. 

The uses, therefore, of oxygen gas to plants 
are many and important, and accord with the 
conclusions which naturally suggest them- 
selves from the results of the analysis of vege- 
table substances, from whence oxygen is never 
absent; it must be, therefore, one of the neces- 
sary supporters of vegetable life. 

Nitrogen. — This is the last atmospheric gas 
which exerts its influence upon vegetation, and 
enters in small proportions into the composi- 
tion of plants. Entering in the large propor- 
tion of 79 per cent, into the composition of 
the atmosphere, it is yet supposed to exert but 
a slight influence upon vegetation. It is found in 
much smaller proportions in plants than either 
oxygen gas or carbonic acid gas, although re- 
cent researches have shown that it is much 
more commonly present in vegetable sub- 
stances than was once supposed; and as I 
have elsewhere observed (Johnson on Fertilizers, 
p. 338), that it exerts a more sensible influence 
upon their growth than is commonly believed, 
is very certain, and that the proportion of it 
present in them varies with the different states 
of their growth, has been clearly shown by the 
experiments of Mr. Robert Rigg, who found in 
100 parts of 

Parlt of nitrogeo. 
The flour of wheat unripe - - - - 2-9 ' 
The same nearly ripe - - - - - 2-3 
Leaves of wheat unripe - - - -3-3 
— — nearly ripe - - - 2-1 

Stem of wheat unripe - - . - -3-5 
— — nearly ripe - - - 1"3 

CbafiT of wheat unripe - ... ^8 

523 



GASES. 



GASES. 



Chaff of wheat nearly ripe 
Common grass, not growing freely 

— — growing freely - 

Turnip, when attacked by the fly 
Cabbage, not attacked by insects 

— partly eaten by insects 
The insects themselves 
Red clover stems 



Parti of nilroRen. 

- 1-3 

- 4-4 
. 5-6 

80 

8-1 

. 5-7 

- 140 
, 2-5 



Leaf of do. 4;2 

Flower of do. - - - - - - 3'° 

Potato itself """""" o!? 

— stem '""""" fl!e 

— leaves - - - - - °'^ 

— apple - - . . - 39 
'^ . - - . 3-9 



corolla 
pistils 



4-6 



It is also well worthy of the farmer's atten- 
tion, that Mr. Rigg found that when barley was 
made to vegetate in the shade, the increase in 
the quantity of its nitrogen was nearly 50 per 
cent., but when vegetating exposed to the direct 
rays of the sun, the increase was only 30 per 
cent.; and he also made the observation, that the 
more rapidly the plants vegetate, the more ni- 
trogen they are found to contain. It is also 
well known to the cultivator, that plants grow- 
ing in the shade have usually a deep green 
colour, vegetating with much luxuriance, and 
that certain animal manures applied to plants 
produce similar results in a remarkable degree, 
such as gelatin, oils, urine, blood, fish, ammo- 
nia, &c. Now these fertilizers all contain 
nitrogen, and which gas must be evolved in 
some shape or other during their decomposi- 
tion in the soil; — gelatin, containing 16-998 
per cent., albumen, 15'705, the fibrin of blood 
19-934, urea 46-66 per cent.; and although ni- 
trogen usually exists in plants in very small 
proportions, yet I am entirely disposed to agree 
with Mr. Rigg in his conclusion, that more at- 
tention should be paid than has hitherto been 
done, in the examination of vegetable sub- 
stances, "to those products, which, though so 
minute in quantity as to be with dilficulty de- 
tected in our balances, have nevertheless been 
wisely assigned to discharge the most import- 
ant functions." (Phil. 2Va)(.<:. 1838, p. 406.) 

Such, tlien, are the essential and highly im- 
portant uses of the three gases of the atmo- 
sphere, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbonic acid, 
to all vegetation ; an attentive consideration of 
which will explain to the farmer the cause of 
many of the phenomena he daily witnesses, 
and suggest to him an unanswerable argument 
for the adoption of those modes of cultivating 
his land, the results of careful and scientific 
investi2:ations, which such chemical researches 
suggest and render intelligible. 

Thus, the absolute necessity for all crops re- 
ceiving a regular supply of carbonic acid gas, 
will explain to him why his crops always 
yield an inferior produce when they are sur- 
rounded by thick plantations of timber trees ; 
and why the portion of all kinds of plantations 
growing on the side of the field the most ex- 
posed to the winds is almost always of the 
most luxuriant growth ; it will explain to him 
the reason why many skilful farmers drill their 
corn so that the most prevalent winds may, 
with the more facility, circulate along the rows, 
Inrstead of across them ; and why all farmers 
find that their crops prosper better in mode- 
rately windy weather than in calms ; since in 
ill these instances, and in many other well 
524 



known popular observations of the same kind, 
the copious supply of the carbonic acid and 
oxygen gases of the atmosphere is naturally 
impeded by thick plantations of other vegeta- 
ble substances, and promoted by the winds. 

The consumption of oxygen gas by the roots 
of plants, and their increase of growth and 
vigour when their usually impeded supply is 
increased, is equally fraught with instruction 
to the cultivator ; for it serves to explain the 
reason why stirring the soil around the roots 
of trees, according to the fashion of the early 
vine and olive cultivators of Italy, or mereJy 
disturbing the rows of cabbages and turnips, 
as practised by the best English farmers, is 
attended with decided advantage, since it suf- 
fers the air to have more free access to their 
roots. It renders apparent, too, one of the 
chief reasons why mere subsoil-ploughing 
adds so materially to the luxuriant produce of 
even the poorest cultivated lands, since, as the 
soil is deepened and pulverized, the atmosphere 
more freely and more copiously penetrates to 
the roots of the vegetation it supports. The 
same facts explain the advantages of deep- 
ploughing, of sub-turf ploughing, and of trench- 
ing ; why the indolent farmer in vain tries to 
render productive his shallow-ploughed lands ; 
and why, when the industrious cottager en- 
closes his garden from the barren waste, too 
poor to sufficiently manure it, he yet renders it 
productive of excellent crops, by merely 
trenching it to the depth of 18 or 20 inches. 

And it is vain for the cultivator to urge that 
this benefit is not to be mainly attributed to the 
freer circulation in the soil of the gases and 
watery vapour of the atmosphere, but that it 
is owing to the mixture of the surface-soil with 
the substratuin. For such a conclusion is not 
only opposed by the fact, that many soils do not 
differ in composition from the substratum on 
which they rest, and yet are materially bene- 
fitted by trenching or subsoiling, but is contra^- 
dieted by many agricultural facts with which 
every cultivator is familiar ; and if any other 
answer were requisite, that would be amply 
supplied by the recent experiments of Sir Ed- 
ward Stracey, with his new subturf plough, 
which merely passes under the turf at a depth 
of ten inches, and disturbs and loosens very 
effectually the soil ; but when the plough has 
passed under, every thing resumes its former 
position, although every portion has been tho- 
roughly agitated, and rendered more permeable 
to the atmosphere. The soil is neither displaced 
nor mixed, and yet this mere loosening is pro- 
ductive of the highest advantage, the produce 
of grass is extensively and permanently im- 
proved. Sir Edward Stracey, after describing 
the increased produce of the grass as being 
very remarkable, tells us that there are no marks 
left by which it can be known that the land has 
been so ploughed, except from the lines of the 
coulter, at the distance of about fourteen 
inches from one another. In about three 
months from the time of ploughing, these lines 
are totally obliterated, and yet the quantity of 
aftermath, and the thickness of the bottom, 
have been the subject of admiration of all his 
neighbours. {Jour. Eng. Agri. Soc, vol. i. p. 
253.) 



GASES. 



GASES. 



And then, with regard to the carbonic acid 
and the carburetted and sulphuretted hydrogen 
gases evolved during the putrefaction of ani- 
mal and vegetable manures, the discoveries of 
the chemist are equally instructive and con- 
firmatory of the observations of the intelligent 
farmer. The one finds that these gases, so 
grateful to the farmer's crops, are the most co- 
piously emitted in the early stages of putrefac- 
tion ; that these gradually decrease in volume 
as the fermentation proceeds ; and finally, when 
the mass is reduced to the state of vegetable 
mould, cease altogether. Now, the farmer is 
well aware that the manure of the farm-yard, 
in common with all organic decomposing fer- 
tilizers, is by far the most advantageously ap- 
plied, and produces the most permanent good 
effect when it is used in the freshest state that 
is at aJl compatible with the destruction of the 
seeds of weeds, with which such collections 
usually abound. He is aware, that in all situa- 
tions where the gases of putrefaction are emit- 
ted, such as near to stables, marsh-ditches, 
covered drains, &c., that there vegetation of 
all kinds indicates by its rank luxuriance that 
some unusual supply of nutriment is affcirded; 
the gardener in his best arranged hot-beds no- 
tices that the gases which ascend from his piles 
of litter through the earth (which earth is not 
in immediate contact with the dung) produce 
the same eff'ects long after all the warmth of 
putrefaction has subsided. The growth of some 
of his plants is in this way stimulated, he says, 
in an extraordinary manner. These facts and 
observations are entirely confirmed by those 
of the chemist. He notices that all the gases 
of putrefaction are precisely those which are 
the most nourishing to the growth of plants ; 
that air which has been spoiled by the presence 
of the gases evolved in putrefaction, or by the 
breathing of animals, is exactly that which is 
the most grateful to vegetation ; and that where 
these gases are applied to the roots of plants 
in the most skilful manner, so as to insure a 
regular, steady supply, that then the plant is 
enabled to vegetate in a most vigorous and 
unusual manner. Thus, when green manures, 
such as sea-weed, buckwheat, leaves of trees, 
fern, &c., the most slowly decomposing of all 
vegetable manures, are applied to the roots of 
plants, the effects, according to chemical expe- 
riments, are excellent; and, as I have else- 
where observed, the farmer assures us that 
they are so. He tells us that all green manures 
cannot be employed in too fresh a state ; that 
the best corn is grown where the richest turf 
'las preceded it ; and that where the roots, 
."Stalks, and other remains of a good crop of red 
clover have been ploughed in, that there an 
excellent crop of wheat may be expected; and 
that when buckwheat is ploughed into the soil, 
this is most advantageously done when the 
crop is coming into flower. The chemist 
again explains this without any difficulty. Davy 
and other chemists have shown that when the 
flower is beginning to appear, then the plant 
. contains the largest quantity of easily soluble 
and decomposable matters ; and that when 
these green plants are in this state buried in 
the soil, their fermentation is checked and gra- 
lual, so that their soluble or elastic matters 



are readily absorbed by the succeeding crop, 
and every portion of it becomes subservient to 
the demands of other plants. No cultivator, 
perhaps, ever examined this question more 
accurately, or tried his experiments with more 
neatness, than the late excellent President of 
the London Horticultural Society, the lamented 
Knight of Downton ; and these were the more 
valuable, from being instituted to ascertain the 
state of decomposition in which decaying ve- 
getable substances could be employed most 
advantageously to aff"ord food to living plants. 
This he clearly proved, however erroneous 
were his explanations of his own observations 
and discoveries. One of his experiments with 
a seedling plum tree was very remarkable. He 
placed it in a garden-pot, having previously- 
filled the bottom of it with a mixture of the liv- 
ing leaves and roots of various grasses, covered 
over with a stratum of mould. The plant ap- 
peared above the surface of the ground in April, 
and, during its growth in the summer, was 
three times removed to larger pots in the green- 
house, in every case the bottom of them being 
filled as at first with living grasses, covered 
over with a layer of mould ; and by the end of 
October its roots occupied a space of about 
one-third of a square foot, it having then at- 
tained the extraordinary height of nine feet 
seven inches. This experiment was varied by 
Mr. Knight in several ways : he drilled turnip- 
seed over rows manured with green fern leaves, 
and compared the produce with other rows of 
turnips by their side, manured with rich vege- 
table mould ; and in all cases those which 
grew over the gradually fermenting green fern 
not only grew more rapidly than those treated in 
any other manner, but they were distinguished 
from all others in the same field by their deep 
green colour. Now, when the gases of putre- 
faction are mixed with the roots of all growmg 
crops, this is exactly the effect produced. The 
most foul, stinking water, even when transpa- 
rent, is ever the most grateful to plants ; that 
from stagnant ditches, which has always a pe- 
culiar taste from the carburetted hydrogen it 
contains, is excellent. Every gardener prefers 
that from ponds, however clear ; the purer 
water from wells, he tells you, is very inferior, 
il is too cold ; but then he confesses that even 
warming it does not render it equal to that from 
stagnant places in its efl^ects upon his plants; 
so that, in whichever way the experiment is 
made, there is no doubt of the value of these 
gases to the cultivator's crops, and he will rea- 
dily therefore agree with Knight in the conclu- 
sion, that any given quantity of vegetable mat- 
ter can generally be employed in its recent and 
organized state with much more advantage 
than where it has been decomposed, "and no 
inconsiderable portion of its component parts 
have been dissipated and lost during the pro- 
gress of the putrefactive fermentation." (Trans 
Hort. Soc. vol. i. p. 248.) 

Aqueous Atmospheric Vapour. — The last sub 
stance ever present in the atmosphere in con 
siderable proportions, and which bears a very 
important relation to the prosperity of the 
farmer's crop, is the aqueous vapour, without 
whose unvaried presence no commonly culti- 
vated plant could flourish, and few exis". at all 

525 



GASES. 

Providence, therefore, has ordained that this 
should be ever ready to meet the demands of 
vegetable life, and that its quantity should vary 
with the temperature, increase with the warmth 
when its pressure is most needed by the plant, 
and diminish in proportion as the air becomes 
cooler. Thus, at a temperature of 50°, suppos- 
ing it to have a free communication with water, 
the atmosphere contains about l-75th of its 
weight of vapour; but when its temperature is 
increased to 100°, then its proportion of water 
is increased to l-21st of its weight: and this 
beautiful arrangement is the more important, 
as Davy well observed, in the economy of na- 
ture, because, in very intense heats, and when 
the soil is dry, the life of plants is mainly, 
if not entirely, preserved by this absorbent 
power of their leaves and the earth in which 
they grow; and, happily, this watery vapour is 
most abundant in the atmosphere when it is 
most needed for the purposes of life : when 
other sources of its supply are cut off, this is 
most copious. The amount, however, of the 
atmospheric vapour varies with the kind of 
wind. Those which have passed over warm 
seas contain more than those which have tra- 
versed extensive dry countries ; that which 
crosses the hot, dry sands of Asia and northern 
Africa is so dry that it scorches, as it were, all 
the adjoining countries. It is the cause of the 
sirocco of Malta being so noxious, and why the 
English farmer finds that an easterly wind, in 
England the driest of all winds, is the least 
propitious to vegetation. He well knows, on 
the other hand, that the westerly or south-west- 
ern breezes, the most watery of all winds in 
Britain, which come to his fields surcharged 
with all the vapours of the Atlantic, are pre- 
cisely those which bring with them luxuriance 
to his crops, and clothe his woods with ver- 
dure. 

The cultivator will derive many advantages 
from a carefi investigation of the support 
yielded by the vapour of the atmosphere to his 
plants. He will perceive that its unvaried pre- 
sence affords an additional reason why the air 
should be allowed to circulate freely through 
the well-pulverized and loosened soil, to the 
roots of all growing crops ; and let him, above 
all, avoid the very common erroneous conclu- 
sion, that the atmosphere is ever dry, that it 
no longer contains watery vapour ; for the real 
fact is, he will find the very opposite to the 
common vulgar conclusion. The chemist's 
laborious investigations have clearly demon- 
strated, that though the watery vapour varies 
in amount, yet it is never absent from the at- 
mosphere, but that it happily always the more 
abounds where the cultivator's crops need its 
assistance most; it is then the most able to 
furnish the roots of his grain crops with all the 
moisture they require ; and if it is unable to 
penetrate to them, the fault is not in the wise 
economy of nature, but in the carelessness of 
the cultivator, who is either too inattentive to 
see the advantages which he might thus freely 
derive, or too indolent to loosen the case-hard- 
ened soil, which prevents the entrance of the 
requisite supply of moisture. One of the causes 
oi the unproductiveness of cold, clayey, adhe- 
::ive soils, as Davy well remarked, is, that the 
626 



GASES. 

seed is coated with matter impermeable to air. 
The farmer can convince himself of these facts 
by the simplest of all experiments. Let him 
merely use his rake or his hoe on a portion of 
a bed of wheat, of turnips, or lettuces, or any 
other kind of crop, and let him, in the driest 1 
weather, merely keep this portion of soil loose I 
by this gentle stirring, and he will find that, 
instead of prejudicing his crop by letting out the 
moisture, as is often ignorantly supposed, some- 
thing is evidently let into the soil ; for the por- 
tion thus tilled will be soon visibly increased 
in luxuriance by the mere manual labour thus 
bestowed ; and in this experiment, which I 
have often tried, I am supposing that both the 
portions of the ground are equally free from 
weeds ; that in every other respect the treat- 
ment of both the tilled and undisturbed portions 
of the experimental plot is exactly the same. 
To a very great extent, some of the best of the 
English farmers have long found out these 
facts, and have acted upon the discovery. The 
horse-hoe of the east and south of England, in 
the driest days of summer, may be seen at work 
in the large sandy turnip-fields of Norfolk and 
Suffolk, with unvaried regularity, not for the ■ 
mere destruction of weeds, for these are not 
the abounding tenants of such skilful farmers' 
lands, but for the chief and highly beneficial 
purpose of increasing the circulation of the 
gases and vapour of the air. " The longer I 
keep stirring the soil between my turnip drills," 
said Lord Leicester to me, some years since, 
" in dry weather, the better the turnips grow." 

The same uniform presence of aqueous va- 
pour which marks the atmosphere in all times 
and seasons, in a still more remarkable degree 
distinguishes its constituent gases, for these 
never vary in amount in any times, or seasons, 
or countries. The atmospheric air has been 
analyzed, when obtained from the lowest val- 
leys, and the tops of the highest mountains, in 
crowded cities, and in the open country, but its 
composition was always found to be the same, 
viz., nearly 21 per cent, of oxygen, and 79 of 
nitrogen, and from 1 part in 500 to 1 part in 
800 of carbonic acid gas. I 

Such, then, are the principal matters con- T 
tained in the atmosphere, or added to it by pu- 
trefaction, which influence the progress of 
vegetation. That there are other matters oc- 
casionally present in the air, which are in all 
probability grateful to vegetation, is ver}-- cer- 
tain; our very senses tell us that there are 
clouds of smoke, which is a mixture of carbu- 
retted and sulphuretted hydrogen, soot, and 
vapour, hourly hovering over all large towns 
and cities, and which huge mass the winds 
disperse over the country. Of these the soot, 
and finely divided earthy matters with which 
it is combined, are very speedily deposited ; it 
is one reason why the lands near to populous 
places are very commonly rich and fertile. 
Ammonia has been detected in rain-water. 
That other substances also exist in the air in 
minute, yet active proportions, is very certain, 
though they are too subtle to allow the chemist ■ 
to detect them : thus, to such finely divided * 
matters the physician attributes the progress 
of contagion — the chemical philosopher the 
aroma of flowers, and of many other sub- 



GAS-WORKS. 



GAS-WORKS, 



stances. Certain diseases follow the course 
of particalar winds; and the stones or fire- 
balls, and similar substances, which have in 
all ages been seen to fall from the atmosphere, 
completely baffle the scientific conjectures of 
the meteorologisl. With such speculations, 
however, the cultivator need not disturb him- 
self: resting contented with the knowledge he 
possesses of the invaluable an:^ essential 
powers (if the known gases and vapour of the 
atmosphere to assist and sustain the growth of 
his crops, and adopting in consequence those 
improved modes of cultivation which that 
knowledge suggests, he will patiently await the 
lime when the future discoveries of science 
shall still farther enlarge his sphere of useful- 
ness, by enabling him to draw forth those 
latent powers of production which, there is 
every reason to believe, yet remain hidden in 
the soil. {Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. ii. p. 32.) 

Some curious experiments upon the gases 
hurtfvl to vegetation were made by M. Macaire. 
Some plants of euphorbium, mercury, ground- 
sel, cabbasfe, and sowthistle, with their roots, 
were placed in the morning in a large vase 
into which chloride of lime had been intro- 
duced. The roots were then separately soaked, 
and the quantity of chlorine disengaged was by 
no means sufficient to destroy the vegetable 
tissue. At night the plants had not suffered, 
and the smell of the chlorine was unchanged. 
The same plants placed in the same vase with- 
out any addition of chlorine, were found quite 
faded the next morning, with the exception of 
the cabbage. The odour of the chlorine had 
entirely ceased, and had been succeeded by a 
disagreeable acid smell. The experiment being 
several times repeated, by rendering the extri- 
cation of chlorine more considerable, produced 
the same result, and the plants supported an 
atmosphere strongly impregnated with chlorine 
by day, while a much weaker dose always de- 
stroyed them during the night. Similar results 
were obtained when the vapour of nitric acid 
was employed, nitrous acid gas, sulphuretted 
hydrogen, and muriatic acid gas; and, as a 
general conclusion, M. Macaire was of opi- 
nion, from these trials, " that many of the gases 
are hurtful to vegetation ; but that they act on 
them only during the absence of light." (Quart. 
Journ. of Agr. vol. v. p. 301.) 

GAS-WORKS, the Refuse Matters of as Fer- 
tilizers. It is only within these few years that 
the attention of the farmer has been attracted 
to the various matters produced by the gas- 
works now so common in all parts of England. 
This attention, however, is confined at present 
to only particular localities; while in one dis- 
trict it is zealously used, and bought up with 
avidity, in others it appears to be totally ne- 
glected. In the vale of Kennet the farmers 
clear away from the gas-works all the refuse 
matters they can obtain, even at advanced 
prices. Those of the valley of the Itchin, in 
Hampshire, find it, in small proportions, an 
excellent dressing for grass. 

The refuse matters which are produced 
during the distillation of pit-coal in the gas- 
works, consist of three substances; the ammo- 
niacal liquor, the hydro-sulphuret of lime, 
formed by passing the gas through lime to de- 



prive it of its sulphuretted hydrogen, and the 
coal-tar; these substances are worthy of the 
cultivator's attention, for they are all fertili- 
zers of considerable value. Let us examine 
them in the order in which I have enumerated 
them. 

I. The ammoniacal liquor obtained from gas- 
works is an impure solution of the carbonate 
and acetate of ammonia; and these salts, there 
is little doubt, not only act as stimulants to 
plants, but both the acids and the ammonia, 
when decomposed, furnish direct food to, or 
constitute parts of, vegetables. Carbonate of 
ammonia has been detected in the stinking 
goose-foot (Chenopodium olidum), by MM. Che- 
valier and Lassaigne, and it probably exists in 
other plants which are distinguished for their 
powerful disagreeable odour. If the plants do 
not contain ammonia, or its salts, it is the am- 
monia either in the soil or the air which 
affords them the nitrogen which enters into 
their composition. (Annals of Phil. vol. xii. p. 
231.) Hydrochlorate of ammonia has been 
found in wood by M. Chevreul. (Ann. de Chim, 
68, p. 284.) 

There are many testimonials in favour of the 
use, as fertilizers, of the salts of ammonia, 
either in their pure state, or as found in an im- 
pure combination with soot, or in the liquor of 
gas-works. "Soot," said Davy, "owes part of 
its efficacy to the ammoniacal salt it contains. 
The liquor produced by the distillation of coal 
contains carbonate and acetate of ammonia, 
and is said to be a very good manure. In 
1808, 1 observed that the growth of wheat in a 
field at Roehampton was greatly assisted by a 
very weak solution of acetate of ammonia." 
(Lectures, p. 342.) The experiments of Mr. 
Robertson with soot clearly show the fertilizing 
effects of the soluble portion of it, which is 
principally the salts of ammonia. He mixed 
together, in order to form a liquid manure, six 
quarts of soot in a hogshead of water. "Aspa- 
ragus, peas, and a variety of other vegetables," 
says this intelligent horticulturist, "I have 
manured with this mixture with as much effect 
as if I had used solid dung; but to plants in 
pots, particularly pines, I have found it ad- 
mirably adapted ; when watered with it they 
assume a dark, healthy green, and grow strong 
and luxuriant," (Gard. Mag. vol. ii. p. 18.) 
Care must be taken in using this, and all other 
liquid fertilizers, not to make the solution too 
strong ; it is an error into which all cultivators 
are apt to fall in their early experiments. 
Davy was not an exception ; from making his 
liquids too concentrated, he obtained results 
which widely differed from his later experi- 
ments. (Lectures, p. 170.) There is no doubt 
but that the salts of ammonia, and all the com- 
pound manures which contain them, have a 
considerable forcing or stimulating effect upon 
vegetation. In the experiments of Dr. Belcher, 
upon the common garden cress, by watering 
them with a solution of phosphate of ammonia, 
the plants were 15 days forwarder than other 
plants growing under similar circumstances, 
but watered with plain water; and he also de- 
scribes the experiment of a Mr. Gregory, who, 
by watering one-half of a grass field with urine 
(which abounds with the salt of ammonia"* 

527 



GAS-WORKS. 



GAS-WORKS. 



nearly doubiCd his crop of hay. (^Com. to Board 
of Agr. vol. iv. p. 416.) 

" It is probable," says Mr. Handley, " that 
the ammoniacal liquor which abounds in gas- 
works, and which, when formerly allowed to 
run waste into the Thames, was said to destroy 
the fish and prejudice the quality of the river 
water for human consumption, and which is 
still thrown away throughout the country, ex- 
cept at a few works where ihey manufacture 
sal ammoniac, will, ere long, be extensively 
used as a manure, either through the interven- 
tion of the water-cart, or for the process of sa- 
turating and decomposing soil or vegetable 
matter. A very satisfactory illustration, on a 
small scale, has recently been submitted by 
Mr. Pain. He put into a vessel some leaves 
of trees, saw-dust, chopped straw, and bran, to 
which he applied ammonia, and closed it up. 
In about three weeks the whole was reduced to 
a slimy mass : he then stirred it, and added a 
little more ammonia; and when submitted to 
the English Agricultural Society, it was re- 
duced to a black mass of vegetable mould, 
strongly impregnated with volatile salts, and 
in comminuted particles similar to surface 
peat mould. When applied in its liquid form 
to grass, like salt, it apparently destroys the 
plant; but the spot is distinguished by in- 
creased verdure the succeeding year." {Eng. 
Jigr. Sue. /(,!()•«. vol. i. p. 46.) 

Mr. Paynter, of Boskenna, in Cornwall, has 
given the result of an experiment made with 
the water in which street gas had been cleansed, 
on a piece of barley land. A quarter of an 
acre was taken in the middle of a field of ra- 
ther close soil, in a granite district. The land 
was of average quality ; the gas-water was dis- 
tributed over the quarter acre by a contrivance 
resembling that of a common watering cart, 
and at the rate of 400 gallons to the acre ; about 
a week before seed time, the rest of the field 
was manured in the usual wa)% The differ- 
ence both in colour and vigour of the barley plant 
was so strikingly in favour of the part manured 
by the gas-water, that persons passing within 
view of the field almost invariably came to 
inquire about the cause. The yield also was 
superior, as well as the after-pasture, the field 
having been laid down with the barley." (Ibid. 
p. 45.) 

The refuse Lime of Gas-Works. — This powder 
is produced by passing the gas through dry 
lime, in which operation the earth combines 
with a quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen, 
from which the coal gas needs purifying, and 
is partly converted into hydro-sulphuret of 
lime: in the state that the powder is usually 
vended by the gas manufacturers, it contains a 
considerable portion of uncombined lime. The 
hydro-sulphuret of lime has a bitter and acid 
taste ; it is soluble in water, and has the pecu- 
liarly disagreeable smell of sulphuretted hy- 
drogen. When mixed with or spread upon the 
soil, it gradually decomposes, a portion of hy- 
drogen separates from it, and it is converted 
into sulphuret of lime, which, by absorbing 
oxygen from the atmosphere, finally becomes 
sulphate of lime. There is no reason, there- 
fore, to doubt the fertilizing properties of this 
manure ; but it is too powerful in its effects 
d28 



upon vegetation, to be used in the large pro- 
portions in which it has been sometimes em- 
ployed ; and it should not, for these rea.^ons, 
be added to the soil immediately in contact 
with the seed. It is generally to be obtained 
at a very moderate rate, and by its gradual 
conversion to sulphate of lime (gypsum), it 
must be a very excellent addition to those soils 
which are described by the farmer as having 
become " tired of clover." 

" In many parts of the country," says Mr. 
Handley, " where gas-works are established, 
the refuse has become an object of interest to 
the agriculturist, as containing naany of the 
essentials of the most effective manures. 
The refuse lime which was formerly an incon- 
venience to the manufacturers, and was carted 
away as valueless rubbish, is now contracted 
for by the neighbouring farmers (in an in- 
stance within my own knowledge at 7s. 6c?. per 
chaldron), and applied either in compost, or in 
a direct form, to the land, where, in addition to 
the usual operation of lime, it is said to furnish 
a protection against many of the noxious grubs 
and insects." (Ibid.) 

Gas Tar. — This substance being produced in 
smaller quantities, and employed very com- 
monly as a paint, has not been used as a mar 
nure to any extent; but wherever it can be 
obtained (as I am aware it ever can in some 
places, almost for the expense of carriage), it 
is an article every way worthy of the farmer's 
notice. It is composed entirely of substances 
which enter into the composition of all plants, 
is gradually decomposed in the soil, is power- 
ful in its effects, and still more so from its con- 
taining a considerable portion of the carbo- 
nate and acetate of ammonia ; hence it is best 
applied mixed with earth, so as to be easily 
and evenly spread over the ground. These 
facts will explain some of the phenomena wit- 
nessed in the recent experiments of Mr. Bow- 
ley with gas refuse, at Sidington, Gloucester- 
shire. He says (Farm. Mag. vol. ix. p. 197), 
" I have long used the refuse of the gas-house 
as a manure ; my usual practice is to form out 
my compost-heap with long dung about three 
feet deep, pour the coal tar regularly over it, 
then put another layer of dung or turf, throw 
up the lime on the top, allow it to remain in 
this state two or three months before it is 
turned. The lime should not be under the tar 
in the first instance, as the tar will find its way 
through the dung, and unite with the lime into 
a hard cement, in which state, even if, with 
considerable labour, it is broken into small par- 
ticles, I believe it to be of little service on the 
land. 

"After pursuing the above system for some 
time, I resolved to try some experiments with 
each in its unsophisticated slate. I accordingly 
commenced -vtith the tar, which I had poured 
out of a watering-pot, in a small stream, regu- 
larly over about half an acre in a field of r}'e- 
grass ; this was done in February, 18.38. Soon 
afterwards, the seeds presented the rather sin- 
gular appearance of having been burnt in 
stripes with a hot iron, for the tar had com- 
pletely destroyed all it touched, and I was told 
I had poisoned the land, and it would never re- 
cover itself; however, in June, I noticed that the 



GATES. 



GELATIN. 



grass between the streams of tar looked more 
luxuriant, and the sheep fed on it in preference 
to the other parts of the field. In the autumn 
ihe whole was ploughed, and sown with wheat, 
which looked much more flourishing on the 
half-acre dressed with tar than anywhere else ; 
the difference was so conspicuous from the 
first, that the most casual observer could not 
pass without remarking it ; and at the present 
time (August, 1839), there is a heavy crop on 
it readv for the sickle, while the rest of the field 
is light, and will not be ripe for a week or ten 
days. I put some tar in the same way on a 
piece of land, a month before it was ploughed 
for spring vetches; the vetches were sown two 
weeks after the plough, and many of them 
were destroyed ; but the crop of wheat which 
succeeded was benefited equally with the one 
in the other experiment. I have tried the lime 
with great advantage, putting from 12 to 15 
cart-loads to the acre, but I find it is better to 
remain a time before it is ploughed in. All 
these experiments were tried on a cold, sandy 
clay, worth about 10s. per acre." In these ex- 
periments, the quantity applied per acre was too 
large, and the manure in a state much too power- 
ful. It was only where it had become diffused 
through the soil by time, that its fertilizing 
powers were apparent. 

Coal iar is much improved in effect, when 
employed as a coating for palings, by mixing 
it with a small portion, say one-fortieth of its 
weight, of grease ; this is easily united by 
heating the tar. 

GATES. Good gates are no less essential 
to the respectable appearance of a farm than 
they are necessary for the convenience of an 
occupier. There are few outgoings that cost 
so much and are so little thought of, as the re- 
pairing and renewing gates upon enclosed 
farms. The most common defects are, 

1st. Not sufficient height, so that horses and 
large cattle, when pushing against the gate, 
break it, however strong it is, as the back 
thereof comes in contact with that part of the 
chest of a horse where the collar goes, and 
without inconvenience he leans his weight 
against the opposing bar, which, if a few 
inches higher presses against his neck and 
windpipe, and he makes no impression upon it. 

2d. They are generally hinge-bound, so that 
in attempting to lift up the head, which is often 
required to be done, the ledges and braces are 
either pulled from the back head or broken 
therein; the person lifting the head having a 
nine-feet leverage, which enables him to do 
this mischief. 

3d. The places of contact between the brace 
and the uprights and the ledges are broad, and 
it being impossible to keep those places of con- 
tact dry, the parts become prematurely de- 
cayed. 

The two great objects to be combined in a 
gate are strength and lightness. In the Culti- 
vator and some other American agricultural 
periodicals, many useful observations, with 
drawings of gates, may be found. 

Much has been written on the subject in 

England : see Quar. Journ. Agr. vol. i. p. 727 ; 

and the Trans, of the High. Soc. vol. ii. p. 260, 

where a self-acting gate, suited for the en- 

67 



trances to parks or the approaches to mansioa 
houses, is figured and described. There is also 
a useful essay " On the Construction of Gates 
for the common purposes of a Farm, the 
causes of their Decay, and the manner of im- 
proving them," in the Commun. to Board of Agr. 
vol. vii. p. 144 : see also Loudon^ Encyc. of Ag- 
riculture. 

Among the excellent observations upon the 
subject of farm gates, to be met with in the 
agricultural periodicals of the United States, 
we would particularly refer to a paper in the 
Cultivator, (vol. ii. p. 132,) headed Parker's 
Farm Gate, giving the most minute directions 
for constructing, accompanied with drawings 
of the gate and its several parts. See also 
Cultivator, vol. vii. p. 124, for the plan and 
drawing of a cheap gate, which never sags ; 
and more especially the same valuable pe- 
riodical, vol. viii. p. 53, for Mr. Bennet's Com- 
munication on Ornamental Gates, accompanied 
with descriptions and drawings. 

GATHERING. Provincially, rolling corn- 
swaths into cocks or bundles. Also a popular 
name for Abscess, which see. 

GAVELKIND. An ancient custom or te- 
nure annexed to all land in the county of Kent 
(not especially exempted), and some other 
parts of England, and which extensively pre- 
vails in Ireland, by which the land of the father 
is equally divided at his death among all his 
sons, or the land of the brother among all his 
brethren if he have no issue of his own. Te- 
nure in gavelkind is considered by Blackstone 
to have been in the nature of free socage. In 
most places the gavelkind tenant had the 
power of devising by v^^ill before the statute 
of wills. The same custom seems to have 
been prevalent in Wales, where all gavelkind 
lands were made descendible to the heir at 
common law by the stat. 34 & 35 H. 8, c. 36. 
In Kent the lands have for the most part been 
disgavelled, or deprived of their customary 
descendible quality by particular statutes ; but 
lands in Kent are presumed to be gavelkind 
unless the contrary be shown. Mr. Ross, in 
his Survey of Londonderry, gives an interesting 
account of this custom and its pernicious 
effects. This notion of the equal and unalien- 
able right of all the children to the inheritance 
of their father's property, whether land or 
goods, which is so general in Ireland, is one 
great obstacle to improvement. However just 
and reasonable the opinion may be in theory, 
it is ruinous in practice. In spite of every 
argument (says Mr. Ross) the smaller Irish 
landholders continue to divide their farms 
among their children, and these divide on until 
division is no longer practicable; and, in the 
course of two or three generations the most 
thriving family must necessarily go to ruin. 

GEERS. A country phrase for the harness 
of draught or team horses. 

GELATIN. In chemistry the name given 
to an abundant proximate principle in animals. 
It is confined to the solid parts of the body, 
such as tendons, ligaments, cartilages, and 
bones, and exists nearly pure in the skin ; but 
it is not contained in any healthy animal fluid. 
Its leading character is the formation of a 
tremulous jelly, when its solution in boiling 
2 Y 529 



GELDING. 



GEOLOGY. 



water cools ; and it may be repeatedly liquefied 
and again gelatinized by the alternate applica- 
uon of heat and cold. Isinglass, glue, and 
size are various forms of gelatin, the first be- 
ing this substance in a very pure state, obtained 
by washing and drying the swimming bladder 
of the sturgeon i^Acipenscr huso) and some other 
fish. Its most distinctive chemical character 
is the formation of a dense white precipitate 
when its solution in warm water is poured into 
an infusion of galls, or that of any other as- 
tringent vegetable; the substance formed in 
such cases is a tannate of gelatin, by the 
union of the tanic acid with the gelatin. Ge- 
latin is semi-transparent and colourless when 
pure. Its consistency and hardness vary con- 
siderabl)'. The best kinds are very hard, brittle, 
and break with a glassy fracture. Its taste is 
insipid, and it has no odour. A solution of 
one part of gelatin in 5000 of water is ren- 
dered slightly turbid by the addition of a strong 
infusion of galls. Gelatin, as an article of 
food, is not so nutritious as is generally sup- 
posed. 
The ultimate components of gelatin are — 

Parlj. 

Carbon 478 

Hydrogen ------- 7"9 

Nitrotten .-..-.- 169 
Oxygen -.-._.- 274 

100- 

■QO lbs. of bones yield about 25 or 27 lbs. 
of gelatin. It is used for making carpenter's 
glue, as the fat in the bones gives it a bad 
taste, and renders it unfit for soup. See Glue. 
(^Br etude's Dirt, of Science.) 

GELDING. In farriery, a castrated animal; 
and also the act of castrating. In performing 
this operation, attention should be paid to the 
age, and also the season of the year. The most 
proper seasons are either the early spring 
months, or those of the autumn. 

GENTIAN (Gentunia). This, in England, is 
an extremely beautiful genus of plants; the 
roots of which form one of the principal bit- 
ters of European growth. The stems and 
roots of most of the species, especially the 
autumnal gentian (G. amnrclla), the field gen- 
tian (G. canipestris), and some of the foreign 
species are tonic, stomachic, and febrifuge. 
That which is principally used in medicine is 
the root of the great yellow gentian (G. hitea), 
which is imported from Germany. The gene- 
ric name was given to them after Gentius, 
King of lUyria, who is reported to have first 
experienced the virtues of the plant. The 
.species of gentian, indigenous to England, ac- 
cording to Sir J. E. Smith, are six in number. 

1. The Marsh Gentian or Calathian violet 
(G. pncumonanthe). A perennial herb, found 
on moist, turfy heaths, blooming in August and 
September. 

2. The Dwarf Gentian (G. acaulis). A pe- 
rennial, but very doubtful native, found on 
mountains. The stems generally very short, 
rising from the centre of tufts of leaves, single- 
fldwered. The flower, which blows in June 
or July, is large, often two inches long, ex- 
quisitely beautiful, of a rich blue in the limb, 
paler jn the tube, which is dotted internally 
with black. Root fleshy and brant bine. 

530 



3. The Spring Gentian (G. verna). A peren- 
nial, growing in barren, mountainous situations, 
but rare, flowering in April. 

4. Small Alpine Gentian (G. nivalis). An 
annual found on the loftiest mountains of Scot- 
land. 

5. The Autumnal Gentian (G. amarella). An 
annual plant, growing frequent in limestone 
and chalky pastures, flowering in August and 
September. 

6. The Field Gentian (G. campestris). An 
annual, flowering in September or October, 
growing on elevated pastures, or upon green 
hills towards the sea-coast, where the soil is 
chalky or gravelly. The roots are very bitter 
and tonic. It is sometimes known as yellow 
centaury and blue gentian. 

Most of the herbaceous kinds of gentian 
grow well in a rich, light soil, but some re- 
quire to be grown in peat; indeed, all will 
grow much stronger in it. Several of the 
species should be grown m pots, placed among 
alpine plants, and protected in winter. Some 
of them may be increased by divisions. The 
annual and biennial kinds may be sown in a 
dry, sandy situation in the open border ; but 
they must be sown as soon as the seeds are 
ripe, because, if left till spring before they are 
sown, they will not, very probably, come up 
till the second year. 

The species of gentian best known in the 
United States, are: — 1. The one called Soap- 
wort (G. saponaria), a handsome plant, fre- 
quently found in Pennsylvania and other 
Middle States, along the margins of swampy 
rivulets and in low grounds. It flowers in 
September, and ripens its seed in November. 
The root, as in all the genus, is bitter and tonic. 
2. Yellowish-white Gentian (G. ochrolcuca), 
found in fields and woodlands in the Middle 
and Southern States, but not so common as the 
former kind. 3. Haired, or Fringed Gentian 
{G.crinita), frequent in hilly, open woodlands 
and old fields in Pennsylvania, where it is one 
of the most beautiful autumnal flowering 
plants in the months of September and Oc- 
tober. Its flowers are often destroyed by frost. 
Though generally described as a biennial. Pro- 
fessor Eaton considers it a perennial. Dr. 
Darlington thinks it an annual. 

Seven or eight additional species of gentian 
are enumerated in the United States. (Flora 
Cest7-ica.) 

GEOLOGY (>», the earth ; Ko-ya, a dis- 
course). The use of this science to the culti- 
vator is considerable. The farmer is, in fact, 
obliged to vary his modes of tillage with the 
different strata which he tenants, and hence he 
is often following in practice the very rules, 
and observing the laws which the science of 
geology would prescribe, without being aware 
of the scientific reasons by which his labours 
are guided. It is a science he will find closely 
connected with the best modes of cultivating 
the soil, the drainage of land, the mixture of 
earths, and other agricultural improvements. 
From geological observations, the farmer 
learns the process by which the soils he culti- 
vates were originally formed, their connexion 
with the substratum, and the readiest mode of 
improving their constituents; thus, as it is 



GEOLOGY. 



GEOLOGY. 



well observed by Mr. Morton, in his valuable j 
little work on Soils, p. 3. " If we can show an 
identity of the materials which form the soil 
with those of the subsoil upon which it rests, 
we shall obtain a key to a more correct and 
satisfactory classification of soils than at pre- 
sent exists; their nature and properties, the 
kind of crops which they are best calcalated to 
produce, and the materials necessary for their 
permanent improvement will also be more evi- 
dent." That such scientific observances of 
the order of nature cannot but be attended 
with benefit, is a remark which we cannot too 
often make to the farmer: it was an observa- 
tion which Davy long since made, {Lectures, p. 
204) ; he told the farmers of his day, that " the 
best natural soils are those of which the ma- 
terials have been derived from different strata 
which have been minutely divided by air and 
Avater, and are intimately blended together ; 
and in improving soils artificially, the farmer 
cannot do better than imitate the processes of 
nature ; — the materials necesary for the pur- 
pose are seldom far distant — coarse sand is 
often found immediately on chalk, and beds of 
sand and gravel are common below clay. The 
labour of improving the texture or constitution 
of the soil is repaid by a great permanent ad- 
vantage — less manure is required, and its fer- 
tility insured, and capital laid out in this way 
secures forever the productiveness, and con- 
sequently the value, of the land;" and again. 
Dr. Paris, when addressing the Penwith Agri- 
cultural Society, remarked, "The composition 
and arrangement of the diflferent rocks of which 
a country consists, is always an object of im- 
portant interest to the liberal and well-informed 
farmer, for it will generally be found more or 
less connected with its agricultural economy, 
and is frequently capable of explaining pecu- 
liarities and anomalies which are otherwise 
quite unintelligible. At the same time a know- 
ledge of them will suggest the best method of 
improving a soil by exhibiting the nature of 
its texture and constitution, and the various 
causes of its sterility." That geological sur- 
veys of even particular estates have been at- 
tended with considerable benefit, we have the 
valuable testimony, amongst many others, of 
Sir J. V. Johnstone, who says (Joum. of Eng. 
Agric. Sor. vol. i. p. 273), " The geological sur- 
vey and map of my estate has not only ex- 
plained the reason of the discrepancy between 
the soil and productiveness of neighbouring 
fields — a matter of great interest, and tending 
to develope the true conditions of vegetable 
life — but the following positive practical re- 
sults have been also derived from it: — 1st, The 
knowledge of applying lime to advantage over 
the property ; 2d, Laying down fields to advan- 
tage to grass, and where and how to plant 
wheat; 3d, What trees to plant upon each 
stratum ; and as, he very correctly adds, "Cer- 
tain soils are so obviously connected with their 
bases, that we need scarcely ask how geology 
and agriculture are mixed together;" and to 
use Dr. Smith's own words, " The strata suc- 
ceed each other in a certain order, and being 
delineated, a knowledge of the strata becomes 
the natural and safe foundation of improve- 
ment; and if agricultural chemistry be ever 



successful. "\ applied to the practical purposes 
of agriculture, it must be by proceeding with 
the chemical analysis of soils along the range 
of each stratum." {Farmerh Almanac.') 

And it is quite true, as Mr. Macgillivray re- 
marks (Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, vol. iii. 
p. 209), that "an experienced agriculturist 
may judge correctly of the general capabilities 
of a district from a superficial inspection, and 
may perceive its adaptation to the cultivation 
of certain plants, or to the rearing of certain 
species of animals, in consequence of a single 
glance of his eye; but how much more precise 
will be the estimate of him who examines the 
slopes of the declivities ; the depth and quality 
of the soil ; the nature of the subsoil ; the dis- 
tribution of rills, pools, and springs ; the kind 
and disposition of the mineral strata; the ex- 
istence of limestone beds ; the elevation above 
the level of the sea ; the exposure to particular 
winds ; the prevalent atmospheric currents ; 
the frequency of rains and frosts ; and all the 
other physical phenomena which influence a 
country. Even the nature of the rock itself, in- 
dependently of other circumstances, discloses 
the capabilities of the soil, in a degree which 
could scarcely be imagined by one totally un- 
acquainted with the influence which it pos- 
sesses." 

As my observations on geology in this work 
will be chiefly confined to its connexion with 
practical agriculture, I shall not detain the 
farmer with any of the valuable geological re- 
searches which extend far beneath the earth's 
surface. Indeed, as Professor Brande remarks 
in his Outline of Geology, p. 32, when speaking 
of geology, "Its first and leading object is to 
become practically acquainted with the pre- 
sent state of the earth's external structure, for, 
excepting of its crust or rind, we know nothing; 
and all that has been suggested either by theory 
or experiment, relating to its internal composi- 
tion, its density, and the constitution of the en- 
tire mass, is mere surmise and guess-work — 
deductions hastily drawn from superficial ob- 
servation or unwarranted inferences from im- 
perfect researches." To the student who 
wishes to make himself practically master of 
the science, I commend the lectures of Pro- 
fessor Brande, as well as the Outlines of the 
Geology of England and Wales, by Conybeare 
and Phillips. To the practical, intelligent 
farmer, the work On Soils, by Mr. John Morton, 
will also be very valuable. To this excellent 
little book I gratefully acknowledge my obliga- 
tions in this and many other articles. 

The best popular description, perhaps, of 
the position in which the various strata of the 
earth are placed, is that long since given by 
Mitchell. " This very ingenious writer," says 
Brande (Outlines, p. 13), "describes the gene- 
ral appearance of the strata, points out their 
analogies and differences, adverts to their in- 
clination and disturbance in mountainous dis- 
tricts, and to their horizontality in flat coun- 
tries ; and having explained with much minute 
and practical perspicuity the arrangement of 
the strata in England, he exemplifies its uni- 
versal application to the general structure ot 
the globe, and ingeniously represents it in the 
following manner : — ' Let a number of leaves 

531 



GEOLOGY. 



GEOLOGY. 



of paper,' he says, ' of several different colours, 
be pasted one on another, then binding them 
up together into a ridge in the middle, con- 
ceive them to be reduced again to a level sur- 
face by a plane so passing through them as to 
cutoff all the part that had been raised; let 
the middle now be again raised a little, and 
this AYOuld be a good general representation of 
most, if not all, large tracts of mountainous 
countries, together with the parts adjacent 
throughout the whole world. From this for- 
mation of the earth, it will follow that we 
ought to meet with the same kinds of earths, 
stones, and minerals, appearing on the surface 
in long narrow slips, and lying parallel to the 
greatest rise of any large ridge of mountains, 
and so, in fact, we find them.' " (^Phil. Trans. 
1760.) 

And this system of layers or strata not only 
marks the arrangement of the great masses of 
which our earth is composed, but it is that of 
the very rocks themselves. It is to us attended 
with many advantages, such as the formation 
of springs, — the constitution of soils, — which 
last is that alluded to by Dr. Paris, On the Soils 
of Cornwall. "The phenomenon of stratifica- 
tion, which is so well characterized in clay 
slate, I have often regarded as a wise provision 
of nature to facilitate its decomposition, and to 
admit the descent of the roots of trees : and 
this idea is further strengthened when we dis- 
cover that this structure is almost entirely con- 
fined to secondary rocks, whose situation and 
natSire render them capable of cultivation : 
they are all, for instance, resolved into gently 
undulating hills, and by farther decomposition 
they form rich and fertile soils. Primitive 
formations, on the contrary, which possess no 
such structure, disintegrate into rugged piles, 
whose declivities are too steep to admit the ac- 
cumulations of soil, and cannot, therefore, ever 
constitute the habitable parts of the globe ; 
and, as far as our geological knowledge will 
allow us to generalize, it would appear that 
primitive rocks are accumulated towards the 
poles, whereas the great mass of secondary 
formations is found to occupy the middle and 
southern latitudes, principally between the 20th 
and 55th degrees, which constitute a portion of 
the globe eminently calculated for the abode of 
man, and the animals which are subservient 
to his wants and comforts." 

The farmer must not imagine, as he pursues 
his researches in this very interesting science, 
that he will find a great variety of earthy sub- 
stances in the different, often-varying strata of 
the earth ; "for," as Mr. Brande says very 
truly, " siliceous, calcareous, and argillaceous 
substances, either pure, or nearly so, or in a 
state of mixture, or loosely and indefinitely 
blended, rather than in strict chemical combi- 
nation, constitute a very large relative propor- 
tion of those rocky masses, or scattered or 
comminuted substances, which form, or have 
formed, the most exterior constituents of our 
pJanet, and of these, considered in the abstract, 
the chemical and mineralogical history is soon 
told." Of that brief history, however, it will 
be well for the farmer to have a general know- 
ledge. Davy, who saw very clearly the im- 
portance of the science to practical agricul- 
632 



ture, described them with a view to assist the 
farmer in his tillage operations. 

The formation of a soil from the different 
strata by natural causes is also well described 
by the same great chemist. "It is easy," he 
says, "to form an idea of the manner in which 
rocks are converted into soils by referring to 
the instance of soft granite or poixelain granite. 
This substance consists of three ingredients, 
quartz, feldspar, and mica. The quartz is 
almost pure siliceous earth, in a crystalline 
form. The feldspar and mica are compound 
substances: both contain silica, alumina, and 
oxide of iron ; in the feldspar there is usually 
lime and potassa ; in the mica, lime and mag- 
nesia. 

" When a granitic rock of this kind has been 
long exposed to the influence of air and water, 
the lime and the potassa contained in its con- 
stituent parts are acted upon by water or car- 
bonic acid ; and the oxide of iron, which is 
almost always in its least oxidized state, tends 
to combine with more oxygen ; the conse- 
quence is, the feldspar decomposes, and like- 
wise the mica, but the first the more rapidly. 
The feldspar, M'hich is, as it were, the cement 
of the stone, forms a fine clay. The mica 
partially decomposes, mixes with it as sand, 
and the undecomposed quartz appear as gravel 
or sand of different degrees of fineness. 

" As soon as the smallest layer of earth is 
formed on the surface of a rock, the seed of 
lichens, mosses, and other imperfect vege- 
tables which are constantly floating in the 
atmosphere, and which have made it their 
resting-place, begin to vegetate. Their death, 
decomposition, and decay, afford a certain 
quantity of organizable matter, which mixes 
with the earthy materials of the rock; in this 
improved soil more perfect plants are capable 
of subsisting ; these, in their turn, absorb 
nourishment from water and the atmosphere, 
and, after perishing, afford new materials to 
those already provided. The decomposition 
of the rock still continues, and, at length, by 
such slow and gradual processes, a soil is 
formed in which even forest trees can fix their 
roots, and which is fitted to reward the labour 
of the cultivator." (Ibid. p. 189.) 

That the geological formation of the soil 
influences to a considerable degree its rela- 
tions to a fertilizing supply of moisture, was 
thus noticed by Dr. Paris when addressing a 
Cornish Agricultural Society : — " There is a 
popular adage well known to all the members 
of this society, that 'the land of Cornwall will 
bear a shower every week-day, and two upon 
a Sunday,' — the fact is, that the shallowness 
of the soil, and the nature of its rocky substra- 
tum, render a constant supply of moisture 
indispensable ; and here we cannot avoid ad- 
miring the beautiful contrivance of nature in 
connecting the wants and necessities of the 
different parts of the creation with the power 
and means of supplying them ; thus, in rocky 
countries like Cornwall, where the soil is ne- 
cessarily greedy of moisture, the very cause 
which creates this want is of itself capable 
of supplying it; for the rocks elevated above 
the surface solicit a tribute from every passing 
shower, while in alluvial and champaign 



GEOLOGY. 

countries, where the soil is deep and rich, and 
consequently requires less moisture, the clouds 
float undisturbed over the plains, and the coun- 
try frequently enjoys that long and uninter- 
rupted series of dry weather which is so con- 
genial to it. As a general rule it may be stated, 
that to obtain the greatest fertility the propor- 
tion of siliceous sand in a soil ought to increase 
in proportion to the quantity of rain that falls, 
or rather perhaps to the frequency of its re- 
currence ; for one of the effects of silex is to 
diminish in the soil its power of absorbing 
moisture; we accordingly find that in the rainy 
climate of Turin the most prolific soil has from 
77 to 80 per cent, of siliceous earth, and from 
9 to 14 of calcareous, whereas, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Paris, where there is much less 
rain, the silex bears only the proportion of 
from 26 to 50 per cent, in the most fertile parts ; 
and I have found some of the most productive 
corn lands in the parish of St. Burian to con- 
tain as much as 70 per cent, of that earth." 
See Earths, their Use to Vegetation. 

It will, perhaps, considerably assist the cul- 
tivator in his examination of the different 
geological formations to which he may have 
to direct his attention, if we examine the che- 
mical composition of a few of the stones and 
other substances of which rocks are chiefly 
formed. 

Common clay is merely a mixture of alumina 
with silica, in endless proportions. The alu- 
mina is in the form of a very impalpable 
powder; but the silica, says Dr. Thomson, is 
almost always in small grains, large enough 
to be distinguished by the eye. Clay, therefore, 
exhibits the characters of alumina, and not of 
silica, even when this last ingredient predomi- 
nates. Besides alumina and silica, clay often 
contains carbonate of lime (chalk), carbonate 
of magnesia, carbonate of baryta, oxide of iron, 
&c. (Chem. vol. iii. p. 341.) 

LodiH may be regarded as a very impure 
potter's clay united with iron, ochre, and mica. 

Common Mica. — This stone is composed, ac- 
cording to the analysis of M. Klaproth, of — 

Pirts. 
Silica 47- 

Alumina .-_-.-. 20' 
Oxide of iron -..-.- 15*5 
Oxide of manganese ----- 1-75 
Potash ...--.- 14-5 
Loss - 1-25 

100- 

Common feldspar, according to M. Vauque- 
Hn, is composed of — 

Pirts. 

Silica 62-83 

Alumina ..-.-.- 1702 
Lime ------ --3' 

Oxide of iron ------ r 

Potash ------- 13- 

Los<i -------- 315 

100- 

The decomposing feldspar of Cornwall is 
composed, according to Mr. Wedgwood, of — 

Parti. 

Alumina -----..60 

Silex 20 

Moisture and ^oss - - - - - - 20 

100 



GEOLOGY. 

Brande found in a specimen of pale flesh- 
coloured feldspar from the Alps — 

Pirti. 
Silex .--..--- 68- 
Alumina ------- 20- 

Potash ------- 8-30 

Lime --------2' 

Oxide of iron ------ 050 

Loss -------- 1-20 

100- 

Common hornblende was found by M. Klap- 
roth to contain — 

Parts. 

Silica 42- 

Alumina ------- 12' 

Lime -------- II" 

Magnesia ------- 225 

Oxide of iron - - - - - - 30' 

Oxide of manganese ----- 025 

Water 075 

Loss -------- 1-75 

100- 

Common serpentine contains, according to 
M. Vauquelin — 

Parts. 
Silica -------- 44- 

Magnesia --...-- 44- 
Alumina ------- 2* 

Oxide of chromium ----- 2- 

Oxide of iron -.--.. 7-3 
O.xide of manganese - . - - - 1-5 

100-8 

Another specimen, examined by Dr. John, 
was found to contain — 

Pirts. 

Silica - - 31-50 

Magnesia ..----. 47-25 
Alumina ------ -3- 

Lime --. o-50 

Iron -------- 5-50 

Oxide of manganese - - - - - 1-50 

Water 10-50 

99-75 
Chalk contains — 

Parts. 
Lime -------- 56-5 

Carbonic acid - - - - - - 43' 

Water- ------- -5 

100- 
Common compact limestone contains — 

Parts. 
Lime .-..-.-- 53- 
Carbonic acid ------ 42-5 

Water ------- 1-63 

Silica 112 

Alumina ------- 1- 

Oxide of iron ------ 075 

100- 

Magnesian limestone, from Sunderland, con- 
tains, according to Dr. Thomson (System of 
Chem. vol. iii. p. 396) — 

Parts. 

Carbonate of lime ----- 568 

Carbonate of magnesia - - - - 4084 

Oxide of iron ------ OSO 

Clay, water, &c. - - - - - 2- 

100- 

Quartz, according to the analysis of M 
Bucholz, is composed of— 

Parts. 
Silica - - - - . - 97-75 

Alumina - - - - - - 0*50 

Water - - --.-!• 

Loss - . - - . - - 0-75 

108- - 

2 T 2 533 



GEOLOGY. 



GEOLOGY. 



Porcelain earth was analyzed by Mr. Rose 
t Jameson's Min. vol. i. p. 298) : he found in it — 

Parte. 

Silica 52- 

Alumina ------- 47- 

Oxide of iron ------ 033 

Loss - 0-67 

lOO- 

Potter's clay, according to M. Vauquelin, 
contains — 

Pirta. 

Silica 43-5 

Alumina ..-.--- 33'2 
Lim« -------- 3'5 

Oxide of iron - - - - - - 1' 

Water- ------- 18- 

Loss -------- 0"8 

100- 

Clay slate is composed of — 

Silica 48-6 

Alumina ------- 23-5 

Magnesia ..----- 1-6 

Peroxide of iron ----- 11-3 

Oxide of manganese ----- 05 

Potash ------- 4" 

Carbon ------- 0'3 

Sulphur 01 

Water and volatile matter - - - 76 

Loss - - - • • - - -I'S 

100- 

Basalt is composed, according to Mr. Ken- 
nedy {Edin, Trans, vol. V. p. 89), of — 

P»rl». 

Silica -------- 48 

Alumina ..-.-.-16 
Lime --------9 

Soda -4 

Oxide of iron - . . - - -16 

Muriatic acid ------ 1 

Water -----.--5 

Lose --------I 

100 

Chlorite earth is composed of — 

Parts. 

Silica -------- 50- 

Alumina ------- 26- 

Lime --------1-5 

Oxide of iron ------ 5' 

Potash .....-- 17-5 

100- 

Gypsum, of which there are several varieties, 
IS composed of — 

Parts. 

Sulphate of lime ----- 79-32 
Water -..-..- 2068 

100- 



The cultivator, therefore, must take it as an 
axiom in his geological observations, that the 
earthy composition of the surface soil almost 
always partakes of the nature of the rock or 
subsoil on which it immediately rests, and from 
which, in fact, it has been generally thus 
formed, in the progress of time, by various 
external agencies. 

Alluvial soils, perhaps, are the most exten- 
sive exceptions to this remark, for they are 
formed commonly of the materials of different 
strata, brought from various distances by the 
flood waters, and mingled together, often in 
very confused, yet most commonly in very 
fertile proportions. (See Alluvium.) Of this 
description of soil there are in England many 

OO'x 



valuable tracts, such as that extending from 
Lynn, through Lincolnshire to the Humber, 
and thence to Bridlington. Both sides of the 
valley of the Thames, about Sandwich in Kent, 
Romsey Marsh, between Bristol and Bridge- 
water, and Liverpool and Lancaster, and on 
the banks of the rivers Forth and Tay in Scot- 
land. " This kind of soil," says Mr. Morton, 
" is always fertile, free in its nature, and easily 
cultivated ; is fitted for the production of every 
variety of crop, which it brings to the highest 
perfection, and produces in the greatest abund- 
ance. This formation is perfectly dry. About 
one-half of all the alluvial accumulations may 
be in tillage, and the remaining half in mea- 
dow and pasture land." (On Soils, p. 10.) 

Diluvium is the geological name for those 
masses of soil, composed of sand, gravel, &c., 
which are found in many places, covering 
some of the older formations. It is of various 
composition : when it is found resting on the 
tertiary and chalk formations, it is usually 
composed of red clay and rounded flints. In 
Dorsetshire the diluvium is commonly com- 
posed of a mixture of sand and gravelly flints. 
"Most of this soil," says Mr. Morton, "is in 
arable culture, and produces turnips, barley, 
oats, wheat, clover; and, when under proper 
management, it becomes a useful soil. The 
tenacious clay gravel is expensive in the culti- 
vation, as it is most difficult to work, except 
between wet and dry. The greatest improve- 
ment which has been made in this soil is by 
the application of chalk." The larger portion 
of Suffolk and Norfolk is composed of a dilu- 
vium sand, resting on chalk or marl. This 
district is very level : it extends from Sudbury 
to Bungay and Cromer, from Southwold to 
Shelford, and from Swaflfham to Yarmouth. 
Resting as it does on a calcareous substratum, 
the excellent cultivators of this district have 
gradually and permanently improved the soil 
by bringing the chalk or marl to the surface, 
and spreading it over the land at the rate of 
about 100 cubic yards per acre ; in this way 
mere rabbit warrens of blowing sands have 
been improved so as to yield excellent crop? 
of corn, and rentals have been in this way 
raised from a few pence to 20s. per acre. 

Peat Soils. — These abound in many portions 
of the United Kingdom. Their best mode of 
improvement is, usually, by mixing them with 
the earths. See Peat Soils. 

The Chalk Formation. — This formation, very 
common in England, but which does not exist 
in the limits of the United States, is divided 
by geologists into two divisions, the upper and 
the lower chalk : the upper abounds in flints, 
which are absent from the lower formation. 
Chalk is chiefly carbonate of lime, with some 
small portions of alumina, iron, and silica. "The 
water which comes from below the lowei 
chalk," says Mr. Morton, " is pure and limpid, 
and delicious to drink. It contains carbonate 
of lime, and is of the best quality for watering 
meadows ; hence the best water meadows are 
in the chalk valleys." The soil of the chalk 
formation is composed of chalk and flint in 
various proportions. These soils are materi- 
ally improved by a mixture with those of the 
green sandstone formation, and by enclosing 



GEOLOGY. 



GEORGIA BARK. 



iuto much smaller fields than those into which 
they are at present generally divided. 

Green Sand Formation. — ^This formation is 
found under the chalk. It is formed of a va- 
riety of beds : the upper beds near the chalk 
have a green or grayish colour, the lower beds, 
which are commonly much thicker, vary in 
colour, from yellow to brown and red. It is 
composed of silicious sand, mixed with mica 
and chlorite. "The means of permanently 
improving this soil," says Mr. Morton, " after 
it is drained and enclosed (if for pasture), are 
so immediately within the reach of the farmer, 
that he can at little comparative expense im- 
prove its texture, and permanently increase its 
productiveness, by chalk or chalk marl, on the 
one hand, and the oak or clunch clay, on the 
other; but even without the application of 
these substances, deep or double ploughing or 
trenching has the effect of deepening the soil, 
and increasing its capability. When mixed 
with the chalk marl above it, it has the power 
of receiving and transmitting moisture more 
freely, and is neither so easily injured by wet 
weather, nor by excessive droughts, as other 
soils are." (On Soils, p. 43.) 

Gault has commonly a bluish or gray aspect, 
and its geological position is in the centre of 
the green sand formation : the two greatest de- 
posits of it, in England, are in the Vale of White 
Horse, in Berkshire, and in the counties of 
Cambridge and Huntingdon. It is found at South 
Marston, in Wiltshire, at Wantage, Thame, 
through Bedfordshire to Caxton and St. Ives. 

Before the year 1807, although mineralogy 
had received some attention in the United 
States, little or nothing had been done towards 
ascertaining its geological features. At that 
time William Maclure commenced the task, 
and single-handed, made a progress which re- 
flects the highest credit upon his memory, for 
he developed the leading characteristics of the 
rock formations, in doing which, he crossed the 
Alleghany mountains in fifty places. The 
state geological surveys which have been car- 
ried on for several years past, and are still 
prosecuted, seem to be enterprises peculiarly 
American, having preceded those regularly 
undertaken in any other country. The annual 
reports of these surveys have dwelt much upon 
economical geology, and placed an immense 
mass of minute and accurate information be- 
fore the public, which cannot fail to be profita- 
ble to agriculture and other useful objects. 
North Carolina has the honour of having first 
directed a survey of her territory, a duty per- 
formed by Prof. Olmsted, whose reports were 
made in 1824, 1825; since then, South Carolina 
has been geologically explored byProf.Vanux- 
um. These two Southern States were succeed- 
ed by Massachusetts, the last reportof which, by 
Prof. Hitchcock, was made in 1837. Tennessee 
has been explored by Prof. Troost ; Maryland 
by Prof. Ducatel; New Jersey and Pennsylvania 
by Prof. H. D. Rogers ; Delaware by Prof. J. C. 
Booth ; New York by Profs. Vanuxum, Mather, 
Emmons, and Mr. James Hall; Virginia by 
Prof. William B. Rogers ; Maine, Rhode Island, 
and New Hampshire.by Dr. Charles T.Jackson; 
Connecticut by Dr. J. G. Percival and Prof. C. 
V. Shepard • Ohio by Prof. Mather, assisted by 



Dr. S. P. Hildreth, and Profs. Locke, Briggs, 
and Fostor; Michigan byMr.D. Houghton; Indi- 
anna by Dr. D. D. Owen ; and Georgia by Mr. 
J. R. Cotting. It thus appears that within the 
last 16 or 17 years, surveys have been com- 
menced, and most of them completed, in 19 
states and two territories of the Union, em- 
bracing an area of nearly 700,000 square miles, 
and that for some years past not less than 25 
principal geologists, and 40 assistant geolo 
gists, have been almost constantly engaged 
under the patronage of the state governments, 
in the examination of the various parts of the 
Union. The British provinces of New Bruns- 
wick and Nova Scotia have also been geologi- 
cally examined by Dr. Gessner, whilst the ex- 
ploration of Canada has been commenced un- 
der the superintendance of Mr. Logan. Much 
of the materiel thus amassed cannot fail to be 
of high interest in an agricultural point of 
view, as pointing the situation and exact value 
of soils, and the invaluable beds of mineral 
fertilizers, in the form of lime, marl, green 
sand or silicate of potash, &c., &c. 

From such facts as these the farmer will 
readily perceive that the science of geology is 
not without its material and extensive value to 
the tiller of the earth. It enables him at least 
to cultivate his soils on solid data, to avoid the 
adoption of idle and fruitless modes of cultiva- 
tion, to pursue that which the situation of the 
strata he tenants determines to be the best. It 
is no reason for the neglect of its assistance 
that other sciences can perhaps do more for 
the farmer ; and even the objection, though 
very common, amounts, in fact, to an admis- 
sion that geology is a science capable of ren- 
dering services to agriculture. (Brani^e's Led. 
on Geology ; Morton on Soils ; Dainfs Elem. j3g. 
Chem, ; Paris on the Soils of Cornwall; J. F. 
Johnston's Lee. Chem. and GcoL; Prof. H. D. Ro- 
ger's Geological Surveys of Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey ; Prof. C. J. Booth's Survey of Delaware ; 
Professor Jackson's Survey of Massachusetts ; 
Geological Survey of New York : Dr. Ruf&n's 
Survey of North Carolina, SfC, SfC.) 

GEOMETERS, A species of caterpillar. 
See SpAN-^voR>^s. 

GEORGIA BARK (Pinckneya pubens). "This 
tree," says Michaux, the younger, " still more 
interesting by the properties of its bark, than 
by the elegance of its flowers and of its foliage, 
is indigenous to the most southern parts of the 
United States : probably it grows also in the 
two Floridas and in Lower Louisiana. My 
father found it for the first time in 1791 on the 
banks of the St. Mary. He carried seeds and 
young plants to Charleston, and planted them 
in a garden which he possessed near that city. 
Though intrusted to an ungrateful soil, they 
succeeded so well, that in 18071 found several 
of them 25 feet high, and 7 or 8 inches in dia- 
meter; which proves that the vegetation of 
this tree does not require a very warm climate, 
nor a very substantial soil. 

" With a great affinity to the cinchona which 
yields the Peruvian bark, my father discerned 
in the Georgia bark sufficient diff'erences, to 
distinguish it as a new genus. In testimony of 
his gratitude and respect, he consecrated it to 
Charles Colesworth Pinckney, an enlightenrrf 

535 



GEORGIA PITCH PINE. 

patron of the arts and sciences, from whom 
my father and myself, during our residence in 
South Carolina, received multiplied proofs of 
benevolence and esteem. 

" The Georgia bark is a low tree, dividing 
itself into numerous branches, and rarely ex- 
ceeding the height of 25 feet, and the diameter 
of 5 or 6 inches at the base. A cool and shady 
exposure appears the most favourable to its 
growth. Its leaves are opposite, 4 or 5 inches 
long, of a light green colour, and downy un- 
derneath, as are also the shoots to which they 
are attached. The flowers, which are white 
with longitudinal rose-coloured stripes, are 
pretty large, and are collected in beautiful 
panicles at the extremity of the branches. 
Each flower is accompanied by a floral leaf, 
bordered with rose-colour near the upper edge. 
The capsules are round, compressed in the 
middle, and stored with a great number of 
small winged seeds. 

"The wood of the Georgia bark is soft, and 
unfit for use in the arts ; but its inner bark is 
extremely bitter, and appears to partake of the 
febrifuge virtues of the cinchona, for the inha- 
bitants of the southern parts of Georgia employ 
it successfully in the intermitting fevers which, 
during the latter part of summer and autumn, 
prevail in the Southern States. A handful of 
the bark is boiled in a quart of water till the 
liquid is reduced one-half, and the infusion is 
administered to the sick. From the properties 
of its bark the pimkneya has taken the name of 
Georgia bark. The tree which produces it so 
nearly resembles the Peruvian vegetable, that 
some botanists have included them in the same 
genus." 

GEORGIA PITCH PINE, or long-leaved 
pine. See Fin. 

GERANIUM. From a Greek word signify- 
ing a crane, the beaked fruit bearing some 
resemblance to a crane's bill. The varieties 
of this genus of beautiful plants cultivated 
are very numerous, but all are tender. The 
common scarlet geranium is the hardiest shrub, 
and the handsomest. It looks beautiful plant- 
ed in lawns and gardens, and grows extremely 
bushy and handsome in a fine light soil. Cut- 
lings strike so readily, that the old shrub may 
die every fall, and be renewed every summer 
from the frame. The best plants come from 
seeds sown in July : the seedlings must be 
kept warm, but not forced. The scarlet gera- 
nium thrives well through the winter, if placed 
in the house, free from damp and stagnantair. It 
is very ornamental during summer and autumn. 

Siveel's Geraniacea; and other works on the 
subject, may be consulted with advantage by 
those desirous of further information as to the 
best varieties of geranium, &c. 

The species of geranium family most fre- 
quently found growing wild in the United States 
are, 1st. The maculatum, or spotted geranium, 
known by the common names, a-oic-foot and 
spotted crane's bill. It is perennial, and frequents 
fence-rows, woodlands, and meadows, flower- 
ing in May and June in Pennsylvania. The 
root is astringent, and has been found service- 
able in the treatment of dysentery, diarrhoea, 
and hemorrhage. 2. Carolinian Gentian, not so 
common as the former. Three or four addi- 
536 



GERMANY. 

tional species are enumerated in the United 
States. (Darlington's Flor. Cestrica.) 

GERMANDER (^Teucrium). Of this genus 
of perennial plants there are three wild species 
common to England. 1. The wood german- 
der, or wood sage (T". scorodonia), which is 
found growing very profusely in heathy, bushy 
places and woods, on a sandy soil, and flowers 
in the month of July. The root is creeping; 
the stem reaches to two feet high, is leafy, 
hairy, acutely quadrangular. The leaves are 
deep green, wrinkled, hairy, copiously ser- 
rated; the flowers are pale j'^ellow, in clusters, 
terminal, and axillary; corolla pale yellow, 
middle lobe concave and hairy. The whole 
plant is glutinous, and has a bitter taste, with 
an agreeable aromatic scent, much resembling 
that of hops, for which it is said to be no bad 
substitute in making beer. It is used in the 
island of Jersey in brewing. 

2. The water germander {T. scordium) is 
less common, and grows in low, wet meadows 
and damp marshy situations, and produces 
purplish flowers in July and August. The 
herb is downy ; the leaves are very bitter, and 
somewhat pungent, with a strong garlic-like 
odour. The root is creeping ; the stem recum- 
bent, branching, with obtuse, horny, scarcely 
serrated sessile leaves, an inch long. Flowers 
two, from axilla of each leaf. Corolla pale 
dull purple ; middle lobe flattish, with two 
spots. It is eaten by sheep and goats, but re- 
fused by horses, hogs, and cows, though the 
latter will eat it when impelled by hunger; 
but it spoils the flavour of their milk. 

3. The common wall germander (T. cLamce- 
drys) is found on the borders of cornfields that 
are remote from houses, or old ruined build- 
ings and stony banks : it produces crimson or 
reddish purple flowers, which blow in the 
month of June or July. Root creeping; stems 
erect, bushy, leafy, hairy; angles rounded; 
leaves dark green, tapering, fringed, entire at 
the base. Flowers have the central lobe 
rounded, a little concave ; the lateral lobes and 
the tube hairy. The whole herb is very bitter, 
with a weak aromatic flavour, and was for- 
merly used to remove obstructed secretions, to 
promote expectoration, perspiration, &c. (Eng. 
Flor. vol. iii. p. 69.) In the United States there 
is a species of germander called, in the Middle 
States, Wood Sage (T. Canadensis). The root 
is perennial, and it frequents fence rows and 
low shaded grounds. One other species of this 
plant has been found on the Rocky Mountains. 
(Flor. Cestrica.) 

GERMANY. The agriculture of a district 
so extensive as that of Germany, naturally 
varies with the nature of the climate and the 
degree of knowledge possessed by the inhabi- 
tants of the numerous and extensive provinces 
of which the empire is composed. In the 
Mecklenburgs, or that portion of Germany 
bounded by the Baltic on the north, according 
to Mr. J. S. Carr, " from north to south there is 
a ridge of elevated sandy land (the same 
which may be traced from the Bannat in Hun- 
gary to Jutland in Denmark) varying from 10 
to 20 miles in breadth, affording miserable 
crops of corn and worse pasture; but the soil 
improves on both sides towards the Elbe and 



GERMANY. 



GERMINATION. 



the Baltic, where fine districts of rich loams 
and clays are managed with considerable 
plodding industry." The farms in northern 
Germany vary in size from 50 to 60 acres, cul- 
tivated by peasants, to 300 and even 2000 in 
the hands of the farmers and proprietors. 
The number of cows kept by the farmers are 
often 300 and 400, and they are sensibly alive 
to the advantages of sheltering stock in win- 
ter. Their sheep-houses are commonly large 
enough to hold 5000 head. They usually har- 
vest all their corn in barns. Their agricul- 
tural implements are defective : for instance, 
they use generally, instead of a plough, an in- 
strument called a haken, which is exactly 
similar to one used by the Roman farmers. 
Their harrows have commonly wooden leeth^ 
and are worked with five horses, in a very 
bungling manner. They often break up their 
pastures with this clumsy instrument in sum- 
mer, expose it to the frosts of the following 
winter, spread over it their dung, and in the 
following July sow broadcast rape seed. This 
they dress with 100 lbs. of gypsum dust per 
acre, in the following spring, and in July the 
seed is ripe, which is then trodden out by 
horses on large canvass sheets in the field. 
" The oil of this seed, when putrefied, is without 
smell, gives a brilliant, clear-burning flame, 
and is universally used all over Germany, in 
the saloon and the cottage." If this crop es- 
capes the manifold contingencies of slugs, 
caterpillars, turnip fly, and beetles, it is a very 
remunerative one, worth from 10/. to 20/. per 
acre. The improved rotations now commonly 
followed in Germany are, 1. Fallow, well 
dunged. 2. Rape. 3. Wheat. 4. Barley. 5. Peas 
(with light dunging). 6. Rye. 7. Oats, sown 
down with rye or Timothy grass, and red 
clover, " which, as well as the peas, is gyp- 
sumed with great effect before the dew has left 
the plant of a May morning." The clover, 
after being twice mown, is left 2 years longer 
for pasture. Marl, at the rate of 164 cubic 
feet per acre, is much used, and is the begin- 
ning, in many places, of all improvements. 
The hakcn is worked by oxen. The merino 
breed of sheep is now extensively cultivated 
in the Mecklenburghs and in Saxony. There 
is little else to be noticed in their live-stock. 
The farm servants are commonly lodged and 
fed in the house, and are paid from 5/. to 6/. 
per annum. The married labourers have a 
free house and firing, the keep of a cow, and 
about one rood of garden, and twice as much 
potato land. The average rent of wheat and 
barley lands is about 18s. per acre. Manures 
of all kinds are preserved with much care ; 
and they show a wisdom in the collection of 
night-soil and that of the sewerage of their 
towns, which it would be well to imitate in 
England. These manures are extensively 
used for their vinf yards in several parts of 
Germany. The following account of them is 
taken from a paper by Dr. Granville : 

"In most of the cities of the second order, 
and the smaller capitals, night-soil is a source 
of profit, first to the householder, next to a mid- 
dleman, and thirdly to the farmer, who is the 
last purchaser, and employs it. In all the 
tovns of the Grand Duchy of Baden, of the 
68 



kingdom of Wurtemburg, of Bavaria (except 
Munich and Wiirtzburg), of the province of 
Salzburg, of Bohemia (except Prague), of Sax- 
ony (except Dresden), in some of the minor 
cities of Prussia, in all the confederated prin- 
cipalities, in all the cities on both banks of the 
Rhine, particularly Strasburg, Mayence, Co- 
blentz, Bonn, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Nimeguen, 
&c., the householder disposes of the contenti 
of his cesspool for a certain sum of money, 
besides getting the operation of emptying it 
performed gratuitously. By comparing the 
returns of the different prices paid in those 
cities for the commodity in question, one year 
with another, and equalizing them by an ave- 
rage price, founded on positive data, which I 
possess, the inhabitants appear to be benefited 
to the amount of 4 francs a head yearly, and 
the middle-man to at least 40 per cent, more 
on the sum he pays to the original seller. I 
will cite Strasburg as an example, since most 
of the other cities of the same extent (on the 
Rhine, and in many parts of Germany), and a 
few cities even larger, presented the strongest 
analogy to the case I have selected. At Stras- 
burg a company of middlemen engage to empty 
the cesspools, of which every house has at 
least two (built air and water tight), once a 
year for nothing, and pays, moreover, 6 francs 
per charetlc, containing 96 barjuets, of the capa- 
city of 4 gallons each. This quantity the 
company sells afterwards to the farmers for 
ten francs. (The capacity of the charclte being 
to that of a ton, as 28,772 ounces are to 35,840, 
it follows that the price of a ton at Strasburg 
would be lOs.) Now, as there are 14,000 houses 
in Strasburg, 10,000 of which have cesspools, 
affording the soil in question (which is always 
semi-liquid), supposing the latter to be emptied 
only once a year, and to furnish each 3 char- 
ettes only, at siv francs, we have 10,000 x 6 x 3 
= 180,000 francs, which the company pays 
j^early to the inhabitants of a town having a 
population of 70,000 souls. But as the com- 
pany resells to the farmer the said soil for ma- 
nuring purposes, at ten francs per chareilc, it 
follows that this article of traffic produces 
yearly at Strasburg 300,000 francs, or just 
about 4^ francs for each inhabitant. The 
average sum, therefore, for each inhabitant of 
a city, where the mixed contents of cesspools 
are sold for their benefit, which I have as- 
sumed may be adopted with safety, as founded 
on fact. (Joiirn. Roy. Agr. Soc. vol. i. p. 124 — 
371 ; Rep. Thames Improv. 17.) 

GERMEN (Lat.a6?«f). In botany, the organ 
commonly called the ovarium. 

GERMINATION (Lat. germen). The pro- 
cess by which a plant is produced from a seed. 
It is, in truth, the springing into life of a new 
individual. The phenomena of germination 
are best observed in dicotyledonous seeds; 
such, for instance, as the bean, pea, lupin, &c. 
These seeds consist of two lobes or cotyledons, 
enveloped in a common membrane; when this 
is removed a small projecting body is seen, 
which is that part of the germ which subse- 
quently becomes the root, and is termed the ra^ 
dick ; the other portion of the germ is seen on 
carefully separating the cotyledons, and is term- 
ed the plumula ; it afterwards forms the stem 

53" 



GERMINATION. 



GESTATION. 



and leaves. When the ripe seed is removed 
from the parent plant it gradually dries, and 
may be kept often for an indefinite period, 
without undergoing any change; but if placed 
under circumstances favourable to its germina- 
tion, it soon begins to grow : these requisite 
circumstances are a due temperature, mois- 
ture, and the presence of air. The most fa- 
vourable temperature is between 60° and 80°; 
at the freezing point none of the most perfect 
seeds vegetate, and at temperatures above 100° 
the young germ is usually injured. No seed 
will grow without moisture : water is at first 
absorbed by the pores of the external cover- 
ing, and decomposed; the seed gradually 
swells, its membranes burst, and the germ ex- 
pands. The root is at first most rapidly de- 
veloped, the materials for its growth being 
derived from the cotyledons ; and when it 
shoots out its fibres or rootlets, these absorb 
nourishment from the soil, and the plumula is 
developed, rising upwards in a contrary direc- 
tion to the root, and expanding into stem and 
leaves. For this growth the presence of air is 
requisite ; if it be carefully excluded, though 
there be heat and moisture, yet the seed will 
not vegetate. Hence it is that seeds buried 
very deep in the earth or in a stiff clay, remain 
inert; but on admission of air, by turning up 
the soil, begin to vegetate. From experiments 
which have been made upon the germination 
of seeds in confined atmospheres, it appears 
that the oxygen set free by the decomposition 
of water, combines with a portion of the car- 
bon of the seed, and carries it off in the form 
of carbonic acid, and that the consequence of 
this is the conversion of part of the albumen 
and starch of the cotyledons into gum and 
sugar ; so that most seeds, as we see in the 
conversion of barley into malt, become sweet 
during germination. Light is injurious to the 
growth of the seed. It is, therefore, obvious 
that the different requisites for germination are 
attained by placing a seed under the surface 
of the soil, where, -warmed by the sun's rays, 
and moistened by the humidity of the atmo- 
sphere, it is excluded from light, but the air has 
access to it. 

Oxygen is an essential agent in the process 
of germination, and without it seed will not 
germinate, a fact which has been demonstrated 
by placing seeds in vacuo, and in nitrogen, hy- 
drogen, and carbonic acid. But, as in animal 
life, too much oxygen is hurtful : it abstracts 
the carbon too rapidly, overstimulates, and 
causes feebleness of growth to the infant plant. 
When the young plant is perfected, the coty- 
ledons, if not converted into leaves, rot away, 
and the process of nutrition is carried on by 
the root and leaves : the principal nourishment 
is taken up from the soil by the root, and chiefly 
by its small and extreme fibres ; so that when 
these are injured or torn, as by careless trans- 
plantation, the plant or tree generally dies. 
The matters absorbed, consisting of water 
holding small portions of saline substances, 
and of organic matter in solution, become the 
sap of the plant ; and this is propelled upwards 
in the vessels oi tne stem, or of the outer layer 
)f the wood, into the leaves ; here it is exposed 
o the agency of air and of light ; moisture, 
538 



and occasionally carbonic acid, is transpired. 
But the leaves also at times absorb moisture, 
and during the influence of light they decom- 
pose the carbonic acid, and retaining the car- 
bon, evolve oxygen ; the sap thus becomes 
modified in its composition, and the charac- 
teristic proximate principles of the vegetable 
are formed. These return in appropriate ves- 
sels from the leaves chiefly to the inner bark, 
where we accordingly find the accumulation 
of the peculiar product of the plant ; they also 
enable it annually to form a new layer of wood- 
Hence it is that the transverse section of the 
wood exhibits as many distinct zones as the 
tree is years old. We are ignorant of the 
causes of this ascent of the sap ; but that it 
does follow the cause which has been stated is 
proved by the operation which gardeners call 
ringi7ig, and which they sometimes resort to, to 
make a barren branch bear flowers and fruit 
It consists in cutting out and removing a cir- 
cular ring of bark, so as to prevent the return 
of the sap by the descending vessels, which at 
first ooze copiously, but afterwards the wound 
heals, and the juices are accumulated in all 
parts above the extirpated ring, producing 
tumefaction in the limb, and often inducing a 
crop of flowers and fruit, or causing those to 
appear earlier than on the uncut branches. 

If a tree be wounded so as to cut into the 
central portions of the wood, or the outer layer 
of new wood, the flow of ascending sap is 
then seen to take place upon the lower section, 
where the vessels are that carry it up to the 
leaves; and the flow of descending proper 
juice is principally confined to the upper sec- 
tion of the inner bark, from which, after a 
time, new bark is produced, and the parts are 
again united. To return to the process of 
germination, every part of the seed is not es- 
sential, nor the whole of the parts. Kidney 
beans will germinate with only one cotyledon: 
and oaks, also, germinate in the same state ; 
gourds have been robbed of the radicle and 
also the plumule, as they shoot forth, and yet 
germination has proceeded ; but the plants 
produced in all these cases were small, deli- 
cate, and never come to perfection. 

GESTATION. The gestatory term in quad- 
rupeds is much regulated by their bulk. In 
the elephant it is about 20 months, in the camel 
between 11 and 12, in the mare and ass the 
same. According to the observations of M. 
Teissier of Paris, in 582 mares, which copu- 
lated but once, the shortest period was 287 
days, and the longest 419; making the extra- 
ordinary difierence of 32 days, and of 89 days 
beyond the usual term of 11 months. The cow 
usually brings forth in about nine months, and 
the sheep in five. Swine usually farrow be- 
tween the 120th and 140th day, being liable to 
variations, influenced apparently by their size 
and their particular breeds. In the bitch, on 
the contrary, be she as diminutive as a kitten, 
or as large as the boarhound, pupping occurs 
on or about the 63d day. The cat produces 
either on the 55th or 56th day. The true 
causes which abridge or prolong more or less 
the period of gestation in the females of quad* 
rupeds, and of the incubation of birds, are 
yet unknown to us. Many persons are also 



GESTATION. 



GINGER, WILD. 



unacquainted with the proper age for repro- 
duction, the duration of the power of repro- 
duction, and other conditions even of the do- 
mesticated animals. It cannot, therefore, but 



be interes ing to find in the following table the 
results of observations made on this subject 
by the best ancient and modern naturalists 
( Oeconomische neukundige Verhandl.) 



Kinds of Aaimal^. 



Mare - - - - - 

Stallion . . - . 

Cow . - . - . 

Bull - . - 

Ewe - . . - . 

Tup 

Sow ----- 

Boar - - - - - 

She-Goat . - - - 

He-Goat - . - - 

She-Ass - - - . 

He-Ass - - - . 

She BuflFalo - - - 

Bitch 

Dog 

She-Cat - . - . 

He-Cat . . . . 

Doe-Rabbit - - . 

Buck-Rabbft - - . 

Cock 

Turkey, sitting"^ Hen C 
on the eggs > Duck < 
of the 3 Turkey (. 

Hen, sitting on \ Duck 1 
the eggs of the > Hen X 

Duck 

Goose - - . - 

Pigeon . . . - 



Proper Age for 
Reproduction. 



4 years 

5 — 
3 — 

3 — 
2 — 
2 — 
1 — 

1 — 

2 — 
2 — 

4 — 

5 — 



2 — 
2 — 
1 — 
1 — 
6 months 
6 — 



Period of the 
Power of Re- 
production. 



Years. 

10 to 12 

12 to 15 

10 

5 



5 
10 to 12 
12 to 15 



8 to 9 

8 to 9 
5 to 6 

9 to 10 
5 to 6 
5 to 6 
5 to 6 



Number of Fe- 
males for one 
Male. 



20 to 30 
30 to 40 
40 to 50 
6 to 10 
20 to 40 



5 to 6 



30 
12 10 15 



The most Fa- 
vourable Season 
for Copulation, 



May 
July 
Nov. 
March 
Nov. 
May 



Feb. 



Nov. 



Period of Gestation and Incubation. 



Days. 
322 

240 

146 

109 

150 

365 

281 
55 



Days. 
347 

283 

154 

115 

156 

380 

308 
60 

50 

28 



Days. 

419 

321 

161 

143 

163 

391 

335 
63 

56 

35 



Some of these results do not altogether co- 
incide with the results of observations in Eng- 
land, where, for example, July, the season of 
copulation for the cow, is considered too late. 
That period would prodace late calves in the 
following year. November is stated to be the 
best season for the ewe ; for the black-faced 
ewe it is, but for the Leicester, and, in many 
situations, for the Cheviot ewe, it is a month too 
late. The duration of the power of reproduc- 
tion accords with our experience as respects 
the mare and stallion ; but 13 years of age for 
the cow, and 8 for the bull, is too young a 
period for old age in them, fine animals of both 
sexes, of a valuable breed, having been kept 
in a useful state to a much greater age. I 
have seen a short-horn bull in use at 13 years, 
and a cow of the same breed bearing calves 
at 18; but if the ages of 8 and 13 respectively 
refer to the usual time bulls and cows are kept 
for use, the statement is not far from the truth. 

From some carefully collected and very exten- 
sive notes made by Lord Spencer on the periods 
of gestation of 764 cows, it resulted that the 
shortest period of gestation when a live calf 
was produced was 220 days, and the longest 
313 days, but he was not able to rear any calf 
produced at an earlier period than 242 days. 
From the result of his experiments it appears 
that 314 cows calved before the 284th day, and 
310 calved after the 285th ; so that the probable 
period of gestation ought to be considered 284 
or 285 days. The experimeats of M. Teissier 
on the gestation of cows, are recorded to have 
given the following results : — 

21 calved between the 240th and 270th day, the mean time heine 259J- 
544 — — 270th and 299th — 282 

10 — — 299th and 321st _ 303 

In most cases, therefore, between nine and 
ten months may be assumed as the usual pe- 



riod; though, with a bull-calf, the cow has 
been generally observed to go about 41 weeks, 
and a few days less with a female. Any calf 
produced at an earlier period than 260 days 
must be considered decidedly premature, and 
any period of gestation exceeding 300 days 
must also be considered irregular; but in this 
latter case, the health of the produce is not 
affected. I will conclude this article with the 
remarks of Mr. C. Hilliard, of Northampton, 
who states that the period of gestation of a 
cow is 284 days, or, as it is said, 9 calendar 
months and 9 days ; the ewe 20 weeks ; the 
sow 16 weeks; the mare 11 months. The 
well-bred cattle of the present time appear to 
me to bring forth twins more frequently than 
the cattle did 50 years ago. The males of all 
animals, hares excepted, are larger than the 
females. Castrated male cattle become larger 
beasts than entire males. (Blaine's Ency. pp. 
205, 281 ; Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. x p. 287.) 

GILL. A small valley, connected with a 
stream and some woodiness. Also a rivulet, or 
small brook. It is likewise a provincial name 
in some districts for a pair of timber wheels. 

GILTS. A provincial term applied to young 
female pigs, whether open or spayed. 

GINGER, WILD (Jsarum,Jsarabacca, Indian 
ginger). This genus of herbaceous plants are 
small and unobtrusive. Botanists enumerate 
three species as found in the United States. That 
called Canada snake root (J. Canadense), very 
closely resembles the European asarabacca, 
and is met with in old woods from Canada to 
the Carolinas. It has only two round, flat, and 
kidney-shaped leaves with naked stalks, which, 
on plucking the plant are found connected 
below, with an obscure flower in their fork, 
buried under the decayed leaves. It flowers 
from May to July. The root is creeping, 

539 



GINSENG. 



GLASSWORT, JOINTED. 



fleshy, somewhat jointed, and has an agreeable 
aromatic taste, intermediate between that of 
ginger and the Virginia snake root. Hence 
its popular names. As a warm stimulant and 
diaphoretic it is much praised, being given in 
the form of tea or powder ; and as a substitute 
for ginger, in common domestic use, I know 
of no indigenous article, says Dr. Bigelow, 
which promises so fairly as this. It does not 
possess the very active emetic, cathartic, and 
sternutatory powers of the European asarum. 
The other American species are the Ji. Virgi- 
nicum, and Jl. urifolium. 

GINSENG {Panax qumquefolmm, five-leaved 
panax). This American plant, which has 
great commercial importance, has a perennial 
root, which sends up annually a smooth, round 
stem, about a foot in height, dividing at the 
summit into three leafstalks, each of which 
supports a compound leaf, consisting of five, 
or more rarely of three or seven petiolate, 
oblong, obovate, acuminate, serrate leaflets. 
The flowers are small, greenish, and arranged 
in a simple umbel, supported by a peduncle, 
Avliich rises from the top of the stem in the 
centre of the petioles. The fruit consists of 
kidney-shaped, scarlet berries, crowned with the 
styles and calyx, and containing two, and some- 
times three seeds. The root is fleshy, somewhat 
spindle-shaped, from 1 to 3 inches long, about 
as thick as the little finger, and terminated by 
several slender fibres. Frequently there are 
two portions, sometimes three or more, con- 
nected atnheir upper extremity, and bearing a 
supposed though very remote resemblance to 
the human figure, from which circumstance it 
is said that the Chinese name ginscog originated. 
When dried, the root is yellowish white, and 
wrinkled externally, and within consists of a 
hard, hornlike substance, surrounded by a 
whitish, softer, cortical portion. It has a feeble 
odour, and a sweet, slightly aromatic taste, 
somewhat analogous to that of liquorice root. 
It has not been accurately analyzed, but is said 
to be rich in gum and starch. 

The plant grows in the hilly regions of the 
Northern, Middle, and Western States, and 
prefers the shelter of thick, shady woods. 
It is a native also of Chinese Tartary. The 
root is the part employed. This is collected 
in considerable quantities in Ohio and West- 
ern Virginia, and brought to Philadelphia 
and other cities on the sea-board for the 
purpose of exportation to China, where it 
is highly valued. While supplied exclusively 
from their own native sources, which furnish- 
ed the root only in small quantities, the Chinese 
entertained the most extravagant notions of 
its virtues, considering it as a remedy for all 
diseases, and as possessing almost miraculous 
powers in preserving health, invigorating the 
system, and prolonging life. It is said to have 
been worth its weight in gold at Pekin ; and 
the first shipments made from North America 
to Canton, after the discovery of the root in this 
country, were attended with enormous profits. 
But the subseauent abundance of supply has 
greatly diminished us value, and though it still 
iiccasionally forms a part of the investments 
lor Canton, it has become an object of less 
."ciportance than formerly. 
640 



The following statement shows the valu%" 
of the ginseng exported from the United States 
for seven years ending the 30th September, 
1841: viz. 1834, $70,202; 1835, $94,970; 1836, 
$211,405; 1837, $109,368; 1838, $36,022 ; 1839, 
$118, 904 , 1840, $22,728 ; 1841, $437,245. 

Medical Properties and Uses. — The extraordi- 
nary medical virtues formerly ascribed to 
ginseng, had no other existence than in the 
imaginations of the Chinese. It is little more 
than a demulcent; and in this country is not 
employed as a medicine. Some persons, how- . 
ever, are in the habit of chewing it, having 1 1 
acquired a relish for its taste ; and it is chiefly 1 
to supply the wants of these that it is kept in 
the shops. (U, S. Dispensatory.) 

There is another species of ginseng indige- 
nous to the lower part of Pennsylvania and 
other sections of the United States, called the 
dwarf ginseng, or three-leaved panax (P. trifo- 
Hum). This has also a perennial root, a glo- 
bose tuber about half an inch in diameter, 
rather deep in the ground. The stem grows 4 
to 6 inches high, slender, minutely grooved, 
smooth, mostly of a tawny purple colour, di- 
vided at the summit into three petioles of half 
an inch to an inch long. Leaflets, generally 
three, but not unfrequently five, unequal,half an 
inch to two inches long, and :J- to ■§ of an inch 
wide, lance-oblong shape, rather acute. The 
flower is white and has five petals. The plant 
frequents shaded grounds, along rivulets, where 
it blooms in April. (Flora Cestrica.) 

Professor Hooker describes a third species 
of ginseng (P. horridum), which is large, 
shrubby and prickly. This grows west of the 
Rocky Mountains. 

GIPSEY-WORT, or WATER HORE- 
HOUND {Lycopus Europeeus). An herbaceous 
perennial plant, growing on the banks of clear 
ditches, pools, and rivers, on a sandy or gra- 
velly soil, flowering in July or August. The 
root is creeping, stem two feet high, leaves 
numerous, oblong, acute, deeply serrated, often 
deeply pinnatifid. Flowers white, with purple 
dots. See Bugle Weed. 

GLANDERS. A disease in horses, attended 
with a copious discharge of mucus from the 
nose. It is needless to endeavour to describe 
the various attempts which have been made to 
cure this almost invariably fatal disorder. But 
the farmer must avoid a common error of con- 
founding ulceration of the membrane of the 
nose with glanders, for the symptoms are very 
similar. Blue vitriol (sulphate of copper) in 
thin gruel (one drachm doses) has been given 
in recent cases with occasional success. The 
nostrils may be washed with a solution of 
chloride of lime. The farmer will do well, a3 
soon as he finds a horse attacked with this 
disease, to place him by himself, give him 
green food, and thoroughly whitewash the 
stable from which he is taken, for it is a most 
contagious disease. 

GLASSWORT, JOINTED (Salicomia; from 
sal, salt, and cornu, a horn). Of this genus of 
plants there are, in England, four indigenous 
species, which are found very common in salt 
marshes and muddy sea-shores that are fre- 
quently overflowed by the tide. 

1. The common jointed glasswort, sea-grass, 



GLOW-WORM. 



GNATS. 



or marsh samphire {S. herbacea), is an annual 
plant, with a small fibrous root, a bushy, green 
stem a foot high, with opposite branches ; 
woody centre very tough. Flowers on nu- 
merous short-jointed spikes. The whole plant 
has a saline taste, abounding in salt juices, and 
is therefore devoured with avidity by all kinds 
of cattle ; and it is a very wholesome food, 
especially for sheep. It is often pickled, as a 
substitute for the very different strongly aro- 
matic rock samphire (Crithinum maritimum), to 
which it is for this purpose very little inferior. 

Several other species of glass-worl are enu- 
merated, three of which Mr. Nuttall gives as 
American, which, like the European, affords 
soda when burned, and are preserved in vine- 
gar as a pickle. 

Soda is yielded in large quantities by the 
ashes of the different species oi Sulicomia ; and 
is in great request for manufacturing soap and 
glass: the best is imported from Spain, under 
the name of Barilla (see Soda). These plants 
will grow in any common soil, and are readily 
increased by divisions. Being natives of the 
sea-shoie, the plants will thrive better if a little 
salt he occasionally sprinkled on the surface 
of the soil. (WtlUch^s Dom. Eiuy.) 

GLOW-WORM (Lampyris nociiluca). This 
insect is remarkable for the light it emits dur- 
ing the night. This luminous appearance de- 
pends upon a phosphorescent fluid found at 
the lower extremity of the insect; which, by 
unfolding or contracting itself, it can withdraw 
at pleasure ; a power of consequence to the in- 
sect, as it is thus secured from the attacks of 
nocturnal birds. The light arises from a sac, 
which is diaphanous, and contains a secreted 
fluid consisting of albumen and phosphorus. 
Glow-worms are sometimes called St. John's 
worms, from appearing first as a common oc- 
currence about the Feast of St. John the Bap- 
tist. The glow-worm is the perfect female of 
a winged beetle ; the males fly about chiefly in 
autumn, and frequent the grassy plantations of 
juniper trees. 

GLUE (Lat. gluten), is prepared from the 
chippings of hides, hoofs, «&c. The refuse 
matter of the glue-makers, according to Mr. 
Miles, is an excellent manure for turnips. 

GLUTEN (Lat.). The viscid elastic sub- 
stance M'hich remains when M'heat flour is 
wrapt in a coarse cloth, and washed under a 
stream of water, so as to carry off the starch 
and soluble matters. Gluten, when pure, is 
inodorous, insipid, tenacious, adhesive, and 
elastic. It is insoluble in water, but soluble in 
hot alcohol. It is also soluble in a dilute so- 
lution of potash. When kept moist and warm, 
it ferments. Gluten exists in grains, and oc- 
casionally in other parts of vegetables ; but it 
is a characteristic ingredient in wheat, giving 
wheat flour its particular toughness and tena- 
city, which particularly fits it for the manufac- 
ture of bread, and for viscid pastes, such as 
macaroni and vermicelli. There is generally 
more gluten in the wheat of warm climates 
than of cold; hence the excellence of that 
grown in the south of Europe for the manu- 
factures just mentioned. Gluten seems also 
to constitute the essential part of yeast. Its 
uses as a varnish, a ground for paint, «&c., 



pointed out by Cadet, likewise deserve atten- 
tion. Gluten was discovered in 1742 by Bec- 
caria, an Italian philosopher, to whom we are 
indebted for the first analysis of wheat flour. 
The number of plants containing gluten is 
very considerable. Proust found it in acoms, 
chestnuts, rice, barley, rye, peas and beans, 
and in apples and quinces. He found it also 
in the leaves of the cabbage, cress, hemlock, 
borage, saffron, &c., and in the sednms ; in the 
berries of the elder, the grape, &c. ; in the pe- 
tals of the rose, &c. Gluten has been shown 
to resemble albumen so closely that they can 
hardly be considered as distinct principles. 
Gluten contains nitrogen, and has, conse- 
quently, been called the vegeto-animal princi- 
ple, on this account. It yields ammonia, when 
subjected to destructive distillation ; and the 
vegetables which contain it give out a pecu- 
liarly disagreeable odour during their putre- 
faction. M. Magendie, after feeding animals 
upon different kinds of food, states that gela- 
tine, fibrin, albumen, when taken singly, do not 
possess the power of nourishing animals for 
any length of time ; they always die. The 
reverse is the case, however, with gluten, upon 
which animals thrive well and long. 

GNATS (Culex, Linn.). A genus of insects 
comprising several species, which are well 
known by the severe punctures they inflict. 
The gnat most common in Europe is the C. 
pipiens, so named from the sound which it 
emits in its flight. The sting consists of 5 
pieces and a sheath ; some of the pieces are 
simple lancets ; others are barbed, and act 
both as piercers and as siphons, to extract the 
blood from the wounds which they make. 
Gnats deposit their eggs, to the number of 200 
by each female, on stagnant waters, where 
they are hatched into small grubs in the course 
of 2 or 3 days. On the sides are 4 small fins, 
by the aid of which the insect swims about, 
and swiftly dives to the bottom. The larva re- 
tains its form a fortnight or 3 weeks, when it 
is converted into the chrysalis, in which state 
it continues 3 or 4 days, floating on the surface 
of the water, till it assumes the form of the 
gnat. The most efficacious remedies for their 
sting are olive oil, unsalted butter, or fresh 
hog's lard, timely rubbed in. Gnats have 
occasionally appeared in such numbers as 
to form a cloud, almost darkening the air, 
as was the case in August, 1766, near Oxford. 
Spencer describes a similar flight of them in 
Ireland — 

" As wlien a swarine of gnats at eventide. 
Out of the fennes of Allan doe arise, 
Tlieir nmrmnring small trumpets sownden wide, 
Whiles in the air their clustering army flies. 
That as a cloud doth seem to dim the skies." 

Faery Queene. 

The mosquito of tropical climates is a spe- 
cies of the same genus as the gnat; and the 
latter is not less troublesome in some of our 
marshy districts than the mosquito in the West 
Indies. In the marsh land of Norfolk, the bet 
ter classes are forced to have gauze curtains to 
keep them off during the night. 

The species of gnat best known in America 

is a small, black fly, which swarms during the 

month of June, and is especially annoying to 

travellers, and the first inhabitants of new set- 

2 Z 541 



GOATS. 



GOLD FISH. 



tlements. Every bite made by these fierce little 
insects draws blood, and is generally followed 
by considerable irritation, and even inflamma- 
tion. "These little tormentors," says Dr. Har- 
ris, "are of a black colour; theirwings are trans- 
parent; and their legs are short, with a broad, 
whitish ring around them. The length of their 
body rarely exceeds one-tenth of an inch. They 
begin to appear in May, and continue about 
6 weeks, after which they are no more seen. 
They are followed, however, by swarms of 
midges, or sand-flies (SimuHum wocidmot), called 
no-see-'em, by the Indians of Maine, on ac- 
count of their minuteness. So small are they, 
that they would hardly be perceived, were it 
not for their wings, which are of a whitish 
colour, mottled with black. Towards evening 
these winged atoms come forth, and creep 
under the clothes of the inhabitants, and by 
their bites produce an intolerable irritation, 
and a momentary smarting compared to that 
caused by sparks of fire. They do not draw 
blood, and no swelling follows their attacks. 
They are the most troublesome during the 
months of July and August." (See MosauiTo.) 

GOATS (Capra). There are three species 
of this genus enumerated by naturalists. 1. 
The wild goat (C. cpgngrus) ; 2. The ibex (C. 
ibe.v); 3. The Caucasian ibex (C Caucasia): of 
these, the first is believed to be the original of 
the many varieties of the domestic goat. 

The goat appears (says Prof. Low) to form 
the connecting link between the sheep on the 
one hand, and the antelope tribes on the other. 
Being the natural inhabitant of mountainous 
regions, it is, therefore, in wild, rocky countries 
that the goat is chiefly reared. Goats are 
stronger, more nimble, and less timid than 
sheep, and are more easily supported than any 
other animals, for there are few herbs which 
they do not relish : they will browse on heaths, 
shrubs, and plants, which are rejected by other 
animals; and it is well known they can eat 
M'ith safety herbs (such as the hemlock, hen- 
bane, &c.) which would prove destructive to 
sheep and other animals. Goats are more 
hardy, and not liable to so many diseases as 
sheep. The goat is not well adapted to a 
country of enclosures, because it feeds upon 
the twigs of hedges, and escapes over the bar- 
riers intended to confine it. But where there 
are no young trees to be injured, they may 
browse at large on the mountain brakes with- 
out expense; and in winter, when housed, they 
are easily supported on whins or furze, cab- 
bage leaves, potato-peelings, and such worth- 
less food. 

Goats emit at all times a strong and disa- 
greeable odour, named hircine, which, however, 
is not without its use, for if one of these ani- 
mals be kept in a stable, it is affirmed that it 
will be an effectual preventative of the staggers, 
a nervous disorder which is often very fatal to 
horses. In Great Britain the cultivation of 
the godt is limited and partial. It is chiefly 
confined to the mountainous parts of Wales, 
the Highlands of Scotland, and to the little 
<arms of the poorer peasants of Ireland, whose 
«canty possessions will not support a cow. 
The great objection there to the rearing of the 
goat, IS the want of demand for its flesh, which 
542 



is hard, and almost indigestible. Even the kid, 
whose flesh is known to be very delicate and 
nourishing, is held in no estimation : hence all 
the other properties of the goat are insufficient 
to render it an object of profitable production. 
But the goat, although it never can be so valu- 
able there as in the dry and rocky countries of 
the south of Europe, does not deserve that entire 
neglect with which it is treated. It arrives 
early at maturity, and is very prolific, bearing 
two and sometimes three kids at a birth. The 1 1 
period of gestation is five months. The female 1 1 
bears for six or seven years ; the male should 
not be kept longer than five. In Portugal and 
some other countries the goat is used as a 
beast of draught for light burdens. The hair 
of the goat may be shorn, as it is of some value, 
making good linsey; that of the Welch he- 
goat is in great request for making white wigs. 
Ropes are sometimes made from goats' hair, 
and are said to last much longer, when used in 
the water, than those made of hemp. Candles 
are manufactured from their fat, which, in 
whiteness and quality, are stated to be supe- 
rior to those of wax ; their horns afford excel- 
lent handles for knives and forks ; and the 
skin, especially that of the kid, is in demand 
for gloves and other purposes. Goats' milk is 
sweet, nutritive, and medicinal, and less apt to 
curdle on the stomach than that of the cow : it 
forms an excellent substitute for that of asses. 
When yielding milk the goat will give, for 
several months, at the average of two quarts 
per day. Mr. Pringle of Kent, in his Essay 
"on Cottage Management" (Gard. Mag. vol.5), 
informs us that two milch goats are equivalent 
to one small Shetland cow. Cheese prepared 
from goats' milk is much esteemed in moun- 
tainous countries after it has been kept a proper 
age. (Low^s Pract. .^gr, and Breeds of Dom. 
Animnh : WiUich's Dom. Encyc.) 

GOAT'S-BEARD (Tragopogo7i). Of this 
common pasture-weed there are two species 
1. The yellow goat's-beard (T. pratensis), a 
biennial, growing in grassy pastures and me?.- 
dows, on a loamy or clayey damp soil. The 
root is tapering, flowering in June ; the whole 
herb very smooth, abounding with milky juice, 
rather bitter, but not acrid. Stems several, 
round, leafy, often purplish, IJ to 2 feet high. 
Leaves long and taper pointed, often flaccid, 
or curling at the extremity. Flowers large, 2 
inches wide, bright yellow, opening very early 
in the morning, and closing before noon, ex- 
cept in very cloudy weather. The roots and 
young shoots have been eaten as pot-herbs. 

2. The purple goat's-beard (T. porrifoUus), 
also biennial, grows in most meadows, near 
great rivers ; herb smooth, 3 or 4 feet high, 
glaucous. The dull purple flowers, like the 
preceding species, close at midday ; thence it 
is called in the country Go-to-bed-at-noon. — 
{Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. iii. p. 337.) 

GOAT-WEED (Caprana bifiora). An unin- 
teresting species of plants, of easy culture. 
The leaves of this genus are liked by goats ; 
hence the common and generic names. 

GOGGLES. See Sheep, Diseases of. 

GOLD and SILVER FISH. These beauti- 
ful creatures were first introduced into Eng- 
land from China about the close of the 17th 



GOLDEN CLUB. 



GOOSE. 



century. The first are of an orange colour, 
with very shining scales, and finely variegated 
with black and dark brown. The silver fish 
are of the colour of silver tissue, with scarlet 
fins, with which colour they are curiously 
marked in several parts of the body. These 
fish are usually kept in ponds, basins, and 
small reservoirs of water, to which they are a 
very great ornament. It is also a very com- 
mon practice to keep them in large globular 
glass vessels, frequently changing the water, 
and feeding them with bread and gentles. The 
gold fish is now abundant in the river Schuyl- 
kill, near Philadelphia, into which they first 
made their way in consequence of the over- 
flowing of a fish-pond in Pratt's garden, where 
considerable numbers were kept. 

GOLDEN CLUB, called also Never-Wet, 
and Floating Arum (Orontium aquaticum). A 
plant not unfrequent in pools along the fresh 
water streams of the United States. It has a 
perennial root, leaves enlarging, finally to 8, 
10, or 12 inches long, and 3 to 5 inches wide, 
a little succulent, very smooth, of a deep green 
and velvety appearance on the upper surface, 
paler and somewhat glaucous beneath. Flow- 
ers yellow. 

GOLDEN OAT GRASS. See Avena. 

GOLDEN-ROD (Solidago, from solidare, to 
unite, on account of the supposed vulnerary 
qualities of the plants). This is an extensive 
genus of coarse flowering plants suitable for 
the back of flower borders. Any common soil 
suits them, and they are readily increased by 
division of the roots. The common golden- 
rod, or Wound-wort (S. virgaurea) is a native 
of Britain, growing in woods, hedges, heaths, 
and copses ; and on mountains at every degree 
of elevation. It is perennial, and flowers from 
July to September. It is a very variable plant 
in magnitude, number, and size of flowers, and 
serrature of the leaves : nor do these varieties 
altogether depend on situation, except that in 
alpine specimens the flowers are larger and 
fewer. The root is woody, with long, stout, 
simple fibres ; the stem usually from one to 
three feet high, never quite straight, purple 
below, most downy in the upper part, where it 
terminates in a leafy cluster, either simple or 
compound, of bright yellow flowers. When 
bruised, the whole herb smells like wild car- 
rot. Its qualities are diuretic, astringent, and 
perhaps tonic ; and it has been recommended 
as a vulnerary both externally and internally, 
but it is now never used in medicine. It may, 
with greater advantage, be employed as a dye- 
ing drug, for both the leaves and flowers im- 
part a beautiful yellow colour, which, accord- 
ing to Bechstein, is even superior to that 
obtained from woad. The Canada golden-rod 
(S. Canadensis) is frequently used for this pur- 
pose. (Eng. Flora, vol. iii. p. 438.) 

Solidago is exclusively a North American 
genus of plants, with the exception of 5 or 6 
species in Europe, and 2 found near Canton, 
in China. About 50 species of golden-rod have 
been enumerated by botanists in the United 
States, some of which are, however, regarded as 
mere varieties. {Nuttall's Genera. — Flor. Cest.) 

GOLDEN-SAXIFRAGE (Chrysosplenium, 
from chrysos, gold, and splen, the spleen, in 



reference to the deep yellow colour of the flow 
ers, and the supposed medicinal virtues of the 
plant). This is a curious and rather pretty 
genus. It requires a moist situation, and may 
be increased by dividing the roots. The na- 
tive species in England are found in the great- 
est perfection upon the shady banks of small 
rivulets. They are two in number, both peren- 
nials, flowering in May. The alternate-leaved 
golden-saxifrage (C/t. alternifoUum) has the root 
fibrous and creeping ; stems angular, decum- 
bent, branched at the top only; leaves alter- 
nate, reniform, rough on both sides the notches, 
but the under disk pale and polished ; radical 
leaves on long stalks, those of the summit 
crowded and sessile ; flowers in a corymb, 
deep yellow. The opposite-leaved golden- 
saxifrage (Ch. oppositifolium) resembles the 
preceding, but is paler ; the leaves smaller and 
the flowers of a pale lemon yellow. (See Saxi- 
frage. 

GOLD OF PLEASURE (Camelina sativa, 
wild flax). This is rather a dwarf plant, grow- 
ing from 1 to 2 feet high, which is found in 
cultivated fields, chiefly among flax, with whose 
seeds it is often introduced from abroad ; but 
it does not long propagate itself with us spon- 
taneously. It is an annual, blowing small, 
pale-yellow flowers in June. It is cultivated 
in some parts of Europe for the sake of the 
oil, which is obtained from the seeds. The 
species of the genus to which it belongs have 
but little beauty, and require to be sown in the 
open border. See Wild Flax. 

GOOSE. A well-known large, web-footed 
bird, belonging to the order natatores, or swim- 
mers. These are remarkable for their powers 
of swimming and diving; they are commonly 
called water-fowl, and, as an order, have fre- 
quently been designated palmipedes, in reference 
to their webbed feet. From the geographical 
position, extent, and varied character of the 
British islands, the species of this order are 
very numerous, comprehending nearly one- 
third of the whole number of our British birds. 
The first family of this order, the analidce, is 
also extensive ; including the geese, swans, 
ducks, and mergansers. The first three por- 
tions were formerly considered as belonging to 
but one genus, anas; and hence the family 
name, anatidce. Modern systematic authors 
have found it more convenient, as well as de- 
sirable, to divide them into smaller groups, 
which are known to be distinct in their cha- 
racter and habits. Many of the species are 
of great interest and value. The present arti- 
cle will, however, be restricted to some account 
of tame geese. 

Two varieties of the domestic goose are in- 
digenous to Great Britain, the gray and white 
goose, and the pure white, which is of a larger 
size. The first is our most plentiful breed: the 
second are bad breeders, seldom producing 
more than three goslings at a brood, and that 
only every alternate year. There is, also, the 
Chinese breed, which is naturalized among us, 
valuable for their early breeding, and quick 
fattening. The Chinese goose lays about the 
end of November, if the weather is not severe, 
and produces her goslings in January. The.ie 
goslings, if kept dry and warm, are fit for tkp 

543 



GOOSEBERRY. 



GOOSEBERRY. 



table in April and May. This goose is, how- 
ever smaller, less delicate eating, and more 
noisy than the common gray goose. The 
common goose begins to lay towards Candle- 
mas, and after laying from 9 to 11 eggs, she 
sits 30 days, and then brings out her little flock. 
If, however, she show a wish to sit when she 
has only laid two or three eggs, she must be 
driven from the nest, or be shut up for a day 
or two. She will then take to lay again. One 
gander and five geese are the regular stock to 
begin with: they will produce 50 goslings in a 
season. Geese are grazing birds : they love a 
common, but horses do not like their company 
in a field, as they object to feed after thein. 
The herb called goose-grass they are immode- 
rately fond of, and it is plentiful always under 
hedges daring the gosling season. Water is 
important to geese, but they succeed in situa- 
tions where there is no pond: a large, shallow 
pan filled with water, sufficiently capacious to 
admit of their washing in it, has often an- 
.swered the purpose ; but a pool is most desir- 
able. The goose-hovel should be low, well 
thatched, and not facing into the farm-yard, 
otherwise pigs will get through the goose- 
aperture. It should have a door, also, for the 
poultr3'-woman to enter. The nests should be 
composed of straw, lined with hay, and the 
birds should be fed near their home, to allure 
them to it. If some of the goslings are hatch- 
ed before the others, they should be removed 
from the mother, kept warm in flannel before 
the fire, and returned to her when the whole 
brood are hatched. Thin barley meal and 
water is excellent food for goslings, with chop- 
ped goose-grass ; they soon learn to eat oats, 
and feed themselves. Mow down hemlock, if 
any grows near the poultry-yard : it is perni- 
cious in its effects upon poultry. Fatten geese 
in small parties, as they love society. They 
should be cooped a month, fed plentifully with 
sweet oats and clean pure water in a narrow 
wooden trough. An experiment has lately 
been tried of feeding geese with turnips, cut 
up very fine, and put into a trough with water. 
The effect was, that six geese, weighing only 
nine pounds each when shut up, actually 
weighed 20 pounds each, after about three 
weeks' feeding with this food alone. Half- 
grown or green geese are delicate eating in 
June and July; but they need not be cooped, 
they must only be well fed. Goose feathers are 
valuable, and their dung is employed as a 
manure by agriculturists. 

GOOSEBERRY (Ribes grossularia). The 
gooseberry is indigenous to Great Britain, 
some other European countries of cool tem- 
perature, and also to the mountains of North 
America. The varieties of this fruit are too 
numerous to notice. By some botanists they 
are referred to two species, Ribes grossularia, 
the rough gooseberry, and R. uva-crispa, the 
smooth gooseberry ; but others consider the 
latter as being merely a variety of the former, 
which is more correct, as it has been proved 
by successive reproductions that the rough 
wil'. sometimes become smooth and the smooth 
rough. The gooseberry ripens in the extreme 
northern parts of Britain, if near the level of 
the s.ea ; and at an altitude of about 900 feet, 
.544 



in the centre of the island, it acquires great 
perfection of flavour. In the southern coun* 
ties, if the season be warm, it cannot bear full 
exposure to the vertical rays of the sun : in 
such circumstances evaporation takes place 
from the surface faster than the subjacent 
tissues can supply the loss, the superficial 
cells get emptied, and the fruit dies. 

In England the gooseberry is esteemed one 
of their most valuable fruits. In spring it fur- 
nishes the earliest as well as the best fruit for 
tarts and sauces : and can be preserved green 
as well as ripe for winter use. When ripe it 
makes an excellent jam, a delicious sweetmeat, 
a luscious wine, and is a favourite dessert. 

The following selection is recommended for 
small English gardens : Reds — Old rough red, 
Melling's crown bob. Farmer's roaring lion. 
Knight's Marquis of Stafford, Champagne and 
Capper's top sawyer : one of the best of the 
red gooseberries is the Scotch ironmonger: it 
is hairy, and thin-skinned. YcUoivs. — Hard- 
castle's gunner, Hills's golden gourd. Prophet's 
rockwood, Hamlet's kilton, Dixon's golden 
yellow, Gordon's viper. Greens. — Edward's 
jolly tar, Massey's heart of oak, Nixon's green 
myrtle, early green hairy, Parkinson's laurel, 
Wainwright's ocean. Whites. — Colevvorth's 
white lion, Moore's white bear, Crompton's 
Sheba queen, Saunders's Cheshire lass, Welling- 
ton's glory. Woodward's whitesmith. Smooth 
skins become tough in cooking, and should 
not be selected for that purpose. 

The gooseberry can be raised from cuttings, 
from suckers, or from seeds : the former is 
generally resorted to as being the most expe- 
ditious ; and seed is only sown to raise new 
varieties. Cuttings maybe planted in the fall, 
or as early in the spring as the weather will 
permit. 

The gooseberry is, comparatively, but little 
cultivated in the United States, though there is 
no doubt that in several districts of the Middle 
and Eastern States it could be brought to as 
great perfection as in England. It is a native 
of the soil : and loves to climb the sides of our 
mountain ridges, and if planted in places that 
somewhat resemble its native habitats, it would 
no doubt repay our care. It ought to have an 
airy situation, a rich soil, and a dry subsoil is 
essential, or it becomes infected with mildew. 
If it has no natural shade, during a few hours 
in the middle of the day, it must be shaded 
from the extreme heat of the sun. The berries 
acquire their finest flavour when brought to 
maturity gradually, under a low temperature. 
In pruning, instead of the lateral young shoots 
being cut close in, immediately above the first 
bud at their base, as recommended in colder 
climates, two buds should be left, to produce 
leaves to shade the fruit in summer. The 
vigorous-growing varieties ought to be prefer- 
red for planting. 

GoosEBEHHT Catekpiliah. For the de- 
struction of these insects fumigations of va- 
rious kinds ; dusting with quick lime, and 
other methods have been resorted to, but they 
do not always answer the purpose. Wetting 
them by means of a proper syringe, with fresh 
lime-water, whilst the sun is shining strongly, 
is said to be a very effectual remedy. "The 



GOOSEFOOT. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



roots of the plant are not made wet by this 
operation which promotes the growth of the 
bushes and helps their bearing properties. 
Tobacco liquor is also often found a good ap- 
plication for the destruction of caterpillars, and 
also the solution of whale oil soap, as recom- 
mended for the destruction of bark-lice and 
aphidians. This last remedy is also said to be 
completely effectual in removing the mould, 
rust, or mildew to which the gooseberry-bush is 
so very subject, an affection which would seem 
to be capable of propagation with the plants. 
Mr. S. R. Gummere, of Burlington, New Jersey, 
an intelligent botanist, and successful horti- 
culturist, stales that the russet mould to which 
the gooseberry-bush is subject, may be pre- 
vented by carefully removing the buds from 
that portion of the cutting which, in planting, 
is inserted into the ground. 

Seventeen or eighteen species of gooseberry, 
says Dr. Darlington, are enumerated as natives 
of the United States. Of these the Missouri 
currant {lUbcs attreum) is much cultivated, and 
greatly admired for the beauty and spring fra- 
grance of its flowers. 

GOOSEFOOT (ChcnopoHium). An extensive 
genus of plants, of which 13 species are enu- 
merated by Sir J. E. Smith, as natives of Britain, 
viz. 1. Mercurv goosefoot (C. bonns Henricus), 
growing in waste ground and by road sides fre- 
quent, and occasionally in pastures. The root is 
branchy and fleshy ; the herb dark green, nearly 
smooth; stem a foot high, terminating in a com- 
pound crowded cluster, or spike, of numerous 
green flowers; their stalks sometimes unctuous 
and mealy. This, our only perennial chenopo- 
dium, may be eaten, when young, like spinach, 
and is cultivated for the table in some parts of 
Lincolnshire. It is insipid and mucilaginous, 
rather mawkish, and soon becomes tough and 
fibrous. Neither goats nor sheep relish this 
plant, which is also refused by cattle and hogs. 
2. The upright goosefoot (C urbicuvi), and 3., 
The red goosefoot, also occur commonly on 
waste ground; the former sometimes on dung- 
hills, and the latter in low, muddy situations. 
In exposed situations the whole herb of C. ru- 
brum assumes a red colour. This species and 
its allies are said to be poisonous to swin^ ; 
4. The many spiked goosefoot (C bntryoidcs) ; 
•5. The nettle-leaved goosefoot, 6. The maple- 
leaved goosefoot, call for no observation. The 
whole plant of the two last species is fetid; 

7. White goosefoot, or common wild orache 
(C. album), is found in cultivated as well as 
waste ground everywhere. The herb is mealj', 
with a silvery unctuous pubescence, which, 
by age, becomes dry and chaffy. The young 
plant is reported to be eatable when boiled, 
and is known by the name of fat-hen in some 
parts of Norfolk. It is eaten by cattle, sheep, 
and hogs, which last devour it with avidity ; 

8. The fig-leaved goosefoot {C. fid folium), flou- 
rishes most on dunghills, especiallv about 
London ; 9. The oak-leaved goosefoot (C 
glancum), varies in height from 2 inches to 2 
feet, and grows for the most part on a sandy 
soil; 10. Standing goosefoot (C o^t^/iMJi), This 
species is found very commonly among sand 
or rubbish near the sea. The whole herb is 
of a dull grayish-green, covered with a greasy 

69 



mealiness, which, when touched, exhales a 
strong, permanent, nauseous odour, like stale 
salt fish. It is, nevertheless, eaten by cattle, 
horses, goats, and sheep, but refused by swine; 
11. The round-leaved, or all-seed goosefoot, or 
upright blite {C. palyspermum) \ 12. The sharp 
entire-leaved goosefoot (C. acutifolium), Sive two 
other species, which are less common. The 
former is a curious plant, whose numerous 
black shining seeds might perhaps be advan- 
tageously employed in fattening poultry ; 13. 
The sea goosefoot, small glasswort, or sea 
blite (C. maritinmm) : this species abounds on 
the sea-shore, and grows also in sandy as well 
as muddy places, flowering in July and August. 
Stem thick and juicy, leaves smooth, about an 
inch long, salt to the taste, of a light bright 
green. Dr. Withering mentions this as an ex- 
cellent pot-herb. In Siberia and Astracan the 
inhabitants obtain from this plant their potash, 
which probably partakes more of the nature 
of soda. The alkaline salt contained in this 
herb renders it serviceable in making glass, 
though it is inferior to some kinds of salsola 
found in the south of Europe. 

Ten or twelve species of goosefoot have 
been found in America, six of which Dr. Dar- 
lington has detected in Pennsylvania. Most, 
if not all, are supposed to be foreigners. They 
are a homely family, generally regarded as 
weeds. Those best known are the C. album 
or lamb's quarter, used sometimes as spring 
greens ; and the C. anthelminlirum, or worm- 
seed, a plant having a strong, disagreeable 
odour, and yielding the well-known worm-seed 
oil, a valuable and powerful vermifuge. 

GOOSE-GRASS (Galium Irifidum). Three- 
cleft galium ; also known by the common 
name of ladies bed-straw. This native Ame- 
rican plant is met with in moist, low grounds 
and thickets, where its small, white flowers 
appear in July. Its root is perennial, the stem 
rising 1, 2, or 3 feet long, and much branched. 
Professor Hooker thinks this may be distinct 
from the G. trifldum of Europe, which, he says, 
is a more slender plant than ours. (Flor. Ces- 
trirn.) See Hariff. 

GOOSE-GRASS, DYER'S. See Madder, 
Wild. 

GOSSYPIUM. The generic name of cotton. 
This plant, which administers so greatly to the 
wants of man, and to the wealth of countries 
producing it abundantly, has been known and 
employed by the Asiatics and Egyptians in the 
fabrication of clothing, from the earliest dates 
of antiquity that have reached us. By the 
Greeks and Romans, however, it does not 
appear to have been in use. Pliny informs- 
us that in Upper Egypt, on the borders of Ara- 
bia, grew a shrub called gossipion or zylon, the 
fruit-pod of which enclosed a sort of soft wool, 
of which the garments of the Egyptian priests- 
were manufactured. Goz, which, in the Arabic, 
implies a silky substance, is doubtless the root 
of the word designating the genus of the plant. 

There are several species of the cotton plant 
cultivated in different parts of the world, which 
may be resolved into the following: 1. Th^ 
common Green-seed Cotton of the United States, 
the Gossypium herbaceum of botanists, — fig. K 
This has a smooth stem, leaves with five lobes, 
2 z 2 545 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



which are round, mucronate, and serrate. It 
grows from two to five or six feet high, bearing 
yellow flowers on the end of its numerous 
branches, which flowers are succeeded by 
roundish capsules or bolls, full of seed and 
cotton. 2. The Tree Cotton {G. arboreum) has a 
high perennial stalk, with branches six or eight 
feet long, five-lobed, palmate leaves, and yellow 
flowers, succeeded by oval pods. 3. Fine-leaved 
Cotton (G. vUifolium), fig. 3, with lower leaves 
five-lobed and palmated, the upper leaves three- 
lobed. 4. Hairy Cotton (G. hirsutuni), with the 
uppermost leaves undivided and heart-shaped, 
the lower three five-lobed, the stems and branch- 
es hairy, the flowers yellow, succeeded by oval 
pods. 5. Spotted-barked Cotton (G. religiosum), 
iig. 4, with the upper leaves three-lobed and 
lower five-lobed, and branches spotted with 
black. 6. Barhadoes Cotton (G. Barbadense),f[g. 2, 
branching 4 or 5 feet high, with yellow flowers 
and oval pods, the upper leaves three-lobed 
and lower five-lobed, with sraoothish stems. 




The cotton blossom, though described as 
yellow, is very often only slightly so, and that 
-while just blowing, appearing almost white 
■when in full bloom. When wilting, the blos- 
soms appear reddish; and the whole process 
of efiiorescence continues but two or three 
days, when they fall off". 

In those portions of southern Europe where 
cotton is produced, Naples, Sicily, Malta, and 
•especially the Levant, the Green-seed or com- 
mon cotton is the only one cultivated for the 
wants of commerce. The hairy cotton is some- 
times raised in the West Indies, although the 
Barbadoes is the species mos^ commonly cul- 
tivated. Iz. vhs East Indies and in China, the 
.546 



common and tree cotton are cultivated, together 
with some other species or varieties, especially 
that which produces the nankeen-coloured 
down. This last has been successfully intro- 
duced into the United States, where it is now 
raised in sufficient quantity to manufacture the 
yellow cotton cloth called nankin, which was, 
till lately, all imported from China. 

The seeds of the common cotton are eaten 
in the Levant, where they are esteemed whole- 
some and nourishing. All the species aflbrd a 
valuable oil from the seeds, which, besides 
being eaten, is used for burning, and many 
other purposes connected with the useful arts. 

Nicot first made known the tobacco plant, 
and Sir Walter Raleigh has the credit of intro- 
ducing the potato into Europe. Two monks, 
in the reign of Justinian, brought the eggs of 
the silk-worm from China to Europe, concealed 
in the hollow of a bamboo. But of the indivi- 
vidual who first introduced the seeds of the 
cotton plant into America, history is silent. 
He was, perhaps, one of that class of which 
examples are daily met with, who take pleasure 
in seeking out objects either curious or useful, 
and dispensing their acquisitions to others. 
The cotton is a pretty plant, bearing a beauti- 
ful flower, and was therefore, perhaps, first de- 
dicated to the parterre of the American garden, 
where it appears to have long remained, de- 
voted to ornament, and of little further use. 
Authentic information shows that in 1736, and 
probably earlier, it was an object of horticulture 
in Talbot county, on the eastern shore of Ma- 
ryland ; and although it may have been raised 
in squares and patches in neighbouring pro- 
vinces, no particular attention was bestowed 
upon it as a profitable crop, till some time after 
the date mentioned. In 1754 a small quantity 
of cotton was exported to Europe from South 
Carolina, the warmer climate of which and the 
neighbouring provinces, was found more fa- 
vourable to the crop than the peninsula between 
the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, where its 
culture was first attempted. {Am. Fanner, vol. 
ii.) It was not, however, until the Revolution 
caused the supplies of foreign materials for 
clothing to be cut otf, that necessity drove the 
American planters to raise cotton extensively 
for home use; and so general did this culture 
soon become, when urged by this necessity, 
that the cotton region was made to extend as 
high north as the lower counties of the state 
of Delaware. At the close of the Revolution, 
great financial distress prevailed throughout 
the States, which had achieved their freedom 
at the expense of immense pecuniary sacrifices. 
Many were the plans suggested by individuals 
and public bodies, called upon fo consider the 
ways and means adapted to relieve the embar- 
rassments of the times. The subject came up 
before the celebrated Conventi'^n of Annapo- 
lis, in 1786. The late President Madison, a 
w ember of that body from Virginia, who had 
given much attention to the subjei't of the cot- 
ton culture, here expressed it as his decided 
opinion, that, from the results of tb*? garden 
culture in Talbot county, and numeroi>s other 
similar proofs furnished in Virginia, there was 
no reason to doubt that the United States 
would one day become " a great cotton-produeing 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



etmntryi" The agitation of the subject was 
commenced in the public prints of Philadel- 
phia, and the promising capacities of soil and 
cl imate were discussed in essays and discourses 
read in and about the year 1787, before the 
societies which were led to the consideration 
of this and other matters calculated to advance 
the interests of the country. The most early 
and decided proof of the practicability of rais- 
ing cotton crops to advantage in the United 
States, was first received in a letter from Mr. 
Leake of Georgia, addressed to General Tho- 
mas Proctor of Philadelphia. When it is esti- 
mated that the cotton brought to Philadelphia 
about the year 1787, and some time after, sold 
for home consumption at two shillings sterling, 
or four-ninths of a dollar, the inducements to 
raise it may be readily imagined. Congress 
being at length convinced that the States could 
produce sufficient cotton for domestic use, in 
the first reformed tarifl^bill laid a duty of three 
cents per pound on that brought from other 
countries. American cotton began to be an 
important article of export in 1798 and 1799. 
It was, however, soon discovered that more 
could be raised than could be picked or cleared 
from seed by hand, the only mode of accom- 
plishing this object then known, and the one 
which had been practised by the Egyptians 
and Eastern people for thousands of years. 
Eli Whitney, a native of Massachusetts who 
emigrated to the south, invented a mill to 
gin, pick, or separate cotton from the seed, 
and this with such facility as to perform in 
one day the labour of thi-ce thousand pair of 
hands. To work or attend this mill, impelled 
by water-power, requires only three persons. 
Thus, by the aid of machinery, the capacity to 
prepare cotton for market was made equal and 
even superior to the immense productive capa- 
cities of the climate and soil of the Southern 
States. These two facts, (says a writer in the 
American Farmer, vol. ii.). First, the capability 
of the southern country to produce cotton, and, 
Secondly, the invention of the loater saic-gin, 
have effected the greatest and most enriching 
change in the agriculture of the United States, 
ever experienced by any people, ancient or 
modern. And to this view must be added the 
results of inventions, principally in England, 
but many in America, of those labour-saving 
machines and processes to pick, rove, spin, 
double, twist, wind, weave, dye, print, bleach, 
dress, &c., all within a comparatively few 
years. 

Such are the considerations which are 
calculated to inspire correct views of the im- 
portance and extension of the cotton crop of 
the United States, the immense exportable pro- 
duce of which has so much favoured every 
branch of domestic industry in other parts of 
the country ; for those States situated too far 
northward to admit of the advantageous culture 
of cotton, by w^hich the attention of the south- 
ern planter is almost exclusively engrossed, 
supply him wnth bread-stuffs, meat, horses, 
mules, and most other important appliances 
of life. The necessities of the Revolution, and 
subsequent financial embarrassments of the 
country, led to the developement of the cotton 
culture in the United States ; whilst the last war, 



by cutting off the customary supplies of British 
and other foreign fabrics, taught the Americans 
to manufacture for themselves, and thus opened 
to the producing States a home market for their 
exuberant cotton crops. 

The progressive developement of the cotton 
culture in the United States is shown in the 
following statement of the crops for difierent 
periods ; viz. — 



In 1800, about 
1810, — 
1820, — 
1830, — 
1840, — 



- 35,000,000 lbs. 

- 85,000,000 

- 160,000,000 

- 350,000,000 

- 790,479,257 



It is estimated that good lands yield, on an 
average, from 250 to 300 lbs. of clean cotton 
per acre, and inferior lands from 125 to 150 lbs.; 
and that the capital invested in the cotton cul- 
ture in the Union is about $800,000,000. The 
annual value of the crop is about $80,000,000, 
and of the exports $63,000,000. 

The cotton exports of the year 1840 were 
as follows : — 



To Great Britain 
To France - 
North of Europe 
To other ports - 

Total - 



- 1,246,791 bales. 

- 447,465 

- 103,231 

- 78,515 

- 1,876,003 



The total exports of 1841, were 1,313,277 bales. 
— 1840, 1,876,603 

562,726 

The amounts exported to various countrief 
in 1841, were as follows : — 

To Great Britain - - - - 858,742 bales. 

To France 348,776 

To ports in north of Europe - - 56,279 
To all other pons - . - - 49,480 



Total 



1.(13,277 



We subjoin, also, the ports from which the 
article has been sent, with the portion from 
each. 

In 1841, from New Orleans and 
Mississippi ... . 656,816 bales. 

From Alabama .... 216,239 
Florida . - . . 32,297 
Georgia .... 35,596 
North and South Carolina - 162,275 



Virginia 


- 4,723 


Baltimore - 


217 


Philadelphia 


. 1,934 


New York - 


- 149,569 


Boston 


. 3,602 



Total 



1,313,277 



We annex an account of the home consump- 
tion. 

Quantity consumed by, and stock 

remaining in the hands of United 

States manufacturers, Sept. 30, 

1841 297,288 Dales. 

Do. Sept. 30, 1840 - - - 295,193 

Do. do. 1839 - - - 276.018 

The cotton produced and gathered in the 
United States is stated, in the returns accompa- 
nying the census taken in 1840, at 790,479,257 
lbs., which product exceeds two-thirds of the 
annual cotton crop of the whole world, this 
being estimated at 1,000,000,000 lbs. Of the 
whole amount raised in the United States, South 
Carolina furnishes about l-13th. Every year, 
however, opens new lands in the West to '.he 

547 



GOSSYPIUM. 

cotton culture, where congeniality of soil and 
climate to this commodity increases the pro- 
duct per acre, far beyond the average in the 
old cotton States. This consequently reduces 
the value far below those prices which former- 
ly poured so much wealth into the Southern 
States. These newly cleared lands yield, on 
an average, 2500 lbs. of cotton per hand, whilst 
the lands in the Carolinas yield but 1200 lbs. 
per hand. As the expenses on a labourer are 
about the same in either place, this home com- 
petition must be almost ruinous to the old cot- 
ton States, to say nothing of that which is 
threatened abroad in India, South America, and 
Egypt. In a recent speech in Congress, Mr. 
Dixon H. Lewis declared that cotton, divested 
of government embarrassments, might be raised 
in Alabama for three cents a pound. (Southern 
.Rei'fcw for April, 1843.) 

There were formerly three species of cotton 
commonly cultivated in the United States: 1. 
The Green Seed (G. herbaeeum), popularly and 
commercially called Upland Cotton ; 2. The 
Black Seed, producing a fine, soft, long, and 
strong cotton, of a good staple. This, from its 
flourishing in the lower country, and especially 
the islands on the coast of South Carolina and 
Georgia, has been called the Sea Island cotton. 
It is regarded as a variety of the Arboreum or 
Tree Cotton, and on new alluvial soils, in warm 
situations, is found to live 4 or 5 years, and 
attain a height of 18 feet, assuming the charac- 
ter of trees rather than shrubs. But when the 
cotton grows so large, it yields no adequate re- 
turn to the cultivator. The seed of Sea Island 
cotton was originally obtained from the Ba- 
hama Islands about the year 1785, being the 
kind known in the West Indies as the Anguilla 
cotton. 

Of late years, in addition to the Nankin or 
yellow cotton, two species or varieties of up- 
land cotton have been introduced, which, in 
some places, have almost superseded the com- 
mon green seed kind ; these are the Mexican 
and Petit-Gulf, both of which agree in most of 
their botanical characteristics with the Hirsute 
or hairy cotton, especially in the rough stem 
and petiole. The Petit-Gulf kind is exceed- 
ingly productive, and differs from the Mexican 
chiefly in this characteristic, and in maturing 
earlier, a great desideratum M'ith the planter, 
since it allows him a longer time to gather the 
crop. Some think the Petit-Gulf a mere variety 
of the Mexican, improved by its transportation 
to the banks of the Mississippi, where the soil 
and climate are peculiarly favourable to its 
developement. The planters of the upland 
sections have to purchase their Petit-Gulf seed 
from the neighbourhood of Rodney, where it 
now costs only 25 cents per bushel. The 4th 
year after removal from this locality, it has 
so degenerated as to be no more productive 
than the common green-seed kind, or better in 
luality. 

It has been remarked, that in most if not all 
tne species or varieties of cotton cultivated in 
the United States, especially the herbaceous 
and hairy kinds, the close, short fur imme- 
diately enveloping the seed, somewhat anala- 
gous to the fur on an animal, has a tendency 
to increase in quantity This, though it tends 
548 



GOSSYPIUM. 

to render the separation of the loi.^ wool more 
difficult, has no other disadvantage. 

The introduction of the plough, of the horse- 
hoe, cultivator, and other contrivances for 
saving labour and improving the culture, have 
been of great service to the cotton as well as 
to the corn-planter. By the practice of drill- 
ing in rows set wide apart, the same fields may 
be cultivated frequently without such rapid 
exhaustion as would attend a different course. 
The land is thus tilled sometimes three suc- 
cessive years without rest, the drills being run 
at first 4^ feet apart, the position of the drill- 
rows being changed every year, so that the 
cotton does not occupy the same place two 
successive years. At the end of the 3d year 
the 3 drill-rows will be ]| feet distant from 
each other, and thus the growing crop is an- 
nually furnished with fresh soil. 

The following account of the cotton culture, 
as conducted in the Southern States, is abridged 
from a highly interesting essay upon the sub- 
ject by Mr. Thomas Spaulding, of Sapelo Island, 
Georgia: 

" It was soon noticed by cotton growers," says 
Mr. Spaulding, "that soil and situation had 
more than common influence, as well upon the 
quality as upon the quantity of cotton produced 
upon any given portion of land. Certain soils 
and situations retained in the cotton its ori- 
ginal appearance, an intenseness of yellow in 
its blossom, a fruit full and sound, a seed 
quite black, and free from fur or down ; while 
upon other soils and upon other situations the 
plant, the flower, and fruit was putting on other 
appearances. The plants, as if anxious to ad- 
just themselves to a new temperature, took on 
a more coarse configuration of limbs and stem, 
a thicker branch, a rougher, larger, and more 
scalloped leaf, a more cone-like pod, a seed 
covered either in whole or at its points with 
the close down or fur that has already been 
described. At first the most careful cultiva- 
tors were anxious by selection to keep the seed 
as much as possible resembling the seed first 
introduced ; that is, black and free from down, 
and the more so as it was most easily sepa- 
rated from the cotton by the machines em- 
ployed, and was considered most productive ; 
but in process of time the varieties that stole 
up among the original stock was found to pro- 
duce a finer and more uniform and longer 
wool. The current of selection has now, 
therefore, directed itself another way, and 
these hybrids, for I believe them to be so, 
although the germs of these changes may have 
lingered for ages in the original seed without 
developing themselves, have taken on three 
distinct appearances in seed; neither in blos- 
som or plant differing to the eye from each 
other, although greatly differing from the pa- 
rent stock, as being coarser and rougher in 
their form and leaf, with blossoms of a lighter 
yellow; having bolls larger and more cone- 
like in their shape. The finer cottons of the 
sea islands are obtained from these three va- 
rieties of seed ; one with little or no down upon 
it, but with a long beak or point, to a seed 
longer than the original; a seed with down 
upon the two ends, but still with the pointed 
beak ; and, thirdly, a long seed with a sharp 



GOSSYPIUM 



GOSSYPIUM. 



beak, but completely covered with a soft, close, 
fine fur or down inseparably connected with 
the shell of the seed. These new varieties 
which produce the cotton now most in request, 
are later in perfecting their fruit, and have, 
consequently, increased the uncertainty of the 
most uncertain and doubtful crop to which 
perhaps human care was ever directed. 

"There is a long string of islands extending 
from Georgetown, in South Carolina, to St. 
Mary's, in Georgia, that is, from 33° 30' to 
30° north, a distance of about 200 miles. 
These islands were covered with live oak and 
other evergreens of a southern climate. They 
had been the abode of the red men of the 
West, but rather when the natives were fish- 
ermen than hunters ; and the vast accumula- 
tion of oyster, and clam, and other shells, min- 
gled with the remains of the bones and pottery 
of their old inhabitants, fill every stranger with 
astonishment at the multitudes which their re- 
mains would bespeak, or the long time that 
must have been required to introduce such ac- 
cumulated masses. These decaying shells 
seem to have intermingled with the original 
sandy soils of these islands, and digesting the 
vegetable matter that fell from trees and other 
sources, formed with them a light and fertile 
loam. These islands at an earlier period of 
colonial story, had been employed in growing 
indigo. It was upon two of these islands, sur- 
rounded by the salt waters of the sea, and sepa- 
rated from the continent by several miles of 
grassy, but salt meadows, that the cultivation 
of the sea island cotton commenced. 

" If Frederick the Great never forgot him that 
introduced a better description of rye into Prus- 
sia, and if Swift is right in saying he merits a 
great name who will make two blades of grass 
grow where one had grown before, why should 
we deny to the dead what may be their due? 
The first cultivators of the sea island cotton 
ill Georgia were Josiah Tattnall and Nicholas 
Turnbull, on Slcideway island, near Savannah ; 
James Spaulding and Alexander Bisset, upon 
St. Simon's island, at the mouth of the Alta- 
maha; and Richard Leake upon Jekyl island, 
adjacent to St. Simon's. For many years after 
the introduction of the Anguilla cotton, it was 
confined to the warm highland of these islands, 
bathed by the saline atmosphere, and sur- 
rcnmded by the salt water of the sea. Gra- 
dually, however, the cotton culture was ex- 
tended into lower grounds, and beyond the 
limits of the islands to the adjacent shores of 
the continent, into soils containing a mixture 
of clay, and lastly into coarse clays deposited 
by the great rivers where they met the tides of 
the sea. In all these soils the cotton plant 
grows well. In all these soils fine cottons are 
produced. The only essential property that is 
required is a saline atmosphere ; with it any 
soil in Georgia or Carolina may produce fine 
cotton; without it no soil will produce fine 
cotton. 

"It is within this district of country, from 
(Georgetown, in South Carolina, to St. Mary's, 
in Georgia, and extending not more than 15 
miles from the sea, to which the sea island 
cotton is still confined. Whenever it has been 
carried either south, or north, or west beyond 



these limits, a certain decline in quality has 
followed its removal. Many changes have 
taken place in the manner of cultivating the 
sea island cotton since the first introduction. 
When first introduced, the seed was deposited 
either in hills raised a little above the common 
surface, at five feet distant each way, or in 
holes at the same distance apart, and the in- 
termediate spaces were dug up, pulverized, and 
kept free of grass or weeds by the hand hoe or 
by ploughing. But it was soon found that this 
distant planting, with a few seeds only, left a 
great portion of the field unoccupied by planls, 
and, consequently, unproductive; for, as it has 
already been said, the cotton plant is one of 
the tenderest productions of vegetable life. 
The growers of cotton found it, therefore, 
necessary to increase the quantity of seed, to 
insure a sufficient number of plants, and to 
bring them nearer together. Fortunately for 
the cotton culture, Tail's book upon husbandry 
had been more read in the Southern Colonies 
than in England; and his ridge husbandry was 
adopted for sea island cotton, and is particu- 
larly adapted to it, I may say necessary to its 
successful culture. 

"The present process (and it has been the 
same for 25 years past) is to make up the field 
into ridges occupying 5 feet of space each, and 
extending in straight lines across the entire 
field. If the land is at all low, or subject in 
any degree to water, these ridges are inter- 
sected at 105 feet from each other by ditches 
which receive the water that may collect in 
the hollow spaces upon which the cotton plant 
is growing. These hollow spaces represent 
the water furrow in wheat cultivation, and 
serve the same purpose, that is, in directing 
the redundant water that falls, into the drains 
that take it off the fields. 

" A field is well prepared to receive the cot- 
ton seed when drains intersect it at regular 
distances of 105 feet; when the surface of the 
land is thrown up into ridges of 5 feet, rising 
about 10 inches above the intervals, the crown 
of the ridge flat, broad, and regular. A trench 
is then made along the middle of the ridge 
from 2 to 4 inches, dependent upon the time 
of planting, which extends from the 1st of 
March to the 1st of May. Upon this subject, 
as upon all others in which men are concerned, 
wisdom is found between the extremes, and ex- 
perienced growers of cotton generally prefer 
planting from the 1st to the 15th of April. Whui 
cotton is planted early in March, before the 
sun has warmed the soil to any great depth, it 
is necessary to deposit the seed in drills not 
more than two inches deep, or there will not 
be warmth enough to vegetate the seed. Later 
in the season, when the power of the sun has 
increased, it is necessary, in seeking for that 
moisture which is as requisite for vegetation 
as heat itself, to sink deeper into the soil, and 
the drills which are then made to receive the 
cotton seed are required to be 4 inches d^ep. 
From the many accidents to which this feeble 
plant is subject in its first growth, experience 
has taught the Georgia cultivator that it is ne- 
cessary to place many more seeds in the ground 
than can grow there ; and it is usual, there- 
fore, to sow at Jeast 1 bushel of cotton seed to 

549 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



the Englisli acre. The persons employed in 
planting the cotton are generally divided into 
gangs of three. One of these opens the 
drill along the top of the ridge ; the most in- 
telligent of them carefully drops the seed into 
the trench, while the third follows in his, or 
more often in her steps, and with a hand-hoe 
returns the soil while yet moist into the trench 
from whence it was taken. For myself, I pre- 
fer performing this operation with the foot; it 
is less troublesome to the labourer than carry- 
ing and using the hoe. It keeps the mind in- 
tent upon one operation rather than two. 
Walking along erect, the feet are alternately 
employed to return the soil into the trench 
upon the cotton seed ; and the whole weight 
of the person brought to bear upon the foot that 
has just performed the operation, presses the 
yielding and crumbling soil into close contact 
with the seed. This pressure of the foot after 
sowing, is like the roller in English husbandry, 
and is as beneficial to cotton as the roller is 
known to be to wheat or other grain. But 
after all this care you are never sure that 
from your first sowing a sufficient number of 
plants will stand. One night's frost, which 
sometimes comes as late as April, will destroy 
the whole field, and drive you back upon your 
labours ; one day of a strong, dry, northeast 
wind will tear, blight, and destroy your whole 
field ; and upon the best and richest soils, 
when both these evils are passed over, there 
is another ensuing, equally destructive. The 
cock-chaffer or cut-worm is to be apprehended 
during all the month of April, and as the cot- 
ton comes through the ground, and remains for 
several days, like the pea or other pulse, with 
but two radical leaves, every one of the plants 
that are cut by the worm, either above or be- 
low the ground, are destroyed ; so that it is not 
unfrequent that whole fields have to be re- 
planted in the month of May, about which 
time the worms pass into their winged state. 
At the close of the month of May, when appre- 
hension from these accidents have passed 
away, a new labor begins. The numerous 
plants which crowd the ground begin to injure 
each other, and must be removed. Prudent 
persons divide their removal into three opera- 
tions, gradually adjusting the number to the 
increased growth of the plants, which are at 
length left in the drills, at from 6 inches to 24 
inches apart from each other, depending upon 
the fertility of the soil and the expected growth 
of the plant, which rises in altitude, from 3 feet 
to 8 feet high. And here it may be well to ob- 
serve, that the cotton plant is a leguminous 
plant (a green plant), a plant that sends its 
roots down into the ground, and draws much 
of its nourishment, by its broad leaves, from 
the atmosphere. This increased distance in 
the drill, therefore, is rather to allow space for 
the plant to extend itself at its inclination, 
than from a desire to add nourishment to its 
roots, for at last the whole field should be 
shaded from the sun when the plants are fully 
grown, and the number should be adapted to 
that end. 

"But at every one of these thinnings, as they 
are called, or drawing of the plants, the field is 
cleared with the hand-hoe from all weeds and 
550 



grass, and new soil brought up around the re- 
maining plants to support them, now bending 
to every wind, from their tall but feeble struc- 
ture. This course of thinning, when it is ne- 
cessary, and the weeding, and grassing, and 
drawing up, which is always necessary, con- 
tinues until about the 20th of July, by which 
time the operation has been repeated from 3 to 
6 several times, dependent upon the soil and 
season. About the 20th of July we may ex- 
pect our summer rains should commence. 
These rains are not tropical, but they approach 
to tropical in their violence. Up to that time 
no climate can be more temperate than the 
climate of the sea-coasts of Georgia and Caro- 
lina. Volney, from report, supposed it the best 
in the United States, and the writer of this paper 
believes it is so. The atmosphere is elastic, 
the winds that blow every day from the sea are 
cool and refreshing; they bring health and 
healing upon their wings ; they drive the va- 
pours which have been gathered upon the wa- 
ters, or that have arisen from the marshes 
which margin the shores, over the woods of 
the interior. But the time has now come 
when evil spirits should prevail. These va- 
pours have been collecting dark and ponderous 
clouds upon our western hills ; the equilibrium 
of our atmosphere is destroyed. Whether it 
is that the adjacent seas have become heated 
by the mass of warm water which the gulf 
stream brings along the coast, or that the 
same general cause which operates with such 
great power within the tropics, operates in part 
here, I know not; but from the 20th of July to 
the 1st of August, the winds change from 
southeast to southwest, and bring clouds 
charged with lightning and rain, in such 
masses as to deluge our fields. From the time 
this change takes place all labour in the cotton 
field should cease ; for the plants with broad, 
succulent leaves, and tall and slender stem, 
heavy naturally in its growth, and feeble in its 
structure, can illy bear up against beating 
rains and strong winds, and requires all the 
support that the original ridge in which it was 
planted, and the repeated dressings up which 
have been directed, can give it. And hence 
arises the necessity of the ridge husbandry of 
the sea island cotton in Georgia and Carolina, 
and the importance of the repeated gathering 
or dressing up of the soil to the plants, which 
has been described. The month of August is 
a month of doubt and anxiety with the cotton 
grower. Too much rain makes the plant cast 
off its fruit, its blossoms, and even its leaves. 
The full moon in the month of August, too, ia 
the time when the caterpillar is expected. Thi? 
worm proceeds from a small brown butterfly, 
greatly resembling the candle moth. Thii 
moth or butterfly deposits its eggs upon the 
leaf of the cotton plant always a night or two 
before the full or change of the moon. They 
hatch in a few hours after they are deposited, 
then so small as scarcely to be visible to the 
naked eye. Like the silk worm, they appear 
to linger in their first stages, doing no great in- 
jury during their first 9 or 10 days. But a few 
days before they have completed their growth, 
they become voracious in the extreme, and like 
the visitations of the locusts in the East, destroy 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



whole fields in a few days. We have seen 
400 acres of cotton that looked promising and 
well to-day, and that 4 days afterwards had not 
a green leaf, and scarcely a small pod remain- 
ing upon it. These destructive visitations, 
judging from the past, may be expected once 
in about 7 years. When cotton fields have 
escaped injury from rains, from wind, or 
worms, they offer as beautiful a spectacle to 
the observer as the cultivation of any plant 
can present. One wide and waving field of 
green leaves, covered from the 1st day of July 
lo the 1st day of September with blossoms of 3 
colours, and with a multitude of pods of every 
growth. The blossom, on the first da)^ of its 
coming out, is of a fine, yellow colour, and it 
sustains that colour during the day. It changes 
under the influence of the night air to a crim- 
son or red hue ; and again, on the third day, it 
becomes of a rich chocolate brown, and falling 
to the ground leaves a pod already of half an 
inch in diameter. The time which intervenes 
from the blossoming to the perfection of the 
fruit, greatly varies, depending upon the sea- 
son. We have marked hundreds of blossoms 
which ripened and perfected their cotton in 21 
days from the day of blossoming ; and again 
we have frequently seen them require six 
weeks to arrive at the same end, which is, 
however, a bad omen as to ultimate results. 

"The cotton pods begin to open about the 
1st of August. From this time to the 1st of 
December the whole attention of the cultivator 
is directed to the picking in of the cotton as 
the pods daily open. During this autumnal 
season in Georgia and Carolina, upon the sea- 
coast, the winds are violent and the rains 
heav}' ; so that the operation is tedious, al- 
though not laborious; and during this time the 
persons employed may be expected to gather 
from the field 35 pounds per day, when the 
weather admits of gathering or picking cotton 
as it is called. When every thing is favour- 
able, the persons employed should bring in .50 
pounds daily of cotton in the seed ; but as the 
gathering is continued so long as they bring in 
10 pounds, 25 pounds may be considered the 
full average of labour so directed. There are 
few subjects upon which there is more contra- 
riety of opinion than upon the real amount of 
product given by the soil in anj^ cultivation ; 
agriculturist as I am, loving my profession as I 
do, seeking information to enlighten my la- 
bours as I have done, I know no book upon 
which I can lay ray hand which would give 
me correctly the real mean result of labour or 
of land employed upon any one object through- 
out a whole extended district. The Abbe Ray- 
nal kindly tells us how many coffee plants and 
how many cotton plants grew upon the French 
part of the island of St. Domingo; and yet 
there was not one planter in St. Domingo who 
could really have told how many cotton plants or 
how may coffee plants grewupon any one arpent 
of his own field. Taking, however, the best 
means my long experience would give, I should 
say that a labourer cultivates, in sea island 
cotton, 4 English acres, and that these 4 acres 
yield, as the result of his labour, 500 weight of 
clean cotton, or cotton separated from the 
seed, -which consists of 400 weight of white 



cotton and 100 weight of coloured or stained 
cotton; and that these 500 pounds of clean 
cotton have, for the last 15 years, averaged to 
the grower 20 cents per pound for his white 
cotton, and 10 cents per pound for his stained 
cotton, yielding in American money, conse- 
quently, $90 to the labourer — a small remunera- 
tion, certainly, to the cultivator, and not calcu- 
lated to excite jealousy or hostility in any other 
persons engaged in any other pursuit. 

" Preparing sea island cotton for market.— 
The process of preparing the cotton for 
market commences as soon as it is generally 
gathered in from the field, and is tedious and 
troublesome in a high degree. The cotton, 
when gathered from the plant, is put into a 
bag, containing about half a bushel, which 
hangs upon the person engaged in the opera- 
tion, suspended from the neck or waist as they 
may prefer, and when it is desired by them 
they deposit the contents of the bag in a large 
light basket, which contains the amount of 
each one's gathering in the day. At the ap- 
proach of night, the cotton gathered in the day 
is brought home and weighed and deposited in 
a common house, from whence the next morn- 
ing, if the weather is good, it is carried out 
and spread upon drying floors made of 2-inch 
American pine. These floors are of course 
proportioned to the quantity of cotton expected 
to be placed upon them at any one lime, but 
may be estimated at 20 by 40 feet of floor to 
every 100 acres of cotton cultivated, and in 
that ratio of quantities upon these floors. If it 
has been gathered from the fields in good wea- 
ther, the cotton is allowed to remain but one 
day to take off the dew of the morning or the 
damp of the night air; but if gathered in wet 
weather, it may require two or even three days' 
exposure upon the drying floors, which are 
raised upon posts three feet from the ground, 
as well to preserve the wood of which they are 
made, as to admit a more free circulation of air. 
It is, however, known that strong, cold winds 
or very bright suns, if continued too long, have 
an injurious effect upon the fibre of the cotton; 
and this extreme exposure to either wind or 
rain is, therefore, carefully avoided, and the 
cotton left no longer upon the drying floors 
than is necessary to preserve it from heating 
in the house. Before it is put up finally in 
the house, it is usual, and quite proper to pass it 
through what is called a ' Whipper,' to shake 
off any sand or broken leaves, or any other ex- 
traneous matter that may have attached itself 
to the cotton either in the field or in the gather- 
ing. The cotton having been gathered, dried 
upon the floors, and whipped, is ready for the 
next operation, or ginning. 

"The whipper, which is a very necessary 
instrument in the well-preparing of cotton, is 
made of wood, is a long barrel composed of 
slats or reeds (or it would be better made of 
wire) 6 or 8 feet in length, and 2 feet in dia- 
meter, with one end closed and the other open, 
and is supported at the two ends by feet of dif- 
ferent lengths, so that the barrel, in its hori- 
zontal position, declines about 1 foot at the 
lower end ; a hopper containing about a bushel 
rests upon the upper side of the barrel, at the 
upper enclosed end of it. This hopper lets the 

55 1 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



cotton that is to be cleaned fall into the barrel, 
through which runs in its whole length a shaft, 
which is turned by the hand by a crank attach- 
ed to the shaft at one end. This shaft is inter- 
sected by rods which reach to within an inch 
of the barrel. The cotton, as it falls from the 
hopper, is whirled round by these rods until it 
escapes at the lower end of the barrel, by 
which time any sand or dirt, or leaves, or other 
matter attached to the cotton, has escaped 
through the spaces intentionally left between 
the slats or reeds, which constitute the external 
rim of this barrel or whipper. This whipping 
was formerly performed as well upon the cot- 
ton in the seed, as after it was separated from 
the seed; but the second operation of the 
whipper has lately been discontinued under a 
belief that it produced a stringy appearance in 
the cotton wool. 

"The whipping of cotton at its first gathering, 
and while attached to the seed, is really bene- 
ficial, and should nev^er be omitted. When 
these operations are completed, the harvest 
may be considered as closed, and the prepara- 
tion of the cotton for market really begins. 
Many machines have been designed, and many 
forms of the same machine adopted, for sepa- 
rating the seed from the sea island cotton, but 
all of them at last resolve themselves into two 
wooden rollers turning by opposite move- 
ments upon each other. The rollers are from 
half an inch to an inch in diameter, and re- 
volve from 100 times to 500 times in a minute. 
The whole resolving itself into this simple 
rule, that the smaller the rollers, and the slower 
they revolve, the cleaner will be the cotton 
separated from the seed, because, if the rollers 
are an inch in diameter, and, above all, if they 
revolve with a high velocity, they will take in 
soft seeds, small seeds, and false seeds, or 
motes as they are called, and in crushing them 
in their passage through the rollers, will stain 
and injure the cotton in its appearance. 

" Much money has been spent upon costly 
machines, propelled by horses, by water, or by 
wind, first in the Bahama Islands, and for many 
years in Georgia, and Carolina, but at last 
most of the growers of sea island cotton have 
returned to their first and most simple machine, 
to wit, two wooden rollers, kept together by a 
wooden frame and a square shaft, upon which 
is fixed a wooden or iron fly wheel from 2 to 3 
feet in dimeter. The iron cranks which turn 
the rollers are connected by strips of wood, 
with a treadle worked by the foot ; this treadle 
runs under the machine, and is connected at 
the farther end of the floor of the house by 
sockets, within which it revolves ; the man 
stands, therefore, in the front of the rollers, 
with a board between him and the rollers, upon 
which he holds a large handful of seed of cot- 
ton, which he presents from time to time to the 
rollers that are kept in motion by the pressure 
of the foot upon the treadle ; this labour, from 
habit, becomes easy, as the feet are often 
changed in the operation. The task expected 
from the labourer with the machine (which 
costs, when new and complete, 10 American 
dollars) is from 25 to 30 pounds per day. 
Women, from their careful attention in keep- 
ng the rollers, while they revolve upon each 
5.o3 



other, well supplied with seed cotton, were un- 
questionably the best ginners, as they are call- 
ed from the term gin, applied to the machine ; 
but in process of time it began to be believed 
that the continued motion of the feet produced 
a relaxed system in women, which was likely 
to lead in the end to abortion or miscarriage : 
men have, consequently, been substituted for 
this work, one which being within doors, and 
exercising both hands and feet without very 
much labour, is preferred by them to any other 
in the winter. What is a little surprising, this 
simple machine, the foot gin, which we re- 
ceived from the West Indies, is mentioned, if I 
mistake not, in the remains of ' Nearchus's' 
voyage down the Indus in Alexander's expe- 
dition, as gleaned and translated by Dr. Vin- 
cent or Major Rennell, in his map of Hindostan, 
as there employed for separating the seed from 
the wool, which the Greeks, for the first time, 
saw growing upon trees and shrubs. Could 
Asia Minor, could Greece and Egypt have been 
acquainted with the cotton plant up to that 
time 1 The inquiry is a little curious, nor is it 
uninteresting, but can belter far be made by 
one who lives surrounded by much of the 
wreck of past knowledge, by many of the me- 
morials of past time, than by him who is living 
in solitude, under the shadow of his oaks, on 
the shores of the Altamaha. To prepare the 
cotton for this ginning, or separation from the 
seed, when taken from the house where it was 
put from the field, it is carefully looked over 
and separated, or sorted, as it is called, the 
yellow cotton, the motes, any hard cotten, that 
may have passed through the whipper, is sepa- 
rated from the white ; this is a w<jrk of care 
and attention, and the future appearance of the 
cotton much depends upon the manner in 
which the work is done. Women are employed 
in this operation, seated upon benches with 
tables before them; the seed cotton is spread 
in small parcels, taken out of one basket, ex- 
amined and turned over to another, into which 
the person puts the entire of her day's labour. 
The quantity required to be thus examined and 
cleaned in the day by each one is from 60 to 
100 pounds, according to the care bestowed 
upon the cotton by the grower; after this sort- 
ing it is exposed lightly and shortly to the sun, 
that it may take off any dampness the cotton 
may have acquired in the house; it is then 
passed from this drying immediately to the 
gin, or machine that separates the seed from 
the wool ; after going through the gin, and be- 
ing separated from the seed, it is again turned 
over to the women, who are generally in a 
large room, well lighted with glass windows. 
They sit with small tables before them, made 
either with open slats, reeds, or wire, when any 
crushed seeds, and cotton burnt or blackened 
by the former machine, or motes that have 
escaped the former seaiches, are removed; 
and to have this work well done, 30 pounds is 
all that is required per day from each woman. 
After this third operation it is considered ready 
to be bagged for market. 

"The bags in which sea island cotton is 
shipped are almost exclusively Scotch, are 
made of hemp, 42 inches wide in the web, and 
should weigh 1^ pounds to the yard; these 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



bags each required from 4^ to 4^ yards, and 
then are made to receive 300 pounds of cotton. 
Two men are generally employed at a time in 
packing, and usually pack two bags in a day, 
in the manner following. The room into 
which the cotton has finally passed, after being 
prepared for the bag, is reserved expressly for 
that purpose, and is kept as clean in floor and 
walls as possible; adjoining to it is a small 
apartment under the same cover, with a round 
hole made in the floor just large enough to con- 
tain the bag when full of cotton; the open end 
of the empty bag is strongly sewed with twine, 
round a strong hoop, which, extending beyond 
the hole, suspends the bag vertically from it; 
one of the men then gets into the bag, and with 
a heavy wooden or iron pestle he presses the 
cotton gradually with his feet, and finally beats 
it down with the pestle until the requisite 
quantity is pressed down into the bag. The 
bags were formerly made wet before they began 
to fill them, under the belief that it kept the 
cotton down in the bag, \vhen pressed there, 
better than when dry, but this is an idle and 
often an injurious practice, and should be al- 
ways avoided. We will now look back and 
collect the quantities of labour that is or should 
be applied to e\'ery bale of 300 pounds of sea 
island cotton in preparing it for market. It re- 
quires 1000 pounds of seed cotton to produce 
300 pounds of clean white cotton wool; 15 
persons will be required to sort and prepare 
this 1000 pounds for the gin or machine; taking 
all weather 25 pounds is the mean quantity 
received from each gin per day; this gives 12 
days' labour to each bag for ginning, and 10 
women mote these 300 pounds of cotton in the 
day, making for sorting 15, for ginning 12, for 
moting 10, for packing 1, in all 38. But be- 
sides these 38 that must be good and steady 
persons, there are usually two inferior persons, 
young or old, to place the cotton which is aoout 
to be ginned upon the drying floor, or to re- 
move and pass it about in any change of wea- 
ther, thus requiring to every bag of sea island 
cotton well put up the labour of 40 persons 1 
day. The bag costs for bagging, for twine, 
and trouble in making, not less than $1 25 of 
American money; this, with 75 cents for 
freight, is to be subtracted from the value of 
cotton, as there is never any return made for 
the bag by the purchaser. 

"The quantity of sea island cotton has not 
materially increased within these last 10 years, 
nor is it likely that it will increase. The par- 
ticular soils and climate that have heretofore 
produced it, and to which it probably owes its 
quality, are confined to the limits first stated, 
that is, from Georgetown, in South Carolina, to 
St. Mary's, in Georgia. By looking at a map 
of the United States, it will be seen that the 
long string of islands that bound our southern 
shore, and separate the Atlantic Ocean from 
the continent, end at these points ; but what is 
more, the tides that probably assisted to cast up 
these islands, have changed their climate. 
The tides along the shores of North Carolina 
and Virginia, are much less than in Georgia, 
and they rise still less in Florida and the 
Gulf of Mexico, that bounds the new acquired 
70 



provinces of the American Union to the 
southwest. 

" Whether it is that the cultivation of the 
sea island cotton has afforded fewer induce- 
ments than other subjects of cultivation, certain 
it is that the number of those engaged in it, even 
within these limited districts, have not greatly 
increased, and it is the successors of the first 
cultivators that are still engaged upon this ob- 
ject. They are generally an educated people, 
and a stationary one, less anxious after change 
than their countrymen are supposed to be ; 
and although severely smitten in war by Eng- 
land, and, in peace, by the National Tariff, 
they have still clung, with some degree of 
fondness, to the places whereat they were 
born, and to the seas in which they were bred. 

" Short Staple Cotton. — The short staple cot- 
tons, of every part of the United States, are de- 
rived from the first and second varieties of cot- 
ton which were found in the United States, from 
Virginia to Georgia, at the close of the Ameri- 
can revolutionary war, cultivated in small 
quantities by the poorer classes of the white 
population of the country, to be mixed, in their 
domestic manufactories, with their own wool. 
The cotton for this purpose was separated from 
the seed by the old and the young with their fin- 
gers, sitting around their evening fire, and 
was spun by the hand wheel, to serve as a 
warp, to be filled with the wool of their own 
sheep. 

" As soon as the attention of the Southern 
States was called to the profitable cultivation 
of cotton, by a few persons along the shores 
of Georgia and Carolina, the cultivation began 
to be extended into the interior. The small 
quantity of cotton that had been grown for do- 
mestic uses, was exchanged for larger quanti- 
ties, to be prepared for sale. But the great 
difficulty to be overcome in the progress to ex- 
tension, was to find out any instrument by 
which the cotton wool could be separated from 
the seed. 

"By this time various machines had been 
introduced for ginning the sea island cotton, 
but all of them ended at last in two rollers re- 
volving upon each other, either longer or 
shorter, and moving with, some more, some 
less, velocity. Those rollers were but badly 
adapted to the hairy cotton, or second varietVj 
which soon began to obtain the preference in 
the interior of Georgia and South Carolina, 
over the first or smooth-leaved variety, and 
merited to obtain that preference, as giving 
when separated from its downy seed, a finer 
and stronger, although shorter fibre, and as 
perfecting its fruit sooner, but which it was 
almost impossible to separate with the rollers, 
because the down or fur upon the seed retained 
the seed hanging upon the roller, and denied 
admission to the rollers of the fresh cotton in 
the seed that was offered. Many plans were 
suggested, many substitutes for the rollers de- 
signed. All succeeded in part, but still they 
went on slow. Something was desired to 
do much in a short time ; something that was 
strong enough to travel about without being 
broken to pieces, and light enough to move 
with its moving master. At last such a thing 
3 A 553 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



was found in Miller and Whitney's gin, pro- 
bably not the best machine that could have 
been designed, but so operative to its end, so 
efficient to its purpose, that it took possession 
of the whole ground. From thence forward no 
other machine was sought for, and Miller and 
Whitney's gin is employed to separate the cot- 
ton seed from Virginia to Louisiana, save 
where the roller gin is used, and its use is now 
altogether confined to the sea island cotton, 
whose superior value is supposed to warrant 
the great increase of labour necessary in that 
mode of ginning. Miller and Whitney's gin 
was designed by Mr. Whitney, and executed 
at the plantation of Mr. Miller, 16 miles above 
Savannah, about the year 1795, and it seems 
to be derived from two machines already used 
upon cotton, a kind of cylindrical whipper, and 
the circular cards, before that time introduced 
in manufacturing cotton, a wooden shaft or 
roller enclosed within a wooden box. This 
roller or shaft has at every inch of its length a 
steel blade or saw about a foot in diameter ; 
above these saws is a box containing the cot- 
ton in the seed. The box has the bottom of 
metal slits, through which the saws pass about 
an inch, and pulling off the cotton, but some- 
times cutting the fibres as it passes. This re- 
volving of the saws carries the cotton in the 
box gradually round, until the seeds contained 
in the box are freed of the wool attached to 
them, when it is emptied of the seed and re- 
filled with fresh cotton : it too often leaves 
some of the fibre behind it, which diminishes 
the quantity as well as injures the quality, so 
much so that the estimated difference of the 
products in these two modes of ginning are, 
with rollers, 300 pounds to the 1000, and 2.50 
pounds to the 1000 with Miller and Whitney's 
gin. This gin having at last given a cheap 
and expeditious mode of taking the wool from 
the hairy American cotton (for a gin that cost 
10 pounds sterling will clean a bale a day with 
a single horse acting upon the gin, with a band 
wheel which any man can make for himself), 
the cultivation of this description of cotton 
diverged in all directions around Georgia as 
the common centre ; it went north into the two 
Carolinas ; it went west into the hill country 
of all the Southern States ; it was found capable 
of adjusting itself to the soil and climate of the 
interior country, which the Anguilla cotton had 
not been adapted to ; still the fibre of the hairy 
or short staple cotton is better near the sea 
than in the interior. Above all, it is found to 
be most productive in alluvial soils that are a 
little touched with salt, as are some of the dis- 
tricts of Louisiana, where the rivers rising in 
the Rocky Mountains draw some of their wa- 
ters through the salt and arid plains which 
separate the waters of the Arkansas from the 
waters of Red River, where these two varieties 
of cotton, and a cotton that is possibly a hybrid 
lietween them, have arrived at the greatest per- 
fection. It was there that soils which are 
detply tinged with red, and heavily seasoned 
with salt, which all the tributary streams of 
Red River, flowing in from the north, bring 
with them, give forth the most abundant crops 
of the best quality of these descriptions of cot- 
tor. Directing myself by the information 
554 



received from one or two friends who hare 
property there, I should say, with reasonable 
diligence and attention to the object, 1000 
pounds of seed cotton, or about 250 pounds of 
cotton wool may be expected to the English 
acre, while the average products of the hill 
lands, from the Mississippi to North Carolina, 
should not be taken at more than 500 pounds 
of seed cotton, or half the quantity ; nor do I 
believe there is any material diflTerence upon 
the great scale of products through this wide 
extent of country, judging for myself from per- 
sonal observation, for I have passed through 
all these districts, yet scarcely a year passes 
without the newspapers announcing some 
new-discovered land of promise within these 
wide limits, themselves misled by some single 
or partial result, or stimulated on by land 
speculators, a curse of no common character 
to a new country. But in whatever cause 
originating, the evil is the same. These ru- 
mours fall among a people already heated 
with a desire of change — a people quite sensi- 
ble to present evils, but not reflective enough 
to hold in remembrance that every wave of the 
hand without necessity, and every momentary 
evolvement of time without usefulness, is a 
waste of power and waste of time irreclaim- 
able to humanity. The system of agriculture 
through all those districts is essentially the 
same. You find the Virginian upon Red 
River; you find the North Carolina man, the 
South Carolina man, and the man from Geor- 
gia, alongside of him ; any improvements, any 
increased quantity of product, by any new 
course of cultivation, spreads like the fire of 
the American prairie, a spark has carried it, 
and enkindled it, far in advance of the mass 
of flame that rolls after it. Any substantial 
improvement, therefore, that is made in Vir» 
ginia or Georgia, from this extension of mind, 
from this intermingling of men, is as likely to 
be reflected back upon the intermediate coun- 
try from Red River as to reach it from its first 
source. The system of cultivation is, there- 
fore, the same ; the moment the cultivation of 
cotton spread into the interior country, from 
the shores of Georgia and South Caro/ina, the 
hand-hoe was exchanged for the plough. The 
latter instrument had been employed at all 
times and in all cultures in the hill country of 
the Southern States ; in no agricultural coun- 
try were oxen or horses cheaper, in no agri- 
cultural country were soils freer for the 
ploughshare, but it was not adapted to the sea- 
coast, because the land is so little above the 
waters that ebb and flow, that many drains, in- 
convenient to the ploughman, are required to 
carry off" the surface waters. The trees, too, of 
necessity, send their roots along the surface, 
rather than vertically in quest of moisture, and 
many of them, like the live oak, are scarcely 
destructible by time. They, too, obstruct his 
course ; but, above all, the plant under culti- 
vation sends its roots around in quest rather 
of nourishment than down in quest of moisture, 
and must not be too readily dealt with. These 
various causes have, finally, after long expe- 
rience, fixed the hoe husbandry upon the sea- 
coast, and carried the plough husbandry into 
the hills. The short staple cotton is, therefore. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM 



as exclusively cultivated by the plough, as the 
sea island cotton is exclusively cultivated by 
the hoe. The manner of treating the plant is 
really the same ; the hoe dressing the land 
more neatly and garden-like, the plough break- 
ing up the land more radically, and extending 
far more widely its operation for the quantity 
of force employed. The consequence has 
been, that while 4 English acres is the quan- 
tity cultivated upon the sea-coast of Georgia 
and Carolina with the hand-hoe, 8 acres is 
about the quantity cultivated of short staple 
cotton, in the interior, with the plough. It is 
the ridge. husbandry in both instances that is 
now pursued ; more neatly executed, in the 
first instance, by the hoe, and more roughly by 
the plough in the second, but still the same. 
The month of April is the best time of plant- 
ing either variety. The distance between the 
ridges is most generally 5 feet, the plants left 
in the drills varying from 6 to 24 inches, de- 
pendent, as before stated, upon the expected 
growth of the plants. Two other circum- 
stances contributed to aid the cultivation of 
short staple, extrinsic of soil or real products. 
The winds of autumn are far more violent 
upon the sea-coast of Georgia and Carolina, 
than in the interior country, and the capsules 
that contain the sea island cotton expand more 
than those that contain the short staple, so that 
the first has to be gathered much more fre- 
quently from the fields than the last, or it falls 
to the ground and is lost. The consequence 
is, the general gathering to the labourer per 
day is more than twice the quantity of short 
staple than of sea island, for it is allowed to 
hang upon the plants until they are white with 
the open cotton, so that there is only 2, and 
at best 3, gatherings of the one, to 10 or 12 
scanty gleanings of the other. This one cir- 
cumstance, more than any other, gives to the 
grower of short staple cotton the power of 
something more than duplicating the quantity 
of cotton wool produced by the same quantity 
of labour expended. 

"Cottons of various kinds grow well, and 
perlect their fruit, from the southern borders 
of Virginia to the southwestern streams of the 
Mississippi, a space of 1200 miles, and from 
the sea for 200 miles into the interior; through 
this wide space of country, in every soil, 
whether of clay, or loam, or even sand, the cot- 
ton plant will grow, and produce its seed and 
wool, its accompaniment, provided the waters 
are kept well drained from the surface of the 
land. The quantity of products will of course 
depend upon the ?oils, whatever they may be, 
containing these ingredients, which constitute 
fertility in all countries, which neither experi- 
ment or the philosophy of chemistry has yet 
been able fully to discover or define. The 
mean quantity given of 100 pounds of sea 
island cotton wool to the English acre, and of 
125 pounds of short staple cotton to the same 
quantity of land, we believe not materially 
wrong, but the quantity of labour to bring forth 
these results are very different. The sea island 
cotton is cultivated neatly by the hoe, the short 
staple more roughly by the plough; still it is, 
or should be, the ridge husbandry in both in- 
stances. The plants are left to stand in drills 



upon the ridge, at distances from each other, 
graduated as before stated, to the expected 
growth of the plants from 6 inches to 2 feet 
from each other, and bearing, without injury, 
to stand much nearer than at first sight may 
be imagined, for the cotton plant does not oc- 
cupy much space with its roots, sending them 
down into the ground, and not over the surface, 
like white or grain crops, and drawing like all 
large-leaved green crops, much of its nourish- 
ment from the atmosphere. It is not an ex- 
hauster of soil, shading and protecting it from 
the sun, and soon, by its decay or by its com- 
bustion, returning almost as much as it has 
taken away ; but from the density of its shade, 
and the size and swell of its roots, it soon 
makes the soil too loose to sustain the plant, 
and the continued culture of the same soil, 
brings on a disease in the plant greatly resem- 
bling the blight in wheat, and leaving a pro- 
pensity in the seeds of cotton to extend the 
evil, like the propensity in blighted wheat to 
extend and multiply; nor have I ever doubted 
that in both instances the evil had originated 
in insect depredations, for although Sir Joseph 
Banks discovered a fungous attaching itself to 
blighted wheat, I still believe that the micro- 
scope discovered in that minute parasitic 
plant the effects of injury previously received 
from something that lived and moved and had 
animal being. Fire, therefore, I have always 
believed, and have always acted upon that be- 
lief, is the best security against this increasing 
and extending evil ; all the weeds and grass 
that are on the land should be burnt upon the 
surface of the land, leaving no vegetable mat- 
ter to conceal and protect the germ, and by 
fermentation to give heat and life to it; it is 
the neglect of this course which I think has 
been the cause that this evil, under various 
names, rot, and rust, and blight, has spread so 
widely as it has done within a few years. 

"There is no plant that requires the inter- 
changeable husbandry more than the cotton 
plant, and there is no country where that hus- 
bandry is more essential than in the Southern 
States. The cotton requires continued clean- 
ing during the droughts of spring and the 
heats of midsummer; these cleanings, together 
with the shade and rapid growth of the plant, 
break up the soil, and leave it to be carried 
away by the first violent autumnal rains. The 
best remedy is to give to the fields of cotton in- 
termediate crops of grain ; as good a series as 
can well be adopted is cotton, rye, and wheat 
(where the soil is fit for it), pasture, and again 
cotton. A more extended rotation might bi; 
adopted, but as all root crops should be avoid- 
ed in series with cotton, this simple tri-annuai 
course, with manure applied during the grain 
year, to as great extent as may be convenient, 
will keep the field without material decay 
When cotton was first introduced, the growers 
were misled as to the necessity of this change, 
by observing that the cotton plant, upon new 
lands, grew large, and gave little fruit, and 
that it improved for the second and thirr" year 
in productiveness, they unfortunately pushed 
the culture too far, until possibly to this cause 
many of the diseases that have afflicted it in 
its growth may be attributed. 

555 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



"In a preceding part of this article, the pro- 
bable mean results for these last 15 )^ears, in 
growing sea island cotton, has been taken at 
$90, or about 20/. sterling to the labourer; 
and taking, as we have already done in this 
letter, the medium crop of short staple at 125 
pounds to the English acre, and 8 acres of this 
cotton, as cultivated by the plough, it will give 
1000 pounds of short staple cotton wool to each 
labourer employed upon it, which for the last 
7 years may have given to the grower a mean 
return of 10 cents to the pound, or 100 dollars 
for the year's work. There are exceptions, 
unquestionably, to these estimates ; a few men 
have received much higher prices for their sea 
island cotton, and a few men have raised much 
larger quantities of both descriptions of cotton 
to the acre than are given, but exceptions can 
never serve as a guide, in conclusions, as to 
either the wealth or productiveness of a whole 
country." 

Mr. Croom, of Middle Florida, thinks Mr. 
Spaukling has made the limits within which 
the sea island cotton may be cultivated too 
narrow. He states that "it has been raised in 
Middle Florida since its first settlement about 
the year 1822; and the crops made here have 
been annually sold in the Charleston market, 
at prices a little exceeding, generally, those of 
the 'Mains and Santees,' though not quite 
equalling good 'sea islands.' Moreover, it is 
produced from the coast to the distance of 30 
miles inland, but, at the same time, it is not 
denied that the presence o{ sea nir is beneficial 
to this crop. If I have not been misinformed, 
this cotton is also produced by the planters on 
the St. John's, in East Florida, and was for- 
merly produced in the Bahamas, until the 
ravages of the caterpillar compelled its aban- 
donment. I think it may be doubted whether 
Mr. Spaukling is correct in the opinion that 
this cotton becomes less fine when carried 
south of the St. Mary's. It is probablv a native 
of a tropical climate, and, therefore, most pro- 
bably would not be less fine when produced in 
the West Indies. I have heard that some of 
this cotton produced at Cape Sable has com- 
manded 50 cents per pound in the Charleston 
market, without unusual care in its growth 
and preparation. 

" In limiting the range of the short staple cot- 
tons to 200 miles of the sea-coast, Mr. Spaul- 
ding appears to have overlooked North Ala- 
bama and West Tennessee. In receding from 
the sea-coast, however, two causes are con- 
stantly operating against the growth of cotton ; 
a higher latitude and a greater elevation, both 
tending to produce a colder climate. To these 
causes may probably be added a third, the loss 
of sea air. Other things being equal, the cot- 
ton planter, therefore, should prefer the neigh- 
bourhood of the sea-coast." 

To Mr. Spaulding's highly interesting ac- 
'"•ount of the cotton culture we shall add some 
further details of a miscellaneous character. 
The quantity of seed sown is usually from 
1 to 2 bushels per acre. This is scattered in 
the rows drawn upon the cotton beds, and 
very lightly covered. It sprouts and comes 
ap in a very few days. If injured from too 
early planting, it seldom recovers from the 
558 



effects, and matures late. When worms or lice 
attack the young plants, it is advisable to stop 
thinning the plants, and replant as quickly as 
possible. The crop is a precarious one. In 
favourable seasons more cotton is sometimes 
raised than can be picked, whilst in others 
there is such a falling off in the product as tc 
leave many hands unemployed, or but par- 
tially so. Much wet weather occurring in the 
spring may lead to serious injury of the young 
plants, and in the latter part of the season the 
same kind of weather may cause the bowls to 
shed or fall off too soon, and thus spoil the 
cotton. The kind called Petit-Gulf, now so 
highly prized by planters in Mississippi and 
some other states, is not only of finer quality, 
but more productive and easily gathered, a 
hand picking 20 lbs. per day more than of the 
ordinary upland kind. But it sheds its bowls 
much sooner, and does not admit of picking 
more than half the usual time of the common 
green seed species, which last is often gathered 
during 4 months of the year. Hence the plant- 
ers in some places put in only a part of the crop 
of Petit-Gulf, reserving another portion of the 
common kind for later gathering. 

The distance between the rows is usually 
regulated by the strength of the soil and capa- 
city for producing vigorous plants. It has 
been recommended as a good rule to place the 
rows on land capable of producing from 10 to 
15 bushels of Indian corn per acre, about 4 feet 
apart; from 15 to 25 bushels per acre, 5 feet; 
from 30 to 50 bushels, 6 feet; 50 to 70 bushels, 
7 and 8 feet. It is important to be in readiness 
to plant as quickly as possible after frosts have 
ceased, one week in the first part of the season 
being considered worth a fortnight in the latter 
part. As soon as the fourth leaf makes its ap- 
pearance, the thinning by hand commences, 
when the plants, if to be cultivated in drills, 
are allowed to stand two and two, from 9 inches 
apart in light land, to 2^ and even 3 feet where 
the ground is strong. When the earth is dry, 
it may be ploughed, and the dirt drawn up to 
the cotton so as to cover and smother the 
young grass. When wet, the grass and earth 
are drawn away from the cotton very gently, 
after which the ground is ploughed and drawn 
up again as soon as sufficiently dry to permiL 
This plan of ploughing and hoeing is followed 
up until the cotton becomes so large as to be 
injured by the passage of the plough, after 
which the earth is chopped over with the hoe 
until the crop is made, of which a judgment 
may be formed by its beginning to open freely 
at the bottom. Ten hands are considered 
enough to cultivate 100 acres of cotton with 
ease ; but if a good crop, it would require at 
least 20 hands to pick it out. 

The advantages derived from substituting 
the plough to the hoe, so generally used in the 
low lands of the old cotton states, are strikingly 
exhibited in the following communication from 
a Georgia planter to the editor of the Farmer's 
Register. We shall only give extracts from the 
article, which may be found in the 6th vol. p. 
269. 

"An emigrant from your own state, and the 
vicinity of your city, formerly engaged in the 
culture of the long-staple cotton on the main 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



lands, conversant with the modes of culture 
prevalent there, and now engaged in growing 
the short cotton upon the plans adopted through- 
out the whole western country, my experience 
has enabled me to detect some of the errors 
formerly practised by myself, and my neigh- 
bours in Carolina. My attention has been 
called to this subject by the perusal of an arti- 
cle in one of your late numbers, signed 'An 
Observer,' giving an account of the crop of E. 
Frost, Esq., in St. Andrew's parish. Mr. Frost, 
it appears, planted, according to the low-coun- 
try system, four acres of cotton to the hand, 
and each hand made 4,000 pounds seed cotton. 
This the writer considers an extraordinary 
production — and, for that region of country, so 
it is. It may safely be predicted that it will not 
soon be equalled by Mr. Frost, or any of his 
neighbours. With hands till lately accustomed 
to the same manner of working, I planted last 
year 10 acres of cotton and 10 of corn to the 
hand. I never had a cleaner crop, and though 
the season was excessively wet, my negroes 
never performed their tasks with greater ease. 
The cotton crop, seriously injured by the worm, 
yielded 800 lbs. to the acre, and 8,000 lbs. to 
the hand. Mr. Frost's land exceeded mine in 
productiveness, yet my crop doubled his. His 
is considered so extraordinary, that it is held 
up as an argument against emigration — mine 
was an ordinary crop, nearly doubled by many 
of my neighbours. But the question to be 
solved is, how is the difference in the results 
obtained 1 

" It IS unquestionably true that the soil and 
climate of the west is better adapted to the 
growth of cotton, — that here a plant of the 
same size, and on a soil of equal strength, will 
send forth and retain a greater number of pods, 
than upon the sea-board. It is equally true 
that the grass will grow as rapidly and as plen- 
tifully in the one place as in the other. The 
difference in the soil and climate has not, how- 
ever, as much influence as is generally ima- 
gined by residents on the sea-board. Would 
they adopt the same management, pursue the 
same modes of culture, which, somewhat modi- 
fied, they unquestionably can, there can be no 
doubt that, though they could not obtain the 
success of the western planter, yet they would 
make some approximation toward it." 

With regard to the management by which 
so large a product was obtained, the judicious 
use of the plough was considered as the chief 
agent. By it the beds were prepared for plant- 
ing, the trenches or drills made, and the seed 
covered. By it the most part of the grass was 
destroyed, and the plant furnished with the 
earth requisite for its support and sustenance. 
By it the use of the hoe was in a great measure 
superseded. " It may," says the writer, " inte- 
rest some of your readers who groan under 
the pressure of their crops of 8 acres of corn 
and cotton to the hand, and whose fears are 
alarmed lest the grass should overrun them, 
to learn how, by the use of the plough, 20 
acres to the hand can be planted, and the 
same crop secured. I will, therefore, give 
you in detail the arrangement of the crop 
on our plantation last year. There were, be- 
sides the regular crop, 75 acres of oats, pota- 



toes, and slips, enough for the use of the planta- 
tion, and about 15 acres of wheat. The planta- 
tion worked 30 hands — 15 at the plough, the 
rest with the hoe. In March, 300 acres were 
planted with corn, on land previously well 
ploughed and checked. In the first week of 
April, 300 acres of cotton were planted. The 
land was prepared by throwing together with 
a turning-plough, in the alleys of old cotton- 
fields, four furrows. Thus bedded, the drills 
were opened with a small scutter, or bull- 
tongue plough, in which the seed was sown ; 
they were covered by a board fastened on the 
plough-stock, in the place of the mould. The 
drilling, planting, and covering occupied four 
days and a half. There was an excellent stand, 
and no replanting necessary. The ploughs and 
hoes then went into the corn-field. These were 
well ploughed and hoed by the time the cotton 
was out of the ground and required work. The 
cotton was four times ploughed, and as often 
hoed, and when laid by in July, a hat would 
have held all the grass that could have been 
found. The corn was twice more ploughed, 
and once hoed. The grass was constantly kept 
down by the ploughs. The daily task of a hoer 
was 100 rows of cotton 100 yards long. The 
first and second hoeings, when the cotton had 
to be chopped out and reduced to a stand, 
proved good, though not severe tasks ; the other 
hoeings were light, and the workers were often 
out of the field by 12 o'clock. The crop was 
well worked, and with ease, by low-country 
hands, who would think it the worst calamity 
that could befall them to be compelled to re- 
turn to the place of their nativity. The mules 
and horses were in as good, if not better, con- 
dition than when the ploughing commenced." 

Picking. — The bowls of cotton mature and 
open about the last of August and beginning 
of September, when the picking commences. 
This is performed by hands, male and female, 
who are provided with osnaburg bags hung 
over the neck and shoulders, into which the 
cotton is placed as fast as picked. These, when 
filled, are emptied into large osnaburg sheets, 
placed in convenient spots. These sheets are 
carried home in the afternoon. The pickers 
are cautioned to guard as much as possible 
against a small leaf, which, when dry, often 
intermixes with the cotton, and never can be 
got rid of, thus injuring the sale. The general 
average in what is called a good opening is 
from 45 to 50 lbs. per day to each hand. The 
freshly picked cotton is first dried upon scaf- 
folds made about 4 feet wide, so as to admit 
of reaching far enough to turn it over with 
ease whilst drying. A cotton-house is at hand 
to receive the cotton in case of rain. After 
being perfectly dried, the short-staple or upland 
cotton is ginned and prepared for market. 

There are several kinds of gins used for 
cleaning the cotton of its abundant seeds, such 
as the Barrel gin, Eves's gin, and Whitney's gin. 
The last is that depended upon for ginning the 
green seed, upland, or short-staple cotton ; the 
long-staple or sea island has still to be pre- 
pared for market by hand, involving tedious 
and expensive operations. Whitney's saw gin, 
for separatign the seed from upland or short- 
staple cotton, is a mill worked by oxen or 
3 A 3 557 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



water. "The teeth in the circular iron plates 
serrated, about three-fourths of an inch apart, 
fixed to a cylinder, draw the cotton wool from 
the seeds, through the openings of iron straps, 
out of the bin and hopper in which the cotton 
is placed. These openings are too narrow to 
suffer the seed to pass. The cotton is brushed 
off the saws by counter-moving brushes on an- 
other cylinder. By an ox gin, 6 to 900 lbs. are 
cleansed in a day. After ginning, the cotton 
is picked of all remaining broken seeds and 
trash, and packed in bags of 250 to 300 lbs." 

Varieties of Cotton. — Besides the Mexican and 
Petit-Gulf, some other kinds have recently ob- 
tained great celebrity in the United States. One 
is called by some the twin, by others the Ald- 
ridge cotton, the first name being derived from 
the peculiar manner in which the branches 
shoot out from the stalk, the second from its 
supposed first introducer. There seems tei be 
some doubt as to the origin of this cotton. The 
advantages claimed for it are, 1st, its being 
better able to stand the effects of drought; 2d, 
not casting the squares however severe this 
may be ; 3d, admitting of very close planting 
in consequence of the great shortness of its 
branches ; 4th, the rapidity of growth and pro- 
ductiveness superior to what is observed in 
common kinds. The advantages of maturing 
early, and thus allowing a longer time for pick- 
ing, is, as before observed, a great desideratum 
to the planter. The superior merits of this 
new variety of cotton caused great competition 
for its seed, which at one time sold for $5 per 
quart, and even 50 cents the single seed. 

A communication in the 7th volume of the 
Farnicr^s Register (p. 252), makes the following 
stalement in relation to this variety, which, 
from a resemblance in its stalk to a member 
of the Hibiscus family, has been called Okra 
cotton. 

" A Mr. Terry, of Autauga county, Alabama, 
some years ago bought some Petit-Gulf seed. 
A single stalk was observed in a field without 
limbs, and having great numbers of bolls ad- 
hering immediately to the stalk, or in clusters 
on very short limbs. The cotton had all been 
picked out except a single lock with nine seeds. 
From these seeds this variety has been propa- 
gated. The seed sold, in 1837, at 50 cents a 
piece. Last fall I bought at $160 a bushel. 
The cotton examined by me exhibited a dis- 
tinct variety. It had rarely any limbs longer 
than one joint, sometimes two; the bolls were 
two, three, and as much as seven in a cluster. 
I had one limb about 4 inches long, with 7 
good bolls opened on it. The stems of all of the 
bolls shooting from one place, at the top of the 
short limb. The cotton was exceedingly fine, 
being, I think, 2 to 4 cents a pound better ; be- 
ing in colour and staple the finest and softest 
short-staple I have ever seen. It opens earlier. 
The field I examined was planted the 20th 
April. A very intelligent gentleman, living in 
the neighbourhood, told me he planted similar 
land on the Istof April, and that the new cotton 
Avas open two weeks earlier than his. It grows 
in good land quite tall, say 6 or 8 feet; and in 
this, I fear, will be the greatest objection to it, 
us it may fall when heavily fruited towards the 
top , but perhaps this may be avoided by top- 
558 



ping. Its advantage to an Alabama planter, 
if it succeeds in rich prairie lands, will be its 
early opening, by which the worm will be 
avoided, a terrible enemy, which has eaten 
up full one-third of my crops for five years. 
The appearance of the stalk is more like 
okra than any other — the leaf being a cottoa 
leaf." 

Another writer in the same periodical, 
speaking of the two new kinds of cotton, says, 
"There are two distinct varieties of twin or 
okra cotton. The one called okra was disco- 
vered in Alabama, in first year's Petit-Gulf 
seed. It grows up generally in one tall stalk, 
sometimes as high as 8 or 9 feet, with very 
short limbs, which are seldom more than 6 or 
8 inches long, and having its bolls in clusters 
of 2 to 7 or more. I have seen 10 blossoms or 
forms in one bunch. Sometimes 1, 2, or 3 
long limbs put out near the ground, turn up- 
wards, and grow parallel to the main stem, 
bearing fruit as it does." 

"The other new variety of cotton is said 
to have been discovered in Chester District. 
It is now somewhat like the Alabama okra, 
without being the same. It is about a half- 
way plant between the okra and Petit-Gulf. I 
have never seen it taller than 4 or 5 feet. Its 
limbs are longer than the okra, and not as long 
as those of the Petit-Gulf. Both kinds have 
twin bolls, but the bolls and blossoms are more 
numerous in the okra. Two bolls on the same 
stem are frequent in both; but it is only on the 
okra that I have seen 3 blossoms within the 
same calyx, or 4, 5, or more bolls in one clus- 
ter. There is also a clearly defined diff'erence ■ 
in the Chester twin, a darker, green, and more 
naked seed. No person who has once seen the 
two plants grov;ing, or the two kinds of seed, 
will ever mistake the one for the other. 

" I am not prepared to say that the Chester 
kind is not a good cotton. I know too little of 
it. The staple is good ; I have seen some stalks 
in gardens very well filled with bolls. 

" To the Alabama okra there is one objec- 
tion, which I think can be easily obviated. It 
grows too tall, and is liable to fall down. The 
remedy is to top it at 44 or 4 feet. The stalk 
grows stronger, the bolls fill up larger, and the 
product is increased by it. As it will bear great 
crowding on the land, the yield will be greater 
than from Petit-Gulf It is, in fact, an im- 
proved Petit-Gulf seed." 

Okra cotton is also called by some Alvarado 
cotton. With regard to its productiveness some 
idea may be gained from the following adver- 
tisement in the Columbia papers, offering for 
sale the seed of this cotton. 

" Dr. J. H. Taylor, from little more than ^ of 
the stand he ought to have had, gathered up- 
wards of 1,200 lbs. per acre. The following is 
an extract of a letter from Dr. Taylor: 'You 
must observe I had not more than ^ of a stand, 
and planted, too, at 5 feet instead of 3, and yet 
I will make about 1,200 lbs. per acre. I believe 
it capable, on the same land, of yielding 5,000 
lbs., planted at 5 feet in double rows. If I live 
another year, I will try 100 acres in that way.' 
Mr. F. M. Gilmer, of Montgomery, Alabama, 
from as bad a stand, gathered 1,400 lbs. to the 
acre. Mr. C. T. Billingslea, of Bibb county 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



Alabama, from } of an acre gathered 1,060 lbs., 
and expected 200 lbs. more. Mr. Aldridge, 
who first cultivated th'Ncotton, it is said raised 
3,000 lbs. per acre this year, and refused 
§.30,000 for his crop of 30 acres. Dr. J. H. 
Taylor, from 22,000 lbs. of seed cotton, ginned 
13 bales of 600 lbs. average, or 35 lbs. of clean 
to 100 of seed cotton. Jesse P. Taylor, well 
known here, weighed 425 lbs. of Petit-Gulf and 
the same of okra in the seed, and ginned each; 
the result was 124 lbs. of ginned Petit-Gulf, or 
29 lbs. to the 100, and of okra 156 lbs., or 36^ 
to each 100 lbs. of seed cotton. The staple is 
decidedly finer." 

The price of the seed here offered for sale is 
i&lOO per bushel, $20 per gallon, and $5 per 
quart; which are stated to be the Alabama 
prices. 

Defects in Cotton as prepared for the Manufac- 
turer. — The cotton manufacturers in England 
having met with cert3.m defects in the sea-island 
or long-staple cotton, which they thought might 
be remedied by proper attention in the primary 
manipulation, have recently addressed a com- 
munication on the subject to Messrs. Browns 
and Welsman, extensive cotton importers in 
Liverpool, to be forwarded by them to the 
planters in the United States. From this we 
extract portions which indicate the defects 
complained of, as well as the qualities most 
desired by the manufacturer, to ail which it 
may be the interest of the producers to give 
attention, especially since the competition 
which has sprung up in other parts of the 
world. The Manchester manufacturers say, 

" We have often, in conversation with you, 
expressed our regret that the growers of fine 
sea islands, in so many instances, injured their 
cotton by stringing and matting it in the getting 
up; and in hope of drawing their attention to 
the subject through the medium of your house, 
we beg to trouble you with the following ob- 
servations. 

" Fine cotton yarn is esteemed in proportion 
as the thread is uniform in substance, free 
from lumps, and strong. The latter has been 
decidedly improved by the introduction of the 
select seed cotton; but the levelness of the 
thread has been impaired rather than other- 
wise, and this arises from the multitude of 
small white specks, or nitters, with which the 
staple of the finer and softer kinds of sea- 
;slands, and the select cotton seed particularly 
abounds, 

" In examining these nitters through a mi- 
croscope, we find them in general composed 
of kinds of fibres, presenting an appearance 
much resembling the misletoe plant in this 
country, and for some time we feared they 
were excrescences peculiar to the fine fibre, 
and inseparable from it; but the two recent 
samples of beautifully fine select seed cotton, 
sent us by you, are so free from this defect, 
that we have now a strong impression they are 
chiefly produced by an ovcrhandling in the get- 
ling up; at least we can multiply such nitters 
here, by mismanagement in the cleaning pro- 
cess ; and we have no doubt the same effect is 
produced in America. We would, therefore, 
strongly urge the planter's attention to this 
point; for in all cotton goods, such as g\uze, 



muslins, and laces, it takes immensely from 
their value and beauty, and limits the use of 
the finer yarns, which are chiefly used for 
these articles. As an instance of this, we may 
state, that one of our customers informs us he 
frequently pays from 9d. to Is. per yard, upon 
his finest muslins, for picking out the nitters 
one by one with a needle, after the goods are 
woven — an expense which is equal to from 
10s. to 30s. upon each pound weight of muslin. 
Our experience has proved that the softer and 
more silky the staple, the more easily it is nit- 
tered; and, as the spinners possess no means 
by which nitters can be removed from the cot- 
ton when once formed, the only means of re- 
medying the evil is to prevent their formation. 

"To this point, therefore, the attention of the 
grower should be strongly directed. ^11 unne- 
cessary handling, whipping, tossing, or shaking of 
the cotton ought to be avoided. It should be as 
well cleaned as possible, but yet free from 
stringiness, and the fibres be left in the loose 
and disentangled state they appear when just 
separated from the seed. If this were attended 
to, it would materially improve the appearance 
of fine yarn, and remove the never-ceasing 
complaints of the fine muslin manufacturers, 
and, we are persuaded, tend to increase the 
consumption of fine cotton goods." 

The committee to whom this letter was re- 
ferred reported: — "That the matter to which 
their notice had been directed is one of deep 
importance to the grower of that valuable 
staple production. If, in consequence of his 
neglect or want of skill, a pound of mus- 
lin, which would otherwise command its full 
price, is depreciated from 10 to 30 shillings, 
duty and interest obviously impel him to the 
providing of a remedy at once prompt and 
efficient. 

"Through the politeness of Messrs. Browns 
and Welsman, three samples of cotton, being 
specimens forwarded from Manchester, were 
received from Messrs. Gourdin, Matthiessen 
& Co. These samples are endorsed as fol- 
lows: — 'No. 1, illy got up and nittered;' 'No. 
2, illy got up and partially open;' 'No. 3, well 
got up.' In examining the 'nitters' in No. 1, 
through a microscope that magnified one thou- 
sand times, they were discovered to be, in ge- 
neral, of a globular form, and to consist of fila- 
ments of cotton, with interstices of various dia- 
meters, readily reducible in size by pulling the 
long threads attached to the mass. This, how- 
ever, could not always be done, as the knot of 
fibres constituting the nitter was in many in- 
stances too strongly formed. The committee 
next proceeded to the examination of samples 
of seed cotton. In about a pound, personally 
gathered by one of them, from fully matured 
pods, produced from healthy plants, no nitters 
were observed. In the same quantity picked 
from diseased stalks, which bore defective fruit, 
several were seen. These were subjected to 
the test of the microscope, and precisely the 
appearance that characterized those taken from 
the ginned cotton in No. 1 was exhibited. Re- 
peated inspections since have produced no 
marked variation in the general results. The 
committee, therefore, with confidence deduce 
the inference, that preparation, except perhaps 

559 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



in the isolated instance hereafter to be noticed, 
is not the cause of the nitter. In confirmation 
of the opinion, putting aside the conclusive 
facts adduced, the different processes through 
which the cotton passes, whilst in the hands 
of the planter, need only to be briefly adverted 
to. After the stained is separated from the 
white, the latter is thrown, in small parcels, 
into a whipper, in order to extract the dirt and 
to throw off the short and weak fibres, which, 
if allowed to remain, would detract very mate- 
rially from the value of the crop. This ma- 
chine, constructed of wood, with round wooden 
teeth, is turned by the hand. Unless the door 
of the whipper be closed, which is never done, 
the egress of the cotton is quickly effected. 
After this operation the cotton is ginned, and 
then taken to the moting-house, where, on a 
frame of wood-work, it is gently shaken and 
partially opened by the hand. When clean, it 
is received by the packer, who, with a wooden 
instrument, compresses it into a bag, weighing, 
when finished, from 300 to 400 lbs. In these 
various but necessary modes of treatment, in 
not one of which any violence is used, the com- 
mittee feel persuaded that the staple sustains 
no injury whatever. It is well known that 
every description of cotton, except the finest 
qualities of sea island, before it is converted 
into fabrics, is subjected to numerous opera- 
tions, all of which arc performed by machinery. 
From the willow, which, by its revolving spikes, 
tears open the matted masses, succeeded by 
the scutching machine, in which the cotton is 
beaten by metallic blades, revolving on an axis 
at the speed of from 4000 to 7000 revolutions 
in a minute, other machines with iron fingers, 
teeth, and wheels, follow, so that it may almost 
be said that, without the aid of human hands, 
the vegetable wool 'is opened, cleaned, spread, 
carded, drawn, roved, spun, wound, warped, 
dressed, and woven.' 

"Now, although it is represented that the 
superior qualities of black-seed cotton are not 
thus wrongly treated, yet, as they are 'opened 
and cleaned by being placed upon cords 
stretched on a wooden frame, and then beaten 
by women with smooth switches,' the commit- 
tee are at no loss to perceive how the com- 
plaints of the manufacturers by their own act 
may be increased. This last mode of cleans- 
ing the raw material was very generally pur- 
sued by the planter a few years ago. Were he 
now to resume that ready method of preparing 
his crop for market, he is satisfied that, whilst 
his lime and labour would be saved, the fabri- 
cation of fine goods would be likely to incur an 
additional expense of no ordinary magnitude. 
By using switches, it is nearly certain that the 
weak fibres are broken into minute parts, and, 
with the naturally short and rotten, intermix 
and become entangled. Although, therefore, 
the imperfection of the staple, which is the 
special subject of this report, is undeniably 
common to the cotton plant under peculiar cir- 
cumstances, the committee incline to the opi- 
nion that that imperfection can be created by 
cirtificial means, and, from experiments insti- 
tuted by them, is engendered by the different 
processes through which the cotton goes in its 
conversion into cloth, as already particularly 
560 



described. That the nitter, however, is occa- 
sionally formed through the want of foresight 
on the part of the planter, when his crop, from 
adverse seasons or other causes, is defective 
in texture, is highly probable. The filaments 
of unripe cotton are transparent, cylindrical 
tubes. When ripe, even before the capsule 
bursts, the tubes collapse in the middle, form- 
ing semi-tubes on each side, which give to the 
fibre, says Mr. Baines, in his able treatise on 
the cotton manufacture of Great Britain, when 
viewed in certain lights, the appearance of a 
flat riband, with a hem or border at each edge. 

"The twisted and cork-screw form of the 
filament of cotton distinguishes it from all other 
vegetable fibres, and is characteristic of the 
fully ripe and mature pod. This form and 
character the fibres retain ever after, and, in 
that respect, undergo no change through the 
operations of spinning, weaving, bleaching, 
printing, and dyeing, nor in all the subsequent 
domestic operations of washing, &c. &c., till 
the stuff is worn to rags, and then even the vio- 
lent process of reducing those rags to pulp for 
the purpose of making paper effects no change 
in the structure of these fibres. From the dif- 
ference between the elementary fibres of cotton 
and flax, the latter being transparent tubes, 
cylindrical, and articulated or jointed like a 
cane, it has been incontestably proved that the 
mummy cloth of Egypt was linen. 

"Unripe cotton is finer than that which has 
attained its full age, but is deficient in the 
other essential attributes of a perfect staple, 
strength and length. Some of the filaments, 
indeed, are not the eighth of an inch long, and 
until several days after the opening of the cap- 
sule are found doubled or curled, full of watery 
and oleaginous particles; the cotton is wet to 
the touch, and is of a brown hue. In this state, 
unless dried in the sun, it becomes more or 
less mouldy; the superfluous oil from the seed, 
which ought to have escaped, is diffused 
through the mass; the colour soon changes; 
heat is generated; and the staple, originally 
strong, is quickly perceived to be materially 
affected. Hence it is not surprising that in 
immature cotton, distinguished, as it is known 
to be, for its delicacy of texture, variableness 
in length, and want of pliability, when subject- 
ed to the mildest mode of treatment to free it 
from extraneous matter, the threads should 
cross and mix with each other, thus forming 
artificial nitters. Within a few years, the ac- 
tion of the sun, with a view to the dessication 
of the wool, has been sedulously avoided by 
perhaps a majority of our planters. The daily 
gatherings are spread in houses, or under scaf- 
folds erected for the purpose, and thus the dry- 
ing process, if a few exposures in that way^is 
worthy of this appellation, is conducted. That 
the practice is radically wrong, for the reasons 
already assigned, the committee firmly believe. 
Damp cotton, also, can neither be ginned nor 
cleaned but with difficulty; this of itself is a 
serious objection, to which may be added the 
indubitable fact that, from its too unctuous 
properties, the floating dust of the atmosphere 
tends to its discoloration. 

" From these observations it will appear that 
nitters are either natural or artificial, and that 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM. 



both are primarily to be traced to a defective 
staple, arising from diseased plants ; that the 
artificial nilter may be generated even by the 
common method of preparation, unless the cot- 
ton be judiciously dried ; and that the means 
to which the manufacturer is obliged to resort 
are evidently calculated to bring about the 
same results. 

"Of these samples, Nos. 1 and 2, which are 
'illy got up,' are lumpy and stringy, of a deep 
)'ellow tinge, and weak and uneven in fibre. 
The cottons from which these are taken, it is 
likely, were never dried ; it is still more pro- 
bable that they were the produce of a scanty 
harvest. No. 3 is of natural colour, open, and 
in texture strong and long. It is necessary 
here to remark, that the stringy appearance of 
cotton is not always, or even mainly, the fault 
of the planter. It arises principally from the 
same cause to which the nitter is referable: 
the imperfectness of the staple, or the imma- 
turity of the fruit. This was especially true 
the last year. 

"To two considerations, pertinent to the 
matter under review, it may be proper to ad- 
vert. In every field, no matter under what 
sinister circumstances the crop has grown, 
there are small sections in which the plants 
come to perfection and bear healthy fruit. 
From these the cotton that is picked is marked 
perhaps by every characteristic of the best 
staple, yet, almost from necessity, it is thrown 
into the general bulk. Again, in harvest sea- 
son the labourer cannot stop to examine, if he 
had the ability to know, the variant qualities 
of the cotton he is engaged in gathering, but 
promiscuously the bad, the fair, and the good 
are blended. This is unavoidable. Subse- 
quently the stained is separated from the white, 
but the weak and strong continue together; a 
part only of the most deficient of the former 
being afterwards detached by the whipper. 

"On the immediate topic of inquiry, the com- 
mittee ask leave to conclude with the follow- 
ing suggestions : — 

" I. The necessity of drying cotton in the 
sun for 3 or 4 hours, as its dampness may 
seem to indicate. 

" 2. Select seed for planting, not with a view 
to superiority of staple, but the production of 
sound cotton. For that purpose, choose from 
healthy stalks those pods that are fidly Mown. 

" 3. The first pickings should be set apart, 
and not mixed with the general crop. The fibre 
is weak and short. The same course ougnt to 
be pursued with cottons gathered after a storm 
or much rain. 

" 4. Cotton ought to be thoroughly cleansed 
before it is carried to the gin. If it be well 
done the after-labour will be trifling, and the 
fault of over-handling avoided. Too much 
pressure on the roller gives to the cotton a 
matted appearance; if the pressure is unequal, 
it will be stringy. 

" Before closing this report, the committee 
would offer a few reflections, not irrelevant, 
they trust, to the occasion. For many years 
the sea island crop has scarcely repaid the toil 
and perseverance incurred in its production. 
From highly unpropitious seasons, the ravages 
of worms, and the cultivation of a plant pecu- 
71 



liarly delicate and unfruitful, it may in verity 
be said that it is annually a subject of congra- 
tulation with the planter if his necessary ex- 
penditures do not exceed his profits. Except 
1826, when the exportation was about 6,000,000 
lbs., from 1833 to 1835 inclusive the produc- 
tion was less by from 1 to 7,000,000 than at 
any former period since 1821. 

Number of pounds of sea island cotton exported in 
1821 - 11,344,066 1829 - 12,833,307 

1S22 - 11,250,634 1830 - 8,147,165 

1823 - 12,136,688 1831 - 8,311,762 

1824 - 9,525,722 1832 - 8,743,373 

1825 - 9,655,278 1833 

1S26 - 5,972,852 1834 - 8,085,935 

1827 - 15,140,798 1835 - 7,755,736 

1828 - 11,288,419 

" From these facts, added to the wonderful 
machinery which enables a workman now to 
perform the work required of 2 or 300 men 60 
years ago, the increase of population in those 
countries where the finest goods are used, and 
the decrease in the rates of duties in Great Bri- 
tain, it was reasonable to infer that an aug- 
mentation of price, in some measure propor- 
tional to the diminished production, would have 
taken place. From 1821 to 1829 inclusive,, 
when the average export was 11,016,418 lbs., 
the average price in Liverpool was 19rf. From 
1830 to 1835 (excluding 1833, the export of 
which year is unknown to the committee), 
when the average export was reduced to 
8,208,194 lbs., the average price was as low 
as ll^d. 



1830, Hi to 20i. I6rf. 

1831, 9i 18 131 

1832, 9i 18 13f 

1833, lOi 22 16A 

1834, 13^ 26 19} 

1835, 14 33 24A 

1836, 14 36 25 

1837, 12 40 26 



182!, 12i to 30d. 21irf. 

1522, 10 28 19 

1523, U 24 17i 

1824, lU 27 191 

1825, 15 42 28i 

1826, 10 30 20 
1S27, 9 J 20 14i 

1828, 10 22 16 

1829, 9 21 15 
2^. \\d. percwt. In 1821 the duty was 6 per cent, ad val. 

"The table from which the above (to 1833) 
is taken, was published in 1833, by Messrs. 
George Holt & Co., of Liverpool. It exhibits 
the extreme prices of cotton and wool in that 
place from 1806 to 1835 inclusive. The state- 
ment of prices from 1834 to 1836 inclusive, is 
extracted from a Liverpool circular, published 
in January last. The difference between the 
extreme prices has been assumed as the me- 
dium price. What the average price really 
was cannot with certainty be stated. 

"The long staple is generally used for the 
twist or warp, and the short staple for the weft- 
In this way, the black seed is made to partici- 
pate in the changes which, no matter from what 
cause, mark the market value of the green seed. 
This, perhaps, is the strongest reason why 
a more decided inequality in price between 
the fine and superfine qualities of long staple 
cotton ought to exist, to which may be added 
the variety of uses to which the former, alont, 
or mixed, is applicable. From these conside 
rations it is apparent that, in relation to those- 
two descriptions of vegetable wool, the one is 
really worth from two to three-fold more than 
the other, instead of from 30 to 50 per cent., 
which continues to be paid. 

" One pound of cotton usually makes 8 yards 
of coarse muslin, and is then increased in value 
from the raw cotton eight-fold. But, if spun ii; 

561 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GOSSYPIUM, 



the finest yarn, it is worth 5 guineas, and in 
1780, if woven into muslin and tamboured, was 
worth 15/. It may now be converted into a 
piece of lace worth 100 guineas. — Report of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, 1836. 
"The finest quality of sea island cotton, re- 



marks Mr. Baines, in ordinary states of the 
market, is worth three times as much as the 
common quality of the same class. The va- 
rieties in quality in most of the other denomi- 
nations is from 20 to 25 per cent., and in none 
of them is more than 50 per cent. 



The following Table, taken from the Liverpool Price Current, under date of December 9, 1842, is mb- 
joined, as shouring the comparative prices of cotton from different countries, and the sections of the 
globe where the staple is cultivated. 



190 

30 

5,740 

4,440 [ 

7,220 

70[ 

230 

l,18o| 

470 
60 



10 

3,400 

100 



Sales of the week. 



23,150 



Sea Island . - - 
Stained - - - - 
Bowed, Georgia 
Mobile - - - - 
Alabama and Tennessee 
New Orleans - - - 
Pernambuco and Parubia 
Aravati and Ceara - 
Bahia and Mario - 
Maranham ... 
Saw-ginned do. 
Egyptian ... 

Peruvian ... 
Laguayra ... 
Common West India 
Carthagena ... 
Sural .... 
Madras - . - - 



Ordinary to middling. 


Fair to good fair. 


Good to fair. 


d. d. 


d. d. 


d. d. 


8i to 9J 


A to 13 


17 to 21 


4 to 5A 


6 to 6A 


7 to 8 


4 to 4J 


5i to 5| 


5f to 6 


4 to 5 


5i to 5i 


5J to 6i 


3J to 5| 


4f to — 




4 to 6 


51 to 5f 


6 to 7 


6i to 6J 


7 to 7i 


7i to 71 


fii to 4i 


6| to 6J 




6 to 6i 


6i to 6| 


61 to — 


5i to 5J 


6 to 6i 


6i to — 


5 to 5i 


5A to 5| 




6i to 6i 


6J to 7 


8 to 9 


4? to 5 


51 to 5J 


6 to 6i 


4^ to a 


5i to 5i 




4k to 5 


5i to 5i 


6 to — 


3J to 3J 


4 to 4i 


4i to 4J 


3i to 3^ 


4 to 4i 


4i to 4i 


H to 3i 


3| to 4 


4i to 4i 



Diseases and Accidents to which Cotton is sub' 
jcrt. — The cotton crop is not only rendered very 
uncertain from the effects of the weather, but 
frequently suffers the most serious injury from 
the depredations of insects. The most fatal 
enemy of the cotton crop in Georgia, Alabama, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, is a disease 
called the rot, which has been thus described 
by Mr. Troup, in th«' 1st volume of the Jlmeri- 
can Farmer. " The first indication is seen in a 
small circular spot on the outside of the bowl, 
exhibiting a darker green than the circumjacent 
parts, as if a globule of water had dropped 
■upon it and been absorbed. Many of these are 
frequently seen at the same time on the same 
bowl. They spread themselves sometimes 
faster, sometimes slower, as if influenced 
either by the state of the atmosphere, or con- 
dition of the plant ; changing colour as they 
■progress, until they assume a dark brown ap- 
'proachingto black, and until tne whole exterior 
is affected in like manner, or until it receives 
from some cause a sudden check, and then 
this appearance is only partial. In the first 
case, the disease has penetrated to the centre 
of the fruit, the fermentation is complete and 
universal, and is seen in a frothy white liquid, 
thrown out on the surface. Putrefaction fol- 
lows, and the destruction of the seed and im- 
mature wool being finished, nothing is left but 
the rind or exterior coating of the bowl, which, 
exhausted of its juices, hardens and turns 
black, and thus terminates the process. In the 
<jther case (that of suddenly checked disease), 
the interior of the bowl, in some instances, 
remains unhurt ; in others, is only partially in- 
jured, and in this last case, the pods remaining 
unhurt, mature and expand. This, however, 
rarely happens, as the disease is wonderfully 
capricious, going and coming unaccountably; 
attacking at one time with more, at another 
with less violence : so that the fruit which es- 
capes entire destruction on the first attack, 
562 



may fall a victim to the second. Nor is this 
capriciousness justly attributable to changes 
in the atmosphere; its origin even does not 
seem to have any connection with weather. 
The year 1817, when rot first appeared, was 
one of remarkable wet. The year 1818, one 
of remarkable drought. The rot in 1818 was 
both more general and more destructive than 
that of 1817. In 1819, which has been as the 
planters say, a seasonable year, there is more 
rot discoverable than at the same time of any 
preceding year, and there is every probability 
that it will be both more general and more de- 
structive. In the same season too, according 
to my observation, it is in no degree influenced 
by it — for instance, this year it showed itself 
in my neighbourhood in the most alarming 
manner for the first time, when the corn and 
cotton had begun to suffer from a dry spell of 
two or three weeks. I have known it to stop 
for a considerable time in very wet weather, 
and to recommence its progress after the rains 
had ceased. It is earlier in its appearance 
this year than before, and I believe earlier the 
last year than the preceding. This disease 
attacking at different limes with different de- 
grees of violence, I will not hazard the asser- 
tion that its cause is uniformly distinguished 
by the same appearances. The first indication 
in very many cases is a dark brown or black 
spot on the bowl ; in others, the whole exterior 
of the bowl seems to have passed at the same 
time from the green to the dark brown, and is 
saturated with moisture, and whilst it is evi- 
dently suffering the process of fermentation, 
will open and deliver the wool uninjured. It is 
the same disease, exhibiting different features 
as it rages with greater or less degree of acri- 
mony. It attacks the bowl in every stage from 
the first formation to that stage of its perfection 
which immediately precedes developement. 

" It has visited all varieties of soil and treated 
all alike. I do not mean that every plantation, 



GOSSYPIUM. 



GRAFTING. 



or that every district of country, shared, in 
equal degree, the evils of this visitation. Some 
have escaped with more or less injury ; but I 
am inclined to think that these who have es- 
caped with least, will have their turn. The 
mode of cultivation makes no difference. There 
are two modes, the close and the thick-set. The 
last has become fashionable of late ; but I have 
seen the isolated plant and the one environed 
by the branches and overshadowed by the top 
of its neighbours, equally afflicted. 

" I think you will conclude from the forego- 
ing statement that rain or sunshine, hill or dale 
soil, whatever the predominant earth, cultiva- 
tion whatever the mode, stop not its march. 
We recur, therefore, to the existing controversy. 
Is insect or constitutional disorder of the plant 
the cause of rot? If insect, would they not be 
seen in great numbers and where their ravages 
are greatest 1 I have examined fields most in- 
jured by rot, and could never make any disco- 
very of them ; besides, the year of drought is 
the year of insect — the rot made its appear- 
ance in a year of wet — since that, it seems not 
to have been affected by either wet or drought." 

There are some who think that the rot in 
cotton is neither a constitutional disease of 
the plant nor the result of destructive insects 
attacking the pod, but that the true cause is a 
fungus production or parasite, similar to that 
which produces the mildew, rust, and blight in 
wheat. As yet no remedy for this evil has 
been found deserving confidence, unless it be 
the substitution of the Petit-Gulf variety, which 
is confidently asserted to answer the purpose, 
by a correspondent of the Farmer^s Register, 
who had given a two years' trial with perfect 
success. (Vol. ii. p. 548.) He believes the rot 
— which, he says, is most prevalent m rainy 
seasons, and in humid slates of the atmo- 
sphere — is the result of insect depredation, and 
thinks the new kind of cotton not agreeable to 
the insect. 

The upland cotton is sometimes very much 
injured by a disease called the rust, and also 
suffers from the depredations of a greenish 
caterpillar which eats into the bowl and causes 
great destruction. The Mexican cotton was 
introduced mainly with the hope of its resist- 
ing the ravages of the caterpillar. The cotton 
whilst young is also apt to be infested with 
plant lice (Jlpkidians). The remedies adopted 
against these are of the most opposite kinds, 
namely, allowing the grass to grow for the 
tvurpose of inviting the insects from the cotton, 
Br working and cleaning the ground with extra 
attention. 

The cotton planters of Upper Mississippi do 
not suffer much from the rot, the caterpillar, 
or the rust, the greatest enemies of their crops 
being the louse, snails and slugs, and a disease 
of the stem of the plant commonly known by 
the homely name of sore-shin. This comes on 
when the plants are small and only have the 
third leaf, and is supposed to be the effect of 
wet weather and heavy, packing rains. In 
Louisiana the planters complain of their losses 
from the rot, rust, boll-worm, army-worm, and 
rains. Such are some of the difficulties, in 
addition to those commonly met with from 
atmospheric agencies, against which the cotton 



crop in the United States has to contend, and 
by which it is rendered exceedingly precarious. 
A rich oil has recently been expressed from 
cotton seed, and a residuum or cake obtained, 
which promise to give an additional value to 
this already profitable crop. A patent machine 
has been invented by Mr. R. Burn, which 
entirely removes the cotton usually closely ad- 
hering to the seeds, thus putting them in the 
most favourable state for expression, and the 
production of the cake. Chemical analysis 
made of this case, shows it little if any inferior, 
in the amount of its feeding and fertilizing 
qualities, to linseed or rape cake; the propor- 
tion of oil being 9-08 per cent.; sugar 10-70; 
albuminous compounds (nitrogen =3-95) 24-69; 
the ash amounts to 5-64 per cent., and contains 
of silica 1-32; phosphates 2-19 ; excess of phos- 
phoric acid 0-15. The oil-cake from cotton seed 
would thus appear to be a very important sojb- 
stance to the farmer, whilst the oil must become 
a new source of profit to the planter. In the 
East Indies, where the poor and badly cultivated 
cotton yields only 2 lbs. of seed to 1 lb. of cotton, 
the seed sells for feeding cattle, at 4^. the 
kiilsee, ( = 6661bs.) The quantity of seed ob- 
tained from good American cotton, is If to 2|, 
for each pound of cotton. See Oil-cake, and 
Rape. 

GOURD [Lageiian'a vulgaris, calabash). The 
gourd family flourish well in the United States 
in the open air, and the several varieties make 
up a large amount of the produce of the gar- 
dens and farms. The large bottle gourds are 
extremely useful among the country people, by 
whom they are used as dippers. Some of them 
are so large as to hold nearly a gallon. They 
are light, and with good usage may last for 
months and even for several years. If, after a 
few gourds have set, the ends are pinched off 
the vines, the gourds will grow larger and bet- 
ter. Some kinds of gourds are cultivated for 
their beauty. The fruit of the bi-coloured va- 
riety is small and very pretty, deep green on 
one side and yellow on the other. There are 
several other varieties, distinguished by the 
shape and appearance of the fruit. It is be- 
lieved, says Dr. Darlington, that there are no 
native species of gourd in the United States, 
though the plant is said to have been cultivated 
by the aborigines, from time immemorial. (Flora 
Cestrica.) 

GRAFTING. The operation of affixing a 
portion of one plant upon another, so as to pro- 
duce a vital union between them, has been 
practised from the most remote antiquity. In ge- 
neral, all the species of one genus or tribe may be 
grafted on another reciprocally ; but in choosing 
the stock or stem the nearer the affinity of this 
to the species from whence the scion comes, the 
better. The grafted plant consists of a stock or 
stem rooted in the ground, and the scion or 
graft, consisting of the detached portion of an- 
other plant, to be affixed to it. This operation 
affords the means of multiplying and perpetuating 
all our best varieties of fruit trees, and many 
kinds of trees and shrubs not so conveniently 
propagated by other means. Varieties of fruits 
are originally procured by selection from plants 
raised from seed, hut they can only be perpe- 
tuated by some mode which continues the in- 
dividual; and though this may be done by 
cuttings and layers, yet by far the most eligib^« 

.W3 



GRAFTING. 



GRAIN. 



mode is by grafting, as it produces stronger 
plants in a shorter time than any other me- 
thods. Grafting is performed in a great many 
diff'-rent ways; but the most eligible for ordi- , 
nary purposes is what is commonly called : 
splice-grafting, whip-grafting, or tongue-graft- 
ing. In executing this mode, both the scion 
and the stock are pared down in a slanting 
direction ; afterwards applied together, and 
made fast with strands of bass matting, in the 
same manner as two pieces of rod are spliced 
together to form a whiphandle. To insure 
success, it is essentially necessary that the al- 
burnum, or inner bark of the scion, should 
coincide accurately with the inner bark of the 
stock ; because the vital union is effected by 
the sap of the stock rising up through the soft 
wood of the scion. After the scion is tied to 
the stock, the graft is said to be made ; and it 
only remains to cover the part tied with a mass 
of tempered clay, or any convenient composi- 
tion that will exclude the air. Some of the 
other modes practised are termed cleft, or slit- 
grafting, crown-grafting, cheek-grafting, side- 
grafting, and grafting by approach, or in- 
arching. 

The season for performing the operation is, 
fi-v all deciduous trees and shrubs, the spring, 
immediately before the movement of the sap. 
The spring is also the most favourable period 
for evergreens : but the sap in this class of 
plants being more in motion during winter 
than that of deciduous plants, grafting, if 
thought necessary, might be performed at that 
season. 

Grafting Tiviber Trees. — The oak, ash, horn- 
beam," and hazel, may he grafted, but there is a 
little difficulty in grafting some of the hard- 
wood trees. On the oak may be worked its 
striped-leaved variety of peduncidata, and the 
varieties of scssiliflora. The lucombe, and 
other oaks of that kind, require to have the 
Turkey oak for a stock ; and the evergreen, or 
Ilex oaks, must have their own species. The 
common ash will take with the omus, and any 
of the hardy varieties of true ashes, such as 
the Chinese and entire-leaved. The hornbeam 
may be used as a stock for Carpimis oricntalis, 
and the cut-leaved sort ; but the scions must be 
from two years old wood. The purple-leaved 
hazel may be grafted on the hazel stocks. 

Grafting by approach, or inarching, is a mode 
of grafting, in which, to make sure of success, 
the scion is not separated from the parent 
plant till it has bf come united with the stock. 
Inarching is chiefly practised with oranges, 
myrtles, jasmines, walnuts, firs, &c., which 
do not flourish by the common mode of grafl- 

Grafling herbaceous plants differs in nothing 
Irom grafting such as are of a woody nature, 
excepting that this operation is performed when 
both otock and scion are in a state of vigorous 
growtn. The only useful purpose to which 
this mode has been hitherto applied is, that of 
grafting the finer kinds of dahlias on tubers of 
the more common and vigorous-growing sorts. 
In the Paris gardens, the tomato is sometimes 
grafted on the potato, the cauliflower on the 
borocole, and one gourd on another, as matter 
of curicsity. 
564 



Grafting the herbaceous shoots of leoody plants 
is scarcely known among English gardeners ; 
but it has been extensively employed by French 
nurserymen, and even in some of the royal 
forests of France. The scions are formed of 
the points of growing shoots ; and the stocks 
are also the points of growing shoots, cut or 
broken over an inch or two below the point, 
where the shoot is as brittle as asparagus. 
The operation is performed in the clef* manner; 
that is, by cutting the lower end of the scion 
in the form of a wedge, and inserting it in a 
cleft or slit made down the middle of the stock. 
The finer kinds of azaleas, pines, and firs, are 
propagated in this way in the French nurse- 
ries ; and thousands of Pinus larix have been 
so grafted on Pinus sylvestris in the forest of 
Fontainebleau. At Hopetoun House, near 
Edinburgh, this mode of grafting has been 
successfully practised with Abies Sniithiana, 
the stock being the common spruce fir. 
{Brande's Diet, of Science.) 

GRAIN (French graine ; Ital. gran ; Norv. 
grioH, corn). The general name of all kinds 
of corn. See Wheat, Maize, Oats, Baiilet, 
ConN-LAWs, &c. It means, in another sense, 
the seed of any fruit, the direction of the fibres 
of wood, «Stc. ; the form of the surface, with 
regard to roughness or smoothness ; or a mi- 
nute particle. In this article 1 have only to 
insert those facts with regard to grain that 
could not be well included under other heads. 
It has been calculated that the total consump- 
tion of wheat and other grain in the United 
Kingdom is, in a year — of wheat 12,000,000 
quarters, and of other grain 40,000,000 quar- 
ters, equal to 52,000,000 quarters, or per day 
154,762 quarters. (Quart. Jnurn. of Jlgr. vol. 
iii. p. 1063). Of this about 25,000.000 bushels 
of barley are consumed in malt by the brew- 
eries and distilleries. 

Dr. Colquhoun has calculated that the an- 
nual consumption of grain in England by each 
person is as follows : — 

Average of 
Species of ^in each person. 

Wheat . - ... 1 quarter. 

Barley \i 

Oats ...... \\ 

Rye ..... li 

Beans and Peas - - - 1 

The second Fiar Prices of Grain per imperial 
Quarter for the County of Haddington from 
1647 (at Intei-vals of Ten Years) to 1829, 



Year. 


• Wheal. 


Barley. 


OatJ. ) 




L. J. 


d. 


L. 


, 


d. 


X. 


, 


d 


1647 


1 13 


4i 





16 


Oi 





13 


P- 


1650 


2 4 


8* 


1 


13 


Of 


1 


4 


( 


1660 


1 10 


Oi 





15 


2^ 





12 




1070 


18 


lOi 





11 


5i 





9 


u 


1660 


1 


Oi 





11 


5^ 





8 


I 


1690 


1 8 


8^ 





18 


11* 





12 


n 


1700 


1 10 


0^ 





19 


n 





12 


2i 


1710 


1 5 


8i 





17 


2 





12 


11 


1720 


1 2 


H 





15 


n 





10 


91 


1730 


1 4 


4^ 





11 


5i 





10 


H 


1740 


2 


Oi 


1 


2 


m 





18 


3i 


1750 


1 5 


m 





13 


2 





11 


101 


1760 


1 4 


01 





11 


2^ 





9 


10 


1770 


1 12 


01 





18 


9i 





15 


6J 


1780 


1 18 


0} 





19 


\i 





15 


n 


1790 


2 5 


6i 


1 


3 


7 





19 


6| 


1800 


6 6 


H 


3 


4 


6 


2 


8 


111 


1810 


4 1 


H 


2 


1 


3i 


1 


8 


10 


1820 


3 1 


5i 


1 


8 


10 


1 


3 


6 



GRAINS. 



GRAIN-WEEVIL. 



Average Price of Grain per Quarter in England 
and Wales, for Twenly Years, ending 1840. 



Year. 


Whi'al. 


Bar 


ey. 


On 


s. 


Beans. 


Peas. 




s. 


d. 


J 


d. 


, 


d. 


, 


d. 


, 


d. 


1821 


56 


-> 


26 





19 


6 


30 


11 


32 


9 


1822 


44 


7 


21 


11 


18 


2 


24 


6 


26 


5 


1893 


53 


5 


31 


7 


22 


11 


33 


1 


35 





1824 


64 





36 


5 


24 


10 


40 


10 


40 


8 


1825 


68 


7 


40 


1 


25 


8 


42 


10 


45 


5 


1826 


58 


9 


34 


5 


26 


9 


44 


3 


47 


8 


1827 


56 


9 


36 


6 


27 


4 


47 


7 


47 


7 


1828 


60 


5 


32 


10 


2J 


6 


38 


4 


40 


6 


1829 


66 


3 


32 


6 


22 


9 


36 


8 


36 


8 


1830 


64 


3 


32 


7 


24 


5 


36 


1 


39 


2 


18.31 


66 


4 


38 





25 


4 


39 


10 


41 


11 


1832 


58 


8 


33 


I 


20 


5 


36 


5 


37 





1833 


52 


11 


27 


6 


18 


5 


35 


1 


fs 





1831 


^16 


2 


29 





20 


11 


36 


7 





1835 


39 


4 


29 


11 


22 





30 





30 


3 


1830 


'18 


9 


33 


2 


23 


1 


38 


4 


37 


3 


1837 


55 


10 


30 


4 


23 


1 


38 


7 


37 


9 


1838 


61 


4 


31 


5 


22 


5 


37 


4 


36 


8 


1639 


70 


6 


39 


1 


26 


6 


41 


3 


41 


1 


1810 


66 


6 


36 


3 


25 


9 


43 


6 


42 


5 



GRAMS. The amount of the different 
grains produced in the United States, collect- 
ively, and also for each of the states, has been 
given under the head of Auriculturai. Pno- 
nucTs. Tabular statements under the various 
heads will show the prices of grain in the 
United States for a series of years. See Wheat, 
Corn, Oats. &c. 

GRAINS, BREWERS', are very extensively 
used in the feeding of live-stock. They con- 
sist chiefly of the husk, and other insoluble 
matters of the corn employed in the operation 
of brewing. When speaking of the large dai- 
ries of the melropolis, Mr. Youatt remarks, 
" The principal food of the cows in all these 
is grains ; and as the brewing seasons are 
chiefly in autumn and spring, a stock of grain 
is generally laid in at those seasons for the 
rest of the year. The grains are laid up 
in pits lined with brick-work, set in cement, 
from ten to twenty feet deep, and of any con- 
venient size. They are firmly trodden down, 
and covered with a layer of moist earth, eight 
or nine inches thick, to keep out the rain and 
frost in winter, and the heat in summer. A 
cow consumes about a bushel of these grains 
daily, the cost of which is from fourpence to 
fivepence, exclusive of carriage and preserva- 
tion. The grains are, if possible, thrown into 
the pit while warm and in a state of fermenta- 
tion, and they soon turn sour ; but they are not 
liked the worse by cattle on that account: and 
the air being perfectly excluded, the fermenta- 
tion cannot run on to putrefaction. The dairy- 
men say that the slow and slight degree offer- 
mentation which goes on tends to the greater 
developement of the saccharine and nutritive 
principle, and they will have as large a stock 
on hand as they can afford, and not open the 
pits till they are compelled. It is not uncom- 
mon for two years to pass before a pit of grains 
is touched : and it is said that some have lain 
nine years, and been perfectly good at the ex- 
piration of that period. The grains from a 
large ale brewery are the most nourishing; 
those from the porter brewers, not so good ; 
and those from the little ale brewers hardly 
worth having. It is found by the distillers that 
rough clover chaff, mixed with grains and 
wash, will fatten to any extent." {On Cattle, 



pp. 25.5 — 264.) Grains fresh from the mash- 
tub, either alone or mixed with oats or chaff, 
or both, maybe occasionally given to horses of 
slow work : they would, however, afford very 
insufficient nourishment for horses of quicker 
or harder work. Grains, in common with most 
vegetable substances, are an excellent dressing 
for grass lands, an application which is thus 
described in a recent communication to the 
editor of the Ma7-k Lane Express, by Mr. W. H. 
Buckland of Glamorganshire. 

" Having observed the remarkable luxuriance 
of the grass on a small portion of land upon 
which some brewers' grains had been scattered, 
was induced to manure several meadows with 
grains mixed with stable-dung, and a few acres 
with grains only. The crop of hay is an ex- 
traordinary one off the land manured with 
grains and stable-dung together, but from the 
land manured with grains alone, the crop is pro- 
digious. On one part of a steep declivity, 
where the ordinary produce has been about 10 
or 12 cwt. of hay to the acre, and the quality 
very coarse, a good sprinkling of grains was 
strewed, leaving the other part of the same 
ground untouched. Where the grains were 
spread, there is more than two tons of hay to 
the acre, and the grass is of the finest quality; 
where no grains were applied, the crop is as 
usual, both as to quantity and quality. 

" In addition to the abundance of the crop is 
the advantage of its earliness. On the 29th of 
May I mowed a field manured with grains. 
The grass was over-ripe, and might have been 
cut a week sooner. The neighbouring fields, 
not so manured, were full three weeks later. 
This is a matter of no little importance in this 
part of the country, where the weather is gene- 
rally dry about the end of May and beginning 
of June, when there is no grass fit to cut ; and 
almost invariably wet about the end of June 
and beginning of July, when all the farmers 
are busy hay-making." 

GRAIN, STANDARD WEIGHTS OF. la 
England the standard and common weights of 
the most important grains, are as follows : — 

Common Weight. Standard Weight 

Of Wheat - from 58 to 64 lbs. 60 lbs. 

Rye - - — 49 — 56 56 

Barley - — 48 — 56 48 

Oats - - — 30 — 42 32 

Indian corn — 54 — 62 56 

The same standard weights are established 
in New York, and to a greater or less extent ia 
other states. It is observed that the weights 
of the different kinds of grain increase in pro- 
ceeding from the Southern towards the North- 
ern and Eastern States. 

The grain of each species produces when 
ripe, nearly the following quantities of meal, 
or household flour, and bread, per bushel, 
namely — 



Wheat, 


if weighing 60 


yields of flour 48 


Rye 


54 


42 


Barley 


48 


37i 


Oats 


40 


22i 



bread 



(^British Husbandry.') 

GRAIN-WEEVILS and MOTHS. In Eu 

rope, stored grain is often subject to series 'a 
jury from the depredations of two little insects, 
and attacked in the same way, and apparent.^ 
3B 565 



GRAIN-WEEVIL. 



GRAIN-WEEVIL. 



by the same kind of insects in the United 
States. 

" The European grain-moth, {Tinea graneUa), 
in its perfected state, is," says Dr. Harris, "a 
winged insect, between three and four-tenths of 
an inch long from the head to the tip of its 
wings, and expands six-tenths of an inch. It 
has a whitish tuft on its forehead ; its long and 
narrow wings cover its back like a sloping 
roof, are a little turned up behind, and are 
edged with a wide fringe. Its fore-wings are 
glossy like satin, and are marbled with white 
or gray, light brown, and dark brown, or black- 
ish spots, and there is always one dark, square 
spot near the middle of the outer edge. Its 
hind-wings are blackish. Some of these winged 
rnoths appear in May, others in July and Au- 
gust, at which times they lay their eggs ; for 
there are two broods of them in the course of 
the year. The young from the first laid eggs 
come to their growth and finish their transfor- 
mations in six weeks or two months ; the others 
live through the winter, and turn to winged 
moths in the following spring. The young 
moth-worms do not burrow into the grain, as has 
been asserted by some writers, who seem to 
have confounded them with the Angoumois 
grain-worms ; but, as soon as they are hatched, 
they begin to gnaw the grain and cover them- 
selves with the fragments, which they line with 
a silken web. As they increase in size they 
fasten together several grains with their webs, 
so as to make a larger cavity, wherein they 
live. After a while, becoming uneasy in their 
confined habitations, they come out and wander 
over the grain, spinning their threads as they 
go, till they have found a suitable place where- 
in to make their cocoons. Thus, wheat, rye, 
barley and oats, all of which they attack, will 
be found full of lumps of grain cemented to- 
gether by these corn-worms, as they are some- 
times called ; and when they are very nume- 
rous, the whole surface of the grain in the bin 
will be covered with a thick crust of webs and 
of adhering grains. These destructive corn- 
worms are really soft and naked caterpil- 
lars, of a cylindrical shape, tapering a little at 
each end, and are provided with sixteen legs, 
the first three pair of which are conical and 
jointed, and the others fleshy and wart-like. 
When fully grown, they measure four or five- 
tenths of an inch in length, and are of a light 
ochre or buff colour, with a reddish head. 
When about six weeks old they leave the grain 
and get into cracks, or around the sides of 
corn-bins, and each one then makes itself a 
little oval pod, or cocoon, about as large as a 
grain of wheat. The insects of the first brood, 
as before said, come out of their cocoons, in 
the winged form, in July and August, and lay 
their eggs for another brood: the others remain 
Unchanged in their cocoons through the winter, 
and take the chrysalis form in March or April 
following. Three weeks afterwards, the shining 
brown chrysalis forces itself part way out of 
the cocoon, by the help of some little sharp 
points on its tail, and bursts open at the other 
end, so as to allow ine moth therein confined to 
come forth. 

•'The foregoing account, drawn from Euro- 
fif an authorities, will probably enable readers 



to determine whether these destructive in 
sects are found in the United States. From 
various statements, deficient, however, in ex- 
actness, that have appeared in some of out 
agricultural journals, I am led to think tha 
this corn-moth, or an insect exactly like i 
in its habits, prevails in all parts of th( 
country, and that it has generally been mis 
taken for the grain-weevil, which it far sur 
passes in its devastations. Many years ago ) 
remember to have seen oats and shelled corr 
(maize) aflTected in the way above described, 
and have observed seed-corn, hanging in th& 
ears, to have been attacked by insects of this 
kind, the empty chrysalids of which remained 
sticking between the kernels ; but, for some 
time past, no opportunity for further investiga- 
tion has offered itself." See Cobn-Moth. 

The most pernicious of what naturalists call 
snout-beetles {Rhynchophorians),a.re the insects 
properly called grain-weevils. These insects, 
says Harris, must not be confounded with the 
still more destructive larvae of the corn-moth 
{Thiea graiieUa), which also attacks stored 
grain, nor with the orange-coloured maggots of 
the wheat-fly {Cccidomyia Trilici'), which are 
found in the heads of growing wheat. 

Although the grain-weevils are not actually 
injurious to vegetation, yet as the name pro 
perly belonging to them has often been misap 
plied in the United States, thereby creating 
no little confusion, some remarks upon then. 
may tend to prevent future mistakes. 

"The true grain-weevil or wheat-weevil of 
Europe, the Calandra {Sitophilus') granaria, or 
Curculiu graiiarius of Linnteus, in its perfected 
state is a slender beetle of a pitchy red colour, 
about one-eighth of an inch long, with a slender 
snout slightly bent downwards, a coarsely punc- 
tured and very long thorax, constituting almost 
one-half the length of the whole body, and wing- 
covers that are furrowed, and do not entirely 
cover the tip of the abdomen. This little in- 
sect, both in the beetle and grub state, devours 
stored wheat and other grains, and often com- 
mits much havoc in granaries and brew-houses. 
Its powers of multiplication are very great, for 
it is stated that a single pair of these destroyers 
may produce above six thousand descendants 
in one year. The female deposits her eggs 
upon the wheat after it is housed, and the 
young grubs hatched therefrom immediately 
burrow into the wheat, each individual occu- 
pying alone a single grain, the substance of 
which it devours, so as often to leave nothing 
but the hull ; and this destruction goes on 
within, while no external appearance leads to 
its discovery, and the loss of weight is the only 
evidence of the mischief that has been done 
to the grain. In due time the grubs undergo 
their transformations, and come out of the 
hulls, in the beetle state, to lay their eggs for 
another brood. These insects are effectually 
destroyed by kiln-drying the wheat ; and grain, 
that is kept cool, Avell ventilated, and is fre- 
quently moved, is said to be exempt from at- 
tack. 

"Another grain-weevil, hardly dififering from 
the foregoing except in its colour, which is 
black, is found in New York. It is the Calan- 
dra (^Sitophilus) remotepundata of Schfinherr 



GRANARY. 



GRAPE-VINE CATERPILLAR. 



Whether wht;at and other grain suffers to any 
extent in this country, from either of these 
weevils, I have not been able to ascertain, as the 
accounts given of the ravages of the insects 
supposed to be weevils are rarely accompanied 
by any description of them in their different 
states. 

"Rice is attacked by an insect closely resem- 
bling the wheat-weevil, from which, however, 
it is distinguished, by having two large red 
spots on each wing cover; it is also somewhat 
smaller, measuring only about one-tenth of an 
inch in length, exclusive of the snout. This 
beetle, the Calandra (Sitophilus) Onjzce, or rice- 
weevil, is not entirely confined to rice, but 
depredates upon maize or Indian corn also. I 
have seen stored Southern corn swarming with 
them ; and, should they multiply and extend in 
this f,ection of the country, they will become a 
source of serious injury to one of the most valu- 
able of our staple productions. It is said that this 
weevil lays its eggs on the rice in the fields, as 
soon as the grain begins to swell. If this in- 
deed be true, we have very little to fear from it 
here, our Indian corn being so well protected by 
the husks that it A^'ould probably escape from 
any injury, if attacked. On the contrary, if the 
insect multiply in stored grain, then our utmost 
care will be necessary to prevent them from 
infesting our own garners. The parent beetle 
bores a hole into the grain, and drops therein a 
single egg, going from one grain to another till 
all her eggs are laid. She then dies, leaving, 
however, the rice well seeded for a future har- 
vest of weevil-grubs. In due time the eggs 
are hatched, the grubs live securely and un- 
seen in the centre of the rice, devouring a con- 
siderable portion of the substance, and when 
fully grown they gnaw a little hole through the 
end of the grain, artfully stopping it up again 
with particles of rice-flour, and then are changed 
to pupre. This usually occurs during the winter; 
and in the following spring the insects are 
transformed to beetles, and come out of the 
grain. By winnowing and sifting the rice in 
the spring, the beetles can be separated, and 
should then be gathered immediately and de- 
stroyed.'' (Harris.) See Coiin-Moth. 

GRANARY. A place where corn is stored. 
These have of necessity been constructed in 
all ages of the world, and of different mate- 
rials, according to the facilities afforded for 
their construction by the neighbourhood in 
which they are placed ; in England they are 
commonly, for farming purposes, made of 
wood or brick. In Sicily the public granaries 
are in some places hollowed out of the solid 
rock. According to a modern authority (B7-it. 
Husb. vol. i. p. 94), "The best situation for a 
granary is over the thrashing-floor. It may be 
easily secured from vermin ; and requiring 
only six i'eet in height, it will not interfere ma- 
terially with the bays of the barn, especially if 
they be loaded through the gables. A trap-door 
in the floor, with a rope and pulley, raises and 
lowers the load in the most easy manner, be- 
sides securing it more effectually from depre- 
dators ; and strong wired windows at each end 
ventilate it sufficiently. The most general 
mode, however, of forming granaries, is to 
erect them of timber, and place them upon pil- 



lars of stone or wood." It has been suggested 
that corn kept in granaries would be effectually 
protected from the ravages of the weevil, by 
mixing with it a small quantity of common 
salt. See Conx-MoTH, Weevil, and Corn. 

GRAPE-VINE. See Vine. 

GRAPE-VINE CATERPILLAR. Every 
person, says Dr. Harris, who has paid any 
attention to the cultivation of the grape-vine in 
this country, must have observed upon it, be- 
sides the large sphynx caterpillars that devour 
its leaves, a small blue caterpillar transversely 
banded with deep orange across the middle of 
each ring, the bands being dotted with black, 
with the head and feet also orange, the top of 
the eleventh ring somewhat bulging, and the 
forepart of the body hunched up when the 
creature is at rest. These caterpillars begin to 
appear about the middle of July, and others are 
hatched afterwards, as late, perhaps, as the 
middle of August. When not eating, they 
generally rest upon the under-sides of the 
leaves, and, though many may be found on one 
vine, they do not associate with each other. 
They live on the common creeper as well as 
on the grape-vine. They eat all parts of the 
leaves, even to the midrib and stalks. When 
fully grown, and at rest, they measure an inch 
and a quarter, but stretch out, in creeping, to 
the length of an inch and a half or more. 
Towards the end of August they begin to dis- 
appear, and no more will be found on the vines 
after September. They creep down the vines 
in the night, and go into the ground, burying 
themselves three or four inches deep, and turn 
to chrysalids without making cocoons. The 
chrysalis is dark-brown, and rough, with ele- 
vated points. The moths begin to come out of 
the ground as soon as the 25th of June, 
and others continue to appear till the 20th 
of July. Though of small size, they are very 
beautiful, and far surpass all others of the fa- 
mily in delicacy of colouring and design. The 
name of this moth is Eudryas grata, the first 
word signifying beautiful wood nymph, and the 
second agreeable or pleasing. The antennae are 
rather long, almost thread-like, tapering to the 
end, and not feathered in either sex. The fore- 
wings are pure while, with a broad stripe along 
the front edge, extending from the shoulder a 
little beyond the middle of the edge, and a 
broad band around the outer hind margin, of a 
deep purple-brown colour ; the band is edged 
internally with olive-green, and marked towards 
the edge with a slender wavy white line ; near 
the middle of the wing, and touching the brown 
stripe, are two brown spots, one of them round 
and the other kidney-shaped ; and on the mid- 
dle of the inner margin there is a large tri- 
angular olive-coloured spot ; the under-side of 
the same wing is yellow, and near the middle 
there are a round and a kidney-shaped black 
spot. The hind-wings are 3'ellow above and 
beneath ; on the upper-side with a broad pur- 
ple-brown hind border on which there is a 
wavy white line, and on the under-side with 
only a central black dot. The head is black. 
Along the middle of the Ihoiax there is a ^road 
crest-like stripe of black and pearl-coloured 
glittering scales. The shoulder-covers aro 
white. The upper side of the abdomen is ycl 

567 



GRASS. 



GRASS. 



low, with a row ot black spots on the top, and 
another on each side ; the under-side of the 
body, and the large muff-like tufts on the fore- 
legs, are white ; and the other legs are black. 
This moth rests with its wings closed like a 
steep roof over its back, and its fore-legs 
stretched forward like a Ccrura. It expands 
from one inch and a half to one inch and three 
quarters. 

Eudryas unio, of Hiibner, the pearl Eudrj-as, 
as its name implies, is a somewhat smaller 
moth, closely resembling the preceding, from 
which it differs in having the stripe and band 
on its fore-wings of a brighter purple-brown 
colour, the round and kidney-shaped spots con- 
tiguous to the former also brown, the olive- 
coloured edging of the band wavy, with a pow- 
dered blue spot between it and the triangular 
olive-coloured spot on the inner margin, and a 
distinct brown spot on the inner hind angle of 
the posterior wings ; all the wings beneath are 
broadly bordered behind with light brown, and 
the spots upon them are also light brown. It ex- 
pands from one inch and three-eighths to one 
inch and a half. This species has been taken 
in Massachusetts, but it is rare, and the cater- 
pillar is unknown to me. (Harris.) 

GRASS (Goth, gras : Icel. graes, from gro, to 
germinate, to sprout). The common herbage 
of the field on which cattle feed. 

The grasses, it has been often and well said, 
"are nature's care." There is, perhaps, no 
class of the vegetable world so little under- 
stood as this. " Grass," says Professor Mar- 
tyn, "vulgarly forms one single idea, and a 
husbandman, when he is looking over his en- 
closure, does not dream that there are upwards 
of 300 species of grass, of which 30 or 40 may 
be at present under his eye. They have 
scarcely had a name besides the general one 
till within these 20 years ; and the few par- 
ticular names which have been given them 
are far from having obtained general use, so 
that we may fairly assert that the knowledge 
of this most common and useful tribe of plants 
is yet in its infancy." (Letters on Botany, xiii.) 
It is certain, however, that since Professor 
Martyn wrote, much has been done to add to 
our knowledge of the grasses. These grow in 
all parts of the world promiscuously, and with- 
out cultivation, affording both directly and in- 
directly the means of subsistence to man. 
Europeans live chiefly upon wheat, rye, and 
barley, to which list their American de- 
scendants have added maize or Indian corn. 
"The cultivation of the earth," says Professor 
Johnson, "preceded the improvement of the in- 
tellect, and was the herald of civilization. It 
is remarkable that we have no direct criterion 
of the origin of many of those grasses met with 
everywhere in cultivation, as none of them are, 
to any extent, found wild. Some travellers 
have thought that barley was indigenous to 
Tartary, rye to Greta, and wheat to Asia, but 
these might have been diffused from some cul- 
tivated some years previously. Corn is not 
only the support of man, but the grasses are 
the subsistence of the animals which form his 
nutr'ment. The nutritive quality of grasses is 
I>rinoipal!y owing to the sugar which they con- 
tain, and of which some English grasses con- 
668 



tain large quantities, but the sugar cane is the 
only grass that is exclusively cultivate^ for ob- 
taining this article for commerce. The grasses 
are applied to a vast variety of important me- 
chanical purposes ; they are found in every 
part of the world, from the Poles to the Equa- 
tor; on the land, as well as floating on the 
water, and are the universal food of animals." 

The botanist has shown that there are more 
than 130 distinct native species and varie- 
ties of grass in Great Britain, all possessing 
distinct properties, and varying in tb.eir de- 
grees of value to the farmer, from the most 
worthless, to those on which his successful 
farming chiefly depends. The researches, too, 
commenced by the late Duke of Bedford, and 
carried on during a series of years in the grass 
garden at Woburn, have added very materially 
to our stock of knowledge concerning these 
plants ; for, instituted with a public object, and 
under the careful and skilful management of 
one of my earliest correspondents, the late Mr. 
George Sinclair, the results were given by him 
to the public in the Hortus Grmnineus Woburn 
ncnsis, a valuable and elaborate work, to which 
I am chiefly indebted for the matter of this and 
other articles upon the grasses. The manner 
in which these celebrated experiments of the 
Duke of Bedford were conducted, is thus de- 
scribed : 

" Spots of ground, each containing 4 square 
feet, in the garden at Woburn Abbey, were en- 
closed by boards in. such a manner that there 
was no lateral communication between the 
earth included by the boards, and that of the 
garden. The soil was removed in these en- 
closures, and new soils supplied; or mixtures 
of soils were made in them, to furnish as far as 
possible to the different grasses those soils 
which seem most favourable to their growth, a 
few varieties being adopted for the purpose of 
ascertaining the effect of different soils on the 
same plant. The grasses were either planted 
or sown, and their produce cut and collected, 
and dried at the proper seasons, in summer 
and autumn, by Sinclair, his Grace's gardener. 
For the purpose of determining, as far as possi- 
ble the nutritive powers of the different species, 
equal weights of the dry grasses or vegetable 
substances were acted iipon by hot water till 
all their soluble parts were dissolved; the solu- 
tion was then evaporated to dryness by a gen- 
tle heat in a proper stove, and the matter ob- 
tained carefully weighed. This part of the 
process was likewise conducted with much 
address and intelligence by Sinclair, by whom 
the various details and calculations were fur- 
nished. The dry extracts supposed to contain 
the nutritive matter of the grasses, were sent 
to me for chemical examination. The compo- 
sition of some of them is stated minutely; but 
it will be found, from the general conclusions, 
that the mode of determining the nutritive 
power of the grasses, by the quantity of matter 
they contain soluble in water, is sufficiently ac- 
curate for all the purposes of agricultural in- 
vestigation." ('Agr. Chcm. app.) 

In regard to the description of soils — 1st. By 
loam, is meant any of the earths combined 
with decayed animal or vegetable matter. 2d. 
Clayey loam, when the greatest proportion is 



GRASS. 



GRASS. 



clay. 3d. Sandy loam, when the greatest pro- 
portion is sand. 4th. Brown loam, when the 
greatest proportion consists of decayed vege- 
table matter. 5th. Rich black loam, when sand, 
clay, animal, and vegetable matters are com- 
bined in unequal proportions, the clay, greatly 
divided, being in the least proportion, and the 
sand and vegetable matter in the greatest. 
The terms light sandy soil, light brown 
loam, &c., are varieties of the above, as ex- 
pressed. 

The systematical arrangement of grasses is 
a difficult and unsatisfactory task, and has oc- 
cupied the attention of many botanists. The 
most recent work upon the subject is KunMs 
jlg7-ostographia, published at Berlin in 1836. 

In choosing the mixture of grass seeds most 
valuable for the farmer's soil, many considera- 
tions must be taken into calculation ; not only 
the nature of the soil, and the supply of water 
to which its habits are best adapted, but also 
the objects which the farmer has in view. 
Thus, the meadow foxtail {Alopecurus praten- 
sis), although an earljs nutritive, and produc- 
tive grass, requires more than two years to 
arrive at perfection ; it is, therefore, better 
adapted for permanent pasture than for the 
alternative husbandrj'. And then, again, the 
meadow cat's-tail or timothy (PIdeum pratense), 
although remarkable for producing the most 
nutritious cuhns of all the grasses, and that, 
too, in a considerable bulk, yields aftermath 
of very little value. Valuable, therefore, as it 
is for hay, i?. is of little consideration for feed- 
ing purposes if sown by itself; it must, there- 
fore, be combined with other grasses. So the 
cock's-foot or orchard grass (Daclylis glomc- 
rata), which soon arrives at perfection, and 
yields early and late a profusion of leaves, 
which are highly nutritive, has culms or stalks 
of little value; it is a grass, therefore, most 
profitable for feeding purposes. "Under these 
different relations, therefore," says Mr. G. Sin- 
clair, " a grass should be considered, before 
it is absolutely rejected, or indiscriminately 
recommended." 

The knowledge of the relative nutritive mat- 
ters contained in different grasses, will also 
not only be a highly important object of re- 
search, as connected with their feeding pro- 
perties, but as throwing considerable light on 
the powers of the different grasses to exhaust 
or impoverish the soil, a question which I 
shall examine more at length under the head 
"Rotation of Crops." A more intimate and 
extensive knowledge, with regard to the com- 
position of plants, may be derived from even 
an examination of their external appearance 
than many persons would deem possible. The 
following are some of the general results of 
the observations of Sinclair: 

1. Grasses which have culms with swollen 
joints, leaves thick and succulent, and flowers 
with downy husks, contain greater proportions 
of sugar and mucilage than those of a less 
succulent nature. 

2. When this structure is of a light glaucous 
colour, the sugar is generally in excess. 

3. Grasses which have clums with small 
joints ; flowers pointed, collected into a spike 
or spike-like panicle ; leaves thin, flat, rough, 

72 



and of a light green colour, contain a greater 
proportion of extractive matter than others. 

4. Grasses which have culms furnished 
with numerous joints; leaves smoclh and suc- 
culent; flowers in a spike or close panicle; 
florets blunt and large, contain most gluten and 
mucilage. 

5. When this structure is of a glaucous 
colour, and the florets woolly, sugar is in the 
next proportion to mucilage. 

6. Grasses which have their flowers in a 
panicle, florets pointed or awned, points of the 
culm smooth and succulent, contain most mu- 
cilage and extractive. 

7. Grasses with flowers in a panicle ; florets 
thinly scattered, pointed, or furnished with 
long awns ; culms lofty, with leaves flat and 
rough, contain a greater proportion of saline 
matter and bitter extractive. 

8. Grasses with strong, creeping roots, culms 
few, leaves flat and rough, flower in a spike, 
contain a greater pi'oportion of bitter extract 
with mucilage. {Hort. Gram. Wob. p. 42.) 

In the first part of April 1920 grains of the 
leaves of the following grasses, &c. afford, ac- 
cording to Mr. G. Sinclair, the following pro- 
portions of nutritive matter: 



Meadow foxtail-grass, (PI. 5,g) 
Tall oat-like soft-grass, (PI. 5, cc) 
Sweet-scented vernal, (PI, 6, a) 
Round-panicled cock's-foot, (HI. 5, b) 
Perennial rye-grass, (PI. 5, a) - 
Tall fescue, (PI. 5, c) - 
Meadow fescue, (PI. 5, dd) - - - 
Crested dog's-tail, (PI. 6,/) 
Woolly soft-grass - . . . 

Creeping soft grass, (PI. 5, c) 
Meadow cat's-tail, (PI. 5, k) 
Fertile meadow-grass - . . 

Nerved rneadow-grass ... 

Smooth awnless bronie-grass, (PI. 7, b) 
Wood meadow-grass - - - - 
Smooth fescue, (PI. 6. A) - 
Lonir-awned sheep's fescue, (PI. 6, k) 
Darnel-like fescue (PI. 5,/) 
Creeping bent, or florin (PI. 5, 71) 
Wood fiorin ----- 

Yellow velchling .... 

Roug''-ptalked nieadnw-grass, (PI. 5, i) 
Broad-leaved red clover, (PI. 8, b) 
White, or Dutch clover, (PI. 8, a) 
Corninon quaking grass, (PI. 0, n) 
Greater bird's-foot trefoil, (PI. 9, A) - 
Long-rooted clover, (Pl. 8, A) 

Liicern, (PI. 8, A) 

Bunias ...... 

Burnet, (PI. 9, a) 

Cow parsnp ..... 



120 
52 
80 
70 
94 
96 



90 
80 
70 
76 
84 
68 
70 
102 
110 
42 
62 
40 
SO 
80 
64 
54 
60 
76 
90 
100 
100 



. 90 
{Tbid. p. 239.) 
It may not be uninteresting to the cultivator 
to learn of what these nutritive matters con- 
sist; the following is the result of Mr. Sin- 
clair's examinations: 



Mucilage, 



Meadow foxtail 
consists of 

Meadow fescue 

Rye-grass 

Meadow cat's- 
tail 

Cock's-foot 

Meadow-oat 

White clover (in 
flower) - 

Red clover (do.) 

Tares 

Fiorin {^grostia 
stolonifera 



64 
59 
65 

74 
59 

80 

77 
79 



Sacch. 

Mailer, o 

Sugar. 



20 

7 

'0 
I 

•c 

2 

8 
25 

5 



Bitter Ex- 
tractive 
and 



_ 


28 


_ 


20 


- 


28 


_ 


16 


- 


30 


- 


10 


7 


14 


5 


8 



40 



3b 2 



569 



3O0O grains of the Green 
Herbage of 



GRASS. 



Woody, or 

Indigestible 

Fibre. 



GRASS. 



Tares consist of - 
White clover 
Cock's-foot grass - 
i Meadow-fescue - 



557 
470 
1135 
1260 



2250 
2430 
1740 
1590 



193 
100 
125 
150 



{Sinclair's Hort. Oram. Hob. p. 240, 241.) 

The chemical composition of the grasses va- 
ries materially in the progress of their growth, 
a fact well worthy of the farmer's serious 
attention in more ways than one. "I found," 
says Davy, " in all the trials I made, the largest 
quantity of truly nutritive matter when the 
seed was ripe, and least bitter extract and sa- 
line matter ; most extract and saline matter in 
the autumnal crop, and most saccharine mat- 
ter in proportion to the other ingredients in the 
crop cut at the time of flowering. I shall give 
one instance : 

" 100 parts of the soluble matter obtained 
from the round panicled cock's-foot grass 
(Dactyhs glomeraia), cut in flower, afforded, of 

Parts. 

- 18 

- 67 

- 15 



Sugar - - - - ■ 
Mucilage - - - - 
Extract, saline matters, &c. 



100 



"100 parts of the soluble matter from the seed 
nrop, afforded, of 

Parts. 
Sugar --------9 

Mucilage ------- 85 

Extract, &c. ..---- 6 

100 

" 100 parts of soluble matter from the after- 
math crop gave, of 

Paris. 

Sugar --------11 

Mucilage -------59 

Extract -------30 

100" 

(Elm. of Agr. Chem. 477.) 

The seeds of Ihe Grasses. — The ripening of the 
seeds of the essential grasses (says Sinclair), 
takes place at three different periods of the 
season, or, if they are classed according to the 
time about which each species ripens its seed, 
they will form three divisions or groups ; the 
first, consisting of the earliest species, pevfect 
their seed about the end of June — such as the 
sweet-scented vernal-grass and the oarrow- 
leaved meadow-grass : the second consisting 
of the sheep's-fescue grass, and others, about 
ihe end of July; and the third, such as the flo- 
rin grass, and others, about the first or second 
week, in September, as may be seen from the 
following 

Table of the average periods at which different spe- 
cies of Grasses ripen their seed, drawn up by the 
late Mr. G. Sinclair, from the details often years' 
practical observation and experiment. (Mlow- 
ancc rimst be made for difference of climate be- 
tween England and America.) 

Annual meadow-grass (Poa annua', P.. 6, c, 
from April 10 to frosts. 

June 
Sweet-scented vernal grass (Anthvxanthum 

odoratum),V\.fi,a - - - - - 10 to 20 

Soft annual brome-grass (Bromus mollis), 

PI. 7, 6 12 — 20 

570 



Jane 

5 to 90 

5 — 20 

8 — 20 
20 — 30 
8 — 24 
-25 
8 — 24 



1 — 24 

1 — 24 



30 
- 20 



Silver-hair, hair-grass (Aira earyophylla) 
Bitter vernal grass (Jlnthoxanthum amarum) - 
Sheathed cotton-grass (Eriophorum vaginalum) 
Narrow-leaved cotton-grass (£. avgustifoliuni) 
One-flowered melic-grass (Melica unifiora) 
Spring millet-grass (.1/iiium cernaW 
Alpine meadow-grass (Poaalpina) PI. 6, Z 
Narrow-leaved meadow-grass (P. angustifo- 

lia) PI. 6, e 

Blue meadow-grass (Sesleria coerulea) 
Meadow foxtail-grass (.Alopecurus pratensis) 

PI. 5,^ 

Sweet-scented soft-grass (abortive generally) 

(.Holcus odoratus repens) 
Barlev-like fescue (Festuca ovina hordeiformis) 

PI. 6, i - June 20 to July 20 

July 
Small-flowered oat-grass (Avena parviflora) - 
Long-flowered [Bromus longijlorus) 
Glaucous fescue (.Festuca glanca) - - - 
Hungarian (Festuca pannonica) - - - 

Hard wheat-grass (Triticumnardus) 
.Smooth meadow-grass (Poa pratensis) PI. 5, h 
Woolly soft-grass (Holcns lanatus) 
Creeping soft-grass {Holcus mollis) PI. 5, e 
Field or meadow brome-grass (Bromus arven- 

sis) PI. 7, a 

Jointed fox-tail (Alopecurus geniculatus) - 
Bulbous meadow-grass (Poa bulbosus) - 
Yellow oat-grass (Aveva pubescens) PI. 6, 6 - 
Blue meadow-grass (Poa c«niiea) - - - 
Nodding panicled bent-grass (Bromus tectorum) 
Crested dog's-tail (Cynnsurus cristatus) PI. 6,/ 
Horn of p\enly (Cornucopia cucullatum) - 
Round-headed cock's-foot grass (Dactylis glo- 

merata) PI. 5, 6- 
Glaucous cock's-foot grass (D . glaucescens) - 
Striped cock's-foot grass (D. variegata) 
Striped American variety (D. Americana var.) 
Wood fescue {Festuca dumelorum) - - - 
Perennial rye-grass (Lolium perenne) PI. 5, a 
Russell-grass (Lolium Htcssellianum) 
Reflexed meadow-grass (Poo distans) 
Rigid meadow-grass (P. rigida) - . - 
Rough-stalked meadow-grass (P. Trivialis) 

PI. 5, i 

Smooth-leaved fescue-grass (Festuca glabra 

var.) PI. 6, ft 

Creeping fescue-grass (Festuca rubra) - 
Common quaking grass (Briia media) PI. 6, n 
Melilot clover (Trifolium Melilotus officinalis) - 
Upright brome-grass (Bromus erectus) - 
Bush vetch (Vicia sepium) - - - - 

Sheep's fescue-grass (Festuca ovina) PI. 6, k - 
Early hair-grass (Airaprmcox) - . . 

Water hair-grass (A. aquatica) - . - 

Crested hair-grass (A. cristata) ... 
Gigantic brome-grass (Bromus giganteus) 
Slender oat-grass (Arena fragilis) - . - 
Eastern oat-grass (A. orientalis) - - - 
Meadow oat-grass {A. pratensis) - - - 
Two-rowed brome-grass (Bromus distachyos) 
Wall brome-grass (B. diandrns) - - . 
Tongue-formed brome-grass (B. ligusticus) - 
Large-panicled brome-grass (Bromus maximus) 
Flat-spiked brome-grass (B. unioloides) - 
Wood millet-grass (Milium effusum) • 
Brome-like fescue-grass (Festuca bromoides) - 
Hard fescue-grass (F. duriuscula) PI. 6,^ 
Crested brome-grass (Bromus cristatus) - 
Slender fescue-grass (Festuca ^racifc) - 
Slender sheep's-fescue (F. ovina tenuis) - 
Meadow fescue-grass (F. pratensis) PI. 5, d d 
Slender-leaved fescue (F. tenuifolia) 
Viviparous fescue (F. vivipara) - - - 
Sand canary-grass (Phalaris arenaria) - 
Ciliated melic-grass (Melica ciliata) 
Nerved meadow-grass (Poa nervata) 
Rye-grass-like fescue (Festuca loliacea), PI. 5,/ 21 
Lesser meadow cat's-tail (Phleum pratense mi- 
nus) -------- 

Linear-spiked (Cynosnrus crucmformis) - 
Meadow cat's-tail (Phleum pratense) PI. 5, A: - 
Wood meadow-grass (Poa nemoralis) 
Bulbous-jointed cat's-tail grass (Phleum nodo- 
sum --_.--.- 
Fertile meadow-grass (Poa fertilis) 
Larger bird's-foot trefoil (Lotus major) - 
Smaller bird's-foot trefoil (/..minor) 
Capon's-lail fescue (Festuca Myurus) 
Sea-green meadow-grass (Poa ccesia) - - 
Way-bennet, wall-barley (Hordeum murinum) 
Thouin's vetcU (Vicia Tliouinii) ... 
Welsh fescue-grass (Festuca Cambrica) PI. 7, e 20 — 30 
Vprighl vetch (Ficiastricta) - - - -20 — 30 



4 to 10 
4—13 
4 — 24 
4—17 
4 — 17 
10—17 
12 — 24 
14-28 

7 

7 — 26 
11 

15 — 23 
16 

16 

16 — 30 
16 

19 — 30 

20 

20 

22 

19—8 

15 

20 

16 

16 

16 

12 

12 — 25 

12—20 

14 

20 

24 — 20 
28 

27 
26 
29 
24 
24 

25 — 30 
24 

30 

21 

30 

21 

21 

21 

21 

30 

30 

30 

30 

30 

30 

30 

30 

27 — 31 

30 



GRASS. 



GRASS 



Aagaii. 
Crested hair-grass (jjjra cTO(ata) - . - 2 
Giant lyme-grass {Elymus giganleus) - - 2 
Decumlient meadow-grass \Poa decumbens) - 3 
Spell wheat-grass {Triticum spelta) - - 3 

Slender wheat-grass (TiHicum tenue) - - 4 
Bearded wlieat-grass (Triticum caninnm) - 4 

Awnless wheat-grass (Triticum caninum vat.) 4 
Common bent-grass {.^grostis vulgaris) - - 4 
Upright mat-grass (J^ardus stricta) - - - 5 
Small spurious tare (Erinim Ervilid) - - 4 
Broad-le;ived oat-grass (jSiiena planiciilmis) - 6 
Hairy tare (Ervum hirsutitm) - - - - 6 
Four-seeded tare (Ervum tetrasperviuvt) - - 6 
Glaucous meadow-grass (Pud o-/auco) - - 6 
Prociiiiibeiit meadow-grass (Poa procMmftens) - 6 
Loiig-rooled clover (.Trifolium macrorUizum) PI. 

9Jc 6 

Wood bent-grass (jlgrostis sijlvaticus) - - 6 
Tall fertile t'esciie-grass (.Festuca elatior ferlilis) 6 
Many-flciwering brome-grass (Bromus mullifio- 

rus) --------5 

I'hiladelpUian lyme-grass (Elumus Philadelphi- 

cus) - - '■ 6 to 20 

Sordid vetch {Vicia sordida) - - - - 6 — 20 
Slender-leaved vetch {Vicia tenuifolia) - - 6 
Beardless tall oat-grass {Holcus avenaceus muti- 

cus) 7 

Red bronie-grass (Brovius rubevs) . - - 9 
Bauliin's uielic-grass (Melica Bauhini) - - 9 
Foxtail-like fescue (Fesdica fl/upecuroides) - 10 — 23 
Hedgelio; lyme-grass (Elymus hystrix) - - 10 
Barren brome-grass (fironiMS s«eri/is) - - 10 
Jointed lyme-grass (Elymiis geniculatus) - 10 

Golden o.it {.4 vena flacescens) - - - - 20 
Fine-pa iiitled (jJrandy Calamagrostis) - - 21 — 30 
Meadow liarley-grass(/7i.r(ie«w( pra«e7isc) P1.5, d 21 
Narrow-leaved brome (Bromus ang ustif alius) 24 
Slender rye-grass (Ao/JMm tCHjie) - - - 21 
Spear-panicled brome-grass (Bromus lanceola- 

tus) 24 

SainMn (Onobrychissativa) Vl. 8, g - - 24 

Au£f. to Sept. 
Winged brome-grass (Bromus piji?iatus) - - 28 — 5 
Brown bent-grass (^^rostis caniTia) - - 29 — 30 

Bnndled-leaved bent (A. vulgaris fascicularis) 29 
Couch grass (Triticum rcpens) - - - 30 

Wood vetch (Kjciii syZuoiica) - - - - 30 

Sept. 
Tufled vetch (Kicia crucca) - - - - 4 — 12 
Fo.vtail oat-grass (Avena alopecuroides) - - 5 — 12 
Awnless brown bent (Agrodis canina var. mu- 

tica --------5 

Couch bent-grass (j3oTos(is a/fti) - - - 6 — 15 
Fiorin grass {A. stoloiiifera) PI. 5, n - - 8 

And many others. October. 

Common reed-grass (Arundo phragmites) • 10 — 15 
American cock's-foot (Daclylis cynosuroides) 10 
Stiff wheat-grass (Triticum rigidum) - - 12 — 13 
And live or six others. (Sinclair's Hart. Gram. fVob. p. 

35.) 

Of these grasses those regarded in England 
as the chief and most useful species and varie- 
ties are comprehended in the following list: — 

Agrostis canina Festuca rubra. 

Agrostis stolonifera. Festuca sylvatica. 

Alopecurns pratensis. Festuca tenuifolia. 
Antho.tanthnm odoratura. Holcus avenaceus. 

Avena flavescens. Holcus lanatus. 

Avena pratensis. Ilordeum pratensis 

Briza media. Lolium perenne. 

Bromus arvensis. Phleum pratensis. 
Cow-grass, or perennial Poa annua. 

red clover. Poa csrulea. 

Cynosurus cristatus. Poa fertilis. 

Dactyl is glomerata. Poa nemoralis. 

Festuca cambrics. Poa tiervata. 

Festuca duriuscula. Poa pratensis. 

Festuca fluitans. Poa trivialis. 

Festuca glabra. Red suckling. 

Festuca heterophylla. Rib-grass. 

Festuca hordeiformis. Trefoil. 

Festuca ovina. White or Dutch clover. 

Festuca pratensis. Yarrow. 

From some experiments, given in the Trans. 
High. Sor. vol. ii. p. 250, by Messrs. Lawson & 
Co., it would seem that the raising of the seeds 
of the artificial grasses is attended with con- 
siderable profit. 

The late Mr. Blakie suggested a very excel- 
lent plak for saving the seeds of down grasses, 



or of those grasses which are peculiarly adapt- 
ed for elevated dry soils (Farm. Journ. March 
17, 1823), viz. to fence oft' a sufficient portion 
of these pastures, choosing such portions as 
have the best kind of grasses, and to mow these 
enclosures for seed in succession, at three, four, 
or more diflferent periods of the season. " By 
these means," said Mr. G. Sinclair, "the seeds 
of the early, midsummer, and late vegetating 
grasses will be obtained, and which could not, 
it is evident, be obtained by one mowing in one 
season. This is," he adds, "a highly valuable 
mode of obtaining the seeds of those grasses 
adapted for downs ; which, to cultivate sepa- 
rately for the seed, would be a fruitless under- 
taking. Fence the selected turf well, and early 
in the season, and prepare for mowing by pick- 
ing the stones or rubbish from the surface, and 
by rolling. As the seeds ripen, employ a care- 
ful bird-watcher. Mow in dry, favourable wea- 
ther. If the swaths are heavy, they should be 
turned with great caution, so as not to shake 
out the ripe seeds. As soon as the mowing is 
dry, the seed should be immediately thrashed 
out on a close woven cloth in the field, and on 
a dry day; and M'hen a certain portion of the 
later grasses ripen their seed, another mowing 
should be eflfected, and so on, until all the 
grasses in the enclosure have perfected their 
seed." (Hort. Gram. Wob. p. 39, 40.) "As every 
different soil," continues Sinclair, in another 
portion of his invaluable work, " produces 
grasses peculiar to itself, and as no other kinds 
can be established or cultivated upon it with- 
out first changing its nature to resemble that 
which produced the kind of grasses we wish 
to introduce ; it becomes a point of the first 
importance in making experiments on diflTerent 
species of this numerous family of plants, and 
in stating results, to determine with sufficient 
accuracy the nature of the soil or diflTerent soils 
employed. The basis of every improvement in 
the cultivation of grasses is to sow the seeds 
of those species only which are adapted to the 
soil, or to change the nature of unsuitable soils 
to that which is fitted for the growth of grasses 
most desirable to be cultivated ; and, unless 
this important point is in the first place at- 
tended to, disappointment rather than success 
may be expected to follow the labours of the 
farmer." 

1. Of the grasses of rich natural pastui'es.— 
Ever}' farmer is aware that peculiar grasses 
are the productive tenants of his rich natural 
pastures, and that if these are ploughed up, and 
a course of grain crops taken from the soil, a 
considerable period elapses before the turf with 
which it was formerly covered can be restored. 
George Sinclair carefully noted this fact, and 
examined, not altogether unsuccessfully, its 
cause. He observed that "the different grasses 
and other plants which compose the produce 
of the richest natural pastures are in number 
26, and that from the spring to the end of au- 
tumn there is not a month that does not con- 
stitute the particular season '~f luxuriance of 
one or more of these grasirrs , hence proceeds 
the constant supply of rich, succulent herbage 
throughout the whole of the season, a circuni 
stance which but seldom or never happens in 
artificial pastures, where the herbage consist* 

571 



GRASS. 

of two or three plants only. The plants which 
usually tenant the best natural pastures are 
the meadow fox-tail, round cock's-foot, meadow 
fescue, meadow cat's-tail, sweet-scented vernal 
grass, tall oat-like soft-grass, creeping vetch, 
rye-grass, field hrome-grass, annual meadow 
or Suffolk grass, meadow oat-grass: these yield 
the principal grass in the spring, and a chief 
portion of that of the summer. Then, again, 
we find the yellow oat-grass, meadow barley, 
crested dog's-tail, hard fescue, rough-stalked 
meadow-grass, smooth-stalked meadow-grass, 
woolly soft-grass, perennial red clover, white 
or Dutch clover, yellow vetch or meadow la- 
thyrus, and the smooth fescue, which yield the 
principal portion of the summer and autumn 
produce. Lastly, we find the yarrow, creeping 
bent or fiorin, marsh bent-grass, and creeping 
wheat-grass or couch, vegetating most vigo- 
rously in the autumn. Besides these," conti- 
nues Sinclair, "in the richest natural pastures 
are invariably found the butter-cups {Kanuncu- 
lus arris), rib-grass or ribwort plantain {Planta- 
go lannnlata), and sorrel dock {Rumex arelosa)." 
Of these, however, except in cases of necessity, 
live-stock will only eat the rib-grass. 

To examine the nature of the change pro- 
duced on rich pasture land by a course of grain 
crops, Mr. Sinclair made the following valuable 
experiments : — 

"A space of 2 square yards of rich ancient 
pasture land was dug to the depth of 8 inches ; 
400 grains of this soil, freed from moisture and 
the green vegetable fibres, contained — 

Grs. 
Calcareous and silicious sand - - - 102 
Decniiiposing vegetable mailer and parti- 
cles of roots ------ 55 

Carhoiiale of lime (chalk) - - - 160 

Silica (tiiiil) 50 

Alumina (clay) ------ 25 

Oxide of iron ------ 4 

Soluble vegetable matter, and sulphate of 

lime (gypsum) ----- 4 

400 

"This soil was then cropped for 5 seasons 
alternately with 1, oats ; 2, potatoes; 3, wheat; 
4, carrots ; 5, wheat. It was then examined, to 
ascertain what change it had undergone by 
bearing these crops. It appeared to consist of 

Gra. 

Calcareous and silicions sand - - - 100 

Decomposing vegetable matter - - - 48 

Carbonate of lime (chalk) - - . - 159 

Silica (ttint) 57 

Alumina (clay) ------ 26 

Oxide of iron ------ 5 

Soluble vegetable and saline matter - - 3 

398 
Loss ...-----2 

400 

"Thus, the earthy portion of the soil had 
undergone but little change, but it had sus- 
tained a very considerable diminution of its de- 
composing vegetable and animal matters, par- 
ticularly when it is considered that the turf 
also was incorporated Avith the soil. Manure 
was now for the first time applied, and, with 
the wheal stubble, dug in to the depth of 6 
mches. The surface was then made fine with 
a rake, anc' sown with a mixture of the follow- 
ing grass seeds, at the rate of 5 bushels to the 
acre: — Meadow fescue, meadow fox-tail, round 
572 



GRASS. 

cock's-foot, tall oat-like soft-grass, creeping 
vetch, rye-grass, meadow cat's-tail, crested 
dog's-tail, yellow oat, meadow oat, hard fescue, 
smooth-stalked meadow-grass, fertile meadow- 
grass, nerved meadow-grass, cow clover {Tri- 
folium medium'), Dutch or white clover, and 
fiorin, marsh-bent. These were sown on the 
28th of August, 1813. They all vegetated be- 
fore the first week of October except the creep- 
ing vetch {Vicia sepium), which did not germi- 
nate till the autumn of 1814. Before the frost 
set in they had a top-dressing with a compost 
of rotten dung, lime, and vegetable mould, laid 
on in a fine and dry state, and rolled, and again 
rolled in February. The plants sprang earliei 
than those of the old pasture (a circumstance 
common to young plants in general). In the 
first week of July the produce was cut and 
weighed: it amounted to one-eighth more than 
the produce of the ground in its original state. 
The aftermath, however, of the seedling grasses 
weighed one-fifth less than that of the natural 
pasture. But in 1815, upon cutting and weigh- 
ing the grass in the first weeks of June and 
August, and again in the middle of September, 
the total weight of these three crops exceeded 
that of the old turf exactly in the proportion of 
9 to 8." {Hort. Gram. Wob. p. 131.) 

2. The grasses which are Ike natural tenants of 
dry sandy and elevated soils. — These, according 
to Sinclair, are the sheep's fescue, viviparous 
fescue, purple fescue, pubescent fescue, glau- 
cous fescue, wall fescue, wall barley, fine bent, 
brown bent, lobed bent, rock bent, snowy bent, 
purple bent, tufted-leaved bent, waved hair- 
grass, feather-grass, slender foxtail, hairy oat- 
grass, blue melic grass, upright mat-grass, 
blood-coloured panic-grass, green panic-grass, 
barren brome-grass, crested brome-grass, up- 
right annual brome-grass, nodding brome-grass, 
Alpine meadow-grass, Alpine foxtail-grass, 
blue moor-grass, crested hair-grass, panicled 
cat's-tail grass, reflexed meadow-grass, flat- 
sialked meadow-grass, meadow-barley, bird's- 
foot clover, larger bird's-foot clover, trefoil or 
nonsuch, sainfoin, soft brome-grass, creeping 
soft-grass, and white or Dutch clover. (Ibid. 
p. 256.) 

" When these sandy upland soils are im- 
proved by the application of clay or marl, they 
are then capable of supporting a very superior 
description of grasses to these, and the follow- 
ing varieties," says Sinclair, " should be sown, 
for experience will prove that, under such cir- 
cumstances, they are the best for that purpose." 
(Ibid. p. 337.) 

Barley-like sheep's-fescue - - - 3 pecks. 

Cock's-foot grass - - - - - 3 — 

Crested dog's-tail grass - - - 1 — 

Yellow oat-grass - - - - - 2 — 

Rye-grass ------1 — 

Flat-stalked meadow-grass - - - 1 — 

Various-leaved fescue - - - - 1| — 

Hard fescue - - - - - -2 — 

Lesser bird's-foot trefoil - - - 1 lb. 

White clover - - - - - 3 — 

3. The grasses of bogs, or other very moist soils.— 
These are commonly of the most worthless 
description to the cultivator : they are chieflv 
the marsh bent, awnless brown bent, awned 
creeping-bent, smaller-leaved creeping-bent, 
creeping-rooted bent, white bent, flote fescue, 
tall fescue, turfy hair-grass, knee-jointed fox- 



GRASS. 



GRASS. 



tail-grass, water hair-grass, water meadow- 
grass, long-leaved cotton-grass, and sheathed 
cotton-grass. (Hort. Wob. p. 340.) 

4. The gi-asscs of icaler meadows. — "All the 
superior perennial grasses," observes Sinclair, 
"thrive under irrigation when the meadow is 
properly formed ; the following species of 
grass I have invariably found to constitute the 
produce of the best water meadows : — Meadow 
foxtail, round-panicled cock's-foot, field brome- 
grass, meadow fescue : these occupied the 
crowns and sides of the ridges. The furrows 
were stocked with the creeping bent, marsh 
bent, hard fescue, lesser variety of meadow 
cat's-tail, woolly soft grass, rough-stalked mea- 
dow-grass, meadow fescue. A small admix- 
ture of other species were thinly scattered over 
every part of the ridge ; these were meadow 
barley, yellow or golden oat, crested dog's-tail, 
rye-grass, sweet-scented vernal-grass, tufted 
vetch, with a larger proportion of the tall 
oat-like soft-grass. The soil of the water 
meadows which produced the above grasses 
was either a deep active peat incumbent on 
a silicious sand, or a sandy loam, on a 
chalky or gravelly subsoil. In some irrigated 
meadows, where the ridges were formed 
nearly flat, and the soil consisted of a sandy 
loam on a retentive clayey subsoil, the follow- 
ing grasses constituted the chief produce : — 
Crested dog's-tail, creeping-rooted soft-grass, 
rye-grass, meadow barley, tall oat-like soft- 
grass, sweet-scented vernal, and soft brome- 
grass." (JiW. p. 383.) 

The grasses best adapted for the alternate 
husbandry also attracted the attention of George 
Sinclair; but he saw the difficulty of laying 
down any systematic rules which should be 
adapted for all soils and situations, and the 
dcm.ands for animal food: he hardly, therefore, 
made any very practical general observations. 
He gives us, however, among other valuable 
statements, the following little table of the rela- 
tive value of three of the crops he had ex- 
amined on similar soil : 



Woolly soft -grass {TJohus lanattis). Only in 
cases of considerable elevation and poverty 
of soil. 

Pacey's perennial rye-grass (Lolium perenne) 3 peckfl. 

Burnet (Potcriiim Savguisorba) - - - 2 — 

Cow-grass, or perennial red clover {Trifolium 
pratense perenne) - - - - - 6 lbs. 

While clover (Trifolium repens) - - - 8 — 

The quantity of the grass seeds employed 
per acre, for permanent ordinary pasture ne- 
cessarily varies with the nature of the soil. A 
practical English farmer gives the following 
as an excellent mixture. (Murk Lane Exp. 
April 5, 1841.) 



Broad-leaved red clover 



Produce 

herbage 
hay 

tritive matter 



Liicern - 



Sainfoin 



fhei 
< ha 
(.nu 
("grass 
- S hay 
(.niitriti 

■li: 



ritive matter 
herbage 

hay - - - 
utritive matter 



lbs. per 
49,005 

la.a.'ji 

1,901 

70,78.i 

28,3 U 

1,659 

8,848 

3,539 

345 



5. The grasses best adapted for pasture during 
the lointer. — In the fourth volume of the Trans, 
of the High Soc. p. 31, is an essay on this sub- 
ject by the late Mr. George Sinclair. The fol- 
lowing are the grasses he recommends as being 
productive of the most considerable quantity 
of winter's grass; and the proportion of seeds 
which he advises to be sown lo produce such 
a pasture — 

Cock's-foot (DactiiUs glomerata) - - - 4 pecks. 
Meadow fescue {Festuca pratensis) - - 3 — 

Tall fertile nieartow-grass {Festwaelatiorv&r. 

fertilis), only in very heavy soils constantly 

depastured with cattle. 
Meadow cat's-tail, or true timothy grass (Phle- 

um pratense major) ... . . J — 

Broad-leaved bent, or florin )Affrostis stolo- 

nifera) ....... I — 

Tall cat-like soft-grass (JIolcus avenaceus) - 2 — 





On Light 


On Heavy 




Soils. 


Soils. 


lbs. 


lbs. 


Clover, red . - - . 


4 


5 


— white .... 


5 


6 


— red, perennial (cow-grass) 


3 


4 


Rye-grass, perennial . . - 


3 


4 


— Italian - . - 


3 


4 


Meadow fn.xtail ... 


2 


2 


Cock's-foot . . - - 


4 


5 


Fescue, meadow ... 


2 


3 


— hard . . - - 


2 


1 


Rough-stalked meadow-grass . 


1 


2 


Smooth-stalked meadow-grass - 


2 


1 


Wood meadow-grass (Hudson's 






Bay grass) .... 


3 


4 


Sweet-scented vernal-grasa 


2 


2 


Timothy grass - - - - 


2 


4 


38 


47 



6. Transplantation or inocula' i-on of turf. — This 
plan, which is one in certain situations, offer- 
ing considerable advantages, is described in 
the Brit. Hush. vol. ii. p. 523, and by G. Sinclair, 
Hort. Gram. Wob. p. 415. The mode of returning 
tillage land to permanent pasture, called trans- 
planting, was originally invented by Mr. Whit- 
worth, of Acre House, Lincolnshire, and it 
was first practised to any extent by Mr. .lohn 
Bloomfield, of Warham, Norfolk. In laying 
down land to permanent pasture by this mode, 
it is essential that the soil should be free from 
the seeds and roots of weeds, and made per- 
fectly clean by a summer fallow. The autumn 
is the best time for transplanting turf, and that 
as soon as the autumn rains have sufficiently 
moistened the turf to fit it for paring off clean : 
the roots of the grasses thus get established 
before the commencement of warm weather in 
the spring. It is also essential that the turf 
should be selected or taken from the very best 
pasture, for otherwise weeds and inferior 
grasses will be propagated. If the field from 
which the turf is to be taken to make the new 
pasture, is intended to be broken up for a 
course of tillage crops, then the whole of the 
turf may be taken off and employed in form- 
ing the new pasture to the required extenU 
But should the field be required to remain in 
permanent pasture, a portion only of the 
turf must be taken from the field, and a suffi- 
ciency of the sward, or grass-plant, left stand- 
ing for that purpose. In the first of ihese 
cases, Mr. Blakie directs a paring-plough to be 
used ; but if that cannot be conveniently ob- 
tained, a common plough, with the coulter and 
share made very sharp, will answer the pur- 
pose : a wheel plough is preferable, adds Sin- 
clair, to a swing plough for paring turfs, be- 
cause it goes steadier, and cuts the turf more 
regularlv. The turf should be cut about 2^ 

57.1 



GRASS. 

inches thick, and 7, 8, or 9 inches wide, ac- 
cording to the nature of the turf-gage of the 
plough, and the width of the wing of the share : 
it is sometimes cross cut into short lengths, 
previous to the operation of paring; but this 
can only be effected when the turf is moist 
and free from stones. The cross cutting is 
done b}' a scarifier, with cimeter lines, the 
convex edges made very sharp, and faced to 
the work, and the implement heavily weighted, 
so as to press the tines a proper depth into the 
turf: but it is best in large flags. The turf is 
then carried in broad-wheeled carts to the field, 
at the rate of 50 cart-loads to an acre, placed 
in heaps, and then chopped into small pieces 
of about .3 inches square ; the ground is then 
levelled with a scarifier, and the turf spread 
with shovels over the field ; the pieces of turf 
are then placed or planted by women and 
children, and pressed into the soil by the foot 
or a wooden rammer. One acre of turf di- 
vided into pieces will plant 9 acres — each 
piece of turf standing 9 inches apart. The 
expense per acre of this mode of converting 
arable land into pasture is as follows: say 

A. B. p. 

Extent of prafs land clean paired of - - 12 18 
Extent of arable land transplanted with the 
above 11 15 

Fipense. £, s. d. 

To ploughing or pairing 1 a. 2 r. 18 p., at 10s. 

per acre - - - - - - -0 16 1i 

To carriage of 600 loads of tiifl, fifiy days' 

work for one horse, at 3s. per day - - 7 10 
To buys driving curls - - - - - 19 8 
To scarifying 11 acres or 15 poles of ground 

when covered with tuft cut in pieces, at 

2s. P(Z. per acre - - - - - - \ 1 %\ 

To labourers, at 30s. per acre - - - 1 12 9} 

Or 2/. 9s. 23d. per acre. 27 6 4 



A plan of improving old worn-out pasture 
lands (by dibbling peas and vetches, with a 
mixture of 18 pounds of Dutch clover, and 2 
bushels per acre of Bay grass) is described by 
Mr. Salter. Corn, to Loard of Jlgr. vol. vi. p. 357. 
On the advantages of deep ploughing, fallow- 
ing, and liming land intended to be again laid 
down to permanent pasture, with an experi- 
ment on 17 acres at Jedburgh, there is a paper 
by Mr. Bell, Quart. Jmirn. of ./Igr. vol. i. p. 570, 
and another by Mr. Sinclair (ibid. p. 65). To 
this gentleman's excellent work (Hort. Gram. 
Wob.), I would especially commend my rea- 
ders, as it abounds with information on the 
grasses. There is also a paper on the eco- 
nomical improvement of grass lands in Scot- 
land (Quart. Journ. of Jgr. vol. vii. p. 547) ; and 
in all improvements of this kind, the use of the 
sub-turf plough should not be forgotten by the 
farmer. See Irrigatiox. 

In addition to the original article in the 
English edition, we deem the subject of grasses 
so important, and the knowledge of the subject 
so limited in the United States, that we subjoin 
the following inforination derived from the 
best British authorities. 

English writers have divided hay grasses, 
according to their duration, into two classes — 
the temporary and permanent. 

The tall hay grasses of temporary duration, 
regarded as most valuable, are — 

The Annual or Perennial Rye-Grass (Lolium 



GRASS. 

annua or perenne), see Plate of Tall Hay 
Grasses, PI. 5, a ; Cock's-foot or Orchard Grass 
(Dactylis glomerata'), b; and Woolly Soft-Grasa 
(Holms lanatus'), c. 

Where a crop of hay is desired within thr, 
year, it is necessary to resort to such grasses, 
as are annuals in the strict sens? of the word , 
and none (says Loudon) can be better for thi«-. 
purpose than the common oat (jlvena sativa), 
cut and made into hay when it comes inti. 
flower. Next in order may be mentioned the 
other cereal grasses, and the annual varieties 
of Bronms : the latter, however, are very 
coarse grasses, though prolific in culm. 

The biennial rye-grass, a variety of the pe^ 
rennial LoUum, is almost universally sown 
in England, either with or without clover, 
among grain crops, with a view to one crop of 
hay in the succeeding season. It attains a 
greater height, and produces a longer, broader 
spike of flowers than the perennial rye-grass, 
and the produce in hay is considered greater 
than that of any other annual grass, equally 
palatable to cattle. It prefers a rich, loamy 
soil, but will grow on any surface -whatever, 
except undecayed rock or bog. The perennial 
rye-grass, which will be more fully described 
hereafter, differs from the biennial variety in 
being of somewhat smaller growth, and in con- 
tinuing in the ground for several years ; accord- 
ing to the circumstances of soil and culture. 

The Corh^s-fool Grass, or, as it is generally 
called, in the United States, Orchard-Grass, 
from its thriving well in moist shady places, and 
especially orchards (PI. 5, b), is an imperfect 
perennial, and grows naturally on dry, sandy 
soils. This grass may be recognised by its 
coarse appearance, both of the leaf and spike, 
and also by its whitish green hue. It grows 
freely in most situations, is very hardy and 
productive, but rough, harsh, and coarse, and 
much improved by cultivation in open grounds. 
Hence its name of rough cock's-foot. 

This grass is rather early in its growth, and 
in inany excellent old pastures it constitutes 
one of the plants always found in the turf. It 
vegetates much during the winter in England, 
and when sown at the rate of 2 bushels an acre 
with red clover, it has speedily formed a very 
good sward. As a single plant to sow with 
clover for hay, it is altogether unsuitable. On 
good lands it shoots up strong, coarse stalks, 
too tall and few in number, and unfit for fod- 
der ; and the hassocky tufted roots do not yield 
at that season a quantity of leaves to be cut 
for hay. But on inferior soils that are used 
for pasturage for two or three, or more years, 
in remote or high situations, it forms one of the 
most valuable of grasses, shoots early, and af- 
fords, from its tufted growth, an early bite for 
sheep, and produces an abundance of sound, 
healthy seed, which is easily gathered. The 
general complaint of running up to coarse 
stalks may be retnedied by early and close 
grazing, and when sown on poor lands along 
with other perennials, it will produce the ear- 
liest feed, and the most abundant herbage 
during the season. It is much relished by all 
kinds of live-stock, and especially sheep, the 
quantity of which that can in England be kept 
upon it summer and winter is quite surprising, 



GRASS. 



GRASS. 



the land meanwhile becoming richer in ^'vn or 
three years from the sheep manure. Alter mid- 
summer, however, sheep prefer the rye-grass. 
Sinclair, it is stated, considers "no grass so 
well suited for all purposes as cock's-foot." 
(Coc/c of Agriculture.') 

It is observed, by high authority, " that if one 
species only is thought preferable to another 
in the alternate husbandry, that species is the 
cock's-foot, from its more numerous merits. 
But a certain supply of the most nutricious 
herbage throughout the season will be in vain 
looked for from any one species of grass, and 
can only be found where nature has provided it 
in a combination of many." (Hort. Gram. Wob., 
2d ed. p. 414.) 

The Woolly Soft Grass (PI. 5, c), is an imper- 
fect perennial, and rather a late flowering 
grass, of a short, unsubstantial appearance, 
and found chiefly in poor, dry soils. It is, 
however, a very common grass on all soils, 
from the richest to the poorest. It affords 
abundance of seed, light, and easily dispersed 
by the wind. According to Sinclair, of Wo- 
burn, it appears to be generally disliked by all 
sorts of cattle. It answers, however, for sheep 
pasture. Being left almost untouched by cat- 
tle, it appears the most productive part of the 
herbage, which leads to a false conception of 
its produce. The hay made from it is gene- 
rally disliked by cattle. The Woburn experi- 
ments lead to the conclusion that the Holms 
mollis, or couch grass, is a better plant for hay 
than the species here noticed, but that is a 
more durable perennial, and therefore belongs 
to another class of grasses. 

Tall Hat Grasses of permanent duration. — 
**No permanent grass," says Loudon, "has 
been found equal to the rye-grass for the pur- 
poses of convertible husbandr3% but others 
have been selected, which are considered su- 
perior for hay meadows. The principal of 
these are the fescue, fox-tail, and meadow- 
grass." ( En eye. of Agr. ) 

Of the various species of fescue grass, there 
are three held in the highest estimation in 
England as meadow hay-grasses, viz.: 

The Meadow or Fertile Fescue G7-ass (Festuca 
pratensis, PI. 5, dd). This is found in rich mea- 
dows and pastures, and is highly grateful to 
all kinds of stock. In England it is more in 
demand for laying down meadows than any 
other species, except the rye-grass. The loss 
sustained by leaving the crop of this grass till 
the seed be ripe is very great, since by the Wo- 
burn experiments it appears that the value of 
this grass, at the time the seed is ripe, is, to 
that at the time of flowering, as 6 to 18. It 
may be observed, that there is a great difler- 
ence between straws or leaves that have been 
dried after they were cut in a succulent state, 
and those which are dried by nature while 
growing. The former retain all their nutritive 
powers, but the latter, if completely dry, very 
little, if any. 

The Tall or Infertile Fescue Grass {Festuca ela- 
tier, PI. 5, e). This, in appearance, differs but 
little from the meadow fescue, except in being 
larger in every respect. The produce, how- 
ever, is nearly three times greater ; the nutri- 
tive properties being also greater, in the pro- 



portion of 6 to 8. This grass takes its name in 
England from its seeds being infertile when 
cultivated, it being produced by parting the 
roots and planting them out. 

The Spiked Fescue Grass, or Darnel Fescue 
Grass {Festuca loliacea, PI. 5,/), resembles the 
rye-grass in appearance, and the tall fescue in 
the infertility of its seeds. "It is," says Lou- 
don, " considered superior to rye-grass either 
for hay or permanent pasture, and improves 
in proportion to its age, which is the reverse 
of what takes place with the rye-grass." 

The Meaioiv Fox-tail Grass (Alopecurus pra- 
tensis, PI. 5, g), is found in most English mea- 
dows, and where the soil is neither very moist 
nor very dry, but in good heart, is very produc- 
tive. It also does well on water meadows. 
Sheep and horses seem to relish it better than 
oxen. In the Woburn experiments, the result 
gave nearly three-fourths of produce greater 
from a clayey loam than from a sandy soil, 
the grass from the latter being comparatively 
of less value in the proportion of 4 to 6. 

Of the Meadow Grasses, there are two species 
most esteemed in England and Scotland as hay 
plants, the smooth-stalked and roughish, which 
compose the greater part of some of the most 
celebrated meadows, especially those near 
Edinburgh. 

The Great or Smooth-stalked Meadow Grass — 
the Spear-grass of America {Poa pratensis, 
PI. 5, h), is distinguished by its height, smooth 
stem, and creeping roots. According to Sole, 
it is the best of all the grasses. Its foliage be- 
gins to shoot and put on a fine verdure early 
in the spring, but not so soon as some other 
grasses. Every animal that eats grass is fond 
of it; while it makes the best hay, and affords 
the richest pasture. It abounds in some of the 
best meadows in Great Britain, and has the 
valuable property of abiding in the same land, 
while most other grasses are continually 
changing. According to some, it delights in 
rather a dry than a moist soil and situation, on 
which account it keeps its verdure better in dry 
seasons, but it thrives most luxuriantly in rich 
meadows. A loss of more than one-fourth of 
the value of the whole crop is sustained if it is 
not cut till the seed be ripe, the straws being 
then dry, and the root-leaves in a decaying and 
sickly state. Those of the lattermath, on the 
contrary, are luxuriant and healthy. This 
species sends forth flower-stalks but once in a 
season, and those being the most valuable part 
of the plant for the purpose of hay, it will, 
from this circumstance, and the superior value 
of the grass of the lattermath, compared to that 
of the seed-crop, appear well adapted for per- 
manent pasture. It was of this grass that the 
American prize bonnet, in imitation of Leg- 
horn, was manufactured by Miss Woodhouse. 

The roughish meadow-grass {Poa trivialis, PI. 
5, i), delights in moist, rich, and sheltered situ- 
ations, where it grows 2 feet high, and is very 
productive. By the Woburn experiments it ap- 
pears that the proportional value in which the 
grass of the seed crop exceeds that at the time 
of flowering is as 8 to 11. The proportional 
value by which the grass of the lattermath ex- 
ceeds that of the flowering crop is as 8 to 12, 
and that of the seed crop as 11 to 12. Hen; 

575 



GRASS. 

ihen, is a satisfactory proof of the superior va- 
]ue of the crop at the time the seed is ripe, and 
of the consequent loss sustained by taking it 
when in flower; the produce of each crop be- 
ing nearly equal. The deficiency of hay in the 
flowering crop in proportion to that of the seed 
crop is very striking. Its superior produce, the 
highly nutritive powers which the grass seems 
to possess, and the season in which it arrives 
at perfection, are merits which distinguish it 
as one of the most valuable of those grasses 
which aS"ect moist, rich soils, and sheltered 
situations. But on dry, exposed situations, it 
is altogether inconsiderable; it yearly dimi- 
nishes, and ultimately dies ofl^, not unfrequently 
in the space of four or five years. (Loudon's En- 
cydop, of Agrkvliurc.) 

The above constitute six of the best British 
grasses for either dry or watered meadows. 
The seeds of the two sorts of meadow-grass 
are apt lo stick together, and when sown with 
clover and other kinds of seeds, require to be 
carefully naixed before sowing. The tall and 
spiked fescue grasses, having a number of 
barren flowers, are not prolific in seeds, and 
are therefore seldom to be got at the seed- 
stores, though they may occasionally be had 
there gathered from plants in a wild state. 

As hay grasses, adapted for particular soils and 
siiuations, the cai's-tail or timothy, floating fes- 
cue, and florin grass have been recommended 
by British agriculturists, though not with per- 
fect unanimity. 

The Cul's-tail or Timothy grass (Phleian pra- 
tense, PI. 5, A-), is said to be a native of Eng- 
land, although, from its still partial use there, 
and its universal culture in all the grazing dis- 
tricts of the United States, its valuable proper- 
ties were here first properly appreciated, as a 
hay grass taking precedence of all others. It 
is said to have acquired its name of timothy 
from its first introducer into Maryland, Ti- 
mothy Hanson. It is a favourite grass in 
Sweden, and is destined to become so in Eng- 
land, although some of the highest British 
authorities upon rural matters, Withering, 
Swaine, Curtis, and others, have disapproved 
of its culture, as having no properties in which 
it is not greatly surpassed by the meadow fox- 
tail. Probably some mistakes have been made 
by the authorities who have treated upon the 
subject, who have thus referred to diflerent 
grasses. This is rendered more probable from 
the fact that the English Flora enumerates six 
species of cat's-tail, but one of which seems to 
have any particular claims to the attention of 
the farmer. The Woburn experiments present 
timothy as one of the most valuable grasses for 
hay. In England, according to Donaldson, it 
has very undeservedly sunk in estimation, as 
being harsh, late, and yielding little aftermath, 
and from possessing no quality in which it is 
supposed not to be excelled by the foxtail 
grass. This last observation must have pro- 
«;eeded from a very limited experience, for in 
general purposes, and in a variety of soils and 
of climate, it far exceeds the foxtail, and also 
in yielding readily an abundance of sound, 
healthy seed, while many of the seeds of the 
I'oxcail are abortive, and the plant is very shy 
&*■ growth, and confined to the best cultivation. 
.576 



GRASS. 

At the time of flowering, timothy grass pro- 
duced on one acre 40,837 lbs., when ripe it 
yielded the same weight, but the quantity of 
nutritive matter was more than doubled; the 
lattermath yielded 9528 lbs., and the same 
quantity of nutritive matter as at the time of 
flowering: 1920 grains of leaves gave 80 grains 
of nutritive matter, and 100 grains of nutritive 
matter gave 74 of mucilage or starch, 10 of 
saccharine matter or sugar, and 16 of bitter 
extractive or saline matter. The ripe crop ex- 
ceeds the flowering in value as 14 lo 5, which 
circumstance gives great value to the plant for 
the purpose of hay. If these statements of com- 
parative produce and value be admitted as an 
authority, it will be seen that cat's-tail exceeds 
the foxtail grass in every respect except in the 
produce of the lattermath: an advantage that is 
much over-balanced by the greater produce and 
the ready growth of the timothy grass. It thrives 
much on peaty lands, and in humid climates, 
and on all damp soils, and on those that pos- 
sess a degree of loamy softness in their com- 
position ; and is unfit for hot sands, gravels, 
and chalks, and for hard, sterile clays. With 
that exception, experience on a great va- 
riety of soils and for a long period of time 
places this grass next to ray grass for general 
utility. It grows readily and abundantly, yields 
much seed and of good quality. On very good 
lands, it has a tendency to produce height of 
stems in place of number, and the leaves are 
soon blanched and yellowed with rain in mak- 
ing into hay; but the other grasses have a simi- 
lar tendency, and they are all inferior to ray 
grass in producing a crop of the greatest num- 
ber of stems of an equal height. The time of 
flowering is little if any later than the cock's- 
foot, fescue, or ray-grass, and for one crop of 
hay, or for two and three years' pasture, and 
for permanent purposes, the meadow cat's-tail 
must form a very considerable part of the 
mixture. The comparative merits of this 
grass will, from the above particulars, appear 
to be very great; to wliich may be added, the 
abundance of fine foliage that it produces early 
in the spring. In this respect it is only in- 
ferior to the narrow-leaved meadow-grass (Poa 
anguslifolia), and Poa fcrtilis. The value of the 
straws at the time the seed is ripe exceeds that 
of the grass at the time of flowering in the pro- 
portion of 28 to 10, a circumstance which raises 
it above many others; for, from this property, 
its valuable early foliage may be pastured to 
an advanced period of the season without in- 
jury to the crop of hay, a treatment which, in 
grasses that send forth their flowering straws 
early in the season, would cause a loss of nearly 
one half in the value of the crop ; and this pro- 
perty of the straws makes the plant peculiarly 
desirable for hay. Timothy is doubtless a very 
exhausting crop, and some persons think it en- 
tirely too costly a provender for horses in com- 
mon use, and only to be given to racers, &c. 
Cock's-footand rye-grass afford a much cheaper 
hay, and are not such great exhausters of the 
soil. It seems certain that for horses no kind 
of hay is equal to timothy. Mixed with clover 
it also makes an admirable hay, fit for both 
horses and cattle. (See PI. 5, of Tall Hay 
grasses, a.) 



I 



I 



Plale 5. 



% '^ '^ 




TALL HAY GRASSES. 







HAY GRASSES ADAPTEB TO PARTICLTLAR SOILS 8c Sri'UATIONvS 



P/a/r (; 










,1 









EARLY PAS TURK GRASSES. 








PASTURE GRASSES ADAPTED TO 




PARTICULAR SOILS AND SITUATIONS. 



Pl>ilr 7 




ORASSKS. ETC. i'UUND IN FIELDS AND MKADOWS 



GRASS. 



GRASS. 



The common Ray or Rye-grass {LoKum pt'^ 
renne), is said to be the first of the grasses cul- 
tivated in England, and even in Europe. Ac- 
cording to Donaldson, the latest English writer 
upon g^rasses, it is still regarded as not far re- 
moved from being first in point of general 
utility. One of the species of Lolinm, the tcmu- 
lentum, or bearded annual darnel, is sometimes 
mistaken for what is known in the United Spates 
by the names of Cheat or Chess, so often found 
among wheat and barley crops. See Dah^ikl. 
The varieties of the Lolium percnne are very 
numerous, and several improvements have 
been effected in England on the original plant, 
known under the names of Pacey's, Stickney's, 
and Russell's Ray-grasses, Pacey's and Rus- 
sell's being considered the best. For more 
than a century and a half this grass has con- 
tinued in high repute in England, both for the 
purpose of a single crop and for pastures, and 
now constitutes a part of all kinds of the im- 
proved mixtures. The modern objection to 
raj'-grass is the shooting up to stems and 
culms, and the want of foliage, together with 
a deficiency of aftermath. " But," says* Do- 
naldson, "the first only happens in upland 
situations and on poor soils, where any other 
plant would have the same tendency; for on 
good soils ray-grass grows large, leafy, and 
succulent, and in many cases it affords as 
good lattermath as most others, and forms, 
when sown with clover, a very useful sward 
for several years. No plant is liable to greater 
variation from soil and situation, and hence 
nsay have arisen the many discordant opinions 
of its val'ie ; and from being sown singly with 
clovers it has been more exposed to observa- 
tion than any other grasses which are usually 
sown in mixtures, and seldom tried singly for 
one crop or for a longer duration. It has ac- 
cordingly been much subjected to fancies and 
conjectures, which are about equally divided 
for and against the use of it, the former being 
yet the most numerous. Coarseness is inferred 
frojn the benty stalks standing uncropped ; 
these might be kept under by early and close 
grazing, and other grasses are equally objec- 
tionable on that point; and it produces stems 
during the whole season, while some grasses 
produce only one, and it is not yet known if 
the leaves or stalks of plants contain most nu- 
triment. So far as our knowledge extends, 
after all the investigations and best experience 
upon the subject, ray-grass forms the plant of 
all others the best suited for general purposes. 
For a crop of hay along with clovers, no other 
grass will afford an equal quantity and quality 
of produce on all the different variety of soils 
on which they are sown. It yields very readily, 
and with much less comparative trouble, an 
abundance of sound, healthy seed, and of cer- 
tain growth ; it rises early in the spring, and is 
much relished by all kinds of stock ; the hay 
is good and fetches a high price, and it is used 
with much advantage when sown in autumn 
along with other plants as spring feed for 
sheep." (Donaldson, on Manures, Grasses, ^-c.) 

After all the experiments that have been 
made on the other grasses, none, says Loudon, 
have been found to equal the perennial rye- 
grass for a course of mowing and pasturing 
73 



for two, three, or seven years. It is sown in 
Italy, and especially in Lombardy, and also in 
France and Germany, along with clover, for 
tfee same purposes as in England; and, as Von 
Tljiaer has remarked, though some have tried 
otfcr species, both in these countries and in 
England, they have in the end returned to the 
rye-grass. When intended as a pasture grass, 
if stocked hard, and when for hay, if mown 
early, the objections to it are removed. (Code 
of Agriculture.) 

The Floating Fcscue-grass (Festuca fluitans, 
PI. 5, /) is found in England in ditches, ponds, 
and swamps, and in most parts of the country, 
especially in Cambridgeshire, where it is said 
to give the peculiar flavour to Cottenham and 
Cheddar cheese. 

It is greedily devoured by all kinds of stock, 
not excepting hogs and ducks, and geese 
eagerly devour the seeds, which are small, 
but very sweet and nourishing. They are col- 
lected in many parts of Germany and Poland 
under the name of manna-seeds {schivaden), 
and are esteemed a delicacy in soups and 
gruels. When ground to meal, they make 
bread very little inferior to that from wheat. 
Fish feed upon the seeds, and trout are said to 
thrive greatly in streams where this grass 
grows abundantly. Curtis justly remarks, that 
the flote fescue will not flourish except in land 
that is constantly under water, or converted 
into a bog or swamp. {Loudon''s Enry. of Jlgr.) 

The Water Meadow-grass (Poa aquatica, PI. 5, 
m), is one of the largest of English grasses. 
It is found chiefly in marshes, but will grow 
on strong clays, and yield, as the Woburn ex- 
periments prove, a prodigious produce. In the 
fens of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, &c., im- 
mense tracts, that used to be overflowed and 
to produce useless aquatic plants, and which, 
though drained by mills, still retain much 
moisture, are covered with this grass, which 
not only affords rich pasturage in summer, but 
forms the chief part of the winter fodder. It 
has a powerfully creeping root, and bears fre- 
quent mowing well, sometimes being cut three 
times in one season. It grows not only in very 
moist ground, but in the water itself, and with 
cat-tail, bur-weed, &c., soon fills up ditches, 
and occasions them to require frequent cleans- 
ing. In this respect it is a formidable plant, 
even in slow rivers. In the Isle of Ely they 
cleanse these by an instrument called a bear^ 
which is an iron roller, with a number of 
pieces of iron, like small spades, fixed to it. 
This is drawn up and down the river by horses 
walking along the banks, and tears up the 
plants by the roots, which float and are carriei^ 
down the stream. 

The florin grass (Jgrostis stolonifera. Pi. 5, »i; 
is in England a very common grass, both 
in wet and dry, rich and poor situations. Few 
plants, however, appear to be more under the 
influence of local circumstances than this 
grass. On dry soils it is worthless, but on rich 
and moist soils, if we may attach confidence 
to the accounts given of its produce in Ireland, 
it is the most valuable of all herbage plants. 
(See Aghostis.) Though florin will, in Eng- 
land and Ireland, ripen its seeds on a dry soil, 
and these seeds being very small, a few pounds 
3C 577 



GRASS. 



GRASS. 



would suffice for an acre, yet it is generally 
propagated by stolones, or root-shoots. The 
ground being previously prepared by plough- 
ing, harrowing, and laying into ridges, the 
shoots are deposited, touching each other at the 
ends, in drill rows an inch or two deep r.nd 
about 6 or 9 inches apart. In 6 months, if the 
planting be performed early in spring, the 
whole surface will be covered with thick ver- 
dure, affording, by autumn, a heavy crop. 

With regard to the last described grasses, 
Mr. Loudon gives it as his opinion, that neither 
florin, timothy, or floating fescue, is ever likely 
to be cultivated in Britain, though, he observes, 
the two latter may succeed well on the bogs 
and moist, rich soilsof Ireland, where, to second 
ihe influence of the soil, there is a moist warm 
climate. In regard to the merits of timothy, 
the reports of several high authorities, one of 
which (Donaldson) we have just quoted, seem 
to lead to a very different conclusion. The 
observation may be strictly applicable to florin 
and floating fescue, both in England and Ame- 
rica, although there may be some localities in 
the United States into which one or other of 
these may be advantageously introduced. 

Pasture Grasses. — In regard to grasses for 
pasturage, the following selection is given by 
Loudon, as best adapted to three main pur- 
poses; namely: — 

For early pasture on all soils, the sweet ver- 
nal grass {Antlwxanthum odoratum), the sweet- 
scented soft-grass (Hokus odoratus), the downy 
oat-grass {./Ivena pubcsccns), and the annual 
meadow-grass (Poa annua). 

For lale pasture on all soils, the different spe- 
■cies of jigrostis and Phlcum. 

For pasture on poor or secondary soils, the crest- 
■ed dog's-tail (Ctjnosurus cristatus), hard and 
sheep's fescue (F. duriusrula and ovina), Poa 
conipressa, rrislata, and angustifolia. 

The grasses which, according to Loudon, 
afford most nutritive matter, in early spring, 
are the foxtail grass and the vernal grass. 

The swcct-srentcd venial grass (see PI. 6, a), is 
common in almost all English pastures, and is 
that which gives the fragrance to natural or 
meadow hay. It is chiefly valuable as an early 
grass ; for, though it is eaten by stock, it does 
not appear to be much relished by them. It is 
said to thrive best in lands that are deep and 
moist, and even in peat bogs. Donaldson 
places it in the lower order of the better 
grasses. See Anthoxanthum OnonATUM. 

The downy oat-grass (see PI. 6, 6), according 
to the Woburn experiments, possesses several 
good qualities which recommend it to particu- 
lar notice, as being hardy, early, and more 
productive than many others which affect simi- 
lar soils and situations. 

The annual meadow-grass (Poa annua, PI. 6, c), 
is the most common of all grasses, being the 
first herbage with which nature covers the 
earth. The root is annual, and it is almost the 
only grass that will grow in towns, or near 
works where the smoke of coal abounds. 
Though an annua! grass, it is found in most 
meadows and pastures perpetually flowering, 
and aflxirding an early sweet herbage, relished 
bv an stock, ani of as grea* 'mportance to birds 



as wheat is to man. It hardly requires to be 
sown, as it springs up everywhere of itself. 
However, it may not be amiss to sow a few 
pounds of it per acre, whenever perpetual pas- 
ture (not hay) is the object. 

The fine bent (Agrostis vulgaris, see PI. 6, d ), 
is one of the most common grasses, and one 
of the earliest. See Aghostis Vulgaris. 

The narrow-leaved meadow-grass (Poa angusti^ 
folia, see PI. 6, e), though it floAvers late, is re- 
markable for the early growth of its leaves, 
which, according to the Woburn experiments, 
attain to the length of more than 12 inches 
before the middle of April, and are soft and 
succulent; in May, however, when the flower- 
stalks make their appearance, it is subject to 
the disease termed rust, which affects the whole 
plant, in consequence of which the produce of 
the crop is deficient at the time the seeds are 
ripe. (See Poa Akgustifolia.) This grass is 
evidently most valuable for permanent pas- 
ture, for which, in consequence of its superior, 
rapid, and early growth, and the disease begin- 
ning at the straws, nature seems to have de- 
signed it. The grasses which approach near- 
est to this in respect to early produce of leaves, 
are, the fertile meadow-grass, rough cock's-foot, 
timothy, meadow foxtail, arena elatior, and bromus 
littoreus, all grasses of a coarser kind. 

Late Pasture Grasses. — Of these the principal 
are timothy, and the various kinds of bent or 
agrostis. The grasses which are propagated 
by stolones, like florin, and others of the same 
species, supply pasture throughout the year, 
the concrete sap laid up in the joints of their 
roots, rendering them good food even in 
winter. 

Of Pasture grasses for inferior soils, one of the 
most durable is the dog's-tail grass (Cyiiosurus 
cristatus, see PI. 6,/), in England, a very com- 
mon grass on dry, clayey or flrm surfaces. In the 
United States it is either little known, or slightly 
estimated. The foliage is small and rather 
late in the spring. The wiry stems are refused 
by cattle, and become very unsightly, and from 
the smallness of produce, and the dense lufts 
formed at the roots, it is unfit for alternate hus- 
bandry. But for pastures, and for all perma- 
nent purposes, if the land be of a dry and hard 
nature, and inferior in quality, and if sheep are 
to be fed upon it, this grass must form, accord- 
ing to Donaldson, a principal part of the mix- 
ture of seeds sown for that purpose. It is not 
at all adapted to low swampy situations, but 
on poor, dry clays, and gravelly soils, it often 
covers the ground and affords a bite where 
every other grass had nearly failed. 

The hard fescue grass (Festuca duriuscula, see 
PI. 6, g), is one of the best of the dwarf sorts 
of grasses, grateful to all kinds of cattle. It is, 
in England, present in most good meadows and 
pastures, and with the sheep's-fescue is the best 
for lawns. 

The smooth fescue (F. glabra, see PI. 6 h), 
and long-awned sheep's-fescue (F.hordeifortnis, 
PI. 6, i), greatly resemble the hard fescue, and 
may be considered equally desirable as pas- 
ture and lawn grasses. 

The sheep's fescue (F. ovina, Pi. 6, k), is one 
of the principal pasture grasses for inferior 



GRASSHOPPER. 



GRAVEL. 



soils and upland situations, peculiarly adapted 
for hilly sheep pastures. It is a low dwarf 
grass, relished by all kinds of cattle. 

The Alpine meadow-grass {Poa alpina, see 
PI. 6, I), turfy hair-grass {Mra crespitosa, PI. 
(5, m), common quaking-grass (Briza media, PI. 
6, n), are alt dwavf mountain grasses, well 
adapted for hiilv parks or lawns. 

GRASSHOPPER {Gryllida), The destruc- 
tive insects, popularly known in the United 
States by the name of grasshoppers, but which, 
in our version of the Bible, and in other works 
in the English language, are called locusts, 
have, from a period of very high antiquity, 
attracted the attention of mankind by their ex- 
tensive and lamentable ravages. It should be 
remarked, observes Dr. Harris, that in America 
the name of locust is very improperly given to 
the riraila of tiie ancients, or the harvest-flj'^ of 
English writers. The name of locust will here 
be restricted to certain kinds of grasshoppers; 
while the popularly named locust, which, ac- 
cording to common belief, appears only once 
in 17 years, must drop this name and take the 
more correct one of cicada or harvest-fly. The 
very frequent misapplication of names, by 
persons unacquainted with natural histor}', is 
one of the greatest obstacles to the progress 
of science, and shows how necessary it is that 
things should be called by their right names, 
if the observations communicated respecting 
them are to be of any service. Every intelli- 
gent farmer is capable of becoming a good 
observer, and of making valuable discoveries 
in natural history; but if he be ignorant of the 
proper names of the objects examined, or if 
he give to them names, which previously have 
been applied by other persons to entirely dif- 
ferent objects, he will fail to make the result 
of his observations intelligible and useful to 
the communit}^. 

The insects which Dr. Harris calls locusts, to- 
gether with other grasshoppers, earwigs, crick- 
ets, spectres or walking-sticks, and walking- 
leaves, soothsayers, cockroaches, &c., belong 
to an order called Orlhophra, literally straight- 
wings; for their wings, when not in use, are 
folded lengthwise in narrow plaits like a fan, 
and are laid straight along the top or sides of 
the back. They are also cov^ered by a pair of 
thicker wing-like members, which, in the 
locusts and grasshoppers, are long and nar- 
row, and lie lengthwise on the sides of the 
body, sloping outwards on each side like the 
roof of a house ; in the cockroaches, these 
upper wings or wing-covers are broader, 
almost oval, and lie horizontall}' on the top of 
the back, overlapping on their inner edges; 
and in the crickets, the wing-covers, when 
closed, are placed like those of cockroaches, 
but have a narrow outer border, which is 
fv>lded perpendicularly downwards so as to 
cover the sides of the body also. 

"The young grasshopper comes from the 
egg a wingless insect, and consequently unable 
to move from place to place, in any other way 
than by the use of its legs ; as it grows larger 
it is soon obliged to cast off its skin, and, after 
one or two moultings, its body not only in- 
creases in size, but becomes proportionally 



longer than before, while little stump-like wings 
begin to make their appearance on the top of 
the back. After this, the grasshopper con- 
tinues to eat voraciously, grows larger and 
larger, and hops about without any aid from 
its short and motionless wings, repeatedly casts 
off its outgrown skin, appearing each time 
with still longer wings, and more perfectly 
formed limbs, till at length it ceases to grow, 
and, shedding its skin for the last time, it 
comes forth a perfectly formed and matured 
grasshopper, with the power of spreading its 
ample wings, and of using them in flight." 
(Harris.) See Locusts. 

GR.\TTEN. A term provincially applied 
to arable lands in a commonable state. But it 
is used in Cornwall to imply the mowing of 
grass the first year after the land has been 
manured with sea-sand ; and this operation 
they call " mowing in gratten." 

GRAUWACKE. A German miner's term, 
implying gray rock; adopted in geology to 
designate some of the lowest secondary strata, 
which form the chief part of the transition rocks 
of several geologists. See Geolobt. 

GRAVEL. A term applied to a well-known 
material, consisting of small stones, which 
vary in size from that of a pea to that of a 
walnut, or something larger. It is often inter- 
mixed with other substances, such as sand, 
clay, loam, flints, iron ores, &c., from each of 
which it derives a distinctive appellation. See 
Geologt. 

The best kinds of manure for this sort of 
land are marl, or any stiff clay, cow-dung, 
chalk, mud, and composts formed of rotten 
straw from the dung-hill. 

"Gravels," says Professor Low, in his re- 
marks on soils (EL of Agr. p. 8), "like sands, 
have all the gradations of quality from fertility 
to barrenness. The loose soils of this nature, 
in which the undecomposed material is great, 
and the intervening soil silicious, are held to 
be the worst of their kind. These are, in 
some places, termed hungry gravels, not only 
to denote their poverty, but their tendency to 
devour, as it were, manure, without any cor- 
responding nourishment to themselves. 

"The rich gravels will produce all the cul- 
tivated kinds of grain. Their loose texture 
renders them less suited than the clays to the 
growth of wheat and beans ; but they are ad- 
mirably adapted to the growth of barley and 
oats. They are quick in their powers of pro- 
ducing vegetation; and from this quality, they 
are, in some places, termed sharp or quick 
soils. 

"Gravels, like sands, are suited to the cul- 
ture of the different kinds of plants raised for 
the sake of their roots and tubers ; and they 
are in so peculiar a degree suited to the growth 
of turnips, that in some parts they receive the 
distinguishing appellation of turnip soils." 

Gravel, if mixed with stiff loam, makes ex- 
cellent and durable gravel walks for gardens, 
&c. The kind generally preferred for this 
purpose, is the red gravel. Previous to laying 
it down, a solid substratum of lime, rubbish, 
large flints, or broken earthen pots, or any other 
hard substance, should be formed to the depth 

579 



GRAVES. 



GREASE. 



of 16 or 18 inches, in order to keep the path 
dry, and prevent weeds from shooting through 
to the surface. The permanent or earthy ma- 
nures, adapted to the gravels, are marl, clay, 
and chalk. See Mixture of Soils. 

GRAVES, or GREAVES. The waste and 
refuse of tallow-chandlers after the candles 
have been made, which is sometimes used as a 
manure. It consists of the sediment of melted 
tallow, and is composed of the membranous, 
vascular, nervous, and muscular matters 
blended with the fat, and which, not being fusi- 
ble, are easily separated from it by straining; 
the graves are made up into hard cakes, and 
are chiefly used as a coarse food for large 
house-dogs. 

GRAZIER. A person engaged in the art or 
business of pasturing or feeding and fattening 
difl^erent kinds of live-stock on grass-land. In 
order to be capable of managing this business 
to the greatest advantage, he should have a 
perfect knowledge of the nature and value of 
all kinds of live-stock, as well as of the land 
on which they are to be fed, and of properly 
suiting them to each other. Upon these being 
well understood and attended to, his success 
must depend. According to Mr. Hillyard, a 
practical grazier, and the well-known president 
of the Northampton Farming and Grazing So- 
ciety, " the knowledge requisite to carry on 
grazing to the most advantage is not easily 
obtained. A man should know how beasts 
ought to be formed; should have a quick eye 
for selecting those with a frame that is likely 
to produce weight ; and a hand that should feel 
the known indication of the probability of soon 
becoming fat." 

The business of grazing is more general in 
some of the counties of England than in others ; 
it is for the most part carried on in Somerset- 
shire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and the 
midland counties. It is a system of husbandry 
that can only be profitably practised in districts 
where the extent of pasture is considerable, or 
the value of the produce of grass-land small 
in comparison with that of animals. 

It is well observed, by an author of the last 
century, that the stocking of land with proper 
cattle is one of the nicest parts of the science 
of farming. Where nature is left to herself, 
she always produces animals suitable to her 
vegetation, from the smallest sheep on the 
Welsh mountains to the largest sort in the 
Lincolnshire marshes ; from the little hardy 
bullock in the northern Highlands to the noble 
ox in the rich pastures of Somersetshire. But 
good husbandry admits of our increasing the 
value of the one in proportion to that of the 
other. Land improved enables us to keep a 
better sort of stock. The true wisdom of the 
occupier is best shown in preserving a due 
equilibrium between this improvement of his 
land and stock. They go hand in hand, and 
if he neglect the one he cannot avail himself 
of the other. It should, therefore, be first con- 
sidered what kind of cattle or other stock will 
answer the purpose best, on the particular 
description of land upon which they are to be 
grazed. 

In stocking the ground, as the proportion of 
catflf must depeud upon the nature of the soil, 
580 



it will perhaps be generally found that local 
habit, as being usually the result of experience, 
is the surest guide. In the opinion, however, 
of the most intelligent graziers, in stocking 
enclosures, the cattle should be divided in the 
following manner : — Supposing our fields, each 
containing a nearly equal quantity of land, one 
of them should be kept entirely free from stock 
until the grass is got up to its full growth, when 
the prime or fatting cattle should be put into it, 
that they may get the best of the food ; the se- 
cond best should then follow ; and after them 
either the working or store stock, with lean 
sheep to eat the pastures close down ; thus 
making the whole of the stock feed over the 
four enclosures in this succession : — 

No. 1. Clear of stock, and reserved for the 
fattening beasts. 

No. 2. For the fattening beasts until sent to 
No. 1. 

No. 3. For the second best cattle, until for- 
warded successively to Nos. 2 and 1. 

No. 4. For stores and sheep to follow the 
other cattle ; then to be shut up until the grass 
is again ready, as at No. 1, for the fattening 
beasts. 

By this expedient the fattening cattle will 
cull the choicest parts of the grass, and will 
advance rapidly toward a slate of maturity, for 
they should always have a full bite of short 
and sweet grass ; and with such cattle, the 
greatest care should be taken not to overstock 
the enclosures. It is also advisable to divide 
the fattening enclosure by hurdles, so as t& 
confine the beasts within one half of it at a 
time, and to allow them the other half at the 
other, so that they may continually have fresh 
pasture. 

Shade and pure water are essentially neces- 
sary; and where there are no trees, rubbing- 
posts should be set up to prevent the cattle 
from making that use of the gales and fences. 
In marsh land, which is chiefly divided by 
dykes, this, indeed, should never be neglected, 
as it is materially conducive to their comfort. 
(Comp. Grazier, 6th edit. p. 74 ; Brit. Husb. vol. i. 
p. 482, vol. ii. p. 368 ; Hilly ard's Fartn, and Graz. 
p. 117.) 

GREASE. In farriery, a disease incident to 
horses or other cattle, consisting of a swelling 
and inflammation of the legs. 

It is sometimes confined to the neighbour- 
hood of the fetlocks; at other times spreading 
considerably further up the legs, and secreting 
an oily matter, to which the disease is probably 
indebted for its name. 

It is brought on by sudden changes from a 
cold to a hot temperature; such as removing 
horses from grass into hot stables ; from hastily 
substituting a generous after an impoverishing 
diet ; from the negligence of grooms in leaving 
the heels wet and full of sand ; and from con- ■ i 
stitutional debility. J j 

The fanner's horse is not so subject to grease 
as many others, because he is not usually ex- 
posed so much to sudden and extreme changes 
of temperature, and the heels particularly are 
not thus exposed. In many instances he lives ■ ■ 
almost entirely out of doors, or, if he is stabled, ■ I 
the stables of the small farmers are not always l I 
air-tight. The wind finds its way through many 



GREASE. 



GREEN MANURES. 



a cranny, instead of entering at the door alone, 
and blowing upon the heels. On the first ap- 
pearance of grease, the heels should be well 
washed with soap and water, and an ointment 
of sugar of lead and lard applied. In the more 
advanced stage, when cracks begin to appear, 
if they are but slight, a lotion of blue vitriol 
(sulphate of copper), alum, and water will suf- 
fice to dry and close them up ; but if they are 
deep, with an ichorous discharge, and the lame- 
ness considerable, it will be necessary to poul- 
tice the heel with linseed meal, or carrots boiled 
soft and mashed. When the inflammation and 
pain have subsided, the cracks maybe dressed 
with an ointment composed of — resin, 1 part, 
/ard, 3 parts, melted together, and I part of ca- 
lamine afterwards added. {The Horse, p. 277.) 

GREASE, for wheels and machinery. M. D'Ar- 
cet, the celebrated French chemist and Master 
of the Mint, recommends the following as the 
best grease for wheels and machinery; viz., 80 
parts of grease and 20 parts of plumbago (black 
lead), reduced to very fine powder, and most 
intimately and completely mixed together. A 
very small quantity suffices. (^Jourru des Con. 
UsxieUes ct Prat. vol. ii. p. 237.) 

GREEN CROPS. Crops, in England, which 
are consumed on the farm in their unripe state. 
(See Cakbages, Tares, Tuumps, Carrots, 
Rotation of Crops, &c.) One of the many 
great improvements in modern farming, has 
been the general introduction of green crops, a 
practice which I think will yet be materially 
extended; and to this end, for the heavy land 
farmers, the use of the white or Belgian carrot 
promises to be very serviceable. Green crops 
are either fed off, soiled, or ploughed in for 
manure. (See Grken Manures.) When fed 
off, the fertilizing etfects of the sheep pastured 
upon them are very materially promoted by the 
addition to their food of oil-cake or of corn, 
and, as a condiment, common salt. See Clover. 

GREEN FALLOW. Such land as is ren- 
dered clean by means of green crops, without 
having recourse to naked fallowing. It is a 
great improvement in modern farming. See 
Fallow I NO. 

GREEN FOOD. Such food as is made use 
of in its green, succulent state, in the feeding 
and support of different sorts of live-stock. 
This kind of food has lately been much more 
extensively employed than formerly; but its 
advantages are not, probably, yet so fully un- 
derstood by farmers in general as they ought. 
A few trials will, however, show their import- 
ance and great utility, when properly made. 
See Soiling. 

GREEN GRASS (Poa viridis, Poa annua). 
A native of the United States, and especially 
« r the Middle and Northern States, where it 
grows in all meadows and rich soils. — PL 6. e. 

Dr. Muhlenburg says it is not described by 
Linnaeus, though nearly allied to his /joa angus- 
tifolia. It may be easily kno\vn by the follow- 
ing description : "Culm (or haulm) erect and 
round (columnar), panicle diffuse, spicules 
five-flowered and hairy at their base." Cattle 
are very fond of this grass, if cut when the 
blossom opens. It produces less than the 
jSvena elatior, or tall ineadow-oats, but horses 
prefer it II continues green until even 



after frost, and when all other herbage is 
destroyed; and, if manured, will continue for- 
ever. The fine grazing-farm of Mr. William 
West, of Upper Darby, Delaware county, Pa., 
consists entirely of this grass. Mr. West finds 
it necessary to sow clover thinly on the green 
grass sod every three or four years, to correct 
a slight tendency which green grass has to 
bind the soil. When the green grass appears 
upon meadows made by banking out rivers, 
care must be taken to secure a supply of water; 
otherwise, according to Mr. J. Cooper, the ends 
of the seeds will become affected with a black 
spear, about one-fourth or one-half an inch in 
length, similar to the smut on rye, and cause a 
loss of the hoofs of cattle that eat the grass. 
{^Deane's N. E. Farmer.') 

GREEN-HOUSE. In gardening, a house 
with a roof and one or more sides of glass, for 
the purpose of containing plants in pots which 
are too tender to endure the open air the greater 
part of the year. The green-house, being a 
structure of luxury, ought to be for the most 
part situated near the house, in order to be en- 
joyed by the family in inclement weather; and, 
if possible, it should be connected with the 
flower-garden, as being of the same character, 
with reference to use. Its length and breadth 
may be varied at pleasure, but its height should 
never be less than that of the loftiest apartment 
of the house to which it belongs. The best 
aspect is to the south or south-east; but any 
aspect may be chosen, provided the roof is en- 
tirely of glass, and abundant heat is supplied 
by art. Of late years, green-house roofs have 
been made of either cast iron or of zinc, and 
sometimes in the form of a dome. Both metals 
are preferable to wood. In green-houses fac- 
ing to the north, however, the more tender 
plants will not thrive so well in winter : more 
artificial heat will be required at that season; 
and the plants should be chiefly evergreens, 
and other plants that come into flower in the 
summer season, and grow or flower but little 
during winter. In most green-houses the plants 
are kept in pots or boxes, and set on stages or 
shelves, in order that they may be near the 
roof, so as to receive the direct influence of the 
ra3^s of light, immediately on their passing 
through the glass. An orangery differs from 
a green-house in having an opaque roof, and in 
being chiefly devoted to plants which produce 
their shoots and flowers in the summer season 
in the open air; and they are set in the orangery 
merely to preserve them through the winter. 
Such a structure might with more propriety be 
termed a conservatory; but custom in the pre- 
sent day has applied this term to structures 
having glass roofs, in which the plants are not 
kept in pots, but planted in the free soil, and 
in which a part of them are encouraged to 
grow and flower in the winter months. There 
are some interesting papers on the subject of 
green-house plants by Mr. Towers, author of 
the Domestic Gardener''s Manual, in the Quart. 
Journ. of Jgr. vol. V. p. 65, vol. vi. p. 48. 
{Brande's Diet, of Science and Art.) See Co^s- 
sERVATORr and Ohangert. 

GREEN MANURES. Th» use of green 
manures early attracted the attention of the 
cultivator. Xenophon recommended green 
3c 3 ?ai 



GREEN MANURES. 



GREEN MANURES. 



plants to be ploughed into the soil, and even 
that crops should be raised for that purpose ; 
for these, he says, " enrich the soil as much as 
dung." And the lupin is named as an excel- 
lent manure by very early agricultural writers. 
The white lupin is even now grown in Italy for 
the purpose of being ploughed into the soil, an 
operation generally performed in October. 

The white lupin, which is extensively em- 
ployed for this purpose in Tuscany, is the 
leguminous annual plant, well known in our 
gardens, growing in sandy and loamy soil to 
the height of two or three feet, with a stem of 
equal strength with the bean, and having some- 
what similar blossoms and pods ; but the pro- 
duce is so bitter, that it is unfit for the nourish- 
ment of either man or beast. It arrives to a 
considerable size in the month of October, 
when it is ploughed into the soil. It abounds 
with gluten, to which, in fact, its fertilizing 
effects have been chiefly attributed. 

Green manures, although in some measure 
rendered subservient to the enriching of the 
soil, as soon as man began to till the earth, and 
dig in the weeds of his land and the remnants 
of former crops, have never been systematically 
employed by the farmer. He has ever been 
more desirous of employing, as food for his 
stock, the vegetable produce of his land, than 
to buiy it in the earth to promote the future 
productiveness of the soil. Yet, whenever 
green succulent substances, such as weeds, 
river collections, sea-weed, &c., have been 
used, the result has always been most satisfac- 
tory. The putrefaction of the vegetables, and 
the gases in that case emitted, appear to be on 
all occasions highly invigorating and nourish- 
ing to the succeeding crop. During this ope- 
ration, the presence of water is essentially 
necessary, and is most probably decomposed. 
The gases produced vary in different plants : 
those which contain gluten emit ammonia ; 
onions, and a few others, evolve phosphorus ; 
hydrogen, carbonic acid gas, and carburetted 
hydrogen gas, with various vegetable matters, 
are almost always abundantly fonned. All 
these gases, when mixed with the soil, are very 
nourishing to the plants growing upon it. The 
observations of the farmer assure us that they 
are so. He tells us that all green manures 
cannot be employed in too fresh a state ; that 
the best corn is grown where the richest turf 
has preceded it; and that where there is a good 
produce of red clover, there will assuredly fol- 
low an excellent crop of wheat : he finds also, 
that when he ploughs in his crop of buckwheat 
to enrich his land, that this is most advanta- 
geously done when the plant is coming into 
flower. The chemical explanation of these 
practical observations is not difficult. " All 
green succulent plants," says Davy, " contain 
saccharine or mucilaginous matter, with woody 
fibre, and readily ferment ; they cannot, there- 
fore, if intended for manure, be used too soon 
after their death. When green crops are to be 
employed for enriching a soil, they should be 
ploughed in, if it be possible, when in flower, 
or at the time the flower is beginning to appear; 
*br it is at this period that they contain the 
.argest quantity of easily soluble substances, 
and that their leaves are most active in forming 
582 



nutritive matter. Green crops, pond weeds, 
the parings of hedges or ditches, or any kind 
of fresh vegetable matter, require no prepara- 
tion to fit them for manure. The decomposi- 
tion slowly proceeds beneath the soil, the solu- 
ble matters are gradually dissolved, and the 
slight fermentation that goes on, checked by 
the want of a free communication of air, tends 
to render the woody fibre soluble without occa- 
sioning the rapid dissipation of elastic matter. 
When old pastures are broken up and made 
arable, not only has the soil been enriched by 
the death and slow decay of the plants which 
have left soluble matters in the soil, but the 
roots and leaves of the grasses living at the 
time, and occupying so large a part of the sur- 
face, afford saccharine, mucilaginous, and ex- 
tractive matters, which become immediately 
the food of the crop, and the gradual decompo- 
sition affords a supply for successive years." 
(Jgr. Chem. p. 280.) Nothing will aid the 
practical farmer so much in understanding the 
value of green manure, as a knowledge of the 
constituent elements of plants. Woody fibre, 
starch, sugar, gum, are compounds of carbon, 
hydrogen, and oxygen ; the fixed and the vola- 
tile oils, wax and resin, are constituted of car- 
bon, with the elements of water, and an excess 
of hydrogen ; vegetable albumen and gluten 
contain nitrogen as an element; and it is never 
altogether absent in plants, either in their solid 
or fluid contents. Now, reflecting upon these 
facts, it follows that the developement of a plant 
requires the presence of substances containing 
carbon and nitrogen, and capable of yielding 
these elements to the growing organism ; se- 
condly, of water and its elements ; and, lastly, 
of iron, lime, and other inorganic matters es- 
sential to vegetable life. (Liebig's Organic Chem.) 
It is always refreshing to find the sagacious 
conclusions of the philosopher supported by 
the practical farmer's observations. " In Oc- 
tober, 1819," said the late Dr. Browne, of Gorl- 
stone, in Suffolk, in a letter which he sent to 
me, " a violent gale of wind drove to this part 
of the coast an unprecedented quantity of sea- 
weeds. These were eagerly scrambled for; 
and, from m)^ greater vicinity to the beach, I 
collected twenty-seven cart-loads, each as much 
as four horses could draw; and although other 
persons deposited their collections in their 
farm-yards, to rot among their other manure, 
yet I spread mine, fresh and wet, upon little 
more than an acre of bean stubble, instantly 
ploughed it in, and dibbled wheat upon it. On 
the 6th of October I then salted the adjoining 
land with three bushels per acre, manured it 
with fifteen loads of farm-yard dung per acre, 
and dibbled it with wheat on the 15th of No- 
vember. The result was, that the sea-weeded 
portion gave three times the produce of any 
equal part of the field." (C. IV. Johnson's 
Essay on Salt, p. 48.) 

No one more perseveringly advocated the 
employment of green manures than the late 
Mr. Knight. In his paper on the question, he 
supported his views by some ingenious expe- 
riments, and used every argument that could 
fairly be employed in their favour. " Writers 
upon agriculture," he observed, " both in an- 
cient and modern times, have dwelt much upon 



I 



GREEN MANURES. 



GREEN MANURES. 



the advantages of collecting large quantities 
of t^egetable matter to form manures; whilst 
scarcely any thing has been written upon the 
state of decomposition in which decaying 
vegetable substances can be employed most 
advantageously to afford food to living plants. 
Both the farmer and gardener, till lately, 
thought that such manures ought not to be de- 
posited in the soil until putrefaction had nearly 
destroyed all organic texture, and this opinion 
is, perhaps, still entertained by the majority of 
gardeners ; it is, however, wholly unfounded. 
Carnivorous animals, it is well known, receive 
most nutriment from the flesh of other ani- 
mals when they obtain it most nearly in the 
state in which it exists as part of a living 
body; and the experiments I shall proceed to 
state, afford evidence of considerable weight 
that many vegetable substances are best cal- 
culated to reassume an organic living state 
when they are least changed and decomposed 
by putrefaction." The allusion to carnivorous 
animals is misplaced ; as green food must be 
soluble, and in a decomposing state, before it 
can be taken up by plants ; but this does not 
weaken the argument in favour of its utility. 
"I had," continues Mr. Knight, " been engaged 
in the year 1810 in some experiments, from 
which I hoped to obtain new varieties of the 
plum, but only one of the blossoms upon 
which I had operated escaped the severity of 
the frost in the spring. The seed which this 
afforded having been preserved in mould dur- 
ing the winter, was in March placed in a small 
garden pot, which was nearly filled with the 
living leaves and roots of grasses mixed with 
a small quantity of earth, and this was suffi- 
ciently covered with a layer of mould which 
contained the roots only of grasses, to prevent, 
in a great measure, the growth of the plants 
which were buried. The pot, which contained 
about one-sixteenth of a square foot of mould 
and living vegetable matter, was placed under 
glass, but without artificial heat, and the plant 
appeared above the soil in the end of April. 
It was, three times during the summer, re- 
moved into a larger pot, and each time sup- 
plied with the same matter to feed upon, and 
in the end of October its roots occupied about 
the space of one-third of a square foot. Its 
height above the surface of the mould being 
then 9 feet 7 inches. In the beginning of June 
a small piece of ground was planted with po- 
tatoes of an early variety, and in some rows 
green fern, and in others nettles, were em- 
ployed instead of other manure; and, subse- 
quently, as the early potatoes were taken up 
for use, their tops were buried in rows in the 
same manner, and potatoes of the preceding 
year were placed upon them, and buried in the 
usual way. The days being then long, the 
ground warm, and the decomposing green 
leaves and stems affording an abundant mois- 
ture, the plants acquired their full growth in 
an unusually short time, and aflTorded an abun- 
dant produce, and the remaining part of the 
summer proved more than sufficient to mature 
potatoes of any early variety. The market 
gardener may probably employ the tops of his 
early potatoes and other green vegetable sub- 
stances in this way with much advantage. 



"In the preceding experiments the plum 
stone was placed to vegetate in the turf of the 
alluvial soil of a meadow, and the potatoes 
grew in ground in which, though not rich, was 
not poor, and therefore some objections may 
be made to the conclusions I am disposed to 
draw in favour of recent vegetable substances 
as manures. The following experiment is, I 
think, decisive. I received from a neighbour- 
ing farmer a field, naturally barren, and so 
much exhausted by ill management, that the 
two preceding crops had not returned a quan- 
tity of corn equal to that which had been sown 
upon it. An adjoining plantation afforded me 
a large quantity of fern, which I proposed to 
employ as a manure for a crop of turnips ; 
this was cut between the 10th and 20th of 
June, but as the small cotyledons of the turnip 
seed afford little to feed the young plant, and 
as the soil, owing to its extreme poverty, could 
not afford much nutriment, I thought it neces- 
sary to place the fern a few days in a heap to 
ferment sufficiently to destroy life in it, and to 
produce an exudation of its juices, and it was 
then committed in rows to the soil, and the 
turnip-seed deposited with a drilling machine 
over it. 

"Some adjoining rows were manured with 
the black vegetable mould obtained from the 
site of an old wood pile, mixed with the slen- 
der branches of trees in every stage of decom- 
position ; the quantity placed in each row ap- 
pearing to me to exceed more than four times 
the amount the vegetable mould, if equally 
decomposed, would have yielded. The crop 
succeeded in both cases, but the plants upon 
the green fern grew with more rapidity than 
the others, and even than those which had 
been manured with the produce of my fold and 
stable-yard, and were distinguishable in the 
autumn from the plants in every other part of 
the field by the deeper shade of their foliage. 
I had made, in preceding years, many similar 
experiments with small trees (particularly 
those of the mulberry when bearing fruit in 
pots) with similar results ; but I think it un- 
necessary to trespass on the time of the society 
by stating these experiments, and conceiving 
those I have stated to be sufficient to show 
that any given quantity of vegetable matter 
can generally be employed in its recent and 
organized state with much more advantage 
than when it has been decomposed, and no in- 
considerable part of its component parts have 
been dissipated and lost during the progress 
of the putrefactive fermentation." {Tram. 
Hort. Soc. vol. i. p. 248.) 

In an article upon this subject, M. Knoles, 
of Secheim, writes thus: "My vineyard has 
been manured for eight years on the branches 
cut from the vines, without receiving any 
other manure, and yet more beautiful and 
richly-laden vines could scarcely be pointed 
out. The branches are pruned from the vine 
in August, whilst still fresh and moist, and 
are traced into the soil after being cut into 
small pieces. At the end of four weeks not 
the smallest trace of them can be found." 

When green vegetable substances art" bu 
ried in the soil, they first lose their green 
colour, speedily wither, and then putrefactiru 

583 



GREEN MANURES. 



GREEN MANURES. 



soon commences. It is requisite, however, for 
this purpose, that moisture should be present, 
and that the temperature of the soil should not 
be less than about 45°. If the atmosphere has 
access to the vegetable matter, the putrefaction 
proceeds with more rapidity, but its presence 
is not essential. Putrefaction cannot, how- 
ever, proceed if water is absent, and hence it 
has been concluded that water is decomposed 
during the process. The smell which proceeds 
from the gases emitted varies according to the 
vegetable substance which is putrefying. Thus, 
as I have before remarked, those which con- 
tain gluten emit ammonia; others, such as the 
onion, evolve phosphuretted hydrogen. Almost 
all emit carbonic acid gas and hydrogen gas, 
which, combined with various vegetable mat- 
ters, are commonly produced in very copious 
volumes. When wood decomposes, a portion 
of oxygen is absorbed from the atmosphere, 
carbonic acid gas is emitted, and the whole 
mass is gradually reduced to a dark vegetable 
mould. This black substance is an excellent 
fertilizer; plants grow in it with great luxu- 
riance. The soils of some of the famed newly- 
enclosed American lands owe all their fertility 
to the abundance of this vegetable mould 
which they contain. These are the American 
soils from which we are told 20 successive 
good crops of wheat have been obtained. 
There are some lands in the Hundreds of Es- 
sex, in Kent, and other places, whose luxuriant, 
unfailing produce is hardly credible ; alternate 
crops of wheat and beans have been obtained 
from them from time immemorial. (Johnson 
on Fcrhlizers, p. 168.) Vegetable mould, as ob- 
tained from the trunks of oak trees, has been 
examined by MM. Saussure and Einhoff; by 
distilling it they obtained from 200 grains 
{Rec. sur la Veg. p. 162) — 

Cubic inches. 

Carljiirelled hydrogen ... - . 124 
Carbonic aciil gas ------ 34 

Grains. 

Water containing acetate of ammonia - 53 

Empyreumatic oil - . - - . 10 

Charcoal ---..-.51 

Ashes --.--...8 

By the effects of cultivation, exposure to the 
action of the atmosphere, and the roots of 
plants, this mould becomes gradually exhaust- 
ed in the soil, and the land is of course sensi- 
bly impoverished. On this mould the alkalies 
operate very powerfully, almost entirely dis- 
solving it, and hence one great use of soda and 
potash as fertilizers. 

It is also a continued source of carbonic 
j-cid, which it emits slowly ; hence it might be 
asserted, that in a good fertile soil there is an 
Htmosphere of carbonic acid, which is the most 
nutritive food of the young plants raised in it ; 
)br when a plant is fully matured, and is fitted 
to obtain most of its nourishment from the air, 
the carbonic acid of the soil is no longer re- 
quired. It is on that account that vegetable 
mould is so fertile ; not by being itself assimi- 
lated into the substance of the plant, but by 
furnishing a slow but lasting supply of car- 
bonic acid. 

With regard to the best time to turn under 
clover, buckwheat, and other green crops, for 
Jie purpose of enriching the ground, we have 
5S4 



seen in the preceding observations that Davy 
and others have decided in favour of the period 
of full vigour, or when the plants may be in 
blossom. It seems, however, that the results of 
many well-conducted experiments and repeat- 
ed observations lead to a different conclusion, 
namel}', that it is best to allow the green crop to 
decay more or less before ploughmg it in. In 
the course of his agricultural survey of Massa- 
chusetts, Mr. Colman found the opinion cl some 
most successful farmers to be in favour of allow- 
ing the crop to mature and perish, before it was 
subjected to the plough as a manure for the 
soil. As the opinion of such men was at vari- 
ance with the commonly received one, Mr. Col- 
man addressed a letter to the well-known che- 
mist. Dr. Dana, requesting his views on the 
matter, as a question for chemical investiga- 
tion. Dr. Dana's reply is contained in the 
report of the commissioner. 

The essential element of fertility in a soil, he 
says, has been called humus, geine, vegetable 
extract, mould, as well as several other names, 
all meaning a brownish-black, powdery mass, 
the result of putrefactive decay, and the remains 
of decomposed organic matter. This substance 
combines with the alkaline, earthy, or metallic 
bases of the plant or the soil, and constitutes 
the means of growth or nutrition in the new 
vegetable. Without it, there seems to be no 
power in the earths of producing vegetation; 
and if in too great excess, as it sometimes ap- 
pears to be in very pure manures, it is destruc- 
tive or unpropitious to all growth. In the 
question now at issue, the inquiry, of course, 
was, which furnishes to the soil the greatest 
quantity of geine or humus, the green or the 
dried plant. Dr. Dana decides in favour of 
the latter. 

Fermentation appears to be the great agent 
in the decomposition of organic matter; and 
Dr. Dana's survey of the several kinds, such 
as vinous, acetous, and destructive fermenta- 
tion, seems to have a direct bearing on the for- 
mation of the elements of fertility. The juices 
only that contain sugar or starch, converti- 
ble first into gum and then into sugar, by the 
action of azolized vegetable principles, espe- 
cially gluten, are capable of the vinous fermen- 
tation. The conditions necessary to this fer- 
mentation are moisture, air, and a temperature 
not below 50°, nor above 86°. 

"If," says Dr. D., "we plough in green plants, 
we put them in a temperature favourable to the 
commencement of vinous fermentation; we 
bury them full of sap, the requisite moisturtr 
for vinous fermentation. The sugar and starch 
of the plant, fermented by its gluten and albu- 
men, are converted into gases and alcohol; the 
former are lost in air, and the last washes 
away or is changed to vinegar. All that re- 
mains for the farmer is the altered gluten and 
albumen, which soon putrefy and form geine. 
All the starch and sugar of the plant are thus 
lost." 

In his remarks on destructive fermentation, 
Dr. Dana has the following observations : 

"Doubtless, all green plants ploughed in un- 
dergo, to a greater or less extent, destructive 
fermentation, which succeeds the vinous and 
acid fermentations, perhaps caused by the ra- 



I 



GREEN MANURES. 



GREEN MANURES. 



pidity of these processes. Hence, in addition 
to the sugar, gum, and starch of the plant, we 
lose a large portion of its other substances, by 
turning it in green. The products of this rapid 
fermentation have been but little studied. Happy 
the farmer who never witnesses the process ! 
He should never induce it, and may generally 
prevent its extension when once begun. It is 
a dead loss to him; but in all the other cases 
of putrefaction, the products are valuable." 

Will not the remark made above by Dr. D., 
that the alcohol formed during the vinous fer- 
mentation washes away or is converted into 
vinegar, account for the fact of what some far- 
mers complain of, as souring the soil in turning 
in heavy crops of green clover? We have 
heard some very successful farmers and wheat- 
growers assert that their experience in turning 
in the clover crop before it had reached matu- 
rity, or while abounding in sap, had been so 
unfavourable, that they had relinquished the 
practice, and chose either to feed it off with 
sheep, or let it decay on the ground. 

Still, no one can doubt but that excellent 
effects are produced by turning in green crops, 
particularly such as buckwheat, of which three 
or four can he ploughed in in a year; thus 
evidently giving more geine than where the 
ripened product is turned under. The danger 
of the practice appears to arise from ploughing 
in the green crop in that condition, and under 
such circumstances, that the vinous fermenta- 
tion and acetous one are so rapid as to convert 
the valuable products into vinegar, and thus 
seriously injure the land; or when the destruc- 
tive fermentation converts the plant into sub- 
stances unfit for the food or nutrition of vege- 
tables. (Citltivntor.) 

During the growth of plants, substances con- 
taining a large proportion of carbon are ex- 
creted or thrown out by the roots, and absorbed 
by the soil. These substances were either in 
excess, or unfitted for the nutrition of the 
growing plants. They constituted, therefore, 
excrementitious matters, through which the 
soil received again, with usury, the carbon 
which it had first yielded to the young plants 
as food, in the form of carbonic acid. 

"The soluble matter thus acquired," sa}^s 
Liebig, " by the soil is still capable of decay 
and putrefaction, and by undergoing these pro- 
cesses furnishes renewed sources of nutrition 
to another generation of plants; it becomes 
humus. The cultivated soil is thus placed in a 
situation exactly analogous to that of forests 
and meadows; for the leaves of trees which 
fall in the forest in autumn, and the old roots 
of grass in the meadow, are likewise converted 
into humus by the same influence ; a soil re- 
ceives more carbon in this form than its de- 
caying humus had lost as carbonic acid. 

"Plants do not exhaust the carbon of a soil 
in the normal or regular condition of their 
growth ; on the contrary, they add to its quan- 
tity. But if it is true that plants give back 
more carbon to a soil than they take from it, it 
Ls evident that their growth must depend upon 
the reception of nourishment from the atmo- 
sphere in the form of carbonic acid. 

"Humus does not nourish plants by being 
laKen up and assimilated in its unaltered state, 
74 



but by presenting a slow and lasting source of 
carbonic acid, which is absorbed by the roots, 
and is the principal nutriment of young plants 
at a time when, being destitute of leaves, they 
are unable to extract food from the atmo- 
sphere." 

The supply of humus usually effected by 
turning under clover, rye, buckwheat, &c., is 
accomplished, as Liebig informs us, with much 
greater certainty when the fields are planted 
with sainfoin or lucern, a plan now universally 
adopted in Bingen and its vicinity, the Palati- 
nate, and other parts of Germany, where the 
fields, thus treated, receive manure only once 
every nine years. In the first year after the land 
has been manured, turnips are sown upon it ; 
in the next foUowingyears barley, with sainfoin 
or lucern ; in the 7th year, potatoes ; in the 8th, 
wheat ; in the 9th, barley ; on the 10th year it is 
again manured, and the same rotation ensues. 
Sainfoin and lucern are remarkable for the 
ramification of their roots and the strong de- 
velopement of their leaves, as well as for re- 
quiring but a comparatively small quantity of 
inorganic matter. 

"An immediate consequence of the produc- 
tion of the green principle of the leaves, and 
of their remaining component parts, as well as 
those of the stem, is," says Liebig, "the equally 
abundant excretion of organic matters into the 
soil from the roots. 

"The favourable influence which this exer- 
cises on the land, by furnishing it with matter 
capable of being converted into humus, lasts 
for several years, but barren spots gradually 
appear after the lapse of some time. Now it 
is evident that, after from 6 to 7 years, the 
ground must become so impregnated with ex- 
crements that every fibre of the root will be 
surrounded with them. As they remain for 
some time in a soluble condition, the plants 
must absorb part of them and suffer injurious 
effects in consequence, because they are not 
capable of assimilation. When such a field is 
observed for several years, it is seen tiiat the 
barren spots are again covered with vegeta- 
tion (the same plants being always supposed 
to be grown), while new spots become bare 
and apparently unfruitful, and so on alter- 
nately. The causes which produce this alter- 
nate barrenness and fertility in the different 
parts of the land are evident. The excrements 
upon the barren spots receiving no new addi- 
tion, and being subjected to the influence of air 
and moisture, they pass into putrefaction, and 
their injurious influence ceases. The plants 
now find those substances which formerly pre- 
vented their growth removed, and in their 
place meet with humus, that is, vegetable mat- 
ter in the act of decay. 

"We can scarcely suppose a better means 
of producing humus than by the growth of 
plants, the leaves of which are food for ani- 
mals ; for they prepare the soil for plants of 
every other kind, but particularly for those to 
which, as to rape and flax, the presence of 
humus is the most essential condition of 
growth. 

" The reasons why this interchange of crop 
is so advantageous — the principles which regu- 
late this part of agriculture, are, therefore, th# 

585 



GREEN SAND. 



GREEN SAND. 



art!fi*i»-l pradaction of humus, and the cultiva- 
tion ot different kinds of plants upon the same 
tield in such an order of succession, that each 
shall extract only certain components of the 
soil, while it leaves behind or restores those 
which a second or third species of plant may- 
require for its growth and perfect develope- 
raent. 

"Now, although the quantity of humus in a 
joil may be increased to a certain degree by 
an artificial cultivation, still, in spite of this, 
there cannot be the smallest doubt that a soil 
must gradually lose those of its constituents 
which are removed in the seeds, roots, and 
leaves of the plants raised upon it. The fer- 
tility of a soil cannot remain unimpaired, un- 
less we replace it in all those substances of 
which it has been thus deprived. {Org. Chem.) 

GREEN SAND. This mineral fertilizer, 
which, in some portions of the United States, has 
been of such immense service as a manure, and 
especially in restoring worn-out soils to produc- 
tiveness, is found in great abundance in certain 
portions of the Atlantic States. The stratum 
in which it abounds as the principal ingredient 
commences in Monmouth county, New Jersey, 
at the base of the Highlands of Nevesink, and 
along the shore of the Atlantic from a little 
north of Long Branch to Shark Inlet. Ranging 
southwestward, it passes in a wide belt through 
Monmouth, and gradually contracting, runs 
parallel with the Delaware river, at a distance 
of a few miles, to Salem. It is prolonged across 
the state of Delaware, in a narrow strip, to the 
edge of Maryland, where it disappears under 
the overlapping tertiary formations. The mi- 
neral shows itself again on the Potomac and 
through the tide-water region of Virginia, but 
in a difierent stratum, in which it forms a less 
proportion than in the so-called "green marl" 
of New Jersey and Delaware. 

The green sand or "marl" of New Jersey, is 
the second stratum in the ascending order of 
the five which compose the upper secondary 
or cretaceous group of that state. Strictly 
b])eaking, says Professor H. D. Rogers, it com- 
prises several subordinate beds, all belonging, 
however, to two principal varieties. In the 
first of these, the green, granular mineral is the 
predominant and characteristic ingredient. The 
second consists, on the other hand, of a dark- 
blue clay, mingled with more or less silicious 
sand. This latter material constitutes the usual 
floor upon which the true green sand deposit 
rests. In New Jersey, between Long Branch 
and Deal, the marl stratum has been penetrated 
thirty feet. The upper two feet consist of a 
green clay, seemingly derived from the disin- 
tegration of the green grains, intermixed with 
a large proportion of yellowish-white clay. The 
main marl-bed, having a thickness of about 
twenty-six feet, contains several subordinate 
layers ; but all contain a large share of the 
green grains. Beneath the whole there is a 
grayish -yellow clay, in which the grains 
abound, they are remarkably large, and are 
associated with numerous casts of shells. 

•' When," says Professor Rogers, " we behold 

a luxuriant harvest, gathered from fields in 

which the original soil is a kind least of all 

congenial to vegetation ; when we find that all 

.5S6 



this fertility, contrasting so strikingly with the 
barrenness around it, proceeds from a few 
granules of a substance sparsely distributed 
through the enormous and counteracting ex- 
cess of sea-beach sand, more arid than the soil 
to which it is applied, are we not led to look 
with admiration on the potent properties of 
this curiously constituted mineral 1 The de- 
velopements of geology are full of instances 
like this, showing in how many unlooked-for 
ways the mineral world may be made subser- 
vient to the good of mankind. 

" This striking proof of the fertilizing power 
of the marl ought to encourage those districts 
not directly within the tract, where some of the 
strata possess the green granules in a sensible 
proportion. It expands most materially the 
limits of the territory where marling may be 
attempted, and points us to many beds as fer- 
tilizing, which otherwise would be deemed 
wholly inefficacious. 

"There can be no doubt that the agriculture 
of our seaboard states is destined to derive es- 
sential benefit from the remarkably wide dis- 
tribution of this green granular mineral under 
various geological relationships, besides those 
in which it presents itself in New Jersey. 

" Thus the tertiary shell-marls of Delaware, 
Maryland, and Virginia, and, I might add, of 
other states still farther south, contain not un- 
frequently as high a per centage of the green 
sand as does the sea-beach sand upon the coast 
of Monmouth county. New Jersey ; and I may 
mention that my brother. Professor William B. 
Rogers, of the University of Virginia, charged 
with the geological survey of that state, has 
already done important service to the agricul- 
ture of some districts, by discovering and call- 
ing attention to the existence of the green sand 
in the tertiary strata of Virginia." 

" Composition of the green sand. — The predomi- 
nant and often the sole ingredient in this bed, 
is a peculiar mineral, occurring always in the 
form of small, dark granules, about the size of 
grains of gunpowder. Their form is roundish, 
and they are often composed of two or three 
smaller ones united together; a distinctive fea- 
ture, by which they may at once be recognised 
from other dark kinds of sand. Though they 
contain on the average nearly fifty per cent, of 
silica, they are not gritty, but may be readily 
bruised between the teeth, or upon the nail ; 
and some varieties, when moistened, admit of 
being kneaded into a half-plastic mass, like 
impure clay. The prevailing colour of the 
grains is a deep green, though sometimes the 
tint is as light as that of verditer. It is often 
of a dull greenish-blue, and not unfrequently 
of a dark chocolate colour. 

"Along the eastern side of the marl tract in 
Monmouth, Burlington, and Gloucester, the 
stratum comprises very generally two varieties 
of the green sand, distinct as to colour, and 
holding generally the same relative position to 
each other. The uppermost layer, where it 
appears (for it is not always present), is of a 
light and glowing green, having very nearly 
the hue of the green paint called vrditer; while 
the lower one is the common dark variety, of 
a dull bluish-green, or sometimes of a dull blue 
colour from adhering clay. 



GREEN SAND. 



GREEN SAND. 



"In some instances, particularly where the 
material constitutes the soil, the granules pos- 
sess a brownish colour, the consequence evi- 
dently of the protoxide of iron which they con- 
tain having undergone upon the surface a 
change to the condition of the peroxide. The 
dull colour so usual to the surfaces of these 
grains, when contrasted with the brighter green 
within the mass, would appear manifestly to 
proceed from the same cause. Some shade of 
green may be pronounced to be the colour es- 
sential to this mineral, as all the deviations 
from this tint are attributable either to oxida- 
tion or to a thin coating of clay, which fre- 
quently encrusts each grain, and from which 
the deposit is rarely altogether free. When a 
mass of the green sand or 'marl' is washed, 
especially with water to which a small quantity 
of an acid has been added, we invariably find 
the granules assuming a bright green surface. 
This colour is also produced in all cases when 
we mash or bruise a grain, no matter what 
may be its colour externally. By crushing the 
grains upon a sheet of white paper, we have 
an easy and unerring test in the colour of the 
streak, by which to recognise this material 
from all other varieties of sand. 

"Though the green granular mineral here 
described constitutes the essential and distinc- 
tive ingredient in the green sand stratum, it 
rarely exists unassociated with several extra- 
neous substances, particularly clay and white 
silicions sand. These constitute sometimes as 
large a proportion as fifty per cent, of the bed, 
causing much variety in its external aspect, 
and influencing materially its properties as an 
agricultural agent ; the sand, which is generally 
white or semi-transparent quartz, existing usu- 
ally in relatively small amount, the clayey 
matter being ordinarily the most abundant. 
This latter is of several tints, but is commonly 
of a light gray or lead colour. It is also occa- 
sionally chocolate coloured, brown, and even 
nearly white. Coating frequently the surfaces 
of the green grains, it conceals their true colour, 
imparting its own hue to the entire mass. As 
it is somewhat adherent when moist, it gives to 
the stratum where it is abundant the character 
of a partially plastic clay. Besides the white 
sand and this clayey material, we often find a 
minute quantity of finely divided mica mingled 
with the green sand." {Report of Geological 
Survey of New Jersey.) 

Professor Rogers gives several analyses of 
specimens of green sand obtained from pits in 
various parts of the region where this mineral 
abounds near the surface of the ground. In 
some of the beds the green sand is mixed with 
proportions of clay and common quartzose 
sand, while in others, although ten per cent, of 
clay may be present, no common sand is per- 
ceptible. Besides the clay and common sand 
usually present with the green sand in the ge- 
neral mass, there occur occasionally several 
other substances, "which, though comparative- 
ly minute in quantity, are," observes Professor 
Rogers, " possessed of active properties. Some 
of these materials are probably deleterious, 
while others are undoubtedly beneficial in their 
action upon vegetation. The substances re- 
ferred to are carbonate of lime, sulphate of iron 



(copperas), sulphate of alumina, sulphate of 
lime, and sulphate of magnesia; also phosphate 
of iron. 

" They appear to be derived, mainly, at least, 
from constituents in the clay, and only very 
partially, if at all, from elements in the green 
sand itself, 

" The carbonate of lime, in most instances, 
we can trace to fossil shells and other organic 
remains, imbedded in the stratum. The sul- 
phate of iron obviously proceeds from the 
action of the atmosphere and moisture on the 
sulphuret of iron, so abundant in the clay ; and 
the sulphate of alumina from the union of a 
portion of the sulphuric acid thus developed 
v/ith the argillaceous earth of the clay; while 
the sulphates of lime and magnesia may result, 
either from the combination of the same acid 
with some of the lime and magnesia, sometimes 
present in a minute share in the green mineral, 
or, more probably, from its reaction on the car- 
bonates of lime and magnesia, existing, like 
the sulphuret of iron, in an insulated state 
The phosphate of iron is no doubt derived from 
phosphoric acid, traceable to the animal re- 
mains, acting on oxide of iron. 

"Several of these substances develope them- 
selves upon the mass of the marl after it has 
been dug and exposed to the atmosphere, in the 
form of a white efHorescence, encrusting alike 
the clayey matter and the granules of green 
sand with a delicate crystallization, resembling 
a light frost. Collected and carefully examined 
and analyzed, this efflorescence will be found 
almost invariably to consist, when it is of a 
pure white, of either the sulphate of magnesia 
or sulphate of lime (gypsum), the latter predo- 
minating; and sometimes these two occui 
united. In some instances, we recognise it to 
contain the sulphate of magnesia (Epsom salts) 
in sufficient quantity to be distinguishable by 
its taste. A yellowish tint and an astringent 
flavour are apparent when it consists chiefly 
of the sulphates of alumina and iron. The 
carbonate of lime more generally shows itself, 
not in the shape of an elflorescence on the sur- 
face, like the others, but dispersed in minute 
granules throughout the body of the marl. 
Many of these calcareous granules are grains 
of dolomite, analogous in composition to the 
magnesian variety of the limestone, which 
overlies the green sand; whence, probably, the 
true source of the sulphate of magnesia above 
referred to. When the traces of shells are 
very numerous in the bed, and their conversion 
into the sulphate of lime has happened on the 
large scale, the gypsum forms a conspicuous 
part of a soft, white, clayey matter, derived 
from the shells and interspersed among the 
green grains. The mixed mass of carbonate 
and sulphate of lime is then usually in a yel- 
lowish-white, chalky condition. Sometimes we 
may detect the gypsum in the marl in the 
shape of small regular crystals of transparent 
selenite, at times so minute as only to be de 
tected by the magnifier. 

"Various fossil shells, and other marine oi 
ganic remains, amounting to considerably mors 
than one hundred species, are scattered through 
the green sand. These collections ot fossiis 
would seem to be most abundant in those pans 

58? 



GREEN SAND. 



GREEN SAND. 



of the stratum which consist largely of the 
green sand. 

"The water, percolating through the overly- 
ing sands, and also through the pervious green 
sand itself, has effected, and is daily effecting, 
important changes in the condition of the shells 
and other fossils ; sometimes replacing their 
carbonate of lime with oxide of iron, sometimes 
removing it altogether, and leaving a mere 
mould, forming either an inner or an outer 
cast, and sometimes obliterating nearly every 
trace of their former presence. 

"The total thickness of the green sand for- 
mation, estimating it from the bottom of the 
lowermost layers abounding in the green gra- 
nular mineral to the overlying yellow ferrugi- 
nous sands, or the limestone bed, when this is 
present, may be stated approximately at about 
one hundred feet. The only place in the whole 
district where it is practicable to ascertain, 
with any approach to accuracy, either the depth 
of the formation, or the relative situation and 
number of the separate beds which it comprises, 
is along the shore of Sandy Hook bay, in the 
cliffs of the Nevesink highlands. This, the 
only coast section of the strata, is still an im- 
perfect one ; large masses of the upper beds, 
fallen from above, covering the lower deposits 
near the water-side. 

"Owing to the large amount of water which 
it usually contains, the green sand is rarely 
penetrated in the numerous diggings which are 
made in it for the marl, to a greater depth than 
about twenty feet, the pits becoming at that 
limit too wet to be prosecuted deeper. 

"In one or two instances, wells have been 
sunk through the stratum, and the depth of the 
green sand ascertained to be about thirty feet, 
as already mentioned. 

"Sperifit: Gravity. — The specific gravity of the 
green granular mineral, carefully freed from 
all extraneous adhering matter, is, according 
to several experiments cautiously made, about 
2-05. Three different specimens, taken from 
remote localities, gave for the two lowest each 
a-63 ; for the highest, 2-70. 

" The hardness of this mineral varies mate- 
rially, being dependent somewhat upon the 
time elapsed after it has been dug: it is softest 
when moist and recently uncovered. Freshly 
extracted, its hardness often does not exceed 
that of talc; but when long uncovered and dry, 
it nearly equals that of gypsum. 

" It would appear by experiment to be en- 
tirely insoluble in water, both cold and boiling; 
but it dissolves with tolerable facility in any 
of the stronger acids, though different speci- 
mens vary materially in this respect." 

The experience of farmers, continued through 
nearlv half a century, had amply tested the 
utf.ity of green sand as an active fertilizer 
whf.n spread upon the ground. Various were 
me views maintained in regard to its active 
principles, and much speculation was, as usual, 
indulged upon the subject. The demonstra- 
tion, made first by Mr. Henry Seybert, of Phi- 
ladelphia, that the green sand of New Jersey 
contained a considerable amount of potash, 
seemert tc afford a very satisfactory clue by 
which its mysterious effects might be traced 
z.\n. 

588 



Chemical composition of Green Sand. From a 
number of analysis of specimens of this mine- 
ral, selected with the greatest care by Professor 
Rogers, and ascertained to be entirely free 
from extraneous matter, it would seem that it 
is not quite uniform in its composition, but ex- 
hibits slight variations in the proportions of 
its principal constituents. The following re- 
sults will serve to display the prevailing 
chemical nature of green sand, and the mode- 
rate variation of the several ingredients : 

Green Sand of Squankum. 

Description. — Colour, a dark olive-green ; 
granules of a medium size ; it composes 58'36 
per cent, of the marl of the upper part of the 
bed, and 72'36 per cent, of the lower. 

Composition. — In 100 parts: 

Silica - - - - - - 51 00 

Alumina . - . - - 650 

Protoxide of iron _ . - 21 -55 

Potash ----- 1050 

Lime - - - - - - a trace. 

Magnesia - - - - - 1-08 

Water . . - . . 9.00 

99.63 
Greensand of Freehold, Monmouth County. 
Description. — Colour of the granules, rich 
green ; size, small ; composes 70 per cent, of 
the upper part of the bed, and 50 per cent, of 
the lower. 

Composition. — In 100 parts : 

Silica 5000 

Alumina ----- 7-00 

Protoxide of iron - - . 22 00 

Potash 1100 

Lime 100 

Magnesia - - - - - a trace. 

Water 900 

10000 
Green Satid of the Marl of Poke Hill, near Platt»- 
burg, Burlington County, 
Description. — Colour of the granules, a rich 
dark olive-green; their size, rather above the 
medium; composes 98 per cent, of the marL 
Composition. — In 100 parts: 

Silica 50-75 

Alumina ----- 6'50 

Protoxide of iron - - - 22-14 

Potash 1296 

Water 7-50 

99 85 
Comparing the details of the several analy- 
ses furnished by Professor Rogers, we perceive 
that the green sand, even when of the greatest 
purity, is not absolutely constant, either in the 
nature of the ingredients which enter into its 
composition, or in their relative proportions. 
The per centage of the silica varies from 47*5 
to 51-5; that of the alumina from 6 to 9'35; 
that of the protoxide of iron from 20-86 to 
24-74; that of the potash from 9-96 to 12-96; 
and that of the water from 5-5 to 9-5. We 
find, moreover, that, in some instances, be- 
sides these elements, lime enters into the con- 
stitution of the green sand, in other cases mag- 
nesia; while, occasionally, both occur. The 
amount of these earths is, however, always in- 
considerable. 

It appears that the mean proportion of the 
silica is approximately 49-5 per cent. ; that of 
the alumina 7-3; of the protoxide of iron 22*8; 
of the potash 11-5; and of the water 7-9 per 



41 



GREEN SAND. 

cent. ; while the lime, when present, seldom 
exceeds one-half per cent., and the magnesia 
is rarel)' more than a mere trace. 

A comparison of the green sand of New 
Jersey with that of France, shows no essential 
difference in their chemical nature. 

Green Sand of Havre, in France. 
Composition. — In 100 parts: 

Silica -...-- 50 

Alumina ------ 7 

Protoxide of iron - - - - 21 

Potash 10 

Water U 

Losa ------ 1 

100 

The late lamented chemist. Dr. Edward Tur- 
ner, of London, also examined, with great care, 
the chemical constitution of the green sand of 
Kent, in England. 

His experiments gave, in the 100 parts ; 

Silica ------ 485 

Aliiiniiia ----- 170 

Protiixide of iron - - - . 220 

Potash - - - - - - a trace. 

Miigiiesia ----- 3'8 

Water 7-0 

983 

The absence of potash in the green granules 
of the English green sand, and the large pro- 
portion of magnesia, are facts not a little re- 
marlcable. 

Economical relations of the Green Sand forma- 
tion. — Abundant evidence might be adduced to 
prove that the true fertilizing principle in marl 
is not lime, but potash. The analyses which 
have been made give us, in several cases, no 
lime at all; and where a small proportion of 
lime is present in the green granular mineral, 
it is in a combined state, chemically united 
with the other ingredients, and not traceable to 
the organic remains which are in many of 
these instances not present in the stratum. 
Besides, the quantity of shelly matter, even 
where the shells are plentiful, is so dispropor- 
tionately small, and the matter of the shells 
often so firm and unsusceptible of that easy 
disintegration necessary to form a calcareous 
marl adapted to act speedily upon the crop, 
that the striking effects witnessed from the 
marl can in nowise be attributed to the trivial 
amount of lime which the shells tnay occasion- 
ally furnish to the land. Nevertheless, as 
some feebly beneficial effects may possibly 
arise from this source, it may be of service to 
the agriculturist in choosing between different 
fossiliferous marls, to attend to the nature of 
the particular fossils, and the state of more or 
less decomposition or change in which they 
are to be found. 

Selection of Green Sand. — Forjudging of the 
quality of a marl by observation, says Professor 
Rogers, " some familiarity with the multiform 
aspects which it assumes is indispensable. The 
leading rule, however, is to bear in mind that the 
fertilizing efficacy of the compound resides in 
•he minute, round, greenish grains which com- 
pose m_ost, or sometimes all of it; and that it 
seems, moreover, to be dependent upon the pro- 
portion ill these green grains of those powerful 
alkaline stimulants to vegetation, potash and 
lime, but especially potash. The first thing, then. 



GREEN SAND. 

is to approximate to the relative quantity of the 
green grains in the whole mass, and this may 
be effected with a greater or less degree of ac- 
curacy in several ways. The simplest and 
readiest method is to employ a small pocket 
magnifying glass, and to become familiar with 
the dark green grains, so as to distinguish 
them at once from other dark varieties of sand 
which sometimes occur associated with them, 
A little practice will very soon enable one to 
use the glass expertly, and to arrive at a pretty 
true estimate of the probable percentage of the 
green granules. But as these granules cannot 
sometimes be distinguished from the grains of 
ordinary white flinty sand, or from other kinds, 
in consequence of the particles being all alike 
coated with a thin film of the dark cementing 
clay, it will be useful to adopt some method of 
bringing out, under the magnifier, their differ- 
ent characteristics of colour and form. Let 
the mass be washed in a large glass tumbler, 
and repeatedly agitated Mith the water, until as 
much of the clay as possible has been detach- 
ed from the grains. After pouring off the tur- 
bid water by repeated rinsings, and permitting 
it to settle until clear, we may estimate the 
comparative quantity of clay in different marls 
by the relative amount of sediment which sub- 
sides. If we wish to be more accurate, we 
can weigh out a given quantity of the marl, 
then pursue the above plan, and decant the 
Clearwater from the clay, and after thoroughly 
drying the clay, weigh it to ascertain its 
amount. Having got away most of the clay, we 
should spread out the granular matter upon a 
sheet of paper and dry it, when there will be 
no further difficulty in distinguishing, by their 
colour and lustre, the foreign impurities from 
the grains of true marl, and also of estimating 
the relative abundance of each. When the marl 
to be examined contains much clay, I would re- 
commend the experiments to be made upon a 
regularly weighed quantity, weighing both the 
clayey and the granular portions. A delicate 
apothecary's balance will commonly be found 
accurate enough. Another more expeditious, 
though less accurate method, is merely to dry 
the marl, spread it extremely thin upon a sheet 
of white paper, and then hold it near a win- 
dow, or in the light, to examine it carefully by 
the magnifier. The flinty sand, though stained 
with clay, may then be clearly discerned in 
consequence of its transparency ; whereas, 
when we inspect a solid lump, all the particles 
upon the surface are nearly alike dark. 

"A useful suggestion is, to place a portion of 
the marl upon a hot shovel, or on the top of a 
stove, when all the granules will change from 
their ordinary green tint to a light red or brick 
colour, while the other materials of the mass 
sustain little alteration. This will often render 
obvious to the naked eye the proportion of the 
green grains. 

"When there is a yellowish or whitish in 
crustation upon the marl after the moist sur- 
face has remained for some time exposed co 
the weather, it is indicative of the existence of 
a portion of either copperas or sulphate of alu 
mina, the hurtful nature of which has already 
been explained. 

" An astringent inky taste will very often dc 
3D 589 



GREEN SAND. 

tect the presence of these noxious substances 
at times when no such efflorescence shows it- 
self. If the quantity be too small to betray 
them distinctly to the palate, and we are still 
in doubt as to their presence, other more 
rigorous tests are within our reach ; and as 
these astringent matters are so unquestionably 
pernicious in their action, it is of importance 
to have the means of determining in what pro- 
portion they abound in different marls. This 
can be effected with precision only by a sys- 
tematic chemical analysis, but their existence 
can be made to appear by the following simple 
tests. Put a small portion of the marl in a 
flask or other thin glass vessel ; pour upon it 
some pure water, and heat it moderate!}'; after 
cau.%ing the water to dissolve in this way as 
much as possible, remove the heat, and let it 
settle; then decant the clear fluid into some 
glass vessel, such as a M'ine-glass. If there is 
any copperas present, it will be evident upon 
adding to the fluid a little lime water, which 
will produce a milky turbidness that after a 
little while will become stained of a yellowish- 
brown colour. The milkiness is owing to the 
formation of gypsurn, and the brown colour to 
oxide of iron from the copperas. Or, in lieu 
of this, add a solution of oak bark, and, if cop- 
peras be present, we shall have a dark inky 
colour at once produced. 

"A good marl will, upon being squeezed in 
the hand, fall asunder again, rather than bake 
into a tough dough}' mass ; and upon being 
left in heaps to dry, will assume a light gray- 
ish-green colour, and be extremely crumbly. 
It seems to be a very general characteristic of 
the better class of marls, that they throw out a 
white efl^orescence or crust upon those grains 
which are most exposed to the air; hence the 
very light colour externally which some 
heaps of marl possess. This crust I have 
already shown to consist usually of the sul- 
phate of lime (gypsum), sulphate of magnesia, 
and carbonate of lime. A drop or two of 
strong vinegar, or any strong acid, will pro- 
duce an effervescence or frothing, if it be the 
carbonate of lime; and should nothing of this 
kind take place, we may set it down to be 
gypsum. Of course, from the minuteness of 
the quantity of the white coaling, much care 
and accuracy of observation are demanded in 
doing this, in order to avoid erroneous con- 
clusions. 

"Marls deemed equally good with the kind 
showing the efflorescence, very frequently 
occur, exhibiting none of the white incrus- 
tation. 

" It does not seem that any general rule can 
be given for distinguishing the fertilizing pro- 
perties of a marl by its mere colour, as it must 
appear from what has been said, that the pe- 
culiar shade of colour is frequently owing to 
the colour of the intermingled clay. When 
the mass, however, is comparatively free from 
clay or common sand, and consists of little 
else than the green sand, observations go to 
show that the rather dark green variety is 
more potent in its effects than the very light 
green which sometimes overlies it. 

" The presence or absence of shells I look 
I'pon to be a point of bur little moment, for I 
.590 



GREEN SAND. 

find that several of the most active marls m 
the region show no traces of fossils. The 
whole amount of carbonate of lime in the 
shape of fossils, and in that of the occasional 
white incrustation upon the grains, can in very 
few instances amount to 1 per cent.; while, 
as analysis shows, the lime chemically com- 
bined with the other ingredients in the green 
grains, is sometimes 1 per cent., and the pot- 
ash nearly 12 per cent." 

Professor Hitchcock, in his Elementary 
Geology, has given the following tabular view 
of the analysis of specimens of green sand 
from diflferent countries : 





French 




Musachu* 


New Jersey 




tureen sand, 


English sand, by 


setts sand, 


sand, by 




by M. Ber- 


Prof. Turner. 


by Dr. L. S. 


Professor H. 




Ihier. 




Dana. 


V. Rogers. 


Silica 


500 


48-5 


56-700 


49-27 


Protoxide of 










iron 


210 


220 


20100 


24-67 


Alumina - 


70 


170 


13-520 


7-71 


Water - 


110 


7-0 


7-000 


5-91 


Potassa - 


10-9 


traces. 


- 


9-99 


Lime 


- 


- 


1-624 


5-08 


Magnesia - 


- 


3-8 


1-176 




Manganese 


- 


traces, loss. 


0-080 





Application end effects of Green Sand. — The 
resemblance in composition of green sand to 
glass, each being composed mainly of silex 
and potash, is striking. The investigations of 
Liebig demonstrated the indispensable impor- 
tance to the growth of many plants, and espe- 
cially to wheat, of silex and potash in that 
state of commixture called by chemists sili- 
cate of potash. He even went so far as to de- 
clare an opinion that one of the best of ma- 
nures that could be applied to the wheat crop 
would be a solution of glass. In making this 
admirable induction, he was, apparently, una 
ware of the fact that a natural kind of glass, oi 
silicate of potash, under the form of greei\ 
sand, had been long spread over the American 
fields with the most striking advantages to the 
growth of wheat and other crops. 

The effects of green sand applied as a ma- 
nure, are strongly set forth in the following 
extracts from Professor H. D. Rogers's Report 
of his Geological Survey of New Jersey : 

"Mr. Woolley manured a piece of land in the 
proportion of 200 loads of good stable manure 
to the acre, applying upon an adjacent tract of 
the same soil his marl in the ratio of about 20 
loads per acre. The crops, which were timo- 
thy and clover, were much heavier upon the 
section which had received the marl ; and 
there was this additional fact greatly in favour 
of the fossil manure over the putrescent one, 
that the soil was also entirely free from weeds, 
while the stable manure had rendered its own 
crop very foul. 

"This green sand stratum at Poplar Swamp 
seems to be almost entirely free from any sul- 
phate of iron or other astringent material, and 
as a consequence the crops seem not to be 
scorched by an extra dose, however lavishly 
applied. 

"There can be no doubt that 20 loads of 
mar! per acre must be regarded as an unne- 
cessarily bountiful dressing; but computing 
the relative cost of the two manures, when 
employed in the ratio above stated, we find a 



GREEN SAND. 



GREEN SAND. 



considerable disparity in favour of the green 
sand. Placing the home value of farm-)'^ard 
manure at 100 cents for each two-horse load, 
and that of the marl at 25 cents per load, we 
have the expense of manuring one acre $200; 
of marling the same $5. 

"This being an experiment, an extravagantly 
large dressing of manure was employed, but 
not exceeding the usual average application 
more than the 20 loads of marl surpassed what 
was necessary. 

"Experience has already shown that land 
once amply marled retains its fertility with 
little diminution for at least 10 or 12 years, if 
care be had not to crop it too severely; while 
with all practicable precaution the stable ma- 
nure must be renewed at least three times in 
that interval to maintain in the soil a corres- 
ponding degree of vigour. 

"At the Squankum pits, which are very ex- 
tensive, the marl is sold at the rate of .37^ 
cents the load, the purchasers having to dig it. 
It is transported by wagons to a distance, in 
some directions, of 20 miles, and retailed, when 
hauled that far, at the rate of 10, or even 12^ 
cents per bushel, being very profitably spread 
upon the soil in the small proportion of 25 or 
even 20 bushels to the acre." 

This is certainly a strong proof of the high 
estimation in which green sand is held as a 
manure by the prudent and thrifty farmers of 
New Jersey. 

Professor Booth, in the report of his geolo- 
gical survey of the state of Delaware, has 
given much highly interesting information in 
regard to green sand. In all essential particu- 
lars, the marl-beds found in Newcastle county 
resemble those of New Jersey described by 
Professor Rogers. 

" Practically speaking," says Prof. Booth, 
"there are two principal kinds of green sand, 
that containing lime as an essential ingredient, 
and that consisting chiefly of green particles. 
The former contains variable quantities of 
carbonate of lime, the highest limit yet ob- 
served being twenty-five per cent. The ave- 
rage composition of the latter, in its natural 
stale and selected, may be thus expressed : 









Uoselected. 


Selected. 


Silica 


- 


. 


58 


50 


Potassa - 


. 


. 


7 


10 


Protoxide of iron 


. 


. 


22 


22i 


lumina 


_ 


. 


5 


7 


Water - 


- 


- 


8 


lOi 



The first is either cretaceous, containing finely 
divided carbonate of lime not formed by com- 
minuted shells, and occurring on the canal; or 
decomposed calcareous, on the western limit 
of the state, from which the calcareous matter 
has been wholly or partially removed, although 
abounding in casts of shells ; or shelly green 
sand, on the southern line of St. George's hun- 
dred, in which there is no fine calcareous mat- 
ter but that of comminuted shells. The second 
contains mere traces of lime, and consists of 
green sand particles, with variable quantities 
of clay and common sand, and is either bluish- 
green, and of the finest quality, as found on 
Drawyer's and Silver Run; or yellowish-green, 
containing white silicious sand, as on Draw- 



yer's and the Appoquinimink; or black-o? 
loured, decomposed externally, rarely interua.- 
ly, and containing both white sand and argil- 
laceous matter, from Silver Run to Scott's Run, 
or dark-coloured, and containing pyrites, as 
from the south-west corner of St. George's 
hundred, and along the ridge to the Deep-cut; 
or, lastly, the blue micaceous sand of the Deep- 
cut, rarely containing particles of green sand, 
although abounding with casts and impressions 
of shells characteristic of the green sand for- 
mation. We have seen that the yellow sand 
is the principal member of the series, both 
over and underlying the green sand; that it is 
characterized by its uniformity of grain and 
colour, and, rising to the surface, constitutes 
the chief and most valuable soil of the region. 
We farther observe that the green sand stratum 
is undulating, and varies in its depth, the ave- 
rage thickness being 21 feet, from which we 
may form a rough estimate of the amount con- 
tained in the whole district. It is 7 miles long, 
and nearly 65 broad, and therefore embraces 
about 44 square miles. Deducting from this 
one-quarter for the place where it fines out, 
and for streams, ravines, &c., we have 33 
square miles underlaid by green sand. There 
are then 102,220,800 square yards, which mul- 
tiplied by 7 yards, the average thickness, gives 
715,545,600 cubic yards of green sand in Dela- 
ware. Supposing, then, that the 1-lOOth part of 
it is accessible, we have more than 7,000,000 
cubic yards which may be made available. In 
a majority of cases, the flowing of water into 
the pits presents a source of inconvenience 
that may be remedied without great diificulty, 
and with a trifling expense, compared with the 
value of the material." 

Upon the subject of the fertilizing properties 
of green sand, Professor Booth makes the fol- 
lowing highly interesting observations : 

" When it is decomposed by the ordinary 
processes of the laboratory, only a small quan- 
tity of silica and all the other constituents being 
dissolved, we may regard the oxide of iron, 
potassa, and alumina as performing the prin- 
cipal functions, assisted by the presence of 
water. The useful action of potash or of ashes 
in the soil has been long acknowledged, and 
hence, as soon as it was known that the green 
sand contained potassa, its utility was imme- 
diately referred to that alkali ; latterly, how- 
ever, the opinion has gained ground that the 
protoxide of iron plays an important part by 
acting with the organic matter in the soil, in a 
manner resembling the saponification of oil by 
potash. 

"The addition of much unleached ashes to a 
soil determines the formation of salts of potas- 
sa, which, being very soluble, are taken up in 
excess by growing plants, and produce such 
luxuriant vegetation as to cause it, technically 
speaking, to burn up. The same operation 
would probably occur with protoxide of iron, 
were its salts not soon converted into more in- 
soluble humate and crenate of the peroxide. 

" It might be objected by many that green 
sand being decomposed with difficulty by tTie 
powerful acids of the laboratory, there is little 
probability that it can be resolved into its con- 
stituents by the feeble action of humic or a' 

f>9l 



GREEN SAND. 



GREEN SAND. 



mospheric agents. Independent!}'-, however, 
of the proof of its decomposition by its induc- 
ing increased fertility, and of the mode by 
which nature, operating with feeble agents 
during a lengthened period of time, produces 
great results, it may be shown that it is more 
readily decomposed than is generally admitted. 
William M. Uhler, in conjunction with the 
author of this memoir, has lately been engaged 
in making a series of experiments on this sub- 
ject, which, although incomplete, nevertheless 
afford sufficient grounds for drawing a few 
conclusions. Dilute acetic acid decomposed 
green sand after the lapse of a week or more ; 
oxalic acid produced the same result in a few 
days, and in the course of two weeks nearl)' 
all the green sand had disappeared, and the 
yellow oxalate of iron precipitated. But the 
most surprising efTects were produced by the 
action of carbonic acid, one of the feeblest 
known to the chemist, the use of which for this 
purpose was first proposed by Mr. Charles Ro- 
berts, of Philadelphia. By a well-charged so- 
lution of this acid a large portion of the sand 
was decomposed in a few days, and a weak 
solution induced the same effects in the course 
of a few weeks. Although few experiments 
were made to determine quantitatively the re- 
lative amounts of the constituents taken up by 
the acids, yet the qualitative tests were suffi- 
cient to show that all the ingredients were se- 
parated from each other, and that the green 
sand might be analyzed even by the feeble 
operation of carbonic acid. 

"As the present state of our knowledge of 
these subjects is limited when compared with 
that advanced stage which we firmly believe 
chemistry will produce in process of time, it 
would be presumption to make unhesitating 
assertions relative to the modus operandi of 
organic and inorganic manures; we may, ne- 
vertheless, and indeed we ought to draw such 
inferences as are consistent with our present 
knowledge of facts. The potassa of the green 
sand appears to act on organic matter in the 
soil by catalysis forming soluble salts of po- 
tassa; the protoxide of iron acts in a similar 
manner, but is itself changed to a less soluble 
compound; and the alumina probably has a 
similar action, proportional to its feeble afiini- 
ty. To the question that, since potassa acts in 
this manner, why does not a large quantity of 
green sand produce excessive luxuriance 1 it 
may be answered, that it does where the quan- 
tity is very large, but that its action is modified 
and extenuated by the difliculty with which the 
marl is decomposed, and by the presence of 
rther bases besides potassa. When green sand 
is decomposed by nature or in the laboratory, 
a small quantity of silica is taken up, and even 
this substance, by forming a salt with crenic 
acid, may assist in increasing fertility, as i' is 
an essential constituent of plants. 

" There are two points touching the theory 
of the operation of green sand, which remain 
to be noticed, the first of which is, that when 
its decomposition has commenced, it advances 
in an increasing ratio; and the second, that 
the constituents of green sand in their nascent 
state, that is, at the moment of their disengage- 
ment from the "onipound, act with much 
592 



greater energy. Thus it would appear, then, 
that all the constituents of the marl exercise 
an influence in promoting vegetation; and this 
action must take place in proportion to their 
respective affinities, potassa being the most 
powerful, followed by lime, magnesia, protox- 
ide of iron, alumina, and silica; that the first 
four assist in the generation of organic acids, 
with which they and a small portion of alumina 
and silica combine to form salts of different 
degrees, but generally of difficult solubility, 
which nourish and invigorate nascent vegeta- 
tion ; that by the presence of a large portion 
of bases which will form salts of difficult solu- 
bility, a more prolonged and healthy action is 
insured. 

" The above remarks relative to the mode 
of operation of marl, apply equally to the seve- 
ral varieties, as far as relates to the content of 
green grains, but the calcareous species owe 
their action partly to lime, in proportion as its 
carbonate exists in the marl. When phosphate 
of iron occurs in quantity, some notice must 
be taken of its probable influence, for in regard 
to it, we can only reason from theory, since it 
has never been applied directly to land, with 
the view of ascertaining its effects on vegeta- 
tion. It appears from the analyses of Berthier, 
that both phosphate of lime and of iron exist 
in appreciable quantity in the ashes of plants; 
for, in the composition of oak ashes, he divides 
the 7 per cent, of phosphoric acid between 
lime and iron in such a manner as to form 
nearly 14 per cent, of phosphate of lime, and 
i per cent, of phosphate of iron; and in other 
cases he gives the amount of the salt of iron 
as high as 9 per cent.; and we believe from 
experience that the utility of bone manure is 
largely due to its phosphate of lime ; and hence 
we may infer that the marl alluded to may be 
serviceable, or even very valuable, from its 
phosphate of iron ; and that if it were mingled 
with a little lime, where it is wanting in the 
marl, the atmospheric and humic agents, if the 
expression be allowed, will cause such a trans- 
mutation of the constituents as to bring both 
phosphates to exert their influence in advanc- 
ing the growth of plants. It would appear un- 
necessary to add lime, when there is already a 
small quantity in the marl, were it not that 
there is still another substance mentioned as 
occurring chiefly in the marl of the dividing 
ridge and deep cut. This substance is the 
sulphuret of iron, the presence of which is 
shown by the large amount of white efflores- 
cence with which it becomes coated after ex- 
posure to the air, precisely similar to those pits 
where it is observed in pieces of considerable 
size. After the marl has been exposed to the 
air for a short time, a whitish efflorescence 
forms on its surface, which has a strong styp- 
tic taste, and is the sulphate of iron, formed 
from the sulphuret ; but the snow-white efflo- 
rescence is chiefly sulphate of lime, or plaster. 
Now, the latter marl contains lime, and the 
former does not; and hence this operation of 
nature in the formation of plaster from sulphu- 
ret of iron points out to us the manner of at- 
taining the same result, viz., by mixing with 
marl which exhibits an efflorescence after ex- 
posure to the air, a quantity of lime suflicient 



GREEN SAND. 



GREYHOUND. 



tu convert all the sulphuret of iron into sul- 
phate of lime ; for if this be not done, the sul- 
phate of iron, or copperas, will be formed, 
which is known to be prejudicial to vegetation. 
The quantity required for this purpose will 
vary with the amount of sulphuret of iron; 
where the efflorescence is light, one oushel of 
lime to 100 of marl will be amply sufficient; 
and where it is abundant, it may be necessary 
to use two, three, or four to the 100 of marl. 
If the green sand contain already a portion of 
lime, a smaller quantity will be required. The 
best method of applying it will be to remove 
the marl from the pit to any convenient adjoin- 
ing spot, to form a stratum not more than two 
feet thick, and, after it has been exposed to the 
air for two weeks or a month, to cover it over 
with slaked lime. After exposure to one or 
two rains, it may then be most thoroughly mixed 
by passing a plough through it, or digging it 
down with the spade. 

"In what manner and in what quantity 
should the green sand be applied? All varie- 
ties of the marl are more or less compact, when 
freshly extracted from the pit, and if applied 
in such a state, would be unequally distributed 
over the soil; and hence the first precaution is 
to suffer !t to be exposed to the air for a few 
days, according to its compactness or tenacity, 
in order that it may crumble to powder, if pos- 
sible: for the finer the pulverization, as shown 
of lime, the greater will be the immediate be- 
nefit. There is another advantage attending 
this delay, that we may then observe the efflo- 
rescence, and obviate its ill effects by lime. 
Indeed, m a majority of cases, the addition of 
lime in small quantity will prove serviceable, 
since it is generally wanting in the pure green 
varieties, and yet it is an important requisite 
in the fixed constituents of vegetables. The 
most economical method of applying the marl 
as above proposed, will be to cart it from the 
pits immediately into the fields to which it is 
to be applied, to throw it into heaps at conve- 
nient distances for sprea,ding, and then to put 
a small quantity of lime on each heap, which 
.should remain exposed to the air for a longer 
time. In regard to the quantity to be applied, 
a variety of opinions exist; and hence from 
50 to 1000 bushels per acre have been tried, 
with and without success. A little attention 
to the theory of its operation will enable us to 
< iproximat* to the true proportion. Its strong 
. .ses appear to act on the organic matter in 
the soil, and to combine with it; hence it would 
be useless to apply a large quantity to a poor 
and light soil, for which 60 to 100 bushels 
would suffice; but a clayey soil would be ren- 
dered looser by it; and as there is usually 
more organic matter present in such a case, 
from 100 to 200 maybe employed with advan- 
tage. Where the land is already of good qua- 
lity, from 200 to 500 may be used, according 
to its richness and tenacity. Many persons 
believe that because one kind of marl is infe- 
rior to another, a much larger quantity will be 
required ; but the truth is, that the differences, 
although important, are less so than is gene- 
rally believed, and should not lead to the em- 
ployment of quantities greater than have just 
been enumerated. Notwithstanding the effects 
75 



of marl will be shown to be striking on ordina- 
ry, and even on very poor land, yet it is essen- 
tial that the soil should contain a fair propor- 
tion of organic matter, in order to reap the 
highest benefit from it. Hence the failure of 
some experiments made with the green sand; 
for, although it stands superior to lime in re- 
quiring the presence or addition of less organic 
manure, still the views offered to explain its 
mode of action show the necessity of some or- 
ganic materials on which to operate, and this 
conclusion is strengthened by experience. 

" The difficulty of overcoming prejudice is 
clearly exemplified in the progressive employ- 
ment of green sand in Delaware. One of the 
first experiments made with it in St. George's 
hundred may probably be dated as far back as 
the year 1826, when a small quantity was 
drawn out from the site of the canal. One 
spot of ground where this was applied was 
observed in 1837 on the farm of James Wilson, 
eleven years after its application; and although 
that soil had received no other assistance, a 
luxuriant growth of corn clearly pointed out 
the limit to which it had been spread." 

The cost of the green sand marl at the pits,, 
where these beds lie near the surface, is com- 
paratively trifling, so that it can be raised and 
hauled to the distance of a mile or two for 
three cents per bushel, and yield a small pro- 
fit. Its weight is very great, owing principally 
to the large proportion of iron contained. Re- 
ference to its specific gravity (2-63 — 2-70), as 
determined by Professor Rogers, shows it to be 
nearly three times heavier than the same bulk 
of a measure of water, a bushel weighing from 
110 to 120 lbs. This, of course, causes its 
transportation to be expensive, except where 
facilities for water carriage are at hand. For 
fields worn out by long culture, the green 
sand is generally found of immediate and per- 
manent advantage. Under such circumstances 
every successive crop having removed from 
the soil a portion of the potash which existed 
in abundance in the first years of its culture, the 
absence of this essential agent of fertility has 
been supplied by the green sand. Where ashes 
have been formerly applied freely, it is need- 
less to expect much apparent benefit, and the 
same may be said where the soil is already 
duly supplied with potash from the decompo- 
sition of feldspar, or mica, all of which contain 
proportions of potash which they contribute to 
the soil. Hence the source of frequent failures 
in deriving advantage from the application of 
green sand. 

GREYHOUND. This is one of the principal 
coursing agents, being a dog remarkable for 
his swiftness, strength, and sagacity, in pursu- 
ing game. 

There are several varieties, such as the Ita- 
lian, the Oriental, and the Highland greyhound . 
the last of which is now become exceedingly 
scarce. A good greyhound ought to have a 
long and rather large body, a neat pointed 
head, sparkling eyes, a long mouth, with sharp 
teeth, small ears, formed of a thin cartilage ; a 
broad and strong chest ; his fore legs straight 
and short, his hind legs long and limber ; broad 
shoulders, round ribs, muscular buttocks, but 
not fat, and a long tail, strong and full of z\ 
3 D 2 693 



GRIP. 



GROUND-NUT. 



news. {Treatise on Greyhounds.') As it is out 
of our province, in a work of this nature, to 
treat at large of coursing and its agents, we 
must refer the sportsman who wishes for de- 
tailed information on the points of a good grey- 
hound, and on breeding, feeding, &c., to that 
excellent manual of reference for all matters 
relating to the chase, Blaine's Encydopeedia of 
Rural Sports, a very learned and carefully ar- 
ranged work, digested and compiled by a mas- 
ter hand. 

GRIP. A small gutter, or ditch, cut across 
a field, to drain it. When cut for draining, it 
is mostly called a water or draining furrow. 

A good method of draining meadow or sward- 
land, by grips, is that of cutting out the pieces 
in a somewhat wedge-like form, taking off the 
bottom part, and then replacing them, by which 
means, a hollow is left below, for permitting 
the water to riow off. 

Grip is also provincially used to signify the 
hollow or cavity behind the cattle, in cow- 
houses or cattle-sheds, into which the dung 
and urine is discharged. These cavities should 
always be sunk about 8, 10, or 12 inches below 
the surface on which the cattle stand. 

GRIPES, or COLIC. We have found that, 
in the absence of a veterinary surgeon in this 
dangerous complaint, the following is the best 
remedy for a horse: — 1^ pint of linseed oil, 
1^ ounce of laudanum, given in a little warm 
gruel. Some persons assist the operation of 
the above with a glyster composed of ^ lb. 
of cpsom salts, ^ lb. of treacle, dissolved in 
three quarts of warm water. See Cattle, and 
Shkep, Diseases of. 

GRIT. Hard sandstone, employed for mill- 
stones and grindstones, pavement, &c. 

GRITS. See Guoats. 

GROATS. In agriculture, are the small 
grains formed from oats after having the husks 
or she'.Ls taken off the grain. When crushed, 
they are called Embden groats. Gruel made 
from groats is a mild, little nutritive, easily 
digested food, well adapted for cases of fever 
and inflammation. An ounce of groats should 
make a quart of gruel ; the mixture should be 
constantly stirred during the boiling ; and when 
cold, the clear liquor poured off from the sedi- 
ment. Sugar or lemon juice may be added 
if circumstances admit of such additions. 

GROMWELL; GRAY MILLET (Lilhospcr- 
nium, from lithos a stone, and spcrma a seed. 
The little nuts or seeds being extremely hard, 
and having a surface as smooth as a polished 
pebble). Of this herbaceous perennial plant 
ihere are four indigenous species in England. 

1. The common gromwell (L. officinale), gro- 
jnill, gray-mill, or gray millet, for it has various 
local names, which grows in dry, gravelly, or 
chalky soils, and frequently amongst rubbish 
and ruins, blowing pale buff flowers, in May 
and June. The root is tapering, strpng, and 
whitish. The whole herb rough with minute, 
close, callous bristles. The stem is annual, 
nearly two feet high, branched and leafy. The 
leaves are sessile, alternate, grayish-green, ovate 
or lanceolate. The seeds are gray, with a kind 
of porcelain polish, and a stony hardness ; 
whence they have been falsely reported to con- 
tair calcareous earths, effervescing with acids. 
594 



These seeds afford excellent flour, which might 
in times of scarcity be converted into bread. 
3. Corn gromwell. See Bastard Alkanet. 

3. Creeping or purple gromwell (L. purpura 
cceruleum). A rare plant, found occasionally 
in thickets on a chalky soil. 

4. Sea gromwell (Z. maritimum), growing in 
many parts of the coasts of Scotland and the 
north of England on the sea-shore among sand 
or loose stones. The whole herb is remarkable 
for its beautiful glaucous hue. {Eng. Flor. 
vol. i. p. 254.) 

The field lithospermum, or stoneweed, a worth- 
less plant, is the only species described by Dr. 
Darlington, as found in Pennsylvania. There 
are five or six additional species in the United 
States. (Flora Cestrira.) 

GROOM (Flem. grom, a boy). A name now 
usually applied to servants who are employed 
about horses. The chief requisites in a groom 
are, a mild disposition, and a fondness for the 
animals of which he has the care. Great atten- 
tion is also necessary to the feeding, dressing, 
littering, and keeping horses clean. These 
different operations should be daily executed 
with regularity and exactness. The stable, as 
well as the various articles that belong to it, 
should also always be kept clean and in per- 
fect order. 

GROUND CHERRY (Physealis viscosa), 
clammy viscosa. The specific name of this 
American plant is derived from the Greek word 
Physa, a bladder or bag, in allusion to its in- 
flated calyx, or seed-pod. It is found in fields, 
fence-rows, &c., where, in the Middle States, it 
flowers in July. The root is annual, the stem 
growing 12 to 18 inches high, with spreading 
branches. Leaves 2 to 4 inches long, and 2 to 3 
inches wide, roundish ovate or obtuse. Flower 
greenish-yellow, with purplish-brown spots at 
the base. The berry succeeding the flower is 
roundish, viscid, enclosed in the inflated calyx, 
and of a greenish-yellow colour, and when fully 
mature, orange. The flower stems are very 
hairy. The ripe berries of one of the more hairy 
varieties of the ground cherry {P.Pcnnsylvanica), 
are orange-coloured, more succulent than some 
others, and rather palatable. (Flora Cestrica.) 

GROUND IVY. See Alehoof. 

GROUND-NUT (Apios tuberosa. From apios 
a pear, in allusion to its pear-shaped tubers) 
sometimes called wild bean. An American 
plant, growing in the Middle States, having 
a perennial root, producing oval tubers half 
an inch or more in diameter at the base of 
the stem. The stem is from 4 to 8 feet 
long, slender, striate, slightly hairy, sparingly 
branched, and climbing. The flower blooms 
in August, is of a dingy purple with tinges of 
green, rather handsome and pleasantly fra- 
grant. The tubers on the roots are esculent 
and nutricious, and the plant has been con- 
sidered an object worthy of culture. It is the 
only species of the genus. (Flora Cestrica.) 

Another plant producing a ground nut is the 
Arachis hypogcea. This is an annual plant, with 
long, trailing stalks. A native of Mexico, but 
now cultivated in the West Indies for its nuts, 
which are oblong, and grow beneath the sur- 
face. These are used by the negroes as food. 
But in France they are now cultivated for the 



GROUNDSEL. 



GUANO. 



abundance of the oil they produce. This is 
said to be equally as valuable, for the table and 
other purposes, as the oil of olives, and supe- 
rior to that for burning. A bushel of the nuts 
produces by oold expression a gallon of oil; 
bin more may be produced by heat, but of a 
quality inferior. {Am. Orcbardist.) 

GROUNDSEL, or RAGWORT (Senecio). 
An extensive genus of plants, many of the 
species of which are very ornamental. Of this 
genus Sir John Smith includes ten species as 
indigenous to England, four only of which, 
iiowever, come properly under the head ground- 
sel. The remainder are referred to under the 
name of Ragwort, by which name they are 
generally known. 

Common groundsel, or Simson (S. vulgaris), 
grows almost everywhere in cultivated or waste 
grounds, in rubbish, dry banks, the tops of 
walls, &c.-, it flowers almost all the year. It 
is too well known to need description. Cage 
bird* (particularly goldfinches and linnets) are 
fed with the young buds, seeds, and leaves, 
which are cooling, and have a saltish herba- 
ceous flavour. Cows do not relish this plant; 
it is, however, eaten by goats and swine, but 
refused by horses and sheep. A weak infusion 
of groundsel is in England a common purge; 
a strong infusion or juice is used as an emetic, 
and sometimes given to horses to free them 
from bots. All the groundsels are annual. 

Fifteen or sixteen species of senecio are 
found in the United States, of which Dr. Dar- 
lington met with four in Pennsylvania. These 
are: — 1. The golden; 2. The obovate, which 
in New York is called squaw-weed, and de- 
nounced as poisonous to sheep. 3. Balsamita- 
like, common groundsel. 4. Fireweed, or hie- 
racium-leaved. This plant is remarkable for 
its prevalence in newly cleared grounds, espe- 
cially around spots where brushwood has been 
burned; whence it derives its name of fire-weed. 

GRUB. The common name for worms or 
maggots, hatched from the eggs of beetles. 
Under the name of gentles, grubs are a prin- 
cipal bait to the angler for many kinds of fish. 
The grub produces the beetle, and is by some 
called the rook-worm, because rooks are par- 
ticularly fond of it. Land newly brought into 
cultivation is generally most subject to the 
grub. The best way of destroying it is by 
good and frequent ploughings, and the applica- 
tions of lime in pretty large proportions in its 
caustic or" most active state, or common salt. 
Irrigation is also very beneficial, as tending to 
destroy srubs. See Beetles and Insects. 

GRUBBER, or CULTIVATOR. See Har- 
row and ScAuiFiER. 

GUANO. The name of a manure recently 
imported for the first time into England, which 
has long been extenbively employed by the 
cultivators of Peru to fertilize their sterile 
sandy places — lands, on which occasionally 
there is a total absence of rain for many 
months. This manure is the excrements of 
^iea-birds, and, like that produced by all animals 
feeding on animal food, is of a very powerful 
description. It exists, according to M. Hum- 
ooldt, in the greatest abundance in some of the 
small rocky islands of the Pacific Ocean, as 
at Chinche, Ho, Iza, and Arica. Even when 



Humboldt wrote, some 20 years since, 50 ves- 
sels were annually loaded with the guano at 
Chinche alone, each trader carrying from 1500 
to 2000 cubic feet. The guano is found on the 
surface of these islands, in strata of several 
feet in thickness, and is, in fact, the putrefying 
excrements of innumerable sea-fowl that re- 
main on them during the breeding season. It 
is used by the farmers of Peru chiefly as a 
manure for the maize or Indian corn, and it is 
said sometimes in the small proportion of 
about 1 cwt. per acre. " The date of the dis- 
covery of the guano and of its introduction 
as a manure," says Mr. Winterfeldt, " is un- 
known, although no doubt exists of its great 
antiquity. In many parts of America, where 
the soil is volcanic or sandy, no produce would 
be obtained without the guano. It has been 
calculated that from 12,000 to 14,000 cwts. are 
annually sold in the port of Mollendo for the 
use of the country round the city of Arequipa. 
In the province of Taracapa and in the valleys 
of Tambo and Victor the consumption should 
be something more, as wheat, all kinds of fruit, 
trees and plants, with the single exception of 
the sugarcane, are manured with the guano; 
which is not the case with the district of Are- 
quipa, where maize and the potato alone re- 
quire it. In the district of Arequipa 3 cwts. 
of guano is spread over an extent of 5000 
square yards (about an English acre) ; but in 
Taracapa and the valleys of Tambo and Victor, 
5 cwts. are required. The land thus manured 
in Arequipa produces 45 for 1 of potatoes, and 
35 for 1 of maize, where wheat manured with 
horse dung produces only 18." 

There are, it seems, three varieties of guano, 
which bear on the coast of Peru different 
prices. "The white guano is considered the 
most valuable, as being fresher and purer. It 
is found on nearly all the islands along the 
coast. The red and dark gray are worth 2s. 3d. 
the cwt. ; a higher price is given for the white 
on account of its greater scarcity ; it is sold at 
the port of Mollendo at 3s. 6rf. per cwt., and at 
times, as during the war, it has obtained as 
high a price as 12s. 

It appears, in the slate in which it has been 
lately introduced into England, to be a fine 
brown or fawn-coloured powder, emitting a 
strong marine smell : it blackens when heated, 
and gives off" strong ammoniacal fumes. When 
nitric acid is mixed with it, uric or lithic acid 
is produced. It has been analyzed by various 
chemists. In 1806, an analysis of a very ela- 
borate description was published by MM. Four- 
croy and Vauquelin ; they found in it a fourth 
of its weight of uric acid, partly saturated with 
ammonia and partly with potash. Some phos- 
phate of lime and ammonia, and small quanti- 
ties of sulphate and muriate of potash, a little 
fatty matter, and a portion of sand. It has been 
more recently analyzed by Mr. Hennell of Apo- 
thecaries' Hall, who found in guano — 

Parta. 
Bnne earth ----.... 305 

Sulphates and muriates . - ... 3 

Uric or lithic acid --.....15 
Carbonate of ammonia --.... 3 
Matters volatile at 212°, consisting chiefly of water 

and carbonate of ammonia - . . 13 

Other organic matters ..... 36-5 

loo 
ft95 



GUANO. 



GUANO. 



It has also been analyzed by Mr. Brett of 
Liverpool, who found in 100 parts — 



Earthy insoluble salts, chiefly phosphate of lime 
Soluble salts, fixed alkaline, sulphate, and mn- 
rlate --------- 

Organic matter ------- 

The organic matter consists of — 
Lithic acid -------- 

Ammonia -------- 

Other organic matter and moisture - - - 



Parts. 
292 



2-5 
68-3 



161 

8-7 
43-5 



♦68-3 

The composition of guano varies, however, 
considerably. According to the analyses of MM. 
Voelckel and Klaproth, the varieties which 
they examined contained — 

Voekkel. Klapn.lh. 
Parts. Parts. 

Urate of ammonia .... 9 16 

0.\alate of ammonia - . . . 10'6 00 

Oxalate of lime ----- 7 1275 

Phosphate of ammonia . - - 6 00 

— ammonia, and magnesia 2 6 00 

Sulphate of potass - - - - 5'5 00 

— soda . - . . 3-3 00 
Chloride of sodium (common salt) - 00 5 

— ammonia - - - - 42 00 
Phosphate of lime - . - . 14-3 10 

Clay and sand 4-7 32 

Undetermined organic substances, of 

which about 12 per cent, is soluble 
in water, a small quantity of soluble 
saltof iron, water - - - - 3253 2875 

In a few words, it may be regarded as a com- 
pound of urate of ammonia and other salts. 
There is no doubt but that it is a very power- 
ful manure; the very composition of its salts 
would indicate this fact. Thus, uric or lithic 
acid, which is a fine white powder, nearly in- 
soluble in water (1720 parts of water only dis- 
solving 1 part of uric acid), is composed, ac- 
cording to Dr. Proul {Thomson's CAew. vol. ii. p. 
1S7), of— 

Parts. 

Hydrogen . - . - - 0125 

Carbon 2 250 

Nitrogen or azote ... 1750 

Oxygen - - . . . 1500 

5625 

Urate of ammonia and urate of potash are 
fine white powders, also very insoluble in 
water: of the phosphate of lime, of the guano, 
the earthy salt, and most valuable portions of 
bones, it is unnecessary to comment; I have, 
in my work " On the Fertilizers, p. 136," en- 
deavoured to show how essentially valuable 
this salt is to all the farmer's commonly culti- 
vated crops. The use of the dung of birds is 
not a modern improvement, for that of poultry 
has been adopted as a manure from a very 
eaAy period. M. P. Cato, the earliest Of the 
agricultural writers, in his work, (lib. Ixxxvi.) 
commends the use of pigeons' dung for mea- 
diy ws, corn-lands, or gardens. And John Wor- 
idge, in 1669, was warm in the praise of the 
dung of fowls. "Pigeons' or hens' dung," he 
sa3rs {Myst. of Agr. 71), " is incomparable : one 
Joad is worth ten loads of other dung, and is 
'.heref^re usually sown on wheat or barley that 
-ieth far off and is not easy to be helped." And 
he says, in another place, "A flock of wild 
geese had pitched upon a parcel of green 
wheat, and ha.d eaten it up clean, and sat there- 

* Fo- these i am indebted to Mr. M'Donald, of St. Mil- 
dred 9 Court, L«^ndon, a considerable importer of the 
g'lmo 

596 



on, and dunged it several nights ; that the owner 
despaired of having any crop that year ; but the 
contrary happened, for he had a far richer 
stock of wheat there than any of his neighbours 
had." 

In some experiments made by Mr. Skirving 
of Walton, near Liverpool, in 1841, the guano 
was tried at the rate of two or three cwts. per 
acre, as a manure for Swedish turnips and 
Italian rye-grass, with very considerable suc- 
cess ; it appeared to be equally, or rather more, 
efficacious than 20 cubic yards per acre of 
farm-yard manure. 

The most elaborate set of experiments upon 
the guano with which I am acquainted were 
made, m 1810, for potatoes and mangel-wurzel, 
at the island of St. Helena, by the late General 
Beatson ; and they are the more valuable from 
being comparative. The soil on which these 
experiments were made was rather stiff, being 
composed of blackish mould, intermixed with 
friable fat clay. The following table gives the 
results of every experiment: 35 loads of horse- 
dung litter per acre were used, 35 of hogs' 
dung litter, and 35 bushels per acre of the 
guano. 

1. With potato seed the size of walnuc*. 
planted whole — 

jStx inches deep. 

Bushels. 
Guano ------ 554 

Horse dung ----- 583 

Pigs' dung ----- 447 

Soil simple ----- 395 

Three inches deep. 

Guano ------ 531 

Horse dang ----- 479 

Pigs' dung - - - . . 414 

Soil simple . - - . . 311 

2. Large potatoes cut in pieces. 

Six inches deep. 

Guano ------ 589 

Horse dung . . - . . 531 

Pigs' dung - - - . . 466 

Soil simple - ... 409 

Three inches deep. 

Guano ....-- 557 

Horse dung - - - - - 511 

Pigs' dung - - . . - 375 

Soil simple . - - - . 414 

3. From middle eye of potato seed scooped 
out. 

Six inches deep, 

Busbelf. 

Guano ..---. 576 

Horse dung ----- 563 

Pigs' dung ..... 485 

Soil simple - ... - 337 

TTiree inches deep. 

Gnano ...... 453 

Horse dung ..... 383 

Pigs' dung . . . - . 48& 

Soil simple ..... 343 

4. With small potatoes planted whole. 

Six inches deep. 

Bushela: 
Guano --■--. 628 
Horse dung - ... - 583 
Pigs' dung - - . . . 544 
Soil simple .... - 570' 

TTiree inches deep. ' ; 

Guano ---«--- 55T 

Horse dang ----- 414 ' * 

Pigs" dung .... - 440 "i 

Soil simple ----- 440 j 



II 



GUANO. 

The total comparative produce in lbs. of 
;»otatoes from these manures was therefore — 

Guano, or sea-fowl dung, at 35 bushels per acre - 639 

Horse dun?, 35 cart loads per acre ... 626 

Hogs' dunj:, 35 cart toads per acre ... 534 

Soil simple - - 446 

With mangel-wurzel the produce per acre 
on a similar soil was as follows : — 

Leaves. Roots, 
tons. tons. 

Soil simjiJe 38 19i 

Hogs's dung and ashes, 360 bushels per 

acre - - 131 66^ 

Guano, 35 bushels per acre ... 153y 77f 

The guano, or sea-fowl dung, adds General 
Beatson, which is found in considerable quan- 
tities upon Egg Island, was first recommended 
lo my notice by Sir Joseph Banks, President 
of the Ro)'al Society. " It furnishes," say.s he, 
"the loading of an immense number of ves- 
sels that are constantly employed in bringing 
it from small islands to the main land on the 
western coast of South America, where it is 
sold and distributed for the purpose of ma- 
nure, for which it answers in a degree infi- 
nitely superior to any other article we have 
thi, knowledge of. A handful is considered as 
sulficient for several square yards of land, the 
produce of which is exuberant in consequence 
of the force of this application." 

The accuracy of this valuable communica- 
tion has been most amply confirmed by my 
experiments in the culture of potatoes, as well 
as upon grass lands. Thirty-five bushels of 
the guano, or 3 cart-loads per acre appear to 
me equivalent in effect to 70 loads of good rot- 
ten dung. I should imagine that abundance 
of this most valuable manure might be had 
from many of the rocks and islands on the 
coast of Scotland. The effect of the guano 
upon grass lands is comparatively greater than 
m the potato experiment. From what cause 
this proceeds it may be difficult lo explain ; 
but as Dr. Priestley found, b)' experiment, that 
vegetables throve best when the}' were made 
to grow in air made putrid by the decomposi- 
tion of animal and vegetable substances, it 
may be inferred that the very strong effluvia 
R'hich issue froin the sea-fowl dung or guano, 
together with its being readily washed among 
the roots of vegetables by the first falls of rain, 
are circumstances that may possibly render its 
effects as a top-dressing greatly superior lo 
those it produces when it is mixed with the 
soil. On the 29th of July, 1808, I marked out 
a space on the lawn in front of Plantation 
House, which measured I rod in breadth and 
12 rods in length; this was divided into 12 
equal parts, or square rods, and numbered 
progressively from 1 to 12. The guano was 
reduced to a powder and sifted, and upon No. 
1 a quart of this powder was evenly strewed 
t^ the hand ; this is at the rate of 5 Winches- 
ter bushels per acre, because 160 square rods, 
or an acre, would have required that number 
of quarts, or exactly 5 bushels. In the same 
manner No. 2 had 2 quarts. No. 3, 3 quarts, 
and so on to No. 12, which had 12 quarts, or 
at the rate of 60 bushels per acre. From the 
29th of July there were daily drizzling rains 
nntil the 5th of August, when the effect of this 
invaluable manure began to appear. On the 



GUANO. 

following day the whole extent of the 12 rods 
became highly verdant, and exhibited such a 
contrast to the unmanured pan of the lawn, 
that it had the appearance of having been 
newly turfed with a finer kind of sod. The 
effect gradually increased, and in the first 
week of October, that is, in a little more than 
two months, the higher numbers, from 6 to 12, 
having from 30 to 60 bushels per acre, excited 
the surprise of every person who saw them, 
being covered with the most exuberant grass 
that can be imagined, and having more the re- 
semblance of a crop of young wheat very 
thickly sown, than of any grass I ever beheld. 
This is more remarkable, as at that time the co- 
pious rains which fell in August and the spring 
season had made no visible effect on the adjoin- 
ing part of the lawn. It was from a frequent 
and careful inspection of the above experi- 
ments that I have estimated 33 bushels of gu- 
ano per acre to be equivalent in effect upon 
grass lands to seventy loads of well-rotted 
dung. I have been informed that guano is 
sold at Lima, and at other towns on the coast 
of Peru, for a dollar a bag of 50 pounds weight, 
and that it is much in use there for manuring 
fruit trees and gardens. It is certainly one of 
the most powerful of manures, and therefore it 
is necessary to be cautious in using it. I have 
observed, when too much is laid on grass, 
that it burns and destroys it. I would, there- 
fore, recommend to those who may try it on 
fruit trees, to begin with not more than three- 
quarters of a pint to each tree, and to trench it 
about a foot deep all round the roots. If the 
first application be found insufficient, a second 
or third may be given at intervals of two or 
three months; or a better mode, perhaps, of 
determining the quantity of guano proper for 
each fruit tree, would be to select about a 
dozen trees of the same kind and size, and to 
vary the quantities by an easy progression, 
from three-quarters of a pint to one or two 
quarts, or more, to each tree. (Com. Board of 
Jgr., vol. viL p. 225—240. 

"The price at present of guano in England 
is about $45 to $50 per ton. When Peruvian 
guano brings $47 per ton in England or the 
United States, the Peruvian government receives 
about $12 export duty, and the remaining $35 
goes to pay for freight, commissions, &c. 

The importation of guano into England was 
commenced by Mr. Myers of Liverpool, who, 
in 1840, received 20 casks from Peru. In the 
year 1849, about 150,000 tons arrived in the 
different ports, more than one-half of which was 
Peruvian. Estimated at an average price of 
about $40 per ton, this would make the value 
of all kinds of guano imported into England in 
1849, about $6,000,000. 

It is a matter worthy the attention of che- 
mists to consider whether a mixture similar 
to the guano, and of equal efficacy, cannot 
be formed by art — not only at a cost so reason- 
able as at once to make the farmer independent 
of the importer, but also in such ali.nclattce as 
at the same time to place a highly valuable 
concentrated manure within the reach of all. 

From the many mixtures proposed as substi- 
tutes for guano, some of which have proved highly 
successful, we extract the following, furnished by 
Prof. J. F. W. Johnston, containing the various in- 

597 



GUANO. 

gredients found in guano in nearly the average 
proportions; and Mr. Joiinston believes it is 
likely to be at least as efficacious as the natural 
guano, for all the crops to which the latter has 
hitherto been applied. 

£ s. d. 
315 lbs. (7 bushels) of bone dust, at 2s. M. per 

bushef 19 

100 lbs. of sulphate of ammonia, containing 35 
lbs. of ammonia, at 20s. a cwt. . - - 
5 lbs. pearl ash ------ 

100 lbs. of common salt . . - - - 
11 lbs. of dry sulphate of soda . . - 



18 
1 
2 
1 



531 lbs. of artificial guano cost - - -210 

The quantity here indicated may be inti- 
mately mixed with 100 lbs. of chalk, or dead- 
lime, and will be fully equal in efficacy, I be- 
lieve, to 4 cwt. of guano, now selling at £5. 

In the preceding observations and experi- 
mental trials, Peruvian guano is alone referred 
to. This is unquestionably much the best guano 
known, but its high price, and the monopoly of 
its trade, by a company of English merchants 
who purchased of the Peruvian government the 
exclusive right of taking it away, has induced 
a search for this fertilizer in other places, from 
which thousands of shiploads are now received 
into England and the United States. That sup- 
plied by a small island called Ichaboe, situated 
on the west coast of Africa, though very different 
in appearance from Peruvian, comes nearest to 
it in its excellent qualities. But this is nearly 
exhausted, and the other African guanos, from 
Saldanha and Algoa Bays, sold in England from 
$15 to $20 per ton, are very inferior, and 
chiefly composed of hard lumps difficult to ma- 
nage. Large quantities of guano are brought 
from Chili and Patagonia; but the deposits 
being considerably farther south are subjected 
to rains, by which some of the most fertilizing 
constituents of the bird-excrements are washed 
away. The urate and other soluble salts of am- 
monia are the most important of these, and 
their retention in the Peruvian guano, from its 
never being washed by rains, greatly contri- 
butes to its superiority; cold water dissolves 
about 3-5ths of this guano, which if exposed 
to rains would thus lose more than half its best 
ingredients. 

As guano is now used to a considerable extent 
in the United States, and undoubtedly destined 
to become one of very great consumption, it 
is important that some legal inspection should 
be established to protect the agricultural inte- 
rests from frauds and impositions to which they 
must otherwise be exposed, not only from the 
introduction of inferior kinds of guano, but 
from adulterations, imitations, and misrepre- 
sentations of dealers. Most of those in the 
English market have been analyzed by Pro- 
fessor J. F. W. Johnston, who found in these, 
per cent.. 



Kinds. 


Water. 


Ammoniac, 
matter. 


Earthy 
phosphates 


Peruvian . 


7 to 9 


56 to 66 


16 to 23 


Chilian 


10 13 


50 56 


22 30 


Bolivian . 


6 


65 64 


25 29 


Ichaboe 


18 26 


36 44 


21 29 


Saldanha, light 
" dark 


(17 27 ) 
^33 44 J 


14 22 


43 56 


Algoa Bay- 


( 926 
) 93-93 


22-37 
2316 


70-20 
4315 


Halifax 


24-47 


20-61 


22-67 


Bird's Island . 


25-49 
1418 


1 19 to 21 1 


22-43 
5-37 


''•tagonian, light 
dark 


40 99 
20-53 


^20 25 


24 to 32 


598 









GUINEA GRASS. 

A few general rules may be here given for 
the application of guano. 1. When used, as it 
commonly is, in a dry state, it should be in fine 
powder, in order to secure which, sifting must 
be resorted to. 2. When employed in a liquid 
form, dissolve in the proportion of 1 lb. in 4 
gallons of water, and sprinkle from time to 
time by means of a watering-pot, over young 
tobacco beds, or other plants, grass or grain- 
fields, sought to be benefited. 3. For most 
field crops it is best applied broadcast, scat- 
tered as evenly as possible, either just before 
the plough, or on the rough ground before the 
harrow; the great object is to have it speed- 
ily, but not loo deeply covered. 4. Previous 
to sowing it may be useful to mix 1 bushel 
of ground plaster of Paris, or the same quan- 
tity of powdered charcoal, or both, with 100 
lbs. of guano. 5. When applied in the fall or 
spring as a top-dressing to growing grain or 
grass, it is well to follow with the harrow and 
roller. 6. When applied by the drill, or in the 
hill to corn, &c., it should be previously well 
mixed with 5 or 10 parts its bulk of light vegetable 
mould, or soil, and then well sprinkled. It must 
not come in immediate contact with the seed, or 
lie in a dense layer immediately beneath it. 
Half an ounce of guano to the hill, supposing the 
hills 3 by 4 feet apart, will give 150 lbs. to the 
acre. 7. As a general rule, 10 lbs. of Peruvian 
guano is more than equivalent to an ordinary 
load or cubic yard of barn-yard manure, and on 
light land, 300 lbs. guano spread broadcast, will 
produce better crops than 40 or 50 loads of rich 
manure, and last quite as long. It is seldom 
if ever profitable to spread above 400 lbs. to 
the acre. In dry seasons, the fullest effects of 
guano are not to be expected, any more than 
from barn-yard or other manures, to which 
the same observation will apply. See Phos- 
phates. 

GUINEA-CORN (Holms sorghum, Linn.), 
an exotic vegetable, growing on the coast of 
Africa ; its stalks are large, compact, gene- 
rally attaining the height of 7 or 8 feet, and 
producing abundance of grain. It may be ea- 
sily raised in sheltered situations, especially 
in exhausted hot-beds and other loose soils, 
where its seeds should be sown early in the 
spring, as the large flowery tops appear in June. 
In Tuscany, Syria, and Palestine, the flour 
made of this grain is mixed with other meal, 
and converted into bread; which, however, is 
generally brown, tough, and heavy. Hence 
the former is better calculated for milk por- 
ridge, that is equally wholesome and nutri- 
tive. The juice exuding from the stalks of 
the Guinea-corn is so agreeably luscious, that 
it affords excellent sugar, by a process simi- 
lar to that adopted with the sugar-cane; the 
seeds furnish nourishing food to poultry and 
pigeons, as well as for horses and hogs. (Dom. 
Encye.) 

GUINEA FOWL. See Fowl.s. 

GUINEA GRASS. A valuable species of 
herbage, thus denominated, as it was first dis- 
covered on the coast of Guinea, whence it was 
brought to Jamaica. In point of real utility, 
this plant ranks, in Jamaica, next the sugar- 
cane ; for the breeding farms throughout the 
island were originally established, and are still 
supported, chiefly by means of the Guinea 
grass, which bestows verdure and fertility on 
lands that would otherwise not deserve to be 



GUINEA PIG. 



HACKMATACK. 



ruUlvatcd. About ten years since, it was also 
introduced into the East Indies, where it is now 
successfully cultivated, and grows to the height 
of seven feet: it admits of being frequently cut, 
and makes excellent hay. Cattle eat it, both in 
a fresh and dry slate, with great avidity : hence 
the culture of this valuable herbage has been 
strongly recommended to the farmers of Corn- 
wall and Devonshire. 

The following remarks on the culture of this 
grass are by the late H. Lawrence, of South 
Carolina. 

" In the last spring, I procured from Jamaica 
three half-pints of Guinea-grass seed, which I 
planted in the drills of one-fourth part of an 
acre of very indifferent land; the seed sprung 
up and soon covered the ground with grass four 
feet high and upwards. Being desirous of saving 
as much seed as possible, I cut one bundle 
of grass for horses : they ate it all with great 
avidity. 

'• In August I took one of the grass roots and 
divided it into 28 parts, which were immediately 
replanted : every part took root, and the whole 
are now growing very finely and seeding. I 
am of opmion this grass will make the best 
pasture we can wish for. From former expe- 
rience I have reason to believe the Guinea grass 
is perennial. It is easily managed, requires but 
one good hoeing, after which it will take care of; 
itself. i 

" I am informed a gentleman near Kingston, | 
in Jamaica, makes upwards of 1000^. sterling 
per annum by Guinea grass hay.'*' {Domestic 
Ell ry dopcedia . ) 

GUINEA PIG {Covia cobaya). This curious 
litt'e animal is not a native of Guinea, but of 
Brazil, whence it has been imported into Eu- 
rope. It is about seven inches in length, and 
its white body is variegated with irregular black 
and orange-coloured spots. In their wild state 
these animals multiply prodigiously, and would 
become innumerable, if they were capable of 
sustaining cold and moisture. The female 
breeds at two months old, and brings forth 10, 
12, or 14 young ones, several times in the 
course of the year, after a gestation of three 
weeks. Guinea pigs feed on all kinds of herbs, 
but are particularly fond of parsley, as also of 
apples and other fruits. 

GULLION. A provincial name for gripes 
in horses. See Gripes. 

GUM, BLACK. See Black gum. 
GUTTA PERCHA. A peculiar gummy sub- 
stance, consisting of the dried juice exuding from 
trees growing abundantly in Singapore, Borneo, 
and other parts of the East Indies. The remark- 
able properties of this singular substance were 
first made known to us by Dr. Montgomerie, in 
!845, since which it has come rapidly into use 
for numberless purposes in the various mechanic 
arts, those especially in which leather, wood, 
iron, brass, and tin were used. When immersed 
in water heated to 150 deg. Fahrenheit it be- 
comes plastic, and is capable of being moulded 
to any required form, which it retains upon 
cooling. It is a perfect repellant of water, 
acids, and fixed oils, and is therefore well adapted 
for machine belts in damp localities. It is also 
found to possess, at ordinary temperatures, a 
permanent elasticity of about 5 per cent., and 
does not oxidize like metals, or mould like 
leather; for water pipes, both for suction under 



great pressure, and for aqueduct purposes, it \a 
found superior to any other substance. It is 
imporous, and conveys sound better than wood 
or metal, hence it is superior for speaking tubes. 
It is a non-conductor of electricity, and is useful 
for insulating telegraph wires under water or the 
ground. It never contracts or expands under any 
degree of cold or heat from zero to 100 deg. Fah., 
and is unaffected by dryness or moisture. At 220 
deg. of Fah., it is the most adhesive substance 
known, remains perfectly adhesive at all lower 
temperatures, as well as under water. It resists 
abrasion in an eminent degree, and is decidedly 
more durable than the best of sole leather. It is a 
good absorbent of heat when exposed to its 
direct rays, and a poor conductor. Ice and 
milk can, it is said, be kept in gutta percha 
vessels longer than in any other substance. It 
has great strength, and cannot be broken by the 
most violent blow — is insoluble in alcohol, ether, 
or camphene at any ordinary temperatures ; but 
is readily cut by heated camphene, or dissolved 
by coal naphtha and chloroform, and held in solu- 
tion at a temperature of summer heat. The 
trees producing it are the largest in the Eastern 
forests, growing from 60 to 70 feet high, and 2 
or 3 feet in diameter. Their fruit yields an oil 
which the natives use with their food, but the 
wood is of little value. 

GYPSUM. See Pi.astek of Paris. 



H. 

HACK, or HACKNEY. In horsemanship, a 
general term for a road horse, which does not 
always convey any sense of inferiority, or refer 
to horses let out for hire. It is, however, often 
used in that sense. 

HACKBERRY. A species of nettle tree, a 
native of the United States, where the banks of 
the Delaware, above Philadelphia, may be con- 
sidered its north-eastern limit. East of the 
mountains it is abundant only on the Potomac 
and Susquehanna, especially near Columbia and 
Harrisburg. In the western country it is abun- 
dantly multiplied in all the river valleys where 
the soil is fertile. On the Ohio it is called Hoop- 
ash, and in Kentucky, Hackberry. On rich soil 
this tree grows straight and undivided to a great 
height ; its bark is grayish, and unbroken. The 
wood is weak, and subject to speedy decay when 
exposed to the weather. Its elasticity, however, 
adapts it for making baskets and chair bottoms. 
It splits readily, and makes handsome fence 
rails. 

The hackberry is certainly one of the most 
beautiful trees of its genus, and one of the 
most remarkable for height and for majesty 
of form. In rich soils, the luxuriance of its 
vegetation is shown by sprouts 6, 8, and 10 
feet in length, garnished on each side with large, 
substantial leaves. In France it is principally 
esteemed for the rapidity of its growth. {Am. 
Sylva.) 

HACKLE. A board set with sharp iron 
spikes for combing or pulling out hemp and 
flax. Also the name of an artificial fly used by 
anglers. 

HACKMATACK, or American larch {La- 
rix Americano). The European and American 
larches, says Michaux, are more strictly confined 
than any other resinous trees to the northern 

599 



HACKMATACK. 



HAIR. 



zone of the two continents, and they are the first 
to disappear in approaching a milder sky. The 
American species is most abundant in the 
States of Vermont, New Hampshire, and 
Maine ; but though the soil is well adapted to 
its growth and the winter is long and severe, 
it does not form the hundredth part of the re- 
sinous growth, which consists principally of 
the black spruce, the hemlock spruce, and the 
red cedar. According to my father's observa- 
tions in his journey to Hudson's Bay, it is only 
beyond the St. Lawrence, particularly near 
lake St. John and the great and the little lake 
Mistassin, that it begins to abound and to form 
masses of woods, some of which are several 
miles in extent. I have been informed that it 
is profusely multiplied in Newfoundland, in 
nearly the same latitude. New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, and the coldest and gloomiest ex- 
posures in the mountainous tracts of Virginia, 
are the limits of its appearance towards the 
south : but it is rare in these states, and in 
Lower Jersey, in the vicinity of New York, it 
is seen only in the swamps of white cedar, 
with which it is scantily mingled. The nu- 
merous descendants of the Dutch in New 
Jersey call it tamarack. 

I have remarked that in the States of Ver- 
mont and Maine the larch grows only in low 
and moist places, and never on uplands, as 
about Hudson's Bay and in Newfoundland ; 
hence we may conclude that the climate of the 
northern extremity of the United States is too 
mild for its constitution. 

The American lann, like that of Europe, 
is a magnificent vegetable, with a straight, 
slender trunk 80 or iOO feet in height, and 2 
or 3 feet in diameter. Its numerous branches, 
except near the summit, are horizontal or de- 
clining. The bark is smooth and polished on 
the trunk and longer limbs, and rugged on the 
smaller branches. The leaves are flexible, 
shorter than those of the European species, 
and collected in bunches: they are shed in the 
fall and renewed in the spring. The flowers, 
like those of the pines, are separate upon the 
same tree : the male aments, which appear 
before the leaves, are small, oblong, and scaly, 
with two yellow anthers under each scale ; the 
female flowers are also disposed in aments, 
and are composed of floral leaves covering 
two ovaries, which in process of time become 
small erect scaly cones 3 or 4 lines long. At 
the base of each scale lie two minute winged 
seeds. On some stocks the cones are violet- 
coloured in the spring instead of green ; but 
this is an accidental variation, for the trees are 
in no other respect peculiar. 

The wood of the American larch is superior 
to any species of pine or spruce, and unites 
all the properties which distinguish the Eu- 
ropean species, being exceedingly strong and 
singularly durable. In Canada it is considered 
as among the most valuable timber, and has 
no fault except its weight. In the State of 
Maine it is more esteemed than any other re- 
emous wood for the knees of vessels, and is 
always used for this purpose when proper 
pieces can be procured. Turpentine is never 
extracted from it in America, as is done from 
tlie native species m Europe. 
600 



The larch is justly appreciated in the United 
States, but it is little employed, because it is 
rare and may be replaced by several resinous 
trees which are cheaper and more abundant. 

Sir A. B. Lambert, in his splendid work 
upon the pines, describes two species of the 
American larch, the first of which is evidently 
the tree we have been considering; the second 
he denominates Larix microcarpa, and charac- 
terizes it by smaller fruit and drooping branches. 
My father doubtless considered it as a variety, 
and has omitted to mention it : as I have 
never visited the northern parts of America, I 
cannot decide the question. 

The cones of the European larch are twice 
as large as those of the American species, but 
the two trees are so analogous that a separate 
description is unnecessary. (.yf?». Sylva.) 

HAIR (Germ, haare). The characteristic 
covering of the mammiferous class of animals. 
It consists of slender, more or less elongated, 
horny filaments, secreted by a matrix, consist- 
ing of a conical gland or bulb, and a capsule, 
which is situated in the meshwork of the corium 
or true skin. The hairs pass out through ca- 
nals in the corium, which are lined by a thin 
layer of cuticle adherent to the base of the hair: 
the straightness or curl of the hair depends on 
the form of the canal through which it passes. 
The hair is formed in an elongated sheath or 
sack, to the bottom of which the bulb or soft 
part of the hair is fixed. The structure of 
hairs diflfers : thus, in the bristle of the hog 
there is an internal cellular part, and an ex- 
ternal or cortical fibrous part; and this is also 
the structure of the hair of the roe deer. The 
hair of the bat is knotted, and that of the mouse 
is mottled with black and white. Hair is usu- 
ally distinguished into various kinds, according 
to its size and appearance. The strongest and 
stiffest of all is called bristle: of this kind is 
the hair on the backs of hogs. When remark 
ably fine, soft, and pliable, it is called wool, 
and the finest of all is known by the name of 
dotvn. Spines, bristles, fur, and wool (see those 
heads) are therefore all modifications of hair, 
having the same chemical composition, mode 
of formation, and general structure. 

In the spine of the porcupine, the bulb secretes 
a fluted pith, and the capsule invests it with a 
horny sheath, the transparency of which allows 
the ridges of the central part to be seen. In 
the spine-like whiskers of the walrus, as well 
as the bristles of the hog, the twofold structure 
of the hair is very conspicuous ; but in the 
finer kind of hair, as of the human head and 
beard, the central pith can only be demon- 
strated in fine transverse sections, viewed with 
a microscope. Some kinds of hair, as of the 
human head, the mane and tail of the horse, _ 
are perennial, and grow continuously by a flj 
persisting activity of the formative capsule ■ 
and pulp : other kinds, as the ordinary hair of 
the horse, cow, and deer, are annual, and the 
coat is shed at particular seasons. In the deer 
the horns are shed contemporaneously with 
the deciduous hair. 

Many quadrupeds, especially those of cold 
climates, have two kinds of hair: a long and 
coarse kind, forming their visible external 
covering; and a shorter, finei^ and more 



Flare 15. 



Fig. I. 







=J> 



/}^ / 





HAHROW-.S KXTIHI'ATOKS K- SCARIIIKHS. 



HAIR GRASS. 



HAM. 



abundant kind, which lies close to the skin, 
and called " fur." With respect to structure, 
Eberle has proved that the sheath of the hair 
is vascular, and the substance of the hair is 
formed by the secretion of horny matter on 
the surface of the vascular pulp. 

The organization of the hair is such as to 
allow of its undergoing certain changes when 
once formed, according to the state of health 
and general tondition of the rest of the frame, 
and even to be affected by loss of colour in 
consequence of violent mental emotions in the 
human subject. Some of the lower animals, 
as the Alpine hare, are subject to periodical 
changes of colour of their fur, by which it is 
made to harmonize with the prevailing hue of 
the ground which they habitually traverse. The 
chemical properties of hair were first pointed 
out bv Mr. Hatchett, in his paper in the Phil. 
Trans, for 1800. It chiefly consists of an in- 
durated albumen, and when boiled with water, 
it yields a portion of gelatin. Soft flexible 
hair, which easily loses its curl, is that which 
is most gelatinous. Vauquelin discovered two 
kinds of oil in hair: the one colourless, in all 
hair; the other coloured, and imparting the 
peculiar tint to hair. Black hair also contains 
iron and sulphur. The following is his analy- 
sis : — 1. An animal matter, constituting the 
greatest part. 2. A white solid oil, small in 
quantity. 3. A grayish-green oil, more abun- 
dant. 4. Iron ; state unknown. 5. Oxide of 
manganese. 6. Phosphate of lime. 7. Car- 
bonate of lime, very scanty. 8. Silica. 9. 
Sulphur. Leuvvenhoeck (Phil. Trans.) and 
Hooke (Micrographia, p. 156) have published 
th.eir microscopical observations on hair. 

Human hair makes a very considerable 
article in commerce, for wigs, &c. The hair 
of horses is extensively used in the manufac- 
ture of chairs, sofas, saddles, &c. ; while the 
hair or wool of beavers, hares, and rabbits, &c., 
i--- much employed in the manufacture of hats, 
&c. The refuse hair of difl'erent animals, par- 
ticularly the short hair from hides, and that of 
hogs, when it can be procured in suflicient 
quantity, will be found useful as a fertilizer; a 
fact that might readily be imagined when it is 
known that its chemical properties closely ap- 
proximate to those of horn. 

HAIR GRASS. See Aira. 

HAIjESIA. The name of two beautiful spe- 
cies of shrub, or small trees, natives of North 
Carolina and other Southern States. They are 
known by the familiar names of silver-bell and 
snow-drop tree, and are highly ornamental, 
producing verj' early, whilst the tree is com- 
pletely leafless, a profusion of snow-white 
hanging blossoms, having a pleasant odour and 
very much frequented by humming-birds, bees, 
and other insects. The flowers are disposed 
in bunches all along the branches, each bud 
producing from 4 to 8 or 9. The flowering 
continues during two or three weeks, and the 
blossoms are succeeded by pretty large winged 
juiceless drupes, hanging likewise in bunches. 
The tree is propagated by cuttings or suckers 
from the roots, and appear to stand the severe 
winters of more Northerly States, very well. A 
Halesia, with several distinct trunks from the 
original root, it now flourishing at the seat of 
76 



J. Cowperthwait, Esq., near Bristol, Pennsyl- 
vania. It is quite an old tree, and has attained 
the height of 35 or 40 feet. There are two 
species of halesia, one called flower-winged 
(H. tetraptera), -and the other the two-winged 
(H. diplera). The leaves of the latter are six 
times the size of the former, and the fruit has 
two large wings and two minute ones. 

HAM (Dutch, hammen ; Fr. jambon). In 
commerce denotes the thigh of a hog or bear 
salted and dried, so as to preserve it in a state 
possessing a pungent and agreeable flavour. 
York, Hants, Wilts, and Cumberland in Eng- 
land, and Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, 
are the counties most famous for producing 
fine hams. Those of Ireland are comparatively 
coarse, and without flavour. See BAcoy. The 
hams of Portugal, Westphalia, and Virginia 
are exquisitely flavoured, and are in high esti- 
mation. The method of curing hams in the 
most celebrated districts, is to rub them very 
hard with bay or other salt ; then leave them 
on a stone bench, in order that the brine may 
discharge itself. In a few days the rubbing 
process is repeated; about half an ounce of 
saltpetre (nitrate of potassa) being added to 
each ham. When they have continued about 
a week longer on the bench, or in the salting- 
tub, among the brine, they are commonly hung 
up to dry in the sides of large open chimneys; 
some have them exposed to the smoke of wood, 
peats, coals, or other sorts of fuel, while others 
carefully avoid having them smoked. And 
when not sold sooner, they are continued in 
these situations till the approach of warm wea- 
ther, when they are packed up in casks with 
straw, or the seeds of oatmeal, and consigned 
for sale. Hams lose about 20 per cent, of their 
weight in drying. 

Hams may be cured in order to resemble, in 
taste, those of Westphalia, by the following 
process: — Cover a young ham of pork with dry 
salt; let it be for 24 hours to draw off the blood; 
then wipe it perfectly dry, and take one pound 
of brown sugar, a quarter of a pound of salt- 
petre, half a pint of bay salt, and three pints 
of salt ; incorporate these ingredients in an 
iron pan over the fire, and stir them continu- 
ally till they acquire a moderate degree of heat. 
In this pickle the ham must be suffered to re- 
main for three weeks, frequently turning it, 
when it should be suspended in a chimney for 
drying by means of smoke from no other but a 
wood fire. The smoke from oak saw-dust or 
shavings is the best for imparting a fine fla- 
vour. This smoke contains imperfectly formed 
pyroligneous acid, which is the agent that com- 
municates the flavour to the Westphalia hams. 
In Dumfriesshire the pickle for hams is some- 
times made with one-half ale, which renders 
the hams shorter, and adds greatly to the rich- 
ness of their flavour. The imports of bacon 
and hams into England, have been kept low by 
the heavy duty of 28s. exacted on each cwU 
But the duty having been recently greatly re- 
duced, a large amount of hams cured in Ame- 
rica will be sent to the English market. In 
1842, the duty on foreign hams imported into 
England was reduced to 14s. the cwt., or jusi 
half of what it had been for many years. On 
those imported from British colonies the duty 
3 E 601 



HAMES. 



HARROW. 



IS only 3s. 5c?. per cwt. Although dried hams 
pay a duty of 14s., those shipped in pickle pass 
the English Custom House at the pork duty of 
8s. per cwt. As a set off, however, against the 
6s. saved in duty, it must be observed that pork 
cured in pickle is of inferior quality to that 
cured in dry salt, and will not bring an equal 
price. It is also shipped in that form at an in- 
creased cost of packages and freight, and pays 
a duty on a greater weight than when dried. 
See SwiNK. 

HAMES. The iron or wooden harness by 
which draught-horses are attached to the carts, 
&c. 

HAND. The measure of the fist when 
clenched; it is equal to four inches. The 
height of horses is computed in this way. A 
horse 15 hands high stands five feet at the 
shoulders. 

HARE {Lepus tiniidus). The hare is natu- 
rally a timid animal, and extremely swift in 
motion when pursued by dogs. Hares are 
dispersed over almost every climate, and con- 
sequently the varieties are extremely numerous : 
and the sizes, forms, and habits, adapted to the 
physical wants of the family, greatly multiplies 
tlieir diversities. Although hunted in all coun- 
tries, being prolific in the extreme, their spe- 
cies does not apparently diminish in number. 
They begin to breed in the first year, and the 
female generally produces four or five leverets, 
after a gestation of about 31 or 32 days ; and 
she is supposed to breed four or five times in 
the year. Unlike dogs, the eyes of these ani- 
mals are open at their birth ; and after being 
suckled for about three weeks, they are aban- 
doned to their fate. Hares in a state of nature 
are believed to live from 9 to 12 years. The 
hare is known to have been a favourite object 
of the chace more than 2000 years ago. 

Two or three species of the hare genus are 
natives of the United States. The common 
American rabbit, found all over the country, 
is the Lepus jlmcricanus and Lepus Hudsonius 
of naturalists. It is smaller than the English 
hare, and even less than the European rabbit. 
In dr}^ places it often burrows in the earth, and 
is very prolific, bringing forth 3 or 4 times a 
year from 5 to 10 at a time. It carries its 
young about 6 weeks. In the domestic state 
the male rabbit will often destroy the young. 

A second American species is the Varying 
Hare, the Lepus Virgianimms or Lepus varia- 
bilis of naturalists. This inhabits the Southern 
and Middle States, and most probably as far 
north as New England. Its colour is grayish- 
brown in summer, and white in winter; the 
orbits of the eyes are at all times surrounded 
by a reddish fawn-colour; tail very short. The 
largest of this species are about 18 inches, 
total length, and weigh from 7 to 8 lbs. These 
animals never burrow, but frequent meadows, 
&c., near the base of mountains, and when 
pursued retreat into hollow trees. They bring 
forth several times a year, 3 or 4 at a birth, 
after a gestation of about 30 days. 

In the extreme northerly parts of the conti- 
nent. Captains Parry, Sabine, and other tra- 
vellers, describe another American species 
under the name of Lepus glacialis, which is 
somewhat larger than the varying rabbit, being 
602 



2 feet 4 inches from the end of the nose to the 
arms, the average weight being 8 lbs. The ear? 
are longer in proportion than those of the com 
mon hare, and especially those of the varying 
rabbit. The fur is exceedingly thick and 
woolly, of the purest white in the spring and 
autumn, excepting a tuft of long black hair at 
the tip of the ears, which is reddish-brown at 
the base. The whiskers are also black at the 
base for one-half their length. In the summer 
the back and sides become a little grayish, the 
fur beneath still remaining white. The lepus 
glacialis, or hare of the icy regions, inhabits 
the Arctic circle, Greenland (where it remains 
entirely white even in summer). The food 
consists chiefly of tender herbs gathered from 
ravines. (Fauna Americana.) 

HARIFF, Goose-Grass, Gliders, Cleavers, or 
Catch weed (Galium aparine). PI. 10, h. This 
is an annual plant, with a fibrous root, growing 
in hedges almost everywhere. It is found wild 
even in Nepal. The flowers are small, pale, 
and bufl'-coloured, few together, on lateral 
leafy stalks, and blowing from May to August. 
The root is fibrous. The stem branched, brit- 
tle, supporting itself upon other plants; often 
three or four feet long ; the four angles beset 
with hooked prickles, which are also abundant 
on the edges and keels of the leaves, by all 
which the herb sticks to the hands and clothes 
of those who touch it, as well as to the coats 
of animals, as do likewise the seeds. The 
fruit is a double globe, beset with minute, short 
hooks. The expressed juice of the herb is 
reckoned anti-scorbutic ; but this is doubtful, 
as well as some imaginary virtues in cancer 
which have been attributed to it. The roasted 
seeds are said to be no bad substitute for coffee, 
to which they are botanically related. 

Three-flowered goose-grass is one of ther 
names of the rough-fruited common bed straw. 
(G. trieorne). 

HARRIERS. A breed of dogs kept princi- 
pally for hunting the hare. There are three 
prominent varieties of the harrier, — the old 
southern hound, the modern harrier, and the 
beagle. Subordinate divisions occur, and a 
cross breed is used in hunting the otter. The 
modern harrier is little more than a dwarf fox- 
hound. The size and form of the harrier, like 
those of the fox-hound, should be adapted to 
the nature of the country hunted over. Some 
sportsmen have a penchant for packs of under- 
sized harriers ; and a gentleman of the name 
of Harding used to hunt the open grounds 
about Dorchester with about 17 couple, which 
were not more than 16 or 17 inches high. 
(Blaine's Rural Sports, p. 404.) 

HARROW. For the chief portion of the 
following article, I am indebted to the Messrs. 
Ransome, the celebrated agricultural imple- 
ment makers of Ipswich; than- whom no per- 
sons can be better acquainted with the con- 
struction and uses of diffierent machines and 
implements for agricultural purposes. This 
instrument succeeds to the plough in the natu- 
ral order of description, and in the uses to 
which it is applicable. Its purpose is to pul- 
verize the ground which has been moved by 
the plough, to disengage from it the weeds and 
roots which it may contain, jr to cover the 



HARROW. 



HARROW. 



seeds of the cultivated plants, when sown. 
The form of the plough has been very different 
in different ages and countries, and there is 
little resemblance between the rude machines 
of the ancients and some of those which are 
now employed; but the harrow seems to have 
been nearly of the same form from the earliest 
times to which we are able to trace it on sculp- 
tures, medals, and other remains of antiquity. 
It is a much more simple machine than the 
plough, and may even be held to be imperfect 
in any form in which it can be made ; yet it is 
an instrument of great utility in tillage, and no 
other has yet been devised to supersede its use, 
or to equal it, for many of the purposes to which 
it is applicable. (Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. i. p. 
503.) 

There were various stages in the gradual 
introduction of the modern harrow. The first 
implement used by men, for the purpose of 
covering seed, is generally the branch of a 
tree; to these soon succeed more desirable 
substances, such as beams of wood; and then, 
again, two or more beams are fastened toge- 
ther: spikes, or teeth, are a much later im- 
provement. Even now, in India (and there 
the natives but rarely alter their modes of cul- 
ture or their implements), an instrument is 
used which is intended to produce the combined 
rffects of the roller and the harrow. This, ac- 
cording to Mr. G. W. Johnson, "is nothing 
more in form than an English ladder made of 
bamboo, about 18 feet long, drawn by four 
bullocks and guided by two men, who, to in- 
crease its power, stand upon it, as they direct 
and urge on the cattle : again and again has it 
to pass over the same surface, and thus it 
causes a great waste of time and labour." 

Important as is the operation of harrowing, 
and second only to that of ploughing, it has 
often appeared to us that these implements 
have scarcely obtained the attention which is 
their due. We here speak less with reference 
to the improvements which have been carried 
into effect, than to the selection which appears 
generally to have been made. The operation 
is in many neighbourhoods so performed as to 
exhibit a prominent defect, either in the ma- 
nagement of the farm, or in the construction 
of the implement: perhaps the blame may be 
fairly shared. It is admitted by all acquainted 
with the subject, that harrowing, especially on 
heavy soils, is the most laborious operation on 
the farm, — not so much, perhaps, on account 
of the quantum of power requisite for the 
draught (though this is sometimes considera- 
ble), as for the speed with which the operation 
is, or ought to be, accompanied ; and yet it is 
frequently left to the charge of mere boys, and 
sometimes performed by the worst horses on 
the farm. If we examine a field, one-half of 
which has been harrowed by weak, inefficient 
horses, and whose pace was consequently 
sluggish, the other half by an adequate strength 
and swiftness of animal power, we shall find 
the former will be rough and unfinished; the 
latter comparatively firm and level, and com- 
pleted in what would be called a husbandry- 
like manner. Scarcely any thing in farming is 
more unsi'^'htly than the wavy, serpentine traces 
of inefficient harrowing. The generality of 



harrows appear to us too heavy and clumsy to 
admit of that despatch without which the work 
cannot be well done ; and though it is evident 
that different soils demand different imple- 
ments, of proportionate weight and power, yet, 
for the most part, harrows have been rather 
over than under-weighted, particularly when 
employed after a drill, or to bury seeds of any 
kind. Harrowing has been so long regarded 
as an operation which must be attended with 
considerable horse-labour, that our attention 
has been turned to the inquiry, whether this 
labour might not be greatly reduced by lighten- 
ing the harrows. Many, we think, would be 
surprised at the amount of reduction of which 
seed-harrows, at least, are capable, and where 
land is clear, to see how effective a gang of 
very light small-toothed harrows may be made. 
Having noticed the perfect manner in which 
seed-corn is covered by a common rake with 
wooden teeth, in some parts of Norfolk, a friend 
of ours constructed a gang of harrows on the 
following plan, and he states that they proved 
the most popular and useful iinplement of the 
kind on the farm. PI. 15, fig. 1. 

The frames are of ash, and as light as pos- 
sible, the teeth (of iron) being but three inches 
long, exclusive of the part which enters the 
wood-work. They screw into the balks in the 
manner shown in PI. 15, fig. 4. 

It will be observed that the above four har- 
rows are amply sufficient to cover a twelve- 
furrow stetch or ridge of 108 inches, but three 
will be wide enough for a three-furrow stetch 
of 90 inches, exclusive of a small portion of 
the furrows. If for some purposes the teeth be 
found too thick, every other tooth may be taken 
out ; but for general purposes this will hardly 
be necessary. The two horses require, on this 
plan, to be kept quite level ; for if one is suf- 
fered to go in advance of the other, a diagonal 
line is produced, by which the teeth will be 
made to follow each other, instead of cutting 
fresh ground. We are aware that, by the usual 
construction of harrows, a diagonal line of 
draught is required, in order to throw the teeth 
into a proper working position; but we are 
strongly inclined to the opinion, that the due 
execution of the implement ought to depend on 
its construction, and not on any particular 
mode of working it. Besides, the system of 
keeping one horse in advance of his partner is 
bad in principle ; it is an unequal division of 
labour, the fore-horse being compelled to do 
more than his share of the work, which, under 
any circumstances, is always heavy enough. 
We have stated that the above set of harrows 
are of wood. Their extraordinary lightness 
renders this necessary ; but, for general pur- 
poses, we prefer those made of iron, the weight 
of which can be increased to any reasonable 
degree without adding much to their substance. 
This is important in working tenacious clays, 
which, by adhering to the clumsy wooden 
balks, considerably increase the labour, and at 
the same time impede the proper execution. 

In an experiment made between a pair of 
wooden harrows and a pair of iron ones, con- 
structed on the same plan, having the same 
number, and precisely the same disposition o*" 
the teeth and balks, although the iron wer« 

603 



HARROW. 



HARVESTING. 



found to be 20 lbs. lighter than the wooden 
ones, yet they worked decidedly better and 
steadier than the latter; in fact they cut into 
the land, while the wooden ones rode, or rather 
danced, on the surface. 

We will now take up the consideration of 
the length and position of harrow-teeth. The 
common plan is to set them springing a little 
forward, and gradually increasing in length 
from the fore to the hind row. We think there 
is no advantage in this, but the contrary; for, 
if the action of harrows so constructed be 
carefully examined, it will be found the reverse 
of what it ought to be, — the hind part will be 
thrown up, and the fore-teeth, short as they 
are, will have to do all the work. In some ex- 
periments made with harrows, the fallacy of 
the idea, that an inequality in the length of the 
teeth was essential to the proper working of 
harrows, was made evident. For this purpose, 
a harrow was constructed on the old-fashioned 
plan of unequal and springing teeth in front; 
the whole of the teeth pointing backwards in- 
stead of forwards. Nothing could work better : 
there were no chucks and snatches, but all 
went on smoothly and steadily. We do not, 
from this circumstance, recommend harrows 
to be so constructed, but we have no doubt that 
each harrow should have all its teeth of equal 
length, and should stand perpendicularly from 
the balk. 

.Armstrong's Harrows. — These instruments 
differ from others in the form of their balks or 
framing, which are of iron, and of a zigzag 
shape, so arranged that the tooth or tine shall 
be fixed at each angle, in such manner that 
the lines formed by them shall be equidistant 
I'ver the breadth of the land they are intended 
to cover. They can be adapted either for heavy 
or light work. 

We now proceed to give a brief description 
of some other implements intended for the 
same operation, but of a more elaborate cha- 
racter. 

BidileWs Extirpating Harrow. — This is a new 
implement, somewhat on the principle of Bid- 
dell's scarifier, and invented by Arthur Biddell 
of Playford. It is intended for breaking up 
land when it is too hard for the heaviest har- 
roAvs, and for bringing winter fallows into a 
state of fine tillage. In working summer lands, 
by the shape of its teeth, it is calculated to 
bring to the surface all grass and rubbish ; it 
will also be found generally useful for accom- 
plishing fine tillage. The tines may be either 
used with points or with steel hoes ; and with 
the latter the skimming, or, as it is frequently 
called, the "broad-share" process, may be quick- 
ly accomplished. The weight is not found to 
be a disadvantage, but the contrary; and, be- 
mg borne on high wheels, it does not require 
so much horse-labour as might be supposed. 
It is at present but in limited operation, though 
highly valued by those who have made use 
of i:.' Fig. 3, PI. 15, is a sketch of this har- 
row obtained from one in use. 

Tlie Ecrwickskire harrow is, says a writer in 
^^^ Quart. Journ. of Agr.,i\ie most perfect im- 
plement of the kind in general use. It consists 
c *■ two parts joined together by iron rods, hav- 
ing hasps and hooks. PI, 15, fig. 2. Each part 
60* 



consists of four bars of wood, technically term 
ed bulls, and connected together by an equal 
number of cross bars of smaller dimensions 
mortised through them. The former of these 
bars may be 2^ inches in width by 3 inches in 
depth, and the latter 2 inches in width by 1 inch 
in depth. The longer bars are inclined at a 
certain angle to the smaller, so as to form the 
figure of a rhomboid, and they have inserted 
into them the teeth at equal distances from 
each other. This inclination of the longer bars 
is made to be such, that perpendiculars from 
each of the teeth, falling upon a line drawn at 
right angles to the line of the harrow's motion, 
shall divide the space between each bar into 
equal parts ; so that the various teeth, when 
the instrument is moved forward, shall equally 
indent the surface of the ground over which 
they pass. (Quart. Journ. Agr.) 

HARVEST (Germ, herbst.) In agriculture, 
the period at which any crop is reaped. The 
term is more commonly applied to the crops 
of corn or hay. 

HARVEST FLIES, Cicadians. See Lo- 

OUSTS. 

HARVEST-HOME. A sort of feast given 
by the farmer, after harvest, to the labourers 
and others that have assisted in cutting and 
securing the crops. The terra is sometimes 
also applied to the song made use of on the 
occasion. 

HARVESTING. The operation of pulling, 
cutting, rooting up, or gathering field crops, and 
drying or otherwise preparing them for being 
stored up for winter use. The first harvest 
which occurs in Britain and similar climates 
is that of the forage grasses, or other plants 
made into hay; the next is the harvest of 
cereal grasses, or of corn crops; and the third, 
the potato harvest, or harvest of root crops, 
such as potatoes, carrots, turnips, mangel-wur- 
zel, &c. 

There is also the harvest of occasional crops, 
such as that of rape-seed, turnip-seed, dyer's- 
woad, hemp, flax, and various other articles. 
The commencement of harvest is necessarily 
regulated by the state of the weather, and 
varies in diflTerent seasons, even when the 
weather is favourable, from the middle of July 
to the end of August; while, in some years, 
and in exposed situations, it is still later. It 
is, therefore, an object of importance to the 
farmer to ascertain the exact time when it may 
be begun, for he must employ extra hands to 
perform the work ; and as it only lasts during 
a comparatively short period, they receive high 
wages, and are maintained at a heavy cost. It 
is also attended with the most anxious solici- 
tude, for it is a business which cannot be for a 
moment neglected; and the man who wishes 
to get it rightly managed, must superintend it, 
without intermission, from the dawn of the day 
until its final close. He should previously get 
rid of all other work, and make every prepara- 
tion for the due performance of this ; the barns 
should be thoroughly swept out, both roof, 
walls, and floors ; the stack-frames repaired, 
and every tool should be in complete condi- 
tion. The straw-bands should be in readiness 
for tying the sheaves, as well as the ropes for 
securing the stacks; and anangemenls should 



HARVEST-MOON. 



HAWKBIT. 



be made in the house for the regular supply 
of whatever is to be furnished to the labourers, 
so that every unnecessary delay may be avoid- 
ed. The strictest order should also be main- 
tained ; but the work will never be well per- 
formed unless it be conducted with perfect 
good temper. Fortunately, the crops do not 
usually ripen at the same precise period; that 
of rye being the earliest, and wheat about a 
fortnight later; some of the early species of 
oats and barley come in between the rye and 
wheat; but barley more generally comes after- 
wards, followed by some of the later kinds of 
oats. Grain, if not reaped until the straw is 
wholly yellow, will be more than ripe, as the 
ear generally, except in late seasons, ripens 
before the entire of the straw; and it is observ- 
able that the first reaped usually affords the 
heaviest and fairest sample. 

The indications of ripeness in wheat are few 
and simple. When the straw exhibits a bright 
golden colour from the bottom of the stem 
nearly to the ear, or when the ear begins to 
bend gently, the grain may be cut. But — as 
the whole crop will not be equally ripe at the 
same time — if, on walking through the field 
and selecting the greenest heads, the kernels 
can be separated from the chalTwhen rubbed 
through the hands, it is a sure sign that the 
grain is then out of its milky state, and may 
be reaped with safety ; for although the straw 
may be green to some distance downwards 
from the ear, yet if it be quite yellow from the 
bottom upwards, the grain then wants no fur- 
ther nourishment from the earth, and, if pro- 
perl)^ harvested, it will not shrink. These 
tokens will be found to sufficiently indicate the 
ripeness of wheat, barley, and oats; but that 
of rye arises from the straw losing some of its 
golden hue, and becoming paler. 

The usual practice in England is to cut 
down all grain before it is quite ripe, and to 
leave it in shocks, or, in the case of barley, on 
the ledge, until the grain is perfectly matured 
and hardened; and the same practice prevails 
in Scotland. Experience, however, has occa- 
sioned a remarkable distinction in the mode 
of harvesting barley in the two portions of 
Great Britain just mentioned. In England, 
barley is usually cut with the scythe, treated 
like hay in the saving, and put loose into the 
rick or mow. In Scotland, it is cut, as in Ire- 
land, generally with the reaping-hook, and, 
when sufficiently dry, bound up and stacked. 
The cause of this different treatment is the 
difference of climate. See Barley, Reapixo, 
Wheat, &c. 

HARVEST-MOON. That lunation about 
harvest-time when the moon at full rises near- 
ly at the same hour for several nights. 

HASEL, HAZEL, or STOCK NUT {Cory- 
lus avdlana). This small, bushy tree is com- 
mon everywhere in our hedges and copses, 
and also grows wild in most parts of Europe. 
The leaves are two inches wide, doubly ser- 
rated, light green, downy, especially beneath. 
The catkins are barren, clustered, or panicled, 
grayish, long, and pendulous, opening in the 
early spring before the leaves appear, and, in- 
deed, formed during the preceding autumn. 
The ovate scaly buds, containing the fertile 



flowers, become conspicuous at the same timt 
by their tufts of crimson stigmas. The nuts, 
two or three from each bud, are ..essile, round- 
ish-ovate, half covered by the jagged outer 
calyx of their respective flowers, greatly en- 
larged, and permai. ent. The wood of the hazel- 
tree is used in England for making hoops for 
casks, hurdles, crates, springles to fasten down 
thatch, fishing-rods, &c. It is also reported to 
make excellent charcoal for drawing, of the 
preparation of which, and of the whole history 
of this plant, Dr. Hooker gives a full account, 
annexed to an admirable figure. It was for- 
merly much used for making gunpowder. {Eng. 
Flor.\o\. iv. p. 157.) See Filbert. 

In the country where yeast is scarce, they 
twist the slender branches of hazel together, 
and steep them in ale yeast during its fermenta- 
tion ; they are then hung up to dry, and at the 
next brewing are put into the wort instead of 
yeast. The chips of this wood are used to fine 
wines. (Phillips's Fruits.) 

HATCHING. See Incueatiox. 

HAULM. A name given to the stalks of 
beans and pease. When well harvested, these 
form a very hearty species of fodder. The 
stalk of the beans is indeed tough and some- 
what woody, and is therefore commonly thrown 
out as farm-yard litter; but the coving chaff is 
very good manger-meat; and even the stalk, 
if bruised and cut, and then steamed, would be 
found useful in a farm-stable. 

Pea haulm is very generally given as rack- 
meat to cart-horses instead of hay, for which 
purpose it is well adapted, being succulent and 
nutritious, and nearly as much relished as hay; 
although it may not go quite so far, yet there 
is great saving in its use. But both these and 
all other kinds of straw haulm should be given 
as fresh as possible from the flail, for they 
grow brittle, and lose a portion of whatever 
sap they possess, by exposure to the air; if 
long kept they grow musty, and in that state 
neither are wholesome nor will be eaten by 
horses. Pea haulm should be given cau- 
tiously, as it is flatulent, and apt to occasion 
colic ; it is also said to be productive of bots ; 
but that, if true, is not so peculiar a property 
as to prevent its use. Sheep are extremely 
fond of haulm; so much so, indeed, that it is 
by no means uncommon for farmers who keep 
large flocks to grow pease chiefly with a view 
to it as winter food in pinching seasons ; the 
seed being in that case generally sown broad- 
cast, both to preserve the succulence of the 
haulm, and to save the trouble of the drill 
culture. (Brit. Husb. vol. i. p. 133 ; vol. ii. pp. 
219, 463.) See Pease and Beans. 

HAVER. A name given to oats (particu- 
larly to wild oats) in some parts of Britain; 
hence haver meal is meal made from oats by 
grinding and sifting through a proper sieve for 
the purpose. In some parts of Scotland a thick 
oat cake is used, and called a haver meal ban- 
nock. 

HAW, BLACK; SLOE. Plum-leaved Vi- 
burnum. A shrub frequent in Pennsylvania, 
along fence-rows and in thickets, flowering in 
May, ripening its sweetish and esculent fruii in 
October. See Hawthorn. 

HAWKBIT (Apargia). A genus of herba 
3x2 605 



HAWKWEED. 

v*.eous plants of easy culture. The indigenous 
species found in Britain are four. 

The autumnal hawkbit {A. autximnalis) is a 
very common and troublesome weed in all 
meadows and pastures. It varies very much 
in luxuriance, and is often found thriving in 
extremely poor land newly turned up. The 
root is abrupt, with very long, simple, lateral 
fibres. Leaves several, almost entirely radi- 
cal, lanceolate, deeply and unequally toothed 
or pinnaiifid. The stalks are several, ascend- 
ing' or spreading, branched, from 6 to 18 inches 
high. Each stalk is hollow internally, contain- 
ing a loose, white, cottony tuft. The flowers 
are bright yellow, not large, often reddish un- 
derneath. As these are all perennial weeds 
and encumber the ground, they should be root- 
ed lip in spring. {Ewj;. Flor. vol. iii. p. 350.) 

HAWKWEED (Hicracium, from hierax, a 
hawk, being supposed to sharpen the sight of 
birds of prey). A very numerous perennial 
genus, generally inhabiting mountainous or 
woody situations. They are, for the most part, 
pretty flowering plants, with yellow blossoms, 
but a great number are mere weeds. The 
herbage, in general, is milky, and more or less 
bitter ; but these qualities are, in some in- 
stances, hardly perceptible. The dwarf her- 
baceous kinds are remarkably adapted for rock 
work, or the front of flower borders, the taller 
kinds at the back ; they may be increased by 
seeds, or divisions. The annual species need 
only be sown in the open border. 

Sir J. E. Smith describes no less than eight- 
een distinct indigenous species, which it would 
carry me too far into detail to particularize. 

Ten or twelve species of hieracium have 
been found by botanists in the United States, 
and 14 in the British provinces. One called 
the veined hieracium, or hawkweed {H. veno- 
fum), is a frequent plant in clearings and 
woodlands in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
other Middle States, where it flowers in May 
and June. It has a perennial root, and stem 
1 to 2 feet high. A few years since, this plant 
was announced as a certain antidote against 
the poison of the rattlesnake. But its specific 
virtues need to be further tested before they 
can be regarded as fully proven. A great 
many specifics and antidotes are vaunted by 
credulous, or designing persons, for the poison 
of reptiles as well as the bite of a mad dog, 
and persons who have taken them and escaped 
any serious mischief, have led others to believe 
in the virtues of the remedies when the pa- 
tients would have recovered without. In this 
way the most inert and inefficient prescriptions 
often get the credit of what properly belongs 
to the agency of common homely appliances, 
or the wonderful restorative powers with which 
a kind Providence has endowed both man and 
beast. 

HAWTHORN, WHITETHORN, or MAY 
{Mefpilus oxyacantha). A common small tree, 
or shrub, but beautiful in its appearance, and 
.'ragrant in odour. The hawthorn grows al- 
most everywhere in thickets, copses, hedges, 
and hign open fields. The wood is very hard, 
with a smooth, blackish bark, and, like the 
whitebeam hawthorn {Pyrus aria), is converted 
rrto axle trees and handles of tools. The 
606 



HAY. 



branches have lateral, sharp, awl-shaped 
thorns. The leaves are alternate, deciduous, 
on longish, slender stalks ; smooth, deep-green, 
veiny, an inch or two long, tapering at the base, 
or wedge-shaped, and more or less deeply three- 
lobed, with crescent-shaped stipules. The 
flowers are corymbose, terminal, white, occa- 
sionally pink or almost scarlet. The fruit 
(called haws) is mealy, insipid, dark red, occa- 
sionally yellow, furrowed externall}'^, and very 
hard. Birds are fed with the fruit all the win- 
ter long ; but the haws may be more usefully 
employed in fattening hogs. In Kamschatka 
they are eaten by the peasants, and fermented 
into wine. The common hawthorn blows in 
May, and can be propagated from seed, which 
must be kept in sand through the winter, and 
sown in spring. The young plants will be fit 
to place out in two years. There are several 
varieties of this species, among others the 
celebrated Glastonbury thorn, which blossoms 
sometimes as early as Christmas. The double 
blossomed hawthorn is one of the greatest or- 
naments of our pleasure-grounds, whether it 
be kept as a shrub, or trained as a tree. 

The yellow-berried hawthorn, which was 
originally brought from Virginia, has a double 
recommendation to the shrubbery, for its buds 
are of a fine yellow in the spring, and its fruit, 
which is of the colour of pure gold, hang on 
the branches nearly the whole of the winter, 
giving great variety to the plantation. Ever- 
greens should never be planted without a few 
of these shrubs being intermixed to enliven 
them in the winter months. The hawthorn is 
peculiarly adapted for small lawns or paddocks, 
where larger trees cannot be admitted. When 
standing singly, the hawthorn otten reaches to 
the height of 25 or 30 feet, with a trunk from 
4 to 8 feet in circumference. 

In husbandry, these shrubs are called quick- 
sets ; and when kept well cut, they form hedges, 
scarcely less impregnable than those composed 
of holly. The clipping of hedges and trim- 
ming of trees is certainly advantageous to the 
farmer, although it adds nothing to the beauty 
of rural scenery. Hawthorn hedges appear to 
have come into use, in England, about the time 
of Charles II.; as Evelyn observes in his Sylva, 
"I have been told of a gentleman who has 
considerably improved his revenue, b}'- sowing 
haws only and raising nurseries of quicksets, 
which he sells by the hundred, far and near. 
This is a commendable industry, and any neg- 
lected corner of ground will fit this plantation." 
See Thoust. 

HAY (Germ, hcu, Du. hovi). Any kind of 
grass cut and dried as fodder for cattle. Hay 
constitutes the chief dependence of the farmer 
and others as winter food for their horses and 
cattle. The sale of hay within the bills of 
mortality, and 30 miles round the cities of 
London and Westminster, is regulated by the 
act 36 Geo. 3, c. 88. It enacts, that all hay 
shall be sold by the load of 36 trusses, each 
truss weighing 56 lbs., except new hay, which 
is to weigh 60 lbs. till the 4th of September, 
and afterwards 56 lbs. only ; so that till the 4th 
of September, a load of hay weighs exactly a 
ton, but thereafter only 18 cwt. There are 
three public markets in the metropolis for the 



1! 



HAY. 



HAYMAKING. 



sale of hay and straw, Whitechapel, Smithfield, 
and the Haymarket. 

When horses are fed on hay, it is a matter 
of dispute whether the light and apparently 
acrid grass of uplands, or that of more fertile 
natural meadow ground, or the rich produce 
of the artificial grasses, is to be preferred. 
This must, however, depend on the quantity of 
corn Avith which they are supplied. When 
that is abundantly furnished, there can be no 
doubt that the former will be found better for 
their general health, and especially for their 
wiiTO; but as farm-horses are usually limited 
in their consumption of grain, and the slowness 
of their movements renders the clearness of 
their wind a matter of comparatively little 
moment, the other kinds will be found the best 
adapted to support their strength. In gentle- 
men's stables no other than meadow hay is 
generally admitted; and it is in all respects the 
best. But farmers find more profitable uses 
for it in the feeding of fatting-stock and cows ; 
and clover, either alone or with rye-grass, 
sainfoin, or tare hay, though coarser, answers 
every necessary purpose for farm-horses, more 
especially when cut into chaff, and used along 
with straw. Sainfoin is commonly esteemed 
the first, and clover the next, in quality ; but 
tare hay, if well made, is very hearty food. 
Old hay, as having longer undergone that slow 
process of fermentation by which the sugar 
that it contains is developed, is far more nutri- 
tive and wholesome than new hay. Mow burnt 
hay is more injurious to horses than to any 
other of the domestic animals, and is a fruitful 
source of disease. 

It is an excellent plan, especially when hay 
nas been exposed to continued wet weather, to 
add to it a portion of common salt. It not only 
induces live-stock to consume it with avidity, 
but it prevents mouldiness or mow burning; 
it is usual to put about half a bushel of salt to 
every load of hay: it may be spread by hand, 
or through a sieve. Mr. Woods, of Ingatestone, 
in Essex, has employed it for thirty years; his 
plain, unvarnished statement need not be sup- 
ported by any other. He says, " I use about a 
quarter of a peck at each laying, thinly spread, 
which I find is about four bushels to a stack of 
twenty loads. I am fully satisfied that double 
the quantity would be much better. In a par- 
ticularly wet season, a few years since, I used 
twelve bushels to a stack of forty loads, the 
whole of which was consumed by my own 
horses, and I never had them in better condi- 
tion. I am so fully convinced of the benefit of 
salt to hay, that while it is allowed duty free, I 
shall use it in all seasons." (Johnson on Salt, 
p. 100.) The avidity with which animals con- 
sume salted hay is not so generally known as 
it ought to be ; I will give, therefore, a fact re- 
lated to me a short time since by Mr. Law, of 
Reading. Mr. Green, of Wargrave, in Berk- 
shire, had, in the season of 1824, a parcel of 
sour rushy hay from a meadow on the banks 
of the Thames, which both he and his men de- 
spaired of rendering of the least value; it was, 
therefore, stacked by itself, and well salted: the 
quantity supplied was large, but Mr. Law did 
not know the exact proportion. When the 
period arrived that his sheep wanted a supply 



of hay, Mr. Green directed his shepherd tc ase 
the salted inferior hay first; and, to his sur- 
prise, the sheep consumed it with the greatest 
avidity. The stack being finished, the shep- 
herd was directed to supply them now with the 
best hay he could find of other stacks of fine 
meadow hay. He came, however, the next 
morning to his master, and made the following 
remark: "We, sir, must have made a great 
mistake, and forgotten which stack we salted, 
for our sheep will not eat the hay which we 
think the best." 

As the hay grasses do not thrive in the 
Southern U. States, the principal supply of this 
provender is sent pressed in bales or packages 
from the Eastern, Middle, and Western States. 
In those states where hay constitutes a prin- 
cipal product of the farms, New York stands 
first and Pennsylvania second. In his observa- 
tions, relative to the hay crop of 1842, Mr. 
Ellsworth observes, "Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, and Missouri, though devoting com- 
paratively little attention to its production, yet 
seem to be making some advance in the same; 
and accordingly there has been some increase 
the past year, though doubtless not a very ma- 
terial one. Some damage was experienced 
from the invasion of the army worm, but not 
enough to lessen the crop to any great amount. 
Though reliance is still placed on the prairie 
hay, yet there is a gradual improvement with 
respect to the introduction and cultivation of 
the tame grasses. The low price of grain in 
New Orleans will no doubt lessen the demand 
for pressed hay, which has heretofore been a 
considerable article of export from the states 
bordering on the Ohio river and its branches. 
The whole number of tons of hay raised in the 
United States in 1842, is estimated to have 
been 14.053,355." 

HAYMAKING. The operation of cutting 
down, drying, and preparing grasses and other 
forage plants for being stacked for winter use. 
The plants are mown down at the time when 
they are supposed to contain, diffused through- 
out the whole plant, a maximum of nutritious 
juices ; viz., when they are in full flower. Too 
often this period is exceeded, and the nutritive 
property of the plant suffers ; for it is a well- 
known fact that the saccharine juices of a plant 
disappear in the progress of the ripening of the 
seed. Dry weather, and, if possible, that in 
which sunshine prevails, is chosen for this 
operation ; and the mown material is spread 
out, and turned over two or three times in the 
course of the same day in which it is cut. In 
the evening it is put into small heaps. In the 
morning of the second day these heaps are 
spread out, and turned over two or three times ; 
and in the evening they are formed into heaps, 
somewhat larger than they were the da> oefore. 
If the weather has been remarkably warm and 
dry, these heaps, in the course of the third day. 
are carted away and made into a stack; but if 
the weather has been indifferent, the process 
of opening out the heaps and exposing them 
to the sun is repeated on the third day, and 
stack-making is not commenced till the fourth. 
The grand object in making hay is to preserve 
the colour and natural juices of the herbage, 
which is best done by continually turning it, 

607 



HAYMAKING. 



HAYMAKING. 



so as never to expose the same surface for any 
length of time to the direct influence of the sun. 
In stacking hay, the object is to preserve the 
green colour, and at the same time induce a 
slight degree of fermentation, which has the 
effect of rendering the fibres of the plants, 
which compose the hay, more tender, and 
changing a part of the parenchymous matter 
into sugar, on the same principle as is effected 
by malting barley. This sweet taste renders 
the hay more palatable to horses. The best 
general directions for haymaking will be found 
in the following extract from Middkton's Jlgri- 
cultural Survey of Middlesex, although the various 
kinds of hay, and different soils and situations 
with which the farmer is connected, are so 
very numerous, that such directions can, of 
necessity, have only a very general applica- 
tion. 

Mr. Middleton observes, when speaking, be 
it remembered, of haymaking in Middlesex, 
"In order ihat the subject may be more clearly 
understood, I shall relate the particular opera- 
tions of each day, during the whole process, 
from the moment in which the mower first 
applies his scythe, to that in which the hay is 
secured, either in the barn or in the stack. 

"First Day. — All the grass mown before nine 
o'clock in the morning is tedded (or spread), 
and great care taken to shake and strew it 
evenly over all the ground. Soon afterwards 
it is turned, with the same degree of care and 
attention ; and if, from the number of hands, 
they are able to turn the whole again, they do 
so, or at least as much of it as they can, till 
twelve or one o'clock, at which time they dine. 
The first thing to be done after dinner is, to 
rake it into what are called single windrows; 
that is, they all rake in such a manner, as that 
each person makes a row, which rows are 
three or four feet apart; and the last operation 
of this day is to put it into grass-cocks. 

"Second Day. — The business of this day com- 
mences with tedding all the grass that was 
mown the first day after nine o'clock, and all 
that was mown this day before nine o'clock. 
Next, the grass-cocks are to be well shaken 
out into staddles (or separate plats) of five or 
six yards diameter. If the crop should be so 
thin and light as to leave the spaces between 
these staddles rather large, such spaces must 
be immediately raked clean, and the rakings 
mixed with the other hay, in order to its all 
drying of a uniform colour. The next business 
is to turn the staddles, and, after that, to turn 
the grass that was tedded in the first part of 
the morning, once or twice, in the manner de- 
scribed for the first day. This should all be 
dune before twelve or one o'clock, so that the 
whole may lie to dry while the workpeople are 
at dinner. After dinner, the first thing to be 
done is, to rake the staddles into double wind- 
rows; in doing which, every two persons rake 
thf, hay in opposite directions, or towards each 
other, and by that means form a row between 
them of double the size of a single windrow. 
Each of these double windrows are about six 
or eight feet distant from each other. Next, to 
rake the gtass into single windrows; then the 
doiible windrows are put into bastard-cocks; 
and, lastly, the single windrows are put into 
608 



grass-cocks. This completes the work of the 
second day. 

" Third Day. — The grass mown and not spread 
on the second day, and also that mown in the 
early part of this day, is first to be tedded in 
the morning ; and then the grass-cocks are to 
be spread into staddles, as before, and the bas- 
tard-cocks into staddles of less extent. These 
lesser staddles, though last spread, are first 
turned, then those which were in grass-cocks ; 
and, next, the grass is turned once or twice 
before twelve or one o'clock, when the people 
go to dinner as usual. If the weather has 
proved sunny and fine, the hay which was last 
night in bastard-cocks will this afternoon be 
in proper state to be carried. It seldom hap- 
pens, in dry weather, but that it may be carried 
on the third day. But if the weather should, 
on the contrary, have been cool and cloudy, no 
part of it, probably, will be fit to carry. In that 
case, the first thing set about after dinner is, to 
rake that which was in grass-cocks last night 
into double windrows ; then the grass which 
was this morning spread from the swarths into 
single windrows. After this, the hay which 
was last night in bastard-cocks is made up into 
full-sized cocks, and care taken to rake the hay 
up clean, and also to put the rakings upon the 
top of each cock. Next, the double windrows 
are put into bastard-cocks, and the single wind- 
rows into grass-cocks, as on the preceding days. 

"Foiirth Day. — On this day the great cocks, 
just mentioned, are usually carried before di«- 
ner. The other operations of the day are such, 
and in the same order, as before described, and 
are continued daily until the hay-harvest is 
completed. 

"In the course of hay-making, the grass 
should, as much as possible, be protected, both 
night and day, against rain and dew, by cock- 
ing. Care should also be taken to proportion 
the number of hay-makers to that of the 
mowers, so that there may not be more grass 
in hand, at one time, than can be managed ac- 
cording to the foregoing process. This propor- 
tion is about 20 hay-makers (of which number 
12 may be women) to four mowers: the latter 
are sometimes taken half a day, to assist the 
former. But in hot, windy, or very dry wea- 
ther, a greater proportion of hay-makers will 
be required than when the weather is cloudy 
and cool. 

" It is particularly necessary to guard against 
spreading more hay than the number of hands 
can get into cock the same day, or before rain- 
In showery and uncertain weather, the grass 
may sometimes be suffered to lie three, four, or 
even five days in swath. But, before it has 
lain long enough to become yellow (which, if 
suffered to lie long, would be the case), par- 
ticular care should be taken to turn the swaths 
with the heads of the rakes. In this state it 
will cure so much in about two days, as only 
to require being tedded a few hours, when the 
weather is fine, previous to its being put to- 
gether and carried. In this manner, hay may 
be made and stacked at a small expense, and 
of a good colour; but the tops and bottoms of 
the grass are insufficiently separated by it." 

HAY-RAKE, or HAY-SWEEP. An imple- 
ment contrived for the purpose of collecting 



HAY-KNIFE. 



HEDGE. 



and conveying hay to the stack in an easy and 
expeditious manner after it has been put into 
rows. See Rakes. 

HAY-KNIFE. A sharp instrument employed 
for cutting hay out of the stack. 

HAY-RICK. Mr. Chambers (Com. to Board 
of Jgr. vol. vii. p. 374) describes an improved 
hay-rick which admits very freely the cool air 
to check the fermentation. A channel or gut- 
ter, a foot wide and deep, is cut through ground 
marked out for the rick, and two across, which 
is 13 yards by 9. Two chimneys are in- 
troduced, like the common hay funnels, onlj' 
these go full home to the earth, which being 
drawn up as the rick is forming, and the chan- 
nels previously covered with fagots, except 
where the chimneys are placed, leave ihem 
open at all points ; and let the wind blow from 
what quarter it may, the current is uninter- 
rupted. 

HAZEL. See Hasel. 

HEAD-LAND. A term applied to the lands 
or ridges in fields, on which the plough turns 
in cultivating them. As much soil is con- 
tinually accumulating on them, by means of 
the frequent ploughing of the field, it is a com- 
mon plan to form them into composts with 
lime or other manures. 

HEAT. In horsemanship, a term used on 
the turf, to denote a certain distance which a 
horse runs on the course. A race may con- 
sist of one or more heats, and " the best of three 
heats" are common at most races ; but there is 
never more than one heat for a race at New- 
market. See TEMPERATunE. 

HEATH. In a general sense the term heath 
is applied to waste land in which the prevail- 
ing plants consist of one or more of the com- 
mon species of heath. 

HEATH, HEATHER, or LING (Calluna 
and Erica). A very large and varied genus 
of plants, of which the following species are 
indigenous to Great Britain : — 

L Common heath (CnUiina vnlgai-is,Sa.\. The 
Erica communis of Linnaeus). This plant co- 
vers many hundreds of acres in the Highlands 
of Scotland, in Ireland, and in similar climates 
on the continent. It attains in many places 
the height of three or four feet; and is much 
used for thatching houses, making besoms, and 
for a variety of other purposes. The tender 
tops form a substitute for mattrasses in High- 
land cottages ; and they are also eaten green 
and in a dried state by horses, cattle, and sheep, 
in countries where the grasses and clover do 
not begin to grow till late in the spring. The 
tender tops also furnish food for grouse. 

2. Cross-leaved heath (Erica tetralix). In 
this shrub the roots are creeping, stems erect, 
from four to six or eight inches high. Leaves 
crowded, spreading four in a whorl, revolute, 
downy, glaucous beneath. Flowers remark- 
able for their delicate wax-like hue of every 
shade of rose-colour, sometimes snow-white, 
on hairy cottony stalks collected into a dense, 
round, terminal cluster, ail elegantly pendulous 
to one side. It is wonderful that this most 
elegant and not uncommon plant is scarcely 
delineated at all by the old authors, nor by any 
uf them correctly. 

3. Fine-leaved heath (E. dnerea), found 

77 



plentifully on dry turfy heaths everywhere. It 
grows on a stem a foot high, or more, with nu- 
merous upright, round, hoary, flowery, and 
leafy branches. The flowers are crimson, 
everlasting, with a tinge of blue or gray, occa- 
sionally pure white. 

4. Cornish heath (E. vagans), growing abun- 
dantly in Cornwall: stem woody, two feet high, 
copiously and determinately branched, with a 
smooth, pale, deciduous bark ; leaves ever- 
green, smooth. 

Mr. J. Hall (Com. Board of Agr. vol. vi. p. 
381) speaks favourably of the advantages to 
be derived from heath in the feeding of stock, 
and also asserts that an infusion of the finer 
parts of heath, when cut young and in bloom, 
is preferable to tea. 

HEATH GRASS (Triodia dccumbens). The 
genus to which this species belongs consists 
of hard, rigid, perennial grasses, with leafy 
stems. Inflorescence variously panicled. The 
decumbent heath grass grows frequent in 
spongy bogs, and on barren, sandy, mountain- 
ous ground. The root is very slightly creep- 
ing, with strong fibres. The whole plant is 
harsh and rigid, lying close to the ground, ex- 
cept when in flower. The stem is from 4 to 
12 inches long, jointed, bent, leafy, and very 
smooth. The leaves are linear, striated, rather 
glaucous, smooth, except towards the points, 
where the rib and edges are very rough. 
(Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. i. p. 131.) 

HEATH, SEA (Fraukenia). Of this mari- 
time decumbent genus of plants there are two 
species, natives of these islands. 

1. The smooth sea-heath (F. Icevis) is a pe- 
rennial, flowering in July, found common on 
muddy salt-marshes, chiefly on the eastern 
shores of England. It has aAvoody root; the 
stems are quite prostrate, forked, slightly 
downy, with leafy, partly ascending branches. 
The leaves are somewhat glaucous, about a 
quarter of an inch long, revolute, fringed at the 
base, convex, and smooth above. The flowers 
spring from the forks of the stem, partly ter- 
minal, sessile, solitary, and flesh-coloured. 

2. Powdery sea-heath (F. pulverulenta). This 
is a very rare species, much resembling the 
last, but annual, and flowering in July. The 
root and stems the same as the former : the 
leaves, which are smooth and green above, are 
hoary, as if powdery, beneath ; opposite or 
four together, single ribbed, and revolute. The 
flowers are pale red. (Smith's Eng. Flor. voL li.. 
p. 186.) 

HEATHY LAND. Ground which is co- 
vered with heath. In many districts of the- 
kingdom of Great Britain, there are immens' 
tracts of this kind of land, that, in their present 
state, are of little value, except for the support 
of a few sheep ; but which, by proper cultiva- 
tion, might afford useful crops. They, how- 
ever, differ mueh in the nature of the soil. The 
best mode of reclaiming these lands is b^ 
draining, deep trenching, or ploughing, ano 
spreading upon them any calcareous matter 
such as lime, chalk, or marl. And it is very 
desirable, in many instances, to provide tneiii 
shelter by plantations of timber trees. Set 

PiAXTATIONS. 

HEDGE. A living wall formed of wooHj 

609 



HEDGE. 



HEDGE. 



plants, sown or planted in a line, and cut or 
clipped in such a manner as to form a compact 
mass of any degree of width or height that may- 
be required, either for the purpose of shelter, 
separation, or defence. The fences most ge- 
nerally used in agriculture are made of the 
whitethorn, because it has spiny branches, and 
forms a strong defence against cattle. Fences 
for the purposes of shelter and separation are 
chiefly used in gardening, and for the most 
part are formed of evergreen shrubs, such as 
the holly, yew, box, &c. ; or sub-evergreens, 
such as the privet ; of flowering shrubs, such 
? as the Cijfionia japomca : or of deciduous shrubs 
or trees, with persisient leaves, such as the 
hornbeam and beech. 

In the management of hedges of every de- 
scription, an important point is to keep them 
thick, and impervious to wind or animals, near 
the ground ; for which purpose the section of 
the hedge requires to be made broader at the 
base than at the top, in order that the exterior 
leaves in every part of the hedge may enjoy 
in an equal degree ihe influence of light, air, 
and perpendicular rains. Mr. Stephens (Quart. 
Jmrti. of Jgr. vol. i. p. 574) gives some very 
detailed instructions " On the Planting and 
Management of Thorn Hedges;" but as these 
extend over upwards of 50 pages, we can only 
recommend the farmer, who needs information 
as to the formation of quickset hedges, to con- 
sult the above article ; Mr. Blakie's little work 
On Hedges ; and some essays on raising and 
managing hedges in the Trans. High, Soc. vol. 
iv. p. 35.3, to 378, by Messrs. Montgomery, 
Grigor, and Manson. In the same volume, p. 
336, there is an essay on the cultivation of the 
common elder {Sanibucus nigra) for hedges. 
Sir John Sinc.air also recommends the tala 
plant as a substitute for thorn in hedges. 
{Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. ii. p. 408.) It is a 
small prickly shrub, growing wild in various 
parts of South America, and which has been 
extensively used for fences by the Scotch 
farmers who have settled near Buenos Ayres. 
An " Old Hedger," in the Quart. Journ. of Agr. 
vol. v. p. 505, also gives the result of his ex- 
perience and practice in hedge-making. The 
late Francis Blakie of Holkham saw the im- 
portance of the farmer paying more attention 
than is customary with him to the plantation 
of fences, and the management of hedgerow 
timber ; and in his excellent little work on this 
subject, he told him (and his experience was 
of perhaps the most difficult of all soils upon 
which to rear good hedgerows), "There may 
be some difference in opinion as to the best 
method of planting and rearing quickset (white- 
thorn) hedges, but I think there can be none in 
respect to the propriety of thoroughly cleaning 
and preparing the ground in the first instance; 
and all experienced men will agree, that it is 
not advisable to plant a new hedge upon the 
same spot where an old one had been recently 
grubbed up, unless under unavoidable circum- 
stances, such as boundary fences, &c. ; in that 
case the ground should be well loosened, fal- 
lowed for a year or two, and have fresh earth 
•or compost added. The better the ground is 
prepared, the sooner will the hedge arrive at 
maturity, and the longer will be its duration. 
610 



The practice in this country (Norfolk), even mt 
our lightest soils, is to put the quicksets (here 
called layers) horizontally into the side of the 
bank, raised from a four or five feet wide ditch, 
of a proportionate depth; and I have never 
seen whitethorn hedges raised quicker or better 
than in this country, and all upon that prin- 
ciple. I must, however, acknowledge, that 
although the Norfolk farmers very generally 
excel in raising hedges, they but too frequently 
err in the future management of them ; youth 
is succeeded by infirmities ; there is no prime 
of life." 

There is another error which frequently oc- 
curs where quicksets are planted on the sides 
of banks ; that is, in not varying the height of 
the line of quick in the bank according to the 
nature of the sides. On the management of 
hedgerow timber, the directions of Blakie are 
equally excellent. He says, " It is not necessary 
for me to particularize all the varieties of 
forest trees usually planted in hedgerows. It 
is sufficient, in exemplification, to say, beech, 
ash, and firs are not only ruinous to fences, 
but are also otherwise injurious to farmers; 
while oaks, narrow-leaved elm, and black 
Italian poplars do comparatively little injury ; 
and as to the age of plants, it surely must be 
obvious that a thrifty transplanted nursery tree 
of three years' growth is more likely to suc- 
ceed, when properly planted in a hedgerow, 
than a puny yearling drawn out of a seed-bed, 
with its root like a piece of whipcord; or a 
tender sapling, of six or seven years' growth, 
drawn out of a thick wood, whence it had not 
been previously transplanted. 

" In planting, the usual practice is to lay the 
roots of the forest-tree plants horizontally into 
the bank along with the whitethorns, and to 
cut their heads or tops off close to the ground, 
in the same manner as the thorns ; a moment's 
reflection will show the absurdity of this prac- 
tice. A surface-rooted plant, like the white- 
thorn, will thrive if laid into the bank horizon- 
tall}', or nearly so ; but a deep-rooted plant, 
such as the oak, is not likely to thrive if treat- 
ed in that manner. The roots of oaks strike 
deep into the ground ; consequently, the plants 
should be set perpendicularly, and their heads 
or tops should on no account be cut off at the time 
of planting. But suppose that an oak plant, 
when laid into the bank horizontally along 
with the quicksets, does grow, and even pros- 
pers for a time, which it may do when the ex- 
tremities of the roots are bent downwards by 
the pressure of the earth in the bank above, 
and the plant in consequence finds nourish- 
ment and support from the earth below ; the 
top of the plant will then grow up among the 
row of thorns, and be protected by them until 
the hedge is cut (which, in process of time, it 
must be) : the oak plant will then be left ex- 
posed, and as the stem will have bent upwards, 
at a sharp angle from the face of the bank, the 
top of the tree (when agitated by the wind) will 
act as a powerful leverage, and have the effect 
of twisting and breaking the crooked roots of 
the plant in the bank. 

" These remarks are, in some degree appli- 
cable to all forest trees planted in hedgerows, 
but more particularly to deep-rooted ones. 



HEDGE. 



HEDGE. 



The method which I recommend for planting 
forest trees generally in hedgerows, but more 
particularly oaks, is as follows : Let the quick- 
sets be laid in, and the bank finished in the 
usual way; then select good transplanted trees 
of 2 or 3 years' growth, fresh drawn from the 
nursery. The broken roots and tips of the long 
fibres may be cut off; then push the spade 
down perpendicularly into the bank between 
the roots of the quicksets ; press the spade 
from side to side, so as to make a cleft open- 
ing, into which put the root of the plant as 
deep as it had before stood in the nursery ; 
tread the earth firm to the root, and face the 
bank up, as before : leave the tops of forest- 
tree plants uncut at the lime of planting, unless 
when they are bushj'-headed, and without 
leaders or top-shoots ; in that case a few of the 
larger side shoots may be cut in, that is, the ex- 
tremities of the branches shortened. It is a 
most pernicious practice to cut the tops of 
young forest trees at the time of planting, and 
should only be adopted in particular cases. 
"The time most proper for planting hedgerow 
trees and quicksets is autumn, or early in 
spring; and the work should never be delayed 
till late in spring, if it can be avoided. But 
when (from necessity) trees are planted late 
in spring, and the ground dry at the time, the 
roots of the plants should not only be kept moist 
before planting, but they should also be dipped 
into some earthy sludge at the time they are 
planted. 

" Training of hedgerow trees is seldom or 
never thought of; and I will now add, when 
piuning is practised, it is generally performed 
in a very injudicious manner. Young hedge- 
row trees seldom require much attention in 
training until the hedge is cut the first time ; the 
trees should then be examined ; if they appear 
crooked, stunted, and unthrifty, they should be 
cut off close to the face of the bank in the same 
manner as the thorn plants are. The oak 
stubs may be expected to throw up several 
strong shoots from each plant in the following 
season ; and in a year en two afterwards, the 
best young shoot on such stub should be se- 
lected to remain, and all the others be slipped, 
or cut off close to the stub ; the reserved shoot, 
or (as they may be called) regenerated plants, 
majf then be expected to become timber trees. 
"When an unthrifty young tree is to be cut 
off, as here recommended, particular attention 
should be paid to tht method of cutting. The 
stroke from the workman's bill-hook or hatchet 
should always be upwards, or from the stub, and 
never downwards, or to the stiib ; whenever the 
latter practice is followed, the stub is left shat- 
tered, the wet penetrates through the clefts into 
the stool, or crown of the roots, canker is pro- 
duced, and the tree rots. No good timber can 
be expected to grow from diseased roots. 

" There may be said to be four different sorts 
or methods of pruning now in practice; these 
I designate under the styles or titles of— first, 
natural pruning; sefo?!f/, close pruning; third, 
snag pruning; and /owrt/i, cutting in, or fore- 
shortening. The three latter more immediately 
apply to hedgerow trees ; but I will review the 
four, and in this review I wish fir trees to be 
understood as excepted. 



"The best of all pruning is what I call «a- 
tural. ^ This is efiected in woods and plant- 
ings where trees stand thick: there the topa 
of the trees unite ; they draw one another up ; 
light and air is excluded from the lower 
branches, and those, consequently, dwindle 
away ; the stems of the trees grow up straight 
and tall ; and they gather proportionate 
strength, from the top branches extending, 
when the planting is thinned out gradually (as 
all plantations of trees ought to be). This re- 
mark is also applicable to hedgerow trees, in 
their infant state, when they are drawn up and 
nourished by the thorn bushes. But when 
trees stand singly, they throw out strong side 
branches, and their boles or stems seldom rise 
to much height, or attain to much cubic mea- 
sure, unless the side branches are either crop- 
ped by cattle (which is a species of pruning), 
or are cut off by the hand of man. Hence 
arises the diversity of opinion with respect to 
the most proper method of obtaining the de- 
sired object, by the assistance of art, when na- 
ture ceases to operate in the matter wished for. 

"Close pruning answers to a certain extent. 
The operation is performed by cutting the side 
branches off close to the bole of the tree, when 
it is expected that the bark and the timber will 
heal over the wound and become united. If 
this operation is completed when the branches 
are young, or mere saplings, the tree in a 
vigorous growing state, and a few only of the 
branches cut off i« one season, the object will be 
obtained, without injuring the growth of the 
tree. But the system, from having been mis- 
understood, has been misapplied, and carried 
to an alarming extent, doing incalculable in- 
jury, not only to individuals, but to the country 
at large. Immense numbers of large boughs 
have been amputated from the trunks of trees, 
in the imin hope of the timber growing over the 
wounds, and uniting with the stumps of the 
boughs left in the body of the tree ; the bark 
and sap-wood does indeed sometimes grow 
over such wounds, but the stumps of the 
branches enclosed go to decay, become a canker 
in the bole of the tree, and the result is calami- 
tous. It is the ready extension of the bark 
over the wounds in trees which has been the 
means of misleading so many people; be- 
cause, as they see that the bark unites, they 
take it for granted that the woody fibres does 
so also ; and so, in fact, the growing part of 
the tree will do, but the stump of the ampu- 
tated arm becomes a dead substance, and can- 
not unite with a living one. On the whole, it 
is a dangerous practice to cut large boughs 
close to the stems of trees, particularly old and 
unthrifty trees. Young thriving trees will suc- 
ceed, if close pruned, to a certain extent; but 
old, stunted, or full-grown trees, 7iever. 

"Snag pruning is a very pernicious practice < 
it is performed by cutting the boughs oflT seve- 
ral inches from the bole or stem of the tree. In 
old trees, those stumps act as conductors for 
wet into the body of the tree ; in young trees 
the bark of the stubs throw out young shoots, 
which flourish for a time, but the heart-wood 
of those stumps decays, and has a similar effer* 
to the stumps of boughs in old trees, wh'ch Q*^ 
not throw out young shoots. 

61 



HEDGE-BIRDS. 



HELIOTROPE. 



F'rreshortening, or cutting in, is an approved 
method of pruning, and is admirably adapted 
to training hedgerow trees, to benefit th^ land- 
lord without doing much injury to the tenant. 
This operation is performed by shortening the 
over-luxuriant side branches, but not to cut 
them to a stump, as in snag pruning; on the 
contrary, the top only of the branch should be 
cut off, and the amputation effected immediately 
above where an axillary (side shoot) springs 
from the branch on which the operation is to 
be performed: this may be at the distance of 
two, four, or any other number of feet from the 
stem of the tree; and suppose the axillary 
branch which is left (when the top of the 
branch is cut off) is also over-luxuriant, or 
looks unsightly, it should also be shortened at 
its sub-axillary branch, in the same manner as 
before described. 

" The branches of trees pruned in this man- 
ner are always kept within due bounds; they 
do not extend over the adjoining land to the 
injury of the occupier, at least not until the 
stem of the tree rises to a height (out of the 
reach of pruning) when the top branches can 
do comparatively little injury to the land. By 
adopting this system of pruning, the bad effects 
of rlopc and siuig pruning will be avoided, the 
country will be ornamented, and the commu- 
nity at large, as well as individuals, benefited." 
( TJnkie, On Hedges and Hedgciofv Timber.') See 
Fences and Hawthokn. 

A great deal of valuable information upon 
the subject of hedges in the United States will 
be found in almost every agricultural periodi- 
cal, in many of which the merits of the Virginia 
thorn, Newcastle cock-spur, English black- 
thorn, Buck-thorn, Osage orange, &c. &c., and 
their adaptations to particular parts of the 
country, are discussed. It has been objected 
against hedges, that they are not only very expen- 
sive to raise and keep in good order, but by sha- 
ding and exhausting the ground, destroy on each 
side the product of a land or ridge. To other 
objections must be added the difficulty of getting 
horses near them, and the consequent retarding 
of the plough and harrow, with not unfrequent 
accidents from dangerous vpounds inflicted by 
the thorns. The loss of ground from hedge-rows 
is most sensibly felt, where the enclosures are 
small, averaging about 12 per cent., when the 
lots are between 2 and 3 acres, and in fields of 
10 acres amounting to 4 per cent. Hedges un- 
doubtedly add great beauty to country scenery, 
but, according to many utilitarians, are more 
sightly and poetical than profitable to the farmer. 

HEDGE MUSTARD {Sisymbrium.) A genus 
composed for the most part of worthless annual 
and biennial plants, flourishing in the open 
ground in any soil. The indigenous species 
are three, all annuals. 

1. The common hedge mustard {S. officinale), 
growing in waste ground, by road-sides, and on 
banks; very common in England; flowering in 
June and July. According to Haller, hedge mus- 
tard springs up wherever houses have been 
ciurnt. The herb is of a dull green, minutely 
aairy or downy; the stem solitary, two feet high, 
erect, with numerous horizontal branches, 
leafv. round, clothed with fine deflexed bristles. 
T.ea^es hyrate, their lobes runcinate, unequally 
nl2 



toothed ; the upper ones narrowest. The 
flowers are pale yellow, small, in little corym- 
bose heads, soon becoming very long, straight, 
close clusters of erect, tapering pods, finely 
downy, rather more than half an inch long, on 
very short stalks. Seeds not numerous, about 
six in each cell. This species was once used 
as a stimulating expectorant, but it is now de- 
servedly out of favour. 

2. The broad hedge mustard, or Loit^-t 
rocket (S. irio), grows chiefly about Lonu. i, 
and in habit is somewhat like the precedii.-r 
species; but the herbage is of a lighter greei 
and entirely smooth. The leaves are pinnai- 
fid, runcinate, acute, the upper lanceolate, witu 
hastate base ; the seed-pod is two inches long, 
rugged when ripe ; the seeds are very abun- 
dant. It is sometimes used as a heating pot- 
herb. 

3. Fine-leaved hedge mustard or flixweed 
(S. sophia). In this species the root is small 
and tapering, and the whole plant of a slen- 
der, delicate structure ; stem branched, bushy, 
erect; flowers small, greenish-yellow. Pods an 
inch long, numerous, erect, bearded. (Smith's 
Eng. Flor. vol. iii. p. 196.) 

This is one of the plants which defeats the 
opinion that popular names are never imposed 
without good reason. The plant was formerly 
supposed to be a cure for fractured limbs, 
hence its name, Sophia chirurgnrmn; an opinion 
only demonstrative of the contemptible state 
of surgery at the period when the name origi- 
nated. Its medicinal powers as an antidysen- 
teric rest on equally mistaken observations. 

The S. officinalis is a naturalized foreigner 
in the United States. The indigenous species 
of this weed found in the States are, 1. The S. 
Canadensis, or Hoary sisymbrium. 2. Arabis-like 
sisymbrium. 3. Thalian sisymbrium, commonly 
called Wall cress, Mouse-ear cress, extensively 
naturalized in the United States, in which 3 or 
4 additional species of the plant are enume- 
rated. (See Flor. Cestric.) 

HEDGE-KNIFE. Of this implement, for 
trimming hedges, there are two sizes, to be 
used either with one or both hands. The 
smaller one is a common and well-know*n im- 
plement. The larger-sized knife should have 
the blade 20 inches long by 2^ broad, and the 
handle 3 feet. It is slightly curved at the point, 

HEDGE PARSLEY (fonlis). Of this use- 
less weed there are in England three common 
species: the upright hedge parsley (T. anthris- 
cus), the spreading hedge parsley (T. infesta), 
and the knotted hedge parsley {T. nodosa). 
They are annual plants, growing by waysides 
and the borders of fields, varying in height from 
6 inches to 3 feet. The flowers are small, white 
or flesh-coloured, blowing in June; the umbels 
lateral and terminal; the rays from 7 to 10, 
rough, little spreading. Fruit small, purplish 
at the summit, furnished with incurved bristles. 
(S7ni/h's Eng. Flor. vol. ii. p. 42.) 

HELIOTROPE (Heliotropum ; from hclios, the 
sun, and tro])e, twining. The flowers are said 
to turn towards the sun). Some of the plants 
of this genus are highly valued for the fragrant 
perfume of their flowers, and are therefore to 
be met with in most gardens. They succeed 
freely in any rich, light soil ; and cuttings of 



HEMLOCK. 



HEMP. 



the shrubby kinds, taken ciff when young, rea- 
dil}- strike in the same kind of soil. (P«.Tte»'s 
Bot. Dirt.) 

HEMLOCK (Coniuni marulntum). A her- 
baceous biennial plant distinguished for its 
poisonous qualities, very common in hedges, 
orchards, and waste ground, especially near 
towns and villages. The root is tape-shaped, 
whitish, and fleshy, from 6 to 12 inches long, 
not unlike a voung parsnip. 

HEMLOCK, THE WATER. See Cow- 
bane. 

HEMLOCK, SPRUCE (Abies Canadensis). 
See Fibs. 

HEMP (Dan. Iia^iip. Ccumahis sativa). A 
very valuable plant of the nettle tribe, Urtica- 
-cce', which came, it is believed, originally from 
fndia, bat has long since been naturalized in 
various parts of Europe. The chief cultiva- 
tion is now, for the most part, confined to the 
Russian empire, where it is grown by the peas- 
ants in small plots. It there forms an article 
of export of very considerable commercial 
importance. Of 530,820 cwts. of undressed 
hemp, imported into England in 1831, 506,803 
came from Russia, 9472 from the East Indies, 
7405 from Italy, 2262 from the Philippine is- 
lands, 2248 from the United States. (M'Culloch.) 
As Great Britain is principally dependent on 
other countries for a supply of hemp, it fol- 
lows as a natural consequence, that, in periods 
of war, its price is very considerably increased. 
The hemp plant is grown in some parts of 
Lincolnshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk, and in Ire- 
land (where it reaches a height of 6 or 7 feet) ; 
but it is not nearly so much cultivated in the 
British islands as formerly, and it is believed 
by some of the best of the English farmers to 
be a crop that cannot be profitably grown in 
England, although the quality of the best Brit- 
ish hemp is much superior to that of Russia. 
In Oriental countries it sometims attains a 
height of 16 to 18 feet. The hemp plant re- 
quires for its growth a fair, highly manured 
soil, but it is not particular as to the quality. 
Old deep meadow lands, all rich alluvial, and 
even peaty soils, are adapted to its growth. 
Its leaves are strongly narcotic, and in the 
eastern climates are used like opium, and 
smoked like tobacco. From its seeds (which 
are greedily devoured by birds) is extracted 
an oil, generally employed by painters. The 
Russians and Poles, even of the higher classes, 
bruise or roast the seeds, mix them with salt, 
and eat them on bread. The hemp plant is fine 
and graceful ; its tough and elastic fibres are 
adapted, above those of every other plant, for 
the making of cordage, canvass, netting, and 
various cloths, used in domestic economy, such 
as towels, and coarse table-cloths. Besides 
the strong cloth and other articles made from 
it, hemp is of considerable utility for other 
purposes. The refuse, called " hemp sheaves," 
affords an excellent fuel; and the fine oil, ob- 
tained from the seed, is peculiarly adapted for 
burning in chambers,' as it is perfectly limpid, 
and possesses no smell. Another valuable 
property of hemp is, that it effectually expels 
vermin from plantations of cabbages ; if it be 
srwri on the borders of fields, &c., planted 



with that vegetable, no caterpillar will infest 
it. ( WiUicfCs Dow. Ency.) It possesses thil 
anomalous property of growing, without dege- 
nerating, for a series of years, on the same 
ground, provided the land is well manured. 
It is what is called a smothering-crop, for its 
copious foliage kills every thing that is at- 
tempted to be sown with if. It may be grown 
in the following rotation, as suggested by Pro- 
fessor Low: — 1. Fallow; 2. Wheat; 3. Grasses; 
4. Hemp ; 5. Oats. The land intended for 
hemp should be brought, by repeated plough- 
ings, into a fine tilth. The seed may be sown 
in April and May, from two to three bushels 
per acre, either broadcast, and hoeing out the 
plants to a distance of 16 or 17 inches, or by 
the drill, at a distance of 30 inches. In the 
autumn, the plants are pulled, the male plants 
first, and the female plants six or seven weeks 
afterwards, when they have ripened their seed. 
Thus there are two harvests of the hemp crop. 
The male plants are readily known by their 
faded flowers, and yellowish colour. They are 
then tied in small bundles and carried to the 
pool, where the)-^ are to be steeped. Hemp, 
like flax, poisons the water in which it is 
steeped. The same process is followed when 
the female plants are pulled; only these, be- 
fore they are steeped, have their seeds beaten 
out. 

The process of steeping commonly lasts 
four or five days, and is continued until the 
outside coat of the hemp readily separates. It 
is then carefully and evenly spread on some 
grass turf, where it remains for three or four 
weeks, being turned over about twice every 
week, by which the decomposition of the 
woody part of the stem is materially accele- 
rated. It is next carried to the barn, where it 
is bruised by the break, a machine constructed 
for the purpose ; it is then bound up into 
bundles, and carried to market. {Low's Prac. 
Jgr. p. 348.) There is a paper on a species 
of African hemp by Mr. A. Hunter (Trans. 
High. Soc. vol. iii. p. 87) ; others on the culti- 
vation of hemp in America, by Mr. W. Tonge 
(.^iin. of Agr. vol. xxiii. p. 1) ; in Italy (ibid. vol. 
xvi. p. 439, and vol. ii. p. 216), and in Catalo- 
nia. (Ibid. vol. viii. p. 243.) It seems that 100 
parts of Indian hempseed yield 20 to 25 per 
cent, of oil. (Com. Jgr. Jsiat. Soc. 1838, p. 69.) 
See Flax. 

Hemp being an article of extensive utility, 
various plants have been tried as substitutes ; 
among which are the Canada golden-rod (Soli- 
dago Canadensis), a perennial plant that might 
easily be cultivated in Britain ; its stalks are 
numerous, straight, and grow above five feet in 
height ; they afford very strong fibres, if treated 
in the same manner as hemp. The sun-flower 
(Hdianthus) also affords single filaments or 
fibres, which are said to be as thick, and in all 
respects as strong, as small pack-thread. The 
fibrous stalk of the common nettle (Urtica 
dioica) has been advantageously manufactured 
into cloth. Others of the nettle tribe, such a^ 
the Chinese, or white-leaved nettle (U. nivea), 
and the Siberian, or hemp-leaved nettle (U. can- 
nabina), yield lough and durable fibres ; and 
the Syrian swallow-wort (Asclepias Syriaca) is 
3F 613 



HEMP. 



HEMP. 



aiK ther of the textile plants ; but no conclu- 
sively satisfactory experiments of their culture 
appear to have been made. 

"Various common plants," says Professor 
Low {El. of Prac. Jgr. ip. 351), "yield fibres 
of sufficient toughness to be made into thread; 
as the Esparto-rush (Stipa tenacissima), which 
is used in Spain for obtaining coarse thread ; 
the common broom (Cylisus scoparia) ; the Spa- 
nish broom {Spartium junccum) ; different spe- 
cies of aloe, and several plants of the lily tribe. 
The warmer regions of the world abound in 
plants possessing a fibrous structure of the 
bark, which renders them capable of being 
employed in making ropes, thread, and cloth." 

In Mexico and South America, the famous 
centennial American aloe {Agave AnKricana), 
which there grows spontaneously,is extensively 
used in the manufacture of cordage of various 
kinds. There is no doubt that this plant would 
do well if introduced into the Florida Penin- 
sula, as it even bears the winters at Charleston, 
South Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia. "If," 
says a correspondent of the Farvicv!' Rcglslcr, 
(vol. ii. p. 6,) "any additional material for cord- 
age is requisite or desirable in this country, we 
have one in a native plant, probably not in- 
ferior, for that purpose, to the JJgavc Amcrkaym. 
I allude to the Yucca filamenlosa, which grows 
spontaneously in light sandy soils, (and often 
on the very poorest) from Virginia to Florida, 
and is commonly known under the name of 
bear grass, and sometimes under that of silk 
grass. The fibres of this plant are remarkable 
for their strength, and I have seen ropes made 
of it equal in strength and appearance to any 
other. To obtain the fibres, the leaves are 
' rotted' in water, or by burying them in the earth. 
Mr. Elliot, in his Sketch of the Bolany of South 
Carolina and Georgia, says of this plant, that it 
appears to possess the strongest fibres of any 
vegetable whatever; and, if it can be raised 
with facility, may ft)rm a valuable article in 
domestic economy. The root is also a substi- 
tute for soap in washing woollens. 

" Of the facility of its production, I entertain 
no doubt. No plant is more hardy, or bears 
transplanting better. Its roots are extensive, 
having numerous eyes, or buds, and each one 
of these will produce a plant. There are mil- 
lions of acres in the Southern States unfit for 
the ordinary purposes of agriculture, which 
would produce this plant very well." 

In the Western United States, and especially 
in the upper part of Kentucky, hemp is exten- 
sively cultivated, and constitutes a staple crop. 
A very interesting communication was made a 
few years since to the " Western Agriculturist," 
upon the mode of conducting the various pro- 
cesses connected with the hemp culture in 
Kentucky, by the distinguished statesman and 
agriculturist, Mr. Clay. The correctness of his 
views and recommendations are fully confirm- 
ed by those who have put them to the test of 
experience ; and as the subject is one of great 
agricultural importance, we shall extract nearly 
the whole of Mr. Clay's essay. 

Though raised in other parts of the state of 
Kentucky, hemp is most extensively cultivated 
in the Elkhorn region around and near Lex- 
ington. 

6' 



The soil of that region, says Mr. Glay, is 
a rich, deep, vegetable loam, free from sand and 
with but little grit. It lies on a bed of clay, 
interspersed with small fragments of iron ore, M 
and this clay in its turn reposes on a mass of I. 
limestone lying many feet in depth in horizon- 
tal strata. The surface of the country is ge- 
nerally undulating. The rich land (and there 
is but little that is not rich), in this whole re- 
gion, is well adapted to the growth of hemp, 
where it has not been too much exhausted by 
injudicious tillage. The lands which produce 
it best, are those which are fresh, or which 
have lain some time in grass or clover. Ma- 
nuring is not yet much practised. Clover is 
used in lieu of it. Lands which remain in 
clover four or five years without being too 
constantly and closely grazed, recover their 
virgin ferti ity. The character of the soil in 
the other parts does not vary materially from 
that in the Elkhorn district. 

The preparation of the ground, for sowing 
the seed, is by the plough and horses, until the 
clods are sufficiently pulverized or dissolved, 
and the surface of the field is rendered even 
and smooth. It should be as carefully prepared 
as if it were for flax. This most important 
point, too often neglected, cannot be attended 
to too much. Scarcely any other crop better 
rewards diligence and careful husbandry. Fall 
or winter ploughing is practised with advan- 
tage — it is indispensable in old meadows, or old 
pasture-grounds intended for producing hemp. 

Plants for seed are ordinarily reared, in a 
place distinct from that in which they are cul- 
tivated for the lint. In this respect, the usage 
is different from that which is understood to 
prevail in Europe. The seeds which are intend- 
ed to reproduce seeds for the crop of the next 
year, are sowed in drills about four feet apart. 
When they are grown sufficiently to distin- 
guish between the male and female stalks, the 
former are pulled and thrown away, and the 
latter are thinned, leaving the stalks separated 
seven or eight inches from each other. This 
operation is usually performed in the blooming 
season, when the sexual character of the plants 
is easily discernible ; the male alone blossom- 
ing, and, when agitated, throwing oflT farina, a 
yellow dust or flour which falls and colours 
the ground, or any object that comes in contact 
with it. A few of the male plants had better 
be left, scattered through the drill, until the 
farina is completely discharged, for an obvious 
reason. Between the drills a plough is run 
sufficiently often to keep the ground free from 
weeds and grass; and between the stalks in 
each drill the hoe is employed for the same 
object. The seed plants are generally cut 
after the first smart frost, between the 25th 
September and the middle of October, and car- 
ried to a barn or stackyard, where the seeds 
are easily detached by the common thrail. 
They should be gathered after a slight, but 
before a severe frost ; and, as they fall out very 
easily, it is advisable to haul the plants on a 
sled, and, if convenient, when they are wet. If 
transported on a cart or wagon, a sheet should 
be spread to catch the seed as they shatter out. 
After the seeds are separated, the stalks which 
bore them being too large, coarse, and harsh. 



HEMP. 



HEMP. 



to produce lint, are usually thrown away ; they 
may be profitably employed in making char- 
coal for the use of powder-mills. In Europe, 
where the male and female plants are promis- 
cuously grown together in the same field, both 
for seeds and for lint, the male stalks are first 
gathered, and the female suffered to remain 
growing until the seeds are ripe, when they 
are also gathered, the seeds secured and lint 
obtained, after the rotting, from both descrip- 
tions. 

After the seeds are thrashed out, it is advi- 
sable to spread them on a floor to cure properly 
and prevent their rotting, before they are finally 
put away for use the next spring. Seeds are 
not generally used, unless they were secured 
the fall previous to their being sown, as it is 
believed they will not vegetate, if older; but it 
has been ascertained that, when they are pro- 
perly cured and kept dry, they will come up 
after the first year. It is important to prevent 
them from heating, which destroys the vegetat- 
ing property, and for that purpose they should 
be thinly spread on a sheltered floor. 

The seeds — whether to reproduce seeds 
only, or the lint — are sowed about the same 
time. Opinions vary as to the best period. It 
depends a good deal upon the season. The 
plant is very tender when it first shoots up, and 
is affected by frost. Some have sowed as early 
as the 1st of April; but it is generally agreed, 
that all the month of May, and about the 10th 
of it especially, is the most favourable time. 
An experienced and successful hemp-grower, 
in the neighbourhood of Lexington, being asked 
the best time to sow hemp, answered immedi- 
ately before a rain. — And undoubtedly it is 
very fortunate to have a moderate rain directly 
after sowing. 

["Would it not be well to soak the seed in 
water a few hours previous to sowing? We 
have found this to answer nearly as good a 
purpose as rain after sowing, with all seeds 
with which we have tried it. The vegetation 
of mangle-wurzel is wonderfully accelerated 
by it." — Ed. Am. Farmer.'] 

When the object is to make a crop of hemp, 
the seeds are sown broadcast. The usual 
quantity is a bushel and a half to the acre ; but 
here again the farmers differ, some using two 
bushels or even two and a half. Much depends 
on the strength and fertility of the soil, and the 
care with which it has been prepared, as well 
as the season. To these causes may be as- 
cribed the diversity of opinion and practice. 
The ground can only sustain and nourish a 
certain quantity of plants ; and if that limit be 
passed, the surplus will be smothered in the 
growth. When the seeds are sown, they are 
ploughed or harrowed in ; ploughing is best in 
old ground, as it avoids the injurious effect of a 
beating rain, and the consequent baking of the 
earth. It would be also beneficial, subse- 
quently to roll the ground with a heavy roller. 

After the seeds are sown, the labours of the 
cultivator are suspended, until the plants are 
ripe, and in a state to be gathered — every thing 
in the intermediate time being left to the ope- 
rations of nature. If the season be favourable 
until the plants are sufficiently high to shade 
the ground (which they will do in a few weeks. 



at six or eight inches height,) there is a strong 
probability of a good crop. When they attain 
that height, but few articles sustain the effect 
of bad seasons belter than hemp. 

It is generally ripe and ready to be gathered 
about the middle of August, varying according 
to the time of sowing. Some sow at different 
periods, in order that the crop may not all 
ripen at the same time, and that a press of 
labour, in rearing it, may be thus avoided. The 
maturity of the plant is determined, by the 
evaporation of the farina, already noticed, and 
the leaves of the plant exhibiting a yellowish 
hue : it is then generally supposed to be ripe, 
but it is safest to wait a few days longer. Very 
little attentive observation will enable any one 
to judge when it is fully ripe. In that respect 
it is a very accommodating crop: for if ga- 
thered a little too soon, the lint is not materi- 
ally injured, and it will wait the leisure of the 
farmer some 10 days or a fortnight after it is 
entirely ripe. 

Two modes of gathering the plants are 
practised; one by pulling them up by the 
roots, an easy operation with an able-bodied 
man, and the other by cutting them about two 
inches (the nearer the better) above the sur- 
face of the ground. Each mode has its parti- 
sans, and I have pursued both. From a quar- 
ter to a third of an acre, is the common task of 
an average labourer, whether the one or the 
other mode is practised. The objections to 
pulling are, that the plants with their roots 
remaining connected with them, are not after- 
wards so easily handled in the several opera- 
tions which they must undergo ; that all parts 
of the plant do not rot equally and alike, 
when exposed to the dew and rain ; and, 
finally, that before you put them to the brake, 
when the root should be separated from the 
stalk, the root drags off with it some of the lint. 
The objection to cutting is, that you lose two 
or three inches of the best part of the plant 
nearest the root. Pulling, being the most an- 
cient method, is most generally practised. I 
prefer upon the whole, cutting — and I believe 
the number who prefer it is yearly increasing. 
When pulled, it is done with the hand, which 
is better for the protection of an old leather 
glove. The labourer catches 20 or 30 plants 
together, with both hands, and, by a sudden 
jerk, draws them without much difficulty. The 
operation of cutting is performed with a knife, 
often made out of an old scythe, resembling a 
sickle, though not so long, but broader. This 
knife is applied much in the same way as the 
sickle,, except that the labourer stoops more. 

Whether pulled or cut, the plants arQ care- 
fully laid on the ground, the evener the better, 
to cure — which they do in two or three days, 
in dry weather. A light rain falling on them 
whilst lying down is thought by some to be 
beneficial, inasmuch as the leaves, of which 
they should be deprived, may be then easier 
shaken off or detached. When cured, the 
plants are set up in the field in which thev 
were produced, in shocks of convenient «ize, 
.the roots or butt-ends resting on the ground, 
and the tops united above by a band made of 
the plants themselves. Previous to puitins; 
them up in shocks, most cultivators tie ih^ 

nlS 



HEMP. 



HEMP. 



plants in small hand-bundles of such a size as 
that each can be conveniently held in one 
nand. Before the shocks are formed, the 
leaves of the plants should be rapidly knocked 
off with a rough paddle or hooked stick. Some 
suffer the plants to remain in these shocks 
until the plants are spread down to be rotted. 
Others, again, collect the shocks together as 
soon as they can command leisure (and it is 
clearly best), and form them into stacks. A 
few farmers permit these stacks to remain 
over a whole year, before the plants are ex- 
posed to be rotted. I have frequently done it 
with advantage, and have at this time two 
crops in stalks. By remaining that period in 
stalks, the plants go through a sweat, or some 
other process that improves very much the ap- 
pearance, and, I believe, the quality of the lint, 
and this improvement fully compensates the 
loss of time in bringing it to market. The 
lint has a soft texture and a lively hue, resem- 
bling water-rotted hemp ; and I once sold a box 
of it in the Baltimore market at the price of 
Russia hemp. In every other respect, the 
plants are treated as if they were not kept over 
a year. 

The method of dew-rotting is that which is 
generally practised in Kentucky. The lint so 
spread is not so good for many purposes, and 
especially for rigging and ships, as when the 
plants have been rotted by immersion in water, 
or, as it is generally termed, water-rotted. The 
greater value, and consequently higher price, 
of the article, prepared in the latter way, has 
induced more and more of our farmers every 
year to adopt it; and, if that prejudice were 
subdued, which every American production 
unfortunately encounters, when it is first in- 
troduced and comes in competition with a 
rival European commodity, I think it probable 
that, in a few years, we should be able to dis- 
pense altogether with foreign hemp. The ob- 
stacles, which prevent the general practice of 
water-rotting, are, the want of water at the 
best season for the operation, which is the 
month of September ; a repugnance to the 
change of an old habit; and a persuasion 
which has some foundation, that handling the 
plants, after their submersion in water during 
that month is injurious to health. The first 
and last of these obstacles would be removed 
by water-rotting early in the winter, or in the 
spring. The only difference in the operation, 
performed at those seasons and in the month 
of September, would be, that the plants would 
have to remain longer in soak before they 
were sufficiently rotted. 

The plants are usually spread down to be 
dew-rotted, from the middle of October to the 
middle of December. A farmer who has a 
large crop on hand, puts them down at different 
times for his convenience in handling and 
dressing them. Autumnal rotting is more apt 
to give the lint a dark and unsightly colour 
than winter-rotting. The best ground to ex- 
pose the plants upon is meadow or grass-land, 
but they are not unfreqijently spread over the 
same field on which they grew. The length 
of time they ought to remain exposed, depends 
nijon the degree of moisture and the tempera- 
•\tre ol the weather that prevail. In a very 
GIG 



wet and warm spell five or six weeks may be 
long enough. Whether they have been suffi- 
ciently rotted or not is determined by experi- 
ment. A handful is taken and broken by the 
hand or applied to the brake, when it can be 
easily ascertained, by the facility with which 
the lint can be detached from the stalk, if it be 
properly rotted. If the plants remain on the 
ground too long, the fibres lose some of their 
strength, though a few days longer than neces- 
sary, in cold weather, will not do any injury. 
If they are taken up too soon, that is before the 
lint can be easily separated from the woody 
part of the stalk, it is harsh, and the process 
of breaking is difficult and troublesome. Snow- 
rotting, that is when the plants, being spread 
out, remain long enough to rot (which how- 
ever requires agreater length of time), bleaches 
the lint, improves the quality, and makes it 
nearly as valuable as if it had been water- 
rotted. 

After the operation of rotting is performed, 
the plants are again collected together, put in 
shocks or stacks, or which is still belter, put 
under a shed or some covering. When it is 
designed to break and dress them immediately, 
they are frequently set up against some neigh- 
bouring fence. The best period for breaking 
and dressing is in the month of February and 
March, and the best sort of weather, frosty 
nights and clear thawing days. The brake 
cannot be used advantageously in wet or moist 
weather. It is almost invariably used in this 
state out of doors and without any cover, and 
to assist its operation, the labourer often makes 
a large fire near it, which serves the double 
purpose of drying the plants and warming 
himself. It could not be used in damp weather 
in a house without a kiln or some other means 
of drying the stalks. 

The brake in general use is the same hand- 
brake which was originally introduced, and 
has been always employed here, resembling, 
though longer than the common flax-brake. 
It is so well known as to render a particular 
description of it, perhaps, unnecessary. It is 
a rough contrivance, set upon four legs, about 
two and a half feet high. The brake consists 
of two jaws with slits in each, the lower jaw 
fixed and immovable, and the upper one 
movable, so that it may be lifted up by means 
of a handle inserted into a head or block at the 
front end of it. The lower jaw has three slats 
or teeth made of tough white oak, and the 
upper two, arranged approaching to about two 
inches in front, and in such manner that the 
slats of the upper jaw play between those of 
the lower. These slats are about six or seven 
feet in length, six inches in depth, and about 
two inches in thickness in their lower edges : 
they are placed edgeways, rounded a little on 
their upper edges, which are sharper than 
those below. The labourer takes his stand by 
the side of the brake, and grasping in his left 
hand as many of the stalks as he can conve- 
niently hold, with his right hand he seizes the 
handle in the head of the upper jaw, which he 
lifts, and throwing the handful of stalks be- 
tween the jaws, repeatedly strikes ihem by 
lifting and throwing down the upper jnw. 
These successive strokes break the woo !\ 



I 



P[aU S>. 





r^'FiiRIOR HERBAGE PLANTS OCCASIONALLY CULTIVA'CKD. 



HEMP. 



HEMP. 



reedy part of the stalks into small pieces or 
shoes, which fall off during the process. He 
assists their disengagement by striking the 
handful against a stake, or with a small wooden 
paddle, until the lint or bark is entirely clean, 
and completely separated from the woody par- 
ticles. 

After the above operation is performed, the 
hemp may be scutched to soften it, and to 
strengthen the threads. That process, how- 
ever, is not thought to be profitable, and is not 
therefore generally performed by the grower, 
but is left to the manufacturer, as well as that 
of beating and heckling it. Scutching is done 
by the labourer taking in his left hand a hand- 
ful of lint, and grasping it firmly, then laying 
the middle of it upon a semi-circular notch of 
a perpendicular board of the scutching-frame, 
and striking with the edge of the scutch that 
part of the lint which hangs down on the 
board. After giving it repeated strokes, he 
shakes the handful of lint, replaces it on a 
notch, and continues to strike and turn all 
parts of it, until it is sufficiently cleansed, and 
the fibres appear to be even and straight. 

The usual daily task of an able-bodied 
hand at the brake is 80 pounds' weight, but 
there is a great difference not only in the state 
of the weather, and the condition of the stalks, 
produced by the greater or less degree in which 
they have been rotted, but in the dexterity with 
which the brake is employed. Some hands 
have been known to brake from 160 to 200 
pounds per day. The labourer ties up in one 
common bundle the work of one day, and in 
this state it is taken to market and sold. From 
what has been mentioned, it may be inferred, 
as the fact is, that the hemp of some growers 
is in a much better condition than that of others. 
When it has been carelessly handled or not 
sufficiently cleansed, a deduction is made from 
the price by the purchaser. It is chiefly bought 
in our villages, and manufactured into cotton- 
bagging, bales, and other kinds of untarred 
cordage. The price is not uniform. The ex- 
tremes have been as low as three, and as 
high as eight dollars, for the long hundred — 
the customary mode of selling it. The most 
general price during a term of many years, has 
been from four to five dollars. At five dollars 
it compensates well the labour of the grower, 
and is considered more profitable than any 
thing else the farmer has cultivated. 

The most heavy labour in the culture of 
hemp, is pulling or cutting it, when ripe, and 
braking it when rotted. This labour can 
easily be performed by men. Various attempts 
have been made to improve the process of 
braking, which is the severest work in the 
preparation of hemp. A newly invented ma- 
chine was erected for that purpose on my farm 
six or eight years ago, to dress hemp by dis- 
pensing with rotting altogether, similar in 
structure to one which was exhibited about the 
same time at Columbus, during the sitting of 
the Ohio legislature. It was worked by horse 
power, and detached the lint tolerably well, 
producing a very fine looking article, equalling 
in appearance Russia hemp. A ton of it was 
sold to the navy department, which was manu- 
factured into rigging for the ship of the line, 
78 



the North Carolina, prior to her making a 
voyage of three years in the Mediterranean, 
Upon her return, the cordage was examined 
and analyzed ; and although its exterior looked 
very well, it was found, on opening it, to be 
decayed and affected somewhat like the dry-rot 
in wood. I considered the experiment deci- 
sive ; and it is now believed that the process 
of water or dew-rotting is absolutely necessary, 
either before or after the hemp has been to the 
brake. There is a sappy or glutinous property 
of which it should be divested, and that is the 
only process that has been hitherto generally 
and successfully employed to divest it. 

An ingenious and enterprising gentleman 
in the neighbcurhood of Lexington, has been, 
ever since the erection of the above-mentioned 
machine, trying various experiments, by alter- 
ing and improving it, to produce one more 
perfect, which might be beneficially employed 
on rotted hemp, to diminish the labours of the 
brake. He mentioned the other day that all of 
them had failed ; that he had returned to the 
old hand-brake, and that he was convinced 
that it answered the purpose better than any 
substitute with which he was acquainted. I 
observe Mr. H. L. Barnum has recently adver- 
tised a machine, which he has constructed for 
braking and dressing hemp and flax, which 
can be procured at the establishment of Mr. 
Smith, in Cincinnati. I most cordially wish 
him success ; but the number of failures which 
I have witnessed, during a period of 30 years, 
in the attempts to supersede manual labour by 
the substitution of that of machines, induces 
me to fear that it will be long before this desi- 
deratum is attained. 

The quantity of net hemp produced to the 
acre, is from 600 to 1000 weight, varying ac- 
cording to the fertility and preparation of the 
soil and the state of the season. It is said that 
the quantity which any field will produce, may 
be anticipated by the average height of the 
plants throughout the field. Thus — if the plants 
will average eight feet in height, the acre will 
yield 800 weight of hemp, each foot in height 
corresponding to a hundredweight of the lint. 

Hemp exhausts the soil slowly, if at all. 
An old and successful cultivator told me that 
he had taken 13 or 14 successive crops from 
the same field, and that the last was the best. 
That was probably, however, owing to a con- 
currence of favourable circums'ances. No- 
thing cleanses and prepares the earth better 
for other crops (especially for small grain or 
grasses) than hemp. It eradicates all weeds, 
and when it is taken off, leaves the field not 
only clean, but smooth and even. 

The rich lands of Ohio, Indiana, and Illi- 
nois, are, I have no doubt, generally well 
adapted to the cxiltivation of this valuable 
plant; and those states enjoy some advantages 
for the cultivation of it, which this does not 
possess. Their streams do not dry up as much 
as ours, and they consequently employ better 
than we can, the agency of water, in the pre- 
paration of it. Their projected canals, when 
completed, will admit of its being carried to 
the Atlantic capitals at less expense in the 
transportation than we can send it. (jlmi- 
rican Farmer, vol. xiv.) 

3r2 617 



HEMP AGRIMONY. 



HENBIT. 



Mr. Ellsworth, in his report upon Improve- 
ments in agriculture, &c., made in the United 
States, in 1842, observes in relation to the hemp 
culture, that attention is still directed, and it 
would seem with somewhat more success, to 
the discover}' of a process of water-rotting 
hemp ; and it is hoped that the difficulties on 
this subject may yet be removed. It is stated 
that, in consequence of the promise last winter 
of sending out a government agent to purchase 
water-retted hemp for the navy, the farmers of 
Kentucky and Missouri have water-rotted 700 
tons or more. This, at the prices paid by 
the government for Russian hemp, is worth 
§200,000. Many specimens, it is further stated, 
have been examined, and pronounced equal 
to Russia hemp. Were a suitable reward to 
be offered, to stimulate the ingenious, it can 
hardly be doubted that, by a variety of expe- 
riments, some process of preparing it for the 
use of the navy, as well as the Russia hemp, 
might be found out. 

An important discovery, respecting the ap- 
plication of waste hemp to the purpose of 
paper-making, has recenth' been announced; 
and if, when it is sufficiently tested, it proves 
all that it promises, it will afford an additional 
inducement to the culture of hemp. A process 
is said to have been found out, by which hemp 
can be made white as snow, and that it can be 
used in manufacturing the finest and whitest 
paper; and a belief is entertained that hemp 
waste, which can be furnished at two cents 
per pound, will ere long be sought for by 
paper-makers, to supply the place of linen 
rags. 

Hemp is beginning to be raised somewhat 
more in the Northern and Eastern States. 
This is true especially of the northern part of 
the state of New York. At present, however, 
it is confined to the seed crop, owing to the 
high price of the seed. It is affirmed to be a 
mistake to suppose that it must be confined to 
alluvial lands, as has been shown by the 
farmers of Saratoga and Washington counties, 
in the state of New York. We import hemp 
or hempen articles, some vears, to the extent of 
$9,000,000 or S10,000,000"in value. It is worth 
from §200 and upwards per ton. When planted 
in drills, at a suitable distance, as it should 
be, and properly cultivated, hemp generally 
produces from 20 to 40 bushels of seed to the 
acre; and instances are not rare of its yield- 
ing from 50 to 60. The seed is generally 
worth from 3 to 6 dollars per bushel. When 
sown for the lint, it should be sown broadcast, 
from 2 to 3 bushels of seed to the acre, depend- 
in? on the quality of the land ; and it usually 
produces from 700 to 1000 weight of clean 
hemp to the acre. Much valuable information 
respecting the culture and importance of this 
crop may be found in the files of the Kentucky 
Farmer for the last few years. 

HEMP AGRIMONY (Eupatorium canna- 
binum). A rough perennial herb, growing in 
England in water}', boggy places, especially 
about the banks of rivers, with a tufted, some- 
what creeping root, with many long fibres. 
Stems several, 2 or 3 feet high, branched, 
d"wny, often brown or purplish, filled with 
618 



pith. Leaves on short stalks, deep green, 
downy, but rather rough to the touch. The 
flowers form dense, pale, purplish corymbcf* 
tufts, at the top of the stem and uppji 
branches. The whole herb is slightly aroma- 
tic. Some species of agrimony are used in 
gargles, and as tea. See .\gbimoxt. {Smithes 
Eng. Flor. vol. iii. p. 400.) 

Hemp, Indian {jlpocynum cannabi-numy 
An American plant with a perennial root, 
found in the borders of woodlands and other 
situations in the Middle States, flowering in 
August. The stems grow from 2 to 4 feet 
high, smooth, purple, slightly glaucous, with 
rather erect branches. The leaves are from 
2 to 4 or 5 inches long, half an inch to an inch 
and a half wide, elliptic in general form, and 
more or less downy beneath. The greenish- 
white flowers are numerous, and sometimes 
tinged with red. There seems to be several 
varieties referrable to this species, the bai'.i 
of which affords a strong fibre similar to that 
of hemp. One or two additional species of 
apocynum have been met with in the United 
Slates. (Flora Cestrica.) 

HEMP-NETTLE (Gahopsis). A genus of 
annual weeds common in corn fields, flower- 
ing in July, August, and September. Dr. Smith 
describes four native species in England. 

1. Red hemp-nettle (G. ladanum). 

2. Downy hemp-nettle (G. villosa). 

3. Common hemp-nettle (G. tetruhit). 

4. Large-flowered hemp-nettle. Bee nettle 
(G. versicolor). {Smith's Eng, Flor. vol. iii. p. 92). 

HENBANE {Hyoscyamus nigcr). Black hen- 
bane. This annual herb abounds about vil- 
lages, road-sides, and among rubbish, and in 
England flowers in July. Neither horses, 
cattle, swine, nor sheep, will touch this plant, 
and it is not relished by goats. The whole 
plant is fatal to poultr}', whence its common 
name; it intoxicates hogs; but cows, horses, 
dogs, and goats are able to bear a tolerable 
proportion before they are affected. The leaves 
are active only in the second year of the plant: 
if scattered about buildings, they are said to 
drive away mice and rats. If more than a 
small portion of the leaves should have been 
accidentally swallowed, brisk emetics ought 
instantly to be taken ; and after discharging 
the contents of the stomach, it will be neces- 
sary to administer some mild drinks, such as 
large portions of vinegar, or lemon juice di- 
luted with water, as the stomach is able to 
support them. 

Henbane owes its medicinal properties to 
an alkali, hyoscyamia, which can be obtained 
in a separate state. It is crj'stallizable. Be- 
sides this alkali, the plant yields by destructive 
distillation an empyreumatic oil, which is a 
powerful narcotic poison. Notwithstanding 
these virulent properties, henbane has been 
professionally administered with considerable 
success in many obstinate diseases. The ex- 
pressed juice of the leaves, evaporated to the 
consistency of extract, has long been used as 
a narcotic, an anti-spasmodic, and a sopo- 
rific. 

HENBIT, THE GREAT, or Hejteit Dead 
Nettle. See Dead Nettle. In England 



HENBIT. 



HICKORY. 



henbit is also one of the common names of 
the fetid black horehound (Ballota nigra). 

In Pennsylvania and other Middle States, 
where the dead nettle is extensively natural- 
ized, it is a troublesome weed in gardens, 
where it may often be seen in flower as 
early as February and March. {Flora Ces- 
irica.) 

HENSIT, SMALL. See Speedwell 

HEPATICA, or LIVERWORT (Jnemmie 
hepatica). Miller mentions five sorts : the sin- 
gle blue {nobilis), the double blue (plena), the 
single white (alba), the single red (vulgaris), 
and the double red (rubra). In England these 
beautiful and early perennials produce their 
flowers in February and March, before any 
leaf appears. The double sorts remain longer 
in flower than the single ones. The single 
flowers produce seed every year ; the seed 
should be sown in pots or boxes of light earth 
in August, to receive only the morning sun till 
October, when the plants must be placed in as 
sunny a spot as possible through the winter. 
The seedlings may be transplanted the follow- 
ing August into the borders, and left there 
undisturbed. Hepaticas do not bear trans- 
planting well ; and the roots should only be 
parted once in three or four years. The hepa- 
tica loves an eastern aspect, and a loamy soil. 
They are three years before they flower hand- 
somely. See Liverwort. 

HERBACEOUS (Lat. herba). In describing 
the texture of bodies, denotes their being green 
and cellular, as the tissue of membranous 
leaves. It is also applied to such perennial 
plants as lose their stems annually, while their 
roots remain permanent in the ground. 

HERBAL (Lat. herbarium). A collection of 
dried plants, such as the old botanists termed 
a horlus siccus or dry garden. It is also applied 
to books which contain a methodical arrange- 
ment of the classes, genera, species, and varie- 
ties of plants, together with an account of their 
properties. Dry herbals are formed by glueing 
to sheets of paper, twigs and other parts of 
plants pressed flat, and dried in bibulous paper 
or otherwise. If well prepared, they are as 
useful to the botanist as living plants ; but it 
is necessary to have some practical skill to be 
able to employ them advantageously. The 
best method of making a horlus siccus or herbal, 
is to place the plant to be dried between paper 
of a soft and spongy, unglazed texture, under 
a slight pressure. On the following day the 
plant should be spread, in as natural a form as 
possible, between folds of fresh, dry, blotting 
paper; and a pressure greater than before em- 
ployed. In a week it will be sufficiently dry 
for pasting on a half sheet of white paper ; to 
which the name of the plant, its habitat, and 
the natural order, with the date, may be ap- 
pended. The largest public herbaria are those 
of the museum at Paris, the imperial collection 
at Vienna, the royal of Berlin, and that of the 
British museum, London, formerly Sir Joseph 
Banks's. Nothing certain is known of the 
extent of these collections, but they probably 
contam in some cases as many as 60,000 
species. The herbarium is not an attractive 
part of public museums ; but a very important 
one for numerous purposes of science, both 



practical and speculative. (Brande's Did. of 

Science.) 

HERBIVEROUS ANIMALS, FOOD OF. 

M. Dumas, in a paper recently read before 
the French Academy, states, that he has as- 
certained the quantity of fat in animals in a 
healthy state does not depend on some pecu- 
liar process in the digestion, but upon the 
quantity of fatty matter contained in the food 
eaten. He states, that on analysis of hay and 
Indian corn or maize, he found the former 
yield 2 per cent, of fatty matter and the latter 
9 per cent. Herbiverous animals, he says, 
always make less fat than the amount of fat 
contained in their food ; but the milch cow 
furnishes a larger quantity than any other ani- 
mal, and the quantity of butter that she sup- 
plies, would, if weighed, be found equivalent 
to that contained in her food. 

HERD (Sax. hyptj). A number of beasts 
congregated together. It is particularly applied 
to black cattle. Herd or herdsman also an- 
ciently signified a keeper of cattle, and in the 
north of England it is still used. 

HERD'S GRASS, or Foul Meadow Grass. 
This grass is a spontaneous growth, says Buel, 
of the wet lands of the United States. The 
ichite top and red top are different varieties of 
herd's grass. 

HERRING (Clupea harengus). This well- 
known fish is found in great abundance from 
the highest northern latitudes down to the 
northern coast of France. Large shoals of 
them frequent the coasts of the British Islands, 
and give employment to a considerable num- 
ber of boats and men, forming a principal arti- 
cle of commerce. A very elaborate treatise on 
the natural history and the diflferent modes of 
fishing and curing the herring, by Mr. John 
Mitchell, was published in the Edin. Quart. 
Journ. of Agr., vol. x. p. 1. 

The scales and other refuse of the herring 
fisherj'of the Suffolk coast are used with great 
success as a manure by the farmers in the 
neighbourhood of Lowestoff". There is no doubt 
that this fish is a powerful manure. The cake 
produced in Sweden by the herring oil-makers 
is considered by the farmers of that cold coun- 
try to be the most powerful of fertilizers. And 
I have in another place given the result of an 
experiment with some spoiled dried herrings 
on a Kentish hop plantation. (Johnson on Salt, 
p. 101 ; Trans. High. Sac. vol. v. p. 404.) See 
Fish, as a Mastre. 

Most of the varieties of herring found m 
Europe have been recognised on the Atlantic 
coast of the United States. The manhaden, 
caught in such numbers on the shores of Long 
Island Sound, and there used so extensively 
and profitably as manure, belongs to the her- 
ring family (Clupea nwnhaden). 

HESSIAN FLY. See Flt is Wheat. 
HICKORY. A common name throughout the 
United States, applied to several species of the 
walnut genus, which, in the variety of trees 
composing the vast original forests east of the 
Mississippi, ranks after the oak in the number 
of its species. The botanical section which 
includes the hickories, 3,ccording to Michaux's 
arrangement, cont&ins' eight species; namelv 
Pacanenut Hickory, Bitternut Hickori Water Bit 

«1Q 



HICKORY. 



HICKORY. 



*ernul Hickory, Mockernut Hickory, Shellbark Hick- 
ory, Thick Shellbark Hickory, Pignut Hickory, and 
Nutmeg Hickory. The three first-named species 
bear the nearest relation with the black walnut 
and butternut, their buds not being covered 
with scales. 

The various species of hickory differ very 
greatly from the black walnut and butternut in 
the properties of their wood. The general form 
and foliage of hickories, also, bear a striking 
resemblance, though they differ in the number 
and size of their leaflets. The fruit often varies 
greatly in appearance. All the species of hick- 
ory, together with the black walnut and butter- 
nut, comprise an indigenous genus, no species 
vi \\ hich is met with in Europe, or any other 
part of the old world. 

1. Pdcanemit Hickory (Jtiglans oliva>formis of 
Michaux; Carya anguslifolia and Juglans angus- 
if/b/ifl of other naturalists). This species, which, 
says Michaux, is found in Upper Louisiana and 
Illinois, is called by the French Pacanicr, and 
its fruit Piicuncs, On the borders of the rivers 
Missouri, Illinois, St. Francis, and Arkansas, 
it is most abundantly multiplied. It is also 
common on the Wabash, and on the Ohio is 
found for 200 miles from its junction with the 
Mississippi. Higher than this it becomes more 
rare, and is not seen beyond Louisville. This 
tree is partial to cold, wet grounds. On the 
right bank of the Ohio, opposite the river Cum- 
berland, there is a swamp of 800 acres, which 
is said to be entirely covered with it. 

The Pacanenut is a beautiful tree, with a 
straight and well-shaped trunk, attaining in the 
forests the height of 60 or 70 feet. Its wood is 
coarse-grained, and, like that of other hickories, 
heavy and compact, possessing great strength 
and durability, though in this last respect not 
equal to some other species. The nuts, which 
are usually abundant, are contained in a husk 
from one to two lines ihick, and have four 
slightly prominent angles, corresponding to 
their internal divisions. They v&ry in length 
from an inch to an inch and a half, are pointed 
at the extremities, of a cylindrical form, and 
of a yellowish colour, marked, at the period of 
perfect maturity, with blackish or purple lines. 
The shell is smooth and thin, though too hard 
to be broken by the fingers; the kernel is full, 
and, not being divided by ligneous partitions, 
is easily extracted. These nuts, which are of 
a very agreeable taste, form an object of petty 
commerce between Upper and Lower Louisi- 
ana. From New Orleans they are exported to 
the West Indies and to the ports of the United 
States. They are not only better than any other 
species of North American walnuts, but they 
appear to be even more delicately flavoured 
than those of Europe. And, besides, varieties 
of the pacanenut are found whose fruit is far 
superior to that of the European walnut unim- 
proved by culture. This tree therefore merits 
•he attention of both Americans and Euro- 
peans, that by assiduous cultivation it may 
be brought to the highest degree of perfection. 
These advantages, it is true, are balanced in 
part by the slowness of its growth ; there are 
rees in France which have been planted more 
than thirty years, and which do not yield fruit. 
620 



If the practice should be successfully adopt- 
ed of grafting the pacanenut on the black wal- 
nut, or on the common walnut, its vegetation 
would be incomparably more rapid, and no 
motive would discourage its propagation in 
Europe. 

2. Bittcrnut Hickory {Juglans a mar a). This 
tree is also called in Lancaster county and 
some other parts of Pennsylvania and the 
Middle States by the names of While Hickory 
and Swamp Hickory, the latter name being de- 
rived from its frequently flourishing on the 
rich alluvium found in swamps and on the 
banks of rivers subject to overflowing. Far- 
ther south it is confounded with the Pignut 
hickory. Its vegetation is more hardy than 
that of other hickories. 

The Bitternut hickory, Michaux informs us, 
is nowhere found much beyond the boundaries 
of Vermont in the latitude of 45°. " The fruit 
is ripe about the beginning of October ; it is so 
plentiful that several bushels are sometimes 
gathered from a single tree. The husk is thin, 
fleshy, and surmounted on its upper half by 
four appendages in the form of wings, it 
never becomes ligneous like those of the other 
hickories, but softens and decays. The form 
of the nut in this species is more constant and 
more regular than in the others. It is broader 
than it is long, being 6 or 7 lines one way and 
10 lines the other. The shell is white, smooth, 
and thin enough to be broken by the fingers. 
The kernel is remarkable for the deep inequal- 
ities produced on every side by its foldings. 
It is so harsh and bitter that squirrels and 
other wild animals will not feed on it while 
any other nut is to be found. 

"In some parts of Pennsylvania, where this 
tree is multiplied, an oil is extracted from the 
nuts, which is used for the lamp and for other 
inferior purposes. But from these experiments, 
in which individuals have succeeded, it is not 
to be concluded that a suflicient product of this 
sort can be obtained to form a branch of in- 
dustry. 

3. Water Bitternut Hickory (Juglans aquatica"). 
"No specific name," says Michaux, "has hither- 
to been given to this species, which is confined 
to the Southern States ; it is confounded with 
the Pignut hickory, though differing from it in 
many respects. The name which I propose 
appears sufficiently appropriate, for I have al- 
ways found this tree in swamps, and in the 
ditches which surround the rice fields, where 
it is accompanied by the red-flowering maple, 
Tupelo, cypress, and Carolina poplar. The 
Water Bitternut hickory grows to the height 
of 40 or 50 feet, and in its general appearance 
resembles the other hickories. Its leaves are 
8 or 9 inches long, and of a beautiful green. 
They are composed of 4 or 5 pair of sessile 
leaflets, surmounted by a petiolated odd one. 
The leaflets are serrate, 4 or 5 inches long, 8 
or 9 lines broad, and very similar to the leaves 
of the peach tree. 

"The husk is thin, and the nuts are small, 
angular, a little depressed at the sides, some- 
what rough, of a reddish colour, and very ten- 
der. The kernel is formed in folds like that 
of the Bitternut hickory: as may be supposed, 



HICKORY. 



HICKORY. 



It is not eatable. The wood of this species, 
though partaking of the common properties of 
the hickories, is in every respect inferior to 
the others, from the nature of the grounds on 
which it grows. 

4. Mockernut Hickory {Juglans ionientosa of 
Michaux, Gary a tomentosa of other natura- 
lists), Common hickory. "In the parts of 
New Jersey which lie on the river Hudson, 
and in the city of New York and its vicinity, 
this species," says Michaux, "is known by 
the name of the Mockernut hickory, and less 
commonly of White-heart hickory; at Phila- 
delphia and Baltimore, and in Virginia, that 
of Common hickory is the only one in use. 
The French of Illinois call it Noyer ditr, or 
Hard walnut. The first of these denomina- 
tions, which is descriptive of the fruit, I have 
for that reason adopted. 

"This species is not, as the name which it 
bears in that country would indicate, more 
multiplied in Pennsylvania, and farther south, 
than the other hickories. I have not seen it 
north of Portsmouth in New Hampshire, though 
100 miles south, in the neighbourhood of Bos- 
ton and Providence, it is common. It is most 
abundant in the forests that still remain on the 
coast of the Middle States, and in those which 
cover the upper parts of the Carolinas and of 
Georgia; but in the last mentioned states it 
becomes more rare in approaching the sea, as 
the sterility of the soil, in general dry and 
sandy, is unpropitious to its growth. I have 
noticed, however, that this is the only hickory 
which springs in the pine barrens; the sprouts 
are burnt every year, and never rise higher 
than .3 or 4 feet. I have made the same ob- 
servations in traversing the Big barrens of 
Kentucky and Tennessee, where the Mocker- 
nut hickory and Black .lack oak alone are seen. 
They survive the conflagrations which almost 
every spring envelope the prairies, but their 
vegetation is checked by the fire, and they do 
not exceed the height of 8 or 10 feet. 

"Like most of the walnuts, the Mockernut 
hickory flourishes in rich soils, and chiefly 
on the gentle acclivities which surround the 
swamps, where it grows, mingled with the 
sweet gum, poplar, sugar maple, bitternut 
hickory, and black walnut. In these situations 
it reaches its greatest size, which is commonly 
about 60 feet in height, and 18 or 20 inches in 
diameter. I remember to have seen larger 
?>Tockernul hickories near Lexington, in Ken- 
tucky, but this extraordinary growth in several 
species of trees is rarely seen on this fide of 
the AUeghanies, and is attributable to the ex- 
treme fertility of the soil in the Western coun- 
try. Of all the hickories, however, the Mocker- 
nut succeeds best on lands of a middling qua- 
lity; for it forms a part of the waste and im- 
poverished forests which cover the meager, 
sandy soil of Lower Virginia ; though under 
these disadvantages it exhibits but a mean and 
stunted appearance. 

"The buds of this species are large, short, 
of a grayish white, and very hard; in the win- 
ter, after the falling of the leaf, they afford the 
only characteristic by which the tree can be 
distinguished, when it exceeds 8 or 10 feet in 
height. 



"The fruit is ripe about the 15th of Ncvem- 
ber. It is odorous, sessile, or rarely peduncu- 
lated, and commonly united in pairs. In form 
and size it exhibits remarkable varieties: on 
some trees it is round, with depressed seams ; 
on others oblong, with angular or prominent 
seams ; it is sometimes 2 inches long and 12 
or 1.5 lines in diameter, and sometimes of less 
than half this size. The shell is very thick, 
somewhat channelled, and extremely hard. 
The kernel is sweet, but minute, and difficult 
to extract, on account of the strong partitions 
which divide it: hence, probably, is derived 
the name of Mockernut, and hence, also, this 
fruit is rarely seen in the markets. 

" Of all the hickories this species is of the 
slowest growth : a fact which I have proved 
by planting nuts of the several species, and by 
comparing the length of their annual shoots. 
I have also been led to believe that it is the 
most liable to be attacked by worms, and espe- 
cially by the Callidium Jlexuosum, whose larva 
eats within the body of the tree. These con- 
siderations appear sufficiently weighty to m- 
duce cultivators, in forming large plantations, 
to prefer some other species which are de- 
scribed in the sequel." 

.5. Small-fruited Hickory (Carya inicrocarpa of 
Nuttall and Darlington, Juglans compressa of 
Muhlenburg, and /. alba odorata and Balsam 
Hickory of Marshall.) This species is allied 
to the Carya tomentosa or Common hickory. 
Nuttall informs us that he first observed it on 
the banks of the Schuylkill, in the vicinity of 
Philadelphia, and Dr. Darlington remarks that 
it is frequent in moist woodlands in Chester 
county, Penn. The nut is of nearly the same 
form as that of the Common hickory, has a 
thin shell, pleasant taste, but is quite small, 
seldom exceeding the size of a nutmeg. These 
peculiar nuts grow in Massachusetts. The 
species is remarkable for the smoothness of its 
leaflets, which in this respect, says Nuttall, re- 
semble those of the Carya glabra or Pignut, 
but they are larger and less deeply serrated. 

6. Shellbark Hitkory {Juglans squamosa of Mi- 
chaux, and Carya alba of Darlington and other 
botanists). The singular disposition of the 
bark in this species has given rise to the de- 
scriptive names of Shellbark, Shagbark, and 
Scalybark hickory, the first of which is in 
most general use in the Middle and Southern 
States. Many descendants of the Dutch settlers, 
says Michaux, call it Kisky Thomas nut. It is 
not found further north than Portsmouth, New 
Hampshire, where its stature is stunted by the 
rigours of the climate. " It abounds on the 
shores of Lake Erie, about Geneva in Gene- 
see, along the Mohawk river, in the neighbour- 
hood of Goshen in New Jersey, and on the 
banks of the Susquehanna and Schuylkill rivers 
in Pennsylvania. In Maryland, in the lower 
parts of Virginia, and in the other Southern 
States it is less common. In South Carolina I 
have not noticed it nearer Charleston than the 
parish of Goose-Creek, about 24 miles distant 
It is met with in the Western States, but not 
as frequently as the following species, the 
Thick Shellbark hickory, to which it bears a 
striking analogy, and with whicli it is con- 
founded by the inhabitants. East of the AUe 

"2! 



HICKORY. 



HICKORY. 



ghanies the Shellbark hickory grows almost 
exclusively about swamps and wet grounds, 
which are exposed to be inundated for several 
weeks together: in these situations it is found 
in company with the swamp white oak, red- 
flowering maple, sweet gum, buttonwood, and 
tupelo. Of all the hickories this species grows 
to the greatest height with proportionally the 
smallest diameter, for it is sometimes seen 80 
or 90 feet high and less than 2 feet thick. The 
trunk is destiiute of branches, regularly shaped, 
and of an almost uniform size for three quar- 
ters of its length, thus forming a very fine tree. 
The greatest peculiarity in its appearance, and 
that by which it is most easily distinguished, 
is the surface of the trunk. The exterior bark 
is divided into a great number of long, narrow 
plates, which bend outwards at the ends, and 
adhere only in the middle. Bristling in this 
manner with projecting points, the Shellbark 
hickory attracts the attention of the most care- 
less observer. This remarkable exfoliation of 
the epidermis takes place only in trees which 
exceed 10 inches in diameter, though it is 
much earlier indicated by seams. This cha- 
racteristic, by which the tree may be recog- 
nised in winter when stript of its leaves, does 
not exist during the 7 or 8 first years of its 
growth; and during this period it may easily 
be confounded with the Mockernut hickory and 
Pignut hickory, if recourse is not had to the 
buds. 

"The fruit of the Shellbark hickory is ripe 
about the beginning of October. Some j'ears 
it is so abundant that several bushels may be 
gathered from a single tree. It varies in size 
according to the soil and the exposure in which 
it is produced, but 5^ inches may be assumed as 
the average of its circumference. The shape 
is uniformly round, with four depressed seams, 
in which the husk opens at the season of perfect 
maturity, dividing itself completely into equal 
sections. The entire separation of the husk, and 
its thickness disproportioned to the size of the 
nut, form a character peculiar to the Shellbark 
Iiickories. The nuts of this species are small, 
white, compressed at the sides, and marked by 
four distinct angles, which correspond to the 
divisions of the husk. 

"The Shellbark nut contains a fuller and 
sweeter kernel than any American walnut ex- 
cept the Pacanenut. These nuts are in such 
request, that they form a small article of com- 
merce, registered on the list of exports of the 
products of the United States. This exporta- 
tion, which does not exceed 4 or 500 bushels 
annually, takes place from New York and from 
the small ports of Connecticut, to the Southern 
States, to the West India islands, and even to 
Liverpo«l, where the fruit is known by the 
name of Hickory nuts. In the market of New 
York they are sold at two dollars a bushel. 
They are gathered in the forests, and from in- 
sulated trees which in some places have been 
spared in clearing the lands: a precaution 
which I have particularly noticed to have been 
used near Goshen, in New Jersey, and on seve- 
ral estates about 30 miles beyond Albany. 

"The Indians who inhabit the shores of Lake 
Erie and Lake Michigan lay up a store of these 
rjts for the winter, a nart of which they pound 
62S 



in wooden mortars, and boiling the paste in 
water, collect the oily matter which swims 
upon the surface to season their aliments. 

"I cannot forbear mentioning a fine variety 
of Shellbark nuts, produced upon a farm at 
Seacocus, near Snake_-hill, in New Jersey. 
They are nearly twice as large as any that I 
have seen elsewhere, and have a white shell, 
with rounded prominences instead of angles. 
A century of cultivation, perhaps, would not 
advance the species generally to an equal de- 
gree of perfection, and probably this variety 
might still be improved by grafting." 

7. Thick Shellbark Hickory {Jitglans laciniosa'). 
"This species," says Michaux, "bears a strik- 
ing analogy to the preceding, and is frequently 
confounded with it by the inhabitants of the 
western country: some of them distinguish it 
by the name of Thick Shellbark hickory, which 
should be preserved as its appropriate denomi- 
nation. East of the AUeghanies this tree is 
rare, and is found only in a few places; it 
grows on the Schuylkill river 30 or 40 miles 
from its junction with the Delaware, and in the 
vicinity of Springfield, 15 or 20 miles from 
Philadelphia, where its fruit is called Spring- 
field nut. It is also found in Gloucester county, 
in Virginia, under the name of Gloucester wal- 
nut. These difllerent denominations confirm 
my observation, that this species is little mul- 
tiplied on the eastern side of the Alleghany 
mountains; a fact of which I became assured 
in travelling through the country. It abounds, 
on the other hand, in the bottoms which skirt 
the Ohio and the rivers which empty into it, 
where it unites with the honey locust, black 
maple, hackberry, black walnut, wild cherry, 
white and red elm, box elder, white maple, and 
buttonwood, to form the thick and gloomy fo- 
rests which cover these valleys. Like the 
Shellbark hickory, it grows to the height of 80 
feet, and its ample head is supported by a 
straight trunk, in diameter proportioned to its 
elevation. The bark exhibits the same singu- 
lar arrangement with that of the Shellbark 
hickory; it is divided into strips from 1 to 3 
feet long, which are warped outwards at the 
end, and attached only in the middle. They 
fall, and are succeeded by others similarly dis- 
posed. It is only observable that in this spe- 
cies the plates are narrower, more numerous, 
and of a lighter colour. 

"The Thick Shellbark hickory, as has been 
said, is nearly related to the Shellbark hickory, 
and its wood, which is of the same colour and 
texture, unites the peculiar qualities of that 
species with such as are common to the hicko- 
ries. Its fruit, though larger, is inferior in taste, 
and this consideration should induce proprie- 
tors in the western country, in clearing their 
new lands, to spare the true Shellbark hickory 
in preference, when both species are found 
upon the same soil." 

8. Pignut Hickory (Juglans porcina of Mi- 
chaux, Carya porcina of other naturalists), also 
called Broom hickory. "This species is gene- 
rally known in the United States by the name 
of Pignut and Hognut hickory, sometimes also 
by that of Broom hickory. The first of these 
names is most commonly in use ; the others 
are known only in some districts of Pennsyl- 



HICKORY. 



HICKORY. 



vania, and particularly in the county of Lan- 
caster. Portsmouth in New Hampshire may 
be considered as limiting towards the north the 
climate of this tree. A little farther south it is 
abundant, and in the Atlantic parts of the 
Middle States it helps, with the Mockernut 
hickory, white oak, swamp white oak, sweet 
gum, and dogwood, to form the mass of the 
forests. In the Southern States, especially near 
the coast, it is less common in the woods, be- 
ing found only on the borders of swamps and 
in places which are wet without being abso- 
lutely marshy or exposed to be long inundated. 
This tree is met with in the western country, 
but less frequently, I believe, than the Thick 
Shellbark and Mockernut hickories. I have 
observed that the last mentioned species grows 
wherever the Pignut is found, but that the Pig- 
nut does not always accompany the Mockernut, 
which is satisfied with a less substantial soil. 
This remark I have made more particularly in 
the lower parts of Virginia, of the two Caro- 
linas, and of Georgia. It appears, then, that, 
with the exception of the States of Vermont 
and New Hampshire, of the District of Maine, 
of the Genesee country, and of the cold and 
mountainous tracts along the whole range of 
the Alleghany mountains, this tree is more or 
less abundant in the forests throughout the 
United States. 

"The Pignut hickory is one of the largest 
trees in the United States. It grows to the 
height of 70 or 80 feet, with a diameter of 3 or 
4 feet. 

"The nut is small, smooth, and very hard on 
account of the thickness of the shell. Its ker- 
nel is sweet, but meager and dilficult to extract, 
from the firmness of the partitions. These nuts 
are never carried to market, but serve for food 
to swine, racoons, and the numerous species 
of squirrels which people the forests. 

"In the Pignut hickory the form and size 
of the nuts vary more than in the other species. 
Some are oval, and when covered with their 
husks, resemble young figs; others are broader 
than they are long, and others are perfectly 
round. Among these various forms some nuts 
are as large as the thumb, and others not bigger 
than the little finger." 

9. Nntmeg Hickory (Julians myristicaformis). 
This tree, so named by Michaux from the re- 
semblance of its fruit to the nutmeg, is found 
in the Southern and Southwestern States. The 
nuts are very small, smooth, and of a brown 
colour, marked with lines of white. The husk 
is thin, and somewhat rough on the surface. 
The shell is so thick as to constitute two-thirds 
of the volume of the nut. The kernal is there- 
fore very minute, and the fruit even inferior to 
that of the Pignut. 

Properties and Uses of Hickory Wood. — The 
wobd of all the species of hickory bears a 
striking resemblance, both as to fibre and the 
uniform reddish colour of the heart. It pos- 
sesses great weight, strength, and unusual plia- 
bility and toughness. W^hen exposed to heat 
and moisture it is subject to rapid decay, and 
is peculiarly liable to injury from worms. 

" Throughout the Middle States it is selected 
lor the axletrees of carriages, for the handles of 
rxes and other carpenter's tools, and for large 



screws, particularly those of bookbinder's 
presses. The cogs of mill-wheels are made 
of hickory heart thoroughly seasoned ; but it 
is proper only for such wheels as are not ex- 
posed to moisture ; and for this reason some 
other wood is by many mill-wrights preferred. 
The rods which form the back of Windsor 
chairs, coach-whip-handles, musket- stocks, 
rake-teeth, flails for thrashing grain, the bows 
of yokes, or the elliptical pieces which pass 
under the necks of cattle: all these are objects 
customarily made of hickory. At Baltimore 
it is used for the hoops of sieves, and is more 
esteemed than the white oak, which is equally 
elastic, but more apt to peel off in small shreds 
into the substance sifted. In the country near 
Augusta in Georgia, I have remarked that the 
common chairs are of hickory wood. In New 
Jersey it is employed for shoeing sledges, that 
is, for covering the runners or parts which 
slide upon the snow; but to be proper for this 
use it must have been cut long enough to have 
become perfectly dry. 

"Of the numerous trees of North America 
east of the Alleghany mountains, none except 
the hickory is perfectly adapted to the making 
of hoops for casks and boxes. For this pur- 
pose vast quantities of it are consumed at 
home, and exported to the West India islands. 
The hoops are made of young hickories from 
6 to 12 feet high, without choice as to the spe- 
cies. The largest hoop-poles sold at Philadel- 
phia and New York in February, 1808, at $3 
a hundred. Each pole is split into two parts, 
and the hoop is crossed and confined by notches 
instead of being bound at the end with twigs 
like those made of chestnut. From the solidity 
of the wood, this method appears sufficiently 
secure. 

" When it is considered how large a part 
of the productions of the United States is 
packed for exportation in barrels, an estimate 
may be formed of the necessary consumption 
of hoops. In consequence of it, young trees 
proper for this object have become scarce in 
all parts of the country which have been long 
settled. The evil is greater, as they do not 
sprout a second time from the same root, and 
as their growth is slow. The cooper cannot 
lay up a store of them for future use, for un- 
less employed within a year, and often within 
six months after being cut, they are attacked 
by two species of insect, one of wbich eats 
within the wood and commits the gi«atest 
ravages. 

"The defects which unfit the hickory for use 
in the building of houses, equally exclude il 
from the construction of vessels. At New York 
and Philadelphia the Shellbark and Pignut 
hickories have been taken for keels, and are 
found to last as long as those of other wood, 
owing to their being always in the water. Of 
the two species, the Pignut would be prefera- 
ble, as being less liable to split, but it is rarely 
found of as large dimensions as the other. 

" In sloops and schooners the rings by which 
the sails are hoisted and confined to the masl 
are always of hickory. I have also been as- 
sured that for attaching the cordage it makejs 
excellent pegs, which are stronger than those 
of oak ; but they should be set loosely in tli*" 

62:^ 



HICKORY CATERPILLAR. 



HIDE OF LAND. 



holes, as otherwise, for want of speedily sea- 
soning, they soon decay. For handspikes the 
hickory is particularly esteemed on account 
of its strength ; it is accordingly employed in 
most American vessels, and is exported for the 
same purpose to England, where it sells from 
.50 to 100 per cent, higher than ash, which is 
brought also from the north of the United 
States. The hickories are cut without distinc- 
tion for this use, but the Pignut, I believe, is 
the best. 

"All the hickories are very heavy, and in a 
given volume contain a great quantity of com- 
bustible matter. They produce an ardent heat, 
and leave a heavy, compact, and long-lived 
coal. In this respect no wood of the same lati- 
tude in Europe or America can be compared 
to them ; such, at least, is the opinion of all 
Europeans who have resided in the United 
States. 

"It has been seen by what precedes, that 
though hickory wood has essential defects, they 
are compensated by good properties which ren- 
der it valuable in the arts." 

In concluding this article, Michaux recom- 
mends particularly for propagation in Euro- 
pean forests the Shellbark hickory and the 
Pignut hickory, whose wood unites in the high- 
est degree the valuable properties of the group. 
He thinks, also, that the Pacanenut merits at- 
tention from promoters of useful culture, not 
so much for its woad as (ov its fruit, which is 
excellent, and more dehcate than that of the 
European walnut. It might probably be dou- 
bled in size, if the practice was successfully 
adopted of grafting this species upon the black 
walnut, or upon the common European wahiut. 

HICKORY CATERPILLAR. Whilst the 
wood of the hickory is preyed upon by borers, 
the foliage suffers in the latter part of summer 
from troops of caterpillars covered with short 
spreading tufts of white hairs, with a row of 
eight black tufts on the back, and two long, 
slender, black pencils on the fourth and tenth 
rings. When fully grown, they are nearly one 
and a half inch long. They leave the trees in 
September, make cocoons, which are thin, oval, 
and hairy. The moths, which come out of the 
cocoons in the month of June, are of a very 
light ochre-yellow colour, the wings being 
sprinkled with brown dots. In England, the 
moths that come from caterpillars having long 
penc'ls and tufts on their backs, are called tus- 
sock-moths; and Dr. Harris says we may name 
ihe one under consideration the hickory tus- 
sock-moth (Lopkocainpa caryce). They expand 
their wings from I5 to 2^ inches or more. The 
caterpillars found on the black walnut, butter- 
nut, the ash, and even the oak, closely resem- 
ble the hickory caterpillar in shape, but not in 
colour. They belong to a different species. 

HICKORY TREE BORER. The hickory 
tree is much exposed to the ravages of the 
larvEE of wood-eating insects or borers, which 
not only attacks the trees of the forests, but 
those of orchards, especially after they have 
passed their prime. The transformations of 
the insects take place in the trunks and limbs 
of the trees. " The larvse," says Dr. Harris, 
" that are known to me have a close resem- 
r>lance to each other; a general idea of them 
624 



can be formed from a description of that which 
attacks the Pignut hickory. It is of a yellow- 
ish-white colour, very long, narrow, and de- 
pressed in form, but abruptly widened near the 
anterior extremity. The head is brownish, 
small, and sunk in the fore-part of the first seg- 
ment; the upper jaws are provided with three 
teeth, and are of a black colour; and the an- 
tennae are very short. These grubs are found 
under the bark and in the solid wood of trees, 
and sometimes in great numbers. They fre- 
quently rest with the body bent sidewise, so 
that the head and tail approach each other. 
This posture those found under bark usually 
assume. They appear to pass several years 
in the larva state. The pupa bears a near re- 
semblance to the perfect insect, but is entirely 
white, until near the time of its last transforma- 
tion. Its situation is immediately under the 
bark, the head being directed outwards, so that 
when the pupa-coat is cast off, the beetle has 
merely a thin covering of bark to perforate, 
before making its escape from the tree. The 
form of this perforation is oval, as is also a 
transverse section of the burrow, that shape 
being best adapted to the form, motions, and 
egress of the insect. 

"Some of these beetles are known to eat 
leaves and flowers, and Qf this nature is pro- 
bably the food of all of them. The injury they 
may thus commit is not very apparent, and 
cannot bear any comparison with the extensive 
ravages of their larvae. The solid trunks and 
limbs of sound and vigorous trees are often 
bored through in various directions by these 
insects, which, during a long-continued life, 
derive their only nourishment from the woody 
fragments they devour. Pines and firs seem 
particularly subject to their attacks, but other 
forest trees do not escape, and even fruit trees 
are frequently injured by these borers." 

A borer belonging to another family of bee- 
tles is also found in the hickory, namely, th« 
larvee of the beetle called by naturalists Steno- 
torus cinctus, or banded stenocorus, the generic 
name signifying narrow or straitened. Long 
galleries, running in the direction of the fibres, 
are made by this grub in the hard wood of the 
hickory. The beetle is of a hazel colour, with 
a tint of gray, arising from the short hairs with 
which it is covered. There is an oblique ochre- 
yellow band across each wing-cover. {Hnrris.) 

HIDE-BOUND. In farrier3% applied to a 
certain disease of cows and horses, in which 
the skin adheres to their sides. Want of pro- 
per care, spare diet, and bad food, such as rank 
long grass in swampy situations, and musty 
hay or oats, are the most probable causes of 
this affection. Hide-bound is rarely a primary 
disease; it is a symptom of unhealthiness, and 
often of disease, of the digestive organs. It is 
sometimes an accompaniment of chronic cough, 
grease, farcy, and founder. A few mashes, and 
a mild dose of physic, often have a very bene- 
ficial effect. If the horse cannot be spared for 
physic, the following alterative, which is in 
common use, may be given every night for 
some time in a mash, or in the form of a ball : 
levigated antimony, 2 drachms; nitre, 3 drachms; 
sulphur, 4 drachms. For the cow, eight ounces 
of sulphur, with half an ounce of ginger, and 



^^y ^m 



n ■■■-** 







t— I 

o 






t3 



So 

CO 



HIDE OF LAND. 



HIGHWAYS. 



a few mashes should be given. (Lib. of Use. 
Know.; The Horse, p. .371 ; Cattle, p. 571.) 

HIDE OF LAND (Sax. Hyde lands) was 
considered, in ancient Britain, to be such a 
quantity of land as one plough and its team 
could plough in a year. It was hence called a 
ploughland. It was about 100, 120, or 150 
acres. Bede calls it a. fumiliare, and says it is 
as much as will maintain a family. Cromptun, 
in Jurisdiction, f. 222, says'that a hide of land 
contained 100 acres, and that 8 hides made a 
knight's fee. But, according to Sir Edward 
Coke, a knight's fee, a hide or ploughland, a 
yardland, or an ox-gang of land, did not contain 
any certain quantity of acres (On Lit. f. 69), 
but was determined by the value of 20/. per 
annum. And a ploughland may contain a 
messuage, wood, meadow, and pasture ; and 
every ploughland of ancient time was of the 
3'early value of five nobles ; and this was the 
living of a ploughman or yeoman. The distri- 
bution of England into hides of land is very 
ancient, for they are mentioned in the laws of 
Kina: Ina. 

HIDES (Sax. hy»e; Germ, haute; Dutch, 
liuiden). Generally speaking, this term is ap- 
applied to the skins of most beasts; but in 
commerce it is limited to the strong and thick 
skin of the horse, ox, and other large animals. 
Hides are raw or green; that is, in the state in 
which they are taken off the carcass, or dressed 
with salt, alum, and saltpetre, to prevent them 
from putrefying; or they are cured or tanned. 
The hides of South America are in the highest 
repute, and vast quantities of them are annually 
imported into Great Britain. Large quantities 
are also received from various parts of the 
continent, and from Morocco, the Cape of Good 
Hope. &c. About 200,000 cwt. of untanned 
hides are annually imported, and about 120,000 
cwt. of other hides, exclusive of Russia hides, 
which form a large proportion of the imports. 
The rate of duly charged on hides is — untanned, 
dry, per cwt., 4s. Srf. ; wet, 2s. id. ditto ; pieces 
of hide, or hides tawed, curried, or dressed, 9d. 
per lb.; cut or trimmed. Is. 2d. per lb. Those 
imported from British colonies are only liable 
to half this rate of duty. 

HIGHWAYS received their name from the 
Roman method of elevating the road upon 
causeways, or by raised earth. In the English 
common law, highways are roads common to 
all the Queen's subjects, which the parish are 
liable to repair. All ways, either for foot pas- 
sengers, or carriages and horses, are properly 
highways. If a road is dedicated to the public 
for 25 years, it becomes a highway, which the 
parish are bound to repair, although they have 
not acquiesced in the dedication of the road. 
And if a road has been freely used by the pub- 
lit for 4 or 5 years, a jurv is warranted in pre- 
suivingthat the owners of the soil consented 
to its being thus used. Bridges in highways 
become public by whomsoever built, but not 
raised causeways furnished with culverts over j 
meadows, if more than 300 feet from the i 
bridge ; and a bridge only used by the public | 
in periods of floods, is merely a public bridge 
during that period. By the common law, the 
obligation to repair the road lies upon the pa- 
rish ; the bridges are to be repaired by the 1 
79 



county, and not only the bridge, but since the 
22 Henry VIII. c. 5, s. 9, the road or approaches 
for 300 feet " from any of the ends of it." Sur- 
veyors of the highways are now annually 
elected by the parishioners on or within 14 
days of the 25th of March (5 and 6 W. IV., c. 
50, s. 6) ; and the surveyor may be, by sect. 6 
of this act, re-elected, who must serve, under a 
penalty of 20/. : he is entitled, however, to a 
salary ; by s. 20, he is liable to a penalty of 5/. 
for neglect of duty. The surveyor, by s. 25, is 
authorized to use adjoining grounds as a tem- 
porary highway whilst the old road is repair- 
ing and widening ; and, by s. 27, he is empow- 
ed to make a rate on the inhabitants, which 
must, however, be allowed by the justices. 
By s. 47, any person taking road scrapings or 
other materials from the sides of roads, is lia- 
ble to a penalty of 10/. The surveyor is era- 
powered to dig for road materials within his 
own, or any other parish, and to gather stones 
free from charge, on any land within his par- 
ish, but he must pay for any damage done to 
the land during their removal ; and after ob- 
taining license from the justices in special 
sessions, he may enter upon and dig for road 
materials, making, however, satisfaction to the 
owners ; and he must fill up the holes he 
makes, or have them filled up and sloped 
down. No tree shall be allowed to be planted 
within 15 feet of the centre of the highway; 
and with the authority of a justice of the peace 
(after duly summoning the owner to show 
cause), the surveyor may order hedges and 
trees, which shade or otherwise injure high- 
ways, to be cut and plashed. Cartways must 
be 20 feet, horseways 8, and footways 3 feet 
wide. 

A surveyor of highways is not personally 
liable to the labourers ; they must look to the 
commissioners, or their treasurer. A way 
warden may charge law expenses incurred in 
the discharge of his duty. 

Repairing Roads, — The advantages of keep- 
ing roads in repair, if only regarded by the 
farmer as lessening the draught of his horses, 
may be estimated from the following table of 
the average force required to draw a light 
four-wheeled cart, weighing, with its load, 1000 
pounds : 

Force of fracture 
Description of Road. reqnireJ to move 

the carriage. 

Turnpike road — hard dry ... - 30j lbs. 
Turnpike roiid— dirty ----- 39 

Hani, compact loam - . - - . 53 

Ordinary bye-road ------ 106 

Turnpike road, newly gravelled . - - 143 

Loose sandy road ------ 204 

The annual expense of repairing the roads 
throughout England, according to a report of a 
committee of the House of Commons in 1814, 
amounted to 1,500,000/., which Mr. Pen fold in 
his Treatise on Road-making, divides into 



- £500,000 

- 250,000 

- 750,000 



Materials, tradesmen, and officers - 
Manual labour - - - - 

Cartage ------ 

The chief points to be attended to in road 
making are — 1, the foundation ; 2, the drainage 
3, the choice of the materials ; 4, the prepara- 
tion of them ; and 5, the size of them. In re- 
pairing — 1, the scraping; 2, the removal of 
shading trees, &c.; 3, the watering. A careful 
3G 625 



HIPPOPATHOLOGY. 



HOLCUS. 



attention to which points will well repay the 
parish for the care bestowed upon them. 
There is a paper, by Mr. Whyte, upon a ma- 
chine for scraping and cleansing highways 
(Trans. High. Soc, vol. iv. p. 349), and on 
roads, and the excessive weights carried on 
them in narrow- wheeled wagons, by Mr. 
Whetly (Com. to Board of Jgr., vol. vi. p. 182); 
and there is a work on road-making by Sir C. 
M'Adam, which every road-surveyor should 
possess. Sir Henry Parnell has also publish- 
ed a valuable treatise on road-making. Of the 
materials best adapted to road-making, Mr. 
Penfold remarks, "The trappean and basaltic 
rocks are those best suited for the construction 
of roads. No material has ever been used su- 
perior to the tough basalts, which are brought 
as ballast in ships from China and Bombay, 
and which have been partially used in the 
macadamised streets of London. Limestones, 
in many respects, afford an excellent material. 
The more un)delding the material, the smaller 
is the size to which it ought to be broken. 
Limestones have in general a peculiar qua- 
lity of making smooth roads, even if not broken 
to a small size. Pit gravel, especially that be- 
longing to the new red sandstone formation, is 
in general not to be depended upon, as con- 
taining stones of different sorts, and conse- 
quently of different degrees of strength. It is 
one of the greatest mistakes in road-making to 
lay on thick coats of materials. If there be 
substance enough already in the road, and 
which, indeed, should always be carefully kept 
up, it will never be right to put on more than 
a stone's thickness at a time." 

HIPPOPATHOLOGY. The science of vete- 
rinary medicine which comprehends the dis- 
eases of the horse. Among the writers on this 
subject, within the last century, may be enume- 
rated Gibson, Clater, Blaine, Lowson, While, 
Rydg?, Coleman, Dick, Sewell, Percivall, 
White, Rydge, Stewart, Youatt, and many 
others ; and although a few of their works may 
now be obsolete, the greater portion, particu- 
larly the valuable work of Mr. Youatt contain 
a vast fund of practical and useful information. 

HOAR FROST. To the authorities quoted 
in the article Fhost, I would add that of the 
Rev. J. Farquharson. He draws from his ob- 
servations the conclusions that these frosts 
occur when the thermometer is at ten feet from 
the ground, of varying degrees of temperature, 
sometimes as high as 41° ; 2dly, that they take 
place at the time of a high daily mean tem- 
perature only during a calm ; 3dly, that the air 
is always, or nearly all of it, unclouded ; 4thly, 
that they most frequently take place when the 
mercury of the barometer is high and rising, 
and when the hygrometer for the season indi- 
cates comparative dryness. 5thly. In general, 
low and flat lands in the bottoms of valleys, 
and grounds that are in land-locked hollows, 
suffer from these frosts, while all sloping lands 
and open uplands escape injury. This he ac- 
counts for by supposing that on sloping 
grounds there are always currents of air which 
mix the upper and warmer strata of air with 
that which rests immediately on the ground, 
and Avhich it would seem, from some experi- 
ments of Dr. Wells, is no* unfrequently much 
626 



colder than that only four feet from the sur- 
face. He found, on the 19th of August, 1813 
(Trans. High. Soc. ix. 250) :— 



Time. 


on, he ground. ^Z'^^^T 


6 h. 45 m 

7 h. - - - . 
7 h. 20 m 

7 h. 40 ra 

8 h. 45 m 


53° 60i» 
51 60i 
491 59 
49 58 
42 54 



The slightest protection, even that of a bush, 
thin sprinkling of straw or litter, is suffi- 
cient to prevent the deposition of frost, because 
it is only necessary to prevent radiation. 

HOEING BY HAND. The hand hoe is an 
instrument too well known to need any de- 
scription. The operation of hoeing is benefi- 
cial, not only as being destructive of weeds, 
but as loosening the surface of the soil, and 
rendering it more permeable to the gases and 
aqueous vapour of the atmosphere. Hoeing, 
therefore, not only protects the farmer's crops 
from being weakened by weeds, but it renders 
the soil itself more fertile, as more capable of 
supplying the plants with their food. Jethro 
Tull was the first who warmly and ably incul- 
cated the advantages of hoeing cultivated soils. 
He correctly enough told the farmers of his 
time, that as fine hoed ground is not so long 
soaked by rain, so the dews never suffer it to 
become perfectly dry. This appears by the 
plants which flourish in this, whilst those in 
the hard ground are starved. In the driest 
weather good hoeing procures moisture to the 
roots of plants, though the ignorant and incu- 
rious fancy it lets in the drought. 

HOGS. See Swixe. 

HOGWEED (Heracleum sphondylium). The 
weed known by this name in Pennsylvania 
and other Middle States, is also called Rag-weed 
and Bitter-ivecd, the Ambrosia Elutior or Taller 
Ambrosia of botanical writers. This apparently 
very worthless weed is common in pastures 
and cultivated fields, always following the 
wheat crop immediately after harvest, as 
though a parasite of this species of grain. If 
the land be good, the plant seems to give place, 
the following season, to the crop of clover or 
timothy. "I have," says Dr. Darlington "been 
puzzled to determine this species satisfactorily. 
It is evidently, I think, the Ambrosia Elatior of 
Bigelow, and some others, and as clearly the 
A. artemisifolia of Barton, &c.; whilst, at the 
same time, it agrees pretty well with Elliott's 
A. paniculata. Are they all distinct species? 
Five or six additional species are enumerated 
in the United States.'/ (Flor. Cestrica.) 

This plant comes into flower about the mid- 
dle of May ; its nutritive powers appear to be 
considerable when compared to those of lucern 
and some other plants. Sinclair found that 64 
drs. of the herbage afforded of nutritive matter 
90 grs., lucern an equal proportion, the same 
weight of burnet and of Bunias orientalis 100 
grs. each, of the broad-leaved cultivated clover 
80 grains. See Cow-Parsxip. (Hort. Gram, 
Wob.f. ill.) 

HOLCUS. The soft-grass, A genus of 
grasses of which Smith, in his Eng. Flor, (voL 
i. p. 107), describes three species, but whici 



HOLCUS. 



HOLCUS. 



Sinclair, in his Hortus Gramineus, has extend- 
ed to 5 species and varieties, including the 
northern holy-grass (Hierochloe borealis), which 
Smith very properly refers to another class. 

Holcus avenaceus (PI. 5, cc). Tall oat-like 
soft-grass. In this species the calyx is smooth, 
the barren floret lowest, with a sharply bent 
prominent awn; fertile one bent, slightly ele- 
vated, scarcel}'^ awned; leaves rather harsh; 
roots knobbed, or with tuberous joints and 
downy fibres. In dry or fluctuating soils the 
roots become largely bulbous, and then consti- 
tute a troublesome weed. In the works of 
Linnsus, Curtis, and Host, this grass is found 
under the name oi Avena elatior : it has since 
been thought to agree better with holcus in 
structure ; but it appears to belong to neither 
of these justly, serving rather to form the con- 
necting link between the avcnce, hold, and airce. 
This grass grows common in pastures, hedges, 
thickets, and by road sides. The stem rises to 
3 feet high, ii smooth, simple, and jointed; the 
joints sometimes downy; the leaves are deep- 
green, rough-edged, and rather harsh to the 
touch, with long striated sheaths, and abrupt 
stipules. The flowering panicle is erect, late- 
ral. The seeds are nearly cylindrical, and 
coated with the hardened corolla. This grass 
sends forth flowering culms during the whole 
of the season. The entire plant is subject to 
rust after the period of flowering; hence the 
crop should be cut as soon as the grass is in 
flower. This grass is eaten by all sorts of cat- 
lie, and is always present in the composition 
of the best natural pastures; but it does not 
constitute a large proportion of the herbage. 
It perishes rapidly after being cropped ; and 
though later in flowering (end of June) than 
many other species, produces an early and 
plentiful supply of herbage in the spring. 
These properties would entitle it to rank high 
as a grass adapted for the alternate husbandry, 
but with respect to its nutritive properties, it 
contains too large a proportion of bitter extrac- 
tive and saline matters to warrant its cultiva- 
tion without a considerable admixture of dif- 
ferent grasses ; and the same objection extends 
to its culture for permanent pasture. 

Holms avenaceus, var. muticus. Awnless, tall, 
cat-like soft-grass. In this variety, which is 
smaller in every respect than the preceding, 
the leaves are very short, the roots slightly 
I M'ous, the panicle much contracted, the 
flowers without awns; glumes pencilled at the 
apex with purple. It flowers a week later than 
the awned variety; in all other respects it is 
the same. It seldom perfects any good seed, 
and appears to be much inferior in point of 
produce. Hares give a decided preference to 
the awnless variety. 

Holcus lanatus. Woolly or meadow soft- 
grass. The root in this species is fibrous ; the 
stem simple, 1^ to 2 feet high, smooth above, 
hairy below, with hairy sheaths, and short 
blunt stipules. The panicle is thrice com- 
pound, erect, and spreading. The calyx of the 
flower is woolly, lower floret perfect, awnless ; 
upper with an arched awn ; leaves downy on 
both sides. This is a very troublesome grass, 
which is difficult to get rid of; it grows abun- 



dant in meadows and pastures on all soils, from 
the richest to the poorest. Cattle prefer almost 
any other grass to this; hence it is seen in 
pastures, with full-grown perfect leaves, while 
the grasses that surround it are cropped to the 
roots. Sir Humphry Davy has shown that 
its nutritive matter consists entirely of muci- 
lage and sugar; while the same property in 
the grasses most relished by cattle has either 
a sub-acid or saline taste. This grass might 
probably be rendered more palatable to cattle 
by being sprinkled over with salt. 

Hard stocking, and never suff'ering it to run 
to seed, will at least prevent this grass from 
spreading; but ploughing up the pasture, and 
taking not less than a five years' course of 
crops and then returning the land to other 
grasses, will be found the best means of getting 
rid of it. It flowers and ripens the seed in July. 

Holcus mollis. Creeping soft-grass. PI. 5, c. 
Couch-grass. The specific character of this 
species is, root creeping, calyx partly naked, 
lower floret perfect, awnless, upper with a 
sharply bent prominent awn ; leaves slightly 
downy. The distinctions between this grass 
and the woolly or raeadcw- soft-grass H. lana- 
tus, are the creepmg root, and the whole plant 
being more slender and less downy. The 
leaves are also narrower and more soft than 
those of the H. lanatus, and grow more distinct 
from each other : on the contrary, those of the 
H. lanatus are in dense tufts. The panicle is 
more loose and smoother, with conspicuous 
awns, which, in drying, bend at a right angle, 
and extend beyond the calyx. The panicle of 
the H. lanatus is generally of a reddish purple 
colour tinged with green, or, when growing 
under the shade of trees, of a whitish-green 
colour. The panicle of the H. mollis is always 
of the latter colour. This grass would rank as 
one of the superior grasses if it did not usually 
tenant a light barren sandy soil ; but it produces 
little herbage in the spring, and the aftermath is 
next to nothing. Pigs are very fond of the roots, 
which contain a very considerable quantity of 
nutritive matter, having the flavour of new- 
made meal. The herbage is apparently more 
disliked by cattle than that of the H. lanatus: it 
is extremely soft, dry, and tasteless. The roots, 
when once in possession of the soil, can hard- 
ly again be expelled without great labour and 
expense. It is the true couch grass of light 
sandy soils, for its roots frequently attain in a 
few months to 4 or 5 feet in length. The best 
mode of banishing this impoverishing and 
troublesome weed from light arable lands that 
are infested with it, is to collect the roots with 
the fork after the plough ; and when thus in 
some measure lessened to apply yearly dress- 
ings of clay, perhaps 50 loads per acre, till the 
texture of the soil is changed to a sandy loam; 
this grass will then be easily overcome, and 
the fertility of the soil permanently increased. 
See Couch. 

Holcus odoratus (repens) Sweet-scented soft- 
grass or northern noly-grass. See Holt- 
Grass. 

I have placed together in a tabular form the 
comparative yield of produce of these grasses. 
(Sinclair's Hort. Gram, Wob.') 

627 



HOLLY. 



HONEY. 





Prodace per Acre in Founds. 




Green. 


Dry. 


NuL Mat. 


Holcus avenaceus, soil 
clayey loam in flower 

Holcus avenaceus, seed 
ripe . . . - 

Holcus avenaceus, latler- 
math - - - - 

H. avenaceus, var. mu- 
licus, soil rich clayey 
loam, in flower - 

— latter-math 
H. lanatus, clayey loam, 

in flower . - - 

H. mollis, sandy loam, in 

flower- . - - 

— seed ripe 

H. odoratus (repens), in 
flower - - - - 

— ^ seed 
ripe - - , - 


17,015 
16,335 
13,612 

12,251 
3,453 

19,057 

34,031 
21,099 

9,528 

27,225 


6,380 
5,717 

4,287 

6,193 

13,612 
8,439 

2,441 

9,528 


664 
255 
265 

669 
53 

1191 

2392 
1153 

632 

2233 



HOLLY {Ilex aquifolium). A handsome 
evergreen tree, of slow growth, with a smooth, 
gray bark, which, abounding in mucilage, 
makes bird-lime by maceration in water. The 
wood is hard, close-grained, and covered with 
the above smooth gray bark. The leaves are 
alternate, stalked, rigid, shining, waxy, with 
spinous divaricated lobes ; the upper ones on 
old trees entire, with only a terminal prickle. 
The flowers are copious, white, tinged exter- 
nally with purple, the earlier ones least perfect. 
The berries are scarlet, casually yellow. The 
holly grows in hedges and bushy places upon 
dry hills. Numerous variegated varieties are 
kept in gardens, and one whose leaves are 
prickly on the disk. Darwin suggested the 
idea, that the points on the lower leaves of the 
holly was a provision of nature to prevent 
them from being eaten by cattle ; hence, when 
the tree grows beyond the reach of the cattle, 
the leaves lose the pines, that species of ar- 
mature being no longer necessary. The tree 
bears clipping well ; but it is not so fashionable 
for cut hedges as formerly. The branches, 
laden with berries, are stuck about rustic 
kitchens and churches at Christmas, and re- 
main till Candlemas Day. In Norfolk and 
some other English counties the misseltoe ac- 
companies them, and sometimes branches of 
the spindletree or prickwood. 

The common holly of the United States is 
the Ilex opaca of naturalists, a handsome ever- 
green which, though in some of the Middle 
States a mere shrub, in others assumes the 
dignity of a tree. In Kent county, Delaware, 
the holly frequently attains a height of 30 to 40 
feet. Seven or eight additional species are 
found in the United States, chiefly in the south. 

HOLM (Sax. and Danish). An island or 
fenny place surrounded by water. 

HOLM OAK, or HOLLY OAK. See Oak. 

HOLT (Sax. a wood: Germ. hoh). The 
termination of many names of places in Eng- 
land, derived from their ancient situation in a 
wood. 

HOLY-GRASS, NORTHERN (Hierovhloe bo- 
rcalis). The sweet-scented soft-grass. Holms 
Kifioratus (repens) of some botanists. The pow- 
erful creeping roots of this grass, its tender 
nature, and tne great deficiency of foliage in 
the spring are demerits which discourage the 
'i^a. of recommending it further to the notice 
6^8 



of the agriculturist. It comes into flower 
about the end of April, and perfects hardly 
any seed ; but few grasses propagate more 
quickly by the roots. This grass is said to be 
used at high festivals, for strewing the churches 
in Prussia, as ^cm-us calamus has time out of 
mind been employed in the cathedral an 
streets of Norwich on the mayor's day. 

HOMESTEAD, or FARM STEADING. A 
collection of farm buildings and offices ar- 
ranged in a convenient form. 

HONEY (German, honig). A well-known 
vegetable substance collected by bees. "Its 
flavour," says Dr. A. T. Thomson, " varies 
according to the nature of the flowers from 
which it is collected. Thus, the honeys of 
Minorca, Narbonne, and England are known 
by their flavours. It is separated from the 
comb by dripping, and by expression ; the first 
method affords the purest sort, the second se- 
parates a less pure honey, and a still inferior 
kind is obtained by heating the comb before it 
is pressed. When obtained from young hives 
which have not swarmed, it is denominated 
virgin honey. It is sometimes adulterated with 
flour and starch, which may be detected by 
mixing it with tepid water; the honey dissolves, 
while the flour or starch remains nearly un- 
altered." Honey is easily soluble in water, 
and, like sugar, readily undergoes the vinous 
fermentation; in this way, in fact, mead is 
made, an intoxicating beverage, once much 
more extensively prepared than now. 

Honey constitutes a very important product 
of some countries, among which we may name 
Poland, where the management of bees is an 
extensive branch of forest culture. Poland 
honey is commercially divided into three 
classes ; the finest, called lipiec, is gathered by 
the bees from the lime tree alone, and is con- 
sidered on the Continent most valuable, not 
only for the superiority of its flavour, but also 
for the estimation in which it is held as an ar- 
canum in pulmonary complaints, containing 
very little wax, and being, consequently, less 
heating in its nature; it is as white as milk, 
and is only to be met with in the lime forests 
in the neighbourhood of the town of Kowno, 
in Lithuania. It is the June and July work alone 
that constitutes this delightful product, and 
which is carefully taken from the hives, in 
which is left for the store of the bees the honey 
collected by them before and after the flowering 
of the linden, a tree quite different from all the 
rest of the genus Tilia, and called Kamienna 
lipsa, or Stone Lime. 

The leszny, the next class of honey, which is 
inferior in a great degree to the lipiec, being 
only for the common mead, is that of the pine 
forests. 

The third class of honey is the stepowey pras- 
znymird, or the honey from meadoM's or places 
where there is an abundance of perennial 
plants, and hardly any wood. The province 
of Ukraine produces the very best, and also 
the very best wax. In that province the pea- 
sants pay particular attention to this branch 
of economy, as it is the only resource they 
have to enable them to defray the taxes levied 
by Russia; and they consider the produce of 
bees equal to ready money. 



HONEY. 



HONEY. 



In the United States, the capacity to produce 
honey seems only limited by the ravages of 
that great pest, the bee-moth. Over this, how- 
ever, it is to be hoped ingenuity will finally 
triumph, if it has not done so already. See 
Bees and Bee-moth. 

Russian System of managing Bees and 
constructing hives. 

In Russia and other northern parts of Eu- 
rope, honey and wax constitute great sources 
of private wealth and general trade. A large 
amount of this honey is obtained from trees in 
the wild forests, which, when not hollowed by 
nature, are scooped out by man for the accom- 
modation of swarms, nails being driven into 
the body, to prevent the bears from climbing 
up and getting at the honey. This primitive 
plan may be called the Forest systetn, to distin- 
guish it from another, consisting of large as- 
semblages of hives, entitling it to the appella- 
tion of the Camp systenu These bee-camps are 
often removed from place to place, according 
to the abundance or scarcity of flowers. A 
new system of managing bees has been lately 
introduced into Russia, which has acquired 
immense celebrity, not only in that country, but 
in other parts of continental Europe, to the 
northern portion of which it may perhaps be 
more specially adapted. It is, however, at pre- 
sent receiving great encouragement in France, 
where the most active efforts are making to 
promote its extension. Although we believe 
that the most essential objects obtained by the 
Russian mode are gained through some of the 
almost innumerable contrivances worked out 
by American ingenuity, still we think it proper 
to make the citizens of the United States ac- 
quainted with what is deemed of so much in- 
dividual and national importance abroad. 

The Russian system owes its origin and es- 
tablishment to M. Prokopovitsh, an individual 
who has devoted more than half his life to the 
subject His reputation as an apiarian is at 
present so high as to have enabled him to esta- 
blish an extensive school for teaching the art 
of managing bees. His school and dwelling- 
houses are situated in the midst of a vast gar- 
den, in which are found no less than twenty-eight 
hundred hives. The number of his pupils is 
never under eighty, which come from all parts 
of Russia, and remain two years. His terms 
are very moderate. 

In studying the nature and characteristics 
of the queen, he made the discovery that she 
always keeps upon the honeycomb, and never 
creeps upon any part of the hive. This obser- 
vation he has turned to advantage, so as to 
make the bees assort and dispose their honey 
in whatever manner he desires it to be depo- 
sited. 

By discovering a plant pre-eminently rich 
in honey, he has rendered another service to 
his country, not less important than that just 
referred to. This is the Echium Vulgare, 
called in Russia Ciniak. It has long been 
known to abound in the materials of honey, 
but hdd always been left in a wild state until 
this intelligent Russian took it into regular 
cultivation for the use of his bees. In doing 
this, says a French writer, he has rendered a 



service to Europe similar to that conferred by 
Parmentier, who placed the potato among the 
number of plants indispensable to the purposes 
of domestic economy. Many of the Russian 
provinces possess only a very few plants rich 
in honey; or, rather, owing to the rigours of 
the climate, the plants furnish honey during a 
very short period. The Echium is therefore 
the more valuable from the fact that it is so 
little sensible to the effects of both heal and 
cold, neither of which cause it to part with its 
mellifluous qualities. Even after the setting 
in of white frosts, which ordinarily commence 
about the end of September or first of October, 
it still continues to flower. 

It is proper to observe that the plant which 
has thus acquired such great celebrity bears 
the same name with a common and very beau- 
tiful English wild plant, belonging to the Bo- 
rage family, and that, in his Flora Cestrica, 
Dr. Darlington describes the common Echium 
as a foreign weed, extremely troublesome in 
some portions of the United States, though as 
yet rare in Chester county, Pennsylvania. A 
species called Violet Echium is cultivated in 
some flower-gardens in the United States, but 
no American species has yet been pointed out 
by botanists. The French call the common 
Echium Viperine, and Herbe aux Viperes ; the 
Germans, W^i/dc Ochsenzunge, andDer Natterkopf. 
The popular names in the United States are 
Blue Weed, Blue Devils, and Viper's Bugloss. It is 
highly probable that the plant so much prized 
in Russia is a variety of Borage differing con- 
siderably from the weed denounced by Dr. Dar- 
lington. His caution, however, ought by no 
means to be forgotten by persons who intro- 
duce the Echium for the benefit of their bees, 
as it is a biennial, furnished with a very thick 
and hard tap-root, which must be very diflicult 
to get out of ground when it has once gained 
possession. It should therefore be sown and 
kept in places where it may be restrained 
within bounds. It may be popularly described 
as a plant with long and rather narrow leaves, 
coming to a point, which leaves, with the stalks, 
are covered with a profusion of hairs. It puts 
out numerous spikes bearing one or two bell- 
shaped flowers, of a purple-blue colour, having 
five petals, which are pubescent or hairy. It 
produces small, rough, and brownish oval- 
shaped nuts, which are angular on the inner 
side. (See Fig. 6, on the Plate representing 
the Russian Bee-hive, etc.) 

Description of the Russian Bee-hive. 

Fig. I represents the hive in perspective, 
supported upon a floor of brick or stone, car- 
ried beyond the sides of the hive, so as to 
secure a solid foundation. The usual size of 
this hive is three feet six inches in height, 
fourteen, twenty, and even as much as twenty- 
two inches in width, and from twelve to sixteen 
inches in depth. The box or case is made of 
five boards, either nailed, or, what is better, 
dovetailed together. The pieces represented 
at a, a, a, are three doors of equal size, which 
are fixed into mortices or grooves and fastened 
by the pegs b, b. c, c, are two movable pieces, 
an inch wide, upon which the movable door» 
3 G 2 629 



HONEY. 



HONEY, 



rest, d, small slats fastened into the sides of 
the hive by mortices. These serve to prevent 
the doors from touching the honeycomb. Each 
range of frames has one of these slats. 

c, c, c, are small frames in which the bees 
v/ork and deposit their honeycombs. These 
frames are notched or scooped out circularly 
upon the lower side, as well as upon both edges 
of the front end, as represented in fig. 2. The 
opening left by the hollow in the lowermost 
side serves for the bees to enter from beneath, 
whilst the hollows on the two sides of the front 
end of the frame admits the movements of the 
bees to be observed. These frames are thin ; 
their thickness, however, is not arbitrary, but 
must be made to correspond to the size and 
form which the bees give to their combs. 
When placed side by side the frames must not 
touch, but a small space is to be left between 
to allow a little play, and prevent them from 
wedging together and becoming tight in warm 
weather, when the wood swells. 

/', f,f, are three places of entrance for the 
bees, furnished with slides. These are so ar- 
ranged that the middle one comes e.xactly in 
the middle of its compartment ; the upper one 
is an inch higher than the upper slat; whilst 
the lower opening is an inch lower than the 
lowermost slat. 

h (fig. 3) is a grating to be used in autumn, 
when it may be desired to separate the empty 
parts from those filled with comb. This grating, 
or adapter, remains in contact with the bees. 
g (fig. 4) represents a small board, which is to 
be placed on top of the grating. 

Fig. 5 is a transverse section, in which may 
be seen the places of entrance, /, the depth of 
the frames, a, and at c, one of the combs. 

The various kinds of hives, constructed in 
sections or compartments, may be divided into 
two classes, namely, — those in which the divi- 
sions are made either horizontally or vertically. 
The first are founded upon the well-known ne- 
cessity for allowing space for the new combs ; 
the second from the advantage derived from 
separating the swarms artificially. To carry 
out these plans, very complicated contrivances 
have generally been employed, whilst the Rus- 
sian hive effects every necessary object to be 
gained from section or division hives. 

The leading principle of the Russian hive, 
which, it will be seen, is quite plain in con- 
struction, and economical as to first cost, — 
consists in its capacity to be reversed or turned 
upside down, a very simple operation, which, 
however, leads to the most important results in 
the management of bees. 

Reversing the hive not only allows of the 
perfect renewal of the wax, but furnishes an 
opportunity of inspecting every thing passing 
within, by means of the movable doors, and 
at the same time, of conducting all the opera- 
tions at pleasure, thus uniting all the advan- 
tages of the two systems of horizontal and ver- 
tical section hives, such as the separation of 
swarms, &c. 

By means of the operation of reversing, the 
jee-manager who introduces a swarm into the 
Russian hive, will, during three years, be able 
to withdraw each year one of the three divi- 
sions alternately, or one-third of the whole 
630 



mass of honey deposited ; at the end of the 
period mentioned, he will have thus produced 
a perfect renewal of the wax; that is to .say, at 
this time he will be obliged to reverse or turn 
up the hive, the former bottom of which now 
becomes the top. 

The mode in which M. Proliopovitsh ma- 
nages to make his bees assort their honey 
themselves, is effected by means of a very 
simple contrivance. Many others have de- 
vised modes very similar to those adopted by 
the Russian apiarian, but it is asserted that 
their objects had not the same end, since they 
only sought to obtain the virgin honey. No 
one has before believed it practicable to pro- 
cure honey of a uniform quality and which at 
the same time is virgin honey. The idea 
therefore originally belongs to M. Prokopd- 
vitsh, who, whilst pursuing his apiarian stu- 
dies, had it suggested to him by a plan adopted 
by Huber for the mere purpose of being able 
to watch the habits of bees. 

The process of working the Russian hive is 
as follows: In autumn, after having taken the 
upper portion of the crop, when the amount of 
honey admits this to be done, the part of the 
hive thus left empty is separated from the re.^t 
of the comb, by introducing the grating //, and 
placing upon it the board g. In this state the 
hive is conveyed to some suitable place to pass 
the winter. The following summer, at the ar- 
rival of the season when the plant from which 
honey is to be collected is in flower, the board 
is removed, and the frames e placed upon the 
grating. These frames, which are made ot 
very thin stufl^ have a length equal to the 
depth of the hive. Their height is about half 
that of their length, and their width or thick- 
ness ought not to exceed an inch and a half. 

Two sides of the frame, have, as alrea,dy 
described, two notches or hollows which re- 
duce their width. One of these is the long 
side which comes in contact with the grating, 
affording passage to the bees, whilst the other 
is the end near the door which admits the 
movements of the bees to be inspected. Be- 
fore these frames are arranged in their places, 
a little dry wax is to be stuck along the mid- 
dle of the upper side of the frame, (the side 
which is not scooped out). This is for the 
purpose of directing the bees where they must 
place their combs. 

By the arrangement described, the bees 
finding above them a vacant space, commence 
their work in it, and finding in the flowers in 
bloom suflicient material, fill the cases with 
honey, and this they do with the more rapidity 
from the circumstance of the queen's being 
separated by a space not yet occupied by the 
combs, and her inability to reach these to lay 
her eggs in them. The cases in which the 
honey is deposited are sealed up immediately, 
the comb is observed to have reached the 
lower part of the box, and before the queen 
has had an opportunity of depositing in it any 
eggs. The honey thus obtained is of remark- 
able purity, and may be taken to market in ihe 
same frames in which it was originally made. 
These may even be packed up together in cases, 
and transported in wagons to great distances, 
without doing the least injury to the honey. 



HONEY DEW. 



HONEYSUCKLE. 



HONEY DEW. See Aphidians. 
HONEY LOCUST, or Sweet Locust {Gle- 
ditsia triacanthos). The sweet locust belongs 
peculiarly to the country west of the Alleghany 
Mountains, and it is scarcely found in any part 
of th3 Atlantic States, except in Limestone Val- 
ley and its branches, which lie between the 
first and second ranges of the Alleghanies, be- 
ginning near Harrisburg in Pennsylvania, in 
the latitude of 40° 42', and extending from 
north-east to south-west into the state of Virgi- 
nia. The soil in this valley is generally very 
substantial. In the fertile bottoms which are 
watered by the rivers emptying into the Mis- 
sissipf)i, in the Illinois country, and, still more, 
in the southern part of Kentucky and Tennes- 
see, the sweet locust is abundant. It commonly 
grows with the black walnut, shell-bark hick- 
ory, red elm, blue ash, locust, box elder, and 
coffee tree, and forms a part of the forests that 
cover the most fertile soils. In different parts 
of the United States, this species is called in- 
diflerently sweet locust and honey locust; the 
French of Illinois call it fevia: 

In situaiious the most favourable to its 
growth, such as are observed on the banks 
of the Ohio, between Gallipolis and Limestone, 
the sweet locust attains a very ample size. 
Michaux measured several stocks which were 
three or four feet in diameter, and which ap- 
peared to equal in height the loftiest trees of 
these immemorial forests. Some of them had 
the trunk undivided for forty feet. 

The sweet locust is easily known by its bark, 
which, at intervals of a few inches, detaches 
itself laterally in plates three or four inches 
wide and two or three lines thick, and by the 
form of Its trunk, which appears to be twisted, 
and which presents three or four crevices of 
inconsiderable depth, opening irregularly from 
the bottom towards the top. The large thorns 
which cover the branches, and frequently the 
trunk of young trees, aflcird another very dis- 
tinct characteristic. These thorns are some- 
times several inches long, ligneous, of a reddish 
colour, and armed, at some distance from the 
base, with two secondary thorns, about half the 
size of the first. 

The leaves of the sweet locust are pinnated, 
and composed of small, oval, serrate, sessile 
leaflets. This foliage is elegant, and of an 
agreeable tint; but it is thin, and scarcely ob- 
structs the passage of the sunbeams. It is shed 
annually at the approach of winter. 

The flowers are small, not very conspicuous, 
and disposed in bunches. The fruit is jn the 
form of flat, crooked, pendulous pods, from 
twelve to eighteen inches long, and of a reddish- 
brown colour. The pods contain brown, smooth, 
hard seeds, enveloped in a pulpy substance, 
which, for a month after their maturity, is very 
sweet, and which then becomes extremely sour. 
Beer is sometimes made by fermenting this 
pulp while fresh; but the practice is not gene- 
ral, as the apple tree and peach tree, particu- 
larly the last, have become common in the 
western country, and afford a much superior 
beverage. 

The perfect wood or heart of the sweet locust 
nearly resembles that of the locust, but its grain 
is coarser and its pores more open : in these 



respects it is more strikingly characterized 
than even the wood of the red oak. When 
perfectly seasoned, it is extremely hard. It is 
little esteemed in Kentucky, where it is more 
employed, and consequently can be better ap- 
preciated, than elsewhere. It is used neither 
by the carpenter nor the wheelwright: it is 
sometimes taken by the farmers for rails to 
fence their fields, but only when they arc unable 
to procure better wood. It is found by expe- 
rience to be far inferior to the wild cherry and 
black walnut for cabinet-making. The only 
destination for which it appears to be pecu- 
liarly adapted, is the forming of hedges, which 
would be rendered impenetrable by its long 
thorns. 

The sweet locust has been cultivated for 
many years in Europe. It flourishes, blooms, 
and yields seed in the climates of London and 
Paris ; but its vegetation is less active than in 
the south of France. (Michaux.) 

HONEYSUCKLE {Lonicera, named after 
Adam Lonicera, a German botanist, who died 
in 1586). This is a genus of very ornamental 
shrubs, closely allied to the genus Caprifolium. 
The species grow in any common soil, and are 
readily increased by cuttings taken off in au- 
tumn and planted in a sheltered situation. 
(Paxlon's Bot. Diet.) 

In the English Flora, by Dr. Smith, three in- 
digenous species are described. 

There are five hardy sorts of honeysuckle 
mentioned by Miller; namely, the Virginian 
trumpet honeysuckle {L. sempervirens), xhe Ger- 
man honeysuckle, the Italian honeysuckle, the 
English honeysuck'e or woodbine (Z. pericly- 
meimm), and the evergreen honeysuckle. He 
names also three other sorts, which are too 
tender to raise without artificial heat. 

There are two varieties of the trumpet ho- 
neysuckle; one is a native of Virginia, and the 
other is from Carolina. The Virginia trumpet 
honeysuckle is hardier, its leaves are of a 
darker green, and its flowers are a deeper red 
than the Carolina. These plants are weak and 
trailing; they should therefore be placed against 
walls and trellis-work. 

The German or Dutch honeysuckle is a hardy 
shrub, which can be formed into a good round 
head : the flowers are reddish outside and yel- 
lowish within, blooming in June, July, and 
August. Miller mentions two varieties of this 
honeysuckle, the "long blowing" and the "late 
red." 

The Italian honeysuckle has two varieties, 
the "early white," which is fragrant, but of 
short duration, blooming in May; and the "yel- 
low," which bears yellowish flowers, and is 
succeeded by red berries. 

The American or evergreen honeysuckle is 
the most valuable, for it flowers from June till 
the frost nips its blooms. It has strong branches 
bearing evergreen leaves and fragrant flowers, 
which are bright-red outside and yellow within. 
All the sorts are propagated by layers or by 
cuttings. The plants produced from cuttings 
are the best rooted, and should be done in Sep- 
tember. Each cutting should have four joints 
and only one joint should be left above ground. 
The honeysuckle loves almost any soil, pro- 
vided it be not too dry. See RHODonEjfDRoy. 

631 



HONEYSUCKLE. 



HOP. 



HONEYSUCKLE, FRENCH {Hedysarum). 
,A.lmost all the species of this genus are very 
handsome flowering plants, producing racemes 
of very beautiful pea flowers, particularly 
adapted for borders or rock-work. Miller men- 
tions nineteen sorts. The greater number are 
perennials. The most general species in Eng- 
lish gardens is the H. coronarivm, which blooms 
bright-red flowers, and a variety of it, which 
blooms white flowers, both flowering in June 
and July. They are propagated by sowing 
seed in the spring in light garden mould, and 
transplanting the young plants into their des- 
tined places in autumn. The herbaceous kinds 
are increased by dividing the roots. 

HOOF. The horny part which covers the 
feet of many valuable quadrupeds. It is either 
cloven, as in cattle, or entire, as in the horse. 
In the horse it is that portion of the foot which 
is composed of the crust or wall, the bars, the 
sole, and the horny frog. There is no frog in 
the foot of cattle, nor are there the provisions 
for the expansion and elasticity of the foot 
which we admire in the horse. There is a la- 
minated connection between the hoof of the ox, 
and the sensible parts beneath, as in the horse; 
but the horny plates of the hoof, and the fleshy 
ones of the substance which covers the coffin- 
bone, are not so wide and deep, and therefore 
the attachment between the hoof and fool is not 
so strong. The hoofs of cattle are used for 
making starch and Prussian blue, as they will 
not make glue or soap like the heels. (^Cattle, 
p. 568; The Horse, p. 281.) 

HOOP-ASH. See Hackhfriit. 

HOOVE. See Cattle, Diseases of. 

HOP (Humulus lupulus). This is a well- 
known climber, supposed to be indigenous to 
England, plants of it being found in hedgerows 
and M'aste places. The ancients were not un- 
acquainted M-ith the hop. It is mentioned by 
the Arabian physician Mesue, who lived about 
845; and it was used for beer in Flanders in 
1500. The female flowers, indeed, have been 
long used in many parts of Europe for the pur- 
pose of imparting a flavour to beer. It was 
not, however, cultivated in England for this 
purpose until about the year 1525; and as the 
Reformation was then in progress, the intro- 
duction of the hop is perpetuated by the follow- 
ing doggerel: 

Hops, heiesy, pickerel, and beer 

Were brought into England in one year. 

In 1528 the parliament was requested to prohi- 
bit its use, as an unwholesome weed that would 
spoil the taste of beer. It is mentioned for the 
first time in 1552 in the statute-book, in the 
5 Edward VI. c. 5 (repealed 5 Eliz. c. 2) ; an 
act directing that land formerly in tillage should 
again be so cultivated, but excepting, amongst 
other ground, " land set with saffron or hops ;" 
and down to the year 1693 hops were imported 
from Flanders in considerable quantities. In 
1578 Reynold Scott published a curious little 
•vork on the cultivation of the hop, which is 
now rare: it was entitled, "A Perfite Platforme 
of a Hoppe Garden," in which the directions 
for the cultivation of the hop are given with 
considerable care. 

The chief counties in which the hop is now 
cultivated in England, are those of Kent, 
6.32 



Sussex, Surrey, Worcester, and Essex; bat the 
hop-gardens of these counties are only situated 
in particular portions. 

The hop plant delights in a rich loam, or 
calcareous sand ; and when these are situated 
on a calcareous bed, the plants will continue 
to flourish for many years; but otherwise ten 
or twelve years is about the limit of their con- 
tinuance in perfection. Under favourable cir- 
cumstances, as on the Kentish ragstone, the 
roots of the hop plant extend in some instances 
to a depth of eight or ten feet. The hop plant 
is usually raised from cuttings in the spring. 
"In the early part of the spring," says Mr. 
Lance, " the old root begins to bud or shoot 
from the old stump of the last year's bine, 
which will have two or more buds; the crown 
of the root is then cleared, and these old stumps 
are cut off, or most part of them, the hole co- 
vered up, and the crown of the root throws up 
additional shoots to be tied up the poles. The 
plant is therefore said to have an annual stem, 
but a perennial root. The cuttings, or old 
stumps, are bedded for a season, to make roots 
the best way they can from the edge of the cut- 
ting: the plant being exceedingly tenacious of 
life, every portion of the crown cutting that has 
a bud will grow and throw out roots from the 
extremity of the woody cutting; they will make 
a circle of roots when healthy, and throw up 
bine from the eyes or buds at the surface of 
the ground, and other roots will issue from 
under the eyes. The shoots of the former year 
that may have become covered with earth will 
make plants as layers, throwing oat many 
fibrous roots before they are cut off from the 
stump or crown. This is often the most suc- 
cessful method of obtaining plants, although it 
may in some measure weaken the old root; 
but the layer gets the plants a year more forward, 
as the roots are already formed when the plant 
is taken from the old slock; but if all the su- 
pernumerary shoots are cut off after the prin- 
cipal ones are well up the pole, then there can 
be no suckling plants formed. There are se- 
veral varieties of the hop," adds ?vlr. Lance, 
"named according to the colour of the bine, 
the hanging of the fruit, or local circumstances. 
The grape-hop takes its name from the hang- 
ing of the strobiles; the cluster being close 
together, like a bunch of grapes. Those named 
from the bine are the green, the white, the red. 
Others are named from places, as the Canter- 
bury grape, the Farnham bell, the Mayfield 
grape ; and some few are named from the per- 
sons who have raised them from seed, as Wil- 
liams's white bine, at Farnham, being first 
raised by a gentleman of that name at Badshot 
Place, about the year 1780. This is the variety 
now principally cultivated at Farnham, and 
may be said to be one of the causes which 
make that place so famed for hops, they being 
purchased with avidity by the brewers of the 
west of England." 

The qualities of the hop regarded by the 
dealers are the colour, scent, seed, and glutinous 
touch. The colour, which should te a light 
green, is attained either by a very careful and 
early picking, or by exposing the hops when 
they are drying to the action of fumes of sul- 
phur. By exposure to the air, however, the 



HOP. 

natural brown colour of the hops thus treated 
returns ; and hence the Farnham hops are 
often preferred by the brewers of pale ale, be- 
cause the colour is not apt to alter. 

About 60 to 100 bushels of the picked hops 
are required for a cwt. of dried hops in the bag; 
but this varies with circumstances. When 
there is an abundance of plump, well-formed 
seed, from 40 to 70 bushels will form a cwt. 
A bag of hops will weigh about 2^ cwts., and 
a Kent pocket about IJ cwt. The produce of 
an acre of hops will sometimes amount to 24 
cwt., but the average is about 10 cwt. The 
hop plant is subject to many diseases, to the 
attacks of caterpillars and other insects, to 
mildew, and to a variety of atmospherical in- 
fluences, which renders it ever the sport of the 
weather, and occasions the proverbial uncer- 
tainty of the crop. 

In the culture of the hop, a deep soil is pre- 
ferable, and many powerful fertilizers may be 
had recourse to. There is, perhaps, no plant 
which delights more in those of an oily nature 
than the hop. The Kentish growers of the 
valley of the Medvvay successfully employ 
large quantities of sprats, for which they rea- 
dily give lOd. per bushel. They use from 40 
to 60, or more, bushels per acre. Other plant- 
ers employ woollen rags, chopped into small 
pieces, from 1 to 2 tons per acre. They last 
for 2 years. 1 hese cost about 51. 5s. per ton. 
Salt, also, is an excellent addition, in conjunc- 
tion with these, at the rate of from 10 to 15 
bushels per acre. 

The plants are usually placed on hills, at the 
distance of 5 or 6 feet, and this is usually done 
early in the spring, about the end of March. 
The first year's poles may be about 6 feet in 
length, but twelve feet poles are afterwards 
needed. Two or three of these are commonly 
placed on a hill : they are generally set in the 
ground in the end of April. About 500 fresh 
poles are annually required per acre, to keep 
up the stock of poles, and supply the place of 
those broken or otherwise destroyed. 

The ground in hop gardens can hardly be 
too much stirred over. The drying of the hops 
is effected soon after they are picked. For the 
despatch of drying, a thickness of from 1 to 2 
feet of hops are placed on the kiln floor, and a 
fire of culm or Welch coal, coke, charcoal, or 
other material that gives out no smoke, is made 
in an open fireplace, with only a perforated 
hood over it; or, if the kiln fireplace is enclosed, 
and the smoke-flue is made to pass round the 
building, any firing may be used : but the neat- 
est and cleanest method is by passing hot water 
through pipes, close beneath the drying-floor. 
About 100 to 200 bushels are commonly dried 
at once in the ordinary-sized hop-kilns. Con- 
siderable quantities of sulphur are sometimes 
added to the fire, sometimes as much as a cwt. 
to a ton of hops. About 98 to 112 degrees of 
heat is that commonly employed in the drying, 
and the cost of the process is about 14s. per cwt. 

In bagging the hops, great care is requisite 
10 tread them as close as possible; for the more 
completely the air is excluded, the better the 
hops will keep. 

The dried hop has been analyzed, and found 
lo contain lupuline, a bitter principle, opism, a 
80 



HOP. 

fatty astringent matter, gum, chlorophylle, and lig' 
nin. In the grains of the lupuline a volatile oil 
is deposited. The salts of iron, gelatin, chloride 
of barium, and oxalate of ammonia, cause pre- 
cipitates in the decoction of the hop. As a me- 
dicinal agent, hops display tonic and narcotic 
properties. A pillow of hops is supposed to be 
a good soporific, and was obtained for George 
III. when a lunatic. The extract has been 
found to allay pain ; but, after all, it is better 
as an adjunct to beer than as a medicine. 

In England, the expense of 1 cwt. of hops, if 
purchased on the poles (says Mr. Lance,) may 
be thus stated : — 

L. t. a 

The duty - - - - .'. - -0 18 8 

Picking - - - - - - . -0 10 8 

Bags 014 

Drying --......050 

Bagging ---.....009 

Cartage - . - . . - . -020 
Sale ....... -010 

1 18 9 

The following are the expenses and produce 
of 4 acres of hop ground in Mid-Kent, in 1836: — 

L. ». d. 

Rent and taxes on 4 acres, at 40s. - - - 8 

Culture labour, at 50s. - - - - -10 00 

Repair of poles - - - . - -400 

Dunging, at iOs. - - - . . -800 

Picking 4,332 bushels, at 7 for 1*. - . - 23 15 

Drying, labour only . . . - -3 12 

39 pockets, making, marking, sifting, and 

treading, at Is. 2d. - - . - - 2 5 6 

Pole pullers, measurer, and expenses - - 4 16 

Pocket cloth - -400 

Charcoal - - - - - - . -6 10 6 

Sulphur and lime - - - - - -0 17 6 

Rent of kiln - - . . - - -400 

Interest on first years' expenditure - - 4 

Duty on 64 cwts., at 18s. 6d. - - - - 59 14 

Tithe - . - - - . - -400 



The produce, 64 cwt., at U. 10s. 416i. 

The average produce of hops from 1807 to 
1836, as shown in a table from the work of Mr. 
Lance on the hop, is 5^ cwt. per acre, the 
highest product in one year having averaged 
for the crop 12 ^^^ cwt. in 1808, and the lowest 
only -j^^ in 1825. 

Number of Acres of Hops in cultivation. 





No. of 


No. of 


Ave 


raee 






Presumed ac- 




Acres esli- 


Acres 






lase 






mated in 


in the 


the 










England. 


Clays. 


country. 




duty. 








/,. 


J. 


r.. 


, 


L. 


1820 


50,148 


694 


3 


17 


4 


10 


753,110 


1621 


45,662 


691 


4 


4 


4 


6 


1,000,000 


1822 


43,554 


672 


3 


12 


5 


5 


1,221,985 


1823 


41,458 


671 


10 





12 





446,038 


1824 


43,449 


670 


7 





9 





1,847,960 


1825 


46,718 


709 


23 





23 





805,874 


1826 


50,471 


715 


4 


4 


6 





2,010,590 


1827 


49,485 


715 


4 


12 


6 





1,360,835 


1828 


48,365 


711 


5 


5 


7 





1,813,680 


1829 


46,135 


702 


9 





11 


11 


656,125 


1830 


46,726 


704 


10 


10 


11 


10 


1,509,560 


1831 


47,129 


712 


5 


15 


8 





1,767,324 


1832 


47,101 


714 


9 





JO 





2,114,545 


1833 


49,187 


720 


6 





8 





1,841,610 


1834 


51,273 


726 


6 


10 


6 


10 


1,974,010 


1835 


53,816 


734 


6 





6 


6 


2,406,649 


1836 


55,422 


757 


8 


10 


8 


10 


3,155,832 


1837 


56,323 


759 


4 


10 


4 


15 


1,647,396 


1838 


56,104 


749 


5 





6 





1,753,120 


1839 


52,365 




3 


3 


3 


12 


1,241,252 



The number of acres devoted to the cultiva- 
tion of the hop has long been stea<^'iily on litu 

633 



HORDEIN. 



HORN. 



Increase since 1693; when they were first suc- 
cessfully cultivated in Kent; in 1807, it was 
found that the hop-grounds throughout Eng- 
land amounted to 38,218 acres: these had in- 
creased to 46,293 acres in 1817, to 49,485 in 
1827, and to 56,323 acres in 1837; they had 
decreased however in 1839 to 52,365. 

Hops are extensively and advantageously 
cultivated in some parts of the United States. 
Gurdon Avery, in the village of Waterloo, 
Oneida county, N. Y., raised in 1842, on 12 
acres of land, 29,937 lbs. of hops. 

The hop is also well known as a garden 
plant. It blows its flowers from June till Au- 
gust, and is propagated by seed and by dividing 
the root's. It likes a deep loamy soil, and is 
valuable as an ornamental climber over tem- 
porary arbours, trellis, &.c. in summer, as its 
leaves are very large, and make a fine shade. 
The " Avhite bind" and the " gray bind" are the 
best sorts for this purpose ; they succeed each 
other. 

The young shoots of the hop are eaten as a 
depurative; the flowers, besides their bitter 
narcotic qualities, are diuretic and sedative. 

HORDEIN. A modification of starch, which, 
according to Proust, constitutes about 55 per 
cent, of barley-meal. 

HORDEUM. The barley-grasses. Besides 
the species of cultivated barley enumerated in 
the article under that head, there are three in- 
digenous species which grow wild in Eng- 
.and. 

Hordcum murinum. Wall-barley, mouse-bar- 
ley, or way-bennet grass. 

This is an annual grass, with a fibrous root, 
supponing a number of culms 12 to 18 inches 
aigh, procumbent at the base, afterwards erect, 
Ji'ith three or four joints. Spikes-brittle, two 
jf three inches long, flowers placed in two 
rows. This is one of the most inferior grasses 
with respect to nutritive powers ; and the long 
awns, with which it is armed must make it 
dangerous to the mouths of horses, when it 
enters into the composition of their hay. For- 
tunately it is uncommon in pastures, being 
chiefly confined to roadsides and other beaten 
or barren places. I never could observe this 
grass eaten by cattle of any description, not 
;;ven by the half-starved animals which feed 
l)y roadsides, where, in England, this is often 
the most prevalent grass. Dr. Withering, 
however, says, it is eaten by sheep and horses, 
and that it feeds the brown moth {Phalana 
granella), and the barley-fly (Musca frit.) The 
nutritive matter afforded by this grass consists 
chiefly of mucilage and extractive matter inso- 
luble after the evaporation of a decoction of it. 
't flowers in England about the first week of 
July, and the seed is ripe towards the end of 
the same month. 

Hordcum prutense. Meadow barley-grass. 
PI. 5, d. This species has some afiinity to the 
wall barley-grass in appearance, but differs 
from it in being strictly perennial ; and in 
having the culms more slender, much taller, 
and erect, and the sheaths roundish ; the spike 
(about two mches long) is also slender in com- 
uar^son with that of the H. nmrimim, and of a 
purple or greenish hue, while that of the wall 
barley-grass is of a dirty yellow. The husks 
634 



of the calyx are bristle-shaped, rough, but not 
ciliate, and the awns much shorter. 

This is a very hardy grass, which is tolera- 
bly early in the spring produce of foliage, and 
its nutritive powers are considerable. Though 
said to be partial to dry chalky soils, I have 
always found this grass most prevalent on 
good rich meadow ground ; it thrives under 
irrigation, and there are but few pastures in 
which it is not to be found. The Rev. G. 
Swayne observes, that in moist meadows it 
produces a considerable quantity of hay, but is 
not to be recommended as one of the best 
grasses for the farmer. It is liable to the same 
objection as the last, viz., the long sharp awns 
with which the spikelets are armed, rendering 
it dangerous to the mouths of cattle by stick- 
ing in small fragments to their gums and pro- 
ducing inflammation. In England it flowers 
in July, and the seed is ripe in August. 

Hordeum maritimum. Sea-barley, or squirrel- 
tail grass. This species is annual in its habit, 
and grows in pastures and sandy ground near 
the sea. It most resembles H. murinum in ge- 
neral habit, but is on the whole rather smaller, 
and more glaucous. The awns are all rougher, 
with minute bristly teeth. The plant is not of 
common occurrence, although it abounds ia 
the isle of Thanet. {Eng. Flor. vol. i. p. 179 ; 
Hort. Gram. Wob.) 

HOREHOUND, WATER. One of the names 
of the common gipsy-wort (Lycopus Europceus) ; 
which see. 

The plant called by this name in the United 
States, is the L. sinuatus, which frequents the 
low grounds of Pennsylvania and other Middle 
States. {Flora Cestrica.) 

HOREHOUND, WHITE (Marrubium vul- 
gare, from marrob, a Hebrew word, signifying a 
bitter juice ; in allusion to the extreme bitter- 
ness of the plant). This species grows in 
rubbish by roadsides, in dry waste grounds, 
and on commons, flowering from July to Sep- 
tember. The stem is bushy, branching from 
the bottom, bluntly quadrangular, clothed with 
fine woolly pubescence. The shape and size 
of the leaves varies; the flowers are white, in 
dense convex whorls. The whole herb has a 
white or hoary aspect, and a very bitter, not 
unpleasantly aromatic, flavour. Its extract is 
a popular remedy for coughs and asthmatic 
complaints ; hence also the celebrity of hore- 
hound-tea among the common people. Bees 
collect honey from the flowers; but the herb 
is not eaten by any of the domestic animals. 

Any common soil will suit these plants, and 
they are readily increased by divisions of the 
roots, or by seeds. (Eng. Flor. vol. iii. p. 103 ; 
Paxtoii's Bot, Diet.) 

HORN. A hard substance, growing on the 
heads of various animals, which partakes of 
the chemical nature of the cartilaginous part 
of bone ; it consists chiefly of albumen, with 
some gelatin and a trace of phosphate of lime. 

The horn of the ox is composed of an elon- 
gation of the frontal bone, covered by a hard 
coating, originally of a gelatinous nature. Its 
base is a process or continuation of the frontal 
bone, and it is, like that bone, hollow and 
divided into numerous compartments or cells, 
all of them communicating with each other. 



HORNBEAM. 



HORNED-POPPY. 



and lined by a continuation of the membrane 
of the nose. The bone of the horn is exceed- 
ingly vascular, and hence, when broken, the 
haemorrhage is so great that there could 
scarcely be more bleeding from the amputa- 
tion of a limb. The rings on the horns of 
cattle have been considered as forming a cri- 
terion by which to determine the age of the ox. 
At three years old the first distinct one is usu- 
ally observed ; at four years old, two are seen; 
and afterwards one is added each succeeding 
year. Thence was deduced the rule, that if 
two were added to the number of rings the age 
of the animal would be given. These rings, 
however, are perfectly distinct in the cow only; 
in the ox they do not appear until he is five 
years old, and they are often confused : in the 
bull they are either not seen until five, or they 
cannot be traced at all. As a criterion of age, 
this process of nature is far too irregular for 
any certain dependence to be placed upon it, 
and the rings are easily effaced by a rasp. 
The length of the horn — whether classed as 
long horns, short horns, or middle horns — now 
forms the distinguishing character of the dif- 
ferent breeds of cattle. The oxen of the north- 
ern part of central Africa, although smaller 
than the majority of the English cattle, have 
horns that are nearly four feet in length, and 
will contain more than ten quarts. The Bur- 
mese oxen, which are much larger, have sin- 
gular horns of a half spiral form, very soft, 
tlie pair together scarcely weighing 4 pounds ; 
yet Captain Clapperton tells us, they are 3 feet 
7 inches in length, 2 feet in circumference at 
the base, and 1 foot 6 inches midway towards 
the tip. Some of the true Arnee buffaloes at 
Bengal, and the Abyssinian cattle, have also 
enormous horns. The horns of cattle are ap- 
plied to a variety of purposes ; for making 
combs, knife-handles, the tops of whips, sub- 
stitutes for glass in lanterns, glue, and the 
refuse chippings are used as manure. 

The Iceland sheep sometimes carry five or 
six horns. (Youatt on Cattle, p. 278-— 283.) 

HORNBEAM (Carpinus betulus, from the 
Celtic car, wood, and pinda, head, the wood 
being fit for the yokes of cattle). A rigid tree 
of humble growth, patient of cropping, and well 
suited for hedges or covered walks in gardens 
of the old style, some of which may still be 
seen attached to several old English mansions. 
In England fashion has entirely swept away the 
hornbeam, which composed the labyrinth, the 
maze, the alleys, the verdant galleries, arcades, 
porticoes, and arches of our forefathers, and 
which formed the leafy walls that divided their 
stately gardens into stars, goose-foot avenues, 
and devices as numerous as geometrical figures 
are various. When standing by itself and 
allowed to take its natural form, the hornbeam 
makes a much more handsome tree than most 
people are aware of, growing from 12 to 30 
feet high. It is found in woods and hedges, on 
a meager, damp, tenacious soil, and makes a 
principal part of the ancient forests on the 
north and east sides of London, as Finchley, 
Epping, &c. The wood is, as Gerarde says, 
of a horny toughness and hardness: the bark 
smooth and whitish or light gray. Leaves re- 
sembling those of an elm, but smooth, doubly 



serrated, pointed about two inches long, plaited 
when young, having numerous, parallel transi. 
verse hairy ribs. 

Young trees are raised from seeds or layers 
without difficulty. It is known by different 
local names, such as the hard beam tree, the 
horse, or horn beech tree, &c. The leaves of 
the hornbeam afford a grateful food to cattle, 
but no grasses will grow under their shade. 
The wood burns like a candle, is much em- 
ployed by turners, and is very useful for various 
implements of husbandry, being wrought into 
cogs for the wheels of mills, presses, &c. which 
are far superior to those made of yew. 

There are two trees in the United States 
which go under the common appellation of 
hornbeam, namely, the water beech (Carpinus 
Americana of Michaux, Betulus Virginica of 
Marsh,) and the hop hornbeam, more generally 
known by the name of ironwood (the Oslrya 
Virginica of Darlington, and Carpinus ostrya 
of Michaux and others). 

The water beech is the only known species 
of the Carpinus genus in the United States. It 
is found along the margins of rivulets in the 
Middle States, where it attains the height of 
only 10 or 20 feet, with 2 to 5 inches in dia- 
meter, irregularly and obtusely ridged, and 
sulcate, often branching from the root. It 
bears a broad ovoid nut, somewhat flattened, 
smoothish, and dark brown. 

The ironwood, or hop hornbeam grows from 
20 to 40 feet high, and 4 to 10 inches in dia- 
meter, with a brown, roughish, slightly fissured 
bark, and slender branches. It bears a nut 
seated in the bottom of a sac, 3 or 4 lines in 
length, somewhat compressed, smooth, shining, 
of a pale olive colour, with a leaden tinge. 
This tree is of very slow growth, and its wood^ 
as its name implies, is very hard, which adapts 
it to the various useful purposes enumerated 
in the description of the English hornbeam. 

HORN BUG. A kind of beetle. The largest 
of these beetles, in the New England States, 
was first described by Linnceus under the name 
of Lucanus capreolus, signifying the young roe- 
buck; but here it is called the horn bug. Its 
colour is a deep mahogany brown ; the surface 
is smooth and polished; the upper jaws of the 
male are long, curved like a sickle, and fur- 
nished internally beyond the middle with a little 
tooth ; those of the female are much shorter, 
and also toothed ; the head of the male is 
broad and smooth, that of the other sex nar- 
rower and rough with punctures. The body 
of this beetle measures from one inch to one 
inch and a quarter, exclusive of the jaws. The 
time of its appearance is in July and the be- 
ginning of August. The grubs live in the 
trunks and roots of various kinds of trees, but 
particularly in those of old apple trees, wil- 
lows, and oaks. 

Several other and smaller kinds of stag- 
beetles are found in New England, but their 
habits are much the same as those of the more 
common horn bug. (Han-is.) 

HORNED-POPPY (Glaucium, from glaukos, 
alluding to the hoary gray colour of the plants) 
A genus of very pretty annuals, or biennials, 
some of which are particularly handsome in 
the flower borders of the garden, where they 

635 



HORNET. 

flower and ripen seed in abundance, which has 
only to be sown in the open border. The fol- 
lowing are the English species. 

1. Yellow horned-poppy (G. luteum). This 
is a biennial, growing wild on the sandy sea- 
coast, producing golden-yellow flowers in July 
and August. 

2. Scarlet horned-poppy C^- phaniceum). 
This is a very rare, or, as Smith observes, 
perhaps doubtful native. It is annual in habit, 
the root is tapering, the herb rather less glau- 
cous, and more upright than the preceding. 
The flower-stalks and calyx are hairy. The 
petals are smaller and narrower than those of 
the last described species, and of a rich scarlet, 
with an oblong black spot at the base. The 
pod is clothed with numerous rigid, silky 
bristles. 

Violet horned-poppy (G.violaceum). This is 
an annual met with sometimes, but not fre- 
quently, in grainfields. The root is slender, 
stem erect, a foot high, round, even, and quite 
smooth ; leaves dark green, twice or thrice 
pinnatifid; flowers of a brilliant violet blue, 
very splendid, but extremely fugacious, some- 
what larger than the last ; pods 2 or 3 inches 
long, cylindrical, more or less clothed with 
bristly prickles. (Eng. Flor. vol. iii. p. 5; Pax- 
ton's Bot, Did.) 

HORNET {Vespa crabro). A well-known 
fierce insect, which is about one inch in length, 
and builds its nest in hollow trees. The sting 
of the hornet is severe, and occasions a con- 
siderable tumour, accompanied with intense 
pain ; for the mitigation of which, there is no 
better remedy than sweet oil, or honey water 
immediately applied to the place. Hornets are 
very dangerous enemies to bees, which they 
attack and consume entirely, except the wings 
and feet: they are also very destructive to 
fruit. 

The American hornet is the Vespa maculata 
of naturalists. Instead of building their nests 
in hollow trees, the American hornets are na- 
tural paper-makers, and manufacture water- 
light nests of paper, which they construct 
around the branches of trees or shrubs where 
they appear as large globes, sometimes a foot 
or more in diameter. The material of these 
nests consists of the fibres of wood, prepared 
by the insects, and wrought into a substance 
very similar to common brown paper made 
of rags. Like others of the wasp family the 
American hornet is a depredator upon fruit, 
and comes about houses in search of flies. 

HORNWORT (Ceratophyllum, from keras, a 
horn, and phyllon, a leaf: the petals are cut so 
as to appear like a stag's horn). These are 
uninteresting water plants, thriving in any 
pond, and easily raised from seeds. The com- 
mon horn wort (C. demersum) is abundant in 
ditches and fish-ponds ; the herb floating 
entirely under water, dark green, copiously 
branched, 2 or 3 feet long, densely clothed with 
whorled spreading forked leaves, eight in each 
whorl, and axillary, solitary, sessile, pale green 
flowers. The fruit armed with two spreading 
lateral spines. There is another indigenous 
species the unarmed hornwort (C. submersum), 
which is a more rare plant, and the fruit is 
destitute of soines. 
636 



HORSE. 

There are two species of this plant found in 
the United States. One of them {Ceratophyl- 
lum demersum) is described by Darlington as 
found in the waters of the Schuylkill, Brandy- 
wine and tributaries; the other (C. submersum) 
is described by Messrs. Nuttall and Eaton. 

HORSE, THE. The genus Equus, accord- 
ing to modern naturalists, consists of six dif- 
ferent animals, — viz. the Equus caballus, or 
horse ; jE. hemionus, the dziggithai ; E. usinus, 
the ass ; E. quagga, the quagga ; E. zebra, or 
mountain zebra; and E. burchelli, the zebra of 
the plains. It is only of the first that I shall 
have to treat in this article. 

Horse, the. This noble animal, there is little 
doubt, is a native of the warm countries of the 
East, where he is found wild in a state of con- 
siderable perfection. It is there that we find 
the barb and the Arab, noble races of horses 
that have long mainly contributed to improve 
the present English ' race-horse, until he has 
arrived at his present state of unequalled per- 
fection. The use of the horse, both as a beast 
of burden, and for the purposes of war, early 
attracted the attention of mankind. Thus the 
Canaanites are recorded as having gone out to 
fight against Israel with many horses and cha- 
riots. (Joshua ii. 4.) And 1650 years b. c, 
when Joseph proceeded with his father's body 
into Canaan from Egypt, there accompanied 
him both chariots and horsemen. (Gen. xix.) 
They were fed in those days on barley (1 Kings, 
iv. 28) : and 150 years afterwards, the chariots 
of Egypt are described as being exceedingly 
numerous. The horse was early employed on 
the course. 1450 years m. c. the Olympic 
Games were established in Greece, at which 
horses were used in the chariot and other 
races. 

Preserved from the flood waters in the ark, 
the first breed of horses must have proceeded 
from the neighbourhood of Mount Ararat; but 
whether the original stock were first located in 
Asia or in Africa is an inquiry which we have 
no means of deciding. Equally ineffectual are 
all the attempts which have been made to de- 
cide as to which variety of the horse constitutes 
the original breed; while some contend for the 
barb, others prefer the wild horses of Tartary. 
It is certain, however, that so late as the se- 
venth century there were but few horses in 
Arabia; even now the breed is much more 
limited in number, according to Burckhardt, 
than is commonl}' supposed. He remarked, in 
a letter to Professor Sewel, "It is a mistaken 
idea that Arabia is very rich in horses; the 
breed in that country is limited to the extent of 
its fertile pasturing districts; and it is in these 
parts only that the breed prospers ; while the 
Bedouins, who are in possession of poor ground, 
seldom possess any horses. We therefore see 
that the tribes richest in horses are those who 
dwell in comparatively the fertile plain of 
Mesopotamia, on the borders of the Euphrates 
and in the Syrian deserts. It is there that the 
horses can feed for several spring months 
upon the green grass and herbs of the valleys 
and plains, produced by the rains, which seem 
to be an absolute requisite for its reaching to 
its full vigour and growth." The care with 
which the Arabs tend their horses is prover- 



I 



HORSE. 



HORSE. 



bial. " The Bedouins," adds Burckhardt, " when 
a hcrse is born, never let it drop down to the 
ground, but receive and keep it for several 
hours upon their arms, washing it, stretching 
and strengthening its limbs, and hugging it 
like a baby." (Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. vii. p. 
577.) None were found either on the conti- 
nent or on the islands of the New World. And 
yet the large droves of wild horses which have 
descended from the two or three mares and 
stallions left by the early Spanish voyagers, 
and which now abound in the plains of South 
America, prove very clearly that the climate 
and the soil of the New World are not adverse 
to the propagation of the wild horse. 

" 'I'he horse," says Professor Low (Illustra- 
tions of the Breeds of the Domestic Animals, part 
ix.), " is seen to be affected in his character 
and form, by the agencies of food and climate, 
and it may be by other causes unknown to us. 
He sustains the temperature of the most burn- 
ing regions ; but there is a degree of cold at 
which he cannot exist, and as he approaches 
to this limit, his temperament and external 
conformation are affected. In Iceland, at the 
arctic circle, he has become a dwarf; in Lap- 
land, at latitude 65°, he has given place to the 
reindeer; and in Kamtschalka, at latitude 52°, 
he has given place to the dog. The nature 
and abundance of his food, too, greatly affect 
his character and form. A country of heaths 
and innutritions herbs will not produce a horse 
so large and strong as one of plentiful herbage. 
The horse of the mountains will be smaller 
than that of the plains ; the horse of the sandy 
desert than of the watered valley." 

Leaving, however, these interesting, but for 
this work too extensive, researches, I propose 
to direct rny attention to the English breed of 
horses, and more especially to those which 
come particularly within the farmer's pro- 
vince. 

From a very early period there appears to 
have existed in England a powerful, active, 
useful, and numerous breed of horses. Caesar, 
perhaps with the natural inclination of a con- 
queror to elevate the prowess of his defeated 
enemies, gives a very lively account of the 
horses used by the early Britons in their war 
chariots ; which, armed with iron scythes 
affixed to their axletrees, were driven furiously 
and destructively amid the ranks of their ene- 
mies. And if it be true, that when Cassibel- 
launus had disbanded the chief portion of his 
army, he yet retained 4000 war chariots 
to harass the foraging parties of the Roman 
army ; the supply of good horses able to work 
these heavy war chariots with sufficient speed 
over the open country, and bad roads of that 
period, must have been pretty considerable. 

Of such imperfect materials is constituted all 
the accounts in our possession, of the native 
breed of English horses. That they were 
valuable, is proved, amongst other things, by 
the fact, that the Roman generals carried many 
of them to Italy. The improvement of the 
breed was an object of the early Saxon princes 
of England. Athelstan imported several Ger- 
man running horses, and he even (930) prohi- 
bited the exportation of those bred in England, 
a decree, which of itself proves that they were 



then in demand abroad. It is supposed that 
oxen were, in his days, solely used for the 
plough ; there is no early record of the horse 
being used for such a purpose. The first no- 
tice of a horse being employed in agriculture, 
is in tapestry of Bayeux (woven in 1066), 
where one is depicted drawing a harrow. 

With William of Normandy came many 
Spanish horses. His army was furnished with 
a powerful cavalry, to whom he might well 
attribute his hard-earned victory of Hastings. 

In 1121, we have the first notice of an Ara- 
bian horse being in Great Britain ; for in that 
year, I find that Alexander I. of Scotland pre- 
sented one to the church of St. Andrews. 
King John procured from Flanders 100 stal- 
lions, and is to be gratefully remembered for 
other efforts to improve the English breed of 
horses. Edward II. and Edward III. also im- 
ported horses from Lombardy, France, and 
Spain. Henry VIII. did all he could to encou- 
rage the breed. Race-courses were now esta- 
blished at Chester and at Stamford. But it 
was not till the time of James I. that the mo- 
dern system of racing, under certain rules and 
regulations, commenced, and a peculiar breed 
of race-horses began to be formed; for previous 
to that time fast horses of all breeds ran in the 
same race. 

This noble breed of race-horses, which now 
excels in beauty, speed, and endurance that of 
all other nations, has been gradually formed 
by the introduction of the best blood of Spain, 
of Barbary, of Turkey, and of Arabia. It would 
be a grateful task to follow the English race- 
horse through his entire history, to trace his 
progress by gradual yet steady degrees towards 
perfection, his generous properties, his con- 
tests, and his triumphs over the best horses of 
Arabia, of Persia, and of the New World ; out- 
footing the fleetest, and in endurance excelling 
all that the proud nobles of Russia could pro- 
duce of the best and most celebrated Cossack 
horses of the banks of the Don. But in a work 
devoted to agriculture, my attention must be 
more directed to those valuable breeds of 
horses generally employed by the farmer. 

The Arabian horse is represented in PI. 13, 
a ; the English racer, b, reduced, from Profes- 
sor Low's splendid Avork on British animals. 
The English improved hackney, d. 

The Cart Horse. — Of this description there 
are several varieties, the principal of which are 
the Cleveland, the Clydesdale, the Northamp- 
tonshire, the Suffolk punch, and the heavy 
black or dray horse. 

The Clydesdale is a valuable breed of cart- 
horses, bred chiefly in the valley of the Clyde 
(hence their name). They are strong and 
hardy, have a small head, are longer necked 
than'the Suffolk, with deeper leP, and lighter 
carcasses. PI. 13, h. 

The Suffolk Punch is a very valuable breed 
of horses, especially for farms composed of 
soils of a moderate degree of tenacity. They 
originated by crossing the Suffolk cart mare 
with (he Norman stallion. PI. 13, g. 

"The true Suffolk," says the author of the 

Lib. of Useful Know. (" The Horse," p. 38), "like 

the Cleveland, is now nearly extinct. It stood 

from 15 to 16 hands high, of a sorrel colour 

3H 637 



HORSE. 



HORSE. 



was large-headed, low-shouldered, and thick 
on the top, deep, and round-chested, long- 
backed, high in the croup, large and strong in 
the quarters, £ull in the flanks, round in the 
legs, and short in the pasterns. It was the very 
horse to throw his whole weight into the collar, 
with sufficient activity to do it effectually, and 
hardihood to stand a long day's work. The 
present breed possesses many of the peculiari- 
ties and good qualities of its ancestors. It is 
more or less inclined to a sorrel-brown : it is a 
taller horse, higher, and finer in the shoulders, 
and is a cross with the Yorkshire half or three- 
fourths bred. The excellence, and a rare one, 
of the old Suffolk (the new breed has not quite 
lost it) consisted in nimbleness of action and 
the honesty and continuance with which he 
would exert himself at a dead pull even until 
he dropped." 

The heavy black horse is chiefly bred in Lin- 
colnshire, and the midland counties. PI. 13, e. 
These are commonly sold by the breeders at 
two years old to the farmers of Surrey, and 
other metropolitan counties, who work them 
till they are four years old, and then sell them 
to the London merchants for brewers' drays, 
and other heavy carriages. " This kind of 
horse," says the same excellent authority I 
have just quoted, "should have a broad chest, 
and thick and upright shoulders (the more up- 
right the collar stands on him the better), a low 
forehead, deep and round barrel, loins broad 
and high, ample quarters, thick fore-arms and 
thighs, short legs, round hoofs, broad at the 
heels, and soles not too flat. The great fault 
of the large dray horse is his slowness. This 
is so much in the breed, that even the disci- 
plined ploughman who would be belter pleased 
to get through an additional rood in the day, 
cannot permanently quicken him. The largest 
of this heavy breed of black horses are used as 
dray horses. The next in size are employed as 
wagon horses; and a smaller variety, and with 
more blood, constitutes a considerable part of 
our cavalry ; and is likewise devoted to 
undertakers' work." {Lib. of Useful Knmv, p. 
46.) 

" The dray horse" says Mr. Wilson, " probably 
results from a fine carriage horse, possessed 
of a certain portion of blood, and a very strong 
well-forr.ied mare of the country breed. The 
gigantic proportions and immense powers of 
these horses are only equalled by their intelli- 
gence and docility. It may safely be said that 
this breed of horses is not to be paralleled on the 
face of the earth." (Quart. Journ. of Jlgr. vol. 
ii. p. 34.) 

Besides these valuable kinds of English 
draught horses, there are a variety of mongrel 
breeds employed by the farmers, especially in 
the neighbourhood of London, and other large 
towns, which it is needless to name, and diffi- 
cult to describe. Aged or lamed cab horses, 
:he refuse of the London hackney coaches, «&c. 
may all be seen drawing the small farmers' 
teams in the neighbourhood of London. An 
BngUsh draught mare is represented at PI. 
13, / reduced, from Stephens's Book of the 
Farm. 
Too little attention is generally paid, in fact, 
6,38 



to the breeding of superior cart horses by the 
farmer. The soil and the food which the dis- 
trict produces, has commonly more influence 
upon the size of the animal than the choice of 
the mare or the stallion ; and although by the 
exertions of the Highland, and other Agricul- 
tural Societies, the breed is now considerably 
improved, yet still much more remains to be 
effected in this way The Ayrshire Agricul- 
tural Association, at a late meeting, deter- 
mined upon the purchase of a Flemish stal- 
lion, for the purpose of improving the breed in 
Scotland, the Society being convinced that there 
is a much better breed of draught horses in 
Flanders than in any part of Great Britain. 

"The most important circumstance," says a 
well-known author, " which influences the pro- 
fits of the farmer, is the cost of his team and 
the wages of his labourers. These vary in 
different situations. In some parts of the 
country the horses are pampered and kept so 
fat that they can scarcely do a day's work as 
they ought. In others they are overworked and 
badly fed. Either extreme must be a loss to 
the farmer. In the first case the horses cannot 
do their work, and consume an unnecessary 
quantity of provender, and, in the other, they 
are soon worn out ; and the loss in horses that 
become useless, or die, is greater than the 
saving in their food, or the extra work done 
by them. A horse properly fed will work 8 or 
10 hours every day in the week, resting only 
on Sundays. By a judicious division of the 
work of the horses, they are never over-worked, 
and an average value of a day's work is easily 
ascertained. This, in a well-regulated farm, 
will be found much less than the common 
valuations give it." 

The labour of a horse is commonly reckoned 
equal to that of 5 men; he works, however, 
only 8 hours, while a man works 10. It has 
often been asserted that the powers of endu- 
rance of a man are considerably greater than 
that of a horse ; and in a hurdle race at Ips- 
wich, in 1841, between a capital hunter carry- 
ing 10 stones, and Townshend, a celebrated 
runner, over 6 miles of ground, and 100 hurdle 
leaps, the horse was easily beaten. In a 
second trial, however, the horse came ofi" the 
winner. The power of a horse in pulling sel- 
dom exceeds 144 lbs. ; but he will carry from 
500 lbs. to 1000 lbs. The power of a horse in 
pulling, if equal to 144 lbs. at a rate of 2 
miles an hour, would be reduced to 64 lbs. at 4 
miles an hour, and to 36 lbs. at 6 miles. In 
wheel carriages, on level roads, a horse will 
draw easily about 15 times the power exerted. 
A horse, in a single-horse cart, seems capable 
of drawing his load to the greatest advantage, 
and of late several improved single-horse carts 
have been suggested. (See Cabts ; and Jour, 
of Roy. Agr. Sac. vol. ii. p. 73.) The single- 
horse carts, both of London and Liverpool, 
convey enormous weights over the paved 
streets ; and at Paris a single horse draws 2 
tons. The carriers between Edinburgh and 
Glasgow, in carts weighing 7 cwt., convey a 
ton of goods 22 miles a day with one horse. 
The carriers of Normandy, with 4 horses, in 
2-wheeled carts, weighing 11 cwt., convey from 



HORSE. 



HORSE. 



14 to 22 miles per day 4 tons of goods. See 
Tractioit. 

The Hunter. PI. 13, c. It has been said that 
the hunter should be rarely under 15 or 16 
hands high ; below this he cannot well stand 
over his work, and above this he is apt to be 
long-legged and awkward at his work. With 
the increased speed of the hounds, and by the 
enclosures increasing the powers of the coun- 
try to retain the scent, the speed of the modern 
hunters is much greater than that of the olden 
time, when with slow hounds, and strong, ac- 
tive horses, the country gentlemen had their 
"meets" at break of day, and continued the 
chase for hours. Hence it is now pretty gene- 
rally agreed that the modern hunter should be 
at least three-quarters bred. Many prefer the 
thorough-bred horse, especially if he can be 
procured with sufficient bone. The proper- 
ties which a good hunter should possess, are 
thus described in the Library of Useful Know- 
ledge (27(e iforsc, p. 51): "He should be light 
in hand ; for this purpose his head must be 
small, his neck thin, and especially thin be- 
neath his crest, firm and arched, and his jaws 
wide. The head will then be well set on ; it 
will form that angle with the neck which gives 
a light and pleasant mouth. Somewhat of a 
ewe-neck, however it may lessen the beauty 
of the race-horse, does not interfere with his 
speed, because more weight may be thrown 
forward, and consequently the whole bulk of 
the animal more easily impelled; at the same 
lime the head is more readily and perfectly ex- 
tended, the windpipe is brought almost to a 
straight line from the lungs to the muzzle, and 
the breathing is freer. Should the courser, in 
consequence of this form of the neck, bear 
more heavily on the hand the race is soon 
over, but the hunter may be our companion 
and our servant through a long day, and it is 
of essential consequence that he shall not too 
much annoy and tire us by the weight of his 
head and neck. The forehead should be loftier 
than that of the racer. A turf horse may be 
forgiven if his hind quarters rise an inch or 
two above his fore ones. His principal power 
is warned for behind, and the very lowness of 
the forehead may throw more weight in front, 
and cause the whole machine to be more 
easily and speedily moved. A lofty forehead, 
however, is indispensable in the hunter, the 
shoulder as extensive as in the racer, as 
oblique, and somewhat thicker ; the saddle will 
then be in its proper place, and will continue 
so, however long may be the run. The barrel 
should be rounder, to give greater room for the 
heart and lungs to play, and send more and 
purer blood to the larger frame of this horse; 
and especially more room to play when the 
run may continue unchecked for a time that 
begins to be distressing. A broad chest is an 
excellence in the hunter. In the violent and 
long-continued action of the chase, the respira- 
tion is exceedingly quickened, and abundantly 
more blood is hurried through the lungs in a 
given time, than when the animal is at rest. 
There must be sufficient room for this, or the 
animal will be blown, and possibly destroyed. 
Th« majority of horses that perish' in the field 



are narrow-chested. The arm should be as 
muscular as that of the courser, or even more 
so, for both strength and endurance are wanted. 
The leg should be deeper than that of the race- 
horse (broader as you stand at the side of the 
horse), and especially beneath the knee. In 
proportion to the distance of the tendon from 
the cannon or shankbone, and more particu- 
larly just below the knee, is the mechanical 
advantage with which it acts. A racer may be 
tied beneath the knee without perfectly de- 
stroying his power, but a hunter with this 
defect will rarely have stoutness. The leg 
should be shorter than that of a race-horse, for 
higher action is required of him, that the legs 
may be cleanly and safely lifted over many an 
obstacle, and particularly that they may be 
well doubled up in the leap. The pastern 
should be shorter, and less slanting, yet retain- 
ing considerable obliquity. The long pastern 
is useful by the yielding resistance which its 
obliquity affords to break the concussion with 
which the race-horse, from his immense stride 
and speed, must come to the ground ; and the 
oblique direction of the different bones beauti- 
fully contributes to effect the same purpose. 
With this elasticity, however, a considerable 
degree of weakness is necessarily connected, 
and the race-horse occasionally breaks down 
in the middle of his course. The hunter, from 
his different action, takes not this length of 
stride, and therefore wants not all this elastic 
mechanism ; he more needs strength to sup- 
port his own heavier carcass, the greater 
weight of his rider, and to endure the fatigue 
of a long day. Some obliquity, however, he 
requires, otherwise the concussion even of his 
shorter gallop, and more particularly of his 
frequently tremendous leaps, would inevitably 
lame him. The foot of the hunter is a most 
material point, for it is battered over many a 
flinty road and stony field, and if not particu- 
larly good, will soon be disabled and ruined. 
The position of the feet requires some atten- 
tion in the hunter; they should, if possible, 
stand upright. If they turn a little outward, 
there is no serious objection, but if they turn 
inward, his action can hardly be safe, particu- 
larly when he is fatigued or over-weighted. 
The body should be short and compact com- 
pared with that of the race-horse, that he may 
not, in his gallop, take too extended a stride. 
This would be a serious disadvantage in a long 
day, and with a heavy rider, from the stress on 
the pasterns; and more serious efforts required 
when going over clayey, poachey ground in the 
winter months. The compact, short-strided 
horse will almost skim on the surface, while 
the feet of the longer-reached animal will sink 
deep, and he will wear himself out by efforts to 
disengage himself. The loins should be broad, 
the quarters long, the thighs muscular, the 
hocks well bent, and under the horse." {Ibid. 
p. 53.) 

Galloways. A horse between 13 and 14 
hands high is called a galloway. The name 
originated from a beautiful race of little horses 
once bred in Scotland, on the banks of the Sol- 
way Frith. The pure galloway was distin- 
guished for its speed and stoutness, and was 

639 



HORSE. 



HORSE. 



remarkably sure-footed. Horses of this kind 
are very serviceable and useful; are capable 
of performing a great deal of light active work, 
and are rarely so high-priced as the larger 
horse. 

Ponies. Of these there are an endless va- 
riety, both in fine shape and value. The Welch 
pony is perhaps the most beautiful of the class. 
He has a neat small head andbarrel that is at 
once round and deep, good feet, short, strong 
joints, flat legs, with high withers. Some of 
the most beautiful ponies of England are of this 
breed. 

The New Foresters are commonly very ill- 
made, coarse, ragged, large-hipped, ugly ani- 
mals, but active, enduring, hardy, and easily 
maintained upon very coarse food. The same 
remarks will pretty generally apply to those of 
Exmoor and Dartmoor in Devonshire. 

Of the Srolch breeds, the Highland is the 
largest, and the most useful ; those of the 
Shetland Isles, called in the north shelties, (PI. 
13, A-,) range between 7^ and 9^ hands in 
height, are often small-headed, beautiful, good- 
tempered, and docile. They have commonly 
short necks, low and thick shoulders, short 
backs, possess great strength, and will fatten 
upon the coarsest food. 

The Irish Horse. — In the rich grazing districts 
of Roscommon and Meath, many large tho- 
roughbred horses are reared, that were formerly 
distinguished for their large, coarse, ragged, 
rawboned appearance, but the breed has been 
very materially improved by the introduction 
of superior stallions and other means, so that 
now many of the Irish horses claim an equality 
with the best of those of England. The Irish 
horse is commonly beautiful, fiery, yet good- 
tempered, easily excited, of great endurance, 
and perhaps the best leaper in the world. The 
Irish Hunter is represented in PI. 13, i, from 
Lowe's work on British animals. 

Feeding Horses. — The best method of feeding 
horses, especially those belonging to the farm, 
is a question highly interesting to the farmer. 
Many are the substances employed for this 
purpose, such as oats, oatmeal, barley, bran, 
beans, peas, potatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, 
hay, saidifoin, clover, rye-grass, straw, grains, 
and sometimes oil-cake : bruised gorse or furze 
is excellent. The oats are best given when 
bruised, the potatoes should be steamed and 
mixed with chaff and salt; hay and straw are 
economically cut into chaff. In many of the 
stabies about London, hay is never put into the 
rack. Thus in the stables of Hanbury and 
Truman, each horse is allowed per day 18 lbs. 
of cut hay and straw (one-eighth of the latter), 
14 lbs. of bruised oats, and 1 lb. of bruised 
beans ; half a pound of salt per week is also 
given ; in summer the beans are withdrawn, 
and the oats increased. In France the daily 
rations allowed to the heavy cavalry horses 
are, oats 10 lbs., hay 10 lbs., straw 10 lbs. ("On 
ihe Norman Horse," Quart. Jo%irn. of .Agr.) 

Dr. Sully, of Wivelscombe, some years since, 
~ave the following statement of the different 
articles of food which his horses received to 
keep them in excellent condition. He, too, had 
no racks in his stables. {Ibid. vol. ii. p. 
726.) 

640 





Fir.t 


Second 


Third 


Fourth 




Clasu 


Class, 
lbs. 


CUsi. 


Class. 


lb>. 


lbs. 


lbs. 


1. Farinaceous substances, 










consisting of bruised or 










ground beans, peas, bar- 










ley, wheat, or oats 


5 


5 


10 


5 


2. Bran, fine or coarse 


- 


- 


- 


7 


3. Boiled or steamed pota- 










toes, mashed in a tub 










with a wooden bruiser 


5 


5 






4. Fresh grains (boiled bar- 










ley) - - - - 


6 








5. Hay cut down into chaff - 


7 


8 


10 


8 


6. Straw cut down into 










chaff . - - - 


7 


10 


10 


8 


7. Malt dust, or ground oil- 










cake - - - . 


- 


2 


- 


2 




30 


30 


30 


30 


With 2 oz. salt for each class 











The advantage oi cooking the food for horses 
has been advocated by Mr. Dick, Ibid. vol. iiL 
p. 1024 ; and in many cases is a practice highly 
to be commended. An apparatus for steaming 
food for horses with an engine is given, Ibid, 
vol. vi. p. 33 ; and Mr. Fisher details the mode 
of feeding them with potatoes. Com. Board of 
Jlgr. vol. iv. p. 335. A machine for bruising 
grain for horses is described in Quart. Jourru 
of .Agr. vol. V. p. 100. 

The number of horses of all kinds in Eng- 
land is estimated by Mr. M'CuUoch, to be from 
1,400,000 to 1,500,000, which, at an average 
value of from 12/. to 15/., makes their total 
value from 18,000,000/. to 22,500,000/. In 183?. 
the riding-horse duty was paid for 182,878 
horses. (Com. Diet.) 

It appears from the statement accompanying 
the census of the United States in 1840, that 
the number of horses and mules in the Union 
was 4,333,669. 

The Wild Horse. — The horse is still found 
wild in Africa, in Tartary, and in America, iu 
the Southern continent, of which last country 
they are said to be sometimes found in droves 
of iO,000. It is here that they seem to act both 
in self-defence, and for the attack of their ene- 
mies, with a subordination and union of pur- 
pose that is not a little curious. It seems that 
they have some bold and strong horse for their 
chief, who is their courageous leader in the 
onset, the first to direct their retreat. They 
close, at some intelligible signal, upon their 
enemies, and trample them to death. These, 
amongst the natives of America, are neither 
very numerous nor dangerous. The leopard, 
tiger, and lion of the New World are very in- 
ferior animals to their namesakes of the olden 
continents. Man is their greatest enemy; they 
are hunted and captured by the Guachos with 
their lassos, or even killed for their skins and 
flesh, in considerable numbers. These wild 
American horses are not particularly fast, but 
they can endure great fatigue, and, when once 
tamed, are exceedingly docile. Other wild 
hcrses are found in various parts of the world, 
but nowhere in a state of nature does he equal 
the size, the form, the speed, or the strength of 
the domesticated horse. 

For an interesting account of the wild horses 
of South America, see the Farmer's Register, 
vol. ii. 

Good keep and good management, indeed, 
strangely improve the appearance of even th« 



/'/f//r A'/. 







^SrV" 





*5-)l'-^ Z .Sr^-' 



British. Horses 







HORSE. 



HORSE. 



naturally poorest breeds. The ponies of Shet- 
land, or the still more diminutive steeds of 
China, when bred on rich English pastures, 
rapidly increase in size. The horses of Arabia 
do the same. 

In the extensive territory of the United 
States, several breeds of horses are found, the 
characteristics of which are widely different. 

The Canadian. This is one of the principal 
races found in the Northern Stales, and is ge- 
nerally considered of French or Norman de- 
scent, many of the characteristics of which 
are retained. 

The Morgan horse. Perhaps the very finest 
breed of horses in the United States, when 
general usefulness is taken into consideration, 
is what is commonly known in the Northern 
and Eastern States, as the Morgan horse. This 
breed is distinguished by its activity, united 
with strength and hardiness. Its size is mo- 
derate, and though not often possessing the 
fleetness which recommends it to the sports- 
man, it has enough speed to entitle it to the 
appellation of a fast traveller. Their usual 
height is from 14 to 15 hands, colour bay, make 
round and rather heavy, with lean heads, broad 
and deep chests, the fore-limbs set wide apart, 
legs clean and sinewy, short, strong backs, with 
that projection of the ribs from the back-bone 
which is a sure indication of great develope- 
ment of lungs, and consequently of great wind 
and bottom. For saddle, draught, and other 
useful purposes, the Morgan horses bred in 
Vermont, and in all the Eastern States, includ- 
ing the Northern and Western part of New 
York, are so much prized as to command much 
higher prices in the principal cities of the At- 
lantic States than horses from other parts of 
the Union. 

This fine race is generally believed to have 
originated in the northern part of Vermont 
about the year 1804, from a mixture of the 
French horse from Canada, with New England 
mares. The breed is sometimes known by the 
name of the Goss horse. Some of the cele- 
brated American trotters are of the Morgan 
breed. 

Conesfoga horse. This horse, which is found 
chiefly in Pennsylvania and some of the ad- 
jacent states, is more remarkable for endurance 
than symmetry. In height it sometimes reaches 
17 hands, the legs being long and the carcass 
light. The Conestoga breed make good car- 
riage and heavy-draught horses. 

Virginia and Kentucky hoise. This breed, 
which predominates in the states named, and, 
to a greater or less extent, in all the Southern, 
Middle, and Western States, derives its origin 
from English blood horses imported at various 
times. It has been most diligently and purely 
preserved in the South. The celebrated Shark, 
the best horse of his day, was the sire of the 
best Virginia horses, whilst Tally-ho, a son of 
Highflyer, peopled the Jerseys. (Farmer's Re- 
gister, vol. ii.) 

In the Southwestern States, wild horses 
abound, which are doubtless sprung from the 
same Spanish stock as the wild horses of the 
Pampas and other parts of the Southern con- 
tinent, all of which are of the celebrated An- 
dalusia breed, derived from the Moorish Barb. 
81 



The prairie horses are often captured, and, 
when domesticated, are found to be capable of 
great endurance. They are not, however, re- 
commended by the symmetry or elegance of 
appearance, for which their type is so greatly 
distinguished, being generally rather small and 
scrubby. 

The following interesting observations rela- 
tive to some of the American breeds, were 
lately addressed by the editor of the New York 
Spi7-it of the Times to the editor of the Cvltivator. 

Fifteen years ago, thousands of dollars would 
have been wagered, that no horse in the world 
could trot a mile within three minutes ; as 
many would be laid down now, that it could be 
done in two minutes twenty-eight seconds. 
Ten years ago, to drive a horse 70 miles be- 
tween sun and sun, would have been deemed 
a great performance ; but since strains of the 
blood of old Messenger have been introduced 
into our road stock, at the North, hundreds of 
horses can be found that can travel from 80 to 
90 miles without distress. In our paper of this 
day is a report of the performance of a horse 
in Boston that, without being trained, was 
driven 103 miles between sunrise and sunset, 
over a hilly road, before a carriage, which, 
with the rider, weighed 470 lbs. 

The acknowledged superiority of northern 
carriage and draught stock is owing almost 
entirely to the fact, that thorough-bred horses 
have found their way north and east from Long 
Island and New .Tersey, where great numbers 
are annually disposed of that are unsuited to 
the course. The use of thorough and half-bred 
horses, for domestic purposes, is becoming so 
common in England, that in a few years, no 
other will be used for the road. The half-bred 
horse is not only much handsomer, but his 
speed and powers of endurance are infinitely 
greater. His head and neck are light and 
graceful, his limbs fine, his coat glossy and 
soft as satin, while his action is spirited, and 
his courage and stamina sufficient to carry him 
through a long journey without his falling off 
in condition, or to undergo an extraordinary 
trial of speed and game without distress. The 
ordinary cocktail is, in most instances, a mere 
brute, that in travelling, sinks daily in strength, 
losing his appetite, and, of course, his flesh and 
action, so that at the termination of a ten days' 
journey, he is nearly knocked up ; he can travel 
but about 40 miles per day, and requires the 
whole day to perform this distance. An emi- 
nent southern turfman, well known the country 
over, recovers his horses on a journey; they are 
all from the North, and have a dash of blood in 
their veins ; after driving them hard about his 
plantation in the spring, until they begin to 
look thin and rough, he starts on his annual 
journey, and by the time he reaches the Vir- 
ginia Springs, his horses are literally as fine 
as silk, with fine coats, great spirit, and in good 
condition for fast work. In travelling, he starts 
early, and drives at the rate of 8 or 9 miles the 
hour until 10 o'clock, when his horses are taken 
out, rubbed dry, watered, and fed. In the cool 
of the day, they are again harnessed, as fresh as 
if they had not travelled a mile. In this way 
he accomplishes a long journey, travelling be- 
tween 50 and 60 miles a day, without fatiguo 
3 H 2 641 



HORSE. 



HORSE. 



to himself or injury to his horses. The slow- 
going, no-giving sort of style in which horses 
are jogged along at a snail's pace all day under 
a hot sun, knocks them up in a short time; 
they would neither tire nor lose flesh in double 
the time, if driven sharply a few hours in the 
morning and evening, allowing them to rest in 
the middle of the day. It is the all-day work 
that knocks up horses, not the pace. 

Our friends of the Cultivator may not be 
aware of the vast amount invested in thorough- 
bred horses at this moment in the United Stales, 
or of the prices some of fashionable blood com- 
mand. We can point them to two 5 year old 
horses for which $20,000 each has been refused ; 
to brood mares that will command $5000 each 
at auction ; to a colt six months old, for which 
$4000 has been refused. Among the popular 
stallions we have advertised this season, three 
stand at $150 each, fourteen at $100, twelve at 
$75, eleven at $60, and twenty-three at $50. 
Probably not less ihan 6000 thorough-bred mares, 
and as many more that are full or three-quar- 
ters bred, will be stinted this season to horses 
that are standing at from $35 to $150. As not 
above 2000 out of the whole number foaled 
next season, will probably come upon the turf, 
it is clearly to be seen that a vast number of 
terribly high bred cattle must be used for ordi- 
nary purposes. Of these, the colts of good 
form, that have plenty of bone and substance, 
will of course oust the common tackles and 
■cider-suckers that infest country taverns, whilst 
the others will be used for the saddle and the 
Toad. The result will be, that in a few years, 
the stock now in use will be supplanted by 
horses of superior action, wind, and courage, 
whose greater beauty will not be more appa- 
rent than their belter style of going, and their 
unequalled powers of endurance. {New York 
Spirit of the Times.) 

In the observations which follow these re- 
marks, the editor of ihe Cultivator states that 
he hails with pleasure any improvement which 
promises a better race of horses than those 
which, loo generally in our country, are a mere 
caricature of the noble beast. Our duly and 
our inclination, however, prompt us to pay 
more attention to those breeds and varieties 
adapted to agriculture and the road, than to 
those calculated for the turf alone. That for 
both these purposes horses of a better kind 
maybe introduced by crosses of the fine-limbed, 
hardy-constitutioned, and beautiful thorough- 
bred, with those possessing the bone and sub- 
stance necessary to give the weight and firmness 
required in the draught horse, whether the la- 
bour is to be performed on the road or the farm, 
we do not doubt. For the farm, the thorough- 
bred horse would be comparatively worthless ; 
he lacks weight and substance to give value 
and power for draft ; for road work, the same 
•objections will apply, though not perhaps to the 
same extent. The best English road horse is 
a cross of the thorough-bred and the Cleveland, 
and a cross of the same horse with the thick, 
heavy Suffolk, has given a most valuable farm 
horse. It is not to be expected that the proper 
degrees of blood, activity, power of endurance, 
weight and docility, so essential to the horse 
of the farmer, or for the road, can be obtained 
642 



at once : but from what we almost daily witness, 
of the good effects that have resulted already 
from the comparatively little attention the im- 
provement of horses for labour has received, 
we can have no doubt that a field is here open 
for effectually benefiting the community at large 
more extensive than can be found almost any- 
where else. {Cultivator, for Aug. 1840, Vol. 7.) 

A public benefit has been conferred upon 
the country by Mr. Edward Harris, of Moores- 
town. New Jersey, in the importation of a fine 
pair of Norman horses, male and female. The 
following particulars relative to the stud were 
communicated by Mr. Harris to the Farmer^s 
Cabinet for April, 1842, and furnish much in- 
formation that must be esteemed valuable : 

"Diligence is of a handsome dapple-gray 
colour, measures 15 hands, and is one of the 
most perfect animalsof the distinguished breed 
of Normandy horses called Pcrcheron. He was 
chosen as a full-sized specimen of the breed, 
possessing all the quick action of the smaller 
horses, in order that his immediate progeny 
from our light mares might approach nearer 
the true type of the race. It must be observed, 
however, that it is more in breadth and size of 
bone and muscle that he exceeds the standard, 
than in his height, which is very little above 
the average. An inspection of the horse will 
convince any one that this race is the origin 
of the Canadian pony, about whose valuable 
properties little need be said, as they are well 
known and highly prized in this section of the 
country, and still more to the North, where 
they have, undoubtedly, given that stamina 
and character to the horses of Vermont, New 
Hampshire, and the northern section of New 
York, which makes them so highly valued all 
over the Union as road horses; while it is a 
remarkable fact, that in those states where the 
attention of breeders has been exclusively de- 
voted to the English race-horse, the carriage 
and the stage-horse is almost universally sup- 
plied from the North. It remains, therefore, 
for breeders to determine whether it is not bet- 
ter to resort to the full-sized Percheron to cross 
upon our light and already too highly-bred 
mares, than to use the degenerated Canadian 
(degenerate in size only, through the rigour of 
the climate, for it must be admitted that the 
little animal retains all the spirit and nerve of 
his ancestors, and lacks strength only in pro- 
portion to his size). My own opinion is, that 
a due portion of the French blood mixed with 
the English will produce a stock of horses in- 
valuable, as combining all the properties that 
are required for quick draught on the road or 
the farm. I need not assure you, who are ac- 
quainted with the success of Diligence as a 
stud-horse in this place, that such too is the 
opinion of the farmers of New Jersey. 

"I have frequently been questioned as to my 
reasons for selecting this horse for farmers' 
use in preference to the English draught-horse. 
My reply has always been, that the draught- 
horse of England, whenever brought to this 
country, must prove a failure; he wants the 
go-ahead principle ; he cannot move out of a 
walk, which is saying quite enough for him, 
without dwelling upon his defects of form, 
which can only be concealed by loads of fat, 



HORSE. 



HORSE. 



and not even then, from the eye of the horse- 
man. The true Percheron, or Norman Dili- 
gence horse, on the contrary, combines more 
strength ^.vith activity than any horse I have 
ever sat behind. All travellers, on entering 
France, are struck with the properties of these 
horses, as displayed in drawing the ponderous 
machine called a Diligence, by which thej' are 
conveyed through the kingdom at the rate fully 
equal to the average of stage travelling in this 
country. English horsemen confess that their 
road-horses could not hold out the same pace 
before the same load. 

" The origin of this race, according to French 
authorities, dates from the occupation of the 
Netherlands by the Spaniards, who introduced 
the Andalusian horse, which soon became the 
favourite stud-horse all over the continent. 
The Spanish horse is known to spring from the 
Barb or Arabian, introduced by the Moors on 
their conquest of that countr}^ All who are 
conversant with the history of the horse, know 
that the Andalusian has always been cele- 
brated for his beauty, and for his great spirit, 
combined with extraordinary powers of endu- 
rance. The French horse, upon which he was 
crossed, was the old Norman draught-horse, 
which still exists in the country in all its 
purity, and is perhaps the best of all horses for 
slow draught. 

"The average height of these horses is 16 
hands, and they may be described as follows : 
Head short, wide, and hollow between the eyes; 
jaws heavy; ears small, and pointed well for- 
wards; neck very short and thick; mane 
heavy; shoulder well inclined backwards; 
back extremely short; rump steep; quarters 
very broad; chest deep and wide; legs very 
short, particularly from the knee and hock to 
the fetlock, and thence to the coronet, which is 
covered with long hair, hiding half the hoof; 
much hair on the legs; tendons large, and 
muscles excessively developed." 

An English writer in the EriHsh Quarterly 
Joiirtial of jlgrintltnrc, thus speaks of the Nor- 
man horse. After giving an account of its 
origin, which he agrees in tracing to the Spa- 
nish horse, he observes, "The horses of Nor- 
mandy are a capital race for hard work and 
scanty fare. I have never seen such horses at 
the collar, under the diligence, the post-car- 
riage, the cumbrous and heavy voitnre or ca- 
briolet for one or two horses, or the farm cart. 
They are enduring and energetic beyond de- 
scription ; with their necks cut to the bone, 
they flinch not; they put forth all their efforts 
at the voice of the brutal driver, or at the 
dreaded sound of his never-ceasing whip; they 
keep their condition when other horses would 
die of neglect and hard treatment. A better 
cross for some of our horses cannot be ima- 
gined than those of Normandy." 

Whilst lately in Europe, Professor Gibson, 
of Philadelphia, a passionate admirer of the 
horse, and well versed in the finest blood of 
the United States, made close observations of 
the horses in different parts of England and 
Ireland. The following passage from his 
" Rambles" furnishes a condensed view of the 
results of his observations : 

* The Irish horses have long been consider- 



ed the finest in the kingdom, and certainly 
I saAV none to be compared to them in any 
part of Europe. In general they are very 
compact, strong, active, and spirited, but high- 
tempered, and difficult to manage. They bear 
a close resemblance to our Vermont horse in 
style, action, and shape, and might readily pass 
for the same breed, with the exception of being 
larger. In England they bring high prices, 
and it is not uncommon to meet with English 
dealers at the Irish fairs buying them up, in 
great numbers, for their own markets. The 
English horse, indeed, within the last 20 years, 
has degenerated so much, in some respects, as 
not to serve the many useful purposes to which 
he was accustomed at that period, owing to 
breeders having run too much upon blood. 
On this account it is now hardly possible 
to meet with any of the old stock of hun- 
ters so large and powerful, and with so much 
bone and sinew ; so that even in York- 
shire I saw but a single specimen, a fine 
black, in possession of Mr. Whittaker, ofOt- 
ley, 30 j'ears of age, but which felt under me 
like a colt, after a ride of 20 miles. Even the 
carriage horses, indeed, throughout every part 
of England, are conspicuous for their long, 
low necks, slab sides, and spindle shanks, and 
very inferior, as a race, to our own stock, for 
the same purposes. In London, it is true, 
large showy animals are to be seen in the car- 
riages of noblemen and other persons of for- 
tune ; but they are procured at immense 
prices, often 400 or 500 pounds each, and 
even then are deficient in action, and too often 
have broken knees, to which indeed most of 
the English horses are so liable, as seldom to 
be led or ridden out by the groom without 
having their knees protected by leather or 
woollen covers or caps. The Irish horse, on 
the contrary, is not apparently so high bred as 
the English, and therefore a better animal for 
draught, saddle, and most other purposes. Yet 
no blood horses in England have proved supe- 
rior to the Irish racer in speed, bottom, and other 
requisites ; and I believe it is admitted on all 
hands that there is now no horse in the British 
empire to be compared to Irish ' Harkaway,' 
bred and owned by a linen-bleacher of Belfast. 
A great many inquiries were made of me, 
also, respecting 'Skylark,' an Irish horse im- 
ported into this country a few years back, and 
represented, by all that spoke of him, as a 
most extraordinary animal, and one that never 
should have been allowed to leave the king- 
dom. Both animals I had an opportunity of 
seeing — the one in England, and the other in 
Richmond, Virginia, soon after his arriva.— 
and finer specimens of the kind I cannot ima 
gine to exist in any country. Through every 
part oflreland I travelled, I could not help being 
struck with the form and activity of all classes 
of horses; and in Dublin, especially, scarcely 
passed a day without noticing ladies and gen- 
tlemen splendidly mounted, the finest teams in 
mail and other coaches, and carriage horses 
of beautiful style and proportion; all which, 
however, command there as many pounds 
sterling as American horses — excepting, per^ 
haps, first-rate trotters — dollars in this coun 
try; and it is only surprising some of our 



HORSE, AGE OF. 

spirited Yankee dealers do not furnish the 
English market with such luxuries." 

HORSE, AGE OF. See Ages of Animals. 
HORSE-CHESTNUT. If, says a writer in 
the Jmcrican Farmer (vol. xiv.), the value of 
this nut was more generally understood, it 
would not be suffered to rot and perish without 
being turned to any account, as at present. 
The horse-chestnut contains a saponaceous 
iuice, very useful, not only in bleaching, but in 
washing linens and other stuffs. The nuts must 
be peeled and ground, and the meal of 20 of 
them is sufficient for 10 quarts of water; and 
either linens or woollens may be washed with 
the infusion, without any other soap, as it ef- 
fectually takes out spots of all kinds. The 
clothes should, however, be afterwards rinsed 
in spring water. The same meal, steeped in 
hot water and mixed with an equal quantity of 
bran, makes a nutritious food for pigs and 
poultry. See Chestnut, Horsk. 

HORSE DEALERS. Persons whose busi- 
ness it is to buy and sell horses. Each person 
carrying on the business of a horse dealer is 
required to keep a book, in which he shall 
enter an account of the number of horses kept 
by him for sale and for use, specifying the 
duties to which the same are respectively 
liable. This book is to be open at all reasonable 
times to the inspection of the officers ; and a 
true copy of the same is to be delivered quar- 
terly to the assessor of the parish in which he 
resides. Penalty for non-compliance, 50/. (43 
Geo. 3, c. 161.) Horse dealers are assessed 
if they carry on their business in the metropolis 
25?., and if elsewhere, 12/. 10s. per annum. 
From the papers published by the Board of 
Trade, it appears that the number of persons 
of this class assessed in 1831, was 74 in the 
metropolis, and 963 in other parts of the king- 
dom. 

HORSE, DISEASES OF. See each dis- 
order. 

HORSE-FLY or FOREST-FLY {Hippolmca 
equina, Linn.). In England this fly lives chiefly 
on horses, but sometimes also attacks horned 
cattle and other mammalia. The male is 
scarcely so large as the house-fly; the female 
is larger. The insect generally attaches itself 
to the abdomen of the animal, which is least 
covered with hair, particularly between the 
hind legs. This fly has a singular movement: 
it runs very quickly, but sideways like a crab: 
it is covered with a hard crust ; and adheres 
so firmly by its claws as to render it difficult 
to take it oK As it torments the animals very 
much, means of driving it away must be thought 
of. Picking oS by hand is too troublesome. 
By the following remedy it may be got rid of in 
24 hours' time : take of mineral earth eight 
ounces ; lard one pound, and make them into 
a salve. Some of this salve is to be rubbed on 
here and there upon the hair, and worked in 
with a wisp of straw. After 24 hours the salve 
is to be washed off with warm water, in which 
brown soap has been dissolved. Care must be 
taken for some days that the horse does not 
catch cold. (Kollar on Insects, Miss Loudon's 
Trans.) See Gad-Flt. 

HORSE -HOE, THE. For this valuable im- 
plement of agriculture, the farmer is indebted 
R44 



HORSE-HOE. 

to the justly celebrated Jethro Tull. Previous 
to his time, we search in vain in the works of 
agricultural authors for the slightest allusion 
to such an instrument. The production of the 
horse-hoe, indeed, seems to have been almost 
a natural consequence of the adoption of the 
drill system, for which also the cultivator is 
mainly indebted to Tull. He gave in his Hus- 
bandry, more than a century since, an engraving 
of a horse-hoe of his own invention, which 
resembles a common, rudely-shaped swing 
plough, with the mould board omitted, and the 
shares having a cutting edge turned up on its 
landside. A variety of improvements were 
gradually made in the construction of this im- 
plement : I proceed to notice those which are 
now considered to be the best. 

The advantages which these possess over 
the hand-hoe are very fairly stated by the late 
Mr. Francis Blakie : he remarks, "In many 
cases the hand-hoe may be used to advantage, 
and should then be so used. But generally 
speaking, the hand is not so efficient as the 
horse-hoe. Expedition is a most material point 
in all processes of husbandry, carried on in a 
variable and uncertain climate, and it fre- 
quently happens, that hoeing, in any way, can 
only be executed to advantage, in a very few 
days in spring : hence the horse-hoe has a most 
decided advantage over the hand-hoe, for a 
man will only hoe about half an acre a day 
with the latter, while, with the former, a man 
and a boy, with one horse, will hoe eight or ten 
acres a day, and that in a more effectual man 
ner." {On Farm-yard Manure, p. 39.) 

Aniongthe most approved implements of the 
kind in England, are the following : — 

Clarke's Universal Ridge Horse-hoe. — This is a 
very ingenious contrivance for carrying out 
the several operations of ridge culture. It is 
adapted for the uses of a do'"ble tom, a mould- 
ing plough, a broad share v. r cleaning plough, 
and a horse-hoe. It is only as fitted for the 
latter purpose that we have now to describe it: 
its other forms will be given under the head 
Plough. 

To the frame of the plough is attached a 
pointed share, which serves as a hoe for the 
centre of the furrow : a movable frame is at- 
tached to the beam, which is readily adjusted 
to any given width : to this is attached, when 
it is intended to hoe plants upon the ridge, the 
stalks of two curved hoes; when used upon flat 
work, the flat hoe should be substituted for the 
curved or inverted hoe. This forms a very 
perfect and simple horse-hoe. 

Elakie's Inverted Horse-hoe. — This excellent 
hoe, which was the first that successfully hoed 
between several rows of turnips at once, and 
which led the way to the recent improvements 
of Mr. Garrett, was intended to be attached to 
a drill-carriage, or any light axletree, by the 
draft-irons fixed to the handles. Blakie de- 
scribed it pretty accurately when he said, " it 
is adapted for cleaning between rows of plants, 
growing at narrow intervals, within which if 
may be worked with perfect safety when in 
their infant state ; indeed the idea first struck 
me on observing a large proportion of the 
plants buried by the operation of the hoes 
formerly in use." 






HORSE-HOE. 



HORSE-RADISH. 



Garretfs Horsc-hoe. — This horse-hoe, invented 
by the manufacturers, Garrett and Son, of 
Leiston, Suffolk, is suited to all methods of drill 
cultivation, whether broad, stetch, or ridge 
ploughing; and is adapted to hoeing corn of 
all kinds as well as roots. The peculiar ad- 
vantages of this implement are that the width 
of the hoes may be increased or diminished to 
suit all lands, or methods of planting; the axle- 
tree being movable at both ends, either wheel 
may be expanded or contracted, so as always 
to be kept between the rows of plants. 

The shafts are readily altered, and put to any 
part of the frame, so that the horses may either 
walk in the furrow, or in any direction, to avoid 
injury to the crop. 

Each hoe, or each pair of hoes, works on a 
lever independent of the others ; so that no part 
of the surface to be cut, however uneven, can 
escape ; atid in order lo accommodate this im- 
plement to the consolidated earth of the wheat 
crop, and also the more loosened top of spring 
corn, roots, &c., the hoes are pressed in by dif- 
ferent weights being hung upon the ends of 
each lever, and adjusted by keys or chains, to 
prevent their going beyond the proper depth. 

And what has hitherto been an objection to 
the general use of the horse-hoe is avoided in 
this, by adopting a mode of readily shifting the 
hoes, by a plan similar to that of the steerage, 
so that the hoes may be guided to the greatest 
nicety. This implement is so constructed that 
the hoes may be set to a varying width, from 
seven inches to any wider space; the inverted 
hoes are preferred when the distance between 
the rows is sufficient to admit two of them ; 
or any other form that may be considered best 
for the purpose. 

Lord Z)wrt{''s Expanding Horse-hoe. — The pa- 
rallel expanding horse-hoe is used for hoeing 
drill crops, and is constructed principally of 
wrought iron : it has five tines, and can be 
regulated to any width, from 12 to 27 inches, 
with the greatest facilit}'-, so that the tine shall 
always present its edge to what it has to cut: 
this is effected by the support of each tine 
moving parallel with the beam : it is worked 
on the principle of the parallel rule; the ma- 
chine has one wheel in front, with a tiller for 
the horse to yoke to: the depth it enters into 
the ground is regulated by raising or lowering 
the wheel ; there is a pair of handles for the 
man who attends the machine to steady it by. 

Grants Horse-hoe, and Moulding Plough. By 
substituting mould-boards in the place of the 
wrought iron frame and hoes, this horse-hoe 
becomes a moulding plough. 

Whitens Double-action Turnip Hoc. — This im- 
plement is constructed so that it may be used 
with only one horse and a man, and is intend- 
ed to hoe either broadcast, drilled, or ridged 
turnips. It hoos two rows lengthways and 
crossways at one time when necessary. It 
can be set to suit the drills at any distance, 
from 15 to 30 inches, and to leave the distance 
of each turnip 9, 12, or 15 inches apart. It 
may be used also as a scarifier by removing 
the cross-cut hoes, and replacing them with 
spear-footed tines. (See Cultivator.) 

HORSE MINT (Mentha sylveslris). A spe- 
cies of wild mint, growing freely in waste 



ground, especially in watery places. It is a 
perennial, blowing dense crowded whorls of 
small, pale purple flowers in August and Sep- 
tember in England. The whole herb is of a 
hoary or gra}dsh green, clothed with fine soft 
downy hairs, and exhaling a strong peculiar 
scent. The stems are 2 or 3 feet high, rathei 
bluntly quadrangular; the leaves nearly ses 
sile, 1^ to 2^ inches long, spreading, strongly 
and sharply serrated, acute ; their upper sur- 
face hoary; under, shaggy, with dense soft 
white hairs. It affords oil by distillation with 
water. The infusion of it allays sickness. 

The plant commonly called Horse Mint, in 
the United States, is the monarda Jistulosa of 
botanists — sometimes called Wild Bogamot. 
It has a perennial root, and stem 2 or 3 feet 
high, branched, mostly hairy, especially at the 
joints and towards the summits. The violet- 
purplish or often greenish-white or flesh-co- 
loured flowers are pubescent or downy. This, 
says Dr. Darlington, is a variable plant; and 
Mr. Bentham has reduced several species of 
preceding authors into this one. Five or six 
additional species of Monarda are enumerated 
in the United States. {Flora Cestrica.) 

HORSE POWER, in steam-engines, is esti- 
mated by Mr. Watt at .32,000 pounds avoirdu- 
pois lifted one foot high per minute for one 
horse. M. D'Aubuisson, from an examination 
of the work done by horses in the whims or 
gigs (machines a moleUes) for raising ore from 
the mines at Freyberg, the horses being of 
average size and strength, has concluded that 
the usual effect of a horse yoked during eight 
hours, by two relays of four hours each, in a 
manege or mill course, may be estimated at 40 
kilogrammes raised 1 metre per second, which 
is nearly 16,440 pounds raised one foot per 
m.inute; being very nearly one-half of Mr. 
Watt's liberal estimate for the work of his 
steam-engines. 

HORSE-RADISH (Cochleari„ arnwracia— 
from cochlear, a spoon, the form of the leaves 
being rather hollow, resemble an old-fashioned 
spoon). The horse-radish delights in a deep, 
mouldy, rich soil, kept as much as possible in 
a moderate but regular degree of moistness; 
hence the banks of a ditch, or other place 
which has a constant supply oi water, is a 
most eligible situation for the bods, so that 
they do not lie so low as to have it in excess. 
If the soil is poor, the roots never attain any 
considerable size ; and the same effect is pro- 
duced if grown in a shady place, or beneath 
the drip of trees. Should the ground require 
to be artificially enriched, Mr. J. Knight re- 
commends leaf mould, or other thoroughly de- 
cayed vegetable substance, to be dug in to the 
depth at which the sets are intended to be 
planted. If cow or horse-dung is from ne- 
cessity employed, it should be in a highly pu- 
trescent state. Horse-radish flowers in June, 
but in England seldom perfects its seed; con- 
sequently it is propagated by sets, which are 
provided by cutting the main root and offsets 
into lengths of two inches. The tops or crowns 
of the roots form the best ; those taken from the 
centre never becoming so soon fit for use, or 
of so fine a growth. Each set should have at 
least two eyes, for without one they refuce to 

64fi 



HORSE-RADISH. 



HORSETAIL. 



regelate at all. Mr. J. Knight recommends, 
for the obtaining a supply of the crowns, any 
inferior piece of ground to be planted with 
sets, 6 inches apart and 6 deep ; these will fur- 
nish from 1 to 5 tops each, and they may be 
collected for several successive years with 
little more trouble than keeping them clear of 
weeds. 

Horse-radish may be planted from the close 
of January until the same period in March, but 
the best times are in October and February ; 
the first for dry soils, the latter season for 
moist ones. 

The sets must be inserted in rows 18 inches 
apart each way. The ground should be trench- 
ed between 2 and 3 feet deep, the cuttings be- 
ing placed along the bottom of the trench, and 
the mould turned from the next one over them, 
or inserted to a similar depth by a long, blunt- 
pointed dibble. When the planting is com- 
pleted, the surface should be raked level, and 
kept clear of weeds, until the plants are of 
such size as to render it unnecessary. It is of 
great benefit if the mould ties as light as pos- 
sible over the sets ; therefore, treading on the 
beds should be carefully avoided. They 
speedily take root, and send up long straight 
shoots, which make their appearance in May 
or June. The only cultivation required is to 
keep them free of weeds, and as the leaves de- 
cay in autumn, to have them carefully re- 
moved ; the ground being also hoed and raked 
over at the same season, which may be repeat- 
ed in the following spring before they begin to 
vegetate. In the succeeding autumn they 
merely require to be hoed as before, and may 
be taken up as wanted. By having three beds 
devoted to this root, one will always be lying 
fallow and improving, of which period like- 
wise advantage should be taken to apply any 
requisite manure. If the plants, when of ad- 
vanced growth, throw out suckers, these should 
be carefully removed daring the summer as 
they appear. In September or October of the 
second year, the roots may be taken up, and in 
November a sufficient quantity should be 
raised to preserve in sand for winter supply. 
To take them up, a trench is dug along the 
outside row, down to the bottom of the upright 
roots, which by some persons, when the bed is 
continued in one place, are cut ofT level to the 
original stool, and the earth from the next row 
is then turned over them to the requisite depth, 
and so in rotation to the end of the plantation. 
By this mode a bed will continue in perfec- 
tion for 5 ur 6 years, after which a fresh plan- 
tation is usually necessary. But the best prac- 
tice is to take the crop up entirely, and to form 
a plantation annuall)', for it not only causes 
the roots to be finer, but also affords the oppor- 
tunity of changing the site. If this mode is 
followed, care must be taken to raise every 
lateral root, for the smallest of them will vege- 
tate if left in the ground. See ScunvT-GnAss. 

HORSETAIL (Eqimetum, from equus, a 
horse, and seta, hair, in allusion to the fine hair- 
like branches). Although the plants of this 
genus are looked upon as mere weeds, they 
have a very interesting aspect when seen 
growing in their natural situations ; they are 
f and m boggy places, and multiplied by di- 



visions. Several of the species, like grasses, 
secrete a quantity of flinty earth (silica) mostly 
lodged in their articulations. There are seven 
indigenous species. 

1. Branched wood horsetail (£. sylvaticvm), 
growing in shady moist woods, by trickling 
rills, but not very frequent. This is a very 
elegant species, 12 or 18 inches high , stems 
erect, beset with many whorls of slender, com- 
pound, angular, smooth, spreading branches. 

2. Great water horsetail {E.fluviatile). Horses 
eat this plant with avidity, and in some parts 
of Sweden it is collected for the purpose of 
serving them as winter food ; flourishing in 
watery places, about the banks of rivers and 
lakes. This is by far the largest English spe- 
cies, differing from the foregoing in the fructi- 
fication, which is a large cylindrical catkin, 
having four or five pale teeth on a separate 
short stem, diflering from the branched or 
whorled frond, as is likewise the case with the 
following one, E. arvense: all the others hitherto 
observed in Britain have terminal catkins at 
the top of the fronds. The terminal stems of 
the great water horsetail are quite erect ; at 
least a yard high, often much more, furnished 
from top to bottom with whorls of numerous 
long slender branches. The catkins are brown, 
with scales, which separate and show the 
white scales when they are ripe. 

3. Corn horsetail (E. arvense). This, in Eng- 
land, is a very common species growing in wet 
meadows and moist grain fields. It is a most 
troublesome weed in pastures, and is seldom 
touched by cows, unless pressed by hunger, 
when it occasions an incurable diarrhoea; it is 
eaten with impunity by horses, but is noxious 
to sheep. The fronds are reckoned unwhole- 
some to such animals as feed upon them in 
autumn, especially swine. This rough grass 
is employed for cleansing and polishing tin 
vessels. In this species the root is much 
branched, creeping extensively, producing in 
the spring several simple, upright, flowering 
stems quite destitute of branches ; a span high, 
cylindrical, smooth, juicy, of a pale brown, 
bearing three or four brown-ribbed sheaths, 
and at the top a solitary catkin. 

4. Marsh horsetail, or paddock pipe (E. 
palustre). This species grows most frequent 
in spongy watery bogs, and other marshy 
places, flowering in June and July. The stem 
is rather slender, deeply furrowed, beset 
throughout with whorls of slender, angular, 
minutely rough branches. 

It is not so strong as the preceding species, 
but is equally prejudicial to cows. It is also 
very troublesome in drains, within which it 
vegetates, and forms both stems and roots 
several yards in length : thus the course of the 
water is interrupted, and the drains are totally 
obstructed. 

5. The smooth naked horsetail (E. limosum) 
grows also in marshy watery places, and has 
stems stouter than the last, about two feet 
high, very smooth to the touch, though finely 
striated. 

6. Greater rough horsetail. Shave-grass 
pewterwort {E. hyemale). This species is 
found in boggy woods, but not very common. 
The root is black, variously branched ; stems 



■ 



HORTICULTURE. 



HOVEN. 



of a deep glaucous green, from one to two feet 
high, cylindrical, uniformly and rather copi- 
ously furrowed, the furrows minutely toothed 
and of a strong hardness. This species is 
wholesome to horses, and is eaten by them ; 
but it is hurtful to cows and disagreeable to 
sheep. That eminent chemist, Sir H. Davy, 
first detected a quantity of pure silex in the 
furrowed cuticle of this plant, which accounts 
for its power, as a file, in polishing wood, 
ivory, or even brass. This purpose it has long 
served in England, under the name of Dutch 
rushes, being usually imported from Holland, 
and is chiefly employed by turners and cabinet- 
makers to polish their work, as well as by 
dairy-maids for cleaning pails and other wood- 
en utensils. So wheat-straw, whose cuticle 
contains the same earth in an impalpable 
state, like others of the natural family of 
grasses, is used, when burnt, to give the last 
polish to marble. 

Mr. Nuttall observes that this species is very 
abundant on the banks of the Missouri below 
the Platte, and called " Rushes." It is, he says, 
found to be injurious to horses which feed 
upon it lor any considerable length of time. 

7. Variegated rough horsetail {E.varicgatwin) 
is found in wet, sandy ground in Scotland and 
Ireland. The whole plant is smaller and much 
more slender than the last. The fibres of the 
root of this curious little species are remark- 
ably woolly, like those of grasses that grow in 
loose sand. The sheaths which crown the 
joints are lax, with lanceolate teeth. The 
catkin is ovate, acute, blacker than E. hyemale, 
with a more slender stem. (Eng. Flor. iv. 335 
—341 ; WUUiKs Dom. Encyc.) 

HORTICULTURE (Lat. horlus, a garden, 
and colo, I cultivate). The culture of the 
kitchen garden and orchard. The chief dif- 
ference between horticulture and agriculture 
is, that in the former art the culture is per- 
formed by manual labour in a comparatively 
limited space, called a garden ; while in the 
latter it is performed jointly by human and 
animal labour in fields, or in an extensive tract 
of ground called a farm. 

HORTUS SICCUS. A collection of dried 
plants preserved in books or papers. See 
Heuhai.. 

HOT-BEDS. In gardening, are made either 
with fresh horse-dung, or tanner's bark, and 
covered with glasses to protect them from the 
severity of the wind and weather. It is very 
important in making hot-beds not to raise the 
temperature too high, as the plants become 
scorched. See Kitchex Garden, and Fohcing 
Pits. 

HOT-HOUSE. A general terra for the glass 
structures used in gardening and including 
Stoves, Greenhouses, Orangeries and Con- 
servatories. See these heads. 

HOT WALLS. In gardening, walls for the 
growth of fruit trees, which are built with flues 
or other contrivances for being heated in 
severe weather, so as to facilitate the ripening 
of the wood or the maturity of the fruit. The 
advantages of hot wall;, are well illustrated by 
their influence in ripening peaches, nectarines, 
and similar fruits in England, Scotland, and 
many parts of the north of Europe, where such 



fruits could not be produced in the open air 

without this aid. 

HOUND. An appellation given to dogs of 
the chase. See Dog and Grethound. 

HOUNDS'-TONGUE {Cynoglossum). A 
genus of herbaceous plants, of which only two 
species grow wild in Great Britain. The cul- 
tivated foreign species are pretty border plants, 
succeeding in any common soil, and readily 
multiplied by division. 

1. Common hound's-tongue (C. officinale) is 
found abundant in waste ground and by road- 
sides. The root is fleshy and tapering. The 
whole herb of a dull green, downy, and very 
soft, exhaling when touched a pungent and 
nauseous scent. When bruised it is afiirmed 
to drive away mice. The stem grows to two 
feet high, branched, leafy, furrowed, and hairy, 
bearing terminal panicled clusters of dull 
crimson flowers. This plant is eaten by goats, 
but refused by sheep, horses, hogs, and cows. 
It has a bitter taste, and is esteemed powerfully 
narcotic and dangerous for internal use. The 
roots are astringent and sedative; and are used 
externally and internally in decoction in cases 
of scrofula. 

2. Green-leaved hound's-tongue (C. sylvati- 
nuji). This is a more rare plant, growing by 
road-sides and hedges in shady situations, and 
is distinguished from the common species in 
its bright shining green colour, and want of 
downy softness, besides having scarcely any 
scent. The flowers, which blow in June, are 
at their first opening reddish, subsequently of 
a dull blue. (Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. i. p. 259 ; 
Puxtons Bot. Diet.) 

Four species of this plant are enumerated in 
the United States. The common hound's-tongue 
is a foreigner, now frequent in the Middle States, 
and extending itself throughout the country. It 
is a biennial, and may be readily known by its 
disagreeable odour, somewhat resembling that 
of young mice. It formerly enjoyed some re- 
putation for medicinal properties. 

The wild comfrey (C. Virginicum) has a pe- 
rennial root, and is common in rich woodlands. 
The root is mucilaginous, and frequently em- 
ployed, in domestic practice, for complaints of 
the chest, internally, and externally in poultices 
for bruises, sprains, &c. 

HOUSELEEK (Scmpervivxim, from semper 
vivo, to live forever ; the tenacity of life in the 
houseleek is well known). There are seven 
species of houseleek mentioned by Miller (but 
these are only a few of this extensive genus). 
They all thrive best on dry rocky situations. 
These interesting plants are worthy a place in 
every collection. The mountain houseleek is 
a very hardy perennial, bearing a purple flower 
in June and July. The houseleek (S. arboreum), 
which is k native of the Levant, is hardy and 
handsome, bearing a golden-yellow flower in 
autumn and even in winter. Cuttings taken 
ofl^ and laid to dry for two or three days, will 
root very freely The juice of the common 
houseleek (S. tectorum), applied either by itself 
ormixed.with cream, gives immediate relief in 
burns or other external inflammations. (Pax- 
ton's Bot. Did.) 

HOVEN. See Cattle, and Sheep, Dis 



64- 



HUMMELLER. 



HUMUS. 



HUMMELLER, BARLEY. An instrument 
for separating the awns of the barley plant 
from the seed. There are various modes of 
taking off the awns : a common one is by tread- 
ing it by a horse walking over it ; another, by 
rolling it with a grated roller, an instrument 
something similar to a garden roller, the cylin- 
der being formed of thin, flat, wrought iron 
bars, placed about two inches apart, and the 
edges to the surface : this, rolled over the bar- 
ley, takes off the awns or ailes. We have also 
seen a grated presser or chopper, about a foot 
square, barred across with thin plates, which 
is lifted up and down by the workman, and 
thus chops off the awns. But the best machine 
we have seen is one upon a wood stand, with 
a hopper into which the barley is thrown, from 
whence it falls into a box in which a spindle is 
placed in an inclined position, having, when at 
a few inches apart, short knives placed spiral- 
ly, so as to form a sort of screw, which, when 
put in motion, has a tendency to draw the bar- 
ley from the upper end of the box to the lower: 
during the operation the awns of the barley are 
effectually knocked off. This mode of dressing 
barley constitutes one of the principal improve- 
ments in Salter's patent winnowing machine, 
which will be described hereafter; but the 
hummeller is made in the form described for 
barley only, by several makers. See Wixnow- 
ING Machine. 

HUMUS. A modern term given by some 
chemists to the very finely divided organic 
matters which all cultivated soils contain, and 
which is generally regarded as the chief ele- 
ment of fertility, the source from which plants 
are directly nourished. Woody and vegetable 
fibre in a state of decay constitutes the sub- 
stance called humus. Liebig lays it down as 
established, that man and other animals derive 
the means of their growth and support from 
the vegetable kingdom, whereas plants find 
new nutritive material only in inorganic sub- 
stances. According to this doctrine, humus, 
being the product of organic matter, does not 
contribute direct nourishment to plants, but 
only constitutes a medium and agent through 
which their nutriment is derived. "The opi- 
nion," he observes, "that the substance called 
humus is extracted from the soil by the roots of 
plants, and that the carbon entering into its 
composition serves in some form or other to 
nourish their tissues, is so general and so 
firmly established, that hitherto any new argu- 
ment in its favour has been considered unne- 
cessary; the obvious difference in the growth 
of plants, according to the known abundance 
or scarcity of humus in the soil, seemed to afford 
incontestable proof of its correctness. 

"Yet this position, when submitted to a strict 
examination, is found to be untenable; and it 
becomes evident from most conclusive proofs 
that humus, in the form in which it exists in the 
soil, does not yield the smallest nourishment to 
plants. 

"The adherence to the above incorrect opi- 
nion has hitherto rendered it impossible for the 
true theory of the nutritive process in vegeta- 
ble- lo oecome known, and has thus deprived 
ns of our best guide to a rational practice in 
agriculture. Any great improvement in that 
648 



most important of all arts is inconceivable 
without a deeper and more perfect acquaint- 
ance with the substances which nourish plants, 
and with the sources whence they are derived; 
and no other cause can be discovered to ac- 
count for the fluctuating and uncertain state of 
our knowledge on this subject up to the present 
time, than that modern physiology has not kept 
pace with the rapid progress of chemistry." 

The chemical process through which humus 
is usually obtained, is by making an alkaline 
solution or decoction of mould, peat, soot, 
woody fibre, &c., and adding to such decoction 
acids. The flocculent matter precipitated is 
called himiic acid, a substance but slightly so- 
luble in water, requiring no less than 2500 
times its weight for this purpose. The com- 
pounds which it forms with alkalies, lime, and 
magnesia, have the same degree of solubility. 
(Spre7igel.) 

" Vegetable physiologists agree in the suppo- 
sition that by the aid of water liumus is rendered 
capable of being absorbed by the roots of 
plants. But, according to the observation of 
chemists, humic acid is soluble only when 
newly precipitated, and becomes completely 
insoluble when dried in the air, or when ex- 
posed in the moist state to the freezing tempe- 
rature. {Sprengel.) 

" Both the cold of winter and the heat of 
summer, therefore, are destructive of the solu- 
bility of humic acid, and at the same time of 
its capability of being assimilated by plants ; 
so that, if it is absorbed by plants, it must be 
in some altered form. 

"According to Dr. Jackson, the substances 
contained in humic extract form soluble salts 
with lime. The acids form soluble salts with 
the same substance, and the salts are decom- 
posed in the process of vegetation. 

" The correctness of these observations is 
easily demonstrated by treating a portion of 
good mould with cold water. The fluid remains 
colourless, and is found to have dissolved less 
than 100,000th part of its weight of organic 
matters, and to contain merely the salts which 
are present in rain-water. 

" Decayed oak wood, likewise, of which hu- 
mic acid is the principal constituent, was found 
by Berzelius to yield to cold water only slight 
traces of soluble materials; and I have myself 
verified this observation on the decayed wood 
of beech and fir. 

" These facts, which show that humic acid 
in its unaltered condition cannot serve for the 
nourishment of plants, have not escaped the 
notice of physiologists ; and hence they have 
assumed that the lime or the different alkalies 
found in the ashes of vegetables render soluble 
the humic acid, and fit it for the process of as- 
similation. 

"Alkalies and alkaline earths do exist in the 
different kinds of soil in sufficient quantity to 
form such soluble compounds with the humic 
acid. 

" Other considerations, of a higher nature, 
confute the common view respecting the nutri- 
tive otfice of humic acid, in a manner so clear 
and conclusive, that it is difficult to conceive 
how it could have been so generally adopted. 

" Fertile land produces carbon in the form 



HUNDRED. 



HURDLE. 



'f wood, hay, grain, and other kinds of growth, 
the masses of which differ in a remarkable 
degree." (Liebig.) 

In relation to the fact observed of carbon 
and hmnus often becoming every year more 
abundant, in spite of cropping, Mr. Ruffin, an 
author so advantageously known to the Ame- 
rican farmer, says there is great difficulty 
in admitting that land receives no manure, 
even when none is conveyed to it by man. In 
the case of cultivated lands, from which crops 
are taken off, the quantity, it is true, is small, 
compared with that of a forest, where much is 
left to fall and rot. Mr. Ruffin maintains, that 
so much carbon is derived from the atmosphere, 
through the leaves of growing plants, that more 
than half the whole products may be taken 
away, and the other half may supply as much 
humus and carbon, or, perhaps, even cause an 
increase of both. The severely cropped lands 
of the United States, Mr. Ruffin considers as 
affording many examples of the draught upon 
the land being carried beyond the amount sup- 
plied, and a proportional reduction in the quan- 
tity of humus. See Green Manures. 

"The humic acid of chemists," observes 
Liebig, " is a product of the decomposition of 
humus by alkalies: it does not exist in the 
humus of vegetable physiologists." He says 
in another place, "Transformations of existing 
compounds are constantly taking place during 
the whole lite of a plant, in consequence of 
which, and as the result of these transforma- 
tions, there are produced gaseous matters which 
are excreted by the leaves and blossoms, solid 
excrements deposited in the bark, and fluid so- 
luble substances, which are eliminated by the 
roots. Such secretions are most abundant im- 
mediately before the formation and during the 
continuance of the blossoms : they diminish 
after the developement of the fruit. Substances 
containing a large proportion of carbon are 
excreted by the roots and absorbed by the soil. 
The soluble matter thus acquired by the soil is 
still capable of decay and putrefaction ; and 
by undergoing these processes furnishes re- 
newed sources of nutrition to another genera- 
tion of plants, and it becomes Imnms. The 
leaves of trees which fall in the forest in au- 
tumn, and the old roots of grass in the meadow, 
are likewise converted into humus by the same 
influence: a soil receives more carbon in this 
form than its decaying humus had lost as car- 
bonic acid. Humus does not nourish plants 
by being taken up and assimilated in its unal- 
tered state, but by presenting a slow and last- 
ing source of carbonic acid, which is absorbed 
by the roots, and is the principal nutriment of 
young plants at a time when, being destitute 
of leaves, they are unable to extract food from 
the atmosphere." {Liebig's Organic Chemistry.) 

Some recent experiments of Saussure go to 
prove that plants do assimilate humus as direct 
nourishment, contrary to the views of Liebig, 
who, as we have seen, regards it only as a me- 
dium by which nourishment is absorbed and 
subsequently given out. 

HUNDRED. An ancient division of a coun- 
ty, which originated either from its being occu- 
pied by 100 families, or because every such 
district found the king 100 able-bodied men for 
82 



his wars. They were first constituted by Alfred 
the Great. He is supposed to have derived the 
idea from northern Germany; but there centa, 
or centena, is a jurisdiction over 100 towns. 

HUNDRED- WEIGHT. A weight of 1 12 lbs 
avoirdupois, generally written cwt. 

HUNGER-ROT. The name of a disease in 
sheep which speaks for itself It is occasioned 
by poor living, especially during the winter, 
and is best cured by better keep. 

HURDLE (from the Sax. hyn»el, to keep, or 
the Germ, hurtlen). The hurdles of the ancients 
(crates) were somewhat similar to those of the 
moderns ; they were a kind of wicker-work, 
and used for various purposes. When employed 
for drying figs or grapes, they were called Jica- 
ria: they were also used for screening fruit 
from the weather. (Colmn. xii. 15.) Hurdles, 
Virgil informs us (Gcorg. i. 94), were employed 
as harrows to level the ground which had been 
turned up by the rastrum, or heavy rake. They 
are also employed to feed silk-worms upon. In 
modern husbandry, hurdle implies a light frame 
of wood or iron, somewhat in the form of the 
common gate, constructed for the purpose of 
forming a movable fence for the confining of 
sheep and other animals. They are generally 
made of some light split timber, or of hazel- 
rods wattled together. These are principally 
employed where sheep are folded on arable 
lands, or where they are fed with turnips in the 
field, to keep them on a certain space of ground, 
or to confine them to a certain portion of their 
food at a time, in which way they are extremely 
useful ; as the sheep, by being so closely con- 
fined, contribute greatl} to the improvement of 
the larvl, in the firs^ case ; and they improve 
by having a given • nantity of food allowed 
them at once, with Itss loss than they would 
do if allowed to range at large over the field. 

A dozen and a half hurdles will fold thirty 
sheep, and twelve dozen, one thousand. On 
the South Downs the allowance is three sheep 
to a hurdle : this of course varies with the de- 
scription of sheep. A shepherd and his dog, 
without any other assistance than having the 
hurdles carted to the field, will, with the requi- 
site number of hurdles, feed off one hundred 
acres of turnips. "The number of hurdles re- 
quired {Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. iii. p. 647), is 
one row the whole length of the ridges of an 
enclosed field, and as many more as will reach 
twice across two eight-step lands or ridges, or 
four four-step lands. This number is sufficient 
for a whole quadrangular field, whatever num- 
ber of acres it may contain. The daily portions 
are given, more or less, according to the num- 
ber of the flock. Two of these portions are 
first set off, or "pitched," the sheep being let 
in on the first or corner piece. Next day they 
are turned into the second piece, and the cross- 
hurdles that enclosed them in the first are car- 
ried forwards and set to form the third piece. 
These removes are continued daily till the bot- 
tom of the field is reached: both the cross-rows 
are then to spare, and are carried and set to 
begin a new long row, close to the off-side of a 
furrow, and the daily folding carried back over 
two or four lands, as at first. It is always pro- 
per to begin at the top of the field, if there be 
any difference in the level, in order that the 
31 649 



HURDLE. 



HYDRANGEA. 



flock may have the driest lair to retire to in 
wet weather. In the setting of hurdles, an iron 
crowbar, or fold pitcher, is employed, by which 
much time and loss by breakage of the hurdles 
is effected." New hurdles, in the south of 
England, are about 16s. per dozen. They are 
made at 4(V. by professed hurdle-makers, who 
find their own tools : they make about a dozen 
per day. A larger kind of hurdles, called park 
hurdles, cost 2s. each, and iron hurdles about 
4s. Gd. to 6s. ; and these are, in the long run, 
for permanent divisions, more economical than 
wooden ones. A new kind of iron hurdle for 
feeding sheep in gardens and pleasure-grounds 
is described, with a wood engraving, by Mr. 
Baist {Ibid. vol. ii. p. 113), and the complete 
process of wooden hurdle-making is given, 
Ibid. vol. iii. p. 647. There is also another 
kind of hurdle, made with twisted hazel-rods, 
very common in the south of England, whose 
first cost is less than the other kinds, but they 
do not last so long, and sooner get out of repair. 

The farmer who uses the ash hurdles would 
find the advantage, on the score of durability, 
of charring (or partially burning) that portion 
of them which goes into the ground. Net hur- 
dles are also sometimes economically used ; 
but they are rather more troublesome than 
wooden or iron hurdles, and require to be kept 
carefully in a dry place, when not in use. 
There is a very elaborate paper on hurdling 
off, and more especially upon all kinds of fenc- 
ing, for the temporary or permanent enclosure 
of land, by Mr. Somerville {Com. Board of Agj: 
vol. ii. p. 1); he advocates the more general 
hurdling off of grass lands in the spring of the 
year. 

There are two modes of folding, which 
should be practised according to circum- 
stances : the first is where the sheep fed during 
the day on waste or common land, are penned 
at night, for the sake of their manure, on the 
enclosed arable pastures of the farm. This is 
a highly profitable mode. It is calculated that 
the dressing thus given by 300 sheep is suffi- 
cient, in a week, for one acre of land, and is 
worth three pounds. Hence the enhanced va- 
lue of farms having ready access to downs, or 
possessing a right of common. The second 
mode of folding is* the feeding off of green 
crops by sheep enclosed in daily divisions, by 
hurdles, by which means the land has the full 
benefit, equally distributed, yielded by the con- 
sumption of the green crop; of course the 
value of the folding will mainly depend, both 
in quality and quantity, upon the food con- 
sumed : hence, too, the superior fertilizing effect 
derived from sheep having oil-cake or corn 
added to their green food. The plan of feeding 
r,heep on one field during the day, and folding 
them tn another during the night, is a bad prac- 
tice long since condemned by Arthur Young, 
who describes it as " merely robbing Peter to 
pay Pau'," since it is, in fact, only the removal 
from one field to another of the richest organic 
matters, the sheep being also injured by the 
drift or labour of removal, and by the fasting 
(so contrary to their natural habits) during the 
night. 

The folding of sheep on green crops is one 
e r the great modern agricultural improvements. 



It insures the equal distribution of the manure, 
prevents waste of food, keeps the sheep quiet, 
gives them fresh ground daily, and enables the 
farmer to plough close after the sheep, and 
thereby prevents the loss by evaporation of the 
finest portion of the manure. See Folds and 
Folding. 

KURDS, or HARDS. A provincial name 
for the refuse of hemp or flax. 

HURTLEBERRY, and HURTS. Provincial 
names of the whortleberry. 

HUSKS. The dry envelopes, or outward 
integument of either fruits or flowers. 

HUSBANDRY. A comparatively primitive 
term, including both agriculture and gardening, 
or all those country occupations which the fa- 
ther of a family is expected to perform in the 
country. The term is very commonly used as 
synonymous with agriculture. The Berwick- 
shire husbandry, the alternate husbandry, and 
the convertible husbandry, are terms employed 
in agriculture for certain systems of cropping, 
in which the land is alternately kept under 
grass and tillage. See Agriculture, and Ro- 
tation OF Crops. 

HYBERNATION (Lat. hybcrnus, wintry). 
The act by, or the state in, which certain ani- 
mals exist during the season of the year when 
excess of cold, or lack of food, prevents their 
going abroad, and performing their customary 
functions. The bat and the hedgehog, lizards, 
snakes, frogs, toads, &c., are among the ani- 
mals and reptiles which hybernate. Some quad- 
rupeds, as the dormouse and squirrel, which 
subsist on articles of diet better adapted to be 
laid up in store than insects, carry a winter 
provision to their hybernating nests ; and their 
torpidity is more nearly allied to a profound, 
but ordinary sleep. 

HYBRIDS (Gr.). The produce of a female 
plant or animal which has been impregnated 
by a male of a diflferent variety of species. 

The most common hybrids are those which 
result from the connection of different varieties 
of the same species, as the produce of the wild 
boar and domestic sow ; the endless modifica- 
tions which result from analogous inter-breed- 
ing from varieties of the rose, the African 
geranium, and other ornamental plants, are 
familiar examples of the principle among vege- 
tables. The most common and useful of hybrids 
is the mule. Although some rare exceptions 
to the rule are on record, it seems to be a 
principle of nature that all hybrids should be 
sterile. 

HYDRANGEA (Hydrangea arborescens). A 
hardy perennial, native of North America, 
which flowers in July and August. It loves a 
moist soil, and should be kept free from weeda. 
Its roots may be parted in October. If a severe 
winter attacks the plant, it will only die down 
to the ground. 

Besides the common species, botanists enu- 
merate 2 or 3 others found in the Southern and 
Southwestern States. 

H. hortensis, or the changeable hydrangea, 
blooms from June to October. It is a native 
of China. Cut the stems down every autumn, 
and cover the root through the winter, to guard 
it from frost. Hydrangeas are propagated by 
cuttings. 



HYDROGEN. 



HYSSOP. 



HYDROGEN. A chemical element, which 
derives its name from two Greek words that 
signify " a generator of water," because it is 
one of the constituents of that fluid, which is 
always formed \vhen hydrogen gas is burned 
in combination with atmospheric air, or with 
oxygen gas. It is known to us, in its simplest 
form, only in the state of gas, and is speedily 
fatal to animal life when it is breathed unmixed 
with atmospheric air. It is, however, a com- 
ponent of animal matters, and it forms a very 
essential part in the economy of vegetable sub- 
stances, in which it is always found. Thus 
sugar contains 6-90 per cent, of hydrogen ; 
gum, 6-93 ; bee's wax, 12-672 ; wood of the oak, 
5'69 ; wheat starch, 6-77; acetic acid (the acid 
of vinegar), 6-35 per cent. It is regarded as 
an element, because it has resisted every at- 
tempt to decompose it. It is the lightest of all 
ponderable matter, 100 cubic inches weigh- 
ing only 2-15 grains. No known degree of 
cold has been able to condense it to a liquid. 
It cannot support combustion, but is combusti- 
ble in conjunction with atmospheric air. It 
constitutes one-ninth of the weight of water, — 
a substance essential to vegetation, and which 
plants arc suppc^ed to have the power of de- 
composing. Under such circumstances, Liebig 
asserts that 8*04 parts of hydrogen unite with 
100 parts of carbonic acid to form woody fibre, 
whilst the oxygen is separated in the gaseous 
state. (Organic Chem. p. 63.) Most vegetable 
structures contain hydrogen in the form of 
water, but the hydrogen essential to this consti- 
tution cannot exist in the form of water. That 
hydrogen gas exerts a considerable influence 
upon the leaves of plants, was first noticed by Dr. 
Priestley. Sennebier found that plants which 
lose their green colour in the dark, preserve it 
under those circumstances, if a small portion 
of hydrogen gas is present in the atmosphere in 
which they are placed ; and Dr. Ingenhous no- 
ticed that its presence, when they are growing 
in the light, renders their colour of a deeper 
green (Ann. dc CImn. vol. iii. p. 57) ; and, again, 
M. Humboldt has noticed that the Poa anmui, 
Trifoliiim arvcnse, and other plants growing in 
the galleries of coal mines, preserve their green 
colour, although vegetating in the dark, and 
that, in such situations, the atmosphere con- 
tains a proportion of hydrogen gas. 

When applied to the roots of plants in mo- 
derate proportion, the influence of hydrogen 
gas is evidently beneficial in all those situa- 
tions where this gas is evolved, as in drains, 
stagnant waters, dung-hills ; and the vegetation 
growing over such places is uncommonly rank 
and luxuriant. The gas observed to arise by 
the agitation of the mud of stagnant pools is 
the same gas employed for the purposes of 
illumination, or carburetted hydrogen gas, a 
peculiar gas composed of carbon 0'416; hy- 
drogen 0-0694. In the process of putrefaction, 
a quantity of water exactly corresponding to 
that of the hydrogen, is formed by the extrac- 
tion of oxygen from the air; while all the oxy- 
gen of the organic matter is returned to the 
atmosphere in the form of carbonic acid. Now 
the process of vegetable assimilation consists 
in the extraction of hydrogen from water, and 
carbon from the carbonic acid; hence the ad- 



vantage of decomposing vegetable matter to 
living plants. A small portion of carburetted 
hydrogen gas in the atmosphere, or in the soil 
of plants, certainly therefore promotes their 
vegetation ; but like pure hydrogen gas, when 
it constitutes their entire atmosphere, it de- 
stroys them. (Thomson's Chcm. vol. iv. p. 347.) 
See Gases, theih Use to Vegetatiox. 

HYGROMETER (Gr. Cygos, moist, and /uer^ov, 
measure). An instrumentwhich indicates the de- 
gree of moisture or vapour present in the atmo- 
sphere, or its relative degrees of dampness and 
dryness. Hygrometers are of several forms, 
and a rude hygrometer is easily made by means 
of a long hair, or strip of leather, or cat-gut, 
suspended from a peg, kept in its upright po- 
sition by a slight weight: these, by their very 
sensible contractions and expansion according 
to the humidity of the air, indicate, by an at- 
tached scale, its variations. Hygrometers of 
this kind, however, are defective, from the 
irregularity of their action, and the impossibi- 
lity of comparing them with each other, their 
alteration by time, and other circumstances. 
These disadvantages gave rise to the construc- 
tion, by Professor Daniel, of that now common- 
ly used in England, and called by his name. 
This instrument is, however, somewhat com- 
plex and costly, requiring considerable skill in 
its use. It will doubtless be superseded by 
other contrivances for ascertaining the precise 
quantity of moisture in air, one of which, in- 
vented by Prof. A. D.Bache, of Philadelphia, has 
been already described under the head of Dew. 

The dew-point is the temperature imme- 
diately below that of the vapour contained in 
the surrounding atmosphere : the difference, 
however, between the dew-point and that of 
the vapour is so slight, that for all ordinary 
purposes they may be considered the same. 

The temperature of the invisible vapour of 
the atmosphere being thus ascertained (for it 
differs materially from the temperature of the 
air in which it is contained), it is easy to cal- 
culate the force it exerts as thus existing in 
the state of steam, and the weight of a given 
bulk of it. Tables have been formed showing 
the proportion of watery vapour in each cubic 
foot of atmospheric air corresponding to every 
degree of the dew-point. 

HYSSOP, COMMON (Hyssopus ojfficinalis, 
probably from the Hebrew). There are three 
varieties, distinguished by the colour of the 
flowers, the white, red, and blue ; the last of 
which is most commonly cultivated. It is a 
perennial, native of Siberia. The root is 
knobbed, woody, fibrous ; the stem about two 
feet high, quadrangular, erect, branching. 

A dry soil is the one most appropriate-fof 
hyssop. If it is grown on a rich or wet one, 
it becomes luxuriant; but, from a deficiency 
of woody matter, is generally destroyed by the 
frost, as well as rendered less aromatic and 
powerful in its medicinal qualities. It is pro- 
pagated by seed and slips of the branches and 
young shoots, as well as by offsets. The seed 
may be sown from the close of February until 
the end of May. Rooted oflJsets may be planted 
in March, April, August, and September; cut- 
tings of the branches in April and May, ano 
slips of young shoots in June or July. 

651 



ICE. 



ICE-HOUSE. 



The seeds may be inserted broadcast, or pre- 
ferably in drills, six inches apart, in either case 
not being buried deeper than half an inch. It 
is the usual practice, when the seedlings have 
attained the growth of six weeks, to prick them 
out 12 inches apart; but it is by much the best 
practice to raise them where they are to remain. 

The slips and offsets are best planted at first 
in a shady or north border; they are generally 
firmly rooted in two months. 

In September or October they are all fit for 
removal to their final stations. After every 
removal, whether of planting,' pricking, &c., 
they must be watered plentifully and regularly 
until established. Hyssop possesses some ex- 
citant and tonic powers, but is now rarely em- 
ployed in medicine. 



ICE (Sax. ir; Dutch, eyse). Water in a state 
of congelation. Ice is about one-eighth part 
lighter than fresh water; hence it swims in 
that element; and, owing to this property, the 
icebergs and ice-islands are floated down to 
southern latitudes from the arctic circle. Wa- 
ter, which freezes at 32° of Fahrenheit, sud- 
denly expands, and consequently, when it is 
interposed in crevices and clefts of rocks, it 
separates these, and often precipitates immense 
masses from the tops of mountains into the 
adjoining valleys. This is a principle which 
should be kept in remembrance by the farmer 
in making mounds or walls of earth, for if the 
smallest clefts be left, the walls may be broken 
down and crumbled to pieces even by mode- 
rate frosts. 

ICE-HOUSE, A house or vault for the 
preservation of ice in summer, should not be 
regarded as merely administering to purposes 
of luxury, since ice contributes so much to the 
convenience, comfort, and even health, as to 
make it almost an indispensable article of do- 
mestic economy. The effects of the excessive 
heat which commonly prevails in the sum- 
mers of the United States, are greatly obviated 
by the use of ice, which not only serves for the 
preservation of fresh meats, butter, &c. ; but in 
addition to these advantages and its grateful 
employment for assuaging common thirst, it 
is a powerful agent in tranquillizing the irrita- 
bility of the stomach in bilious fevers and dys- 
enteries, and relieving the pain and burning 
heat often attendant upon inflammations and 
fevers. Thus, by soothing the stomach, and 
removing excessive heat, iced drinks and ap- 
plications restore the deranged functions of the 
nervous and muscular systems of the sick, 
whilst they refresh and invigorate persons in 
iiealih so as to render them capable of enduring 
exercise and exertion even under circum- 
stances calculated to produce great oppression 
and inconvenience. 

An interesting writer, has left the following 
testimony in favour of ice, as a restorative and 
remedy in fevers, which has been abundantly 
corroborated by subsequent experience. " I 
never," says he, " was in better spirits than 
here in this hot country (Sicily). I believe the 
r.uantities of ice we eat, in ices, contribute to 
for I find, in a very violent heal there is no 
6.52 



such cordial to the spirits as ice, or a draught 
of iced water. Its cold braces the stomach, and 
gives a new tone to the fibres. I knew an Eng- 
lish lady, at Nice, soon cured of a threatening | 
consumption, by a free indulgence in the use | 
of ices. It is the common practice here, Sicily, 
to give quantities of ice-water to drink in in- — 
fiammatory fevers." {Brydone.) ■ 

"The custom in Sicily and Italy," says an- ■ 
other author, "of taking ice, is considered as 
a powerful remedy in many diseases. The 
physicians of these countries do not give many M 
medicines ; but frequently prescribe a severe I 
regimen ; and prevent the baneful effects of 
various diseases, by suffering the sick, for se- 
veral days, to take nothing but water cooled by 
ice, sweet oranges, and iced fruits." {Stolhcrg.') 

One of the greatest advantages afforded by 
ice houses, is that of enabling families to pre- 
serve their butter, meat, fish, poultry, game, 
&c., in states of the weather M'hich would, 
otherwise, quickly induce them to spoil. In no 
part of the world are ice-houses more essential 
to comfort, convenience, and health, than in the 
United States, and in all the northern and Mid- 
dle States the winters are sufficiently cold to 
furnish ice of sufficient thickness to lay by for 
preservation. The cities of the Southern States 
are now regularly supplied with thick blocks 
of ice from New England, which not only afford 
a regular article of export to the West Indies, 
but also to Calcutta! 

Considering the small expense and trouble 
at Avhich ice houses or vaults may be con- 
structed, and the many advantages to be de- 
rived from them, it is surprising that any re- 
spectable country establishment should be 
without one. 

It is considered that the simplest, and most 
scientific form for an ice-house, is a double 
cone, that is to say, two cones joined base to 
base, the one sunk into the earth with its point 
downwards, into which the ice is rammed, 
the other being a conical roof, generally of 
wood-work, covered with thatch and pointed at 
lop. The entrance should be placed always 
on the north side, and provided with two doors 
some distance apart, and the spot screened 
from the sun by trees, shrubbery, a hill, cliff, 
or other barrier. The lower part may be dug 
about 16 feet in diameter, terminating below 
like the point of a sugar-loaf. Its ordinary 
depth, for a moderate family, may be about 24 
feet. The larger the dimensions, the longer 
will it preserve the ice, provided it be filled. 
In digging, the workmen should slope the 
ground progressively towards the axis of the 
cone, to prevent the earth falling in. This 
conical slope should be faced with brick or 
stone work about one foot thick, and jointed 
with Roman cement, so as to be air and water 
tight. A well is to be excavated at the bottom 
two feel wide and four deep, covered at top 
with an iron grating for supporting the ice, 
and letting the water drain away. 

The upper cone may likewise be built of 
brick-work, and covered with thatch ; such a 
roof would prove the most durable. Whatever 
kind of roof be preferred, there must be left in 
it an oblong passage into the interior. This 
porch should face the north, and be at least 8 



ICE-IIOUSE. 



ICHNEUMON FLIES. 



feet long by 2^ feet wide ; and perfectly closed 
by a well-fitted door at each end. All round 
the bottom of this conical cover, a gutter should 
be placed to carry ofl' the rain to a distance 
from the ice-house, and prevent the circumja- 
cent ground from getting soaked with moisture. 

The ice-house should have no window to 
admit light; but be, so to speak, hermetically 
sealed in every point, except at its cess-pool, 
which may terminate in a water-trap to pre- 
vent circulation of air. 

A clear day should be selected for charging 
the ice-house; but before beginning to fill, a 
quantity of long dry straw should be laid on 
the bottom crosswise; and as the ice is pro- 
gressively introduced, straw is to be spread 
against the conical sides, to prevent the ice 
from coming into contact with the brick or 
stone work. The more firmly compacted the 
ice is, the better does it keep. No layers oi 
straw should be stratified among the ice, for they 
would make its body porous. Some persons 
recommend to pour in a little water with the 
successive layers of ice, in order to fill up its 
small crevices, and convert the whole into one 
mass. This may answer well when the ice is 
put up very cold, as the water may then be 
directly frozen into a solid mass. 

Over the top-layer a thick bed of straw should 
be spread, which is to be covered with boards 
surmounted with heavy stones, to close up the 
interstices in the straw. The inner and outer 
doors should never be opened at once; but 
the cue should always be shut before the other 
is opened. 

Dry snow well rammed keeps equally well 
with hard ice, if care be taken to leave no ca- 
vities in the mass, and to secure its compact- 
ness by sprinkling a little water upon the suc- 
cessive charges. 

To facilitate the extraction of the ice, a 
i. ladder is set up against its sloping wall at one 
side of the door, and left there during the 
season. {Urc's Did.) 

The time preferred for filling an ice-house, 
should, when practicable, be during the preva- 
lence of extreme cold, or as soon after as pos- 
sible, since the colder the ice when packed 
away, and the thicker the blocks, the longer it 
will last. Ice and snow can often be laid by, 
even in the Middle States, many degrees below 
32° or the common freezing point of water. 
The larger the quantity of ice accumulated in 
one place, the slower will be the rate at which 
it will melt. 

One of the principal objects to be kept in 
view in the construction of an ice-house, is to 
have it so that the water will pass off directly, 
as fast as the ice thaws. If the situation is 
sandy, or if j'ou come to a layer of sand or 
gravel about the proper depth, no further care 
will be necessary ; but if you find a stiff clay, 
rock, or earth of any kind impervious to water, 
you must contrive an outlet or abandon the 
place. This outlet may be constructed in se- 
veral ways. If on the side of a hill, dig a drain 
and m ake it air-tight by means of a water-trap or 
inverted syphon; or the water may be drained 
into a well and pumped out ; or you may sink a 
well in the bottom until you come to sand or 
gravel, and fill it up with stone. The cellar 



walls may be laid with stone,brick, or even lined 
with wood, as is most convenient or economi- 
cal. A space of 8 or 10 inches is generally 
left between the wall and surrounding earth, 
which is filled in with tan, charcoal, straw, 
corn-stalks, or any other non-conductor of heat, 
the first-nained article being generally pre- 
ferred. A house 9 feet square in the clear, 
and 9 feet deep, will hold about 25 cart-loads 
of ice, which will be enough for a large family. 

A cheap ice-house may be made thus : — Dig 
a cellar, say 10 feet square, and 10 feet deep. 
Then cut small timber from the woods the pro- 
per length, and build up in the cellar after the 
plan of building log-cabins, leaving a space 
between the logs and eaith to be filled in with 
straw, tan, or other suitable material. Raise 
the Avooden walls 2 or 3 feet above the sur- 
rounding ground, and heap up a bank so as to 
turn off the rain-water. A thatched roof is 
generally recommended, as the best to keep 
out heat, but some object to such covering as 
affording harbour to rats and other vermin. 

The importance of keeping ice well sur- 
rounded vith a non-conductor, and having the 
water absorbed as fast as melting takes place, 
is shown in the following extract from the 
Kentucky Farmer: — 

" We take at sunrise from the ice-house, as 
much as will be probably wanted through the 
day, and cover it up in some saw-dust placed 
in a barrel in the dairy-house. At night, the 
size of any given piece is scarcely perceptibly 
diminished. It is a perfect charm." 

In some parts of the United States where 
thick ice is rare, some persons pack away 
large quantities of snow, which, if the mass be 
large, and the snow dry or previously well 
drained, will often keep through the summer. 
In most seasons ice may be collected in sufii- 
cient quantities to fill ice-houses in every lati- 
tude of the Middle States. If no pond or 
stream of water of sufficient size be at hand, 
advantage may be taken of any little rill, which, 
by the erection of a small dam, may be made 
to overflow a considerable space. If the water 
be not more than 6 or 8 inches deep it will 
answer every purpose. 

In stowing away ice the pieces should be as 
square as possible, and as large as they can be 
got or handled. They should be placed closely 
together like stone in a wall, and the crevices 
well filled with smaller fragments. The plan 
sometimes recommended of pounding c" crush- 
ing the larsre pieces is reprehensible. 

ICHNEUMON FLIES. Insects belonging 
to the natural order Hymenoptera, which in- 
cludes bees, wasps, ants, saw-flies, &c. The 
injury caused by this whole order is so small, 
and the benefits derived from many of them so 
great, that instead of being enumerated among 
destructive insects, they may be pronounced 
the benefactors of the human race. 

With regard to the ichneumon flies, they 
perform an important and very singular part 
in the economy of nature, by working the de- 
struction of caterpillars, plant-lice, and othet 
destructive insects. This they effect by piercing 
their bodies with a kind of sting or piercer 
called ovi-positor, and thus laying their egg^- 
in a living nest. Each ichneumon fly seem'-" 
3 I 2 65'J 



IGNIS FATUUS. 



IMPLEMENTS. 



to single out the larva or pupa of some parti- ] 
cular kind of caterpillar or other insect, to 
which it therefore stands in the relation of 
parasite. The eggs hatch in due time, and the 1 
larva of the ichneumon commences feeding 
upon its victim, the vitals of which are soon 
(iestro3'ed, after which the parasite or ichneu- 
mon comes forth in due time to another state 
ofe.vistence. 

Some of the ichneumon flies are extremely 
small, and confine their attacks to the eggs of 
other insects, which thejr puncture, and the 
little creatures produced from the latter find a 
sufficient quantity of food to supply all their 
wants within the larger eggs they occupy. The 
rubjr-tails and cuckoo-bees lay their eggs in the 
provisional nests of other insects, whose young 
are robbed of their food by the earlier hatched 
intruders, and are consequently starved to 
death. The obligations which the farmer and 
society at large owe to certain parasite insects 
is forcibly illustrated in the case of the Hessian 
fl}', the devastations of which are often prevent- 
ed through the destruction, during a single 
season, of nearly a whole race by its parasite. 

Professor Peck has described a minute ich- 
neumon fly, stated by Mr. Westwood to be a 
species of Ennjrius, that stings the eggs of the 
slug-fly, and deposits in each one a single egg of 
her own. From this in due time a little maggot 
is hatched, which lives in the shell of the slug- 
fly's egg, devours the contents, and afterwards 
is changed to a chrysalis, and then to a fly like 
its parent. Professor Peck found that great 
numbers of the eggs of the slug-fly, especially 
of the second hatch, were rendered abortive by 
this atom of existence. 

In treating of the pigeon iremcx (Trentex co- 
luviliii), which in its larva state is a destructive 
tree-borer, Dr. Harris observes that it is often 
destroyed by two kinds of ichneumon-flies, 
(Pinipla ntrata and /ifiNi.'oj-ofFabricius), which 
may be frequently seen thrusting their slender 
borers, measuring from three to four inches in 
length, into the trunks of trees inhabited by the 
grubs of the tremex and by other wood-eating 
insects ; and, like the female tremex, they some- 
times become fastened to the trees, and die with- 
out being able to draw their borers out again. 

The ichneumon flies are little busy-bodies, 
ever on the alert, and with untiring scrutiny 
continually prying into every place to find the 
lurking caterpillar, grub, or maggot, wherein 
to thrust their eggs. (Harris.) 

A specimen of this extensive family is re- 
presented in PI. 15, fig. 12, in the Tragus fulvus, 
which commits great havoc among caterpillars 
and grubs. See Aphidians, &c. 

IGNIS FATUUS (Lat. vain or foolish fire ; 
a translation of the French /at follcl.) A kind 
of luminous meteor, which flits about in the 
air a little above the surface of the earth, and 
appears chiefly in marshy places, or near stag- 
nant waters, or in churchyards, during the 
nights of summer. There are, we are told, 
mar.y instances of travellers having been de- 
•■-oyed by these lights into marshy places, where 
they have perished ; and hence the names Jack- 
irith-a-lanicrn, Will-ivith-a-ivisp ; the common peo- 
ple ascribing the appearance to the agency of 
• "il spirits, who take this mode of alluring men 



to their destruction. The cause of the pheno 
menon does not seem to be perfectly under- 
stood ; it is, however, generally supposed to be 
produced by the combustion of some highly 
inflammable gas, such as phosphorated hydro- 
gen, which talces fire spontaneously on rising 
and mingling with atmospheric air. 

Milton, in his Paradise Lost, b. ix. 1. 634, thus 
alludes to it: — 

A wandering fire, 
Compact of unctuous vapour, which the night 
Condenses, and the cold environs round, 
Kindled through agitation to a flame, 
Which oft, they say, some evil spirit attends, 
Hovering and blazing with del\isive light, 
Misleads the amazed night wanderer from his way 
To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool, 
There swallowed up and lost, from succour far. 

IGNITION (Lat. ignis, fire). The act of 
setting fire to, or of taking fire, as opposed to 
combustion, or burning, which is a conse- 
quence of ignition. The term "spontaneous 
ignition" is applied to cases in which sub- 
stances take fire without previous application 
of heat. This is illustrated in the burning of 
hay-stacks, when the hay has been put up too 
green ; the scorching of corn-stacks from the 
same cause, and the taking fire of ships laden 
with fermentable products. 

IMBRICATED. In botany, a term used in 
speaking of the arrangement of bodies, to de- 
note that their parts lie partly over each other 
in regular order, like the tiles upon the roof 
of a house, as the scales upon the cup of some 
acorns ; also applied in speaking of the eesti- 
vation of petals or leaves, to denote that they 
overlap each other at the margin without any 
involution. {Brandcs Did, of Science.) 

IMPLEMENTS, AGRICULTURAL. Almost 
all the operations of agriculture may be per- 
formed by the plough, the harrow, the scythe, 
and the flail; and these, or similar tools for 
performing the same work, are the sole imple- 
ments in the primitive agriculture of all coun- 
tries. With the progress of improvement, how- 
ever, many other implements have been intro- 
duced, the more remarkable of which are the 
drill-plough, the horse-hoe, the winnowing ma- 
chine, the thrashing machine, and the reaping 
machine. The object of all these implements 
and machines is to abridge human labour, and 
to perform the diflTerent operations to which 
they are applied with a greater degree of ra- 
pidity, and in a more perfect manner than be- 
fore. In the present work the different imple- 
ments are treated of in their alphabetical order. 
Of the progress made in the construction of 
agricultural instruments in England, the judges 
of implements at the Liverpool meeting of the 
English Agricultural Society, in their report 
very justly remark, when speaking of "the 
good effects which have already resulted from 
the public exhibition of implements at the So- 
ciety's meetings, in stimulating the talent of 
the mechanic and the zeal of the husbandman. 
At Oxford the show-yard may be said to have 
presented an epitome of the state of agricultu- 
ral inechanism existing in 1839, the era of the 
formation of the Royal Agricultural Society of 
England. No spectator of that show can have 
failed to be struck with surprise and admira- 
tion at the Liverpool exhibition. At Oxford 
there were some examples of good machinery 



IMPLEMENTS. 



INCUBATION. 



and workmanship, but many more of rude, ' 
cumbrous, and ill-executed implements. At 
Liverpool many machines were exhibited, not 
only of surpassing skill in contrivance and 1 
execution, but also having for their object the j 
effecting of processes in tillage-husbandry of 
the most refined nature and acknowledged im- 
portance, but hitherto considered of very diffi- 
cult practical attainment. Some of these may 
already be considered as forming part of the 
necessary apparatus of every well-managed 
farm, and to be essential to its economy and 
profit. This vast stride in the mechanics of 
agriculture, made within so short a period, has 
doubtless arisen from the congregating together 
of agriculturists and mechanicians from all 
parts of the empire : and a still higher perfec- 
tion in machinery may be confidently antici- 
pated from the opportunity offered, under the 
auspices of the Society, of periodically con- 
trasting and estimating the merits of varied 
implements used for similar purposes in dif- 
ferent localities and soils. It is apparent that 
the manufacture of even the commoner instru- 
ments has already, to a great extent, passed 
out of the hands of the village ploughwright 
and hedge-carpenter, and been transferred to 
makers possessed of greater intelligence, skill, 
and capital. The improved style of finish, the 
greater lightness and elegance of construction, 
and the generally superior adaptation of the 
means to the end, in every class of implements, 
were sufficient manifestations of the beneficial 
results arising from the encouragement given 
by the Society to these objects. Neither were 
examples wanting in the higher classes of ma- 
chines to show that the fourth important object 
for which the Society was incorporated is, to 
some extent, fulfilled — viz. 'to encourage men 
of science in their attention to the improve- 
ment of agricultural implements.'" 

The great variety of soils and fluctuations 
of climate in the extensive territory of the 
United States, call for multiplied expedients 
to till the various plants, and provide shelter 
from heat as well as cold. The wants and exi- 
gencies known in various parts of the country 
must therefore contribute to make the United 
States a fruitful field of inventions. Ac- 
cordingly, by consulting the records of the 
Patent Office at Washington, we find that since 
the year 1793, when the first patent law was 
instituted, and up to the year 1836 inclusive, 
the number of patents taken out for inv.entions 
is 6000, of which 124 are for improvements in 
the plough, — 119 for threshing-machines, — 80 
for churns, — 125 for washing-machines, &c. 

The remarks of the Messrs. Ransome, of 
Ipswich, upon the preservation of agricultural 
implements in general, are such as every far- 
mer should be guided by. They suggest to 
farmers generally, that a little instruction given 
to the workmen in the use of the machines, 
and care in preserving them, would add to 
their effi,ciency and durability. Attention to 
washing implements and machines before lay- 
ing them by, a little oil on such as have re- 
volving wearing parts, and a coat of paint 
occasionally to each, will cost but little, and 
make the difference between having a machine 
ready for use, or covered with rust and want- 



ing repair just as the season for its use corU' 
mences. These suggestions are so obvious, 
that one would think no apology needful for 
making them, as experience proves that a 
large proportion of the repairs required arises 
from want of attention to these apparently 
trifling matters. And to this end the advice 
of Mr. Crosskill, of Beverley, may be acted 
upon with considerable advantage: he says, 
"Select the most likely labourer on the farm, 
put the implements under his care, make it a 
strict rule with all the men that each imple- 
ment done with for the season shall be brought 
to one particular place, say near the pond or 
pump ; the man having charge of the imple- 
ments must then wash and clean them well 
before putting them into the shed." 

IMPOSTHUME. In farriery a sort of swell- 
ing, or collection of matter or pus in any part 
of the body of an animal. See Abscess. 

IN-AND-IN-BREEDING. The practice of 
breeding from close relations. See Breeding, 
Cattle, Sheep, &c. 

INCH. A measure of length, the twelfth 
part of a foot. 

INCISORS or INCISORES (Lat. incido, I 
cut). The teeth implanted in the inter-maxillary 
bones of the upper jaw, and in the correspond- 
ing place in the lower jaw, and which are 
generally shaped for the purpose of cutting or 
coarsely dividing the food. The ruminating 
animals, including the bull and cow, sheep, 
goats, the deer tribe, and the camel have no 
incisors in the upper jaw; but some of them 
have canine teeth, which project from the 
mouth. See Age of Animals. 

INCLOSURE (Lat. includo, I shut up). See 

ENCLOSUnE. 

INCUBATION (Lat. incumbo, I brood over). 
Hatching or the laying down of an animal 
upon her own or another's eggs, communicat- 
ing to them heat, and maintaining them at 
her ovi^n temperature, a condition essential to 
their developement. In many animals the de- 
velopement of the fostus takes place after the 
exclusion of the egg, and whilst it is maintain- 
ed in contact with the external surface of the 
parent's body, as in the crab and lobster tribes 
beneath the caudal plates ; or agglutinated to 
the surface of the abdomen, as in certain spe- 
cies of pipe-fish (syngnathus), or concealed in 
cutaneous marsupial cavities, as in other spe- 
cies of syngnathns, and the hippocampus; but in 
these and other instances from the cold-blooded 
animals, the eggs are retained by special con- 
trivances in contact with the parent, without 
occasioning any restraint upon her postures oj 
movements. 

That a due degree of warmth is the essen- 
tial object of incubation in birds is proved by 
the ancient and well-known practice of substi- 
tuting artificial heat, by which fertile eggs are 
hatched in the same period, and the excluded 
chick is as fully and strongly developed as 
when produced by natural incubation. 

Artificial incubation has been practised from 
a remote period by the Egyptians and Chinese : 
the former, indeed, have carried this process 
to such a high degree of perfection, as in many 
instances to have entirely superseded the use 
of the hen in hatching. 



INCUBATION. 



INDIA, AGRICULTURE OF. 



It is effected either by means of an oven, 
stove, or steam, and it has been calculated that 
the ovens of Egypt every year communicate 
life to about 93,000,000 chickens. This por- 
cess has received considerable attention from 
the French philosophers ; but perhaps the best 
exemplification of its results, that has been 
witnessed in Europe, was given by the pro- 
prietor of the Eccahobion, which was lately ex- 
hibited in Pall Mall, London. 

The mean temperature of incubation is 100° 
Fahr. ; it may vary from 95° to 105°, and to- 
wards the close of the process may be sus- 
pended for one or two hours, or for a longer 
period, according to the degree of extraneous 
heat which the eggs may derive from their 
situation, without fatal consequences to the 
embryo. The power of communicating the 
requisite degree of warmth to their eggs arises 
out of the unusual developement of, and deter- 
mination of blood to, a peculiar plexus of ves- 
sels, distributed over the skin of the abdomen, 
and which, in most birds, is connected with a 
derivation of blood from the internal organs of 
generation after the subsidence of the func- 
tional activity of the ovarium and oviduct to 
the external integuments. The vascular, hot, 
and sensitive condition of the skin of the ab- 
domen is the exciting cause of that uncontrol- 
lable propensity to incubate, which the Greeks 
denominated "storage," and which, with its 
associated phenomena of patience, abstinence, 
find self-denial, forms so remarkable a feature 
in the economy of birds. The eggs of the bird 
present several peculiarities in relation to the 
circumstances under which the foetus is to be 
developed ; their oval form permits a greater 
proportion of their surface to be in contact 
with the heat-communicating skin of the pa- 
rent, than if they had been a spherical body ; 
while the shell, by virtue of its hard, calcareous 
texture, and its arched disposition about the 
soft contents, sufficiently defends them from 
the superincumbent pressure. As warmth is 
the only essential influence which the egg de- 
lives from the parent, the shell is porous and 
permeable to air, and the germ is surrounded by 
an adequate store of nutritious matter. See Egg. 

The period of incubation is generally di- 
rectly as the size of the bird, but the degree 
of developement which the chick attains prior 
to exclusion varies. As a general rule, it is 
inferior in birds of flight, as the Accipitrine 
and Passerine orders, than in the terrestrial, 
wading, and swimming birds; and the warmth 
and complexity of the nest bears relation to 
this difference of developement. If the thrush 
lind been forewarned that her young would be 
excluded frorfl the egg naked and helpless, ^he 
could not have prepared beforehand a warmer 
and more comfortable abode than her instinct 
had led her to construct for their accommoda- 
tion; and if with such a nest we contrast the 
rude mass of straw in which the hen deposits 
and incubates her eggs, it might be imagined 
that she knew beforehand that her chickens 
would come into the world well clothed and 
strong enough at once to run about and pick 
up their own food. In this case, therefore, the 
nest relates only to incubation ; in the other, 
.'o iucubatiop and subsequent rearing of the 
656 



young; and according to the degrees of deve- 
lopement attained during incubation, and the 
associated condition of the nest and habits 
of the parent, birds have been divided into two 
great groups, the ^ves altrices and ^ves prcecoces. 
See Gestation. 

INDIA, THE AGRICULTURE OF. The 
British farmer will, 1 am afraid, not derive 
many useful hints from the most careful study 
of the agriculture of the eastern portions of 
Asia. In Hindostan, for instance, too many 
causes have contributed to retard the march 
of agricultural improvement. The innate dis- 
like of the natives to innovations of all kinds, 
the nature of their region, their indolence, and 
the political ojipressions under which they 
have long been labouring, are amongst the 
many causes of the degraded state of Indian 
agriculture. I am indebted to my brother, Mr. 
George Johnson, of the Supreme Court of Cal- 
cutta, for most of the following sketches of 
Indian modes of cultivation. He says, in de- 
scribing the residences of the Indian ryots or 
farmers, "When I speak of an Indian farm, 
the image must not rise to the mind of the Eu- 
ropean reader of a substantial dwelling-house, 
surrounded by commodious outbuildings, and 
conveniently placed amongst its compactly en- 
closed fields; such an agricultural establish- 
ment bespeaks a far advance in the art of cul- 
tivation, the employment of large capitals, and 
remunerating prices to the cultivator. Now, 
none of these contingencies occur in Hindos- 
tan ; but, on the contrary,the operations of 
agriculture are rudely executed; the cultiva- 
tors are poor, the profits are small, the results 
correspondent. The dwellings of the ryot? 
throughout India are in no degree superior te 
the other mean huts with which they are asso- 
ciated in the village. No barn is attached to 
the residence of the poorer cultivators, for the 
pittance of grain annually raised is imme- 
diately beaten out — the major part sold at once 
to the merchant, and the small residue for seed 
and sustenance is stored in baskets or jars, and 
these are usually placed in the room where the 
family dwells. The outbuildings rarely ex- 
tend beyond an enclosure in which to secure 
the cattle at night. By far the greatest num- 
ber of farms do not exceed a size requiring a 
single yoke of oxen, for the occupier is the 
only ploughman." 

The various imposts to which these little 
farmers are exposed, sound strange to Eng- 
lish agriculturists ; they are enumerated by 
Dr. Buchanan, {hid. Rech. vol. ii. p. 200.) The 
ryot's heap of grain is usually about 3000 
seers : of this is first set apart — 

Seen. 
5 
5 
1 
1 
2 
2 
2 
4 
2 
7 
53 
200 



For the gods, or rather for the priests 

For charity to the brahmins and other mendicants 

For the astrologer ------ 

j For the hereditary brahmin of the village 

j For the barber .--.--. 

For the potter -..---. 

For the carpenter and blacksmith - - - ■ 
I For the measurer - - - - - "- 
] For the washerwoman -.---■ 

For the beadle -..-... 

1 For the chief of the village . - - . 

For the accountant ...--. 

! For the watchman -------10 

; For the conductor of the water - - - - 20 

\ '«4 



INDIA, AGRICULTURE OF. 

This leaves a residue of 2686 seers ; of this 
government takes 10 per cent., and, after all 
the drains have been satisfied, the grower is 
left in possession of a residue of two thou- 
sand seers of rice. (Buchanan's Mysore, vol. i. 
p. 265.) 

Irrigation is practised in India, and in almost 
all the hot countries of Asia, to an extent of 
which the English farmer has little concep- 
tion; for, as Mr. George Johnson remarks, 
"In every district of Hindostan, as in all other 
tropical climates, irrigation is the most effec- 
tual mode of promoting fertility. In places 
favoured by nature, whole plains are occasion- 
ally flooded merely by the construction of a 
dam across the outlet of some mountain stream, 
or it is confined nearer to its source, so as to 
form a reservoir, from which the water may 
be obtained at the most desirable seasons. In 
less favourable situations, the water frequently 
has to be raised to a considerable height, in 
order to attain an elevation level with, or 
slightly above the cultivated land. This is 
very generally effected by a scoop of matting 
suspended between two ropes, the ends of 
which are held by two men who bale it from 
the reservoir into a hole some feet above it, 
and from thence it is similarly baled by others, 
from hole to hole, until the desired height is 
attained. Sometimes the scoop is suspended 
between poles erected in the form of a gallows ; 
at others, as in the Jiut wells, from which the 
water is raised by cattle or by hand in some 
districts. The extensive canals formed in the 
neighbourhood of Delhi and in the Punjab are 
no longer employed. The machinery, so gene- 
ral in China, is nowhere used in India for 
raising water. In 1798, Dr. Tennant relates, 
that the practice of the natives then was, and 
is still followed, after ploughing the fields in 
the usual manner, but before sowing, to divide 
them into regular small squares, like a chess- 
board ; each square is surrounded with a shelv- 
ing border about four inches high, capable 
of preventing the escape of water. Between 
these square enclosures, small dykes are 
formed for conveying a rivulet over the whole 
field ; when the water has stood a sufiicient time 
in one square, it is let off into the surrounding 
dyke, and conveyed to another, and so on in 
succession through the whole field. The fer- 
tility induced amply recompenses the labour, 
and the neatness imparted to the country by 
this husbandry is very striking." (Lid. Rech. 
ii. 167.) In some places the water has to be 
raised fi-om deep wells, several of which are 
in the most elevated parts of each field. The 
work of drawing the water is performed by 
two bullocks, not travelling round in a mill, 
but pacing in a line direct from the well's 
mouth. The various little trenches already 
mentioned, all radiate from these wells. About 
Patna the irrigation water is raised from the 
wells by means of a bamboo lever, with its 
fulcrum on a frame about 10 feet high, a weight 
at the opposite end being employed to assist 
the workmen in counterpoising the leather bag 
of water ; this plan is only resorted to when 
the wells are shallow, and the water near the 
surface of the earth, and then not bags but 
buckets are used, sometimes of leather, but 
83 



INDIA, AGRICULTURE OF. 

more frequently of iron. Four bullocks and 
three labourers are engaged nine days in irri- 
gating one acre of land thoroughly. The im- 
portance of this branch of agriculture is evi- 
denced by the great number of wells, which 
even these most indolent people sink in dis- 
tricts deficient in streams. Near Madras, at 
Saymbrumbacum, a reservoir more than 7 
miles long and 3 broad, for the purposes of irri- 
gation, has been formed by merely raising a 
bank across a natural ravine. In the Tamul 
language a reservoir of this kind is called an 
Eray. This supplies .32 villages containing 
5000 persons employed in agriculture (should 
the rains fail) for 18 months. Sluices lined 
with bricks pass under the banks to supply 
the fields; the inner opening of the sluice is 
covered by a flat stone, in which is cut a cir- 
cular hole, through which the water is allowed 
to pass as required, by means of a plug fixed 
to a bamboo, and secured from escape by 
means of stone pillars and cross-bars. When 
bullocks are employed to raise water from 
v/ells, a leathern bucket is used which holds 
45 gallons; this two bullocks will raise every 
minute and a half from a well 44 feet deep, 
and they work eight hours per day. 

To the insoluble matter of the water em- 
ployed in irrigation, must be attributed a con- 
siderable portion of its value. These vary at 
different seasons. That of the Ganges, which 
is extensively employed in irrigation, was ex- 
amined by Mr. Everett. He found in it of in- 
soluble matters — 

Grains. 
July 3. In a wine quart . . . . i 

7. - - 8 

23. 10 

Aug. 1—8. 5810 

22. 26 

Se\n. 6. .-17 

24 8 

Oct. 8. 6 

This insoluble or mechanically-suspended 
matter was analysed by Mr. Piddington : he 
found in 200 parts from the banks of the 
Ganges, at Mohulpore — 

Parts. 
Vogetable matter -------51 

Saline matters, chiefly muriate of potass - - i 

Carbonate of lime ------- 16| 

Piiosphate of lime --.... 1 

Oxide of iron --.-.._ 12 

Silex !39 

Alumina -..--.-. 14| 

Water 2 

Loss 8| 

200 

As these rich, purely divided matters, are 
depositing on the lower grounds within reach 
of the flood waters, it follows as a natural con- 
sequence that "the higher soils are generally 
and rapidly impoverishing, and this to a de- 
gree of which few, who have not made the 
subject one of attention, are aware." 

The rapid effects produced by a copious ar- 
tificial watering of grass lands under the burn- 
ing sun of India, may be judged by the follow- 
ing report made in 1841, by Sir Edward Burnes 
to Lord Auckland, upon the artificial grasses 
of Cabool. 

" There are three kinds of grasses cultivated 
in Cabool — ' rishku,' or lucern, * shuftul,' a kind 
of trefoil, and ' si barga,' or clover. The firs 

657 



INDIA, AGRICULTURE OF. 

and the last continue to yield crops for some 
years, but the ' trefoil' (shuftul) is an annual. 
The lucern (rishku) is sown in spring, gene- 
rally about the vernal equinox; for each ju- 
reeb, or about half an English acre, 2 seers of 
Cabool, or about 28 lbs. English, are required 
as seed. In 40 days it comes to perfection, and 
is cut down, and will yield 4 full-grown crops 
ere winter sets in, but by early cutting 6 or 8 
crops may be drawn ; the last may sometimes 
be inferior from premature cold. One jureeb 
or half an English acre yields on an average 
ten camel loads of grass at each cutting, as a 
camel carries about 500 lbs.; this is a produce 
of 5000 lbs. the jureeb, or 10,000 lbs. the Eng- 
lish acre, and for four fine crops 40,000 lbs. 
English. The third crop is considered the 
best, and from it the seed is preserved : of 
this the half acre sown with the two seers of 
Cabool will yield 40 sears, or about 560 lbs. 
This plant requires the best black soil, much 
manure, and is watered 5 times each crop — in 
fact whenever it droops. It is sometimes sown 
along with barley, but in that case the grain, 
by exhausting the soil, injures the crop. The 
seed is never exported, but the grass is so 
plentiful, though all the cattle are fed on it, as 
much to exceed the consumption; it is, there- 
fore, dried, and that produced at any distance 
from a market is generally stored in this man- 
ner, and sold during winter. A camel load of 
it, or about 500 lbs. English, whether green or 
dry, sells for one Cabool rupee, a coinage of 
which 115:|- are equal to 100 Company's ru- 
pees. Lucern generally lasts for 6 years, but 
it will yield for 10 years if manure be abun- 
dantly scattered over it. The seed is at pre- 
sent sold for a rupee, a stone of 14 lbs. ; but as 
it is not cultivated for exportation, this is 
much dearer than it might otherwise be had, 
and its price has been almost doubled by the 
arrival of the British troops. The trefoil or 
'shuftul' in cultivation, in the time of sowing, 
reaping, and soil, resembles lucern, and the 
calculations of produce for the one will suffice 
for the other, only it is au annual plant. The 
seed, too, is dearerby one half than thatof lucern. 

"The clover or 'si barga' (i.e. three leaves), 
.assimilates likewise to the lucern, and it lasts 
as long. I may, however, observe, that the 
climate of Cabool is much later than that of 
England, and, excepting the seed sown in au- 
tumn, nothing is put in the ground here with 
advantage before the 1st of April." 

Of a rotation of crops, or of fallows, the ryots 
of Bengal have but little idea : their richest 
low-lying grounds are devoted to the growth 
of rice, and on the uplands they generally crop 
the soil till it is exhausted, and then abandon 
it to the weeds, which soon occupy it in profu- 
sion : they have, besides, a wretched method 
of sowing various seeds together, in a manner 
that cannot be sufficiently reprehended. It is 
only in some parts of India that any thing like 
rotation of crops is observed. In the highlands 
of Behar, the following rotation is usually 
adopted: — 1. Year-fallow and wheat; 2. Maize 
(muckai), followed by big or bear, a kind of 
barley ; 3. Murwa, sama, and cowaree, being 
•species of millet, followed by cotton. 

There is nothing remarkable in the domestic 
658 



INDIAN MILLET. 

animals of Bengal : the oxen are inferior, and 
their sheep are described as " small, lank, and 
thin:" the colour of three-fourths of each flock 
is black or dark-gray. The quality of the fleece 
is worse, if possible, than its colour ; it is harsh, 
thin, and hairy, in a very remarkable degree : 
no part of clothing or domestic furniture, so 
far as Dr. Tennant had observed, is manufac- 
tured of wool, except a coarse kind of blanket- 
ing which some of the boatmen (dandies) and 
people in the upper districts use during the 
cold season, as a wrapper at night. 

The same system of irrigation which pre- 
vails in Arabia, in Persia, and in Hindostan, 
is carried on to a very considerable extent in 
the empire of China, where the soil is culti- 
vated perhaps more carefully, and with a 
greater minuteness of detail, or garden system 
of husbandry, than in any other country. I do 
not allude in this work to their cultivation of 
crops such as the tea plant, or those from 
which the English cultivator is as little likely 
to derive useful hints. They are remarkable 
for the care with which thej^ deepen, even by 
the spade, their cultivated lands, and their hus- 
banding of manures of all kinds is admirable; 
every thing that is produced in their cities en- 
dued with fertilizing properties, is collected 
and preserved with the utmost care. The 
night-soil, for instance, is made into a kind of 
bricks with calcareous matter, and carried into 
the most distant provinces, for the use of the 
farmers. " There is, perhaps," says the author 
of British Husbandry (vol. i. p. 273), " no part 
of the world in which the preparation and the 
practical application of vegetable and animal 
manure is so well understood as in China ; but, 
owing to its overflowing population, almost the 
whole of the labour is performed by man, by 
which the number of working animals is so 
much reduced, that night-soil forms the princi- 
pal dependence of the farmer. It is extensively 
employed in a dried state, and is sold as an 
article of commerce throughout the empire, in 
the form of cakes, mixed up with one-third of 
their weight of marl." To the same end the 
poor are employed in collecting in the public 
roads and streets all the horse and other dung, 
which is also made into cakes with marl, and 
these are afterwards dried in the sun. 

The system of tillage formed by the Chinese, 
however antiquated, is not of a general descrip- 
tion, calculated to instruct the English culti- 
vator; and the Chinese husbandmen are en- 
tirely uninformed as to any scientific principles, 
by the observance of which the cultivation of 
the earth is improved. The same remark, in 
fact, extends to most oriental farmers : they 
merely follow a regular routine of operations, 
because it is that which their forefathers adopt- 
ed : followed without consideration, it is trans- 
mitted unimproved. See iRniGATioN, and 
Night-soil. (Memoir on the .Agriculture of India, 
by G. W. Johnson.) 

INDIAN CORN. See Maize. 

INDIAN CRESS. See Cress, Indian. 

INDIAN MILLET (Sorghum vulgar e). Sor- 
ghi is the Indian name, according to Bauhin. 
The French call it grand millet, the Italians 
saggena or sorgo, and the Spaniards alcandia. 
It is much cultivated in Arabia and most 



INDIAN RUBBER. 



INDIAN RUBBER. 



parts of Asia Minor, and has been introduced 
into Italjs Spain, Switzerland, and some parts 
of Germany; also into China, Cochin-China, 
and the West Indies, where it grows commonly 
five or six feet high or more, and, being es- 
teemed a hearty food for labourers, is called 
Negro Guinea corn. Its long awns or bristles 
defend it from the birds. In England, the au- 
tumns are seldom dry and warm enough to 
ripen the seeds well in the field. In Arabia it 
is called dorn or durra. The flour is very white, 
and the}'^ make good bread of it, or rather cakes, 
about two inches in thickness. The bread 
which they make of it in some parts of Italy is 
dark and coarse. In Tuscany it is used chiefly 
for feeding poultry and pigeons; sometimes 
for kine, swine, and horses. Brooms are made 
of the spikes, which are also sent to England 
for the same purpose. The Indian millet, as 
well as the common sort (panidim) is cultivated 
in some parts of North America, and has been 
tried in England, but it is only in the warmest 
autumns that it ripens its seeds. (Loudon's Eu- 
cydopadia of Plants.) See Guit<ea Cors. 

INDIAN RUBBER, Gum Elastic, or CaoiU- 
rhouc, is a well-known tough and yielding sub- 
stance, obtained in South America and Java 
from the sap of a tree called the Siphoniu calnica. 
To procure the sap, incisions are made through 
the bark in many places, and the milky juice 
which exudes is spread over clay moulds, and 
dried in the sun, or by a fire, the smoke from 
which last blackens it. 

The juice itself has been of late years im- 
ported. It is of a pale-yellow colour, and has 
the consistence of cream. It becomes covered, 
in the bottles containing it, with a pellicle of 
concrete caoutchouc. Its specific gravity is 
1-012. When it is dried, it loses 55 per cent, 
of its weight; the residuary 45 is elastic gum. 
W^hen the juice is heated, it immediately coagu- 
lates, in virtue of its albumen, and the elastic 
gum rises to the surface. It mixes with wa- 
ter in any proportion ; and, when thus diluted, 
it coagulates with heat and alcohol as be- 
fore. 

The specific gravity of caoutchouc is 0-925, 
and it is not permanently increased by any de- 
gree of pressure. By cold or long quiescence, 
it becomes hard and stifle. By long boiling in wa- 
ter it softens, swells, and becomes more readily 
soluble in its 'peculiar menstrua; but when ex- 
posed to the air, it speedily resumes its pristine 
consistence and volume. It is quite insoluble 
in alcohol ; but in ether, deprived of alcohol 
by washing with water, it readily dissolves, 
and affoi-ds a colourless solution. When the 
ether is evaporated, the caoutchouc becomes 
again solid, but is somewhat clammy for a 
while. When treated with hot naphtha, dis- 
tilled from native petroleum, or from coal-tar, 
it swells to 30 times its former bulk ; and if 
then triturated with a pestle, and pressed 
through a sieve, it affords a homogeneous var- 
nish, which being applied by a flat edge of 
metal or wood to cloth, prepares it for forming 
the patent water-proof cloth of Mackintosh. 
Two surfaces of cloth, to which several coats 
of the above varnish have been applied, are, 
when partially dried, brought evenly in contact, 
and then passed between rollers, in order to 



condense and smooth them together. Thi 
double cloth is afterwards suspended in a 
stove-room to dry, and to discharge the disa- 
greeable odour of the naphtha. 

Caoutchouc dissolves in the fixed oils, such 
as linseed oil, but the varnish has not the pro- 
perty of becoming concrete upon exposure to air. 

It is more or less soluble in the oils of la- 
vender and sassafras. 

It melts at 248° Fahrenheit, and stands after- 
wards a much higher heat without undergoing 
any further change. When the melted caout- 
chouc is exposed to the air, it becomes hard 
on the surface in the course of a year. When 
kindled, it burns with a bright flame and a 
great deal of smoke. 

Neither chlorine, sulphurous acid gas, muri- 
atic acid gas, ammonia, nor fluosilicic acid gas 
affects it, whence it forms very valuable flexi- 
ble tubes for pneumatic chemistry. Cold sul- 
phuric acid does not readily decompose it, nor 
does nitric acid, unless it be somewhat strong. 
The strongest caustic potash ley does not dis- 
solve it, even at a boiling heat. 

Mr. William Henry Barnard, in the course 
of some experiments upon the impregnation 
of ropes with caoutchouc, at the factory of 
Messrs. Enderb}', at Greenwich, discovered 
that when this substance was exposed to a heat 
of about 600° Fahrenheit, it resolved itself into 
a vapour, which, by proper refrigeratory me- 
thods, was condensable into a liquid possessing 
very remarkable properties, to which the name 
caoutchoucine has been given. For this in- 
vention "of a solvent not hitherto used in the 
arts," Mr. Barnard obtained a patent, in Au- 
gust, 1833. His process for preparing it is 
described in his specification as follows : 

" I take a mass of the said caoutchouc, or 
Indian rubber, as imported, and having cut it 
into small lumps, containing about two cubic 
inches each (which I prefer), I throw these 
lumps into a cast-iron still. I then apply heat 
to the still in the usual manner, which heat is 
increased until the thermometer ranges at GOO 
degrees of Fahrenheit, or thereabouts. And 
as the thermometer ranges progressively up- 
wards to 600 degrees of Fahrenheit, a dark- 
coloured oil or liquid is distilled over, which I 
claim as my said invention, such liquid being 
a solvent of caoutchouc, and other resinous 
and oleaginous substances. When the ther- 
mometer reaches 600 degrees, or thereabouts, 
nothing is left in the still but dirt and charcoal. 

"I afterwards subject the dark-coloured li- 
quid thus distilled to the ordinary process of 
rectification, and thereby obtain fluids varying 
in specific gravity, of which the lightest hitherto 
has not been under 670, taking distilled water 
at 1000, which fluids I also claim as my said 
invention. 

" At each rectification the colour of the liquid 
becomes more bright and transparent, until, at 
the specific gravity of 680, or thereabouts, it is 
colourless and highly volatile. 

"In the process of rectification (for the pur 
pose of obtaining a larger product of the oil 
colourless) I put about one-third of water into 
the still. In each and every state the liquid is 
a solvent of caoutchouc, and several resinous 
and oleaginous substances, and also of othet 

659 



INDIAN TOBACCO. 

substances (such as copal), in combination I 
with very strong alcohol." j 

The discovery of the chemical solvent which | 
forms the subject of the patent above described, 
has excited considerable interest in the philo- 
sophic world, not only from its probable use- 
fulness as a new article of commerce, but also 
from two very extraordinary characteristics 
which it is found to possess, viz., that, in a 
liquid state, it has less specific gravity than 
any other liquid known to chemists, being con- 
siderably lighter than sulphuric ether, and, in 
a state of vapour, is heavier than the most 
ponderous of the gases. 

Its elementary constituents are, 
Carbon - - 6-812 - - 8 proportions. 
Hydrogen - - 1000 - - 7 ditto. 

This new material (when mixed with alco- 
hol) is a solvent of all the resins, and particu- 
larly of copal, which it dissolves, without arti- 
ficial heat, at the ordinary temperature of the 
atmosphere ; a property possessed by no other 
solvent known ; and hence it is peculiarly use- 
ful for making varnishes in general. It also 
mixes readily with oils, and will be found to 
be a valuable and cheap menstruum for lique- 
fying oil-paints ; and, without in the slightest 
degree atiecting the most delicate colours, will, 
from its ready evaporation, cause the paint to 
dry almost instantly. 

Cocoa-nut oil, at the common temperature 
of the atmosphere, always assumes a concrete 
form ; but a portion of this caoutchoucine 
mixed with it will cause the oil to become fluid, 
and to retain sufficient fluidity to burn in a 
common lamp with extraordinary brilliancy. 

Caoutchoucine is extremely volatile ; and 
yet its vapour is so exceedingly heavy that it 
may be poured, without the liquor, from one 
vessel into another, like water. {Ure's Did.) 

INDIAN TOBACCO. See Ete-bhirht. 

INDIAN TURNIP (Jrvm triphyUuvi),'Wake- 
robin, &c. An American plant, distinguished 
by its head of beautiful red berries growing 
upon a single stem, and its perennial bulbous 
root, resembling a small rough turnip, possess- 
ing such an extremely acrid juice as, when 
bitten or chewed, causes violent inflammation 
in the mouth and salivary glands, inducing 
copious salivation. This acrid quality of the 
root is, however, dissipated by boiling or dry- 
ing. The dried root, grated and boiled in milk, 
is a popular remedy for coughs and pulmonary 
consumption. 

The English wake-robin, or cuckoo-pint, is the 
.Mruvi maculatum, which in many of its sensible 
qualities resembles the American Indian turnip. 

INDIGENOUS PLANTS. Such plants as 
are natives of or are common to a country. 

INDIGO (ImJigofera, from iiuUgo, a blue dye- 
stutr, a corruption of Indicum, India, and fei'o, 
to bear; most of the species produce the well- 
known dye called indigo, the finest of all vege- 
table blues). This is an extensive genus of 
rather elegant plants, the shrubby kinds of 
which are well worthy of cultivation. The 
stove and green-house shrubby kinds thrive 
best in a mixture of sandy loam and peat, and 
may be increased without diflSculty by cuttings 
of the young wood, planted in sand, under a 
glass, in heat. The annual and biennial kinds 
6fi0 



INDIGO. 

must be raised from seeds sown in a hotbed in 
spring; and when the plants have grown a 
sufficient height, they may be planted singly 
into pots, and treated as other tender annuals 
and biennials. The genus belongs to the natu- 
ral order Lf.guminoscE : hence the flowers resem- 
ble the pea tribe. The vexillum is round, 
emarginate ; the keel furnished with a subulate 
spur on both sides; stamens diadelphous; style 
filiform; legume continuous, one or more seed- 
ed, two-valved. The Indigofera carulca yields 
the finest indigo ; the 7. argentia, an inferior 
kind, which comes from Egypt; the /. tincloria, 
besides yielding indigo, is also medicinally 
employed ; and the powdered leaf of I. anil is 
used in some diseases of the liver. {Paxton.') 

Indigo, when cultivated, thrives best in a 
free, rich soil, and a warm situation, frequently 
refreshed with moisture. The usual course 
pursued for its culture is as follows : — 

Having first chosen a proper piece of ground, 
and cleared it, hoe it into little trenches, not 
above two inches or two inches and a half in 
depth, nor more than fourteen or fifteen inches 
asunder. In the bottom of these, at any season 
of the year, strew the seeds pretty thick, and 
immediately cover them. As the plants shoot, 
they should be frequently weeded, and kept 
constantly clean, until they spread sufficiently 
to cover the ground. Those who cultivate 
great quantities, only strew the seeds pretty 
thick in little shallow pits, hoed up irregularly, 
but generally within four, five, or six inches of 
one another, and covered as before. Plants 
raised in this manner are observed to answer 
as well as the others, or rather better; but they 
require more care in the weeding. They grow 
to full perfection in two or three months, and 
are observed to answer best when cut in full 
blossom. The plants are cut with reaping- 
hooks, a few inches above the root, tied in 
loads, carried to the works, and laid by strata 
in the steeper. Seventeen negroes are sufficient 
to manage twenty acres of indigo ; and one 
acre of rich land, well planted, will, with good 
seasons and proper management, yield five 
hundred pounds of indigo in twelve months; 
for the plant ratoons (stools, stoles, or tillers, 
i. e. it sends out stolones, or new growths), and 
gives four or five crops a year, but must be re- 
planted afterwards. {Broxune.) 

The process by which the blue colouring 
matter is extracted from the plant in Mexico, 
the East Indies, &c., is as follows : — 

The leaves are gathered at maturity, and im- 
mersed in vessels filled with water till fermenta- 
tion takes place. The water then becomes 
opaque and green, exhaling an odour like that 
of volatile alkali, and evolving bubbles of car- 
bonic acid gas. When the fermentation has 
been continued long enough, the liquid is de- 
canted and put into other vessels, where it is 
agitated till blue flakes begin to appear. Water 
is now poured in, and flakes are precipitated 
in the form of a blue powdery sediment, which 
is obtained by decantation, and which, after 
being made up into small lumps and dried in 
the shade, is the indigo of the shops. It is in- 
soluble in water, though slightly soluble in al- 
cohol ; but its true solvent is sulphuric acid, 
with which it forms a fine blue dye, known by 



INDURATED. 



ENTLAMMATION. 



the name of liquid blue. It affords by distilla- 
tion carbonic acid gas, water, ammonia, some 
oily and acid matter, and much charcoal; 
whence its constituent principles are most pro- 
bably carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. 
Indigo may be procured also from several other 
plants besides Indigofera tinctoria, and particu- 
larly from Isafis li)tcloria, or woad, a plant indi- 
genous to Britain, and thought to be the plant 
with the juice of which the ancient Britons 
stained their naked bodies, to make them look 
terrible to their enemies. If this plant is di- 
gested in alcohol, and the solution evaporated, 
white crystalline grains, somewhat resembling 
starch, will be left behind; which grains are 
indigo, becoming gradually blue by the action 
of the atmosphere. The blue colour of indigo, 
therefore, is owing to its combination with 
oxygen. 

Indigo is not cultivated to so great an extent 
in the United States as formerly, the imported 
article being obtained so readily. The follow- 
ing process of manufacturing indigo in small 
quantities for family use is extracted from the 
Southern Jlgrkidturist : — Cut the indigo when 
the under leaves begin to dry, and while the 
dew is on them in the morning; put them in a 
barrel, and fill this with rain water, and place 
weights on to keep it under water; when bubbles 
begin to form on the top, and the water begins to 
look of a reddish colour, it is soaked enough, 
and must be taken out, taking care to wring and 
squeeze the leaves well, so as to obtain all the 
strength of the plant; it must then be churned 
(which may be done by means of a tolerably 
open basket, with a handle to raise it up and 
down) until the liquor is quite in a foam. To 
ascertain whether it is done enough, take out 
a spoonful in a plate, and put a small quan- 
tity of very sironir lye to it. If it curdles, the 
indigo is churned enough, and you must pro- 
ceed to break the liquor in the barrel in the 
same way, by putting in lye, (which must be as 
strong as possible,) by small quantities, and 
continuing to churn until it is all sufficiently 
curdled ; care must be taken not to put in too 
much lye, as that will spoil it. When it curdles 
freely with the lye, it must be sprinkled well over 
the top with oil, which immediately causes the 
foam to subside, after which it must stand till 
the indigo settles to the bottom of the barrel. 
This may be discovered by the appearance of 
the water, which must be let off gradually by 
boring holes first near the top and afterwards 
lower, as it continues to settle; when the water 
is all let off and nothing remains but the mud, 
take that and put it in a bag, (flannel is the best) 
and hang it up to drip, afterwards spreading 
it to dry on large dishes. Take care that none 
of the foam, which is the strength of the weed, 
escapes ; but if it rises too high sprinkle oil 
on it. 

Seven or eight species of indigo are found 
in the United States, most of which are in the 
south. The wild indigo (Dyo-'s BcpHsia), com- 
mon in Pennsylvania and other Middle States, 
yields a considerable proportion of blue co- 
louring matter of an inferior kind. (Flora 
Cestrira.) 

INDURATED (Lat. induro). A term imply- 
ing that a substance naturally soft is hardened. 



It is a term frequently used in botanical works 
to signify the above-mentioned change. 

INERT VEGETABLE MATTER. The 
inert vegetable matters of the soil are those 
which decompose very slowly, and consequent- 
ly afford very little nourishment to the growing 
plant. Of this kind are woody fibre, tanner's 
bark, peat, &c., all of which, if not previously 
rendered more easily soluble by being mixed 
with farm-yard dung, or other easily fermenta- 
ble substances, afford food to vegetation by 
very slow degrees. 

INFIRMARY (Lat. infirmus, weak). An 
hospital for the reception of the sick. The 
Veterinary College in London have an infirm- 
ary for sick and diseased horses, to which the 
horses of their subscribers have access and 
medical treatment, free from charge. 

INFLAMMATION. In farriery, is a disease 
or affection consisting in an increased heat and 
action in any part of an animal, arising from 
various causes, external or internal, local or 
universal. In animals, the chief causes are 
wounds, bruises, and sudden or excessive cold, 
and the application of heat afterwards. 

The horse is subject to inflammation of the 
lungs, stomach, bowels, kidney, and of the eye 
and foot. Of inflammation of the bowels I 
have already spoken (see Bowels). Of in- 
flammation of the stomach in the horse, except 
from poisonous herbs or drugs, we know little. 
It very rarely occurs, and then can with difla- 
culty be distinguished from inflammation of the 
bowels ; and in both diseases the assistance of 
a skilful veterinary surgeon is required. 

Among the causes of inflammation of the 
kidney are, improper food, such as mow-burnt 
hay, musty oats, &c. Bleeding, in this case, 
must be promptly resorted to, and carried to its 
full extent. An active purge should next be 
administered; and a counter-inflammation ex- 
cited as near as possible to the seat of disease. 

Inflammation of the lungs is one of the 
causes of roaring : it is generally brought on 
by the respiration of heated and empoisoned 
air, in neglected and filthy stables ; by sudden 
changes from heat to cold, or cold to heat, 
from grass to the stable, or stable to grass, and 
so on. Bleeding, blistering, and relaxing me- 
dicines should be resorted to under the advice 
of a professional man ; for the cure of this 
malady can scarcely be safely undertaken 
without proper advice. 

Cooling applications, such as Goulard's ex- 
tract, one drachm or half an ounce of the tinc- 
ture of opium to a pint of water, with mash diet 
and gentle physic, will usually get rid of com- 
mon inflammation of the eye, or the inflamma- 
tion will subside itself; but should three or 
four days pass and the inflammation not be 
abated, we may begin to suspect that it is spe- 
cific and fatal inflammation, or true ophthal- 
mia, for which there is no cure. See Eye. 

Inflammation of the foot is brought on *"» 
over-exertion. If a horse that has been riddeu 
or driven hard be suffered to stand in the cold, 
or if his feet be washed and not speedily dried, 
he is very likely to have " fever in the feet." 
Bleeding at the foot, and poultices of linseed 
meal to cover the whole of the foot and pastern, 
with sedative and cooling medicines, should be 
3 K 661 



INFLORESCENCE. 



INSECTS. 



resorted to. And to promote evaporation it is 
advisable to remove the shoe, pare the sole as 
thin as possible, and have the crust, and parti- 
cularly the quarters, well rasped. See Grease. 

For inflammation in sheep, see Sheep. 

In inflammatory fever in cattle, profuse bleed- 
ing, followed by immediate purging (1^ lbs. of 
Epsom salts dissolved in water or gruel), must 
be had recourse to. ( Youatt on Cattle, p. 359.) 

INFLORESCENCE (Lat. ivflorescere, to flou- 
rish). The general arrangement of the flowers 
upon a stem or branch. It consists of the fol- 
loVing principal kinds : viz., the spike, the ra- 
ceme, the panicle, the capitulum, the cyme, and 
the umbel. 

The spike is a long rachis of flowers sessile, 
or without foot-stalks. The term raceme is 
commonly applied to flowers when they are 
arranged round a filiform or thread-like simple 
axis, each particular flower being stalked. The 
panicle is a loose disposition of inflorescence, 
in which the primary axis developes secondary 
axes, which themselves produce tertiary, as 
in oats ; or, in other words, it is a raceme bear- 
ing branches of flowers in place of simple 
ones. Capitulum implies the arrangement in 
small heads. The cyme is a mode of inflo- 
rescence resembling a flattened panicle, as that 
of the elder. 

Of the particular arrangement of the umbel, 
the carrot is a familiar example; the pedun- 
cles and pedicles spring from a common cen- 
tre, and rise till they form a nearly flat tuft. 
The diff"erence between an umbel and a corymb 
is, that whilst in the latter the flowers form a 
flat head, the pedicles do not, as in the former, 
spring from a common centre. (^Paxton's Bot. 
Did. : Brandc's Diet, of Science.) 

INFLUENZA. An epidemic catarrh, at- 
tended by febrile and other symptoms, which 
often run very high, and assume a variety of 
aspects, dependant upon the seasons and other 
causes. The possibility of the existence of a 
peculiar state of the atmosphere, although we 
have no means of detecting it, is undoubtedly 
the true cause of influenzas. Miasms, or va- 
pours of a noxious kind, may exist, though in 
very minute quantity, also as exciting causes 
of influenza, an idea suggested by Dr. Prout. 
It may possibly be of volcanic origin ; and 
such a substance as seleniuretted hydrogen, 
which, even in extremely minute quantity, is 
highly deleterious, might perhaps account for 
some of the phenomena of influenza; but we 
must acknowledge that nothing certain is 
known respecting the cause of this disease. 
See Distemper, Epidemic, and MuRHAiif. 

INOCULATION. An operation in the 
management of fruit trees, which is some- 
times called budding. It is a kind of grafting 
practised in the summer months on various 
trees and plants, and often succeeds better 
than the common method of grafting. (See 
Budding and Grafting.) It is also a term 
used to signify the process of transplanting 
grasses. See Grasses. 

INSECTS (Lat. imecta). A very extensive 
and, to the cultivators of the earth, important 
class of animals. Insects are distinguished 
from Worms by always having feet in their 
pTlect or winged state, as the beetle, butterfly, 
662 



moth, &c. Worms crawl on their bellies, and 
have no feet, as the earth-worm, snail, slug. 
&c. Insects, above all other animals, are bj 
far the most destructive to vegetation. 

On the subject of the science of entomology 
in this work, we propose only to touch upon 
those which are the most injurious or impor- 
tant to the farmer ; and many of these, such as 
the bee, ant, fly in turnips, wireworm, &c., will 
be found under their respective heads ; indeed 
the mere list of known insects is so numerous, 
that the catalogue alone would be too exten- 
sive for a work of this description. "The 
great characteristic of this vast assemblage of 
animals," says Mr. Swainson "is the total ab- 
sence of internal bones ; hence, their hardest 
parts are always external, and the muscles are 
usually attached to the under side of the sub- 
stance which forms the covering of the ani- 
mal. The body is always divided into rings 
or transverse joints, from which circumstance 
naturalists have agreed to call them annulose, 
or ringed animals." This name is peculiarly 
applicable, since it expresses a marked dis- 
tinction from such as have an internal skele- 
ton, analogous to that of man, and which are 
called Vertebrata, from possessing a spine. 
The Annulosa contain Insecta (insects proper) ; 
Arachnida (spiders) ; Crustacea (crabs) ; and 
Annelida (worms) ; excluding the soft Vermes 
of Linnaeus, which include the shell-fishes, or 
Mollusca. So diversified, indeed, are the difl^er- 
ent groups of this immense assemblage, or 
sub-kingdom of the animal world, that it is im 
possible to assign to them any other character, 
as a whole, than that just mentioned. 

From the works of Mr. Swainson, of Kirby 
and Spence, the papers of Mr. Duncan, in the 
Quart. Journ. of Agr., the work of V. Kollar, 
On Insects injurious to Gardeners, Fcyrcsters, and 
Farmers, and especially from that of Dr. Har- 
ris, the chief facts are obtained. In the words 
of M. Kollar, "To enable the readers, for whom 
this work is intended, to find more easily the 
insect particularly interesting to each, it has 
been considered proper not to treat of families 
and species in any systematic arrangement, 
but according to the branch of culture to 
which they are particularly injurious." And, 
in pursuance of this object, I shall only briefly 
allude to some of the chief of the insect depre- 
dators, for "to enumerate," says Davy, "all 
the destroying animals and tyrants of the vege- 
table kingdom, would be to give a catalogue 
of the greater number of the classes in zoology; 
almost every species of plant is the peculiar 
resting-place or dominion of some insect tribe ; 
and from the locust, and caterpillar, to the mi- 
nute aphis, a wonderful variety of inferior in- 
sects are nourished, and live by their ravages 
upon the vegetable world." 

Of the considerable extent to which the va- 
rious insect tribes commit their depredations, 
no farmer will for a moment doubt, and yet he 
forms his judgment only upon the ravages of 
the larger insects. Of the smaller tribes — the 
minute trespassers — the animalculse — those 
only discernable through the microscope, he 
forms no estimate. Yet of those that he does 
see, the catalogue is fearfully alarming. — 
" There is," says Mr Duncan, " scarcely one 



INSECTS. 



INSECTS. 



or our most useful plants which is not assailed 
in some way or other; and the forms of in- 
sects, and their modes of living, are so infi- 
nitely diversified as to enable them to continue 
their depredations in all the different states of 
these plants. The various kinds of grain, for 
example, have a host of enemies in the sub- 
terraneous larvae of beetles which consume 
the roots ; various kinds of caterpillars feed 
on the blade ; some particular species attack 
the ear; and even when laid up in apparent 
security, a small beetle is often found to scoop 
out the interior of each grain, and convert it 
into an abode for itself (See Corn Weevil.) 
In England, if the seed of the turnip escape 
the attack of a minute weevil, another enemy 
awaits the unfolding of the cotyledon leaves, 
and a third buries itself in the bulb and root- 
lets, which become diseased and covered with 
unseemly excrescences (see Aneuiit), while 
the mature foliage is often consumed by cater- 
pillars. 

"But even when there is no remarkable 
augmentation of their numbers, there is rea- 
son to believe that the injury occasioned to 
vegetation by insects is at all times greater 
than is generally supposed. Their operations 
are often carried on under cover, either be- 
neath the surface of the soil, within the sub- 
stance of the plant, or in other situations 
where they escape observation. Many kinds 
again feed only during the night, and conceal 
themselves during the day in holes and cre- 
vices. In consequence of this latent and in- 
sidious mode of attack, there is no doubt that 
we are often led to ascribe the unhealthiness 
and decay of plants to badness of soil, unfa- 
vourable weather, and other causes, when in 
reality they are produced entirely by insects." 
(Quart. Journ. Jgr. vol. viii. p. 97.) " The only 
course," adds Mr. Duncan, " which is likely to 
lead to the discovery of proper remedies, is to 
investigate carefully the habits and natural 
history of insects in connection with the struc- 
ture and general physiology of the plants 
which they attack. In prosecuting this object, 
the attention should be directed to ascertain 
the time when, and the manner in which, the 
eggs are deposited, as well as their composi- 
tion, and that of the enclosing membrane, with 
a view to determine in what way the vital 
principle might be most easily destroyed. The 
habits of the larvce call for particular atten- 
tion, as it is generally in this state that the 
mischief is committed; the period of their ap- 
pearance, their times of feeding, plants on 
which they feed, and (if attached to more than 
one) the kind they seem to prefer, the part of 
the plant attacked, duration of the larvce state, 
should be carefully noted; an acquaintance 
with the places to which the larvae usually re- 
treat when about to change to pupae, and with 
the structure, duration, &c. of the latter, might 
probably suggest some easy means of destroy- 
ing many in that dormant state. A knowledge 
of the economy of the perfect insect is of 
course of the utmost importance; if we could 
become acquainted with the retreats in which 
they pass the winter, or find means to destroy 
the few that generally survive, when they first 
appear in the spring, and before they have de- 



posited their eggs, the injuries which are sus- 
tained by their means might be altogether pre- 
vented." {Ibid. p. 99.) 

Let not, however, the farmer, when he is thus 
warmly engaging in the destruction of the an- 
noying insects of the field, omit to consider 
whether many of these are not, in some shape 
or other, productive of benefit — whether they 
do not serve to keep within reasonable limits 
other insects, or perhaps perform some other 
wise purpose in the works of the creation. 
This has been proved to be the fact in the case 
of the common earth-worm, whose casts so 
often annoy the gardener and the farmer. (See 
Eauth-Wohiw.) For these not only assist in 
the continual admixture of different strata of 
earths, but, by boring the soil, they promote in 
it the circulation of the atmospheric gases, and 
even the drainage from it of its superfluous 
moisture. And as White, of Selborne, remarks 
in his Natural History, "The most insignificant 
insects and reptiles are of much more conse- 
quence, and have much more influence in the 
economy of nature, than the incurious are 
aware of. From their minuteness, which ren- 
ders them less an object of attention, from their 
numbers and fecundity, earth-worms, though in 
appearance a small and despicable link in the 
chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make a 
lamentable chasm." 

Insects have been divided by entomologists 
into two great divisions — the winged and the 
wingless. 

Winged insects are divided into the follow- 
ing orders: — 

1. Coleoptera. Of this order are the weevils, 
the rose-bug, ground and dung beetles, &c. 

2. Orlhoplera. Of this order are the cock- 
roach, field cricket, grasshopper, &c. 

3. Hemiptera. Of which are the field, tree, 
and bed-bugs, fetid bugs, &c. 

4. Neuroptera. In which are comprehended 
the dragon fly, lace fly, ephemera, <Stc. 

5. Hymenoptera. In this order are bees, 
wasps, ants, saw-flies, gall-flies, &c. 

6. Lepidoptcra. Of which order are the but- 
terflies, moths, &c. 

7. Rhipiptera. Of which are certain minute 
insect parasites living on bees, wasps, &c. 

8. Diptera. Of this order are gnats, house 
flies, musketoes, ox and horse flies, &c. 

The insects without wings (jlptera) are di- 
vided into the following orders : 

9. Myriapoda. Of this are the centipede, 
lulus, &.C. 

10. Thysanwa. Including small, soft, leaping 
insects, generally covered with a silvery down, 
and found in damp places, under logs, &c. 

11. Parasita. The lice tribe, &c. 

12. Sudoria. The flea. 

I. The Transforination of Insects. — Insects 
commonly change their form several times in 
the most apparently magic manner. A few, 
the Aphis, for instance, are viviparous, but 
they are generally produced from eggs, that is^ 
the eggs are produced in the body of the mo- 
ther. "The female," says Kollar, "lays her 
eggs (which are often stuck on and covered 
with a kind of glue to protect them from the 
weather) shortly after pairing, instinctively in 
the place best adapted for their developement, 

66.1 



INSECTS. 



INSECTS. 



and which offers the proper food to the forth- 
coming brood. 

Most insects issue from their eggs as larvae ; 
those of the butterflies are provided with feet, 
and are called caterpillars ; those of beetles, 
grubs ; and when they have no feet, they are 
called maggots. In this state, as their bodies 
increase, the insects often cast their skin, and 
sometimes change their colour. Many winged 
insects, such as the grasshoppers, dragon flies, 
&c., very much resemble in their larva state 
the perfect insect; they only want the wings, 
which are not developed till after the last 
change of the skin. The larva state is the pe- 
riod of feeding ; and insects are then usually 
the destructive enemies of other productions 
of nature, and objects of persecution to far- 
mers, gardeners, and foresters. 

The nympha or pupa state succeeds that of 
the larva. Insects do not now require nou- 
rishment (with the exception of grasshoppers 
and a few others), and repose in a death-like 
slumber. To be safe from their enemies and 
the weather, the larvoe of many insects, par- 
ticularly butterflies, prepare for themselves a 
covering of a silky or a cottony texture. Many 
form themselves a house of earth, moss, leaves, 
grass, or foliage. Many even go into the earth, 
or decayed wood, or conceal themselves under 
the bark of trees, and other places of security. 

After a certain fixed period the perfect in- 
sect appears from the pupa. It is usually fur- 
nished, in this state, with other organs for the 
performance of its appointed functions, as for 
the propagation of vts species, &c. The male 
insect seeks the female, and the female the 
place best suited for laying her eggs; hence 
most insects are furnished with wings. Food 
is now a secondary consideration ; consequent- 
ly, in many, the feeding organs are less per- 
fectly developed than in the larva state, or very 
much modified, and suited for finer food, as, 
for example, in butterflies, which, instead of 
the leaves of plants, only consume the honey 
out of their flowers. 

II. The food ofi7isects is indeed proctired from 
an extensive pasture. "From the majestic 
oak," observes M. V. Kollar, " to the invisible 
fungus or the insignificant wall-moss, the 
whole race of plants is a stupendous meal to 
which the insects sit down as guests. Even 
those plants which are highly poisonous and 
nauseating to other animals are not refused by 
thera. But this is not yet all. The larger 
plant-consuming animals usually limit their 
attacks to leaves, seed, and stalks : not so in- 
sects, to the various families of which every 
part of a plant yields suitable provender. 
Some which live under the earth, attack roots ; 
others choose the stem and branches ; a third 
divioion live on the leaves; a fourth prefers 
the flowers ; while a fifth selects the fruit or 
seed. Yjven here a still further selection takes 
place. Of those which feed on the roots, stems, 
and branches, some species only eat the rind 
like the bee-hawk moth ; others the inner bark 
and the alburnum, like the bark beetle; a third 
division penetrates into the heart of the solid 
<vood, like the family of the long-horned bee- 
tles. (See BoiiEns.) Of those which prefer the 
foliage, some take nothing but the juice out of 
664 



the sap vessels, as the aphides : others devonr 
the substance of the leaves without touching 
the epidermis, as the raining caterpillars; 
others only the upper or under surface of the 
leaves (leaf rollers), while a fourth division 
(as the larvae of the Lepidoptei-a) devour the 
entire leaf. 

Of those feeding on flowers, some eat the 
petals (the rose-bug, &c.), others the farina 
(bees, &c.) ; a still greater number consume 
the honey from the nectaries (wasps, flies, 
&c.) ; other insects injure the plant by punc- 
turing it, and laying their egg in the wound, 
and with it an acrid matter, which causes a 
peculiar excrescence in which their young 
are hatched and live, until they are able to eat 
their way out, to perform the functions of the 
parents, such as the gall-fly, &c. The death- 
watch or ticking beetle {Anobium) feeds on dry 
wood, long used, as portions of our dwelling 
houses. 

Those insects which tenant and feed upon 
animal matters, have an equally varied taste: 
of these are the different kinds of bird and 
sheep lice, &c., gnats, midges, breeze flies, 
bugs, fleas, &c. Some of the carnivorous bee- 
tles devour their prey entire ; others only suck 
out their juices ; others live upon the food they 
obtain in water, and devour swarms of the in- 
fusoria. Many live on carrion and the excre- 
ments of the larger animals, such as the dung- 
beetle, and carcass-beetle ; others live in the 
stomachs of animals ; many moths live en- 
tirely upon hair, leather, wool, and feathers. 

The food of insects varies strangely with 
their transformations : the caterpillar requires 
very difl'erent food from the butterfly ; the 
maggot from the beetle and fly. Thelarv^a of the 
Sirex gigas feeds on wood, the perfect insect on 
flies. Those of some melolonthians live on 
roots and tubers, the beetle on leaves. The 
quantity of food consumed by diflerent insects 
varies very much : many consume more than 
their own weight in a day. The maggot of 
the flesh-fly, according to Redi, becomes 200 
times heavier in the course of 24 hours. Cater- 
pillars digest every day about one-third to one- 
fourth of their weight ; hence the ravages they 
commit in a few days. Of others, however, such 
as the day-flies {EphemeridtB) and the breeze- 
flies, and even amongst the Lepidoptcra which 
spin cocoons, many appear to abstain from 
nourishment. Some eat only during the day, 
others in the evening; and others, such as the 
caterpillars of the night moths, during the 
night. Most of them provide their own food; 
but a few which live in communities, such as 
the wasps, bees, ants, &c., are fed by the per- 
fect insect. Many provide a store of food, but 
the greater number die unprovided with a 
store: others feed their larvae." See Beetle, 
and BoRF.Hs. 

III. Destruction of Insects, ^c. by Artificial 
Means. — Various have been the recipes sug- 
gested for the destruction of the insects 
which destroy the cultivator's crops. Ants, 
it is said, may be easily destroyed by toasting 
the fleshy side of the skin of a piece of bacon 
till it is crisp, and laying it at the root or 
[ stem of any fruit tree that is infested by these 
j insects, placing something over the bacon to 





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I3E.^TRr>PTTy£ J.^^^SEX'T.^, & 



11. 



INSECTS. 



INSECTS. 



keep it dry — the ants will go under it ; after a 
time lift it up quickly, and dip it into a pail of 
water. While treating of insects, I may inci- 
dentally allude to worms and slugs, or naked 
snails. For the destruction of slugs, warm in 
an oven, or before the fire, a quantity of cab- 
bage leaves, until they are soft, then rub them 
with unsalted butler, or any kind of fresh drip- 
ping, and lay them in the places infested by 
slugs. In a few hours the leaves will be 
found covered with snails and slugs. Wood- 
lice are destroyed in the same way. For field 
operations, perhaps, the best means of destroy- 
ing slugs and worms is common salt, an agent 
too little known for this purpose, yet its powers 
are undoubted. 

No person has employed common salt for 
the purpose of destroying worms to a greater 
extent than Jacob Busk, Esq., of Ponsbourn 
Park, in Hertfordshire. His valuable experi- 
ments have extended over some hundreds of 
acres of wheat. To use his own words, — "In 
every situation, and at every time, the effect 
appeared equally beneficial." The quantity 
per acre, — "about four or five bushels sown 
out of a common seed-shuttle." The period, — 
"In the evening." The efl;"ect, — "In the morn- 
ing each throw may be distinguished by the 
quantity of slime and the number of dead slugs 
lying on the ground. In some fields it has cer- 
tainly been the means of preventing the de- 
struction of the whole crop." Six bushels of 
salt per acre was applied by hand, in April, 
1828, to a field of oats attacked by the slugs 
and worms, and the crop was completely saved 
by this application, although an adjoining field, 
not salted, was entirely destroyed by this sort 
of vermin. 

Salt, too, is a complete preventive of the 
ravages of the weevil in grain. It has been 
successfully employed in the proportion of a 
pint of salt to a barrel of wheat. I learn from 
an American merchant, that wheat placed in 
old salt barrels is never attacked by these de- 
structive insects. Six or eight pounds of salt 
sprinkled over 100 sheaves in stacking, pro- 
duces exactly the same eff"ect. 

The Eriosoma lanigera upon apple trees, and 
several other insects (See American Blight), 
may be killed by clay and water, made as thin 
as whitewash, and mixing with every 6 gallons 
of it 2 lbs. of cream of tartar, 1 lb. of soft soap, 
and half a peck of quicklime. " When you 
think," says Mr. Loudon, " that the weather is 
likely to continue dry for some time, take a 
bucketful of this mixture, and with a large 
brush wash over the bark of the trees, wher- 
ever you think it has been infected with the 
bug. A man will dress a number of trees over 
in a few days with a whitewash brush and this 
liquid ; it is only necessary to be careful to do 
it in dry weather, so that the rain may not 
wash over the mixture for some time. The 
clay and water alone are sometimes effectual. 
Flies and wasps. — A mixture of pepper, sugar, 
and water will speedily attract and destroy 
them. (Gard. Mag. No. 37 ; Quart. Jourti. Jgr. 
vol. iii. p. 1071.) 

Moss and Insects. — Mr. Thomas recommends 
that the trees infected should be sprinkled 
with a fine powder in March, and again in Oc- 
84 



tober, on a foggy day when the trees are damp 
but not dripping, and I have no doubt of its 
efficacy. It is composed as follows : slack five 
bushels of lime, hot from the kiln, with com- 
mon salt and water (say one lb. of salt to each 
gallon of water). When the lime has fallen to 
a fine powder, add b)' small quantities at a 
time a bushel of soot, stirring it until com- 
pletely incorporated. Mr. Thomas has found 
that one man can dust over with the powder fifty 
trees in a day, and that the moss in the turf 
under fruit trees thus treated is also completely 
destroyed by the application. (Trans. Sac. Arts.) 
Worms in grass plats may be readily destroyed 
by copiously watering the turf with lime-water 
(half a pound of the hottest quick-lime well 
stirred in each gallon of water), or by sprin- 
kling common salt (20 bushels per acre) over 
it, or by strewing it on gravel walks in rather 
large proportions. Lime is recommended for 
the destruction of the worm which sometimes 
injures young larch plantations ; coal-tar and 
tar water to preserve hop poles and other 
wood from the ravages of insects. The cater- 
pillars on cabbages may be readily destroyed 
by sprinkling them with finely powdered lime ; 
and v/hen some years since a black caterpillar 
attacked very generally and extensively the 
turnips, in some instances they were very suc- 
cessfully destroyed by turning into the fields 
considerable numbers of common ducks. 
Heavy rolling, especially during the night, is 
in many cases destructive of slugs ; and it is 
certain that, by occasional material variations 
in the rotation of crops (see Rotation of 
Cnops), the number of predatory insects may 
be very considerably reduced in cultivated 
soils by depriving the larvae of their particular 
and essential food. 

Mr. Knight recommends the use of carbonate 
of ammonia for the destruction of the insects 
upon the pine and other plants. Mr. Baldwin, 
in eflfect, does the same, when he commends 
the use of the steam from hot fermenting horse 
dung. Mr. Robertson found soot (which con- 
tains ammonia), when diflfused in water, to be 
an excellent application. When speal' ing of 
the use of fermenting horse dung in .-he de- 
struction of insects, Mr. Knight remarked, "I 
conclude the destructive agent in this case is 
ammoniacal gas, which Sir Humphry Davy 
informed me he had found to be instantly fatal 
to every species of insect; and, if so this 
might be obtained at a small expense by pour- 
ing a solution of crude muriate of ammonia 
upon quicklime ; the stable or cow-house would 
afford an equally eflficient, though less delicat« 
fluid. The ammoniacal gas might, I conceive, 
be impelled by means of a pair of bellows 
amongst the leaves of the infected plants, in 
sufficient quantity to destroy animal without 
injuring vegetable life." Ammonia seems pe- 
culiarly distasteful to insects. Carbonate of 
ammonia is often successfully placed in meat- 
safes to prevent the attacks of flies. 

IV. The natural Enemies of Insects. — Among;ii 
the enemies by which insects are kept in 
check, may be numbered long-continued rains, 
late frosts, inundations, storms; and, among 
the animals, bats, mice, moles, squirrels, foxes, 
&c. Birds devour them by myriads; the greea 
3 K 2 665 



INSECTS. 

finch tears open (says Reaumur) the strong 
nest of the yellow-tailed moth, and eats the 
infant caterpillars. The woodpeckers and tree- 
creepers commit great ravages amongst the 
beetles and caterpillars. Crows, which in some 
sections destroy the corn, commit great ravages 
upon cutworms and destructive insects. In 
one of the English counties where the rook (a 
bird allied to the crow) had increased so as to 
do some damage to the crops, a destructive 
war was waged against them, so that they 
were »'.carly exterminated. But under these 
circumstances various species of the insect 
tribe increased so rapidly, that it became ne- 
cessary to import the rooks again from the 
adjoining counties. In fact, it remains to be 
proved whether any omnivorous bird is more 
prejudicial than useful. Insects in their va- 
rious states exist throughout the warm season, 
whilst the crops are exposed to the birds for a 
comparatively short period. Every protection 
should be given to birds, and boxes should be 
fitted up for martins, wrens, and bluebirds. To 
these may be added the frog, the toad, &c. 
Many insects, such as the ground beetles, de- 
vour the pupae of others. Then, again, there 
is the numerous order of the IchncimwnidcE, 
which lay their eggs in the bodies of other in- 
sects and destroy them. The eggs are hatched 
within the body of the living insect, and the 
young parasites, in the most literal sense, fat- 
ten on the entrails of their prey. At last the 
wounded caterpillar sinks, the enemies escape 
through the skin and become pupee; or the 
caterpillar, notwithstanding its internal para- 
sites, enters the pupa state; but, instead of a 
butterfly, one or more Ichnenmonidce appear. 
The beautiful little red insect familiarly known 
as the lady-bird or lady-bug, is of vast service 
by the havoc which it makes among the plant 
and bark-lice. Many a friendly ichneumon fly 
or lady-bird has been killed by those whose 
want of knowledge led them to consider these 
insects destructive to vegetation. To these 
wonderful animals we often owe the preserva- 
tion of our orchards, woods, and grains. Many 
other modes, besides those I have enumerated, 
have been suggested, by which the number of 
the cultivator's predatory insects may be re- 
duced, most of which I shall notice under their 
respective heads. I am quite of the opinion, 
however, of the authors of the work I have so 
extensively quoted, "that the most essential and 
necessary means to be opposed to the serious 
injuries caused by insects, consists in the uni- 
versal dissemination of the knowledge of the 
natural history of hurtful insects amongst far- 
mers, gardeners, foresters, and all these, in 
fact, who are in any manner connected with 
agriculture." 

V, Of the Insects which live and propagate on 
domestic animals. — The chief are lice, which 
coir.monly originate from want of cleanliness, 
poor, unwholesome food, or from the weaken- 
ing efi'ects of other diseases. Old horses are 
more subject to them than young ones ; they 
are common in sheep, and in swine; for which 
tlie best remedies will be found under their re- 
spective heads. (For the bots in horses, see 
BoT ; for those in sheep, see Sheep Bot ; for 
die ox-warble, see Wabble.) The forest fly, 
6P6 



INSECTS. 



1 



or horse fly, lives chiefly on horses. It flies la 
short flights quickly, and moves about with 
considerable agility. The female lays but one 
egg at a time, from which the fly is hatched. 
They abound in the New Forest. See Horse 
Fly. 

The well-known sheep tick has no wings ; 
the fore part of its body is very small, but the 
abdomen is large. Its colour reddish, with 
white lines on the side of the abdomen. The 
farmer will find the following an excellent 
receipt for a sheep-dipping wash, by which 
they are readily destroyed: — ^ a lb. of powder- 
ed white arsenic, 4^ lbs. of soft soap. Boil 
these for a quarter of an hour, or until the ar- 
senic is dissolved, in five gallons of water. 
Add this to the water sufficient to dip fifty 
sheep. The quantity of arsenic usually re- 
commended is too large. See Ticks. 

VI. Insects which injure Bees. — There are seve- 
ral insects which injure bees, such as a para- 
site bee-louse, which is about the size of a flea, 
has no eyes, but the rudiments of four feelers. 
They tenant chiefly populous hives : sometimes 
two or three are found on a bee. These para- 
sites disturb and annoy even the queen bee. 
" A bee," says M. Kollar, " infested with a bee- 
louse, endeavours, but to no purpose, to get rid 
of such an unwished-for guest, till at last she 
creeps under a number of other bees, and rubs 
ofl^ the louse from her back, when it imme- 
diately betakes itself to the back of another bee. 
That the presence of this parasite causes pain 
to the bee, is apparent from the restlessness 
with which she runs out at the hole and back 
again. The queen is also disturbed in her em- 
ployment of egg-laying, when she is infested by 
them, so that the hive suffers in another way 
by impoverishment. It may even happen that 
when many of these parasites infest a queen, 
she must eventually perish. In winter the in- 
fected bees usually fall to the floor, and perish 
with cold and hunger." Spiders also destroy 
bees, but only in their nets. Then there is the 
caterpillar of the honeycomb-moth, whose ra- 
vages are very considerable, when once they 
find their way into a hive. They devour only 
the wax. Three hundred have been found in 
a hive, and there are two generations of these 
caterpillars in a year. Ants also are very fond 
of honey, and find their way into hives. Wasps 
very frequently do the same. Bees even rob 
each other's hives. 

VII. The Insects which injure Grain. — These 
are numerous: the chief of them are the larvEB 
which feed on the green leaves and roots of 
grain. On these the blackbirds, crows, and 
other useful^birds feed very copiously. The 
barley-midge (Tipida cerealis) attacks the bar- 
ley and spelt plants. 

VIII. Insects which injure Meadows. — This is 
also a very numerous class. "Most of the in- 
sects that choose the various sorts of corn for 
their food," says M. Kollar, "do not reject the 
other sorts of grasses, in the meadows. The 
herbage of the meadows has also often pecu- 
liar enemies, which are very difficult to find 
out and destroy. In most cases the meadows 
sufl^er from the roots of the grass plants being 
injured, which is chiefly occasioned by the 
larvae of various species of cockchaffers, living 



INSECTS. 



INSECTS. 



m the earth. When bare spots are seen on 
meadows, we may be pretty sure that the larvae 
of some species of melolontha are there carry- 
ing on their work of destruction. The sub-turf 
plough disturbs the operations of these vermin; 
the crows devour them. 

IX. Insects injurious to cultivated Vegetables — 
Are also numerous, and highly injurious to the 
gardener's crops. The flea-beetles {Haltica) 
are great pests to the gardener : they attack 
and devour, during the summer months, various 
members of the cabbage tribe, such as the cab- 
bage, cauliflower, and colewort, the turnip, the 
radish, common and water cress : they also 
prey upon flax, hops, sainfoin, &c. (See Fly 
IX Turnips.) The mole cricket {Gryllotalpa) 
is often peculiarly injurious to the German 
cultivators. It does not confine its ravages to 
the garden crops, but injures very materially 
those of the meadow and corn-fields. It mea- 
sures, when full-grown, about two inches in 
length. The plant-lice {Aphis) chiefly haunt 
the cabbage, peas, and beans. They are de- 
voured in great numbers by several of the lady- 
birds {Cocrinelld) and fly tribes. 

X. Insects which Ir.jure Green-house Plants. — 
Of these I need only mention the orange scale 
insect {Coccus hcspcridu7n) ; the pine-apple scale 
insect {Coccus brvmelicE) ; the mealy bug {Coccus 
Adunidum) ; the oleander scale insect {Aspidio- 
tus Nerii), abounding on oleanders, acacias, 
aloes, palms, &c. ; the rose scale {A. rosce), 
found in old rose stems and twigs ; the cactus 
scale {A. echinocacti), on the cacti; the sweet- 
bay scale {A.hnui), on the sweet bay; the rose- 
moth {Tinea {Ornix) rhodophagellci) ; and the 
plant-mite or red spider {Acarius telnrius). 

XI. Insects which attack Fruit Trees, — The 
number of insects which live either partially 
or entirely upon fruit trees, is very considera- 
ble. I can hardly do more in this work than 
give the names of the most formidable of these 
little depredators. 

XII. Insects injurious to Forest Trees. — Tljese 
are divided by M. Kollar into two classes: — 

1. Those which attack deciduous trees ; and, 

2. Those which are injurious to the evergreens. 

XIII. Insects which attack the Fir and Pine 
Tribe — These often injure very seriously the 
leaves, bark, and young shoots of some of the 
Pinus tribe. 

Such, then, is a very brief glance at that im- 
mense and important class of animals which 
are included in the science of entomology. It 
must be considered, to use the words of Mr. 
Swain sou, only as suggestions and stimulants 
to further inquiry. The review, however, can- 
not but fill us with astonishment; for, although 
we see only a very limited portion of the insect 
M^orld, yet that view, limited as it is, is fraught 
•with instruction to the cultivator. It will lead 
him, perhaps, to a clearer understanding of the 
often-repeated truth, that nothing is created in 
vain. It may suggest to him also the means, 
in some cases, of arresting their ravages, when, 
by their excessive numbers, they become a 
nuisance ; and it may perhaps be instrumental 
in saving from destruction many a useful bird, 
when the sportsman is made aware of the num- 
ber of predatory insects which they so unceas- 
ingly destroy. The astonishing number, habits, 



md instincts of the insect tribe, too, are equally 
instructive, and can only be explained in one 
way. These phenomena did not escapie the 
notice of the great Paley. Thus he observes, 
" Moths and butterflies deposit their eggs in the 
precise substance (that of a cabbage, for in- 
stance) from which not the butterfly herself, 
but the caterpillar which is to issue from her 
eggs, draws its appropriate food. The butterfly 
cannot taste the cabbage ; cabbage is no food 
for her; yet in the cabbage, not by chance, but 
studiously and electively, she lays her eggs." 
And when referring to this imnn.;;cc mass of 
animal life, he says, in another place, "To this 
great variety in organized life the Deity has 
given, or perhaps there arises out of it, a cor- 
responding variety of animal appetites. For the 
final cause of this we have not far to seek. Did 
all animals covet the same element, retreat, or 
food, it is evident how much fewer could be 
supplied and accommodated than what at pre- 
sent live conveniently together, and find a plen- 
tiful subsistence. What one nature rejects, 
another delights in. Food which is nauseous 
to one tribe of animals, becomes, by that very 
property which makes it nauseous, an alluring 
dainty to another tribe. Carrion is a treat to 
dogs, ravens, vultures, fish. The exhalations 
of corrupted substances attract flies by crowds. 
Maggots revel in putrefaction." Neither rin 
the astonishing changes of some of the insect 
tribe be regarded by a rational being without 
very considerable interest. " The wonderful 
metamorphosis undergone by the order Lepi- 
doptera," says Swainson, "would be almost 
incredible, were it not familiarized to us from 
early childhood, that a crawling worm, rave- 
nous of grass food, should voluntarily seek a 
retreat in the earth, or spin its own shroud; 
that such a change should come over it, so 
complete, as that not a lineament of its first 
form was retained; that in thi? state, after re- 
maining a misshapen lump, tc all appearance 
inanimate, it should suddenly burst forth, full 
of life and joy, and, with many coloured wings, 
ascend into mid-air, and derive its only suste- 
nance from the nectar of flowers ; — all this, we 
say, is one of those miracles of nature, which, 
were it told of an insect that had never yet 
been seen, the world would not believe." 

Description of the Plate of Noxious Insectt. — 
Throughout this work we have made great use 
of the valuable treatise of Dr. Harris on destruc- 
tive insects ; but, as it is unaccompanied by 
plates, the reader who is unacquainted with the 
subject may be occasionally in doubt as to the 
aspect of those described. On this account we 
have devoted Plate 16 to the illustration of a 
few of the principal forms, both of destructive 
insects and those which prey upon them. The 
species figured are, 

1. Elaphidion putator, oak pruner. See Bo- 
rers, p. 205. 

2. Clytus Jlexuostis, locust tree borer.' See 
Borers, p. 206. 

3. Criociris trilineata. Potato-vine bug. 

4. Haltica striolata, cucumber flea (magni 
fied), p. 371. 

5. Phyllophaga quercina, p. 172, 173. 

— 6. Hylobius pales, which is very destructive 
to the pine forests of the south. The plum 

6f57 



INSTEP. 

weevil and grain weevil, as well as this spe- 
cies, belong to the Curculio family. 

7. jlgrotis dandestma, cut-worm. 

8. JEgeria exitiosa, peach tree borer, female. 

9. Gallerea cereana, bee-moth, p. 168. 

10. Caravus Goryi, which may be taken as a 
representative of a large family which feeds 
upon other insects, caterpillars, etc. 

11. Coccinella horealis, which in its larva and 
perfect slate, feeds upon the aphides so destruc- 
tive to roses and other plants. 

12. Tragus Juhus. The members of the ex- 
tensive family {Ichncmotiides) to which this 
species belongs, commit great havoc among 
caterpillars and grubs. 

INSTEP. In farriery, a name given to that 
part of a horse's hind-leg which reaches from 
the ham to the pastern joint. 

INSURANCE. One means of security 
against fire. The farmer being constantly sur- 
rounded by much combustible matter, should 
never, when possible, omit rendering himself 
safe by insuring his stock of every kind in 
some public office, instituted for this pur- 
pose. 

In England, the legislature has wisely afford- 
ed very considerable facilities to the insurance 
of farming stock, which, by an act of Parlia- 
ment, is exempted from duty. " The Farmer's 
Insurance Institution" of London insures it at 
Is. 9(/. per cent., without the average clause ; thus 
sasily repaired are the ravages of the incen- 
iiarv, o*" accidental fires, and lightning. 

INTEGUMENT. The outer covering or 
•kin of an animal : it is also used in the same 
<ense as a synonyme for Testa, for the husk or 
exterior covering of seeds. 

INVENTORY (Fr. invcntaire : Lat. inventa- 
riuvi). A detailed account taken of any thing 
upon a farm. Inventories of the various kinds 
of farming stock should be taken annually, at 
the close of the year. See Book-keeping and 

Api'IlAISEMENT. 

INVOLUCRE, or INVOLUCRUM. In bo- 
tany, the bractes (or small leaves placed near 
the calyx, or the peduncle or pedicil) which 
surround the flowers or the umbels. Involucels 
are the partial involucres of umbelliferous 
plants. (Paxton's Bol. Did.) 

IRIS (from iris, the rainbow; alluding to the 
variety and beauty of the colours of the flower). 
This extensive genus has long been, as it still 
continues to be, a great favourite in the flower 
garden. "The sword-leaved sorts (says Sweet) 
do best in a light loamy soil, and increase freely 
by suckers from the roots or by seeds. The 
tuberous-rooted ones are more difficult to cul- 
tivate, and thrive best in a mixture of loam, 
peat, and sand, as does also the tribe to which 
/. perxicii belongs, as I. alata, I. caucasica, I. reti- 
culata, &c. The common bulbous species do 
well in any garden soil, the more sandy the 
better." 7. tuberosa is aromatic as well as 
emetic and purgative, and /. versicolor and 7. 
verna are used in the United States as cathar- 
tics. {Paxton's Bat. Diet.) Two species of iris 
only are mdigenous to England, 

1. The yellow water iris, or flower-de-luce 
(/. pseud-acorus), which grows wild in ditches, 
r>ools, and rivers, and forms a handsome orna- 
668 



IRRIGA'ilON. 



1 



ment for the banks of ponds and streams, 
blowing from three to six large, bright yellow 
flowers in July. The root is horizontal, de- 
pressed, brown, very astringent ; the stem 3 or 
4 feet high ; leaves erect, ribbed, grass-green. 
The disks of the larger segments of the flowers 
are pencilled with dark purple. 

2. Stinking iris, or Gladwyn. Roast-beef 
plant {I. fcet'dissima). This species grows in 
groves, thickets, and under hedges, but it is 
rather rare. Dr. Withering, however, observed 
it to be very common in England in all the 
southwest counties. It is a perennial, grow- 
ing to about 2 feet high ; the leaves are dull 
green, exhaling, when rubbed, a scent com- 
pared to that of roast beef, to which it is no 
compliment. The flowers, which appear in 
May, are dull, pale purple, pencilled with dark 
veins. Seeds orange-coloured, polished. (Eng, 
Flor. vol. i. p. 48.) 

Miller only mentions 19 species of cultivated 
irises, but there are now nearly 100 known 
species and varieties. Two or three only are 
much admired as ornamental flowers. The 
7. xiphium is a bulb from Spain, blowing blue, 
white, yellow, and violet flowers in June. The 
Persian iris blows a fragrant flower in March 
and April ; plant the bulb in October, in a pot 
filled with equal quantities of fine mould and 
sand, and house it during frost. The dwarf 
iris is ornamental in clusters in a garden ; it 
grows only three inches high, and blows in 
April. Part its roots in autumn. The Siberian 
iris blows in June, and likes a moist situation; 
it bears flowers whose falling petals are blue, 
and the upri§:ht ones dark purple ; its stem is 
tall, and its leaves are narrow. 7. susiana, or 
fleur-de-lis. The plant is tuberous rooted, loves 
a good soil, and should be removed every three 
years. It flowers handsomely in June, bearing 
varieties of pale blue, deep blue, and striped 
or bluish-white flowers. Its odour is feeble, 
but it is fetid. These are the most favourite 
kinds in gardens. The 7. florentina, which is 
occasionally seen in our gardens, yields the orris 
root, which is the dried and peeled rhizomes 
of the plants. Orris root is prized chiefly on 
account of its odour, which resembles that of 
the violet. It is added on this account to tooth 
powders and hair powder. A hazardous cus- 
tom prevails of giving the entire root to infants 
to gnaw during teething, from which fatal re- 
sults have followed. 

The wild flag. Colour-changing flax (7m Vir- 
giniana), is common on the margins of ponds 
and in miry places in the Middle States. Dr. 
Bigelow remarks that the root of this is a vio- 
lent emetic. Seven or eight other species of 
iris are enumerated in the United States. {Flor. 
Cestrica.) 
IRON-WOOD (Carpinus ostrya). See Hoaw- 

BEAM. 

IRRIGATION (Lat. irrigio, to water). In 
agriculture, the watering of the earth, to in- 
crease its productiveness. The term, however, 
is confined to that species of flooding which 
consists of spreading a sheet of water over a 
field or meadow, in such a manner that it can R , 
be easily withdrawn. I 

Irrigation, or the artificial watering of the 



IRRIGATION. 



IRRIGATION. 



earth, chiefly to produce increased crops of 
grass, has been in use from a very early pe- 
riod. In Oriental countries, in fact, the heat 
of the climate is such, that in many situations 
the now productive soil would be absolutely 
sterile, were it not that the cultivator enriched 
his ground with a copious supply of water. 
The simile employed by Isaiah (i. 30), to indi- 
cate barrenness and desolation, is " a garden 
that hath no water." And that, in patriarchal 
times, they laboured hard to supply their 
grounds with water by means of various hy- 
draulic machines, some of which resembled 
the water-wheels of the fen districts of Eng- 
land, and were worked by the feet of men, 
something after the style of the modern tread- 
mill, is certain. Moses alluded to this prac- 
tice when he reminded the Israelites of their 
sowing their corn in Egypt, and watering it 
with their feet {Dent. xi. 10; 2 Kings, xix. 24), 
and in the sandy soils of Arabia the same sys- 
tem is still continued. (Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 121.) 
According to Dr. Shaw, the following is tlie 
modern mode of raising and using the water 
of the Nile for the purpose of irrigation in 
Egypt. "Such vegetable productions as re- 
quire more moisture than what is occasioned 
by the annual inundation of the Nile, are re- 
freshed by water that is drawn at certain times 
out of the river, and lodged in large cisterns 
made for that purpose. The screw of Archi- 
medes seems to have been the instrument for- 
merly made use of for that purpose, though at 
present the inhabitants either supply them- 
selves with various kinds of leathern buckets, 
or else with a sakinh, as they call the Persian 
wheel, which is the most useful and generally 
employed machine. Engines and contrivances 
of both these kinds are placed all along the 
banks of the Nile, from the sea to the cataracts, 
their situations being higher, and consequently 
the difficulty of raising the water being greater, 
as we advance up the river. When their pulse, 
saffron, melon, sugar-canes, &c. (all of which 
are commonly planted in rills), require to be 
refreshed, they take out a plug from the bot- 
tom of the cistern, and then the water gushing 
out, is conducted from one rill to another by 
the gardener, who is always ready as occasion 
requires to stop and divert the current. In 
Egypt at the present day, according to Dr. 
Clarke, the water is sometimes raised for tiie 
purposes of irrigation by means of a wicker 
basket lined with leather, which is held by 
cords between two men, who, by this laborious 
means, swing it over the banks of the Nile into 
the canal which conveys it to the lands intend- 
ed to be irrigated. A machine similar to the 
Persian wheel is still employed in China by 
the cultivators for the purposes of irrigation. 
This use of machinery for the purposes of 
watering might, in fact, in many situations, be 
advantageously employed in England to a 
much greater extent than is commonly be- 
lieved. It is well known how many thousand 
acres of valuable land are profitably drained 
by means of the steam-engine. At this very 
period a public company is proposing to en- 
close and drain an arm of the sea in Lincoln- 
shire, by the assistance of its gigantic aid. 
Fet how rarely, if ever, is that power employed 



to irrigate the thirsty lands of England ; lands 
of all others the most profitable, the best adapt- 
ed for the formation of water meadows. The 
tracts to which I allude are those on a slope, 
as on the side of a hill ; but these are rarely 
found in situations where a sufficiently copious 
supply of water can be constantly obtained for 
the purposes of irrigation. Yet the quantity 
thus required is not so large as to be beyond 
the power of the steam-engine to supply; thus, 
to sufficiently saturate a square yard of a cal- 
careous sand soil with water to the depth of 
one foot, as in irrigation, requires about 30 
gallons of water, equal to about 145,000 gal- 
lons per imperial acre. Now, that the steam- 
engine could readily and profitably supply this 
quantity of water may be concluded from seve- 
ral facts ; thus, the two engines, one of 80, the 
other of 60 horses' power, which keep Deeping 
Fen, near Spalding, completely drained, when 
working, in 1835, only 96 days, of 12 hours 
each, raised more than 14,000,000 tons of wa- 
ter several feet. The district drained by them 
contains about 25,000 acres (Brit. Farm, Mag. 
N. iS'. vol. iii. p. 300), which would otherwise 
be a complete swamp. And it has been proved 
that, by a common condensing steam-engine, 
one bushel of coals will raise more than 
50,000,000 lbs. of water one foot. In many 
situations, therefore, where, for the purposes 
of irrigation, good river water can be copious- 
ly obtained, and fuel is at a moderate price, I 
am confident that great results are yet to be 
obtained by the aid of mechanical power. For, 
by the steam-engine, the soils of all others the 
best adapted for irrigation, may be successfully 
brought into cultivation ; for instance, the poor 
sands and gravels on the sloping banks of 
many of the English and Scotish rivers, many 
of whose waters, from being charged with or- 
ganic matter, the carbonate and sulphate of 
lime, and various earthy substances, are ex- 
cellent for the use of water meadows. The 
early employment of irrigation by the Egyp- 
tians and Chinese was most likely the result 
of the good effects which were observed to be 
produced by the overflowings of the Nile and 
the Chinese rivers ; for, in the " Celestial Em- 
pire," irrigation has, it seems, been employed, 
according to their veracious historians, for a 
period long before that assigned to the flood. 
In Italy, especially on the banks of the Po, the 
cultivators of the earth have certainly employ- 
ed this process for a period previous to the 
days of Virgil {Georg. lib. i. v. 100—9),— 

Deinde satis fluvium inducit, rivosque sequentes — 

and it is still carried on with a zeal and care 
worthy of the art they practise. M. P. Calo, 
the earliest of the Roman writers upon agri- 
culture (150 years before Christ), in his ninth 
chapter, told the Italian farmers to "make 
water meadows, if you have water, and if you 
have no water, have dry meadows." The di- 
rections of Columella seem to have aU th* 
freshness of a modern age about them. Ho 
was the first who noticed the inferior nu- 
trition afforded by the hay from water mea- 
dows. " Land," says he, " that is naturally 
rich, and is in good heart, does not need to 
have water set over it: and it is better hay 

669 



IRRIGATION. 



IRRIGATION. 



^rhich nature, of its own accord, produces in a 
juicy soil, than what water draws from a soil 
that is overflowed. This, however, is a neces- 
sary practice when the poverty of the soil re- 
quires it ; and a meadow may be formed either 
upon a stiff or free soil, though poor when 
water may be set over it; neither a low field 
with hollows, nor a field broken with steep 
rising ground, are proper; the first, because it 
contains too long the water collected in the 
hollows ; the last, because it makes the water 
run too quickly over it. A field, however, that 
has a moderate descent may be made a mea- 
dow, whether it be rich, or so situated as to be 
watered; but the best situation is where the 
surface is smooth, and the descent so gentle 
as to prevent either showers, or the rivers that 
overflow it, remaining too long; and, on the 
other hand, to allow the water that comes over 
it quietly to glide off; therefore, if in any part 
of the field intended for a meadow, a pool of 
water should stand, it must be let off by drains, 
for the loss is equal either from too much wa- 
ter or too little grass." (Col. lib. ii. c. 16.) 
Pliny tells us that " meadows ought to be wa- 
tered immediately after the spring equinox, 
and the waters restrained whenever the grass 
shoots up into stalk." (Nat. Hist. lib. xviii. c. 
27.) When, after the fall of the Roman Em- 
pire, agriculture, in common with all other 
sciences, rapidly declined, a very remarkable 
exception to this melancholy result of slavery 
and despotism was presented in the case of 
irrigation, which was carried on and extended 
through the long period of the dark ages with 
equal zeal and success. This was more espe- 
cially the case in Lombardy, where it was cer- 
tainly prosecuted on a very bold and profitable 
scale long before 1037. The princes of Lorn- 
hardy patronised and followed the example of 
the various religious establishments which 
then monopolized all the wealth and learning 
of the land, in extending the employment of 
water in all possible directions. The monks 
of Chiazevalle, in particular, were so cele- 
brated for their knowledge of this branch of 
agriculture, and of hydraulics in general, that 
the emperor Frederick the First, in the 13th 
century, very gladly sought their advice and 
assistance. This system has ever been zeal- 
ously and carefully extended and improved in 
every possible way. The waters of the chief 
rivers of the north of Italy, such as the Po, the 
Adige, the Tagliamento, and of all the minor 
streams, are employed in irrigation. There is no 
other country, which possesses an extent of rich 
water meadows equal to that of the Lombards. 
The entire country from Venice to Turin may 
be said to be formed into one great water mea- 
dow : yet the irrigating system is not confined 
to grass lands; the water is conveyed into the 
hollows between the ridges in corn lands, into 
the low lands where rice is cultivated, and 
around the roots of vines. From Italy the 
practice extended into the south of France, 
mto Spain, and then into Britain. In the 
States of Lombardy, the water of all the rivers 
belongs to the state ; in those of Venice, the 
government extends its claims to that of the 
smallest springs, and even to collections of 
rain water, so highly for the use of the cul- 
67'. 



tivator, is water of every kind valued in the 
north of Italy. It is necessary, therefore, ia 
Lombardy, to purchase from the state the 
water taken from the river ; this may be taken, 
by means of a canal, through any person's 
grounds, the government merely requiring the 
payment of the value of the land to the pro- 
prietor, and restraining him from carrying his 
channel through a garden, or within a cer- 
tain distance of a mansion. The water is sold 
by the government at a certain rate, which is 
regulated by the size of the sluice, and the 
time the run of water is used ; this is either 
by the hour, half-hour, or quarter, or by so 
many days at certain periods of the year; the 
right to these runs of water is regularly sold like 
other property. Arthur Young gives an account 
of the sale of an hour's run of water through a 
sluice near Turin, which produced, in 1778, 
1500 livres. The rent of the irrigated lands in 
the north of Italy is, upon an average, more 
than one-third greater than the same descrip- 
tion of land not watered. (Com. Board of ^gr. 
vol. vii. p. 189.) 

In Bengal, wells are dug in the highest part 
of their fields, and from this, by means of bul- 
locks and a rope over a pulley, water is raised 
in buckets, and conveyed in little channels to 
every part of the field. No attempts at culti- 
vation are here made without the assistance 
of water, obtained by some mode or other. 
(See India, Agriculture of.) The art of 
irrigation was not confined to the Old World. 
The Mexicans practised it long before the days 
of Columbus; they collected the mountain tor- 
rents, and conducted their waters to their lands 
in proper channels, with much care and ad- 
dress. It was only towards the termination of 
the 17th century that water meadows were 
constructed in Britain upon any thing like a 
regular system. Of these, those in Wiltshire, 
which are amongst the most celebrated in 
England, especially those in the Wyley Bourn, 
were made between 1700 and 1705. Those 
of Hampshire and Berkshire were constructed 
about the same period, but they were at first 
formed very inferior to the modern noble wa- 
ter-meadow lands of those countries. Great 
improvements were made towards the conclu- 
sion of the 18th century, through the publica- 
tions of G. Boswell on Meadow Watering in 
1780, and of the Rev. T. Wright, of Auld, in 
Northamptonshire, whose writings appeared 
at intervals from 1789 to 1810. It is notice- 
able that the water employed for these cele- 
brated southern meads is perhaps the most 
clear and swift flowing of all the English 
rivers; issuing from the chalk formation, it is 
equally copious and transparent. Some of the 
chief advantages, therefore, of irrigation may 
evidently be derived from almost any descrip- 
tion of water; for it is proved by the good 
effects produced by the brilliant chalk-waters 
of the south of England, and the still greater 
fertilizing effect of those surcharged with or- 
ganic matter, as in the Craigintinny meadows, 
near Edinburgh, that there is no water too 
bright, or too full of impurities, to be useless 
for the purposes of irrigation. 

I propose, in this paper, to investigate the 
chemical properties of river water, and of the 



IRRIGATION. 



IRRIGATION. 



effects produced by it in irrigation, adding a 
few remarks upon the practice of the best and 
most skilful cultivators of the water meadows 
of the south of England. 

1. With regard to the composition of river 
water, there have been several chemical ex- 
aminations ; that of the Thames was analysed 
by Dr. Bostock, who found, in 10,000 parts, 
after most of its mechanically-suspended mat- 
ters had subsided, about 1| parts of foreign 
substances, viz. : 

PmIs. 

Organic matters - - - - 007 

Carbonate of lime ... 153 

Sulphate of lime - - - - 015 

Muriate of soda ... - 002 

In an equal quantity of the waters of the 
Clyde, Dr. Thompson found Ij- part of solid 
substances, namely : 

Parts. 
Common salt - - . . 0'369 
Muriate of magnesia - . - 0-305 
Sulphate of soda . . - 0114 
Carbonate of lime . - - 0394 
Silica 0118 

The water of the Itchen, in Hampshire, is 
one of the most celebrated of all the southern 
streams, for the use of the irrigator. I found, 
in 10,000 parts of water, about 2^ parts of 
solid matter, viz. : 

Part!. 
Organic matter ... - 002 
(Carbonate of lime - - - 1-89 

Sulphate of lime - - - - 072 
Muriate of soda - - - - 001 

From an examination of the substances 
found in these streams (and they afford a 
pretty correct view of the contents of most 
others), the farmer will see that they all yield 
ingredients which are the food or natural con- 
stituents of the grasses. Thus, sulphate and 
carbonate of lime are found in most of them, 
and there is no river-water which does not 
contain, in some proportion or other, organic 
matter. To ascertain, therefore, whether pure 
water was alone able to effect all the magic 
effects of irrigation, it was necessary to em- 
plo)' other water than that of rivers, lakes, or 
even springs. Pure water, as obtained by dis- 
tillation, therefore, has been tried as a sup- 
porter of vegetation, but it was found totally 
inadequate to the support of plants; they 
merely vegetated for a time, but they could 
not, by any means, be made to perfect their 
seeds. In this conclusion the experiments of 
Dr. Thomson, and of MM. Saussure and Has- 
senfratz, entirely agree. Pure water, there- 
fore, notwithstanding the dreams of the Greek 
philosophers, and the celebrated deceptive ex- 
periments of Van Helraont with his willow 
tree, is not able to support the growth of the 
grasses. Van Helmont's tree, when he planted 
it in an earthen pot, weighed 5 pounds ; the 
earth, previously dried in an oven, weighed 
200 pounds ; after 5 years it weighed 164 lbs., 
although it had been watered during that time 
with only rain and distilled water, and the 
earth had lost only two ounces of weight. 
Hence, said Van Helmont and his disciples, 
water is the sole food of plants. Bergman, in 
1773, first pointed out the source of error. He 
showed, from the experiments of Margraff, that 
the rain-water contained a sufficient quantity 
of earth to account for the increased weight in 



the willow, every pint of rain-water containing 
one grain of earth. Then, again, the earthen 
vessel (which was sunk in the earth) would» 
in this experiment, transmit its moisture im- 
pregnated with all kinds of soluble substances. 
And yet it has been shown that impure water, 
such as that from a sewer, or from a dunghill, 
is alone sufficient to sustain vegetation. This 
was clearly evidenced in the experiments of 
M. Lampadius ; for he found that plants placed 
in a pure earth, such as silica or alumina, 
although they would not grow when watered 
with pure water only, yet, when watered 
with the liquid drainage of a dunghill, they 
flourished very luxuriantly, and this fact has 
been also proved in another way. It has been 
shown, by chemical analysis, that the quantity 
of solid or earthy matters absorbed by plants 
is in exact proportion to the impurity of the 
water with which they are nourished. Thus, 
equal quantities of some plants of beans, fed 
by distilled water, yielded — 

Paris. 
Of solid matter or ashes - • - 3-9 
Those fed by rain-water - - - 7"5 
Those grown in garden niouM - - 120 

These facts strongly confirm the conclusions 
of some of the most sagacious cultivators, that 
the chief advantages of irrigation are attributa- 
ble to the foreign substances with which the 
water is charged ; although, as I have else- 
where observed, almost every farmer has a 
mode of accounting for the highly fertilizing 
effects of irrigation; one thinks it cools the land, 
another, that it keeps the grass warm in winter. 
And this was Davy's opinion. He thought that 
a winter flooding protected the grass from the 
injurious effects of frost. He says, " Water is 
of greater specific gravity at 42° than at 32°, 
the freezing point; and hence, in a meadow 
irrigated in winter, the water immediately in 
contact with the grass is rarely below 40°, a 
degree of temperature not at all prejudicial to 
the living organs of plants. In 1804, in the 
month of March, I examined the temperature 
in a water-meadow near Hungerford in Berk- 
shire, by a very delicate thermometer. The 
temperature of the air at 7 in the morning was 
43°. In general, those waters which breed the 
best fish are the best fitted for watering mea- 
dows ; but most of the benefits of irrigation 
may be derived from any kind of water." 

Such were the opinions of Davy as to the 
fertilizing properties of water. It is to be re- 
gretted that the opportunities for agricultura.' 
observations of this great chemical philosophei: 
were so few, for his valuable remarks were 
always cautiously made. He appears, how- 
ever, as I have remarked elsewhere, never to 
have steadily investigated the chemical com- 
position of river-water, with regard to its uses 
in irrigation, and, in consequence, knew little 
of the value of some of its impurities to vege- 
tation. Thus, if the river-water contains gyp- 
sum (sulphate of lime), which it certainly does 
— if the water is hard, it must, under ordinary 
circumstances, on this account alone be highly- 
fertilizing to meadows, since all grasses con- 
tain this salt in very sensible proportions ; fcr, 
calculating that one part of sulphate of lime is 
contained in every two thousand parts of river- 

671 



IRRIGATION. 



IRRIGATION. 



water, and that every square yard of dry mea- 
dow soil absorbs only eight gallons of water 
(and this is a very moderate allowance, for 
many soils will absorb three or four times that 
quantity), then it will be found that, by every 
flooding, more than one hundred weight and a 
half of gypsum per acre is diffused through the 
soil in the water, a quantity equal to that gene- 
rally adopted by those who spread gypsum on 
their clover crops, lucern, and sainfoin, as a 
manure, either in the state of powder, or as it 
exists in ashes. And if we apply the same 
calculation to the organic substances ever more 
or less contained in flood-waters, and allow 
only twenty parts of animal and vegetable re- 
mains to be present in a thousand parts of 
river-water, then we shall find, taking the 
same data, that every soaking with such water 
will add to the meadow nearly two tons per 
acre of animal and vegetable matters, which, 
allowing, in the case of water-meadows,, five 
floodings per annum, is equal to a yearly appli- 
cation of ten tons of organic matter. 

The quantity of foreign substances present 
in river-water, although commonly less, yet 
very often exceeds what I have thus calculated 
to exist in it. I have found it impossible, how- 
ever, to give, from analysis, the amount which, 
under ordinary circumstances, is present in 
river-waters, with any tolerable accuracy, since 
the proportion not only varies at diff"erent sea- 
sons of the year, but a considerable proportion 
of the merely mechanically suspended matters 
subside, when the specimen water is suffered 
to rest. In my conclusions with regard to the 
theory of irrigation, I have found many excel- 
lent practical farmers concur. Thus, Mr. Sim- 
mons, of St. Croix, near Winchester, considers 
that the great benefit of winter flooding for 
meadows is derived, in the first place, from the 
deposits made by the muddy waters on the grass ; 
and, secondly, from the winter covering with 
water preventing the ill effects to the grass of 
sudden transitions in the temperature of the 
atmosphere. This gentleman is perfectly aware 
of the value of the addition of the city drainage 
of Winchester to the fertilizing qualities of the 
Itchen river-water, and of its superiority for 
irrigation after it has flowed past the city, hav- 
ing water-meadows both above and below the 
town ; and he finds that, if the water has been 
once used for irrigation, that then its fertilizing 
properties are so materially reduced, that it is 
of little value for again passing over the mea- 
dows ; and so convinced is he of this fact by 
long experience, that, having in this way long 
enjoyed the exclusive and valuable use of a 
branch of the waters of the Itchen for some 
grass land, a neighbour higher up the stream 
followed his example, constructing some water- 
meadows, and using the water before it arrived 
at those of my informant, who, in consequence, 
found the water so deteriorated in quality 
(though not sensibly diminished in quantity), 
that he had once thought of disputing the right 
with his more upland neighbour. The expe- 
rience of other irrigators tends to the same 
conclusion. In the best-managed water-mea- 
dows of Hampshire, the farmer does not pro- 
cure annually more than three crops of grass; 
yet in situations where a richer water is em- 
673 



ployed, as near Edinburgh, four or five are rea- 
dily obtained. It is evident, therefore, that the 
chemical properties of water have a much 
greater influence in irrigation than is common- 
ly believed. The quality of the water, there- 
fore, employed for the purposes of irrigation, 
is of the first importance to be well understood 
by the farmer; and although many more mo- 
dern discussions have taken place upon the 
subject, yet the definition which the great Lord 
Bacon gave, in his Natural History, of the ad- 
vantages of "Meadow Watering," has never 
been excelled, — " that it acts not only by sup- 
plying useful moisture to the grass, but like- 
wise by carrying nourishment dissolved in the 
water." This nourishment is, generally speak- 
ing, composed almost entirely of the animal 
and vegetable matters mechanically suspended 
or chemically dissolved in the water; — the 
fouler the water, the more fertilizing are its 
effects. The objection which has been some- 
times urged to this explanation, by instancing 
the prejudicial effects of some very thick mud- 
dy waters (as those of the Humber) on meadow 
lands, is very erroneous ; for, in those cases, 
the mud deposited on the gi^ss did not consist 
of animal or vegetable matters, but of fine 
earthy particles, such as clay or chalk, sub- 
stances of which the alluvial soil, on which 
the same flood waters had for ages occasion- 
ally deposited their earths, wa& in fact en- 
tirely composed, and to which, in consequence, 
any further supply was almost useless, the 
earthy slime merely covering the grass with 
mud, without adding a single fertilizing ingre- 
dient not already abounding in the soil. If, 
however, the soil is naturally deficient in any 
of the earthy ingredients contained in the wa- 
ter, then even such flood waters are ever found 
most fertilizing. 

" The agency of water in the process of ve- 
getation," says Mr. Stephens, " has not till of 
late been distinctly perceived. Dr. Hales has 
shown that, in the summer months, a sunflower, 
weighing three pounds avoirdupois, and regu- 
larly watered every day, passed through it or 
perspired 22 ounces each day, that is, half its 
weight. Dr. Woodward found that, in the space 
of 77 days, a plant of common spearmint in- 
creased 17 grains in weight, and yet had no 
other food than pure rain water; but then he 
found that it increased more in weight when 
it lived in spring water, and still more when 
its food was Thames water." (Practical Irri- 
gator, p. 2.) And when speaking of the fact, 
that some irrigators think clear spring water 
equal to any, he adds (p. 24), "I would recom- 
mend to those who are of the same opinion, 
to inspect the irrigated meadows which are 
watered by the washings of the city of Edin- 
burgh, where, I trust, they will find the supe- 
riority of muddy water to that of clear spring 
water most strikingly manifested." 

Edinburgh has many advantages over the 
most of her sister cities ; the large supply of 
excellent spring water is one of the greatest 
blessings to her numerous inhabitants, both in 
respect to household purposes and keeping the 
streets clean, as well as irrigating the extensive 
meadows situated below the town, by the rich 
stufl" which it carries along in a state of semi- 



IRRIGATION. 



IRRIGATION. 



solution, where the art of man, with the com- 
mon sewer water, has made sand hillocks 
produce riches far superior to any thing of the 
kind in the kingdom, or in any other country. 
By this water, about two hundred acres of 
grass land, for the most part laid into catch- 
work meadow, are irrigated ; whereof 130 
belong to W. H. Miller, Esq., of Craigintinny, 
and the remainder to the Earls of Haddington 
and Moray, and other proprietors. The mea- 
dows belonging to these noblemen, and part of 
the Craigintinny meadows, are what is called 
the old meadows, containing about 50 acres, 
have been irrigated for nearly a century. 
They are by far the most valuable, on account 
of the long and continual accumulation of the 
rich sediment left by the water; indeed the 
water is so very rich, that the tenants of the 
meadows lying nearest the town have found it 
advisable to carry the common sewer water 
through deep ponds, into which the water de- 
posits part of the superfluous manure before 
it runs over the ground. Although the forma- 
tion of these meadows is irregular, and the 
management very imperfect, the effects of the 
water are astonishing; they produce crops of 
grass not to be equalled, being cut from four to 
six times a year, and the grass given green to 
milch cows. 

The grass is let every year, by public sale, 
in small patches of a quarter of an .acre and 
upwards, and generally brings from 24/. to 30/. 
per acre per annum. In 1826, part of the Earl 
of Moray's meadow fetched 57/. per acre per 
annum. 

About 40 acres of the Craigintinny lands 
were formed into catch-work water meadow 
before the year 1800, which comprises what 
is called Fillieside Bank old meadows, and is 
generally let at from 20/. to 30/. per acre 
per annum. In the spring of 1821, 30 acres 
of waste land, called the Freegate Whins, 
and 10 acres of poor sandy soil, were levelled 
and formed into irrigated meadow, at an ex- 
pense of 1000/. The pasture of the Freegate 
Whins was let, previously to this improve- 
ment, for 40/. per annum, and the 10 acres for 
60/. They now bring from 15/. to 20/. per acre 
per annum, but may be much improved by ju- 
diciously laying out 200/. more in better level- 
ling that part next the sea, and carrying a 
larger supply of water to it, which might be 
easily done without prejudice to the other 
meadows. 

This, perhaps, is one of the most beneficial 
agricultural improvements ever undertaken ; 
for the whole of the Freegate Whins is com- 
posed of nothing but sand, deposited from time 
to time by the action of the waves of the sea. 
Never was 1000/. more happily spent in agri- 
culture ; it not only required a common sewer 
to bring about this great change, but a resolu- 
tion in the proprietor to launch out his capital 
on an experiment upon a soil of such a nature. 
Since the making of the Freegate Whins 
into water meadows, Mr. Miller has levelled 
and formed 40 acres more of his arable land 
into irrigated meadow, worth, before the forma- 
tion, 9/. per acre per annum. It will only re- 
quire a few years before these meadows will 
be as productive as the former; for it is evi- 
85 



dent that the longer water is suffered to run 
over the surface of grass land, the greater 
quantity of fertilizing substance will be collect- 
ed; therefore, as the water is so very superior 
in quality to all other water, a speedy return 
for the capital laid out may be expected. The 
expense of keeping these meadows in repair is 
from 10s. to 15s. per acre per annum, which is 
more than double the expense of keeping wa- 
ter meadows in repair in general. 

It by no means, however, follows, as a neces- 
sary result of any contemplated improvement 
in irrigation, that the water should previoutly 
undergo a chemical examination. There are 
many other modes by which the farmer can 
form a pretty correct conclusion as to the fer- 
tilizing properties of the water he proposes to 
employ. 

"The surest proofs," says Mr. Exeter, "of the 
good quality of water (and the observations of 
this gentleman will be readily confirmed by the 
irrigators of the southern counties) as a ma- 
nure, are the verdure of the margin of its 
streams, and the growift of strong cress.es in 
the stream itself; and wherever these appear- 
ances are found, though the water be perfectly 
transparent, the occupier of the soil through 
which it flows may depend, in general, on hav- 
ing a treasure, if he is attentive to it; but that 
this is not invariably the case, and that there 
are instances where a good water will not im- 
prove the herbage of certain soils, is proved by 
the following account (and there are several 
other cases with which I am acquainted) of 
the meadows of Mr. Orchard, of Stokes Abbey, 
Devon. These two meadows are situated on 
the side of a hill, their aspect nearly south — 
the superstratum a fine rich loam, from 8 to 10 
inches deep, on a substratum of strong yellow 
clay. No difference whatever can be seen by 
the naked eye, in either the upper mould or 
the substratum, or in the herbage growing or. 
the surface of them; except that, in the lower 
part of one, a few rushes appear, in conse- 
quence of some small springs which rise near 
them, but the water from them is not sufficient 
to render any part of the land poachy. At the 
head of the two meadows is a large pond, 
formed by the collecting of some small runs of 
spring water rising near it, and which is also 
improved by the wash of a small farm-yard 
adjoining, which, of course, must add to its 
efficacy as a manure. When this water is 
thrown over one of the meadows, it produces 
the richest herbage in abundance, and this 
field is regularly mowed for hay ; on the other 
meadow, though repeatedly tried, it produces 
no good whatever." (Jnn. of Jgr. vol. xxx. 
p. 206.) 

This result is attributable to the superior 
tenacious, retentive quality of the substratum 
of the lower field, or of some chemical differ- 
ence in the composition of the soil; and al- 
though almost any description of soil is adapt- 
ed to the formation of water meadows, those of 
a heavy clay description are generally the 
most unsuitable, those of a light or peaty kind 
are better, and those with a sandy or very ab- 
sorbent gravel substratum still more so. There 
are some of the most celebrated water mea 
dows on the banks of the Kennct of this d** 
3L 673 



IRRIGATION. 



IRRIGATION. 



scription, and many of the best on the banks 
of the Wiltshire Avon have a mass of broken, 
porous flints for a subsoil. Those near Edin- 
burgh, irrigated by the city drainage, rest upon 
the sands thrown up by the sea. 

It is evident, therefore, that it is as impor- 
tant an object in the construction of these 
meadows to secure a ready and rapid exit for 
the flood-waters, as to procure, in the first in- 
stance, a copious and fertilizing supply. 

The farmer is generally well aware of the 
injurious effects to his meadows of sufl!ering 
the water to remain too long on them. He 
watches, therefore, with much care, for the 
first indications of fermentation having com- 
menced, which is evinced by the rising of a 
moss or scum to the surface of the water — pu- 
trefaction is now beginning in the turf, and he 
knows verj well that if the water is not speedi- 
ly removed, that his grass will be either mate- 
rially injured, or entirely destroyed; he hast- 
ens, therefore, to open his water-courses. 
There are some soils in the vicinity of Standen, 
in Berkshire, however, of so porous a quality, 
that they need not any drains to empty the 
water-courses ; and, in fact, in many instances, 
the farmer does not even require them : after 
a few hours all the water is absorbed by the 
;oil ; and yet these lands, with hardly 6 inches 
of mould above the gravel, are amongst the 
richest of water-meadows ; the roots of the 
grasses penetrate readily into the gravel, and 
rhe earliest and sweetest grasses are produced 
m them. 

Almost any description of grass will flourish 
under proper management in water-meadows. 
Those whose soils consist of peat resting on 
sand, or on sandy loam, with a substratum of 
chalk or gravel, generally produce the meadow 
foxtail {Mopecuruis pratonis), the brome-grass 
(Bromvs rnTensis), and the meadow-fescue 
{Fcs'vca prateusis), on the tc)ps and sides of the 
ridges. The furrows and sides of the drains 
are usually tenanted by the creeping-bent, the 
hard-fescue, the rough-stalked meadow-grass, 
and the woolly soft-grass. In those water- 
meadows whose soil consists of a sandy loam 
on a clay subsoil, the chief grasses are com- 
monly the creeping-rooted soft-grass, the crest- 
ed dog's-tail, the meadow barley, and the 
sweet-scented vernal-grass. But some grasses 
change their appearance in a very remark- 
able degree, when exposed under favourable 
circumstances to the influence of the flood- 
waters. This fact is strikmgly exemplified in 
the case of two small meadows situated at 
•Orcheston, six miles from Amesbury, in Wilt- 
shire, denominated, from their great produce, 
" the long grass meads." These, says Davis, 
"contain together only two acres and a half, 
and the crop they produce is so immense, that 
the tithe hay of them was once sold for 5 gui- 
neas." Much discussion took place amongst 
the Wiltshire farmers as to the nature of the 
crop of these meads, before it was at last 
shown that the greatest part of their herbage 
consisted of nothing else than the black-couch, 
•)r couchy-bent, the ^grostis stolonifera, one of 
he worst of the grasses or weeds which haunt 

t poor ill-cultivated arable soils. 
It IS a very general, as well as correct con- 
674 



clusioti of the English farmers, that the gras 
and hay of water-meadows is not so nutritious 
as that of the permanent pasture lands. The 
difference, however, is not so great as is com- 
monly supposed. The late Mr. George Sin- 
clair determined this experimentally, and he is 
no mean authority with regard to all that re- 
lates to the grasses. 

He obtained from the rye-grass (Lolium pe- 
renne), at the time of flowering, taken from a 
water-meadow that had been fed off" with sheep 
till the end of April, of nutritive matter 72 
grains ; and from the same weight of this 
grass, taken from a rich old pasture, which 
had been shut up for hay about the same time, 
92 grains. From the same grass from the 
meadow, that had not been depastured in the 
spring, 100 grains. And from the same grass 
from the pasture which had not been fed off", 
120 grains. All the grasses, in fact, where 
their growth is forced by the application of 
either liquid or solid manures, are found to 
contain nutritive matter in diminished quanti- , 
ties : this, too, was determined by Sinclair. 
From 4 ounces of a very rankly luxuriant 
patch of rye-grass, on which a large portion of 
cow-dung had been deposited, he obtained of 
nutritive matter 72 grains. From the same 
quantity of the same grass growing on the soil 
which surrounded this luxuriant patch, he ob- 
tained 122 grains. 

And, in a second trial, the same species of 
grass, on a soil entirely destitute of manure, 
afforded of nutritive matter, 95 grains. On the 
same soil, excessively manured, the grass af- 
forded only 50 grains. In these experiments 
the plants Avere of the same age, and were ex- 
amined at the same stage of their growth. 
(Hortus Gram. 384.) 

With regard to the construction and man- 
agement of water-meadows, there are many 
practical works of the highest authority to 
which the farmer has ready access ; and, in 
the following observations, therefore, I shall 
merely very briefly paraphrase the accounts 
given by Mr. Davis and others, of the practice 
of irrigation in the southern counties. In 
this, however, even since the time that Davis 
wrote, there has been a great and steady im- 
provement. The land is better levelled, the 
slopes more evenly preserved, the water-way, 
aqueducts, and hatches, better constructed, and 
in many of the more recent improvements, in 
the valley of the Itchen, in Hampshire, the 
sliding-water doors are regulated by a cogged 
wheel turned with a movable winch, so as to 
render them safe from alteration during the 
absence of the meadow-keeper. 

The management of the Wiltshire and 
Hampshire water-meadows, as well as it can 
be briefly described, is as follows : — In the au- 
tumn the after-grass is eaten off quite bare, 
when the manager of the mead (provincially 
the drowner^ begins to clean out the main 
drain, and the main carriage, and to " right up 
the works," that is, to make good all the car- 
riages and drains which the cattle have trod- 
den in, so as to have one tier or pitch of work 
ready for drowning. This is immediately put 
under water, whilst the drowner is preparing 
the next pitch. 



IRRIGATION. 



IRRIGATION. 



In the flowing meadows this work ought to 
6e done, if possible, early enough in the au- 
tumn to have the whole meadow ready to catch 
the first floods after Michaelmas; the water, 
being the first washing of the arable lands on 
the sides of the chalk hills, as well as the dirt 
from roads, is then thick and good; and this 
remark, as to the superior richness of the flood 
waters, is one that is commonly made in Berk- 
shire and other parts of England. The length 
of tiie autumnal watering cannot be precise!}' 
stated, as much depends upon situations and 
circumstances; but if water can be command- 
ed in abundance, the custom is to give mea- 
dows a "thorough good soaking at first," per- 
haps for a fortnight or three weeks, with an 
intermission of two or three days during that 
period, and continue for the space of two fort- 
nights, allowing an interval of a week between 
them. The works are then made as dry as 
possible, to encourage the growth of the grass. 
This first soaking is to make the land sink and 
pitch close together, a circumstance of great 
consequence, not only to the quantity, but to 
the quality of the grass, and particularly to en- 
courage the shooting of new roots, which the 
grass is continually forming, to support the 
forced growth above. 

While the grass grows freely, a fresh water- 
ing is not wanted; but as soon as it flags, the 
water must be repeated for a few days at a time, 
always keeping this fundamental rule in view, 
"to make the meadows as drj'^ as possible after 
every watering, and to take off" the water the 
moment any scum appears upon the land, 
which shows that it has already had water 
enough." 

Some meadows that require the water for 
three weeks in October, and the two following 
months, will not, perhaps, bear it one week in 
February or March, and sometimes scarcely 
two days in April and May. 

In the catch-meadows, which are watered by 
springs, the great object is to keep the works 
very dry between the intervals of watering; 
and as such situations are seldom affected by 
floods, and generally have too little water, it is 
necessary to make the most of the water, by 
catching and rousing it as often as possible ; 
and as the upper works of ever}' pitch will be 
liable to get more water than those lower 
down, a longer time should be given to the lat- 
ter, so as to make them as equal as possible. 
Davis^s .igricnlhm of Wiltshire, p. 125 — 127.) 

In Berkshire they first flood their water- 
meadows about Michaelmas; these are situ- 
ated principally on the banks of the Kennet. 
The first flooding they deem the richest in 
quality: this they keep on the land for about 
four days, and they then dry them for about a 
fortnight, and after that the water is let on for 
three or four days more ; those meadows which 
are the most readily dried are the most pro- 
ductive. There are none more so, in fact, 
than those which have a porous, gravelly, or 
broken flint bottoms, from which the flood-wa- 
ter readily escapes, almost without drains. 
They begin to feed their meadows with sheep 
about the 6th of Aprit, and continue feeding till 
about the 2lst of May, when the meadows are 
again flooded for a crop of hay; the land is 



then flooded and dried alternately for three 
days until hay-time. 

The number of acres of land in Wiltshire, 
under this kind of management, has been com- 
puted, and with a tolerable degree of accuracy, 
to be between 15,000 and 20,000. Some con- 
siderable additions, however, have been made 
to the water-meadows of the district since this 
calculation was made. {Davis's Wilts., p. 122.) 
About the same number of acres are formed 
into water-meadows in Berkshire, and a still 
larger number in Hampshire. No one has at- 
tended more carefully to his water-meadows 
than Lord Western, on some of those situated 
on the London clay-formation in the Black- 
water valley, in Essex, a soil of all others, per- 
haps, from its tenacity, the least adapted to 
their successful formation, and his testimony 
is very im.portant : — " There is an old adage," 
says his lordship, " that water is the best ser- 
vant in agriculture, and the worst master. 
Water has in itself intrinsic value; distilled 
through chalk, lime, or marl, it acquires a por- 
tion of their qualities, though preserving the 
most perfect transparency, and, coming down 
in torrents and floods, it carries along the finer 
particles of earth and manure from the moun- 
tains, or higher grounds, into the valleys ; 
hence, of course, it is that the valleys derive 
their fertility, and the value of the meadow has 
been originally created by an accumulation of 
wealth from the hills." 

"In descending the Jura mountains, which 
divide France from Switzerland, the very first 
pasture you find on the descent evinces the 
value placed on the mountain floods by the in- 
habitants of those districts; and, accordingly, 
every stream is sedulously directed and con- 
ducted over the pastures in a most skilful 
manner. The very washing of the roads in 
hasty rains is also attended to and applied to 
the same purposes." This system of catching 
the uncertain flood-waters is known amongst 
farmers by the name of ro/c/i-work, and though 
highly valuable, yet they deem it infinitely less 
important to them than irrigation, which is 
watering (generally five or six times a year) 
from a certain and ever-accessible head of 
water, as a river, &c. And yet Lord Western's 
testimony is decisive in favour of even one 
cafc/i-flooding; for he observes, when speaking 
of the expense of constructing the requisite 
little channels to disperse the flood-waters over 
the grass, "In many cases it will be trifling, in 
some cases considerable ; but when the farmer 
reflects that one winter's flooding will do more 
in many, I may say in most cases, than thirty 
loads an acre of the best rotten dung manure 
that can be laid upon his grass lands, he can 
hardly shrink from some considerable expen- 
diture." If, then, the effects even of a catch- 
flooding with water are so great, how infinitely 
superior are the advantages capable of being 
derived from a regular constant supply of the 
enriching foul waters, like those issuing from 
the drains of a large city, which is even now 
most successfully employed near Edinburgh, 
but worse than wasted in the case of London ! 
Whatever may be the value, in an agricultural 
point of view, of the solid contents of the Lon- 
don sewers, yet to me the absolutely liquid 

675 



IRRITABILITY. 



JACOB'S-LADDER. 



portion, for the purposes of irrigation, appear at 
least equally important. 

Liebig informs us that, "in the vicinity of 
Liegen (a town in Nassau), from three to five 
perfect crops are obtained from one meadow, 
and this is effected by covering the fields with 
river water, which is conducted over the mea- 
dow, in spring, by numerous small canals. 
This is found to be of such advantage, that 
supposing a meadow not so treated to yield 
1000 lbs. of hay, then from one thus watered 
4500 pounds are produced. In respect to the 
cultivation of meadows, the country around 
Liegen is considered to be the best in all Ger- 
many." 

There is no agricultural question, therefore, 
of more consequence, in a national point of 
view, than that of the improvement of the soil 
by the practice of irrigation ; for, in its prose- 
cution, all the rich, organic, and other matters 
diffused through the rivers, which would other- 
wise be carried into the sea, are saved to agri- 
culture. This is not, therefore, a question like 
that attending most other modes of fertilizing 
the soil, merely transposing manure from one 
field or district to another ; but it is the abso- 
lute recovery, as it were, from the ocean, of a 
mass of finely divided, enriching substances, 
constantly draining from the land. It is the 
eff"ectual diversion of a stream which is ever 
steadily impoverishing all cultivated soils, and 
which unnoticed, and in too many instances 
deemed worthless, gliding into the ocean, is 
almost the only drawback to the steadily in- 
creasing fertility of our country. 

There are papers on irrigation by Mr. J. 
Purdy, of Castle Acre, in Norfolk, Com. Board 
of Jgr. vol. vii. p. 112; by Mr. D. Shank, of 
Wigtonshire, ibid. p. 170 ; by Mr. Beck, of Nor- 
folk, ibid. p. 108 ; on the irrigation of Lombardy 
and Piedmont, by Don R. S. Coutinho, ibid. p. 
189; in Aberdeenshire, ibid. vol. iv. p. 263 ; in 
Denbighshire, ibid. p. 266 ; by Mr. Eyres, of 
Norfolk, ibid. vol. vi. p. 328 ; by Professor Ren- 
nie. Quart. Journ. of As:r. vol. v. p. 24; on the 
foul water irrigation of Edinburgh, ibid. vol. x. 
p. 2.56. (Quart. Jonrn. -of Jlgr. vol. X. p. 558 ; 
Stephens's Practical Irrigator ; Brown's Rural Jtf- 
fairs, p. 263 ; Sinclaiy-'s Hortus Gram. p. 382 ; 
Davis's Wiltshire; Driver's Hampshire.) 

IRRITABILITY OF PLANTS. See Bota- 
KT, Temperature, and Acclimitation of 
Plants. 

ISNARDIA (named in memory of Anthony 
Isnard, member of the Academy of Sciences). 
These plants are mere weeds, or creeping 
aquatic herbs, growing in marshy situations. 

The marsh isnardia (J. paluslris) is the only 
indigenous species. 

It is an annual, growing in ponds and wa- 
tery places, blowing axillary, solitary, sessile, 
small, green, and inconspicuous flowers in 
July. The herb is floating, smooth, with nu- 
merous long filamentous roots. The stems 
are several, about a span long, simple, or 
slightly branched, leafy, bluntly quadrangular. 
The leaves are opposite, stalked, ovate, acute, 
entire, scarcely an inch in length, bright green, 
somewhat succulent, the mid-rib often red or 
7>urplish. (Eng. Flor. vol. iv. p. 264.) 

The /. Palustris is common to America as 
676 



well as to Europe, and is found from Canada 
to the West Indies. In Pennsylvania another 
species is met with — the Alternate-leaved Is- 
nardia (/. alternifolia), commonly called Bas- 
tard Loose-strife. The roots of both species 
are perennial. 

Besides these, there are about a dozen addi- 
tional species, as the genus is now constituted, 
in the United Stales. (Flor. Cestrica.) 

ITALIAN RYE-GRASS. See Rte-Guass. 

ITCH. In farriery, a cutaneous disease. 
See Mange. 

IVY (Hedera helix). The name appears to 
be derived from hedra, a Celtic word signifying 
a cord ; and the English name ivy is derived 
from u'o, a word in the same language signify 
ing green.) A hardy evergreen climber, com 
mon everywhere in Europe, which is excel 
lent as a screen planted against trellis-work 
The common ivy is very often employed for 
covering naked buildings or trees, which latter 
it invariably kills. The stem is branched, either 
trailing on the ground and bearing 5-lobed 
white-veined leaves, but no flowers ; or climb- 
ing, flattened and attached by dense tufted fibres, 
which serve for support, not nourishment ; 
the flowering branches are loosely spread- 
ing, round, bearing ovate, undivided leaves. 
Umbels aggregate, green, many-flowered, their 
stalks covered with starry pubescence, and ac- 
companied at the base by several small brac- 
teas. The berry is the size of a currant, 
smooth, black, internally whitish and mealy, 
with seldom more than five seeds. The whole 
plant is somewhat aromatic ; and a very fra- 
grant resin exudes from the old stems when 
bruised. 

IVY, AMERICAN, Virginia Creeper (Jni- 
pelopsis hederacca). Ivy-like ampelopsis. The 
stem of this climbing plant sometimes grows 
30 or 40 feet long, branching diff'usely, climb- 
ing fences, trees, and walls, and clinging to 
them by adhesive expansions at the points of 
the tendrils. The leaves are digitate in clusters 
of fives, on long stems. The plant is com- 
mon in the United States in woodlands, fence- 
rows, thickets, &c. Sir J. E. Smith (in Rees 
Cyclop.) contends that this is a true vitis ; but 
Dr. Darlington thinks, that although nearly 
allied to, it may be very properly separated 
from our grape vines. Two or three other 
species of ampelopsis are enumerated in the 
United States. 

IVY, GROUND. See Alehoof. 

IVY, IRISH (Canatiensis), is a fast-growing 
climber, with large lobed leaves, which soon 
covers walls and houses. It is propagated by 
layers, or slips taken off and planted where 
they are to grow. 



J. 



JACOB'S LADDER, Blue or Greek Vale-^ 
rian (Polemonium carulenm). This plant is a 
common ornament of flower borders in rustic 
gardens, of no particular qualities, notwith- 
standing its name of valerian, derived perhaps 
from the leaves, which resemble those of some 
of the Valeriana. The root is fibrous, not 
creeping, herb nearly smooth, perennial, l^ or 



JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. 



JOHN'S WORT. 



• feet high ; stems angular, leafy, hollow, often 
reddish, unbranched,panicled at the top; leaves 
alternate, of man)' eliptic-lanceolate, entire 
leaflets, with an odd one of nearly equal size. 
The flowers, which appear in June, are rather 
drooping, numerous, blue, occasionally white. 
All the species are of the easiest culture and 
propagation. 

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. See Arti- 

CHOICE. 

JOHN'S WORT, or ST. JOHN'S WORT 

{Hypericum). The generic name is said to be 
derived from iiper, and eicon, an image. The 
superior part of the flower represents a figure. 
The common name is derived from their com- 
ing into flower about St. John the Baptist's day. 
The most part of the species of this extensive 
genus are showy plants. The greenhouse and 
frame shrubby kinds do well in loam and peat, 
and young cuttings root freely in sand under a 
glass. The hardy shrubs are well fitted for the 
front of shrubberies, being dwarf and show)% 
They may be increased by divisions or seeds, 
as well as the herbaceous kinds, which thrive 
well in any common soil. The seeds of the 
annual species have only to be sown in the 
open ground in spring. Some of the species 
indigenous to Britain are as follows : — 

L Large-flowered St. John's Wort (H. caly- 
cinuDi). A shrub, growing wild in bushy 
places in the west of Ireland and Scotland. 
The root of this species is creeping, the stems 
shrubby, erect, 12 or 18 inches high, with 
simple, leafy, square branches, smooth like 
every other part. The flowers, which appear 
from July to September, are 2 or 3 inches wide, 
of a bright golden }'ellow, with innumerable 
reddish tremulous anthers. This plant is a 
great ornament to shrubberies and parks, and 
excellent as a shelter for game, bearing any 
cold of our climate. 

2. Tutsan, or Park Leaves (H. androscemum). 
This shrub is found in moist, shady lanes, 
thickets, and woods in Britain and Ireland, but 
not very general. It is rather taller and more 
branched than the preceding. The flowers, 
which appear in July and August, are an inch 
wide, yellow, with three sets of stamens, and 
as many styles. The leaves and other parts 
have an aromatic scent when rubbed. 

3. Square St. John's Wort, or St. Peter's 
Wort {H. quadrangulum). This species is 
perennial, and common in moist meadows and 
thickets, and about the banks of rivers. The 
root is somewhat woody, ci-eeping ; the herb 
smooth, light green ; stems several, from one 
to two feet high, erect, leafy, acutely quadran- 
gular; leaves elliptical or ovate, obtuse, many- 
ribbed, veiny, full of minute, colourless, pellu- 
cid dots, and bordered with a more or less 
perfect row of dark-coloured ones yielding a 
blood-red liquor. The uppermost branches 
form a leafy dense panicle of numerous lemon- 
coloured flowers, about half the size of the 
last-described species. 

4. Common perforated St. John's Wort (H. 
perforalum). This perennial species is met 
with abundantly in thickets, woods, hedges, and 
on dry banks. The root is woody, tufted, and 
somewhat creeping ; the stem reaches to the 



height of 18 inches, and is round and bushy 
in consequence of the much greater length of 
its axillary leafy branches. The whole herb 
is moreover of a darker green, with a more 
powerful scent when rubbed, staining the 
fingers with a dark purple, from the greater 
abundance of coloured essential oil lodged in the 
herbage and even in the petals: the leaves are 
very numerous, smaller than the last, elliptical 
or ovate, obtuse, various in width ; the flowers 
are numerous, in dense, forked, terminal pani- 
cles, bright yellow, dotted and streaked with 
black or dark purple. This species is eaten 
by goats, cows, and sheep, but is refused by 
horses and hogs. As this plant was found to 
bleed at the slightest touch, it was supposed to 
have a vulnerary quality, and became the 
"balm of the warrior's wound," giving a blood- 
red colour to every composition, whether of a 
spirituous or oily nature, into which it entered. 
It contains resin, and the leaves give a good 
red dye to wool and oil. 

5. Imperforate St. John's Wort {H. dubium). 
This species inhabits rather mountainous 
groves and thickets. The young radical shoots 
are bright red; the stem quadrangular in the 
upper part, but not winged or bordered; the 
petals and calyx are dotted and blotched with 
dark purple. 

6. Trailing St. John's Wort (H. humifusum). 
This is a pretty little procumbent smooth spe- 
cies, with the lemon-like scent of H. dubium 
and perforalum, which tenants sandy or gravelly, 
heathy, and rather boggy pastures. The root 
is fibrous, stem compressed, prostrate; flowers 
few, somewhat cymose ; leaves elliptical, 
smooth. 

7. Mountain St. John's Wort (H. montanum). 
Though not an ostentatious plant, this species 
well deserves John Bauhin's epithet of "most 
elegant." The glutinous dark fringes of its 
calyx and bracteas resemble the glands of a 
moss-rose; the stems are erect, round, smooth, 
about two feet high ; the leaves ovate, naked, 
clasping the stem. 

8. Bearded St. John's Wort (H. barbatum), 
which grows for the most part in bushy places 
in Scotland, on an herbaceous stem a foot or 
more in height, flowering in September and 
October: 9. Hairy St. John's Wort {H. hirsio- 
?iiot), flourishing in thickets and hedges, chiefly 
on a dry, chalky soil, stem two feet high : 10. 
Small upright St. John's Wort (H. pukhrum), 
met with very frequently in woods and bushy, 
heathy places, on a clay soil ; stem 12 to 18 
inches high: 11. Marsh St. John's Wort {H. 
elodcs), stems procumbent, creeping. There 
are other species, which call for no detailed 
description. 

The whole genus, says Mr. Nuttall, in his 
account of the American species, appears to 
possess active medicinal properties in common 
with vismia, which affords indeed much more 
abundantly a yellow and resinous gum, acting 
as a cathartic in doses of 7 or 8 grains. The 
Vismia guUifera of Surinam produces a iind 
of gamboge. 25 or 26 American species of 
hypericum are enumerated by botanists. Th^ 
following are mentioned by Dr. Darlington as 
found in Chester county, Pennsylvania. 
3 L 2 677 



JONQUIL. 



JUNIPER. 



1. Hypericum Virginicum, or Virginia hype- 
ricum, having a perennial root, stem 18 inches 
to 2 feet high, whole plant of a purplish hue, 
flowering in July and August, the blossoms 
being of a dull orange colour. It is found in 
wet, low ground, though rare. 

2. H. punclatum, or dotted hypericum, fre- 
quent in open woodlands and fields, flowers of 
a pale yellow colour, with numerous oblong 
black dots, appearing in July and August. 

3. H. perforatum, or perforated hypericum, 
C/ommonly called St. John's Wort. This plant 
has a perennial root and stem growing from 1 
to 3 feet high. It is frequent in fields and 
pastures where it puts forth its rich clusters of 
yellow, or orange-yellow flowers, from June to 
October. This, says Dr. Darlington, is an in- 
troduced and pernicious weed. The plant has 
a resinous odour; and is believed to produce 
troublesome sores on horses and horned cattle, 
especially those which have white feet and 
noses, the skin of such being more tender, or 
irritable. The dew which collects on the plant 
appears to become acrid ; as I have seen the 
backs of white cows covered with sores, -wher- 
ever the bushy ends of their tails had been 
applied, after dragging through the St. John's 
Wort. A tincture of the flowers and leaves 
has been used, it is said, with good effect in 
some complaints of the stomach and bowels. 

4. H. quimptenervum, or five-nerved hyperi- 
cum. This is frequent in low grounds, along 
streams. Its root is supposed to be annual, 
and its slender stems grow 6 to 12 inches high; 
the flowers have very small petals of a yellow 
colour. 

5. H. Canadense, or Canadian hypericum. 
This so much resembles the last mentioned 
species as to be regarded by some botanists as 
identical. 

6. H. snrothra, broom-like hypericum, com- 
monly called ground pine, netweed, and orange 
grass. This is frequent in sandy fields and 
along road-sides, where it puts forth yellow 
flowers in July and August. Its root is annual, 
the stem is slender and grows 4 to 8 inches 
high. {Flora Cestrica.') 

JONQUIL. A species of daffodil, of which 
there are several sorts. The great jonquil and 
the odorous jonquil blow about the middle of 
March. The lesser or proper jonquil some- 
what later. When they blow well and early 
they forebode a fine season. 

JUDAS TREE (Cerds). This is a beauti- 
ful genus of ornamental trees, flowering early 
in spring, and looking very pretty planted 
singly on a lawn, or trained to a wall or trellis; 
they grow to the height of 20 feet, prefer an 
open loamy soil, and may be plentifully in- 
creased from seeds. 

The species found in the United States is the 
Cercis Canadensis of botanists, commonly called 
red bud. In the Middle States, it is a small 
tree 15, 20, or 30 feet high, greatly admired for 
the clusters of small flowers, which in April 
Qlothe the limbs in purple before the leaves 
appear. The flowers are acid to the taste. It is 
the only species of cercis in the United States. 

JUNE BERRY (Mespilus arborea of Michaux). 
With the exception of the maritime parts of 
678 



the Carolinas and Georgia, this tree, as Mi- 
chaux informs us, is spread over the whole 
extent of the United States and Canada. But 
it is most multiplied upon the Alleghany moun- 
tains, and upon the elevated banks of the rivers 
which flow from them. In the northern section 
of the Union it is called wild pear tree, whilst 
in the Middle and other States it goes by the 
various names of wild service berry, June berry, 
snowy medlar, and shad-flower. The last name 
is derived from its blooming about the time the 
shad ascend the rivers (beginning of April), 
when it is quite a showy little tree. The flow- 
ers, which are white and pretty large, are ar- 
ranged in pannicles at the extremities of the 
branches. As it blossoms early, so does it 
mature its fruit amongst the earliest trees of 
the forest. The largest tree, however, rarely 
yields more than half a pound. Long culture 
has been found to improve the fruit, both in 
size and quality. The berries are roundish, 3 
or 4 lines in diameter, smooth, dark-red, and 
even purple when mature, pleasant flavoured, 
and not unwholesome. In Pennsylvania and 
the neighbouring states, it is generally found 
in moist and shady situations, especially along 
brooks and rivulets. In the western country, 
however, it grows in the midst of the forest 
among the oaks, walnuts, &c., and here reaches 
its greatest height, which does not exceed 35 or 
40 feet, with a diameter of 10 or 12 inches. 

JUNIPER (Juniperus, derived from the Celtic 
juniperus, rough or rude, in allusion to the stiflf 
habit of the shrubs). This genus is too well 
known to need to be particularized here. All 
the species will grow in sandy loam, and some 
in any common garden soil. They are mostly 
raised from seed, though cuttings will strike 
when planted in a sheltered situation, under a 
hand-glass. The stimulating and diuretic 
powers of the savin (/. sabina) are well known. 
The fruit of /. communis are proverbial for the 
flavour they give to gin. (Paxton's Bat. Diet.) 
The species are all evergreen aromatic shrubs, 
with narrow leaves, either spreading and sharp- 
pointed, or closely imbricated, minute, and ob- 
tuse. The fruit is globular or oval, black or 
brown, with a glaucous efflorescence. 

/. sabina is a native of the south of Europe, 
but it is cultivated as an evergreen in our gar- 
dens. The plant is a pyramidal shrub, with 
small, closely-adhering, glandular leaves, which 
exhale, when rubbed, a strong, heavy odour, 
and have a bitter, nauseous taste. By distilla- 
tion they yield a large quantity of volatile oil, 
which has the odour and taste of the recent 
plant. Savin is a powerful acrid poison, irri- 
tating and vesicating the skin when it is ap- 
plied to it. When swallowed in large doses, it 
causes vomiting, purging, and inflammation of 
the stomach and bowels. 

The common juniper (/. communis) grows 
wild on hills and heathy downs, especially 
where the soil is chalky. Dr. Sibthorpe found 
it on Olympus and Athos, in Greece. It is, 
like all the species, a bushy shrub, with ever- 
green, linear pointed, glaucous leaves, dark 
green on the under disk. The flowers are 
axillary, small, sessile, male and female organs 
in separate flowers. The fruit, although called 



JURY. 



KALE, SEA. 



a berry, is a galbalus or succulent cone. It 
requires two seasons to arrive at maturity. 
The dwarf alpine juniper (/. nana) is a variety 
of the communis. It grows upon lofty moun- 
tains, and is, as its name implies, more humble 
in its growth. These are the only indigenous 
species. The tops and the fruit are used in 
medicine as powerful diuretics. The former 
have a bitter, turpentine flavour and colour ; 
the fruit is sweetish, with an agreeable, some- 
what balsamic odour, depending upon a vola- 
tile oil, and a peculiar saccharine matter ana- 
logous to the sugar of the grape. The volatile 
oil is contained in cells in the shells of the 
seeds; hence, in making infusion of juniper, 
the seeds should be bruised. The infusion is 
made with an ounce of the bruised fruit and a 
pint of boiling distilled water. It is a useful 
beverage in some kinds of dropsies. The red 
cedar (/. Virginiana), is a hardy, handsome 
evergreen, native of North America, with dark 
foliage, producing a small blue berry-like fruit 
in May. It frequently attains to the height of 
a very lofty tree. See Cedar, Red. 

JURY (from the Latin jurare, to swear). A 
body of men sworn to decide a certain fact or 
facts according to Ike evidence produced before 
them. 

This noble institution, like many others as 
dearly cherished by all lovers of freedom, com- 
menced among the northern nations of Europe 
at a very early period. The early notices of 
this mode of trial remaining to us do not speak 
of its institution; and, in truth, it most proba- 
bly originated in some rude form or other as 
soon as men began to dwell together in fixed 
habitations. 

That trial by jury was employed by our 
Saxon ancestors from time immemorial is very 
certain, and over-industrious historians have 
wasted much time in fruitless endeavours to 
assign the honour of the first discoverer to the 
real author. Thus Stiernhook (^De Jure Sueo- 
num, ]. i. c. 4), ascribes the glory to Regner, 
king of Denmark and Norway, who was the 
contemporary of our Egbert. Archbishop Ni- 
cholson carries the date of the invention back 
to Woden, the great captain, legislator, and god 
of the Northernmen. 

Sir Edward Coke appears to have fancied 
that there is something in the very number 
twelve, in which the laws of God and man 
seem to delight ; and he instances the twelve 
judges, twelve counsellors of state, twelve to 
wager the laws, twelve apostles, tribes, stones, 
&c. (Coke on Littleton, s. 234 b.) 

Trial by jury is mentioned as early as the 
reign of King Ethelred, but not as a novel in- 
stitution. ( Wilkins' Laws of the Jnglo-Saxons, 
117.) And in Magna Charta it is mentioned 
more than once, and particularly ordained. 
That no freeman shall be dispossessed of his 
lands or goods, unless by the judgment of his 
peers ; and amid all the long continued strug- 
gles of Englishmen for the liberty of the sub- 
ject (from the days of King John down to the 
time of Fox and his declaration of the otfice 
of juries in libel cases), the preservation of 
Uie freedom of juries has ever been a darling 
object with English patriots. 



K. 

KALE, SEA (Crambe maritima), is found wild 
on the seashore on the southwestern coast of 
Great Britain, where the common people have 
from time immemorial been in the practice of 
watching when the shoots and leaf-stalks begin 
to push up the sand and gravel, in March and 
April, when they cut them off under ground, as 
done with asparagus, and boil them as greens. 
About the middle of the last century it was 
first introduced into gardens, and is now al- 
most as universal as asparagus. 

A light, moderately rich soil, on a dry sub- 
stratum, suits it best; though in any dry soil 
it will succeed. A bed may be composed for 
it of one-half drift sand, one-third rich loam, 
and one-third small gravel, road stuff, or coal 
ashes ; if the loam is poor, a little well-rotted 
dung or decayed leaves being added. The soil 
must especially be deep, so that the roots can 
penetrate without being immersed in water, 
which invariably causes their decay. Mr. T. 
Barton, of Bothwell Castle, has even found it 
succeed well on a pretty strong loam that had 
a loose bottom. The depth should not be less 
than 2^ feet ; and if not naturally deep, it should 
be worked to it by trenching. If at all tena- 
cious, this opportunity may be taken to mix 
with it drift or sea sand, so as to reduce it to a 
mouldy texture. If the soil be wet it must be 
drained, so that water never shall stand within 
three feet of the surface. If poor, well-putrified 
dung must be added ; but decayed leaves are 
preferable (Trans. Hort. Sue. Lund. vol. i. p. 17), 
and sea-weed still more so. These precautions 
must all be particularly attended to, for upon 
the due richness and dryness of the soil not 
only depend the luxuriance and delicate fla- 
vour of the plants, but their very existence. 
Common salt, as might be anticipated, is found 
to be a very beneficial application, either ap- 
plied dry, or by occasional waterings with a 
solution containing 4 or 5 ounces in the gallon, 
round every stool during the summer. As re- 
gards the situation, it cannot be too open or 
free from trees. Sea kale is propagated both 
from seed and slips of the root; the first is by 
far the best mode, for although it may be ob- 
tained from slips with greater certainty, yet the 
plants arising from seed are the strongest and 
longest lived; whilst the failure of seed, which 
is sometimes complained of, mostly arises 
from its being old, buried too deep, or some 
other extraneous cause. The seed may be in- 
serted in drills from October, or as early in the 
spring as the ground can be brought into good 
condition. It is by much the best mode to 
leave the plants where raised, and with that 
intent, to guard against failure, inserting the 
seed in patches of 6 or 12 seeds, each 6 inches 
apart, and the patches 2 feet asunder. If, how- 
ever, they are intended for transplanting, the 
seed may be sown in drills 12 inches asunder; 
in either case it must not be buried more than 
2 inches below the surface; and it is a good 
practice, previous to inserting it, to bruise tht 
outer coat of the seed, without injuring its 
vegetating power, as by this treatment the ger 

67& 



KALE, SEA. 

mination is accelerated. The plants will in ge- 
neral make their appearance in 4 or 5 months, 
never sooner than 6 weeks ; but, on the other 
hand, the seed will sometimes remain 12 months 
before it vegetates. 

The best time for increasing it by slips is in 
March and April. Rooted offsets may be de- 
tached from established plants ; or their roots, 
which have attained the thickness of the third 
finger, be cut into lengths, each having at least 
two eyes. To plant the offsets requires no par- 
ticular direction: the cuttings must be inserted 
in an upright position 2 or 3 inches beneath 
the surface. It is best to plant two together, to 
obviate the danger of failure, at 2 feet apart, 
to remain. 

Whatever mode of propagation is adopted, 
the bed should be laid out 3 feet wide, and a 2 
feet alley between every 2, in preference to Ihe 
plan sometimes recommended of planting 3 
rows in beds 7 feet wide, for in such the soil 
must be consolidated by the feet during the ne- 
cessary grades of cultivation. 

If the months of June and July prove dry, 
the beds should be plentifully watered. The 
seedlings require no other attention during the 
first summer than to be kept free from weeds, 
and, if they come up too numerous, to be 
thinned to 5 or 6 in each patch. When their 
leaves have decayed, and been cleared away 
about November, they must be earthed over an 
inch or two with dry mould from the alleys, 
and over this about 6 inches depth of long litter 
be spread, and thus left to stand the winter. 
In the following spring the litter is to be raked 
off, and a little of the most rotten dug into the 
alleys. When the plants have perfectly made 
their appearance, they must be thinned, leav- 
ing the strongest plant, or, as Mr. Maher re- 
commends, the three strongest, at each patch ; 
those removed being transplanted at similar 
distances if required ; but it must be remarked 
that those transplanted never attain so fine a 
growth, or are so long-lived. In this second 
winter the earthing must be increased to 5 or 
G inches deep over the crowns, and the cover- 
ing of litter performed as before. In the third 
spring, the litter being removed, and some dug 
into the alleys as before, about an inch depth 
of drift sand or coal ashes must be spread re- 
gularly over the surface. The sprouts may 
now be bleached and cut for use ; for if this is 
commenced earlier, the stools are rendered 
much less productive, and much shorter lived. 
In November, or as soon as the leaves are de- 
cayed, the beds being cleared of them, the coat- 
ing of sand or ashes removed, and gently 
stirred with the asparagus fork, they must be 
covered with a mixture of three parts earth 
from the alleys, and one part of thoroughly de- 
cayed leaves, to the depth of 3 or 4 inches. The 
major part of this is to be removed in the fol- 
lowing spring, the beds forked, and the cover- 
ing of sand renewed ; this routine of cultiva- 
tion continuing during the existence of the 
beds. 

The above course is the one also pursued if 
the plants are raised from offsets or cuttings, 
as it IS niuch the best practice not to com- 
mence cutting until they are two years old. 
680 



KALE, SEA. 



1 



Blanching, as before observed, may commence 
the second spring after sowing. The most 
simple mode is that originally adopted, name- 
ly, to cover over each stool sand or ashes to 
the depth of about a foot ; the shoots in their 
passage through it, being excluded from the 
light, are effectually bleached. But pots are 
by much to be preferred to these coverings. 
Common flower-pots of large dimensions may 
be employed, care being taken to stop the hole 
at the bottom with a piece of tile and clay, so 
as to exclude every ray of light. 

Previous to covering the stools with the pots, 
&c., the manure laid on in the winter must be 
removed; and the operation should commence 
at the close of February, or at least a month 
before the shoots usually appear, as the shel- 
ter of the pots assists materially in bringing 
them forward. In 4 or 6 weeks after they are 
covered the plants should be examined, and as 
soon as they appear 3 or 4 inches high, they 
may be cut; for if none are taken until they 
attain a fuller growth, the crop comes in too 
much at once. In order to prolong the season 
of production, Mr. Barton recommends plants 
to be raised annually, so that every year a cut- 
ting may be had from a yearling crop, which 
comes in much later, and consequently suc- 
ceeds in production the old established roots. 
The shoots should be cut whilst young and 
crisp, not exceeding 5 or 6 inches in height; 
the section to be made just within the ground, 
but not so as to injure the crown of the root. 
Slipping off the stalks is said to be preferable 
to cutting. The plants may be gathered from 
until the flower begins to form, when all cover- 
ing must be removed. If, when arrived at the 
state in which broccoli is usually cut, the stalks 
and immature flowers are employed as that 
vegetable, they will be found an excellent sub- 
stitute ; and this greatly enhances the value of 
the plant, as broccoli does not stand the winter 
frosts in the Northern States, and can only be 
had when carefully protected ; but this plr 
is sufficiently hardy to bear the frost without 
injury. It flowers about June, and produces 
abundance of seed on every stem, which ripens 
about the close of July or early in August. 

To force sea kale, Mr. T. Baldwin, of Ragley, 
recommends that, on each side of a 3 foot bed, 
a trench is to be dug 2 feet deep, the side of it 
next the bed being perpendicular, but the outer 
side sloping, so as to make it 18 inches wide 
at the bottom, but 2^ feet at the top. These 
trenches being filled with fermenting dung, 
which of course may be renewed if ever found 
necessary, and frames put over the plants, the 
light is to be completely excluded by boards, 
matting, &c. Unlike the generality of vege- 
tables, the shoots of forced sea kale are always 
more crisp and delicate than those produced 
naturally. 

" To have this rare vegetable in perfection," 
says Bridgeman, " it should be cooked as 
soon as gathered. Let it be first soaked in _ 
water, seasoned with salt, for half an hour; ■' 
then wash it in fresh water, and put it into the J 
cooking utensil ; keep it boiling briskly, skim 
clean, and let off steam. When the stalks are 
tender, which may be expected in from 15 to 



KALE. 



KELP. 



25 minutes, according to size and age, take it 
up, dish it, and serve it up with melted butter, 
gravy, and such condiments as may be most 
agreeable to the palate." (Gardener's ^ssisla7it,') 
KALE, THE WOBURN PERENNIAL. 
See Cabbage, Borkcole, &c. 

KALI. A sea weed, from the ashes of which 
the alkali, called soda, is procured. See Kelp, 
Saltwort, and Glasswort. 

KALMIA. American laurel. A North Ame- 
rican genus of hardy shrubs, remarkable for 
the beauty of their flowers. The leaves are 
considered poisonous to cattle, and are par- 
ticularly fatal to sheep. The honey gathered 
from the flowers is also charged with possess- 
ing deleterious qualities. The plants do best 
when grown in a peat soil, though they will 
grow in a very sandy loam; they may be in- 
creased by layers or seeds. 

Mr. Nuttall describes five species of kalmia 
found in the United States: — 1. K. latifolia, 
laurel, or calico bush, common from Canada 
to Georgia. The stem grows 3 or 4 to 10 or 12 
feet high, with irregular, crooked, straggling 
branches. Il frequents shaded banks and rocky 
hills, and blooms its beautiful flowers in May 
and June. The wood of this splendid flower- 
ing shrub is very hard, and is often used to 
make handles tor small mechanical imple- 
ments. A decoction of the leaves is sometimes 
used as a remedy for cutaneous diseases. 
(^Flora Cestrica.') 

2. K. angustifolia, or narrow-leaved laurel, 
commonly called sheep laurel, and dwarf laurel. 
The stem of this species grows about two feet 
high, being slender and somewhat branching. 
This pretty little species of laurel is thought to 
be particularly poisonous to sheep and other 
stock, when eaten by them. 3. K. glcnica. 4. 
K. cuneatn, found in swamps betwixt Camden 
and Statesville, South Carolina. 5. K.hirsida, 
found constantly on the drier margins of open 
swamps, abundant around Savannah, Georgia. 

KATY-DID. See Plattphyllum. 

KELP, SEA-WEED, BARILLA, &c. I class 
these manures together, when treating of kelp, 
since it is to the presence of various salts of 
soda that sea-weed principally owes its ferti- 
lizing qualities, for when they are washed out, 
the residuum is nearly inert. Sea-weed has 
been analyzed by M. Gaultier de Claubry. In 
the Fvcus saccharinus and in the Fucus digita- 
tus (which is much used in Scotland as a 
manure) he found the following substances 
(^Thomson's Chem. vol. iv. p. 298): — 

Saccharine matter. Muriate of magneBia. 

Mucilage. Carbonate of potash. 

Vegetable albunnen. Carbonate of soda. 

Oxalate of potash. Ilydriodate of potash. 

Malate of potash. Silica. 

Sulphate of potash. Phosphate of lime. 

Sulphate of soda. Phosphate of magnesia. 

Sulphate of magnesia. Oxide of iron. 

Muriate of soda. Oxalate of lime. 

Muriate of potash. 

By burning these weeds the kelp and barilla 
of commerce is formed ; the first of which has 
been often advantageously employed in Ireland 
and on the coast of Scotland as a manure. The 
Suftolk and the Kentish farmers, however, as 
well as some of the Scotch, employ the sea- ; 
weed in its freshest state, either ploughing it j 
into the ground, or spreading it on the top of j 
86 



their heaps of compost. The first plan, how- 
ever, I have ever seen productive of the best 
effects ; and in that conclusion I am supported 
by the experience of many excellent farmers. 

The salt turf of the sea-shore has been lon^^ 
used in many parts of England as an excellent 
manure, especially for potatoes ; and, accord- 
ing to Dr. Holland (Sumy of Cheshire, p. 143), 
even the salt mud of the Mersey is extensively 
used for the same crop, at the rate of twenty 
tons per acre. " The ground thus manured not 
only gives a large produce of potatoes, but is 
in a state of excellent preparation for a suc- 
ceeding crop of either wheat or barley. The 
adoption of this practice has increased very 
greatly the value of land about Weston." 

There can be no doubt of the advantage of 
using the sea-weed, or sea-turf, in the freshest 
possible state, after it has been covered with 
the salt water, as by a spring tide ; for if the 
salt water has been suflJered to drain away 
from the weeds, and a partial decomposition 
has taken place, their value as a manure must 
be materially diminished. The Cornish farm- 
ers, when they fetch the calcareous saiid from 
the sea-beach, are careful to obtain it as much 
wetted with the salt water as possible : and 
there are in the juices and other components 
of marine plants a variety of ingredients which 
must produce the most luxuriant efl^ects upon 
vegetation growing at a distance from the sea ; 
and their constituents are peculiarly noxious 
to the vermin with which all cultivated soils 
abound. If this conclusion be correct, then 
the mode adopted by the Isle of Thanet and 
Suffolk farmers, of collecting the sea-weed 
into heaps, and suffering it to putrefy, is de- 
cidedly wrong; for, by being thus decomposed, 
half its fertilizing virtues are lost to the soil. 
The common excuse for rendering dung putrid 
before it is spread, viz. that it is a necessary 
practice to kill the seeds of weeds, has no ap- 
plication here, for those of marine weeds will 
not grow on arable upland soils. 

The use of sea-weed as a manure, in the 
isles of Jersey and Guernsey, has been very 
extensive from time immemorial. Thus, in a 
work upon Jersey, by the Rev. Philip Falle, 
published in 1694, he observes, that "Nature 
having denied us the benefit of chalk, lime, 
and marie, has supplied us with what fully an- 
swers the end of them in husbandry — it is a 
sea-weed, but a weed more valuable to us than 
the choicest plant that grows in our gardens. 
We call ilvrak (varec), in ancient records vc7is- 
aim, and sometimes wreeurn, and it grows on 
the rocks about the island. It is gathered only 
at certain times appointed by the magistrate 
and signified to the people by a public crier 
on a market day. There are two seasons for 
cutting it, the one in summer, the other about 
the vernal equinox. The summer vraic, being 
first well dried by the sun on the sea-shore, 
serves for fuel, and makes a hot, glowing fire ; 
but the ashes are a great improvement to the 
soil, and are equal almost to a like quantity of 
lime. The winter vraic being spread thin on 
the green turf, and afterwards buried in the 
furrows by the plough, it is incredible how with 
its fat unctuous substance it ameliorates the 
ground, imbibing itself into it, softening the 

681 



KELP. 



KELP. 



clod, and keeping the root of the corn moist 
during the most parching heats of summer. 
In stormy weather, the sea does often tear up 
from the rocks vast quantities of this weed, and 
casts it on the shore, where it is carefully ga- 
thered up by the glad husbandman." 

The plants chiefly valued for making French 
varec are Fucus veskulosus, F. nodosus, F. serra- 
tas, Laminaria digitata and bidbosa, Himanthalia 
lorea, and CJiorda filum. Twenty-four tons of 
the sea-weeds make one ton of kelp. The 
Jersey and Guernsey Agricultural Society con- 
firmed this account of the excellent effects of 
the ashes from sea-weed, in 1797, in their re- 
port to the English Board of Agriculture, when 
they observed — 

" It is judged, that a chabot (half a bushel), 
strewed over a perch of ground in winter or 
the beginning of spring, will be a sufficient 
manure. Our labourers are unanimously of 
opinion, that it gives a full ear to the corn, and 
prevents it being laid — those who have any 
■ varech to sell may at all times get a chabot of 
wheat for a quarter or six bushels of varech." 
(Com. to Board of Jgr. vol. i. p. 216.) 

The fertilizing effects of sea-weed are not 
confined to the better description of soils ; the 
poorest kind of heath lands are benefited by the 
application of this manure ; — thus, Mr. John 
Sherriff, of Haddington, has described the 
effects of sea-weed, or sea-tang, as it is called 
in Scotland, on common heath or moor land, 
in the following terms: "Sea-weed, which is a 
capital manure for any land, may often be pro- 
cured at little or no expense. Crops almost 
incredible of turnips, barley, clover, and rye, 
have, to the writer's certain knowledge, been 
obtained on an extensive tract of the most 
miserable benty wastes and poor rabbit war- 
rens, by the powers of this manure; soils which, 
twelve years since, were not worth three shil- 
lings per acre. The bent was torn up by the 
common swing plough, burnt, and the ashes 
spread ; the soil was then manured with the 
sea-tang, as much as could be ploughed in. 
Turnips were immediately drilled, and rolled 
to prevent blowing; this crop was succeeded 
by rye or barley, and that by red clover and 
rye-grass. On the clover stubble, and some- 
times after the turnip crop, plenty of tang was 
again laid, the ley ploughed down, and sown 
with oats, barley, or rye, and frequently with 
turnips, which in this way have succeeded ad- 
mirably on the ley with one ploughing." (Com. 
la Board of Agr. vol. iv. p. 122.) It is certain, 
from the experiments of the late Mr. Knight, 
that green manures of all kinds are an admir- 
able manure ; and it seems well established 
that the more the juice of the vegetables so 
employed is impregnated with saline matters, 
the more fertilizing are their effects : thus, in 
Bavaria, borage is very commonly cultivated 
for this purpose, and the reason assigned for 
the preference shown to this plant is, that it 
contains soda and other salts. (Gardener's 
Mag. vol. i. p. 200.) 

I have no doubt that in many situations the 
sea-weed may be successfully cultivated on the 
jea-coast, expressly for manure ; and it seems 
tha,t for this purpose hardly any thing is re- 
quired except placing stones on the shore, to 
bS2 



which the fuel can attach themselves, and in 
two years the crop may be cut. According to 
Mr. Jamieson (Miner, of Scottish Isles, vol. 2, p. 
251), various kinds of stones have been em- 
ployed in Scotland, as basalt, sandstone, and 
limestone, which last is the best adapted for 
the purpose, and after that the basalt. 

There are also in many parts of the coa^t 
of Britain extensive tracts of land which it 
would be difficult to enclose, and yet these 
places are either already covered with a coarse 
turf, or might be so with a little management, 
and this turf, when cut and carted on to the 
light upland soils, is found almost invariably 
to be an admirable fertilizer; — for instance, 
when spread over land during the winter, and 
then turned into the soil, for potatoes, the crop 
is sure to be excellent. No description of fer- 
tilizer, perhaps, can be named, which freshens, 
as the farmers say, an over-cropped soil so 
much as a dressing of from 20 to 25 loads per 
acre of the turf from the sea-shore, soaked with 
sea-water; and no plant delights in fresh soil 
so much as the potatoe. It is, therefore, more 
than probable, that the exertions of the com- 
monly cultivated corn crops are peculiar noxi- 
ous to this plant ; and it is certain that the 
potatoe, by the deposit which it leaves in the 
soil, renders it distasteful to the crop by which 
it is succeeded. Thus the wheat plant rarely 
looks well on soils where the potato has im- 
mediately preceded it. Saline fertilizers, in 
these cases, are sure to be serviceable, for they 
unite with, and neutralize the effects, as well 
as promote the decomposition, of the excretory 
matters which all plants deposit in the soil. 

The chief fertilizing qualities possessed by 
barilla are attributable to the presence of soda. 
This alkali is found in all marine vegetables, 
and in most of those which grow on the sea- 
shore. It has been used in several experi- 
ments as a manure since the price of soda has 
been so much reduced ; but these have not 
been conducted with sufficient accuracy to 
enable us to judge of its value as a fertilizer. 
What little has been done, promises welL 
Thus, it has been found, when a pound of soda 
is dissolved in 14 gallons of water, that this 
solution forms an excellent liquid manure for 
many culinary vegetables; for instance, the 
vegetable-marrow plant, when thus treated, has 
been found to flourish better in common garden 
mould than other plants growing on a dunghill. 
And, as I have remarked in another place, na- 
ture is here again our instructor: the fertile 
plains of Syria, and some of the most profusely 
luxuriant fields of the orientalist, abound in 
carbonate of soda. This alkali not only enters 
into the composition of many vegetables, but 
it promotes the growth of all, by preserving 
the moisture of the soil, and by accelerating 
the decomposition of the numerous organic 
substances found in all cultivated lands. The 
sewer water of towns and cities, which has 
been found so very rich and fertilizing as a 
dressing for grass lands, abounds with soda ; 
for that is contained in the soap suds and other 
refuse washings which such drainage matters 
always convey. Soda has been found in very 
sensible proportions in the urine of the horse, 
by M. Fourcroy ; and in that of the ass, by Mr. 



KELP. 



KELP. 



2 


11 


2 


6 


2 


6 





5- 


3 


8 


4 





4 


8 


4 


8 


5 





4 






Brande ; and a small portion of this alkali is 
usually presented in the waste ashes of soap- 
makers, which many cultivators consider highly 
valuable as a manure. 

As the use of kelp has been of late much 
greater than formerly as a manure, it will be 
useful for the cultivator to learn the proportion 
of alkali contained in the kinds usually met 
with in commerce, as determined by Mr. Ja- 
mieson {Min. of Scottish Isles, vol. ii. p. 248) : — 

lbs. oz. lbs. 
Barilla from Alicant, good - - - 23 8 in 100 

Teneriffe, bad - - - 8 7 
Kelp from Norway, indifferent 

Shetland, indifferent 

Lewis, indifferent - - - 

W. Highlands, much damaged 

Arran - - - - - 

Isla, good .... 

Mull, good .... 

Morven, good . - . - 

Skye, good .... 

I-eith shores .... 4 

But, besides the alkali referred to, kelp con- 
tains iodide of potassium, bromide of potas- 
sium, and sulphuret of potassium ; all of which 
probably exert considerable influence on vege- 
tation. It is well known that seeds sown in 
pure sand, and watered with a solution of 
iodine, germinate very rapidly. 

The residuum, when all the soda and com- 
mon salt are extracted from the barilla, is 
principally earthy matters, which are of a very 
inert nature, and need not be regarded by the 
cultivator as possessing any peculiar fertilizing 
properties different from marl, which they 
much resemble in composition. 

100 parts of these insoluble matters of kelp 
are composed of — 

FarM 

Siilphureted hydrogen and carbonic acid - 14 00 

Carbon -..--.-- 4 10 

Sulphuric acid ...... -47 

Silica 12-30 

3260 

1850 

15-40 

-77 

1-86 

100- 



Lime 

Magnesia 

Alumina 

Iron 

Loss 



From the quantity of kelp produced on the 
shores of Scotland, and its reduced price since 
the peace, which again allowed the unrestricted 
import of Spanish barilla, and more especially 
since the discovery of a cheap mode of extract- 
ing soda from common salt, the application of 
kelp as a manure has engaged the serious at- 
tention of the farmers of that part of the island, 
and a committee was some time since appoint- 
ed by the Highland Society of Scotland to report 
npon its pretensions ; in much of that report, 
from which the following extracts are made, I 
cordially agree : — 

"Your coiTimittee are unwilling to offer any 
theoretical opinion as to the way in which kelp 
may operate as a manure. From the quantity 
of alkali which it contains, it may naturally be 
expected to operate by rendering the animal 
and vegetable matter soluble, and a fit food for 
plants ; but, from the series of facts to be no- 
ticed, kelp would seem to possess other quali- 
ties as a manure. Although it may be benefi- 
cially applied as a dressing by itself, yet the 
committee are at present inclined to think that, 



with a view to raising of green crops, it would 
be better to mix it in compost with other sub- 
stances. The selection of these must depend 
upon what the farmer can furnish ; but the 
committee think that good earth or moss will 
form a good compost, and if to this mixture 
can be added a little vegetable or animal ma- 
nure, a beneficial result can be relied on. In 
this way, a few tons of kelp would enable a 
farmer to extend his farm dung over at least 
four times the quantity of land." 

The relative value of kelp as a manure may 
be estimated from the following experiments, 
made in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh : — 
A field upon the estate of Inverleith, possessed 
by Mr. Hutchinson, was selected, which had 
been in wheat in the year 1828, hence it was 
in some measure in an exhausted state : upon 
one ridge of this field there was sown »t the 
rate of 12 cwt. of kelp per acre ; on a second, 
at the rate of 10 cwt. per acre ; and on a third 
at the rate of 4 cwt. per acre. Two other 
ridges were manured with the best cow and 
horse dung, at the rate of 20 tons per acre; 
and the whole was sown with wheat late in the 
spring of 1829. The two ridges which had got 
the greatest quantity of kelp were equal to that 
which had the dung, and the ridge which had 
got the smallest quantity was decidedly supe- 
rior to the others. Similar experiments were 
made upon the same field, by sowing barley 
after the previous crop of wheat ; the result 
was, that the barley manured with the kelp 
was, according to the estimate of the tenant 
and his Stewart, a much heavier crop than 
after an application of horse and cow dung, 
and that the ridge with the smallest quantity 
of kelp appeared the heaviest crop. 

A portion of the lands of Bangholm were 
manured with kelp of inferior quality, at the 
rate of one ton per acre, and the land sown 
with yellow turnip ; the crop, upon examina- 
tion, is considered to be fully equal to that part 
of the field which has been manured with 
dung. (Baxter's Lib. of J^r. Knotcl. p. 406.) 

Mr. Kerr, of Henfield, has given the result 
of his experiments on kelp, from which he is 
of opinion that " 5 cwt. of kelp per Scotch acre 
will produce a manifest improvement on any 
crop." (Trans. High. Sac. i. p. 320.) Care must, 
however, be taken not to apply too copious a 
dressing of kelp. Mr. Mackinnon, of Corry, 
draws the following conclusion from his expe- 
riments ; he used the ashes of sea-weed burnt 
in aheap: "of the ashes thus manufactured, 
20 bushels were allowed to the acre, and dis- 
tributed in the drills. When the turnips sprout- 
ed, they had an unhealthy green or rather yel- 
lowish appearance, but after some time several 
patches in the field seemed to be growing lux- 
uriantly, while others seemed to retain their 
sickly hue. Upon a careful investigation, it 
was discovered that wherever the ground wa!> 
deepest, and the ashes of the sea-weed had 
been most mixed up with the soil, the turnips 
were best ; and, on the other hand, that where 
the ashes, not being mixed up with the soil, 
came in contact with the seed, the turnips did 
not at all thrive. In clearing the ground the 
weeds were collected into heaps, and bum 
upon the spot ; and it was observed that on 

683 



KELP. 



KIDNEY-VETCH. 



the side of tnese heaps the turnips were very 
nearly as good as those on an adjoining piece 
of ground manured solely with dung." (Ibid. 
vol. iv. p. 246.) There is a good paper on the 
manufacture of kelp in Quart. Journ. of Jgr. 
vol. ii. p. 927 ; and on mixing kelp with com- 
posts, peat, turf, &c., ibid. vol. iii. p. 556. 

Every farmer has it in his power, even in 
the most inland situations, to procure soda for 
the use of his farm, by means of a mixture of 
two parts of lime and one part of com^non salt, 
and suffering the mixture to remain incorpo- 
rated in a shady place, or covered with sods, 
in a dry state, for two or three months ; a plan 
which I suggested some years since {Johnson 
oil Salt, p. 32, 3d edit.), and which has been re- 
cently successfully adopted by Mr. Bennet, in 
Wiltshire. By this process a gradual decom- 
position takes place, chloride of calcium and 
soda are formed, the whole mass speedily be- 
coming encrusted with this alkali. There is 
another advantage to be derived from the adop- 
tion of this process, besides the formation of 
the soda, viz. that the chloride of calcium is 
one of the most deliquescing or moisture-ab- 
.sorbing substances with which we are ac- 
quainted; and, in consequence, wherever it 
exists in a soil, the warmth of the sun has, in 
summer, much less influence upon it than it 
would otherwise have. 

Mr. G. Irwin, of Taunton, bears testimony to 
the value of common soap-suds. "The portion 
of the garden invigorated by the soap-suds, 
only annually exhibits a luxuriance almost 
equal to anything this fertile neighbourhood 
can produce." The Rev. J. Falconer, when 
commenting upon this experiment, says, "This 
mixture of an oil and an alkali has been more 
generally known than adopted, as a remedy 
against the insects which infest wall fruit 
trees. It will dislodge and destroy the insects 
which have already formed their nests and 
bred amongst the leaves. When used in the 
early part of the year, it seems to prevent the 
insects from settling upon them. Mr. Speechly, 
the author of a treatise upon the Cultivation 
of the Vine, published in 1796, used this mix- 
ture with great success, although, from not 
having employed a garden engine, he applied 
the soap-suds awkwardly and wastefuUy. He 
directs it to be poured from a ladder, out of a 
watering-pot, over both trees and wall, begin- 
ning at the top of the wall, and bringing it on 
in courses from the top to the bottom." 

Mr. Martin, of Warbleton, has recently used 
soda for turnips, half a cwt. per acre, previ- 
ously to the last ploughing, thinking, as he ob- 
served, that it would destroy such insects as 
lie in the ground in an embryo state, or pre- 
vent their arriving at maturity so as to injure 
his crop. In respect to the use of soda on corn 
lands, he said he used it rather extensively last 
season, and that he had tried several experi- 
ments with it, both upon grass and arable, land. 
That in a field of wheat, a very thin, poor, 
gravelly soil, he sowed one warp without any 
manure at all ; on another warp adjoining, he 
ised one cwt. per acre ; and on a third warp 
ne put Ij^ cwt. per acre. The produce of eight 
rods on each warp was as follows : this was 
'. a land of a very bad description : — 
684 



Per jcre. 
8 rods without manure, 7 gallons, or 17i bushels. 
8 rods with 1 cwt. soda per acre, iOi 

gallons, or - - - - - 26 bushels, 3 galli. 
8 rods with IJ cwt. soda per acre, 

15| gallons, or - . - - 38 bushels, 6 galls. 

KENNEL (Fr. chenil, from chien, a dog). 
The hole of a fox or other wild beast. In rural 
economy, a habitation for dogs, especially 
those of the hound kind : it should be situated 
a good distance from the house. Large ken- 
nels require to be kept clean, well aired, and 
strewed with fresh straw to prevent the mange 
or other infectious distempers. Those readers 
who wish to acquire information on the man- 
agement of the kennel will do well to consult 
Blaine's Encyclopedia of Rural Sports. 

KERN-BABY (a corruption of corn-baby) 
was an image formerly dressed up with corn, 
carried before the reapers to their harvest- 
home. 

KERNEL (Sax. cypnel, agland). In general 
this word signifies the substance within a 
shell; but it has different meanings, some- 
times implying anything included in a husk 
or integument, as the seed of pulpy fruits, the 
grain of oats, &c. In horticulture the hardy 
fruits are generally arranged under the heads 
of kernel fruits, or pomes, including the apple, 
pear, quince, medlar, and service; stone fruits, 
as the peach, nectarine, almond, apricot, plum, 
and cherry ; berries, as the mulberry, barberry, 
elderberry, gooseberry, currant, raspberry, 
cranberry, and strawberry; and nuts, as the 
walnut, chestnut, and filbert. 

KIDNEY-BEAN, the kind of bean most cul- 
tivated in the United States, whereas the va- 
riety mostly cultivated in Europe is the horse- 
bean. See Bkans. 

KIDNEY-VETCH (Jnthyllis; derived from 
avS:c, a flower, and /'-i/ao?, down, in reference to 
the flowers being usually covered with a soft 
or silky pubescence). The species are, for 
the nnost part, elegant and free-flowering, plants 
proper for ornamenting rock-work. The hardy 
perennial and annual kinds thrive well in a 
warm situation and light soil. The green- 
house and frame kinds succeed best in sandy 
loam and peat ; and increase plentifully from 
seeds, and sometimes from cuttings. (Paxton's 
Bot. Did.) 

The common kidney-vetch, or ladies' finger 
(Jl.vulnerariu), is the only species indigenous to 
the British Islands. It is found growing wild in 
chalky or limestone countries, where the scdlis 
dry and rather barren, and the herbage afl^brds 
good pasturage for sheep. The root of this 
species is woody, the stems annual, round, 
hairy, leafy, mostly simple, ascending, about a 
foot high. The radical leaves are simple, ellip- 
tical, on long stalks, soon disappearing; the 
rest alternate, pinnate, with a terminal ellip- 
tical leaflet, and several pairs of opposite, 
small, lanceolate ones; all entire, smooth, and 
a little glaucous above, hairy, or rather silky, 
underneath and at the margin. The flowers, 
which are numerous, in a pair of crowded ter- 
minal heads, accompanied by figured bracteas, 
are usually yellow, rarely of a fine red. In 
Germany, according to Haller, the flowers are 
most frequently white. This plant formerly 
had the reputation of possessing some vulne- 



KILN. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



rary properties, whence the specific name. 
{Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. iii. p. 269.) 

KILN (Sax. cyin). A kind of furnace or 
stove for admitting heat, in order to dry sub- 
stances of various kinds, as corn, malt, hops, 
&c. It also signifies a fabric or building con- 
structed for the purpose of burning limestone, 
chalk, and other calcareous stones, into lime. 
Kilns are of various kinds, and formed in dif- 
ferent "ways, according to the purposes for 
which they are designed. See Hops, Malt, 
Lime, Clay, KiLif, &c. 

KILN ASHES. The ashes made in kilns 
where wood, straw, furze, &c. are burnt. These 
ashes are useful as manure for almost any 
kind of soil. They are found to succeed best 
when spread just before rain. See Ashks. 

KIT. In some places a name given to a 
railking-pail or vessel in the form of a churn, 
with two ears and a cover, used to convey 
milk in. 

KITCHEN GARDEN. A piece of ground 
laid out for the cultivation of fruit, herbs, 
pulses, and other culinary vegetables. 

The kitchen garden is the most important 
object of the horticulturist's care, inasmuch as 
its productions, next to those of agriculture, 
♦end most to the support of mankind. 

It often affords the chief support of the cot- 
Ager, and ought to be the constant attendant 
of his dwelling. Of more exalted mansions it 
is always an accompaniment, but it is much 
to be regretted that a more plentiful use of its 
products is not adopted in preference to grosser 
aliment. 

The kitchen garden also has for its inmates 
many plants chiefly valuable as rendering 
other kinds of food more palatable, or as pos- 
sessing sanative qualities. These last formerly 
far exceeded in number the edible plants. The 
subsequent more general employment of mine- 
ral medicines has reversed this state of our 
kitchen garden. The culture of aromatic herbs 
is also much less attended to since the intro- 
duction of spices. In selecting the site, and in 
erecting the enclosures, as well as in the after- 
preparation of the soil, the ingenuity and sci- 
ence of the horticulturist are essentially requi- 
site. He will be called upon to rectify the 
defects, and to improve the advantages which 
nature affords ; for it is very seldom that the 
natural situation of a mansion, or the plan of 
its grounds, allows him to construct it in the 
most appropriate spot. 

The garden is best situated at a moderate 
elevation ; the summit of a hill, or the bottom 
of a valley, is equally to be avoided. It is a 
fact, not very difficult of explanation, that low- 
lying ones are the most liable to suffer from 
blights and severe frosts ; those much above 
the level of the sea are obviously most ex- 
posed to inclement winds. To determine the 
appropriate size of a kitchen garden is impos- 
sible. It ought to be proportionate to the num- 
ber of the family, their partiality for vegeta- 
bles, and the fertility of the soil. It may serve 
as some criterion to state, that the manage- 
ment of a kitchen garden occupying the space 
of an acre affords ample employment for a 
gardener, who will also require an assistant at 
Uie busiest periods of the year. In general, a 



family of four persons, exclusive of servants, 
requires a full rood of open kitchen garden. 
It ought not to be larger than can be conve- 
niently cultivated ; and it is too large if its pro- 
prietor is induced to bring into it the culture 
of the field, for that neatness and fertility 
which is essential to the garden can be obtain 
ed by the use of the spade only. 

A wall of brick or stone is the best fence ; 
one of paling may be placed next in order. It 
ought to be set close, and kept in good repair, 
and not lower than 6 feet, that poultry may be 
effectually excluded. The form of the walks or 
divisions must depend upon local circum- 
stances, but to some extent the following re- 
commendations of Bridgeman (Gardener's As' 
sistant, p. 7), may be carried out: "Form a 
border round the whole garden, from 5 to 10 
feet wide, according to the size of the piece of 
land ; next to this border, a walk may be made 
from 3 to 6 feet wide ; the centre of the garden 
may be divided into squares, on the sides of 
which a border may be laid out 3 or 4 feet 
wide, in which the various kinds of herbs may 
be raised, and also gooseberries, currants, 
raspberries, strawberries, &c. The centre 
beds may be planted with all the various kinds 
of vegetables. The outside borders facing the 
east, south, and west, will be useful for raising 
the earliest fruits and vegetables; and the 
north border, being shady and cool, will serve 
for raising and pricking out such young plants, 
herbs, and cuttings, as require to be screened 
from the intense heat of the sun." The walks 
ought to be drained in some cases, and in all 
well gravelled. The edging or border may be 
of brick, which for a kitchen garden is prefer- 
able to all others, as it affords no shelter for 
slugs and vermin, is durable, and requires lit- 
tle labour to keep it in repair. 

The order in which successive crops are 
grown on the same compartment has very con- 
siderable influence in prolonging the continu- 
ance of the soil in fertility. Some vegetables, 
as onions and carrots, are extremely impover- 
ishing to the soil, whilst lettuces are but in a 
small degree prejudicial. It is, therefore, ob- 
vious, that a succession of exhausting crops 
should never be grown on the same bed, how- 
ever plentiful manurv; may be, not merely be- 
cause abundance is no excuse for a want of 
economy, but that fresh applied dung is not so 
immediately beneficial as those remains of or- 
ganized matters, which, by long continuance 
in the soil, have become impalpably divided 
and diffused through its texture, and of which 
each succeeding crop consumes a portion. 
Those plants in general are the least exhaust- 
ing which have the larges' surface of leaves, 
and vice versa, because the first are not only 
possessed of a larger pro} ortion of aqueous 
than solid matter than the latter, but also are 
enabled to obtain a greater cuantity of their 
food from the atmosphere. It may be objected 
to many crops included by this rule, and espe- 
cially to turnips, that they require a soil of 
extreme fertility; but this is only xn apparent 
anomaly, for, although the turnip, fc," example, 
requires a rich soil, it is only because it re- 
quires a regular supply of moisture : neither 
will a tenacious soil therefore be bentncial, 
3 M 68f 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



on the contrary, a superfluity or deficiency, 
according to the season, being then afforded, 
decay or immaturity is induced. 

There are many other contingencies which 
should regulate the rotation of crops. The 
roots of different plants strike in different di- 
rections, and to different depths ; and, as their 
constituents vary, absorb different matters. 
Deep-rooted plants, therefore, should be suc- 
ceeded by such as spread but a little below the 
surface; perennials always by annuals; crops 
left for seed, or those that are of a dry, solid 
texture, by such as are succulent and juicy; 
but, above all, the same species of plant should 
never be grown in successive crops upon the 
same ground. This is not even palliated by 
the excuse that manure is abundant, for, as 
Sir H. Davy observes, " though the general 
composition of plants is very analogous, yet 
the specific difference in the products of many 
of them prove that they must derive different 
materials from the soil ; and though the vege- 
tables having the smallest systems of leaves 
will proportionably most exhaust a soil of com- 
mon nutritive matter, yet particular vegetables, 
when their produce is carried off, will require 
peculiar principles to be supplied to the land 
which produces them." (Led. on jlgr. Chem. 
p. 358.) It is known to every cultivator of 
soil, that land soon becomes tired of the same 
crop ; m many instances, peculiar diseases are 
induced by the repetition. The most beneficial 
plan of rotation appears to be that where an 
exhausting and non-exhausting crop alterna- 
tely succeed each other, for example. 
Onions. Turnips. 

Lettuce. Peas. 

Carrots. Potatoes. 

Manure. Manure. 

Mr. Kelly, of Airthrey Castle, Scotland, says, 
that on poor ground the rotation he finds best 
is, 1st, celery; 2d season, cauliflowers, and red 
beet; 3d, onions ; 4th, German greens or peas. 
By digging deep, and manuring abundantly for 
celery, the ground is brought into such fine 
tilth, that the whole rotation is often gone 
through without any further addition, and with- 
out failing in any of the crops. 

A Hotbed will be found useful for forwarding 
several kinds of vegetables early in spring. In 
it tomatoes, egg-plants, peppers, early bush 
squashes, and cucumber plants may be raised, 
and planted out as soon as the dangec of frost 
if over. The best material for a hotbed is fer- 
menting stable manure, which may be mixed 
with a portion of cow manure or leaves, and 
turned over two or three times, at intervals of 
J) or 6 days, before using. If dry, give it a 
little water at each turning. The frame may 
be made of strong boards or two-inch plank, 
about 1 foot high at front, and 1^ foot at back. 
The width from back to front may be about 6 
feet, and the length of any number of sashes 
that may be required. The sashes may be 
glazed with small glass from 5 to 10 inches. 
The smaller .-izes will answer every purpose, 
are cheaper, and not so liable to break. 
Having fixed upon the size of the frame, and a 
sneltered situation in which to make the bed, 
rxlace a stake at each corner of it, allowing a 
r?w inches larger each way than the frame. 
666 



The manure must be well shaken up and tho- 
roughly mixed, and, in building, the bed regu- 
larly beaten down with the fork or lightly | 
trodden, and if at all dry, well sprinkled with ! 
water. If wanted for early forcing, the bed I 
should be at least 4^ feet high ; if for starting 1 
vegetables 2 feet will be sufficient. The frame ■ 
and sashes may then be put on, and in three or ■ 
four days 8 or 10 inches of good light earth ■ 
may be put in, and the seed sown. Squashes 
and cucumbers will do best in pots. A pot of 
4 to 5 inches in diameter will be large enough 
for three plants. Tomatoes, egg-plants, and 
peppers may be sown over the bed, and after- 
wards thinned to regular distances. Early 
cabbages, cauliflowers, celery, and lettuce may 
be raised in the same way, and afterwards 
planted where wanted. But should the man- 
agement of the hotbed be attended with too 
much trouble or expense. 

The Frame can be used with much advantage, 
as in it plants can be raised and kept safe 
from frosts long before they would bear ex- 
posure in the open air. The frame may be set 
on the ground on the south side of the fence, 
and if the earth is rich and light, or made so, 
the seeds may be sown broadcast over a space 
allotted to each kind, and afterwards thinned 
out to proper distances. Lima beans may be 
started in this way, and transplanted before 
they attain to any great size. The frame is 
also useful for preserving cabbage, cauliflower, 
and lettuce plants during winter, for planting 
in the spring; as well as cabbages, lettuce, and 
celery for family use. A few leaves or litter 
put among the vegetables will aid materially 
in excluding the frost, and a shutter and mat 
must be put over the sashes in severe weather. 

Our object in this article is to give a con- 
densed view of the common operations in the 
kitchen garden, as adapted to the United States, 
with a list of such varieties of the difierent 
species of vegetables as have been cultivated in 
this country, and can be had from the princi- 
pal seedsmen in Boston, New York, and Phi- 
ladelphia.* Several articles are omitted, which 
obtain a place in some gardens, but these are 
either thought not to deserve a place, or to be- 
long more properly to field culture. Fuller 
information on any particular subject can al- 
ways be found under the proper head in the 
alphabetical arrangement. 

Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis). Sow early 
in the spring; having previously soaked the 
seed in warm water for 24 hours, then drill it 
thinly, in rows sufficiently wide apart to admit 
the hoe ; when two years old, transplant into 
permanent beds, which should be so situate as 
to cast off an excess of moisture, and having 
the soil prepared to the depth of two feet with 
plenty of manure under. A convenient width 
for the beds is four feet. The plants should 
be placed 12 inches apart in each direction; 
planted at least 4 inches beneath the surl''ace; 
well manured at the time, and annually there- 
after. If planted in rows, they should be 2^ 
feet apart. Common salt scattered over the 
bed in the winter operates favourably in im- 

* In compiling this article, we would here acknowledge 
our obligations to the excellent catalogue of D. Lan- 
dreth & Co. of Philadelphia. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



proving the growth of asparagus. Meat pickle 
or brine is still better. 

BEA?fs, English (Vicia faba). Plant very 
early in the spring, in rows. Broad Windsor 
and Mazagan are the best varieties. 

Bush Beans {Phaseolus vtilgaris). The Early 
Six weeks, China red-eye, and Red speckled 
Valentine, are among the earlier ; the Valen- 
tine, Mohawk, and Marrow are very superior 
varieties. They may be planted for the first 
and succession crops from the middle of spring 
till the close of summer; the usual mode of 
culture is in rows, two or three in a clump, at 
intervals of 10 or 12 inches. 

Pole or Climbing Beans (P. multifiorus). The 
best varieties are the Lima, Carolina, White 
Dutch, Red and White Cranberry, and Lon- 
don Horticultural. The Limas are tender, 
and should not be planted till the close of 
spring. They may be forwarded by sprouting 
them in a hotbed, and transplanting them into 
hills 4 feet distant from each other. Poles 
8 or 10 feet long should be put into the ground 
before planting, and (if of seed) 6 or 8 planted 
round each pole, as the seed is apt to rot in 
cold or damp weather. Thin them afterwards, 
leaving three or four good plants in each hill. 
The London Horticultural is an excellent va- 
riety, and may be used for the Lima in those 
districts where the Lima frequently fails to 
ripen. See Beans. 

Beet ( Beta vulgaris). The Turnip-rooted and 
Long Blood-red are generally esteemed the best 
for table use. The turnip-rooted is somewhat 
earlier than the long, and is equally good for 
wintei use. Sow in drills from early in the 
spring till the commencement of summer. The 
plants should stand 6 or 8 inches apart in the 
drills, but the seed should be put in thick, to 
secure a full crop. A good plan is to drop 
several seeds together at proper distances, and 
when up remove all but the strongest. 

Swiss Chard (Beta cicla), is much grown in 
Germany and Switzerland, and used as chard 
or asparagus. The laminre or thin parts of 
the leaves, are eaten as spinage or put in 
soups; and the stalk or midrib is boiled, and 
eaten with melted butter or gravy like aspara- 
gus. The culture is the same as for the blood 
beet, but the leaves are much larger, and a 
greater space should be left between the plants 
on that account. See Beet. 

Cabrage {Brassica olcracea var. capita(a'). 
The earliest variety is the Early York; next 
the Early Sugarloaf, and Landreth's large York ; 
Early Battersea is late in the summer. The 
flat Dutch and Drumhead are for winter use, 
and red Dutch for pickling. Early and sum- 
mer varieties are usually sown in seedbeds 
early in autumn, protected therein or in cold 
frames, during winter, and transplanted early 
in the spring. Where the climate is mild, and 
the lani light and dry, they are planted in the 
autumn, in which case they head earlier than 
those put out in spring. 

Should a supply of plants not have been ob- 
tained in autumn, sow in a hotbed very early 
in spring, or somewhat later, on a warm border 
in the open air. But let it be borne in mind 
that in no case can fine cabbage (especially 
'he earlier kinds) be had, unless on heavily 



manured and well-tilled land — heavy or strong 
loamy soil is best adapted to this crop. 

For winter sorts, sow in a seedbed in the 
middle or latter end of spring, and transplant 
early in summer. To have these kinds to head 
early in autumn, sow at the same time as the 
early sorts. To preserve from the cabbage-fl}', 
sow in boxes elevated two or three feel above 
the surface, and as soon as the plants are es- 
tablished, place them on the ground, lest the 
plants burn up. To keep them during winter, 
bury the stalk and part of the head with earth, 
over which, if the cold be severe, sprinkle 
straw, or put in a cold frame. 

Savoys and Brussels Sprouts (B. oleracea var. 
bullata), are good for winter use, and become 
very tender after being touched by frost. Cul- 
tivate as winter cabbage. 

Borecole, Kale, &c. (B. oleracea var. acephala), 
may be treated as winter cabbages. They are 
said by Bridgeman to be delicious when ren- 
dered tender by smart frosts ; and to be valu- 
able plants to cultivate, particularly in the 
Southern States, as they will there be in the 
greatest perfection in the winter months; they 
will also, if planted in a gravelly soil, and in 
a sheltered, warm situation, bear the winter of 
the Western States ; and may be kept in great 
perfection in the Eastern States, if taken up 
before the frost sets in with much severity, and 
placed in trenches up to their lower leaves, and 
then covered with straw or other light cover- 
ing. See Cabbage. 

Broccoli and Cauliflower (B, oleracea var. botry- 
tis). Purple Cape broccoli is decidedly the best 
of many varieties. Sow in seedbeds in the mid- 
dle of spring, and transplant and manage gene- 
rally as winter cabbage. Early Asiatic cauli- 
flower is sown in seedbeds in the beginning of 
autumn, kept in a cold frame during winter, and 
transplanted to very rich ground as soon as 
the frost ceases. Hand glasses or boxes put 
over them at night, when they are first put out, 
are useful. The late variety matures in au- 
tumn, and is sown at the same time, and man- 
aged like Cape broccoli. It is, however, not so 
sure to succeed as the brocct li, nor is it a bet- 
ter vegetable when obtained. See BKoccoi.r. 

Carrot {Daucus carota var. hortensis'). The 
Early Horn is best for table use. The Long 
Orange is more productive. The Altringham 
produces great crops, and is suitable to raise 
for horses and cattle. Sow the seeds in the mid- 
dle of spring, in a rich, sandy loam, well pul- 
verized, in rows a foot apart, cover about half 
an inch deep, and thin the plants to 4 inches 
distance. Gather the crop soon after the first 
hard frost, and keep them in a cave or warm 
cellar. See Carrot. 

Celery {.^pium graveolens). Sow the seed 
early in spring, in rich, mellow ground, and in 
a situation where the plants can be protected 
from the parching heat of the sun. It can 
either be sown broadcast or in drills, if in drills, 
they may be half an inch deep and 6 inches 
apart, that a small hoe may be worked between 
them. Plant out in July, in a piece of rich 
ground, in an open exposure, in trenches 8 or 
10 inches wide, and allow the space of 4 feet 
between them. Dig each trench a spade deep, 
laying the earth equally on each side, and 

687 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



put 4 inches of good rotten clung into the bot- 
tom ; tread it firmly, and cover with an inch 
of soil from the sides, then plant a single row 
in the middle of each trench, leaving 7 or 8 
inches between the plants. Give a plentiful 
watering, and shade with a board till they 
strike root. It may be grown also in beds, 4 
feet wide, with alleys 4 feet between, pre- 
pared as above. Plant 4 rows in each bed, at 
from 6 to 8 inches apart, and water and shade 
as before. To blanch, earth up gradually in 
dry weather, as the plants progress in growth, 
repeating the earthing every 2 weeks, at 
which time care should be taken to gather up 
all the leaves neatly, and not to bury the heart 
of the plants. The earthing up may begin in 
September. See Celeiit. 

Corn, Iniiian {Zea Mays). There are se- 
veral varieties used at table, but none are better 
than the common Sweet Corn. 

CucuMBEH {Cucwmis sativus). The Early 
Frame and Early Green Cluster are good varie- 
ties. The LongGreen is chieflyused for pickling. 
As soon as the ground becomes warm in spring, 
plant in hills 6 feet asunder each way, putting 
a dozen seeds in a hill, and covering half an 
inch deep. Leave finally but three of the 
strongest plants. The ground must be rich 
and well manured. For very early use, sow 
in small pots in a hotbed; turn them into the 
open ground in May, taking care to protect 
them from the sun and late frosts. For pickling, 
plant in the end of June. See Cucujiheh. 

Egs-Plant {Solannm nielovgena). Sow in 
hotbed, or other protected place, very early in 
the spring, and late in the spring transplant 
into very rich ground, keeping the plants about 
two feet asunder. The seed requires much 
warmth to cause it to vegetate. See Ego- 
Plant. 

Endive {Chichorium endiva). Sow at close 
of spring to middle of summer in shallow 
drills ; when up an inch or two, thin out to 
stand a foot apart. In dry weather tie up to 
blanch as needed. See Chicoht and Endive. 

Leek {Allium porrurri). Sow in seed-bed 
middle of spring; when the plants are 4 or 5 
inches high transplant into rows, setting them 
loosely and deeply into the soil, and leaving 
space to admit the hoe between them. See 
Leek. 

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa). The Early Cab- 
bage, brownDutch, Royal Cabbage, Curled India 
and Tennisball are good, and stand the climate. 
Of the Cos varieties, which are very crisp and 
tender, but soon shoot to seed, the Egyptian 
Green Cos can be recommended. Sow in seed- 
bed from commencement to middle of autumn, 
protect the plants by a cold frame or with litter 
as they stand on the ground; early in the spring 
transplant them into rich ground. For a later 
supply, sow in drills from time to time during 
spring and summer; when up a few inches, 
thin out, leaving plants at proper distances. 
See Lettuce. 

Melon (Cucumis mclo). The Citron, Persian, 
Nutmeg, and Murray's Pine-apple are good va- 
rieties of the canteleup or musk-melon. Plant 
•/i hills of rich, light soil, at the distance of 6 
fept asunder, in the latter end of spring, putting 
<» or 8 seeds into each hill, 2 inches distant 
688 



from one another, and half an inch deep. Thin 
out to 3 in each hill ; draw the earth from time 
to time about the hills as high as the seed 
leaves. Pinch off the top at the first or second 
joint, as this will strengthen the plants, and 
cause them to fruit early. Grow no pumpkins 
or squashes near them. 

Melon, Water (Cumrbita citriiUus). The 
Spanish and Mountain Sprout are good varie- 
ties. The Citron is cultivated for preserves. 
Cultivate as for canteleups, but let the hills be 
7 or 8 feet distant. 

Okha {Hihiscus esculentus). Plant in good, 
rich ground late in spring, as it is a very ten- 
der vegetable. Make drills an inch deep, and 
3 or 4 feet asunder, into which drop 2 or 3 seeds 
together, at intervals of about 8 inches, and 
cover them nearly an inch deep. Thin them 
out to 8 or 10 inches as the plants advance, 
and earth up 2 or 3 times. 
Onion. See that head. 

Parsley {Apium pctroscUnurti). Sow in rows 
early in the spring. By soaking the seed in 
warm water some hours immediately before 
sowing, it will vegetate more speedily. It some- 
times lies in the ground 2 or 3 weeks before 
vegetating. 

Parsnip (Pastinaca xativa). Sow early in 
spring, in good soil, deeply dug, making drills 
18 inches apart. When the plants are 2 or 3 
inches high, thin out to 6 or 8 inches apart. 

Pea (Pisum sativum). Landreth's Extra 
Early, and Bishop and Russell's Early Dwarfs 
are the earliest varieties, and good of their 
kind. Dwarf Blue Imperial, and Dwarf Scime- 
tar are much esteemed. Knight's Dwarf and 
Tall Marrowfats are late kinds, but superior to 
all others for flavour and productiveness. Tall 
and Dwarf Sugar or string peas are sweet, and 
productive ; they are boiled without shelling, 
and served up as kidney beans. The dwarfs 
require sticks from 2 to 3 feet long, the others 
from 4 to 6, and a greater width between the 
drills. 

Pepper (Capsicum). Grossum or bellshaped. 
Large sweet, and Squash or tomato-shaped, are 
used for pickling; the last variety is the best. 
The Sweet has a delicate taste, and is used as 
a salad. Sow in hotbed in March, and trans- 
plant ; or in the open ground, late in spring, in 
drills 2 feet apart. When the plants are an 
inch or two high, thin them out to about 1.5 
inches apart in the rows, and hoe them re- 
peatedly. 

Potato. See that head. 
Radish (Raphamis sativus). Short-top Scar- 
let, Salmon, Red and While turnip-rooted, may 
be sown in the spring, as early as the ground 
can be worked. Yellow turnip-rooted and 
Summer White are best for summer use. 
White and Black Spanish for winter. Sow 
these at close of summer, or early in autumn, 
and when ripe store them in a cellar. For a 
succession in spring and summer, sow every 
two weeks. The ground should be light, rich, 
and well worked. 

Rhubarb (Rheum). Tobolisk, Mammoth, 
and Giant, are the best varieties, and may be 
raised by dividing the roots early in spring, 
and planting them in rich, deep soil, in rows 4 
feet asunder and 3 feet distant in the rows. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



KNAPWEED. 



To raise from seed, sow late in autumn or early 
m spring. Young seedling plants require to 
be protected the first winter by soil. To force 
very early, cover with boxes or barrels sur- 
rounded and covered with horse manure. 
Gather before the leaves are fully expanded. 

Salsift, or Vegetable Oyster (Trngopogon 
porrifoluis). Cultivate as directed for carrot. 

Sea-Kale. See Kale, Sea. 

Spinach {Spinacia oleracea'). Round Savoy- 
leaved, and Prickly seeded. May be grown 
either broadcast or in drills. For spring and 
early summer use, sow as early as the ground 
can be tilled, and afterwards at short intervals. 
For the autumn supply, sow at close of sum- 
mer. For winter and early spring use, sow 
middle of autumn. The latter sowing will 
need a sprinkling of straw or long manure on 
the arrival of cold weather. Spinach is one 
of those vegetables for which the ground can- 
not be too rich ; the stronger it is the more 
succulent will be the leaves, and of course the 
more delicate and tender. 

Sq.uash (Cucurhila mclopcpa). Early Bush, 
Early Crook-neck, Earl)' Orange, Valparaiso, 
Winter and Canada Crook-necks. The three 
first are early varieties. The bush occupies 
but little room, and is best adapted for small 
gardens. Cultivate as directed for cucumber. 
The three last are winter varieties, and require 
more room. 

Tomato {Solanurn ly coper sicum'). Sow in hot- 
bed in ]\tarch or April, or in a warm border 
early in spring, and transplant, after settled 
w arm weather, in rows 4 feet apart and about 
3 feet distant in the row. They may be sup- 
ported with brushwood, or trained to a trellis 
or fence. 

Turnip (Brassica rapa). Early White Dutch, 
Early Stone, Early Red-topped, are best for 
early garden culture. For winter use the 
Rutabaga, Yellow Stone, Yellow Aberdeen, 
and Dale's Hybrid, are excellent. 

There is also a variety of aromatic and me- 
dicinal herbs cultivated in the kitchen garden, 
which are useful for many purposes. Of these, 
the Bene Plant, Sweet Basil, Carraway, Cori- 
ander, Sweet Marjoram, and Summer Savory 
are annuals, the seeds of which may be sown 
in the middle of spring, and thinned out to 
convenient distances. 

Balm, Chamomile, Horehound, Hyssop, Fen- 
nel, Lavender, Mint, Pennyroyal, Rosemary, 
Rue, Sage, and Thyme, are perennials, and may 
be propagated by offsets or parting of the roots, 
and from seed sown in drills, and afterwards 
transplanted. 

These are the most useful productions of the 
kitchen garden. The varieties named are be- 
lieved to be the best, and such as are most cer- 
tain, in the United States, to repay their culture. 
Those who desire to go extensively into the 
cultivation of vegetables, can consult the works 
of M'Mahon, Bridgeman, and Fessenden, for 
more minute details of the modes of culture 
and more extensive lists of varieties. 

Much success in cultivating vegetables will 
depend on the rotation of crops. The same 
kinds should not be grown on the ground suc- 
cessively. The ground must also be kept 
rich, by the application of manure, well work- 
87 



ed, and above all kept clear of weeds. I 
ought always to be remembered that what will 
nourish a crop of weeds will produce a crop 
of useful vegetables ; and no operation will 
tend more to produce luxuriant vegetation, and 
prevent the ill eff"ects of drought, than the fre- 
quent use of the hoe. 

For the compilation of the preceding article 
we are indebted to Mr. William Sin ton, gar- 
dener to General Patterson, Philadelphia. 

KNAPPIA, EARLY (K^uippia agrostidea). It 
was named by Sir J. Smith in compliment to 
Mr. M. Knapp, a writer on British grasses. 
Of this, one of the least of the British grasses, 
only one species is known; although common 
on the coasts of France, it is very rare in Eng- 
land, but is found in maritime pastures, some- 
times in Wales. It is an annual; root of many 
long, slender fibres ; stems 1 to 3 inches high, 
erect, simple, slender, smooth, triangular, 
naked, except at the very bottom, where they 
are invested with the membranous sheaths of 
a few short, obtuse, channelled leaves. , Sti- 
pules membranous, bluntish, cloven, but not 
deeply divided. Spikes solitary, simple, erect, 
of from 6 to 10 flowers, mostly sessile, alter- 
nate, erect; two or three of the lowermost only 
more or less stalked; their common stalks 
zigzag, slender, smooth, angular, but not exca- 
vated, as in the truly spiked grasses. Flow- 
ers, like the top of the stem, purplish. (Eng. 
Flor. vol. i. p. 84.) 

KNAPWEED {Centaurea). This is a large 
herbaceous genus of plants, which Jussieu, 
after Tournefort, has divided into several, by 
the structure or termination of the calyx scales. 
Linnceus has kept it entire, and Decandolle 
has not disturbed it. Smith {Eng. Flora), also, 
makes one family of them. The following are 
the indigenous species known under the com- 
mon name of knapweed. I have treated of other 
species under the heads Blue Bottle and 
Stah Thistle. 

1. Brown radiant knapweed (C /flccn). This 
grows in meadows where the soil is tenacious 
and moist. It is a perennial, flowering in Au- 
gust and September. The root is rather woody, 
with many longfibres. Stem solid,erect; afoot 
high, branched, angular, furrowed and roughish, 
leafy. Leaves, light green, rough, with short 
hairs ; radical ones largest, stalked, toothed or 
pinnatifid; the rest scattered, sessile, oblong, or 
linear lanceolate, entire, or toothed near the base. 
Flowers large, numerous, radiant, light crim- 
son, solitary at the tumid end of each branch, 
accompanied by a few leaves close to the calyx, 
which is brown; the calyx scales are mem- 
branous, torn. Linnajus says, the herb steeped 
in water, with alum, before the flowers expand, 
dyes silk of a fine yellow. 

2. Black knapweed (C. nigra). This grows 
in pastures, and by road-sides, very common, 
flowering from June to August. In habit it is 
like the last, but the stem is taller, more bushy, 
more deeply furrowed, and rather less rough. 
The lower leaves are somewhat lyrale, with 
angular lobes ; upper ones ovate; their colour 
always darker than that of C. Jacea. The 
flowers are also of a deeper crimson, com- 
monly without any radiant or abortive florets. 
The flowers are occasionally white. 

3 M 2 6PQ 



KNAWEL. 



KNOT-GRASS. 



3. Greater knapweed (C. scabiosa). This is 
also a very common species, growing in the 
borders and ridges of corn-fields, and by way- 
sides. The root is somewhat woody; stem 
about two feet high, erect, branched, angular, 
furrowed, leafy, smooth to the touch. Leaves 
dark green, slightly hairy on both sides, pinna- 
tifid. The flowers, which blow in July and 
August, are terminal, stalked, solitary, large, 
and of a handsome crimson colour, rarely 
white ; their radiant florets are large, each 
with five deep, long, and narrow segments. 
Calyx-scales ovate, green, somewhat downy, 
fringed with fine parallel teeth. The seeds are 
crowned with many reddish bristles; and after 
they are blown away, the calyx becomes reflex, 
and displays the silvery shining hue of its in- 
side. (Eiig. Flor. vol. iii. p. 463.) 

KNAWEL (Scleraiithiis, from o-hmi^o;, hard, 
and avfloc, a flower; in allusion to the dry, juice- 
less calyx). These are dry, rigid herbs, which 
can only be considered as useless weeds. 

The genus is European. There are 3 spe- 
cies, one of which, called S. annmis, is so abun- 
dantly naturalized in sandy, arable fields, as to 
appear native to some of the United States. 
(Nutlall). 

1. The annual knawel, or German knot- 
grass (S. annuus), which grows commonly in 
dry, sandy soils and corn-fields, flowering in 
.luly. The root is small and tapering. The 
stems numerous, widely spreading, and part- 
ly decumbent; round, leafy, a little downy, 
branched, and many-flowered at the upper 
part. Leaves linear,acute,pale green, combined 
at the base by a membranous fringed border. 
Fbwers small, green, nearly sessile, partly 
axiilar}', partly collected into dense forked 
tufts. Calyx of the fruit spreading, with taper, 
acute segments. The Swedes and Germans 
introduce occasionally the steam arising from 
a decoction of the knawel into their mouths, 
with a view to cure the toothache. Its leaves 
are astringent. Goats and sheep eat this plant, 
but cows totally refuse it. 

2. Perennial knawel (S. perennis). This 
species is less common ; it flowers from Au- 
gust to October, while the annual knawel blows 
in July. The root is woody, branched, with 
many decumbent or prostrate stems, 3 or 4 
inches long. The whole herb is of a glaucous, 
glistening appearance, turning red with age, 
especially the stems. The leaves are more 
tapering, crowded, and curved, than in the 
foregoing. Segments of the calyx more ob- 
tuse, concave, and finally converging. In 
several parts of Europe the roots of this spe- 
cies are attacked by the insect called Coccus 
polonicits (Linn, Syst, vol. i. p. 741), which yields 
a fine crimson dye : it is said likewise to live 
on S. annuus and on some Potentilla. A good 
account of its economy is given in the Ujjsal 
Transactions for 1742, t. i. p. 51. 

KNEE GRASS. A name sometimes given 
'o the rough panic grass. 

KNIGHT, THOMAS ANDREW, President 
01 the Horticu'iural Society of London, F.R.S., 
\&c., a distingaished vegetable physiologist and 
horticulturist, was born at Wormsley Grange, 
m Herefordshire, August 12, 1759. "My fa- 
ther," says Mr. Knight, in a late communica- 
696 



tion to me, " was a man of much learning and 
acquirements. Having great powers of mind, 
and living in an extremely quiet and seques- 
tered spot, he was supposed by his ignorant 
neighbours, in their language, to know every- 
thing." He died at an advanced age, when 
Mr. Knight was an infant, and as evidence of 
the respect his knowledge obtained him, when- 
ever in childhood his son sought for informa- 
tion upon any unusual subject, he was told 
that his father would have answered him, but 
that nobody now^ could. Being born in the 
midst of orchards, " I was early led," he con- 
tinues, " to ask whence the varieties of fruit I 
saw came, and how they were produced; I 
could obtain no satisfactory answer, and was 
thence first induced to commence experiments, 
in which, through a long life of scarcely inter- 
rupted health, I have persevered, and proba- 
bljr shall persevere as long as I possess the 
power." Mr. K. was distinguished for his skill 
in producing hybrid plants, by impregnating 
the blossoms. We owe to him a debt of grati- 
tude for many fine fruits. 

He died May 11, 1838, in the 80th year of his 
age. The death of Knight was lamented by all 
men of science, for, as it was soon after well 
remarked by the Duke of Sussex, when ad- 
dressing the Fellows of the Royal Society, "It 
would be difficult to find any other contempo- 
rary author, in this or other countries, who had 
made such important additions to the know- 
ledge of horticulture and the economy of vege- 
tation. (Selection from his Papers, p. 69.) To 
this interesting work a memoir of its author 
is prefixed. 

Mr. Knight was author of the following 
works, besides numerous papers in the Philo- 
sophical and Horticultural Transactions : 

1. A Treatise on tlie Culture of the Apple and Pear, 
and on the Manufacture of Cvder and Perry. London. 
1797. ]2mo. The 3d edition' in 1808. 2. Some doubts 
relative to the Efficacy of Mr. Forsyth's Plaister, in re- 
novatinsr trees. London. 180'i. 4to. 3. Report of a 
Coimnittee of the Horticultural Society of London. 
London. 1805. 4to. 4. Pomona Herefordiensis, or a 
Descriptive Account of the old Cyder and Perry Fruits 
nf Herefordshire. London. 1809. 4to. 5. A Letter on 
ihe Origin of Blight, and on raising Late Crops of Peas. 
This is appended to Sir ,1. Banks's Essay on the Mil- 
d.;w. London. 1806. 8vo. 2d Edition. (G. IV. John- 
son's Hist. F.ng. Gard.) 

KNOLL (Sax. cnolle). A little round ele- 
vation; the top of a hill or mountain. 

KNOT-GRASS. The common oat-like soft- 
grass (Holcus avenaceus), from its bulbous roots 
is often called by farmers knot-grass ; but in a 
botanical sense the following are the true knot- 
grasses. 

This grass is preyed upon in Europe by a 
species of leaf-beetle (Ckrysomela polygoni), and 
likewise in the United States by an insect 
scarcely to be distinguished from the Euro- 
pean beetle. By these the knot-grass is com- 
pletely stripped of its leaves two or three times 
in the course of a summer. This little beetle, 
says Harris, is about three-twentieths of an inch 
long. Its head, wing-covers, and body beneath 
are dark blue; its thorax and legs are dull 
orange-red ; the upper side of its abdomen is 
also orange-coloured; and the antennae and 
feet are blackish. The females have a very 
odd appearance before they have laid their 
eggs, their abdomen being enormously swelled 



KNOT-GRASS. 



LABOUR. 



out like a large orange-coloured ball, which 
makes it very difficult for them to move about. 
I have found these insects on the knot-grass in 
every month from April to September inclu- 
sive. The larvae eat the leaves of the same 
plant. (HarrU.) 

KNOT-GRASS, COMMON (Polygonum avi- 
culare: from Troht., many, and yctu, a knee; re- 
ferring to the numerous joints of the stem). 
This common annual grass is in England 
found almost everywhere, in waste as well as 
cultivated ground, streets, paths, and barren 
sandy places. The root is fibrous, long, very 
tough, and somewhat woody, branched below, 
simple at the crown. Stems several, spread- 
ing in every direction, generally prostrate, 
much branched, round, striated, leafy at the 
numerous knots or joints. Leaves alternate, 
stalked, hardly an inch long, elliptic or lanceo- 
late, entire, obtuse, single ribbed, smooth ex- 
cept ai the margin; tapering at the base, very 
variable in width; their substance rather co- 
riaceous; their colour grayish or glaucous, 
stipules membranous, acute, often red, with a 
few remote, brownish ribs. The flowers which 
appear from April to October are axillary, 2 or 
3 together on simple stalks, small, seeds acute- 
ly triangular, of a shining black, the food of 
many small birds. It is common in the United 
States. 

KNOT-GRASS, VALENTIA. A name by 
which the powdery sea-heath {Frankenia pul- 
verulentn), is known in some districts. 

KNOT-GRASS, WHORLED (lUeccbrum ver- 
ticillatum). This is an interesting dwarf pe- 
rennial plant, which is not uncommon in 
marshy, boggy ground in Cornwall and Devon- 
shire, flowering in July. The different species 
are pretty, may be grown in any soil, and in- 
crease from seed without difficult}'. The root 
is creeping; herb smooth, branched, procum- 
bent. Leaves small, ovate, acute, or some- 
times spatulate, scarcely stalked, rather fleshy. 
Stipules intra-foliaceous, small, white, jagged. 
The flowers are small, white, or reddish, 
whorled, without bractes. (Eng. Flor. vol. i. 
p. 385.) 

KNOT-AVEED. See Persjcaria. 
KOHL-RABL Bulb-stalked cabbage (Bras- 
ska ohracea, var. caula-rapa'). This curious 
variety of cabbage is a native of Germany, 
where it is much cultivated, and whence it 
was first introduced into England by Sir Tho- 
mas Tyrwhitt. The stem is swollen like a 
tuber, and, when divested of the leaves, may 
readily be mistaken for one. The produce is 
nearly the same as that of Swedish turnips, 
and the soil that suits the one is equally good 
for the other. It may either be sown in drills, 
or raised in beds, and transplanted like cab- 
bages; in this case the beds require to be 
made and sown the preceding autumn. Two 
pounds of the seed will produce a sufficiency 
of plants for one acre of ground. Hares are 
so fond of it, that, on farms where these ani- 
mals abound, the culture of this plant is found 
to be impracticable. 3840 grains of the tubes 
of kohl-rabi afford 105 grains of nutritive mat- 
ter (Sinclair's Hort. Gram, p, 411). See Cab- 
BAOK, p. 247. 



L. 



LABELLUM (Lat.). In botany, the front 
segment of an orchidaceous or other flower ; 
also the lower petal or lip. 

LABOUR (Fr. labeur ; Lat. labor). In a gene- 
ral sense, labour implies the exertion of human 
strength in the performance of any kind of 
work. 

Without entering into an abstruse treatise 
' on the science of political economy, it may not 
be out of place to examine shortly the subject, 
for labour is the only source of wealth to the 
i farmer; and having done this, I shall next in- 
I quire into the means by which labour may be 
rendered most efficient. Nature spontaneously 
furnishes the matter of which all commodities 
are made ; but until labour has been applied to 
appropriate that matter, or to adapt it to our 
use, it is wholly destitute of value, and is not, 
nor ever has been, considered as forming 
wealth. Were we placed on the banks of a 
river, or in an orchard, we should infallibly 
perish of thirst or hunger, unless by an effort 
of industry we raised the water to our lips, or 
plucked the fruit from its parent tree. But 
this illustration is an extreme case ; and it is 
more to our purpose to remark, that the mere 
appropriation of matter is seldom sufficient. 
In the vast majority of cases, labour is required 
not only to appropriate matter, but to convey it 
from place to place, and to give it that peculiar 
shape without which it may be totally useless, 
and incapable of administering either to our 
necessities or our comforts. The coal used in 
our fires is buried deep in the bowels of the 
earth, and is absolutely worthless, until by the 
labour of the miner it has been extracted from 
the mine, and brought into a situation where 
it may be made use of. The stones and mor- 
tar used in building our houses, and the rugged 
and shapeless materials that have been fashion- 
ed into the various articles of convenience and 
ornament with which they are furnished, were 
in their original state destitute alike of value 
and utility. And of the innumerable variety 
of animal, vegetable, and mineral products 
which form the materials of our food and 
clothes, none were originally serviceable, while 
many were extremely noxious to man. The 
labour that has subdued their bad qualities, 
that has given them utility, and fitted them to 
satisfy our wants, and to minister to our com- 
forts and enjoyments, is plainly therefore the 
only source of wealth. " Labour," to use the 
words of Adam Smith, " was the first price, the 
original purchase-money, that was paid for all 
things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by 
labour, that all the wealth of the world was 
purchased." (Wealth of Nations, ^p. 14:.) Those 
who observe the progress and trace the history 
of the human race in difl!erent countries and 
states of society, will find that their comfort 
and happiness have in all cases been princi- 
pally dependent on their ability to appropriate 
the raw products of nature, and to adapt them 
to their use. The savage whose labour is con- 
fined, like that of the Australian, to the gather- 
ing of wild fruits, or of shell-fish on the sea- 

691 



LABOUR. 



LABOUR. 



coast, is placed at the very bottom of the scale 
of civilization, and is in point of comfort de- 
cidedly inferior to many of the lower animals. 
The first step in the progress of society is 
made when man learns to hunt wild animals, 
to feed himself with their flesh, and clothe him- 
self with their skins. But labour, when con- 
lined to the chase, is extremely barren and un- 
productive. Tribes of hunters, like beasts of 
prey, v^hom they closely resemble in their 
habits and modes of subsistence, are but thinly 
scattered over the countries which they occupy; 
and, notwithstanding the fewness of their num- 
bers, any unusual deficiency in the supply of 
game never fails to reduce them to the extre- 
mity of want. The second step in the progress 
of society is made when the tribes of hunters 
and fishers devote themselves, like the ancient 
Scythians and modern Tartars, to the domesti- 
cation of wild animals and the rearing of 
flocks. The subsistence of herdsmen is much 
less precarious than that of hunters ; but they 
are almost entirely destitute of the various 
comforts and elegancies that give to civilized 
life its chief value. The third and most de- 
cisive step in the progress of civilization, in 
the great art of producing the necessaries and 
conveniences of life, is made when the wan- 
dering tribes of hunters and she})herds re- 
nounce their migratory habits and become 
agriculturists and manufacturers. It is then 
that man begins fully to avail himself of his 
productive powers. He then becomes labo- 
rious, and by a necessary consequence his 
wants are then, for the first time, fully sup- 
plied, and he acquires an extensive command 
over the articles necessary for his comfort as 
well as his subsistence. The importance of 
labour in the production of wealth was very 
clearly perceived by Locke. In his Essay on 
Civil Government , published in 1689, he has en- 
tered into a lengthened, discriminating, and 
able analysis, to show that it is from labour 
that the products of the earth derive almost all 
their value. " Let any one consider," says he, 
"what the difl"erence is between an acre of land 
planted with tobacco or sugar, sown with wheat 
or barley, and an acre of the same land lying 
in common, without any husbandry upon it, 
and he will find that the improvement of labour 
makes the far greater part of the value. I think 
it will be but a very modest computation to 
say, that of the products of the earth useful to 
the life of man, nine-tenths are the effects of 
labour; nay, if we rightly estimate things as 
they come to our use, and cast up the several 
expenses about them, what in them is purely 
owmg to nature, and what to labour, we shall 
ind that in most of them ninety-nine hundredths 
are wholly to be put on the account of labour. 

" There cannot be a clearer demonstration 
of any thing than several nations of the Ame- 
ricans are of this, who are rich in land and 
poor in all the comforts of life ; whom nature 
having furnished as liberally as any other 
people with the materials of nlenty, i.e. a fruit- 
lul soil apt to produce in abundance what might 
berve for food, raiment, and delight, yet for 
want of improving it by labour have not one 
hundredth part of the conveniences which 
might be enjf yed. 
692 



"To make this a little clearer, let us lut 
trace some of the ordinary provisions of life 
through their several progresses before they 
come to our use, and see how much they 
receive of their value from human industry. 
Bread, wine, and cloth are things of daily use 
and great abundance ; yet, notwithstanding, 
acorns, water, and leaves or skins must be our 
bread, drink, and clothing, did not labour fur- 
nish us with these more useful commodities ; 
for whatever bread is more worth than acorns, 
wine than water, and cloth or silk than leaves, 
skins, or moss, that is solely owing to labour 
and industry ; the one of these being the food 
and raiment which unassisted nature furnishes 
us with ; the other provisions which our in- 
dustrj' and pains prepare for us ; which how 
much they exceed the other in value, when any 
one hath computed, he will then see hoM^ much 
labour makes the far greatest part of the value 
of things we enjoy in this world. And ihe 
ground which produces the material is scarcely 
to be reckoned in as any, or, at most, but a 
very small part of it; so little that even 
amongst us, land that is wholly left to nature, 
that hath no improvement of pasturage, tillage 
or planting, is called as indeed it is, waste ; and 
we shall find the benefit of it amount to little 
more than nothing. 

" An acre of land that bears here twenty 
bushels of wheat, and another in America, 
which, with the same husbandry, would do the 
like, are, without doubt, of the same natural 
intrinsic value (utility). But yet the benefit 
mankind receives from the one in. a year is 
worth five pounds, and from the other possibly 
not worth a penny, if all the profit an Indian 
received from it were to be valued and sold 
here; at least, I may truly say, not one thou- 
sandth. It is labour, then, which puts the 
greatest part of value upon land, \vithout which 
it would scarcely be worth any thing. It is to 
that we owe the greatest part of all its useful 
products ; for all that the straw, bran, bread, 
of that acre of wheat, is more worth than the 
product of an acre of good land which lies 
waste, is all the effect of labour. 

"For it is not barely the ploughman's pains, 
the reaper's and thrasher's toil, and the baker's 
sweat is to he accounted into the bread we eat; 
the labour of those who sell the oxen, who 
digged and wrought the iron and stones, who 
felled and framed the timber employed about 
the plough, mill, oven, or any other utensils, 
which are a vast number, requisite to this 
corn ; from its being seed to be sown to its 
being made bread, must all be charged on the 
account oilahour, and received as an effect of 
that; nature and the earth furnished only the 
almost worthless materials as in themselves. It 
would be a strange catalogue of things that 
industry provided and made use of about every 
loaf of bread before it came to our use, if we 
could trace them ; iron, wood, leather, bark, 
timber, stone, bricks, coals, lime, cloth, dyeing 
drugs, pitch, tar, masts, ropes, and all the ma- 
terials made use of in the ships that brought 
away the commodities made use of by any of 
the workmen to any part of the work ; all which 
it would be almost impossible, at least too long, 
'to reckon up." 



LABOUR. 



LABOURER. 



Labour is the sole source of exchangeable 
value, and, consequently, of wealth. It is the 
talisman that has raised man from the condi- 
tion of the savage ; that has changed the desert 
and the forest into cultivated fields ; that has 
covered the earth with cities, and the ocean 
with ships ; that has given us abundance, com- 
fort, and elegance, instead of want, misery, and 
barbarism. Labour, according as it is applied 
to the raising of raw produce, to the fashioning 
of that raw produce, when raised into articles 
of utility, convenience, or ornament, or to the 
conveyance of raw and wrought produce from 
one country or place to another, is said to be 
agricultural, manufacturing, or commercial. 
An acquaintance with the particular process, 
and most advantageous methods of applying 
labour in each of these grand departments of 
industr3% forms the peculiar and appropriate 
study of agriculturists, manufacturers, and 
merchants. 

In thus endeavouring to exhibit the import- 
ance of labour, and the advantages which its 
successful prosecution confers on man, it must 
not be supposed that reference is made to the 
labour of the hand only. This species, indeed, 
comes most under our observation ; it is that, too, 
without which we could not exist, and which 
princi pally determines the valueof commodities. 
It is questionable, however, whether it be really 
more productive than the labour of the mind. 
The hand is not more necessary to execute 
than the head to contrive. All the means by 
which labour may be facilitated and wealth 
increased resolve themselves, 1st, into the 
better division and combination of employment 
among individuals and nations; and 2d, into 
the mor*i extensive or more judicious applica- 
tion of capital or stock in industrious under- 
takings. 

The division of employments can only be 
imperfectly established in rude societies and 
thinly-peopled countries; but in every state of 
society — in the rudest as well as the most im- 
proved — we maj' trace its operation and effects. 
Even in the simplest business this co-operation 
and subdivision is required; neither hunting 
nor fishing, any more than agriculture or ma- 
nufacture, can be advantageously carried on 
by solitarj'' individuals. As society advances, 
this division of labour extends itself on all 
sides ; one man becomes a tanner or dresser 
of skins, another a weaver, a third a smith, 
and so on. The wealth and comforts of all 
classes are, in consequence, prodigiously aug- 
mented. In countries where the division of 
labour is carried on to a considerable extent, 
agriculturists are not obliged to spend their 
time in clumsy attempts to manufacture their 
own produce, and manufacturers cease to in- 
terest themselves about the raising of corn, and 
the fattening of cattle. The facility of ex- 
changing is the vivifying principle of industry ; 
it stimulates agriculturists to adopt the best 
system of cultivation, and to raise the largest 
crops, because it enables them to exchange 
whatever portion of the produce of the land 
exceeds their own wants for other commodities 
contributing to their comforts and enjoyments, 
and it stimulates manufacturers and merchants 
to increase and improve the quantity, variety, 



and quality of their goods, that they may 
thereby obtain greater supplies of raw pro- 
duce. A spirit of industry is thus universally 
diff'used ; and that apathy and languor which 
characterize a rude state of society entirely 
disappear. 

Besides that sort of division of labour which 
enables each individual in a united society to 
confine himself to a particular employment, 
there is another and most important branch of 
the division of labour, which not only enables 
particular individuals, but the inhabitants of 
entire districts, and even nations, to addict 
themselves in preference to certain branches 
of industry. It is on this territorial division of 
labour, as it has been appropriately termed, 
that the commerce carried on between differ- 
ent districts of the same country, and between 
different countries, is founded. The variations 
in the situation, soil, climate, mineral products, 
&c. of the diflerent districts of an extensive 
country, render them more suitable for some 
than for other species of industry. A district 
where coal is abundant, which has an easy 
access to the ocean, and a considerable com- 
mand of internal navigation, is the natural seat 
of manufactures. Wheat and other species of 
grain are the proper products of rich arable 
soils ; and cattle, after being reared in moun- 
tainous districts, are most advantageously fat- 
tened in meadows and low grounds. Nothing 
can be more obvious than that the inhabitants 
of these different districts will be able, by con- 
fining themselves to those employments, for the 
prosecution of which they have some peculiar 
capability, to produce a much greater quantity 
of useful and desirable articles than they could 
do were they to engage indiscriminately in 
every possible employment. 

Providence, by giving different soils, cli- 
mates and natural productions to different 
countries, has evidently provided for their mu- 
tual intercourse and civilization. By permit- 
ting the people of each to employ their capital 
and labour in those departments in which 
their geographical situation, the physical capa- 
cities of the soil, their national character and 
habits fit them to excel, foreign commerce, or 
the territorial division of labour, has a won- 
derful influence in multiplying the products 
of arts and industry. 

Having been led thus far into this fertile 

subject, I will conclude with some apposite 

and excellent observations by Dr. Paley; — 

"Every man has his work. The kind of work 

varies, and that is all the difference there is. 

A great deal of labour exists besides that of 

the hands ; many species of industry besides 

i bodily operation, equally necessary, requiring 

i equal assiduity, more attention, more anxiety. 

i It is not true, therefore, that men of elevated 

stations are exempted from work ; it is only 

' true that there is assigned to them work of a 

different kind: whether more easy or m.ore 

pleasant may be questioned; but certainly not 

less wanted, nor less essential to the commou 

good." {Brande's Diet, of Lit. and .Art.) 

LABOURER. One who is employed in 
coarse and toilsome work. But, in agricu' 
ture, the term is applied to a person who per 
forms the manual or most laborious part (*" 

69.1 



LABOURER. 



LACTOMETER. 



Ibe business of a farm. The price of labour 
has at all times varied ; and, as the poorer 
classes feel, with additional rigour, every evil 
arising from the pressure of the times, different 
expedients have been devised, with a view to 
alleviate their burdens, supply their wants, 
and render them more comfortable. From 
these investigations, it appears that, in the 
middle of the 14th century, the usual price of 
labour was 2rf. per day, and wheat was sold at 
from .3s. 4rf. to 4s. per quarter. In the middle 
of the 15th century the pay of a labourer per 
day was ScL, and wheat cost from 5s. to 5s. 6c?. 
per quarter. In the earlier part of the 16th 
century the price of labour rose to 3^d., and 
that of a quarter of wheat to 7s. 6(/. About the 
middle of the 17th century the pay of a labourer 
upon an average was (in Essex) I3d., and corn 
had risen to 40s. per quarter. Towards the 
latter end of the 18th century the daily pay of 
a labourer was from lid. to 18c?. in the coun- 
try, and from 2s. to 2s. 6d. in the metropolis, 
while the price of wheat was 48s. per quarter. 
The payment of daily wages, however, serves 
but imperfectly to ascertain the real price of 
labour, as a considerable portion of work is 
performed by the piece, so that a labourer in 
general earns from 3d. to 6(/. per day more 
than by the common pay. The curious and 
philanthropic reader, who feels an interest in 
this popular inquiry, will be fully gratified by 
a perusal of Mr. Davies's Case of Labourers in 
Husbandry Stated and Considered, &c. 4to, 1795, 
p. 200 ; and Sir F. M. Eden's Slate of the Poor, 
&c., 3 vols. 4to, 1797. Mrs. Davies Gilbert, of 
Eastbourne, a lady whose active interest for 
the prosperity of agriculture, and the improve- 
ment of the condition of the labouring poor, 
may fairly (as has been justly observed) be 
set as an example for many country gentlemen 
to follow, urges most strenuously, in many pub- 
lications (but particularly in the Quart. Joum. 
of Agr. vol. xii. p. 252), the advantages to be 
derived from manual labour, in preference to 
horse labour. In England, many benevolent 
persons of distinguished rank have also re- 
cently taken up the cause of the labourer, and 
formed themselves into a society, very appro- 
priately named "the Labourer's Friend So- 
ciety." They advocate strongly, and endeavour 
to promote more generally the system of home 
colonies for the cultivation of waste land. 
See Allotment and Spade Husbandkt, Farm 
Servants, Workmen, &c. 

Farm labourers, being the most valuable 
class of men that a populous country pos- 
sesses, should have every comfort provided 
for them that is compatible with their situa- 
tion, and conformable to the general interest 
of the community. Their wages ought to be 
everywhere and at all times sufficient for the 
maintenance of themselves and families while 
in health, with a surplus to provide against 
the day of sickness, without their being under 
the debasing necessity of making application 
to their neighbours for relief. Persons so es- 
sentially useful to society should not merely 
support existence, but have the comforts of 
wholesome habitations, with sufficient spaces 
o** ground to furnish them and their families 
694 



with changes of proper vegetable food without 

much expense. 

LACTARY. A milk-house, dairy, or place 
where milk is kept. The term has been made 
to designate the whole establishment of a 
dairy. See Dairy. 

LACTIC ACID. This substance, in the 
opinion of Berzelius and some other chemists, 
exists in milk, and in larger proportion when 
it has become sour; but others imagine that it 
is the product of its decomposition. It was 
first recognised as a peculiar acid by Scheele, 
but he did not obtain it perfectly pure. It was 
afterwards observed by Berzelius in many ani- 
mal fluids; and by Braconnet to exist with 
acetic acid in fermented rice-meal, wheat- 
paste, the juice of the beet-root, and other vege- 
table substances: he named it nanceic acid. 
It is formed, also, during the putrefactive pro- 
cess in some animal bodies. Lactic acid is a 
colourless, inodorous, syrupy liquid, and very 
sour. It may be so concentrated as to have a 
specific gravity of 1-215: it attracts moisture 
from the atmosphere, and dissolves in water 
and alcohol in all proportions. At 480° Fah- 
renheit, it is decomposed. When added to 
boiling milk, it is capable of immediately co- 
agulating about 700 times its weight ; but, 
when cold, it produces comparative little effect 
upon it: it also coagulates albumen. It has 
the property of dissolving fresh precipitated 
phosphate of lime ; a property which is of 
great advantage in the animal economy, and 
might even be rendered useful in manures. 
The constituents of the lactic acid are, 6 parts 
of carbon, 5 of hydrogen, and 5 of oxygen. 
(Penny Cydopcedia, vol. xiii. p. 268.) 

LACTOMETER (Lat. lac, milk, and metrum, 
a measure). A term applied to a glass tube 
for ascertaining the proportion which the 
cream bears to the milk of any particular cow, 
or the produce of a whole dairy. Lactometers 
of different kinds have been invented ; the be^t 
is called " the four or five glass lactometer." 




The principle of the instrument is, that if 
new milk is poured into glass tubes and allow- 
ed to remain, the division between the cream, 
which floats upon the surface of the milk, will 
be so evident that its depth may be easily 
measured; and should the milk from any cow 
produce more cream than that of another, the 
difference will be seen by the divisions or 



LADIES' P^INGER. 



LADIES' SMOCK. 



marks on the glass tubes. The lactometer 
consists of 4 or 5 glass tubes, about half an 
inch diameter, and 1 1 inches long, fitted into an 
upright mahogany frame ; each tube having a 
fine line drawn round it 10 inches from the 
bottom ; 3 inches from the line downwards, it 
is graduated into inches and tenths of inches. 
At milking time each tube is to be filled up to 
the line with new milk. After standing 12 
hours, the quantity of cream which floats upon 
the surface is shown by the scale of inches 
and tenths ; each division will therefore repre- 
sent one per cent, of the whole. 

If the milk given by a cow at one meal is 
1 gallon, or 8 pints, and the thickness or depth 
of the cream which floats upon it measures 14 
divisions, multiply the number of pints, 8, by 
the depth of the cream, 14; the result will be 
that the produce of the cream of that meal is 
112, or I pint ^'y?,,. Care must be taken to fill 
these tubes as soon as the pail is taken from 
under the cow, for if any delay takes place, 
some of the cream will have ascended towards 
the top. The milk should be taken from the 
middle of the pail, which is to be done by dip- 
ping a cream-pot below the froth. (^Journ. Roy. 
Inst. vol. iv. p. 157; Rccs's Cyrlo. vol. xx.) 

LADIES' FINGER. A name given to the 
common kidney-vetch {.AnlhylUs vuhicraria), 
which, from its soft and downy nature, was 
supposed to possess vulnerary properties in 
stanching the blood of slight wounds. See 

KlDNKY-VETOH. 

LADIES' MANTLE (Jhhemilla). The spe- 
cies of this genus of plants are all astringent 
in their root, and somewhat mucilaginous. j1. 
vulgaris is slightly tonic. Many of them are 
ornamental, and well adapted for planting in 
gardens near the front of borders, or for adorn- 
ing rockwork. They succeed well in any 
common soil, if not over wet, and may be in- 
creased from seeds or divisions. The species 
indigenous to Britain are — 

1. Common ladies' mantle (A vulgaris). A 
perennial, growing in dry, rather mountainous 
pastures. The root is woody, with long fibres : 
stems from 4 to 8 inches high, more or less 
procumbent, alternately branched, round, 
hairy, leafy, terminating in numerous little co- 
rymbose clusters of green flow^ers, or smooth, 
almost capillary stalks. The radical leaves 
are numerous, on long footstalks, large, round- 
ish, kidney-shaped, bluntly-lobed, plaited, ser- 
rated, of a fine green above ; soft and hairy 
beneath. The stem-leaves are of the same 
form, but a great deal smaller; alternate, on 
short stalks, with a pair of large notched sti- 
pules to each. Horses, sheep, and goats, eat 
this vegetable; but it is not relished by cattle, 
and hogs totally refuse it. 

2. Alpine ladies' mantle (^. alpina). A pe- 
rennial plant growing on alpine rocks, espe- 
cially in a micaceous soil. It is rather smaller 
in habit than the last species, and essentially 
different, not only in the silvery pubescence 
of the stalks, flowers, and backs of the leaves, 
but in the latter being separated to the base 
into 5 or 6 obovate lobes, closely serrated to- 
wards the extremity. Nothing can be more 
beautiful than the silvery splendour of their 
under sides, especially in exposed and barren 



spots, when the leaves are agitated by the 
wind. No figure can do them justice. The 
upper surface is smooth and naked, of a fine 
green. This species is found on the moun- 
tains of New Hampshire. 

3. Field ladies' mantle, or parsley piert (j1. 
arvensis). This annual species will generally 
be found in England growing in sandy or gra- 
velly fields, especially when fallow, as well as 
on heathy banks. The root is small and 
fibrous; stems numerous, about a finger's 
length, spreading or prostrate, round, leafy, 
hardly subdivided. Leaves flat, three-lobed, 
variously cut on short stalks. The whole 
plant is more or less hairy, and in flavour and 
scent approaches its natural ally, burnet. 
(Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. i. p. 223.) 

LADIES' SLIPPER (Cypripcdium, from 
Cypris, one of Venus's names, and podiou, a 
slipper; hence the name Venus's or ladies' 
slipper). The species of this genus are re- 
markably handsome when in flower, and on 
that account deserve a place in every collec- 
tion. They are all of the easiest culture. The 
hardy species succeed well in peat soil, either 
kept in a frame, or planted out in a shady 
border. The species, natives of America, re- 
quire to be protected from severe frost and 
rain. The only indigenous species is the com- 
mon ladies' slipper (C. calrcalus), which is very 
rare, growing only in mountainous woods and 
thickets in the north of England. It is peren- 
nial, blowing large yellow, solitary, terminal 
flowers, without scent, in June. The stems are 
solid, 12 or 18 inches high, downy, bearing 3 
or 4 large alternate, ovate, rather pointed 
leaves, clasping or sheathing at their base. — 
(Eng. Flor. iv. 51; Paxloii's Bot. Did.; see 
Darlington's Flor. Cest. 513.) 

LADIES' SMOCK (Cardamine). An inte- 
resting genus of the simplest culture and pro- 
pagation, natives of various countries, gene- 
rally preferring watery situations. The native 
species are five in number: — 

1. Daisj'-leaved ladies' smock (C.bellidifolia). 
This perennial species grows in moist, grassy, 
lofty, alpine pastures. The root is rather 
woody, divided at the crown. Herb 2 or 3 
inches high, unbranched, erect, bright green, 
smooth leaves, sometimes a little wavy or an- 
gular, the uppermost nearly sessile. Flowers 
few, corymbose, white, appearing in August. 
Style short, conical. 

2. Impatient ladies' smock (C. impatiens). 
This annual species grows in shady, rather 
moist, rocky situations in the north of Eng- 
land ; it is rarely met with in Scotland. The 
root is small and tapering; the herbage pale 
green; stem 1^ to 2 feet high; leaves pinnate; 
leaflets lanceolate, mostly cut; stipules fringed. 
The flowers, which are numerous, and small, 
and white, appear in May and June. Pods erect, 
very slender, composing long clusters, and dis- 
charging their seeds with a crackling noise and 
great force on the slightest touch or concussion, 
by means of the revolute valves. The -ulirle 
plant is disagreeably bitterish and pungent. 

3. Hairy ladies' smock (C. hirsuta). Also 
annual in habit. This species is found very 
frequent in waste or cultivated ground, espc 
cially in moist, shady places ; flowering fro 

69h 



LADIES' TRACES. 



LADY BIRDS. 



March to June. The root consists of nntany 
white fibres. The herb is variable in size and 
luxuriance, deep green, more or less hairy, 
rarely quite smooth ; stem from 3 to 12 inches 
or more in height; leaves pinnate, without 
stipules ; leaflets stalked, roundish, oblong, 
notched. 

4. Meadow ladies' smock (C.^rafewsis). See 

Cuckoo Flower. 

5. Bitter ladies' smock (Cawara). This is not 
a common species, but is found occasionally in 
watery places, by the sides of rivers and brooks. 
It is perennial, and before it flowers greatly 
resembles water-cress, but the taste is bitter 
and nauseous. The root is toothed, somewhat 
creeping; sterns^ 1 to 2 feet high, more or less 
hairy, creeping at the base, with several radi- 
cles, and sometimes a few slender scions. 
Leaves pinnate, without stipules ; leaflets of 
the lowermost roundish ; of the rest, toothed 
or angular. Style obliquely elongated. Flow- 
ers, which appear in April or May, always 
white or cream-coloured, with violet anthers. 
{Smith's Enrr. Flor. vol. iii. pp. 186—91.) 

LADIES'^TRACES (Ncoltin, a bird's nest, in 
allusion to the interwoven fibres of the roots). 
This is a pretty genus of orchidaceous plants. 
The hardy species will succeed well in chalky 
soil, or a mixture of loam, peat, and sand ; they 
are all increased by divisions. (Paxton's Bot. 
Diet.) 

There are in Britain only two indigenous 
species : — 

1. Sweet ladies' traces {N. spiralis), which 
grows in open pastures, on a chalky or gravelly 
soil, or in meadows in various parts of Eng- 
land, flowering in August and September. The 
leaves are awned, all radical, on broad stalks, 
spreading, ovate, acute, ribbed, rather glau- 
cous. Stalk a finger's length or more, viscid, 
and downy upwards, clothed with several 
sheathing, upright, pointed bractes. Spike 
spiral, nf many crowded small white and 
highly fragrant flowers, in a single row, each 
with an ovate, tumid, pointed, downy, close 
bracte. 

2. Proliferous ladies' traces (N. gcmmipara). 
This species grows in marshes on the west 
coast of Ireland, and flowers in July. The 
root consists of two thick, fleshy, downy, an- 
nual, perpendicixlar knobs, each about 3 inches 
long, and one-fifth of an inch in diameter near 
its origin, tapering downwards to a blunt point. 
After flowering the root decays. Leaves 5 or 6, 
upright, broadly lanceolate, acute, three-ribbed, 
3 inches in length. Foot-stalks broad, sheath- 
ing, near an inch long. Stalk erect, 2 inches 
high, sheathed more than half way up by the 
foot-stalks of the innermost leaves, and bear- 
ing in the upper part 3 or 3 lanceolate, smooth, 
upright bractes. Spike an inch long, ovate, 
dense, erect, of about 18 M'hite flowers in 3 
rows, twisted round in a very remarkable way, 
and each accompanied by a smooth, lanceolate 
brace, as tall as itself. The outside of the 
flowers and capsule are downy; every other 
part of the herb is smooth. Buds destined to 
flowe-" the following year are formed among 
the leaves, at the bottom of the flower-stalk. In 
:he spring, each bud puts forth a pair of oblong 

696 



knobs and becomes a separate plant. {Smith's 
Eng. Flor. vol. iv. p. 35.) 

LADIES' TRACES. Ladies' hair or quak- 
ing-grass. See Briza Media. 

Ladder, a framework of steps between 
two upright pieces. Ladders of various length 
are essential requisites on a farm, whether for 
use in repairs to buildings, for reaching stacks, 
or in cases of fire. 

" Garden ladders are of three kinds : the 
coinmon wall tree ladder, which differs from those 
used in other arts in having two pieces of 10 
or 12 inches in length, projecting at right an- 
gles from the upper end, the use of which is to 
avoid injuring the trees, by keeping the top of 
the ladder at a small distance from the wall, 
and thus admit of the operation of nailing. The 
orchard ladder consists of a frame on low wheels, 
as a basis for several ladders which fit into each 
other, and are capable of being hoisted up by 
machinery, so as a person near the extremity 
of the ladder may have access to any part of a 
tree with convenience, either to prune it or 
gather the fruit. 

The three-styled, forked, and double ladders are 
also well adapted for the ordinary purjwses of 
gathering fruit or pruning. The rule-joint ladder 
is used for working on curvilinear roofs either 
of glass, or domes of lead, stone, &c., which 
require panes renewed or trees nailed. Such 
ladders are particularly useful for repairing the 
roofs of hothouses and greenhouses. The step- 
ladder, instead of round rods on which to place 
the feet, has steps or boards, an improvement 
essentially necessary where much work is to be 
done, because less fatiguing to the feet. Such 
ladders have a back or fulcrum, by which they 
stand independently of any other object, and 
which is removable at leisure by drawing oul 
an iron bolt." {Loudon's Enc. of Gard. p. 290.) 

LADY BIRDS, or LADY BUGS. Familiar 
names applied to small hemispherical beetles, 
scientifically denominated roccMif',')'. These little 
beetles are generally yellow or red, with black 
spots, or black, with white, red, or yellow spots ; 
there are many kinds of them, and they are very 
common and plentiful insects, and are gene- 
rally diffused among plants. They live, both 
in the perfect and young state, upon plant-lice, 
and hence their services are very considerable. 
Their young are small flattened grubs of a 
bluish or blue-black colour, spotted usually 
with red or yellow, and furnished with six legs 
near the forepart of the body. They are hatch- 
ed from little 3'ellow eggs, laid in clusters among 
the plant-lice, so that they find themselves at 
once within reach of their prey, which, from 
their superior strength, they are enabled to seize 
and slaughter in great numbers. There are 
some of these lady-birds, of a very small size, 
and blackish colour, sparingly clothed with 
short hairs, and sometimes with a yellow spot 
at the end of the wing-covers, whose young are 
clothed with short tufts or flakes of the most 
delicate white down. These insects belong to 
the genus Scymmts, which means a lion's whelp, 
and they well merit such a name, for their 
young, in proportion to their size, are as san- 
guinary and ferocious as the most savage 
beast of prey. I have often seen one of these 



LAIR. 



LAND-DITCHING. 



little tufted animals preying upon the plant-lice, 
catching and devouring, with the greatest ease, 
lice nearly as large as its own body, one after 
another, in rapid succession, without appa- 
rently satiating its hunger or diminishing its 
activity. (Harris.) See Aphis. 

LAIR. Provincially, land in a state of grass 
or sward. (See Lat.) Also employed in some 
countries, to signify soil and dung. Lair is 
used sometimes to express the couch or rest- 
ing-place of a boar or wild beast, or of cows 
in dairies. 

LAMA, or LLAMA. See Alpaca. 
LAMB'S LETTUCE. See Corn Salad. 
LAMB'S QUARTERS. A name given to 
wild or mountain spinach. (Chenopodium al- 
bum.) See GoosEFOOT. 

LAMB SKINS (Germ. Lammsfelle). The 
value of lamb skins varies according to the 
fineness, brilliancy, and colour of the wool. 
Black lamb skins are riiore generally esteemed 
llian those of any other colour. English lamb 
skins are seldom to be met with perfectly 
black; but since the introduction of merino 
sheep into England, many of the white fleeces 
have, in point of quality, arrived at a pitch of 
perfection which justly entitles them to be 
ranked with some of the best fleeces in Spain. 
The importation of lamb skins is immense, 
having amounted on an average in 1831, and 
1832, to 2,305,635. Eight-tenths of the whole 
quantity are supplied by Italy. They are 
mostly used in the glove manufacture. (M'Cul- 
loclis Com. Dirt.) See Wool. 

LAMENESS. In farriery, an affection in 
the feet or limbs in horses and other animals, by 
which motion is rendered less perfect. In the 
horse, it is brought on from various causes — 
sprains, over-exertion, diseases of the foot, &c. 
The muscles of the shoulder are occasionally 
sprained, and in this case the animal cannot 
lift his foot without great difiicult}^ indeed he 
will be observed to drag his toe along the 
ground. In this case few local measures can 
be adopted. The horse should be bled from 
the vein on the inside of the arm, fomentations 
applied, and a dose of physic given. In this, 
as in most other cases of lameness, quiet and 
rest are essential to the restoration of the ani- 
mal. (The Horse, ]). 229.) 

LAMMAS DAY. In the English calendar, 
the 1st of August. Dr. Johnson supposes this 
term to be a corruption of lattcrmath, which 
signifies a second mowing of grass. Others 
derive it from a custom which once prevailed 
in some parts of England, of bringing a lamb 
alive on this day into the church at high mass. 
Others again derive it from a Saxon term sig- 
nifying loaf mass, so named as a feast of thanks- 
giving for the first-fruits of the corn. (Brande's 
Diet, of Lit. &c.) 

LAMP BLACK. A colouring substance 
which is in very general use for several pur- 
poses. The finest lamp black is produced by 
collecting the smoke from a lamp with a long 
wick, which supplies more oil than can be 
perfectly consumed, or by suffering the flame 
to play against a metalline cover, which im- 
pedes the combustion, not only by carrying off 
part of the heat, but by obstructing the current 
of air Lamp black is prepared, however, in 
88 



a much cheaper way for the demands of tradt 
The dregs which remain after the purificatiou 
of pitch, or else small pieces of fir wood, are 
burned in furnaces of a peculiar construction, 
the smoke of which is made to pass through a 
long, horizuntal flue, terminating in a close 
boarded chamber. The roof of this chamber 
is made of coarse cloth, through which th<^ 
current of air escapes, while the soot remains. 
(lire's Did.) 

LANCEOLATE. In botany a term used to 
describe leaves which are oblong and gradu- 
ally tapering towards each extremity, or shaped 
like a spear or lance. 

LANCE WOOD (Guatteria, in honour of J. 
B. Guatteri, an Italian botanist, and once pro- 
fessor at Parma). This is a splendid genus of 
evergreen shrubs, succeeding in a mixture of 
loam, peat, and sand. They are natives of 
warm climates and require stove culture. 
Young plants are readily obtained by cuttings 
raised in sand under a glass in heat. (Pax- 
ton's Bat. Diet.) 

LAND (Germ.), in the widest acceptation 
of the word, is used to denote the solid matter 
of which the globe is composed; in contradis- 
tinction to the liquid matter or water (see Geo- 
logy) : but in its most restricted signification 
it is confined to arable ground. The latter is the 
legal meaning of the term ; and in this sense it 
is used in all original writs, and in all court 
and formal pleadings. 

LAND-DITCHING, or hollow draining as it 
is sometimes termed, is chiefly practised in 
England in the counties of Essex and Hertford. 
It consists in digging both main and side drains, 
similar to those generally adopted in draining 
land : the former are usually made from 22 to 
24 inches, the latter from 20 to 22 inches in 
depth. The soil is previously ploughed, and 
the length to which the main drains may be 
protracted without a vent, depends upon the 
situation of the land. When the land has a 
regular declivity, the most proper method will 
be to carry off as much water as possible, by 
means of side drains; but if the ground be 
irregular, it will be requisite to form additional 
main drains, so that every advantage may be 
derived from the valleys, into which the latter 
must often be conducted to a considerable extent. 
The length of the side drains varies accord- 
ing to the elevation of the soil; in general 
they need not be more than one rod apart from 
each other; though in very loose or porous 
grounds, they may be dug at a distance of one 
rod and a half When the trenches are cut to 
a sufficient depth, they are filled up and cover- 
ed in the usual manner with straw and bushes. 
The expense of this method of draining is com- 
puted in England to be nearly 3/. per acre. 

Land-ditching not only carries off the water 
from wet or marshy soils, but also meliorates 
stiff loamy clays, which being thus better en- 
abled to resist the long continuance of moisture 
on their surface during the winter, promote ve- 
getation very early in the spring, and the grass 
is rendered of a superior quality. The weeds', 
&c. change their colour, and are totally divest 
ed of their rankness ; the corn also increases 
both in quantity and weight. Another import- 
ant advantage arising from this practice is, that 
3N 697 



LANDLORD. 



LARCH TREE. 



l will admit of the soil being ploughed at an 
earlier jieriod of the spring and later in autumn ; 
while It may be tilled with greater facility, and 
Icept clean from weeds at a very small expense. 
LANDLORD. One who owns lands or 
houses, and has tenants under him. See Te- 
nant, Customs of Counties, Lease, Aghee- 

MENT, &c. 

LANDMARK, signifies in a general sense 
any thing by which the boundary of a property 
is defined. In ancient times the correct division 
of lands was an object of great importance ; 
and various means were adopted to give dis- 
tinctness and permanency to the boundaries of 
every man's property. Stones and hillocks 
were the most usual landmarks. The import- 
ance of this subject among the Israelites par- 
ticularly, may be judged of from the denun- 
ciation of Moses, "Cursed be he that removeth 
his neighbour's landmark." 

LANDSCAPE GARDENING. The art of 
laying out grounds so as to produce the effect 
of a natural landscape. Its principles are the 
same as those upon which the landscape painter 
proceeds in composing a picture ; and though 
it is an art of which, like many others, every- 
body thinks he is a judge, it requires to be pro- 
perly prac-tised, and the possession of powers 
of a much higher order than fall to the lot of 
most men. Mr. Brown, commonly called Ca- 
pability Brown, was the first who practised the 
art in England, so as to render himself worthy 
of the name of artist. To lay down the prin- 
ciples of this art here would be quite impossi- 
ble ; but this general observation contains the 
sum of them; let selected and beautiful nature 
be constantly your model, and success must 
follow. Loiidonh Enc. of Gardening, and Down- 
i"g's Landscape Gardening, recently published in 
New York, may be consulted with advantage 
by those desirous of practising the art. 

LANDSLIP. A portion of land that has slid 
down in consequence of disturbance by an 
earthquake, or from being undermined by the 
action of water or other means. 

LAND SPRINGS. Land springs are sources 
of water which only come into action after 
heavy rains ; while constant springs which 
derive their supplies from a more abundant 
source, flow throughout the year. All springs 
owe their origin to rains. In the case of land 
springs, the water when it sinks through the 
surface, is speedily interrupted by a retentive 
stratum, and there accumulating soon bursts 
out into a spring, which ceases to flow a short 
period after the cause which gave it birth has 
ceased to operate ; but the water which sup- 
plies constant springs sinks deeper into the 
earth, and accumulates in rocky or gravelly 
strata, which become saturated with the fluid. 

LAND STEWARD. A person who has the 
care of a landed estate, and whose duties vary 
in different countries, according to the mode 
in which landed property is managed. In Eng- 
land, where the landlord very commonly under- 
takes to keep the buildings and fences of his 
tenants in repair, the duties of the land steward 
are constant and multifarious ; while in Scot- 
land, where the buildings and fences are kept 
in repair by the tenant, the duties of the stew- 
ard are limited to receiving the rents, and see- 
fi98 



ing that the covenants of the leases are duly 
fulfilled. In many parts of the Continent, and 
particularly in Italy, where the landlord is a 
partner with his tenant, and shares the produce 
with him, the duties of the land steward or fat- 
tore, as he is there called, are much more one- 
rous than in Britain. See Baiiiff. 

LAND TAX. In England, a branch of 
the public revenue, which was first raised in 
its present form in 1692. The rate at which 
this tax is charged is 4s. in the pound on the 
annual value. The amount which it yielded 
to the exchequer in 1837 was 1,192,635/, 
(Penny Cyclo. vol. xiii. p. 300.) 

LARCH TREE (Lat. larix ; It. and Span- 
larice). The larch is one of the most valuable 
exotics which has been introduced into Britain. 
In the north of Scotland it has been grown to 
a great extent, cultivated with particular at- 
tention ; and found to be one of the most pro- 
fitable of all trees to the planter, provided the 
land be well drained, but it will not succeed in 
swampy situations. It grows with great rapi- 
dity, is subject to very few accidents, trans- 
plants with but little risk, and produces timber 
of great excellence and value, not only for do- 
mestic but for naval purposes. 

In bridges, dock-gates, mill work, and espe- 
cially in mill axles (where oak only used for- 
merly to be employed), larch has been sub- 
stituted with the best effect. The small larch 
is useful for agricultural implements, gates, 
upright palings, rails, and hurdles. Boats built 
of larch have been found sound when the ribs 
made of oak 40 years old were decayed. A fine 
frigate of 36 guns, named the Atholl, was 
launched at Woolwich in 1820, built entirely 
of larch, the growth of the Atholl plantations. 
It is also very useful for staves for casks. 

1. The common larch fir or white larch 
(Mies larix). The leaves of all the species are 
clustered, and deciduous. The cones vary:' 
in the common larch they are ovate, oblong, 
blunt; and the flowers are pink. In moun- 
tainous districts in Scotland the Duke of Atholl 
planted this species in immense quantities, 
having had nearly 9000 acres in cultivation 
with the larch alone. We are told by Dr. An- 
derson that his grace planted 200,000 every 
year; and in the winter of 1819 and the fol- 
lowing spring no less than 1,102,367 were 
planted on 556 acres, at 2000 per Scotch acre. 
The late Earl of Fife also planted 181,813 in 
Morayshire. Goodwood, the property of the 
Duke of Richmond, was probably the first 
place at which the larch was planted as a 
forest tree, and even there it was only in small 
numbers. A few years after, viz. in 1738, it 
was introduced into Scotland by a Mr. Menzies. 
About 1740, James, Duke of Atholl, commenced 
planting larches around Dunkeld House and 
Atholl House, the two residences of his grace; 
and great attention having been paid to these 
nurseries by his grace's successors, the plan- 
tations have amazingly increased. A very 
detailed account of the plantations on the Atholl 
estates, and experiments on the wood, will be 
found in the 3d vol. of the Prize Essays of the 
Highland Society, p. 165, drawn up from pa- 
pers and documents communicated by his 
grace's trustees. In a communication to the 



LARCH TREE. 



LARCH TREE. 



Board of Agriculture in February, 1812 (vol. 
vii. p. 273), the Duke of AthoU, speaking of 
the advantages to be derived from a more 
general culture of the larch, says, "The lower 
range of the Grampian Hills, which extend to 
Dunkeld, are in altitude from 1000 to 1200 feet 
above the level of the sea ; they are in general 
barren, and are composed of mountain schist, 
slate, and iron-stone. Up to the highest tops 
of these, larch grow luxuriantly, where the 
Scotch fir, formerly considered the hardiest tree 
of the north, cannot rear its head. In consi- 
derable tracts, where fragments of shivered 
rocks are strewed so thick that vegetation 
scarcely meets the eye, the larch puts out as 
strong and vigorous shoots as are to be found 
in the valleys below, or in the most sheltered 
situation." And it further appears from a re- 
port of that nobleman to the Horticultural So- 
ciety (Trans, vol. iv. p. 416), that in situations 
1500 to 1600 feet above the level of the sea, he 
has felled trees 80 years old that have each 
yielded six loads of the finest limber. The 
growth of larch is not, however, confined to 
Scotland; but much land has been planted in 
the northern counties of England. The Society 
in London for the Encouragement of Arts and 
Manufactures, so long ago as 1783, offered pre- 
miums for the planting of larch. A gold me- 
dal was offered to those who should plant 
within any one year 5000 larches from two to 
four years old at a distance of 5 feet asunder ; 
and a silver medal to any one who should 
plant 3000 larches at the same distance. This 
premium only contemplated making planta- 
tions solely of the larch. The first claimant 
for the premium was the Bishop of LlandafT, 
who had by that time planted 48,500 larches 
on 18 acres of the high grounds near Amble- 
side in Westmoreland, at a distance of 4 feet 
from one another. Immense numbers con- 
tinued to be planted annually up to the year 
1805, from which year to 1816, no candidates 
appeared to claim the premium, in consequence 
of the severe blight which affected the larch 
trees in England for some years ; and which 
preventing the formation of the cones, deprived 
the growers of larch plants of the usual supply 
of seed. 

There is no account given of the height at 
which these larches were planted. Had they 
been placed at a considerable elevation above 
the level of the sea, they would have probably 
escaped the contagion of the blight. In the 
account of the Dunkeld larch plantations, the 
late Duke of Atholl conceived that he had in- 
troduced three great improvements in the 
planting of the larch, when it was to be raised 
for useful timber. These improvements were 
the planting it at a high elevation on the 
mountain side, in a region in which no other 
kind of limber tree would grow to perfection 
in this country; the inserting the tree in the 
soil at an early age, not exceeding two years 
old in the seed-bed; and the notching the small 
plants into the ground by a peculiar instrument 
at wide intervals, not nearer than 5^ feet to 
each other; for, if planted close, they exhaust 
the soil, and prevent its being nourished by the 
annual deposition of spines, on account of the 
closeness of the trees. 



In 1820 the gold medal was awarded to the 
Duke of Devonshire for planting 1,981,065 
forest trees, 980,128 of which were larch. Be- 
sides these instances of the planting the larch 
alone, there are many others in England in 
which they were planted along with other trees ; 
but as they would probably be so planted mere- 
ly as nurses to the hard timber, such planta- 
tions cannot be considered as interesting ex- 
periments, in regard to the value of the larch 
as timber. From the foregoing details, how- 
ever, we find that, mainly under the auspices 
of the Society for the encouragement of Arts 
and Manufactures, 1,407,036 larches were 
planted in England in 37 years. It is singu- 
lar that so much elevated barren land in the 
counties of Hants, Sussex, and Kent should be 
suffered to remain unplanted with this and 
other timber, which would find a ready sale in 
the neighbouring government yards. 

Plantations that are tormed exclusively of 
larch destroy the heath and all other vegeta- 
bles; but after a few years a fine grass springs 
up which is so valuable for grazing, that it has 
been let from lOs. to 5/. per acre for this pur- 
pose, which, previously to its being planted, 
would not bring as nviny pence. 

Three varieties oi the common larch are 
mentioned by botanical writers; one remark- 
able for the young cones being pale green in- 
stead of crimson, and erect, not drooping. A 
second has a weeping habit, with pendulous 
branches, but is distinct in botanic characters 
from the black larch (Laryx pendula) of North 
America; both these varieties are natives of 
the Tyrol. The third sort is of a slow, stunted 
growth, and an inelegant appearance, leafing 
early, and very subject to injury from spring 
frosts. The bark is cinereous, not yellowish 
brown. It was raised by the Duke of Atholl 
from seed, procured at Archangel in 1806. Both 
in its appearance as a tree, and its vaUie as 
timber, this Russian larch is much inferior to 
the common larch. From the boiled inner 
bark, mixed with rj'e flour, and afterwards 
buried a few hours in the snow, the hardy Si- 
berian hunters prepare a sort of leaven, with 
which they supply the place of common leaven 
when the latter is destroyed, as it frequently is 
by the intense cold to which hunters are sub- 
ject in the pursuit of game. The bark of the 
larch is nearly as valuable to the tanner as 
oak bark ; this valuable property was first dis- 
covered by Mr. T.White in 1812. (Com. to Board 
of^gr.vol.vii. p. 278.) The larch also produces 
the substance called Venice turpentine, which 
is of considerable use in medicine, and flows in 
abundance when the lower part of the trunk 
of old trees is wounded or tapped between th^, 
months of March and September. When fo 
rests of larch in Russia take fire, which some- 
times happens, a gum issues from the medul- 
lary part of the trunks, during the combustion, 
which is called Orenburgh gum, A saccharine 
matter, also, resembling manna, and called 
I manna of Briangon, exudes from the larch in 
June; and another sort of manna is exuded 
I from its leaves in the form of a white, floccu- 
Icnt substance, which finally becomes con- 
creted into small lumps. From the inner rind 
or bark of the larch the Russians manufaclur« 

69.0 



LARCH, AMERICAN. 



LARD OIL. 



fine white gloves, not inferior to those made 
of the most delicate chamois, while they are 
stronger, cooler, and more pleasant for wear- 
ing in the summer. 

The larch is propagated by seed, which is 
generally ripe in September and December, 
when the cones may be collected and carefully 
dried, and put away till April, which is con- 
sidered the best time for sowing. The most 
proper season for felling the larch is July. 

2. The red larch fir (j1. microcarpa). In this 
species the cones are oblong, small, thin; 
scales erect, close pressed, the upper ones 
much smaller than the lower. It is a grace- 
ful tree, with much of the habit of the common 
larch, from which, however, its very small 
cones, of a bright purple, readily distinguish 
it. It is a native of North America. This is 
by no means so well adapted to the planter's 
purposes as the common larch. According to 
the Duke of Atholl, trees when 50 years old do 
not contain one-third as many cubic feet as' the 
common larch. The wood is so heavy that it 
v/ill scarcely swim in water. 

3. The black larch fir (A. pcndula). Cones 
oblong, with numerous spreading scales, which 
gradually diminish from the base to the apex 
of the cones. Branches weak and drooping. 
The leading shoot will often begin to droop at 
the height of 15 or 20 feet from the ground, and 
after gradually acquiring a horizontal direction, 
will bend towards the earth, so as to form a 
natural arch of great beauty. This species is 
also a native of North America, where it is 
found growing on a rich clay soil, mixed with 
sand, in cold, mountainous districts. When 
cultivated in Britain it is an elegant tree, hav- 
ing a good deal of resemblance to the common 
larch, but being of a brighter green colour, and 
much more graceful. The wood is less valu- 
able than the common larch. 

There is a report (Tratis. High. Soc. vol. v. 
p. 391), by Mr. Lawson on larches raised by 
him from seed imported from the Tyrol, which 
being the native country of the larch, is sup- 
posed to mature the most perfect seed. 

The larch is affected with many diseases in 
Britain. Some of these have been supposed 
to arise from a constitutional weakness engen- 
dered in the tree from the seed not having been 
perfectly ripened. The reader's attention may 
be drawn to several valuable treatises on the 
diseases of the larch, distributed through the 
volumes of the Trans, of the High. Soc. of Scot- 
land, Sec. In the Quart. Journ. of Agr. there are 
also some able papers, "On the probable Cause 
of the Diseases of the Larch in Great Britain," 
by the late M. DecandoUe (vol. v. p. 403) ; 
"On the Diseases of the Larch in the South of 
Scotland," bv Mr. Webster {Ihxd. p. 535) ; "On 
the Rot in Larch," by Mr. Gorrie {Ihid. p. 537) ; 
and some remarks on the foregoing papers 
{Ibid. p. 574); "On the Canker in Larch," by 
Mr. Drummond, vol. ii. p. 221. {Fenny Cyclo. 
vol. i. ; Quart. Journ, of .Agr. vol. iii. p. 794 ; 
Brit. Husb. vol. iii.) See Canker, Fins, and 

PlNl,». 

LARCH, AMERICAN. »ee Hackmatack. 

LARD. The melted fat of the hog, which is 
much used for domestic purposes and in cook- 
fry, for ointments, pomatums, and other pur- 
700 



poses. Pure lard has little or no taste, and no 
odour; its melting point is about 97° Fahren- 
heit. When long exposed to the air it attracts 
oxygen, and becomes rancid ; whilst a portion 
of carbonic acid is evolved. Lard is a com- 
pound of a solid, firm fat, stearine, and a semi- 
fluid substance termed elainc, in the proportion 
of 38 of the former to 62 of the latter. 

Most fats and oils, whether of animal or 
vegetable origin, are composed of these two 
ingredients, upon the relative proportion of 
which their consistence respectively depends. 
They may be obtained separate by the action 
of boiling alcohol, which on cooling deposits 
the stearine, and yields the elaine upon evapo- 
ration. Another method is to compress fat, or 
oil congealed by cold, within the folds of bibu- 
lous paper. The elaine is absorbed by the 
paper, and may be separated by compression 
under water; the stearine remains. 

Elaine resembles oil in appearance, is co- 
lourless when pure, congeals at 20° Fahren- 
heit, may be evaporated unchanged ia vacuo, 
has little odour and a sweetish taste, is insolu- 
ble in water, but soluble in boiling alcohol, and 
consists of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. 

Stearine is white, concrete, fusible at 111" 
Fahrenheit, volatilizable unchanged in vacv.o, 
partly volatilized and partly decomposed when 
heated in a retort, insipid, inodorous, slightly 
soluble in alcohol, insoluble in water, and com- 
posed, like the former principle, of carbon, hy- 
drogen, and oxygen. 

Exposed to the air, lard absorbs oxygen and 
becomes rancid. It should therefore be kept 
in well-closed vessels, or procured fresh when 
wanted for use. In the rancid state it is irri- 
tating to the skin, and sometimes exercises an 
injurious reaction on substances mixed with it. 
Lard should never be used when it becomes 
rancid. See Fat and Adeps. 

LARD OIL. In the United States, where 
swine are raised so abundantly, oil is now 
very extensively separated from lard. Its close 
connection with the question of disposing of 
the agricultural products of the Union, and 
especially of the Western States, forms a rea- 
son for giving it an extended consideration. 
Several large factories for the manufacture of 
this oil have been some time in operation in 
Cincinnati, and thousands of gallons are daily 
prepared for home consumption and exporta- 
tion. It is also carried on at Cleveland, Ohio; 
Chicago, Illinois; Burlington, Iowa; Hanui 
bal, Missouri ; and other places both in the 
Western and the Atlantic States. 

It is considered much superior to olive or 
sperm oil for machinery and for the manufac- 
ture of woollens, &c. It can be furnished also 
at half the price, and therefore it will doubtless 
supersede that article of import. As it con- 
tains less stearine than other oils, it is found 
much better for combing wool, for which pur- 
pose a single factory wished to contract for 
10,000 gallons from one establishment. It is 
also undergoing trial in England ; and, if it 
succeeds, of which there can scarcely be a 
doubt, large orders for it may be expected, or 
at least the American lard itself, which pays 
a less duty, will find a ready market. 

Repeated experiments have shown that for 



LARD OIL. 



LARVA. 



the purpose of combustion, no oil is superior. 
It is important, in trying it with this view, to 
obtain a good article, manufactured from good 
lard, and not from the dark-burned, which 
creates smoke and clogs the tiame. For want 
of sufficient care in this respect, some have no 
doubt met with disappointment in their attempts 
to substitute this oil for sperm oil in their 
lamps. 

The following are given as the relative con- 
stituents of lard oil and sperm oil, in 100 parts 
of either: — 

Carbon. Hydnsen. Oiveen. 

Lard oil 7903 11-422 9518 

Sperm oil 7905 U-6 89 

It will thus be seen that the difference in 
carbon is only 3*00 ; about the same in hydro- 
gen; while in oxygen it is about 4'10 in favour 
of the lard oil. The large quantity of carbon 
proves that it may be relied on as a material for 
giving light, as it is well known that whenever 
carbon predominates in an animal oil, the ar- 
ticle is capable of a high degree of luminous 
power. Experiments have been made which 
have shown results in favour of lard oil. 
About 60 lbs. in 100 of good lard, in tallow only 
2S is oil ; and the processes of manufacture 
resorted to show that it may be made a profita- 
ble business. Large orders have already been 
executed at the West for this oil, to be used in 
the Eastern States. The heat of lard oil for 
the blow-pipe has been found to be much 
greater than that of sperm. Lard itself melts 
at 82° to 97° of Fahrenheit; its specific gravity 
at 60° is 0.93S. Lard crystallizes in small 
globules ; sperm in flakes or scales. It is 
soluble in boiling alcohol. The proportion is 
80 gallons of lard to 1 of alcohol. The appli- 
cation of stearine for candles promises greatly 
to reduce the price of that article, so that can- 
dles equal to spermaceti may eventually be 
reduced to 12^ cents per pound. 

As the capillary attraction of the lard oil is 
not so great as that of sperm, it is recommend- 
ed that the form of the lamp should be such as 
to bring the bulk of the oil as near to the point 
of combustion as possible. 

It is also recommended that the tube should 
be filed thinner at the top where the wick is 
inserted, to prevent the escape of heat. Various 
lamps have been constructed for burning lard 
as well as lard oil, which have been found to 
answer very well. The burning of this oil has 
been introduced with entire success into the 
light-houses on Lake Erie. An objection has 
been made against lard oil, that it is not capable 
of being preserved in a liquid state in cold wea- 
ther; but by a process similar to that by which 
the winter sperm is prepared, lard oil can be 
made which will not chill at 30° of Fahrenheit. 

The importance of this application of lard 
can scarcely yet be realized. Vast quantities 
of the oil can be manufactured at the West. 
Indeed, there is hardly any assignable limit to 
the power of production of the article, so that, 
while the demand continues, the business may 
be conducted profitably. The immense herds 
of swine which can be suffered to range over 
the lands adapted to them, and gather their 
food from mast as well as the surplus of corn, 
wheat, potatoes, &c., on which they may be 



sustained, admit of the manufacture being car- 
ried on to almost any extent. 

The proportion of lard to the whole hog is 
about 60 per cent., after taking out the hams 
and shoulders, or taking out the hams only; 
the estimate for hogs of the best breeds, and so 
fed as to produce the greatest quantity of fat, 
is 70 per cent. As the object is not in this 
case to make pork for food, the objection 
against those species of nuts, and other modes 
of feeding which render the animal more gross 
and oily, is obviated; and it has been proposed 
to feed out oil-cake to swine, to increase the 
proportion of oil. 

By a new process of steaming, a very sim- 
ple rnethod described by Mr. Stafford, it ap- 
pears that the whole of the lard or oily matter 
in the hog, or of tallow in cattle, may be ob- 
tamed; while the danger of burning (common 
in other modes) is avoided, the consumption 
of fuel lessened, and the degree of pressure 
required not so great as otherwise. It will be 
recollected that, while conducting the manu- 
facture of lard, the other parts of the animal, 
as the hams and shoulders, may be tivned to 
profit. Besides these, also, the hide:< may be 
tanned by a cheap process : and the bones, 
which are worth half a cent per pound, may be 
calcined and made into animal carbon, for 
which they are said to be worth, in this cal- 
cined state, 2^ cents per pound. (Ellsworth's 
Report.) 

LARKSPUR {Delphinium, from delphin, a dol- 
phin, in reference to the supposed resemblance 
in the nectary of the plant to the imaginary 
figures of the dolphin). All the species of 
larkspur are showy, and valuable as border 
flowers, especially D. ajacis and D. consolida, 
both of which are universally grown among 
the border annuals. The herbaceous and pe- 
rennial kinds are increased by divisions or 
seeds, and the annual and biennial kinds mere- 
ly require sowing in the open border, where 
they will flower and seed freely. The field 
larkspur (D. consolirhi), grows wild in sandy or 
chalky corn-fields in England, and is regarded 
as a simple astringent. In gardens this species 
is called the branching larkspur, and attains 
the height of 3 or 4 feet, bl.^wing vivid blue 
flowers. 

D. Grandiflonim is a hardy .ind beautiful pe- 
rennial, blowing dark blue flowers in July and 
August. It loves a dry soil, and open situation. 

The bee larkspur is a beautiful perennial, 
blowing bright blue flowers in Jv'y and Au- 
gust. Sheep and goats eat the wild larkspur, 
horses do not relish it, while cows and swine 
totally refuse it. Bees are remarkably attach- 
ed to its flowers, which are likewise gathered 
by the country people of Germany, cut small 
and mixed with tobacco, to improve its flavour. 

LARVA (Lat. a mask), A term applied to 
that state, in which an insect exists, immedi- 
ately after its exclusion from the egg, and 
which precedes the pupa state. The animals 
commonly called grubs, maggots, and caterpillars, 
are larvae. Grub appears to be a general 
term analogous to larva ; the term maggot is 
most generally applied to the larva state of 
dipterous insects ; and caterpillar, in the most 
common acceptation of the term, is used to ir 
3 N 2 701 



LAST. 



LAVENDER. 



signate rhe larva state of lepidopterous insects. 
These terms, however, are used in a very- 
vague manner. (Penny Cyclo. vol. xiii. p. 338.) 

LAST. An uncertain quantity, varying in 
different countries, and with respect to various 
articles. The following quantities of different 
commodities generally make a last: — 12 dozen 
of hides or skins ; 12 barrels of meal ; 10^ qrs. 
of cole seed; 10 qrs. of corn or rape seed (in 
some parts of England 21 qrs. of corn go to a 
lasts); 12 sacks of wool, 1700 lbs. of feathers 
or flax. (M'C-idloch's Com. Diet.) 

LATHYRUS (from la, augmentative, and 
thoiiros, any thing exciting, in allusion to the 
medicinal qualities of the seeds). This genus 
belongs to the natural order Leguminese. It 
consists for the most part of very handsome 
plants when in flower, well adapted for arbours 
or shrubberies, where they must be supplied 
with branches to support them, as they climb 
by means of tendrils terminating the footstalk, 
and sometimes without tendrils. Any common 
soil suits them; they are increased by seeds, 
and some of the perennial kinds by dividing 
the roots. 

The yellow vetchling (X. aphnca) is an an- 
nual, flowering in June. The plant is glaucous, 
without any true leaves or leaflets, except near 
the root. The flowers are solitary on long 
stalks, small, drooping, lemon-coloured. The 
pod is an inch in length, nearly cylindrical, 
smooth, and containing six seeds, which pro- 
duce intense headache if eaten in any quantity, 
while the roots of L. tuberosus are said to be 
wholesome food. (Paxton's Bol. Did.) See 
Vetchling. 

Crimson vetch (£. nissoUa) is also an annual, 
flowering in May. It is destitute of tendrils, it 
has a grass-like form, and bears beautiful 
crimson flowers, variegated with purple and 
white. The pod is long and the seeds nume- 
rous. 

There are five other species of lathyrus : 
namely, L. hirsutus, L. pratensis, L. sylvestris, L. 
pnlustris, and L. latifolivs, which is the only one 
of importance as a garden flower. 

Broad-leaved, everlasting pea (L. latifolius) 
is a perennial, flowering in July and August. 
The herb is glaucous, the stem winged, the 
leaflets broadly elliptical, bluntish, three or five 
ribbed, and the tendrils in five branches. The 
stipules are ovate in their upper part, and 
broader than the stem. The flowers are large, 
handsome, of a fine rose colour, and in tufts 
of five or ten. The legume is long, compress- 
ed, and narrow. It is one of the most showy 
of the herbaceous species of the pea tribe; and 
well adapted as an ornament to cottages. 

Several American species of lathyrus are 
enumerated by Nuttall, among which are, L. 
viyrtifolius found near Philadelphia. L. vcnosus, 
with about five pair of leaflets. This grows 
on the declivities of shady hills, and is com- 
mon in the Alleghany mountains. L. polymm-- 
phus, with naked quadrangular stems, and four 
or five pair of leaflets. This is found on the 
grassy alluvial plains of the Missouri from its 
confluence to its sources. The flowers are 
as large as those of the Pimm maritimum, and 
'yf a fine purple, variable however in size. 
( NuttalCs Genera.) See Everlasting Pea. 
-02 



LAUREL (from the Celtic word hlaur the b 
is dropped, signifying green, in allusion to the 
foliage of the plants). This is a very hand- 
some and interesting genus of plants : among 
the most interesting and valuable of the hardy 
kinds, is the bay tree (i. nobilis), which is in- 
jured by severe frost. (See Bat Tree.) L. 
benzoin^ L. sassafras, and several others are de- 
ciduous, and in some situations attain a great 
size. They may be increased by layers or 
cuttings of the roots. The bark of L. benzoin 
or spice wood is stimulant and tonic, and in 
North America it is used in intermittent fevers. 
In the L. fmtens, an acrid red or violet juice is 
particularly abundant. All the species are 
more or less aromatic and stomachic. 

The Portugal laurel (Prumis lusitanica), is a 
beautiful evergreen, which grows from 10 to 15 
feet high, blowing handsome spikes of white 
flowers in June and July. It forms a round 
head, and is very ornamental upon lawns. 

The Alexandrian laurel (Ruscus racemosus) is 
a dwarf evergreen shrub, growing about two 
feet high, and blowing a yellow flower, suc- 
ceeded by beautiful red berries. See Kalmia, 
Cherry Laurel, and Spurge Laurel. 

LAURESTINE, Lauristinus, or Wild Bay 
( Viburnum timis, said to be derived from vieo, 
to tie; because of the pliability of some of 
the branches). All the species of viburnum 
are very elegant, rather early-flowering shrubs. 
The hardy kinds are well fitted for planting in 
ornamental shrubberies. They are increased 
by layers or by cuttings planted under a glass 
in a shady situation. The berries are vio- 
lently purgmg, but become eatable after fer- 
mentation, and are made into a sort of cake 
by theNorth American Indians. See Guelder 
Rose. 

LAURUS (Sassafras, spicewood, &c.). This 
extensive genus of shrubs and small trees, 
which afford the cinnamon, the cassia, and the 
camphor of commerce, is for the most part 
confined to the tropical and temperate latitudes. 
One species (L. nobilis) is found in Europe; 
five in Japan ; India affords three of the most 
important species, long celebrated as spices ; 
in the Canary islands there are two, the tropi- 
cal regions of America afford no less than 21, 
amongst the most remarkable of which is L. 
caustica of Chili, being poisonous, and the L. 
Pet-fea, called avocado, and alligator-pear, pro- 
ducing a large and very grateful fruit formed 
like a pear. 

In the Southern States two species are found, 
one called L. ratesbcei, and the other L. Caroli- 
nensis, or Red Bay. This last, which flowers 
in July, Mr. Nuttall says he has met with as far 
north as Sussex county, in the state of Dela- 
ware. The whole plant is aromatic. See 
Sassafrass, Red Bat, Camphor Tree, Spick- 
wood, &c. 

LAVA. The substances which flow in a 
melted state from a volcano. They vary con- 
siderably in texture and composition. 

LA VENDER (Lavandula, from lavo, to wash, 
in allusion to the use formerly made of its dis- 
tilled water in baths, on account of its fra- 
grance). The hardy kinds are the only plants 
of this genus worth cultivating. 

Common garden lavender (L. vera) is well 



LAVENDER. 



LEAF. 



known and much esteemed for the fragrance 
of its flowers, and the volatile oil which they 
yield by distillation with water. It is cultivated 
in great abundance for the London market, at 
Mitcham in Surrey. A very poor and light 
gravelly soil is best suited to this plant, being 
in such more fragrant, longer lived, and more 
capable of enduring severe weather than in a 
rich soil. In rich or moist soils it grows luxu- 
riantly, but is in general destroyed during the 
winter. The situation cannot be too open. It 
is propagated by slips and cuttings of the cur- 
rent year's shoots, which may be planted in 
May and June, as well as by cuttings of those 
which are a year old ; these are to be planted 
in March, April, and early in May. Both slips 
and cuttings must be from five to seven inches 
in length, these, after being stripped to half 
their length of the lower leaves, are to be 
planted to that depth either in a shady border, 
or in any compartment, to have the shade of a 
mat during mid-day until they have taken root, 
in rows six inches apart each way. Water 
must be given in moderate quantity every eve- 
ning until fully established. 

Having attained sufficient strength, they may 
be moved to their final stations in September 
or October, which is the season to be preferred 
if the soil is not light and dry on which they 
have been raised ; or they may be left until the 
succeeding spring. If it is grown in consider- 
able quantity lor medicinal purposes, which is 
the only claim it has to a place in the herbary, 
it must be planted in rows two feet apart each 
way, otherwise, only detatched plants are in- 
serted along the borders. The only after-cul- 
ture required is the occasional employment of 
the hoe, the decayed spikes and branches be- 
ing removed in autumn, and the surface gently 
stirred with the spade in the spring. 

The flowers are ready for gathering either to 
dr}' or for distillation, in July or the end of June. 
The flowers are used as excitants and carmi- 
natives in medicine, in the form of tinctures. 
The oil is an agreeable perfume, and one or 
two drops rubbed up with sugar and mixed in 
water forms a useful draught in nervous head- 
ache and hysteria. 

LAVENDER, SEA. See Thrift. 

LAWN. A space of ground covered with 
grass, kept short by mowing, and generally 
situated in front of a house or mansion, or 
within the view from such. Lawns, when once 
established, require only to be kept neat by the 
ordinary routine of rolling, mowing, and sweep- 
ing, except keeping the surface perfectly even, 
by making up small hollows with screened 
mould early in spring. When lawns become 
worn out, a top dressing of any finely divided 
manure will refresh them ; malt dust applied 
in October is excellent for this purpose ; and 
at the same time an additional quantity of grass 
seed raay be sown. 

LAY. A term applied to land in the state 
of grass or sward. This kind of ground is fre- 
quently distinguished into such as has been 
long in the state of sward, and such as is newly 
laid down to grass, or into old and new lays. 
The proper method of managing the latter is 
of great importance to the farmer, and which 
Young thought should be by keeping them per- 



fectly free from stock for the following auiumn 
and winter after their being laid down, when, 
in the spring, they will afford a growth of 
young grass highly valuable for sheep, with 
which they should only be well stocked, and kept 
down then, and during the following summer. 
Nothing, in his opinion, being more pernicious 
than mowing a new lay, as directed by certain 
authors. They may, he thinks, have succeed- 
ed in spite of such bad management, but never 
hy it. 

LAYERING. In gardening, an operation 
by which the propagation of plants is effected 
by laying down or bending the shoot, so that a 
portion of it may be covered with earth. A 
shoot so operated on is called a layer, and the 
point which furnishes the layers bears the 
name of stock. Some plants are so much dis- 
posed to emit roots that if their branches hap- 
pen to come in contact with the earth they im- 
mediately begin to strike. Plants so situated as 
to render it impossible to bend their branches 
to the ground, may nevertheless be layered by 
having their shoots introduced into a pot or 
box of soil elevated to them, and supported in 
a convenient position. Thi' '« a common 
practice among the Chinest who cause 
branches of trees to root in thi^ manner by 
partially ringing them, and covering their parts 
so ringed with a ball of clay, Avhich is kept 
moist. (Penny Cycln.) 

LEADWORT (Plumbago; from plumbum, 
lead). A genus of pretty free-flowering plants, 
growing in any common soil, and increased 
readily by cuttings. The root of P. europcea, it 
is said, when chewed, will cure the toothache. 

LEAF (Sax.). The well-known fine mem- 
braneous part of a tree or plant, which is put 
forth and unfolded in the spring, and which in 
some trees falls oflT in the autumn. " The leaf," 
says a writer in the Penny Cyclopcedia, " is an 
expansion of the bark of a plant, from whose 
axil a leaf-bud is developed: but this opinion 
is hypothetical. The leaf is usually thin, and 
traversed with one or more veins, composed 
of woody and vascular tissue; sometimes it is 
fleshy, and occasionally cylindrical, or nearly 
so." The functions of the leaf being at once 
that of respiration, digestion, and nutrition, its 
surface is covered with stomata, or breathing 
pores, which communicate with minute hollow 
chambers in its interior. It is in the leaf that 
all the peculiar secretions of a plant are pre- 
pared out of the under sap which the roots ob- 
tain from the soil, and which, carried up to the 
leaves, is exposed to the air, and undergoes the 
action of the vital chemistry which converts it 
into the proper juice. It is then returned It, 
the stem, and forms the different secretions of 
the plant, as resin, starch, sugar, gum, &c. A 
leaf is either united to the stem by means of a 
petiole, or stalk, or it is sessile — that is to say, 
seated on the branch without an intermediate 
stalk; the veins pass through the petiole be- 
fore they can expand into the broad or green 
part forming the blade of the leaf. Some 
leaves are furnished with an appendage, which 
in grasses is a thin membranous body arising 
from the base of the lamina, and in palms is a 
coarse net, formed, it is said, of tissue belong- 
ing to the veins of the leaves. When leaves 

70:{ 



LEAF. 



LEOPARD'S BANE. 



have but one blade, they are simple, as in the 
apple ; but when there is more than one blade, 
each seated on a ramification of the petiole, a 
leaf is called compound. Of these, and of the 
external form of the leaf, there are endless 
modifications. Between 200 and 300 are enu- 
merated by BischofT. 

The distinction of leaves made by those who 
have written on botany are the following: a 
simple leaf is that which is not divided to the 
middle. A compound leaf is divided into seve- 
ral parts, each resembling a simple leaf, as in 
liquorice, &c. A digitate leaf is a leaf divided 
into several parts, all of which meet together at 
the base, as in hemp, black hellebore, &c. A 
trifoliate leaf is a compound leaf, consisting of 
three leaflets, as the trefoil, &c. A quinque- 
foliate leaf is a leaf consisting of five leaflets, 
as in Hedcra quinqucfoiia. A pinnated leaf is a 
compound leaf divided into several parts, each 
of which is called a leaflet, placed along a 
middle axis, either alternately or by pairs. 
When the axis is terminated by an odd leaflet, 
it is said to be unequally pinnated ; and equally 
pinnated when it is not terminated by an odd 
leaflet, as in the cassia; when the leaflets are 
all nearly of the same form and bigness, it is 
called an uniform pinnated leaf, as in the 
liquorice ; when they are not so, it is said to 
be diflbrm, as in the agrimony. A winged 
leaf is a pinnated leaf, with an intervening 
membrane. A ramose leaf is that which is 
still farther divided than the pinnated leaf, as in 
the Osmund royal, female fern, &c. An entire 
leaf or lobe is that which has no division on 
its edges, as in the apple-tree, &c. A sinuated 
leaf is that which is cut about the edges into 
several long segments, as in common mallows. 
A serrated leaf is that which is cut about the 
edges into several acute segments, resembling 
the teeth of a saw, as in the nettle, &c. A 
crenate leaf is that which is cut on the edges 
into several obtuse segments, as in betony, &c. 
A laciniated or jagged leaf is that which is cut 
on the edges into several pretty deep portions 
in an irregular manner, as in the horned 
poppy, &c. 

All the experiments which have been made, 
m order to show how serviceable the leaves 
of trees and plants are to their well-being, have 
proved that when the plants have been divested 
of their leaves, or their leaves have been eaten 
or cut during their growth, they have been 
remarkably weakened or destroyed. If the 
leaves of plants be the means by which their 
juices are prepared for their support, as has 
been just stated, it should teach us not to pull 
IT cut oft' the leaves of trees or plants on any 
account, while they retain their verdure, and 
are in health, as they may be greatly injured 
thereby. Hence, probably, the error of the 
common practice of feeding down wheat in 
the winter and sprjng with sheep, as, by so do- 
ing, the stalks may in many cases be rendered 
Weak, and the ears shorter, the grains of corn 
not being so plump and well nourished as 
when it is not fed down upon the ground. It 
is well known, too, that in grass which is often 
mowed, the blades are rendered finer in pro- 
portioD to the frequency of mowing ; so that, 
ilwugn this may be a desirable thing in lawns, 
704 



&c., where regard is had to the produce, it 
should certainly be avoided. 

The leaves of trees or plants, where they 
can be collected in large quantities, as in parks 
and woods, may be highly useful in augment- 
ing the manure heaps of the farm. 

Mr. Young, in his Calendar, recommends 
that, in wooded countries, all the leaves that 
can be had at little expense, should be raked 
up in October, and carted to the yards and 
standing folds, for littering and making them 
into dung: he did it, he said, at Stf. per one- 
horse cart load. They do not rot easily, but 
that is, he thinks, no objection to them ; they 
are a sponge to be saturated with urine, and 
if not touched previously to carting on to the 
land, will convey to the field much of what 
might otherwise be lost ; and they are extreme- 
ly useful in aiding the main object of bedding 
the yards in the autumn and winter season. — 
See Botany. 

LEAF-BUDS. Rudiments of young branches, 
made up of scales imbricated over each other, 
the outermost being the hardest and thickest, 
and surrounding a minute axis, which is in 
direct communication with the woods and cel- 
lular tissue of the stem. When stimulated by 
light and heat they extend into branches; or 
if artificially removed from the plant that bears 
them, they are capable of multiplying the in- 
dividual from which they have been taken. In 
this case, however, the individual is not a pro- 
geny as from seed, but merely an extension of 
the parent. 

LEAFLET. A part of a compound leaf, or 
a small leaf formed on the petiole of a leaf 
branching out. 

LEAGUE. A measure of length, princi- 
pally used in reckoning distnnces at sea. The 
sea league is 3 nautical or geographical miles, 
or the l-20th of a degree, and consequently 
about 3-45 English miles. The common land- 
league is a well-known itinerary measure on 
the continent of Europe, chiefly in France. 
The French, however, have two distinct 
leagues; the legal posting league, containing 
2000 toises, and equal to 2*42 English miles, 
and a league of 25 to the degree, or equal to 
about 2-76 English miles. 

The word is said to have been derived from 
the Celtic leacli, stone ; the distances having 
been marked by stones in the Roman pro- 
vinces. See Mile. 

LEOPARD'S BANE (Doronicum). An or- 
namental genus, and from the plants flowering 
early in spring, they are well deserving of cul- 
tivation ; they grow in any garden soil, and 
may be increased with facility by dividing at 
the root. 

The great leopard's bane (D. pardalianchis), 
is a perennial, native of Great Britain, grow- 
ing in mountainous pastures or meadows. The 
root is creeping, and consists of several knobs 
connected by long fibres; woody at the crown. 
The stem is 2 or 3 feet high, hollow, round, 
leafy, and hairy; branched, and glutinous at 
the upper part. The leaves are rather soft and 
downy, heart-shaped, more or less regularly 
toothed, or wiry. The flowers, which appear 
in May, are solitary at the ends of the branches; 
3 inches wide, of a uniform bright yellow; the 



LEASE. 



LEATHER-WOOD. 



earliest overtopped by succeeding ones. The 
roots are aromatic, and used by sportsmen in 
Alpine countries against giddiness. 

LEASE (from locatio, letting, or dimissio; 
from the French laisser, i. e. dimittere, to depart 
with). " A lease," says Woodfall, in his Law 
of Landlord and 2\nant, "is a contract for the 
possession and profits of lands and tenements 
on the one side, and a recompense of rent or 
other income on the other; or it is a convey- 
ance of lands and tenements to a person for 
life, or years, or at will, in consideration of a 
return of rent or other recompense. The party 
letting the land is called the lessor or landlord, 
and the party to whom the lease is made the 
lessee or tenant. The connection between 
landlord and tenant has gradually improved 
from that of master and slave into a state of 
almost total independence and mutual interest 
in the soil. 

"The beneficial effects, both to the landlord 
and tenant, of leases of a sufficient duration to 
encourage men of capital and skill to properly 
cultivate the land need hardly be pointed out. 
And it will be very desirable to have as iQw 
restraining covenants introduced into these as 
possible. They merely retard and annoy the 
good farmer, and rarely improve the practice 
of the unsliilfui. 

"In the northern part of England, custom 
and expediency have very generally fixed the 
duration of the lease at about 20 years. Ex- 
perience will evince that the time is not always 
more than enough to allow the possessor of the 
land to conduct and mature a profitable system 
of management, and to pay to the owner an 
adequate rent. All the great operations of the 
husbandman have a prospective result as re- 
gards the profit to be derived. The capital ex- 
pended in such cases is only to be drawn back 
by periodical returns after the lapse of time. 
In the providing of extraneous manures, in the 
adoption of rotations of crops, which, to be efl!ec- 
tual to the purposes intended, must be extended 
through many seasons, in the draining of the 
land, and the like, time is necessary, both to 
effect the operations, and to recover with a fu- 
ture profit the capital employed. When, indeed, 
land is of very rich quality, and at once pro- 
ductive, without other outlay than the ordinary 
expenses of tillage, or when it has the means 
of fertilization near to it, and abundant, as in 
the vicinity of cities, the duration of the term 
may be comparatively short. B''t in other and 
dissimilar cases, this cannot be without a sacri- 
fice of present income ; and a landlord will 
scarcely fail to experience that if there be not 
a sufficient period of secure possession accord- 
ed to the occupier, the necessary expenditure 
on the cultivation of the ground will not be 
hazarded; but more than this, a person of good 
capital will, like every trader, regard as a 
benefit the power of carrying on his business 
undisturbed, and will set a pecuniary value on 
security and independence." {Quart. Journ. of 
Jlgr. vol. i. p. 795.) With regard to a lease in 
general, and its covenants, see a good paper 
{Ibid. vol. ii. p. 134). In speaking of rents, the 
author remarks, "As to the kind of rent to be 
paid, constant experience proves that the best 
and most satisfactory is a fixed rent in money. 
89 



To rents payable in grain, or in money regu 
lated by the prices of grain, there is this ob 
vious objection, that the tenant will generally 
be required to pay the highest rent when he is 
least able to do so, that is, when prices rise 
from a deficiency in the produce of the crop." 
And when speaking of the lease and its pre- 
cautionary covenants, he observes, "the great- 
est error consists in vain precautions and at- 
tempts to provide agamst every possible con- 
tingency which, from the nature of the trans- 
action, and the unforeseen events to which it 
may give rise, it is impossible to do. All that 
can be done is to make as precise as possible 
the conditions which experience shows to be 
necessary. The terms of the contract should 
be few and simple, and easily understood and 
complied with. Not only are hurtful cove- 
nants to be avoided, but such as are unneces- 
sary, since to increase the number of them too 
much serves but to perplex the lessee, and 
give birth to future quarrels, and since all ex- 
perience on the subject shows that the interests 
of either party may be sufficiently guarded with- 
out multiplying too much conditions, penalties, 
and restrictions." 

LEASH. A term applied to game, &c., by 
sportsmen, and which implies three; as three 
hares, partridges, &c. It also signifies a line 
to hold a dog by. 

LEATHER (Germ. Icder ; Dan. Idder). The 
prepared skins of animals. The principal 
object of the art of converting skin into leather 
is to render it strong and tough, durable, and 
often water-proof, and to prevent its destruction 
by putrefaction. The skins are first cleansed 
of hair and cuticle, then impregnated either 
with vegetable tan and extract, as in the pro- 
duction of what is called tanned leather. In 
this process the tannic acid, which is the active 
principle of the astringent vegetables employed, 
combines with the gelatin of the skins, and 
forms an insoluble tannate of gelatin. It is 
this formation which renders the skins imper- 
meable to water, and checks the tendency to 
decomposition which they, in common with all 
animal matter, possess. Instead of tan, some 
leather is prepared with alum and other salts, 
as for tawed leather. These processes are 
sometimes combined; and tanned leather often 
undergoes the further operation of currying, or 
impregnation with oil. As instances of these 
different results, — thick sole-leather is tanned ; 
white kid for gloves is tawed ; the upper-leather 
for boots and shoes is tanned and curried; and 
fine Turkey leather is tawed and afterwards 
slightly tanned. Morocco leather, as it is 
called, is chiefly prepared from sheep-skins. 
Shammoy leather is generally sheep or doe-skin, 
prepared by dressing, lining, &c., and dyed, if 
necessary, and then finished in oil. Russia, 
leather acquires its peculiar odour from birch 
tan. There is an excellent abstract of the ma- 
nufacture of different kinds of leather in lire's 
Dictionary of Arts, ^-c, which those who wish 
to pursue the subject further may consult. The 
leather manufacture of Great Britain is of very 
great importance, being inferior, in point of 
value and extent, only to those of cotton, wool, 
and iron. 

LEATHER^WOOD {Dirca palustris). Thi.-? 

705 



LEAVEN. 



LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 



is a low shrub, and native of the United States, 
growing in moist, shady places, seldom rising 
more than four feet high, spreading into a head, 
with many small and very flexible branches. 
The flowers are produced at the extreme ends 
of the former years' shoots ; they are of an 
herbaceous colour, and make a tolerable ap; 
pearance. The flowers, which appear the lat- 
ter end of March, before any perfect leaves, are 
of a yellow colour. The bark is uncommonly 
lougli, yet the enclosed wood is very brittle. 
It was highly valued by the native Indians, and 
used in the place of cords. This plant, accord- 
ing to the information of Mr. W. Bartram, 
occupies an extensive range of territory, from 
Canada to Georgia. (Willich's Dom. Ency.) 

LEAVEN (Lat. levurc, to raise). A piece of 
sour dough, used to ferment and render light 
dough or paste. It is a very imperfect substi- 
tute for yeast ; and as it communicates to the 
bread an astringent taste, which few persons 
relish, it ought to be used only where yeast 
cannot be procured. As, however, the latter 
ferment cannot always be obtained, especially 
during winter, I shall state the most simple 
methods of preparing, as well as of preserving 
it, under the article Yeast. 

By the law of Moses, leaven was strictly 
forbidden during the passover ; and the Jews, 
who were taught to regard it from the vigil of 
the feast as unclean, with religious scrupulo- 
dly purified their houses from the contaminat- 
■ng influence. See Bread. 

LEEK {Allhwi porrum). The leek is a hardy 
biennial; for, although it attains perfection in 
size and for culinary purposes the first year, it 
does not run to seed until the second, the per- 
lecting of which it also often survives. The 
whole plant is eaten, being employed in soups, 
&c., and is by some persons boiled and eaten 
with meat. There are four varieties : the Mus- 
selburgh, and the large Lon-don leek, which are 
by far the best ; the Scotch or flag, which is 
larger and hardier; and the Flanders. It is 
raised solely from seed, which must be sown 
flrst in the end of February, a small crop for 
transplanting in June and July, as well as in 
part to remain where sown ; again for the main 
crop in the course of March or early in April ; 
and, lastly, towards the close of April or begin- 
ning of May, for late transplanting. These 
sowings are in general performed broadcast, 
and raked in ; though some gardeners employ 
drills, the plants to remain after thinning: the 
leek, however, is so much benefited by trans- 
planting as obviously to point out the error of 
this practice. When the plants are three or 
four inches in height, in eight or ten weeks 
after sowing, they must be weeded, hoed, and 
thinned, where growing too close, to two or 
three inches apart ; water also being given, in 
dry weather, will, with the above treatment, 
strengthen and forward them for transplanting 
in another month, or when six or eight inches 
high. They must be taken away regularly 
fion^. the seed-bed, the ground being well wa- 
tered previously, if not soft and easily yielding. 
When thinned out, they may be left to remain 
in the seed-bed six inches asunder, as they do 
not grow so large as the transplanted ones, 
w hich must be set by the dibble in rows ten 
706 



inches apart, and eight in the lines, being in- 
serted nearly down to the leaves, that the neck, 
by being covered with the earth, may be 
blanched. Water in abundance must be given 
at the time of planting, and the long weak 
leaves shortened, but the roots left as unin- 
jured as possible. The bed should be hoed 
over occasionally, as well to kill the weeds as 
to loosen the soil. By this treatment, and by 
cutting off" the tops of the leaves about once a 
month, as new ones are produced, the neck 
swells to a much larger size. The several 
sowings above directed will yield a supply 
from August until the following May, when 
they advance to seed. A portion should be 
always taken up and laid in sand previous to 
the ground being locked up by continued frost, 
but they will not keep many days in this situa- 
tion. To obtain seed, some of the finest roots 
of the previous year's growth, which have been 
left where raised, may be transplanted thence 
in February or the early part of March, eight 
inches asunder, in a row beneath a warm fence ; 
and whSn seed-stems arise, they must be at- 
tached to stakes for support, or to the fencing: 
the closer and sooner they are drawn to this 
latter, the better will it enable the seed to ripen ; 
for in cold summers, particularly in open ex- 
posures, it never comes to maturity, and by the 
first sharp autumnal frost it is entirely destroyed. 
Good varieties never flower before May or 
June, and ripen their seed in September. The 
heads should be cut when changed to a brown- 
ish colour, with a foot in length of the stalk 
left attached, for the convenience of tying in 
bundles, three or four together, to dry: when 
they are perfectly dry, they may be hung up 
and kept in the head until wanted, or imme- 
diately thrashed out and stored. As the husk 
is very tough, it is usual, when small quantities 
have to be operated upon, to rub them against 
a tile, which breaks it more easily than any 
other mode that can be adopted. (G. W. Jolnv' 
sari's Kitchen Garden.') 

LEES. The dregs or feculencies of liquors, 
which, after being separated by fermentation, 
fall to the bottom of the vessels. All the vari- 
ous kinds of lees, such as those of wine, beer, 
ale, oil, &c., may be made use of as manures 
when they can be had in sufficient quantities. 

LEGS. The extremities that form the sup- 
port of animals. Of the four legs of a horse, 
the two before have several parts, each of which 
has a peculiar name : thus, by the name of 
fore-leg, we commonly understand that part of 
the fore-quarters that extends from the hough 
to the pastern-joint, and which is frequently 
called the shank. The part that corresponds 
with it in the hinder quarters is called the 
instep. In the language of the manege, a horse 
is said to want the fifth leg when he is tired, 
and, bearing upon the bridle, lies heavy upon 
the rider's hand. 

LEGUMINOUS PLANTS (from legumen, 
pulse) are those which bear legumes or pods, 
such as beans, peas, tares, &c. The Legumi- 
noste are a very extensive natural order of 
plants, found in all parts of the world, forming 
large trees and huge twiners in the tropics ; 
herbaceous plants or small bushes, rarely trees 
in colder countries. The order contains a very 



LEICESTER SHEEP. 



LETTUCE. 



greaX variety of useful and beautiful species, 
srdne of which, like clover, lucern, sainfoin, 
and vetches, are cultivated for cattle ; others, 
as beans, peas, lentils, and various other kinds 
of pulse, form part of the food of man. Indigo, 
logwood, and many more, are well-known dye- 
ing plants: several acacias produce gum; cer- 
tain Jsiragali yield tragacanth ; the tamarind 
and others bear pods whose interior is filled 
with an agreeable pulp ; Cassia acutifolia and 
other species of cassia yield senna; Glycyrrhiza, 
the liquorice-root; Ccratonia, the wild locust 
fruits of Scripture : finally, many are valuable 
tonics, and some are dangerous narcotics, 
among which the common laburnum is to be 
named. 

Leguminous crops, according to the strict 
agricultural acceptation, include beans, peas, 
and other pulse. But the class is made to em- 
brace a much more extensive range of plants, 
namely: all such as are considered as ameliorat- 
ing or enriching crops, such as clover, potatoes, 
turnips, carrots, beets, cabbages, &c. These 
latter are far less exhausting than the cnlmife- 
rous or grain plants, as few of them mature 
their seeds, and all, on account of their broad 
leaves, draw more or less nourishment from 
the atmosphere. They also ameliorate the 
condition of the soil, b}' dividing and loosening 
it with their tap and bulbous roots. As they 
generally receive manure and drill culture, 
they are peculiarly adapted to enrich and pre- 
pare the soil for the culmiferous crops. 

LEICESTER SHEEP. See Sheep. 

LENTICULAR. A botanical term, signify- 
ing lens or pea-shaped. 

LENTIL (Ervuni Lens, from o-w, tilled land 
in Celtic; some of the species arc a pest in 
cultivated ground, being useless and too prolific 
vveeds). PI. 7, ?. An exotic plant of the vetch 
or tare kind, cultivated in some parts of Eng- 
land as fodder for cattle. The lentil is an an- 
nual, growing to the height of about eighteen 
inches, with stalks and leaves like those of 
tares, but smaller, and producing pale purple 
flowers, which are succeeded b}"- small flat pods, 
containing two or three round, hard, smooth, 
and flat seeds. There are two sorts of lentil, 
the white and the yellow; but the latter affords 
the greater quantity of fodder. The seeds of this 
plant are generally sown in March or April, in 
the proportion of one and a half to two bushels 
per acre. Lentils also furnish good dry fodder 
for cattle, and particularly for cutting into chaff 
as trough-meal for sheep and horses. 

LETTUCE (Larinra, from lac, milk, on ac- 
count of the milky juice which exudes from 
the plants when broken). There are in Eng- 
land three indigenous species of lettuce, all 
biennials. 

1. Strong-scented lettuce (i. virosa), which 
grows about hedges, old walls, and the borders 
of fields on a chalky soil, not uncommon. The 
whole herb abounds with an acrid, fetid, milky 
juice, having the smell of opium, but only 
slightly narcotic, and little likely to produce the 
consequences attending the use of that drug. 
This juice springs out suddenly in large drops, 
on the slightest touch, from the calyx and ten- 
der leaves, when the plant is in flower, but not 
at other times ; evincing a considerable degree 



of irritability in the plant. The root is tap- 
shaped. Stem solitary, two or three feet high, 
round, smooth, sparingly leafy, scarcely branch- 
ed, panicled at the top, a little prickly below. 
Leaves horizontal, nearly smoothjfinely toothed, 
radical ones numerous, obovate, undivided, de- 
pressed. Flowers numerous, panicled, light- 
yellow. 

2. Prickly lettuce (L. scariola). This species 
is found in waste ground, and dry, stony bor- 
ders of fields. The whole herb is glaucous, 
milky, bitter, but less fetid than the preceding. 
Stem two or three feet high, leafy, panicled. 
Leaves numerous, vertical, not horizontal, va- 
riously pinnatifid and toothed; thin midrib fur- 
nished with a close row of prominent prickles, 
their base clasping the stem. Flowers small, 
pale lemon-coloured. 

3. Least lettuce (i. saligna). This species 
grows in chalky waste ground, or about salt 
marshes. The whole plant is very slender. 
Stem about two feet high, wavy, pale-brown or 
whitish, somewhat branched, leafy throughout. 
Leaves glaucous, smooth except the midrib 
beneath, linear, hastate or pinnatifid, entire, 
sessile. Flowers in small alternate tufts com- 
posing long clusters, very small, pale-yellow, 
open in sunshine only, and soon fading. {SmitJCs 
Etig. Flor. vol. iii. p. 344.) 

Of the well-known cultivated lettuce {L. sa- 
tivn) there are many varieties, which are di- 
vided into families, the cos and the cabbage. 
The first are more grown in summer than win- 
ter ; the second at all seasons, but more usually 
in winter, on account of their superior hardi- 
hood- The cos varieties are characterized by 
being of an upright growth, and, with the ex- 
ception of the Brighton, require to have their 
leaves drawn together for blanching; the cab- 
bage, as growing close to the ground, produces 
a blanched heart, in the manner of a cabbage, 
without any assistance. The cilicias are of a 
nature intermediate between the two. When 
young, the cabbage varieties are in general 
sweeter than those of the cos at the same age ; 
but at full growth this is reversed : hence the 
latter are preferred for salads, and the former 
for soups. 

The cabbage varieties succeed better in a 
hotbed than the cos. 

The following varieties are recommended 
for cultivation in England ; but as some of 
ftiem have been found not to succeed well in 
this country, those enumerated in the article 
KiTCHEx Garden had better be depended on 
for the main crop. 

CABBAGE VARIETIES. COS VARIETIES. 

Drumheaded. Brighlon. 

Brown Dutch. Black-seeded green. 

Tennisball. Early Egyptian. 

Hardy green, or Capuchin. Green. 

Prussian. White or Versailles. 

Prince's. Silver. 

Cnmmon white. Spotted or leopard. 

Large white. Green and brown Cilicia. 

Imperial. Lop. 

Grand admirable. 

Large Roman. 

Lettuces thrive best in a light, rich soil, with 
a dry substratum. In a poor or tenacious one 
they never attain any considerable size, but run 
to seed prematurely. Like most other crops, 
that soil is to be preferred which is rich rather 

707 



LETTUCE. 



LIBER. 



from prior cultivation than the immediate ap- 
plication of manure. It is of advantage to 
trench it; and if manure is necessarily applied 
at the time of insertion, it should be in a state 
of forward decay. For the first and last crops 
of the year, a warm, sheltered situation is re- 
quired; but for the midsummer ones, a border 
that is sheltered during the meridian, but far 
from being confined or under the shadow of 
trees, is to be preferred. Lettuce is propagated 
by seed : that for the first crop should be sown 
in a frame, on a warm border, or slender hot- 
bed, at the end of January or early in February; 
at the close of this last month a larger quantity 
may be sown in any open situation, and repeat- 
ed once every three weeks in small proportions 
until the end of July, for summer and autumn 
use; to be continued, at similar intervals, until 
the close of September, for winter and early 
spring. They may be sown either broadcast 
or in rows, moderately thin, each variety sepa- 
rate, lightly covered, and care being taken that 
the bed is trampled upon as little as possible. 
It is usual, when the plants are about a month 
old, or two inches in height, to thin them to 
three or four inches apart, those removed being 
pricked out at similar distances. Those from 
the sowings in January and February, in a 
similar situation to that in which they were 
raised ; and thence until August in any open 
situation. Those of the August sowing must 
be divided into two portions ; the largest being 
selected and planted in an open compartment 
for late autumn use, and the smaller on a warm 
border for winter and early spring. 

When planted out finally, they must be set 
in rows a foot apart each way, which is abun- 
dant for the largest variety, and not more than 
necessary for the smaller. At the time of every 
removal, whether of picking out or planting, 
water must be given moderately, and until the 
plants are rooted. It may be remarked, that 
transplanted lettuces never attain so fine a 
growth as those left where sown, nor become 
so soon fit for use; those which are planted out 
at once to remain, being better in these respects 
than those which are pricked out previous to 
final planting. The diflerence in their time of 
becoming fit for use, however, is of advantage, 
as by these means a more perfect succession 
is obtained. Those which are planted to with- 
stand the winter are best planted on the sum- 
mit or south side of ridges, as this is a greaW 
protection from excessive wet, from which they 
always suffer. In every stage of growth they 
must be kept free from weeds, well watered, 
and the earth around them frequently stirred 
for the extirpation of slugs and snails, which 
are particularly injurious, and are very preva- 
lent in moist seasons. 

When the cos varieties have attained an ad- 
vanced growth, they require their leaves to be 
drawn together with a shred of matting, to ren- 
der the interior blanched, care being taken that 
it is not performed so tight as to bruise them. 
Under every favourable circumstance for a vi- 
go'ous growth, the plants, especially of the cos 
varieties, and during dry seasons, will yet run 
up to seed before the heart is perfectly blanched: 
to retard this, it is an effectual practice, at the 
lime of tying them up, to cut out the centre of 
70S 



each with a sharp knife. The plants raised 
from the September sowing may be divided as 
directed for those of August ; but, in addition, 
some of the cos varieties may be planted on a 
warm border, to have the shelter of frames and 
hand-glasses. 

To produce seed, some of the finest and most 
perfect plants of each variety that have sur- 
vived the winter, or from the forwardest sow- 
ing of the year, should be selected. The seed 
from a-ny that have run. up prematurely cannot 
be depended upon. All other plants must be 
removed from their neighbourhood, themselves 
being left at least a foot apart; neither is it 
allowable for two varieties to flower near each 
other, as only mongrel varieties will be obtained. 
Each stem is advantageously attached to a 
stake, as a support in tempestuous weather. 
It is to be observed, that the branches must be 
gathered as the seed ripens upon them, and not 
left until the whole is ready, as some will ripen 
two or three weeks before others, and conse- 
quently the first and best seed will be shed and 
lost. It must be well dried before it is beaten 
out and stored. Lettuce seed is considered to 
be best the second year ; but when three years 
old it refuses to vegetate. 

The juice of the lettuce inspissated is termed 
lactucarium. It possesses slight narcotic pro- 
perties, and is useful in coughs. 

LETTUCE, LAMB'S. See Corn Salad. 

LEVELLING. In husbandry, implies ren- 
dering the ground even, and removing of impe- 
diments to the common operations of tillage. 
This is generally done by the plough, but 
sometimes machines are employed for the 
purpose. 

LEVER. In mechanics, an inflexible rod or 
bar, movable upon a fulcntm or prop, and hav- 
ing forces applied to two or more points. The 
lever is one of the mechanical powers ; and 
being the simplest of them all, was the first 
that was attempted to be explained. 

Examples of the application of the lever are 
of constant occurrence in the mechanical arts. 
The crowbar, the handspike, nippers, pincei-s, 
&c., are levers of the first kind. The second 
kind includes the chipping knife, the common 
door, nutcrackers, the wheelbarrow, &c. To 
levers of the third kind belong the sheep-shears, 
the treddle of the turning-lathe, tongs, &c. The 
bones of animals are generally levers. The 
socket of the bone is the fulcrum ; a strong 
muscle, attached to it near the socket, is the 
power; and the weight of the limb, with what- 
ever resistance is opposed to its motion, is the 
weight. A very moderate contraction of the 
muscle thus gives considerable motion to the 
limb. (Gregory's Mech. vol. ii.) 

LEVERET. A young hare, in the first year 
of its age. 

LEY, LEA, or LAY. Land in the state of 
sward or grassy surface. 

LIBER (Lat. bark). In botany, the interioi 
lining of the bark of exogenous plants. It con- 
sists of woody tissue in great quantity, and 
very thick-sided, intermixed with cellular tis- 
sue. It appears to be formed annually, at the 
same time as the concentric zones of wood, 
and is intended by nature to convey downwards 
the secretions elaborated in the bark and leave? 



LIBRARIES, FARMERS'. 



LICHENS. 



The liber is the principal seat of lactiferous 
vessels. 

LIBRARIES, FARMERS'. Collections of 
books on agricultural and horticultural sub- 
jects are now becoming very general through- 
out the country, through the instrumentality of 
farmers' clubs. They cannot fail of being 
eminently useful to the cause of agriculture, 
Dy diffusing among the cultivators of the soil 
the latest discoveries and improvements in 
husbandry, as well as the different opinions 
and theories entertained on matters having re- 
ference to agriculture and its collateral sciences 
of chemistry, botany, natural history, geology, 
meteorologv, and vegetable physiology, &c. 

LICE ON ANIMALS. There is not an 
animal that does not, under suitable circum- 
stances, nourish in its hair, wool, feathers, or 
its skin, some kind of louse; and sometimes 
more than one kind of these parasites lodge 
and prey on the same animal. In ordinary 
cases, they do not produce much mischief, but 
when they increase so much as to produce the 
disease called mange (Pilyriasis), they become 
truly formidable. The cause of animals being 
troubled with lice, may usually be traced to a 
want of cleanliness. When the dust and sweat 
accumulated on the hair, and in contact with 
the skin of the ox or horse, are allowed to re- 
main undisturbed by the comb or brush; when 
the stables are kept filthy, unventilated, and 
unwholesome ; when animals, reduced in au- 
tumn by want of pasture, or by living in un- 
healthy ones, are suffered to take their chance 
for the winter without extra care or attention ; 
or when a beast loaded with pediculi is turned 
into the yards or the stables of those exempt 
from these parasites, it may be expected that 
they will multiply and infest animals. When 
we see horses rubbing their tails, biting their 
manes, and showing other signs of uneasiness 
and irritation ; when cattle are observed to be 
rubbing their heads against posts or fences, and 
the hair coming off from the head and neck; 
or when sheep tear out tufts of wool with their 
teeth, and bite these places till blood appears, 
we may expect that lice are present. On most 
animals, these parasites have some favourite 
place of resort ; on horses, the mane and tail ; 
on horned cattle, around the nose, base of the 
horns, and the neck ; on sheep, they run over 
every part ; and on swine, they do not seem to 
be confined to any particular location. 

Pure air, room for exercise, plenty of ibod, 
and above all, cleanliness, are the first things 
to be attended to in the cure of this evil. Cur- 
rying, brushing, and washing should be resorted 
to, as, except in bad cases, this treatment will 
be usually sufficient to free the animal from 
these insects, without recourse to other reme- 
dies. Where these fail, it will be necessary to 
have recourse to such external or internal 
applications as shall operate directly on the 
vermin. 

One of the most common remedies is the 
mercurial ointment, commonly called unguen- 
tnm: but this, though effectual, cannot be used 
without some danger, as numerous instances 
have occurred in which valuable animals 
have been destroyed by its too free use. Care 
should be taken to prevent the animal from 



biting itself where the ointment is applied, un- 
til it has had time to take effect. A decoction 
of tobacco leaves, in a strong lye, forms a very 
good wash; but this, too, owing to the narcotic 
poison of the tobacco, has caused death. Va- 
rious vegetable remedies have been resorted 
to, among which are the seeds of the larkspur 
(Delphinium staphysagria) ; and the leaves and 
flowers of the ledum palustre, or marsh, or La- 
brador tea. The roots of the black hellebore, 
or a decoction made from them, have been used 
with success ; and it is said that the water in 
which the skins or parings of potatoes have 
been boiled will effectually destroy lice by a 
few washings. The internal use of sulphur is 
an excellent remedy, and if given to animals 
occasionally, is one of the best preventives. 

It is more difficult to apply remedies for lice 
to sheep than to any other animals. The English 
shepherds make use of a salve compounded 
of white arsenic and corrosive sublimate, care- 
fully parting the wool, and applying the oint- 
ment in small quantities directly to the skin, 
and rubbing it down with the finger. Tessier 
prefers tobacco smoke to this ointment, as at- 
tended with less danger in its use. The sheep 
is held in such a manner that tobacco smoke 
is forced from a bellows among the wool to the 
skin in all directions. After this fumigation, 
the sheep must be placed in the open air, that 
the vapor may have room to pass off without 
being inhaled by them. Perhaps the best re- 
medy for lice in animals, where they have not 
become so numerous as to produce the disease 
Pilyriasis, is to rub any oil, such as whale oil 
or melted lard, on such places as they most 
frequent, or on parts of the animal where they 
will be most likely to come in contact with it. 
All the pediculi breathe through what are 
termed spiracles or openings in their bodies, 
and the least particle of oil spread over their 
bodies, by causing suffocation, at once effects 
their destruction. This is also a perfectly 
harmless remedy. But prevention in this case 
is better than cure ; and neatness, cleanliness, 
and good keeping, by insuring comfort and 
health, leaves no opportunity for the attacks 
of vermin. (Cultivator.) 

LICE ON PLANTS. See Aphidians, Amj> 
nicAN Blight, and Ixsects. 

LICHENS. Plants of a very low organiza- 
tion, which grow on the bark of trees or rocks, 
when they form a kind of incrustation, or upon 
the ground, when they consist of irregular 
lobes, parallel with the earth's surface. Occa- 
sionally, in all situations, they are found in a 
branched state ; but their subdivisions are ge- 
nerally irregular, and without order. Their 
fructification consists of hard nuclei, called 
shields, which break through the upper surface 
of the thallus, or main substance of the lichen, 
are of a peculiar odour and texture, and con- 
tain the reproductive particles. Lichens abound 
in the cold and temperate parts of the world. 
The greater part are of no known use; but 
some, as the reindeer-moss (Cenomyce rangife- 
rina), the Iceland moss (Cetraria Islandica), and 
various species of Gyrophora, are capable of 
sustaining life, either in animals or man. The 
Iceland moss, when deprived of its bitterness 
by soaking in an alkali and then boiling, b»' 
3 709 



LICKS. 



LIGHT. 



comes, indeed, a diet recommended to invalids. 
Olhers are used as tonic medicines, as Variola- 
ria faginca and Pai-melia parietina. Their prin- 
cipal use is, however, that of furnishing the 
dyer with brilliant colours; orchall, cudbear, 
and perolle,with many more, are thus employed. 
{Bramde's Did. of Science.) See Moss. 

LICKS. A term applied in the United States 
to places where salt springs escape from the 
earth and impregnate the soil, and sometimes 
give rise to an efflorescence of common salt. 
To such spots the deer, buffalo, and almost all 
graminivorous animals resort, for the purpose 
of licking the surface. See Salt. 

LID. In botany, the calyx which falls off 
from the flower in a single piece. 

LIFE EVERLASTING. See Cudweed. 

LIGHT, ITS INFLUENCE ON VEGETA- 
TION. That light has a considerable influence 
upon the growth of plants, is an observation 
that must have been very early made by man- 
kind. The inferior green colour of plants 
growing in the shade, as in woods, or when 
covered with earth, or inverted vessels, would 
clearly indicate to the most careless observer, 
that light at least influenced the colour of ve- 
getation : every gardener, in truth, takes advan- 
tage of this fact, when he is blanching his 
culinary vegetables. But it was not till after 
the days of Priestley, that the other chemical 
effects which light produces upon a growing 
plant were so much better understood. 

It is probable that this influence commences 
at a very early period in the life of the plant, 
with even the germination of the seed. Ingen- 
houz, says Dr. Thomson, found that seed al- 
ways germinate faster in the dark than in the 
light. (Exper.surla Veg. 11.) And these expe- 
riments were repeated by Sennebier with equal 
success. {Mem. Physico-Chcm. vol. iii. p. 41.) 
But the Abbe Berlholin, who distinguished 
himself so much by his labours to demonstrate 
the effect of electricity on vegetation, objected 
to the conclusions of these philosophers, and 
affirmed that the difference in the germination 
of seeds in the shade and in the light, was 
owing, not to the light itself, but to the differ- 
ence in the moisture in the two situations, the 
moisture evaporatingmuch faster from the seeds 
in the light than from those in the shade; and 
he affirmed that when precautions were taken 
to keep the seeds equally moist, then those in the 
sun germinated sooner than those in the shade. 
(four, de Physique, 1789.) But when Sennebier 
repeated his former experiments, and employed 
every possible precaution to insure equality 
of moisture in both situations, he constantly 
found the seeds in the shade germinated sooner 
than those in the light. We may conclude, 
therefore, that light is injurious to germination ; 
and hence one reason for covering seeds with 
the soil in which they are grown. But from 
ihe more recent experiments of Saussure, there 
is reason to believe that light is only injurious 
10 vegetation in consequence of the heat it 
produces ; for where the direct rays of the sun 
were intercepted, though light was admitted, 
the germination of the seeds was not sensibly 
retarded. {Rech. Chem. sur la Veg. p. 23 ; T/ww- 
sjn's Chem. vol. iv. p. 307.) 

And with regard to the after-g» ^wth of plants, 
710 & r > 



light exercises a very considerable influence. 
It is now clearly ascertained that plants vege- 
tating in the light, absorb carbonic acid gas 
from the atmosphere, and emit oxygen gas ; 
but when vegetating in the dark different ef- 
fects are produced, for then carbonic acid gas 
is entitled, and oxygen gas absorbed. (See 
Gases.) This latter process is thus explained 
by Liebig : — " It is true that the decomposition 
of carbonic acid is arrested by the absence of 
light ; but then, namely, at night, a true che- 
mical process commences, in consequence of 
the action of the oxygen in the air upon the 
organic substance, composing the leaves, blos- 
soms, and fruit. This process is not at all 
connected with the life of the vegetable organ- 
ism, because it goes on in a dead plant exactly 
as in a living one. The substances composing 
the leaves of different plants being known, it 
is a matter of the greatest ease and certainty 
to calculate which of them during life should 
absorb most oxygen by chemical action where 
the influence of light is withdrawn. The leaves 
and green parts of all plants containing vola- 
tile oils, or volatile constituents in general, 
which change into resin by the absorption of 
oxygen, should absorb more than other parts 
which are free from such substances. Those 
leaves, also, which contain either the consti- 
tuents of nutgalls, or compounds in which ni- 
trogen is present, ought to absorb more oxygen 
than those which do not contain such matters. 
The correctness of these inferences has been 
distinctly proved by the observations of De 
Saussure; for whilst the tasteless leaves of the 
.Agave Americana absorb only 0*3 of their vo- 
lume of oxygen in the dark during 24 hours, the 
leaves of the Finns abies which contain volatile 
and resinous oils absorb 10 times, those of the 
Qucrcus robur containing tannic acid 14 times, 
and the balmy leaves of the Populus alba 21 
times that quantity. This chemical action is 
shown very plainly also in the leaves of the 
Cotyledon calycinum, the Cacalia Jicoides, anc' 
others; for they are sour like sorrel in the 
morning, tasteless at noon, and bitter in the 
evening. The formation of acids is effected 
during the night by a true process of oxydation; 
these are deprived of their acid properties 
during the day and evening, and are changed, 
by separation of a part of their oxygen, into 
compounds containing oxygen and hydrogen, 
either in the same proportions as in water or even 
with an excess of hydrogen, which is the com- 
position of all tasteless and bitter substances. 
When the green leaves of the poplar, the beech, 
the oak, or the holly, are dried under the air- 
pump, with exclusion of light, then moistened 
with water, and placed under a glass globe filled 
with oxygen, they are found to absorb that gas 
in proportion as they change in colour. The 
chemical nature of this process is thus com- 
pletely established. The diminution of the gas 
which occurs can only be owing to the union of 
a large proportion of oxygen with those sub- 
stances which are already in the state of oxides, 
or to the oxydation of the hydrogen in those ve- 
getable compounds which contain it in excess. 
The fallen brown or yellow leaves of the oak 
contain no longer tannin, and those of the poplar 
no balsamic constituents. (^Org. Chem. p. 28.) 



LIGHT. 



LIGHT. 



The action of light upon the growing plant 
is in eveiy point of view full of interest to the 
cultivator: "If all the branches of a tree, ex- 
clusive of one," said Mr. T. M. Knight (and he 
was one of the ablest of modern vegetable 
physiologists), " be much shaded by contigu- 
ous trees, or other objects, the branch which is 
exposed to the light attracts to itself a large 
portion of the ascending sap, which it employs 
in the formation of leaves and vigorous an- 
nual shoots, whilst the shaded branches be- 
come languid and unhealthy. The motion of 
the ascending current of sap appears, there- 
fore, to be regulated by the ability to employ it 
in the trunk and branches of the tree ; and 
this current passes up through the alburnum, 
from which substance the buds and leaves 
spring. But the sap which gives existence to, 
and feeds the root, descends through the bark, 
and if the operation of light give ability to the 
exposed branch to attract and employ the as- 
cending or alburnous current of sap, it ap- 
pears not improbable that the operation of 
proper food and moisture in the soil, upon the 
bark of the root, may give ability to that organ 
to attract and employ the descending or cor- 
tical current of sap." {Selection of Papers, p. 
160.) " M. DecandoUe, I believe, first ob- 
served that the succulent shoots of trees and 
herbaceous plants, which do not depend upon 
.ivhers for support, are bent towards the point 
from which they receive light, by the contrac- 
tion of the cellular substance of their bark 
upon that side, and I believe his opinion to be 
perfect!}' well founded. The operation of light 
upon the tendrils and stems of the Ampelopsis 
and ivy appears to produce diametrically op- 
posite effects, and to occasion an extension of 
the cellular bark wherever that is exposed to its 
influence; and this circumstance affords, I think, 
a satisfactory explanation why these plants ap- 
pear to seek and approach contiguous opaque 
objects, just as they would do if they were 
conscious of their own feebleness, and of power 
in the objects to which they approach, to afford 
them support and protection. The tendril of 
the vine is internally similar to that of the 
ampelopsis, though its external form and mode 
of attaching itself, by twining round any slen- 
der body, are very different. Some young 
plants of this species which had been raised 
in pots in the preceding year, and had been 
headed down to a single bud, were placed in 
a forcing house, and the shoots from these 
were bound to slender bars of wood, and train- 
ed perpendicularly upwards. Their tendrils, 
like those of the ampelopsis, when first emit- 
ted, pointed upwards, but they gradually form- 
ed an increasing angle with the stems, and 
ultimately pointed perpendicularly downwards, 
no object having presented itself to which they 
could attach themselves. Other plants of the 
vine, under similar circumstances, were trained 
horizontally, when their tendrils gradually de- 
scended beneath their stems, with which they 
ultimately stood very nearly at right angles. 
A third set of plants were trained almost per- 
pendicularly downwards, but with an inclina- 
tion of a few degrees towards the north, and 
the tendrils of these permanently retained very 
nearly their first position relatively to their 



stems ; whence it appears that these organs, 
like the tendrils of the ampelopsis and the 
claws of the ivy, are to a great extent under 
the control of light. A few other plants of the 
same species were trained in each of the pre- 
ceding methods, but proper objects were placed 
in different situations near them, with which 
their tendrils might come into contact, and I was 
by these means afforded an opportunity of ob- 
serving with accuracy the difference between 
the motions of these and those of the ampelop- 
sis under similar circumstances. The latter al- 
most immediately receded from light, by what- 
ever means that were made to operate upon 
them ; and they did not subsequently show any 
disposition to approach the points from which 
they once receded. The tendrils of the vine, 
on the contrary, varied their positions in every 
period of the day, and afterwards returned 
again during the night to the situations they 
had occupied in the preceding morning, and 
they did not so immediately or so regularly 
bend towards the shade of contiguous objects. 
But as the tendrils of this plant, like those of 
the ampelopsis, spring alternately from each 
side of the stem, and as one point only in three 
is without a tendril, and as each tendril sepa- 
rates into two divisions, they do not often fail 
to come into contact within their reach, and 
the effects of contact upon the tendrils are al- 
most immediately visible. It is made to bend 
towards the body it touches, and, if that body 
be slender, to attach itself firmly by twining 
round it, in obedience to certain causes. The 
tendril of the vine, in its internal organization, 
is apparently similar to the young succulent 
shoot and leaf-stalk of the same plant; and it 
is abundantly provided with vessels or pas- 
sages for the sap ; and I have proved that 
it is alike capable of feeding a succulen' 
shoot, or a leaf when grafted upon it. It ap- 
pears, therefore, I conceive, not improbable 
that a considerable quantity of the moving 
fluid of the plant passes through its tendrils, 
and that there is a close connection between 
its vascular structure and its motions." (Ibid. 
p. 166, 

"The stems of the potato," he adds in an- 
other place, "as of other plants, rise perpen- 
dicularly under the influence of their unerring 
guide, gravitation, so long as they continue to 
be concealed beneath the soil; but as soon as 
they rise above it they are, to a considerable 
extent, under the control of another agent, 
light. Each inclines in whatever direction it 
receives the greatest quantity of it, and conse- 
quently each avoids and appears to shun the 
shade of every contiguous plant; gravitation 
labouring to give a perpendicular, the other a 
horizontal direction to the leaves, and the com- 
parative power of one agent increasing, as that 
of the other decreases." (Ibid. p. 300 — 306.) 

The opinions of Liebig, as to the chemical 
changes produced in plants, by the action of 
light, and its withdrawal, seem confirmed, in 
some degree, by those of Davy. "In the 
changes that take place in the composition of 
the organized parts," said that excellent phi- 
losopher, "it is probable that saccharine com- 
pounds are principally formed during the ab- 
sence of light; gum, woody fibre, oils, ao'.' 

711 



LIGHTNING. 



LIGNIN. 



resins, during its presence ; and the evolution 
of carbonic acid gas, or its formation during 
the night, may be necessary to give greater 
solubility to certain compounds in the plant. 
(Jgric. Chem. p. 223.) And after giving a va- 
riety of experiments to elucidate the action 
of vegetation on the atmosphere (see Gases, 
THEIR Uses to Vegetation), he adds, "These 
fact.; confirm the popular opinion, and when 
the leaves of vegetables perform their healthy 
functions, they tend to purify the atmosphere 
in the common variations of weather, and 
changes from light to darkness. It may occur, 
however, as an objection to these views, that 
if the leaves of plants purify the atmosphere 
towards the end of autumn, and through the 
winter and early spring, the air in our climates 
must become impure, the oxygen in it dimin- 
ish, and the carbonic acid gas increase, which 
is not the case ; but there is a very satisfactory 
answer to this objection. The different parts 
of the atmosphere are constantly mixed to- 
gether by winds which, when they are strong, 
move at the rate of from 60 to 100 miles in an 
hour. In our winter, the southwest gales con- 
vey air which has been purified by the vast 
forests and Savannas of South America, and 
which, passing over the ocean, arrives in an 
uncontaminated state. The storms and tem- 
pests which often occur at the beginning and 
towards the middle of our winter, and which 
generally blow from the same quarter of the 
globe, have a salutary influence. By constant 
agitation and motion, the equilibrium of the 
constituent parts of the atmosphere is pre- 
served ; it is fitted for the purposes of life : 
and those events which superstition former- 
ly referred to the wrath of heaven, or the 
agency of evil spirits, and in which they saw 
only disorder and confusion, are demonstrated 
by science to be ministrations of Divine intel- 
ligence, and connected with the order and har- 
mony of our system." (Ibid. p. 2.30.) 

LIGHTNING. An electric phenomenon, pro- 
duced by the passage of electricity between 
one cloud and another, or between a cloud 
and the earth. The identity of lightning with 
electricity, though it had been previously sus- 
pected, was first directly demonstrated by the 
celebrated Dr. Franklin, in the year 1749, by 
the experiment of drawing sparks by the elec- 
tric kite. Since that time the science of elec- 
tricity has been greatly advanced ; neverthe- 
less, the cause of some of the appearances 
connected with lightning is not well explained 
even at the present day. 

There are three phenomena in particular for 
which theory fails satisfactorily to account. 
The first is the form of the flash, which is almost 
always zigzag, or in broken lines, making a 
greater or smaller angle with each other. The 
second is the frequent repetition of the flashes 
from the same cloud, which often follow one 
another in quick succession, contrary to Avhat 
takes place in the case of electric conductors, 
which generally recover their natural state, or 
discharge the whole of their electricity at a 
single stroke The third is the length of the 
flash, which sometimes appears to embrace a 
large extent of the sky. This phenomenon can 
be best observed from the tops of mountains, 
712 



reaching above the clouds from which the light- 
ning proceeds ; and observers in such cases 
agree in stating that they have seen flashes 
certainly extending several miles in length. 

The zigzag form of the flashes is common 
to lightning and the electric spark : the same 
explanation should consequently apply to both; 
but this the theory has not yet been able to give. 

The theory of the electric fluid, and the well- 
ascertained diff'erences in the conducting power 
of different substances, suggested the idea of 
protecting buildings from the destructive efl!ects 
of lightning by metallic rods. Such lods are 
usually made of iron about half an inch in dia- 
meter. The lower portion should descend into 
the ground some 3 or 4 feet, and in all cases 
penetrate to the moist earth. It should be 
made rather larger than the rest of the rod, and 
have a slant from the foundation, or outwardly. 
Some recommend that the lower end should be 
pointed in the same manner as the upper ex- 
tremity. The top of the rod should have one 
or more sharp points^ As iron is so liable to 
rust, by which the points become blunted, it is 
usual to have these either gilt or tipped with 
platinum, so as to be preserved from oxida- 
tion. The tops of the rods may be raised some 
4, 6, or 8 feet above the chimneys or highest 
points of the buildings they are intended to 
protect. If the buildings be large, there shoul 
be more points than one elevated at the diffe- 
rent parts. Indeed, some persons who have de- 
voted attention to the subject, say that there 
should always be several projecting points 
raised to receive the lightning from different 
directions. Lightning rods cost but little, as 
the platinum points can be bought for $1,25, 
and the conductors may be easily made by any 
blacksmith. They should have as few joints 
as possible, and be inspected from time to time 
to see whether an)' separation exists, and whe- 
ther the joint remains in its place. Where, 
from rust or other causes, any interruption to 
the course of the electric fluid occurs, a light- 
ning rod, instead of furnishing protection, is an 
additional source of danger. 

LIGHTS, NORTHERN, or AURORA BO- 
REALIS. A luminous meteor, generally ap- 
pearing in the northern part of the sky, and 
presenting a light somewhat resembling the 
dawn or break of day. The appearances which 
it exhibits, and the forms it assumes, are so 
proverbially unsteady, that it is not possible to 
comprehend them under any general descrip- 
tion. In the Shetland Isles, and other coun- 
tries in high latitudes, the northern lights are 
the constant attendants of clear and frosty 
evenings in winter. They are most frequent 
in autumn. A very interesting account of this 
meteor, and of the works treating on this subject, 
will be found under the head "Aurora Borea- 
lis," in Branded Diet, of Science, &c. 

LIGNEOUS (Lat. Hgmim, wood). In ento- 
mology, a part so called when it is composed 
of a hard, inelastic substance like wood. 

LIGNIN (Lat. lignum). The woody fibre. 
This most important proximate principle of 
vegetables exhibits itself in a variety of forms, 
constituting the different textures of hard and 
soft wood, and various fibrous products, such 
as hemp, flax, cotton, &c. When by fine me- 



LILAC. 



LILY. 



chanical division it is reduced to a pulpy slate, 
it is formed into paper. When by different re- 
agents all the soluble matters are extracted 
from wood, the insoluble residue is lignin; its 
ultimate components are carbon, oxygen, and 
hydrogen, the two latter elements being in the 
same relative proportions as in water; so that 
woody fibre may be considered as a compound 
of carbon and water, and, according to Dr. 
Prout's experiments, almost exactly in equal 
weights. Lignin is very unperishable, but 
under certain circumstances it is attacked by 
dry rot, arising out of the growth of a parasitic 
fungus, which causes its rapid decay. Damp 
timber, in situations where air has not free 
access, is jiarticularly subject to its attacks ; 
and when once it has made its appearance, the 
well-seasoned timber in its neighbourhood be- 
comes liable to the same disease. The dry rot 
may be prevented by impregnating the timber 
with certain saline solutions, and of these, so- 
lution of corrosive sublimate has been found 
most effectual ; this (the bi-chloride of mer- 
cury) combines chemically with the albumen 
of the wood, and the compound is very inde- 
structible. (See Dut Rot.) Lignin has also 
a strong attraction for alumina, and hence 
linen, cotton, paper, and other forms of this 
fibre, may be aluminized by steeping them in 
hydrated alumina diffused through water, or 
more effectively by soaking them in certain 
aluminous solutions, drying them, and after- 
wards washing out the excess of the salt. It 
is in this way that cotton goods are impreg- 
nated with alumina for the purpose of dyeing 
and calico printing. Other metallic oxides ex- 
hibit similar attractive powers, especially the 
oxide of iron. The analogy that exists between 
the composition of sugar, gum, starch, and 
even vinegar and lignin, suggests the possi- 
bility of the conversion of those substances, by 
an exchange of their proximate elements, into 
each other; and it has accordingly been found 
that by carefully roasting pure and fine saw- 
dust, it is rendered partially soluble in water, 
and that a part of it is converted into a nutri- 
tious substance, probably intermediate between 
sugar and starch, and which, when mixed with 
a little flour, yields a palatable bread, not very 
unlike that made by some of the inhabitants 
of the northern parts of Europe of the bark of 
trees. Mixed with sulphuric acid, lignin passes 
into gum, and from this sugar may be obtained, 
by boiling it for some hours in a very dilute 
sulphuric acid; this sugar, when purified, 
much resembles grape or honey sugar. By 
this process, rags may be converted into nearly 
their own weight of this peculiar saccharine 
matter. 

The production of vinegar by the destructive 
distillation of wood, was originally suggested 
about the middle of the I7th century, by Glau- 
ber, a celebrated German chemist of that time; 
it has lately become a very important branch 
of manufacture in England. Upon the whole, 
there are very few natural products equally 
important with lignin in their applications to 
the useful and ornamental arts. See Piro- 
LiGNEOus Acid. 

LILAC (Syringa, from syrinx, a pipe. The 
90 



branches are long and straight, and are filled 
with medulla; hence the old name of the lilac, 
pipe-tree. The English name of the genus is 
from lilac or lilag, the Persian word for the 
flower). The species of lilac are well known 
elegant shrubs. 

The common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) is a 
shrub originally from Constantinople, growing 
to the height of 18 or 20 feet. The elegant 
lilac-coloured bunches of flowers are very 
sweet and graceful to the eye. There is also 
the white lilac, still more delicate-looking, and 
equally sweet-scented. The most beautiful 
variety of the common purple lilac is that 
known by the title of the Scotch lilac. 

The Chinese lilac (S. chinensis) is a native 
of China, and less in size than the common 
lilac; it was first brought to this country in 
1795. Blooms violet-coloured flowers in May. 
The Persian lilac (S. pcrsica) is a native of 
Persia, and seldom exceeds five or six feet in 
height, blowing light purplish pink flowers in 
May. The lilacs love a good garden soil, and 
may be propagated by layers, shoots, and 
suckers from the roots. 

LILY {Lilium, derived from the Celtic word 
/(, signifying whiteness ; on account of the 
beautiful white flowers of the original species). 
This is a fine ornamental and well-known ge- 
nus of exotic plants, almost all of which are 
remarkable for the delicacy and beauty of their 
flowers. Most of the species succeed in a 
rich, light soil, but the American species 
should be grown in peat. (Puxton's Bot. Diet.) 

Miller, in his Dictionary, mentions 13 spe- 
cies, with their varieties : but there are now 
more than 34 known species, besides innume- 
rable varieties : the finest for garden ornament 
are as follows : — 

The superb martagon (L. super hum). A beau- 
tiful plant, blowing many bright orange flowers 
spotted with violet. It loves bog soil. 

Purple martagon, which grows 3 or 4 feet 
high, blooming reddish or white flowers spot- 
ted with purple. It blows in July. It is some- 
times called Turk's cap. It is a native of 
Germany. 

Scarlet martagon (L. chalcedoninan). Native 
of the Levant, blowing a bright scarlet flower 
in June and July. It likes a good soil. 

Turk's turban (i. pomponium), blows a pretty 
pendulous red flower in June, in the shape of 
a turban. In Kamschatka the bulb of this spe- 
cies is cultivated the same as the potato is in 
this country. 

Orange or fire lily (i. bulbiferum). Large 
flower, of a deep orange colour, flowering in 
June and July. The Russians andTungusians 
also eat the roots of this species, either boiled 
in milk or roasted. A German author informs 
us that these mealy roots might, in times of 
scarcity, be made into wholesome bread. The 
roots are cathartic, and the leaves cooling. 

Tiger lily (i. tigrinum). A beautiful showy 
bulb, blowing an orange flower in June: it 
loves a sandy soil and open situation. 

Philadelphian lily (L. Philadelphicum). Na 

tive of North America, blowing a deep orange 

spotted or scarlet flower in July. This very 

elegant plant may be known from the othe' 

3o2 "^3 



LILY OF THE VALLEY. 



LILY, THE WHITE WATER. 



species by the claws of the petals. The colour 
of the flower is orange-red. Protect it in win- 
ter by spreading coal ashes over it. 

The American or Canadian lily (L. Cana- 
dense), has flowers of a yellowish orange. It 
is a fine plant, growing 2 or 3 feet high, and 
found in abundance on the marshy shores of 
the Delaware below Philadelphia. It is peren- 
nial, and flowers in July. 

The Superb American lily (L. superbum), is 
a magnificent plant, which, says Dr. Wm. P. 
C. Barton, may be ranked among the finest 
vegetable productions of the United States. It 
frequently attains the height of 6 or 7 feet, 
supporting a profusion of elegant deep scarlet 
flowers. It is found on the marshy shores of 
the Delaware, and in the bogs of New Jersey 
and other states. A perennial, flowering in 
July and August. 

The common white lily (L. candidum), is too 
tvell known to need description. It is hardy, 
and produces a beautiful flower, the fragrant 
odour of which is so powerful as to induce 
fainting if numbers of them be kept over night 
in a close apartment. The bulb roasted is 
emollient and suppurative. All descriptions 
of lilies are propagated freely by oflfsets from 
the bulbs, which should be taken up when the 
stem decays, and parted and replanted early in 
October, 5 to 6 inches deep, in a light, dry soil. 
The bulbs of martagons must never be trans- 
planted till after the stem is decayed, as they 
will not bear being disturbed. Many varieties 
of lilies are produced from seed, which is 
treated in the same way as tulip seed. 

LILY-OF-THE-VALLEY (Convallaria ma- 
jalis, from the Latin convallis, a valley). This 
very elegant sweet-scented indigenous peren- 
nial is not reckoned among the lily tribe. It 
grows in woods, heaths, and at the foot of hills, 
flourishing and shedding its fragrance in May 
and June. The roots are thread-shaped, creep- 
ing, much entangled. Leaves two, radical, 
eliptical, 3 or 4 inches long, acute, entire, 
many-ribbed, smooth-stalked. Flower-stalk 
solitary, simple, radical, naked, semi-cylindri- 
cal, bearing a simple curved cluster of seve- 
ral pendulous, cup-shaped, white flowers, with 
rather distant segments. Berry as large as a 
black currant, scarlet. There are varieties 
with double or with purple flowers, sometimes 
seen in gardens; but not easy of cultivation, 
and far less elegant than the wild kind, which 
is among the most fa.-ourite of our native 
flowers. 

This vegetable is eaten by sheep and goats, 
but refused by cows, horses, and swine. The 
flowers when dried have a narcotic scent, and 
if reduced to powder excite sneezing; hence 
they are sometimes used as a sternutatory. A 
beautiful green colour may be prepared from 
the leaves, with the addition of lime. The lily- 
of-the-valley will grow in any moist, shady 
situation, and even under the drip of trees, 
where few other plants would succeed. It is 
multiplied by dividing the roots in autumn. 
See Solomon's Skal. 

LILY, THE DAY {Hemerocallis, from »>£gi, 
a day, and JtaAMJc, beauty; alluding to the beauty 
and duration of the flowers). This is an orna- 
mental genus of exotic flowering plants of the 
7i4 



simpkst culture, thriving well in any light 
loamy soil, and readily increased by divisions. 
The most common species are the yellow day- 
lily (H.flava), a native of Siberia, blowing yel- 
low flowers in June, and the fulvous or copper- 
coloured day-lily (H. fulva), a native of the 
Levant, blowing fulvous flowers in July and 
August. 

LILY, THE WHITE WATER. Candock, 
or water-socks. {Nymphcea, from nymphe, a 
water-nymph ; alluding to the habitation of the 
plants.) These are beautiful plants, well wor- 
thy of cultivating in every collection. The 
stove species should be grown in tubs of water, 
placed in a warm part of the house, with some 
rich loamy soil at the bottom. The hardy kinds 
may be grown in ponds, canals, &c. They are 
all increased either by seeds, dividing the roots, 
or separating the tubers. (Paxtmi.) 

The great white water-lily (N. alba) is a 
beautiful perennial, native of Great Britain, 
perhaps the most magnificent of all its native 
flowers, growing in clear ponds and slow rivers. 
The root is tuberous, horizontal, sending down 
numerous long, stout radicles which are fibrous 
at the extremity ; leaves floating, a span wide, 
oval, heart-shaped, with nearly parallel or close 
lobes at the base, entire, smooth. Every part 
of the herb is slightly vascular, perspiring ra- 
pidly, and, though so succulent, drying very 
soon. Flowers four or five inches wide, white, 
with yellow stamens and pistil; the upper sur- 
face of the calyx leaves white, often tinged 
with pale red, generally destitute of scent. The 
stems are superior to oak-galls for dyeing green. 
The roots are astringent, and a weak infusion 
is said to be useful in lepra. The roots are 
used in Ireland and Jura for dyeing a brown 
colour. The Egyptians eat the roots boiled, 
and convert the seeds into bread. The Swedes 
also have used this root in prevailing dearth, 
as a substitute for corn ; though it requires to 
be previously divested of its bitter taste by fre- 
quent washings. According to Gleditsch, the 
roots of this species and of the yellow lily are 
equally useful in tanning and currying. This 
plant is eaten by hogs, but disliked by goats, 
and totally rejected by cows and horses. 

The white water-lily looks very handsome 
in sheets of water, or ponds in ornamented 
grounds, blowing its large flowers in June and 
July. They have a faint, sweet scent, and ex- 
pand in sunshine, in the middle of the day only, 
closing towards evening, Avhen they recline on 
the surface of the water, or sink beneath it. 
The same circumstance is recorded of the 
Egyptian N. lotus, from the most remote anti- 
quity. The stimulus of light, which indeed acts 
evidently on many other blossoms and leaves, 
expands and raises with peculiar force these 
splendid white flowers, that the pollen may 
reach the stigma uninjured; and when that 
stimulus ceases to act, they close again, droop- 
ing by their own weight to a certain depth. 
When the flower-seeds ripen in August, the 
plant sinks again to the bottom. In transplant- 
ing the water-lily, the pond must be entered, 
the stem of the plant felt for, and the roots dug 
up with a large ball of its mud left round them • 
place it in an old fish-basket, and remove it 
speedily, to sink it in the place intended for its 



LILY, THE YELLOW WATER. 



LIME. 



removal. As the basket rots, the plant becomes 
fixed in its new situation. Propagate by throw- 
ing the ripe seed-vessels into large ditches of 
standing water, when the young plants appear 
the following spring. 

The Great American Water-Lily, one of the 
most splendid productions of floral nature, is 
comparatively a rare plant. It is found in a 
pond about a mile below the city of Philadel- 
phia, and not far from Gloucester Point, a place 
much resorted to by naturalists and amateur 
florists during the season of flowering (August). 
Some have asserted a belief that the seeds were 
introduced from Europe; but the fact that a 
plant precisely similar is found in other parts 
of the country, and even in ponds along rivers 
west of the Mississippi (the Kanses and Osage, 
for example), proves the Cyamus or Nelumbium 
a native of North America as well as of India, 
where it is called the Sacred Bean, and conse- 
crated to religious purposes. ''There is not," 
says Professor W. P. C. Barton, " any plant 
in North America comparable to this for gran- 
deur, simplicity, and beauty. Truly may it be 
styled, as I have elsewhere called it, the Queen 
of American Flowers. I regret to say that it is 
not as abundant in our vicinity as it was five 
years ago. This may be an accidental or tem- 
porary decrease, owing to a disturbance of the 
site where it grows. The leaves are perfectly 
round, and centrally peltate. They are from a 
foot to eighteen inches in diameter, of a rich 
velvety green above, and very pale underneath. 
They are supported by petioles from two to 
three and a half feet in length." The flowers are 
pale-yellow, globose, and about three or four 
inches in diameter, supported above the surface 
of the water by petioles or a scape, a yard in 
length, frequently nmricate towards the upper 
part. From this circumstance, together with 
an accurate examination of a fine Chinese 
painting of the India species, which difi'ered 
in nothing from the American plant, except in 
the rose-coloured flower, Dr. Barton considers 
the two species as identical. 

The seeds are a kind of nut, very similar to 
the chinquepin, of a very pleasant flavour, and 
eagerly sought after by boys. The Indians in 
the Far-West resort to them as food. 

Of the genus Nymphcea, the Fragrant Water- 
Lily is a species native to the United States, a 
very beautiful aquatic plant, with while flowers, 
which exhale a delicious fragrance. The leaves 
and flowers both float on the surface of the 
water. It is a perennial. 

LILY, THE YELLOW WATER (Nuphar, 
from naufar or nyloufar, the Arabic name of 
Nymphcea). This, like the last described, is 
a genus of very beautiful plants, admirably 
adapted for growing in ponds, cisterns, or lakes ; 
and they are increased by dividing the roots, 
or by seeds, which have only to be thrown into 
the water where they are intended to grow. 
{^Paxton.'^ 

In England, the only indigenous species are, 
L The common yellow water-lily, or water-can 
{N. lulea), which is met with very frequent in 
the wild state in rivers and pools. The whole 
plant is rather smaller than the white water- 
lily. Footstalks two-edged, flattened on the 
upper surface; leaves entirely smooth, and 



even rounded at the end, and generally at the 
lobes, which meet and lap over each other. 
The flowers, which appear in July, are about 
two inches wide, cupped, all over of a golden 
yellow, with the scent of brandy or ratafia, 
whence they are called brandy-bottles in Nor- 
folk. They perhaps communicate this flavour 
by infusion to the cooling liquors or sherbets, 
so much used in the Levant. The seed-vessel, 
a coated berry, when ripe, bursts irregularly, 
not dissolving away into a mass of pulp, like 
the Nymphcea. The roots, like those of the 
white water-lily, are astringent, and contain a 
quantity of fecula. If moistened with milk, 
they are said by Linnaeus to destroy crickets 
and cockroaches. Hogs will eat this aquatic 
plant, but all the other species of live-stock 
reject it. 

This aquatic plant is what is so familiarly 
known in the United States by the name of 
splatter-dock, a perennial, blooming its yellow 
globular flowers in July and August, filling 
ditches, and extending for miles along the shal- 
low banks of rivers, below high water-mark. 

2. The least yellow water-lily {N. pumila). 
This is much smaller than the preceding, and 
flourishes principally in the highland lakes of 
Scotland. The marsh-trefoil is often called the 
dwarf water-lily. 

Of the genus Nuphar, another species {KaU 
miana) found in the United Slates is the Small 
Water-Lily, with leaves floating like those of 
the common splatter-dock, but only about one- 
third the size; yellow flowers, also floating, and 
about half an inch in diameter. 

LIMB. The border of a flower; also the 
branch of a tree. 

LIME (Germ, leim, glue). This very useful 
earth is the oxide of a metal called calcium. In 
England it is obtained by exposing chalk and 
other kinds of limestone, or carbonates of lime, 
to a red-heat, — an operation generally conduct- 
ed in kilns constructed for the purpose: the 
carbonic acid is thus expelled, and lime, more 
or less pure, according to the original qua- 
lity of the limestone, remains. In this state 
it is usually called quick-lime. The purest quick- 
lime is obtained from the calcination of white 
marble. When sprinkled with water it becomes 
very hot, and crumbles down into a dry pow- 
der, called slaked lime, or hydrate of lime, owing 
to the water becoming consolidated and an es- 
sential part of the lime. When exposed for 
some weeks to the air, it also falls into powder, 
in consequence of the absorption of moisture; 
but a portion of carbonic acid is also absorbed, 
and the lime partially converted into limestone. 
The uses of lime are very numerous. Its most 
important application is in the manufacture of 
mortar and other cements used in building. It 
is also very extensively used as a manure to 
fertilize land. 

LIME as a manure. There is some reason to 
infer that lime has been used as a manure from 
a very remote period. M. P. Cato, in the oldest 
agricultural treatise which has escaped to us, 
describes, in his sixteenth and thirty-eightli 
chapters, with much minuteness, the best means 
of preparing it. And although, in the early 
writers on rural affairs, we find but few notices 
of its use as a fertilizer, yet we may reasonablj 

71 <; 



LIME. 



LIME. 



conclude that its employment was nearly as 
extensive and as early as that of chalk or marl, 
which were in very primitive times largely and 
skilfully used for a similar purpose. Pliny 
attests ihe use of it by the Roman cultivators 
as a dressing for the soil in which fruit trees 
were planted. 

Of all the earthy manures found in England, 
lime is certainly the most powerful and rapid 
in its effects on the soil ; and if its use is not 
so extensive on the clays and peaty lands of 
many districts of the island as is desirable, this 
does not arise from the limited powers of this 
earth, but rather from a variety of other causes, 
such as its expense, the impurity of the lime 
employed, and an ignorance of its most econo- 
mical mode of application. 

The common varieties of lime used by the 
English farmers, are procured by calcining 
either chalk or limestone. Such lime is there- 
fore rarely, if ever, chemically pure, for it 
almost always contains a portion of silica 
(tlint), alumina (clay), and some red oxide of 
iron. These, however, are not often present 
in sufficient quantities to influence the fertiliz- 
ing powers of the lime to any material extent, 
as will be readily seen by the analysis of the 
limestones and the chalk usually employed by 
the Jimeburners. Common limestone is com- 
posed of 



Carbonate of lime 

Water 

Silica - - . 

Alumina 

Oxide of iron 



100- 



The slate-spar limestone contains — 

Lime -...-. 54-70 

Carbonic acid - - . . 43'30 

Silica 0-5.^ 

Oxide of iron - . . . 0'80 

Loss ------ 0-65 

100- 

Common chalk is composed of — 

Lime ------ 565 

Carbonic acid . - - . 43-0 
Water ----- 0-5 

100' 

united with various small proportions of the 
other earths. There is also a very considera- 
ble proportion of lime made in the north of 
England from the magnesian limestone (called 
by the Yorkshire farmers " hot lime"), all of 
which differ considerably in composition ; that 
from Sunderland contains, in 100 parts, 

PartE. 

Carbonate of lime - - - 56-80 

Carbomtte of magnesia - - 40-84 

Clay, water, &;c. . - - 200 

Oxide of iron - - - - 0"36 

100- 

This ""hot lime," which is well known by the 
farmers in the neighbourhood of Doncaster, 
and other parts of the north of England, can 
only be applied in limited quantities, for the 
calcined magnesia of the limestone remains 
for a considerable period in its pure caustic 
form, without absorbing carbonic acid gas 
716 



from the atmosphere, and in this state its effect 
is very pernicious to many kinds of plants. It 
is only when pure, however, that magnesia is 
prejudicial to vegetation : by exposure to the 
atmosphere, it gradually and slowly absorbs 
carbonic acid gas, becomes carbonate of mag- 
nesia, and in this state forms a part of many 
cultivated plants. Some of the most fertile 
soils of Britain, in fact, contain it in this form, 
in considerable quantities. 

Limestone occurs of various colours and 
shades, as well as of different degrees of hard- 
ness. In weight the compact varieties are 
very much alike, being generally a little more 
than 2^ times (2-7) heavier than water. Lime- 
stone may be distmguished from other varieties 
of rock, by dropping on it some strong acid, 
such as the acetic acid (vinegar), sulphuric (oil 
of vitriol), or muriatic (spirit of salt), upon the 
addition of either of Avhich bubbles of gas are 
observed to escape when lime is present, but 
not otherwise. 

The action of the fire upon the chalk and 
the limestones merely deprives them of their 
water and carbonic acid gas, or fixed air. The 
farmer must not fall into the very common 
error of supposing that any thing is added by 
the fire to the lime ; on the contrary, it loses 
very materially in weight, by being deprived 
of its carbonic acid gas, bwnt or quick-\ime 
losing about 44 per cent, of its original weight, 
a loss, however, which it gradually recovers 
by exposure to the atmosphere, which always 
contains this elastic vapour. 

One of the most remarkable properties of 
quick-lime, is its tendency to combine with 
water. If quick-lime be moistened with a 
certain quantity of water, it soon becomes 
heathed, throws off a portion of the water in 
the form of steam, and falls to a very fine, 
white powder, which is a hydrate of lime, al- 
ways containing 24 per cent, water; if, how- 
ever, more water be added, the same hydrate 
is formed, but the excess of water agglutinates 
the powder into lumps or masses which will 
eventually become hard, and resemble stone. 
Still more water immediately applied to quick- 
lime, dissolves it, and forms lime-water. If 
quick-lime be exposed to the air, it also falls to 
a coarser powder by absorbing 12 per cent, of 
water and 24 per cent, of carbonic acid from 
the air, constituting a mingled carbonate and 
hydrate of lime. The same change occurs 
gradually with that which has been slacked by 
water and is exposed to the air, the carbonic 
acid of the atmosphere replacing the water of 
the hydrate. The carbonate of lime, such as 
exists in chalk, limestone, &c., is scarcely 
soluble in pure water, but if the latter contain 
carbonic acid, as rain water usually does when 
in contact with the soil, the limestone enters 
into solution. (Booth's Geology of Delaware.) 

The lime which I have used, observes Mr. 
C. W. Johnson, has been principally made 
from chalk, at an expense of about five pence 
or six pence per bushel. That which I made 
from the magnesia limestone was from the 
neighbourhood of Sunderland. This requires 
less fuel to convert it into lime than the common 
limestone. For the ordinary kinds, about one 
bushel of coals is required for five or six 



LIME. 



LIME. 



bushels of the limestone; and from my own 
experiments, I am inclined to agree in opinion 
with many of the farmers of the midland coun- 
ties, that the lime procured from limestone is 
rather more powerful in its effects on clay soils 
than that made from chalk. 

In either case the shape of the kiln, and the 
steady gradual application of the heat, are very 
material circumstances to be regarded by those 
who burn their own lime. The limestone and 
chalk should be placed in the kiln (which I 
think is best of an egg shape), in moderately- 
sized pieces, free from the powdered chalk or 
stone; and care must be taken to have the 
earth thoroughly burnt, of which perhaps the 
best indications are its lightness, and the alte- 
ration of the colour of the flame issuing from 
the top of the kiln, which, when the lime is 
sufficiently made, loses its red tinge. The 
price of the fuel, and readiness of access to the 
limestone or chalk, of necessity governs the 
price of the lime: in some districts of the 
north it is made by the farmers for not more 
than one penny to three halfpence per bushel. 

The chemical uses of lime to vegetation may 
be conveniently divided into two heads ; first, 
its direct action upon vegetation ; and second- 
ly, its chemical operation on the matters con- 
tained in all cultivaieable soils. 

In its direct action, as a food or constituent 
of plants, its uses are highly important ; for 
hardly a single plant has yet been analyzed, in 
which the presence of lime has not been de- 
tected, in combination with an acid. It must 
be regarded indeed as an essential ingredient 
in almost all vegetable substances, as a direct 
food of plants. 

It is found in the commonly cultivated crops 
of the farmer, however, in very varying pro- 
portions : thus the ashes of the oat-plant contain 
more than five per cent, of lime ; in two 
pounds' weight of the seeds of wheat are com- 
monly found about 12 grains of carbonate of 
lime ; in the same quantity of rye, about 13-4 
grains ; in barley 24-8 grains ; 33-75 grains in 
the oat, and 46-2 in the same weight of rye- 
straw. It abounds also with magnesia in the 
wood of trees : the ashes of that of the oak 
contain about 32 per cent, of the earthy carbo- 
nates ; those from the poplar 27 per cent.; from 
the hazel 8 ; of the mulberry 56 ; and from the 
hornbeam 26 per cent. The proportion how- 
ever of lime found in plants varies with the 
composition of the soil on which they are pro- 
duced. Thus the ashes of the leaves of the fir 
(Pinus abies), growing upon a limestone hill, 
were found to contain 43-5 per cent, of the car- 
bonates of lime and magnesia, but the ashes 
from the leaves of another fir growing upon a 
granite soil yielded only 29 per cent, of the 
same earthy salts. There are very few soils 
fit for cultivation from which this earth is en- 
tirely absent, and its addition is commonly 
found by the farmer to promote the fertility of 
most barren lands— the most sterile heaths, for 
these are the very lands whose soils contain 
hardly a trace of lime ; in that of Bagshot, for 
instance, it exists in a very minute proportion. 
The attraction of lime for the aqueous parti- 
cles of the atmosphere is considerable. In my 
own experiments 1000 parts of lime previous- 



ly dried in a temperature of 212° gained by ex 
posure for three hours to air saturated with 
moisture, at a temperature of 60°, 11 parts. 
Professor Schubler found that the same weight 
gained in 12 hours 26 parts, in 24 hours 31 
parts, in 48 hours 35 parts, when it appeared 
to have become saturated with moisture, for in 
72 hours it had not again increased in weight. 
Lime therefore is not without its uses even in 
this respect to vegetation. Lime and chalk 
differ in their action, and in their value as fer- 
tilizers in several respects ; thus lime dissolves 
and renders soluble the organic matters of the 
soil, which chalk does not; its action, too, as a 
direct food of plants, is more rapid, from the 
superior readiness with which it mingles with 
the soil. And again, its carriage is consider- 
ably lighter, for in the process of lime-burn- 
ing almost all the water and carbonic acid gas 
of the chalk are driven off. These amounted 
in some specimens of Kentish chalk, which I 
examined, to more than 58 per cent.; so that 
when the farmer carries 42 tons of recently 
well-burnt lime, he conveys as much real earth 
on to his land as is sometimes contained in 
100 tons of chalk. 

The chemical action of the lime on the soil 
is also very considerable ; mixing with the 
heavy adhesive clays, it renders them more 
friable, less liable to be injuriously acted upon 
by the sun, and much more readily permeable 
by the gases and vapour of the atmosphere. It 
renders them, the cultivator tells you, " more 
easily workable." And, again, the action of 
lime upon the organic substances always more 
or less contained in the farmers' soils is very 
considerable; and this benefit is not merely 
confined to the vegetable remains in the land, 
but it extends with equal energy to the dead and 
the living animal matters, with which, in a 
countless variety of forms, the soil is tenanted. 
There are few substances, in fact, more de- 
structive to grub-worms, animalculoe, &c., than 
lime ; and where these are destroyed by the 
action of the lime, the soil is, as a natural 
consequence, enriched by their remains. On 
soils which abound in sulphate of iron, which 
is commonly the case with those containing an 
excess of peat, the action of lime is not only 
highly beneficial in decomposing or rendering 
soluble the mass of inert vegetable remains, 
but the lime decomposes the sulphate of iron, 
and, uniting with its sulphuric acid, forms the 
well-known fertilizer, the sulphate of lime or 
gypsum of commerce. 

When quick-lime is applied to the soil, it 
gradually becomes converted, by exposure to 
the atmosphere, into carbonate of lime (chalk); 
its action as a solvent ceases, and its presence 
is now only useful as a direct food or consti- 
tuent of the farmer's crops. This, however, 
affords an opportunity for the beneficial repe- 
tition of the dressing with lime, so far as its 
solvent powers are available. But then, as 
might, for the above reasons, have been antici- 
pated, the farmer finds that the after-limings 
never do so much good as the first ; and as by 
each successive application the lime reduces 
still more and more the quantity of organic 
matters in the soil, so it follows as a natural 
consequence that after each succeeding dpess- 

717 



LIME. 



LIME. 



ing, the benefit produced becomes less and less, 
and finally the cultivator informs us that " the 
land is tired of lime." This result has been 
experienced to a very considerable extent in 
the north of England, where the cheapness of 
fuel and the abundance of the common lime- 
stone has, in loo many instances, tempted the 
farmer to add to his land lime in excessive 
quantities. For such over-limed soils, the only 
remedy is the addition of organic matters. In 
such cases, peat will, in moderate quantities, 
be occasionally found an excellent dressing. 

The quantity of lime used per acre of neces- 
sity varies with the soil, and the expense with 
which it is procured. The heavy clay and peat 
soils require the largest proportions; the light 
lands need a much smaller quantity to produce 
the maximum benefit. I have used it at the 
rate of 25 bushels per acre, mixed with earth, 
on light soils, and never more than 100 bushels 
per acre on clays. This is the proportion com- 
monly used on the heavy soils of the midland 
counties, and the deep clays of the weald of 
Kent. In Scotland they apply sometimes as 
much as 360 bushels per acre, and in Ireland 
still larger quantities have been successfully 
employed; and on some of the peat mosses of 
the north of England, more than 1000 bushels 
have been used with good effect. The employ- 
ment of such large proportions, however, can 
rarely be justified, even when the lime is ob- 
tainable at a very low rate. 

I have used lime, and have been present at 
other liming operations for many years. I 
have chiefly employed it either as a top-dress- 
ing, or which, for light soils, I much prefer, 
mixed with ditch scrapings, old banks or pond 
mud, at the rate of one bushel of lime to a cubic 
yard of earth. And then, after thoroughly mix- 
ing them together, and allowing the mass to 
remain for a month or six weeks, I have al- 
ways succeeded in forming a most enriching 
compost, which, on even the gravelly soils of 
~^ssex, applied at the rate of 20 to 25 cubic 
yards per acre, both for wheat, clover, and po- 
tatoes (to which crop, in general, lime is pre- 
judicial), has produced the most powerful 
effects, certainly increasing by one-third the 
produce of the natural soil. It is only in the 
state of mixture with earth, or peat, or salt, that 
I have found lime profitably useful for light, 
gravelly soils. Yet I have varied the applica- 
tion in a variety of ways and proportions, but 
still, for the gravels or sands, the result was 
never entirely satisfactory. But I have wit- 
nessed, as a dressing for the black hungry 
gravels of Spring Park, near Croydon, lime 
and peat mixed together, at the rate of I part 
of lime and 3 parts of peat, with the most com- 
plete success. The peat is reduced to a finely- 
divided state, and rendered partially soluble by 
the action of the lime, and is a most powerful 
top-dressing for young clovers. This is ex- 
plainable (amongst other reasons) by the fact 
that the peat employed being saturated with a 
suiution of sulphate of iron, the lime converted 
It into sulphate of lime, which is a constituent 
or direct food of clover. Equally successful, 
on 'igliL soils, have been my trials of lime, when 
mixed with common salt ; 3 parts of lime, 
mixed with 1 part of salt in a dry state, and 
718 



suffered to remain for three months previous 
to its being used in a dry place. By applying 
this mixture at the rate of from 40 to 50 bushels 
per acre, crops of turnips have been grown 
under my directions fully equal to any produced 
by 20 cubic yards per acre of farm-yard com- 
post: and in 1840, the produce of ground thus 
dressed fully equalled that of some adjoining 
lands of the same field, which had been ma- 
nured with the ordinary compost. And an 
excellent neighbouring farmer, Mr. Foster, of 
Great Totham, in July, 1840, made an experi- 
ment with turnips, entirely confirming those 
I had elsewhere instituted. He applied a mix- 
ture per acre of 30 bushels of lime with 15 
bushels of salt, to 10 acres of a field contain- 
ing 12 acres. The land previously had a crop 
of rye, which was fed off" with sheep ; and on 
the 2 acres to which the salt and lime were not 
applied, the sheep had oil cake given to them, 
and, moreover, the land was sub-soiled to a 
depth of 18 to 20 inches. The field previous- 
ly had a good summer fallow. The lime and 
salt was spread broadcast after the last plough- 
ing, and harrowed in before the seed. The 
turnips were of the variety called green rounds. 
The land slopes to the south, and its soil is a 
light, mouldy turnip soil. In examining them 
in company with Mr. Foster, in the last week 
in August, he expressed himself abundantly 
satisfied with the result. The crop of turnips 
was equally good all over the field; if there 
was a shade of difference, it was in favour of 
the sub-soiled and cake-fed land ; but the ad- 
vantage, if any, was exceedingly inconsider- 
able. 

In the use of this mixture, I have found the 
moisture of the atmosphere highly advanta- 
geous in increasing the operation of the lime 
and salt; an observation, too, which is not 
confined to the dry, gravelly soils on which 
my experiments were carried on. Thus, in 
1839, on an exhausted, rather heavy turnip 
loam, 80 bushels per acre of a mixture of salt 
1 part, and lime 2 parts, made three months 
previously, were spread in July, and sown 
with the white I'ound turnips. The turnip 
plants came up equally well all over the field ; 
but on the portions where the salt and lime 
were omitted, they speedily perished; but in 
every part dressed with the lime and salt, the 
crop was excellent. 

In the dry season of 1840, however, another 
portion of the same field being treated in a 
similar manner, the effect produced by the 
lime and salt was not nearly so decisive ; the 
plants were weak, the crop inferior. 

I have found the lime and salt equally bene- 
ficial as a dressing for wheat and barley; but 
a description of those experiments will more 
properly be found under the head Salt and 
Lime ; for when the application is made to the 
land, the lime and salt have, in fact, entered 
into new combinations ; the compound applied 
is no longer a dressing with lime and salt, but 
with a mixture chiefly composed of chloride 
of calcium and carbonate of soda, with a por- 
tion of undecomposed lime and common salt 
I have several times mixed lime, in cases 
where I suspected the presence of grub and 
the seeds of weeds, with farm-yard compost, 



LIME. 



LIME. 



but never successfully. Convinced of the ill 
effects of the lime being thus mixed, I have 
long since abandoned the practice. There is, 
in fact, no beneficial object to be attained by 
this mode. The natural well-regulated fer- 
mentation of the dung effects all that the lime 
can do, and in a better manner ; for the lime 
dissolves, and, to a considerable extent, decom- 
poses the finer and richer portions of the com- 
post; and it certainly renders the straw and 
other coarser portions of the manure drier and 
more diflicult to dissolve in the soil. The 
practice, therefore, seems worse than useless. 

In the application of lime to heavy clay 
land, I have always found that it was best, 
used either in its simple uncombined state, or 
after an ultimate mixture of sandy or light cal- 
careous earths, or peat, or salt. But by no 
means of applying it (and I have varied my 
experiments in a variety of ways with con- 
siderable industry) on the land, could I ever 
produce superior effects than by applying the 
lime in its uncombined state, as well burnt and 
finely divided as possible ; and this I have gene- 
rally done as a top-dressing (merely harrow- 
ing it in with the seed), from considering that 
by the soluble property of lime (1 lb. of lime 
dissolving in 480 lbs. of water), the rain always 
conveys it deeper into the soil. 

And yet, from an experiment recently made 
at my suggestion by my next neighbour, Mr. 
Foster, a very excellent farmer of Great To- 
tham, in Essex, I am inclined to believe that 
the lime will produce effects nearly equally 
important when it is ploughed into the soil. 
This trial was made in December, 1839, on a 
field of 5 acres, whose soil is a cold, stiff, 
deep, hungry loam, that had previously borne 
a very poor crop of turnips, which were fed 
off with sheep. This field has a declination 
towards the southwest, and has always pro- 
duced crops of a very inferior description. In 
the middle of December, after spreading 80 
bushels per acre of lime (made from chalk) 
from the cart's tail, by the shovel, it was im- 
mediately ploughed in and drilled with the 
common red wheat. The effect was excellent, 
every one of the neighbours agreeing that the 
land never produced such a crop before. And 
that this was owing to the lime, was evident 
from the inferior produce on the spots where 
the lime had not been spread. 

The exact quantity, however, per acre, Mr. 
Foster is unable to state, owing to his being 
prevented in the hurry of harvest from keeping 
it separate: he estimates it, however, at about 4| 
quarters per acre, and he is clearly of opinion 
that this large produce (for his land) arose not 
so much from the thickness of the crop, as 
from the largeness of the ears. 

In the boggy, unreclaimed lands of Spring 
Park, the effect produced by the direct use of 
lime, at the rate of 200 bushels per acre, is ex- 
cellent. The cost is there 4 pence per bushel, 
and it is that made from chalk. But on the 
light, hungry, black gravels of that farm, as 
well in fact as upon the clays of that district 
(and the same remarks apply in general to al- 
most all light soils and situations), the lime is 
never productive of such powerful effects as 
when mixed with the earthy matters from 



ditches, ponds, old banks, or headlands. But 
here let me earnestly impress upon the farmer 
the necessity and the great advantage of pay- 
ing much more than common attention to the 
mixing of the lime with the earth. 

The lime should not only be of the best 
and recently burnt description, but should be 
mixed as thoroughly and as finely as possible 
with the earth. By this means the heat gene- 
rated in the mass by the slaking of the lime is 
considerable, and is productive of several ad- 
vantages : it kills more completely insects of 
all kinds — seeds of weeds, and the more stub- 
born roots of weeds. And the mixed earths 
are rendered considerably more friable, and 
capable of a much more even and economical 
distribution on the farmer's crops, than by the 
ordinary careless way of mixing them. On 
peat soils, and on those abounding in the 
tough inert remains of the heath plants, lime 
is best applied in its purest state, unmixed 
with any other substances to weaken its effect. 
Its action on such soils is not difficult of ex- 
planation. It dissolves and renders soluble 
the organic matters of the soil, and it decom 
poses the sulphate of iron (or green vitriol) 
which it often contains. In such lands, too. 
we rarely find any lime : it furnishes, there- 
fore, to them a portion of an earth whose pre- 
sence is absolutely essential to the profitable 
growth of all the most valuable vegetables. 
How excellent such an addition is to these soils, 
even when applied only at the rate of 4 bushels 
per acre, has been proved by some extensive 
experiments of the Scotch planter, the growth 
of whose young woods has been very mate- 
dally and rapidly promoted by merely placing 
a handful of lime under each plant. Now we 
have already seen how copiously this earth is 
found in the ashes, not only of the fir, but in 
those of all other timber trees. So unvaried, in- 
deed, is the presence of the salts of lime in 
vegetables, that they have been supposed to 
produce a similar supporting effect to that the 
same salts of lime yield in the bones of ani- 
mals. And it is certainly worthy of remark 
that the phosphate and carbonate of lime, of 
which the bones of all animals are chiefly 
composed, are precisely the salts of lime the 
most universally present in vegetables. 

Lime must, therefore, be classed amongst 
those manures which commonly serve to pro- 
mote the permanent fertility of the land, for un- 
less it is washed by the moisture of the atmo- 
sphere, or the flood waters, it can only be re- 
moved from the soil by becoming the food for 
the cultivator's crops. In poor, peaty soils, no 
other manure can be compared to it, either for 
powerful effect, or for rapidity of action ; and 
its usefulness is nearly as great on the stiffest 
clay land. Whenever, therefore, the permanent 
improvement of such soils shall be considered 
with that general and that patient attention 
which the importance oft the object demands, 
at that period the fertilizing powers of lime 
will be still more generally appreciated, and 
its services be far more extended than ai 
present. 

The quantity of lime applied per acre of ne- 
cessity varies with the description of the soil; 
that Avhich contains most organic matter will, 

71» 



LIME. 



LIME. 



of necessity, bear a larger proportion than that 
which is more free from vegetable or aninaal 
remains. The quantity usually applied is much 
too large, and the dressing too often repeated 
without proper consideration ; and it is not until 
the land becomes absolutely overcharged with 
lime, that the farmer begins to have a sus- 
picion that his land is tired of it. In Ire- 
land it is sometimes applied to old pasture 
leys intended for potatoes, at the rate of 400 
bushels per acre ; and on some of the moors 
in Derbyshire, 1500 bushels per acre have been 
found not too large a quantity. In Scotland 
the quantity usually applied for light land is 
about IGO bushels per acre; for stiff clay soils 
from 240 to 360 bushels. On the stiff clays 
of the Weald of Kent, the quantity usually 
employed is about 100 bushels per acre, and 
that is often repeated every 5 years, on the fal- 
low before wheat. 

Lime may be as readily produced by burning 
limestone with peat as with coals ; the heat pro- 
duced is amply sufficient, and the heat moss ea- 
sily managed. 

According to the views of Professor Daub- 
ny and M. Prideaux, lime operates beneficially 
on some soils, by promoting the disengage- 
ment of potash and other substances, where 
these exist in the mineral materials, thus con- 
verting dormant earthy or saline constituents 
into agents active in the promotion of vegetable 
growth. The soil of a field exhausted by long- 
continued cropping, was found to yield double 
the quantity of potash, after being dressed 
with lime. The action, therefore, of lime upon 
the earthy matters of many soils, is exceed- 
ingly beneficial. The frequent application of 
lime, however, tends to exhaust such soils, by 
the rapid reduction of the proportion of their 
potash, which is not only furnished more copi- 
ously as a constituent to the growing crops, 
but by dissolution in the water becomes drained 
from the land. 

Although beneficial, from these chemical ef- 
fects exerted over the soil in setting free and 
rendering active some of its most fertilizing 
agents, it is generally admitted that the greatest 
benefit derived from the use of lime, is from its 
action upon the vegetable and animal matters 
with which it is brought into contact, when 
introduced into the soil. In numerous trials 
made by Professor J. F. W. Johnston, lime ap- 
peared to produce very slight benefits upon lands, 
in which organic (animal and vegetable) matter 
was deficient. 

An ordinary liming will rarely amount to 1 
per cent, of the entire weight of the soil. It 
requires about 400 bushels, or 12 or 15 tons of 
burned lime, per acre, to add 1 per cent, of 
1 me to a soil 12 inches deep, or 2 per cent, when 
the depth is only 6 inches. The good effects of 
lime are most decided, when used as a top dress- 
ing and kept near the surface. A much smaller 
quantity wfll answer, when applied immediately 
upon being slaked with water, as in this state 
lime is quite soluble, but very slowly so, after 
it has been exposed to»the atmosphere and be- 
come like chalk. See Chalk. When after 
elaking it has become too wet, so as to be ce- 
mented into lumps, these decompose so slowly, 
that they may be almost regarded as a dead 
'oss. 

The amount of lime taken from the soil by 
720 



crops, is far greater than is generally understooQ. 
Prof. J. F. W. Johnston states the weight of 
lime thus carried off in 25 bushe'ls of wheat 
at 9 lbs. ; 50 bushels of oats 9 lbs. ; 38 of barley 
at 15 lbs.; 2 tons of rye-grass 33 lbs.; 2 tons 
red clover 126 lbs.; 25 tons of turnips 140 lbs.; 
9 tons of potatoes 270 lbs. This includes the 
lime in all its forms, and especially the all im- 
portant phosphate in the grain. To I his great 
source of exhaustion of the soil, must be added 
the lime which combines with several acid mat- 
ters, forming compounds more or less soluble in 
water, in which state it is drained from the 
land, or sunk into the earth beyond the reach of 
plants. 

Although light soils are most readily ex- 
hausted of lime, they possess the great advan- 
tage over heavy clays, of allowing the car- 
bonic acid in rain water, more ready access 
to the roots of plants, and atmospheric air 
more ready entrance to all decomposing ma- 
nures, such as bones, fish, rape-cake, &c. This 
may afford an explanation of the cause why 
lime, as well as other fertilizers, frequently 
fail to show prominent benefits on certain 
lands. In order to act most favourably, they 
need the presence of carbonic acid and atmo- 
spheric air. 

There is perhaps no other country so rich- 
ly endowed with this earth as England, for, 
to say nothing of its great strata of chalk, 
how endless are the masses and varieties of 
limestones. Let us not therefore neglect, but 
extend, by every means in our power, the 
use of the treasures we possess ; for by so 
doing we may not only increase the fertility 
of lands already (like the more tenacious clays 
for instance) in some degree productive of 
food, but we can bring into cultivation, by 
the judicious employment of this powerful 
earth, the most sterile peats, the trembling 
bogs, the most worthless heaths : the infe- 
rior plants, such as the acid sorrel, are ba- 
nished by its influence, and the soil which 
once only held the stagnant water impregna- 
ted with unwholesome vegetable and mine- 
ral matters, is now made to produce the most 
useful of the cultivator's crops ; and the im- 
provement, too, is of even national import- 
ance, for such lands not only furnish addi- 
tional employment to the labourer, but they 
now purify an atmosphere which their ex- 
halations in an unimproved state once cor- 
rupted. 

" Much has been written and said relative to 
the preservative and destructive effects of lime 
on organic manures, from which we learn that 
it operates both ways, according to its chemical 
state. If employed as quick-lime, and placed 
in contact with organic matter, its alkaline pro- 
perties would lead us to infer a decomposing 
influence, which is confirmed by experience; 
but the effect is of short duration, and is suc- 
ceeded by the reverse operation, that of pre- 
serving such matter from farther decomposi- 
tion. The truth is, if we could insure a con- 
tinuance of its caustic state, we might be 
equally sure of its constant decomposing pow- 
er, but by this action it generates carbonic 
acid from the organic matter uniting with it 
and forming a neutral carbonate, which either 
acts like other salts in preventing decompo- 
sition by its presence or catalytic influence, or 



LIME. 



LIME. 



being formed and hardened in the interior of 
the organized material, protects it from farther 
decay. For this reason it may be used to pre- 
vent excessive fermentation in the dung-hill; 
and to the same properties we may in part 
ascribe its utility in the soil, viz., that of per- 
mitting the slow and gradual decay of organic 
matter in quantities suited to the demands of 
vegetation. It has been supposed that the 
chief value of lime as a manure lay in its 
caustic or destructive effects, but that this po- 
sition is untenable is proved by the successful 
application of marls, and even powdered lime- 
stone, which are robbed of their caustic quali- 
ties. Sir H. Davy and others who have writ- 
ten on the subject of agriculture, refer the 
utility of lime to its causticity, and state that 
'chalk, marl, or carbonate of lime will only 
improve the texture of the soil or its relation 
to absorption ; it acts merely as one of the 
earthy ingredients.' This view is unquestion- 
ably incorrect, for it has been known to pro- 
duce astonishing effects on peaty soils, when 
applied in the form of carbonate and not caus- 
tic lime, and powdered limestone as well as 
marl have been successfully used on ordinary 
soils. Besides, if ' the formation of soluble 
matter from insoluble organic materials' be 
the chief effect of lime, this effect should 
take place immediately, while the lime is in 
its canslic state ; but it appears that it soon 
becomes carbonated in the soil, or by exposure 
to the air, and yet its useful effects are more 
perceptible a considerable time after its appli- 
cation, and may be perceived for many years. 
Whence it appears that its action on organic 
matters in the soil is continued (probably not 
increased) in the soil after carbonation. 

"Much of the vagueness in descriptions re- 
lative to the use of lime has arisen from an 
imperfect knowledge of the organic constitu- 
ents of soils, which have lately been partially 
developed. Authors have divided the organic 
matter into soluble and insoluble, by the for- 
mer of which we understand the humic, crenic, 
and apocrenic acids, and by the latter, humin, 
humus-coal, and vegetable fibre; and they state 
that lime is injurious where there is much 
soluble matter in the soil, as it forms insoluble 
combinations. The truth is, the humate of 
lime is partially soluble, the crenate somewhat 
so, and the bi-crenate very soluble. Now, by 
admitting these acids as active ingredients in 
soils, we are at no loss to account for the 
utility of carbonate of lime, for the weak affi- 
nity of the carbonic acid is overcome by their 
superior attraction, and more soluble salts are 
formed which may then be received into the 
rootlets of plants. There can be no doubt, 
however, that caustic lime Js of greater benefit 
where a soil contains humin and vegetable 
fibre, as it promotes their incipient decomposi- 
tion. The utility of lime, therefore, is three- 
fold : first, that of decomposing organic matter, 
and rendering it a suitable nourishment for 
plants ; secondly, that of combining with orga- 
nic matter and rendering it capable of being 
received into the vessels of vegetable organ- 
ization for promoting vegetation ; and, lastly, 
that of lengthening the time of decomposition 
of organic matter, which, therefore, yields nu- 
91 



trition in proportion to the demands of a plant 
in the progress of its growth. 

" It has been supposed by many to be neces- 
sary that lime should be caustic, as it is only 
then soluble, but it should not be forgotten that 
the carbonate is also soluble in water contain- 
ing carbonic acid ; and farther, it is not neces- 
sary that either the carbonate or quick-lime 
alone should be dissolved in order to explain 
its influence in vegetation, for moisture, the 
medium of chemical action, is always present 
in the soil, and assists in its soluble combina- 
tion with the organic acids. There is, how- 
ever, another action of lime with reference to 
the soil itself, which is of importance, viz., that 
it renders clayey lands looser, and sandy soils 
more tenacious. The latter of these contrary 
effects is of a chemical character, and there is 
little doubt that lime acts like mortar by com- 
bining the particles of sand together. The 
former is partly mechanical, the mingling of 
less cohesive earthy matter with the clay, and 
partly chemical, in which the lime dissolved by 
rains is washed into the crevices and cracks 
of the clay, where, becoiiing carbonated, it 
prevents their farther adhesion. To effect 
these results most powerfully, it is evident 
that the lime should be employed in a caustic 
or water-slaked state. According to these 
views, therefore, it is a matter of less moment 
on what kind of land lime should be spread, 
as it tends to ameliorate its condition or tex- 
ture, and is the medium of conveyance of nu- 
trition to vegetable life. 

"Nearly all the limestone employed in Dela- 
ware for spreading on the soil is magnesian, 
and it is therefore worth investigating how far 
the magnesia may be injurious. One of the 
first limestones employed for this purpose in 
Pennsylvania, from which lime derived much 
of its reputation as a manure in this section of 
country, and which has not lost its character 
to the present time, is nearly of the same com- 
position with Jeanes' stone ; a very fair proof 
that such a content of magnesia is not inju- 
rious under certain circumstances. Sir H. 
Davy's view of the subject appears to be cor- 
rect, that magnesia in a caustic state is inju- 
rious, but that when carbonated it is beneficial. 
It was stated that it remains caustic for a long 
time exposed to the air, and particularly when 
mingled with lime; therefore, in employing a 
magnesian limestone, if there is little vegetable 
matter in the soil it will be apt to injure the 
crops ; but this effect may be obviated by 
mingling it with fermenting manure, which 
will rapidly carbonate it. There is another 
view of the subject which has never been 
broached, viz., the influence of the organic 
acids in the soil. If much humic acid be pre- 
sent, it will form humate of magnesia, soluble 
in 160 parts of water, while humate of lime 
requires 2000, so that it will be taken up in 
greater quantity than lime. But by referring 
to the quantity required by plants as shown 
by an analysis of their ashes, we find that oak 
requires about 5^ times as much lime as mag- 
nesia, and that ashes of straw yield nearly 12 
per cent, of carbonate and phosphate of lime, 
and no magnesia, from which it would seem 
that the latter is injurious to plants from its 
3P 721 



LIME. 



LIME. 



excess where humic acid is abundant. But if 
the soil contain much humin, and other inso- 
luble organic matter, its action in a caustic 
state would be beneficial like that of lime. We 
have, therefore, in Delaware abundant means 
of rendering magnesian lime useful, by em- 
playing it in conjunction with peaty matter, the 
black soil of marshes, creeks, &c." (Booth's 
Geology of Delaware.) 

All the grain crops, as well as those of grass, 
are greatly benefited by judicious applications 
of lime in some of its various forms. Oats 
lake up a larger proportion than almost any 
other grain, and hence are observed to be 
specially benefited by lime. Rye and Indian 
corn are also greatly benefited by lime, and 
with regard to wheat, the following strong tes- 
timony is from Dr. Jackson, the able American 
chemist and geologist. " I find," he says, " by 
chemical examination of several soils, that a 
very minute quantity of carbonate of lime, viz. 
from one to two per cent., is amply sufficient 
to render them capable of bearing heavy crops 
of good wheat. I am also satisfied that a soil 
is incapable of producing wheat of good qua- 
lity if it does not contain carbonate of lime, 
for this substance is an essential ingredient of 
this grain." 

It has been computed that every person who 
consumes 1 lb. of wheat bread daily, will, in the 
course of one year, take into his system 3 lbs. 
6 oz. 3 drs. and 44 grs. of phosphate of lime. 
"This circumstance is supposed to explain the 
reason why this kind of bread is so superior to 
•that made of other grain, as phosphate of lime 
forms a principal element of human bodies. It is 
found in milk, where nature seems to indicate 
that it is contained for the nourishment of the 
young animal, from the remarkable fact that, 
when they are able to take other food, the milk 
loses its proportion of this substance. Although 
phosphate of lime is contained in considerable 
quantities in the adult secretions, it is not known 
in those of the 3'oung, being all taken iip for the 
purposes of nutriment. The shells of eggs are 
•formed of this substance, and Dr. Paris has as- 
■certained the singular fact that, if the legs of a 
hen be broken, she will lay her eggs without 
shells until these are repaired, for which thelime 
is required. Hens will also lay their eggs with- 
out shells if there is a deficiency of lime in the 
yard in which they roam. It is a remarkable 
circumstance, that although the grain contains 
the phosphate, the straw contains the carbonate 
of lime. Carbon is, next to water, the principal 
support of vegetation." (Cultivator.) 

Lime-Kilns and Burning, — A lime-kiln is a 
furnace or rough structure erected for the pur- 
pose of converting limestone into the lime of 
commerce, by keeping it for some time in a 
white heat. 

The forms of lime-kilns vary; but the best 
is that of the frustrum of a cone, which per- 
mits the ignited mass in the upper part to settle 
down freely as the lower portion is drawn out. 
tn some places the kilns are sunk in the earth, 
' in the form of inverted cones, and lined with 
brick. It is calculated that such kilns will 
burn 150 bushels of lime in 24 hours. When 
chalk is used, and it is dry, 5 bushels may be 
burnt with one bushel of coals ; but the damp- 
722 



ness of the chalk lessens considerably the 
power of the fuel. Peat is sometimes used in- 
stead of coals, and some burners prefer it to 
coal. Whatever the fuel may be, that is the 
best which prevents the lime from running to- 
gether in masses. The best test of the lime 
being sufficiently calcined is its slaking, and 
falling into complete powder when water is 
poured on it. 

Some excellent practical remarks upon lime 
burning, by Sir G. C. Stewart Monteath, were 
published some time since. He observes : — 
" Having been engaged in burning lime for the 
supply of an extensive district of country for 
agricultural improvements, and being distant 
from coal 16 miles, it was desirable to find out 
the best constructed kiln for burning lime with 
the smallest quantity of coal, and having been 
aware, from experiment, that the kilns gene- 
rally employed in Great Britain for burning 
lime are of a construction too narrow at bot- 
tom and too wide at top, many kilns of this 
construction being not more than 3 or 4 feet 
wide at bottom, and 18 feet wide at the height 
of 21 feet, were found to waste the fuel during 
the process of calcining the lime, or, in other 
words, did not produce more than two measures 
of burnt lime shells for one measure of coal ; 
but it is to be understood that, in whatever con- 
struction of kiln lime is burnt, the fuel required 
to burn limestone must vary according to the 
softness, or hardness, or density of the stone, 
and the quality or strength of the coal used. 
The same measure of coal in Scotland called 
chews, when employed, will burn a greater 
quantity of lime in a given time than the same 
quantity or weight of small coal, the chews or 
small pieces of coal admitting the air to circu- 
late more freely through the kiln. Though this 
fact should be well known to lime burners, yet 
they frequently employ small coal in burning 
lime, from its being procured at a less price, 
though really at a greater expense, as it re- 
quires a much larger quantity to produce the 
same effect, and a longer time to admit of equal 
quantities of lime being drawn out of the same 
kiln in a given time. 

" For a sale of lime for agricultural purposes 
in a limited district, I have found kilns of small 
dimensions to be most profitable; the construc- 
tion of a kiln I have employed for many years 
was of an oval shape, 5 feet wide at bottom, 
widening gradually to 6 feet at the height of 18 
feet, and continuing at that width to 28 feet 
high from the bottom. A kiln of this construc- 
tion has been found to burn lime in much less 
time, and with a smaller proportion of fuel, 
than kilns of larger dimensions narrow at bot- 
tom and wide at lop, as heat is well known to 
ascend more rapidly in a perpendicular than 
in a sloping direction, from which arises the 
superiority of a narrow kiln, with sides nearly 
perpendicular, compared with one with sides 
that slope rapidly. 

"These narrow kilns will admit of being 
drawn out of them every day, if fully employed, 
more than two-thirds, or nearly three-fourths, 
of what they contain, of well-burnt lime ; and 
afford fully three of lime shells for one measure 
of coal, when large circular kilns will not give 
out more than one-half of their contents every 



I 



LIME. 



LIME GRASS. 



■ day, and require nearly one of coal for every 
two measures of lime burnt. In a country sale 
of lime, the quantity sold every day is liable to 
great fluctuations: two or three cart-loads will 
sometimes only be required from an establish- 
ment which, the day before, supplied forty; and 
as lime is known to be a commodity, when ex- 
posed to the action of air, which becomes more 
bulky and heavy, and in that state does not ad- 
mit of being carried to a distance without addi- 
tional labour, it has been an object of import- 
ance with me to find out a construction of a kiln 
which will allow of lime being kept for several 
days widiout slaking, and at the same time to 
prevent the tire escaping at the top of the kiln, 
if the kiln stands 24 hours without being em- 
ployed, especiall}'^ during the autumn and win- 
ter, when the air is cold and the nights long. 
I now employ kilns of an egg shape, and also 
oval ; the oval-shaped kilns are divided by 
arches across the kiln, descending 4 feet from 
the top; the object of the arches across the 
kiln is to prevent the sides of the kiln falling 
in or contracting, and also to enable you to 
form circular openings for feeding in the stone 
and coal at the mouth of the kiln ; upon this 
plan, a kiln of any length might be construct- 
ed with numerous round mouths. In the model 
of the kiln sent to the Highland Society, Book- 
er's conical cover may be seen revolving upon 
an iron ring placed upon the circular mouth, 
and having placed a lid to the cover, I am en- 
abled to prevent the escape of heat at the top, 
and by cast-iron doors at the bottom the air is 
prevented passing through the kiln ; so that, 
by these precautions, the lime burner can regu- 
late the heat, and prevent its escape for several 
days, when the fire would be extinguished at 
this season in the course of 24 hours. This is 
an object of great importance, as it enables the 
lime to he burnt as well, and with as small a 
quantity of fuel in the winter as the summer 
season, and to supply the fafmer with as well 
burned lime, and at any time of the year, which 
cannot be done in the common construction of 
kilns, open both at top and bottom, for the rea- 
sons I have before stated. From the great ex- 
pense attending the driving of fuel from a dis- 
tance of 25 miles from my own coal-pits, I have 
adopted the practice of coking the coal, which 
is a saving of eight-twentieths of the weight ; and 
I find that an equal measure of coal and coke 
furnish the same quantity of heat in burning 
lime, which is somewhat paradoxical, but not 
the less true. The coal is found to have little 
effect upon the stone till it is deprived of its 
bitumen, or is coked in the kiln ; for, during the 
time the smoke is emitted from the top of a 
lime kiln, little or no heat is evolved. A kiln 
in which coke is the fuel employed, will yield 
near a third more lime shells in a given time 
than when coal is the fuel ; so that coke may 
be used occasionally when a greater quantity 
of lime is required in a certain time than usual, 
as it is well known to lime burners that the 
process of burning is done most economically 
when the kiln is in full action, so as almost 
constantly to have a column of fire from the 
bottom to the top of the kiln, with as short in- 
tervals as possible in working the kiln. 
"In working a kiln with narrow circular 



mouths, the stone and coal should be carefully 
measured, so that the workmen can proportion 
the fuel employed to the quantity of stones, and 
it is obvious that the quantity of coal to be 
used must depend upon its relative quality and 
the hardness of the stone to be burnt. If this 
measure was adapted to kilns of any con- 
struction, the lime snells would be found better 
burnt. 

"Circular kilns are constructed with similar 
eyes or openings at the bottom, and not more 
than 8 feet wide at 18 feet from the base, and 
contracted to 4 or 5 feet wide at top. In light- 
ing the kiln at the commencement of burning, 
some care should be taken not to allow the fire 
to remain below the upper grate. There are 
two iron grates at the bottom of the kiln : the 
upper grate consists of iron bars 8 or 10 inches 
distant from each other across the kiln, be- 
tween which the pieces of burnt lime fall down 
upon a lower grate with iron bars one inch 
from each other, which allows the lime ashes 
to fall through them into an ash pit ; these 
lime ashes are found very useful as a top- 
dressing for grass ground, and are a clear gain 
to the proprietor of lime-kilns for public sale. 
As a burner of lime for agriculture in an ex- 
tensive district of country to the extent of 
150,000 imperial bushels annually, the value 
of the lime ashes which fall through the lower 
grate amounts to more than 1501. annually; 
the lower grate is 3 feet above the ground, and 
the upper grate is the same distance from the 
lower one. The kilns I employ at Closeburn 
are upwards of 30 feet high, and nearly per- 
pendicular, which is the cause of the great 
heat in this construction of kiln, and which is 
found to burn lime more equally than circular 
kilns of large dimensions. (^Trans. High. Soc. 
vol. ii. p. I^.) 

The limestone quarries of Scotland are de- 
scribed by Mr. Carmichael {Ibid. vol. v. p. 57) : 
he observes, when speaking of the uses of this 
valuable earth, " how sterile must have been 
the soil, how cheerless the dwellings, and how 
scanty the resources of Britain before lime 
came into general use." And on the method 
of calcining limestone in some of the limestone 
quarries in Scotland there is a paper. (Ibid, 
p. 441.) 

Limestone Gravel. — There are some traces of 
this manure in the Isle of Anglesea; but in ge- 
neral, it is seen in quantities only in Ireland, 
where it is very common. It is in appearance 
only common gravel, of a blue colour, mixed 
with stones as large as a man's fist, and also 
with loam or clay: it has a strong effervescence 
with acids, and, when used, is attended with the 
usual effects of marl or lime. F^r bogs, it ex- 
ceeds every other manure, as its weight assists 
in the iraproveraont of that loose and spongy- 
soil. Upon strong clays, the use of it is unri- 
valled, for it has all the effect of a dressing of 
lime, and gives friability yet more than chalk 
does. It destroys moss infallibly. Upon what- 
ever soil it is used, it is found very durable, 
lasting, in many instances, in great heart, from 
twenty to forty years. In limestone counties, 
all blue gravels should be examined; for it is 
an invaluable treasure, wherever found. 

LIME or LYME GRASS. See Ei.tmu9. 

723 



LIME PLANT. 



LIME TREE. 



LIME PLANT. A name applied in the 
Northern and Eastern States to the indigenous 
plant called in the Middle States May Apple 

(^Podophyllum peltatum). 

LIMESTONE. A generic term for those 
varieties of carbonate of lime which are neither 
crystallized nor earthy; the former being cal- 
careous spar, the latter chal/c; when burned, they 
yield quick-lime. See Geology, Chalk, Lime. 

LIME TREES {Tilia). These are for the 
most part ornamental, lofty-growing trees, well 
suited for avenues and parks. They thrive in 
any soil, and are increased by layers or seeds ; 
if by layers, the tree must be cut down close 
to the ground, and from its roots a great num- 
ber of shoots are produced in the following 
year : these will be strong enough to lay down 
the succeeding autumn. Trees raised from 
seed are far preferable to those raised from 
layers. The Russian bass-mats are made from 
the inner bark of the lime tree, while the wood, 
from its being light and white, is much used 
by the carver and musical instrument maker. 

The charcoal is used in the manufacture of 
gunpowder, and is considered as scarcely infe- 
rior for that purpose to the charcoal produced 
from the alder and willow. If we possess no 
evidence sufficiently conclusive to prove that 
the lime tree in any of its forms is truly indi- 
genous in Britain, we have at least enough to 
show that it has long been naturalized, and that 
its introduction must have taken place at a 
very distant period ; for, upon referring to the 
earlier works, such as Turner, Gerard, &c., 
we find it (in the form of T. E. microphylla) 
spoken of as a well-known, and in their esti- 
mation, apparently, as a native tree. By many 
botanists (says Mr. Selby), several species of 
lime are enumerated as inhabitants of Europe; 
and Sir J. E. Smith makes three distinct species 
of those cultivated and grown in Britain ; viz., 
T. Europcea, T. grandifolia, and T. parvifolia, the 
two latter answering to the T. pla/yphylla and 
T. microphylla of other authors. We are, how- 
ever, continues Mr. Selby, inclined to adopt the 
views and follow the opinion of the author of 
the jlrborelvm Brilamiicum, and to consider these 
not as specifically distinct from T. Europcea, in 
its usual form, but as marked varieties, or, as 
Mr. Loudon designates them, races, originally 
produced from the seed of one, and which have 
been kept distinct, and perpetuated by means 
of layers, grafting, and other artificial modes 
of propagatiisn ; a view we think strongly cor- 
roborated by the fact that the seeds of the dif- 
ferent kinds, or supposed species, do not always 
produce plants exactly similar to the trees from 
which they are gathered, but run into varieties, 
the seed of T. E. platyphylla often producing 
plants similar in every respect to those of T. 
Europcsa (the common lime), and so with the 
other kinds. 

The lime tree appears to have been held in 
repute in ancient as well as in modern times ; 
for we learn from Theophrastus that it was 
known to the Greeks ; and Pliny speaks of it 
as a tree held in high esteem by the Romans, 
not only for the ornament and shade it afl!brded, 
but for the qualities of its wood, and the various 
purposes to which it was adapted. Nearly two 
hundred years have elapsed since it was plant- 
724 



' ed along the streets of continental as well as 
English towns, where their width would admit 

I of it, as affording a pleasant shade and protec- 
tion during the summer heats, and it was ex- 

! tensively used in that style of gardening called 
architectural, as it bore cutting with the knife 
or shears with patience and comparative im- 
punity. Examples of this style still exist in 
some parts of England, and are frequent upon 
the Continent, in France and Holland, where 
pyramids, arches, and colonnades are formed 
of this tree, and sometimes these produce an 
imposing effect. As an ornamental tree in 
picturesque gardening, the lime is well worth 
cultivating, as it ranks in the first class in point 
of magnitude, frequently attaining a height of 
eighty or ninety feet, and a trunk corresponding 
in circumference to such an altitude. The 
lime holds an important place in the Materia 
Medica of France and other continental coun- 
tries ; but its medicinal powers are very feeble. 
Loudon, in his Encyclopaedia of Plants, enu- 
merates eight species or varieties of the linden 
or lime tree (Tiliacea). 1. Tilia rubra, the red 
or common linden. 2. T. intermedia, or inter- 
mediate. 3. T. parvifolia, or small-leaved- 

4. Platyphylla, or broad-leaved. All these are 
found indigenous in the woods of Britain. 

5. T. Americana, American lime or linden. 
(See BAss-woor.) 6. T. pubcsccns, downy and 
thin-leaved lime tree. 7. T. heterophylla, or 
various-leaved lime tree. The three last-named 
species are indigenous to North America. 8. T. 
alba vel argentia, the white or silver linden, 
which is stated to be a native of Hungary. 

Michaux has described the three American 
species of lime tree, one of which has been al- 
ready referred to under its common name of 
Bass-wood. The American white lime is doubt- 
less a distinct species from the Tilia alba of 
Hungary. 

"I have not," says Michaux, "met with the 
white lime tree east of the river Delaware, but 
it is abundant in Pennsylvania, Mar}'land, De- 
laware, and the Western States. It does not 
grow, like the preceding species, in elevated 
places, nor amidst other trees in the forests, 
and is rarely seen except on the banks of rivers. 
I have particularly observed it on those of the 
Susquehanna, the Ohio, and the streams which 
empty into them. 

"The height of the white lime tree rarely 
exceeds forty feet, and its diameter twelve or 
eighteen inches. Its young branches are co- 
vered with a smooth, silver-gray bark, by which 
it is recognised in the winter. The leaves are 
very large, denticulated, obliquely heart-shaped 
and pointed, of a dark-green on the upper sur- 
face, and white beneath, with small reddish 
tufts on the angles of the principal nerves. 
This whitish tint is most striking on solitary 
trees exposed to the sun. 

" The floAvers come out in June, and, as well 
as the floral leaf, are larger than those of any 
other lime tree with which I am acquainted. 
The petals are larger and whiter, and are im- 
pregnated with an agreeable odour. The seeds 
are round, or rather oval, and downy. 

" The wood of this tree is white and tender, 
and I believe it is never employed in the arts. 

"This and the follcv'ng species have re- 



LIME TREE. 



LINEN. 



ceived no popular specific names, but are both I Harris Yecommends the employment of decoc- 
called lime tree and bass-wood: that of white ! lions of tobacco or of walnut leaves, thrown on 



lime, which I have given to this species on ac 
count of the colour of its foliage, is peculiarly 
appropriate. 

" Tlie Downy Lime Tree belongs to the south- 
ern parts of the United States. It grows on the 
borders of rivers and large marshes, where the 
soil is cool and fertile, but not exposed to inun- 
dation. It is little multiplied, and consequently 
is not taken notice of by the inhabitants ; for 
this reason, and because it is the only species 
of its kind in the maritime parts of the Caroli- 
nas and of Georgia, it has received no specific 
denomination, and is called simply lime tree; 
to which [ have added the epithet downy, derived 
from a character of its foliage not observed in 
the preceding species. 

" This tree is forty or fifty feet in height, with 
a proportional diameter. In its general ap- 
pearance it resembles the American lime tree, 
which grows farther north, more than the white 
lime tree, which belongs to the Middle and 
Western States. Its leaves differ widely in 
size, according to the exposure in which they 
have grown : in dry and open places they are 
only two inches in diameter, and are twice as 
large in cool and shaded situations. They are 
rounded, pointed at the summit, very obliquely 
truncated at the base, edged with fewer and 
more remote teeth than those of the other 
lime trees, and very downy beneath. The 
flowers, also, are more numerous, and form 
larger bunches, and the seeds are round and 
downy. 

" The wood is very similar to that of the 
other species, and I do not know that it is ever 
employed." 

In some parts of Europe, the honey gathered 
by bees from a species or variety of the linden 
is in great request for its superior qualities, and 
real or supposed healing virtues. It would be 
highly desirable to have a tree introduced into 
the United States which offers such a great re- 
source to the bee culturists. See Honey. 

Insect enemies. — The European species of lime 
or linden, which has been extensively introduced 
into the United States as an ornamental tree, has 
suffered greatly of late years from the attacks 
of several destructive insects. Some of these 
are in the form of long, dark-coloured worms 
or caterpillars, with strong webs, which eat off 
the foliage; others bore into the wood of the 
body and branches, chiefly in the crotches, and 
so destroy the strength of the limb, or the body 
itself, that one or both yield readily to the wind, 
or gradually decay and die. There are also the 
leaf-beetles, the most elegant of the family of 
Chrysomelians, which inhabit the leaves, not 
only of the linden, but of the elm, the broods 
being found in April, May, and June, and even 
a second brood in September and October. 
The trees are often seriously injured by these 
flies or beetles and their larvae. After a very 
minute description of this beautiful leaf-beetle, 
with its dark-green body, silvery-white wing- 
covers, ornamented with green spots, and rose- 
coloured wings, Dr. Harris remarks that he 
thinks the grubs go into the ground to turn to 
pupae. When they become so numerous as 
seriously lo injure the lime and elm trees, Dr. 



the trees by means of a garden or fire engine ; 
a method which has been tried with good efifect 
for the destruction of the larvae of Galeruca cal- 
wianmsi's, which appear occasionally in swarms, 
and entirely strip the leaves from the elm trees 
in midsummer. Dr. Harris describes a species 
of lime-looper which proceeds from an umber- 
moth greatly resembling that known in Europe, 
and called by naturalists Hybemia dcfoliaria. 
The American insect, however, differs so much 
in the larva state from the European, as to en- 
title it to be classed as a distinct species; and 
accordingly Dr. Harris has called it Hybemia 
tiliaria, the lime tree winter-moth, from Tilia, 
the scientific name of its favourite tree. The 
fore-wings of the male moth are rusty buff or 
nankin-yellow, sprinkled with very fine brown- 
ish dots, and banded with two transverse, wavy, 
brown lines, the band nearest the shoulders 
being often indistinct. In the space between 
the bands, and near to the thick edge of the 
wing, there is generally a brown dot. The 
hind-wings are much paler than the others, ani 
have a small brownish dot in the middle. The 
colour of the body is the same as that of the 
fore-wings ; and the legs are ringed with buff 
and brown. The wings expand one inch and 
three-quarters. The body of the female is gray- 
ish or yellowish-white ; it is sprinkled on the 
sides with black dots, and there are two square 
black spots on the top of each ring, except the 
last, which has only one spot. The front of 
the head is black ; and the antennce and the 
legs are ringed with black and white. The 
tail is tipped with a tapering, jointed egg-tube, 
that can be drawn in and out, like the joints of 
a telescope. Exclusive of this tube, the female 
measures about half an inch in length. The 
eggs are beautiful objects when seen under a 
microscope. They are of an oval shape and 
pale-yellow colour, and are covered with little 
raised lines, like net-work, or like the cells of 
a honey-comb. 

As these span-worms appear at the same 
time as canker-worms, resemble them in their 
habits, and often live on the same trees, they 
can be kept in check by such means as are 
found useful when employed against canker- 
worms. See Span-worm. 

LINDEN TREE. See Lime Tree. 
LINEN (Germ, liemoand). A species of 
cloth woven with the fibres of the flax plant. 
The linen manufacture has been prosecuted in 
England for a very long period; but though its 
progress has been considerable, particularly of 
late years, it has not been so great as might 
have been anticipated. It is only within the 
last fifty years that any machinery has been 
used in the production of linen cloth ; the first 
mills for the spinning of flax having been cor- 
structed at Darlington, about forty-eight yeai"s 
ago. The principal seat of the manufacture 
is, in England, Leeds and its immediate vici- 
nity, and in Lancashire, Dorset, Durham, and 
Saiop ; in Scotland, Dundee, which, indeed, 
may be regarded as the chief seat of the British 
manufacture ; and in Ireland, the province of 
Ulster. The entire value of the linen manu- 
facture of Great Britain and Ireland is esti 
3 p 2 726 



LING. 

mated at 8,000,000/., and the total number of 
persons employed in it, about 18.5,000. 

LING (Callmia vulgaris). A species of heath. 
To avoid the inconvenience of giving a new 
generic appellation to the hundreds of plants 
familiar to everybody as Erkce or heaths, Mr. 
Salesbury has judiciously called our common 
ling Calluna, from Kuhwym; which is doubly 
suitable, whether with Mr. Salisbury and Dr. 
Hull we take it to express a champing property, 
brooms being made of ling, or whether we 
adopt the more common sense of the word, to 
ornament or adorn, which is very applicable to 
the flowers. This shrub grows almost every- 
where, on dry moors, heaths, and open, barren 
wastes, as well as in woods where the soil is 
sandy or turfy. The stems are bushy, repeat- 
edly and irregularly branched. Leaves deep 
green, minute, sessile, acute, keeled, somewhat 
arrow-shaped, closely imbricated on the young 
branches, making a quadrangular figure, like a 
close-beaten chain; they are generally smooth, 
but in one variety are densely hoary all over. 
The flowers are stalked, drooping, in longish 
tinilateral clusters, soon overtopped by leafy 
shoots. The inner calyx, which is the most 
conspicuous part of the flower, is of a shining 
permanent I'ose colour. The flowers appear 
in June and July. Grouse and other birds, as 
well as some quadrupeds, eat the seeds and 
young shoots. There is a white-flowered va- 
riety, and a very beautiful double red one, 
cultivated in gardens, whose flowers, from a 
copious multiplication of the corolla, resemble 
little roses. See Heath. 

LINIMENT (Lat. lino, I anoint). In farrie- 
ry, a semi-fluid ointment, or a soapy application 
to rub upon painful joints. The term is also 
applied to spirituous and other stimulating ap- 
plications for external use. Liniments are in- 
tended either to lubricate or to stimulate ; but 
in either case they can only be regarded as 
topical applications, their influence not extend- 
ing beyond the part to which they are applied. 
In some instances they are anodyne; and con- 
tain solutions of opium in oil. 

LINSEED or FLAXSEED (Lat. lini semen; 
Germ. Lcinsaat). The seed of the flax plant. 
See Flax. This seed is small, oval, oblong, 
flattened laterally, acute at the extremities, 
glossy, brown ; but internally white. It is in- 
odorous, and tastes mucilaginous and oily. The 
husk or testa yields much mucilage to water, 
and the kernel a large proportion of oil to pres- 
sure. Besides upwards of 11 per cent, of oil, 
linseed contains wax, an acrid soft resin, ex- 
tractive, a yellow colouring matter, starch, 
gum, tannic acid, albumen, gluten, emulsive, 
and some salts. When the seeds are burnt, 
the ashes contain oxide of copper. The in- 
fusion of linseed in boiling water yields a de- 
mulcent mucilage, which is much used as a 
domestic medicine in coughs, and in cases of 
acrimony in the urinary discharge. The lin- 
seed should not be boiled in the water, as that 
extracts the oil as well as the mucilage, and 
renders the decoction nauseating. 

Linseed is much used in the economy of the 

farm, for feeding cattle and other purposes. A 

bushel of linseed averages in weight about 51 

pounds; this weight, when crushed, produces 

726 



LINSEED. 

about a quarter of its weight of linseed oil, and 
the remainder is cake. The great bulk of this 
seed is obtained from the Baltic and the Black 
Sea, and recently considerable quantities have 
been received from Egypt and Hindostan : of 
this last, the general character is, that although 
the seed is good, the impurities with which it 
is mixed are very considerable, such as the 
seeds of rape, &c. ; for which reason the oil 
obtained from it does not possess the drying 
qualities of that expressed from the unmixed 
linseed, and the dealers in consequence will 
not give so much for it. This arises not from 
any intentional adulteration, but from the bad 
farming and want of cleanliness of the ori- 
entalists. 

Linseed oil contains a very considerable 
quantity of mucilage, which it almost entirely 
deposits by time ; and hence, old linseed oil is 
more valued by the painter, but for thg grazier, 
perhaps, its nutritive powers decrease by time. 
It is said by some persons, that it is to the pre- 
sence of this mucilage that we must attribute 
the fattening quality of linseed oil when mixed 
with other substances, for linseed oil by itself 
is almost as powerful a purgative as castor oil, 
for which purpose indeed it is very commonly 
employed by the farmer ; but on the other 
hand, we must remember, that in small doses, 
even castor oil is very fattening. Linseed is 
in fact commonly given to some birds, parrots 
for instance, for this purpose. Its purgative 
properties are very inferior to those of castor oil. 

LINSEED CAKE. Linseed cake is a well- 
known and valuable article for the food of live 
stock, almost equally good for cattle, sheep, and 
horses. It is the residuum, or refuse, left after 
the oil is expressed from linseed. 1000 parts 
of it, according to Davy, contain about 151 
parts of nutritive matter. Its price has induced 
many attempts to economize its application. It 
has been often given as recommended by Mr. 
Hillyard, mixed with other substances, whose 
value he thus estimates: — 

" The weekly cost of feeding each beast, in- 
cluding the expense of getting up, carting, and 
cutting the turnips and hay, and attendance, 
will be — 



lOi bushels of turnips 

If cwt. of hay - - - - 

Turnips . - - - - 

H cwt. of cut and uncut hay - 

i bushel of meal - . - 

1 pint of linseed oil - - . 

i bushel of linseed - - . 

3 gallons of meal . . . 

Cut and uncut hay - . . 
Turnips ----- 



3 9 

5 3 

3 9 

3 9 

3 

6 

3 6 

1 6 
3 9 



8». 



Us. 64. 



21 oil cakes, at 3Jd. - - - 6 

3 gallons of meal - - - 1 6 

Cut and uncut hay - - - 3 9 

Turnips - - - - - 3 9 



" No food," says Mr. Hillyard, "can be given 
to stall-feeding beasts that will fatten them so 
soon or so well as linseed oil-cake. It certain- 
ly is expensive feed, but not so expensive as it 
appears to be, taking into consideration that it 
fattens quicker. Beasts that have been fed 
with it, do not, after a long drift to market, lose 
their firmness of handling, as those do, fed 



LINSEED CAKE. 



LIQUID MANURE. 



without either cake or linseed, and whose dung 
is not of equal value. Some winters I have 
fed with linseed instead of cake, and found it , 
answer very well, although it added to the 
trouble of feeding. My mode of preparing it j 
has been to break it in a little hand-mill, and i 
steep it in cold water in seven tubs of a size 
sufficient for one day's feed; in this way it, 
will have been steeped seven days before it is ' 
mixed with cut hay and barley, or (which is j 
better) bean meal. If steeped in hot water, 
two days will do; if steeped longer than three, j 
it is apt to get a little sour, which, in my opi- 
nion, is not quite so well for the beasts. Boil- 
ing it is troublesome, but it thus becomes more 
of a jelly, and mixes better with the cut hay 
and meal, and it prevents the numerous seeds 
of weeds, found in foreign linseed, from vege- 
tating. One stone of linseed, in a mixture of 
other food, will do as much towards feeding 
as two stone of cake, which is merely the husk 
of the seed after the oil has been pressed out. 
Linseed, without being mixed with meal, is of 
too relaxing a nature. 

"Finding at Christmas, 1838, that I could 
not get English oil-cake at home at less than 
about 12/. 10s. per ton, I determined to feed the 
35 beasts then in my stalls, in the following 
way, and I never had beasts that became better 
meat ; but as the process of preparing the food 
is very troublesome, I should not recommend 
this way of feeding without the owner of the 
beasts will daily see that all is done right: — 

I. d. 
Three feeds dai\y, of half a bushel of cut hay, 
which is 5 lbs. each, and 4 lbs. uncut at night ; 
1 cwt. and not quite a quarter - - - - 3 6 

Boiled linseed, 2 lbs. daily, 56*. per quarter; 
weight, 50 lbs. per bushel - - - - -20 

Boiled potatoes, 2 lbs. daily, 14 gallons - - I 6 

Molasses (which is feeding, but may be left out 
when the beasts have taken to the linseed, as 
it is onlv L'iven to make the mixture palatable), 
about a'i lb. daily - - - - - - 9 

Turnips, or mangel wurzel - - - - - 2 6 

Barley and bean meal, mixed, 31 gallons - - I 9 



" If this mixed food could be pressed together 
to form a cake, it would be a feeding one, and 
the cost Uf/. per stone. As a proof that this 
mixture is both palatable and nutritive to 
beasts, they will not eat, excepting in the night, 
where they have none of it, any of the sweetest 
hay that can be put before them." (Prac. 
Farm, p. 89.) 

Many farmers use ground linseed mixed 
with bran and chaff for their stock, deeming it 
a more economical plan than the employment 
of linseed cake. Others use the linseed un- 
ground. The saving by this mode, however, 
is doubtful, for it is by no means certain that 
the oil possesses any very material fattening 
properties ; and if it does not, then the cake is 
decidedly the cheapest. For at the present 
prices (1841), 51 lbs. of linseed are worth 7s. 
6d., while 51 lbs. of cake, at 11/. per ton, are 
only worth about 5s. ; and admitting that the 
oil does contain some fattening properties, yet 
it must be remembered that the value of the oil 
obtained from a bushel of linseed is worth, for 
other purposes, about 4s. But, on the other 
hand, I am aware that a very intelligent farmer 
near Rumford, Mr 9 Poole, who, in 1840, fed 



his bullocks with a mixture of linseed oil and 
cut chaff, and also other bullocks with linseed 
cake and hay, considered the oil to be the 
cheapest of the two, and in all respects equally 
fattening, but then it is certain that this mode 
requires more attention in the mixture of the 
oil and chaff than the other plan. He com- 
menced with about a quarter of a pint per day, 
and gradually increased it to a pint. 

The reported results of experiments in feed- 
ing cattle with linseed do not always agree. In 
a standard work we find the following passage : 
"Two Scots were fed on English linseed cakes; 
two Devons on unboiled linseed ; two others on 
boiled linseed ; and another pair of Devons on 
foreign ; all of them having as much hay and 
chaff as they could eat. It was a losing con- 
cern in every case. The value of the manure 
was not equal to the difference of the cost and 
the selling prices ; and, strange as it may ap- 
pear, the greatest loss was sustained, when the 
beasts were fed on oil-cake ; the next when 
foreign cake was used ; the next when boiled 
linseed was used ; and the least of all when the 
simple unboiled linseed was given. 

LINSEED JELLY is easily made by adding 
to 6 quarts of water 1 quart of linseed, boiling 
it for 10 minutes. This, mixed with other sub- 
stances, is soinetimes given to live-stock as 
food, and, mixed with milk, is very nutritive 
for calves. 

LINSEED OIL is an excellent purgative for 
sheep, from 2 to 3 ounces; for horses, in doses 
of from 16 to 24 ounces; for cattle, from 16 to 20 
ounces. The quality of linseed oil may be de- 
termined in the following manner: Fill a phial 
with it, and hold it up to the light; if bad it will 
appear opaque, turbid, and thick • its taste is acid 
and bitter upon the tongue, and li smells rancid; 
and strong oil, from fine full-grown ripe seed, 
when viewed in a phial, will appear limpid, pale, 
and brilliant; it is mellow,and sweet to the taste, 
has very little smell, is specifically lighter than 
impure oil, and when clarified dries quickly and 
finely. {Quart. Journ. of Jlgr. vol. v. p. 467.) 

LIP. In botany, the lower petal of any irre- 
gular flower. 

LIQUID MANURE. Liquid manure is not 
a mode of fertilizing the land altogether of 
modern origin, for a fermented mixture of wa- 
ter and night-soil has, from a very early period, 
been employed by the Chinese farmers ; those 
of Italy certainly practised irrigation in the 
days of Virgil (Georgics, b. i. v. 106—109), and 
C.-ito adds that they emplo)'ed a mixture of 
grape-stones and water to fertilize their olive 
trees (b. xxxvii.). Columella praises very 
highly the use of putrid stale urine for vines 
and apple trees (b. ii. c. 15), commending also 
the lees of oil for the same purpose. More 
modern agricultural writers have united in 
praising various liquid preparations ; thus 
Evelyn (whose ingredients most of the authors 
recommend), in his Treatise on Earth, p. 123- 
160, gives several recipes, some of which have 
served as the basis for recent modes of prepar- 
ing liquid manure, such as the dung of cattle, 
urine, salt and lime, and nitre. Of these arti- 
ficial mixtures, salt 1 part, and lime 2 parts, 
mixed together and allowed to remain in a 
heap for 2 or 3 months (Mr. Bennett turns 

727 



LIQUID MANURE. 

over 3 or 4 times in this period), is fully equal, 
if not superior, to any thus recommended, 
most of which I have tried. When mixed 
with water and spread over land intended for 
wheat, at the rate of from 25 to 35 bushels of 
the salt and lime to 10 or 15 tons of water per 
acre (and it answers very nearly as well when 
carried on the land dry), excellent results are 
produced. The wheat which I have thus 
grown on clover leys has been superior in 
height, and strength of straw, to any I have 
seen produced under different modes of treat- 
ment, and the seed very bright and heavy. 

All substances, whether organic, earthy, or 
saline, which are employed to fertilize the soil, 
or become the food of plants, can only be ren- 
dered thus serviceable to vegetation when they 
are presented to the roots of plants in solution, 
or in a fluid state; and although this may 
appear at first rather a sweeping position, yet 
such is the real fact, the compost of the farm- 
yard, the crushed bones of the turnip cultiva- 
tor, the oil and bones of fish, the gypsum of 
the grazier, the earths, lime, magnesia, and 
even silica, and ail the saline manures, are 
dissolved by some process or other before they 
can be absorbed by vegetables. Every attempt 
which has been hitherto made to make plants 
imbibe the most minutely divided powders which 
chemistry can produce, has been entirely fruit- 
less. Davy ineflectually tried the finest im- 
palpable powder of charcoal, and with much 
perseverance I have fruitlessly employed the 
earths, saline substances, and organic matters, 
for the same purpose. 

This absolute necessity for every substance 
which is the food of plants being of a soluble 
nature did not escape the sagacity of the early 
Greek and Egyptian philosophers ; it is true 
they carried their conclusions with regard to 
subjects of natural philosophy too far, as in 
this instance, when they asserted that water is 
the only food of plants; yet they must have 
patiently noticed many facts in vegetable eco- 
nomy, unaided as they were by the light of mo- 
dern vegetable chemistry, before they could 
have arrived at a conclusion so nearly ap- 
proaching the truth. The idea was probably 
of Egyptian origin, for the cultivators of that 
country could not fail to notice the magic fer- 
tilizing powers of the waters of the Nile, whose 
annual overflow is perhaps the most extensive 
natural irrigation taken advantage of by the 
cultivators of the earth. 

The same wild dream of water being the sole 
food of vegetables was again revived, so lately 
as 1610, by M. Van Helmont, a celebrated Dutch 
chemist, who made some very plausible, de- 
ceptive experiments on a willow tree, which 
he watered only with rain water; researches, 
however, whose inaccuracy (owing principally 
to rain water, as usually collected, not being 
quite pure) was shown in 1691 by Mr. Wood- 
ward. Although, therefore, it is now well as- 
certained that water is not the only food of 
plants, yet it certainly contributes universally 
and largely to their support; and, as it has been 
well observed by Davy, no manure can be taken 
up by the roots of plants unless water is pre- 
sent ; and water, or its elements, exists in all 
the products of vegetation. (Lecture 15.) 
728 



LIQUID MANURE. 

It must not, however, be concluded that these 
carefully considered conclusions, from the re- 
sults of often-repeated laborious experiments, 
are erroneous, because transparent water, ap- 
parently pure, as in water-glasses, or in irri- 
gation, promotes the growth of bulbs, grass, 
&c., since the very purest spring water, even 
rain water, contains foreign substances, as I 
have clearly ascertained by experiment; and 
when only chemically pure water is employed 
to water plants, they cannot be made to flourish. 
I have fruitlessly varied the attempt in several 
ways. All the experiments of Dr. Thomson 
were equally unsuccessful, the plants vegetat- 
ing only for a certain time, and never perfect- 
ing their seeds. Similar experiments were 
made by Hassenfratz and Saussure, and others, 
with the same unfavourable result. Duhamel 
found that an oak which he had raised from an 
acorn in common water, made less and less 
progress every year. The florist is well aware 
that bulbous roots, such as hyacinths, tulips, 
<fec., which are made to grow in water, unless 
they are planted in the earth every other year, 
at first refuse to flower, and finally even to 
vegetate. Moreover, it has been unanswerably 
shown by many very accurate experiments 
{Rcch. sur la Veg. p. 51), at the varied repetition 
of which I have personally assisted, that the 
quantity of nourishment or solid matters ab- 
sorbed by the roots of plants is always in pro- 
portion to the impurity of the water with which 
they are nourished; thus some beans were 
made to vegetate under three different circum- 
stances ; the first were grown in distilled water; 
the second were placed in sand and watered 
with rain water; the third were sown in gar- 
den mould. The plants thus produced, when 
accurately analysed, were found to yield the 
following proportions of ashes ; — 

1. Those fed by distilled water - 3*9 

2. Those fed by rain water - - 75 

3. Those grown in soil ... 120 

And again, all attempts to make plants flour- 
ish in the pure earths have failed utterly when 
they have been watered with pure water; yet 
a totally difierent result I have invariably ex- 
perienced when I have employed an impure 
solution or liquid manure. My trials have 
been entirely supported by those of M. Giobert, 
who, having formed of the four earths, silica, 
alumina, lime, and magnesia, a soil in the 
most fertile proportion, in vain essayed to 
make the plants flourish in it when watered 
with pure water only ; but every difficulty was 
removed when he moistened it with the water 
from a dunghill, for they then grew most luxu- 
riantly; and M. Lampadius still further de- 
monstrated the powers of such a foul liquid 
manure, for he formed plots composed of only 
a. single earth, pure lime, pure alumina, pure 
silica, and planted in each different vegetables, 
watering them Avith the liquid drainings from 
a dunghill, and he found that they all flourish- 
ed equally well. The soluble matters of a soil 
ever constitute, in fact, its most fertilizing por- 
tion ; and if by any artificial means the richest 
mould is deprived of these, as by repeated 
washings in cold or boiling water, the re- 
siduum, or remaining solid matter, is rendered 
nearly sterile : this fact, first accurately demon- 



LIQUID MANURE. 



LIQUID MANURE. 



strated by M. Saussure (Rech. 150), I have 
since confirmed, by a variety of experiments 
of my own. 

The soluble matters or liquid manures con- 
sumed by plants are sometimes imbibed by 
their roots unaltered ; in other cases they are 
decomposed during their absorption. The 
earths, gypsum, and other salts, are instances 
of the first class ; oil, and other purely animal 
matters, of the last. Davy found that some 
plants of mint, which he forced to vegetate in 
sugar and water, apparently absorbed the sugar 
unaltered, for they yielded a considerably 
larger proportion of a sweetish vegetable ex- 
tract than those of the same weight which he 
had grown in common water ; and it is an as- 
certained fact, that the roots of plants will ab- 
sorb or reject the various earthy substances of 
a soil, or even when placed in a saline solution, 
in a very remarkable manner: thus, when 
equal parts of gum and sugar were dissolved 
txjgether in water, and some perfect plants of 
Polygonum Persicaria placed with their roots 
in the soiiuion, it was found that they absorbed 
36 parts of the sugar, but only 26 of the gum ; 
and when in precisely the same proportions 
and manner Glauber salt, common salt, and 
acetate of lime were used, then it was found 
that the roots of the Persicaria separated these 
salts from the solution with much ease, ab- 
sorbing 6 parts of the Glauber salt, 10 parts of 
the common salt, but not a trace of the acetate 
of lime. (Thomson, vol. iv. p. 321.) 

These facts will not be uninteresting to the 
irrigators or occupiers of the English water- 
meadows, since they may, in some degree, 
serve to account for the beneficial action of 
water on such lands — a question not nearly so 
well understood as it ought to be, and on 
which widely ditfering opinions are commonly 
held by practical farmers. It is a theme inti- 
mately connected with the subject of this arti- 
cle, for irrigation is, in truth, a mode of apply- 
ing the weakest of liquid manures, on a very 
bold scale, to grass-lands. See Irhigatiov. 

The employment of artificially-prepared 
liquid manure (though little known at present 
in England) is very extensive on the Conti- 
nent : the Swiss farmers call it s^ulle : in France 
it is denominated lizier ; and by the Germans, 
misi-wasser. They prepare it throughout many 
of the German states, and in the Netherlands, 
by sweeping the excrements of their stall-fed 
cattle into under-ground reservoirs, mixing it 
with four or five times its bulk of water, ac- 
cording to the richness of the dung: five reser- 
voirs are generally employed, of such a size 
that they each take a week to fill ; and thus 
each has four weeks allowed to ferment before 
the mass, which in this time becomes of an 
uniform consistence, is removed, by means of 
a portable pump, in water carts, or large open 
vessel.?. A similar plan is adopted in the 
north of Italy, and from time out of mind has 
been practised by the Chinese. In that em- 
pire, however, the cultivators chiefly employ 
night soil, which is made into cakes for this 
purpose with lime or clay, in all their large 
cities, to prepare their liquid manure. 

It is from long experience an admitted fact 
among the German farmers, that there are no 
92 



manures so powerful in their operation as 
those which are liquids, such as human urine 
or bullocks' blood ; so that no English farmer 
need fear deception as to their asserted value. 
This very fact was submitted some years 
since to the consideration of Professor Hemb- 
stadt, of Berlin, by the Saxon and Prussian au- 
thorities, who were anxious to apply the con- 
tents of the city drains towards fertilizing the 
barren lands in the neighbourhood of Dresden 
and Berlin. This talented agriculturist under- 
took, in consequence, a series* of valuable ex- 
periments, which, varied in every possible way, 
were carried on for a considerable period ; the 
result of them, so highly advantageous to the 
prosperity of Germany, Hembstadt then pub- 
lished. They were repeated with unvaried 
success by Professor Schiibler, and the results 
may be stated in the following order: — 

If the soil, without any manure, yield a pro- 
duce of three times the quantity of seed origi- 
nally sown, then the same quantity of land will 
produce — 

5 times the quantity of seed sown, when 
dressed with old herbage, grass, leaves, &c. 

7 times, when dressed with cow dung. 

9 times, with pigeons' dung. 
10 limes, with horse dung. 
12 times, with human urine. 
12 times, with sheep's dung. 
14 times, with human manure or bullocks' blood. 
Thus it will be seen that, of seven usually 
employed fertilizers, the liquid manures, urine 
and blood, were found to be decidedly the most 
powerful. 

Both with regard to the quantity of liquid 
manure applied per acre, and the mode of 
spreading it, much must depend upon the cir- 
cumstances under which the cultivator is 
placed, and the richness of the liquid he em- 
ploys. If the impurities dissolved, or mecha- 
nically suspended in the water, are equal to 1 
part in 10, then 20 to 30 tons per acre of the 
liquid manure I have found amply sufficient, 
under ordinary circumstances, to produce the 
most excellent results; if the fluid mass is 
purer, then more must be applied. For gar- 
dens, and small plots of ground in general, the 
liquid may be readily and evenly distributed 
over the beds by means of a watering-pot or 
garden-engine ; for fields it must be carried in 
water-carts, and distributed either by being let 
into a transverse trough, pierced with holes ic 
the manner of those employed for street water- 
ings, or the Flemish plan may be adopted (es- 
pecially when the manure is of too consider- 
able thickness to flow readily through holes), 
of taking it into the fields in the water-carts, 
open at the top (furnished with slight movable 
covers), and then distributing it out of the cart 
very evenly by means of a scoop; and I have 
invariably perceived the advantage of plough- 
ing the liquid into the soil as soon after it ivat 
spread on the land as possible. The cultivator 
will find great advantage if he uses the garden 
engine, watering-pot, or cart, from straining 
the liquid manure before he pumps it out of 
the reservoir, either through straw, coarse 
sand, or a basket; the pieces of straw, and 
other coarsely-divided matters thus separated 
by the strainer, he will discover add very 

729 



LIQUID MANURE. 

s/ighily to the fertilizing powers of the liquid, 
and yet they all materially hinder the even 
distribution of the majiure. 

The expense, per acre, of such an applica- 
tion of liquid manure, I thus estimate, sup- 
posing the cow-herd to be employed: — 

£ s. d. 
Three tons of cow or other fresh dung - - 18 
Labour in mixing and occasionally stirring it 

with from 20 to 25 tons of water - - -020 
Carting, and spreading it on the field - - 8 



£18 



If it shall occur to the farmer that the quan- 
tity of solid manure thus added to the soil will 
not, in reality, much exceed two tons per acre, 
and that this is, in appearance, a very small 
allowance, I would remind him that the quan- 
tity thus conveyed consists of the soluble or 
richest portion of the manure, and is, in fact, 
the extract without any of the straw, or other 
inert residuum usually carried on to the soil ; 
besides, it is a very erroneous, though common 
conclusion, that to produce fertility a manure 
must be used in large quantities. I have ob- 
served in this paper that a flooding with river 
water, so productive of heavy crops of grass 
in the water meadows, does not carrj' on to the 
land more than 2 tons per acre of animal and 
vegetable substances ; and in the successful 
experiments of the late Lord Somerville, at 
Fairmile, with whale blubber, not more than 
a ton and a half per acre were applied. The 
Essex farmers find three-quarters of a ton of 
sprats amply sufficient ; and 2 cwt. per acre of 
gypsum is the ordinary successful allowance 
for grass land. The exact evenness, therefore, 
with which a manure is spread over the land 
is a highly important consideration as regards 
the economy of manures. There is no com- 
monly cultivated plant which more delights in 
liquid manure than the potato. It naturally 
luxuriates near to wet ditches : on plots which 
have received the drainage of a dunghill it 
grows with the greatest rapidity. I have in- 
variably found that, to any liquid mixture in- 
tended as a manure for potatoes, the addition 
of 5 or 6 bushels of salt per acre is productive 
of great good, both as regards the quantity and 
quality of the potatoes. 

On clover leys intended for wheat, the liquid 
should be turned into the soil as early as pos- 
sible after it is spread; and if this operation is 
performed in moist, cloudy weather, a very 
material advantage will be perceptible in the 
succeedmg crop. The warmth of the sun is 
certainly prejudicial to the thinly-spread liquid 
manure, composed of finely-divided animal and 
vegetable substances. 

Of the tanks for receiving or preparing the 
liquid manure, I may remark that I have al- 
ways found them best made of flints or bricks 
set in good mortar or Parker's cement ; they 
may be bedded in clay, but I would not recom- 
mend the use of clay for the brickwork, since 
worms are sure eventually to penetrate through 
it; and I advise the shape to be something like 
a decanter, larger at the top than at the bottom, 
in the manner introduced at Eastbourne and in 
Cornwall, chiefly by the advice of Mr. Davies 
Gilbert. 

730 



LIQUID MANURE. 

Mr. Milburn has given the annexed estimate 
for cutting, walling, plastering, and covering a 
tank of the following dimensions : — Length 
within, 13 feet 6 inches ; width, 6 feet 6 inches; 
depth, 6 feet, equal to 19^ cubic yards. 



16 
2 15 



Cutting at 3d. per cubic yard 
Walling, including bricks and mortar 
Plastering and cement 
Covering and flags - . . 

{Trans. High. Soc. vol. ix. p. 280.) 10 6 6 

This would be a tank sufficiently capacious 
for a farm of 150 to 200 acres. 

To the presence of a large proportion of 
urine, the richest of liquid fertilizers, must be 
chiefly attributed the luxuriant eflfects produced 
by the liquid manure, as prepared on the Con- 
tinent, and from the use of the sewerage mat- 
ters of large towns, as so strikingly proved in 
the case of the Craigintinny water-meadows, 
near Edinburgh, where the drainage is em- 
ployed in the state in which it issues from the 
sewers, and from its use several crops of the 
most luxuriant grass are annually obtained- 
" All urine," said a late distinguished chemical 
philosopher, "contains the essential elements 
of vegetables in a state of solution." By a 
careful analysis, human urine in its fresh state 
was found, by Berzelius, to contain the follow- 
ing substances : — 

Parti. 

Water 93300 

Urea (the peculiar animal matter of urine) 3-010 

Sulphate of potassa - . . . 0'371 

Sulphate of soda - . - - . 0*316 

Phosphate of soda .... 0-294 

Common salt ------ 0-445 

Phosphate of ammonia - - - - 0-165 

Muriate of ammonia - - . - 0150 
Lactate or acetate of ammonia - 1 

Lactic or acetic acid - - . 1 i.«jj 
Animal matter, soluble in alcohol p i /i» 
Inseparable urea - - . . J 
Earthy phosphate (earth of bones) with 

fluale of lime ----- 0100 

Uric acid 0100 

Mucus of the bladder .... 0032 

Silica (earth of flint) .... 0003 

100- 



Thus it will be seen that there is hardly a 
single ingredient found in urine which is not 
either a direct food for vegetation, or furnishes 
by its decomposition a supply in another form ; 
for in it are thus detected the ammoniacal salts 
of the dunghill, the phosphate of lime of bones, 
as well as of many cultivated vegetables, and 
abundance of easily decomposed animal mat- 
ters. 

The urine of the horse is nearly as rich in 
animo-vegetable matters ; its composition, ac- 
cording to the experiments of Fourcroy and 
Vauquelin, are as follows : — 

Farli 

Water and mucus ----- 94*0 

Urea 07 

Carbonate of lime (chalk) - - - 1-1 

Carbonate of soda - - - . . 0-9 

Benzoate of soda ----- 2-4 

Muriate of potassa - .... 0-9 

100- 

The following are the constituents in that of 
the cow, as found by Professor Brande : — 



LIQUID MANURE. , 

Parts. 
Wavei ....... 650 

Urea - -.40 

Phosphate of lime . . - - . 3'0 
Muriates of polassa and ammonia - - 15-0 
Sulphate of potassa - - - '^ - " ^'^ 
Carbonates of potassa and ammonia - 40 
Loss 30 

100- 

It would appear, from some experiments of 
Dr. Belcher, that the ammoniacal salts of urine 
have a forcing or stimulating power, which 
considerably hastens the vegetation of plants. 
His experiments were made with the common 
garden cress; and, in his trials, some plants 
nourished with a solution of phosphate of am- 
monia were 15 days more advanced than plants 
growing under similar circumstances, but wa- 
tered with plain water. In some experiments 
of Mr. Gregory, who watered half a grass field 
at Leyton with urine, the portion thus treated 
yielded nearly double the quantity of hay pro- 
duced by the other unmanured portion ; and 
the use of the urine of the cow, so extensively 
employed for grass lands, and in the garden 
and orchard, by Mr. Harley, in the neighbour- 
hood of Glasgow, was attended with results 
equally satisfactory, producing, when diluted 
with water or soap-suds, very superior crops 
of grass on land of a very inferior description. 
I shall conclude with a few observations on the 
loss which the cultivated lands of England in- 
cessantly sustain from the neglect of the liquid 
manure of the sewers of her cities and large 
towns, — a question to which I have before 
alluded in this paper, and which is not nearly 
so well understood as is desirable. Thus, by 
carefully conducted experiments, and very ac- 
curate gaugings, it has been found that the 
chief London sewers convey daily into the 
Thames about 115,000 tons of mixed drainage, 
consisting, on an average compulation, of 1 
part of solid and 25 parts absolutely jluid mat- 
ters ; but if we only allow 1 part in 30 of this 
immense mass to be composed of solid sub- 
stances, then we have the large quantity of 
more than 3800 tons of solid manure daily 
poured into the river from London alone, con- 
sisting principally of excrements, soot, and the 
debris of the London streets, which is chiefly 
carbonate of lime : thus, allowing 20 tons of 
this manure as a dressing for an acre of 
ground, there is evidently a quantity of solid 
manure annually poured into the river equal 
to fertilizing more than 50,000 acres of the 
poorest cultivated land! The quantity of food 
thus lost to the country by this heedless waste 
of manure is enormous ; for, only allowing one 
crop of wheat to be raised on these 50,000 
acres, that would be equal to the maintenance 
(calculating upon an average produce of three 
quarters of wheat per acre) of 150,000 persons. 
London, too, is only one huge instance of this 
thoughtless waste of the agricultural riches of 
the soil of England; from every other English 
city, every town, every hamlet, is hourly pass- 
ing into the sea a proportionate waste of liquid 
manure ; and I have only spolcen of the solid or 
mechanically suspended matters of the sewer- 
age ; the absolutely fluid portion is still rich in 
urine, ammoniacal salts, soda, &c., when all 
the mechanically suspended matters have been 



LIQUID MANURE. 

separated from the other portions. According 
to very careful experiments, this fluid part often 
contains 16 per cent, of animal matters, salts, 
&c., intimately or chemically combined with 
the water. 

No farmer, after such an analysis of the 
sewerage of a large city, can feel surprised at 
the important results from the use of that 
sewer water, as long practised in the vicinity 
of Edinburgh. After learning the composition 
of such a foul mass — its endless mixture of 
organic matters — its soot — its carbonate of 
lime — and, above all, its urine, the forcing na- 
ture of the ammoniacal salts which that fluid 
contains, added to the presence of the other 
matters which are the food of plants, and the 
constant supply of such irrigation water in all 
seasons — he will readily give credence to the 
talented editor of the Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
culture, when he asserts that, by such treatment 
of the Edinburgh meadows with the sewerage 
irrigation, they have been increased in value 
several pounds per acre yearly. 

I have often employed, with decided effect, 
in my own garden, for vines, peach, and stand- 
ard apple trees, liquid manure, prepared either 
by mixing one part by weight of cow dung 
with four parts of water, or the collected drain* 
age of the stable and cow-house. Of these the 
vine is by far the most benefited by the appli- 
cation ; but to whatever fruit-tree the gardener 
has occasion to apply manure, there is no form 
so manageable and so grateful to the plant 
as the liquid. It has been found advantageous 
to plants cultivated in stoves to apply even a 
liquid manure, composed of six quarts of soot 
to a hogshead of water; and although this is a 
very unchemical mixture, yet it has been found 
by Mr. Robertson to be peculiarly grateful and 
nourishing to pines, causing them to assume an 
unusually deep healthy green ; and for stoved 
mulberry, vine, peach, and other plants, the 
late Mr. Knight, of Downton, employed a liquid 
manure, composed of one part of the dung of 
domestic poultry, and 4 to 10 parts of water, 
with the most excellent result — the trees main- 
taining, at the end of two years, " the most 
healthy and luxuriant appearance imaginable." 
{Trans. Hort. Sac. vol. ii. p. 127.) 

In whatever way we view the question of 
liquid manure, an abundant field of research 
presents itself on every side: it is evidently an 
investigation likely to amply repay the culti- 
vator for the labour he may be induced to be- 
stow upon it. By such manures, nourishment 
for vegetation is more equally diffused through 
the soil, and becomes more speedily service- 
able to the crop, than by any other mode of 
cultivation. I have endeavoured, also, in this 
article, to convince the farmer of what I have 
long remarked in my own practice — that a 
much smaller quantity of manure, if uniformly 
mixed with land, is sufficient for all the pur- 
poses of fertilization than is commonly be- 
lieved. Such investigations must be of the 
highest interest to the farmer and to the public 
in general, for they relate to the increased pro 
duce of the land of England ; and not only does 
a fortunate experiment carry with it its own 
reward, but even an unsuccessful one is noi 
without its advantages, — it serves, at least, as 

731 



LIVE-STOCK. 



LOBELIA. 



a beacon to other cultivators, and affords that 
satisfaction which ever accompanies the ac- 
quirement of knowledge. {Joum. Roy. Ag. Soc. 
vol. i. p. 147.) 

LIQUORICE (Glycyrrhiza, from glnkus, sweet, 
and rhiza, a root ; the sweetness of the root of 
liquorice is well known). A deep, light, sandy- 
loam suits all the species of this genus, and 
they are readily increased by slips from the 
roots with eyes, and planting them in spring. 

Common liquorice (G. glabra) is a native of 
the south of Europe; but it is also cultivated 
in England for medicinal use. It is a legumi- 
nous plant, with unequally pinnated leaves, 
composed of ovate, retuse leaflets; the flowers 
are in racemose spikes, shorter than the leaves. 
The legumes are smooth, and six-seeded. The 
root, when fit for use, is long, about the thick- 
ness of the finger, grayish without, and yellow 
within. The sweet, subacrid, mucilaginous 
juice contained in the root is much esteemed 
as a pectoral demulcent. Liquorice requires 
three years to perfect its growth, when the roots 
are talcen up about the end of November with 
tlie spade ; they are then washed, the fibres 
trimmed oft', and the smaller roots which are 
termed " oflal," are separated from the larger. 
The small roots are dried and ground into 
powder ; but the larger, which form the princi- 
pal article of profit, are packed up and sold to 
the druggists. A fair crop will yield from 18 
U) 20 cwt., at an average price of about 45s. per 
cwt. ; but the expense of digging up and pre- 
paring it for market is not short of lOZ. per 
acre ; which, great as it nay appear, is by no 
means extravagant, if ve consider the depth to 
which the roots run, and the care which is ne- 
cessary to avoid breaking or leaving any of 
ihem in the ground. (Paxton's Bot. Diet.; Brit. 
HuKh. vol. li. p. 330.) 

LIQUORICE, WILD. A species of the 
genus Galium {Circcezans) found in the United 
Slates, frequent in rich woodlands, &c. Its 
root is perennial, and the stems grow 12 to 18 
inches high, often branched near the base. The 
flowers are purplish-white, and appear in June 
and July. The leaves have a sweet taste, re- 
sembling liquorice. See Milk-Vetch. 

LITTER. The straw, fern, or other dry sub- 
stances which are placed under horses and 
cattle in the stables, cow-houses, farm-yards, 
&c., for the purpose of keeping the animals 
clean and warm, and providing a supply of 
manure. In this last view, all sorts of dry ma- 
terials should be carefully collected and stacked 
up for winter use. 

LIVERWORT {Anemone hepatica, Hepatica 
Americana, or Three-lobed Liverwort) is very com- 
mon in the open woodlands of the United States, 
where it flowers in Pennsylvania in May, and 
matures its seed in May and June. This plant 
has acquired much notoriety, of late years, as 
a remedy in pulmonary consumption; but its 
virtues have doubtless been greatly exagge- 
rated. Dr. Darlington thinks it the only species 
in the United States. (Flora Cestrica.) See 
Hepatica. 

LIVE-STOCK. See HoasES, Cattle, Sheep, 

&c. In Great Britain, the live-stock forms the 

chief wealth of a tarm. The terra implies cat- 

Me ; but poultry, loo, is strictly live-stock ; and 

"32 



in some countries, fish, game, bees, &c., are of 
that importance that they are considered to be 
live-stock. In several districts of England, 
rabbits are so, and that to a very essential ex- 
tent. In some parts of southern Europe, evea 
the silk-worm is live-stock. 

Through the combined exertions of many- 
distinguished writers, and the practical know- 
ledge of modern breeders, a very material alte- 
ration for the better in the breeds of live-stock 
has taken place, and is still progressing ; and 
there is little reason to doubt but that still 
greater improvements are yet to be eflected. 
To such researches too much attention can 
hardly be paid ; for on the well or ill stocking 
of the land will mainly depend the cultivator's 
success. To this end, however, much must 
rest on the circumstances in which he is placed. 
See Agriculture in the United States. 

LIVE OAK (Quercus virens). See Oak. * 

LOAD. A term used in the United States 
rather vaguely, and meaning different amounts 
or measures in different places. The general 
meaning of a load of manure, according to 
Buel, is what can be drawn by two horses, or 
two oxen, to the field where it is to be applied. 
At Boston and other large towns in the East- 
ern, as well as other States, the term load is 
applied commonly to express as much as can 
be drawn by four and even six cattle upon a 
hard road, or about 96 cubic feet. A load of 
earth, clay, or marl, is generally estimated at 
a cubic yard, or 27 cubic feet. 

LOAM. By this term is generally under- 
stood dark-coloured, rich mould, principally 
composed of dissimilar particles of earth and 
decomposed vegetable matter, moderately co- 
hesive, and therefore neither retentive of mois- 
ture, like clay, nor too ready to part with it, 
like sandy soil. According as the different in- 
gredients predominate, loamy soils are of dif- 
ferent qualities — friable and mellow, middling, 
or heavy loams. (Pract. Husb. p. 284.) Loam 
is supposed to consist chiefly of woody fibre in 
a state of decay, which, as it progresses, ac- 
quires a black-brown colour, and is then mould 
or loam. It is a continued source of carbonic 
acid, as almost every particle of it is enveloped 
by an atmosphere of that gas, which is absorbed 
by the roots of plants, and replaced by atmo- 
spheric air, to be again converted into carbonic 
acid. Upon this transformation the influence 
of loam on vegetation is readily understood : it 
does not itself nourish plants, but it presents to 
them " a slow and lasting source of carbonic 
acid, which is absorbed by the roots." (Liebig, 
Organic Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture, 
p. 48—61.) See Humus. 

LOBELIA {Lobelia, in honour of Matthew 
Lobel, author of various botanical works. He 
was a native of Lisle ; became physician and 
botanist to James I., and died in London in 
1616). This is an extremely interesting genus 
of plants, on account of the beauty of the blos- 
soms, and the medicinal properties of some of 
the species. The green-house, and stove, 
i shrubby, and herbaceous kinds, grow well in a 
mixture of peat and sand ; the shrubby kinds 
are readily increased by cuttings in the same 
kind of soil, and the herbaceous species by di- 
I viding and by seeds. The hardy herbaceous 



LOBLOLLY BAY. 



LOCUST. 



kinds do well in a light, rich earth, or peat soil ; 
but in winter most of them require the protec- 
tion of a frame. The green-house annuals and 
biennials must be sown in pots, and treated as 
other green-house annuals and biennials. The 
seeds of the hardy kinds have only to be sown 
in the open border. L. longiflora is one of the 
most venomous of plants. Barton says the 
Spanish Americans call it Echenta cavallos, be- 
cause it proves fatal to horses that eat it, swell- 
ing them till they burst. Taken internall}', it 
acts as a violent cathartic, the effects of which 
no remedy can assuage, and which terminate 
in death. Another American species, namely, 
L. inflata, commonly called Indian Tobacco, is 
a powerful antispasmodic and emetic, and is 
much employed to allay the paroxysm of spas- 
modic asthma. There are two indigenous spe- 
cies : 1. The water lobelia (i. Dartmanna), 
which grows in the lakes of Wales, Scotland, 
Ireland, and the north of England. The root 
consists of many long, simple, whitish fibres. 
Herb smooth, immersed in water like the Hot- 
tonia. Leaves numerous, two inches long, 
linear, entire, v.'ith two longitudinal cells. The 
stem is nearly naked, terminating in a simple 
cluster of light-blue, drooping, alternate flowers, 
raised several inches above the water, which 
appear in July and August. 

2. Acrid lobelia (L. urens). This grows wild 
on bushy heaths in Devonshire. The root is 
fibrous ; stem a foot or more in height, nearly 
upright; lower leaves ovate, slightly toothed ; 
upper lanceolate, serrated ; the flowers are in 
erect clusters, terminal, of a purplish-blue co- 
lour, appearing in August and September. The 
whole herb is milky, fetid, and very acrid. 

LOBLOLLY BAY (Gordonia lasyanthus). 
This American tree is comprehended within 
the same limits with the long-leaved pine, being 
confined to the maritime parts of the Southern 
States, to the two Floridas, and to Lower Loui- 
siana. It is very abundant in the branch 
swamps, and exists in greater proportion than 
the red bay, swamp bay, and black gum, with 
which it is usually associated. In the pine 
barrens, tracts of 50 or 100 acres are met with 
at intervals, which, being lower than the adja- 
cent ground, are kept constantly moist by the 
waters collected in them after the great rains. 
These spots are entirely covered with the lob- 
lolly bay, and are called bay swamps. Although 
the layer of vegetable mould is only 3 or 4 
inches thick, and reposes upon a bed of barren 
sand, the vegetation of these trees is surpris- 
ingly luxuriant. 

The loblolly bay grows to the height of 50 or 
60 feet, with a diameter of 18 or 20 inches. 
For 25 to 30 feet its trunk is perfectly straight. 
The small divergency of its branches near the 
trunk gives it a regularly pyramidal form ; but 
as they ascend they spread more loosely, like 
those of other trees of the forest. 

The leaves are evergreen, from 3 to 6 inches 
long, alternate, oval-acuminate, slightly toothed, 
and smooth and shining on the upper surface. 
The flowers are more than an inch broad, white 
and sweet-scented; they begin to appear about 
the middle of July, and bloom in succession 
during 2 or 3 months. This tree possesses 



the agreeable singularity of bearing flowers 
when it is only 3 or 4 feet high. 

The fruit is an oval capsule, divided into 
5 compartments, each of which contains small, 
black, winged seeds. These seeds appear to 
germinate successfully only in places covered 
with sphagnvm, a species of moss which co- 
piously imbibes water, and in which are found 
thousands of the young plants, which are 
plucked up with ease. 

The bark of the loblolly bay is very smooth 
while the tree is less than 6 inches in diame- 
ter; on old trees it is thick and deeply furrowed. 
In trunks which exceed 15 inches in diameter, 
four-fifths of the wood is heart. The wood is 
of a rosy hue, and of a fine, silky texture : it 
appears to be very proper for the inside of fur- 
niture, though the cypress is generally prefer- 
red. It is extremely light: when seasoned it 
is very brittle, and it rapidly decays unless it 
is kept perfectly dry : hence it is entirely neg- 
lected in use, and is not employed even for fuel. 

The value of the loblolly bark in tanning 
compensates in some measure for the useless- 
ness of its wood : it is employed fur this pur- 
pose throughout the maritime parts of the South- 
ern States and of the Floridas. For, although 
this branch of industry is by no means as ex- 
tensively practised in this part of the country 
as in the Northern States, and though these 
regions aflx)rd many species of oak, yet the 
species whose bark is proper for tanning are 
not sufficiently multiplied to supply the con- 
sumption. As much of the bark of the Spanish 
oak as can be obtained, of which the price is 
one-half greater, is mixed with that of the lob- 
lolly bay. This tree has the advantage of 
maintaining very long the circulation of its 
sap, so that the bark may be taken off" during 
three or four months. 

The luxuriance of its vegetation, the beauty 
of its flowers, and the richness of its evergreen 
foliage place the loblolly bay among the mag- 
nolias ; and, Avith the other species, it contri- 
butes to the ornament of the forests in the 
southern parts of the United States. It is less 
sensible to cold than the big laurel. (Michaux.) 

LOBLOLLY PINE (Pinus Iceda). See Firs. 

LOCKED-JAW. See Tetanus. 

LOCKING OF WHEELS. The means of 
fastening them so as to prevent their running 
too swiftly upon the horses, when coming down 
steep hills. This is effected in various ways ; 
as by chains, sledges, friction-bars, &c. See 
Wheel, and Wagon. 

LOCULAR. A term in botany. A fruit is 
called unilocular if it contains but one cell, bi- 
locular if it contains two cells, and so on. In 
many instances, one or more of the cells are 
abortive, and become obliterated as the fruit 
ripens. 

LOCUST. A name given by the English to 
the large grasshoppers, but which, in the United 
States, and indeed almost universally, is applied 
to the group of insects which naturalists have 
termed Cicadians, and which are also called 
harvest-flies. 

These insects are readily distinguished by 
their broad heads, the large and very convex 
eyes on each side, and the three eyelets on th« 
3Q 733 



LOCUST. 



LOCUST. 



crown : by the transparent and veined wing- 
covers and wings ; and by the elevation on the 
back part of the thorax in the form of the letter 
X. The males have a peculiar organization, 
which enables them to emit an excessively loud 
buzzing kind of sound, which, in some species, 
may be heard at the distance of a mile ; and 
the females are furnished with a curiously con- 
trived piercer, for perforating the limbs of trees, 
in which they place their eggs. The musical 
instruments of the male consist of a pair of 
kettle-drums, one on each side of the body, and 
these, in the scventccn-yeur Cicada (or locust, as 
it is generally but improperly called in Ameri- 
ca), are plainly to be seen just behind the 
wings. These drums are formed of convex 
pieces of parchment, covered with numerous 
fine plaits, and, in the species above named, 
are lodged in cavities on the sides of the body 
behind the thorax. They are not played upon 
with sticks, but by muscles or cords fastened 
to the inside of the drums. When these mus- 
cles contract and relax, which they do with 
great rapidity, the drum-heads are alternately 
tightened and loosened, recovering their natu- 
ral convexity by their own elasticity. The 
effect of this rapid alternate tension and relaxa- 
tion is the production of a rattling sound, like 
that caused by a succession of quick pressures 
upon a slightly convex and elastic piece of tin 
plate. Certain cavities within the body of the 
insect, which may be seen on raising two large 
valves beneath the belly, and which are sepa- 
rated from each other by thin partitions having 
the transparency and brilliancy of mica, or of 
thin and highly polished glass, tend to increase 
the vibrations of the sounds, and add greatly to 
their intensity. In most of our species of Ci- 
cada, the drums are not visible on the outside 
of the body, but are covered by convex trian- 
gular pieces on each side of the first ring he- 
hind the thorax, which must be cut away in 
order to expose them. On raising the large 
valves of the belly, however, there is seen, close 
to each side of the body, a little opening, like a 
pocket, in which the drum is lodged, and from 
which the sound issues when the insect opens 
the valves. The hinder extremity of the body 
of the female is conical, and the under-side has 
a longitudinal channel for the reception of the 
piercer, which is furthermore protected by four 
short grooved pieces fixed in the sides of the 
channel. The piercer itself consists of three 
parts in close contact with each other; namely, 
two outer ones grooved on the inside and en- 
larged at the tips, which externally are beset 
with small teeth like a saw, and a central, 
spear-pointed borer, which plays between the 
other two. Thus this instrument has the power 
and does the work both of an awl and of a dou- 
ble-edged saw, or rather of two key-hole saws 
cutting opposite to each other. No species of 
Cicada possesses the power of leaping. The 
legs are rather short, and the anterior thighs 
are armed beneath with two stout spines. 

The duration of life in winged insects is 
comparatively very short, seldom exceeding 
two or three weeks in extent, and in many is 
limited to the same number of days or hours. 
To increase and multiply is their principal bu- 
siness in this period of their existence, if not 
-34 



the only one ; and the natural term of their life 
ends when this is accomplished. In their pre- 
vious states, however, they often pass a much 
longer time, the length of which depends, in 
great measure, upon the nature and abundance 
of their food. Thus maggots, which subsist 
upon decaying animal or vegetable matter, 
come more quickly to their growth than cater- 
pillars and other insects which devour living 
plants: the former are appointed to remove an 
offensive nuisance, and to do their work quickly; 
the latter have a longer time assigned to them, 
corresponding in some degree to the progress 
or continuance of vegetation. The facilities 
afforded for obtaining food influence the dura 
tion of life ; hence those grubs that live in the 
solid trunks of perennial trees, which they are 
obliged to perforate in order to obtain nourish- 
ment, are longer lived than those that devour 
the tender parts of leaves and fruits, which, 
though they last only for a season, require no 
laborious efforts to be prepared for food. The 
harvest-flies continue only a few weeks after 
their final transformation, and their only nour- 
ishment consists of vegetable juices, which 
they obtain by piercing the bark and leaves of 
plants with their beaks; and during this period 
they lay their eggs, and then perish. They are, 
however, amply compensated for the shortness 
of their life in the winged state by the length 
of their previous existence, during which they 
are wingless and grub-like in form, and live 
under ground, where they obtain their food only 
by much labour in perforating the soil among 
the roots of plants, the juices of which they 
imbibe by suction. To meet the difficulties of 
their situation and the precarious supply of 
their food, for which they have to grope in the 
dark in their subterranean retreats, a remarka- 
ble longevity is assigned to them; and one 
species has obtained the name of Cicada sep- 
tendecim, on account of its life being protracted 
to the period of seventeen years. 

Tills insect has been observed in the south- 
eastern parts of Massachusetts, but does not 
seem to have extended to other parts of the 
state. The earliest account that we have of it 
is contained in Morton's Memorial, wherein 
it is stated that " there was a numerous com- 
pany of flies, which were like for bigness unto 
wasps or bumblebees," which appeared in Ply- 
mouth in the spring of 1633. "They came out 
of little holes in the ground, and did eat up the 
green things, and made such a constant yelling 
noise as made the woods ring of them, and 
ready to deafen the hearers." Judge Davis, in 
the Appendix to his edition of Secretary Mor- 
ton's Memorial, states that these insects ap- 
peared in Plymouth, Sandwich, and Falmouth 
in the year 1804; but, if the exact period of 
seventeen years was observed, they should have 
returned in 1803. Circumstances may occa- 
sionally accelerate or retard their progress to 
maturity, but the usual interval is certainly 
seventeen years, according to the observations 
and testimony of many persons of undoubted 
veracity. Their occurrence in large swarms 
at long intervals, like that of the migratory 
locusts of the East, probably suggested the 
name of locusts, which has commonly been 
applied to them in this country. It appears 



LOCUST. 



LOCUST. 



ttidi these insects come forth at different places 
in different years. 

Dog-day Harvest-fly. — Another species of har- 
vest-fly, though it does not make its appearance 
in such formidable numbers as the seventeen- 
years locust, is much more frequently met with. 
Dr. Harris calls it the dog-day harvest-fly 
(Cicada canicular is), from, its invariably coming 
about the beginning of dog-days. " During 
many years in succession," says Dr. Harris, 
" with only one or two exceptions, I have 
heard this insect on the 25th day of July, for 
the first time in the season, drumming in the 
trees, on some part of the day between the 
hours of ten in the morning and two in the 
afternoon." 

Dr. Harris describes about twenty other spe- 
cies of the locust family found in Massachu- 
setts, and concludes the subject in the follow- 
ing words : 

"After so much space has been devoted to 
an account of the ravages of grasshoppers and 
locusts, and to the descriptions of the insects 
themselves, perhaps it may be expected that 
the means of checking and destroying them 
should be fully explained. The naturalist, 
however, seldom has it in his power to put in 
practice the various remedies which his know- 
ledge or experience may suggest. His proper 
province consists in examining the living ob- 
jects about him with regard to their structure, 
tlieir scientific arrangement, and their economy 
or history. In doing this, he opens to others 
the way to a successful course of experiments, 
the trial of which he is generally obliged to 
leave to those who are more favourably situ- 
ated for their performance. 

In the south of France the people make a 
business, at certain seasons of the year, of col- 
lecting locusts and their eggs, the latter being 
turned out of the ground in little masses, ce- 
mented and covered with a sort of gum, in 
which they are enveloped by the insects. Re- 
wards are offered and paid for their collection, 
half a franc being given for a kilogramme 
(about 2 lbs. 3^ oz. avoirdupois) of the insects, 
and a quarter of a franc for the same weight 
of their eggs. At this rate 20,000 francs were 
paid in Marseilles, and 25,000 in Aries, in the 
year 1613; in 1824, 5,542; and in 1825, 6,200 
francs were paid in Marseilles. It is stated 
that an active boy can collect from 6 to 7 kilo- 
grammes (or from 13 lbs. 3 oz. 13*22 dr. to 
15 lbs. 7 oz. 2-09 dr.) of eggs in one day. The 
locusts are taken by means of a piece of stout 
cloth, carried by four persons, two of whom 
draw it rapidly along, so that the edge may 
sweep over the surface of the soil, and the two 
others hold up the cloth behind at an angle of 
45 degrees. This contrivance seems to ope- 
rate somewhat like a horse-rake, in gathering 
the insects into winrows or heaps, from which 
they are speedily transferred to large sacks. 
A somewhat similar plan has been successfully 
tried in this country, as appears by an account 
extracted from the Portsmouth Journal, and 
published in the New England Farmer, vol. v. 
p. ',■). It is there stated that, in July, 1826, Mr. 
Arnold Thompson, of Epsom, New Hampshire, 
caught m one evening, between the hours of 8 
and 12, in his own and his neighbour's grain- 



fields, 5 bushels and 3 pecks of grasshoppers, 
or, more properly, locusts. ' His mode of catch- 
ing them was by attaching two sheets together, 
and fastening them to a pole, which was used 
as the front part of the drag. The pole extended 
beyond the width of the sheets, so as to admit 
persons at both sides to draw it forward. At 
the sides of the drag, braces extended from the 
pole to raise the back part considerably from 
the ground, so that the grasshoppers could not 
escape. After running the drag about a dozen 
rods with rapidity, the braces were taken out, 
and the sheets doubled over; the grasshoppers 
were then swept from each end towards the 
centre of the sheet, where was left an opening 
to the mouth of a bag which held about half a 
bushel ; when deposited and tied up, the drag 
was again opened and ready to proceed. When 
this bag was filled so as to become burdensome 
(their weight is about the same as that of the 
same measure of corn), the bag was opened 
into a larger one, and the grasshoppers received 
into a new deposit. The drag can be used 
only in the evening, when the grasshoppers are 
perched on the top of the grain. His manner 
of destroying them was by dipping the large 
bags into a kettle of boiling water. When 
boiled, they had a reddish appearance, and 
made a fine feast for the farmer's hogs.' When 
these insects are very prevalent on our salt 
marshes, it will be advisable to mow the grass 
early, so as to secure a crop before it has suf- 
fered much loss. The time for doing this will 
be determined by data furnished in the forego- 
ing pages, where it will be seen that the most 
destructive species come to maturity during 
the latter part of July. If, then, the marshes 
are mowed about the first of July, the locusts, 
being at that time small and not provided with 
wings, will be unable to migrate, and will con- 
sequently perish on the ground for the want 
of food, while a tolerable crop of hay will be 
secured, and the marshes will suffer less from 
the insects during the following summer. This, 
like all other preventive measures, must be 
generally adopted, in order to prove effectual ; 
for it will avail a farmer but little to take pre- 
ventive measures on his own land, if his neigh- 
bours, who are equally expgsed and interested, 
neglect to do the same. Among the natural 
means which seem to be appointed to keep 
these insects in check, violent winds and storms 
may be mentioned, which sometimes sweep 
them off in great swarms, and cast them into 
the sea. Vast numbers are drowned by the 
high tides that frequently inundate our marshei. 
They are subject to be attacked by certain 
thread-like brown or blackish worms (Filaria), 
resembling in appearance those called horse- 
hair eels (Gordius). I have taken three or four 
of these animals out of the body of a single 
locust. They are also much infested by liclie 
red mites, belonging apparently to the genus 
Ocypete : these so much weaken the insects by 
sucking the juices from their bodies, as to 
hasten their death. Ten or a dozen of these 
mites will frequently be found pertinaciously 
adhering to the body of a locust, beneath its 
wing-covers and wings. A kind of sand-wasp 
preys upon grasshoppers, and provisions her 
nest with them. Many birds devour them, par- 

735 



LOCUST-BORER. 



LOOSENESS. 



ticularly our domestic fowls, which eat great 
numbers of grasshoppers, locusts, and even 
crickets. Young turkeys, if allowed to go at 
large during the summer, derive nearly the 
whole of their subsistence from these insects." 
(^Harris's Treatise on Insects.^ 

In England, Locust is the common name of 
a species of insects forming a group or sub- 
genus of the gryllus of Linnaeus. They have 
coloured elytra, and large wings, disposed, 
when at rest, in straight, fan-like folds, as in 
other orthoptera, and frequently exhibiting 
bright blue, green, or red colours. The thorax 
is capacious, to afford room for the powerful 
muscles of the wings, and is marked in many 
species with one or more crests, or wart-like 
prominences. The locusts fly by starts, but 
frequently rise to a considerable height. Cer- 
tain species, called "migratory locusts," unite 
in incalculable numbers, and emigrate, resem- 
bling, in their passage through the air, a dense 
cloud: wherever they alight, all signs of vegeta- 
tion quickly disappear, and cultivated grounds 
are left a desert. One species {Acridium migra- 
toriurn, Latr.), occasionally commits devasta- 
tions in the south of Europe and Poland; and 
stragglers have sometimes reached England, a 
circumstance which happened in 1748: but 
they soon perished. To our ideas of the asso- 
ciation of insects, the swarms of locusts which 
have occasionally appeared in oriental coun- 
tries seem almost incredible. Major Moor states 
that a flight which ravaged the Mahratta coun- 
try, and which he saw at Poonah, extended in a 
dense column 500 miles, and hid the sun like 
an eclipse. On that occasion, the natives fried 
and ale them. The devastation which they 
make is forcibly described by the prophet Joel: 
"The land is as the garden of Eden before 
them, and behind them a desolate wilderness." 

LOCUST-BORER. See Bohers. 

LOCUST, HONEY or SWEET. See Honet 
Locust. 

LOCUST TREE (Hymencea, from Hymen, 
the god of marriage ; in reference to the two 
leaflets). The species of locust tree are highly 
ornamental; they delight to grow in loam and 
peat, and cuttings will root in sand under a 
glass in heat. The young plants should be 
planted out in the autumn of the second year, 
cutting them down within three inches of the 
ground. They must be preserved from the at- 
tacks of hares and rabbits, which are very 
destructive to them. See Acacia. 

LOCUST TREE CATERPILLARS. These 
are produced from the eggs of a butterfly be- 
longing to a tribe which, from their habit of 
flying but a short distance at a time with a 
jerking motion, have acquired the name of 
skippers {Hesperiadce or Hesperians). They 
frequent grassy places, low bushes, and thick- 
ets. When they alight, they usually keep the 
hind-wings spread out horizontally, and the 
fore-wings partially closed, but not entirely so, 
as in other butterflies. 

The Tityrus skipper (^Eudamus tityrus), and 
its offspring, are thus described by Dr. Harris. 
" Wing^ brown ; first pair with a transverse, 
semi-tiansparent band across the middle, and 
a few spots towards the tip, of a honey-yellow 
colour ; hind-wings with a short rounded tail 



on the hind angles, and a I) road silvery band 
across the middle of the under-side. Expands 
from 2 to 2^ inches. 

" This large and beautiful insect makes its 
appearance, from the middle of June till af\er 
the beginning of July, upon sweet-scented 
flowers, which it visits during the middle of 
the day. Its flight is vigorous and rapid, and 
its strength is so great that it cannot be cap- 
tured without danger of its being greatly de- 
faced in its struggles to escape. The females 
lay their eggs, singly, on the leaves of the 
common locust tree (Robinia pseudacacia'), and 
on those of the viscid locust (Robinia viscosa), 
which is much cultivated here as an orna- 
mental tree. The caterpillars are hatched in 
July, and when quite small conceal themselves 
under a fold of the edge of a leaf, which is 
bent over their bodies and secured by means 
of silken threads. When they become larger, 
they attach two or more leaves together, so as 
to form a kind of cocoon or leafy case to shel- 
ter them from the weather, and to screen them 
from the prying eyes of birds. The full-grown 
caterpillar which attains to the length of about 
two inches, is of a pale green colour, trans- 
versely streaked with darker green, with a red 
neck, a very large head roughened with minute 
tubercles, slightly indented or furrowed abovQ, 
and of a dull red colour, with a large yellow 
spot on each side of the mouth. Although 
there may be, and often are, many of these 
caterpillars on the same tree and branch, yet 
they all live separately within their own cases. 
One end of the leafy case is left open, and 
from this the insect comes forth to feed. They 
eat only, or mostly, in the night, and keep 
themselves closely concealed by day. These 
caterpillars are very cleanly in their habits, 
and make no dirt in their habitations, but 
throw it out with a sudden jerk, so that it 
shall fall at a considerable distance. They 
frequently transform to chrysalids M'ithin the 
same leaves which have served them for a 
habitation, but more often quit the trees and 
construct in some secure place a cocoon of 
leaves or fragments of stubble, the interior of 
which is lined with a loose web of silk. They 
remain in their cocoons without further change 
throughout the winter, and are transformed to 
butterflies in the following summer. The vis- 
cid locust tree is sometimes almost completely 
stripped of its leaves by these insects, or pre- 
sents only here and there the brown and wither- 
ed remains of foliage, which has served as a 
temporary shelter to the caterpillars. For the 
modes adopted to destroy these, see Cater- 

PILIAIIS. 

LOLIUM. See Rte-Grass. 

LONDON PRIDE. See Saxifrage. 

LONDON ROCKET. See Hedge-Mustard, 

LONG-HORNED CATTLE. A breed of 
neat cattle now nearly extinct, chiefly distin- 
guished by the length of the horn, the thick- 
ness and firm texture of the hide, the length 
and closeness of the hair, the large size of the 
hoof, and the coarse, leathery thickness of the 
neck. See Cattle. 

LOOPERS. See Span-worms 

LOOSENESS. See Diarhhcea, and Dra- 
EASES OF Cattle aistd Sheep. 



LOOSESTRIFE. 



LUCERN. 



LOOSESTRIFE {Lysimadna, from lusis, dis- 
solution, and mache, strife). A very pretty ge- 
nus of plants, with mostly yellow flowers. All 
the species are of the easiest culture, and may 
be propagated by divisions, except L. dubia 
and L. Linum-stcllatum, which must be in- 
creased by seeds. 

Great yellow loosestrife (X. vulgaris), grows 
in watery, shady places, particularly the reedy 
margins of rivers. The root is creeping; stems 
3 or 4 feet high. 

Wood leosestrife, or yellow pimpernel (X. 
nc7noriim). This species, which is one of the 
elegant though not uncommon English plants, 
inhabits woods and shady, rather watery places. 
The stems are creeping at the base, decum- 
bent, often pendant from banks and rocks. 

Creeping loosestrife. Money-wort or herb 
twopence (L. nummularia). This is a hand- 
some free-flowering plant, which, from its trail- 
ing habit, is well fitted for decorating rock- 
work. It grows wild in wet meadows, boggy 
pastures, and the borders of rivulets. The 
herbage is smooth, of a pale green ; stems 
quite prostrate, creeping, afoot or two in length; 
leaves somewhat heart-shaped ; flowers soli- 
tary, pale lemon-coloured, rather larger than 
the last species; stamens glandular. It flowers 
from June to August, and affords a wholesome 
food for cattle, especially sheep. On account 
of its sub-acid and mildly astringent proper- 
ties, it is considered as one of the most effica- 
cious vulnerary herbs. Bechstein asserts that 
the leaves and flowers of this plant, steeped in 
oil, furnish an excellent remedy for destroying 
the worms and insects infesting the floors of 
granaries. 

LOPPED MILK. Provincially, milk that 
has stood till it has become sour and curdled. 

LOPPING. The operation of cutting off the 
lateral or other branches of trees. See Prun- 
ing and Plantations. 

LOTUS. See Birds'-foot Trefoil. 

LOUSINESS. In farriery, an affection of 
the skin, arising, in cattle or other animals, 
from the irritation of lice or other animalculse, 
which may be distinguished by the naked eye. 
Most animals, and even insects, are subject to 
this annoyance. Lousiness in live-stock is 
produced by neglect and low keep. The best 
remedy is more attention to cleanliness, with 
belter food. The lice may be killed by a dress- 
ing applied with a brush to the chief affected 
parts, composed of four ounces of black sul- 
phur, mixed with a pint of train oil, or a small 
portion of weak mercurial ointment. 

LOUSE-WORT. See Rattle. 

LOVAGE (Liguslicum, so named because 
some of the species grow in Liguria). A ge- 
nus of hardy, herbaceous, and biennial, aro- 
matic plants, which, as flowers, are not worth 
cultivating. They will grow in any soil, and 
are increased by seeds. 

The Scottish lovage or sea parsley (i. Scoti- 
aim), grows on rocks, cliffs, and the sea-coasts 
of Scotland and the north of England, on a 
stem a foot high ; root tap-shaped, warm and 
pungent; leaves stalked, twice ternate ; foot- 
stalks bordered with a purplish compressed 
membrane at the base; umbels smooth, not 
verv large, bearing white flowers, with a red- 
93 



dish tinge: these appear in July. This herb is 
eaten by the natives of Scotland and its isles, 
either crude as a salad, or boiled as greens. The 
flavour is highly acrid, and, though aromatic, 
stomachic, and perhaps not unwholesome, yet 
very nauseous to those who are unaccustomed 
to such food. It is relished by horses, sheep, 
and goats, but refused by cows. The stem 
yields English opoponax. The roots are re- 
puted to be carminative, and an infusion of 
the leaves affords a good physic for calves. 

Cornish lovage (i. cornubiense). This is a 
less common species, found sometimes in 
bushy fields in Cornwall. The root is spindle- 
shaped, contracted at the crown, descending 
to a great depth ; when wounded, discharging 
a yellow, resinous juice. The stem is two or 
three feet high, solitary, erect, branched, stri- 
ated, purple at the base. Leaves deep green ; 
the radicles once, twice, or thrice pinnate, 
rough-edged, cut; stem-leaves ternate, lanceo- 
late, entire. Ribs of the seeds bluntish. 

LOVE-APPLE. See Tomato. 

LOVE-GRASS {Eragrostis, from eros, love, 
and agrostis, grass ; in allusion to the beautiful 
dancing spikelets, whence also the English 
name). It is a pretty species of foreign grass, 
growing in gardens about a foot high in any 
common soil. 

LOVE-LIES-BLEEDING. The common 
name of a species of amaranth (Jl. caudatus). 

LOY. A very long, narrow spade, peculiar 
to the province of Connaught and some parts 
of Munster, and only suited to stony land, 
where a wider edge could not so easily pene- 
trate. (M. Doyle's Pract. Husb.) 

LUCAMA. A species of fruit growing in 
Chili, in size and flavour resembling a peach. 
(Ed. Enryc.) 

LUCERN, or PURPLE MEDICK GRASS 
(Medicago sativa, PI. 8, h). An artificial grass, 
called by the French grand trcfle, which affords 
perhaps a larger produce of fodder than any 
other species of artificial grass. Although 
found growing wild in hedges, pastures, and 
the borders of fields in dry, calcareous soils, 
3'et it can scarcely be considered a native of 
England. The stems are erect or somewhat 
reclining, about two feet high. Leaflets oblong, 
inclining to wedge-shaped; more or less acute, 
sharply serrated towards the end, clothed with 
close, silky hairs on both sides. The flowers 
are in clusters, many, bluish purple, with a 
small bristle-like bracte under each partial 
stalk. The legumes are spiral, with rarely 
more than two or three turns ; they are silky 
when young. 

This valuable grass is best cultivated on a 
good, dry, warm, barley soil; it is not adapted 
for hea?vy or wet soils. Being a deep-rooted 
plant, it requires a soil in which its roots can 
penetrate to a considerable depth. It should 
be sown on land perfectly clean, in the months 
of March or April, with (or best without) a 
crop of grain. It is only adapted to the south- 
ern parts of England, since extreme cold de- 
stroys it. It is best sown alone in drills, at a 
distance of 12 to 15 inches; the quantity of 
seed is from 10 to 16 lbs. per acre. Any va 
cancies in the drills may in the autumn or fol- 
lowing spring be made good by transplanting 
3 a 2 737 



LUCERN. 



LUCERN. 



By careful weeding and hoeing, and frequent 
top-dressings (for which purpose gypsum, cal- 
careous matters, ashes, &c., are excellent), the 
profitable duration of this crop may be extend- 
ed eight or ten years, giving during that period, 
on an average, three or four cuttings per an- 
num: the first of which, in favourable seasons, 
will be as early as the middle of April. It 
should always be cut before the appearance 
of the blossom. It may be made into hay, al- 
though much better adapted for soiling. An 
acre will, upon an average, produce fodder for 
two horses, from the first cutting to October. 
It is admirably adapted for milch cows, and is, 
indeed, relished by all live-stock. 

"Lucern," as observed by Mr. Loudon (En- 
cydo. of Gurd.) " is highly extolled by Roman 
writers ; it is also of great antiquity in Spain, 
Italy, and the south of France ; is much grown 
in Persia and Peru, and mown in both coun- 
tries all the year round. It is mentioned by 
Hartlip, Blythe, and other early writers, and 
was tried by Lisle ; but it excited little atten- 
tion till after the publication of Harte's Essays 
in 1757 {1 1764). Mr. Towers, speaking of 
lucern, calls it 'the plant of plants.' 'I have 
grown lucern (he adds) during four or five 
years, and previously I had witnessed its great 
success and extensive culture in the Isle of 
Thanet.' " 

In cutting for a cow, it will always be ad- 
visable to take the plant when it is tender and 
juicy; and such it will be when about a foot 
high. I have thus cut my plot over six times 
after the first year; but they who leave the 
plants to grow two feet high, will find the stems 
rigid, fibrous, and less juicy; and that what 
ihey gain in bulk will be lost in time and qua- 
lity. Lucern is known to produce much milk, 
perhaps more than any other of the artificial 
grassos (Leguiitinosa'); but some complain that 
it communicates an austere or bitter flavour. 
I doubt the fact, but would always recommend 
that it be not given quite t>esh to a cow, par- 
ticularly at an early period after calving. 

If the required quantity be cut over night, it 
will be fit for the stall by ten o'clock of the 
following morning, and again the afternoon 
meal should be exposed to the sun for 2 or 3 
hours before it is used. " As to the trouble in 
managing an established crop, it is really no- 
thing. Though I allow it is good to hoe twice 
during the summer, as the plot is cut piece by 
piece, yet one general fork-digging at that pe- 
riod of early spring when the plants exhibit 
the first symptom of growth, so as to remove 
every weed, and loosen the surface of the soil, 
will be amply sufficient to secure the safety 
and full developement of the herb. Upon the 
whole, lucern is a plant of the utmost value ; 
for if the seed be good, the ground rich and in 
Heart, and rendered deep in the first instance 
by a thorough trenching, the young plants start 
into lively growth, attain strength in the short- 
est possible time, and yield a bulk of luxuriant 
herbage that cannot be surpassed. If the plant 
require four years to attain its maximum of 
power, it is still a giant even from its infancy, 
advancing from strength to strength. A well 
piepared field, if kept clean by the forking, 
will remain productive for more than ten years; 
738 



but as a change of crop always promotes abun- 
dance, it would be advisable to prepare a suc- 
cessional plot every six years." (Quart. Journ, 
of Agr. vol. ix. p. 96.) 

About 80 pounds weight per day of 24 hours 
is sufficient for the largest cow, and half this, 
with corn, for a horse. No stock should at any 
time be permitted to graze upon it. 

There are several varieties of lucern, with vio- 
let, yellow, and variegated flowers, which are 
supposed to be only a variation of the same 
plant, arising accidentally from the seed. 
However, neither the yellow nor the varie- 
gated is ever so strong as the purple flowered, 
and cannot, of course, be so profitable to the 
cultivator. Lucern may be estimated as the 
choicest of all fodder, because it lasts many 
years ; will bear cutting down four, five, or six 
times a year; enriches the land on which it 
grows ; vill fatten cattle, and often proves a 
remedy for the diseased. 

Those who wish to acquire more minute in- 
formation relative to the management of lucern, 
may consult the Rev. Walter Harte's learned 
Essays on Husbandry ; Rocque's Practical Trea- 
tise on Cuhivaling Lucern Grass; and British 
Husbandry, vol. ii. p. 307. 

Lucern is sometimes called French clover, and 
has been introduced into the United States as a 
new plant under the name of Brazilian clover, 
called in South America Alfalfa, the Spanish 
name for lucern. It is a kind of grass which 
in some situations has been cultivated with 
great success in the United States. It is not, 
strictly speaking, a clover, though in some re- 
spects similar. It is a perennial, and in favour- 
able soils the roots are said to live and flourish 
a great many years. Its advantages consist in 
affording a greater amount of foliage for any 
kind of stock than any other plant, with the 
same labour and expense. " Several years 
since, while residing in the State of Maine, we 
made several experiments with lucern, which, 
although some of them terminated unfavour- 
ably, satisfied us that the most favourable soil 
for it is a deep, sandy loam ; and as the alluvial 
soils on this river are generally of this charac- 
ter, we last spring resolved on giving it a fair 
trial here. We procured from Boston a small 
quantity of seed, which was sown on the river 
'bottom' the last week in May. As the soil had 
been badly managed for several years previous, 
we had feared that the great growth of weeds 
would check and smother the lucerne, and to 
guard against this, and get a chance to extir- 
pate the weeds, we sowed the seed in drills. 
This was done very expeditiously and exactly 
with one of Ruggles, Nourse, and Mason's seed 
sowers. 

"In the latter part of the month of July, the 
lucern had reached the height of 18 inches on 
an average, and had considerably blossomed. 
We cut it and fed it green, partly to hogs and 
partly to milch cows, — both ate it voraciously. 
In just four weeks from the time it was cut, it 
had again grown to nearly the same height as 
before, and was cut a second time, — and on the 
first of November it was cut a third time, — the 
crop being heavier than either of the preced- 
ing. A piece of common red clover (very 
flourishing) immediately adjoining, the soil 



LUG. 



MADDER. 



precisely similar, did not yield nearly half as 
much, in proportion, as the lucern. 

" We have no doubt that it may be cut five 
limes another year, and will yield at the rate 
of a ton and a half of hay to the acre at each 
cutting." (ZanesviUe Gazelle,) 

Upon analysis, the stems, &c, of lucern are 
found to contain gypsum, and this furnishes a 
satisfactory explanation of the fact, that plaster 
of Paris applied to the crop generally causes 
it to grow luxuriantly. Live-stock prefer plas- 
tered lucern to any other herbage. 

LUG, A long measure of land, the same 
with a pole or perch, 16^ feet. In Gloucester- 
shire it however signifies a land measure of 
€ yards, or a rod, pole, or perch of 6 yards. 
It is a measure by which ditching and other 
similar operations are performed there. This 
term is likewise applied to the stick, by which 
the work is measured. It is sometimes called 
log, 

LUNGWORT (Pulmonaria; it derives both 
its common and generic names from its sup- 
posed medical properties in diseases of the 
lungs). The species of this genus are very 
pretty flowering plants, well adapted for orna- 
menting the front of shrubberies. They thrive 
in any common soil, and are readily increased 
by divisions, 

LUPINE {Lupimis, from lupus, a wolf; in 
allusion to its exhausting or devouring the 
soil). The species of this genus are among 
the most beautiful of border flowers. They 
will flourish in almost any soil, but a rich 
loam suits them best. They perfect their seeds 
very freely, from which young plants are easily 
obtained. In agriculture, the lupine is culti- 
vated principally for being turned in as a ma- 
nure. (See Gheks Maivuuf.s.) This plant re- 
quires but little trouble or labour in its culti- 
vation, as it will thrive in any soil except the 
bad chalks, and such as are very wet. It will 
even grow well on poor, hungry, worn-out land, 
especially if it be dry and sand)'. When sown 
in February or March, afte-r a single very shal- 
low ploughing, and slightly harrowed in, it will 
blossom two or three times between May and 
August, and prove an excellent enricher of the 
ground when ploughed in just after its second 
blooming. The best time for mowing this sort 
of crop is after a shower of rain, as the seeds 
drop easily out of their pods when they are 
gathered too drJ^ They must, however, be 
laid up very dry, or worms soon breed in them. 
They are inferior to many other plants for the 
above use. 

LUPINE, WILD. Mr. Nuttall has enumerated 
seven species of the lupine genus found in dif- 
ferent parts of the United States and territories. 
Dr. Darlington has described common wild lu- 
pine, an ornamental plant, found in the wood- 
lands and hills of the Middle States. The root 
is perennial and creeping; stem 9 to 18 inches 
high, herbaceous, erect, or decumbent, some- 
what branching, striated, angular, and pubes- 
cent. Flower purplish-blue, with violet shades. 
Legume or pod about an inch and a half long 
and one-third of an inch wide, somewhat flat- 
tened, hairy, and of a dark tawny colour. Seed 
obovoid, slightly compressed, smooth, speckled 
or variegated with whitish and dark brown. 



LURCHER. A sort of hunting dog, much 
like a mongrel greyhound, with pricked ears, 
a shaggy coat, and generally of a yellowish- 
white colour. It is a very swift runner, so that^ 
if it gets between the burrows and the rabbits, 
it seldom misses taking them ; and this is its 
common practice in hunting. 

LURID. In botany, signifies a colour be- 
tween a purple, yellow, and gray. 

LYME-GRASS. See Eltmus. 

LYCHNIS (from lychnos, a lamp ; on account 
of the brilliancy of the flowers of most of the 
species). This is an extremely beautiful genus 
of plants, well meriting extensive cultivation 
for the brilliancy of their flowers, A red va- 
riety is often cultivated in a double state, and 
called bachelor's buttons; a name, however, 
which is more frequently given to a species of 
ranunculus. 

LYNCHET. A country term applied to the 
stripes or grassy partitions in arable fields in 
England, but mostly to such as are in the slate 
of commonage. 

LYNCH-PIN, or LINCH-PIN. The small 
pin, in carts or other carriages, that is put 
through the ends of the axle-trees, to confine 
the wheels on them. 

LYRATE. In botany, leaves are called ly- 
rate which are shaped in the form of a lyre 

M. 

MACERATION. The act of softening any 
substance by steeping it in cold water or other 
liquid. 

MACHINE (Gr.). In a general sense this 
word signifies any thing which serves to in- 
crease or regulate the effect of a given force. 
Machines are either simple or compound. The 
simple machines are usually reckoned six in 
number; namely, the lever, the wheel and axle, 
the pulley, the wedge, the screw, and the funi- 
cular or rope machine. Compound machines 
are formed by combining two or more simple 
machines. 

In husbandry, the term is applied to various 
implements, such as the Drill, Thrashing, 
and WixNowiXG Machines, the Steam Enoixe, 
&c. See these respective terms. 

MADDER {Rubia, from ruber, red, in allusion 
to the colour of the roots). This is a genus of 
interesting plants; any common garden soil 
suits them, and they are easily increased by 
seeds or divisions of the roots. The root of i?. 
tinctoricm is one of the most valuable dyes with 
which we are acquainted, and is a very import- 
ant article of commerce. The plant is herba- 
ceous, several stems rising from the same root; 
tetragonal, with hooked prickles at the angles. 
The leaves are four or six in a whorl, lanceo- 
late, with the midrib on the under disk, and the 
margins aculeated. The flowers are small, 
yellow, supported on axillary trichotomous pe- 
duncles. 

The dried root of the madder is long, cylin- 
drical, the thickness of a goose quill, branched 
and covered with a reddish cuticle, which, as 
well as the bark, is easily separated ; the odour 
is feeble, and the taste bitter and astringent. It 
is imported entire from Smyrna and the Levant, 
but in coarse powder from Holland and France. 

739 



MADDER. 

The cultivation of madder has been attempted 
in England, and it is still carried on to a limited 
extent in some districts, but without any very- 
great success or beneficial results, owing to the 
low price at which it can be procured from the 
Dutch growers and from Turkey. 

Dyers' madder is an agricultural product 
which has been very successfully and profita- 
bly cultivated in the United States. The root 
of the plant is composed of many long, thick, 
succulent fibres, almost as large as a man's 
little finger; these are joined at the top in a 
head, like the root of asparagus, and strike 
very deep into the ground, being sometimes 
more than three feet in length. From the upper 
part or head of the root come out many side- 
rools, which extend just under the surface of 
the ground to a great distance, whereby it pro- 
pagates very fast ; for these send up a great 
number of shoots, which, if carefully taken ofl" 
in the spring, soon after they are above ground, 
become so many plants. The root is peren- 
nial, although the stalk dies down every winter. 

The soils most suited to the cultivation of 
madder are deep, fertile, sandy loams, not re- 
tentive of moisture, and having a considerable 
portion of vegetable matter in their composi- 
tion. It may also be grown on the more light 
descriptions of soil, of sufficient depth, and in 
a proper state of fertility. The preparation of 
the soil may either consist in trench ploughings, 
lengthwise and across, with pronged stirrings, 
so as to bring it to a fine tilth ; or, what will 
often be found preferable, by one trenching, two 
feet deep, by manual labour. The sets or plants 
are best obtained from the runners, or surface- 
roots of the old plants. These being taken up, 
are to be cut into lengths of from six to twelve 
inches, according to the scarcity or abundance 
of runners. Sets of one inch will grow if they 
have an eye or bud, and some fibres ; but their 
progress will be injuriously slow for want of 
maternal nourishment. Sets may also be pro- 
cured by sowing the seeds in fine, light earth, 
a year before they are wanted, and then trans- 
planting them ; or sets of an inch may be plant- 
ed one year in a garden, and then removed to 
the field plantation. The season of planting is 
commonly May or June, and the manner is ge- 
nerally in rows nine or ten inches asunder, and 
five or six inches apart in the rows. Some 
plant promiscuously in beds with intervals be- 
tween, out of which earth is thrown in the lazy- 
led manner of growing potatoes; but this is 
unnecessary, as it is not the surface, but the 
descending roots which are used by the dyer. 
The operation of planting is generally perform- 
p 1 by the dibber, but some ley-plant them by 
the aid of the plough. By this mode the ground 
i> ploughed over with a shallow furrow, and 
in the course of the operation the sets are de- 
posited in each furrow, leaning on and pressed 
against the furrow-slice. This, however, is a 
bad mode, as there is no opportunity of firming 
the plants at the roots, and as some of the sel-s 
are apt to be buried, and others not sufficiently 
covered- The after-culture consists in hoeing 
and weeding with stirring by pronged hoes, 
either of the horse or hand kind. Some earth 
up, bui this is unnecessary, and even injurious, 
as tearing the surface-roots. The madder crop 
740 



MADDER. 

is taken at the cl i of the third autumn after 
planting, and generally in the month of October. 
By far the best mode is that of trenching over 
the ground, which not only clears it effectually, 
but fits it at once for another crop. Where 
madder, however, has been grown on land pre- 
pared by the plough, that implement may be 
used in removing it. Previously to trenching, 
the haulm may be cleared off with an old 
scythe, and carted to the farmery to be used as 
litter to spread in the straw-yards. Drying the 
roots is the next process, and, in very fine sea- 
sons, may sometimes be effected on the soil, by 
simply spreading the plants as they are taken 
up ; but in most seasons they require to be 
dried on a kiln, like that used for mall or hops. 
They are dried till they become brittle, and 
ihen packed up in bags for sale to the dyer. 
The produce from the root of this plant is dif- 
ferent according to the difli'erence of the soil, 
but mostly from ten to fifteen or twenty cwt., 
where they are suitable to its cultivation. In 
judging of the quality of madder-roots, the best 
is that which, on being broken in two, has a 
brightish-red or purplish appearance, without 
any yellow cast being exhibited. The use of 
madder-roots is chiefly in dyeing and calico- 
printing. The haulm which accumulates on 
the surface of the field, in the course of three 
years, may be carted to the farm-yard, and fer- 
mented along with horse-dung. It has the sin- 
gular property of dyeing the horns of the ani- 
mals who eat it of a red colour. Madder-seed 
in abundance may be collected from the plants 
in the September of the second and third years, 
but it is never so propagated. Madder is 
sometimes blighted, but in general it has few 
diseases. (Loudon's Ency. Jigr.) 

In the Netherlands, where every agricultural 
process is conducted with such skill and suc- 
cess, madder sometimes forms a crop. It is 
always put upon land of the best quality, and 
with plenty of manure. At the end of April or 
May, accordingly as the young plants are large 
enough to be transplanted, the land must be 
ploughed in beds of two feet and two feet and 
a half wide ; the beds are then to be harrowed 
and raked, and the young suckers of the roots 
or plants are to be put down in rows, at inter- 
vals of a foot or a foot and a half, and six or 
eight inches distant in the row. During the 
entire summer the land should be frequently 
stirred, and kept free from weeds. In the 
month of November, when the leaves are faded, 
the plants are covered with two inches of earth 
by a plough, having the point of the coulter a 
little raised or rounded, so as not to injure the 
young plants. In the following spring, when 
(he young shoots are four or five inches long, 
they are gathered or torn off", and planted in 
new beds, in the same manner as has been 
pointed out above; and then, in the month of 
September or October, after the faded leaves 
have been removed, the old roots are taken up. 
The madder thus taken up should be deposited 
under cover, to protect it from the rain ; and, 
after ten or twelve days, placed in an oven 
moderately heated. When dried sufficiently, 
it is gently beaten with a flail, to get rid of any 
clay that may adhere to the plants ; and, by 
means of a small windmill, is ground and sifte4 



MADDER. 



MADDER. 



to separate it from any remaining earth or dirt. 
It is then replaced in the oven for a short time, 
and when taken out is spread upon a hair- 
cloth to cool; after which it is ground and 
cleaned once more. It is then carried to a 
bruising-mill, and reduced to a fine powder, after 
which it is packed in casks or barrels for market. 

Several interesting communications upon 
the subject of the culture of madder in the 
Northern and Eastern States, may be found in 
the agricultural periodicals. (See American 
Farmer, New England Fanner, Cultioator, &c.) 

Mr. Russel Bronson, of Birmingham, Huron 
county, Ohio, a successful cultivator of madder, 
has published a communication upon this sub- 
ject, which contains the following information: 

A location facing the south or south-east is 
to be preferred. A sandy loam not over stiff 
and heavy, or light and sandy, or a good 
brown, deep, rich upland loam, free from foul 
grass, weeds, stones, or stumps of trees. Where 
a crop of potatoes, peas, corn, or wheat has 
been cultivated the past season, plough deep 
twice, once in September and once in October, 
and if rather stiff let it lie after the plough 
until spring. When the spring opens, and the 
ground has become dry and warm (say in 
Tennessee, 1st of April, Ohio, 15th, and New 
York, 25th to 1st of May — I speak of the spring 
of 1836), plough again deep, the deeper the 
better, then harrow well and strike it into 
ridges with a one-horse plough, 3 feet wide and 
4 feet vacant, or making a ridge once in 7 feet, 
raising it, if on rather moist ground, 8 or 10 
inches, and dry land 6 or eight from the natural 
level ; then with a light harrow, level and shape 
the ridges like a well-formed bed of beets, &c. 

We will suppose you intend to plant one 
acre of ground, and that you have purchased 8 
bushels of tap roots in the fall and buried them 
like potatoes on your premises — count the 
ridges on your acre, and take out of the ground 
1 bushel of roots and plant it on one-eighth of 
your ridges ; you will then be able to ascertain 
how to proportion your roots for the remainder. 
The following is the mminer of planting, culti- 
vating, &c., when the quantities of ground do 
not exceed 3 or 4 acres. One person on each 
side of the ridge to make the holes (plant 4 
inches below the surface of the bed, or there- 
abouts, when covered) one on each side to drop 
the roots, and 1 on each side to cover, pressing 
the hill in the manner of planting corn; or, 3 
persons may be placed on one side, as the case 
may be, whether you have 1 or more acres to 
plant. Let the owner be the dropper of roots, 
and his most thorough assistants behind him. 
Make the holes from 12 to 18 inches apart, and 
about 6 inches from the edge of the ridge. As 
the plants are supposed to have been purchased 
in the fall, the roots may have thrown out 
sprouts, and possibly have leaved. In this case, 
in drwpping and covering, you will leave the 
most prominent sprout or sprouts a little out of 
the ground, as where a plant has leafed, it 
ought not to be smothered. 

When the plant gets up 3 or 4 inches, weed 
with the hoe, and plough with 1 horse, be- 
tween the ridges or beds, but not on them ; this 
will take place 2 or 3 weeks after planting. 
When up 12 or 15 inches, mjiny of the tops will 



fall ; assist them with 10 foot poles crossing 
the bed, covering them with a shovel or garden 
rake, throwing the soil from between the ridges. 
After loosening with the one-horse plough, you 
will with a shovel scatter the earth between the 
stalks rather than throw it into heaps ; of 
course we wish to keep the stalks separate, as 
they are to form new and important roots in 
the centre of the beds. About the 20th of June, 
you may plough between the beds, and scatter 
more earth on the fresh tops (all but the ends), 
and when you get through, you may plant 
potatoes between the beds if you please. I do 
not recommend it, if you have plenty of land, 
although I raised 1070 bushels of pink eyes on 
8 acres the first year, and 60 bushels of corn. 
If your land is perfectly clear of weeds, you 
are through with your labour on the madder 
crop for this year, except in latitudes where 
there is not much snow, and considerable frost ; 
in this case cover in October 2 inches or there- 
about. Second year, same operations in weed- 
ing, but no crop between ; cover once in June. 
Third year, weed only. Fourth year, weed in 
the spring, if a weedy piece of ground. 

Begin to plough out the roots in Tennessee, 
[3 years old] 1st September. Ohio, [4 years] 
same time. New York, 15th or 20th, after 
cutting off the tops with a sharp hoe. In 
ploughing out the roots use a heavy span of 
horses, and a large plough. We ought to 
choose a soil neither too wet nor too dry, too 
stiff or light. Shake the dirt from the roots, 
and rinse or wash, as the soil may be stiff or 
light; dry in a common hop kiln ; grind them 
in a mill similar to Wilson's Patent Coffee 
Mill ; this mill weighs from 1 to 2 pounds. 
The madder mill may be from 60 to 80 pounds 
weight. Grind coarse, and fan in a fanning 
mill ; then grind again for market. The profit 
of this crop is immense ; the exhaustion of soil 
trifling, and glutting the market out of the 
question. 

Madder is used in whole, or part, for the 
following colours on wool, both in England, 
France, and America, viz. blue, black, red, 
buff, olive-brown, olive, navy blue, and many 
others ; finally it produces one of the most 
beautiful, durable, and healthy colours that is 
at this time dyed ; as for calico printers, it enters 
greatly into their dyes. (Am. Farmer's Instructor.) 

As the tops of the plants spread very much, 
some advise placing them in hills somewhat 
like Indian corn, 4 and even 6 feet apart each 
way, and 2 plants in each hill. 

Rules have been laid down by Miller, On the 
Culture and Manufacture of Madder, for manag- 
ing the land, separating and planting the shoots, 
gathering and drying the roots, and for pound- 
ing, casking, and preparing them for sale, 
according to the most approved English prac- 
tice. The reader who wishes to attempt the 
cultivation of madder, will also find some use- 
ful hints in the Penny Cyclopcedia, vol. xiv. p 
260, and Brit. Husbandry, vol. ii. p. 332 ; Beck- 
viann's Hist, of Invent, vol. iii. ; and The Com- 
plete Farmer, vol. ii. The haulm of madder, 
though sometimes employed in the feeding of 
cattle, is not very generally used for that pur- 
pose, for it tinges red the milk, the urine, the 
sweat, and even the bones of the animals fed 

741 



MADDER, THE FOsLD. 



MAGNOLIA. 



apon it. The average annual imports into 
Ihigland are about 180,000 cwt. of madder-root 
and ground madder. The duty chargeable on 
consumption is 2s. per cwt. on the prepared 
madder, and 6d. per cwt. on the roots. Madder 
was formerly used as a medicine in jaundice : 
but it possesses no properties which entitle it 
to be regarded as a remedy in any disease. 

MADDER, THE FIELD. See Sherakdia. 

MADDER, WILD (Eubia peregrina.) This 
is an indigenous species which is found grow- 
ing in thickets and on stony or sandy ground in 
the west of Britain. The root is creeping, 
fieshy, and tender, of a tawny red, useful in 
dyeing, but it is very inferior to the cultivated 
madder. The stem is branched, spreading, 
square, perennial, partly shrubby, its angles 
rough with hooked prickles, as are the edges 
and midrib of the broad, shining, dark, ever- 
green, elliptical leaves, which are four or more 
in a whorl. The flowers, which appear from 
July to August, are yellowish green, five-cleft, 
in forked terminal panicles. The berries are 
juicy, in pairs, black and shining. 

The plant known in the United States by the 
name of wild madder, is the Galium lindorium of 
botanists, or Dyers' Goose-grass. It is a peren- 
nial, found in moist woodlands and low grounds, 
flowering in July and August. The stems rise 
12 to 18 inches high, generally erect, and 
branched. The flowers are white. Pursh says, 
the North American Indians use this plant for 
dyeing their porcupine quills, leather, feathers, 
and other ornaments, of a beautiful red colour. 

MADI. A plant, said to be a new genus, 
growing in Chili. Its seeds furnish an oil 
which has been preferred to any of the French 
olive oils. (Ed. Encyc.) 

MAGGOT. See Flt in Sheep. 

MAGNESIA (Fr. Magnesia ; It. Magnesia). 
One of the primitive earths having a metallic 
basis. It is an oxide of magnesium. It is 
sometimes found native, nearly in a state of 
purity; but is generally prepared by calcining 
the common carbonate of magnesia. It is in- 
odorous and insipid, in the form of a very light, 
white, soft powder, having a specific gravity 
of 2-3. It turns to green the more delicate 
vegetable blues, and requires for its solution 
2000 parts of water at 60°. It is found com- 
bined with carbonic and other acids in plants. 

It is a useful purgative in an acid state of 
the stomach ; and taken daily, with short inter- 
vals intervening, it is a useful preventive of red 
gravel or lithic acid deposits in the kidneys. 

As all kinds of grain are found to contain a 
certain proportion of phosphate of magnesia, 
the presence of this substance cannot be sup- 
posed to be merely accidental. Hence the 
inference that magnesia must be serviceable 
as a fertilizer. It enters largely into the com- 
position of limestone, of which it constitutes 
sometimes almost one half. The magnesian 
lime has been long applied with the greatest 
advantage in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. In 
other places the admixture of magnesia with 
lime has been considered as producing sterility 
rather than benefit. See Earths, Lime. 

When magnesian lime has been applied to 
ground in undue quantity, so as to have pro- 
duced unfavourable effects upon vegetation, it 
742 



has been found that after two years its hartful 
influence has become exhausted. Great quan- 
tities of it are annually taken from Sunderland 
to Scotland by the Fifeshire farmers, and ap- 
plied by them as a manure, with the greatest 
benefits, even in preference to other kinds of 
lime. The same preference is shown by many 
Pennsylvania farmers, for magnesian lime. 
Experience has shown that it has been unfairly 
denounced by Sir H. Davy and Mr. Tennent, as 
a sterilizer. 

MAGNOLIA (named by Plumier after Pierre 
Magnol, prefect of the botanic garden at Mont- 
pelier, and author of several works on plants ; 
he died in 1715). This is a genus of very ele- 
gant and showy plants when in flower, and 
well worthy of extensive cultivation. The 
hardy kinds, being remarkably handsome 
shrubs, should be planted in conspicuous situa- 
tions where they will flower profusely when 
they attain a good size. M. glauca, and some 
others, grow best in a peat soil in a moist situa- 
tion. They are generally increased by layers 
put down in spring or autumn, or by seeds ; 
when the layers are first taken off", they should 
be potted in a mixture of loam and peat, and 
placed in a close frame till they have taken 
fresh root. None of the leaves should be taken 
ofl"or shortened, nor any shoots be cut off, as 
they will not succeed so well ; for the more 
branches and leaves are on the sooner they 
will strike fresh root. The Chinese kinds are 
often inarched or budded on M. obovata, one of 
the readiest growing kinds, which takes rea- 
dily. The seeds of the North American species 
are received annually from that country. They 
should be sown as soon as possible after their 
arrival, in pots of light rich earth, covering 
them half an inch deep ; these may be placed 
either in a hotbed or a warm sheltered situa- 
tion, or they may be sown in the open ground, 
and when the plants are of sufiicient size, they 
should be planted out singly into pots, and 
sheltered till they have taken fresh root; they 
should also be protected from the frost by r 
frame for two or three successive winters, 
giving them the benefit of the open air in mild 
weather. 

The Genus Magnolia contains about fifteen 
species, almost exactly divided between China 
and the United States. There is also one spe- 
cies in tropical America. The trees are dis- 
tinguished by a bark more or less camphorated 
and aromatic ; the leaves are alternate, entire, 
and large, partly ovate, and in some species 
auriculate at the base. The flowers are large, 
fragrant, white, yellowish, or brown ; the seeds 
scarlet or fulvous. 

The following summary of the American 
species is from NuttaWs Genera of North Ame- 
rican Plants. 

1. M. grandiflora. The most magnificent 
tree of the southern states, the trunk often pre- 
senting a living column of 80 or 90 feet eleva- 
tion, almost unobstructed by branches, and 
terminated by a spreading top of the deepest 
perennial verdure. 2, Glavca. 3 Macrophylla. 
This small pyramidal tree produces the largest 
leaves and flowers of any other North Ameri- 
can plant. The limits of this interesting spe- 
cies appear to be extremely local. I fir?J 



MAIDEN HAIR. 



MAIZE. 



observed it in Tennessee near the banks of 
Cumberland river, but of very small size. In 
the Southern States it is not at present known 
to the most assiduous collectors in any other 
spot than a single narrow tract of about 2 
miles in length, 12 miles southeast of Lincoln- 
ton (Lincoln county, North Carolina). These 
limits I have carefully examined and found 
them invariable. 4. Tripctala (Umbrella-tree). 
5. Acuminata (Cucumber-tree). Flowers yel- 
lowish green. 6. Cordata. Flowers yellow; 
appearing twice in the year in the garden of 
Mr. Landreth of Philadelphia. Leaves sub- 
cordate-oval, never truly cordate. 7. Auricu- 
lata. Leaves rhomboid-lanceolate, auriculate 
at the base. Considerably allied to M. Macro- 
phylla. 0. Pyramidata. Nothing more than a 
variety of the preceding, having leaves a little 
broader and shorter. See Cucumber Trke. 

MAIDEN HAIR (Jdiantum, derived from 
adiantos, dry. Pliny says, it is in vain to 
plunge the adiantum in water, for it always 
remains dry). These are elegant species of 
ferns with beautiful leaves. They succeed 
well in a mixture of loam and peat; but they 
appear to thrive best if planted in loose rock- 
work where there is a good drainage, and may 
be increased by divisions or by seeds. ./?. Ca- 
pillus veneris is the only indigenous species. It 
is often supposed that the French syrup called 
capillaire is made from this plant; but it is from 
the Miantum pedatuni, a plant growing in the 
south of France. Our adiantum, however, 
would make as useful a syrup. It is a refresh- 
ing beverage, mixed with water, in fevers. 
See Ferx. 

MAIZE, MAIZ, or INDIAN CORN (Zm 
»Hai/s,from zao, to live, in reference to the nutritive 
properties of the plants belonging to the genus). 
A gigantic herbaceous annual plant, belonging 
to the family of grasses cultivated for their 
grains {Gramhwa). Although, in Europe, the 
word corn is synonymous with wheat, rye, and 
breadstufFs generally, in the United States the 
term, used alone, applies exclusively to maize. 
In one of the counties of Pennsylvania, a 
man having been indicted for stealing so many 
bushels of " torn," exception was taken by his 
counsel, that this was not a perfect description 
of Indian corn ; the exception, however, was 
overruled by the court, who thus decided that 
"corn" was the established name for Indian 
corn. 

Maize is the crop, of all others, best adapted 
to the climate of the United States, where it is 
cultivated, on every variety of soil, from one 
extremity of the Union to the other. It con- 
stitutes the main stay of the cereal farmer, 
most depended upon to furnish food and pro- 
vender for man and beast. The crop raised 
in the United States in 1839, has been esti- 
mated at nearly 400,000,000 of bushels. That 
of 1842 was much greater. Supposing it to 
have been 500,000,000, this at an average price 
of only 40 cents per bushel, would make the 
total value of the crop no less than 200,000,000 
of dollars, which is considerably more than 
double the value of the wheat crop estimated 
at $\ per bushel. The article on Agriculture 
will show the states and districts where the 
largest proportion of this grain is produced. 



The amount raised annually, increases in rapid 
progression. 

Although America is doubtless the native 
country of a plant so important to her interests; 
still this has been a disputed point. Fuchs 
very early maintained that it came from the 
East; and Mathioli affirmed that it was from 
America. Regmir and Gregory have present- 
ed fresh arguments in favour of its Eastern 
origin. Among them is the name by which it 
has long been known in Europe : BU de Tur- 
quie; and varieties, it is said, have been brought 
from the Isle of France, or from China. Moreau 
de Jonnes, on the contrary, has recently main- 
tained, in a memoir read before the Academy 
of Science, that its origin was in America. 
The name BU de Turquie no more proves it to 
be of Turkish origin, than the name of the 
Italian Poplar or Irish potato, proves that the 
tree and the plant grew wild in Italy and Ire- 
land. It can only signify that it spread from 
Turkey into the neighbouring countries. Its 
general cultivation in Southern Europe, and 
the production of some new varieties, proves 
nothing with regard to the country of the spe- 
cies. In favour of its American origin, is the 
fact that it was found in a state of cultivation 
in every place where the first navigators land- 
ed. In Mexico, according to Hernandez ; and 
in Brazil, according to Zeri ; and that in the 
various countries it had proper names, such as 
Maize, Flaolli, &LC.: whilst, in the Old World, 
its names were either all of American origin, 
or from the neighbouring region, whence it 
was derived. Immediately after the discovery 
of America, it was spread rapidly in the Old 
World, and soon became common, a fact 
not reconcilable with the idea of its former 
existence there. To these proofs, Aug. de 
Saint-Hilaire has added another. He has re- 
ceived from M. de Larranhaga, of Monte Video, 
a new variety of maize, distinguished by the 
name ofTunicata; because instead of having 
the grains naked, they are entirely covered by 
the glumes. This variety is from Paraguay, 
where it is cultivated by the Guaycurus In- 
dians, a people in the lowest scale of civiliza- 
tion ; and where, according to the direct testi- 
mony of one of them, it grows in the humid 
forests as a native production. 

The early authors who have written about 
America, with few if any exceptions, mention 
maize as an indigenous grain. Thus Acoste, 
in his Natural History of the West Indies, calls 
it "Indian wheat, to make bread of," and says 
" that it was the only grain found, in the West 
Indies by the Europeans .-—that it grows upon 
a long reed with large grains, and sometinies 
two ears on a reed, on one of which 700 grains 
have been told :— that they sow it grain by 
grain and not scattering, as is done with 
wheat ; and it requires a hot and moist soil. 
There are two sorts of it" (says our author), 
" one large and substantial, the other small and 
dry, which they call ' moroche.' The leaves of 
it and also the reed are very good food for cat- 
tle, green ; and dry, it serves as well as straw. 
The grain is better for beasts than barley, bu' 
they must drink before they eat it ; for if thew 
drink after it, it swells and gives them pair 
1 The Indian eat it hoi, boiled, and call . 

743 



MAIZE. 



MAIZE. 



inote,^ and sometimes toasted. There is a 
sort of it large and round, which the Spaniards 
eat toasted ; they also grind it and make cakes, 
which they eat hot; and these, in some places, 
they call ' arepas.' They also make bread, to 
keep, and sweet cakes of it." 

As Acoste died in 1600, at Salamanca, in his 
60th year, this must be regarded as very early 
testimony upon the subject. He surely would 
not have been so very particular in his descrip- 
tion of this grain had it been previously known 
in Europe. Indeed entire ears of Indian corn 
have been found enveloped in Peruvian and 
Mexican mummies, preserved long before the 
discovery of America. 

It is probable that some inferior species of 
the genus to which maize belongs, have been 
found in Guinea, Turkey, and other portions 
of the Old World; but that the kinds now so 
highly valued and generally cultivated were of 
American origin, there can be no doubt, both 
from the strongest negative and positive evi- 
dence. Maize is now extensively cultivated 
in Asia and Africa. In Europe, it is only in the 
extreme southern parts, France, Spain, and 
Italy, that the crop can be raised so as to be 
profitable. 

Varklks of Indian Corn. The varieties of 
corn cultivated in the United States are very 
numerous. A list embracing many of these 
has been furnished by P. A. Brown, Esq., in 
an interesting Essay on Indian corn. (See 
Farmer's Cabinet, vol. ii.) The following va- 
rieties, distinguished by peculiar characteristics 
of the grain, cob, «&c.. are included in Mr. 
Brown's enumeration. It is an interesting 
fact, that the rows of grains on a cob, however 
numerous or limited, always present even 
numbers. 

Yellow Corn. No. 1. The yellow gourdseed, 
so called from the resemblance of its long, 
narrow grains to the seed of the gourd. This 
has 24, and occasionally even more rows. Mr. 
Brown makes 7 varieties of this according to 
the number of rows regulated by admixture 
with other kinds of corn. No. 8. The genuine 
King Philip corn, so called from the celebrated 
chief of the Wampanoags. It has 8 rows, the 
lowest number found on any kind of Indian 
corn. It is a hardy plant, the seed of which 
was originally obtained from the Northern In- 
dians. No. 9. The Sioux or yellow-flint corn 
with 12 rows, derived from the Sioux tribe of 
Indians which formerly resided in Canada. 
No. 10. The Sioux variety grown in Pennsyl- 
vania. No. 11. The Sioux and gourdseed 
mixed — 16 rows. 

White Indian Corn, a division in which Mr. 
Brown includes the white flint, white flour-corn, 
and white sugar, or sweet corn. He has 
omitted the white gourdseed, which is by far 
the most common corn raised in the South, 
where it is sometimes found with from 24 to 36 
rows of grains upon the ear. No. 12. Genuine 
white-flint, 12 row corn raised in Virginia. 
No. 13. White-flint,— 10 rows. No. 14. Early 
white flint, and white flour corn, — 12 rows. 
No. 15. Peruvian corn, — 8 rows. No. 16. Penn- 
sylvania, 8 rows, — called in Maryland, Smith's 

-W white. No. 17. New Jersey— 8 rows. 
■ A?few Y-rk, 10 rows, and Mandan In- 



dian com. No. 19. Mandan corn, and white 
sugar corn. No. 20. Early sugar corn, with 
shrunken grains and 12 rows. 

Hcemetite, or Blood-red Indian Corn. 21. Com- 
mon sized hgemetite, with 12 rows and red cob. 
22. The red cob with white grains. 23. Red 
cob with yellow grains. 24. Red cob with 
brown grains. 25. Red cob, with white gourd- 
seed. 26. Red cob with gourdseed and yellow 
flint. 27. White cob with red grain. 28. Speck- 
led red and yellow grains on a white cob. 
29. The same on a red cob. 30. The dwarf 
haematite, commonly called Guinea corn. 
31. Blue corn, with io rows. 32. Texas corn, 
each grain of which grows enveloped in a 
distinct covering or tunic, the whole ear being 
also enveloped in a husk. 33. Mexican corn, 
found in the envelope of a mummy. 34. Corn 
raised in England by William Cobbett. 35. The 
celebrated Button flint corn. 

The remarks of the late John Lorain, in his 
Practice of Husbandry, convey so much infor- 
mation relative to the kinds of corn chiefly 
cultivated in the United States, the various me- 
rits of each kind, and the modes of culture, that 
we cannot refrain from giving a condensation 
of them. 

There are five original corns in use for field 
planting, in the Middle and Southern States, 
to wit : the big white and yellow, the little white 
and yelloiv, and the xvhite Virginia gourdseed. The 
cobs of the two first mentioned are thick and 
long, the grains are much wider than deep, and 
where the rows of grains meet and unite with 
each other, their sides fall off almost to nothing. 
This gives the outside ends of the grain a cir- 
cular form ; and communicates to the ear an 
appearance somewhat like a fluted column. 
This formation greatly diminishes the size of 
the ends and sides of the grains; and is the 
cause of the hard flinty corns being less pro- 
ductive, in proportion to the length and thick- 
ness of their cobs, than the gourdseed corn. 
As the little white and yellow are formed much 
in the same way, and the cobs considerably 
smaller, they are still less productive than the 
big white and yellow, but ripen earlier. 

The grain of those four flinty kinds are very 
firm, and without indenture in their outside 
ends. The two smaller kinds seem to be still 
more hard and solid than the larger; and the 
colour of the little yellow deeper than that of 
the big. 

The ears of the Virginia gourdseed are not 
very long, neither is the cob so thick as that 
of the big white and yellow. But the forma- 
tion of the grain makes the ear very thick. 
They frequently produce from thirty to thirty- 
two, and sometimes thirty-six rows of very 
long narrow grains, of a soft open texture. 
These grains are almost flat, at their outside 
ends, are also compactly united from the cob 
to the surface of the ear, without any of that 
fluted appearance between the rows of grain, 
which causes the flinty corns to be much less 
productive in proportion to the size of the ears. 

The gourdseed corn ripens later than any 
other, but is by far the most productive. It is 
invariably white, unless it has been mixed 
with the yellow flinty corns. Then it is called 
the yellow gourdseed, and too many farmers 



MAIZE. 



MAIZE. 



consider it and most other mixtures original 
corns. I have often heard of original yellow 
gourdseed corn, but after taking much trouble 
to investigate the fact, could never find any 
thing more than a mixture. 

So prevalent are mixtures, says Mr. Lorain, 
that I have never examined a field of corn, 
(where great care had not been taken to select 
the seed,) which did not exhibit evident traces 
of all the corns in general use for field plant- 
ing, with many others that are not used for 
this purpose. 

None can be longer or more readily traced 
than the gourdseed. If the smallest perfectly 
natural indenture appear in the grain of the 
hardest corns, those grains, with their descend- 
ants, may be grown, until a perfectly white 
gourdseed is obtained, be their colour what it 
may. 

In the northerly divisions of the United 
States, they frequently plant the small Cana- 
dian corns. 

These are solid and very early, but have 
been generally thought too small to be very 
productive, and are seldom planted in fields, 
where the larger corns ripen. 

These corns and others which are still much 
smaller and earlier, are grown by many for 
early boiling or roasting while green. 

The Canadian corn plant is considerably 
smaller than the corns in general use for field 
planting. It is also productive in ears. There- 
fore, the intervals, as well as the clusters in 
the row, might be closer together. If the 
soil were as well manured for this kind of corn 
as is done for the larger corns (when the 
farmer is well informed and able to do it), very 
valuable crops might be obtained from it : par- 
ticularly if it were only slightly mixed with 
tlie gourdseed corn. 

There are also red, blue, and purple corns, 
but none of these are used for field planting ; 
still, having been introduced, they too often ap- 
pear in our fields, either in their native colours 
or in variegated or enamelled grains. The 
leaves of the plant are also sometimes varie- 
gated from the same cause. It is said that a 
good purple dye is formed by using the purple 
corns for this purpose ; and the stalks and 
leaves of this plant are purple, or a shade be- 
tween that colour and green. I have also seen 
corn with red stalks and leaves, but mixed with 
more or less green. 

As novelty and other causes have introduced 
such a great variety into our fields, they will 
continue to appear in them until farmers gene- 
rally give more attention to the economy of 
maize, and see the necessity of growing out 
inferior kinds, so far as it may be practicable. 
Although they may be divided almost ad infi- 
nitum, they cannot be entirely eradicated. 
They may, however, be readily reduced and 
kept under, so as not to do any material injury 
to the crops, provided the cultivator very care- 
fully and annually selects his seed. It may be 
from the latent remains of these mixed varie- 
ties, that nature, from combining causes, some- 
times produces plants and animals more per- 
fect than the class from which they sprang. 

This variety, as it regards corn, proceeds 
from ^he farina fecundans, a light minute sub- 
94 



stance of a mouldy colour, seen on the clothes 
of those working among the plants, when it is 
disengaged from the tassels. This is wafted 
far by high winds, and is the cause of distant 
and unthought-of mixtures. However, in 
general, it is lightly and plentifully diffused 
through the field, and lodges in sufficient quan- 
tities on the silky fibres which project from 
the ears. A single fibre proceeds from each 
grain. This has been so constructed as to 
convey the principle of life contained in the 
farina fecundans to the grain from which the 
fibre springs, even to the further end of the 
cob. This is done with so much certainty that 
we rarely see abortive grains, when the plants 
have been rendered healthy and vigorous by a 
sufficiency of nutriment and good cultivation. 
The change produced by this mysterious cause 
is generally gradual. We first see scattering, 
whitish looking grains on the ears of the yel- 
low corn growing among the white, and the 
reverse on the ears of the latter, when grown 
near to the yellow corns. 

The foregoing facts have induced me to 
make experiments. The result seems to deter- 
mine, that if nature be judiciously directed by 
art, such mixtures as are best suited for the 
purpose of farmers, in every climate in this 
country where corn is grown, may be intro- 
duced. Also, that an annual selection of the 
seed, with care and time, will render them sub- 
ject to very little injurious change; provided 
the desirable properties of any of the various 
corns be properly blended together. They do 
not mix minutely, like wine and water. On 
the contrarjs like mixed breeds of animals, a 
large portion of the valuable properties of any 
one of them, or of the whole five original 
corns commonly used for field planting, may 
be communicated to one plant; while the infe- 
rior properties of one, or the whole, may be 
nearly grown out. 

When this object is obtained, and we become 
acquainted with the proper arrangement of the 
plants in our fields, so as to promote the utmost 
product, the crops of maize will by far exceed 
any estimate which would at this time be con- 
sidered probable by those who have not care- 
fully examined the economy of this plant. 

It should, however, never be forgotten, that a 
sufficiency of nutriment and good cultivation 
are quite as necessary to increase and perpetu- 
ate the size of grain as plentiful and nutritious 
food, and proper care and management, are to 
accomplish the same in animals. 

My ears of maize are now at least one-third 
larger, on an average, than were the ears pro- 
cured three years ago from Huntingdon for 
seed. The same may be also said of some 
white, flinty corn, procured by my neighbour, 
Mr. H. Philips, from near Erie, for seed. 

The quantity of the gourdseed corn mixed 
with the flintyyellow corns, may be determined, 
so as to answer the farmer's purpose. When 
the proportion of the former greatly predomi- 
nates, the grains are pale, very long and nar- 
row, and the outside ends of them are so flat 
that but little of the indenture is seen. As the 
portion of gourdseed decreases in the mixture, 
the grains shorten, become wider, and their 
outside ends grow thicker. The indentures 
3R 745 



MAIZE. 



MAIZE. 



also, become larger and rounder, until the 
harder corns get the ascendancy. After this, 
the outside ends of the grains become thicker 
and more circular. They also grow wider, 
and the fluted appearance between the rows 
increases. The indentures also decrease in 
size until they disappear, and the yellow, flinty 
variety is formed. But, as I believe, not so 
fully but that the latent remains of mixture will 
forever subject it to more or less change. 

It is more difficult to determine the quantity 
of big and little yellow corns, which may hap- 
pen to be mixed with the gourdseed ; and at 
the same time with each other. However, by 
attention, a tolerably correct opinion of this 
may be formed. The grain of the big yellow 
is much wider, and nothing like so deep as 
that of the gourdseed; and although the grain 
of the little yellow is not so wide and deep as 
that of the big, still it is wider than the gourd- 
seed; and its colour is deeper than that of the 
big yellow, and its cobs are much slimmer, as 
well as shorter. 

When a mixture with the big yellow and 
gourdseed is desirable, care should be taken, 
in growing out the little yellow, to preserve as 
much as possible of the deep yellow tinge and 
solidity communicated to the grain by this va- 
riety, and also of its property to ripen early. 

The soft, open texture of the gourdseed ren- 
ders it unfit for exportation, unless it be kiln- 
dried. This has given rise to an unfounded 
prejudice among the shippers of this grain, in 
favour of the yellow corns, although they are 
not more solid than the white, flinty varieties. 
However, while this prejudice continues, it is 
best for those who depend on selling it for 
shipping, to mix the gourdseed with the yellow 
flints, and for those who consume the produce 
on their own farms, or can readily sell the white 
corns, to form mixtures with them and the 
gourdseed. It is thought that the white corns 
are the most productive, and ripen earlier than 
the yellow ; but of this I know nothing certain, 
having generally grown the yellow. There can, 
however, be no question but that the white 
furnishes much handsomer meal for culinary 
purposes. It is also free from that strong taste 
so readily distinguished by those who have been 
accustomed to use the white ; but as most of 
the Pennsylvania farmers, and cultivators still 
further north, have been used to eat the yellow, 
and habit causes most kinds of food to become 
agreeable, they seem generally to prefer the 
strong taste of this variety to the much milder 
and pleasanter taste of the white. However, 
in the countries where neither is grown, and to 
which it is often exported, there can be but lit- 
tle doubt that the white would find a readier 
market, and that the demand for this very nu- 
tritious grain would greatly increase, if none 
but the white were exported : especially, if 
laws were passed prohibiting the exportation 
of maize until it had been kiln-dried. 

I believe there is no grain that will keep 
longer or safer than corn, if it be kept on the 
cob in open dry cribs, and the climate also 
be dry, unless the weevil be introduced by not 
carefully cleaning the cribs of every vestige 
of the grain and vegetable matters introduced 
with it. 

746 



Flinty corns, after they have been well dried 
in such cribs, may be shipped in tight, dry 
vessels, with tolerabte safety, to the West la- 
dies : but longer voyages subject this grain to 
greater injuries, although it may arrive in port 
in tolerable safety ; a little damp communicates 
a musty taste to maize, and if this does not 
happen, it is often spoiled by lying in bulk 
after it arrives, and will be considered much 
less valuable on this account. 

Either the big yellow or white should be 
mixed with the gourdseed, for planting in every 
climate where this mixture will certainly ripen. 
Their cobs being very long, and the grain so 
much wider and deeper than those of the little 
yellow or white, the mixture with them will be 
much more productive. It is also thought, that 
the length of the ear communicated by the big 
yellow or white will fully compensate for the 
shortening the grains of the gourdseed : there- 
fore, if the mixture be properly formed, its pro- 
duct may even exceed that of the original 
gourdseed corn ; I have measured the product 
from ears of this mixture, which, when shelled, 
yielded a full pint of corn, after they had lain 
twelve months in a very dry place, although 
the mixture had not been well improved. 

The little yellow and white, being earlier 
than the big, they should form mixtures with 
the gourdseed corn for being grown in climates 
more unfavourable for maize. But whoever 
may form either of those mixtures, will find, 
that he must grow out either the big or little 
flinty corns, with many others, as they are 
more or less mixed. 

The speediest and best way to form either 
of those mixtures, is to select one ear that may 
possess most of the desirable properties united 
in it, and to plant the seed where the farina 
fecundans from the general crop cannot readily 
obtain access. If it happen to the cultivators, 
as it has done with me, he will certainly find 
from the growth of this seed many ears in his 
patch, very much like the ear that grew the 
seed, and many very unlike it ; however, it may 
be that he will find some ears approaching 
nearer to the variety which he wishes to form 
than the original ear; if so, he will of course 
select the best, and go on in the same way, until 
he has full enough for planting his general 
crop. AfYer this, he should aim at an increased 
improvement, by carefully selecting his seed 
annually for the ensuing crop. (Practical Hus- 
bandry.) 

Of these numerous varieties some are best 
adapted to the Southern States — the white and 
yellow gourdseeds: others to the Middle States 
— the gourdseed and flint varieties, pure or 
mixed ; whilst the heavy flinty grained kinds 
are almost exclusively cultivated in the North- 
ern and Eastern States — to which they are 
specially adapted by their disposition to grow 
and mature with great rapidity, and thus ac- 
comodate themselves to the shortness of north- 
ern summers. Like all early maturing corn, 
they are dwarfish, though very productive. The 
eflfect of the longer and warmer summers in 
more southerly situations is to favour greatly 
the growth of the stalk, which frequently attains 
10 or 12 feet in height; but such luxuriance, 
however splendid in appearance, is by no means 



MAIZE. 



MAIZE. 



attended by a corresponding increase in the 
product of grain. The time taken by different 
varieties in growing and maturing, differs ex- 
ceedingly. In the Southern and Middle States 
the crop occupies the ground from 5 to 7 months, 
whilst in the Northern and Eastern States the 
ears come to maturity in 3 or 4 months, and 
some is even found so precocious as to ripen 
in 6 weeks. An interesting and plausible ex- 
planation of these facts is given in the article 
on Climate, and its Influence on the Frcit- 
FULNEss OF Plants. 

Since Mr. Lorain wrote his excellent book, 
several demonstrations have been furnished of 
the practicability of improving corn. One of 
the most interesting is that made by Thomas N. 
Baden, Esq., of Prince George's county, Mary- 
land, who, by carefully selecting the best seed 
in his field for a long series of years, having 
special reference to those stalks which pro- 
duced the most ears, ultimately obtained a va- 
riety which yields 4, 5, 6, and even as high as 
8 and 10 ears to the single stalk. The parti- 
culars of the plan pursued are as follows : 

When the corn was husked, he made a 
re-selection, taking only that which appeared 
sound and fully ripe, having a regard to the 
deepest and best colour, as well as the size of 
the cob. In the spring, before shelling the 
corn, he examined it again, and selected that 
which was the best in all respects. In shelling 
the corn, he omitted the irregular kernels at 
both the large and small ends. He has care- 
fully followed this mode of selecting seed corn 
for twenty-two or tiventy-three years, and still con- 
tinues to do so. When he first commenced, it 
was with a common kind of corn, for there 
was none other in that part of the country. At 
first he was troubled to find stalks with even 
two good ears on them, perhaps one good ear 
and one small one, or one good ear and a 
'nubbin.' It was several years before he could 
discover much benefit resulting fromhis efforts ; 
however, at length the quality and quantity 
began to improve, and the improvement was 
then very rapid. At present he does not pre- 
tend to lay up any seed without it comes from 
stalks which bear 4, 5, or 6 ears. He has seen 
stalks bearing 8 ears. One of his neighbours 
informed him that he had a single stalk with 
ten perfect ears on it. In addition to the number 
of ears, and of course the great increase in 
quantity unshelled, it may be mentioned that it 
yields much more than common corn when 
shelled. A barrel (10 bushels of ears) of his 
improved kind of corn measured a little more 
than six bushels. The common kind of corn 
will measure about 5 bushels only. He be- 
lieves that he raises double, or nearly so, to what 
he could with any other corn. He generally 
plants the corn about the first of May, and 
places the hills five feet apart each way, leav- 
ing two stalks in a hill. 

Some of Mr. Baden's seed-corn was sent 
to ..Uinois, with instructions how to manage it, 
and the product was one hundred and twenty 
bushels on an acre ; there was no corn in Illinois 
like it, and it produced more fodder than any 
other kind. (Farm. Cab. vol. ii.) 

The Baden corn is a white gourdseed, the 
Stalks of which grow to an extraordinary 



height, so that the ears are often 6 or 8 feet 
above the ground, and the summits twice that 
elevation. The grain is of excellent quality, but 
the ears are short and considerably under the 
average size of the common varieties of corn. 
When removed but little farther north, as for 
example to the vicinity of Philadelphia, it sel- 
dom matures perfectly. It does not answer 
well for high-land culture, but flourishes and 
produces abundance of grain and fodder in 
the rich flat lands of the Southern and South- 
western States. It verifies the observatiori 
that high-growing corn is the least disposed to 
ripen the ears, and consequently most liable to 
injury from autumnal frosts. 

Varieties cultivated for particular purposes. — 
Among the varieties of corn cultivated for 
special purposes, we may mention the white 
flint, used for making the beautiful hominy 
sold in the Philadelphia market; ihe^owc corTi, 
with a round, thick grain, filled with a snowy 
white powder resembling starch, much used in 
New Jersey for grinding up with buckwheat, in 
the proportion of about one-fourth or one-fifth of 
the corn, giving the buckwheat-meal a lighter 
colour and otherwise improving it. The early 
Jersey truck corn, a middle-sized ear, with 
white and rather flinty grains, the earliest corn 
raised for the market, but not so sweet as the 
Early sweet or Sugar corn, which, when dry, has 
shrivelled grains ; there are two varieties of 
this, the white and red cob kinds. The small 
flinty-grained corn usually raised for parching 
or popping is considered a distinct species of 
maize, under the name of Zea Caragua, or Val- 
paraiso corn, to which a sort of religious repu- 
tation has been attached, from the circum- 
stance of its splitting open when parched or 
roasted so as to present some resemblance to 
a cross. Its appearance under this form is 
peculiarly beautiful, and bears a strong re- 
semblance to the flowers of a cruciferous 
plant. The flavour is pleasant, and it makes 
a very pretty dessert-dish. 

Preparation of the Land for planting. — In the 
Middle States corn is planted in all conditions 
of the land, but in Virginia and Maryland, it 
generally follows the wheat crop, upon which 
all the farm-yard manure has been spread. In 
the upper portion of Delaware and in Pennsyl- 
vania, the crop is generally put upon a grass 
sward or clover lay. Where the soil is a stiff 
clay, much labour is bestowed in ploughing 
deep, then rolling and reducing to the finest 
tilth by means of harrows. As a general rule, 
after a sward has been turned, care is taken 
not to harrow so deep as to reach and drag up 
the sods, which are suffered to lie and decom 
pose, thus furnishing nutriment to the corn, 
and keeping the ground loose and favourable 
to the spreading of the roots. Many farmers: 
spread lime upon the land intended for corn, 
in the autumn or winter, previously to plough 
ing. Others put the lime dressing on the 
ploughed ground. Although the first may be 
considered a good plan, still there can be little 
doubt that lime operates most effectually when 
left upon the surface so as to be exposed to 
the atmosphere, and especially to the full actioa 
of rain water with its dissolving agent carbo- 
nic acid gas. But the best plan of all is to 

747 



MAIZE. 



MAIZE. 



spread the lime on the grass the year preced- 
ing the tillage in corn, as then the vegetation 
is greatly benefitted, and the lime has full time 
to dissolve in considerable proportion and im- 
pregnate the soil. Where the land is light 
or sandy, shallow ploughing is frequently 
practised and much less labour is required to 
prepare the ground for the crop. In all cases, 
however, where there is a retentive clay below 
the soil, no doubt can exist of the propriety of 
stirring the earth as deeply as practicable, first 
by the common plough, and next by the sub- 
soil plough, which loosens the earth or clay 
below the furrow run by the common plough, 
without turning it up. This effectual and deep 
breaking up of the earth allows the water to 
penetrate quickly into the soil charged with 
all its fertilizing gases and salts, which would 
otherwise be rapidly dispersed if exposed to 
the open atmosphere. 

Scaso)!. for Plougliiug. — With regard to the 
best time for ploughing, this must depend much 
upon the character of the soil. Late fall or 
winter ploughing has been thought useful in 
turning up and exposing to perish, the grubs 
and other insects which have retreated below 
the surface for winter quarters ; but in Penn- 
sylvania this practice is now generally aban- 
doned in favour of spring ploughing. 

The roller, when used, must be drawn in the 
direction of the furrows, and never crosswise. 
Then follows the drag-harrow, in the same di- 
rection, being the last instrument which, on 
flushed ground, is employed preparatory to 
planting. The spikes of this implement should 
never be set so deep as to reach and drag up 
the sod, an observation which will apply to all 
other implements called in requisition during 
the working of the crop. The harrowing 
should be continued until the surface of the 
inverted sward is completely broken up and 
pulverized. 

In the Middle States, it is a very general 
custom to prepare the ground for corn by a 
method called listing or double furrowing. 
This consists of ploughing so as at first to turn 
two furrow-slices together, leaving a middle 
space which is subsequently ploughed out by 
turning an additional furrow on each side. 
This places the ground in narrow lands or 
ridges, consisting of four furrow-slices with 
deep, intervening trenches. The width from 
the middle of one land to the other is generally 
about 4 feet. In signing out for planting, a 
plough is run across these narrow lands, so as 
to strike out rows generally 4 feet apart. The 
plough which performs this cross-ploughing, 
is immediately followed by a boy who drops 4, 
5, or 7 grains of corn directly opposite the 
middle of each of the ridges, and the operation 
of planting is completed by a man who covers 
the seed with a hoe. 

Farmers generally agree that corn should be 
planted as early in the spring as the weather 
will permit, and some of the best are not even 
afraid of having the young shoots nipped off 
by frost. The usual time of planting in the 
Floridas is early in March, whilst in Massa- 
chusetts it cannot be done before the middle of 
May, — facts which show the great range of 
climate in the United States. 
748 



Mr. Lorain, one of the best authorities upon 
this and most other agricultural subjects upon 
which he has treated, says, — When corn is 
planted very early, it is commonly severely 
affected by frost ; so much so, that many of the 
plants are cut off by the ground. This is un- 
questionably an injury to which no judicious 
farmer would expose the plant, if the advan- 
tages obtained by very early planting could be 
had by planting later. Still if the roots re- 
main unhurt, they are of consequence esta- 
blished, and very soon repair the injury done 
above the soil, after the frost ceases to act on 
the plants. Of course they take the lead, and 
will maintain their superiority over later plant- 
ed corn. The ears also fill and ripen much 
better in northerly climates from this practice. 

The shooting and filling of them take place 
when the heat of the sun is much greater; 
and when less cloudy, cold, dripping weather 
prevails, and the crop is nothing like so liable 
to be injured by frost. The grounds are also 
sooner ready for crops sown in the fall. This 
mode of management will often enable the 
cultivator to grow the large and more product- 
ive corns, in climates where they have been 
abandoned, from observing that they did not 
ripen when planted at the usual time. 

When I introduced the large yellow gourd- 
seed corn, from seed procured from Hunting- 
don county, every farmer here ridiculed the 
idea of attempting to grow corn of this descrip- 
tion. They considered the soil and climate 
hostile to the growth even of the smaller corns, 
and but little was planted. As they waited 
until the earth was warmed before they plant- 
ed, the crops were frequently either destroyed, 
or greatly injured by frost. (Prad. Husb.) 

In Pennsylvania, corn generally forms the 
first crop of the regular rotation, the sod being 
ploughed without manure, except the occa- 
sional addition of a light dressing of plaster 
of Paris (about one bushel per acre) or a full 
coat of lime (50 to 100 bushels per acre). The 
plan of listing and ploughing out, so common 
in the Southern and Middle States is not fol- 
lowed by Pennsylvania farmers, who flush up 
the ground so as to present a uniform surface. 

Planting. — After rolling, and then harrowing 
well, the rows are struck out very shallow, and 
the corn is planted in hills 3, 4, 4^, or 5 feet 
apart, or dropped in rows from 3 to 5 feet 
asunder, so as to leave the stalks, when thinned 
out, about 1 or 2 feet apart. In this last case 
the tillage has of course to be conducted in the 
direction of the rows, and never cross-wise, as 
is practised when the grain is in hills at regu- 
lar distances. The distance of the corn hills 
or plants apart must be regulated by the kind 
of corn to be planted, and the nature of the 
soil. When the growth is high, and the soil 
rich, the rows should be farther apart than 
where the growth is low, as is the case with 
the Northern varieties, which may be planted 3 
feet apart. 

Whenever manure can be spared for the 
corn crop, it will always make a good return , 
for maize cannot well be too highly manured. 
If the supply be sufficient, it may be spread 
broadcast upon the land previous to ploughing* 
or, what is better, spread upon ground that has 



MAIZE. 



MAIZE. 



been flushed up in the autumn or winter, and 
then lightly ploughed in. In the Northern and 
Eastern States where the summers are short, a 
liberal quantity of manure is generally required 
to assist in forcing the crop to early maturity. 
When not enough is at hand to afford a good 
dressing broadcast, it is advisable to apply a 
portion of short manure to each hill just before 
planting. Ashes are an excellent manure for 
Indian corn, and may be dropped upon the 
hills in the proportion of a gill to a pint. It is 
common to make a mixture of these with lime 
and plaster. But there is no doubt that the 
main benefit of the mixture proceeds from the 
live ashes. Almost every kind of artificial ma- 
nure may be advantageously applied to corn, 
either in the hill or broadcast; and there is none 
perhaps which acts so promptly upon the young 
plants as the Poudrette manufactured in New 
York and other cities, the basis of which fer- 
tilizer is night-soil. A gill of this to the hill 
furnishes a fair dressing, and pushes the young 
corn forward with such rapidity as to place it 
very soon beyond danger from the grub, cut- 
worm, and other insect depredators, by which 
the plants, especially those on light and ex- 
hausted soils, suffer such destruction during 
their feeble and tardy growth. As conducing 
to the same end, soaking the seed for 24 or 36 
hours in solutions of saltpetre, urine, the drain- 
ings of the stables and cattle-yards, &c. &c., 
have a very good tendency. To protect it from 
the depredations of insects, birds, and vermin, 
it is often coated with liquid tar, and subse- 
quently rolled in ashes, plaster, lime, or salt- 
petre, which last is considered one of the most 
convenient, cheapest, and best of steeps. Strong 
solutions of copperas, blue vitriol, and even 
corrosive sublimate and arsenic, are sometimes 
used for the same purpose — which last, how- 
ever, is only soluble in water by the addition of 
potash, or some other alkali. " The enemies to 
be combatted;" says Buel, "are the wire-worm, 
brown grub, birds, and squirrels. Of these, the 
first and two last prey upon the kernels, and 
against these tar offers a complete protection. I 
soak my seed 12 to 20 hours in hot water, in 
which is dissolved a few ounces of crude salt- 
petre, and then add (say to 8 quarts of seed) half 
a pint of tar, previously warmed and diluted, 
with a quart of warm water. The mass is well 
stirred, the corn taken out, and as much plas- 
ter added as will adhere to the grain. This 
impregnates and partially coats the seed with 
the tar. The experience of years will warrant 
me in confidently recommending this as a pro- 
tection for the seed." 

Number of grains to the hill, and depth of plant- 
ing. — Where there is reason to apprehend 
much mischief to the young plants from black- 
birds, crows, vermin, and insects, it is always 
best to drop from 4 to 7 grains to each hill, so 
that some 2 or 3 may have a chance to escape. 
An old quaint couplet lays down a pretty good 
(though not sufficiently liberal) rule upon this 
subject, when it recommends 5 grains — 
"One for the blackbird, and one for the crow, 
One for the cut-worm, and two left to grow." 

The deficiency is always attempted to be made 
up by replanting other grain, but the product of 
this replant is too often feeble, and so late in 



maturing, as to be frequently injured by the 
frost in autumn. A much better plan is to re- 
plant with the surplus of other hills. But this 
requires a damp and very favourable conditior; 
of the weather. As to the proper depth of cover- 
ing for the seed, much difference of opinion 
exists ; some advocating shallow covering, that 
is to say, from an inch to 2 or 2 j inches, whilst 
others recommend from 3 to 6, 8, and even 10 
inches. All covering which exceeds 4 or 5 
inches must, under ordinary circumstances, be 
considered extravagant and detrimental. Those 
in favour of deep covering say that although 
the corn does laot come up so soon, or appear 
so forward, it makes a much better growth 
later in the season ; sends its roots lower, and 
of course is less affected by dry weather, 
whilst the stalks stand much better against the 
violence of storms, by which they are often 
prostrated. They also urge as additional re- 
commendations, that the crows and blackbirds 
are unable to pull up the )'oung shoots, so as 
to get at the grain from which it springs, whilst 
the cut-worm may sever the sprout in the com- 
mon situation just beneath the surface, leaving 
enough still below to push up and continue the 
growlh. See Drill. 

It cannot be doubted, that where the mould 
is of a light texture, moderately deep covering 
answers best as a general rule. To cover 
deep where the soil is a heavy clay loam, 
would either cause the grain to rot, prevent it 
from rising, or dispose it to come up twisted, 
unless opportunely assisted by rain, to soften 
the packed covering. 

Tillage. — The corn once planted, its tender 
blade pushes through the ground, usually in 
about a week or ten days, and even sooner 
when the grain has been previously soaked. 
.Although the field is generally left at rest until 
the plants have all fairly risen above ground 
before the tillage of the crop commences, 
some begin with the harrows even before the 
corn is up. The first objects to be effected are, 
to keep the ground stirred and free from grass 
and weeds. Where danger is apprehended 
from worms, by which it is so frequently at- 
tacked, many maintain that the tillage should 
not commence very soon, so that some other 
vegetation being allowed to start up, the young 
corn will thus be in a measure spared; where 
as, if the ground is perfectly clean, the worms, 
having nothing else to feed upon, will, of 
course, destroy all the young corn. Instances 
may occasionally occur where this practice 
may prove advantageous, but as a general 
rule, the young corn cannot be kept too clean, 
or the ground about it too loose. 

The modes of tillage varj^ exceedingly, not 
only with the variations in soil and climate, 
but with the views of different persons in the 
same locality. On stiff, clay soils, there is no 
doubt that harrowing just before the proper 
time for the corn to come up, favours this pro 
cess, by loosening the tenacious soil, especially 
where a timely rain does not occur to soften 
the earth. After the corn appears, the harrow 
should be kept going until the ground is ren- 
dered perfectly loose, hands following with 
hoes or short rakes to clear the corn which 
may be covered. Then comes the plougli, 
J B 2 749 



MAIZE. 



MAIZE. 



nrhich, in the Southern and lower portion of 
the Middle States, is often used to turn a fur- 
row from the young corn. This operation is 
termed bar-ploughing, because the bar of the 
plough is run next to the plants. A few days 
after this, the process is reversed, and the 
.nould-board being turned next the corn, the 
-oose earth is thrown back again. Many think 
chat this second ploughing, called moulding, 
ought not to be left longer than a few hours 
before the earth should be turned back again. 
In some places ploughs are still used for this 
last purpose with wooden mould-boards, as 
these serve best to push the loose earth before 
them, crumbling and spreading it about the 
plants more advantageously than ploughs fur- 
nished with smooth and polished iron mould- 
boards. Some use narrow,deep-cutling ploughs, 
which do this work with comparatively little 
labour to the horse, and render the soil near 
the corn much more permeable by the roots, 
and at the same time, quickly accessible to the 
rain and atmospheric influences. Whatever 
tends to favour the extension of the roots 
downwards, serves to place the crop beyond 
the vicissitudes of the season. 

There is, perhaps, no plant which withstands 
the effects of drought so well as Indian corn, 
whilst young ; but when its top blades begin 
to be heavy, its demands for moisture increase 
so as to cause it to suffer greatly from very 
dry weather. Heat and moisture are the great 
promoters of its luxuriant growth. 

Mr. Lorain's comments upon the custom of 
bar-ploughing, as practised by a distinguished 
Maryland farmer and agricultural writer, are 
very judicious. Mr. Boardly, he says, plough- 
ed from each side of the rows of the plants five 
inches deep, while the plants were young; he 
then let them rest 10 or 12 days on the narrow 
ridges formed by this practice; this was done, 
that the lateral roots should take their direc- 
tion under the artificial surface of the ground 
formed by the ploughshare. If the corn-plant, 
when scarcely three inches high, be pulled up 
by the roots from an open free soil, the lateral 
roots will be found about 12 inches long, beside 
what remains in the ground ; consequently 
these roots are cut off on each side of the rows, 
even by the first cultivation, while the plant is 
yet very young; they are also cut off' by every 
succeeding cultivation. If the furrows made 
along each side of the rows, by the first culti- 
vation, were kept contyiually open, and the 
lateral roots of the plants compelled by this 
means to cross the bottom of them, a little 
within the ground, this would not cause the 
roots to grow under the artificial surface of the 
ground formed by the ploughshare. Nature 
immediately after they passed the open fur- 
row, would direct them up into the soil above, 
to take their natural range through it : espe- 
cially in that part of it where the most genial 
heat and nutriment obtained. This is clearly 
seen when the lateral roots of trees cross 
ditches, or even deep gullies, at the bottom of 
them, a little within the ground. They imme- 
diately mount upward after they have crossed 
the bottom of the ditch, and take their natural 
gn^wth at the same distance from the surface 
7.50 



of the soil as would have happened if they 
had met with no obstacles in getting into it. 

The roots of the corn-plant which proceed 
downward from the stalk, also those that take 
their course along the rows, are not injured; 
neither are all those which grow the deepest 
within the soil in the intervals cut off. There- 
fore as the corn-plant is very hardy, it is sup- 
ported by these roots, until nature repairs the 
damage done by this truly inconsiderate and 
barbarian practice. It is of consequence by 
no means wonderful, that Mr. Bordley, who 
was in many respects a judicious farmer, 
should by his general good management so far 
counteract the evils arising from this savage 
practice, as to grow, under all the disadvan- 
tages resulting from it, crops that were more 
than equal to the general crops of his neigh- 
bours. Reason, however, as well as practice, 
determines that crops obtained in this way 
must fall very far short of those that may be 
obtained from a rational system of manage- 
ment. It is also obvious, that his mode of cul- 
tivation is well calculated to cause an exten- 
sive, useless waste of the animal and vegetable 
matter contained in the soil. Likewise of the 
farm-yard manure, if that be applied for the 
growth of the crop. {Lorain's Pract. Husb.) 

The farmers in some of the finest districts in 
Pennsylvania have of late years made much 
less use of the plough in cultivating their corn 
than formerly. They now generally content 
themselves with moulding, or throwing a single 
furrow on each side of the young plants, leav- 
ing a space between the rows of from 3 to 3J^ 
feet untouched. The space left, is afterwards 
worked by means of shovel-ploughs, and cul- 
tivators, which completely destroy the grass, 
and loosen the ground. This mode of culture 
is more quickly and economically performed 
than the old plan of ploughing the whole space 
between the rows, and leaving the surface com- 
paratively level. If the land be sufficiently 
loose and deeply stirred, there is little use in 
hilling it. It is sometimes said corn requires 
hilling to support it. Nature disproves this 
argument, by the stiff, bracing roots thrown out 
by this plant, at the time they are wanted, and 
for this very purpose. On wet lands, planting 
on ridges and hilling may be advisable, but 
such lands should never be chosen for corn. 
If wet, drain thoroughly in the first place^ 
Allow no weeds to grow in your corn, says Buel, 
and do not fear to stir the surface in dry wea- 
ther. Every weed absorbs nutriment enough 
to make a good ear of corn, and if any remain 
after the plough cannot be used, pull them up, 
or cut them. with the hoe. 

Thinning and Succouring. — As quickly as pos- 
sible after it is ascertained that the plants are 
in a thrifty condition, and no longer in danger 
of being destroyed by the cut-worm and other 
enemies, they are thinned out, so as to leave 
only two or three in a hill. Or, should they 
stand in rows or drills, the plants are left about 
one or two feet apart. The operation of suc- 
couring takes place some time after thinning, 
and consists in tearing off the side-shoots which 
often sprout from the bottom of the main stalk. 
It is beginning to be thought that this practice 



MAIZE. 



MAIZE. 



is much more hurtful than advantageous, in- 
juring the growth and developement of the 
corn, and lessening the produce of both fodder 
and grain. The truth of these opinions seem 
to have been confirmed by actual experiments. 
(See Cultivator, vol. viii. p. 90.) 

Many farmers deem the use of the plough 
altogether unnecessary and even injurious, and 
conduct the tillage of the corn crop throughout 
first with the drag-harrow, and successively 
with the cultivator, horse-hoe, and hand-hoe. 
These are kept going very constantly until 
wheat harvest, after which further culture is 
suspended, and the corn crop, in common phra- 
seology, is said to be laid by. The plants have 
now attained from 2 to 4 or 5 feet in height, and 
thrown out their side-shoots. These should be 
left to extend themselves uninterruptedly in all 
directions, which they will do with great rapi- 
dity provided the season be favourable and the 
soil loose and in good tilth. Should they be 
cut or torn asunder by late and too deep work- 
ing, the crop must sufier serious injury. 

The progressive growth and developement 
of Indian corn are well described by Mr. Lo- 
rain. 

The roots and stem of maize, he says, spring 
from the heart of the grain ; the former grows 
from one to two or more inches long before the 
latter appears, and progresses so very rapidly, 
that if pulled up from a loose soil, they will 
measure about 12 inches long when the stem 
is only about 3 inches high, although their 
finer fibres must be left in the ground by this 
rude operation. 

The stem protrudes itself through the soil in 
the form of a bodkin, and is composed of leaves 
rolled very compactly together; the first two 
leaves expand soon after the plant penetrates 
the soil, and other rolled leaves continue to 
unfold in succession from the crown of the 
plant, until the tassel appears wrapped up in 
its own leaves: these also gradually spread 
themselves, until the plant is fully formed. 

The leaves increase in width and length 
from the ground up to where the most perfect 
ear is formed ; after this they decrease in 
length and width, more rapidly than they in- 
creased below, and this decrease is regularly 
maintained even to the uppermost leaf, which 
forms itself a little below the tassel. 

One leaf grows from every joint in the stalk, 
but in such away as to alternate sides; the 
first formed leaf, and after this every leaf in 
regular succession, clasps the stalk closely, 
until it approaches near to the under side of 
the leaf above ; after this it grows out from 
the stalk, and a beautiful fan-like appearance 
is at length produced, which is not equalled 
by any other annual plant cultivated for the 
value of its fruit; especially when the large 
luxuriant ears display at their points elegant 
tufts of silky fibres, which vary in colour when 
mixtures form the seed. 

The height of this plant diflfers much. The 
smallest variety that has been noticed by me 
did not seem to exceed 3 feet in height. The 
largest plants which I have seen measured 
but 13 feet. I have, however, heard of some 
which attained the height of 17 feet. These 



must have been grown on a very rich, as weL 
as a very deep and open, free soil. 

The lateral roots of maize soon spread 
through the whole soil. The finger-roots, as 
they are sometimes called, dip much deeper. 
I have seen them traced two feet below the 
surface of the soil by a grubbing hoe, in the 
hands of a rugged workman. How much fur- 
ther their finer fibres might have gone was not 
ascertained by me, but this convinced me that 
the roots of maize were capable of drawing 
very much moisture and some nutriment from 
a much greater depth than most of the plants 
cultivated by us. Also, that these manures 
and smaller roots were better calculated to 
effect this very interesting purpose than they 
would have been if nature had formed the 
whole of them into one single taproot, which 
extended no deeper. This is one cause, among 
many others, why maize is capable of contend- 
ing so powerfully with poverty, and notwith- 
standing severe and continued drought, better 
than most other cultivated plants. This should 
convince us that a plant capable of drawing 
such important supplies from beyond the range 
of plants in general, will not prove peculiarly 
exhausting if it be treated fairly, by having as 
much manure or as good a soil appropriated for 
it as is commonly used for those plants which 
farmers in general have not learned to grow 
on poor soils without manure. 

The prop roots of maize appear about, or a 
little before, the tassels may be seen. They 
proceed from the joint at or near the surface 
of the soil. They are numerous, and form a 
circle round the plant. That portion of them 
which grows outside of the ground is hard and 
woody, similar to the substance which forms 
the outside of the stalk ; but so soon as they 
penetrate the soil they become softer, and 
spread through it in search of nutriment; this 
is just at the time the plant requires most of it. 
The tassel and the top of the plants have after 
this to attain their full size, and the farina fe- 
cundans, which impregnates the grain, is to be 
formed. The ears now begin to shoot, and 
they are also to be filled and perfected. 

The prop roots are exactly calculated to sup- 
port the weight of the tassels and ears during 
high winds, and when the grounds are softened 
by rain. But farmers too generally thwart | 
this simple but wise arrangement of nature, 
by hilling or ridging up the plants. These in- 
considerate operations not only cut and rend 
the roots, but also compel the plants to grow 
new sets of prop roots from the joints above. 
These seldom get sufficiently established in 
time to support the weight and height of the 
tassels and ears ; and many of the plants are 
of consequence blown down, or fall by their 
own weight, when the grounds have been pre- 
viously much softened by rain. 

Maize, from its woody texture and com- 
manding size, might (without straining the 
point very far), be called an annual bread 
tree, producing the best of all corns, and at the 
same time crops which in magnitude far ex- 
ceed that of any other grain. Also tops, husks, 
and leaves which can be readily gathered, and 
furnish abundant fodder for cattle, equal to the 

751 



MAIZE. 

oest hay ; and independent of this, the stalks 
supply much valuable litter for the cattle yard. 
That part of the leaf which surrounds the 
stalk, and adheres so closely that it does not 
permit a particle of moisture to escape, is 
very interesting. The peculiar insertion of the 
leaf, together with the formation of that part 
of the stalk covered by it, forms a cavity for 
the reception of the rich moisture, which is 
gathered into it from the atmosphere by the 
leaves, and for which they are most admirably 
formed. 

The shoots which form the ear commence 
at the joint in contact with the ground. If the 
soil be rich or highly manured, they issue from 
every joint up to where the uppermost ear is 
formed at the footstalk of the tassel. This 
last or highest up ear is almost invariably the 
largest, and ripens soonest. It seldom occurs 
that more than two ears are perfected on one 
stalk, unless the clusters of plants are very 
distant from each other, and but few plants 
stand in each cluster. If the plants stand 
thick on the ground, but one ear is commonly 
perfected by each of them. The abortive ear 
shoots are called suckers. These are com- 
monly removed, so far as the farmer considers 
conducive to the welfare of his crop. This 
should be done so soon as they are large 
enough to be pulled olf effectually. No part 
of them should be left adhering to the stalk, 
or they will grow again from the stub left 
behind. 

If this operation be not early commenced 
and frequently repeated, they become so nu- 
merous and large in fields highly manured, 
especially if the plants stand thin on the ground, 
that they are greatly injured; not only from 
the loss of nutriment, but also from the many 
and large wounds inflicted by the removal of 
them. 

After careful experiment in the removal of 
suckers, I now pull none above the joint in 
Contact with the ground; and would not re- 
move these if they did not take root in the soil, 
and by this means become powerful exhaust- 
ers. Although it commonly happens that seve- 
ral ear shoots above this point prove abortive, 
no sucker can be removed without injuring the 
leaf which binds it to the stalk; and so much 
that it is commonly rendered altogether inca- 
pable of conducting moisture. If it be not so 
extensively injured, the receptacle formed by 
it is so much deranged by this operation, that 
it cannot retain the slight portion which may 
happen to be conducted by the leaf into it. 

I am slill further encouraged to let so many 
of these abortive ears stand, as I have observed 
that so soon as nature has determined the 
number of ears which existing circumstances 
may enable her to fill, all her efforts are direct- 
ed to them, and the abortive ones immediately 
dwindle, and finally wither; and, for aught we 
know to the contrary, nature may cause them 
to part with the rich matters they had pre- 
viously gathered, and apply this nutriment to 
assist in maturing her favourites. 

I trust it will appear from what has been 
advanced, that in place of abusing this invalua- 
ble plant as an exhauster of the soil, we should 
consider it the pride and boast of American 
753 



MAIZE. 

husbandry, as mathematical demonstration 
cannot well afford stronger proof than has 
been produced that maize gathers a large por- 
tion of the nutriment necessary to perfect its 
fruit from the atmosphere. 

Still, it should be remembered that sufficient 
nutriment, provided in the soil, is absolutely 
necessary to enable it to do this very exten- 
sively. Therefore, "let not what God has 
joined together, by man be. put asunder," by 
vain philosophical theories and sophistical 
reasonings. Such as, that the chief use of the 
soil is merely to support the plants in their 
proper place, or that cultivation will supersede 
the necessity of keeping the soil well stored 
with animal and vegetable matter. 

The middle path is certainly the path of rea- 
son and experience, and should be carefully 
and diligently pursued by the practical farmer, 
leaving those ideal speculations for the amuse- 
ment of the learned. 

There is no corn crop grown by us which is- 
so certain as maize. Its diseases are few, and 
most, if not all of them, proceed from an incon- 
siderate cultivation. I do not recollect ever to 
have seen them so extensive in any field as to 
do any very material injury to the crop. 

It withstands drought and contends with 
poverty better than most other plants cultivat- 
ed by us, either for the value of their grain or 
roots. It may be advantageously grown in 
any soil fit for cultivation, not excepting blow- 
ing sands or retentive clay. 

Still, this crop fails occasionally, especially 
in the higher latitudes, or situations rendered 
cold from local causes. It cannot withstand 
grass or weeds, and is too generally planted 
by far too late. The seed is also covered too 
deep, as well as oppressed with clods, stones, 
or any other rubbish near at hand, which pre- 
vents the plant from coming up. Too little 
seed is planted to secure a sufficiency of plants 
after birds and quadrupeds have taken that 
portion which even proper vigilance cannot 
prevent. {Practiral Husbandry.) 

Saving the Fodder, &^c. — The tops of the Indian 
corn, when cut off for fodder, should be re- 
moved previous to stripping the blades from 
the stalks below the ear, which last operation 
should be delayed till near the time of maturity, 
indicated by some dryness of the leaves and 
hardness of the grain. The ears are gathered 
by hand, and the husks, when perfectly dry, 
stript off, and, together with the stalks, laid by 
for winter fodder, while the ears are conveyed 
to the granary. The green stems and leaves 
abound in nutritious matter for cattle, and in 
some places it is cultivated solely for this 
purpose, especially after early crops of other 
vegetables ; when planted for this object, it 
should be sowed very thickly. Corn, when 
well dried, will keep good for several years^ 
and preserve its capability of germination. It 
is eaten in various manners in different coun- 
tries, and forms a wholesome and substantial 
aliment. Domestic animals of every kind are 
also extremely fond of it. According to Count 
Rumford, it is, next to wheat, the most nutri- 
tious grain. It is considered as too stimulating 
for the common food of cattle, and is found to 
be more stimulating than any other kind of 



MAIZE. 



MAIZE. 



bread used by us. The fattening and invigo- 
rating qualities of Indian corn make it the best 
of all kinds of food for persons exposed to hard 
labour or fatiguing duty. In the United States, 
however, the preference so generally bestowed 
by the labouring classes upon Indian corn, is 
by no means confined to them, but shared alike 
by rich and poor, for the sweetness of the bread, 
and its wholesome and superior invigorating 
virtues. Mixed with rye meal, it forms the 
common brown bread of New England ; mixed 
with water alone, it makes a very palatable 
species of extemporaneous bread. When 
pounded in a mortar, or ground very coarse 
and boiled, it forms the "hominy" and "grits" 
which are such great favourites at the south ; 
and the fine meal, boiled thick in water, is the 
"mush" of Pennsylvania, and the "hasty-pud- 
ding" of the Eastern States. In the form of 
hulled corn, or samp, the whole grains furnish 
a very palatable, although rather indigestible 
luxury. Of the husks a beautiful kind of writ- 
ing-paper has been manufactured in Italy; and 
when soaked in hot water, they make excellent 
mattrasses. A grayish paper may be made 
form ail parts of the plant. 

Enemies and Diseases. — The bird, insect, and 
other depredators have been already referred 
to under the head of Birds, Cut-worm, Wire- 
woRM, Plant-lice, &c. Among the diseases, 
tlie chief one is a dark or blue-black spungy 
growth, which sometimes takes the place of 
the blighted ear of corn. The mass some- 
times grows till 5 or 6 inches in diameter, and 
is lo be considered a luxuriant or rank species 
of fungus. As the species of parasitic plants 
to which this belongs are so readily destroyed 
by applications of common salt, there is reason 
to believe that soaking the seeds well in salt- 
water previous to planting, or scattering salt 
over the ground, will prevent this disease. 

In all the fields of maize, says Mr. Lorain, 
which have been examined by me, some plants 
entirely barren have been seen without any 
apparent cause. 

The fungus appears to be principally occa- 
sioned by wounds inflicted during cultivation. 
The plants commonly bleed from these wounds, 
and a fungus is formed. This, when in contact 
with the ear, is certain destruction to it, unless 
the fungus be soon seen and removed. When 
it is formed on other parts of the plant, it fre- 
quently corrodes them so much that they are 
incapable of perfecting their fruit. The only 
remedy known to me is speedy removal, and 
repeating the operation if the fungus should 
reappear : which generally occurs. But even 
this tedious remedy is too often found insuffi- 
cient. It is, therefore, far better not to create 
this disease, by mangling the plants, either by 
the savage practice of harrowing over them, 
or by covering them with clods, stones, or sods, 
as is too often done by the inconsiderate mode 
of hilling or ridging them up. Although many 
of the plants wounded by these injudicious prac- 
tices survive and appear to flourish, even when 
the fungus is not removed, still, numbers of 
them become too debilitated to perfect their fruit. 

A reddish kind of rust sometimes appears 
on the leaves, but seldom does much apparent 
injury to the ears, unless it becomes extensive. 
95 



However, the same rust sometimes fixes upon 
the stalks and causes them to decay. 

When this is near the ear, or the decay is 
extensive, the plant produces little or no grain; 
but I have never seen very extensive injury 
done by this disease. The cause of it is un- 
known to me. It may, however, proceed from 
the bruises and wounds inflicted by an incon- 
siderate cultivation ; especially as the tassel, 
wrapped in its own leaves, may be seen formed 
in the plant when it is quite young. Too many 
farmers think the health and vigour of the 
plants are greatly promoted by harrowing over 
them, and mangling their tops while they are 
young. Also, by cutting and rending the roots 
of them, provided this be not done after the 
tassels and ear shoots appear; than which 
nothing can appear more preposterous. (Prac- 
tical Husbandry.') 

It sometimes happens, as the effect of storms, 
that the pollen is blown or beaten ofl!'the tassel 
before all the silk has protruded from the ear. 
The consequence of this is a failure in the de- 
velopement of grains in the extremity or other 
portion where the silk was deficient. It has 
been urged, among the reasons for letting 
the suckers grow, that being later in tasseling 
and less exposed to high winds, they assist to 
promote the process of fecundation after the 
tassels of the main stalks have shed their pol- 
len. As an evidence of this, it has been stated 
that the earliest ears are always best covered 
with grain, while those which push late often 
exhibit a quarter or a half of naked cob, — the 
consequence of imperfect impregnation. 

Harvesting the Crop. — This is effected very 
differently in different portions of the Union. 

1. In Pennsylvania, and the Northern and 
Eastern States, the corn is usually cut off at 
the surface of the ground, as soon as the grain 
has become glazed, or hard upon the outside, 
and whilst the blades are still green, put im- 
mediately into shocks, and thus left some time 
standing in the field. The corn after becoming 
sufficiently dry is husked and cribbed, and the 
stalks with all the attached fodder and husks 
are carted home and stacked for provender. 

2. In the Southern and Southerly portions of 
the Middle Stales, the corn is commonly husked 
in the field, the stalks having previously had 
the blades stripped below the ears, and the 
tops lopped off above the ears. When, there- 
fore, the ear has been separated, the naked 
stalk is left standing with the husk, which is 
soon afterwards eaten off by cattle. 

There are some other modes of gathering 
corn and securing the fodder, but those de- 
scribed are by far the most general. In some 
parts of the fertile Western States, where the 
crops are extremely luxuriant, with the absence 
of facilities to get the grain to market, it is 
common to husk out and secure enough of the 
corn for family use and then turn the hogs and 
cattle into the field to consume the remainder. 

By the first of these methods the crop may 
be secured before the autumnal rains, with all 
its valuable fodder, and the ground cleared in 
time for a winter crop of wheat or rye. The 
juices retained by the stalk are sufficient to 
nourish the com to maturity. By the second 
mode there is always a loss in the grain pr'»^- 

753 



MAIZE 



MAIZE. 



duct, which is never so well filled after the 
blades and tops have been removed in a green 
state. This has been proven by actual experi- 
ments, for the particulars of which see Biiet's 
Farmer's Instructor ; also Farmer's Register, vol. 
ii. p. 91 ; and Caiman's Fourth Report, p. 16. 

All, or nearly all the accounts we have pub- 
lished of great products of Indian corn, agree, 
says the editor of the Cultivator, in two par- 
ticulars, viz. : in not using the plough in the 
after culture, and in not earthing, or but slight- 
ly, the hills. These results go to demonstrate, 
that the entire roots are essential to the vigor 
of the crop; and that roots to enable them to 
perform their function as nature designed, 
must be near the surface. If the roots are 
severed with the plough, in dressing the crop, 
the plants are deprived of a portion of their 
nourishment; and if they are buried deep by 
hilling, the plant is partially exhausted in 
throwing out a new set near the surface, where 
alone they can perform all their offices. There 
is another material advantage in this mode of 
cultivating the corn crop — it saves a vast deal 
of manual labor. 

There is another question of interest to 
farmers, which relates to the mode of harvest- 
ing the crop, that is, whether it is best to top 
the stalks, cut the whole at the ground when 
the grain is glazed, or cut the whole when the 
grain has fully ripened. Experiments made 
by Mr. Clark, of Northampton, one of the 
best practical farmers of Massachusetts, and 
of other gentlemen, show that the grain 
suffers a diminution of six or eight bushels to 
the acre, by topping the stalks ; and there 
seems to be no counterbalancing benefit to the 
fodder, unless at the expense of carrying the 
stalks to the borders of the field, that they may 
be secured before the crop is gathered, and 
before they become blanched and half-ruined. 
And it is no protection against early autumnal 
frosts, but rather exposes unripened grain to 
be more injured. Hence so far as regards 
these two modes, all who have made a com- 
parison seem to concur in the opinion, that 
.^tripping the corn of its tops and leaves is a 
bad practice. 

The blades and tops of corn, if well cured, 
furnish an excellent fodder for neat cattle and 
horses, all kinds of stock being very fond of 
them. They serve greatly to increase the 
amount of manure, collected in the cattle-yard. 
In Pennsylvania, in the Southern parts of 
which the crops of corn are very luxuriant, the 
fodder is generally considered worth at least 
$4 per acre as provender. A distinguished 
farmer in Whitemarsh, Montgomery county, 
obtained, in 1842, from a 30 acre field, suffi- 
cient corn-fodder to winter 30 large steers in- 
tended for spring beef. The stalks had been 
cut down with blades, &c., attached. Corn is 
occasionally sown broad-cast for the purpose 
of being mown down as green provender for 
milch cows, &c., for which it answers an ad- 
mirable purpose. It has been also cured as 
hay, and on some highly fertile or rich spots 
has yielded 6 tons of hay or fodder. 

Preserving Corn. — Corn is usually preserved 
by storing away the ears cleared from the 

husks, in small or narrow granaries called 
754 



cribs, the sides and ends of which are con- 
structed of logs or laths, so as to leave inter- 
stices of about an inch, or rather more, per- 
mitting a free circulation of air. If the cribs 
be wider than 8 or 10 feet, the middle part is 
very apt to have the corn injured, especially 
when put away before becoming thoroughly 
dry. In the Southern States, corn jn the crib 
is often seriously injured by the weevil when 
attempts are made to keep it over the summer. 
But in the Middle and Northern States, it may 
be preserved for many years on the cob. In 
the Louisiana Register it is stated that sprin- 
kling the corn whilst housing, with a solution 
of common salt and water (in the proportion 
of about one pint of salt to a gallon of water), 
will entirely prevent the insect from breeding. 
The ears of corn are there frequently stored 
up in the husks, which are rendered much 
more grateful to stock by the addition of salt. 

There is perhaps no plant — certainly none 
of such vigorous growth, — which will so long 
continue highly productive when raised year 
after year upon the same soil. In a communi- 
cation to the Farmer's Register, by Mr. Shul- 
tice, of Mathews county, Va., he says that there 
are in the county named, small tracts of land 
which have been in corn, year after year, as 
far back as the recollection of the oldest in- 
habitants extends. The same fields planted in 
corn successively for more than half a century, 
at present yield fair crops. Such land, when 
new (judging by the product of contiguous 
recently cleared land), yielded from 3 to 5 
barrels per acre. At present the product is 
from 2 to 3 barrels, with the occasional appli- 
cation of a very meagre dressing of manure. 
With a fair supply of manure, the land can be 
readily made tro yield as much and even more 
than it did when first brought under cultivar 
tion. As, in the tillage of this crop, all vege- 
tation is carefully destroyed, the materials 
constituting the soil or mould must have de- 
composed very slowly indeed. Where there 
is much sand in the soil, exhaustion takes 
place very quickly ; but Indian corn can be 
cultivated on land, long after it has ceased to 
afford compensating crops of any other grain. 

Expenses of Culture. — These are very differ- 
ently estimated in different parts of the United 
States, being influenced by a variety of local 
circumstances. The following estimate and 
accompanying statement is from Jonathan Ro- 
berts, Esq., a very eminent agriculturist re- 
siding in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania : 

"An estimate of the expense of cultivating 
an acre of maize 15 miles northwest of Phila- 
delphia. Soil, a calcareous loam. 

Ploughing sward ^3 00 

Harrowing to proper fineness - - - - 2 00 
Marl<ing out and planting - - - - - 2 00 
3 loads (2-horse wagon) manure to dress the 

hills . - 3 00 

Horse-hoeing, at least three times - - - 2 00 
Moulding and horse-hoeing - - - - 2 00 
Harvesting .-...---200 
Saving fodder -...-..100 

Rent of land 500 

Wear of gears and plough - ... - 1 00 

Amount of expense .... .#2300 

Amount of crop 60 bushels, at 60 cts. per bushel 36 00 

Fodder --...-..400 

$Wo6 

Leaving a balance in favor of the corn-crop of #17 00 



MAIZE. 



MAIZE. 



"This estimate," says Mr. R., "is predicated 
on practical husbandry, with a fair season. It 
is not found economical, in a regular course of 
cropping, to manure corn land beyond hill 
dressing. The decomposing sward will be 
found equal to its production. The renovating 
process of manure should be applied in putting 
in the winter crops with the cultivated grasses. 
Lime should not be immediately applied before 
sowing the winter crops. Its application ought 
to follow the maize in the fall, or at the latest 
in the following spring. By such a course of 
culture ground may be kept improving in fer- 
tility. It is not the part of practical farming 
to increase the crop of corn by an expensive 
manuring; it must be taken as one of a series 
of ploughed and green crops. On a good soil, 
and with a good season, corn may run to 70 and 
80 bushels an acre. Good management will 
be directed to produce a series of good crops, 
with an improvement of soil." 

With great deference to an agriculturist of 
such matured experience, we cannot help ex- 
pressing an opinion that some of the items in 
the statement are rated too high, and that it 
would perhaps be more correct to bring down 
the expenses at least as low as those in the fol- 
lowing estimate furnished by Judge Buel. This 
last, it must be remembered, does not include 
manure, so much more of which is usually re- 
quired at the North, as greatly to increase the 
expense of the crop. 

Estimated expense of cultivating an acre of 
Indian corn in the State of New York : 



One ploughinp (suppose a clover lay) - - $2 00 
Harrowing and planting - - - - - 2 00 
2 hoeings, 4 (lays, and horse-team - - - 3 75 
riarvesling, 2 days ...---150 
Cutting and harvesting stalks - - - - 1 50 
Rent 5 00 

$15 75 

In the New England States the expenses of 
culture are stated to exceed these calculations 
considerably. Mr. Colman, in his Fourth 
.jigricvltural Report to the Legislature of Massa- 
rhusetts, gives the following estimates for dif- 
ferent townships. 

"In Northfield, the estimate was made as 
follows : 



Ploughini: - - - - - - - -Jf4 00 

Dragging 100 

5 cords of manure in the hill - - - - 12 00 
f.'elting out and putting in the hill - - - 4 00 
Seed corn 1 peck planted 3J feet each way - 37| 

Planting --.-....134 
1st hoeing with man and horse - - - - 2 34 
2d hoeing, 51 17 ; 3d hoeing, $1 17 - - - 2 34 
Gathering and husking - - - - - 5 50 

#32 89^ 

Fodder equal to 1 ton of hay - - . - 10 00 
40 bushels of corn, at ^1 - - . . - 40 00 

$50 00 
Balance in favour of corn - - . . $17 lOJ 



" Another farmer in Northfield gives the fol- 
lowing estimate of the expense of an acre of 
com: 



Ploughing, $2 50 ; harrowing, $2 50 ; holeing, 
50cts. - -. 

6 bushels leeched ashes - . . . _ 

1 bushel plaster or gypsum, 65 - - . . 

Seed, 10 quarts, $1 00; putting on ashes and 
plaster, and planting, ^1 20 - 

Harrowing, 30; weeding, $1 50 - - . 

Cultivating twice in a row, 30 ; 2d hoeing, $1 10 

Cultivating, 15; last hoeing, $i 20 . . . 

Gathering and husking, t5 00 ; gathering stalks, 
•1 50 



«5 50 
10 

65 


a 20 
I 80 
1 40 
1 35 



6 50 
$19 50 



Corn fodder equal to 1 ton of hay 

Crop 50 bushels corn, at $1 00 per bushel 



Balance in favour of crop 



"It will be seen," says Mr. C, "that in the 
above case nothing has been charged for ma- 
nure, excepting ashes and plaster. The corn 
was raised after a stubble clover-crop ploughed 
in, or a green sward inverted. His corn usu- 
ally averages 70 bushels per acre. 

"The estimate of the expense of a corn crop 
in Deerfield is thus given by a very careful 
and successful cultivator: 

Ploughing, S2 34; harrowing, 50 ; holeing,$l 00, $3 84 
4 cords of manure, $8 00; spreading manure, 

82 67 10 67 

Seed, 25; planting, $100; weeding, $2 00; 

horse, 25- - - - - - - - 3 50 

2d hoeing, $1 58; 3d hoeing, $1 58 - - - 3 16 

Topping stalks, 51 00; husking, «2 50 - - 3 50 

Cutting up and gathering butts, $1 00 - - 1 00 

$25 67 
Interest on land -------6 00 

Dr. the above crop ...... $31 67 

Proceeds of crop: 
Fodder equal to J ton of hay, $9 00 - - - 9 00 
50 bushels corn ---..-. 50 00 

959 00 

Balance in favour of corn ----- $27 3J 

"In Shelburn,the estimate of the cost of cul- 
tivating an acre of corn is given by a farmer, 
whose skilful and successful cultivation needs 
no commendation. 

Ploughing, 3 50; 20 loads manure (7 cords), 
$15 00 «18 50 

Getting out and spreading manure 94 50; drag- 
ging or harrowing, $1 00 - - - - 5 50 

Seed, 1 peck, 38; manure for the hills (8 loads), 
$6 00 6 38 

Planting and manuring in the hill, $4 00 - - 4 00 

Weeding and hoeing, $3 33; 2d hoeing, $2 33; 
3d hoeing, $2 33 7 99 

Cutting and shocking, $3 00 ; husking, $4 00 - 6 00 



#48 37 



Proceeds of above crop : 
Fodder equal to IJ ton of hay 
70 bushels corn, at $1 00 - 



Balance in favour of corn . - - - 

Several other estimates of the expense of 
cultivating an acre of Indian corn, varying 
from 14 to 25 dollars, are given by Mr. C. The 
above statements are from farmers of the 
highest respectability for intelligence and ex- 
actness, and may be relied upon. 

755 



MAIZE. 

Mr. Colman says, "that on the hilly portions 
of Massachusetts but little corn is raised, but 
that it makes a large product on the allu- 
vial lands of the Deerfield and Connecticut. 
The largest amount I have known raised in 
one year, by one individual, has been 1400 
bushels ; but many farmers produce from 300 
to 1000 bushels. The judgment of some of the 
most intelligent farmers in Deerfield places the 
average yield at 35 bushels to the acre, which 
seems to be underrated. I have," he says, 
" known upwards of 90 bushels grown on an 
acre in Deerfield meadows ; an average yield 
of more than 70 bushels on several acres in 
Northfield ; and other abundant crops, which 
show at least what might be obtained by good 
cultivation; and likewise how much more pro- 
fitable is good than inferior cultivation. " 

It is evident that over that portion of the 
Middle and Southern States lying east of the 
Mountains, and where the lands have been so 
greatly impoverished by long and scourging 
culture, commencing with that greatest of ex- 
hausters, tobacco, the expenses per acre incur- 
red in the raising of corn must be very much 
lower than either of the estimates furnished for 
Pennsylvania and the Northern and Eastern 
States. Large tracts of the light alluvial districts 
forming the tide-water sections of Virginia and 
Maryland, do not yield an average per acre 
exceeding from 10 to 20 bushels; and still corn 
continues to be cultivated, even when the price 
is below 50 cents per bushel. Such crops would 
be ruinous to the farmer, were he not able to 
cultivate his acres of light unmanured soil at 
less than 5 or 10 dollars each. In the rich 
prairies of the West it is stated that crops of 
corn, averaging 50 bushels to the acre, can be 
raised at an expense of only 3 or 4 dollars per 
acre. 

Qualities of Corn. — Abundant experience has 
shown that the fattening qualities of Indian corn 
are exceedingly great ; so that all who can obtain 
this grain prefer it to every thing else for fatten- 
ing stock, all kinds of which eat it with avidity 
and advantage. It is rich in oil of a very plea- 
sant and useful kind. That which is best 
known is obtained in the process of distillation 
for making whisky and alcohol — a great per- 
version of the use of so precious a grain. The 
temperance reform is correcting this evil, and 
another mode of manufacturing the oil is now 
in great vogue, namely, by passing the grain 
through the secreting organs of swine, and 
thus obtaining it in the modified forms of lard 
and lard-oil. As these commodities are both 
in great request at home, and more especially 
in Europe, a new and rich resource is thus 
opened to the corn planters of the United 
States, those especially who cultivate fertile 
Western lands too far from grain-markets, to 
be able to dispose of their crops in that form. 

The chemical analysis of Indian corn has been 
lately efi"ected by Dr. Dana, of Massachusetts, 
and published in the New England Farmer. For 
the purposes of comparing its nutritive and 
rattening qualities with those of some other ar- 
ticles extensively used for feeding stock. Dr. 
Dana has added the analyses of ruta-bagas 
and potatoes. The great difierence of what 
756 



MAIZE. 

Dr. Dana calls the fat forming principles in 

favour of corn, will excite but little surprise in 
those who have witnessed the eflfects of the 
several substances on animals, and will go far 
to establish the position assumed by Payen and 
Boussingalt, that plants are valuable for giving 
fat to animals only in proportion to the vege- 
table oils ready formed such plants contain. 





100 lbs. of 


Ruta Baga. 


Potatua. 




Cam. 


Fresh dug. 


Fresh dug. 


Containing of flesh 








forming principles : 








gluten, albumen, &c. 


1-26 


1- 


207 


Fat forming princi- 








ples : glim, starcb, 








sugar, woody fibre. 








oil, &c. - 


88-43 


13- 


24-34 


Water - 


9- 


85- 


72- 


Salts - - - 


1-31 


1- 


1-39 



TMe showing the average prices of Indian corn in 
Philadelphia market for each quarter of the 
year, and also the annual averages for the fol- 
loitxing years, viz. : 





1st Quar. 


2d Quar. 


3d Quar. 


4lh Qu.ir. 


Average for 
the year. 


1827 


56 cts. 


48| cts. 


49 cts. 


48f cts. 


51 cts. 


1828 


43i 


39f 


39i 


491 


43 


1829 


46i 


47 


47 


461 


49 


1830 


36i 


39 


48 


551 


45 


1831 


61 


67! 


66 


57 


63 


1832 


46f 


531 


67 


71f 


60 


1833 


49f 


671 


64 f 


61f 


64 


1834 


49§ 


571 


67 


60i 


59 


1835 


61i 


79i 


89 


86f 


78 


1836 


78f 


82i 


91 


eo 


85 


1837 


96| 


911 


101 


851 


94 


1838 


72i 


74 


851 


801 


78 


1839 


86 


89 


78 


62f 


79 


1840 


531 


50A 


55 


531 


52 


1841 


42f 


52 


691 


60f 


61 


1842 


52i 


55| 
Avers 


52f 
ige for lb 


45 
years - 


51 


63 eta. 



The above average prices are for Southern 
flat yellow corn, commonly called gourdseed, 
which generally sells for ftbout 3 cents less per 
bushel than the Pennsylvania round or flint 
corn, which last is heaviest by 3 or 4 lbs. to 
the bushel. The amount of white flat corn 
sent to the Philadelphia market is inconsider- 
able, being only occasionally in demand for 
shipment to Southern ports, where the white 
corn is preferred for bread, whilst in the North 
the preference is always given to yellow corn 
meal. White flat corn usually sells about 3 
cents lower per bushel than the flat yellow. 

Measuring Corn, Shelled or on the Ear. — The 
following rule for this purpose is given by 
William Murray, Esq. of South Carolina. It 
is not to be regarded as strictly accurate, but 
an approximation. 

Having previously levelled the corn in the 
house, so that it will be of equal depth through- 
out, ascertain the length, breadth, and depth of 
the bulk ; multiply these dimensions together, 
and their products by 4, then cut off one figure 
from the right of this last product. This will 
give so many bushels and a decimal of a 
bushel of shelled corn. If it be required to 
find the quantity of ear corn, substitute 8 for 
4, and cut off" one figure as before. 

Example. — In a bulk of corn in the ear, mea- 
suring 12 feet long, 11 feet broad, and 6 feet 
deep, there will be 316 bushels and j"j of a 



MAIZE. 



MAIZE. 



bushel of shelled corn, or 633 bushels and 
Pf of ear corn — as : 



II 
132 



792 
4 



316,8 



The decimal 4 is used when the object is to 
find the quantity in shelled corn, because that 
decimal is half of the decimal 8, and it requires 
two bushels of ear corn to make one of shelled 
corn. In using these rules a half bushel should 
be added for every hundred, that amount of 
error resulting from the substitution of the de- 
cimals. (Southern Agriculturist.) 

Bistnnces of Planting. — The following table 
furnished by Judge Buel, exhibits the difference 
in product of planting and serves to explain, 
in part, the manner in which large crops of 
this grain have been obtained. It is assumed 
in the estimate, that each stalk produces one 
ear of corn, and that the ears average one gill 
of shelled grain. This, says the judge, is es- 
timating the product low ; for while I am pen- 
ning this (October), I find that my largest ears 
give two gills, and 100 fair ears half a bushel 
of shelled corn. The calculation is also pre- 
dicated upon the supposition that there is no 
deficiency in the number of stalks, a contin- 
gency pretty sure on my method of planting. 

Hills, bush. qtL 

1. An acre in hills, 4 feet apart each 

way, will produce . . - 2722 42 16 

2. The same, 3 by 3 feet ... 4840 75 20 

3. The same, 3 by 2i feet ... 5808 93 28 

4. The same, in drills at 3 feet, plants 

6 stalks, 1 inch apart in the drills - 29,040 113 14 

5. The same in do., 2 rows in a drill, 6 

inches apart, and the plants 9 
inches, and 3 feet 9 inches from 
centre of drills, thus . - - - 30,970 120 31 

6. The SHme in do., 3 rows in a drill, as 

above, 3 feet from centre of drills - 43,560 170 5 

The fifth mode I have tried. The ground 
was highly manured, the crop twice cleaned, 
and the entire acre gathered and weighed ac- 
curately the same day. The product in ears 
was 103 baskets, each 84 lbs. nett, and 65 lbs. 
over. The last basket was shelled and mea- 
sured, which showed a product on the acre of 
118 bushels 10 quarts. I gathered at the rate 
of more than 100 bushels the acre from four 
rods planted in the third method last summer, 
the result ascertained in the most accurate 
manner. Corn shrinks about 20 per cent, 
nfter it is cribbed. The sixth mode is the one 
by which the Messrs. Pratt, of Madison county, 
obtained the prodigious crop of 170 bushels 
per acre, the largest crop on record. These 
gentlemen, I am told, are of opinion that the 
product of an acre may be increased to 200 
bushels. 

I am told the Messrs. Pratt, above alluded 
to, used seven bushels of seed to the acre, the 
plants being subsequently reduced to the requi- 
site number. {BueVs Farmers' Instructer.) See 
also Planter's Table, 

According to the mode usually adopted in 
Pennsylvania, and other States in which the 
high-growing varieties of corn are planted, the 



cornhills will average a distance of 4 by 3 feet, 
which gives 3,600 hills to the acre, and allowing 
2 stalks to each hill, this makes 7,200 stalks per 
acre. In more northern situations where they 
are compelled to rely upon the quick-maturing 
varieties, the lowness of the stalks admit of 
closer planting, the hills averaging about 3 by 
2^ feet apart, with 4 stalks per hill, by which 
means an acre is made to contain 5,808 hills, 
and no less than 23,232 stalks — every stalk, in 
a good season and with proper tillage, yielding 
a good ear. 

Sugar from Maize. — Every one familiar with 
Indian corn in its growth, must have observed 
the very great sweetness of the juice exuding 
from the green stalks, when broken or cut. 
This, together with the great resemblance 
between the true sugar-cane and maize, af- 
forded ample ground for believing that sugar 
could be procured from its juice. But whether 
this can be manufactured with profit, still re- 
mains to be fully demonstrated. Partial ex- 
periments have afforded favourable results, 
among which the following may be mentioned. 
The juice of maize contains as much, if not a 
larger proportion of sugar than that of the 
sugar-cane. This sugar is precisely similar 
in its crystallizing and other properties to that 
of the cane. 

The attention of scientific investigators has 
for some years been directed to this subject, 
and it has been regarded as an important dis- 
covery that the removal of the shoots forming 
the rudiments of the ears, before these have 
had time to fill, has caused the stalks to retain 
all their saccharine matter at an advanced 
stage of their growth. Very recently this has 
been contested. At a recent meeting of the 
French Academy, the distinguished philoso- 
pher, M. Biot, read the report of a committee, 
which paper contained the following state- 
ments : Of the corn stalks experimented upon, 
the ears had been removed from one portion, 
and left to grow on others. The juice obtained 
from the stalks which had been castrated, 
yielded 12 per cent, of sugar; that expressed 
from the stalks on which the ears had been 
permitted to grow, 13 per cent. It would 
hence appear that the results of former experi- 
ments showing great apparent advantages from 
castration, were fallacious, the operation being 
rather injurious than otherwise. The rapidity 
with which maize attains its growth, admits of 
its being removed from the soil sufficiently 
early to give place to a winter crop. This, in 
France, is reckoned among the great advan- 
tages it has over the sugar-beet, for which it is 
proposed as a substitute. In those countries 
where the climate is not sufficiently warm to 
bring the grain of Indian corn to perfect matu- 
rity, such as England and Northern France, it 
is probable that the plant might be brought 
sufficiently forward to admit of the manufac- 
ture of sugar. Mr. Webb, of Wilmington, 
Delaware, has made some interesting experi- 
ments upon this subject, which are highly 
worthy of attention. (See Farmer's Cabinet, 
1842, and Ellsworth's Report, 1843.) The re- 
sults afford reasons for believing that the 
manufacture of sugar from maize may be ad- 
vantageously carried on in the United States, 
as 757 



MALE FERN, 

especially in the Western States, where such 
luxuriant crops of maize can be raised at little 
expense. 

MALE FERN. See Fern. 
MALIC ACID. This vegetable acid exists 
in the juices of many fruits and plants, alone, 
or associated with the citric, tartaric, and oxalic 
acids ; and occasionally combined with potash 
or lime. Unripe apples, pears, sloes, barber- 
ries, the berries of the mountain-ash, elder- 
berries, currants, gooseberries, strawberries, 
raspberries, bilberries, brambleberries, whortle- 
berries, cherries, ananas, afford malic acid ; 
the house-leek and purslane contain the malate 
of lime. 

The acid may be obtained most conveniently 
from the juice of the berries of the mountain- 
ash, or barberries. This must be clarified, by 
mixing with white of egg, and heating the mix- 
ture to ebullition ; then filtering, digesting the 
clear liquor with carbonate of lead, till it be- 
comes neutral; and evaporating the saline 
solution till crystals of malate of lead be ob- 
tained. These are to be washed with cold 
water, and purified by re-crystallization. On 
dissolving the white salt in water, and passing 
a stream of sulphureted hydrogen through the 
solution, the lead will be all separated in the 
form of a sulphuret, and the liquor, after filtra- 
tion and evaporation, will yield yellow granu- 
lar crystals, or cauliflower concretions, of 
malic acid, which may be blanched by re-dis- 
solution and digestion with bone-black, and 
re-crystallization. 

Malic acid has no smell, but a very sour 
taste, deliquesces by absorption of moisture 
from the air, is soluble in alcohol, fuses at 
l.'iO° Fahr., is decomposed at a heat of 348°, 
and affords by distillation a peculiar acid, the 
pyromalic. It consists in 100 parts, of 41-47 
carbon; 3-51 hydrogen; and 55-02 oxygen; 
having nearly the same composition as citric 
acid. A crude malic acid might be economi- 
cally extracted from the fruit of the mountain- 
ash (sorbus accenyaria), applicable to many 
purposes ; but it has not hitherto been manu- 
factured upon the great scale. {Ure's Diet.) 

MALLOW (Maha, altered from the Greek 
malache, soft, which comes from malacho, to 
soften, in allusion to the emollient qualities of 
the species). This is an extensive genus of 
plants, some of the species of which are very 
ornamental. Among the most interesting of 
the hardy herbaceous species, are M. moschata, 
M. munroana, and M. purpuraia. They should 
be planted in the flower-border, and increased 
by divisions of the roots, or by seeds. The 
annual species should be sown in the open 
ground ; but few of these are worth culti- 
vating. 

In England, the indigenous species are three 
in number. 1. Common mallow {M. sylvestris), 
a perennial weed which is very common about 
hedgerows, roadsides, and in cultivated as well 
as waste ground. The root is tapering, branch- 
ing, whitish; stem upright, much branched, 
widely spreading, 1^ to 3 feet high, in a barren 
soil recumbent ; leaves deep-green, soft, and 
downy, with seven acute lobes; foot-stalks 
and flower-stalks hairy; the flowers, which 
, appear from Mav to August, are numerous, of 
758 



MALT. 

a shining purple, veiny, on simple aggregate 
stalks. The leaves are mucilaginous and 
emollient, like the marsh-mallow; and were 
formerly often used in food to prevent costive- 
ness. The fruit is a depressed disk, and is 
called by the country people " cheeses." 

2. Dwarf mallow (M. rotundifolia). This 
species is also very common in waste ground, 
and by footpaths near towns and villages. It 
is annual in habit; has a tapering root. The 
whole plant is smaller than the last, and is 
quite prostrate, with numerous stems scarcely 
branched. Leaves roundish, heart-shaped, 
with five, often seven, shallow lobes. Flowers 
pale lilac-coloured, several together on axillary 
hairy stalks ; the stalks when in fruit are bent 
downwards. 

3. Musk mallow (Jf. moschata). This is a 
less common perennial species, found in the 
grassy borders of fields, &c., on a gravelly soil. 
The root is tough and woody; the herbage is 
bright green, more or less rough, with spread- 
ing, simple, not starry hairs, unaccompanied 
with any short, dense, woolly pubescence, and 
exhaling a musky odour, especially in hot wea- 
ther, or when drawn tightly through the hand. 
Stems about two feet high, leafy, round, but 
little branched. Radical leaves kidney-shaped, 
cut, soon withering away; the rest in five deep, 
pinnalifid, jagged segments. The flowers, which 
appear in July and August, are on long, axillary, 
simple stalks, rose-coloured, large and hand- 
some ; calyx hairy, its outer leaves linear-lan- 
ceolate. 

Five North American species of the genus 
Malva are described by Nuttall. One of these, 
the M. coccinea, is very beautiful, with scarlet 
flowers disposed in dense racemes, and is found 
from the confluence of the river Platte and 
Missouri, often extending over the plains in 
such quantities as to communicate a brilliant 
redness to thousands of acres. Dr. Darlington 
describes two species as found in Chester 
county, Pennsylvania, one of which is the 
woodland or wild malva (M. sylvestris), some- 
times called high mallows. It is a naturalized 
foreigner, met with in fields and waste places, 
whither it has escaped from gardens. The 
other species is the round-leaved malva (M. 
rotundifolia), commonly called low mallows, 
and running mallows. This is common in 
yards, gardens, and grass-lots. It is also a 
foreigner, and so extensively naturalized as to 
be somewhat troublesome. It is a popular in- 
gredient in domestic practice for poultices, 
drinks, «&c. "The M. crispa and M. moschata 
are frequent in our gardens, and the latter has 
in a few instances strayed beyond the garden 
limits, but can scarcely be considered as natu- 
ralized. Several species have been recently 
found in the distant territories of this Repub- 
lic, and in British America ; but it is doubtful 
whether any genuine malva is indigenous in 
the old thirteen states." (Flor. Cestrica.) 

MALLOW, THE MARSH. See Marsh- 
Mallow. 

MALLOW, THE TREE. See Tree-Mat^ 

LOW. 

MALT (Fr. mal; Ital. malto; La.t. maltum). 
The term malt is applied to designate grain 
which, being steeped in water, is made to ger- 



MALUS. 



MALUS. 



minate to a certain extent, after which the pro- 
cess is checked by the application of heat. 
This evolves the saccharine principle of the 
grain, which is the essence of malt. Rice, and 
almost every species of grain, has been used 
in malting; but in Europe, and especially in 
England, malt is prepared almost wholly from 
barley. It is the principal ingredient in the 
manufacture of beer and of ardent spirits. 

The process of malting is performed by 
steeping any quantity of good barley in cold 
water for a period which (as regulated by law) 
must not be less than forty hours ; but beyond 
that period the steeping may be continued as 
long as it is thought proper. The proportion 
of water imbibed depends partly upon the bar- 
ley, and partly upon the length of time that it 
is steeped; but the result of a good many trials 
proves that the medium increase of weight 
from steeping may be reckoned at 47 lbs. in 
every 100. The average increase of bulk is 
about one-fifth. After the grain has remained 
a sufficient time in steep, the water is drained 
off, and the barley thrown out of the cistern 
upon the malt floor, where it is formed into a 
heap, called the couch, about 16 inches deep. 
[n this situation it is allowed to remain about 
26 hours. It is then turned by means of wooden 
shovels, and diminished a little in depth. This 
turning is repeated twice a day or oftener, and 
the grain is spread thinner and thinner, till at 
last its depth does not exceed a few inches. 
The temperature which it is wished to preserve 
by these frequent turnings varies from 5.5° to 
62°, according to the different modes of malt- 
ing pursued. Soon after the rudiments of the 
future stem, called acrospire by the maltsters, 
has appeared, the process of germination is 
stopped by drying the malt upon a kiln. The 
temperature at first does not exceed 90°, but it 
is raised very slowly up to 140°, or higher ac- 
cording to circumstances. 

Barley, by being converted into malt, gene- 
rally increases 2 or 3 per cent, in bulk, and 
loses at an average about 20 per cent, in weight, 
of which 12 are ascribed to kiln drying, and 
consist of water which the barley would have 
lost had it been exposed to the same tempera- 
ture; so that the real loss does not exceed 8 
per cent. 

The following is Dr. Thomson's analysis of 
barley, and the pale malt made from it. 

Barley. Malt. 

Gluten 3 1 

Sugar 4 16 

Gum ... - . 5 14 

Starch - .... 88 69 

100 100 

The gluten in this case is a most important 
component, as by its transformation, when the 
malt is converted into wort, ferment is gene- 
rated; whilst the saccharine matter, which is 
increased fourfold, is the origin of the alcohol 
of the beer. Oxyg -n is appropriated by the 
gluten at the same time that the transforma- 
tion of the sugar is going on ; and thus carbo- 
nic acid and yeast are disengaged simultane- 
ously. 

In brewing ale, porter, and table beer, three 
different kinds of malt are employed : 1, pale 
or amber malt, which yields the saccharine or 



fermentable extract ; 2, brown or blown malt, 
which is not fermentable, but is used to impar*. 
flavour; 3, roasted, black, or, as it is some- 
times called, patent malt, which is employed 
instead of burnt sugar, merely as a colouring 
matter for porter. 

The manufacture of malt has been carried 
on in England to a great extent from a very 
early period; but it is singular that notwith- 
standing the products obtained from it have 
always formed the principal beverage of the 
great bulk of the people, instead of increasing 
with the progressive wealth of the population 
of the country, it remained nearly stationary 
for more than a century, and it is only within 
the last 8 or 10 3'ears that there has been any 
increase in the manufacture. This extraordi- 
nary result is most probably to be attributed to 
the introduction and universal use of tea, cof- 
fee, &c., and to the heavy duties that were for- 
merly levied on beer and malt. The present 
duty on malt from barley is 2s. 7d. per bushel, 
and from here or bigg, 2s. The quantity of 
malt charged with duty in the United King- 
dom during the three years ending 1838, was 
41,814,811 bushels; and the revenue derived 
from it averaged in the same period 5,282,975/. 

The following is the quantity of malt con- 
sumed by the brewers of London and its vici- 
nity from the 10th of October, 1830, to the 10th 
of October, 1840. 





Qr,. 




Qn. 


1831 


622,549 


1836 


754,313 


1832 


604,477 


1837 


714,488 


1833 


578,588 


18.38 


742,597 


1834 


662,713 


1839 


750,176 


1835 


702,533 


1840 


776,219 



The 6 Geo. 4, c. 107, s. 52, enacts that " malt 
may not be imported into the United Kingdom 
for home use under pain of forfeiture ; but it 
may be warehoused for exportation." The im- 
portation of malt is, however, now allowed 
under very high duties, fluctuating with the 
price of home produce; but under no state of 
the market can any addition be thus made to 
the quantity of malt in this country, becaus 
barley which has undergone a voyage of muc.i 
length is unsuited to the process of malting. 
See Barley, Beer, and Brewing. 

MALT-DUST. The dust or substance that 
separates from the malt in the act of drying, or 
during its preparation. It is sometimes called 
malt-combs, and has been found useful as a 
manure or a top-dressing when sown over the 
cereal grasses in the early spring season. 

The proper quantity of this dust is, if top- 
dressed, for wheat, 36 to 40 bushels; if drilled 
with the crop, for barley and turnips, 30 to 34 
bushels. It is also eminently calculated for 
grass lands ; and if applied in the latter pro- 
portion, it will produce a very considerable 
increase of the best feed. The common price 
at most malt-kilns is from 5s. to 6s. per quar- 
ter. Malt-dust is also in some places employed 
in the feeding of milch cows and pigs. 

MALUS (Lat. malum, an apple). The wild 
crab {Pyrus malus, see Crab-tree) is the only 
apple indigenous to England, and it is on this 
stock that most of our valuable apples have 
been grafted and raised by the ingenuity of 
the gardeners, who have, by sowing the seeds 
and studying the soil, so improved and multi 

759 



MALUS. 



MALUS. 



'ed the varieties of this most excellent fruit, | 
that it has now become of great national im- 
portance, affording an agreeable and whole- 
some diet, in a thousand shapes, to all classes. 
Leonard Mascal was the first who introduced 
the common or cultivated apple into England, 
about the year 1525. The varieties of the 
apple are now so numerous that the Horticul- 
tural Society's catalogue includes more than 
1400. The apple, like most other hardy trees, 
may be propagated by seeds, cuttings, suckers, 
layers, or engrafting ; by seeds for obtaining 
new varieties, and by the other modes for ex- 
tending the number of such as are in esteem. 

In every garden and private orchard, apples 
for ten different purposes are desirable : 

1. For summer culinary use, the codlings, 
while not fully grown or imperfectly ripe, are 
fit for using in June, July, and August. 

2. For summer eating or table use, the jen- 
neting pomroy, &c., which ripen in the end of 
June or in July. Margaret, summer pearmain, 
&c., (July). Kentish fill-basket, Hawthorn 
dean, &c. (August). 

3. For autumn baking, the codlings and 
Burknott's red-streaks, Eve apple, court pen- 
der, nonsuch, &c., which ripen in September. 
Piles's russet, Carlisle codling, catsheads, em- 
broidered, &c. (October). Wormsley pippin, 
golden Harvey, queening, golden russet (No- 
vember). 

4. For autumn table use, the Kirton and 
Dalmahoy pippins. Loan's pearmain, Colville, 
Kent, Godolphin, &c., which ripen in Septem- 
ber; orange and ribstone pippins, gray rennet, 
fameuse, violet, &c. (October). Franklin's 
golden, and Borsdorf pippins. Dredge's russet, 
margil, &c. (November). 

5. For winter culinary use, the Nimier's 
dumpling, Burknott, John apple, Mansfield tart, 
«&c., which are fit to use in December. Hall- 
door, royal pearmain, Dutch queening, Adam's 
russet (January). Brindgwood pippin, cock- 
agee, tankerton, box-apple (February). 

6. For winter table use, the golden and 
Kentish pippins, golden and Canadian rennets, 
brandy, «&c., which are fit to eat in December. 
The Norfolk storing, Hubbard's Sykehouse, 
white court pender, &c. (January). Dredge's 
Queen Charlotte, Feams, Skenn's kernel, and 
Dalmahoy pippins, royal pearmain, &c. (Feb- 
ruary). 

7. For spring culinary use, the quince, white 
Colville, Lord Camden's rennet, winter pear- 
main, which keep till the end of March. Spen- 
cer pippin, Trevoider rennet, Macdonald's 
Scotch nonpareil, Spaniard, &c. (April). Nor- 
folk paradise. Loan's pearmain, English ren- 
net, &c. (May). 

8. For spring table use, the hollow-eyed, 
Cornwall rennet, Hughes's new golden pippin 
&c., which will keep till the end of March. 
Cockle and Whitmore pippins, golden an( 
Piles's russet, Wheeler's extreme, &c. (April). 
Stone and Spencer pippins. Royal George, 
Ward, (fee. (May). 

9. For summer culinary use, till the apple 
season returns, the Lord Cheney's green, Bax- 
ter's pearmain, stoup codling, &c., which will 



10. For summer table use, till the apple sea- 
son returns, the Dredge's fame, oaken peg, 
carnation, &c., which keep till the end of June. 
Nonpareil, Yorkshire greening, Norfolk Col- 
man, which keep till the end of July. 

Although the apple flourishes in every pari 
of the United States, if we except the extreme 
southern portions, the fall and wiiiter varieties 
commonly come to the greatest perfection in 
the Northern States and northern portions of 
the Middle States, where this fruit constitutes 
a very profitable resource to the farmer, both 
for the home markets and exportation to the 
Southern States, the West Indies, and Europe, 
and even to Asia. Good judges assert that the 
apples of England and France are not to be 
compared, for excellence of flavour, to those 
produced in the United States. 

The following directions for the culture and 
subsequent management of apple trees, is from 
the valuable manual published in 1842 by Wil- 
liam Kenrick, nurseryman, near Boston. 

The seeds or pomace of the apple should be 
sown in autumn in a rich soil. When the 
young plants appear in spring, they should be 
carefully thinned to the distance of 2 inches 
asunder, and kept free from weeds by carefully 
hoeing during the remainder of the season, or 
till of sufficient size to be removed. 

At 1 or 2 years of age they are taken up, 
their tap-roots shortened, that they may throw 
out lateral roots ; they are transferred to the 
nursery, set in rows about 4 feet asunder, and 
at 1 foot distance from each other in the row, 
in a rich and loamy soil. In the summer fol- 
lowing they are inoculated, or they are en- 
grafted or inoculated the year following. 

Size and' age for transplanting to the orchard. — 
An apple tree, when finally transplanted to the 
orchard, ought to be at least 6 or 7 feet high, 
with branches in proportion, and full 2 years 
from the bud or graft, and thrifty. Apple trees 
under this size belong properly only to the 
nursery. 

Distance. — The distance asunder to which 
apple trees should be finally set, when trans- 
planted to the orchard, depends upon the nature 
of the soil, and the cultivation to be subse- 
quently given. If the soil is by nature extremely 
fertile, 40 feet distance may be allowed, and 
even 45 and 50 feet in some very extraordinary 
situations ; for before the trees become old, 
they will completely shade the ground. If, 
however, the soil is not very extraordinary by 
nature, or so rendered by art, this distance 
would be too great ; for the trees would become 
old, and their growth would be finished, before 
the ground could be covered by their shadow: 
30 feet only may therefore be allowed in land 
usually denominated of good quality, and but 
20 to 25 feet in land of ordinary quality. But 
where economy of time, of land, and of all 
things else is consulted, but one-half this dis- 
tance will answer for a series of years. 

The quincunx mode is recommended for 
close arrangement, and short-lived trees may 
be set in the intervals. 

The size to which an apple tree may attain, 
and the ground which should be allotted to it. 



keep till the end of June. Norfolk beaufin, I depend also, in some measure, on the particu- 
Norfolk storing. French crab (July). I lar variety of apple ; some sorts beilig well 

76u 



MALUS. 



MALUS. 



known to attain to a much greater size than 
that of others. 

The period of growth, or the duration of the 
apple tree is comparatively limited ; this is 
sufficiently evident from the perishable nature 
of its timber. Those species of trees only will 
continue living and growing for centuries, 
whose timber may be preserved incorrupti- 
ble during the lapse of a long succession of 
ages. 

Soil and situation. — A rich soil, rather moist 
than dry, is that adapted to the apple tree ; but 
what is usually termed a deep pan soil is to be 
preferred. 

On such a soil, whether on the plains, or in 
the valley, or on the sides and summits of our 
great hills, which almost always consist of 
good land, and even in situations the most ex- 
posed, the apple tree will flourish. 

One of the most productive apple-orchards in 
the immediate vicinity of Boston is situated on 
die north and north-west sides of a hill, the most 
exposed to cold winds. The soil of great hills 
is generally of far superior quality to that of 
the plains ; and it is a very mistaken opinion, 
which seems adopted by some, that the soil of 
all hills must of necessity be dry and deficient 
in moisture. It is the plains and the knolls 
that are but too generally thus deficient, not the 
great hills, which almost always abound in 
springs. 

Land half-covered with rocks, and incapable 
of being cultivated with the plough, is in some 
respects admirably suited to the apple tree ; 
for, in such situations, they are not liable to 
suffer from drought; they receive nearly a 
double portion of moisture from the rains that 
fall, and a greater degree of heat by the reflect- 
ed rays of the sun. 

They may even flourish on sandy plains, if, 
where the tree is to be placed, an excavation 
is formed 6 or 8 feet in diameter, and 3 or 4 
feet in depth, and half-filled either with useless 
small stones, intermixed with rich loam, mud 
from the low grounds, clay, or gravelly clay, or 
mixtures of any of these substances with a 
portion of manure, and the remainder of the 
excavation filled to the surface with rich loam. 

Munagcmenl of the Land. — If the ground intend- 
ed for the orchard cannot conveniently be kept 
wholly in a state of cultivation during the first 
years, a portion, at least, ought to be. 

A strip of land to each row, of 8 or 10 feet 
in width, well manured, may be kept cultivated, 
and the vegetables which may here be raised 
will amply repay the expense and labour be- 
stowed during the first 4 or 5 years. After this, 
if the trees have grown well, as they probably 
must have done, cultivation at a distance in the 
intervals becomes even more important than 
within the limited distance of a very few feet 
from the trunk of the tree; for, on examination, 
it will be found that the small fibres or sponge- 
lets, by which alone the tree derives all the 
nourishment it receives from the earth, are 
now remote from the trunk of the tree ; they 
are now to be found seeking pasture beyond 
the limits of its shade, and it becomes neces- 
sary that the whole ground should be kept in a 
high state of cultivation for the 4 or 5 follow- 
ing years. After this period it may occasion- 
9b 



ally be laid to grass, which, however, should 
be broken up at frequent intervals, the land 
being always kept in good heart. 

Pruning. — If the branches of a young tree, 
issuing at and above the requisite height, be 
made, by pruning, to diverge from the trunk 
in every direction above the horizontal, and 
the interior of these be carefully kept from 
any interference with each other for a few 
years, little pruning will ever afterwards be 
necessary. 

Heavy pruning is seldom necessary or advi- 
sable ; but when, as in the case of grafting, or 
of heading down for a new growth, it becomes 
unavoidable, it should always be performed in 
that interval between the time the frost is 
coming out of the ground in spring, and the 
opening of the leaf. 

For that moderate pruning, which alone is 
generally needful, June and July, and during 
the longest days of summer, is the very best 
time: for wounds of all kinds heal admirably 
at this period, the wood remaining sound and 
bright ; and even a tree debarked at this season 
recovers a new bark immediately. 

Trees ought not to be pruned in February 
and March, at the time the frost is coming out 
of the ground. This is the season when most 
trees, and particularly the vine and sugar- 
maple, bleed most copiously and injuriously. 
It causes inveterate canker ; the wounds turn 
black, and the bark, for perhaps several feet 
below, becomes equally black, and perfectly 
dead, in consequence of the bleeding. 

The lower side limbs of young trees in the 
nursery should be gradually shortened, but not 
suddenly close pruned ; they are essential for 
a time to strengthen the trunk, and to the 
upright and perfect formation of the tree. 

These directions are particularly applicable 
to the apple tree. I would only add, that when 
these directions have been followed, — when 
large and profitable crops are desired, — our 
cultivators generally avoid robbing their trees 
unnecessarily of a particle of bearing wood. 

Those limbs which interfere with other limbs 
by galling, the suckers, and dead wood, are 
alone removed; for they consider that the 
warmth of the atmosphere is of itself sufficient 
in our climate to ripen the fruit, without at- 
tempting to admit the sun to every part of the 
tree. 

These directions are to be more especially 
observed in regard to old trees in their declin- 
ing years : their trunks being too old for the 
reproduction and sustenance of a crop of new 
and fruitful wood, nothing should be taken 
away but the dead branches and suckers. We 
have seen old trees, whose branches were an- 
nually loaded with fruit, despoiled at once by 
the hand of man of half their bearing wood, 
under the mistaken idea that the destruction of 
the one half of the tree would confer a benefit 
on the remainder, and render it still more pro- 
ductive. We noticed, however, that the eflfect 
thus produced was directly the reverse, as their 
total destruction usually followed, as a conse- 
quence, not long after. 

Insects. — See Borers, Caterpillars, Cpr- 
cuLio, &c. {Kenrick's New Jimerican Orchard' 
ist.) 

3 s 3 7fi] 



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The same publication may be referred to for 
a descriptive list of apples in cultivation in the 
United States, together with select foreign va- 
rieties. From more than 200 kinds, our limits 
will only admit an enumeration of a list recom- 
mended by the experienced author, as a mode- 
rate selection of the kinds best known and most 
valued at the present day. The numbers refer 
to the entire catalogue. 

Summer Apples. 

3. Benoni, a medium-sized, red, and good 
early apple.— July. 

4. Early Stveet Bough. Size from medium to 
large, form oblong, skin yellow, juicy, and fla- 
vour excellent. — Early in August. 

8. Maiden's Blush, or Hawlhornilen of the Eng- 
lish. A large and beautiful fruit, shape flat- 
tened, colour yellowish-white, with a red blush 
on the sunny side. An excellent apple for mar- 
ket, and also for drying. — August to September. 
A popular fruit in the Philadelphia market. 

9. Porter. Size medium, oblong, light-yellow, 
with pale blush next the sun, very beautiful ; 
flavour lively and pleasant; productive and 
profitable; a popular fruit in the Boston mar- 
ket. Origin, Sherburne, Massachusetts. 

10. PM)((j;)/aHSiiw/(V!gof NewEngland. Large, 
round, flattened, and colour yellow-russet; the 
flavour sweet and excellent. — August to Oc- 
tober. 

11. Red Astracan. An eminently beautiful 
and very early apple, of medium size, nearly 
globular, of a rich crimson colour, covered 
with a fine bloom. Crisp, juicy, and agreeable. 
The tree a great bearer, originally from Russia. 

18. Williams .Apple. A beautiful fruit, of me- 
dium size and oblong form ; colour deep-red ; 
flavour lively and very pleasant. — First of Au- 
gust. A native of Roxbury, Massachusetts. 

AuTUMjf Apples. 

22. Ira bant Belle Fleur. Very large and 
handsome ; of great solidity ; shape rather co- 
nical ; slightly ribbed; yellow with reddish 
stripes; juicy and of very pleasant flavour. 
A fine fruit. — November. 

28. Emperor Alexander. The fruit of this 
Russian variety is very large, cordate, narrow 
at the crown ; the eye is in a broad, deep cavi- 
ty ; colour greenish-yellow, slightly streaked 
with red in the shade, and beautifully marked 
and streaked with bright red and orange next 
the sun. Flesh ye'Uowish-white, crisp, tender, 
juicy, rich, and of aromaiic flavour. Excel- 
lent for dessert. — October. Keeps till Christmas. 

30. Fameuse. Pomme de Neige. A middle- 
sized fruit; shape globular, flattened; skin light 
green, tinged with light-red and dark-red streaks; 
deep red next the sun. Flesh white as snow 
and ver}' tender ; juice sweet, with a musky 
perfume. — October. A most beautiful dessert 
iruit. Origin Canada. 

33. Gravenslein, said to be the best apple in 
Germany. Shape large, round, and angular at 
the crown ; the eye sunk in a broad, deep, 
!<notly cavity; colour clear straw yellow, with 
broken stripes of red next the sun. Flesh pale 
yellow, crisp, high flavoured and delicious. 
Good for dessert and cider. Ripens in autumn 
and keeps till winter. 
762 



35. Kenrick, a large round fruit, pale green, 
with bright red next the sun. Flesh tender and 
occasionally stained with red. A native of 
Newton, Massachusetts. 

38. Lyscom. Sometimes called Osgood's Fa- 
vourite ; a large fruit, striped with red ; of ex- 
cellent quality. Origin Worcester, Massachu- 
setts. Ripens in October. 

39. Monmouth Pippin. A superior, large, ani 
handsome fall fruit. Productive and saleable, 
from Monmouth, New Jersey. 

41. Orange Pippin, called also Marigold Pip- 
pin, and Isle of Wight Orange ; in size, form, 
and colour, much resembling a middle-sized 
orange. Flavour pleasant and good for dessert. 
Excellent for cider. In Monmouth county, 
New Jersey, considered one of the most sale- 
able, profitable, and productive of all fall 
apples. 

42. Orange Sweeting, or Golden Sweet ; rather 
large, flattened at the base and summit ; colour 
yellow or orange ; flesh sweet and excellent. In 
high estimation at Providence, Rhode Island, 
where it is brought from Connecticut. — Sep- 
tember. Keeps till December. 

44. Red Calville ; of medium size, and very 
beautiful ; form conical ; colour fine red, and 
on the sunny side, deep crimson ; flesh stained 
with red ; of a vinous sweet taste, arid perfume 
of violets. Ripens in September, and keeps 
till winter. 

49. Spice Sweet. Fruit large, very sweet 
and excellent. Native of Taunton, Massa- 
chusetts. Sometimes called Spurr Apple. — 
September. 

53. York Russeling ; remarkably large, coni- 
cal-shaped, and swollen towards the base; co- 
lour russet-yellow; juicy, subacid, and good. 
Valuable for market, cooking, &c. — October 
to December. 

Winter Apples. 

55. JEsopws Spitzenberg, large, very beautiful, 
and excellent ; shape oblong; colour deep scar- 
let, deepening to dark crimson next the sun; 
flesh juicy and high-flavoured. A very cele- 
brated fruit, ripening in December, and keep- 
ing till March. The Flushing Spitzenberg diflfers 
from this in being round or flat. 

56. Baldwin. This capital variety is a native 
of Massachusetts, a large, beautiful, and fa- 
mous fruit. Shape round, of a pale colour in 
the shade, and fine scarlet crimson on the sunny 
side ; sometimes entirely red. Flesh white, 
juicy and sugary, and of an agreeable acid 
flavour. The most popular winter apple in the 
Boston market. Ripens in November, and 
keeps till February and March. 

59. Bellftower, or Yellow Bellflower. A large 
and beautiful fruit, of an oblong or conical 
form, colour bright yellow, with an occasional 
blush next the sun. Rich and finely flavour- 
ed ; excellent for dessert and cooking, and a 
prime favourite in the Philadelphia market. 
Ripens in October and November, and will 
keep nearly all winter. The seeds are so 
loose as to rattle in the middle when shaken. 

62. Bhie Pearmain. A large, beautiful apple, 
of a dark-red colour, covered with a thick 
bloom. — October. Keeps till January. 

63. Chandler, a superior variety from Con- 



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aecticut, where it is deemed one of the best of 
winter fruits. Large, flat, with dull red stripes 
next the sun. Eye large and in a deep cavity. 
Flavour equal to the Baldwin. Keeps till 
March. 

67. Danvers' Wintei- Sweet, or Epses Sweet. 
Large and beautiful. Colour bright yellow, 
with a faint blush next the sun. Fine for des- 
sert and baking. Native of Danvers, and a 
popular market fruit. 

74. Golden Ball. Size rather above medium; 
ribbed at the sides ; colour golden yellow. A 
very popular apple in Maine. 

81. Lady Jpple, or Pomme D'Api. Very 
small and beautiful. Skin bright and yellow, 
with a red blush on the sunny side. — Novem- 
ber. Keeps till March. 

85. Minisler. Large, oblong, and tapering 
towards the eye, like the Bellflower, with large 
ribs, or calville-formed; striped, with bright 
red on aground of pale greenish-yellow. Flesh 
yellow and high flavoured. Esteemed by Man- 
ning one of the first fruits New England has 
ever produced. — November to January. Origin, 
Rowley, Massachusetts. 

86. La.'c Pound Sweet. Very large ; form flat- 
tened. Colour pale yellow. Origin Vermont. 

87. Mela Curia, or Malcarle, Charles Apple, 
Pomme Ferivale. One of the most famous of 
fruits ; size rather large ; form globular, but 
slightly ovate. Eye and slender stem both in- 
serted into deep cavities. Skin beautiful waxen, 
a little marbled with faint green near the eye. 
Splendid crimson colour on the sunny side. 
Flesh white, delicate sweet, with rose perfume. 
— September. Keeps till spring. In Italy this 
is considered the best of all apples in the world. 
It is there cultivated extensively for exporta- 
tion. Near Boston, this apple proves good but 
not excellent. 

88. Monstrous Pippin, or New York Gloria 
Mundi ; a fruit of uncommon size. Colour 
yellow with numerous spots of white ; eye 
very deep. Excellent for cooking. Origin, 
Long Island. 

90. Murphy. A large and splendid fruit, re- 
sembling in appearance the Blue Pearmain, 
but more oblong and rather smaller. Colour 
pale red, streaked or blotched with darker red, 
and covered with bloom. Keeps till February. 
Origin, Salem, Massachusetts. 

94. Pownal Spitzenberg. Origin, Vermont. 
Resembles the .^sopus Spitzenberg, and high- 
ly esteemed. 

97. Raiusdell^s Red Pumpkin Sweet ; a beauti- 
ful fruit; over medium size: round or oblong; 
colour a dark and beautiful red, covered with 
a dense blue bloom. The tree a prodigious 
bearer, native of Connecticut. Fruit saleable 
and profitable : keeps till January. 

98. Rhode Island Greening; Jersey or Bur- 
lington Greening; a very large apple, flattened 
at both ends; colour yellowish green at matu- 
rity, covered with dark clouds or blotches ; 
ripens in September, and keeps till March. A 
highly esteemed and profitable fruit. Tree 
bears abundantly every other year, and, in 
the New England States, is preferred for its 
productiveness to the Green Newtown Pip- 
pin. I 



99. Rihston Pippin, also called Formosa Pip- 
pin, and Glory of York ; in England esteemed 
very highly ; medium size, and globular form ; 
colour pale yellow, mottled with red next the 
sun. Keeps till February. 

100. Red Seek-No-Farther. A large round 
fruit, contracted towards the summit; colour 
fine deep red ; flavour sweet and excellent. 
Keeps till March. A Rhode Island fruit. 

101. Roxbury Russeting. A fine old native of 
Massachusetts ; fruit large and of a slightly 
flattened form ; colour, brownish yellow russet, 
with an occasional blush next the sun ; skin 
rough. Keeps well till June and July. Raised 
in great quantities near Boston, for exporta 
tion, &c. 

102. Scolloped Gillyflower. Said by good judges 
to far excel the Black Gillyflower, and much 
resembling the Cornish variety. 

103. Swaar. This and the Jonathan apple 
are esteemed equal, at least, if not superior to, 
the Newtown Pippins and Spitzenbergs. Size, 
medium ; shape, round ; skin, greenish yellow, 
with a blush next the sun, and thickly dotted 
with brown specks, intermixed with some scar- 
let. Keeps till April. 

104. White Spitzenberg. A beautiful, fair, and 
fine flavoured fruit, about the size of the JEso- 
pus Spitzenberg. Keeps all winter, and sells 
well in the Albany market. 

105. Wine Aj)ple, or Hay's Apple ; also called 
Large Winter Red, and Fine Winter. Fruit 
ver)' large and beautiful ; colour, bright red on 
the sunny side, with sometimes a few stripes 
and blotches of yellow on the shady side. 
Flesh rich and excellent. Keeps till February 
and March. Tree very productive, and fruit 
very saleable in the Philadelphia market. 

106. Winter Sweeting; called also Seaver 
Sweeting, and Grafton Sweeting. Fruit large, 
round and conical ; colour, pale yellow, with a 
blush on the sunny side. Flesh yellow, sweet 
and fine-flavoured. Keeps till March. 

107. Winter White Calville, or Bonnet Carre. 
Fruit large and of a bright yellow colour, with 
a bright red blush on the sunny side; form 
rather flat and ribbed ; flesh white, tender, and 
pleasant. Keeps till March. 

108. Yellow Newtown Pippin, A large flat 
fruit, of a bright yellow colour, and faint blush 
next the sun. Keeps all winter, and flourishes 
better in the New England states than the 
Green Variety. 

Celebbated Cider Apples cultivated is 
THE United States. 

109. Harrison, or Long Stem. A native of 
Essex, New Jersey. The celebrated Newark 
cider is made from this apple; one tree in Es- 
sex county. New Jersey, produced 100 bushels 
in one year, and 10 bushels make a barrel of 
cider, which will yield 14 quarts of brandy. 
The fruit is below the medium size, rather 
long, and deeply indented at the ends ; stem 
very long ; colour yellow, covered with black 
spots. Fruit ripens 1st of November. Flesh 
yellow, firm, tough, and drj'. 

110. Taliafero. A Virginia fruit, about, the 
size of a grape-shot, or from I to 2 inches in 
diameter; colour white, streaked with red. 

763 



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111. Virginia Crab, or Hewes's Virginia Crab. 
\ very small round cider apple, of a small, red 
colour, with streaks of pale yellow. 

Vatiieties for Presehving or Ornamental 
purposes. 

112. Red Siberian Crab. Tree a profuse 
bearer, and very beautiful when the fruit is at 
maturity, resembling at a little distance a plum 
or cherry tree ; fruit in clusters of a bright 
scarlet colour, with long stems. Much used 
for preserving. 

1 1 3. Yelloiv Siberian Crab. The tree, foliage, 
and fruit equally beautiful with the preceding 
kind, which it even excels in productiveness. 
The little apples grow in clusters, with long 
stems ; colour golden yellow. 

114. Chinese Double Flowering. Tree small, 
bearing very double flowers in clusters, re- 
sembling small roses; very superb when in 
full bloom. Fruit very small, but tolerable for 
eating. 

Southern Apples. 

The following are stated to be some of the 
most esteemed varieties of native apples of 
V'^irginia. Part are described from the autho- 
rity of Mr. Coxe, and the remainder on the 
authority of a Virginian. 

115. Beverley's Red. The fruit is very large, 
the skin smooth, of a crimson colour ; flesh 
very white, of a pleasant flavour. A winter 
fruit. 

116. Cart House, or Gilpin. The tree is a 
great bearer. The fruit hangs long on the tree 
in autumn. A small fruit, rather oblong; the 
skin smooth, of a deep crimson colour, with 
occasional yellow stripes; the flesh yellow, 
tender, and of good flavour. A native of Vir- 
ginia; highly esteemed for its excellence as a 
table fruit in spring; also a good cider fruit. 
Coxe. 

117. Curtis. The skin is smooth, of a red 
colour; flesh juicy and pleasant. Ripe middle 
to end of August. 

118. Gloucester White. The tree is of vigo- 
rous growth, and beautiful form, and very pro- 
ductive ; the fruit of medium size, its form 
varying from flat to oblong ; of a fine yellow 
colour, clouded with spots of black; the flesh 
yellow, breaking, juicy, rich, and delicious. It 
ripens early in October; and, according to Mr. 
Coxe, is not only a most excellent dessert fruit, 
but makes exquisite cider. Much cultivated 
and of high reputation in the lower counties of 
Virginia. 

119. James River, or Limber Tung. Branches 
drooping or pendent ; the fruit is of a greenish 
colour, with a blush next the sun; the flesh 
very juicy, and pleasant at maturity. Winter. 
It keeps a long time. 

120. Lippincot. A fruit of Maryland. Very 
handsome, and striped ; excellent ; one of the 
bestof all early apples. July and August. R. 
Sinclair. 

121. Pryor's Red. The fruit is very large; 
colour brownish red; its flesh at maturity 
juicy, and very fine. A winter fruit. 

122. 7i«tf/e's/anef, orRockrimmon. The form 
is globular, flattened; the colour red and green; 
f esh very fragrant, more juicy, and of superior 

704 



flavour to the Newtown Pippin, and keeps 
equally as well. 

123. Royal Pearmain. Fruit fine, of a large 
size, flattened ; skin rough, of a fine russet colour, 
but red next the sun, and faintly streaked with 
russet ; flesh a rich yellow, firm, but at matu- 
rity, tender, sweet, and of very sprightly flavour. 
A good table apple; excellent for cider; and 
highly esteemed by the planters of Virginia, 
near Richmond, from whence Mr. Coxe pro- 
cured it. The tree bears uniformly and abun- 
dantly. It ripens in October, and will keep till 
February or March. 

124. Striped June .Apple. The fruit is as fra* 
grant as a pine-apple melon. It ripens the last 
of June and beginning of July. 

125. Virginia Greening. The fruit is of me- 
dium size ; colour green, striped with red ; 
flavour very superior. A winter fruit. 

Gathering and Preserving the Fruit. 

Various theories have been ofi'ered for pre- 
serving apples in a sound state for winter use, 
or for distant voyages. Some have proposed 
gathering the fruit before it is ripe, and drying 
it on floors before it is put up ; this has been 
tried ; the apples lose their sprightly flavour, 
and keep no better than by some less trouble- 
some modes. Dr. Noah Webster has recom- 
mended that they should be put down between 
layers of sand which has been dried by the 
heat of summer. This is without doubt an ex- 
cellent mode, as it excludes the air, and ab- 
sorbs the moisture, and must be useful when 
apples are to be shipped to a warm climate. 

Chopped straw has also been highly recom- 
mended to be placed between the layers of 
fruit ; but I have noticed that the straw, from 
the perspiration it imbibes, becomes musty, 
and may probably do more hurt than good. 
When apples are to be exported, it has been 
recommended that each be separately wrapped 
in coarse paper, in the manner oranges and 
lemons are usually put up. This is, without 
doubt, an excellent mode. And Mr. Loudon 
has recommended that apples destined for Eu- 
rope should be packed between layers of grain 
Packing in oats is said to succeed very well. 

Great quantities of fine winter fruit are 
raised in the vicinity of Boston, and put up for 
winter use, for the markets and for exporta- 
tion. The following is the mode almost uni- 
versally adopted by the most experienced ; and 
by this mode apples, under very favourable 
circumstances, are frequently preserved in a 
sound state, or not 1 in 50 defective, for a pe- 
riod of 7 or 8 months. The fruit is suflTered to 
hang on the tree to as late a period as possible 
in October, or till hard frosts have loosened 
the stalk, and they are in imminent danger of 
being blown down by high winds ; such as 
have already fallen are carefully gathered and 
inspected, and the best are put up for early 
w^inter use. They are carefully gathered from 
the tree by hand, and as carefully laid in bas- 
kets. New, tight, well-seasoned flour-barrels, 
from the bakers', are usually preferred: the 
baskets, being filled, are cautiously lowered 
into the barrels and reversed. The barrels, 
being quite filled, are gently shaken, and the 
head is gently pressed down to its place, and 



MALUS. 



MALUS. 



secured. It is observed that this pressure 
never causes them to rot next the head, and is 
necessary, as they are never allowed to rattle 
in removing. No soft straw or shavings are 
admitted at the ends ; it causes mustiness and 
decay. They are next carefully placed in 
wagons, and removed on the btdge, and laid in 
courses in a cool, airy situation, on the north 
side of buildings, near the cellar, protected by 
a covering on the top, of boards, so placed as 
to defend them from the sun and rain, while 
the air is not excluded at the sides. A chill 
does not injure them ; it is no disservice ; but 
when extreme cold weather comes on, and 
they are in imminent danger of being frozen, 
whether by night or day, they are carefully 
rolled into a cool, airy, dry cellar, with open- 
ings on the north side, that the cold air may 
have free access ; they are laid in tiers, and 
the cellar is in due time closed and rendered 
secure from frost. The barrels are never 
tumbled or placed on the head. Apples keep 
best ■when grown in dry seasons, and on dry 
soils. If fruit is gathered late, and according 
to the above directions, repacking is unneces- 
sary; it is even ruinous, and should on no ac- 
count be practised till the barrel is opened for 
use. It has been fully tried. 

When apples are to be exported, Mr. Cob- 
bett has recommended that ' they should, if 
possible, be carried on deck ; otherwise be- 
tween decks.' Between decks is the place, 
and in the most dry, cool, and airy part. — 
(^Kenrick.) 

Insects istjukious to Trees and Fruit. 

Among the insects that have been brought 
to America with other productions of Europe, 
may be mentioned the Jlpplc-worm, as it is com- 
monly called, which has become naturalized 
wherever the apple tree has been introduced. 
This mischievous creature has been sometimes 
mistaken for the plum-weevil, from which, 
however, it may be easily distinguished by its 
shape, habits, and transformations. Although 
the plum-weevil prefers stone-fruit, it is some- 
limes met with in apples. On the other hand. 
Dr. Harris says he has never known the apple- 
worm to be found in plums. It is, he observes, 
not a grub, but a caterpillar, belonging to the 
Tortrix tribe, and in due time is changed to a 
moth, commonly called the Codlingmoth, or fruit- 
moth of the apple. An anonymous writer, in 
the Entomological Magazine of London, has well 
remarked that this moth "is the most beautiful 
of the beautiful tribe to which it belongs ; yet, 
from its habits not being known, it is seldom 
seen in the moth state ; and the apple-grower 
knows no more than the man in the moon to 
what cause he is indebted for his basketfuls of 
worm-eaten windfalls in the stillest weather." 

Some interesting facts collected by Dr. Har- 
ris, serving to establish the difference between 
the plum-weevil and apple-worm {codling cater- 
pillar), will be found under the head of Plum- 
weevil. 

The apple-worm has been long known in 
Europe, and its history has been written by 
some of the ablest naturalists. Accounts of it 
have also been furnished in the New England 
Farmer and other good American periodicals. 



The apple-worm moths may be found in the 
early part of summer, about the time of the 
first ripening of the fruit. They are sometimes 
seen in houses in the evening, trying to get 
through the windows into the open air, having 
been brought in with fruit while they were in 
the caterpillar state. Their fore-wings, when 
seen at a distance, have somewhat the appear- 
ance of brown watered silk; when closely exa- 
mined, they will be found to be crossed by nu- 
merous gray and brown lines, scalloped like 
the plumage of a bird ; and near the hind angle 
there is a large, oval, dark-brown spot, the 
edges of which are of a bright copper colour. 
The head and thorax are brown, mingled with 
gray, and the hind-wings and abdomen are 
light yellowish-brown, with the lustre of satin. 
Its wings expand three-quarters of an inch. 
This insect is readily distinguished from other 
moths by the large, oval, brown spot, edged 
with copper colour, on the hinder margin of 
each of the fore-wings. During the latter part 
of June and the month of July, these fruit-moths 
fly about apple trees every evening, and lay 
their eggs on the young fruit. They do not 
puncture the apples, but they drop their eggs, 
one by one, in the eye or hollow at the blossom- 
end of the fruit, where the skin is most tender. 
They seem also to seek for early fruit rather 
than for the late kinds, which we find are not 
so apt to be wormy as the thin-skinned summer 
apples. The eggs begin to hatch in a few days 
after they are laid, and the little apple-worms 
or caterpillars produced from them immediately 
burrow into the apples, making their way gra- 
dually from the eye towards the core. Com- 
monly only one worm will be found in the 
same apple; and it is so small at first, that its 
presence can only be detected by the brownish 
powder it throws out in eating its way through 
the eye. The body of the young insect is of a 
whitish colour; its head is heart-shaped and 
black ; the top of the first ring or collar and of 
the last ring is also black ; and there are eight 
little blackish dots or warts, arranged in pairs, 
on each of the other rings. As it grows older, 
its body becomes flesh-coloured ; its head, the 
collar, and the top of the last ring, turn brown, 
and the dots are no longer to be seen. In the 
course of three weeks, or a little more, it comes 
to its full size, and meanwhile has burrowed to 
the core and through the apple in various di- 
rections. To get rid of the refuse fragments 
of its food, it gnaws a round hole through the 
side of the apple, and thrusts them out of the 
opening. Through this hole also the insect 
makes its escape after the apple falls to the 
ground; and the falling of the fruit is well 
known to be hastened by the injury it has re- 
ceived within, which generally causes it to 
ripen before its time. 

Soon after the half-grown apples drop, and 
sometimes while they are still hanging, the 
worms leave them and creep into chinks in the 
bark of the trees, or into other sheltered places, 
which they hollow out with their teeth to suit 
their shape. Here each one spins for itself a 
cocoon or silken case, as thin, delicate, and 
white as tissue-paper. Some of the apple 
worms, probably the earliest, are said by Kol 
lar to change to chrysalids immediaitly after 

765 



MANDRAKE. 



MANGEL WURZEL. 



their cocoons are made, and in a few days more 
turn to moths, come out, and lay their eggs for a 
second generation of the worms ; and hence 
much fruit will be found to be worm-eaten in 
the autumn. Most of the insects, however, 
remain in their cocoons through the winter, 
and are not changed to moths till the following 
summer. The chrysalis is of a bright maho- 
gany-brown colour, and has, as usual, across 
each of the rings of its hind-body, two rows of 
prickles, by the help of which it forces its way 
through the cocoon before the moth comes 
forth. 

As the apple-worms instinctively leave the 
fruit soon after it falls from the trees, it will be 
proper to gather up all wind-fallen apples daily, 
and make such immediate use of them as will 
be sure to kill the insects, before they have 
lime to escape. Mr. Burrelle says that if any 
old cloth is wound around or hung in the 
crotches of the trees, the apple-worms will con- 
ceal themselves therein ; and by this means 
thousands of them may be obtained and de- 
stroyed, from the time when they first begin to 
leave the apples until the fruit is gathered. By 
carefully scraping off the loose and rugged 
bark of the trees, in the spring, many chrysa- 
lids will be destroyed; and it has been said that 
the moths, when they are about laying their 
eggs, may be smothered or driven away by the 
smoke of weeds burned under the trees. The 
worms often found in summer pears appear to 
be the same as those that affect apples, and are 
to be kept in check by the same means. (Harris.) 
See CiiiKR and OnciiAnn. 

MANDRAKE (Mandragora; the name is 
derived from niandra, an ox-stall, something 
relating to cattle, and agauros, cruel; on ac- 
count of its poisonous effects on cattle, when 
accidentally gathered with their fodder in the 
countries where the plants abound). These 
plants, which are natives of the south of Eu- 
rope, thrive well in a light soil, in a shaded 
situation. They can only be increased by 
seeds. The roots are very apt to rot during 
winter. The root has an uncouth form, which 
is supposed to resemble the human shape ; on 
which account it was imagined to be capable 
of preventing barrenness. It is, however, an 
acro-narcotic poison, and when taken proves 
fatal by the extreme purging which it causes. 
The common people still believe in its proper- 
ties ; but the root of a species of Bryony 
(Tamus commmiis) is usually sold for it in the 
herb shops. 

MANGE. A cutaneous disease, which at- 
tacks several domestic animals, especially the 
dog, and which is attended with an eruption 
and loss of hair. 

In the horse it is known to exist by the 
animal's constantly rubbing or biting himself, 
so as to remove the hair, and sometimes pro- 
duce ulceration ; the hair of the mane and tail 
frequently falls off, and small scabs may gene- 
rally be observed about the roots of those 
which remain. This disease is seldom met 
with, except in common stables where scarcely 
any attention is paid to the horses, and where 
tlieir food is of the worst quality ; horses highly 
kept, if not properly attended to, are also sub- 
ject to this disease, which is very contagious. 
766 



The causes of mange are, sudden changes 
of temperature, hot stables, bad diet, joined to 
want of cleanliness. The perspirable matter 
being never properly removed by friction, and 
being frequently mixed with dust, &c., com- 
pletely plugs up the external exhalents, where- 
by they become obstructed, and a diseased 
action takes place. It may also be caused by 
infectious matter coming in contact with the 
skin ; as when a sound horse rubs himself 
against the stall in which a mangy horse has 
been kept. The principal symptoms are, the 
horse growing very thin, without any apparent 
cause, attended with a staring of his coat. 
This is soon followed by eruptions, which dis- 
charge a thick yellowish matter, forming a 
kind of scurf, which peels off, and is succeeded 
by fresh eruptions, and the hair falls off. This, 
though partial at first, soon spreads all over 
the bod}^ is attended with an itching, and 
causes the horse to rub against every thing 
he comes near. In this disease great attention 
to cleanliness is necessary. 

In the horse the following will be found the 
best remedy. Bleed to the extent of two or 
three quarts, according to the constitution of 
the animal, and after first preparing the horse 
by bran mashes, give the following dose of 
physic : — 



Barbadoes aloes - 
Powdered ginger 
Castile soap 
Oil of carraways - 



6 drachms 
2 — 
2 — 
20 drops. 



Honey or treacle sufficient to form a balL 
After which give the following alterative balls : 
2 ozs. each of powdered black antimony, pow- 
dered nitre, flour of sulphur, Castile soap, and 
aniseed powder, 1 oz. of rosin, added to a suf- 
ficient quantity of honey to make eight balls, 
one to be given every night. 

The following ointment may be applied ex- 
ternally: — 

Black sulphur ----- 8 ozs. 

Strong mercurial ointment - - 2 — 

Soft soap - - - - - 4 — 

Train oil - - - - . - 1 pint. 

These ingredients to be well mixed, and one 
third part carefully rubbed in daily. If the 
above ointment should be found ineffectual, 4 
ozs. of spirit of tar may be added. 

Dogs and swine are frequently subject to 
mange. For the common scabby variety in 
the dog, the following ointment is recom- 
mended : — 

Powdered sulphur - . - . 4 oz8. 

Muriate of ammonia, powdered - i -^ 

Venice turpentine - - - - ^ 

Lard, or other fatty matter - - 6 — 
Well mixed. 

MANGEL WURZEL. Field Beet, or Root 
of Scarcity. (Germ. Mangold Wurzel.) The 
root of the Beta hybrida, or B. albissimn, Linn. 
This is a kind of red beet, which, according to 
Von Thaer, is a mongrel between the red and 
: white beet. It has been long cultivated in 
j France, Germany, and Switzerland, partly as 
food for cattle, and partly to be used in distil- 
lation, and in the extraction of sugar. Its cul- 
ture in Great Britain is more recent ; but its 
value is now becoming very generally appre- 
ciated, and the cultivation likely to become 
more extensive. So far back as the year 1811 






MANGEL WURZEL. 



MANGEL WURZEL. 



General Beatson, then Governor of St. Helena, 
writing to the English Board of Agriculture, 
and describing the extraordinary produce of 
some plants, the leaves of which had been 
repeatedly cut to serve as a substitute for 
spinach, says : — It certainly possesses advan- 
tages over every other plant hitherto introduced 
in field culture. Its produce is immense ; and 
I have found it to grow, with considerable luxu- 
riance, upon land where no other vegetation 
was ever seen. It has also the singular pro- 
perty of being unmolested by the dolphin-fly, 
which is here extremely destructive to cab- 
bages, turnips, and radishes. I have very 
often observed, where alternate plants of cab- 
bage and mangel wurzel were growing in the 
same rows, and touching each other, that 
whilst the former were absolutely annihilated 
by the destructive insect, not one was to be 
seen on the mangel wurzel leaves." 

Lord Spencer reports the result of a trial on 
the comparative feeding properties of mangel 
wurzel and Swedish turnips. "Believing," 
says his lordship, " that mangold wurzel con- 
tained more saccharine matter than Swedish 
turnips, and ought, consequently, to be the 
more nourishing root of the two, I determined 
to try, practically, whether an ox fed upon 
mangold wurzel increased in weight more than 
one fed upon Swedish turnips, in proportion 
to the quantity of each consumed. In order to 
have rendered my experiment perfectly accu- 
rate, I ought to have ascertained the weight of 
hay consumed by each beast during the pro- 
gress of the trial ; but I did not do this, although 
I am pretty confident that the quantity con- 
sumed by each was nearly the same. I se- 
lected two steers, tolerably, and at least equally, 
well bred. No. 1, calved March 29th, 1823, and 
No. 2, calved May 6th of the same year; and 
on the 24th of December, 1825, 1 put No. 1 to 
Swedish turnips, and No. 2 to mangold wurzel. 
I ascertained their weight by measurement, and 
both of them measured the same, viz. 4 ft. 10 
in. in length by 6 ft. 5 in. in girth, making them 
to weigh 668 lbs. each. On the 23d of Janua- 
ry, No. 1 had consumed 1624 lbs. of Swedish 
turnips, and measured 4 ft. 10 in. in length by 
6 ft. 7 in. in girth, making him to weigh 703 lbs., 
and to have increased in weight 35 lbs., or at 
the rate of 48J lbs. for every ton of Swedish 
turnips consumed. No. 2 had consumed 1848 
lbs. of mangold wurzel, and measured 4 ft. 10 
in. in length by 6 ft. 8 in. in girth, making him 
to weigh 721 lbs., and to have increased in 
weight 53 lbs., or at the rate of 65^ lbs. for 
every ton of mangold wurzel consumed. 

" This difl^erence, however, might have arisen 
from No. 2 having a greater propensity to feed 
than No. 1. I therefore now put No. 1 to man- 
gold wurzel, and No. 2 to Swedish turnips. 
On the 20th of February, No. 1 had consumed 
1884 lbs. of mangold wurzel, and measured 4 
ft. 1 1 in. in length by 6 ft. 8 in. in girth, making 
him to weigh 734 lbs., and to have increased 
in weight this month 31 lbs., or at the rate of 
36 J lbs. for every ton of mangold wurzel con- 
sumed. No. 2 had consumed 1880 lbs. of Swe- 
dish turnips, and measured 4 ft. 11 in. in length 
, by 6 ft. 8 in. in girth, making him to weigh also 



734 lbs., and to have increased in weight during 
this month 13 lbs., or at the rate of 15^ lbs. for 
every ton of Swedish turnips consumed. I then 
put both to mangold wurzel, and divided the 
food equally between them. On the 19th of 
March, they had each consumed 1792 lbs. of 
mangold wurzel ; No. 1 measured 5 ft. in 
length by 6 ft. 10 in. in girth, making him to 
weigh 784 lbs., and to have increased in weight 
50 lbs.; No. 2 measured 5 ft. in length by 6 ft. 
9 in. in girth, making him to weigh 765 lbs., 
and to have increased in weight 36 lbs. 

" It Avould appear, therefore, as if the pro- 
pensity to feed of No. 1 was greater than that 
of No. 2 in the proportion of 50 to 31 ; but, 
notwithstanding this, in the first month, when 
No. 1 was upon Swedish turnips, and No. 2 
upon mangold wurzel. No. 2 beat No. 1 in the 
proportion above stated of 65^ to 48^. It ap- 
pears ari if there could be no great inaccuracy 
in estimating the relative weight of the ani- 
mals, as, soon after the experiment was con- 
cluded, 1 sold No. I to a butcher in the country 
for 24/. 3s., and No. 2, at Smithfield, for 24/. 

" It will be for practical men to decide upon 
the value of this trial ; what appears to me to 
be the most conclusive part of it is, that No. 2, 
who had during the first month, when he was 
feeding upon mangold wurzel, increased in 
girth 3 inches, in the next month, when his 
food was changed to Swedish turnips, did not 
increase in girth at all ; and when, in the third 
month, he was feeding again upon mangold 
wurzel, he again began to increase in girth ; 
because it is very well known, that, if an ani- 
mal is changed from more to less nutritious 
food, the probable consequence will be that his 
growth will be stopped. The result appeared 
to me so decisive that I have not tried the ex- 
periment with the same accuracy since ; but I 
did try, the following year, the feeding a cow 
alternately on Swedish turnips and mangold 
wurzel, and though 1 have not by me the de- 
tails of the trial, I remember that the result 
confirmed the experiment of the previous 
year." 

Mr. Miles of Kings weston, in the same vo- 
lume of the Journal, p. 298, commenting on the 
communication of Lord Spencer, describes so 
fully and explicitly the best mode of culture, 
&c. of this root, that I cannot do better than 
adopt his paper entire. 

"Notwithstanding the favourable results of 
Lord Spencer's experiment with mangold wur- 
zel, the consideration will naturally suggest 
itself to the mind of the farmer, previously to 
his adopting the cultivation of this root, whe- 
ther, although the mangold wurzel may bring 
on his cattle faster and better than the Swedish 
turnip, it is not more difficult of culture, more 
tender in its habits, and less productive in bulk 
per acre than the Swedish turnip ; and I think, 
therefore, it may not be unprofitable to lay be- 
fore the readers of the journal, first, the che- 
mical analysis of the highest or lowest order 
of turnip and of mangold wurzel as given bv 
Sir H. Davy, and of the sugar beet and orange- 
globe mangold wurzel as lately obtained on the 
same plan by the celebrated Bristol chemist 
Mr. Herepath ; and then to point out the system 

767 



MANGEL WURZEL. 



MANGEL WURZEL. 



adopted by myself in the west of England in 
the cultivation of mangold wurzel, which has 
been aCiinded with complete success. 



Rood. 


Quantity of Nutritive Matter in 1000 pari!. 


Specie!. 


Muci- 
bge or 
Starch. 


Saccha- 
rine 
matter 

Sugar. 


Gluten 
or Al- 
bumen. 


Extract. 


Total 
soluble 
or nutri* 

live 
mailer. 


Swedish turnip 
White turnip - 
Mangold wurzel 
Orange-globe - 
Sugar-beet 


9 

7 
13 
25* 

in 


51 

34 
119 
1061 
126* 


2 
1 
4 
1-20 

n 


2 

less than 1 
1 


64 

42 
136 
135i 
146* ! 



"By this table, it is apparent that equal 
quantities of Swedish turnip, orange-globe, and 
mangold wurzel contain very different propor- 
tions of nutritive matter, the latter more than 
doubling the former in quantity; and should 
the mangold wurzel be of equally easy culture 
with the Swedish turnip, it seems almost unac- 
countable that it should not yet have come into 
more general cultivation. I have grown the 
common red sort for six, the sugar beet for four, 
and the orange-globe for three years ; these 
kinds have regularly come into course with 
Swedes upon light land ; the product has al- 
ways been equal, in most cases far heavier. 
The Swedish turnip has enemies innumerable ; 
I have never observed the mangold wurzel 
attacked either by fly, slug, or wireworm. 
Equally a cleansing crop with the Swede, it 
stores better, and lasts good for a longer period. 
In the summer of this year I was using sugar 
beet with stall-fed cattle, which cut perfectly 
good and crisp in August. The mode of cul- 
ture I adopt, up to depositing the seed in the 
ground, is the same as that adopted in North- 
umberland for ridging the Swede; great care, 
however, must be taken that the seed of the 
mangold wurzel is not buried too deep, or it 
will not vegetate. Dibbling, as you never can 
insure an equal depth, does not answer; nor does 
the seed drill well, if properly prepared by steep- 
ing, which I should recommend, for at least 24 
nours before planting. To insure, therefore, 
a proper depth, I have been in the habit of 
using an iron wheel, round the outer circum- 
ference of which, 18 inches apart, iron points 
project, broad at the base and tapering towards 
the point, about 2^ inches long ; this is wheeled 
upon the top of the ridge, the man walking in 
the furrow, and thus holes are formed which 
can never run into the excess of great depth, and 
into which the seeds are deposited by women 
and boys following the wheel, and generally 
covering the seed by drawing the foot as they 
advance at right angles with the ridge over the 
holes; the roller follows, and thus the sowing 
terminates. One man with the wheel will 
keep six persons well employed in depositing 
the seed after him. This system was recom- 
mended me by my friend Mr. Webb Hall, and 
since 1 have adopted it my crop has never 
failed. 

"The after-culture and the storing is similar 
to thai of the Swede; great care, however, 
should be taken in never permitting two plants 
tc grow in the same spot, which will be the 
case frequently, should only one capsule even 
be deposited m each hole, as every capsule 
768 



contains many seeds. Should the tops remain 
uncut, the plant will stand a considerable de- 
gree of frost; it should, however, be stored 
early in November ; the best and clieapest 
method is to build it up against some high wall 
contiguous to your beast sheds, not more than 
7 or 8 feet deep, carried up square to a certain 
height, and then tapering in a roof to the top 
of the wall ; protect the sides with thatched 
hurdles, leaving an interval between the roots 
and the hurdles, which fill up with dry stub- 
ble ; cover the roof with about a foot of the 
same, and then thatch it, so as to conduct all 
moisture well over the hurdles placed as a 
protection to the sides. In pulling the plants 
care should be taken that as little injury be 
inflicted upon them as possible; cleansing 
with a knife should on no account be permit- 
ted, and it is safer to leave some of the leaf on 
than by cutting it too close to impair the crown 
of the root. The drier the season is for stor- 
ing the better, although I have never found the 
roots decayed in the heap by the earth, which 
in wet weather has been brought from the field, 
adhering to them. As to the productiveness 
of the diflerent sorts, in one year I have grown 
a larger quantity of sugar beet per acre, in an- 
other of mangold wurzel; both these, however, 
I consider exhaust the land in a greater degree 
than the Swede ; but I have formed a very high 
opinion of the orange-globe, though not so large 
a producer generally as the two other sorts ; it 
appears always to throw at least two-thirds of 
its weight above ground, neither is its tap-root 
larger nor its fibrous roots greater than those 
of the Swede turnip. Care Should be taken in 
giving cattle every species of this root, as if 
taken in excess it is apt to scour; indeed, from 
the avidity with which cattle eat the sugar beet, 
and from its viscous properties when quite fresh 
from the ground, it should be stored so as to 
come into consumption the last of the roots. 

"In feeding store cattle I should commence 
with Swede turnip, proceed with the orange- 
globe, then with mangold wurzel, and finish off 
with the sugar beet; thus not only frequently 
varying the food, but using them in the order 
corresponding exactly with the nutritive matter 
contained in each description of plant. I have 
found, indeed, equally with Lord Spencer, that 
it will not do to return from any sort of man- 
gold wurzel to Swede turnips, as even beasts 
in the straw-yard have for two or three days 
refused such a change. I may add that the 
earlier in April your mangold wurzel is sown 
the better, the deeper the tilth the greater pro- 
bability of a heavy crop, but that although both 
the mangold wurzel and sugar beet require a 
deeper and stronger land than the Swede 
turnip, yet that the orange-globe will flourish 
wherever the latter will succeed." 

Mangel wurzel ma}' be grown on stiffer soils 
than those adapted for the turnip, and it is bet- 
ter food for milch cows, as it does not, like tur- 
nips, give to the milk a taint. It cannot bear 
the cold, however, so well as the Swedish 
turnip, and hence is more cultivated in the 
southern portions of England than in Scotland- 
Mr. W. Lester (Quar. Journ. of ^gr. vol. iii. 
p, 365) describes a method of making ale from 
this root. 



MANGER. 



MANURES. 



MANGER. A trough or crib in the stable, 
in which corn or cut provender for the horse is 
placed. The usual method is to have them the 
whole breadth of the stall ; but this is unneces- 
sary, as, if 18 or 20 inches in length, and 14 or 
16 in breadth, they will be sufficient for every 
useful purpose. In the fixing of them, they 
should be so contrived as to admit of being 
"emoved for the purpose of being cleaned. 
This could, however, never be done in the old 
method of fixing them, but by a little contri- 
vance may be easily effected. It is, in many 
cases, a convenient plan to have them in the 
corners or angles at the heads of the stalls. 
See Stable and Stall. 

MANHADEN (Clupea manhaden). A species 
of herring frequenting the waters of the New 
England States and Long Island, where it goes 
under the various names of Bony Fish, Moss or 
Marsbunktr, Hardhead, and Panhaugeii, The usual 
length of the manhaden is from 10 to 14 inches. 
From July n the last of August, the shores of 
the sea swarm with shoals of this fish, which, 
being very oily, is but little resorted to for food, 
though the better adapted for manure, to which 
purpose it is most extensively applied, and with 
such beneficial effects that lands formerly worn 
out so as hardly to compensate for their tillage, 
now yield abundant crops of wheat, grass, &c. 
It is taken in large numbers upon the coast of 
Massachusetts, where it is used for mackarel- 
bait, manure, and is also becoming an article 
of commerce. For the former purpose it is 
worth from §2 to $4 per barrel, in proportion 
to the demand. At Lynn, in 1836, 1500 barrels 
were used for bait for other fishes, and as many 
more were thrown upon the land. At Province- 
town they are used only for mackarel-bait. At 
Sandwich, where the}' are very abundant, the 
inhabitants strew them upon their lands by the 
cart-load; and thus, for miles, immense quan- 
tities enrich the soil. It is computed that a 
single manhaden of ordinary size is equal in 
richness to a shovelful of barn-yard manure. 
It is getting likewise to be thought worthy of 
preservation as an article of food. In 1832, 
300 bbls. were inspected; in 1833,480; 1834, 
1008; 183.5, 1443; 1836, 1488. 

Mr. John Wells, of Long Island, in a commu- 
nication to the editor of the Cultivator, gives the 
following information in relation to the mode 
of applying this fish as a manure, and the good 
effects derived from the practice. 

"I have," he says, "used fish manure 40 
years successively, and my land is much bet- 
ter than when I first commenced fishing. I 
make use of from 50,000 to 150,000 of fish, 
known here by the name of mossbankers, per 
annum ; and could I get a million, I should 
have none to spare. There is no manure that 
I use equal to fish for a crop of wheat, and all 
kinds of roots ; but they do not have that effect 
after repeating that they have at first. But this 
is the case with all kinds of manure. Thence 
the necessity of mixing manures. 10,000 moss- 
bankers per acre are sufficient for a crop of 
wheat, without any other manure. My practice 
is, to put on 12 or 15 large wagon-loads of lit- 
ter, and 5,000 fish per acre ; and then I calcu- 
late for a good crop of wheat, and after the 
wheat a good burden of grass for 3 or 4 years. 
97 



The same quantity of manure makes a good 
crop of Indian corn. The manure fishery is 
the making of the east end of our island. I 
think I may say that the production of our land 
is 3 times as much as it was before we com- 
menced fishing. But it must not all be attri- 
buted to fish. We exert every means to make 
and collect manure, for without it we cannot 
raise our bread. For a farmer to break up a 
piece of land, and lay it down poorer than it 
was at first, is like borrowing money to pay 
his interest. It is astonishing to me that there 
are some few farmers yet, who will let their 
manure lie and ferment in the yard, when they 
must know that they lose half its virtue ; for 
there is no time that it brings forth vegetation 
so well as when in a state of fermentation under 
the soil. I might say that our soil is a sandy 
loam." 

The best history of the manhaden, which is 
a favourite food of the whale, is by Latrobe, 
published in Transactions of the ^m. Phil. Society, 
vol. V. 

MANNA (Fr. waHjje ; It. manna). The con- 
crete juice of the Fraxinus ornus, a species of 
ash growing in the south of Europe. The juice 
exudes spontaneously in warm, dry weather,, 
and concretes into whitish tears; but the 
greater part of the manna of commerce is ob- 
tained by making incisions in the tree, and 
gathering the juice in baskets, where it forms 
irregular masses of a reddish or brownish co- 
lour, often full of impurities. Manna consists 
of two parts; one a saccharine, crystallizable 
principle, named mannil, closely resembling 
sugar; the other an acrid, uncrystallizable 
principle, which is the purgative agent in the 
manna. This substance is now seldom used, 
except as a purgative for infants. 

MANIOC. The Indian name of the starchy, 
nutritious matter obtained from the shrub 
Jutropa manihot, from which cassava and ta- 
pioca are made in the West Indies. See 
Tapioca. 

MANURES. The word manure, according 
to Todd, is derived from the French manouvrer. 
Lemon gives the derivation as follows : " Ma- 
nure, ' omnia a manu operando.' " Skinner, — 
"All improvements in agriculture brought in 
by the hand." Webster, £«g.Z>ic/., says, "Ma- 
nure, Fr. »iancE?xy;Y?-, but in a different sense; 
Norm, mainoverer, to manure; main, Lat. ma- 
nus, hand, and ouvrer, to work, Lat. opcror." A 
manure may be defined to be any fertilizing 
compound or simple ingredient added to a soil, 
of which it is naturally deficient ; and as all 
cu. ivfc.'ed lands should contain the earths, sili- 
ca, car onate of lime, alumina, decomposing 
organic matter, and certain saline substances,, 
it is evident that in cases where any one of 
these is contained in the land in insufficient 
quantities for the supply of cultivated vegeta- 
bles, that then the addition of that substance, 
either in its simple or in a compound form, 
constitutes the great art of manuring. 

Fertilizers therefore naturally divide them- 
selves into 3 classes : 1. The earthy, which are 
by far the most permanent portions of a soil, 
and are usually applied in the largest propor- 
tions ; 2. The organic (vegetable and animal), 
which are the least permanent, and are used in 
3 T 769 



MANURES. 

much smaller quantities than the earthy; and, 
3. The saline, which are the most sparingly 
applied of all fertilizers, are the most readily 
absorbed by plants, and whose period of dura- 
tion in the soil is longer than the organic, but 
less than the earthy. A manure is either use- 
ful to vegetation, by affording, in its simple or 
decomposed state, direct food or constituents, 
or else it is a fertilizer, by adding to the soil 
additional power to absorb and retain atmo- 
spheric gases and moisture. We shall see, 
hereafter, that most manures which are com- 
monly applied to the land assist the growth of 
plants in both ways. Looking at the question 
abstractedly, it must be evident, that as animals 
receive almost the Avhole of their nutriment 
either directly or indirectly from the vegetable 
kingdom, their excrement, or their decomposed 
bodies, returning these to the soil, must form 
the best manure. 

With regard to inorganic substances, clay 
of the earthy manures, and some of the saline 
fertilizers, act principally by their absorption 
and retention of moisture. Gypsum, it is true, 
enters into the composition of some of the 
grasses, and, in minute proportions, other salts 
do the same; but, if Ave except phosphate of 
lime (the earthy salt of bones), none of the 
salts can be considered to be a very general 
direct food of plants. Davy very clearly ex- 
plains the desirable objects in the fertilization 
of soils : he says, " The plants growing in a 
soil incapable of supplying them with sufficient 
manure or dead organized matter, are generally 
very low, having brown or dark-green leaves, 
•and their woody fibre abounds in earth. Those 
vegftating in peaty soils, or in lands too co- 
■piouslv supplied with animal or vegetable mat- 
ter, rapidly expand, produce large bright-green 
leaves, abound in sap, and generally blossom 
prematurely. Excess of poverty or riches is 
almcisi equally fatal to the hopes of the farmer; 
and the true constitution of the soil, for the 
best crop, is that in which the earthy materials, 
the moisture, and manure are properly asso- 
ciated, and in which the decomposable vegeta- 
ble or animal matter does not exceed one-fourth 
of the weight of the earthy constituents." {Elc- 
■tncnis ofjg. Chcm. p. 264.) 

Of the organic manures, those which the 
most readily putrefy are the most rapid in their 
eflects ; but then they are the most speedily 
exhausted: thus oil and fish, the most rapid of 
fertilizers, are exhausted by the few first crops; 
whilp bones, which decay more slowly, will 
last some time longer. The efiect of chopped 
woollen rags is excellent for two years in tho 
rich clay hop-gardens of Kent, and for three or 
four in the light, chalky, arable soils of the 
valley of the Kennett Farm-yard dung, when 
applied in different .states of freshness, illus- 
trates the same poMtion. M. Hassenfratz ma- 
nured two piece? of the same kind of soil, the 
one with a mixture of dung and straw highly 
putrefied, the other with the same mixture newly 
made, and the straw almost fresh ; he observed, 
that during the first year the plants which grew 
f-n the land manured with the putrefied dung 
produced a much better crop than the other; 
Out the second year, the ground which had 
be-n manured with the unputrefied dung pro- 
770 



MANURES. 

duced the best crop : the same result appeared 
the third year ; after which both seemed to be 
equally exhausted. "Another experiment ci 
the same chemist," adds Dr. Thomson, " ren- 
ders this truth still more evident. He allowed 
wood-shavings to remain in a moist place for 
about 10 months, till they began to putrefy, and 
then spread them over a piece of ground as a 
manure. The first 2 years this piece of ground 
produced nothing more than others which had 
not been manured at all ; the third year it was 
better; the fourth year it was still better; the 
fifth year it reached its maximum of fertility; 
after which it declined constantly till the ninth, 
when it was quite exhausted." 

It is of the highest importance to the culti- 
vator that he obtains a correct knowledge of 
the mode in which those manures operate which 
are found to be advantageous to the growth of 
his crops. He must discard from his mind all 
those false conclusions which are sometimes 
drawn with regard to an imaginary power as- 
signed to plants of generating vegetable sub- 
stances, for they can effect no such miraculous 
results. It is true that they can combine the 
gases or elements of vegetable matters together, 
and form gluten, starch, gum, sugar, woody 
fibre, &c. ; they can absorb and arrange with 
these the earths and saline bodies; but the 
oxygen, the carbon, the nitrogen, and the hy- 
drogen, of which the first-named are composed, 
and which plants usually obtain from either 
the atmosphere or by the decomposition of or- 
ganic matter, they can no more create than 
they can form the lime or the silica, which are 
as commonly present in most vegetables as 
sugar, gum, or woody fibre. Davy proved this 
when he made a plant of the oat grow in pure 
carbonate of lime, and watered it with pure 
distilled water. It grew but languidly, and al- 
though it had a free supply of the atmospheric 
air, yet the access of all dust was carefully pre- 
vented. Upon analyzing the plant, it was found 
to have much increased in carbonate of lime, 
but its silica or flint was rather diminished, a 
grain of oat being found to yield more : this 
Davy attributed to the loss of its husk during 
vegetation. (Zec/wrfs, p. 312.) Whatever earthy 
or saline matters, therefore, are found in vege- 
tables, must have been either derived from the 
natural soil or furnished by the manures added 
to it — whether it be carbonate of lime (chalk), 
or silica (earthy matter of flint), alumina (clay), 
sulphate of lime (gypsum), or phosphate of 
lime (earthy salt of bone). It should also be a 
received axiom with the farmer, that there is 
no part of any decomposing animal or vegeta- 
ble manure but what is, either in its gaseous or 
solid state, the natural food of plants : thus the 
gases emitted by the putrefaction of a dunghill 
are so much lost to the vegetable matters of the 
soil, and such an injury is never submitted to 
by the intelligent cultivator, but from an una- 
voidable necessity. Hence the value of green 
manures ; for in these cases every portion of 
the decaying and fermenting fertilizer is gra- 
dually absorbed by the roots and leaves of the 
succeeding crop. 

When the cultivator is in doubt with regard 
to the possible advantages of any manure, 
whether earthy, saline, vegetable, or animal, 



MANURES. 



MANURES. 



he need only ask himself this question : Does 
this manure contain any constituents found in 
my crojis, and is the land I cultivate deficient 
in any of them ? An inattention to this consi- 
deration has been the cause of much disap- 
pointment and many mistaken conclusions: 
for instance, on many soils the application of 
gypsum to artificial grasses, and even to tur- 
nips, is very useful; on others it produces no 
effect. Strange opinions were in consequence 
long entertained with regard to this manure, 
until it was found that the soils on which it 
was valueless naturally contained it in abun- 
dance, and that those soils in which it did so 
much good were nearly or entirelj^ deficient in 
this essential ingredient of clover, lucern, &c. ; 
for it was now evident, that to add gypsum to 
a soil which already contained it in sufficient 
quantities, was as needless as to add sand to a 
sandy, or clay to a clayey soil. 

There is little doubt but that plants derive 
all their constituents from the soil or the air, 
in either the gaseous or liquid state; that in 
the light they absorb carbonic acid gas and 
emit oxygen is well known; by this means, 
therefore, they readily obtain the necessary 
supply of carbon. The hydrogen of vegetable 
substances is most probably furnished by the 
decomposition of either water or the carburet- 
ted hydrogen emitted during the putrefaction 
of animal and vegetable substances. This 
latter seems peculiarly grateful to plants in 
those situations where it is copiously emitted, 
as near to stagnant pools, over drains, &c., 
where vegetation is always rank; and when 
present in the atmosphere, as in coal-mines, 
the green colour of plants growing in it is pre- 
served even when they are deprived of light. 
The earthy or saline matters of vegetables, 
such as silica, carbonate, phosphate, and sul- 
phate of lime, &c., are all in minute propor- 
tions soluble in water; they are found more or 
less in all cultivated soils, and when they are 
deficient, their addition, as I have before ob- 
served, constitutes the great art of manuring : 
but there are such endless varieties of soils, 
that there is hardly a manure that will suit 
every description — each soil must be separately 
examined — practice is the only substitute for 
chemical investigations. 

Thus, wood-ashes of the beech or bone- 
powder form excellent manures for soils defi- 
cient in the phosphates; lime, where chalk is 
altogether absent, and so on ; and whilst we 
attend to the nature of the soil, we must also 
ever recollect, as one of the most important 
principles of agriculture, that whatever is com- 
pletely removed from a soil by crops, must be in 
some way or other restored by artificial means. 

That various earthy, animal, and vegetable 
substances, when applied to the roots of plants, 
accelerate their growth, has been known from 
a very early period; but in what manner these 
fertilizers serve as the food of vegetables has 
not been certainly determined. That they 
must all be in a fluid state, is supposed to be 
absolutely necessary: thus all the attempts of 
Sir Humphry Davy to make plants absorb the 
fine impalpable powder of charcoal obtained 
by washing gunpowder entirely failed. 



The soluble matters consumed by plants are 
probably, in general, absorbed by their roots 
unaltered, although, in other cases, decomposed 
during their absorption. In the experiments 
! of Davy, he caused the roots of some plants 
of mint to be analyzed, which had grown both 
in pure water and in sugar and water. 120 
grains of the roots of the mint which had 
grown in common water 3'ielded 3^ grains of 
deep olive extract, of a sweetish and astringent 
taste; 120 grains of the roots which had grown 
in sugar and water afforded 6 grains of pale 
greenish, sweetish extract, not so astringent as 
the other. (Lectures, p. 270.) These experi- 
ments, therefore, are evidently in favour of the 
opinion that plants absorb many of the con- 
stituents of manures in an unaltered state, and 
the experiments of the late Mr. G. Sinclair 
with saline substances are still more decisive. 
See Salts. 

The roots are the chief organs for absorbing 
the food of plants; and of the roots it is nearly 
established that the extremities, or spongioles, 
are the only parts which have the power of 
absorption; and hence one reason why they 
increase in length as the soil at their extremi- 
ties is exhausted of nourishment. It is from 
this cause that liquid manure is so valuable a 
fertilizer; for in the dissolution of the excre- 
ments of animals in water, as practised so ad- 
vantageously in foreign countries, and long 
ably recommended by Mr. Knight, the late 
president of the Horticultural Society, for the 
adoption of the English farmers, the dung is 
merely rendered more easily soluble by the 
plant, and better diffused in the land. No new 
compound is formed by the mixture ; the action 
of the dung, mixed with four or five times its 
weight of water, is apparently much less ener- 
getic ; and yet this plan is decidedly advan- 
tageous, successfully produces the most luxu- 
riant crops, is an old practice on the Continent, 
is gaining ground in England, and the more it 
is known the oftener it will be adopted. Yet 
hitherto in England much too little general 
attention has been paid to liquid manures; by 
many farmers the drainage of the farm-yard 
and the house is generally disregarded, and 
allowed to escape in the best way it can, into 
the nearest ditch or river, being supposed to 
contain nothing that is the food of plants ; and 
this, too, by the very same persons who are 
particularly careful in the preservation, as 
food for their hogs, of every portion of a mise- 
rable dish of cabbage-water. See Liauin Ma- 
nure. 

There are certain properties in which all 
fertilizers, to a certain extent, agree : — thus 
they all contain one or more vegetable con- 
stituents, and they have all a strong attraction 
for atmospheric moisture (the insensible va- 
pour always contained in the atmosphere). 
This property is of very considerable advan- 
tage to vegetation. The comparative powers, 
in this respect, of various manures may be 
judged of from the results of my experiments, 
which will be found in the following table. In 
these the animal matters were employed witlt- 
out any admixture of straw. (Essay on SaU, p 
8—19.) 

77! 



MANURES. 

Farts. 

'000 parts of horse-dung, dried in a temperature 
of 100°, absorbed by exposure for three hours 
to air saturated with moisture of the tempera- 
lure 62° 145 

1000 parts of cow-dung, under the same circum- 
stances, absorbed ------ 130 

1000 parts of pig-dung " * ' " ' o? 

1000 pans of sheep-dung ----- SI 

1000 parts of pigeons' dung - - - - 60 

1000 parts of a rich alluvial soil, worth 2 guineas 
per acre -------- " 

The following were dried at 212°. 

1000 parts of fresh tanners' bark - - - 115 

1000 parts of putrefied tanners' bark - - - 145 

1000 parts of refuse marine salt, sold as manure 49^ 

1000 parts of soot ...--. 36 

1000 parts of burnt clay ----- 29 

1000 pans of coa) ashes ----- 14 

1000 parts of lime U 

1000 parts of sediment from salt parti - - 10 

1000 parts of crushed rock-salt - - - - 10 

1000 parts of gypsum ------ 9 

1000 parts of chalk - 4 

There is reason to conclude that some ma- 
nures act as stimulants to plants, and excite 
them to a more vigorous growth: it is proba- 
ble that the saline matters of farm-yard com- 
post operate in this way, and that saltpetre and 
other saline fertilizers do the same. I have 
often had occasion to notice the increased 
luxuriance and productiveness of fruit trees, 
such as cherries and pears, by the application 
of common salt. (Essay on Salt, p. 4.) Priestley 
made similar observations. " It seems pretty 
plain," to give the words of Dr. Thomson, 
" that the vessels of plants are made to contract 
hv various stimuli: the experiments of Coulomb 
and Saussure render this probable; and an 
observation of Dr. Smith Barton makes it next 
to certain. He found that plants growing in 
water vegetated with much greater vigour, 
provided a little camphor was thrown into the 
water. (Chemistry, vol. iv. p. 338.) 

Of the organic manures, the richest abound 
in azote, or nitrogen ; and, in fact, there are, 
as Dr. Liebig observes (Organic Cheni. p. 70), 
"numerous facts showing that the formation 
in plants of substances containing nitrogen, 
such as gluten, takes place in proportion to the 
quantity of (his element, which is conveyed to 
their roots in the state of ammonia, derived 
from the putrefaction of animal matter. Am- 
monia, which is composed of 14-15 of nitrogen 
and 1 of hydrogen, is capable of undergoing 
such a multitude of transformations, when in 
contact with other bodies, that in this respect 
it is not inferior to water, which possesses the 
same property in an eminent degree." "The 
employment of animal manure," he adds (p. 
86), "in the cultivation of grain, and the vege- 
tables which serve for fodder to cattle, is the 
most convincing proof that the nitrogen of 
vegetables is derived from ammonia. The 
quantity of gluten in wheat, rye, and barley is 
very different : these kinds of grain also, even 
when ripe, contain this compound of nitrogen 
in very different proportions. Proust found 
French wheat to contain 12-5 per cent, of 
gluten : Vogel found that the Bavarian con- 
tained 34 per cent.: Davy obtained 19 per 
f-ent. from winter, and 24 per cent, from sum- 
mer wheat, from Sicilian wheat 21, and from 
Barbary wheat 19 per cent. The meal of 
Alsace wheat, according to Boussingault, con- 
tains !''•« per cent, of gluten; that of wheat 
772 



MANURES. 

growing in the Jardin des Plantes 26*7; and 
that of winter wheat 3-38 per cent. Such great 
differences must be owing to some cause, and 
this we find in the different methods of cultiva- 
tion. An increase of animal manure gives 
rise not only to an increase in the number of 
seeds, but also to a most remarkable difference 
in the proportion of the gluten which they con- 
tain." And he adds (p. 175), when speaking 
of the action of manures, "according to the 
common view, the action of solid animal ex- 
crements depends on the decaying organic 
matters, which replace the homus, and in the 
presence of certain compounds of nitrogen, 
which are supposed to be assimilated by 
plants, and employed in the production of 
gluten and other azotized substances. But 
this view requires further confirmation with 
respect to the solid excrements of animals ; 
for they contain so small a portion of nitrogen, 
that they cannot possibly, by means of it, ex- 
ercise any influence upon vegetation." 

The following table of manures, constructed 
from the experiments of MM. Payen and Bous- 
singault, showing the number of loads required 
in both the moist (or ordinary) and dried (or 
prepared) states to equal 100 loads of farm- 
yard dung, so far as the quantity of the nitro- 
gen they contain is concerned, will be interest- 
ing, I think, to the farmer. {Gard. Chron.) 

Mi)i»'. Dry. 

Pea Straw 22 100 

Sainlfoin straw ----- 8.S 361 

Vetch straw ------ 39 174 

Wheat straw 166 65© 

Do. 81 367 

Do., lower joints ----- 97 453 
Do., upper joints, with the heads after 

thrashing - 30 137 

Rye straw 235 973 

Do., of 1841 95 390 

Oat straw ------ 142 541 

Barley straw ------ 173 750 

Wheat chaff 47 207 

.Ternsalem artichoke straw - - - 108 453 

Broom ----- - 32 143 

Green beet leaves ----- 80 43 

Potato leaves ------ 72 84 

Carrot leaves ------ 47 66 

Heath leaves -...-- 22 102 

Sea wrack ------ 46 139 

Do. 42 123 

Do. 28 85 

Do., fresh from the sea - - . 74 

Malt dust ------ 8 39 

Buried clover roots - - - - 24 110 

Fla.x cake 7 32 

Rape cake ------8 35 

Fish cake 74 322 

Grease cake ------11 49 

Beet-root pnFp ----- 35 154 

Do. - 105 154 

Potato pulp - 76 lOO 

Starch water ------ — 573 

Do. — 645 

Starch refuse ------ 111 107 

Do. 24 — 

Dunghill drainings 67 12» 

Sawdust of acacia ----- 137 513 

Do. ------- 173 629 

Do. firwood - .. - - 250 686 

Do. 173 629 

Do. oak ------ 74 256 

Solid cow-dung ----- 125 84 

Cow urine ------90 51 

Mi.xed cow-dung ----- 97 75 

Solid horse-dung ----- 72 88 

Horse urine ------ 15 15 

Mixed horse-dung ----- 54 64 

Do. pig-dung ----- 63 57 

Do. sheep-dung ----- 36 65 

Do. goat-dung - . . - - 18 49 

Pigeon-dung ------4 31 

Liquid Flemish manure • - . . 210 — 

Do. 181 — 



MANURES. 



MANURES. 



Mont. Dry. 

Belloni's poudrelte .... 10 44 

Oyster shells ------ 125 4S7 

Marl - - 78 — 

Dry muscular flesh ----- 3 13 

Co(i, sailed 5 17 

Uo., pressed and salted ... 2 10 

Blood, soluble 3 12 

Do., liquid ------13 — 

Do. 14 — 

Do., coagulated and pressed - - 8 II 

Do., dry, insoluble - - - - 2 11 

Feathers --2 10 

Cows' hair - 2 12 

Woollen rags ----.-2 9 

Horn raspings ----- 2 12 

Cockchafers .-.--. 12 14 

Cones, boiled ---.--5 25 

Do., Rioist ------ 7 — 

Do., fat 6 — 

Glue refuse 75 21.1 

Glue droKs ------ 10 34 

Graves ------- 3 15 

Aninialblackiog of the maker - . 37 95 

Aninialized black ..... 36 98 

Noir de champs ..... 32 65 

It is a very common error to suppose that 
manures of a vegetable or animal nature im- 
part any sensible warmth to a soil ; the analogy 
sometimes atterftpted to be drawn between the 
action of a fermenting dung-heap and some 15 
or 20 loads of fermented dung, or half a ton 
of chopped woollen rags, spread thinly over an 
acre of ground, is too absurd to be admitted. 
Yet,although the dungdoes not sensibly increase 
the warmth of the land, the temperature of 
the earth, and the free access of the gases of 
the atmosphere have a very material influence 
upon the duration of the manure in the soil. 
Thus, in the heavy clay and deep alluvial soils 
it remains much longer than in the sandy, 
chalky, or gravelly. In the first its good effects 
may be traced for three or four years ; in the 
last it is usually consumed in one, two, or at the 
utmost three years. To the last description of 
land, therefore, the judicious cultivator usually 
applies his compost in a half-putrefied state, in 
order that it may remain longer in the soil: 
this is now the practice of some of the most 
enlightened agriculturists. 

Too little attention is paid, in general, to the 
mixture of manures by the farmer. This re- 
mark not only applies to those of the farm- 
yard, — little care being usually taken to spread 
evenly those of the horse, the cow, and the pig, 
although it is notorious to the best cultivators, 
what was stated by the late Mr. Blakie, in his 
Essay on the Management of Farm-yard Manure, 
that this chief of fertilizers is very considerably 
improve.l by an even mixture, — but the remark 
applies to almost all other manures. Thus, old 
heaps of weeds, pond-mud, seourings of ditches, 
and all the earths in which there is any organic 
matter, are best applied to the soil after being 
mingled with lime or common salt. Peat, saw- 
dust, wood-chips, and tanners' bark, nearly in- 
ert substances in themselves, become excellent 
manure when mixed with stable-dung. Sprats, 
and all other fish, are successfully and econo- 
mically added to three or four times their bulk 
of mould; and even bone-dust is successfully 
applied with a third of its weight of the dung 
of the sheep, and may be then drilled as ad- 
vantageously with the turnip-seed as the bones 
m their simple state. Then, again, mixing 
together some kinds of manures produces, by 
-heir c'lcmical action, a third or fourth, which 



is more valuable than either. Thus, when salt 
and lime are united together, in the proportion 
of one part of the former to two parts of the 
latter, a chemical action takes place; the mass 
swells, and the salt is gradually decomposed; 
and in the course of three months, if the heap 
is sufifered to remain undisturbed, both the salt 
and the lime nearly disappear, and two new 
substances are formed by the combinations 
into which their constituents have entered, viz. 
soda and chloride of lime; both excellent ma- 
nures. In other cases, the mere mixture of 
two well-known fertilizers, without any che- 
mical action between the two, produces lauch 
greater effects than that of both when used se- 
parately. Thus, a compound of salt and soot 
possesses the most extraordinary fertilizing 
effects- The late Mr. G. Sinclair, in his Prize 
Essay on Salt, describes it " as remarkable," 
when applied to carrots ; a fact which I have 
often witnessed myself. (My Essay on Salt for 
Agriculture, p. 145.) The Rev. Edmund Cart- 
wright was the first to notice the same result 
with potatoes (Com. to Board of Jlgr. vol. iv. p. 
376); and the same benefit is evident when the 
mixture is used as a top-dressing for wheat; 
in which observation my experience is con- 
firmed by that of others. (My Essay on Salt, 
p. 41.) There are a few instances, however, 
in which substances used as manures are best 
employed in their simple state. Thus, sea- 
weed, which many of the farmers on the sea- 
coast throw on their dung-heaps, is much better 
employed by itself, turned into the earth in the 
freshest and greenest condition : and to all 
green manures, and to those which contain 
salts of ammonia, such as urine, or the liquor 
from gas-works, the same remarks are appli- 
cable. See Mixture of Soils. 

The proportion in which fertilizers are ap- 
plied is generally unnecessarily large, even of 
organic manures ; and although this bad prac- 
tice has been regularly diminishing as agricul- 
ture has become better understood, yet much 
remains to be done, in preventing that wasteful 
expenditure of dung which is continually tak- 
ing place. 

It is more than probable, that the use of the 
improved manure-drills, by the even distribu- 
tion of the fertilizer, and bringing it more 
closely into contact with the crop, will effect 
much towards this very desirable saving ; for 
it must be evident to the most careless, that in 
the manner in which compost is commonly 
spread over a field, — suffered to be dissipatel 
by long exposure in heaps to the sun and wind, 
and afterwards spread over spaces in which 
there are not any plants to absorb, during its 
fermentation, the disengaging gases, a very 
considerable portion of it is lost to the farmer's 
crops. See Manures applicable bt the 
Drill. 

It is almost needless to remark upon the im- 
portance of such investigations as these both 
to the cultivator and to the land-owner, or of tnt 
caution necessary in drawing conclusions from 
experiments in which vegetation is concerned. 
" Life," said Davy, "gives a peculiar character 
to all its productions : the power of attraction 
and repulsion, combination and decomposition 
are subservient to it; a few elements, bv the 
3 T 2 773 



MANURES. 



MANURES 



diversity of their arrangements, are made to 
form the most diflferent substances, and simi- 
lar substances are produced from compounds 
which, when superficially examined, appear 
entirely different." And, as he well remarks 
in another place, when speaking of the subject 
of this article — "The doctrine of the proper 
application of manures offers an illustration 
of an important part of the economy of nature, 
and of the happy order in which it is arranged. 
The fermentation and putrefaction of organized 
substances, in the free atmosphere, are noxious 
processes ; beneath the surface of the ground 
they^re salutary operations. In this case the 
food of plants is prepared where it can be used, 
and that which would offend the senses and 
injure the health, if exposed, is converted by 
gradual processes into forms of beauty and of 
usefulness," {Jgr. Clicm. pp. 54—309.) All 
researches like these carry with them their 
own reward ; for not only does a successful 
experiment do so, but even an unsuccessful 
one is not unattended with advantages : it at 
least serves as a beacon to other cultivators, 
and is sure to afford to the farmer that pleasure 
and increased power which ever accorapanies 
the acquisition of knowledge. {Johnson on the 
Fertilizers, p. 32.) See Gases, Earths, Salts, 
Water, Farm-Yard Manure, Bones, Chalk, 
Lime, Liaum Manure, &c. 

Weight of a Cubic Yard of various Manures. 

Cwrs. qrs. lb<. 
Garden mould - - - - - - 19 3 25 

New dung 93 18 

Leaves and sea-weed - - - - 9 3 

Water 15 3 

Compost of dung, with weeds and lime, 
wliich liad been once turned over in 9 
months -- - - - - -14 05 

(C. yV. Johnson "On Fertilizers," p. 90.) 

Manures, on rendering them more portable and 
applicable by the Drill. — The application of ma- 
nures in a more concentrated form than that in 
which they naturally present themselves for 
the cultivator's service, was an effort reserved 
for modern agriculturists ; an improvement 
chiefly induced by the increase of population, 
which almost compelled the farmer to force 
into cultivation the poor inland soils of Eng- 
land and the Continent : lands which could 
only be enriched by fertilizers brought from 
other districts, and from places where men 
congregated together in large masses. This 
necessity was, some years since, first felt and 
acted upon by many of the large continental 
cities, such as Paris, Berlin, Frankfort, and 
some of the other chief German towns. The 
contents of the cesspools were, in consequence, 
collected ; their fertilizing matters were mixed 
with drying, disinfecting substances, and when 
thus reduced to powder, or into cakes, sold at 
a considerable profit. The enlightened con- 
stituted authorities of these places felt that 
they were, by so doing, conferring great and 
important benefits not only on their fellow- 
citizens, but upon the distant cultivator. They 
did not confine their attention to the farmers in 
their own direct vicinity; because they well 
Knew that those, in common with the imme- 
diate agricultural neighbours of all large cities, 
have a ready access to an abundance of organic 
oianures, since the cultivators so favourably 



situated carry their produce m ith facility into 
such populous places, and return with their 
carriages loaded with manure. And yet, whea 
the German and French authorities thus hus- 
banded, — thus rendered more portable, the 
manure of their large towns, they made no 
discovery; they merely practised what the 
Chinese had preceded them in from time im- 
memorial, and what, in Flanders, is an old and 
long-cherished custom. The only improve- 
ment which the citizens of Paris and Frankfort 
have made is, that they form with their night- 
soil an enriching powder; while those of China 
and of Belgium still make theirs into cakes, 
with a portion of either clay or marl ; so that 
the powder of Paris can be either applied with 
the drill or dibble, but the Chinese and Flem- 
ings are obliged to dissolve theirs in water, 
before it can be used as a liquid manure with 
advantage. In England, however, notwith- 
standing the example of our neighbours, little 
or nothing has yet been done to render the 
commonest manures, such, for instance, as 
night-soil, more portable. The nightmen and 
scavengers are still compelled to hurry away 
their collections only at stated hours and in the 
dead of the night; are fined for any neglect, 
and harassed in all possible ways, rather than 
that this, the most powerful of all the animal 
fertilizers, should be preserved for the use of 
the farmer in any way that might endanger the 
olfactory nerves of the citizens. But an en- 
dangerment upon sensitive noses is not essen- 
tial ; the night-soil might be preserved without 
any offence to the most sensitive. But this 
manure has been hitherto little known or em- 
ployed in this country ; its powers have been 
misrepresented; all sorts of prejudices have 
been created against it. I propose here briefl)' 
to show, first, the composition and fertilizing 
powers of various manures ; and, secondly, to 
examine the modes which have been recently 
adopted to render them inodorous and more 
easily portable, so as to bring them within the 
reach of even the farmer who has to contend 
with the poorest, the most upland soils of 
Britain, far away from its great towns. And, 
although I confine my attention in this essay 
chiefly to one fertilizer, yet there are other 
manures, now well known to, and extensively 
employed by the cultivator, whose powerful 
action, when judiciously used in very small 
proportions, well illustrates the truth of what I 
have so often ventured to urge upon the far- 
mer's attention, viz., that a much smaller quan 
tity of manure, composed of any description 
of organic decomposing matters, is sufficient, 
when applied in a skilful manner, to produce 
more luxuriant effects than is commonly be- 
lieved. The very great importance of apply- 
ing fertilizers in immediate juxtaposition with 
the young plant, even in very small propor- 
tions, as by the drill, is only now beginning to 
be considered with even patient attention ; and 
yet there are many circumstances with which 
the farmer is well acquainted, which ought to 
convince the most inattentive that such is the 
fact. The small quantity of oil-cake drilled 
with the seed ; the few bushels of bones suc- 
cessfully applied in the same way per acre ; 
the woollen rags of the Berkshire farmers (half 



MANURES. 



MANURES. 



a toil per acre only) ; the 2 cwt. of gypsum ap- 
plied to sainfoin and clover; the 1 cwt. of salt- 
petre, or of nitrate of soda, used on the same 
extent of land, all indicate the truth of the case, 
that it is not absolutely necessary to apply fer- 
tilizers of any kind in such great masses as 
are commonly deemed essential by the cultiva- 
tor. I was told not long since by an excellent 
farmer of Middlesex, Mr. George Sherbourn, 
that he had succeeded in producing the finest 
crops of turnips by merely mixing about 30 
bushels of coal-ashes per acre with 3 gallons 
of train-oil, and drilling these oiled ashes with 
the seed. It is a folly, therefore, to contend 
that the careless way in which organic ma- 
nures of all kinds are usually employed is the 
most economical, and susceptible of no im- 
provemenL Such complacent feelings have 
ever been the bane of agricultural improve- 
ment ; for it is then certain to follow as a 
natural result, that the system which the culti- 
vator deems perfect will, in his hands, remain 
as he found it. Having no hope for better 
things, better modes will by him never be dis- 
covered. 

Some recent experiments on a very broad 
scale, in the forest of Darnaway in Scotland, 
have shown that the application of a quan- 
tity of lime under each seedling tree, even so 
small an amount as 4 bushels per acre, has 
been productive of the most excellent effects, 
imparting to the plantation a degree of luxuri- 
ance hardly credible. The same advantage, 
therefore, which is derivable from the applica- 
tion of a very small quantity of organic ma- 
nure, in immediate contact with the growing 
plant, is evidently also derivable from a much 
smaller quantity of earthy manures than the 
farmer commonly supposes. 

There are several advantages derivable from 
placing the seed in direct contact with the 
manure, to which the farmer very rarely at- 
tends. For instance, the germinating seed in 
the immediate neighbourhood of the fertilizer 
is by this means well nourished at the very 
period of its growth when it most needs assist- 
ance to enable it to develope its fibres, and to 
extend its roots. The young plant, so situated, 
is not exhausted in its extension ; it avoids the 
usual fate of those crops which tenant poor 
soils, whose roots are obliged to penetrate some 
distance in search of the requisite degree of 
nourishment. On the contrary, the strength 
of the plant is thrown into the stem and the 
leaves, and the crop flourishes luxuriantly ; for 
the leaves and roots of the invigorated and 
healthy plant are enabled to absorb the gases 
and aqueous vapour of the atmosphere, by 
which the plant is nourished in the most com- 
plete manner. The very mechanical effect, 
too, of placing the decomposing organic ma- 
nure in direct contact with the roots of vegeta- 
bles, facilitating the free access to them of the 
atmospheric gases and vapour, would be alone 
a sufficient reason for the adoption of the 
manure drill system, even if we say nothing 
of the other certain advantages of the plan, 
such as, in the case of decomposing fertilizers, 
the presentation of the gases of putrefaction 
10 the roots of the plant, at the moment of their 
extrication, and the economical and forcing 



effects of this -code of distributing the manure. 
The farmer, m fact, tells us that the plan is 
probably a good one, but then his explanation 
of the derived benefit is very erroneous. He 
informs us, that thus to push forward the 
growth of the young crop is very likely to be 
good husbandry, especially on light soils, 
since, by this means, where the ground is well 
covered with the crop, ^Uhe moisture is kept in, 
and the sun is kept out." If the cultivator would 
but remember, that the quantity of moisture 
transpired by a given surface of a growing 
crop is considerably greater than that emitted 
by the most naked fallow, he would no longer 
be content with such an explanation as this. 

Dr. Hales ascertained that a cabbage trans- 
mits into the atmosphere by insensible vapour, 
about half its weight of vapour daily ; and that 
a sunflower, three feet in height, transpired, in 
the same period, nearly two pounds weight. 
Dr. Woodward found that a sprig of mint, 
weighing 27 grains, in 77 days emitted 2543 
grains of water ; a sprig of spearmint, weigh- 
ing 27 grains, emitted, in the same time, 2-558 
grains; a sprig of common nightshade, weigh- 
ing 49 grains, evolved 3708 grains ; and a 
lalhyrus, of 98 grains, emitted 2501. 

If I were asked to produce any evidence of 
the extreme difficulty with which agricultural 
improvements, even of the most undoubted 
value, are introduced, I should at once instance 
the manure-drill, the progress of which has 
been slow — for it has shared the fate of very 
many other scientific efforts : it has been zea- 
lously opposed by the ignorant, neglected by 
the indolent, and ridiculed by the bigoted 
farmer, as an innovation upon the good old 
system of the days of the patriarchs of agricul- 
ture, when the earth brought forth its fruits in 
abundance, and the very seeds were not sown 
by man. But even here this solitary argument 
of the adherent to old customs fails; for the 
Chinese (the most expert of farmers) and the 
cultivators of Japan and of Arabia have drilled 
and dibbled in their seed from time immemo- 
rial. The natives of the Carnatic do the same; 
and after they have thus deposited their seed, 
the Hindoos use a kind of subsoil-plough, 
which passes under, and loosens, to the depth 
of about eight inches, the soil under, about 
three drills' breadth at a time. And so preju- 
diced are the natives of those empires, too, in 
favour of the customs of their ancestors — so 
rarely do they introduce new modes of culti- 
vation, that it has been very reasonably con- 
cluded that the drill system, so far from being 
entitled to the appellation of "the new hus- 
bandry," ought rather to be classed with those 
branches of the sciences which degenerated, or 
were lost in the dark ages. 

Sir George Staunton, in his .Account of Lord 

Macartney^ Embassy to China, says (vol. ii. p. 

375) — "Near Sanchoo, wheat was perceived 

growing for the first time in China. It was, 

though on a dry sandy soil, where no rain had 

fallen for the three preceding months, looking 

remarkably well. It was very neatly sown in 

drills, or dibbled, according to the method used 

i of late in some parts of Ensland. A gentleman 

I of the embassy calculated that the saving '' 

i the seed alone in China by this drill husbanar; . 

775 



MANURES. 



MANURES. 



which would be lost by that of broadcast, 
would be sufficient to maintain all the Euro- 
pean subjects of Great Britain." 

In a communication to the Board of Agri- 
culture, dated at Junacondah, December 31, 
1795, Captain Halcott says,— "The drill-plough, 
I find, is in general use here, and has been so 
time immemorial, in the culture of all grain 
(except horse grain), and also of tobacco, cot- 
ton, rice, and the castor-oil plant." 

The first drill introduced into Europe seems 
to have been the invention of a German, who 
made it known to the Spanish court in 1647. 
(//«?7e's Essays on Husbandry.) The Roman 
farmers endeavoured to attain the advantages 
of row-culture by ploughing in the seeds. 

It is useless to search in the works of Jethro 
TuU for any recommendation of the drill as a 
means of applying manure; for all Tull's 
arguments and experiments are directed to 
proving that the application of manure of any 
kind is utterly needless. And yet he had the 
discernment, when thus suflTering his enthu- 
Giasm to carry him much too far, to make the 
observation, that "almost the only use of all 
manure is the same as of tillage, viz., the pul- 
veration it makes by fermentation, as tillage 
doth by attrition or contusion ; and with these 
difierences, that dung, which is the most com- 
mon manure, is apt to increase weeds, as much 
as tillage (of which hoeing is chief) destroys 
them." {New Husbandry, p. 166, 1st edit. 1731.) 
The advantage, thus glanced at by Tull, of the 
manure keeping the ground light and porous, 
is much greater than the cultivator commonly 
suspects, and this benefit is mainly owing to 
the free access which is thus secured of the 
watery vapour and gases of the atmosphere to 
the roots of the plants. Now, for the vapour 
of the atmosphere, all well-pulverized fertile 
earth has a strong attraction : the richer and 
the better divided the soil, the more copiously 
does it absorb vapour; but the power of the 
richest cultivated soils in this respect is very 
much inferior to that of even the most ordi- 
nary manure. In my own experiments, I have 
never found, in a given space, say three hours, 
that 1000 parts of the richest soil, previously 
dried, absorbed more than from 14 to 20 parts 
of moisture ; but in the same time, under simi- 
lar circumstances, 1000 parts of horse-dung 
absorbed 145 parts; cow-dung, 130 ; pig-dung, 
120 ; sheep-dung, 81 ; pigeons' dung, 50. {My 
Work "On Fertilizers," p. 41.) It is evident, 
therefore, that for the mere purpose of with- 
standing long-continued dry weather, those 
plants whose roots have immediate access to 
organic manures will be much better enabled 
to absorb the necessary supplies of atmospheric 
moisture than those merely vegetating in the 
unmanured soil. 

The merit of the introduction of the drill to 
s,cneral notice in England, is, however, to be 
ascribed, in a great measure, to Jethro Tull. 
Vet Jethro Tull certainly thought himself the 
\nvenior ; for he tells us so very clearly, in the 
preface to the first edition of his Horse-hoe Hus- 
bandry, published in 1731, and even whence 
he derived the hint for his drill; he says, — 
"When 1 was young, my diversion was music; 
I had also the curiosity to acquaint myself 
77^ 



thoroughly with the fabric of every part of my 
organ ; but as little thinking that I should ever 
take from thence the first rudiments of a drill, 
as that I should ever have occasion for such a 
machine, or practise agriculture ; for 'twas 
accident, not choice, that made me a farmer." 
But he was certainly not the originator of the 
idea of thus applying the seed; for, nearly a 
century before his time, John Worlidge inef- 
fectually, in 1669, laboured hard to draw the 
English farmers' attention not only to the drill, 
but to the manure-drill also. And little can be 
now added to what, 175 years since, honest 
John Worlidge urged in its favour, when he 
said, after describing the seed-drill, — " By the 
use of this instrument, also, you may cover 
your grain or pulse with any rich compost you 
shall prepare for that purpose, either with 
pigeons' dung, dry or granulated, or any other 
saline or lixivial substance, made dispersable, 
which may drop after the corn, and prove an 
excellent improvement; for we find, experi- 
mentally, that pigeons' dung, sown by the hand 
on wheat or barley, mightily advantageth it in 
the common way of husbandry : much more, 
then, might we expect this way, where the 
dung, or such like substance, is all in the same 
furrow with the corn ; whereas, in the other 
vulgar way, a great part thereof comes not 
near it. It may either be done by having 
another hopper on the same frame behind that 
for the corn, wherein the compost may be put 
and made to drop successively after the corn ; 
or it may be sown by another instrument to 
follow the former, which is the better way, and 
may both disperse the soil and cover the ma- 
nure and seed." 

Worlidge was well supported by Evelyn, 
who, in a communication to the Royal Society, 
dated in February, 1669, urged the advantages 
of a drill-plough, which, first invented in Ger- 
many, had thence been introduced at Madrid 
under the auspices of the Spanish monarch, 
and had been forwarded from Spain by the 
Earl of Sandwich, as the invention of a Don 
LeucatiDa. It is there described as " the Spa- 
nish sembrador, or new engine for ploughing, 
and equal sowing all sorts of grain, and har- 
rowing at once." Leucatilla saw veiy clearly 
the errors of the broadcast system : he ob- 
served, — " Even at this day (16C9) all sorts of 
seeds are sown by handfuls, heedlessly and by 
chance, whence we see corn sowed in some 
places too thick, in others too thin." 

It was between the years 1720 and 1740 that 
Jethro Tull laboured thus hard, and with a 
success little equal to his merits, to introduce 
the drill system : the honour, however, was re 
served for the present Lord Leicester, in the 
early part of the present century, of inducing 
its general employment, for which the soils of 
the greatest portion of Norfolk are so very well 
adapted. It then naturally followed, that vari- 
ous manures were found easily applicable at 
the same time with the seed. Powdered oil- 
cake was one of the first substances that was 
used as a manure, and the discovery of the 
value of crushed bones as a fertilizer for tur- 
i nips, opened another wide field for the useful 
I application of this invaluable machine. The 
manure-drill, in fact, thence received an im- 



MANURES. 



MANURES. 



petus which it will probably never lose, for 
with its use is now almost inseparably con- 
nected the cultivation of some of the most ex- 
tensive districts of the poor light lands in the 
north of England; such as on the Wolds of 
Lincolnshire, and the sands of Nottingham- 
shire. See Bones. 

The most recent improvement in the manure- 
drill is that of Mr. Grounsel of Louth, for which 
the English Agricultural Society awarded 
him, in 1839, their silver medal. It is an at- 
tempt, and an excellent one too, to imitate the 
dibbling system, so as not only to save seed, 
but the manure also. And although, in all re- 
searches of this nature, it is especially neces- 
sary to proceed with great care, and to regard 
single experiments with caution, yet what has 
been yet experienced of its powers is certainly 
of a nature to induce farther and more extend- 
ed trials; since it is evident that this drill can 
apply, and evenly too, as small a quantity of 
crushed bones or ashes as six bushels per 
acre. In reply to some inquiries of mine, the 
inventor says, — "My drill will deposit from 6 
to 100 bushels per acre of any kind of compost 
that may be prepared for drilling, from 10 
inches to any greater distance apart in the 
rows, with turnips or grain, and either in a wet 
or dry condition ; but I recommend, from ex- 
perience, ashes to be applied in a wet state, 
especially in a dry turnip-seed season, for then 
the seeds vegetate much sooner. Another 
equally excellent drop, and common drill, is 
that made by Mr. Hornsby of Grantham." See 
Drill. 

Admitting the truth of these experiments, 
that one-half the quantity of organic manures 
usually spread on the land is sufficient, when 
applied by the drill, in immediate contact with 
the seed, what a field is thus opened for the 
manuring of much larger breadths of land 
than has hitherto been deemed possible. The 
complaints of the deficiency of manures, which 
are now so prevalent with farmers, need then 
no longer be heard. Their crops will be pro- 
perly nourished, and the manure applied with 
them will be not only bestowed in the most 
scientific manner, but it will lead to other im- 
provements ; it will enable the farmer to mix 
his manures, according to the nature of his 
soil and his crop, with much more facility than 
at present : he will then study, not merely the 
economy to be regarded in its distribution, but 
also its quality, or chemical composition, and 
to what soils the manure is best adapted. 

There is one class of fertilizers, however, 
whose application by the drill requires great 
caution ; I allude to the saline manures, for 
they are often much too powerful in their ope- 
ration to be safely applicable in their pure 
state or in large proportions. Common salt 
has, in this way, carried great destruction by 
being drilled in with the seed, and I have wit- 
nessed equally disastrous effects from applying 
the lime of the gas-works (sulphuret of lime) 
in the same way. Yet when the seed-wheat is 
wetted with a nearly saturated solution of salt, 
and then rolled in lime, or the salt and lime are 
not used until they have been mixed together 
for three months, and then sown on the land 
broadcast,- -or when the gas-lime is previously 
98 



mixed with four or five times its bulk of sifted 
mould or ashes, then I have seen the most 
excellent effects produced by its being drilled 
with the turnip-seed: the same remarks apply 
to the chloride of lime of the calico-bleachers. 
Other salts, whose action is less energetic, or 
which are applied in very small proportions, 
are perhaps best applied by the drill ; tor in- 
stance, saltpetre, which is rarely applied in 
larger proportion than IJ cwt. per acre, may 
very likely be still further reduced in quantity, 
especially if mixed with other substances, such 
as three or four times its bulk of mould. Mr. 
Beadel of Witham, in Essex, a very excellent 
farmer, has found, that where saltpetre was 
applied to his turnips broadcast as a top-dress- 
ing, it did not succeed, but it did so very de- 
cidedly when it was drilled with the seed. 

In those situations where night-soil, or sprats, 
or bones cannot be obtained at a sufficiently 
reasonable rate, very great effects may be pro- 
duced by the careful collection of the excre- 
ments of domestic animals, and mixing them 
with merely a sufficient quantity of dry ashes, 
mould, saw-dust, or, what is best of all, recently 
prepared finely powdered charcoal, to render 
them sufficiently friable to pass the drill : this 
is very easily accomplished, by making the 
preparation under cover some months before 
it is used, and, if necessary, by causing it to 
be spread in the sun. By the adoption of 
these means, a very recent mixture will be 
found available by the farmer; the excrements 
of the horse, cow, and especially the sheep 
(still more so if fed with oil-cake), will be 
found excellent for this purpose. And in very 
small proportions the Peruvian farmers, ac- 
cording to Humboldt, employ the guano, or ex- 
crements of seafowl (which abound in phos- 
phate of lime, or earthy salt of bones), which 
is brought in sailing vessels, from the rocky 
islands of the Pacific, expressly for the use of 
the cultivators of that republic. See Guano. 

And that bones might be very profitably 
mixed with other fertilizers, so as to matei'ially 
reduce the expense of the manure, is indicated 
by more than one successful experiment. To 
give ctnother instance, which has recently been 
communicated to me, in the trials made by 
Daniel Dixon, Esq. of West Clandon, in Sur- 
rey. " On a poor chalk soil," observed an ex- 
cellent and scientific friend of mine, "he has 
used a compost for a manure-drill for turnips 
with great advantage. He puts 8 bushels of 
ground bones with 24 bushels of any ashes he 
can get together in a dry place, and from time 
to time (as often as possible) he empties the 
liquid sewerage of the house upon it. In two 
or three months it is fit for use, working well 
out of the drill. The above is the quantity for 
an acre. The effect of drilling this mixture 
with the seed was very remarkable, and as 
bone-manure was drilled by the side of it, the 
contrast was at once visible ; the difference 
was more than double. In fact, the bones by 
themselves seemed comparatively useless. 
The soil on which the mixture has been ap 
plied is poor, chalky, and flinty, abutting upon 
the sheep-walks and Guildford race-course. 
Whenever the mixture is too wet for the drill, 
it is spread to dry for a day or two." (Lettett 

Til 



MANURES. 



MANURES. 



ofHdiry Dixon, Esq. to the Author, November, 1839, 
and March, ISdO.) 

" A friend of ours, a farmer in Northumber- 
land," says the excellent editor of the Quarterly 
Journal of Agriculture, " the late Mr. George 
Brown, Hetten Steads, mixed any quantity of 
coal-ashes, kept dry, and finely riddled, with a 
quarter of bone-dust per acre, and raised as 
good a crop of turnips (of course drilled) of all 
kinds, on a clayey soil, resting on a retentive 
bottom (but drained), as he could with two 
quarters of bone-dust." Mr. Turner of Tring, 
in Hertibrdshire, drilled with his crushed bones 
an equal quantity per acre of sheep dung, col- 
lected for the express purpose, at an expense 
of 2^rf. per bushel paid to the collectors : this 
he prepared in the winter, by laying the bone- 
dust in alternate layers with sheep-dung, and 
suffering them to remain i'ermenting some 
months until the turnip sowing. By this plan, 
by the fermentation of the mass, the two ma- 
nures are thoroughly incorporated; and he 
considers that 35 bushels of the mixture are 
fully equal in effect to 25 bushels of the bones. 
So that, allowing .3.9. M. per acre for the ex- 
pense of collecting the sheep-dung, there will 
be a clear saving of 12s. Gc/. per acre in bones, 
valuing these at 2s. per bushel. The mixed 
bones and sheep-dung are invariably drilled in 
with the turnip-seed. 

The application of rape-cake powder by the 
drill has never been so common as it ought to 
be, for it is not only a very powerful, but a very 
easily manageable fertilizer; it has, moreover, 
the advantage of being moderate in price, and 
easily attainable at all seasons of the year. 
There is no doubt of the advantage of feeding 
stock with this food, the manure they produce 
when thus fed being exceedingly rich. Many 
farmers, however, owing to the want of cattle, 
or an unwillingness to lay out the requisite 
money in a long course of stall-feeding, are 
deterred from using oil-cake to the extent they 
would otherwise do. The use of the oil-cake 
powder conveys to the land all the enriching 
ingredients of this fertilizer at once, and to the 
exact extent the farmer requires; there is 
neither the waste, the risk, or the trouble of 
stall-feeding to be dreaded. The oil remaining 
in the cake certainly constitutes its most en- 
riching portion ; the oil abounding in sprats is 
an instance familiar to the farmer, and when 
this oil is imperfectly crushed out, the cake 
produced (as is well known to the Swedish 
cultivator in the case of herring-cake) is found 
to be exceedingly enriching. A very small 
quantity of oil left by the crushers in the cake 
will produce very great results ; even three 
gallons of train-oil, as I have mentioned in 
another place, has been found amply sufficient 
per acre, when mixed with earth or ashes, to 
produce a capital crop of turnips. It has been 
found (and this is another illustration of the 
value of the manure-drill), that when rape- 
cake is drilled with the turnip-seed, 3^ cwt. per 
acre is sufficient, but if it is applied broadcast, 
then double the quantity is required. My friend 
Mr. Davis, of Spring Park, in Surrey, is well 
aware of the pt;v.'ers of oil-cake as a manure; 
h" has found it even an advantageous plan to 
drill common coal, wood, or turf-ashes, at the 
778 



rate of 40 bushels per acre, with his turnip 
seed; and this he has successfully practised 
for some years, so much is he in favour of 
bringing the seed and the manure into imme- 
diate contact. 

In proceeding to examine, as an instance of 
one of the least likely substances successfully 
applied by the drill, the properties of night-soil, 
and the modes which have been adopted to 
reduce its weight, without impairing its effect, 
many reflections will suggest themselves to 
the farmer. He will notice that such a pro- 
cess, by producing it in the state of powder, 
renders it capable of being readily drilled with 
the seed ; and that the same remarks apply in 
a great measure to the excrements of the farm- 
yard, to whale-blubber, and to fish. The Essex 
farmers find, that when sprats are mixed with 
earth, finely divided, the mass, when these very 
oily fish are quite dissolved in the mould, forms 
a very powerful fertilizer, which is excellent 
as a drill-manure for turnips. They tell you, 
that the sprats lose none of their enriching 
powers, even when thus kept mixed with earth 
for some months. 

Even earthy manures may be advantageously 
reduced in weight by exposure to the air, or by 
the application of artificial heat. Chalk, I have 
found by experiment, loses from 15 to 25 per 
cent, of its weight by being thus deprived of its 
water ; and a cubic foot of calcareous sand, 
when thoroughly wet, contains, according to 
M. Schublcr, more than 31 lbs. of water ; the 
same measure of sandy clay, 38 lbs.; loamy 
clay, 41 lbs. ; stiff clay or brick-earth, 45 lbs. ; 
pure gray clay, 48 lbs. ; garden-mould, 48 lbs.; 
and fine slaty marl, 35 lbs. By exposing the 
earths to an intense heat, tneir weight is still 
further reduced by the loss of their carbonic 
acid gas or fixed air; hence 100 parts of chalk, 
for instance, when thus treated, lose very com- 
monly 24 parts of water and 34 parts of car- 
bonic acid ; so that 42 lbs. of lime, when well 
burnt, contain as much real earth as 180 parts 
of chalk. All these facts are such as the cul- 
tivator should be thoroughly acquainted with; 
for, in many cases, the earth which the farmer 
removes might be previously very advanta- 
geously dried, by exposure in spits to the action 
of the atmosphere. Even the difference of 
labour to the men and horses, between carting 
them after continued dry weather and in wet 
periods, is much more material than the culti- 
vator commonly believes. 

My attention, however, will, in this place, be 
principally confined to fertilizers of an organic 
nature, and more especially to night-soiL 
Night-soil has not, in any form, been employed 
by the farmers of England to the same extent 
as on the Continent, although it is certainly by 
far the most powerful of the organic manures, 
and the most easily rendered applicable by the 
drill of any of the class. To this neglect many 
causes have contributed. Its disagreeable 
odour, certain vexatious fiscal regulations with 
regard to its removal, to which I have before 
alluded, and the erroneous modes of applying 
it, either in excessive quantities, or mixed with w 
other composts in such proportions that its m I 
powers could not be distinguished in the mass; T ! 
its semifluid nature requiring for its removal 



MANURES. 



MANURES. 



carriages of a peculiar construction ; the ex- 
tent and completeness of the sewerage of our 
large cities, and several other minor obstacles, 
have rendered its use not nearly so extensive 
as, even in a national point of view, is desira- 
ble. (See Night-soil.) And yet the neces- 
sity for increasing the supplies of manures, in 
order to promote the fertility of the soil, will be 
self-evident to every one who remembers, not 
only the increasing population of the country, 
but the immense drains upon its organic fer- 
tilizing matters which are hourly pouring their 
contents into the sea. Thus, as I have else- 
where remarked, by carefully-conducted expe- 
riment it has been clearly ascertained that the 
principal London drains convey daily into the 
Thames 115,000 tons of mixed manure, con- 
sisting, on an average composition, of one part 
solid or mechanically suspended matter, and 
2.5 parts absolutely fluid; but if we allow only 
1 part in 30 of this immense mass to be com- 
posed of solid substances, than we have the large 
quantity of more than 3800 tons of solid manure 
daily wasted in the river from London alone. 
What might not the farmers of England elTect 
if this mass of fertilizing matter was preserved, 
at a reasonable rate, for their use 115 tons of 
this solid manure — nay, 10 tons, would render 
fertile an acre of the poorest cultivated, or even 
common or heath land. But allow, for the 
sake of argument, that 20 tons were required, 
even then 3800 would give a daily allowance 
of manure sufficient for 180 acres of the poor- 
est land in England ; and if we give 300 days 
on which this manure was collected, that 
would afl!brd an annual supply for fifty-four 
thousand of such acres, which land would not 
again need manuring for 4 )^ears ; and in this 
calculation nothing is allowed for the fluid por- 
tion of the drainage. It is the reckless waste 
of the drainage of our large cities and towns, 
which has alone prevented the cultivated lands 
of England from becoming increasingly fer- 
tile, because yearly more abounding in organic 
decomposing matters. For such is the enor- 
mous yearly import of foreign products into 
this country, that it must lend to rapidly in- 
crease the natural fertility of the soil of Eng- 
land, since all their ingredients ought and do, 
in some measure, eventually find their way as 
a manure upon the land; thus, in 1834, were 
imported into the United Kingdom, according 
to a parliamentary report, now before me, of — 

Barilla .... 
Birk for tanners 
Butter - - - . 
Cheese - - - . 
Coffee, about . . - 
Ciirranta - - . . 
Figs .... 

Raisins - . . . 
Molasses - . . . 
Rice .... 

Seeds, clover ... 
Sugar .... 
Tea, abntit ... 
Wool and cotton, about - 

So that, including corn, oil-cake, timber, &c., 
&c., at least 1,000,000 tons of vegetable matters 
alone are yearly imported from foreign coun- 
tries into the United Kingdom, and added to 
the riches of the soil : thus our merchants are 
annually fertilizing, while the Commissioners 



Owls. 


qrs. 


lbs. 


215,750 


1 


22 


854,869 


3 


16 


136,674 





23 


134,085 


3 


5 


250,000 








141,540 


3 


1 


15,416 


3 


14 


158,290 


2 


1 


717,666 


3 


4 


218,867 


1 


20 


53,263 


1 


30 


4,732,749 


3 


22 


250,000 








3,000,000 









of Sewers are in an equal ratio impoverishing 
the island. But against this great fertilizing 
import, we have at present to set off the large 
and ever-flowing drainage of the cities and 
towns of the United Kingdom ; not only Lon- 
don, but Liverpool, Manchester, and a hundred 
others, are incessantly pouring the riches of 
the land into the sea; and to such an extent is 
this done at Bristol, that the Court of King's 
Bench was obliged, not long since, to interfere 
to protect the inhabitants from the nuisance 
created by the non-removal of the city drain- 
age from the bed of the Avon. 

On the Continent, the use of various manure 
powders made from night-soil is equally ex- 
tensive and successful. An elaborate report 
upon these was made a short time since to the 
Directors of the Thames Improvement Com- 
pany, by Dr. Granville, who had been commis- 
sioned to make the requisite inquiries and 
surveys ; and from this we learn that the con- 
sumption of night-soil in Flanders is very 
large ; but that the farmers, instead of employ- 
ing it in the dry or powdered state, rather pre- 
fer to mix it with water, and thus form a rich 
liquid manure. Of late years, the French 
farmers have adopted the same views with re- 
gard to night-soil; but the practice of their 
farmers, in this respect, is somewhat different. 
They prefer, for the sake of easy and conve- 
nient transport, to dry the stercoral substances 
to powder, which, bearing the name oCpoudrctte, 
is sent into the country from the neighbour- 
hood of the capital, and is sold at a high price 
The success of the establishment for the manu 
facture of poudrette, first formed near Parii 
about 40 years since, by a person named Bri- 
det, has been such that in almost every part of 
the kingdom similar manufactories have been 
erected, and nothing now is wasted. The Pari 
sians have at present several such large works. 
M. Bridet obtained a patent for his process of 
manufacturing the poudre vegetatif. He proved, 
by experiments, that the poudrette is many 
times more valuable than the best sort of ordi- 
nary manure. It was found, after repeated 
trials, that 240 lbs. of the poudrette would ma- 
nure an acre of ground with greater effect than 
8 cart-loads of the best stable manure. 

Under the name of " Alkalino-vegetative 
Powder," another preparation of night-soil was 
ushered into notice in France, and generally 
adopted, under the auspices of an agricultural 
lady, Madame Vivert Duboul, to whom, in con- 
sequence, the Royal Society of Agriculture, in 
1814, awarded their gold medal. This lady 
obtained a patent of 15 years for her process, 
which consisted in promoting fermentation in 
the inost liquid portion of the excrementitioua 
substances, and treating them with slaked lime 
afterwards, so as to form a powder, which has 
been found to be very superior to the first 
named poudrette upon cold, light, or moist soils. 
Its action is very powerful, and it extends its 
influence over the soil for several years with- 
out requiring, during that period, a repetition 
of the manuring process. This is not the case 
with the poudrette of Bridet, the influence of 
which over any soil is only annual. "M. 
Hermstadt gave, in the Monthly Journal of tht 
Economic Society of Potsdam, for August, '83a 

77J> 



MANURES. 

as the result of his experiments instituted with 
the view of ascertaining the comparative fer- 
tilizing powers of farm-yard manure and pou- 
drette, that poudrette is a complete substitute for 
common dung, whether with respect to price 
or quality." 

In 1818 a company was formed near Paris 
(Messrs. Donat & Co.), for the manufacture 
of another kind of manure from night-soil. 
The name of "urate" (from the principal in- 
gredient used) was given to it; and the Royal 
Society of Agriculture deemed it an object of 
sufficient importance to deserve being submit- 
ted to the examination of a joint committee of 
chemists and agriculturists, in which were in- 
cluded the names of Vanquelin, Dubois, &c. 
The report made by these distinguished men is 
full of interest to the agriculturist. Urine is 
the active ingredient, and plaster of Paris 
(gypsum), so common in the neighbourhood 
of that capital, the other constituent. This 
mixture is reported by the joint committee to 
be so powerful in its effects upon the dullest 
soil, that they recommend that it should only 
be employed by skilful and discriminating 
farmers. F'or this discovery the inventor re- 
ceived a gold medal from the government. A 
powerful manure of the same name is now ex- 
tensively prepared by the "London Manure 
Company," of 40 New Bridge street. It abounds 
with the salts of ammonia, phosphate of lime, 
and the animal matters of urine. It appears, 
also, from the fine, dry state of powder in which 
the "urate" is delivered, that it is admirably 
adapted for application by the drill with the 
seed. The quantity applied per acre is about 
5 CM't.; and, as it is almost entirely composed 
of organic matters, phosphate of lime (earthy 
salt of bones), sulphate of lime (gypsum), and 
various salts of ammonia, it is evidently a 
most powerful fertilizer, as well adapted for 
turnips as for the grass and grain crops. I 
have had an opportunity of inspecting the 
manufactory of this company, and from the 
care displayed in its preparation, the "urate" 
will, I think, be rapidly and extensively em- 
ployed by the farmer. 

In some recent reports of trials with this 
manure upon turnips, I observe that Mr. An- 
derson, of Oakley, Bedfordshire, describes it as 
proving "itself quite equal, if not superior, to 
the farm-yard manure. The land I used it on 
was a sharp gravel, and was much out of con- 
dition previous to the present crop. The 6 
tons were drilled with Swedish turnip-seed, 18 
inches apart, on 18 acies." 

Mr. Manning, of Elstow, says, "I drilled a 
ton of urate upon 3 acres, in rows 17 inches 
apart, upon a very hot, gravelly soil ; each side 
abutting on this was manured in the usual 
way, with good farm-yard manure, about 14 
loads per acre. The turnips on the urate were 
fit to hoe V days before the manured part; 
from their first appearance, a stranger could 
point oui die spot where it commenced and 
ended; the difference is still evident, and in its 
favour. Both the manured and urate pieces 
were sown the same day, about the 14th of 
June. I certainly consider it a good artificial 
dressing, and its fertilizing properties great." 

In 1820, another patent was granted to a M. 
780 



MANURES. 

Loques, by the French government, for a ma« 
nure called " stercorat," consisting of a mix- 
ture of both the solid and liquid parts of the 
excrementitious matters, and some earthy sub- 
stance. It is said to be particularly efficacious, 
and sells at a very high price. 

M. Parmentier, a celebrated French agricul- 
tural writer, some years since expressed his 
surprise at the tardiness of his countrymen in 
adopting the practice of their Flemish neigh- 
bours, and in continuing so long to pay money 
for getting rid of that which other nations first, 
and the French themselves afterwards, found 
to be so productive of wealth. He quotes the 
case of an individual who in former times had 
amassed great wealth by the sale of a manur- 
ing powder, which he manufactured from the 
very soil he was annually paid by government 
to remove out of the extensive military bar- 
racks of Lisle. 

There existed at one time much public pre- 
judice against this mode of rendering the land 
more productive, on the wild supposition that 
the obnoxious principles of such a manure 
would form part of the plants raised by means 
of it; but the most accurate experiments havell 
proved, that not the least vestige of such ani-" I 
mal substances is to be detected either in the 
ascending sap, or in the more solid parts of 
the plants so cultivated. A great extent of the i 
rich plains of Normandy are fertilized everyl 
year by the manure powder manufactured at ' ' 
present out of the cess-pools of Paris. 

The poudrette sells for eight francs the sestier 
on the premises, and the whole is fetched away 
at that price as soon as ready, and principally 
distributed within 12 leagues of Paris. Now, 
as there are 7^ sestiers in a ton, it is evident 
that the value of the latter is 60 francs, or 2/. 
10s. ; and yet the comparative agricultural value 
of this compost is not so great as that of the 
" Flemish manure." Messrs. Payen and Com^ 
pany, the patentees of the "engrais animalize," 
or disinfected night-soil, sell their " poudrette" 
at 2^ francs per ton under the market price 
of that of Montfaucon, and they have rarely 
any left on the premises. 

The engrais animalize, or disinfected night- 
soil, has recently been introduced into England 
by M. Poittevin, and a manufactory of it esta- 
blished in Whitechapel, near London. It is 
there produced by mixing the night-soil of the 
metropolis with a considerable quantity of re- 
cently prepared charcoal powder, and drying 
the mass in a very gentle heat. As thus pre- 
pared, its appearance somewhat resembles that 
of the friable, rich, vegetable mould of an old 
hot-bed ; it is of very dark colour, and totally 
devoid of smell. Its introduction into England 
has been too recent for any very extensive 
trials to have been yet made with it; my own 
are only now carrying on; these, however, 
promise well. In some comparative experi- 
ments made last year with bones, they were 
found to answer very completely. These re- 
sults have been confirmed by several commu- 
nications with which I have been recently 
favoured, stating that, to use the words of Col. 
Challoner, " this manure, in its effects upon 
the turnip crop, was fully equal to bones." 
And Mr. Beach, of Oakley Hall, near Basing- 



MANURES. 



MANURES. 



stoke, who had applied it by the drill with the 
seed, at the rate of 14 bushels per acre to a 
portion of a field of turnips ; and, on another 
portion, drilled three sacks per acre of crushed 
bones, mixed with turf-ashes ; and, on a third 
portion, with ordinary stable manure, says, in 
February last, "It is impossible to distinguish 
any difference between the three, some persons 
fancying one part, and some another, to be su- 
perior. In their early growth, the night-soil 
had a decided advantage. The seed came up 
as thick as rows of mustard-seed in a hot-bed, 
and the turnips were hoed out within a month." 
Mr. Beach adds a suggestion, which I think 
highly worthy of the attention of the turnip 
cultivators: — "I am so well satisfied with it for 
turnips, that I shall use a large quantity of the 
night-soil powder this season. I shall also mix 
10 or 12 bushels with a quarter of crushed 
bones, which I am inclined to think will an- 
swer well." I have recently been shown a 
letter from Mr. Robert M'Crea, of Grange 
House, near Londonderry, in which he speaks 
of this manure in the highest terms, as a dress- 
ing for turnips; those thus treated having car- 
ried off last year the first prize offered by the 
Londonderry Farming Society. 

A preparation of night-soil has been lately 
imported into Scotland and the north of Eng- 
land from Copenhagen, under the name of 
Owen's animalized carbon, which has answer- 
ed, when applied by the manure drill, very 
well for turnips. Mr. James Waldie, in his 
recent prize communication to the Ayrshire 
Agricultural Society, describes it as a useful, 
auxiliary manure, and as likely, in a great 
measure, to supersede the use of bones, now 
that the latter have risen to the enormous rate 
of at least 3s. per bushel. He says, " One ton 
of carbon, the cost of which is 3^, is sufficient 
for an acre of land; and from experiments 
which I have made this year, conjoined with 
what I have observed of two successive crops 
on a farm in this neighbourhood, where com- 
parative trials were made with different ma- 
nures, on a very extensive scale, it may be 
inferred, that one ton of carbon is equal to 25 
bushels of crushed bones." These experi- 
ments are supported by the observations of Mr. 
M. Milburn, of Thorpefield, near Thirsk, when 
describing, in his report to the Yorkshire Agri- 
cultural Society, the various fertilizers ad- 
vantageously employed on light lands in the 
cultivation of turnips; for, he observes, "Ani- 
malized carbon has been used advantageously ; 
16 bushels per acre, when drilled, is the quan- 
tity generally employed. Pigeons' dung is most 
valuable; rape-dusthasbeenusedsuccessfully; 
malt-dust is useful as a top-dressing." There 
is a chemical "seed manure" prepared by 
Messrs. Hodgson and Simpson, near Wakefield, 
which is applied, mixed with water, as a liquid 
manure, or steep to the seed-corn, and seems, 
from a communication with which they fa- 
voured me in March, 1840, to be a kind of 
secret preparation, composed principally of 
saccharine matter, ammonia, common salt, and 
nitre. This seed manure is applied according 
to the following directions, — instructions which 
might be advantageously followed in the use 
of other fertilizers: "Dissolve 28 lbs. of this 



manure in a pail, by adding water in small 
quantities, stirring it at the same time, until 
the mixture is of the consistence of thict 
cream ; it is then to be poured over the quan- 
tity of seed intended to be sown on an acre of 
land, and the whole repeatedly turned over, so 
that it appears one uniform mixture ; it is then 
to be spread out thin on the floor to dry for 10 
or 12 hours, and mixed with a sufficient quan- 
tity of soot, or any kind of dry ashes, to render 
it sufficiently triable to be sown by the hand or 
by the drill." The quantity thus directed to be 
applied per acre, is certainly very small, and 
yet, according to the testimonials which I have 
seen, the effect it produces is considerable. 
Mr. Milburn, of Thorpefield, in one of these, 
tells us: "A new principle in the application 
of manure has been developed in the use of 
the chemical seed manure, which, by applying 
a chemical composition to the seed itself, not 
only secures immediate effect in the precise 
situation required, but highly economizes the 
quantity necessary. I have great pleasure in 
detailing a very successful experiment with it 
on a barley crop. The field had grown a corn 
crop the preceding year — part of the field was 
dressed with a coating of fermented farm-yard 
dung — the remaining part with the chemical 
seed manure, at the rate of 28 lbs. per acre. 
The result was, that the barley sown with the 
chemical manure exhibited a decided supe- 
riority over the rest of the field, in colour, 
healthiness, and general appearance, and main- 
tained that superiority to the time of cutting, 
so much so, that it lodged considerably more 
than the rest of the field." 

Various modes besides those to which I have 
alluded, have, at different times, been suggested, 
by which night-soil might be rendered more 
concentrated and more portable. Simply dry- 
ing it has been attempted with some success; 
but though by this means about 70 per cent. 
of water is driven off, yet, at the same time, a 
considerable portion of ammoniacal and other 
gaseous matters are vaporized : thus the ma- 
nure is impoverished, while the stench of the 
operation is intolerable. Then, again, it has 
been mixed with lime, in the way recommend- 
ed by Davy; but judging by my own experi- 
ments, and those of my neighbours, I am fully 
persuaded that this is not the most economical 
way of using night-soil. The lime certainly 
dissolves, and partially decomposes it, but the 
fertilizing effect of a given weight of night-soil 
mixed with lime is clearly not so great as when 
a similar weight of it is used either by itself, 
or mixed with some merely drying odour-ab- 
sorbing substance. There are several prepa- 
ration of this kind made in large quantities in 
London, such as those of Mr. Clarke, and of 
Mr. Lance, the author of the Golden Farmer, all 
of which, I believe, are excellent manures ; but 
I have not had an opportunity of examining 
any of their manufactures except those of the 
London Manure Company, and of the Messrs. 
Poittevin. The preparation of these gentle- 
men is the same as that so successfully carried 
into effect by M. Payen at Paris ; it combines, 
and successfully too, the great object of driving 
off the water of urine and night-soil by a gentle 
heat, after all its gaseous matters have been 
3 U 781 



MANURES. 



MANURES. 



absorbed, by mixing with it a portion of newly 
prepared carbon, in the finest possible state of 
division, than which no known substance has 
such great powers of absorption of all gaseous 
matters like those which abound in and impart 
the disagreeable odour to night-soil. These 
purifying powers of charcoal have been long 
known : the medical man applies it in putres- 
cent cases, the housewife rubs it powdered over 
her tainted meat, and the sailor chars the in- 
side of his water-casks for a similar purpose. 
The presence of the carbon in the manure thus 
prepared is valuable in two ways; gradually it 
combines with the oxygen of the atmosphere, 
forming in the state of carbonic acid gas the 
food of plants ; and, at the same time, all the 
gaseous matters of putrefaction with which it 
is saturated are thus preserved, stored up, as it 
were, for the service of the roots of the culti- 
vator's crops; nothing is lost, the emission of 
the gases from the slowly dissolving charcoal 
being so gradual as to be almost, if not en- 
tirely, imperceptible to the senses. 

Such, then, are the principal facts already 
ascertained with regard to the fertilizing uses 
of night-soil and other decomposing manures, 
in thnir ordinary form, and when reduced by 
varicias processes to such a state of dryness, 
so as to be easily applied in the state of pow- 
der to the soil by the drill. In thus investigat- 
ing the advantages of rendering manures more 
concentrated, I have been induced chiefly to 
confine my attention to one only of the organic 
manures, night-soil, because, from its nature, 
cheapness, and powerful eff"ects, it affords, per- 
haps, greater facilities for accomplishing this 
important object than any other excrement, and 
is, besides, more commonly wasted than any 
other fertilizer. I hardly deem it necessary to 
make any remarks upon the importance of all 
researches which tend to the better understand- 
ing of the powers and best mode of employing 
manures, for with such investigations is inse- 
parably connected the gradual and steady in- 
crease of the productiveness of our country. 
Such improvements, too, are full of interest, not 
only to the cultivator, but to every one to whom 
the vegetable kingdom is an object of import- 
ance. And, as I have elsewhere had occasion 
to remark, it is hardly possible, in reflecting 
upon the essential use of organic fertilizers in 
the production of our food, to avoid being im- 
pressed with the wisdom and beneficence of 
the Creator, in thus making decomposing nox- 
ious organic substances the nutriment of vege- 
tation, rendering the very animal substances 
which the grass once formed, its food when 
dead. This interchange of their elements, so 
essential to each, is equally incessant and re- 
markable, the death and decomposition of the 
one ever imparting fresh food and life to the 
other. Thus the same gases which are at one 
moment constituting the noxious products of 
putrefaction, are in the next existing in the ex- 
quisite aroma of the flower. These facts are, 
indeed, too apparent to escape our observation ; 
and the marvellous rapidity and advantage to 
as of these magic vegetable combinations can- 
not but excite both our curiosity and our grati- 
tude. (Quart. Journ. of jlgr. vol. x. p. 142.) 

Manures, Hi^ffy of. See the heads Ashes, 
782 



Fahm-yard Manure, Bones, Chalk, Lime, 
Green Sand, &c. The application of manures 
became one of the sustaining arts of life as 
soon as man was ordained to earn his bread 
by the sweat of his brow. From that time to 
the present, the art of manuring the soil has 
been steadily improving; and there is no doubt 
but that it will go on advancing, as long as 
mankind continue to increase. 

The first manure used by man, as soon as 
he began to dwell in fixed habitations and till 
the land around him, would, of course, be that 
of his domesticated animals ; but he is natu- 
rally averse to labour, and consequently this 
operation would be postponed until the rich 
alluvial soils, which would be certainly the 
first selected, were exhausted by over-cropping, 
and by the increase of population the poorer 
descriptions forced into cultivation ; the occu- 
pier of the land would naturally avoid, if pos- 
sible, the trouble of spreading the dung of his 
farm-yards over his fields. Instances of this 
kind have not been wanting in recent periods 
in the newly settled rich prairies of America, 
in which many cases have occurred where, in 
consequence of the enormous accumulation of 
dung around the farmer's sheds, he has been 
induced to remove his buildings to a new spot, 
rather than undertake the greater labour of re- 
moving the masses of fermenting manure which 
so deeply encumbered his old farm-yard. The 
first rude mode in which this was conveyed to 
the land, was naturally by hand-baskets, or by 
sledges or barrows ; the use of beasts of bur- 
den was necessarily a later agricultural im- 
provement; and, at first, there is no doubt but 
that manure was carried on their backs to the 
fields, as is even now practised in the moun- 
tainous districts of the Continent, and in some 
parts of the north of England, and in Devon- 
shire. Dung-carts were a much later improve- 
ment ; and the preparation of compost heaps, 
and exciting and regulating their fermentation 
by the use of the fork, has been a much more 
modern discovery than is usually believed. 

Irrigation, which is a mode of applying the 
weakest of liquid manure, by the use of the 
waters of rivers, is of a very ancient date. It 
has been used from a very early period in Italy 
and the East ; in fact, in many warm, sandy 
countries, as in China, a copious supply of 
water is an essential requisite for the success- 
ful cultivation of the earth. Water-meadows 
were first constructed in England, on a tolera- 
bly regular system, about the termination of the 
17th century. Some of the most excellent of 
those in Wiltshire, such as those in the Wyley 
Bourne, were made between the year? 1700 
and 1705; and about half a century afterwards, 
the celebrated Craigintinny meadows were 
formed near Edinburgh, by which the town 
drainage is rendered available in the produc- 
tion of the most luxuriant crops of grass. 
These meadows were considerably enJarged 
towards the end of the 18th century, and again 
in 1821. These might be very advantageously 
imitated in the neighbourhood of other large 
towns. 

Amongst the Egyptians and Israelites, whose 
climates were hot, a plentiful supply of mois- 
ture was necessary for a healthful vegetation ; 



MANURES. 



MANURES. 



and the simile of desolation, employed by Isaiah 
(chap. i. 30), is, "a garden that hath no water." 
In Egypt they irrigated their lands, and the 
water thus supplied was by an hydraulic ma- 
chine, worked by men, in the same manner as 
the modern tread-wheel. To this practice Mo- 
ses alludes, when he reminds the Israelites of 
their sowing their seed in Egypt, and watering 
it with their feet; a practice still pursued in 
Arabia. (Deut. xi. 10; Niebuhr's Voyage en Ara- 
bic, i. p. 121.) 

Of their knowledge of manures we know 
little. Wood was so scarce that they consumed 
the dung of their animals for fuel. (Parkhurst, 
p. 764.) Perhaps it was this deficiency of car- 
bonaceous matters for their lands, that makes 
an attention to fallowing so etrictly enjoined. 
{Levit. xix. 23 ; xxv. 3. Hosea x. 12.) 

Agriculture was too important and beneficial 
an art not to demand, and the Greeks and Ro- 
mans were nations too polished and discerning 
not to afford to it, a very plentiful series of pre- 
siding deities. They attributed to Ceres, as the 
Egyptians did to Isis, the invention of the art 
of tilling the soil. Superstition is a prolific 
weakness ; and consequently, by degrees, every 
operation of agriculture, and every period of 
the growth of crops, obtained its presiding 
tutelary deity. The goddess Terra was the 
guardian of the soil ; Slerculius presided over 
manures, &c. 

Xenophon recommends green crops to be 
ploughed in, and leguminous plants to be raised 
for the purpose ; "for such," he says, "enrich 
the soil as much as dung." He also recom- 
mends earth that has been long under water 
to be put upon land to enrich it. Theophras- 
tus, who flourished in the 4th century b. c, is 
still more particular upon the subject of ma- 
nures. He states his conviction that a proper 
mixture of soils, as clay with sand, and the 
contrary, would produce crops as luxuriant as 
could be effected by the agency of manures. 
He describes the properties that render dungs 
beneficial to vegetation, and dwells upon com- 
posts. (Hist. Plant, ii. c. 8.) He also recom- 
mends the stubble at reaping-time to be left 
long, if the straw is abundant; "and this, if 
burned, will enrich the soil very much, or it 
may be cut and mixed with dung." 

From the outline which we can draw from 
ancient authorities of the agriculture of the 
Romans, we shall be surprised to find how 
little they differed from the methods we now 
employ. We are superior to them in our im- 
plements, and consequently in the facility of 
performing the operations of tillage; but of the 
fundamental practices of the art they were as 
fully aware as ourselves. No modern writer 
could lay down more correct and comprehen- 
sive axioms than Cato did, in the following 
words ; and whoever strictly obeys them will 
never be ranked among the ignorant of the art. 
" What is good tillage 1" says this oldest of the 
Roman teachers of agriculture. "To plough. 
What is the second 7 To plough. The third 
is to manure." (Cato, 61.) In his 4th chapter 
he thus expresses his conviction of the utility 
of manure: "Study to have a large dunghill, 
keep your compost carefully ; when you carry 
it out, scatter it and pulverize it; carry it out in 



the autumn. Lay dung round the roots of your 
olives in autumn." And in his 29th chapter : 
" Divide your manure ; carry half of it to the 
field when you sow your provender, and if there 
are olive trees, put some dung to their roots." 
In his 37th chapter he advises the use of pi- 
geons' dung for gardens, meadows, and corn 
lands, as well as amerca, or dregs of oil: and re- 
commends the farmer to preserve carefully the 
dung of all descriptions of animals. This was 
advice given 150 years before the Christian 
era; and now, after the lapse of 2000 years, the 
direction must be still the same. We learn 
from Columella (i. 6) and Pliny (xvii. 9 ; xxiv. 
19) that they collected their manure and stored 
it in covered pits, so as to check the escape of 
the drainage ; and sowed pulverized pigeons' 
dung, and the like, over their crops, and mixed 
it with the surface-soil by means of the sarcle 
or hoe. (Coluni. i. 16; Cato, 36.) They were 
aware of the benefit of mixing together earths 
of opposite qualities, and sowing lupines, and 
ploughing them in while green. (Varro, i. 23.) 

Virgil is very particular in describing fertil- 
izers. With common manure he mentions 
ashes {Georg. lib. i. 80), pumice-stone, and 
shells. (Lib. ii. v. 346, 50, and in v. 250, 8.) 
He advises the seeds of corn to be mixed with 
saltpetre and the dregs of olive oil, to make the 
grain swell. (Lib. i. 195.) Irrigation was 
employed in his days. (Lib. i. 106, 9.) The 
Italian farmers also fed down over-luxuriant 
crops (lib. i. 3), and burned the stubble. (Lib. 
i. v. 84, 8.) 

Varro (lib. i. c. 38) mentions many kinds of 
animal manure, and is particularly minute in 
his enumeration of the dung of birds, and in- 
cludes even that of blackbirds and thrushes 
kept in aviaries. 

Columella (lib. ii. c. 5) advises the cultivator 
not to carry out to the field more dung than the 
labourers can cover with the soil the same 
day, as the exposure to the sun does it con- 
siderable injury; and he enumerates (lib. ii. 
c. 15), as well-known fertilizers, night-soil, the 
excrements of birds and sheep, urine (espe- 
cially for apple-trees and vines), dregs of oil, 
the excrements of cattle, the ass, the goat, of 
pigs; ashes, chopped stalks of the lupine (or 
hop), leaves of trees, brambles, &c., and mud 
from sewers or ditches. Pliny also mentions 
that lime was employed as a fertilizer in Gaul, 
and marl in the same country and Britain; but 
we can only surmise thence, that they were also 
probably employed by the Romans. (Pliny, 
xvii. 5.) 

Liquid manure is not a mode of fertilizing 
the land altogether of modern origin. For a 
fermented mixture of water and night-soil has 
from a very early period been employed by the 
Chinese farmers. Those of Italy certainly prac- 
tised irrigation in the days of Virgil {Georgic. 
lib. i. V. 106, 9) ; and Cato adds, they employed 
a mixture of grape-stones and water to fertilize 
their olive trees. (Lib. xxxvii.) Columella 
praises very highly the use of stale, putrid 
urine for vines and apple-trees (lib. ii. c. xv.) ; 
commending also the lees of oil for the same 
purpose. More modern agricultural authors 
have united in praising various liquid prepara- 
tions ; thus Evelyn (whose ingredients mo.st of 

783 



MANURES. 



MANURES. 



ihese authors recommend), in his Treatise on 
Earth (p. 123 — 160), gives several recipes, 
some of which have served as the bases for 
recent modes of preparing liquid manure ; 
such as the dung of cattle, urine, salt, and lime, 
nitre. 

The employment of crushed bones as a manure 
is but a very modern improvement ; it is not 
one of the fertilizers even mentioned by the 
early agricultural writers ; and to this neglect 
of bones several causes contributed. The ne- 
cessary machinery for crushing them was, in 
the early ages of agricultaral efforts, totally 
unknown; and bones when unbroken dissolve 
in the soil much too slowly to be of any appa- 
rent value as a fertilizer. The use of bones is 
an improvement, for which agriculture is en- 
tirely indebted to the enterprize of the English 
farmers. The refuse matters produced by the 
ivory and bone turners and cutlers of Sheffield, 
which speedily accumulated in very considera- 
ble heaps around their manufactories, first 
drew the Yorkshire farmers' attention to bone 
manure. The cultivators of the poor soils in 
the neighbourhood of that town, towards the 
conclusion of the last century, began to carry 
away these refuse matters with some readiness, 
and the turners were at first too glad to be 
relieved from this bone-rubbish, to think of 
charging them any thing for the valuable ma- 
nure they had been the first to employ. As, 
however, the Yorkshire farmers soon began to 
scramble for these bone-turnings, the manu- 
facturers of Sheffield speedily made a small 
charge for them, which has since gradually 
increased in amount. It required, however, 
some time to bring about this great and suc- 
cessful improvement. Mr.T. Ellin, late master 
cutler of Sheffield, well remembers, some fifty 
years since, the bone refuse carted into Shef- 
field Moor, and buried in pits as worthless 
rubbish ; these old deposits, often found in 
digging foundations, are now carried off with 
much alacrity to the bone-crushing mills. The 
farmers at first gave sixpence a bushel for 
these parings and turnings ; of these about 600 
tons are annually sold in Sheffield. By the 
sole use of this fertilizer, great breadths of 
very poor land have been successfully brought 
into cultivation, and maintained in a state of 
the greatest fertility in the north and east of 
England and Scotland. Their effects upon the 
wolds of Lincolnshire has been magical. The 
first person, perhaps, who successfully used the 
roughly broken bones from the dog kennel as 
a manure was General St. Leger, in 1775. 
(Evelyn's Sylva, by Dr. Hunter.) 

Manuring with fish was necessarily an im- 
provement of an advanced state of agricul- 
ture ; we have no mention of them as thus 
used in the early agricultural authors ; the im- 
mense shoals of sticklebacks, and other small 
fresh-water fish, which once tenanted the fen 
counties of England, first gave the farmers of 
Lincolnshire an opportunity of using this rich 
oily manure ; they were towards the latter end 
of the eighteenth century sold by the fen fisher- 
men at about sixpence a bushel ; and Arthur 
Young tells us, that at one village on the bor- 
ders of Cambridgeshire, 2000Z.have been taken 
lor these fish in one season. It is not often that 
784 



a glut of herrings, pilchards, or other valuable 
fish, enables the farmer to obtain them at a rate 
sufficiently reasonable for his land, a purpose 
for which they have often, however, been em- 
ployed with the most luxuriant effect on the 
coasts of Scotland and Cornwall. Sprats, and 
the fish called five-fingers, are used to a great 
extent by the Essex farmers ; the demand for 
these has of late years been fully equal to 
the supply, although from the evidence given 
before a Committee of the House of Com- 
mons in 1833, it seems that during the season 
more than 400 boats are employed in catching 
these fish, for the purpose of selling them as 
manure. 

Manuring with calcareous sand was practised 
very early in the middle ages by the English 
farmers. This they obtained not only from 
inland pits, but from the sea-shore, especially 
in Norfolk and Cornwall. The privilege of 
freely taking it from the sea-shore, the West 
of England farmers enjoyed under a grant 
from Richard Duke of Cornwall, confirmed by 
another of 45th of Henry III., A. D. 1261. This 
is expressed in the preamble of the act of the 
6th James 11. c. 18, A. D. 1609, Arhich says, 
" Whereas, the sea-sand by long trial and expe- 
rience hath been found to be very profitable for 
the bettering of land, and especially for the 
increase of corn and tillage within the counties 
of Cornwall and Devon, where the most part 
of the inhabitants have not commonly used 
any other ivorth for the bettering of their arable 
grounds and pastures." This act, M'hich em- 
powers the farmers to take this sand free from 
any toll, was, after being several times renewed, 
made perpetual by the 16th Charles I., c. 4. 
This wise encouragement of the use of ma- 
nures by the legislature of England has not 
been confined to the sea-lanil of Padstow har- 
bour: thus, uncrushed bones passing through 
a turnpike to be crushed for manure are exempt 
from toll ; and carts loaded with common ma- 
nure are equally free; or even when going 
empty to fetch it; but this exception does not 
extend to lime. And in authorizing the con- 
struction of railways, parliament has carefully 
provided, that the tolls levied upon the ma- 
nures conveyed by them shall be much smaller 
than those demandable for any other descrip- 
tion of goods : thus, in the Birmingham and 
Gloucester Railway Act, the authorized toll is, 
for manure of all kinds, only one penny per 
ton per mile ; while coals, &c. are to pay three- 
halfpence, sugar twopence, cottons and other 
manufactured goods, threepence per mile. The 
same proportionate rate of tolls are authorized 
to be taken on several other railways, such as 
the Birmingham and Derby, the Midland Coun- 
ties ; and on the Eastern the difference in 
favour of the farmer is still greater ; for while 
limestone, sand, and clay are to pay a penny, 
and all other manures three-halfpence, coals 
are to pay twopence, sugar, &c. fourpence, and 
manufactured goods sixpence per mile. 

Saltpetre is, perhaps, the most ancient of all 
the saline manures, and its introduction is not, 
as is commonly believed, a modern improve- 
ment. It is commended by Virgil as a steep 
with olive oil, to make the seed-grain swell 
To this knowledge of the fertilizing powers ct 



MANURES. 



MANURES. 



saltpetre the early cultivators of the earth were 
probably assisted from noticing that those soils 
which naturally produce saltpetre are ever 
found to be of the most fertile description, and 
that all those rich eastern fields which are so 
celebrated in Palestine for their fertility, abound 
in this salt. Three centuries since, according 
to Googe, it was employed by the German 
farmers. " Some saie coleworts prospereth 
best in salt grounde, and therefore they use 
to cast upon the grounde saltpetre or ashes." 
In 1676, Evelyn, in his Discourse on Earth, tells 
us, " rains and dews, cold and dry winters, with 
store of snow, which I reckon equal to the 
richest manures, impregnated as they are with 
celestial nitre ;" which, although an error, yet 
displays his opinion of the lertilizing power of 
.litre. " I firmly believe," he adds, " that were 
saltpetre, I mean fictitious nitre, to be obtained 
in plenty, we should need but little other com- 
posts to meliorate our grounds." Evelyn re- 
commends saltpetre to be used in solution, 
three pounds of this salt to fifteen gallons of 
water mixed with earth. And in this way Sir 
Kenelm Digby made some barley grow very 
luxuriantly by watering it with a very weak 
solution. 

It would be, perhaps, difficult to name any 
other substance in the catalogue of modern 
fertilizers whose powers have been so often 
disputed as common salt. For this controversy 
many reasons may be assigned. It has been 
generally employed with little scientific accu- 
racy, has been tried in a manner far too care- 
less for any reliance to be placed upon the 
majority of the reports which have been fur- 
nished to us, and for many years a prohibitory 
duty rendered it inaccessible to the farmer; an 
impost which has not very long been removed, 
and which yet was the occasion of a great 
variety of blundering trials, miscalled experi- 
ments. The duty on salt was indeed one of 
long continuance. It originated, as a war-tax, 
in the ninth year of the reign of William the 
Third, and was not removed until after an 
arduous debate at the end of that of George 
the Third. The price of salt, thus raised to 
more than 20s. a bushel, was in consequence 
too expensive a fertilizer to be employed by 
the English farmers. During that long period 
t was known only in their traditions. Through 
these they were told that it was formerly used 
to kill worms and to destroy weeds, that it 
cleansed fallows, increased the produce of light 
arable soils, and sweetened grass. • These re- 
ported advantages were rendered more proba- 
le by certain facts that had been forced a* it 
•ere upon their attention. Every gardener 
uas aware that the brine of the pickling tubs, 
when poured over his heaps of weeds, not only 
killed those weeds and their attendant seeds 
and grubs, but that these heaps were then con- 
verted into so many parcels of the most fertil- 
izing manure, whose good effects, especially 
upon potatoes and carrots, were very decided. 
It was well known, too, that a single grain of 
salt, placed upon an earth-worm, speedily de- 
stroyed It; thatif brine was poured upon a lawn, 
from that spot all the earth-worms were imme- 
diately ejected; and that if it was sprinkled over 
a portion of the grass, on this salted portion all 
99 



the deer, or sheep, or horses of the park coa. 
stantly repaired, in preference to any other 
part of the field. Salt evidently therefore de- 
stroyed weeds and worms, and rendered grass 
more palatable to live-stock ; and upon con- 
sulting the old agricultural writers, it was 
found that the notices of salt as a manure 
were many and important, and that salt had 
been employed in various agricultural opera- 
tions from a very early period. Thus, it is 
referred to by St. Luke, chap. xiv. 34; Virgil 
reprobates a salt soil ; Cato recommends it for 
cattle, hay, straw, &c.; as does Virgil (Lib. iii. 
V. 394). The early German farmers knew of 
its value for sheep ; and for the same purpose, 
in Spain, it has been employed from the earliest 
ages. In 1750, Conrad Herebasch commends 
it as a certain prevention of the " murrain or 
rotte." In 1653, Sir Hugh Piatt speaks of salt 
as a fertilizer, in his usual visionary manner, 
and details the result of a very successful 
experiment on a '^ patch of ground" at Clapham, 
from which some late writers upon the uses of 
salt have led their readers into great blunders, 
by stating this experiment to have been per- 
formed upon an acre of land. 

The use of salt by the cultivator, since the 
repeal of the duties in 1823, has been consider- 
able, however, in many districts of England, in 
spite of these blundering instructions, ill-con- 
trived experiments, and ignorant conclusions. 
If to this be added the natural difficulty of ob- 
taining correct results in any experiments in 
which vegetable life is concerned, we need no 
longer be surprised that many contradictory 
statements have been made with regard not 
only to salt, but to all other fertilizers. 

A mixture oi salt and lime was recommended 
as a manure by the celebrated German chemist, 
Glauber, in his "Hints for the Prosperity of 
Agriculture," more than two centuries since. 
He at some length described the mode of pre- 
paring it, and characterized the compound of 
soda and chloride of calcium produced as 
" most fit for dunging lands, and to be used in- 
stead of the common beasts' dung." (Pros- 
perity of Germany, vol. i. p. 417.) Christopher 
Packe, who, in 1688, published a huge folio 
translation of Glauber's works, enforces the 
value of this fertilizing compound with much 
earnestness in his preface, describing it " as 
the cheapest of all mixtures for the enriching 
of poor and barren land." The want of scien- 
tific knowledge amongst farmers, and the hin- 
drance to the use of salt through the duties 
which were so long imposed upon it, naturally 
prevented any extensive use of this fertilizer; 
yet there have been many accidental or occa- 
sional notices of its value. Thus, for a great 
many years, it has been the practice of the 
farmers of Essex, and other English maritime 
counties, to steep their seed-wheat in sea-water, 
strengthened with salt, until it is of a sufficient 
gravity to float an egg, and then roll the brined 
seed in lime. This they consider not only pre- 
vents smut in the corn, but promotes the gene- 
ral health and vigour of the plant. The Essex 
farmers have a tradition that this plan was dis- 
covered by the accident of a farmer's labourer 
dropping a sack of seed-wheat from the boat in 
which he was crossing the mouth of the River 
3 u 2 785 



MANURES. 



MANURES. 



Crouch. It was long, however, the supersti- 
tious belief of the district, that the salt-water 
•wetting must be the result of amc?cn< to produce 
a good effect. The Cornish farmers have for 
centuries used the saline calcareous sand of the 
coasts of Devon, which contains 64 per cent, 
of lime, fetching it for some miles from the 
shore, in preference, says Dr. Paris, to the un- 
salted sand, which they can procure at their 
own doors. The very mixture of salt and lime 
was successfully employed in Ayrshire many 
years since. And George Sinclair, in 1818, 
very nearly demonstrated at Woburn the value 
of this application. He unfortunately, how- 
ever, applied the salt and the lime separately, 
yet still with considerable benefit. (C W. John- 
son's Essay on Salt, p. 40.) The use of salt and 
lime was noticed in the year 1800, by Mr. Hol- 
lingshead, of Chorley, in Lancashire, who ob- 
serves, " Lime prepared for manure should 
be slacked with salt springs or salt-water; 
'ime so slacked will have a double effect." In 
1804, in the experiments of the late Rev. Ed- 
mund Cartwright, upon potatoes, of 25 ma- 
nures, or mixtures of manures, salt and lime 
were found superior, in their product of pota- 
toes, to 19 others. And in 1816, Mr. James 
Manley, of Anderton, in Cheshire, when giving 
his evidence before a committee of the House 
of Commons, on the salt duties, mentioned that 
in getting marl (which is a mixture of carbo- 
nate of lime, alumina, and silica), he had 
found that, by mixing it with brine instead of 
water, the portion of the field on which the 
t;iincd marl was used yielded 5 bushels of 
wheat per acre more than that portion on 
which the watered marl was employed. 

The use of ashes as manure may be traced 
to a very early age. The Roman farmers were 
well acquainted with paring and burning. 
Cato recommends the burning of the twigs and 
branches of trees, and spreading them on the 
land. Paliadius says, that soils thus treated 
would not require any other manure for 5 
years. They also burnt their stubbles — a prac- 
tice common amongst the Jews in Palestine. 
The ancient Britons, according to Pliny, were 
used to burn their wheat-straw and stubble, 
and spread the ashes over the soil ; and Conrad 
Herebasch, a German counsellor, in his Trea- 
tise on Husbandry, published in 1575, which was 
translated by Googe, tells us (p. 80), "In Lom- 
bardie they like so well the use of ashes, as 
they esteem it far above doung, thinking doung 
not meete to be used for the unwholesomness 
thereof." 

Gypsum, or sulphate of lime, when employed 
as it exists in an impure state in ashes, which 
owe all their virtues to the gypsum they contain, 
was used by the early Italian farmers. Virgil 
(Georg. i. 1. 80) gives the following injunction : 

"Neve 

Eficetiis cinerum immundum jactare per agrns." 

"Nor hesitate to scatter the dirty ashes over 
the exhausted soils." And he also recom- 
mends, in addition to ashes, two other reme- 
dies for sterility of soil, viz. stercoratio (or ma- 
nuring), and glebarum cum stipulis incensio 
Uhe turning up and burning the stubble). Ro- 
bert Ainslie, steward to the celebrated John, 
Earl of Stair, at Culhorn, in Wigtownshire, had 
786 



very nearly discovered the agricultural advan- 
tages of gypsum in 1728; for in that year the 
earl sent from London several hogsheads of 
peal-ashes, which abound in sulphate of lime, 
with directions for their use, describing them 
to Ainslie as being much employed in the 
south of England as an admirable top-dressing 
for grass, and even tillage lands. These ashes 
were used, according to his lordship's direc- 
tions, with great success, on both barley and 
grass lands. Ainslie, convinced of their fer- 
tilizing properties, immediately began to burn 
turf, moss, and peat, for the use of the farm 
under his care, in considerable quantities; he, 
moreover, submitted these ashes to what he 
very ludicrously calls an analysis, and gravely 
tells us, that " with a great proportion of earthy 
substances, they contained many particles of 
lime or shelly matter." This was most proba- 
bly the gypsum. 

The use of the mineral gypsum as a manure 
was discovered in 1768, according to Kirwan, 
by M. Meyer, a German clergyman of great 
talents ; but as in those days the chemical 
composition of gypsum was totally unknown, 
he naturally confounded it with other calca- 
reous earths which it resembled in appearance. 
His merit consisted in discovering the use of 
a certain mineral substance existing in his 
own neighbourhood, which was long after- 
wards shown to be sulphate of lime, but of 
which fact Meyer was entirely ignorant. Even 
as early as 1792 gypsum was tried very suc- 
cessfully by Mr. H. Smith, of Highstead, near 
Siitingbourne, who first noticed, what has 
since been confirmed by numerous observa- 
tions, that clover manured with gypsum is 
always preferred by horses and cattle to all 
other clover. 

Sir Joseph Banks recommended this sub- 
stance as a fertilizer to Lord Leicester, and, at 
his suggestion, it was tried at Holkham many 
years since; but, owing to mismanagement in 
its application, it did not then appear to an- 
swer the intended purpose. Some years after- 
wards, owing to the warm recommendation of 
Mr. Grisenthwaite, it was again employed 
pretty extensively by the same nobleman, and 
with great success ; and so satisfied was this 
great friend of agriculture with the result, that 
he presented Mr. Grisenthwaite with a piece 
of plate for his exertions in its introduction. 
In a letter with which I was favoured from the 
Rev. R. Collyer, dated Holkham, October 17th, 
1837, that gentleman tells me, "Lord Leicester 
wishes me to say, in regard to gypsum, that its 
effects, when applied to clover and sainfoin, 
have been invariably such as to induce him to 
speak from his own experience in favourable 
terms of that fertilizer." It has since been 
gradually creeping into use in the east and 
south of England. Mills have been erected for 
grinding it, and considerable quantities have 
been brought from the northern counties ; but 
still not one-thousandth part of the quantity is 
employed in agriculture that would be used if 
its correct mode of application were more 
generally known ; since, from the small quan- 
tity used per acre, and the low price of the arti- 
cle, it constitutes one of the cheapest of the 
artificial manures. 



MANURES. 



MANURES. 



From this sketch of the history of the chief 
manures, and of the steady improvement in the 
mode of applying them, we may safely conclude 
that, as regards the cultivation of even the most 
barren soils, the drifting lands of Norfolk, the 
heath-lands of the north of England and Scot- 
land, and even the shingle of its sea-coast, much 
will yet be effected by improved modes of ap- 
plying manures. Let such improvements pro- 
ceed ; let science go hand in hand with practice ; 
let the naturalist discover new cuitivatable ve- 
getables, or new varieties of those already 
known; let the chemist yield his magic aid to 
demonstrate the best mode of promoting their 
growth, and increasing the fertility of the soil ; 
and then I fearlessly assert that many more 
than the present inhabitants of Britain may be 
amplj' supported by the produce of the land of 
our birth. "Nature," said Davy, "amidst all 
her changes, is continually directing her re- 
sources towards the production and multiplica- 
tion of life ; and in the wise and grand econo- 
my of the whole system, even the agents that 
appear injurious to the hopes and destructive 
to the comforts of man are, in fact, ultimately 
connected with a more exalted state of his 
powers and his condition. His industry is 
awakened, his activity kept alive, even by the 
defects of climates and seasons. By the acci- 
dents which interfere with his efforts he is made 
to exert his talents to look farther into futurity, 
and to consider the vegetable kingdom, not as 
a secure and unalterable inheritance, sponta- 
neously providing for his wants, but as a doubt- 
ful and insecure possession, to be preserved 
only by labour, and extended and perfected by 
ingenuity." {Lectures, p. 267.) 

Manure, Law withrcgard to. — In most English 
farm-leases there are covenants introduced 
with regard to manure, which are often worse 
than useless ; encumbering the efforts of the 
skilful cultivator, and rarely improving the 
practice of the ignorant, lazy, and unprincipled. 
Thus, by some leases the farmer is allowed, on 
certain conditions, to sell his straw and hay, 
and bring on to the farm in its stead a given 
weight of manure (commonly 2 tons of stable- 
dung for a load of straw, and 3 tons for a load 
of hay); in others he is restrained from selling 
either; in others, from liming or chalking his 
land. In most leases he covenants to spread 
the manure on the farm, and to leave it, in the 
concluding year of his term, properly laid up 
in heaps, if it is not already employed on the 
land. 

The mere relation of landlord and tenant is 
a sufficient consideration for the tenant's pro- 
mise to manage a farm in a husbandlike man- 
ner, and not to carry away any straw, dung, 
compost, &c. ; but to promise to spend 60/. 
worth of manure every year, is not in law an 
obligation arising out of the bare relation of 
landlord and tenant A tenant from year to 
vear, under a notice to quit, cannot remove 
manure, except according to the custom of the 
tountry, and, if necessary, he may be restrained 
by an injunction. The custom of the country 
IS usually followed with regard to the manage- 
ment and sale of manure; but in case there is 
a written agreement, no inquiry can be made 
as to the custom of the country ; and when an 



express stipulation is made, the custom of the 
country is excluded entirely. In this case Lord 
Lyndhurst said, "The offgoing tenant was 
bound by the custom of the country to leave 
the manure on the premises, and was entitled 
to be paid for it by the landlord, or the succeed- 
ing tenant ; but in this case they did not rely 
on the custom. The lease contained a cove- 
nant that the tenant, on quitting the farm, 
should not sell or take away the manure which 
should be in the fold, but should leave it to be 
expended on the land by the landlord or his 
succeeding tenant. It is to be left for their 
use, and there is no provision as to any pay- 
ment in respect of it. We are of opinion, 
therefore, that the plaintiff is not entitled to be 
paid for the manure." But where an agree- 
ment is silent as to the question of manures, 
then the custom of the country is valid in law. 
If the outgoing tenant has covenanted with 
his landlord to sell the manure to the incoming 
tenant at a valuation, and to leave it on the 
farm, the outgoing tenant has a right of on- 
stand on the farm ; and if the incoming tenant 
remove the manure before such valuation, he 
is answerable to the outgoing tenant in an 
action of trespass. A tenant may sell or 
assign over manure to an assignee, although 
he thereby subjects himself to an action of 
covenant. And it is a reasonable custom for 
the landlord to pay the outgoing tenant the 
expense of manuring. If a tenant, during his 
tenancy, removes a dunghill, and at the same 
time digs into and removes virgin soil that is 
beneath it, his landlord may maintain either 
trespass de bonas asportatis, or trover, for the 
removal of the virgin soil. But if a tenant 
covenants to sufficiently muck and manure the 
land, with two sufficient sets of muck, within 
the last six years of his tenancy, the last muck- 
ing to be within the last three years, this cove- 
nant is satisfied by the tenant laying on two 
sets of muck within the last three years of his 
term, if he shall think fit to do so. 

In valuing manure to an incoming tenant, 
much depends upon the custom of the country, 
which is usually followed in these cases. 
Land which has been rendered perfectly clean 
by a year's fallowing, is denominated a full 
tillage, and by tillages the valuation is com- 
monly made. 

In estimating the value of manure in arable 
land, it is done by allowing a full tillage after 
a fallow or crop of turnips fed off; after a white 
crop, half a tillage ; but after two white crops 
no allowance is made. 

For bones one tillage more is valued than 
for dung, on arable soils ; two-thirds of the 
value of the hones, and labour of procuring 
and spreading them, being allowed after one 
white crop, and one-third of the value after 
two white crops. Soot, rape-cake, oil, sprats, 
&c., which are quickly exhausted in the soil, 
are allowed for as one full tillage before a crop 
grown, or after turnips, &c., eaten off; but if 
the turnips, &c. have been carried off, then 
only one-third of the cost of procuring, carry- 
ing, and spreading is allowed. 

For earthy manures more is allowed in a 
valuation than for those of a perishable na- 
ture. Thus, on pasture land, lime, chalk, or 

787 



MANURES, ARTIFICIAL. 



MAPLE. 



marl are commonly valued for six years after 
they have been spread on the land. This in- 
cludes prime cost, carriage, and labour in 
spreading in full, when laid on not more than 
a year; two-thirds of the value if spread within 
two years ; one-half in three years ; one-fourth 
in four years; and one-sixth in five years: but 
when lime is used on arable lands, it is com- 
monly valued in the same way as farm-yard 
manure. 

When compost is in the heap, it is usually 
valued in cubic yards, the value of which ne- 
cessarily varies ; it may be estimated, how- 
ever, commonly as of the same value as half 
a bushel of wheat. (Woodfall, by Harrison, p. 
529 ; Bayldon on Rents ; Grainger and Kennedy 
on Tillage.) 

The custom of the incoming tenant paying 
for the dung varies in different counties. In 
the following counties he wholly pays for all 
dung on the farm : viz. Essex, Kent, Northum- 
berland, Nottingham (artificial manure), Rut- 
land, Stafford, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, West- 
moreland, and the West Riding of York. In 
the other English counties the dung is usually 
left free of charge to the incoming tenant. 
This, in Scotland, is called holding in stccl-botv. 
See Customs of Counties. 

MANURES, ARTIFICIAL. A great many 
fertilizing compounds are now prepared in 
large manufacturing establishments specially 
devoted to the purpose, and these are exten- 
sively used upon the various field crops to 
which they have been found best adapted. 
The basis of many of these is night-soil, such 
as poudrette, &c. The virtues of others de- 
pend upon various salts of potash and soda. 
The following list of the leading articles of 
this kind now prepared and extensively used 
by the English farmers, with the prices at 
which they are vended, cannot but be interest- 
ing to the American agriculturist. It forms 
an ordinary advertisement in a London news- 
paper : 

Agricultural Salt, per Ion, 30s. to 32*. 

— — fine, per Ion, 36s. 

Alexander's Cnnipfist, per hushel, Is. lOrf. 
Bleaching Powriir, per cwt 30s. 
Bone-dust and liaU'-inch Bone, per quarter, I8s. 
Brimsloui', per tun, )W. 

Clarke's desiccated Cnmpost, per hhd., 3/. 12s. 6d. 
Daniell's Bristol Manure, according to quantity, per 

bushel, lOd. 
Guano (foreign), per cwt., 10s. to 12s. 6rf. 

— Potter's English, according to quantity, per cwt., 

13s. to 14s. 
Gypsum, according to quantity, per ton, 30s. to 42s. 
Hunt's New Fertilizer, per hushel. Is. 8d. 
Muriate of Ammonia, per cwt., 24s. to 26s. 

— Liuie, per cwt., 12s. 

Nitrade of Soda, according to quantity, duty paid, per 

cwt., 17s. 6d. to 18s. 5d. 
Petre Salt, per ton, 37. IDs. tn 51. 
Phosphate of Ammonia, per lb.. Is. 9d. to 2s. 3d. 
Phosphate of Soda. 
Poitteviii's disinfected Manure, per quarter, 13s. 6d. 

— concentrated Manure, per quarter, 30s. 
Rape-dust, according to quantity, per ton, ^l. 10s. 
Rock Salt, per ton, il., in quantity, 31. 
Saltpetre, per cwt., 25s. Gd. 

Silicate of Potash (pure), per cwt., 65». 

Soda Ash, per cwt., 14s. 

Sulphate of Ammonia, per cwl., 18a. 

— of Iron, per ton, 

— of Soda, per ton, 7i. 
Sulphur, per cwl., 16s. 

Sulphuric Acid, according to strength, per lb., IJd. to2i(f. 
Trimmer's Composition for Clover, per cwt., 8s. 

„^ — for Wheat, with Silicate of 

Potash, per cwt., 32s 
788 



Trimmer's Compost for Turnips, per cwt., 8». 
Urate, per ton, 5/. 

Watson's Compost, per cwt., 10s., in quantity, 91. per 
ton. 

MAPLE (jlcer, from the Celtic ac, a point, 
the wood having formerly been much sought 
after for manufacturing into heads of pikes 
and lances). The maples are for the most 
part beautiful trees, of considerable size, gene- 
rally employed in forming avenues or the back 
of shrubberies. The soil they delight most to 
grow in is open sandy loam, in which also 
cuttings will strike freely in the open air ; or 
they may be increased by layers put down in 
the autumn : but all the best plants are ob- 
tained from seed, which should be sown soon 
after gathering. There are a great many spe- 
cies of maple ; but two only, with some varie- 
ties, are common to Britain. 

1. The greater maple or sycamore {J.pseuda- 
platanus), which grows in hedges and about 
houses, common, but not truly wild. It is a 
large, handsome tree, of quick growth, with a 
smooth ash-coloured bark, and round spread- 
ing branches. The wood is while and soft, 
useful for many purposes, such as making 
musical instruments, cheese and cider presses, 
tables, mangles, and some parts of machinery; 
but is chiefly employed by coopers. The sap 
is said to yield some portion of sugar, and to 
be made into wine in the Highlands of Scot- 
land. The sycamore is propagated entirely 
by seed. The principal cultivated varieties 
are, the yellow variegated sycamore, or Costor- 
phine plane (./Jr. /)._/7nro-ra7icga/a, Loudon), the 
white variegated leaved sycamore {jl. p. varie- 
gala, Loudon), and the purple-leaved variety. 

2. The common or field maple (^Jl. campestre). 
This is a common tree in hedges and thickets, 
but is rather rare in Scotland and the north of 
England. Il is of much more humble growth 
than the preceding, with more spreading 
branches ; the bark corky and full of fissures ; 
that of the branches smooth. The wood is 
compact, of a fine grain, sometimes beautifully 
veined, celebrated among the ancient Romans 
for tables, though now superseded by mahogany, 
and even by our native oak. 

The Norway maple (j1. platnn&ides) has lat- 
terly been classed among British forest trees. 
It is a tree of the first rank, thrives well in 
England, and attains a height equal to that 
of the sycamore within a like period of years, 
it is a decided acquisition to park and wood- 
land scenery, and its wood promises to be of 
more value, and adapted for a greater variety 
of purposes, than that of the sycamore, being 
white, close-grained, firm, susceptible of a fine 
polish, and frequently exhibiting the beautiful 
appearance in the direction and disposition of 
the fibre, for which the bird's-eye maple of 
America is so highly prized and sought after. 
The foliage, though not so heavy and massive 
as that of the sycamore, is umbrageous ; the 
leaves, which in shape bear a striking resem- 
blance to those of the Plalanus occidentalis, are 
large, with slender petioles, and, when fully 
expanded, of a fine, shining light-green ; in an 
early or half-expanded state, they are of a deli- 
cate yellowish-green, and in autumn, before 
they fall, become of a rich, warm yellow. 



MAPLE. 



MAPLE. 



There are many species of maple found in 
the North American forests, which are gene- 
rally lofty and beautiful trees. They are ca- 
pable of enduring the most intense cold, and 
therefore form in the north of the new conti- 
nent, as they do of the old, extensive forests, 
which, with those of the beech, appear to suc- 
ceed the spruce, the larch, the pine, and to 
precede the chestnut and oak. Michaux gives 
7 species of maple to Europe, and 7 to Ame- 
rica, exclusive of the dwarf red maple of the 
Northeastern States, and the species found in 
the Northwestern territories. 

The wood of the maples differs so widely in 
quality in different species, that it becomes diffi- 
cult to characterize it by general observations, 
ft may be remarked that it speedily decom- 
poses and decays when exposed to the weather, 
that it is liable to be injured by worms, and 
that Jience it is unfit for building. It possesses 
properties, however, which compensate in part 
for these defects, and which render it useful in 
the arts and domestic economy. 

Two of the x\merican maples not only flower 
but mature their seed during the spring months. 
These are : — the while maple {Acer eriocarpum) 
and the red-flowering maple {A. rubrum). In 
the other kinds, the fructification is autumnal, 
namely :— the sugar maple {A. saccharinum), 
black sugar maple (A. nigrum), moose wood, 
or striped maple (A. striatum), box elder, or 
ash-leaved maple (A. negundo), mountain maple 
{A. montanum). 

Some of the inhabitants of the Western 
States make sugar by boiling down the sap of 
the white maple, which, however, like that of 
the red maple, yields only half the proportion 
of sugar obtained from the juice of the sugar 
maple. The sap is in motion even earlier in 
the white than in the sugar maple, beginning 
to ascend about the middle of January. 

The red-tlowering maple is the earliest tree 
whose bloom announces the return of spring, 
the beautiful purple blossoms unfolding more 
than a fortnight before the leaves. It never 
attains its full size except in swamps where 
the bottom is composed of fertile soil, and it af- 
fords the wood chiefly used in the manufacture 
of Windsor chairs. 

The moose wood maple of the Eastern 
States was so called by the first settlers, from 
observing that the moose fed upon its twigs 
during the latter part of winter and beginning 
of spring. Although it fills the forests in Nova 
Scotia and Maine, it becomes rare on' approach- 
ing the Hudson, to the west and south of which 
river it is confined to the mountainous tracts 
of the Alleghanies, on the cold and most shaded 
sides of which mountains it extends to their 
termination in Georgia. Where it mostly 
abounds, its principal advantage to the inha- 
bitants consists in furnishing them, at the close 
of winter, when their forage is exhausted, a 
resource for sustaining their cattle, till the ad- 
vancing season has renewed the herbage. As 
soon as the buds begin to swell, the famished 
horses and neat cattle are turned loose into the 
woods, to browse on the young shoots, which 
they consume with avidity. Poor as this re- 
source may appear, it is not wholly inadequate, 
since the twigs are tender, and full of sweet 



juice. This species of maple is much admired 
in European parks and gardens, particularly 
on account of its variegated trunk. When 
grafted on the Sycamore, as is commonly the 
case, the striped maple grows to nearly four 
times its ordinary size. 

The box elder, or ash-leaved maple, is com- 
mon in the states west of the Alleghanies, and 
rare to the eastward of these mountains. It is 
the species which ventures least to the north, 
not being seen on the Delaware higher than 
the neighbourhood of Philadelphia. It is chiefly 
found in low bottoms where the soil is deep, 
fertile, and constantly wet. Even in such 
situations it seldom attains more than 50 feet 
in height, and 20 inches in diameter. 

The mountain maple abounds in Canada, 
Nova Scotia, and along the whole range of the 
Alleghany mountains, preferring the northern 
sides, and the moist, coolest, and most shady 
situations, on the abrupt and rocky banks of 
torrents and rivers. It seldom is more than 6 
or 8 feet high, and is most frequently in the 
form of a shrub, with a single, straight stock. 
Like the moose wood, this maple is frequently 
grafted on the sycamore {A. pseudo-plat anus), by 
which means it is increased to nearly twice 
its natural size. This surprising developement 
proves how great are the advantages which 
may be derived from this process and from 
continued cultivation, in improving inferior 
vegetables. 

But by far the most interesting tree of this 
family to the American is the sugar maple, 
which in the north begins to appear a little 
north of lake St. John, in Canada, near the 48° 
of latitude, which in the intensity of its winter 
cold corresponds to the 68° in Europe. It is 
nowhere more abundant than between the 46° 
and 43°, which comprise Canada, New Bruns- 
wick, Nova Scotia, the states of Maine, New 
Hampshire, and Vermont, where it enters 
largely into the composition of the wide-ex- 
tending forests. Farther south, it is common 
only in Genesee, in the state of New York, 
and in the northern highlands of Pennsylvania. 
Dr. Rush estimated that in the northern parts 
of these two states, there are 10,000,000 of 
acres which produce these trees in the propor- 
tion of 30 to an acre. In some places large 
masses of woods are formed of them almost 
exclusively. In Virginia and other Southern 
States, the tree is comparatively rare, and only 
to be found in mountainous situations. In 
those sections of country where the sugar 
maple most abounds, they distinguish the kinds 
of soil into what are called black, or soft wood 
lands, comprising the pines and spruces cover- 
ing the low grounds and valleys, and the hard 
wood lands, consisting of leaf-shedding trees, 
such as the sugar maple, the white and red 
beech, the birch, and the ash. These last oc- 
cupy the level grounds. Above the 46° of 
latitude, the maple and other trees of the hard 
wood class begin to be rare, and the pines and 
other resinous trees take their place. Below 
43°, the spruce and other soft wood trees are 
less common, and lose their preponderance is, 
the forests, where they become mingled with 
the numerous species of oaks and walnut. 
Black sugar maple. In the Western States 

789 



MAPLE. 



MAPLE. 



and in the parts of Pennsylvania which lie 
between the mountains and the Ohio, this spe- 
cies of maple is called the black sugar tree, pro- 
bably on account of the colour of its leaves 
being darker than those of the genuine sugar 
maple. In the Genesee country of New York, 
both species are indiscriminately called rock 
maple and sugar maple. The two species have 
also been confounded by botanists. In the 
Northern States, the black sugar maple is in- 
ferior in size and also more rare than the true 
sugar maple. A few degrees farther south, it 
forms a large part of the forests of Genesee, 
where it is one of the most common and most 
lofty trees. The wood is much like that of the 
other species, but coarser grained and less 
brilliant when polished. It is comparatively 
but little used, because, wherever it abounds, 
other trees are found, such as oak, the walnut, 
cherry, and mulberry, more esteemed for 
building and cabinet work. It is, however, 
preferred for the frames of Windsor chairs, 
and, after hickory, considered the best of fuel. 
It forms one of the finest shade trees, assum- 
ing, when standing alone, a regular and beauti- 
ful form. {Michaux.) 

The sugar maple covers a greater extent of 
the American soil than any other species of 
this genus, flourishing most in mountainous 
places, where the soil, though fertile, is cold and 
humid. Under such favourable circumstances 
it is often found 70 or 80 feet high, and pro- 
portionably large in diameter. It is one of the 
most beautiful native trees, and distinguishable 
by the external whiteness of its bark. The 
grain of the wood is fine and close, and when 
polished it has a silky lustre. It is very heavy 
and strong, but wants the property of durabi- 
lity for which the chestnut and the oak are so 
highly esteemed. Exposed to moisture it soon 
decays. The different forms of this wood 
furnish the most admired undulated or curled 
maple, and the highly esteemed and still more 
beautiful spotted variety called bird's eye 
maple. 

The wood of the sugar maple makes good 
fuel, for which purpose it is extensively used 
in Boston and other northern cities. The ashes 
afford a large proportion of the alkaline prin- 
ciples, and, it is asserted, furnish four-fifths of 
the potash exported in such abundance from 
Boston and New York to Europe. The ex- 
traction of sugar from the maple is a valuable 
resource in a country where all classes of 
society daily make use of tea and coffee. The 
process by which it is obtained is very simple, 
and everywhere nearly the same. Though 
not essentially defective, it might be rendered 
still more perfect and profitable than is com- 
monly the case. 

The work of sugar-making commonly be- 
gins in the month of February, or early m 
March, whilst the cold still continues intense 
and snow covers the ground. Thus the sap 
begins to move nearly two months before the 
general revival of vegetation. 

In a central situation, lying convenient to the 
trees from which the sap is drawn, a shed is 
constructed, called a sugar-camp, which is des- 
tined to shelter the boilers and the persons who 
*end them, from the weather. An auger three- 
79. 



fourths of an inch in diameter, small troughs 
to receive the sap, tubes of elder or sumac, 8 
or 10 inches long, corresponding in size to the 
auger, and laid open for a part of their length, 
buckets for emptying the troughs and convey- 
ing the sap to the camp, boilers of 15 or 18 
gallons' capacity, moulds to receive the syrup 
when reduced to a proper consistency for being 
formed into cakes, and, lastly, axes to cut and 
split the fuel, are the principal utensils em- 
ployed in the operation. The trees are perfo- 
rated in an obliquely ascending direction, 18 
or 20 inches from the ground, with two holes 
4 or 5 inches apart. Care should be taken 
that the augers do not enter more than half an 
inch within the wood, as experience has shown 
the most abundant flow of sap to take place 
at this depth. It is also recommended to insert 
the tubes on the south side of the tree ; but 
this useful hint is not always attended to. 

A trough is placed on the ground at the foot 
of each tree, and the sap is ev-ery day collected 
and temporarily poured into casks, from which 
it is drawn out to fill the boilers. The evapo- 
ration is kept up by a brisk fire, and the scum 
is carefully taken off during this part of the 
process. Fresh sap is added from time to 
time, and the heat is maintained till the liquid 
is reduced to a syrup, after which it is left to 
cool, and then strained through a blanket or 
other woollen stuff, to separate the remaining 
impurities. 

Some persons recommend leaving the syrup 
twelve hours before boiling it for the last time; 
others proceed with it immediately. In either 
case the boilers are only half-filled, and by an 
active, steady heat, the liquor is rapidly re- 
duced to the proper consistency for being 
poured into the moulds. The evaporation is 
known to have proceeded far enough, when, 
upon rubbing a drop of the syrup between the 
fingers, it is perceived to be granular. If it is 
in danger of boiling over, a bit of lard or of 
butter is thrown into it, which instantly calms 
the ebullition. The molasses being drained 
off from the moulds, the sugar is no longer de- 
liquescent, like the raw sugar of the West 
Indies. 

Maple sugar manufactured in this way, is 
lighter coloured, in proportion to the care with 
which it is made and the judgment with which 
the evaporation is conducted. It is superior to 
the brown sugar of the colonies, at least, to 
such as is generally used in the United States; 
its taste is as pleasant, and it is as good for 
culinary purposes. When refined, it equals in 
beauty the finest sugar consumed in Europe. 
It is made use of, however, only in the districts 
where it is made, and there, only in the country: 
from prejudice or taste, imported sugar is used 
in all the small towns, and in the inns. 

The sap continues to flow for six weeks ; 
after which, it becomes less abundant, less rich 
in saccharine matter, and sometimes even in- 
capable of crystallization. In this case, it is 
consumed in the state of molasses, which is 
superior to that of the islands. After three or 
four days' exposure to the sun, maple sap is 
converted into vinegar, by the acetous fermen- 
tation. The amount of sugar manufactured 
in a year varies from different causes. A cold 



MARC. 



MARK. 



and dry winter renders the trees more produc- 
tive than a changeable and humid season. It 
is observed, that when a frosty night is fol- 
lowed by a dry and brilliant day, the sap flows 
abundantly; and 3 or 3 gallons are some- 
times yielded by a single tree, in 24 hours. 
Three persons are found sufficient to tend 250 
trees, which give 1000 pounds of sugar, or 4 
pounds from each tree. But this product is 
not uniform, for many farmers on the Ohio do 
not commonly obtain more than 2 pounds from 
a tree. Trees which grow in low and moist 
places afford a greater quantity of sap than 
those which occupy rising grounds, but it is 
less rich in the saccharine principle. That of 
insulated trees, left standing in the middle of 
fields or by the side offences, is the best. It is 
also remarked, that in districts which have 
been cleared of other trees, and even of the 
less vigorous sugar maples, the product of the 
remainder is, proportionally, most considerable. 
" Having introduced," says a writer, " twenty 
tubes into a sugar maple, I drew from it the 
same day, 23 gallons and 3 quarts of sap, which 
gave 7^ pounds of sugar ; 33 pounds have been 
made this season from the same tree; which 
supposes 100 gallons of sap. It appears here, 
that only a little more than 3 gallons was re- 
quired for a pound, though 4 are commonly 
allowed. 

It has been advanced, and doubtless cor- 
rectly, that the Northern parts of New York 
and Pennsylvania contain maples enough to 
supply the whole consumption of the United 
States. But the annual produce by no means 
answers to this patriotic calculation. The 
trees grow upon excellent lands, which by the 
influx of emigrants from the older settlements, 
and by the surprising increase of the popula- 
tion already established, are rapidly clearing ; 
so that in less perhaps than half a century, the 
maples will be confined to exposures too steep 
for cultivation, and will afford no resource, 
except to the proprietor on whose domain they 
grow. At this period also, the wood will 
probably produce a greater and more ready 
profit than the sugar. Wild and domestic 
animals are inordinately fond of maple juice, 
and break through their enclosures to sate 
themselves with it. 

MARC. The matter which remains after 
the pressure of fruit; or any substance which 
yields oil ; or, in fact, any fluid matter for the 
separation of which the action of the press is 
required. What remains in the press is the 
VKirc. 

MARCESCENT. In botany, a term applied 
to leaves, &c., which are permanent, and when 
withered do not fall off. 

MARCHES. The name given to the bor- 
ders or frontiers of any district, but more espe- 
cially applied to the boundaries between Eng- 
land and Wales, and England and Scotland. 

MARE. The female of the horse. See House. 

MARE'S-TAIL (Hippuris vulgaris). A cu- 
rious indigenous aquatic, growing in marshy 
situations, and in ditches, pools, and the bor- 
ders of slow streams. 

MARGARIC ACID. An acid obtained from 
animal fat. Its derives its name from its re- 
semblance to pearl. Its appearance and pro- 



perties very much resemble those of stearic 
acid, another product of animal fat, the chief 
difference being in the greater fusibility of the 
margaric, which melts at 140° Fah. See Acids, 
Animal. 

MARIGOLD (CafenrfttZa, named from calendee, 
the first day of the month ; there being flowers 
almost any month in the year). A genus 
of showy plants, among which is the old 
and well-known common marigold (C. offici- 
nalis). This species was formerly used in 
soups and broths, but is now little regarded. 

There are several varieties of the common 
marigold, among which are — 

1. Single. 2. Common double. 3. Largest 
very double. 4. Double lemon-coloured. 5. 
Great Childing. 6. Small Childing. 

MARIGOLD, CORN. See Corn Marigold. 

MARIGOLD, AFRICAN. See African 
Marigold. 

MARIGOLD, THE MARSH. See Marsh 
Marigold. 

MARINE ACID. See Muriatic Acid. 

MARINE SALT. Common sea-salt, or mu- 
riate of soda. 

MARJORAM ( Origanum, from oros, a moun- 
tain, and ganos, joy ; the delight of the moun- 
tain, in allusion to the habitation of the plants). 
A genus of well-known, pungent, and grate- 
fully aromatic herbs. The plants are all of 
easy cultivation; the shrubby kinds are in- 
creased by cuttings or slips ; the herbaceous 
species by dividing at the roots. There are 
as many as 8 species, besides numerous va- 
rieties. The species generally cultivated are 
the common or pot marjorum (0. vulgare), and 
sweet or summer marjoram (0. majorana), and 
bastard or winter marjoram {0. heradeoticum.) 

A light, dry, and moderately fertile soil is re- 
quired for their healthy growth; and if it is 
one that has not been cropped for a consider- 
able time, it is the more favourable for them. 
If the soil is wet or rich, they are deficient in 
their essential qualities, and the perennials are 
unable to withstand severe weather. The situ- 
ation cannot be too open. The sweet marjo- 
ram is propagated solely by seeds ; the 2 pe- 
rennials by seed, as well as by parting their 
roots, offsets, and slips of their branches. Sow- 
ing may be performed of all the species, from 
the conclusion of February, if open weather, 
to the commencement of June; but the early 
part of April is the usual time for performing 
it. Portions of the rooted plants, slips, &C., 
may be planted from February until May, and 
during September and October. 

The sowing is performed either in drills, 6 
inches apart, or broadcast; in either case the 
seed being buried not more than half an inch 
deep. 

The tops and leaves of all the species are 
gathered when green, in summer and autumn, 
for use in soups, &c. ; and a store of the 
branches are cut and dried in July or August, 
just before the flowers open, for winter's 
supply. 

MARK. A term applied to a horse, which 
is said to mark when he shows his age by a 
black spot, like the eye of a common bean, 
which appears at about 5^ years old in the 
cavities of the corner teeth, and is gone when 

791 



MARKET. 



MARL. 



he is 8 years old. When he ceases to mark, it 
is said he has rased. See Age of Animals. 

The term is also applied to a common mode 
of marking hogs, &c., in those parts of the 
United States where they are allowed to run at 
large, and where the owner fixes a mark upon 
his property by cropping more or less of the 
ears, slitting these into swallow-forks and 
every other shape of mutilation. 

MARKET. In English law the liberty or 
.ranchise, whereby a town is enabled to set up 
.ind open shops, &c., at a certain place within 
its limits for buying and selling, and better 
provision of such victuals as the subject want- 
eth. The establishment of a market, with the 
grant of the tolls thereunto belonging, is one 
of the king's prerogatives, and can only be ef- 
fected by virtue of the king's grant, or sup- 
ported on long and immemorial usage and 
prescription, which presuppose such grant. 
The general rule of law is, that^all sales and 
contracts of any thing vendible in fairs or 
markets overt (i. e. open), shall not only be 
good between the parties, but valid against all 
claim by others having any right or property in 
the subject. See Fairs. 

MARL. Marl implies, properly speaking, a 
natural mixture of chalk, shells, or carbonate 
of lime, in some of its forms, with clay or sand, 
or both. Its application to land, as a fertilizer, 
is of very ancient date, as it was much used 
by our English forefathers as a manure; and 
no one can read the account given by Pliny of 
the agricultural operations of the early Bri- 
tons, without being struck with the minute dis- 
crimination, the evident result of long, atten- 
tive practice, which was displayed by them in 
the application of marl to particular soils ; and 
from a very early period the Cornish farmers 
have been used to employ extensively the sea 
sand of Padstow harbour (which contains 64 
per cent, of carbonate of lime), for the same 
purpose, carrying it from the sea-shore either 
in carts, or even on horses' backs, some miles 
up the country. 

Marl was certainly used by the early Italian 
cultivators as a valuable addition to the soil 
of their fields. It is thus spoken of by Colu- 
mella : — " If, nevertheless, you are provided 
with no kind of dung, it will be of great advan- 
tage to it to do what I remember Marcus Colu- 
mella, my uncle, a most learned and diligent 
husbandman, was frequently wont to do, viz., 
to throw chalk or marl upon such places as 
abound in gravel, and to lay gravel upon such 
as are chalky, and too dense and stiff; and 
thus he not only raised great plenty of excel- 
lent corn, but made most beautiful vineyards ; 
for this most skilful husbandman denied that 
dung ought to be applied to vines, because it 
would spoil the taste of the wine ; and thought 
that stuff gathered together out of thickets, and 
from among briers and thorns, or, in a word, 
any other sort of earth fetched from any other 
place, and carried to them, was much better 
for making a plentiful vintage." 

The mixture of soils, we find from Theo- 

phratus, was a practice common in his days : 

-hey found, it seems, the advantage of uniting 

.h<; light with the heavy, the fat with the lean, 

792 



and, in fact, any that were of a contrary na- 
ture. This mixture, he tells us, not only sup- 
plies what shallow soils need in depth, but 
adds to the power of both ; so that a worn-out 
soil, thus treated, begins again to bear crops 
with renewed energy : thus barren clays, when 
thus fertilized, again become fruitful ; in truth, 
this mode of cultivation he deemed a complete 
substitute for manure. The inhabitants of 
Megara, besides practising this system, were 
used every 5th or 6th year to trench their land, 
digging as deep as they imagined the rain to 
penetrate, and bringing the under soil to the 
lop ; for it was an axiom with the Megarian 
cultivators, that the lighter portions of earth 
proper for the nourishment of plants are al- 
ways washed downwards as far as the influ- 
ence of the surface water extends ; so that we 
see from this that the advantages of deep 
ploughing, or subsoiling, is not a very modern 
discovery. {Col. lib. xi. c. 16 ; Theop. I. ii. c. 25.) 

The right of sinking marl-pits is mentioned 
in the Chnrtee Forestce, A. D. 1285; and in the 
Stfitum Wallia, 12 Edward I., marl-pits are men- 
tioned as being dug close to common roads. 
" It is one of the duties of the sheriff and coro- 
ner," says Daines Barrington, "to inquire de 
fossatis et marleris levatis juxta it e7- publicum," 
which shows that this kind of manure was 
very commonly used. When a marl-pit was 
sunk in ground that did not belong to the king, 
but which happened to be in the purlieus or 
neighbourhood of a forest, prosecutions were 
instituted in the forest, which imposed heavy 
fines for the offence, as the pit occasioned both 
inconvenience and danger to the hunter. 

Marl is found in many parts of England ; 
and any earthy substance in which the propor- 
tion of calcareous matter is apparent, mixed 
with sand or clay, is styled, in popular lan- 
guage, a marl. Of this there are 3 principal 
varieties : 1. Clay marl ; 2. Sand marl ; 3. Slate 
or stony marl; 4. Shell marl. Of these the 
last is commonly the richest in calcareous 
matter. In some shell marl examined by Sir 
George Mackenzie, he found — 

Lime - - - - - - 41-45 

Carbonic acid ... - 32 

Silex 14 

Argil .-.--- 14 

Oxide of iron 25 

Inflammable matter ... 2 

Loss ..---. 4-70 

100 

Clay marl usually contains from 68 to 80 per 
cent, of clay, and from 32 to 20 per cent, of 
calcareous matter. Silicious sand often con- 
tains 75 per cent, of sand {Kirwin on Manures, 
p. 13). Thus, M. Thaer found in that of Olden- 
burgh — 

Fine sand • - _ . - 36 

Clay 44 

Mould ---... 5 
Carbonate of lime - . _ - 14 
Gypsum ---._. 1 

100 

The quantity of marl applied per acre neces 
sarily varies with the kind of soil and the qua 
lity of the marl ; it is usual to employ it 



MARL. 



MARSH. 



very considerable quantities, and it is often 
some years before it is sufficiently incorpo- 
rated with the soil to produce an evident im- 
provement ; but then that advantage is almost 
always, sooner or later, not only decided, but 
permanent. 

The clay marls render light sandy soils 
more tenacious ; the sandy marls materially 
improve the friability of the heavy clays. In 
Cheshire, they often apply 128 cubic yards of 
clay marl per acre to light sandy soils, and 
about half that quantity to their heavy lands. 
In many parts of Scotland it is spread on grass 
lands, and suffered to remain for two or three 
winters exposed to the frost, before it is 
ploughed in, in about the same proportions per 
acre. 

" The beginning of all improvements in Ger- 
many," says Mr. S. S. Carr, in his Prize Essay, 
" is, to give a dressing of marl (containing, on 
an average, 60 per cent, of carbonate of lime), 
at the rate of 164 cubic feet per acre : by this 
means land, not worth cultivation previously, 
yields excellent crops for 8 or 10 years; and 
if the straw produced during that time is care- 
fully converted into manure, the productive- 
ness does not materially decrease. Should 
that, however, be the case, the deposits of 
ponds, and even plots of peat-moss, which not 
unfrequently occur, are carried upon the fal- 
lows in winter, where these substances, when 
broken down by the frost, prove a valuable al- 
ternative to the texture of the soil, especially 
where the pulse, rape, and clover crops are 
gypsumed." 

On the heathy sands of Norfolk much im- 
provement might be effected by the application 
of marl. Mr. Kiddle, of Marsham, in that 
county, made many experiments with marl; 
he preferred, from long experience, the variety 
denominated "clayey marl," which he thought 
the best for sandy lands, even if brought from 
a considerable distance. " A few years since," 
said General Vavasour, "I purchased, with 
other lands, a field of 10 acres ; it had been 
part of a common enclosed about 15 years be- 
fore, and was tithe-free, the soil sandy, mixed 
with moory earth. I ploughed and sowed it in 
divisions with various crops, most of which 
failed. Having discovered a stratum of rich 
clay marl, within 400 yards of the field, I cart- 
ed on 75 cubic yards per acre, at lOd. per yard, 
or 3/. per acre." The result was, that the 
value of the land increased from 6s. to 1/. Is. 
per acre. 

In Europe, the term marl is applied to va- 
rious mixtures of calcareous matter with clay, 
sand, &c., and the common test is to effervesce 
on the addition of vinegar, or other acid. But, 
in the United States, those at least on the At- 
lantic coast, where this fertilizer is met with 
in great abundance, two kinds of marl are ex- 
tensively used, one of which has been already 
described under the head of Green Sand. 
This is often so free from lime, as scarcely to 
retain a trace, and, consequently, the addition 
to it of vinegar, or other acid, would not pro- 
duce that effervescence necessary to constitute 
it a marl in accordance with the common test. 
What, in the states of New Jersey, Delaware, 
Maryland, and Virginia, is usually called green 



sand marl, instead of containing lime, aoounds 
in potash. See Green Sand. 

The calcareous marl found in the states 
named, generally contains more or less of the 
green sand; and this combination of lime and 
potash forms a natural fertilizing mixture, the 
value of which is scarcely yet appreciated as 
it deserves to be. Its great weight makes it an 
expensive application to land, wherever much 
hauling is required, and consequently it yields 
to burned lime under such circumstances. 
The admirable treatise upon the subject of 
" Calcareous Manures," by E. Ruffin, of Virginia, 
has been extensively circulated throughout the 
United States, and may be referred to as contain- 
ing the most useful body of information upon the 
subject of marl ever brought together, embrac- 
ing every detail in relation to lifting, transport- 
ing, application, and effects, that can be de- 
sired by the farmer or general reader. See 
Mixture op Soils, Lime, Chalk, Earths, &c. 

MARRAM. One of the common names of 
the sea mat-weed or sea-reed {Arundo arenaria). 
See Reed. 

MARSH (Sax. meprc> a fen). A flat surface, 
the soil of which is so far saturated with water 
throughout the year as to be unfit for culture 
by the spade or plough ; but not so much as to 
prevent it from producing coarse grasses, and 
other kinds of herbage. Marshes are generally 
situated in bottoms, where they are kept iifioist 
by the water which descends from the sur- 
rounding lands; or along the banks of rivers 
or lakes, where their humidity arises from 
their being nearly on the same level with the 
adjoining water. Where a marsh is situated 
so as to be occasionally overflowed by the sea, 
or by a river, up which the tide flows, it is 
called a salt marsh; and the herbage produced 
by such lands is found highly conducive to the 
health of animals which pasture on them for a 
certain portion of the year, from the alterative 
effect of its saline properties. 

Salt marshes abound along the shores of the 
bays and inlets of the Atlantic coast of the 
United States. The natural grasses which 
grow so luxuriantly are extensively mown, 
and furnish an inferior, and generally a coarse 
description of hay, which, however, is much re- 
lished by cattle in consequence of its saltness. 
It furnishes excellent litter, and thus contri- 
butes greatly to swell the manure-heap. On 
the Delaware bay it sells for about $2 to $4 
per ton. 

Salt marshes are often reclaimed by em- 
bankments, which keep off the tide-water. The 
best mode of managing land thus reclaimed, is 
well worth knowing; and the following direc- 
tions from Mr. T. F. Lambson, of Salem, New 
Jersey, contain valuable information, the result 
of much experience and expense: — "1st. The 
marsh should be secured from the tide by a 
permanent bank. 2d. A sluice or sluices of 
sufficient capacity must be laid to discharge 
the rain-water and back-waters which pro 
ceed from adjacent uplands, so tha\ at no time 
the water-courses and ditches will be filled to 
overflowing. The sluices should be laid deep 
enough to draw the water through them fron; 
the lowest part of the marsh : great care should 
be taken to have the doors made tight, so as to 
3 X 793 



MARSH-LANDERS. 



MARSH-MUD. 



exclude all the tide-water possible. The water- 
courses and drains should intersect each other 
at right angles, and no lot of marsh should 
contain more than 10 acres. If any rain-water 
should lay upon the middle of these lots, it will 
be necessary to cut small drains, to let it pass 
off freely; these might be covered where the 
materials are at hand. The mud and earth 
which come out of water-courses and ditches 
should be removed into the lowest part of the 
marsh; by a neglect of this, the rain-water will 
be confined too long upon the surface, and the 
most luxuriant growth of timothy or clover 
may in a short time be converted into a nursery 
of rushes. 

"The best time to sow down in grass, is 
when the tide is first shut off, and when the 
mud is soft; a growth of coarse grass will 
spring up sufficient to protect the fine grass in 
its tender state; this crop should be mown off, 
and not suffered to lodge upon the marsh. 
Timothy and herds-grass require about 1 bushel 
to sow 4 acres. The former will flourish where 
the water can be kept 2^ or 3 feet from the 
surface ; where it approaches nearer than this 
in the ditches, the latter will succeed best: in 
order to avoid having it sown in rows, it should 
be sown a second time across the first sowing. 
It is not advisable to mow longer than 3 years 
in succession ; to mow and pasture alternately 
is the better plan. If the high marsh becomes 
bound and unproductive, ploughing will be 
necessary ; and after raising 2 or 3 crops of 
rye, Indian corn, or broom corn, without the 
application of any manure, the soil will be 
quite renovated, and when sown down in grass 
will be much more productive. When the 
earthy deposit is several feet in depth, it will 
not soon become exhausted; when it is not 
desirable to plough, lime may be used with 
success. Low marsh, or turf, pr, as we term 
it here, '^ horse-dtmg" mud, should not be plough- 
ed; when it becomes unproductive, a covering 
of clay or loam, to the depth of 2 or 3 inches, 
will be found the cheapest application." See 
Bog, Waste Lanj), Peat Soils, Grass Lands, 
Irrigation, and Meadow. 

MARSH-LANDERS. A term provincially 
applied in England to neat cattle of the short- 
horned breed, or such as are bred on lands of 
the marsh kind. 

MARSH-MALLOW (Mthcea, derived from 
altheo, to cure ; from the medicinal qualities of 
some of the species). This is a genus of tall, 
free-flowering plants : the biennial and annual 
kinds should be sown in the open border in 
spring, and transplanted when sufficiently 
s.rong. The herbaceous kinds may be in- 
creased by dividing the roots or by seeds. .4. 
rosea, the parent of the many beautiful varie- 
ties of holly-hock, yields a blue colouring 
matter equal to indigo. (Paxton's Bot. Die.) 

The common marsh-mallow (./?. officinalis) is 
in England an indigenous perennial, growing 
abundantly in marshes, especially towards the 
sea. The root is perennial, tap-shaped, rather 
woody. The herbage of a hoary green, pecu- 
liarly soft and downy, with a fine starry pubes- 
cence. Stems several, about a yard high, 
; imple, round, leafy, tough, and pliant. Leaves 
794 



ovate or heart-shaped at the base, various ia 
breadth, soft and pliable, slightly five-lobed. 
Flowers (which blow from July to September) 
in very short, dense, axillary panicles, rarely 
solitary, of a delicate uniform blush-colour, not 
inelegant. Bees, are very fond of its mellife- 
rous flowers. The whole plant, especially the 
root, yields in decoction a plentiful, tasteless, 
colourless mucilage, besides a fatty oil, un- 
crystallizable sugar, starch, and phosphate of 
lime. It is emollient, and salutary in cases of 
internal irritation. A syrup made with the 
root, as well as the decoction, is an officinal 
preparation of the Pharmacopoeias. It is used 
in the coughs of children. See Mallow. 

MARSH-MARIGOLD (Cahha, a synonyme 
o{ kalathos, a goblet ; in allusion to the likeness 
of the form of the carolla to a golden cup). 
The species of this genus are showy, and do 
best in a moist situation, but will grow and 
flower in a common border. They may be 
increased by seeds or divisions. The British 
indigenous species are two in number, viz.: — 

1. The common marsh-marigold {C. palua- 
tris), which grows in marshy meadows, and 
about the margins of ponds, rivers, and brooks, 
almost everywhere. It is perennial in habit, 
blowing in March and April. The root is 
thick and somewhat tuberous, with many sim- 
ple fibres. Stem 12 or 18 inches high, round, 
hollow, leafy, branched, furrowed. Leaves 
variously heart-shaped, rounded. Flowers from 
3 to 5, large, bright yellow, on alternate soli- 
tary stalks. The flower-buds pickled serve 
for capers, which they resemble, except in 
having numerous germens. A double variety 
is frequent in gardens. 

2. Creeping marsh-marigold (C radicans). 
This species is found by the sides of lakes and 
rivulets in Scotland, and is scarcely half the 
size of the common C. palustris. A double va- 
riety of this is cultivated near London. 

MARSH-MUD. This substance, which forms 
such an excellent manure, is not so well appre- 
ciated or so generally employed in the United 
States as it deserves to be. An intelligent cor- 
respondent of the Farmers' Begister (for July, 
1834) states, that he deems it more valuable 
than barn-yard manure, and that it never failed 
in any application he had made of it. He even 
prefers it to marl, because its effects are more 
quickly manifested, and, when readily accessi- 
ble, much more improvement can be effected 
for the same money than by applying marl. 
He, however, confesses that the permanent ad- 
vantages of marling are much greater, and 
thinks that marl and marsh-mud will both be 
improved by combination. This result may 
certainly be expected in most cases, but must 
depend much upon the prevailing constituents 
of the mud. The alluvial deposits found in 1 
marshes, must of course contain more or less || 
of the ingredients of the soils of the neighbour- ' ' 
ing uplands. When these contain lime, mag- 
nesia, silex, iron, &c., so will the marsh-mud- 
This is clearly shown in the following tabular 
statements, giving the results of Dr. Dana's 
chemical examinations of a few specimens of 
marsh-mud taken from the rocky coast of New 
England. 



MARSH-MUD. 



MASTICATION. 



Analysis in the dry way by Alkali. 



Number. 


,„,,;,„ Water of 
^»'"''- absorption. 


Organic 
matter. 


Silica. 


Alumina. 


Oiide of 
iron. 


Lime. 


Salts solu- 
Magnesia. ble in 
water. 


1 

Sulphuretted 
hydrogen 
and loss. 


135 
136 


Newburyport - 32 
\ Medford ■ - 1 95 


33 
12-5 


681 
50 95 


14-7 
14-9 


7-4 
815 


20 
1-1 


0-8 
03 


0-2 
0-6 


0-3 
21 


Analysis by Dr. Dana's Method. 


Number. 


Locality. 


Soluble 1 Insoluble 
Geioe. Geine. 


Sulphate 
of lime. 


Phosphate 
of lime. 


Granitic 
sand. 


Specific 
gravity 


134 Cambridge -----.-. 

135 Newburyport ......_ 

136 Medford 


130 
1-5 
7-5 


7-4 
01 
5-6 


2-3 
30 
2-6 


0-4 
0-5 
0-3 


67-9 
951 
84-0 


1-92 
2-52 
1-92 



" A substance," says Professor Hitchcock, 
" so rich in geine or salts of lime and soda, 
or in both, as the above analyses show, cannot 
but prove a fertilizer of the soil if spread upon 
it. If a soil be quite poor, those varieties 
should probably be chosen that contain the 
most geine ; and this can be judged of by their 
comparative lightness when dry ; the lightest 
abounding most in organic matter. But if the 
soil already contain a good deal of inactive 
vegetable matter, the varieties that abound 
most iu salts will probably be most efficacious; 
though an additional quantity of geine can do 
no harm, and may do much good. If marsh- 
mud be applied at random, it is not strange 
that varieties of it, almost destitute of geine, 
should be sometimes put upon exhausted soil, 
and that no good effects should follow. Hence 
the necessity of some fixed principles to guide 
the farmer. And since Massachusetts contains 
so much sea-board, and so much land near the 
coast that may be benefited by this substance, 
a correct mode of applying it is of great im- 
portance. {Geological Report.) 

The abundant deposit called marsh-mud 
found along the extensive marshes which border 
many of the shores of the bays and rivers of 
the Middle States, is variously constituted, be- 
ing sometimes a black, unctuous substance, 
made up of vegetable and mineral matter, in 
which sometimes no trace of vegetable fibre 
can be traced, whilst at others it contains not 
only a perceptible portion, but consists mainly 
of the fibres of grass-roots and leaves, in a 
state of greater or less decay. Professor Booth, 
who has treated of the subject in his Geological 
Sui-vey of Delaware, says, that the first of these 
is the most valuable, and may sometimes be 
directly applied to land without admixture; but 
it is advisable to adopt a uniform method of 
using it, which may be done in two ways, by 
mingling it with lime, better after exposure to 
the air for some time, or by drawing it into the 
barn-yard to bring it into an incipient fermenta- 
tion by contact with stable-manure. In either 
case it will more than repay its expense; and 
if lime be employed on the land at the same 
time, a more powerful and durable influence 
will be derived from it. 

Blue mud. The fertility of those lands of 
which blue mud forms the upper surface, and 
its beneficial effects in the few instances in 
which it has been employed on the upland, are 
a warrant of its fertilizing powers, but it is a 
matter of some doubt to what substances its 
effects are mainly to be attributed. Its basis 
is a fat clay both lead-coloured and yellowish, 



with a quantity of organic matter, which ap- 
pears to be chiefly in the state of crenic and 
apocrenic acids, combined with the oxide of 
iron. There is no doubt that it would be ad- 
vantageous if applied directly to the soil, but 
its tenacity is an objection to such a mode of 
using it, and hence it is more advisable either 
to draw it into the barn-yard, where it will be 
broken down and mingled with manure, or to 
mix it with lime, and expose it for some time 
to the air, adding, at the same time, the black 
marsh-soil, which is generally to be obtained 
in its vicinity. 

The blue mud is wholly unlike a peaty soil, 
but being deposited on the river-marshes, it 
soon becomes a marshy soil, and many of the 
creek and western marsh deposits are far from 
being peaty, although they contain much orga- 
nic matter. Its value, as a manure, rests not 
on a mere theoretic assertion, but it has received 
the test and sanction of experience, and such 
experience, both in Delaware and elsewhere, as 
may not be contradicted. As it would be a 
matter of nicety to discriminate between such 
varieties as are not sufficiently decomposed, 
and require some preparation prior to their 
application, and those which might be directly 
employed, it would be better to adopt a general 
rule relative to the mode of using it, viz., either 
to draw it into the barn-yard, or to form a com- 
post with lime, or with ashes. In either case 
it will form an excellent manure, and with lime 
or ashes a durable one. 

MARSH-THISTLE, or RED THISTLE 
(^Carduus paluslris). See Thistle. 

MARSH-TREFOIL. See Buck-bean. 

MARUM. Bitter. In botany, the term is 
used to signify an herb with a strong smell. 

MASH. A soft sort of diet occasionally 
given to horses. It is prepared by pouring 
boiling water upon a small quantity of ground 
malt, bran, or other similar substance, in a 
pail, so as just to wet it well. After this has 
been done, it should be well stirred about, till 
it is thoroughly mixed and sweetish to the 
taste, when, after becoming lukewarm, it is in 
a proper state to be given to the animal. It is 
frequently used after purges to increase their 
operation, as well as after hard labour, and in 
the time of disease. Mashes are very useful 
for restoring animals in these circumstances. 

MAST. The nuts or seeds of the beech, oak, 
and chestnut-trees, which are the food of hogs, 
squirrels, &c. 

MASTICATION. The process of grinding 
or chewing the solid parts of food between the 
teeth, by the united motion of the jaws, tongue, 

795 



MAT-GRASS. 



MEAD. 



and lips, in consequence of which it is broken 
into small pieces, mixed with the saliva, and 
thus adapted for deglutition as well as more 
easy digestion; although it is, perhaps, not 
more essential for the latter purpose than 
water. Leuchs and Schwan, two German 
physiologists, have, however, proved that saliva 
has the properly of changing starch into sugar; 
and it is a well-known fact that the process of 
digestion in the stomach converts starch into 
gum, and gradually into sugar. Mastication, 
in the animal economy, is so essential to the 
prosperity of the individual, that old horses, 
&c., whose teeth are impaired, always require 
to have their food broken, chopped, or crushed 
for them. See Ruminatiois. 

MAT-GRASS, or HEATH MAT-WEED 
(Nardus siricia). An insignificant species of 
grass growing on barren, sandy, moist heaths 
and moors, in many parts of Britain. The 
root consists of numerous very strong, downy 
fibres. Stems and leaves furrowed, roughish 
with minute bristles, rigid, four or five inches 
high, remaining bleached through the win- 
ter. Spikes solitary, purplish, bristle-shaped, 
straight, of many slender flowers. Schrank 
celebrates this deep-rooted grass as a safe sup- 
port to the hands of the Alpine botanist, in 
precipitous situations, though it renders his 
path very slippery. The hard and wiry foliage 
of the mat-grass is eaten by horses and goats, 
but disliked by cattle and sheep. This species 
is often a troublesome weed on arable lands 
and pastures, where it affords but coarse food 
to cattle. As it, however, forms large and thick 
tufts, which resist the action of the scythe, it 
may be usefully transplanted to loose, sandy 
lands, where its spreading, horizontal roots will 
tend to consolidate the soil, and increase the 
stratum of vegetable mould, for the reception 
of more useful plants. 

MATH. An old term for crop ; hence lat- 
tcnnnth is the last mown crop of grass. 

MATRIX. The womb, or place where any 
thing is generated or formed. In mineralogy, 
it implies the earth or stone in which the 
mineral is imbedded. 

M ATWEED, THE SEA. One of the names 
of the sea-reed {Arundo arenaria). See Reed. 

MAUDLIN-WORT. See Ox-eye Daisy. 

MAUL. A provincial word, variously ap- 
plied to a beetle, a mallet, and the mallow, in 
different localities. 

MAW-SKIN. A word used in some places 
to signify the stomach of the calf prepared for 
cheese-making. See Rknnet. 

MAY-APPLE. An American plant, so called 
from its flowers being very abundant in the 
month of May. Its botanical name is Podophyl- 
lum peltntum, and it has also the common names 
of Wild Mandrake, and Hog Apple ; the last 
name must be regarded as inappropriate, since 
hogs seldom, if ever, eat them. The plant 
grows very abundantly in all moist and shaded 
places in woods, almost from one end of the 
Union to the other. It has usually a simple 
stem, terminating in a single broad leaf, 4 to 6 
mches in diameter, and deeply divided into 5 
or 7 lobes. The root of the plant is biennial, 
and is frequently used as a medicine, being 
active both as an emetic and cathartic, when 
796 



taken in powder, in small quantities. The 
fruit consists of a single large, long, and flat- 
tish apple, yellow when mature, and varying 
in size from 1 to 3 or 4 inches long by 1 or 2 
broad. The soft pulp contained within the 
rind has a very peculiar musky taste, which is 
relished by many persons. The fruit is by no 
means unwholesome, and has been introduced 
with the dessert, in which case the pulp may 
be squeezed into a wine-glass, and, with the 
addition of a little old Madeira and sugar, is 
said to be equal to the luscious golden grana- 
dilla of the tropics, a fruit which it greatly re- 
sembles in appearance. (Jm. Farm. vol. 14.) 

MAY-DAY. The first day of May. 

MAY TREE. See Hawthghn. 

MAY-WEED, THE SCENTLESS. See 
Corn Feveufew. 

MAY-WEED, THE STINKING, or MATH- 
ER. Called in Pennsylvania, Stinking Chamo- 
mile, Dog's Fennel, &c. (PI. 10, r.) It is fre- 
quent in the farm-yards, lanes, &c., in the 
Middle States, and is a disagreeable foreign 
weed, now extensively naturalized. It is readi- 
ly distinguished from the preceding by its fetid 
odor, — as well as by its botanical characters, — 
on which it has been generically separated from 
Anthemis, by Cassini, Lessing, &c. There are 
no native species in the United States. 

MEAD (Dutch, wcei/e). An agreeable vinous 
liquor made from honey. The use of this sub- 
stance as one of the ingredients in drink is of 
very ancient date. When fermented, honey- 
water obtains the name of mead, which is, in 
fact, honey-wine : indeed the Germans call it 
by that name (Ho7tig-wein). Mead is said to 
have been the principal beverage of the Britons 
before the use of malt liquor among them ; and 
long after the introduction of the latter beve- 
rage, mead was a favourite drink. Under the 
name of metheglin, it was frequently alluded 
to by old writers. Mead formed the ancient, 
and for centuries the favourite beverage of the 
northern nations. It is frequently mentioned 
in Ossian. Dryden has a couplet: — 

"T' allay the strength and hardness of the wine, 
Let with old Bacchus new Metheglin join." 

Queen Elizabeth was so fond of mead, as to 
have had it made every year for her. Her 
receipt for it has been preserved, and is given 
by Dr. Bevan, in his interesting little volume 
on the Honey Bee : — Take of sweet-briar leaves 
and thyme each one bushel, rosemary half a 
bushel, bay leaves one peck. Seethe these in- 
gredients in a furnace full of water (containing 
probably not less than 120 gallons) : boil for 
half an hour: pour the whole into a vat, and 
when cooled to a proper temperature (about 
75° Fahr.), strain. Add to every six gallons 
of the strained liquor a gallon of fine honey, 
and work the mixture together for half an 
hour. Repeat the stirring occasionally for two 
days ; then boil the liquor afresh, skim it till 
it becomes clear, and return it to the vat to 
cool : when reduced to a proper temperature, 
pour it into a vessel from which fresh ale or 
beer has just been emptied ; work it for three 
days and turn. When fit to be stopped down, 
tie up a bag of beaten cloves and mace (about 
half an ounce of each), and suspend it in the 
liquor from the bung-hole. When it has stood 



II 



MEADOW. 



MEADOW. 



for half a year, it will be fit for use. Such was 
the receipt. 

In Wales, in ancient times, mead was held 
in very high repute ; as appears from an ancient 
law, which has been given by Dr. Bevan, that — 
" There are three things in court which must 
be communicated to the king before they are 
made known to any other person : 1st, every 
sentence of the judge; 2d, every new song; 
3d, every cask of mead." The mead-maker 
was the eleventh person in dignity at court, and 
took precedence of the physician. Besides the 
preparation of mead, our forefathers were ac- 
customed to flavour their usual grape wines 
with honey and other ingredients. There were 
two kinds of spiced wines in use in England 
in the thirteenth century, called Hippocras and 
Clary. The first consisted either of white or 
red wine, and the latter of claret, both mingled 
with honey and spices. Dr. Henderson, in his 
History of Wines, speaks of a receipt still exist- 
ing, which gives directions how " to make 
3'pocrasse for lords with gynger, synamon, and 
graynes, sugour, and turesoll ; and for comyn 
pepuU, gynger, canell, longe peper, and cla- 
ryffyed honey." Mead formed the nectar of 
the Scandinavian nations, and was celebrated 
by their bards : it was the drink which they 
expected to quaff in heaven out of the skulls 
of their enemies; and was, as might be expect- 
ed, liberally patronized on earth. The Scandi- 
navian mead is flavoured with primrose blos- 
soms. (Penny Magazine.) 

MEADOW. A field under grass cultiva- 
tion, generally situated on the banks of a river 
or lake ; but so far above the surface of the 
water as to be considerably drier than marsh 
land, and, consequently, producing grass and 
herbage of a superior quality. The soil of 
meadow lands is generally alluvial, and more 
or less mixed with sand ; and it is kept in a 
state of fertility by the depositions made on its 
surface, in consequence of being occasionally 
(werflovved by the adjoining waters. The pro- 
duce of meadows is generally made into hay, 
which, though not equal in quality to that pro- 
duced on drier grass lands, is yet superior to 
what is obtained from marshes. See Grass, 
Hay, Irrigation, and Marsh. 

In England some meadows of great extent, 
belonging to a community or district in which 
every inhabitant has a right to send his cattle 
to graze under certain regulations, are never 
mown. When the number of those who have 
a right of common pasture is not very great, 
they frequently agree among themselves to 
abstain from, depasturing the meadows in 
spring, and, dividing them into portions, each 
makes hay of his share ; after which the cattle 
are admitted in common for the remainder of 
the season. Thus a common meadow is con- 
verted into a Lammas meadoiv, that is, a meadow 
which becomes a common meadow after the 1st 
of August, this being the time when it is supposed 
that all the hay has been made and secured. 

Low alluvial land, or that which can be 
•rrigated at pleasure, is usually left for the 
scythe, either from its productiveness from 
the rich deposits which are periodically laid 
upon it, or from its being too wet for cattle tfe 
graze on it in winter without poaching the 



surface. In a proper rotation system, upland 
is also occasionally devoted to the production 
of grass for the scythe. In upland situations 
meadows are either alternately mown and 
pastured, or broken up for oats or wheat, 
after they have yielded a crop of hay, and been 
grazed during the preceding year. The prac- 
tice of leaving young leys in pasture one year 
after the first mowing, and then ploughing them 
up, is very general in England and Ireland. 
Grass land kept constantly for meadow, ought 
never to be depastured except in dry weather, 
as the breaking of the surface by the feet of 
the cattle, not only injures the grasses of the 
sward, but, by causing the stagnation of the 
water in holes, promotes the growth of rushes 
and other coarse aquatic plants, besides killing 
the finer grasses, and rendering the surface 
uneven for the scythe. A dressing of sand, 
even of the worst kind, and the use of calca- 
reous manures, or salt, will be found excellent 
for coarse, rushy meadows, by tending to ren- 
der the texture of the grasses finer; but as the 
rankness and inferiority of the herbage pro- 
ceeds from a superabundance of water, drain- 
ing will be found the most certain remedy, and 
effectual means of improvement. The mea- 
dows which are to be mown should be shut 
up early in spring, and those which are scft 
and wet should have nothing larger than a 
sheep admitted into them from November till 
after hay-making time the next year. 

Of late years the practice of soiling has 
been extensively adopted. By this means all 
the advantages of mowing for hay are obtain- 
ed, besides an abundant supply of rich manure, 
which can be applied to the land in a liquid and 
diluted state, when its effect is powerful and 
certain. So much more fodder is produced 
from the land by the system of soiling, that 
arable fields are converted into artificial and 
temporary meadows, in which the different spe- 
cies of grasses are sown, in order to be cut 
green or made into hay; and when, from the 
nature of the soil, the herbage degenerates, the 
field is ploughed up again, greatly improved 
by this change of cultivation. 

When a natural meadow has been neglected, 
and the grass is of an inferior quality, and 
mixed with rank weeds and moss, it requires 
much care to restore it to its original fertility. 
In most cases (says a writer in the Penny Cy- 
clopedia), the shortest method and the best is to 
plough it up, clean and manure it during a 
course of tillage, without taking very exhaust- 
ing crops from it, and then to lay it down 
again, in a clean and enriched state, by sowing 
the best sort of grass-seeds ; or, which is pre- 
ferable, by inoculating or planting in it small 
tufts of grass from some rich meadow, which 
will soon increase, and produce a new and 
improved sward. But when the soil is a very 
stiff clay, with only a small depth of good mould 
over it, there is some danger in breaking the 
old sward, for it will take a long time and much 
manure to reproduce a proper covering oi' 
sward. In this case it is a preferable practice 
to scarify the meadow, by means of instruments 
which do not go deep, but only tear up the sur- 
face. If this is done in early spring, when the 
ground is moist, and the whole surface i"! 
3x2 797 



MEADOW FOXTAIL. 



MEAT. 



brought to resemble a fallow field, good grass- 
seed may be immediately sown. If rich ma- 
nure, mixed with lime or chalk, is then evenly 
spread over the land, and the whole well har- 
rowed and rolled, the old and young grass will 
spring up together, and show a wonderful im- 
provement in a very few months. Great Britain 
and Ireland are reputed to possess the most 
verdant pastures and the finest natural grasses 
in the vegetable creation. 

In extent of meadow and pasture-land, as 
well as in flocks. Great Britain and Ireland 
(says a French statistical account) are the 
most favoured countries in Europe. They 
contain 5572 square leagues (more than two- 
thii-dsoftheir territory), in meadowand pasture- 
land. Germany comes next, having one-quarter 
of its surface in this description of land. Prus- 
sia, Holland, and Belgium have a fifth ; Austria 
and Switzerland a sixth. France does not 
reckon in this respect more than a seventh part, 
namely, 4000 square leagues. Italy, Naples, 
Sicily, and Portugal have only a tenth. 

MEADOW FOXTAIL. See Alopecurus 
and Gkass. 

MEADOW-GRASS. See Poa, Couch, Hol- 
cus, and Grasses. 

MEADOW OAT-GRASS. See Avena. 

MEADOW-SAFFRON {Cokhicum). An or- 
namental genus of bulbs, growing best in a 
light loamy soil, and increased by offsets, or 
from seeds. One species only is indigenous. 
See CoLCHicuM. 

MEADOW-SWEET, or QUEEN OF THE 
MEADOWS (Spircea ulmaria). In England an 
iiutigenous perennial plant, growing in moist 
meadows, and about the banks of rivers and 
ditches; flowering in June and July. The root 
is fibrous, without knobs; the stems are her- 
baceous, 3 or 4 feet high, leafy, branched, fur- 
rowed, angular, smooth. Leaves interruptedly 
pinnate; downy beneath; the terminal leaflets 
largest, and lobed. Flowers extremely nume- 
rous, cream-coloured, with a sweet but oppress- 
ive, hawthorn-like scent, in dense, compound, 
cymose panicles, with many styles. The taste 
of the herbage, like the scent of the flowers, is 
aromatic, not unlike the flavour of orange- 
flower water. The distilled water is said to be 
used by wine merchants to improve the flavour 
of made wines. Hogs devour the roots with 
avidity; goats and sheep also relish the herb; 
but horses and cattle refuse it. 

MEAL (Dutch, med). The edible part of 
wheat, oats, rye, barley, and pulse of different 
kinds, ground into a species of coarse flour. 
See Flour. 

MEASURES. See Weights and Measures. 

MEAT (Sax. moece, food). A general appel- 
lation for the flesh of animals when prepared 
for human food. See Beef, Bacon, Cattle, 
Mutton, Pork, Sheep, Swine, &c. 

" In whatever manner meat is cooked," ob- 
serves Mr. Donovan, " there is a considerable 
diminution of substance, the loss consisting 
chiefly of water, juices, soluble matter, and fat. 
In an economical point of view, a comparison 
of the loss incurred in the two most usually 
employed processes, roasting and boiling, is 
interesting, yet it has not occupied the attention 
of the public so much as the importance of the 
798 



subject seems to demand. Professor Wallace, 
of Edinburgh, has given us the results of some 
experiments made to determine the loss which 
meat undergoes in cooking. It is to be regret- 
led that it is not more in detail, and that the 
weight of the bone in each joint was not as- 
certained ; but still it is of great value. The 
results, reduced to 100 pounds of meat, are as 
follows : — 

LtM. 

100 lbs. of beef lost in boiling - - - - - 26i 
100 lbs. of beef lost in roasting - - - - 32 
100 lbs. of beef lost in baiting - . ... 30 
100 lbs. of legs of mutton, averaging about 9^ lbs. 

each, lost in boiling ...... i\\ 

100 lbs. of shoulders of mutton, averaging 10 lbs. 

each, lost in roasting ..-.-. 31} 
100 lbs. of loins of mutton, averaging 8 lbs. 12 oz. 

each, lost in roasting ------ 35| 

100 lbs. of necks of mutton, averaging 10 lbs. each, 

lost in roasting ._----- 23} 

Thus, the loss in boiling beef or mutton was 
less than in roasting. And it appears that 
meat loses by the cooking about one-fifth to 
one-third. A few years since, I undertook the 
superintendence of some experiments of the 
same tendency, with the view of inserting the 
results in this volume. These trials were made 
on several parts of the different animals, with 
as much attention to accuracy as the nature 
of the subject permitted. They were made on 
different qualities of the same kind of meat, at 
various seasons, both in England and Ireland. 
Such experiments are exceedingly troublesome, 
and occasion no small inconvenience ; it is, 
therefore, the less surprising that the subject 
has been so little investigated ; and the follow- 
ing results, in the absence of any others so 
particularly detailed, will, perhaps, prove in- 
teresting. Allowance must be made for the 
nature of such processes, as the difficulty of 
fixing an average price of meat, fish, and poul- 
try, owing to variations occasioned by the sup- 
ply and the season, the want of uniformity in 
the prices of the city, and by the exorbitant 
demands of some vendors of these articles. 
The degree of fatness was in all cases brought 
to a standard by cutting oflT all excess, and 
leaving the meat in a proper state for house- 
keepers' use. The meat was in all cases cooked 
as nearly as possible to the same degree, and 
the weights were determined with exactness; 
avoirdupois weight throughout is intended. The 
bones were entirely stripped of their meat pre- 
viously to their being weighed. The only cost 
taken into account is that of meat, leaving out 
fuel, &c. 

" Experiment 1. — A piece of beef, roasted. 
It consisted of four of the largest ribs, and 
was not remarkably fat : its weight was H^V 
lbs. During the process of roasting it lost 2 lbs 
6 oz., of which 10 oz. were fat, and 28 oz. were 
water dissipated by evaporation. When the 
meat was dissected off" with the utmost care, 
the bones weighed 16 oz. Hence, the weight 
of meat, properly roasted and fit for the table, 
was but 7 lbs. 11 oz., out of 11-,-^ lbs. originally 
submitted to experiment. This beef would cost 
in London 8^rf. per lb. The roasted beef cost, 
therefore, 12^rf. per pound. In another trial, a 
piece of beef of the same description, the tops 
of the ribs having been rejected with their 
meat, was submitted to the same mode of trial; 
the weight of bone in 10^ lbs. was 16 oz., and 



MEAT. 



MEAT. 



the fat 11 oz., which agrees with the former 
estimate." 

Other parts of mutton, submitted to similar 
tests, gave the following results. 

"Experiment 17. — A leg of mutton, weighing 
9J lbs., when boiled gave 1 lb. of bone, shank 
included ; it lost in the boiling 1 lb. 2 oz. : the 
meat weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz. If the butcher's 
price was 8d. per lb., the meat cost about lO^rf. 
per lb. 

"Experiment 18. — A similar leg, weighing 9 
lbs. 6 oz., afforded 15 oz. of bone, and lost 12 oz. 
in the boiling: the meat weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. 
At 8(1. per lb. butcher's price, the boiled meat 
would cost 9^d. per lb. 

"Experiment 19. — A leg of small Scotch mut- 
ton, weighing 6 lbs., afforded 10^ oz. of bone, 
lost 5^ oz. in the boiling, and the meat weighed 
5 lbs. : cost 9^d. per lb., if butcher's price be 8d." 

The following are miscellaneous : — 

" Experiment 28. — A fore-quarter of lamb, 
weighing 9 lbs., afforded, when roasted, 20 oz. 
of bone, and lost If lb. in the roasting : the meat 
weighed 6 lbs. If the butcher's price be 8^d. 
per lb., the roasted lamb costs 12-Jrf. per lb. 

" Experiment 31. — A hand of salt pork weigh- 
ing 4 lbs. 5 oz., lost in boiling 11 oz. The bone 
weighed 9 oz. : the meat was 8 lbs. 1 oz. If the 
first cost of the pork was 7^d. per lb., the meat, 
when duly boiled, cost lO^^rf. per lb. 

"Experiment 34. — A knuckle of veal weigh- 
ing 6 lbs., when duly boiled, lost half a pound. 
Its bones, perfectly cleared of meat, weighed 2 
lbs. 6oz. ; the meat weighed 3 lbs. 2 oz. Hence, 
if the butcher's price was S^d., the boiled meat 
cost lOV. per lb. 

" Experiment 35. — A goose properly trussed, 
weighed 4^ lbs. : in this state it was roasted, 
and, when sufficiently done, was found to have 
lost 18 oz. The skeleton weighed 12 oz.: the 
meat weighed 3 lbs. This goose would cost, 
in London, 4s. 6d. Hence the roasted meat 
amounted to Is. 8^d. per lb. 

" Experiment 41. — A turkey, with its liver and 
pizzard, weighing 4 lbs. 14 oz., was boiled : it 
lost 12 oz. The skeleton weighed 13j^ oz.; the 
meat, 3 lbs. 4i oz. If this turkey cost 3s. 6d., 
the boiled meat amounted to Is. Id. per lb. 

"Experiment 43. — A young duck, weighing 
20 oz., lost 5f oz. in roasting. Its bones weigh- 
ed 2y'^oz.: the meat was 12^ oz. It cost 2s. 
6rf. : hence the flesh amounted to 3s. 3^d. per lb. 

" Experiment 46. — A fowl, with its liver and 
gizzard, weighing 1^ lb., was roasted. It lost 
3 oz. : the skeleton weighed 4^ oz., and the flesh 
16^ oz. If such a fowl cost 2s. 6d., its meat, 
when roasted, would cost 2s. 4|rf. per lb. 

" Experiment 47. — A chicken, weighing 1 lb. 
4J oz., when roasted lost 3^ oz. The bones 
weighed 3 oz., the flesh, 13^ oz. If the chicken 
cost 2s. 4rf., the meat, roasted, was worth 2s. 
8d. per lb. 

"Experiment 56. — A fine mackerel, when 
trimmed, and ready for boiling, weighed 23^ 
oz. (including the weight of the roe, 2^ oz.) 
It cost lOd. It lost 1| oz. in the boiling. The 
skeleton, carefully collected, along with gills, 
fins, and tail, weighed 4^ oz. Hence, the cost 
of the eatable parts of the boiled fish was 95rf. 
per lb." 

It will now be necessary to collect the results 



of all these experiments into a kind of con- 
spectus, for the sake of more easy comparison; 
and it is to be understood, that, in the following 
estimates, when the butcher's price is men- 
tioned, it of course comprises meat and bone 
in the usual manner. But, when the ultimate 
cost of the cooked meat is specified, it refers to 
the price cost of the meat only, the bone being 
considered valueless: and it is supposed that 
the fatness of the meat was such as good meat 
is expected to have, without any redundancy 
being left on it. From an average of five ex- 
periments, it appears that, when the butcher's 
price of ribs of beef is 8^rf. per lb., the cost of 
the meat, when duly roasted and fit for the 
table, is ll^rf. per lb., and that the average loss 
of weight arising from the liquefaction of the 
fat, and the evaporation of water from the 
juices, is 18 per cent. From an average of six 
experiments, it appears that, when the butcher's 
price of sirloins of beef is 9^d. per lb., the cost 
of the meat, when duly roasted and fit for the 
table, is Is. l^d. per lb., and that the average 
weight lost during the roasting is 20^ per cent. 
From an average of other experiments, it ap- 
pears that when the butchers price of salted 
briskets of beef is 6d. per lb., the cost of the 
meat, when duly boiled and fit for the table, is 
S^d. per lb., and the loss incurred in boiling, 
arising from the extraction of fat and juices, is 
18 per cent. From an average of two experi- 
ments, it appears that when the butcher's price 
of salted flanks of beef is 6d. per lb., the cost 
of the meat, when duly boiled, is 7^d. per lb., 
and the loss in boiling is J 3] per cent. From 
another experiment, it appears that, when the 
butcher's price of salted tail ends of beef is Id. 
per lb., the cost of the meat, when duly boiled, 
is 8^d. per lb., and the loss in boiling is 13-j7j, 
per cent. From an average of experiments 17, 
18, 19, and 2 others, it appears that, when the 
butcher's price of legs of mutton is 8d. per 
lb., the cost of the meat, when duly boiled and 
fit for the table, is lOd. per lb., and that the 
average weight lost during the boiling is 10 
per cent. From an average of two experiments 
it appears that, when the butcher's price of 
legs of mutton is 8d. per lb., the cost of the 
meat, when duly roasted, is Is. per lb., and the 
loss incurred by roasting is 27^^ per cent. 
From an average of two experiments, it ap- 
pears that, when the butcher's price of shoul- 
ders of mutton is Id. per lb., the cost of the 
meat, duly roasted, is lid. per lb., and the loss 
incurred by roasting is 28 per cent. From an 
average of experiments it appears that, when 
the butcher's price of the fore-quarter of lamb 
is 8^d. per lb., the cost of the meat, duly roast- 
ed, is Is. l^d. per lb., and the loss by roasting 
is 22} per cent. From experiment 30, it ap- 
pears that, if the first cost of hams be lOd. per 
lb., the meat, duly boiled, skinned, and brown- 
ed, will amount to Is. l^d. per lb., and the loss 
by boiling is 12^ per cent. From experiments 
31 and 32, it appears that, when the hand and 
leg of salt pork average 8d. per lb., the boiled 
meat amounts to lOjrf. per lb., and the loss in 
boiling is 13^ per cent. From an experiment 
it appears that, if the first cost of bacon is 8d, 
per lb., the meat, when duly boile;!, skinned, 
and browned, amounts to lO^d. per .lb., the los? 

799 



MEAT. 

in boiling alone being 6^ per cent. From ex- 
periment 34, it appears that, when the butcher's 
price of knuckle of veal is 5^d. per lb., the meat, 
duly boiled, costs \0^d. per lb., the loss in boil- 
ing being 8^ per cent. From an average of 
experiments 35, 36, 37, it appears that, at the 
prices of geese quoted, which average I2id. 
per lb. for the raw flesh, the cost of the roasted 
flesh is. Is. 7(1. per lb., and the loss per cent 19^. 
From an average of three experiments, it ap- 
pears that, at the prices of turkeys quoted, 
which average lOd. per lb., the cost of the roast- 
ed flesh is Is. 2|rf. per lb., and the loss per cent 
is 20^. From an average of experiments 41 
and 42, it appears that, when turkeys are sold 
at the last-mentioned price, the cost of the boil- 
ed flesh is Is. lid. per lb., and the loss per cent 
is 16. It appears also, that the roasted flesh of 
turkeys sometimes amounts to 4s. 2d. per lb. 
From experiments 43, 44, and 45, it appears 
that, at the prices of ducks quoted, which ave- 
rage Is. H(/. per lb. in the raw state, the cost 
of the roasted flesh is 2s. 8d. per lb., and the loss 
per cent, is 27|. From experiments 46, 47, 
and 48, it appears that, at the prices of chickens 
quoted, which average Is. 6^(/. per lb. in the 
raw state, the roasted flesh amounts to 2s. Id. 
per lb., and the loss per cent, is 14g. From an 
average of six experiments, it appears that, at 
the prices of chickens last quoted, the average 
cost of the boiled flesh is 2s. 8d. per lb. and 
the average loss is 13^ per cent. From an ex- 
periment it appears, that, when turbot in the 
raw state is sold at 9^rf. per lb., the boiled fish 
costs 1 IV. per lb.; the loss in boiling is 5i per 
cent. From experiment 56, it appears that, 
when mackerel sells in the raw state at 6^d. 
per lb., the boiled fish costs 9^f/. per. lb., the 
loss in boiling being 7^ per cent. From an ex- 
periment, it appears that the roasted flesh of a 
woodcock sometimes costs 16s. per lb., and 
sometimes 2s. But the flesh of the quail is 
still more expensive. This bird, when fatten- 
ed, is sold at the enormous price of 3s.; and, 
when allowance is made for the loss in cooking 





Cost 


Cost 


Los(i per 


Names of the Articles of Food estimated. 


per lb. 


per lb. 


cent, in 




raw. 


cooked. 


cooking. 




d. 


A 




Salted flank of beef, bniled - 


6 


7* 


13 1-5 


Salted tail-end of beef, do. - 


6 


81 


13 7-10 


Salted brisket of beef, do 


6 


81 


18 


Mackerel, do. . - - 


6i 


91 


Tl 


Legs of niutlon, do. 


8 


10 


10 


Bacon, best part, do - - 


8 


101 


61 


Hand and leg of salt pork, do. 


8 


101 


131 


Knuckle of veal, do. 


5i 


101 


J" 


fhonlders of mutton, roasted 


7 


11 


28 


Ribs of beef, do. - . - 


8i 


111 


18 


Tiirbot, boiled ... 


n 


HI 


5 5-9 


Legs of mutton, roasted 


8 


12 


217-10 


Turkeys, boiled - - - 


10 


13 1-9 


16 


Sirloin of beef, roasted - 


8i 


13 1-6 


201 


Fore-quarter of lamb, do. 


8A 


131 


221 


Hams boiled - - - - 


m 


131 


121 


Legs of mutton, overroasted - 


8 


14 


27 4-10 


Turkeys, roasted - - - 


10 


^*J 


201 


Hamburg bung-beef, ribs 


12 


18 


9 1-5 


Citiese, roasted - . - 


12J 


19 


191 


Woodcocks, do., cheap season 


- 


24 




Chickens, roasted - - - 


18i 


31 


14 3-5 


Chickens, boiled - - . 


18^ 


32 


131 


Ducks, roasted - . - 


\H 


32 


27 1-6 


Haunch of venison, do. 


- 


46 




1 Turkeys, large, crammed 


_ 


50 




1 Woodcocks, scarce season 


_ 


192 




1 Quails, fattened - - - 


- 


288 





19' 



24f 
221 
191 
201 



800 



MEAT. 

and the bones, the meat may be estimated at 
2 oz., which brings the cost of the cooked flesh 
to II. 4s. per lb. ! Those to whom such morsels 
are necessary are not to be envied. A haunch 
of venison, weighing 26 lbs., will cost 3^ gui- 
neas. The meat of this, when roasted and 
detached from the bone, will amount to about 
.3s. lOrf. per lb.; and if the animal was more 
than usually fat, to 4s. The foregoing table 
gives the results in a still more abstract form ; 
but the prices apply to London only. The 
articles are arranged in the order of their cost- 
liness in the London market. 

It appears from the experiments, that 

The loss per cent, on roasting beef, viz. sirloins and 
ribs together, is .-...- 

Do. on roasting mutton, viz. legs and shoulders 
together, is --..--. 
Do. on roasting lamb, viz. the fore-quarter, is - 
Do. on roasting geese, is - - - - - 
Do. on roasting turkeys, is .... 
Do. on roasting ducks, is - 
Do. on roasting chickens, is - - - - 14; 

Thus, the loss on roasting varies from 143 to 
nearly double that rate. The average loss on 
roasting butchers' meat is 22 per cent., and on 
roasting domestic poultry is 20^. 

The loss per cent, on boiling mutton, viz. legs, is - 10 

Do. on boiling hams, is - - - - - 121 

Do. on boiling salt beef, is - - - - 15 

Do. on boiling salt pork, is - . - - 13J 

Do. on borling bacon, is - - - - - H 

Do. on boiling knuckles of veal, is - - . 81 

Do. on boiling turkeys, is - - - - - 16 

Do. on boiling chickens, is ... - 131 

Thus, the loss on boiling varies from 6^ to 
16. The average loss on boiling butchers' 
meat, pork, hams, and bacon, is 12, and on 
boiling domestic poultry is 14^. These esti- 
mates of butchers' meat do not agree with 
those of Professor Wallace. I shall select for 
contrast all those cases that can be compared. 

Wallace. My triaU 

100 lbs. of beef lost in boiling - - - 261 

Do. in roasting ----- 32 

100 lbs. of legs of mutton lost in boiling - 211 

100 lbs. of shoulders of mutton lost in 

roasting --.... 3ii 

The average loss in boiling and roastin^ 
gether is, according to Professor Wallace, 28 
per cent.; according to my trials, it is but 18. 
I know not how to reconcile these results 
otherwise than by supposing a difl'erence in 
the meat, or its fatness, or in the duration of 
the heat. I used meat of suflicient, but not 
unprofitable fatness, such as is preferred in 
families; the meat was in all cases a little rare 
at its centre, and the results were determined 
with the utmost care. In great public institu- 
tions, where economy is studied, and every 
thing is regulated by weight and measure, 
tables of this kind do not aflJbrd a guide that is 
to be implicitly relied on. It is obvious that 
another element must be taken into the calcu- 
lation, to insure true results ; the ratio in which 
each article of food satisfies the appetite, which 
varies with almost every individual. 

Butchers' meat, taking one kind with another, 
averages 35 per cent, of real nutritive matter; 
at least, such was the estimate presented by 
j MM. Vauquelin and Percy to the French mi- 
nister of the interior, -\dopting this determi- 
nation, we are prepared to appreciate the 



II 



MEAT. 



MEAT. 



quantity of real nutritive matter received into 
the stomach, when a meal of plain meat and 
vegetables has been eaten : it is not practicable 
to come to any conclusion when made dishes 
are used. It is a subject of interest, and par- 
ticularly so to the inhabitants of the British 
Isles, who are said by foreigners to make 
use of more animal food than is necessary or 
wholesome. 

In order, then, to equalize the animal and 
vegetable matter, and to increase the total 
quantity, the ratio should be 8^ oz. of boiled 
mutton, 10 oz. of potato, and the same of tur- 
nip ; the total amount of food swallowed will 
be 28^ oz., but the quantity of real nutriment 
will be but 6 oz., half being animal and half 
vegetable matter. This is certainly a sutRcient 
meal for most persons who have but little labo- 
rious occupation ; for, if a pint of liquid be 
drunk at the same time, the load on the stomach 
will weigh 3 lb.; and this will be increased to 
4^ lb. if a pint of wine be swallowed. Now, 
the difference between 8^ oz. of boiled meat 
and 10 oz. appears very trivial ; but, if the 
greater of the two quantities be persevered in 
regularly every day for the term of a man's 
adult life of half a century, it may excite a 
iiiile surprise in the person who practises it, 
to learn that he will have consumed a flock of 
sheep, consisting of about fifty-three head, in 
excess above what he ought to have made use 
of. In a life of !sixty-five years, allowing SA oz. 
per day for fifty years, two-thirds of that quan- 
tity for ten years, and 3 oz. a day for three 
years of childhood, the total animal food 
amounts to 350 sheep. If to this be added the 
excess above mentioned, the number of sheep, 
the cooked meat of which is devoured by one 
man during a life of sixty-five years, is about 
400 ; along with 5 tons of potatoes, about the 
same of turnips or other vegetables, 9 tons' 
weight of common drink, and 6 Ions' weight 
of wine, at 1 pint per day for three years 
only : thus, for dinner alone, above 30 tons' 
weight of solids and liquids must have passed 
through the stomach. Inordinate work will 
wear out any machinery before its time, espe- 
cially if the work performed be of a peculiar 
wearing character. Whether it is advisable to 
add the fifty-three unnecessary sheep to one's 
dinner, is a question which every reader will 
answer to himself as he thinks proper. The 
food of old Parr, who died at 153 years of age, 
consisted of cheese, coarse bread, milk, and 
small beer. Would it have made no diflerence 
in the duration of his life if he h«d swallowed 
1050 sheep ! for about this number would have 
been his share at the usual rate, along with 
his twenty tons of wine. It may assist in 
drawing a conclusion, to recollect that when 
he was brought to London, and lived in splen- 
dour, " fed high, and drank plentifully of the 
best wines," he soon died : and his death was 
generally attributed to that cause, for he had 
vigour of body " to have lived a good while 
longer," as the reporter says. {Lardncrs Ennj.) 

1. Selection of Cattle and Beef. — In the selec- 
tion of cattle to be sent alive to market, they 
should invariably possess fine symmetry and 
small bone, carrying the greatest weight of 
beef on the most valuable points, such as 
101 



rumps, loins, and crops ; the back well covered, 
the buttocks and flanks well filled up, and the 
whole carcass exhibiting a fulness of flesh, ex- 
cepting the necks and coarser parts. They 
should handle hard and firm, in order to stand 
well the voyage, and handle and look well in 
the market. Firm handlers, whether heifers 
or oxen, always cut well up. A good coat of 
hair, too, is of great use in a sea-voyage on 
deck, and also in enabling cattle to stand the 
vicissitudes of weather in the markets, and it 
enables them to be turned out in safety, in 
case they should not be disposed of on the first 
market-day. Thin-coated cattle always look 
tender, and are, in fact, so under any circum- 
stances. Cattle only possessing these requisite 
properties should be sent to Smithfield market, 
and any others will assuredly incur loss to the 
shipper. An ox or heifer of these properties, 
weighing: 80 stones per Smithfield stone of 
8 lbs., will actually realize more money than 
a coarse ox or heifer weighing 100 stones. 
Heavy cattle, however, do not take readily in 
Smithfield, except for a month about Christ- 
mas, unless they are remarkably handsome; 
nor do very light cattle, under 40 stones, for 
two or three months in summer, unless they 
are really neatly shaped, and thick on the 
backs and best points. The most saleable 
weights are from 50 stones to 55 stones. Of 
the Scotish breeds, the Galloway and West 
Highlanders fetch generally the top price ; fine 
Angus and Aberdeenshires, of fine points ancj, 
thick backs, take well; and handsome, well- 
bred short horns also take r<..tdily, but do not 
realize so much money as Galloways or West 
Highlanders. Fine crosses are also very 
saleable. 

The meat intended to be sent to the carcass 
market in London should be taken from such 
cattle as we have described. It is not large 
quantities of lean and fat that are wanted there, 
but both well mixed. Ox and heifer beef of 
equal quality command the same prices. 
Rumps, loins, crops, and other fine parts fitted 
for roasting and steaks, are mort in demand 
than the boiling pieces, and realize compara- 
tively higher prices, and therefore they alone 
should be sent. Coarse beef alwa)'s fetches 
low prices in London, and therefore should be- 
purchased (to use a sporting phrase) at a low 
figure in the country to return any profit, for 
the best buyers look more to quality than^ 
quantity; and as this quality of beef is rather 
cheaper in London than in Scotland, ship- 
pers should be cautious in sending any such 
thither. 

2. Selection of Sheep and Mutton. — Ripe, com- 
pact sheep, of light weights, carrying a large 
proportion of lean on the back, loins, and 
shoulder, with a full round leg and handsome 
carcass, are admirably suited for Smithfield. 
Such, from 14 lb. to 20 lb. per quarter, will 
take readily ; but they are most valuable from 
16 lb. to 18 lb. The nearer the form and quality 
approach those of South Downs, the more likely 
are they to command the top prices ; for the 
Downs have long been unrivalled favourites- 
in Smithfield. True bred Cheviots and the 
black-faced Linton breed approach neaily to 
the qualities of the South Downs, and com 

80 



MEAT. 



MEAT. 



mand as high a price. Half-breeds from Lei- 
cester rams and Cheviot and black-faced ewes, 
which resemble the true breeds in form and 
quality, form saleable sheep in London. The 
old black-faced breed are too thin in the leg 
and back, and are in London termed " goaty ^^ 
There are by far too many of this kind sent 
from Scotland, and they are generally, besides, 
only half-weaffrf, or half-fat, and of course only 
fetch middling prices. They, however, gene- 
rally please the consumer for flavour. Pure 
bred Leicesters are too fat, unless they are sent 
young, and do not exceed 20 lb. per quarter; 
when above that weight they fetch inferior 
prices. A fine South Down or Scotch sheep, 
of 18 lb. per quarter, will fetch Id. per lb. by 
the carcass, whereas a heavy Leicester, Glou- 
cester, Lincoln, or Kent, of 24 lb. a quarter and 
upwards, will realize no more than 6(/. 

The carcasses of mutton to be sent to Lon- 
don should, of course, be those of sheep such 
as are here recommended to be sent alive. 
Large quantities of fat are not so desirable as 
a proportionable mixture of fat with the lean. 
In using the loins and other parts of very fat 
mutton for chops, much of it has to be pared 
away, and sold for the price of raw fat, per- 
haps 4f/. a pound ; whereas well-mixed chops 
may be sold for Id. or %d, a pound. This shows 
the nature of the mistake committed in sending 
fat. heavy mutton to London. The great point 
is, to select ripe mutton and sheep ; for the 
la.terwill stand the voyage better than half-fat, 
and will not lose half the quantity of flesh in 
three days as the latter. No overgrown 
animals, having masses of fat on one place 
and not on another, would therefore command 
the top price : but those having plump car- 
casses, well mixed with fat and lean, firmly 
and equally laid on, with fine symmetry and 
valuable points, will always command the 
top piice, both at Smithfield and the carcass 
markets. 

3. Selection of Lambs. — Lambs are a favourite 
stock to send to London, and they are always 
•sent alive. Leicester lambs are admirably 
adapted for the London market. They are 
handsome, compact, thick on all the points, 
and although they might become too fat when 
grown to sheep, they cannot be too fat as lambs. 
Their flesh is white, a property much admired 
in London, and every joint of them looks well 
on the table. The lambs of the cross between 
the Leicester and the Cheviot and black-faced 
ewes are next best for fat and lean, and cut 
well into joints, although they have not the 
handsome figures of the pure Leicester. True 
Cheviot and black-faced lambs, unless very 
fat, do not take so well in Smithfield, not being 
so compact, taking longer time to come to ma- 
turity, not cutting up so thick, and presenting 
small joints on the table ; but they make very 
delicate and high-flavoured chops. No lambs 
should be sent to Smithfield until they are at 
least three months old, and have obtained the 
weight of 9 lb. or 10 lb. a quarter ; and if they 
are not fat enough, and have not attained that 
weight at that age, they should be kept on. 
Shippers may calculate on a loss of 1 lb. a 
luarter on the voyage : unless, therefore, lambs 
^^t from 9 lb. to 10 lb. a quarter, they would be 
802 



too small after that loss, and they then becom.! 
unsaleable except at low prices. Ewe lamba 
are preferred, being more delicate than wethers, 
which are next in value, for ram lambs are 
very unsaleable. All wether lambs, therefore, 
intended for Smithfield, should be castrated 
when a few days old, and their tails cut short, 
leaving not more than three inches. The 
docking gives them a very compact form, and 
it causes the flesh to grow up towards the back, 
long tails giving a contrary tendency. 

4. Selection of Pigs and Pork. — Much caution 
is requisite on the part of the shipper of pigs 
for London. A very mistaken notion prevails 
among many shippers, and the notion has been 
contracted in ignorance of the nature of the 
London market, that pigs must be fat to suit 
the English taste. The fact is quite the reverse, 
for the larger the pig is fattened, the less money 
per pound it fetches. Pigs are worth the most 
money when their weight ranges from 35 lb. to 
40 lb. ; and from this weight up to 60 lb. or 70 lb., 
they are termed dairy-fed porkers. If at the 
former weight, they are of good symmetry, fine 
quality, delicate and white in the flesh, and not 
more than 1 inch or 1^^ inch thick of fat on the 
back, they will fetch the top price of the day. 
Pigs of the average weight of 60 lb. will give 
about 7d. per lb.; from 70 lb. to 100 lb., ave- 
raging 85 lb., and 2 inches thick of fat, 6d. per 
lb.; from 100 lb. to 150 lb., averaging 130 lb., 
and about 2^ inches of fat, 5^^. to ^^d. per lb.; 
from 150 lb. to 200 lb., averaging about 170 lb., 
and about 3 inches of fat, 4f/. to 4^f/. per lb.; 
and all above the last weight and thickness of 
fat, only about 3^d. per lb. Besides the large- 
sized, a very small fat pig is not relished in 
London. Indeed, we need not be surprised at 
this preference, when we consider that only 
the small lean and fat porkers are used for 
roasting, chops, and pickled pork, and the large 
fat pigs are chopped down for sausages. No 
pigs, therefore, should be sent to London ex- 
ceeding 100 lb., exclusive of head and feet, but 
which are only moderately fat and of fine 
quality; all other qualities should be cured as 
flitch, bacon, and hams. Pigs, if possible, 
should be sent alive to London. Occasionally 
they arrive in pretty good order in carcass; 
but in carcass, in thick weather, the flesh be- 
comes very soft, and the skin dry; and in dry 
weather the skin becomes quite hard and 
brown coloured. Of equal qualities, the live 
pig will draw from a halfpenny to a penny a 
pound more than in carcass. Feeders of pigs 
should be careful on what they feed their pigs, 
especially fish. The retail butchers are such 
nice judges of pork, that on buying a carcass 
at Newgate or Leadenhall market, and cutting 
a slice, they can detect the least peculiarity in 
taste, which, if they do, they will return it again, 
and cause the carcass to be resold for what it 
will bring, rather than send any such pork to 
their customers. 

Cutting itp Meat. — The mode of cutting up 
meat is more diversified even than the slaugh- 
tering, almost every town having its own. But 
as London is the great emporium of the export 
meat trade of Scotland, the method of cutting 
up meat in the metropolis should constitute the 
particular study of the shippers of meat. To 



MEAT. 



MEAT. 



acquire this necessary information, the ship- 
pers should have a few of the most expert 
butchers in London to slaughter and cut up 
the carcasses of the various sorts of animals. 
They should never consider themselves above 
acquiring such information, when their own 
interest will be benefited by its adoption. 
Whether the London method of cutting up 
meat is really the best of any, and we think it 
»s, it must be admitted that the London butchers 
must have the most extensive and varied expe- 
rience ; and any one has only to witness the 
operatitm performed by expert London butchers 
to be satisfied that they display great skill in their 
art, and execute their work with the utmost pre- 
cision. Indeed, the precision with which they di- 
videthedifferentqualitiesof meatfrom the same 
carcafSs shows their thorough knowledge of the 
qualities of meat; and the variety of prices 
which different parts of the same carcass fetch, 
shows with what accuracy they can gratify the 
tastes of the various grades of their customers. 
In practising this precision, they not only 
make the best use of the carcass, but realize 
the highest value for it, and at the same time 
gratify the taste of the greatest number of cus- 
Fifi-. 1. 




ffind-Q^uarter. 

1. Loin. 

2. Rump. 

3. Itch or adze-bone 

4. Buttock. 

5. Ilock. 

6. Thick flank. 

7. Thin flank. 

8. Fore-rib. 



Fore-Quarter. 
9. Middle-rib. 

10. Chuck-rib. 

11. Brisket. 

12. Leg of mutton piece. 

13. Clod and sticking and neck 

14. Shin. 

15. Leg. 



JJYg-.2. 




Hind-Quarter. 

1. Sirloin or back-sye. 

2. Hock-bone. 

3. Buttock. 1 „ 

4. Large round. /""""P' 

5. Small round, 

6. Housh. 

7. Thick flank 

8. Thin flank. 

9. Vine holes. 



Fore-Quarter 

10. Large runner. 

11. Small runner. 

12. Spare-rib, or fore-sye. 

13. Brisket. 

14. Shoulder Iyer. 

15. Nap or shin. 

16. Neck. 

17. Sticking piece. 



tomers. In the carcass of any animal, an ox. 
for instance, there are different qualities of 
meat, and these qualities are situated indifferent 
parts of the carcass. All the best parts are in 
London used for roasting and steaks, and the 
inferior for boiling, either in pieces, or making 
stock for soups, or minced meat, in the various 
forms of pies, sausages, &c. 

The carcass of an ox is cut up into the fol 
lowing pieces, as may be seen on referring to 
the numbers on the annexed cnUfg. 1. 

The relative value of these different cuts of 
an ox may be stated at their current value, viz., 
when the rumps, loins, and fore-ribs of a fine 
ox fetch 8rf. a pound, the thick flank, buttock, 
and middle rib will fetch Bri.; the itch or adze- 
bone, thin flank, chuck rib, brisket, and leg of 
mutton piece, 5r/. ; the clod and sticking, and 
neck, 3r/. ; and the legs and shins, 2rf. a pound. 
Such is the difference in value of the different 
cuts of an ox in the meal markets in London. 
As an object of comparison, we shall also 
give a figure of an ox cut up in the Edinburgh 
method, as in fig. 2, and the great difference 
between both methods may be seen at a glance. 
See cuts. 

It is therefore obvious that, of the 
two methods of cutting up beef, the 
London affords much more of roast- 
ing and steak, that is, the more valu- 
able pieces, out of the same carcass; 
and, of course, more money would 
thereby be realized from it. 

Much of what we have said on the 
management requisite in sending 
beef to the London market will ap- 
ply equally to sending mutton, veal, 
or lamb to the same market. The 
best pieces only should be sent to 
London, and the remainder kept for 
the home market : and were this re- 
commendati-n attended to, the ex- 
pense of expo-tation would be dimi- 
nished on what was sent; for the best 
pieces would nack well together in a 
comparative!}' small space, where- 
as whole carcasses of mutton, by the 
roundness of the rib, occupy much 
unnecessary room, for which freight 
must be paid. 

Mutton is also cut up differently in 
London and Scotland, as may be seen 
on referring to the figures at the top 
of next page, of which the first repre- 
sents the London method. 

In the fore-quarter, No. 1 is the 
shoulder, 2 and 2 the neck, after the 
shoulder has been taken off, and 3 the 
breast; and in the hind-quarter, 4 is 
the loin, which, when cut double, that 
is, partly from both sides of the car- 
cass, is called a chine or saddle, and 
5 is the leg. A leg of mutton in Lon- 
don is cut short; a haunch is cut long, 
taking in the hook-bone, similar to a 
haunch of venison. The flap of the loin 
is left attached to that part of the fore 
quarter called the breast. The Scotch 
mode of cutting up mutton is repre- 
sented hy fig. 2, in which, in the hind 
quarter, No. 1 is the gigot, and 2 the 



MEAT. 




loin ; and in the fore, 3 the back ribs, and 4 
the breast and shoulders. The gigot is cut 
about half-way between the leg and haunch of 
the London method ; and the fore-quarter is 
cut right through the shoulders in two places, 
called back-ribs and breast. Shoulders of 
mutton are never cut off in Scotland before 
being cooked, except by keepers of eating- 
houses ; but the London plan of cutting mutton 
is decidedly the best, the shoulder forming an 
excellent roast, and th^ best end of the neck- 
piece being admirably suited for chops. 

The different joints of mutton vary almost 
as much in price in London as pieces of beef. 
The leg is sometimes sold as high as 10^. a 
pound, whilst the breast of the same sheep will 
only fetch id. or Srf. ; and if, in the wholesale 
market, the whole carcass is sold at Gd. a pound, 
the hind-quarter will be worth 7d. and the fore 
only 5rf. From these facts it is obvious, that it is 
the interest of the shipper only to send hind-quar- 
ters of mutlon to London, for which 7d. a pound 
may be easily obtained, and a ready market for 
them in the west-end butchers, who seldom 
deal in fore-quarters. The fore-quarters could 
be sold at home; hence realizing as much for 
them as they could fetch in London, besides 
saving on them the freight, commission, and 
wharfage. They form excellent joints for trades- 
men's families, and are, in fact, generally pre- 
ferred by them to the hind-quarters, which are 
considered dry eating, and certainly do not 
make so good broth as the fore-quarter. Be- 
sides the saving of room in packing the hind- 
quarters, they would run no risk of being 
stained when sent by themselves, as the stam- 
ing generally arises from blood oozing out of 
the veins iv 'he fore-quarter. 

Lamb i?. cut up in London in much the same 
manner as mutton, excepting that the neck and 
breast, when the shoulder is taken off, is roast- 
ed whole, and the piece is called ribs of lamb. 
In Scotland lamb is cut up exactly as mutton. 

Veal is cut up in London in a different way 
from any other meat. The knife is drawn be- 
tween the buttock and itch-bone, and through 
the pope's eye, tanmg a sloping direction 
mrough the coarse end of the buttock, leaving 
a flap The piece thus cut out is called a fillet 
804 



MEAT. 

I of veal. It is like a round of beef with a par* 
of the thin flank left to be skewered around it. 
The round bone is taken out, and stuffing put 
into its place. When the itch-bone and hook- 
bone are cut from the loin, the piece is called 
a chump of veal. The hind-quarter of veal 
thus consists of fillet, chump, loin, and leg. 
The fore-quarter is cut in the same manner as 
mutton, having shoulder, breast, and neck. In 
Scotland, veal is cut very much like mutton. 

The London mode of cutting up pork is the 
same as the Scotch mode of cutting up mutton, 
so fg. 2 will illustrate the mode; in which, in 
the hind-quarter, No. 1 is the leg, and 2 is the 
loin; in the fore, 3, back-rib, chine, or hand; 
and 4, breast and shoulders, spring or belly. 
The spring is used for pickling, and the hand 
for roasting, and for chops, or sausages. In 
Scotland, the hind-quarter consists of leg and 
loin, and the fore of back-ribs and breast. For 
pickling or roasting, pork is cut in the hind- 
quarter like that of English mutton, and in the 
fore like that of Scotch. In both countries, 
the ham is cut out alike. (Donovan's Dom. 
Econ. : Quart. Jour, of Agr. vol. iii. p. 241 — 281.) 
See Cattle and Saltink. 

MEDICK {Mcdirago). An extensive genus 
of herbaceous, mostly procumbent, plants. The 
perennial herbaceous species are sometin>es 
cultivated for ornament ; they will grow in any 
common garden soil, and are increased by di- 
viding the roots of the plants in spring. The 
shrubby kinds grow in a similar soil, and are 
readily increased by cuttings. The seeds of 
the annual species require to be souoi in the 
open border in spring. There are six indige- 
nous species. 

1. Purple medick, or lucem (71/. sa/i'ra). See 
LucKnx. 

2. Yellow sickle medick, or button-jags {M. 
falcula). This perennial species grows on dry, 
gravelly banks and old walls. The root is long 
and woody. In habit it very closely resembles 
lucern, but the numerous stems are procum- 
bent, spreading every way, hairy. The (low- 
ers, which blow in .Fune and July, are generally 
pale-yellow, but occasionally violet, and more 
frequently green, evidently from a combina- 
tion of these two colours. The legumes arc 
black, downy, sickle-shaped, not twisted in 
a screw, as in lucern. This species is, per- 
haps, as good fodder as lucern, though less 
succulent, and, from its position, less accessi- 
ble to the scythe. It withstands severe winters 
better than lucern, and is eaten eagerly bv 
cattle and horses, though its stalks are hard 
and woody. 

3. Black trefoil medick, or nonsuch (Tlf. lu- 
pulinn). This annual species is, in England, 
very common in meadow pastures and culti- 
vated fields, where it flowers from May till 
August. The black medick has the habit of 
some of the procumbent yellow trefoils, and 
has such general resemblance to the proper 
trefoils or clovers, that it is often mistaken for 
some of the smaller species. The form and 
colour of the seed-pods afford a ready distinc- 
tion. The root is tapering, and somewhat 
fibrous. Flowers small, yellow, from 30 to 40 
and upwards in each spike, which is at first 
roundish, afterwards ovate. Legumes kidney- 



MEDLAR. 

shaped, rugged and veiny, single-seeded, turn- 
ing black when ripe. Sir J. E. Smith speaks 
of this as " one of the most valuable of artifi- 
cial grasses, afibrding excellent fodder for 
sheep ;" but this good opinion is hardly borne 
out by experience, for, though Arthur Young 
makes favourable mention of it, Sinclair, in 
his more recent experiments on the grasses, 
observes that it is only fit for light soils, and 
these must be deep, as the root penetrates to a 
considerable depth. It does not appear to be 
fit for separate cultivation, nor even to be em- 
ployed in any large proportion in a mixture of 
otherseeds ; and the root being annual, its use is, 
therefore, confined to the alternate husbandry. 

4. Spotted medick {M. macidala). This is 
another annual species, growing on a gravelly 
soil in the southern parts of England. The 
root is fibrous, beset with little fleshy knobs. 
Stems prostrate, various in length. Leaflets 
inversely heart-shaped, spotted. Stipules di- 
lated, sharply toothed. Flowers yellow, rather 
small, tM'o or three together. Legumes spiral, 
depressed, fringed with long spreading bristles; 
when ripe, brown, not black. This has been 
mentioned, but not much recommended as a 
fodder for cattle. 

5. Flat-toothed medick (M. muricata). This 
is a doubtful native, growing on the sea-coast. 
It is an annual, and flowers in June and July. 

6. Little bur medick {M. minima). This is a 
little prostrate annual species, growing in sandy 
fields, but rare, clothed in every part with fine, 
soft, rather silky hairs. 

MEDLAR (Mespilus). A genus of large- 
growing fruit trees, which are very ornamental, 
and therefore worth a place in every shrub- 
bery. Any common soil suits them, and they 
are readily increased by budding or grafting 
on the common hawthorn, or they may be in- 
creased by seeds, which do not vegetate till the 
second year. 

The common medlar (M. Germanica) is indi- 
genous, growing wild in hedo-es. The branches 
of this tree are spreading, and thorny in a wild 
state ; but the thorns disappear by culture, and 
are not to be seen in gardens. Leaves decidu- 
ous, lanceolate, 4 or 5 inches long, a little 
downy. Flowers solitary, nearly sessile, ter- 
minal, large, with white undulated petals, in- 
odorous. Styles 5. Fruit depressed, con- 
cave at the top, somewhat hairy; austere, not 
eatable till it is mellowed by keeping. Culti- 
vation has produced many varieties, diflfering 
in size and flavour. The Dutch medlar is the 
finest as to size, and the Nottingham the most 
delicate in flavour. 

The wood, being hard and tough, resembling 
that of the pear tree, is useful for various do- 
mestic vessels, as well as for the smaller im- 
plements of husbandry. 

MEDULLA, or MEDULLIN (Lat.) Marrow. 
In botany that tissue which constitutes the 
pith of certain plants, as the pith of the sun- 
flower. Medullary raijs are the vertical plates 
of cellular tissue, which radiate from the centre 
of the stem of exogenous plants, through the 
wood to the bark. They cause that appearance 
m timber which carpenters call silver grain, 
or flower of the wood. The medullary sheath is 
a thin layer of vessels, which surround the 



MELILOT, COMMON. 

pulp of exogenous plants, and thence extend 
into the leaves and parts of fructification. 

MELIC-GRASS (Melica, from met, honey ; the 
Italian name of the great millet). A genus of 
perennial harsh grasses, with slender, oblong 
panicles of elegant, often drooping, flowers, 
greatly varied in the different species. There 
are, in England, three indigenous species. 
1. Wood melic-grass (M. imiflora). 2. Moun- 
tain melic-grass (M. nutans), found in the 
mountains of England and Scotland. 3. Pur- 
ple melic-grass (M. ccerulea). 

For the purpose of pasture or hay, these 
grasses are comparatively of no value. The 
country people make of the tough straws a 
neat kind of besoms, which they sell to the 
neighbouring inhabitants as a cheap, and no 
despicable substitute, for hair brooms : they 
are even made into baskets where better mate- 
rials are rare. Mr. George Sinclair made some 
experiments on an exotic species, the fringed 
or ciliated melic-grass (M. ciliatn), which grows 
wild in Germany on hilly grounds, downs, and 
by the margins of woods ; but the result of his 
observations only went to prove that it was 
one of the inferior grasses with respect to 
produce, nutritive qualities, and reproductive 
powers. 

MELILOT, COMMON, Melilot Trefoil, 
King's clover. Hart's clover. PI. 10,6. (Trifo- 
lium officinale.) This plant is very nearly allied 
to the long-rooted clover: the tapering rooti 
however, appears to be strictly annual. The 
lower leaves are oblong, wedge-shaped ; the 
upper ones elliptical : they are more serrate, 
and smaller in every respect than those of the 
long-rooted clover. The flowers are smaller 
and more drooping. The legume contains 
often more than two seeds, which is seldom or 
never the case in the long-rooted clover. 

In England the common melilot grows wild 
in thickets, hedges, and the borders of fields, 
sometimes among corn. Stem 2 or 3 feet high, 
erect. Clusters unilateral, 2 inches or more 
in length, on long axillary footstalks. Flowers 
numerous, all drooping towards one side, of a 
full yellow, veiny. Stipules awl-shaped. Le- 
gumes prominent, acute, transversely wrinkled, 
hairy. 

All the species of live-stock are said to eat 
this clover. The whole plant in drying acquires 
a scent like .«ew hay, but far stronger. The 
seeds, when n.ixed with bread-corn, give it a 
nauseous flavour. This plant, or a variety of 
it, is used in Making the Swiss cheese called 
schabzicgcr. It is ground in a mill, and mixed 
with the curd into a kind of paste, which is 
put into conical moulds, and there dried. See 

ScHABZIF.GF.n. 

From the experience of Sinclair and others, 
this plant appears to be very much inferior tc 
the long-rooted clover, and cannot be put to 
any use for which that species is not equally 
good or superior : it grows chiefly in clayey 
soils. In very exposed situations it attains 
only to a small size; while in such as arc 
sheltered it sometimes reaches to the height of 
six feet. It ripens an abundance of seed, and 
flowers in the third or last week of .tune. 
Melilot is out of use in medicine, though it 
served too long to give a green colour and an 
3 Y 80.5 



MELILOTUS. 



MELON CULTURE. 



odious scent to a sort of blister plaster, called 
by its name, of no use whatever. 

MELILOTUS (Lat. mel, honey, and lotus, a 
leguminous plant). The plants are similar to 
the lotus, and are the favourite haunt of bees. 
These are, for the most part, honey-scented 
plants, with upright stems, and long erect 
racemes of small yellow or white flowers, re- 
sembling those of clover, of which they were 
formerly considered distinct species. In some 
parts of Europe two or three varieties are cul- 
tivated as annual fodder plants. 

The MeliloUis leucantha major is the celebrated 
Eohkara Tree Clover, a plant which Mr. Robert 
Arthur, of Edinburgh, says, "claims a place in 
every flower-garden, for its beauty. It is an 
herbaceous plant of very striking appearance, 
10 or 12 feet in height, covered with spikes of 
white pea-blossoms, which also shed a sweet 
perfume. Hence it is sometimes called Sweet 
Flowering Clover. 

"I esteem its value in agriculture of greater 
importance. The objections to its cultivation 
are, that cattle give a preference to other green 
food, and that the stem contains too much 
woody fibre. The plant, however, is new to 
Britain, and we know that man and animals 
frequently require successive trials of new 
food before taste is acquired for it. As a proof 
of this, I understand that some cattle are get- 
ting very fond of this clover; and we know 
that the tissue of plants in general is changed 
more and more into woody fibre as they pro- 
gress towards maturity. Nature increases the 
woody fibre of this clover for support as it 
elongates its gigantic stem. If, however, it is 
cut for cattle, when about 2 feet in height, it 
will be found nearly as succulent as the com- 
mon red clover. 

"I exhibited plants of it at the Highland So- 
ciety's show, last September, 9 feet in height, 
being the second crop of it that season, from 
poor sandy land. I know no plant whatever 
that will produce so much weight of vegetable 
matter in equal time and space ; and M'ere it 
only for the production of vegetable manure, it 
is a boon to the agricultural world. In my ex- 
periments with it last summer, as a manure, 
for new varieties of Alsike (?) Clover, I found 
it the very best and cheapest manure. 

"In the economical formation of manure, it 
might be liberally supplied, with other food, 
throughout the summer, to young cattle and 
pigs, in an open straw-yard profusely bedded 
over with layers of turf, peat-earth, whins, 
broom, brushwood, ferns, straw, weeds, &c., 
and thus save much outlay on the purchase of 
foreign manures. 

" The Bokhara Clover may be sown at any 
time throughout the growing season ; but the 
most profitable time to sow it is immediately 
after a crop of early potatoes, or even after 
grass, barley, wheat, &c. The land being well 
manured, ploughed over, and harrowed smooth, 
it may be sown in shallow drills 18 inches 
apart; being cut once in autumn, it will pro- 
duce a much earlier spring crop than tares, 
Italian rye-grass, &c. It should always be cut 
very close to the ground, as the shoots pro- 
'luced from beneath the surface are the most 

axuriant, and it will thus stand a severe win- 
806 



ter much belter than when its vitality is ex- 
posed on long stubble. Treated in this way 
with me, it stood two successive winters, and 
acquired all the characteristics of a perennial 
root. I have no doubt of its continuing pe- 
rennial and more vigorous with the age of the 
plants, if only cut close in autumn, and top- 
dressed with rich compost." 

Mr. James Gowen, who resides at Moun 
Airy, near Philadelphia, has been much in the 
practice of keeping up a considerable stock of 
uncommonly fine cattle, and soiling them in 
summer upon lucern, rye, and red clover. 
He has raised patches of the melilotus, and 
from his observation says, " there is no grass 
or plant I have yet seen that affords to me such 
promise as the Sweet-scented or Bokhara 
Clover." {Cultivator, Nov. 1842.) 

MELON, THE COMMON, oi MUSK (Cw- 
citmis melo). An herbaceous, succulent, climb- 
ing, or trailing annual, cultivated for its fruit 
in hot eastern countries from time immemorial. 
The varieties of the melon are numerous ; yet 
few of them comparatively are worthy of cul- 
tivation in England. The larger varieties espe- 
cially are deficient in flavour and richness. 
Mr. knight says, that whoever is acquainted 
with the green-fleshed, and Salonica, or white- 
fleshed, will cultivate no other. 

The cantaleups are varieties characterized 
by their rinds being universally covered with 
reticulations. With the exception of the green, 
or oblong-ribbed, these bear round fruit, more 
or less approaching a flattened spheroid. Their 
common name is derived from that of one of 
the country-seats of the pope, where they are 
much cultivated. 

MELON CULTURE. The warm summers 
of the Southern and most of the Middle States, 
are highly favourable to the culture of melons 
of every description, which in some places 
constitute a very profitable crop. The follow- 
ing communication relative to the culture of 
the musk melon or cantaleup, addressed to the 
Editor of the Ctdtivator, hy T. G. Bergen, a per- 
son well versed in the business, will show how 
this is managed on Long Island, for the New 
York market: 

The kind which we at present cultivate, 
says Mr. Bergen, and with which the New 
York market is principally supplied, is known 
among us by the name of Skillman melons, 
They average about 6 inches in diameter, are 
nearly round, have a rough skin, and their 
flesh is of a green colour. This is the sixth 
variety which has been in vogue during my 
recollection, and the finest of them all. The 
seed from which all these varieties originated, 
I believe to have been imported from the coasts 
of the Mediterranean. They soon degenerate 
unless care is taken in the selection of the 
seed. We prefer for melons a rich sandy soil, 
and on this they flourish better than on any 
other, and are not so liable to speck in rainy 
weather. When planted on a red clover sod I 
have seldom failed having a good crop; but 
when this is not to be had, we prefer preparing 
the ground by sowing with rye in August or 
September of the preceding year, as described 
in my former communication on the cultiva- 
tion of cucumbers : the gi'ound is also pre- 



MELON PUMPKIN. 



METEOROLOGY, 



pared in a similar manner in the spring, 1 
except that the hills are furrowed 5 feet apart, 
and the same kind and quantity of manure 
made use of. 

We generally commence planting about a 
week later than we do cucumbers, but occa- 
sionally at the same time, dropping from 20 to 
30 seeds into a hill, and covering them about 
an inch deep with fine soil. Eight or 10 days 
after putting in the first seed we commence 
planting over, which we seldom perform the 
second time, unless by examination we find the 
first seed about to fail. The seed of melons 
is not so liable to rot as that of cucumbers, but 
long storms are very apt to destroy the young 
plants, and they will even produce great injury 
when the plants have vined from off the hills. 
In 1837, a succession of wet weather caused 
the ends of the principal part of the melon- 
vines in our vicinity to die as late as the 8th 
of July; but mine fortunately did not suffer as 
much as those of my neighbours. We culti- 
vate the plants in the same manner as cucum- 
bers, except that in hoeing it is generally ne- 
cessary to remove a small portion of the soil 
from between them, in consequence of their 
being too short to admit of the young weeds 
being covered without injury to the plants. 
We gradually thin them down to 4 in a hill, 
standing from 5 to 6 inches apart. The plants 
are liable to the depredations of the same spe- 
cies of insects which prey upon cucumbers, 
and they are destroyed in the same manner. 

Melon vines are in bearing from 5 to 6 
weeks; whenever a drought occurs, this period 
is much less, for that of 1838 finished mine in 
4 weeks. They often bear a second crop, 
which answers for pickling, but I have known 
this crop to come to perfection. 

When the fruit is ripe, it requires to be 
gathered every day, otherwise there would be 
large quantities lost in consequence of be- 
coming too ripe and soft. When ripe, they 
have a yellowish colour; but such as are 
cracked around the stem and come off easily 
from the vines, we always gather, for they will 
be fit for eating by the next day, when sold in 
the markets. 

To insure good crops, melons should not be 
planted two years in succession on the same 
ground; they require a rotation. Marshall, an 
English writer, recommends the carrying of 
cucumber and melon seeds a week or two in 
the breeches pockets previous to planting, to 
dry away some of the more watery particles : 
were we believers of this doctrine, it would be 
a difficult matter, and require large pockets or 
a regiment of small ones to carry it into prac- 
tice, since some of us, to secure our crops, 
plant from 3 to 4 bushels of seed in a season. 

The following is the number of hills planted, 
produce (large quantities of unsaleable ones 
fed to the hogs excepted), and amount of sales 
for the preceding 4 years : viz. 



Year. 


Hills planted. 


Bushels sold. 


Amount received 


1835 


6,664 


1,133 


«939 10 


1836 


7,850 


561 


590 57 


1837 


8,011 


990 


913 56 


1838 


7, .590 


823 


713 96 



MELON PUMPKIN, or SQUASH (Cucur- 
I'ita melopepo). See SauAsa. 



MELON, WATER {Cucumis dtrullus). A 
plant well known in the United States for its 
delicious and refreshing fruit. To acquire the 
greatest perfection it demands a warm and 
sandy soil, and this it finds in New Jersey, and 
more Southern States, where the water-melon 
is extensively cultivated. There are several 
varieties, such as the long and striped Caro- 
lina, the more round and dark-skinned Spanish, 
&c. In some parts of southern Russia, a kind 
of beer is brewed from their very abundant 
and cheap water-melons, with the addition of 
hops: they also prepare a conserve or marmo- 
lade from this fruit, which is a good substitute 
for syrup or molasses. 

MENDING. A country term used to signify 
the improving the quality or texture of land by 
the application of manure. 

MERCURY (Mtrcuridlis). These are re- 
garded as mere weeds, possessing narcotic, 
fetid, and dangerous qualities. 

MERINO SHEEP. See Sheep. 

MESLIN. A term applied in New England 
to the crop of peas and oats when sown to- 
gether 

MESLIN-CORN. A term applied to wheat 
and rye produced in a state of moisture. 

METEOROLOGY. The science of meteors, 
or the science which explains the various phe- 
nomena which have their origin in the atmo- 
sphere. Under the term meteorology, it is now 
usual to include not merely the observation of 
the accidental phenomena to which the name 
of meteor is applied, but every terrestrial as 
well as atmospherical phenomenon, whether 
accidental or permanent, depending on the ac- 
tion of heat, light, electricity, and magnetism. 
In this extended signification, meteorology 
comprehends climatology, and the greater part 
of physical geography; and its object is to de- 
termine the diversified and incessantly chang- 
ing influences of the four great agents of na- 
ture now named, on land, in the sea, and in the 
atmosphere. It is the object of meteorology to 
investigate and discover the modes of opera- 
tion, and the causes insirumental, as well as 
final, of the multitude of interesting phenomena 
which exercise an influence on the animal and 
vegetable kingdoms. To this science belongs 
the examination of the force of radiation from 
the sun, or the temperature directly produced 
by his beams ; the inquiry into the constitu- 
tion, mechanical as well as chemical, of that 
intimate intermixture of gaseous bodies which 
is the subject of what are called ntmospheric 
changes ; the scrutiny of the laws governing 
the variations of climate; that also of those 
which regulate the diminution of heat in the 
atmosphere, in proportion to the altitude; the 
developement of the principles determining the 
quantity and state of the aqueous portion of the 
atmosphere ; and the acquirement of know- 
ledge, in short, on every subject of science 
presented by the atmosphere itself, or by its 
modes of relation to the aqueous and mineral 
kingdoms, and the general laws of its influence 
on organized matter. This branch of natural 
history also comprehends the examination of 
two great series of phenomena, not strictly 
comprised by the foregoing enumeration; by 
which, on the one side, its boundaries arR 

807 



METEORS. 



MIGNONETTE. 



united with those of physical geography, and 
on the other side with those of astronomy. 
The temperature of the interior of the earth it- 
self, and that of the ocean, as well at the sur- 
face as at every accessible depth — subjects of 
the greatest interest, with respect not only to 
the present state of the earth, but also to its 
former physical condition — are so intimately 
connected with the temperature and other af- 
fections of the atmosphere, that the study of 
them becomes, in fact, a department of mete- 
orology. And the various kinds of luminous 
and igneous meteors which appear within the 
atmosphere, though some of them originate, in 
all probability, in distant regions of the solar 
system, — such as the zodiacal light, the polar 
lights, or aurora borealis and australis; the 
meteors called shooting stars, and the stupen- 
dous masses of matter in combustion called_^rf- 
balls, which cast down upon earth immense 
blocks of red-hot iron, or showers of heated 
stones, — constitute another wide field of mete- 
orological inquiry. This interesting branch of 
science must ever command the especial con- 
sideration of the shepherd, the farmer, and the 
cultivator of the soil in general. 

METEORS. A name given to any pheno- 
mena of a transitory nature originating in the 
atmosphere. Meteors are of various kinds; 
some are produced simply by a disturbance of 
the equilibrium of the atmospheric fluid, and 
are called aerial meteors: such are Winds, 
WHinLWTNDs, &c. A second class arise from 
the deposition of the aqueous particles which 
the atmosphere holds in solution, and which 
are precipitated in consequence of a dimi- 
nution of pressure or temperature, sometimes 
in a fluid and sometimes in a concrete form. 
These are called aqueous meteors, as Dew, Foes, 
Hail, Rais, Snow, Vapouh, &c. A third class 
of meteors or atmospheric phenomena are 
caused by the action of the aqueous particles 
dispersed in the atmosphere, or the rays of 
light. These are called luminous meteors, and 
comprise fata morgana, halo, mirage, parhelia, 
the rainbow, &c. A fourth class are the igne- 
ous meteors, comprehending those which present 
the phenomena distinctive of combustion. 
See Aerolite, Nohthehn Ljcuts, Lightning, 
Shooting Stars, &c. 

METHEGLIN (Germ. 7}Kth, mead). A be- 
verage made of honey and water, fermented by 
the addition of yeast. See Mead. 

MEZEREON, or SPURGE OLIVE (Daphne 
mezercum). This is a pretty shrub, indigenous 
to England, where it grows wild in woods, but 
is not common. The stem is bushy, 4 or 5 
feet high, with upright, alternate, smooth, 
tough, and pliant branches ; leafy while young. 
The flowers are pale garnet-coloured, highly, 
and to many persons too powerfully fragrant, 
seated in little tufts on the smaller branches. 
The scarlet berries, which are the favourite 
food of some species of finch {Loxia) are poi- 
sonous to many animals. There are varieties 
with pink and white flowers ; and the berries 
also vary to a yellow or orange hue. The 
bark of the root is employed in medicine. It 
is excitant and sudorific. The active principle 
is a fixed acrid aloe resin. See Spurge 

LiCREL. 

SOS 



MICA. A well-known mineral, with a pearly, 
metallic lustre, consisting of extremely thin.elas- 
tic plates or layers somewhat resembling glass. 
The largest sheets are brought from Siberia, 
and used instead of glass, especially to enclose 
fire where it is desirable to see the flame, as in 
stoves, &c. Mica enters into the compoi.ition 
of granite. Its specific gravity is 2-65. When 
analyzed it is shown to contain potash, mag- 
nesia, silica, oxide of iron, with other ingre- 
dients of well-known fertilizing properties. 
(See Geologt.) Hence, where any of these 
are deficient in soils, the application of mica 
must be advantageous. 

MICE {Mus). A very destructive sort of 
vermin to many of the cultivator's growing 
and housed crops, and which should, therefore, 
be destroyed as soon as possible. Cats, dogs, 
owls, snakes, and hedge-hogs are the natural 
enemies of rats and mice, and should, therefore, 
be encouraged about the farm. 

To destroy Rats and Mice in Corn Stacks. — The 
following method was adopted by the late Mr. 
John Gibson, of Millbeck Hall, Keswick, and is 
still continued by his son, Mr. Joseph Gibson, 
of the same place, with never-failing success. 
It is accomplished by simply driving in a few 
hedge-stakes, at about 4 feet distance, round the 
stack intended to be housed, and having a 
woollen or linen web, of about 6-4ths or 7-4ths 
wide, upon the stakes, so as to be perfectly close 
at the bottom, of which particular care must 
be taken, in order that none of the vermin may 
creep under the folds. It is certain that none 
will attempt to climb over the top, and it mat- 
ters not whether there are fifty or a hundred 
within the enclosed area, they will be quite 
safe. An active lad and a dog may easily de- 
stroy any number, and he must be a clumsy 
fellow if he lose one in a hundred. A few 
neighbours, by subscribing about 2s. 6d. each, 
might get an article at lOd. a yard that would 
serve them all for about 20 years. If the 
above simple method were generally adopted 
for a short time, those destructive enemies to 
the stack-)fard would soon be considerably re- 
duced. A correspondent of the Mark Lane Ex- 
press suggests the following plan for the de- 
struction of these obnoxious vermin. Feed 
with flour and a few sweet almonds bruised 
and mixed together with a small quantity of 
treacle, to form a paste (add a few drops of oil 
of aniseed), for 5 or 6 nights, until they take 
it freely, never laying more of the mixture than 
they will eat up clean ; then add a teaspoonful 
of carbonate of barytes to about a pound of the 
paste. I prefer the barytes to arsenic, it being 
free from the sour taste of the arsenic, which the 
rats will never take a second time. By using 
the above composition, I have kept my pre- 
mises clear, without employing a rat-catcher, 
at the expense of a few shillings a year. 

MID-RIB. In botany, the middle vein of a 
leaf, which passes from the petiole to the apex. 

MIGNONETTE (Fxeseda, to calm or ap 
pease; the Latins considered its application 
useful in external bruises). The sweet migno- 
nette (ix. odorata) is an old and universal fa- 
vourite, on account of the very pleasant odour 
emitted by the flowers. Though usually an- 
nual, by care in a green-house and constantly 



MILDEW. 



MILDEW. 



pruning, the cultivated mignonette may be 
rendered perennial, and even shrubby. 

MILDEW, or RUST. Of all the many dis- 
eases which attack our cultivated plants, not 
one is so destructive as the mildew. It is the 
" plague" of our wheat crops ; and as that fatal 
distemper is always lurking in some district 
of climes warmer than our own, so the mil- 
dew is always in our fields, waiting for cir- 
cumstances favourable to its outspread, and 
ready to destroy the expected harvest of the 
husbandman. So constantly present is this 
destructive disorder, that in the fairest fields 
of wheat grown in the richest corn districts of 
England, and in the most genial years, I never 
saw a single acre entirely uninfected. Every 
year the farmer is more or less injured by this 
disease, for the produce of each acre of wheat 
is unquestionably reduced annually several 
bushels. Yet those who suffer most by the loss, 
the farmers themselves, are almost universally 
ignorant of the fact ; and their attention is 
rarely arrested by it till a year occurs in which 
their crop of wheat is nearly annihilated. 

Its prevailing injurious nature was well 
known in an age as distant as that of the He- 
brews ; and it had not spared the Greeks and 
Romans. Even the poets, as Horace in his 
Odes, speak of it as the "sterile Rubigo" (Car- 
min. lib. 3, ode 23) ; and warning voices have 
not been since wanting to speak loudly of its 
ravages. Mr. Marshall says, " a certain pre- 
ventive of the mildew would be a discovery 
Avorth millions to this country;" and many others 
have coincided in this estimate of its injuries. 

This disease is known to be the effect pro- 
duced by a minute fungus belonging to a genus 
closely allied to that which causes the smut. 
The roots of this fungus penetrate the vessels 
of the plant, and are nourished by the sap in- 
tended for perfecting its seed ; consequently, 
if the fungi are so numerous in each stem as 
to make it a marked " mildew year," the grain 
is either partially or totally shrivelled, owing 
to the roots of these parasites intercepting the 
sap in its upward passage. 

The ignorance relative to this disease is not 
a consequence of its novelty, since it has been 
known and dreaded in the earliest ages to 
which our knowledge extends. Thus, when 
God held out as a warning to the Israelites the 
afflictions he would bring on them if disobe- 
dient, he enumerated the pestilence and the 
sword to destroy their persons, "with blasting 
and with mildew," to lay waste their fields (Deut. 
xxviii. 22 ; 1 Kings viii. 37 ; 2 Chron. vi. 28) ; 
and when the same Almighty Being had pu- 
nished that rebellious people, he reminded 
them by his prophet ; "I have smitten you with 
blasting and mildew ; when your gardens and 
your vineyards, and your fig trees, and your 
olive trees increased, the palmer-worm de- 
stroyed them." (Jmos iv. 9.) "I smote you 
with blasting, and with mildew, and with hail, 
in all the labours of your hands." {Haggai ii. 
17.) The Hebrews called it yarcoon, implying 
a yellow pallidness arising from moisture. To 
the Greeks it was known as erusibe, (gua-iCu ; and 
Theophrastus, who wrote his History of Plants 
about 320 years before the Christian era, ob- 
serves (lib. viii. c. 10) that it occurs more 
102 



frequently to corn than to pulse ; that in th» 
climate of Greece barley was more subject lo 
it than wheat, and particularly a variety then 
known as achillum barley. Experience had 
taught them, that the crops on high lying lands 
were seldom attacked by this disease ; but that 
the hollows surrounded by hills, where winds 
could not get at the crops they bore, were most 
frequently infected. It is chiefly generated, 
concludes Theophrastus, during the full moon. 
By the Romans, the mildew was denominated 
"rubigo." Pliny informs us, in his History of 
Plants (lib. vii."^c. 28 and 29), that it was the 
prevailing opinion that this disease arises from 
certain dews settling upon the corn, and obtain- 
ing a caustic or burning quality from the in- 
tense heat of the sun. This naturalist himself 
thought, on the contrary, that the disease arises 
from cold, considering that infection first occurs 
during the sun, and always about the new or 
full moon. Pliny, and the still later writers 
of the Geoponica (for this work is composed of 
fragments of Roman writers living after the 
removal of the seat of empire to Constantino- 
ple, though written in the Greek language), 
considered that the best remedies were stink- 
ing pungent smokes; hence they recommended 
fish, horns, goat's dung, &c., to be burned on 
such side of the field as would enable the 
wind to diffuse the smoke over and throughout 
the crop. They evidently had the same pre- 
judice as is now entertained by our own farm- 
ers, that the mists which frequently prevail 
during midday in the hottest periods of sum- 
mer are the cause of the mildew; for they 
direct those fumigations to be performed at 
such time as it is seen in the atmosphere. 
They also thought that if branches of the laurel 
were fixed among their corn, the mildew would 
pass from the crops to those branches. (Gco- 
pon. lib. V. c. 33 ; Plinii Hist. Plant, lib. xvii. c. 
17, &c.) One of their practices recommended 
is much more rational, namely, to bruise the 
leaves or roots of the colocynth, to macerate 
these in water, and, before the sun has risen, 
to sprinkle the infected crop with the liquor 
thus obtained. It is possible that the juice of 
the colocynth, which is aviolent purgative to the 
human system, may be destructive to the fungus 
constituting the disease. It approaches to thai 
which, in modern times, has been found the 
only effectual curative treatment; and the di- 
rection that the application should be perform- 
ed in the morning evinces that it was a direction 
suggested and confirmed by experience. Co- 
lumella (lib. ii. c. 12) says, that hoeing corn 
during wet weather is apt to induce mildew. 

Some modern writers have considered that 
the rubigo of the Romans is the disease known 
to us as the smut; but, independent of the 
name, which evidently referred to the red or 
rusty hue of the disease, and which is not a 
characteristic of the last-named disorder, we 
have the direct testimony of Virgil (Geo^ L 
150), that the rubigo was a disease of the straw ; 
his words are, " Mox et frumentis labor addi^ 
tus ; ut mala culmos esset rubigo, &c." 

Horace (Carminum, lib. iii. ode xxiii.) and 
Ovid {Fast. iv. 907) speak of the same vege- 
table epidemic. The Greeks and Romans were 
as conscious as the Hebrews of the destruction 
3 T 2 809 



MILDEW. 

it would inflict on their crops. They con- 
sidered it as the instrument of vengeance di- 
rected by a particular deity, to whom they ap- 
plied the same appellation as to the disease 
itself. (Schneider's Scriptorum Rei Rustics, vol. i. 
pt. ii. p. 246.) To propitiate this presiding 
deity, a festival entitled Rubigalia, was institut- 
ed by Numa in the eleventh year of his reign, 
that is, 704 years before the birth of Christ. It 
was celebrated annually on the 25th of April, 
in the neighbourhood of a grove, at the fifth 
milestone, on the Claudian Way, and comprised 
sacrifices, races, and obscenities. Reddish- 
coloured bitches (rufa canes) were sacrificed, 
because the lesser dog-star was then in the 
heavens, and was considered unpropitious to 
corn. (Plinii Hist. Plant, lib. xviii. C. 29 ; Varii 
Flacci Facti, p. 63.) 

Ovid, who enters fully into the religious per- 
formances of the festival, says, that the limbs 
of a sheep and the entrails of a dog were 
offered as a sacrifice on the occasion; and 
that the priest informed him that he knew of 
no reason for the latter animal being sacrificed, 
but that its name coincided with that of the 
constellation which at that season was appa- 
rent in the sky. The prayer addressed by the 
priest to the presiding deity marks so strongly 
their knowledge of the extent and inducements 
of the disease, that I shall give a nearly literal 
translation of a part : — 

" O, hiighling Rubigo, spare the corn-plants, 
And let the ear wave gently o'er the surface of the 

earth : 
Suffer tlie crops which have been nourished by the 

propitious 
Stars of heaven, to grow until they become fit for the 

Thine is no small power; the crops thou hast marked 
The dispirited cultivator reckons as lost. 
Neither winds, nor showers, so much injure the corn ; 
Neither when bitten by the frost does it acquire a hue 

so pallid, 
As if the sun fervently heats the moist stalks; 
Then, O: dread goddess, is the opportunity for thy 

wrath ; — 
Be merciful, I pray, and withhold your rusting hands 

from the crops ; 
Nor harm the cultivated land : it is sufficient to be able 

to do harm." 

The misty weather, mistaken by the Roman 
cultivators as actually a cloud of mildew, is 
only one of many numerous instances which 
might be quoted where causes of the disease 
have been considered to be the disease itself. 
'I'o enumerate these would form a long cata- 
logue of mistakes ; yet these I should not he- 
suate to detail, because the refutation would 
incidentally introduce much useful informa- 
tion, but that they will for the most part be 
noticed among the circumstances which pro- 
mote the occurrence and aid the progress of 
this epidemic. 

The first person, I believe, who correctly 
pointed out the nature of mildew, was Felice 
Fontana, who, in the year 1767, published at 
Lucca a very particular description of the fun- 
gus occasioning it, in a work entitled " Osser- 
Viizionc iOfru la Ruggine del Grano." Since then 
it has engaged the attention of many botanists, 
and the results of their researches have been 
to establish it as a distinct species of fungus, 
ihough they differ as to the genus to which 
vhey attach it. It is the Puccinia graminis of 
810 



MILDEW. 

Persoon (Disp. t. 3, f. 3) ; and it is the Ured§frur- 
menti of Sotverby, 

In Plate 2 there is a representation of this 
fungi, in which 

I, is a portion of wheat-straw affected with 
rust, magnified, to show the parasitic plant or 
fungus, giving rise to the disease called rust, 
blight, and mildew. 

m, Another portion of a diseased stem in a 
green state, and before the fungus is quite ripe. 

n, The small portion marked 1 (1), still more 
strongly magnified. 

0, p, q, r, s, t, u, Very highly magnified repre- 
sentations of the fungus parasite in different 
stages of growth and maturity. 

0, Shows it in the young state;;}, full-grown; 
q, two plants bursting and shedding their seeds 
when under water in the microscope ; r, two 
plants bursting in a dry place ; s, apparently 
abortive ; t, seeds in a dry state ; m, a small 
part of the bottom of a pore, with some of the 
parasitic fungi growing upon it. 

Rust grows on the leaves and stems of wheat, 
&c., appears in dense diffuse tufts, often con- 
fluent, forming long, parallel lines on the culms; 
at first brownish-yellow, but changing to black. 
Sporidia elongated, clavate, very slightly con- 
stricted at the septum ; upper cell the shortest; 
stipes filiform. It must not be confounded with 
another parasitical fungus, which is common 
upon the wheat-leaves and culms, but which is 
not so injurious, namely, the Uredo rubigo, of De- 
candolle {Flora Franca, vol. vi.p. 83). Charac- 
terized by sp»ts yellow ; heaps oval, scattered, 
generally epiguous ; epidermis at length burst- 
ing longitudinally; sporidia sub-globose, red- 
brown, easily dispersed. If the straw of wheat 
be examined with the assistance of a magnify- 
ing glass, its striped surface will be seen to arise 
from longitudinal partitions of the outer bark 
or epidermis. The depressed partitions are 
furnished throughout their length with 1 or 2 
rows of pores or orifices, which seem capable 
of emitting or imbibing moisture as the wants 
of the plant may require. Similar pores, 
though varying in form and arrangement, per- 
vade the leaves and chaff, or glumes ; and it 
is in these pores that the seeds of the parasiti- 
cal Puccinia obtain admission, and, vegetating 
in the cavities to which they lead, doubtless 
thrust their minute roots into the cellular tex- 
ture beneath the bark, and intercept for their 
own nourishment that sap which should pro- 
ceed to the grain for its developement and 
completion. The corn necessarily becomes 
shrivelled, proportionally as the fungi are more 
or less numerous on the plant: and as it is the 
nutriment that would have perfected the inte- 
rior of the grain, which is chiefly extracted 
by the fungi, for the exterior form is nearly 
completed before the mildew occurs, the pro- 
portion of flour to bran is always much reduced. 
Sir J. Banks observed, in 1804, which was a 
"mildew year," that some of the wheat would 
not yield from a sack so much as a stone of 
flour. 

Sir Humphry, then Mr. Davy, placed the 
loss caused by this fungus beyond a doubt, 
by chemical analysis. He found that 1000 
parts of 



MILDEW. 



MILDEW. 



Thin-skinnned Sicilian C Glulen, 239 1 

wheat afforded of - \ Starch, 7-i2 5 

Middlesex wheat, ave-V Gluten, 1901 

.(.Starch, 765 3 



Flour. 
961 



Brao. 
39 



rage crop - 

Spring Wheat. - -ISh!™} ^40 60 

Mildewedwheatofl804^|{^J^U'^|^| 650 350 

Mildewed wheat of ISOelgl^J^Ji'-j^H 210 790 

Showing, in one instance, a loss of 31 percent. 
of flour in the mildewed when compared with 
the average English wheat, and in the other of 
nearly 74 per cent. (Elem. ofJlgr. Chem. p. 150.) 
Mr. W. Jones of Wilmington, Somerset, found 
that wheat, partially mildewed, produced one- 
fifth less of flour than that not affected. 

I have almost always been able to detect the 
Puccinia upon the lower part of the culms, 
generally on the shoot-blade (folia vaganans), 
early in June ; but it is not till the following 
month that the season determines whether the 
ravages of this fungus will be more than ordi- 
narily extensive. Throughout July the English 
farmer should scrupulously, and almost daily, 
examine his wheat crop, especially that which 
appears strongest and most luxuriant; and if 
he detects any considerable number of tufts of 
the fungus upon the stems, must lose no time 
in using those curative measures which will 
be detailed in the close of this article. If July 
is hot and dry, it may be concluded, without 
much fear of disappointment, that there will 
be but little injury incurred by the mildew. 
The reason of this is very apparent; for in 
such a season no fungus will vegetate vigor- 
ously. This order of plants invariably delights 
and flourishes in a moist atmosphere, and in a 
subdued light, accompanied by gentle warmth. 
A muggy season is the most expressive term to 
describe that wherein the mildew vegetates 
most rapidly. In such seasons likewise, it 
unfortunately happens that the wheat plants 
remain longest succulent, their pores expanded, 
and their fibres relaxed; circumstances pecu- 
liarly favourable to the admission of the seeds 
of the fungus, to their vegetation, and to the 
penetration of their roots. That it is in such 
seasons the Puccinia vegetates most rapidly and 
extensively, is supported by the observations 
of others ; for, although they consider such a 
season as the actual cause of the mildew, their 
testimony is equally valuable, though from it 
they have drawn erroneous conclusions. Thus, 
M. Duhamel says, that the mildew is caused by 
mild, hazy, or gloomy weather, while the corn 
is at the height of its vegetation ; that is, about 
the time of its blooming. When a hot sun has 
succeeded such weather, he observed the wheat 
crops mildewed in a few days. He always 
observed wet springs very productive of this 
disease ; but it rarely occurs in clear, dry, hot 
years. One or two writers have given most 
incomprehensible theories of the cause of 
mildew. 

Mr. R. Somerville concluded that the mildew 
originates from the attacks of insects intro- 
duced with the manure ; but he evidently in- 
tended by his descriptions the minute acarus 
(a species of louse), which is almost always 
to be found upon decaying vegetable matter; 
and in the cases of mildews, this insect is the 
follower, not the introducer, of the disease. 



The Abbd Rozier,in his "Dictionary," observes 
that it is "caused by the drops of fog or dew, 
dissipated by a hot sun ;" an opinion which is 
the echo of Ovid's verses forming part of the 
Flamen's prayer for the preservation of the 
Roman crops from this disease — 

" Quantum, si culnios Titan incalfacit udos ; 
Tunc locus est irse Diva tremenda tuse." 

And such a season, as I have before observed, 
has a damp atmosphere, which, above all other 
states of the air, is favourable to the vegetation 
of this Puccinia. There is no doubt, also, that 
in such seasons vegetables are more than ordi- 
narily weak and prone to disease, in which 
condition they are likely to become the prey 
of parasitic plants. " The application of cold 
water to the plant," says Mr. Knight, "on which 
the sun is shining strongly, is very injurious to 
its health, and therefore likely to give increased 
activity to any disease to which the plant is 
subject." This observation follows the detail 
of an experiment, in which he found that 
sprinkling wheat plants growing on ground 
very dry, with cold water, in the afternoon of a 
warm, bright day, caused them to be exten- 
sively mildewed. "A considerable absorption, 
therefore, probably took place ; and to this ab- 
sorption," says he, "and the effects of a sudden 
change of temperature, as secondary causes, I 
am disposed to attribute the appearance of the 
disease ; but whether the seeds of the mildew 
were carried into the pores of the plants by the 
water, or existed there before, is a question 
which I shall not attempt to solve." (Banks, 
On the Blight in Corn, p. 30.) There is no dif- 
ficulty in accounting whence the seeds of the 
fungi came : for Mr. Knight records, in the 
previous page, that other wheat plants close 
by were extensively mildewed. 

The observations of Mr. Marshall, which 
were the results of long experience in many 
counties in England, coincide with the preced- 
ing opinions. " In a dry, warm summer," he 
remarks, "which is well known to be favoura- 
ble to the health, vigour, and productiveness 
of the wheat crop, the seeds of the fungi are 
harmless, so long as the fine weather continues. 
On the contrary, in a cold, wet season, which 
gives languor and weakness to the wheat 
plants, few crops escape entirely. A succes- 
sion of cold rains, while the grain is forming, 
is very inducive." Mr. Marshall previously 
concludes that " The fungi are an eflTect, not 
the cause of the disease ;" an error which is 
at once refuted by the fact, that if all the fungi 
are removed from a plant, it is speedily cured. 

Of other circumstances favourable or unfa- 
vourable to the occurrence or exasperation of 
mildew, little need be said, because they have 
comparatively little influence upon its occur- 
rence. All soils and situations are liable to 
its incursions ; for it is, in the fullest sense ol 
the term, epidemic. The soil on which it ap- 
pears the most rarely is a tenacious clay; and 
that on which, when it does occur, its ravages 
are the most extensive and destructive, is the 
light, calcareous, and rich. "As far as my ob- 
servations extend," says Mr. Egremont, " the 
soils wherein clay predominates have yielded 
crops the least affected by the mildew. The 
soils most liable to have their crops injured 

811 



MILDEW. 



MILDEW. 



particularly that of wheat, are the following, 
and in the order stated : — Peat or moor, calca- 
reous, calcareous loams, sand, sandy loams, 
and another kind not found in any great 
breadth, but in patches, chiefly but not exclu- 
sively in clayey soils. The practical farmer 
calls it gray earth.''' (Egremont's Obs.on the Mil- 
dnv, p. 9.3.)- 

The shghtly superior power of clayey soils 
to protect the crop growing upon them from 
being the most severely affected by the mil- 
dew, probably arises from the temperature of 
such soils being less liable than lighter ones 
to sudden vicissitudes of temperature. Dr. 
Hales found, in the month of August, when the 
temperature of the air and of the surface of 
the soil were 88°, that the temperature of the 
soil 16 inches below the surface was 70°. In 
October, when the air and surface were at 35°, 
the temperature at 16 inches beneath was 48°, 
and at 24 inches 50°. This statement led me 
to make a few experiments upon the compara- 
tive rapidity of cooling, or, in other words, the 
power of conducting heat of various soils; and 
I invariably found, that the mercury in a ther- 
mometer, whose bulb was buried equally deep 
in a silicious, as those of others were in a cal- 
careous and in an aluminous soil, rose most 
rapidly, and that in the last-named most slowly. 
Their rapidity of cooling followed the same 
order. Some experiments substantiating the 
same fact will be found in Sir H. Davy's ./?g- 
ruultnral Chemistry, p. 179. Every gardener 
knows the injury his plants sustain from sud- 
den vicissitudes of temperature. "Whatever 
has a tendency to check a quick and great loss 
of heat in the substances which surround such 
vegetables, particularly their roots, will be best 
calculated to save them from that injury, and 
from vegetable death ; consequently, those 
earths which are the worst conductors of heat, 
or, in other words, are the longest in heating 
or cooling, will be most favourable in resisting 
any sudden alteration, and the vegetables 
growing on them will be the least injured 
when so assailed." {Egre»iont''s Observations on 
the Mihleio, p. 30.) 

Situation appears to have rather more tute- 
lary power than the soil, since I have invaria- 
bly found the wheat growing in fields lying in 
closely enclosed valleys more frequently and 
more seriously injured by mildew than those 
upon elevated exposures. "A Lincolnshire 
Farmer," Mr. Lambreth and other writers in 
the forty-fourth vol. of the Annals of Agriculture, 
agree in this observation, and it is no more than 
might be anticipated from our knowledge of the 
habits of the fungus tribe ; such situations being 
always more damp, and subject to a moist, 
foggj atmosphere. 

All varieties of wheat are liable to the disease, 
but i\\e white is always the earliest affected, and 
the bearded or rivet the last. This may arise 
from the latter variety having a firmer epider- 
mis, arising from its containing a little more 
silex, and thence having its pores less easily 
acted upon by atmospheric changes, and con- 
sequently less liable to the entrance of the 
seeds of this fungus. Moreover, the hardness 
'if 'he epidermis checks their rapid outspre -i 
812 



when vegetating. Mr. Sirs considered ■i\jiSut^ 
sown wheat not liable to this disease of .iio 
mildew, and that is the general opuJon in 
South Holland. Other authoritie.T deny that 
spring-wheat is exempted from it: and to this 
opinion I incline, m the absence of any thing 
like decisive knowledge on the point. 

Early sowing is advisable, because the wheat 
plants, by this means, have a chance of pass- 
ing the time of blooming before they are ex- 
tensively attacked ; and the more advanced the 
growth of the seed, the more it is out of the 
power of this parasite to check its perfection- 
Another reason suggested by Mr. W. Jones, of 
Wilmington, Somerset, is, that when sown late 
the plants are green and sappy in July, and 
even at the commencement of August, the sea- 
son in which the cold and frosts occur that are 
so inducive of the disease; and this green 
state necessarily renders them more than ordi- 
narily liable to suffer by such a reduction of tem- 
perature. On this account it is that in super- 
luxuriant crops, and plants growing upon dung- 
hills, the former are liable to, the later almost 
always are infected by, mildew. Yet the time 
for sowing is no unfailing preventive, for in 
"mildew years" all crops are attacked; and 
instances have occurred where, in fields sown 
in September, October, and November, the first 
and the last have been most injured. 

The berberry has been anathematized as a 
source of this vegetable pest; but I have never 
yet met with any facts which establish the 
charge. It is true that Rolesbury, in Norfolk, 
is locally known as " mildew Rolesbury," and 
that the berberry abounds in the neighbour- 
hood of that village ; but I know many low- 
lying arable districts, proverbially liable to the 
mildew, having no berberries in their vicinity. 
It is true that a band of mildew has been traced 
across a field of wheat from a berberry bush 
growing in one of its hedge-rows; but then I 
have seen a similar track of the disease com- 
mencing from an oak. It is also true that Mr. 
Knight, the late excellent president of the Lon- 
don Horticultural society, found wheat, sprin- 
kled with water, in which berberry branches 
had been washed, speedily became infected 
with the mildew ; but he also ascertained that 
wheat sprinkled with clear water, became 
similarly diseased. I have tried many experi- 
ments, with a view to ascertain the truth or 
error of this supposition, but have not suc- 
ceeded. However, I am convinced that the 
parasite which affects the berberry is not the 
Pnccinia g7-anii7iis : the sporidia are dissimilar, 
and the colour totally unlike ; but it may be, 
and certainly much resembles, the Uredo rubigo. 
It is no objection to say that the identity is un- 
likely, because the plants attacked are so 
widely distant; for, as already noticed, these 
parasites will vegetate on very various and 
even dead vegetable matters. The parasite 
which infects the leaves of the berberry is the 
JEcidium bcrberidis : it is a beautiful minute gas- 
tro mycus, and there is no resemblance be- 
tween it and the rust of wheat, except in colour. 
It is a vulgar error to suppose that an JEcidium 
on the berberry could produce a Puccinia on 
wheat." See Berberut. 



MILDEW. 



MILDEW. 



The age of the seeds, the thickness of sow- 
ing it, and previous or subsequent cultivation, 
appear to have no preservative influence ; 
therefore, it now only remains to consider 
whence the seeds of the fungi come to the 
crop, which will lead to a consideration of the 
modes of prevention ; and, lastly, whether 
there is any practicable cure. There seems to 
me little doubt that the fungus is communi- 
cated from the soil to the crop. It is certainly 
not conveyed thither with the seed-corn, for no 
washing, no cleansing, nor pickling of this has 
ever been observed to have any efiect. In 
"mildew years," all fields of any infected dis- 
tricts are affected; and when it is only partial, 
one end, or a breadth across the middle of a 
field, of which the seed has all been treated 
alike, will be grievously injured, whilst the 
other parts sufler little more than ordinarily; 
for I have previously noticed, every year, and 
in all fields, the mildew is partially present. 
There is little difficulty in accounting for this. 
Every Pitccinia sheds some hundreds of seeds, 
more minute and lighter even than those of 
the puff-ball ; and as every wheat crop an- 
nually produces some, these are wafted over 
neighbouring closes by every wind during 
their seeding-time, which is chiefly in the 
months between May and October. In the soil 
upon which those seeds alight, they attach 
themselves to the stubble or other matters, and 
vegetate, reproducing seeds, or remaining 
without germination until the following spring. 
This fungus has also the characteristic of 
spreading by stooling, or throwing out offsets. 
This may be seen if its progress is watched 
upon any culm which it affects. I once placed 
in a paper box some pieces of straw that were 
more completely mildewed than any I had be- 
fore observed; this was left during the whole 
winter in a closet, which at this season is un- 
usually damp. Upon opening the box in the 
spring following, I found the Puccinia had 
grown, and spread in various rectilinear forms, 
upon one of its sides, and upon the bottom, a 
fact which I remember to have seen confirmed 
in one of the volumes of the Quarterly Journal 
of Science. The fungus, then, though its na- 
tural habitat is the culm of the wheat, will 
vegetate upon other vegetable bodies; and this 
satisfactorily explains the mode in which it 
may, after being preserved through the winter, 
be conveyed to the succeeding year's crop, — 
to say nothing of those seeds which may be at- 
tached to the straw of the preceding year, and 
be conveyed to the next year's crop by various 
modes. 

These facts demonstrate that prevention is 
impossible ; for however careful a farmer may 
be to avoid every source whence the seeds of 
the Puccinia may arrive, yet every summer 
wind may waft them to his crops from other, 
even far-distant lands. To prevent the com- 
munication to the wheat from the soil by the 
stooling, or spreading power of the fungus, it 
will be well to sprinkle the surface with salt, 
immediately after sowing, at the rate of 5 or 6 
bushels to the acre; and in the spring, early in 
May, to apply, in a similar manner, about the 
same quantity of caustic fresh-slacked lime, 



applications of which are not only destructive 
of the Puccinia, but also of slugs, and promote 
the general health of the crop. 

For testimonies to the power of common 
salt to prevent, in some instances, the occur- 
rence of mildew, I would refer the reader to 
my brother's Essay om the Uses of Salt, p. 50 — 
60, where will be found the concurrent tes- 
timony of Sir John Sinclair, Mr. Sickler, Rev. 
R. Hoblyn, Mr. S. Robinson, Mr. Wood, and 
Dr. Paris. Mr. Prevost, quoted by Sir John 
Sinclair, states that the sulphate of copper, it 
dissolved in water at the rate of .3;^ oz. to the 
gallon, forms a solution which will prevent the 
attack of mildew upon the wheat plants arising 
from seed which has been steeped in it. I am 
afraid it has no such power. 

Salt, if not a complete preventive, is an ef- 
fectual cure of the mildew. Mr. Chatterton, a 
Lincolnshire farmer, says, in the 44th vol. of 
ihe Jlnnals of ./lirric, that "on the sea-side the 
wheat is little damaged by the mildew, yet 
within 3 miles inland the crops are as much 
affected as those still further from the sea." 
This fact can be supported by the experience 
of most farmers whose fields skirt our native 
shores; and unquestionably it is owing, not 
only to the soil containing a greater proportion 
of common salt than is found in more inland 
soils, but because the sea-haze, which rises al- 
most nightly in the summer season, bathes, as 
it were, the crops in the immediate vicinity of 
the coast; and this haze holds in solution a 
portion of salt. 

The following well-attested communication 
from the late Rev. Edmund Cartwright, of Hol- 
lenden House, near Tunbridge, is conclusive 
on this subject, and gives full directions to the 
farmer how to apply, and at what expense, a 
practical remedy. 

"It gives me great pleasure to have it in my 
power to furnish you with some information 
respecting the application of salt, which, per- 
haps, you are not aware of. I, and a neigh- 
bour of mme, have applied it as a remedy for 
the mildew in wheat, with the most unequivo- 
cal success. I first made the discovery 2 years 
ago ; my experiments at that time were upon 
a very limited scale; they have this year ex- 
tended only over an acre and a half, but under 
circumstances that leave not a shadow of 
doubt of salt being an absolute specific for 
mildew, in the most aggravated stages of the 
disorder; of this I will state to you a convinc- 
ing proof. In the year 1818 I found a few ears 
of wheat, which I conceived to be a new and 
improved variety ; from these ears I raised as 
much wheat as last year planted a land 4 feet 
wide andlOO yards in length : the produce I had 
promised to Mr. Coke ; and, to augment that 
produce, I had the ground, previously to plant- 
ing, highly manured; and as soon as the wheat 
came up I gave it a good dressing with soot, 
and this dressing was repeated once or twice , 
in consequence of this superabundant dressmg, 
the wheat, as might indeed have been expect- 
ed, was as rank as the wheat you may observe 
growing accidentally upon a dunghill, which 
never fails to rot upon the ground, without 
bringing a single grain to maturity. The mi' 

SI.") 



MILDEW. 



MILK. 



dew made its appearance on this particular 
part of my field, while the straw was quite 
green, and the grain in a milky state ; notwith- 
standing the danger that might be apprehended 
to the wheat itself, from its being thus succu- 
lent, I ventured to give it a dressing with salt 
and water ; as a heavy shower of rain fell a 
few hours afterwards, the dressing was repeat- 
ed the next morning. The proportion of salt 
to the water, 1 pound in a gallon, laid on with 
a plasterer's brush, the operator bearing a pail 
of the mixture in one hand, and the brush in 
the other, making his casts as when sowing 
corn, or else with a common watering-pot, 
which, being swung with great force, throws 
the water very rapidly; 2 men will get over 
about 4 acres a day — the one to spread, the 
other to supply the mixture. The result was, 
that the mildew was completely subdued, and 
the wheat went forward to maturity ; and al- 
though the sample was not so bold as it might 
have been, it was sound and marketable. In 
other parts of the field where the mildew 
showed itself, not under the aggravated circum- 
stances described above, but as it usually ap- 
pears, the wheat was not in the least injured 
by it after the salt and water was applied ; it 
was, indeed, as fine a sample as could be 
grown. Both mine and my neighbour's wheat 
was examined by many practical farmers, who 
are so decidedly convinced of the efficacy of 
my remedy, that they intend never to be with- 
out a reserve of salt ready to meet the enemy 
the moment he appears. The effect of the salt 
upon the mildew, to those who do not consider 
the manner of its operation, is truly astonish- 
ing; I believe it to be inslant death to the fungus : 
this, however, is certain, in less than 48 hours 
the straw nearly recovers its original colour 
and brightness. The certainty and celerity of 
its operation I account for thus : the mildew, 
it is now well ascertained, is a parasitical 
plant of the fungus tribe, the principal con- 
stituent of which tribe is water; when salt, 
therefore, is applied to them, the aqueous par- 
ticles are immediately absorbed, and their 
vitality destroyed. The action of salt upon 
mushrooms, as in making mushroom catsup, 
confirms this theorv." (Johnson's Essay on Salt, 
3d ed. p. 52—54.) 

I can afford decided testimony to the efficacy 
of the cure recommended by Mr. Cartwright; 
but I would add these precautions. The safest 
quantity of salt per gallon is 8 oz., and then 
the application may be rendered more eflectual 
by frequent repetition, without any danger of 
injury to the plants. If the application is not 
made during a clouded day, it is best to defer 
it until the evening. Some have recommended 
a rope, held at its extremities by two men, to be 
drawn up and down each ridge of the infected 
crop to remove the fungus ; and there is no 
doubt that this treatment is partially effectual, 
for the parasite is removed whenever it comes 
in contact with the rope, but the points of con- 
tact necessarily are limited. 

Professor Hen slow endeavours to prove (by 
strengthening with additional evidence his 
previously expressed opinions) the specific 
identity of the fungi producing rust and mil- 
*ew. See Rust, Ergot, Drt Rot, &C. 
SI" 



Mr. John Baker of Leeds, in commenting ] 
upon my brother's essay, is of opinion that the 
berberry has a considerable influence in the I 
communication of the mildew to wheat, and'j 
gives several instances which seem to support] 
his view of the case. But the distinction be- 
tween the parasite of the berberry has already! 
been mentioned, and it is scarcely necessary 
to repeat that the one cannot produce the 
other. 

MILE (Lat. Mille pasuum, a thousand paces). 

The following table, given on the authority 
of Kellifs Cambist, shows the length of the 
modern mile, and also the league, of various 
countries, and their relation to the English 
statute mile. 







Yards. 


Slat, mile 


Modern Roman mile 


- 


1628 


■925 


English statute mile 


. 


1760 


1000 


Tuscan mile ... 


. 


1808 


1027 


Ancient Scotish mile 


. 


1984 


1 127 


Irish mile ... 


. 


2240 


1-273 


French posting league 


. 


4263 


2 422 


Spanish judicial league - 


. 


4635 


2-634 


Portugal league 


. 


6760 


3-841 


German short mile - 


. 


6859 


3-897 


Flanders league 


. 


6864 


3 900 


Spanish common league - 


. 


7416 


4-214 


Prussian mile . . - 


. 


8237 


4-680 


Danish mile - - - 


. 


8244 


4-684 


Dantzic mile - - - 


. 


8475 


4-815 


Hungarian mile 


_ 


9113 


5-178 


Swiss mile ... 


- 


9153 


5-201 


German long mile - 


. 


10,126 


5-753 


Hanoverian mile 


. 


11,559 


6-568 


Swedish mile ... 


- 


11,700 


6-648 



1 



According to the same authority, the Arabian 
mile is 2148 yards, the Persian parasang 6086 
yards, the Russian werst 1167 yards, and the 
Turkish berri 1826 yards. The English geo- 
graphical mile is l-60th of a degree of latitude, 
or about 2025 yards; the geographical league of 
England and France is 3 such miles, or 6075 
yards; and the German geographical mile is 
equal to 4 English geographical miles, or 8100 
yards. 

MILFOIL, THE WOOLLY YELLOW. See 
Yahtiow. 

MILIARY. In botany, a term signifying 
granulated; resembling many seeds. 

MILK (Germ. Milch). A well-known fluid, 
secreted by animals for the nourishment of 
their young. See Lactometer, Butter, Cheese, 
Dairy, Cattle, &c. 

Cow's milk is that principally used by Eu- 
ropeans; that of the goat, and even of the sheep, 
is used in some parts of Britain ; that of the 
mare is a favourite beverage in Tartary when 
it is fermented. If milk be left at rest, the 
fatty globules separate, rise to the surface, and 
form cream ; if it be long agitated, they attract 
oxygen, coalesce, and form butter. 

Milk owes its whiteness and opacity to an 
emulsion composed of the caseous matter and 
butter, with sugar of milk, extractive matters, 
salts, and free lactic acid ; the latter of which 
causes fresh milk to redden litmus paper. 
Milk, in general, contains from 10 to 12 per 
cent, of solid matter, on being evaporated to 
dryness by a steam heat. The mean specific 
gravity of cows' milk is 1*030, but it is less if 
the milk be rich in cream. The specific 
gravity of the skimmed milk is 1-035; and of 
the cream is 1'0244. 100 parts of cream 
milk contain : — 



MILK. 



MILK. 



Caseous matter, containing some butter - - 2-600 

Sugar of milk 3-500 

Alcoholic extract, lactic acid, and lactates - 600 
Salts ; muriate and phosphate of potash, and 

phosphate of lime 0-420 

Water 92-875 

99,995 
Cream consists of— Butter separated by churn- 
ing - 4-5 

Caseous matter precipitated by the coagulation 

of the milk of the butter . . - - 35 

Buttermilk 92 

100-0 



When milk contained in wire-corked bottles 
is heated to the boiling point in a water-bath, 
the oxygen of the included small portion of air 
under the cork seems to be carbonated, and the 
milk will afterwards keep fresh, it is said, for 
a year or two ; as green gooseberries and peas 
do by the same treatment. 

The number of cows kept in London and its 
environs for the supply of milk is estimated 
by Mr. MaccuUoch to amount to 9000, and their 
annual produce of milk to be equal to 78,800,000 
quarts. For this purpose the Yorkshire cow 
is preferred to all others. The daily average 
of milk yielded by one of this breed is es- 
timated, according to Mr. Youatt, at 22 or 24 
quarts. 

The quantity and quality of the milk pro- 
duced by a cow is materially influenced by 
the food and distance from calving. Some 
interesting experiments to determine this were 
made by MM. Boussingault and Le Bel. They 
observe, "In the observations, of which the 
following table presents the abstract, it will 
be seen that the quantity of milk given by 
the cows progressively diminished. This di- 
minution cannot be attributed to the regimen 
to which the cows were subjected, since, in 



again putting them on the food on which they 

had previously fed, the same quantity of milk 
was not obtained as at first ; the diminution 
continued. The distance from the period at 
which the cow has calved seems to be the 
principal cause of the decrease of the milk. 
This cause is so strongly marked, that it may 
even prevent the influence that the nature of the 

food exercises over it from being seen 

Indeed, this result permits us to state, that the 
nature of the food consumed does not exert so 
very sensible an influence on the quantity and 
chemical composition of milk (we do not say 
on its quality), if the cows receive equal nu- 
trition from the different kinds of food. It is 
very evident, that if the weight of the feeds 
were not calculated according to that of the 
equivalents, great variations would be observed 
in the products of milk ; but then those varia- 
tions would be principally caused by the aug- 
mentation or diminution of the nutritive matter. 
We know, for example, that cows which, dur- 
ing winter, are reduced to simple feeding on 
chopped straw, cease almost entirely to pro- 
duce milk, and with difficulty recover their 
ordinary rate of production ; in cognisance of 
such a fact, we are led to ascribe the return 
and abundance of milk exclusively to the pro- 
perties of the green food in spring, whilst that 
effect is in a great part produced by a real in- 
crease in the feeds. 

" In establishments where a regular rotation 
is followed, healthy and abundant nourishmen; 
to cattle in winter is in a manner assured, the 
difference, if any exist, betwixt the feeding in 
winter and summer, being in all cases much 
less considerable. These are the results of 
experiments made during a year on eight cows 
constantly fed together on a great variety of 
food." 



First Series of Experiments. — Countrt Cow. 



Number of 
days since 
calving 



1 

13 
24 
35 
200 
207 
215 
229 
240 
270 
290 
302 



Litres. 
50 
7-5 
10-6 
120 
5-6 
60 
5-6 
5-0 
3-6 
3-4 
3-5 
2-8 



Solid mat- 
ters in 100 
lbs. of milk, 



21-6 

11-2 
13-1 
123 
12-4 
12-9 
13-5 



125 
13-2 



Food gi' 



en equivalent to 15 kilogrammes, 
or about 30 lbs. of Hay. 



Potatoes, hay - 

Ditto - - - 
Hay, green clover 
Green clover 
Hay - - - - 
Turnips - - - 
Red beet - . . 
Potatoes - - - 
Hay - . - 
Potatoes - . - 
Jerusalem artichokes 
Hay and oil-cake 



Composition of Milk. 



15-1 

30 
3-1 
3-0 
3-0 
3-4 
3-4 



3-3 
3-4 



2-6 



3-5 
3-6 



4-5 
4-2 
4-7 
50 
5-3 
5-9 



5-5 
6-0 



0-3 

2 
0-3 
0-1 
02 
0-2 
0-2 



0-2 
0-2 



88-9 
87-7 
87-6 
87-1 
86-5 



87-5 
86-8 



Second Series of Experiments. — Swiss Cow. 



176 
182 
193 
204 



9-3 

8-9 



13-5 
12-8 
11-2 
12-6 



Potatoes, hay 
Hay, green clover 
Green clover 
Clover in flower 



3-3 
4-0 
4-0 

3-7 



4-8 
4-5 
22 
3-5 



5-1 
40 
4-7 
5-2 



0-3 
0-3 
03 
0-2 



86-5 
87-2 



87-4 



There is a paper on the adulteration of milk, 
by M. Barruel (Quar. Jour. ofJgr.\o\. ii. p. 304), 
in which he states that the substances used 
to adulterate milk in London and Paris are 
usually flour, sugar-candy, potash, and some- 
times iodine, to give it its bluish colour. 



In Stephens's "Book of the Farm," we find the 
following interesting details relative to the sub- 
ject of milk, milch-cows, and their treatment 
in Scotland, and more especially in the city of 
Edinburgh. 

Cows are kept on every species of fam^ 

815 



MILK. 



MILK. 



though for very different purposes. On carse 
and pastoral farms they are merely useful in 
supplying milk to the farmer and his servants. 
On dairy farms, they afford butter and cheese 
for sale. On some farms near large towns, they 
chiefly supply milk for sale. And on farms of 
mixed husbandry, they are kept for the purpose 
of breeding young stock. 

On carse and pastoral farms, cows receive 
only a few turnips in winter, when they are 
dry, and are kept on from year to year; but 
where the farmer supplies milk to his work- 
people, as a part of wages, they are disposed 
of in the yeld state, and others in milk, or at 
the calving, bought in to supply their place, 
and these receive a large allowance of turnips, 
with perhaps a little hay. On these farms, 
little regard is paid to the breed of the cow, 
the fact of being a good milker being the only 
criterion of excellence. 

On true dairy farms, the winter season is 
not a favourable one for making butter and 
cheese for sale ; for, do what you like to neu- 
tralize the effect of the usual rooted green crops 
on these products, and especially butter, they 
remain unpalatable to the taste. The cows 
are therefore in calf during this season, and 
receive the treatment described above until the 
period of calving in spring. 

In and near large towns, the dairy-man must 
always have milk to supply his customers, and 
it is his interest to render the milk as palatable 
as possible. For the purpose of maintaining 
the supply, he buys cows at all seasons, just 
calved or about to calve. He disposes of the 
calves, without attempting to fatten them; and 
to render the milk he sells palatable, he cooks 
all the food partaken of by the cows. When 
the cows run dry, the}"^ are fattened for the 
butcher, and not allowed to breed again. 

The cows in the public dairies in Edinburgh 
are supported in winter on a variety of sub- 
stances, namely, turnips, brewers' and distil- 
lers' grains, called draff, dreg, malt-comins, 
barley, oats, hay-seeds, chaff, cut hay. One or 
more of these substances, with turnips, are 
cooked together, and the usual process in doing 
this, and administering the cooked food, is as 
follows : — Turnips, deprived of tops and tails, 
and washed clean, are put into the bottom of a 
boiler, and covered near to its top with a quan- 
tity of malt comins, cut hay, hay-seeds, chaff, 
or barley, or more than one of these, as the 
articles can be procu red. Water is then poured 
into the boiler sufficient to boil them, and a lid 
placed upon it. After being thoroughly boiled 
and simmered, the mess is put into tubs, when 
a little pounded rock-salt is strewed over it, 
and chopped into a mash with a spade. As 
much dreg is then poured upon the hot mash 
as to make it lukewarm, and of such a con- 
sistence as a cow may drink up. From 1 to 1^ 
stable-pailfuls of this mixture, — from 40 to 60 
pints imperial, — according to the known appe- 
tite of the cow, is then poured into the trough 
belonging to each. The trough is afterwards 
removed and cleaned, and the manger is ready 
for the reception of fodder — hay or straw. This 
mess is given 3 times a day, after the cows have 
bpeu milked, for dairy-men understand that 
animals should not be disturbed while eating 
816 



their food. The times of milking are 6 A. M., 
12 noon, and 7 P. M. The sweet milk and 
cream obtained by these means, and received 
direct from the dairy, are pretty good. The 
former sells in Edinburgh at Id., and the latter 
at Is. the imperial pint. Dr. Cleland states the 
price of sweet milk in Glasgow at l^d. the im- 
perial pint. 

It will be observed that none of the articles 
usually given to cows are so expensive as oil- 
cake, cabbages, kohl-rabi, or cole-seed. These 
products were employed by the late Mr. Cur- 
wen in his experiments to ascertain the cost 
of raising milk for supplying the poor, and the 
results show they left him very little profit. 
(Ciirwcn's Agrindturul Hints, p. 47 — 52.) 

Cattle are fed on other substances than tur- 
nips, either with themselves or in conjunction 
with turnips. Oil-cake and potatoes are the 
most common substances used for this purpose. 
Linseed oil and linseed have been recommend- 
ed, and many are fed at distilleries on draff and 
dreg, as the refuse of distillation are termed ; 
and these are also sold to the farmers for the 
purpose of feeding. Oats, barley-meal, and 
bean-meal, have also been pressed into the 
service of feeding cattle. 

The potatoes used in feeding cattle are either 
the common kinds known in human food, or 
others raised on purpose, such as the yam and 
ox-noble ; and they are given either alternately 
with turnips, or together. In feeding cattle 
with potatoes of any kind, and in any way, 
there is considerable risk of flatulency and 
choking. To prevent the latter, the potatoes 
should be smashed with a hammer, or with 
an instrument like a pavier's rammer, and 
though juice should come out in the operation, 
no loss is incurred, as it is considered of no 
service in feeding. To prevent flatulence from 
potatoes is no easy matter; but a friend of 
mine used a plan wliich completely answered 
the purpose, which was, mixing cut straw with 
the broken potatoes. The straw obliging the 
cattle to chew every mouthful before being 
swallowed, may prevent such a large quantity 
of gas being generated in the paunch as lirulsed 
potatoes alone would do, and it is this gas 
which occasions that distressing complaint 
called hoven. A farm-steward, who had con- 
siderable experience in feeding cattle on pota- 
toes on a led-farm, always placed as many 
potatoes, whole, before cattle as they could 
consume, and they never swelled on eating 
them, because, as he conjectured, ©ud perhaps 
rightly, they do not eat them so greedily when 
in their power to take them at will, as when 
doled out in small quantities. This fact con- 
firms the propriety of mixing cut straw amongst 
potatoes that are given in small quantities, in 
order to satisfying the appetite, and filling the 
paunch with unfermentable matter. The only 
precaution required in giving a full supply of 
potatoes, is to give only a few and frequently 
at first, and gradually to increase the quantity. 

Oil-cake has been long and much employed 
in England for the feeding of cattle, and it is 
making its way in that respect into Scotland- 
It consists of the compressed husks of linseed, 
after the oil has been expressed from it, and is 
formed into thin oblong cakes. The cakes are 



MILK-FEVER. 



MILKING. 



broken into pieces by a machine. Cattle are 
never entirely fed on oil-cake, but in conjunc- 
tion with other substances, as turnips, potatoes, 
cut hay, or cut straw. When given with cut 
hay or straw, an ox will eat from 7 to 9 lb. of 
cake a day, and the hay or straw induces rumi- 
nation, which the cake itself is not likely to do. 
When given with other substances, as turnips 
or potatoes, 3 lb. or 4 lb. a day will suffice. A 
mixture of oil-cake and ciit meadow-hay forms 
a very palatable and nutritious food for oxen, 
and is a favourite one in England. Oil-cake 
costs from 71. to 10/. a ton. 

Statement of the comparative quality of Milk from 
8 Alderney and 8 Kerry (Iiish) Cows, upon the 
Farm at Oakley Park, in May, June, July, and 
August, 1840, by Mr. R. White, tested from a 
Lactometer holding 1 Pint of Milk, and divided 
into 100 2^cirts by Index. 



Cows. 


ForlioQ 
of Cream 


Differ- 


ObservatioDS. 




in 100. 


ence. 




May. 








Alderneys 


25 






Kerrys - 


10 











15 


In favour of Alderney. 


June. 








Alderneys 


20 






Kerrys - 


10 











10 


Ditto. 


July. 








Alderneys 


23 






Kerrys 


10 











13 


Ditto. 


August 








Alderneys 


16 






Kerrys - 


13 










3 


Ditto. 





iib'.4ioz:}^^°^-*°*''^p°""'^- 



Butter churned from 3 pints of cream from 
each : — 

Alderneys 
Kerrys 

This was taken in August, when the Alder- 
ney's produce of cream was at the lowest. 

MILK-FEVER. Cows in high condition are 
most subject to puerperal fever. This inflam- 
matory disease sometimes appears as early as 
two hours after parturition; if 4 or 5 days 
have elapsed, the animal may generally be 
considered safe. On the appearance of this 
fever, from 6 to 10 quarts of blood should be 
taken, according to the age and size of the 
animal. The bowels must be opened, or the 
disease will run its course; and purging once 
established in an early stage, the fever wil'., in 
the majority of instances, rapidly, subside, 
leaving the strength of the constitution un- 
touched. (Youatt on Cattle, p. 547, 548.) 

MILK-HOUSES AND CELLARS. The 
milk-houses in Holland and elsewhere, and the 
spring-houses of Pennsylvania, have been re- 
ferred to and described under the head of Dai ry. 
Of late, cellars under houses, properly arranged, 
are coming to be preferred for the purpose of 
keeping milk to either milk-houses, milk-vaults, 
or even spring-houses. Among the advantages 
claimed for cellars are, being at hand every- 
where at a small cost ; and keeping drier, thus 
less disposing to must. 

Mr. Miller, of Delaware, a correspondent of 

the Farmers^ Cabinet {July, 1843), speaking of 

the cellars used in the vicinity of Wilmington, 

says ; — It is found sufficient, if the ceUar be 

103 



sunk a few feet below the surface of the earth, 
with a wide and shallow window on each side, 
the bottom of it level with the ground outside; 
well protected with a wire guard to keep out 
vermin, large flies, &c., and provided with a 
close glazed sash, which can be opened and 
closed at pleasure, by lifting it up to the ceiling, 
which ought to be no higher than the top of the 
windows; so that the air of the cellar can be 
ventilated by opening the windows of the two 
opposite sides, according to the way the wind 
sets at the time, shutting them quickly when 
necessary ; for in cold, windy, or damp weather, 
the sooner the windows are again closed, the 
better. Indeed, to the management of the cella 
in this particular, much of the success of dai 
rying is to be attributed ; cold and damp ai 
being unfriendly to the formation of cream 
and its proper and entire separation from the 
milk. Hence, therefore, it is a bad practice to 
set the pans on the brick floor of the cellar; 
they ought always to be placed around on 
shelves, about three feet in height, and these, 
after being well washed with hot water, should 
be wiped quite dry, that no mouldy evaporation 
might take place to spoil the butter. The air 
near the floor of a dairy is always impure, 
being loaded with acid vapours and putrid ex- 
halations, the density of which confines it to 
the lowest part of the room ; hence it is, that 
the doors of some dairies are made with lattice 
work, that the air near the floor, a; uell as that 
near the ceiling, might be ventiUted at the 
same time ; these lattices being furnished with 
sliding panels, may be kept close in bad weather. 
The milk-cellar ought always to have a northern 
aspect, and be well shaded by trees, not grow- 
ing too near the windows, so as to impede a 
dry current of air, or to create a moist atmo- 
sphere ; this consideration being of more im- 
portance than would readily be imagined. 

Cellars thus constructed and carefully at- 
tended, will, no doubt, supersede the use of 
spring-houses generally, before many years 
have passed away; by which the business of 
the dairy will be rendered more agreeable, less 
laborious, and far less inimical to the health 
of those, particularly of females, whose occu- 
pation it is to attend to its never-ceasing duties. 
In the Wilmington market, "cellar-butter" 
usually commands an extra price. 

MILKING. In the operation of milking, the 
great rules to observe are, regularity, gentle- 
ness, and cleanliness. The following observa- 
tions are taken from an American periodical : 
"When you go to milk, take a vessel of cold 
water and sponge. Wash the udder and teats 
clean, dashing on the cold water. This will 
prevent the teats from becoming sore, and the 
udder hot and feverish, besides rendering the 
process of milking much neater. Milk with, 
clean hands. The whole business of milking 
is frequently conducted in such a slovenly 
manner that the milk is entirely unfit for food.. 
The cow should be milked while eating her 
fodder at morning and evening. She should 
always be milked and fed at the same time in. 
the da3% and uniformly by the same person. 
Milk without interruption. Be sure to milk 
the cow as dry as possible. To be milked by 
different hands, at different times in the day, in 
3Z 817 



MILK-PARSLEY. 



MILK SICKNESS. 



a slow, interrupted, gossiping manner, and 
leaving part of the milk in the udder, will ruin 
the best cow in the world." If the cow. has 
sore teats, foment them before milking with 
warm water, and after milking, dress them with 
the following salve : Melt together 1 oz. of yel- 
low wax, and 3 oz. of lard, and as these begin 
to get cool, rub in a i of an oz. of sugar of lead, 
and a drachm of finely pounded aloes. (Youatt 
<m Cattle, p. 552.) 

MILK-PARSLEY (Selinnm, from selijior, the 
Greek name for parsley ; applied to this genus 
on account of the resemblance in the leaves). 
This is a hardy genus of plants of no interest. 
The only species indigenous to England is the 
marsh milk-parsley (S. palustrc), which is pe- 
rennial, or, as some have it, biennial, growing 
in wet and boggy meadows, with flowers white, 
numerous, uniform. The root serves the Rus- 
sians for ginger; and the whole herb abounds 
with a white, bitter, fetid juice, of the consist- 
ence of cream, which soon dries to a brownish 
acrid resin. 

MILK SICKNESS. This name, together 
with "Trembles," has been applied to a pecu- 
liar and most malignant disease occurring in 
some localities of the Western United States, 
and affecting certain kinds of farm-stock, and 
persons who make use of the meat or dairy 
products of infected cattle. Bishop Hennipin, 
a French missionary, who ascended the western 
waters early in the last century, mentions the 
existence of this singular disease affecting 
animals. Although the cause and precise na- 
ture of so frightful a malady are still enveloped 
in great obscurity, and the treatment is far from 
being so generally successful as could be de- 
sired, it may be interesting to be acquainted 
with some facts connected with its existence. 
Dr. George B. Graff", a highly intelligent physi- 
cian of Edgar county, Illinois, has a communi- 
caliiin upon the subject in the American Journal 
of the Medical Sciences (April, 1841), from which 
we draw the following details : — 

The milk sickness is a disease peculiar to 
the Uniled States, occurring seldom, if ever, to 
the eastward of the Alleghany mountains. It 
is in a greater or less degree met with in all 
the Western States, as far south as Mississippi, 
and extends north to the boundary. The states 
of Indiana and Illinois are most subject to its 
occurrence, whilst its existence in the border- 
ing states is comparatively rare. Among the 
• early settlers it committed dreadful ravages, 
and in the formation of our Western settle- 
ments, its prevalence often served as a cause 
to disband a community, and compel the in- 
habitants to seek a location which enjoyed 
immunity from its occurrence. Many of the 
otherwise most desirable portions of that coun- 
try remained long exempted from settlement, 
and even now the inhabitants of these locali- 
ties have, as a condition of their residence, 
entirely to abstain from the use of milk, its 
preparations, and the flesh of their cattle. 

Its occurrence or prevalence is confined to 
no season or description of weather, existing 
in a like degree in the heat of summer or cold 
of winter, and with like virulence and fre- 
Tuency during a dry or wet season. An 
cinion is entertained by some, that it is more 
818 



frequently met with in the spring and fall 
months, whilst others have expressed a belief 
of its more common occurrence during the 
heat of summer. However this may be, we 
know of no season during which it does not 
occur. 

The animals in which it has been observed 
are the beef-cattle, horses, sheep, and goats, 
which seem to acquire it with their food or 
drink. 

We will first speak of the symptoms mani- 
fested in cattle affected with it, as it is only 
through them that we have yet found the dis- 
ease communicated to man. They may be 
afllected to such a degree as that their flesh 
and milk will produce the disease, and yet they 
themselves manifest no unhealthy symptoms 
whatever. This latent condition of the disease 
may be discovered by subjecting the suspected 
animal to a violent degree of exercise, when, 
according to the intensity of the existing cause, 
it will be seized with tremors, spasms, convul- 
sions, or even death. This is a precaution 
practised by butchers in these conntries always 
before slaughtering an animal in anywise sus- 
pected of the poisonous contamination. An 
ordinary degree of exertion will not develope 
these phenomena unless it produce the symp- 
toms usually preceding a fatal termination. 
When, for instance, a cow is sufficiently deeply 
affected, nothing peculiar is observed until im- 
mediately preceding the outbreak of the fatal 
symptoms. She is then observed to walk about, 
without any apparent object in view; all food 
is refused, and there is evidence of impaired 
vision. The eye is first of a fiery appearance, 
increasing to a deepened red colour, until the 
animal is observed to stagger and fall, when, 
if she rises, the trembling of the whole muscu- 
lar system will prevent the maintenance of the 
standing position. The animal usually dies 
after repeated convulsions, never lingering 
beyond a few hours. Often it falls suddenly, 
as if it received a blow from a heavy body 
on the head, and death is produced in a few 
minutes. 

From the tremulous motion imparted to the 
muscles, the aflTection has received the common 
name of the "Trembles" in cattle. A case 
which was characterized by the great violence 
of its symptoms, I had an opportunity to ex- 
amine very shortly after death. The brain I 
found suffiised with a large quantity of fluid 
blood, which, from the amount contained within 
the cranium, must have made great pressure 
on ever}' part. 

In man the symptoms diff'er from these, and 
are varied. The length of time found to elapse 
from the reception of the cause to the appear- 
ance of the disease, is dependent on a multi- 
plicity of circumstances, as the age, sex, cr 
condition of the patient, and violence of the 
poison. It may be developed early as the third, 
or deferred until the tenth day. As a premoni- 
tory symptom, a peculiar and indescribable 
fetor from the lungs is the most prominent; 
and so universally have I found it present and 
to precede the disease, that in almost every 
instance where I have been brought in prox- 
imity to a person predisposed or attacked, have 
I been able to foretell its approach, and pro- 



l! 



MILK SICKNESS. 



MILK SICKNESS. 



Aounce on the character of the disease. This 
fetor can no more be mistaken by a person 
accustomed to it, than that which is so univer- 
sally attendant on variola ; and it may in fact 
be safely stated to be pathognomonic of the 
forming and early stage of milk sickness. 
This halitus from the lungs, which I have 
never found entirely wanting even some days 
previous to an attack, increases in intensity 
until the disease is fully developed, when it 
gradually disappears with the specific symp- 
toms, and at the termination of 4 or 5 days 
cannot be detected. A person labouring under 
the peculiar effluvia from the air passages, in 
many cases complains of no illness, and ap- 
pears entirely unconscious of his situation, 
unless advised of it by his friends or attend- 
ants. His appetite may be, and usually is, 
destroyed ; and after the lapse of a few days 
he is taken down with pain and excessive irri- 
tability of the stomach, obstinate constipation 
of the bowels, a cessation of all biliary secre- 
tion, general febrile action, sometimes an in- 
tenseburning sensation in the epigastric region, 
with early and obstinate coldness of the ex- 
tremities. Often the symptoms are observed 
to differ widely from these. Besides the pecu- 
liar smell emitted, there is a premonition of the 
attack ; for some da3's previous to its develope- 
raent, the patient experiences a restlessness 
and uneasiness which he cannot describe, with 
a dread of some impending calamity, confu- 
sion of ideas, and other indications of irrita- 
tion of the brain and nervous system. Vomit- 
ing announces the onset of an attack. This 
continues at short intervals for many days, the 
matters thrown off the stomach consistingof the 
fluids swallowed, mixed with a glairy mucus, 
and not unfrequently tinged with blood. Some 
days frequently elapse before pain in the 
stomach is complained of, but during the time 
the suffering is intolerable, consisting of a sen- 
sation of deep distress, which, though referred 
to the praecordia, or abdomen, the sufferer can- 
not locate in any particular spot. Pain in the 
limbs is complained of, and is severally referred 
to each of the extremities, but is more constant- 
ly located in the spine, particularly at the nape 
of the neck. The pulse, during the forming 
stage, possesses greater force and volume, with 
slightly increased action. The bowels will 
remain obstinately constipated, the powers of 
nature being incompetent to relieve the condi- 
tion, so that unless it be done by appropriate 
remedies, at the end of 6 or 8 days an offensive 
discharge takes place, quickly followed by dis- 
solution, the symptoms being those which 
would indicate disorganization of the struc- 
ture of the intestines. The tongue, during the 
initiatory stage, is slightly furred, but other- 
wise not much changed in appearance. This 
coat disappears soon after the occurrence of 
vomiting, and becomes clean, of a pale-red or 
pink colour, greatly resembling a piece of raw 
veal. Next to the fetor mentioned, the change 
of volume occurring in the tongue may be 
viewed as the great characteristic of this dis- 
ease. It rapidly attains an inordinate size, 
completely filling the mouth, and so flabby and 
soft in its texture as to retain perfectly the im- 
pressions left by the teeth, when extruded. 



Often a number of efforts are necessary before 
it can be forced out, and then it has a tremu- 
lous motion. This condition of the tongue 
changes with the stage of the disease. When 
the vomiting has been suspended, and free 
evacuations from the bowels obtained, it is re- 
duced in volume, the surface is for a time 
smooth and glazed, soon after becomes dark, 
cracks open in transverse fissures, is hardened, 
with an obstinately dry and rough surface. Of 
all the primary symptoms, vomiting is the last 
to disappear; it ceases very gradually to annoy 
the patient, and its continued absence is the 
most certain indication of a state of convales- 
cence. In no disease is there a greater differ- 
ence or diversity of symptoms than are usually 
found in different cases to constitute whatN may 
be properly termed the secondary stage of milk 
sickness. 

In some cases the patient is affected with 
drowsiness, low muttering delirium, nervous 
tremors, and the whole train of symptoms asso- 
ciated in low typhus fever. When recovery 
takes place after severe attacks, the convales- 
ence is very slow, and years may elapse before 
a perfect restoration to health. Indeed, it has 
been a question with many, whether those once 
severely attacked ever regain a perfect integrity 
of constitution. In cases which terminate fa- 
tally (of which description is a large majority), 
a length of time of from 1 to 4 weeks is re- 
quired, proportionate to the intensity of the 
primary effects, the propriety of the treatment, 
and the natural powers of the resistance of the 
constitution, as they often seem to die from a 
wearing out, or gradual destruction of cerebral 
and nervous energy. Those cases which occur 
during the summer months, are most decidedly 
inflammatory, whilst in the winter there is 
always observed a disposition to assume a low 
form. The autumnal cases, in their secondary 
fever, are liable to assume a remittent aspect, 
and I have seen them eventuate in a well- 
marked intermittent. When recovery has taken 
place, the patient retains not the slightest recol- 
lection of any thing which occurred during the 
progress of the disease, and this forgetfulness 
often extends as far back as some days previous 
to the active developement of the disease. 

Cause. — The cause of this disease in animals 
is as yet shrouded in mystery and uncertainty. 
No satisfactory account of its nature has ever 
yet been given, and it has in turn been sup- 
posed to be of vegetable, mineral, and eveii 
aerial origin. The limits of its prevalence it. 
not of^en over a large continuous tract of 
country, but rather circumscribed, and sur 
rounded by localities never known to produce 
it. No example is known in which the property 
of producing the disease has been acquired by 
any locality which did not previously possess 
it. The boundaries which were at the first dis- 
covery of the country found to separate the 
infected from healthy districts, remain un- 
changed. The locality which serves to pro- 
duce the disease, most commonly extends as a 
vein of variable breadth, traversing the country 
for a considerable distance. It can be traced 
in one instance for nearly a hundred miles, 
running parallel to the course of the Wabash 
river, in the state of Indiana. 

819 



MILK SICKNESS. 



MILK SICKNESS. 



Again — it will be found to occupy an isolated 
spot, comprised in an area of 100 acres, whilst, 
for a considerable distance around, it is not 
produced. Thus, having the locality perfectly 
circumscribed, much labour has been expended 
in order to discover some production peculiar 
to the locality. The search has been uniformly 
unsuccessful in the attainment of its object. 
The general appearance of these infected dis- 
tricts is somewhat peculiar. I have always 
observed that the situation of the ground is 
elevated above that of the surrounding country, 
occupying what is denominated a ridge, and 
that the quality of the soil is in general of an 
inferior description. The growth of timber is 
not observed to be so luxuriant as in situations 
otherwise similar, but is scrubby, and stunted 
in its perfect developement, in many instances 
simulating what in the west is denominated 
"Barrens." Throughout the entire district in 
which these localities are interspersed, there is 
observed an absence of the occurrence of 
stones scattered over the surface, whilst in the 
infected tracts they are almost universally 
present. They are of a small size and dark- 
ened aspect externally, breaking with a regular 
and shining fracture, and, upon analysis, im- 
perfectly made, were found to contain a con- 
siderable portion of iron, with slight traces of 
copper. Another more decided and peculiar 
appearance, which serves to distinguish them 
from other spots, is the breaking forth of nu- 
merous feeble springs, furnishing but a trifling 
supply of water, but not varying in quantity 
with the change of seasons. In its appear- 
ance, it presents the general evidences of a 
sulphurous and ferruginous contamination. 

Experiments made upon the water collected 
from these springs, or more properly called 
oozes from the soil, with the greatest care by 
the employment of the most delicate chemical 
re-agents, failed to indicate the presence of any 
mineral except iron, sulphur, traces of mag- 
nesia, and a quantity of copper barely capable 
of being demonstrated. A belief being enter- 
tained by many that the disease is occasioned 
by arsenic, or some of its salts, I with much 
care and patience subjected not only the water, 
but likewise the earth, from these districts to a 
most rigid examination, and by no test was I 
furnished with the slightest evidence of its 
presence. 

An intelligent medical friend expressed to 
me his belief that it was produced by the inha- 
lation of some noxious gases generated during 
the night; in proof, he stated that he had ob- 
served cattle, which were regularly housed 
each evening, escaped its attacks, and that 
when suffered to remain at large, they were 
frequently seized with the disease. It is dif- 
ficult to form this belief of the nature of the 
cause, as we can hardly conceive the particu- 
lar action of any combination of circumstances, 
capable of giving rise to such an emanation 
only at night, ceasing to act during the day. 
The most popular belief is in favour of a vege- 
table origin. The advocates of this method of 
production having failed to designate the plant 
which ihey supposed occasions it, have en- 
deavoured to sustain their views by supposing 
that '.he poison exists in some shrub or tree, 
fi20 



which is eaten by the cattle, but confess their 
inability to designate any such peculiar growth 
confined to these localities. If certain fields 
which are known to affect cattle fed upon them, 
be suffered to grow in grass, and the hay pro- 
duced be given to them for their continual food, 
no disease results, which is a strong circum- 
stance, unless it be urged that the active poi- 
sonous principle is destroyed by the desicca- 
tion. Again, it has frequently appeared with 
its greatest virulence when the ground has been 
for weeks previously covered with snow. 

Butter and cheese, manufactured from the 
milk drawn from an infected cow, are sup- 
posed to be the most concentrated forms of this 
poison. They possess no distinguishing ap- 
pearance, odour, or taste, from the healthy 
article. A very minute quantity of either will 
suffice to develope the disease in man. The 
cream, ordinarily sufficient to be added to the 
coffee drunk at a single meal, is said to have 
induced an attack. The butter or cheese eaten 
at one repast, has frequently been known to 
prove effective. The property is not contained 
in any of the elements of the milk exclusively, 
but distributed throughout the whole of them, 
being possessed by the buttermilk as well as 
by the whey. Beef, in the quantity of a very 
few ounces, will produce the disease, and, it is 
generally believed, in a more violent and fatal 
form than when it is produced by milk, or any 
of its preparations. 

In the course of my observations I had an 
opportunity to experiment with a cow suffering 
in but a slight degree from the cause. She was 
affected with tremors when unusually exer- 
cised, exhibited a red and suffused eye, with 
frequent twitches of portions of the muscular 
system. She was kept confined without an 
opportunity to exercise, and was fed upon ordi- 
nary food. At the end of 8 days, the milk 
drawn from her possessed as violent poisonous 
properties as at the time of her incarceration. 
Her confinement was continued for a week 
longer, at the end of which period, the milk 
taken from her was found in an entirely healthy 
condition, and the eyes were restored to their 
natural appearance. In this instance it will 
be seen that the property of imparting the 
poison to the milk was lost in the space of 
between Sand 15 days. We, of course, cannot 
fix on the precise period, but we would infer 
that the property is suddenly destroyed rather 
than gradually dissipated. 

My trials with the poisoned flesh were, for 
the most part, made upon dogs, which I con- 
fined, and often watched the effect of the poison 
when administered at regular intervals. In 
the space of 48 hours from the commencement 
of the administration of either the butter, 
cheese, or flesh, from poisoned animals, I have 
observed unequivocal appearances of their pe- 
culiar action. In a few hours a thirst greater 
than natural is created ; the appetite remains 
unimpaired until the expiration of the fourth or 
fifth day, or just before the appearance of fatal 
symptoms, when the animal will refuse drinks, 
and the most inviting descriptions of food. 

Vomiting does not, as in man, always pre- 
cede death, but the bowels are constipated 
throughout, except that, in a single instanc 



MILK SICKNESS. 



MILK SICKNESS. 



observed copious alvine discharges largely 
mixed with blood. One ounce of butter or 
cheese, or 4 ounces of beef, either raw or boil- 
ed, administered 3 times a-day, will certainly 
prove fatal within (i days, and often earlier. 
In these cases all exertions and exercise must 
be prevented, or death will occur much sooner, 
even as early as the third day. When an ani- 
mal has been subjected to its influence for only 
a short time, and is induced to fatigue itself, or 
is driven a distance at full speed, he suddenly 
stops and falls, and the severity and duration 
of the convulsion or spasm is in proportion to 
the intensity of the action of the poison. Often 
he will appear to entirely recover from the 
first attack, but to be repeated upon the re- 
newal of the exercise to a sufficient degree. 

There is, however, one animal which, from 
some peculiarity of organization, is rendered 
proof against the pernicious effects of this 
otherwise powerful agent. I allude to the hog. 
Most industriously did I feed a troublesome 
sow running at large, administering, daily, 5 or 
6 pounds of infected beef. This was perse- 
vered in for more than a fortnight, and under 
the treatment she fattened, when I was compel- 
led to desist from the great quantity necessary 
to supply her voracious appetite, without en- 
joying the satisfaction to perceive one muscu- 
lar twitch as an evidence that it produced the 
slightest effect. When I last saw her she en- 
joyed excellent apparent health, and was the 
mother of a numerous offspring. 

From all the experiments I have made, and 
the reasoning used, I can arrive at no conclu- 
sion, so far as relates to the nature of the ulti- 
mate cause in man, to whom it can only be 
communicated through the medium of an ani- 
mal, and that capability of production can be 
acquired only by the animals of circumscribed 
localities. An intelligent medical friend, alike 
distinguished as a statesman. Dr. John W. 
Davis, of Indiana, in a late letter to me, ex- 
presses a belief that milk is never a cause of 
the disease. He merely states his belief of the 
fact, without the evidences or observations 
which have led him to the denial of a proposi- 
tion heretofore viewed as settled beyond dis- 
pute. My own experience enables me to say 
that I have seen a peculiar affection, which I 
feel assured could have been no other than the 
milk sickness, in a city remote from any of its 
local causes, attacking every individual who 
partook of a certain cheese which had been 
purchased from a wagon arriving from an in- 
fected district. In this instance the well-marked 
symptoms, confined to those only who partook 
of this cheese, appearing nearly at the same 
time, with no occurrence of new causes after 
the removal of this cause, all together afford 
strong evidence of the nature of the origin. 

There is a murderous practice now carried 
on in certain districts, in which the inhabitants 
will not themselves consume the butter and 
cheese manufactured; but, with little solicitude 
for the lives or health of others, they send it in 
large quantities, to be sold in the cities of the 
West, particularly Louisville, Kentucky, and 
St. Louis, Missouri. Of the truth of this I am 
well apprized by actual observation, and I am as 
certaiu that it has often caused death in those 



cities, when the medical attendants viewed i' 
as some anomalous form of disease, not sus- 
pecting the means by which poison had been 
conveyed among them. Physicians of the lat- 
ter city having been questioned particularly on 
this subject, have mentioned to me a singular 
and often fatal disease which appeared in cer- 
tain families, the cases occurring simultane- 
ously, and all traces of it disappearing sud- 
denly, and which I cannot doubt were the 
result of poisoned butter or cheese. This reck- 
lessness of human life it should be our endea- 
vour to prevent, and the heartless wretches 
who practise it should be brought to suffer a 
punishment commensurate with the enormity 
of their crime. From the wide extent of the 
country in which it is carried on, we will rea- 
dily perceive the ditficulties to be encountered 
in the effort to put a stop to the practice. This 
being the case, our next proper aim should be 
to investigate the nature of the cause, and es- 
tablished a more proper plan of treatment by 
which it may be robbed of its terrors, and the 
present large proportionate mortality dimi- 
nished. 

Nature and Treatment of the Disease. — Much 
diversity of opinion exists among medical men 
in regard to the essential nature and most 
proper mode of treating this fatal disease, from 
which hundreds of persons throughout the 
West and Southwest annually perish. 

Owing to the want of success which has so 
uniformly attended the practice of their phy- 
sicians, many of the inhabitants depend en- 
tirely on their domestic remedies. It is in that 
country emphatically one of the opprobria me- 
dicorum. 

"The primary operation of the poison," says 
Dr. Graff, " seems to be on the brain and ner- 
vous system, and this is indicated by the cere- 
bral irritation which so often precedes, and al- 
ways accompanies an attack, as well as by au- 
topsic appearances. Without an exception, in 
the animals poisoned, I always found the brain 
and meninges phlogosed with a greater or less 
degree of inflammatory action." 

Dr. Graff relates the following circumstance;, 
connected with the occurrence of the disease, 
which will tend to show its mode of develope- 
ment and characteristics. The entire family of 
a Mr. Frazier, moving westward, purchased a 
quantityoffreshbeef in Indiana, of which every 
member of the company partook heartily, daily, 
until the evening of the fourth day, when they 
arrived in the Doctor's neighbourhood. Oa 
this evening they all retired apparently in their 
usual health, but during the night he was sum- 
moned to attend a female with an attack of 
milk sickness. Upon a careful examination 
he discovered the peculiar smell present with 
every member of the family, and, on inquiry, 
ascertained about the beef, and the locality in 
which it was purchased, "which," he says, " at 
once satisfied him that they were doomed. Be 
fore the next morning every member of thai 
company of 6 was attacked in a violent "^au 
ner, and only one of the number recovered." 

The Legislatures of several Western Statts 

have offered rewards for the discovery of the 

origin of the milk sickness, in order to lead to 

its prevention an i cure. The reward offered 

3z2 821 



MILK-VETCH. 



MILLET. 



in Kentucky is $1000. A creeping vine has 
been of late years generally believed to be 
the occasion of the disease, but this has not 
been so well established as to enable the per- 
son who made the supposed discovery to claim 
the rewards. 

MILK-VETCH {Astragalus). This is an 
extensive genus of herbaceous and shrubby 
plants ; many of the species are very hand- 
some, and well suited for the flower-garden. 
There are 4 species indigenous to England. 

MILKWORT (Polygala, from poly, much, 
and gala, milk; reputed eflJects of the plant on 
cattle that feed upon it.) All the species of 
this genus are very showy. The annual kinds 
require sowing in the open ground, preferring 
a peat soil. Some of the species possess use- 
ful medicinal qualities. Decandolle enume- 
rates above 160 species in this genus, but only 
one is British. 

A considerable number of the species are 
natives of the United States, among which the 
best known is the P. senega, or Seneca snake- 
root. 

MILLET {Panicum, from paniada, a panicle, 
or panis, bread). A useful genus of grasses, 
one species of which, called Bengal grass, was 
some years ago introduced into Pennsylvania 
as an object of culture, and excited much inte- 
rest for a time among farmers. It was found, 
however, not to be so valuable as the usual 
summer crop of which it occupied the place, 
and it is now pretty much abandoned. The 
seed is sown in the early part of May. (Flora 
Cestrica.) 

Of the millet there are three distinct genera: 
the Polish millet (Digitaria), cultivated in Po- 
land; the common millet (Pa)iicM))i), or panic 
grass, cultivated in Germany, and sometimes 
in England ; and the great or Indian millet 
(Holcus), cultivated in India, Italy, and Ame- 
rica. 

Of the common millet there are 3 species : 
Setaria Germanica, a native of the south of Eu- 
rope ; the P. miliaceum (PI. 3, Z), a native of the 
East Indies ; and the Setaria Italica (m), also 
of Indian origin. 

The German Millet (Fr. Moha de Hongrie ; S. 
Germanica, PL 3, k) rises with a jointed reed-like 
stalk, about 3 feet high, and about the size of 
the common reed, with a leaf at each joint, 1^ 
foot long, and about an inch broad at the base 
where broadest, ending in an acute point, rough 
to the touch, embracing the stalk at the base, 
and turning downwards about half the length. 
The stalks are terminated by compact spilres, 
about the thickness of a man's finger at the 
bottom, growing taper towards the top, 8 or 9 
inches long, and closely set with small round- 
ish grain. It is annual, and perishes soon after 
the seeds are ripe. There are three varieties 
of it, the yellow, white, and purple grained. 
It was formerly cultivated for bread in some of 
the northern countries. 

The Common or Cultivated Millet (Fr. Millet 
comnun ; Panicum miliaceum), rises with a reed- 
like channelled stalk, from 3 to 4 feet high ; 
at every joint there is one reed-like leaf, joined 
oil the top of the sheath, which embraces and 
covers that joint of the stalk below the leaf, 
and is clothed with soft hairs; the leaf has 
822 



none, but has several small longitudinal fur- 
rows running parallel to the midrib. The stalk 
is terminated by a large loose panicle hanging 
on one side. Of this species there are two va- 
rieties, the brown and the yellow; the latter of 
which was formerly in cultivation, and is now 
sometimes sown for feeding poultry, and as a 
substitute for rice. 

The Italian Millet (Panis d'ltalie : Fr. Millet a 
grappe ; Setaria Italica, PI. 3, w), rises with a reed- 
like stalk, nearly 4 feet high, and much thicker 
than that of the preceding ; the leaves are also 
broader. The spikes are a foot long, and twice 
the thickness of those of the common millet, 
but not so compact, being composed of several 
roundish clustered spikes ; the grain is also 
larger. There are two or three varieties of this, 
differing only in the colour of the grain. It is 
frequently cultivated in Italy (whence its tri- 
vial name), and other warm countries. It is a 
native of both Indies, and of Cochin China. 

The Polish Millet, or manna grass of the 
Germans {Digitaria sanguinalis, formerly Pa- 
nicum sanguinalis, PI. 3, w), is a low, decumbent, 
annual plant, seldom rising above 9 inches or a 
foot high, with hairy leaves and slender pani- 
cles. It tillers much, and forms a close tuft, 
spreading and rooting at the joints. It is a 
native of England, but not common. It grows 
in abundance in Poland, and is sometimes cul- 
tivated, the seeds being used like those of the 
other millets as a substitute for rice or sago. 

The Great or Indian Millet (Lat. Holcus sorghum, 
Sorghum vulgare, PI. 3, o; Fr. Sorgho, gros millet 
d'ltalie ; Ger. Sorgsamen : It. Sagina ,■ Span. Melosa) 
has a stem which rises 5 or 6 feet high, is strong, 
reedy, and like those of the maize, but smaller. 
The leaves are long and broad, having a deep 
furrow through the centre, where the midrib is 
depressed in the upper surface, and is very 
prominent below. The leaves are 2^ feet long, 
and 2 inches broad in the middle, embracing 
the stalks with their base. The flowers come 
out in large panicles at the top of the stalks, 
resembling, at first appearance, the male spikes 
of the Turkey wheat (maize) ; these are suc- 
ceeded by large, roundish seeds, which are 
wrapped round with the chaff. This grain is 
a native of India, where it is much used to feed 
poultry, and is frequently sent to Europe for 
the same purpose. It is much cultivated in 
Arabia, and most parts of Asia Minor; and 
has been introduced into Italy, Spain, Switzer- 
land, and some parts of Germany, also into 
China, Cochin China, and the West Indies, 
where it grows commonly 5 or 6 feet high, or 
more, and, being esteemed a hearty food for 
labourers, is called negro Guinea corn. Its 
long awns or bristles defend it from the birds. 
In England, the autumns are seldom dry and 
warm enough to ripen the seed well in the 
field. In Arabia it is called dora or durra: the 
flour is very white, and they make good bread 
of it, or rather cakes, about 2 inches in thick- 
ness. The bread which they make of it in 
some parts of Italy is dark and coarse. In 
Tuscany it is used chiefly for feeding poultry 
and pigeons ; sometimes for swine, kine, and 
horses. Csesalpinus says, that cattle fed on 
the green herb are apt to swell and die, but 
thrive on it when dried. They make brushes 



MILLET-GRASS. 



MILLS. 



and brooms of its stalks in Italy, which Ray 
observed in the shops of Venice, and which are 
sent to England, Of this species there are 
two distinct varieties; one distinguished by 
black, and the other by red, husked seeds, be- 
sides spbvarieties. 

The only sorts of millet which are cultivated 
with success in England are the German, cul- 
tivated, and the Polish sorts. According to 
Professor Thaer, the cultivated is to be pre- 
ferred, as having the largest grain. 

The soil for the millet should be warm, 
sandy, rich, and well pulverized to a good 
depth. In England the seed is sown in May, 
very thin, and not deeply covered. In the 
course of its growth, no plant. Professor Thaer 
observes, is more improved by stirring the soil, 
after which it grows astonishingly fast, and 
smothers all weeds. 

In harvesting the millet, great care is requi- 
site not to shed the seed ; and as it ripens rather 
unequally, it would be an advantage to cut off 
the spikes as they ripen. No grain is easier 
to thrash, or to free from its husk by the mill. 
It is used instead of rice, and in Germany 
bears about the same price. It produces a 
great bulk of straw, which is much esteemed 
as fodder. {Loudon's Ency. of AgrlcuUure.') 

The great Indian millet will grow in Eng- 
land to the height of 5 or 6 feet ; but will not 
ripen its seeds, or even flower, if the season 
is not dry and warm. It would doubtless suc- 
ceed in the United States. 

MILLET-GRASS, Milir.a (Fr. millet ; Lat. mi- 
lium, from mille, a thousand, in allusion to the 
immense number of seeds produced by it). 
These are hardy, annual, and perennial grasses ; 
but in England the climate is seldom warm 
enough to ripen the seed, or to allow of their 
being cultivated to advantage. The hardened 
corolla, forming a coat to the seed, aflfords a 
mark of distinction between this genus and 
Jlgrostis, no less obvious than important, as 
those most deeply versed in grasses will most 
readily allow. 

There are two English species: — 

1. Spreading millet-grass {M.effusum). Grow- 
ing very common in moist, shady places. The 
root is perennial and fibrous, with several 
creeping shoots. Stems erect, slender, gene- 
rally 3 and 4 feet high, with about 4 joints, 
leafy, smooth. Leaves bright-green, flat, very 
smooth, thin and weak. Flowers solitary, 
slightly drooping, ovate, in a loose spreading 
panicle, without awns ; panicles from 4 inches 
to a foot in length. Mr. Curtis observes, that 
this is distinguished from the panic grasses, to 
which it has the greatest affinity, by having a 
calyx of two valves only. The produce of this 
grass is very light in proportion to its bulk, 
and it is but little nutritive. Birds are remark- 
ably fond of the seeds : so much as to render 
it likely that, for the sake of the seed only, it 
could be cultivated to advantage on the farm. 
But in covers where game are preserved there 
cannot be a better grass encouraged: if will 
save the corn fields. About the beginning of 
August is the best season for sowing the seed. 
The surface of the ground near the roots of the 
bushes should be lightly stirred, and the seeds 
scattered « /er it and raked in; a few of the 



decaying leaves that cover the ground should 
afterwards be thrown over. It flowers in the 
second week or latter end of June, and the 
seed is ripe in the middle of July and begin- 
ning of August. 

2. Panic millet-grass (ill. lanigcrum). This 
atjnual species is less common, and grows 
principally in fields where water has stag- 
nated, especially towards the sea. The stem 
is branched from the bottom and smooth. 
Flowers in a dense, spiked, erect panicle, pale- 
green, bristly; corolla awned. 

MILLS (Lat. niola). The term mill seems 
to have signified originally an engine for grind- 
ing corn, but it is now used in a general sense 
to denote a great variety of machines, whose 
action depends chiefly on circular motion. The 
particular purpose is usually indicated by a 
prefix: thus, bark-mill, cotton-mill, flour-mill, 
oil-mill, saw-mill, spinning-mill, &c. 

The machinery by v/hich it is necessary to 
accomplish the ultimate objects of the mill 
must obviously vary ah-nost indefinitely. Many 
voluminous works on this subject have been 
published, as well as separate accounts of par- 
ticular structures. 

The Kibbling-mill is well worthy of notice. 
It is composed of a small iron cylinder, usually 
about 8 or 9 inches wide, and 6 inches in dia- 
meter, tapering slightly to one end, and fluted 
on the inside. Within this a barrel of the 
same form, but a size less, and fluted on the 
outside, revolves by the turning of a spindle 
on which it is fixed. The meal is rendered 
finer or coarser in proportion as the working 
barrel is set nearer to or farther from the 
small end. This mill is made entirely of iron 
and steel, and is usually attached to a post. It 
is provided with a hopper, and is worked by a 
crank fixed at one end of the spindle, while a 
fly-wheel revolves at the other. It is used for 
beans, peas, and other pulse, for malt and va- 
rious kinds of grain, and is a very useful and 
ingenious contrivance, but requires care in its 
adjustment and general management. 

Bean-mill. A mill for grinding beans, con- 
structed by Seaman and Bryant of Melton, in 
Suffolk, is as simple and effective an imple- 
ment of the kind as any we have seen. It is 
placed on a wooden stand, with crank, fly- 
wheel, and hopper; and consists of a coarsely 
fluted barrel, working against a front cutting 
plate ; the latter being set at the proper distance 
from the barrel by means of a screw. It is 
used chiefly for beans and peas, but may 
be employed for grinding malt, by exchang- 
ing the barrel and cutting-plate for a pair of 
rollers. 

The Norfolk Crusher is similar -ji appear- 
ance to the foregoing, and is worked by two 
rollers of equal dimensions, each being flanged 
at one end, and reversed so as to prevent the 
grain from falling off" at the side. The rollers 
are perfectly smooth, and consequently, as its 
name implies, it crushes the grain instead of 
cutting it. 

The Suffolk Crusher is sin.,"»ly a variety of the 
above, and differs from it in having i'ls hind 
roller finely grooved, and of half tlie dimen 
sions of the front one ; this has no flange, but 
works within the flanges of the front roUei 

833 



MILLSTONE GRIT. 



MIXTURE OF SOILS. 



which are attached at both ends. To render 
these mills effective for crushing oats, the 
rollers should be left rough as they come from 
the lathe, to draw in the kernels, as the latter 
are apt to start back at the moment of entering 
between the rollers, if they are polished. A 
grooved or fluted roller has not been found 
adequate to the perfect bruising or cutting of 
oats, and a mill that shall effect this object may 
be considered a desideratum in agricultural 
jnechanics. 

MILLSTONE GRIT. A geological term 
applied to a group of strata which occur be- 
tween the mountain limestone and the superin- 
cumbent coal formations ; it is a coarse-grained 
quartzose sandstone. 

MINT (Mentha). The poets celebrate Minthe, 
a daughter of Cocytus, as being transformed 
into mint by Proserpine in a fit of jealousy. 
(Ovid. Mvtnm. 10, v. 729.) This is an extensive 
and well-known genus of useful herbs, with 
the culture and propagation of which every 
one is familiar. In England there are more 
than a dozen native species, besides numerous 
cultivated varieties. The roots are perennial, 
creeping widely. All the herbage is more or 
less hairy, but variable in that respect; rarely 
woolly or finely downy; full of pellucid dots, 
lodging a copious essential oil, which is pun- 
gently aromatic, cordial, and stimulant, and is 
thence used in medicine as an excitant and 
stomachic for promoting digestion. The fol- 
lowing are the indigenous species. Horse-mint 
(M. sylvestris), round-leaved mint (M.rotundi- 
folia), spear oi green mint (M. viriclis), black 
or peppermint (M. piperita), hergamot mint (M. 
citrata), hairy mint (M. hirsuta), fragrant sharp- 
leaved mint (if. acutifolia), tall red mint (M. 
rubra), bushy red mint (M. gentilis), narrowed- 
leaved mint (31. gracilis), corn-mint (M. arven- 
sis), rugged field-mint (M. agroslis), and penny- 
royal (M. pidegium). See CAT-MiifT, Horse- 
Mint, Pkpi'ehmint, Pennt-Rotal, Speaii- 

MlXT, &c. 

MISSELTOE (Viscum; from Dcsa/s, birdlime, 
on account of the sticky nature of the berries). 
The misseltoe is a well-known parasite, readi- 
ly propagated by sticking the berries on thorn 
or apple trees, after a little of the outer bark 
has been cut off, and tying a shade or net over 
them, to protect them from the birds. Sheep 
eagerly devour this plant, which is frequently 
cut off the trees for them during the severe 
winters ; nay, it is even said to preserve them 
from the rot. Its branches are much sought 
after at Christmas to hang up in houses, along 
with other evergreens. It was one of those 
plants held sacred to the Druids. 

MIST. See Fog. 

MITE. See Cheese-Mite. 

MIXEN. A compost heap. 

MIXTURE OF SOILS, in agriculture, is the 
addition of one soil to another, to improve its 
fertility. 

There is perhaps no agricultural improve- 
ment more important in both its immediate and 
permanent effects than the careful, judicious 
mixture of soils, and there is no question more 
likely to repay the cultivator for the care he 
oesiows upon it. 

This mode of improving the land was one 
824 



which very early engaged the attention of the 
farmer. Nature herself, in fact, pointed out to 
him the means of producing the richest of 
soils by earthy mixtures in very intelligible 
language. The solid matters brought down 
from the distant hills by the flood-wafers, and 
deposited in the valleys where the waters 
rested, evidently formed, by the mixture of dif- 
ferent strata, and by their union only, the lich 
alluvial soils of the old and the new worlds ; 
for that the mere mechanical separation of the 
earth into a fine state of division is not the sole 
cause of the increased fertility, is apparent to 
every farmer. 

It is useless, he well knows, to expect the 
debris of the hills to produce fertilizing effects 
on soil of a similar composition. It is the dis- 
similarity of the earths which insures a maxi- 
mum fertile mixture: thus, in the soil of the 
rich marshes of the banks of the Thames are 
found the clay of the London basin, the sands 
of Middlesex, and the chalks of Oxfordshire and 
Kent; and in a similar manner aie formed all 
rich alluvial lands. This good effect of earthy 
deposits naturally pointed out to the Italian 
farmers the use of earthy additions to the soil. 
Columella expressly notices the use of sand, 
gravel, marl, and chalk (book ii. c. 16, p. 93); 
and the people of Megara, according to Theo- 
phrastus, had made similar observations upon 
the importance of mixing together different 
strata of earth (lib. iii. c. 25) ; for every fifth 
or sixth year they trenched the gravel to a 
depth equal to that they imagined the rain had 
penetrated. The early inhabitants of Britain 
employed marl, as the people of Gaul did lime, 
for spreading over their lands. And that this 
was done to a very considerable extent, is shown 
by several facts. Thus, marl-pits are men- 
tioned as early as 128.5, in the charter of the 
forest, and again in the statute of Wales in the 
12 Edward 1. And so early as the days of 
Richard, Duke of Cornwall, the Cornish farm- 
ers had a grant by which they were empowered 
to take the calcareous sandof Padstow harbour, 
and spread it over their clayey lands. The 
successful mixture of the farmers' soils, there- 
fore, is not a modern improvement; it has evi- 
dently been practised with success in all cli- 
mates, in different ages, and on every descrip- 
tion of cultivatable land. 

I have witnessed, however, even in soils to 
all appearance similar in composition, some 
very extraordinary results from their mere 
mixture. Thus, in the gravelly soils of Spring 
Park, near Croydon, the ground is often exca- 
vated to a depth of many feet through strata 
of barren gravel and red sand, for the purpose 
of obtaining the white or silver sand which 
exists beneath them. When this fine sand is 
removed, the gravel and red sand is thrown 
back into the pit, the ground merely levelled, 
and then either let to cottagers for gardens or 
planted with forest trees ; in either case the 
effect is remarkable : all kinds of either fir or 
deciduous trees will now vegetate with re- 
markable luxuriance; and in the cottage-garden 
thus formed, several species of vegetables, 
such as beans and potatoes, will produce very 
excellent crops in the very soils in which they 
I would have perished previous to their mixture. 



MIXTURE OF SOILS. 

These instances are remarkable, and well 
worthy of the careful consideration of the 
farmer; for the poverty of both the sand and 
the gravel, which is thus so successfully min- 
gled together, is very great. The appearance 
of the soil here gave no indications of any 
good being derived from the union of the two. 
The black gravel and the red sand were equal- 
ly sterile; yet their mere mixture yielded a 
productive soil. 

The permanent advantages of mixing soils, 
too, is not confined to merely those entirely of 
an earthy composition; earths which contain 
inert organic matter, such as peat or moss 
earth, are highly valuable additions to some 
soils. Thus, peat earth was successfully added 
to the sandy soils of Merionethshire by Sir 
Robert Vaughan. The Cheshire farmers add 
a mixture of moss and calcareous earth to their 
"tight-bound earth," the effect of which they 
describe as having "a loosening operation;" 
that is, it renders the soil of their strong clays 
less tenacious, and consequently promotes the 
ready access of the moisture and gases of the 
atmosphere to the roots of the farmers' crops : 
their vigour is promoted, their food better sup- 
plied. There are certain natural indications 
with regard to the admixture of soils which 
are self-evident to every cultivator ; and there 
are others which are well understood in par- 
ticular districts. The Norfolk farmers consider 
that marl is not far from the surface when the 
weed coltsfoot (Tussilago forfara) abounds : and 
that all lands will be much benefited by marl- 
ing which produce the weeds corn-marigold, 
or briddle {Chrysantliemum segetum), and smart- 
weed, or pale-flowered persicaria (^Polygonum 
Pennsylva n icum'). 

In the transfer of the earths the farmer will 
find it a profitable practice, especially when the 
distance is great, to have them previously dug 
in pits, and dried in the sun. In this way the 
weight of either chalk, marl, or clay is much 
more considerably reduced than the cultivator 
would suppose. I have found that when moist 
chalk is dried in this way it loses from 20 to 
24 per cent, of water. Strong adhesive clay, 
under similar circumstances, loses from 32 to 
41 per cent., and marl from 18 to 26 per cent, 
of its weight; so that, supposing he carts 100 
cubic yards of each of these fertilizers, by 
merely having them previously dried, he saves 
in weight of carriage 

Tom. 

In the chalk 20 to 24 

In the clay 32 to 42 

In the marl 18 to 26 

As there are only these earths present to any 
extent in all cultivated soils, and as the propor- 
ti' n which they bear to each other makes the 
cnief difference between fertile and barren 
lands, I shall confine my attention in this paper 
to the application of 1. Chalk, 2. Clay, 3. Sand, 
to land which is naturally deficient in them; 
and in entering upon the investigation, I shall 
suppose that the farmer is aware that it is 
merely the excess of one of these earths which 
renders a soil unproductive, and that the ap- 
plication of the deficient earths operates so 
advantageously by tending to render the com- 
position more similar to those of richer soils, 
104 



MIXTURE OF SOILS. 

in which the earths are mixed in a more fertile 
proportion. It is of the first importance, how- 
ever, that the farmer should be aware of this 
fact ; let him, to this end, contrast the analysis 
of a barren soil like that of Bagshot Heath, 
which is composed of 



Coarse silicious sand 
Fine sand - - - 
Iron, clay, and chalk 



Parlj. 

380 



with that of the soil of a Lincolnshire pasture, 
which contains, in the same weight, 

Parts. 

Fine calcareous sand and silicious sand - 160 

Soluble matters .... - 6 

Organic matters - - ... 40 

Chalk - 32 

Oxide of iron ...... 8 

Alumina (pure clay) ..... 25 

Silex (earth of flint) - .... 65 

Water, and loss . - ... 64 

400 

The soil of Bagshot, he will observe, contains 
nearly twice as much silicious matters, and 
only one-fifth the proportion of chalk and alu- 
mina, that is present in the pasture from Croft 
in Lincolnshire. 

Chalk and marl are both used for the sake 
of the corbonate of lime they contain, and they 
may, therefore, be treated of under one head. 
The proportion in which I have witnessed these 
applied per acre naturally varied with the ex- 
pense of the carriage of the material. On the 
light gravelly soils of the coast of Essex, I have 
used, in common with my neighbours, about 
20 to 25 tons of the chalk of Kent per acre, at 
a cost of about 6s. per ton; bat of marl the 
quantity applied in the same district is from 
.50 to 100 tons per acre, which may be com- 
monly procured for the expense of carriage 
and spreading; and this addition to the soil is 
a very permanent improvement. Chalking, 
the Essex farmers say, lasts for 20 years, and 
marling for a man's life. 

Upon analyzing a productive soil, worth 30s. 
per acre, which had been thus chalked about 
five years previously, it was found to contain 

Parts. 

Stones and gravel, principally silicious - - 27 
Vegetable fibres - - - - - -15 

28-5 

Soluble matters, principally vegetable extract - 3 
Carbonates of lime and magnesia - - - - 18 
Oxide of iron -.-.---- i 
Animal and vegetable matters .... 1 
Alumina ........4-5 

Silica -- 40 

Loss ...... 1 

100 

A portion of the same field (which was an 
enclosure from a poor common), not chalked, 
being examined, was found to yield nearly the 
same proportion of ingredients, but the chalk 
was almost entirely absent. Now, before the 
addition of the chalk, the land was too poor to 
yield any thing except the fern and the furze. 

In Dorsetshire, near Weymouth, and on the 
Coomb Hills, which separate Berks from Hamp- 
shire, where chalk is in many places readily 
obtained by sinking a well, and drawing it up 

825 



MIXTURE OF SOILS. 



MIXTURE OF SOILS. 



by a windlass to the surface, the quantity ap- 
plied per acre is much more considerable. I 
have seen from 50 to 100, or even 150 tons per 
acre, spread on the gravel and clay lands with 
decided success. 

The cultivator sometimes deludes himself 
with the conclusion that applying sand, or marl, 
or clay, to a poor soil, merely serves to freshen 
it for a time, and that the effects of such appli- 
cations are only apparent for a limited period. 
Some comparative experiments, however, 
which were made 16 years since on some poor, 
hungry, inert heath-land in Norfolk, have up to 
this time served to demonstrate the error of such 
a conclusion. In these experiments the ground 
was marled with 20 cubic yards only per acre, 
and the same of compost ; it was then planted 
with a proper mixture of forest trees, and by 
the side of it a portion of the heath, in a state 
of nature, was also planted with the same mix- 
ture of deciduous and fir trees. Sixteen years 
have annually served to demonstrate, by the 
luxuriance of the marled wood, the permanent 
effect produced by this mixture of soils. The 
growth of the trees has been there rapid and 
permanent; but on the adjoining soil, the trees 
have been stunted in their growth, miserable 
in appearance, and profitless to their owner. 
Time has made no alteration; while the marled 
soil has yielded an annual and luxuriant crop, 
the land left in its original slate has demon- 
strated by its produce that something was 
wanting, some earthy ingredient only needed 
to render it no longer barren, and the adjoining 
marled land has further shown of what that ad- 
dition was composed. 

The expense per acre of this marling, and 
otherwise preparing the soil, was 



20 cubic yards of marl, at \s. Sd. 
20 cubic yards of compost, at 5s. 
Deep ploughing - - . 
Trees, carriage, planting 



In this instance the marl had to be carried 
about a quarter of a mile. 

It is difhcult to account for the want of that 
general attention to the use of earthy admixtures 
which so many successful experiments with 
them would lead us to anticipate. Mr. Rod- 
well, of Livermere, in Suffolk, successfully 
clayed and marled 820 acres of sandy heath 
not many years since, using about 140,000 
tumbril loads, which, at S^d. per cubic yard, 
cost him 4958?. He found, from experience, 
that clay was to be preferred to marl on all his 
sandy soils. The result was highly satisfac- 
tory : 350/. per annum was added to the value 
of the estate. 

This excellent farmer practised also the sys- 
tem of hand-barrowing the clay. "The men 
make good earnings at lOd. a cubic yard, 
wheeling it 30 rods; and down to 7d. a yard at 
shoiter distances:" and on the whole, deemed 
this " the cheapest method of all others, espe- 
cially on heavier soils." But he did by far the 
greatest part by tumbrils, the expense of which, 
by contract carting, and labour, was 8d. per 
cubic yard. He found also, contrary to the 
commonly received opinion, that deep ploughing 
826 



£ 


s. 


1 


5 


5 





1 


10 


7 


10 


15 


10 



was the best for his marled and clayed lands. 
" I have found," he said, " that the clay and 
marl works the better, the more soil it has to 
incorporate with." 

One cause of the failures which have some- 
times taken place in the attempted improve 
ment of soils by their admixture, arises from 
the want of a thorough union of the heavy clays, 
added to the light sandy soils. The earths were 
in these cases never incorporated by the aid 
of the harrow, on such frosty mornings as are 
best adapted to the mixture, and, in conse- 
quence, the more ponderous lumps of clay or 
marl were allowed to gradually sink, as the 
farmers say, into the sand ; and in some such 
soils as these, the stratum of clay and marl 
which was applied 10 years since may now be 
found in one unbroken seam, at a depth of 13 
or 14 inches in the soil. Such erroneous modes 
of applying the earths are much to be lamented : 
they decide no controverted question, — they 
prejudice the unreflecting cultivator, — they 
add nothing to the common stock of agricultu- 
ral knowledge. 

This error was noted by the late General 
Vavasour : he told the farmers very correctly, 
that under a poor sand, a stratum of clay, marl, 
or other substance peculiarly adapted to give 
fertility to the soil will generally be found 
that nature seems to have designed that no land 
should be unproductive, and if any be unfruit- 
ful, the cause is in the ignorance or indolence 
of man. If clay marl, he thought, could be 
had at a convenient distance, 75 cubic yards 
per acre was a good covering ; if of a shelly 
or soapy marl, 20 or 25 yards will be sufficient. 
The marl, after being spread, should be repeat- _ 
edly rolled and harrowed, to divide and pul- ■ : 
verize it the better. i ' 

The application of sand to the farmers' 
heavy clay soils is a practice which, in several 
districts of England, is attended with very 
decided success. Thus, in that part of Suffolk 
which is bounded on two sides by the rivers 
Orwell and Stour, there is found a fine red 
sand abounding with shells, both in their per- 
fect and broken state, which, when applied to 
the clay soils at the rate of 20 to 30 tons per 
acre, is productive of very excellent perma- 
nent good effects. 

In the valley of the Kennett, in Berkshire, in 
similar proportions I have witnessed the use 
of the gravelly debris of the Bath Road used 
upon the peaty soils of that district with excel- 
lent effect, and with equal success on some 
stiff clay meadow-land; the result of dressing 
it with about 30 tons per acre with the same 
road-sand is equally decided. The land is not 
only prevented from cracking in the summer 
months, but the produce of grass is very mate- 
rially increased. 

The employment of sea-sand is a very an- 
cient custom in the west of England; it is one, 
in fact, to which no one can assign the period 
of its commencement: many thousand tons 
per annum are carried away by the farmers 
who cultivate the lands in the neighbourhood 
of Padstow Harbour, even on horses' backs, 
and they think it well worth their while to carry 
this sand some miles into the interior of the 
country. In a similar manner the farmers of 



MIXTURE OF SOILS. 



MIXTURE OF SOILS. 



Devon dredge for the sand at the mouth of the 
Tamar, and when they have filled their barges, 
carry it up the river. They deem the fine- 
grained sand the most immediate in its effects, 
but both are very durable, and decided im- 
provements to the soil. The coarse sand, they 
say, lasts for many years. 

The composition of the sands of Padstow 
Harbour, and of the estuary of the Tamar, are 
very similar ; they contain from 60 to 70 per 
cent, of carbonate of lime, and are both pre- 
ferred by the farmers, when they can be ob- 
tained, mixed with the sea-water. 

Another, but the least commonly practised 
mode of improving the staple of a soil by earthy 
additions, is claying ; a system of fertilizing, 
the good effects of which are much less im- 
mediately apparent than chalking, and hence 
one of the chief causes of its disuse. It re- 
quires some little time to elapse, and some 
stirring of the soil, before the clay is so well 
mixed with a sandy soil as to produce that 
general increased attraction and retentive 
power for the atmospheric moisture which 
ever constitutes the chief good result of clay- 
ing poor soils. Clay must be, moreover, ap- 
plied in rather larger proportions to the soil 
than chalk ; for not only is its application 
rarely required as a direct food for plants, for 
the mere alumina which it contains, since this 
earth enters into the composition of plants in 
very small proportions, but there is also another 
reason for a more liberal addition of clay being 
required, which is the impure state in which 
the alumina exists in what are commonly 
called clay soils. For instance, chalk usually 
contains, when perfectly dry, about 98 per cent, 
of carbonate of lime. Mr. Kirwan found in a 
specimen of chalk 2 per cent of alumina, or 

Parts. 

Lime 52 

Carbonic acid ... - . 42 
Water 3 

Alumina -..--. 2 

100 

But the heaviest clay soils seldom contain 
more than 20 per cent, of alumina ; in the stiff 
clays of Sussex and the Weald of Kent are 
found only about 28 per cent, of this earth : 
even the adhesive clays employed by the potter 
yield only about 33 per cent, of alumina, porce- 
lain earth only 47 per cent. 

The following is the analysis of a heavy 
Sussex clay soil : — 

Farts. 

Silica -.-----64 

Alumina ------ 28 

Carbonate of lime . - . - 3 
Oxide of iron - - - . . 5 
Organic matters - - _ . 4 

Loss, chiefly moisture - - . 3 

100 

The farmer, therefore, who applies 50 tons 
per acre of such a clay to a sandy field, only 
adds about 14 tons of alumina to the soil ; but 
if he applies 50 tons of chalk, he adds 49 tons 
of carbonate of lime. 

Hence, is the reason why, in all efforts to 
alter the earthy constituents of a soil, a much 
smaller quantity of chalk produces more de- 



cided effects than the addition of a much larger 
proportion of the most tenacious clay. Chalk, 
too, when merely spread on the surface of the 
soil, and exposed to the action of froit, speedily 
crumbles to powder, and becomes intimately 
combined with the other earths of the soils. 
The clay, however, is too adhesive to be thus 
readily, and without some little labour, so inti- 
mately mixed with the soil : its effects, how- 
ever excellent, are much more slowly appa- 
rent; but patience and judicious management 
of clay will do wonders, even on the most un- 
likely soils; and I could not, perhaps, state any 
more complete cases of the recovery of an 
absolutely barren soil by means of clay and 
chalk, and that, too, at a reasonably profitable 
rate, than those successful experiments which 
have recently been made on the shingle of the 
sea-coast near Eastbourn, in Sussex, consist- 
ing entirely of silicious pebbles, varying in 
size from that of hazel-nuts to hen's eggs, and 
that extending to a depth of many feet. 

In this case the clay was drawn in hand-carts 
by three men, rather belter than a quarter of a 
mile. The cart contained about 880 lb. of clay, 
or about 13 cubic feet. Eight of these cart- 
loads, or about 3 J tons, were spread on each 
square rod of 16^ feet, which, when first spread 
loosely and in lumps, made the soil 5 or 6 
inches deep, and when it had become settled 
and solid, about 4 inches ; each cart took back 
a load of shingle to fill up the hole made by 
the excavation of the clay. The work was la- 
borious, but the men readily earned about Is.Gd. 
per day, and were contented. They did their 
work by contract, receiving 3s. per square rod 
for the shingle they thus covered, or 24/. per 
acre ; and for this sum they carried 250 tons 
of clay. The clay is of the oidinary red de- 
scription, so common in Sussv ?, and though 
not particularly adhesive, is yet sufficiently so to 
form a plate, on which in wet weather the water 
stands, although this superstructure of clay is 
resting on a mass of coarse shingle stones, 15 
feet in depth. This experiment was made on 
a small field of about 3 acres in 1839, and 
promises as well as a similar effort made with 
the same clay in 1832. 

In this instance an acre and a quarter of 
shingle was covered with the same clay to a 
similar depth. But the clay being only divided 
in this case from the .shingle by the Eastbourn 
and Hastings Road, the expense was less ; the 
men digging, carrying, and spreading the clay, 
for 2s. per rod, or 161. per acre. This land was 
let in 1834, for a term of 14 years, at 40s. per 
acre. The tenant has succeeded in making it 
produce excellent crops ; has added to it a con- 
siderable quantity of muck and ditch scrapings ; 
has paid his rent regularly, and is contented 
with his bargain : it produced, in 1838, an ex- 
cellent crop of rye, which was cut green for 
horses ; this was followed by a good crop of 
potatoes, and in 1839, the tares which it pro- 
duced were a very heavy crop. It is rated to 
the poor at 21s. 8d. per acre. 

It would be hardly possible, I think, to pro- 
duce a more complete case of the absolute for- 
mation of a soil, by means of claymg, than 
these valuable experiments ; the soil (if utterly 
barren boulder stones or large shingle thrown 

927 



MIXTURE OF SOILS. 

op by the sea can be called soil) not affording 
a single substance of any kind which could, to 
any extent, be profitably mixed with the clay. 
The attempt, therefore, was one of much more 
difficulty than any case which usually presents 
itself to the notice of the cultivator. It was not 
a mere claying a poor sand or chalk, or peat, 
either of which would assist in forming a 
mould, but the entire soil had to be formed; 
and this, it will be seen, was accomplished 
successfully and profitably, and by manual la- 
bour only. 

Some valuable observations and experi- 
ments upon claying a light sand are contained 
in the prize essay of Mr. Linton. The descrip- 
tion of land he improved "was a light barren 
sand ; the substratum a white sand, from 1 to 4 
feel deep ; the surface of the same texture, but 
darker in its colour, through the decomposition 
of vegetable matter upon it. Beneath the bed 
of sand lay a yellowish kind of clay, about 1 
foot thick ; under it a rich marl, about 18 feet 
deep. The land generally being very wet, my 
first object was to underdrain it thoroughly 
with tiles ; unless this is first done, where ne- 
cessary, marling is a waste of capital. I cut 
my drains about 24 inches deep, and 9 yards 
apart." As to the choice of clay, Mr. Linton 
tested it with vinegar and water : the descrip- 
tion he used " effervesced nearly as tartaric 
acid and carbonate of soda do when mixed 
together in water; this was my test, that it con- 
tained a quantity of carbonate of lime, which 
rendered it fit for my purpose, and worthy of 
the name of marl. I consider, that on the 
proper testing and selection of the clay or marl 
chiefl}^ depends the success of marling opera- 
tions. All clay will do good, there is no doubt, 
but on the quality used must rest the amount 
of benefit obtained." In these experiments 
"the land was made completely level by the 
plough-harrows, and in some places the spade, 
after which it was ready for the marl being 
laid on, which was done at all times of the 
year ;" he prefers, however, doing this when 
the land is in seeds. The quantity laid on 
" varied from 100 to 200 cubic yards per acre, 
the average 150 yards. Where the land was 
very light and barren (which was mostly the 
case on elevated parts), a larger quantity was 
laid on; but where it was a better soil, a much 
less quantity answered the same purpose, my 
object being to lay on just as much as would 
grow wheat after seeds ; to do more than this 
would have been an injury to the land, for eat- 
ing turnips upon it with sheep, and for the 
barley crop; when sufficiently clayed to grow 
wheat after seeds, a point requiring close at- 
tention, I always found it effectually done for 
any other crop. 

" The way in which it was done. It was neces- 
sary, in the first place, to fix upon the most fa- 
vourable situation for the pit, keeping three 
objects in view. 1. The most convenient place 
for carting to the plot of ground intended to be 
marled. 2. The best situation for a pond to 
answer for a permanentwatering-place, cutting, 
if possible, across a fence, so as to water 2 fields, 
one from each mouth of the pit. 3. Where the 
clay could be got with the least difficulty. After 
'he place was fixed upon, the work was carried 
S'iS 



MIXTURE OF SOILS. 

on by 5 diggers, a driver, 4 horses or beasts, 
and 2 carts (which are of the Scotch kind, with 
short bodies, and broad wheels) ; the pit was 
dug with a gradual descent, so that .3 horses 
could draw out about a ton, which was shot 
out where wanted, the last returning by the 
time the other was loaded : thus, 3 horses were 
always ready for the loaded cart : the clay was 
spread by the diggers, at broken times after 
being exposed to the action of the air; rain, 
after either frosty or droughty weather, would 
cause it to fall to pieces, sufficiently for har- 
rowing and ploughing in. The expense I paid 
for digging, filling the carts, and spreading, was 
from 4rf. to 5d. per cubic yard (full 1 ton), vary- 
ing according to the quantity of stones im- 
bedded in the clay ; the total expense per acre 
was as follows : — 

£ s. d. 
Digging and spreading 150 yards, at i\d. per 

yard 2 16 3 

4 horses 4 days, at 2s. 6rf. each, \Qs. per day -200 
Driver 4 days, at 2s. 6d. per day - - - 10 
Other expenses (wear and tear) - - -030 

Total expenses in marling 1 acre - - 5 9 8 



i 



Mr. Linton marled 80 acres in this way ; but by 
employing a windlass to draw the carts out of 
the pit, he reduced the expenses per acre 7s. 
As regards the improvement of the land by 
marling, the value of the produce in 4 years 
before marling was 

£ s. d. 

14 7 

In four years after draining : — 

When marled upon seeds - - - - 24 16 9 
When marled upon fallow - - - - 22 15 

Balance in favonr of marling upon seeds - 2 16 

"The land," Mr. Linton adds, "is never so 
productive the first 2 years (or until the clay 
has got well pulverized and mixed with the 
sand) as it is afterwards, and it will not grow 
a good crop or a fine sample of barley for 5 or 
6 years after the clay is laid on. I have there- 
fore sown oats instead. If people (he con- 
cludes) would improve the land they have, 
particularly light land, by draining, marling, 
&c., they would realize a far greater return for 
the outlay than by purchasing more." {Jcntrru 
Roy. Agr. Soc. vol. ii. p. 67.) 

From these facts the cultivator, I think, will 
arrive at the conclusion, that the judicious ad- 
mixture of soils, and other applications of 
manual labour, for the purpose of increasing 
their productiveness, can hardly fail, sooner or 
later, to amply repay him for the labour he thus 
employs. It is an improvement, let him re- 
member, that, when once accomplished, lasts 
forever, since the very character of the soil is 
changed; his organic manures, such as farm- 
yard compost, oil-cake, and even bones, are 
gradually dissolved or decomposed, and disap- 
pear from the land, are absorbed by his crops, 
or evolved in the gases of putrefaction ; but no 
such results arise from either deepening the 
soil or the addition of the earths, they, when 
once united to the soil, remain there to increase 
the crops, to lessen the toils, and to add to the 
profits of succeeding cultivators, even in dis- 
tant periods. And to effect these important, 



MOLASSES. 

these national results, let him, too, remember, 
that no neighbouring lands are impoverished, 
no organic matters are drawn from one field 
to enrich another; the dead, the deep-buried 
earth is merely brought to the surface, and that 
which is utterly profitless in the mass diffuses 
riches and gladness when spread over the 
farmer's fields. 

MOLASSES (Port. Melasso). The saccha- 
rine principle in the dregs or refuse drainings 
from the casks, &c., of sugar, and the uncrys- 
tallizable part of the juice of the cane sepa- 
rated from the sugar during the process of 
granulation. It consists of sugar prevented 
from crystallizing by acids, saline, and other 
matters. All cattle are fond of sweets, and 
thrive well upon substances which yield a 
large proportion of saccharine juice, of which 
no better proof can be afforded than the con- 
dition of the cattle and swine of the West 
India Islands, which are fed mainly on the tops 
and refuse of the cane after the juice has been 
expressed for sugar. Mr. E. Waters (Co??i. to 
Board of Agr. vol. vi. p. 30) gives the result of 
a very satisfactory experiment as to the ad- 
vantage of feeding live-stock with molasses. 
There can be no doubt that when this sub- 
stance can be had cheap, its use must prove 
very beneficial in improving the condition of 
cattle. 

MOLE. A species of the genus Tolpa, com- 
mon in England and other parts of Europe. 
This quadruped exhibits in perfection that 
modification of structure by which the mam- 
miferous animal is adapted to a subterranean 
life. Its head is long, conical, and tapering to 
the snout, which is strengthened by a bone, and 
by strong gristles worked by powerful muscles. 
The body is almost cylindrical, thickest behind 
the head, and gradually diminishes to the tail. 
There is no outward indication of a neck, that 
part being enlarged to the size of the chest by 
the massive muscles which act upon the head 
and fore-legs. These, which are the principal 
instruments by which the mole excavates its 
long and intricate burrows, are the shortest, 
broadest, and strongest, in proportion to the 
size of the animal, which are to be met with in 
the mammiferous class. The food of the mole 
consists of worms, insects, and the roots of 
plants ; its voracity is great, and it soon pe- 
rishes if food be scarce or wanting. The sense 
of sight is very feeble, the eyes being minute 
and rudiraental ; but the other faculties of 
smell and hearing, as being more serviceable 
in its dark retreat, are extremely acute. The 
female prepares a nest of moss, dry herbage, 
roots, and leaves, in a chamber commonly 
formed by excavating and enlarging the point 
of intersection of 3 or 4 passages. The young 
are brought forth to the number of 4 or 5 in 
April, and sometimes later. 

The farmer views the operations of the mole 
as destructive to his crops, by exposing and 
destroying their roots, or by overthrowing the 
plants in the construction of the mole-hills ; 
his burrows, moreover, become the haunts and , 
hiding-places of the field-mouse and other de- i 
structive animals. The mole is also accused j 
of piercing the sides of dams and canals, and i 



MOLE. 

I letting out the water, and of carrying ofTquan- 
j titles of young corn to form its nest. Hence 
every means are devised to capture and destroy 
it, and in Europe men gain a livelihood exclu- 
sively by this occupation. Some naturalists, 
however, plead that the injury which it perpe 
trates is slight, and that it is more than coun- 
terbalanced by the benefit which it produces by 
turning up and lightening the soil, top-dressing 
pasture-land, and especially by its immense 
destruction of earth-worms, slugs, grubs, wire- 
worms, and many other noxious animals and 
insects which inhabit the superficial layer of 
the ground, and occasion great injury to the 
roots of grass, corn, and many other plants. 
The soundest practical conclusion lies pro- 
bably in the mean of these opinions ; and 
the enlightened agriculturist, while he takes 
prompt measures to prevent the undue in- 
crease of the mole, would do well to reflect on 
the disadvantages which might follow its total 
extermination. The Ettrick Shepherd (James 
Hogg), from a course of 30 years' hard-earned 
experience and observation, speaks of the per- 
nicious effects of destroying the moles on sheep 
pasture. He alleges, that besides the inferior 
pasturage which the soil affords when moles 
have been exterminated, the pining and the 
foot-rot, two baneful diseases, come in their 
place to annihilate the stock. 

There can be no question that moles do much 
injury to gardens, by destroying the neatness 
of the beds, rooting up onions, tulips, and other 
tubers ; but in the wide-spread surface of the 
field it is a question whether he does not do 
more good by his teeth than injury by his 
snout. 

The animal so well known in the United 
States under the name of mole, belongs to an 
entirely different genus of quadrupeds from the 
common mole of Europe. The late Dr. God- 
man has designated the American, the shreic- 
mok, a.nd given, in his jRambles of a Nahiralist, 
a most interesting account of its habits, &c. It 
is the scalops aqitaticus of naturalists. Whether 
the true mole has ever been found in the 
United States, appears doubtful. Moles live in 
pairs, and frequent soils of loose textures most 
abounding in earth-worms and insects. They 
exhibit great dexterity in skinning the worms, 
which they always do before they eat them, 
stripping the skin from end to end, and squeez- 
ing out all the contents of the body. 

In the United States where professional mole- 
catchers are not yet to be met with, other means 
of destroying the pest are resorted to. Dogs 
are sometimes found very expert in digging 
out moles. Mole-traps are also used, and for a 
good design of one see EUsivortK's Report. It is 
found that if fine shreds of fresh lean beef are 
placed in their furrows, the moles will eat 
them, if found soon after deposit ; and if poison, 
arsenic or strychnine, is placed on these shreds, 
they are frequently killed. The trap most re- 
commended is one constructed on the principle 
of that, a figure of which is given in the Culti- 
vator. Wherever the mole shows itself in 
numbers, it is a pest of no sma'l magnitude. 
For accurate descriptions, with drawings, ol 
the various animals known in the Unite'} 
4 A 829 



MOLE-CRICKET. 



MOON INFLUENCE OF. 



States under the names of moles, or mice, the 
reader is referred to the 1st volume of the Na- 
tural History of the State of New York. 

MOLE-CRICKET (Gryllotalpa vulgaris. 
Acheta gryllotalpa). This destructive insect is 
known in different localities in England, under 
the several names of churr-worm, jarr-worm, 
eve-churr, and earth-crab. The mole-cricket 
measures 2 inches in length, and 4 lines in 
breadth. Its colour is dark-brown. The most 
remarkable feature in the insect is the size and 
strength of its fore-arms. The power which 
is requisite to move them is great. The cavity 
of the main trunk is divided lengthways by a 
double gristly partition, surmounted by a bony 
frame, with an inferior condyle, with which the 
inner part of the base of the clavicle of the 
arm is hinged ; and by this mechanism the arms 
are moved. The mole-cricket burrows under 
ground, and devours the roots of plants. The 
female hollows out a place for herself in the 
earth, about half a foot from the surface, in 
the month of June, and lays her eggs in a 
heap, which often contains from 200 to 300. 
They are shining yellowish-brown, and of the 
size and shape of a grain of millet. The 
young, which are hatched in July or August, 
greatly resemble black ants, and feed, like the 
old ones, on the tender roots of grass, corn, and 
various culinary vegetables. They betray 
their presence under the earth by the withered 
yellow patches in the meadows, and by the 
withering decay of culinary vegetables in the 
gardens. In October or November they bury 
themselves deeper in the earth, as a protection 
from cold, and come again to the surface in the 
warm days in March. Their presence is dis- 
covered by their throwing up the earth like 
moles. The best method of destroying them is 
to dig up the young brood ; but boiling water 
or oil of any kind poured over their holes will 
be found effectual. (Kollar on Inserts, p. 144.) 
For a description of the American mole-cricket 
see Cricket. 

M O L E - P L O U G H. See Draining and 
Ploughs. 

MOLE-TREE (Euphorbia lathyrus). Com- 
monly called Caper Spurge, and by the French 
Epurge : a plant with a biennial root; stem 2 
to 3 feet high ; found in the United States in 
gardens and lots. It is a naturalized foreigner, 
and was originally introduced under a notion 
that it afforded a protection against the incur- 
sions of moles. The same common impres- 
sion once existed in regard to the Palma 
Christi ; but little faith seems now to be at- 
tached to either plant as protectives against 
moles. 

MONADELPHOUS. In botany, having the 
ftlaments cohering into a tube, or one bundle. 

MONANDROUS. A botanical term applied 
10 plants having only one stamen, or male 
organ. 

MONILIFORM. In botany, formed like a 
necklace ; that is to say, articulated with alter- 
nate swellings and contractions resembling a 
Etring of beads. 

MONK'S HOOD. See Wolf's-bane. 

MONOCOTYLEDONOUS. In botany, hav- 
ig only one seed-leaf or cotyledon. 

MOON, INFLUENCE OF. The following 
830 



observations upon this subject are taken from 
a lecture delivered before the Franklin Insti- 
tute of Pennsylvania, by G. Emerson, M. D., 
of Philadelphia. 

There is, perhaps, no opinion relative to 
the phenomena of the natural world, more uni- 
versally maintained, than that the moon exerts 
a decided influence over the states of the wea- 
ther. This long-cherished notion has doubt- 
less derived increased strength, since it was 
shown that the ocean tides depend upon a phy- 
sical connection subsisting between our planet 
and her satellite. 

I, however, think it capable of conclusive 
demonstration, that the moon exerts no influ- 
ence in the production of wet or dry weather. 

I assume it as incontrovertibly proven, by 
the experiments of Mr. Dalton, that the watery 
vapour from which rain and all the precipita- 
tions are formed, owes its elevation and sus- 
pension, in an invisible form, entirely to heat, 
deprived of a due proportion of which, by any 
refrigerating cause, it is condensed, and falls 
from the atmosphere in one or other of the 
forms of aqueous precipitation. The conditions 
of wet or dry weather are, consequently, to be re- 
garded ns regulated solely by temperature. 

Now, the nicest experiments have failed to 
show that the presence and light of the moon 
are attended by the slightest change of tem- 
perature. The lunar rays have been concen- 
trated by powerful lenses and the largest re- 
flectors, and thrown upon, that most delicate 
test of heat, the differential thermometer, with- 
out any indication of their effect in raising the 
temperature. Unless, therefore, it can be 
proved that the moon exerts some perceptible 
influence upon the temperature of our atmo- .- 
sphere, we shall be warranted in believing that 'jk\ 
she has no power in determining the condi- " I 
lions of the weather, whether this shall be wet 
or dry. 

I am fully aware of the multitudes of ob- 
servations which have from time to time been 
made upon this question, and that most of those 
reported appear to favour a belief contrary to 
the position here taken. 

It cannot be denied that the power of the 
moon, so conspicuously manifested in the pro- 
duction of the ocean tides, may also be felt by 
the atmosphere. The aerial ocean must, weight 
for weight, be as subservient to the law of at- 
traction subsisting between the earth and her 
satellite, as any other terrestrial matter ; and 
I have no doubt of the correctness of the re- 
sults of observations made in Italy and France, 
by Polina, Flaugergues, and others, which go 
to prove that the mean height of the barometer 
is affected by the different positions of the 
moon in relation to the earth, the greatest mean 
elevations corresponding with the quarters. 
But, in thus admitting the existence of lunar 
influence upon the terrestrial atmosphere, we 
should not deceive ourselves in regard to the 
nature of this influence. We must not admit 
that every cause which operates in producing 
the rise or depression of the mercurial column, 
is capable of influencing the hygrometric con- 
ditions of the air, cr, in other words, exercising 
an influence in the production of wet or dry 
weather. The' attraction subsisting between 



MOON. 



MOON. 



6 


to 1; 


5 


to 1; 


2 


to 1: 


2 


to 1; 


5 


to 1; 


4 


to 1. 



the earth and moon, causes an accumulation 
of the liquid and movable materials spread 
over the terrestrial surface, on that part ad- 
dressed, towards the moon ; hence, the rise ob- 
serve.! in the sea, and in the mertjurial column. 
But all this is owing to the agency of gravity, 
or attraction, which, we contend, has nothing 
to do with the production of wet or dry wea- 
ther; the elevation and deposition of aqueous 
vapour being, as we have said before, subject 
to the agency of temperature alone. 

As to the calculations, the results of which 
seem so irresistibly in favour of lunar influ- 
ence upon the weather, we think it easy to 
show that that they must be founded upon de- 
ceptive data, and will not bear a close exami- 
nation. The estimates of Toaldo, a celebrated 
Italian philosopher, embrace a series of labo- 
rious observations, collected during many 
^►years, and compute the number of changes of 
weather to the different phases of the mooii, as 
follows : 

New moon, - 

Full moon - 

First quarter 

Second quarter - 

Perigee 

Apogee 

That is to say, of 7 new moons, 6 were attend- 
ed with a change of weather, and at one of 
them there v/as no change ; of 6 full moons, 5 
were attended with a change ; and, at the quar- 
ters, the changes were twice as frequent as the 
continuance of the previous weather. 

Now, such a computation, coming from so 
high an authority, might almost be deemed 
conclusive upon the subject. When, however, 
we come to inquire more closely into the cir- 
cumstances involved in the calculation, we 
find ample grounds for suspecting its accu- 
racy. In the first place, the term " change of 
weather" is used by Toaldo in an ambiguous 
and arbitrary sense, so that we are left igno- 
rant of the specific change he refers to. But, 
worse than this, he does not restrict himself to 
the day when the change takes place, but in- 
cludes any changes within 2 or 3 days preced- 
ing or following a phase. It is easy to con- 
ceive how a person, especially one prepos- 
sessed in favour of a prevailing opinion, might 
have been led, with such a privilege as to 
limit, to take or reject a change, to throw it 
into one quarter or another, as he might choose 
to dispose of it, for the purpose of endowing 
the moon with a power to which he thought 
her entitled. 

The results of a series of observations 
made by Pilgram, make it appear that the new 
moon has less to do with the changes of the 
weather than the other phases ; a conclusion 
diametrically opposed to that of Toaldo, just 
referred to. As the estimate of Pilgram is 
founded on observations extending through a 
series of no less than 52 years, it might be re- 
garded, in point of authority, as at least equal 
to that of the Italian philosopher. How are 
these clashing results of observations, profess- 
ing to be made with the utmost attention, to be 
reconciled with truth'? Do they not leave us 
to infer that the data employed have been either 
eptive, unskilfully grouped, or that some 



incidental or accidental circumstances bsre 
interfered with the estimates, and led to erro- 
neous conclusions'' 

The belief in the moon's influence over the 
natural operations going forward upon our 
earth, has by no means been confined to the 
weather ; and it would be a tedious task to 
enumerate all the agencies she has been allow- 
ed to possess over organic and vegetable life 
both animate and inanimate. "Many of the 
opinions vulgarly entertained upon this head," 
says M. Arago, "are founded on well-establish- 
ed facts, the error lying, not in the observa- 
tions, but in the theory which makes the moon 
the crtjfse of phenomena, of which she is only 
the silent and unconcerned spectator." The 
distinguished philosopher from whom we have 
just quoted, has cited a number of highly in- 
teresting cases, which show in the clearest 
manner how the effects that have been as- 
cribed to the moon's influence, can be readily 
traced to natural agencies operating around 
us, and with which modern philosophy has 
rendered us familiar. Such, for example, as 
the pernicious influence upon vegetation, at- 
tributed by gardeners and agriculturists to the 
April moon ; the effect of the moon's rays in 
hastening the putrefaction of animal sub- 
stances, &c.; all of which efl!ects are doubtless 
connected with the presence of moonlight, 
merely, however, as an incidental circum- 
stance, for they would take place equally well 
in a clear atmosphere, even should there be no 
such body as the moon in existence. 

Let us take, for example, the case of the 
April moon, denominated by the French gar- 
deners " la lune rousse." The change in this 
case takes place in April, and the full either 
about the end of this month, or some time in 
May ; at which particular season, in our cli- 
mate, the mean temperature of the air is but 
little above the freezing point. Under these 
circumstances the radiation from the earth, 
during a clear night, will often reduce its tem- 
perature to, or even below, the freezing point ; 
whilst a thermometer suspended in the air, a 
few feet from the ground, will remain several 
degrees above 32°. Thus, the tender plants in 
the soil may become actually frost-bitten, whilst 
the atmosphere has been apparently too warm 
to admit of such an occurrence. If, on the 
contrary, the night be cloudy, the plants will 
suffer no injury; not, as the gardeners allege, 
because there is no moonlight to hurt them, 
but because the radiation and cooling of the 
earth will not take place. Thus, moonlight or 
starlight, the injury to vegetation will be pre- 
cisely the same, and the effect might as well 
be ascribed to the stars as to the moon. 

And, again, it has been noticed by Pliny 
and Plutarch, and is generally believed in most 
countries at the present day, that the moon's 
light sheds a copious humidity on substances 
exposed to its rays, and hastens the putrefac- 
tion of animal substances. That a copious 
humidity is often shed during a moonlight 
night, is not to be disputed neither can it be 
doubted that meats will spoil sooner, if ex- 
posed to her rays, than if protected from them. 
The nature and source of this humidity can be 
no mysteries now that the rationale of the 

831 



MOON-TREFOIL. 



MORTAR. 



brmation of dew is so happily explained ; and 
it is sufficient to say, that the moisture deposit- 
ed upon the meat causes it to spoil much 
sooner than if kept covered, when it would re- 
main dry. Meats are constantly preserved by 
simple drying; and even the mummies in the 
dry caverns of Egypt have lasted thousands of 
years, mainly from their depositories being 
perfectly free from moisture. The preserving 
agency of embalming is, perhaps, a secondary 
consideration, when compared with the subse- 
quent state of dryness in which the bodies are 
kept. 

As to the notion of lunar influence on dis- 
ease, which still counts numerous partisans, I 
regard it as upon precisely the same footing as 
the exploded doctrine of the agency of the 
stars, so long and stoutly maintained. 

Upon the whole, therefore, I look upon it 
as clearly demonstrable, upon established phi- 
losophical principles, 

1st, That wet and dry weather are matters 
regulated solely by changes of lemperatttre, over 
which the moon has no control : 

2d, That the mutual influence exerted be- 
tween the earth and moon, as shown in the 
ocean and atmospheric tides, depends upon the 
play of another and entirely distinct principle, 
namely, gravitation or attraction : 

3d, That most, if not all, the effects upon 
animal and vegetable substances, popularly 
ascribed to the action of the moon, are to be 
traced lo natural agencies, entirely independent 
of this satellite. 

MOON-TREFOIL. A name for one of the 
species of medick (Medicago arborca). 

MOONWORT (Bolryrhiwm, from botrys, a 
bunch ; in reference to the form of the fructi- 
fication, which is much like a bunch of 
grapes). The species of this genus of ferns 
are curious and interesting plants ; one only 
is indigenous, the common moonwort (B. luna- 
ria), which is a perennial growing in moun- 
tainous pastures or meadows. The root con- 
sists of several simple, cylindrical, clustered or 
whorled fibres. The herb is very smooth, a 
little succulent, of a pale opaque green, erect, 
not a span high. Leaf solitary, pinnate ; leaf- 
lets fan-shaped, notched. 

MOOR. An uncultivated surface of coun- 
try, without trees, and with few grasses or 
other herbage fit for pasture ; and usually con- 
taining scattered plants of heath, with a dark 
peaty soil. Moor lands are generally the least 
fitted for culture of any description of surface, 
not rocky or mountainous. Moors are covered 
with a very thin layer of soft, black, sterile 
soil ; and the subsoil is generally gravel or re- 
tentive ferruginous clay. By the destruction 
of the heath or other bad herbage, and by sow- 
ing down with grass-seeds, they may be im- 
proved. In many cases, also, trees will grow 
on drained moors; in which case the soil ulti- 
mately becomes ameliorated by the shade they 
afford, and the fall and decay of their leaves. 
See Heath, Mouass, Peat Soils, and Waste 
Lands. 

MOORBAND pan. This is a name given 

in Scotland to an indurated combination of 

rlay, small stones, and iron in a particular 

«-tate, situated either immediately, or at some 

Ho3 



distance below the path of the plough, and 
which is nearly impervious to water. All in- 
durated incrustations, however, formed under 
the sole of the plough, says a writer in a valu- 
able agricultural journal, are not moorband 
pan. In good alluvial loam of greater depth 
than the plough-furrow, and rendered adhesive 
by pressure, an incrustation or firming of the 
subsoil — that is, the bottom upon which the 
plough moves, is frequently formed by the sole 
of the plough rubbing constantly on the soil at 
the same depth. This incrustated earth can 
retain water, but its eff'ects on soils and plants 
are innocuous compared to those of moorband 
pan. Nevertheless, its disruption by deep 
ploughing is of benefit to the soil, and we have 
experienced it in very fine deep mould. From 
an analysis by Mr. John Gray, of Dilston, of 
two portions of moorband pan obtained from 
Mylnfield Plain, 120 parts of one were found to 
contain 34 of oxide of iron, 74 of silex, and 6 of 
alumina or clay and loss; the other contained 
43 parts of oxide of iron, 64 of silex, and 8 of 
alumina and loss. 

MOOSE. See Deer. 

MOOSE-ELM. See Elm, Red. 

MOOSE-WOOD. The name of a species 
of maple (.Acer striatum), so called in the 
northern section of the United States, but in 
the Middle States known by the common name 
of striped maple. 

MOOR-GRASS (Sesleria, named in honour 
of M. Sesler, a physician and botanist of the 
18th century). These are uninteresting grasses 
in an agricultural point of view. 

MORASS. Moor lands saturated with water 
to such an extent as not to bear the tread of 
cattle. A morass is to a moor what a marsh 
is to a meadow. It is evident that the drain- 
age of morasses and moors, by lessening the 
evaporation of water from their surfaces, must 
tend to improve the local climate. See Peat 
and Plantations. 

MORDANT. Any substance used to fix 
dyes or colouring matters upon different 
stuffs. 

MOREL (Germ, moschel). The Mosrhella es- 
cnhnta is one of the few edible fungi which 
may be used as food with safety. It occasion- 
ally occurs in woods and orchards, whence 
it finds its way to the markets ; but it is of 
comparatively rare occurrence. It has a hol- 
low stalk an inch or two high, and a yellowish 
or grayish indented head 2 or 3 inches deep. 
See Fungi, and Mushkooms. 

MORTAR. A well-known cement employed 
for building purposes, which is thus described 
by Dr. Thomson : " It is composed of quick- 
lime and sand, reduced to a paste with water. 
When dry it becomes as hard as stone, and as 
durable ; and adhering very strongly to the 
surface of the stones which it is employei to 
cement, the whole wall in fact becomes no- 
thing else than one single stone. But this 
eifect is produced very imperfectly unless the 
mortar be very well prepared. The lime ought 
to be pure, completely free from carbonic acid, 
and in the state of a very fine powder; the ■ 
sand should be free from clay, and partly in the *■ I 
state of fine sand, and partly in that of gravel; T I 
the water should be pure, and if previously 



MOSSES. 



MOSS LAND. 



saturated with lime, so much the better." The 
best proportions, according to the experiments 
of Dr. Higgins, are 3 parts of fine sand, 4 pa-ts 
of coarse sand, 1 part of quicklime, recently 
slacked, and as little water as possible. The 
stony consistence which mortar acquires is 
owing partly to the absorption of carbonic acid, 
but principally to the combination of part of 
the water with the lime. This last circum- 
stance is the reason that, if to common mortar 
one-fourth part of lime, reduced to powder with- 
out being slacked, be added, the mortar, when 
dry, acquires much greater solidity than it 
otherwise would do. This was first proposed 
by Loriot ; and afterwards Morveau found the 
following proportions to answer best: — 

Parlj. 

Bine sand ------ 3 

Cement of well-baked bricks - - 3 

Slacked lime ----- 2 

Unslackeil lime ----- 2 

10 

The same advantages may be obtained by 
using as little water as possible in slaking the 
lime. Higgins found that the addition of burnt 
bones, in the proportion of not more than one- 
fifth of the lime employed, improved mortar by 
giving it tenacity, and rendering it less apt to 
crack. 

When a little clay is added to mortar, it ac- 
quires the important property of hardening 
under water ; so that it may be employed by 
the farmer in those edifices which are con- 
stantly exposed to the action of water. Lime- 
stone is found not unfrequenlly mixed with 
clay ; and in that case it becomes brown by 
calcination, instead of white. These native 
limestones are employed for making water 
mortar; but good water mortar may be made 
by the following process : Mix together 4 parts 
of blue clay, 6 parts of black oxide of manga- 
nese, and 90 parts of limestone, all in pow- 
der. Calcine this mixture to expel the carbonic 
acid; mix it with 60 parts of sand, and form it 
into a mortar with a sufficient quantity of 
water. The best mortar for resisting water is 
made by mixing lime with puzzoiano, a vol- 
canic sand brought from Italy. Morveau in- 
forms us that basaltes, which is very common 
in this country, may be substituted for puzzo- 
iano. It must be heated in a furnace, thrown 
while red-hot into water, and then passed 
through a sieve. 

MOSSES, in common language, are any 
minute, small-leaved, cryptogamic plants. 
Thus, club-moss is a lycopodium ; Iceland and 
reindeer mosses are lichens: and the nume- 
rous species of Jungermannia are all compre- 
hended under the same term. But in systema- 
tical botany no plants are considered mosses, 
except such as belong to the natural order, 
BryacecB or Musci. Such plants are simple- 
leaved ; without spiral vessels or stomata ; with 
a distinct axis of growth ; and with the spo- 
rules, or reproductive matter enclosed in cases 
called sporangia or thecae, covered by a cap or 
calyptra. It is not a little singular that such 
plants should have cases called staminidia, 
containing powdery matter ; among which are 
found animalcules, not distinguishable from 
105 



such as are called spermatic, and which swim 
about freely in water. None of the mosses are 
of any known use, except for the purpose of 
packing plants, and surrounding their roots 
when they are sent to a distance. They are 
bad conductors of heat, and might be employ- 
i ed, instead of straw, to guard delicate-growing 
plants from the influence of frost. 

MOSS LAND. Land abounding in peat 
moss, but not so much saturated with water as 
to become peat bog or morass. Many reme- 
dies have been prescribed for the destruction 
of moss. A good scarifying or harrowing, 
with short, sharp tines, succeeded by a top- 
dressing of salt or soot, is probably the most 
efficacious : lime in any form is less powerful, 
though (especially when combined with sand) 
it remarkably promotes the growth of trefoil 
tribes and other grasses, highly palatable to 
cattle, but does not avail to the exclusion of 
moss. Mr. Bishop of Perthshire, who has ob- 
tained from the Highland Society of Scotland 
a prize for an essay " On the Management of 
Pasture in regard to the Destruction of Musci," 
suggests as the most certain remedy, that a 
great portion of the summer's grass should 
remain unconsumed on the ground until the 
following winter, when the barer it is eaten 
before the new growth of spring, the finer will 
be the following summer's grass. Breaking 
up the land, and sowing appropriate grasses 
after a course of culture, is a certain remedy, 
but often a very inconvenient one. Mr. W. 
Bell gives an account of certain experiments 
which he carried on very successfully for con- 
verting moss into manure by the application 
of whale oil. 

Mr. A. Blackadder, speaking of the manures 
for decomposing moss, says : Adjacent reck 
strata ought to be carefully explored, as in ge- 
neral they have each their corresponding earthy 
covering, more or less adapted to the purposes 
of vegetation. Where the rocks are of the 
primitive class, or of the coal formation, their 
disintegrated portions, and ofttimes their super- 
ficial covers, are of inferior value as a soil ; 
but even the rock-earth of the latter, as also of 
clay-slate, lime, or even the old red sandstone, 
though not previously mingled nor superim- 
posed in the moss, are yet valuable as ingre- 
dients of composts for top-dressing, as are also 
those of the finer sandstone, greenstone, and 
sea-sand containing calcareous matters in a 
state of decomposition, or even where these 
are absent. While sand laid over moss pro- 
duces rapid decomposition, and consequent 
vegetation, no such effect is produced by the 
purer clays. Putrescent matters, whether ani- 
mal or vegetable, possess the most powerful 
influence. Lime, unless in compost, seems to 
have no such effect on simple mosses ; and its 
effects on mixed mosses, or those in a state of 
partial decomposition, must depend on the 
quantity of foreign matter and other circum- 
stances. The value of moss greatly depends 
on local circumstances, and particularly with 
regard to the supply of operatives at the com- 
mencement of improvements ; access to pu- 
trescent manures ; markets for the sale of the 
produce ; soils affording materials for top- 
dressing; and turf suitable for wedge-drair.« 
4 A 2 83? 



MOTH. 



MOTH. 



or for drain-tiles, or stone for drains, or clean 
gravel, if found preferable, the expense at which 
these can be laid down at the moss must enter 
into the calculation. Or, again, if the moss is 
to be entirely removed, whether an adequate 
supply of water can be obtained, with access 
to a river or to the sea, into which it may be 
.floated off. Nothing adds more to the intrinsic 
value of moss than mixtures of other soils 
during the progress of its formation, either by 
means of the winds carrying drift sand, or by 
water transporting earthy particles. When, 
again, a considerable quantity is thus super- 
imposed, the soil ceases to be a moss, properly 
so called, and is an alluvial soil upon a moss 
subsoil. In either case, little more is required 
than thorough draining, in order to the produc- 
tion, by the ordinary means, of the best crops ; 
and such is the description of the greater part 
of the mosses hitherto successfully improved 
in Scotland. The same writer furnishes some 
causes of the failure in moss improvements. 

MOTH. Clothes-moth, Fur-moth, Grease-moth, 
&c. The various kinds of destructive moths, 
found in houses, stores, barns, granaries, 
and mills, are mostly very small insects ; the 
largest of them, when arrived at maturity, 
expanding their wings only about eight-tenths 
of an inch. The ravages of some of these 
little creatures are too well known to need a 
particular description. Among them may be 
mentioned the clothes-moth (Tinea vestianella), 
the tapeslry-moth or carpet-moth (T. tapetzel- 
/«), the fur-moth (T. peUioneUa), the hair-moth 
(T. crinclhi), and the grain-moth (T. graneUa), 
with some others belonging to a group, which 
may be called Tineans (Tiveadce) ; also the 
pack-moth (^nacampsis sarcitella), which is 
very destructive to wool and fabrics made of 
this material, and the Angoumois grain-moth 
(A. ccrealcUa), both of which are to be included 
amon? the Yponomeutians. In the cabinet of 
the Boston Society of Natural History, the 
cases, containing the large and beautiful col- 
lection of shells, were formerly lined with fine 
-white flannel. In this some moths soon esta- 
blished themselves, multiplied very fast, and, 
in the course of a few years, did so much 
damage that it became necessary entirely to 
remove the moth-eaten linings. In their winged 
state these moths were of a light buff colour, 
with the lustre of satin, and had a thick orange- 
coloured tuft on the forehead ; the wings were 
deeply fringed, and the first pair were lance- 
shaped, and expanded rather more than half an 
inch. This species agrees very well with the 
description given, by the old naturalist, of the 
Tinea flavifrontella, or the orange-fronted tinea, 
and with Wood's figure of Tinea destructor, the 
destroyer. Should it prove to be different from 
these, it may be named the satin-buff moth. 
Objects of natural history are very apt to be 
injured by another moth, closely resembling 
the foregoing, and differing from it chiefly in 
being somewhat smaller, and in having the 
hind-wings tinged with gray. Chocolate, as 
Reaumur has remarked, is devoured by another 
tinea, whose little silken cases are often seen 
between the cakes, and I have also found them 
m chocolate put up in tin cases. Other articles 
o( lood are also devoured by some of these 
«34 



tineoe, and even our books are not spared by 
them. 

Habits of Moths, and Means ofpresening Clothes, 
^c, from their Attacks. — The tineans, in the 
winged state, have 4 short and slender feelers, 
a thick tuft on the forehead, and very narrow 
wings, which are deeply fringed. They lay 
their eggs in the spring, in May and June, and 
die immediately afterwards. The .'ggs (ac- 
cording to Latreil le and Duponchel, from whose 
works the following remarks are chiefly ex- 
tracted) are hatched in 15 days, and the little 
whitish caterpillars or moth-worms proceeding 
therefrom immediately begin to gnaw the sub- 
stances within their reach, and cover themselves 
with the fragments, shaping them into little hol- 
low rolls and lining them with silk. They pass 
the summer within these rolls, some carrying 
them about on their backs as they move along, 
and others fastening them to the substance 
they are eating; and they enlarge them from 
time to time by adding portions to the two open 
extremities, and by gores set into the sides, 
which they slit open for this purpose. Con- 
cealed within their movable cases, or in their 
lint-covered burrows, they carry on the work 
of destruction through the summer; hut in the 
autumn they leave off eating, make fast their 
habitations, and remain at rest and seemingly 
torpid through the winter. Early in the spring 
they change to chrysalids within their cases, 
and in about 20 days afterwards are trans- 
formed to winged moths, and come forth, and 
fly about in the evening, till they have paired 
and are ready to lay their eggs. They then 
contrive to slip through cracks into dark clo- 
sets, chests, and drawers, under the edges of 
carpets, in the folds of curtains and of gar- 
ments hanging up, and into various other 
places, where they immediately lay the founda- 
tion for a new colony of destructive moth- 
worms. 

Early in June the prudent housekeeper will 
take care to beat up their quarters and put 
them to flight, or to disturb them so as to defeat 
their designs and destroy their eggs and young. 
With this view wardrobes, closets, drawers, 
and chests will be laid open, and emptied of 
their contents, and all woollen garments, and 
bedding, furs, feathers, carpets, curtains, and 
the like, will be removed and exposed to the 
air, and to the heat of the sun, for several 
hours together, and will not be put back in 
their places without a thorough brushing, beat- 
ing, or shaking. By these means, the moths 
and their eggs will be dislodged and destroyed. 
In old houses, that are much infested by moths, 
the cracks in the floors, in the wainscot, around 
the walls and shelves of closets, and even in 
the furniture used for holding clothes, should 
be brushed over with spirits of turpentine. 
Sheets of papei sprinkled with spirits of tur- 
pentine, camphor in coarse powder, or leaves 
of tobacco, should be placed among the clothes, 
when they are laid aside for the summer. 
Furs, plumes, and other small articles, not in 
constant use, are best preserved by being put, 
with a few tobacco leaves, or bits of camphor, 
into bags made of thick brown paper, and close- 
ly sewed or pasted up at the end. Chests of 
camphor wood, red cedar, or of Spanish cedaf; 



MOTH MULLEIN. 



MULBERRY TREE. 



are found to be the best for keeping all articles 
from moths and other vermin. The cloth lin- 
ings of carriages can be secured forever from 
the attacks of moths by being washed or sponged 
on both sides with a solution of the corrosive 
sublimate of mercury in alcohol, made just 
strong enough not to leave a white stain on a 
black feather. Moths can be killed by fumi- 
gating the article containing them with tobacco 
smoke or with sulphur, or by shutting it in a 
tight vessel and then plunging the latter into 
boiling water, or exposing it to steam, for the 
space of 15 minutes, or by putting it into an 
oven heated to about 150 degrees of Fahren- 
heit's thermometer. 

Stored grain is exposed to much injury from 
the depredations of two little moths, in Europe, 
and 16 attacked in the same way, and apparent- 
ly by the same insects, in the United States. 
See Conx-MoTH, Grain-Wef.vil, and Ixsects. 

MOTH MULLEIN. See Mullein. 

MOTTLED. In botany, signifies marked 
with blotches of colour of unequal intensity, 
passing insensibly into each other. It is syno- 
nymous with maculated; as, for instance, in 
the stems of common hemlock (Conium mactt- 
iatum). 

MOULD. A general name for the finely 
divided earthy substance that forms the upper 
stratum or surface soil of land, and in which 
all kinds of vegetables strike root and thrive. 
See Analysis of Soils, Earths, and Humus. 

MOULD-BOARD. See Plouoh. 

MOULD ON HOPS. A vegetable disease, 
which is liable to affect the hop plant, in the 
more advanced periods of its growth, and pro- 
duce much mischief to the crop. See Mildew 
and Hops. 

MOULDED AERT. This implement of Flem- 
ish husbandry resembles a large square malt- 
shovel : it is strongly prepared with three bars 
of iron on the lower side, secured by 12 bolts, 
and is drawn by a pair of horses with swingle- 
trees. It is used for transporting compost, 
mould, &c., from one spot to another. Its usual 
dimensions are as follows: breadth across, 3 
feet 6 inches; length, 3 feet; height of back, 1 
fool 6 inches ; length of handle, 4 feet. The 
person who drives, with long reins, by pressing 
moderately on the handle as the horses go for- 
ward, collects and transports about 5 cwt. of 
earth to the place where it is to be laid down, 
which is done in the most expeditious manner, 
by his letting go the handle ; this causes the 
front edge of the implement to dip and catch 
against the ground, whereby it is at once turned 
over and emptied of its load. The extremity 
of the handle, to which a rope is aflixed, by 
this upsetting strikes against, and rests upon, 
the swingle-tree bar, and in this manner the 
raouidebaert is drawn along towards the heap 
of earth or compost; the driver then, by taking 
up the rope, draws back the handle, collects 
his load as before, proceeds to the spot which 
is to receive it, and the horses are never for a 
moment delayed. 

MOULTING. The fall of the plumage of 
birds. It may be either partial or total: the 
complete moult generally takes place annually; 
the partial moult occurs ai the change of plum- 
age ,o which some species of birds are subject 



at the breeding season. The moult is always 
accompanied by the developement of a new 
plumage, which may be of a different colour 
from that which is lost. 

MOUNTAIN ASH. See Rowan Thee. 

MOUNTAIN EBONY {Bauhinia; in memo- 
ry of John and Caspar Bauhin, botanists of the 
sixteenth century). A genus of showy and 
interesting evergreen shrubs, which will suc- 
ceed well in a mixture of sand, loam, and 
peat. 

MOUNTAIN LAUREL. See Kalmia Lati- 

FOLIA. 

MOUNTAIN MAHOGANY {Bettda knta). 
Black Birch. See Birch. 

MOUSE-EAR CHICKWEED. See Chick- 
weed. 

MOUSE-EAR SCORPION-GRASS. See 
Scorpion-Grass. 

MOW. A pile or heap of corn, straw, or 
hay placed together for the purpose of being 
kept dry. See Stack and Rick. 

MOW-BURNT. A term applied to such 
substances as are over-heated in the mow by 
the process of fermentation. 

MOWING. The act of cutting down corn, 
grass, &c., by the scythe. 

MOWING MACHINES. See Reaping Ma- 
chines. 

MUCILAGE. A turbid, slimy fluid, pro- 
duced by treating some vegetable substances 
with cold water, others with hot. It resembles 
gum, but is distinguished from it by not form- 
ing a thick curd with the solution of Goulard's 
extract. See Starch, Linseed, Marsh Mal- 
low, &c. 

MUCK. A farming term for any sort of ma- 
terial, such as dung, straw, &c., that is moist, 
or in a fermenting or decomposing state. 

MUD. The mechanically suspended matters 
of water deposited at the bottom of rivers, ponds, 
ditches, &c. As much of this kind of material 
should be collected as possible, and be thrown 
up into heaps in order to become mellow. It 
contains much carbonaceous matter, and is an 
excellent manure, either in the simple or com- 
pound state, mixed with compost, or with a 
bushel of lime or salt to each cubic yard. 

MUD WORT (Limosclla ; from limos, mud, in 
allusion to the habitation of the species ; 
whence, also, the English name). The com- 
mon mudwort (Z. aquatica) is an English 
annual subaquatic plant, growing in muddy 
spots, where water has stagnated during winter. 
The herb is diminutive and quite smooth. 

MUGWORT (Jrtemi'sia vulgaris). This spe- 
cies of Artemisia grows very common about 
English hedges, in waste ground, and the rough 
borders of fields. This species is weakly aro- 
matic, and bitterish ; and has, from remote 
antiquity, been esteemed an active warm me- 
dicine in decoction. 

MULBERRY TREE (Morus ; from the Celtic 
word mor, signifying black, in allusion to the 
colour of the fruit). The species of Moru^, or 
mulberry, grow from 10 to 30 feet high. A 
moist situation and loamy soil, with a free ex 
posure to the sun, suit them best. 

1. The common mulberry (Jf. nigra) is in 
general cultivation for the sale of its fruit, 
which is well known. 

835 



MULBERRY TREE. 



MULLEIN. 



2. The white mulberry (M. alba) is extensive- 
ly cultivated in many countries for its leaves, 
■which form the chief food of silkworms. 

The mulberry tree may be propagated by 
layers, cuttings, or grafting. The principal 
use of the fruit of the black mulberry is for 
the dessert ; but from its cooling and laxative 
properties, its juice, diluted with water,is some- 
times used as a beverage in fevers. It is also 
employed in the form of syrup for medicinal 
purposes, chiefly to colour other fluid medi- 
cines. The juice is also used to give a dark 
tinge to liquors and confections. When pro- 
perly fermented and prepared, the fruit yields 
a pleasant vinous liquor, known under the 
name of mulberry wine. In the cider counties 
they are sometimes mixed with apples, to form 
a beverage known as mulberry cider. The 
bark of the root has an acrid bitter taste, and 
is a powerful cathartic; hence it has been suc- 
cessfully used as a vermifuge, in doses of a 
scruple, in powder. The wood of the tree is 
yellow, tolerably hard, and may be applied to a 
variety of uses in turning and carving. It is, 
however, necessary to steep it in water before 
it is worked, in order to remove the tough and 
fibrous bark, which is capable of being con- 
verted into strong cordage, ropes, and brown 
paper. 

Linnaeus has enumerated seven species of 
the mulberry known in his day, all which are 
employed to feed silkworms, except the Tbu- 
toria and Ivdica, of Avhich the first named fur- 
nishes the well-known dyeing substance called 
fustic. 

The species of mulberry found growing wild 
in the United States, is the Moms rubra of 
botanists, the berries being of a round and 
oblong form, and red, or dark purple, the pulp 
enveloping numerous small seeds. When per- 
fectly ripe they are pleasant and wholesome. 

The varieties of mulberiy employed in Eu- 
rope for feeding the silkworm form a long list. 
They have usiially been multiplied by engraft- 
ing the finer kinds on the stalks of the com- 
mon white Italian mulberry. Hence, the fine, 
large, and firm-leaved kind called the Rose of 
Provence, Rose of Lombardy, &c. The exer- 
tions made to improve the tree and increase 
the size of the leaf by repeatedly sowing the 
seed of the best kinds, has resulted in the 
greatest success, and now the Moretta, Elata, 
and other varieties, are obtained from seed, 
with leaves sufficiently large to render grafting 
unnecessary. 

Besides these long-known varieties of mulber- 
ry used for feeding silkworms, comparatively 
few of which have been employed in the United 
States, there are two others, namely, the Multi- 
caulis and the Chinese, which have been very 
greatly multiplied, especially the former. The 
Chinese is usually produced from seeds im- 
ported from Canton. Its growth is exceedingly 
vigorous, and its leaves heart-shaped, flat, and 
very large. The Multicaulis is always propa- 
gate''i from cuttings or layers, and is more hardy 
than the Chinese, with larger leaves, which are 
always hollow and uneven. Even where the 
severe winter frosts of the Northern States 
'■ause the Multicaulis to be cut down, the suck- 



ers spring up from the old roots so as o 
aflfbrd in good season an abundance of foliage. 
Of late years, a hybrid variety of mulberry has 
been produced in France by shaking the pollea 
of the Moretta flowers over the flowers of the 
Multicaulis. The seed of the Multicaulis pro- 
duced by this mixture, produces a hybrid va- 
riety with more valuable qualities than the 
parent, and nearly as great a capacity for pro- 
pagation by layers and cuttings. The hybrid 
Multicaulis has large flat leaves, like those of 
the Chinese or Canton seedlings. They are 
firm, and much relished by the worms. They 
endure frost equally well with the white mul- 
berry, and are exceedingly well adapted to 
the silk-culture, both from their great pre- 
cocity of growth, hardiness, and valuable qua- 
lities for feeding the worm and making good 
silk. 

MULE. This is the well-known off"spring 
of the ass and the mare, or of the she-ass and 
the horse. In the latter case, the produce is 
called a jennet, and is much less hardy, and 
therefore rarely bred. The term mule is gene- 
rally applied in the animal creation in the same 
sense with hybrid in the vegetable world, sig- 
nifying the intermixture of two distinct species. 
Mules are very hardy animals, and therefore 
much used in warm climates, where they are 
preferred to horses, either for the purposes of 
draught or carriage. Considerable numbers 
are likewise employed in Ireland, and in some 
of the northern counties of Britain, on account 
of their great strength and durability. No 
animal is more sure-footed or more hardy; but 
the pace of the mule is disagreeable to those 
unaccustomed to its action. The diseases to 
which the mule is liable are few. He attains 
double the age of the horse, and is much more 
easily maintained. The mules of the south 
of Europe are frequently very fine animals, 
16 or 17 hands in height, active, handsome, arid 
peculiarly patient of labour ; but very inferior 
in beauty to the horse, particularly about the 
head and tail. The importation of Spanish 
asses into England has tended greatly to im- 
prove its mules, many of which, when bred 
with care, are sufiiciently thick-set and heavy 
for all those purposes in which our largest 
draught-horses are employed. 

To have large and handsome mules, the 
mare should be of a large breed, well propor- 
tioned, with rather small limbs, a moderate- 
sized head, and a good forehead ; and the ass 
should be of the large Spanish breed. 

MULLEIN {Verbascmn ; said to be from bar- 
basaim, bearded, in allusion to the bearded fila- 
ments). The English species of Vcrbasmm are 
strong, robust-growing plants, producing an 
abundance of showy yellow flowers, and on 
that account they are well adapted for plant- 
ing in the garden at the back of flower borders, 
or in shrubberies. They grow freely in any 
soil, and are readily increased by seeds ; some 
of the perennial kinds by divisions of the root. 
(Paxlon's Bot. Dirt.) There are as many as 6 
wild species common to Britain, viz., great 
mullein, or high taper (F. ihapsus); white mel- 
lein {V. lychnitis) ; yellow hoary, or Norfolk 
mullein ( V. pulverulentum) ; dark or black 



836 



MUNJEET. 



MUSTARD, CULTIVATED. 



mnllein. (_V. nigrum) ; large-flowered primrose- 
leaved mullein (F. virgatuni); and moth mul- 
lein (F. blattaria). The dark black mullein is 
a perennial, the moth mullein annual, and the 
rest are biennial in habit. They mostly grow 
to the height of 3 to 5 feet, in fields and waste 
places, on chalky and gravelly soils. The 
species of mullein common in the United States, 
in the fields of slovenly farmers, is the Verbas- 
ciini tliapsus of botanists. 

MUNJEET. A kind of madder grown in 
the East Indies. 

MURIATIC ACID, called also Hydrochloric 
acid; anciently Marine acid, and Spirit of sea- 
suit. 

MURICATE. In botany, implies covered 
with Short, sharp points. 

MURRAIN. A contagious, malignant epi- 
demic, which frequently prevails in hot, dry sea- 
sons among cattle, carrying off vast numbers. 
It once used to sweep off the horned stock of 
whole districts, and there are few years in 
which it is not now seen in some part of the 
kingdom. It principally appears in marshy 
and woody districts, or where under-draining 
has been neglected, or the cattle have been ex- 
posed and half-starved. The disease is known 
by the animals hanging down their heads, 
which are swollen, by short and hot breathing, 
cough, palpitation of the heart, staggering, an 
abundant secretion of viscid matter in the eyes, 
rattling in the throat, and a slimy tongue. The 
early stage of murrain is one of fever, and the 
treatment should correspond with this : bleed- 
ing and small doses of purgative medicine will 
be serviceable. The peculiar fetid diarrhoea 
must be met with astringents, mingled also 
with vegetable tonics. In combating the pus- 
tular and gangrenous stage, the chloride of 
lime will be the best external application ; 
while a little of it, administered with the other 
medicines inwardly, may possibly lessen the 
tendency to general decomposition. Above all, 
the infected animal should be immediately re- 
mo\'ed from the sound ones. (Youatt on Cattle, 
p. 379.) 

MUSCLE (Fr. muscle; Sax. murcula). Fleshy 
fibres, susceptible of contractions and relaxa- 
iions. They constitute what is commonly 
called flesh, the most nutritious species of 
auimal food. See Flesh and Gelatin. 

MUSHROOMS (Fr. mouscheron; La.t. Jgari- 
rus, from Agaria, a city, or Agarus, a river of 
Sarmaiia, now Malamonda). A more exten- 
sive genus than this is not known in the whole 
vegetable kingdom. Some species, as the com- 
mon mushroom, Jl. campestris, A. vaginatus, &c., 
are well known for the wholesomeness of the 
food which is prepared from them. Others, as 
A. muscarius, A. necator, the whole genus Ama- 
nita, and many others, are very dangerous poi- 
sons : indeed, the latter quality exists more or 
less in so many species, and these resemble 
those that are wholesome so nearly as to ren- 
der it advisable to be exceedingly cautious in 
the use of fungi, for the most dreadful effects 
are well known to have resulted from want 
of caution in this respect. 

The edible mushroom (A. campestris), is I 
nearly inodorous, but has a grateful flavour. 
The crowi or hat is at first hemispherical, ] 



I then convex, and at last flat ; fleshy ; about 2 
; to 5 inches broad ; white, or very light-brown, 
! slightly scaly, the scales soft and fibrous ; gills 
I pink, changing to fuscous black ; the flesh, 
M'hen divided, usually changes to a reddish 
! hue. The use of the mushroom, as an arti- 
cle of diet, was known to the ancients. See 
Fungi. 

To produce mushrooms artificially, beds va- 
riously constructed are employed ; and, from 
the numerous modes which have been invent- 
ed and adopted for their pi'oduction, some ac- 
companied with extraordinary expense, it is 
obvious that this "voluptuous poison" is with 
us, as it was with the Romans, in high estima- 
tion. 

MUSSELS, or MUSCLES (Mytilis edilis). A 
species of shell-fish which abound on the rocky 
shores on the borders of the sea in many parts of 
the British islands, adhering to the rocks. Mus- 
cles are also found in immense beds, both in 
deep water and above the low water-mark, in 
the British seas. Where they can be collected 
in large quantities they may be made use of as 
an excellent manure, either alone or in the 
state of compost, with earthy substances. 

MUST. A term applied to new wine and 
wort before it is fermented. It is also given 
to the saccharine juice of several fruits sus- 
ceptible of the vinous fermentation, and par- 
ticularly to the expressed juice of the grape 
before its conversion into wine. 

MUSTARD (Fr. moutarde ; hat. Sinapis ; from 
<rivu.7ri, on account of its making the eyes water, 
a-iva teTTcti). A genus of upright, branching, an- 
nual or biennial herbs, often hairy or bristly. 
There are five wild species common to the Bri- 
tish islands : — 

1. Wild mustard (S. arvensis). A very trou- 
blesome annual weed in corn-fields; also abun- 
dant in waste ground newly disturbed. The 
seeds serve as an inferior kind of mustard, or 
rather, to adulterate that made from the com- 
mon mustard. See Charlock. 

2. White mustard (S. alba), 3. Common 
mustard (S. nigra), are annuals, in general 
cultivation, but are also found wild on waste 
ground and by road-sides, &c. See Culti- 
vated Mustard. 

4. Narrow-leaved wall-mustard (S. tenui- 
folia). This perennial species is found grow- 
ing on old walls and heaps of rubbish about 
most ancient cities. The root is tapering, 
rather woody. Herb for the most part entirely 
smooth, and more or less glaucous all over; 
fetid when bruised. Stem bushy, erect, Ij^ 
or 2 feet high, with numerous round, leafy 
branches, occasionally besprinkled with a few 
hairs. 

5. Sand mustard (S. muralis). This annual 
species flourishes on sandy, barren ground 
near the sea. The root is small and tapering 

MUSTARD, CULTIVATED. The species 
of Sinapis generally grown in the kitchen gar- 
den for domestic purposes are the white mus- 
tard (S. alba), and the common or black mus 
tard (S. nigra). The first is the one grown loJ 
salads ; but the seed of both is employed in the 
manufacture of mustard. 

The soil they succeed in best is a fine, rich, 
mouldy loam, in which the supply of moisture 

837 



MUSTARD, FLOUR OF. 

Is regu.ar ; it may much rather incline to light- 
ness than tenacity. If grown for salading, it 
need not be dug deep; but if for seed, to full 
the depth of the blade of the spade. In early 
spring, and late in autumn, the situation should 
be sheltered ; and, during the height of sum- 
mer, shaded from the meridian sun. For sa- 
lading, the white may be sown throughout the 
year. From the beginning; of November to 
the same period in March, in a gentle hotbed 
appropriated to the purpose, in one already 
employed for some other plant, or in the corner 
of a stove. From the close ot^ February to the 
close of April, it may be sown in the open 
ground, on a warm, sheltered border; and from 
thence to the middle of September, in a shady 
one. Both the white and black, for seed, may 
be sown at the close of March, in an open com- 
partment. 

For salading, it is sown in flat-bottomed 
drills, about half an inch deep and six inches 
apart. The seed cannot well be sown too 
thick. The mould which covers the drills 
should be entirely divested of stones. Water 
must be given occasionally in dry weather, as 
a due supply of moisture is the chief induce- 
ment to a quick vegetation. The sowings are 
to be performed once or twice in a fortnight, 
according to the demand. Cress (Lepidiitm 
sativum), is the almost constant accompani- 
ment of this salad herb ; and as the mode of 
cultivation of each is identical, it is only ne- 
cessary to remark that, as cress is rather tar- 
dier in vegetating than mustard, it is neces- 
sary for the obtaining them both in perfection 
at the same time, to sow it five or six days 
earlier. See Cress. 

It must be cut for use while young, and be- 
fore the rough leaves appear, otherwise the 
pungency of the flavour is disagreeably in- 
creased. If the top is cut oflT, the plants will 
in general shoot again, though this second pro- 
duce is always scanty, and not so mild or ten- 
der. For the production of seed, whether for 
manufacture of mustard or future sowing, the 
insertion must be made broadcast, thin, and 
regularly raked in. When the seedlings have 
attained four leaves, they should be hoed, and 
again after the lapse of a month, during dry wea- 
ther, being set 8 or 9 inches apart. Through- 
out their growth they must be kept free from 
weeds, and, if dry weather occurs at the time 
of flowering, water may be applied with great 
advantage to their roots. The plants flower in 
June, and are fit for cutting when their pods 
have become devoid of verdure. They must be 
thoroughly dried before thrashing and storing. 
For forcing, the seed is most conveniently sown 
in boxes or pans, even if a hotbed is appro- 
priated to the purpose. Pans of rotten tan are 
to be preferred to pots or boxes of mould. But 
whichever is employed, the seed must be sown 
thick, and other restrictions attended to as for 
the open-ground crops. The hotbed need only 
be moderate. Air may be admitted as abun- 
dantly as circumstances will allow. (G. W. 
Johnson s Kitchen Garden.) 

MUSTARD, FLOUR OF. The seeds of both 
'dack and white mustard are employed in mak- 
ing the ordinary flour of mustard for dietetical 
use. In the dry state, mustard is inodorous, 
838 



MUTTON. 

and, were it possible to taste without the aid 
of moisture in the mouth, it would also be taste- 
less ; the principle of its odour and taste not 
existing ready formed in the mustard, but re- 
quiring water for its developement. The prin- 
ciples which exist in the mustard are two: one 
an acid, which has been named myronic acid, 
and is a compound of carbon, sulphur, hydro- 
gen, nitrogen, and oxygen ; the offier a sub- 
stance resembling vegetable albumen, which 
has been named emulsin, or myrosyne. When 
the myrosyne and the myrenic acid, which is 
united with potassa in the form of a myronate 
of potassa in the mustard, act upon each other 
by the aid of water, the volatile oil of mustard 
is formed, and odour and pungency given to 
the mustard. It is the volatile oil which red- 
dens and blisters when mustard poultices are 
used; and it is important to know that vinegar 
checks the acrimony of the poultice, and should 
not be used. Tepid water only is required. 

MUTTON (Fr. tnouton). The flesh of the 
sheep. Although, by recent extensive improve- 
ments, the breed of sheep have been diminished 
in size, yel the smallness of bone and symme- 
try of form which the animals have thus ac- 
quired, have considerably decreased the quanti 
ty of oflTal, and added largely to the dead weight 
of marketable flesh. Before that time the mut- 
ton of those coarse sheep rarely amounted to 
more than one-half of their live-weight; where- 
as now, the common average is more than two- 
thirds; and Dishley wethers, when well fatten- 
ed, are said to be in the proportion of an ounce 
of bone to a pound of flesh. The best and most 
nutritive mutton is that of sheep which are at 
least three, but not more than six years old, 
and which have been reared on dry, sweet pas- 
tures. The meat afforded by such as have 
been fed on salt marshes, or near the sea-coast, 
is likewise sweet and wholesome ; for they 
have acquired both firmness and a fine flavour 
from the saline particles abounding in such 
situations. 

A sheep, to be in high order for the palate 
of an epicure, should never be killed earlier 
than when five years old, at which age the 
mutton will be found firm and succulent, of a 
dark colour, and full of the richest gravy; 
whereas, if only two years old, it is flabby, 
pale, and savourless. To ascertain the age of 
mutton, Mr. Ellman directs : "To observe the 
colour of the breast-bone when a sheep is 
dressed, that is, where the breast-bone is sepa- 
rated : which in a lamb, or before it is one 
year old, will be quite red ; from one to tWG 
years old, the upper and lower bones will be 
changing to white, and a small circle of white 
will appear round the edge of the other bones, 
and the middle part of the breast-bone will yet 
continue red ; at three years old, a very small 
streak of red will be seen in the middle of the 
four middle bones, and the others will be white ; 
and at four years old, all the breast-bones will 
be of a white or gristly colour." South Down 
wether mutton, in point of delicacy and fla- 
vour, is thought equal to any that is killed ; 
and in summer as preferable to some other 
fine-flavoured breeds, especially Norfolk mut- 
ton. This circumstance is attributed to the 
closeness of the grain, or the specific gravity 



MUZZLE. 



NAVEW. 



being greater, rendering it more impermeable 
to the air than coarser and looser fleshed mut- 
ton, which is, of course, more subject to pu- 
tridity. The older the mutton, the finer the 
flavour. 

It is almost unnecessary to remark, that 
tuether-mutton is always considered so far pre- 
ferable to that of the ewe, that the flesh of the 
latter, although more commonly kept to a ma- 
ture age, always sells at an inferior price. 
Connoiseurs, however, assert that a spayed or 
maiden ewe, kept until five years old before 
she is fattened, produces mutton superior to 
that of any wether. 

The live-weight, with the offal, of a large, fat 
wether, and the joints when cut up for market, 
were as follows : — 

Live weight - - - 13 6t. 10 lbs. 

Offal. lbs. oz. 

Blood and entrails ... 13 

Caul and loose fat - - - 21 4 

Head and pluck - - - - 8 12 

Pelt 15 12 

Carcass. 

First fore-quarter - - - 29 

Second 28 12 

First hind-quarter - - • 33 8 

Second 32 

Joints of one side. 

Haunch ..... 23 

Loin 10 4 

Neck 12 

Shoulder 10 12 

Breast ..... 48 

Loss 12 

See Meat and SHtEP. 

MUZZLE. The nose of a horse or other 
animal. It also signifies a kind of halter put 
upon the nose of a horse or mule, to prevent 
eating or biting. 

MUZZLE OF A PLOUGH. A term some- 
times applied to the copse or part to which the 
draught is attached. See Plough. 

MYRRH. See Sweet Cicelt. 

MYRTLE (From myros, perfume; myrtos of 
the Greeks, myrtus of the Dutch, and of almost 
( /ery other European language). The myrtle, 
from the delightful perfume, the delicacy of its 
blossoms, and the glossy green of its perpetual 
foliage, is a favourite and well-known genus 
of plants, which grow well in sandy loam and 
peat; and cuttings, if not too ripe, will root 
freely either in sand or soil under a glass. 
There are nearly a dozen distinct species, be- 
sides numerous varieties. The myrlus pimenta 
yields the allspice or Jamaica pepper. 

The common European myrtle (M. commu^ 
nis) is a native of the south of Europe, grow- 
ing 5 or 6 feet high, with very fragrant leaves, 
and blowing small white flowers in summer. 
Being a tender shrub, this myrtle should have 
a southern or southwestern aspect, with pro- 
tection in winter. 

MYRTLE BILBERRY. See Whohtle- 

BERRT. 

MYRTLE, THE DUTCH, or SWEET 
GALE {Myrica gale ; from myrio, to flow, being 
found on the banks of rivers). This, in Eng- 
land, is an ornamental, aromatic, indigenous 
shrub, growing wild in bogs and marshes, es- 
pecially on a gravelly soil. The stem is up- 
right, bushy, ^ or 4 feet high, with numerous 
alternate branches. It bears berries which are 



very small, covered with resinous dots, exhal- 
ing a delightful fragrance when rubbed between 
the fingers. The leaves are aromatic from the 
same cause. This plant, perhaps one of the 
more innocent substitutes for hops, is used for 
brewing by the poor in Sweden. Linnaeus 
says the berries boiled in water yield wax like 
those of the candleberry myrtle {M. cerifera). 
See Candleberbt Mtktle. 



N. 

NAG. A provincial term applied to a horse, 
of a small size for the saddle ; such a horse is 
very useful for many purposes, where light 
labour is required. 

NAPIFORM. Formed like a turnip, tu- 
berous. 

NARCISSUS (from narke, stupor, on ac- 
count of the effects produced by the smell 
upon the nerves). This is an old and very 
popular flower of great beauty, and some of 
the species are highly fragrant. 

NARCOTIC (Fr. narcotique). Substances 
having the double property of exciting in the 
first instance, and afterwards stupifying and 
producing sleep or torpor. In medicine the 
term comprehends opiates, anodynes, and other 
drugs which induce sleep and allay pain. 

NASTURTIUM (from nasus, the nose, and 
tortus, tormented). The acridity of N. officinalis 
affects the muscles of the nose. Few of these 
plants are worth cultivating; they are of the 
simplest culture. The seed of the annual 
kinds has only to be sown in the open ground 
in spring. See Cress. 

NAVE OF A WHEEL. The short, thick 
block in the centre of the wheel which receives 
the end of the axletree, and from which the 
spokes radiate : it is bound with hoops, called 
nave-bands, to strengthen it. It has likewise 
in each end of the hole through which the 
axletree passes, a ring of iron called the wash- 
er, which saves the nave from wearing. 

NAVEL-ILL. See Calf, Diseases of. 

NAVEL-WORT, Cotyledon (from kotyle, a 
cavity ; in allusion to the cup-like leaves). 
A numerous and rather ornamental genus of 
succulent herbs or shrubs, with very thick, 
juicy, alternate, simple, entire, or jagged leaves. 
In England, the native species are two in num- 
ber: both are perennial in habit, flowering about 
June and July. 

NAVEW. The common wild navew (Bras- 
sica campestris) belongs to the cabbage tribe, 
and is an annual plant, found in corn-fields, 
marshes, and about the banks of ditches and 
rivers. The root is tapering ; stem erect, 2 
feet high, leafy, branched, glaucous ; rough in 
the lower part, with small bulbous spreading 
bristles; smooth upwards. Radical leaves ly- 
rate, toothed, and jagged, rough ; stem-leaves 
smooth, clasping, oblong, partly pinnatifid ; all 
somewhat glaucous. Flowers blowing in June 
and July, yellow, corymbose, almost as large 
as those of the turnip. Pods on longish stalks, 
I| inch long, nearly cylindrical, beaked. The 
roots are nourishing, containing a sweet juice, 
which is sometimes domesticallv used in cough* 
and asthma. 

S39 



NAVICULAR. 



NIGHTSHADE. 



NAVICULAR. A botanical phrase, signify- 
ing boat-shaped. 

NEAT CATTLE. See Cattlk. 

NECTARY, in botany, is applied to those 
parts of a flower which secrete honey. 

NECTARINE {Amygdalus Persica, var. Nec- 
tarina), A variety of the common peach, from 
which the fruit differs only in having a smoother 
rind and finer pulp. The culture is in every 
respect the same as the peach. The varieties 
of nectarines are numerous, nearly 70 being 
described in the catalogue of the Horticultural 
Society of London. Forsyth recommends for 
a small garden the following sorts: — Fair- 
child's Early, Eldridge's Scarlet, Newington, 
Red Roman, and Temple's. Nectarines, like 
peaches, are subdivided into free-stones and 
cling-slones. 

NEP. See Catmint. 

NERVES. In botany, the strong ribs upon 
leaves or flowers, which are bundles of vessels, 
chiefly spiral. Besides conveying the sap to 
the leaf, and returning the proper juice to the 
bark, they often afford distinctive characters to 
the leaf. 

NETTED. A botanical term, implying that 
the veins or membranes are reticulated on the 
leaf, or variously intersected. 

NETTLE, Urtica (from uro, to burn ; in re- 
ference to the stinging properties of most of 
the species). An extensive genus of herba- 
ceous or shrubby plants of little beauty, and 
which are justly looked upon in the eyes of the 
agriculturist as mere weeds. The herbage in 
all the species is copiously armed with veno- 
mous perforated bristles, each of which has 
a bag of liquid poison at its base. This liquor, 
by the slight pressure required to pierce the 
skin, is transmitted into it, causing great irri- 
tation. Many of the numerous exotic species 
have not this stinging property ; but the sting 
of common nettles is not to be compared with 
that of some of the Indian species grown in 
the gardens cf Europe. These are, how- 
ever, all surpassed in virulence by one which 
in Timor is called duomi setan, or devil's leaf, 
the effects of which are said by the natives in 
many cases to cause death. In England, the 
indigenous species of nettle are three; viz. 1. 
Roman nettle {U. piluUfera'), an annual plant, 
growing in waste ground amongst rubbish, 
chiefly near the sea. The herb is armed all 
over with peculiarly venomous stings. The 
stem is branched, leafy, bluntly quadrangular, 
often purple, about 2 feet high. 2. The small 
nettle (U.urens) is found to be in all cultivated 
ground a troublesome weed, especially on a 
light soil. It is annual in habit, flowering from 
June till October, smaller than the last, and of a 
much brighter green ; its copious stings hardly 
less virulent. The several parallel ribs of the 
leaves form its distinguishing character. The 
whole plant being refused by every kind of 
cattle, should be carefully extirpated from pas- 
tures. 3. The common orgreat nettle (U.dimca), 
which is a noxious perennial weed, growing 
almost everywhere, and flowering in July and 
August. The root is branching and creeping, 
with fleshy roots, and many fibrous radicles. 
The herb is of a duller green than the last, 
•^rect, 3 feet high, with less irritating stings. 



Leaves large, heart-shaped, spreading, pointed 
strongly serrated, veiny. The leaves are employ 
ed for feeding poultry, especially in the winter; 
when boiled, they are said to promote the lay- 
ing of eggs. Asses devour nettles eagerly, but 
all other live-stock refuse them, unless they 
are dried. In the western islands of Scotland, 
a rennet is prepared by adding a quart of salt 
to 3 pints of a strong decoction of nettles; a 
tablespoonful of which is said to be sufficient 
to coagulate a bowl of milk. The young tops 
of the common and smaller nettles may be 
boiled as potherbs during spring, and eaten as 
a substitute for greens ; being not only nourish- 
ing, but mildly aperient. The tough fibres of 
the stem may be manufactured like hemp, and 
are often found in winter naturally separated 
and bleached. The roots are astringent and 
diuretic. See Dead-Nf.ttle. 

NETTLE-HEMP. See Hemp-Nettle. 

NETTLE TREE (Ccltis). This is an orna- 
mental genus of trees and shrubs, varying in 
height from 6 to 50 feet. The most of them do 
very well in any common garden soil, and are 
suitable for the back of shrubberies and planta- 
tions. They are increased by seeds or layers. 

NETTLE TREE, AMERICAN (Cellis occi- 
dentalis). Sugar-berry. This American tree, 
Michaux says, if not rare, is little multiplied in 
comparison with the oaks, the walnuts, and 
maples. As it is scattered thinly through the 
forest, it is diflScult to fix the point at which it 
ceases towards the north, but it is believed not 
to extend beyond the Connecticut river. In the 
Middle, Western, and Southern States, it bears 
the name of nettle tree, whilst the French call 
it bois inconnu, or unknown wood. On the Sa- 
vannah river trees are found 60 or 70 feet high, 
and 18 or 20 inches in diameter. In the Mid- 
dle States it seldom grows above 10 or 15 feet 
in height. It is similar in its foliage and gene- 
ral appearance to the European nettle tree. 
The flowers are small and white, and open early 
in spring. The fruit consists of small berries 
disposed on stems singly, of a dull red colour, 
purplish when mature, and of a sweetish taste. 
(MirhavT.) 

NICKING. In farriery, an operation per- 
formed on the tails of horses to make them 
carry them well. 

NIGHTSHADE (Solanum'). A very nume- 
rous, principally tropical genus of shrubs or 
herbs, more or less narcotic; though in some 
cases rendered eatable by cookery, as in our 
common potato. Some of the genus are very 
dangerous and highly virulent poisons. Two 
species only are indigenous to England, — 1. 
The woody nightshade (S. dulcamara). See 
Bittersweet. 

2. The common or garden nightshade (S. 
nigrum). This is common everywhere, in waste 
as well as cultivated ground. The root is 
fibrous, annual in habit, occasionally peren- 
nial. Herb fetid, narcotic, bushy, with nume- 
rous angular or winged leafy branches. Stem 
herbaceous, without thorns. Leaves undivided, 
ovate, lengthened at the base, smooth. Um- 
bels from the intermediate spaces between 
the leaves, lateral, drooping, solitary, stalked, 
simple, downy. Flowers white with a musky 
scent. The berries globular, b*ack; some 



NIGHTSHADE. 

times, as it is reported, yellow. A grain or two 
of the dried leaf has sometimes been given to 
promote various secretions. Both its poison- 
ous and medicinal powers depend on an alkaline 
principle, which can be procured in a separate 
state, and has been called solania. It is a 
powerful narcotic, and the poisoning principle 
of the snlanums. 

NIGHTSHADE, DEADLY, or DWALE 
{Atropa belladonna). A plant with narcotic and 
dangerous qualities, found growing in hedges 
and waste ground on a calcareous soil, fre- 
quently about ancient ruins. The root is fleshy 
and creeping. Stems herbaceous, annual, 3 
feethigh, round, branched, leaty, slightly downy. 
Leaves lateral, mostly two together of unequal 
size, ovate, acute, undivided. Flowers solitary, 
stalked, drooping, dark dull purple in the 
border, paler downwards, about an inch long. 
Berry of a shining violet black, partially en- 
veloped in the calyx, which is persistent, the 
size of a small cherry; sweetish, and not nau- 
seous, so that children have often been tempted 
to eat it to their own destruction. The poi- 
sonous principle is an alkali named atropia. 

NIGHTSHADE, ENCHANTER'S. See 
Enchanteh's Nightshade.. 

NIGHT-SOIL. In agriculture, a powerful 
manure. This valuable fertilizer has not been 
employed in England to the same extent as 
on the continent, although it is certainly one 
of the most valuable of the organic manures ; 
and to this neglect many causes have contri- 
buted. Its disagreeable odour,certain vexatious 
fiscal regulations with regard to its removal, 
and erroneous modes of applying it, either in 
excessive quantities, or mixed with other com- 
posts in such proportions that its powers could 
not be distinguished in the mass; its semifluid 
nature requiring for its removal carriages of 
a peculiar construction, the extent and com- 
pleteness of the sewerage of our large cities, 
and several other minor obstacles, have ren- 
dered its use not nearly so extensive as, even 
in a national point of view, is desirable. Davy, 
however, described it, 25 years since, as "a 
very powerful manure, and very liable to de- 
compose : a part of it is always soluble in 
water ; and, in whatever state it is used, whe- 
ther recent or fermented, it supplies abundance 
of food for plants." {Lectures, p. 229.) "The 
disagreeble smell," he adds, " may be destroyed 
by mixing it with quicklime ; and if exposed 
to the atmosphere in thin layers in fine weather, 
and mixed with quicklime, it speedily dries, is 
easily pulverized, and, in this state, may be 
used in the same manner as rape-cake, and de- 
livered into the furrow with the seed." 

Night-soil is a mixture of urine and foeces; 
and these have been found to contain the fol- 
lowing substances. Foeces were analyzed by 
M. Berzelius : the products were — 

Farts. 

Water 733 

Vegetable and animal remains . . 7- 

Bile - 0-9 

Albumen -...-.. 0'9 

Peculiar and extractire matter - - 2-7 

Salts ---.... 1-2 

Slimy matter, insoluble residue, 4cc. - 14- 



100- 



106 



NIGHT-SOIL. 

The salts detected in this analysis, equal to 
1-2 parts, were carbonate of soda, muriate of 
soda, sulphate of soda, ammonia, phosphate 
of magnesia, and phosphate of lime. (Genlen's 
Journal, vol. vi. p. 536.) To the same great 
chemist we are indebted for an analysis of hu- 
man urine. He found 1000 parts to contain 

Pirti. 

Water ....... 933- 

Urea (peculiar animal matter) - - 3010 

Sulphate of potash ----- 3-71 

Sulphate of soda - - . . . 2-16 

Phosphate of soda - . - . . 294 

Muriate of soda (common salt) - - 4-45 

Phosphate of anitnonia . - - . i'65 

Muriate of ammonia - - . . 5.50 

Acid matter "i 

Acetate of ammonia >- - - . 17'14 

Animal matter and ureaj 

Earthy phosphates and fluate of lime - 1- 

Mucus -.--.-. 0'32 

Silica (earth of flint) . . - . 003 

1000- 

(.Annals of PMlot. vol. xi. p. 423.) 

The chemical composition of urine shovv^s, that 
it abounds in animal and mineral constituents 
which must afford a copious supply of food to 
plants. 

According to very recent experiments reported 
by I. C. Nesbit, the excretions of one person 
were found, from actual daily weighings long 
continued, to average 7 to 8 oz. avoirdupois of 
solid matter, and 3| lbs. of urine. This would 
make the annual amounts 170 lbs. of faeces, and 
1277 lbs. of urine. But when these are perfectly 
dried, there remains only 45 lbs. from the solid 
matter, and 35'7 lbs. from the urine, making the 
annual amount of dry matter in both, about 80 
lbs. From a comparison with other manures in 
the English market, the actual value of this 80 
lbs. of dry matter is computed by Mr. Nesbit 
at $2.50. This appears to be a lower estimate 
than that made by Boussingault, who considers 
the excrements of a single adult during a year 
sufficient to produce 14^ bushels of wheat } 
an estimate which agrees better with the views 
of the Chinese, who reckon the ordure of even 
a superannuated or disabled person as of suffi- 
cient fertilizing value to compensate for his 
bread. The odour of night-soil may be de- 
stroyed by any means which will dry it : such 
as additions of dry mould, peat, powdered char- 
coal, or plaster; also by sprinkling with a satu- 
rated solution of copperas in water, or oil of 
vitriol diluted with 10 parts of water. 

Davy's plan of destroying the smell of night- 
soil by the addition of quick-lime, may answer 
very well to correct a nuisance ; but the agri- 
cultural value of the manure produced, would be 
lessened, since the addition of caustic lime to 
animal matters drives off their ammonia, the 
most fertilizing portion. 

The account of eastern customs, furnished 
by modern travellers, illustrates very remark- 
ably the notices of the sacred historians. "In 
Arabia, says Niebuhr (vol. i. p. 91), "the dung 
of asses and camels is chiefly used for fuel, 
because these are the most numerous and 
common. Little girls go about gathering 
dung in the streets, and in the highways ; they 
mix it with cut straw ; and of this mixture 
make cakes, which they place along the walls, 
or upon the declivity of some neighbouring 
eminence, to dry them in the sun." Toum* 
4 B 84* 



NIGHT-SOIL. 



NIGHT-SOIL. 



fort, speaking of Georgia, says, "All this fine 
country yields not a single tree ; and they are 
forced to burn cows' dung." (^Tmtrnefort, vol. 
iii. p. 137.) And again, when speaking of 
Ezeroon, he says, " You see neither tree nor 
bush, and their common fuel is cows' dung." 
And lie Bruyn speaks of the same custom as 
occurring in Persia: — "Wood is very dear, 
and is sold by weight; whence it is that they 
are obliged to make use of turf made of camels' 
dung, cows' dung, sheeps' dung, horses' dung, 
and asses' dung. They use it more particu- 
larly for heating of ovens, in which they bake 
most of their meats in this country. They 
even apply human dung in this way." 

Long experience has taught many nations 
the value of this manure. In China it is pre- 
served with the greatest care, mixed with a fat 
marl ; and, according to Sir George Staunton, 
made into cakes, which, after being dried in 
the sun, constitute a regular article of traffic 
between the citizens and the cultivators of that 
singular empire. The same useful practice is 
carried on in Belgium. What we throw into 
our rivers the more thoughtful Belgians turn 
to account; what is a nuisance in London is a 
source of revenue at Brussels. To a report 
of my friend, Dr. Granville, I am indebted for 
a pretty copious account of the value assigned 
to this manure in the northern states of the 
continent ; and this I will give chiefly in his 
own language. When describing a continental 
tour, made chiefly for the purpose of examin- 
ing the mode of employing this description of 
manure in Germany, he says, "The kingdom 
of Wiirtemberg is so overstocked with popu- 
lation, and land, consequently, is of such 
value, that every inch of it is progressively 
brought into a state of culture by dint of labour 
and manuring, no matter how ungrateful the 
soil, or its situation, may at first sight ap- 
pear. 

" The cultivation of the vine is one which 
requires, in certain arid and mountainous soils, 
a liberal use of the human manure. Wishing 
to ascertain this fact from my own observation, 
I undertook a journey through the principality 
of Nassau, and along both banks of the Rhine, 
examining many of the vine districts, as I de- 
scended that river for the purpose of visiting 
Holland. On my return, I took French Flanders 
in my way, looking particularly to the great 
flax districts of Tournay, Lille, Valenciennes, 
and Cambray, where the surprising results 
obtained from the application of human ma- 
nure, like those obtained in Belgian Flanders 
by similar means, have induced agriculturists, 
within me last few years, to give to that spe- 
cies of manure the name of 'Flemish Ma- 
nure.'" 

And, when speaking of the little care taken 
in England of this fertilizer, he continues: — 
"In no part of France, Wiirtemberg, Bavaria, 
Bohemia, Prussia, Saxony, the Confederated 
States of Germany, Holland, and Belgium, is 
'here a city in which, as in London, the gene- 
ral mass of filth, of every description, created 
by a vast population, is firsc allowed to enter 
the river which may happen to traverse that 
city, and is then returned, diluted with the wa- 
trr of that river, to the houses of the inhabit- 
842 



ants, to be used either for domestic or culinarj 
purposes ; although, by avoiding the latter dis- 
gusting alternative, foreign cities are less free 
from unpleasant smells than London is. In 
this respect, it may be truly said that foreigners 
smell the filth of their cities, but do not swal- 
low it; whereas the Londoner swallows it, but 
seldom smells it. 

"In no large city of that part of Europe 
which I have recently visited, possessing a 
river, is any portion of the contents of closets 
and cesspools suffered to find its way, or to be 
emptied into it, except at Amsterdam, Ant- 
werp, Brussels, Stuttgard, and Leipzig ; and 
even there only in a partial manner. In Paris 
the Seine is contaminated by one large drain 
only, conveying the urine from the large re- 
servoirs of night-soil at Montfau9on, and by 
2 smaller ones proceeding from cesspools. To 
convey generally, or to empty even partially 
any such matter into the river, is a practice 
against which the laws have provided by heavy 
fines and incarcerations. And such is the pre- 
sent feeling of all the governments on that 
subject, even in the great cities I have just 
enumerated as exceptions, that the superior 
authorities are seriously engaged in devising 
plans for preventing in future every possible 
infraction of those laws ; not because it is de- 
sirable to preserve pure the water of such 
rivers (since no domestic use is made of it), 
but on account of the loss of a material, deem- 
ed most valuable, which such infractions must 
necessarily entail. 

"Night-soil is husbanded in every part of 
the Continent I have visited, without exception, 
with a jealousy and care which prove how 
valuable it is considered by the people. In 
most of the cities of the second order, and the 
smaller capitals, night-soil is a source of profit, 
first, to the householder, next to a middleman, 
and, thirdly, to the farmer, who is the last pur- 
chaser, and employs it. 

"In all the towns of the Grand Duchy of Ba- 
den, of the kingdom of Wiirtemberg, of Bava^ 
ria (except Munich and Wiirtzburgh), of the 
province of Salsburg, of Bohemia (except 
Prague), of Saxony (except Dresden), in some 
of the minor cities of Prussia, in all the con- 
federated principalities, in all the cities on 
both banks of the Rhine, particularly Stras- 
burg, Mayence, Coblentz, Bonn, Cologne, Dus- 
seldorf, Nimeguen, &c., the householder dis- 
poses of the contents of his cesspool for a 
certain sum of money, besides getting the ope- 
ration of emptying it performed gratuitously. 
By comparing the returns of the different 
prices paid in those cities for the commodity 
in question, one year with another, and equal- 
izing them by an average price, the inhabi- 
tants appear to be benefited to the amount of 4 
francs a head yearly, and the middlemen to at 
least 40 per cent, more on the sum he pays to ■ 
the original seller. I will cite Strasburg as an 
example, since most of the other cities of the 
same extent (on the Rhine, and in many parts 
of Germany), and a few cities even larger pre- 
sented the strongest analogy to the case I have 
selected. At Strasburg, a company of middle- 
men engage to empty the cesspools, of w^ 
every house has at least two (built air ^ 



NIGHT-SOIL. 



NIGHT-SOIL. 



water-tight), once a year for nothing, and pays, 
moreover, 6 francs per charette, containing 96 
baquels, of the capacity of 4 gallons each. This 
quantity the company sells afterwards to the 
farmers for ten francs. (The capacity of the 
charetle being to that of a ton as 28,772 ounces 
are to 35,840, it follows that the price of a ton 
at Strasburg would be 10s.) Now, as there are 
14,000 houses in Strasburg, 10,000 of which 
have cesspools affording the soil in question 
(which is always semi-liquid), supposing the 
latter to be emptied only once a year, and to 
furnish each 3 charettes only, at six francs, 
we have 10,000 X 6 X 3 = 180,000 francs, which 
the company pays yearly to the inhabitants of 
a town having a population of 70,000 souls. 
But as the company resell to the farmer the 
said soil for manuring purposes, at ten francs 
per charette, it follows that this article of traffic 
produces yearly at Strasburg 300,000 francs, 
or just about 4^ francs for each inhabitant." 

The high prices paid for this manure by the 
Continental farmers betrays the estimation in 
which they hold it. "The contractor at Brus- 
sels, M. Champon," says Dr. Granville, " sells 
his manure for 13s. 4rf. per ton — 400 florins, or 
33/. &d. for a barge-load of 50 tons. M. Smet, 
the greatest trafficker, perhaps, in this material 
in East Flanders, gets for some of his 10s., and 
for the best and larger portion of it 15s. per 
ton ; while the contractor at Antwerp disposes 
of all he has of Flemish manure at 52 florins 
the pul, or 624 florins the barge-load, equal to 
52/., or 1/. 10s. 9rf. per ton. But if we look to 
what takes place every day at Montfaugon, 
near Paris, where 200 cart-loads of the con- 
tents of the cesspools are daily deposited, to be 
converted into poudrctte, we find the latter (a 
dry and compound manure made from night- 
soil) to fetch a much higher price than all the 
rest. 

"But by far the most important point of 
practical knowledge in this matter, put forward 
by the same great authorities, and the truth of 
which was afterwards confirmed to me by 
more than one great farmer in East Flanders, 
is, that while the manuring with human soil 
has produced 14 times the quantity sown, 
where horse-dung has only yielded 10, the pro- 
portion of the human or Flemish manure em- 
ployed was, to that of the horse-dung, as 1 to 5 
only ; so that with 1 ton of the Flemish a 
larger produce is obtained than with 5 tons of 
stable manure." See Maxures applicable bt 
THE Drill. 

In Sweden the value of night-soil has been 
long well understood by the farmers. Nearly 
half a century since the Baron de Schulze, 
when writing to Sir John Sinclair, observed, 
"They have now ceased to spoil the fine har- 
bour of Stockholm with nuisances of every 
kind. The contents of the privies are now 
collected, by undertakers, in barrels, of which 
they are obliged to have a double quantity to 
replace those deposited in the reservoirs, from 
whence they are carried to the country. My 
eldest son, who has changed the sword for the 
ploughshare, has particularly attended to this 
manure, being favourably situated on the Lake 
Malar, 48 English miles from the capital ; he 
conveys it in a covered boat, each loading of 



which is sufficient to dress about 3 acres of 
spring corn, and between 4 and 5 of winter 
corn and meadow ground. This manure, by 
the motion of the boat, becomes more liquid ; 
and it is conveyed from the hold of the vessel 
by a bucket at the end of a lever, through a 
spout into a close cart on shore drawn by two 
oxen. These carts are provided with a mova- 
ble funnel, and with a strainer so regulated, 
by means of a pole, that the manure can be ad- 
ministered at pleasure by the driver, without 
further attention to spreading. That the land 
may not be overdunged, and the crop conse- 
quently lodged, care must be taken not to lay 
above 40 such cart-loads on the Swedish acre 
for spring corn; each cart containing 180 gal- 
lons English, or 1920 lbs. Except that other 
powerful manure produced by the refuse of the 
herring oil-works, none can come into compe- 
tition, for richness, with the contents of the 
privy mixed with urine. The effects of this 
manure, no doubt, diminish gradually; yet its 
operation may be plainly perceived in the 
fourth successive crop. When clover is meant 
to be sown with the spring corn, this species 
of manure is unsuitable; for although the seed 
be diminished to one-third, the straw becomes 
so thick and strong as to choke the clover. A 
mixture of lime is sometimes recommended for 
this manure, in order to dry it and correct the 
smell; but, besides that lime is not plentiful 
here, the process would be found to require a 
considerable time and expense. A little addi- 
tion to the wages of the labourers or cottagers 
soon reconciles them to the inconvenience of 
the smell, and it becomes still less offensive to 
them if they are allowed to use part of it on 
their own little fields. If any particular impe- 
diment occurs, such as harvest work, this ma- 
nure is then from the vessel conveyed to great 
pits, to be, after a mixture with other sub- 
stances, driven to the field at a more conve- 
nient season." {Cojn. Board of Jigr. vol. i. p. 
326.) The prejudice which some English la- 
bourers entertain against the employment of 
night-soil is readily overcome by a little ma- 
nagement. The stream which flows through 
the village of Eastbourn, in Sussex, had be- 
come, a iev! months since, much contaminated 
through the night-soil which had been deposit- 
ed in it from the adjoining cottages, and it was 
in vain that their owners were advised to use 
it for their gardens ; until an excellent lady of 
the place, who is ever ready to promote the 
comfort of her poorer neighbours, desired her 
bailitr to go round and propose to purchase it 
of them. His offer was, however, rejected, uni- 
versally rejected; and ever since they have 
no longer suffered the contents of their privies 
to be wasted, but have carefully applied them, 
and with the best results, to their own gardens; 
remarking, that if it was worth a farmer's 
while to buy H of them, it must be worth more 
to them for their gardens. 

" By this term, night-soil," remarked the in- 
defatigable Arthur Young, " at London, is to be 
understood the collections there made of what 
a French marquis calls ' I'espece de fumier que 
la politesse empeche de nommer;' from which 
trait of him one would not have expected he 
should know so much of the value of it as h« 

843 



NIGHT-SOIL. 



NIGHT-SOIL. 



really did. An Englishman says, 'tis more 
decent and better to let it alone ; but as I con- 
ceive it perfectly decent and efficient, I shall 
consider human ordure as the very best ma- 
nure that can be procured. But here, I shall 
first consider the farmer's conduct at home, 
where his great object is to raise as much ma- 
nure as possible without being obliged to de- 
pend on purchases, which are only to be made 
in certain situations. If the farmer manages 
his necessary-house in such a manner as to 
suffer nothing to run off from it, and frequently 
throws malt-dust, saw-dust, fine mould, or sand 
into it, he may, every year, manure from 1 to 
2 acres of land. 

" If the farmer is within reach of any con- 
siderable town, and there are scavengers or 
people who will collect this manure and keep 
it separate, the farmer can hardly purchase it 
at too high a price. In the last century, the 
ordure of the galley-slaves at Marseilles was 
all saved, and sold to the farmers as a dressing 
for grapes, olives, and figs ; the last of which 
produced by it were the best in the world. At 
Nice it sells high, and every peasant has a 
house of office for passengers. In China it 
seems to be a manure, of all others, in the most 
request ; and in Italy they are well acquainted 
with its value. At London it sells at from 3s. 
to 6s. a load; at 17 miles distant, with turn- 
pikes and all expenses, it costs 25s. a wagon- 
load ; yet it answered greatly. It should be 
laid by the scavengers in very light swamps 
(not too deep) in a grass field, and in summer 
trenches cut through it to drain; and then 
being thrown in heaps, it is of very light car- 
riasje. Three wagon-loads, or from 240 to 300 
Liushel^, are enough for an acre of grass land, 
upon which I think it answers best; but mixed 
with marl, loam, turf, or dry pond mud, its use 
for that application is excellent. I have com- 
pared it with all other manures, and found that 
none of them I could procure equalled it by 
many degrees. It is a vulgar error to imagine 
that manuring a field with this substance will 
give a bad taste to plants. I dressed part of a 
pasture with it, fed the whole of that year with 
horses, cows, and young cattle, and I remarked 
to various gentlemen that saw it how close into 
the ground that part was constantly eaten, 
while there was much longer grass, &c., in 
every other part of the field." 

"On October 20th, 1772," adds Arthur Young, 
"I marked divisions each of 4 square perches 
on a summer fallow ; the soil a poor blue 
pebbly gravel, and manured these compart- 
ments as follows : — 

Produce of Wheat per Acre. 

Bushels. 

Soil, simple ..-.--. 12j 

Bushels of night-soil - - - - 320 37i 

Do - - - - - - 240 32i 

Do. - - - - . . 160 31i 

ruble yards of farmyard compost - - 60 25 

Do. 30 23J 

Do., and 1 cubic yard of chalk - - 30 25 

" The effect of nig.it-soil," he continues," 
• was prodigious; it just trebles the produce. 
In all tnc experiments I have made with this 
manure, I ha"-; ever found this result almost 
uniform." {Annals of Agr. vol. iii. p. 79.) It is 
evident, also, from the experiments of Arthur 
844 



Young, which are entirely confirmed by those 
of the Essex farmers, and my own, that night- 
soil is an excellent manure for potatoes. The 
following table contains the results of Arthur 
Young's trials. The soil on which these ex- 
periments were made was a poor gravelly 
loam. 

Produce per Acre. 

Busheli. 

Soil, simple, produced ------ 120 

Night-soil, 10 wagon-loads, each 96 bushels - 600 

— 6 — — - - 650 

— 2 — — - - 500 
Bones 10 — — - - 650 

— 6 — — - - 640 

— 2 — — - - 560 
Ilog-dung, 60 one-horse cart-loads . . - 480 

— 30 — — ... 480 
Yard-compost, 60 one-horse cart-loads - - 300 

_ 120 — — - - 480 

— 30 — — - - 140 

These experiments are useful, as indicating 
the comparative value of each fertilizer, al- 
though the quantities employed were evidently 
excessive. Mr. Hewitt Davis, of Spring Park, 
near Croydon, finds 6 tons of night-soil, mixed 
with peat, to be amply sufficient for an acre of 
ground. He thinks this manure the best for 
turnips. Night-soil is, however, in spite of all 
the obstacles of prejudice and inattention, 
much more extensively used in the neighbour- 
hood of the large manufacturing towns of the 
north of England than it was formerly. Mr. 
Dixon, of Hathershaw, in Lancashire, thus de- 
scribes his mode of using it. " For the con- 
veyance of night-soil and urine, we have the 
largest and strongest casks, such as oils are 
imported in ; the top of each is provided with 
a funnel to put the matters through, and the 
casks are fixed on wheels like those of a com- 
mon dung-cart. I am fully aware that there 
are many localities where neither peat nor 
night-soil can be readily obtained; but it is 
worth a farmer's while to go even more than 
20 miles for the latter substance, provided he 
can have it without deterioration: the original 
cost is often trifling. On a farm where turnips 
or mangel-wurzel are cultivated to some extent, 
the system here recommended will be almost 
incalculably advantageous. A single horse is 
sufficient for one carriage; mine holds upwards 
of a ton each ; 6 tons of this manure in com- 
post with peat, or, if that is not convenient, any 
other matters, such as ditch-scourings, or high 
headlands which have been properly prepared 
and laid dry in a heap for some time, would be 
amply sufficient for an acre of turnips or 
mangel. This manure is by far the most in- 
vigorating of any I have ever yet tried. Bones 
in an J' state will bear no comparison as a help 
for any crop ; but it must be remembered that 
I write on the supposition that it has not been 
reduced in strength before it is fetched." 

There have been various patents granted in 
France for the preparation of manure from 
night-soil, several of which have proved very 
successful. The poudrette, or dried night-soil, 
first prepared by M. Bridet, was found, after 
repeated trials, to be a very powerful dressing 
for land ; 240 lbs. of this powder producing 
effects equal to 8 loads of stable manure. This 
substance has been recently examined by Pro- 
fessor Hermstadt, who reports it to be a perfect 
substitute for common dung; that it is most 



NIPPEKS. 



NITRATES. 



efficacious in wet seasons ; and that in dry- 
seasons it is less useful upon sandy soils than 
upon greasy clays. There is no doubt but 
that very excellent composts may be made 
from night-soil; and, in fact, several are now 
prepared in London, on a very bold scale, for 
the service of the farmer; but the success of 
these is usually impeded by the preparers pro- 
fessing that their preparations may be used in 
quantities much too small. Then, again, one 
or two patents have been taken out in England 
for artificial manures, by persons who were 
evidently very grossly ignorant of what they 
professed to understand. (Johnson on the Fer- 
tilizers, p. 92.) See Farm-Yard Manure ; Ma- 

TTURKS APPLICABLE DT THE DhILL ; UrINE. 

NIPPERS. A term applied to the four teeth 
in the fore part of the horse's mouth, two in 
the upper and two in the lower jaw : they are 
put forth between the second and third years. 
Nippers, in farriery, are the pincers which the 
smiths use in shoeing. 

NITRATES OF POTASH AND SODA. 
Two salts lately much employed in agricul- 
ture. The first (nitrate of potash) is known 
in commerce under the name of saltpetre, and 
is principally procured from the East Indies, 
where it is found on the surface of the ground, 
especially in the district of Tirhut, in Bengal. 
It also abounds in Ceylon, Persia, Egypt, and 
even in Spain ; but that which is brought to 
England comes chiefly from India in an impure 
state, and contains about 70 per cent, of pure 
nitre. It, however, varies in quality; but the 
average loss in the purification is generally 
about 15 to 20 per cent. Nitre is also formed 
by artificial composts in various parts of Eu- 
rope. When pure, nitre is composed of nitric 
acid 54-15 parts, or 1 equivalent; and potash 
47*15 parts, or 1 equivalent ; or 52*9 per cent, 
of acid + 47-1 of alkali = 100. 

Nitrate of soda, which is known as cubic petre, 
.5 obtained chiefly from Peru, where it is found 
in a thick stratum, at an elevation of 3500 feet 
above the level of the Pacific Ocean. (Dar- 
win's Researches, p. 443.) It is sold, it seems, at 
the ship's side on the coast of Peru, at 14s. per 
cwt. It is composed of nitric acid 62'1 parts, 
and potash 37-9 parts. 

It is only in modern days that saltpetre has 
been extensively employed as a fertilizer; for 
it is not long that the nitre of commerce has 
been produced in quantities sufficiently large 
and reasopable to enable the farmer to profita- 
bly use it as a manure. That the knowledge 
of its enriching qualities, however, is not a 
modern discovery, is too self-evident to be 
doubted. Virgil (Georgics, lib. i. v. 193, 195) 
recommends it to the Italian farmers as an ex- 
cellent addition to the dregs of olive oil, to form 
a steep to cause the seed-grain to swell and 
vegetate with vigour ; and from his days to 
our own, hardly an agricultural writer has 
omitted to notice its powers. The very first 
English author who wrote upon husbandry, in 
1532, Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, describes it as 
having the power to insure to the farmer the 
most abundant crops. And in 1570, a learned 
German counsellor, Heresbaschius, in his Trea- 
tise upon Rural Affairs, describes the use of this 
salt as not an uncommon dressing in his time 



for coleworts. A century afterwards, Evelyn, 
in his Discourse on Earth, told the farmers of 
his age that if they could but obtain a plentiful 
supply of saltpetre, they would " need but little 
other compost to meliorate their ground." And 
even Jethro TuU, in the early part of the last 
century, who denied very zealouslv the neces- 
sary use of manures of all kinds — even TuU 
placed nitre at the head of his list of those 
substances which he deemed to be the essential 
food of plants. 

Saltpetre, therefore, must not be regardled as 
a modern introduction into agriculture; for it 
has long been used in limited quantities by 
previous generations of cultivators, who, like 
us, were content to notice the effects which it 
produces, without being able to exactly com- 
prehend its mode of action. 

It is idle to merely substitute words in ex- 
planation of unknown effects, and to say that 
saltpetre is a stimulant, or that it yields nitro- 
gen to the plant; and there is little evidence 
of its entering into the composition of any of 
the more commonly cultivated crops: there is, 
therefore, but a slight probability of its being 
a direct food of the plants to which the farmer 
usually applies it The only common excep- 
tion is that of barh y, in which a minute por- 
tion of cubic petre (nitrate of soda) is found 
to exist. 

But although these nitrates have not been 
detected in the farmer's crops, yet they are 
known to exist in many plants, most likely as 
essential ingredients. Thus saltpetre is found 
in the common horse-radish, in the nettle, and 
the sunflower. M. Chevalier discovered it in 
the ChenopocUum oliditm ; M. Vauquelin in the 
deadly nightshade. Dr. John found it in the 
Mesembryanthemimi crystallimim; M. Chevreul in 
woad. The growth of the sunflower is mate- 
rially promoted by watering it with a weak 
solution of this salt. It languishes in soils 
which do not naturally contain it; but when 
the salt is added to the earth, then it immediately 
makes its appearance in the plant in the usual 
proportions. 

And although we are not aware of its exist- 
ence in the ordinary field-crops, yet still it may 
beneficially exist in them, and exert a consi- 
derable influence at certain periods of their 
growth, although in minute proportions : and, 
notwithstanding we have no direct evidence 
of the fact, it is not unlikely that its presence 
may tend to vary, in the vegetable world, the 
essentially present combinations of nitrogen, in 
a way which the skilful investigations of the 
chemist have not yet succeeded in tracing. 
Such researches, however, have already proved 
that nitrogen (of which, with oxygen, the acid 
of saltpetre is formed) performs a much more 
important part in vegetable economy than was 
once supposed ; and many facts are already 
apparent which should encourage us to perse- 
vere in the examination. For instance, it has 
been observed by the farmer that these two ni- 
trates (the base of whose acid is nitrogen) have a 
very powerful effect in adding to the deep green 
colour of plants. Now, this is precisely the 
effect produced by other fertilizers, which also 
contain nitrogen ; such as gelatine, urine, oils, 
blood, soot, fish, &c. In fact, I am not aware 
4 B 2 845 



NITRATES OF 



POTASH AND SODA. 



of any manure producing this rapid, darkly- 
green, luxuriant growth, from which nitrogen 
is absent. Saltpetre is naturally generated on 
the earth's surface under favourable circum- 
stances, and in situations much more frequent 
than the farmer is wont to suspect. Wherever 
ammonia is copiously generated, as in stables, 
farm-yards, &c., and wherever the nitrogen, 
which forms a component portion of ammonia, 
at the moment of its extrication has access to 
potash or calcareous matter, there saltpetre is 
usuEjlly formed. This is naturally done so 
copiously, in some of those situations in which 
the farmer is placed, as to form fine crystalline 
exudations on the walls ; and it is in such 
places that those plants which abound in salt- 
petre, as the nettle, the horse-radish, &c., com- 
monly flourish with uncommon luxuriance. It 
has been proved by those who gather the salt- 
petre from the earth's surface in southern 
Africa and Hindostan, as well as by those who 
prepare the artificial saltpetre beds in Spain 
from the sweepings of the streets of Madrid, 
that nothing more is requisite for the forma- 
tion of saltpetre in these beds of earth, than the 
presence of a certain proportion of decompos- 
ing animal and vegetable matters, with some 
potash, and calcareous matter. Now all these 
essentials for the formation of saltpetre must 
in many situations be afforded by the farmer's 
own soils. There are, in fact, many lands in 
the cultivator's possession where, especially 
in dry summers, the formation of saltpetre in 
minute proportions is continually taking place; 
where the putrefaction of animal matters must 
in small proportions be f)roductive of ammo- 
nia ; and where an abundance of potash is al- 
ready existing in the soil to neutralize the 
nitric acid produced, and form with it nitrate 
of potash or saltpetre. For it has been ascer- 
tained that if, at the moment when nitrogen is 
evolved, it is presented with oxygen gas, that it 
combines with it, and forms nitric acid. Here, 
then, we have explained to us the origin of the 
acid of the nitre, and we know that its base, or 
potash, is to be found in some form or other in 
all cultivated soils. And if we admit that this 
must in some instances be the case, then we 
shall be furnished with a ready explanation of 
many of the difficulties and discordant results 
which have attended the recent very general 
application of these two nitrates, since the fact 
that saltpetre has commonly been found to 
produce the least results upon those deep, rich, 
alluvial soils which must abound in decom- 
posing organic matters, in some degree coun- 
tenances the conclusion, as does the smallness 
of the quantity of saltpetre applied ; for, if once 
we concede the possibility of the soil, under 
favourable circumstances, being able to gene- 
rate this salt, then it will be allowed that one 
cwt. per acre is not a large crop for the soil to 
produce. That in this way it is generated in 
some of the richest soils of the East, to such 
an extent as to cover the surface with a white 
incrustation, is known to every oriental tra- 
veller. To a still greater extent is the land 
in those countries impregnated in many situa- 
tions with the nitrate :'" lime, a salt which, 
possessing thf dame acid as nitre and cubic 
nitre, has lime instead of potash or soda for 
84G 



its base ; and from some experiments which I 
have made, I have little doubt but this nitrate, 
which is of much less cost than either the ni- 
trates of potash or soda, will be found a valu- 
able agent for the use of the cultivator. For 
its excessive deliquescent or moistening pro- 
perties, which render it so unmanageable for 
many manufacturing purposes, make it more 
valuable to the cultivator of the poor, dry, 
thirsty soils, where artificial fertilizers are 
most in request. If nitrate of lime was import- 
ed at a reasonable rate, the farmer could rea- 
dily, if he wished, make his own cubic petre, 
at a very low price, by mixing the nitrate of 
lime with glauber salts (sulphate of soda), by 
which means a rapid decomposition takes 
place, the result of which is nitrate of soda 
(cubic petre) and sulphate of lime (gypsum). 
The inferior, impure, refuse glauber salts, made 
by the cotton bleachers in the preparation of 
their bleaching powder, would answer for this 
purpose very well. 

My experience of the enriching powers of 
saltpetre extends over several years. My ear- 
liest experiments were made in the kitchen 
and flower garden, in which I found very con- 
siderable advantage in increasing the beauty 
and in prolonging the bloom of several of the 
tenants of the latter; and in the former I found 
excellent results from applying it at the rate 
of 2 cwt. per acre to my beds of horse-radish, 
and in very small proportions, as one-eighth 
of an ounce per gallon, to the water with which 
I watered, to prevent mildew, &c., my early 
and late crops of pease, wall-fruit trees, &c. 
My experience with it as a field crop has been 
principally confined to the gravels of Essex 
and the chalks of Hampshire and Berkshire, 
in which, especially upon grass, I have ob- 
tained results exceedingly satisfactory. In M 
1840, I tried it upon the old clay grass soils ■ 
of Knitbury, in Berkshire, with various other 
manures; 1st, at the rate of 1 cwt. per acre; 
2d, nitrate of soda, 1^ cwt. per acre ; 3d, Poit- 
tevin's manure, 14 bushels per acre; 4th, gyp- 
sum, l^ cwt. per acre ; 5th, nitrate of soda, 
1^ cwt., and gypsum 1^ cwt. per acre. These 
were all applied by hand in the month of April; 
but although they all produced a better crop M, 
than the soil simple, yet the extreme dryness 11 
of the season operated very materially against 
the success of almost all artificial dressings, 
and the produce of the whole plot was much 
below an average crop. Nos. 1, 4, and 5 were 
decidedly the best, producing at the rate of 
rather more than 2 tons of hay per acre ; while 
the produce of the soil simple was less than 
22 cwt. per acre. The grasses were of the Ij 
ordinary kinds tenanting the upland pastures, 11 
mixed with a considerable portion of nearly 
worn-out roots of lucern, which, in the plot 
No. 4, gypsum alone, and in No. 5, gypsum 
and cubic petre mixed, was revived by the ap- 
plication to a very remarkable degree ; its 
plants nearly doubling in height any other por- 
tion of the land. 

In some experinr.ents, at which I was pre- 
sent, on the barley and wheat land of the chalk 
formation in the neighbourhood of Wincliester, i 
the eflfect of the saltpetre was excellent; the | 
green colour of the crops was rend'^jod much 



NITRATES OF 



POTASH AND SODA. 



more deep, and the increased produce far more 
than compensated for the expense of the salt- 
petre. And the same success attended its ap- 
plication to both red clover and sainfoin on the 
down lands ; but when I tried saltpetre at the 
same rate per acre on the lawn of a rich old 
garden, whose earth was also principally 
chalk, there was no perceptible effect pro- 
duced, even in the colour of the grass. This 
soil abounded in decomposing organic matters, 
was within reach of the soot and other ammo- 
niacal matters of the city of Winchester, and, 
I have little doubt, in minute proportions al- 
ready contained saltpetre. In fact, almost all 
the successful experiments with saltpetre have 
been made on light, poor land. Those of Mr. 
Lightfoot were on the gravels of Hertfordshire, 
which have a substratum of chalk; and yet he 
produced with 1 cwt. per acre of saltpetre 
effects more than equal to those produced by 
folding the land with sheep. And when Mr. 
Beadel, of Witham, tried it on the Essex clays, 
it produced hardly any effect, except increas- 
ing the colour of the wheat; but when he used 
the same quantity (1 cwt. per acre) on his light 
barley land, after Swedish turnips, the increase 
was 15 bushels of barley and 640 lbs. of straw 
per acre ; and on a sandy field of oats, the in- 
crease from its application was 20 bushels of 
oats and half a load of straw. The successful 
experiments of Mr. Kimberley, of Trotsworth, 
on clover, in which he produced with 1 cwt. 
per acre of nitre results fully equal to that from 
25 cubic yards of horse-dung, were upon the 
sandy lands of Surrey, " of moderate quality." 
Mr. Everitt, of North Creake, bears out en- 
tirely these conclusions, when he applauds its 
use " upon all light, warm soils," but predicts 
that, " on cold clay land, on an average of sea- 
sons, it will not more than repay the outlay;" 
and yet this excellent farmer had no reason to 
be dissatisfied with his success, having ob- 
tained from an application of I cwt. of salt- 
petre to "good light land," an increase of 6^ 
bushels of wheat. The experiments of Mr. R. 
Harvey, of Harlstone, entirely confirm those 
of Mr. Everitt ; and in the Report of the Harl- 
stone Fa7-mcrs' Club, in 1839, it is stated to be 
"the unanimous opinion of the meeting," that 
saltpetre was excellent in its effects on heavy 
clover layers, but that on light land it was 
highly beneficial to "wheat, clover, and other 
layers and tares." 

One of my neighbours, too, an excellent 
farmer of Essex, in 1839, found on the fine, 
light barley soils of his farm the following re- 
sults from top-dressing his barley with 1 cwt. 
per acre of saltpetre, compared with the soil 
undressed, dressed with night-soil, with sprats, 
and with farm-yard manure : — 

Qn. Bushels. 

The soil, simple, yielded - - - . 5 4i 
Dressed with 1 cwt. of saltpetre - - 6 b 

Dressed with 50 bushels of sprats per acre, 

ploughed in -7 1 

Dressed with 20 bushels per acre of disin- 
fected night-soil (Poittevin's) - . 6 4J 
Dressed with 10 loads of farm manure per 
acre ----....5 6 

I have noticed, also (and the same remark 
applies to cubic petre), that the effect of salt- 
petre is the soonest apparent when it is finely 
powdered, and spread on the land in moist 



weather. The explanation of this must, per- 
haps, be found in the superior rapidity with 
which, in such seasons, it mixes with the 
soil. The cultivator will remember that moist 
weather is also the best adapted for the appli- 
cation of other top-dressings, such as gypsum 
and soot. I have found in the application of 
crushed bones to grass lands, that they never 
produce such good effects as when rolled into 
the soil by a heavy roller, when the ground is 
softened by wet weather. The Staffordshire 
farmers will readily attest the same fact. If 
long-continued dry weather succeeds the appli- 
cation of the nitrates to clover, the leaves of 
the grass, wherever the powdered nitrate has 
fallen, become covered with yellowish spots. 

The application, too, of either nitre or cubic 
nitre to grass renders it much more attractive 
to live-stock, who, if turned into a grass field 
only partially dressed with either, will almost 
invariably resort to the portion of the land 
dressed with the nitrates. This is one argu- 
ment in favour of the conclusion that these 
salts are in minute proportions absorbed by the 
crops to which they are applied. We know 
that this is the case with other saline manures, 
such as gypsum (sulphate of lime) and com- 
mon salt ; and every cultivator who has dressed 
his grass with either salt or grypsum will attest 
how decidedly his live-stock prefer the grass so 
treated to every other portion of the same field. 

The effect of cubic petre as a fertilizer for 
heavy soils, seems to be rather more favoura- 
ble, as far as my observations extend, than that 
of saltpetre; and in this I am confirmed by 
the observations of many of my neighbours. 
Yet still I am of opinion that, in the great ma- 
jority of instances, both the cubic petre and 
the saltpetre will be found much more valua- 
ble top-dressings for light lands than for the 
heavier soils ; and I am not much inclined to 
alter my opinion from the results of many of 
the carefully observed experiments of the very 
dry season of 1840; for in such periods it is 
almost hopeless to expect that any kind of top- 
dressing will produce results such as may 
serve to guide us in our future practice. Thus, 
in seasons such as the last, I have repeatedly 
witnessed the failure of top-dressings of all 
kinds ; not only of the salts, such as lime and 
salt, gypsum and soot, and malt coombs, but 
even of the richest manure. My neighbours 
in Essex know very well that if a dry summer 
follows the application of their sprats (perhaps 
the most powerful of all animal manures), the 
application is entirely useless. In my own 
experiments with nitrate of soda I have inva- 
riably found the most excellent effects produced 
by its application to barley at the rate of l^ cwt. 
per acre, sown broadcast, as finely divided as 
possible, soon after the young plants were be- 
ginning to show themselves above ground. 
The soils on which these experiments were 
made were the barley soils of Hampshire and 
Essex; and the same increase to the green 
colour of the crop, and a similar large increase 
to the produce of seed which my neighbours 
experienced, resulted from my own experi- 
ments. The clover also, which was sown with 
the barley in most instances, seemed to derive 
a considerable benefit from the dressing; an(? 

847 



NITRATES OF 



POTASH AND SODA. 



I have noticed on more than one occasion, 
the advantage of sowing the cubic petre in 
moist weather. In the dry summer of 1840, 
the effect of the cubic petre was very inferior 
to that produced by it on similar land and crops 
in 1838 and 1839 — an effect which entirely 
supports my conclusions with regard to the 
inefficacy of all top-dressings in periods of 
long-continued dry weather. Of this opinion, 
too, is a very excellent and extensive farmer 
of Surrey. 

Mr. Hewitt Davis noticed too the effect on 
some of the clays as well as the sands of Surrey 
in 1840, — that the effect of cubic petre upon 
young wheats at the rate of l^- cwt. per acre 
was excellent, not only in producing a very 
deep green colour, but in inducing a very con- 
siderable rankness of growth. But then, in 
his experience and observations, he has no- 
ticed that the wheat thus dressed has a stronger 
tendency to blight than that growing on the 
adjoining lands. On his farms, however, this 
rankness of growth is not felt as an evil ; for 
on all soils, heavy as well as light, he practises 
an excellent system of thin sowing, the effect 
of which, as I can attest, is excellent in pro- 
ducing most abundant crops ; either on the 
poor, hungry, black gravels and sands of Ad- 
dington in Surrey, or on the tenacious clays of 
Sussex, he never drills more than 5 pecks of 
seed wheat per acre at intervals of 12 inches. 
It is true that by this plan the appearance of 
the wheat during the winter months is not so 
vigorous as many farmers would at first sight 
approve ; but the plants gradually get together, 
stool out very abundantly, have all their ears 
of a uniform length; the produce is abundant, 
the sample generally excellent, and rarely sub- 
ject to blight. 

These valuable experiments of Mr. Davis 
entirely confirm those which I have been in- 
duced to make on several occasions, and may, 
in a great measure, perhaps, serve to explain 
some of the discordant results of the recent 
extensive, and, in the majority of instances, 
successful experiments, with nitrate of soda 
and saltpetre, as a top-dressing for wheat, bar- 
ley, and oats. For in a great many instances 
where the cubic petre has failed to produce 
advantageous results, the seed has been sown 
in rather large quantities ; the corn, therefore, 
by the action of the salt becomes darkly green, 
grows with great luxuriance — is perhaps too 
thick on the ground ; and the farmer, as a 
natural consequence, finds that the nitrated 
corn has a tendency to mildew. In the first 
number of the second volume of the Journal 
rf the Royal Agricultiiral Society of England, there 
is a mass of valuable information, collected by 
Mr. Barclay, which illustrates very considera- 
bly these observations on the advantages of 
thin sowing ; such as the experiments of Mr. 
Barker, Mr. Hyett, and others. And although 
I am not prepared to contend that the effects 
of these two powerful salts will be in all cases 
the most apparent on thin-sown corn, yet I am 
much inclined to think that the farmer "will find 
that this is very often indeed the case. 

In most soils there is to be found a certain 
proportion of carbonate of potash, and in many 
It exists in sufficient quantity to decompose the 



nitrate of soda, and form nitrate of potash and 
carbonate of soda. This may, perhaps, serve 
to account, in some instances, for the varying 
results obtained in some apparently similar soils 
from the application of the nitrate of soda, and 
may be one reason amongst others why moisture 
is found to be so essentially necessary for the 
beneficial action of cubic nitre ; for it is a 
chemical axiom, that to produce any chemical 
action between two substances, one of them 
must be in a fluid state, perfectly dry sub- 
stances hardly ever producing any chemical 
action on each other. 

Such, then, are the results of the long-con- 
tinued experiments and observations upon nitre 
and cubic nitre which I have been able to 
make, and to suggest to others to re-examine 
and verify; and such, too, are, I think, the rea- 
sonable conclusions to be derived from our 
united experience. 

In pursuing a path so novel, and so exten- 
sive, it need hardly astonish us that there are 
yet several sources of error to be avoided, de- 
ceptive appearances to be scrutinized, and ad- 
ditional experiments needed, before we can 
expect to arrive at the knowledge of the best 
and most economical modes of applying these 
two valuable nitrates. The soils to which they 
are best adapted, and the causes of their not 
always producing even on apparently similar 
soils the same powerful effects, are amongst 
the objects of inquiry to which I have alluded 
in this paper. The advocates, however, of 
these saline manures have no need to com- 
plain of the progress M'hich they have made; 
for admitting that on some soils (hey have 
apparently produced but trifling effects, and on 
other soils hardly any, yet still in the multitude 
of instances they have amply repaid the farmer 
for his outlay. There is no uiher instance, per- 
haps, of such a rapid introduction of a saline 
manure into agriculture, as that of the modern, 
extensive, and increasing use of cubic petre by 
the farmers of Great Britain ; and if we only 
pause to remember the difficulties of experi- 
mental researches like those, exposed, as all 
examinations of the process of vegetation of 
necessity are, to innumerable sources of error, 
we shall find no reason to complain of the suc- 
cess of its introduction, or of the talent and 
enterprize with which the farmers of England 
have conducted their valuable experiments. 

There are many experiments with these two 
salts to be met with in the agricultural journals 
of the last few years. 

1. Memorandum of saltpetre, nitrate of soda, 
and common salt, used as top-dressings in the 
south-east garden park, of a lightish land, well ■ 
drained, 11th April, 1840, on pasture laid down ■' 
with grain in 1839: one acre sown with 1^ cwt. ■ 
of nitrate of soda, measured and marked as 
such ; then a piece of one rood, without any 
dressing; again, one acre sown with 1^ cwt 
of saltpetre ; next to this half an acre dressed 
with three-fourths of a cwt. of common salt. 

Result. — In little more than a fortnight after 
this, having had some favourable showers, 
there was an extraordinary change on the two 
distinct acres dressed with saltpetre and nitrate 
of soda, as compared with the rest of the field. 
The grass continued to grow on these divisions 



NITRATES OF 



POTASH AND SOD V 



much stronger, close, and of an infinitely richer 
and darker colour; and the cattle lying much 
upon it, seemed very fond of it. This superior 
appearance continued through May and June, 
and perhaps later. The grass was, after this, 
eaten so close that no difference could be no- 
ticed, if any existed ; it was particularly and 
frequently observed in September, October, 
November, and now, 8th December; and no 
difference was then, or is now, perceptible be- 
tween the ground dressed with saltpetre and 
what was not so dressed. The pasture seemed 
equally benefited by the nitrate of soda as by 
the saltpetre; and as the latter cost in propor- 
tion to the former as 30s. to 20.«. per cwt., there 
can be no question of preferring the nitrate 
of soda. No improvement could be perceived 
to have talcen place from the dressings of com- 
mon salt. 

2. Another trial was made on pasture of the 
second year, in the lawn, on light land and dry, 
14th April, 1840; one acre, measured and 
marked, sown with 1^ cwt. of saltpetre ; ad- 
joining this, one acre sown with 1^ cwt. of 
common salt; and next, one acre, measured and 
marked, sown with 1^ cwt. of nitrate of soda. 

Resul:. — Every remark applicable to the ex- 
periments in the south-east garden park applies 
equally to this. In both, in the different breadths 
sown by the cast of the hand where the two 
breadths joined, and the ground had got an 
extra qiiaiuity, the grass was richer and darker, 
showing that 1^ cwt. per acre is not an over- 
dressing, whether of saltpetre or of nitrate of 
soda. 

3. Memorandum of dressings of saltpetre, 
common salt, and of nitrate of soda, on the 
16th of April, on oats already brairded in Stott's 
Fauld, partly on well drained, dry, and partly 
on light land; one acre and fifteen falls, mea- 
sured and marked, sown with saltpetre at the 
rate of Ih cwt. per acre; next to this, one acre 
and fifteen falls, dressed with common salt in 
the same proportion ; next to this, one acre 
and fifteen falls, sown at the same rate with 
the nitrate of soda. 

Hesiilt. — It was long before any effect was 
perceived on any of the oats dressed as above. 
About the end of June a difference was per- 
ceived on the acre and fifteen falls sown with 
saltpetre, v/hich had previously shown worm- 
ing, and then came away darker and stronger, 
and became a heavy crop of oats and straw. 
The acre and fifteen falls dressed with nitrate 
of soda never seemed to be benefited by the 
dressing Being an inferior, light, sandy soil, 
with a red, irony bottom, it was injured by the 
early drought, and never recovered ; the salt 
here, as on the pastures, seemed to have no 
efiect. 

4. Memorandum of dressings of saltpetre and 
nitrate of soda, in Laughlan Glenfield, princi- 
pally strong clay, thorough-drained, and sub- 
soil-ploughed, 26th April, 1840, on red clover, 
&c., for green cutting: one acre, measured and 
marked, sown with saltpetre, at the rate of 1^ 
cwt. and 2| cwt. of nitrate of soda, were sown 
here in the same proportion. 

Result. — The clover, &c., seemed equally 
benefited by the saltpetre and by the nitrate 
|i of soda; and, compared with what was not 
107 



dressed, the improvement was very percepti- 
ble in about a fortnight, and it became a much 
darker, stronger, and heavier ciop than in that 
part of the field not dressed, and it was ready 
for cutting fully ten days earlier. It was not 
weighed, but it is believed there was from one- 
third to one-half more on the ground dressed 
than where it was not. The second cutting did 
not show a better crop than where it was not 
dressed. Nearly an acre was dressed with ni- 
trate of soda after the first cutting, on the lOtb 
of August, where one had before been applied, 
but it did not seem to do much good. 

5. Memorandum of dressing of saltpetre and 
nitrate of soda on some winter-sown wheat ia 
Bridge Park, on clay land, thorough-drainea, 
and subsoil-ploughed, 20th April, 1840. 

First Lot. — Twenty falls, measured and 
marked, dressed with 28 lbs. of nitrate of scdju 
Produce: Wheat 7 bushels, 17^ lbs., or per acre 
(by an acre a Scotch acre is meant throughout, 
and a Scotch acre is about one-fifth longer than 
a statute acre; and by "a fall," a perch of 
land), 58 bushels, 26 lbs.; straw 64 stones, 18 
lbs., or per acre 518 stones. Weight of wheat, 
per bushel, 157^ lbs. Sold to baker for 28s. 

Second Lot. — Twenty falls, measured and: 
marked, sown with 28 lbs. of saltpetre. Pro- 
duce : Wheat 6 bushels, 38 lbs., or per acre 52- 
bushels, 24 lbs.; straw 95 stones, 13 lbs., or per 
acre 764 stones. Weight per bushel, 58 lbs. 
Sold to baker for 28s. 

Third Lot. — Forty falls adjoining, measured 
and marked, without any dressing. Produce : 
Wheat 11 bushels, 1 lb., or per acre 44 bushels, 
4 lbs.; straw 79 stones, or per acre 316 stones 
Weight 59 lbs. Sold for seed at 35s. per boll 

Fourth Lot. — A small quantity of oaU ad- 
joining to this winter wheat was dressed with 
saltpetre, which produced a great effect on the 
strength and colour of the oats ; but the pro- 
duce was not weighed or measured after being 
cut. 

Fifth Lot. — Trial of nitrate of soda on six 
drills of potatoes, at the rate of 1| cwt. per 
acre, sown over the stems when 5 inches long, 
on lOih June. Result: The shaws {tops) seemed 
much finer and richer than those not thus treat- 
ed; but the potatoes being sold, the compara- 
tive produce was not ascertained. 

Six drills of Swedish turnips, dressed at the 
same rate, lOth June, on a healthy braird, fol- 
lowed by fine showers and warmth. Result : 
Both shaws and turnips much improved, as 
compared with those near them not thus dressed ; 
in appearance improved by several tons to the 
acre, but no comparative weights were taken. 

In the trial with nitrate of soda, in the same 
proportions, on mangel-wurzel and carrots. 
Walls, the overseer, could not observe any dif- 
ference between those so dressed and those 
which were not; and saltpetre and cubic petre 
were also mixed in small proportions with th«s 
compost from an old hotbed, and used in the 
garden for turnips, spinach, carrots, cauliflow 
ers, asparagus, and onions, but without an> 
apparent advantage. 

Mr. S. Martin, of Warbleton, in Sussex, has 
given, in the Sussex Express, the following de- 
tails of his experiments with nitrate of soda sis 
a top-dressing for corn, on a four-acre field in 

849 



NITRATE OF SODA. 

his occupation : — "The soil of the field selected 
is a thin, gravelly loam, with a substratum of 
sandstone, and was a rye-grass ley, fed with 
sheep and beasts until the last week in May, 
1839, when it was ploughed up, and afterwards 
twice stirred and harrowed, and manured with 
120 bushels of lime per acre, previously to its 
being sown with the wheat "golden drop" in the 
autumn. In the last week of April, this year, 
[applied 1 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre over 
the whole field (with the exception of two lands 
in the middle of the field); in the second week 
in May, I applied to two lands adjoining those 
upon which none had been sown an additional 
1 cwt. per acre. Previously to the application 
of the nitrate, the plants had a very sickly ap- 
pearance, getting yellow in patches, and look- 
ing, as we call it here, " speary ;" but in a very 
few days subsequent, its appearance was much 
altered, it having (with the exception of the 
two lands on which none had been sown, and 
which remained in a very sickly state) changed 
from a faint yellow to a luxuriant green ; the 
two lands upon which the 2 cwt. per acre were 
sown were much darker in appearance than 
the other, and easily distinguishable from the 
remainder at a very considerable distance. 

"At harvest I measured off exactly 8 rods 
)f each, and had it reaped (leaving a stubble 
about 16 inches high), and carted and thrashed 
separately; the result was asunder: — 8 rods 
%'ithout soda produced 1 bushel, 3 galls. 1 pint, 
r 27 bushels, 6 galls. 4 pints per acre ; weight, 
;; 1 lbs. per bushel ; straw 89 lbs., or 49 trusses, 
16 lbs. per acre: 8 rods with 1 cwt. of soda 
per acre, 2 bushels, 1 gall., or 42 bushels, 4 
sails, per acre; weight, 60^ lbs. per bushel; 
straw, 155 lbs., or 86 trusses, 4 lbs. per acre : 
8 rods with 2 cwt. of soda per acre, 2 bushels 
.2 galls. 7 pints, or 47 bushels, 1 gall. 4 pints 
per acre; weight, 60^ lbs. per bushel ; straw, 
156 lbs., or 86 trusses, 24 lbs. per acre. 

"On another piece of land, soil very thin 
.and gravelly, sown with Talavera wheat in the 
autumn,! applied 1 cwt. per acre in the first 
week in May, and the result was equally satis- 
factory, the produce good, and weighed 64 lbs. 
per bushel. 

"In an adjoining field of precisely the same 
description of soil, but which had been in hops 
for 11 years previously, and amply manured 
•every year, I sowed on two rods at the end of 
.<me of the lands nitrate equal to 1^ cwt. per 
acre, which had a very prejudicial effect; the 
■,part with nitrate of soda being much mildewed 
and totally unfit for bread, while the straw on 
ihe remainder of the field was very bright and 
clean, and the grain full and handsome. I also 
used nitrate of soda on a meadow, 1 cwt. per 
acre, applied the last week in April ; produce 
very trifling. 

"As far as my experience goes, and from 
the efl^ect of nitrate of soda on my neighbours' 
lands, I am of opinion that it is a very valua- 
ble manure for their light soils, exhausted by 
repeated croppings, particularly in districts 
where the arable lands have been repeatedly 
manured with lime ; but I have great doubts 
whether it would answer for wheat on newly 
broken up or other land in a high state of cul- 
tivation and full of manure. In my experi- 
8.^0 



NUISANCES. 

ment on the old hop ground, although the straw 
was much longer, with a blade broad and 
flaggy, the yield was miserably deficient, both 
in quantity and quality, compared with the rest 
of the field. 

" In respect to its eflect on the second crop, 
I can only observe, that a very thin, wornout 
field of 18 acres, with wheat in 1839, on which 

1 cwt. per acre was used (one land of which 
had a double quantity), was sown this year 
half with oats and half with seeds, that both 
oats and seeds were fully equal to any I ever 
grew on that field ; and that the land where the 

2 cwt. per acre was sown produced fully as 
many plants, with longer straw and more grains, 
and was, as far as I could judge from appear- 
ances (I did not keep it separate), much supe- 
rior to the other." 

NITRIFICATION. See Eremacausis. 

NODI. In botany, the knots or swelled ar- 
ticulations of stems ; the place where one joint 
is articulated with another. 

NONE-SO-PRETTY. One of the names of 
the London-pride Saxifrage. See Saxifrage. 

NONESUCH, or Black Medick. See Me- 

DICK. 

NOONINGS. A term provincially used to 
signify working during dinner-hours. 

NORFOLK PLOUGH. See Ploughs. 

NORTHERN LIGHTS, or AURORA 
BOREALIS. See Lights, Northern. 

NOSE-BAND. That part of the head-stall 
of a bridle which comes over a horse's nose. It 
is sometimes termed maserole. 

NUCLEUS (Lat). Literally, any thing 
round which matter has accumulated, or to 
which it is affixed. In botany, it is used in 
various significations : — 1. The central, fleshy, 
pulpy mass of an ovule. 2. That part of a 
seed contained within the testa, and consisting 
of either the embryo and albumen or of the 
embryo onlj'. 3. In lichens, the disk of the 
shield, which contains the sporules and their 
cases. 4. In the language of the older bota- 
nists, what is now termed by gardeners a clove ; 
that is, the secondary bulb of a bulbous plant. 

NUISANCES, in English law, are of two 
kinds : public or common, which annoy the 
king's subjects in general; and private, which 
are defined " any thing done to the hurt or an- 
noyance of the lands, tenements, or heredita- 
ments of another." A nuisance may be defined 
to be any act done which renders the lives of 
the neighbours less comfortable than they were 
before. The remedies allowed by the law are 
in some cases summary, as when a gate is 
erected across a public highway, or cattle 
trespass on the land; and in which cases the 
passenger or owner of the land is justified in 
removing the nuisance : or in other cases, the 
general legal remedies are, indictment or pre- 
sentment, for public nuisances ; or by an action 
on the case for damages, for private nuisances. 

Indictable Nuisances. — Of the number of 
public nuisances which are punishable by 
indictment are setting spring-guns and man- 
traps, which, by the 7&8G. 4, c. 18, is declared 
to be a misdemeanor ; but the act allows such 
to be set " from sunset to sunrise in dwelling- 
houses for the protection thereof." Other in- 
dictable nuisances are for erecting a privy or 



NURSERY. 



OAK. 



placing putrid carrion near a highway, or keep- 
ing hogs, and feeding them with offal near to a 
street ; for keeping a dangerous bull in a field 
throMgh which there is a public pathway (if 
the bull or other dangerous animal is purposely 
placed there to stop a disputed path, and death 
ensues, it is a murder) ; for keeping unmuzzled 
a ferocious dog ; for baiting on the queen's 
highway a bull, &c. The punishment in any 
case of nuisance is fine or imprisonment, or 
both ; and the court may order the defendant 
to pay the prosecutor his costs. It is no de- 
fence to prove that the nuisance has existed 
for a number of years ; but in some cases the 
facts of the case may be taken into considera- 
tion by the jury, who are to determine whether 
the benefit derived by the public exceeds the 
annoyance. But in indictments for obstruct- 
ing the highway by placing on it for a length 
of time carriages while loading and unloading, 
it is no defence to show that space was always 
left for two carriages to pass and repass on 
the other side of the street. The non-repair 
of a road or a bridge are also well-known 
nuisances, which are indictable. 

Nuisances on which an. Action on the Case is 
mainiainaltle. — Accidents from the negligent 
use of loaded guns; placing baited traps so 
near to the premises of another, or the high- 
way, that dogs are attracted into them and in- 
jured. For an injury by a vicious bull; and 
it is no defence by the owner of an animal that 
he has had notice of having done an injury, 
and has taken every precaution to prevent it 
doing so again. No action, however, lies for 
an injury by a dog let loose on the owner's 
closed premises at night for their protection ; 
or on land on which the injured party has no 
right to go. If a person harbour a dog, or al- 
lows it to resort to his premises, he is liable for 
any damage it may cause. And the owner of 
a dog that destroys or injures sheep is, of course, 
liable to their owner. If the owner catch the 
dog in the act of worrying his fowls or sheep, 
he is justified in shooting him; but he must 
not ftillow the dog some distance, and then 
shoot him; nor may he shoot a dog merely 
trespassing; but he may if the dog is chas- 
ing deer in a park. And if any man do any 
thing on his own soil which is a nuisance to 
another, as by stopping a rivulet, and so dimi- 
nishing the water used by him for his cattle, 
the party injured may enter on the soil of the 
other and abate the nuisance; and this right 
of abatement is not confined merely to nui- 
sances to a house, to a mill, or to land. 

NURSERY. In horticulture, a piece of land 
set apart and appropriated for rearing and pre- 
serving young plants and trees of different 
kinds, with a view to supply both gardens and 
plantations. The situation ought to be open 
and airy, and the soil of an average quality, 
neither too heavy nor too light, so as to be 
adapted to the majority of plants ; but in a 
complete nursery there ought also to be shady 
borders for plants requiring shade, and beds or 
compartments of peat soil or other peculiar 
earths, for such plants as are not readily in- 
creased and grown in ordinary soils. Where 
tender plants are propagated, or where hardy 

nts are to be raised from seeds or struck 



■ from cuttings, which are not easily germinated 
j or rooted in the open ground and in the ordi- 
nary manner, hotbeds, frames, and handglasses 
are also requisite. Every private garden of 
any extent requires a nursery to raise and 
bring forward young plants, as a reserve for 
supplying failures by disease or accident in the 
general garden ; and in every country where 
private gardens or plantations of trees are fre- 
quent, public or commercial nurseries are 
formed by persons who adopt nursery garden- 
ing as a business. 

NUT, BLADDER. See Bladder-Nut. 

NUT, THE EARTH. See Earth-Nut. 

NUTRITION. The matter by which an ani- 
mal or plant is supported, and its growth in- 
creased. See Food and Meat, Gases, Earths, 
Salts, Water, &c. 

NUTS (Lat. mix). In botany, seeds covered 
with hard shells ; but in the general accepta- 
tion of the word, signifies the fruit of difierent 
species of hazel (^Coryli). 

NYMPH. SeePcPA. 

o. 

OAK (Ger. eiche ; Dut. eik ; Dan. eeg ; Sw. ek ; 
Lat. Quercus; from the Celtic quer, fine, and cuez, 
a tree ; others derive it from the Greek word 
choiros, a pig, because those animals feed on. 
the acorns). 

The oak is indigenous throughout Britain, 
and in former ages, before the clearing away 
of the forests had commenced, appears to have 
covered a very large portion of its surface; for, 
even in districts where the natural or self-sown 
oak is now rarely seen, the remains of noble 
and gigantic trees are frequently met with, 
sometimes in the alluvial deposits on the mar 
gins of rivers, or in boggy places covered with 
a layer of peat-moss, which has been gene- 
rated around them by the stagnation of the 
water caused by their fall. 

A fine oak is one of the most stately and 
picturesque of trees ; it conveys to the mind 
associations of strength and duration, which are 
very impressive. The oak stands up against 
the blast, and does not take, like other trees, 
a twisted form from the action of the winds. 
Except the cedar of Lebanon, no tree is so re- 
markable for the stoutness of its limbs ; they 
do not exactly spring from the trunk, and thus 
it is sometimes difficult to know which is stem 
and which is branch. 

English oak warps and twists much in dry- 
ing, and in seasoning shrinks about g'^d of its 
width. This wood is more durable than any 
other timber in water ; and in a dry state it has 
been known to last nearly 1000 years. The 
more compact it is, and the smaller the pores 
are, the longer it will last ; but the open, porous, 
and foxy-coloured oak, which grows in Lin- 
colnshire and some other places, is not near so 
durable. The bark, leaves, and fruit of all the 
species abound in astringent matter, and in 
tannic acid. The bark in the spring contains 
more tannic acid, and is more easily separated, 
than at any other season : hence oaks are 
usually barked in May, June, and the beginning 
of July. When separated, the bark is idried by 
being set up in ranges, which are called loftes 

851 



OAK. 

In the greater part of North America, as 
well as in Europe, there is no tree so generally 
useful as the oak, which seems to have been 
multiplied in proportion to its utility. 

LinnEBUS, in the third edition of his Species 
Planlarum, published in 1774, described 14 spe- 
cies of oak, of which 5 only are natives of the 
New World. Since then, owing to the labours of 
those indefatigable naturalists, Humboldt, Bon- 
nland, and especially Michaux, the father, the 
number of American species of oak has been 
increased to no less than 44, all of which are 
comprised between the 20th and 48th degrees 
of North latitude. In the Old Continents, only 
30 species are enumerated, and these are scat- 
tered on both sides of the equator. The spe- 
cies and varieties of the oak added to those 
described by the Michaux, are chiefly found in 
the extreme Southern States, Texas, and Mexi- 
can possessions. 

The following classification of American 
oaks was made by the elder Michaux, who in- 
cludes in it three European species : 

First Division. 

Fructification annual. 
First Section — Leaves lobed. 

1. White oak {Quercus alba). 

2. Common European oak (Quercus robur). 

3. European white oak {Quercus robur peduncu' 

lata). 

4. Mossy-cup oak {Quercus olivaformis'). 

5. Over-cup white oak {Quercus macrocarpa"). 

6. Post oak (^Quercus obivsiloba"). 

7. Over-cup oak {Quercus lyrata). 

Skconh Section. — Leaves toothed. 

8. Swamp white oak {Quercus prinus discolor). 

9. Chestnut white oak (QwercMsprintts/iaZus^m). 
10. Rockchestnutoak {Quercus prinus monticola). 
i I. Yellow oak {Quercus prinus acuminata). 

12. Small chestnut oak {Quercus prinus chinca- 

pin). 

Second Division. 

Fruclificalion biennial; leaves muavnated (except 

in the 13th species). 

First Section. — Leaves obtuse or entire. 

13. Live oak {Quercus virens). 

14. Cork oak {Quercus suhcr). 

15. Willow oak {Quercus phellos). 

16. Laurel oak {Qv^rcus imbricaria). 

17. Upland willow oak {Quercus cinerea). 

18. Running oak {Quercus pnmila). 

Second Section. — Leaves lobed, 

19. Bartram oak {Quercus heterophylla). 

20. Water oak {Quercus aquatica). 

21. Black Jack oak {Querctts ferruginea). 

22. Bear oak {Quercus banista-i). 

Third Section. — Leaves multijid or many-clef ted. 

23., Barren scrub oak {Quercus Catesbai). 

24. Spanish oak {Quercus falcata). 

25. Black oak {Q,uercus tinctoria). 

26. Scarlet oak {Quercus coccinea). 

27. Gray oak {Quercus ambigua). 
28 Pin oak {Quercus palustris). 
29. Red oak {Quercus rubra). 

852 



OAK. 

The most valuable species of the AmericaH 
oaks is the white oak, which is found as far 
north as the small town of Trois Rivieres, in 
Canada, lat. 46° 20', and the lower part of the 
river Kennebec, in Maine, and thence south on 
both sides of the Alleghanies down to the 28th 
degree of latitude. Its vegetation is repressed 
in the Northern States by the severity of the 
winters. In the lowermost Southern States it 
is found only on the borders of swamps, with 
a few other trees, which likewise shun a dry 
and barren soil. The white oak is observed 
to be uncommon on lands of extraordinary 
fertility, like those of Tennessee, Kentucky, 
and Genesee, and in all the spacious valleys 
watered by the western rivers. One may travel 
whole days in those states without seeing a 
single stock, though the few that exist, both 
there and in the Southern Stales, exhibit the 
most luxuriant vegetation. 

The white oak abounds chiefly in the Middle 
States and in Virginia, particularly in that 
part of Pennsylvania and Virginia which lies 
between the Alleghanies and the Ohio. East 
of the mountains this tree is found in every 
exposure, and in every soil which is not ex- 
tremely dry or subject to long inundations ; but 
the largest slocks grow in humid places. In 
the western districts, where it composes entire 
forests, the face of the country is undulated, 
and the yellow soil, consisting partly of clay 
with a mixture of calcareous stones, yields 
abundant crops of wheat. 

By the foregoing observations it appears that 
the severity of the climate, the fertility of the 
soil, its dryness or humidity, are the causes 
which render the white oak so rare over three- 
quarters of the United States that it is in- 
adequate to supply the local demand, though 
the country contains but a small proportion 
of the population which it is capable of sup- 
porting. 

Among the American oaks this species bears 
the greatest analogy to the European oak, espe- 
cially to the variety called European white oak, 
Quercus pedunculata, which it resembles in fo- 
liage and in the qualities of its wood. The 
American white oak is 70 or 80 feet high, and 
6 or 7 feet in diameter ; but its proportions vary 
with the soil and climate. 

The excellent properties of the white oak 
for the construction of houses, ships, and 
almost innumerable other purposes, are too 
well known to need any particular description 
in this place. 

Great black oak {Quercus tinctoria). The wood 
of this tree is of a coarser grain than that of 
the white oak, and of a reddish colour. Be- 
tween every year's growth, also, it appears 
porous, yet when dry and seasoned, it becomes 
strong and durable. The bark has, for a long 
time, been in great repute for tanning, and 
for the very excellent yellow dye which it 
affords. Dr. Bancroft, of London, learned the 
use of the bark as a dye, when in this country, 
during the revolutionary war; and introduced 
it in the manufactories of England, to which 
country many ship-loads of the article, ground, 
have been annually shipped, under the name 
of Quercitron bark. 



OAK-APPLE. 



OAK BARK. 



Spanish oak (^Qucrais falcata, of Michaux) ; 
the bark of this species is somewhat rough, 
and light-coloured. The leaves are deeply and 
obtusely sinuated, and end in several acute, 
bristly points : the foot-stalks are pretty long. 
The timber is generally worm-eaten, or rotten 
at heart ; but the bark is preferred to ail other 
for tanning, and is much dearer. 

Live oak (Qwercits virciis). This species is con- 
fined to Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida. 
The tree is of uncommon magnitude, and sin- 
gularly beautiful. The moss hangs in lengths 
of several yards from the large branches of the 
old trees, and waving with the wind, gives the 
tree a venerable appearance. The wood is 
proverbial for its durability, when cut at a 
proper season, and is much used for ship 
timber. See Acorns, Dry Rot, and Planta- 

'flOXS. 

OAK-APPLE. This is not to be confounded 
with those beautiful little excrescences so com- 
mon upon the underside of the leaves of the 
oak, and known by the name of galls and 
spangles; they are the nidi of different species 
of Cynips, produced by the puncture of the ovi- 
positor of the female, upon the different parts 
•where they are found. The oak-apple is also 
formed by the puncture of a cynips, upon the 
twigs of Q. pedunctilata. It rises rapidly, is 
nsually spheroidal, in size about 1 to 2 inches 
in diameter. Its texture is spongy. It has 
some resemblance to the Bedeywar of the Eg- 
lantine, but is not so rough and fibrous on the 
surface. The oak-apples are very astringent, 
containing tannic acid, and may be used in 
dyeing, nsaking ink, and staining. 

'J'he largest galls or oak-apples, found in the 
United States, grow on the leaves of the red 
oak. They are round and smooth, and measure 
from 1^ to 2 inches in diameter. This kind of 
gall is green and somewhat pulpy at first, but, 
when ripe, it consists of a thin and brittle shell, 
of a dirty drab colour, enclosing a quantity of 
brown spongy matter, in the middle of which 
is a woody kernel about as big as a pea. A 
single grub lives in the kernel, becomes a 
chrysalis in the autumn, when the oak-apple 
falls from the tree, changes to a fly in the 
spring, and makes its escape out of a small 
round hole which it gnaws through the kernel 
and shell. This, says Dr. Harris, is probably 
the usual course, but I have known this gall- 
fly to come out in October. The name of this 
insect is Cynips confiuentus. Its head and thorax 
are black, and rough with numerous little pits 
and short hairs; the hind-body is smooth, and 
of a shining pitch colour; the legs are dull 
brownish-red; and the fore-wings have a brown 
spot near the middle of the outer edge. Its 
body is nearly one-quarter of an inch long, and 
its wings expand five-eighths of an inch. 

Clusters of three or four round and smooth 
galls are often seen on the small twigs of the 
white oak. They are nearly as large as bullets, 
of a greenish colour on one side, and red on 
the other. They approach in hardness to the 
Aleppo galls, and perhaps might be put to the 
same use. Each one is the nest of a single 
insect, which turns to a fly and eats its way out 
in June and July, having passed the winter as 
a chrysalis, withia the gall, lodged in a clay- 



coloured, egg-shaped case, about three-twen- 
tieths of an inch long, and with a brittle shell. 
These little cases appear to be cocoons, but 
are not made of silk or fibrous matter. Similar 
cocoons are found within many other galls, and 
I have some which were discovered under 
stones, and were not contained in galls, but 
produced gall-flies, the insects having left their 
galls to finish their transformations in the 
ground. The gall-fly of the white oak varies 
in colour. Sometimes it closely resembles the 
gall-fly of our oak-apple, difi"ering from it only 
in size, and in wanting the brownish spot and 
dark-coloured veins on the fore-wings ; and 
sometimes it isof aduU brownish-yellow colour, 
with a brown spot on the back. It is three- 
twentieths of an inch long, and its wings ex- 
pand three-tenths of an inch. It is the Diplo- 
lepis, or more properly Cynips oneratus of Dr. 
Harris's "Catalogue." 

Galls of the size and colour of grapes are 
found on the leaves of some oaks. Each one 
contains a grub, which finishes its transforma- 
tions in June. The winged insect is the Cynips 
nwiiZijoewMis, or cloudy-winged Cynips, so named 
from the smoky cloud on the tips of its wings. 
Excepting in this respect, it closely resembles 
the dark-coloured variety of Cynips oneratus, and 
very little exceeds it in size. 

One of our smallest gall-flies may be called 
Cynips seminator, or the sower. She lays a great 
number of eggs in a ring-like cluster around 
the small twigs of the white oak, and her punc- 
tures are followed by the growth of a rough ot 
shaggy reddish gall, as large sometimes as a 
walnut. When this is ripe, it is like brittle 
sponge in texture, and contains numerous little 
seed-like bodies, adhering by one end around 
the sides of the central twig. These seeming 
seeds have a thin and tough hull, of a yellowish 
white colour; they are egg-shaped, pointed at 
one end, and are nearlj'^ one-eighth of an inch 
long. The gall-insects live singly, and undergo 
their transformations within these seeds ; after 
which, in order to come out, they gnaw a small 
hole in the hull, and then easily work their 
way through the spongy ball wherein they are 
lodged. They are less than one-tenth of an 
inch long, are almost black, or of the colour of 
pitch, highly polished, especially on the abdo- 
men, and their mouth, antenna, and legs are 
cinnamon-coloured. 

It has been observed that no tree in Europe 
yields so many different kinds of galls as the 
oak. Those described are not all that are 
found on oaks in the United States, and they 
seem to be sufficiently distinct from the galls 
of European oaks. {Harris.) 

OAK BARK. The cortical layer stripped from 
the oak tree. Oak bark is preferred to all other 
substances in the tanning of leather, and in Eu- 
rope brings a high price afterwards as a ma- 
nure. The exhausted bark is used by gardeners 
to produce a slight equable heat by its ferment- 
ation, and may be advantageously used as a 
manure. The tan-balls, or muddy sediments 
of tan-pits, are used for summer fuel. The 
bark contains diflTerent quantities of tannic 
acid, according as it is near to or distant from 
the wood. Thus, the inner part, or libe-^, ac- 
cording to Sir H. Davy's experiments, yields 
3C 853 



OAK PRUNER. 



OAT. 



about 77 per cent, of tannic acid ; the cellular 
layer, iying upon the liber, yields only 56 per 
cent ; and the cuticle little or none. Dr. Hig- 
gins obtained 108 parts of tannic acid from the 
bark of an oak felled in the spring, and only 
30 from an oak felled in winter. When the 
bark is set up to dry, the air, aided by mois- 
ture, acting upon the tannic acid, converts a 
portion of it into gallic acid, which is not origi- 
nally a constituent of oak bark. See Bahk 
and Tan. 

OAK PRUNER. The ground beneath black 
and white oaks is, says Dr. Harris, often ob- 
served to be strewn with small branches, neat- 
ly severed from these trees, as if cut off with 
a saw. Upon splitting open the cut end of 
a branch, in the autumn or winter after it 
has fallen, it will be found to be perforated 
to the extent of six or eight inches in the 
course of the pith, and a slender grub, the 
author of the mischief, will be discovered 
therein. In the spring this grub is transformed 
to a pupa, and in June or July it is changed to 
a beetle, and comes out of the branch. The 
history of this insect was first made public by 
Professor Peck, who called it the oak-pruner, 
or Sleiiocorus {Elaphidioti) ■putator. See PI. 16, 1. 
Ill its adult state it is a slender, long-horned 
beetle, of a dull brown colour, sprinkled with 
gray spots, composed of very short close hairs ; 
the antennae are longer than the body, in the 
males, and equal to it in length in the other 
sex, and the third and fourth joints are tipped 
with a small spine or thorn ; the thorax is 
barrel-shaped, and not spined at the sides ; and 
the scutel is yellowish-white. It varies in 
length from four and a half to six-tenths of an 
inch. It lays its eggs in July. Each egg is 
placed close to the axilla or joint of a leaf- 
stalk or of a small twig, near the extremity of 
a branch. The grub hatched from it penetrates 
at that spot to the pith, and then continues its 
course towards the body of the tree, devouring 
the pith, and thereby forming a cylindrical bur- 
row, several inches in length, in the centre of 
the branch. Having reached its full size, 
v/hich it does towards the end of the summer, 
it divides the branch at the lower end of its 
burrow, by gnawing away the wood transverse- 
ly from within, leaving only the ring of bark 
untouched. It then retires backwards, stops 
up the end of its hole, near the transverse sec- 
tion, with fibres of the wood, and awaits the 
fall of the branch, which is usually broken off 
and precipitated to the ground by the autumnal 
winds. The leaves of the oak are rarely shed 
before the branch falls, and thus serve to break 
the shock. Branches of five or six feet in length 
and an inch in diameter, are thus severed by 
these insects, a kind of pruning that must be 
injurious to the trees, and should be guarded 
against, if possible. By collecting the fallen 
branches in the autumn, and burning them 
before the spring, we prevent the develope- 
ment of the beetles, while we derive some 
benefit from the branches as fuel. 

Oak trees are also subjected to the attacks 
of insects, which destroy the leaves, deposit 
their eggs in the branches which they destroy, 
and others which devour the solid wood. See 
Beetlks, Borers, Caterpillars, Locusts, &c. 
854 



OAT (Russ. owes ; Pol. owies ; Dutch, haver ; 
Fr. Avoine ; Lat. avena). A very valuable cereal 
grass, of which several varieties are cultivated 
for their seeds: the chief of these are — 1. The 
Avena saliva, or common oat. PI. 3, e. 3. The 
A. orientalis, or Tartarian oat, /. 3. A. strigosa, 
or bristle-pointed oat. 4. A. brevis, or short oat. 
5. A. nuda, or naked oat. 

The common oat is far the most important 
of these species. Its spikelets contain two or 
three seeds. Its florets are sometimes furnished 
with awns, and at other times are awnless. The 
oat is a native of cold climates : it flourishes 
in the temperate latitudes, but it degenerates, 
and at last refuses to yields profitable crops as 
it approaches the equator. It is, however, cul- 
tivated with success in Bengal, as low as the 
25° of latitude. It flourishes remarkably well 
in Ireland and in Scotland, and constitutes the 
principal food of the inhabitants. In England 
it is cultivated to a very considerable extent in 
the fen districts of the eastern counties, as well 
as in the northern border districts, in which 
last the oats are considered to be very superior. 
By cultivation, difference of soil and climate, 
and other causes, the common oat (A. saliva) 
has produced several varieties, which have 
been divided by some authors into three classes, 
the black, the gray, and the white. Those of 
the first class are commonly hardy, have small 
seeds, become early ripe, and are hence well 
adapted for cold hungry soils, such as those 
which are usually found on considerable ele- 
vations. 

The gray, or dun-coloured oats, although 
possessing more valuable qualities than the 
black oat, are still inferior in quality to the 
white, but on some soils yield very remunera- 
tive crops. 

The third and most valuable class of oats is 
the white. " The most improved of these," says 
Professor Low, " are without awns. They are 
the least hardy kinds, but they are of the 
greatest weight to the bushel, and the most 
productive of meal. In this class the potato 
oat is that which has possessed the greatest 
reputation for a time in the districts where it is 
cultivated. It is not so well suited to inferior 
soils as some of the other white and darker- 
coloured kinds: it is also less productive of 
straw, though the grain is more plump, weighs 
heavier, and yields a greater weight of meal. 
The hardier kinds, however, are better suited 
to certain situations than the finer, just as the 
hardier red wheats are better suited to certain 
situations than the thin-chaffed and white varie- 
ties. The potato oat was the discovery of ac- 
cident, and the produce of a single plant. It 
has, in many cases, shown a tendency to de- 
generate, by the husks becoming thicker and 
the body less plump, and by the partial appear- 
ance of awns." 

The Poland oat is another valuable cultivated 
variety of the white oat. It comes early to 
maturity, and is a prolific bearer. Its defects 
are a tendency to be deficient in straw, and a 
liability to shed its seeds. 

Besides these there are several other varie- 
ties of the white oat, as the Dutch, or Frlesland 
oat, the Hopetoun oat of East Lothian, &c. 

The Hopetoun oat was produced in 1824, by 



OAT, 



OAT. 



Ml . P. Sherriff, of Mungo's well, in the way he 
thus describes. "Having frequently had occa- 
sion to pass the gateway of a crop of potato 
oats, in the summer of 1824, a stalk of remarka- 
ble height attracted my attention. When the 
crop was reaped, the grains supported by this 
stalk, and those upon a short one proceeding 
from the same root, were gathered and sown in 
the following spring. The crop from the grains 
of the gigantic stalk was again conspicuously 
tall, and after the crop of 1837 the new variety 
established its superiority." In some compara- 
tive trials by Mr. Boswell, " on a good free 
black soil," the Hopetoun exceeded the potato 
oat in produce, as, in some experiments by 
Mr. Forsyth, of Elgin, " on a rich loam," it ex- 
ceeded the late Angus oat, and in those of Mr. 
Howden, at Traprain, in East Lothian, it proved 
superior to the gray Angus, the potato, and the 
early Angus oats. 

The early Angus oat is well known for its 
early ripening, and the late An^us, says Mr. 
Sherriff, is also well known for its fine straw 
and grain ; and although late in ripening, is the 
most esteemed species of oat in the early dis- 
tricts of Scotland, such as East Lothian and 
Morayshire. There is a difficulty, however 
(Mr. Sherriff very justly adds), of ascertaining 
\X\i merits of different varieties of grain by ex- 
periment, from the many contingencies affect- 
ing the results, the most powerful of which is 
the nature of the season. Some kinds of oats 
grow rapidly in the early part of the season, 
and some attain their full height, such as the 
Polish and Georgian oats, both of which are 
stunted. Others grow slowly, and are later in 
arriving at their full height, such as the potato, 
Flemish, and early Angus oats, which are also 
short. Others continue to grow through the 
season, and are still later in arriving at their 
full height, as the Hopetoun and late Angus 
oats, which are taller than the others. When 
the early part of the summer proves wet, and 
is followed by drought, the Polish and Georgian 
oats have an advantage over other kinds, as 
they attain their full height before the drought 
commenees. When the early part of the sum- 
mer is very dry, and moisture succeeds, the 
Hopetoun and Angus oats benefit by the mois- 
ture, while the others mentioned do not. When 
the season proves wet throughout, and the dif- 
ferent oats in consequence reach an extreme 
height, the smaller species have frequently an 
advantage over the larger in grain produce, in 
consequence of the straw of the latter becom- 
ing too luxuriant. 

The Cumberland early oat, so named from 
being raised from a single head by a Cumber- 
land gentleman, is of a longish grain, more like 
the early Angus variety than the potato; colour 
dark and dull. It is as much earlier than the 
potato oat as the latter is earlier than the 
Hopetoun, being ripe nearly a fortnight sooner 
than the Hopetoun. 

Red Oat. — There is a peculiar variety of oat 
(classed with the gray oats), called the red oat, 
which is a favourite in some districts, and is 
thus described by the celebrated William Daw- 
son, of Frogdon, in 1791 : — " Happening to be 
at Linton, in Tweeddale, which is about the 
highest land kept in cultivation in the south 



of Scotland, I found the farmers complaining 
much of the loss they had by late harvests, 
and I asked if they had tried the Dutch oats, 
which were so much earlier than the common 
kinds. They told me that they had tried the 
Dutch oats, but that they had a kind in their 
own country which were as early as the Dutch, 
and were superior in several respects ; they 
were not so apt to shake even as the common 
oat ; they suited every sort of soil if in good 
condition, and they yielded well in meal ; that 
they had been sown in that country for fifty 
years, but no one knew where they came from. 
Upon this information I commissioned a boll 
for a trial, and found them answer so well 
that I have sown no other sort for several 
years. They do not produce much straw, but 
what they do produce is very good. I saw a 
second crop of these oats upon the same land 
last year, which was good. I have found that 
they answer the character given of them at 
Linton fully. That they answer best upon land 
in good condition, but that they produce very 
little straw upon poor land ; yet the produce 
of corn is not even in these situations inferior 
to any other oats. These properties give them 
a great superiority over every other kind known 
in this country, and grown in high situations, 
and cold climates and soils." They are a kind 
of oat much relished by horses, who, if used to 
them, do not readily take to other, even richer 
kinds. Carters accustomed to them give them 
a decided preference. 

The Georgian Oat was introduced about the 
year 1824, but it has not made much progress. 
In 1826, Mr. Wilson, of Preston, reported the 
following comparative trials between it and 
the potato oat {Trans. High. Soc. vol. i. p. 153), 
upon 2 English acres of equal land. The quan- 
tity sown upon an acre was 6 bushels, and of 
the potato 4 bushels. The Georgian was reap- 
ed 10 days earlier than the potato, but they 
might have been 14 days. The appearance 
of the Georgian was by far the most luxuriant 
during the summer, till the end of July, when 
the potato shot out considerably longer in the 
straw. They were carefully cut down, stacked, 
and thrashed in March, 1826 ; the result was, 



Stnnei. lb. 
Weight of Straw of tlie potato oats per acre - 317 6 
Weigtit of straw of the Georgian oats per acre 238 12 

The produce of the potato oats per acre was 
69 Winchester bushels, and the Georgian b8. 



SlDDes. 'b. 
Weight of meal from 6 bushels of the potato 

oats - 11 5 

Weight of meal from 6 bushels of Georgian 

oate -------- 



10 



The Tartarian Oat is cultivated to some ex- 
tent in England, but much more extensively in 
some portions of the Continent. "Its fascicle 
is contracted, and nods to one side, which dis- 
tinguishes it from the common oat. The co- 
lour of its corolla is generally dark, but the 
plant improves by culture in a good soil, losing 
its awns, and that darkness of colour which ap- 
pears to distinguish the oat in its less improved 
state." The breadth of this oat annually culti- 
vated in England has much increased within 
the last few years. It is the best descriptifo 

85ft 



OAT. 



OAT 



for the poorest exhausted soils, producing the 
most straw on those sorts of any other variety. 
The oat can be profitably cultivated upon, per- 
haps, a greater variety of soils than any other 
of the cereal grasses. It may be grown, too, 
successfully with less preparation of the soil, 
and less manure. The oat plant, however, 
succeeds best in fresh soils, in newly broken 
up o.d pastures, and in those abounding in or- 
ganic matters. 

The organic manures by which the oat crop 
is best nourished, appear to be green manures ; 
fish, especially those like sprats, abounding in 
oil, and, in fact, all those of a readily decompo- 
sable description. Recently-drained marshes, 
peaty soils after being dressed with lime, 
newiy enclosed commons after being chalked, 
all usually yield large crops of oats. 

The land intended for oats should be plough- 
ed, if possible, especially on clay soils, in the 
previous winter, or at least as early in the 
spring as possible: this is a practice almost 
always adopted by the best farmers of our 
island. A still more common course of crop- 
ping is to sow oats after turnips, or other green 
crops, and especially on the four-shift system 
with grass-seeds. 

A miserable custom still prevails in some 
parts of England, of taking two crops of oats 
in succession, or an oat crop after wheat orbar- 
lej'. Arthur Young long since denounced this 
as bad husbandry. After observing that white 
oats should be sown in March, in preference to 
any other season, he remarked, that " in the 
general conduct of them the farmer should by 
all means avoid the common error of sowing 
after otlier corn crops, by which they exhaust 
the land. They should always receive the 
same preparation as barley, nor ought a good 
husbandman to think of their not paying him 
as well for such attention as that crop. It is a 
very mistaken idea to suppose it more profit- 
able to sow barley on land in good order than 
oats. He was, from divers experiments, in- 
clined to think that oats will equal, and in 
many cases exceed, barley. The superior 
quantity of the produce will ever be found to 
more than counterbalance the inferiority of the 
price ; which, however, sometimes exceeds 
that of barley." 

Oats are commonly sown from March to 
April, but it is very probable that they might 
be advantageously sown much earlier in many 
situations, and when on grass leys genera;ly 
broadcast ; from 4 to 6 bushels per acre i "" 
seed is the ordinary quantity. By the drih, 
after turnips, a much less quantity will be suffi- 
cient. I have known from 10 to 11 quarters 
per acre grown year after year from only 2 
busnels of seed. 

They are usually cut in the south by the 
scythe — in the north and western portions of 
Britain by ihe sickle; and they should never 
be allowed to become perfectly ripe before they 
are cut. The usual produce varies from 25 to 
>>0 bushels per acre. In the fens of Lincoln- 
•ihire, and in Essex and Suffolk on land pre- 
viously dressed with 35 or 40 bushels of sprats 
per acre, the yield is usually much more con- 
^■'derable. 

The weight of a bushel of oats varies from 
856 



35 to 45 pounds, and 14 -pounds of oats com* 
monly yield about 8 pounds of meal. 

The following table will show the quantity 
of meal that is usually extracted from certain 
weights of oats ; and though different results 
may be obtained by various qualities and sea- 
sons, yet the progressive ratio of the produce 
will generally be found nearly similar. 



Weight per Buihel. 


Produce 


n Meal. 


Produce 


of Husk. 


421b. 


25 lb. 


2oz. 


16 1b. 


14 oz. 


40 


23 


6 


16 


10 


38 


21 


12 


16 


4 


36 


20 


3 


l& 


13 


34 


18 


11 


15 


5 


32 


17 


5 


14 


11 


30 


16 


1 


13 


5 



Oatmeal is a well-known article of food ; it 
is the flour from which, in the northern portion 
of Great Britain, the bread of the working 
classes is partly procured. The oat-seed was 
examined by Sir H. Davy ; he found in 1000 
parts of Scotch oats 743 of soluble or nutritive 
matter, composed of 641 mucilage or starch, 15 
saccharine matter, and 87 gluten or albumen. 
In 100 parts of oats from Sussex, 59 parts of 
starch, 6 of gluten, and 2 of saccharine matter, 
33 husk. 

The principal demand for oats in Great Bri- 
tain is for horses. Its use for bread is chiefly 
confined to the northern districts. Meal is era- 
ployed also for various domestic purposes, 
feeding pigs, dogs, &c. ; and it has been used 
in brewing ale, and in the malt distilleries ; 
but for this purpose its value is much inferior 
to that of barley. 

The seeds were analyzed by Schraeder ; he 
found in 227*8 grains of ashes, obtained from 
2 lb. of oats — 

Grains. 

Silica - 144-2 

Carbonate of lime (chalk) - - 3375 

Carbonate of magnesia - - . 33'9 

Alumina (clay) ----- 4'5 

Oxide of manganese - - - - 6'95 

Oxide of iron - . . . - 4'5 

227-8 



The analysis of M. Vauquelin rather differs 
from this; he found in 100 parts of the ashes 
of the oat — 

P>rli. 
60-7 
393 



Silica - - . 
Phosphate of lime - 



100- 



But by burning the whole plant, stalk and 
seed together, he obtained a residuum com- 
Dosed of — 

Futi. 
Silica --.....55 
Phosphate of lime - ... 15 

Potash - SO 

Carbonate of lime .... S 
And some oxide of iron. 

M. Saussure obtained from 100 parts of the 
ashes of the seeds of the oat — 

Fute. 
Soluble salts ----- 1 
Earthy phospbatea ... - 34 

Silica 60 

Metallic oxide .... - 0-35 
Loss 14-75 

100- 



OAT-GRASS. 



OKRA. 



Average price of oats in England, per Win- 
chester quarter : — 

£ s. d. £ s. d. 

1771 - 16 8 1810 - 19 4 

1775 - 16 6 1815 - 13 6 

1780 - 12 10 Per Imperial Quarter. 

1785 - 17 2 1S20 - 14 9 

1790 - 18 10 1825 - 15 8 

1795 - 1 4 9 1830 - 14 5 

1800 - 1 19 10 1635 - 12 

1805 - 1 8 1840 

The account, in imperial quarters, of the 
foreign oats and oatmeal entered for home con- 
sumption ever}' five years since 1815, was — 

Qrt Qrs. 

1815 - 214,000 1830 - 900.319 

1820 - 726,848 1835 - 176,142 

1825 - 15,000 1840 - 510,836 

The annual average of oats, in Winchester 
quarters, imported into England from 1801 to 
1825 was, from — 

Qre. 

Russia 46,652 

Sweden and Norway - - . . 2,446 

Denmark 30,672 

Prussia 39.209 

Germany .-..-- 75,628 

Netherlands 84,269 

France and Southern Europe - - 1,953 

America ...... 4 

From Ireland were imported into this coun- 
try, of oats and oatmeal, in Winchester quar- 
ters — 

Qrr. Qrt. 

1810 - 493,231 1825 - 1,629,856 

1815 - 597,537 1830 - 1,471,252 

1820 - 916,250 1835 - 1,822,766 

Table shotcing the average Price of Oats per Bushel 
in the Philadelphia Market, for the 1st, 2d, 3d, 
and 4th Quarters of the following Years : 



Te»r. i 


1st Quarter. 


2d Quirler. 


3d Quarter. 


4th Quarter. 


1833 ' 


36 CIS. 


40cts. 


30cts 


35cts. 


1S34 


27 


31 


30 


33 


1835 


36 


38 


38 


40 


1836 


50 


42 


38 


50 , 


1837 


50 


49 


45 


36 ' 


1838 ' 


33 


37 


41 


41 { 


1839 i 


44 


53 


32 


33 1 


1840 ' 


28 


27 


25 


26 : 


1841 


36 


37 


47 


46 I 


1842 


43 


37 


23 


25 



Oats raised south of Philadelphia usually 
bring about 3 cents per bushel less than those 
raised in Pennsylvania and still further north, 
which are senerallv much heavier. 

OAT-GRASS. See Avena. 

OATMEAL. The meal or flour of the oat is 
used in Great Britain to make porridge, gruel, 
bread, and poultices. In the mealing process, 
the oats, after being previously dried in a kiln, 
are made to pass through the mill-stone to di- 
vest them of their coarser husks or " sheal- 
ings" before being ground. The kernels are 
then named " grits" or " groats ;" and are next 
ground over again into a coarse, rough meal, 
varying in its fineness according to the custom 
of different districts. This is afterwards either 
baked upon a heated iron, called a gridle in 
Scotland, into thin, flat cakes, or made up with 
water into loaves, and baked. When gradually 
stirred into boiling water, and boiled into a 
thick consistence, it forms the porridge of 
Scotland. It is eaten either with skimmed 
milk, butter, molass=;s, or ale. It is thus very 
108 



generally used as the common porridge for 
breakfast and supper of the greater portion of 
the peasantrj- of the northern parts of England, 
Scotland, and Ireland, and forms a very nutri- 
tive and healthy food. It is, however, apt to 
prove acescent in some stomachs, and to cause 
cutaneous diseases. See Groats. 
OCHRE. See Fclleh's Eahth. 
OFFSETS. In gardening, 3'oung radical 
bulbs, when separated or taken off from the 
parent roots, are so called. One of the chief 
methods of propagating plants is by offsets. 

OIL-CAKE. The marc which remains after 
the oil has been expressed from the seeds of 
flax and rape. See Colza, Lixseed Cake, 
Palma Christi, Rape. 

OILS (Ger. oel: Lat. oleum). This term com- 
prehends two substances that have verj- dis- 
tinct properties, namely, volatilt and fixed oils ; 
but, in general language, the term oil is indi- 
cative of the latter. Fixed oils are unctuous, 
fluid bodies, which, when dropped upon paper, 
sink into it, and make it semi-transparent, or 
give it what is called a greasy stain. They 
are composed of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. 
Train oil has been sometimes used as a ma- 
nure, and is a powerful fertilizer. See Fish. 
Linseed oil Is a common food for live-stock. 

'■ See Linseed Oil. 

i The following results of analysis show the 
variations in the proportions of elementary sub- 

I stances in olive and train, or fish oil, 100 parts 
of each : — 

Hvdrojm. Olvjtn. Carbon. 

Olive oil, i3-36 -j- 9-'437 + 77-213 = 100 parts, 
t Train oil, 16-1 -|-ir)03 -j- 68-S7 = 100 parts. 
The numerous uses to which unctuous oils 
I obtained from the seeds of various plants are 
j applied, for food, burning, soap-making, &c. &c., 
j give great importance to their production and 
; preparation. The proportions yielded by 100 
parts of many seeds, are as follows : — 

Palma Christi, 62 per cent.; garden cress, .')6 
to 58; poppy, 5G to 63; oily-radish, 50 ; sesa- 
mura or bene plant, 50; cabbage, 30 to 39; 
wild mustard, 30; weld, 29 to 36; gourd, 25; 
hemp, 14 to 25; flax, 11 to 22 ; black mustard, 
i 15; white mustard, 30 to 3S ; rape, colewort, 
and Swedish turnip, 33| ; colza, 36 to 40; rape, 
30 to 36; euphorbium or spurge, 30; sunflower, 
15; stramonium, 15; ground-nut with shells, 21; 
cotton, 16; the kernels of walnuts and hickory- 
nuts. 40 to 70 ; hazel-nuts, 62 ; sweet almonds, 
40 to 54 ; bitter almonds, 28 to 46; beech mast, 
15 to 17; plum, 33-3; grape stones, 14 to 22; 
horse chestnuts, 12 to IS. 

The excellent oils expressed so abundantly 
from the seeds of the poppy and sesamum or 
bene plant, are largely substituted in commerce 
for olive oil. 

OKRA (Hibiscus escuUntis). This plant is 
cultivated extensively in the West Indies, from 
whence it has been introduced into the United 
States. The pods are gathered green, and used 
in soups. They form an important ingredient 
in the celebrated Gumbo soup of New Orleans 
and other southern places. The pods are filled 
with seeds and a mucilage of a bland and 
highly nutritious quality. Hence the okra is 
frequently recommended to persons afflicted 
with dysenten,' and other bowel complaints 
either eaten boiled, or made into soup. Whet 
3 c 2 857 



OLEANDER. 



OLIVE. 



buttered and spiced, they afford a rich dish, 
and with vnegar, they make a good pickle. 
The plant comes to maturity in the Middle 
States, and the pods are abundant in the Phi- 
ladelphia market. Those who become once 
accustomed to this wholesome vegetable, con- 
tract a great fondness for its peculiar flavour. 

In Louisiana and other southern states, a 
dinner is scarcely considered complete without 
okra cooked in some way or other, and the 
poor consider it one of their greatest blessings. 
Mr. Legare, editor of the Southern Agriculturist, 
has furnished the following recipe for making 
okra soup, after the celebrated method pursued 
in Charleston. The pods, he says, are of pro- 
per size when 2 or 3 inches long, but may be 
used as long as they remain tender. If fit for 
use, they will snap asunder at the ends, but if 
too old and woody, they must be rejected. One 
peck of the tender pods are to be cut crosswise 
into very thin slices, not exceeding one-eighth 
of an inch in thickness. To this quantity add 
about one-third of a peck of tomatoes, previ- 
ously peeled and cut into pieces. The propor- 
tion of tomatoes may be varied to suit the taste. 
A coarse piece of beef (a shin is generally 
made use of) is placed in a pot or digester 
with about 2i gallons of water, and a very 
small quantity of salt. This is permitted to 
boil a few moments, when the scum is taken 
off and the okra and tomatoes thrown in. With 
these ingredients in the proportions mentioned, 
the soup made is remarkably fine. Still, some 
think it improved by additions of green corn, 
Lima beans, «&c. The most essential thing to 
be attended to is the boiling, and the excel- 
lence of the soup depends almost entirely on 
this being done faithfully. For if it be not boil- 
ed enough, however well the ingredients may 
have been selected and proportioned, the soup 
will be very inferior, and give but little idea 
of the delightful flavour it possesses when well 
done. A properly constructed digester is de- 
cidedly the best vessel for boiling this or any 
other soup in; but where such a utensil is not 
at hand, an earthenware pot should be pre- 
ferred ; but on no account make use of an iron 
one, as it would turn the whole soup perfectly 
black, instead of the proper colour, namely, 
green, coloured with the rich yellow of toma- 
toes. The tinie usually required for boiling 
okra soup is about 5 hours, during which it 
should be occasionally stirred, and the ingre- 
dients mashed. When taken off, the original 
quantity will be reduced to about one-half, and 
the meat "done to rags;" the whole forming a 
homogeneous mass, of the consistence of thick 
porridge. 

OLEANDER (Nerium, from iieros, humid; 
alluding to the habitat of the plants). This is 
a genus of noble evergreen shrubs, of easy 
culture, and flowering freely the greater part 
of the year. N. oleander and its varieties bear 
forcing remarkably well; and, although treat- 
ed as green-house plants, yet they will not 
flower well unle=:3 they are kept in the stove. 
They grow well in any rich, light soils, and 
young cuttings root in any soil, if kept moist. 
The leaves of N. oleander contain tannic acid, 
and the leaves and bark of the root of N. odo- 
rtMn are app.ied externally as powerful repel- 



lants by the Indian practitioners. N. tindorium 
yields indigo. {Paxton's Bot. Diet.) 

OLIVE (Olea). This is a very important 
genus of plants, on account of the oil, &c., 
which is obtained chiefly from the 0. Europcea. 

It is an evergreen, small tree, with lanceo- 
late leaves, of a deep-green on the upper, and 
nearly white or hoary on the under surface. 
The flowers are small and white. The fruit is 
an elliptical drupe, of a bluish-purple colour 
when ripe. The tree lives to an extreme old 
age, and continues to bear good olives. It is 
also much admired for the fragrance of its 
flowers, which render it worthy a place in 
every green-house collection. They grow well 
in loam and peat; ripened cuttings root readily 
in sand, under a glass. They may also be in- 
creased by grafting on the common privet 
The unripe fruit of the olive, preserved in salt 
and water, is a well-known article for the dessert. 

With regard to the capacity of a portion of 
the Southern United States to produce the olive, 
the following extract from a communication 
of John Couper, Esq., will give interesting in- 
formation: — 

" I had a very pretty grove of 200 olives, im- 
ported about 10 years since, their stems from 
8 to 12 inches diameter, and perhaps averaging 
20 to 25 feet high to the top ; they have borne 
fruit for some years. 1 had also near 600 trees, 
or plants, from 11 to 5 years old. From com- 
parisons between the olive and orange, in pre- 
vious severe frosts, where the orange was much 
hurt, the olive was uninjured. I have, there- 
fore, no hesitation in believing the olive is well 
adapted to, and will succeed on our sea-coast, 
of both Carolina and Georgia. 

"I have been personally acquainted with 
sour-orange trees, both on St. Simon's and Je- 
kyl, for 58 years, and believe they were plant- 
ed near 100 years since ; and have never been 
killed by frost until last February, when they 
were all destroyed. I therefore conclude, thai 
since the first settlement of Georgia the olive 
would have succeeded. It occurs to me that, 
notwithstanding the immense value of the olive 
in France, they have been cut down in some 
severe frosts. 

" The olive and orange seemed so completely 
destroyed, even to some depth under ground, 
that I cut them down, and planted corn in their 
place ; on examination about a month since, 
the lower roots still appearing fresh, I conclud- 
ed that opening the ground around them might 
encourage vegetation; and have now the satis- 
faction to see the olives pushing out abundance 
of fine, strong shoots, not one failing. The 
oranges are doing the same, though some ap- 
pear dead, not yet decided; by returning the 
earth to the olive shoots, they will throw out 
roots, and furnish fine plants. In fact, I am 
better satisfied respecting the success of the 
olive than I was before the severe frost." (^Far- 
mer's Register, vol. iii. p. 246.) 

OLIVE, THE AMERICAN (Oka Amenca- 
na). This American tree belongs exclusively to 
the Southern States, the Floridas, and Louisiana. 
Like the live-oak and cabbage-tree, it is con- 
fined to the sea-shore. "It is so little multi- 
plied," says Michaux, " that it has hitherto re- 
ceived no name from the inhabitants of the 



ONIONS. 



ONIONS. 



»ountry, except on the banks of the river Sa- 
vannah, where it is called Devil wood. 

" This tree grows in soils and exposures ex- 
tremely different: on the sea-shore it springs 
with the live-oak in the most barren and sultry 
spots ; and in other places it is seen with the 
big laurel, the umbrella tree, the sweet leaves, 
&c., in cool, fertile, and shaded situations. 

" This tree, or, to speak more accurately, this 
large shrub, is sometimes 30 or 35 feet high, 
and 10 or 12 inches in diameter: but this size 
is extraordinary; it commonly fructifies at the 
height of 8, 10, or 12 feet. The leaves are 4 
or 5 inches long, opposite and lanceolate, en- 
tire at the edge, smooth and brilliant on the 
upper surface, and of an agreeable light-green. 
They are evergreen, or at least are partially 
renewed only once in 4 or 5 years. The fer- 
tile and barren flowers are on separate trees : 
they are very small, strongly scented, of a pale 
yellow, and axillary, or situated between the 
petiole of the leaves and the branches. The 
season of flowering, in the neighbourhood of 
Charleston, is about the end of April. The 
fruit is round, and about twice as large as a 
common pea. When ripe, it is of a purple 
colour, approaching to blue, and consists of a 
hard stone thinly coated with pulp. As it re- 
mains attached to the branches during a part 
of the winter, its colour forms, at this season, 
an agreeable contrast with the foliage. 

" The bark which covers the trunk of the 
devil wood is smooth and grayish. The wood 
has a fine and compact grain, and, when per- 
fectly dry, it is excessively hard and very diffi- 
cult to cm or split; hence is derived the name 
of devil wood. It is, notwithstanding, neglect- 
ed in use. On laying bare the cellular integu- 
ment of the bark, its natural yellow hue changes 
instantaneously to a deep red, and the wood, 
by contact with the air, assumes a rosy com- 
plexion. Experiments should be made to de- 
tect the nature of this active principle in the 
bark, which causes it to change colour so sud- 
denly by exposure to the air. 

" From the temperature of the native skies 
of this tree, we may conclude that it is capable 
of resisting a greater degree of cold than the 
common olive: it becomes, then, on account 
of its beautiful foliage, its odoriferous flowers, 
and its showy fruit, a valuable acquisition." 
(Mirhaux.) 

ONIONS (Jllium cepa). Of this genus, there 
are eight individuals that demand the garden- 
er's care. 

They all require a rich, friable soil, on a dry 
substratum; a situation enjoying the full influ- 
ence of the sun, and entirely free from trees, 
which are very inimical to them, especially to 
those which have to stand the winter. If the 
soil be poor, or exhausted, abundance of dung 
should be applied in the preceding autumn or 
winter, and the ground thrown into ridges. By 
these means it becomes well decomposed and 
incorporated with the soil ; for rank, unreduced 
dung is generally injurious, engendering de- 
cay, and inducing maggots ; if, therefore, the 
application of manure is neglected until the 
spring, it should be taken from an old hotbed, 
or other source whence it is to be had in a 
thoroughly putrescent state, and turned in only 



to a moderate depth. Sea-sand, particularly 
if the ground is at all tenacious, is advanta- 
geously employed ; coal-ashes, and especially 
soot, are applied with particular benefit. In 
digging over the ground, small spits only should 
be turned over at a time, that the texture may 
be well broken and pulverized. A considera- 
ble degree of attention is required from the 
difficulty of giving the requisite degree of firm- 
ness to light soils, which, if rich, are well suit- 
ed to the growth of these vegetables. Old, soft, 
or light, sandy soils, Mr. A. Gorrie, of Kait, re- 
commends to be dug rough in October, and 
about January to have a top-dressing of cow- 
dung applied and left on, to have its fertilizing 
matters washed in until the time of sowing, 
then as much as can be is to be raked off, and, 
without digging, the seed sown, trod in, and 
covered with earth from the alleys. By this 
management, soils will produce good crops 
which before were annually destroyed by the 
maggot. Onions for pickling, as well as those 
to stand the winter, should be grown on light, 
poor soils, which cause the first to be small in 
the bulb, and the latter, not growing so luxu- 
riantly, to withstand the winter better. 

There are 14 distinct varieties of this vege- 
table, as appears from the description given by 
Mr. C. Strachan, gardener to the Horticultural 
Society of London. 

1. Silver-skinned onion. 2. Early silver- 
skinned. 3. True Portugal. 4. Spanish. 5. 
Strasburg. 6. Deptford. 7. Globe. 8. James's 
keeping onion. 9. Pale-red. 10. Yellow. 11. 
Blood-red. 12. Tripoli. 13. Two-bladed. 14. 
Lisbon. 

In England the onion is raised from seed, 
which may be sown for the first main crop to- 
wards the close of February, if dry, open wea- 
ther, otherwise only a small portion, in a warm, 
dry situation. The principal crop, however, 
must be sown during March, it being kept in 
mind that the close of February is to be pre- 
ferred, for the earlier the seed is inserted, the 
finer will be the bulbs : main crops may even 
be inserted as late as the beginning of April, 
and, at its close, a small sowing to draw young 
in summer, and for small bulbs to pickle ; 
again in July and early in August for salads in 
autumn ; and, finally, in the last week of Au- 
gust, or early in September, to stand the winter 
for spring and beginning of summer. The seed 
is sown thinly, broadcast, and regularly raked 
in. An ounce of seed is abundantly sufficient 
for a rood of ground, especially for the main 
crops, as they should never be allowed to grow 
to a size fit for salads without thinning. No 
other seed ought to be sown with it; for the 
practice of stealing a crop is detrimental to 
both crops, without the slightest advantage to 
compensate. The beds should be divided by 
narrow aMeys into portions about four feel 
wide, for the convenience of cultivation. In 
about six weeks after sowing, the plants will 
be of sufficient size to allow the first thinning 
and small hoeing, by which they are to be 
set out about 2 inches apart ; if this is per- 
formed in dry weather, it will keep the beds 
free of weeds for six weeks longer, when they 
must be hoed a second time, and thinned to 
4 inches apart; and now, where they have 

8S9 



ONIONS 



ONIONS. 



failed, the vacancies may be filled up by trans- 
planting sorae of those thinned out into the 
places; the best time for doing this is in the 
evening, and water must be given for several 
successive nights. In transplanting, the root 
only is to be inserted, and no part of the stem 
buried ; for there is very good reason to be- 
lieve that naturally the bulb grows entirely 
upon the surface, and that growing within the 
mould is a great cause of their not keeping 
well. After the lapse of another month they 
must be thoroughly gone over for the last time, 
the weeds eradicated, and the plants thinned 
to 6 inches asunder; after this they in general 
only require to be weeded occasionally by 
hand; they must, however, be kept completely 
free from weeds, and the stirring of the surface 
which the hoe effects is very beneficial. In 
order to prevent their running too much to 
blade, it is a good practice early in July, be- 
fore the tips change to a yellow hue, to bend 
the stems down flat upon the bed, which not 
only prevents the rapid growth of the blade, 
but causes the bulbs to become much larger 
than they otherwise would be. The bend should 
be made about 2 inches up the neck. 

About the close of August the onions will 
have arrived at their full growth, which may 
be known by the withering of the foliage, by 
the shrinking of the necks, and by the ease 
with which they may be pulled up. As soon 
as these changes appear, they must be taken 
up, the bed being frequently looked over; for, 
if the whole crop is waited for, the forwardest, 
especially in moist seasons, are apt again to 
strike root. They should be spread on mats, 
&c., in the sun, frequently turned, and removed 
under shelter at night. In 2 or 3 weeks, when 
the roots and blades are perfectly withered and 
void of moisture, and the bulbs become firm, 
they are fit for storing, being housed in dry 
weather, and carefully preserved from bruis- 
ing : previous to doing this, all mould and re- 
fuse must be removed from them, for these are 
apt to induce decay, and spread contagion to 
all near them. To prevent this as much as pos- 
sible, all faulty ones should be rejected: in the 
store-house they must be laid as thin as may 
be, and looked over at least once a month. 
Notwithstanding every precaution, many will 
decay, and more sprout, especially in mild 
winters ; therefore, to preserve some for late 
use, it is useful to sear the roots and the sum- 
mits with a hot iron, care being taken not to 
scorch the bulb. 

For the winter standing crop the only addi- 
tional directions necessary are, to tread in the 
seed regularly before raking, if the soil, as it 
ought to be, is dry and light. They must be 
kept constantly clear of weeds, as well as of 
the fallen leaves of trees, which cause them to 
spindle and become weak, but they need not be 
thinned, as thej' serve as protections for each 
other. Early in spring they are to be weeded, 
and, as may be necessary, transplanted for 
bulbing. There are several modes of cultiva- 
tion lately introduced or revived, which pro- 
duce onions of superior size and goodness. 
The great obstacle to the production of fine 
jnions in England is the want of a sufficient 
continuance of warm weather ; or, at least, the 
86U 



inclemency of the early part of the year pre- 
vents the insertion of the seed until so late, 
that the most genial season to vegetation passes 
away whilst the plants are in their infancy; it 
is the obviating this unfavourable circumstance 
that causes the superiority of the several plans 
hereafter detailed. 

It is a practice that originated in America, 
and which has met with the decided approval 
of Mr. Knight and others, to sow in May; to 
cultivate the plants as in the other crops ; and, 
in October, the bulbs, being of the size of nuts, 
are to be taken up, dried, and housed, as directed 
for the full-grown bulbs. About the middle of 
the following March they must be planted out 
in rows 6 inches apart each way, and after- 
wards cultivated in the same manner as the 
other crops. If sown earlier than May, they 
run to seed when transplanted. Another mode 
nearly as efficacious, and which, I understand, 
has been practised for a great length of time 
in the south of Essex, is to sow in the latter 
part of August, to stand the winter, and in 
March, early or late, according to the forward 
growth of the seedlings, to be planted out in 
rows at the before-directed distance, and culti- 
vated as usual. 

In Portugal they sow in a moderate hotbed 
during November or December, in a warm 
situation, with a few inches of mould upon it; 
and the plants are protected from frost by hoops 
and mats ; in April or May, when of the size 
of a swan's quill, they are transplanted into a 
light, rich loam, well manured with old rotten 
dung, to bulb. 

It would seem, from the practice of Mr. Mac- 
donald, gardener to the Duke of Buccleugh, at 
Dalkeith, that transplanting alone is of great 
benefit. "His soil," he says, "is not very fa- 
vourable to the growth of the onion, being light 
and thin ; and it was not until after many ex- 
periments he was able to obtain fine bulbs, and 
which he at length accomplished by sowing in 
the end of February, and about April trans- 
planting them at the usual distance in drills, 
first dipping the root into a puddle, consisting 
of 1 part soot and .3 parts earth, mixed with 
water ; the work being performed in moist 
weather." The puddle, as is observed by Mr. 
Sinclair, can be of no other use than to assist 
the rooting of the plants. 

To obtain seed, some old onions must be 
planted during February, or early in March. 
The finest and firmest bulbs being selected, and 
planted in rows 10 inches apart each way, 
either in drills or by a blunt-ended dibble, the 
soil to be rather poorer, if it differs at all from 
that in which they are cultivated for bulbing. 
They must be buried so deep that the mould 
just covers the crown. Early in spring their 
leaves will appear. If grown in large quan- 
tities, a path must be left 2 feel wide between 
every 3 or 4 rows, to allow the necessary cul- 
tivation. They must be kept thoroughly clear 
of weeds, and when in flower have stakes 
driven at intervals of 5 or 6 feet each side of 
every 2 rows, to which a string is to be fasten- 
ed throughout the whole length, a few inches 
below the heads, to serve as a support, and 
prevent their being broken down. The seeds 
are ripe in August, which is intimated by the 



ONIONS. 



ONION, THE WELSH. 



husks becoming brownish : the heads must 
then be immediately cut, otherwise the recep- 
tacles will open and shed their contents. Be- 
ing spread on cloths in the sun, during the day, 
and taken under cover every night and during 
inclement weather, they soon become perfectly 
dry, when the seed may be rubbed out, cleaned 
of the<;haff, and, after remaining another day 
or two, finally stored. It is of the utmost con- 
sequence to employ seed of not more than one 
year old, otherwise not more than 1 in 50 seeds 
will vegetate. 

The goodness of seed may be easily disco- 
vered by forcing a little of it in a hotbed or in 
warm water, a day or two before it is employed : 
a small white point will soon protrude if it is 
fertile. 

Onions are raised in large quantities, in the 
town of Weathersfield, Connecticut, for exporta- 
tion to the West Indies and Southern Slates. 
The business is there reduced to a perfect 
system. Early in spring the land is manured, 
by ploughing in fine manure from the stable or 
barn-yard, in the proportion of about 10 loads 
to the acre. That of neat cattle is preferred, 
as that of horses is considered to be of too 
heating a nature. It is then well harrowed and 
laid out into beds of 5 feet wide, by turning a 
furrow towards them each way; this raises the 
beds above the alleys, and allows the surplus 
water to run off. They are then well raked 
with an iron-toothed or common hay rake, and 
the alleys suffered to remain as left by the 
plough. 

As early as the season will admit, the seed 
is sown in the following manner. A rake, with 
teeth a foot apart, is drawn crosswise of the 
beds, and drills made for the reception of the 
seed; it is then sown with the thumb and fingers 
and covered with the hand, allowing 10 or 12 
lbs. to the acre. After the plants are up, they 
are kept clean of weeds, which generally re- 
quires four weedings, using a hoe of suitable 
width to pass between the rows, which saves 
much labour. When ripe, they are pulled, and 
the tops cut off to a suitable length for tying 
them to the straw in roping. Three and a half 
pounds are required by a law of the state to be 
put in each rope ; and the ordinary crop is 
from 6 to 8000 ropes to the acre. 

Onions may be raised in the same way in the 
Middle and Southern States, though the more 
common practice is to grow them from small 
bulbs raised from seed the previous year, by sow- 
ing thickly in rows, about 9 or 10 inches apart, 
about the middle of spring; if sown too early, 
they are apt to run to seed when transplanted. 
Cultivate and preserve as for full-grown bulbs. 
Plant early in spring, in well manured ground, 
in rows about 6 inches apart, and 5 inches in 
the row, allowing about 18 inches after every 
fifth row as an alley for convenience in weeding. 
If the land is at all light, it is a good practice 
to tread or roll well before sowing or trans- 
planting, and be careful to disturb the bulbs as 
little as possible in weeding. 

Potato, or under-ground Onion. — This species 
of allium has received the above appellations, 
on account of its producing a cluster of bulbs 
or offsets, in number from 2 to 12, and even 
more, uniformly beneath the surface of the soil. 



From being first introduced to public notice in 
Scotland, by Captain Burns of Edinburgh, it is 
there also known as the Burn onion. There 
evidently appear to be two varieties of this ve- 
getable, one of which bears bulbs on the summit 
of its stems, like the tree onion, and the other 
never throwing up flower-stems at all. One 
variety is much larger than the other, and this 
vegetates again as soon as ripe. 

Both varieties are best propagated by offsets 
of the root, of moderate size ; for if those are 
employed which the one variety produces on 
the summit of its stems, they seldom do more 
than increase in size the first year, but are pro- 
lific the next ; this also occurs if very small 
offsets of the root are employed. 

They may be planted during October or No- 
vember, or as early in the spring as the season 
will allow, but not later than April. In the 
west of England, assisted by their genial cli- 
mate, they plant on the shortest and take up on 
the longest day. They are either to be inserted 
in drills, or by a blunt dibble 8 inches apart 
each way, not buried entirely, but the top of 
the offset just level with the surface. Mr. Ma- 
her, gardener at Arundel Castle, merely places 
the sets on the surface, covering them with 
leaf mould, rotten dung, or other light compost. 
The beds they are grown in are better not more 
than 4 feet wide, for the convenience of culti- 
vation. 

The only cultivation required is to keep them 
clear of weeds. The practice of earthing the 
mould over them when the stems have grown 
up is unnatural, and by so doing the bulbs are 
blanched and prevented ripening perfectly, on 
which their keeping depends. So far from 
following this plan, Mr. Wedgewood of Betley 
recommends the earth always to be cleared 
away down to the ring whence the fibres 
spring, as soon as the leaves have attained their 
full size and begin to be brown at the top, so 
that a kind of basin is formed round the bulb. 
As soon as they vegetate, they intimate the 
number of offsets that will be produced, by 
showing a shoot for each. 

They attain their full growth towards the end 
of July, and become completely ripe early in 
September : for immediate use they may be 
taken up as they ripen, but for keeping, a little 
before they attain perfect maturity, which is 
demonstrated by the same symptoms as were 
mentioned in speaking of onion. 

ONION, THE WELSH, or CIBOULE. 
This is a perennial, which never forms a bulb, 
but is sown annually, to be drawn young for 
salads, &c. : on account of its strong taste, it 
is greatly inferior to the common onion for this 
purpose; but from its extreme hardine.ss in 
withstanding the severest frost, it may be cul- 
tivated with advantage as a winter standing 
crop for spring use. In France two varieties 
are in cultivation, the white and the red; the first 
of which is the one in general use in England. 
As it may be sown at all times, in common 
with the onion, and is similarly cultivated, ex- 
cept that it may be sown thicker, and only 
thinned as wanted, the directions given for that 
vegetable will suffice. The blade usually die.s 
away completely in winter, but fresh ones ar*^ 
thrown out again in February or March. 

86' 



ONION, THE TREE. 



ORANGE, OfeAoE. 



To obtain seed, some of the roots must be 
planted out in March, 6 or 8 inches asunder. 
The first autumn they will produce but little 
seed ; in the second and third, however, it will 
be produced abundantly. If care is taken to 
part and transplant the roots every two or three 
years, they may be multiplied, and will remain 
productive for many ye^rs, and afford much 
better seed than that from one-year old roots. 
There is good reason for concluding, as Mr. T. 
Milne, of Fulham, ingeniously explains, that 
by a confusion of names, arising from simi- 
larity of appearance, this vegetable is the true 
scaliion of Miller and others, whilst the hollow 
leek of Wales is the true Welsh onion; for 
the description of scaliion, as given by Miller, 
accords exactly with that of the Welsh onion ; 
and as he describes it as a distinct variety, we 
are reduced to the dilemma of receiving this 
explanation, or considering the variety as lost ; 
for from Miller's known accuracy it is impos- 
sible to consider that he was deceived. At 
present all onions that have refused to bulb, 
and formed lengthened necks and strong blades 
in spring and summer, are called scallions. 

ONION. THE TREE, or CANADA (Jl- 
Uvm Canadense). This, which is a very hardy 
perennial species, like the ciboule, is without 
a bulbous root, but throws out numerous off- 
sets. Its top bulbs are greatly prized for pick- 
ling, being considered of superior flavour to 
the common onion for that purpose, as well as 
others in which that species is employed. 

It is propagated both by the root offsets, 
which may be planted during March and April, 
or in September and October, and from the top 
bulbs, which are best planted in spring, and 
not before the latter end of April. The old 
roots are best to plant again for a crop of bulbs, 
as they are most certain to run to stems. If 
the bulbs be planted earlier than as above di- 
rected, they are apt to push up the same season, 
and exhaust themselves without producing 
either good offsets or bulbs ; but on the other 
hand, by planting the old roots in the previous 
autumn, or early in the spring, they will pro- 
duce good bulbs the same year. They must 
be inserted in rows 12 inches asunder, in holes 
6 inches apart and 2 deep, a single offset or 
bulb being put in each. Those planted in au- 
tumn will shoot forth leaves early in the spring, 
and have their bulbs fit for gathering in June, 
or the beginning of July ; those inserted in the 
spring will make their appearance later, smd 
will be in production at the close of July or 
early in August: they must not, however, be 
gathered for keeping or planting until the stalks 
decay ; at which time, or in the spring also, if 
only of one year's growth, the roots may be 
taken up and parted if required for planting; but 
when of two or three years' continuance, they 
must at all events be reduced in size, other- 
wise they grow in too large and sprindling 
bunches ; but the best plan is to make a fresh 
plantation annually with single offsets. The 
only cultivation necessary is to keep them 
<;lear of weeds ; and when the stems run up, 
to give them the support of stakes. 

The bulbs, when gathered, must be gradually 
and carefully dried in a shady place ; and if 
Kept perfectly free from moisture, will continue 
862 



in good state until the following May. (G. W 
Johnson.) 

OPEN. A term frequently applied to ccws 
or heifers, signifying that they are not in calf. 

OPEN CUTS. Such drains or gutters as 
are made in land by the spade, and left without 
being covered in. They are used in draining 
lands in particular cases. Open cuts, if effec- 
tual, are the best of all for forest draining, as 
they cannot be inconvenient, from the plough 
not being employed after the trees are planted. 
Cuts of this sort are frequently found useful in 
the practice of irrigation or watering of land. 

OPHTHALMIA. See Sheep, Diseases of. 

ORACHE {Atriplex; from atir, black). A 
genus of herbaceous or shrubby straggling 
plants of little beauty, and the simplest culture 
and propagation. There are in England seve- 
ral native species. 

The A. hortensis is cooked and eaten in the 
same manner as spinach, to which it is much 
preferred by many persons, although it belongs 
to a tribe whose wholesomeness is very sus- 
picious. It flourishes best in a rich, moist soil, 
and in an open compartment. Those, how- 
ever, of the autumn sowing, require a rather 
drier soil. It is propagated by seed, which 
may be sown about the end of September, soon 
after it is ripe, and again in the spring, for suc- 
cession; the sowing to be performed broad- 
cast, the seeds being scattered thin. The 
plants soon make their appearance, being of 
quick growth. When they are about an inch 
high, they must be thinned to 4 inches asun- 
der; and those removed may be planted out at 
the same distance in a similar situation, and 
watered occasionally until established. At the 
time of thinning, the best must be thoroughly 
cleared of weeds, and if they are again hoed 
during a dry day, when the plants are about 4 
inches high, they Avill require no further at- 
tendance than an occasional weeding by hand. 

For early production, a sowing may be per- 
formed in a moderate hotbed at the same times 
as those in the natural ground. 

The leaves must be gathered for use whilst 
young, otherwise they become stringy and 
worthless. To obtain seed, some plants of the 
spring sowing must be left ungathered from, 
and thinned to about 8 inches apart. The 
seeds ripen about the end of August, when the 
plants may be pulled up, and when perfectly 
dry, rubbed out for use. 

ORANGE, OSAGE (Madura auranliaca). 
This is an American deciduous tree, which 
grows wild in Arkansas and Louisiana, where 
it attains the height of a tree of the second or third 
class, but in the Middle States it seldom grows 
higher than 1.5 or 20 feet. It is very branching; 
each branch being armed with numerous sharp 
thorns. The wood is remarkably tough-, and 
said to be very durable. The male and female 
flowers are on separate trees. The fertile or 
female tree bears fruit abundantly in a very 
few years. These are round, rough, and green- 
ish-coloured, resembling somewhat an orange, 
and weighing from 12 to 18 ounces, containing 
from 100 to 250 seeds. 

Recently this thorny tree has received very 
considerable attention, with a view to making 
it useful in the construction of live fences, 



ORANGE TREE. 



ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 



which purpose it is extensively cultivated in 
nurseries. " Its great merit," says Mr. T. S. 
Pleasants, of Virginia, "consists in the spread- 
ing manner of its growth, the denseness of its 
branches, and the armature with which they 
are furnished. Planted in hedge-rows, the ma- 
clura would never become unmanageable on 
account of its size; at the same time its growth 
is sufficiently vigorous to make a fence in 3, 

4, or at most 5 years, from the seed. It may 
be asserted with safety, that on land of tole- 
rable fertility, the labour and expense of per- 
fecting a system of hedges would not be greater 
than to keep ordinary enclosures in good con- 
dition for the time required to construct them. 

" The Osage orange trees are readily raised 
from the seed, which, unlike those of the com- 
mon thorn, require no preparation. On the 
contrary, they vegetate with certainty in 2 or 3 
weeks after planting. With tolerable care the 
seedlings will grow 2 or 3 feet in height the 
first season ; after which they are to be re- 
moved from the nursery rows to the place 
designed for the hedge. Fifty of the large 
orange-shaped berries yield at least a pound of 
seed, or from 8 to 10,000 grains. It is the usual 
practice to place the sets from 12 to 15 inches 
apart, in a single row." {Farmers^ Register, vol. 

5, p. 86.) 

Though originally from a southern locality, 
the Osage orange is so hardy as to stand the 
winters not only of the Middle, but of the East- 
ern States. 

ORANGE TREE (Citrus). The genus to 
which the orange tree belongs consists of or- 
namental species of fruit trees, growing from 
3 to 15 feet high. The leaves are on more 
or less dilated and winged footstalks ; the 
flowers are large, white, and odoriferous, exist- 
ing at the same time as the fruit, which is too 
well known to require description. Orange 
trees thrive best in a good loamy soil, mixed 
with a quantity of rotten dung. The different 
kinds are procured by budding or grafting on 
common stocks. Stocks for working upon are 
raised from any oranges, lemons, &c. They 
are sometimes raised from cuttings, in which 
case they produce fruit when very small plants. 
The flowers of the orange tree yield, by distil- 
lation, a fragrant volatile oil, known by the 
name of oil of Neroli. The fruit of the bigna- 
roll or bitter orange makes one of the best pre- 
serves which can be eaten, namely, Scotch 
marmalade. The unripe fruit is used for fla- 
vouring the liquor called curafoa. The ripe 
fruit is wholesome, and a useful refrigerant in 
fevers. 

ORANGE, WILD. See Cherrt, Wild. 

ORCHARD (Gr.). In horticulture, an en- 
closure devoted to the culture of fruit trees. 
In England the surface of the soil in orchards 
IS generally kept under pasture ; which, while 
it prevents the earth from being washed away 
by rains, is favourable to the running of the 
roots immediately under the surface, by which 
they are sooner called into action by heat in 
spring, and sooner thrown into a torpid state 
by cold in autumn. The principal fruits grown 
in orchards of this description in Great Britain 
are the apple, the pear, the plum, and the 



cherry ; and wherever wheat can be ripened in 
the plains, these fruits will arrive at perfection 
on declivities exposed to the south and south- 

ORCHARD-GRASS (Dactylis glomerata) 
Called in England cock's-foot. It is an imper 
feet perennial, native to the United States. See 
Cock's-Foot, and Grassks. 

ORCHIDACE.E (Orchis, one of the genera). 
A natural order of herbaceous endogens, in- 
habiting all parts of the world, excepting those 
climates situated upon the verge of the frozen 
zone, or remarkable for their exceeding dry- 
ness. They are well known for the singular 
form of their flowers. Some of them grow 
in the earth, others inhabit rocks and the 
branches of trees, and a few appear to be true 
parasites. They all belong to the class Gy- 
nandria of Linnaeus, are often very agreeably 
scented, and sometimes produce an aromatic 
fleshy fruit, as in the case of the vanilla, which 
contains a large quantity of benzoic acid. The 
nutritious substance called salep is prepared 
from the amylaceous tubers of the male orchis, 
merely drying them in ovens. They become 
semi-pellucid, and when pulverized, form a 
mucilage with boiling water. They are usually 
grown in the frame or hothouse, and thrive 
best in a mixture of loam, peat, and chalk, 
broken small. They can only be increased 
from seeds. It would be quite impossible to 
describe the characters of each species. 

The species indigenous to England are — 
1. Butterfly orchis (O. bifolia). 2. Pyramidal 
orchis (O. pyramidalis'), 3. Green-winged mea- 
dow orchis (0. maris). 4. Early purple orchis 
(O. mascula). 5. Dwarf dark-winged orchis 
(0. ustulata). 6. Great brown-winged orchis 
(0. fusca). 7. Military orchis (0. militaris), 
8. Monkey orchis (0. tephrosantos). 9. Lizard 
oi'chis (0. hircina). 10. White cluster-rooted 
orchis (O. albidn). 11. Frog orchis (0. viridis). 
12. Marsh palmate orchis (0. latifolia). 13. 
Spotted palmate orchis (O. maculata). 14. 
Aromatic palmate orchis (O. conopsia). Most 
of the native species of orchis inhabit mea- 
dows and pastures, and hilly, chalky downs. 
The roots are doubly tuberous, fleshy ; leaves 
chiefly radical ; flowers numerous, spiked, 
purple, crimson, or whitish — in some highly 
fragrant. (Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. iv. pp. 8 — 24). 

OREGON ALDER (Jlnus Oregona). A spe- 
cies of the alder genus, which, like the Euro- 
pean alder, attains the height of 30 or 40 feet. 
(NuttaWs Supplement to Michaux.) 

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, is that portion 
of the science of chemistry which relates to 
animal and vegetable substances. " The ob- 
ject of organic chemistry," says M. Liebig, "is 
to discover the chemical conditions which are 
essential to the life and perfect developement 
of animals and vegetables, and generally to in- 
vestigate all those processes of organic nature 
which are due to the operation of chemica. 
laws." In this article I shall confine myself 
principally to the results obtained by the analy 
sis of vegetable and animal substances. Undet 
the heads Atmosphere, Earths, Gases, Tem- 
perature, Water, &c., will be found an ac 
count of their respective uses to vegetation 

86» 



ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 



ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 



There is no branch of chemistry more diffi- 
cult, and yet more interesting, than that of or- 
ganic chemistry; for in this the chemist finds, 
added to his ordinary difficulties, and to his 
many sources of uncertainty, the presence, and 
very often the controlling influence, of a living 
principle, which in some instances seems to 
neutralize and overcome even the most power- 
ful chemical affinities. "I would warn, there- 
fore, the reader," to use the words of Dr. Thom- 
son, "not to expect complete information in 
this branch of science: the wonders of the 
vegetable creation are still but very imper- 
fectly explored; many of the organs of plants 
are loo minute for our senses, and scarcely a 
single process can be completely traced. The 
multiplicity of operations continually going on 
in vegetables at the same time, and the variety 
of different and even opposite substances 
formed out of the same ingredients, and almost 
at the same lime, astonish and confound us ; 
the order, too, and the skill with which every 
thing is conducted, are no less surprising; no 
two operations clash ; there is no discord, no 
irregularity, no disturbance; every object is 
gained, and every thing is ready for its intend- 
ed purpose. This is too wonderful to escape 
our observation, and of too much importance 
not to claim our attention. Many philosophers, 
accordingly, distinguished equally by their 
industry and sagacity, have dedicated a great 
part of their lives to the study of vegetation. 
But hitherto their success has not been equal 
to their exertions. No person has been able to 
detect the formative agent in plants, nor even 
the principle which is always so busy in per- 
forming such wonders, nor to discover him at 
his work ; nor have philosophers been much 
more fortunate in their attempts to ascertain 
the instruments which he employs in his opera- 
tions." A great variety of curious and inte- 
resting facts, however, have been discovered. 
These I shall attempt to collect and arrange, to 
point out their dependence on each other, and 
to deduce such consequences as obviously 
result from the discoveries which have been 
hitherto made. 

The farmer will, upon reflection, be able to 
call to mind many circumstances, showing the 
influence of the living principle upon the 
chemical substances of organic matter. He 
will remember, for instance, that the living sub- 
stance flourishes in the very same position, 
and under the very same circumstances, where, 
when dead, it rapidly putrefies. Every plant 
growing on the soil, or on a dunghill, testifies 
to the fact. The living plants which flourish in 
the same solution of a salt in which they are 
dissolved, when dead, prove the same thing in 
another way ; and these proofs may be multi- 
plied vury easily on very slight reflection. And 
as regards animal life, the very same results 
are obtained ; the very gastric juice which the 
living stomach holds for an age, dissolves that 
stomach when dead. Animals can sustain a 
temperature considerably greater than that 
•where the putrefaction of animal substances 
rapidly proceeds ; and men even can exist for a 
cimsiderable period in an atmosphere heated 
considerably above the boiling point of water. 

In this sketch of organic chemistry, I shall 



principally confine myself to the vegetable 
branch of it, and briefly follow the progress of 
a plant through its several stages of germina- 
tion, its growth, and its decay, leaving the 
reader to refer to other heads of this work for 
the information he may need. 

Germination. That all plants arise from 
seeds is now, I believe, undisputed by every 
person, notwithstanding the very many puz- 
zling phenomena which occasionally occur; 
such as the profusion of some of the grasses, 
occasioned by the application of certain ma- 
nures. Thus, "by dressing certain soils 
with bones and wood ashes, the white clover, 
which contains this salt, appears in great quan- 
tities. Now, phosphate of lime abounds in 
bones and in the ashes of wood; other plants, 
it is probable, require the same food. Thus, 
after the great fire of London, says Mr. Play- 
fair, large quantities of the Erysimvm latifolium 
were observed growing on the spots where a 
fire had taken place. On a similar occasion, 
the Blitum capitatnm was seen at Copenhagen, 
the Senecio viscosus in Nassau, and the Spartium 
scoparium in Languedoc. After the burnings 
of forest pine in North America, poplars, ac- 
cording to Franklin, grew on the same soiL 
(Licbig's Org. Chcm. p. 152.) 

Seeds, therefore, the farmer may rest as- 
sured, are essential to the production of plants. 
Now, the first movement of the seeds towards 
the production of plants is denominated their 
germination. To this certain requisites are 
essentially necessary; such as moisture, mode- 
rate heat, and oxygen gas. That all seeds re- 
quire a certain degree of moisture before they 
will vegetate, is known to every one: where 
there is no moisture, there can be no germina- 
tion. This, however, varies according to the 
nature of the plant. Some of the mosses, for 
instance, will germinate on walls and other 
places where the supply is very limited; others, 
such as the water plants, will only grow im- 
mersed in water. The rice of Hindostan is 
grown in swamps abounding with water, which 
would be destructive to all the grain crops 
of the English farmer. The water-meadow 
grasses of our own country illustrate the same 
position. The plant, too, has the power of de- 
composing water, and assimilating its hydro- 
gen in the formation of its own substances. 
Water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen, 
and these substances are always essential in- 
gredients in vegetables. 

Heat is also necessary to germination: thus 
few plants will vegetate below the freezing 
point of water; nevertheless, this low tempera- 
ture does not destroy their vitality, for every 
farmer is aware that frozen seeds will vege- 
tate after they have been thawed. As, how- 
ever, there is a peculiar degree of moisture on 
which every plant vegetates with the greatest 
advantage, so there is a temperature pecu- 
liarly favourable to the growth of every plant- 
The ivy, the elder, and the honey-suckle, for 
instance, invariably produce their leaves long 
before any other English plant has felt the 
warm reviving influence of spring. 

And, again, if the seed is not supplied with 
oxygen gas, the most favourable supplies of 
moisture and heat will not induce it to germi 



ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 



ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 



nate. Ray tried this in the vacuum of an air- 
pump with some lettuce seed; they did not 
germinate in vacuo, but they grew very well 
when the atmospheric air (which contains 21 
per cent, of this gas) was admitted. It is for 
this reason that the farmer is careful not to 
bury his seed-corn so deep in the ground as to 
be out of the influence of the oxygen of the 
atmosphere. Beyond a certain depth, which 
varies with different plants, no seeds, in fact, 
will vegetate. Seeds have been buried deep 
in the earth for centuries, and when, after- 
wards, they have been accidentally thrown 
upon the surface, have vegetated. There is 
reason for believing that it is not the entire at- 
mospheric air, but only its oxygen, which is 
essential to germination. In the experiments 
of M. Saussure, the quantity of oxygen con- 
sumed by various plants during their germina- 
tion varied very considerably in amount. 
Wheat and barley, weight for weight, con- 
sumed less oxygen than peas ; and peas less 
than beans and kidney-beans. The oxygen 
consumed by wheat and barley amounts to be- 
tween yoVo^h and g-TrVTi^h of their weight, while 
that consumed by beans and kidney-beans may 
amount to j^7,th part of their weight. The 
oxygen absorbed by the seed is in all proba- 
bility combined with the carbon of the plant, 
and emitted during its germination, in the 
state of carbonic acid gas. This gas is com- 
posed entirely of carbon and oxygen, in the 
proportion of 6*12 parts of the former and 16 
of the latter; and the quantity of it emitted is 
exactly equal in amount to the quantity of oxy- 
gen absorbed by the seed that should unite 
with the carbon of the plant, to form the car- 
bonic acid gas, and a certain quantity of carbon 
is always lost by the seed during vegetation. 

When once a plant has vegetated, its growth 
proceeds with more or less rapidity ; none that 
I am aware of remain stationary; indeed, it 
cannot remain stationary, and live. They in- 
crease in size, require a supply of various sub- 
stances as food, and the examination of the 
nature of this nutriment constitutes one of the 
most valuable branches of organic chemistry ; 
for under this head are included the assistance 
afforded to plants by the s:nscs, the earths, and by 
water. In the examination of the food of plants 
will also be illustrated the important questions 
of rotation, of fertilizers, and of various other 
important questions, which in this work will 
be found treated of under their respective 
heads ; and it will be useless to repeat what I 
have there at some length endeavoured to illus- 
trate. That the atmosphere yields its carbon 
and its oxygen ; the soil its silica, alumina, and 
magnesia, with various saline matters; and that 
water yields both hydrogen and oxygen for the 
service of the plant, is pretty well established 
by many valuable experiments which I have 
there given : and it is impossible to observe 
the results of the analysis of a perfect plant 
without being struck with the number of its 
ingredients, and perceiving at once the proba- 
ble sources from whence it drew its supply. 
Take, for instance, the analysis by M. Cadet 
of the solid matters or ashes of the common 
garlic. From 172 parts of these he obtain- 
ed of 

109 



Potash 33 

Sulphate and muriate of potash - 58- 
Alumina ---.__ j. 

Phosphate of lime - - - . 15.5 
Oxide of iron - . . . . 1.5 

Magnesia ------ g. 

Lime ------- 14. 

Silica- -.---. 8- 

1411 

All these substances, there is little doubt, 
were absorbed by the plant from soil in which 
it grew ; but in the fresh or unburnt garlic 
these are combined with about eight times 
their weight of mucilage, albumen, sulphur, 
vegetable fibre, and water. Now the three 
first of these must have been formed during 
the growth of the plant, from either the atmo- 
sphere or from water : the first (the atmosphere) 
being composed of oxygen, nitrogen, and car 
bonic acid ; and the latter (water) of hydrogen 
and oxygen. Mucilage was found by M. Ber 
zelius to be composed of 

PirU. 
Oxygen -...-- 51-306 
Carbon ------ 41-906 

Hydrogen ----- 6-788 

100- 

Albumen contains, according to the analysis 
of MM. Gay Lussac and Thenard, 

Parts. 

Carbon --...- 52-883 

Oxygen --...- 28-872 

Hydrogen ----- 7-540 

Nitrogen - . - - . 15-705 

100- 

The same excellent chemists have shown 
woody fibre to be composed of 



Oxygen - 

Carbon 

Hydrogen 



The chief vegetable matters of the garlic, there- 
fore, the student will remark (and the same 
conclusion applies to other vegetables), are 
composed entirely of two or three principal 
ingredients. The composition of all plants is, 
in fact, much more similar than is commonly 
supposed. For instance, all the vegetable acids, 
such as vinegar (acetic acid), sugar, gum,, 
starch, woody fibre, &c., are composed of three 
substances, viz., carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, 
arranged in different proportions, as may bo 
seen from the followina: table : 



Acetic acid (vinegar) 


Carbon. 


Oxygen. 


HyJrogen,. 


50-224 


44147 


5629 


Citric acid (of lemons) 


33-811 


59-859 


6-330 


Oxalic acid (of wild sorrel) 


26 566 


70-689 


2-745 


Sugar . - - - 


42-47 


50-63 


3-90 


Starch - - - - 


43-55 


49-68 


6-77 


Gum 


4-2-23 


50-84 


6-93 


Woody fibre of the oak 


52-53 


41-78 


5-69 


Woody fibre of the beech - 


51-45 


42-73 


5-82 



The decomposition of vegetable substances. — All 
dead vegetable substances, when left to them- 
selves, under favourable circumstances, speedi- 
ly decay, or decompose, and are resolved into 
their constituents. This is commonly effected 
in two ways, either by fermentation or by putre- 
4D 865 



ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 



OSIER. 



faction, to thin last phenomenon several requi- 
sites are necessary ; moisture must be present, 
and the temperature must not be below 32° of 
Fahrenheit : in fact, it proceeds with extreme 
slowness at a temperature below 46°. It is re- 
tarded in its progress by the absence of the 
atmospheric air, but its presence is not essen- 
tial : when water, however, is entirely absent, 
putrefaction cannot proceed. 

The disagreeable odour which is emitted dur- 
ing putrefaction is owing to the gaseous sub- 
stances which are generated. Those plants 
which contain nitrogen emit ammonia: onions 
produce phosphuretted hydrogen. By all of 
them carbonic acid gas and carburetted hydro- 
gen gas are emitted in considerable quantities. 
These gases, being, when presented to the roots 
and leaves of plants, exceedingly invigorating, 
are one of the causes of the increased luxuri- 
ance of all crops manured with green vegeta- 
ble matters. When the putrefaction of the 
vegetable substance is at an end, the carbon, 
hydrogen, and oxygen, of which it is composed, 
are gone, and nothing remains but the earths 
and salts with which the purely vegetable mat- 
ters were once combined in the plant. The 
ashes which are left when putrefaction ceases, 
are in fact nearly the same as those left after 
combustion. See Putuefaction. 

Animal substances. — The analysis of animal 
substances is attended with all the difficulties 
to which I have alluded as attendant upon the 
examination of vegetable substances; and the 
progress of chemical philosophy has not yet 
succeeded in demonstrating the composition of 
any great proportion of the many substances 
niet with in the animal world. The great mass 
of animal matters contain nitrogen, and this is 
the chief general chemical difference between 
animal and vegetable substances ; hence, when 
animal substances putrefy, ammonia is disen- 
gageu, for this alkali is composed of nitrogen 
and hydrogen. 

The following analysis of several animal 
matters will show how generally present is 
■nitrogen in this class of substances : — 



Gelatin (glue. 


Carboo. 


Ojtygen. 


Hydrogen. 


Nitrogen. 










1 isinglass), &c. 


47-881 


27-207 


7-914 


16-993 


1 Albumen (white 










ofegg), &c. - 


52-883 


23-872 


7-540 


15-705 


1 Fibrin (fibre in 










1 clots of hinod) 


53-360 


19-685 


7-021 


19-934 


Urea (found in 










1 urine) - 


20- 


26-66 


6-66 46-66 | 



These are the chief animal substances of 
which most others are compounded. Thus 
the principal solid matter of animal muscle is 
fibrin. The outer skin or cuticle of animals is 
composed of from 93 to 95 per cent, of albumen. 
The solid matter of the blood is chiefly com- 
posed of the same substance. Under the heads 
Animal Manures, Fish, Bones, Geiatin, &C., 
ihe reader will find all the animal chemistry 
bearing upon farming and rural affairs, with 
which I am acquainted. The relative propor- 
tions of the inorganic constituents of vegetable 
substances forms a topic of great interest ; and 
Professor G. F.W. Johnston's lectures upon the 
subject, just published, will be read with satis- 
866 



faction. See Lect. IX., on the Application of Che» 

tnislry and Geology to jigriculture, 

ORNITHOLOGY (Gr.). The science which 
teaches the natural history and arrangement 
of birds. 

OSIER. The name given to various species 
of willow or salix, chiefly employed in basket- 
making. Although under the heads Sallow and 
Willow are noticed most of the species of this 
genus, it may be well to describe in this place, 
a few of those which are more generally known 
under the name osier. Osiers differ from sal- 
lows in their long, straight, flexible, and mostly 
tough twigs ; thin, generally sessile germens, 
and elongated styles and stigmas. The osier 
forms a hardy and useful hedge for excluding 
boisterous winds ; and as it flourishes in wet 
situations is frequently planted with a view to 
prevent the banks of rivers being washed away 
by the force of the current. Osiers are divided 
into two classes : the first is known by their 
blunt and downy or mealy leaves, which in the 
other are more pointed, smooth, and green, re- 
sembling the myrtle. 

The common osier (S.viminalis) is one of the 
most abundant species. This tree is found 
growing in wet meadows, osier-holts, the banks 
of rivers, and other moist situations. The 
branches are straight, erect, wand-like, very 
long and slender, round, polished, downy when 
young, with fine silky hairs. Leaves on short 
foot-stalks, almost upright, about a span long, 
and half an inch wide. The value of the com- 
mon osier for various kinds of basket-work is 
universally known. There is a variety much 
esteemed, called the velvet osier, in which no 
external difference is discernible, but the twigs 
are said to be more pliant. There are also 
various species as well as varieties compre- 
hended under the name of osiers, some of 
which, having smooth leaves, are noticed under 
the articles Sallow and Willow. 

The silky-leaved osier (S. Smithiana) is a 
shrub found growing in meadows and osier 
grounds, the branches of which are brittle and 
unfit for basket-work. It is therefore important 
for cultivators of osiers to distinguish carefully 
between this and the velvet osier ; for while 
the latter is, for some kinds of work, greatly 
esteemed, the silky-leaved osier proves of no 
utility. 

The auricled osier (S. stipularis) is a com- 
mon species in osier-holts, hedges, and woods, 
and is easily known at first sight by its coarse, 
tall habit, and conspicuous stipules, but not 
worthy of cultivation for any economical pur- 
pose. The twigs are upright, tall, soft, and 
downy, of a pale reddish-brown, brittle, and of 
little or no use as an osier. 

The fine basket osier (S. Forbiana) is a shrub 
grown in the meadows and osier-holts of the 
eastern part of England. The stem is erect, 
bushy, with upright, slender, smooth twigs, very 
flexible and tough, of a grayish-yellow, not 
purple hue, highly esteemed and much culti- 
vated for the finer kinds of basket-work. 

Green-leaved osier (S. rubra). This is a 
small tree, with long, upright, smooth, grayish 
or purplish, more frequently tawny branches, 
very tough and pliant, this being one of the 



OSIER, GOLDEN. 



OXYGEN GAS. 



aost valuable osiers when cut down annually. 
The very long and narrow leaves of this rather 
rare species agree in shape with the common 
osier (S. viminatis), but want its dense white 
pubescence. 

In the fens of the east of England many holts 
(as they are provincially called) or plantations 
of osiers are raised, which beautify the country, 
keep the stock warm in the winter, and provide 
much useful wood for baskets and all kinds of 
wicker-work. The mode of planting is very 
simple ; it is, first, to dig the land from 6 to 
13 inches deep, and then to prick down cut- 
lings of 4 years' growth, and 18 inches long, at 
about 3 feet distance from each other. The 
soil may be moor or clay, or any that is low 
and wet. 

These holts or osier plantations must be 
fenced round, either with dikes, which are 
most common, or with hedges. The proper 
season for making them (they seldom fail of 
growing at any time), is iVom the fall of the 
leaf till very late in the spring. 

OSIER, GOLDEN, or YELLOW WILLOW. 
See Willow. 

OUZE. A deposit made by the sea. 

OVEN. A domestic furnace used for baking 
bread, pies, tarts, &c. Ovens are generally con- 
structed of brick-work in a semicircular form, 
with a very low roof, and the bottom of which 
is laid with stone : in the front is a small aper- 
ture and door, by the shutting of which the 
heat is confined while the bread is baking. 
They are usually heated by means of dry fag- 
gots, wood, &c. As these ovens, however, are 
nut calculated for small families, on account 
of the quantity of fuel they consume, others 
have been contrived, on a more diminutive 
scale : these are usually formed of cast or 
hammered iron, and may be heated by the 
same fire which serves for the cooking of other 
provisions ; but for baking bread these ovens 
are inferior to the brick ovens. 

OVERLAND FARM. A provincial phrase 
usually applied to a parcel of land without any 
building or house attached to it. 

OVER-REACH. See Clickino 

OVER-YEARS. A coimtry term applied to 
such bullocks as are not finished fattening at 
three years old when home-breeds, or the first 
winter after buying in ; but kept through the fol- 
lowing summer to be finished the next winter. 

OVIPOSITOR (Lat. ovum, an egg; and pono, 
I place). In entomology, is the instrument by 
which an insect conducts its eggs to their ap- 
propriate nidus, and often bores a way to it; 
the same instrument is in some genera used 
as a weapon of offence, whence it is called the 
" aculeus." In the gall insect, and some others, 
the ovipositor is furnished at its root with a sac 
containing an acrid secretion, which is de- 
posited in the wound made by the ovipositor 
at the same time as the eggs. 

OWLING. In law, so called from its being 
generally committed during the night. An of- 
fence consisting in conveying sheep or wool to 
the sea-side, in order to export them clandes- 
tinely. The offence was formerly capital, par- 
ticularly if the offender neglected to surrender 
alter proclamation made for that purpose. 

OWLS. A ti ibe of reptorial birds, including 



those which fly by night, and have the eyes 
directed forwards. The owl, although fre- 
quently held in disrepute, should never be de- 
stroyed by the farmer, to whom he is a great 
friend; for his diet consists chiefly of field-mice, 
of which he consumes large numbers. The 
owls are usually arranged into two principal 
groups : one in which all the species exhibit 
two tufts of feathers on the head, which have 
been called horns, ears, and egrets ; in the 
second group, the heads are smooth and round, 
without tufts. 

OX. Synonymous with the generic name 
Bos ; in a more restricted sense, it signifies the 
castrated male of the domestic variety. See 
Cattle. 

OXALIC ACID. See Acids. 

OXALIS CRENATA. A perennial orna- 
mental plant, native of Chili, lately discovered 
by Mr. Douglas. The flowers are beautiful, 
of a yellow colour, and in umbels ; the stalks 
and leaves are succulent, of an acid taste, and 
useful as salads ; the roots or tubers are pro- 
duced in clusters; their taste, when boiled, 
somewhat resembles a chestnut. They are 
raised from the tubers, are extraordinarily pro- 
ductive, as easily cultivated as the potato, and 
decidedly superior in flavour. They require a 
rich soil, and, like the potato, are stored during 
winter in cellars. (Kenrick.) 

OX-BOOSE. Provincially, a stall or place 
where oxen stand in the winter to be fed or 
fattened. 

OX-EYE (Chrysanthemum, from chrysos, gold, 
and anthemum, a flower; alluding to the colour 
of some of the flowers). The great white ox- 
eye maudlin-wort, or moor daisy (C. leucanthc- 
mum),'P\. 10, tt), is very common in pastures, 
fields, and by way-sides. The flavour of the 
whole plant is herbaceous, slightly, not ple- 
santly, aromatic. Its properties are not im- 
portant; like many other herbs, mixed M-^ith 
grasses, it makes a part of the hay crop. The 
root is branched, tough, and woody, with many 
fibres. Stem erect, simple, or branched, ac- 
cording to the soil, from one to two feet high. 
Leaves deep-green, clasping the stem, oblong, 
obtuse, cut, pinnatifid at the base; radical 
ones obovate, stalked. Flowers large, terminal, 
solitary, not inelegant, with a broad yellow disk, 
and brilliant white radius. See Daisy. 

Another wild indigenous species, the yellow 
ox-eye (C. segctum), has already been noticed 
under the head Corv Mahigold. 

OX-FEET. A term applied to the feet of 
horses when the horn of the hind feet cleaves 
just in the middle of the fore part of the hoof, 
from the coronet to the shoe : they are not 
common, but very troublesome. 

OX-HARROW. A term applied to a very 
large sort of harrow, called in some counties of 
England a drag. 

OX-LIP. See Cowslip. 

OXYGEN GAS. A simple or undecom- 
pounded substance, discovered in 1774 by Dr. 
Priestley. It constitutes 21 percent, of the at- 
mosphere, and it is that portion of it which 
supports animal life and combustion. It is 
emitted by plants growing in the light, and is 
absorbed by them during the night. It is found 
in combination with hydrogen and carbon, and 

867 



OYSTER SHELLS. 



OYSTER SHELLS. 



Less often with nitrogen, in all vegetable and 
animal substances. It unites with various 
bases, and forms alkalies, acids, and metallic 
oxides. It is tasteless, and soluble in water, 
which at a temperature of 60° absorbs about 
2V of its bulk. One hundred cubic inches of 
this gas weigh about 34 grains. See Gases, 
their Uses to Vegetation. 

OYSTER SHELLS. As a manure, the use 
of crushed oyster shells has never been so 
extensive in England as in Ireland. Though 
consisting mainly of carbonate of lime, they 
contain a very minute proportion of phos- 
phate of lime, Ij to 2f per cent., with a 
small proportion of magnesia. They are con- 
sequently not nearly so valuable as bones, 
which contain the phosphate of lime in so 
much greater quantity ; and, unless pulverized, 
are not sufficiently quick in their effects to 
encourage the farmer to use them unbro- 
ken. In England they have been, therefore, 
little employed, even in districts, such as the 
clay and sand formation, where, from the 
absence of carbonate of lime in the soil, the 
calcareous matter supplied by oyster shells 
would be a very valuable addition. In Ire- 
land, which is almost entirely destitute of 
chalk, the use of the broken oyster shells 
has been more considerable than in Eng- 
land ; and in Dublin the parish authorities, 
in hard seasons, are glad to set the paupers to 
work to collect and break the shells which are 
thrown away as rubbish ; and I am informed 
that the money received for the powdered shells 
affords a very tolerable remuneration for the 
labour bestowed in their preparation. The 
mother-of-pearl with which the oyster shells 
are lined is similar in composition to the outer 
shell or crust. This has been analyzed by M. 
Merat Guillot, who found in 100 parts of mother- 
of-pearl, — 

Paris 

Carbonate of lime (chalk) - - - 66 
Membrane ------ 34 

100 

Powdered oyster shells should always, if 
possible, be drilled in with the seed; for, by 
thus coming into close contact with the plant, 
all the volatile and earthy constituents of the 
decomposing shell are absorbed by its roots 
and leaver with the greater readiness, from 
being placed more immediately in contact with 
them. In this way they have been found to 
answer very well on the light, sandy soils of 
Norfolk, when drilled in with the turnip seed ; 
as will be seen from the following account of 
Mr. Blakie, in a letter to Sir John Sinclair, 
dated Sept. 18, 1818: — "Oyster shells pounded 
fir bruised (without having been burned) were 
P.rst used upon Mr. Coke's farm as a manure 
m the year 1816. In the summer of that year, 
he experiment was tried upon a hungry, light, 
sandy soil, which had been cleaned for turnips. 
The oyster shell dust, or powder, was drilled 
in the usual way, upon 27-inch ridges, at the 
rate of 40 bushels per acre (without any other 
manure), was slightly covered with earth, and 
the turnip seed sown upon it. Another part 
of the same field, quality of land equal, was 
nw-nured with farm-yard dung, at the rate of 
8 tons per acre, put into the same sized ridges, 
868 



and sown with turnip seed as before described, 
no other manure having been applied. The 
turnips proved a good crop on both pieces: nor 
was there any perceptible difference in the 
bulk, but the produce was not weighed. The 
turnips were all eaten upon the ground by 
sheep ; and the succeeding crop, barley, was 
good on both, and apparently equal, but the 
produce was not thrashed separate. The seeds 
or layer crop of clover, in the present season, 
1818, is a good plant, and appears equally so. 
In this experiment, so far as it goes, it appears 
that 40 bushels of oyster-shell powder are equal 
in virtue as a manure to 8 tons of farm-yard 
dung, at least for the purpose to which it was 
applied. 

"In the autumn of 1816, powdered oyster 
shells were tried as a manure for wheat, in 
competition with rape-cake powdered. The 
experiment was upon a one year's clover layer; 
the wheat sown after one ploughing; the soil a 
kind, light, gravelly loam. Oyster-shell pow- 
der, at the rate of 4 cwt. per acre, was drilled 
with the wheat seed on one part of the field ; 
and on another part, of the same quality, rape- 
cake dust was drilled with the wheat at the 
same rate per acre as the shell powder; no 
other manure was applied to either part. The 
crop of wheat was good, nor was there any 
perceptible difference vpon the ground ; but the 
produce was not thrashed separate. A similar 
experiment was tried upon the same wheat 
field, the manure applied at spring; the opera- 
tion asfollows: thewheatseed was som'u without 
any manure in the autumn of 1816, and in the 
spring of 1817 rape-cake dust, at the rate of 4 
cwt. per acre, was drilled between the rows of 
wheat; at the same time an equal weight of 
shell powder was applied in like manner to 
another part of the field. The result of this 
was similar to the autumn experiment, viz., 
there did not appear to be any difference in the 
crop produced upon the shell manure from 
that on the rape cake. The field on which 
these experiments were tried is now in tur- 
nips, a good crop, and exhibits no difference 
where the manure, as before stated, had been 
applied for the wheat crop. These experi- 
ments are satisfactory, so far as they go, but 
certainly not conclusive ; because the produce 
was in no one instance either weighed or mea- 
sured. This I very much regret ; but it appears 
to be almost impossible to conduct such experi- 
ments with a requisite degree of accuracy upon 
a farm establishment of such magnitude as 
that of Mr. Coke at this place. For, daring the 
hurry incident to collecting the harvest, the 
farm manager has so many important concerns 
to attend to, that be cannot devote any portion 
of his time to superintending experimental 
objects ; and were he to depute the manage- 
ment of such concerns to the labourers, it is 
not to be expected that they would pay the 
attention requisite. The oyster shells are here 
broken to pieces by passing them through the 
oil-cake crusher; or are bruised by repeatedly 
drawing a heavy iron roller over them when 
spread upon a stone or hard-burned brick or 
edge floor. I give it as an opinion, that oyster- 
shell manure is likely to answer for gardens,, 
particularly to rake in with onions and other 



PACANENUT. 



PALMETTO. 



small seed. I also think it may prove bene- 
ficial as a top-dressing for grass plants, to de- 
stroy moss, and prevent worms from casting. 

Mr. Livingston, of New York, says (Annals 
ofJgr. vol. XX. p. 87), "In April, 1791, 1 strewed 
7 bushels of ground oyster shells over half an 
acre of rye, growing on a very poor soil, and 
3 bushels of gypsum on another half-acre ad- 
joining; sowed 10 lbs. of red clover seed over 
both. The rye was not better than the rest of 
the field; the clover seed being bad, came up 
but ihinly; that, however, dressed with oyster 
shells, much better than that manured with 
gypsum." 

It is certain, therefore, that oyster shells, 
when powdeied or crushed, are an excellent 
manure ; and, in many parts of England, where 
they can be obtained in considerable quanti- 
ties, I have every reason to believe that they 
will be found very useful to the farmer. (Joktp- 
son on the Fertili.cers, p. 368.) 



P. 

PACANENUT. See Hickory, 

PACE. In horsemanship, the peculiar man- 
ner of motion, or progression, in the horse or 
other animal. The natural paces of the horse 
are, a walk, a trot, and a gallop, to which some 
add an amble, as some horses have it natu- 
rally. See Caxteu, Gallop, &c. 

PACK RAG-DAY. A provincial term in 
England signifying the day after Martinmas 
dav, the time of changing farm servants. 

PADDLE-STAFF. An implement used by 
ploughmen to free the share from stubble, 
earth, &c. 

PADDOCK. A small field or enclosure. It 
also signifies a large toad. 

PAIL. A wooden bucket in which milk, 
water, or other fluids are commonly carried. 

PAIL-BRUSH. A hard brush, furnished 
with bristles at the end, to clean out the an- 
gles of the vessels more fully. 

PALM. An ancient measure of length taken 
from the extent of the hand. The English 
palm is understood to be three inches. 

PALMATE. In botany, divided so as to 
resemble a hand spread open. 

PALMA CHRIS TL See Castor Oil Plant. 
The cake left after the expression of castor 
oil is very advantageously applied to land as 
a manure for wheat and other crops. An in- 
teresting communication upon this subject may 
be found in the first volume of the Furmcr^s 
Register, from T. G. Peachy, Esq., of Williams- 
burg, Va., the results of whose experiments 
show the great value of the article. In one ex- 
periment he applied from 50 to 60 bushels per 
acre on 7^ acres of land sown with 10 bushels 
of wlieat, and the product was 26 bushels of 
wheat per acre. In this ease the land was so 
poor that not over 5 bushels could be expected 
from it without the dressing. He recommends 
about 40 bushels as an ordinary dressing. Mr. 
Peachy does not think the common impression 
^correct, that the chief efficacy of the cake re- 
sides in the portion of oil which it retains. 
His press, he says, "is a very powerful one, and 



leaves a very small portion of oil in the cake. 
There is, moreover, other refuse matter in such 
an establishment as ours, which contains a 
vast deal more oil than the cake, which I have 
used as manure, and been uniformly disap- 
pointed in its effects. Accident has enabled 
me, I think, to solve the difficulty, and to de- 
clare ray belief that the fertilizing qualities of 
the oil-cake reside chiefly in the farina it con- 
tains. Some time last year a vessel laden with 
flour was stranded near Jamestown, and the 
flour ruined. Mr. John Mann, who owns a 
farm in the neighbourhood, took two or three 
of the barrels and top-dressed a small portion 
of his wheat with it. I was not an eye-witness 
of its effects ; but I was informed it produced 
as great an increase of that portion of his crop 
as my oil cake would have done. 

" By experiment, I find that 50 bushels of the 
cake will weigh 1800 lbs.; and of this quantity 
I have discovered that jj is farina or flour — 
equal to 5 barrels of flour. The cotton seed, I 
fancy, contains more farina, in proportion to 
the oil, than the castor bean, and, I believe, 
would produce as great an effect after being 
deprived of its oil, as it would do in its origi- 
nal state. I should be much obliged to you to 
give us your opinion on this subject." See 
Linseed Cake, Rape Cake, &c. 

PALMETTO (Chanueops palmetto). Cabbage 
tree. This American tree belongs to the ge- 
nus of the palms, and is found farther north 
than any other species in America. From its 
lofty height it is reckoned in the United States 
as a tree. It is first seen about Cape Hatteras, 
in the 34th degree of latitude, from which it 
spreads to the extremity of the Florida penin- 
sula, and thence around the Gulf of Mexico. 
In the extreme south the palmetto is not en- 
tirely confined to the immediate vicinity of the 
sea. Its stem or trunk is erect, and rises 80 
or 90 feet, embellished at top by a globe of 
plumed leaves, each somewhat like a large 
fan, and plicated in the same manner, each 
frond, with its stipes or stem, 30 feet in length ; 
the frond, or expanded part of the leaf, 15 feet 
over. There are six species of the palm in 
Carolina and Florida, all of which have fla- 
belli-formed leaves or fronds. 

It is the central part of this vast plant at top 
which stands erect, like a sharp cone or sugar- 
loaf, surrounded by the expanding leaves, which 
is eaten roasted or boiled, like cabbage ; and 
consists of the young frond, rudiments of 
fronds, with all the succeeding appendages of 
the future growth, involved together, white and 
tender as a curd, as rich, and of the like plea- 
sant flavour. 

A well grown palm stands perfectly erect, 
on a shaft or column of 60 or 80 feet high, its 
base 3 feet diameter, having 3 or 4 rings and 
circular mouldings, 3 or 4 feet upwards ; from 
thence upwards to the top it diminishes almost 
imperceptibly, forming a model of a pillar 
for the architect, almost inimitable. A tree 
produces but one cabbage, and as soon as 
that is cut off, this glorious production of na- 
ture perishes. But, though the tree dies, yet 
it ceases not to be useful ; the exterior ligne- 
ous part, of three-fourths inch thickness, is 
as hard as bone when dry, and the interior 
4s 2 S69 



PALMS. 

spongy consistence being rotted out, or de- 
voured by worms, it makes excellent trunks 
or conduits for draining off water, being almost 
incorruptible under ground. These shafts also, 
split in two, and set upright in the ground, 
make strong and durable palisades ; and we 
are informed that they answered a very good 
purpose in South Carolina, at the time of the 
revolutionary war, particularly at Sullivan's 
Island. The ramparts of the fortifications be- 
ing lined with the trunks of the cabbage tree, 
split in two, and set upright against the wall ; 
their smooth, firm, and elastic surface, together 
with iheir spongy interior, united to repel the 
shot of their assailants. 

The stems are also used in Charleston, S. C, 
for the facing of wharfs, as the salt-water worm 
never touches them. Pieces of the spongy part 
of the stem aflxird a very good substitute for 
scrubbing-brushes, and are even preferred for 
whitening floors. 

The leaves of the smaller species afford ex- 
cellent and durable thatch for covering barns 
and out-houses; and the younger leaves of the 
cabbage tree are manufactured by the negroes 
into beautiful, light, and durable hats, called 
Bermudian hats. The repent caudex of the 
saw-palmetto, being torn from the surface of 
the earth, cut into proper lengths, dried, and 
burned to ashes, produce the greatest quantity 
of potash of any known vegetable. And the 
drupes, or large berries of this species, which 
are of the size and figure of dates, and as 
sweet, aflbrd good and nourishing food to the 
Indians- and hunters. They are not palatable 
to white people till they become accustomed 
to them. 

PALMS. A natural order of arborescent en- 
dogens, chiefly inhabiting the tropics ; distin- 
guished by their fleshy, colourless, six-parted 
flowers, enclosed within spathes; their minute 
embryo lying in the midst of albumen, and re- 
mote from the hilum; and rigid plaited or pin- 
nate inarticulated leaves, sometimes called 
fronds. 

Palms is a common name for the male flow- 
ers of the willow. 

PALSY. In the horse this nervous disease 
is usually confined to the hinder limbs. Old 
carriage-horses, and horses of draught of every 
kind, although not absolutely paralyzed, have 
often great stiffness in their gait, and difficulty 
of turning. These are evident injuries of the 
spine. Bleeding, physicking, antimonial me- 
dicines, and stimulating embrocations are the 
most likely means of cure for palsy. See 
Sheep, Diseases of. 

PAMBINA. A species of North American 
bush cranberry, discovered on the Columbia 
river. 

PAN. A term applied to the bed or flooring 
upon which the cultivated soil lies or is placed. 
See MooBHAND Pan. 

PANIC-GRASS (Panicum). This is a very 
extensive genus of large, coarse grasses, most- 
ly annual in Europe, of no agricultural use : 
the inflorescence spiked or panicled; the seeds 
in some instances used for food. There are 
three indigenous species: the rough, the green, 
and the loese panic-grass (P. verticillatum, 
vindt, and Crus-galli). See Millet Grass. 
870 



PAPAW. 

PANICLE. In botany, a form of inflores- 
cence in which the primary axis developes 
secondary axes, which themselves produce 
tertiary; or, in other words, a raceme bearing 
branches of flowers, in place of simple ones. 

PANNAGE. An old manorial term applied 
to the food which swine consume in woods, as 
acorns, and the mast of beech. It also signi- 
fies the money taken by the king's agistors, 
for the privilege of feeding hogs in the king's 
forest. 

PANSY. A term applied chiefly to the gar- 
den varieties of Viola tricolor, and others which 
are usually cultivated under the name of heart's' 
ease. See Violet. 

PAPAW {Anona triloba). An American 
plant, which, though most frequently appear- 
ing in the form of a shrub, sometimes attains 
the size of a tree of the third order. By the 
French of Upper Louisiana the papaw is called 
Assiminier. It is not found north of the Schuyl- 
kill river, in the vicinity of Philadelphia ; and 
it appears to be unknown, or extremely rare, 
in the low and maritime parts of the Southern 
States. "It is not uncommon," says Michaux 
" in the bottoms which stretch along the rivers 
of the Middle States ; but it is most abundant 
in the rich valleys intersected by the western 
waters, where, at intervals, it forms thickets 
exclusively occupying several acres. In Ken- 
tucky, and in the western part of Tennessee, 
it is sometimes seen also in forests where the 
soil is luxuriantly fertile; of which its presence 
is an infallible proof. In these forests it attains 
the height of 30 feet, and the diameter of 6 or 
8 inches, though it generally stops short of 
half this elevation. 

" The leaves are borne on short petioles, and 
are alternate, 5 or 6 inches in length, and of an 
elongated form, widening from the base to the 
summit. They are of a fine texture, and the 
superior surface is smooth and brilliant. The 
flowers, which are attached by short peduncles, 
are pendent, and of a purple hue. 

" When the fruit is ripe, which takes place 
towards the beginning of August, it is about 3 
inches long, and 1^ inches thick, of a yellow- 
ish colour, and of an oval form, irregular and 
swelling into inequalities. Its pulp is soft, and 
of an insipid taste, and it contains several 
large, triangular stones. It is never brought 
into the markets, and is sought in the woods 
only by children. At Pittsburgh some persons 
have succeeded in making from it a spiritu- 
ous liquor; but, notwithstanding this experi- 
ment, very feeble hopes can be entertained of 
cultivating the tree with profit for this pur- 
pose. 

" The trunk of the papaw is covered with a 
silver-gray bark, which is smooth, and even 
polished. The wood is spongy, extremely soft, 
destitute of strength, and applicable to no use 
in the mechanical arts. I have noticed that 
the cellular integument of the bark, and par- 
ticularly that of the roots, exhales in summer 
a nauseous odour, so strong as to occasion 
sickness if it is long respired in confined air. 
(Michaux's Jim. Sylvu.) 

The papaw belongs to the custard-apple genus, 
which in the tropics produces several kinds of 
fruit highly esteemed. Among these is the 



PAPILIONACEOUS PLANTS. 



PARING AND BURNING. 



celebrated Cherimoyer (Jlnona cherimolia) found 
in perfection in Mexico, Peru, and Brazil; the 
Alligator pear {A. palustris), the Sweet sop (^A. 
squamosa), all esteemed West India fruits, about 
as large as a middle-sized apple, and filled 
with a soft, rich, delicious pulp. 

PAPILIONACEOUS PLANTS include 
many of the most common and valuable plants 
suppl3'ing food to man and animals, such as 
pulse, beans, peas, tares, sainfoin, &c. The 
papilionacoB take the name from the resem- 
blance borne by their flowers to the butterfly, 
as is seen in the blossom of the common pea. 
The fruit forms a pod called a legume, and 
such plants are hence named leguminous. 

PARASITICAL PLANTS are those which 
grow into the tissue of other species, and feed 
upon their juices. Of this kind are the mis- 
seltoe, the broom-rape {Orobanche),the Lathraa, 
&c. Such species have no proper roots. The 
term parasitical is, however, often applied to 
mosses, Orchidaceous plants, Tillandsias and 
the like, which are mostly epiphytes, growing 
upon tho bark of trees, but deriving their food 
from the air, by means of their own roots. 

PARING AND BURNING. This well- 
knowr^ operation of agriculture, once much 
more extensively practised in England than at 
present, consists in paring off" the turf to a 
depth of two or three inches, generally with 
a breast-plough worked by a labourer, or by a 
turf-paring plough drawn by a horse ; allowing 
it to dry, and then burning it in heaps. It is 
commonly best performed in the months of 
April and May. It is a practice now rarely 
adopted on sandy or calcareous soils, although 
productive of good results on peat, and some 
kind of clay soil; but even there it is very 
doubtful whether it is the best mode of treat- 
ing the land. 

The practice is certainly as old as the days 
of Virgil, who mentions it in the first book of 
the Georgics. Endless have been the theories 
brought forward to account for its operation. 
Dr. Home thought it dispelled "a sour juice" 
from the land. (Prin. of Agr.) Dr. Darwin 
considered it produced "a nitrous salt" in the 
ashes. " Many such obscure causes," says 
Davy, " have been referred to for the purpose 
of explaining the eflects of paring and burning, 
but I believe they may be referred entirely to 
the diminution of the coherence and tenacity 
of clays, and to the destruction of inert and 
useless vegetable matter, and its conversion 
into a manure. All soils that contain too 
much dead vegetable fibre, and which conse- 
quently lose from one-third to one-half of their 
weight by incineration, and all such as contain 
their earthy constituents in an impalpable state 
of division, such as the stiff clays and marls, 
are improved by burning; but in coarse sands, 
or rich soils, containing a great mixture of the 
earths, and in all cases in which the texture is 
already sufficiently loose, or the organizable 
matter sufficiently soluble, the process of torri- 
faction cannot be useful. All pure silicious 
sands," adds Davy, "must be injured by it;" 
and here practice is found to accord with 
theory. Arthur Young found "burning injured 
sand;" and au intelligent farmer in Mount's 



Bay told me that ae had pared and burned a 
small field, several years ago, which he had 
not been able to bring again into good con- 
dition. I examined the spot; the grass was 
very poor and scanty, and the soil a silicious 
sand. 

The process of paring and burning, therefore, 
seems to be most adapted for peaty or clay 
lands ; for, as Davy continues, " the process 
of burning renders the soil less compact, less 
tenacious and retentive of moisture ; and when 
properly applied, may convert a matter that 
was stiff, damp, and in consequence cold, into 
one powdery, dry, and warm, and much more 
proper as a bed for vegetable life." 

Davy examined three specimens of the ashes 
from different lands that had undergone paring 
and burning. (See Ashes, ante, p. 115.) "The 
great objection," he adds, " to this operation is 
that it destroys vegetable and animal matter, or 
the manure in the soil : but in cases in which 
the texture of its earthy ingredients is perma- 
nently improved, there is more than a compen- 
sation for this temporary disadvantage. And 
in some soils where there is an excess of inert 
vegetable matter, the destruction of it must be 
beneficial ; and the carbonaceous matter re- 
maining in the ashes may be more useful to 
the crop than the vegetable fibre from which it 
was produced." (Agr. Cliem. p. 344.) 

Liebig thinks that all the benefit of burning 
the soil is attributable to its thus obtaining in- 
creased powers for the absorption of ammonia. 
He says, "Soils which contain oxides of iron, 
and burned clay, must absorb ammonia, which 
is favoured by their porous condition ; they 
further prevent the escape of the ammonia 
once absorbed by their chemical properties. 
The ammonia absorbed by the clay, or ferru- 
ginous oxides, is separated by every shower of 
rain, and conveyed in solution to the soil. 
Powdered charcoal possesses a similar action, 
but surpasses all other substances in the power 
which it possesses of condensing ammonia 
within its pores, particularly when it has been 
previously heated to redness. Charcoal absorbs 
ninety times its volume of ammoniacal gas, 
which maybe again separated by simply mois- 
tening it with water." (Organic Chein.) 

And it is evident, from the experiments 
which Liebig gives, that charcoal powder is a 
very fertilizing application to some plants. 
The practice, however, of paring and burning 
is evidently one whose advantages the farmer 
and the chemist admit with reluctance. And 
it is very probable, that by other means, such 
as the use of lime, &c., most soils may be 
cultivated with more advantage to the farmer 
by the avoidance of this expensive and de- 
structive process. "My practice," remarks 
Mr. Pearson, "in the use of turf for various 
purposes, convinces me that all lands must be 
injured by paring and burning, save those 
lands, which are few and far between, that 
possess too much inert vegetable matter; or, 
in other words, lands that grow their crops to 
such a state of luxuriance, as to prevent the 
desired intent of the cultivator. Those lands 
which possess too much inert vegetable matter 
might also be improved by having part of thf'ir 

871 



PARK. 



PARSNIP. 



subsoils burned ; but not by burning the turf 
even here, for that is the only thing that can 
bs commended on the spot that will cause fer- 
mentation in the soil when it is ploughed in." 
See Peat Soils. 

PARK. A considerable extent of pasture and 
woodland, surrounded or adjoining the country 
residence of a man of wealth, devoted to pur- 
poses of recreation or enjoyment, but chiefly 
to the support of a herd of deer, though some- 
times to cattle and sheep. Parks were origi- 
nally nothing more than portions of forest 
scenery appropriated by the lord of the soil for 
the exclusive use of animals of the chase; but 
this is now become, in many cases, a seconda- 
ry consideration, and the chief uses of a park 
are as indications of wealth and extent of ter- 
ritory, and as grazing ground for domesticated 
animals. 

PARSLEY, CULTIVATED {Jpium petrosi- 
limmi). There are two varieties of this well- 
known plant, the common plain-leaved, and 
the curly-leaved. It is somewhat singular that 
the first should be most cultivated, notwith- 
standing the superior beauty of the latter, as 
well as by reason of its curled leaves rendering 
it more easily to be distinguished from the 
JEtlmsa, or fool's parsley, a variety of the hem- 
lock, often occurring in gardens : it requires 
much care in saving the seed, otherwise it 
degenerates into the plain-leaved. Parsley 
is raised from seed, which is recommended 
usually to be sown annually ; but if never per- 
mitted to run to seed, and the stalks are cut 
down as often as they rise, it will last for 
several years. It may be sown from the close 
of February until the middle of June, and this 
is repeated about the middle of September, for 
the supply of winter and spring; but this is 
unnecessary if the plants are not allowed to 
seed. The seed is to be inserted moderately 
thick, in narrow drills barely an inch deep, 12 
inches apart if in a bed by itself, or in a single 
one round the edge of a bed ; the mould being 
raked level, and the stones immediately over 
them gathered off. The plants will not make 
their appearance in less than three or four, 
and sometimes six, weeks. When two or three 
inches high, it may be gathered from as re- 
quired. In early June, when the plants make 
a show for seed, the stems should be cut down 
close to the bottom, and again in September, if 
it has acquired a straggling, rank growth ; this 
will cause it to shoot afresh, and acquire a 
strong growth before the arrival of severe 
weather. On the approach of frost, if protec- 
tion is afforded to the plants by means of haulm 
or reed pannels, so supported as not to touch 
them, it will preserve them in a much better 
state for use in winter and spring. To save 
seed, nothing more is necessary than to allow 
some of the plants to run up in June ; they 
should not, however, be allowed to stand nearer 
than 18 inches to each other. The seed ripens 
in earlj autumn, and, when perfectly dry, may 
be beaten out, and stored. 

PARSLEY, THE COW. For rough cow- 
parsley, see CicELT. Smooth cow-parsley, see 
Chervil. 

PARSLEY, THE FOOL'S. See Fool's 
Parsley. 
872 



PARSLEY, THE HEDGE. See Hedge- 
Parsley. 

PARSLEY, HAMBURGH {Apium lalifolium). 
This esculent is likewise known by the name 
broad-leaved and large-rooted parsley. It is 
cultivated for its root, which attains the size of 
a middling parsnip, boiling exceedingly tender 
and palatable. It is eaten both as a sauce to 
flesh-meat and in soups, &c. It is propagated 
by seed, which may be sown at monthly inter- 
vals from February until the middle of June. 
It is sown either thinly in drills, 9 inches 
apart, or broadcast and raked in. The plants 
appear in about a month after sowing, and 
when of tolerable growth require to be thinned 
to 9 inches asunder, and cleared from weeds 
either by hand or the hoe ; which latter opera- 
tion being performed as often as weeds appear, 
is the only cultivation required. By the end of 
July or during August, the earliest sowings 
will have acquired a sufficient size for occa- 
sional use ; but they seldom attain their full 
growth until Michaelmas ; and the latest crops 
not until the following year. On the arrival 
of frost some of them must be taken up, and 
after the removal of the superfluous fibres, de- 
cayed leaves, &c., buried in sand, in a dry 
situation, under cover. 

To obtain seed, some plants must be left 
where grown, and allowed to run in May; 
their produce will ripen in July or August, 
when it must be cut, and, when perfectly dry, 
beaten out and stored. 

PARSLEY-PIERT. See Ladies' Mantle. 
PARSLEY, SMALLAGE, or WILD CE- 
LERY (jlpium graveokns). This wild plant, the 
seeds and herbage of which in its native ditches 
are acrid and dangerous, with a peculiar strong 
taste and smell, by culture becomes the mild and 
grateful garden celery, for which and its name 
we are indebted to the Italians, and which has 
now supplanted our native Alexanders. It is 
biennial, and flowers in August and September. 
The root is tap-shaped, and the herbage smooth 
and shining. The plant grows in ditches and 
marshy ground, especially towards the sea. 
The stems are widely spreading or floating, 
long, branched, furrowed. Leaves bright-green, 
pinnate, or ternate ; leaflets wedge-shaped, en- 
tire at their base, but variously notched above. 
Flowers in terminal and lateral umbels, small, 
numerous, greenish-white. Fruit almost glo- 
bular, with permanent, wide-spreading, straight 
styles. 

PARSNIP (Paslinaca, from pasthmm, a dib- 
ble, in allusion to the form oftheroot). The com- 
mon wild parsnip (P.sativa) is the well-known 
culinary root ; the other species are unworthy 
of cultivation. The original is a biennial plant, 
and found in England growing wild about the 
borders of fields, on hillocks, and dry banks, in 
a chalky soil, the root being spindle-shaped, 
white, aromatic, mucilaginous, and sweet, with 
a degree of acrimony, which it loses by culti- 
vation. The stem reaches to a yard high, 
erect, branched, deeply furrowed. Leaves ob- 
long, simply pinnate, downy beneath ; leaflets 
serrated and cut, bright-green. Umbels termi- 
nal, erect, of several unequal, angular, downy 
rays. FloM'ers small, yellow, appearing in 
July. Fruit large, pale-brown when quite ripe 



PARSNIP. 



PASSION-FLOWER. 



The Field Culture of the Parsnip. — Colonel Le 
Couteur describes this valuable field crop as 
thriving in any deep land, whether stiff or light. 
It succeeds in the island of Jersey admirably 
on soil resting on granite or sienite, or argilla- 
ceous schistus, on red clay, or on a gravelly 
bottom; on almost pure sand, if mixed with a 
light coating of earth, and on soils derived 
from pudding-stones, or white and red felspar. 
This includes most of the British islands, ex- 
clusive of the chalky or limestone ranges. 
Some persons cultivate it on poor black heath 
soil, not above 7 or 8 inches deep, and by 
means of heavy dressings of manure raise a 
good crop ; but the parsnip in such situations 
forms a large shoulder, and forks away into 
fingers when near the hard subsoil, whereas, in 
very deep land, it will run down a foot or two 
of a good size. 

An old grass lay is broken up by some per- 
sons in September, by others just before the 
parsnip seed is sown; the former I consider to be 
the best mode. When the turf is well rolled, 20 
tons per acre of stable manure are spread over 
the land. A trench is then opened through 
the centre of the field between 2 and 3 feet 
wide, and where the soil will admit of it, from 
1 foot to 18 inches deep. A small two-horse 
plough then turns the manure and about 3 
inches of soil into the trench, and is imme- 
diately followed by a large trench plough, with 
3 or 4, and, in many cases, with 8 or 10 horses, 
which turns a fool or more of clean soil upon 
the manure and scurf when the land has been 
recently skim-ploughed. The soil is then har- 
rowed, and the parsnip seed, which should be 
new, is sown at the rate of 3 or 4 pounds to the 
acre. The plants, when they are an inch high, 
are weeded, and are thinned out to 6 inches 
apart, and, according to the soil, should be 
again thinned out to 9 inches or more at the 
second hoeing. In September, when the fine 
aftermath begins to appear, some of this crop 
may be taken up for milch cows; as from 12 
to 25 pounds of them given at milking-time 
will have a surprising effect on the cream, and 
produce fine yellow butter, which will keep ad- 
mirably, if properly salted and prepared, pre- 
serving an excellent and superior flavour. 

They are taken up with a fork, or ploughed 
up in October or November. The average pro- 
duce, per statute acre, is 9 to 11 tons. The dry 
leaves of the parsnip are given to cows. The 
parsnip will fatten pigs (or poultry if boiled) in 
an extraordinary manner, and it is certainly 
one of the best preparatory crops for wheat. It 
will keep in store until April, and it is advi- 
sable to remove the leaves before the roots are 
stored. The parsnip being a very hardy vege- 
table, the frost does not injure the seed or the 
young p.ant; and, if thought desirable, the 
former may be sown as soon as they are ripe 
in autumn. There are only 1 or 2 varieties 
of parsnips, of v/hich the common species is 
the best for field culture. 1000 parts of the 
parsnip yielded Davy 90 parts of saccharine 
matter, and 9 parts of mucilage. 

Garden Culture. — The soil in which the par- 
snip succeeds best is a rich, dry, sandy loam, 
and the deeper the better. The most inimical 
to 't are gravel or clay. It is always beneficial 
110 



to trench the ground 2 spades deep, a little ma- 
nure being turned in with the bottom spit. If 
the soil is suitable to them, they are not much 
benefited by the general application of manure 
at the time of sowing, but often injured in con- 
sequence of numerous fibres bding induced. 
Dr. Macculloch says, that in the island of 
Guernsey, which has long been celebrated for 
the fineness of its parsnips, sea-weed is the 
manure chiefly employed. Of excrementitious 
manure, that of pigeons is the best. Decayed 
leaves are also very favourable to its growth. 
The situation cannot be too open. 

It is propagated by seed. The usual time 
for sowing is from the end of February to the 
beginning of April, but the earlier the better. 
It has been recommended in field cultivation 
to sow them in September ; in the garden, when 
sown at this season, they also obtain a finer 
flavour, but many of them in general run to 
seed. In the isle of Guernsey they regulate 
their time of sowing according to the soil; in 
the most favourable soils they sow in January ; 
or if the soil is wet or stiff", they do not insert 
the seed until the latter end of March. 

The seed is sown broadcast, rather thin, and 
well raked in. The compartment being laid 
out in beds, not more than 4 feet wide, for the 
convenience of weeding, &c. When the seed- 
lings are 2 or 3 inches high, they are carefully 
thinned to 10 inches apart, and the weeds re- 
moved both by hand and small-hoeing. The 
beds require to be frequently looked over to 
remove all seedlings that may spring up afresh, 
as well as to be frequently hoed, until the 
plants so cover the ground as to render it im- 
practicable. The roots may be taken up as 
wanted, in September, but they do not attain 
maturity till October, and which is intimated 
by the decay of the leaves. In November, part 
of the crop may be taken up, and the tops be- 
ing cut close off, laid in alternate layers, with 
sand, for use in frosty weather. The remainder 
may be left in the ground, and taken up as re- 
quired, as they are never injured by the most 
intense frost, but, on the contrary, rendered 
sweeter. In February or March, however, any 
remaining must be extracted, otherwise they 
will vegetate. Being preserved in sand, they 
continue good until the end of April or May. 

For the production of seed, some of the 
finest roots are best allowed to remain where 
grown ; or else, being raised in February, 
planted in a situation open, but sheltered from 
violent winds. Seed should never be employ- 
ed that is more than a twelvemonth old, as it 
has generally lost its vegetative power when 

of 3 ^TG&tCF 3.^6 

PARSNIP, THE COW. See Cow-Parsnip. 

PARSNIP, THE SEA, or PRICKLY SAM 
PHIRE. 

PARSNIP, THE WATER. See Water- 
Parsitip. 

PARTERRE (Fr.). In gardening, a system 
ol beds of different shapes and sizes, in which 
flowers are cultivated, with intervening spaces 
of gravel or turf for walking on. 

PARTURITION. See Ahortiox, Calviwo 
OF Cows, Gestatiox, Pregnancy, &c. 

PASSION-FLOWER (Passiflora, from pas- 
sio, passion ; and flos, a flower ; in allusion to 

873 



PASTERN OF A HORSE. 



PEA, THE. 



Ihe filamentous appendages or rays bearing a 
lesemblance to the cross ; the emblem of the 
passion of Christ). The species of this inte- 
resting and elegant genus are admirably adapt- 
ed for stove and green-house climbers, being 
of easy culture, free growers, and, if allowed 
plenty of room, producing abundance of beau- 
tiful flowers. Many of the kinds produce fruit 
freely, from which, through impregnation, 
several fine hybrids have been raised. The 
fruit of some, as P. edulis, P. laurifolia, and P. 
quadrangularis, or granadilla, are eaten : the 
succulent pulp which surrounds the seeds is 
found to be fragrant, cooling, and pleasant, 
agreeably acid, and admirably adapted for 
allaying thirst in hot climates. 

All the species will thrive well in a mixture 
of loam and peat, and are easily increased by 
cuttings planted in sand. The hardy kinds 
should be planted in sheltered situations. 

PASTERN OF A HORSE. The distance 
that intervenes between the joint of that name 
and the coronet of the hoof. 

PASTURE (Fr.). Ground on which cattle 
feed. I have, under the head Grass, gone at 
some length into the question of the grasses 
best adapted for diSerent soils. The pastures 
of England and Ireland exceed in extend and 
productiveness those of any other country of 
similar extent. "The excellence of pastures," 
observes the author of The British Husbandry, 
vol. i. p. 478, "depends greatly both upon their 
position and the different species of animals 
for whose support they are intended. Thus, 
uplands which are elevated, open, and dry, are 
the best adapted for the feeding of sheep; 
while a heavy stock is fed with more advan- 
tage upon ground which is lower in point of 
situation, as well as better enclosed. The soil 
of uplands, particularly if it be of a chalky na- 
ture, bears a sweet, though a short bite of grass, 
which is so favourable to the pasturage of the 
smaller breeds of sheep, that although it will 
support but a scanty stock, it yet produces the 
finest species of mutton. These flocks of sheep, 
too, by the folding system, keep in cultivation 
many a poor, thin soil, which would otherwise 
be wfuthless. There is an excellent paper, by 
Mr. Magillivray, on the natural pastures of 
Scotland, in which he traces the natural 
grasses which are found on the highest ele- 
vations down to the valleys and sea-shore. 
"The bleak summits of these mountains," he 
remarks, " exposed to the depressing influence 
of a low temperature, boisterous winds, and 
abundant rains, covered for a great part of the 
year with snow, and presenting either bare rock 
or a shallow, gritty soil, produce few plants of 
any description, and hardly a dozen of those 
which are selected by sheep as their food. 
These latter consist of 3 or 4 carices or hard 
grasses, 1 or 2 junci or rushes, some tufts of 
the common club-rush, together with the Fes- 
tua: vivipara, and 1 or 2 other grasses. The 
extreme heights scarcely present any other 
vegetation than Silene acauUs, Salix herbacea, 
and Statice armcria. Farther down the moun- 
tains, extending downwards to about 3000 feet 
above the level of the sea, we find a vegetation 
still poor and stunted, but by no means defi- 
r:ent in beauty, and perhaps affording better 
874 



pasturage than some of the lower grounds. 
We here find irregular patches of verdure, 
consisting chiefly of Carices and Scirpus ceespi- 
tosos, which, however, are also eaten by sheep; 
by the streamlets are several species of Alpine 
plants. Farther down the mountains, Mra 
jflexuosa grows in tufts, and of a large size. 
Several carices form a tolerable sward in 
many places ; the Agrostis vulgaris, &c., occa- 
sionally occurs. Calluna vulgaris, or common 
heath, first makes its appearance. As we 
proceed downwards, and arrive at the places 
where the mountains begin to expand, we en- 
ter upon a region, the predominant feature of 
which is the Callwna vulgaris, mingled with 
Erica cinerea (the gray-leaved heath) ; the 
vegetation becomes more vigorous ; various 
grasses present themselves. The valleys of 
this region, in which flow the streamlets, are 
generally more verdant than the open ground. 
The heaths are less abundant, and the pastur- 
age consists chiefly of carices and gramineae, 
intermingled with many of the plants of ordi- 
nary pasture ground, such as Lotus corniculatus, 
Polygala vulgaris, &c. The general aspect of 
the vegetation, however, is healthy, and con- 
tinues so until we reach the vicinity of the 
river." For every information, however, re- 
lating to the formation of pastures, and the 
cultivation of the grasses, the farmer cannot 
consult a better authority than the Hortu8 
Grata. Woburnensis of the late Mr. George Sin- 
clair. 

In feeding pastures, it is usual with those fields 
which are shut up from stock at Candlemas, to 
graze them in the succeeding May. Those 
which are fed until April may, after being shut 
up, be grazed again at Midsummer. If it is 
intended to feed a pasture during the winter^ 
it should be allowed to rest in the months of 
October and November. See Meauow and 
Grasses. 

PEA, THE (Pisum sativum, Fr. pois, Span, pe- 
soles. The English is evidently a corruption 
of the Latin name). This valuable plant is 
supposed to be a native of the south of Europe, 
and was cultivated by the Greeks and Romans. 
It is said by Acton to have been brought to 
England in 1548. There are only one or two 
kinds of pea : the gray pea (P. arvense), and 
the pea cultivated as a vegetable in gardens 
(P. sativtim). Of the last, however, the varie- 
ties are endless. 

Of field peas, the varieties are distinguished 
as the early and the late ripening. The com- 
mon early are small and dark-coloured. The 
gray pea of this class is the most common. 

The later sown varieties are generally simi- 
lar in their characters to garden peas ; they 
differ, however, from them in having usually 
purple flowers. The most common kinds are 
the white, the early Charlton, and the pearl. 
Field peas, especially where there is a consi- 
derable demand for them, as in the neighbour- 
hood of large towns, are a very profitable crop 
to be gathered green, since there is time after 
the peas are gathered, in the month of June, to 
prepare the land for a crop of turnips. 

Where they are grown for their seeds, the white 
peas are those generally cultivated for the pur- 
pose of boiling, the gray as food for animals. 



PEAS. 



PEAS. 



The pea will succeed pretty well on both 
heavy and light soils ; but it certainly does best 
on the latter, especially if the land abounds 
with carbonate of lime. It is an excellent crop 
to interpose between corn crops, for it affords 
considerable facilities to the cleansing of the 
land, and is not otherwise an exhausting crop. 
In many parts of England a pea crop is dibbled 
on the clover and grass leys, and afterwards a 
corn crop is taken with great advantage. In 
others a crop of oats is taken, and then a crop 
of peas. When this latter mode is adopted, the 
land is commonly ploughed in the autumn, 
and by cross-ploughing and harrowing in the 
spring, brought into some degree of tilth, and 
then the seed may be sown with the ordinary 
drill. The quantity of seed employed is about 
3 bushels per acre, and the rows are usually 
from 9 to 27 inches apart. There is every 
facility aforded for the use of the horse-hoe. 
This instrument, with the early and occasional 
use of the hand-hoe, will cleanse the land; to 
which end the crop of peas will, as they approach 
maturity, materially assist, by overpowering 
and Stirling the weeds. 

Peas are usually one of the most uncertain 
of the English farmer's crops. They are sub- 
ject to many casualties — to blight or mildew; 
to the attacks of a variety of insects, such as 
the grub, which devours the roots; lice, aphides, 
«&c., which haunt the leaves; and a small bee- 
tle, the Bruchus granarius, lays its eggs in the 
green pods, which produce a grub that devours 
its seeds. Then, again, it is frequently injured 
by the weather, in very dry, or in continued 
wet, or late harvests; and hence in the east 
of England it is often designated by the far- 
mers as " a gentleman farmer's crop." This 
crop, however, is too often mismanaged in the 
way to which Arthur Young so well alluded, 
when he told the careless farmers of his day 
that they were "too apt to sow this pulse when 
the land would yield nothing else. They have 
a proverb among them," he adds, " which sig- 
nifies that the season does as much for peas as 
good husbandry; and they from thence take 
care that good crops shall be owing to season 
alone. Hence arises the general idea of peas 
being the most uncertain crop of all others. 
This is owing to their being scarcely ever 
sown on land that is in good order. Let," he 
continues, " the good husbandman lay it down 
as a maxim, that he should sow no crop on 
land that is not in good order ; not merely in 
respect of fine tilth at the time of sowing, but 
also of the soil being in good heart, and clear 
of weeds. He would not, however, here be 
understood to rank all these crops together ; 
because beans and peas will admit of cleaning 
while they grow. On that account, if a farmer 
comes to a field which his predecessor has 
filled with weeds, a horse-hoed crop of beans 
will be expedient, when a barley crop would 
be utterly improper; and, after land has yield- 
ed one crop of barley, certainly another should 
not be sown, but one of pulse substituted. If 
these ideas are well executed, the peas and 
beans, in every course, will find the land in 
heart enough for barley, the soil will always 
be clean, and the crop good. Peas, when ma- 
naged in a spirited manner, will not have the 



reputation of being so very uncertain a crop, 
which character has, he thinks, in some mea- 
sure been owing to ill conduct." 

Peas do not need any particular dressings 
with manure ; in fact, few crops require it so 
little; and in many situations manure produces 
the ill effect of rendering the plant too luxu- 
riant. Von Thaer found, by several experi- 
ments, that the dung applied to the pea crop is 
the most profi.table when used as a top-dress- 
ing. And, moreover, he contends that on sandy 
loams it produces in this way a much better 
effect in the succeeding crop. Lime and soot 
are, perhaps, the best dressings for peas ; and 
these may operate to some degree by killing 
the insects of the soil, which might otherwise 
prey upon them; besides, the pea plant seems 
to delight in every situation where it can have 
access to calcareous matter. The crop is com- 
monly cut with a hook at the end of a staff, or 
the half of an old scythe set in a handle. By 
these the peas are severed, and made up into 
small bundles, called wads or wisps, and these 
remain on the ground until they are sufficiently 
dry to be carried. The straw of peas is very 
useful for the stock of the farm-yard: cows 
eat it, when it has been well gathered, with 
considerable avidity. See Haulm. 

1000 parts of peas grown in Norfolk aflforded 
Davy 501 parts of starch, 22 of saccharine 
matter, 35 of albuminous matter, and 16 parts 
of extract. The ashes obtained by burning the 
pea plant in flower and when ripe were exa- 
mined by M. Saussure : he found in 100 parts 
of these ashes, procured from the Pisum sati- 
vum in flower, of soluble salts 49-8 parts, of 
earthy phosphates 17-25, earthy carbonates 6, 
sil ica 2-3, metallic oxides 1 , and loss 24-65 parts. 
And from the ashes of the ripe plant, soluble 
salts 34-25 parts, earthy phosphates 22, earthy 
carbonates 14, silica 11, metallic oxides 2-5, 
and loss 17-25 parts. 

The average price of peas in England, per 
Winchester quarter, was in 

£ s. d. £ 3. d. 

1792 - 1 12 8 1805 - 2 8 4 
1795 - 1 18 4 1810 - 2 15 9 
1800 - 3 7 5 1815 - 1 18 10 

Per Imperial Quarter. 

£ s. d. £ s. d. 

1820 - 2 5 11 1835 - 1 16 6 

1825 - 2 5 5 1840 

1830 - 1 19 2 

The amount of the imperial quarters of peas 
and beans entered for home consumption in 
England every five years, from 1815 to 1835, 
was, according to Mr. M'CuUoch : 

Qrt Qf- 

1815 - - 523 1830 - - 63,664 

1820 - - 761,125 1835 - - 94,540 
1825 - - 30,767 

The annual average of peas and beans, im- 
ported into England from 1801 to 1825, in Win 
Chester quarters, was, from 

Qra. 
Russia ..---- 785 
Sweden and Norway - - - 428 

Denmark 823 

Prussia ..---- 7,609 
Germany ------ 7,144 

Netherlands 5,802 

France and South of Europe - - 9,124 
America ------ S98 

Ireland 4,928 

Other countrieB - - - - 151 
875 



PEAS. 

Garden Culture of the Pea. — Of the numerous 
varieties, which differ much in their hardiness, 
yield, height, &c., we may enumerate the fol- 
lowing: — Cormack's early dwarf-pea, early 
Charlton, early golden Charlton, early Nichoi's 
golden Charlton, common Charlton, Reading 
hotspur, early single-blossomed, early War- 
wick, early dwarf frame, early double-blossom- 
ed frame, dwarf marrowfat, tall marrowfat, 
green or Patagonia marrowfat, early green 
nonpareil, Knight's marrowfat or wrinkled pea, 
Spanish moratto, imperial blue, Prussian blue, 
egg, white Rouncival, gray Rouncival, green 
Rouncival, blue Rouncival, tall sugar (the 
sugar-peas are eaten like kidney-beans), crown 
or rose, Leadman's dwarf, dwarf sugar, dwarf 
Spanish, sickle pea. 

A soil moderately rich and mouldy is best 
suited to this vegetable ; rather inclining to 
aluminous for the lofty growers and main 
crops, but for the early and late ones, light and 
dry ; if naturally otherwise, rendered so by the 
admixture of drift-sand with the earth of the 
drills. Dwarf varieties will grow on poorer 
and lighter soils than the others. In an ex- 
tremely rich soil they grow luxuriant but un- 
productive. They are rather injured than 
benefited by the application of unreduced dung 
at the time of sowing. Road dirt and rotted 
leaves form the best compost for them. For 
the early and late crops, that is, from October 
until the close of January, and during June 
and July, the sowings must be performed in 
sheltered siluations, as south borders. In De- 
cember, the rows are best drawn parallel with 
and within a foot of the fence. At other sea- 
sons their site cannot be too open. 

They are propagated by seed, the sowing of 
which commences with the year. In January 
they may be inserted in sheltered borders, and 
large supplies in an open compartment, and 
thence continued throughout February and until 
July, once every two or three weeks. During 
this last month, and in the first week of August, 
the last sowings must be made for produc- 
tion the same year. For the first production 
in the following year, a small sowing may be 
performed at the close of October, and repeated 
about the middle of November and December, 
though it often happens that these are scarcely 
a week forwarder than those inserted in the 
following February. The necessary extent of 
the various sowings may be determined with 
tolerable exactness from the experiments of 
Jiradley; he found on the average that 3 rods 
nf ground, containing 18 double rows, afforded 
iJG quarts of shelled peas. 

The seed must be inserted in drills, or by 
the dibble, in rows at a distance proportionate 
to the height to which the variety grows, a.s 
well as according to the season. 

When the plants have advanced to a height 
of 2 or 3 inches, they are to be hoed, the weeds 
cleared away, and earth drawn round the stems. 
This should be performed twice or three times 
gradually as they ascend, previous to the sticks 
being placed. It should be performed in dry 
weather, and the leaves never covered, or in 
wet weather they decay. For the winter stand- 
ing crops it should be especially attended to, as 
it protects them greatly from frost. Peas are 
876 



PEAS. 



1 



always best supported by sticks ; if it is neg- 
lected, even for the dwarf varieties, they not 
only produce less, but sooner decay, are incon- 
venient to cultivate and gather from, and never 
so fine. Sticking is not required until the plants 
are 6 inches in height, or show their tendrils. 
If, during the time of blossoming, or swelling 
of the fruit, continued drought should occur, 
water may be very beneficially applied, it being 
poured between the rows, if they are in pairs, 
or otherwise in a shallow trench on one side 
of each. Watering the leaves is rather inju- 
rious. Failures in the rows of the earliest 
crops, whether from mice or other causes, may 
be rectified by transplanting. This is best per- 
formed in March ; the plants thus removed 
must be watered until they have taken root, and 
also shaded, if the weather is hot. It is a good 
practice to nip off the top of the leading shoots 
of the early and late crops as soon as they are 
in blossom, as it greatly accelerates the setting 
and maturity of the fruit. Too much care can- 
not be taken when the pods are gathered, not 
to injure the stems. I have heard it stated from 
lengthened experience, that if the pods are cut 
off with scissors, the plants produced one-fourth 
more than when roughly gathered from. Brad- 
ley makes nearly a similar observation. From 
the main crops, or where there is no necessity 
for precipitation on account of bringing them 
to table early, the pods should not be gathered 
until the peas have become plump and mode- 
rately firm, yet green and tender. The more 
regularly the plants are gathered from, the 
longer they continue in production, as the 
later pods never attain maturity if the earlier 
ones are allowed to grow old before they are 
gathered. 

In very severe weather the winter standing 
crops require the shelter of litter or other light 
covering, supported as much as possible from 
the plants by means of branches laid between 
the rows. Mr. J. Laird, gardener, at Portmore, 
N. B., employs straw ropes or twisted bands 
for this purpose, which he fixes along each 
side of the rows with wooden pins, driven into 
the ground. Whichever mode of shelter is 
adopted, it must be always removed in mild 
weather, otherwise the plants will be spindled, 
and rendered weaker. For the imperial blue, 
frame, and other dwarf varieties, the sticks 
need not be more than 3 feet high ; for the 
Prussian blue, hotspur, and other middle-sized 
varieties, about 5 ; for the Knight's marrowfat, 
and other tall ones, at least 7; and for the Pa- 
tagonian, not less than 8. The best wood for 
this purpose is the brush, or fan-shaped 
branches of the hazel, «fcc. Before they are 
employed, the ends that are thrust into the 
ground should be charred, or moderately burnt, 
which effectually preserves them from decay. 
If this is attended to, and, when no longer re- 
quired, the sticks, if thoroughly dry, on a fine 
day are stored in a dry shed, they will last for 
three or more years. 

For the production of seed, leave some rows 
that are in production during July, or sow pur- 
posely in March. Care must be taken, how- 
ever, that no two varieties are in blossom near 
each other at the same time, but a lapse of at 
least three weeks should occur, otherwise no 



PEA. 



PEA-BUG. 



perfect variety can be obtained. We are much 
in want of observations on this point. If hot- 
spurs and marrowfats are sown on the same 
day, the latter will not bloom for nearly four 
weeks after the first. If the frame variety and 
the moratto are similarly inserted, the latter will 
succeed the first in about five weeks. The 
plants intended for seed ought never to be 
gathered from. When in blossom, all plants 
which do not appear to belong to the variety 
among which they are growing should be re- 
moved. They are fit for harvesting as soon 
as the pods become brownish and dry. When 
perfectly free from moisture, they should be 
beaten out, otherwise, if hot, showery weather 
occurs, they will open and shed their seed. 
Seed-peas preserve their power of germinating 
for eight or ten years. 

Forcing commences in December, in the 
early part of which month they may be sown 
in a hotbed to remain, or thick, to transplant 
during the succeeding month into others for 
production. These may be repeated in January, 
and the transplanting take place in February. 
It is also a common practice to sow in a warm 
border during October, and the plants being 
cultivated as a natural ground crop, are re- 
moved into a hot-bed during January. 

The temperature employed in forcing may 
be either progressive, beginning at 40° and 50°, 
for the extremes, at the time of sowing, rising 
to .52° and 66° when in blossom, and to .5.5° and 
70° while the fruit is swelling ; or the tempera- 
ture may be uniformly kept up throughout their 
growth, having 50° lor the minimum and 70° 
for their maximum. 

In New York and some other of the North- 
ern and Eastern States, the pea forms a highly 
valuable crop, not only for its intrinsic value, 
but as useful in preparing the land for the 
reception of wheat, and other grain, for which 
purpose it is considered on a par with the 
turnip and other root crops of England. The 
soil best adapted to the pea is one that is 
good for wheat, and where that grain is certain, 
peas may be considered so. The preparation 
of the soil demands nothing peculiar; it must 
only be made in good order for seed, in the 
manner required for other spring crops, by 
being well ploughed, harrowed, and if neces- 
sary, manured. If manured too highly, how- 
ever, the vine or haulm is apt to be too abun- 
dant, and the pea itself inferior in quantity and 
quality. In this, as in most other cases, too 
great a growth of vine or straw is incompatible 
with great crops of pulse or grain. Lime in 
all countries has been found an essential ingre- 
dient of pea or wheat soils; and where it does 
not naturally exist in them, should be applied 
previous to attempting the culture of these 
crops. 

The kinds of pea most usually cultivated as 
a field-crop, are the small yellow pea and the 
marrowfat. We prefer the latter ; as it is 
equally certain with the other, is excellent for 
the table as well as for feeding, is as nutritious 
for animals, and generally more productive. 
In some situations, or in exhausted soils, the 
small yellow pea may however be preferable. 
From 30 to 40 bushels per acre is not an un- 
common crop, and this highest amount is often 



exceeded. The quantity of seed required per 
acre may be stated at 2^ bushels, although 
some use only 2, and some put on 3 bushels 
per acre. For covering the pea the cultivator 
is a very good implement, as it gives them 
more earth than the harrow and less than the 
common plough. The ground should be left 
smooth by the roller or otherwise, as the ease 
of gathering is greatly depending on the state 
of the surface. 

In harvesting the pea, some farmers hook 
them up with a scythe, some rake them by 
hand with the common hay-rake, but the most 
expeditious method by far, is to use the horse- 
rake in gathering this crop. In whatever way 
peas are gathered, it is necessary they should 
be ripe, and of course, if very dry at the time, 
there will be some loss by shelling, but not 
perhaps more by the horse-rake than by the 
other methods, and four-fifths of the time re- 
quired by the two first methods is saved. This, 
where the land is to be put into wheat, is fre- 
quently of great consequence. Once gathered, 
there is no crop so easily thrashed and pre- 
pared for market as the pea, and few that bet- 
ter reward the cultivator. 

There is no plant cultivated which will bring 
pigs forward more rapidly than the pea, if the 
feeding is commenced as soon as the peas begin 
to harden, and the whole plant is fed out tc 
them. When gathered and hard, two methods 
of feeding have been adopted, both of which 
are far preferable to the barbarous practice of 
giving swine the pea without any preparation. 
The first is to soak and swell the pea in milk, 
if it can be had, if not, in water, and feed it to 
them in that state. The second is to grind the 
pea, either alone or with other coarse grain 
and feed it to animals in that way. This is 
preferable to feeding whole, as in corn or any 
other food, the finer it is made the more readily 
it will be assimilated, and in all cases, if cooked 
into pudding the advantage will be decisive 
In England, where corn cannot be grown, a 
mixture of peas and barley is considered supe- 
rior to any other food for making pork; here, 
closing the process of fattening with Indian 
corn, as giving more firmness to the pork, is 
preferred. 

In the Southern States, a kind of pea, called 
there the Cow Pea, is cultivated for the purpose 
of making into hay, and for being ploughed 
under as a fallow crop, like clover. 

PEA-BUG or BEETLE. In the spring of 
the year we often find, among seed-peas, many 
that have holes in them ; and, if the peas have 
not been exposed to the light and air, we see a 
little insect peeping out of each of these holes, 
and waiting apparently for an opportunity to 
come forth and make its escape. If we turn 
out the creature from its cell, we perceive it to 
be a small oval beetle, rather more than one- 
tenth of an inch long, of a rusty black colour, 
with a white spot on the hinder part of the 
thorax, 4 or 5 white dots behind the middle of 
each wing-cover, and a white spot, shaped like 
the letter T, on the exposed extremity of the 
body. This little insect is the Bruchus Pisi 
of Linnaeus, the pea-Bruchus, or pea-weevil 
better known in America by the incorrec 
name of pea-bug. The original meaning of 
4 E 877 



PEA-BUG. 



PEA, COW. 



the word Bruchus is a devourer, and the insects 
to which it is applied well deserve this name, 
Jbr, in the larva state, they devour the interior 
ot seeds, often leaving but little more than the 
hull untouched. They belong to a family of 
the great weevil tribe called Bruchidce, and are 
distinguished from other weevils by the follow- 
ing characters. The body is oval, and slightly 
convex ; the head is bent downwards, so that 
the broad muzzle, when the insects are not 
eating, rests upon the breast. 

The habits of the Bruchians and their larvje 
are similar to those of the pea-weevil, which 
remain to be described. It may be well, how- 
ever, to state here that these beetles frequent 
the leguminous or pod-bearing plants, such as 
the pea, Gleditsia, Robinia, Mimosa, Cassia, 
&c., during and immediately after the flowering 
season ; they pierce the tender pods of these 
plants, and commonly lay only one egg in each 
seed, the pulp of which suffices for the food of 
the little maggot-like grub hatched therein. 

Few persons, while indulging in the luxury 
of early green peas, are aware how many in- 
sects they unconsciously swallow. When the 
pods are carefully examined, small, discoloured 
spots may be seen within them, each one cor- 
responding to a similar spot on the opposite 
pea. If this spot in the pea be opened, a 
minute whitish grub, destitute of feet, will be 
found therein. It is the weevil in its larva form, 
which lives upon the marrow of the pea, and 
arrives at its full size by the time that the pea 
becomes dry. This larva or grub then bores a 
rotind hole from the hollow in the centre of the 
pea quite to the hull, but leaves the latter and 
generally the germ of the future sprout un- 
touched. Hence, these buggy peas, as they are 
called by seedsmen and gardeners, will fre- 
quently sprout and grow when planted. The 
grub is changed to a pupa within its hole in the 
pea in the autumn, and before the spring casts 
its skin again, becomes a beetle, and gnaws a 
hole through the thin hull in order to make its 
escape into the air, which frequently does not 
happen before the peas are planted for an early 
crop. After the pea-vines have flowered, and 
while the pods are young and tender, and the 
peas within them are just beginning to swell, 
the beetles gather upon them, pierce the pods, 
and deposit their tiny eggs in the punctures. 
This is done only during the night, or in cloudy 
weather. Each egg is always placed opposite 
to a pea ; the grubs, as soon as they are hatched, 
penetrate the pod and bury themselves in the 
peas ; and the holes through which they pass 
are so fine as hardly to be perceived, and are 
soon closed. Sometimes every pea in a pod 
will be found to contain a weevil-grub ; and so 
great has been the injury to the crop in some 
parts of the country, that the inhabitants have 
been obliged to give up the cultivation of this 
vegetable. These insects, as Mr. Deane has 
vbserved, diminish the weight of the peas in 
which they lodge nearly one-half, and their 
leavings are fit only for the food of swine. 
This occasions a great loss, where peas are 
raised for feeding stock or for family use, as 
they are in many places. Those persons who 
eat whole peas in the winter after they are 
raised, run the risk of eating the weevils also; 
878 



but if the peas are kept till they are a year old, 

the insects will entirely leave them. 

The pea-weevil is supposed to be a native 
of the United States. It seems to have been 
first noticed in Pennsylvania, many years ago ; 
and has gradually spread from thence to New 
Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, 
and Massachusetts. It is yet rare in New 
Hampshire, and I believe has not appeared in 
the eastern parts of Maine. It is unknown in 
the north of Europe, as we learn from the 
interesting account given of it by Kalm, the 
Swedish traveller, who tells us of the fear with 
which he was filled, on finding some of these 
weevils in a parcel of peas which he had car- 
ried home from America, having in view the 
whole damage which his beloved country 
would have sulfered, if only two or three of 
these noxious insects had escaped him. They 
are now common in the south of Europe and 
in England, whither they may have been car- 
ried from this country. As the cultivated pea 
was not originally a native of America, it 
would be interesting to ascertain what plants 
the pea-weevil formerly inhabited. That it 
should have preferred the prolific exotic pea to 
any of our indigenous and less productive 
pulse, is not a matter of surprise, analogous 
facts being of common occurrence ; but that 
for so many years a rational method for check- 
ing its ravages should not have been practised, 
is somewhat remarkable. An exceedingly 
simple one is recommended by Deane, but to 
be successful it should be universally adopted. 
It consists merely in keeping seed-peas in tight 
vessels over one year before planting them. 
Latreille and others recommend putting them, 
just before they are to be planted, info hot 
water for a minute or two, by which means the 
weevils will be killed, and the sprouting of the 
peas will be quickened. The insect is limited 
to a certain period for depositing its eggs ; late 
sown peas therefore escape its attack. The 
late Colonel Pickering observed that those sown 
in Pennsylvania as late as the 20th of May, 
were entirely free from weevils ; and Colonel 
Worthington, of Rensselaer county, New York, 
who sowed his peas on the 10th of June, 6 
years in succession, never found an insect in 
them during that period. (Harris.') 

PEA, COW. The plant called by this com- 
mon name in lower Virginia and the Carolinas, 
is there extensively cultivated. In some parts 
of Virginia it is called the Yeatman pea, from 
the person by whom it was introduced from the 
Eastern Shore. The pea is of a yellowish 
colour, is very productive both in vine and 
seed, unusually hardy in remaining uninjured 
by rain, after becoming ripe, and for table use 
is much esteemed. But it is chiefly cultivated, 
in common with several varieties of Indian 
peas, in fields, to plough under for the benefit 
of successive crops, as a substitute for clover, 
buckwheat, and other plants not so well adapt- 
ed to southern culture. The vines of this and 
the varieties of the Indian pea, all make excel- 
lent long forage for common work-horses, 
oxen, milch-cows, or sheep. The curing of 
the vine is sometimes difficult, as it requires a 
longer time than most other forage plants. 
Some stack it away with layers of dry straw, 



PEA, EVERLASTING. 

as is practised in the moist climate of England 
with clover. 

PEA, EVERLASTING. See Everlastino 
Pea and Ijathtrus. 

PEAS and OATS. These, in the Eastern 
and Northern States, are often sown together 
broad-cast, producing a mixed crop called 
Mcslin. The common proportions are one- 
fourth of peas to three-fourths of oats. The 
pea commonly sown is the green pea from 
Canada, which ripens about the time of the 
oats, and for which, while growing, the oats 
act as supporters. Peas and oats are usually 
ground together as feed for their fatting cattle, 
and are deemed valuable, though not so good 
or so much relished as Indian meal without 
mixture. Forty bushels of peas and oats per 
acre would be regarded a large crop. This 
has been produced, however, on nine acres, in 
Deerfield meadows. Some farmers sow at the 
rate of one-third peas and two-thirds oats. 

PEA, PARTRIDGE. The Cassia Chamacrista 
of Beck ; a native of the Middle and Southern 
States, where it goes by the common names of 
Sensitive pea and Magothybay bean. The 
stem is I to 2 feet high, rather erect, firm, and 
much branched, downy, and often purplish. 
Leaflets 8, 10, or 12 pairs, i to | inch in length 
and 2 to 3 lines wide. Petals of the flowers, 
deep bright-yellow, obovate, 2 or 3 of them with 
a purple spot at base. Stamens 10, unequal, all 
fertile ; anthers very long, 4 of them yellowish 
and 6 purple. Legume about 2 inches long 
and i to 5 of an inch wide, with a short, abrupt, 
oblique acumination, hairy along the sutures. 
See Wild Sensitive Plant. 

PEACH (Fr. ^€t7(e; hsit. Amygdalus, derived 
from (imysso, to lacerate, in allusion to the fis- 
sured shell). The tall and coarse portion of 
the ornamental, early flowering plants, of which 
the peach forms a species, may be advantage- 
ously disposed of in large plantations, and the 
dwarf kinds in small shrubberies at the front 
of the large ones. In England the common 
way of increasing them is by budding on the 
plum stock or the bitter almond. Rich mould 
is a proper medium for them. They are most 
valued for producing their showy pink blos- 
soms early in the season, sooner than almost 
any other shrubs. The peach is now one of 
the most esteemed fruits: nearly 200 varieties 
are enumerated in the London Horticultural So- 
ciety's Catalogue. 

Although the peach is raised in the open air, 
in every part of the United States, it succeeds 
best in the states of New Jersey, Delaware, 
Maryland, Virginia, and some of the Western 
States in similar latitudes. The flavour of the 
peaches of the United States is far superior to 
that of the same kind of fruit in Europe. In 
the vicinity of the large cities, or where facili- 
ties of quick transportation to these are fur- 
nished, the culture of the peach is a source of 
great profit. 

Mr. Thomas Hancock, a very intelligent 
nurseryman, near Burlington, New Jersey, gives 
the following description of the mode practised 
by him in planting and managing peach or- 
chards. " When it is intended to plant out a good 
orchard of trees, we generally select an elevated 
position, entirely unprotected by any timber 



PEACH, 

or shelter of any kind ; if a situation can be 
selected near the bank of a river, the crop is 
more certain, as the trees better withstand the 
frosts, which occasionally do much damage. 

" Plough, and put the land in good condition 
for corn or vegetables, and plant the trees 20 
feet apart each way ; continue to till the land, 
taking off" a crop of peas, beans, potatoes, or 
something that does not grow too high : wheat, 
rye, and oats are very injurious, and should not 
be planted. The land must not remain with- 
out tillage, as the trees would soon be injured: 
indeed, nothing will destroy a fine peach or- 
chard sooner than to let it lie in sward. 

"The trees should be 2 years old on the stock 
from seed, and I year from the bitd, the year after 
budding. This is considered as the best age 
for transplanting. If the water stands near 
the surface of the soil, or if the land has springs 
near the top of the ground, I should not deem 
it advisable to plant with the expectation of 
very certain crops. I have lost two orchards 
planted in this manner, while in an adjoining 
field, where the land, or a part of it, was high, 
with a dry subsoil, the trees flourished and 
produced abundant crops. 

" Light sandy soil, or light loam, we consider 
the most preferable for planting out peach 
orchards, and I should judge that on many of 
the elevated knolls, in the vicinity of Boston, 
the peach might be cultivated to good advan- 
tage, particularly the earlier varieties. It is at 
least well worthy of trial." {Orchardisi' s Com- 
panion.^ 

Th^ peach crop is, however, limited in a 
great degree by the destruction of the trees 
effected by a worm which attacks the inner 
bark of the root about the crown, and by a 
disease of uncertain origin, generally termed 
the yellows. In some parts of the country 
where the peach was formerly very extensively 
raised, the culture has been abandoned in con- 
sequence of the destruction of the trees from 
these two causes. Mr. Samuel Reeve, of Sa- 
lem, New Jersey, very advantageously known 
as a nurseryman, says that the attacks of the 
peach-worm may be obviated or the insect de- 
stroyed by frequently examining the root at the 
surface of the ground while the tree is in a 
state of vegetation, removing the insects, as far 
as possible, and then washing the tree at the 
earth's surface with strong soap-suds, every 
week or two. Rubbing the trunk and main 
branches with soap-suds several times a year, 
is also highly conducive to keeping the tree in 
a healthy state. The ground should be kept 
loose around the peach tree. {Orchardist's 
Companion.") 

The application of a mixture of common 
salt and saltpetre has been recommended by a 
gentleman in Maryland, as successful in pre- 
serving peach trees against the attacks of 
worms. The proportions are, 1 part of salt- 
petre to 8 parts of common salt. Half a pound 
of this mixture to a tree of 7 years old and 
upwards, is to be strewed upon the surface of 
the ground around and in immediate contact 
with the trunk of the tree. The mixture is 
also recommended to be sown over the or- 
chard in the proportion of 2 bushels to the acre. 
By this means, it is said, the fruit is improved 

87«» 



PEACH. 



PEACH TREE BORER. 



in size and flavour, the worms destroyed, and 
the yellows prevented. 

The YeUoivs. The immediate cause of this 
fatal disease with which the peach tree is so 
often attacked, is still a matter involved in 
great obscurity. The following observations, 
by Mr. Robert Sinclair, of Clairmont Nursery, 
near Baltimore, Maryland, contains the views 
of a person of great intelligence and expe- 
rience, in regard to the disease in question. 

As I have, for about 30 years, occasionally 
had my attention drawn to this subject, I am 
willing, says Mr. Sinclair, to throw in my mite 
of experience. I am fully satisfied that the 
complaint exists. Some persons say that the 
worm at the root is the cause of the yellows. 
I acknowledge that any disorder that destroys 
the trees will cause the leaves to turn yellow; 
but the complaint I call the yellows will kill a 
whole orchard, without any visible wounds, on 
or before the third or fourth full crop. I think 
where any neighbourhood abounds with peach 
orchards, it will be nearly impossible to keep 
clear of the disease. 

On planting out young peach trees on the 
site of a peach nursery, two years after the 
nursery was removed, and although the ground 
was in other respects well suited for the growth 
of the peach tree, yet by the next autumn many 
of them were dead, and the balance so sickly 
that I had them all dug up, and there was no 
sign of the worm at their roots. From this, 
and other similar experiments, I think the dis- 
ease may be generated by planting too near 
where a nursery or orchard of peach trees has 
been, or where the latter is; consequently, 
where a neighbourhood abounds with peach 
trees, there is danger of its becoming over- 
spread with disease, without greater care than 
is usually taken to prevent it. 

I think I have seen evidences of its being in 
some degree contagious. Richard Cromwell, 
the respectable and worthy peach raiser, near 
Baltimore, has for upwards of 30 years sup- 
plied that city with peaches of the best quality, 
on a large scale. Some time since, when I was 
walking with Mr. Cromwell through his peach 
orchard, when the trees were hanging full of 
ripe fruit: he pointed out a tree that he said had 
the yellows, having a full crop upon it, at that 
time worth one dollar per peck, and to me it 
appeared healthy; but he observed to me, "as 
soon as I take the fruit from the tree, I shall 
dig it up, in order to prevent the disease spread- 
ing any farther, for I expect the side of the ad- 
joining trees next to it will be affected next 
season." I had occasioii to pass through Mr. 
(-'romwell's orchard the next fruiting time, and 
the sickly tree had been dug up, but, as had 
been predicted, parts of the four neighbouring 
trees were evidently much affected, but only 
the sides next to the diseased tree, which made 
it the more striking, and convincing of the 
contagion, if this is a proper term. 

On another occasion, I had a favourite early 
purple peach, before I had a nursery, that I 
suspected was partially affected by the yellows, 
and being desirous of preserving the variety, I 
cut the healthiest branch I could get, and I had 
12 buds inserted in healthy peach stocks; but 
-.Then they had grown about 3 feet, they showed 
880 



the disease so plainly, that in order to prevent 
it from spreading, 1 pulled up all the trees and 
had them burnt. j 

From these cases, it seems to me the disease | 

may be generated by planting old peach or- 
chards or nurseries too soon after the removal M| 
of the old trees, and also by planting too near I 
those already affected with the disease : and 
if cuttings or scions are taken from diseased 
trees, their product will be also diseased. I 
also think the yellows may be communicated 
to young trefes by planting seeds taken from 
diseased peach trees. (^Hovey's Magazine of 
Horticulture.) 

Drying Peaches. Several modes of effecting 
this are pursued. When done in-doors, furnaces 
should be placed in the cellar from which the 
heated air may rise into the building suitably 
provided with shelves, &c. 

In some of the Southern Stales, says Mr. 
Kenrick, the process is facilitated by a pre- 
vious scalding. This is effected by immersing 
baskets of the fruit a few minutes in kettles 
of boiling water. They are afterwards halved, 
the stone separated, and being laid with the 
skins downwards, the drying is effected in the 
sun in three days of good weather. They then 
may be stored in boxes. 

In France, as we are informed, peaches and 
other fruits are thus dried whole. The peaches 
or other fruits, being pared, are boiled for a few 
minutes in a syrup consisting of 1 pound of 
sugar dissolved in 3 quarts of water, and after 
being drained by being laid singly on board 
dishes, they are placed in the oven after the 
bread is taken out, and when sufficiently dry 
they are packed in boxes. The following is 
the mode of drying practised by Mr. Thomas 
Bellangee, of Egg Harbour, New Jersey. He 
has a small house provided with a stove, and 
drawers in the sides of the house lathed at 
their bottoms, with void intervals. The peaches 
should be ripe, and cut in two, not peeled, and 
laid in a single layer on the laths, with their 
skins downward, to save the juice. On shov- 
ing in the drawer, they are soon dried by the 
hot air produced by the stove. In this way 
great quantities may successively, in a single 
season, be prepared, with a very little expense 
in the preparation of the building, and in fuel. 

PEACH TREE BORER. PI. 16, fig. 8. The 
following interesting description of the peach 
tree worm, with a mode of protecting against 
its ravages, is from Dr. Harris's Treatise on 
Destructive Insects. 

The pernicious borer, which, during many 
years past, has proved very destructive to 
peach trees throughout the United States, is a 
species of JEgerin, named exitiosa, or the de- 
structive, by Mr. Say, who first scientifically 
described it in the third volume of the Journal 
of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel- 
phia, and subsequently gave a representation 
and account of it in his American Entomology. 
In the fifth volume of the New England 
Farmer, I have given the history of this in- 
sect, have mentioned the principal authors 
who have noticed it, and recommended pre- 
ventive measures, which have been found 
effectual in protecting the peach tree from its 
most serious attacks. The eggs, from which 



PEACH TREE BORER. 



PEAR TREE. 



these borers are hatched, are deposited, in the 
course of the summer, upon the trunk of the 
tree near the root; the borers penetrate the 
bark, and devour the inner bark and sap-wood. 
The seat of their operations is known by the 
castings and gum which issue from the holes 
in the tree. When these borers are nearly one 
year old, they make their cocoons either under 
the bark of the trunk or of the root, or in the 
earth and gum contiguous to the base of the 
trees; soon afterwards they are transformed 
to chrysalids, and finally come forth in the 
winged state, and lay the eggs for another ge- 
neration of borers. The last transformation 
takes place from June to October, most fre- 
quently, however, during the month of July, in 
the state of Massachusetts. Here, although 
there afe several broods produced by a suc- 
cession of hatches, there is but one rotation 
of metamorphosei consummated within a year. 
Hence borers, of all sizes, will be found in the 
trees throughout the year, although it seems to 
be necessary that all of them, whether more or 
less advanced, should pass through one winter 
before they appear in the v/inged state. Un- 
der its last form, this insect is a slender, dark- 
blue, four-winged moth, having a slight re- 
semblance to a wasp or ichneumon-fly, to which 
it is sometimes likened. The two sexes differ 
greatly from each other, so much so as to have 
caused ihem to be mistaken for two distinct 
species. The male, which is much smaller 
than the female, has all the wings transparent, 
but bordered and veined with steel-blue, which 
is the genera! colour of the body in both sexes ; 
the palpi or feelers, the edges of the collar, of 
the shoiilder-covers, of the rings of the ab- 
domen, and of the brush on the tail, are pale 
yellow, and there are two rings of the same 
yellow colour on the shins. It expands about 
1 inch. The fore-wings of the female are blue, 
and opake, the hind-wings transparent, and 
bordered and veined like those of the male, and 
the middle of the abdomen is encircled by a 
broad orange-coloured belt. It expands 1^ inch 
or more. This insect does not confine its 
attacks to the peach tree. I have repeatedly 
obtained both sexes from borers inhabiting the 
excrescences which are found on the trunks 
and limbs of the cherr}'^ tree ; and moreover, 
I have frequently taken them in connection on 
the trunks of cherry and of peach trees. They 
sometimes deposit their eggs in the crotches 
of the branches of the peach tree, where the 
borers will subsequently he found; but the in- 
jury, sustained by their operations in such 
parts, bears no comparison to that resulting 
from their attacks at the base of the tree, which 
they too often completely girdle, and thus cause 
its premature decay and death. The following 
plan, which was recommended by me in the 
year 1826, and has been tried with complete 
success by several persons in this vicinity, will 
effectually protect the neck, or most vital part 
of the tree, from injury. Remove the earth 
around the base of the tree, crush and destroy 
the cocoons and borers which may be found in 
it, and under the bark, cover the wounded parts 
with the common clay composition, and sur- 
round the trunk with a strip of sheathing paper 
8 or 9 inches wide, which should extend 2 
111 



inches below the level of the soil, and be se- 
cured with strings of matting above. Fresh 
mortar should then be placed around the root, 
so as to confine the paper and prevent access 
beneath it, and the remaining cavity may be 
filled with new or unexhausted loam. This 
operation should be performed in the spring or 
during the month of June. In the winter the 
strmgs may be removed, and in the following 
spring the trees should again be examined for 
any borers that may have escaped search be- 
fore, and the protecting applications should be 
renewed. 

PEACOCK (Pavo cristatus.) The peacock 
need scarcely be mentioned as a bird of eco- 
nomical use. Pea-hens and pea-chickens, in- 
deed, are occasionally used for food, but this 
splendid creature is, and ought to be, regarded 
solely as an object of beauty. The advantages 
to be derived from rearing it for food are not 
to be thought of. See Fowl, the Pea. 

PEARL-WORT {Sagina ; from sagiria, fat- 
ness; in allusion to its presumed nourishing 
qualities for sheep). These are hardy annual 
weeds, growing in any soil. There are in Eng- 
land three indigenous species. 

PEAR TREE (Pyrus, from piren, the Celtic 
word for pear). Like other species of culti- 
vated fruits, there are now a very great num- 
ber of varieties, more than 600 being enume- 
rated in the Horticultural Society's catalogue. 
A deep, rich loam is necessary for pear trees. 
They are increased by seeds, or by budding 
and grafting, which is the more common me- 
thod, upon stocks of their own kind, or upon 
the quince. The established kinds are multi- 
plied by grafting the choicer on the common 
kinds. Almost the same treatment is required 
in pruning and training the pear as the apple. 
When we reflect on the labours of the horti- 
culturists, who have by cultivation made the 
pear tree forget its natural thorns, and instead 
of an acerb berry, produce us a fruit so fair 
and nectareous, we find our warmest gratitude 
an insufficient return. 

The wild pear tree (P. communis) is a tall, 
handsome tree, growing in woods and hedges, 
with thorny branches, and simple, ovate, ser- 
rated leaves ; downy beneath, and fringed with 
soft, white hairs. The flowers are copious, ter- 
minal, in corymbs, snow-white, with pink an- 
thers. Fruit obovate, generally hard and aus- . 
tere, but liable, even in a wild stale, to many 
varieties, and sometimes eatable. The wood 
is light, of a fine grain, and tolerably hard. It 
is used by turners to make joiner's tools and 
picture-frames to be dyed black, and is also 
frequently stained and substituted for ebony. 
The white wild pear tree (P. aria), we have 
already noticed under the head Beam Thee. 
The expressed juice of the pear, when ferment- 
ed in the manner of cider, constitutes the well- 
known beverage, perry. 

Grafting and Inocnhiting. — In Europe it is very 
common to set the pear on a quince stock for 
clayey and light soils, whilst for trees intended 
for sandy and calcareous soils, the free stock 
pear is preferred. Grafted on the white thorn 
(which, like the quince, renders them dwarf- 
ish), pears come very early into bearing, con- 
tinue prolific, and, in respect to soil, will thrive 
4 E 2 f f ' 



PEAR TREE. 



PEAR TREE. 



well on a strong clay, which is considered un- 
suitable to those on quinces and wildings. But 
they are supposed to have an unfavourable in- 
fluence upon the fruit, in rendering it small 
and hard. The following observations relating 
to the pear tree, its fruit, diseases, and insect 
enemies, are from the New American Orchardist, 
by Mr. Kenrick, whose list of fruits is valuable. 

By grafting or inoculating on the quince, 
pear trees come much sooner into bearing, 
their productiveness is increased, the good 
quality of the fruit is not changed, but the size 
and longevity of the tree are diminished. Such 
pear trees are termed dwarfs. This mode is 
extensively adopted in France ; but all kinds 
of pears will not grow on the quince stock. 
Those dwarfs trained in the form of a distaff, 
are called in that country Qv.enouilles. 

The pear tree is of an extreme hardihood, 
exceeding that of the quince, and is seldom 
annoyed by the borer. The quince, when ex- 
posed, is liable to danger from the borer in the 
same degree as the apple tree. Their attacks 
alwa3's commence in the parts exposed above 
ground, or at the surface of the earth, and never 
beneath. In transplanting the pears, therefore, 
the quince stock must always be completely 
hurled more than an inch beneath the soil. 
Thus situated and protected, the quince stock, 
from its nature, will strike root suddenly, new 
and numerous roots being produced on all 
sides, quite to the junction of the pear. Such 
is the mode adopted in practice by S. G. Per- 
kins, Esq., and by other experienced cultiva- 
tors, for the complete protection of the quince 
stock from ail dangers of every kind. 

Soil and Distance. — The pear flourishes in 
rich soils and gentle declivities; they will suc- 
• ceed in the most common, deep, dry soil, and 
throw out numerous lateral shoots. But they 
do not flourish in moist situations ; in a cold, 
strong, moist soil, with a clayey subsoil, they 
throw out very few lateral roots, the fruit is not 
so fair, or of so good a quality, and the trees 
arc not so long-lived. Thej' will even grow in 
.poor soils, and in the clefts of rocks. 

With respect to distance, the same observa- 
tions to be found under the head of Apple may 
here apply. But the pear, from its pyramidal 
form, requires much less space. 20 feet, in 
suitable soils, is a good distance; but less 
answers in poorer soils. Qutnouilles are found 
to answer even at 4 or 5 feet distance, pro- 
ducing large crops ; and, as thej' occupy 
but little space, and come suddenly into bear- 
ing, they are, for profit, extensively cultivated 
in France. The specimen pear trees at the 
Jardin du Roi, or Garden of Plants at Paris, 
in the autumn of 1840, were under the par- 
ticular care and management of Mons. Dal- 
bret, the pupil of Thouin, and himself the 
author of a most valuable work on pruning. 
Thest trees were kept in the most perfect Que- 
nouilh or pyramidal form, from the summit 
quite down to the ground, by the system of short 
or spur pruning; and although at the distance 
of but about 7 feet asunder, yet they appeared 
to have ample space, and bore most abundant 
crops. But M. Dalbret then stated that 10 feet 
was the most suitable distance. In the climate 
882 



of the United States, and with more heat and 
sunshine, and finer skies, less distance might 
suflSce. Pears produced on quince stocks are 
found to be much improved in flavour ; all but 
some particular winter kinds, which are said 
in some cases to become worse. 

The young, luxuriant shoots of the pear tree, 
by being bent downwards, generally produced 
the finest possible bearing wood for the second 
year; and, by grafting on the quince, and bend- 
ing the branches, fruit may be produced from 
a seedling pear in the third or fourth year from 
the seed, which, in the common course, would 
require from 7 to 14 years. That system of 
rendering trees productive is fully described in 
Mr. Kenrick's Orchardist. He believes it to be 
the best system of all others. 

As to standards, very little other pruning is 
necessary, except taking out those few limbs 
that interfere in keeping the tree well ba- 
lanced. 

The blight, or, as it is sometimes called, yirc- 
blight, is a malady which sometimes afl^ects the 
pear tree during the months of June and July, 
causing the tree, or a portion of its branches, 
suddenly to turn black, with a mortal afltction; 
its leaves wither at once, as by a stroke of the 
sun, and in a few hours become of a brown or 
black colour. Mr. Lowell is of opinion that 
this disease is caused by an insect called the 
Scolytus pyri. He observes, " On the first r.;> 
pearance of this disease, I instantly sawed olT 
all the limbs aflfected, and proceeded to exa- 
mine them. I found at last the enemy, not at 
the point where death ensued, but some inches 
below it. The insect was very small, and ap- 
parently incapable of such extensive mischief; 
but the effect was certain, and the manner of 
producing that effect was obvious. It had eaten 
a complete circle of the alburnum, or sap-wood, 
not exceeding the size of a knitting-needle, so 
as completely to intercejif the passage of the 
sap." This insect was shown by Mr. Lowell 
to the late Professor Peck, and in the account 
of the insect which was soon after published 
in the Massachusetts .Agricultural Repository, the 
professor observed, that the mischievous effects 
of this insect may be observed in June and 
July, and that the dead part of the branches 
should be cut off" without delay and burned. 
Mr. Lowell has stated (New England Farmer, 
vol. V. p. 2), that by steadily pursuing the sys- 
tem of cutting off" the limbs many inches below 
the apparent injury, and burning them, the in- 
sects have been extirpated from his estate. 

The account of Professor Peck was repub- 
lished in the New England Farmer, vol. ii. p. 42. 
Some writers have attributed this disease to a 
stroke of the sun; others attribute it to manur- 
ing too high; some to excessive moisture at 
the roots, and too much pruning, which is sup- 
posed to cause a surfeit and produce a stagna- 
tion. But all agree that the only remedy is to 
saw off" the limb. (Kenrick's Jim. Orchardist,') 

Some years ago, it was ascertained that a 
species of JEgeria inhabited the pear tree in the 
State of Massachusetts, and it is said that con- 
siderable injury has resulted from it. An in- 
fested tree may be known by the castings thrown 
out of the small perforations made by the borers 



PEAT. 



PEAT. 



which live under the bark of the trunk, and 
subsist chiefly upon the inner bark. They make 
their cocoons under the bark, and change to 
chrysalids in the latter part of the summer. 
The winged insects appear in the autumn, 
having, like others of this kind, left their chry- 
salis skins projecting from the orifice of the 
holes which they had previously made. In its 
•winged form, this JEgeria is very much like 
that which inhabits the currant-bush ; but it is a 
smaller species. It was described by Dr. Har- 
ris in the year 1830, under the name of JEgeria 
pyri, the pear tree ^geria ; and his account of 
it will be found on the second page of the ninth 
volume of the New England Farmer. Its wings 
expand rather more than half an inch; are 
transparent, but veined, bordered, and fringed 
with purplish black, and across the tips of the 
fore-wings is a broad, dark band, glossed with 
coppery tints; the prevailing colour of the 
upper side of the body is purple-black ; but 
most of the under-side is golden-yellow, as are 
the edges of the collar, of the shoulder-covers, 
and of the fan-shaped brush on the tail ; and 
there is a broad yellow band across the middle 
of the abdomen, preceded by two narrow bands 
of the same colour. (Harris.) 

Drying Pears. — When dried in ovens, the 
fruit will keep for years. This mode of pre- 
serving is common in France. Bosc has de- 
scribed two modes of drying pears, and adds, 
that, in some of the cantons of that country, 
the cultivators annually preserve, by these 
means, supplies of subsistence extremely 
agreeable and wholesome during winter and 
spring. He invites cullivators not to neglect 
this resource. In this mode of drying, those 
varieties of middle size, melting and sweet, 
are preferred. After the bread is drawn from 
the oven, they are placed on the swept hearth, 
or on hurdles or boards. This operation is 
repeated a second, a third, and even a fourth 
lime, according to their size and the degree of 
heat The heat must not be so great as to 
scorch, and the fruit must not be dried to 
hardness. Lastly, they are placed in bags, and 
preserved in a dry place. The second mode 
of preserving is practised chiefly on the Rous- 
selets and finest-flavoured varieties. Bosc 
states that he has tried them after three years' 
preservation, and found them still good ; but 
they are better during the first year. They are 
gathered a little before their maturity, and after 
being half-boiled in a small quantity of water, 
they are peeled and drained. They are next 
carried on hurdles to the oven, after the bread 
is drawn, or the oven is heated to a suitable 
degree; here they remain twelve hours; after 
which they are steeped in the syrup, to which 
have been added sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and 
brandy. They are again returned to the oven, 
which is now heated to a less degree than at 
first. This operation is thrice repeated, until 
they are suflSciently dried, or of a clear brown 
colour, and firm, transparent flesh; and finally 
they are packed in boxes lined with paper. 
{Kenrick's Orchardist.) 

PEAT. A collection of vegetable remains, 
commonly collected together in considerable 
masses, either on the surface of the earth, or 
in strata, at various depths. Owing to the 



changes which the plants composing it have 
undergone, it contains much tannic acid, which 
preserves the vegetable matter from further 
decomposition. It contains elements for the 
formation of the richest manure when sub- 
stances are added to it to decompose the tan- 
nic acid, and hasten the decomposition of the 
vegetable matters, such as lime or marl. Peat 
has been found, when used alone as manure, 
not to possess any fertilizing qualities, as might 
be expected from its nature: but it has been 
advantageously employed as a mixture with 
compost. See Farm-Yard Manure. 

It often happens that in extensive agricul- 
tural districts at a distance from cities and 
other places from which they might obtain 
supplies of animal manures, the domestic re- 
sources of the farm-yards are entirely inade- 
quate to preserve the fertility of the extensive 
fields. It becomes a question of deep interest 
whether it be possible to enrich barren fields 
without the aid of animals and the resources 
of the farm-yard. Under the head of Farm- 
Yard Manures it will be seen that by Lord 
Meadowbank, Mr. Dickson, and other English 
agriculturists of high reputation, one load of 
dung has, by judicious mixture with peat and 
other matters, been made into six loads of ma- 
nure, possessing equal fertilizing power. 

The regular peat formation of geologists, so 
extensive in Britain, can hardly be said to ex- 
ist in the United States. But a substance is 
found in abundance in bogs and marshes 
throughout the Union, sufficiently analogous in 
composition to answer most, if not all, the va- 
luable purposes of European peat. 

Dr. Samuel L. Dana, of Lowell, Massachu- 
setts, has published a work of the highest in- 
terest to agriculturists, under the title of J. 
Mtcck Manual for Farmers. After treating of 
the various matters relating to soil, its ele- 
ments, and the agencies brought to act upon it, 
he introduces, under the head of Artificial Ma- 
nures, chiefly con'sisting of geine, the subject 
of swamp-muck, mud, or peat. 

Peat, he states, is the result of a spontaneous 
change in vegetable matter, which ends in the 
production of geiwe, a term which he applies to 
designate humus and humic acid. Among 
manures, consisting chiefly of geine, peat, he 
says, is what bone-dust is among manures, 
consisting of animal matter. Peat is highly 
concentrated vegetable food. Under the gene- 
ral name of peat, Dr. Dana comprises several 
varieties, distinguished as, 1st. Peat, the com- 
pact substance generally known and used as 
fuel, under this name. 2d. Turf, or swamp 
muck, by which is to be understood the paring 
removed before the peat is dug. It is a less 
compact variety of peat, common in all mea- 
dow swamps, and includes the hassocks or 
tussacks. It includes also the mud of salt 
marshes. 3d. Pond mud, the slushy material 
found at the bottom of ponds when dry, or in 
low grounds, the wash of higher lands. This 
seldom contains more than 20 per cent, of 
geine. These varieties comprise probably a 
fair sample of all the peat, and swamp muck, 
and pond mud, which occur in the various parts 
of the country. Dr. Dana has given analyses 
of 12 specimens representing the different va 

883 



PEAT. 

rieties, the average of the 10 best being per 
100 parts, dried at a temperature of 300° Fah- 
renheit, — bywhich process it loses 73 to 97 per 
cent.of water:— soluble geine, 29-46; insoluble 
geine, 55-03 ; total geine, 85-39 ; salts and sili- 
cates, 15-59. The poorest varieties of pond 
mud gave only 5 to 8 per cent, soluble geine, 
6 to 9 per cent, insoluble geine, or about 14 per 
cent, total of geine, and 85 of salts and sili- 
cates. 

When fresh-dug peat, of average quality, 
is analyzed in its wet state, it is found to con- 
tain : — 

Water .-.--- 85- 
Salts of lime ----- -50 

Silicates ------ -50 

Geine - - - - 14- 

100- 

It is an interesting fact that this result differs 
very little from the result of the analyses of 
fresh cow dung, so far as the proportions of 
geine, water, and salts are concerned. 

When allowed to drain as dry as it will, 
pond-mud still contains about two-thirds of its 
weight of water. It shrinks from two-thirds 
to three-fourths of its bulk, a cubic yard wet 
becoming one-fourth to one-third of a yard 
when dry. 

A cord of pond mud weighs, when dug, 6117 
lbs., and contains solid matter, 3495 lbs. ; com- 
posed of geine, 495 lbs. ; of silicates and salts, 
3005 lbs. 

The salts and geine of a cord of peat are 
equal to the manure of one cow for three 
months. It is certainly a very curious coin- 
cidence of results, that nature herself should 
have prepared a substance, whose agricultural 
value approaches so near cow dung, the type 
of manures. The power of producing alkaline 
action on the insoluble geine, is alone wanted 
to make peat good cow dung. 

The great question comes, how is to be given 
to peat, a substance which in all other respects 
is so nearly allied to cow dung, that lacking 
element, ammonia, without which cow dung 
would be no better than peat, nay, not so good, 
since in peat nearly one-half of the geine or 
humus is already in a soluble state. It is well 
understood that the various matters used as 
manure, either solid or liquid, from whatever 
source derived, all possess a common property 
of generating ammonia. Peat in its ordinary 
state contains traces of ammonia, which is 
evolved freely on the addition of caustic pot- 
ash or common ashes. Peat, then, is a source 
of nitrogen, since this with hydrogen consti- 
tutes ammonia. Without going into all the 
nice chemical reasoning of which Dr. Dana 
avails himself, we will simply state his main 
conclusion, namely : that by the addition of 
alkali to peat, it is put into the state which 
ammonia gives to dung. 

With regard to the quantity of alkali required 
to be added to swamp-muck or peat, in order 
I' bring it to an equality with cow dung, "It 
is found," says Dr. Dana, " that 

52 parts of ammonia are equal to 
58 parts of soda, or wliite ash, or to 
'2 parts of Ist quality pot or pearlash, or 
fl6 parts of 2d quality pot or pearlasb. 
R84 



PEAT. 

For all agricultural purposes, it may be con. 
sidered, that salts of hartshorn, or carbonate 
of ammonia, and white or soda ash, are equal, 
pound for pound, and that pots and pearls may 
be taken at one-half more. 

"If all the nitrogen in dung becomes ammo- 
nia, then each 100 lbs. affords 2 lbs. 2 oz. 
Hence, if to 100 lbs. fresh-dug peat, ;here are 
added 2 lbs. of soda ash, or 3 lbs. of pot or 
pearl ashes, all the good effects of real cow 
dung will be produced. Peat or muck thus 
requires 2 per cent, of soda ash, or 3 per cent, 
of potash. 

"A cord of green peat weighs 9216 lbs.; 2 
per cent, is 184 lbs. Hence, a cord requires 
that amount of soda ash, or 276 lbs. of potash. 
But if the peat is quite dry, so as to have lost 
I of its bulk, then 736 lbs. of soda ash, or 
1104 lbs. potash will be necessary. Two per 
cent, of alkali seems enormous. It is stated, 
in the hope that it may lead to experiments on 
the free use of alkali. But as it will be here- 
after shown, that this is to be reduced by mix- 
ing with loam or other matter, this quantity, 
even if applied to one acre, will probably pro- 
duce very good effects. 

"There are other practical facts, which may 
help to a solution of the question, how much 
alkali is to be added to a cord of peat. Ac- 
cording to the experience of Mr. Phinney, of 
Lexington, an authority Avhich may not be 
questioned, a cord of green dung converts 
twice its bulk of peat into a manure of equal 
value to itself — that is, a cord of clear stable 
dung, composted with two of peat, forms a 
manure of equal value to three cords of green 
dung. Indeed, the permanent effects of this 
compost, according to Mr. Phinnev, exceed 
those of stable dung. On this fact, 2 lbs. of 
ammonia in 100 lbs. of cow dung, should con- 
vert 200 lbs. of fresh-dug peat into good cow 
dung. The equivalents of these, as has been 
shown, are 2 lbs. of soda ash, or 3 lbs. of pot- 
ash. Allowing the gaseous ammonia to be 
divided equally among the 300 lbs. of dung 
and peat, this is in proportion of 10-J oz. of 
soda ash, or 1 lb. of potash to 100 lbs. of fresh 
peat. Now this calculation, deduced from ac- 
tual experiment, confirms the theoretical pro- 
portions, supposing only 5 of the nitrogen acts, 
though that was made before the author met 
with the statement of Mr. Phinney." 

Dr. Dana furnishes another striking evidence 
of the favourable results from applying artifi- 
cial manure. " Mr. George Robbins, of M^ater- 
town," he says, " is an extensive manufacturer 
of soap and candles, and of starch, and, still 
better, a man who employs the refuse of those 
trades in enriching and gladdening his land. 
For four years (and it is believed his crops 
will compare with any of the best cultivators 
around him) he has not used a spoonful of 
manure made by any animal, walking either 
on two legs or on four. He keeps 11 horses, 
4 cows, 100 hogs; he uses not a shovelful of 
their manure, but, selling that, he uses peat and 
swamp-muck, mixed with his spent barilla 
ashes. The proportions are, 1 part of spent 
ashes to 3 of peat, dug up in the fall, mixed in 
the spring. After shovelling two or three times, 
it is spread and ploughed in. The effect is 



PEAT. 



PEAT SOILS. 



"".mediate, and, so far, lasting. The effects of 
luis spent ashes alone on sandy loam, are ex- 
cellent; it makes the whole quite 'salvy.'" 

" In the preparation of manure," says Dr. 
Dana, "price is every thing. Let the cost be 
estimated per cord, of artificial manure, pre- 
pared in the proportions stated. Peat or muck 
may be called worth 50 cents per cord, and the 
labour of digging, say $1. 

$1 50 

92 lbs. potash, 6 cents - $5 52"] 



soda ash, or white 
ash, 4 cents - 
or 24 bush, ashes, 12^ cents 



o AA I'^^'T^r "'"I 3 65 
2 44 ( alkalies J 



3 OOJ 
3) 10 96 
3 65 



§5 15 



"Were they really good hard wood-ashes, 
about 16 bushels would be sufficient, but an 
excess here is allowed, to compensate for va- 
riation in quality. But this may appear a very 
high price ; but it is to be remembered, that its 
value is to be compared with that of a cord of 
clear cow dung. What is the value of cow 
dungi It appears from the barn account of 
the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, that 
for 9| years, ending October, 1838, a bushel of 
clear cow dung costs 21^ cents. During the 
same time dung of inferior quality was de- 
livered at the printworks, by the neighbouring 
farmers, at 20 cents per bushel. Clear dung 
is delivered at the printworks in Dover at 12^ 
cents per bushel, and at several of the print- 
works in Rhode Island, at 16 cents per bushel, 
giving an average of 17-45 cents per bushel, 
and as a cord contains, in round numbers, 100 
bushels, its price is $17 45 

Deduct from this the price of an 

artificial cord, 5 15 



$12 30 
" It is hence evident that an artificial cord is 
only about one-third of the price of a natural 
cord, and if the last may be mixed with two 
parts of loani or swamp-muck, so may the first, 
which will reduce the price of a cord of artifi- 
cial manure to $2 71. Now this is equal, ac- 
cording to all experience, cord for cord, to stable 
manure ; the value of that may be estimated 
at $5, so that an artificial cord costs onlj'' about 
one-half. The best plan for preparing the ar- 
tificial manure, would be to dig the peat or 
swamp-tnuck in the fall; in the spring of the 
year let this be mixed in the proportion of 30 
lbs. of potash, 20 lbs. of soda ash, or 8 bushels 
of common house-ashes, to every cord of fresh- 
dug peat, estimating this by the pit dug out, 
and allowing nothing in the spring for shrink- 
ing. If ashes are used, they may be mixed in 
at once with the muck, but if soda ash or pot- 
ashes are used, they must be dissolved in water 
and the pile evenly wet with the solution. The 
pile is then to be well shovelled over, and used 
as is other manure. But it has been found by 
experience, that the peat may be dug in the 
spring, immediately mixed with the alkali, and 
used forthwith. If spent ashes are used to 
prepare this muck, add one cord of spent ashes 
to three cords of peat or swamp muck. 

" There are other sources of alkali, for con- 
verting peat into soluble manure. Of these the 



chief is animal matter. Her« we have am- 
monia produced. It has been actually proved 
by experiment, that a dead horse can convert 
20 tons of peat into a valuable manure, richer 
and more lasting than stable dung ; a barrel 
of alewives is equal to a wagon load of peat. 
The next great and prolific source of ammo- 
nia is the urine. The urine of one cow for a 
winter, mixed up, as it is daily collected, with 
peat, is sufficient to manure half an acre of 
land with 20 loads of manure of the best qua- 
lity, while her solid evacuations and litter, for 
the same period, afforded only 17 loads, whose 
value was only about one-half that of the 
former. 

"It need only be added in confirmation of 
all that has been advanced, that those who have 
had the prudence to fill their yards and hog- 
pens with meadow-mud which has thus be- 
come saturated with ammonia, have in no wise 
lost their reward. If they have been satisfied 
with their practice, perhaps they will be no less 
firm in their belief of success, when science 
offers them a reason for the faith that is in 
them. (Muck Manual.) 

PEAT SOILS. The improvement of peat 
soils is a subject of very considerable agricul 
tural importance in England, where it involves 
not only the permanent improvement of large 
estates, but these peat soils include a very 
large proportion of several counties in the 
United Kingdom. 

The deep peat mosses, or bogs, which are 
naturally the most diflficult to bring into culti 
vation, often extend to a depth of ma.iy feet, 
contain but little earth, are usually tolerably 
level, and consist of a mass of light vegetable 
fibres. This peat, even in the midst of sum- 
mer, is commonly saturated with wate» ; at 
other periods semi-fluid, and very often a trem- 
bling, dangerous quagmire. Its soil, if I may 
call it such, is usually of a dark brown, chang- 
ing to a blackish colour when thoroughly dried 
by a gentle heat. In this state the peat is easily 
inflammable, is commonly used for fuel, and 
has been occasionally employed by the gas 
manufacturer, the lime-burner, the charcoal 
maker, and even the iron-smelter. 

The common masses of peat existing on th« 
earth's surface in England are the products ol 
the decay of the mosses, common heath-plants 
coarse grasses, and the sedges which often 
accompany them. But the varieties of peat 
are numerous, according to their age and situ 
ation. There are some of the peats which are 
found beneath the soil, in the lower portions of 
the valley of the Thames, which are evidently 
the remains of considerable masses of under 
wood, and contain sulphate of iron. Manj 
others, dispersed over the coast of Essex and 
in Ireland, abound with the remains of large 
forest trees, and were most probably produced 
by some great convulsion of the earth in a dis 
tant period. In the southern counties, except 
in those of the banks of the Kennett and the 
Thames, the depth of the peat has not often 
exceeded a few inches; but in the places men- 
tioned, and in those in the northern counticb, 
the depth generally extends to several feet. 

The formation of bog-moss is first com- 
menced in very many instances by the rapid 

885 



PEAT SOILS. 

growir^g broad-leaved bog-moss (Sphagnum la- 
tifolium), a plant of very curious habits, whose 
growth under favourable circumstances (and 
it is strictly an aquatic) extends from an inch in 
length to 2 or 3 feet. In dry situations, or in 
those only periodically flooded, its progress is 
not rapid ; but when it vegetates always im- 
mersed in the water of low, stagnant situations, 
there it increases with great vigour. It is true 
that this plant is an annual; but it sheds an 
.abundance of hardy seeds, producing seed- 
lings, which vegetate and easily support them- 
selves in the water, with a slight assistance 
from the mere remains of their preceding ge- 
neration. Their thread-like stems remain on 
the surface of the water till the seed is ripened ; 
they then fall to the bottom and form distinct 
layers, which, in some specimens of peat, may 
be distinctly traced. The bog-moss thus com- 
menced, gradually gets mixed with a variety 
of lichens, mosses, and scirpi, which annually 
add to the depth of the accumulating peat ; and 
as the moss becomes firmer, other plants gra- 
dually establish themselves, such as several 
varieties of the rushes and sedges. It is only 
when the peat-moss is raised by the gradually- 
accumulated remains of these peats from be- 
neath the surface of the stagnant waters, that 
the heaths, the cranberry, the bilberry, and the 
grass-weeds make their appearance. The few 
plants which commoifty tenant peat moors and 
bogs are of the most worthless kind, such as 
all live-stock commonly refuse. Besides the 
common heath-plants there are various rushes 
(Juncus), sedges (Carex), rush-grasses (Scha- 
itus), club-rushes (Cyperus), cats'-tail rushes 
(Typha), bur-weeds (Sparga7iium), &c. 

Amongst the few specimens of the common 
grasses which are found in such places, strug- 
gling, as it were, for existence, are the marsh- 
bent (Jlgrostis paluslris), the awnless brown- 
bent (./Igrostis cajiina). This is a very common 
grass in bogs whose winter waters are deep. 
The aMmed creeping-bent (./?. stolonifera var. 
aristata), the small-leaved creeping-bent (jI. 
sto. arig.), the black couch-bent (.4. repens), the 
white bent (J. alba), the flote fescue (Glyceria 
fluitans), tall fescue (Fcstuca elatior), turfy hair- 
grass (jlira ccFspitosa), knee-jointed fox-tail 
grass {Mopecurus geniculatus'), water hair-grass 
(Aira aquatica),\va\.eT meadow-grass (Poa aqua- 
tica), long-leaved cotton-grass {Eriophorum poly- 
stachion), and the sheathed cotton-grass (£. va- 
ginalum). 

It is of primary importance that the farmer 
should clearly understand the chemical compo- 
sition of the peat with which he has to con- 
tend, and that of the watery solution with 
which it is usually saturated. The common 
varieties of peat, when dried by a moderate 
heat, lose a very considerable portion of their 
weight, and are materially reduced in bulk. 
The dry mass consists chiefly of woody fibrous 
remains of a dark-brown colour, of which a 
very inconsiderable portion is soluble in water; 
and even by exposure to the unassisted action 
of the sun and air, under the most favourable 
circumstances, it decomposes with extreme 
slowness. When burnt to an ash, the solid 
product thus obtained, varies commonly in its 
'•oroposition with the nature of the stratum of 
8»6 



PEAT SOILS. 

earth on which the mass of peat rests. If tha» 
is of a gravelly or argillaceous nature, the 
ashes are generally composed chiefly of silex, 
and a small portion of alumina, oxide of iron, 
with some carbonate of lime and sulphate of 
iron : if, however, the substratum immediately 
under the peat is calcareous, then the ashes 
commonly yield a considerably larger propor- 
tion of carbonate of lime, the sulphate of iron 
(green vitriol) is absent, and the sulphate of 
lime (gypsum) abounds in its place. The cele- 
brated Dutch ashes, which are productive of 
such large crops of clover, are composed of— 

Futo. 

Silicious earth - - - - • - 39 

Sulphate of lime (gypsum) . - • 12 
Sulphate and muriate of soda (Glauber 

Bait and common salt) - - - - 6 

Carbonate of lime ----- 40 

Oxide of iron ..---. 3 

Loss -------- 7 

100 

The liquid with which peat is usually soaked 
is also equally varying in its composition. It 
almost always contains a very small portion 
of brown vegetable extract, a quantity of the 
red oxide of iron, and when pyrites (sulphur 
and iron) are contained in the gravelly or 
other substrata, these are gradually, by the 
action of the water and the oxygen of the at- 
mosphere, converted to sulphate of iron, whici- 
dissolves, and is found in the water. When 
however, this solution comes in contact with 
chalk or other calcareous matter, the lime de- 
composes the green vitriol, the iron is precipi- 
tated, and sulphate of lime, so enriching to 
some of the artificial grasses, is very com- 
monly found with red oxide of iron, dissolved 
in the peat-water. 

The chemical composition of peat soils of 
course varies in the proportion of their consti- 
tuents. The following analysis of a specimen 
of an entirely barren peat moss, in a perfectly 
dry state, will give the farmer a tolerable idea 
of their general composition : — 

Parti. 
Fine silicious sand ----- 29 

Inert vegetable matter . - - - 289 
Alumina ----..-14 

Oxide of iron ------ 30 

Soluble vegetable matter, with some sul- 
phate of potash ----- 11 

Sulphate of lime (gypsum) . - - 12 
Loss --.. ...15 

400 

Such is the composition of a barren peat 
moss. The analysis of an active or fertile peat 
moss, with which it will be well to compare it, 
gave the following results, after being also dried 
in a gentle heat : — 

Fine silicious sand ----- 156 

Unalterable vegetable fibre - - - 2 

Decomposing vegetable matter - . 110 

Silica (flint) ------ 108 

Alumina (clay) ------ 16 

Oxide of iron ------ 4 

Soluble vegetable and saline matter - 4 

Muriate of lime ----- 4 

Loss -----..- 2 

400 

Such is the usual chemical composition of 
peat. This, however, is occasionally varied 



PEAT SOILS. 



PEAT SOILS. 



by the presence of other substances, but the 
above sketch will afford a tolerably correct 
view of its ordinary properties ; and this kind 
of knowledge will very materially aid the 
farmer in proceeding to examine the mode in 
which the composition of such soils may be 
altered so as to be rendered tenantable by use- 
ful varieties of plants. 

The most common delusion in which the 
possessors of peat soils are apt to indulge, is 
the belief in the possibility of rendering them 
permanently productive without either previous 
drainage or the application of earth. The me- 
lancholy attempts of this kind which I have 
witnessed on the peat land of various parts of 
England, especially in timber planting, can 
only excite the pity of those who witness the 
effects of such misspent time and money. The 
young trees too, which are most commonly 
employed in these ill-judged attempts, are usu- 
ally of the fir tribe, precisely the kind the least 
adapted to prosper in a bog of water and peat. 
Common reflection would suggest that, if any 
kind of trees could be expected to vegetate with 
even moderate vigour in soils such as these, 
composed as they are often of merely a mass 
of hard inert vegetable matters, saturated with 
a weak solution of green vitriol — if any kind 
of plantations would progress, it would be the 
alder, the willow tribe, or the hardy birch tree, 
tenacious of life, which can endure more mois- 
ture and subsist on poorer soils than most other 
plants. After the slightest consideration we 
should hardly decide upon placing on such 
swamps trees which delight in dry upland 
slopes, as the Scotch fir and the larch ; yet we 
can hardly traverse a single line of railway, 
driven as their constructors have too often 
been to take for their line of country the most 
trembling, dangerous bogs, the most worthless 
heaths, without being struck with the ludicrous 
appearance of bright yellow-topped larches and 
ragged, sickly-looking Scotch firs, soaking in 
bog-water — and that too not in mere patches, 
but over hundreds of acres. I do not confine 
these observations to the north of England — to 
Lancashire and Yorkshire — but the remark 
applies to many of the southern counties: for 
instance, by the road-side between Wareham 
and Poole, in Dorsetshire, may be seen similar 
wet, peaty, heath plantations of Scotch firs. 

In effecting the underdraining of peats, the 
first error to be carefully avoided is placing the 
drains too near the surface. I have invariably 
found in deep peats, that where the drains can- 
not be placed beneath the peat, they should be 
constructed at least at a depth of from 4 to 6 
feet or even more ; and this is not adding ma- 
terially to the expense, for the peat-owner will 
find that one drain at the depth of 5 or 6 feet 
will produce more powerful and far more per- 
manent good effects than three drains at a 
depth of three feet. The good results of depth 
in peat-land drainage will be found by the 
farmer years after the soil is reclaimed — for, 
as the peat is dried and its upper portion de- 
composed and rendered solid by cultivation, 
the mass of peat gradually and very materially 
sinks, and this too in deep peats for a length- 
ened period. And as this contraction is chiefly 
confined to the upper portion of the peat, the 



resu.t is that the improving soil of the surface 
gradually approaches the drains, and that in 
some varieties of the softer kinds of peat to a 
very injurious extent. Such too is the porous, 
spongy nature of most peat soils, that it is dif- 
ficult to remove entirely the water from those 
portions of them lying on a level with the 
sides of the drains, and in consequence the 
roots of many cultivated crops are apt to pene- 
trate, under the shallow-drain system, into the 
corrosive water of the peat, which they never 
do without material injury. 

For let me again remind the farmer, it is not 
the mere presence of too much water which 
renders the peat moss sterile, but the noxious, 
astringent, irony quality of that water. 

In the reclamation of peat soils, the neces- 
sary drainage being effected (see Draining), 
the next important object is to furnish the soil 
with a sufficient quantity of earthy matter to 
support vegetation, and this may be done in 
several ways : that by paring and burning, so 
common in various parts of Cambridgeshire 
and Lincolnshire, I consider the worst of all 
modes ; for it merely furnishes the soil by an 
expensively rapid progress with the freed 
earths of the peat, which its gradual decom- 
position would by other modes more profitably 
and steadily effect. 

The first operation after the water has been 
drained off is to break up as deeply as possi- 
ble, by the common and the subsoil-ploughs, 
the surface of the peat; and then, if good well- 
burnt lime can be procured, there is no earthy 
addition so rapid and so powerful in dissolving 
and rendering pliable the peat as this. A few 
ploughings, assisting the combined operations 
of the atmosphere and the lime, will, in a few 
weeks, bring the soil into such a state as to 
enable it to bear a first crop. The quantity of 
lime should be about 250 or 300 bushels per 
acre; but the quantity of necessity must vary 
with the readiness with which the lime is pro- 
curable ; where it is very expensive, the culti- 
vator is obliged either to reduce the quantity, 
or mix it thoroughly with a proportion of clay 
or marl before he spreads it over the surface 
of the peat. Where limestone is to be obtain- 
ed in the immediate neighbourhood, and other 
fuel is not to be readily procured, peat may be 
employed in many cases in the process of 
lime-burning without much difficulty, it chiefly 
requiring that the peat should be thoroughly 
dried previous to its being used. For a first 
crop on the thus so far reclaimed peat soils, I 
have found no other crop equal to potatoes. 
These are best planted in ridges; the horse 
hoe-plough can then be easily kept at work, 
which not only considerably promotes the de- 
composition of the peat, by facilitating the in- 
troduction of the moisture and gases of the at- 
mosphere, but this very operation adds very 
materially to the vigour and produce of this 
valuable root, than which no other plant more 
delights in fresh soils, such as that produced 
by well-drained, fresh earth-dressed peaty lands. 

It is well to avoid for a year or two all at- 
tempts to produce grain crops on land like that 
I am describing. The course of cropping 
which the farmer will almost always find th,e 
most profitable, is to follow the potatoes with 

887 



PEAT SOILS. 



PECK. 



peas, then turnips, oats, grass-seeds, peas, 
wheat. In all cases, too, he must remember in 
what small proportion some of the essential 
ingredients of his crops are at first existing in 
this peaty soil, and how valuable even a slight 
dressing of clay or marl will be found in sup- 
plying such deficiencies. 

And, again, it is here that the services of the 
manure-drill are available to an invaluable 
extent in applying bone-dust, or any kind of 
irganic or even earthy manure, especially tc 
the young land's earliest crops. For the na- 
tural results of the progress of cultivation, the 
gradual decomposition of the soil and tough 
vegetable remains, the accumulation of more 
easily decomposable vegetable matters, the ap- 
plication of the ordinary farm-yard compost, 
finally sufficiently enrich the ground with those 
salts of lime and of potash which form the es- 
sential ingredients of all fertile land. 

To expedite the accumulation of decom- 
posing soluble matters in the soil, several ex- 
pedients may be adopted. For instance, if the 
farmer has access to night-soil, an admirable 
compost may be made by mixing this seven or 
eight weeks previous to its employment with 
the peat itself. I know of no other compost so 
powerful on peat soils as a compost of well- 
pulrefied peat and night-soil: 4 or 5 cubic 
yards of the night-soil is an ample dressing per 
acre with 12 or 15 cubic yards of peat. If the 
farmer has not access to night-soil, let him 
substitute farm-yard compost with the peat in 
a rather larger proportion, or even urine, or 
the drainage from his farm-yard. This plan, 
first, I believe, successfully adopted by the late 
Lord Meadowbank, is well described by Mr. 
Dixon, of Heathershow, in an essay for which 
a prize was awarded to him, in 1839, by the 
Royal Agricultural Society of England. 

The farmer must, to derive the maximum 
benefit from this plan, avoid certain errors, 
which will else materially deteriorate the rich- 
ness of the compost. He must be careful to 
have the peat he intends to use dug for some 
time previously, and exposed in spits to the 
drying influence of the sun and winds. The 
peat, in fact, can hardly be employed too dry ; 
and the farmer will find that, if^ he makes the 
compost in the dry, warm weather of summer, 
he may then use more peat in proportion to his 
farm-yard dung or night-soil, than if he makes 
the mixture when the temperature of the air is 
less. In the warm weather of the spring and 
summer months, the cultivator will find 1 cubic 
yard of fresh, good farm-yard compost suffi- 
cient for 3 or 4 cubic yards of peat; but in 
colder weather the proportion of peat must 
be decreased. The farmer will find that the 
fresher and richer the animal manure, the 
larger will be the proportion of peat with 
which it may be successfully mixed. Thus, 
with the rich semi-tiuid mixture from the 
slaughter-houses of London, with 1 cubic yard 
of this, 6 or 7 cubic yards of peat may be 
mixed ; and I have found, on several occa- 
sions, every reason to agree with Lord Mea- 
dowbank and others who have employed peat 
in this way, that it is very desirable not to mix 
nu-re than half the intended proportion of peat 
888 



at first, but to wait until *he fermentation of 
the mass is somewhat advanced, and the tem- 
perature of the peat increased, before the last 
half is added to the heap. Some persons re- 
commend the addition of a portion of lime to 
this compost; but this is a plan I do not con- 
sider either advantageous or harmless : for the 
lime combines with, and even partially decom- 
poses, some of the richest portions of the ani- 
mal matters of the manure ; and I have on 
some occasions suspected, from certain ap- 
pearances, that it retarded, when thus used, 
the dissolution of the peat. In 8 or 9 weeks 
the compost will be ready for use ; the peat 
and dung will be thoroughly mingled together, 
and the whole heap will have the colour of a 
dark garden-mould. Of the nourishing quality 
of this mixture of peat with night-soil or yard- 
manure, or urine, the farmer will readily con- 
vince himself by the fertile effects which it 
produces ; and, when drilled with turnip-seed, 
the roots of the young plants will be found to 
encircle the lumps of it, just as they do in the 
case of crushed bones. 

If the possessor of a peat soil cannot well 
prepare a compost of either night-soil or farm- 
manure with the peat, he may still furnish his 
soil with a valuable dressing, by mixing hot 
lime and peat together, at the rate of 1 cubic 
yard of the former with 3 or 4 cubic yards of 
the latter. In this case it is not necessary to 
dry the peat previously, for the lime readily 
absorbs the water contained in it, and in the 
course of 7 or 8 weeks the entire mass is re- 
duced to the state of mould. From some ex- 
periments which I have made on a small scale, 
i have found that the addition of a portion of 
common salt to the lime, not exceeding 1 part 
of salt to 3 parts of lime, will still more in- 
crease the fertilizing powers of this peat com- 
post; but my experiments on this head require 
repetition before I can confidently recommend 
this plan for the farmer's adoption. 

When once the peat is well drained, a very 
thin covering of earth will produce much 
greater effects in forming a solid soil than the 
farmer may imagine possible : the facility with 
which roads are made across the extensive 
deep Scotch peat-mosses and the great Irish 
bogs, in some degree illustrates the same fact: 
the bog, when once dried, is found to require 
only a thin layer of gravel to make an excel- 
lent road. It is true that these are apt to 
tremble pretty considerably under the feet of 
the plough-horses, but they bear the heaviest 
carriages with perfect safety, even in places 
where the bog of peat is of a depth of from 20 
to 40 feet. 

Peat-moss lands are commonly divided by 
the deep ditches or channels by which they are 
drained. 

A valuable account of the practice of Eng- 
lish farmers in the improvement of peaty 
ground, by Ph. Pusey, Esq., more especially 
those of Lincolnshire, is contained in the 
Journ. Roy. Agr. Soc. vol. ii. p. 390. 

PECK. A measure of capacity containing 
2 gallons, or the fourth of a bushel. The im- 
perial peck contains 554*55 cubic inches. Be- 
sides the standard peck, there are in England 



PEE-TSEE. 



PHOSPHATES. 



local pecks, which are extremely various : thus 
•he Lancashire peck contains six gallons ; but 
ill other counties it is much less. 

PEE-TSEE. A species of water chestnut, 
which grows in the southern provinces of 
China, in shallow rivers and ponds, with leaves 
like a bulrush, and hollow like the stalk of an 
onion. Its fruit is in the capsule of the root, 
like the husk of a chestnut. 

PENNYROYAL (Mentha pulegium). Eng- 
lish pennyroj'al. This well known perennial 
plant is found growing wild in England on wet 
commons, and about the marg*ins of small 
brooks. It has a strong acid, and very pecu- 
liar smell, and is stimulant and tonic, but less 
grateful than peppermint. The stems are 
somewhat procumbent, or quite prostrate. 
Leaves ovate, scarcely half an inch long, full 
of pellucid dots. Flowers whorled. Flower- 
stalks purplish, clothed entirely with very short, 
dense, hoary pubescence. 

Pennyroyal is cultivated in Europe for its 
use in culinary and pharmaceutical prepara- 
tions. There are two varieties — the trailing, 
which is usually cultivated, and the upright. 
These plants are best grown on a tenacious 
soil : even a clay is more suitable to them than 
a light silicious one. It should be moderately 
fertile, entirely free of stagnant moisture, and 
consequently on a dry subsoil, or well drained. 
A wet soil makes them luxuriant in summer, 
but insures decay in winter. 

They are propagated by parting the roots in 
February or March, September or October, and 
by slips or oiTsets at the same season. The 
mints likewise may be increased, by cuttings 
of the annual shoots in May or June, as well 
as by cuttings of the roots either in spring or 
autumn. For production of green tops through- 
out the winter and early spring, the spearmint 
is often planted in a hot-bed; and more rarely 
pennyroyal, every three weeks during October 
and three following months. 

The pennyroyal indigenous to North Ame- 
rica is the Hedeoma pulegioides, an aromatic an- 
nual plant, very different in its habits from the 
European pennyroyal. It grows in all parts 
of the country, preferring dry grounds and 
pastures, where it often scents the air to a con- 
siderable distance. (Flora Cestrica.) 

PEPPER-BRAND. A disease in grain. 
See Mildew. 

PEPPER-GRASS (Lepidium sativum). 
Tongue-grass. A kind of cress, possessing 
very pleasant and refreshing qualities, and 
generally cultivated in the United States for 
the table. The Virginia lepidium, or wild pep- 
per-grass, is an annual commonly found in 
fields and along road-sides. One or two other 
species are known in the United States. (Flora 
Cestrica.) 

PEPPERIDGE. An appellation improperly 
applied by the descendants of the Dutch in 
New York, to the tupelo or black-gum. The 
name more appropriately belongs to the com- 
mon barberry. 

PEPPERMINT (Mentha piperita). This 
species differs frdfh the common spear or green 
mint chiefly in the intensity of its taste and 
dark colour of its foliage. It is only cultivated 
for distillation; the essential oil or distilled 
112 



water enters into various cordial and medical 
preparations. 

PEPPERS. See Capsicum. 

PEPPER-SAXIFRAGE (Cnidum, the an- 
cient name of orach). These are worthless 
herbaceous plants. 

The meadow pepper-saxifrage (C. silaus) is 
an indigenous perennial species, with smooth 
dark-green herbage. The root is spindle- 
shaped ; stem erect, furrowed, solid, tough, 
from 1 to 2 feet high. Flowers yellowish or 
greenish-white, blowing in August and Sep- 
tember. The whole plant being fetid when 
bruised, is supposed, in some parts of Norfolk, 
Eng., to give a bad flavour to milk and butter; 
but cattle certainly do not eat it, except acci- 
dentally or in small quantities. When this 
herb abounds in pastures, it may be found par- 
tially cropped, though generally left almost 
entire. 

PEPPER, THE WALL. See Stonechop. 

PEPPERWORT (Lepidium, from lepis, a 
scale, in allusion to the shape of the pods, 
which appear like little scales). Most of these 
plants are uninteresting, and none of them are 
pretty. L, sativum is the well-known garden 
cress. There are, in England, four indigenous 
species. 

PERCH. In land measure is the fortieth 
part of a rood, or equal to 30J square yards. 
Perch is also sometimes used as a denomina- 
tion of long measure, when it signifies the 
same thing as a rod or pole, being 5^ yards or 
I6| feet. 

PERENNIALS (Lat. perennes, lasting 
throughout the year). In botany, those herba- 
ceous plants, the roots of which remain alive 
more years than two, but whose stems flower 
and perish annually. Gardeners generally call 
them herbaceous plants. 

PERIWINKLE (Vinca, probably from vin- 
culum, a band ; in allusion to the suitableness 
of the shoots for making bands). These plants 
are well adapted for covering naked ground in 
shady situations. Any common soil suits them, 
and they are readily increased by separating 
the rooted trailing shoots. The two species 
indigenous to England are called the greater 
and the lesser periwinkles. 

PERSIMMON {Diopyros Virgtniana). This 
American tree grows in the Southern and Middle 
States to the height of 60 or 70 feet. The 
French call it Plaqueminier. It produces an 
abundance of excellent fruit, abounding in sugar, 
and somewhat resembling the date. 

PHLEUM PRATENSE. See Cat's-tail. 

PHOSPHATES. Substances in which phos- 
phoric acid is united with some other matter, such 
as lime, magnesia, potash, soda, iron, &c. See 
Acids. Within a few years past, a class of manures 
in which phosphate of lime is the most active 
fertilizing agent, have acquired very great agri- 
cultural importance. It includes bones, and the 
superphosphate of lime prepared from them, 
urate, guano, &c., among organic substances, 
and a mineral called apatite. Phosphoric acid is 
found in some soils but not in others, its defi- 
ciency corresponding with different degrees of 
sterility. In three specimens of soil analyzed 
by Mr. Gyde, he detected in 1000 parts of one 
fertile without manure, 4| parts; in another 
fertil«> with manure only l\ parts, whilst in the 
4F 889 



PHOSPHATES. 



PINE TREE. 



third specimen, from a naturally barren soil, he 
could not detect any phosphoric acid. 

Under the heads of Bones and Acids, will be 
found much valuable information relative to the 
impoitant influence exercised by phosphoric acid 
ujion the growth and fullest developement of 
plants, with statements of the proportions in 
which phosphates exist in different grains and 
other agricultural crops. The extent of the de- 
mands made upon the soil for the phosphate of 
lime, by growing animals kept upon it, have 
been estimated by Mr. Hayward, a skilful che- 
mist. He calculates the amount of phosphoric 
acid annually abstracted by the live stock from 
a farm of 100 acres, to be equal to 413 lbs., re- 
quiring to produce it 1491 lbs. of bones. His 
estimate is as follows : — 

In tlie bones and flesh of 110 lambs, of 

25 lbs. each, at 6 weeks old . 
In 40 year-old sheep, of 90 Iba. each 
In 4 calves, at 5 weeks old, weighing 

together 500 lbs 

lu 4 young cows, forming 135 lbs. flesh 

iintl 35 lbs. of bone each per annum 
In 2 young horses, gaining the same as 

the last 



Acid. 

145 

210 


Bones 
537 
777 


21 


77 


16 


23 


21 


77 



Phosphate of lime consists of 59 parts phos- 
phoric acid, and 47 parts lime. The phosphates 
of magnesia, potash, and soda, are found much 
less extensively in agricultural products than 
the phosphate of lime, which last seems indis- 
pensable to fertility. The chief modes in which 
the farmer has long been accustomed uncon- 
sciously to return this salt to the soil has been, 
by the use of oil cake for his stock and of crushed 
bones for manure. In a more recent period the 
use of guano, of urate, &c., has been in fact a 
similar operation. It has been found by Pro- 
fessor Johnston {Trans. High. Soc. 184.5, p. 
470), that turnips grown upon land dressed with 
guano contained a considerably larger proportion 
of phosphate of lime than the turnips grown in 
the adjoining soil, dressed in the ordinary way, 
the ashes of the turnips grown with the ordinary 
farm-yard dung containing 7*73 per cent, of 
phosphoric acid, whilst the turnips produced 
on the land manured with guano yielded 19-39 
per cent. 

Perhaps the most economical plan by which 
phosphoric acid can be introduced into the soil 
is through the application of superphosphate of 
lime, the process of preparing and applying 
which will be found described under the head of 
Bones. Of bone-dust, 40 lbs. to an acre, Liebig 
considers sufficient to furnish the necessary sup- 
ply of [jtiosphates to 3 crops of wheat, clover, &c. 

Oil or linseed cake is not only valued by 
English farmers as food for stock, but, as we have 
previously stated, as a dressing for land. It has 
been usual to attribute its good effects in pro- 
moting the growth of plants mainly to the oil ; 
but as this exists in small proportion, and as the 
effects of oily manures, such as blubber, fish, &c., 
only last a single year, whereas those of linseed 
cake endure for several years, its fertilizing 
effects must depend upon some other ingredient. 
In 3 specimens of linseed cake analyzed by Mr. 
Gyde, he found respectively 12-4, 10-5, and S per 
cent, only of fatty matters. The ashes or solid 
portions of 3 varieties of oil cake, examined by 
Mr. Fromberg, were found to contain per cent, 
of earthy phosphates: 1st, Gold of pleasure, 
40-56; 2d, English cake, 47-67; and 3d, Ameri- 
can cake, 38-28; ahe ashes constituted of the 
890 



1st cake 6-89, of the 2d 7-25, and of the 3d 6-35 
per cent, of the entire cake.) 

The phosphates of lime, magnesia, soda, &e., 
which abound in the urine of man, the swine, 
and other omnivorous and carnivorous animals, 
are not met with in that of the ox or horse, which 
last discharge all their phosphates with the solid 
excrements. The suyerphosphate of lime, as 
prepared for sale, ought to contain, when genu- 
ine, in 100 parts, according to Mr. Pusey, phos- 
phate and biphosphate of lime 35 to 40 ; Sulphate 
of lime or gypsum 20 to 25; animal matter 20; 
water 20 parts. It has often, however, other 
substances mixed with it which reduce its value, 
and of these plaster of Paris is one of the most 
common. Its price in England is about 7 shil- 
lings, or $.1.75, for 112 lbs. 

In an experiment where about 6 cwt. of 
superphosphate of lime was applied to wheat, 
ploughed in at the time of sowing, the produce 
on the acre was over 53 bushels of 61 lbs. each; 
whilst an acre sown with 400 lbs. Peruvian 
guano, the ensuing spring yielded 40 bushels, 
and the soil without any dressing, about 29 
bushels per acre. Hence it appears probable, 
that weight for weight, it is fully equal as a fer- 
tilizer to the best guano. 

PIGEON {Coliimba). All the numerous va- 
rieties of this domestic bird, such as tumblers, 
carriers, powts, &c., come from one common 
species — the stock-dove — which derives its name 
from building in the stocks of trees. 

PIGEON'S DUNG. See Dove-cote and 
Guano. 

PIGGERY. A collection of small sties where 
hogs or swine are lodged. See Swine. 

PIKE. A word of various signification in dif- 
ferent districts. In some counties it is applied 
to a prong, or what is generally called a fork, 
used for carrying straw, &c., from the barn, 
cocking of hay, &c. In others it signifies a sort 
of stacklet or load, cock of hay, &c. In the 
midland districts of England it means to glean. 

PILE. A sharpened beam of wood driven 
down into the ground to protect the banks of 
rivers, or for other similar purposes. Pile is 
also provincially applied to the breaking off' the 
awns of thrashed barley, and to a blade of grass. 

PILING-IRON. A tool used in breaking off 
the awns of barley, and sometimes the tails of 
oats, an operation which with the farmers is 
called piling barley. See Hummeller. 

PILEWORT CROWFOOT. See Crowfoot. 

PILLWORT (Pihilaria, from jdhda, a pill; 
shape of the heads containing the reproductive 
organs). The creeping pill-wort, or pepper- 
grass (P. globidifera), is in England an obscure 
little plant, found in dark meadows among grass, 
especially where they have been overflowed 
with water during winter. It is perennial in 
habit, putting forth brown flowers in June and 
July. 

PIMPERNEL [AnagalHs). A genus of very 
pretty, interesting plants, of easy culture. 

PINE TREE [Phius, from pinos ; a Greek 
word used by Theophrastus, to designate a pine 
tree; and some authors derive it from the Celtic 
pi7i or pyn, a mountain or rock, alluding to the X 
habitat of the tree). This much-esteemed and Pi 
well-known genus, belongingf to the gymno- * 
spermous division of exogens, contains some of 
the trees of most universal use in civilized so- 
ciety, and which form a very important article 



PINE, THE GROUND. 



PLANT. 



of commerce, both in Europe and America. 
The genus Pinus is distinguished from the firs, 
by the leaves being needle-shaped and grouped 
in pairs, or in three, four, or five together; held, 
as it were, together by a sheath at their base. 
Most, if not all of the species, are highly de- 
serving of culture, being very ornamental and 
beautiful in every stage of their growth. They 
will succeed on almost any kind of soil, but to 
bring the timber to its greatest state of perfec- 
tion, a somewhat loamy surface soil and a cool 
subsoil are requisite. Young plants may be 
obtained by a variety of methods. All the spe- 
cies may be propagated by layers, by inarching 
on nearly allied kinds, and by herbaceous 
grafting; many may also be increased by cut- 
tings, but the speediest way is by seed, and 
which process I shall briefly notice. In some 
of the species the cones attain their full size 
the first year, but in most not till the end of the 
second autumn. The cones of the Scotch pine 
(P. sylvestris), and those allied to it, open of 
themselves shortly after being gathered from 
the tree, and spread out in the sun; but the 
cones of P. pinaster, P.pinea, and similar kinds, 
do not, though treated in the same manner; and 
open their scales only after several months. 
The seed should be sown on a finely-prepared 
rather sandy soil, in March or April. The seeds 
of the most common kinds are always sown 
on beds, and after being gently beaten down 
are slightly covered with light soil. 

There are upwards of fifty species of pines 
and the appearance of the tree, as well as the 
quality of the timber, varies with the species 
and with the situation in which each grows. 
Generally speaking, the timber is hardest and 
best in exposed cold situations, and where its 
growth is slow. See Fir Tree. 

PINE, THE GROUND. See Bugle. 

PINK (Dianthus ; from dios, divine ; and 
anfhos, a flower, in reference to the fragrance 
of the blossoms and the unrivalled neatness of 
the flowers). A truly beautiful and ornamental 
genus, containing some of the most prized 
flowers we possess, on account of the beauty 
and fragrance of their blossoms, and their fo- 
liage, which is as green and vivid in winter as 
it is in summer. The genus is divided into those 
with solitary and those with aggregate flowers. 

PIP. A disease among poultry, consisting 
in a white thin skin, or film, growing upon or 
under the tip of the tongue, which hinders the 
feeding. It is supposed to arise from the drink- 
ing of foul water, or eating filthy meat; it is 
usually cured by pulling oif the film with the 
fingers, and washing the part with a solution of 
common salt. 

PIPE-CLAY. A species of clay abounding 
in Devonshire and other parts of England, em- 
ployed in the manufacture of earthenware. 
See Mixture of Soils. 

PISTIL. In botany, the columnar body in 
the centre of a flower, consisting commonly 
of three parts ; viz., the ovary, styles, and stig- 
mas. It is one of the essential parts of the 
flower; and when it is absent the flower is 
sterile. It receives the pollen, and communi- 
cates its stimulus to the ovules ; without which 
the seeds are imperfect, and do not germinate. 
PITCH (Ger.pech). In commerce, the resi- 



duum which remains on inspissating tar, or 
boiling it down to dryness. It is a black solid 
substance, with a shining fracture, softens at 
90°, and becomes liquid in boiling water. It 
is extensively used in ship-building, and for 
other purposes. Large quantities are manu- 
factured in Great Britain, but not sufficient to 
supply the great demand. The duty on im- 
portation is lOt/. percwt. In husbandry, pitch 
signifies a fork-full of hay, corn, or straw, or 
as much as is raised to the load, stack, or mow, 
at one time. 

PLANER TREE {Plancra ulmifolia). "Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, the banks of the Mississippi, 
and the Southern States, are, says Michaux, 
the only parts of the American republic where 
my father and myself have found the planer tree. 

"I have more particularly observed the planer 
tree in the large swamps on the borders of 
the river Savannah in Georgia. It is a tree 
of the second order, and is rarely more than 
35 or 40 feet high, and 12 or 15 inches in dia- 
meter. Its bloom is early and not conspicuous. 
Its minute seeds are contained in small, oval, 
inflated, uneven capsules. The leaves are 
about 1^ inch long, oval-acuminate, denticu- 
lated, of a lively green, and a little like those 
of the European elm, to which this species 
bears the greatest analogy. 

" The wood of the planer tree is hard, strong, 
and seemingly proper for various uses ; it is 
probably similar in its characters to the ana- 
logous species in the north of Asia, the Siberian 
elm ; but the tree is rare and the wood is neg- 
lected." (N. A. Sylva.) 

PLANKS (Ger. planken; Dan. planker ; Fr. 
planches'). Thick strong boards cut from vari- 
ous kinds of wood, especially oak and pine 
Planks are usually of the thickness of from 
one inch to four. They are imported in large 
quantities from the northern ports of Europe, 
and from several ports of North America. 
Those employed for making sheds or farm 
out-houses should be tarred, or steeped in cor- 
rosive sublimate. 

PLANT. In natural listory. See Acclima- 
TATioN, BoTAXT, Earths, Gases, Organic Chb- 
MisTHT, Temperature, Water, &c. 

PLANTS IX CLOSELY GLAZED CASES. By thc 
recent discovery of Mr. Ward, of London, that 
certain plants will grow when enclosed in 
glazed cases, the most forbidding local circum- 
stances may be overcome, and any person, 
whether inhabiting the most humble or the 
most splendid dwelling, provided they are ex- 
posed for a few hours every day to the sun's 
light, has it in his power to rear and cultivate 
a miscellaneous collection of plants, to enjoy 
the beauty of their appearance, and to watch 
their progress through all the stages of their 
growth, at an expense so insignificant as to be 
within the means of every one, even in very 
moderate circumstances ; in short, to enjoy, 
even in rooms heated with anthracite coal, a 
parlour green-house. 

To do this an apparatus must be provided, 
consisting of a box and a glass roof, such as are 
used for raising cucumbers, for instance, or 
more ornamental, as may be desired. The boi 
should be lined in the bottom with zinc to pre- 
vent leakage. The whole should be close. Ui 

891 



PLANT. 



PLANT. 



prevent evaporation, and may be painted to 
represent any description of wood; a hole or 
holes should be left in the bottom, through the 
zinc and board, to carry off any extra water, if 
you find there is too much for the health of the 
plants enclosed. At the upper edge of the box 
a groove is sunk to receive the lower edge of 
the glass roof, which rests tightly upon it. 

The frame-work cover should be glazed with 
good glass, with a door on one side made to fit 
close, and which may be opened to remove dead 
branches, for trimming, and the addition or sub- 
traction of plants. Along the top of the roof, 
hooks or brass rods may be placed, from which 
small pots maybe suspended with brass wires; 
twine will soon decay in the continued damp- 
ness. The whole of the frame-work should be 
well fitted, so as to preclude, as far as possible, 
all interchange between the air in the case, and 
that in the room. 

Lay the bottom of the box with pieces of 
broken earthenware, as an open subsoil. Next 
lay a stratum of turfy loam, one inch deep, and 
fill in the remainder of the space with soil, 
composed of equal portions of peat and loam, 
mixed with about one-twentieth part of rough 
white sand, free from iron. The artificial gar- 
den plot is now ready to receive the plants. 
Plant these in the usual manner, and then 
shower over them, with a fine rose watering- 
pot, sufficient water to saturate the soil, till the 
liquid begins to run off by the opening in the 
bottom. After draining thus for 24 hours, cork 
up the hole or holes, place the glass case on 
the box, and the operation will be finished. 

The most remarkable part in the economy 
of the case, thus closed up, is the preservation 
of atmospheric purity. To all who reflect, for 
the first time, on this subject, it will seem in- 
comprehensible how the plants can possibly 
thrive and blossom, without the occasional in- 
terchange of fresh air with the atmosphere. 
This certainly does appear extraordinary, yet 
it is ascertained by experiment, that no such 
reinvigoration is requisite ; to account for the 
phenomenon it will be necessary to explain the 
constitution of atmospheric air, and the means 
adopted by nature for its purification. 

Air consists of three gases in close me- 
chanical union, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbonic 
acid, in the proportions of about 79 of nitrogen, 
20 oxygen, and 1 of carbonic acid, in 100 parts 
of pure air. In this mixed composition, the 
essential element for the support of respira- 
tion in both animals and plants, and also for 
combustion, is the oxygen, the nitrogen being 
little else than a diluent to modify the strength 
of the oxygen. It was long believed by men 
of science, that plants possessed the power of 
exuding oxygen, and so formed a prime agent 
for restoring vitiated air to purity. Later in- 
vestigations, however, by French chemists, 
have made it evident that plants have no such 
power, unless when placed under the influence 
of the sun's rays, or, in other words, that solar 
light is the grand cleanser of the atmosphere, 
and without which, both plants and animals 
languish and die. With respect to plants in 
particular, it is ascertained, that while inhaling 
oxvgen, and expiring carbonic acid, their leaves 
no«;sess the remarkable property, in conjunction 



with the sun's light, of retransforming the car- 
bonic acid into oxygen. At night, when the 
light of day has departed, the expired carbonic 
acid may be detected in the neighbourhood of 
plants, and hence, one cause of injury to health 
by breathing night-air; but when the morning 
sun again bursts upon the scene, a great che- 
mical process commences in the atmosphere : 
the carbonic acid is decomposed, oxygen is 
evolved, and all nature rejoices in re-creation 
of its appropriate nourishment. 

A question will here readily occur — What 
species of plants are best adapted for these do- 
mestic green-houses 1 This has been answered 
ably by Mr. Ellis, in a paper read before the 
Edinburgh Botanical Society in 1839. Accord- 
ing to this gentleman's statement, the plants 
most suitable are "those which partake largely 
of a cellular structure, and possess a succulent 
character, and especially those which have 
fleshy leaves ; whilst on the contrary, the con- 
tinued humidity is unfavourable to the deve- 
lopement of flowers of most exogenous plants, 
except such as naturally grow in moist and 
shady situations." Plants, therefore, which 
grow naturally, and bloom in cavernous and 
moist situations, or in moist and warm cli- 
mates, are best adapted for these cases ; within 
this class of vegetables there are many beauti- 
ful and luxurious plants, which it would be no 
small pleasure to contemplate. We name but 
a few which have eminently succeeded. A 
specimen of this mode of culture may be seen 
in the possession of Mr. J. J. Smith, Jr., Libra- 
rian of the Philadelphia Library, which is emi- 
nently successful. 

Crocuses, and winter aconite; joy; lycopo- 
dium ; the various cactuses ; aloes ; primroses ; 
the fairy roses; begonias; all the ferns ; ane- 
mone ; musk plants ; myrtles ; jasmines, &c. 

All the vacant spaces in the case may be 
employed in raising salads, radishes, &c. ; 
"and i think," says Mr. Ward," "that a man 
would be a bad manager who could not, in the 
course of a twelvemonth, pay for his case out 
of its proceeds." 

Sir W. J. Hooker, in a letter to Mr. Ward, 
says, " Splendid as is the hot-house and green- 
house collection at Woburn Abbey, I doubt 
whether that gives more pleasure to the noble 
proprietors and their numerous visiters than 
the beautiful little collection in Mr. Ward's 
case, that occupies a table in the library, and 
flourishes without requiring the skill of the 
gardener in its cultivation." Once properly 
watered, these cases have remained for seven 
years without any additional moisture. 

The uses to which this discovery of Mr. 
Ward's has led, are important to man ; espe- 
cially so in the transmission of plants from 
one country to another by sea. So admirably 
does it answer to thus enclose plants for sea- 
voyages, that few instances of failure have oc- 
curred in their transmission, where care has 
been taken to renew the glasses, if broken, and 
to expose the cases to the action of the sun's 
rays on deck in fine weather. But, even more 
important than this, it will enable the chemist 
to make observations strictly comparative on 
the efl^ects of different soils, manures, &c. ; to 
determine the powers possessed by plants of 



PLANTAIiN. 



PLANTATION. 



absorbing, and selecting various substances by 
their roots ; to ascertain the existence and na- 
ture of the deleterious excretions frona the 
roots ; the poisonous character of these excre- 
tions, if they exist, being rendered very pro- 
blematical by the circumstance of plants, in a 
state of nature, occupying the same situations 
for ages ; to prove the effects of poisons on 
plants; to test the influence of light in pro- 
tecting plants from the effects of low tempera- 
tures ; and, lastly, by means of these cases the 
scientific naturalist will be assisted in explor- 
ing that debatable ground on the confines of 
the animal and vegetable kingdoms, where it 
is often impossible to determine the point at 
which one ends and the other begins. 

PLANTAIN (Plantago; derived from planta, 
the sole of the foot ; resemblance in the leaves). 
A genus of plants, the greater number of the 
species of which are mere weeds : they are 
generally almost stemless, and for the most 
part perennial. There are in England five na- 
tive species : — 

1. Greater plantain, or way-bread (P. major), 
which is very common in meadows, pastures, 
and waste and cultivated ground, perennial, 
and in flower all summer. The root consists 
of many long, stout fibres. The leaves are 
radical, numerous, broad, with seven or nine 
ribs, on channelled, ribbed stalks, often longer 
than themselves ; margins wavy or toothed. 
Flowers on long spikes, small, whitish, with 
reddish anthers, very numerous ; the spikes, 
each on a simple, naked, radical stalk. The 
seeds, which are angular, in a membranous 
capsule, are the food of small birds. The rose- 
shaped variety and the panicled one are often 
cultivated in gardens for the sake of curiosity, 
and afford remarkable instances of vegetable 
transformation. This species, like the whole 
genus, in general, is mucilaginous, and some- 
what astringent, qualities which render it not 
altogether a useless rustic medicine. Cows 
and horses do not relish this plant, but it is 
eaten by sheep, goats, and swine. This peren- 
nial-rooted plant is extensively naturalized in 
the United States, and is remarkable, says Dr. 
Darlington, for accompanying civilized man, 
growing along his foot-paths, and flourishing 
around his settlements. From this circum- 
stance, the American Indians caJl it by a name 
which signifies " the while 7nnn's foot." 

2. Hoary plantain (P. media). This species 
grows abundantly in chalky or gravelly hills. 
The root is rather woody. The leaves are 
ovate, downy, all pressed close to the ground, 
hoary, entire, with five or seven ribs. The 
hoary plantain, a great and lasting nuisance in 
fine grass-plats, is best killed by a drop of vi- 
triolic acid on the crown of the root, which it 
never long survives. Its medical qualities are 
like the former. 

3. Ribwort plantain, or rib-grass (P. lanceo- 
lata), is also a very common species in mea- 
dows and pastures. PI. 9, i. The leaves are 
numerous, erect, deep-green, acute, each taper- 
ing at the base into a broad, flat, ribbed foot- 
stalk, accompanied at its insertion with large 
tufts of soft, white, woolly fibres. Flower- 
stalks taller than the leaves, likewise woolly at 
the base, five-angled, with intermediate fur- 



rows, nearly smooth, twisted. Spike ovate, an 
inch long, with black imbricated bractes, occa- 
sionally leafy at the base. This species makes 
a part of most meadow hay, and has been culti- 
vated as a crop, but seems to be now disused. 
Cattle are said not to eat it willingly, at least 
by itself. The total absence of rib-grass in 
marshy lands is a certain criterion of their in- 
different quality; and in proportion as such 
soils are improved by draining, this plant will 
flourish and abound. 

4. Sea plantain (P. maritima). This grows 
in muddy salt-marshes, and about the mouths 
of large rivers. It is perennial, and flowers in 
August and September. The root is long and 
cylindrical; herb various in luxuriance. The 
leaves are all radical, numerous, from four to 
twelve inches long, dull-green, linear, chan- 
nelled, hairy, nearly entire. Flower-stalks 
round, longer than the leaves, erect, smooth. 
Spikes cylindrical, slender, many-flowered, 
dense, with fleshy keeled bractes, not longer 
than the calyx. Sheep appear to be very fond 
of this species. 

5. Buck's-horn plantain, or star of the earth 
(P. Coronopus). This is an annual species, 
which flourishes on dry, sandy, or gravelly 
ground, flowering from June to August. The 
root is tapering; leaves pale, hairy, in pinnati- 
fid, pointed segments. Spikes numerous, dense, 
cylindrical, varying greatly in length, on 
spreading hairy stalks. 

The White, or Virghiia Plantain, is a native of 
the United States, where it is commonly found 
in barren old fields and stony hills. It has a 
biennial root, leaves 2 or 3 inches long and 
from 1 to 2 wide, the whole plant being covered 
with a gray pubescence or down. Nine or tea 
additional species of plantain are enumerated 
in the United States. 

PLANTAIN, WHITE, see Cudweed. 

PLANTATION. In England this term is 
applied to a piece of ground planted with trees 
for the purpose of producing timber or cop- 
pice wood; and the term is also applied to 
a collection of trees or shrubs placed in the 
ground for their beauty or usefulness. 

For the correct consideration of the best 
mode of forming plantations of timber trees, 
several circumstances must, of necessity, be 
taken into the planter's account, of which the 
principal are — 1st, Thecompositionof the soil; 
2dly, The trees to which that soil is best 
adapted ; 3dly, The elevation, or inclination 
of the land : an inattention to these three pri- 
mary questions has been the source of much 
waste of time, of labour, and of capital. 

In this, as in all researches where vegeta- 
tion is concerned, nature is everour best guide 
and instructor. We find indigenous on the 
chalks, the beech, the birch, and the ash; the 
oak tenants the clay formation, the elm delights 
in rich alluvial bottoms, and in warm, sheltered 
situations. To the sand is left the fir tribe, 
the ash, and the birch ; which last most pic- 
turesque tree will endure a climate, and vege- 
tate on soils, far too cold and too barren for 
any other to exist in. On the warm gravels, 
and on deep, light loams, we find the Spanish 
chestnut located ; and if, on even the peat, we 
only occasionally meet with a few straggling 
4 p 2 893 



PLANTATION. 

mountain ash and Scotch firs, it is not because 
the composition of the soil is too poor to sus- 
tain a better description of timber tree, but that 
the soil is usually saturated with water, too 
much impregnated with the salts of iron for 
anj'^ plants to be successfully planted till that 
corrosive moisture is removed. 

Then, again, as regards the temperature best 
adapted to the tree, much too little attention is 
commonly paid. The fir tribe are found to de- 
light in dry, cool elevations, whilst attempts to 
make the larch grow in warm, rich bottoms, 
generally fail. 

These facts should be more carefully at- 
tended to bj' the planter: he should consider 
the inequalities of his land and the habits of his 
trees,and distribute them accordingly. Leaving 
the natives of a temperate climate to the south- 
ern and western slopes, he should devote to 
the northern declinations the natives of a colder 
clime; to them consign the larch and the 
Scotch fir, the ash and the birch. 

This last-mentioned tree will, in fact, grow 
at a greater elevation above the sea, and in a 
more northern latitude, than any other. As we 
approach the Arctic regions, it is the last tree 
that remains to us. Long after all others have 
departed it still flourishes: in Greenland there 
is no other tree. 

Then, again, as in all other questions where 
plants of any kind are to be made to vegetate, 
ihe chemical composition of the soil is a tole- 
rably certain criterion, when compared with 
that of the wood of trees, to guide us in our 
selection of the species to which that land is 
the best adapted: the earths found in them by 
the chemist are sure to indicate the soils on 
which ihey will flourish. Thus, the ashes of 
the perfect wood of the oak contain more than 
38 per cent, of soluble salts, and only 3 per 
cent, of silica (flint); that of the fir {Mies), 
grown on granite, only 16 per cent, of soluble 
salts, and 19 per cent, of silica. Now the 
fir flourishes very well on the poorest silicious 
sands, but the oak will not grow on such 
soils without a dressing of other earths. Car- 
bonate of lime (chalk), when in excess in 
soils, is less prejudicial to the growth of trees 
than an excess of any other earth. Now the 
carbonate of lime is precisely that earth which 
is most commonly found in timber trees, and 
in the largest proportions. The ashes of the 
wood of the oak, for instance, contain about 
22 per cent, of the earthy carbonates, the pop- 
lar 29, the hazel 22, the hornbeam 26 per cent. ; 
and that of the beech a still larger proportion. 
And so almost universally does carbonate of 
lime and silica exist in wood, that M. Einhof, 
an able Prussian chemist, came to the conclu- 
sion that the plant had the power of forming 
these earths when growing on soils that did not 
contain them: they certainly, however, are 
found to absorb the largest proportion of car- 
bonate of lime and silica on soils in which 
those earths abound. Thus M. Saussure found 
in the ashes of the fir, growing on a soil which 
contained 1'74 per cent, of carbonate of lime, 
t6'34 per cent, of this earth ; but in the ashes 
of the same wood, produced from a soil con- 
laining 93 per cent, of carbonate of lime, he 
found 63 per cent, of that earth. And when the 
894 



PLANTATION. 

soil contained 75'25 per cent, of silica, the tim- 
ber growing on it contained 13'49 percent.; 
but when the soil was entirely free from the 
earth, it was equally absent from the wood. 

The observations of the planter confirm en- 
tirely those of the chemist. Thus, on the poor, 
hungry, heath lands, such as those of Norfolk, 
Surrey, and the north, which contain hardly a 
trace of carbonate of lime, they find that by 
dressing land intended for planting with chalk 
or marl, the growth of the trees is very mate- 
rially increased; and more recently, as in the 
forest of Darnaway, in Scotland, the planters 
have found the greatest advantage from placing 
only a handful of lime (about four bushels per 
acre is sufficient) in the soil under the plants: 
by this means the young trees, they say, are 
forced forward, that is, they are supplied with 
the carbonate of lime at the very period of their 
growth when their roots, from want of extent 
and vigour, are least able to absorb from the 
soil the portion of this earth so essential for 
their healthy growth. And it is precisely such 
heath soils as those to which I have alluded as 
being so materially benefited by the applica- 
tion of lime, chalk, or marl (which also con- 
tains chalk), that are found when examined, in 
their natural state, to be nearly destitute of 
carbonate of lime. 

It is for the same reasons that, in the early 
state of their growth, timber plantations are 
benefited so materially by being manured with 
organic matters, a fact well known to those 
who plant for merely ornamental purposes; 
and it is because all timber trees contain phos- 
phate of lime in very considerable proportions, 
that crushed bones are found to be so excellent 
a fertilizer for them ; and hence one reason 
why it has been long a well-known fact, that 
by burying dead animals under trees nearly 
exhausted for want of nourishment, those trees 
will almost invariably be considerably revived, 
and send out their shoots with unusual vigour; 
and how essential the presence of phosphate 
of lime is to their growth, may be judged of 
from the fact, that this salt constitutes 4-.5 per 
cent, of the ashes of the oak, 35 in those of the 
hazel, 16-75 of the poplar, 23 in the hornbeam, 
12 per cent, in those of the fir. 

These chemical examinations naturally sup- 
port the conclusions to which I have long come 
in my own experiments, that in all plantations 
of timber trees, both on the score of profit and 
of ornament, it is in almost all situations de- 
sirable to assist the growth of the young trees by 
a small addition of manure. On a large scale, 
this must be chiefly confined to the use of the 
earths, either lime, chalk, or marl, according 
to their respective local value ; and for this 
purpose a smaller proportion per acre of any 
kind of manure is of much greater value than 
is commonly supposed. In Scotland they have 
found about 4 bushels of lime an abundant ad- 
dition, since they merely mix a handful of this 
earth in the soil under each plant ; and in the 
fine woods produced by Mr. Withers, of Holt, 
by spreading a poor marl over his hungry, 
black, heath soil, and then ploughing them in 
very deeply, he merely added about 20 cubic 
yards per acre. 
In preparing the land for plantations, th 



I 



PLANTATION. 



PLANTATION. 



same chemical examination of its composition 
well illustrates the advantage derived by the 
plant from merely previously stirring the soil, 
since it is evident that when the constituents 
of the young trees are contained in it in only 
very limited proportions, in such case the more 
easily their roots are enabled to penetrate in 
search of that necessary nourishment, the more 
rapid will be their growth. Previous trenching 
of the soil also conduces to the healthy growth 
of trees in more ways than one. It renders 
them less subject to injury from want of moist- 
ure in the heats of summer; the atmosphere 
more freely finds access to their roots, and not 
only yields its watery vapour in the warmest 
weather for their service, but its gases, so 
essential to their very existence, are also in a 
similar manner more readily absorbed. 

I have had many occasions to notice the ad- 
vantages of deeply stirring the land for timber 
trees. In my early plantings, my larch and 
other timber trees made but little progress, for 
I merely placed them in holes dug in the soil; 
I neither manured, nor in any way prepared 
the soil. An experiment, however, which I 
made some years since — in which, by merely 
trenching the soil with the fork in a clump of 
larch, Scotch firs, and birch, to the depth of 
about 20 inches, the growth of the trees, which 
had for several years been extremely slow, was 
in the succeeding years exceedingly vigorous — 
convinced me of the truth of the observations 
made by Sir Henry Steuart, Mr. Withers, and 
others, of the great advantages of trenching the 
j:oil, eiiher by the spade or by the common or 
the subsoil plough. 

The opinions and explanations given by the 
labouring woodmen of the cause of the occa- 
sional very luxuriant patches in extensive 
young plantations accord with these conclu- 
sions. They tell you that those favoured trees 
are on a deep, lender piece of land. 

The last branch of the investigation — that 
of the best mode of planting and of expense — 
IS now to be considered. Too little attention 
is usually paid by planters in the choice of their 
plants, the manner in which they have been 
reared, and in the care of their removal : in- 
stead of attending to the acquired habits of the 
tree, it is a very common practice for the plants 
to be bought of some nurseryman, who has 
reared them in a warm, rich bottom, and then, 
as a natural consequence, when the trees are 
transplanted to a cold, poor, hungry, exposed 
soil, a large portion of them are sure to perish, 
or, if they live, many become stunted or stag- 
headed. That all these evils may be avoided 
with only ordinary care, is proved by the ex- 
perience of the best planters, who are careful 
to procure their seedlings from land at least 
not better than that on which they are intended 
to be placed ; and is further evidenced by the 
fact that, when the soil is prepared by either 
deep digging or manuring, or both, then the 
mortality amongst the plants is very small in- 
deed, — they need no further attention, they 
equally set at defiance the extremes of heat 
and cold, are very rarely diseased, and shoot 
with uncommon vigour. This attention to the 
early acquired habits of the plant is not entirely 
a modern observation — the early Italian plant- 



ers were careful in replacing the tree in the 
same position as regards the cardinal points 
that it occupied in its early growth. (Vireil, 
Geo. ii. 269.) 

There are other very common errors, of which 
I have long noticed the ill eflfects; for instance, 
the want of care with which the roots of the 
young trees are deposited in the earth, and the 
unnecessary length of time which is suffered 
to elapse between the period when the plant is 
taken from the nursery and replanted. I have 
always found the after good effect of causing 
the roots of the young plant to be carefully 
arranged, and spread out before the earth is 
thrown in upon it; the usually heedless way 
in which the roots are thrust into the hole, and 
perhaps broken or materially bruised in the 
act of treading in the earth upon them, is of 
necessity very prejudicial to the young plant ; 
and then, again, a still more negligent practice, 
that of ploughing in the young trees, is too often 
adopted on a large scale, by which the plants 
are still more hastily deposited in the soil, and 
are neither fixed with sufficient firmness in the 
ground, nor even placed in an upright position. 
From these causes I have witnessed some very 
decided failures ; and there is certainly no eco- 
nomy in this hasty mode of planting; the trees 
perish in great numbers ; they linger for years 
without vigour; have to be replaced at a con- 
siderable expense ; and in the mean time the 
owners lose all the advantages which might 
have been insured from a more skilfully ob- 
tained rapidity of growth. 

The grouping or mixture of trees is a ques- 
tion which rarely engages the attention of the 
planter, although it is certain that, like the 
commonly cultivated crops of the farmer, some 
trees grow better when mixed with other kinds 
than when vegetating in plantations of the same 
species; that they have certain secretions, and 
excrete matters, both by their roots and leaves, 
which are noxious to other trees, is certain. 
Thus the ash, and more particularly the locust, 
are very obnoxious to most trees. Then, again, 
the grouping together of certain trees is parti- 
cularly grateful to them all. Thus, the larch 
is a very good neighbour ; the Scotch fir, the 
birch, and the Spanish chestnut grow very 
luxuriantly with it; the oak, the elm, the hazel, 
and the hornbeam are evidently good neigh- 
bours. The Roman planters had remarked this 
habit of trees. Thus, they believed that the 
elm was particularly grateful to the vine ; and 
they were so convinced of the existence of what 
they called the sympathy between them, that 
they called the elm the husband of the vine. 
It was invariably their custom to plant them 
near each other; and as we are indebted to them 
for the introduction of the vine into England, 
so hence, m all probability, came with them 
our first elm trees. 

The expense of these diflJerent modes of 
planting is next to be ascertained ; it is an in- 
quiry which will well repay the planter. The 
favourite mode, that of digging a small hole 
and inserting the tree, is, apparently, attended 
with the least outlay of money; in some in- 
stances it has been done for 4/. or 5/. per acre, 
or even less ; but such plantations are verj- 
rarely profitable,— the plants die, or barel 

89.'» 



PLANTATION. 

regelate for years, have to be renewed again 
and again, and the general appearance of the 
plantation, overrun with weeds, or heath-moss, 
or furze, is very melancholy. About 40s. per 
acre more, bestowed in deep ploughing or sub- 
soiling, will make a strange difference in the 
rapid growth and consequent early profit of the 
plantation, and, moreover, save materially the 
expense of the trees ; for the number of them 
which perish in land thus prepared for their 
reception is very small. 

In a still greater degree are these good re- 
sults obtained by the addition of say 20 cubic 
yards per acre of marl, or clay, or a still less 
quantity of chalk, according to the nature of the 
soil, or lime, which may usually be procured 
for an outlay of less than 30s. per acre ; or of 

2 or 3 tons of well putrefied farm-yard manure, 
a shovelful under each tree, in the manner I 
have before described. Now, supposing that 
even all these preparations of the soil are made, 
the expense per acre will then, in many situa- 
tions, stand as follows, — 

£ s. d. 
Ploughing deeply - - - - - -200 

20 cubic yards of marl or clay, or 10 of chalk - 1 10 

3 cubic yards of dung, at 6s. - - - - 18 
Trees, ploughing, &c. - - - - -600 

10 8 

Subsoil ploughing will cost from 24s. to 30s. 
per statute acre. 

If the manure is omitted, as well as the earth 
and the ploughing, the outlay of 5s. per acre in 
lime, in the way I have noticed, will not be 
without decided advantage. I am quite con- 
vinced, therefore, that if all planters were to 
confine their operations to a less extent of 
land, and prepare and plant that ground well, 
they would reap a much earlier and richer 
harvest from the money expended than they 
now do from a much greater extent of ill- 
planted, exhausted soil. Such are the facts 
which I have noticed, in my own practice 
and that of others, as most necessary to be at- 
tended to in rearing profitable, luxuriant planta- 
tions of timber trees, on the poorest lands of 
England; hardly any of whose soils, however, 
are so barren or so elevated as not to be able 
to produce, with only reasonable care and ex- 
pense, an ample return for the capital of the 
planter. It is a pursuit which is, in more re- 
spects than one, worthy of the attention of the 
landed proprietor, since he not only by his 
plantations adds to the beauty and income of 
his own estates, but at the same time yields to 
the community at large great and important 
services ; its barren wastes are made to pro- 
duce timber and underwood, the soil is gradu- 
ally rendered fertile, profitable supplies of la- 
bour are afforded, its health is promoted, the 
very climate by a general system of plantations 
is ameliorated, for its bleak hills are clothed, 
Its stagnant swamps are drained. 

There is an excellent paper "On collecting 
and preparing the seeds of Forest Trees, the 
mode of sowing them," Sec, by Mr. Adam, and 
other planters. (Trans. High. Soc. vol. iii. p. 329.) 
He advises Scotish planters to collect the seed 
of tne while larch (Pmus larix) in November, 
from trees of 20 to 40 years of age, at an ele- 
vation not exceeding 400 feet ; that the seed- 
89fi 



PLANTATION. 

bed should be manured with cow dung, weF. 
mixed with the soil for some time previously to 
sowing the seed, which should be in April and 
May; the beds to be 42 inches in breadth, with 
intervals of 18 inches. The seed should be 
sown so that each square yard of ground may 
produce 2000 plants, which in the first year 
should reach to a height of 5 or 6 inches. One- 
third of the plants may be drawn and pricked 
out in rows at a distance of 10 inches, and the 
remainder left for another year. The autumn, 
Mr. Adams thinks, is the best time for forming 
plantations. 

The seed of the Scotch fir {Pinus syhestr-is) 
is gathered in the same way, and, to separate 
the seeds from the cones, it is necessary to 
kiln-dry them; about 11^ quarters of cones 
produce about 112 lbs. of seed. The Scotch 
fir must stand 2 years in the seed-bed. On! s- 
are to be sown early in February: the be.^t 
acorns are to be had in Kent, the brightest and 
heaviest being the most valuable ; they keep 
very well spread on a deal floor ; and may be 
placed in drills a foot apart, 2 inches deep, to 
be planted out when 2 or 3 years old. .^sh keys 
are gathered in December or January, and laid 
in heaps mixed with one-third of their bulk of 
sand under cover ; they should be turned over 
once or twice in the following year, and thus, 
after resting for 12 or 14 months, are ready for 
sowing in March, in drills a foot from each 
other, and 1} inches deep. The seed of the 
Scotch elm is ripe in June, and should be sown 
soon after; that of the beech is gathered in 
September, and sown in the following March 
or April, in drills 1^ inches deep. The seeds 
of the Spanish chestnut are best procured from 
Skpain : they may be sown in February, in drills 
4 inches deep. The horsc-chest^iut seeds are to 
be sown in October: those of the weeping birch 
should be sown as soon as gathered, and co- 
vered with earth half an inch deep. Those of 
the lime should be gathered and sown in Octo- 
ber. Poplars are propagated by cuttings. 

For a description of the advantages of pre- 
paring the land for plantations, I would advise 
the young planter to consult the works of Mr. 
Withers, the excellent Planter's Guide of Sir 
Henry Steuart, and the Journal of the Royal 
jlgrictiltural Sociely of England. And for those 
who wish to plant in the most simple way at 
an expense of only 10s. per acre, see a paper 
by Mr. Grigor. (Trans. High. Soc. vol. iii. p. 363.) 

By this mode, which consists of merely mak- 
ing a hole, or raising the turf of the ground 
sufficiently to put in the plants, the estimate is 
for a Scotch acre (which is equal to 6150 square 
yards) — 

I d. 

500 one-year transplanted larches - - 1 9 

1500 two-year seedling, do. - - - 3 

500 one-year transplanted Scotch firs - 9 

1000 two-year seedling, do. - - - 1 

Carriage of plants to the moor - - - 1 2 

Expenses of planting 3,500 - - - 2 4 

Total expense per Scotch acre - - 10 

See Elm, Fir, Fohest, Lahch, Oak, Pine, &c. 

PLANTING. In arboriculture, the art of 
forming plantations of trees. Also the art of 
inserting plants in the soil by the spade, dibble, 
trowel, or by other means in use in agriculture 



I 



PLANT-LICE. 



PLASTER OF PARIS. 



and gardening. As in the preceding article I 
have gone very fully into the particulars of 
planting trees, I shall only add in this place 
the following useful table, showing the number 
of plants required for one acre of land, from 1 
foot to 21 feet distance from plant to plant. 



DistJ 


nee. 




Distance. 






Ft. 


In. 


Number, 


Ft. 


In. 




Nnmber 


1 





- 43,560 


8 


6 


. 


602 


1 


6 


- 19,360 


9 





- 


533 


2 





- 10,890 


9 


6 


- 


482 


2 


6 


- 6,960 


10 





- 


436 


3 





- 4,840 


11 





. 


361 


3 


6 


- 3,556 


12 





. 


302 


4 





- 2,722 


13 





- 


258 


4 


6 


- 2,151 


14 





- 


223 


5 





- 1,742 


15 





. 


194 


5 


6 


- 1,440 


16 





. 


171 


6 





- 1,210 


17 





. 


151 


6 


6 


- 1,031 


18 





. 


135 


7 





889 


19 





- 


121 


7 


6 


775 


20 





. 


109 


8 





680 


21 





- 


99 



PLANT-LICE. See Aphidiaxs. 

PLASHING. A mode of repairing or modi- 
fying a hedge by bending down a portion of 
the shoots, cutting them half through near the 
ground, to render them more pliable, and twist- 
ing them among the upright stems, so as to 
render the whole effective as a fence, and at 
the same time preserve all the branches alive. 
For this purpose the branches to be plashed or 
bent down must not be cut more than half 
through, in order that a sufficient portion of 
sap may rise up from the root to keep alive the 
upper part of the branches. Where hedges 
are properly formed and kept, they can very 
seldom require to be plashed; but this mode 
of treating a hedge is most valuable in the cases 
of hedges abounding with hedge-row trees, 
when from neglect, or from any other cause, 
the hedge has become of irregular growth. 
See Hedges. 

PLASTER OF PARIS, or GYPSUM. One 
of the common names of the sulphate of lime 
or plaster stone, which is found abundantly 
near Paris. When burnt and reduced to pow- 
der, and then mixed with water, it forms a firm, 
sonorous substance, admirably adapted for 
forming models and casts. 

Plasteii of Pahis or Gtpsum, as a Ma- 
NunE. It is useless to search in the works of 
the early agricultural writers for any notice of 
the employment of gypsum as a manure. It 
is true that Virgil speaks of the value of a very 
impure variety of it, when he is commending 
the use of ashes to the Roman farmers. The 
early inhabitants of Britain thus used it; the 
farmers of Lombardy did the same ; but ages 
elapsed before even chemists were able to dis- 
tinguish this salt from limestone, or other cal- 
careous matter. Its uses, in its simple state as 
a manure, were first noticed, according to Kir- 
wan, about the middle of the I8th century, by 
a very able German clergyman, of the name of 
Meyer, who tried with success various expe- 
riments with a mineral substance found in his 
neighbourhood, which was long afterwards 
shown to be an impure sulphate of lime. The 
name of plaster of Paris, by which this sub- 
stance is commonly known, arose from its 
abounding in the neighbourhood of that capi- 
tal, where it was burnt into a powder, and 
used as a stucco. The composition of sulphate 
of lime, when pure, is — 
113 



^ . . . . Fifta- 

Sulphuric acid - • ... 43 
Lime .......33 

Water -.-... 34 

100 

But the gypsum of commerce is usually united 
with a portion of silica and carbonate of lim^. 
It is thus combined in its native state. Ac- 
cording to Chaptal andBuchholz, gypsum con- 
sists of — 

Parts. 
Sulphuric acid . . - - 32 or 43 
Lime - - - - . - 30 or 33 
Water 38 or 24 

There is, perhaps, no artificial manure so 
decided in its eflects upon some soils, so readily 
obtainable by the farmer, and so plentiful, as 
gypsum. Its mode of action, too, is now easily 
understood. It acts as a direct food for some 
plants. There are five commonly cultivated 
crops which contain gypsum in sensible pro- 
portions, and to which, in consequence, it is a 
direct food, viz., lucern, sanfoin, red clover, 
rye-grass, and turnips. Now, these are pre- 
cisely the crops to which the farmer finds, on 
most soils, gypsum to be a fertilizing top- 
dressing. Wheat, barley, oats, beans, and 
peas, do not contain a trace of this salt ; and 
the farmer tells you that gypsum is of little or 
no service to these crops, however the appli- 
cation may be varied. That it does not ope- 
rate by its attraction for atmospheric moisture, 
I some time since determined by my own ex- 
periments; for 1000 parts, previously dried, 
when exposed to air saturated with moisture 
for 3 hours, only gained 9 parts, w'ule under 
the same circumstances a good aiable soil, 
worth 2 guineas per acre, gained 14 parts; 
and when compared with other manures, the 
disproportion is still greater: thus soot gained 
36 parts, and horse-dung 145 parts. That it is 
not a promoter of putrefaction, I have ascer- 
tained by mixing this salt with various animal 
and vegetable substances; it seemed, in every 
case, rather to retard than promote the spon- 
taneous decomposition of them all. The house- 
wives consider hard water, which commonly 
owes its properties to the presence of this salt, 
to be a greater sweetener of tainted food than 
soft water. Davy, also, in some experiments 
with minced veal, thought that the addition of 
the gypsum rather retarded putrefaction. 

There is no reason to believe that the pro- 
portion of sulphate of lime found in certain 
plants is as essential to their growth as the 
presence of the other earthy salts and pure 
earths. Thus, those plants which yield this 
salt never grow well on lands which do not 
contain it; those in which carbonate of lime is 
found never flourish in soils from which this 
salt is absent. Plants which abound with ni- 
trate of potash (saltpetre), such as the sun- 
flower and the nettle, always languish in soils 
free from that salt ; but when watered with a 
weak solution of it, their growth is very mate- 
rially promoted, and the saltpetre is then found 
in them, as shown, upon analysis, in very sen- 
sible proportions. The same remarks apply 
to the growth of those plants which contain 
common salt, or phosphate of lime ; the effect 
is the same, the result invariable. 

897 



PLASTER OF PARIS. 



PLASTER OF PARIS. 



Liebig contends that the nature of gypsum 
consists in its giving a fixed constitution to 
the nitrogen, or ammonia, which is brought 
into the soil, and is indispensable for the nutri- 
tion of plants. He says, that 100 lbs. of gyp- 
sum give as much ammonia as 6250 lbs. of 
horses' urine would yield it : 4 lbs. of gypsum, 
he affirms, increase the produce of the mea- 
dow 100 lbs. The decomposition of gypsum 
is slow, which, he says, explains the reason 
why the action of gypsum lasts for several 
years. See Ammonia. 

I have noticed, in applying gypsum to 
grasses, that the weather, at the time of 
spreading it, has a very material influence 
upon the result of the experiment. Its effects 
are never soon apparent when it is sown in 
dry weather; but if the season is damp, so that 
the white powdered gypsum adheres to the 
leaves and stalks of the young grass, the good 
effect is then immediate. This observation 
was made many years since by Arthur Young, 
by Mr. Smith, and by the American farmers : 
it is a well-known fact with the sainfoin grow- 
ers, of the Berkshire and Hampshire chalk 
formation ; the clover cultivators of the gravels 
and loams of Surrey and Kent ; and on the lu- 
cern grounds of the alluvial soils of Essex and 
Middlesex. The farmers of the United States, 
■when dressing their clover or turnips with 
gypsum, always found it answer best when 
spread in rainy weather. 

The result of the analysis of the clover and 
sainfoin grasses shows that an ordinary crop 
of these usually contains from 1^ to 2 cwt. per 
acre of sulphate of lime. Now, this is pre- 
cisely the proportion of gypsum which the best 
■cultivators find to be attended with the maxi- 
mum benefit; those of Kent and Hampshire 
find it useless to apply more ; but then they 
Jill affree that the annual repetition of the 
dressing, as long as the grass is suffered to re- 
main on the ground, is attended with renewed 
benefit. It is here again that the experiments 
of the chemist and the farmer mutually con- 
firm and illustrate each other; the very quan- 
tity of sulphate of lime which the first shows 
to be carried off the land in the clover, is pre- 
cisely that which the latter returns to it in his 
dressings with gypsum. 

One of the chief reasons why gypsum has 
not been universally employed by all cultiva- 
tors of the artificial grasses, arises perhaps 
from the fact that many good soils naturally 
contain sulphate of lime in sufficient abun- 
dance for the service of the plant; and, in con- 
sequence, to such lands the application of gyp- 
sum is useless — it is an attempt to supply a 
deficiency which doe not exist. I have inva- 
riably found in those soils to which gypsum is 
not a manure an abundance of this salt. It is 
not, however, necessary for the farmer to have 
his soil analyzed to determine the probable ad- 
vantages of applying gypsum to his clover and 
other grasses ; there are several easy observa- 
tions which will readily indicate to him the 
nature of the case. Thus, when he finds that 
those fields which once produced luxuriant 
crops of r&l clover or sainfoin will no longer 
yield them in abundance ; if he notices that the 
foung plants soring up very numerously, but 
698 



die away as the summer advances ; if he finds 
that his fields will only grow clover success- 
fully once in 8 or 12 years, and that his neigh- 
bours tell him his land is tired ofclover, or "clo- 
ver-sick;" if he notices that even the application 
of farm-yard compost hardly adds to the luxu- 
riance of his grasses ; he may then safely con- 
clude that his crops have gradually exhausted 
his land of sulphate of lime ; and he may, with 
every confidence of success, apply a dressing 
of gypsum, at the rate of 2 cwt. per acre, taking 
care to choose a wet morning for the applica- 
tion ; and this may be done at any season of 
the year, but it is best either in April or the 
first days of May. These facts I can attest 
from the results of my own observations and 
experience. In an old grass paddock, of about 
70 acres, in the vale of Kennelt, in Berkshire, 
the grass had for many years gradually be- 
come less and less productive, and this in spite 
of all kinds of applications; the earths (such 
as clay and chalk), farm-yard compost, &c., 
had been liberally and repeatedly spread, with- 
out producing any thing like a luxuriant crop: 
but it was found at last that the peat ashes of 
the banks of the Kennett, when spread at the 
rate of about 40 bushels per acre, produced the 
very best results, an excellent crop, both in 
weight and in colour; certainly more than a 
ton of hay per acre beyond what the soil yield- 
ed before. The fact was now evident that it 
was gypsum that the soil needed; for as these 
peat ashes contain about 12^ per cent, of sul- 
phate of lime, more than 2 cwt. of gypsum was 
conveyed into the land in them ; it constitutes, 
in fact, by far the chief fertilizing ingredient 
in these peat ashes, the remainder being about 
40 per cent, of sand, and the rest chalk, red 
oxide of iron, and a small quantity of common 
salt. 

If this conclusion, therefore, was correct, as 
to the gypsum being the only valuable portion 
of the peat ashes, it was certain that an appli- 
cation of 2 cwt. per acre of gypsum to the same 
land would produce similar beneficial results; 
and, upon a trial, it was found that benefits 
fully equal to any yielded by the application 
of the peat ashes resulted. 2 cwt. per acre of 
gypsum, in fine powder, was spread on a por- 
tion of the grass with the most excellent effect: 
the grass not only grew with greatly increased 
vigour, but a quantity of white clover and 
other grasses made their appearance on the 
portion dressed, in so marked a manner as to 
attract the attention of the tenant to the fact. 
The soil on which these experiments were tried 
consists of — 

Organic matter, chiefly vegetable - - 3"5 

Soluble matters - - ... 3- 

Carbonate of lime and magnesia - - 19' 

Oxide of iron -.-..- 2-75 
Alumina ..-..- 8-5 

Sand and gravel - - - - - 62- 

98-75 

This is about 10 inches deep, and it rests on a 
thin stratum of gravel and thin chalk. 

There is another fact which clearly sup- 
ports these conclusions, viz., the great use of 
common coal-ashes as a top-dressing to clover, 
sanfoin, and lucern ; there is no manure uni- 



PLASTER FOR TREES. 



PLOUGH. 



versally in the possession of the farmer, in 
fact, equal to them for immediate effect upon 
those grasses. Now, coal-ashes usually con- 
tain about 10 per cent, of sulphate of lime; 
and, therefore, a dressing with 50 bushels of 
coal-ashes per acre is equal to an application 
of about 5 bushels of gypsum ; the remaining 
portion of the ashes consists principally of 
about 10 per cent, of lime and sand, and a 
small portion of red oxide of iron and alumina: 
so that, the gypsum is here again evidently the 
active ingredient — the other constituent parts 
being nearly inert substances. My own ex- 
periments and observations have been con- 
firmed by many others within the last two 
years, for gypsum is evidently creeping gra- 
dually into use as a manure for the grasses. 

In England, the expense of the application 
of the gypsum is about 7s. per acre; this sub- 
stance being usually sold in London for about 
3/. 10s. per ton — at Reading and Southampton 
at Is. 9il. per bushel. In the midland counties 
it may be had at a stiil more reasonable rate ; 
thus, in Derbyshire, it is so plentiful that the 
farmers' cheese-room floors are commonly 
formed with it; it abounds, too, in the north 
of England. The comparative produce of the 
gypsumed over not-gypsumed land is very 
great; it of course varies in amount. I have 
seen it double the produce of clover hay, and 
give an equally copious crop of lucern ; but 
this last I invariably cut green for soiling. 

Mr. Smith, of Highstead, found still greater 
benefit from the use of gypsum to his clover 
Jeys; for where the simple soil produced 1 ton 
only per acre of hay, the portion of the same 
soil to which 5 bushels per acre of gypsum 
had been applied yielded 3 tons; the first yield- 
ing only 20 lbs. of seed, while the latter pro- 
duced 105 lbs. Mr. Smith, loo, first noticed — 
what my ov,-n observations have confirmed — 
that cattle, horses, &c., always prefer the grass 
growing on the gypsumed portion of the field 
to any other. The same remark is made by 
those who spread coal-ashes on their grass 
leys; the peat-ashes of Berkshire produce the 
same effect. 

The general introduction, then, of gypsum, 
as a top-dressing for the artificial grasses which 
I have mentioned, is certainly an object of no 
mean interest to the farmer, especially if he cul- 
tivates the poor inland soils of England, where 
artificial manures are scarce, and the carriage 
of even the mc-st portable is expensive; for 
gypsum possesses, in this respect, two advan- 
tages combined, which do not belong to any 
other, even of the saline manures : its first cost 
is trifling, and its carriage light, since a wagon 
will convey sufficient gypsum to dress 30 acres 
of grass. 

PLASTER FOR TREES. See Canker. 

PLASTIC CLAY. Clay used in the manu- 
facture of pottery. 

PLATYPHYLLUM CONCAVUM, or 
KATY-DID. A kind of grasshopper found in 
the United States. Dr. Harris, who was the 
first to give a scientific description, has called 
it Piatypliyllum concavum. The front of its head 
is obtuse, body of a pale-green colour, the 
wing-covers and wings being somewhat darker. 
Its thorax is rough like shagreen. The musi- 



cal organs of the male consist of a pair of 
taborets, formed by a thin, transparent mem- 
brane, stretched in a strong half-oval frame ia 
the triangular overlapping portion of each 
wing-cover. During the daytime these insects 
are silent, and conceal themselves among the 
leaves of trees ; but at night, they quit their 
lurking-places, and the joyous males begin the 
tell-tale call with which they enliven their silent 
mates. This proceeds from the friction of the 
taboret frames against each other when the 
wing-covers are opened and shut, and consists 
of two or three distinct notes, almost exactly 
resembling articulated sounds, and correspond- 
ing with the number of times that the wing- 
covers are opened and shut; and the notes are 
repeated, at intervals of a. few minutes, for 
hours together. The mechanism of the tabo- 
rets, and the concavity of the wing-covers, re- 
verberate and increase the sound to such a de- 
gree, that it may be heard, in the stillness of 
the night, at the distance of a quarter of a 
mile. At the approach of twilight the katy- 
did mounts to the upper branches of the tree 
in which he lives, and, as soon as the shades 
of evening prevail, begins his noisy babble, 
while rival notes issue from the neighbouring 
trees, and the groves resound with the call of 
"katy did, she did," the live-long night. From 
the head to the end of the wing-covers, this 
insect measures rather more than l^ inch, the 
body alone being 1 inch in length. The piercer 
is broad, laterally compressed, and curved like 
acimeter; and there are, in both sexes, two 
little thorn-like projections from the middle of 
the breast between the fore-legs. It is found 
in the perfect state during the nioliths of Sep- 
tember and October. (Harris.) 

PLEASURE-GROUND. That portion of 
ground adjoining a dwelling-house in the 
country; and which is exclusively devoted to 
ornamental and recreative purposes. In the 
ancient style of gardening, the pleasure-ground 
was laid out in straight walks, and regular or 
symmetrical forms, commonly borrowed from 
architecture; but in the modern style, it is laid 
out in winding walks, and in forms borrowed 
direct from nature. A portion of lawn or 
smooth grassy surface may be considered as 
essential to the pleasure-ground under both 
styles. See Gardesijjg, Lawn, and Parterre. 

PLOUGH. (Sax. Plou ; Dan. Ploegh.) A 
well-known, perhaps the most ancient, cer- 
tainly the most valuable of all agricultural im- 
plements. There are traces of it in even the 
earliest of all written authorities, and, judging 
of its importance in agriculture, we can hardly 
imagine it possible to carry on extensive sys- 
tems of cultivation in any period or country 
without its assistance. By consulting the sa- 
cred records, we find, that in very early times 
they ploughed with two oxen (Deut. xxii. 10), 
that their plough had a coulter and plough- 
share (1 Sam. xiii. 20), and that they were 
early aware of the advantages of a wic'er's 
fallow (Prov. XX. 4). It is certain that .heir 
ploughs were long since furnished with wheels; 
a fact which is proved by the drawings oi tbt; 
early Greek ploughs which have escaped to u» 

Hesiod ( Works and Days, p. 50 — *41) advised 
the Greek farmers to have a spare plough, thai 

899 



PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



an accident might not interrupt the work ; and 
he also enforces the advantages of careful and 
skilful ploughing. 

The ploughs of Rome were of the most sim- 
ple form, as may be inferred from ancient 
drawings. See Agriculture. 

Rivalling these in simplicity and rudeness 
of form, are the never altered or improved 
ploughs of the Hindoos and the Chinese, from 
whose implements it is probable the shape of 
those of Rome was borrowed. 

The object sought to be eifected by means of 
the plough, is exactly ihe same as that accom- 
plished in the primitive ages by the spade. 
The addition of cattle to force the plough in 
the operation of breaking up the ground, leads 
to complexity. But although the spade is an 
implement of such great simplicity, the act of 
digging with it exacts a great deal of indivi- 
dual exertion, almost every muscle of the body 
being called into play in alternately pushing 
and lifting. In this respect the modern im- 
proved plough possesses great advantages in 
being propelled by animals and directed with 
very little individual muscular exertion. 

It is curious to trace the progress of plough- 
making in England. Those of the early culti- 
vators were of necessity rude and imperfect, 
for in those days the ploughman made his own 
plough. A law of the early Britons in fact 
directed that no one should guide a plough until 
he was able to make one. The driver was, by 
the same law, to make the traces by which it 
was drawn, and these were to be formed of 
withes of twisted willow ; a long-exploded cus- 
tom ; many of the olden terms of which, how- 
ever, are still retained by the rustic plough- 
men. Thus the womb-withy is yet called the 
wambtye or wanlye. VVithen trees are denomi- 
nated wilteii trees, or ivhipple trees, &c. 

It is uncertain whether the early British 
ploughs had wheels ; some of those of the 
Saxons were certainly furnished with them. 
Yet it is pretty certain that they used ploughs 
of a form rivalling those of modern India in 
simplicity ; a rude sketch of one of these is 
given in a Saxon MS. {Harl. MS. 603), from 
which it would seem that our Saxon forefathers 
were wont to fasten their horses to the plough 
by their tails ; a barbarous custom, which cer- 
tainly was formerly practised in Ireland to such 
an extent that the legislature interfered in 1634, 
and declared by the 11 & 12 Car. II. c. 15 (Irish 
Pari.), entitled " An act against ploughing by 
the Tayle, and pulling the Wool off living 
Sheep," that "in many places of this kingdome 
there hath been a long time used a barbarous 
custome of ploughing, harrowing, drawing, 
and working with horses, mares, geldings, gar- 
rans, and colts by the taile, whereby (besides 
the cruelty used to the beasts) the breed of 
horses is much impaired in this kingdome. 
And also divers have and yet do use the like 
barbarous custome of pulling off the wool 
yearly from living sheep, instead of clipping 
or shearing of them." These wretched prac- 
tices are then declared illegal, and to be pun- 
ishable with fine and imprisonment. 

The Norman plough was also furnished with 
-wheels, and it was usual for the ploughmen to 
rarry a hatchet to break the clods, as is de- 
900 



picted in an ancient picture from tvhence the 
sketch at page 41 is engraved. 

It is pretty certain that the ox was at first, 
and for a lengthened period, the only animal 
employed to draw the plough. Thus, although 
the plough and oxen are so frequently men- 
tioned in conjunction in the Bible, the horse is 
never alluded to for such an occupation: an 
old British law forbade the use of any animal 
except the ox for this purpose. The first re- 
presentation, of which I am aware, observes 
Mr. J. A. Ransome, of a horse employed in the 
plough, is that given (A. D. 1066) in the tapes- 
try of Bayeux. 

There are evident traces in the early English 
agricultural authors of the importance which 
they ascribed to the improved construction of 
the plough. This implement, however, Avas 
long drawn entirely by oxen in Britain. 

Fitzherbert, in his Bokeof Husbandrye (1532), 
speaks in a manner that shows that even in his 
day plough-horses were not generally employed ; 
he observes, " a husbande may not be without 
horses and mares, and especially if he goe with 
a horse-plough." Worlidge, in his Mystery of 
Husbandry, describes (A.D. 1677) very clearly 
the first rude attempt to construct a sub-soil 
plough: he tells us, p. 230, "of an ingenious 
young man of Kent, who had two ploughs fas- 
tened together very firmly, by the which he 
ploughed two furrows at once, one under 
another, and so stirred up the land 12 or 14 
inches deep. It only looseneth and lighteneth 
the land to that depth, but doth not bury the 
upper crust of the ground so deep as is usually 
done by digging." When Heresbasch wrote 
(1570), it was not uncommon in some of the 
warmer parts of Germany and Italy to plough 
during the night, "that the moisture and fattness 
of the ground may remain shadowed under the 
clodde, and that the cattell through overmuch 
heate of the sunne be not diseased or hurt." 
(31 b.) Jethro Tull, more than a century since, 
paid considerable attention to the plough ; he 
had even searched into the early historj' of this 
implement, and concluded that it was "found 
out by accident, and that the first tillers (or 
ploughers) of the ground were hogs." {Husb. 
p. 131.) The ploughs which he describes, and 
of which he gives drawings, were evidently 
(although rudely and heavily constructed) su- 
perior in several respects to all that had pre- 
ceded them. 

It is not necessary to do more than thus 
slightly advert to the various notices which are 
to be found in the early histories and pictures 
of this invaluable implement ; for, in fact, for 
ages the plough was little more than a rude, 
clumsy instrument, which served only to rake 
the surface, instead of making furrows in the 
land sufficiently deep for the seeds to be buried. 
It was not brought to any thing like a perfect 
tool for the purposes required till the close of 
seventeenth century. 

The plough, being the fundamental imple- 
ment of agriculture, common to all ages and 
countries, its primitive form is almost every- 
where the same. The forms used by the Greeks 
and Romans (see Agriculture) seem to have 
spread over Europe, and undergone no change 
till probably about the sixteenth century, when 



PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



they began to be improved by the Dutch and 
Flemish. In the seventeenth century the plough 
underw^ent further improvement in England; 
and it was greatly improved in that following, 
in Scotland. There are now a great variety of 
excellent forms, the best of which, for general 
purposes, is, in Britain, universally allowed to 
be what is called the Scotch plough, and in 
Scot and the improved Scotch plough. In speak- 
ing of the implement we shall adopt the latter 
term, because the unimproved Scotch plough 
differs little from some old forms of the imple- 
ment common to Europe from the time of the 
Romans. As the operation of ploughing, like 
many other operations in practical husbandry, 
must often vary in the manner of its being 
performed, it is evident that no one particular 
sort of plough can be superior to all others, in 
every season, and under every variety of soil 
or inclination of surface. The Scotch plough, 
however, and the variations of which it is 
susceptible, render it perhaps the most uni- 
versal tillage implement hitherto invented or 
used. 

In Britain ploughs are classed into two kinds: 
those fitted up with wheels, and called wheel- 
ploughs ; and those without wheels, called 
swing ploughs. The latter are the lightest of 
draught, but require an experienced and atten- 
tive ploughman to use them ; the former work 
with greater steadiness, and require much less 
skill in the manager : some sorts, indeed, do 
not require holding at all, excepting at entering 
in, and turning on and off the work at the ends 
of the ridges. On the whole, taking ploughmen 
as they are, and ploughs as they are generally 
constructed, it will be found, that a district 
ploughed with wheel-ploughs will show greater 
neatness of work than one ploughed with 
swing ploughs : but, on the other hand, taking 
a district where the improved form of swing 
ploughs is generally adopted, the ploughmen 
will be found superior workmen, and the work 
performed in a better manner, and with less 
expense of labour, than in the ease of wheel- 
ploughs. 

In the construction of ploughs, whatever be 
the sort used, there are a few general principles 
that ought invariably to be attended to ; such 
as the giving the throat and breast, or that part 
which enters, perforates, and breaks up the 
ground, that sort of long, narrow, clean, taper- 
ing, sharpened form that affords the least re- 
sistance in passing through the land; and to 
the mould-board, that kind of hollowed-out and 
twisted form, which not only tends to lessen 
friction, but also to contribute greatly to the 
perfect turning over of the furrow-slice. The 
beam and muzzle should likewise be so con- 
trived, as that the moving power, or team, may 
be attached in the most advantageous line of 
draught. This is particularly necessary where 
a number of animals are employed together, 
in order that the draught of the whole may 
coincide. 

Land, when properly ploughed, must be re- 
moved from a horizontal position, and twisted 
over to a certain angle, so that it may be left 
in that inclining state, one furrow leaning upon 
another, till the whole field be completely 
ploughrd. The depth and width of the furrows 



which is most approved of by farmers, and 
commonly to be met with in the best-ploughed 
fields, are in the proportion of 2 to 3; or, if the 
furrow be 2 deep, it must be 3 wide, and left at 
an angle of 4.5 to 46 degrees. 

Various forms have been given to the difTer- 
ent parts of the plough, by ingenious persons, 
according to their difierent fancies, in order to 
diminish the weight of the draught, and to turn 
over the furrow, and leave it in its proper posi- 
tion, without tearing or breaking it. 

To have the line of draught at right angles 
to the horses' shoulders is of great importance 
in the formation of a plough ; a circumstance 
of which the greatest part of the plough-makers 
are totally ignorant, although it is well known 
to every one that has the least knowledge of 
mechanics. If we take the angle that the 
horses' shoulders make with a perpendicular 
from the horizon, and continue another line at 
right angles to it, or parallel to the draught 
chain ; the length of this line from the horses' 
shoulders to where it meets or crosses the 
coulter, at half the depth of the furrow, will be 
13 feet 2 inches for ordinary sized horses. 

Length of beam. — If the plough be properly 
made, the line of draught should pass through 
the middle hole of the plough bridle at the point 
of the beam. This requires the beam to be 7 
feet long, to give it a proper height at the 
bridle. 

Left side plane. — That part of the plough 
next the solid land should be made a perfect 
plane, and run parallel to the line of draught; 
whereas some of the common ploughs are 
completely twisted in that part, and deviate 
more than 2 inches from the line of draught ; 
this throws the plough to the left, and causes 
the hinder part of the mould-board to press 
hard against the furrow, and crush and break 
it, besides increasing the labour of the cattle. 

The position of the coulter must not deviate 
much from an angle of 45 degrees : for, if we 
make it more oblique, it causes the plough to 
choke up with stubble and grass roots, by 
throwing them up against the beam ; and, if 
less oblique, it is apt to drive the stones or 
other obstacles before it, and make it heavier 
to draw. 

The mould-board, for all free soils, and for 
working fallows, is generally most effective 
when it has a considerable concavity; but for 
breaking up clover leys, pasture, or any firm 
surface, and also for clayey soils, it is found to 
clean itself better and make neater work when 
it approaches nearer to a plane, and in very 
stiff clays, is formed with a concave surface. 
The lower edge of the mould-board, on the 
most improved forms, is in a separate piece, 
which, when it wears, can be taken off and 
renewed. The technical name of this slip of 
iron is the wearing-piece. 

The materials with which ploughs are con- 
structed is, generally, wood for the beam and 
handles, cast iron for the head, side-plates, 
mould-board, and sole, and wrought iron for the 
share, coulter, and muzzle. But of late years, 
in consequence of the dearness of timber, anA 
the cheapness of iron in Britain, they have 
been constructed whouy o*" the latter material, 
and with considerable aavintage in point of 
4G 901 



PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



.strength and durability, and some also in point 
of convenience. Among the conveniences may 
he mentioned, the facility which they afford of 
bending the left handle to the right of the 
straight line first introduced by Mr. Wilkie 
of Uddingston (who, if not the inventor, 
may certainly be considered the greatest im- 
prover of iron ploughs,) by which means the 
ploughman is permitted to walk with ease in 
the bottom of the furrow. The stilts or handles 
may also be joined to the body of the plough, 
in such a way as to admit of taking off and 
packing for a foreign country, or raising or 
lowering the points of the handles according 
to the size of the ploughman, as in Weather- 
ley's plough. 

A wooden Scotch plough with iron mount- 
ings, says Mr. Stephens, usually weighs 13 
stones imperial, and an iron one for the same 
work 15 stones. The cost of a wooden one is 
31. 16s., capable of being serviceable, with 
repairs, for the currency of a lease of 19 years ; 
that of an iron one 4/. 4.s., which will last a 
lifetime, or at least many years. Some farm- 
ers, however, still prefer the wooden one, al- 
ledging that it goes more steadily than the iron. 
Whatever of prejudice there may be in this 
predilection for the wooden plough, it must be 
owned that the iron one executes its work in a 
satisfactory manner. There is, I believe, no 
great difference of economy in the use of the 
two kinds of ploughs. (Stephens.) 

Of swing ploughs, says Loudon, by far the 
best is the implement known in England as the 
Scotch plough. It is almost the only plough used 
in Scotland, and throughout a considerable 
part of England; it is drawn with less power 
than wheel-ploughs, at least, those of the old 
construction, the friction not being so great; 
and it probably admits of greater variations in 
regard to the breadth and depth of the furrow- 
slice. It is usually drawn by two horses abreast 
in common tillage; but for ploughing between 
the rows of the drill culture, a smaller one 
drawn by one horse is commonly employed. 
A plough of the swing kind, having a mould- 
board on each side, is also used both in form- 
ing narrow ridges for turnips and potatoes, and 
in laying up the earth to the roots of the plants, 
after the intervals have been cleaned and pul- 
verized by the horse and hand-hoe. This 
plough is sometimes made in such a manner 
that the mould-board may be shifted from one 
side to the other when working on hilly 
grounds ; by which means the furrows are all 
laid in the same direction. 

Swing ploughs, similar to the Scotch plough, have 
been long known in England. In Blythe's Im- 
prover Improved we have engravings of several 
ploughs ; and what he calls the "plain plough" 
does not seem to differ much in its principal 
]>arts from the one now in use. Amos, in an 
Essay on Agricultural Machines, says, that a per- 
son named Lummis (whom he is mistaken in 
calling a Scotchman) " first attempted its con- 
struction upon mathematical principles, which 
he learned in Holland ; but having obtained a 
patent for the making and vending of this 
plough, he withheld the knowledge of these 
principles from the public. However, one 
Vashley, plough-wright to Sir Charles Turner 
902 



of Kirkleathem, having a knowledge of those 
principles, constructed upon them a vast num- 
ber of ploughs. Afterwards his son establish- 
ed a manufactory for the making of them at 
Rotherham. Hence they obtained the name 
of the Rotherham plough ; but in Scotland ftiey 
were called the Dutch or patent plough." Plate 
17,a,represents a Rotherham plough constructed 
chiefly of wood. The Americans have claimed 
the priority of the invention ; and President 
Jefferson, of the United States, presented the 
principles for the construction of a mould- 
board, first to the Institute of France, and next 
to the Board of Agriculture in England. 

The Scotch plough was little known in Scot- 
land till about the year 1764, when Small's 
method of constructing it began to excite at- 
tention (SmalVs Treatise on Ploughs and Wheel 
Carriages, 1784; and Lord Kaimes's Gentleman 
Farmer). This ingenious mechanic formed 
the mould-board upon distinct and intelligible 
principles, and afterwards made it of cast iron. 
His appendage of a chain has been since laid 
aside. It has been disputed, whether he took 
the Rotherham, or the old Scotch plough, for 
the basis of his improvements. The swing 
plough has been since varied a little, in some 
parts of Scotland, from Small's form, for the 
purpose of adapting it more completely to parti- 
cularsituationsand circumstances. Since 1810, 
this plough has been very generally made en- 
tirely of iron. In Northumberland, the mould- 
board is made less concave than in Berwick- 
shire, and in Berwickshire it is even less con- 
cave than in Small's plough. Different degrees 
of concavity in the mould-board suit different 
soils : soft and sandy soil requires most, and a 
loamy or clayey soil least concavity. The 
following are the principal varieties of the 
improved Scotch plough at present in use in 
the most improved districts of the north, and 
among scientific farmers in all countries. 

Small's plough. — The mould-board is more 
concave than in most other varieties, and this 
may be considered its characteristic as com- 
pared with these varieties. It is sometimes 
drawn by a chain proceeding from the muzzle 
to the head, in order to lessen the strain on the 
draught-beam,and in that case it is called Small's 
chain-plough. It is commonly made of wood and 
iron. PI. 17, b. For a design of the East Lo- 
thian plough, or Small's improved, see PI. 17, 
c, d, the figures representing two views. 

In this plough the proper lines of the body 
on the land-side lie all in one plane, which, in 
working, should be held in the vertical position, 
or very slightly inclining to the left. The 
coulter slightly oblique to the land-side plane, 
the point standing towards the left, the rake 
of the coulter varies from 55° to 65°. In the 
mould-board the vertical sectional lines ap- 
proximate to straight lines, giving the charac- 
ter of apparent concavity, and it is truncated 
forward. Share pointed, with a feather or 
cutter standing to the right, having a breadth 
of at least f the breadth of the furrow, the 
cutting edge of the feather lying nearly as low 
as the plane of the sole. The neck of the 
share is prolonged backward, joining and co- 
inciding with the curve of the mould-board, 
which curvature is also carried forward on the 



PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



back of the feather. The character of this 
plough is to take a furrow of 10 inches in 
breadth by 7 inches in depth, cut rectangular, 
leaving the sole of the open furrow level and 
clean. The resistance to the draught is gene- 
rally below the average of ploughs, and this 
plough is employed for every kind of soil. 
The improved English swing plough, as made 
by Ransom, is represented in PI. 17, e. 

The NorUmmbeiiand plough, and the Berwick- 
shire plough, are very nearly the same imple- 
ment; differing from Small's plough in having 
the mould-board less concave. 

IVUklc's Sluing plough, which Loudon says is 
the best iron swing plough in Scotland, is 
formed entirely of iron, except the points of the 
handles. Its characteristic, in point of form, 
is a longer mould-board with a greater twist 
in it, the object of which is to reverse the fur- 
row more completely in light or highly pul- 
verized soils. 

FinlaysutCs iron ploughs are, as he informs us 
(British Farmer, p. 9), constructed in imitation 
of those of Wilkie, but with improvements and 
modifications adapted for particular circum- 
stances. 

Hie heath or self-cleaning plough, or rid plough, 
is formed with the beam so curved vertically, 
or divided and curved horizontally, as to leave 
no resting-place for stubble, heath, or other ve- 
getable matter, at the top of the coulter, where 
in rough grounds, with ploughs of the ordinary 
construction, it gets entangled and stops the 
work. 

Finlay son's Kentish skeleton self-cleaning plough 
(PI. 17,/) is intended as a substitute for the 
common Kentish turn-wrest plough. "The 
soil, in great part of Kent, is of a peculiarly 
adhesive clay. When this soil is between the 
wet and dry, it adheres to the body of the 
plough like glue, by which the draught is in- 
creased probably double or treble." By sub- 
stituting 3 or 4 iron rods for the mould-board, 
the soil is prevented from adhering, while the 
operation of ploughing is at the same time 
performed in an equally perfect manner with 
two horses as with four. This is accounted 
for " by the whole surface of this plough not 
being more than one-third or one-fourth the 
surface of other ploughs." In like manner, 
when it is necessary to dig or trench very 
strong clayey soil between the wet and the dry, 
the operation is performed with much greater 
ease by a two-pronged fork. It is important to 
agriculturists to know the opinion and expe- 
rience of a man of so much science and ex- 
tensive practice as the late Mr. Finlayson, who 
says, "from my own experience I have no he- 
sitation in saying that the most adhesive land 
may, with ease, be ploughed by the skeleton 
plough and one pair of good horses." 

Fiidayson''s line plough is characterized by a 
rod which proceeds from the sheath of the 
plough to the muzzle, which is put on when 
.the plough is drawn by horses in a line — a very 
disadvantageous manner, but yet common in 
many parts of England. 

The Somerville swing plough is known by its 
mould-board, a part of which is rendered mo- 
vable by hinges ; the advantage of this is, that 
the furrow can be laid more or less flat at 



; pleasure. This plough, however, has been but 
I little used, and does not seem to meet the ap- 
I probation of the best cultivators. 
I Turn-torest stving ploughs are such as admit 
1 of removing the mould-board from one side to 
i another at the end of each furrow, for the pur- 
pose of throwing the earth removed always to 
one side. Their principal use is in ploughing 
across steep declivities, in order that the 
furrow-slice may always be thrown down. 
Wherever it is practicable, however, it is best 
to plough obliquely up and down such decli- 
vities ; because the other practice soon renders 
the soil too rich and deep at bottom, and too 
thin and poor at top. 

Gray's turn-wrest swing plough is one of the 
most scientific implements of the kind. The 
beam, head, and sheath, must always be placed 
in the direction of a line passing along their 
middle; and the two handles must be placed 
equidistant on each side of that line. There 
are two mould-boards and two coulters, and a 
mould-board is produced on either side, at 
pleasure, by moving a lever between the 
plough handles from the one side to the other. 
The line of draught can be shifted with equal 
ease and expedition, and at the same time one 
of the coulters raised up clear of the land, and 
placed along the side of the beam, whilst the 
other is put down, and placed in a proper po- 
sition for cutting off the furrow-slice from the 
furrow-ground. All this is performed at once, 
without the ploughman changing his position, 
by means of two levers. 

A skim-coidlcr (PL 17, m, in) may be added 
to any plough, and may be useful in turning 
down green crops and long dung, as well as in 
trench ploughing. But in most instances it is 
thought a preferable plan, where the soil is to 
be turned to an unusual depth, to make two 
common swing ploughs follow each other in 
the same track ; the one before taking a shal- 
low furrow, and the other going deeper, and 
throwing up a new furrow upon the former. 

The double share plough is distinguished by 
having one share fixed directly over the other. 
It is made use of in some of the southern dis- 
tricts of England with advantage, in putting in 
one crop immediately after ploughing down 
another ; as by it a narrow, shallow furrow is 
removed from the surface, and another from 
below placed upon it, to such depth as may be 
thought most proper, — it being capable of act- 
ing to 10 inches or more. In this manner 
many sorts of crops, such as rye and other 
green crops that have much height of stem, 
may be turned down without the inconvenience 
of any of the parts sticking out through the 
seams of the furrow-slices, by which the farmer 
has a clean surface of mould for the reception 
of the grain. 

The mining plough, or trenching plough, is some- 
times employed for the purpose of loosening 
the soil to a great depth, without bringing it up 
to the surface ; a mode of operation which is 
particularly useful for various sorts of tap 
rooted plants, as well as for extirpating the 
roots of such weeds as strike deep into the 
ground. For these purposes it may be em- 
ployed in the bottom of the furrow after the 
common plough. It is constructed in a very 

903 



PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



strong manner, having a share, but no mould- 
board. The share raises the earth in the 
bottom of the furrow, and, passing on under 
what it has raised, leaves the soil where it was 
found, but in a loosened state. See Subsoil 
Plough. 

Somerville's double-furrow plough is obviously 
advantageous in performing more labour in a 
given time, with a certain strength of team, 
ihan other sorts of ploughs, as producing two 
furrows at a time. It has been found useful 
%on the lighter sorts of land, where the ridges 
are straight and wide, though some think it 
more confined in its work than those of the 
single kind. The saving of the labour of one 
person, and doing nearly double the work with 
but little more strength in the team, in the same 
time, recommend it for those districts where 
four-horse teams are in use. This plough has 
been brought to its present degree of perfection 
by Lord Somerville, especially by the introduc- 
tion of movable plates at the extremities of 
the mould-board, as in his lordship's single 
plough. But, as observed by an excellent au- 
thority, " with all the improvements made by 
Lord Somerville, it can never come into com- 
petition, for general purposes, with the present 
single-furrow ploughs." Lord Somerville ad- 
mits, that it would be no object to invade the 
system already established in well-cultivated 
counties ; though, where large teams are em- 
ployed, with a driver besides the ploughman, it 
would certainly be a matter of importance to 
use this plough, at least on light, friable soils. 
" Their horses," he says, " will not feel the 
difference between their own single furrow, 
working one acre, and the well-constructed 
two-furrow plough, with two acres per day; 
here is no system deranged, and double work 
done." This plough is also of particular va- 
lue for ploughing up and down steeps. 

The Jrgyhshirc plough differs from Small's, or 
any single swing plough, in having no coulter 
fixed in the beam, but, in lieu of this, a fin or 
knife rising from the left side of the share, 
which serves the purpose of slicing off the 
furrow as well as a coulter. This fin or fea- 
ther must be placed at the same angle as the 
coulter, and should terminate in a lance-like 
shape, in order to furnish the least obstruction 
to stubble, weeds, or stones. This plough is 
not liable to be choked by stubble, or thrown 
out by catching small stones between the 
points of the coulter and sock. In point of 
draught it is precisely the same as the common 
plough. 

The double mould-board plough is a kind of 
plough often used with advantage in clearing 
out furrows, in setting potatoes, cabbages, and 
other similar crops, and in earthing up such 
as are planted in wide rows. Those whose 
mould-boards move on hinges, and may be set 
wide or narrow a* pleasure, are the most con- 
venient. A variety of this plough, made by 
Weir of Londoii, admits of removing the mould- 
boards, and fixing in curved coulters and hoes, 
tor cleaning between drilled turnips and similar 
crops. 

The binot is almost the same thing as the 
double mould-board plough, and the one is 
?ommonly sold for the other, with no loss to the 
904 



purchaser. It has two mould-boards, one on 
each side of the beam. It is used in some soils 
in forming a ribbed or ridged bed for wheat or 
other grains; by which means, when the grain 
is sown over the ribs or ridgelets in the broad- 
cast manner, as it falls for the most part into 
the furrows, or is harrowed into them, it comes 
up in rows. It is also used in earthing up 
crops ; and sometimes in Flanders, but never 
by the best cultivators in England, in giving 
the first furrow to stubbles. 

The marking plough is used in straightening 
and regulating the distance of ridges where the 
drill system is practised. Any plough with a 
rod fixed at right angles to the beam, and a 
short piece depending from this rod, will trace 
a line parallel to the furrow drawn by the 
plough, which line will serve for a guide as to 
the width of ridges, &c. 

Clymer's plough is a recent modification of 
the implement, formed entirely of iron, and 
chiefly remarkable for the absence of the coul- 
ter, or rather its attachment to the breast, and 
for the share, mould-board, and other parts 
which move under ground, being composed of 
distinct pieces of cast-iron. This is considered 
as cheaper to commence with and easier to 
repair, because any one part may be renewed 
of the same material without deranging the 
rest ; whereas renewing or repairing wrought- 
iron shares, mould-boards, or coulters, is found 
in many districts both difficult and expensive. 
It has never come into use in England. 

Stothnrd's plough is characterized by a per- 
forated mould-board. The holes may be in any 
form or dimensions ; and their object is to al- 
low the air to pass through, and thereby pre- 
vent the adhesion of wet earth, which it is 
contended adheres in ordinary ploughs with 
such a degree of tenacity as greatly to increase 
the friction, and diminish the speed of the 
horses. 

Morto7i's trenching plough has two bodies, the 
one working4or6 inches deeper than the other. 
The first cuts or pares off the surface to the 
required depth, say 5 inches, and turns it over 
into the furrow, 10 or 12 inches deep, made by 
the main body. The second body generally 
works from 10 to 12 inches deep, but might be 
made to work to the depth of 13 or 15 inches ; 
upon its mould-board is formed an inclined 
plane, extending from the back part of the 
feather of the sock or share to the back part 
of the mould-board, where it terminates about 
6 inches above the level of the sole. This in- 
clined plane raises the soil from the bottom of 
the furrow, and turns it over on the top of that 
which has been laid in the bottom of the pre- 
vious furrow, by the body going before. 

Draining ploughs are of various kinds, but 
none of them are of much use ; the work can 
always be done better, and generally cheaper, 
by manual labour. 

Wheel ploughs are of two kinds : by far the 
most common, are those where the wheel or 
wheels are introduced for the purpose of re- 
gulating the depth of the furrow, and rendering 
the implement more steady to hold; those less 
common are where a wheel is introduced for the 
purpose of lessening the friction of the sole or 
share. This last description of wheel plough 



PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



is scarcely known, but it promises great ad- 
vantages. The former is of high antiquity, 
having been used by the Romans. 

Ploughs with wheels for regulation and 
steadiness vary considerably in their construc- 
tion in different places, according to the nature 
of soils and other circumstances'; but in every 
form, and in all situations, they probably re- 
quire less skill in the ploughman. Wheels 
seem, indeed, to have formed an addition to 
ploughs, in consequence of the want of expe- 
rience in ploughmen ; and in all sorts of soil, 
but more particularly in those which are of a 
stony and stubborn quality, they afford great 
aissistance to such ploughmen, enabling them 
to perform their work with greater regularity 
in respect to depth, and with much more neat- 
ness in regard to equality of surface. From the 
friction caused by the wheels, they are gene- 
rally considered as giving much greater resist- 
ance, and consequently demand more strength 
in the team that is employed ; and, besides, are 
more expensive in their construction, and more 
liable to be put out of order, as well as more 
apt to be disturbed in their progress by clods, 
stones, and other inequalities that may be on 
the surface of the ground, than those of the 
swing kind. 

With regard to wheel ploughs, those more 
especially in which the wheel is placed in the 
heel of the plough, the following extract from 
Mr. Stephens's Book of the Farm, will explain 
both the philosophy and practical effect : 

The application of a wheel in the heel of a 
plough, does not come under the same mode of 
reasoning as that under the beam, the former 
becoming a part of the body, from which all 
the natural resistance flows ; but in viewing it 
as a part of that body only, we can arrive at 
certain conclusions which are quite compatible 
with careful experiments. 

The breadth of the whole rubbing surface 
in the body of a plough, when turning a furrow, 
is on an average about 17^ inches ; and sup- 
posing that surface be pressed nearly equal in 
all parts, we shall have the sole-shoe, which is 
about 2A inches broad, occupying \ part of the 
surface ; and taking the entire average resist- 
ance of the plough's body, as before, at 336 lb., 
we have * of this, equal to 48 lb., as the great- 
est amount of resistance produced by the sole 
of the plough. But this is under the supposi- 
tion that the resistance arises from a uniform 
degree of friction spread over the whole rub- 
bing surface of the body ; while we have seen, 
on the contrary, that the coulter, when acting 
alone, presents a resistance equal to the entire 
plough. It is only reasonable, therefore, in 
absence of further experiments, to conclude, 
that the fore-parts of the body, the coulter and 
share, yield a large proportion of the resistance 
when turning the furrow-slice ; but since we 
cannot appreciate this with any degree of 
exactness, let the sole have its full share of the 
resistance before stated, namely, 48 lb. If a 
wheel is applied at or near the heel of a plough, 
it can only bear up the hind-part of the sole, 
and prevent its ordinary friction, which, at the 
very utmost, cannot be more than half of the 
entire friction due to the entire sole. Awheel, 
therefore, placed here, and acting under every 
114 



favouring circumstance, even to the supposed 
extinction of its own friction, could not reduce 
the resistance by more than 24 lbs., being the 
half of that due to the entire sole, or it is y'j of 
the entire resistance. But we cannot imagine 
a wheel so placed to continue any length of 
time, without becoming clogged in all direc- 
tions, thereby greatly increasing its own fric- 
tion ; and when it is considered that the neces- 
sarily small portion of any wheel that can be 
so applied will sink into the subsoil, to an 
extent that will still bring the sole of the plough 
into contact with the sole of the furrow. It 
will thus be found that the amount of reduction 
of the general resistance will be very much 
abridged, certainly not less than one-half, which 
reduces the whole saving of draught to a quan- 
tity not exceeding 12 lb., and even this will be 
always doubtful, from the difficulty of keeping 
such wheels in good working condition. This 
view of a wheel placed at the heel has been 
confirmed by actual experiments, carefully con- 
ducted, wherein Palmer's patent plough with a 
wheel in the heel, as patented many years ago 
(but in this case it was applied on the best prin- 
ciples), gave indications of increased resistance 
from the use of the wheel, as compared with 
the same plough when the wheel was removed ; 
the difference having been 1^ stone in favour 
of no wheel. I hesitate not, therefore, to say, 
that in no case can wheels be of service 
towards reducing the resistance of the plough, 
whether they be placed before or behind, or in 
both positions, and the chances are numerous 
that they shall act injuriously. That the use 
of wheels may, under certain circumstances, 
bring the implement within the management 
of less skilful hands than is required for the 
swing plough, must be admitted ; but, at the 
same time, there may be a question whether, 
even with that advantage, the practice is com- 
mendable. I should be wanting in candour if, 
for myself, I answered otherwise than in the 
negative. 

Having, says Mr. Stephens, in a general way 
described the construction of the frame-work 
and the acting parts of the wheel plough, there 
remains for me to say a few words on the wheels 
with which it is furnished. I have already 
adverted to wheels, as they appear to me to 
affect the draught of ploughs, and have ex- 
pressed myself in sufficiently distinct language 
to show that, in my opinion, they must in all 
cases be injurious, and tend to increase the 
resistance of the plough to which they are ap- 
pended, whether they be applied within the 
body, or under the front, or any other part of 
the beam. That wheels may be of advantage 
for the working of a plough in the hands of an 
unskilful ploughman may be true ; but if this 
advantage is acquired by a certain additional 
expenditure of horse-power, which, however 
much the proprietor of the team may blind 
himself to, will ultimately, though probably 
unheeded, tell on his profit and loss account, 
there will be no gain, but an ultimate loss It 
must be admitted, even by the advocates ot the 
wheel plough, that though they maybe handled 
with perfect regularity in ploughing along 
ridges, whether the holder be an experienced 
ploughman or not, yet in cross-ploughing they 
4 a 2 90.5 



PLOUGH. 

cannot by any means be brought so handily to 
follow the undulations of the surface. In 
leaving one ridge, the share will pass too shal- 
low, and in entering on the brow of the next, 
it will go too deep, or at least deeper than the 
average of the ploughing. There is also the 
element of time, which in all farming opera- 
tions is an important one ; and here wheel 
ploughs are found to come short by about 25 
per cent, as compared with swing ploughs. Mr. 
Pusey, in his paper on the draught of ploughs, 
incidentally observes : " While the work of our 
ploughing teams is at best but | of an acre 
upon strong ground (and sometimes as much 
as one acre upon the lightest), the daily task 
performe^l by 2 Scotch horses upon strong land 
is li acre." This deficiency of effect cannot 
be attributed to want of power in the horses, 
for English horses are at least not inferior to 
those employed in Scotland for agricultural 
purposes, neither can it be from unskilfulness 
in the ploughmen, for even the most skilful 
seem to come short in this respect, by not being 
able to plough more than | of an acre in a 
day, while with the swing plough almost any 
ploughman will turn over his acre a day. From 
the remarks of the same writer, it is to be in- 
ferred that a Scotch swing plough was incapa- 
ble of being drawn through a certain clay soil 
by 2 horses, while the wheel ploughs were found 
to perform the work with tolerable ease, though 
still a heavy draught. There may be such 
cases ; but from the conditions of this par- 
ticular case, where the draught that bafiled the 
dorses in the swing plough seems not to have 
exceeded .52 stones, there is an ambiguity in 
che matter that leads to doubts of the accuracy 
;)n the part of the observers of the experiment. 
We know well that in working the Scotch 
swing plough in an 8 or 9-inch furrow on stiff 
land, the draught is not unfrequently as high 
as 7 cwt. or 56 stones ; but 2 good horses never 
shrink from the task ; and how a less draught, 
whatever be the soil, should have baffled the 
exertions of 2 good horses in a swing plough, 
even in the Oxford clay, requires some further 
investigation to be satisfactory. 

Among agricultural writers, it seems, says 
Mr. Stephens, to be a prevalent opinion, that 
land when ploughed receives a curvature of 
surface ; whereas, correct ploughing, that is, 
making the furrow-slices on the same ridge all 
alike, cannot possibly give the surface any 
other form than it had before it was ploughed. 
If the former surface were curved, then the 
newly ploughed surface would also be curved ; 
but if it were flat, the new surface will be fiat 
also. A thoroughly good ploughman, and I 
have known a few, but only a few of such 
valuable men, avoids so objectionable a prac- 
tice, and ploughs always a true, sound furrow, 
making it larger or smaller as the particular 
state of the work may require. 

Without putting much value on the informa- 
tion, it may serve as a fact to refer to, in case 
it should be wanted, to state the weight of earth 
turned over in ploughing. If 10 inches are 
taken as a fair breadth for a furrow-slice, there 
will be 18 such slices across a ridge of 15 feet 
m breadth ; and taking 7 inches as a proper 
lepth for such a furrow-slice, a cross section 
906 



PLOUGH. 

of the slice will have 70 square inches. A 
cubic foot of earth is thus turned over in every 
24^ inches and a little more of length of such 
a slice ; and taking 2*7 as the specific gravity 
of ordinary soil, every 24^ inches and a frac- 
tion more of such a slice will weigh 12 stoues 
1 lb. imperial. 

The usual speed of horses at the plough may 
be ascertained in this. way. A ridge of 5 yards 
in breadth will require a length of 968 yards to 
contain an imperial acre; and to plough which 
at 9 bouts, of 10-inch breadth of furrow-slice, 
counting no stoppages, will make the horses 
walk 9^ miles, which in 10 hours gives a speed 
of 1742^ yards per hour. But as ridges are 
not made of 968 yards in length, and as horses 
cannot draw a plough that distance without 
being affected in their wind, and as allowance 
must be made for time lost in turning at the 
ends of the ridges, as well as for affording rest 
to the horses, that speed will have to be con- 
siderably increased to do that quantity of work 
in the time. By experiment it has been found, 
that 1 hour 19 minutes, out or 8 hours, are lost 
by turnings while ploughing an acre on ridges 
of 274 yards in length, with an 8-inch furrow- 
slice. Hence, in ploughing an acre on ridges of 
250 yards in length, which is the length of ridge 
I recommend as the best for horses in draught, 
in 10 hours, with a 10-inch furrow-slice, the 
time lost by turnings is 1 hour 22 minutes. I 
presume that the experiment alluded to does 
not include the necessary stoppages for rest to 
the horses, but which should be included ; for 
however easy the length of ridge may be made 
for draught, horses cannot go on walking in 
the plough for 5 hours together (one yoking) 
without taking occasional rests. Now 250 
yards of length of ridge give nearly 4 ridges 
to the acre, or 36 bouts ; and allowing a rest 
of 1 minute in every other bout, 18 minutes will 
have to be added to the 1 hour 22 minutes lost, 
or very nearly 1| hour of lost time, out of the 
10 hours, for turnings and rest. Thus 18,000 
yards will be ploughed in 8^ hours, or at the 
rate of 1 mile 422 yards per hour. I think this 
result is near the truth in regard to the plough- 
ing of lea in spring ; it is too little in ploughing 
red land in summer^and perhaps too much in 
ploughing stubble lEmd in winter ; but, as lea- 
ploughing is the criterion by which all others 
are estimated, this result may be taken as a 
near approximation to the truth. 

The comparative time lost in turning at the 
ends of long and short ridges may be seen 
from the following table, constructed from data 
furnished by the experiment above alluded to: 













Len?th of 


Breadth of 


Time lost in 


Time de- 
voted to 
plougtiing. 


Hours of 


ridge. 


furrow-slice. 


turoing. 


work. 


Tardt. 


Jncha. 


h. m. 


h. m. 


h. 


78 


10 


5 11 


4 4 


10 


149 


— 


2 44 


7 16 


— 


200 


— 


2 1 


7 59 


— 


212 


— 


1 66i 


8 3i 


— 


274 


— 


1 28 


8 32 


— 



Thus it appears that a ridge of no more than 
78 yards in length requires 5 hours 11 minutes 
of time to turn at the landings, to plough an 
acre in 10 hours, with a 10-inch furrow-slice ; 
whereas a ridge of 274 yards in length only re- 



PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



quires 1 hour 28 minutes for the same purpose, 
making a difference of 3 hours 43 minutes in 
favour of the long ridge in regard to saving of 
time. Consequently, in the case of the shortest 
ridge, only 4 hours 49 minutes out of the 10 
can be appropriated to ploughing, whereas in 
that of the long ridge, 8 hours 32 minutes may 
be devoted to the purpose. Hence, so very 
short ridges require double the time of long 
ones to plough, and are thus a decided loss to 
the farmer. This is a subject well worth your 
experimenting on, by ascertaining the time 
usually taken in ploughing and turning and 
resting on ridges of different lengths, in the 
different seasons, and in different soils. A 
watch with a good second-hand to mark the 
time will be required, and the observations 
should be made unknown to the ploughmen, 
at their usual rate of work ; for if you be con- 
stantly in the presence of the men, more than 
the usual work will be done, and less than the 
usual rests taken. 

The whole value of ploughing, scientifically 
speaking, depends upon its having the effect of 
loosening the texture of the soil, and thus per- 
mitting a free circulation of air and moisture 
through its interstices, for the double purpose 
of increasing the rapidity of the disintegration 
of its stony portions, and of re-reducing to 
powder what had formerly been pulverized, 
but which, from the joint action of pressure, 
and the binding effect of root-fibres, had become 
agglutinated together. 

However well you may manure your land, 
however thoroughly you may drain it, you will 
never obtain the crops it is capable of yielding, 
unless you pulverize it; nay, so important did 
Jethro TuU think this, that he felt firmly per- 
suaded that if you pulverized your soil well, 
you need not manure at all. I need hardly tell 
you, that we shall prove hereafter Jethro Tull 
to have carried his conclusions too far; but 
still so direct and unqualified a statement, from 
such a writer, should have its full influence 
upon all who wish to learn thoroughly the art 
of agriculture. Always bear in mind that the 
impalpable powder is the active part of soil, 
and that no other portion has any direct influ- 
ence upon vegetation, and you will then, at all 
times, be sufficiently impressed with the neces- 
sity of thorough ploughing, harrowing, &c. ; 
indeed, you may rest assured that, except upon 
some few very light sands, you cannot pulverize 
the soil loo much — economy alone must fix the 
limit of this useful operation. 

Tempering, ^c. — A good ploughman will have 
his plough so "tempered" or its different parts so 
regulated or adjusted, that it will neither have a 
tendency to take more or less earth, or, in other 
words, go deeper or more shallow than is ne- 
cessary. The width of the furrow-slice will 
be at the same time regulated, so that neither 
vwre nor less land be taken than is requisite. 
Some ploughmen, says Mr.Stephens, habitually 
make the plough lean a Uttle over to the left, 
thus giving it in effect less land than it would 
have, were it made to move upon the flat of the 
sole ; and to overcome the consequent tendency 
of the plough to make a narrower furrow-slice 
than the proper breadth, they move the draught- 
bolt a little to the right. The ploughing with 



a considerable lean to the left is a bad custom, 
because it makes the lowest side of the furrow- 
slice, when turned over, thinner than the upper 
side, which is exposed to view, thereby de- 
luding you into the belief that the land has all 
been ploughed of equal depth ; and it causes 
the horses to bear a lighter draught than those 
which have turned over as much land in the 
same time, with a more equal and therefore 
deeper furrow-slice. Old ploughmen, becoming 
infirm, are very apt to practise this deceptive 
mode of ploughing. The plough should always 
move flat upon its sole, and turn over a rectan- 
gular furrow-slice; but there are certain ex- 
ceptions to this rule, depending on the peculiar 
construction of parts of certain forms of ploughs. 

None assume the habit of leaning the plough 
over to the right, because it is not so easy to 
hold it in that position as when it moves upon 
the sole along the land-side. 

Other ploughmen, especially tall men, prac- 
tise the habit of constantly leaning hard upon 
the stilts, or of steeping; and as this practice 
has the tendency to lift up the fore-point of the 
plough out of the ground, they are obliged, in 
order to keep it in, to put the draught-bolt 
farther from the ground than it should be. A 
little leaning of the hands upon the stilts is 
requisite at all times, in order to retain a firm 
hold of them, and thereby have a proper guid- 
ance of the plough. 

A good ploughman will use none of these 
expedients to make his plough go steadily, nor 
will he fall into any of these reprehensible 
habits. He will temper the irons so as there 
shall be no tendency in the plough to go too 
deep or too shallow into the ground, or make 
too wide or too narrow a furrow-slice, or cause 
less or more draught to the horses, or less or 
more trouble to himself, than the nature of the 
work requires to be performed in the most 
proper manner. If he have a knowledge of 
the implement he works with — I mean, a good 
practical knowledge of it, for a knowledge of 
its principles is not requisite for his purpose, — 
he will temper all the parts, so as to work the 
plough with great ease to himself, and, at the 
same time, have plenty of leisure to guide his 
horses aright, and execute his work in a credit- 
able manner. I have known such ploughmen, 
and they invariably executed their work in a 
masterly way; but I never yet saw a plough- 
man execute his work well, who had not 
acquired the art of tempering the irons of his 
plough. Until he learns this art, the best-made 
plough will be comparatively worthless in his 
hands. 

The stale of the irons themselves has a ma- 
terial effect on the temper of the plough. If 
the cutting edge of the coulter, and the point 
and culling edge of the sock, are laid with 
steel, the irons will cut clean, and go long in 
smooth soil. This is an economical mode of 
treating plough-irons destined to work in clay- 
soils. But in gravelly and all sharp soils, the 
irons wear down so quickly, that farmers prefer 
irons of cold iron, and have them laid anew 
every day, rather than incur the expense of 
laying them with steel, which perhaps would 
not endure work much longer in such soil than 
iron in its ordinary state. Irons are now seldom 

907 



PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



if ever steeled ; but whether they are steeled 
or not, they are always in the best state when 
sharp, and of the proper lengths. 

An imperfect state of the mould-board is 
another interruption to a perfect temper of the 
plough. When new and rough, it accumulates 
the loo5e soil upon it, whose pressure against 
the turning furrow-slice, causes the plough to 
deviate from its right course. On the other 
hand, when the mould-board is worn away 
much below, it is apt to leave too much of the 
crumbled soil in the bottom of the furrows, 
especially in ploughing loose soils. Broken 
side-plates, or so worn into holes that the earth 
is easily pressed through them into the bosom 
of the plough, also cause rough and unequal 
work; and more or less earth in the bosom 
affects the balance of the plough, both in its 
temper and draught. These remarks are made 
upon the supposition that all ploughs are 
equally well made, and may, therefore, be tem- 
pered to work in a satisfactory manner; but it 
is well known that ploughs sometimes get into 
the possession of farmers, radically so ill-con- 
structed, that the best tempering the irons are 
capable of receiving will never make them do 
good work. 

When all the particulars which ploughmen 
have to attend to in executing their work, — in 
having their plough-irons in a proper state of 
repair, in tempering then; according to the kind 
of ploughing to be executed, in guiding their 
horses, and in ploughing the land in a method- 
ical way — when all these particulars are con- 
sidered, it ceases to surprise that so few plough- 
men should be first-rale workmen. Good 
ploughmanship requires greater powers of ob- 
servati(>n than most young ploughmen possess, 
and greater judgment than most will take time 
to exercise, in order to become familiarized 
with all these particulars, and to use them all 
to the best advantage. To be so accomplished, 
implies the possession of talent of no mean 
order. The ship has been aptly compared to 
the plough, and the phrase "ploughing the 
deep" is as familiar to us as ploughing the 
land: to be able to put the ship in "proper 
trim," is the perfection aimed at by every sea- 
man ; so, in like manner, to " temper a plough" 
is the great aim of the good ploughman ; and 
to be able to do it with judgment, to guide 
horses with discretion, and to execute plough- 
ing correctly, imply a discrimination akin to 
sailing a ship. (Stephens.) 

Plongh Handles. — The handles should be suffi- 
ciently M^ide apart to allow the ploughman to 
walk in the furrow, and long enough to give 
him a full command of the plough, so that he 
can lift or depress it readily in work, guide it 
to the riffht or left hand, and swing it round at 
the land's end out of the furrow into another. 

Plough-beam. — The beam should be of such 
a length, that its end, commonly called its head, 
shall cut at the point of draught, upon a line 
drawn from that part of the collar to which the 
traces are attached, to the share or that part of 
it where it first raises the soil. On the right 
arrangement of the point of draught in the 
structure of the plough depends much of its 
steady working at its proper depth. It is from 
908 



the principle of balancing from a point ad 
justed to the line of draught, that the plough 
takes its name of swing, in contradistinction to 
the names oifoot and wheel ploughs. 

The beam should be curved upwards at the 
coulter and throat of the plough, to clear itself 
of rubbish which sometimes accumulates, and 
should be inclined slightly from the land, or, in 
other words, towards the furrow, because its 
tendency is to yield towards the loosened land, 
and it therefore requires this counteraction in 
the line of draught to keep it in a right line. 
This is supposing a pair of horses to be har- 
nessed abreast ; if they be harnessed at length, 
the beam should be still more inclined ; for as 
neither horse then walks on the "land," the 
direction of the force towards the land-side is 
still further decreased. 

Plough-head. — The cross-head of the plough 
forms a ready means of increasing or de- 
creasing the inclination last spoken of, anj 
the hake, or draught-iron, which moves in tl ; 
arc of a circle along the cross-head, has notches 
by which the depth of the plough can be regu- 
lated in unison with the line of draught. There 
are various contrivances for these purposes, 
most of which involve the use of a screw as a 
means of adjustment ; but the plan of pins and 
notches is sufficiently accurate, and not liable 
to be out of order. Sketches of two, the one 
English, h, the other Scotch, i, are given in 
PI. 17. 

Plough-share. — The plough-share is the apex 
of the sole, as the hind part is called the heel. 
It varies in shape for different purposes. On 
stony lands it is best with a point, as figured 
PI. 17, k. But where the land is free from 
stones, the wing is best when angular, and the 
cutting edge in a line, or nearly so, as figured 
in PI. 17, /. 

For different work, " hard lands" and "sum- 
mer lands," shares of a greater " dip" or " pitch" 
are requisite. A common plan is to use new 
shares on hard lands, and to wear them a day 
or ttvo, and then lay them aside for summer 
lands. 

Mould-board. — The upper part over the box 
of the share should form the first part of the 
rise of the mould-board. After the coulter and 
share have made the vertical and horizontal 
cuts for the depth and width of the furrow-slice, 
the mould-board has to complete the work by 
turning it over and leaving it in its proper po- 
sition. On the precision with which this part j 
of the plough performs its work, much, indeed |l 
nearly all, of the beauty of the ploughing de- "| 
pends : hence the importance of discovering its 
true form for the land on which it has to be 
used. Desirable, however, as this is, there 
does not as yet appear to be any precise rule 
for the formation of the mould-board, that has 
met with so uniform an approval under the 
test of practice, as would lead us to speak with 
entire confidence of it. We have looked at the 
mechanical principles laid down by Small, 
Bailey, Gray, Amos, Jefferson, Clymer, and 
others, but are not aware of any plough-makers 
of the present day who strictly adhere to either 
the one or the other; and so long as the mould- 
board cannot be used on even the same farm 



PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



nnder circumstances always similar, as its 
operation will necessarily be affected by the 
weather, the state of the land, with the varying 
depth and width of the plough, it is not an easy 
matter to determine which form is best for 
general purposes. It is clear that different 
soils, as, for instance, light sand and heavy 
clay, require mould-boards almost the opposite 
of each other ; and such they are. The Nor- 
folk mould-board is short, with rather a hollow 
or concave surface, whilst that used in the 
hundreds of Essex is long and convex. 

Lord Western, many years ago, improved 
upon the form of the heavy land mould-board 
in use in that part of the county of Essex where 
he resides, by cutting away a considerable por- 
tion of the lower and hinder part of the figure, 
and by making it in a straight line lengthwise 
from the nose to the hind part. 

Were the circumstances always the same, 
there can be no question but that one mathe- 
matical form of the mould-board would be pre- 
ferable to all others ; but, under circumstances 
so various, the plan hitherto adopted has been 
to prove, by experience and from practical 
operation, the forms best suited to different 
lands under an average depth and width of 
work, keeping as nearly as possible to the 
principle of the wedge, as necessary for the 
proper lit'ling, turning, and laying over the soil. 
Provided the mould-board be made so that the 
work, while in operation, goes on as it should 
do, a good practical criterion as to its figure 
will be found in the evidence of friction it has 
undergone, and this, with the fine cast metal 
now in use, can be determined to a nicety. If, 
on a given soil, the mould-board becomes 
brightened uniformly — if the mould appears to 
slip with light friction and with the same pres- 
sure from one end of it to the other, it cannot 
be far, if any thing, out of its proper shape for 
the purpose intended. And yet, if the same 
mould-board be used on some other lands, it 
will immediately show its inapplicability to 
them by the soil adhering to it in parts, not 
slipping well through it, and thus evidencing a 
want of uniformity in its general friction. 
Therefore, considering that neither depth nor 
width of furrow is always the same, and that 
scarcely one circumstance affecting its use is 
unvarying, it is difficult to find a rule which 
shall aptly suit these changes. At the same 
time it is not presumed that such will not or 
cannot be found ; and the theory which most 
accords with our view, is one which has re- 
cently been laid down by the Rev. W. L. Rham, 
rector of Winkfield, Berkshire, a gentleman 
whose scientific and agricultural knowledge 
entitles his opinion to considerable deference. 
His theory is, that the mould-board should be 
composed of straight lines in the direction of 
its length, with continually increasing angles 
to the line of the furrow : these last lines being 
either straight, convex, or concave, horizontal 
sections of the mould-board. 

Cmdtci: — Simple as the coulter may appear 
to be, it is a very important part of the plough, 
and much depends upon its being properly 
formed and fixed for the work it has to perform 
in the operation of ploughing. It should be 



made of iron and steel, and of sufficient sub- 
stance to stand firmly to the position in which 
it is set for its work, not bending either to the 
right hand or to the left. The blade or cutting 
part should be about 2^ inches wide, and 
formed by the meeting of two curves, as this 
shape cuts the land easier than when the edge 
is either in a straight line or curved forward. 
The land side of the coulter should be flat, and 
the opposite side a gradual taper from the edge 
to the back: the thickness must be determined 
by the strength of the work it has to perform. 

The angle at which the coulter is usually set, 
is about forty-five degrees from the plane of 
the ground; but in summer lands it requires to 
be placed in a more slanting position, and to 
take the lead of the share about three-quarters 
of an inch, to prevent the grass or rubbish 
driving in a heap, as it otherwise might do. On 
the contrary, when used for ploughing up hard 
fallows, it requires to be fixed in a more up- 
right position, and rather more backward than 
the point of the share. It should be placed 
about half an inch above the share, and a 
quarter of an inch to the land side of it. Every 
good ploughman has his own notions on the 
subject of setting the coulter, but the above 
directions are given from practical observation. 

The usual mode of fixing the coulter in the 
socket of the frame or beam, is by means of 
wood or iron wedges driven above or below the 
socket, or by a coarse cut screw-bolt, which 
turns into the side of the socket and presses 
against the coulter-stalk. Each of these modes 
is defective, there being a complication in the 
details of all that appears not quite adapted to 
the class of workmen who have to use them. 

Skim Coulters. — Skim coulters are sometimes 
used for the purpose of burying the surface- 
grass or rubbish. Sketches of two kinds are 
given in pi. 17, »)i, wi. The usual plan is to fix 
the skim about six inches before the common 
coulter. 

Wheel Coulters are used in the fen lands, and 
are useful when ploughing up turf. One of 
these coulters is represented in pi. 17, n. The 
cutting-disk should be made of steel, with a 
nave sufficiently long for it to be steady, and 
the box should be bored true, and revolve on a 
well-fitted steel pin, as on the perfect fitting of 
the box and axle the correct working of the 
disk, and consequently the effective operation 
of the plough, depends. 

Sa-i7ig Ploughs. — The advantages attributed 
by Mr. Ransome to the swing plough are as 
follows : — 

1. It admits of being set into its work at a 
given depth, either shallower or deeper, by the 
alteration of the draught iron at the point of 
draught, or by increasing or decreasing the 
distance at which the power of the horses is 
applied. 

2. The ploughman has also the power of re- 
gulating, in some degree, the depth of the work, 
by either lifting or bearing upon the handles. 

3. It is a plough of more simple construc- 
tion than any other, and less expensive in its 
first cost. 

4. A skilful workman can plough acioss* 
ridge and furrow at very nearly a uniform 

909 



PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



depth •, he can work with it on almost all lands, 
and in all weathers when ploughing can be 
done at all. 

The Wheel Plough (withhigh Galbioses).— This 
derives its name from having the appendage 
of a carriage and wheels. The body of the 
plough is essentially the same as that of the 
swing plough, and notwithstanding the different 
form of its beam, the point of draught should 
be the same as that of the swing plough, 
namely, to cut a line drawn from the horse's 
shoulder to the share or point of resistance. 

In the Report to the Board of jlgriculture from 
the county of Leicester, published in 1808, it 
is stated, " that more than thirty years ago, 
wheels were first applied to the fore-end of the 
beam, and it was found by ' pitching' the plough 
a little deeper, and setting the wheels so as to 
prevent its drawing too deep, the wheels were 
a sufficient guide, and the plough required no 
one to hold it except in places of difhculty." 
If properly adjusted, a lad of 14 years of age 
can manage it easily ; and the writer of this 
article once saw, at a ploughing match, a lad 
having a plough of this sort — the only one in 
the field — walking leisurely beside it, to the 
great astonishment of the other competitors, 
and from whom, to their still greater astonish- 
ment, he carried away the prize. This lad had 
been taught ploughing only a few months. 

When one wheel only is attached to the 
plough, some persons give the preference to a 
small one to run upon the unploughed land, as 
it is less likely to clog up, and requires no al- 
teration towards the end of the furrow ; but 
oihers prefer a larger wheel which runs in the 
fni row, as it has an even bottom to travel over, 
and correctly regulates the width of the furrow- 
slice. It also more effectually facilitates the 
turning round at the headland, particularly if 
the horses have to go to the right hand. The 
larger wheel to run in the furrow, therefore, is 
best for general purposes, and, with a lever 
attached to it, is rendered very easy of adjust- 
ment. 

In the use of a gauge for the depth of plough- 
ing, whether of two wheels, one wheel, or a 
foot, the plough should be so regulated as to 
press but lightly on the ground when passing 
over it; thus admitting as little of the counter- 
acting force between the wheel and share as 
possible. 

In the Prize Essay by Henry Handley, Esq., 
the advantages of wheels are clearly set forth, 
and his arguments in favour of their use have 
since been very strikingly confirmed by the 
trials made under the directions of Philip 
Pusey, Esq. 

The silver medal of the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England was awarded to John 
Clarke, of Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, for the 
invention of a plough (see Jour, of Roy. jigr. 
Sac, vol. i. p. 66) for the purpose of ridge cul- 
ture; by an easy transition of shape, which 
is accomplished in a very simple manner, this 
implement becomes, 

1. A double tom or ridge plough. 

2. A moulding plough. 

3. A horse-hoe, or cleaning plough. 

4. A skeleton, or broad-share plough. 
%ibsoil Ploughs. — At the thought of a subsoil 

910 



plough, says Mr. Ran some, our minds turn at 
once to James Smith, of Deanstone, as the gen- 
tleman who has opened a very interesting and 
important view of tillage, by the system of sub* 
soil ploughing, and thereby breaking the under 
soil without turning it up to the surface. His 
practical knowledge has long been devoted to 
the interests of agriculture, and the results have 
been most beneficial. The plough he invented 
for the purpose is too well known to need a de- 
scription, though we should consider our Essay 
incomplete without a sketch of it. See pi. 17, o; 
also g. 

Following the invention of James Smith, of 
Deanstone, was another of a different and 
much lighter description, the invention of Sir 
Edward Stracey, Bart., Rackheath, and the 
plough is called by the latter name. It answers 
the purpose of deep ploughing, that is, from 10 
to 16 inches below the surface, and when pre- 
ceded by the common plough, which is 
plan recommended, the depth below the ■ r- 
face-ground is just as much again as the *.. 
plough effects. 

This plough answers admirably for under- 
ploughing grass lands, and is made into a sub- 
turf plough by changing the wheel gear in 
front, to that of a carriage and two wheels. 

P. Pusey, Esq., in an interesting paper in 
the Eng. Agr. Soc. Jotirn, (vol. i. p. 434), gives 
an account of a plough, made to his order by 
Charles Hart, of Wantage; at the hinder part 
of this plough was fixed a strong tine, some- 
thing like those on Biddel's scarifier, for the 
purpose of under-ploughing the soil. This tine 
was made to rise or lower at pleasure; and 
from the description of its use and operation, 
given in the above paper, we should think it a 
valuable invention, as it may be easily attached 
to a plough of the common sort, and removed 
when not wanted. 

Skeleton, or Cleaning Ploughs, are often the 
transformations of common ploughs for that 
purpose, by taking the mould-boards and shares 
off, and substituting for the shares subsoil or 
cleaning shares, with prongs. See PL 17,/. 

The plan of laying furrows in one direction, 
so as to have neither ridge nor water furrows, 
has within the last year attracted more than 
common attention in Britain. It has led to a 
careful inquiry into the the system of ploughing 
pursued in Kent, and there seems to be a dis- 
position among many first-rate agriculturists 
to try the plan, provided lighter implements 
can be furnished for the purpose, not exceed- 
ing the power of two horses' draught. To this 
object some eminent practical farmers have 
turned their attention, and a plough, made 
under the direction of Mr. William Smart, a 
farmer of great respectability and experience 
at Rainham, in Kent, bids fair to open a new 
and very important view of the mechanical 
principles of the turn-rest plough, which he 
has remodelled ; and it may be made equally 
applicable to the power of two or four horses. 

This gentleman, after many trials, arrived 
at the conclusion that, inasmuch as the work 
of the turn-rest plough depended on its wedge- _ 
like construction, its form could only be cor- * 
rect in proportion to its approach to the per- 
fect wedge; and this form, obtained by straight 



PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



lines in the direction, first, from the point of 
the share to the throat of the plough, to pro- 
duce the effect of elevating the furrow-slice ; 
and, second, from the edge of the coulter to the 
heel of the rest, to effect the turning of the flag, 
is that which he has adopted ; making these 
lines tend to an angle of 15 degrees. With the 
assistance of an ingenious ploughwright in his 
own neighbourhood, several ploughs on this 
principle were constructed, and these have 
been the basis upon which still further im- 
provements in the detail have been carried 
out. They are now so constructed that the 
ploughman can readily shift his coulter by 
means of a lever, which reaches the bottom of 
the handles, and also his rests or mould-boards 
from side to side, without leaving his station 
between the handles of his plough, they being 
so arranged that, by withdrawing a small pin 
and pressing the projecting rest towards the 
body of the plough, the mould-boards on either 
side become alternately the land side when not 
in work. 

Ploughs for the purpose of turning the fur- 
rows all in one direction, and laying the slices 
at an angle with the horizon, as is done by 
the common plough, have been within the 
last year or two brought before the public, but 
we cannot learn that they have been generally 
adopted. 

In going thus at length into the subject of 
the plough, we have shown the present state 
of agricultural mechanics as respects those in 
general use. To have gone more fully into 
the description of those out of the common rou- 
tine of farming, would have carried us beyond 
what we imagine to be the proper limit of 
this portion of the work. At the same time it 
must be observed, that there are a variety of 
purposes for which ploughs of a particular 
form, different from any already described, are 
required ; such as paring ploughs, draining 
ploughs, drill ploughs, &c. &c. On each, in- 
deed on all of which, a considerable amount 
of judgment and ingenuity has been expended. 

Ploughs even for common purposes have 
been long in arriving at their present state; 
and there are doubtless many improvements 
that may yet be accomplished. 

In the construction of ploughs, the first ob- 
ject to be borne in mind is the proper perform- 
ance of the work to be done; the next, that this 
should be effected with the least expenditure 
of animal power, and with the greatest econo- 
my; and, lastly, that they should be made as 
simple as possible in reference to the plough- 
man who will have to use them. The circum- 
stance of repairs, which will be continually re- 
quired as the parts wear out, should also be 
kept in view, and the whole require to be made 
on an accurate plan, so as to insure every part 
fitting properly; the workman may then fix 
them on the spot as readily as a mechanic at 
his manufactory. Nor should it be forgotten 
that quality of materials and workmanship are 
main points in economy, and that to dispense 
with either is to pave the way to dissatisfaction 
and trouble to all parties concerned. 

It is difficult to suggest alterations on the 
present implements, which appear adapted 



to the purpose, and likely to agree with the 
description of the requisites just given ; but 
there is no doubt that the plough, in its various 
forms, is capable of great improvement; and 
amongst the points to which attention may be 
usefully directed are the following: — 

Amount of draught that different forms of 
mould-boards and shares require, in order to 
determine those best suited to the purpose. 

A mould-board that will best turn the work 
on either side of the plough, so as to admit of 
its being changed from one to the other, after 
the plan of the Kent turn-rest. 

A ready means of altering the depth or pitch 
of the swing plough while in motion, without 
stopping the horses, so that it may be accom- 
modated to any difference in the nature of the 
soil, or inequalities on its surface, which the 
plough may meet with. 

The same as respects the wheel plough, with- 
out placing any of its forces in opposition to 
each other. 

Many papers on ploughs and ploughing are 
contained in the best modern agricultural pe- 
riodicals. Wilkie's turn-rest plough is de- 
scribed in the Trans. High. Soc. vol. vi. p. 484. 
Mr. Heathcote's steam plough, Ibid. p. 72. Mr. 
Laidlaw "On the general advantages of Two- 
horse Ploughs," Quart. Journ. of ^Hgr. vol. ii. p. 
712. "On the Plough of Palestine," Ibid. vol. 
iii. p. 373. "On Small's Plough as a Drill 
Plough," Ibid. p. 854. " On the Mathematical 
Construction of the Plough," by Mr. Amos, 
Com. Board of .4gr. vol. vi. p. 437. "On Wheel 
and Swing Ploughs," by Mr. Handley, Jourru 
Roy. Agr. Soc. vol. i. p. 140. "On Draught in 
Ploughing," by Mr. Pusey, /6irf. p. 219. "On 
Subsoil Ploughing," by Sir James Graham, 
Ibid. p. 245. "On the Rackheath Subsoil 
Plough," by Sir E. Stracey, Ibid. p. 253. " On 
the Charlbury Subsoil Plough," by Mr. Pusey, 
Ibid. p. 433. "On the Rackheath Subturf 
Plough," by Sir E. Stracey, Ibid. vol. ii. p. 37 ; 
and " On a Light Subsoil Plough, adapted for 
two Horses," by Mr. Gabell, Ibid. p. 421. 

The Plough in the United States. — Whilst in 
Europe, and particularly in Great Britain, the 
plough has been so much improved, American 
intelligence and ingenuity have been rewarded 
with great success in the same pursuit. The 
implement which the pioneer is obliged to 
make use of in first stirring and partially turn- 
ing up the soil filled with roots and stones, ii 
necessarily very rude, sometimes almost equal 
in this respect to those of the primitive ages 
of husbandry. One of these rough contri- 
vances is, in New England and the Northern 
States, familiarly called the Bull plough. The 
several improvements on the plough in the 
United States seem to have progressed, for the 
most part, with little or no reference to Eu- 
ropean plans or models, and to have been 
almost exclusively confined to swing-ploughs, 
wheel-ploughs being scarcely ever seen. Sim- 
plicity and economy seem to have been kept in 
view by all who have undertaken to improve 
or modify the implement. As the various sec- 
tions of the Union present varieties in the con- 
ditions of the soil, the ploughs are constructed 
with reference to these conditions, so that fn 

?n 



PLOLGH. 



PLOUGH. 



the Northern, Eastern, Middle, and Western 
States, different ploughs are vaunted for their 
excellence. It has been observed as a singular 
circumstance, that to the celebrated author of 
the Declaration of Independence the United 
States should be also indebted for the first theory 
of the plough formed on mathematical princi- 
ples. President Jefferson's letter to Sir John 
Sinclair, president of the British Board of Ag- 
riculture, addressed in 1798, is published in the 
Transactions of the Am. Philosophical Society, 
vol. iv. p. 314. It describes the mould-board, 
and the principles upon which it is properly 
constructed. (See Amencan Farmer, vol. ii. 
p. 185, and Domestic Encyclopedia, vol. iii. p. 
113.) 

In England the most complete set of experi- 
ments 3'et made to ascertain the particular 
merits of different ploughs, are those instituted 
by Mr. Pusey, president of the Royal Agricul- 
tural Society, and described by him in the 3d 
No. of the Journal of that Society. A con- 
densed view of the objects and results of these 
experiments may be found in the Cultivator, 
(vol. viii. p. 10), together with the results ob- 
tained with American ploughs at the Worces- 
ter ploughing match in 1840. 

The points embraced in the English experi- 
ments were : 

1. The comparative lightness in draught, of 
wheel and swing ploughs. 

2. The lightest plough absolutely, of what- 
ever kind. 

3. The effect of different soils upon the qua- 
lities, and chiefly on the draught of the plough. 

4. The comparative tenacity of different 
soils. 

5. The power of two horses to plough the 
strongest or clay soil. 

Ten ploughs, embracing some from the most 
celebrated makers in England, the highly famed 
Scotch swing plough, and several of those in 
common use in the different districts of the 
kingdom, were selected by Mr. Pusey for his 
experiments, and he was aided by the presence 
and advice of some of the most distinguished 
agriculturists in the country. The ploughs 
were worked by skilful ploughmen ; and, as 
much interest was attached to the experiment 
on the Scotch ploughs, a Clydesdale span of 
horses and a ploughman accustomed to the 
plough were sent up by Lord Moreton to 
manage that part of the trial. The Scotch 
plough has obtained considerable celebrity 
from the strong praise bestowed upon it by Mr. 
Loudon, who declares the improved Scotch 
plough to be superior to any similar implement 
known in England. They are constructed on 
the principles laid down by Mr. Jefferson, in 
his celebrated Report on the true shape of the 
mould-board, addressed to the French Institute, 
which, he showed from mathematical data, 
should be in the form of a gentle hollow 
curve ; other ploughs constructed more full and 
short, not raising the earth gradually like a 
wave, but throwing it over at once. In con- 
densing Mr. Pusey's experiments, we shall 
select, as sufficient for the present purpose, 
from the list given by him, three ploughs — 1st, 
the improved Scotch plough made by Fergu- 
3]2 



son, and entirely of iron — 2d, a one-wheeled 
plough of wood, with an iron breast, by Mr. 
Hart, but commonly known as the improved 
Berkshire plough ; and 3d, an old-fashioned 
plough made of wood, and such as is in general 
use in many parts of England, where it is called 
the old Berkshire plough. Some previous ex- 
periments had convinced Mr. Pusey that the 
Hart plough was of easy draught, and the ones 
now instituted showed that his impressions 
were correct. 

The Clydesdale horses were much admired 
in their work; and it was the opinion of the 
bystanders that such land, usually worked with 
four horses in line, might be ploughed with two 
such horses abreast; though it was said it 
would cost as much to keep two horses in that 
condition, as to support the four in their usual 
working state. On this ground, where the 
horses had a firm footing, they worked with per- ■ 
feet ease. \ \ 

In summing up the trials, Mr. Pusey remarks 
that the plough requiring the least draught was 
Hart's, though in the last trial it was beat by 
Ransome's two-wheel plough; and that of all 
modern ploughs the Scotch swing plough was 
the heaviest, "out of the question on a light 
soil, and by no means the best on a heavy 
one." The following table shows the average 
draught of all the ploughs on the several soils 
in which the experiments were made : 

Trial 1. Sandy loam - - - - 17J stone. 

2. Clay loam - - - - 47^ " 

3. Loamy sand - . . . ICj " 

4. Strong loam - . - . 31| " 

5. Clay loam - - - - 28J " 

6. Moory soil - ... 20 " 

A drawing of Hart's improved Berkshire 
one-wheel plough is given in the Cultivator, 
(vol. viii. p. 10.) 

The trials at the Worcester ploughing match 
in 1840, were made to determine the award of 
two premiums offered by the Massachusetts 
Agricultural Society, of $100, and §75, for the 
best ploughs, one for lapping furrows and the 
other for laying them flat. The following re- 
marks by the reporting committee will enable 
the reader to understand the experiments, 
whilst the list of ploughs will show the num- 
ber of inventors and improvers whose imple- 
ments have acquired most celebrity in the 
eastern portion of the United States. 

The power required to turn over a given 
quantity -of earth by a plough is a very im- 
portant consideration. This power can be 
measured with great accuracy; greater than 
many of the committee supposed, before they 
witnessed the operation. The dynamometer, 
inserted between the plough-beam and the 
chain, measures with great accuracy the 
strength exerted by the team. Suppose the 
strength applied be the same that would be re- 
quired to raise 336 lbs. over a single pulley ; 
suppose also that the depth of the furrow is 6^ 
inches with a width of 13 inches. Multiply 13 
by 6§, and you will have 84 with a fraction. 
Now, if 336 lbs. of power will take up and turn 
over 84 inches of earth, then 112 lbs. will turn 
28 inches. Tried in this way, the ploughs ex- 
hibited showed the following results. The 
j power in each case is 112 lbs. 



r/.,/r /: 




ENGLISH rtiid SCOTCH Pi-OIGHS 



PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



PiRST Tbiai. — Ploughs for lapping furrowt. 

By Charles Howard - . - 29i inches. 

Ruggles, Nourse & Mason - 24 " 

John Wilson - - - - 21i " 

Stephens' plough - - - 20 " 

James Stewart (Scotch plough) 19J '* 

Cornelius Bergen . - - 18 " 

Barnaby Sc. Mcoers - . - 17f " 

E. G. Whiting - ... 18 " 

Second Trial. — For fiat furrows. 

Prouty & Mears - - . 27i " 

Charles Howard - - - 25 " 

Buggies, Nourse & Co. - - 24 *' 

Barnahy & Mooers - . - 18i " 

E. G. Whiting - - - - 14 " 

Another plough hy Prouty & Mears 26 " 

Do. do. Charles Howard 25 " 

The terms used in this experiment are dif- 
ferent from those adopted in the English one; 
but those who choose may easily compare 
them with each other by remembering that 112 
lbs. is 8 stone, and making the furrow-slice to 
correspond, which in the American experiment 
was 84 inches, and in the English one 45 ; or 
6^ by 13, to 5 by 9. When this is done, the 
experiments will be found to correspond re- 
markably well, and the general results of both 
may he considered as establishing many im- 
portant truths, some of which have been 
already pointed out. Thus it will be seen that 
in the same soil, and under the same cir- 
cumstances, one plough will work 100 per 
cent, easier than another, or that one horse 
will perform the work of two, or two that 
of four, with the same ease.. Could horses 
speak, they would doubtless direct a vote 
of thanks to the men who have invented, and 
the farmers who use, implements by which 
one-half of the severest labour the horse per- 
forms is done away. We very much question 
whether our farm-horses on our heavy wheat 
lands do not often perform much more severe 
labour than the highest rate named by Mr. 
Pusey (52 stone, or 728 lbs.), as we have seen 
them day after day showing more exertion and 
evident distress in ploughing than when draw- 
ing a ton a day over hard roads. Whatever may 
be the obduracy or tenacity of the soil, or the 
toughness of the sward ; only one pair of horses 
is used, where, under the same circumstances, 
four would be used abroad, and the question is 



never asked whether the plough is of a con- 
struction so defective as to require 5 cwU to 
move it, or whether it works with ease, with a 
force of 2 cwt. applied. Mr. Pusey estimated 
the fair draught of the Clydesdale horse at 168 
lbs. or 12 stone, and that of a common English 
farm-horse at 112 lbs. or 8 stone. 

At a fair held by the New York Agricultural 
Society, at Syracuse, in 1341, the first of the 
regular premiums, $30, was awarded to the 
plough made by Howard Delano of Mottsville, 
the second premium of $20 to E. G. Holliday, 
for his plough, favourably known as the Laugh- 
lin plough. The Wisconsin and other ploughs 
attracted considerable notice ; but the double 
mould-board plough of Barnaby and Mooers, 
from the excellence and novelty of its con- 
struction, the facility with which it would ope- 
rate on side hills as well as on level land, and 
its ease of draught, rendered it deservedly a fa- 
vourite implement, and the honorary premium 
was deemed well awarded. It was supposed 
by many very good judges of ploughing, that 
the resistance offered by the land-side share 
would increase the draught sensibly, but the re- 
sult showed that such was not the case. 

The trial of ploughs which took place under 
the direction of a committee of the American 
Institute, at New York, was very well con- 
ducted; and although the number of ploughs 
on the ground was not as great as at Syracuse, 
the trials with the dynamometer were more sa- 
tisfactory. It is to be regretted that some of 
the favourite Massachusetts ploughs had not 
been present for competition, as a full investi- 
gation and understanding of the matter requires 
repeated and careful comparison of ploughs in 
the same soils, and as near as possible under 
the same circumstances. We believe that 
such will hereafter be the case. The manner 
in which the report of the trials of ploughs last 
year at Worcester was presented, renders a 
comparison of the actual draught used there and 
at New York, difficult; but as the mode was 
adopted at New York that English experiment- 
ers have used, a comparison between the 
ploughs of England and Scotland, and those 
of this country, is more easily made. The fol- 
lowing table, which we find prepared at our 



Name of Plough. 



Hart's English 1401bs. 4001bs. 

Ransome's wheel, do. ... 168 480 

Yester, No. 1, Scotch- . . . ; 170 380 

" 2, English ... 136 440 

Secular's swing, do. .... 150 446 

Hunter's English . . _ . 190 560 

Currie's Scotch 170 500 

Coltman's do. 176 500 

Hadden's do. 180 510 

Neill'sdo. 185 500 

Wilkens's English .... 175 540 

Ransome's swing .... 160 462 

Palmer's wheel, English - - . 230 560 

New spring, Scotch - - - . 189 560 

Susse.'s, English 189 680 

The following ploughs were tried at Sing Sing, 14th October 

Barnaby & Mooers - - . 
Wisconsan .... 

Beebe's swing .... 
Minor, Horton & Co.'s 
Cornelius Bergen's ... 

115 



Weight of Plough. 



Furrow not well taken out. 
Between furrow not well laid up. 
Clean furrow. 



Furrow not well laid up. 

Second best furrow. 

Third 

Good furrow. 



Good work. 





142 


350 


Best work of any American 




170 


438 


Second best rate. 






451 


Good furrow. 




^ 


460 


" " 




- 


472 


'* ** 



4H 



913 



PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



hand in an account of the New York trials, 
given in the Brooklyn Star, we transfer to our 
columns with pleasure, merely remarking that 
we have verified the correctness of the foreign 
results, by reference to the reports in the Jour- 
nals of the English Royal Agricultural Society, 
and the Scotch Highland Agricultural Society, 
from which they were taken. The reader will 
see that the best British plough, Yester No. 1, 
weight 170 lbs., draught 380 lbs., removed a fur- 
row-slice of only 10 inches by 6, while the best 
American, Barnaby and Mooers' double mould- 
board side-hill plough (the same that received 
the premium at Syracuse), weight 142 lbs., 
draught 350 lbs., removed a furrow-slice of 12 
inches by 8, or nearly twice as large. We are 
gratified to learn that this plough, which re- 
ceived the premiums at Syracuse and New 
York, has been presented by the Institute to 
the Royal Agricultural Society, and that doubt- 
less it will be subjected to comparison with the 
ploughs of that country. In examining the list 
of English agricultural implements, we have 
often remarked the fact, that English ploughs 
range in prices from $20 to $30, while the best 
improved American ones do not cost more 
than from $10 to $15. The table will be un- 
derstood without further explanation. 

In a report of a committee appointed to su- 
perintend a trial of ploughs near Baltimore, 
in 1842, the following results are stated. 

Deplhof Width of 

Plough. furrow. furrow. Force. 

1. Barnaby & Mooers' 5 2-0 in. 12 in. 350 lbs. 

2. Mou'a Wiley plough 6 6-9 13 1-6 562 
?>. Proiity & Meurs' cen- 
tre-draught plough, 

Boston - - - 5 1-Q 121-6 500 

4. Howard Plough, Bos- 

ton . - - 5 7-9 14 550 

5. The Davis Plough. This ploneh worked well, but 

was withdrawn before trial with the dynamometer. 

The committee remark, " the task to the com- 
mittee, of deciding where such excellence was 
to be found in each of the implements contend- 
ing, was one of difficulty, and would have been 
more so, but for the various purposes to which 
the Barnaby and Mooers' plough is adapted, it 
*being in fact a plough of all work, and from 
the fact of its executing its work with so much 
hss draught than either of the others." 

In commenting on the qualities of the seve- 
ral ploughs submitted to trial, the committee 
say of Barnaby and Mooers' side-hill plough, 
the one used: — "There is a peculiarity about 
this plough which is worthy of note. On the 
bottom of the furrow, and on the land side, it 
cuts out fully 12^ inches of the earth, so as to 
reduce resistance to the turning of the succeed- 
mg furrow, thereby facilitating, not only that 
operation, but insuring the exactitude with 
which it is performed, leaving a clean and 
broad furrow behind, in which the furrow-horse 
can walk, and preventing the treading of the 
ground in turning." 

Although the trials made at the various ex- 
hibitions have thus far resulted so much in 
favour of the double mould-board plough of 
Barnaby and Mooers, still has this been less 
extensively adopted than it would appear to 
deserve. Associated with its great merits, there 
may yet remain some obstacle to its general 
use, of easy removal. The objection from great 
9U 



weight requiring unusual exertion in throwing 
out and turning, might possibly be obviated 
by the addition of a wheel or some other 
device. 

The price of this plough varies from $4 for 
No. 3, a 7 inch seeding plough, to $10 for 
No. 8^, a heavy two or three horse, 12 inch 
plough. 

The following is a summary notice of the 
ploughs best known to the farmers of the Mid- 
dle States. The order in which they are men- 
tioned is not intended to express the precise 
dates of their invention or their relative merits. 

Beech's Self-sharpening Plough has a concave 
mould-board. Its price varies with the size, 
from $6 to $10, the average price being $8. 

Miles's Plough, known also by the name of 
Dickson's, has the bar-share, land-side, and lock- 
coulter of wrought iron. They cost about $13. 
This plough still retains precedence in the old 
counties of Pennsylvania, its execution being 
excellent, and its strength enabling it to con- 
tend successfully against obstacles met with in 
stony ground and tough swards. 

Peacock's Plough. — This has been long known 
and is still extensively used. It has a bar- 
share and lock-coulter, and is best adapted to 
soils of a light texture, where shallow work 
will answer. It does not turn a sod so well aa 
is desirable. 

Wiley Plough. — One of the oldest of the 
cast-iron ploughs still in use is that ofB. H. 
Wiley. The share of this has two points 
capable of being turned once. It is adapted 
to stubbles, but does not perform so well in 
tough sward. 

Woodcock's Plough. — For the last few years 
this has been in extensive use in Lancaster 
county, Pennsylvania, and Newcastle county, 
Delaware. It is a self-sharpening implement, 
with a slightly concave mould-board. A cast- 
iron angular cutter supplies the place of a 
coulter. It is sometimes constructed so as to 
have the mould-board on either the right 
or left side, thus adapting it to the habits 
of a few old farmers who retain a partiality 
for ploughs turning the furrow-slice to the left 
hand. 

Prouty and Mears's Centre-draught Plough.-One 
of the chief late improvements on American 
ploughs consists in lengthening or extending 
the mould-board, and still retaining the centre- 
draught principle, a construction which enables 
the instrument to turn a sod or furrow-slice so 
as merely to lap, or to lie completely flat, at the 
discretion of the ploughman. The cost of 
these ploughs, which possess high merits, va- 
ries, according to size, from $7 to $12. The 
larger sizes are provided with a small wheel to 
each, attached near the beam, a rare thing in 
America, but which in the present instance 
serves to render it more easy for the plough to 
follow the horses with proper steadiness, thus 
serving to ease the ploughman as well as the 
horses, the tendency to sink too deeply into the ] 
soil being completely checked. With regard 
to the wheel to ploughs, it is worthy of remark 
that there is a disposition beginning to be ma- 
nifested in the United States in favour of at 
least one such appendage. 

Subsoil Ploughs, now so extensively used in 



PLOUGHING. 

Great Britain, are rapidly coming into use in 
the United States, where various sizes are 
made, the largest being a heavy tug for four 
horses, whilst the smallest may be worked by 
two mules or one stout horse. Those made 
by Pronty and Mears are very efficient imple- 
ments, the prices varying from $8 for the sin- 
gle horse, and $10 to $12 for the larger sizes. 
A more simple and cheaper subsoil plough, 
which has proved very successful on trial, has 
lately been made in the city of New York, 
adapted to one or more horses. These consist 
of a common plough from which all the upper 
portion of the mould-board has been cut away, 
so as to leave the mere skeleton, which strikes 
deep and stirs up the subsoil very effectually. 
The price of these varies from §4 to $6, ac- 
cording to size. &c. They may be had in New 
Yorfe at most of the agricultural implement 
stores, and in Philadelphia, of E. Chandler, 
agricultural implement maker, 196 Market 
street. See Subsoil Ploughing. 

PLOUGHING. The art of turning over the 
soil by means of the plough. There are va- 
rious kinds of ploughing. ^ Trench ploughing 
is effected by the plough passing twice along 
the same furrow: the first time for the purpose 
of throwing the surface soil into the bottom of 
the furrow, and the second time for raising a 
furrow-slice from under that which had been 
already turned over, and raising it up, &c., 
turning it upon the first furrow-slice, by means 
of which the surface soil is entirely buried, 
and a stratum of subsoil laid over it: thus 
effecting in the field what trenching with the 
spade does in the garden. Trench ploughing 
can only be employed with advantage where 
the subsoil is naturally dry and of good qua- 
lity, or where it has been rendered so by drain- 
ing and subsoil ploughing; for bad subsoil 
brought to the surface, unless considerably 
altered in composition and texture, would be 
unfit for receiving seeds or plants. 

To excel in the art of ploughing, the plough- 
man should take a pleasure in his work, and 
not rest satisfied till he can make his furrows 
in a straight line, and lay the slices as much 
as possible at the same angle from the bottom 
of the furrow. He should open his first furrow 
in a uniform manner, and proceed with regu- 
larity of width and depth of the furrow-slice, 
and "shut up" clean at last. 

Ploughing matches, which of late years have 
been so general, have given a very increased 
interest to ploughmen and ploughboys. The 
face of the country is in many parts strikingly 
improved by the change which sound plough- 
mg has effected, and much of this may be 
traced to the lively interest which has been 
paid to this part of tillage by agricultural so- 
cieties and by practical farmers. I never knew 
a ploughing-match meeting established in any 
rural district without very beneficial effects be- 
ing produced on the character of the peasantry. 
It never fails to elevate the ploughman in his 
own opinion ; it induces him to strive to excel 
in his honourable vocation, to please his em- 
ployer, and to stand well in the estimation of 
his richer neighbours. The very assemblage 
of (he neighbouring farmers and gentry to wit- 



PLOUGHING. 

ness the trial of skill, brings out all the latent 
pride of the roughest ploughman. The flowers 
in his horses' bridles, the network on their 
ears, the new, gay-coloured tape with whkh 
their manes and tails are braided, betray the 
little feelings of honest pride in the plough- 
man's bosom. When at a recent meeting I 
noticed the air of triumph with which the vic- 
tor in the field of Langley, in Buckingham- 
shire, after having had the queen's prize of 
five guineas awarded to him, marched his 
sleek, well-fed plough-horses off the field, with a 
sprig of laurel in their bridles, I could not but 
admit that the effect of that meeting would be 
felt, not only amongst the contending plough- 
men there assembled, but through the adjoin- 
ing hundreds. The triumph, too, was not con- 
fined to the ploughman ; his master, nay, his 
parish, shared in the honour; and I will en- 
gage that many an honest ploughman, between 
one year's meeting and the next, as he ploughs 
"his acre," thinks of the field of meeting, and 
of the best means of securing a prize. Such 
meetings, moreover, leach even the most igno- 
rant the importance of such affairs; that there 
is a great difference in the neatness, style, and 
profit to the farmer where the ploughmen ex- 
ecute their work properly; and they are pretty 
sure to convince even the most listless tha't 
there is more skill required in a ploughman 
than many persons would readily believe. 

I believe it admits of no doubt, says Mr. 
Stephens, that, since the institution of plough- 
ing matches throughout the country, the cha- 
racter of our farm-servants as ploughmen has 
risen to considerable celebrity, not but that in- 
dividual ploughmen could have been found 
before the practice of matches existed as dex- 
terous as any of the present day, but the gene- 
ral diffusion of good ploughing must be ob- 
vious to every one who has been in the habit 
of observing the ploughed surface of the coun- 
try. This improvement is not to be ascribed 
to the institution of ploughing matches alone, 
because superior construction of implements, 
better kept, better matched, and superior races 
of horses, and superior judgment and taste in 
field labour and in the farmer himself, are too 
important elements in influencing the conduct 
of ploughmen, to be overlooked in a considera- 
tion of this question. 

But be the primary motive for improvement 
in the most important branch of field labour as 
it may, there cannot be a doubt that a properly 
regulated emulation amongst workmen of any 
class, proves a strong incentive to the produc- 
tion of superior workmanship, and the more 
generally the inducement is extended, the im- 
provement arising from it may be expected to 
be the more generally diffused ; and on this 
account the plough medals of the Highland and 
Agricultural Society of Scotland, being open for 
competition to all parts of Scotland every year, 
have perhaps excited a spirit of emulation 
among ploughmen, by rewaramg those who 
excel, beyond any thing to be seen in any other 
country. Wherever 15 ploughs can be gather- 
ed together for competition at any time and 
place, there the ploughman who obtains the 
first premium offered by those interested in the 

91,5 



PLOUGHING. 



PLUM. 



exhibition, is entitled to receive, over and above, 
the Society's plough medal of silver, bearing a 
suitable inscription, with the gainer's name. 
About 40 applications are made for the medals 
every year, so that at least 600 ploughmen an- 
nually compete for them ; but the actual num- 
ber far exceeds that number; as, in many in- 
stances, matches comprehend from 40 to 70 
ploughs, instead of the minimum number of 15. 
The matches are usually occasioned by the 
welcome which his neighbours are desirous of 
giving an incoming tenant to his farm, and its 
heartiness is shown in the extent of the assist- 
ance which they give him in ploughing a field or 
fields at a time when he has not yet collected a 
working stock sufficient for the purpose. 

Ploughing matches are generally very fairly 
conducted in Scotland. They usually take 
place on lea ground, the ploughing of Avhich is 
considered the best test of a ploughman's skill, 
though I hold that drilling is much more diffi- 
cult to execute correctly. The best part of the 
field is usually selected for the purpose, if there 
be such, and the same extent of ground, usually 
from 2 to 4 ridges, according to the length, is 
allotted to each portion of ground to be 
ploughed. A pin, bearing a number, is pushed 
into the ground at the end of each lot, of which 
there are as many marked off as there are 
ploughs entered in the competition. Numbers 
corresponding to those on the pins are drawn 
by the competing ploughmen, who take pos- 
session of the lots as they are drawn. Ample 
time is allowed to finish the lot, and in this 
part of the arrangements I am of opinion that 
too much time is usually allowed, to the annoy- 
ance of the spectators. Although shortness of 
time in executing the same extent of work is 
not to be compared to excellency of execution, 
yet it should enter as an important element in- 
to the decision of the question of excellence. 
Every competitor is obliged to feer his own 
lot, guide his own horses, and do every other 
thing connected with the work, such as assort- 
ing his horses, and trimming his plough-irons, 
without the least assistance. 

The judges, who have been brought from a 
distance, and have no personal interest in the 
exhibition, are requested to inspect the ground 
after all the ploughs have been removed, hav- 
ing been kept away from the scene during the 
time the ploughs were engaged. 

The primary objects of the institution of 
ploughing matches must have been to produce 
the best examples of ploughmanship ; and by 
the best must be understood that kind of 
ploughing which shall not only appear to be 
well done, but must be thoroughly and essen- 
tially well done. In other words, the award 
should be given to the plough that produces 
not only work of a proper surface finish, but 
which will exhibit, along with the first, the pro- 
perty ^1 having turned up the greatest quantity 
of soil and in the best manner. {Book of the 
Farm.) 

The following will be found a useful table, 
showing the distance travelled by a horse in 
ploughing or scarifying an acre of land ; also 
the quantity of land worked in a day, at the 
'ate of 16 and 18 miles per day of 9 hours. 
916 



Breadth of 
furrow^lice 


Space travelled 
in ploughiog 


Extent ploughed per iaj at the 
rate of 


or Scarifier. 






1 


Inches. 


Miles. 


18 Miles. 1 16 Milei 
Acres. 


7 


14f 


u 


11 


8 


I2I 


n 


H 


9 


11 


13-5 


11 


10 


9 9-10 


14-5 


1 3-5 


11 


9 


2 


n 


12 


H 


2 1-5 


1 9-10 


13 


u 


2i 


21-10 


14 


7 


21 


21 


15 


6J 


2* 


2 2-5 


16 


6 1-6 


2 9-10 


2 3-5 


17 


5J 


3 1-10 


2J 


18 


5i 


H 


29-10 


19 


H 


H 


3 1-10 


20 


4 9-10 


3 3-5 


31 


21 


4 7-10 


3 4-5 


31 


22 


H 


4 


31 


23 


4i 


4 1-5 


3 7-10 


24 


4 


4\ 


3 9-10 


25 


4 


41 


4 


26 


3 4-5 


n 


4 1-5 


27 


3 3-5 


49-10 


41 


28 


3i 


5| 


41 


29 


H 


5i 


4 3-5 


30 


3} 


51 


4 4-5 


31 


3 1-5 


5 


5 


32 


3 1-10 


5 4-5 


51 


33 


3 


6 


51 


34 


2 9-10 


6 1-5 


51 


35 


2 4-5 


61 


5 3-5 


36 


2i 


61 


5 4-5 


37 


2| 


fij 


6 


38 


2 3-5 


6 9-10 


61 


39 


21 


71 


61 


40 


2^ 


71 


61 


41 


2 2-5 


7* 


6| 


42 


2} 


7 


6 2-3 


43 


2 3-10 


7 4-5 


7 


44 


2 


8 


7 1-10 


45 


2 1-5 


8 1-6 


71 


46 


2 1-6 


81 


7 2-5 


47 


2 1-10 


8 


7 3-5 


48 


2 1-12 


Si 


7J 


49 


2 


8 9-10 


7 9-10 


50 


2 


9 9-10 


8 1-10 


51 


19-10 


91-5 


81 


52 


1 9-10 


61 


8 2-5 


53 


19-10 


n 


81 


54 


1 4-5 


9 4-5 


8 9-10 


55 


14-5 


10 


8 


56 


a 


10} 


9 


57 


11 


10 2-5 


9 1-5 


58 


17-10 


10 3-5 


91 


59 


17-10 


m 


91 


60 


1 3-5 


10 9-10 


9 7-10 


61 


13-5 


11 1-5 


9 4-5 


62 


13-5 


111 


10 


63 


1 3-5 


111 


10 1-5 


64 


n 


117-10 


101 


65 


H 


114-5 


101 


66 


H 


12 


10 3-5 


67 


H 


12i 


10 4-5 


68 


H 


12 2-5 


11 


69 


12-5 


12 3-5 


11- 


70 


12-5 


12J 


lli 


71 


12-5 


12 9-10 


llA 


72 


12-5 


131 


11 3-5 


73 


1* 


131 


114-5 


74 


n 


131 


12 


75 


H 


13 3-5 


'21 


76 


13-10 


13 4-5 


121 


77 


13-10 


14 


121 


78 


a 


141 


12 3-5 


79 


H 


14 2-5 


I2| 


80 


H 


14 3-5 


12 9-10 


81 


1 1-5 


14i 


13 1-10 


82 


1 1-5 


15 


131 


83 


1 1-5 


151 


13 2-5 


84 


1 1-6 


151 


13 3-5 



PLUM (Prunus, from prune, its Greek name) 
A genus of trees and shrubs, several of which: 
are indigenous to Britain. Having already' 
noticed the bird cherry (P. padus), the wild 
cherry tree (P. cerasus), the wild bullace tree 
(P. insititia), the black thorn or sloe (P. spinosa). 



PLUM. 



PLUM TREE WEEVIL. 



nnder their several heads, it only remains to 
speak in this place of the wild and cultivated 
species of plum tree. The wild plum tree 
(P. domesika) is a moderate sized tree, without 
thorns, found growing sometimes in woods and 
hedges, flowering in May. The fruit is rather 
oblong, seldom quite globular, its colour and 
flavour very variable. " Whether all our cul- 
tivated plums have originated from this spe- 
cies, or from the wild bullace tree" (P.insititia), 
says Sir J. E. Smith, "its thorns having disap- 
peared by culture like those of the pear tree, 
is a question which perhaps no botanist can 
ever solve." As to its varieties, Gerarde de- 
clares that " to write of plums particularly 
would require a peculiar volume, and yet the 
end not be attained unto, nor the stock or kin- 
dred perfectly known, neither to be distin- 
guished apart." He adds that each country 
has an abundance of its own peculiar varie- 
ties. All the kinds of plum grow well in any 
common soil, dnd are increased by seeds or 
suckers, or by grafting or budding to perpetuate 
the particular kinds. There are 274 varieties 
named in the catalogue of the Horticultural 
Society. As a choice selection for a small 
garden, Mr. Nicol recommends the following 
twelve varieties: Jaune Hative, Wilmot's Or- 
leans green gage, red magnum-bonum, white 
ditto, Coe's golden drop, Caledonian, mussel, 
damson, wine-sour, white bullace, blue impe- 
ratrice. 

The best plums for cultivation may be thus 
classed — 

a. Pdhple Roujtd. — Shoots smooth. — Purple gage; 
nectarine plum ; Kirkes ; virgin ; queen- 
mother. 

Shoots downy. — Royal native ; Orleans ; 
early Orleans ; Coxe's fine late red ; wine- 
sour, 
i. Obloxg. — S.'ioots smooth. — Blue imperatrice ; 
Inkworth imperatrice; Cooper's large red. 
Shoots downy. — Blue perdrigon ; Shrop- 
shire damson. 

a. Pale Rouxd. — Shoots smooth. — Green gage; 

Knight's large green drying; Lucombe's 
nonsuch. 

Shoots downy. — Drap d'or ; Mirabelle ; 
Washington. 

b. Obloxg. — Shoots smooth. — Coe's golden drop; 

St. Catherine ; White magnum bonum. 

Shoots doivny. — Gumaraen; White per- 
drigon. 

If plum trees are much pruned, they grow 
too luxuriant to produce fruit, and often gum 
and spoil. The choice varieties of plums are 
much esteemed for the dessert; the more com- 
mon sorts are used for pies, tarts, preserves, 
&c. The wood is employed for turnery and 
cabinet work, and for the manufacture of mu- 
sical instruments. 

The following information relative to the 
cultivation and management of plum trees, is 
from a communication made by Mr. S. Reeve, 
of Salem, N. J., to that valuable American 
work, Hoffy's Orchardist's Companion. 

Plum trees, like other fruit trees, when first 
transplanted, and for a few or several subse- 
quent years, should be managed and cultivated 
alike; but when the plum tree has arrived to 
maturity and ready to bear, the soil around it 



should be thrown into a hard texture, for in- 
stance, of the consistency of a gravel walk. 

A pig and poultry yard which remains un- 
cultivated, and never suffered to become a 
sward, is also very appropriate, from the cir- 
cumstance of its being promenaded over con- 
stantly by bipeds and animals so as to preclude 
the possibility of grass growing. 

In a soil of this description, owing to its be- 
ing compact and consequently remaining drier, 
the trees do not grow so fast as in cultivated 
grounds, the beneficial result is, that the sap cen- 
tres itself more in the fruit ; whereas, when the 
sap is too abundant, it is more apt to flow past 
the fruit into the branches, and thus ultimately, 
from a want of nourishment, the plums drop 
off" in profusion, owing to their starved condi- 
tion, and not so much, as it is often supposed, 
from the bore or sting of the curculio, of which 
it is frequently found divested when picked 
from the ground. 

From a compact position or nature of soil 
as before described, another important advan- 
tage arises : although not operating as a perfect 
antidote to the attacks of the curculio, it is 
nevertheless a great preventive to its depreda- 
tions, from the circumstance that this insect, 
when the fruit does fall, not meeting with a 
surface or soil such as sward, garden ground, 
&c., in which to take shelter until the following 
spring, when it hatches and assumes the 
winged form, and again commences its destruc- 
tive attacks upon the fruit. 

Mr. Reeve submits it therefore as his opi- 
nion, that it would fully repay any person 
for his trouble or expense in removing (which 
should only be done when vegetation is 
checked) from the plum tree, when it has ar- 
rived to the age of 8 to 10 years, all the rich 
subsoil from around the tree in a circumfe- 
rence of from 10 to 12 feet down to the clay 
soil, and fill up the space again with poor earth, 
sand, or gravel, so as to check the growth of 
the tree for the benefit of the fruit, in accord- 
ance with the first principles stated in this ar- 
ticle. 

PLUM TREE WEEVIL. It is now well 
known that the falling of unripe plums, apri- 
cots, peaches, and cherries, is caused by little 
whitish grubs, which bore into these fruits. 
The loss of fruit, occasioned by insects of this 
kind, is frequently very great ; and, in some of 
our gardens and orchards, the crop of plums 
is often entirely ruined by the depredations of 
grubs, which have been ascertained to be the 
iarvas or young of a small beetle of the weevil 
tribe, called Rhyncheenus (Conotrachelus) Nenii- 
phar, the Nenuphar or plum-weevil. "I have 
found the beetles," says Dr. Harris, c£ Boston, 
" as early as the 30th of March, and as late as 
the 10th of June, and at various intermediate 
times, according with the forwardness or back- 
wardness of vegetation in the spring, and hav< 
frequently caught them flying in the middle uT 
the day. They are from three-twentieths U, 
one-fifth of an inch long, exclusive of the 
curved snout, which is rather longer than the 
thorax, and is bent under the breast, between 
the fore-legs, when at rest. Their colour is a 
dark-brown, variegated with spots of white, 
ochre-yellow, and black. The thorax is un ■ 
iai 917 



PLUM THEE WEEVIL. 



PLUM TREE WEEVIL. 



even; the wing-covers have several short 
ridges upon them, those on the middle of the 
back forming two considerable humps, of a 
black colour, behind which there is a wide 
band of ochre-yellow and white. Each of the 
thighs has two little teeth on the under side. 
They begin to sting the plums as soon as the 
fruit is set, and, as some say, continue their 
operations till the first of August. After mak- 
ing a suitable puncture with their snouts, they 
lay one egg in each plum thus stung, and go 
over the fruit on the tree in this way till their 
store is exhausted ; so that, where these beetles 
abound, not a plum will escape being punc- 
tured. The irritation arising from these punc- 
tures, and from the gnawings of the grubs 
after they are hatched, causes the young fruit 
to become gummy, diseased, and finally to drop 
before it is ripe. Meanwhile the grub conies 
to its growth, and, immediately after the fruit 
falls, burrows into the ground. This may 
occur at various times between the middle of 
June and of August; and, in the space of a 
little more than three weeks afterwards, the 
insect completes its transformations, and comes 
out of the ground in the beetle form. The 
history of the insect thus far is the result of 
my own observations; the remainder rests on 
the testimony of other persons." 

In an account of the plum-weevil, by Dr. 
•Tames Tilton of Wilmington, Delaware, pub- 
lished in the Domestic Encydopcedia, (article 
Fruit,) and since republished in the " Georgi- 
cal Papers for 1809" of the Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural Society, and in other works, it is stated, 
that peaches, nectarines, apples, pears, quinces, 
and cherries are also attacked by this insect, 
and that it remains in the earth, in the form 
of a grub, during the winter, ready to be 
matured into a beetle as the spring advances. 
These statements, says Dr. Harris, I have not 
yet been able to confirm. It seems, however, 
to have been fully ascertained by Professor 
Peck, Mr. Say, and others, in whose accuracy 
full confidence may be placed, that this same 
weevil attacks all our common stone-fruits, such 
as plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and 
cherries; Dr. Burnett has recently assured me 
that he has seen this beetle puncturing apples ; 
and it is not at all improbable that the trans- 
formations of some of the grubs may be re- 
tarded till the winter has passed, analogous 
cases being of frequent occurrence. Those 
that are sonietimes found in apples must not 
be mistaken for the more common apple- 
worms, which are not the larvae of a weevil. 
The Rev. F. V. Melsheimer remarks in his ca- 
talogue, that this insect lives under the bark 
of the peach-tree. Professor Peck raised the 
same beetle from a grub found in the watery 
excrescence of a cherry tree, and from this 
circumstance named it Rhynchcenus Cerasi, the 
cherry-weevil. The plum, still more than the 
cherry tree, is subject to a disease of the small 
limbs, which shows itself in the form of large 
irregular warts, of a black colour, as if charred. 
Grubs, apparently the same as those that are 
lound in plums, have often been ietected in 
these warts, which are now generally supposed 
.0 be produced by the punctures of the beetles, 
Hnd the residence of the grubs. Professor 
918 



Peck says, that " the seat of the disease is in the 
bark. The sap is diverted from its regular 
course, and is absorbed entirely by the bark, 
which is very much increased in thickness; 
the cuticle bursts, the swelling becomes irre- 
gular, and is formed into black lumps, with a 
cracked, uneven, granulated surface. The 
wood, besides being deprived of its nutriment, 
is very much compressed, and the branch above 
the tumour perishes." The grubs found by Pro- 
fessor Peck in the tumours of the cherry tree, 
went into the ground on the 6th of July, and on 
the 30th of the same month, or 24 days from 
their leaving the bark, the perfect insects began 
to rise, and were soon ready to deposit their 
eggs in healthy branches. 

In speaking of the diflference between the 
grub of the plum-weevil and apple tree cater- 
pillar. Dr. Harris observes, " It must be borne 
in mind that this plum-weevn, an insect un- 
known in Europe, when arrived at maturity, is 
a little, rough, dark-brown or blackish beetle, 
looking like a dried bud, when it is shaken from 
the trees, which resemblance is increased by 
its habit of drawing up its legs and bending its 
snout close to the lower side of its body, and 
remaining for a time without motion and seem- 
ingly lifeless. In stinging the fruit, before lay- 
ing its eggs, it uses its short curved snout, 
which is armed at the tip with a pair of very 
small nippers ; and by means of this weapon 
it makes, in the tender skin of the young plum 
or apple, a crescent-shaped incision, similar to 
what would be formed by indenting the fruit 
with the finger-nail. Very rarely is there more 
than one incision made in the same fruit; and 
in the wound, the weevil lays only a single egg. 
The insect hatched from this egg is a little 
whitish grub, destitute of feet, and very much 
like a maggot in appearance, except that it has 
a distinct, rounded, light-brown head. By means 
of the microscope I have satisfactorily ascer- 
tained that the grubs from the fruit and from the 
warts were exactly alike, and that both were 
without feet. It appears, furthermore, that the 
tumours on plum and on cherry trees are infested 
not only by these insects, but also by another 
kind of grub, provided with legs, and occasion- 
ally by the wood-eating caterpillars of the Mgeria 
eritiosa, or peach tree borer. When the grubs of 
the plum-weevil are fully grown, they go into 
the ground, and are there changed to chrysalids 
of a white colour, having the legs and wings 
free and capable of some motion ; and finally 
they leave the ground in the form of little 
beetles, exactly like those which had previously 
stung the fruit. Further observation seems to 
be wanting before it can be proved that the 
cankerous warts on plum and cherry trees 
arise from the irritating punctures of the plum- 
weevils, and of the other insects that occasion- 
ally make these warts their places of abode ; 
although it must be allowed that the well- 
known production of galls by insects on oak 
trees and on other plants, would lead us to sup- 
pose that those of the plum tree have a similar 
origin. In addition to the means already re- 
commended for preventing the ravages of 
plum-weevils, I would observe that wall-fruit 
can be perfectly secured by a screen of milli 
net or close netting, which should be put on as 



I 



POA. 



x-OA. 



soon as the fruit is formed, and should remain 
till it begins to ripen. 

The following, among other remedies that 
have been suggested, may be found useful in 
checking the ravages of the plum-weevil. Let 
the trees be briskly shaken or suddenly jarred 
every morning and evening during the time 
that the insects appear in the beetle form, and 
are engaged in laying their eggs. When thus 
disturbed they contract their legs and fall ; and, 
as they do not immediately attempt to fly or 
crawl away, they may be caught in a sheet 
spread under the tree, from which they should 
be gathered into a large, wide-mouthed bottle or 
other tight vessel, and be thrown into the fire. 
All the fallen wormy plums should be immedi- 
ately gathered, and after they are boiled or 
steamed, to kill the enclosed grubs, they may 
be given as food to swine. The diseased ex- 
crescences should be cut out and burned every 
year before the last of June. The moose plum 
tree {Prunus Americana), which grows wild in 
Maine, seems to escape the attacks of insects, 
for no warts are found upon it, even when 
growing in the immediate vicinity of diseased 
foreign trees. It would, therefore, be the best 
of stocks tor budding or engrafting upon. It 
can easily be raised from the stone, and grows 
rapidly, but does not attain a great size. For 
further suggestions and remarks, the account 
of this insect by Dr. Joel Burnett, in the 18th 
volume of the New England Farmer, may be 
consulted. (Harris.) 

Plums, nectarines, and apricots have been 
saved after being stung, by extracting the stung 
part. This may be done with the point of a 
knife or nippers properly adapted to the pur- 
pose. The wounds heal and the fruit grows 
and attains to perfect maturity. 

POA (From poa, signifying grass or her- 
bage). The meadow-grass. A genus of grasses 
of considerable extent, and very abundant in 
the pasiurages of Europe. This genus con- 
tains some valuable hay and pasture grasses, 
succeeding well in rich loamy soil ; some of 
the species are aquatic, growing only in water, 
or in very moist situations ; and increased by 
seeds or divisions of the roots. Poa annua, pi. 
6, c, is the most common of all grasses. P. tri- 
viaiis and P. prntensis are sown extensively as 
a part of the artificial grasses for pastures and 
lawns, which are now commonly made with 
picked grasses instead of "hay seeds." In 
general these grasses appear to be nutritious 
and agreeable to cattle. There are, in Eng- 
land, nine indigenous species, besides several 
varieties. 

1. Flat-stalked meadow-grass (P.compressa), 
pi. 7, h. This is a very common species in 
dry, barren ground, flowering from June to Sep- 
tember. 

The root is moderately creeping, with downy 
fibres ; stems obliquely ascending in the lower 
part, then erect and often crowded together, 
from 1 to 1^ foot high, remarkably compressed, 
by which this species ma)' readily be known, 
as also by a sudden contraction where the 
panicle begins. Leaves short, narrow, rough- 
ish, especially at the edges, with long com- 
pressed sheaths, and a short obtuse stipule. 
The whole plant is more or less glaucous. 



Florets from three to eight or nine, connected 
at the base by a mass of white folded threads, 
as fine and soft as a spider's web, which may 
be drawn out to a considerable length. This 
grass, though not succulent, is eaten by all 
cattle, but cannot be cultivated in moist or 
manured ground. It never forms a close turf, 
and although it possesses superior nutritive 
powers, its produce anywhere is far from 
abundant. 

A variety of this species (P. c. var. erecta) is 
mentioned by Sinclair, which differs from the 
last, in having culms more upright, less com- 
pressed, and produced in greater quantities. It 
grows closer, forms a pretty good sward, and 
the roots are less inclined to creeping. But it 
is nevertheless inferior in point of early growth, 
and the produce of the foliage. See Blue Grass. 

2. Alpine meadow-grass (P. alpina), pi. 6, L 
This species is chiefly confined to alpine re- 
gions and lofty mountains. 

3. Wavy meadow-grass (P. laxa). This spe- 
cies grows in some of the Highlands of Scot- 
land. It possesses no agricultural merit. 

4. Bulbous meadow-grass (P. bulbosa). This 
species tenants the sandy sea-shore, and other 
dry, barren ground. It is perennial, and flowers 
in April and May. 

5. Roughish meadow-grass (P. trivialis), pi. 
5, i. This is a very common species, in mea- 
dows and pastures, especially such as are 
rather moist. Perennial, flowering from June 
to October. The root is fibrous, and tufted; 
the stems several, about eighteen inches high, 
erect, leafy, with several knots, the naked part 
cylindrical, roughish to the touch, as are the 
edges and backs of the flat, slightly spreading, 
lax, linear, deep-green leaves. In their long 
compressed sheaths also a slight roughness is 
sometimes perceptible. Panicle large, spread- 
ing with half-whorled, horizontal, wavy, angu- 
lar, rough-compressed, unequal branches. Mr. 
Curtis, deeply versed in the practical economy 
of grasses, declares this to be one of the most 
valuable for pasturage and hay, yielding abun- 
dantly, though not particularly early; and of 
the most excellent quality. Mr. G. Sinclair, 
another practical authority on the grasses, also 
observes, "The superior produce of this Poa 
over many other species, its highly nutritive 
qualities, the seasons in which it arrives at 
perfection, and the marked partiality which 
oxen, horses, and sheep have for it, are merits 
which distinguish it as one of the most valu- 
able of those grasses which affect moist, rich 
soils and sheltered situations : but in dry, ex- 
posed situations it is altogether inconsiderable ; 
it yearly diminishes, and ultimately dies off, 
not unfrequently m the space of four or five 
years. Its produce is always much greater 
when combined with other grasses than when 
cultivated by itself; with a proper admixture, 
it will nearly double its produce, though on the 
same soil, so much does it delight in shelter. 
Those spots in pastures that are closely eaten 
down, consist for the most part of this grass." 

6. Smooth-stalked meadow-grass (P. pratetf 
sis), pi. 5, h. This is a very common species 
in all meadows and pastures. It is perennial, 
flowering in May and June. The root is strong 
and creeping, with horizontal rumers. The 

)19 



POA. 



POA. 



general aspect of the plant is very like the last, 
tt'ith which it has usually been confounded ; 
but the stems and leaves betray no roughness 
when drawn through the hand. Spikelets four- 
flowered ; florets lanceolate, ribbed, connected 
by a web. But the clear and essential mark 
of this species, compared with the last, consists 
in its very short, abrupt, pointless stipule, which 
in every leaf of every variety proves constant 
and invariable. 

As an object of agriculture, this species is 
not less valuable than the P. trivialis, especially 
for permanent pasture. It is earlier in leaf, 
and will thrive with less moisture, though the 
rough-stalked meadow-grass produces, at last, 
a better crop. Mr. Curtis, and several other 
able botanists, have rendered great service to 
the farmer in directing his attention to such 
objects ; and it is undoubtedly worth his while 
to be select in seeds for grass lands. But, after 
all. Nature is supreme in the accommodation 
of particular grasses to certain soils and situa- 
tions, and whatever we may sow, unless we 
have well studied her laws, she finally tri- 
umphs. The great objection to this grass is 
the properly of the creeping roots to scourge 
the soil. 

Mr. Sinclair notices, in his experiments on 
the grasses, two varieties, the short blue mea- 
dow-grass (P. pratensis subcaerulea) and the nar- 
row-leaved meadow-grass (P. pratensis angusii- 
folia), pi. 6, f, which requires some notice here. 

The discriminating characters of the first- 
named are as follows: — Panicle diff'use; spike- 
lets oval, generally three-flowered; the culms 
shorter, and somewhat glaucous ; and the 
leaves much shorter and broader than those of 
the Poa pratensis. It may be further distin- 
guished by its delicate sky-blue or glaucous 
colour. From its creeping roots and other de- 
merits, this is evidently one of the inferior 
grasses. Although the botanical characters 
of the narrow-leaved meadow-grass (P. angn.s- 
tifolia) are not sufficient to constitute it a dis- 
tinct species, its agricultural merits cause it to 
difler from P, pratensis, to which it is much 
superior. Its spring produce is considerable, 
and its properties of early growth and great 
nutritive matter would rank it with the most 
valuable grasses, but for its powerful creeping 
root. The culms are most valuable for the 
manufacture of the finest straw-plait, in imita- 
tion of the celebrated "Leghorn." See Blue 
Grass. 

7. Annual meadow-grass, Suffolk-grass (P. 
annua), pi. 6, c. This is an exceedingly com- 
mon species everywhere, as well in waste as 
cultivated ground, flowering from April to No- 
vember. The root is fibrous. Stems pale, 
very smooth, oblique, compressed, 3 to 12 
inches long. Leaves of a fine light-green, 
spreading, linear, bluntish, flaccid, roughish at 
the edge only. Panicle small, widely spread- 
mg. Spikelets ovate, five-flowered ; florets a 
little remote, five-ribbed, without a web. 

This is a good grass for fodder, abundant in 
proportion to the richness of the soil, easily 
raised, but not durable. The diminutive size 
of the plant, however, renders its cultivation 
unprofitable, compared with that of any other 
of the pasture grasses. It is the most trouble- 
920 



some weed that infests gravel walks, stone 
pitchings, and the like. The most effectual 
way to extirpate it in such situations is to 
sprinkle salt on it ; some recommend boiling 
water and a layer of litter, &c. 

This grass, which Dr. Darlington calls mea- 
dow-poa, in the Middle States goes by the name 
of green grass, spear-grass, and meadow-grass. 
Although it is styled an annual, it has a peren- 
nial root. This species varies considerably, 
in size and appearance, when growing in dif- 
ferent soils and situations. In our best soils, 
the radical leaves are very long and luxuriant, 
— when it is known by the name of green grass. 
This has by some botanists been made a dis- 
tinct species, under the name of P.viridis: but 
it is probably nothing more than a variety. It 
is, indeed, as Muhlenberg terms it," optimum pa- 
bulum;" being decidedly the most valuable of 
all the grasses known in our pastures. It has 
not been found necessary to cultivate it, by 
sowing the seed ; for when the land is duly 
prepared by lime and manure, it soon takes 
possession of the soil, — or comes in, as the 
farmers term it; and supersedes the artificial 
grasses. In very poor land, it deteriorates so 
much that it would scarcely be recognised as 
the same plant. It is generally believed by th6 
botanists to be a naturalized foreigner in the 
United States. 

8. Glaucous meadov/-grass (P. glauca). This 
species is found on the mountains of Wales, 
Scotland, and the north of England. 

9. Wood meadow-grass (P. Mfwioro/i's). This 
is a very common species in some districts in 
groves and woods, especially on chalk soils. 
The whole plant is very slender and delicate, 
1^ or 2 feet high. Stems several, slightly com- 
pressed, smooth, striated, leafy, with 4 or 5 
joints. Leaves almost all on the stem, grass- 
green, narrow, flat, more or less rough, taper- 
ing to a fine slender point. Mr. George Sin- 
clair speaks favourably of a variety of this 
species, which he names P. nemoralis, var. an- 
gustifolia. Although the produce is inconsider- 
able compared to that of many others equally 
nutrient, yet the early growth of this grass in 
the spring, and its remarkably fine, succulent, 
and nutritive herbage, recommend it strongly 
for admission into the company of the superior 
permanent pasture grasses. It flowers in the 
third week of June, and ripens the seed in the 
end of July. 

The P. aquatica, PI. 5, m, or water meadow- 
grass, of some botanists, is the reedy sweet- 
grass {Glyceria aquatica) of ^mv\h. The decum- 
bent meadow-grass (P. rlecumbens) is the de- 
cumbent heath-grass (Triodia decumbens) of 
Smith's English Flora. The reflexed meadow- 
grass (P. distans) of Sinclair is the reflexed 
sweet-grass (Glyceria distans) of modern bo- 
tanists. The Glyceria fluitans is also sometimes 
called the Poafluitans. 

One or two exotic species are mentioned in 
Sinclair's work on the grasses, viz., 

The soft meadow-grass (P. cenisia). This 
alpine species is a native of Germany, and 
attains to a greater size than most others of 
the same class. The root is fibrous. Panicle 
diffuse, nodding. Its nutrient properties, as 
indicated by the quantity of nutritive matter it 



POCKET. 



POLYPODY. 



contains, are not superior to those of several 
other grasses, which afford a greater abundance 
of herbage throughout the season. 

The fertile meadow-grass (P. fertilis). It 
produces flowers about the first and second 
weeks of July, and seeds in the second week of 
August. This grass, which is also a native of 
Germany, seems to be allied to the Poa nemo- 
ralis. It diflfers in having the panicle more 
loose and spreading, and less attenuated. The 
spikelets are more oval, and nerved. The 
culm rises from a fool and a half to 2 feet in 
height, and sometimes more, ascending at the 
base, afterwards erect, somewhat compressed. 
The root is slightly creeping. In regard to 
early growth, this grass stands next to the 
meadow fox-tail, cock's-foot, and tall oat. The 
herbage is more nutritive than thatof either of 
those grasses ; and from its agricultural merits 
it deserves a place in the composition of rich 
pastures, and ranks with the superior grasses 
of irrigated meadows. It flowers in the begin- 
ning of July, and the seed is ripe towards the 
end of the month. 

The nerved meadow-grass (P.nervata). This 
species is a native of North America. Pani- 
cle upright, often half a foot or more in length, 
with slender branches, pressed close and sub- 
divided. Spikelets small, of a green colour. 
Valves of the blossom smooth, having five 
raised nerves on each valve. Leaves in two 
rows, resembling a fan, somewhat rough. 
Culm a little compressed. This grass is re- 
markably hardy, and possesses many very ex- 
cellent properties : it will be found a valuable 
ingredient in permanent pastures, where the 
soil is not too dry, but of a medium quality as 
to moisture and dryness. The root leaves are 
produced on a shoot, and stand in two rows 
after the manner of a fan. This shoot, which 
is formed by the union of the base of the leaves, 
is very succulent, and contains a greater pro- 
portion of nutritive matter than the leaves, 
which accounts for the superior nutrient quali- 
ties of the lattermath. It flowers in the third 
week of June, and the seed is ripe in the last 
week of July. 

POCKET. A large kind of bag in which 
hops are packed up. 

POD. A term used to express the siliqua 
and silicula of botanists. A seed-vessel of 
some plants, consisting of two valves, sepa- 
rated by a linear receptacle, along each of the 
edges of which the seeds are alternately ranged. 
The wall-flower affords an example of the sili- 
qua, which differs from the silicula merely in 
being oblong instead of being short and round. 
The satin-flower, or honesty, bears a pouch or 
silicula. 

POISON (Fr.). Any substance which in 
small quantity disturbs, suspends, or destroys 
one or more of the vital functions. Poisons are 
classified by Orfila under the four heads of irri- 
tants, narcotics, narcotico-acrids, and putrefi- 
ants, or septics, and, we may add, sedatives. 
The same poisons which affect men usually 
affect horses, cows, and dogs; but goats and 
,wine eat many things that are virulent poisons 
to other animals. Sweet almonds and aloes 
are poisonous to dogs; sugar is poison to 
pigeons, parsley to parrots, and pepper to hogs. 
116 



On the other hand, hogs devour Nux vomica and 
henbane with impunity; goats browse on Acon- 
ite, Cicuta virosa, and Arnica montana, harmless; 
and sheep eat common hemlock without suffer- 
ing. See Animal and Vegetable Poisons, 
Fungi, Sheep, Diseases of. Yew, &c. 

POITTEVIN'S MANURE. A compound or- 
ganic and earthy manure powder, well adapted 
for the use of the drill. See Manures appli- 
cable BY THE Drill. 

In three experiments with this manure, tried 
in 1840, on turnips against bones, the following 
are the results. 







Produce, 






Tons. Cwt 


First, on the stony soil. 






24 bushels of Poittevin's - 


. 


- 9 2 


16 bushels of bones - 


. 


- 10 1 


Second, on a sandy soil. 






24 bushels of Poittevin's - 


_ 


- 15 10 


16 bushels of bones 


. 


- 13 14 


Third, on a sandy soil with Swedes. 




13 bushels of Poittevin's - 


. 


- 11 


12 bushels of bones - 


- 


- 10 5 



This manure answers best on light soils; it 
is generally used too sparingly. 

POLE. A measure of length equal to 16^ feet, 

POLLARD. A name given to a tree that 
has been frequently polled or lopped, and its 
top taken off, or headed down to the stem, for 
the purpose of fire-wood or small poles for 
hurdle-wood and other similar uses, as well as 
for hop-poles, «&c. The term is most com- 
monly in use in the southern and eastern dis 
tricts of Great Britain. Pollard is also applied 
to the fine bran or inner husk of wheat. It is 
a substance much used in feeding hogs and 
different domestic animals. 

POLLEN. In botany, the pulverulent sub- 
stance which fills the cells of the anthers of a 
plant, consisting of a multitude of little hollow 
cases, filled with a fluid holding very minute 
molecular matter in suspension. The latter is 
eventually discharged by the grains of pollen 
through their hollow tubes, and is supposed to 
be the spermatic fluid of a plant. When the 
pollen alights on the stigma of the plant, the 
membrane lining the shell is protruded to a 
tube, which enters the stigma, and lengthens 
until it reaches the ovule, into which it empties 
the impregnating fluid. The pollen grains 
vary in form and magnitude, being globular, 
angular, compressed, simple, and compound. 
Pollen is also a provincial name given to the 
hen-roost. It is sometimes written hen-pollen. 

POLL-EVIL. An accident which sometimes 
occurs to horses, from the animal's rubbing or 
striking his head against the lower edge of the 
manger, or hanging back in the stall and 
bruising the part with the halter. Such inju- 
ries are serious in their nature and difficult of 
treatment, and will usually require the skill 
and anatomical knowledge of the veterinary 
surgeon. 

POLYPODY. (Polypodium, from poly, many 
and pmis, a foot; having numerous root-like 
feet. This is an extensive genus of very orna- 
mental ferns. The hardy kinds are well 
adapted for ornamenting rock-work, or they 
may be grown in pots, in light loamy soil. 
All the species may be readily increased by 
dividing the roots, or by seeds. 

There are in England four indigenous spe- 
cies. 

921 



POMEGRANATE. 

POMEGRANATE (Punica, from punicus of ; 
" Carthage," near which city it is said to have 
been first found; or from pwiiceus, scarlet; 
alluding to the colour of the flowers). A beau- 
tiful, hardy, deciduous shrub, growing from 12 
to 15 feet high. There is no tree more showy , 
than the pomegranate. P. graimtum, and its 1 
varieties, produce their splendid flowers and 
fruit very plentifully from July to September, 
when planted against a south wall. They all 
grow well in a light, rich loam, and strike root 
freely from cuttings or layers ; the rarer varie- 
ties are sometimes increased by grafting on the 
common kinds. The pomegranate requires 
shelter from frost. The pulp of the fruit is of 
an agreeable acid, and the rind is highly 
astringent. 

POPLAR (Populus; some derive the word 
from paipallo, to vibrate or shake ; others sup- 
pose it obtained its name from being used in 
ancient times to decorate the public places in 
Rome, where it was called Arbor populi, or the 
tree of the people). Most of the species of 
poplar are very ornamental, more especially in 
early spring, when the catkins of the males are 
produced. Their favourite place of growth is 
in moist soil, near a running stream ; but they 
do not thrive in very marshy situations. All 
the species are readily increased by cuttings 
or layers, and some by suckers. There are in 
England four indigenous species of poplar: the 
white poplar, already noticed under the head 
Abele Tree; the gray or common white pop- 
lar (P. canescens) ; the trembling poplar (See 
Aspen) ; and the black poplar (P. nigra). 

The black Italian, or necklace-bearing poplar 
(P. momlifcra), appears to have been first intro- 
duced into Britain from NorthAmerica, in 1772. 
Of all the poplars hitherto introduced, it is by far 
the most valuable, looking to it in the light of 
a useful and profitable timber tree, as it grows 
with astonishing rapidity, and produces a tim- 
ber of large scantling and excellent quality, 
equal, if not superior, to that of any other of 
its genus. The wood is of a grayish-white 
colour, tough when seasoned, and, if kept dry, 
very durable; its great size renders it fit for 
the largest buildings, and as flooring for manu- 
factories and other erections, nothing can sur- 
pass it; for, in addition to the property of not 
splitting by percussion, it possesses the pecu- 
liar advantage of not easily taking fire, and, 
even when ignited, burning without flame or 
violence. As an ornamental tree, it well de- 
serves a place in extensive grounds, its spiry 
height and pyramidal form, before it becomes 
aged, being well calculated to break long hori- 
zontal lines, or the monotonous efiect of round- 
headed trees : it also in a great measure, from 
its semi-fastigiate growth in the young state, 
supplies the place of the Lombardy poplar in 
such scenery, either of wooded landscape or 
in combination with buildings, as is improved 
by the presence of that tree. 

The Lombardy poplar {P. fastigiata). In its 
close fastigiate growth and cypress-like form, 
whicn seems to be retained during the whole 
ol its existence, the Lombardy poplar is too 
conspicuous not to be immediately recognised 
and readily distinguished from all other spe- 
cie" of the genus. As a useful and profitable 
932 



POPLAR. 

timber tree it is greatly inferior to some of the 
species already described, the twisted and 
deeply-furrowed trunk, even of the tallest and 
largest trees, cutting to much waste, and afford- 
ing boards of only a moderate size when sawn 
up. The wood is also softer and more spongy 
than that of the black and the black Italian 
poplars, and rapidly decays unless kept per- 
fectly dry. In Britain, therefore, it is cultivated 
almost exclusively as an ornamental tree, for 
which its towering height and spire-like form 
eminently qualify it. 

The Athenian poplar (P. Graca) as an or- 
namental tree is superior, in many respects, to 
the aspen (to which it is closely allied). It 
grows rapidly, young trees often making shoots 
in one season of 5 or 6 feet in length, and, 
though a slender-stemmed tree, it has the valu- 
able property of resisting the wind, and is never 
seen, even in the most exposed situations, but 
an erect and perpendicular trunk. 

The bark of all the poplars is more or less 
antiperiodic and tonic, containing an alkali, 
which can be procured separate, and is known 
by the name of Salicina. It may be used for 
curing agues in the same manner as Quinine, 
an alkaloid got from Peruvian bark. 

There are many North American species of 
poplar, among which is the tulip tree (itrio- 
dendron tulipifera), one of the most majestic 
trees of the American forests, but which has 
been improperly classed among the poplars. 
See Tulip Tree. 

The other and more genuine species is the 
Carolina poplar (P. angulatd). The lower part 
of Virginia, says Michaux, is the most northern 
point at which this species is found. 

In the shape of its leaves and other charac- 
teristics, it bears a very strong resemblance to 
the cotton tree. The two species may, how- 
ever, be readily distinguished by their buds, 
those of the Carolina poplar being short, of a 
deep green, and destitute of the resinous, aro- 
matic substance which covers those of the 
cotton-wood, and of which the vestiges remain 
till late in the season. The wood of the Caro- 
lina poplar is white, but so very soft as to be 
of little value. 

The Cotton-wood (P. Canadensis). — I have 
found this tree, says Michaux, in the upper 
part of the State of New York, on the banks 
of the Genesee, in some parts of Virginia, and 
on several islands in the Ohio, always on a 
fat, alluvial soil. 

The leaves of this tree are trowel-shaped, 
approaching to heart-shaped. The seeds are 
surrounded with a beautiful plume which has 
the whiteness of cotton, and the young buds 
are covered with a resinous, aromatic sub- 
stance of an agreeable odour. In the Atlantic 
States this poplar is rare, and has received no 
specific name. 

American poplar (JP. Hurt sonic a). — This species, 
Michaux says, he found only on the banks of 
the Hudson, above Albany, where it attained 
a height of 30 or 40 feet, with 12 to 15 inches 
in diameter. Several large poplars of this 
kind grow in and near the city of New York, 
where it is usually called American black 
poplar. 

Virginia poplar {P.monilifera). — This species 



poppy. 



POPPY, THE HORNED. 



was not found by the Michaux, but has been 
long cultivated in Europe as a North American 
tree. It is also called the Swiss poplar, and is 
confounded with the cotton-wood. 

Cotton tree (P. argentia). This species is 
scattered over a great extent of country com- 
prising the Middle, Western, and Southern 
States ; but it is so rare as to escape the no- 
tice of the greater part of their inhabitants. It 
is called cotton-wood on the Savannah in 
Georgia, where it is confounded with the Ca- 
rolinian poplar. 

Tacaniahaca or Balsam poplar (P. balsamica). 
This species belongs to the northern regions 
of America, being very abundant in Canada, 
in the districts watered by the river Sagney, 
between the 47th and 49th degrees of latitude, 
where, notwithstanding the severity of the win- 
ter, it rises to the height of 80 feet, with a dia- 
meter of 3 feet. In the spring, when the buds 
begin to be developed, they are abundantly 
coated with a yellowish, glutinous substance, 
of a very agreeable smell. 

Heari-leaved balsam poplar (P. candicans^. In 
the Northern and Eastern States, this tree, 
which Michaux says is a genuine balsam, is 
commonly seen growing before the houses in 
town and country. In spring, a fragrant re- 
sinous balsam exudes from its buds ; but it 
differs from the Tacamahaca, its leaves being 
three times larger and more heart-shaped. 

American aspen, (P. tremuloides). See Aspen, 

Am Kill CAN. 

American large aspen (P. grandidenta). This 
species belongs rather to the Northern and 
Middle than to' the Southern States. It is larger 
than the preceding species, with which it is 
usually confounded. 

POPPY (Papaver, from papa, pap, or thick 
milk; the juice of the poppy was formerly 
used in children's food to make them sleep). 
These plants succeed best in a light, rich soil. 
The perennial kinds are increased by dividing 
at the roots. All the species are narcotic. In 
England there are six indigenous species of 
poppy, which are nearly all annuals. They 
are arranged under two sections: — 1. Those 
with bristly capsules; 2. Those with smooth cap- 
sules. 

The 1st section contains the round, rough- 
headed poppy (P. hybriditm), which grows in 
sandy or chalky fields. This is not a hybrid, 
as its name implies, but a true permanent 
species. 

Long, rough-headed poppy (P. argemone). 
This grows in grain fields and thin borders, 
also on gravelly or sandy soils. It is annual, 
and flowers in June and July. The herbage 
resembles the preceding, but the bristles are 
less closely pressed to the stem, and the seg- 
ments of the leaves are somewhat broader. 
Petals pale-scarlet, black at the base, soon 
falling, often jagged. 

The 2d section contains the long, smooth- 
headed poppy (P. dubium). This species is 
found in cultivated fields, especially on a light 
soil. Annual, and flowering in June and July. 
It is of a stouter, more luxuriant habit than the 
foregoing, with broader leaves. The stem is 
clothed with spreading hairs ; the flower-stalks 
with close-pressed bristles. Petals broader 



than they are long, of a light-scarlet, the mar- 
gin mostly crenate. 

Common red poppy, or corn rose (P. rhaas) 
See CoHN Poppy. This is the only officinal 
species of the British poppies ; but it is used 
in medicine merely as a colouring agent. 

White poppy (P. somniferum). This species 
appears to grow wild on sandy ground in the 
neighbourhood of some of the fen lands. But 
it is probable that in places where it is found 
apparently wild, the seed from the cultivated 
poppy has been deposited by birds. The som- 
niferous poppy is a native of Asia and Egypt. 
It is cultivated in Hindostan, Persia, and Egypt, 
on account of its opium ; in Germany for the 
oil expressed from its seeds ; and in England 
for the capsules, which are used in medicine. 
It is universally known in our gardens as an 
ornamental flower, and is much cultivated in 
the vicinity of London. The whole herb is 
glaucous, and generally smooth, though the 
flower-stalks now and then bear several rigid, 
spreading, bristly hairs. The stem is 3 or 4 
feet high, erect, branched, leafy. Leaves broad, 
wavy, lobed, and bluntly notched, clasping the 
stem with their heart-shaped base. Flowers 3 
inches broad, white or bluish-white, with a 
broad violet spot at the base of each petal. In 
gardens, double varieties of every shade of 
purple, scarlet, crimson, and even green mixed 
with white, are common, though nothing can 
be more liable to change. The capsule is near- 
ly globular. Seed small, whitish-brown, oily, 
sweet, and eatable. There are two varieties, 
namely, P. album and P. nigrum, chiefly distin- 
guished by the foramina under the stigma be- 
ing absent in the former, and present and open 
in the latter. The milky juice of the capsules, 
when abstracted by transverse incisions and 
inspissated, forms opium, which, as Haller well 
observes, is far more potent and dangerous in 
hot countries than in our cooler climates. The 
capsules boiled afford a mild, narcotic decoc- 
tion, more generally used for fomentations in 
inward pains, and for making a syrup, which 
is misused by lazy nurses, who administer it 
to restless infants, and sacrifice them to their 
own love of ease. Nothing is more to be con- 
demned than the indiscriminate use of syrup 
of poppies. No opium, except as experiment, 
is made from poppies in England ; and, could 
it be made, both it and the foreign opium 
should never be employed except by the advice 
of those who alone ought to direct its use. 

Yellow poppy (P. cambrkum). This is a pe- 
rennial species (and the only indigenous one) 
which flourishes in moist, rocky situations in 
Wales and Westmoreland. It flowers in June. 
The herbage is tender, brittle, of a light, slight- 
ly glaucous green ; its juice lemon-coloured- 
Stera a foot high, many-flowered, thinly cover- 
ed with upright hairs, leafy, branched. Flow- 
ers of a most elegant, full lemon colour, deli- 
ciously fragrant. 

Field poppy (Papaver dubium), bastard poppy. 
This foreign annual, says Dr. Darlington, has 
made its appearance in some of the cultivated 
grounds of Pennsylvania and other parts of tho 
United States, and, if neglected, may becomif 
a troublesome weed. 
POPPY, THE HORNED. See Horned Poppi 

923 



POPULATION. 

POPULATION. As very erroneous notions 
with regard to over-population are often enter- 
tained, and as many of the most philanthropic 
men in England have, at considerable personal 
trouble and cost, promoted emigration, to avert 
the evils of war, pestilence, and famine, from 
what Mr. Malthus supposes to be the tendency 
of mankind to excessive population, it may be 
well for the public to peruse a paper {Quart. 
Journ. Jgr. vol. iii. p. 89), which, in detail, 
ably examines and refutes many of Mr, Mal- 
thus's data, calculations, and conclusions. 
Mr. Malthus slates, from data derived through 
a variety of sources, that the average births 
from each marriage are — 

III Europe 4-000 

England 4-136 

France, during the six years ending in 1822 - 4-370 

Russia 4-110 

America (in towns) according to Mr. Barton 4500 

America (in town and country average) - 5-000 

But, from returns made to government, it 
appears that the average births in England and 
Wales, during the 30 years ending 1820, fell 
considerably under 4 from each marriage; and 
of these, from personal deformity, and a hun- 
dred other causes, a considerable portion of 
women must remain unmarried. 

But supposing every woman, married or sin- 
gle, who lived to 18 years of age, should have 7 
children, and the rate of mortality as favour- 
able as at Carlisle, the population would re- 
quire more than 26 years to double itself; and 
25 years is the lowest rate of increase Mr. 
Malthus has contemplated. But, supposing 
one-tenth part of all the women who attain 20 
to remain in a state of celibacy, and the rest 
were to bear each 3-66 children, which is stated 
by Mr. Sadler to be the average prolificness in 
England, and the mortality continued as at 
Carlisle, the population would remain entirely 
stationary. In the rich and fertile countr)' of 
France, the population is nearly stationary, 
and in Ireland, population increases faster 
than in England; which can only be account- 
ed for by the institutions which encourage in- 
creased forethought before entering on the 
married state. Amongst barbarous nations, the 
period of marriage is almost always early; but 
as countries become civilized, a portion of early 
life is devoted to labour of mind and body; and 
the desire of distinction in some, and, amongst 
all, the pursuit of gain, delays marriage ; and, 
happily for mankind, nothing is less consist- 
ent with universal experience than the terrible 
succession of evils Mr. Malthus fears from 
over-population. Natural evils, and the more 
dreadful effects of misrule, have, indeed, spread 
death and desolation ; but the consequences 
have not been increased plenty to the surviv- 
ors: on the contrary, the page of history shows 
that, in the fairest portions of the habitable 
world, poverty and want have followed de- 
creasing numbers. 

Whereas the wiser the laws, and, consequent- 
ly, the more secure person and property, the slower 
men are to marry till they have secured for 
themselves and families, in a habitation of their 
own, the conveniences they were used to under 
■.heir paternal roofs ; and, consequently, the 
Cjs tendency to the excessive multiplication 
924 



POPULATION. 

of mankind; and we refer to Scotland, Prance, 
&c., as existing proofs. 

No society, well governed, we repeat, has 
been known to outgrow, or tend to outgrow, its 
means of subsistence. When, in our own coun- 
try, one of the most populous in the world, we 
see how far the earth is yet from producing all 
that labour, well-directed, can bring forth, when 
we look at the tracts lying waste or half-culti- 
vated, we must see how little it is to be feared 
as a possible evil, that our population will ever 
increase beyond the means of supplying itself 
with food. We have only to look to what mi- 
nute care can eflfect in multiplying the produce 
of the earth, to feel in what a prodigious ratio 
it may be multiplied. A piece of heath land 
the most worthless, converted into a cottager's 
garden, yields a return of food exceeding thai 
of the richest land of the cultivated fields. And 
nothing prevents the increase of this species of 
culture but the want of hands to cultivate and 
of mouths to consume. Every vegetable that 
grows, and is consumed, affords new materials 
for fertilizing the earth, and increasing its pro- 
ductions ; and thus every increase of the num- 
ber of consumers is a means of calling new 
food into existence. 

The introduction of a single plant from 
another hemisphere has more than doubled 
the power of this and of every country in Eu- 
rope to support their inhabitants. An acre of 
potatoes will supply food sufficient for the sup- 
port, in healthful existence, of a family of 6 hu- 
man beings for one year; a square mile of land 
producing potatoes, therefore, will support 3840 
persons for the same time. But the produce 
of the potato is as nothing to that of the banana 
and other plants of the tropical regions. Nor 
does the produce of the potato in our fields 
show the full power of the earth to produce 
food. By the minute cares of the gardener, 
successive crops of vegetables may be pro- 
duced from the same surface, and in the same 
season. Our present knowledge of agriculture 
shows us, that throughout the whole kingdom 
the productions of the earth may be prodi- 
giously multiplied ; but what our present know- 
ledge of this art is in comparison with what it 
may become, we know not. What other plants 
are yet to be applied to the support of animal 
life, what other means of fertilizing the earth 
are yet to be discovered, what other application 
of mechanical power may yet take place in aid 
of human labour, we know not; nor need we, 
with relation to our present subject, be too 
curious in inquiring. It suffices that, with our 
present means and knowledge, limited as they 
are, we can multiply our means of subsistence 
in a degree to furnish food for increasing num- 
bers for more generations of men than the 
cares of the living race need extend to. 

And if such be the case with a long-peopled 
country, what must we think of the fear that 
the entire world will be over-peopled? The 
richest regions of the globe have yet been 
scarcely trodden by the foot of the hunter; a 
great part of Europe is still a desert; and a 
long desolation has overspread lands that once 
were the seats of nations, and which only de- 
mand security that they may be blessed with 
abundance again. Such as Asia Minor, Syria, 



POPULATION. 



PORES. 



and Greece, and such the long-desolated shores 1 north of England, and even the shingle of its 



of Northern Africa. It is not Nature that is 
barren of her gifts, but it is man that has 
abused them all; and, in the climates and the 
lands where we might look for the verdure of 
an eternal spring, we find only the moving 
mountains and interminable tracts of the de- 
sert. 

It is unnecessary, perhaps, to enlarge upon 
this statement, but one or two facts will surely 
convince the most incredulous that we are not 
yet nearly arrived at the maximum available 
produce of the earth. Even as regards the 
saving in the seed-corn, we have witnessed in 
our time that the drill has done much, and the 
dibbling system still more ; but, by transplant- 
ing, greater things may yet be done. I will 
illustrate this position by only one or two facts 
out of many of a similar kind that I am ac- 
quainted with. At the Battle Horticultural 
show (in 1837), R. White received a prize for 
fil fine ears of wheat growing from one grain, 
which are deposited at the apartments of the 
Labourer's Friend Society in Exeter Hall, and 
another prize at the Society for Encouragement 
of Arts, &c., in the Adelphi, and similar pre- 
miums are again offered there and elsewhere. 
P. Brown raised that year 345 roots, with 4250 
ears, from one grain, since June, 1836, the 
plants having been divided three times ; and it 
is recorded in the Philosophical Transactions for 
1768, that in the same space of time, one grain 
of wheat produced 21,109 ears, containing 
576,840 grains, or nearly a bushel of clean 
grain ; thus, an acorn cup would hold seed- 
wl»eat enough to raise plants for an acre of 
land, and full 10,000,000 bushels of seed-wheat 
might be saved on the 4,000,000 acres under 
wheat in England and Scotland ; which quan- 
tity, allowing 8 bushels to each person, would 
support 1,250,000 persons, who, if employed in 
weeding the crops, would double the produce, 
as is shown by the increased crops raised by 
the tenants under the allotment system. 

And again, as regards manuring the soil, 
agriculture is yet only in its infancy; crushed 
bones, now so extensively employed, were un- 
known as fertilizers 25 years since ; gypsum, 
which abounds in England, is only slowly com- 
ing into use; and millions of tons of the rich- 
est manure are now annually wasted in our 
cities and towns — suffered to putrefy in cess- 
pools, or poured into the sea through a thou- 
sand sewers; "and yet," says the Thames Im- 
provement Company, "strange as it may ap- 
pear, England is almost the only nation in 
Europe, notwithstanding its advance in agri- 
cultural knowledge, which suffers the peculiar 
manure in question to be wasted and cast 
away; while all the other nations on the Con- 
tinent, and even China, husband it, and trea- 
sure it up for their lands, make it an object of 
extensive and lucrative traffic, and some ex- 
port it to their colonies. The principal Lon- 
don sewers have been carefully gauged, and 
are found to convey daily into the river 
Thames 115,608 tons of mixed drainage." 

By these and other certain improvements, 
we may safely conclude that, as regards the 
cultivation of the most barren tracts, the drift- 
ing sands of Norfolk, the heath lands of the 



sea-coast, hardly a tithe has yet been effected 
in the way of cultivation. At the suggestion 
of the Archbishop of Dublin, an acre of shingle 
at East Bourn was covered with 3 or 4 inches 
of clay, at a cost of only 16rf. This has formed 
a plate to retain what mould, &c., the tenant 
has added, who has hired this ground for four- 
teen years at 40s. per acre. So no land is 
hopelessly barren. Let such improvements 
proceed ; let science go hand in hand with the 
farmer; let the naturalist find new cultivala- 
ble vegetables, or new varieties of those al- 
ready known ; let the chemist yield his magic 
aid to demonstrate the best mode of promoting 
their growth and increasing the fertility of the 
soil; and then, I fearlessly assert that many 
times the present inhabitants of Britain may 
be amply supported by the produce of the land 
of our birth. 

POPULATION, AGRICULTURAL, OF 
THE UNITED STATES. By the census of 
1840, it appears that the number of all the 
males, of 10 years old and upwards, in the 
United States and Territories, exclusive of the 
naval service, was 5,907,752. The whole 
population of the Union was 17,069,453, of 
which the number engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits is more than a fifth part of the whole 
population. When this is compared with the 
proportions engaged in some other pursuits, 
we find the next most numerous class com 
prised of those engaged in the various manu- 
factures and trades, which, in the non-slave- 
holding states and territories, amounts to 1 in 
17, and in the slave states to 1 in 40 — averag- 
ing, in the whole Union, 1 to 22 of all the in- 
habitants. The largest proportion of manu- 
facturers is in Rhode Island, where it consti- 
tutes about four-fifths of all the males above 
20 years of age ; next in Massachusetts ; next 
in Connecticut; next in New Jersey; next in 
New York. The proportion employed in com- 
merce comprises, in the free states, 1 in 122, 
and in the slave states 1 in 197 — the average 
in all the states being 1 in 146 of the whole 
population. The largest proportion is in Lou- 
isiana, which contains the great depot for the 
commerce of the Mississippi Valley. The 
next largest is in Wisconsan Territory, and 
the next in Rhode Island. The proportion em- 
ployed in ocean navigation is greatest in 
Massachusetts, where it amounts to 27,153, 
being 1 in 31 of the whole population of the 
state, and nearly one-half of all those engaged 
in the same pursuits in the whole Union, viz., 
56,021, or 1 in 305. The next greatest is in 
Maine, where it amounts to 10,091, being 1 in 
49-72 of the state population. New York has 
5511, Connecticut 2700, and Pennsylvania 
1815, employed in ocean navigation. The pro- 
portion engaged in the learned professions, in- 
cluding engineers, amounts to 45,162, or 1 in 
217 of the whole population of the free states, 
and 20,093, or 1 in 361, of the whole inhabitants 
of the slave states. 

PORES. In botany, apertures, more or less 
visible, in the cuticle of plants, through which 
transpiration takes place. They may exist on 
the cellular tissue ; and when there they are 
the organs of insensible perspiration of the 
4 1 925 



PORK. 



POTATO. 



plant: they may exist as cortical pores; or 
on the leaf as stomata or breathing pores. 
Pores also exist in some kinds of anthers, 
through which the pollen is ejected ; as in the 
potato {Solanum tuherosuin). 

PORK. The flesh of swine killed for culi- 
nary purposes. See Bacon, Ham, Meat, 
SwixE, &c. 

PORTER. A well-known malt liquor. See 
Alk, Bkeii, and Buewing. 

POTASH, or POTASSA. The name of one 
(if the alkalies, composed of 39-15 parts of pe- 
culiar metal called potassium, 8 parts of oxy- 
gen, and 9 of water. It derives its common 
name from being first obtained from the ashes 
of vegetable substances which had been burn- 
ed in iron pots, hence named pot-ashes. Pot- 
ash is found in almost all land plants, in com- 
bination with the tartaric, citric, or other vege- 
table acid. The potash in these is no doubt an 
essential food or constituent of vegetation, and 
there is no fertile soil which does not, in some 
form or other, contain this alkali. It exists, 
however, in plants in varying proportions. 
See Alkali. The potash of commerce is an 
impure carbonate mingled with salts of lime 
and other substances. In its separate or pure 
state, free from carbonic acid, it is a white 
salt, powerfully attracting moisture from the 
air, very soluble in water and in alcohol, cor- 
rc.'ding animal substances, consequently de- 
stroying the skin when applied to it. Bat pot- 
ash usually means the carbonate. The quan- 
tity procured from different plants varies. 
Fumitory yields 79'0 in 1000 parts, worm- 
wood 73-0, young wheat-stalks 47-0, thistles 
.35-0, vetch 27-5, common nettle 25-3, the sun- 
flower 20-0, bean-stalks 20-0, barley straw 5-8, 
vine-shoots 5-5, wheat-straw 3-9, and flax 5-0. 
The younger a plant is, if full-grown, the more 
potash it yieldsi 

" The perfect developement of a plant," says 
Ijiebig (Organic Chem. p. 104), "according to 
this view, is dependent on the presence of alka- 
lies, or alkaline earths, for when these sub- 
stances are totally wanting, its growth will be 
arrested, and when they are only deficient it 
must be impeded. In order to apply these re- 
marks, let us compare two kinds of trees, the 
wood of which contain unequal quantities of 
alkaline bases, and we shall find that one of 
these grows luxuriantly in several soils, upon 
which others are scarcely able to vegetate. 
For example, lO-OOO parts of oak wood yield 
250 parts of ashes, the same quantity of fire- 
wood only 83, of linden wood 500, of rye 440, 
and of the herb of the potato plant 1500 parts. 
Firs and pines find a sufficient quantity of al- 
kalies in granitic and barren, sandy soils, in 
which oaks will not grow, and wheat thrives 
in soils favourable for the linden tree, because 
the bases which are necessary to bring it to 
complete maturity exist there in sufficient 
quantity. The accuracy of these conclusions, 
so highly important to agriculture, and to the 
cultivation of forests, can be proved by the 
most evident facts. All kinds of grasses, the 
equisetaceae, for example, contain, in the outer 
pans of th^ir leaves and stalks, a large quantity 
of silicic acid (silica), and potash in the form of 
acid silicate of potash. The proportion of this 
926 



salt does not vary perceptibly in the soil of 
corn-fields, because it is again conveyed to 
them as manure, in the form of putrefying 
straw. But this is not the case in a meadow; 
and hence we never find a luxuriant crop of 
grass on sandy and calcareous soils, which 
contain little potash, evidently because one of 
the constituents essential to the growth of 
plants is wanting. Soils formed from basalt, 
grauwacke, and porphyry, are, cceteris paribus, 
the best for meadow land, on account of the 
quantity of potash which enters into their com- 
position." 

In the experiments of the Rev. E. Cartwright 
with various manures applied to potatoes, 
wood-ashes, which contain potash, were found 
to produce very superior effects to several 
others : thus, where the soil, without any dress- 
ing, produced 157 bushels per acre, the land 
dressed with 60 bushels of wood-ashes yielded 
187 ; with 60 bushels of malt-dust, 184 bushels ; 
with 363 bushels of decayed leaves, 175 bush- 
els ; with 363 bushels of saw-dust, 155 bushels; 
with 121 bushels of lime, 150 bushels per acre. 
(Com. Board of ^gr. vol. iv. p. 370.) See Green 
Sand, Alkalis, and Salts. 

POTATO (Solanwn tuberosum). A valuable, 
well-known root, first imported from America 
into England by Sir Walter Raleigh, and first 
grown at Youghall, in Ireland. In many parts 
of England this tuberose plant is very exten- 
sively cultivated, both in the field and in the 
garden ; but, in districts removed from large 
towns, or convenient markets, its cultivation 
is of necessity restricted to the garden, or for 
the consumption of the live-stock of the farm. 
As regards the field management of the crop, 
a writer in a popular journal remarks, when 
speaking of the preparation of the ground — 

" It is, I know, customary, upon a large scale, 
to plough the land and make it tolerably fine 
before potatoes are planted ; but if it is plough- 
ed 5, 6, or 7 inches deep, and made fine and 
mellow, still at the bottom of such ploughing 
the land is hard and smooth ; and as the potato 
is a root that sends out fibres not only near the 
surface, but deeply, if possible, it can never por- 
duce such a crop as where the land is broken 
18 inches to 2 feet. The potato, like the cu- 
cumber, only enjoys itself in deeply pulverized 
soils, which causes them to flourish so much 
in well-managed sandy land. 

" I should therefore recommend that, in all 
land where potatoes are to be grown, if the 
land be springy, or otherwise damp, that it be 
drained deep enough to take off all springs or 
surface water. When this is done, the land 
should either be fully trenched, or bastard- 
trenched, by the spade or plough, but I prefer 
the spade. The width of the drills from each other 
must depend entirely upon the goodness of your 
soil : the richer the land, the wider apart must 
be your rows and sets in your rows ; say, in 
ordinary land rows, at 2 feet from each other, 
and 12 inches from set to set may do; but if 
your land be very rich, 3 feet from row to row, 
and 18 inches from plant to plant, will not be 
too much." 

In preserving your sets, always select the 
largest and finest potatoes you can procure ; 
do not use the small refuse or middling-sized. 



POTATO. 



POTATO. 



the plant and produce from the latter being 
much inferior. 

The potatoes most valued in field culture are 
the ox-noble, yam, champion, purple-red, rough- 
red, hundred-eyes, kidney, and Moulton white. 
The nutritive qualities of these were examined 
by Mr. George Sinclair, with his usual accu- 
racy. "The yam," he observes, "is a very 
productive variety, attains to a large size, but 
i; often hollow, and less nutritive than most 
others ; 64 drachms afford of nutritive matter 
190 grains, which consist of starch 164 grains, 
and saccharine and albuminous matters 31." 

The ox-noble is a productive potato, adapted 
for slock; and 64 drachms of it contain 194 
grains of nutritive matter, consisting of starch 
164, and saccharine, mucilaginous, and albu- 
minous matters 31. 

The purple-red is smaller than the ox-noble, 
but well-flavoured, and very prolific in light, 
moist soils: 64 drachms afforded 200 grains of 
nutritive matter, consisting of starch 169, and 
albuminous and saccharine matters 31 grains. 

The hundred-eye is very prolific on dry 
loams ; 64 drachms afford 218 grains of nutri- 
tive matter, composed of 170 grains of starch, 
and the rest albuminous and other matters. 

The rough-red produces plentiful crops on 
soils or climates of a moister nature than that 
adapted for the hundred-eyed variety : it is 
well-flavoured ; 64 drachms afford 250 grains 
of nutritive matter, which is composed of 199 
starch, and 46 mucillage, sugar, and albumen. 

The champion grows to a moderate size; is 
very productive, and little subject to the disease 
called curl. 

It is, hence, of great importance, in choosing 
seed potatoes, to consider the nature of the soil 
and climate ; thus some of our finest varieties, 
which yield abundantly when planted in suit- 
able soils and moist situations, will yield but 
in'''>rior returns when planted in drier situa- 

l v^..S. 



In 7000 grains, or 1 pound 
of the bread-fruit pota- 
to, I fcmnd by careful 
and repealed trials 

the Barbadoes potato 

black kidney potato 


Soluble 
matter. 


Starcb. 


Fibre. 


Water. 


975 
980 
970 


548 
667 
695 


477 
616 
622 


5000 
4737 
4713 



The soluble matters consisted of gum, or 
mucilage, extractive, and saline matters. 

The potato, although a tender plant, is grown 
in nearly all parts of the world, from the equa- 
tor to Norway; and although it is usual to 
plant it early in the spring, yet it is possible, by 
choosing a quick-ripening variety, to plant it 
successfully even as late as July. 

The best manures for the potato crop are 
common farm-yard compost, only partially de- 
composed, decayed leaves, sea-weed, the po- 
tato haulm, and any organic manures, that, 
while they afford nutriment, have a tendency, 
by rendering the soil lighter, to facilitate the 
extension of the roots. Lime is injurious to it. 
Pond mud or ditch scrapings, to each cubic 
yard of which, a month previously, a bushel of 
bacon salt, or other refuse common salt, has 
been mixed, is excellent. The soils best adapted 
for the cultivation of the potato are of the light, 



sandy, drained, peaty, or loamy description. 
It delights in fresh soils; those of a newly 
broken-up meadow, old woodlands, or the site 
of old yards or buildings, are excellent. It 
does not do well on wet clays. 

Potatoes are readily consumed by live-stock 
in their unboiled state ; but, generally speak- 
ing, they are best when steamed and mixed 
with chaff. 

The cultivation of the potato is thus de- 
scribed by Mr. George Johnson ; and although 
his remarks were intended for the gardener, 
yet they apply in a great measure to the field 
culture of this valuable root. 

The varieties of the potato are numerous, 
and continually increasing, as well as becom- 
ing extinct; the number, however, is very 
largely increased by local names for the same 
variety being classed distinct. 

For forcing, or first crop in the open ground: 
— there are Broughton Dwarf, Early Warwick, 
Ash-leaved Kidney ; Fox's Seedling, Early 
Manly, Early Mule, earliest for general culti- 
vation, Earley Kidney, Nonsuch, Early Shaw, 
Goldfinger. 

For main crops, the varieties are ranged in 
this class, according to their forwardness in 
ripening: — Early Champion, Ox Noble, Red- 
nose Kidney, Large Kidney, Bread-fruit, Red- 
streak or Lancashire Pink-eye, Black Skin, 
Purple, Red Apple, Rough Red. 

No inhabitant of the garden varies more in 
quality in different gardens than the potato ; 
for a variety will have a strong, unpleasant 
flavour in one soil, that has a sweet, agreeable 
one in another. In a heavy, wet soil, or a rank 
black loam, though the crop is often fine and 
abundant, it is scarcely ever palatable. Sili- 
cious soils, even approaching to gravel, though 
in these last the tubers are usually corroded or 
scabby, are always to be planted in preference 
to the above. A dry, mouldy, fresh, and mode- 
rately rich soil is unquestionably the best for 
every variety of the potato ; and, for the 
earliest crop, it may be with advantage more 
silicious than for the main ones. The black- 
skinned and rough red thrive better than any 
in moist or strong, cold soils. If manure is 
necessary, whatever may be the one employed, 
it is better spread regularly over the surface 
previous to digging, rather than put into the 
holes with the sets, or spread in the trench 
when they are so planted. Stable dung is, 
perhaps, the best of all factitious manures: 
sea-weed is a very beneficial addition to the 
soil, as is salt. Coal-ashes and sea-sand are 
applied with great benefit to retentive soils ; 
but calcareous matter should never be used. 
The situation must always be open. 

It is propagated in general from cuttings of 
the tubers, though the shoots arising from 
thence and layers of the stalks may be em 
ployed. New varieties are raised from seed. 
Planting in the open ground of the early kinds 
may commence towards the close of February, 
in a warm situation, and may thence be con- 
tinued until the same period of March ; and it 
is only during this latter month that any con- 
siderable plantation should be made, as the 
late frost are apt to injure, or even to destroy 
the advancing plants. In the course of April. 

927 



POTATO. 



POTATO. 



the main crops for winter's use should be in- 
serted ; for although in favourable seasons they 
will succeed if planted in May or even June, 
yet it ought always to be kept in mind that the 
earliest planted, especially in dry soils, pro- 
duce the finest and most abundant crops. 

Of the preparation of the sets, there is a 
great diversity of opinion. Some gardeners 
recommend the largest potatoes to be planted 
whole; others, these to be sliced into pieces, 
containing two or three eyes ; a third set, to 
cut the large tubers directly in half; a fourth, 
the employment of the shoots only which are 
thrown out, if potatoes are kept in a warm, 
damp situation ; and a fifth, that merely the 
parings be employed. Cuttings of the stalks, 
5 or 6 inches in length, or rooted suckers, will 
be productive, if planted during showery wea- 
ther in May or June ; and during this last 
month, or early in July, it may be propagated 
by layers, which are formed by pegging down 
the young stalks when about 12 inches long, 
they being covered 3 inches thick with mould 
at a joint. These three last modes are prac- 
tised more from curiosity than utility, whilst at 
the same time none of the first five mentioned 
plans can be individually followed to advan- 
tage, without modification. For the main crops, 
it is evident, from experiment, that moderate- 
sized sets, having two healthy buds or eyes, are 
most advantageously employed; middling-sized 
whole potatoes are the best, from which all but 
the above number of eyes have been removed, 
but especially having the crown, which is a 
congeries of small eyes always present, first 
removed; for from these proceed an equal 
number of little spindled stalks, which are 
comparatively worthless, and injure the main 
stem. 

For the early crops, almost the very con- 
trary to the above is the most advantageous to 
be practised. The set should have the crown 
eye, which is one growing in the centre of the 
congeries of small ones above mentioned, pre- 
served. Some potatoes have two such eyes, 
but the generality only one. This is always 
the most prompt to vegetate; and if not known 
by this description, may b"} evinced by placing 
two or three potatoes in a pan of moist earth, 
near the fire ; if the earth is kept moist, the 
crown eye will be in a slate of vegetation in 
five or six days. Again, as Mr. J. Knight re- 
marks, although abundant crops of late varie- 
ties may be obtained from very small sets, by 
reason that tubers are not produced until the 
stem and roots become capable of supplying 
them with nourishment; yet, to obtain early 
crops, where tubers are rapidly formed under 
a diametrically opposite state of the plant, 
large sets must be employed ; in these, one or 
two eyco, at most, should be allowed to remain. 
Mr. Knight plants the largest undivided tubers, 
which, from experiments, evidently support the 
plants, and finally produce the earliest and 
largest produce he ever obtained. Another re- 
mark, which he makes, restrictively for the 
earlv crops, but may well be attended to for all, 
is, that ii the sets are placed with their leading 
buds upwards, few and very strong early stems 
will be produced ; but if the position is re- 
versed, many weak and later shoots will arise, 
028 



and not only the earliness, but the quality of 
the produce be depreciated. For the earliest 
crops, there are likewise several modes of as 
sisting the forward vegetation of the sets. 
These should be prepared in November, by 
removing every eye but one or two ; and being 
placed in a layer, in a warm room, where air 
and light can be freely admitted, with a cover- 
ing of straw, they soon emit shoots, which 
must be strengthened by exposure to the air 
and light as much as possible, by taking off 
the covering without injuring them. During 
cold weather, and at night, it must always be 
renewed. The leaves soon become green, and 
tolerably hardy. In early spring they are 
planted out, the leaves being left just above the 
surface, and a covering of litter afforded every 
night, until the danger of frost is passed. The 
only modification of this plan that is adopted 
in Cheshire, where they are celebrated for the 
early production of potatoes, is, that they em- 
ploy chaff or sand for a covering instead of 
straw. The most preferable mode of inserting 
them, is with the dibble, in rows, for the early 
crops, 12 inches apart each way; and for the 
main ones 18. The set should never be placed 
more than 4 inches beneath the surface in the 
lightest soil, but in the more tenacious ones, 
3 is the extreme. The potato dibble is the best 
instrument that can be employed; one person 
striking the holes, and a second dropping the 
sets, the earth being afterwards raked or struck 
in with the spade. There are several other 
modes of insertion, as opening a small hole 
with a narrow spade, and the set being dropped 
in, it is covered by the earth taken out in form- 
ing the next hole : or, at the time of digging 
over the ground, a second person follows the 
one so employed, and places the sets in the 
trench he opens in the pursuance of his work; 
but both these modes are open to numerous 
obvious objections. 

The compartment may be laid out level and 
undivided, if the soil is mouldy and favour- 
able ; but if a heavy one is necessarily em- 
ployed, it is best disposed in beds, 6 or 8 feet 
wide. If the staple of the soil is good through- 
out, the alleys may be 2 feet wide, and dug deep, 
otherwise they must be made broader, and only 
one spit taken out, the earth removed being 
employed to raise the beds. If the land is low 
and wet, it is still further of advantage, after 
the beds, which should not be more than 4 feet 
wide, have been thus raised, if they are dug in 
parallel ridges, and the sets inserted along their 
summits. Some gardeners, on such soils, with- 
out digging the surface, lay some long litter on 
the intended beds ; upon this the sets being 
placed, some more litter is thrown regularly 
over them ; the earth is then dug from the 
alleys, and turned to the requisite depth over 
the whole. As soon as the plants are well to 
be distinguished, they should be perfectly freed 
from weeds ; and, of the early crops, the earth 
drawn round each plant, so as to form a cup, 
as a shelter from the cold winds, which are 
their chief enemy at that season ; but the main 
crops need not be earthed up until the plants 
are 6 inches in height. It is contended by 
some that this practice is immaterial in its 
effect. If the earth is brought so as to be of 



POTATO. 



POTATO. 



considerable depth about the stems, it must be 
even injurious ; but if properly performed, it is 
certainly beneficial. Throughout their growth 
they should be kept perfectly clear of weeds. 
It is very injurious to mow off their tops, as is 
sometimes recommended. The foliage ought 
to be kept as uninjured as possible, unless, as 
sometimes occurs on fresh ground, the plants 
are of gigantic luxuriance, and, even then, the 
stems should be only moderately shortened. 
It is, however, of considerable advantage to 
remove the fruit-stalks and immature flowers 
as soon as they appear. This has been de- 
monstrated by the experiments of President 
Knight, and others ; indeed, that such would 
be the case is a reasonable expectation, since 
it is known that the early formation of tubers 
prevents the production of blossom. It is also 
worthy of notice, that a potato plant continues 
to form tubers until the flowers appear, after 
which it is employed in ripening those already 
formed. 

The very earliest crops will be in production 
in June, or perhaps towards the end of May, 
and may thence be taken up as wanted, until 
October, at the close of which month, or during 
November, they may be entirely dug up and 
stored; or, at all events, before the arrival of 
any severe frost. Their fitness to be taken up 
for keeping is intimated by the decay of their 
foliage, which generally loses its verdure with 
the first frosts. The best instrument with which 
they can be dug up is a three-flat-pronged fork, 
each row being cleared regularly away. The 
tubers should be sorted at the time of taking 
them up ; for as the largest keep the best, they 
alone should be stored, whilst the smaller ones 
are first made use of. The most common mode 
of preserving them throughout the winter is in 
heaps or clamps, sometimes called pycing them. 
These are laid in pyramidal form, on a bed 
of straw, and enveloped with a covering 6 or 8 
inches thick, of the same material, laid even, 
as in thatching, and the whole enclosed with 
earth, in a conical form, a foot thick, taken 
from a trench dug round the heap, well smooth- 
ened with the back of the spade. Potatoes 
should not be stored until perfectly dry, nor 
unless free from mould, refuse, ahJ wounded 
tubers. It is a good practice to keep a hole 
open on four different sides of the heap, entirely 
through the mould and straw, for a week or 
two after the heap is formed ; for in proportion 
to its size it always ferments, and these orifices 
allow the escape of the vapours, and perfect 
the drying. An equally good mode, and much 
more convenient, is to have them heaped in a 
dry shed, and covered thick with straw, as op- 
portunity is given to look over them occa- 
sionally for the removal of decayed tubers, 
shoots, &c. If carefully preserved, they con- 
tinue in perfection until late in the following 
summer. A variety of the potato is generally 
considered to continue about 14 years in per- 
fection, after which period it gradually loses its 
good qualities, becoming of inferior flavour and 
unproductive. Fresh varieties must therefore 
be occasionally raised from seed. For doing 
this there are two modes; the first of these, 
about to be detailed, is, however, the one 
usually pursued. 

117 



The berries or apples of the old stock having 
hung in a warm room throughout the winter, 
the seed must be obtained from them by wash- 
ing away the pulp during February. This is 
thoroughly dried, and kept until April, and then 
sown in drills about half an inch deep, and 6 
inches apart, in a rich mouldy soil. The plants 
are weeded, and earth drawn up to their stems 
when an inch in height ; as soon as this has 
increased to three inches, they are moved into 
a similar soil, in rows 16 inches apart each 
way, and during their future growth earthed 
up 2 or 3 times. Being finally taken up in the 
course of October, they must be preserved 
until the following spring, to be then replanted, 
and treated as for store crops. (Dr. Hunter^s 
Georg. Essays.) 

Some gardeners sow in a moderate hot-bed, 
very thin, in drills, the same depth as above, 
and 9 inches apart. Water is frequently and 
plentifully poured between the rows, and earth 
drawn about the stems of the seedlings, until 
they are a few inches in height. They are then 
transplanted into rows, water given, and earth- 
ing performed as usual. The only additional 
advantage of this plan is, that as the seed can 
be sown earlier, the tubers attain a rather 
larger size the first year. 

It is to be remarked, that the tubers of every 
seedling should be kept separate, as scarce 2 
will be of a similar habit and quality, whilst 
many will be comparatively worthless, and but 
few of particular excellence. If the seed is 
obtained from a red potato, that flowered in the 
neighbourhood of a white-tubered variety, the 
seedlings in all probability will in part resem- 
ble both their parents, as a cross fecundation 
may take place; but seldom or never does a 
seedling resemble exactly the original stock. 
At all events, only such should be preserved 
as are recommended by their superior size, 
flavour, or fertility. It may be stated as an in- 
dication before these qualities can be positively 
ascertained, that President Knight remarks, that 
the rough, uneven surface of the foliage, which 
in excess constitutes the curl, appears to exist 
as, and form a characteristic of every good 
variety : for he never found one with perfectly 
smooth and polished leaves which possessed 
any degree of excellence, though such are in 
general more luxuriant and productive. 

The early varieties, on account of their never 
flowering, were, until 1807, obtained by chance 
from plants that might now and then be pro- 
duced from seed of the late kinds. In that 
year, Mr. Knight discovered that the cause of 
their deficiency of bloom was the preternatural 
early formation of the tubers. His mode of 
causing them to produce seed is to plant the 
sets on little heaps of earth, with a slake in the 
middle, and when the plants are about 4 inches 
high, being secured to the sta.ces with shreds 
and nails, to wash the earth away from the 
bases of the stems, by means of a strong cur- 
rent of water, so that the fibrous roots only 
enter the soil, and these being perfectly dis- 
tinct from the runners that furnish the tubers, 
and which spring from the base of the stem, 
none of these are produced, and the eflfect is, 
that blossoms appear and perfect seed. 

There are numerous valuable communic," 
4 I 2 929 



POTATO. 

tions with regard to the potato dispersed 
through the agricultural journals, among which 
is one " On the Manures best adapted for Pota- 
toes," by the Rev.E. Cartwright. He remarks, 
" The soil on which my experiments were tried 
is a ferruginous sand, brought to a due texture 
and consistence by a liberal covering of pond- 
mud. Of this soil, in its improved state, I mean 
by the accession of pond mud (for, having been 
used merely as a nursery for raising forest 
trees, previous to these experiments, the nur- 
seryman had not thought it necessary to make 
use of any other manure), the following is the 
analysis 400 grains gave : 

Grains. 

Of silicious sand, of different degrees of fineness 280 
Finely divided matter ------ 104 

Loss in water ....... 16 

400 

" The finely divided matter contained — 

Grains. 

('arbonate of lime - - . _ . . jg 

Oxide of iron -------- 7 

Loss by incineration (probably vegetable decom- 
posing matter) ------- 17 

" The remainder, principally silex and alu- 
mina. There were no indications of either 
gypsum or phosphate of lime. 

" On the 14th of April, 1804, a portion of this 
soil was laid out, in beds 1 yard wide and 40 
in length, and were manured as in the follow- 
ing table. On the same day the whole was 
planted with potatoes, a single row in each 
bed, and that the general experiment might be 
conducted with all possible accuracy, each bed 
received the same number of sets. On the 
■21st of September the potatoes were taken up, 
when the produce of each row was, in succes- 
sion, as follows: 

Manures in bushtls, per acre. Produco. 

1. No manure ------- I57 

2. Salt 8 bush., soot 30 bush. - - . - 240 

3. Chandler's graves 9J cwl. - . . - 220 

4. Salt 8 bush., wood-ashes 60 bush. - - - 217 

5. Suit a bush., gypsum peat 363 bush., lime 121 

bush. - 201 

Ci. Salt 8 bush., lime 121 bush., dung 363 bush. - 199 

7. Salt 8 bush. 198 

f!. Salt 8 bush., graves 9} cwt. - - - - 195 

9. Sciot 30 bush. 192 

10 Fresh dung. 'iOS bush. 192 

11. S;iU 8 bush., malt-dust 60 bush. - . - 189 

12. Wond-ashes 60 bush. - - - . . I87 

13. Silt 8 hush., decayed leaves 363 bush. - - 187 
It. Salt 8 bush., peat-ashes 363 bush. - - - 185 

15. Malt-dust 60 bush. ------ 184 

16. Salt 8 bush., lime 121 bush., peat 363 bush. - 183 

17. Salt 8 bush., saw-dust 363 bush. - - - 180 
IS. Salt 8 bush., peat 363 bush., bone-dust - - 178 

19. Decayed leaves 363 bush. - - - - 175 

20. Salt 8 hush., lime 121 bush., sulphuric acid - 175 
■21. Salt 8 bu.sh., peat 363 bush. - . - . 171 

22. Salt 8 bush., lime 121 bush. - ... 167 

23. Peat 363 bush. - 159 

24. Saw-dust 363 bush. - .... 155 

25. Lime 121 bush. ------ 150 

The following experiments upon potatoes are 

extracted from Mr. George Sinclair's Commu- 
nication to the Board of Agriculture, February 
25tb, 1820. These experiments were made upon 
a soil composed of three-fourths silicious sand, 
au plots of 36 square feet. 

Bushels of Salt 
per Acre. No, 
1. Planted without any kind 

of manure - - - Q 124 

■8. Twelve cubic inches of 

salt with the seed - 13J 106 the smallest. 

3 Six cubic inches of salt 

with the seed - - 6^ 90 

* Twelve cubic inches of 

salt mixed with the soil 13} 93 the largest. 

930 ^ 



POTATO-FLY. 

" The weight of the crop of potatoes was not 
taken. The superior size of the roots pro- 
duced by No. 4, left no room to doubt of the 
advantage of 13 bushels of salt per acre, ap- 
plied to the soil previous to planting, over the 
other modes of application ; still the superi- 
ority was not ver}' great." "I may notice 
here," observes Dr. Holland, " a practice pur- 
sued at Weston, near Frodsham, in the culture 
of potatoes, which seems deserving of atten- 
tion. At this place, situated close to the junction 
of the Mersey and Weaver, sea mud is used 
as a manure for crops of potatoes; 20 loads 
being the quantity usually laid on an acre. 
The ground thus manured not only gives a 
larger produce of potatoes, but is in a state of 
excellent preparation for a succeeding crop of 
either wheat or barley. The adoption of this 
practice has increased very greatly the value 
of land about Weston." 

There is also a paper by Mr. Knight " On 
the advantages of employing large Tubers for 
Seed." "The good effects," he observes, 
" which I have proved to arise from planting 
large tubers of the potato plant, obviously 
spring from the large accumulation of fecula 
in them. Fed by means of this, not only a 
large breadth of foliage is produced, and ex- 
posed to sight more early in the year, but that 
foliage contains much disposable organizable 
matter, which once formed a part of the parent 
tuber." Knight thought that the ordinary pro- 
duce of potatoes might be very materially in- 
creased. He remarks, " My opinion is, that 
more than a thousand bushels of potatoes may 
and will be obtained from an acre of ground." 

Potatoes are fermentable, and are conse- 
quently employed along with barley by the 
Scotch distillers ; and, also, by the London 
bakers in the manufacture of bread. The 
fecula is also separated and sold as arrow-root: 
it is a good and sufficiently pure starch ; but it 
is less nutritive than the potato itself, owing to 
the separation of the saccharine matter and the 
albumen. 

POTATO-FLY or BEETLE. The green 
cantharides, or Spanish-flies, as they are com- 
monly called, are found in the south of Europe, 
and particularly in Spain and Italy, where they 
are collected in great quantities for exporta- 
tion. In these countries they often appear in 
immense swarms on the privet, lilac, and ash, 
which are quickly stripped of their foliage by 
these leaf-eating beetles. In like manner the 
American species of cantharides devour the 
leaves of plants, and sometimes prove very 
destructive to them, especially to those of the 
potato. Four native species of the cantharides 
found in the United States, have been tried and 
ascertained to be as effectual in raising blisters 
as the imported species. The kind found on 
the potato is the striped cantharis (Cantharis 
vittata). It is of a dull, tawny yellow or light 
yellowish-red colour above, with two black 
spots on the head, and two black stripes on the 
thorax and on each of the wing-covers. The 
under-side of the body, the legs, and the anten- 
nse are black, and covered with a grayish 
down. Its length is from five to six-tenths of 
an inch. In this and the three following spe 
cies the thorax is very much narrowed before 



POTATO-FLY. 



POULTRY. 



and the wing-covers are long and narrow, and 
cover the whole of the back. The striped can- 
tharis is comparatively rare in New England ; 
but in the Middle States it often appears in 
great numbers, and does much mischief in po- 
tato-fields and gardens, eating up not only the 
leaves of the potato, but those of many other 
vegetables. 

The most destructive kind of Cantharis, 
found in Massachusetts, is of a more slender 
form than the preceding, and measures only 
from five and a half to six-tenths of an inch in 
length. Its antennae and feet are black, and all 
the rest of its body is ashen gray, being thickly 
covered with a very short down of that colour. 
Hence it is called Cantharis cincrea, or the ash- 
coloured cantharis. When the insect is rubbed, 
the ash-coloured substance comes ofl^, leaving 
the surface black. It begins to appear in gar- 
dens about the 20th of June, and is very fond of 
the leaves of the English bean, which it some- 
times entirely destroys. It is also occasionally 
found in considerable numbers on potato-vines; 
and in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it has re- 
peatedly appeared in great profusion upon 
hedges of the hone3'-locust, which have been 
entirely stripped of foliage by these voracious 
insects. They are also found on the wild indi- 
go-weed. In the night, and in rainy weather, 
they descend from the plants, and burrow in 
the ground, or under leaves and tufts of grass. 
Thither also they retire for shelter during the 
heat of the day, being most actively engaged 
ii\ eating in the morning and evening. About 
the 1st of August they go into the ground and 
lay their eggs, and these are hatched in the 
course of one month. The larvEe are slender, 
somewhat flattened grubs, of a yellowish co- 
lour, banded with black, with a small reddish 
head, and six legs. These grubs are very 
active in their motions, and appear to live 
upon fine roots in the ground; but I have not 
been able to keep them till they arrived at raa- 
lurity, and therefore know nothing further of 
tlieir history. 

About the middle of August, and during the 
rest of this and the following month, a jet-black 
cantharis may be seen on potato-vines, and 
also on the blossoms and leaves of various 
kinds of golden-rod, particularly the tall golden- 
rod (Soliflago allissinia'), which seems to be its 
favourite food. In some places it is as plenti- 
ful in potato-fields as the striped and the mar- 
gined cantharis, and by its serious ravages has 
often excited attention. These three kinds, in 
fact, are often confounded under the common 
name of potato-flies ; and it is still more re- 
markable, that they are collected for medical 
use, and are sold in our shops by the name of 
Cantharis viltata, without a suspicion of their 
being distinct from each other. The black 
cantharis, or Cantharis atrata, is totally black, 
without bands or spots, and measures from 
four-tenths to half of an inch in length. I have 
repeatedly taken these insects, in considerable 
quantities, by brushing or shaking them from 
the potato-vines into a broad tin pan, from 
which they were emptied into a covered pail 
containing a little water, which, by wetting 
their wings, prevented their flying out when 



the pail was uncovered. The same method 
may be employed for taking the other kinds of 
cantharides, when they become troublesome 
and destructive from their numbers ; or they 
may be caught by gently sweeping the plants 
they frequent with a deep muslin bag-net. 
They should be killed by throwing them into 
scalding water, for one or two minutes, aftei 
which they may be spread out on sheets of 
paper to dry, and may be made profitable by 
selling them to the apothecaries for medical use. 

A species of the genus Meloe (^angusticollis), 
or narrow-necked oil-beetle of Say, about an 
inch long, and of a dark indigo-blue colour, is 
very common on butter-cups in autumn, and 
is also found on potato-vines. 

POTATO MURRAIN. Since the year 1845, 
when the great destruction of potatoes in Great 
Britain and Ireland took place, with the conse- 
quent famine, this disease has been the subject 
of most active and earnest investigation. It 
would be vain to attempt giving even an epitome 
of the various views put forth on the subject. 
At present we will only refer to a single fact, 
which seems to afford the best clue towards de- 
termining the origin of the disease, as well as 
suggesting the best means of preservation and 
cure; namely, that the proportion of water, 
always large in the healthy potato, is greatly in- 
creased, say 6 to 8 per cent., in those about to 
become diseased. One of the best remedies is 
said to be planting in the fall ; even partially 
diseased tubers planted in autumn have yielded 
good sound potatoes the succeeding season. 

POULTICE. An external application em- 
ployed for soothing pain and abating inflamma- 
tion, and where this is advanced, promoting sup- 
puration in gatherings, &c. The best for animals 
are prepared of ground flax-seed, or rye-meal. 
The main object is to have the poultice large 
enough to continue long moist and soft : a hard 
and dry poultice is much worse than none at all. 
In renewing poultices, the parts should always 
he previously well fomented with warm water. 
To lemove unpleasant smells, mashed carrots 
and powdered charcoal will be found to make a 
good poultice. 

POULTRY. A general term including every 
kind of domestic fowl, which is reared about 
the house or farm-yard, as cocks and hens, 
ducks, geese, turkeys, &c. Poultry constitutes 
a part of every farmer's stock, but the rearing 
of it in England is not often productive of 
any pecuniary advantage; for though fowls are 
considered chiefly as an article of luxury, and 
sold at high prices in the market, they seldom 
or ever repay the value of the corn which they 
have consumed, especially if such grain must 
be purchased. Indeed, where profit is the ob- 
ject of the husbandman's labours, no poultry 
should be admitted into the vicinity of barns, 
unless for the purpose of picking up scattered 
grain ; though, in general, it cannot be denied, 
that they acquire their fat substance from the 
corn left in the straw by negligent thrashing. 
The poor villager may, however reap, in some 
cases, benefit from poultry, as the fowls are 
able to shift for themselves the greatest part of 
the year, by feeding on insects, corn, or any 
thing of that nature. 

There are many difierent breeds of this son 

an I 



POUND. 



PREGNANCY. 



of live-stock ; but those best known are the 
game breed, the white or English breed, the black 
or Poland breed, the Dorking breed, the large or 
Shakebag breed, and the Malay breed. The two 
first are much smaller breeds than the others. 
This kind of stock affords profit in the eggs, as 
well as the chickens ; therefore such as are the 
best layers and sitters should be chosen, which 
are in general the game and Poland breeds, but 
the other breeds have probably the advantage 
in respect to the size of the eggs : as food, the 
game and the white breeds are said to be the 
most delicate. 

The care and management of the poultry- 
yard usually devolves upon the farmer's wife, 
and the industrious housewife will do well to 
see to their food and rearing, &c., herself, and 
not trust too much to servants. For the most 
economical methods of keeping and managing 
poultry, &c., I refer the reader to the different 
heads of Dovecote, Ducks, Fowls, Goose, 
Ti-uKET, &c. See also Eggs, Feathers. 

The comparative value of the keep for domes- 
tic fowls is as follows: geese 5 per cent., ducks 
7^ ditto, pigeons 10 ditto, dunghill fowls 40 ditto, 
turkeys and Guinea fowls .50 ditto. From a series 
of observations made on the diseases of domes- 
tic poultry, Mr. Flourens makes the following 
conclusions : — 1. In these animals cold exer- 
cises a constant and determinate action on their 
lungs. 2. The effect of this action is the more 
rapid and more severe, the younger the animal is. 
3. When cold does not cause acute and speedily 
fatal inflammation of the lungs, it produces a 
chronic inflammation, which is pulmonary 
consumption itself. [This, however, is a mis- 
take, as pulmonary consumption is the deposi- 
tion of tubercles in, not inflammation of, the 
lungs.] 4. Heat always prevents the attack of 
pulmonary disease: when the latter has taken 
place, heat suspends its progress, and even 
sometimes arrests it entirely, and effects a com- 
plete cure. 5. Pulmonary consumption in any 
stage is never contagious : fowls affected with 
that disease were not only all day along with 
the healthy fowls, but at night roosted in the 
same places, without communicating their dis- 
ease to them. 6. Lastly, the action of too long 
confined air exposes these animals to abscesses 
of the cornea, and inflammation of the ball of 
the eye. These abscesses and inflammations 
are also caused in a still more cruel manner by 
cold, especially when accompanied with mois- 
ture. {Jnnales des Sci. Nat.) The reader will 
find an interesting essay by Mr. England on the 
rearing and management of domestic poultry, 
in the fourth volume of the Trans, of the Higld. 
Soc, to which a premium was awarded. There 
is also a paper on the same subject in the 
eighth volume of the Quart. Jouni. of Jgr. 
p. 509. 

POUND. In law, a place where cattle and 
goods which have been distrained are to be 
lodged and kept until redeemed. The common 
meaning in the United States is, a place where 
::attle are enclosed and kept. See Distress. 

POVERTY GRASS, or Forked Aristida; 
frequent in the Middle States, on dry, sterile 
soils. 

PREGNANCY. In cattle, the state of being 
with voung. Under the heads Abohtion, 
932 



Calvino, Gestatioit, &c., I have gone viry 
fully into this subject. The following excellent 
observations by Mr.Youatt, on the detection of 
pregnancy in the mare and the cow, are highly 
practical and useful. 

Among healthy animals, the impregnation 
of the female rarely fails to be the result of an 
intercourse between the sexes. The assurance, 
however, of this having taken place, is, occa- 
sionally, an affair of considerable interest, and 
of no little difficulty; and the value and the 
destiny of the female may very much depend 
on the decision of the question. A certain time 
having elapsed, the thing will speak for itself; 
but are there any symptoms or circumstances 
that will warrant the veterinary surgeon, or the 
agriculturist, in giving a decided opinion on 
the case in an early period of supposed preg- 
nancy? 

It occasionally happens that the fifth or the 
sixth month arrives, and, even to the practised 
eye, there are few or no indications of conception 
having taken place. There are, also, but some- 
what unfrequently, diseases which very closely 
simulate this natural process. Can the vete- 
rinary surgeon or the breeder decide 1 The 
answer is in the affirmative, and plainly and 
unequivocally. This is one of the boons which 
the veterinary art can now confer on the agri- 
culturist. The altered character of the female 
is regarded, and very properly, as a circum- 
stance of no little weight. She is compara- 
tively calm and quiet ; her appetite returns, and 
she regains her former condition and her former 
habits. Five or six weeks pass, and there is no 
outbreak of any kind. The owner concludes, 
and he is not often wrong, that she is impreg- 
nated. He, however, has had little to do with 
mares or with cows who has not witnessed the 
return of the most furious oestrum, after a much 
longer period of time has elapsed. I have known 
more than 3 months pass in this delusive qui- 
etude, and then a salaciousness worse than at 
first has indicated that no ac'ual impregnation 
had taken place. On the ther hand, the 
cEstrum, but not with all its foimer fury, has 
returned, 2, and 3, and 4 months after the con- 
nection ; and yet, as the result finally shows, 
impregnation had taken place at their first in- 
tercourse. 

Many circumstances may cause the owner 
to be anxious to know the truth of the matter. 
He may wish to sell her, or he may be unusu- 
ally desirous to breed from her. Let the animal 
be examined per vaginam. Let the hand be 
slowly and cautiously passed up the vagina 
until it reaches the os uteri. Let there be no 
attempt to penetrate farther. No information 
can be gained from introducing the fingers into 
the uterus. It is simply wished to ascertain 
the character of the os uteri. In its natural 
and unimpregnated state it will be closed ; but 
it will not be tightly or spasmodically so, and 
the contraction of the mouth of the womb will 
form a kind of cup, with the base towards that 
viscus. If she is impregnated, the entrance to 
the uterus will be more firmly closed, and the 
protrusion will be towards the vagina. This 
is the only exploration per vaginam which I 
would allow ; it is easily made, and it will be 
1 satisfactory. If an exploration of this kind is 



IKEGNANCY. 



PRIMROSE. 



attempted when half or more than half of the 
period of pregnancy has passed, it is not at all 
unlikely that so much irritation of the parts 
will ensue as to cause the expulsion of the 
fetus. 

I will suppose that 2 months have passed 
since the supposed impregnation. The fetus 
is still remaining in the pelvic cavity. The 
heart has begun to beat, and the blood to cir- 
culate through its Utile veins. It will be situ- 
ated immediately below the rectum. I intro- 
duce my hand into that intestine. I have not 
occasion to pass it very far up. I feel the little 
substance ; for it then is small in proportion to 
its after growth. I feel it under my hand. I 
am certain that I am pressing upon the uterus 
and its contents. I cannot perhaps detect the 
pulsation of the embryo; but if I had delayed 
my examination until the fetus was 3 months 
old, I should have assurance that it was there 
by its now increased bulk, while the pulsation 
of its heart would tell me that it was living. 

For 2 months from this period in the cow, 
and for 3 in the mare, I should have no other 
indication of the presence of the fetus, nor of 
its life and growth, except from the gradual 
enlargement of the abdomen of the mother; 
and, by that time, the little one would have in- 
creased in size and strength, and would have 
begun to take occasional exercise in its first 
domicile, and then would become the more 
evident, but not more satisfactory proof of the 
life of the fetus ; its motion strong enough to 
be seen through the integument. 

I might,perhaps, wish to give this assurance 
of the life of the fetus to some curious spec- 
tator, or to some intended purchaser. I would 
not gallop the mare in order to effect this : I 
would not so far disturb her or the young 
animal that she bore within her. Much less 
would I give her cold water to drink, and 
which she usualjy would drink until she an- 
noyed the fetu§,,.ind the unborn animal told us 
how much \V|& annoyed him by endeavouring 
to shift his quarters and get away from the 
action of the cold. I would not run the hazard 
of giving her the colic, and perhaps destroying 
him or her by this unscientific and somewhat 
cruel method of exploration ; but I probably 
should give a tap or two on the outer wall of 
his dwelling, just sufficient to rouse him from 
his slumbers, and induce him to express his 
anger at the annoyance by a tolerably distinct 
plunge or kick. 

Most certainly, if it was a cow that I was 
exhibiting, I would not give, nor would I suflfer 
any one else to give those terrible punches in 
the right flank which I have no doubt are the 
cause of much unsuspected injury, and, occa- 
sionally at least, connected with, or the origin 
of a difficult or a fatal parturition. 

I may here observe that the fetus of the mare, 
from the beginning, occupies nearly the centre 
of the belly. In the early stage, Mr. Mogford 
generally found it "lying across the pelvic 
cavity, the spine being immediately under; the 
head on the left side, and the tail on the right 
side." In the latter portion of its fetal state its 
motions are pretty equally distributed on either 
side, and the beating of the fetal heart is most 
plainly heard at the very base of the abdomen. 



The fetus of the cow is huddled up on the right 
side of the belly. There its motions are most 
seen, and the beatings of its heart best heard. 
The enormous paunch, lying principally on the 
left side, presses every other viscus, and the 
uterus among the rest, into the right flank. 
This also explains a circumstance familiar to 
every breeder. If the cow should happen to 
carry twins, they are crowded together in the 
left flank, and one seems absolutely to lie upon 
the other. Whenever the farmer notices the 
kicking of the fetus high up in the flank, he at 
once calculates on twins. 

To return from this digression. If half the^ 
period, or more, of utero-gestation had passed, 
and I could not get the little stranger to move 
by my gentle tapping, and it was a cow with 
which we had to do, and a quiet one, I would 
have her carefully held by the cowherd, while 
I stooped and applied my ear flat upon the 
flank, and then slowly and with gentle pres- 
sure upwards and downwards, and forwards 
and backwards, over the flank and the lower 
part of it, until I heard — and which I should do 
in a great majority of cases — the pulsations of 
the fetal heart. I should recognise it by their 
quickness, the pulsations of the fetus being 
double or more than double those of the other. 

If it was a mare, I would have a halter put 
on her, and an assistant should hold up one of 
her legs, while some person interested reached 
under, or perhaps knelt under the belly of the 
mare, and passing one ear along an imaginary 
line from between the teats to the chest, and 
deviating a little from one side to the other, he 
would then also recognise the quick pulsation 
of the fetal heart. 

These observations are addressed to prac- 
tical men, and will be speedily put to the test 
by them. The object of the author is to get 
rid of the vulgar and inefficient methods of de- 
tecting pregnancy which are now in general 
use, and to introduce others that are founded 
on a surer and more scientific basis. 

This subject has been treated of by others, 
and Dr. J. C. Ferguson, of King's College, Lon- 
don, has published an Essay on Auscultation, as 
lli£ only unequivocal Evidence of Pregnancy. Aus- 
cultation is the method employed by physicians 
to determine the healthy or diseased condition 
of the lungs and other internal parts, by means 
of the ear and stethoscope. 

PRICKING. In hunting, the tracing of a 
hare, where her footing can be perceived. In 
farriery, the term is used to signify the driving 
a nail into the soft or quick part of a horse's 
foot, so as to cause temporary lameness. 

PRIMROSE (Primula, from primus, the first; 
in allusion to the early flowering of the plants). 
This is an extensive genus of small, but very 
pretty and desirable plants. All the species of 
primrose succeed best in a mixture of loam 
and peat, and increase readily by seeds, or by 
dividing the plants, which should be done as 
soon as they have flowered. There are in 
England five indigenous species. 

1. The common primrose (P. vulgaris), 
grows common everywhere in England, 
adorning the groves, hedges, and waste grassy 
places in spring; flowering from March tc 
June. Flowers numerous, large sulphur 

43.'« 



PRIMROSE PEERLESS. 

coloured, with a darker radiating spot in the 
middle; their scent agreeable, though slight. 
There are cultivated varieties, white, purplish, 
or brown, single or double, of which the double 
sulphur-coloured is peculiarly elegant. 

2. Oxlip primrose (P. clatior). This is a 
less common species, found in woods and pas- 
tures, but rare. It is perennial, and flowers in 
April. 

3. Common cowslip, or paigle (P. veris). 
See Cowslip. 

4. Bird's-eye primrose (P. farinosa). This 
species is found growing in wet pastures and 
.by rivulets, on mountains in the north of Eng- 
'land as well as in Scotland. It flowers later 
than the preceding species, in June and July, 
and is only about half the size of the cowslip. 
It is distinguished by the white mealiness of 
the flower-stalks and backs of the leaves, 
whose upper sides are green, smooth, and 
even, as well as by the beautiful rose-coloured 
flowers, whose mouth is surrounded with a 
notched, yellow, glandular border. 

5. Scottish primrose (P. Scotica). This spe- 
cies is met with occasionally in the north of 
Scotland, and is near akin to that last described. 

PRIMROSE PEERLESS, or Narcissus. 

PRIVET (Ligustntm, from ligare, to tie; in 
allusion to the very flexible branches). The 
common privet, print, or prim-print (L. vulgare), 
is a hardy shrub, growing from 6 to 8 feet in 
height, in its wild state tenanting rather moist 
thickets and hedges, on a gravelly or chalky 
soil: but it grows well in any situation, and in 
all soils. It may be propagated by seeds, 
layers, or cuttings. These plants are well 
suited for making cut-hedges in gardens, espe- 
cially the evergreen varieties of the common 
privet. The branches are straight, filled with 
pitch, and the wood is hard. 

PROPAGATION OF PLANTS. The 
greater number of plants are propagated na- 
turally by means of seeds ; but, in addition to 
these, many plants are extended over the sur- 
face on which they take root by the production 
of runners, or lateral shoots, which spread 
along the surface, and root at the joints or buds, 
from which they send up new plants, by suck- 
ers, or side shoots from the roots, by bulbs, by 
tubers, rhizomes, and by various other natural 
means. Artificially, plants are propagated by 
seed, by runners, suckers, ofl'sets, dividing the 
tubers, layers, cuttings, grafting, budding, in- 
arching, &c. Seeds are gathered when mature, 
and sown on recently-stirred soil, and covered 
10 difl^erent depths according to the size of the 
seed, the nature of the soil and situation, and 
other circumstances. The plants formed by 
runners are separated from the parent plant by 
cutting through the runner, and removing the 
young plant, in order to plant it elsewhere. 
Suckers, slips, or side-shoots from the roots are 
separated from the parent plant by being slipped 
down, or cut off", so as to carry with them a 
portion of fibrous roots ; and they are after- 
wards planted in suitable soil, &c. Offsets 
are small bulbs which are produced round the 
r larger ones, or on stems, in the axillse 
'eaves, and, being taken off" and planted, 
i plants. Tubers are underground 
containing leaf-buds ; and these may be 
934 



PULSE. 

separated and planted entire; or cut into as 
many pieces as there are buds, in either of 
which cases new plants will be formed. Lay- 
ers are branches or shoots of either woody or 
herbaceous plants, which are bent down, and 
a portion of their length buried a few inches 
in the soil ; that portion having been previous- 
ly wounded by cutting, bruising, or twisting, 
which, by checking the descent of the sap, 
gives rise, after a certain period, to the pro- 
duction of roots. 

After these roots are formed, the portion of 
the layer which has produced them is sepa- 
rated from the main stock or parent plant, and 
planted by itself. 

Cuttings are portions of shoots, either of 
ligneous or herbaceous plants, and they are 
made of the young shoots with the leaves on, 
or of the ripened wood, either with or without 
its leaves ; and after they have, either in an 
herbaceous state with the leaves on, or with the 
wood mature, and with or without the leaves, 
been properly prepared and planted, they form 
roots at the lower extremity, each cutting be- 
coming a perfect plant. In general, cuttings 
should be taken from those shoots of a plant 
which are nearest the soil ; because, from the 
moisture and shade there, such shoots are 
more predisposed to emit roots than those on 
the upper part of the plant. 

The young, or last-formed shoots, are to be 
taken in preference to such as are older, as 
containing more perfect buds in an undeve- 
loped state, and a bark more easily permeable 
by roots; and the cutting is to be prepared by 
severing its lower extremity across at a joint, 
the lenticells, or root-buds, being there most 
abundant. When the cutting is planted, the 
principal part of the art consists in making it 
quite firm at the lower extremity, so as com- 
pletely to exclude the air from the wounded 
section. Cuttings emit roots at this section, 
either in consequence of the action of the ac- 
cumulated sap in the cutting, as in the case 
of the ripened wood in deciduous trees and 
shrubs ; or in consequence of the joint action 
of the accumulated sap and of the leaves, as 
in the case of cuttings of soft wood with the 
leaves on, and in a living state. A few plants 
are propagated by cuttings of the leaves, the 
petiole of the leaf being slipped off from the 
parent plant, and probably containing the latent 
embryos of buds. Grafting, inarching, and 
budding, are processes which have been al- 
ready explained. See Bcddino, Grafting, 
Layering, &c. 

PUCCOON (Batschia Canadensis). A plant 
in the United States with an extremely red 
root, called American Alkanet. 

PULSE. A term applied to all leguminous 
plants, as peas, beans, tares, vetches, lupins, 
&c. All the species of pulse afford excellent 
manure when turned into the soil in a green 
state. The custom of ploughing in green suc- 
culent plants of this kind is very ancient. All 
the Roman agricultural writers commend it 
highly. Columella, particularly, advises lupins 
as a manure, which, if cut down and turned in 
while green, will have as good effect as the best 
and strongest dunging whatever. They may 
be sown upon poor land about the middle of 



PUMPKIN 



PUTREFACTION. 



September, and be ploughed in before they 
attain their full growth. In gravelly soils they 
should be cut down after they have put forth 
their second flower ; and in strong lands, where 
a little more advanced. In the former of these 
grounds they are turned in while young and 
tender, that they may quickly rot ; and in the 
latter, are let stand till they grow stronger, that 
they may produce a better effect on the stiff 
clods of earth, and render them more mellow 
and friable. This practice is still extensively 
followed in northern Italy. 

Peas, beans, lupins, vetches, and other suc- 
culent plants, have also been strongly recom- 
mended by the older writers on husbandry, as 
excellent manures, especially for sandy ground ; 
these plants enriching the earth greatly if 
ploughed in, either green, or when in bloom. 
In strong land they are advised not to be turned 
down till the pods begin to harden. See Green 
Crops, Leguminous Plants, Peas, Rotation 
OF Crops, &c. 

PUMPKIN (Cucurbita pepo). The pumpkin 
is extensively cultivated in the United States, 
where there are many varieties, some of them 
attaining the enormous size of 2 feet or more in 
diameter. But such large ones are not so highly 
esteemed. The better sorts are often used at 
table, affording the celebrated pumpkin pie of 
New England; and the coarser varieties are 
esteemed for feeding stock. When growing in 
the vicinity of squashes, the fruit of this is 
liable to be converted into a hybrid, of little 
or no value. Crops of pumpkins have been 
totally spoiled by that cause, the fruit becom- 
ing very hard and warty, unfit for the table, 
and unsafe to give to cattle. Flora Ccstrica. 

PURGATIVES. In farriery, such medicines 
ns tend to evacuate the crudities of the bowels 
by stool, and which are sometimes called ca- 
thartics. See Purging. 

The purgatives most frequently employed 
for horses and cows are sulphur, jalap, aloes, 
gamboge, Rhanmus catharticus, and calomel. 
Saline purgatives are not often required ; but 
when they are, Epsom salts (the sulphate of 
magnesia), is adequate for every purpose. 

PURGING is necessary in a variety of cases, 
for different sorts of animals, particularly in 
diseases of the inflammatory kind, swellings in 
the extreme parts. Aloes is the best form of 
physic; but Epsom salts, linseed, and olive oil, 
are sometimes used on certain occasions as 
laxatives with great propriety and benefit, and 
in gross, full horses, in some disorders of the 
stomach, liver, &c., but it should always be di- 
rected with caution. 

Violent purging or scouring, attended with 
inflammation, will sometimes arise when a 
horse is worked hard upon green meat. The 
remedy is change of diet or less labour. As- 
tringents should be used with much caution. 
It is probably an effort of nature to get rid of 
something that offends. A few doses of gruel 
will assist in effecting this purpose, and the 
purging will cease without astringent medi- 
cine. See Aloes, Balls, Drenches, Linseed 
Oil, &c. 

PURSLANE (Poriulaca; from porto,io carry, 
and lac, milk; juicy nature of the plants), 
purslane is now but little noticed as a garden 



flower, but in Britain is still cultivated as a 
salad and pot-herb. The species usually grown 
in the kitchen garden are the green or garden 
purslane (P. oleracea), and the golden purslane 
(P. sativa). 

PUTREFACTION (hat. Putref actio). The 
spontaneous decomposition of animal and ve- 
getable substances, attended by the evolution 
of fetid gases. The putrefactive fermentation 
of animal substances is usually attended by 
more fetid and noxious exhalations than those 
arising from vegetable products. This appears 
principally referable to the more abundant 
presence of nitrogen in the former; and, hence, 
those vegetables which abound in nitroginife- 
rous principles, such as most (if not all) of the 
cruciform plants, exhale peculiarly nauseous 
effluvia ; hence, also, such animal products as 
are destitute of nitrogen, are either unsuscepti- 
ble of what is commonly called putrefaction, 
or suflfer it slowly and imperfectly. The for- 
mation of ammonia or of ammoniacal com- 
pounds is a characteristic of most cases of 
animal putrefaction ; while other combinations 
of hydrogen are also formed, especially carbu- 
retted hydrogen, and sulphuretted hydrogen, 
together with complicated and often highly in- 
fectious vapours or gases, in which sulphur and 
phosphorus are frequently discerned. These 
putrefactive effluvia are, for the most part, 
easily decomposed, and resolved into new and 
comparatively innocuous compounds by the 
agency of chlorine ; hence the importance of 
that body as a powerful and rapidly acting dis- 
infectant. The rapidity of putrefaction and the 
nature of its products are, to a great extent, in- 
fluenced by temperature, moisture, and access 
of air; they do not ensue below the freezing 
point, nor in dry substances, nor under the 
entire exclusion of oxygen ; and hence various 
means suggest themselves of retarding or pre- 
venting putrefaction, as well as of modifying 
its results. A temperature between 60° and 
80°, a due degree of humidity, and free access 
of air are the circumstances under which it 
proceeds most rapidly. The most effective 
antiputrefactives, or antiseptics, are substances 
which either absorb or rem(we a portion of 
the water or moisture, and enter into new com- 
binations with the organic matter. The astrin- 
gent or tannic principle of vegetables is also a 
powerful preserver of most organic tissues ; 
it enters into chemical combination with the 
albuminous and gelatinous membranes and 
fibres ; and the resulting compound, of which 
leather furnishes a characteristic example, is 
comparatively little prone to change, although 
the tanning material itself, as well as the animal 
principles with which it unites, are separately 
liable to decay. Among saline substances, the 
antiputrefactive powers of salt are commonly 
known : when a piece of flesh is salted, brine 
runs from it, in consequence of the energy 
with which the salt abstracts the component 
M'ater of the muscular fibre ; the flesh becomes 
indurated, and its susceptibility to putrefactive 
changes is greatly diminished; but it become^ 
at the same time less easy of digestion as an 
article of food. Corrosive sublimate is a far 
more powerful preservative than common salt 
and it appears to act not by the mere ab^trar 

93P 



PYROLIGNEOUS ACID. 

tion of water, but by entering into chemical 
union with the fibre. Sulphate of copper and 
several other metallic salts are similarly eiEca- 
cious; but their poisonous nature prevents 
their employment in the preservation of arti- 
cles of food. 

The inhabitants of northern climates avail 
themselves of freezing to prevent the putrefac- 
tion of their food, and the supplies of game 
and other articles in the Russian markets are 
retained in a frozen state. Our fishmongers 
resort to the same expedient for the preserva- 
tion of their unsold fish, which is daily removed 
to the ice-house, after having been exhibited in 
their shops ; salmon is packed in ice for the 
purpose of transport and preservation. See 
Decomposition, Dry Rot, Feiwientation, Ma- 
nures, Organic Chemistry, &c. 

PYROLIGNEOUS ACID. This term is 
generally applied to the acid liquor which 
passes over along with tar and gaseous pro- 
ducts, when wood is subjected to destructive 
distillation. This acid liquor is an impure 
vinegar, from which acetic acid is obtained. 
It has in its impure state a powerful smoky 
odour, not unlike that of Westphalia ham. 
The acid is purified by converting it into ace- 
tate of soda, and decomposing that salt by 
means of sulphuric acid. This acetic acid, 
after distillation, is in a high state of concen- 
tration ; but it differs from concentrated acetic 
acid, by being neither combustible nor crystal- 
lizable. It is usually lowered by the addition 
of water. If intended for the table or for do- 
mestic use, as a substitute for other forms of 
vinegar, it is usually coloured with a little 
burned sugar. This manufacture of vinegar 
is now carried on upon a very large scale, and 
the greater part of the vinegar used for domes- 
tic purposes and in the arts, in many of which 
it is largely consumed, is derived from this 
source. Ordinary vinegar, besides containing 
acetic acid and water, contains also sulphate 
of lime, some ethereal matter, a portion of sul- 
phuric acid, and a colouring principle. See 
Vinegar. 



Q. 



QUAKING GRASS (Briza ; named from 
brizo, to nod, on account of the quaking cha- 
racter of the spikelets). A genus of grasses of 
which some species are pretty and interesting, 
as B. minor, B. rubra, and B. clusii ; but the 
greater portion are mere weeds. The whole 
are of easy cultivation. Two species are in- 
digenous to Britain, the smaller quaking grass 
(£. minor), and the common quaking grass (5. 
media), pi. 6, n. See Briza. 

QUARRY. A pit or drift from which stones, 
gravel, slates, or some other similar material 
is raised. 

QUARTER. The fourth part of any thing, 
as of a carcass. As a term of weight it de- 
notes the fourth of a hundred weight, or 28 lbs.; 
as a dry measure it signifies the fourth of a 
chaldron. Quarter is also a measure of grain 
containing 8 bushels : it is the common mea- 
sure by which grain is sold in the southern 
districts of England, especially when in large 
Quantities. 
93t> 



QUINOA. 

QUARTZ. A German term, now universally 
adopted in scientific languages, and commonly 
applied in mineralogy to the purer varieties of 
silica, especially to rock crystal. Quartz oc- 
curs also in beds : it is usually granular, white, 
sometimes mixed with mica. 

QUICKS. The young sets of the white thorn 
used in planting hedges. The term is also 
applied to couch-grass in some places. See 
Quickset. 

QUICKSANDS— Are sandy spots of soil 
which contain water in such a proportion as 
to form a sort of shaking quag at certain times. 

QUICKSET. A term applied to the white 
or hawthorn, the sets or young plants of which 
are raised by the nursery gardeners for sale 
for this purpose. See Fence, Hawthorn, and 
Hedge. 

QUINCE (Cydonia). A well-known genus 
of fruit trees. C. vulgaris is the species gene- 
rally cultivated for its fruit. It is a native of 
Candia; but cultivated over most parts of Eu- 
rope and North America. It belongs to the 
natural order Pomaceee. The fruit, or quince, 
is of a roundish, somewhat pyriform shape, 
and contains ovate-pointed, plano-convex seeds, 
yielding to boiling a large quantity of muci- 
lage, which is employed in medical practice as 
a demulcent. The quince will thrive in any 
soil, and may be multiplied by suckers. C. ja- 
ponica is one of the handsomest hardy shrubs, 
producing its beautiful scarlet or white flowers 
in great abundance. . The Portuguese quince 
is reckoned the best. Quince-marmalade is 
greatly admired by those who are fond of the 
fruit, and all good housewives know its value 
in adding richness of flavour to apple-pie. 

QUINOA, or PERUVIAN RICE (Chenopo. 
dium quinoa). Humboldt speaks of this plant 
as one of the few cultivated in the highest and 
coldest regions of the Andes and the Mexican 
Cordilleras, where it ranks in utility with the 
potato, Indian corn, and wheat. Whilst young, 
the leaves are used as spinach, oxalis (sorrel), 
or common greens, whilst the seeds are boiled 
in soups and used as a substitute for rice. The 
plant is an annual, and resembles French spi- 
nach, or its kindred Lamb's-quarter (Chenopo- 
dium album), which is so widely diflfused 
throughout the United States. The seeds are 
small, about the twelfth of an inch in diameter, 
yellowish-white, flat, resemble those of millet, 
and are easily pulverized. The plant attains 
about 3 feet in height, and produces greenish 
flowers about the 1st of August. Mr. Gideon B. 
Smith has raised the quinoa at Baltimore, and 
found it very productive, (jim. Farmer, vol. 13.) 
There are a great many species of chenopo- 
dium, many of which are enumerated under 
the head of goose-foot. In Peru, it would 
seem the quinoa is subjected to a process of 
scalding or part-boiling, before it is disposed 
of by the cultivator, whether for the purpose 
of assisting in its preservation, or to prevent 
its cultivation in other countries, is not ascer- 
tained. To this fact may probably be ascribed 
the failure of all previous attempts to cultivate 
it. Having, says Mr. Smith, eaten the quinoa, 
prepared in several ways, we are of course en- 
abled to speak of its qualities from experience. 
Gentlemen who have eaten it in Peru, svaS 



QUITTER. 



BADISH. 



of it in the highest terms of praise. It has a 
very pleasant flavour, although this is peculiar 
and may not at first be relished. The taste 
more resembles that of oat-meal than rice. The 
grain is chiefly composed of a grain or sprout 
of the young plant, closely coiled, and imbed- 
ded in farina. In boiling, this spiral germ is 
detached, and the dish presents the appearance 
of being full of skippers, something similar to 
a dish of boiled beans. The description of the 
mode of sowing and cultivating the quinoa in 
Peru, together with the seed, was furnished Mr. 
Smith by Lieut. Fitzhugh, U. S. N. From this 
it appears that it is sown broadcast, and gathered 
in the same seasons as wheat. When ripe, the 
grain shells off" very easily, and to prevent loss, 
it is cut carefully and gathered in on cloths of 
cotton or linen. 

QUITTER. In farriery, an ulcer formed 
between the hair and hoof, usually on the in- 
side quarter of a horse's foot ; it often arises 
from treads and bruises, sometimes from gra- 
vel, which, by working its way upwards, lodges 
about the coronet; if it is only superficial, it 
may be cured by cleansing dressings, bathing 
the coronet every day with spirits of wine, and 
dressing the sore with lime-water, or a deter- 
gent application, such as red precipitate. 

R. 

RABBIT. {Lepus nmiculus). A well-known 
animal, resembling the hare, smaller in size, 
belonging to the order Rodentice. The rabbit has 
shorter hind-legs than the hare, and the ears 
are more thinly covered with hair. Rabbits 
abound in England, and are in many cases 
preserved in warrens. They are very prolific, 
and begin to breed at six months old, and have 
several broods in a year, and from five to seven 
young ones in a brood. The young are blind 
at birth, and nearly naked. Their fur, in a 
wild state, is of a brown colour; but varies 
when domesticated It constitutes a principal 
article in the manufacture of hats. Owing to 
its slight conducting power, it is, next to hare's 
fur, an excellent thing to wear over the shirt 
for those predisposed to consumption. 

RACEME (Lat. racemus, a bunch of grapes). 
In botany, a form of inflorescence, in which 
the flowers are stalked along a common un- 
branched axis, as in the hyacinth. 

RACHIS (Gr.). A branch which proceeds 
in nearly a straight line from the base to the 
apex of the inflorescence of a plant. It is also 
applied to the petioles of the leaves of ferns. 

RACK. A railed convenience formed above 
the manger in a stable for the reception of the 
hay. It should be constructed with openings 
at the bottom for the seed or dust to pass 
through. 

RADICLE. In botany, that portion of an 
embryo which eventually becomes the descend- 
ing axis or root. It is the lowest of the two 
opposite cones of which an embryo plant con- 

RADISH, CULTIVATED (Raphanus sati- 
vus). There are two kinds of cultivated radish, 
the fusil'orm, or spindle-rooted, and the globu- 
lar, or turnip-rooted ; and these again are di- 
11ft 



vided into the spring and autumn varieties. As 
for the designation of short and long top, by 
which the old gardeners divided the varieties, 
I perfectly agree with Mr. Strachan, the gar- 
dener of the London Horticultural Society, in 
considering it as giving importance to a differ- 
ence that is by no means permanent. The 
first may be sown at all times of the year ; but 
the last, requiring a greater length of time to 
perfect their roots, can only, as the name im- 
plies, be obtained during the latter part of the 
year. 

Spring Varieties. — Fusiform-rooted : 1. Long 
white, called also the white transparent, white 
Italian, and Naples radish. 2. White Rus- 
sian, probably the Raphanus salivus of Gerard. 
3. Twisted radish of Mons. 4. Scarlet or 
salmon, or scarlet-transparent radish. 5. Pur- 
ple, formerly called exclusively the short- 
topped. 6. Red-necked white. 

Turnip-rooted: 7. White turnip is the only 
one noticed by Gerard, as the Raphanus orbicvr 
latus. 8. Early white turnip. 9. Pink, rose- 
coloured, scarlet, and crimson turnip. 10. Pur- 
ple turnip. 11. Yellow turnip. 

Autumn and Winter Varieties. — These are all 
of the turnip-rooted kind ; and in the following 
list they are described in the order they follow 
in coming into use. 1. Yellow turnip. 2. Round 
brown. 3. White Spanish, is Miller's Rapha- 
nus alb%i,s orbicularis. 4. Oblong brown. 5. Black 
Spanish. 6. Large purple winter, or purple 
Spanish. 

The soil best suited for this vegetable is a 
mouldy loam, rather silicious than otherwise, 
and moderately fertile. It should be dug a full 
spade deep, and well pulverized. The subsoil 
is best to be rather hard. Manure should not 
be applied at the time of sowing, if avoidable, 
as it is apt to cause the roots to be fibrous. If 
employed, itshould be in afinely-divided, putres- 
cent state. The situation should always be 
open ; but for early and late crops, warm and 
sheltered. Radishes are propagated by seed, 
which may be sown at all times throughout the 
year. For the earliest productions, during De- 
cember, January, and February, in a hot-bed ; 
and in the open ground once a month during 
winter, and every fortnight during the other 
seasons of the year. 

The time of draAving radishes is by no means 
indifferent. They eat in the greatest perfection 
if pulled in the morning before the sun has 
attained any power, and laid in a cool, damp 
place until wanted. The bed should have a 
plenteous watering the morning before that on 
which they are taken, but noiie afterwards 
until subsequent to the drawing. In Novem- 
ber, those wanted for winter must be taken up 
during dry weather, and preserved in sand. 

Forcing. — A moderate hot-bed is required for 
this crop, of a length according with that of 
the frame to be employed ; the mould, about 
eight inches deep, on the surface of which the 
seed is to be sown as soon as the violent heat 
is abated, and an additional half inch of mould 
sifted over it. The seedlings are in general 
up in less than a week, and in six they will be 
ready to draw. Throughout thoir growth air 
must be admitted as freely as is allowable. 
The glasses, however, must be closed on the 
4K 937 



RADISH, THE HORSE, 

approach of evening, and mats or other co- 
vering put on in proportion to the severity of 
the season. When the mould appears at all 
dry, a light watering must be given during 
noon. The plants must not stand nearer than 
two inches to each other The temperature 
required is from 50° to 70° ; and it must be 
kept to this heat by moderate coatings as 
required. 

If there is a deficiency of frames, hoops and 
mats may be employed, a frame of boards 
being formed round the bed, light and air being 
admitted as freely and as often as possible. If 
seed is sown within a frame without any bot- 
tom heat, the plants will be two or three weeks 
forwarder than if sown in the open ground. 

RADISH, THE HORSE. SeeHonsE-RADisH. 

RADISH, THE GREAT WATER. See 
Cress. 

RADISH-MAGGOT. Radishes, while grow- 
ing, are very apt to be attacked by maggots, 
and rendered unfit to be eaten. These maggots 
are finally transformed to small, ash-coloured 
flies, with a silvery-gray face, copper-coloured 
eyes, and a brown spot on the forehead of the 
females; they have some faint brownish lines 
on the thorax, and a longitudinal black line on 
the hind-body, crossed by narrower black lines 
on the edges of the rings. They vary in size, 
but usually measure rather more than one-fifth 
of an inch in length. They finish their trans- 
formations, and appear above ground, towards 
the end of June. The radish-fly is called An- 
tlwmyia Raphani, in my " Catalogue," from the 
botanical name of the radish, on the root of 
which its larviE feed. It closely resembles the 
root-fly {Anthomyia radicum) of Europe. (X)r. 
Harris.) 

Rx\DISH, WILD (^Raphanus Raphanisticum). 
A trDublesome weed found in arable lands. 
See Charlock. 

RAG. A torn piece of cloth of any sort: 
when of the woollen kind, they are used as 
manure. Woollen rags are almost entirely 
composed of animal matter: they are found to 
contain a very large proportion of albumen, (a 
substance similar in appearance to boiled white 
of egg), minute portions of lime and silica, and 
traces of various salts. They form, therefore, 
an excellent manure, by slowly decomposing in 
the soil ; and are found to remain dissolving in 
it, and forming soluble and elastic matters for 
the service of plants, when applied at the rate 
of 1200 weight per acre, for periods varying 
from two years on the heavy clays, such as 
those of the hop-grounds of the Weald of Kent, 
to three or four on the light, chalky soils of the 
valley of the Kennet, in Berkshire. The light- 
ness of carriage, and its readiness, as well as 
cleanliness of application, render it peculiarly 
eligible as a fertilizer ; it keeps, too, for any 
length of time, until the farmer is ready to 
apply it to his ground, and is much more slowly 
decomposed and consumed than either blubber, 
rape-cake, train-oil, or bone dust. 

The consumption of these rags by the Berk- 
shire and Oxfordshire farmers, and especially 
in Kent for the hop grounds, is very consider- 
able. I am informed by an extensive dealer in 
these rags, that at least 20,000 tons are annu- 
ally consumed by the farmers of the south of 
938 



RAIN. 



England. My informant himself has a sale of 
more than 500 tons per annum, which he de- 
livers free on board a vessel, at any of the Lon- 
don wharves, for 5 guineas per ton. The cus- 
tom of the farmer is, to cut the woollen rags, by 
means of a chopper and block, into shreds 
about the size of a crown-piece, and then 
spread them on their fields by hand, out of a 
common seed-basket, as evenly as they can ; 
they find that this manure is admirably adapted 
for hops, wheat, turnips, &c., and that the bene- 
ficial effect is as great the second year as the 
first. It appears that one farmer in Kent, Mr. 
Ellis, of Barming, purchases annually 4 or 500 
tons of these rags, almost exclusively for his 
hop grounds. The farmers of Kent think the 
application of the rags " rvarms" the ground, as 
they slowly putrefy in the soil; they certainly 
afford nourishment to the crop, for wool is com- 
posed almost entirely of a peculiar animal sub- 
stance, with a slight portion of phosphate of 
lime, or earthy matter of bones. 

RAGWEED (Ambrosia elatior). See Hog- 
weed. 

RAGWORT (Senedo). A portion of the 
species of this extensive genus has already 
been noticed under the head GBorNDSEL ; but 
there are in England four or five species of 
ragwort, properly so called. These belong to 
that section of the genus which have flowers 
with spreading rays and pinnatifid leaves ; the 
others to that with undivided leaves and radiant 
flowers. 

RAIN (Ger. regen). In meteorology, water 
falling from the clouds. 

As the eflJects of rain upon vegetation are 
so highly important, it will be useful to ascer- 
tain the quantity or depth of rain that falls 
annually in various places, and the difference 
in the effects which are produced by it, more 
especially for the formation of reservoirs for 
agricultural purposes. To use the words of 
Mr. G. Tatem: — Although "fully aware, that 
little reliance can be placed upon any theory 
founded on data so uncertain as the quantities 
of rain that fall in different years, I am con- 
vinced that something might be done towards 
establishing rules for the guidance of agricul- 
turists and botanists, if observations were made 
at the same place for a series of years, and the 
results recorded." The average quantity of 
rain which falls in a year at ?^y given place, 
materially aflJects the productiveness of the 
soil, and is necessarily influenced equally wjth 
the climate by a variety of general circum- 
stances and local causes ; such as latitude, 
proximity to the sea, elevation of the region, 
configuration of the country and of the moun- 
tain ranges, exposure to the prevailing winds, 
&c. 

Near the foot of high hills a greater quantity 
commonly falls than over a level country; the 
currents of the atmosphere in their course 
meeting with a hill, are forced to ascend, and 
gaining a higher, and of course colder situa- 
tion, the vapour is condensed into clouds, and 
even into rain, so that a deposition in showers 
very frequently follows. Hence the reason 
why clouds are so often observed on the sides 
and tops of mountains, which have been in- 
correctly supposed to attract them. The quan- 



RAIN. 



RAIN. 



tity that falls, and the manner in which it falls, 
are the circumstances to be attended to. A 
great number of rainy days are more injurious 
to the soil, even where the quantity is not 
great, than heavy falls at distant intervals of 
time ; the ground, in the first case, being con- 
stantly over-saturated, its fertility is much less- 
ened ; in the other, the superfluous moisture 
being soon drained off, only the portion neces- 
sary for the nourishment of plants is left, which 
is gradually given out in dry weather, during 
which the ground for a time is in its most pro- 
ductive state. 

In general, more rain falls in the north of 
England than in the south. The east and 
southeastern counties have usually the driest 
seasons and years. The fall of rain is various, 
however, at any period of the year, as may be 
seen from the annexed tables. The mean quan- 
tity falling annually in England is reckoned to 
be 32 inches, or, according to Dalton, 31'3; but 
this is unequally distributed. 

The annual amount in Westmoreland and 



Lancashire, according to Mr. Whistlecraft, 
usually ranges from above 40 to nearly 70 
inches, while that noted by the gauge in Essex 
and Suffolk is as low as from 14 to 32 inches ; 
seldom, however, does it exceed 25 inches. It 
may, indeed, be fairly inferred, that these tvTo 
parts of England produce extremes. 

Mr. Howard gives the annual average at 
London equal to 24*9 inches ; Professor Phil- 
lips at York 25-7; and Mr. Adie at Edinburgh 
25 inches. 

At Keswick, in Cumberland, the depth on an 
average of 7 years was found to be 67 inches; 
at Baverstock, near Salisbury, during the same 
period, 32J inches ; and at Plymouth, in De- 
vonshire, 45 inches. In the western parts of 
Scotland the depth is from 30 to 35 inches, 
which is from 6 to 10 inches more than that 
on the east coast. 

The mean monthly and annual quantities of 
rain at various places, deduced from the ave- 
rage for many years, by Dalton, is given in the 
following table : — 





Manches- 


Liverpool, 


Chats- 


Lancaster. 


Keodal, 


Dumfries, 


Glasgow, 


London, 


Paris, 


Viviers, 


General 




years. 


1 S years. 


years. 


20 years. 


2i yean. 


16 years. 


17 years. 


40 years. 


15 years. 


40 years. 


average. 




Inches. 


Inches. 


Inches. 


Inches. 


Inches. 


Inches. 


Inches. 


Inches, 


French in 


French in. 


Inches, 


January 


2-310 


2-177 


2-196 


3-461 


5-299 


3-095 


1-595 


1-464 


1-228 


2-477 


2-530 


February - 


2-568 


1-847 


1-652 


2-995 


5126 


2-837 


1-741 


1-250 


1232 


1-700 


2295 


March 


2-098 


1-523 


1-322 


1-753 


3151 


2 164 


1184 


1-172 


1190 


1-927 


1-748 


April - 


2010 


2-104 


2-078 


2-180 


2-986 


2017 


0979 


1-279 


1-185 


2-686 


1-950 


May - 


2-895 


2-573 


2-118 


2-460 


3-480 


2-568 


1-641 


1-636 


1767 


2931 


2-407 


June • 


2-502 


2-816 


2-286 


2-512 


2-722 


2-974 


1-343 


1-738 


1-697 


2-562 


2-315 


July - 


3-697 


3-663 


3-006 


4-140 


4-959 


3-256 


2303 


2-448 


1-800 


1-882 


3 115 


August 


3-665 


3311 


2435 


4-581 


5-089 


3199 


2-746 


1-807 


1-900 


2-347 


3-103 


Sepleuiber - 


3-281 


3-6.54 


2-289 


3-751 


4-874 


4-350 


1-617 


1-842 


1-550 


4-140 


3-135 


October 


3-922 


3724 


3-079 


4-151 


5-439 


4-143 


2-297 


2-092 


1-780 


4-741 


3-537 


November - 


3-360 


3-441 


2-634 


3-755 


4-765 


3-174 


1-904 


2-222 


1 720 


4-187 


3-120 


December - 


3-832 


3-288 


2569 


3-955 


6-084 


3-142 


1981 


1-736 


1600 


2-397 


3-058 


Annual 


36-140 


34121 


27-664 


39-714 


53-944 


36-919 


21-331 


20-686 


18-649 


33-977 j 



The greatest depth of rain which has been 
registered at any place in a year, is at Maran- 
ham, lat. 2|° S., and which is stated by Hum- 
boldt to be 277 English inches. But this is 
greatly above the average, and, indeed, more 
than double the annual quantity which has 
been observed at any other localit3\ At St. 
Domingo, the annual fall is estimated at 120 
inches; at Cayenne, IIG inches; at the Ha- 
vana, 91; at Calcutta, from 76 to 118; at Bom- 
bay, from 83 to 96 ; the island of Martinique, 
87 inches; and at Sierra Leone, 86. Of Eu- 
ropean countries, Portugal appears to be the 
most humid, 123 inches having been observed 
at Coimbra in a year. 

Although winter usually produces more rainy 
days than summer, the quantity of rain which 
falls is greater in the latter season. Dr. Dal- 
ton has ascertained that the first six months of 
the year may be regarded as dry, and the last 
six as wet months. Another ingenious author 
has inferred, from long observation, that in 
spring it rains oftener in the evening than in 



the morning, but that towards the end of sum- 
mer, oftener in the morning than in the even- 
ing. At St. Petersburg, rain and snow fall on 
an average 84 days of the winter, and the 
quantity amounts to about 5 inches ; on the 
contrary, the summer produces 11 inches in 
the same number of days. In Canada, the 
average fall of rain usually is about 3 feet, 
which furnishes about 20 gallons of water for 
each square foot of surface during the year. 

In the United States, the quantity of rain 
falling per annum increases in going south. At 
Philadelphia, a medium point, the results of 
33 years' observation of the rain-gauge have 
been estimated by Mr. Owen Evans as fol- 
lows: — Whole quantity, from 1810 to 1842 in- 
clusive, 1276-435 inches; annual mean or ave- 
rage, 38-68 inches; greatest amount in any one 
year, 55-278 inches (in 1841); smallest quan- 
tity, 23-354 inches (in 1819). 

Mr. Evans has also constructed the follow- 
ing table, showing the monthly averages of 
rain, estimated for 5 years (1838 to 1842 in- 





























Annual 


Rain in inches 
Wind North - 


Jan'y. 


Feb'y. 


March. 


April. 


May. 


June. 


July. 


August. 


Sepl'r. 


Oclober. 


Nov'r. 


Dec'r. 


mean. 


3-687 


2-574 


3224 


4-600 


4-290 


4-669 


4-785 


5-581 


3555 


3-698 


3 399 


4 083 


48145 


^ 


2 


3 


u 


If 


n 


2 


4 


2 


21 


2 


21 


261 


" Northeast 


5 


4 


6 


5| 


4} 


2f 


2 


5^ 


6 


51 


H 


5 


571 


'• East 


i 


i 


* 


H 


3 


2 


1 


1* 


H 


11 


1 


1 


131 


" Southeast 


1 


i 


1 


2 


2 


U 


2 


3 


21 


11 


i 


1 


171 


" South - 


2 


2 


2| 


2i 


3 


31 


•^ 


4 


11 


2 


1 


1 


281 


" Southwest - 


8 


7 


6 


7 


71 


81 


m 


61 


9 


51 


71 


6 


90 


" West - 


5 


^ 


3 


3 


4 


.^1 


^ 


3 


3 


5 


6 


<H 


59 


1 " Northwest - 


a 


8 


9 


7 


6i 


4| 


5 


31 


41 


7 


8 


9 


791 



939 



RAIN-G\UGE. 



RAKE. 



elusive), together with the number of days in 
each month during which certain winds pre- 
vailed, the last being the results of three ob- 
servations each day. 

RAIN-GAUGE. An instrument for measur- 
ing or gauging the quantity of rain which falls 
at a given place. It is also known under the 
several names of ombrometer, udometer, plu- 
viameter, and hytetometer. Its principles and 
construction are of the simplest nature ; but 
it is made in a variety of shapes. 

A convenient form of the instrument is that 
where the rain which enters a funnel of certain 
size, is collected in a bottle or other vessel, and 
afterwards measured in a graduated cylindri- 
cal glass tube, the marks on which not only 
represent the tenths and hundredths, but even 
the thousandth part of an inch of water. The 
height is read immediately on the scale. 

It is requisite to be particular in the situa- 
tion of the instrument. The gauge is best 
placed about 3 or 4 feet from the ground. In 
all cases an open space, free from trees, shrubs, 
or buildings, must be chosen. 

RAKE. " A too! of the toothed kind, of va- 
rious sizes and forms, made use of in garden- 
ing, and for different agricultural purposes. 
There are several others used for field opera- 
tions, some of which are worked by horses. 

The drag-rake, in its simplest form, is merely 
a long cross-head, with a row of teeth placed 
in it: in some these are straight; they are, 
however, generally bent, with their points pro- 
jecting forward. A very excellent and light in- 
strument, having the teeth of steel, and made 
with screws, so as to admit of their being easily 
replaced in case of accident, is well known in 
England as Badgley's improved drag-rake. 
These rakes had, from time to time, increased 
in length and weight, till they became too large 
to be balanced by the hand. Two small wooden 
wheels were then added, which rendered them 
manageable by women or boys. Further ad- 
ditions having been made to them, they are 
now sufficiently strong to be worked by a horse. 
Used on fallows when foul, to remove the 
couch-grass, they act as a harrow, to get to- 
gether the rubbish; or in harvest-time they act 
as a rake to collect the loose corn which may 
have escaped from the scythe or sickle. In 
order to clear them readily, there are different 
contrivances. One of the most simple and 
efficient is an arrangement which, by lifting 
the handle, causes the teeth to be raised and 
brought between two iron bars, which constitute 
part of the framing; by this means all the rub- 
bi.,h is stripped off from the teeth of the rake. 

In " Wedlake's Horse Hay-Rake," the weight 
of the rake is balanced upon the carriage by 
two heavy balls projecting in front of it; so 
that a slight lifting power applied to the handle 
will raise it from the ground, and disencumber 
it of the hay or stubble it may have gathered. 
This rake obtained the commendations of the 
Committee on Implements, at the meeting of 
the Royal English Agricultural Society at Cam- 
bridge. 

The East-Lothian Stubble-Rake is a machine 
not so wt;i1 known in England as its merits 
deserve. Its advantages over those previously 
940 



described are as follows : — It has each tooth 
placed in a separate head, which, working upon 
a centre like the levers of a drill, adapt them 
selves to any inequality in the ground. To the 
handles, a bar the length of the harrow is firmly 
fastened, and from this bar each lever is sus- 
pended by a few links of chain. When it is 
necessary to clear the rake, these handles, on 
being elevated, lift all the levers between a 
framing of light iron rods. 

An ingenious practical farmer, John Sayer, 
of Bodham, in Norfolk, made considerable im- 
provement upon this rake, by altering the form 
of the teeth to avoid tearing the land ; and in 
order to effect more work without increasing 
the width of the rake, the naves of his wheels 
were made to project inwards, so that two ad- 
ditional levers could be introduced, working 
quite close to the spokes. 

But within the last few months a very im- 
proved implement of this character has been 
introduced and patented by J. C. Grant, of Stam- 
ford, which obtained the prize of the Royal Ag- 
ricultural Society of England, at its meeting at 
Liverpool. Its advantages consist in the adap- 
tation of a compound lever, by which the whole 
row of tines may be instantly raised, and as 
quickly allowed to resume their position, while 
the form of the teeth being such as to describe 
part of a circle, the centre of which is the axis 
of the separate levers to which they are at- 
tached, each portion of the curve is succes- 
sively brought into a vertical position, thus 
rapidly disengaging the teeth from the mate- 
rial collected, so that, without stopping the 
horse, the process of collecting is resumed, 
leaving no interval beyond what is requisite 
for the deposit of the hay, corn, or stubble pre- 
viously collected. 

Several minor improvements are included in 
the patent, but as these mainly refer to modes 
of construction, it will not be necessary here 
to particularize them. 

A hay-making machine invented by Robert 
Salmon, of Woburn, and patented in 1816, con- 
sists of a series of rakes revolving upon two 
skeleton frames, to which motion is communi- 
cated by cog-wheels attached to the naves of 
the wheels in which it travels. It has under- 
gone considerable improvement by R. Wedlake, 
an ingenious manufacturer, residing at Horn- 
church. These improvements consist in form- 
ing the cylinder in two parts, each of which 
has motion independent of the other, and in 
placing the tines or rake-teeth upon a bar, 
which, being supported by a spring, will yield 
to any obstruction caused by sudden uneven- 
ness of the surface of the ground, and return 
again to its original position. Its object is to 
spread the hay, and by thoroughly separating 
its parts, continually to expose them to the sun 
and wind, which it so thoroughly effects as to 
render the hay fit to cart much earlier than by 
the common process of shaking it by the hand. 
To the practical agriculturist, it will not be ne- M 
cessary to remark on the advantages accruing ^| 
from the ability to hasten, if only by a few 
hours, the process of hay-making ; but it will 
be valuable to know, that the universal testi- 
mony of all with whom we have conversed h. 



RAKE. 



RANUNCULUS. 



that this implement is a time-saving machine, 
and therefore one of the greatest value. 

American Revolving Hay-rake, — This rake is 
drawn by one horse ; and it can be made to go 
either along or across the ridges, as may be 
required. It can carry between 100 and 200 
lbs. of hay; and when that quantity is upon it, 
the hay can be deposited, by a simple revolu- 
tion of the instrument, in rows, or at any par- 
ticular place required, without stopping the 
horse. 

The common horse-rake, much used in the 
United States, especially in the North, is de- 
scribed and figured in the Cultivator, vol. vii. 
p. 89. It is made of a piece of strong scant- 
ling, 3 inches square, and 10 feet long, into 
which about 15 teeth are inserted horizontally, 
and made of strong white ash or other tough 
wood. The teeth should be about 22 inches 
long, and 1 inch by 1^ at the place of insertion, 
and tapering on the under side, so as to give 
them a slight turn upward at the point, to pre- 
vent their running into the ground while using. 
The draught-ropes are attached to the end of 

2 projecting pieces of wood parallel to the teeth 
at each end. of the rake. These projecting 
pieces should be about one-third of the length 
of the teeth. Those unskilled in the use of the 
rake sometimes attach the ropes at once to 
the ends of the head; in this way, it becomes 
almost entirely unmanageable. The forward 
ends of the draught-ropes are to be fastened to 
the horse's collar, leaving space enough be- 
tween the horse and rake for the collecting 
hay. Handles are to be inserted in the head 
near the middle, lor guiding the teeth and lift- 
ing the rake from the ground M'hen necessary. 

In using this rake, instead of the teeth moving 
onward upon their points, as in the common 
hand-rake, they run along flat upon the ground, 
passing under and collecting the hay; when 
full, the handles are thrown forward, the rake 
emptied, and lifted over the winrow for another 
load. The rake thus passes backwards and 
forwards across the field, always emptying op- 
posite the last heap, and thus forming regular 
winrows at right angles with the path of the 
rake. A few hours' practice will enable any 
one to use this rake without difficulty, the only 
skill required consisting in keeping the points 
of the teeth just so low as to pass under all the 
hay, and yet not run into the ground.- When 
small obstructions occur, the handles are de- 
pressed, thus causing the teeth to rise, and the 
rake passes freely over. Large obstructions, 
as stumps and stone-heaps, require the rake to 
he lifted from the ground. 

The chief recommendation of this kind of 
rake, is its cheapness and simplicity. A good 
one need not cost more than $2. It may also 
be used on rougher ground than the revolving 
rake, as it is more easily lifted over obstruc- 
tions. Where the ground is very uneven, the 
teeth should be much shorter. When one be- 
comes well accustomed to the use of it, work 
may be done nearly as fast with this, as with a 
revolving rake, though much more laborious. 
Twelve acres of hay, part of it yielding nearly 

3 tons to the acre, on a meadow of the writer, 
were raked into winrows, by means of one of 
these rakes, in about 6 hours' working time. 



It possesses another advantage over the revolv- 
ing rake — it may be used for scraping the win- 
rows into heaps for drawing, and if the hay is 
stacked in the field, for drawing the hay to the 
stack. A man with a rake and horse not only 
raked the hay, but drew it at the same time to 
the stack, a distance of from 10 to 20 rods, as 
fast as an active man could pitch with a fork. 
A hand-rake need scarcely ever be used on the 
meadow, as all the scattered hay may be raked 
up in a short time after the rest of the hay has 
been drawn off. 

The horse-rake is very useful in raking 
stubble of wheat, and eminently so in pulling 
and gathering peas. 

Shafts, instead of ropes, have been attached 
to the head of the rake, and have been strongly 
recommended ; but they diminish the simpli- 
city of the rake, and appear to possess no ad- 
vantage on the whole, and for gathering and 
drawing hay, are positively detrimental. 

RAMPIONS, or RAMPION BELL-FLOW- 
ER {Campanula rapunculus). The esculent 
roots of this vegetable are far more delicate 
than turnips or radishes. They are long, white, 
and in the shape of a spindle. Like the radish, 
it is eaten raw, having a nut-like, pleasant 
flavour. The plant rises to the height of 2 feet, 
with blue flowers. 

It is propagated by seed, which may be sown 
during March, April, and May ; the plants from 
sowings in the two first months, soon, however, 
run up to seed. The insertions may be per- 
formed either in drills 6 inches apart, or broad- 
cast; in either mode the seed to be buried ^ an 
inch deep, effecting it in the latter by sifting 
mould over it ; for, if the seed is raked in, from 
its minuteness, it is apt to be buried too deep. 
The plants are to remain where sown; though, 
in case of any deficiency, those which are taken 
away in thinning the crops may be transplanted 
successfully. The best time for performing the 
removal is of an evening. They are fit for 
thinning when about 2 inches in height , they 
must be set at a distance of 6 inches apart, 
being hoed at the time, and the same operation 
repeated two or three times, which, if perform- 
ed in dry weather, will keep them free from 
weeds until used. 

The plants of the sowings during the two 
first mentioned months will be fit for use at the 
close of August, or early in September, and 
continue throughout the autumn. Those of 
the last one will continue good throughout the 
winter, and until the following April. The soil, 
throughout their growth, must be kept moist, 
effecting it in dry weather by giving frequent 
but moderate waterings through the fine rose 
of a watering-pot. 

The root, for which it is cultivated, either to 
be sliced, together with its leaves, in salads, or 
eaten as the radish, as well as to be boiled like 
asparagus, is most palatable when drawn 
young, and eaten fresh from the ground. 

For the production of seed, a few of the 
winter standing plants are left unmoved. These 
shoot up in the spring, flowering in July and 
August, and ripening abundance of seed iu 
earlv autumn. (G. W.Johnson's Kit ch. Gard.) 

RANUNCULUS (From rana, a frog , several 
of the species being found in moist places fn*- 
4k2 941 



RAPE. 



RAPE. 



quented by that reptile). Many of the plants 
belonging to this extensive genus are well 
worth the cultivator's care, and they have long 
been favourites with the florist. The aquatic ; 
kinds require to be grown in water. The 
grumose-rooted species will thrive in any com- 
mon soil and situation ; they are increased by 
offsets from the roots, or by seeds. These 
plants are acrid, and most of them poisonous. 
See Crowfoot and Spearwort. 

RAPE. A plant of the cole kind, greatly 
cultivated in Flanders for the sake of the seed, 
but extremely valuable also as green food for 
cattle and sheep in winter and spring. " The 
plants," says Mr. Low, "usually cultivated 
under the name of rape, are the fusiform va- 
rieties of the following species of brassica. 
Cole or rape (B. napus), colza (JB. campestris), 
fusiform common turnip (B. rapa), and early 
cole (B. prcEcox).'" There are different modes 
of treating this plant, according to the uses for 
which it is designed. The whole plant is of 
great service in feeding cattle ; and after the 
seed is thrashed, the straw and chaff, on being 
burnt, afford ashes equally valuable as the best 
potashes. Wheat yields an excellent crop 
after rape, and the plant is grown with great 
advantage on bog plant, where paring and 
burning has been practised. Rape is very 
hardy, and with fair treatment it never fails on 
any soil. Cattle are so successfully fattened 
with it, that many farmers prefer it to turnips. 
See CoLK. 

For garden culture, rape is propagated by 
peed, and, like mustard, and other small salad- 
ing, may be sown at any period of the year, 
when in request; being allowed a separate bed. 
For the production of seed, some plants of a 
sowing which has been made about the middle 
of July, must be thinned to about 18 inches 
apart: they will survive the wintei in England, 
and flower in May and June of the next year. 
The seed, which is produced in great abund- 
ance, ripens in July and August, and must then 
be cut and laid upon cloths to dry, as it is very 
apt to shed. 

In England, rape (Brassica napus sylvestris) is 
frequently called coleseed, and in France navette. 
In both countries it is highly prized, not only 
for the value of the oil expressed from the seed, 
but for the cake left after pressure, which is 
extensively used for feeding cattle, its qualities 
for this purpose resembling those of the oil- 
cake left after pressure of flaxseed in making 
Unseed oil. Rape belongs to the cabbage or 
turnip family, but it never heads, like the 
former, and its roots are of little value com- 
pared with the latter. Of the two kinds most 
commonly cultivated, one is biennial, sown one 
summer and harvested the next, whilst the 
other is a spring or summer crop. 

Rape, though but little known in the United 
States, has been tried in various parts, and 
found to stand the winters even in New York 
and New England. Whenever, therefore, a 
demand shall be made for this valuable pro- 
duction of the soil, or its near kindred of the 
cabbage family, colza, the United States can 
yield them abundantly, in almost every part. 

According to Loudon, the place which rape 
f^ccupies in a rotation, is between two culmi- 
942 



ferous or grain crops. On rich soils it may be 
succeeded to the greatest advantage by wheal, 
as it is found to be an excellent preparation 
for that sort of grain ; and by its being taken 
oflT early, there is sufficient time allowed for 
getting the land in order for sowing wheat. 

In Notes on the Agriculture of Germany, by Mr. 
Carr, an English gentleman, he says the after 
course is as follows : — 

1 year fallow, well dunged, 

2 " rape, 

3 " wheat, 

4 " barley, 

5 " peas, light dunging, 

6 " rye, 

7 " oats, with rye, or timothy grass- 
seeds, and red clover. 

The clover and peas plastered in May. The 
clover is mown twice for hay, and left two 
years for pasture, when it is heavily manured, 
fallowed, and again sown with rape. " The 
rape-seed is sown broadcast in the last of July 
or first of August. This crop is greatly bene- 
fited the following spring by dusting gypsum 
over it, about 100 lbs. to the acre. In July the 
seed is ripe, and as the weather is generally 
fine, is trodden out by horses very expeditious- 
ly on large canvass sheets in the field. The 
oil of this seed pressed out, when purified, is 
without smell, gives a brilliant, clear-burning 
flame, and is universally used all over Ger- 
many, in the saloon of the rich, and the cottage 
of the poor. The value of the crop is some- 
what precarious, because it is subject to so 
many contingencies ; the turnip-fly and cater- 
pillar prey upon it when young, and when in 
flower, a small beetle (Haltica nemorum) often 
eats away the blossom-bud, or lays its minute 
larvae in the petals, ultimately furnishing every 
seed-pod with a maggot which either eats the 
seeds away, or, forcing the pod open when 
nearly ripe, causes it to fall out. When spared 
these calamities, it is, however, a very remu- 
nerating crop, worth from lOZ. to 20/. an acre, 
especially if there is a foreign demand. The 
straw is generally burned, and the ashes scat- 
tered over the field ; it is sometimes sold to the 
soap-makers, who prize it highly. Two fur- 
rows are now given for wheat sown broadcast 
in September." 

Mr. Blackie, in his Essay on the Improvement 
of small Farms, says, that the produce of rape, 
when well manured, is beyond any thing almost 
that can be imagined, if let stand until it gets 
into blossom. Manure, he adds, makes the 
stalk tender and juicy, which would otherwise 
be hard and dry, so that if cut into small pieces 
for the purpose of feeding green to cattle, not 
a bit will be lost, and it grows to a height of 6 
feet. I am, he says, almost afraid to say, thai 
I believe, with the addition of some straw, an 
acre will keep 30 head of cattle in full milk for 
a month. 

RAPE, edible-rooted. This name may be ap- 
plied to a variety of the rape mentioned by Mr. 
Dickson, one of the vice-presidents of the Hor- 
ticultural Society. Its root is white, and car- 
rot-shaped, about the size of the middle finger. 
It is much more delicate in flavour than the 
turnip, like which root it is cooked, only that il 
is not peeled, but scraped, its skin being re- - 



I 



RAPE-CAKE. 



RAT. 



markably thin. It has been cultivated for a 
great length of years on the continent, and for 
about 30 years in England, but only by one 
person, as far as Mr. Dickson is aware. It is 
propagated by seed, which, for the main crop, 
may be sown from the middle of July to the 
end of August, or even later : these will supply 
the table until April ; and, if wanted through- 
out the year, a little may be sown in the latter 
end of October, the plants from which will be 
fit for use, if they succeed, during April and 
May : the last crop to be inserted from the 
middle of January to the middle of February, 
which will come in at the end of May and dur- 
ing June. On a north border, and if the soil 
is sandy and moist, it is possible to have them 
sweet and tender during the whole summer, to 
effect which the seed must be sown at the close 
of March and May. They require the same 
modes of cultivation and treatment as turnips. 
In dry weather the beds must be watered regu- 
larly, until the plants have got three or four 
leaves. One great advantage attending the 
cultivation of this vegetable is, that it requires 
no manure. Any soil that is poor and light, 
especially if sandy, is suitable to it. In rich 
manured earth it grows much larger, but not 
so sweet and good. For the growth of seeds, 
Mr. Dickson recommends, in February or 
March, some of the finest roots to be trans- 
planted to 2 feet asunder; but it would, per- 
haps, be a better practice to leave them where 
grown. 

RAPE-CAKE. The refuse or marc remain- 
ing after the oil has been expressed from the 
rape or cole-seed. (See Linseed Cake.) The 
use of rape-cake as a manure is pretty ex- 
tensive in some parts of England, and its effects 
are so immediate and powerful, that its ex- 
pense alone retards its more general employ- 
ment. It contains a large quantity of mucilage, 
some portion of albuminous matter, and a 
small proportion of oil. It should be kept dry, 
and used when recently made. It answers 
admirably for turnips. When first recom- 
mended as a fertilizer, it was used in the pro- 
portion of half a ton per acre; but by pul- 
verizing it, and drilling it in with the seed, 
about half that quantity has been found suffi- 
cient. Rape-cake produces, when ploughed in 
with wheat, excellent crops. It has been found 
exceedingly noxious to the wireworm, and 
other field vermin, and when applied in com- 
post, with 30 times its weight of farm-yard 
dung, it forms a very excellent manure. 

Rape-cake, in common with all fertilizers of 
an oily nature, is much more decided in its 
effects in wet than in dry seasons. In York- 
shire and Lincolnshire the quantity applied 
is about 16 bushels per acre. It is more ser- 
viceable on clays and other moist lands than 
on dry soils ; its benefit extends to only one 
crop, although there have been occasional in- 
stances of its extending to two. It may be 
either drilled with the seed or spread on the 
land before it is ploughed. See Linseed, Oil- 
Cake, Palma Christi, &c. 

The practical benefits which are capable f>f 
being derived from a correct knowledge of the 
mode in which green manures operate, are 
considerable. It should teach the cultivator to 



carefully bury in the soil every portion of either 
animal or vegetable matter he can command ; 
for every weed, every fragment of straw he 
thus employs, will again, under judicious ma- 
nagement, be returned to him in new forms of 
beauty and usefulness. 

RASPBERRY (Rubus idceus). This shrub, in 
its wild state, is found growing in our moun- 
tainous woods and thickets : flowering in May 
and June. The root is creeping. The stems 
are biennial, erect, 3 or 4 feet high, branched, 
round, pale or purplish, more or less be- 
sprinkled with small, straight, slender prickles, 
frequently rather resembling bristles than 
prickles, and sometimes altogether absent. 
Leaves primate, of five or three ovate, rather 
angular, lateral leaflets, serrated or cut, and 
angular, green, and nearly smooth above, very 
downy beneath, and a larger terminal leaflet. 
The footstalks are furrowed, downy, and prick- 
ly, with narrow lateral stipules. The flowers 
are small, white, or pinkish-white, pendulous, 
in drooping terminal clusters. Fruit crimson, 
of numerous juicy grains, beset with the per- 
manent styles, and highly fragrant, with a 
very deliciously perfumed sweet and acid fla- 
vour, more exquisite in the wild state, in gene- 
ral, than when cultivated. 

The wood of the raspberry bush produces 
fruit but one year, therefore that should be 
carefully cut down below the surface of the 
earth, and the young shoots should be shorten- 
ed to about 2 feet high ; and not more than three 
or four shoots should be left to each root, as 
these will produce a greater number of berries, 
and larger fruit, than would be obtained if 
twice that number of suckers were left. The 
middle or end of October is the proper time for 
this pruning. The fruit is produced from young 
branches out of the last year's shoots or suck- 
ers. The plants raised by layers are much 
preferred to those taken from suckers ; they 
should also have plenty of room, for when 
there is not space for the air and light to pass 
between the rows, the fruit will be small, and 
not ripen well. They require a fresh, strong 
loam, deeply trenched and well manured in 
the first instance, for in warm, light ground 
they produce but little fruit. 

The following selection is recommended for 
a small garden: — Barnet, Cornish, Double- 
bearing red Antwerp, Williams's preserving 
yellow Antwerp. 

This fruit is employed for the dessert; it is 
also in very general use for jams and tarts^ 
and is converted into wine and vinegar, which 
is a refreshing beverage, when diluted with 
water, in fevers. The young and fresh leaves 
of the common raspberry are eagerly eaten by 
kids. (See Bramble.) 

RAT. The name of a large, destructive, 
and very prolific species of the genus Mus, the 
brown, or water-rat (Mus decumanus, Linn.), 
introduced into the British islands from Asia, 
not, as is commonly believed, from Norway. 
It has spread over all the country, and multi- 
plied at the expense of the old British species, 
called the " black rat" {M. rattus, Linn.). 

Of all the four-footed animals (says the au 
thor of Brit. Husb.) included in the rank of 
vermin, rats and mice are the most pernicous , 

913 



REAPING. 

for they build their nests under the floors and 
in the roofs of barns, nor are even the stacks ex- 
empt; and are so prolific that, if not destroyed, 
they occasion incalculable mischief. It there- 
fore behooves every farmer to use all possible 
means to check the evil, and one might suppose 
that every exertion was invariably made for 
that purpose; yet we constantly find homesteads 
overrun with these pests, without any other 
pains bemg taken than an occasional rat-hunt 
by farm servants, aided by a terrier, which, 
though not to be neglected, is a very ineffectual 
remedy. The best is, unquestionably, the con- 
struction of the barn-floor and roof in such a 
manner as to prevent them obtaining a perma- 
nent harbour in the building. The next is, be- 
fore the entire clearance of the barn, while yet 
a little corn remains to prevent them from 
quitting it, to close every part of the barn, by 
carefully covering any holes there may be with 
sacks and tarpaulings, so as to prevent all ac- 
cess of the outward air, leaving only the door 
for a few minutes open while the process is 
going on. This done, some common iron 
chafing-dishes, which may be purchased for a 
trifle, should be placed upon the floor, and in 
the bags ; or, if they cannot be had, build up 
a few bricks, clay, or any rubbish that will 
secure a fire from spreading, leaving a cavity 
in the centre, and filling it up with charcoal. 
Then light the charcoal from the bottom, and 
when the heaps are all burning, quickly strew 
a good quantity of broken brimstone upon the 
top ; retire immediately, shut the door fast, and 
leave the building entirely closed during a 
couple of days' following. On opening it, the 
greater portion of the rats and mice will be 
found dead around the charcoal ; and, although 
some may have been suflTocaled while in their 
holes, and if not discovered will occasion an 
unpleasant smell until their remains are dried 
up, yet it will not last long. The operation 
should be again repeated just previous to har- 
vest, and if any opening be found into the 
barns while they are full, by the burrowing of 
the rats, brimstone matches should be inserted 
into them before they are stopped up. Traps 
and poisons are only partially efficient; but an 
effectual mode of trapping is detailed in a small 
pamphlet, published some years ago by Mr. B. 
Broad, of Thurton, under the sanction of the 
Hereford Agricultural Society, which ought to 
be in the hands of every farmer in the kingdom. 
The ferret is a decided enemy to the rat, and 
if kept in a hutch or cage, and only occasion- 
ally used, will be found very serviceable : but 
le should be well fed to induce him to return, 
or otherwise he will escape and become de- 
structive to poultry. A cat or two should also 
always be reared about a barn. In new barns 
and outhouses, the entrance of rats is effectu- 
ally prevented by sleeping the joints, rafters, 
and flooring in a solution of corrosive subli- 
mate. If E. rat or a mouse attempt to gnaw 
wood so prepared, their saliva moistens the 
sublimate, they take it into the stomach, and 
are so destroyed by it. See Mice and Vermin. 

REAPING. Cutting down wheat or other 
corn, grain, or pulse with a sickle, hook, or 
scythe, or by a reaping-machine. These ope- 
rations are more advantageously performed 
944 



REAPING MACHINE. 

when the corn or pulse is not quite ripe, than 
when it is thoroughly ripe ; because, in the 
latter case, the seeds are apt to drop out in the 
process of handling, turning, and drying. 

Mr. Hannum enters into some elaborate cal- 
culations on the advantages of reaping wheat 
a fortnight before it is ripe, from which he 
deduces the following results ; that, independ- 
ently of a gain of 4 per cent, on the value of 
the grain, we have, 1st, straw of a belter qua- 
lity; 2dly, a better chance of securing the 
crop ; and, 3dly, a saving in securing it. (See 
Wheat.) The smaller the sheaves are, the 
better, especially in a wet harvest : in general, 
the diameter of the sheaf should not exceed 30 
inches. It is of some importance, also, not to 
tie the sheaves too near the ears. In making 
the shocks, they should be placed across the 
furrows, in order to procure a free circulation 
of air around them. 

In some districts in England, the scythe has 
of late years been partially employed for the 
purpose of reaping, but with no satisfactory 
result ; and in Berwickshire the scythe-hook is 
now generally used iti preference to the toothed 
sickle of our fathers. Culling corn with a 
sickle of some sort is, however, considered 
preferable to mowing it with a scythe, unless 
the crop stands up well, and time presses. 
Barley and oats may be frequently mown with 
advantage ; but wheat, which requires imme- 
diate and clean binding, and is too valuable to 
admit of any irregularities or wastefulness in 
harvesting, should be reaped. The mode of 
reaping called bagging, and practised a good 
deal about London, and part of the west of 
England, is thus executed : — The left leg being 
pushed into the standing corn, and the straw 
inclined with the left hand over the left foot, is 
then cut close to the bottom with a stroke Irom 
the right hand. The increase of straw, where 
this is valuable, renders this a good method of 
reaping. 

In England the mode of reaping varies with 
the nature of the crop. Barley and oats are 
generally cut with the scythe, beans with the 
sickle ; peas with what are called fagging- 
hooks, which rather tear up than cut; and 
tares in the same way. 

Reaping is a great part of the expense of a 
crop. The average price in England is from 
ia» to 15s. an acre. See Bands, BahleTiHaii- 
Ti:sTiNG, Wheat, &c. 

REAPING-HOOK. An implement used to 
cut down corn. It is one of the oldest instru- 
ments employed in husbandry. There are two 
kinds of hooks ; that which is principally used 
by the British labourer has a smooth blade of 
wrought iron and steel, about 25 inches long, 
and curved nearly to a semicircle ; the other, 
which is universally preferred by the Irish 
reaper, has a finely serrated edge, and towards 
the lower point recedes from the curved direc- 
tion to nearly a straight line. The real action 
of the reaping-hook is that of a saw, conse- 
quently the serrated edge is an advantage. See 

SlCKtE. 

REAPING MACHINE, A contrivance for 
the purpose of reaping grain by means of ani- 
mal labour. With this view, and to facilitate 
an operation of such importance to the farmer,^ 



REAPING MACHINE. 



RED-ROOT. 



different attempts have been made to construct 
machines, so as to despatch the work in a rapid 
manner by the assistance of hcrse labour, but 
the success with which they have been attended 
in England has hitherto been far from com- 
plete. 

Many contrivances have also, of late yeai^s, 
been resorted to for supplying the place of the 
reaping-hook, but hitherto none have proved 
effectual, nor are the difficulties arising from 
roughness and irregularity of surface likely 
soon to be surmounted. No one will dispute 
the great utility and advantages of an efficient 
reaping machine, if it could be carried into 
operation, as these advantages are universally 
acknowledged. In England, such an imple- 
ment is the more required now that the agri- 
cultural labourers are greatly reduced in num- 
ber by emigration, and harvest work has be- 
come more expensive. There is now a much 
greater quantity of corn to cut down, and most 
of the grain ripens about the same period. In 
1815, Mr. Smith, of Deanston, invented a reap- 
ing machine, which, in some experimental 
trials, appeared to perform its work exceed- 
ingly well ; but, upon longer trial, it has not 
answered the favourable expectation formed of 
it. Since that period, another invention of a 
similar nature, by Mr. Patrick Bell, has at- 
tracted considerable attention, but does not ap- 
pear to be of sufficient merit to have come into 
general use. The original cost of these ma- 
chines, 40/. or 50Z., must, in many instances, 
preclude their employment. 

An excellent article on the advantages of a 
reaping machine will be found in the first 
volume of the Quart. Jow-n. of Agr. p. 137; and 
Mr. Bell's machine is figured and described at 
p. 217 of the same volume. 

American ingenuity has been active in the 
invention of machines for harvesting wheat 
' and other grains. Among those which have 
been brought into the field, '^WibotCs Mowing 
Machine, or Grass and Grain Cutter" is highly 
commended by some who have tried it. It has 
been most in use along the Hudson river, and 
is considered an improvement of Smith's Eng- 
lish reaping machine. 

But the machine that is perhaps best entitled 
to the notice of farmers, is the one invented 
by Obed Hussey, which is recommended for 
its simplicity, durability, and the great regu- 
larity and cleanness with which it performs its 
work. Even when the grain is too much 
lodged to be cradled, it will cut at the rate of 
two acres per hour, nearly as clean as if it had 
been standing. It can be adapted to the ine- 
qualities of the surface of a field, and has been 
so improved by its original inventor as to ope- 
rate with great facility on stony land. This 
machine has received the most unqualified ap- 
probation of nearly all farmers who have tried 
it, or witnessed its operation. The Board of 
Trustees of the Agricultural Society for the 
Eastern Shore of Maryland, in their Report, 
made in 1836, say, "We deem it a simple, 
strong, and effective machine, and take much 
pleasure in awarding unanimously the meri- 
torious inventor of it (Mr. 0. Hussey) a hand- 
some pair of silver cups." 

The committee appointed by the Philadel- 
119 



phia Society for Promoting Agriculture, to su- 
perintend the operation of Mr. Hussey's ma- 
chine, make a very favourable report, recom- 
mending it to the attention of the society and 
the agricultural community generally. They 
state that it was put in operation in a piece of 
several acres of heavy wheat, considerably 
lodged, and, contrary to their expectations, it 
performed remarkably well. 

"The committee estimate the ordinary per- 
formance of the machine at from ten to twelve 
acres per day ; although they fully believe, that 
on an emergency, it would accomplish twice 
this amount of work. In confirmation of this 
they would state, that it cut, on this occasion, 
630 square yards in 2 minutes, doing its work 
in the most perfect manner." The cost of the 
machine is $150. (See Farmer's Cabinet, vols, 
ii. and iii.. Cultivator, and other American agri- 
cultural periodicals.) 

M'Cormick's Reaping Machine is used in Vir- 
ginia, and spoken of very favourably by the 
editor of the Southern Planter, who has furnish- 
ed a cut and explanation of it in the number 
of that excellent periodical for January, 1843. 
It is said to cut 15 acres per day without leav- 
ing a single stalk in the field, and some think 
the wheat saved in harvesting a large crop will 
more than repay the first cost of the machine. 
It weighs about 600 lbs., resis upon two wheels, 
and is drawn forward by two horses. The cost 
of the machine is §100. 

A machine for harvesting grain has been in- 
vented by G. G. Carpenter, of Caledonia, New 
York, which not only reaps the crop, but 
thrashes it out. In speaking of his machine 
and its merits, Mr. Carpenter observes, — "The: 
great saving in grain and labour is in finishing 
the work without laying the grain on the ground. 
It may be gauged to cut as high as the gram 
will admit, and the 9-feet swath streams from 
the cradles to the thrasher so evenly, that no 
more power is required to finish 15 to 20 acres 
a day than is necessary to drive a common 
thrasher, which only thrashes say 200 bushels 
in a day, with many hands in attendance." 
This machine costs §600. The hands required 
to attend it are, one to drive the team, and one 
to take care of the machine. (See Cultivator, 
vol. vii.) 

Other labour-saving contrivances for har- 
vesting grain have been invented in the United 
States of late years, descriptions of which may 
be found in various agricultural periodicals. 

RED BAY (Laurus Carolinicnsis). An Ameri- 
can species of the laurus genus found in the 
Southern States. (See Michaux's North Ameri~ 
can Sylva, vol. ii. p. 150.) 

RED BUD, See Judas Tkee. 

RED GUM. A disease of grain, a kind of 
blight. See Blight. 

RED-ROOT (Lithospermum arvense). Siine- 
weed. A worthless plant which has been u. 
troduced into the United States, where it h^u» 
spread itself extensively, especially in some 
parts of New York, where it is considered even 
a worse pest of the fields than the Canada 
thistle. Dr. Darlington describes the plant as 
being hispid, or beset with bristle-like and 
rather short hairs; the root annual; stem 12 to 
18 inches high, generally much branched from 

945 



RED SPIDER. 



RED-WATER. 



the root, and often branched near the summit. 
Leaves 1 to 2 inches long, and i to 5 wide, 
without stems, narrowed at the base, and spear- 
shaped flowers, which show themselves in May 
in the Middle States, have yellowish or milk- 
white and rather small corollas. The seed- 
nuts are ovoid, with tapering points, rough, 
wrinkled, and brown, when mature. When 
this formidable weed, which is the pest of the 
northern wheat-crops, first appears in a field, 
it may be removed by carefully pulling it up 
while in flower, and thus preventing it maturing 
seed and propagating itself. Where it once 
gets possession, it is exceedingly difficult to 
destroy, as the seeds will lie many years in the 
soil without coming up, in this respect resem- 
bling those of charlock or the wild radish and 
mustard. One of the best methods of treating 
it, says the editor of the Netv Genesee Farmer 
(vol. i. p. 92), is to harrow, or lightly plough 
the wheat-stubble immediately after harvest, to 
cause the fallen seeds to vegetate, and destroy 
the young plants the next season by summer 
crops, which should be repeated for a year or 
two, when the land may be summer fallowed 
for wheat. Successive crops of buckwheat are 
said to be advantageous. 

Rkd-Root (CeanotJms Jlmericanus"). New Jer- 
sey tea. A plant with a large, red, perennial root, 
found in the United States. The stem grows 
•2 to 4 feet high, and is branched. It possesses 
considerable astringency, and during the revo- 
lutionary war the leaves were substituted for tea. 

Rbh-Root (Sanguinnria Canadensis'). The 
■generic name is derived from the colour of the 
sap, which resembles blood. This American 
■plant, which abounds in the forests, is variously 
called puccoon root, turmeric, and Indian paint. 
The root is perennial, with fibres attached to a 
■reddish, horizontal stem, about 2 or 3 inches 
long and ^ an inch thick, growing under 
ground. It possesses emetic and other medici- 
•nal properties. It is the only species of its 
genus. 

RED SPIDER (Jrarus). A well-known pest 
■of gardens. It may be destroyed by application 
to plants of whale-oil soap, in the manner di- 
rected in the destruction of plant-lice. See 
Aphis. 

RED TOP. See HEim's Grass. 

RED TOP, TALL (Tricuspis Seslerioides). 
A perennial grass, found in the Middle States, 
on dry banks and sterile fields, flowering in 
August and seeding in September. It has an 
•erect, jointed culm or stem, 3 or 4 feet high 
and very smooth. Pursh calls it " a most ex- 
cellent grass," and says he has seen " most 
excellent crops" of it, in the mountain mea- 
dows of Pennsylvania, where they mow it twice 
a year. Such crops may possibly pass for 
■"excellent" in mountain meadows; but, ob- 
serves Dr. Darlington, they would be not so 
•considered in Chester county. If Mr. Pursh 
has not misapprehended the fact, he is certain- 
ly mistaken in the character of the plant; for 
it is a dry, rigid grass, with unusually hard 
culms, and altogether unfit for making good 
hay. It is the only species of the genus in the 
'Unit-jd States. {Flor. Cest.) 

RED-WATER. In Britain, a well-known dis- 
ease in ca*':e. " The disease commonly called 
946 



red-water, brown-water, black-water, moor-ill, 
&c.," says Mr. R. Thompson, of Auchterarder, 
" is most prevalent in old, foggy pastures. It 
is seldom seen in hill pastures, or in new-sown 
pastures, in which there is abundance of clover; 
but it sometimes happens at the stall, where the 
animal has no other allowance than straw, 
turnips, and potatoes. It usually makes its ap- 
pearance after a few days of rain, followed by 
cold, dry weather. As the disease appears at 
times in all situations, it is difficult to trace its 
existing cause, which may be the nature of the 
pasture, or the state of the weather, or both 
combined. It attacks every breed and kind of 
cattle. 

" The first symptom is the appearance 01 
something like blood mixed with the urine. So 
trifling is the complaint in some instances, that 
no inconvenience seems to be felt by the ani- 
mal, who eats and drinks as usual, chews the 
cud, and is free of the disease in a few days. 
In such cases a natural diarrhcEa comes on, to 
which the cure may be attributed. In general, 
however, the disease is not observed until the 
animal refuses food, separates from the rest of 
the herd, appears dull and heavy, and mani- 
fests great langour and apathy. The ears 
droop, the urine is of a reddish or brownish 
colour, and if it be a milch cow, the milk is 
often similarly tinged. The pulse ranges from 
60 to 70; there is obstinate constipation of the 
bowels; the urine is discharged in moderate 
quantity, and apparently v/ithout pain. If re- 
lief is not afforded by some brisk purgative, at 
the period when the urine changes colour from 
red to brown, the pulse begins to sink, and if a 
little blood be drawn at this time, its surface 
assumes a brownish colour; the eye appears 
of a yellowish-brown tint; the urine acquires a 
darker hue ; the animal refuses to rise ; the 
pulse sinks ; the legs, tail, and horns turn cold; 
and the animal dies, to all appearance per- 
fectly exhausted, although it has manifestly no 
symptoms of acute pain during the course of 
the disease. 

"Purgatives of any kind, if given in large 
quantities of water, are found to be the best 
medicines that can be employed. Medicines 
given to cattle that have lost the power of chew- 
ing the cud, generally pass into the first and 
second stomachs, and if a good draught of 
water is not given to wash them from thence, 
if the animal dies, the greater part of the medi- 
cines will be found in these stomachs; and 
upon this principle, common salt, if properly 
managed, will be found among the best. Dis- 
solve the quantity to be given in as much 
water as will enable it to pass freely from the 
bottle or drenching horn, and let the animal 
have plenty of water to drink afterwards. 
Should it refuse to drink, no time should be lost 
in drenching it profusely with water. With- 
out a plentiful dilution, there is no certainty of 
purging cattle that have lost their cud. If 
purging does not commence in from 12 to 24 
hours, a second dose should be given. Injec- 
tions of soap and water should also be tried, if 
the case is obstinate, and when they operate, a 
I pint of linseed oil should be given as a laxa- 
I five. So obstinate is the constipation in some 
cases, that the salt acts only as a diuretic, 



REED. 



RESINS. 



causing a plentiful discharge of urine. Diu- 
retics and astringents combined seem only of 
service when the bowels are open, and their 
improper administration often causes inflam- 
mation of the bowels and kidneys. If, after 
purgation, the bowels are kept open by laxa- 
tives, such as linseed infusion, the disease will 
gradually disappear without their use. In the 
last stage of the disease, when the urine as- 
sumes a dark-brown or black colour, no remedy 
seems to have any efficacy; the animal is sunk 
beyond recovery, the bowels lose their ac- 
tion, suppression of urine follows, the animal 
stretches itself out and dies, as if perfectly 
exhausted. 

" There are two diseases which in their 
symptoms bear some resemblance to red-water 
in cattle, viz., inflammation of the kidneys, and 
inflammation of the mucous membrane of the 
bladder or the urethra, which often happens at 
calving. In these cases the urine, which is 
discharged with pain, is mixed with blood, but 
not so intimately so as the coloured urine in 
red-water, and it has generally more or less 
mucus mixed with it Inflammation of the kid- 
neys in cattle is comparatively rare. I have 
seen only one well-marked case, which termi- 
nated fatally. The animal experienced con- 
siderable pain upon pressure being applied to 
the region of the kidneys. The urine was 
small in quantity, and nearly as thick as blood ; 
and pulse ninety and very hard. As the dis- 
ease advanced, the urine became black and 
fetid. The animal ail along exhibited symp- 
toms of excruciating pain, until death termi- 
nated its sufferings. Post-mortem examination 
disclosed extensive inflammation of the perito- 
neum. The abdominal cavity contained a 
large quantity of dark-coloured, fetid fluid ; the 
fat surrounding the kidneys, as well as the 
kidneys themselves, was in part gangrenous ; 
and the fat generally exhibited a yellow colour, 
as is usual in cases where death terminates in- 
flammator}'' diseases." (Tra7u. High. Soc. vol. 
ix. p. 9.) 

REED (Jrundo). A genus of aquatic plants, 
in most instances mere weeds, infesting boggy 
low lands or meadows on the sides of rivers. 

The best method of destroying reeds, is by 
draining the land; for if the drains be cut 
deeper than their roots, it will take away their 
nourishment, and consequently destroy them. 
Common salt, ashes, or soot, will likewise 
sometimes kill them; and so will ploughing 
up the land, and laying it in high ridges. 
Reeds always indicate a deep, good, moist soil, 
as a bad one will not nourish or support them. 
See Arcndo, Aromatic Reed, and Bent or 
Starr. 

The term reed is sometimes provincially ap- 
plied to the straw of wheat, rye, &c., that has 
not been bruised. 

REED-GRASS. See CANAnr-GflAss. 

RENNET, or RUNNET. The prepared 
inner membrane of the calf's stomach, which 
has the property of coagulating the albumen 
of milk, and converting it into curd and ivhey. 
The maw is cleaned, salted, and suspended in 
paper bags. Previously to its use, the salt is 
extracted by washing the rennet ; which is then 
soaked in hot water during the night ; and in 



the morning the infusion is poured into the 
milk to coagulate it. This is the result of the 
gastric juice, which is acid; and acts upon 
the caseous part of the milk, in the same man- 
ner as other acids. It sometimes happens that 
no rennet sufficiently good for curdling milk 
can be procured; hence various plants have 
been advantageously substituted for this pur- 
pose. The principal of these are the flowers 
of the yellow ladies' bedstraw (Galium verum), 
used in England, and the cardoon (Cynara cur- 
dmiadits), in Spain. A strong infusion is made 
of the down of the latter vegetable in the 
evening, and on the succeeding morning ^ a 
pint is poured among 14 gallons of new milk, 
which is thus effectually coagulated, and in 
consequence produces a delicious cheese. See 
Chf.kse and Cheese Rennet. 

RENT (Redditus ; from redeimdo). The sum 
of money or other consideration issuing yearly 
out of lands and tenements paid by the oc- 
cupier to the owner. This, in Britain, has 
gradually taken the present form of payment 
in money, from a very different original tenure; 
for, in former days, the land was generally held 
of the superior lord, by certain services ren- 
dered, of either a military or servile nature, 
such as carrying out the lord's manure on to 
his land; certain days of ploughing, digging, 
or cutting the corn, &c. of the landlord; the 
general adoption of a fixed rent or money pay 
ment in lieu of these arbitrary and vexatious 
tenures, was an advance of modern days. 

RESERVOIR. A conservatory of water. 
The husbanding of water is now becoming a 
subject of peculiar interest to the English ag- 
riculturist. This arises from its scarcity in 
many districts, in consequence of the improved 
drainage of the land, and from the many uses 
to which machinery maybe applied in farming 
operations by the agency of water power. The 
construction of reservoirs must resolve itself 
into the following heads : — 

First, where a sufficient quantity of water 
can be diverted directly from the channel of a 
stream or river. 

Second, where the supply is to be obtained 
from drainage, which maintains a stream dur- 
ing part of the year, but which stream fails 
during the summer months. 

Third, where there are grounds affording a 
favourable situation for the construction of a 
reservoir, but through which there is no natural 
stream passing. See Ponds and Tanks. 

RESINS. Peculiar vegetable substances of 
allied properties, composed of carbon, hydro- 
gen, and oxygen ; the most common of which 
is the rosin of commerce, or residue after the 
distillation of turpentines, in order to obtain 
the volatile oil. When no water is used in this 
process, an empyreumatic, brownish-yellow, 
semi-transparent substance remains, namely, 
colophony or fidler' s rosin : when water is used, 
the residue is the opaque yellow substance 
called yellow rosin. When every particle of 
water is evaporated from the last, and it is 
kept in a state of fusion at a moderate tempe- 
rature, and then allowed to cool slo-'dy, the best 
resin is procured. It is translucent, bntiie, 
fusible at a moderate heat, inflammable, and 
soluble in spirits of wine, volatile oils, am! 

94'' 



REST-HARROW. 



RHUBARB. 



also fixed oils and fat, when aided by heat. 
The mineral acids convert it into artificial 
tannin ; the alkalies into soap. Resin in com- 
bination with wax, a little oil of turpentine and 
wax, forms a good polish for furniture. Resin 
contains oxygen 13-337, carbon 75-944, hydro- 
gen 10-719. The chief of the other resinous 
sul)stances are elemi, copal, mastic, sandarac, lac, 
labdanum, amber, &c. They are almost all solu- 
ble in alcohol. 

REST-HARROW {Ononis, iroraonos, an ass, 
and onemi to delight; some of the species are 
said to be grateful to asses). All the plants 
belonging to this genus are of easy cultivation, 
and several of them are rather handsome when 
in flower. The common rest-harrow or cam- 
mock (O. arvensis), is a native plant, with a 
woody, tough, and strong root, resisting the 
harrow's prongs, whence the English name. 
The stems are annual, though often considera- 
bly woody, or shrubby, various in length, hairy. 
Leaves generally simple, entire towards their 
base. P'lowers mostly solitary, large, and 
handsome,of a brilliant rose colour. See Pl.x.A-. 

RHIZOMA (Lat. Rhiza, a root). A terra ap- 
plied to roots which spread under ground, like 
those of the iris. 

RHODODENDRON (From rhodo, a rose, and 
dendrnn, a tree, because of the appearance of 
the terminal bunches of flowers). The rhodo- 
dendron is decidedly one of the finest of all 
known genera, containing some of the most 
handsome, elegant, and showy shrubs; all of 
which are admirably adapted either for orna- 
menting the green-house or shrubbery, or for 
planting singly on lawns. Peat soil is most 
suitable to these plants, but they may also be 
grown in very sandy or vegetable mould. They 
are propagated by layers or seeds. The small- 
wooded kinds may be also increased very freely 
by young cuttings, planted in sand, under a 
glass. 

The species found in the United States are, 
the Rhododendron nudiflorum, or naked-flowered 
rhododendron, commonly called the wild ho- 
ney-suckle, a beautiful American shrub found 
in the Middle States, frequent in woodlands 
and thickets, where it blooms from April to 
May. The flowers are of various shades, from 
very pale to bright purple. There are appa- 
rently several varieties of this beautiful flow- 
ering shrub. The leaves are subject to large 
green excrescences, produced by the puncture 
of insects. See Azalea. 

iiAof.Wc;i(frortV(scosMwi, clammy rhododendron, 
or sweet white honeysuckle, a fragrant, pretty 
species, with very clammy white flowers, found 
in rocky woodlands in the Middle Stales, flow- 
ering in June. The stems grow to the height 
of 4 or 6 feet, with numerous short and crooked 
branches. See Azalea. 

The Rhododendron maximum, or dwarf rose 
bay, forms a magnificent ornament of the 
American mountain forests. It generally pre- 
sents itself in the form of a shrub, of less than 
10 feet m height, although it occasionally at- 
tains an elevation of 20 to 25 feet, with a di- 
ameter of 4 or 5 inches. 

RHUBARB {Rheum rhaponticum, from jua, to 
spread, and Rheum hybridum). A hardy peren- 
nial plant, a native of Asia. The leaves are 
948 



very broad, and 2 feet long. Their petioles oi 
stalks are large, and these only are used. They 
are agreeably acid and vinous, very wholesome, 
and much admired, whether stewed alone with 
sugar for tarts, and puddings, and pies, or com- 
bined with other fruits. Its use with us is fast 
increasing, and although its introduction to the 
London market did not take place, it is said, 
till 1815, yet now, we are told, a thousand cart- 
loads are there annually sold. The soil best 
suited to these plants is one that is light, rich, 
deep, and moderately moist. A poor heavy or 
shallow soil never produces them m perfection. 

It may be propagated by cuttings, but the 
mode almost universally practised in England 
is by seed. This should be sown soon after it 
is ripe in September or October, for if kept oat 
of the ground until the spring, it will often con- 
tinue dormant for twelve months ; if the danger 
of this, however, is risked, it must be inserted 
early in February or March. The seeds are 
best inserted in drills 3 feet apart and an inch 
deep, the plants to remain where raised; for 
although they will bear removing, yet it always 
checks and somewhat lessens their growth. 
When they make their appearance in the 
spring, and have been thoroughly cleared of 
weeds, they may be thinned to 6 or 8 inches 
asunder, and the surface of the ground about 
them loosened with the hoe. Towards the con 
elusion of summer, when it can be determined 
which are the strongest plants, they must be 
finally thinned to 3 or 4 feet, or the hybrid to 6. 
They must be continually kept clear of weeds. 
In autumn, when the leaves decay, they are 
removed, and the bed being gently turned over, 
a little well-putrefied stable-dung added, and 
some of the earth applied over the stools. In 
the spring, the bed may be again dug, previous 
to the plants making their appearance ; and as 
the stalks, when blanched, are much less harsh 
in taste, require less sugar to be rendered 
palatable, and are greatly improved in appear- 
ance, at this period a trench may be dug 
between the rows, and the earth from it laid 
about a foot thick over the stool. This cover- 
ing must be removed when the cutting ceases, 
and the plants allowed to grow at liberty. As 
the earth in wet seasons is apt to induce decay, 
the covering may be advantageously formed 
of coal-ashes or drift-sand, which are much 
less retentive of moisture. Those plants pro- 
duce the seed in greatest perfection that are 
not gathered from, but on no account must they 
be subjected to the process of blanching. Two 
year old plants often produce seed, but in the 
third year always. It must be gathered as soon 
as ripe, and great care taken that none is scat- 
tered over the beds, for the plants then pro- 
duced often spring up and greatly injure the 
old plants by growing unobserved amongst 
them. 

Varieties. — 1. Buck's new early Scarlet Rhubarb. 
— A new and beautiful variety, and very early. 
The stalks and the juice are of a beautiful red 
colour, and quite as high-coloured as the juice 
of red currants, and of excellent flavour. Fit 
for use, in our climate, in April. 

2. Tobolsk. — A new and very superior va- 
riety ; the earliest of all the early, not except- 
ing, perhaps, Buck's Early Scarlet. The stalks 



RHUS. 



RICE. 



are of a beautiful pink colour, and of excellent 
navour. Originated in England by Mr. Youle, 
and fit for use here in April. 

3. Didlcy's Goliah. — A new variety, which 
grows to a very large size. 

4. DuUey's Jdmirul. — A variety of a still more 
recent date, and remarkably large. 

5. Elfort Rhubarb (Van Undulaia). 

6. Giant Rhubarb. — A new and large species. 

7. Wibnot^s Early Red. — Early and fine, with 
red stalks. 

8. MyatCs Victoria. — A magnificent produc- 
tion, with leaves and stalks of enormous size, 
exxeeding, in this respect, all other varieties. 
New, and of excellent quality. 

9. Australian Rhubarb (Rheum jiustrale). — 
A new variety and valuable acquisition; later 
in Its vegetation than any other kind: it also 
continues to grow vigorously, and to furnish 
a supply of leaves long after all other varie- 
ties are gone, or till hard frosts. By protec- 
tion and a frame, it lasts till January. The 
flavour of Rheum Australe resembles apples ; 
and, though thought by some to be more medi- 
cinal in its effects than other sorts, yet those 
who have used it for years have never found 
it prove injurious. 

Young seedling plants only need to be pro- 
tected the first winter by soil. Rhubarb may 
be forced very early, by being covered with 
boxes or barrels, surrounded by horse-manure 
at ihe top and sides. The rhubarb is highly de- 
serving of cultivation by every family. 

Rhubarb Wme. — The leaf-stalks of green-co- 
loured rhubarb, being cut in pieces as for tarts, 
and bruised with a mallet to extract the juice, 
will make a delicious wine, quite equal to green 
gooseberry wine, and very closely resembling 
Champagne. Of the red rhubarb a fine red 
wine is made. 

Rhubarb Jam and Jelly, — A superior jam or 
jelly is thus made from the tender leaf-stalks 
of rhubarb, equal or superior to that from cur- 
rants, and of excellent flavour. To one pound 
of the stalks, cut as for tarts, add one pound of 
loaf or brown sugar ; boil till the ingredients 
acquire a proper consistence. Unground gin- 
ger and lemon peel added to the jelly have 
been found a decided improvement. Buck's 
early scarlet rhubarb has a preference in point 
of colour, which is beautiful red; it is also of 
fine flavour, though not, perhaps, superior in 
this respect to other varieties. Rhubarb will 
answer for jelley three months before the cur- 
rant is ripe. An excellent preserve is also 
made of rhubarb. For this purppse the stalks 
are cut into inch pieces, and preserved in the 
usual way with sugar. (Kenrick.) 

RHUS (Derived from rous, in Greek, which 
is from rhudd, a Celtic word, signifying red ; 
alluding to the colour of the fruit and leaves 
of some species in autumn). The hardy kinds 
are rather ornamental, and well fitted for shrub- 
beries ; some are propagated by cuttings of the 
roots, and others by cuttings and layers. The 
juice of i?. radicans, poison or swamp sumach, 
and R. toxicodendron, poison vine or poison oak, 
is milky, stains black, and is extremely poi- 
sonous. R. coriaria is powerfully astringent, 
and is used in tanning Turkey or Morocco 
leather. 



RIB-GRASS. See Plantain. 

RIBBON-GRASS (Phalaris). The vaiiety 
of the genus Phalaris called picta, from its 
striped leaves, is found in gardens and yards 
as an ornamental plant. From its tendency to 
strike deep roots and spread, it often becomes 
troublesome to eradicate. The species called 
reed-like or American Phalaris, is common in 
swampy places in the Middle and Northern 
States. When, says Dr. Darlington, the pani- 
cles of this plant first appear, they have some 
resemblance to those of orchard grass ; but he 
thinks it far inferior to the orchard grass, and 
too much of an aquatic for regular culture. 
Another species, the Phalaris canariettsis, or 
wild canary grass, is particularly naturalized 
in some of the Northern and Eastern States, 
where it produces crops of the greatest luxu- 
riance. It is perennial, spreads rapidly, and 
may be easily propagated by transplantation. 

RiCE (Oryza, from the Arabic word eruz, 
the Greeks coined their word ogu^oL, and the va- 
rious modern nations of Europe their rice, riz, 
reis, &c.). O. sativa, the common rice, has the 
culm from 1 to 6 feet in length, annual, erect, 
simple, round, jointed. Leaves subulate-linear, 
reflex, embracing, not fleshy. Flowers in a 
terminating panicle. Calycine leaflets lanceo- 
late. Valves of the carolla equal in length ; 
the inner valve even, awnless ; the outer twice 
as wide, four-grooved, hispid, awned. Style 
single, two-parted. 

O. mutica, the dry or mountain rice, cultivated 
in Ceylon, Java, and of late in Hungary, has 
the culm 3 feet high, and more slender. Fruit 
longish, with awns the longest of all. It is 
sown on mountains and in dry soils ; rots with 
a long inundation, and perishes with sea-water. 

The varieties of rice, as of other cultivated 
grain, are as numerous as the different soils, 
climates, and other physical circumstances, in 
which it is cultivated : besides the dry rice, the 
chief sorts, by some considered species, are 
the O. prcecox, or early rice, and the O. glutinosa, 
or clammy rice, both cultivated in irrigated 
lands. 

The native place of rice, like that of the 
other sorts of grain in common use, is un- 
known ; it is cultivated in great abundance all 
over India, where the country will admit of 
being flooded ; in the southern provinces of 
China, in Cochin China, Cambodia, Siam, Japan, 
&c. In Japan it is very white, and of the best 
quality. It has also been introduced into culti- 
vation in the southern kingdoms of Europe, 
Italy, Spain, the south of France, and within a 
few years into Hungary and Westphalia. In 
Carolina it has long been a staple commodity. 
Houghton's account of its introduction there 
is, that Ashby was encouraged to send a hun- 
dred pound bagful of rice to that province, 
from which, in 1698, 60 tons were imported into 
England. Dalrymple says, that rice in Caro- 
lina is the result of a small bag o{ paddy, given. 
as a present from Dubois, treasurer of the East 
India Company, to a Carolina trader. A Dutch 
vessel also, from Madagascar, brought rice into 
the same province ; and to this is attributed 
their having two kinds. 

In the hilly parts of Java, and in many of th« 
Eastern islands, the mountain rice is planted 
4L 949 



RICE. 

upon the sides of hills, where no water but rain 
can come ; it is, however, planted in the be- 
ginning of the rainy season, and reaped in the 
beginning of the dry season. The natives call 
h Paddy Gunung, which signifies mountain rice. 
It is entirely unknown in the western parts of 
India, but it is well known in Cochin China, 
where it thrives in dry, light soils, mostly on the 
sides of hills, not requiring more moisture than 
the usual rains and dews supply, neither of 
which are frequent at the season of its vege- 
tation. 

There is a kind of hill rice which is hardy 
enough to grow on the edge of the Himalayan 
snows. This, it may be expected, will, at some 
future time, prove an acquisition of value to 
the European and American cultivators. 

Rice is extensively cultivated in the East 
Indies and China, chiefly on low grounds near 
large rivers, which are liable to be annu- 
ally inundated, and enriched by the deposition 
of mud. According to Sir George Staunton's 
account, the Chinese obtain "two crops of rice 
in a year from the same ground, and cultivate 
it in this way from generation to generation on 
the same soil, and without any other manure 
than the mud deposited by the water of the 
river used in overflowing it. After the waters 
of the inundation have withdrawn, a few days 
are allowed for the mud to get partially dry ; 
then a small spot is enclosed by a bank of clay 
slightly ploughed and harrowed, and the grain, 
previously steeped in dung, diluted with animal 
water, is then sown very thickly on it. A thin 
sheet of water is immediately brought over it, 
either by a led stream, or the chain-pump. 
Thus a seed-bed or nursery is prepared, and, 
in the mean time, the remainder of the tract is 
preparing for being planted. When the plants 
are 6 or 7 inches high, they are transplanted in 
furrows made by the plough, so as to stand 
about a foot apart every way; water is then 
brought over them, and kept on till the crop 
begins to ripen, when it is withheld ; so that 
when harvest arrives the field is quite dry. It 
is reaped with a sickle, threshed with a flail or 
the treading of cattle, and the husk taken off 
by beating it in a stone mortar, or passing it 
between two flat stones, as in a common meal 
mill. The first crop being cut in May, a second 
is immediately prepared for by burning the 
stubble, and this second crop ripens in October 
or November. After removal, the stubble is 
ploughed in, which is the only vegetable ma- 
nure such lands can be said to receive from 
man. In Japan, Ceylon, and Java, according 
to Thunberg, Davis, and RafSes, aquatic rice is 
cultivated nearly in the same manner. Moun- 
tain-rice is grown much in the same way as 
barley. 

In Lombardy and Savoy rice is sown on rich 
lands, the sower often wading to the knees in 
water: one crop a year only is obtained ; but 
four crops are often taken in succession. In 
America a similar practice obtains. 

In Westphalia, and some other parts of the 
south of Germany, rice has long been culti- 
vated; there it is sown on lands that admit of 
irrigation ; but the water is not admitted till the 
seei' has germinated, af.d it is withdrawn, as in 
Italy, when the crop c jmes into flower. From 
950 



RICE. 

long culture, in a comparatively cold country, 
the German rice has acquired a remarkable 
degree of hardiness and adaptation to the cli- 
mate ; a circumstance which has frequently 
been alluded to as an encouragement to the 
acclimating of exotics. It is found, Dr. Walker 
remarks (Essays on Nat. ifi'.s^),, that rice seeds 
direct from India will not ripen in Germany at 
all, and even that Italian or Spanish seeds are 
much less early and hardy than those ripened 
on the spot. 

In Hungary rice has not been long cultivated: 
the mountain sort has chiefly been tried, and 
that in the manner of our barley or summer- 
wheat. 

In England a crop of rice has been obtained 
near Windsor, on the banks of the Thames. 

By far the best imported rice is that from 
Carolina : it is larger and better tasted than 
that of India, which is small, meager, and the 
grains frequently broken. As an article of diet, 
rice has been extolled as superior almost to any 
other vegetable : but whatever it may be in 
warmer climates, where it is a common, and 
to many persons almost their only food, it does 
not appear so well calculated for European 
constitutions as the potato ; for we find that 
the poor constantly reject the use of rice when 
potatoes are to be had ; and whilst these can 
be obtained, we may venture to predict, that 
rice will always be considered, in Britain, 
rather as a dainty, to be eaten with sweet con 
diments, spices, fruit, &c., than as ordinary 
food. Loudon's Ency, of Plants, 

The mountain rice has been raised in Mary- 
land by Mr. Bordley, on dry sandy land. The 
following comprehensive directions respecting 
the ivater culture of rice, were furnished by one 
of the most successful cultivators in South 
Carolina: 

Begin to plant about the 25th March, trench 
shallow and wide, and scatter the seed in the 
row ; make 72 or 75 rows in a task, and sow 2 
bushels to an acre. 

1. Hoe about the end of April or beginning 
of May, when the rice is in the fourth leaf; 
then flood, and clear the field of trash. If the 
planting be late, and you are likely to be in 
grass, flood before hoeing; but hoeing first is 
preferable. The best depth to flood is 3 or 4 
inches. It is a good mark to see the tops of 
the rice just out of the water : the deep places 
are not to be regarded ; the rice will grow 
through in 3 or 4 days. Observe to make a 
notch on the frame of the trunk, when the 
water is at a proper depth : if the rains raise 
the water above the notch, or it leaks out, add, 
or let off accordingly. This is done by putting 
a small stick in the door of the trunk, about an 
inch in diameter : if scum or froth appear in 
8 or 10 days, freshen the water, take off the 
trunk doors, run off the water with o«e ebb, and 
take in the nexi flood: then regulate as before. 
Keep the water on about 15 or 17 days, accord- 
ing to the slate of the weather ; that is, if a hot 
sun, 15 days ; if cool and cloudy, 17 days, count- 
ing from the day the field is flooded ; then leak 
off with a small stick for 2 days, then run off 
the whole, and keep the field dry. In 4 or 5 
days after, hoe the second time, stir the ground, 
whether clean or not, and comb up the fallen 



RICE, WILD. 



ROLLERS. 



rice with the fingers. Keep dry and hoe through 
the field. Hoe the third time and pick clean. 
This will be about the beginning of July. Then 
flood as you hoe. Let the water be the same 
depth as before. If any grass has escaped, it 
must be picked in the water after it shoots out. 
This is called the fourth hoeing, but the hoe is 
never used except for some high places or to 
clean the dams. If the rice is flaggy and likely 
to lodge, flood deep to support it, and keep it 
on until fit to harvest. (Domestic Encyclopedia.) 

If land is well drained and in good order, it is 
calculated that 5 acres of rice and 1 or 1^ of 
provisions may easily be cultivated to the hand. 

Rice was formerly almost altogether export- 
ed in the form of clean rice, but at present the 
largest amount of that taken to England is in 
the husk or rough state, called paddy or cargo 
rice. The rice crop for 1842 has been esti- 
mated by. Mr. Ellsworth at 94,007,484 pounds. 

The following statement shows the annual 
quantities and value of rice exported from the 
United States at different periods : 

Years. Exports in Tierces. Vilue. 

1791 - - - - 96,980 

1792 - - - - 141,762 

1803 . - - . 81,838 $2,455,000 

1816 - - - . 137,843 3,555,000 

1818 - - - - 88,181 3,262,697 

1836 - - - . 212,983 2,548,750 

1838 - - - - 71,048 1,721,819 

1841 - . - - 101,617 2,010,107 

(Hunt's JUerchanls' Magazine, July, 1843.) 

RICE WEEVIL. See Grain Weevil. 

RICE, WILD (Zizania). Nuttall mentions 
three species of aquatic grasses, called wild 
rice, found in the United States, viz.: the Zizania 
aquatic a {?\. A., c); Z.tniliacea: and the Z. fliii- 
tans. This last is very small and easily con- 
founded with other aquatic grasses. He found 
it around Savannah in Georgia. 

The Z.aquatica is found in almost every part 
of the Northern and Middle States, where it 
goes by the names of water oats, Indian rice, 
and reed. The seeds resemble those of Polish 
millet. It is exceedingly prolific. The root is 
perennial. It grows in swampy places, and in 
deep water at the edges of ponds and sluggish 
streams. Stock of all descriptions are fond of 
the plant when green, or cured as hay. It re- 
sembles, at a distance, slender shoots of Indian 
corn. The stems are jointed, and as large as 
the little finger. The panicle or head is a foot 
or more in length, and the seeds blackish, 
smooth, narrow, cylindrical, about three-quar- 
ters of an inch long, white and farinaceous 
within. Gilleland's Ohio and Mississippi Pilot 
contains the following interesting details rela- 
tive to wild rice : " Among the vegetable pro- 
ductions of the Western Territory north of Illi- 
nois and west of Green Bay, on the Ouiscon- 
sin and Fox rivers, the wild rice, called Folle 
avoine by the French, and Menomen by the In- 
dians, claims particular attention. It grows in 
inexhaustible abundance, through all parts of 
the territory, in almost every one of the innu- 
merable lakes, ponds, bays, rivers, and creeks. 
It is said to be as palatable and as nourishing 
as common rice, and if so, it '■>-'ll be incom- 
parably more valuable. It grows where the 
water is from 4 to 6 feet deep, and where the 
bottom is not hard or sandy. It rises above 
the surface of the water from 4 to 8 feet, and 



is often so tnick as almost to prevent canoes from 
passing through or among it. The stalk is soft 
like the bulrush, but grows in joints like reed- 
cane, which it much resembles. It is usual for 
the Indians to force their canoes through it, 
just before it ripens, and tie it in large bunches 
for the purpose of preventing the wild ducks 
and geese from breaking it down and destroy- 
ing it. When fully ripe, they pass through it 
again, and, spreading their blankets in the 
inside of their canoes, they bend the branches 
of the wild rice over them, and thresh oflT the 
grain with sticks; an operation which requires 
little time, and is generally performed by the 
women. After di'ying it in the sun, they put it 
into skins, for future use. Every autumn and 
spring the wild ducks and geese resort to the 
wild rice lakes in flocks incredibly numerous. 
It is thought by many that the Zizania aquatica 
will some day be an object of culture, which 
may afford a means of bringing into use large 
tracts of inundated land." 

RICK. A pile of corn, hay, straw, &c., regu- 
larly heaped up in the open air, and sheltered 
from wet by thatch. See Stack. 

RIDDLE. A sort of sieve used to separate 
dust and the seeds of plants from corn. They 
are made of various sizes for different uses. 

RIGGIL. An imperfect male sheep, having 
only one or no testicle in the scrotum. 

RIME. A hoary or white frosty appearance, 
sometimes on the ground in the autumnal, 
winter, and early spring mornings. See Dew 
and Frost. 

RING-BONE. In farriery, a callus growing 
in the hollow circle of the little pastern of a 
horse, just above the coronet. It has its name 
from the resemblance to a ring. 

RINGS, FAIRY. See Faiiiy Ring. 

RIPPLE GRASS. A popular name of the 
English plantain (P. lanceolala). 

ROADS. See Highways. 

ROARING. In farriery, a disease well known 
to jockeys and horse-dealers, which usually ac- 
companies or precedes broken wind. It is 
generally the result of long-continued or vio- 
lent exercises. It is connected with dilatation 
of the air-cells of the lungs, and is incurable. 
See Broken WiM). 

ROCHAMBOLE. See Garlic. 

ROCK CRESS. See Chess, Wall. 

ROLLERS. An implement of simple con- 
struction, like the roller, the main object of which 
is to render smooth the surface of arable lands, 
would not seem to admit apparently of much va- 
riety in its construction. Nevertheless, it is an 
implement in which greater diversity of form is 
found to exist than in most other agricultural 
machines. Rollers are of all sizes, weights, 
and lengths; and the material of which they 
are made is occasionally iron, sometimes stone, 
but most commonly wood. Of these, the first 
is undoubtedly the best, and particularly for 
the jointed roller, by which the operation of 
turning at the ends of the ridges is materially 
facilitated, and the slading of the earth which 
would otherwise take place on the head-lands, 
not only to their great detriment, but to the no 
small increase of labour to the horses, is there- 
by prevented. 

An ingenious gentleman, rnt .ate Georgf* 

J51 



ROLLERS. 



ROLLERS. 



Booth, Esq., of Allerton, near Liverpool, who 
to a great love of farming added a very tolera- 
ble share of mechanical skill, and to both am- 
ple means to carry out his various devices, 
constructed a roller, or rather a nest of rollers, 
on the lever principle. He contended for a 
very small diameter as the most effective in 
crushing the clods, and throwing the greatest 
possible weight on the surface of the ground. 
We regret being only able to give an idea of 
his invention from memory; but do not think 
his roller was more than a foot in diameter at 
the outside. It consisted of five cylinders or 
rollers, arranged in such manner that three 
hind ones, separated from each other, have the 
two spaces overlapped by two cylinders placed 
in front. 

Drill rollers. — These are made of rings adapt- 
ed to a shaft. They are not by any means of 
modern invention, having been well known to 
the English farmers of Norfolk and Suffolk for 
the greater part of a century. The only im- 
provement they have undergone has been to 
render each ring independent of its neighbour, 
so that the process of turning at the end of the 
field is facilitated, as in the case of the jointed 
roller. The modern drill rollers in other re- 
spects have not improved, if the doctrine of 
Mr. Booth, already noticed, be correct, that a 
small diameter is better than a large one. The 
drill roller is used for the double purpose of 
crushing clods on rough lands, and making 
grooves ready to receive the seed of wheat or 
other grain sown broadcast on light soils. It 
is a capital tool for either purpose. In the first 
case it is followed by a harrow, of sufficient 
weight to lighten up the surface ; in the other, 
the fine, short-toothed harrow, or even a mere 
bush-harrow, will be found sufficient. The 
less such land is disturbed after sowing the 
better, and the more distinct will be the seve- 
ral rows or grooves of corn. 

Heavy rollers. — The heavy roller is a very 
effective implement. It is formed of 3 sepa- 
rate cylinders, about 2 feet in diameter, and 
of the same length; the axis of each being in- 
dependent of the other. On turning, they con- 
sequently revolve in different directions, and 
thus "slading" at the land's end is avoided. 

The ilouhle-jointed barley roller is a very use- 
ful implement. It is so constructed that the 
two sides, being separate rolls or distinct 
frames, may revolve at opposite angles ; and, 
wnen required, one may be placed behind the 
other. A plan has for many years been in use 
in Norfolk, of constructing them with twisted 
joints, so that the under end of one roll shall 
work behind the end of the other, thus leaving 
no seam between the roller. 

Crosskills' dod-crushcr is, under many circum- 
stances, a valuable implement. It is composed 
of a series of iron rings, with notched edges, 
set apart from each other about 3 or 4 inches. 
Small cross-bars or knives are placed at fre- 
quent intervals on the faces of these, and' near 
their outer notched rims, so as to intersect 
every portion of land over which it passes. Its 
construction, combined with its great weight, 
renders it very effective for the purpose which 
Its name denotes. Indeed, as an old farming 
952 



bailiff once aptly remarked, it is a roll and a 
harrow combined. The roller is an implement 
which requires some judgment as to the time 
of its use, and this remark applies with in- 
creased force to the one under consideration. 

Seam or land-presser. — If a drill is so effective 
an implement, far more so is the seam or land- 
presser, inasmuch as its whole force and 
weight is directed to each individual furrow, 
as it is turned over by the common plough. 
The seam-presser is in fact an abstract of a 
drill roller, consisting of but two cylinders of 
cast-iron, which, following in the furrow, press 
and roll down the newly turned-up earth, and 
it is more particularly useful when applied to 
clover stubbles intended for wheat. (liansome 
on .Agr. Imp.) 

In the United States the roller is constructed 
of wood, stone, or cast-iron, according to con- 
venience or the purposes for which it is used. 
In American husbandry we have yet no reason 
to expect, or perhaps desire, any but those 
made of wood, and such as any farmer, who 
has a moderate degree of mechanic skill, and 
the carpenter's tools which every farmer ought 
to keep, may readily construct himself. A 
good, sound, oak log, with the frame and shafts 
appended, makes a good roller. They are 
made of different lengths and sizes, varying 
from 15 to 30 inches in diameter. The lighter 
kinds are made in one piece, but the larger 
and heavier kinds are advantageously made in 
two pieces, with an iron rod passing through 
the centre of both, and upon which they re- 
volve. English farmers construct the frame 
so as to rise above the roller, upon which a 
box is fixed, either to contain stones to add to 
the pressure of the roller, or to receive small 
stones and rubbish, collected on the field while 
at work, which are to be carried off. Their 
shafts, when at work, are generally horizontal. 
We think the roller is more easily drawn when 
the draught is on a right line from the collar 
or yoke of the team to the point of resistance. 
This may be done, and the advantages of the 
box retained. 

The uses and advantages of the roller are 
many and important, and no farmer should be 
without one. They are particularly important 
in the seeding process, to break down the clods, 
pulverize and smooth the surface, and to press 
the earth to the smaller seeds, which otherwise 
often fail to germinate for lack of moisture. 
This is particularly the case with oats, barley, 
and the grass seeds. In autumn the roller is 
sometimes passed over winter grain, with a 
view to counteract the effects of frost the fol- 
lowing winter. In spring it is advantageously 
passed over winter grain, as soon as the ground 
is so solid and dry that the feel of the cattle 
will not poach the surface. It renders light 
ground more compact; presses the soil to the 
roots of the grain, and thus promotes their 
growth ; and upon all soils closes the innume- 
rable cracks and fissures which abound on the 
appearance of dry weather in spring, and, by 
partially burying the crown, causes grain to 
tiller better, that is, send up more seed-stalks. 
Finally, the roller is of great advantage to 
grass lands in the spring, by reducing the in- 



ROLLING. 



ROSE-CHAFER. 



equalities of surface, and pressing down the 
plants or earth which have been thrown up by 
the frost. 

There are also rollers for other purposes, viz., 
the spiked roller, which is used for pulverizing 
stiff soils, preparatory for wheat. This is 
formed by inserting several rows of spikes, or 
cast or wrought-iron darts, in a common hard- 
wood roller. The concave or scalloped roller is 
adapted to the form of ridges, and is often at- 
tached to the turnip drill. (^Cultivator). 

ROLLING. In agriculture, the action or 
operation of drawing a roller over the surface 
of the ground, with the view of breaking down 
the clods, rendering it more compact, and 
bringing it even and level; or for only level- 
ling the surface, as in grass lands. This is a 
practice that becomes necessary both upon the 
tillage and grass lands, and which is of much 
utility in both sorts of husbandry. In the for- 
mer case it is made use of with different in- 
tentions, as for the purpose of breaking down 
and reducing the cloddy and lumpy parts of 
the soil in preparing it for the reception of 
crops. It is also of great use in many cases 
of light soils, in rendering the surface more 
firm, even, and solid, after the seed is put in. 

ROOT. In botany, that part of the central 
axis of a plant which is formed by the descend- 
ing fibres, and whose function is to attract 
liquid food from the soil in which it is mingled. 
It differs from the stem in not having leaves or 
buds upon its surface, and in its tendency to 
burrow under ground, retreating from light; 
nevertheless, some kinds of roots are exclu- 
sively formed in air and light, as in the ivy and 
other such plants ; but these are to be regarded 
as prehensile organs, to support the plants, 
rather than as roots, or nutritious organs. The 
root-stock or rhizome is a prostrate, rooting, 
thickened stem, which yearly produces young 
branches or plants. Ginger and orris-root are 
common instances of it. It is often confound- 
ed with the root. There are many appendages 
to the roots, namely, tubers, bulbs, &c., which 
are mere reservoirs of food for the lateral pro- 
' geny of the plant. See Bulb, Rhizome, Tcbeh, 
&c. 

ROSE (Lat. Rosa, from the Celtic rhod, red, 
i'l reference to the prevailing colour of the 
i. .vers). In botany, the English name for the 
well-known and universally cultivated flower 
of the genus Rosa. It is an extensive family, 
but all of the species love a stiff soil. No roses 
wilt thrive in shallow, poor ground. Standard 
roses are obtained by budding them upon vigor- 
ous stocks raised from the seed of the hedge 
or dog-rose, managing the stocks in the same 
way as fruit-stocks. Their heads must be 
pruned occasionally to prevent their rambling. 
The dwarf roses in flower borders should be 
pruned in January, down to a foot high, cutting 
out the old and dead wood. They will produce 
finer flowers. Roses bear their flowers upon 
wood of the last year. Only the China roses 
flower upon the shoots of the same year. Roses 
continue blowing a long time, if the fading 
flowers are cut off instead of being allowed to 
seed. 

Nearly a dozen species of the wild rose are 
found in the United States, among which are 
120 



those familiarly known as the swamp, rock, 
dwarf, wild, &c. 

ROSE BAY, or MOUNTAIN LAUREI^ 
See RHODODEirDHON Maximum. 

ROSE-CHAFER, or ROSE BUG, is a diurnal 
or day-flying beetle of the Melolonthian genus. 
Dr. Harris states that this insect, which is com- 
mon in the vicinity of Boston, is, or was a few 
years ago, unknown in the northern and west- 
ern parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, 
and Maine. The natural history of the rose- 
bug, one of the greatest scourges with which 
American gardens and nurseries are afflicted, 
was for a long time involved in mystery, but 
is at present fully cleared up. 

For some time after they were noticed, says 
Dr. Harris, rose-bugs appeared to be confined 
to their favourites, the blossoms of the rose ; 
but within 30 years they have prodigiously in- 
creased in number, have attacked at random 
various kinds of plants in swarms, and have 
become notorious for their extensive and de- 
plorable ravages. The grape-vine, in particu- 
lar, the cherry, plum, and apple trees, have an- 
nually suffered by their depredations ; many 
other fruit trees and shrubs, garden vegetables 
and corn, and even the trees of the forest and 
the grass of the fields, have been laid under 
contribution by these indiscriminate feeders, 
by whom leaves, flowers, and fruits are alike 
consumed. The unexpected arrival of these 
insects in swarms at their first coming, and 
their sudden disappearance at the close of their 
career, are remarkable facts in their history. 
They come forth from the ground during the 
second week in June, or about the time of the 
blossoming of the damask rose, and remain 
from 30 to 40 days. At the end of this period 
the males become exhausted, fall to the ground, 
and perish, while the females enter the earth, 
lay their eggs, return to the surface, and, after 
lingering a few days, die also. The eggs laid 
by each female are about 30 in number, and 
are deposited from 1 to 4 inches beneath the 
surface of the soil ; they are nearly globular, 
whitish, and about one-thirtieth of an inch in 
diameter, and are hatched 20 days after they 
are laid. The young larvfe begin to feed on 
such tender roots as are within their reach. 
Like other grubs of the Scarabajians, when not 
eating, they lie upon the side, with the body 
curved so that the head and tail are nearly in 
contact; they move with difficulty on a level 
surface, and are continually falling over on 
one side or the other. They attain their full 
size in the autumn, being then nearly three- 
quarters of an inch long, and about an eighth of 
an inch in diameter. They are of a yellowish- 
white colour, with a tinge of blue towards the 
hinder extremity, which is thick and obtuse or 
rounded; a few short hairs are scattered on the 
surface of the body; there are six short legs, 
namely, a pair to each of the first three rings 
behind the head; and the latter is covered with 
a horny shell of a pale rust colour. In Octo- 
ber they descend below the reach of frost, and 
pass the winter in a torpid state. In the spring 
they approach towards the surface, and each one 
forms for itself a little cell of an oval shape, oy 
turning round a great many times, so as to com- 
press the earth, and render the inside of the ea- 
4 £ 2 95a 



ROSE-CHAFER. 



ROT. 



vity hard and smooth. Within this cell the grub 
:s transformed to a pupa during the month of 
May, by casting off its skin, which is pushed 
downwards in folds from the head to the tail. 
The pupa has somewhat the form of the perfect- 
ed beetle; but it is of a yellowish-white colour, 
and its short, stump-like wings, its antennae, and 
its legs are folded upon the breast, and its whole 
body is enclosed in a thin film, that wraps each 
part separately. During the month of June this 
filmy skin is rent, the included beetle withdraws 
from it its body and its limbs, bursts open its 
earthen cell, and digs its way to the surface of the 
ground. Thus the various changes, from the egg 
to the full developement of the perfected beetle, 
are completed within the space of one year. 

Such being the metamorphoses and habits 
of these insects, it is evident that we cannot 
attack them in the egg, the grub, or the pupa 
state ; the enemy, in these stages, is beyond 
our reach, and is subject to the control only 
of the natural but unknown means appointed 
by the Author of nature to keep the insect 
tribes in check. When they have issued from 
their subterranean retreats, and have congre- 
gated upon our vines, trees, and other vegeta- 
ble productions, in the complete enjoyment of 
their propensities, we must unite our efforts to 
seize and crush the invaders. They must in- 
deed be crushed, scalded, or burned, to deprive 
them of life, for they are not affected by any of 
the applications usually found destructive to 
other insects. Experience has proved the uti- 
lity of gathering them by hand, or of shaking 
them or brushing them from the plants into tin 
vessels containing a little water. They should 
be collected daily during the period of their 
visitation, and should be committed to the 
flames, or killed by scalding water. The late 
John Lowell, Esq., states that, in 1823, he dis- 
covered on a solitary apple tree the rose-bugs 
"in vast numbers, such as could not be de- 
scribed, and would not be believed if the)' 
were described, or, at least, none but an ocular 
witness could conceive of their numbers. De- 
struction by hand was out of the question" in 
this case. He put sheets under the tree, and 
shook them down and burned them. Dr. 
Green,of Mansfield, whose investigations have 
thrown much light on the history of this in- 
sect, proposes protecting plants with millinet, 
and says that in this way only did he succeed 
in securing his grape-vines from depredation. 
His remarks also show the utility of gathering 
them. " Eighty-six of these spoilers," says he, 
"were known to infest a single rose-bud, and 
were crushed with one grasp of the hand." Sup- 
pose, as was probably the case, that one-half 
of them were females; by this destruction 800 
eggs, at least, were prevented from becoming 
matured. During the time of their prevalence, 
rose-bugs are sometimes found in immense 
numbers on the flowers of the common white- 
weed, or ox-eye daisy {Chrysanthemum leucanthc- 
nium), a worthless plant, which has come to us 
from Europe, and has been suffered to over- 
run our pastures and encroach on our mowing 
lands. In certain cases it may become expe- 
dient rapidly to mow down the infested white- 
weed in dry pastures, and consume it, with the 
sluggish rose-bugs, on the spot. 
954 



Our insect-eating birds undoubtedly devour 
many of these insects, and deserve to be che- 
rished and protected for their services. Rose- 
bugs are also eaten greedily by domesticated 
fowls ; and when they become exhausted and 
fall to the ground, or when they are about to 
lay their eggs, they are destroyed by moles, in- 
sects, and other animals, which lie in wait to 
seize them. Dr. Green informs us that a spe- 
cies of dragon-fly, or devil's needle, devours 
them. He also says that an insect, which he 
calls the enemy of the cut-worm, probably the 
larva of a Carabus, or predaceous ground-bee- 
tle, preys on the grubs of the common dor-bug. 
In France the golden ground-beetle (Carabus 
auratus) devours the female dor or chafer at 
the moment when she is about to deposit her 
eggs. I have taken one specimen of this fine 
ground-beetle in Massachusetts, and we have 
several other kinds, equally predaceous, which 
probably contribute to check the increase of 
our native Melolonthians. (Harris.) 

ROSE-LICE. See Aphis. 

ROSEMARY (Rosmarinus officinalis; from 
ros, dew, and marinus, of the sea, on account 
of its maritime habitat. Poetically implying 
"the dew of the ocean"). There are 3 varie- 
ties — the green, golden-striped, and silver- 
striped. The first is the one in general culti- 
vation. 

ROSE-SLUG. See Slug. 

ROSIN. See Resin. 

ROT. In farriery, a disease in sheep and 
other animals, in which both the liver and 
lungs are affected, and there is commonly a 
dropsical tendency. Its ravages are chiefly, 
however, confined to sheep, and it is most com- 
monly closely connected with excess of moist 
food, or placing these animals in low, wet situa- 
tions, every way foreign to their natural habits ; 
for sheep, in a state of freedom, seek the most 
elevated, dry, and heathy situations — an in- 
stinct which long imprisonment and domesti- 
cation has not yet eradicated: every farmer is 
aware with what tenacity his sheep adhere to 
the very highest portions of a field. It is only 
when we force them to inhabit low grounds, 
and situations foreign to their habits, that they 
thus become diseased. In a state of nature, too, 
they browse upon the heath plants, and seek 
with avidity at certain periods salt springs and 
salt exudations, facts which have not entirely 
escaped the notice of modern flockmasters. 
Thus the argali or wild sheep of Siberia, which 
are the presumed origin of all our domestic 
sheep, are found about the size of the fallow 
deer, on the immense chain of mountains 
reaching through the middle of Asia to the 
Eastern Ocean. They are found in small 
flocks, ranging over the highest elevations. As 
the winter approaches, they move downwards 
into the plains, and exchange their food from 
the mountain plants to grass and other vegeta- 
bles. They are so partial to salt, that they 
scrape away the earth in considerable quanti- 
ties in the neighbourhood of saline places in 
order to procure it. All animals in fact seek 
salt with the greatest avidity. In Flanders, 
sheep owners deem its use an effectual prevention 
of the rot, and there is very considerable reason 
to believe that by the use of this valuable con- 



ROT. 



ROT. 



diment, the ravages of this dreadful disease 
might either be very materially modified, or 
perhaps entirely prevented. 

Many years since, Ellis, in his Practical Hus- 
bandry, recommended the use of salt, mixed 
with wort, in which had been boiled sage, 
pennyroyal, wormwood, shepherd's purse, com- 
frey, &c., as a prevention of the rot ; 7 or 8 
spoonfuls was the dose, once a week after 
April, whenever the weather was wet. 

More than three centuries since, Fitzherbert, 
the earliest of the English agricultural writers, 
alluded to this dreadful disorder in his Boke of 
Husbandry, and in his section entitled What 
thynges rolleth Shepe, he says, " It is necessary 
that a shepherde shoulde knowe what thynge 
rotteth shepe, that he myghte kepe theym the 
better. There is a grasse called sperewort, 
and hath a longe narrow leafe lyke a spere 
heed, and it wyjl growe a fote hyghe, and bear- 
eth a yellowe floure in lowe places where the 
water is used to stande in wynter. An other 
grasse is called peny grasse, and growethe 
lowe by the erthe in a marshe grounde, and 
hath a leafe as brode as a peny or two pence, 
and neuer beareth floure. All manner of 
grasse, that the lande floudde runneth ouer, is 
very evylle for shepe, bycause of the sande 
and fylihe that stycheth uppon it. All moorish 
grounde and marsche grounde is yll for shepe. 
The grasse that groweth upon falowes is not 
good for shepe, for there moche of it wede, and 
ofte tymes it commeth uppe by the rote, and that 
bryngeth erthe with it, and they eate both, &c. 
Myldevve grasse is not good for shepe, and that 
ye shall knowe two wayes : one is by the leaves 
on the trees in the morninge, and specially of 
okes; take the leaves and putte thy tongue to 
them, and thou shalt fcle like hony uppon them. 
And also there will be many kelles uppon the 
grasse, and that causeth the myldewe, where- 
fore theye may not well be left out of the folde, 
tyll the Sonne have domination to drye them 
awaye. Also hunger rotte is the worst rotte 
that can be, for there is neither goode fleshe nor 
goode skynne, and that comethe for lacke of 
meate, and so for hunger they eate suche as 
they can fynde, and so will not pasture shepe, 
for they seldom rot but wythe myldewes, and 
than vvyll they have much talowe and fleshe, 
and a good skyn. Also white snailes be yll for 
shepe in pastures, and in falowes there is an 
other rotte whiche is called pelte rotte, and that 
commeth of greatte wete, speciallye in woode 
countryes where they cannot drye." 

The symptoms of the rot, and of some of its 
most decided remedies, have been thus de- 
scribed by Dr. Brown, of Boston (Mag. of Nat. 
Hist. vol. V. p. 98), " It cannot, I conceive, be 
demonstrated that in this disease the bile is 
thrown back upon the system, and mingles 
with the circulating fluid; for in the early 
stages there is no obstruction to the bile; and 
in the latter, what little is secreted is inter- 
cepted by the flukes on the hepatic side of the 
gall-bladder. The eye, which some persons 
take to be an index to the bilious condition of 
the system, has really not that 'tinge of yellow 
apd jaundiced-like appearance' at the com- 
mencement of the disease. On the contrary, 
the peculiar whiteness of the eyes is the first 



iiymptom which guides the shepherd to the un 
welcome truth. If the bile ducts be carefully 
examined in the earliest stage of the complaint, 
there will be found a few flukes in the duct 
which conveys the bile from the gall-bladder to 
the intestine, but none in the gall-bladder, and 
none beyond it, a sound liver, no 'tubercles,' 
no ' abscesses,' and withal a fine, fat, healthy- 
looking carcass. If it be in the latest stage 
when the examination is made, the gall-blad- 
der will be found filled with flukes instead of 
bile: and the animals will be seen making 
their way up those channels which convey the 
bile from the liver to the gall-bladder, arresting 
it in its course, and pressing forward and en- 
larging the biliary tubes. Thus, when but few 
of these animals have possession of this viscus, 
its function is not materially impaired ; the 
parenchyma, or substance of the liver, is un- 
altered in appearance; the mucous channels, 
which convey the bile to the gall-bladder, and 
from the gall-bladder to the intestines, have 
not yet felt their presence, and the bile itself is 
secreted apparently unaltered in quality or 
quantity : but here, as they live in a medium 
of perpetual nourishment, they multiply to an 
extent incredible, and impede the natural action 
of the liver and subordinate organs of the 
body. They at length completely block up the 
conduits of the bile, devouring the bile as fast 
as it is secreted ; spreading irritation and dis 
ease from the vessels in which they live to the 
whole mass of the liver itself; and in some in 
stances they carve their way through the mem- 
brane which encircles them, and escape by 
myriads into the cavity of the abdomen ; thus 
completing the destruction of an important 
organ, and with it the life of the animal. These 
extreme states are generally associated with 
dropsy and a total degeneracy of the muscular 
tissue; the blood is deficient in quantity, very 
serous, and almost destitute of fibrin. A cor- 
respondent inquires the class and family of the 
fluke, in hopes of finding a remedy for a disease 
so fatal. He will find it in the class Vermes, 
and order Intestina, and it is the Fasciola hepd- 
tica^ Contemplating it, as it is, as a variety of 
exotic worm, it occurred to me that vermi- 
fuges, destructive to other species, might be 
ejnployed with advantage against this. But in 
instituting experiments on the living animals, 
I discarded those popular remedies which have 
only a mechanical action, and which could 
never reach the liver, for those which operate 
by a wider range of influence. What I have 
observed is, that there are in this class of re- 
medies those which have little or no effect 
when brought in contact with the living fluke; 
and there are others which destroy the animal 
immediately. To the first of those which are 
inert, belong solutions of vegetable bitters, 
spirits of tar, and several others, which need 
not be enumerated. To the second, or to those 
which destroy the animal, belong solutions of 
mercury and the spirits of turpentine. For 
example : a little calomel suspended in water, 
and dropped upon the animal, quickly deprives 
it of life ; and a drop of the spirits of turpen 
tine kills it in a few seconds. The oil of tur- 
pentine is a deadly poison to the fluke. The 
next consideration is, how far it aidy be safe 

155 



ROT. 



ROT. 



•o administer this medicine to the living sheep, 
•ind what probability there is of its disturbing 
an animal inhabiting the liver. With regard 
to the first exception, there can arise no diffi- 
culty. The spirit of turpentine is borne rea- 
dily by children, and has been given to adults 
in doses of a quarter of a pint; it is likewise 
applied externally to blistered surfaces, and as 
a styptic to the bleeding mouths of ruptured 
blood-vessels. There can be as little doubt 
with regard to the second exception, when we 
consider the penetrating nature of this drug; 
when we know that the mere immersion of the 
hand in it is sufficient to impregnate the uri- 
nary secretion ; nor can we doubt that its influ- 
ence will be acknowledged by an organ ap- 
proximating and communicating with the 
stomach, and by the worm inhabiting that 
organ." 

The outward symptoms of this disease were 
many years since well described by Dr. Har- 
rison of Boston, Lincolnshire, when he said, 
"If in warm, sultry, and rainy weather, sheep 
that are grazing on low and moist lands feed 
rapidly, and some of them die suddenly, there 
is reason to fear that they have contracted the 
rot: this suspicion will be further increased, 
if in a few weeks afterwards the sheep begin 
to shrink, and become flaccid in their loins. 
By pressure about the hips at this time, a 
crackling is sometimes perceptible. Now or 
soon afterwards the countenance looks pale, 
and upon parting the fleece, the skin is found 
to have parted its vermilion tint for a pale-red, 
and the wool is easily separated from the pelt; 
as the disorder advances, the skin becomes 
dappled with yellow or black spots. About 
this time the eye loses its lustre, and becomes 
white and pearly, from the red vessels of the 
tunica adnata and eyelids being contracted or 
entirely obliterated. To this succeeds debility 
and emaciation, which increase continually till 
'.he sheep die, or else ascites or perhaps gene- 
ral dropsy supervene before the fatal termina- 
tion." 

Such are the symptoms and the most power- 
ful known remedies for this disease ; an equally 
important research is its origin, its predispos- 
ing circumstances, or immediate cause. In 
this, however, in common with most other dis- 
eases of animal and vegetable life, difficulties 
occur at every turn, of a nature almost entirely 
inexplicable. We must be content to do little 
more than merely trace its symptoms and the 
course in which it commonly runs. No flock- 
masters are perhaps more anxiously alive to 
the disease, or more often its victims, than the 
owners of the noble water-meadows of the 
south of England, such as those of the valleys 
of the Kennett, the Itchen, and the Wiltshire 
Avon. 

Thes^ excellent farmers have noticed, that 
the first crop of spring water-meadow grass 
never imparts the rot to sheep ; but that the 
second crop, which they therefore make into 
Hay, is almost certain to do so. They notice, 
H.so, that the worst rotting-time is from Mid- 
summer to Michaelmas ; that almost all mea- 
dow land, if chance flooded in summer, that is, 
if covered by the overflowing of rivers, so as 
o be covered with their muddy waters, is 
•956 



almost certain to rot the sheep ; that gravelly 
bottomed wa/er-meadows, like those between 
Marlborough and Hungerford, never rot the sheep 
fed on them, in any season or period of the year. 
This would appear to confirm the very common 
suspicion that it is not the grass which rots the 
sheep, but the gaseous or aqueous vapours 
which emanate from such places, more copi- 
ously as the weather becomes warmer in the 
summer; hxil, then, against such a conclusion 
we have the fact, well known to owners of the 
water meads, that when sheep are soiled even 
upon fine dry elevated soils (such as never 
render sheep rotten), with the second crop of 
grass from water-meads — that then the sheep 
become as equally rotten as if they had been 
pastured on the very meadows from whence' 
the grass was carried. It would seem, there- 
fore, that there are more watery matters, or 
other sources of disease in the second crop 
than in the first. 

That the grass of the second crop varies 
very materially in its chemical composition 
from that of the first, has been clearly shown 
by the analysis of the late Mr. George Sinclair. 
He found that rye-grass (Loliuni perenne) at the 
time of flowering, taken from a water-meadow 
that had been fed off" with sheep till the end of 
April, aflxirded of nutritive matter 72 grains. 
The same grass from the meadow that had not 
been depastured in the spring, afforded 100 
grains. The same weight of this grass, taken-; 
from a rich old pasture that had been shut up- 
for hay about the same time, afforded of nutri- 
tive matter 95 grains. That from the rich pas-- 
ture that had not been depastured, afforded 120- 
grains. (Hort. Gram. Wob. p. 384.) And in the 
great majority of instances, the aftermath of • 
the upland grasses is considerably less rich in' 
nutritive matters than that of their first or 
spring crop. 

Such, then, are the supposed causes, symp 
toms, and treatment recommended for the cure' 
of this disease. For the cure, both turpentine 
and common salt seem to have sometimes been 
successfully used. But the effect of salt seems- 
to be much more decided when employed as a' 
prevention, rather than a cure. As a preventive,' 
too, the use of aromatic vegetable substances- 
seems to be excellent. It is the kind of pre- 
vention also which might be supposed to be 
efficacious from following the order of nature,- 
and observing the habits of the sheep in their 
wild stale, browsing as they invariably do upon' 
the aromatic plants, and the shoots of moun- 
tain shrubs; and never descending to live upon 
the rank and watery grasses of the valleys, 
until compelled by the severity of the weather. 
Every farmer is aware with what avidity they 
consume such domestic herbs — the parsley, for 
instance — as abound in essential oils. An 
attempt has indeed been recently made to culti- 
vate this herb in the fields as feed for sheep; 
and I have little doubt that if some attention 
were paid to the cultivation of such plants (if 
the parsley will not bear the browsing of the- 
sheep, they might be occasionally soiled with 
it), by way of condiment or change ; if the 
flock were allowed, at all times and seasons, 
access to common salt (and this might be 
mixed, if necessary, with aromatic substances 



ROT IN TIMBER. 



ROTATION OF CROPS, 



grateful to the sheep) ; and, lastly, if some 
care were taken in supplying them, when feed- 
ing on watery plants, with a little hay, corn, or 
oil-cake, that then the destruction caused by 
this melancholy scourge of the flock-master 
would be either entirely prevented or very ma- 
terially reduced. See Fluke. 

ROT IN TIMBER. It has been noted, that 
wood saturated with common salt is never sub- 
ject to this disease. Mr. Bethel has proposed 
a plan for its prevention, by saturating the 
wood with coal-tar. Mr. Ryan uses for the 
same purpose a solution of corrosive subli- 
mate (muriate of mercury). Sir W. Burnet 
employs a solution of muriate of lime. See 
Dry-Rot. 

ROTATION OF CROPS. The order in 
which different crops are made to succeed each 
other. It was only towards the middle of the 
last century, that the importance of a scientific 
rotation of crops began even to attract the 
farmer's attention. Previous to that period we 
search in vain in the works of agricultural au- 
thors for the slightest notice of such a theme. 
The writers before those days, as Arthur 
Young noticed, recited courses of husbandry, 
good, bad, and execrable, exactly in the same 
tone as matters not open to praise or censure, 
and unconnected with any principles that could 
throw any light on the arrangement of the 
farm, or its more successful cultivation. And 
yet it is on this difficult part of the farmer's bu- 
siness being scientifically pursued, that much 
of the profits and advantages which he is to 
derive from his land for a course of years must 
depend. Arthur Young, the most popular and 
the most rapid of observers, saw the import- 
ance of this difficult inquiry in its true light: 
he correctly enough told the farmers of his day, 
that whenever very good or very bad husbandry 
is found on arable land, it is more the result of 
a right or wrong arrangement of crops than 
of any other circumstance ; that no district is 
well cultivated under bad rotations, while it is 
extremely rare to find any badly cultivated 
under such as are good. More accurate and 
more generally diffused observations have long 
since, however, led the present race of culti- 
vators to assign to the inquiry its proper value. 
The importance in fact of the investigation no 
modern farmer will for a moment doubt. It 
may not be a useless mode of conducting the 
research, if we inquire, as we proceed in our 
proposed examination, into the few yet valu- 
able lights which chemical and entomological 
investigations have shed upon this important, 
yet, from the endless variety of soils and situa- 
tions, somewhat intricate and laborious theme. 
In regard to the general principles, as it has 
been well observed, on which the proper crop- 
ping of land depends, it is now perfectly under- 
stood, that some kind of crops deteriorate or 
exhaust the land to a much greater degree than 
others ; that some by their capability of being 
consumed on the farm (though they do exhaust 
the soil) return, in such consumption by live- 
stock, as much or perhaps rather more to the 
soil than they draw from it, during the period 
of their growth. And again, that other crops, 
by admitting of profitable tillage and cleansing 
tiie land during their growth, aid very much in 



the essential destruction of weeds, insects, &c, 
and in ameliorating the land for the succeeding 
crop ; while, on the other hand, different crops, 
by not permitting such cultivation, and being 
great exhausters when following in immediate 
and rapid succession, not only deteriorate the 
soil, but fill it with weeds and grubs. Hence 
it follows in practice, that by suitable arrange- 
ments of these different crops in rotation, most 
kinds of land may, without lying idle, be con- 
stantly preserved in a clean and productive 
condition. In the management of rotations, 
however, much careful attention and discrimi- 
nation is requisite in the cultivator, to profit- 
ably adapt them to the nature of the soil, and 
the other circumstances under which he is 
placed. Above all, the farmer must remember, 
that as different kinds of plants require differ- 
ent kinds and proportions of nutritious mate- 
rials to be drawn from the earth for their in- 
crease and perfect growth, so also they need 
different situations and conditions of soil for 
their most profitable development. 

The farmer, too, is well aware that certain 
crops never prosper well two or more seasons 
together in the same land ; that they in fact 
commonly exhaust or "tear out" the soil to 
such an extent, that every lawyer's clerk is 
aware of and notices it in some restraining co- 
venant of " the lease." 

Even the gardener, aided as he is by the 
most copious supplies of enriching composts, 
always avoids as much as possible planting a 
tree where one of the same species has pre- 
ceded it. 

Now it is of primary importance that we 
should endeavour to understand, if possible, 
the cause of this phenomenon. This question, 
therefore, has long engaged not only the atten- 
tion of the most sagacious farmers, but of 
many distinguished chemical philosophers. By 
these it has been regarded in chiefly two points 
of view. First, it has been contended, that as 
each plant has peculiar excretory matters, 
which it constantly deposits in the soil in 
which it is placed — matters which are found 
to be particularly noxious to other plants of its 
own species — that in consequence, until these 
are decomposed and removed from the earth 
by other plants, or by the gradual effects of de- 
composition, the same crop cannot advanta- 
geously prosper in the soil. And in support 
of this doctrine is adduced the well-known fact, 
that the excretory matters deposited or diffused 
through the water in which bulbs or other 
roots have been cultivated, will not well sup- 
port other bulbs; yet still that such impure 
water is found to be more grateful than clear 
water to vegetables of another species. 

And, again, that certain plants and trees are 
well known to be excellent and mutually fer- 
tilizing neighbours, — a knowledge indeed as 
old as the days of Rome under her emperors; 
for at those periods the Italian farmers com- 
monly planted the elm as the companion, or 
" husband," as they called it, of the vine : and 
every farmer is aware, amongst other facts of 
a similar nature, that the corn-flower can be 
found only amongst his corn crops — it is in 
vain to search for it elsewh?re. The gardener 
also well knows, that it is almost useless to 

957 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



replant old orchards with the same trees, or to 
replace old quick-hedges with young quick 
plants, yet an old orchard or the site of an old 
hedge-row are proverbial for their fertility, 
when planted with other crops. There is con- 
siderable importance I think to be attached to 
this mode of accounting for the facts of the 
case, but it is by no means so complete an ex- 
planation as is desirable. There are some 
soils, for instance, which would seem (if this 
were the sole cause of the phenomenon) to defy 
all the excretory powers of the plant. Some of 
the newly-enclosed lands of the United States 
of America, for instance, have produced excel- 
lent wheat crops for even 20 years without in- 
terruption. Some of the alluvial soils of the 
lower portion of the valley of the Thames have 
yielded alternate crops of wheat and beans 
from time immemorial ; and by the addition of 
manure, the potato grounds near London yield 
abundant crops for a series of years. There 
are other observations too, of a similar kind, 
which will readily be remembered by the in- 
telligent farmer, which do not seem to assimi- 
late entirely with this mode of removing the 
difficulties of the case. 

The other way of explaining the reluctance 
with which a crop follows another of the same 
description is, by supposing that each kind of 
plant has some peculiar and essential ingredi- 
ent which it absorbs from, and in a great degree 
exhausts the soil, and that it is, therefore, only 
after a lapse of some time, when that ingredi- 
ent or those ingredients are restored.by the ap- 
plication of manure, or by other modes, that 
the same plants can be again profitably culti- 
vated. To a great extent this theory is not 
only a very plausible but a very probable and 
reasonable explanation of the difficulty. Thus 
the farmer is well aware that certain soils on 
which red clover formerly grew very success- 
fully once in 4 years, will now only yield any 
profitable degree of produce of the same plant 
once in 8 or once in 12 years. The excretory 
powers of the plant in this instance, therefore, 
are useless in explanation of the difficulty; for 
according to that theory, the excretory matters 
.vhich long were successfully dissipated or ab- 
sorbed by other plants in the course of 4 years, 
should do so in our age just as well as in a for- 
mer period. But if we admit what has been 
not only sometimes, but very often clearly 
proved to be the case, that the soils which are 
thus reluctant to produce red clover, are now 
totally exhausted of sulphate of lime (gypsum) 
— that, moreover, every fair average crop of 
this valuable grass contains from 100 to 200 
pounds weight per acre of this salt — and that 
by dressing the land with this manure, in 
almost exactly the same projwrlion and quantity 
as that which is contained in the clover, that 
then the land will again grow the very same 
crop once in 4 years ; when these and other 
similar facts are proved, the very strong pro- 
bable conclusion to which we must arrive is 
apparent, viz., that the clover had gradually 
exhausted the land of an essential ingredient 
which only needed to be restored to it, to enable 
the clover again to flourish with its wonted 
vigour. And this is not a solitary instance 
thus, marine plants will only grow successfully 
958 



in inland situations, where common salt is 
added to the soil. The sun-flower and the nettle 
need in an equal degree the assistance of salt- 
petre. The presence in the soil of phosphate 
of lime (the earthy salt of bones) is equally 
essential to the vigorous growth of almost all 
the grain crops. 

Then, again, there are other facts of a differ- 
ent nature well known to the farmer, which 
appear to lead us to the same conclusion ; for 
instance, every cultivator is aware that by 
cutting his crops green, his land is not nearly 
so much exhausted as when the same crops 
are allowed to ripen their seeds. And if, in 
explanation of this observation, it can be shown 
that the plant, when ripe, contains a larger pro- 
portion of any peculiar saline or earthy ingre- 
dient than it does when in a growing, unripe 
state, this will further tend to establish the 
truth of the last-named theory — that it is the 
abstraction from the soil by the plant of some 
peculiar substance, which thus exhausts and 
indisposes it to support the same crop. Now 
this, according to chemical investigations, 
seems, at least in many instances, to be the case. 
Thus, M. Saussure, in his chemical researches, 
has shown by the results of his analysis, that 
the ashes of the plants of peas (Pisum sati- 
vitim), when green and in flower, contain only 
17'25 per cent, of phosphate of lime, but that, 
when ripe, they yield 22 per cent. And, again, 
that the ashes of plants of vetches (Viciafabn), 
which yielded only 13-5 per cent, of the same 
salt when in flower, contain 17-75 per cent, 
when they are ripe. The same result was ob- 
tained from other plants : the Solidago vulgaris, 
for instance, which yielded 8-5 per cent, of 
phosphate of lime when first in flower, con- 
tained 11 per cent, when ripe. The turnsole 
(Hclianlhus annuus), which afforded only 6 per 
cent, when flowering, contained 22-5 per cent 
when ripe. The wheat plant, which held 10-75 
per cent, in flower, contained 11-75 when ripe. 
The ashes of the straw of wheat were found to 
yield only 6-2 per cent, of this essentially pre- 
sent salt, but its seeds held 44-5, and its bran 
46-5 per cent, of it. M. Vauquelin obtained a 
result somewhat similar in his examination of 
the ashes of the oat plant; the seeds alTording 
him 39-3 per cent, of phosphate of lime, but 
when he burnt the whole plant, seed and stalk 
together, he then found only 15 per cent. 

The evidence, therefore, in favour of the ab- 
sorbent theory, is certainly rather stronger than 
that in support of the excretory mode of ex- 
plaining the phenomenon. Yet, in all proba 
bility, both causes may contribute to produce 
the effect. Davy, the chief of modern che- 
mists, adopted the former mode of explaining 
the reluctance with which a crop grows for 2 
years successively on the same land. (Lec- 
tures, p. 357.) Changes of all kind seem, in 
truth, ever to be grateful to vegetation — change 
of soil, of seed, of the course of cropping, of 
manure, &c. "Peas and beans," said Davy, 
" in all instances, seem well adapted to prepare 
the ground for wheat; and in some rich lands, 
as in the alluvial soil of the Parret, and at the 
foot of the South Downs, in Sussex, they are 
raised in alternate crops for years together. 
Peas and beans contain a small quantity of a 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



matter analogous to albumen (hard white of 
egg) ; but it seems that the nitrogen which 
forms a constituent part of this matter is de- 
rived from the atmosphere. The dry bean leaf, 
when burnt, yields a smell approaching to that 
of decomposing animal matter; and in its de- 
cay in the soil may furnish principles capable 
of becoming a part of the gluten in wheat. 

" Though the general composition of plants 
is very analogous, yet the specific difference in 
the products of many of them, and other well 
ascertained facts, prove that they must derive 
different materials from the soil; and though 
the vegetables, having the smallest systems of 
leaves, will proportionately most exhaust the 
soil of common nutritive matter, yet particular 
vegetables, when their produce is carried off, 
will require peculiar principles to be supplied 
to the land in which they grow. Strawberries 
and potatoes at first produce luxuriantly in 
virgin mould, recently turned up from pasture, 
but in a few years they degenerate and require 
a fresh soil ; and the organization of these 
plants is such as to be constantly producing 
the migration of their layers. Thus, the straw- 
berry, by its long shoots, is continually en- 
deavouring to occupy a new soil ; and the 
fibrous radicles of the potato produce bulbs at 
a considerable distance from the parent plant. 
The most remarkable instance of the powers 
of the plant to exhaust the soil of certain prin- 
ciples necessary to its growth, is found in cer- 
tain fungi. Mushrooms are said never to rise 
in two successive seasons on the same spot; 
and the production of the phenomena called 
fair}' rings, has been ascribed by Dr. Wollaston 
to the power of the peculiar fungus which 
forms it, to exhaust the soil of the nutriment 
necessary for the growth of the species. The 
consequence is that the ring annually extends, 
for no seeds will grow where their parents 
grew before them, and the interior part of the 
circle has been exhausted by preceding crops ; 
but where the fungus has died, nourishment is 
supplied for grass, which usually rises within 
the circle, coarse, and of a dark-green colour." 
" When cattle," adds Davy, " are fed upon land 
not benefited by their manure, the effect is 
always an exhaustion of the soil : this is parti- 
cularly the case where carrying-horses are 
kept on estates; they consume the pasture 
during the night, and drop the greatest part of 
their manure during their labour in the day- 
time. The exportation of corn from a country, 
• I'ess some articles capable of becoming ma- 
• are introduced in compensation, must 
u uriately tend to exhaust the soil. Some of 
the spots, now desert sands in northern Africa 
and Asia Minor, were anciently fertile ; Sicily 
was the granary of Italy, and the quantity of 
corn carried off from it by the Romans is pro- 
bably a chief cause of its present sterility." 

The same theory is also supported by M. 
Liebig: in his excellent work on Organic Che- 
mistry, y>. 158, he remarks, "It is evident that 
two plants growing beside each other will mu- 
tually injure one another, if they withdraw the 
same food from the soil. Hence, it is not sur- 
prising that the Matricaria chamomilla and Spar- 
tium scoparium impede the growth of grain, when 
it is considered that both yield from 7 to 7-43 



per cent, of ashes, which contain six-tenths of 
carbonate of potash. The darnel and the Eri- 
geron acre blossom and bear fruit at the same 
time as the wheat ; so that, when growing min- 
gled with it, they will partake of the compo- 
nent parts of the soil, and, in proportion to the 
vigour of their growth, that of the corn must 
decrease; for what one receives the others are 
deprived of Plants will, on the contrary, thrive 
beside each other, either when the substances 
necessary for their growth, which they extract 
from the soil, are of different kinds, or when 
they themselves are not in the same stages of 
developement at the same time. On a soil, for 
example, which contains potash, both wheat 
and tobacco may be reared in succession, be- 
cause the latter plant does not require phos- 
phates, salts which are invariably present in 
wheat, but requires only alkalies and food con- 
taining nitrogen. According to the analysis of 
Posselt and Reimann, 1000 parts of the leaves 
of the tobacco plant contain 16 parts of phos- 
phate of lime, 8-8 parts of silica, and no mag- 
nesia; whilst an equal quantity of wheat-straw 
contains 47'3 parts; and the same quantity of 
the grain of wheat 99-45 parts of phosphates." 

The late George Sinclair took a similar view 
of the cause of the exhaustion of soils. "If," 
he says, "a plant impoverishes a soil in pro- 
portion to the weight of vegetable matter it pro- 
duces on a given space of ground, the follow- 
ing will be the order in which the under-men- 
tioned plants exhaust the ground, being the 
proportion they bear to each other with respec 
to weight of produce : — 

Mangel-wurzel ----- 25 

Cabbages ------ 25 

White turnip ----- I6 

Potatoes ------ 15 

Kohl-rabi (bulb-stalked cabbage) - 14 

Swedisti turnip ----- 13 

Carrots - - - - - - 11 

But when we take the weight of nutritive 
matter which a plant affords from a given 
space of ground, the results are very different, 
and will be found to agree with the daily ex- 
perience in the garden and the farm. 

The following figures represent the propor- 
tion in which they stand to each other with re- 
spect to the weight of nutritive matter per 
acre, and in exhausting the land: — 

Potatoes ------ 63 

Cabbages ------ 42 

Mangel-wurzel ----- 28 

Carrots ---._- 24 

Kohl-rabi 17 

Swedish turnip ----- 16 

Common turnip ----- 14 

Change of crops also prevents very mate- 
rially the increase of the predatory grub and 
insects which also more or less prey upon the 
farmer's crops. The parent of the English 
wire-worm, for instance, which is the larva of 
a small beetle, the Elater segetis, may be seen 
in the summer months depositing its eggs or. 
lays or meadows abounding with the cerea. 
grasses; for instinct teaches it to place its eggs 
where the young wire-worm will meet with its 
natural food, which are the cereal grasses. 
Change of crops, therefore, not only checks the 
deposit of the eggs, but, by removing the natu 
ral food of the young vermin, it materially pre- 

959 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



vents increase, or even their continuance; 
which otherwise, as is the case, for instance, 
with the wire-worm, might for 4 or 5 years be 
a pest to the soil. See Beetle. 

The ordinary course or rotation of crops 
under which the light lands of England are 
commonly cultivated, is either on what is de- 
nominated the four-course or shift system, or 
the five-course or shift. 

The four-shift system commonly consists of 
fallow, manured; 1, turnips, fed off; 2, oats or 
barley ; 3, grass seed ; 4, wheat. 

The five-shift system, which is in many situa- 
tions a much more advantageous course of hus- 
bandry, is commonly fallow: 1, turnips: 2, 
oats, or barley; 3, clover; 4, peas ; 5, wheat. 

On clays the course varies : on some kinds 
of heavy clays it is usually fallow, with ma- 
nure; wheat; beans; wheat, manured; clover; 
oats, or wheat. 

On other clays the system pursued is fallow, 
with manure; wheat, or oats ; clover; beans; 
wheat. 

The variations, however, are of necessity ex- 
ceedingly various. Thus, on some of the infe- 
rior adhesive clays of the midland counties, 
they adopt the four-course system. 

Another system of moderately heavy soil 
husbandry is : — 

Acres. 

1. Turnips - 20 

Fallow 20 

2. Barley 20 

Oats 20 

3. Seeds - 20 

Tares fed off 20 

4. Wheat - 40 

There are endless variations, however, of 
this system, varying in their course from that 
practised in some of the heavy, rich Essex 
soils, of a two-shift system; viz., 1, wheat; 2, 
beans; 3, wheat; with an occasional fallow. 
And that more extensively used in the hun- 
dreds of that great agricultural county, of a 
five-shift system of fallow: 1, oats; 2, clover, 
dunged; 3, wheat; 4, beans; 5, wheat. To the 
nine-shiftsystemof husbandry, sometimes prac- 
tised, which is about the longest course with 
which I am acquainted, viz.: 

20 acres fallow, or turnips manured. 

20 acres oats or barley. 

20 acres clover. 

20 acres wheat, well hoed. 

20 acres winter tares, sheep-fed. 

20 acres wheat, hoed. 

20 acres seeds, sheep-fed. 

20 acres, 15 of heans and 5 of peas, dunged. 

20 acres wheat, hoed. 

The following course, which takes in every 
valuable crop, without in any instance violat- 
ing the rules that science directs, seems to me 
the best, and is recommended by a Norfolk 
farmer for most clays not too wet. Say for a 
farm of 350 acres — 100 acres of green crops, 
such as cabbages, turnips, rape, and tares, 
adapting the green crops to the nature of the 
land; 50 acres of peas or beans; 50 acres of 
barley or oats, laid down with clover; and 100 
acres of wheat. 

You will by this course have every year 200 
acres of wheat and other corn, 50 of clover, 
and 100 of green crops, thus saving your land 
960 



from exhaustion by too frequent repetition of 
crops of the same genus. And white crops 
will in no instance succeed each other. The 
wheat stubbles are in this way sown with green 
crops, to be followed by 50 of barley and 50 of 
beans or peas ; the barley sown with clover 
and followed by wheat, which will thus be 50 
acres on clover, and 50 on the bean or pea 
stubble, taking care that the 50 acres of green 
crops, followed by beans or peas, when next 
coming in course for green crops, shall be 
sown with barley and clover, as by this means 
the clover comes only once in 7 years. 

In whatever point of view, therefore, the far- 
mer examines the rotation of crops best adapt- 
ed to his land, the more highly interesting does 
the investigation appear. Long observation 
and the practice of ages have convinced the 
best English cultivators that sooner or later the 
soil is tired of or exhausted of something essen- 
tial to its luxuriant produce by a repetition of 
the same crops; that the richest meadows gra- 
dually decrease in their produce; other soils be- 
come "clover-sick;" and it is now even pretty 
generally suspected that the land is in many 
districts gradually getting tired of turnips. To 
the examination, there fore, of this great questi" i, 
let every farmer contribute his mite of practi 1 
observations: it is a theme whose iiivestiga- 
tion has long yielded a rich harvest to English 
agriculture; for amongst its fruits must be 
numbered the introduction of turnips, of man- 
gel-wurzel, and other green crops ; its exami- 
nation led to the adoption of the four-shift sys- 
tem, and the banishment of that which for ages 
rested on the miserable plan of one crop and 
a fallow. It is idle, therefore, to contend that 
nothing more is to be effected by change of 
crops ; for the experience of all periods is 
against so indolent and so erroneous an as- 
sumption. Let the farmer only remember 
what has been accomplished by the mere in- 
troduction of the turnip plant; what thousands 
of acres have been brought into cultivation by 
its means, and how many mouths are fed by 
the increased fertility of the land produced by 
the adoption of that four-shift system of rota- 
tion of which it is the first crop. Let him 
bring to mind what superior crops are now 
produced by the adoption of new seeds and 
novel courses, to those which a century since 
tenanted the lands of merry England; and he 
will then see abundant reason for hope, and 
for an energetic perseverance in a course of 
discovery, which has already rendered such an 
abundant harvest to the excellent cultivators 
of our soil. See M. Bousingault on the " Ro- 
tation of Crops," Quar. Jour. .^gr. vol. x. p. 251; 
Liebig's Organ. Chern. of Jlgr., &c. 

To prevent the depreciation of soil and im- 
prove its productive capacity, a proper rota- 
tion of crops is indispensable. The same 
general principles upon which these objects 
may be most judiciously accomplished will 
apply to all countries, but the manner of car- 
rying out these principles must vary with lo- 
calities and peculiarities of climate and soil. 

It was once thought that, after culture, it was 
necessary to allow the land to remain for one 
or more years at rest and idle, or fallow anJ 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



nnused, in order that the soil might thus have 
its strength renovated. It has, however, been 
found that with judicious management land 
need never be suffered to lie idle, but cultivated 
every year in one or more crops with profit, 
and even with impi'ovement of the soil. In 
other words, the system carried out on a small 
scale in gardens may be extended to farms. A 
large portion of Europe is at present cultivated 
without naked fallows, which are unknown in 
the vast productive agricultural operations of 
China. 

In the United States, the rotations of crops 
vary considerably in different sections. In 
Massachusetts, one of the oldest settled por- 
tions of the Union, and the usages of which 
may perhaps represent those prevailing through- 
out the New England States, it would appear 
from Mr. Colman, that little of what may be 
called systematic husbandry prevails, the suc- 
cession of crops being dictated rather by acci- 
dent or convenience than by any well-con- 
sidered principles. The following details from 
his 4th Report on Agriculture, will show how 
things are managed in different parts of Massa- 
chusetts. 

The rotation of crops in Franklin county is 
very limited, as the crops cultivated are few. 
In i3uckland, the first year the land is broken 
up, corn is planted and manured : the second 
year, oats are sowed without manure, and the 
land laid down to grass. It is continued in grass 
five years and then broken up, and the same 
course repeated. The first year of grass th^ 
produce is about two tons per acre, and when 
It yields not more than 1500 lbs. it is consider- 
ed proper to break it up again. In Shelburne, 
on one of the best farms in the state, the course 
is, first year, Indian corn on green sward, ma- 
nured; second year, spring wheat, and laid 
down to grass; the grass-seed sown with the 
wheat; one peck of herd's grass and one of 
red-top 10 the acre. The land remains in grass 
ordinarily five years. The average yield of 
grass is estimated at three tons to the acre, — 
which I think must be an over-estimate, — and 
the cost of getting the hay at $2 per ton. For 
spring wheat, in the second year of the course, 
is sometimes substituted rye, or oats, or oats 
and peas, or oats and wheat. 

In Whately, first year, Indian corn ; second 
year, oats, and laid down with herd's grass 
(timothy) and clover, and remains in grass 
three years. 

On much of the meadow land in Deerfield, 
the first year the land is in corn; the succeed- 
ing year peas and oats, and so on continually. 
The corn is manured in the hill. The land, 
after the corn is gathered, is sometimes sown 
with winter rye. 

In some parts of Deerfield, the usual rotation 
is, first year, corn, usually manured in the hill; 
the second year, spring wheat, or wheat and 
oats, or peas and oats, or rye with southern clo- 
ver; third year, clover; and then plough again. 

The best farmers universally advise to sow 
the southern or June clover with grain, to be 
ploughed in with the stubble where the land is 
not to remain in grass, with a view to enrich 
the land. If the grain is winter grain, the 
121 



clover is usually sown in the spring before the 
snow has left the ground, at the rate of a bu- 
shel of clover chaff or clover-seed not cleaned, 
or else at the rate of 6 or 7 lbs. of cleaned seed. 
One of the most experienced farmers in the 
town has been accustomed to sow rye and 
clover together on the same land for a succes- 
sion of years; in which case the clover and 
stubble were always ploughed in together for 
the purpose of enriching the land for the suc- 
ceeding crop, and in this process he states that 
the condition of the land was continually grow- 
ing better. The crops, however, at best were 
not large. 

I think proper here to mention the statement 
of another farmer, a man of much intelligence 
and experience, in confirmation of the expe- 
rience of two other farmers referred to in a 
former report, that it is much better that the 
clover should be withered or dead when it is 
ploughed in, rather than in a green or succu- 
lent state. 

In some instances, as in Sunderland, for ex- 
ample, broom-corn is repeated several years in 
succession on the same land, and, as it is 
stated, without a diminution of product. la 
these cases, the crop is manured in the hill 
every year ; and the corn-stalks, after the brush 
is gathered, are burnt upon the land. 

In the oldest cultivated sections of Penn- 
sylvania, the rotations seem to have been 
conducted with much good judgment, as is 
evinced by very successful results generally 
obtained. These, as well as the system highly 
approved by many of the most judicious far- 
mers, are set forth in the following communica- 
tion in the Farmers' Cabinet (vol. v. p. 94). 

The example to which I refer, says the cor- 
respondent, is that of an old, practical, hard- 
working farmer, who commenced in the world 
as a da3'-labourer, and who is now worth at 
least §100,000, not taking in the account many 
heavy pecuniary losses he has, at various times, 
sustained. This man, when 30 years of age, 
by the avails of his industry, added to a small 
legacy, was enabled to purchase and pay, in 
part, for a farm of 130 acres of land, 100 of 
which was under cultivation, but in a very low 
state. This farm is altogether upland, with a 
soil composed of lime, clay, and sand, in the 
chief of which the latter preponderates, the- 
former being least considerable. When he 
commenced farming, he adopted a particular 
system of rotation, to which he has implicitly 
adhered from that time to the present, which is 
40 years, and his success is the best comment 
on the worth of his experiment. His mode was 
as follows : having divided his farm into eight 
fields of equal size, as nearly as possible, three 
of these fields are sown with wheat each year, 
one with rye, one planted with corn, two in, 
clover, and one an open fallow, on which corn 
had been raised the year previous. One of the 
two clover-fields is kept for mowing, the other 
for pasture, both of which are ploughed as 
soon after harvest as possible, and prepared 
for wheat in the fall. All the manure which is 
made on the farm for one year is hauled, in the 
spring, on the field intended for open fallow, 
which is then ploughed, and after one or two 
4 M 96< 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



cross-ploughings through the summer, is also 
sown with wheat in the fall. The field on which 
rye is sown, is that from which a crop of wheat 
had been taken the same year, and which had 
yielded three crops of wheat, alternating with 
crops of clover. Corn is planted on the field 
from which rye had been gathered the year pre- 
vious, the stubbles of which are ploughed down 
in the fall. Clover-seed is sown early in the 
spring on two of the wheat fields, those which 
have been most recently manured. By this me- 
thod, each field yields three crops of wheat, two 
of clover, one of rye, and one of corn , every eight 
years. Each field, in the mean time, has lain an 
open fallow, and received a heavy dressing of 



manure, perhaps at an average of 1 5 four-horse 
loads per acre. His crop of wheat is seldom 
less than 1500 bushels, but often much more. 
His average rye-crop is about 450 bushels, and 
his corn crop, annually, about 500 bushels — 
all which grain, at the present low prices, would 
amount to more than $2000 annually, and at 
former prices to double that amount; and his 
farm is withal very highly improved. 

This system corresponds very nearly with 
that of which a tabular statement is presented 
in the same volume, by Mr. W. P. Kmtzer, of 
Pequea, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, as 
successfully practised by himself. It is as 
follows : — 





Field No. 1. 


Field No. 2. 


Field No. 3. 


Field No. 4. 


Field No. 5. 


Field No. 6. 


Field No. 7. 


Field No. S. 


1st Year - - - 


Wheat 


Rye 


Wheat 


Clover 


Corn 


Wheat 


Clover 


Oats 


2d " - - - 


Rye 


Clover 


Corn 


Wheat 


Oats 


Clover 


Wheat 


Wheat 


3d " - - - 


Clover 


Wheal 


Oats 


Rye 


Wheat 


Wheat 


Corn 


Clover 


4th " - . - 


Wheat 


Corn 


Wheat 


Clover 


Clover 


Rye 


Oats 


Wheat 


5th " - - - 


Corn 


Oats 


Clover 


Wheat 


Wheat 


Clover 


Wheat 


Rye 


6th " - - - 


Oats 


Wheat 


Wheat 


Corn 


Rye 


Wheat 


Clover 


Clover 


7th " - - - 


Wheat 


Clover 


Rye 


Oats 


Clover 


Corn 


Wheat 


Wheat 


8th " - - - 


Clover 


Wheat 


Clover 


Wheat 


Wheat 


Oats 


Rye 


Corn 



In the county of Montgomery, where agri- 
culture is in a very flourishing state, — the crops 
consisting of the ordinary grains and hay- 
grasses, — ^five-shift rotation, from the division 
of the farm into five fields, is very much pursued. 
Commencing with Indian corn, the sod, which 
has been top-dressed with lime the previous 
season, is ploughed in the fall or spring. The 
corn is followed by oats, which being harvested, 
the stubble is turned under,manure spreadupon 
the ground and wheat sown, with timothy-seed 
in the fall and red clover in the spring. The 
wheat ha.s thus the important advantage of 
immediately succeeding two cleansing crops, and 
the ground, after harvesting the wheat, is left 
in fine condition for the hay grasses. The first 
year after the wheat is harvested, the grass is 
mown, the second year pastured, after which 
the sod is again turned under for corn, and the 
rotation recommences. 

What is known in Pennsylvania as the Old 
York and Lancaster system, corresponds with 
the one last described, so far as the succession 
of grain crops and sowing of the grass-seeds 
.are concerned, but differs in allowing the hay- 
■grasses to occupy the field five years. The 
first two years are most productive in red 
clover, which, being a biennial and the root 
dying out, leaves the ground in possession of 
the timothy and other perennial grasses. 

The following interesting view of the former 
and present Virginia modes of conducting ro- 
tations, and the improvements introduced and 
suggested, is from the able editor of the Far- 
mers' Register (vol. vii.). 

The first and most humble attempt at a 
rotation in this country, and the one which 
formerly was general on the greater part of 
most farms, and is even now in extensive use, 
is the two-shift ; which, however, short as it is, 
had various grades of bad quality. This usu- 
ally followed the continual cultivation of the 
land, in its newer condition, in tobacco, while 
rich enough for the crop, and afterwards in 
^■orn, every year. 

The two-shift was most usually this : 
963 



1st year, corn — 

Twheat — or oats, if on land too light or 
, J too poor for wheat — 
''S after harvest, grazed closely until next 
\^ spring, when ploughed for corn again. 

When too poor to bear any small grain crops, 
that part of the course was omitted on such 
poorer spots of the field, and afterwards on all; 
thus changing the rotation to 

1st year, corn — 

2d " natural cover of weeds, grazed. 

When not grazed the second year, as was 
sometimes the case, for want of separate fenc- 
ing, or some other cause, this rotation made a 
nearer approach to alternate and improving 
husbandry. It was then — 

1st year, corn — 

2d " weeds not grazed, and which (if 
not burnt off", as was done most usually) form- 
ed a very poor manuring crop. 

The celebrated Eastern Shore rotation is of 
two shifts or fields, but of three crops in the 
two years. This is — 

1st year, corn — 

2 J C first crop, oats — 

' ^ secondary crop, Magothy bay bean — 
a spontaneous and close cover immediately 
succeeding the oats, and which remains mostly 
or entirely untouched by the grazing stock, 
and is ploughed under for the next crop of 
corn. The interposition, by nature, and not 
by the design or industry of the cultiva- 
tors, of this leguminous and manuring crop, 
is a most valuable feature in a rotation 
which otherwise would be altogether exhaust- 
ing and destructive. The moisture of the air, 
no less than the sandiness of the soil, and the 
cleanness from other plants, give vigour to this 
bean, and make one-third of the whole course 
meliorating, to two-thirds of exhausting crops. 
The same moisture also nourishes the oats, 
and prevents that crop exhausting so much, as 
in dryer regions — and also by its greater bulk 
of straw, furnishing more materials for ma- 
nure. These circumstances render this rota- 
tion, severe and barbarous as it is, less exhaust- 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



ing (or more improving, if much attention is 
paid to manuring) than the ordinary three-shift 
rotation. Except in the chance-made addition 
of the spontaneous bean crop, this rotation 
oi(Fends against every principle and rule which 
d'Ught to govern. 

The three-shift rotation was the next step in 
the supposed march of agricultural improve- 
ment, and even yet is that which many remain- 
ing two-shift or no-shift cultivators aspire to 
reach, as the limit of their farming and im- 
proving ambition, and their ne plus ultra of 
mild cultivation. This was 

1st year, corn — 

2d " wheat, and afterwards the sponta- 
neous grass and weeds grazed — 

3d " pasture, closely grazed. 

The severity of the second year was gene- 
rally moderated on the poorer parts, by the 
wheat being there necessarily omitted, which 
of course gave to those parts two years rest 
from tillage, in three; and, while the wheat 
was growing, a cessation from grazing also. 
With very few exceptions, such was the gene- 
ral system of the best cultivated farms in lower 
Virginia, when Taylor wrote ; and it is on this 
kind of three-shift rotation that his denuncia- 
tions were so deservedly cast. This rotation 
violates every sound principle and rule, and 
certainly deserved to be treated without mercy; 
but many have continued to denounce the 
three-shift rotation, even when rendered com- 
paratively mild, as if the evil was in the num- 
ier three, and not in circumstances more im- 
portant than the mere number of shifts. 

But, taken in the aspect above described, 
and which was the best then that was exhibited, 
the three-shift rotation had no merit whatever. 
It had no other than fibrous-rooted plants; no 
other than narrow-leaved crops; no root, legu- 
minous, or even grass crop; for the close 
grazing merely served to prevent the scanty 
weeds and grass from growing ; and while 
every year's crop was exhausting, the system 
furnished but small resources and materials 
for manure. For the grazing animals were as 
many as the land could keep alive, and scarce- 
ly any were fattened (by grazing alone) for 
home consumption or market; and their sup- 
port served to diminish, instead of adding to, 
ihe fattening or manuring of the land. At that 
time it would have been difficult for a reading 
farmer to comprehend this undoubtedly sound 
maxim of English writers, " the more cattle 
kept, the more grain and other crops produced." 
But the English farmer keeps no animal ex- 
cept for the profit it will yield ; and all that 
are so kept, give their rich and abundant pro- 
ducts of manure, as an additional profit to the 
soil. But when a stock of cattle, sheep, and 
hogs, can barely make out to keep alive through 
the year, and never fatten, except by stall and 
grain feeding, then keeping them certainly 
yields no clear profit to their owner, and their 
close grazing of the fields takes away more of 
fertilizing materials than their dung can pos- 
sibly replace. An English or French farmer 
would be no less at a loss to comprehend the 
object (or even to believe in such a general 
practice) of keeping a large stock of animals 
' 1 which no net profit was obtained, or even 



] hoped for ; and he would justly think that it 
would not be more absurd for a farmer to tend 
a crop of grain, and then leave it to rot on the 
field, than to give all his grass through summer 
to animals, and then lose the flesh so acquired, 
by starvation through the winter. Indeed, the 
general cattle management of this country 
would scarcely be believed in any good grazing 
or farming region. On the farms under the usual 
three-shift rotation, say of 400 acres of arable 
land, there would be from 40 to 60 head of 
grazing cattle, which furnished annually to the 
owner, at most, about as much milk and butter 
as two well-kept cows might supply, one or 
two passable beeves, with the aid of grain 
feeding, a few poor calves for veal, and a pretty 
large supply of hides from deaths by starvation 
in the spring. There were hogs enough to 
furnish the year's supply of bacon ; but only 
by means of grain feeding, which alone was 
admitted to cost nearly or quite as much as the 
market price of the meat. A flock of poor 
sheep were on some farms also, of which, be- 
fore shearing-lime, half the wool of many was 
hanging on the briers, and the remaining 
fleeces filled with burs. This sort of grazing 
system accompanied the old three-shift rota- 
tion ; and, inveterate as were old habits, and 
patient as we are of long-borne grievances, this 
evil was so great, that none could deny but 
that the mere expense of the dividing fences, 
necessary to keep the cattle from the fields of 
grain, cost more than all the returns from the 
grazing animals. 

The four-shift rotation, recommended and 
practised by Col. Taylor, was — 

1st year, corn — 

2d " wheat, and clover sown — or if too 
poor for wheat, left at rest, and 
not grazed — 

3d " clover (or weeds), not mown or 
grazed — 

4th " clover, not mown or grazed. 

This rotation, as before stated, was the first 
introduction of manuring fields by their own 
vegetable cover, and this practice, and the ad- 
mission of the opinions on which the new 
practice was founded, was a prodigious step 
towards agricultural improvement. It is true 
that even this rotation is opposed to the rules 
of good husbandry in most respects. But the 
giving of two and a half years out of four for 
vegetables to grow, that were to die and decay 
on, and be finally ploughed into the land, was 
a feature that compensated for every fault, and 
made the rotation decidedly meliorating, if on 
land capable of being enriched by the mere 
application of vegetable matters. 

In the first of these numbers, it was stated 
incidentally to other matters why this rotation 
became of less benefit and more objectionable, 
in proportion to the time, and to the effect with 
which it operated ; and if it improved the pro- 
ductive power of any land, that it also greatly 
increased the labours of tillage, and the de- 
struction of products, by increasing weeds and 
noxious insects. In consequence of this ob- 
jection, very few disciples of the great intro- 
ducer of and advocate for this rotation, have 
continued long to pursue it strictly. 

The four-shift and chvei- fallow rotation diSers 

96.3 



ROTATION OF CROPS, 



RUBBING -POST. 



widely from that of Col. Taylor. This has 
been, and I believe still is pursued with great 
success by Hill Carter, of Shirley, John A. Sel- 
den, of Westover, and has been on some other 
of the best lands on James River, where it has 
since, in other hands, been either neglected or 
abandoned, for some modification of the three- 
shift rotation. This four-shift system is 

1st year, corn — 

2d " wheat, and clover sown, and not 
grazed — 

3d " clover, not grazed, and ploughed in 
deeply in August and September, 
and the field sown in wheat — 

'4th " wheat, to be followed by corn, in 
recommencing the rotation next 
year. 

A sufficient standing pasture was kept on 
other land. Mr. Carter, for a considerable 
length of time, substituted oats for corn in the 
first year. 

The farmers above named (whose accounts 
of their systems and their products were re- 
ported at length in vol. i., Far. Reg.), and others 
also, undoubtedly made great crops, and great 
improvement of land, under this very severe 
rotation. But those results were due more to 
the excellence of their general management 
than to their rotation. None but admirable 
executive farmers can possibly overcome the 
great difficulties which accompany this rota- 
tion. He who, in our dry climate, on a stiff 
or even medium soil, can plough every August 
and September one-fourth of all his arable sur- 
face, to the depth of 8 or 10 inches, and turn in 
and cover effectually a heavy coat of clover — 
and this without failing in any year — shows 
thereby alone his ability to execute the most 
arduous undertakings, and to do well every 
thing which he may make a part of his general 
plan of operations. This rotation, in such 
hands as have directed it, has some admirable 
features ; but it must be executed in the most 
perfect manner, or these best features are lost, 
and there will remain only the great evil of 
three fibrous-rooted, narrow-leaved, and ex- 
hausting grain crops, in succession. 

The great merit of the four-shift rotation, in 
general, and considering it as embracing both 
of these very different varieties, is its easy 
adaptation to more mild or more severe culti- 
vation, without any different arrangement or 
number of fields. Thus, Taylor's rotation may 
be rendered still milder (as is needed on the 
poorest lands) by omitting the wheat crop ; 
and as the land improves, the richer spots may 
be thrown under the more severe cultivation 
of the other four-shift system, as practised by 
Mr. Carter or Mr. Selden. But, in any form, 
the rotation still remains objectionable, for the 
succession of grain crops (if there are even 
two in the course), as well as for other things, 
in one or the other variety, which have been 
already stated. 

Every rotation yet known in Virginia is more 
cr less objectionable, upon one or more of the 
following grounds : 

The adoption of certain usual crops, without 

regard to the various qualities and the wants 

of the soils, or even to the demand of the 

market. Thus every farmer is sure to make 

9^4 



com and wheat (or oats) his principal, if not his 
only crops. Thus, the fields are deprived uni- 
versally of the most improving culture of roots, 
which dip into and draw from the soil deeply : 
and of pea crops, which feed on the air, and 
give the product to the soil as manure ; and of 
all annual green manure crops, which would 
cleanse the soil by their getting in, their growth, 
and ploughing under, as well as manure it ; and 
the store cattle and hogs suffer for the want of 
roots and other succulent food, and those which 
are necessarily well fed consume grain almost 
exclusively. Besides these and other objec- 
tions, which any good practical farmer, or sound 
theorist, would make, I would further object to 
the great defect of the preparatory crop not 
serving to destroy the weeds which will ob- 
struct, and the insects which will prey on the 
succeeding crop. Two great exceptions to this 
last general fault are presented when wheat 
follows clover, or tobacco, both of which are 
plants of the broad-leaved kind, unlike in all 
respects to the succeeding crop, and of such 
unlike conditions also, that it may be presumed 
that the growth of either has served well to 
destroy many of both the weeds and insect 
depredators, which are injurious to wheat. Ac- 
cordingly, these two crops are the best forerun- 
ners of wheat ; which after them always is an 
excellent crop for the land and the season. 

Every well-informed farmer will agree to the 
importance of there being more meliorating 
crops introduced in our rotations — more grass, 
peas, roots, and broad-leaved vine crops. But 
the objection always is to making crops for 
which there is no sale or market demand. But 
suppose there is no direct sale and money profit 
made from hay or roots, they will yield as much 
profit by being used to feed and fatten (not merely 
to keep alive) the necessary farm-stock, and thus 
allow to be sold the corn and other grain which 
would be otherwise consumed by the animals, 
with less relish and less benefit. 

While roots are totally wanting in our rota- 
tions, one important office is left unfilled, that 
is, the deep piercing of the soil and thorough 
opening of it by tap-rooted and tuberous-rooted 
plants. Another thing wanting, is the plough- 
ing under of pea or other annual green crops, 
to cleanse, as well as to manure the soil. These 
properly introduced, and the grain crops sepa- 
rated by green crops, would produce rotations 
far more improving to the land than any yet 
known, and probably as much better for early 
annual income as for improvement of the land, 
the farmer's best capital. 

ROWAN TREE (Pyrus aucuparia). The 
quicken tree, or mountain ash, as it is some- 
times called, is a handsome tree, of slow 
growth, with a lough, cross-grained, not very 
hard wood, indigenous to our mountains, 
woods, and hedges. The leaves are pinnate 
scarcely a span long, composed of leaflets, uni 
form, serrated, smooth. The fruit is globose, 
scarlet, very juicy, sour, and bitter. They are 
eagerly devoured by birds of the thrush kind 
The fruit, also, when the bitter is extracted by 
soaking it in water, may be made into a pre- 
serve. 

RUBBING-POST. A stone pillar or post sei 
up in a field for cattle, hogs, or other animals 



RUDDLE. 



RYE -GRASS. 



to rub against, and for the protection of the 
gates, trees, and fences themselves. 

RUDDLE or RADDLE. A kind of red 
earthy ochre, or ironstone, very easily reduced 
to powder, which is found in several parts of 
England, especially in Derbyshire; and is used 
in marking sheep. 

RUE {Ruta graveolens). Rue thrives best in 
a poor brick earth, in which a portion of cal- 
careous rubbish has been mixed. It will not 
endure the application of dung or a rich soil, 
for although this causes a luxuriant growth in 
summer, death is as certainly produced by 
severe frosts. It is propagated by slips and 
cuttings as well as from seeds ; the first two 
modes being usually practised as being the 
most easy. It may be planted or sown any 
time during the spring. 

RUNCINATE. A botanical term, applied 
to the lobes of leaves : a leaf is said to be run- 
cinate when it is irregularly lobed, the lobes 
gradually diminishing to the base, and hooked 
backwards. The leaf of the dandelion (Taraxa- 
cum) is a good example of the runcinate leaf. 

RUNT. A name given to a small kind of 
black cattle brought from Wales and Scotland. 
See Cattle. It is also a term applied to the 
weak and stunted pigs of a litter ; also several 
species of pigeons ; as the Leghorn, Spanish, 
and Friesland runt. 

RUSH {Juncus ; Linnseus derived the name 
from jungo, to join; in allusion to the first 
ropes being made from rushes). This is an 
extensive genus of coarse plants, many of them 
aquatics, which are common on most wet 
lands. Rushes always intimate a deep, rich 
soil, and thrive best in land which is too cold 
and wet for other plants. The growth of these 
plants may be easily prevented by under or 
surface draining, which will prevent the stag- 
nation of water on the soil ; and by the appli- 
cation of saline or calcareous top-dressings, 
such as sand, lime ashes, and road-scrapings. 
All the species of rush do best cultivated in a 
moist situation, some of them entirely in water, 
and others in a peat soil ; they may be in- 
creased by seeds, or dividing the roots. In 
Japan they cultivate the soft rush (/. effusus) 
for making floor-mats. 

Sir J. E. Smith, in his Etiglish Flora, enu- 
merates 23 indigenous species of rush. (Pax- 
ton's Bot. Did.; Smith's Eng. Flor.) 

Of the scirpus genus of plants, which in- 
cludes the rushes, about 40 species have been 
found by botanists in the United States. Among 
these are the club-rush, or marsh scirpus ; the 
bull-rush, which is also called tall club-rush or 
lake scirptts, which grows so luxuriantly along 
the shores of the Delaware ; and the brown 
cotton-grass, or wool-bearing scirpus. 

The species of club-rush commonly met 
with in the United States are the Scirpus palus- 
tris, S. obiusis, S. tenuis, which, with the com- 
mon bull-rush, S. Lacustris, are all worthless 
occupants of low, wet grounds. {Flora Ces- 
tricu.) 

RUST. See Mildew. 

RUTA BAGA. See Turnips. 

RVE (Secale ccreale ; Germ, roggen dut rog). 
This species of grain is much more hardy, but 
incalculably less valuable in every respect than 



wheat. It has been cultivated from time im- 
memorial, and is supposed to be a native of 
the Caspian Caucasian desert. In England 
it is very little used as an article of food com- 
pared with wheat and oats, though in the north 
of Europe, and in Flanders, it forms a princi- 
pal article of human subsistenee, but generally 
mixed with wheat, and sometimes also with 
barley. The grains consist of 65-6 of meal, 
24-2 of husk, and 10-2 of water. The prepa- 
ration and culture of rye are essentially the 
same as for wheat; but the same quality of 
soil is not equally suited to each. Rye grows 
most luxuriantly for feeding when sown on 
hazel mould, but any poor, dry, sandy soil is fit 
for its production. It is sown either broadcast 
or in drills, in the autumn or spring; but the 
spring variety is that most hardy and most 
generally cultivated. The proportion' of seed 
is about two or three bushels per a( ."e when 
required for a crop, and three bushels and a 
half when it is intended to be fed off. The 
meal of rye is considered second only to 
wheat ; it is often used alone or mixed with a 
proportion of wheat flour to make bread and 
gingerbread. In those unaccustomed to its use, 
it is apt to cause an acescent state of stomach 
and diarrhoea. Rye is liable to a disease called 
ergot, which depends on a fungus, which at- 
tacks and alters the character of the grain. It 
becomes long, of a deep violet hue externally, 
and pinkish-white within. The odour of the 
ergotted grain is fishy and fetid, the taste 
slightly acrid. Ergotted or spurred rye is poi- 
sonous, when it is baked into bread. It causes 
febrile symptoms, great debility, often paraly- 
sis, tremors, abscesses, gangrene, and death. 
Some of the epidemics which have occasion- 
ally nearly depopulated the north of Europe, 
have been traced to the use of the spurred rye. 
As green food for sheep, rye is not only valu- 
able for its early produce, but as producing a 
flow of milk in the ewes. The straw is highly 
esteemed for Dunstable work, for thatching and 
litter; and is also used to stufi" horse-collars. 
See Errot. 

RYE-GRASS or RAY-GRASS {Lolium pe- 
renne), pi. 5, a. . There has been much differ- 
ence of opinion respecting the merits and com- 
parative value of rye-grass. It produces an 
abundance of seed, which is easily collected 
and readily vegetates on most kinds of soil 
under circumstances of different management ; 
it soon arrives at perfection, anl produces in 
its first year of growth a good supply of early 
herbage, which is much liked by cattle. These 
merits have no doubt upheld it till the present 
day in practice, and will probably for some 
time to come continue it a favourite grass with 
many farmers. But the latter-math of rye- 
grass is very inconsiderable, and the plant im- 
poverishes the soil in a high degree, if the 
culms, which are invariably left untouched by 
cattle, are not cut before the seed advances 
towards perfection. The spike of the Lolium 
percnne is awnless ; calyx shorter than the 
spikelets; floret lanceolate. The varieties of 
this species are very numerous, such as the 
slender rye-grass (van tenu^) ; compound or 
broad-spiked rye-grass (var. compositum) ; Pa- 
cey's rye-grass (var. ramosum) ; Russell's grass 
4m 2 965 



SACCHARINE. 

( Russellianum); Whitworth's grass (Whitworthi- 
ensis); Stickney's grass {Stickneiensis) : pani- 
cled rye-grass (paniculatum) ; double-flowered 
rye-gfass (monstrosum); viviparous rye-grass 
{viviparum) : all the varieties have a strong 
tendency to vary their form when sown on dif- 
ferent soils. The annual species are common 
only to land under cultivation, under the alter- 
nate husbandry. 

Rye-grass appears to have been cultivated 
previous to the year 1677 (^Woldridge' s Husb. 
1st ed.), besides which, red clover, spurrey, tre- 
foil, and nonsuch were the only plants then 
cultivated as grasses, or termed such; and it is 
only of late years that any other species of the 
natural grasses has been tried as a substitute 
for it in forming artilicial pastures. One peck 
of rye-grass, with fourteen pounds of clover, 
per acre, is generally considered sutficient for 
sowing artificial pastures. Rye-grass, when 
not more than three years old, flowers in the 
second week of June, and ripens the seed in 
about 25 days after : as the plants become older 
they flower much later, sometimes so late as 
the beginning of August. See Grasses. 

A variety called the Italian rye-grass was 
some time since brought prominently into no- 
tice, and is well spoken of. One species of 
rye-grass, the bearded darnel (LoUum temulen- 
tum) is poisonous. PI. 7, c. It is an annual, and 
flowers in July. The root is downy and fibrous ; 
the culm leafy, smooth, about two feet high, 
with leaves of a bright-green, rough in the 
under disk. The spike is a span long, and 
roughish. The calyx of the flowers linear, 
Jlaitish, many-ribbed, rising above the spike- 
lets. The florets are six, with the outer valve 
of the corolla elliptical, concave, with a dorsal 
awn. The seeds are elliptical, flattened, and 
furnished with a furrow along its upper side. 
See Darnel. 



s. 

SACCHARINE. A term applied to such 
substances as contain sugar.. The plants in 
which this substance is abundant are in gene- 
ral highly nutritious and useful in the fattening 
of animals. See Molasses and Sugar. 

SACKS. The term sack, in the sense of a 
bag, is found in all the European and many 
Asiatic languages. 

SAFFRON {Crocus sativus). The stigmata 
of this purple crocus are of a deep orange 
colour, and when in quantity have a peculiar 
and very characteristic odour; they are used 
in medicine, chiefly as a rich yellow or orange- 
col >;«uring matter. Saff"ron is now chiefly im- 
ported from the south of Europe, especially 
Spain; it was formerly much cultivated in 
England in the vicinity of Saff"ron Walden, in 
Cambridgeshire. 

Safl"ron is often largely adulterated with the 
petals of other plants, especially with those of 
the marigold. The English saffron is superior 
to that brought from Spain. It should never 
be compressed into cakes, but the stigmata left 
m a dry, shrivelled state, or, as it is termed, hay 
(taffron. Where the stigmata are pale, the saf- 
966 



SAGO. 

fron is bad. SaflTron, as a medicine, is of little 
value. See Carthamus and Crocus. 

SAFFRON, THE MEADOW. See Col- 

CHICUM. 

SAGE, GARDEN (Salvia officinalis; from 
salveo, to be safe, on account of the sanative 
properties with which it was supposed to be 
fraught). Sage is now used principally in cu- 
linary preparations. There are several varie- 
ties, as, 1. The common green. 2. Worm- 
wood. 3. Green, with variegated leaves. 4. Red, 
with variegated leaves. 5. Painted, or parti- 
coloured. 6. Spanish, or lavender-leaved. 
7. Red. A dry, moderately fertile soil, is best 
suited to their growth, in a rather sheltered 
situation. If the soil is rich, or super-abound- 
ing in moisture, they grow luxuriantly, but are 
apt to perish in winter. Sage is propagated by 
cuttings of the young shoots from the sides of 
the branches, sometimes also by rooted offsets, 
and likewise by seed. See Clary. 

SAGE, THE WOOD. See Germander, 

SAGO (Malay and Jav. sagu). A spec-'^s 
of fecula or starch obtained from the cellular 
substance of a palm tree — the Sagtts farini/era, 
Gsertn; Sagus Rumphii, Wild. In the early 
writers it is called sagu, suga, and zaga. In 
Java the word signifies bread. The sago 
which is procured from the above palm, and 
six other species of the same family, is the 
pith of the trunk. When the tree is of suffi- 
cient age it is cut down, split, and the pith ex- 
tracted and reduced to powder, which is mixed 
with water and strained through a sieve. The 
sago is deposited from the fluid, and after two 
or three washings it is fit for use, and is called 
in this state, when dried, sago-meal. For the 
European market it is made into a paste and 
granulated, and is known in the trade under 
the name of pearl sago. The consumption of 
sago has undergone an almost incredible in- 
crease within the last twenty years, which is 
wholly ascribable to the reduction in the inter- 
val of the oppressive duties by which the arti- 
cle was formerly loaded. Sago has latterly 
been brought prominently into notice as food 
for domestic animals usually reared upon the 
farm, particularly horses and calves. Experi- 
ence having decided in favour of its whole- 
someness and economy, it will no doubt very 
soon become a general and staple article of 
food on all farms that rear young stock. From 
its emollient and nutritive properties, it ap- 
pears to be admirably adapted for calves while 
on milk ; for cows sometimes before and after 
calving ; for young horses in winter, instead 
of much dry corn, or none at all, as is too fre- 
quently practised; and for young pet lambs, 
whose mothers have either died or forsaken 
them, in which events a serious encroachment 
is apt to be made on the milk intended for the 
calves. Sago seems peculiarly well adapted 
for horses for fast work, and for sporting dogs, 
since it is found to leave the wind unaffected; 
and with regard to fowls, the whole class of 
them might be rendered by it much more white 
in flesh and delicate for the table, than the food 
usually allowed them on farms. 

Sago is most commonly used in a gelatinous 
state, and it is easily reduced to that state by 
boiling water. 



SAINFOIN. 



SALT, COMMON. 



As a drink for horses, after a severe run or 
burst in the field, sago gruel, consisting of 
about a pound of the mucilage or jelly, com- 
pletely dissolved in two or three gallons of 
warm water, is found to be superior to any 
other kind of drink. For cows, the jelly 
should also be given in the shape of drink. 
Sago jelly mixed with new milk forms an ex- 
cellent food for calves. Dogs should have the 
jelly poured over biscuit, bread, or potatoes. 
To pigs sago should be administered in the shape 
of drink, from 2 to 3 pounds being given to each 
pig once a day ; and the jelly for fowls should 
be in warm balls, mixed up with barley meal. 

Sago has been sometimes used as an ingre- 
dient of household bread, in the proportion of 
1 part of sago to 3 of wheaten flour. It forms 
an excellent pudding for the convalescents 
from acute diseases. It is only moderately nu- 
tritious, consisting chiefly of starch ; yet it is 
the bread, and may be termed the staff of life 
of natives of the Molucca islands. 

SAINFOIN or SAINTFOIN {Hedysarum 
onobnjihis). The Bourgogne or Esparette of 
tlie French. PI. 8, g. Having been first intro- 
duced to the farmer from France, this plant 
brought its French name of saint-foin along 
with it; and cock's-head, by which it was be- 
fore known as a native of England, is become 
obsolete. The stems of sainfoin are recum- 
bent, 2 or 3 feet in length ; leaves pinnate, 
nearly smooth; flower-stalks axillary, ascend- 
ing, longer than the leaves, each bearing a 
dense tapering spike of handsome variegated 
crimson flowers. The fruit is a legume, erect, 
single-seeded, toothed at the margin and ribs. 
Sainfoin is a well-known object of cultivation 
as fodder for cattle, on dry, barren, especially 
chalky or marly ground, in open situations. 
From its not thriving well except the soil or 
subsoil be calcareous, sainfoin is not generally 
met with in England; it is most extensively 
cultivated on the Cotswold Hills, and on the 
chalk soils of Surrey, &c. Its nature, quali- 
ties, and treatment are similar to those of Lu- 
CERv, which see. 

SAINT JOHN'S-WORT. SeeJoHu's-WoKT. 

SAINT PETER'S -WORT. See John's- 
Won-r. 

SALAD, CORN. See Corn Salad. 

SALAL BERRY. A new fruit from the valley 
o' the Columbia river. It is about the size of 
a common grape, of a dark purple colour, and 
possesses a sweet and pleasant flavour. 

SALLOW. The common name of several 
Species of Salix, which, unlike those known 
under the name of osiers, are not flexible, but 
form large trees or rough bushes, which grow 
in moist, marshy woods and hedges, in various 
parts of England. Sallows generally yield the 
best kind of charcoal for the manufacture of 
gunpowder, though all the species of salix are 
burnt for the preparation of this substance. 
Sir J. E. Smith particularizes, in England, 
nearly a dozen different native species of sal- 
low. See OsiEu and Willow. 

SALLOW-THORN {Hippophiie, from hippos, 
a horse, and pliao, to destroy ; in reference to 
the supposed poisonous qualities of the seeds). 
The species are mostly ornamental trees or 
shrubs, growing in any common soil, and may 



be readily increased by layers or cuttings of 
the roots. The common sallow-thorn or sea- 
buckthorn (i?. rhamnoides) is a bushy, rigid 
shrub, 5 feet or more in height, with hard 
wood, and straight, spreading, leafy branches, 
each terminating in a thorn. The shrub is a 
native, being found growing wild on sandy 
cliffs on the eastern coast of England. The 
leaves are linear-lanceolate, scattered, decidu- 
ous, 1 J inch long, on short stalks, dark-green 
on the upper side, minutely dotted, beautifully 
silvery as well as scaly beneath. 

SALSIFY {Tragopogon porrif alius). An or- 
namental plant, which, when grown in the 
kitchen garden, succeeds in any common soiL 
It is sown and treated in the same manner as 
carrots ; the flavour of the root is mild and 
sweetish. When properly cooked, it has a 
flavour much resembling that of oysters, from 
which it often goes by the name of oyster plant. 

SALSILLA (Edibk alstramcria). A very 
herbaceous plant, a native of Peru. Its roots 
are eaten like the potato. It is cultivated in 
the West Indies, and may answer well in many 
parts of the United States. {Kenrick). 

SALT, COMMON, as a manure (Germ, salz; 
It. sale). This salt is a compound of chlorine 
and a metal, the base of soda, called sodium ; 
or, in chemical language, salt is a chloride of 
sodium. It is too well known to require de- 
scription ; but it may be proper to state that it 
dissolves equally well in cold and in hot water. 

It would be, perhaps, difficult to name any 
other substance in the catalogue of modern fer- 
tilizers, whose powers have been so often and 
so warmly disputed as common salt; and for 
thiscontroversymanyreasons maybe assigned. 
It has been generally employed with little scien- 
tific accuracy, and in far too loose a manner 
for any reliance to be placed upon the majority 
of the reports which have been furnished to us ; 
and for many years a prohibitory duty in Eng- 
land rendered it inaccessible to the farmer — 
an impost which has not very long been re- 
moved, and which yet was the occasion of a 
great variety of blundering trials, miscalled ex- 
periments. The duty on salt was, indeed, one 
of long continuance. It originated as a war 
tax, in the ninth year of the reign of William 
in., and was not removed until after many 
an arduous debate, in the end of that of George 
III. The price of salt, in consequence of the 
duty, was raised from 6d. a bushel to more thaa 
20s. ; and was, therefore, during the continu- 
ance of the tax, too expensive a fertilizer to be 
employed by the English farmer; and it was 
only after being for a century and a half lost 
to agriculture, that it was again presented, in 
1823, unshackled with duties, to the notice of 
the agriculturist. During that long interval, 
salt, as a manure, was known only in the tra- 
ditions of the English farmers. Through these 
they learned, that it was formerly used to kill 
worms, and to destroy weeds ; that it cleansed 
fallows, increased the produce of light, arable 
soils, and was good to sweeten grass. These 
reported advantages were rendered nn.re pro- 
bable by certain facts that had been forced, aii 
it were, upon their attention. The gardener 
wa« well aware that the brine of the pickling 
tubs, when poured over his heaps of weeds, not 

967 



SALT, COMMON. 

only killed every weed, every seed, and every 
grub, but that these heaps were then converted 
into so many parcels of the most fertilizing 
manure ; the good effects of which, especially 
upon potatoes and carrots, were very decided. 
It was well known, too, that a single grain of 
salt placed upon an earthworm speedily de- 
stroyed it ; that if brine were poured upon the 
lawn, all the earthworms were immediately 
ejected from that spot; and that if it were 
sprinkled about over a portion of the grass, to 
this salted portion all the deer, sheep, or the 
horses of the park constantly repaired, in pre- 
ference to any other part of the field. Salt evi- 
dently, therefore, destroyed weeds and worms, 
and rendered grass more palatable to live- 
stock; and, upon consulting the old agricultu- 
ral writers, it was found that the notices of salt 
as a manure were many and important; and 
that salt had been employed in various agri- 
cultural operations from a very early period. 
Thus it is referred to in St. Luke, xiv. 34. Vir- 
gil reprobates a salt soil. Cato, 150 years b.c, 
commends it for cattle, hay, straw, &c. ; as 
does Virgil, lib. 3, v. 394. The early German 
farmers knew of its value for sheep; and for 
the same purpose, in Spain, it has been em- 
ployed from the earliest ages. In 1570, Conrad 
Heresbach commends it as being a certain pre- 
vention of the "murrain or rotte." In 1G53, 
Sir Hugh Piatt speaks of salt as a fertilizer in 
his usual visionary manner, and details the 
result of a very successful experiment on a 
"patch of ground" at Clapham; from which 
some late writers upon the uses of salt have 
led their readers into great blunders, by stating 
that this experiment was performed on an acre 
of land. 

The use of salt by the cultivator, since 
the repeal of the duties in 1823, has been 
considerable, however, in many districts of 
England, in spite of these blundering instruc- 
tions, ill-contrived experiments, and ignorant 
conclusions. If to this be added the natural 
difficulty of obtaining correct results in any 
experiments in which vegetable life is con- 
cerned, we need no longer be surprised that 
many contradictory statements have been made 
with regard, not only to salt, but to all other 
fertilizers. 

Common salt is composed of 35-42 parts of 
chlorine, and 23-3 of sodium. This is not the 
place to enlarge upon its almost universal pre- 
sence in almost all waters, soils, and situa- 
tions, nor of the masses with which our country 
is endowed. Its fertilizing properties, when 
applied to land, may be described as five in 
number. 

1. In small proportions, it promotes the de- 
composition of animal and vegetable substances 
— a fact first ascertained by Sir James Pringle 
and Dr. Macbride. Salt, therefore, promotes 
the rapid dissolution of the animal and vege- 
table remains contained in all cultivated soils. 
The recent discoveries of M. Macaire, with 
regard to the excretions of vegetables, impart 
considerable information as to the use of com- 
mon salt in promoting the putrefaction of vege- 
table substances in the soil ; since it has been 
"town by this gentleman that the brown excre- 
matter of a plant is extremely noxious to 
968 



SALT, COMMON. 

those of its own species ; the salt, therefore, by 
its presence in the soil, promoting the putre- 
faction of the excretion, naturally assists in 
removing the offending matter ; and, in so doing, 
the excretion, as it decomposes, certainly af- 
fords nourishment to the plant which produced 
it. We are fully aware that this hypothesis 
may be disputed : we therefore offer it merely 
as an hypothesis. But it is true that salt, pro- 
perly used, enables land which has been de- 
teriorated by one crop to bear another with 
advantage. 

2. It destroys vermin and kills weeds, which 
are thus converted into manure. 3. It is a di- 
rect constituent or food of some plants ; and it 
has been clearly ascertained, that if salt is 
applied to a soil, the vegetables afterwards 
growing on that land are found to contain an 
increased proportion of common salt. (Mr. 
George Sinclair, Prize Essay on Suit as a Ma- 
nure.) All marine plants contain it in consider- 
able proportions. 4. Salt acts on vegetable 
substances as a stimulant. Dr. Priestley tried 
various experiments, all supporting this suppo- 
sition. He added to phials, containing an 
ounce and a half of water, various proportions 
of common salt, from 1 to 12 grains, and 
in the solutions placed various sprigs of mint 
and other vegetables. In those solutions which 
contained more than 12 grains, the plants died 
immediately, and the rest died in their order, 
except that which contained 3 grains of salt, 
which seemed to grow as well as plants grow- 
ing in simple water. It was remarkable, how- 
ever, that this plant, as well as all those that 
died in the stronger solutions, seemed to flou- 
rish at Jirsi more than those which were grow- 
ing in simple water, and that that which had 
3 grains of salt, and that which had 1 grain 
only, continued to live after the plants in sim- 
ple water were dead. (Nat. Philos, vol. i. p. 
106.) That vegetable substances are capable 
of being stimulated by chemical solutions, is 
well known. A solution of chlorine in water 
will make certain seeds vegetate which would 
otherwise rot in the earth ; and a mixture of 
camphor, &c., has been found to be very bene- 
ficial in restoring vitality to cuttings of various 
exotics too long delayed on their passage. 
5. Salt preserves vegetables from injury by 
sudden transitions in the temperature of the 
atmosphere. That salted soils do not freeze so 
readily as usual when salt is applied to them, 
is well known ; and that salt preserves crops 
of turnips, cabbages, &c., from injury by the 
frost, is equally well established. (Johnson's 
Essay on Salt, pp. 6 — 68.) 

6. Salt renders earth more capable of ab- 
sorbing the moisture of the atmosphere — a 
property of the first importance, since those 
soils which absorb the greatest proportion of 
moisture from the atmosphere are always the 
most valuable to the cultivator. "It affords," 
said the illustrious Davy, "one method of 
judging of the productiveness of land." (^gr. 
Chem. p. 184.) See Eahths. 

The impure picking of scalings of the salt- 
makers is usually to be obtained by the farmer 
at a very low rate, and from its being a mixture 
of common salt and gypsum (sulphate of lime), 
it is excellently adapted as d manure for the 



SALT, COMMON. 

grasses, such as clover, lucern, sainfoin, &c.; 
and, as such, I will give the chemical analysis, 
for the information of the cultivator, of the re- 
fuse of the marine and fossil salt-makers. 
The pan scale of the Lymington marine salt- 
makers consists, according to the analysis of 
Dr. Henry, of — 

Parts. 
Muriate of magnesia - - . - 29 
Desiccated sulphate of magnesia 
Carbonate of lime and magnesia 
Sulphate of lime ... 

Muriate of soda (sea-salt) - 



18 
127 
216 
610 



1000 

Of the pan scale of the fossil salt-refiners of 
Norwich, two specimens were examined by 
Dr. Henry ; the first was composed of — 

Parti. 
Common salt .... - 950 
Carbonate of lime ... - 10 
Sulphate of lime . - - - 40 

1000 

The second variety was composea of — 

Parts. 
. 100 



Common salt 
Carbonate of lime 
Sulphate of lime 



110 

790 



Salt, it should be remembered, rarely causes 
the wheat plant to grow larger or taller, but it fills 
up the ear better, and brings the weaker plants 
forward. Mr. Sinclair informs us, that "salt 
appears to lessen the produce of straw, and 
increase the weight of grain." I have never 
been able in my experiments, nor in any I have 
witnessed (with salt alone), to observe any in- 
creased quantity of straw, even in cases where 
there was an increased produce, by means of 
salt, of 6 bushels of wheat per acre. The salt 
should be applied some time before sowing the 
seed, not less than 10, and not more than 20 
bushels per acre. In my own experiments upon 
a light gravelly soil, at Great Totham, in Essex, 
the use of this quantity of salt per acre (in 
1819) produced an increase of 5^ bushels per 
acre. The following statement of the result 
of some trials in 1820, on a light and gravelly 
soil, will show how important may be the result 
to the country at large by its judicious applica- 
tion. I'regret that incessant employment of a 
very different nature has hitherto prevented my 
continuing these experiments. 

Produce per Acre. Bushels, lbs. 

No. 1. Soil without any manure for 4 years - 13 26 

2. Soil manured with stable dung to the 

previous crop (potatoes) - - 26 52 

3. Soil with 5 bushels of salt per acre, 

and no other manure for 4 years . 26 12 

The testimony of a plain Essex farmer cor- 
roborates these results. " The soil," says Mr. 
James Challis,of Panfield, "that I described to 
you to be of rather a loose, hollow description, 
had a dressing of salt in November, after the 
wheat was sown, about 14 or 15 bushels per 
acre : it produced at the rate of 6 bushels per 
acre more than that which was not dressed, 
and it may be stated to be II, per load of 40 
bushels better in quality." (Essay on Salt, p. 45.) 

It is a custom in most counties of England, 

to apply salt and water as a steep to prevent 

the ravages of the disease in wheat, called 

smut ; the value of this is known to almost 

122 



SALT, COMMON. 

every farmer. Recent experiments have s'Jg- 
gested that it may even be of use, when em- 
ployed in larger quantities, as a preventive 
of mildew ; the most dreadful of the numerous 
diseases to which the cultivated grasses are 
exposed. The experiments of the late Rev. E. 
Cartwright strongly evidence, that when salt 
and water are sprinkled with a brush upon 
diseased plants, it effects a complete cure, even 
in apparently the most desperate cases. {3Iy 
Essay, p. 49.) "The proportion, one pound to 
a gallon of water, laid on with a plasterer's 
brush, the operator making his casts as when 
sowing corn, is instant death to the fungus." 
The time and expense are trifling. It appear- 
ed, in the course of some inquiries made by 
the Board of Agriculture, that a Cornish farmer, 
Mr. Sickler, and also the Rev. R. Hoblin, were 
accustomed to employ refuse salt as a manure, 
and that their crops were never infected ivith the 
rust or blight. See Mildew. 

Experiments demonstrate the efficacy of salt 
on barley and oats. In 1820, on a good alluvial 
soil, at Heybridge, in Essex, in a field of barley, 
the results of two experiments were — 

Bushels. 

1. Soil dressed with 6 bushels of salt per acre, and 

20 loads of earth and stable dung, at turnip- 
time, produced per acre - _ - . 65 

2. Soil dressed with 20 loads of dung and earth - 60 

In the same year, at Sproughton, in Suffolk, 
on a sandy, barley soil, belonging to Mr. Ran- 
some : — 

Bushels of 
Barley. 

1. Soil without any manure produced, per acre 30 

2. Soil dressed with 16 bushels of salt per acre 

in March .------51 

The following table contains the results of 
fourteen experiments, made in 1819, by the late 
Mr. George Sinclair, at Woburn, on the uses of 
salt to the barley crop. The soil had, the pre- 
vious year, carried a crop of turnips, and wa.s 
composed of three-fourths silicious sand: — 





Quan, 


ty per 


Pr.iJuce. 1 


Kind of Manure, and Mode of 
applying it. 


Acre. 






Bushels 


BusheU 




Weight 




of 


.if 


Bush. 


per 




Sail. 


Lime. 





Bushel. 


BARLEY. 






Soil without manure of 








lbs. 


any kind ... 


- 


. 


12 


43i 


Salt sown with the seed - 


55 


. 


20 


43i 


Salt sown with the seed - 


5^ 


. 


20 


42i 


Salt applied before sowing 


33 


. 


281 


44i 


Salt applied before sowing 


11 


. 


26J 


43 


Salt applied before sowing 


5,^ 


. 


2^ 


43 


Litne and salt applied be- 










fore sowing - - - 


33 


60 


9 


42J 


Lime and salt applied be- 










fore sowing - - - 


11 


60 


22 


421 


Lime and salt before sow- 










ing - - . - 


m 


30 


13i 


43 


Lime mixed and sown with 










seed - - - . 


- 


60 


18i 


43J 


Lime mixed with soil pre- 










vious to sowing 


- 


60 


m 


43i 


OATS. 










Sown without any manure 


- 


. 


281 


33 


Salt with the seed - 


44 


. 


I'i 


30i 


Salt mixed with the soil - 


44 


- 


27 


27 



In these experiments upon oats, the quantity 
of salt applied was evidently too great. Mr. 
Legrand states, that in his experiments upon 
barley, " it gradually advanced in its effects 
16 bushels, and as gradually diminished 
bushels, when vegetation was stopped." 

969 



SALT, COMMON. 

The following table contains the results of 
/he experiments made at Woburn, 1818-19, 
by the late Mr. George Sinclair, with his usual 
scientific accuracy. I would direct the farmer s 
attention to this table, as containing a mass of 
valuable information. 



SALT, COMMON. 

The soil on which these experiments were 
made was sandy, and the plots each contained 
36 square feet ; the Talavera wheat was drilled 
into the soil November 5th, and reaped August 
2d, 1818. 



Kind of Manure, and Mode of applying it 



Spit manure applied previous to sowing the seed . - . - 
Salt and spit manure dug in salt mixed with seed - - - - 

Salt mixed with soil 4 inches deep before sowing - - - - 

Salt ditto ditto ditto - - . - - 

Salt sown with seed ---------- 

Salt combined with manure, dug in 4 inches deep - - - - 

Salt and manure : salt sown with seed, manure dug in - - - 
Salt and manure : salt applied to the surface - - - - - 

Salt simply applied to the surface ------- 

Salt and manure : salt applied to the surface - - - - - 

Salt simply applied to the surface ------- 

Salt and lime mixed, and applied with the seed . . . . 

Salt and lime mixed, and applied before sowing . - - - 
Salt and lime mixed, and applied on the surface . . - - 
Lime applied with the seed -.-.---- 

Lime applied to the surface -_.-.--- 
Salt, lime, and dung mixed, and applied as manure - - - - 

Long dung dug in as manure -------- 

Salt and long dung mixed, and applied as manure - - - - 

Lime and long dung mixed, and applied as manure - - . . 
Salt and long dung mixed, and applied as manure - - - - 

Oil-cake mixed, and applied with the seed - - - . - 
Oil-cake applied as common manure ...--- 
Oil-cake and lime applied as common manure . - - - - 

Salt and oil cake mixed, and sown with the seed . . - - 
Salt and oil-cake mixed, and applied as manure - - - - 

Salt, oil-cake, and manure, applied as manure - - - 

Salt, oil-cake, and nuinure; the salt and oil-cake sown with the 
seed, manure pi^iously dug in ------- 

Salt, oil-cake, and lime, applied as manure . . - - - 
Salt, oil-cake, and lime, sown with the seed - - - - - 

Salt, oil-cake, and lime, applied to the surface . . - - 

Salt applied to the soil in the preceding spring - - . - 
Salt applied to the soil in the preceding spring - . - . - 



Manuret, omitting Fractiona. 
Quantit; per Acre. 



44 

44 
5J 
5i 
5i 
5i 
5i 
5i 

44 

44 
5h 
6i 
5i 



51 
5i 
5i 

5i 
5i 
5i 

62 

31 



121 
120 
120 
120 
120 
120 



120 



120 



120 
120 
120 



49 
75 
91 
77 
73 
75 
95 
82 
60 
55 
77 
66 
68 
64 
53 
57 
62 
71 
71 
54 

48 
73 
74i 

■m 

74J 

55i 

71 

55i 

66 

44i 

26i 



Weight 

of a 
Bushel. 



57* 
58 
59 
59 
57 
52i 
59 
57i 
55 
53} 
56 
56i 
56} 
56 
52J 
54i 
56i 
56} 
56 
57 
56 
56 
60 
56} 
2 
58 
58 

55i 

51* 

55i 

58 

57i 

47i 



j3s a Manure for Grass Land, Meadows, SfC, sail 
has been used in all parts of England, with 
varying success. It always, however, sweetens 
the herbage. It has been employed at the rate 
of 6 to 16 bushels per acre, and where the pri- 
mary object has been the destruction of the 
old turf, even 30 to 40 bushels have been suc- 
cessfully employed on the same extent of land. 
It has the effect of completely preventing worm- 
casts on lawns, &c. 

In a letter with which I was favoured from 
Mr. Collyns, of Kenton, Devonshire, 1826, he 
says — "One of my neighbours writes me, 'In 
using sail as a manure on grass land, I have 
found the salted portions not to be affected by 
severe frosty nights, when every blade of grass 
on the unsaited portions has been in a frozen 
state. I observe, too, that it is destructive to 
every kind of grub and worm ; and I am con- 
vinced, where it has been used with judgment, 
that it has not failed.' Another intelligent 
neighbour," continues Mr. Collyns, " whose 
larm is almost entirely a light black sand, 
writes, 'I have found salt answer my most 
sanguine expectations for barley, oats, pota- 
toes, and turnips, both as to the increased 
quantity and improved quality of the crops, of 
which I can now give ocular demonstration : 
my barley and oats, which used to yield me 
only 15 to 20 bushels per acre, now yield from 
40 to 45, My wheat is certainly much im- 
970 



proved in quality, but I expected more in quan- 
tity. I have had 35 bushels of wheat from an 
acre dressed with 10 bushels of salt ; and from 
the same field last year, after the same quan- 
tity of salt, 140 bags of potatoes per acre. This 
year again, dressed with 10 bushels of salt, I 
have not more than 20 bushels of wheat per 
acre, but the quality very superior indeed, and 
the root of clover in it very fine and luxuriant. 
In every field I have salted, I find the grass 
very much superior to any produced before the 
use of salt.' I have since," adds Mr. Collyns, 
" gone over his farm, and am astonished at the 
verdant pasturage, in what used to be coarse 
and rushy meadows. In this arable land, he 
never got more than 10 bushels of wheat per 
acre until he used salt ; so that this is also a 
decided improvement." 

In Suffolk, according to a statement fVirnisb- 
ed to me by Mr. Broke, of Capel, near Ipswich, 
"In the month of April, 1821, 6 bushels of salt 
manure were applied to half an acre of red 
clover ; the soil good turnip land, not sharp ; 
extent of the field 10 acres. The salted clover 
at first looked very yellow, and apparently in- 
jured, but it soon began to recover, and when 
mown, the increased produce was, at the very 
least, 10 cwt. per acre; and the aftermath pro- 
portionally good ; the cattle eating it down 
closer, and in preference to any other part of 
the field." 



SALT, COMMON, 



SALT, COMMON. 



With potatoes. — There have been various ex- 
periments made with salt as a manure for po- 
tatoes. The author of this work, in 1817, on a 
gravelly soil, at Great Totham, in Essex, made 
the following trials : — 

Bushels. 

1. Soil simple, produce per acre , - - 120 

2. Soil with 20 bushels of salt in September' - 192 

3. Soil with stable manure, 20 loads in the 

spring of the year ..... 219 

4. Soil with 20 loads of manure and 20 bushels 

of salt 234 

5. Soil with 40 bushels of salt alone - - - 1923- 

6. Soil with 40 bushels of salt and 20 loads of 

manure .-.-..- 244 

The Rev. Edmund Cartwright, of Hollenden 
House, in Kent, in 1804, made various import- 
ant trials of salt as a manure for potatoes. 
The soil on which the experiments were made 
consisted of three-fourths sand. See Potatoes. 

" Of ten different manures," said this agri- 
culturist, "salt, a manure hitherto of an am- 
biguous character, is (one only excepted) supe- 
rior to them all. The effect of the mixture of 
salt and soot is remarkable." The writer of 
this witnessed the same result on carrots, at 
the rate of Ifi bushels of each per acre. 

Vermin.. — With regard to the destruction of 
vermin by means of salt, we may safely assert, 
that there is, perhaps, no agricultural use of 
common salt more undoubted. The effect, too, 
is direct, and the result immediately apparent. 
For this purpose, from 5 to 10 bushels per acre 
are sufficient. The agriculturist need be under 
no apprehension that the salt will destroy his 
crop, for 20 bushels of salt per acre may be 
applied to young wheat with perfect safety: I 
have seen even 25 bushels used with advantage. 
See Insects. 

Ill reference to Weeds. — Salt has been of late 
years used at the rate of from 20 to 40 bushels 
per acre, to kill weeds and to cleanse fallows, 
with great advantage ; it also, in the large pro- 
portion we have named, will destroy coarse, 
sour grass, &c. ; and though, for a time, all 
vegetation is destroyed, yet, in a short period, 
a much superior turf is produced. If the culti- 
vator can collect weeds, parings of turf, ditches, 
banks, &lc., of the most foul description, and 
spread evenly on the surface of the heap half 
a bushel of salt to every ton of the collection, 
he will find every weed, in the course of a few 
weeks, killed and dissolved away. This plan 
I have long followed myself, on a light, gravelly 
soil ; and upon spreading this salted mixture, 
at the rate of 14 or 15 loads per acre, its bene- 
ficial eflfects can be traced to an inch. I have 
principally used it as a dressing for turnips 
and oats. 

In the Garden. — Salt has been employed by 
the gardener for many purposes; most com- 
monly on lawns, at the rate of 10 bushels per 
acre, to prevent worm-casts ; and on gravel 
walks in a larger proportion, to kill weeds ; it 
may be employed, however, as a fertilizer in 
gardens with decided advantage. I have wit- 
nessed the results of the following experiments 
made by my brother, Mr. George Johnson, at 
Great Totham ; and I the more readily give 
them a place here, from knowing with what 
care they were made : — 

The soil was composed of — 



Farts. 
Stones and gravel - - ... 97 
Vegetable fibre . . - - . 15 
Soluble matter ..... 3 

Carbonates of lime and magnesia • . 18 
Oxide of iron --..-. 4 
Animal and vegetable matter . . 1 
Alumina ...... 4-5 

Silica .......40 

Loss .-.--» 1 

100 

Windsor beans were sown on it — 

Produce pa 
Acre. 
Soil treated with 20 bushels of salt per acre, 

bushels ...--.. 217 
Soil simple .-.---- 135 

Onions — 

Tons. cwt. qr». lbs. 

Salt 20 bushel, manure 20 tons, per acre 3 12 3 12 
Manure - - - - - - -2 10 2 19 

Carrots — 

1. Soil without any manure - - - 13 4 

2. Soil with 20 tons of manure - . 22 18 26 

3. Soil with 20 bushels of salt . . 18 2 

4. Soil with 20 bushels of salt, and 20 

tons of manure - - - -2361 IS 

Parsnips — 

1. Soil with 20 tons of manure, and 20 

bushels of salt - - - .6 15 00 

2. Soil with 20 tons manure - - - 6 11 1 1 

Early potatoes — 

bUa. 

1. Soil simple ..-----308 

2. Soil with 20 bushels of salt - - - - 584 

Beets — 

• Tons. cwt. qra. 

1. Soil simple -4 10 1 

2. Soil with 20 bushels of salt - - - 4 8 3 

3. Soil with 20 tons of salt, and 20 tons of 

manure - - - - - -700 

4. Soil with 20 tons of manure - - . 6 10 

In preventing clubbing in the roots of some 
of the brassica tribe, Mr. Johnson found salt 
highly useful ; he states, in some observations 
on this disease read to the Horticultural So- 
ciety of London, October 16, 1821: — "Some 
cauliflowers were planted upon a light silicious 
soil, which had previously been manured with 
well-putrefied stable manure, and over one- 
third of the allotted space was sown salt, at 
the rate of 20 bushels per acre, immediately 
before planting in July, 1821. The previous 
crop had been broccoli. Fifty-four plants were 
set on the two-thirds unsalted, and 26 on the 
one-third salted : the result has been, that of 
the 54 unsalted, 15 have been diseased and un- 
productive, but of the 26 salted only 2." 

There is little doubt, but that salt might b 
much more extensively employed by florist 
than at present. A very small quantity of sal 
added to the water in which flowers are placed, 
adds considerably to their duration. There are 
many bulbous-rooted flowers which flourish 
best in the immediate vicinity of the sea. Mr. 
Edwin Greville remarked, in 1824, that some 
common salt applied at the rate of 16 bushels 
per acre to a portion of a bed of stocks, in his 
garden at Wyaston, in Derbyshire, made them 
grow most decidedly stronger and finer, and 
bloom much more perfectly than those grow- 
ing in the same bed unsalted. "There was no 
possibility of error or doubt on the subject " 
said my intelligent informant. I have given 
the experiments of Dr. Priestley upon various 
plants vegetating in salt and water. HcfoanJ 

971 



SALT, COMMON. 



SALT, COMMON. 



that the use of salt materially protracted the 
existence of the plant. It is a common custom 
with the importers of exotic plants, to dip cut- 
tings in salt-water. Before the adoption of this 
plan, they almost invariably perished in the 
passage. 

Among the many excellent communications 
with which I have been favoured on the use of 
salt in the cultivation of plants, was one from 
an eminent florist, near Paddington, Mr. Thos. 
Hogg. " From the few experiments," he ob- 
serves, " that I have tried with salt as a garden 
manure, I am fully prepared to bear testimony 
to its usefulness. In a treatise upon flowers, 
published about 6 years since, I remarked, that 
the application of salt, and its utility as a ma- 
nure, was yet imperfectly understood. It is a 
matter of uncertainty, whether it acts directly 
as a manure, or only as a kind of spice or 
seasoning, thereby rendering the soil a more 
palatable food for plants. The idea that first 
suggested itself to my mind arose from con- 
templating the successful culture of hyacinths 
in Holland. This root, though not indigenous 
to the country, may be said to be completely 
naturalized in the neighbourhood of Haerlem, 
where it grows luxuriantly in a deep, sandy, 
alluvial soil; yet one great cause of its. free 
growth, I considered, was owing to the saline 
atmosphere : this induced me to mix salt in the 
compost; and I am satisfied that no hyacinths 
will grow well at a distance from the sea, with- 
out it. I am also of opinion, that the numerous 
bulbous tribes of amaryllidaceae, especially 
those from the Cape of Good Hope, ixias, al- 
liums, which include onions, garlic, shalots, &c., 
anemones, various species of the lily, antho- 
lyza, colchicum, crinum, cyclamens, narcissus, 
iris, gladiolus, ranunculus, scilla, and many 
others, should either have salt or sea-sand in 
the mould used for them. I invariably use salt 
as an ingredient in my compost for carnations; 
a plant which, like wheat, requires substantial 
soil, and all the strength and heat of the sum- 
mer, to bring it to perfection ; and I believe I 
might say, without boasting, that few excel me 
in blooming that flower." 

In the inundations of the sea, as in Friesland, 
for instance, in 1825, various curious effects 
were produced by the salt-water. The oak, the 
mulberry, pear, peach, and others with deep 
roots, did not suffer; neither did the asparagus, 
onions, celery, &c., for they were never finer, 
or more luxuriant. But the vines and goose- 
berries contracted a aalt taste : and the apricots, 
apples, cherries, elms, poplars, beech, willows, 
&c., could not bear the over-dose of sea-water. 
They pushed out a few leaves, but speedily 
perished. (Tio-ner's Sacred Hist. p. 117.) Simi- 
lar results were noticed, after an inundation 
of the sea, in the garden of the late Richard 
Gower, Esq., near Ipswich, in Suffolk, in No- 
vember, 1824. In this instance a portion of 
the garden remained 24 hours under the sea- 
water. The asparagus beds were materially 
improved in their produce. The cherry trees, 
in the following year, produced a numerous 
crop of cherries, which tasted, however, so very 
salt that thetj could not be eaten, although very 
(ine in appearance. These trees all died in 
972 



the following year, 1826. (^Johnson on the Ferti- 
lizers, p. 374.) 

Salt, with other Manuhes. — Salt and Lime. 
With a mixture of salt and lime, a manure is 
gradually formed of a most powerful descrip- 
tion. It promises now, through the successful 
example of Mr. Bennett and Sir C. Burrell, to 
be very generally adopted. It is difficult to ac- 
count for the neglect of this manure, on any 
other ground than the difficulties which were 
so long thrown in the farmer's way, by the long- 
continued tax upon salt. That it is not a novel 
plan for enriching the land is quite certain. 
Glauber, a celebrated German chemist, one of 
the last of the alchemists, described it in the 
jargon of his craft nearly two centuries since , 
when he said "The Salmirabilis (common salt), 
as it is of itself, is, by reason of its corroding 
virtues, which it as yet retains, plainly unfit 
for the multiplication of vegetable, for that 
being so used would prove more hurtful than 
profitable. Upon this account it is necessary 
that to one part of it be added two parts by 
weight of the best calyx vine (lime), which 
being moistened with water and made into 
balls, are to be well heated red-hot for an hour, 
that so all the corrosivity being introverted, the 
sal niirabilis may be alkalizated, and used to 
vegetables for an universal medicine : for it 
conserves its attracting force, and loseth it not 
in the heating red-hot." (Glauber's Works, by 
Packe, pp. 2, 47.) 

Christopher Packe, who, in 1688, published 
in English Glauber's folio volume, dwells at 
considerable length in his preface upon this 
mixture of salt and lime; "for the enriching 
of poor and barren land, it is the cheapest of 
all mixtures, and is most easy to be done ; for 
any ploughman having but once seen it done 
may be presently able to manage it." 

Salt and lime was used as a manure by Mr. 
Mitchell, of Ayr, many years since, and he, not 
knowing what others had done with this fer- 
tilizer before his time, considered himself to 
be the discoverer. He thus described his pro- 
cess : — Take 32 bushels of lime, and slack it 
with sea-water, previously boiled to the satu- 
rated state. This quantity is sufficient for an 
acre of ground, and may be either thrown out 
of the carts with a shovel over the land in the 
above state, or made into compost with 40 
loads of moss or earth, in which state it will 
be found to pay fully for the additional labour, 
and is sufficient for an acre of fallow ground, 
though ever so reduced before. Its component 
parts are muriate and sulphate of lime, mineral 
alkali, in an uncombined state, also muriate 
and carbonate of soda. All the experiments 
have done well with it, but especially wheat 
and beans ; and it has not been behind any 
manure with which it has been compared. 
There is one instance in which it was tried ia 
comparison with 72 cart-loads of soaper's waste 
and dung; and although this was an extraordi- 
nary dressing, yet that with this salt and lime 
manure was fully above the average of the 
field. Mr. Mitchell calculates that 3000 gallons 
of sea-water, boiled down to about 600 gallons, 
will slack 64 bushels of shell lime. (These 
3000 gallons of sea-water will contain about 



SALT, COMMON. 



SALTS. 



J lbs. of common salt.) A quantity sufficient 
for 2 acres. The expense of carrying the water 
from the sea, the evaporation, &c., he adds, will 
cost 20s. The 64 bushels of limestone cost him 
40s., or 3/. for 2 acres. 

The use of this mixture of salt and lime was 
also noticed in the year 1800, by Mr. Hollings- 
head, of Chorley, in Lancashire, who observes: 
"Lime prepared for manure should be slacked 
with salt-springs or salt-water : lime so slacked 
will have a double effect." And in 1816, Mr. 
James Manley, of Anderton, in Cheshire, when 
giving his evidence before a committee of the 
House of Commons on the salt duties, men- 
tioned, that in getting marl (which is a mixture 
of carbonate of lime, alumina, and silica), he 
had found that, by mixing it with brine instead 
of water, the portion of the field on which the 
brined marl was used yielded 5 bushels of 
wheat per acre more than that portion on 
which the watered marl was employed ; and 
it may be well to remember, that the celebrated 
salt sand of Padstow Harbour is composed of 
64 per cent, of carbonate of lime ; and that, in 
the experiments of the late Rev. Edmund Cart- 
wright, upon potatoes, of 25 manures, or mix- 
tures of manures, salt and lime were found 
superior in their product of potatoes to 19 
others. 

Every farmer has it in his power, even in the 
most inland situations, to procure this most ex- 
cellent manure for the use of his farm, by 
means of a mixture of two parts of lime and 
one part of common salt, and suffering it to 
remain incorporated in a shady place, or cover- 
ed with sods, for 2 or 3 months ; a plan which 
I suggested some years since. {Essay on Salt, 
p. 32, 3d ed.) By this process a gradual de- 
composition takes place, muriate of lime and 
soda are formed, the whole mass speedily be- 
coming encrusted with alkali. There is another 
advantage to be derived from the adoption of 
this process, besides the formation of soda, viz., 
that the muriate of lime is one of the most 
deliquescing or moisture-absorbing substances, 
with which we are acquainted ; and, in conse- 
quence, whenever it exists in a soil, the warmth 
of the sun has, in summer, much less influence 
on it than it would otherwise have. 

I would especially warn those who try the 
effect of a mixture of salt and lime, to attend 
carefully to the directions I have given, and 
not, as some farmers have done, to use the 
mixed salt and lime immediately, before any 
decomposition has taken place. After it has 
been well mixed together in a dry state, it 
should be allowed to remain 2 or 3 months un- 
disturbed, and then applied at the rate of from 
35 to 60 bushels per acre, either by sowing it 
out of a seed-basket, or mixed with earth, and 
spread in the usual way. It is necessary to 
give the mixture time, since the decomposition 
proceeds very slowly, and is not to be hastened 
by any simple process. See Lime. 

Salt and Soot. — Salt has never been employed 
with other substances so extensively as it 
might. I have used it for potatoes, mixed with 
earth, ditch-scrapings, and with soot, with the 
most decided success ; the places where it has 
been thus applied being much superior, both 
in appearanie and in produce. 



The mixture of salt with soot produces 
the most remarkable effects, especially when 
trenched into ground prepared for carrots. Mr. 
G. Sinclair found that when the soil, unma- 
nured, produced twenty-three tons of carrots 
per acre, the same soil, fertilized with a mix- 
ture of only six bushels and a half of salt, and 
six and a half of soot, yielded forty tons per 
acre. Mr. Belfield describes the mixture as 
equally beneficial for wheat. And Mr. Cart- 
wright found, that when the soil, without any 
addition, yielded per acre 157 bushels of pota- 
toes, that, dressing the same land with a mix- 
ture of thirty bushels of soot and eight bushels 
of salt, made it produce per acre 240 bushels. 
(Johnson on Fertilizers.) 

SALTS, their uses to vegetation. That peculiar 
saline substances exist in almost all vegetables, 
was an early observation made by the natural 
philosopher. The saline and alkaline taste 
perceivable in the ashes obtained by the com- 
bustion of these substances, very plainly indi- 
cated the fact. And although the skill of the 
chemist did not at first enable him to accu- 
rately discriminate between the salts, the alka- 
lies, or even the earths contained in plants, 
with even tolerable accuracy, yet the progress 
of science has long since surmounted a mass 
of difficulties, and has detected a strange va- 
riety of salts in plants. A salt, be it remem- 
bered, is a substance produced by the combi- 
nation of an acid with a base, that is, with an 
earth, an alkali, or a metallic oxide: the class 
of salts, therefore, is exceedingly numerous 
(they have been estimated at about 2000), and 
includes many substances which at first sight 
do not appear entitled to such a name; thus 
the union of the carbonic acid with the earth 
lime, which is an oxide of a metal, forms the 
salt carbonate of lime, or chalk, marble, &c. 
Sulphuric acid and lime form the salt sulphate 
of lime (gypsum), with phosphoric acid, phos- 
phate of lime (earthy matter of bones), and 
many other earthy salts look to the mechanical 
eye as little like salts as these. 

The farmer must avoid, in entering into this 
examination, the common error of supposing 
that the saline substances found in plants are 
not their essential constituents or food, but are 
merely there by chance; that their presence is 
unattended with benefit, and their absence 
totally unproductive of injury; for such is a 
most erroneous conclusion. Not only are cer- 
tain salts, the phosphate and sulphate of lime, 
and the carbonate of potash, for instance, inva- 
riably present in certain plants, but without 
those salts are present in the soil in which they 
grow, they will not maintain a healthy vegeta- 
tion. Under the head Eauths, Gases, Water, 
I have endeavoured to show how essential 
those substances are to vegetation, and what a 
great part they perform in the support of the 
farmer's crops ; but still it will be found, that 
when a soil is carefully composed of all the 
pure earths discovered in plants, watered in 
abundance with pure water, and supplied with 
all the gases of putrefaction and of the atmo- 
sphere, that still all these are not sufficient by 
themselves to support a single ordinarily culti- 
vated crop ; but then it is found that where 
such a soil is supplied with various saline sub- 
4 N 973 



SALTS. 

stances (for instance, with the various sa- 
line matters draining from a dunghill), that 
then every difficulty is removed. Neither must 
the cultivator suppose, that when saline sub- 
stances are mixed with the soil, that then the 
plant growing upon it absorbs those salts as a 
matter of necessity, united with the moisture 
contained in that soil, without having the power 
of rejecting or separating it from its solution ; 
for such an assumption has been proved to be 
contrary to the fact by several very accurate 
experiments. M. Saussure, for instance, found 
that plants had the power, when placed in sa- 
line solutions, foreign to their habits, of sepa- 
rating them from the water in which they were 
dissolved. These are researches fraught with 
instruction to the cultivator. He dissolved the 
following salts in water, in such proportions 
tliat each solution contained y^ part of its 
weight of the salt — muriate of potash, muriate 
of soda (common salt), nitrate of lime, sul- 
phate of soda (Glauber salt), muriate of am- 
monia (sal ammonia), acetate of lime, sulphate 
of copper (blue vitriol). In each of these so- 
lutions he put plants of Polygonum Persicaria, 
or of Jjidens cannabina, furnished with their 
roots. The Polygonum grew for five weeks in 
the solution of muriate of potash, nitrate of 
lime, muriate of soda, and sulphate of soda, 
and its roots increased in them as usual. It 
languished in the solution of sal ammoniac, 
and the roots made no progress. It died in 8 
or 9 days in the solution of acetate of lime, 
and in less than 3 days in the solution of sul- 
phate of copper. When such a number of 
plants of Polygonum were put into the solu- 
tions as to absorb one-half of each in 2 days, 
the remaining half was found to have lost very 
different proportions of the salt which it had 
originally contained. Supposing the portion 
of salt at first in solution to be 100, the follow- 
ing table exhibits the quantity of each which 
had disappeared when one-half of the liquid 
was absorbed — 



Muriate of potash 
Muriate of soda 
Nitrate of lime - 
Sulphate of soda 
Muriate of ammonia - 
Acetate of lime - 
Sulphate of copper - 



Parts. 

14-7 
13 
4 

14-4 
12 



The Bidcns absorbed pretty nearly the same 
proportions, but in general did not vegetate so 
long as the Polygonum. 

When various salts were dissolved at once 
in the same solution, and plants made to vege- 
tate in them, it was found that different propor- 
tions of the salts were absorbed. The follow- 
ing table exhibits the results of these trials, 
supposing, as before, the original weight of 
each salt to have been 100, each solution con- 
tained y^o part of its weight of each salt — 



{Sulphate of soda 
Mur 



riate of soda 
Sulphate of soda - 
"■ I Muriate of potash - 
3 S Nitrate of lime 
' \ Muriate of ammonia 
» f Acetate of lime 
■ \ Sulphate of copper 
I J Acetate of lime 
l Muriate of potash - 
«74 



Parts. 

11-7 

22 

12 

17 

4-5 
16-5 
31 
34 

8 
17 



SALTS. 

Fwto. 

g C Nitrate of lime - - • - 17 
t Sulphate of copper - - - 34 
f Sulphate of soda - - - - 6 

7. ■< Muriate of soda - - • - 10 
(.Acetate of lime ... - 

These experiments succeeded nearly equally 
with other plants, as the Mentha piperita and 
the Scotch fir. When the roots were cut or 
removed, the plants absorbed all solutions in- 
discriminately ; on examining the plants, the 
salts absorbed were found in them unaltered. 
It being thus clearly established that plants 
possess a discriminating power, and that they 
do not absorb saline solutions merely because 
they happen to be dissolved in the soil, it next 
becomes an object of interest, as an illustra- 
tion and guide for the operations of agricul- 
ture, to ascertain what salts are found by the 
researches of the chemist in commonly culti- 
vated plants. And if, at the conclusion of our 
examination, we find that certain salts are 
found in abundance only in certain plants, and 
that these saline substances exist in them in- 
variably in all soils and situations, and that 
without their presence the plant languishes and 
merely supports a sickly existence, we shall 
be almost driven to the conclusion, that these 
are as essentially the food of plants, as any of 
the other substances with which they abound. 

For a lengthened period, the vegetable alka- 
Une salt, carbonate of potash, has been ob- 
tained from plants. Procured at first by their 
combustion, in iron pots, it hence obtained its; 
name. Dr. Thomson has given a table of thei 
quantity of potash obtained from 100 parts of 
the ashes of various trees and plants. See 
Alkali. 

In general, says Dr. Thomson, three times as 
much ashes are obtained from shrubs as from 
trees. An equal weight of the branches of 
trees produce more ashes than the trunk, and 
the leaves more than the branches. Herbs ar- 
rived at maturity produce more ashes than at 
any other time. Green vegetables produce 
more ashes than dry. The salt which is ob- 
tained by the combustion of plants, although 
chiefly composed, does not consist wholly of 
potash: there are many salts mixed with it; 
these are usually sulphate of potash, muriate 
of potash, sulphate of lime, phosphate of lime, 
«&c., but these bear in general but a small pro- 
portion to the potash. 

Perhaps the most copious table of the alka- 
line and other salts obtained by the combus- 
tion of various plants has been given by M. 
Saussure in his chemical researches on vege- 
tation. He obtained from 100 parts of the 
ashes of the — 

Pirti. 

Leaves of oak (Quercus Rubur), May 10 47* 

Do., September 27 - . . . n- 

Wood of a young oak. May 10 - - 7' 

Bark of do. ----- - 7* 

Perfect wood of oak ... - 38-6 

Albumen of do. ..... 33- 

Bark of do. ..--.. 7- 

Cortical layers of do. .... 7* 

Extract of wood of do. - - - - 51* 

Soil from the wood of do. - - - 24* 

Extract from do. ----- 66- 

Leaves of poplar (Populus nigra). May 10 36' 

Do., September 12 .... 26' 

Leaves of hazel ..... 26' 

Do., washed in cold water ... 8-2 

Leaves of do., June 22 .... 22-7 

Do., September 20 .... 11' 



SALTS. 



SALTS. 



FUtf. 

Wood of hazel, May 1 .... 24-5 

Bark of do. 12-5 

Wood of mulberry, November - - 21- 

Wood of hornbeam, November - - 22- 
Wood of horse-chestnut, May 10 - - 9'5 

Fruit of do., October 5 - - - - 82- 

Plants of peas (Pisum sativum) in flower 49'8 

Do. ripe 3425 

Plants of vetches (Fiicto faba) before 

flowering. May 23 - - - - 55-5 

Do. in flower ... - - 55-5 

Do. ripe, July 23 ----- 50- 

Seeds of do. 69-28 

Do. In flower raised in distilled water - 60'1 

Plants of tamsole, June 23 - - - 63' 

Wheat, in flower 4325 

Do., seeds ripe ----- 11- 

Do. a month before flowering - - 60" 

Do. in flower, June 14 - - - - 41* 

Do., seeds ripe ----- 10" 

Bran 4416 

Plants of maize or Indian corn - - 69- 

Chaff' of barley 20- 

Seeds of do. 29- 

Oats -...--. 1- 

Leaves of fir {Pinus abies), raised on 

limestone - - - _ - - - 16" 

Leaves of fir, raised on granite - - 15' 

Branches of pine ----- 15' 

M. Vauquelin found 20 per cent, of potash 
in the ashes of the oat; and from his experi- 
ments it is probable that potash exists in plants 
in combination with the acetic and carbonic 
acids. 

The mineral alkali soda, or carbonate of 
soda, is found in almost all the plants which 
are found growing in the sea, or on the shore, 
within reach of its influence. The amount of 
alkali which these produce, is considerably 
g:reater, in proportion to that produced by 
plants natives of inland places. Thus, 100 
parts of the salsola soda yield 19-921 parts of 
ashes, and these contain 1'992 parts of soda 
and common salt. Many plants, the vegetable 
marrow and the vine, for instance, derive great 
benefit from the application of soda to their 
roots. Soap-suds are used as an excellent 
liquid manure by many gardeners. 

Sea-weed, kelp-soda, barilla, and the com- 
mon washing-soda of the shops, have all been 
used successfully as saline manures ; and the 
well-known fertilizing mixture of salt and lime, 
after it has remained undisturbed for some 
lime, contains chloride of lime and soda in 
abundance. Sea-weed abounds with a strange 
mixture of alkaline salts, and there is no green 
manure more powerful in its effects than this, 
especially when it is ploughed in as fresh as 
possible. Mr. Gaullier de Claubry found in the 
Funis saccharinus and in the Fucus digitatus 
(which is much used in Scotland as a manure) 
the following substances — saccharine matter, 
mucilage, vegetable albumen, oxalate of pot- 
ash, malate of potash, sulphate of potash, sul- 
phate of soda, sulphate of magnesia, muriate 
of soda, muriate of potash, muriate of magne- 
sia, carbonate of potash, carbonate of soda, hy- 
driodate of potash, silica, phosphate of lime, 
phosphate of magnesia, oxide of iron, oxalate 
of lime. In the islands of Guernsey and Jer- 
sey they employ the ashes of the sea-weeds, 
which they call vraic. Half a bushel strewed 
over a perch of ground in winter, or the be- 
ginning of spring, is sufficient. It gives a full 
ear to the corn, and prevents it from being laid. 

Phosphate of lime, which is composed, ac- 
cording to the experiments of M. Berzelius, of 



phosphoric acid 100 parts, and lime 84-53, 
abounds in vegetable substances. It forms the 
basis of bones, from which, for the purposes 
of experiment, it is commonly procured. Ob- 
tained in this way it is always in the form of a 
white powder, without either taste or smell ; is 
insoluble in water, and unaltered by exposure 
to the atmosphere. Phosphate of magnesia is 
composed of phosphoric acid and magnesia; 
is a salt soluble in 15 times its weight of water. 
These two salts have been found in a variety 
of vegetable substances by MM. Vauquelin, 
Saussure, and other able chemists. See Bones. 

There is little doubt but that these salts are 
absorbed from the soil by the plants. Almost 
all cultivated soils contain them in some form 
or other; and of the value of their addition to 
the soil in almost every form, there is consi- 
derable evidence. Thus, phosphate of lime 
abounds in all the richest animal manures, 
such as in bone-dust and the richest excre- 
ments of animals; and, again, it is found by 
the Cheshire graziers, that the earthy salts of 
bones obtained from the size-makers, after 
most of the oily matters are removed by the 
action of steam, and hardly any thing but the 
salts of lime remain, are quite as fertilizing to 
their pastures as when used in their fresh 
state, abounding with animal matters. 

Sulphate of lime, or gypsum, is another salt, 
which is invariably found in and promotes the 
growth of certain plants. 

It must, I think, be regarded as one of those 
salts which constitute the food or constituents 
of plants. It is always present in the clover, 
lucern, and sainfoin, and in smaller propor- 
tions in the potato and the turnip. See Plas- 
ter OF Paris. 

That it is a food for plants, was the opinion 
of Sir Humphry Davy. He remarked, when 
speaking of gypsum and the alkalies, "It has 
been generally supposed that these materials 
act in the vegetable economy in the same man- 
ner as condiments or stimulants in the animal 
economy; and that they render the common 
food more nutritive. It seems, however, a 
much more probable idea, that they are ac- 
tually a part of the true food of plants, and that 
they supply that kind of matter to the vegeta- 
ble fibre, which is analogous to the bony mat- 
ter in animal structures. Thus, those plants 
which are most benefited by the application 
of gypsum, are those which always afford it 
on analysis. Clover and most of the artificial 
grasses contain it, but it exists in very mi- 
nute quantity only in barley, wheat, and tur- 
nips." (jlg. Chem. p. 19.) And it is notice- 
able, that most of these remarks apply to the 
phosphate of lime (which can hardly be re- 
garded as a stimulant), since it is not even 
soluble in water; it is also worthy of observa- 
tion, that the same salts of lime (the phosphate 
and the carbonate) which Davy thus supposes 
to be placed in plants to add to their strength 
and solidity, are precisely those salts which for 
that very purpose are placed in the bones of ani- 
mals. They thus, as it were, mutually nourish 
each other. The very phosphate of lime, which 
in the dissolving bone-dust is absorbed by the 
plant, again becomes, in the food of animals, a 
material for the formation of other bones. 

975 



SALTS. 

The carbonate of lime, in some of its forms 
of chalk, limestone, marl, &c., is the most uni- 
versally present of all the salts contained in 
vegetables. It is, in minute proportions, solu- 
ble in water, and more so if the water is satu- 
rated with carbonic acid gas, hence it is readily- 
absorbed by the roots of plants. It exists in 
vegetables in very varying proportions; thus, 
the ashes of the perfect oat plant, straw and 
seed together, were proved by M. Vauquelin to 
contain more than 5 per cent, of this earth. 
{Ann. de Chem. vol. xxix. p. 19.) In 32 ounces 
of seeds of wheat, M. Schraedar found 12 
grains of carbonate of lime; and in the same 
quantity of seeds of rye 1 3-4 grains ; 24-8 grains 
m seeds of barley; 33-75 in those of the oat; 
and 46-2 in the same weight of the straw of 
rye. It is most commonly, although not al- 
ways, found in vegetables with carbonate of 
magnesia. These were found together by M. 
&aussure in the ashes of the following diiferent 
substances. He obtained from 100 parts of 
the ashes of the — 

Parts. 

Leaves of oak, gathered in May - - 0"12 

Do., September ----- 23- 

Bark of the oak . - - . - 6325 

Wood of oak 23- 

Soil from wood of oak - - - - 10- 

Wood of poplar ----- 27" 

Wood of hazel ----- g- 

Wood of mulberry ----- 56* 

Wood of hornbeam ----- 26" 

Plants of peas, in flower - - . 6' 

Do. of vetches, in flower - - - 4'12 
Do. raised in distilled water - . 0' 

Wheat in flower ----- 0'25 

Do. seeds, ripe ----- 0-25 

Do. straw ------ !• 

Do. bran ------ 0' 

Oat seeds ------ 0' 

Barley seeds ------ 0' 

Do. chaff ------ 12-5 

Leaves of Rhododendron ferrugineum, 

raised on limestone - - - - 43'25 

Do. raised on granite - - - - 16'75 

Leaves of fir, raised on limestone - - 43-5 

Do., raised on granite - - - - 29' 

Now, these two soils (the granite and the 
limestone) contained carbonate of lime in the 
following proportion: — 

Granite. Limestone. 

Carbonate of lime - - - 1-74 98- 

Alumina 13-25 0-625 

Silica - 75-25 

Petroleum ----- 025 

Iron and manganese - - - 9- 025 

99-24 99275 

Carbonate of lime has also been detected in 
the sap and white matter of the ulcer of the 
elm by M. Vauquelin; in the ashes of worm- 
wood (more than 50 parts in 100), by Kuns- 
muller; in the flowers of the arnica, by M. 
Chevalier ; in the potato, by M. Einhof ; in the 
ted bark of St. Domingo, in Peruvian bark, and 
in the wood of the quingania, by M. Fourcroy. 
Existing, therefore, so universally in plants, 
there can be no doubt of the fact that this salt 
is fulfilling, then, some wise and salutary pur- 
pose ; not fortuitously, but with design ; not by 
chance, but by the regulation and arrangement 
of their Divine Architect. 

Few if any saline fertilizers act so well alone, 
as when mixed with others, or with ordinary 
manures. As a general rule, the more fertilizers 
are mixed the better they operate upon plants. 

Nitrate of potash, which is composed of ni- 
976 



SALTS. 

trie acid 54-34 parts, and potash 45-66 parts, 
enters into the composition of a few plants, it 
is true, but in the greater number, even in 
those of the farmer's crops, on which on some 
soils its application produces such luxuriant 
eflfects, its presence cannot be detected, even 
in minute proportions. Some plants, however, 
do contain it in considerable quantities. Thus 
it has been found in the common nettle, the 
horse-radish, and the sunflower. M. Chevalier 
found it in the Chcnopodium oliduvi ; M. Vau- 
quelin in the leaves of the deadly nightshade; 
M. Chevreul in woad ; Dr. John in the Blesern,' 
bryanthemutn crystallinunu M. Boullion La- 
grange made various plants, such as the sun- 
flower, vegetate in soils which did not contain 
any saltpetre: upon examining them, no traces 
of saltpetre were discernible, but upon water- 
ing them with a weak solution, it made its ap- 
pearance in them as usual. (See Nitrates.) 
The presence of cubic petre (nitrate of soda), 
which is composed of nitric acid 62-1, and soda 
37-9, is still more rare in plants ; it has only 
been detected in barley. 

The salts formed with the vegetable acids 
existing in the juices of plants are rather nu- 
merous. Oxalate of potash, for instance, exists 
in the Oxalis acetocella, and several others; 
oxalate of lime in rhubarb, parsley, fennel, 
squills, tormentilla, deadly nightshade, and spi- 
nach. Nitrate of lime is contained in the onion, 
malate of lime in the houseleek, wake-robin, 
mignionette ; and malate of potash in rue, the 
garden purslane, nasturtians, lilac, madder, &c. 

There is, perhaps, no saline substance that 
exists to so great an extent in marine plants, 
and which has been used for so long a period 
and to such an e.\tent for those growing in in- 
land situations, as common salt. (See Salt.) A 
substance which not only abounds in all plants 
growing on the sea-shore, but always exists in 
smaller proportions in many of those growing in 
upland districts. Thus, Mr. G. Sinclair obtained 
from 1450 grains of wheat-chaflJ" from Bedford- 
shire, ashes 50 ; common salt 2 J : from 1450 parts 
of the seed, ashes 10 ; common salt |. But from 
the same crop, which had been dressed with 44 
bushels of common salt per acre, he obtained 
from 1450 parts of the chaff, ashes 40 ; com- 
mon salt 4 : and from 1450 parts of the seed, 
ashes 10; common salt \. 

Common salt is found generally in minute 
proportions in most cultivated soils. Davy 
detected in 400 grains of a good silicious soil 
from a Tonbridge hop-garden, nearly 8 parts 
of common salt. 

Besides being in small proportions a direct 
food for plants, common salt also seems to 
perform several other services to vegetation, 
and the same remark probably applies to other 
salts ; for instance, when applied to the soil in 
small proportions, it certainly promotes the 
putrefaction of its organic matters. See Salt. 

And again, salt, in common with several 
others, appears to excite or stimulate the plant, 
when applied to it in proportions not too ex- 
cessive ; a fact first noticed by Dr. Priestley. 

Another use of common and other salts to 
vegetation is, the preservation of the plant 
from injury by sudden transitions in the tem- 
perature of the atmosphere : salted soils only 



SALTS. 



SALTS. 



freeze in intense frosts. I have repeatedly wit- 
nessed in the case of culinary vegetables, such 
as cabbages, broccoli, &c., that, while the pro- 
duce of the unsalted portions of the ground 
were half-killed by the frost, the salted portions 
have totally escaped. Many salts have also 
the property of retarding the evaporation of the 
moisture of the soil ; others absorb it from the 
atmosphere, or are of the class of deliquescing 
salt; such are the common salt, chloride of 
calcium, chloride of magnesia, cubic petre, or 
nitrate of soda, &c., which, in consequence, 
when they are used as fertilizers, they increase 
this property, so valuable and so essential to 
all cultivated soils. Thus I found by some 
experiments upon a rich soil near Maldon, in 
Essex, worth 42s. per acre, that 1000 parts, 
dried at a temperature of 212°, absorbed in 18 
hours, by exposure to air saturated with moist- 
ure at a temperature of 62°, 25 parts. But 
1000 parts of the same field, which had been 
dressed with 12 bushels of marine salt per 
acre, under the same circumstances gained 27 
parts; and 1000 parts of the same soil, which 
had been dressed with 6 bushels per acre, 
gained 26 parts. The attraction of some sa- 
line substances for the moisture of the atmo- 
sphere is very considerable. I found that 1000 
parts of refuse salt manure, dried at 212°, ab- 
sorbed in 3 hours, by exposure to air saturated 
with moisture at 60°, 49| parts. 1000 parts of 
the sediment or pan-scratch of the salt-makers, 
gained 10 parts; 1000 parts of Cheshire crushed 
rock-salt, 10 parts; 1000 parts of gypsum, 9 
parts. Chloride of calcium is so powerfully 
deliquescent, that it absorbs sufficient moisture 
from the air to dissolve in it and form a solu- 
tion. Dr. Marcet found that 288 grains in 124 
days absorbed 684 grains of water. 288 grains 
of nitrate of lime, a salt found in some of the 
richest alluvial soils of the East, absorbs in 147 
days 448 grains. Carbonate of potash, another 
saline fertilizer, also absorbs moisture. Now, 
it is worthy of the farmers' notice, that chlo- 
ride of calcium is the very salt which is pro- 
duced in such abundance by the decomposition 
cf common salt by lime, in the way so suc- 
cessfully recommended first, by the old Ger- 
man chemist Glauber, by Mr. Hollingshead, 
Mr. Bennett, and Sir Charles Burrell (See Salt 
and Lime); for, by the slow action carried on 
for three months by these substances on each 
other, this salt and soda are produced by the 
decomposition; audit is not improbable that 
when these salts are present in the juices of 
plants, that by this means the attractive powers 
of their leaves and roots for aqueous vapour 
may be increased. Davy alludes to these es- 
sential, yet too little understood powers of ab- 
sorption possessed by vegetables, when he says 
(Lectures, p. 207), — "In very intense heats, and 
when the soil is dry, the life of plants seems 
to be preserved by the absorbent power of their 
leaves ; and it is a beautiful circumstance in 
the economy of nature, that aqueous vapour is 
most abundant in the atmosphere when it is 
most needed for the purposes cf life, and that 
when other sources of its supply are cut off, 
this is most copious." 

Of the salts of ammonia, as I have in another 
place remarked, carbonate of ammonia has 
123 



been detected in the Chenopodium olidum by 
Messrs. Chevalier and Lasseigne ; and it pro- 
bably exists in other plants which are distin- 
guished for their powerful disagreeable odour. 
Muriate of ammonia has been found in woad 
by M. Chevreul. The salts of ammonia are in 
general exceedingly fertilizing in their eflfects 
upon vegetation. Soot owes part of its efficacy 
to the ammoniacal salts it contains. The liquor 
produced by the distillation of coal contains 
carbonate and acetate of ammonia, and this 
liquid of the gas-makers is a very good manure. 
"In 1808," says Davy, "I found the growth of 
wheat in a field at JRoehampton assisted by a 
very weak solutionof acetate of ammonia." The 
experiments of Mr. Robertson with soot clearly 
show the fertilizing eff"ects of the soluble por- 
tion of it. He mixed together, in order to form 
a liquid manure, six quarts of soot in a hogs- 
head of water. "Asparagus, peas, and a va- 
riety of other vegetables," says this intelligent 
horticulturist, "I have manured with this mix- 
ture, with as much effect as if I had used solid 
dung." Care must be taken, however, in using 
this and all other liquid fertilizers, not to make 
the solutions too strong: it is an error into 
which all cultivators are apt to fall in their 
early experiments. Even Davy was not an 
exception, since, from making his liquids too 
concentrated, he obtained results which widely 
differed from his later experiments. There is 
no doubt but that the salts of ammonia, and all 
the compound manures which contain them, 
have a very considerable forcing or stimulat- 
ing, or, perhaps, from their decomposition, 
nourishing effect upon vegetation. In the ex- 
periments of Dr. IBelcher upon the common 
garden cress, by watering them with a solution 
of phosphate of ammonia, the plants were 15 
days forwarder than plants growing under 
similar circumstances, but watered with plain 
water; and he also describes the experiments 
of Mr. Gregory, who, by watering one-half of a 
grass field with urine, nearly doubled his crop 
of hay. Other testimonials in support of the 
fertilizing powers of the salts of ammonia are 
furnished by Mr. Handley. 

Of the mode in which ammonia operatei 
upon plants, a late valuable work on organic 
chemistry, by M. Liebig, abounds with ob- 
servations, with some of which I cheerfully 
and cordially agree. To understand these re- 
marks, however, the farmer must remember 
that ammonia is composed, according to the 
analysis of Davy, of hydrogen 74 parts, and 
azote or nitrogen 2G parts. "The nitrogen of 
putrefied animals," he observes, "is contained 
in the atmosphere, as ammonia in the form of 
a gas, which is capable of entering into com- 
bination with carbonic acid, and forming a 
volatile salt. Ammonia in its gaseous form, 
as well as all its volatile compounds, are of 
extreme solubility in water. Ammonia, there- 
fore, cannot remain long in the atmosphere, as 
every shower of rain must condense "t, and 
convey it to the surface of the earth: thence, 
also, rain-water must at all times contain am- 
monia, though not always in equal quantity. 
It must be greater in summer than in spring 
or in winter, because the intervals of time be- 
tween the showers are greater; and, where 
4 N 2 977 



SALTS. 



SAMPLE. 



severa. vet days occur, the rain of the first 
must contain more of it than the second. The 
rain of a thunder-storm, after a long-protracted 
drought, ought, for this reason, to contain the 
greatest quantity which is conveyed to the 
earth at one time. But all the analyses of 
atmospheric air hitherto made have failed to de- 
monstrate the presence of ammonia, although, 
according to our view (says M. Liebig), it can 
never be absent. If a pound of rain-water con- 
tains only one-fourth of a grain of ammonia, 
then a field of 40,000 square feet must receive 
annually upwards of 80 lbs. of ammonia, or 65 
lbs. of nitrogen; for, by the observations of 
Schubler, which were formerly alluded to, 
about 700,000 lbs. of rain fell over this sur- 
face in 4 months. This is much more nitro- 
gen than is contained in the form of vegetable 
albumen and gluten in 2650 lbs. of woad, 2800 
lbs. of hay, or 200 cwt. of beet-root, which are 
the yearly produce of such a field ; but it is 
less than the straw, roots, and grain of corn 
which might grow on the same surface would 
contain. Experiments made in the laboratory 
of Giessen, with the greatest care and exact- 
ness, have placed (continues Liebig) the pre- 
sence of ammonia in rain-water beyond all 
doubt. It had hitherto escaped observation, 
because no one thought of searching for it." 
See Ammonia. 

I cannot recommend the farmer to adopt the 
able conclusions of M. Liebig without consider- 
able caution : hardly any thing retards the pro- 
gress of science more than erroneous theories. 
Fortunately, however, the farmer can in all 
cases patiently and successfully examine and 
apply the valuable facts of the skilful chemist 
without mystifying himself with not always in- 
telligible doctrines. It is very probable that 
plants have the power of decomposing ammo- 
nia, and of assimilating the nitrogen which it 
contains, in the same way as there is little 
doubt the hydrogen of water is assimilated by 
them; but we have no direct evidence of the 
facts, and the best course, therefore, will be to 
regard them not as absolute chemical truths, 
but merely as of the class of what may be per- 
haps denominated scientific probabilities. 

Some of the other compounds of chlorine, 
the old class of chlorides of the chemist, have 
been tried as fertilizers, with very doubtful 
success ; for although at first the seeds which 
had been steeped in them germinated with a 
considerably increased rapidity, yet they speed- 
ily seemed to suffer by this additional stimu- 
lus. Davy tried solutions of chlorine, and sul- 
phate of fron (green vitriol) : he says, "Though 
the plume was very vigorous for a time, yet it 
became at the end of a fortnight weak and 
sickly, and at that period less vigorous in its 
growth than the radish sprouts which had been 
naturally developed, so that there can be 
scarcely any useful application of these expe- 
riments. Too rapid growth and premature de- 
cay seem invariably connected in organized 
structures, and it is only by following the slow 
operations of natural causes that we are capa- 
ble of making improvements." Oxymuriate 
of lime, or, properly speaking, chloride of cal- 
cium, however, appears to be beneficial to 
j-egetation : this was ascertained in 1795, by 
978 



Ingenhouz ; and I have given in my work On 
Fertilizers, p. 367, the result of some trials by 
Mr. Fincham with this chloride that were highly 
successful : he says, " Half of some turnip- 
seed were steeped for 36 hours in a solution 
of chloride of calcium, composed of 1 part 
chloride of calcium, and 48 parts water ; this 
was sown under precisely similar circum- 
stances of soil and aspect with the other half 
unsteeped. The first came up much sooner, 
was never attacked by the fly, and the produce 
was half as much again, and the tops made 
more luxuriant. He attributes the failure of 
Davy to his having used the chlorine, uncom- 
bined with the base lime. 

Mr. Owen Mason, ofProvidence, Rhode Island, 
has computed the saline contents of the crops 
raised from a field near that place, during 8 
years' cultivation, as follows: — 





lbs. 


lbs. 


Potash 


. 424-92 


Sulphuric acid 113-88 


Soda 


. 131-92 


Phosphoric acid 108-12 


Lime . ■ 


. .'532-88 
. . 64-08 


Chlorine . . 58-64 


Magnesia . 




Alumina 


. . 5-96 


Total . 1830-SO 


Silica . . 


, 390-40 





« It is doubtful," Mr. Mason observes" " if 
the cultivator ever suspected that he carripd to 
his barn two casks of potash, one cask of soda, 
two casks of lime, a carboy of oil of vitriol, a 
large demijohn of phosphoric acid, and a variety 
of other matters contained in his fourteen tons 
of fodder, which were as certainly stowed away 
in his mows as if they had been conveyed thither 
in casks and carboys." This statement will per- 
haps serve togive some ideaoftheenormousquan- 
tities of saline matters that are removed from the 
soil by the crops ordinarily raised. When the 
crops are eaten on the farm, and the manure pro- 
duced therefrom is returned to the soil, there is 
established a continued circulation of those ingre- 
dients which would be lost if the crops were re- 
moved and the stock sold. See Soils. 

SALTPETRE (Germ, and Fr. salpelre). See 
Nitrates and Salts. 

SALTWORT (Salsola, from salsus, salt ; in 
allusion to the saline properties of the species). 
A genus of plants which inhabits the sea-coast, 
especially abundant on the coast of the Medi- 
terranean, where they are extensively gathered 
and burnt for the manufacture of barilla and 
soda. See Kelp. 

SALT-MARSH CATERPILLAR. See Ca- 
terpillar. 

SALVING or SMEARING sheep is resorted 
to in various districts, for the purpose of pre- 
serving the fleece from the effects of weather, 
destroying injurious insects, and preventing 
cutaneous diseases. A mixture of damaged 
butter, hog's lard, resin, and Gallipoli oil, is 
found to be the most efllicacious salve. Tar 
stains and spoils the colour of the wool. See 
Sheep. 

SAMPLE. A small quantity of a commodity 
exhibited at public or private sales, as a speci- 
men. Wool, wine, corn, seeds, and indeed 
most species of agricultural produce and mer- 
chandise that can be conveyed in small bulk, 
are sold by sample. If an article be not at an 
average equal to the sample by which it is 
sold, the buyer may cancel the contract, an- 



SAND. 



SASSAFRAS. 



return the article to the seller. {M^CulhcKs 

Com. Diet.) 

SAND (Germ.). Finely divided silicious 
matter constitutes common river and sea-sand : 
particles of other substances are often blended 
with it, and sometimes it becomes calcareous 
from the prevalence of carbonate of lime. 

Sand is often employed as a manure by the 
cultivator of the poor, hungry clays, especially 
if he can obtain calcareous sand. See Earths, 
MixTi'iiE OF Soils. 

SANDWORT. See Chickweed. (Arenaria, 
from arena, sand; referring to the sandy situa- 
tion in which most of the species are found.) 
This is an extensive genus of herbs, of humble 
growth, with numerous slender stems, opposite, 
mostly narrow, entire, undivided leaves, and 
small, white or reddish, inodorous flowers, with 
coloured anthers. This succulent vegetable 
bears a great resemblance to samphire, and 
considerable quantities of it are pickled and 
sold for that plant. 

SANIGLE (Sauirula, from sano, to heal.) 
The wood sanicle (S. Europea) is a mere pe- 
rennial weed, growing in woods and groves 
abundantly, about a foot high, flowering in 
May. 'I'he root is tufted, "Xfith fleshy fibres. 
The leaves are chiefly rr.dical, simple, with 
deeply cleft lobes, veiny, ar.d of a deep shining 
green. Flowers creavr -coloured, in capitate 
umbels, in an irregular, 'wice compound, partly 
umbellate panicle. The herb is bitter, with an 
acrid, somewhat a''omatic pungency. Its re- 
puted vulnerary qualities are no longer be- 
lieved. 

SAP. In b^fa'.y, the fluid which is absorbed 
by the root? from the earth, and undergoes the 
first action of the vital chemistry of the plant, 
is called the sap. It is formed as the absorbed 
fluid ascends upwards into the stem. It is 
afterwards conveyed to the leaves, where it is 
exposed to the influence of light and air, loses 
a large portion of its water, undergoes a che- 
mical change, and, being returned to the 
branches and stem, it is analogous to the blood 
in animals; all the secretions being formed 
from it. Changed in the leaf into proper juice, 
it is assimilated to the various parts of the 
plant. In its crude state it consists of little 
except water, holding earthy and gaseous mat- 
ter in solution, especially carbonic acid; but 
as it rises through the tissue of the stem, it dis- 
solves the secretions it meets with in its course, 
and thus acquires new properties, so that by 
the lime it reaches the leaves it is entirely dif- 
ferent from its state when it first entered the 
root. The course taken by the sap in its pas- 
sage through the stem, is by the whole of the 
tissue included within the bark, provided it is 
all permeable ; but as, in many plants, the 
central part of the stem becomes choked up 
with solid matter deposited in the tissue, it 
usually happens, especially in trees, that the 
course of the sap is confined to the outer part 
of the wood, hence called sapwood. It is not 
certainly known through what kind of tissue 
the upward motion of the sap takes place, but 
it is probable that it is carried onwards through 
all the tubes and vessels of the wood, and their 
intercellular passages. The dotted vessels of 
the wood seem more especially destined to 



fulfil this office when the sap is in rapid mo- 
tion ; but as they afterwards become empty, 
while the ascent of the sap continues, there can 
be no doubt that the woody tubes or pleuren- 
chyma oflFer the most constant means by which 
the sap is conveyed. See Aiburnum. 

SAP-SAGO. A kind of cheese made in 
Switzerland, having a dark olive-green colour 
and agreeable flavour, derived chiefly, if not 
entirely, from the addition of mellilot. See 
Cheese and Zabzieger. 

SAVIN. See Juniper. 

SAW-DUST. The refuse or waste powder 
obtained from saw-pits, after any wood or tim- 
ber has been separated or cut asunder by the 
saw. If fresh oak saw-dust be scattered on 
gravel walks it effectually prevents the growth 
of weeds, and when mixed with blood and 
quicklime it forms an excellent manure for the 
garden. This substance has lately been brought 
prominently into notice as an adjunct to other 
manures. There can be no doubt of its use- 
fulness when made into compost with putres- 
cent manures, saline substances, and organic 
matters. A compost of this kind, which has 
been well mixed and decomposed, and turned 
over with the spade at proper time, will pro- 
duce an excellent crop of turnips. 

SASSAFRAS {Laurus sassafras). This, on 
account of its sensible qualities, and real or 
supposed active medical virtues, was among 
the first American trees which became known 
to Europeans. In the United States, the 
neighbourhood of Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
shire, in latitude 43°, may be assumed as one 
of the extreme points at which it is found 
towards the northeast. But here it is only a 
tall shrub, rarely exceeding 15 or 20 feet in 
height, whilst in the Middle States it attains a 
height of 50 or 60 feet, being still more stately 
farther south. It is found in the Western and ex- 
treme Southern States, and in the low, maritime 
parts of Virginia, of the two Carolinas, and of 
Georgia. The sassafras is observed to grow 
of preference about plantations and in soils 
which have been exhausted by cultivation and 
abandoned. The old trees give birth to hun- 
dreds of shoots which spring from the earth at 
little distances, but which rarely rise higher 
than 6 or 8 feet. Though this tree is common 
on poor land, and blooms and matures its seed 
at the height of 15 or 20 feet, yet it is never of 
very ample dimensions except in fertile soils, 
such as form the declivities which skirt the 
swamps, and such as sustain the luxuriant 
forests of Kentucky and West Tennessee. 
About New York and Philadelphia the sassa- 
fras is in full bloom in the beginning of May, 
and six weeks earlier in South Carolina. The 
wood stripped of its bark is very durable, strong, 
and resists worms, &c. It forms excellent posts 
for gates. Bedsteads made of it are never 
infested with bugs. It is, however, only occa- 
sionally employed for any useful purpose, ana 
never found in the lumber-yards of large towns. 
The pith and dried leaves of the young branches 
of the sassafras contain much mucilage, resem- 
bling that of the okra plant, and are extensiveiy 
used in New Orleans to thicken potage, and 
make the celebrated gumbo soup. In Virginia and 
other Southern States, the inhabitants make a 

979 



SAW-FLIES. 

beer by boiling the young shoots of the sassa- 
fras in water, to which a certain quantity of mo- 
lasses or sugar is added, the whole being left to 
ferment. The beer is regarded as a wholesome 
and pleasant drink during summer. So is an 
infusion of the bark of the roots, which is 
much drunk for the cure of cutaneous and 
other disorders. 

SAW-FLIES. The names of above 60 
species of saw-flies, natives of the United 
States, and found in Massachusetts, are given 
in Dr. Harris's Catalogue. Some of these are 
very interesting in their caterpillar state. One 
of the largest flies is called Cimbex Ulmi, be- 
cause it inhabits the elm. The female of this 
species, at first sight, might be mistaken for the 
iiornet. (The name Cimbex was originally 
given by the Greeks to certain insects resem- 
bling bees and wasps, but not producing honey.) 
The elm saw-fly measures an inch in length, 
the wings expanding about 2 inches. It ap- 
pears in the Eastern States from the last of 
May to the middle of June, during which the 
female lays her eggs upon the common Ameri- 
can elm, the leaves of which serve as food for 
the young caterpillars hatched out. These 
come to their growth in August, and then mea- 
sure from 1^ to 2 inches in length. Like all 
false caterpillars of the genus Cimbex, this in- 
sect, when handled or disturbed, betrays its 
fears or its displeasure by spirting out a watery 
fluid from certain little pores situated on the 
sides of its body just above its spiracles. The 
false caterpillars of other saw-flies prove very 
destructive to pines and other fir trees. They 
crawl down the trees and weave cocoons which 
are concealed in the leaves, «&c. In the follow- 
ing spring the insects burst their chrysalids 
and come forth as winged flies. 

No means, says Dr. Harris, for the destruc- 
tion of the caterpillars of the fir saw-fly have 
been tried here, except showering them with 
soap-suds, and with solutions of whale-oil 
soap, which has been found effectual. They 
may also be shaken off" or beaten from the 
trees, early in the morning, when they are tor- 
pid and easily fall, and may be collected in 
sheets, and be burned or given to swine. For 
other means to check their depredations the 
reader may consult the articles on the pine and 
fir saw-flies of Europe, contained in Kiillar's 
Treatise. 

Dr. Harris has described a kind of saw-fly 
(Sclandriu viiis), which attacks the grape-vine. 
It is of a jet-black colour, except the upper 
part of the thorax, which is red, the legs being 
a pale-yellow or whitish. The body is about 
i of an inch long. The false caterpillars pro- 
ceeding from the eggs of these flies may be 
found in swarms of various ages on the lower 
sides of the leaves, some very small and others 
fully grown. When fully grown they measure 
about fths of an inch in length. The body is 
a light-green, the legs and tip of the tail being 
black. After the first moulting they become 
almost entirely yellow, and then leave the vine 
to burrow in the ground. They come out again 
from their chrysalis state in about a fortnight, 
pair and lay eggs for a second brood. The 
young of the second brood are not transformed 
nto flies until the succeeding spring, remain- 
980 



SAW-FLIES. 

ing in the ground in their cocoons through the 
winter. " For some years previous to the pub- 
lication of my Discourse," says Dr. Harris, " I 
observed that these insects annually increased 
in number, and, in the year 1832, they had be- 
come so numerous and destructive that many 
vines were entirely stripped of their leaves by 
them. Whether the remedies then proposed 
by me, or any other means, have tended to di- 
minish their numbers, or to keep them in check, 
I have not been able to ascertain, and have 
had no further opportunity for making observa- 
tions on the insects themselves. At thai time, 
air-slacked lime, which was found to be fatal 
to these false caterpillars of the vine, was ad- 
vised to be dusted upon them, and strewed also 
upon the ground under the vines, to insure the 
destruction of such of the insects as might 
fall. A solution of one pound of common hard 
soap in five or six gallons of soft water, is used 
by English gardeners to destroy the young of 
the gooseberry saw-fly ; and the same was re- 
commended to be tried upon the insects under 
consideration. 

" All the young of the saw-flies do not so 
closely resemble caterpillars as the preceding; 
some of them, as has already been stated, have 
the form of slugs or naked snails. Of this de- 
scription is the kind called the slug-worm in 
this country, and the slimy grub of the pear 
tree in Europe. So different are these from 
the other false caterpillars, that they would not 
be suspected to belong to the same family. 
Their relationship becomes evident, however, 
when they have finished their transformations; 
and accordingly we find that the saw-flies of 
our slug-worms and those of the vine are so 
much alike in form and structure, that they 
are both included in the same genus. More- 
over, there are certain false caterpillars, inter- 
mediate in their forms and appearance between 
the slimy and slug like kinds and those that 
more nearly resemble the true caterpillars ; 
thus admirably illustrating the truth of the re- 
mark, that nature proceeds not with abrupt or 
unequal steps ; or, in other words, that amidst 
the immense variety of living forms, where- 
with this earth has been peopled, there is a re- 
gular gradation and connection, which, in par- 
ticular cases, if we fail to discover, it is rather 
to be attributed to our own ignorance and 
short-sightedness, than to any want of harmony 
and regularity in the plan of the Creator. In 
considering the resemblances of species, we 
cannot fail to admire the care that has been 
taken, by almost insensible shades of diflfer 
ence among them, or by peculiar circum- 
stances controlling their distribution, their ha- 
bits of life, and their choice of food, to prevent 
them from commingling, whereby each species 
is made to preserve forever its individual 
identity. 

" The saw-fly of the rose, which, as it does 
not seem to have been described before, may 
be called Selandi-ia rosce, from its favourite 
plant, so nearly resembles the slug-worm saw- 
fly as not to be distinguished therefrom except 
by a practised observer. The caterpillars of 
these perform their appointed work of destruc- 
tion in the autumn ; they then go into the 
ground, make their earthen cells, remain there- 



I 



SAW-GRASS. 



SCARIFIER. 



in throughout the winter, and appear, in the 
winged form, in the following spring and 
summer." 

During several years past, these pernicious 
vermin have infested the rose bushes in the 
X'icinity of Boston, and have proved so inju- 
rious to them, as to have excited the attention 
of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, by 
whom a premium of $100, for the most suc- 
cessful mode of destroying these insects, was 
offered, in the summer of 1840. Showering or 
syringing the bushes with a liquor, made by 
mixing with water the juice expressed from 
tobacco by tobacconists, has been recom- 
mended; but some caution is necessary in 
making this mixture of a proper strength, for 
if too strong it is injurious to plants; and the 
experiment does not seem, as yet, to have been 
conducted with sufficient care to insure safety 
and success. Dusting lime over the plants 
when wet with dew has been tried, and found 
of some use; but this and all other remedies 
will probably yield in efficacy to Mr. Hag- 
gerston's mixture of whale-oil soap and water, 
in the proportion of two pounds of the soap to 
fifteen gallons of water. For particular direc- 
tions to us« this, see Aphides. 

For a species of minute saw-fly, destructive 
to the turnip crops in England, see Fit in 
Turnips. 

SAW- GRASS. See Bog-Rush. 

SAXIFRAGE (Saxifraga ; from saxum, a 
stone, and frango, to break; in allusion to its 
reputed medical qualities in that disease). 
This is a very extensive genus of beautiful 
alpine plants, tlie greater part of which are par- 
ticularly suitable for ornamenting rock-work, 
or growing on the sides of naked banks. They 
are all readily increased by seeds or divisions. 
These herbs are, for the most part, perennial, 
various in habit, often in some degree hairy 
and glutinous, with stalked, simple, undivided 
or lobed leaves. Flowers either panicled, 
rarely solitary, on a long naked stalk, or co- 
rymbose at the top of a round leafy stem; 
erect, white, yellow, or purple, frequently spot- 
ted, inodorous. Dr. Darlington describes two 
American species under the names of Virginia 
or Early Saxifrage, and Pennsylvania or Tall 
Saxifrage. Canada and Labrador have some 
species. 

SAXIFRAGE, BURNET. See Burnet. 

SAXIFRAGE, GOLDEN. See Golden Saxi- 

FRABE. 

SCAB. A contagious disease incident to 
sheep, which, like the mange in cattle, horses, 
and dogs, and the itch in the human subject, is 
the effect of certain minute insects belonging 
to the class .Acari ; at least these insects al- 
ways are present in this disease. In the human 
subject the itch insect obtains its food from the 
pustules of the disease. The cure of scab, 
however, is supposed to be in the destruction 
of this insect. Washes, whether infusions of 
tobacco, hellebore, or arsenic, appear to be ob- 
jectionable, and a safer and more effectual 
method of curing the disease and benefiting 
the wool is the application of a mercurial 
ointment. The ointment should be made of 
two strengths. That for bad cases should con- 
sist of common mercurial or Trooper's oint- 



ment, rubbed down with three times its weight 
of lard. The other, for ordinary purposes, 
should contain five parts of lard to one of the 
mercurial ointment. {Youatt on the Sheep, p. 
536.) See Sheep, Diseases of. 

SCABIOUS (Scabiosa, from scabies, the itch ; 
the common kind is said to cure that disorder). 
Some of these plants are well adapted for or- 
namenting the flower-border. The herbaceous 
species are readily increased by division at 
the root, or by seed. The seeds of the annual 
kinds merely require sowing in the open bor- 
der. There are three indigenous species, all 
perennials; viz., the devil's-bit scabious (S, 
succisa), which is common in grassy, rather 
moist pastures, flowering from August to Oc- 
tober (see Devii's-Bit Scabious); the field 
scabious (S. a7-vensis), growing in corn-fields 
and pastures, with a bristly stem a yard high. 
The radical leaves are lanceolate, serrated, 
stalked, the rest pinnatifid and quite sessile. 
The flowers, which appear in July, are large 
and handsome, of a fine pale purple. Sheep 
and goats are said to eat this herb ; but its bitter 
and nauseous flavour is not agreeable to do- 
mestic cattle. The small scabious (S. colum- 
baria) is a less common species, attaining to 
the height of twelve or eighteen inches. The 
leaves and flowers are smaller and more deli- 
cate than the last. 

SCALD CREAM. Provincially, cream 
raised by heat, or clouted cream. See Dairt, 
Milk, Butter, Lactometer, &c. 

SCALLION. See Onion. 

SCAPE. In botan3% a stem rising from the 
roots, more frequently from a rhizome or un- 
derground stem, bearing nothing but the flow- 
ers. The iris is an example. 

SCARIFIER. A tillage implement for stir- 
ring and loosening the soil, without bringing 
up a fresh surface. Under the same head may 
be included the grubber, the cultivator, and the 
scufiler, all of which act on the combined 
principles of plough and harrow at the same 
time. Some of these implements have wheels, 
by the raising or lowering of which the tines 
or prongs may be made to sink more or less 
into the earth. See Harrow. 

Amongst the earliest of the many varieties 
of this implement that I am acquainted with 
(says Mr. J. A. Ransome, in his work upon the 
Implements of Agriculture), is one which the 
late T. Cooke used, attached to the frame- 
work of his drill, the coulters and apparatus 
of which, being removed, gave place to a bar, 
or head, suspended by joints to the axle, on 
which a row of strong tines was fixed. See 
PI. 14, fig. 2. 

On a similar plan to this, but working on a 
plough-carriage, another invention by Robert 
Fuller, a practical farmer of Ipswich, came 
into operation, and worked exceedingly well. 

Biddell's Scarifier and Extirpator (PI. 15, fig. 
3) is held in deservedly high repute in Suffolk 
(where it originated) and the eastern and mivl- 
land counties, where it is now in very general 
use. It is an implement of immense power, 
and well calculated to supersede the extensive 
use of the plough, otherwise indispensable in. 
the cultivation of strong land, and we are in 
clined to believe with better effect. There cau 

981 



SCARIFIER. 

be no question that in a general way a finer 1 
tilth may be obtained with Biddell's scarifier 
than with any plough ; and, for this reason, 
strong and tenacious clays and even many of 
the better loams, though dry at the surface and 
apparently in good order for ploughing, fre- 
quently turn up coarse and " loamy." In the 
early part of the spring, the combined action 
of frost and the atmosphere may probably in 
time efiect what a scarifier would do at once, 
viz., reduce the clods to a comparatively fine 
mould, without which the hope of a good bar- 
ley crop is but slender. There is no reason 
why the process of scarifying should not 
prove equally beneficial to the turnip or any 
other crop. Indeed, some are of opinion that 
what is usually called a stale furrow, in contra- 
distinction to a newly ploughed one, is more 
favourable to the germination and after-growth 
of a plant like the turnip than a sowing on soil 
freshly turned up. 

A great improvement on Fuller's extirpator, 
was F inlay son's Patent Self-cleaning Harrow. PI. 
15, fig. 5. This well-known implement may be 
called the parent of several of the same de- 
scription, which, in improved forms, have snh^ 
sequently come into use. It is formed of iron, 
and, according to the inventor, has the follow- 
ing advantages: — 1. From the position in 
which the tines are fixed, their points (aaaaa) 
hanging nearly on a parallel to the surface of 
the land, it follows, that this implement is 
drawn with the least possible waste of power. 

2. From the curved form of the tines, all stub- 
ble, couch, &c., that the tines may encounter in 
their progress through the soil, is brought to 
the surface, and rolled up to the face of the 
tines ; when it loses its hold, and is thrown off 
(at b b b b b), always relieving itself from be- 
ing choked, however wet or foul the land. 

3. The mode by which this harrow can be so 
easily adjusted to work at any depth required, 
renders it of great value ; this is done as quick 
as thought by moving the regulator (c) upwards 
or downwards between the lateral spring (de); 
and by each movement upwards into the open- 
ings (f g hik), the fore-tines {III I) will be 
allowed to enter the soil about 1^ inch deeper 
by each movement into the difierent spaces, 
until the regulator is thrown up to (e), when 
the harrow is given its greatest power, and 
will then be working at the depth of 8 or 9 
inches. Also the axletree of the hind-wheels 
is moved betwixt o and p, a space of 7 or 8 
inches, by a screw through the axletree, which 
is turned by a small handle (g), so that the 
hind part of the harrow, by this simple mode, 
is also regulated to the depth at which it is 
found necessary to work. 4. When the har- 
row is drawn to the head or foot lands, the re- 
gulator is pressed down to d, and the fore-wheel 
(m) is then allowed to pass under the fore-bar 
(n), by which the nose of the harrow is lifted, 
and the points of the fore-tines {I III) Tvill then 
be taken 2 or 3 inches out of the soil, which 
affords the means of turning the harrow with 
the greatest facility. 5. Being made of malle- 
able iron, its durability may be said to be end- 
'.ess ; whereas, if made of wood, the prime cost 
would be entirely lost at the end of every 5 or 
6 years. Lastly, the mode of working is so 

90« 



SCOURING. 



1 



easy, that any boy of 10 or 12 years of age is 
perfectly qualified to manage it. Next to Wil- 
kie's brake, we consider this the most valuable 
of pronged implements, and think that, like 
Wilkie's implement, it might be substituted for 
the plough, after drilled green or root crops, en 
light soil generally. Some account of the as- 
tonishing powers of the implement, as exem- 
plified in breaking up Hyde Park, London, in 
1826, will be found in the Gardener's Magazine, 
vol. ii. p. 250. 

Wilkie's Parallel Adjusting Brake is very nearly 
allied to the implement last mentioned ; its chief 
improvement consists in the triangular adjust- 
ment of the teeth or prongs, and the facility 
with which they may be completely thrown 
out of work; whereas, with Finlayson's har- 
row this can only be partially done, the hind- 
teeth of the latter still retaining some hold of 
the ground, even though the first row be lifted 
up. This we are aware has been represented 
as an advantage, inasmuch as the slight hold 
retained by the back-row of tines prevents the 
implement from running on the horse's heels, 
when turning at the ends of the stetches on 
hilly ground. We see but little in this as an 
argument in favour of any implement of the 
kind. Indeed, we are rather disposed to give 
the preference to one like Wilkie's brake, 
which, by a parallel movement of the frame in 
which the tines are fixed, can, either at the 
turnings or while in action, be elevated or de- 
pressed en masse. 

Kirkwood^s Grubber in its operation somewhat 
resembles those last described, but is superior 
to them in working. The leverage that is ob- 
tained by pressing on the handles or stilts of 
the machine, whether in action or rest, is so 
simple, and yet so powerful in its efiect, as to 
regulate the depth of the tines to the greatest 
nicety; or, in cases of obstruction, to throw 
them out of work altogether. It is an admira- 
ble implement, and well deserving the high 
commendation which has been bestowed on it. 

SCORE. A term signifying 20 lbs. in speak- 
ing of the weight ofcattle or swine. 

SCORING. A provincial term signifying 
the glossing or making the furrow-slice in 
ploughing or turning land up, by the plough 
acting as a trowel. It is sometimes writtea 
scowering. 

SCORPION-GRASS (Myosotis, from myos, a 
mouse, and otos, an ear ; fancied resemblance 
in the leaves.) All the perennial species of 
this genus are very beautiful, especially the 
well-known Forget-me-not {M.palustris). They 
grow best in moist places, or by the edges of 
ponds or ditches ; they may also be grown in 
pots among alpine plants. The annual species 
like a dry, sandy soil ; most of the perennial 
kinds may be increased by divisions of the 
roots, and all by seeds. Sir J. E. Smith de- 
scribes seven species of scorpion-grass indi- 
genous to England, two of which are annuals, 
the rest perennials. Besides the M. paluslris 
and M. arvensis, there are one or two other spe- 
cies found in the United States. 

SCOTCH FIR. A common but improper 
name for the Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris). 
See Pine and Fib. 

SCOURING. See Purging. 



SCRAP 



SEDGE. 



SCRAPER. See Moumbaht. 

SCUFFLER, An implement of somewhat 
the same kind as the scarifier, but which is 
mostly lighter and employed in working after 
it. See Harrow. 

SCULL-CAP (Scutelhu-ia). There are seve- 
ral species of this plant found in the United 
States. The common hairy scull-cap (S.pilosa) 
has a perennial root, and stem 12 or 18 inches 
high, more or less hairy, and often purplish. 
The flower is a purple-blue colour, and opens 
from June to August. There are several va- 
rieties of this species. The large-flowered or 
entire-leaved scull-cap (S. integrifolia) is dis- 
tinguished for its handsome, large, bluish 
flowers, which bloom in June. It is intensely 
bitter to the taste. The lateral-flowered scull- 
cap {S. laterifolia), has acquired the name of 
mad-dog scull-cap, from its having acquired 
much notoriety some years ago as a supposed 
remedy for hydrophobia. "Like its numerous 
predecessors of the same pretensions," says 
Dr. Darlington, " it had its day of importance 
among the credulous, and then sank into the 
oblivion which necessarily awaits all such 
speaficn." Several other species of scull-cap 
are enumerated in the United States. 

SCURVY-GRASS (Cochlearia). A genus of 
plants of little interest, with the exception of 
horse-radish (C armoracea), and the common 
scurvy-grass (C. officinalis). Besides these 
there are three other indigenous species : the 
Greenland scurvy-grass, the English scurvy- 
grass, and the Danish scurvy-grass. They are 
either annual or biennial herbs, and were once 
celebrated as antiscorbutics, but have lost their 
reputation. The plants are mostly smooth and 
rather succulent, with branched, spreading 
stems, and simple leaves, the radical ones 
stalked and most entire. Flowers white, or 
pale-purplish. 

The common scurvy-grass is cultivated in 
gardens for its leaves. It flourishes best in a 
sandy, moist soil, but will succeed in almost 
any other, especially if abounding in moisture. 
The situation must always be as open as pos- 
sible. It is propagated by seed, which should 
be sown as soon as it is ripe in July or June, 
for if kept from the ground until the spring, 
they will entirely lose their vegetative power, 
or produce plants weak and unproductive. The 
sowing is performed in drills 8 inches apart, 
and half an inch deep. 

SCYTHE. This implement for mowing 
grass has been latterly much used for cutting 
grain crops, and with great success, when it 
has been properly mounted with a rake or 
cradle, and put into expert hands. 

Drummond's iron-handled scythe is consi- 
dered in Scotland very etfective. A good 
mower will cut down with it from an acre and 
a half to two acres in the day, and with this 
scythe he can either cut out from the standing 
corn when upright, or cut in, as he may deem 
the better way at all times. 

The common grass-scythe will cut oats and 
barley also very well when upright, but the 
mower will perceive his inability to lay down 
evenly and at right angles with the standing 
corn, for the convenience of the binders, a 



heavy crop of wheat with this scythe, even if 
furnished with a bow. 

The Hainault or Flemish scythe, the favour- 
ite Belgian implement for severing corn, ap- 
pears to be a very efficient instrument, but 
although all the trials made with it in Scotland 
and England report favourably of it, it has not 
come into use even partially; prejudice and 
the results of habit and custom rendering the 
old sickles, scythes, and reaping-hooks more 
popular. See Hat-Makins, Reaping-Hook, 
Sickle, &c. 

SCYTHE AND CRADLE. The well-known 
American implement called the scythe and era- 
die used in the United States for harvesting 
wheat and all other kinds of small grain, is 
much preferable to the Hainault scythe. The 
cradle is made with 5 long teeth extending the 
full length of the scythe, and bent to the same 
shape. These teeth are generally made of the 
strong and pliant ash, shaved down so as to be 
as light as is consistent with the necessary 
strength. The handle is bent in such a 
manner as contributes greatly to the conve- 
nience of using the implement. It is slowly 
becoming introduced into England. 

SEA-BUCKTHORN. See Sallow-Thokit. 

SEA-HOLLY. See Eryngo. 

SEA-KALE. See Kale. 

SEA-LAVENDER. See Thrift. 

SEA-MUD or OUSE. This rich saline de- 
position from salt-marshes and the sea-shores 
is found to possess very enriching properties, 
and to be a useful addition to the soil where it 
can be obtained in any quantity. See Allu- 
vium, Marsh-Mud, and Waupixg. 

SEAM. A provincial term applied to any 
fatty substance, as tallow, grease, or lard. A 
seam of corn is also a quarter or 8 bushels, and 
a seam of wood a horse-load, or about 3 cwt. 

SEA-MILKWORT {Glnux, from glaukos, 
gray, in allusion to the colour of the leaves). 
The common sea-milkwort, or black salt-wort 
{G.maritima), is in England a pretty little in- 
digenous perennial plant, growing abundantly 
in muddy salt-marshes. 

SEA-SHELL. All marine shells, where they 
can be obtained in sufficient quantity, form a 
durable and lasting addition to the soil. See 
Otster-Shells. 

SEA-WARE. A term frequently applied to 
the weeds thrown up by the sea in many situa- 
tions, and which is collected and made use of 
as manure and for other purposes. It con- 
sists principally of the Querais marina, and var 
rious species of i^wd, and has often the names 
of sea-wrack, ore-weed, sea-tangle, &c. See 
Kelp. 

SECHIUM {Sechium edulis or Siegos edulis). 
A new vegetable from South America; in size 
and form resembling a very large bell-pear; 
the skin smooth, of a pale-green colour; the 
flesh solid. For the table it is prepared in a 
manner similar to the squash, and is stated to 
be of a more delicate flavour. It has but one 
single flat seed, which is larger than a Lima 
bean. A new vegetable, imported by Mr. Buist, 
of Philadelphia, and altogether unlike any thing 
before known or cultivated here. 

SEDGE {Carex, from careo, to want, the upppf 

988 



SEED. 



SENSITIVE PLANT. 



spikes being without seeds). This is a very 
extensive genus, the species of which are un- 
interesting ; part of them are natives of marshy 
situations, while a few thrive on dry, sandy 
eminences ; they seed freely, by which they are 
increased. The roots are, perhaps without ex- 
ception, perennial, mostly creeping; sometimes 
fibrous and tufted only; herbage grassy; stem 
simple, generally with thin, iinely serrated, and 
sharply-cutting angles, without knots or joints. 
Leaves linear, pointed, flat, roughish, with 
similarly cutting edges ; their bases more or 
less tubular and sheathing, membranous at the 
summit, often auricled, the upper ones becom- 
ing bractes. Sir J. E. Smith enumerates and 
describes no less than 62 species of Carices in- 
digenous to Great Britain. There are a great 
many species of sedge found in the United States. 

SEED is the reproductive part of a plant, 
resulting from a change efl!ected in the ovules 
by the process of impregnation: it contains the 
embryo or rudiment of a future plant. 

For the preservation of the seed from insects 
and decomposition, and for food for the em- 
bryo, seeds contain fecula, saccharine, oily, 
and gummy matter within their coverings, and 
sometimes acrid, poisonous principles. In 
their coverings they also contain mucilage, 
oil, both fixed and volatile, and other principles 



■which man makes subservient to his use, either 
as diet or condiments, or for other purposes. 
Seed is a form of reproductive matter peculiar 
to flowering plants, its equivalent in flowerless 
plants being the sporuli. It is commonly and 
very justly remarked, that, as the seed is the 
part intended by nature to multiply the races 
of plants, in this respect it resembles the egg, 
and, like it, long retains its vitality. 

The choice of the seed intended to be sown 
is an object of greater importance than many 
farmers seem to imagine. It is not sufficient 
that the finest grain be chosen for this purpose, 
unless it be likewise clean from weeds. In 
procuring seed, it should be a rule with the 
farmer to purchase or reserve such as is the 
most full, plump, sound, and healthy, whatever 
the kind may be, as it is perhaps only in this 
way that crops of good corn can be insured. 
And this practice is still more obvious from 
the circumstance of its being in some measure 
the same with plants as with animals, that the 
produce is in a degree similar to that from 
which it originated. See Barley, Ghasses, 
Oats, Temperature, Wheat, &c. 

The usual quantity of seed applied per acre 
for the ordinary crops of the English farmer, 
when either broadcast, drilled, or dibbled, is as 
follows : — 



Wheat - 




Time of sowing. 


Broadcast. 


Drill. 


Dibbled. 


September to December 


3^ to 31 bushels. 


2 to 3 bushels. 


11 to 2 bushels. 


Oats - 


- 


February to April 


4 to 6 


31 to 41 


21 to 3 


Barley - 


- 


February to May - 


3 to 4 


21 to 31 




R.ve - - 


- 


August and September - 


21 to 3i 


2 to 3 




Beans - 


- 


November to March 


3 to 4 


21 to 3i 


2 to 3 


Peas - 


- 


January to March 


3i to 4J 


3 to 4 


3 


Titres - 


- 


August to March - 


21 to 3 


2 to 21 




Buckwheat - 


- 


May .... 


2 to 21 


2 




Clover, Red- 


- 


March and April - 


12 to 161b. 


10 to 14 lb. 




, White ^ 

TreP.il 
Red Clover 


Mixedy 
'^ seeds'! 


Do. - - - - 
Do. - - - - 
Do. - - - - 


3 to 4 

2 

2 






Rye Grass 


. 


Do. - 


1 peck 






Turnips 


- 


May to August 


2 to 3 lb. 


11 to 2 lb. 




Mangel-wurzel 


- 


April and May 








Potatoes 


- 


March to June 


- 


20 to 25 bush. 





The quantities here given are those common 
throughout the island. But from the general 
custom in Flanders, and from the extensive 
practice which I have witnessed on the farms 
of Mr. Hewitt Davis and other excellent far- 
mers, I am inclined to think that these quanti- 
ties may be considerably reduced. As in most 
cases it is usual to have on the land many 
more seedling plants than the soil can properly 
mature, thinner sowing has the eff"ect of pro- 
ducing stronger, healthier, and more prolific 
neads ; and I am still inclined to this opinion 
in favour of thinner sowing, notwithstanding I 
am aware that such excellent agriculturists 
as Lords Leicester and Western practise, and 
strongly recommend, thick sowing. 

As to the season for sowing, only general 
directions can be given. It is a highly impor- 
tant subject, much too little attended to in ge- 
neral. In the north of England they are fre- 
quently sowing weeks earlier than in the 
south. 

SEED-LIP. A sort of basket in which the 
sower carries the seed he is about to scatter 
over the ground. 
984 



SEEL. A term provincially applied in Eng- 
land to time or season in respect to crops, as 
hay-seel, or hay-time, and barley-seel, or bar- 
ley-seed time, bark-seel, barking-season, &c. 
It is sometimes written seal. 

SENNA, WILD (Cassia Marylandica). This 
plant, which is abundant in the Middle States, 
is quite ornamental, and often introduced into 
gardens. It has a perennial root and erect 
stem, growing to the height of 3 or 4 feet, and 
branching. The leaves resemble those of the 
imported senna (also a species of cassia), for 
which they are a good substitute, the medical 
properties being nearly similar. Its flowers 
are yellow and in clusters, followed by a seed- 
pod or legume 3 or 4 inches long. 

SENSITIVE PLANT, WILD, commonly 
called Twinkling Cassia (CossiaiJirfi/^iTMs). This 
plant is found in the Middle States, on road- 
sides, &c. Its root is annual, and the stem 
grows 6 to 12 inches long, mostly oblique, 
slender, branching, and rough ish-hairy. It pro- 
duces yellow flowers in August, succeeded by 
seed-pods an inch to an inch and a half long, 
and two or three lines wide. 



SEPTA. 



SHEEP. 



SEPTA. In botany, the partitions which 
divide the interior parts of a fruit. 

SERRATE. A botanical term, implying 
notched, or cut like the teeth of a saw. 

SERVICE TREE (Pyrus). There are in 
England two species of this tree, the wild ser- 
vice tree (P. tonninalis), and the true service 
tree (P. domeslica). Both are indigenous trees, 
often of considerable size, of extremely slow 
growth, and the wood is very hard. The service 
tree is still occasionally to be met with in the 
hedgerows in Kent, and in the wealds of Sussex, 
as also in the north of England and Wales. 
The leaves of the wild service tree are dark- 
green, deciduous, simple, somewhat heart- 
shaped, serrated, seven-lobed, on long stalks. 
Flowers white, numerous, in large, terminal, 
• irymbose, downy panicles. The umbilicated 
fruit, which is not larger than that of the haw- 
t; '1, becomes agreeably acid and wholesome 
; the frost has touched it, or when, like the 
modlar, it has undergone a kind of putrefactive 
fermentation. Ray prefers its flavour to the 
true service, which latter is now become obso- 
lete. See June Berry. 

SESSILE. A botanical term, applied to 
leaves without footstalks, which are seated close 
upon the stem. 

SETACEOUS. In botany, implies shaped 
like bristles. 

SETON. In farriery, a small cord consti- 
tuted of a number of threads laid together and 
passed through the skin by a proper needle, for 
the purpose of keeping open an issue. 

SHALOT orESCALOT (Mliumascalonicum). 
Having a stronger taste than the onion, yet not 
leaving, as it is said, the strong odour on the 
palate which that species of Allium is accus- 
tomed to do, the shalot is often preferred, and 
employed instead, both in culinary prepara- 
tions and for eating in its natural state. Each 
offset of the root will increase if planted in a 
similar manner to its parent. The planting 
may be performed during October or November, 
or early in the spring, as February, March, or 
begitining of April. The first is the best sea- 
son, especially if the soil lies dry, as the bulbs 
become finer; but otherwise the spring is to be 
preferred, for excessive moisture destroys the 
sets. Mr. Henderson supports the practice of 
planting in autumn, and says, " if the smallest 
offsets are employed for planting, they never 
become mouldy in the ground, and are never 
injured by the most intense frosts." They are 
to be planted 6 inches asunder each way, in 
beds not more than 4 feet wide, being usually 
inserted in drills, by the dibble, or with the 
finger and thumb. 

SHAMROCK. The national emblem of 
Ireland. The term " shamrock" seems a ge- 
neral appellation for the trefoils, or three- 
leaved plants. There has been much dispute 
as to what is the true Irish shamrock ; it has 
generally been considered to be the clover or 
Trifolium repens. A writer in the Journal of the 
Royal List. No. 3, advances abundant testimony 
in proof of the wood-sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) 
being the true shamrock. 

SHARE OF A PLOUGH. That part which 
eats or breaks the ground. See Plough. 
124 



SHAW. A country term applied to a wood 
that encompasses a close. 

SHEARING OF SHEEP. The cperation 
of cutting off the fleece or coat of wool with a 
pair of shears. 

This is performed in different ways, but the 
best mode is that of the circular or round the 
sheep, instead of the longitudinal, which is 
now mostly in use in Britain. Shearing is 
usually performed about June or July, accord- 
ing to situation and season, but should not be 
done either too early or be too long protracted, 
as injury and inconvenience may attend either 
extreme. A good clipper is capable of clipping 
from 14 or 15 to 20 or 25 sheep in the day, and 
more are frequently done by very expert per- 
sons. Great care should be taken not to cut or 
prick the animals ; but where this accident 
happens, in the northern parts of the kingdom, 
they touch the part with a little tar or sheep- 
salve ; and in Sweden it is often done with train- 
oil and resin melted together. After shearing, 
the sheep should be turned into a warm, dry 
pasture. See Sheep. 

SHEARLING. The name given to a sheep 
that has been once shorn. 

SHEARS. A name applied to some instru- 
ments employed in agriculture. The shears 
used for sheep-shearing are of very ancient 
origin: they were termed /or/ex by the Romans; 
and it appears that no improvement has been 
made on the instrument. In a collection of 
antique gems at Berlin, called the Stosch col- 
lection, is a gem bearing a representation of a 
newly shorn sheep, and the shears, which are 
exactly the same as those now used. Shears 
are also employed for clipping hedges. 

SHEATH. In botany, the lower part of the 
leaf that surrounds the stem. 

SHEEP (Ovis aries, nat. ord. Ruminantia). Of 
the original breed of this invaluable animal, 
which is in modern English farming almost 
equally important for furnishing the farmer 
with a dressing of manure, and the community 
at large with mutton, clothing, and other almost 
necessaries of life, nothing certain is known. 
Several varieties of wild sheep have, bv natu- 
ralists, been considered entitled to the distinc- 
tion of being considered the parent stock. Of 
these are, 1. The musmon (O. Musimon), still 
found wild in the mountains of the larger 
islands of the Mediterranean and in European 
Turkey. 2. The argali (0. Jmmon), or wild 
Asiatic sheep, which are the tenants of the 
highest mountains of central Asia, and the 
elevated, inhospitable plains of its northern 
portions. 3. The Rocky Mountain sheep (O. 
montana), which is found on the mountains of 
North America ; and, 4. The bearded sheep of 
Africa (O. tragelaphus), found in the high lands 
of Egypt, and in Barbary. It is doubtful 
whether sheep are indigenous to Britain, but 
they are mentioned as existing there at very 
early periods. The Romans established a 
woollen manufactory at Winchester, at which 
city the first guild o( fullers was established. 
The natural habits of the sheep attach it to the 
highest ground, to the upland slopes, where 
the heath and other aromatic plants abound. 
Nature never intended this ani-nal to occupy 
4 985 



SHEEP. 



SHEEP. 



the deep alluvial turnip lands of our rich 
arable farms, or to consume the succulent 
grasses of our water-meadows: every shepherd 
is aware that their natural instinct, after being 
for ages domesticated, still leads them invaria- 
bly to the elevated portions of the field in which 
they are placed. All these facts tell the farmer 
in very intelligible language that it is change 
of food, of pasturage, and, if possible, the giving 
them occasionally aromatic food, that will best 
conduce to the prosperity of his tiock. With 
this view parsley has been successfully culti- 
vated. Then, again, the wild sheep are found 
to frequent all those places where saline exu- 
dations are to be found. In common with the 
deer and other ruminating animals, they lick 
the salt clay of some of the American uplands 
to such an extent, that these places are denomi- 
nated licks. Some of the most skilful of the 
English flock-masters never allow their sheep 
to be without salt. The female sheep goes 
with young twenty-one weeks, produces one, 
and rarely more than two at a birth ; her milk 
3'ields abundance of strong-tasted cheese, but 
a very limited quantity of cream. The sheep, 
in temperate climates, is clothed with wool, 
which is annually renewed, but in warmer 
countries the animal is furnished with hair. 
In its wild slate it has generally horns, but 
these have nearly disappeared in most of the 
breeds of domestic sheep. The domesticated 
sheep is known in England by different names, 
according to its age or sex. " The male," says 
Mr. Youatt, "is called a rnwi or <t/;p. While with 
his mother he is denominated a <?«/>, or ram lamb, 
a heeder, and in some parts of the west of Eng- 
land a pur lamb. From the time of weaning 
until he is shorn he has a variety of names ; 
being called a hog, a hogget, a hoggerel, a lamb 
hog, a tup hog, or a teg ; and, if castrated, a 
wether hog. After shearing, when probably he 
is a year and a half old, he is called a shearing, 
a shearling, a shear hog, a diamond, or dinmont 
ram or tup, and a shearling wether when cas- 
trated. After the second shearing he is a two- 
shear ram or tup or wether ; at the expiration of 
another year he is a three-shear ram, &c., the 
name always taking its date from the time of 
shearing. In many parts of the north of Eng- 
land and Scotland he is a tup lamb, after he is 
aalved and until he is shorn, and then a.tup hog, 
and alter that a tup, or if castrated, a dinmont or 
wedder. The female is a ewe or gimmer lamb 
until weaned, and then a gimmer hog or ewe hog, 
c>r teg, or sheedcr ewe. After being shorn she is 
a shearing ewe or gimmer, sometimes a theave or 
double-toothed ewe, or teg; and afterwards a. two- 
shear or three-shear, or a four or six-tooth ewe or 
theave. In some of the northern districts, ewes 
that are barren or that have weaned their 
lambs are called eild or yeld ewes." (_Youatt on 
Sheet), p. 2.) 

The teeth of the sheep are in number the 
«ame as those of the ox, viz., eight incisor or 
i:utting-teeth in the lower jaw, and six molar 
leeth on each side, and in each jaw. 

When the lamb is born he has either no in- 
cisor teeth or only two, but before he is a month 
old he has eight. The two central teeth of 
these are shed, and again at two years old at- 
986 



tain their full growth : when between two and 
three years of age, the two next incisors are 
shed ; at three years old, the four central teeth 
are fully grown ; at four, he has six complete 
teeth. That the primitive breed of sheep were 
horned, we have direct evidence. (Gen. xxii. 
13; Joshua vi.6.) Immense flocks of this ani- 
mal have in all ages of the world been kept by 
man, but more universally for their wool and 
skins than for their flesh : for that is yet to 
many nations by no means a favourite meal. 
The Calmucs and Cossacks still prefer that 
of the horse and the camel ; the Spaniard who 
can procure other flesh rarely eats that of the 
Merino ; to many North Americans it is still 
an object of dislike. Englishmen, perhaps, 
consume more mutton than the people of any 
other country, but the taste for this is certainly 
of modern origin. It has rapidly extended, as 
better breeds and sweeter kinds of mutton have 
been produced. 

My limits will not allow me to describe the 
great variety of breeds of sheep which belong 
to various countries ; I shall, therefore, con- 
fine myself to a brief notice of those which 
tenant the British islands, referring those of 
my readers who need further information on 
the valuable work of Professor Youatt On the 
Sheep, and to Professor Low's Illustrations of 
the Breeds of Domestic. Animals, from whence 
this article is chiefly taken ; there is also an 
excellent essay upon the sheep by Mr. EUmaa 
in Baxter's Library of Agricultural Knowledge, 

Class I. — Sheep without Horns. 

TTie new Leicester Sheep, says Mr. Youatt, 
which comprehends the most excellent of 
Bakewell's own breed, and of Culley's variety 
or improvement on it, is precisely the form for 
a sheep provided with plenty of good food, and 
without any great distance to travel or exertion 
to make in gathering it. It should have a head 
hornless, long, small, tapering towards the 
muzzle. Ej^es prominent, with a quiet expres- 
sion ; ears thin, rather long, directed back- 
wards ; neck full and broad at its base, gradu- 
ally tapering towards the head, particularly 
bare at the junction with the head ; the neck 
seeming to project straight from the chest, so 
that there is, with the slightest possible devia- 
tion, one continued horizontal line from the 
rump to the pole. The breast broad and full ; 
the shoulders broad and round, no uneven or 
angular formation, no rising of the withers, no 
hollow behind the situation of these bones. 
The arm fleshy throughout, even down to the 
knee. The bones of the leg small, standing 
wide apart, no looseness of skin about them, 
and comparatively bare of wool. The chest 
and barrel deep and round; the ribs forming a 
considerable arch from the spine ; the barrel 
ribbed well home ; the carcase gradually dimi- 
nishing in width towards the rump ; the quar- 
ters long and full ; the legs of a moderate 
length; the pelt moderately thin, soft, and elas- 
tic, covered with a good quantity of white wool, 
not so long as in some breeds, but considerably 
finer. The principal recommendations of this 
breed are its beauty, and its fulness of form ; 
in the same apparent dimensions greater 
weight than any other sheep ; an early matu- 



SHEEP. 



SHEEP. 



rity and a propensity to fatten, equalled by no 
other breed; a diminution in the proportion of 
offal, and the return of most money for the 
quantity of food consumed. (Culley on Live- 
stock ,• Marshall's Midland Counties ; Youalt on 
Sheep, p. 111.) 

For Bakevvell's views, when engaged in im- 
proving sheep, see Dishlet Breed. 

The Tecswater Sheep was bred originally on 
the banks of the Tees ; it came from the stock 
of the old Lincolnshire, and, like them, it is 
nearly extinct. It was a tall, clumsy animal, 
polled, and with while face and legs ; they 
were crossed by the Dishley sheep, because a 
smaller and a better breed, and few traces are 
now to be found. 

The Lincolnshire Sheep. — Culley described the 
old breed of Lincolnshire sheep, half a century 
since, as having "no horns," white faces, long, 
tliin, and weak carcasses ; the ewes weighing 
from 14 to 20 lbs. per quarter, the three year 
old wethers from 20 to 30 lbs ; thick, rough, 
white legs, large bones, thick pelts, and long 
wool, from 10 to 18 inches, and weighing from 
8 to 14 lbs. per fleece, and covering a slow- 
feeding, coarse-grained carcase of mutton. Cul- 
ley, however, ran into the opposite extreme; 
if the Lincolnshire farmers bred only for the 
wool, he regarded only the mutton. A cross 
between the two produced a very profitable 
and much improved animal. 

The Colswold Sheep have been long celebrated 
for tlie fineness of their wool. In 1467, a flock 
of these sheep were carried into Spain by 
license from Edward IV. Gervas Markham, 
in the time of Queen Elizabeth, describes them 
" as long-woolled and large-boned breed." Few 
of the original Gotswold breed, however, now 
remain ; they have been gradually improved 
by crossing with the Leicester sheep, and it is 
this half-bred Cotswold and Leicester which 
now chiefly tenants the Gloucestershire and 
Worcestershire farms. The old Cotswold 
sheep are described by Mr. Youatt, as being 
taller and longer than the improved breed, 
comparatively flat-sided, deficient in the fore- 
quarter, but full in the hind-quarter, not fatten- 
ing so earl}', but yielding a longer and heavier 
fleece. (Youatt on Sheep, Tp.SiO.) The mutton 
of this breed is well described by Mr. Ellman, 
as fine-grained and full-sized, but capable of 
great improvement by proper crossing. " The 
Cotswold," he adds, "differ from the South 
Down in several particulars ; the skin of the 
Cotswold is much thicker than the South Down; 
the head long and thin ; ears wide and not too 
thin, having no wool but a tuft on the poll; 
wool below the hock considered objectionable. 
On the Colswold they never allow two rams to 
run together." He thinks twin ewes have 
much more to do with getting twins than twin 
rams ; both, however, should be attended to, as 
well as a still more important particular, their 
keep. {Baxter's Lib, of Agr.) 

The Dartmoor Sheep. — "The short or rather 
middle-wooUed sheep of Devonshire," says Mr. 
Youatt, "a few of which are still seen in South 
Devon, and on the greater part of the hills in 
the northern district, but most numerously on 
the forests of Dartmoor and Exmoor, are every- 
where of nearly the same character, and betray 



on a smaller scale a great aflSnity with th» 
Dorsets ; have white faces and legs ; some 
with and some without horns ; small in the 
head and neck, and generally small-boned; 
carcase narrow and flat-sided, weighing when 
fat from 9 to 12 lbs. per quarter; the fleece 3 
or 4 lbs. in weight in the yolk ; wool short, 
with a coarse and hairy top." 

The South Down Sheep. — The remarks of Mr. 
Ellman of Glynde, in Sussex, who has done 
more than any one to improve the race of 
South Down, are so practical and clear, that 
what he has done so well it is useless to give 
in any other language; he says, when speak- 
ing of this valuable breed, " the head should be 
neither too long nor too short, the lip thin, the 
neck neither too long nor too short, but thin next 
the head, and tapering towards the shoulders. 
South Down breeders object to a long, thin 
neck; it denotes delicacy. The breast should 
be wide and deep, projecting forward before 
the fore-legs ; this indicates a good constitu- 
tion, and disposition to feed. The shoulders 
should not be too wide between the plate-bones, 
but on a level with the chine; if the shoulder- 
blades are wide on the top, the animal generally 
drops behind the shoulders. The chine should 
be low and straight from the shoulders to the 
tail; the ribs should project horizontally from 
the chine, for the animal will then lay its meat 
on the prime parts ; the sides high and paral- 
lel ; the rump long and broad; the tail set on 
high, and nearly on a level with the chine ; the 
hips wide ; the ribs circular, and barrel-shaped ; 
the legs neither very long nor very short; the 
bones moderately fine." (Baxter's Lib. of Jgr 
p. 570.) 

Romney Marsh Sheep. — Towards the begin- 
ning of this century, Mr. Price described "the 
pure Romney Marsh bred sheep as distin 
guished by thickness and length of head, a 
broad forehead with a tuft of wool upon it, a 
long and thick neck, and carcase flat-sided ; 
chine sharp, tolerably wide on the loins, breast 
narrow and not deep, and the fore-quarter not 
heavy nor full ; the thigh full and broad, the 
belly large; the tail thick, long, and coarse, the 
legs thick, feet large, the muscle coarse, bone 
large. Wool long and not fine ; have much 
internal fat, much hardihood ; requiring no 
artificial food during the hardest winter, ex- 
cept a little hay." (Youatt on Sheep, p. 334.) 
With all these good properties, however, the 
old Romney Marsh sheep has been nearly obli- 
terated by occasional crossings with the Lei- 
cester sheep ; which, by judicious management 
(taking care not to render the breed too tender 
by the introduction of too much of the Leices- 
ter), has produced a sheep possessing sufficient 
hardiness for these bleak marshes, yet produc- 
ing more symmetry of form, with earlier ma- 
turity, and greater propensity to fatten. 

The Cheviot Sheep are a peculiar breed, which 
are kept on the extensive range of the Cheviot 
Hills. They are described as having " the 
face and legs generally white ; the eye lively 
and prominent ; the countenance open and 
pleasing; the ear large, and with a long space 
from the ear to the eye ; the body long ; and 
hence they are called ' long sheep,' in distinc- 
tion from the black-faced breed. They are full 

987 



SHEEP. 



SHEEP. 



behind the shoulder, have a long, straight back, 
are round in the rib, and well-proportioned in 
the quarters ; the legs clean and small-boned, 
and the pelt thin, but thickly covered with fine, 
short wool: they possess very considerable 
fattening qualities, and can endure much hard- 
ship, both from starvation and cold. He is fit 
for the butcher at three years old, and at two 
when crossed with the Leicester." {Youatt on 
Sheep, p. 285 ; " On crossing the Mountain and 
Cheviot Sheep," by Mr. Hogg, Quart. Journ. 
Jgy. vol. i. p. 175.) 

Class II. HoRNEn Shkep. 

The Dorset Slieep. — " Most of these," says Mr. 
Youatt, "at least of the pure breed, are entirely 
white ; the face is long and broad, and there is 
a tuft of wool on the forehead; the shoulders 
low and broad; the back straight; the chest 
deep ; the loins broad ; the legs rather beyond 
a moderate length, and the bone small. They 
are, as their form would indicate, a hardy and 
useful breed. They are good folding sheep ; 
their mutton well-flavoured, averaging, when 3 
years old, from 16 to 20 pounds a quarter. 
Their principal distinction and value is the 
forwardness of the ewes, who take the ram at 
a much earlier period of the year than any 
other species, and thus supply the market with 
lamb at the time when it fetches the highest 
price. These sheep are principally bred within 
a circle of 12 miles round Dorchester, where a 
considerable quantity of house lamb for the 
London market is produced. In other parts of 
Dorset the South Down breed prevails; ex- 
cept in Portland and on poor, sandy, heath soils 
near Warebone and Poole, where a poor small- 
horned breed prevails, with black muzzles, well 
adapted for this locality. Their meat is tender." 

The Norfolk Sheep. — "A peculiar variety of 
heath sheep," says Mr. Youatt, "has been found 
in the localities of Norfolk and SuflSolk from 
lime immemorial. The carcass was long and 
slender; legs long; face and legs black or 
mottled ; face long and thin ; the countenance 
lively and expressive of mingled timidity and 
wildness: taken altogether, there was more re- 
semblance to the deer in the Norfolk sheep 
than has been observed in any other species. 
They were attempted to be improved by being 
crossed with the South Downs ; but at length 
the pure South Down was generally preferred 
to the pure Norfolk, and, in consequence, the 
i-ace is now nearly extinct." 

The Merino Sheep. — This celebrated breed are, 
in Spain, divided into the estantes, or stationary, 
and the transhumantes, or migratory. The first 
are those which remain during the year in one 
place or farm : the last travel some hundred 
miles every year in search of pasture. They 
are thus dei;cribed by Mr. Low in his excellent 
Illustr<ttions of the Breeds of Domestic Animals. 

"The stationary sheep consist partly of the 
larger sheep of the lower country, partly of 
mixed races, and partly of pure Merinos, which 
do not differ in any respect from the migratory 
sheep of that name, except in the method of 
treatment. The stationary Merinoes are reared 
where the district or farm affords them suffi- 
cient food during the whole season. They are 
most numerous in the central countries, where 
tJje pastures are less apt to be scorched by the 
988 



heats of the summer, as in Segovia, and the 
mountain ranges to north of Madrid. 

" The migratory sheep have been reckoned 
to amount to ten millions, which is probably 
equal to half the whole number of the sheep 
of Spain. They may be divided into two 
great bodies: those which are to pass further 
to the eastward, to Soria, or even beyond the 
Ebro. These vast hordes of sheep break up 
from their winter cantonments, south of the 
Guardina, about the 15th of April, and proceed 
chiefly northward. The rams having been ad- 
mitted to the ewes in the month of July, the 
lambs are born in November. In the course 
of their journey northward, they are shorn in 
large buildings erected for that purpose. The 
western, or Leonese division, crosses the Tagus 
at Almaray. The eastern, or Sorian division, 
crosses the same river further to the eastward, 
at Talavera. and in its course approaches the 
city of Madrid. Having reached their desti- 
nation, they are pastured until the end of Sep- 
tember, when they recommence their journey 
southward. Each of these journeys, of seve- 
ral miles in length, occupies about 6 weeks in 
travelling. The older sheep, it is said, when 
April arrives, know the time of setting ofl^, and 
are impatient to be gone. In the ten or twelve 
latter days, increased vigilance is required, on 
the part of the shepherds, lest the sheep should 
break out. Some of them do so, and pursue 
their accustomed route, often reaching their 
former year's pastures, where they are found 
when the main body arrives ; but, for the most 
part, these stragglers are carried off by wolves, 
which abound along the course which the mi- 
gratory flocks pursue. 

"These migratory sheep are divided into 
flocks of a thousand or more, each under the 
charge of its own mayoral, or chief shepherd, 
who has a sufficient number of assistants 
under his command. It is his province to di- 
rect all the details of the journey. He goes in 
advance of the flock ; the others follow with 
their dogs, to collect the stragglers, and keep 
ofl!" the wolves, which prowl in the distance, 
migrating with the flock. A few mules or 
asses accompany the cavalcade, carrying the 
simple necessaries of the shepherds, and the 
materials for forming the nightly folds. In 
these folds the sheep are penned throughout 
the night, surrounded by the faithful dogs, 
which give notice of the approach of danger. 

" When the sheep arrive at the esquiicos, or 
shearing-houses, which is in the early part of 
their journey northward, a sufficient number 
of shearers are in attendance to shear a thou- 
sand or more in one day. The esquiicos con- 
sist of two large, rude rooms, and a low, narrow 
hut adjoining, termed the sweating-house. The 
sheep are driven into one of the large rooms, 
and such of them as are to be shorn on the fol- 
lowing day are forced into the long, narrow 
hut as close as it can be packed, where they 
are kept all night. They undergo in this state 
a great perspiration, the effect of which is to 
soften the hardened unctuous matter which has 
collected on the fleece. They are then shorn 
without a previous washing, and the wool is 
left in the esquiicos, where it is sorted, and 
made ready for sale. By this arrangement 



SHEEP. 



SHEEP. 



JOOO sheep, jr more, are shorn with only the 
delay of a day. 

" The shepherds employed in tending these 
sheep amount to 50,000, which, supposing there 
to be 10,000,000 of sheep, is at the rate of 
200 to each shepherd. The number of dogs is 
calculated at 30,000. These shepherds form a 
peculiar class of men, strongly attached to 
their pursuit, and living in a state of great sim- 
plicity. Their food is chiefly black bread, oil, 
and garlic. They eat the mutton of their sheep 
when they die or meet with accidents. In tra- 
velling they sleep on the ground, wrapping 
themselves in their cloaks; and in winter they 
construct rude huts to afford shelter. They 
seldom, it is said, marry, or change their calling. 

"The whole of this extraordinary system is 
regulated by a set of laws ; and an especial 
tribunal, termed the mesta, exists for the pro- 
tection of the privileges of the parties having 
the right of way and pasturage. These par- 
ties claim the right of pasturage on all the open 
and common land that lies in their way, a 
path of 90 paces wide through the enclosed and 
cultivaied countr)', and various rights and im- 
munities connected with the pasturage of the 
flocks. The system is opposed to the true in- 
terests of Spain. A change of pasture may be 
required for the flocks in the drier countries at 
ertain seasons, but the periodical migration 
of so vast a body of sheep cannot be necessa- 
ry to the extent to which it takes place. Enor- 
mous abuses are committed on the cultivated 
country as they pass along. A fourth part of 
the year consumed in travelling must be pre- 
judicial to the health of the animals in a 
greater degree than the benefits they derive 
from a change of pasturage. A prodigious 
mortality accordingly takes place among these 
sheep ; and more than half the lambs are vo- 
luntarily killed, in order that the others may be 
brought to maturity. The sale of the lamb- 
skins, which form a subject of export to other 
countries, is indeed a source of profit, but no- 
thing equal to what the rearing of the animals 
to their state of maturity would produce. That 
these extensive migrations are necessary to 
preserve the fineness of the wool is conceived 
to be an error. Attention to breeding and rear- 
ing would more certainly produce this effect 
than a violent change of place. In Spain 
itself there are numerous flocks of stationary 
Merinos, whose wool is of all the fineness re- 
quired; and in other countries of Europe, 
where the sheep are never moved off the farms 
that produce them, wool is produced superior 
to that of the migratory flocks of Spain. The 
.system is of great antiquity, and is so riveted 
in the habits of this ignorant and intractable 
people, that it is likely to be one of the last of 
those ancient abuses which will yield to the de- 
sire of change which at this moment agitates 
the feelings of men in this distracted country. 
The Spaniards long preserved the monopoly of 
this race of sheep with jealous care; but other 
countries at length were able to carry off the 
Golden Fleece of Spain, and the Merino race 
is now spread over a great part of Europe. 

" The Merino breed, which had extended to 
so many countries, was at a period more recent 
introduced into the British Islands. George 



HI., a zealous and patriotic agriculturist, re- 
solved to make a trial of this celebrated breed 
on his own farms, and means were taken to 
obtain a small Merino flock. This was done 
clandestinely ; the animals were selected from 
the flocks of different individuals where they 
could best be got ; were driven through Portu- 
gal, and embarked at Lisbon. They were 
safely landed at Portsmouth, and conducted to 
the king's farm at Kew. The flock was bad ; 
the selection had been carelessly or ignorantly 
made ; and the animals being taken from dif- 
ferent flocks, presented no uniformity of cha- 
racters. It was then resolved to make direct 
application to the Spanish government for per- 
mission to export some sheep from the best 
flocks. The request was at once complied 
with; a small and choice flock was presented 
to his majesty, by the Marchioness del Campo 
di Alange, of the Negreiti flocks, esteemed to 
be the most valuable in Spain; and in return 
his majesty presented to the Marchioness eight 
splendid coach horses. This flock arrived in 
England in 1791, and was immediately trans- 
ferred to the royal farms, while all those previ- 
ously imported were disposed of or destroyed. 

" On the first change of these sheep to the 
moist and luxuriant pastures of England, they 
suffered greatly from diseases, and, above all, 
the rot, which destroyed numbers of them ; and 
from foot-rot, which affected them to a grievous 
extent. By a little change of pastures these 
evils were remedied; and, after the first season, 
the survivors became reconciled to their new 
situation, and their progeny seemed thoroughly 
naturalized, and remained as free from diseases 
as the sheep of the country. The wool was 
from year to year carefully examined ; that of 
the original stock remained unaffected by the 
change of climate, while in that of their de- 
scendants little degeneracy could be detected 
either in its felting propensities or its fine- 
ness. 

"The most distinguished breeders of Merinos 
at this time in England are Lord Western and 
Mr. Bennet, M. P. for Wiltshire. Lord West- 
ern's stock is either Saxon, or has been crossed 
by Saxon rams ; Mr. Bennet's is pure Spanish, 
and has undergone progressive improvement 
by selection of individuals of the same blood. 
The number of his flock amounted at one time 
to 7000 ; it was subsequently reduced to 3500. 
It was treated in the ordinary manner of sheep 
in England. Lord Western's, it is believed, 
is managed more in the Saxon manner, with 
respect to protection from the weather. Mr. 
Bennet's fine flock, notwithstanding it had been 
thus acclimated, perished in great numbers in 
a severe winter some years ago, proving that 
the race had not yet lived sufficiently long in 
England to be perfectly inured to its cold and 
variable climate. Other gentlemen have im- 
ported Merinos direct from Saxony, and thus 
obtained at once the highest perfection of the 
fleece ; but there is little reason to believe that 
their experiments will be more successful than 
those previously made. Merinos have lately 
been carried in some numbers to Ireland, and 
may perhaps prove more advantageous than 
some of the existing breeds ; but this will not 
show the great value of the Merinos, but »>he 
4 o 2 9S9 



SHEEP. 



SHEEP. 



comparatively little value of the races which 
they have supplanted." 

The first impression (says Mr. Youatt) made 
by the Merino sheep on one unacquainted with 
its value would be unfavourable. The wool, 
lying closer and thicker over the body than in 
most other breeds of sheep, and being abun- 
dant in yolk, is covered with a dirty crust, often 
full of cracks. The legs are long, yet small in 
the bone ; the breast and the back are narrow, 
and the sides somewhat flat ; the fore-shoulders 
and bosoms are heavy, and too much of their 
weight is carried on the coarser parts. The 
horns, of the male are comparatively large, 
curved, and with more or less of a spiral form. 
The head is large, but the forehead rather low. 
A few of the females are horned, but, gene- 
rally speaking, they are without horns. Both 
male and female have a peculiar coarse and 
unsightly growth of hair on the forehead and 
cheeks, which the careful flock-master cuts 
away before shearing-time : the other part of 
the face has a pleasing and characteristic vel- 
vet appearance. Under the throat there is a 
singular looseness of skin, which gives them 
a remarkable appearance of throatiness, or 
hollowness in the pile: the pile, when pressed 
upon, is hard and unyielding ; it is so from the 
thickness wilh which it grows upon the pelt, 
and the abundance of the yolk detaining all 
the dirt and gravel which falls upon it; but, 
when examined, the fibre exceeds in fineness, 
and in the number of serrations and curves, 
that which any other sheep in the world pro- 
duces. The average weight of the fleece in 
Spain is 8 pounds from the ram and 5 from the 
ewe : when fatted, these sheep weigh from 12 
to 16 pounds per quarter. The excellence of 
the Merino consists in the fineness and felting 
quality of their wool, and the weight yielded 
by each sheep; the ease with which they adapt 
themselves to the climate, the readiness with 
which they take to the coarsest food, their gen- 
tleness and tractableness. Their defects are 
their unprofitable and unthrifty form, voracity 
of appetite, a tendency to barrenness, neglect 
of their young, and inferior flavour of- the 
mutton. (On Shccjy, p. 148 ; Dr. Parry on the 
Merino sheep. Com. Board of jlgr. vol. v. p. 337 ; 
Sir Joseph Banks on ditto, Ibid. vol. vi. p. 269 ; 
Mr. Downie on ditto. Ibid. vol. vii. p. 61.) 

The Irish Sheep have been much improved by 
the importation of English rams. CuUey de- 
scribes them as ugly and ill-formed. Bodies 
large. Legs long, thick, crooked, and of a gray 
colour. Faces gray. Heads long, large flag- 
ging ears, sunken eyes. Neck long, and set 
on below the shoulders. Breast narrow, short, 
and hollow; flat-sided. 

The Shetlatid Sheep are described by Mr. Wil- 
son (Quart. Jour. Jgr. vol. ii. p. 557) as small 
and handsome ; hornless, seldom exceeding 40 
ponnds in weight ; hardy, feeding on even sea- 
weed : wool soft and cottony. 

The Hebridean Sheep is described by Mr. Wil- 
son as the smallest of its kind. Shape thin 
and lank. Face and legs white. Tail short. 
Wool of various colours, bluish-gray, brown, 
or deep russet. Even when fat, this sheep 
weighs only 20 pounds: the wool rarely weighs 
«ore than 1 pound. 
990 



With regard to the profitable management 
of sheep, it is only possible to offer general 
suggestions to assist the farmer. I have alluded 
already to the advantages of varying the food 
of sheep, and I shall refer at the end of this 
article to various important testimonials in 
favour of the superior profit derived from 
keeping sheep dry and warm. In every case 
they should have access to dry food, and, if 
possible, occasionally to those lands where 
heath and other plants which are indigenous to 
upland soils are to be found : in all cases, too, 
they should have access to common salt. 

The importance of salt to the general health 
of sheep is now, in fact, generally admitted. 
Every farmer observes that his cattle, horses, 
&c., are remarkably fond of licking the salt 
earth of the farm-yard, stables, &c. In Spain, 
they give their sheep salt with great regularity: 
1 12 lb. in 5 months to 1000 sheep. I subjoin 
the statement of the late Mr. Curwen. He 
employed salt to his live-stock daily for years : 
For horses he gave - - 6 oz. per day. 

Milch cows - - - 4 

Feeding oxen - - - 6 

Yearlings - - - 3 

Calves - . - - 1 

Sheep - . . . 2 to 4 per week, 

if on dry pastures ; but if they are feeding on 
turnips or coles, then they should have it with- 
out stint. Some give it to the live-stock on a 
slate or stone, some lay lumps of it in the cribs i 
or mangers. It is an asserted fact, that if sheep ' 
are allowed free access to salt, they will never be 
subject to the disease called the rot. Some recent 
experiments also lead me even to hope that I 
shall one day or other be able to prove it to be 
a cure for this devastating disease. I have 
room but for one fact. " Mr. Rusher, of Stan- 
ley, in Gloucestershire, in the autumn of 1828, 
purchased, for a mere trifle, 20 sheep decidedly 
rotten; and gave each of them, for some weeks, 
an ounce of salt every morning. Two only 
died during the winter; the surviving 18 were 
cured, and have now," says my informant, 
" lambs by their sides." 

The late Mr. Butcher, of Brook Hall, in Es- 
sex, for years employed salt for his cattle and 
sheep on his farm near Burnham, in Norfolk. 
One of his fields was so very unfavourable for 
sheep, that before he used salt he had lost 10 
and 12 sheep in a night, when feeding on the 
turnips ; but after he had adopted salt, he 
never lost one. He used to let the sheep have 
the salt without stint; and he remarked, that 
the sheep always consumed four times the salt 
on this particular field than when feeding on any 
other on the farm. Mr. Butcher one year let 
this field of turnips to a neighbour, who did 
not use salt ; and consequently, after losing 
10 sheep the first night, gave up the field in 
despair. 

There are several points in the management 
of sheep to which I can only briefly allude. 
Coupling the male and female is too rarely at- 
tended to ; and yet, by an attention to this im- 
portant point, properties are added in one sex 
which may be deficient in the other ; but extreme 
care is necessary in arranging this, not to in- 
troduce other points which may be still more 
objectionable than those attempted to be re- 
moved. Mr. EUman is of opinion that twii^ 



SHEEP. 



SHEEP. 



getting is hereditary: "Experience," he says, 
"has satisfied me that a ram which may be a 
twin would get double the number of twin 
lambs than other rams." He advises that, just 
previous to lambing-time, the ewes should not 
be kept too well, but that their food should be 
increased a few days after parturition. Clean- 
liness in the lambing-yards he very properly 
deems to be of the greatest importance. Lambs 
are best castrated at from 8 to 12 days old. In 
the performance of this operation it is calculated 
that, when properly performed, the deaths do 
not average 1 in a 1000. Mr. Ellman recom- 
mends 80 to 100 ewes to each ram, or, when 
lamb rams are employed, only 40 ; and that 
they should remain with the ewes 3 weeks, in 
separate lots. 

Slatistics. — The number of sheep in Great 
Britain has long been gradually on the increase, 
with the demands of an enlarging population. 
To this the introduction of turnips and other 
better supplies of winter food, which much in- 
creased the facilities for their keep, has mainly 
contributed. In 1698, Gregory King calculated 
that there were 12,000,000 sheep in Great 
Britain; in 1741 the number had increased to 
16,640,000; in 1774, according to Arthur Young, 
the number was 25,589,754; in 1801, Mr. Luc- 
cock estimated them at 26,148,463. Mr. M'Cul- 
loch, in 1 834, states the number to be 32,000,000; 
the value of the wool 7,000,000?.; and that of 
the manufactured woollen articles 21,000,000/.; 
and the number of persons employed in the 
manufacturing of these goods about 332,000. 
{Youatl on Sheep ; Low's Prnrt. Agr., and Breeds 
of Dot!}. Animals ; Baxter's Agr. Lib. ; M'Cidloch's 
Com. Dirt.) 

Of the many valuable papers upon sheep 
dispersed through the British agricultural pe- 
riodicals, I can, in this place, only give a brief 
catalogue. There is a letter by Mr. T. Es- 
court. Com. to Board of Agr. vol. iv. p. 294, "On 
keeping Sheep warm when feeding," which 
shows very clearly the advantages of sheep 
being kept dry and warm when feeding, a sub- 
ject not nearly so well understood as is desi- 
rable ; see also " On Sheep Stells (Timber 
Clumps)," by Dr. Howson, Trans. High. Soc. vol. 
vi. p. 332; "On Rain-proof Feeding Troughs," 
by Mr. Buist, Quart. Joiirn. of Agr. vol.ii. p. 114; 
" On Canvass Sheds for Sheep," by Mr. Munro, 
Ibid. vol. xii. p. 290; "On Shed-feeding," by 
Mr. Childers, Journ. Roy. Agr. Soc. vol. i.p. 169 — 
407 ; " On the Improvement of the fine-woolled 
Breed," Com. to Board of Agr. vol. vi. p. 65 ; 
the Rev. Edmund Cartwright " On feeding 
Sheep on Muscovado Sugar," Ibid. p. 405 ; 
"On the Braxy in Sheep," Trans. High. Soc. 
vol. i. p. 43 ; « On the Flesh Fly and Maggot," 
by Mr. Hogg, Ibid. p. 325, and by Mr. Mather, 
Ibid. vol. iv. p. 221, and Quart. Journ. of Agr. 
vol. i. p. 210. "On Salving Sheep," by Mr. J. 
Graham, Ibid. vol. ii. p. 243 ; this salve is com- 
posed of 7 lb. of rosin, 17 lb. of butter, 16 lb. of 
palm oil, 2 chopins of fish oil: and by Mr. 
Harkness, Ibid. vol. iv. p. 125. "On the Lou- 
pingill," by Mr. Tod and Mr. Laing, Ibid. vol. iii. 
p. 73 ; " On the Foot Rot," by Mr. Hogg and 
the Rev. H. Riddell, Ibid. p. 307; by Mr. Dick, 
Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. ii. p. 852, and by Mr. 
Biack, Ibid. vol. iii. p. 654; "On Blindness in 



Sheep," by Mr. M'Farlane, Trans. High. Soc. 
vol. iv. p. 393 ; " On Rabies," by Mr. Dickson, 
Ibid. vol. vi. p. 261; "On certain Diseases of 
Sheep (the Pining, Scab, &c.)," by Mr. Hogg, 
Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. ii. p. 697 ; " On the 
Origin and Natural History of the Sheep," by 
Mr. Wilson, Ibid. p. 354—536 ; " On drafting 
Sheep," Ibid. vol. iii. p. 1005; "On the acute 
Dysentery," by Mr. Dick, Ibid. vol. p. 411 ; "On 
the Rot," Ibid. p. 503; and vol. vi. p. 117; "On 
the Physiognomy of Sheep," Ibid. vol. x. p. 298; 
"On difl^erent Breeds, and on feeding and 
dressing Tups," by Mr. Hogg, Ibid. vol. xi. p. 
105 — 108; "On a peculiar Affection of the 
Liver in Ewes," by Mr. Buckley, Journ. Roy. 
Agr. Soc. vol. ii. p. 116. See Food, Meat, Mut- 
ton, Wool,. 

All the best varieties of sheep known in 
Europe have been introduced into the United 
States, where the raising of sheep, both for 
the profits of carcass and wool, is a highly 
productive branch of agriculture. The num- 
ber of sheep in the United States, in 1840, was 
estimated at about 20,000,000. Immense num- 
bers of these are raised in the high and cool 
districts in Northern Pennsylvania, New York, 
and the Eastern States. Various American 
agricultural periodicals contain valuable ob- 
servation in regard to sheep in the United 
States. Jonathan Roberts, Esq., a veteran 
farmer of Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
who has taken much interest in this kind ol 
stock for the last half-century, has favoured us 
with the following valuable observations : 

" Many of the diseases which prevail among 
sheep in Britain are little known in this part 
of the United States, where the air is drier. 
Such air, associated with a broken and even 
mountainous country, seems best adapted to 
the breeds of this animal. Early in my experi- 
ence I "witnessed the renovation of a flock of 
what we call country sheep, that had been too 
long propagated in the same blood. This was 
about the year 1789. An imported ram from 
England, with heavy horns, very much resem- 
bling the most vigorous Spanish Merinoes, 
was obtained. The progeny were improved 
in the quality of fleece and in vigour of constitu- 
tion. On running this stock in the same blood 
for some 12 years, a great deterioration became 
apparent. A male was then obtained of the 
large, coarse-wooUed Spanish stock ; improve- 
ment in the vigour of the progeny was again 
most obvious. A Tunis mountain ram was 
then obtained, with a result equally favourable. 
In this process, fineness of fleece or weight was 
less the object than carcass. In 1810, a male of 
not quite pure Merino blood was placed with 
the same stock of ewes; and a change of the 
male from year to year, for some time, pro- 
duced a superior Merino stock. Wool of a 
marketable quality for fine cloths was now the 
object, and it was not an unprofitable husband- 
ry, when it would sell in the fleece unwashed, 
from 86 cents to $1. The Saxon stock then 
became the rage, and the introduction of a tup 
of that country diminished greatly the weight 
of the fleece, without adequately improving its 
fineness. A male of the Spanish stock would 
give sometimes 9 lbs., and the marsh graziers say 
that they went so high as 15 lbs. Saxon mal^s 

491 



SHEEP, DISEASES OF. 

scarcely exceed 5 lbs., and the ewes 2^ lbs. 
By running in the same biood, and poor keep- 
ing, the fleece maybe made finer, but it will be 
lightened in proportion, and of a weak and 
infirm texture. There are few stock-keepers who 
have mixed the Spanish with the Saxon breeds 
but what either do or will have cause to regret it. 
In this part of the country a real Spanish Me- 
rino is not to be obtained. Sheep-raising has 
ceased to be a business of any profit nearer to 
the maritime coast than our extensive moun- 
tain ranges, whether for carcass or fleece. I 
sold, the last season, water-washed wool of 
very fine quality, for 30 cents per lb. At such 
a price for avooI, land near our seaports can be 
turned to better account, even in these dull 
times, than wool-growing. Stock-sheep do best 
in stony and elevated locations, where they 
have to use diligence to pick the scanty blade. 
Sheep on the seaboard region should be kept 
more for carcass than fleece: and feeding more 
than breeding, ought to be the object for some 
100 miles from tide-water. It is now a well 
ascertained fact, that health and vigour can 
only be perpetuated by not running too long on 
the same blood. The evils I have witnessed 
were due to a want of care on this head more 
than to any endemical quality in our climate. 
Sheep kept on smooth land and soft pasture 
are liable to the foot-rot. I have found this 
readily relieved by a little spirits of turpentine 
or salted grease and tar, or tar only. The hoofs 
of the Merino require paring occasionally, for 
want of a stony mountain-side to ascend. It is 
no longer a problem that this is to be a great 
wool-growing country as well as a wool-con- 
suming one. There is, in our wool-growing 
country, land in abundance, held at a price 
that will enable the M'ool-grower to produce the 
finest qualities at 30 cents per lb., the cloths to 
be manufactured in proportion, and the market 
to be steady. I have seen Merino wool since 
1810 range from $1 per lb. to 18| cents, though 
I do not recollect selling below 22 cents. The 
best variety of sheep stock I have seen, putting 
fineness of fleece aside, was the mixed Bake- 
well and South Down, imported by Mr. Smith, 
of New Jersey. The flesh of the Merino has 
been pronounced of inferior flavour. This, 
however, does not agree with my experience, 
as I have found the lambs command a readier 
sale than any other, from being preferred by 
consumers." 

In regard to the particular distribution of 
sheep through the several states, we find, ac- 
cording to the returns accompanying the 
census of 1840, that there were in Maine, 
049,264; New Hampshire, 617,390; Massachu- 
setts, 378,226 ; Rhode Island, 90,146 ; Connecti- 
cut, 403,462 ; Vermont, 1,681,819; New York, 
^,118,777; New Jersey, 219,285; Pennsylva- 
nia, 1,767,620; Delaware, 39,247; Maryland, 
257.922; Virginia, 1,293,772; North Caro- 
lina, 538,279 ;'"Tennessee, 741,593; Kentucky, 
1.008,241; Ohio, 2.028,401 ; Indiana, 695,982; 
Illinois, 395,672 ; Missouri, 348,018. 

SHEEP, DISEASES OF. Jlpnplexy.—B\eed 
copiousiy ; then give 2 ounces of Epsom salts 
m a quarter of a pint of water. 

Blackwalcr — Keep the bowels open with Ep- 
Mun sails ; and give a tea-spoonful of elixir of 
992 



SHEEP-HOUSE. 

vitriol, or sulphuric acid, diluted with 7 parts 
of water, in an infusion of oak bark. 

Blackmuzzle. — Mix an ounce of verdigris 
(acetate of copper), 4 ounces of honey, half a 
pint of vinegar ; simmer them together over a 
fire for 10 minutes in an earthen pipkin. Ap- 
ply it to the mouth on a piece of rag. 

Cough, or Cold. — Bleed ; give a solution of 
Epsom salts. 

DiarrhcBa. See Calves, Diseases of. 

Dysentery. See Diarrhoea. 

Fly. — Fly powder : Two pounds of black suk 
phur, half a pound of hellebore ; mix them to- 
gether, and sprinkle the sheep from the head 
to the tail with a dredging-box. Sheep wash : 
The farmer will find this an excellent recipe: 
Half a pound of powdered white arsenic (ar- 
senious acid), 4^ pounds of soft soap. Beat 
these for a quarter of an hour, or until the 
arsenic is dissolved, in 5 gallons of water. 
Add this to the water sufficient to dip 50 sheep. 
The quantity of arsenic usually recommended 
is too large. 

Foot Rot. — One drachm of verdigris (ace- 
tate of copper), 1 drachm of blue vitriol (sul- 
phate of copper), 1 drachm of white vitriol 
(sulphate of zinc), 2 ounces of water,2 drachms 
of nitric acid, 2 drachms of butter of antimony; 
pare away the horn, and apply the lotion upon 
a feather to the part afl'ected. 

Rcdxvater. See Redwater. 

Rot. See Rot. 

Scab, or Schah. — Apply a lotion formed of 1 
ounce of corrosive sublimate, 4 ounces of sal 
ammoniac, dissolved in 4 quarts of rain-water. 
This is a powerful stimulant, and must be used 
with caution. 

Ticks. See Fly. 

Wounds. — Wash the part, and apply a lotion 
formed of vinegar 1 pint, spirits of wine 1 
ounce, spirits of turpentine 1 ounce, Goulard's 
extract 1 ounce. If the wound be a recent one, 
it is better to stitch it up with separate liga- 
tures, which can be easily withdrawn, and 
dress with cold water. 

SHEEP-FOLD. A yard or other contri- 
vance for the purpose of confining and keep- 
ing sheep during the nights or in bad weather, 
in order to afford them protection and shelter. 
They are sometimes fixed, being constructed 
of any convenient sort of light material, so as 
to enclose a space in proportion to the number 
of sheep, which is kept constantly well littered 
with some dry substance, such as stubble, re- 
fuse straw, dry sand, &c., during the time the 
sheep are folded and foddered in them, in order 
that as much manure may be raised as pos- 
sible. In some cases, also, for the more perfect 
protection of the sheep, they have sheds all 
around them, under which the sheep may lie 
without injury from rain, snow, or any sort of 
moisture. These usually are termed standing 
folds, and are either formed about the home- 
stead or on some dry, rather elevated situation 
on the farms, having the bottoms well laid with 
some sort of material that is capable of keep- 
ing the sheep dry and clean. See Folp, Fold- 
ing, and Hurdles. 

SHEEP-HOUSE. A slight wooden building 
constructed for the purpose of containing and 
proteating sheep in bad weather, &c HouMO 



SHEEP-PENS. 



SHRUB. 



of this kind are usually made low for the sake 
of warmth in the winter, being mostly a third 
part longer than they have breadth : they should 
also be sufficiently large for the quantity of 
sheep that they are to contain. The side should 
be lined with boards, and the bottoms be laid 
in an even manner with stone or some other 
material, that the litter may be well impreg- 
nated with the urine of the sheep. The sides 
exposed to the sun should be lined with mova- 
ble hurdles, that when it shines the whole 
may be laid open, to give due refreshment and 
afford the sheep an opportunity of feeding upon 
the pasture wherein they stand. They should 
be well and securely covered with some sort 
of proper material upon the tops. They are 
sometimes fixed in particular situations ; but 
in other cases, which is the more improved 
method, so constructed as to be capable of 
being removed as they may be wanted. 

SHEEP-PENS. The divisions made by the 
small movable gates or hurdles which are 
set up to keep sheep in some particular spot. 
They are usually formed on a dry place about 
the corners where different enclosures of the 
pasture meet, so as to be convenient for the 
whole. Pens are useful for examining and 
selectins^ the sheep, being divided so as to con- 
tain abuut 3 dozen sheep each, as by this means 
they are always at the command of the shep- 
herd for any purposes he may have in view. 
The bottoms should be firm and dry, so that the 
sheep may not be soiled. 

SHEEP-STEALING. By the 7 W. 4, «& 
1 Vict. c. 90, every person convicted in Eng- 
land of stealing any horse, mare, gelding, colt, 
filly, bull, cow, heifer, ram, ewe, sheep, or lamb, 
is liable to be transported for a term not ex- 
ceeding 15 years, nor less than 10 years; or 
be imprisoned for any term not exceeding 3 
years. 

SHEEP'S SORREL (Riimcx acetosella). A 
perennial species of dock, which in England is 
found growing abundantly in dry, gravelly 
fields and pastures. The herb is acrid, with 
some astringency. The root is creeping. The 
stem wavy, slender, often decumbent. The flow- 
ers are dioscious, small, separate, in numerous 
whorled leafless clusters. The leaves lanceo- 
late-hastate above, but hastate in the lower part 
of the stem. The acid which they contain is 
the oxalic, combined with potassa, as a binox- 
alate ; but it is less used than its fellow-species 
R. acetosa. See Sohrel. 

Dr. Darlington informs us that there are in 
the United States 10 or 12 additional species 
of sorrel, but it is difficult to say how many of 
these are indigenous. 

SHEPARDIA, SILVER-LEAVED. See Buf- 
falo Berry. 

SHEPHERD. The person who has the care 
and management of a flock of sheep. Mr. Ban- 
nister says, that it is necessary to have for this 
employment " a person who is well skilled in 
the nature and management of sheep, and hath 
been brought up in that employment from his 
infancy; who is sober, diligent, and good-na- 
tured ; qualities essentially necessary in a shep- 
herd, who, although he may seem to lead a life 
of indolence, when contrasted with the more 
laborious servants of the farm, need rarely to 
125 



have a minute's time hang heavily on his 
hands, if he will be attentive to his business, 
which will furnish him with sufficient employ- 
ment throughout the day, particularly in the 
lambing season, or where there are two folds at 
work ; nor will he want opportunity for the 
exercise of his patience and good temper in his 
attendance on the sheep, which is by nature an 
animal of great obstinacy and perverseness, 
and hath often paid the forfeit of its life to these 
innate qualities, where the shepherd was a 
man of a morose and surlv disposition." 

SHEPHERD'S NEEDLE (ScandLv Pecten 
Veneris). This is a troublesome annual weed, 
very common in cultivated fields in England. 
The root is tapering. The fruit is nearly 
smooth, with a bushy edge, having a beak 
from 1 to 2 inches long ; whence the specific 
name. 

SHEPHERD'S PURSE (Thlaspi, from thlao, 
to compress ; the seed-vessels are compress- 
ed). In England this is a genus of worthless 
plants, the principal species of which is the 
common shepherd's purse (T. bursa pastoris),. 
which occurs in almost every part of the globe. 
It is an annual plant, with a tapering, whitish 
root, having a peculiar smoke-like scent. The 
herbage is rough, with prominent hairs. Stem 
branched, leafy, from 6 to 12 inches high. Ra- 
dical leaves deeply pinnatifid. Flowers small, 
corymbose, often tinged with purplish-brown. 
Pouch inversely heart-shaped, somewhat tri- 
angular. Seeds about 5 or more in each cell. 
Small birds eat the seeds and flowers. 

SHEPHERD'S STAFF. See Teasel. 

SHERARDIA (named by Dillenius in ho- 
nour of his patron, W. Sherard, LL.D., consul 
at Smyrna). This is a genus of uninteresting 
plants. One species, the blue sherardia, or 
little field-madder (S.arvensis), is indigenous to 
England, where it grows in fallow fields, or 
among corn, on a light or gravelly soil. The 
plant is annual; herbage generally hairy; 
stems several, branched, spreading, mostly de- 
cumbent, 3 to 6 inches long. Leaves whorled, 
pale-green. Flowers pale purplish-blue, in a 
sessile terminal umbel. 

SHERDS. In gardening, fragments of earthen 
pots, &c., employed to drain the soil supplied 
to potted plants, and also as under-draining for 
gravel walks. 

SHIFTS. See Rotation of Crops. 

SHIM. A tool of the tillage kind, used ia 
breaking down and reducing the more stiflfand 
heavy sorts of land, as well as cutting up and 
clearing them from weeds. They are made of 
different forms and constructions, to suit dif- 
ferent purposes. 

SHOOK. See Shuck. 

SHOREWEED (Littorella, from littus, the 
shore, in allusion to its place of growth). The 
plantain shoreweed (L. lacustris) is a pretty 
little perennial sub-aquatic, indigenous to Eng- 
land, flowering in June. It has no stem; but 
the root, which is fleshed and tap-shaped, 
throws up many long, linear, channelled leaves.^ 
The flowers are whitish-green. 

SHORT-HORNS. See Cattle. 

SHRUB. A small, low, dwarfish, woody 
plant, resembling a tree, which, instead of one 
single stem, frequently puts forth from the 

993 



SHUCK. 



SILK CULTURE. 



same root several sets or stems. The most 
hardy, indigenous shrubs are the box and ivy, 
which resist the severest winters. Next, in 
point of hardiness, are the holly, juniper, and 
furze; but there are besides numerous orna- 
mental shrubs, well calculated to diversify 
parks and lawns. 

SHUCK. A husk or shell. In husbandry, 
it also signifies a shock or stouk of 12 sheaves 
of corn set up together in the harvest field. 
See Reaping. 

SHY. In norsemanship, the starting sud- 
denly aside of a horse. 

SICKLE (Sax. r'coi ; Dutch sickel; from Lat. 
secale). A hook with which corn is reaped. See 
Reapisg-Hook, Sctthe, &c. 

SILICA. The name of the earth which forms 
almost the entire substance of common sand or 
silex, and also of quartz and flint. Potash ren- 
ders silex soluble in water, and capable of en- 
tering into the sap of plants. Hence one of the 
great advantages of potash as a fertilizer, espe- 
cially adapted to wheat, which demands much 
silica, as well as potash, in the soil. Silica en- 
ters into the composition of all plants, forming 
the shining outer coating of straw, corn-stalks, 
reeds, grasses, &c. See Earths; Mixture of 
Soils ; Analysis. 

SILK CULTURE. The United States being, 
like China, situated on the eastern side of a 
great continent, oSer peculiar advantages for 
the production of silk. From the general pre- 
dominance of westerly winds in extra-tropical 
regions, the eastern sides of continents in these 
possess a dry and warm summer climate, pe- 
culiar)}'^ adapted to the prosperity of the silk- 
■worm. In Europe, the region of the silk-culture 
is confined to the southern portions, and com- 
mences at a distance from the sea, on the east- 
ern side of the mountain ridge of the Cevennes. 
Tliesp mountains offer a barrier to the moisture 
borne far inland by the prevailing westerly 
winds sweeping from the Atlantic. In the 
United States the prevalence of the same 
winds keeps off a large amount of the moisture 
from the sea, and leads to a comparatively dry 
atmosphere. So far as this characteristic of 
climate is concerned, the culture of silk may 
be extended to the very shores of the Atlantic. 
At various times attempts have been made to 
introduce it into the United States, but it is 
only within a very few years past that the 
subject has received the attention which it 
merits as an important and most valuable 
agricultural resource. Among other obstacles 
which have tended to prevent the developement 
of the silk culture, the comparatively tardy 
growth of the ordinary kinds of mulberry trees 
cultivated for feeding the silk-worm has been 
not the least, since where immediate sources of 
profit exist in other products of the soil, few 
will engage in enterprises, the profits of which 
iiave to be so long anticipated. The introduc- 
tion of a new kind of mulberry, the Morus Mid- 
ticauUs, a tree of rapid developement, having in 
a great measure removed the obstacle referred 
to, the silk culture has, to a greater or less de- 
gree, been introduced from one end of the 
country to the other. Strange as it may seem, 
the Eastern States, with a comparatively rigor- 
994 



ous climate, have heretofore been almost th« 
sole producers of domestic silk as an object of 
profit. In some of the townships of Connecti- 
cut and Massachusetts, silk has for many years 
been an object of domestic culture ; but this was 
carried on to great disadvantage, the cocoons 
having been usually wound off upon common 
wheels, and spun into sewing silk. No such 
thing as a regular filature for converting co- 
coons into reeled silk, and thus preparing it for 
being woven into different fabrics, existed in 
the Eastern States ; so that, instead of using 
only the refuse cocoons in making sewings, the 
very best were thus appropriated. The intro- 
duction of suitable reels for winding off silk 
and placing it in the best form for mercantile 
purposes, has been comparatively slow, owing 
in a great degree to the introduction of many 
contrivances intended to curtail labour by wind- 
ing immediately from the cocoons and twisting 
by the same process into sewing silk. Most 
or all such contrivances have proved very 
unprofitable, and have yielded, or may be ex- 
pected to yield, to the simple but effective ope- 
ration of the Piedmontese reel, the most perfect 
of all devices for taking silk from the cocoons, 
and placing it in the best forms for market. 
Many very skilful reelers have been made in 
various filatures in the United States. Although 
in every part of the Union the mulberry can 
be reared, and the silk-worm successfully 
fed, still it cannot be doubted that the southern 
portions of the Middle, and all the Southern 
States, afford peculiar advantages to the silk 
culture. An agricultural resource, which in 
France and other countries is so highly appre- 
ciated and fostered with so much zeal by the 
government, by the establishment of model fila- 
tures, and the zealous attentions of men of 
skill and science, should be regarded as well 
worthy the protection of the general and state 
governments of the Union. Many states already 
allow liberal premiums for cocoons and raw 
silk produced within their borders, and these 
inducements to individuals should be continued 
until the silk culture becomes fairly establish- 
ed as a regular branch of rural labour; after 
which it will, like most other branches of in- 
dustry once fairly set on foot, take care of itself. 
Large crops of cocoons were last year pro- 
duced in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Ten- 
nessee, and Indiana. The comparatively small 
cost of conveying to market an article so highly 
valuable as silk, should encourage its culture 
in districts from which the heavy and bulky 
products of agriculture cannot be transported 
so as to leave a fair profit to the producer. In 
Ohio many thousand yards of silk stuffs 
were woven in 1842, the manufacturers pay- 
ing for the cocoons about §4 per bushel. The 
culturists find their advantage in having the 
silk reeled from the cocoons into organzine, 
instead of the formerly unprofitable mode of 
turning the most valuable silk into sewings. 
American raw silk, when properly reeled, is 
superior to that generally produced in Europe. 
A person who had been many years engaged 
in weaving silk in different establishments in 
London, having had (as he says) for 15 years 
from 250 to 300 lbs. of the raw material, of 



SILK CULTURE. 



SINCLAIR, GEORGE. 



every grade and name, passing through his 
hands weekly, expresses the following opinion 
relative to silk produced in the United States : 

"I am qualified to affirm, from various ex- 
periments I have tried, that the silk is superior 
to any I have seen from Italy, China, France, 
Piedmont, or Valencia, where the worms are 
fed upon mullicaulis, or Italian. Its hrilliancy, 
strength, and scent are superior. I am aware 
that an exposure to the saline air, in the pas- 
sage across the ocean, may be the cause of the 
loss of fragrance to imported silk; but the 
brilliancy is peculiar to American silk, if reeled 
in a proper manner, with cleanliness. 

"I am confident that the mammoth sulphur- 
worm is the pure Fossam brown. To try this, 
I had about 3 lbs. of silk reeled, and enclosed 
it in an air-tight box for 3 weeks. When I took 
it out it had the fragrance of the Fossam brown 
stronger than any that I ever smelt in Eng- 
land, which convinced me that the mammoth 
sulphur is the identical silk which is always 
from 5 to 8 shillings per pound higher than or- 
dinary silk. The mammoth white and the pea- 
nut white is a Novi, and superior to any I have 
seen in England. The yellow or orange I can- 
not, satisfactorily to my own mind, yet define, 
but am trying experiments in order to ascer- 
tain. I am strongly persuaded it is a Bergam. 
Should this be the case, it will prove a great 
acquisition to manufacturers of silk velvet. 
Some have supposed the pea-nut white is the 
Piedmont, but they are mistaken. The Pied- 
mont cocoon is lily-white, very diminutive, 
with a sharp point." 

Where legislative patronage has been ex- 
tended in the allowance of bounties on cocoons 
and raw silk, the state treasuries may be re- 
ferred to as criterions showing the increase or 
diminution of the silk crop with great preci- 
sion. The treasurer of Massachusetts has fur- 
nished the following report, indicating how the 
matter stands in that state: 



1836 - 


- $71 37 


1840 - 


- $1,233 59 


1837 - 


- 198 00 


1841 


- 2,111 42 


1838 - 


- 350 52 


i842 to Oct. 1 


3,351 91 


183U - 


- 431 62 







" Another consideration, calculated to urge 
the business forward," says the Northampton 
Silk Convention, " is found in the fact that all 
our present agricultural staples are now ex- 
tremely depressed, and are likely to remain so. 
The market is completely glutted. Our far- 
mers must take up something new, or their suf- 
ferings will be prolonged indefinitely. In this 
crisis, silk comes to their aid. In the produc- 
tion of this article they cannot glut the market 
for one whole generation, most assuredly." 

Without desiring to excite undue expecta- 
tions, it is a question which deserves serious 
consideration, whether much more may not be 
realized from the prosecution of this business 
than has hitherto been 1 The little town of 
Mansfield, in Connecticut, by a persevering 
devotion to it, undiscouraged by the ill-success 
of others, has been enabled to derive therefrom 
a good profit; and it appears from the last 
census that, with a population of 2276, not less 
than $20,000 is annually received from this 
business. 

The bounty paid in Ohio, in 1841, amounted 



to $2681 76; in Pennsylvania $4418 55. In 
1842 there was paid as bounty, in Ohio, 
$6699 61. The whole amount of reeled silk 
produced in Ohio is set down at 3000 pounds. 
One person sold 300 pounds of reeled silk for 
$1600. The whole aggregate of the silk crop 
throughout the United States, for 1842, is given 
in a tabular view, by Mr. Ellsworth, at 244,124 
pounds of cocoons. (Ellstvortk's Report to Con- 
gress.') 

Under the head of MutBERRif, some observa- 
tions have been made in relation to the varie- 
ties of the tree best adapted to the silk culture 
in the United States. Besides the numerous 
communications to be found in most of the 
American periodicals devoted to agriculture, 
and some specially to the silk culture, many 
excellent original treatises have been written 
upon the same subject. Among the last we 
may name the essay published under the aus- 
pices of P. S. Duponceau, Esq., of Philadel- 
phia, one of the greatest champions of the 
legitimate silk culture that the Union has pro- 
duced. By legitimate silk culture, is meant the 
employment of the Piedmontese reel, the use 
of which is absolutely necessary to give the 
product of the cocoonery its proper value. 
The work thus referred to is a duodecimo 
printed in Philadelphia, and bears the name 
of M. d'Homergue. It is particularly useful in 
relation to the subject of the Piedmontese reel. 
A summary of the principal Chinese treatises 
on the culture of silk, &c., was published, ia 
1838, by P. Force, Esq., Washington. An ex- 
cellent Treatise on the Mulberry Tree, and the 
Production and Manufacture of Silk, was pub- 
lished in Philadelphia, in 1839, by Mr. John 
Clarke. Several Manuals on the silk culture, 
furnishing abundant information, embracing 
the most minute details, have been published 
by Roberts, Cobb, Kenrick, Comstock, Clarke, 
&c., &c. Among the periodicals specially de- 
voted to the subject, the Silk Culturist, edited 
by F. G. Comstock, of Hartford, Connecticut, 
in 1835-6, and the Burlington Silk Record, by E. 
P. Morris, may be mentioned. In the latter 
are given the interesting views of Mr. Morris, 
with a description of his newly invented and 
valuable feeding-shelves, together with the re- 
sults of many experiments in raising worms 
upon an extensive scale. 

SILK-GRASS or BEAR-GRASS. See 
Yucca. 

SILK-WEED. See Cotton, Wild. 

SILLS. A country name for the shafts of a 
cart, &c. 

SILVER BELL. See Halesia. 

SILVER FIR. See Fir and Pike. 

SILVER-WEED, or WILD TANSEY (^Po- 
tentilla anserind). An indigenous perennial 
plant, which, according to Linnfeus, indicates 
clay under the surface. Although it is found 
frequent in osier holts and spongy meadows, it 
grows most commonly upon cold, stiff land, and 
is a sure mark of the sterility of the soil. 
Flowers large, bright-yellow, the calyx hairy; 
and each on a long, simple stalk, mostly erect, 
blowing all the summer. See CiifQ.uEFOii.. 

SINCLAIR, GEORGE. An able and sue 
cessful writer and experimentalist on the arti 
ficial and other grasses. He carried on a be- 

995 



SIT-FAST. 



SMITHFIELD. 



ries of valuable researches on these In the 
grass garden at Woburn Abbey, under the di- 
rection of the Duke of Bedford, the results of 
which he gave to the world, in his justly cele- 
brated work, the Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis. 
He also edited a fragment of a work of Mr. 
Holdich on The Weeds of Jgriculture. He died 
in 1835, in the 52d year of his age. 

SIT-FAST. In farriery, an ulcerated sore in 
which a part of the skin has turned horny; if 
it cannot be dissolved and softened by rubbing 
with mercurial ointment, it must have a mild 
blister applied, which will cause it to separate. 
It generally proceeds from a warble or little 
tumour resulting from the pressure of the sad- 
dle. See Back-Sore and Galls. 
SIZE. See Glue. 

SKEGS. A kind of oat, sometimes culti- 
vated as a crop in Nottinghamshire. It is the 
Avena slipiformis of Linnoeus. See Oats. 

SKEP. A coarse, round, farm-basket. It is 
also provincially used to signify a bee-hive. 

SKID. The chain by which the wheel of a 
wagon is fastened, so as to prevent its turning 
round, upon descending a steep hill. See 
Drag. 

SKIM COULTER. See Plough. 
SKUNK-CABBAGE; Swamp-cabbage; 
Skunk-weed. Familiar names applied to a 
plant common in low grounds in the United 
States. It is the Symplocarpus fatida of some 
botanists, and the Pathos fastida of others. It 
has a perennial root, and very large leaves, 
often, when fully grown, measuring 2 feet long 
and 1 foot wide. "This plant," says Dr. Dar- 
lington, " is notorious for the pole-cat-like odour 
which it emits, when wounded; and is said to 
possess some medicinal virtues, as an anti- 
spasmodic. The root, when chewed, produces 
a tingling or pricking sensation in the mouth. 
It is the only species of the genus in the United 
States: Dr. Barton, however, describes a pretty 
distinct variety, near Philadelphia." 

SLATE. A well-known, neat, convenient, 
and durable material for the covering of the 
roofs of buildings. There are many varieties 
of slate, and it likewise differs very greatly in 
its qualities and colours. In some places it is 
found in thick lamina or flakes, while in others 
it is thin and light. The colours are white, 
brown, and blue. Slate is so durable in some 
cases as to have been known to continue sound 
and good for centuries. 

SLAUGHTER-HOUSE. See Abattoir. 
SLEET. See Snow. 

SLOE. The American species of sloe belong 
to the viburnium family, and are not to be con- 
founded with the black hedge thorn. See 
Blackthorn. 

SLOUGH-HEAL. See Self-heal. 
SLUG. A genus of molluscous animals, or 
naked snails, comprehending several species, 
which differonly in colour. Slugs infest gardens 
and fields, and are very injurious to the growing 
•Mops; hence it becomes essential to destroy 
tnem. Dry lime and slacked lime have been re- 
commended, which, being dissolved by the dew 
and moisture of the atmosphere, act as a poison 
to these animals. But pulverized lime is not 
suitable to all soils, and may even prove inju- 
rious to some crops. Lime-water appears to 
996 



be preferable. But as many husbandmen may 
not have an opportunity of liming their fields 
or gardens, or of keeping a sufficient stock of 
geese, fowls, ducks, &c., to turn in and devour 
the slugs, common salt will be found an effec- 
tual cure ; and tar-water or other refuse of 
gas-works will prove destructive to them, if 
sprinkled on the land. See Insects and Snails. 

The disgusting slug infesting pear and cherry 
trees in the United States is a slimy false ca- 
terpillar, the nature and characteristics of 
which, and the parent-fly, are particularly de- 
scribed by Professor Peck and Dr. Harris. See 
Saw-flies. 

SMALLAGE PARSLEY. See Celery, 
Wild. 

SMITHFIELD. The principal market for 
the sale of live cattle in the United Kingdom. 
It is very inconveniently situated in the heart 
of the metropolis. The numbers of cattle 
slaughtered have been more than double dur- 
ing the last century. (See Cattle, ante, p.293.) 
Although this increased consumption is scarce- 
ly proportioned to the increase of population, 
it should be remembered that a very different 
description of cattle are now slaughtered to 
what were then killed. The present average 
dead weight of the bullock is about 656 lbs., of 
the calf 144 lbs., of the pig 96 lbs., and of the 
sheep and lamb 90 lbs. ; approaching to double 
the weight of these animals in 1730. This 
renders the number of cattle slaughtered in the 
metropolis, and the increasing number of the 
inhabitants, a little more proportionate. From 
this estimate, and the number of cattle sold in 
Smithfield market in the year 1830, we may 
now form some not very inaccurate idea of the 
amount of this branch of the provision trade 
in London. 

Average Weight. No. of lbs. 

Cattle - - 159,907 6561b. 104,898,992 

Sheep, &f. - 1,287,070 90 115,836,300 

Pi!;s - - - 254,672 96 24,448,512 

Calves - - 22,500 144 3,240,000 

Number of lbs. of meat consumed - 248,423,804 

This, estimated at the average price of &d^ 
would be 6,210,595/. 2s. Od.; at 8(/., it would 
produce 8,268,293/. 9s. id., exclusive of bacon, 
hams, and all salted provisions brought from a 
distance (the importation of Irish bacon and 
haras into Great Britain is 500,000 cwt.), and 
also fish and poultry. This calculation will 
enable us to determine another curious ques- 
tion, — what is the average quantity of meat 
consumed by each individual in the course of 
a year 1 If we divide the gross number of 
pounds, 248,423,804, by 1,450,000, the estimated 
number of inhabitants in London and its envi- 
rons, the quotient will be 170, or each indi- 
vidual consumes nearly half a pound of meat 
every day. This is a very high calculation 
compared with that of Paris, where each per- 
son is supposed to consume but 80 pounds in 
the year ; and Brussels, where 89 pounds form 
the allotment of each; but the English is a 
meat-eating population, and composed chiefly 
of Protestants ; and when we remember that 
this includes the bones as well as the meat, 
half a pound a day is not too much to allow to 
each person. 

Cattle are sent from every part of the king- 



SMUT. 



SMUT. 



dom to Smithfield market, but many more from 
some districts than from others. The farmer 
has personally little to do with the sale of his 
cattle, but custom and interest induce him to 
consign them to a salesman, who is acquainted 
with all the butchers and dealers of the district, 
and with the contractors. He sees at a glance 
what is the state of the market; he can tell 
whether it is likely to rise or fall ; and com- 
paring the lot which is intrusted to him with 
others, and with the market generally, he knows 
what they ought to fetch. The salesmen are 
generally honourable men ; they procure for 
the owner the value of his cattle under all the 
circumstances of the market, and although it 
may not always be so much as the grazier had 
expected, it is more than he could have got 
himself, and he is always sure of receiving his 
money. See Poultry, Sheep, Swine, &c. 

SMUT. A disease affecting almost every 
species of corn, the grains of which become 
filled with a fetid black powder, instead of con- 
taining farinaceous matter. Wet seasons, ani- 
malculoe, organic weakness, deficiency of the 
parts of generation, and other circumstances, 
have been assigned as the primary causes of 
this disease, but all the results of experience 
are against the opinion that these are more 
than contingencies which aggravate the symp- 
toms, and accelerate the progress of the infec- 
tion. That the smut does not arise from a de- 
ficient fecundity is apparent, because it affects 
and destroys the grain long before the sexual 
organs are fully developed. Fogs, exposure 
to intense sunshine when moist, or other atmo- 
spheric influences upon the ear after it has 
been protruded, have been assigned as causes; 
but these cannot be productive of the mischief, 
for the disease has been observed during an 
early stage of the vegetation of the ear, and 
long before it has escaped from the leafy en- 
velopes; this also dismisses the opinion enter- 
tained by some that the disease occurs after 
the grains are fully formed. It does not arise 
from the too abundant moisture of the soil, be- 
cause I have universally observed that the 
driest parts of a field are as liable to bear an 
infected grain as the most wet ; and we all 
know that an infected plant stands surrounded 
by others entirely untainted. Some persons 
have thought that insects are the origin of the 
disease ; but the most accurate observations 
have refuted this opinion, and shown that the 
diseased grains may be an agreeable nidus for 
the larvae, but that these always appear after 
the disease is matured. Upon examining some 
of the diseased grains, Mr. R. Somerville found 
upon them a minute insect, in form like a 
wood-louse, which I know from observation to 
be a species of the acarus, and these he con- 
sidered the cause of the disease. But this is a 
conclusion unwarranted by observation, for 
similar vermin are found upon the roots of the 
Brassica tribe that are infected with anbury; 
and, indeed, this genus of insects is invariably 
found upon decaying vegetable matter; it is 
their habitat. 

Other persons have thought that the grains 
injured by the process of thrashing are most 
liable to the disease ; but this is refuted by the 
fact that it appears in some years, and is 



scarcely to be detected in others. The Rev, 
Dr. Hales bruised numerous grains of wheat 
of different sizes with a hammer, but the result 
convinced him that this opinion is erroneous. 
Wolfins thought it arose from a monstrosity 
of the embryo; but M. Cymen has shown that 
the male flowers of some plants suffer from 
smut as well as the female, and the former we 
know have no embryo. 

Some farmers have considered that pigeons' 
dung induced the disease, but general expe- 
rience is against this idea. Nor is the disease 
the consequence of any defect of the sap, for 
all the parts except the ear are healthy; and 
there are some plants, observes M. Cymen, 
having perennial roots, and which are vigor- 
ous, yet their seeds are annually attacked with 
this disease. 

Having thus disposed of the several causes 
which have been erroneously assigned, I will 
now proceed to detail the more correct know- 
ledge that has been accumulated respecting 
this plague of our corn crops. 

This disease is severally termed smut, dust- 
brand, blight, burnt corn, &c. In France it is 
commonly known by the names ofcharbon and 
nielle volante. Botanists, aided by the micro- 
scope, have discovered that the cause of smut 
is a parasitical fungus, which preys not only 
upon the sap, but destroys the very organic 
structure of the grain and chaff upon which it 
fixes. The majority of naturalists agree in dis- 
tinguishing the fungus by the title of Urcdo 
segetum ; but as it has ocher synonymes, these, 
and the authors who have employed them, may 
be usefully enumerated. Urcdo segetum, Pursh, 
n. 27; Chaos ustilago, Lin. Syst. Nat. 1326, n. 4; 
Reticulaire des bids, Bulliard's Fungi, vol. i. p. 90, 
plate 472, f. 2. Retkularia segetum, Withering, 
iv. p. 388. Charbon, Tessier., Des Maladies des 
Grains, 299. Bulliard describes this fungus as 
globular, extremely fine, and attached to a fine 
elastic thread. They are exceedingly nume- 
rous, enveloping the seed and chaff of the 
plants they affect, and are, as well as their own 
still more minute seed, of an intense black 
colour, having a disagreeable fetid smell, which 
has been not inaptly compared to stale lobsters. 
Mr. Kirby tells us that Mr. Lathbury examined 
the dust of this fungus under a powerful mag- 
nifier, and found it consisted of numerous mi- 
nute particles, uniform in shape and size, much 
smaller and blacker than those of the pepper 
brand, and less easily separable: they seemed 
to be contained in little irregular cells. This 
dust or seed is the food of a small, shining, 
black insect, the Dermestes ata of Marsham. 

Chemical analysis has demonstrated tha' 
this fungus effects an entire decomposition of 
the vegetable particles of the grain it infectt, 
the saline constituents remaining nearly un 
altered in the grain. Parmentier, Cornet, 
Girot, Chantians, Fourcroy, and Vauquelin, 
have successively examined it, and the result 
of their researches is, that smutted grains of 
wheat are composed, 1st, of about one-third 
their own weight of a green, butyraceous, fetid 
and acrid oil; 2d, nearly one-fourth of a vegeto- 
animal substance, perfectly similar 'o that 
which comes from putrid gluten; 3d, a black 
coal, one-fifth of their weight, similar to thai 
4P 997 



SMUT. 



SMUT. 



which is found in all remnants of putrefied 
organic compounds ; 4th, free phosphoric acid, 
amounting scarcely to more than -004 of the 
smut; 5th, phosphates of ammonia, magnesia, 
and lime, in the proportion of a few thou- 
sandths. " We must remark," say MM. Four- 
croy and Vauquelin, "that in one examination 
of putrefied gluten, we found characters very 
similar to those of the smut of wheat ; and that 
the products of the one are so like those of the 
other as to render it difficult, in certain cases, 
not to confound them together. It requires a man 
to be well practised in chemical experiments to 
discei^n the slight difierences that exist between 
these two putrefied matters, because the dif- 
ferences are only delicate shades, not easily 
discernible. The contagion attacks especially 
the gluten, and precedes, indeed prevents, the 
formation of the starch; since we know posi- 
tively that this fecula, no traces of which are 
found in the smut of wheat, suflers no altera- 
tion from the septic process which so power- 
fully attacks the glutinous substance." The 
ravages of this disease are chiefly, though not 
exclusively, confined to the cereal plants. Mr. 
Kirby says it is common to wheat, oats, bar- 
ley, and rye; and that he has seen the flote 
fescue (Glyceria fluitans), and some other 
grasses, aifected with it. Barley and oats are 
more frequently affected by it than wheat, 
which may proceed from the latter being usu- 
ally steeped before sowing. Wildenow, who, 
in his Principles of Botany, § 331, describes the 
smut under the name of "Ustilago," and as 
being a small fungus, says, "This singular 
variety of gangrene occurs most frequently in 
the species of Gramineae, rarely in other plants, 
some'.imes in Scorzonera, Tragspogon," &c. 
The ear of corn which is attacked is in gene- 
ral totally destroyed, but sometimes the same 
ear contains sound as well as smutty grains; 
and even one end of the same grain has been 
found diseased and the other end sound. How- 
ever, as all the grains in an ear are usually 
infected, so, when one stalk is smutty, it gene- 
rally happens that all the ears from the same 
root are so too. In March or April, upon care- 
fully opening the hose or blade {folium vagi- 
nans) M'hich covers the ear, and examining the 
young ear, although it was not above one-sixth 
part of an inch long, and almost close to the 
roots, M. Du Hamel found this embryo already 
black and distempered; a fact confirmed by 
the researches of Mr. Kirby. When the dis- 
eased ear comes out of the above-mentioned 
envelope, it looks lank and meager. About 
half an inch of the upper part of its stalk is 
commonly not quite straigiht. If cut asunder 
at not more than a quarter of an inch below 
the ear, it will be found nearly solid or filled 
with pith; the circulation above is therefore 
obstructed. The next most important point for 
'•-Dnsideration is, from whence is the infection 
communicated; and the following experiments 
will be found to have demonstrated that it is 
capable of being conveyed to the plants by the 
agency of the parent seed. These experiments 
are satisfactory and decisive; for, although 
they are only in at-cordance with the most pre- 
valent opinions of farmers upon the point, yei 
prevalent opinions are not always in accord- 
998 



ance with truth, and are never to be implicitly 
received until sustained by evidence, which is 
independent of prejudice, and more accurate 
than surmise. 

Mr. R. Somerville, in a paper published ia 
the Communications to the Board of Agriculture, 
details experiments fully substantiating the 
fact, that the disease is communicable to the 
crop from the parent seed. He mixed some 
smutted grains with others perfectly healthy, 
and kept them in a box for two months ; after 
which, previously to sowing, he rubbed them 
together between his hands. The sample was 
then divided into two equal parts, one of which 
was well washed with clear water three or four 
times, and then sown in a drill in his garden. 
The other half was sown similarly, but without 
being washed or otherwise prepared. The 
blades appeared above the surface at the same 
time, and during the first two months of their 
growth there was no visible difference in their 
appearance. Soon afterwards many of the 
plants from the unwashed seed were observed 
to have a darker and more dirty green hue than 
those from the seed that had been cleansed 
with water. This difference of colour by de- 
grees became more striking, and increased 
until the grain was protruded from the blade, 
at which time many of the dark-coloured plants 
evinced symptoms of decay ; and the whole of 
them, when fully developed, were found to 
be completely destroyed by the smut. The 
plants from the washed seed produced scarce- 
ly a single diseased ear. These results were 
not fortuitous, for the experiment afforded a 
similar testimony when repealed the next 
season. 

The experiments of Mr. Harrup agree with 
the preceding. In these, wheat, consisting 
half of sound and half of smutted grains, was 
sown without being previously at all prepared, 
and this produced a crop of which nearly two- 
thirds were smutted. Similar wheat, soaked 
for twelve hours in a saturated solution of 
common salt, and then mixed with quicklime, 
produced on the same soil, in the same situa- 
tion, and in the same season, a crop in which 
not a smutted ear could be found. 

Similar, but more extended, and even more 
accurate experiments, were completed by Mr. 
Bevan, and are recorded in the ninth volume 
of The jlgricultural Magazine. They give the 
result of his trials with various liquids as 
steeps for seed-wheat. The wheat was grown 
on a sandy soil, at Leighton in Bedfordshire. 
The columns in the accompanying table which 
are marked A. contain the results from the 
sound grain that was sown ; and those marked 
B. are the results from smutted samples. (See 
Table at top of the next page.) 

The conclusion from these and many other 
accordant experiments is, that washing the 
seed is effective in preventing the communica- 
tion of the disease to the crop to which it gives 
birth. If the washing was frequently repeated, 
or the cleansing made complete, by passing a 
continual stream through the seed for some 
hours, it is probable that simple water might 
be employed for this purpose as effectually as 
any saline solution. But as this would require 
more labour than is desirable, and as the salts. 



SMUT. 



SMUT. 



&c., employed are beneficial in other ways, by I ing to the future vigour of the plants, steeps are 
protecting the seed from vermin, and minister- generally and very properly adopted. 



Liquid employed. 



Solution of potash .--... 
muriate of potash - . . . 
nitrate of potash (saltpetre) - 
soda ...... 

muriate of soda (common salt) 
sulphate of soda (Glauber salt) 
muriate of ammonia (sal ammoniac) 
common soot - - - - - 

lime saturated - - - - - 

nitric acid (aqua fortis)* 
muriatic acid (spirit of salt) - 
sulphuric acid (oil of vitrol) - 

Dry in its natural state - - - . - 

Washed in common water - - - - 



Specific 

Gravity 

of the 

Solution. 



Number of 
smutted Ears in 
three Sheaves. 



1-357 
1097 
1-080 
1-056 
1089 
1047 
1026 
1025 
1-003 
1-016 
1011 
1-050 



■ { 



6 

None 
«own. 



81 
218 
115 
159 
290 
241 
150 
123 
2 



323 

107 



Bushels of ^ood 
Wheat per Acre. 



21-6 
20-2 
23-8 
202 
24-0 
21-6 
19-8 
20 8 
21-9 

20-7 
20-4 
20-3 



B. 
13-6 
10-1 
14-3 
11-7 
14-5 
12-3 
17-6 
11-4 
12-4 

16-1 
17-8 
14-7 
18-3 



Cwts. of Straw 
per Acre. 



36-6 
360 
36-0 
35-6 
415 
38-5 
35-4 
34-8 
38-7 

35-7 
35-4 
35-7 



B. 
29-1 
21 1 
31-9 
26-7 
33-3 
27-8 
302 
25-3 
25-9 

34-1 
371 
31-0 
35-8 



* The seed treated with this acid did not vegetate. 



The experiments of Mr. Sevan indicate that 
lime-water is the most effective of these prepa- 
rations ; and, if this be adopted, it may be pre- 
pared by mixing 1 pound of fresh lime with 
3 gallons of boiling water, and the clear liquor 
then to be poured off and immediately used. 
In this liquor the wheat should be soaked for 
12 hours, stirred twice or thrice during the 
time, and then mixed upon a floor, with the 
powder made by pouring 3 gallons of boiling 
water upon 4 pounds of lime. I have had no 
experience of the effects of lime-water as a 
preventive of the smut; but with stale urine, 
and a solution of common salt, I have wit- 
nessed numerous and extensive experiments. 
The results, without exception, were favour- 
able and nearly similar; and this being the 
case, a preference is to be given to common 
salt, as being decidedly the most cleanly and 
the least disgusting. The mode which I have 
observed to be the most effective is, to wash 
the seed with pure water, pouring this off with 
all the floating grains, and then allowing the 
seed to soak for 12 hours in a solution of com- 
mon salt, having a strength or specific gravity 
sufficient to float a hen's egg. I have no doubt 
that lime, like common salt, is effectual against 
the disease, by reason of its powerful action 
upon the texture of the fungus tribe. Every 
housekeeper knows how completely mush- 
rooms dissolve away when sprinkled with salt; 
and in experiments I have made upon the 
Urego segetum, I found that the effect of common 
salt upon this fungus is not less remarkable. 

Mr. Tull, MM. de Lignerolle, Douat, and 
others, agree in recommending that the seed to 
be sown upon any farm should be frequently 
obtained from other soils ; but, however bene- 
ficial this may be for securing other desired 
effects, I do not understand how it can prevent 
the occurrence of smut unless the seed is ob- 
tained from a crop and a district notably free 
from the disease. There is little doubt but that 
the method in which the disease is imparted to 
the plant is by its root imbibing the extremely 
minute seeds of the Urcdo along with the mois- 
ture of the soil. This opinion is confirmed by 
the observation that the disease is most preva- 
lent when the winter has been mild and the 
spring wet ; for, in such seasons, the abundant 
moisture passing through the soil is most likely 



to convey the seeds to the mouths of the plants' 
radicle fibres. 

I remember trying some experiments, the 
full details of which I have accidentally lost, 
in which I buried some of the Urcdo segetum 
about an inch below the surface of the soil, in 
a garden pot in which some wheat was grow- 
ing, supplying those plants, during their after 
growth, plentifully with water poured upon the 
surface of the soil. Not one of these plants 
escaped infection. 

Another garden pot, in which wheat from the 
same sample was growing, and similarly treated 
in every respect, but to which moisture was 
supplied solely by means of the saucer in 
which it was placed, both pots being sheltered 
entirely from the rain, produced plants which 
were not at all infected. Although it is very 
apparent that the smut is generally imparted 
to a wheat crop by the agency of the seed 
sown, yet I am by no means of opinion that 
this is the only source of infection. I have 
kept ears of wheat that were covered and de- 
stroyed by the Uredo during more than twelve 
months in a situation where they experienced 
the vicissitudes of temperature during all the 
seasons, unprotected by more than the paper 
envelope in which they were suspended in an 
outhouse. Yet when the Uredo that had been 
thus exposed was mixed with healthy well- 
washed seed-wheat, this produced diseased 
plants in a triplicate proportion more numerous 
than that not so mixed. This experiment de- 
monstrates that frost and drought, acting in 
concert with a damp atmosphere, do not destroy 
the vegetating power of the Uredo's seed. Such 
being the fact, why may not this seed remain 
in the soil ready to impart the plague 1 We 
know that, owing to its extreme lightness, the 
seed floats buoyantly in the air, and may be 
carried by winds to distant soils, which in the 
autumn of the same year, before any extremity 
of cold has been endured, will have to bear the 
wheat crop for the following harvest. The 
opinion that the soil is one source of infection, 
is sustained by the fact that fields in the vici- 
nity of the sea are rarely injured, and never 
extensively, by the ravages of the smut. 
Such soils are impregnated more than any 
other with common salt, and the effect of 
this saline compound upon the Ureao has beer 

999 



SMUT. 



SNAKE-ROOT. 



noticed already. These considerations suggest 
that applications to the soil as well as to the 
seed are necessary for the banishment of the 
disease ; but a more full notice, and some cu- 
rious particulars upon this point, will be found 
detailed under the head Mildew. 

I have frequently examined the roots of 
wheat plants affected by the smut, but have 
never perceived that they had a diseased ap- 
pearance; a fact which I find confirmed by 
the researches of Mr. Kirby. Although the 
root is not affected, yet I have invariably found 
the smutted plants of a form and habit much 
less robust than those undiseased. The ave- 
rage result of Mr. Sevan's experiments is, that 
smutted wheat produces straw in the proportion 
of only 30 to 36-75, when compared with wheat 
unattacked by the smut. This is not a result 
contrary to that which might be anticipated ; 
for in plants, as well as animals, an organic 
affection so serious as this is usually accom- 
panied by a general emaciation of the frame. 
So decidedly is this effect produced upon wheat, 
that a practised eye can at once detect by its 
appearance, before the diseased ear is pro- 
truded, a plant that is thus distempered. The 
stem and leaves look upright, thin, and stiff, 
wearing the aspect that is best described, to 
those who know the appearance, by the term 
staring. I cannot conclude without remarking 
that these facts strengthen the analogy I am so 
fond of tracing between plants and animals. 
The atrophy exhibited by both, when under the 
influence of disease, is strikingly illustrative 
of their close relationship; and this is further 
carried on by their being equally liable to the 
ravages of parasites. The skin of every ani- 
mal is liable to be infested by vermin, as its in- 
testines and other viscera are by worms and 
various other creatures. So plants are not 
only subject to invermination, but, like ani- 
mals, they are preyed upon by various genera 
of their own race. Their barks ar« assailed 
by numerous lichens and fungi, whilst inter- 
nally they are a prey to the Uredo I have just 
described, and to several others of the fungus 
tribe. Animals have their larger parasites, as 
the tick, &c., and vegetables similarly bear the 
misseltoe, dodder, and others. This repeated 
urging that plants are closely allied to animals 
in every particular is not without its use. 
Every year's experience convinces me that it 
is not less beneficial to cultivate plants with 
the least possible injury to their various parts, 
than it is to treat our farming stock with gen- 
tleness and an attention to their comfort ; and 
it is by demonstrating the analogy between 
the two great divisions of created beings, that 
the reason of the cultivator is to be drawn to 
regulate his practice. 

Finally, I will observe, that the farmer is 
much too prone to regard the diseases of his 
crops as of trivial importance. In such cases 
as where the curl destroys whole fields of his 
potatoes, or the mildew reduces the produce 
of each acre of wheat to a few bushels, he is 
miserably sensible of the injury he has sus- 
tamed ; but if, within the circle of corn-ears 
around him, as he surveys his crops, he only 
sees a sprinkling of those affected with the 



consequence. Yet, in the experiments of Mr. 
Bevan, in the instances where only two smut- 
ted ears occurred in three sheaves, the weight 
of the straw was reduced nearly one-third, and 
that of the grain three-sevenths. (Essay by 
G. W. Johnson, Quart. Journ. Jtgr. vol. ix. p. 45.) 
See Blight and Mildew. 

SMUT-MILL. Of late years the millers in 
the United States avail themselves of contri- 
vances called smiU-niills, the passage of the 
wheat through which clears it very effectually 
from the offensive dust. Wheat affected with 
smut was formerly much objected to by the 
grain merchants and millers, but since the in- 
troduction of the machines referred to, is so 
readily cleansed that smut is scarcely objected 
to in the sample, and the market price reduced 
but little, if at all. 

An inquiry made, in March, 1842, into the 
merits of a smut-mill invented by Mr. Wm. C. 
Grimes, of York, Pennsylvania, by a committee 
of the Franklin Institute of Pennsylvania, wan 
ranted them in recommending the machine to 
the notice of millers, as capable not only of 
making good white flour from wheat so badly 
smutted as to be generally considered unmer- 
chantable, but which will also improve the 
general quality of flour, by the removal of 
cheat, and of the down or furze which covers 
one end of the grain, and of most other acci- 
dental foreign matters which tend to injure the 
quality of the flour. {Jour. of the Franklin Inst, 
of Penn. vol.iv., third series, p. 32.) 

SNAILS {Helix — Helicida). A well-known 
genus of molluscous animals, comprising a 
great many species. They live throughout the 
winter in a torpid state, in cavities in the earth, 
which are covered over with a calcareous kind 
of wall, partly formed with its mucous secre- 
tion. The animal escapes from its cell in April, 
bursting its operculum, and again breathes as 
before its hybernation. The species of shell- 
snails are very extensive. In the garden, snails 
do much damage to the vegetables in cultivated 
grounds, biting off pieces of the leaves by 
means of a semicircular, dentated, horny plate 
which is affixed to the upper lip. To extirpate 
them, it has been recommended to strew the 
ground with lime and ashes, or salt. Snails 
seldom annoy farmers, unless it be under the 
hedges ; and if they venture out into the mid- 
dle of a field, the roller is a certain destructive 
implement to their fragile coverings. The red, 
or great vine-snail {H.pomalia), formed one of 
the luxuries of the tables of the ancient Ro- 
mans, and by peculiar feeding and other treat- 
ment was brought to attain an immense size. 
It is still an article of food in certain cantons 
of Switzerland and France, and some of the 
provinces of Spain and Portugal. This spe- 
cies of helix was brought to England by the 
Howard family, and placed on the grounds in 
the neighbourhood of Box-hill, where it is still 
found ; but it does not attain to the size it often 
displays in Italy. It is supposed to be a good 
article of food for the consumptive. 

SNAKE-ROOT. Several plants in the United 
States go under this appellation. The Virginia 
snake-root {Aristolochia serpentaria) is the well- 
known fibrous root, noted for its intense bitter- 



mut, he looks upon this as of insignificant | ness, and extensively employed in medicine as 
1000 



SNOW. 



SOIL. 



as a tonic. It is found in rich wooillands, in the 
Middle States. The root is perennial. 

SNOW. This well-known precipitation fronn 
the atmosphere serves to defend winter grain- 
crops and all other vegetables from the severity 
of frosts; for, being a very bad conductor of 
heat, it prevents the internal warmth of the 
earth from being carried off through the surface 
of the land, and consequently ameliorates the 
soil. The plants being thus sheltered, shoot 
forth in the spring with renewed vigour; and, 
cherished by the genial rays of the sun, vegetate 
with increased luxuriance. As ammonia and 
other saline matters, possessing fertilizing mat- 
ters, have been detected in snow, it not only 
cherishes vegetation by the protection it affords, 
but by the direct influence of the fertilizers 
referred to. 

SODA. See Kelp ; Salts, their uses to vege- 
tation, &fC. 

SOD BURNING. See Paring and Burning. 

SOFT-GRASS. See Holcus. 

SOIL. The upper surface of the earth which 
furnishes a medium or basis for the growth of 
plants. Prof. Johnston, in his Elements of Che- 
miftry, has remarked, that the earthy part of the 
soil is not, as some have supposed, a mere sub- 
stratum, in which the plant may so root itself as 
to be able to maintain its upright position against 
the force of winds and tempests, but it is a 
storehouse of food also, from which the roots of 
the plant may select such earthy substances as 
are 7iecessary or fitted to promote its growth. 
And the young farmer, when he is endeavouring 
to understand the true theory of the food of 
plants, and the operation of fertilizers, must dis- 
card from his mind all suspicion that these 
earthy and saline substances, found in the sub- 
stance of his crops, are merely there by acci- 
dent, or absorbed by their roots accidentally in 
the moisture of the soil ; for, on the contrary, it 
has been shown that these substances are always 
found in the plant, and that they vary in amount 
at different stages of its growth. Thus, to give 
a single instance, Mr. J. P. Norton (Trans. High. 
Soc. 1845, p. 321; Former's Almanach, vol. iii. 
p. 19) has shown that the ashes of the stalk of 
the unripe potato-oat contained 



These, he calculates [Elfmeni^ of Chcmittry, p. 
51), will contain and carry away from the soil 
(supposing none of them to be eaten on the 
land)— 





)r.s. 




lbs. 


Potash . • 


. 280 


Sulphuric acid 


Ill 


boila . . 


. l.jO 


Phosphoric acid 


90 


Lime . . 


. 242 


Chlorine . 


39 


Magnesia . 


. 50 






Silica . . 


. 318 


Total 


1280 



So that, if we carry off the entire produce, and 
add none of it again in the shape of manure, we 
ought every fourth year to add to the soil per 
acre, if we wish to restore it to its original con- 
dition. 

Pearl or potash . . . 390 lbs. at. a cost of £3 10 
Crvstallized carbonate of 

soda 500 " " 2 12 

Common salt .... 65 " " 020 

Gypsum 60 '= " 16 

Lime 160 " " 8 

Epsom salts (sulphate of 

magnesia) .... 250 " " 150 

Bone-dust 360 " " 12 



Potash and soda 
Common salt 
Lime . . . . 
Magnesia 
Oxide of iron . 
Sulphuric acid . 
Phosphoric acid 
Silica . . . . 



June 4. 


June 18. 


July 2. 


24-94 


26-49 


36-25 


32-66 


24-94 


11.62 


2-40 


3-74 


2-64 


0-88 


2-20 


1-17 


0-39 


0-40 


0-88 


6-15 


8-51 


7-98 


16-15 


12-55 


2-21 


16-29 


20.41 


36-64 



July 16 
42-43 
4-46 
4-12 
1-47 
0-62 
7-84 
6-31 
34-85 



It is true that the amomit of these fixed or in- 
organic substances varies in the same species of 
plant grown on different soils; but, although 
the proportions vary, the ingredients do not 
alter; and so closely is the proportion preserved 
in which they exist, that Professor Johnston has 
been able to determine pretty accurately the 
general amount of the inorganic ingredients car- 
ried off the soil, per acre, by the ordinary rota- 
tion of the four-course system. As the basis of 
this calculation, he supposes the turnips to con- 
sist of 25 tons of bulbs, and 7 tons of tops ; the 
barley, of 38 bushels of 63 lbs. each, and 1 ton 
of straw; the clover and rye-grass, of 1 ton of 
each in hay; and the wheat crop to be composed 
of 25 bushels of 60 lbs., and 1| tons of straw. 
126 



Total 



1785 



£8 13 2 



We may safely, then, adopt the conclusion of 
Liebig, when he tells us (Organic Chemistry, p. 
63) that " many of these inorganic constituents 
vary according to the soil in which the plants 
grow, but a certain number of them are indis- 
pensable to their developement. All substances 
in solution in a soil are absorbed by the roots 
of plants, exactly as a sponge imbibes a liquid, 
and all that it contains, without selection. The 
substances thus conveyed to plants are retained 
in greater or less quantity, or are entirely sepa- 
rated when not suited for assimilation." 

The results of these chemical researches it 
will be found very serviceable to bear in mind, 
in the investigation of the composition and uses 
of all fertilizers. 

The chief cultivated soils with whi< h the 
farmer has to encounter, although in reality mix- 
tures of sand, clay, and lime with various saline 
and organic matters, may, for the convenience 
of something like a classification, be arranged 
under the heads of sand, clay, and lime. These, 
it must be remembered, are fertilizing according 
to the proportions in which they are blended to- 
gether ; and, as a general rule, it may be taken 
that, whenever any one of these earths is defi- 
cient in a soil, the addition of such earth will 
add to its fertility; and hence they all, in some 
situation or other, are found to be useful addi- 
tions or fertilizers to soils in which the added 
earth naturally exists in insufficient piopor- 
tions. 

In burning a piece of wood or any other vege- 
table substance, a small portion of it remains 
behind, called the ash or inorganic part — which 
is a compound substance consisting of various mi- 
neral substances, gases, &c., that have served as 
the food of the growing plant or tree, and which 
it is the proper function of soils to supply. 
Such are silica or flint; alumina, or the basis of 
clay; potash, soda. lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, 
chlorine united with the ?oda in the form of com- 
mon salt, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, car- 
bonic acid. The portions of the wood or other 
vegetable matter lost or dispersed in the burning 
are termed the organic constituents. Sand, clay, 
and lime, althoiisrh they compose such a large 
amount of the inorganic constituents of soils, 
have associated with them many other substancet 
4 F 2 1001 



SOIL. 



SOIL. 



which exert important influences upon the growth 
of phints, anil the ratios of which it is of the 
highest importance to the practical farmer to 
understand. The presence of the substances 
constantly found in fertile soils in their due pro- 
portions, however small these may appear, is 
just as necessary to maintain fertility, as that 
of the substances existing in the largest propor- 
tions. All the essential ingredients of a good 
soil must be present to secure a good crop, al- 
though they need not always exist in precisely 
the same proportions. Any one of these primary 
constituents of soils in superabundant quantity 



■wih lessen or destroy fertility. Too much pot- 
ash, salt, magnesia, iron, lime, or clay, will all 
impair or entirely destroy productiveness in 
soils, until these have had the supeiabundance 
washed away by rains. The barrenness of a 
soil may arise from its containing too small or 
too large a proportion of one or other of the 
essential ingredients. The proportions of the 
several inorganic substances required by plants 
which are the most common objects of culti- 
vation in England, are presented in the follow- 
ing table from Prof. Johnston's Lectures. 



Percentage of 


■ 

Wheat 


straw Oats 

rjf wilh't 

Wheal husk. 


straw 

nf 
Oats. 


Husk 

of |Barlev 
Oals. ! 


straw 

of 
Barley 


Rye. 


straw 

of 

Rye. 


Field 
Beaus 


straw 

,■( 
Beans. 


Peas. 


=>'"»• 1 Tur- 
Pet. 1 ■"•'- 


Potatoes 


Potasli 

Soda - 

Lime , 

Magnesia 

Oxide of iron . . . . 
O.xide of manga- 


23 T2 
905 
a- SI 

1203 
0-67 


I2.44I 26-18 

016 

0-70 5-95 
3-82 9-95 
1-30 0-40 


19-14 
9-69 

8-07 
3-78 
1-83 


8- 13 

'315 
1-09 
1-33 

0-61 
1-54 
6-46 
0-73 


13-64 
814 
2-62 

7-46 

1-48 


6-31 
0-61 
9-53 
3-22 
0-83 


22-08 
11-67 

4-93 
10-35 

1-36 


17-36 
0-31 
9-06 
2-41 
1-36 


33-56 
10-60 
5-77 
7-99 
0-56 


53-08 
1-60 

19-99 
669 
0-22 

016 
7-24 
109 
2-56 


30 05 
7-42 
5-29 
6-46 
0-99 

"33-29 
4-36 

3- 13 

0-51 


4-73 39- 82 

110-86 

54-91| 12-75 
6-88, 4-68 
0-40 0-89 

015 

4-83 6-69 
6-77 13-15 
0-09 3-68 


55-75 
1-86 
2-07 
5-28 
0-52 

12-57 
13-65 
4-27 


Pliosphoric acid . 
Sulphuric acid .. 


49-81 
0-24 


3-07 4.3 84 
5-82 10-45 
109 0-26 


2-50 
3-25 
3 25 


38-93 
010 
0-01 


308 
1-63 
0-97 


49-55 
0-98 


3-82 
0-83 
0-46 


37-57 
1-00 
73 


Chloride of so- 




Alumina ....... 

Silica - 


li? 


'■ 0-00 

65-38, 2-67 


Vs-ia 


76 i 6 


0-21 

27-10 


1-39 

70-58 


0-43 


64 -SO 


lis 


0-32 
705 


121 

20-03 


705 


4-23 


99-50 


99-78 99-76 


10000 


99-20 


99-72 


98-15 


101-35 


100- 11 


98-93 


100- 00 100- 00 


100-00 


99-37 


100-20 



Although some of these substances make up 
a comparatively large amount of the ashes of 
plants, potash composing 23 per cent., and phos- 
phoric acid nearly one-half the ash of wheat, 
oats, barley, and rye, the proportion of these in 
the soil appears exceedingly small, compared to 
the whole bulk. How eagerly then must such 
substunces be sought after by the roots of plants 
and appropriated as food ! Straw contains but 
a very small quantity of phosphoric acid. The 
potash taken up by Indian corn, is in very 
much the same proportion as that abstracted 
by wheat. The phosphoric acid ascends into the 
grain, whilst the silicious matter lodges in the 
straw or stalk, giving these strength to support the 
ears. In the potato more than half the ash consists 
of potash, whilst the proportion of phosphoric acid 
is very small. Thus do plants of various kinds and 
families differ materially in their demands on the 
soil for sustenance. Even different parts of the 
same plants require various proportions of the nu- 
tritious substances. How is it possible for the 
delicate fibrous roots of plants to derive any 
nourishment from such hard materials as flint, 
limestone, shells, bones, &c. ? The answer is 
that these hard substances must all undergo solu- 
tion in water before they can be absorbed by de- 
licate roots and circulated through the infinitely 
minute sap-vessels. The perfection of refined 
agriculture consists in knowing how to adapt 
with precision the elements requisite as food 
and tlie modes of culture necessary in differ- 
ent soils to favour in the highest degree the 
growth and fullest developement of plants of 
various descriptions. One of the most impor- 
tant points connected with practical farming 
is to be able to specify what particular plants 
take from the soil, and what must be applied 
in order to restore the deficiency with least 
expense. 

Professor J. F. W. Johnston has given the 
followins: tabular view of the composition of ^ 
•oils of difl^erent degrees of fertility. 1 

1002 



The soil, of which the composition is given 
in the first column, had produced crops for 60 
years without manure, — a7id still co?itained a 
se7isible quantity of all the snbstavces required 
by plants. That in the second column produced 
good crops when regularly manured, — it teas in 
want of three or four substances only, which were 
given to it by the Tnanure. The third was hope- 
lessly barren, — it was in waiit of many suhstavcea 
which ordinary manuring could not supply. 





Fertile, 
without 
Manure. 


Fertile, 

with 
Manure. 


Barren. 




97 
648 
57 
59 

Si 
61 

1 

2 

40 
14 


50 

833 

51 

18 

8 

30 

3 

trace 

i 

4^ 


40 

778 

91 

4 

1 

81 

i 

trace 

4i 


Silica (in the sand and clay) 
Alumina (in the clay) 




Oxide of iron 

Oxide of manganese 


^Z'^'' . i chiefly as com. salt 
Chlorine, J ' 
Sulphuric acid 


Carbonic acid (combined 
with the lime & magnesia 








1000 1000 


1000 



Soils generally have in them some of the ele- 
ments of fertility so locked up by strong union 
with other substances, that plants cannot appro- 
priate them to their uses, unless something be 
added which has the power to destroy the 
natural combination, release the fertilizers, and 
render them accessible to the wants of ve- 
getables. Under such circumstances, the ap- 
plication of lime will unlock potash where 
granite or felspar and mica exist, and the freed 
potash will in turn render silex soluble. [See 

SiLEX, LlTVIE, S.\LTS.] 

Heavy and stiff clays, which cannot be culti- 
vated in grain crops to profit, will often pay 
well for grazing purposes. 



SOILING. 



SOOT. 



SOILING. The practice of supporting animals 
in the summer season, with green food, cut daily 
and given to them in their houses, stalls, or yards. 
A number of different plants and grasses are 
resorted to for this purpose, particularly those 
which have a quick and luxuriant growth ; as lu- 
cern, sainfoin, tares, clover, maize, turnips, &c. 

Soiling appears to be highly advantageous, in a 
variety of ways, by the food being consumed with 
much less waste, by the great increase of good 
manure that is produced, and by the stock f^/eding 
with less interruption and inconvenience, from 
their being more effectually shaded from the ex- 
cessive heat of the sun, and better protected from 
the attacks of flies and other insects. In all these 
respects it would seem to have a great superi- 
ority over that of letting the animals range indis- 
criminately in the pastures or other grass lands. 

Soiling has been found, by the most careful ex- 
periments, to answer perfectly both with horses, 
neat cattle, and swine; and with cows it has been 
found very beneficial in the trials of Mr. Curwen 
and several others. 

By an extensive and judicious use of soiling, 
the farmer may derive benefit in being enabled 
to have a considerably larger extent of land both 
under the states of tillage and grass, from the con- 
siderable increase of manure that is produced. 

That a great saving of food is effected by 
keeping cattle and other stock in pens, yards, or 
stables, and supplying them with fresh-cut green 
herbage, is undoubted. Many say that three, 
and some assert even four animals can be well 
kept upon the produce of land where soiling is 
practised, more than the same land would sus- 
tain if pastured. Besides the very great advan- 
tage of enabling double or treble the stock to be 
kept on a given number of acres, soiling offers 
another in the greatly increased amount of ma- 
nure, which is far beyond what would bo sup- 
posed by persons unacquainted with the practice. 
Where proper arrangements are made and care 
taken, all the manure of animals may be saved, 
instead of being scattered and partially lost, as 
is the case with a large proportion dropped in 
the lanes or fields. It gives the farmer an op- 
portunity of applying all his straw and coarse 
litter to the best advantage, by spreading and 
using it as an absorbent for the less solid por- 
tions of the excrements of his animals. A good 
supply of litter is indispensable in order to de- 
rive the fullest advantages from soiling. By 
such means, and properly arranged gutters lead- 
ing to tanks or cisterns, the farmer has the power 
of saving nearly all of the li/juid or best portion 
of the manure of his cattle, his main dependence 
for keeping up the productiveness of his lands. 
(See Liquid Manure, and Night-Soil.) 

Another advantage derived from soiling — and 
a most important one, too — is the saving of 
fencing in the interior of farms. 

Among the objections urged against the prac- 
tice, are the great amount of labour required for 
cutting and carrying the feed for a large stock, 
and the difficulty of getting a supply of green 
food fit to mow sufficiently early in the season. 
It has also been asserted, that cows soiled will 
not give so much milk as when grazed ; but the 
experience of others shows results entirely con- 
trary, and that, by judicious feeding and manage- 
ment, the amount of milk may be regulated 
almost at pleasure. The success of the plan 
depends almost as much upon securing to the 
animals proper ventilationj cleanliness, and com- 



fort, as upon the nature of the food. Whatever 
system of soiling may be adopted, it would 
seem of great importance that the animals should, 
for the promotion of their health, be occasion- 
ally turned out into the open air, during some 
portion or portions of the day. As this cannot 
be done in many large dairy establishments in 
or adjacent to large cities, cows are often kept 
tied up in their stalls for weeks, and many for 
months together, to the great injury of their 
health, and deterioration of their milky secretions. 
In an interesting report made by the Commission- 
ers on the State of Health in Large Towns in 
England, the following observation occurs: ''It 
is known that tubercular consumption is very 
prevalent among the cows which supply milk to 
the inhabitants of some large towns, where they 
are immured during part of every year in dairies 
perfectly closed ; and which, being too small for 
the number of animals which they contain, soon 
become filled with heated, vitiated air, for the 
removal of which no provision is made. This 
is remarkably the case with the cows belonging 
to the milkmen of Paris, which are annually 
carried off by consumption in considerable num- 
bers. A confirmation of the influence of this 
cause is afforded by the exemption of the horse 
from consumption, although frequenily placed in 
the same circumstances with the cows, but 
with intervals of exposure to fresh air, and the 
enjoyment of exercise. Where a number of 
horses, however, are collected together in ill 
ventilated stables, they may become consupfip- 
tive. A discovery of this kind was lately made, 
as to the influence of defective ventilation on 
the cavalry horses in some of the government 
barracks in England ; and it is stated that a 
saving of several thousand pounds per annum 
was effected by an easy impxovement of the 
ventilation of the barracks near the metropolis." 
(See Ventilation.) 

In feeding cows, it must be remerftbered thai 
they are very capricious in their appetites, and 
do not like to be kept constantly on the same 
kind of food. A variety should therefore always 
be resorted to, when practicable. The food 
may be given to them several times a day, never 
less than three times, viz. early morning, noon, 
and night, and oftener when convenient. Water 
should be allowed morning and evening, and 
salt must be at hand, so that they can help 
themselves at pleasure. 

SOLAR INFLUENCE. See Tempera tuke. 
Light, and Atmosphere. 

SOOT is very extensively employed in the 
east of England, as a powerful manure, and pro- 
duces, when used at the rate of 12 or 20 bushels 
per acre, most luxuriant crops of wheat and other 
grain. This valuable fertilizer is composed of 
a mixture of charcoal, an oil, salts of ammonia, 
some muriatic acid, lime, magnesia, silica, and 
other foreign substances ; but the charcoal is by 
far the largest ingredient, and has a powerful 
influence on vegetation ; and, according to Lie- 
big, it can "completely replace vegetable mould 
or humus. Plants thrive in powdered charcoal, 
and may be brought to blossom and bear fruit if 
exposed to the influence of rain and the atmo- 
sphere." (Organ. Chem. p. 61.) All the sub- 
stances contained in soot are the natural food of 
vegetables; the carbon gradually combines with 
the oxygen of the atmosphere, and is converted 
into carbonic acid gas, which is readily absorbea 
by the roots and leaves of plants. 

1003 



SORREL. 

In Essex, the chief employment of soot is for 
wheat, and it is generally applied by the chim- 
ney sweepers to the land, out of a basket, in 
the same manner that seed is sown. This is 
usually done in the spring of the year, in 
March, April, or May. Wheat so treated 
speedily assumes a very deep green, and on 
some soils grows with greatly increased luxu- 
riance. Soot was employed by the Rev. E. 
Cartwright as a manure for potatoes, both by 
itself and in combination with various other 
fertilizing substances. The experiments were 
made on a portion of the same soil as that de- 
scribed in the article Ashes. The following 
were the results obtained: 



1. Thi) soil, without any manure, yielded bushels 

of potatoes ------- 

2. Soot 30 bushels ------ 

3. Soot 30 bushels, sail 8 bushels - - - - 



157 

192 
240 



Various agriculturists have noticed the good 
results from mixing salt and soot. Mr. George 
Sinclair, in his prize essay On Salt as a Manure, 
mentions it as "remarkable" in the case of 
carrots. Mr. Belfield of Elford has done the 
same with regard to wheat. 

In Mr. Sinclair's experiments upon carrots, 

Per Acre. 
Tons. cwt. lbs. 

The soils without any manure produced 
carrots 23 9 107 

Soil with 6J bushels of salt dug in - - 44 14 17 
Soil with G\ bushels of salt, and 6i bush- 
els soot 40 497 

In both the liquid and solid state, it has been 
employed by Mr. John Robertson of Kilkenny, 
with great success. " On meadows," he says, 
"I have used soot with great advantage in sub- 
stance; and though sown by the hand, one 
dressing gave me always heavy crops of hay 
for two successive seasons. But this is a 
wasteful mode of applying it, a great portion 
of its ammonia, one of its most active ingre- 
dients, being volatilized, and dissipated in the 
atmosphere: when dissolved in water, there is 
no waste, — it is all available; and for horti- 
cultural purposes I have mostly used it in that 
state, mixing it up in the proportion of about 
six quarts to a hogshead of water. Asparagus, 
peas, and a variety of other vegetables, I have 
manured with it, with as much effect as if I 
had used solid dung; but to plants in pots, 
particularly pines, I have found it admirably 
well adapted ; when watered with it, they as- 
sume a deep, healthy green, and grow strong 
and luxuriant." Mr. A. Main makes some 
pertinent remarks on soot as a top-dressing to 
crops, and describes a machine for distributing 
it, in the sixth volume of the Trans, of the High- 
land Soc. p. 535. 

SORREL (the genus rumex, from the shape 
of the leaves in many of the species, resem- 
bling a pike or spear). There are in England 
several indigenous species of sorrel, some of 
which have already been described. The 
,-common English sorrel (Rumex acetosa) is a 
perennial plant, met with almost everywhere 
in meadows and pastures, flowering in June. 
The root is long and tapering, astringent, and 
somewhat woody. The herbage is smooth, 
powerfully and agreeably acid. Stem from 1 
to 2 feet high, erect, simple, leafy, striated, 
^.eaves oblong, arrow-shaped. Flowers dicE- 
1004 



SOUTHERNWOOD. 

cious, with permanent tuberculated petals. The 
acidulous taste of sorrel depends on binoxalate 
of potassa and tartaric acid: the astringency 
on tannic acid. 

The flavour of the wood-sorrel (Oxalis aceto- 
sella) is much more grateful, and the leaves 
are more juicy, than those of the common 
sorrel (R. aretosa) and the French or Roman 
sorrel (R. saitatus). The acid is merely the 
oxalic, free and also combined with potassa and 
ammonia. It likewise contains some saccha- 
rine matter. The garden cultivation required 
by them is identical. The leaves are employed 
at all seasons of the year, in salads, sauces, 
&c. The wood-sorrel requires a silicious, yet 
moist and moderately fertile soil, in a shady 
situation, as beneath a hedge with a northern 
aspect. The garden sorrel thrives best in any 
mouldy garden soil that tends to lightness ra- 
ther than tenacity, and is not too poor. The 
situation must be open. French sorrel is most 
healthful in a light, dry soil, that is tolerably 
fertile, in an open compartment. The rumexes 
are propagated by seed, and all of them by 
parting the roots, both which modes may be 
practised from the middle of February until 
the same period in May, and by the latter also 
in September and October. The finest plants 
are raised by seed, but those from portions of 
the roots are soonest in production. 

Sheep-sorrel, or field-sorrel (i?. acetosella), is 
abundantly difl^used throughout the United 
States, and often forms a great pest to the far- 
mer. The best way to subdue it is by means 
of liberal dressings with lime. This has been 
disputed by some, but where the application 
has been made in large quantity, it will seldom 
or ever fail. Of this genus two other species, 
troublesome to farmers, have been already 
mentioned. These are the sour or curled dock 
(R. crupt(s), and the bitter or broad-leaved dock 
(R. obtusifolius). See Dock. 

SORREL TREE (Jndromeda arborea). This 
is the only species of andromeda, which rises to 
a sufficient height to be ranked among forest 
trees. It begins to appear on the AUeghanies 
in Virginia, and is found to their termination 
in Georgia. In the fertile mountainous regions 
of North Carolina, it attains a height of 50 feet, 
with 12 or 15 inches in diameter. The name 
is derived from the acidity of the leaves, which 
in drying become black. When sumac is not 
to be obtained, these leaves are used as a sub- 
stitute in dyeing wool. The tree will endure 
much cold, and grows well in the vicinity of 
New York. It has small, white flowers, formed 
into spikes 5 or 6 inches long. These render 
the tree a very pretty ornament to gardens, &c. 
SOUTHERNWOOD {Absinthium). The field 
southernwood {A. campestris) is a rather rare 
species. It is perennial in habit. The whole 
herb is without any aromatic or bitter flavour. 
Stems at first prostrate, becoming more or less 
upright as the flowers appear, branched, leafy, 
straight and wand-like, smooth, often reddish, 
near 2 feet high. Leaves irregularly and dou- 
bly pinnatifid, in many linear; blunt segments. 
Flowers drooping, small, ovate, yellow with a 
purplish calyx, forming numerous slender leafy 
clusters at the ends of the stems and branches. 
See Wormwood. 



SOWING. 



SPAN-WORMS. 



SOWING. See Seed. 

SOWING MACHINE. See Dhili.. 

SOW-THISTLE (Sonchus, from somphus, hol- 
low ; the stems being hollow). A rather large 
genus of annual or perennial plants, rarely- 
shrubby, generally tall. They have hollow 
stems, and more or less pinnatifid or lyrate 
leaves, toothed or prickly at their edges. The 
.surface of the herbage is usually smooth, that 
of the inflorescence hairy or glandular, often 
viscid. They contain a bitter white juice, and 
are plants of easy culture in any common soil. 
The herbaceous species are increased by divi- 
sion ; the seeds of the annual and biennial 
kinds only require to be sown in the open 
ground. There are in England three indige- 
nous perennial species : the blue sow-thistle 
("S. caerukus), the tall marsh sow-thislle (S. pa- 
bcstris), one of the largest herbaceous plants, 
growing from 6 to 8 feet high; and the corn 
sow-thistle {S. arvensis). The most common 
native species is annual in habit, viz., the com- 
mon sow-thistle (S. oleraceus), which is found 
almost everywhere, in cultivated and waste 
ground; flowering from July to September. 
Hares and rabbits are very fond of the herb- 
age, which, like the root, is milky and bitter. 
The leaves are sometimes dressed and eaten 
among other culinary herbs, and the roots have 
occasionally been converted into bread. 

SPADE HUSBANDRY. There are many 
situations in which, from the small size of the 
enclosures, or the want of suflScient power for 
the easy working of the common or the subsoil 
plough, the cultivator may prefer the employ- 
ment of manual labour Avith the spade ; and it 
is fortunately found by experience that the 
difference in the expense of deep-digging, or 
spade husbandry, is not materially different 
from that of the subsoil plough. A great mass 
of information on this head was collected by 
the late Dr. Yelloly ; not, however, so much 
with the view of showing the increased fer- 
tility of the soil by deep-stirring, as with the 
intention of demonstrating the immense field 
which is thus opened for the profitable labour 
of a teeming and increasing population. (See 
Dr. Yelloly on Spade Husbandry ; also British 
Farmer^s Magazine.") 

The trials which have been hitherto made 
of spade husbandry, in various parts of the 
kingdom, have been insufficient, in point of 
extent, to afford any adequate criterion of the 
general applicability of that practice. Such 
trials, indeed, have been usually regarded either 
as matters of speculation and experiment, or 
as charitable efforts adopted by the benevolent 
to give employment to the poor, without refer- 
ence to pecuniary expediency. 

In most parts of Biscay and the north of 
Spain, the fields are commonly cultivated by 
the spade : great crops of potatoes and turnips 
are raised by these means." (^Sinclair, p. 394; 
Brit. Husbandry, vol. ii. p. 571.) See Fi.andf.rs, 
Husbandry of. 

SPANISH NEEDLE (Bidens). See Ben- 
Marigold. 

SPAN-WORMS. A common appellation 
applied to those caterpillars called also loopers, 
and geometers. In New England they are 
called canker-worms. 



The caterpillars of the Geometree of Lin- 
naeus, earth-measurers, as the term implies, or 
geometers, span-worms, and loopers, have re- 
ceived these several names from their peculiar 
manner of moving, in which they seem to 
measure or span over the ground, step by step, 
as they proceed. Most of these caterpillars 
have only 10 legs ; namely, 6, which are jointed 
and tapering, under the fore-part of the body, 
and 4 fleshy proplegs at the hinder extremity; 
the 3 intermediate pairs of proplegs being want- 
ing. Consequently, in creeping, they arch up 
the back while they bring forward the hinder 
part of the body, and then, resting on their hind- 
legs, stretch out to their full length, in a straight 
line, before taking another step with their hind- 
legs. They have the power of letting them- 
selves down from any height, by means of a 
silken thread, which they spin from their 
mouths while falling. Whenever they are 
disturbed they make use of this faculty, drop 
suddenly, and hang suspended, till the danger 
is past, after which they climb up again by the 
same thread. These span-worms are naked, 
or only thinly covered with very short down ; 
they are mostly smooth, but sometimes have 
warts or irregular projections on their backs. 
They change their colour usually as they grow 
older, are sometimes striped, and sometimes of 
one uniform colour, nearly resembling the bark 
of the plants on which they are found. When 
not eating, many of them rest on the two hind- 
most pairs of legs against the side of a branch, 
with the body extended from the branch, so that 
they might be mistaken for the twig of the tree ; 
and in this position they will often remain for 
hours together. When about to transform, 
most of these insects descend from the plants 
on which they live, and either bury themselves 
in the ground, or conceal themselves on the 
surface under a slight covering of leaves fas- 
tened together with silken threads. Some make 
more regular cocoons, which, however, are 
very thin, and generally more or less covered 
on the outside with leaves. A very few of the 
span-worms fasten themselves to the stems of 
plants, and are changed to chrysalids, which 
hang suspended, without the protection of any 
outer covering. 

In their perfected state these insects are 
mostly slender-bodied moths, with tapering 
antennae, which are often feathered in the 
males. Some of the females are without 
wings, and are distinguished also by the oval 
and robust form of their bodies. These moths 
are most active in the night ; but some of them 
may be seen flying in thickets during the day- 
time. They are very short-lived, and die soon 
after their eggs are laid. 

It was formerly supposed that the canker- 
worm moths came out of the ground only in 
the spring. It is now known that many of 
them rise in the autumn, and in the early part 
of the winter. In mild and open winters I have 
seen them, says Dr. Harris, in every month 
from October to March. They begin to make 
their appearance after the first hard frosts in 
the autumn, usually towards the end of Octo- 
ber, and they continue to come forth, in greater 
or smaller numbers, according to the mildness 
or severity of the weather after the frosts hav« 

1005 



SPAN-WORMS. 



SPAN-WORMS. 



begun. Their general time of rising is in the 
spring, beginning about the middle of March, 
but sometimes before, and sometimes after this 
time ; and they continue to come forth for the 
space of about 3 weeks. It has been observed 
that there are more females than males among 
ihose that appear in the autumn and winter, 
and that the males are most abundant in the 
spring. The sluggish females instinctively 
make their way towards the nearest trees, and 
creep slowly up their trunks. In a few days 
afterwards they are followed by the winged and 
active males, which flutter about and accom- 
pany them in their ascent, during which the 
insects pair. Soon after this, the females lay 
their eggs upon the branches of the trees, 
placing them on their ends, close together, in 
rows, forming clusters of from 60 to 100 eggs 
or more, which is the number usually laid by 
each female. The eggs are glued to each other, 
and to the bark, by a grayish varnish, which is 
impervious to water; and the clusters are thus 
securely fastened in the forks of the small 
branches, or close to the young twigs and buds. 
Immediately after the insects have thus pro- 
vided for a succession of their kind, they begin 
to languish, and soon die. The eggs are usually 
hatched between the first and the middle of 
May, or about the time that the red currant is 
in blossom, and the young leaves of the apple 
tree begin to start from the bud and grow. The 
little canker-worms, upon making their escape 
from the eggs, gather upon the tender leaves, 
and, on the occurrence of cold and wet weather, 
creep for shelter into the bosom of the bud, or 
into the flowers, when the latter appear. Where 
these insects prevail, they are most abundant 
on apple and elm trees ; but cherry, plum, and 
lime trees, and some other cultivated and na- 
tive trees, as well as many shrubs, often suffer 
severely from their voracity. The leaves first 
attacked will be found pierced with small holes ; 
these become larger and more irregular when 
the canker-worms increase in size ; and, at 
last, the latter eat nearly all the pulpy parts of 
the leaves, leaving little more than the midrib 
and veins. A very great difference of colour 
is observable among canker-worms of different 
ages, and even among those of the same age 
and size. It is possible that some of these va- 
riations may arise from a difference of species; 
but it is also true that the same species -varies 
much in colour. When very young, they have 
2 minute warts on the top of the last ring; and 
they are then generally of a blackish or dusky 
brown colour, with a yellowish stripe on each 
side of the body; there are 2 whitish bands 
across the head ; and the belly is also whitish. 
When fully grown, these individuals become 
ash-coloured on the back, and black on the 
sides, below which the pale yellowish line 
remains. When fully grown and well fed, 
they measure nearly or quite 1 inch in length. 
They leave oflT eating when about 4 weeks old, 
and begin to quit the trees ; some creep down 
by the trunk, but great numbers let themselves 
down by their threads from the branches, their 
Instincts prompting them to get to the ground 
by the most direct and easiest course. When 
thus descending, and suspended in great num- 
Ics under the limbs of trees overhanging the 



road, they are often swept oflf by passing car- 
riages, and are thus conveyed to other places. 
After reaching the ground, they immediately 
burrow in the earth, to the depth of from 2 to 6 
inches, unless prevented by weakness or the 
nature of the soil. In the latter case, they die, 
or undergo their transformation on the surface. 
In the former, they make little cavities or cells 
in the ground, by turning round repeatedly and 
fastening the loose grains of earth about them 
with a few silken threads. Within 24 hours 
afterwards, they are changed to chrysalids in 
their cells. The chrysalis is of a light brown 
colour, and varies in size according to the sex 
of the insect contained in it ; that of the female 
being the largest, and being destitute of a 
covering for wings, which is found in the chry- 
salis of the males. The occurrence of mild 
weather after a severe frost stimulates some of 
these insects to burst their chrysalis skins and 
come forth in the perfect state; and this last 
transformation, as before stated, may take 
place in the autumn, or in the course of the 
winter, as well as in the spring; it is also re- 
tarded, in some individuals, for a year or more 
beyond the usual time. They come out of the 
ground mostly in the night, when they may be 
seen struggling through the grass as far as the 
limbs extend from the body of the trees under 
which they had been buried. As the females 
are destitute of wings, they are not able to 
wander far from the trees upon which they had 
lived in the caterpillar state. Canker-worms 
are therefore naturally confined to a very 
limited space, from which they spread year 
after year. Accident, however, will often carry 
them far from their native haunts, and in this 
way, probably, they have extended to places 
remote from each other. Where they have 
become established, and have been neglected, 
their ravages are often very great. In the early 
part of the season the canker-worms do not 
attract much attention ; but in New England it 
is in June, when they become extremely vora- 
cious, that the mischief they have done is ren- 
dered apparent, when we have before us the 
melancholy sight of the foliage of our fruit 
trees and of our noble elms reduced to withered 
and lifeless shreds, and whole orchards look- 
ing as if they had been suddenly scorched 
with fire. 

In order to protect our trees from the ravages 
of canker-worms, where these looping spoilers 
abound, it should be our aim, if possible, to 
prevent the wingless females from ascending 
the trees to deposit their eggs. This can be 
done by the application of tar around the body 
of the tree, either directly on the bark, as has 
been the most common practice, or, what is 
better, over a broad belt of clay-mortar, or on 
strips of old canvass or of strong paper, from 
6 to 12 inches wide, fastened around the trunk 
with strings. The tar must be applied as early 
as the 1st of November, and perhaps in Octo- 
ber, and it should be renewed daily as long as 
the insects continue rising; after which the 
bands may be removed, and the tar should be 
entirely scraped from the bark. When all this 
has been properly and seasonably done, it has 
proved effectual. The time, labour, and ex 
pense attending the use of tar, and the injury 



SPAN-WORMS. 



SPAN-WORMS, 



that it does to the trees when allowed to run 
and remain on the bark, have caused many 
persons to neglect this method, and some to 
try various modifications of it, and other expe- 
dients. Among the modifications may be men- 
tioned a horizontal and close-fitting collar of 
boards, fastened around the trunk, and smeared 
beneath with tar; or four boards, nailed to- 
gether, like a box without top or bottom, around 
the base of the tree, to receive the tar on the 
outside. These can be used to protect a few 
choice trees in a garden, or around a house or 
a public square, but will be found too expen- 
sive to be applied to any great extent. Collars 
of tin-plate, fastened around the trees, and 
sloping downwards like an inverted tunnel, 
have been proposed, upon the supposition that 
the moths would not be able to creep in an in- 
verted position, beneath the smooth and sloping 
surface. This method will also prove too ex- 
pensive for general adoption, even should it 
be found to answer the purpose. A belt of 
cotton-wool, which it has been thought would 
entangle the feet of the insects, and thus keep 
them from ascending the trees, has not proved 
an effectual bar to them. Little square or cir- 
cular troughs of tin or of lead, filled with cheap 
fish-oil, and placed around the trees, 3 feet or 
more above the surface of the ground, with a 
stuffing of cloth, hay, or sea-weed between 
them and the trunk, have long been used by 
various persons in Massachusetts with good 
success ; and the only objections to them are 
the cost of the troughs, the difliculty of fixing 
and keeping them in their places, and the in- 
jury suffered by the trees when the oil is 
washed or blown out and falls upon the bark. 
Mr. Jonathan Dennis, Jr., of Portsmouth, Rhode 
Island, has obtained a patent for a circular 
leaden trough to contain oil, offering some 
advantages over those that have heretofore 
been used, although it does not entirely prevent 
the escape of the oil, and the nails, with which 
it is secured, are found to be injurious to the 
trees. These troughs ought not to be nailed to 
the trees, but should be supported by a few 
wooden wedges driven between them and the 
trunks. A stuffing of cloth, cotton, or tow, 
should never be used; sea-weed and fine hay, 
which will not absorb the oil, are much better. 
Before the troughs are fastened and filled, the 
body of the tree should be well coated with 
clay-paint or white-wash, to absorb the oil that 
may fall upon it. Care should be taken to 
renew the oil as often as it escapes or becomes 
filled with the insects. These troughs will be 
found more economical and less troublesome 
than the application of tar, and may safely be 
recommended and employed, if proper atten- 
tion is given to the precautions above named. 
Some persons fasten similar troughs, to con- 
tain oil, around the outer sides of an open box 
enclosing the base of the tree, and a projecting 
ledge is nailed on the edge of the box to shed 
the rain ; by this contrivance, all danger of 
hurting the tree with the oil is entirely avoid- 
ed. In the Manchester Guardian, an English 
newspaper, of the 4th of November, 1840, is 
the following article on the use of melted Indian 
rubber to prevent insects from climbing up 
trees. " At a late meeting of the Entomolo- 



gical Society [of London], Mr. J. H. Fennell 
communicated the following successful mode 
of preventing insects ascending the trunks of 
fruit trees. Let a piece of Indian rubber be 
burnt over a gallipot, into which it will gradu 
ally drop in the condition of a viscid juice, 
which state, it appears, it will always retain ; for 
Mr. Fennell has, at the present time, some 
which has been melted for upwards of a year, 
and has been exposed to all weathers without 
undergoing the slightest change. Having 
melted the Indian rubber, let a piece of cord or 
worsted be smeared with it, and then tied seve- 
ral times round the trunk. The melted sub- 
stance is so very sticky, that the insects will 
be prevented, and generally captured, in their 
attempts to pass over it. About 3 pennyworths 
of Indian rubber is sufficient for the protection 
of 20 ordinary sized fruit trees." Applied in 
this way it would not be sufficient to keep the 
canker-worm moths fro/U getting up the trees ; 
for the first comers wtald soon bridge over the 
cord with their bodies, and thus afford a pas- 
sage to their followers. To insure success, it 
should be melted in larger quantities, and 
daubed with a brush upon strips of cloth or 
paper, fastened round the trunks of the trees. 
Worn-out Indian rubber shoes, which are 
worth little or nothing for any other purpose, 
can be put to this use. This plan has been 
tried by a few persons in the vicinity of Bos- 
ton, some of whom speak favourably of it. It 
has been suggested that the melted rubber 
might be applied immediately to the bark with- 
out injuring the trees. A little conical mound 
of sand surrounding the base of the tree is 
found to be impassable to the moths, so long 
as the sand remains dry ; but they easily pass 
over it when the sand is wet, and they come 
out of the ground m wet as often as in dry 
weather. 

Some attempts have been made to destroy 
the canker-worms after they were hatched from 
the eggs, and were dispersed over the leaves 
of the trees. It is said that some persons have 
saved their trees from these insects by freely 
dusting air-slacked lime over them while the 
leaves were wet with dew. Showering the 
trees with mixtures that are found useful to 
destroy other insects, has been tried by a few, 
and, although attended with a good deal of 
trouble and expense, it may be worth our while 
to apply such remedies upon small and choice 
trees. Mr. David Haggerston, of Watertown, 
Massachusetts, has used, for this purpose, a 
mixture of water and oil-soap (an article to be 
procured from the manufactories where whale- 
oil is purified), in the proportion of 1 pound of 
the soap to 7 gallons of water; and he states 
that this liquor, when thrown on the trees with 
a garden engine, will destroy the canker-worm 
and many other insects, without injuring the 
foliage or the fruit. Jarring or shaking the 
limbs of the trees will disturb the canker- 
worms, and cause many of them to spin down, 
when their threads may be broken off with a 
pole ; and if the troughs around the trees are 
at the same time replenished with oil, or the 
tar is again applied, the insects will be caugh' 
in their attempts to creep up the trunks. In 
the same way, also, those that are coming down 

1007 



SPAN-WORMS. 



SPEARMINT. 



.he trunks to go into the ground will be caught 
and killed. If greater pains were to be taken 
to destroy the insects in the caterpillar state, 
their numbers would soon greatly diminish. 

Even after they have left the trees, have 
gone into the ground, and have changed their 
forms, they are not wholly beyond the reach of 
means for destroying them. One person told 
me that his swine, which he was in the habit 
of turning into his orchard in the autumn, 
rooted up and killed great numbers of the chry- 
salids of the canker-worms. Some persons 
have recommended digging or ploughing under 
the trees, in the autumn, with the hope of 
crushing some of the chrysalids by so doing, 
and of exposing others to perish with the cold 
of the following winter. If hogs are then al- 
lowed to go among the trees, and a few grains 
of corn are scattered on the loosened soil, these 
animals will eat many of the chrysalids as 
well as the corn, and will crush others with 
their feet. Mr. S. P. Fowler thinks it belter to 
dig around the trees in July, while the shells 
of the insects are soft and tender. He and 
Mr. John Kenrick, of Newton, Mass., advise us 
to remove the soil to the distance of 4 or 5 feet 
from the trunk of the trees, and to the depth of 
6 inches, to cart it away and replace it with an 
equal quantity of compost or rich earth. In 
this way, many of the insects will be removed 
also ; but, unless the earth, thus carried away, 
is thrown into some pond-hole, and left covered 
with water, many of the insects contained in 
it will undergo their transformations and come 
out alive the next year. (See Yankee Farmer, 
of July 19, 1840, and New England Farmer of 
June 2, 1841, for some valuable remarks by 
Mr. Fowler.) 

Canker-worms are subject to the attacks of 
many enemies. Great numbers of them are 
devoured by several kinds of birds, which live 
almost entirely upon them during their season. 
They are also eaten by a very large and splen- 
did ground-beetle (Culosoma scrutator), that ap- 
pears about the time when these insects begin 
to leave the trees. These beetles do not fly, 
but they run about in the grass after the canker- 
worms, and even mount upon the trunks of the 
trees to seize them as they come down. The 
latter are also stung by a four-winged ichneu- 
mon-fly, which deposits an egg in every can- 
Icer-worm thus wounded. From the egg is 
liatched a little maggot, that preys on the fatty 
jiubstance of the canker-worm, and weakens it 
so much that it is unable to go through its fu- 
ture transformations. I have seen one of these 
Hies sting several canker-worms in succession, 
and swarms of them may be observed around 
the trees as long as the canker-worms remain. 
Their services, therefore, are doubtless very 
considerable. Among a large number of can- 
ker-worms, taken promiscuously from various 
trees, I found that nearly one-third of the whole 
were unable to finish their transformations, be- 
cause they had been attacked by internal ene- 
mies of another kind. These were little mag- 
gots, that lived singly within the bodies of the 
canker-worms, till the latter died from weak- 
ness; after which the maggots underwent a 
change, and finally came out of the bodies of 
,heir victims in the form of small two-winged 
1008 



cuckoo-flies, belonging to the genus Tachina, 
Mr. E. C. Herrick, of New Haven, Connecticut, 
has made the interesting discovery that the 
eggs of the canker-worm moth are pierced by 
a tiny four-winged fly, a species of Platygaster, 
which goes from egg to egg, and drops in each 
of them one of her own eggs. Sometimes 
every canker-worm egg in a cluster will be 
found to have been thus punctured and seeder' 
for a future harvest of the Platygaster. The 
young of this Platygaster is an exceedingly mi- 
nute maggot, hatched within the canker-worm 
egg, the shell of which, though only one-thir- 
tieth of an inch long, serves for its habitation, 
and the contents for its food, till it is fully 
grown ; after which it becomes a chrysalis 
within the same shell, and in due time comes 
out a Platygaster fly, like its parent. This last 
transformation Mr. Herrick found to take place 
towards the end of June, from eggs laid in No- 
vember of the year before ; and he thinks that 
the flies continue alive through the summer, 
till the appearance of the canker-worm moths 
in the autumn aflJbrds them the opportunity of 
laying their eggs for another brood. As these 
little parasites prevent the hatching of the eggs 
wherein they are bred, and as they seem to be 
very abundant, they must be of great use in 
preventing the increase of the canker-worm. 
Without doubt, such wisely appointed means 
as these were once enough to keep within due 
bounds these noxious insects; but, since our 
forests, their natural food, and our birds, their 
greatest enemies, have disappeared before the 
woodman's axe and the sportsman's gun, we 
are left to our own ingenuity, perseverance, 
and united efl^orts, to contrive and carry into 
efiect other means for checking their ravages. 

Apple, elm, and lime trees are sometimes 
injured a good deal by another kind of span- 
worm, larger than the canker-worm, and very 
different from it in appearance. 

Probably more than one hundred different 
kinds of geometers may be found in Massa- 
chusetts alone. Seventy-eight are already 
known to me. Some of these are small, and 
are not otherwise remarkable; some are dis- 
tinguished for their greater size and beauty in 
the moth state, or for the singularity of the 
forms and habits of their caterpillars. None 
of them, however, have become so notorious on 
account of their devastations as the species 
already described. (Harris's Treatise.) See 
LiMK Tree, Insect Enemies. 

SPATTLING POPPY. A name sometimes 
applied to chickweed. 

SPAVIN. In farriery, a disease in horses, 
consisting of a swelling in or near some of the 
joints, by which a lameness is produced, and 
of which there are three kinds ; the blood-spavin, 
the bog-spavin, and the bone-spavin. 

SPAYING. The operation of castrating or 
extracting the ovaries of the females of different 
kinds of animals, as sows, heifers, mares, &c., 
in order to prevent any future conception, and 
promote their fattening. 

SPEAR GRASS. The American name for 
the great smooth-stalked meadow-grass. See 
PoA Phatensis. 

SPEARMINT (Mentha viridis). This species 
of mint is employed in sauces and salads, as 



SPEEDWELL. 



SPINDLE-WORM. 



well as dried for soups in winter. There are 
two varieties, the broad and narrow-leaved, 
equally good. See Mint. 

SPEEDWELL (Veronica). An extensive 
genus of herbaceous or somewhat shrubby 
plants, with annual or perennial roots. 

Common or male speedwell (Officinal vera- 
7iira), called by the French The d'Europe, is a 
common plant in the Middle States, found on 
dry banks, woodlands, and commons, flowering 
in June and July, and ripening its seed in Au- 
gust and September. Water speedwell, or 
long-leaved brooklime, is also occasionally 
found along the muddy margins of rivulets, 
and also the scull-cap speedwell, or shield-like 
Veronica, with some other species. (Dr. Dar- 
lington's Flora Ccstrica.) See Bird's Eye. 

SPELT. A species of coarse wheat. It will 
aiford to be cropped once or twice in its early 
growth, allbrding excellent pasturage. Com- 
pared with whe.at, its weight, with the hull on, 
is as 4:; to 7(3. See Wheat. 

SPICEWOOD (Laurus Benzoin). An Ameri- 
can shrub or small tree, called also in the 
United States by the common names of wild 
allspice, fever bush, and Benjamin tree. The 
stems grow to the height of 8 or 10 feet, and 
are branched, the wood being very brittle, and 
when broken giving out a very pleasant aro- 
matic odour. It is found in moist low grounds. 
An infusion of the branches is often used medi- 
cinally, more especially in the spring of the 
year, as a drink for horned cattle. See Laurus. 

SPIGNEL. See Ff.NSEL. 

SPIKENARD, PLOUGHMAN'S (Conyza, 
from ko)us:, dust ; because it was supposed to have 
the [lower of driving away flies; whence also 
one of the common names, flea (fly) bane. The 
genus Erigeros is, however, the real fly-bane ; 
some of its viscid species, dipped in milk, being 
used in the south of Europe to caich the va- 
rious little winged insects so troublesome in 
warm climates). This is a numerous herba- 
ceous or shrubby genus, of which the only 
British species (C.squarrosa) is the type. This 
is a perennial plant, growing in chalk}' or 
lime-stone countries, frequent in woods, or a 
marly soil. The root is tapering, fleshy, much 
branched ; the herbage soft and downy, bitter, 
somewhat aromatic, with a portion of mucilage. 
The stem is upright, angular, leafy, 2 or 3 feet 
high, terminating in a corymbose, leafy pani- 
cle of numerous dull yellow flowers. The 
radical leaves bear some resemblance to those 
of foxglove, but when rubbed are readily dis- 
tinguished by their aromatic scent. 

SPIKE ROLLER. See Roller. 

SPINACH (Spinacea oleracea. From spina, 
on account of its prickly seed). There are two 
varieties, the round-leaved or smooth-seeded, 
and the triangular-leaved or prickly-seeded. 
The first being the most succulent, and conse- 
quently less able to endure a low degree of 
temperature, is employed for the spring and 
summer crops, and the latter for autumn and 
winter. For the round-leaved variety, a rich, 
moist, and mouldy loam, in an open situation, 
is preferable ; but for the triangular-leaved a 
light, moderately fertile, and dry one, which may 
likewise be an open compartment, but a shel- 
tered border is most conducive of a continued 
127 



supply throughout the winter. The earth 
should always be well pulverized at the time 
of digging, as a fine tilth is one of the greatest 
inducements to its vigour. It is propagated by 
seed. The first sowing of the round-leaved 
variety may take place at the close of January, 
in a warm situation, to be repeated in larger 
but still small breadths at the commencement 
and end of February ; and thence to be con- 
tinued, as the plants rapidly advance to seed, 
every 3 weeks until the middle of April, when, 
as this affection increases, it must be performed 
once a week until the close of May, when it 
may be reduced to once a fortnight, and so 
practised until the end of July. With August, 
the sowing of the triangular-leaved variety 
commences, the main crop of which should be 
sown during the first 10 days of that month. 
The sowing may be repeated, after intervals of 
3 weeks, until the early part of September. 

The sowings may be performed broadcast 
and regularly raked, which is the mode gene- 
rally practised for the principal crops, and for 
the winter-standing always, or in drills an inch 
deep and a foot apart ; in either mode the seed 
being scattered thin. 

Tetragonia, or New Zealand spinach (Tetra- 
i^onia expansa), is much admired as a substitute 
for summer spinach, being of more delicate 
flavour, and not so liable to run to seed. It is 
propagated by seed, which is sown, in the seed- 
vessel, as gathered the preceding autumn, at 
the latter end of March, in a pot, and placed in 
a melon-frame. The seedlings must be pricked 
while small singly into pots, and kept under 
a frame without bottom heat until the third 
week in May, or until the danger of frost is- 
past. 

SPINAGE, WILD. See Goosefoot. 

SPINDLE TREE (Emnymm Europaus.) This- 
shrub or small tree grows wild in English 
hedges and thickets. The very hard and fine- 
grained wood is preferred for spindles and for 
skewers. It is fetid in every part when bruised, 
and esteemed poisonous. The branches are 
smooth and even angular when young ; after- 
wards round, with a green, smooth, not warty 
bark. Leaves ovate, pointed, finely serrated, 
about 2 inches long, furnished with awl-shaped 
stipules. Flowers fetid, small, greenish-white^ 
mostly four-cleft. The capsules usually of a 
fine rose colour: seeds orange-coloured. 

SPINDLE-WORM. These American insects 
are fatal to the plants attacked, the greater part of 
which, however, are without value to the farmer. 
Indian corn must be excepted; for itoften sufl"ers 
severely from the depredations of one of these 
Nonagrians, known to our farmers by the name 
of the spindle-worm. This insect receives 
its common name from its destroying the spin- 
dle of the Indian corn ; but its ravages gene- 
rally begin while the corn-stalk is young, and 
before the spindle rises much above the tuft 
of leaves in which it is embosomed. The mis- 
chief is discovered by the withering of the 
leaves, and, when these are taken hold of, they 
may often be drawn out with the included spin- 
dle. On examining the corn, a small hole may 
be seen in the side of the leafy stalk, near the 
ground, penetrating into the soft centre of the 
stalk, which, when cut open, will be found to 
4 Q 1009 



SPINES. 



SPURGE-LAUREL. 



be perforated, both upwards and downwards, 
by a slender, worm-like caterpillar, whose ex- 
crementitious castings surround the orifice of 
the hole. This caterpillar grows to the length 
of an inch or more, and to the thickness of a 
goose-quill. It is smooth, and apparently naked, 
yellowish, with the head, the top of the first and 
of the last rings black, and with a band across 
each of the other rings, consisting of small, 
smooth, slightly elevated, shining, black dots, 
arranged in a double row. With a magnifying 
glass, a few short hairs can be seen on its 
body, arising singly from the black dots. This 
mischievous caterpillar, says Dr. Harris, is not 
confined to Indian corn ; it attacks also the 
stems of the dahlia, as I am informed both by 
Mr. Leonard and by the Rev. J. L. Russell, 
both of whom have observed its ravages in the 
stems of this favourite flower. The chrysalis, 
which is lodged in the burrow formed by the 
spindle-worm, is slender. It is shining maho- 
gany-brown, with the anterior edges of four of 
the rings of the back roughened with little points, 
and four short spines or hooks, turned upwards, 
on the hinder extremity of the body. The moth 
produced from this insect differs from the other 
Nonagrians somewhat in form, its fore-wings 
being shorter, and more rounded at the tip. It 
may be called Gortyna Zea, the corn Gortyna ; 
Zea being the botanical name of Indian corn. 
The fore-wings are rust-red ; they are mottled 
with gray, almost in bands, uniting with the 
ordinary spots, which are also gray and indis- 
tinct ; there is an irregular tawny spot near 
the tip, and on the veins there are a few black 
dots. The hind-wings are yellowish-gray, with 
a central dusky spot, behind which are two 
faint, dusky bands. The head and thorax are 
rust-red, with an elevated tawny tuft on each. 
The abdomen is pale-brown, with a row of 
tawny tufts on the back. The wings expand 
.nearly one inch and a half. 

In order to check the ravages of these in- 
sects, they must be destroyed while in the 
•caterpillar slate. As soon as our corn-fields 
begin to show, by the withering of the leaves, 
■the usual signs that the enemy is at work in 
the stalks, the spindle-worms should be sought 
■for and killed; for, if allowed to remain undis- 
turbed until they turn to moths, they will make 
their escape, and we shall not be able to pre- 
vent them from laying their eggs for another 
brood of these pestilent insects. (^Harris's 
Treatise.) 

SPINES. In botany, branches that, being im 
perfectly formed, lose their power of extension, 
become unusually hard, and acquire a sharp 
point. They are very different from aculei, or 
3)rickles, which are a kind of hardened hair. In 
leaves they are processes formed either by an 
■elongation of the woody tissue of the veins or by 
a contraction of the parenchyma : in the former 
case they project beyond the surface or margin 
of the leaf, as in the holly; in the latter case they 
are the veins themselves indurated, as in the 
palmated spines of Berberris vulgaris. 

SPLINT. In farriery, a hard excrescence 
growing on the shank-bones of horses. It ap- 
pears first in the form of a callous tumour, 
and afterwards ossifies. If the splint interfere 
■with the action of some teadon or ligament, the 
1010 



hair should be removed, a little strong merca- j 
rial ointment be rubbed in for two days, and 
then an active blister applied. (Youatt on the 
Horse, p. 244.) 

SPRING WHEAT. See Wheat. 

SPRUCE PINE {Pinus Canadensis). Hem- 
lock spruce. A tree which abounds in the 
northern parts of Pennsylvania, New York, 
and the Eastern States. See Fihs. 

SPUD. An implement used advantageously 
in cutting up weeds. It consists of a chisel- 
formed tool, about 2 inches wide on the cutting 
edge, inserted into a handle of some 4 or 6 feet 
in length ; it is often made use of by the far- 
mer as a useful substitute for the walking-cane, 
affording an opportunity of destroying weed.s 
with the utmost facility whilst walking over 
his grounds. Every farmer ought to own a 
spud. 

SPURGE (Euphorbia; Linnaeus named this 
genus after Euphorbus, a physician to Juba, 
King of Mauritania). This is an exceedingly 
variable and a very extensive genus of plants, 
comprising a number that are entirely unworthy 
of cultivation. The hardy perennial species ^ 
thrive in any common garden soil, and in- 
crease by divisions of the roots or by seeds. 
The hardy annuals and biennials merely re- 
quire sowing in the open ground. The tender 
kinds must be sown in the hot-house or in a 
hot-bed frame, and, when potted oflT, must be 
set with other tender annuals and biennials. 
The root of E. ipecacuanha is said to be equal 
to that of the true ipecacuanha. E. antiquorum, 
E. canariensis, and some other fleshy species, 
produce the drug "euphorbium," which is the 
inspissated milky juice of such plants. There 
are in England 13 indigenous species, but the 
only one necessary to be noticed is the lesser 
spurge {E. lathyris). It is a biennial, flower- 
ing in June and July. The stem rises from a 
strong, fibrous root to the height of 3 to 4 feet,: 
purplish, smooth, round, hollow. The leaves 
opposite, spreading, in fours, sessile, oblong, 
acute, entire, and glaucous. The flowers are' 
in a terminal, solitary umbel, consisting of 4 
repeatedly forked branches, furnished with cor- 
date, entire bractes: the flowers are variegated 
with yellow and dark purple. Capsules are 
large and smooth, and, when half-ripe, ar« 
pickled as capers. The seeds, when pressed 
between moderately heated iron plates, yield a 
fixed, acrid oil, which might be advantageously 
substituted for castor oil. See Mole Thee. 

SPURGE-LAUREL {Daphne laureola.) A 
British evergreen shrub, growing in woods, 
thickets, and hedges, flowering in March. The 
stem is 2 or 3 feet high, with round, pale, 
smooth, brown, upright, tough, and pliant 
branches, crowned with tufts of evergreen 
leaves, elegantly drooping in all directions, 
and about 2 or 3 inches long, on short foot- 
stalks. The flowers are deep-green, in axillary 
clusters, with orange anthers. Their scent, re- 
sembling saffron, with an overpowering sweet- 
ness, is perceptible in an evening only. The 
berries, which are oval and black, are poison- 
ous to all animals except birds. Every part 
of the plant is very acrid, producing, like the 
mezereon, a burning heat in the month and 
throat. The bark of its root is commonly used 



SPURGE, OLIVE. 



SQUASH-BUG. 



instead of mezereon. It is powerfully excitant 
and diaphoretic. The bark of the stem, soaked 
in vinegar and beaten out flat, forms an excel- 
lent agent for keeping blisters open. 

SPURGE, OLIVE. See MEZEUKoif. 

SPURREY (Spergula, from spargo, to scatter, 
because it expels its seeds.) A genus of herba- 
ceous, annual, or perennial plants, with slen- 
der linear leaves and white flowers. There are 
in England four indigenous species, the most 
common of which is the rough-seeded corn 
spurrey (S. arcensis), an annual plant, which 
grows in sandy corn-fields, and flowers from 
June to August. (See PI. 9, 6.) The stems are 
spreading, lax, 6 inches to 2 feet long, mode- 
rately branched, jointed, leafy, angular, and 
hairy and viscid in the upper part. Leaves 
whorled, linear, narrow, fleshy, downy, obtuse, 
with short stipules. The flowers are white, 
on slender, downy flower-stalks. The rough- 
seeded spurrey is a common weed in sandy 
soils, and is in Scotland called yarr, and in 
Norfolk pick-purse. It is devoured with avi- 
dity by all cattle, and appears to be conducive 
to their health, while it remarkably tends to 
increase the milk of cows, and to fatten sheep. 
Hence a large, smooth-seeded variety of this 
weed (S. sativa) is industriously cultivated in 
Flanders, because it is so far superior to ether 
pasture grasses that it continues green till a 
late period of autumn, and often throughout 
the winter. Its seeds afford on expression a 
good lamp oil; the flour obtained from them, 
when mixed with that of wheat or rye, pro- 
duces wholesome bread, for which purpose it 
is often used in Norway and Gothland. Poultry 
eat spurrey greedily, and it is supposed to make- 
them lay a great number of eggs. Whether 
given as hay, or cut green, or in pasture. Von 
Thaer observes that it is the most nourishing, 
in proportion to its bulk, of all forage, and 
gives the best flavoured milk and butter. It 
has been recommended to be cultivated in 
England, but it is not likely that such a plant 
can ever pay the expense of seed and labour 
in that country, even on the poorest soil; or, at 
all events, as Professor Martyn observes, we 
have many better plants for such soils, 

SQUASH {Cururbita). Of this plant there 
are many varieties, distinguished by peculiari- 
ties of shapes, colours, &c. The young fruit 
is a rich and excellent vegetable for boiling, 
stewing, or baking. The common round kind 
{CucurbUu malopcpo) is also called Cymbling 
(and by the French Bonnet de Prelre). The 
warty or long squash (C verrtuosa), is said by 
Mr. Nuttall to be cultivated by the Indians of 
the Missouri to its source. Mr. Kenrick, of 
Boston, notices the following varieties : 

1. Early orange; 2. Early long warted ; 3. 
Early scallop ; 4. Acorn ; 5. Canada crook 
neck; 6. Long yellow crook neck; 7. Commo- 
dore Porter's Valparaiso; 8. Autumnal marrow; 
9, Scarlet summer. 

The early orange is a new summer variety, 
very early, and of superior quality. The Cana- 
da crook neck is, without doubt, far superior to 
any and all others, for the late or main crop. 
it is fine-grained, mealy, and of a sweet, excel- 
lent flavour. By being kept in a dry and suita- 
ble temperature, they may be preserved till the 



following summer. Sow in April or May, as 
soon as the frosts are over, and the earth be- 
comes warm ; the early or summer varieties in 
hills 6 feet asunder ; the winter varieties in hills 
8 feet asunder, and 4 plants may remain in a 
hill. 

Autumnal marrow squash {Cucurbitasvxcado), 
introduced to notice by John M. Ives, Esq., of 
Salem. A fine, new variety, of an ovate form, 
pointed ; the skin extremely thin, of a cream- 
colour; the flesh orange; the grain delicate, 
flavour excellent; seeds large, pure white. 
Average weight, 8 pounds. It keeps well in 
winter. 

The scarlet summer squash is a new and 
beautiful flat variety, from France, of the acorn 
species, of a fine scarlet colour. 

The Valparaiso squash, the seeds of which 
were brought from the Pacific by the late Com- 
modore Porter, is a splendid vegetable, without 
any neck, in shape and size somewhat resem- 
bling a long watermelon, flattened, and of a 
rich citron or orange colour. Mr. Comfort, 
of Bucks county, near Philadelphia, has raised 
some weighing 1 00 lbs., which have been greatly 
admired at agricultural and horticultural exhi- 
bitions. This vegetable possesses all the good 
qualities of the common kinds of pumpkin and 
squash, of which it would seem to be a hybrid 
variety, very superior to either. Being neither 
watery or stringy, it makes a delicious pie, far 
more rich and delicate than that of the ordi- 
nary pumpkin. It is also served up at table 
with meat, like the common squash, either 
boiled, or baked like a loaf of bread or sweet 
potato: containing a large amount of saccha- 
rine and other nutritious properties, they are 
aiss excellent food for farm-stock, especially 
milch cows. They are cultivated like other 
vegetables of the same family, but much care 
must be observed to keep them at a considerable 
distance from other varieties, with which they 
have a strong tendency to mix, thus leading to 
depreciation. They keep well in winter. 

SQUASH-BUG. The common American 
squash-bug (^Coreu^ tristis), so well known for 
the injurious effects of its punctures on the 
leaves of squashes, is one of the most remarka- 
ble insects belonging to the natural division, 
which includes bed-bugs, fruit-bugs, and vari- 
ous other fetid bugs {Hemiptera)^ It was first 
described by De Geer, who gave it the specific 
name of tristis, from its sober colour, which 
Gmelin unwarrantably changed to mwstus, hav- 
ing, however, the same meaning. Fabricius 
called it Coreus rugator, the latter word signify- 
ing one who wrinkles, which was probably 
applied to this insect, because us punctures 
cause the leaves of the squash to become 
wrinkled. Mr. Say, not being aware that the 
insect had already been three times named and 
described, redescribed it under the name of 
Coreus ordinatus. Of these four names, how 
ever, that of tristis, being the first, is the only 
one which it can retain. About the last of 
October squash-bugs desert the plants upon 
which they have lived during the summer, and 
conceal themselves in crevices of walls and 
fences, and other places of security, where 
they pass the winter in a torpid state. On the 
return of warm weather, they issue from 

1011 



SQUASH-BUG. 

winter-quarters, and when the vines of the 
squash have put forth a few rough leaves, the 
bugs meet beneath their shelter, pair, and im- 
mediately afterwards begin to lay their eggs. 
This usually happens about the last of June or 
beginning of July, at which time, by carefully 
examining the vines, we shall find the insects 
on the ground or on the stems of the vines, 
close to the ground, from which they are hardly 
to be distinguished on account of their dusky 
colour. This is the place where they generally 
remain during the daytime, apparently to es- 
cape observation ; but at night they leave the 
ground, get beneath the leaves, and lay their 
eggs in little patches, fastening them with a 
gummy substance to the under-sides of the 
leaves. The eggs are round, and flattened on 
two sides, and are soon hatched. The young 
bugs are proportionally shorter and more 
rounded than the perfect insects, are of a pale 
ash-colour, and have quite large antennae, the 
joints of which are somewhat flattened. As 
they grow older and increase in size, after 
moulting their skins a few times, they become 
more oval in form, and the under-side of their 
bodies gradually acquires a dull ochre-yellow 
colour. They live together at first in little 
swarms or families beneath the leaves upon 
which they were hatched, and which, in conse- 
quence of the numerous punctures of the in- 
sects, and the quantity of sap imbibed by them, 
soon wither, and eventually become brown, dry, 
and wrinkled ; when the insects leave them for 
fresh leaves, which they exhaust in the same 
way. As the eggs are not all laid at one time, 
so the bugs are hatched in successive broods, 
and consequently will be found in various 
stages of growth through the summer. They, 
however, attain their full size, pass through 
their last transformation, and appear in their 
perfect state, or furnished with wing-covers and 
wings, during the months of September and 
October. In this last state the squash-bug 
measures six-tenths of an inch in length. It is 
of a rusty black colour above, and of a dirty 
ochre-yellow colour beneath, and the sharp 
lateral edges of the abdomen, which project 
beyond the closed wing-covers, are spotted 
with ochre-yellow. When handled, and still 
more when crushed, the latter give out an 
odour precisely similar to that of an over-ripe 
pear, but far too powerful to be agreeable. 

In order to prevent the ravages of these 
insects, they should be sought and killed when 
they are about to lay their eggs ; and if any 
escape our observation at this time, their eggs 
may be easily found and crushed. With this 
view the squash-vines must be visited daily, 
during the early part of their growth, and must 
be carefully examined for the bugs and their 
eggs. A very short time spent in this way 
every day, in the proper season, will save a 
great deal of vexation and disappointment 
afterwards. If this precaution be neglected or 
deferred till the vines have begun to spread, it 
will be exceedingly diflicult to exterminate the 
insects, on account of their numbers; and if 
at this lime dry weather should prevail, the 
vines will suffer so much from the bugs and 
drought together, as to produce but little if any 
Ti uii. Whatever contributes to bring forward 
1012 



STACK. 

the plants rapidly, and to promote the vigoui 
and luxuriance of their foliage, renders them 
less liable to sufller by the exhausting punctures 
of the young bugs. Water drained from a cow- 
yard, and similar preparations, have, with this 
intent, been applied with benefit. 

The leaves of the squash are also preyed 
upon by another insect of a very different de- 
scription, namely, the Cocdnella borealis (See 
PI. 16,_^g. 11). Although the genus of insects 
to which this belongs destroys Aphides, there 
are, as Professor Halderman, of Pennsylvania, 
observes, a few exceptions, among which is the 
species named, which may be found, both in 
the larva and perfect state, eating the leaves 
of the squash. 

SQUAW-ROOT {American orobranche). 

SQUILL (Srilla, from skylla, to injure, the 
bulbs being poisonous). An extensive genus 
of interesting bulbous plants. A light soil is 
most suitable for them ; and they are readily 
increased by ofl^sets from the bulbs. The 
leaves are radical, linear. The flowers in 
clusters, blue, purplish, or white. There are 
four indigenous species, the vernal squill (S. 
verna), the two-leaved squill (S. bifolia), the au- 
tumnal squill {S. aulmnmtUs), and the harebell 
squill, or wild hyacinth (S. ■nutans'). The bulb 
of the wild hyacinth contains much mucilage, 
which can be readily separated from an acrid 
principle which is conjoined with it. It is much 
employed by calico-printers. 

SQUITCH-GRASS. See Bent and Couch. 

ST. JOHN'S WORT. See John's Wout. 

stack. Corn in the sheaf, piled up in a 
circular or rectangular figure, brought to a 
point or ridge at the top, and afterwards 
thatched to protect it from the influence of the 
weather, and more especially from rains. The 
term is also sometimes applied to hay piled up 
in the same manner, which, however, in most 
places is called a rick. The foundation of a 
corn stack is commonly made on a platform 
of wood or iron, raised on props to protect it 
from the moisture of the soil, and also from 
rats and mice; in which respect stacks of corn 
differ from ricks of hay, which are built always 
on the ground. It is of great advantage to 
soak the props in corrosive sublimate, which 
not only preserves the wood, but also destroys 
vermin. Stacks are of various forms and di- 
mensions, according to circumstances ; but for 
grain those of a long, narrow, square shape 
are probably the most advantageous, where the 
quantity of corn is considerable; as they are 
found to stand more firmly, have a better ap- 
pearance, are more conveniently and readily 
built, and preserve the grain better than those 
of any other form. And they have the great 
advantage of requiring less thatch as VA^ell as 
labour in putting it upon them than the round 
stack. But where the corn is only in a small 
proportion, the round or oblong shape may be 
more proper and suitable, as being more readily 
drawn up in the roof; but the circular, with a 
conical top and cylindrical body diverging a 
little at the eaves, is esteemed the best form by 
some. For hay, the form of the rick or stack 
is a matter of still less consequence ; the long 
square or oblong shapes are perhaps the most 
safe and convenient, especially when not too 



STAG. 



STEAM. 



bi-oad, as they admit the air most fully, and are 
besides the most convenient to cut from in 
trussing hay for sale at the market. 

STAG. A term applied provincially in Eng- 
land to a young horse. Also to the male of the 
deer kind. See Deer. 

STAGGER- BUSH (Jndromeda Mariana). 
This American plant grows in the Middle 
States, with a stem 2 to 3 and 4 feet high. It 
is very abundant in New Jersey, where the 
farmers are of opinion that it is destructive to 
sheep, when eaten by them, producing a disease 
called the staggers. 

STAGGERS. See Apoplexy. 

STALL-FEEDING. The process of fatten- 
ing cattle in the stall. The best practice in 
this mode of fattening is probably that of 
wholly confining them to the stalls, as by this 
means they are kept quiet, and free from inter- 
ruption, and of course feed more quickly and 
with greater regularity, which seem to be 
points of great importance in this system of 
management. There are, however, many other 
methods adopted in different situations and cir- 
cumstances. 

In regard to the sorts of food that may be em- 
ployed in the way of winter-fattening animals, 
they are very numerous, but the principal suc- 
culent kinds are carrots, parsnips, potatoes, 
Swedish turnips, cabbages, common turnips, 
grains, &c.; and of the more dry sorts, oil-calf e, 
oats, barley-meal, rye-flour, bean and pea-meal, 
and others of the same nature, with different 
kinds of straw cut into chaff by means of ma- 
chinery, or hay cut in the same manner. It is 
usual with^some to employ the different meals 
in a state of mixture in nearly equal propor- 
tions, except bean-meal, which, from its heat- 
ing quality, is mostly made use of in smaller 
quantities. But on the principle of fresh kinds 
of food having a more powerful effect on the 
systems of animals when first applied, it may 
be more beneficial to have them given in alter- 
nation, or at distant intervals, as their effects 
may in this way be more fully experienced. 

In respect to the cut straw and hay that is 
made tise of in this way, the first should be 
prepared from that which is fresh thrashed out. 
The hay, instead of being of the inferior kind, 
should be the best that the farm affords, and 
such as is not in the least injured in the smell 
or taste by keeping. The more inferior kinds 
of hay have, however, by the addition of a 
very small proportion of common salt, been 
made to be preferred to the best when not pre- 
pared in that way. See Cattle, Folhing, Food, 
SoiLixf!, and Ventilation. 

STANDARDS. The young trees reserved 
at the felling of woods, for the growth of tim- 
ber. It also signifies such fruit trees as are 
intended to grow in an open exposure, and not 
to be hacked and mangled with the knife, as 
the dwarf trees and those planted against 
walls are. 

STARR, or BENT. See Arundo and Elt- 

MCS. 

STARCH (Germ, starke). One of the com- 
mon proximate principles of vegetables. It is 
characterized by its insipidity, and by insolu- 
bility in cold water, in alcohol, and in ether. 
The term " starch" is commercially applied to 



that obtained from wheat, which for this manu- 
facture is ground and diffused through vats of 
water, where it remains two or more weeks, and 
undergoes a slight fermentation, and acquires 
a peculiar sour smell. The sour liquor is 
drawn off, and the precipitate washed in sieves, 
through which the impure starch passes with 
the water. It is afterwards passed through 
other waters, drained through boxes lined with 
linen or canvass, and ultimately stove-dried in 
paper. When drying, it cracks into the pris- 
matic pieces, resembling miniature basalt, 
which is its usual form. Starch may be ob- 
tained from many other grains, and from pota- 
toes and several esculent vegetables. Arrow- 
root is the starch of the Maranta arundinacea ; 
British arrowroot that of the root of Arum macu- 
latum: sago, of the Sagus faranifera, an East 
Indian palm tree; and tapioca and cassava, of 
the Jatropha manikot. In the process of germi- 
nation, and by various chemica,l agents, starch 
may be converted into a species of gum and 
sugar. Pure starch is white, tasteless, and 
inodorous. It consists of two distinct sub- 
stances, that are readily recognised under a 
good magnifying lens, namel}"-, a membrane 
called amylin, and a gummy semifluid matter 
named amiolm; the one the husk, the other the 
contents of the granules. In cold water, unless 
triturated in a mortar, the grains do not burst, 
but remain entire and insoluble ; but in boiling 
water they burst and form a mucilage. Starch 
is a compound of 42'8 parts of carbon, 6-35 of 
hydrogen, and 50-85 of oxygen in 100 parts. 
Starch is much less nutritious than wheat 
flour, or the farina of any grain which con- 
tains gluten ; and on this account the starch of 
arrowroot, sago, &c., is used as a diet for the 
sick. Starch is detected from other mucilages 
by forming a blue colour with iodine, vvhen the 
mucilage is cold. Starch in England is charged 
with a duty of -Hd. per lb., and its manufacture 
is consequently placed under the control of the 
excise 

STAR OF BETHLEHEM. See Bethle- 
HEx, Star of. 

STAR-THISTLE. A name applied to some 
species of Centaurea, viz. Jersey star-thistle (C, 
isnardi), the common star-thistle (C calcitrupa), 
and the yellow star-thistle, or St. Barnaby's 
thistle (C. solstilialis). The first is a perennial 
weed, the others are annuals. See Blue-Bot- 
TLE, Knapweed, &C. 

STARWORT (Jster, a star; whence also 
the common name, the flowers resembling little 
stars from the rays of their circumference). 
Many species of this extensive genus are 
stately and handsome plants. The swellings 
or galls as large as a walnut, so often found 
on the stems of some American species of 
starwort, or aster, are caused by the punctures 
of a fly. 

STARWORT, THE WATER {Callitricht . 
named by Pliny from kalos, beautiful, and ila-ix, 
hair). Annual aquatic plants, which grow in 
ditches, ponds, and lakes. 

STEAM. Water converted into an elastic 
fluid by the application of heat. It would be 
foreign to our subject to go into any detail o' 
the various mechanical uses and improve 
ments to which steam has been applied with 
4q2 1013 



STEAMING FOOD. 



STRAINS. 



,»o much success. Latterly, however, a spirit 
of inquiry has led to an investigation into the 
application of steam to purposes of husbandry, 
such as engines for ploughing, draining, &c. ; 
and, though there are obstacles in the way of 
their successful operation, there is little doubt 
that eventually the spirit of research and im- 
provement will overcome these difficulties, and 
create a singular revolution in the practical 
operations of agriculture, whereby a vast 
amount of animal power will be saved, and an 
increased impetus be given to production. A 
series of very able papers on this subject ap- 
peared a few years ago in the Quart. Journ. of 
As:r. vols, v., vi., vii. 

STEAMING FOOD. The advantages to be 
derived from boiling or preparing the food of 
live-stock are now very generally understood 
and appreciated ; although it is still a question 
whether it always compensates for the extra 
labour and time consumed. We have already 
gone into this subject under the head Food, and 
merely revert to it now to call attention to 
. some articles describing apparatuses for steam- 
ing food, which will be found in the Quart. 
Journ. of Agr. in vols, iv — vi. Steaming is 
also popularly treated of and explained in the 
first volume oi Brit. Husb. p. 129, and has been 
frequently discussed in American periodicals. 

STEARINE (Gr.). That part of oils and 
fats which is solid at common temperatures. 
Both in fats and in fixed oils it is associated 
with a fluid principle, which cannot be ren- 
dered solid at the lowest known temperatures. 
Stearine is only found in animal fats ; or, at 
least, is rarely present in those of a vegetable 
origin. See Fat. 

STEELYARD. A well-known balance, by 
which the weights of bodies are determined by 
means of a single standard weight. 

STEEN KROUT {Lithospemmm arvense). 
Stone Seed, Wheat Thief. See Red Weed. 

STEEPING. See Brining of Grain and 
Smut. 

STEPPES (Russ). The name given to the 
vast extent of plains peculiar to Asia; synony- 
mous with the prairies of North America, and 
the llanos of South America. The steppes of 
Russia are not unlike the heaths of Germany; 
being in part susceptible of cultivation, and 
affording pasturage for numerous herds belong- 
ing to nomadic tribes. 

STITCHWORT (Stellaria, from stella, a 
star; the flowers are star-like). A genus of 
herbaceous plants which are mere weeds. 
Some are annual, the others are perennial. 
See Chickweed. 

STIGMA. In botany, the upper extremity 
of the style without a cuticle, in consequence 
of which it has almost uniformly a humid and 
papillose surface. It is the part upon which 
the pollen falls, and where it is stimulated into 
the production of the pollen tubes, which are 
indispensable to the act of impregnation. 

STILES. A well-known contrivance for the 
admission of foot-passengers, without permit- 
ting the stock of the enclosures to escape. 
Stiles are made in very different forms and 
manners in different districts, according to the 
materials, situations, and purposes for which 
th'^v arc intendet^ 
j014 



STINGERS and PIERCERS. A class of 

insects embracing bees, wasps, ants, saw-flies, 
ichneumon-flies, &c. 

STIPULES. In botany, small scales or ap- 
pendages situated on each side at the base of 
the petioles or leaf-stalks, most commonly of a 
less firm texture than the latter, and having a 
subulate termination. 

STOCK-NUT. See Hazel. 

STOLONIFEROUS. Bearing runners 
which root at the joints. 

STOMATA. In botany, orifices through the 
epidermis of plants, chiefly of the leaves, hav- 
ing the appearance of an areola, in the centre 
of which is a slit of various form and size, 
that opens or closes, according to circum- 
stances, and lies over a cavity in the subjacent 
tissue. They are universally regarded as spi- 
racles, or breathing por^s. In leaves of trees 
and plants exposed to the air they usually oc- 
cupy the under disk; on those that lie upon 
the surface of water, the upper disk. 

STONE. An English common weight esti- 
mated at 14 lbs. 

S rONECROP (Sedum). A genus of herbs, 
with alternate, very succulent, either flat, cy- 
lindrical, or tumid leaves. Root mostly peren- 
nial. Flowers yellow, white, or reddish, usu- 
ally cymose, rarely axillary. There are, in 
England, ten indigenous species, which inhabit, 
for the most part, old walls, roofs, and dry 
sandy ground. See House-Leek and Orpine. 

STONE-PARSLEY (^Athamanta). These 
are chiefly weeds. 

STONE PINE. See Firs. 

STONE WEED (Field Lithospermum). See 
Red-Root. 

STOOKING. The Scotch term for setting 
up sheaves of corn in stocks or shocks. The 
operation is performed soon after the corn is 
cut, it being previously tied into bunches or 
sheaves. 

STOOL. The root of a timber tree, which 
throws up shoots. Coppice wood consists 
chiefly of the shoots sent up by the roots of 
stools, or trees or shrubs which have been cut 
over by the surface. In general, all dicotyle- 
donous trees are endowed by nature with the 
property of sending up shoots from the stumps 
or stools.; but this is not the case with most of 
the gymnosperms or coniferous trees. A wood 
of pines or firs, therefore, when once cut down, 
can never be renewed, except by seeds. It is 
a curious fact that the shoot, however large the 
stool may be, can be traced to the pith, and 
therefore appears to have been originally a 
shoot of the first year's growth of the plant. 
That its growth has been impeded is evident; 
but when the tree is cut down, and the whole 
sap is thrown into a small space, the latent, yet 
vital gum is stimulated, and a twig thence pro- 
duced. 

STORK'S-BILL {Erodmm, from erodios, a 
heron ; the carpels resemble the head and 
beak of that bird). This is an extensive genus 
of plants of considerable beauty : they thrive well 
in any common soil with the usual treatment. 

STRAINS. In farriery, accidental injuries 
arising from over-distension of the muscles or 
tendons, in consequence of which the animals 
suffer great pain, and are generally lamed. 



STRANGLES. 



STRENGTH. 



STRANGLES. In farriery, a disease which 
is principally incident to young horses ; usually 
appearing between the fourth and fifth year, 
and oftener in the spring than at any other sea- 
son. It is preceded by cough, and is a disease 
to which all horses are subject, but it never 
returns. A blister will be found the best appli- 
cation to hasten the formation and suppuration of 
the tumour under the jaw, which, from its situa- 
tion, has probably given the name to this disease. 

STRATH, in Scotland, is generally under- 
stood to signify a valley of considerable size, 
whose appellation is determined by some river 
running through it, or some particular charac- 
teristic. 

STRATUM. When different rocks lie in 
succession upon each other, each individual 
forms a stratum. See GEOT.oeT. 

STRAW. The stalks or culms on which 
corn and other grasses grow, and from which 
the grain has been separated by thrashing. 
When chopped or cut small, it affords a whole- 
some provender for horses and oxen, especially 
if it be mixed with green food. (See Chaff 
and Chaff Engines.) When not allowed to 
be carried off the premises, the chief value of 
white straw for farm purposes lies in its con- 
version into manure; for although it may carry 
store cattle through the winter, it will neither 
fatten them nor enable any animal to work; 
and its intrinsic worth for the uses of litter and 
of occasional feeding has been estimated by 
experienced farmers in England at 20s. to 30s. 
the ton. See Haulm. 

STRAWBERRY (Fragaria, from fragrans, 
fragrant; the perfumed fruit of the strawberry 
is well known). The strawberry is our ear- 
liest fruit, and as the harbinger of the frurtus 
hnrai, its appearance is as welcome as its fla- 
vour agreeable. The cultivation and propaga- 
tion of this plant is so familiar to every one, as 
are the wholesomeness and deliciousness of 
the fruit, that neither need be particularized 
here. Three species of strawberry found wild 
in the United States are enumerated by Mr. 
Nuttall : 1. F. vescn, in the state of Ohio, near 
Lake Erie. 2. F. Virginiana. 3. F. Canadensis, 
both common in the Southern, Middle, and 
Northern States. The species indigenous to 
Britain are two, the wood strawberry (F. vcsca), 
and the haulbois strawberry {F. elatior). The 
covering of strawberry plants with sea-weed 
in the winter has been found to increase the 
size of the fruit to a prodigious degree. This 
is much practised in the island of Jersey. 

STRAWBERRY- LEAVED CINQUEFOIL. 
See CixaiT.FoiL. 

STRAW-CUTTER. See Chaff-Encine. 

STRAW-YARD. The yard into which straw 
is thrown in thrashing. Also the enclosure in 
which cattle are confined in winter, for the pur- 
pose of being foddered on straw. There ought 
to be open sheds for shelter in the straw-yard; 
for though pure air is essential to the health of 
store and working cattle, cold winds and rain 
are highly injurious to them. The great use 
of a straw-yard is for the accumulation of ma- 
nure, which cannot be rich unless the cattle 
get some food besides straw to support them. 

STREET DUNG. The mixture of animal 
and vegetable matters, comminuted particles, 



&c., swept up from the streets of large towns, 
which is found to be an excellent fertilizer; it 
is composed of a mixture of horse dung, 
debris of the paving stones, soot, lime, and me- 
tallic particles. 

STRENGTH, in mechanics, is used in the 
same sense as force or power. Thus, strength 
of animals is the muscular force or energy 
which animals are capable of exerting; 
strength of materials is the resistance which 
bodies oppose to a force acting upon them. It 
is obviously a matter of much importance to 
be able to estimate with tolerable accuracy the 
eflJbrts which an animal of the average strength 
employed in labour is capable of exerting, and, 
accordingly, very numerous observations have 
been made on the subject; but this species 
of force is subject to variation from so great a 
number of circumstances, both physical and 
mechanical, that the results given by different 
authors present very little agreement with each 
other, though they are of great value as afford- 
ingdata for determining the modes in which ani- 
mal labour is most advantageously employed. 

Of all animals employed as first movers, the 
horse is, beyond question, the most useful, and 
that whose labour is susceptible of the most 
numerous and varied applications. For the 
purpose of determining his muscular power, 
the dynamometer may be conveniently used ; 
but, as the action of the animal is very quickly 
reduced by continued exertion, it is m>,re usual 
to estimate it according to the amount of daily 
labour performed. Desaguliers and Smeaton 
estimate the strength of a horse as equivalent to 
that of 5 men ; the French authors have com- 
monly stated it as equal to 7 men ; and Schulze 
makes it equal to that of 14 men in drawing ho- 
rizontally. According to Desaguliers, a horse's 
power is equal to 44 lbs. raised 1 foot high in 1 
minute. Smeaton makes this number 22-916, 
Hachett 28, and Walt 33. The last estimate 
is commonly understood by the terra horse- 
power as applied to steam-engines. The quan- 
tity of action which a horse can exert dimin- 
ishes as the duration of the labour is prolonged. 
Tredgold gives the following table, showing the 
average maximum velocity with which a horse 
unloaded can travel according to the number 
of hours per day : — 



Time of 

Mirch in 

Houri. 


Greatest Velocity 
per Hour io Miles. 


Time of 

Mirch ta 

Hours. 


Greiteat Velocity 
per Hour in Miles. 


1 

3 
3 
4 
5 


14-7 
10-4 
8-5 
73 
6-6 


6 

7 
8 
9 
10 


60 
55 
5-2 
4-9 
4-6 



The useful effect a horse is capable of pro- 
ducing, depends much upon the manner ic 
which his strength is applied. See Carts., 
Dtxamometer, HonsE-PowEK, Thrashing Ma- 
chine. 

Strength of Materials. — There are four differ- 
ent ways in which the strength of a solid body 
may be exerted: first, in resisting a longitu- 
dinal tension, or force tending to tear if asuu 
der; secondly, in resisting a force tending to 
break the body by a transverse strain ; thirdly 
in resisting compression, or a force tending to 
crush the body; and, fourthly, in resisting a 

1015 



STUBBLE. 



SUBSOIL-PLOUGHING. 



force tending to wrench it asunder by torsion. 
Mr. Hodgkinson gives the following results of 
his experiments on the resistance of a crush- 
ing force of short pillars of some of the most 
common descriptions of wood, the force being 
applied in the direction of the fibres. 



Description of Wood. 


strength per square Inch j 
in lbs. 1 


Alder 

Ash - - . - - 
Bay 

Beech 

English birch . - - 

Cedar 

Red deal . - - - 
White deal - - - - 

Elder 

Elm 

Fir (spruce) - - . - 
Mahogany - - - - 
Oak (Quebec) ... 
Oak (English) - . . 
Pine (pitch) - - . 
Pine (red) - . - - 
Poplar - - - - - 
Plum (dry) . - - - 

Teak 

Walnut . - . - 
, Willow - . - - 


6831 to 6960 
8683 9363 
7518 7518 
7733 9363 
3297 6402 
6674 5863 
5748 6686 
6781 7293 
7451 9973 

10331 
6499 6819 
8198 8198 
4231 5982 
6484 10058 
6790 6790 
5395 7518 
3107 5124 
8241 10493 

12101 
6063 7227 
2898 6128 



{Branded Did. of Science; Barlow^s Treatise on 

the Strens;th of Timber.) 

STUBBLE. The root ends of the culms of 
corn left in the field, standing as they grew, 
after the corn has been reaped by the sickle or 
scythe. In some parts of England only a small 
portion of the straw is cut off with the ears of 
corn, and the stubble in that case is a foot or 18 
inches in length ; but in others the corn is cut 
as close to the surface as possible, in which 
case the stubble is quite short. In general, 
:ong stubble is a symptom of bad fanning, be- 
cause a quantity of straw is in this case left to 
waste in the field, which might have been car- 
ried home and rotted into manure. 

STYLE. In botany, is that elongation of the 
ovarium which supports the stigma. It is an 
extension of the midrib of the carpellary leaf, 
or is formed by the rolling up of the attenuated 
extremity of the latter. 

SUBSOIL-PLOUGH (PI. 17, o, g^). See 
Plouoh and Subsoil-Ploughing. 

SUBSOIL-PLOUGHING. In farming, the 
operation of breaking the substratum by means 
of a plough constructed especially for that pur- 
pose. Considerable discussion has taken place 
with regard to the advantages of subsoil-plough- 
ing; adifferenceofopinion which appears tohave 
been principally caused by an inattention to the 
chem ical effects produced by the subsoil, orDean- 
stonizing system of tillage, so named from being 
firstemployed, or at least first brought into gene- 
ral notice, by Mr. Smith,of Deanston, in Stirling- 
shire, when he was examined, in 1836, before 
the Agricultural Committee of the House of 
Commons. By this system, by means of a sub- 
soil plough, of which there are several kinds, 
the subsoil, or under crust of earth, is merely 
broken and pulverized, say to the depth of from 
14 to 20 inches, without being brought to the 
surface, or mixed with the upper soil; after a 
'apse of 4 or 5 years, a portion of the previously 
disturbed substratum is found, by experience, 
in a state to be advantageously (by deep plough- 
'(ig'i hrousjh* to the surface; it being in this 
lOie 



time, by the action of the atmosphere, and per- 
haps by a partial mixture with the surface- 
mould, rendered sufficiently friable and fertile. 
It is of necessity a consequence of this subsoil- 
ploughing, that the permanent drains of all 
lands thus cultivated must be constructed rather 
deeper in the soil than is usual with farmers ; 
the lop of those at Deanston are placed at a 
depth of 22 inches from the surface, so as to 
be completely out of the way of the subsoil 
which the plough has turned over. 

As the description of this valuable plough 
cannot be too generally circulated, I will here 
introduce it in Mr. Smith's own words : — 

" The subsoil-plough has been constructed on 
principles appearing the best fitted to break up 
the subsoil completely to a depth sufficient for 
thorough cultivation, say 14 to 16 inches, whilst 
the active soil is still retained on the surface; 
to be of the easiest possible draught in refer- 
ence to the depth of furrow and firmness of the 
subsoil ; to have strength and massive weight 
sufficient to penetrate the hardest stratum; to 
resist the shocks from fast stones, and to throw 
out all stones under 200 lbs. in weight. All 
this has been accomplished and practically 
proved at Deanston, over an extent of at least 
200 acres of various soils; and also in various 
parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, during 
several seasons. The plough requires 4 good 
horses, an active ploughman, and a lad to 
drive the horses and manage them at the turn- 
ings. Six horses, yoked three and three abreast, 
may be necessary in some very stiff or stony 
soils. A common plough, drawn by two horses, 
goes before the subsoil-plough, throwing out a 
large open furrow of the active soil ; the sub- 
soil-plough following, slits up thoroughly and 
breaks the subsoil, and the next furrow of 
active soil is thrown over the last opened fur- 
row of the subsoil ; the stones brought to the 
surface by the subsoil-plough being thrown 
aside on the ploughed part of the land by a lad: 
thus the work proceeds until the whole field is 
gone over. The lad should carry a bag of 
wooden pins, that he may mark the site of the 
large fast stones which the plough cannot throw 
out, and which must afterwards be dug out 
with the pick, and perhaps blasted. 

"The charge of subsoil-ploughing a Scotch 
acre may be estimated at 24s. or 30s. per statute 
acre, being one-fifth of what a similar depth 
with the spade would cost, and, upon the whole, 
as effectually done. When land which has 
been opened up by the subsoil-plough shall 
have undergone the first rotation of cropping, 
several inches of the subsoil may be taken up 
by the plough to mix with the active soil ; and 
in proportion as the subsoil is ameliorated, so 
may the greater depth be taken up with advan- 
tage. In the richer subsoils it is sometimes 
expedient to plough to the whole depth of the 
moved subsoil on the first application of the 
trench-plough. The trench-plough recommend- 
ed for this process should be made in the form 
ofWilkie's plough, having all its dimensions 
made of double size ; or, what is found to an- 
swer fully as well, by a plough in the fashion 
of the old Scotch plough, but also of double 
dimensions. Such ploughs require six horses, 
yoked three and three abreast, with one man to 



SUBSOIL-PLOUGHING. 



SUBSOIL-PLOUGHING. 



hold the plough, and another to manage the 
horses, to do the work effectually. This ope- 
ration should be performed in turning over the 
winter furrow preparatory to a green crop, and 
the sooner the work is performed after harvest 
the better. In estimating the expense of this 
operation, the horses may be charged at 4s. each, 
to cover all expenses, tear and wear, &c., 
which will amount to 24s.; two men, 2s.=4s. ; 
and an attendant lad to pick out stones. Is.; 
in all 29s. As the work is heavy, the motion 
of the horses is necessarily slow, and it will, 
in general, take 8 hours' working to accom- 
plish one statute acre. The expense of this 
operation may appear alarming ; but when it 
is considered that one such ploughing will be 
more effectual in killing weeds, and in expos- 
ing the soil to the air, than two ordinary plough- 
ings, we may deduct the cost of two such = 20s., 
leaving 9s. to be charged against the deep 
working. 

" When land has been thoroughly drained, 
deeply wrought, and well manured, the most 
unpromising sterile soil becomes a deep, rich 
loam, rivalling in fertility the best natural land 
of the country ; and from being fitted for rais- 
ing only scanty crops of common oats, will 
bear good crops of from 32 to 48 bushels of 
v/heat, .30 to 40 bushels of beans, 40 to 60 
bushels of barley, and from 48 to 70 bushels 
of early oats per statute acre; besides potatoes, 
turnips, mangel-wurzel, and carrots as green 
crops, which all good agriculturists know are 
the abundant producers of the best manure. 
It is hardly possible to estimate all the advan- 
tages of dry and deep soil. Every operation in 
husbandry is thereby facilitated and cheapen- 
ed ; less seed and less manure produce a full 
effect ; the chances of a good and early tid (a 
Scotch term for that slate of the ploughed soil 
which is most suitable for receiving the seed, 
neither too moist nor too dry) for sowing are 
greatly increased, a matter of great importance 
ill our precarious climate; and there can be 
no doubt that even the climate itself will be 
much improved by the general prevalence of 
land dry." 

In this instance, as in most other novel agri- 
cultural efforts, the zeal of its promoters has 
sometimes carried them too far; they have 
even confidently contended that in most situa- 
tions subsoiling will render draining unneces- 
sary; a result which would hardly have been 
arrived at by the most sanguine subsoiler, if 
he had paused to recollect that deepening the 
soil, however it may promote the absorption 
of atmospheric moisture, can in few situations 
enable land-springs and stagnant waters to 
escape. The objects to be attained by these 
operations are, in fact, diametrically opposite. 
The one is adopted to increase the gradual 
healthful supply of food and moisture by the 
earth to the roots of the crop, in the degree 
the most grateful to its habits. The other ex- 
pensive practice is to remove that moisture 
when (from any cause) it becomes too abun- 
dant for healthful vegetation; this removal can 
only be obtained in very peculiar situations by 
the mere use of the subsoil-plough, and then 
to a very limited extent; such, for example, as 
when the crust or subsoil is of such a degree 
128 



of thinness as to be completely penetrated by 
the plough, and thus the upper soil brought, by 
breaking up the separating crust, into imme- 
diate contact with a substratum of earth of 
greater absorbent properties than the pan-crust 
which has hitherto separated them. 

The farmers of the chalky soils of Sussex, 
Dorsetshire, Wilts, and Hampshire, very ad- 
vantageously raise the substratum of chalk ex- 
isting under their lands, and spread it in con- 
siderable quantities on the surface. Those of 
Essex and Suffolk in many places do the same 
with the under-slratum of clay or marl on 
which their surface-soils immediately rest; and 
they find this a very profitable practice, because 
the earths which constitute all fertile soils 
being also the necessary constituents of the 
commonly cultivated grasses, are gradually 
and incessantly carried off from thence by con- 
tinual cropping, and consequently in time an 
advantageous opportunity is afforded for their 
being replenished with the earths, perhaps con- 
tained in the subsoil, in which they may have 
become deficient. 

The chemical effect of pulverizing and break- 
ing up a subsoil is certainly advantageous to 
the plant in two ways, besides others with 
which we are very likely at present unac- 
quainted; first, it renders the soil penetrable 
to a much greater depth by the roots, or minute 
fibres of the plant, and consequently renders 
more available any decomposing matters, or 
earthy ingredients, which that substratum may 
contain ; and, secondly, it renders the soil much 
more freely permeable by the atmosphere, ren- 
dering, in consequence, a greatly increased 
supply, not only of oxygen gas to the roots of 
the plants, but also yielding more moisture, not 
only from the soil, but from the atmospheric 
air; which moisture, let it be remembered by 
the cultivator, is in all weathers as incessantly 
absorbing by the soil as it is universally con- 
tained in the atmosphere, abounding most in 
the latter, in the very periods when it is most 
needed by the plants — that is, in the warmest 
and driest weather. 

It is, perhaps, needless to prove, that the 
roots of commonly cultivated plants will pene- 
trate, under favourable circumstances, much 
greater depths into the soil, in search of mois- 
ture, than they can, from the resistance of the 
case-hardened subsoil, commonly attain. Thus 
the roots of the wheat plant in loose, deep soils, 
have been found to descend to a depth of 2 or 
3 feet, or even more; and it is evident, that 
if plants are principally sustained in dry wea- 
ther by the atmospheric, aqueous vapour ab- 
sorbed by the soil, that that supply of water 
must be necessarily increased, by enabling the 
atmospheric vapour and gases, as well as the 
roots of plants, to attain to a greater depth ; for 
the interior of a well-pulverized soil, be it 
remembered, continues steadily to absorb this 
essential food of vegetables, even when the 
surface of the earth is drying in the sun. 

And by facilitating the admission of air U 
the soil, another advantage is obtained, that of 
increasing its temperature. The earths are 
naturally bad conductors of heat, especially 
downwards ; thus it is well-known, that, at the 
siege of Gibraltar, the red-hot balls employed 

1017 



SUBSOIL-PLOUGHING. 



SUBSOIL-PLOUGHING. 



by ihe garrison were readily carried from the 
furnaces to the batteries in wooden barrows, 
whose bottoms were merely covered with earth. 
Davy proved the superior rapidity with which 
a loose, black soil was healed compared with a 
chalky soil, by placing equal portions of each 
in the sunshine ; the first was heated in an 
hour from 65° to 88°, while the chalk was only 
heated to 69°. (Elements of Jgr. Chem. p. 178.) 
This trial, however, must not be regarded as 
absolutely conclusive, since the surface of the 
black soils naturally increases more rapidly 
in temperature when exposed to the direct rays 
of the sun than those of a lighter colour. A 
free access of air to all soils also adds to their 
fertility, by promoting the decomposition of the 
excretory matters of plants, which otherwise 
would remain for a longer period, to the annoy- 
ance of plants of the same species. 

In a recent communication to the secretary 
of the English Agricultural Society, Sir E. Stracey 
has given some of the results of his experience 
with the Rackheath subsoil-plough, and they 
are of a description which cannot be too gene- 
rally known: — "On my coming," he remarks, 
"to reside on my estate at Rackheath, about 6 
years since, I found 500 acres of heath land, 
composing 2 farms (which had been enclosed 
under an act of parliament about 40 years), 
without tenants ; the gorse, heather, and fern, 
shooting up in all parts. In short, the land was 
in such a condition, that the crops returned not 
the seed sown. The land was a loose, loamy 
soil, and had been broken up by the plough to 
a depth not exceeding 4 inches, beneath which 
was a substratum (provincially called an iron 
pan) so hard, that with difficulty could a pick- 
axe be made to enter in many places ; and my 
bailiff, who had looked after the land for 35 
years, told me that the lands were not worth 
cultivation — that all the neighbouring farmers 
said the same thing — and that there was but 
one thing to be done, viz., to plant with fir and 
forest trees ; but to this I paid but little atten- 
tion, as I had the year preceding allotted some 
parcels of ground, taken out of the adjoining 
lands, to some cottagers ; to each cottage, about 
one-third of an acre. The crops on all these 
allotments looked fine, healthy, and good, pro- 
ducing excellent wheat, carrots, peas, cabbages, 
potatoes, and other vegetables in abundance. 
The question then was, how was this done ? 
On the outside of the cottage allotments all 
was barren. It could not be by the manure that 
had been laid on, for the cottagers had none 
but that which they had scraped from the 
roads. The magic of all this I could ascribe to 
nothing else but the spade; they had broken up 
the land 18 inches deep. As to digging up 500 
acres with tne spade, to the depth of 18 inches, 
at an expense of 6?. an acre, I would not 
attempt it. I accordingly considered, that a 
plough might be constructed so as to loosen the 
soil to the depth of 18 inches, keeping the best 
soil to the depth of 4 inches, and near the sur- 
face, thus admitting air and moisture to the 
roots of the plants, and enabling them to ex- 
tend their spongioles in search of food ; for air, 
moisture, and extent of pasture, are as neces- 
sary to the thriving and increase of vegetables 
as of animals. In this attempt I succeeded, as 
;018 



the result will show. I have now broken up 
all these 500 acres, 18 inches deep. The pro- 
cess was by sending a common plough, drawn 
by two horses, to precede, which turned over 
the ground to the depth of 4 inches ; my sub- 
soil-plough immediately followed in the furrow 
made, drawn by four horses, stirring and 
breaking the soil 12 or 14 inches deeper, but 
not turning it over. Sometimes the iron pan 
was so hard, that the horses were set fast, 
and it became necessary to use the pickaxe to 
release them before they could proceed. After 
the first year, the land produced double the 
former crops, many of the carrots being 16 
inches in length, and of a proportionate thick- 
ness. This amendment could have arisen 
solely from the deep ploughing. Manure I had 
scarcely any, the land not producing then stover 
sufiicient to keep any stock worth mentioning, 
and it was not possible to procure sufficient 
quantity from the town. The plough tore up 
by the roots all the old gorse, heather, and fern, 
so that the land lost all the distinctive charac- 
ter of heath land the first year after the deep 
ploughing ; which it had retained, notwithstanl- 
ing the ploughing with the common ploughs, for 
35 years. Immediately after this subsoil-plough- 
ing, the crop of wheat was strong and long in 
the straw, and the grain close-bosomed and 
heavy, weighing full 64 pounds to the bushel. 
The quantity, as might be expected, not large 
(about 26 bushels to the acre), but great in 
comparison to what it produced before. The 
millers were desirous of purchasing it, and 
could scarcely believe it was grown upon the 
heath land, as in former years my bailiff could 
with difficulty get a miller to look at his sam- 
ple. Let this be borne in mind, that this land 
then had had no manure for years, was run out, 
and could only have been ameliorated by the 
admission of air and moisture by the deep 
ploughing. This year the wheat on this land 
has looked most promising ; the ears large and 
heavy, the straw long ; and I expect the pro- 
duce will be from 34 to 36 bushels an acre : the 
wheat, the " golden drop." My Swedish turnips 
on this land this year are very good; my pud- 
ding and sugar-loaf turnips failing in many 
parts, sharing the fate of those of my neigh- 
bours, having been greatly injured by the tor- 
rents of rain which fell after they had shown 
themselves above the ground. Turnips must 
have a deep and well-pulverized soil, in order 
to enable them to swell, and the tap-roots to 
penetrate in search of food. The tap-root of a 
Swedish turnip has been known to penetrate 
39 inches into the ground." 

Sub-turf Plough. — " Being on the subject of 
the sub-soil plough," says Sir Edmund Stracey, 
"I may as well tell you I have contrived an- 
other plough, from the use of which the great- 
est benefit has been derived by my park land. 
I call this my ' sub-turf plough.' It is used to 
loosen the turf about 10^ inches deep below 
the surface, without turning over the flag; 
loosening the soil underneath, consequently, 
admitting the air and the rain, and permitting 
the roots of the herbage to spread in search of 
food. There are no marks left by which it can 
be known that the land has been so ploughed, 
except from the straight lines of the coulter, at 



SUBSTRATUM. 



SUGAR. 



ihe distance of about 14 inches one from an- 
other. In about three months from the time of 
ploughing these lines are totally obliterated, 
and the quantity of aftermath, and the thick- 
ness tif the bottom, have been the subject of 
admiration of all my neighbours. Another 
advantage from this subturf-ploughing is, that, 
before that took place, water was lying stag- 
nant in many parts (after heavy rains), espe- 
cially in the lower grounds, to a great depth: 
now no water is to be seen lying on any part, 
the whole being absorbed by the earth." {^Journ. 
of Eiiii. Jgr. Soc. vol. i. p. 253.) 

And for heavier soils, the evidence in favour 
of subsoil-ploughing is equally valuable. In 
the year 1838, an experiment was made by 
Sir James Graham, which is important in se- 
veral respects. It was on a field of about 8 
acres, of the poorest and wettest land. "The 
surface-soil is about 5 inches deep of black 
earth, of a peaty quality. The subsoil is a 
weeping retentive clay, with sand and rusty 
gravel intermixed. This clay extends to the 
bottom of the drains, which are of tile, laid 30 
inches deep in every furrow. This field was 
rented by the out-going tenant at 4s. 6c?. per 
acre. It was in pasture of the coarsest de- 
scription, overrun with rushgs and other aqua- 
tic plants. After draining, on one-half of this 
field I used Mr. Smith's subsoil-plough. On 
the other half I trench-ploughed to the depth 
of 10 inches, by two ploughs following in suc- 
cesM.ii. Ill the first part, not mixing with the 
surface any of the subsoil; in the last part, 
commingling the surface and the subsoil in 
nearly equal proportions. The whole field 
was heavily, but equally manured, and planted 
with potatoes ; and though the potato crop, 
even on good land in this neighbourhood 
(Cumberland), was below an average, yet the 
crop in this field exceeded an average, and 
yielded about 12 tons per acre. The field is 
equally drained in every part. The crop was 
•so equal throughout the field, that I am un- 
able to pronounce positively which part was 
the best, but I am inclined to give the prefer- 
ence to that portion where Mr. Smith's subsoil- 
plouirh was used." 

SUBSTRATUM. A stratum lying under 
another stratum. The term subsoil is generally 
applied to the matters which intervene between 
the surface soils and the rocks on which they 
rest ; thus, clay is the common substratum, or 
subsoil, of gravel. 

SUCCORY. See Chiccort. 

SUCCULENT. A botanical term, signify- 
ing fleshy, or filled with juice. 

SU(^KER. A young twig or shoot from the 
root of a plant. See Propagation. 

SUDORIFIC. Having the power of pro- 
ducing perspiration. 

SUET. The fat situated about the loins and 
kidneys, which is harder and less fusible than 
that from other parts of the same animal. 
That of the ox and sheep is chiefly used; and, 
when melted out of its containing membranes, 
it forms tallow, and is largely used in the ma- 
nufacture of candles and the ordinary soaps. 
Beef and mutton suet, when fused, concrete at 
B temperature of about 100°. Like other kinds 



of fat, it is a compound of carbon, hydrogen, 
and oxygen. See Adeps, Fat, Lard, &c. 

SUFFRUTICOSE (Lat. suffrutex, an under- 
shrub). Any plant which is not exactly either 
a shrub or an herbaceous plant, that is, which 
has not hard woody twigs and complete buds, 
like the one, nor perishable, succulent leaves 
and shoots, like the other, is so termed. La- 
vender is an instance of a sufTruticose plant. 

SUGAR (Fr. sucre ; Germ, zucker). The 
great commercial demand for sugar is almost 
exclusively supplied from the sugar-cane 
{Arundo saccharifera), which contains it in great- 
er quantity and purity than any other plant, 
and consequently affords the greatest facilities 
for its extraction. Cane sugar is combined, in 
the juice of the plant, with a number of other 
substances. The following analysis of M. 
Avequin shows the nature and proportions of 
these: — 0-46 albumen, 0-81 gum, 101-2 crys- 
tallizable sugar, 41*6 uncrystallizable sugar, 
0-85 chlorophyle and oil, 0-75 stearin, 1-28 resin, 
3-58 salts, and 700-8 water, in 1000 parts. 
The juice, after expression, is freed from some 
acid which it contains, by means of lime, and 
then concentrated by boiling; after which, as 
soon as brown grains form, the syrup is puri- 
fied, and allowed to crystallize. The crystals 
are next separated from the molasses, or un- 
crystallizable sugar, by dripping. This forms 
muscovado or brown sugar, which is afterwards 
purified. The purest raw sugar comes from 
Demerara. Pure sugar is a compound of 
44-44 of carbon, 6-18 of hydrogen, and 49-78 
of oxygen, in 100 parts. Sugar is nutritive, 
demulcent, and powerfully antiseptic. Grape 
sugar undergoes fermentation more readily 
than cane sugar. A large quantity of sugar, 
identical to cane sugar, is contained in the sap 
of the American maple (^Acer saccharhmm), that 
of the cocoa-nut (Cocos nucifera), and in the 
juice of the beet-root (^Beta vulgaris), from each 
of which it may be economically obtained : it 
has also been extracted from grajies or raisins, 
and, as is well known, is contained abundantly 
in many ripe fruits and esculent vegetables. It 
is, however, in these seldom so pure or in such 
quantity as to admit of ready separation, or 
crystallization. The total average quantity 
entered annually for home consumption in 
England, is, in round numbers, nearly 4,000,000 
cwts. See Maize, Maple, Molasses, &c. 

The sugar-cane, under the name of the su- 
gar-reed, is mentioned in the oldest records of 
antiquity as a product of the Eastern world. It 
would also appear, that the sugar-cane was 
found growing luxuriantly in Hispaniola, when 
Columbus first discovered America, according 
to the account given by Peter Martyr, written 
during the second voyage of Columbus. There 
are many varieties or species of the reedy 
grass producing sugar, both cultivated and 
growing wild on the banks of rivers and mea- 
dows, in both the Indies, China, Africa, tho 
South Sea Islands, and America. The common 
sugar-cane (Saccharum qfficinarum), Plate iv. d, 
is a perennial-rooted plant, very susceptible to 
frost, and therefore restricted in its cultivation 
to a belt or zone extending from 35° to 40° on 
each side of the eiiuator. In the Southern 

1019 



SUGAR. 



SUGAR. 



United States the cultivation cannot be carried 
on advantageously higher than about the 32d 
degree of latitude, and here the cane dies down 
annually, unless cut in time to escape the 
effects of frost. It attains the height of 7 or 8 
feet, or more, and its broad leaves, and large, 
silky panicles, give it a beautiful aspect. The 
stems are jointed, very smooth, shining, and fill- 
ed with a spongy pith: the flowers of the sugar- 
cane are small, and very abundant, being cloth- 
ed externally with numerous silky hairs. But, 
in the regular course of cultivation, it never 
flowers in Louisiana, and but rarely in the 
West Indies. Consequently, seed is difficult 
to be procured, short of Otaheite or China. It 
is well known that where the plant is allowed 
to go to seed, this natural process interferes 
with the developement of the saccharine ma- 
terials. In the West Indies, it is propagated 
by cuttings from the main stalk, planted in 
hills or trenches in the spring or autumn. 
The cuttings root at the joints under ground, 
and send up shoots, which, in 8, 12, or 14 
months, are from 6 to 10 feet long, and fit to 
cut down for the mill. A plantation lasts from 
6 to 10 years, but in Louisiana the planting has 
to be renewed every 2 or 3 years. 

The juice of the sugar-cane is so palatable and 
nutritive, that, during the sugar harvest, every 
creature which partakes freely of it, whether 
man or animal, appears to derive health and vi- 
gour from its use. The meager and sickly ne- 
groes exhibit at this season a surprising altera- 
tion ; and the labouring horses, oxen, and mules, 
though constantly at work, yet, as they are 
allowed to eat, almost without restraint, of 
the refuse plants and scummings from the boil- 
iiiir.house, improve infinitely more than at any 
other period of the year. The sugar-cane is 
now cultivated in all the warm parts of the 
globe. The variety from Otaheite has lately, in 
the ^^'est Indies, superseded all other kinds of 
cane, and succeeds in soils too poor for the 
common varieties. The qualities of the sugar 
are also very superior. 

Sugar is now cultivated to considerable ex- 
tent in the United States. On the northern coast 
af the Gulf of Mexico, for the distance of about 
300 miles, the sugar region is almost entirely 
embraced within the limits of Louisiana. Here, 
the soil being all alluvial and of the richest 
description, the cane is forced by its exceeding 
fertility, together with the warmth of the long 
summers, to a state of maturity which enables it 
to yield sugar in the greatest abundance, and of 
the finest quality. Thus, the natural strength 
of the soil and warmth of the summer compen- 
sate in a great degree for other defects of the 
climate. The extent of lands in this portion 
of the United States admitting of the profitable 
culture of sugar, is sufficient not only to supply 
the entire amount required for home consump- 
tion, but for large exportation. From 1835 to 
1816, sugars imported into the United States 
paid duties of 2\ cts. per lb. on muscovado or 
brown, white havannas 4 to 4| cts., and refined 
C to 12 cts. per lb. according to quality. This 
y)rotection of the planter was reduced by the 
tdriff of 1846, to only 30 per cent, ad valorem 
■•n all kinds. 

Varieties of the Cane. There are five varie- 
1020 



ties of cane mostly planted in the West Indies 
and Louisiana. The Otaheite cane is, as has 
been before observed, more extensively culti- 
vated at present in the West Indies than any 
other. It will grow better on the lighter and 
older cultivated soils, and has several peculiar 
advantages over the Brazilian or Creole canes 
in former use, but now generally superseded. 
The last named is more delicate and requires more 
culture than any other variety, but produces sugar 
of the finest quality. The varieties most exten- 
sively cultivated on the rich lands of Louisiana, 
are the Bourbon, Red-Ribhon and Blue-ribbon, the 
last being the most luxuriant. All the varieties 
" rattoon," that is to say, produce a growth from 
the roots two and sometimes three successive 
years in Louisiana. The consumption of Eng- 
land now amounts to upwards of 400,000,000 
pounds, which gives an average of about 30 
pounds for each individual. That of the United 
States is about 250,000,000 lbs. per annum, 
which, considering the population, gives a , 
larger individual rate of consumption thaoM 
any other country in the world. % 

In an interesting communication in the 
Farmers' Register, vol. iii., Mr. Macrae, a Flo- 
rida sugar planter, speaks of the sugar cul- 
ture in that region as profitable, but still, he 
thinks, too uncertain, from the effects of frost, 
to be depended upon to the exclusion of other 
southern crops. The season for manufactur- 
ing, he observes, may not admit of the saving 
of 500 acres of cane ; but it assuredly admits 
of 100 acres being profitably saved, with 50 
effective hands, and the requisite machinery; 
and that, too, without any serious sacrifice of 
cotton, or great loss of labour. The opinion 
there generally maintained, that the manufac- 
ture of a sugar crop will essentially interfere 
with, and diminish the cotton crop, he regards 
as erroneous. In the proportion of one-fifth 
cane, he says there need be no such interfer- 
ence — admitting that the earliness and severity 
of frost is such as to compel the immediate ser- 
vice of all other labours to the security of the 
cane. "Your 50 hands will mattress it (100 
acres) in from 3 to 5 days, where it may lie 
for a month. Half your force, with tried ma- 
chinery, will then manufacture it in a fortnight, 
without any extra labour ; and your other re- 
maining half of labourers will certainly, at that 
season, save all the cotton that is liable to fall. 
It is not, however, one year in ten, that the sea- 
son would compel this entire disposition of 
your labourers ; and certainly your chance of 
revenue from two crops, not liable to the same 
disasters (for none can deny that the cotton 
plant has nearly as many risks to run before 
its fruit is saved, as the cane), is more than 
equivalent to a moderate loss by a heavy blow 
of cotton. No one should attempt the cane 
cultivation as a source of revenue, with a less 
force than 50 effective hands ; and I attribute 
the heretofore failures of sugar here, in a great 
measure, to overcropping, and a poverty of 
labourers." 

The operation termed " mattressing," consists 
in piling the cane which is cut, to prevent 
injury from frost, in rows in the field. The 
plan recommended by Mr. Macrae, is to cut 
the cane down close to the ground, and 



SUGAR. 



SUGAR. 



throw three rows into one, thus forming wind- 
rows across the field, taking care to place 
the foliage of one stool of cane over the butts of 
the previous one, and laying them to the height 
of 3 or 4 feet, like a thatched roof. In this way 
the cane can be kept several weeks for grind- 
ing and pressing. "Mattressing" the cane for 
a limited period, even after the frost, so far 
from injuring its product, will, he says, in- 
crease It in Florida. Mr. Macrae says, that in 
Florida, no prudent man will under any circum- 
stances attempt a sugar crop alone, and he advo- 
cates the sugar culture only in connexion with 
cotton. In the West Indies from 3000 to 6000 
pounds of sugar are produced to the acre, whilst 
in Louisiana about 1000 lbs. of sugar per acre 
is considered an average yield. The crop in that 
State in 1847-48, was 240,000 hogsheads, each 
estimated at 1000 lbs. gross, with 20 gallons ol 
molasses, and sold at the very low price of 2^ to 
5 cts. on the plantation. It is calculated that 
$300 capital is required for the production of 
each hogshead of sugar and barrel of molasses. 
The expenses of working an estate, including 
wear and tear of machinery, have been stated at 
§60 to $75 for each slave employed. The ave- 
rage product 5 hogsheads to the hand, or about 10 
per cent, profit upon the capital. Mr. Forstall, 
in his communication to the Commissioner of Pa- 
tents (1847), estimates the profits at 5, and some 
years only 2| per cent. He says that when sugars 
average 4|, and cotton 6| cents, the results per 
slave are nearly the same, with the advantage in 
favour of the cotton crop of requiring only ^ less 
cost of machinery. The slaves employed in 
the sugar culture increased from 1828 to 1844, 
from 21,000 to 50,670; the total capital from 
$34,000,000 to $60,000,000. The report of the 
Commissioner of Patents for 1848, contains much 
highly valuable information relative to the sugar 
crop, especially the article, with drawings, by 
C. L. Fleischman. 

Whilst the crop of cane sugar is increasing 
annually at the South, that from the maple is 
becoming greater in the Northern and Western 
States. The amount of sugar made in 1840, 
from both sources, has been reported at 
1.55,100,809 pounds. In Michigan alone, there 
is said lo be no less than 30,000 acres abound- 
ing with the maple. These trees have been 
estimated at an average as worth to the farmer, 
for the purpose of sugar-making alone, from 2 
to 3 dollars each. The proportion of sugar- 
maples per acre in the sugar districts has been 
computed at 30. See Maple. 

Under the head of Maize reference is made 
to the proposed manufacture of sugar from In- 
dian corn, one acre of which, of luxuriant 
growth, has been estimated to produce from 600 
to 1000 pounds and more of good sugar. The 
manufacture of sugar from the beet, so exten- 
sively carried on in France, Germany, and 
other European countries, has never been suc- 
cessfully introduced into the United States. 
To succeed fully, the manufacture must be 
cairied on upon a large scale, with ample capi- 
tal. Many excellent essays upon the subject 
may be found either separate or published in 
various agricultural periodicals. 

Chemical composition of Sugar. — The progress 
of modern chemistry in ascertaining the pre- 
cise elements of various substances, has de- 



veloped some highly interesting facts relative 
to sugar, showing the very slight difierence 
between its composition and that of many other 
matters to which it apparently bears not the 
least resemblance, such as starch, saw-dust, or 
common woody fibre, linen rags, &c., which by 
slight additions have been actually converted 
into sugar. By some chemists, and particu- 
larly Prout, starch is considered as sugar 
partly organized, containing but a small quan- 
tity of carbon and hydrogen more than sugar, 
the excess however being sufficient to prevent 
crystallization or conversion by nature into 
sugar. The following table, prepared from the 
statements of Berzelius, Raspail, and Dumas, 
by Dr. Prout, shows in a curious and interest- 
ing light, by what mere shades of difference in 
their constituent atoms, substances, which to 
the sense appear as far apart as the zenith from 
the nadir, are separated. Water is composed 
of definite and well-ascertained proportions of 
oxygen and hydrogen, and in the formation of 
sugar, starch, acetic acid, and lignin, or the 
pure woody fibre of trees and plants, these two 
materials are found united in the same propor- 
tions as in water; the only ingredient added 
for their completion being carbon. These sub- 
stances, sugar, acetic acid, starch, and lignin, 
may therefore be considered as composed of 
carbon and water in the proportions here given. 

Carbon. Water. 
Surrar. — 100 parts of sugar from starch 

contain .... 3620 fi3-8fl 

From honey - - - - 36 36 6364 

From East India moist - - 4088 5912 

From beet-root and maple - 42 10 5790 

From English refined - - 4205 5805 

From sugar candy, pure - 42-85 57'15 

Acetic Add 4705 52-95 

Starch. — Arrow root in its ordinary 

state 36-04 6306 

From wheat in its ordinary 

state 37-50 6250 

From wheat dried 212° - - 4280 57-20 

Lignin.— In its ordinary state of dryness 42-70 57-30 

From willow dried 212° - 4980 5020 

From box do. - - 5000 5000 

Dr. Prout, in his Bridgewater Treatise, re- 
marks, " that both starch and wood can by dif- 
ferent artificial processes be converted into 
sugar or vinegar. But we are unable to re- 
verse the process, and convert vinegar into 
sugar, or starch into wood." The chemist Bra- 
connel has ascertained that a pound of linen 
rags yields rather more than a pound of sugar. 

Mr. Guthrie of Sackett's Harbour, in his 
attempts to make sugar from potatoes, pro- 
duced large quantities of molasses, but with all 
his skill was unable to crystallize or grain it, 
without the introduction of some deleterious 
substance, lead, for instance ; and consequently 
all his was used in a liquid form, of the con- 
sistence of thick syrup, or rather honey. The 
potatoes were first converted into starch, and^ 
then, by boiling in sulphuric acid, diluted, for 
some hours, into sugar. The directions in the 
Encyclopedia Americana for this process are, 
2000 parts of starch, 8000 parts of water, and 40 
parts strong sulphuric acid — the mixture to 
boil some 36 hours in silver or lead ; but Mr. 
Guthrie accomplishes the conversion by the 
use of steam in about 6 hours. The produc 
tion of sugar or molasses is possible from a 
great variety of materials provided by nature, 
such as the cane, maple, beet honey — all plants 
4 R 1021 



SUGAR BEET. 

that afford starch, or substances that by chemi- [ 
-al process can be converted into gum, as flax, 
linen rags, &c.; still none have yet been found, 
which can successfully enter into competition ' 
with the cane. j 

SUGAR BEET. The white beet already ! 
mentioned under the head Beet. As it is not | 
probable that this root will soon be brought into 
requisition for the production of sugar in the i 
United States, where so many other sources exist 
from which this may be readily procured, we 
shall confine our observations to it as an article 
of food for farm-slock. 

The following information relative to the 
beet culture, &c., is from Mr. Coiman's i^'owr/A 
Report upon, the Agriculture of Massachusetts: 

"Beets are often a very profitable crop. 
They are raised in considerable quantities; are 
packed in barrels and shipped to the south. 
One dollar and a half is a common price for a 
barrel containing 2^ bushels. The farmer 
giving this statement has often produced 600 
bushels to the acre. They are planted on 
ridges about 4 feet apart, in double rows ; and 
the intermediate spaces are often sown with 
turnips. The ridge planting is decidedly pre- 
ferred here for all vegetables of this kind. In 
my opinion, and so far as my own experience 
goes, which has not been small, it would be 
better lo make the ridges about 27 inches apart, 
plant the beets in single rows, and cultivate 
them with a plough. A very useful machine 
for planting beets is a wheel, set like that of a 
wheel-barrow, with pins projecting from the 
rim 2 inches, and placed 8 inches apart, which 
is passed along on the top of the ridge, and the 
seeds dropped by hand into the holes marked 
by the pins. They may then be covered by 
drawing a rake-head along the top of the ridge. 
Too much care cannot be taken to perform all 
operations in planting, where the vegetable is 
afterwards to be cultivated, in straight lines. 
The work is by this means greatly facilitated." 
A crop of sugar beets was raised at Nahant, 
in 1840, by Mr. Frederick Tudor, of 42,284 lbs. 
on 93 rods, or at the rate of 36 tons 746 ,'y'^ lbs. 
net weight per acre, being about 1300 bushels 
per acre, allowing 56 lbs. per bushel. One of 
the roots cropped and cleaned, weighed 31 lbs. 
The ground was trenched to the depth of 20 
inches, and well manured, the stones removed 
bei^ all laid at the bottom of the trenches. 
Allotving the beets worth $5 a ton, this would 
give $180 to an acre, leaving the land in high 
tilth for further rich crops. The expenses of 
cultivating an acre of sugar beets in the New 
England States, have been thus stated by the 
editor of the Yankee Farmer. 
Use of an acre of land well prepared for beets, 
and manured, or managed in the previous 
crop -----... 

Ploughing -----... 

Cultivator-f'no-, horse, cultivator and hand, two 
hours ------.. 

Twice more before sowing - - . . 
Harrowing -.._... 
Seed S2 25, sowing with a machine 75 . 
First hoeing -....._ 

Second hoeing, thinning, and transplanting to 

supply deficiencies - - - . . 

Hoeing again, and loosening the ground with 

machines -----.. 

Harvesting -...."" 



SUGAR BEET. 



1022 



912 00 
4 00 

50 

1 00 
50 

3 00 

4 00 

4 00 

2 00 
9 00 

#40 00 



This we think a high estimate. Still, it must 
be admitted that the cost of cultivating an aero 
of sugar beets much exceeds that of an acre of 
Indian corn. In some places the proportional 
expense of a root over a corn crop is double, 
in others treble. The following observations 
upon the mode of cultivating the beet crop, are 
also taken from the Yankee Farmer. 

Make the rows 2 feet 4 inches apart, and 
then a cultivator can be used in hoeing. If 
the beets stand one foot apart in the rows, and 
weigh 2^ lbs. each, the yield will be 20 tons. 
In rich ground, at that distance a great number 
will weigh 4 or 5 lbs. each ; 20 tons is a good 
crop, but not extremely large, for in some cases 
25 or 30 tons to the acre have been raised in 
this country. At the above expense of §40 to 
the acre with a yield of 20 tons, the cost would 
be §2 per ton. We make this estimate, to show 
how cheap beets may be raised under favour- 
able circumstances, such as good land at a fair 
price, convenient machinery and implements, 
and the most prudential management in the 
culture, with labour at a moderate price, and 
a favourable season. 

Supposing we reckon the produce only two- 
thirds as much as above, say 13f tons, and the 
cost 32i per cent, more, which will be $53 33; 
then the cost of the beets will be only $4 per 
ton, one-fifth less than Mr. Bosson reckoned in 
his calculation on the cost of beet sugar. If 
we reckon 50 lbs. to the bushel, 13^ tons per 
acre would be only 533 bushels, which would 
be no more than a middling crop ; not half as 
much as has been raised in a number of cases 
that have been named. 

In estimating the value of sugar beets for 
feeding stock, &c., Mr. P. Diehl, of Pennsyl- 
vania, says that in his neighbourhood, persons 
feeding the beet to cows, readily procure 2 
cents per lb. more for their butter than their 
neighbours who do not use the beet. His ho<^s 
are wintered entirely on beets and kitchen slop, 
and kept in fine condition. He stales that he 
has fattened solely on sugar beets, beeves, 
which when sold, were pronounced by the 
butchers the best they had killed for many 
years before. In contrasting the probable 
amount of profit to the farmer, per acre, of a 
crop of corn and a crop of beets, he says : Al- 
lowing for the average crop of beets 1000 bu- 
shels per acre, which is moderate, this quantity 
will fatten II head of steers in 90 days, at one 
bushel per day for each steer. Allowing the 
average corn crop to be 50 bushels per acre 
which is very large, this product will fatten 
only 1^ head, in the same time, feeding at the 
usual rate of 1^ pecks per day. This leaves 
a balance in favour of beets, fractions aside, 
of about 800 per cent. (See Cultivator, vol. viii. 
p. 119.) There is perhaps no food which will 
contribute in winter so much to increase the 
quantity and quality of the dairy products as 
the sugar beet. But it should be used along 
with good hay, fodder, and other dry pro- 
vender. ^ '^ 

Under the head of Masgel Wchzel, a tabular 
view IS given of the comparative nutritive ma- 
terials in several of the roots most usually cul- 
tivated for agricultural purposes. From this 
It will be seen, that in saccharine matter as 



SULPHATES. 



SWEET- GRASS. 



well as in the total amount of soluble matter, 
the beet transcends all the other roots taken into 
the estimate. See table, Art. Food, p. 499. 

SULPHATES. A class of concentrated fer- 
tilizers, in which sulphuric acid is combined with 
different substances, as with lime to form gyp- 
sum ; See Plaster of Paris. Ammonia, to form 
sulphate of ammonia, a new fertilizer of great 
power, enjoying high repute in England, costing 
about $5 per 100 lbs., and used at the rate of 100 
to 150 lbs. per acre as a top-dressing or other- 
wise. Sulphuric acid with soda, forms the well 
known Glauber's Salts, also used as a fertilizer 
at the rate of 100 lbs. to 200 lbs. per acre, and 
costing in England about $35 per ton. Cop- 
peras, or sulphate of iron, has been mentioned 
as a great destroyer of disagreeable odours when 
added to putrid animal substances. See Night- 
SoiL. 

SUNDEW. A most singular and beautiful 
genus of plants,having leaves ornamented with red 
glandular hairs, discharging at their ends a thick 
acrid juice resembling dew. The hairs are irri- 
table when touched, and contract upon insects. 

SUNFLOWER (Helianthus, from helios, sun, 
and anthos, a flower ; on account of the bril- 
liant colour of the flowers, and from the erro- 
neous idea that the flowers always turned 
towards the sun). A highly ornamental and 
extensive genus of plants; and from their tall 
growth they are particularly adapted to the 
back of flower-borders or the front of shrub- 
bei ies, in which situations they make a splen- 
did appearance in autumn : they grow well in 
any common garden soil, the tender kinds 
being protected in winter. It appears to pos- 
sess far more profitable qualities than were 
hitherto supposed, and, besides forming a beau- 
tiful object in a bed of flowers, it may be culti- 
vated with advantage, and applied to many 
useful purposes. An acre of land will contain 
25,000 sunflower plants, 12 inches distant from 
each other. The produce will be according to 
the nature of the soil and mode of cultivation; 
but the average has been found to be 50 bush- 
els of the seed per acre, which will yield 50 
gallons of oil. The oil is excellent for table 
use, burning in lamps, and for the manufac- 
ture of soaps. The marc, or refuse of the 
seeds after the oil has been expressed, made 
into cake, will produce 1500 lbs., .and the stalks, 
when burnt for alkali, will give 10 per cent, of 
potassa. The green leaves of the sunflower, 
when dried and burnt to powder, make excel- 
lent fodder for milch cows, mixed with bran. 
From the ease with which sunflowers are pro- 
duced in gardens (for they seem to flourish in 
any soil, and to require no particular care), 
we may safely say that an acre of land will 
yield a considerable return. Poultry are very 
fond of the seeds. 

SUNFLOWER, WILD or FALSE. Sneeze- 
weed (Helcnium autumnale). A plant with a 
biennial root found in the United States. 

SWAMP. Ground habitually so moist and 
soft as not to admit of being trod by cattle, but 
at the same time producing particular kinds of 
trees, bushes, and plants. A swamp diflfers 
from a bog and a marsh in producing trees 
and shrubs, while the latter produce only herb- 
age, plants, and mosses. In autumn and 
spring, the exhalations from swamps are pro- 



ductive of agues, consequently it is impcrtant 
to fill them up or drain them. 

SWAN (Cygnns). Of the noble web-footed 
birds so called there are three British species: 
the Hooper, or Bewick's ; the wild, and the 
tame swan. The wild swan and Hooper ought, 
perhaps, to be regarded as the only true native 
species. The tame swan (C. olor) is superior 
in bulk to either of the wild species, and is at 
once distinguished by a large, black, callous 
knob on the base of the bill. Our remarks in 
this place will be exclusively directed to the 
domesticated swan. These graceful birds are 
rarely dressed for the table ; they are consi- 
dered too ornamental to destroy. They are not 
destructive to fish, and they keep the water free 
from weeds. Mr. Main, who long studied their 
habits, in his work on Domestic Poultry, says 
the tame swan is herbivorous and granivorous ; 
that is, they feed upon weeds and grain. They 
love also bread, vegetables, &c., which they 
eat greedily from the hand. 

The swan lays from 5 to 8 eggs in the sum- 
mer, and breeds only once in the year. They 
love an islet to breed their young upon, for the 
sake of its quiet; and a little straw deposited 
there is all they require for making their nest. 
The swan sits a month, but if the weather is 
bad, they are known to remain longer before 
they hatch. The cygnets, or young swans, re- 
main a year with their parents ; but when the 
breeding season approaches, the old cob or 
male bird drives them away. This is the pe- 
riod to sell ; and if the birds have paired, they 
fetch a higher price in the market. Swans are 
not in full plumage till the third year. These 
birds often take flight at the fall of the year, 
therefore the old birds should have the first 
joint of one wing removed, which would pre- 
vent their roving. Two pair of swans will 
seldom agree together upon the same piece of 
water. The cob, or male swan, is larger than 
the female, and bolder. They require feeding 
in very severe winters, and the ice should be 
broken for them to swim about. At other times 
they feed on weeds growing in the water, or 
herbage on the banks of it. Swans and cyg- 
nets are caught most easily with a swan-hook, 
which is a long pole of 10 or 12 feet, v/ith a 
blunt hook 10 inches in length, bent at right 
angles to the pole ; the angle should be turned 
like a ring, and open in the inner side, to let in 
the neck of the bird. The swan has a pecu- 
liar kind of snort, but no voice. They hiss 
when angry. 

SWARD. Green turf; that is, the surface 
of land under pasture grasses. A fine sward 
may be called the characteristic feature of 
British landscape, not being found in the same 
degree of perfection in any other country, not 
even in Ireland. 

SWEAL. To singe or burn oflT the hair, a;, 
in hogs. 

SWEET-BRIER. See Eglantine. 

SWEET FLAG. See Acorus and Aroma- 
TIC Reed. 

SWEET- GRASS (Glyceria, from glukeros, 
sweet, alluding to the herbage; whence also 
the common name). A genus of grasses of 
which some of the species are aquatics. Dr. 
Smith emumerates 6 species indigenous to 

102.'? 



SWEET POTATO. 

Ungland : viz. the reedy sweet-grass (G. aqua- 
tica), the floating sweet-grass (G. fluilans), the 
reflexed sweet-grass (G. distans), the creeping 
sea sweet-grass (G. marithna), the procumbent 
sea sweet-grass (G. procumbens,) and the hard 
sweet-grass (G. rigida). The only species 
which have been thought worthy of trial by 
Mr. Sinclair and other experimental cultiva- 
tors of grasses are : — 

1. The floating sweet-grass (G. fluilans). 
Marona grass. The panicle is oblong, branched, 
divaricating. Spikelets close pressed. Florets 
numerous, obtuse, seven-ribbed, with short in- 
termediate ribs at the base. Nectary obtuse, 
tumid. This species appears capable of being 
cultivated as a permanent pasture grass. The 
seed will not vegetate unless kept very moist. 
It flowers from the first or second week of July 
till the end of summer. Birds are fond of the 
seeds, and generally strip the panicle ere the 
seeds are all perfected. Schreber informs us 
that it is cultivated in several parts of Ger- 
many for the sake of the seeds, which are es- 
teemed a delicacy in soups and gruels. When 
ground into meal, they make bread, very little 
inferior to that from wheat. The bran is given 
to horses that have the worms; but they must 
be kept frorri water for some hours afterwards. 
Fish, particularly trout, are said to be very 
partial to the seed. 

2. The reedy sweet-grass (G. aqtiatica). In 
this species the panicle is erect, repeatedly 
branched, spreading. Florets numerous, ob- 
tuse, with seven ribs. Nectary cloven, acute. 
This grass is common on the banks of rivers, 
and frequent on the margins of standing pools. 
On the banks and little islands of the Thames, 
where it is generally mown twice in the year 
for hay, it affords abundant crops of valuable 
winter fodder. Mr. Curtis informs us that in 
flat countries, which do not admit of being suf- 
ficiently drained, it is almost the only grass for 
hay and pasturage. In the fens of Cambridge, 
Lincoln, &c., immense tracts which used to be 
overflowed and produce useless aquatic plants, 
and still retain much moisture, though drained 
by mills, are covered with this grass, which 
not only affords rich pasturage in summer, but 
forms the chief part of their winter fodder. Its 
powerful creeping roots make it a dangerous 
and troublesome weed in ditches, where, with 
other aquatic plants, it soon chokes them up. 
In the fens of the Isle of Ely this grass grows 
to the height of six feet, and proves excellent 
fodder for milch cows, though horses are not 
fond of it. The nutritive matter of this grass 
contains a greater proportion of sugar than 
exists in any of the superior pasture grasses. 
The best manner of propagating it is by plant- 
ing the roots either in autumn or spring. It 
flowers about the second and third weeks of 
July, and the seed is ripe in the second week 
of August. 

SWEET POTATO (Convolvulus battatus). 
Carolina potato. The fine, esculent, tuberous 
root of this species of low-creeping vine or 
convolvulus, is perennial. It flourishes in the 
Middle and Southern States — to which last it is 
native — wherever the soil is light and sandy, 
refusing to grow and perfect itself on clay or 
stiff loam soils. The plant is propagated by 
1034 



SWINE. 

planting the tubers in beds early in the spring, 
from which the young sprouts are subsequently 
planted out in hills 5 or 6 feet apart. The 
trailing vines must not be allowed to strik** 
root. The long roots are of different colours, 
being rich yellow, red, or white, and attain a 
large size, from a few ounces to several pounds 
in weight. When boiled, baked, or roasted, 
they have a sweet and very agreeable taste, 
and are very nutritious. 

SWEET SCENTED SHRUB {Calycanthus 
i^fon'f/(/s), Carolina Allspice. An American spicy 
shrub, the flowers of which are extremely odo- 
riferous, the perfume resembling that of the 
strawberry. The wood and especially the 
root are strongly camphorated, and may, Mr. , 

Nuttall thinks, probably produce this drug as 1| 
abundantly as the Zaun/s ca»i/;/(0)-«. By cutting I 
off the terminal leaf-buds after the usual sea- 
son, it is said that a succession of flowers may 
be obtained throughout the summer, every leaf- 
bud so extracted being constantly succeeded by 
two flowers. The flowers of the Calycanthus 
rarely produce seed, even in its native moun- 
tains of Carolina. 

SWINE (Genus Sus). The hog has been 
generally described as a creature of gross ha- 
bits and unclean tastes, as having the senses 
of touch and taste obtuse, and even as being 
so insensible that mice may burrow in his skin 
without his seeming to feel. But these opi- 
nions are most unjust and incorrect. Far from 
being unclean, nature has furnished him with 
powerful organs of digestion, enabling him to 
derive sustenance from a variety of substances, 
and his voracity is only the result of the extent 
and perfection of his digestive and respiratory 
organs. Although one of the pachydermatous, 
or thick-skinned animals, the hog feels blows 
acutely, and manifests his suffering by loud ■ 
cries. Indeed, the inference that his sense of b 
touch is dull, because of the thick layer of fat 
with which his body is enveloped, is most erro- 
neous, for it is well known that the plexus of 
nerves which gives sensibility to the body is 
exterior to this fatty layer. So far from being 
insensible to pain, the hog even suffers under 
the irritation arising from the punctures of 
gnats, musquitoes, and other small insects, and 
endeavours to protect himself from their per- 
secution by rolling in moist places and cover- 
ing himself with mud. 

Natural History of the Hog. — "The hog (says 
Prof. Low) is subject to remarkable changes 
of form and characters, according to the situa- 
tions in which he is placed. When these 
characters assume a certain degree of perma- 
nence, a breed or variety is formed ; and there 
is none of the domestic animals which more 
easily receives the characters we desire to im- 
press upon it. This arises from its rapid pow- 
ers of increase, and the constancy with which 
the characters of the parents are reproduced in 
the progeny. There is no kind of live-stock 
that can be so easily improved by the breeder, 
and so quickly rendered suited to the purposes 
required; and the same characters of external 
form indicate in the hog a disposition to arrive 
at early maturity of muscle and fat as in the ox 
and sheep. The body is large in proportion to 
the limbs, or, in other words, the limbs are 



SWINE. 



SWINE. 



short in proportion to the body ; the extremi- 
ties are free from coarseness ; the chest is 
broad, and the trunk round. Possessing these 
characters, the hog never fails to arrive at 
earlier maturity, and with a smaller consump- 
tion of food, than when he possesses a different 
conformation." 

The wild boar, which was undoubtedly the 
progenitor of all the European varieties, and 
also of the Chinese breed, was formerly a na- 
tive of the British Islands, and very common 
in the forests until the time of the civil wars in 
England. 

The wild hog is now spread over the tem- 
perate and warmer parts of the old continent 
and its adjacent islands. His colour varies 
with age and climate, but is generally a dusky 
brown with black spots and streaks. His skin 
is covered with coarse hairs or bristles, inter- 
sected with soft wool, and with coarser and 
longer bristles upon the neck and spine, which 
he erects when in anger. He is a very bold 
and powerful creature, and becomes more 
fierce and indocile with age. From the form 
of his teeth he is chiefly herbivorous in his 
habits, and delights in roots, which his acute 
sense of sniell and touch enables him to dis- 
cover beneath the surface. He also feeds upon 
animal substances, such as worms and larvae, 
which he grubs up from the ground, the eggs 
of birds, small reptiles, the young of animals, 
and occasionally carrion; he even attacks 
venomous snakes with impunity. 

The female produces a iitter but once a year, 
and in much smaller numbers than when do- 
mesticated. She usually carries her young for 
4 months, or 16 weeks. 

In a wild state the hog has been known to 
live more than 30 years; but when domesti- 
cated he is usually slaughtered for bacon be- 
fore he is 2 years old, and boars killed for 
brawn seldom reach to the age of .5. When 
the wild hog is tamed, it undergoes the follow- 
ing amongst other changes in its conformation. 
The ears become less movable, not being re- 
quired to collect distant sounds. The formi- 
dable tusks of the male diminish, not being 
necessary for self-defence. The muscles of 
the neck become less developed, from not be- 
ing so much exercised as in the natural state. 
The head becomes more inclined, the back and 
loins are lengthened, the body rendered more 
capacious, the limbs shorter and less muscu- 
lar ; and anatomy proves that the stomach and 
intestinal canals have also become propor- 
tionately extended along with the form of the 
body. The habits and instincts of the animal 
change: it becomes diurnal in its habits, 
not choosing the night for its search of food ; 
is more insatiate in its appetite, and the tend- 
ency to obesity increases. 

The male, forsaking its solitary habits, be- 
comes gregarious, and the female produces her 
young more frequently, and in larger numbers. 
With its diminished strength and power of ac- 
tive motion, the animal also loses its desire for 
liberty. These changes of form, appetites, and 
habits being communicated to its progeny, a 
new race of animals is produced, better suited 
to their altered condition. The wild hog, after 
»t has been domesticated, does not appear to 
129 



revert to its former state and habits ; at least 
the swine of South America, carried thither by 
the Spaniards, which have escaped to the 
woods, retain their gregarious habits, and have 
not become wild boars. 

In its wild state the hog has 6 incisor teeth 
in the upper, and 6 in the lower jaw; but 
when domesticated the number is recjuced to 
3 in each jaw, and this number is not abnstant 
The vertebrae of the back vary from 14 to 15 
in number; the lumbar and the sacral from 4 
to 6 ; the caudal from 2 to 3 or 4, the tail being 
often rudimental in the domesticated races. 

Mr. T. E. Eyton (Trans, of Zool. Soc, Feb. 
1837), amongst other osteological differences 
in the races of hogs, points out the following 
as applicable to the number of vertebrae: — 





English 


Africao 


Chinese 


Wild 


Domestic 


Cervical 


mate. 


male. 


male. 


Boar. 


Hog. 


7 


7 


7 


7 


7 


Dorsal - 


15 


13 


15 


14 


14 


Lumbar 


6 


6 


4 


5 


5 


Sacral - 


6 


5 


4 


4 


4 


Caudal 


21 


13 


19 


20 


23 


55 


44 


49 


50 


53 



The hog family includes several species, but 
these have ULually been divided into three 
genera. 

1. The true hi g, which is the most diffused 
and important class, comprehending the wild 
boar (Sus aper) of Europe, Asia, and Africa ; the 
babiroussa (Sus babirussa) of the islands of 
the Eastern Archipelago, which is of lighter 
form than the common wild hog; the Papuan 
hog (Sus papuensis) of New Guinea, and the 
wood swine, or masked African boar (S. lar- 
vatus), of Southern Africa and Madagascar. 

2. The wart-bearing hogs of Africa (Phaco- 
chares). 

3. The peccaries of America. Of these 
there are two species, the collared peccary 
(Duotyles torquatus) and the white-lipped pec- 
cary (D. labiatus), both inhabiting the countries 
of the Atlantic from Guiana and Paraguay, 
extending into the northern continent, being 
common on Red River. The peccaries are 
rather smaller than the common swine of Eu- 
rope : they are covered with stiff bristles, very 
long upon the neck and spine, which they erect 
when irritated, are nearly destitute of tail, and. 
are further characterized by a glandular open- 
ing in the back, whence the generic term, 
dkotyles, signifying a double navel. 

The true hog does not appear to have been 
indigenous to America, but was taken over by 
the early voyagers from the old world, and it 
has now spread and multiplied throughout the 
continent. 

The first settlers of Canada, the Britishi 
North American settlements, and the United^ 
States, carried with them the swine of the pa- 
rent country, and a few of the breeds still re- 
tain traces of the old English character. From 
its nature and habits the hog was the most pro- 
fitable and useful of all the animals bred by the 
early settler in the distant clearings. It was 
his surest resource during his first years of toil 
and hardship. It arrived earlier at maturity, 
required less care, sought out, for the most 
part, its own food, was *he least subject to ac- 
4a3 1025 



swmE. 



swmE. 



cidents and diseases in a new situation, and 
therefore best repaid any portion of attention 
bestowed on the breeding and rearing it. 

Their widely extended foreign commerce af- 
forded the Americans opportunities of procuring 
the varieties from China, Africa, and other coun- 
tries. The large consumption of pork in the 
United States, far exceeding the consumption 
of any other country, has also contributed 
mainly to the improvement of the breeds, by 
causing the Americans to pay considerable at- 
tention to the rearing of swine, which have 
thus become one of the most important articles 
of commerce, and a source of considerable 
profit to the breeder on a large scale. 

Breeds. — The various breeds which have 
been reared by crosses between those procured 
from different countries are so numerous, that 
to give any thing like a detailed description of 
all would fill a volume instead of an essay. I 
shall, therefore, confine myself to a short no- 
tice of those which are either considered as 
the origin of some peculiar race, or most gene- 
rally bred for their fattening or other profitable 
qualities. The celebrated English breeder, Cul- 
]ey, only distinguishes four breeds, the Berk- 
shire, the Chinese, the Highland, and the Irish 
species. 

The principal breeds of England have been 
usually named after the particular counties or 
localities where they have been, for the most 
part, reared. Thus, we have the Berkshire, the 
Hampshire, the Essex, the SuflTolk, and a dozen 
others, each supposed to be distinguished by a 
• certain set of common characters. Those ap- 
proved on account of their superior size, and 
therefore usually reared for the purpose of 
making bacon, are the Berks, Hants, Hereford, 
•Salop, Norfolk, and Chester breeds. The 
breed best adapted for table pork is the small 
white Chinese. There are, however, particu- 
lar breeds preferred by individuals. 

The Berkshire Breed. This was one of the 
earliest improved of the English breeds, and 
it is now the most widely distributed, as it 
is the most superior, of the numerous varieties 
of England. It is a breed which is distinguished 
by being, in general, of a tawny white, or 
Tufous-brown colour, spotted with black or 
brown; head well placed, large ears, generally 
•standing forward, though sometimes hanging 
•over the eyes; body thick, close, and well 
made ; legs short, small in the bone ; coat 
Tough and curly, wearing the appearance of 
indicating both skin and flesh of a coarse qua- 
lity. Such, however, is not the case, for they 
have a disposition to fatten quickly: nothing 
-can be finer than the bacon, and the animals 
attain to a very great size, averaging from 50 
to 60 stone, although they have not uncom- 
monly reached to the prodigious weight of 100 
stone and upwards. 

The county of Berkshire has long been cele- 
brated for its famous breed of swine, and the 
breed has, by frequent and judicious crossing, 
been much altered for the better. The original 
breed was of the larger race of swine, and is 
described as being long, and rather crooked- 
snouted, with uncouth, heavy ears ; body long 
And thick, though not very deep ; legs short, 
th much bone ; although slow feeders, they 
1026 



always made great weights. The character of 
the true Berkshire seems to indicate that one 
of the earliest means employed to improve 
them was a cross with the wild boar. The 
improved breed is lighter in the head and ear, 
shorter in the carcass, with somewhat less 
bone, and higher in the leg: in colour gene- 
rally dark spotted. They have little offal, thin 
rind and hair, and few or no stout bristles. 
The native breed is still occasionally crossed, 
either with the pure Chinese or the Tonquin 
race ; and it is asserted, on good authority, that 
if not crossed once in 6 or 7 years with the 
Asiatic breed, they will degenerate in shape 
and quality. The improved Berkshires will 
be found excellent in all respects, but particu- 
larly as a cross for heavy, slow-feeding hogs. 
The unqualified approbation which this breed 
has obtained, renders it incumbent on every 
breeder who wishes to improve his stock of 
swine to obtain a cross with that race. Al- 
though hardy and thrifty in its nature, the 
Berkshire hog requires constant good keep, or 
it will decline fast. 

The old English Breed. — The original native 
breeds of Great Britain may be arranged into 
two general classes ; but between these ex- 
tremes there are so many varieties, that num- 
bers cannot be reduced to either class. 

1. Those of small size, with the ears erect, or 
partly so, of which the most marked are those 
of the Highlands and islands of Scotland. They 
are hardy creatures, usually of a du^ky-brown 
colour, haviag an arched back, with coarse 
bristles on the neck and spine; and approxi- 
mate closely in character and habits to the 
wild hog. They are, for the most part, left to 
provide for themselves, ranging at large over 
the heaths and moors, grubbing up roots and 
destroying the eggs of birds, and even newly- 
born lambs, when they come in their way. 
These hogs are usually very meager and thin; 
flesh coarse and fibrous ; but it is greatly im- 
proved when the animals are confined and 
properly fed. When roaming at large on the 
sea-coast, their flesh, from feeding on shell- 
fish, sea-weed, and the bodies of fish which 
are cast up by the tide, acquires a rank and 
unctuous taste. 

2. The second class comprises those of a 
larger body, with long, pendent ears. 

Although their colour varies considerably, 
they are, for the most part, white, or white 
spotted with black. The characteristics of this 
old race, where it exists without intermixture 
with foreign blood (which is not often the case 
in the present day), are a huge, uncouth form, 
large bones, long limbs, arched and narrow 
back, low shoulder, and long snout, with the 
ears large and flapping, covering the greater 
part of the face. They consume much food, 
are slow feeders, and their only recommenda- 
tion is that of being prolific breeders, and at- 
taining to a large size when fattened at the age 
of two or three years. The old English breed, 
and many other once celebrated local races of 
that country, have all had their distinctive cha- 
racters more or less effaced by crossing. 

The Chinese or Siamese breed. — The varieties 
of this widely-extended race which are the 
most common in England, were brought to 



SWINE. 



SWINE. 



America and England from Canton and other 
Indian ports, for the most part as sea-stock, by 
the vessels employed in the tea trade, &c. Ow- 
ing to the much larger consumption of pork by 
the Chinese than of any other animal food, they 
pay great attention to the rearing and fattening 
of their swine. It is said they even use the 
milk of the sow for domestic purposes. The 
pure Chinese breed is too delicate and sensi- 
ble of cold to be of much value in climates 
liable to frequent changes of temperature. It 
is chiefly, therefore, by intermixture that its 
value is recognised; and it is for this reason 
that its introduction has proved so beneficial 
in England, by correcting the coarseness of 
form, quieting the restless disposition, and add- 
ing a greater tendency to mature quickly and 
fatten kindly. The flesh of the Eastern hogs 
is more suited for pork than for bacon. Mr. 
Culley subdivides the Chinese breed into seven 
varieties, but there appear to be only two dis- 
tinct species — the white and the black; the for- 
mer better shaped than the latter, but less hardy 
and prolific. Both are, however, small-limbed; 
ears and head thin and transparent, small and 
fine; neck thick; the body close, compact, and 
well formed ; legs very short ; flesh delicate ; 
round in the carcass, thin-skinned, and the 
head so embedded in the neck that, when quite 
fat, the end only of the snout can be seen. 
They are rather difficult to rear; the sows are 
bad nurses ; and, from their small size, they 
seldom reach lo a greater weight than from 10 
to 12 stone when one year old, and 16 to 18 
stone when two years old. 

The black race, from their valuable proper- 
ties of fattening on a small proportion of food, 
being very thrifty, and prolific breeders, not- 
withstanding their inferior size, have been ad- 
vantageously crossed with other breeds. 

There is a mixed tawny breed, or patched 
with black and v/hite, which is valuable for 
breeding sows and roasters. 

Hampshire breed. — This is a very large breed, 
which is longer in the neck and body, but not 
so compact in form as the Berkshire. They 
are mostly of a white colour, or spotted, and 
are well disposed to fatten, coming up to a 
great weight when properly managed in re- 
spect to food. The goodness of the Hampshire 
hog is proverbial ; it is principally fattened for 
large hams and bacon. 

The Shropshire breed is large and coarse ; but 
these hogs are found profitable where the keep 
is in sufficient abundance for their support; 
hence they are held in estimation in England 
by distillers, and are commonly fed to 30 score 
weight and upwards. They are neither so well 
formed as those of the Berkshire breed, nor do 
they equal them in their disposition to fatten 
and thrive on cheap food. The standard co- 
lour of the Shropshire hog appears to be white, 
or brindled with black, and sometimes sandy 
patches. The breed may be described as flat- 
boned, deep and flat-sided, harsh or rather wiry- 
haired, the ears large ; head long, sharp, and 
coarse; leg too long, low, although very sub- 
stantial, yet not sufficiently wide, considering 
the great extent of the whole frame. Within 
the last 15 or 20 years this breed has been 
much improved by a cross with the Berkshire, 



which has reduced the length both of their legs 
and carcass, and rendered the head lighter. 

The Rudgwick breed, — This is the most enor- 
mous breed in Great Britain, and is reared 
about the neighbourhood of a village on the 
borders of Sussex and Surrey, whence it takes 
its name. They feed to an extraordinary size 
without any peculiar care, and weigh, at two 
years old, on an average, full 70 stone, which 
is nearly double what other kinds will weigh 
at the same age. The Rudwick sows are ac- 
counted good mothers, very prolific and hardy, 
and are particularly noted as being an ex- 
tremely large sort, having been known to 
weigh from 80 to 116 stone, 8 lbs. to the stone. 
Indeed, some have reached to the extraordi- 
nary weight of 182 stone. As large breeds 
pay the farmer the best in many cases, such a 
breed as the Rudgwick deserves to be attended 
to in the system of hog management. 

The Suffolk and Norfolk breeds have been long 
in repute as hardy and prolific species, and 
when crossed with either the Dishley or the 
Berkshire hog, produce animals which are 
held in very general esteem. 

The Norfolk breed. — This is described as be- 
ing a small, short set-eared, thin-skinned pork- 
ing sort, various in colour, white, bluish, stri- 
ated; generally an inferior kind. But on the 
Lincoln side of the county there is a large 
spotted variety of very good form and quality. 

The Suffolk breed is a small, delicate, white 
race, which has for many years been held in 
good estimation. They are shorter and more 
pug-formed than the Norfolks; and by their 
dish face and pendent belly, it is to be pre- 
sumed that the variety proceeded originally 
from the white Chinese breed. Their defects 
are, that they are great consumers in propor- 
tion to their small bulk, and that they produce 
little flesh. 

The Woburn breed. — This is a large, hardy, 
well-formed, and very prolific variety, intro- 
duced by the late Duke of Bedford, which is 
generally white, spotted with various colours, 
round in the carcass, small-limbed and headed, 
and so kindly disposed to fatten, that they are 
said to attain about twice the size and weight 
of other sorts of hogs within the same givea 
period of time. 

The Tonkey or Tonquin breed is a cross be- 
tween the Berkshire and the Chinese, which 
has produced a species possessing very many 
good points. 

The Dishley breed, reared by the celebrated 
cattle-breeder, Bakewell, are remarkably fine- 
boned and delicate, besides possessing consi- 
derable beauty, and are said to lay on a larger 
quantity of meat, in proportion to bone and 
offal, than any other kind known. When fat, 
they are nearly equal in height, length, and 
thickness, their bellies almost touching the 
ground, the eyes being deep-set and sunk from 
fat, and the whole carcass appearing to be a 
solid mass of flesh. As a set-off to these good 
qualities, are the defects of their being slow of 
growth, tender constitutioned, bad nurses, not 
very prolific, and requiring more food in fat- 
tening than the larger hogs. By a cross with 
a Dishley boar, several of the native breeds of 
the different English counties have been much 

1027 



SWINE. 



SWINE. 



improved. A roundness has been given to the 
irame, with a proportionate depth of body; the 
legs have been shortened, a finer bone pro- 
duced, with a better appearance when growing 
as a store, and a disposition to feed quicker 
and more kindly in the sty. 

Small white English breed. — This breed of 
small hogs is met with in several districts, but 
prevails most in the northern parts of England. 
It is of a white colour, thick, compact, and 
well made in the body, short in the leg; the 
head and neck well formed, ears slouching a 
little downwards ; hardy, and well disposed to 
fatten. 

The Essex breed. — The original Essex breed 
was not held in much repute. Their peculiar 
character was a long, sharp head • round- 
backed; carcass flat, long, and generally high 
upon the leg; bones not large; colour white, 
or black and white ; bare of hair ; quick feed- 
ers, but great consumers, and of an unquiet 
disposition. A variety known as the Essex 
half-blacks, which were introduced some years 
ago by the late Lord Western, as descendants 
from the Berkshire, have now justly acquired 
such very great celebrity, as to be considered 
by many good judges superior to most breeds 
in the kingdom. They are described in the 
Essex Report as black and white, short-haired, 
thin-skinned, with smaller heads and ears than 
the Berkshire, but feathered with inside hair, 
which is a distinctive mark of both; having 
short, snubby noses, very fine bone, broad and 
deep in the belly, full in the hind-quarters, but 
light in the bone and offal. They feed remark- 
ably quick, grow fast, and are of an excellent 
quality of meat. The sows are good breeders, 
and bring litters from 8 to 12; but they have 
the character of being bad nurses. 

The Wiltshire Breed. — Originally this was a 
long-bodied, low hog, hollow about the shoul- 
ders, and high on the rump ; with middling 
large pointed ears; round bone; and light in 
colour. But of late years this breed has been 
advantageously crossed with the pig and Berk- 
shire sorts, and a smaller and better variety 
produced. 

The Gloucester, the Yorkshire, the Northampton, 
and the Hereford breeds, call for little notice. 
The Hereford appears to be a descendant of 
the Shropshire, and is a large, useful race ; but 
the others are very inferior kinds, possessing 
few good points. 

In reviewing the various breeds of swine, 
a brief survey of the principal continental va- 
rieties and distinct races may not be out of 
place. I shall therefore give a slightly altered 
abridgment of a diffuse article which some 
time since appeared in the Quart. Jow\of Agr. 
vol. iii. p. 49. 

France. — In the time of Buffon, the greater 
portion of the hogo of Vivarez and the north 
of France were white ; while in Dauphiny, 
Languedoc, and Provence, they were all black: 
black pigs still prevail both in Spain and Italy. 
The variety known in France under the name 
of pore de nobles appears to be derived from the 
improved English breed, which originated in 
a cross between an Anglo-Chinese sow and an 
emancipated American boar. The French 
creeds of swine are in general bad, but excel- 
1028 



lent hams are sent from Bretagne from h gs 
reared on acorns and fatted off with maize. 
The principal breeds of France at the present 
time are — 

1. The race of the Pays d'Auge, in which the 
head is small and sharp, ears narrow and 
pointed, body long, legs broad and strong, hair 
coarse, white, and bones small. It attains to 
the weight of 800 lbs. 

2. The race of Poitoti. — The distinguishing 
characters of which are, head long and thick, 
with the point projecting, ears large and pen- 
dulous, body long, bones large, but broad and 
strong, bristles coarse. Its weight seldom ex- 
ceeds 500 lbs. 

3. The race of Perigord. — Neck thick and 
short, body broad and compact, hair black. 
This race, crossed with others, has produced the 
pied swine, so common in the south of France. 

4. The race of Champagne. — These do not fat- 
ten well, they are of large dimensions, with 
long, flat sides, broad, pendent ears, and coarse 
white hair. 

.5. The race of Boulogne are also of considera- 
ble size, and disposed to fatten quickly; ears 
very broad, general colour white. This breed 
has sprung from a cross between the larger 
English breed and one of the common races 
of France. 

The French pigs, although they have excited 
many facetious observations from travellers, 
and not unfrequently been compared to grey- 
hounds, may be fattened, we are assured, at a 
small expense; and the method of doing this 
is now beginning to be understood. The 
Chinese and English breeds are also getting 
into use for crossing. The fact that 4,000,000 
pigs are killed yearly in France, shows of how 
great importance they are to the small agricul- 
turist. {For. Quart. Rev.) 

Other Eukopean breeds. — In some parts 
of Hungar}' the breed of swine is excellent. 
In Germany swine are common, but the breed 
is everywhere indifferent. Of the other con- 
tinental races only a very few require particu- 
lar notice. 

The Jutland swine, which are of a large size, 
and form an important branch of Danish com- 
merce, have the ears large and pendent, body 
elongated, back somewhat curved, legs long. 

The Swedish swine. — The most peculiar and 
characteristic breed of Sweden are supposed 
to contain a cross of the wild boar, and have 
the head broad, turned upwards ; ears unusu- 
ally erect, body lengthened, legs long. 

The Polish and Russian pigs are generally 
small, and of a reddish or yellowish colour. 

Race of the Cape of Good Hope. — This breed is 
somewhat less in size, but else approaches 
closely to the Siamese pig, and is nearly iden- 
tical with the breed of^ the South Sea Islands. 
It probably originated in India. The hair is 
black or deep chestnut, hard, and thinly scat- 
tered ; the ears are straight, and tail pendent 
and terminated by a tuft of bristles. This race 
is now very generally distributed; it has been 
propagated extensively in Australasia, and now 
occurs not only in Southern Africa, but in 
several parts of South America. 

The smooth or short-legged swine, a breed de- 
rived from the Chinese, are bred in Spain, Por- 



II 



SWINE. 



SWINE. 



tugal, Savoy, and the north and south of Italy. 
This pig is of small size, very productive, and 
a ready fattener ; it is usually of a copper 
colour, but sometimes occurs of a bright fiery 
red. The head is unusually short, the jaws 
thick, the forehead stunted; the skin falls in 
folds above the eyes ; the ears are short, pointed, 
and almost erect ; the neck is thick and strong, 
the chest very vigorous, the body round and 
lengthened, the legs short and strong, the skin 
very thin, and the bristles short and slender. 

The Zealand hog is of a mixed Chinese race, 
and weighs from 160 to 240 lbs. about the end 
of its second year. It has the ears erect, body 
short, back strongly bristled, tail small. 

The Turkish hog fattens in half the time re- 
quired by many of the larger and more com- 
mon breeds, and weighs from 300 to 400 lbs. 
It prevails throughout European Turkey, and 
a great portion of the Austrian dominions. 
Ears straight and pointed ; legs short and fine ; 
body scarcely longer than high, and covered 
ail over with slender frizzled bristles, of a gray 
colour, more or less deep, approaching to 
rufous brown. 

The pig of Guinea (not the Guinea pig) is a 
remarkable variety, which is little known. 
The back is bare ; head small ; ears long, 
slender, and much pointed; tail long, naked, 
reaching to the ground; hair short, red, shining, 
finer and softer than that of any other known 
race. 

In Asia only Europeans and the low Hindoos 
eat pork. Wild hogs are abundant, and do so 
much injury to the rice fields that it is a mate- 
rial part of the r)'ot's business to watch them, 
which he does night and day, on a raised plat- 
form of bamboos. 

Of the Mediterranean breeds there are seve- 
ral, which are approved and held in much esti- 
mation ; among these are the Maltese, the 
Neapolitan, &c., and hogs are occasionally 
brought from the sea-ports of Turkey and 
Spain. 

The Maltese breed was at one time in great 
favour in England ; it was of small size, of a 
black colour, nearly destitute of bristles, with 
an aptitude to fatten readily. A breed from 
the countr}' near Naples has been recently in- 
troduced, which is extensively employed as a 
cross with the existing native breeds. This 
Neapolitan breed is very similar to the Maltese 
breed already alluded to. Their flesh is good 
and delicate, but the animals are not hardy, 
and quite unfit for general use. The duchy of 
Parma is said to produce the best hogs of Italy, 
which possess all the good qualities of those 
about Naples. They are also more hardy, and 
of larger size. 

In Mexico they have a very fine race of hogs, 
which are regarded as an important article of 
commerce. They are kept very clean, and 
often given a cold bath, as the breeders find 
from experience that cleanliness contributes 
mainly to their rapid growth, upon less food. 
This is fully corroborated by the following ex- 
periment, which was recently made by a gen- 
tleman from Norfolk, Six pigs of nearly equal 
size were put to keeping at the same time, and 
treated the same as to food and litter for seven 
weeks. Three of them were left to shift for 



themselves as to cleanliness ; the other three 
were kept as clean as possible by a man em* 
ployed for the purpose, with a currycomb and 
brush. The last consumed in seven weeks 
fewer peas by five bushels than the other three, 
yet weighed more when killed by two stone and 
four pounds upon the average. 

Bullock informs us that the Mexicans are 
very curious in rearing and feeding swine, and 
that an essential requisite in a Mexican swine- 
herd is an agreeable voice, in order that he 
may sing or charm the animals into peace 
when they quarrel and fight, and lull them to 
sleep at proper times, to promote their fatten- 
ing. (Travels, 1824.) There are many wild 
swine in Paraguay, 

Characteristics of a good hog. — There is evi- 
dently much diversity in swine in different cir- 
cumstances and situations. Like other descrip- 
tions of stock, they should be selected with 
especial reference to the nature of the climate, 
the keep and the circumstances of the manage- 
ment under which the farm is conducted. The 
chief points to be consulted in judging of the 
breeds of this animal are the form or shape of 
the ear, and the quality of the hair. The pen- 
dulous or lop ear, and coarse, harsh hair, are 
commonly asserted to indicate largeness of size 
and thickness of skin ; while erect or prick ears 
show the size to be smaller, but the animals to 
be more quick in feeding. 

In the selection of swine, the best formed are 
considered to be those which are not too long, 
but full in the head and cheek ; thick and rather 
short in the neck; fine in the bone; thick, 
plump, and compact in the carcase ; full in the 
quarters, fine and thin in the hide; and of a 
good size according to the breed, with, above 
all, a kindly disposition to fatten well and expe- 
ditiously at an early age. Depth of carcass, 
lateral extension, breadth of the loin and breast, 
proportionate length, moderate shortness of the 
legs, and substance of the gammons and fore- 
arms, are therefore absolute essentials. These 
are qualities to produce a favourable balance 
in the account of keep, and a mass of weight 
which will pull the scale down. In proportion, 
too, as the animal is capacious in the loin and 
breast, will be generally the vigour of his con- 
stitution; his legs will be thence properly ex- 
tended, and he will have a bold and firm foot- 
ing on the ground. 

For head and ears, the small Berkshire or 
Oxford pigs are good models ; and for true 
shape, the improved Shropshire, Hereford, and 
Gloucester, If colour deserve any considera- 
tion, perhaps the light, sandy, and yellow 
spotted are to be preferred, as these appear to 
afford by far the most delicate meat when dead. 

Procreation. — The sow generally goes with 
young four lunar months, but the period of ges- 
tation in diflferent species varies considerably. 
According to the experiments of M.Teissier oa 
the gestation of animals, it appears that the ex- 
treme periods of 25 sows were 109 to 143 days, 
which would lead to the inference that they go 
on an average 127 days from the time of 
taking the boar until they farrow; but expe- 
rience proves that they most commonly farrow 
within little more than 16 weeks, although they 
occasionally go with young 20 weekfi. Both 

1029 



SWINE. 

the sexes manifest a desire for coition at 7 or 8 
months old ; and although frequently brought 
together at a still earlier age, it is more prefer- 
able to restrain them until they have attained 
to the age of 12 months, as a larger and 
stronger litter will be produced. The boar 
should not commence serving until at least a 
year old, and he may be considered in his 
prime at 2 years old. He should not be strain- 
ed by being allowed to serve too many sows ; 
from 12 to 14 being sufficient. The sow should 
rarely be put to the boar before 8 months old. 
See Gestation. 

The animals when collectively spoken of 
are usually either termed swine, hogs, or pigs ; 
but when distinctively named, the young gelded 
male is called a "barrow," the male when not 
castrated is called a " boar," and the female a 
" sow," or " shoot ;" their progeny when very 
young being styled " sucking pigs," and when 
advanced somewhat larger in size, " porkers." 

There is much difference of opinion as to 
the best age for breeding sows. Some con- 
siders that sows at 3 years old throw their 
stock much larger and stronger than when of 
a less age; while others are of opinion that 
they are never such good breeders as at the 
age of from a year and a half to two years and 
a half old ; after which they throw the pigs 
unevenly. 

Regarding the sex of the progeny, it is as- 
serted in a recent French work on the subject 
of generation (Giron, sur la Reproduction des 
Animaux Domestiques), that among females 
those which receive the male first produce 
generally more males than females. This is 
not a matter of much consequence in swine ; 
but in horses and cattle it is a question of 
some moment: and if this theory is borne out 
by experience, the hint thrown out may prove 
useful to breeders. The sow will produce two 
litters in a year (occasionally five in two years), 
and from 8 to 12 pigs in each farrow. The 
number of pigs to be kept will be easily indi- 
cated by the number of teats which the mother 
has ; and on no account should more be at- 
tempted to be retained than nature has thus 
provided for. 

"The choice of a boar," says a modern 
writer, " depends so much upon fancy, or local 
prejudice, in favour of a particular breed, and 
is so little governed by either soil or climate, 
that no other general rule can be laid down 
upon the subject, than to avoid an animal 
which is not small-headed, deep and broad in 
the chest, the chine rather arched, the ribs and 
barrel well rounded, and the haunch falling full 
down nearly to the hock. He should also be 
more compact in his form and rather smaller 
than the sow ; for, if she be coarse, her pro- 
geny will be improved in form and flesh by the 
cross, and the more roomy she is, the better 
chance will she afford of producing a large and 
healthy litter." (Brit. Hush. vol. ii. p. 511.) 
The boar cannot be too well kept ; but the sow 
should not be highly fed before taking the boar. 

The plan or custom of breeding in and in from 
close relations is a most injudicious course, 
and seems to bring on degeneracy in the off- 
spnng. In selecting both sows and boars, a 
due regard must be paid to the object for 
lOSO 



SWINE. 



1 



which the progeny are designed. Small bone 
is desirable in stock reserved for breeding, as 
this description produces the least offal. 

Uses. — A pig, for its size, is one of the most 
useful animals in the whole creation, inasmuch 
as he is food from top to toe, and there is no 
part of him which cannot be turned to account 
His fat is made into lard, which is used in 
medicine, as well as by housekeepers, confec- 
tioners, and others. That about the loins is 
the firmest and the most dense. For ordinary 
use it must be separated from the membranes, 
which is effected by melting it over a slow fire 
and straining through cloths. It should be 
stirred as it cools, to prevent the separation of 
the solid part or stearine from the eluine or 
oily part. The flesh is either eaten fresh when 
young, or of the adult animal, bacon hog, salted 
in brine or with dry salt, and then either kept 
moist, as pickled pork ; or merely dried, white 
bacon ; or cured, dried, and smoked, bacon ; that 
of the hind legs, /!a?7i, equally nutritive, but less 
easily digested; the collar and head of the old 
boars are made into brawn ; the skin or rind is 
eaten with the flesh, if not smoked, and is also 
tanned for saddle-seats, shoes, covers for pocket- 
books, &c.; the bladders are prepared as ox 
bladders. The bristles clean our teeth and 
brush our clothes : those of superior quality 
from Russia, fetch HZ. to 26/. the cwt.; the 
second quality, from 5/. to lOZ. The abdominal 
fat is used ; as also the blood for food, and it 
yields a bezoar, principally from a morbid con- 
cretion in the stomach of the wild hog. Even 
the intestines are used for chitlings, and con- 
verted into an inferior kind of lard, by being 
cut open and washed clean, and (after the 
water is well pressed out of them) melted in 
the same way as lard : this substance is very 
useful for making common candles, greasing 
wheels, and other general purposes. To sum 
up all, the hog multiplies his species in a 
degree proportioned to his usefulness. 

The flesh of the hog, when fresh, is easy of 
digestion and nutritive ; but it is not a food 
capable of being eaten for a length of time with 
impunity. It is apt to cause derangements of 
the mucous membrane, and diseases of the skin. 

Bacon. — In Great Britain the curing of bacon, 
as an article of commerce, prevails most in the 
counties of York, Hants, Cumberland, North- 
ampton, Dumfries, Galloway, and the northern 
and other ports of Ireland. 

For bacon flitches, the larger breeds, such 
as will weigh, when killed, from 18 to 22 impt- 
rial stone, are always preferred, from being the 
most profitable to the farm and readily taking 
the market. In selecting pigs for this purpose, 
the sow should be of a large, deep carcass; 
head long, with deep ears, straight chine, and 
of equal symmetry from the shoulders to the 
tail ; of fine skin, which shows an aptitu(?e to 
fatten, and the boar should be of a thicker and 
closer make than the sow. 

Small hogs for bacon will be ready for the 
knife in 12 weeks, and the larger from 16 to 
20 weeks. The girth of fat bacon hogs is 
about as follows : — When ten score, 4 feet 1 
inch ; twelve score, 4 feet 4 inches ; fourteen 
score, 4 feet 7 inches ; sixteen score, 4 feet 1 1 
inches ; eighteen score, 5 feet 2 inches ; twenty 



SWINE. 



SWINE. 



score, 5 feet / inches. (Hillyard's Prad. Farm. 
p. 51.) 

" In Hampshire, and some adjoining coun- 
ties, after the hog is killed, they first swale him, 
or singe off" the hairs, by kindling a fire round 
him, which is far preferable to scraping off the 
bristles with warm water, as the latter mode 
softens the rind, and injures the firmness of 
the tiesh. He is then cut into flitches, which 
are well rubbed with common salt and salt- 
petre mixed, and are laid in a trough, where 
they continue for three weeks or a month, ac- 
cording to size, and are often turned. They are 
then taken out, suspended in a chimney, over 
a wood or turf-fire, or in regular curing-houses, 
till they are quite dried. In Kent they are dried 
before a slack fire, which requires a similar 
method and time to that employed in salting. 
They are hung up or deposited on racks for 
use. Somersetshire or Wiltshire bacon, which 
is the best ia England, is cured as follows : — 
The sides of the hogs are laid in large wooden 
troughs, sprinkled with bay salt, and left un- 
moved for 24 hours, to drain off the blood and 
juices. Then they are taken out, and wiped 
quite dry, and some bay salt, previously heated 
in an iron fryingpan, is rubbed into the flesh, 
till enough of it is absorbed. This is continued 
for four successive days, during which the 
flitches are turned every second day. With 
large hogs, the flitches must be kept in brine 
for 3 weeks, and must be turned every other 
day, after which they are dried as usual. In 
these methods the hide or skin is left on; but 
in some counties there is a different practice, 
which has been recommended abroad as pre- 
ferable, because it affords an opportunity of 
converting the skin into leather, while the meat 
takes the salt and is cured as well as in the for- 
mer mode. The hides of swine have long been 
made into shoes in China. Where the con- 
sumption of bacon is very rapid, the last-men- 
tioned practice may be adopted; but it is cer- 
tain that bacon will in a short time become 
rusty, and consequent loss be incurred, if it be 
not cured with the rind, and kept in a dry 
room." {The Complete Grazier.') See Bacox. 

Pork. — In England, mess or table pork, or 
that for the London market, is generally cured 
near the principal sea-ports, and along the 
coast, from whence it can easily be shipped to 
the metropolis. If the object of breeding hogs 
is for pork and hams only, it is evident that 
pork from a hog of 2.5 to 35 stone (8 pounds to 
the stone) is by far more profitable than those 
from 35 to 50 stone; in which case a cross 
between the Chinese and Essex will be found 
to answer very well, as the progeny come to 
early maturity. {Baxter's Jgr. Lib.) 

The middle-sized hogs, such as the Northum- 
berland, the Berkshire, the Sufi'olk, and Oxford 
breeds, are those generally preferred for this 
purpose, and their ordinary weight will be 
from 8 to 10 or 12 imperial stone. 

For delicate pork for family use, the smaller 
kindlv-feeding pigs are chosen. The Berk- 
shire and the Suffolk breeds, when not too 
large, will be the best for this purpose. The 
Chinese will answer well at 6 or 8 months old, 
when it will weigh 4 to 8 imperial stones. By 
higher feeding it may be made, when a little 



older, to attain to double this weight ; but the 
meat will then be found coarse. Weanlings 
are generally fatted in a very short period. A 
pig of 5 or 6 months old will fatten, if in good 
condition, in 8 or 10 weeks. 

The fat of the hog is neither mixed with the 
flesh nor collected at its extremeties, but covers 
the animal all over, and forms a thick, distinct, 
and continued layer beneath the integuments, 
and in this respect may be said to resemble the 
whale and other cetaceous animals. It is 
termed lard, and differs in chemical composi- 
tion and properties from the fat of the rumi- 
nating animals. It more readily imbibes salt 
than any other kind of fat ; and the same pro- 
perty being possessed by the flesh, there is no 
animal food better suited than pork for preser- 
vation by salting. See Lard. 

Stalislirs. — The number of swine sold in 
Smithfield market in 1830 was 254,672, which, 
at the average weight of 96 lbs. each (a very 
moderate computation), gives the number 
of pounds of pork consumed annually at 
24,448,512. {Youatt on Cattle.) The swine 
sold in Glasgow market in 1822 were 6539. 
The exports of swine from Ireland in 1825, 
were 65,919; in 1835, 376,191. Estimated 
value in the latter year, 893,839/. Increase 
between these two periods, 310,272. 

In the United States of America a very large 
number of hogs are reared; and latterly much 
attention has been paid to the improvement of 
the breed by judicious crosses. The piggeries 
are on an extensive scale ; and it is no uncom- 
mon thing in some of the Western States for a 
drover to have from 3000 to 4000 pigs. In a 
letter written from Michigan city, dated llth 
September, 1841, the writer, a farmer, states 
that he had then 3500 pigs up to fatten ! The 
bountiful crops of Indian corn raised on the 
fertile Western lands afl!brd greater advantages 
than any other part of the world for the rearing 
of this kind of stock. Corn-fed bacon is pro- 
verbially excellent. 

Swine in the British North American colo- 
nies, and the United States : — 

1S32.« 1836t 184r. 

Upper Canada - - 220,000 250,000 

Lower Canada - - 350,000 400,000 

New Brunswick - - 65,000 60,000 

Nova Scotia and Cape 

Breton - - - 98,214 100 000 

Prince Edward's Island 30,000 22,000 35,521 

Newfoundland and La- 
brador - - - 16,000 20,000 

United States 26,301,293 

The States producing most swine are — Ten- 
nessee, 2,926,607; Kentucky, 2,310,-533; Ohio, 
2,099,746; New York, 1,900,065- Yirgmia, 
1,992,155; North Carolina, 1.649,716: Indiana, 
1,623,608; Pennsylvania, 1,503,964; Illinois, 
1,495,254; Georgia, 1,457,755; Mississippi, 

?71,16'. The swine in the whole six Eastern 

.tes, according to the census returns of 1840, 
numbered only 851,698. 

Diseases. — This subject has been so much 
neglected by practical men, that but little is 
known in the way of cure m the absence, 
therefore, of scientific prescriptions, it will be 
most advisable to study prevention rather than 
hazard a trial of the numerous recipes recom- 



* M'Oregor's JVorlh .America, 2d ed. vol. ii. p. 589. 
t Martin's British Colonies. 

1031 



SWINE. 

mended as cures. The diseases of swine are 
generally the result of want of care and clean- 
liness, or arise from injudicious and irregular 
feeding; from their being kept in loathsome 
and uncomfortable situations, inhaling the most 
noxious vapours, and at one time overfed, and 
another stinted in their supply of lood. Is it 
to be wondered at that they become subject to 
internal and cutaneous diseases'? Fortunately 
ihey will generally eat when even sick ; and 
salts (1 to 2 oz.), sulphur (2 to 3 drachms), an- 
timony, and such like aperients, may be mixed 
with their food for measles, and other disorders 
arising from an impure state of the blood. If 
they will not eat, there can of course be no 
cure applied. 

In swine-pox, sulphur and madder may be 
administered in small quantities, with treacle, 
in the wash ; fresh brewer's grains, or pollard, 
may also be given. Madder and sulphur will 
also be found the best alterants in foulness of 
the skin or habit. Salt, mixed with ground 
ivy, leeks, or other similar vegetables, is one 
of the best applications for the sores of swine. 
But for cutaneous diseases in general, an oint- 
ment formed of equal parts of mutton suet and 
tar, with the addition of a little sulphur, will 
be found beneficial. Strong beer and pea- 
porridge are recommended as tonics. 

In cases of surfeit, indigestion, or injury 
from eating slightly poisonous matter, swine 
will refuse their food, constantly lie down, and 
have the stomach distended. In this case, two 
heads of garlic, mixed with 6 oz. of fresh but- 
ter, will afford relief, given every 6 hours. 
Soap-suds are said to have the effect of empty- 
ing the stomach. 

The most formidable of the diseases to which 
swine are liable, is inflammation of the lungs, 
and other internal parts. This disease has 
been known to destroy a fourth of the hogs in 
a distillery in the course of a few weeks. The 
chief indications of the disease will be the dis- 
tressing cough, the heaving of the flanks, and 
the refusal of all food. Bleeding must be 
promptly resorted to, and moderate purges 
cautiously administered. The safest aperients 
are castor oil or Epsom salts, after which the 
following sedative powder may be given : fox- 
glove (digitalis) 2 grs., antim. powd. 2 grs., 
nitre half a drachm. 

In cases of murrain, a species of leprosy, 
which prevails chiefly in hot seasons, the best 
advice that can be given is to keep the animal 
cool, and not suffer carrion or portions of ani- 
mal food to be given. 

The health of swine is to be estimated by 
their cheerfulness, by the gloss upon their 
coats, their skin being wholly free from erup- 
tion. If pigs snort on being disturbed, it is an 
excellent sign of sound health and good keep. 
The state of the excreniont or digestions will 
generally indicate pretty correctly the thriving 
condition of the animal, for unless these are 
of a firm consistence, the hog will not fatten 
rapidly. If store or stock-pigs are kept well 
and in good condition, it will prevent most of 
the diseases to which the animals are subject, 
and they will also thrive and fatten at half the 
expense when shut up for that purpose. From 
the confinement of the hog, and the nature of 
1032 



SWINE. 



his food, a description of dyspepsia takes place, 
a superabundant acid is formed in the stomach, 
and, the skin sympathizing, cutaneous erup- 
tions display themselves; one of the best pro- 
phylactics in such a condition of the animal 
are cinders or charcoal. It operates as a most 
salutary tonic, and improves the general pow- 
ers of digestion. Hogs are so fond of cinders, 
that when a handful of them is thrown into a 
sty, the animals light for them. 

Weaning. — If the young pigs have been well 
fed, they may be weaned after six weeks, and 
in all cases in two months. In their after 
treatment, when separated from their mother, 
they should be regularly fed 3 times a day, 
and their food should at first consist of warm 
liquid food, such as whey, milk, or the refuse 
of the dairy and kitchen, &c., raised to the 
temperature of the mother's milk by the addi- 
tion of a little warm water. They will soon 
learn to partake of more solid substances. 

The rearing and fattening of the hog pre- 
sents little difficulty, for this animal is reared 
equally well on a small or a large scale; by 
the cottager, from the wash and refuse of his 
house and garden, or by the extensive breeder, 
who has more abundance and variety of food 
at command. 

As the situation, climate, crops, and other 
local circumstances must to a great extent 
regulate the breeding and feeding of swine, it 
is quite impossible to lay down rules of gene- 
ral application, or to describe a practice which 
necessarily varies in almost every district. I 
shall content myself, therefore, with noticing a 
few of the substances upon which the animals 
are usually fed and found to thrive best. 

It constitutes the principal value of swine, 
that they can be maintained on almost any 
kind of aliment. In America, Indian corn or 
maize is largelj' used. In the West Indies, the 
cane tops, refuse trash from the cane after the 
juice has been expressed, and the washings of 
the sugar-coolers, boilers, distillery vats, &c., 
form their principal food. In Newfoundland, 
Labrador, and other parts where fish is plenti- 
ful, they are freely fed upon the waste refuse 
from the fisheries; and although they thrive 
well upon this food, their flesh is coarse and 
strong. 

Where the farmer or breeder has a rich 
piece of grass or clover unemployed, hogs 
which are not put up for feeding may be turned 
into it with advantage ; but there is an objec- 
tion to this on the score of the manure which 
is lost. When the field is so situated that the 
hogs can return at night to the well-littered 
sties, the practice may then be found beneficial. 

But roots, rather than herbage, is their na- 
tural food, such as earthnuts, the roots of 
couch grass, &c.: acorns, chestnuts, beechmast, 
hazel-nuts, and other dry seeds and fruits, are 
eagerly consumed by them ; and hence, in the 
countries in the south of Europe, in the neigh- 
bourhood of forests where these abound, they 
are frequently sufl^ered to range at large and 
collect their own food. Hogs are also very 
partial to juicy and pulpy fruits, such as the 
grape, the orange, the refuse of apples, pears, 
olives, &c., after the juice has been expressed. 
Although hay and dried fodder is not adapted 



SWINE'S CRESS. 



TANK. 



.0 the feeding of swine, if these substances 
are chopped and boiled they will not refuse 
them. 

Moist, succulent, green food, such as clover, 
tares, lucern, sainfoin, buckwheat, succory or 
chiccory, cabbage, lettuce, «Stc., is more suited to 
their taste. Every kind of farinaceous sub- 
stance, such as oat-meal, barley-meal, bran, 
maize, millet, pease or beans bruised, and in- 
deed the seeds of all gramineous and legu- 
minous plants, are the most fattening sub- 
stances that can be given to them. They will 
feed greedily, and thrive surprisingly, on most 
kinds of roots and tubers, such as carrots, tur- 
nips, beets, potatoes, the Jerusalem artichoke, 
&c., particularly when prepared by boiling. It 
may be taken as a general rule, that boiled or 
prepared food is more nutritious and fattening 
than raw or cold food ; the additional expense 
and labour will be more than compensated by 
the increased weight and quality. Thus cab- 
bage, turnip and potato tops, the husks of peas 
and beans, and even many green weeds, such 
as nettles and thistles, fatten ; and others, void 
of poisonous qualities, will be found very fat- 
tening if boiled and mixed with other food, and 
given, as most food should be, lukewarm. The 
refuse of the kitchen, garden, and dairy, the 
grains and wash or liquid refuse of breweries, 
distilleries, and sugar manufactories, where 
they can be obtained, the sweepings of barns 
and granaries, will all be found exceedingly 
fattening. Animal substances, particularly 
fish, should, however, be seldom or never 
given as food, since they will necessarily im- 
part a strong and disagreeable flavour to the 
meat. A little salt should be generally added 
to all thei? victuals, which will create thirst, 
and induce the animals to consume a greater 
quantity of food. Fermented wash is found to 
fatten swine much quicker than fresh food. 

Ringing. — The practice of ringing swine, 
which was usually performed at the time of 
weaning, is growing into disuse, and the ring- 
ing is not advisable, inasmuch as it not only 
proves painful to the animal, but troublesome 
to the owner ; for it frequently happens that 
the ring breaks, or is worn out ; the cartilage 
gives way, and the ring has to be as often 
replaced by a fresh operation. A more pre- 
ferable and lasting process is now adopted, 
which consists in either cutting the two strong 
tendons of the snout (the cartilaginous and 
ligamentous prolongations) about an inch and 
a half from the nose, by a slight incision with 
a sharp knife, or else to shave or pare off the 
gristle on the top of the nose, which may be 
done without prejudice to the animal, when 
about two or three months old. The place heals 
over in a short time, and the animals are thus 
prevented from grubbing or tearing up the 
ground. (Prize Essay on Swine, by P. L. Sim- 
monds ; Wilson " On the Hog," Quart. Jour, of 
Jgr. vol. iii. p. 38 ; Low's Mluslrations of the 
Breeds of Dotn. Animals.) 

SWrNE'S CRESS. See Wart-Cress. 

SWINGLE-TREE. See Plough. 

SWING PLOUGH. See Plough. 

SYCAMORE. See Buttonwogi). 

SYTHE. See Scythe. 
130 



T. 

TACAMAHACA. See Poplar. 

TAG. A term applied to a young sheep of 
the first year. See Sheep. 

TALLOW (Germ. lalg). The fat obtained 
by melting the suet of the ox and sheep, and 
straining it so as to free it from membrane. 
When pure, it is white, tasteless, and nearly 
insipid ; but the tallow of commerce has 
usually a yellow tinge, and is divided, accord- 
ing to the degree of its purity and consistence, 
into candle and soap tallow. Tallow consists 
of stearine, eluine, margarin, and traces of 
hircin. According to Chevreul, its ultimate 
components are 78-996 of carbon -f- 11"708 of 
hydrogen -f- 0-304 of oxygen in 100 parts. It 
is used in medicine as an emollient and a 
demulcent. Tallow is an articie of great im- 
portance. It is manufactured into candles and 
soap, and is extensively employed in the dress- 
ing of leather and in various processes of the 
arts. Besides the supplies of native tallow, a 
very large quantity is annually imported into 
England, principally from Russia. The exports 
of tallow from Petersburg amount, at an ave- 
rage, to between 3,500,000 to 4,000,000 poods, 
of which the largest portion by far is brought 
to England. (M'Culloch's Com. Diet.) 

TAMARISK (Tamarix). This is a genus of 
very elegant shrubs. The hardy indigenous 
species, or French tamarisk (S. Gallira), is well 
suited for ornamenting shrubberies: it will 
grow in any soil or situation, and is freely in- 
creased by cuttings planted in the open ground, 
in spring or autumn. Sheep feed greedily on 
this species for the sake of its salt taste. The 
stem is slender, with abundance of long, droop- 
ing, smooth, red, shining branches. Leaves 
minute, lanceolate deciduous, spurred, acute. 
Lateral cylindrical clusters of numerous, nearly 
sessile, reddish or white bracteated flowers, 
without scent. 

TANK. In gardening, a cistern or reservoir 
made of stone, timber, or some other material. 
Tanks are used for collecting and preserving 
water during a scarcity or drought. They are 
sometimes built in the ground, and lined with 
lead or cement. Where wells cannot be sunk, 
and water is scarce at some seasons, tanks 
are necessary appendages to a house. 

A tank, 12 feet by 7 feet, has been found 
sufficient to supply with water a large family 
and 6 horses: this was surrounded by only 4^ 
inch brick-work, resting solid against the sides, 
in consequence of being, like a decanter, 
smaller at the bottom than higher up; and the 
dome is constructed on the Egyptian plan, by 
projecting horizontally each row of materials 
one-third of their length beyond those below, 
by filling up the back with earth as it pro- 
ceeded, to balance the weight of this projecting 
masonry. 

At the Eastbourne work-house for 14 parishes, 
a tank has been made 23 feet deep by 11 wide, 
of the roughest materials, bp'ig only flint 
stones, and though they require more mortar 
than if they had been regularly shaped, only 
90 bushels of lime were allowed, including 3 
4 S 1033 



TANNER'S BARK. 



TAR-ROOT. 



coats of plaster, and the workmanship is exe- 
cuted like field walls at 10s. per 100 square 
feet; the only essential being that no clay be 
used (which worms in time bore through), and 
that the lime, or Parker's cement, be good. 

A current of air is said to promote the purity 
of water in tanks, which is easily effected by 
the earthenware or other pipe which conveys 
the water from the roof being of 6 or 8 inches 
in diameter, and an opening left for the surplus 
water to run away; and where the prevailing 
winds do not blow soot and leaves on the house, 
the water remains good, even for drinking, with- 
out clearing out the rubbish more than once a 
year; but, in some cases, filtering by ascension 
may be found useful, and effected by the water 
being delivered by the pipe at the bottom of a 
cask or other vessel, from which it cannot 
escape till it has risen through the holes in a 
board covered with pebbles, sand, or powdered 
charcoal. See Resehvoihs, Ponps, &c. 

TANNER'S BARK. The bark of oak, 
chestnut, willow, larch, and other trees, which 
abounds in tannic acid, and is used by tanners 
for preparing leather. After being exhausted 
of the tanning principle by being chopped into 
small pieces, or bruised and steeped in water, 
it is laid up in heaps to dry, and sold to gar- 
deners for the purpose of producing artificial 
heat by fermentation in pits or beds, in bark- 
stoves or other out-houses. See Bauk and 
Farm-Yaud Maxure. 

TANNIC ACID. This term has been espe- 
cially applied to a substance obtained by Pe- 
longe, by acting upon bruised galls by common 
unrectified ether, in a long, narrow funnel or 
percolater. Tannic acid is a white uncrystal- 
line powder, very astringent, little soluble in 
water, and reddening litmus. When moistened 
and exposed to air, it attracts oxygen, is de- 
composed, and is converted into gallic acid. 
It is extremely astringent, and appears to be the 
active principle of tanning substances (tannin) 
in general. Its ultimate elements are 30 atoms 
of carbon, 18 of hydrogen, and 24 of oxygen. 

TANNIN. A word synonymous with tannic 
acid, the pure astringent principle upon which 
their power of converting skin into leather 
depends. Its leading character is its property 
of producing a dense whitish precipitate in a 
strong solution of animal jelly, such, for in- 
stance, as isinglass ; and on this account it 
condenses the gelatin of animal hides, and, ren- 
dermj, them impermeable to water, converts 
them into leather. It may be obtained tolera- 
bly pure by infusing bruised grape-seeds in 
cold water, or more circuitously by adding 
acetate of copper to filtered infusion of galls, 
washing the precipitate, and decomposing it 
(diffused through water) by sulphuretted hy- 
drogen. On evaporating its solution, it is 
obtained as a pale yellow extract of a strong 
astringent taste. The action of astringents 
upon persalts of •;r:;n has given rise to its dis- 
tinction into two varieties, the first changing 
Ihem to deep blue or black, the second to green. 
The tan of galls, oak, bark, grape-seeds, &c., 
possesses the former property; that of catechu 
and tea, the latter. (^Brande's Diet, of Science.) 

TANNING. The art of preparing leather 
from raw skins and hides so as to render them 
1034 



more pliant, durable, and impermeable to 
water. The processes employed for this pur- 
pose are various, every tanner adopting some 
peculiar or favourite method. 

A discovery has recently been made which 
seems likely to revolutionize the tanning trade. 
By means of a tanning machine, or pair of 
horizontal rollers fixed over a tan-pit, between 
which is fixed a band or belt of hides attached 
by ligatures to each other, to the number of 50 
to 100, and by which the rollers are constantly 
fed or supplied, the hides are lifted out of the 
pit on one side of the machine; as they pass 
between the rollers, the exhausted ooze or tan- 
ning liquid is pressed out of them, and they 
are deposited in folds in the pit on the other 
side of the machine, where they absorb another 
supply of fresh tannin. The first hide having 
been inserted between the rollers, the others 
follow in succession, and upon arriving at the 
end of the band the motion of the roller is 
reversed, and the belt is returned through the 
machine to receive another squeeze. This al- 
ternating motion is constantly repeated, the pit 
being replenished from time to time with fresh 
solutions of tan, till the operation is completed- 
The effects produced by this simple plan, are — 
1. The shortening of the time of tanning to 
one-fourth of that generally required. 2. The 
production of a considerable increase of weight. 
3. The leather tanned by this method resists 
water longer than that tanned by the old pro- 
cess. 4. The new method is cheaper than the 
old. 5. It is applicable to the existing tan- 
yards, at a comparatively trifling expense, with 
a capability of working in rounds or series, and 
of expending tan or liquor. 6. That it is availa- 
ble for all sorts of leather. 

TANSY {Tanacctum). The species of tansy 
are not possessed of much beauty. The hardy 
kinds succeed in any common soil, and are 
readily increased by rooted slips of the fibrous 
creeping root. They increase freely by cut- 
tings. Withering asserts that if meat be rubbed 
with the leaves of tansy, the flesh-fly will not 
touch it. In England the only indigenous spe- 
cies is the common tansy (T. vulgare). Every 
part of the herb is bitter, with a strong but not 
unpleasant scent. The qualities are esteemed 
of a tonic and cordial nature, expelling intes- 
tinal worms, and strengthening the digestive 
powers. The plant, however, does not agree 
with every stomach. There are two varieties 
of this species, the variegated, and the curled 
or double tansy, which is kept for use in gar- 
dens, as being more wholesome or milder than 
the wild sort ; but in England tansy pudding is 
out of fashion. 

TAPE-GRASS or EEL-GRASS. See Va- 

LESNERIA. 

TAPIOCA. A white, edible substance, con- 
sisting of very pure starch, obtained from the 
root of a tropical plant called manioc (Jatropa 
manihot) or cassava. 

TAP-ROOT. A root which penetrates deep 
and perpendicularly into the ground without 
dividing, and has few lateral fibres. In shape 
it resembles a spindle ; hence it is botanically 
termed a fusiform root. But the main trunk 
of any root that penetrates vertically deep into 
the ground is called the tap. 



TAR. 



TENANT. 



TAR. A dark brown, viscid liquor, obtained 
by charring the wood of the fir tree ; it consists 
of resin, empyreumatic oil, and acetic acid. 
When inspissated by boiling, it is converted 
into pitch. The manufacture, which is carried 
on in the pine forests of Northern Europe, is 
simple. A conical hole, usually in the side of 
a bank, being made, roots and fillets of pine 
are let into the cavity, and the whole is cover- 
ed with turf, which is beat firmly down above 
the wood. The wood being kindled, a slow 
combustion takes place. A cast-iron pan at 
the bottom of the cavity receives the fluid, and 
has a spout which projects through the bank 
and carries the tar into barrels. As quickly 
as the barrels are filled, they are closed with 
bungs, when the material is ready for exporta- 
tion. This manner of preparing tar has been 
derived from the earliest ages. Tar is a very 
compound substance ; it contains modified re- 
sin, and oil of turpentine, acetic acid, charcoal, 
and water. Tar is used in medicine as well 
as in the arts. It is an excellent topical stimu- 
lant, M'hen made into an ointment with lard, in 
dry skin diseases. These two substances, tar 
and pitch, are of extensive use in the arts. 

Tar may be found useful as an application 
for cuts in sheep by clipping, and also to the 
parts afl^ected by the fly. It is also of great 
use in some cases for applying as a paint to 
boarding, &c.; but in this use a little tallow or 
other coarse fat should be melted with it, as by 
this means it goes farther, and resists the wea- 
ther more eflTectually. Large quantities of tar 
are made from the abundant pine forests of 
North Carolina. See also Gas-Tar. 

TARE EVERLASTING. See Lathtrus 
and Vetchling. 

TARES (J??TM«i, from e/To, tilled land; some 
of the species are a pest on cultivated ground). 
The word tare is frequently applied to what 
is properly the common vetch (Vicia sativa). 
There are in England two indigenous species 
of tare, which are troublesome annual weeds. 

1. Smooth tare (£. tetraspermum, PI. 10, r), 
which grows in corn-fields, hedges, and thick- 
ets, particularly such as are rather moist. The 
root is small and tapering. The herbage is 
besp.nnkled with fine, soft hairs, especially the 
flower-stalks and calyx. Stem weak, quadran- 
gular, branched from the bottom, leafy, climb- 
ing to the height of 2 or 3 feet. Flowers mostly 
in pairs, small, drooping, pale gray; the stand- 
ard streaked, and the keel tipped with a deep 
blue. Legumes pendulous, oblong, bluntish, 
smooth. Seeds most generally 4. 

2. Hairy tare (£. hirsutum), which is in 
habit much like the foregoing; the flowers are 
in clusters of 5 or 7, very small, pale blue, or 
almost white, with two dark spots on the keel. 
Legumes short, dark brown, besprinkled with 
hairs, to which the specific name alludes. 
Seeds two in each legume, large and promi- 
nent. See Lathtrus, Soiling, Vetch, Vetch- 
ling, &c. 

TARO. A bulbous-rooted plant of the genus 
Arum, a native of the valley of the Columbia 
river. It is planted on hills, and cultivated in 
the manner of rice, on ground so situated as 
to be partially flooded with water. It comes 
to maturity in 8 or 10 months from the time 



of planting. To prepare them for food, they 
are roasted ; they then become a substitute for 
bread ; or they are made into poi, by pulveriz- 
ing and converting them into a paste. 

TEAM. A number of horses or oxen draw 
ing at once in the same plough, cart, or other 
carriage. 

It has been long a disputed point among far- 
mers whether horses or oxen form the most 
economical and advantageous team for the 
purpose of the cultivator in performing his 
work. The question remains still undecided, 
though many intelligent farmers in England 
now incline to the side of horse teams, except 
in particular circumstances and situations. 

TEASEL, or TEAZLE (Dipsacus, supposed 
to be derived (rom dipsao, to thirst; inconse- 
quence of the leaves holding water). It is a 
curious genus of plants : some of the species 
are pretty flowering plants, especially the small 
teasel. They grow well in any common soil, 
and are readily increased by seeds. There are 
in England three native species, all biennial. 

1. The manured or fuller's teasel (Z). fullo- 
rum), although growing about hedges, can 
scarcely be considered wild. This species is 
extensively cultivated in the west of England, 
the dried heads of which furnish the teasel 
used by fullers in dressing cloth. The root is 
fleshy, branched, and tapering. Stem 5 to 6 
feet high, erect, strongly furrowed, prickly, 
leafy, branched at the top. The leaves sessile, 
combined, serrated, with prickly ribs. Flowers 
whitish, with pale purple anthers, very nume- 
rous, in a close, obtuse, conical head, the in- 
termediate scales bristly at the edges ; rigid 
and hooked at the points, by which they are 
rendered serviceable for teazing woollen cloth, 
being fixed in several rows in wooden frames 
with handles adapted for that purpose. The 
scales are just strong enc ugh to raise the wool, 
giving way before they t an injure the cloth. 
Many mechanical inventions have been at- 
tempted to set aside the teasel, but without 
success, all of them having proved inefficient 
or injurious. The dressing of a piece of cloth 
consumes from 1500 to 2000 teasels. They 
are repeatedly used in different parts of the 
process. Some esteem this but a luxuriant 
variety of the following, as it requires a very 
richly manured soil to preserve its characters 
and useful properties. 

2. Wild teasel (D. sylvestris). In England a 
very common species about moist hedges and 
by road-sides, less robust than the foregoing; 
about 4 feet high. Leaves opposite, serrated- 
Scales of the receptacle straight. Common 
calyx inflexed, longer than the head. 

3. Small teasel, or shepherd's staff (D. pilo- 
sus). This species grows in moist, shady 
places, on a chalky or limestone soil. This is a 
useless weed, but not troublesome to the farmer 

TEATHING. Provincially, the practice of 
eating turnips ofl^, upon young wheat crops, in 
the early spring months, by live-stock, as sheep 
and bullocks. It is often written lathing. 

TEETH. See Age of Animais. 

TEMPERATURE. See Atmosphere, ALfi- 
tude, Climate, Earths, Elevation, Meteor- 

OLOGT. 

TENANT (^Tenens, from the Latin tenere, to 

1035 



TENDRILS. 



THISTLE. 



hold). In law, one who. holds or possesses 
lands or tenements by any kind of right, either 
in fee for life, for years, or at will. See Lease. 

TENDRILS. The curling, twining organs 
of prehension, by which some plants lay hold 
of others. 

TEN-O'CLOCK. A troublesome perennial 
plant and weed, with a bulbous, fibrous root, 
difficult to destroy, as it will grow even years 
after the tops are cut off. Fields must not be 
ploughed. This foreigner has escaped from 
the gardens, and has become a grievous nui- 
sance on many farms. Although it rarely per- 
fects its fruit, the bulbs are propagated laterally 
with great rapidity; and are extremely difficult 
to extirpate. One native species has been 
found in the United States, on the Rocky 
Mountains. (Flora Cestrica.) 

TETHERING. The practice of confining 
to precise limits or pasturage any kind of 
stock, by means of light chams or ropes fas- 
tened to iron pins (with swivel rings) driven 
into the ground. For the small farmer with 
indifferent fences, or for gentlemen with limited 
and ornamental lawns, this practice, which 
secures shrubs and pleasure-grounds from 
injury, is obviously often an advantageous 
system ; and indeed a rich lawn immediately 
in view of a house is the fittest situation for 
tethering, as an impoverished field would dis- 
appoint, and demand a too frequent and there- 
fore troublesome change of tether. The prac- 
tice is almost universal throughout France, 
even in common farms. 

THATCH. Straw, or any other dry vege- 
table substance, laid on the top of a building, 
rick, &c., to keep out the wet. 

There are many different sorts of materials 
that may be made use of as thatch, but the 
straw of wheat and rye, when well laid, forms 
the neatest and most secure covering for gene- 
ral purposes. 

The reed is a highly valuable article for the 
purpose of thatch, where a lasting roof is re- 
quired; but is much too expensive at first, 
although it is cheapest in the end. Reed is 
also thought to be too stubborn for common 
purposes. Fern is also occasionally used. 
See Fkun. 

THERMOMETER (Gr.). An instrument for 
measuring variations of heat or temperature, 
too well known to need description. See At- 
MospiiKHK, Climate, METEOROLOGr, &C. See 
also Table in next column. 

THISTLE. A well-known prickly weed, 
common in corn-fields and pastures. Where- 
ever thistles grow naturally it is a sure sign 
that the land is strong, and of a tolerably good 
quality ; but they are at the same time a great 
annoyance to every plant intended to be cul- 
tivated. 

By an excellent regulation in France, a 
farmer may sue his neighbour who neglects to 
thistle his land at the proper seasons, or may 
employ people to do it at the other's expense : 
and it were to be wished that a similar law was 
in force here, to prevent the wide-spreading 
mischief occasioned by the seeding of this 
pernicious weed; among which may be reck- 
oned, besides its choking the young corn, that 
jf wheat in particular be not well thistled, the 
1036 



Tabic exhibiting the degrees of the Centigrade an^ 
Fahrenheit s Thermometers corresponding to those 
of Reaumur^s Thermometer. 



Reaum. 


Cenl. 


Fahr. 


Reaum. 


Cent. 


Fahr. 


80 


100- 


212- 


29 


36-25 


97-25 


IV 


98-75 


209-75 


28 


35- 


95- 


78 


97-5 


207-5 


27 


33-75 


92-75 


77 


96-25 


205-25 


26 


32-5 


90-5 


76 


95- 


203- 


25 


31-25 


88-25 


75 


93 75 


200-75 


24 


30- 


86- 


74 


92-5 


198-5 


23 


28-75 


83-75 


73 


91-25 


196-25 


22 


27-5 


81-5 


72 


90- 


194- 


21 


26-25 


79-25 


71 


88-75 


191-75 


20 


25- 


77- 


70 


87-5 


189-5 


19 


2375 


74-75 


69 


86-25 


187-25 


18 


22-5 


72-5 


68 


85- 


185- 


17 


21 25 


70-25 


67 


83-75 


182-75 


16 


20- 


68- 


66 


82-5 


1805 


15 


18-75 


65-75 


65 


81-25 


178-25 


14 


17-5 


63-5 


64 


80- 


176- 


13 


16-25 


61-25 


63 


78-75 


173-75 


12 


15- 


59- 


62 


77-5 


171-5 


11 


13-75 


56-75 


61 


76-25 


169-25 


10 


12-5 


54-5 


60 


75- 


167- 


9 


11-25 


52-25 


59 


73-75 


164-75 


8 


10- 


50- 


58 


72-5 


1625 


7 


8-75 


47-75 


57 


71-25 


160-25 


6 


7-5 


45-5 


56 


70- 


158- 


5 


6-25 


43-25 


55 


68-75 


155-75 


4 


5 


41- 


54 


67-5 


1535 


3 


875 


38-75 


53 


66 25 


151-25 


2 


2-5 


365 


52 


65- 


149- 


1 


1-25 


34 25 


51 


63-75 


146-75 





-0 


32- 


50 


62-5 


144-5 


1 


1-25 


29-75 


49 


61-25 


142-25 


2 


25 


27-5 


48 


60- 


140- 


3 


3-75 


25-25 


47 


58-75 


137-75 


4 


5- 


23- 


46 


57 5 


135-5 


5 


6-25 


20-75 


45 


56-25 


133 25 


6 


7-5 


18-5 


44 


55- 


131- 


7 


8-75 


16-25 


43 


53-75 


128-75 


8 


10- 


14- 


42 


52-5 


1265 


9 


11-25 


11-75 


41 


51-25 


12425 


10 


125 


9-5 


40 


50- 


122- 


11 


13-75 


7-25 


39 


48-75 


119-75 


12 


15- 


5- 


38 


47 5 


117-5 


13 


16-25 


2-75 


37 


46-25 


115-25 


14 


17-5 


0-5 


36 


45- 


113- 


15 


18-75 


1-75 


35 


43-75 


110-75 


16 


20- 


4- 


34 


42-5 


108-5 


17 


21-25 


6-25 


33 


41 25 


106-25 


18 


225 


8-5 


.32 


40- 


104- 


19 


23-75 


10-75 


31 


38-75 


101-75 


20 


25- 


13- 


30 


37-5 


99-5 









f 



reapers take up the grip so tenderly, lest they 
should prick themselves, that, by their loose 
handling of them, they sometimes leave upon 
the ground corn enough to sow the whole field. 
There are no plants over which the economical 
farmer ought to keep a more watchful eye than 
the thistle tribe, as they are not only useless, 
but occupy much ground, and, being furnished 
with winged downy seeds, are capable of being 
multiplied and carried almost to any distance: 
besides, they do much mischief by impeding 
the work both in handling hay and corn crops. 
It is, of course, a matter of much consequence 
to be well acquainted with the qualities of each 
kind, in order to enable us to judge with cer- 
tainty how far and by what means their de- 
struction may be effected in the most certain 
and ready manner. 

There are in England many sorts of thistles, 
but those which chiefly deserve the attention 
of the farmer are either of the annual, bien- 
nial, or perennial kinds. 

The annual species of thistle are the mask- 
thistle (Carduus nutans), the milk-thistle (C. 
marianus), the welted or curled thistle (Cacan- 
thoides), the slender-flowered thistle (C. tenuis 
florus"), the common sow-thistle (^Sonchus okro' 



THISTLE. 



THORN. 



tens). The principal biennial thistles are the 
spear or bull-thistle {C.lanreolatus), the marsh- 
thistle (C palustris), and the cotton-thistle 
(Onopordum acantheum). The perennial species 
are two, the common sow-thistle {Sonrhus ar- 
vensis), and the common or field-thistle (Cnicus 
arvensis), or Canada thistle. The dwarf or 
stemless thistle (C, ncaidis), the star-thistle 
(Ccniaurea calcitrapa), dind the common carline- 
thistle {Carlina vidgaris), are more frequently 
found to infest dry sandy pastures and calca- 
reous soils than loamy or damp grass-lands. 
Where they prevail to a great extent, there is 
no remedy like breaking up the land and taking 
a course of crops ; for palliative remedies are 
of little avail. Hand-weeding, when the weeds 
are confined to local spots, and are only just 
beginning to spread generally over the soil, 
will be found effectual ; but when once the pas- 
ture becomes generally infected with the seeds 
and roots of these plants, no time should be 
lost in using the plough, harrow, and horse-hoe, 
and a judicious course of cleansing crops be- 
fore reiurning the land again to permanent 
pasture. 

Among the species of pasture-weeds that 
generally prevail in loamy soils, and are also 
prevalent in clayey and damp soils, are the 
marsh or red plume-thistle (Cnicus palustris), 
the meadow or small purple plume-thistle 
(Cnicus pratensis), and the melancholy plume- 
thistle (Cnicus heterophyllus). In crops of artifi- 
cial grasses, such as sainfoin, lucern, &c., 
where the dwarf plume-thistle (Cnicus acatilis) 
prevails, and when it is impracticable, under 
such circumstances, to draw out this weed 
without injuring the crops, a good remedy will 
be found in the use of common salt. Children 
may be employed to apply the salt by hand to 
the crown of the weed. If the least part of the 
root of the thistle be left, it springs up season 
after season. Besides possessing this principle 
of vitality in the root, its seeds are so winged 
with down as to render dissemination, even to 
a great distance, by means of the wind, almost 
certain. 

It is obvious that the annual and biennial 
species of thistles may be readily removed by 
preventing their running to seed and dissemi- 
nating themselves, which is best effected by 
carefully eradicating them, or frequently mow- 
ing them over close to the surface, and rolling. 
But in the perennial kinds, from their roots 
continuing in the earth, increasing and throw- 
ing out new shoots or stems every year, there 
is much difficulty in extirpating them, and they 
perhaps can be no other way destroyed than 
by rooting them out of arable land by deep 
ploughing and frequent harrowings, or by fal- 
lowing or laying the land down to pasture ; the 
annual species seldom appear in pasture-lands. 
But for destroying the common thistles the best 
method is by weeding-pincers, or the finger and 
thumb when in loose land, cutting them over in 
the bleeding season frequently by weeding- 
knives, and applying salt to the cut stalk. 

The most common thistle found in the United 
States is the C. lanceolatus, a biennial. The 
most troublesome pest, the C. ai-vensis. (See 
Canada Thistli;.) Dr. Darlington thinks the 
yellow thistle a fcceigner introduced into the 



United States. It is the most prickly of al/ 
the tribe, and hence called by botanists Cardunts 
spinosissimits, and Cnicus harriduus. The root 
of this is considered by some biennial, by others 
perennial. The tall or tallest thistle (C.aUissi- 
mus), is common along fence-rows, «&c., in the 
Middle and other States. The dwarf carduus 
(CardvAis Puviilus), is common in Pennsylvania 
and other Middle States, growing in old fields, 
&c., from 1 to 2 feet high, with flowers of a pale 
reddish-purple, and quite fragrant. The heads 
are handsome, and the largest of any other 
American species. Several other species of 
thistle are found in the United States. See 
Canada Thistle. 

THISTLE, PLUME (Cnicus). This is a 
separation from the genus Carduus made by 
Sir J. E.Smith. They are prickly, herbaceous 
plants, and differ chiefly in the down being 
evidently feathery, not merely rough. The 
biennial species may be readily destroyed by 
mowing before the flowers form seed. There 
are in England nine indigenous species of 
plume thistle. Some of which are common in 
waste ground, moist meadows, &.c. Those 
which give most trouble to the farmer are, the 

Marsh plume-thistle (C. palustris), a biennial, 
growing plentifully in moist meadows or pas- 
tures, and watery spots by road-sides. Stem 
from 3 to 6 feet high. 

Creeping plume-thistle (C, arvensis). A very 
troublesome perennial weed in cultivated fields 
and by way-sides, from its flesny root, which 
is very tenacious of life, creeping deeply into 
the earth to a great extent. Stems 3 or 4 feet 
high. 

Branching bog plume-thistle (C. Forsteri). A 
perennial, flowering in July and August, with 
a tapering root. 

Woolly-headed plume-thistle (C. eriophorus). 
A large and conspicuous perennial plant, grow 
ing in waste mountainous ground, and by road 
sides, on a limestone or chalky soil. 

Melancholy plume-thistle (C. heterophyllus). 
A perennial, growing in moist mountain pas- 
tures in the north. 

Meadow plume-thistle (C. pratensis). A pe- 
rennial, growing in low, wet meadows and pas- 
tures, especially among trees. Root fibrous. 

Dwarf plume-thistle (C. aca^dis). A peren- 
nial, growing on chalky and gravelly soils. 
Root woody, running deep into the ground 
Stem entirely wanting. The large bright-green 
leaves, spreading close to the ground, in a 
circle near a foot in diameter, choke all other 
herbage. 

THORN (Cratcegus). A name given to 
several indigenous shrubs and rmall trees. 
See Black-Thohn, Buckthoiin, Hawthorh, 
White-Thohn, &c. 

Of this genus of shrubbery trees so valuable 
in an agricultural point of view, there are 
many species and varieties. Dr. Darlington de- 
scribes the following as found in Chester county, 
Pennsylvania: 1. The Newcastle or cockspur 
thorn (C. cms galli). Two varieties of this exis* 
the most common of which is much employed 
in making the fine hedges for which New- 
castle county, Delaware, is celebrated. Dr. 
Darlington thinks that, with proper manago 
ment, this kind will ultimately make a more 
4s2 1037 



THORN. 



THRASHING-MACHINE. 



durable and effective hedge than the Washing- 
ton thorn (C. cordata), which is now generally 
used in Chester county. It is a more rugged 
plant, and seems to be less liable to disease, or 
to be injured by insects, than the Washington 
thorn. (Flora Ccstrica.) 

2. The small-leaved thorn (C. parvifolia), a 
rugged little bush abundant in New Jersey. 

3. Thorn-bush or dotted Crataegus (C. punc- 
tata), a red-fruited variety. The fruit is large, 
half to two-thirds of an inch in diameter, mostly 
three-seeded, red, sometimes yellow when ma- 
ture, dotted and esculent. 

4. Black-thorn (C. flava), yellow Crataegus, 
an apparent misnomer. The fruit is pear- 
shaped, large (about half an inch in diameter), 
three or four-seeded, greenish-yellow, with a 
tinge of dark red when mature, esculent, but 
rather insipid. 

6. White-thorn or crimson cratoegus (C. 
coccinca). This is the most common species in 
Chester county, Pennsylvania. The thorns 
have more resemblance to the cock-spur, than 
those of the real cms galli or Newcastle thorn. 
The fruit isone-third tohalf an inch in diameter, 
and bright purple when mature. 

6. The Washington thorn (C.forrZrt/ff). This 
species, says Dr. Darlington, was introduced 
into Chester county from the neighbourhood 
of Washington city, and is now extensively 
used in hedging. It grows fast in favourable 
i^iiuations, under good management, and will 
make a handsome hedge in about 10 years 
from the time of planting. It does not succeed 
well on dry, rocky banks, and especially in the 
red shale districts. The young branches are 
also subject to disease from the puncture of 
insects. "I have used this thorn," says Dr. 
Darlington, " to a considerable extent, and have 
succeeded in obtaining some pretty fair hedges ; 
but I am now strongly inclined to the opinion 
that the C. cms galli, or cock-spur thorn, is en- 
titled to the preference, for that object. One 
important fact, however, applies to every sort 
of thorn, and should be remembered by all 
persons who may undertake hedging, which is, 
that if they are not carefully attended to, and 
skilfully managed, the hedges will become a 
nuisance and a source of vexation, rather than 
a benefit, and had better never be attempted. 
With due care and skill, they make a valuable 
and ornamental enclosure. 

7. Hawthorn or English thorn (C oxyacan- 
?Art),sharp-thorned Crataegus. This species (of 
which there are several varieties in Europe) 
was introduced many years ago, and is appa- 
rently naturalized in a few localities ; but does 
not seem to extend itself much. It is said to 
be the favourite thorn for hedging in England; 
but is rarely applied to that use here. Some 
10 or 12 additional species have been enume- 
rated in the United States ; but the genus stands 
greatly in need of a careful revision. {Flora 
Ccstrica,") 

Many species of the thorn genus are highly 
ornamental. Of these the most beautiful of 
all thorns when in bloom, is the C. oxyacantha 
rosea supcrba, with deep crimson flowers and 
small red fruit. The sweet-scented thorn (C 
pdoralissinia) has very large, pale red fruit. 
The large tansv-leaved thorn (C. Leeana), has 
1038 



large pale red fruit. The small black-fruited 
thorn (C. Oliveriana), bears very profusely, but 
matures late. The new double-scarlet is a 
most beautiful variety of the C. oxyacantha 
rosea superba, just mentioned. 

THORN-APPLE (Datura). An ornamental 
genus, but chiefly composed of plants possess- 
ing very deleterious qualities. One species 
indigenous to England, is the common thorn- 
apple (D. stramonium), an annual, which grows 
in waste grounds and dung-hills. It is a bushy, 
fetid herb, 2 or 3 feet high, of a narcotic quality, 
and greatly in repute as a remedy for the 
asthma, being smoked like tobacco. The leaves 
are ovate, smooth, sinuated. The flowers are 
axillary, erect, white, sweet-scented, especially 
at night, about 3 inches long. Fruit as big as 
a walnut in its outer coat, very prickly. Seeds 
black. In the United States it goes by the name 
of Jamestown weed, doubtless from the place 
where it was first naturalized, in Virginia. 

THRASHING, or THRESHING. The act 
of beating out the corn from grain or other 
crops. The flail was the implement formerly 
used for thrashing corn, and which separated 
the grain from the straw and husks very effect- 
ually and expeditiously; but as it is now be- 
come expensive, and always bruises a great 
many seeds, it has been attempted to avoid 
these inconveniences by proper machines pro- 
vided with a number of flails, or other parts 
answering the same purpose, made to move by 
the power of water, wind, or horses. By this 
means the business of thrashing is found to be 
performed cheaper, more expeditiously, and 
with less damage to the health of the thrasher, 
which is frequently thought to be injured by 
the dust, &c., which arises in the common way 
of thrashing, as well as by the extreme labo- 
riousness of the work. Various machines for 
effecting the purpose of thrashing have been 
lately invented. See Flail, and Thrashing- 
Machixk. 

THRASHING-MACHINE. To the farmer 
on an extensive scale, the thrashing-machine 
is absolutely necessary. He cannot wait for 
the tedious operation of the flail to prepare a 
delivery of corn for a given day, or pressing 
purpose; nor can he, without the risk of pil- 
fering and imposition, keep his barn constantly 
open for thrashers. The flail, however, is still 
the implement in general use among all who 
farm on a scale not sufficiently extensive to 
require any of the complex machinery which 
modern skill has invented. The advantages 
of the flail are, its simplicity, the power of 
giving employment to the labourers in the 
barn during wet days, and the convenience of 
having fresh straw for fodder every day. 

The following description of the thrashing- 
machine is chiefly derived from the valuable 
essay On Aricultural Implements, by Mr. J. Allen 
Ransome, of Ipswich, England. 

In ancient times various modes of thrashing 
out grain were resorted to, and we read of 
" the bruising with the cart-wheel," " the sharp 
thrashing instrument having teeth," "the 
trampling under the feet of the unmuzzled ox," 
or " the rollers plain or fluted" mentioned in 
the later practice of continental agriculture. 
But of all these the flail alone remains in use 



THRASHING-MACHINE. 



THRASHING-MACHINE.' 



in England; and it is with this instrument, 
preserving very nearly its original form, by 
which till very lately the entire growth of corn 
and seeds in this kingdom were thrashed. 

That the flail may be made thoroughly to 
effect, though at great cost of labour and time, 
the purpose of clearing the grain without 
damage either to the corn or the straw, is a 
point none will be inclined to dispute. But the 
disadvantages attending its use are not confined 
to waste of labour and time ; for, though it may 
be granted that the operation, if properly per- 
formed, may be perfect, how difficult it is to 
secure its proper performance, every agricul- 
turist whose journeys to his barn have from 
time to time interrupted his surveys of other 
not less important agricultural operations, can 
fully testify. It is evident that the latter part 
of this operation will require much more la- 
bour to produce a given quantity than its earlier 
stages ; and hence the straw is frequently passed 
away partially thrashed, in order to procure a 
greater bulk in a given time. Nor are these 
disadvantages all with which we have to con- 
tend : constant inspection may, perhaps, to 
some extent, remedy them ; but no attention 
will altogether suffice to remove the temptation 
to pilfer, which is continually presented where 
large quantities of grain are ever under the 
eye and in the power of those to whom a small 
portion is of great importance ; and hence 
arises, even when undetected, and often indeed 
when not committed, a cause of painful tempta- 
tion on the one hand, and injurious suspicion 
on the other. 

To overcome these evils, prejudicial not 
only to the true economy of the farm, but to 
those feelings of confidence which, justly to 
sustain the social bond, should ever exist in 
the relation between the labourer and his em- 
ployer, the attention of our enterprising neigh- 
bours in Scotland was first directed to the con- 
struction of machinery; and in 1733, Michael 
Menzies, a gentleman of East Lothian, invented 
and patented a machine for thrashing grain. 
We regret that, as nothing but the bare record 
of this invention is enrolled in the Patent-office, 
we have not been able to learn more of this, 
the germ of thrashing-machine invention, than 
that it was a contrivance by which a series of 
flails were made to revolve upon a cylinder ; 
but we are pleased to be able in some degree 
to redeem it from the "condemnation of faint 
praise," with which we find its memory gene- 
rally accompanied, by reference to the report 
of a committee appointed by the Society of 
Improvers in Scotland, to inspect its operation, 
and determine upon its merits. This com- 
mittee, after various trials, reported it to be 
" their opinion that the machine would be of 
great use to farmers, both in thrashing the grain 
clean from the straw and in saving a great deal 
of labour; for one man would be sufficient to 
manage a machine which would do the work 
of six." They further recommended the so- 
ciety " to give all the encouragement they could 
to so beneficial an invention, which, being 
simple and plain in the machinery, might be of 
universal advantage." The society approved 
of the report, and acted upon the recommen- 
dation. 



During the next period of twenty years -we 
are not aware of any other attempts to carry 
out the object of thrashing by machinery; but 
in 1753-8, Michael Sterling, a farmer in the 
parish of Dumblane, Perth, applied the princi- 
ple of the mill in common use for hulling flax 
to this purpose. This mill had a vertical shaft, 
with 4 cross arms enclosed in a cylindrical case, 
3 feet 6 inches high, and about 8 feet in diameter. 
The shaft was made to turn at considerable ve- 
locity, and the sheaves were gradually let down 
from an opening at the top ; the grain and straw, 
after being subjected to this beating, were then 
pressed through an opening in the floor, where 
rakes and fanners completed the separation of 
the grain from the straw and chaff. It was, 
however, found that this machine broke off the 
ears of barley and wheat instead of clearing 
them of the grain, and that at best it was only 
fit for oats. 

It is curious to trace the various plans by 
which the desideratum of thrashing by ma- 
chinery was attempted to be accomplished; a 
few of these we shall venture to bring before 
our readers, and a slight sketch of them will 
suffice satisfactorily to show that in following 
out the principles which distinguish Meikle's 
machine (hereafter to be mentioned), little of 
value has been lost to the public of those which 
have fallen into desuetude. In 1772, two gen- 
tlemen residing in Northumberland, Alderton 
and Smart, invented a machine, by which the 
sheaves were carried round between an in- 
dented drum of 6 feet diameter and a number 
of fluted rollers, which, pressing by means of 
springs against the fluted concave, rubbed out 
the corn from the ears; and in 1785, William 
Winlaw, of Mary-le-bone, patented an invention 
which he denominated a "mill for separating 
grain from straw." 

This mill was made on a principle similar 
to the coffee-mill, but was found to exceed the 
simple object proposed in the specification, by 
grinding the grain as well as separating it from 
the straw. Other machines upon the plan of 
rubbing out the corn were also tried, but, on 
account of the damage done to the grain, were 
discarded. In addition to the mill invented by 
Winlaw, a machine was in 1792 patented by 
Willoughby, of Bedford, Notts, the principle 
of which appears to have been somewhat simi- 
lar to that of Menzies ; how nearly so, we regret 
we have not the opportunity of judging. It 
comprised a series of loose flails made to act 
upon a grated floor, and turned rapidly round 
by means of a horse-wheel. The straw was 
presented by hand to the action of the flails. 

In 1795, an individual of the name of Jubb, 
residing at Lewes, obtained a patent for an in- 
vention of which the principal feature was the 
passing the straw between two rapidly revolv 
ing beaters, under which it was held by two 
feeding rollers, whence the corn fell into a 
winnowing-machine. 

The inventive talent of the Americans was 
at this time brought to bear upon this import- 
ant subject. James Wardrop, of Ampthill, 
Virginia, invented a machine, which was intro- 
duced into England about 1796, to be worked 
by tAvo men ; it was made with flails or elastie 
rods 12 feet in length, of which 12 were attach** 

1039 



THRASHING-MACHINE. 



THRASHING-MACHINE. 



in series, each having a spring requiring a 
power of 20 pounds to raise it 3 feet high at 
the point; a wallower shaft, with catches or 
teeth, in its revolution successively lifted each 
tlail in alternate movements, so that three of 
the flails were operated upon by the whole 
Dower, viz., 20 pounds. The flails beat upon a 
grating to which the corn is introduced by hand. 

In 1785, Andrew Meikle, an ingenious me- 
chanic of Tyningham, East Lothian, first in- 
troduced to the public, through the medium of 
a gentleman of the name of Stein, of Kilbogie, 
the invention whose principle has been the 
basis upon which the machines in use in Bri- 
tain up to the present time have been mainly 
constructed. It appears that, his attention 
having been long turned to the subject, he dis- 
covered that the plan of rubbing would never 
be otherwise than attended with the disadvan- 
tage before alluded to; and his son George 
agreed with the gentleman above named to 
erect a perfec machine, and in 1786 he com- 
pleted the first that was ever made, adopting 
the plan of introducing between two rollers the 
corn, which was then thrashed out by four 
beaters fixed upon a revolving drum, each 
striking, as it revolved, the corn held between 
the rollers. The machine alluded to was 
erected, and found to work exceedingly well. 
A patent was accordingly applied for, and, 
after some opposition from a party not con- 
cerned in the invention, obtained. 

In the trials between the erection of the ori- 
ginal machine and the obtaining the patent, a 
new principle appears to have suggested itself, 
viz., that of stripping off" the corn from the ear 
by a comparatively sharp edge, or, as termed 
by him, " scutching out the grain," instead of 
beating it by a flat surface. The difference has 
been partially illustrated by supposing a hand- 
ful of straw with the corn in the ear to be held 
in the hand, while with the flat sides of a two- 
feet rule the ears should be struck or beaten ; 
this is the operation of the common beater. If, 
instead of striking the ears with the flat side, a 
sharp blow be given with the thin edge of the 
rule in the direction of the ear where the rule 
touches, it will strip the corn from the ear with 
less labour and with greater certainty. This 
may be called the scutching principle to which 
Meikle's beaters in his patent were applied. 

It will not be uninteresting to learn, upon the 
authority of Sir John Sinclair, " that the invent- 
or of this important machine was rendered 
comfortable in his old age, and enabled to pro- 
vide for his family after his death, by the vo- 
luntary donations of his grateful countrymen." 
Not less gratifying is the testimony of Pro- 
fessor Low, in his admirable treatise on the 
Elements of Practical Agriculture, that " to An- 
drew Meikle, beyond a question, belongs the 
honour of having perfected the thrashing-ma- 
chine. Changes and improvements have in- 
deed been made on certain parts of the original 
machine ; but in all its essential parts, and in 
the principle of its construction, it remains as 
It came from the hands of its inventor." 

By the drawings and specification of Meikle's 

machine, it appears that, at the time of taking 

out this patent, the plan of shaking the straw 

t'V means of circular rakes had not been sug- 

1040 



gested ; and in the report drawn up for the 
consideration of the "Board of Agriculture" 
for the county of Northumberland, we find that, 
in 1789, the first machine having a circular 
rake attached, and with fanners below, to per- 
fect the cleaning of the grain, was erected. Al- 
though it is not there stated, we have good 
reason to believe that this important improve- 
ment, occasioning the addition of but one light 
wheel to the machine, was the invention of J. 
Bailey, the enterprising occupier of Chilling- 
ham, one of the gentlemen appointed to draw 
up the report alluded to. 

We have thus far traced carefully, and, we 
trust, correctly, the progress of the invention 
of the thrashing-machine used in Scotland, till 
it has arrived at very nearly its present perfec- 
tion. Various combinations of mechanical 
powers, and many contrivances, have doubt- 
less been since added to produce particular 
eflJects, which have progressively tended to its 
improvement and ultimate perfection. 

It will be difficult, within the limits to which 
this article must necessarily be confined, to 
enter minutely into detail, or adequately to set 
forth the merits of the various inventions and 
improvements on this machine, for which in 
the course of the last half-century no fewer 
than 25 patents have been obtained; besides 
several awards from the Bath and West of 
England Society and the Society of Arts. But 
we should do injustice to the subject, did we 
not here mention the name of Lester, whose 
mechanical talent and skill as an engineer 
have not a little contributed to the establish- 
ment of a higher style of excellence in agri- 
cultural mechanics than was coincident with 
the then taste of the age in that much neg- 
lected department. 

The machines now in general use through- 
out the eastern counties of England are, with 
few exceptions, portable. They are frequently 
the property of individuals who, itinerating 
from farm to farm, thrash at a certain price per 
quarter; the farmer finding horses, and, with 
the exception of the proprietor, who feeds the 
machine, the necessary complement of men. 
They are simply thrashing instruments, having 
neither circular rakes nor fanners attached. 
The beaters, 4, 5, or 6 in number, are so placed 
round the drum that their beating edge shall 
radiate from the centre. These strike upon the 
straw, which is passed along a feeding-board 
placed at an inclination of about 30°, tending 
to a point equidistant from the centre and 
upper part of the circumference of the drum. 
The concave describes the third part of a cir- 
cle, and is formed alternately of iron ribs and 
open wire-work in segments, so placed that its 
inner surface may be brought into near contact 
with the edges of the revolving beaters, and 
susceptible of adjustments by screws to in- 
crease or diminish the distance. The usual 
plan is to place it with about | of an inch 
space at the feeding part, and gradually to 
increase the distance to 1^ or 2 inches at the 
lower end, where the straw is delivered upon a 
fixed harp or riddle, through which such part 
of the grain as is not driven through the wired 
part of the concave falls, while the straw is re- 
moved by forks. 



THRASHING-MACHINE. 



THRASHING-MACHINE. 



The thrashing part, commonly called the 
barn work, occupies a space of 6 feet by 4^ 
feet, and, together with the apparatus by which 
motion is communicated (which is made either 
for 2, 3, or 4 horses' power), may at pleasure 
he elevated upon a pair of wheels and axle, 
and thus removed by two horses. 

Many of these machines are made by per- 
sons who possess little claim to any mechanical 
knowledge, and who, purchasing the unfitted 
castings, by the help of village artisans, pro- 
duce an imitation of those which are considered 
good. As the perfection of these machines 
must depend upon mathematical accuracy in 
the adjustment of all their parts, and in the 
truth and precision of their fittings, it is un- 
reasonable to expect that this can be accom- 
plished where no facilities exist beyond the 
forge and the work-bench ; and hence arises a 
degree of discredit, which is unfairly thrown 
upon the principles upon which the machine 
is constructed. 

With these machines, properly constructed, 
barley may be thoroughly thrashed with as 
little or less damage than with the flail, and 
wheat straw need not be so broken as mate- 
rially to diminish its usefulness even for the 
purpose of thatching. We cannot, with Sir 
John Sinclair, reckon the circumstance of 
breaking the straw one of the advantages of 
thrashing by machinery, as we do not think it 
desirable that any slovenly performance of the 
thrashing-machine should trench upon the 
legitimate occupation of the chaff-engine; and 
we repeat our opinion that all disadvantages 
from the above-mentioned causes may, by a 
well-constructed machine and a competent 
manager, be entirely remedied. 

The latest patent which is at present in ope- 
ration is one taken out by Joseph Atkinson, of 
Braham Hall, Yorkshire, which appears to be 
of American origin. The thrashing or beat- 
ing-out process is obtained by means differing 
from any previously mentioned ; the drum be- 
ing surrounded by a series of pegs, so arranged 
as in its motion to pass similar rows of pegs 
placed at intervals in a concave, surrounding 
nearly one-half of the circumference of the 
drum. This machine is not at present so fully 
introduced into England as to afford opportunity 
for fairly testing its comparative merits ; and it 
would be unfair to give, upon slight evidence, 
an opinion which may have any tendency to 
increase the difficulty of the introduction of a 
new article. We can therefore say little more 
than that while such trials as have fallen under 
our own inspection have not convinced us of 
its superiority, we are inclined to the belief 
that the principle is not so defective as to pre- 
vent its being carried out to advantage, under 
such modifications as may be suggested upon 
further trials. 

We have now to draw the attention of our 
readers to a machine in operation upon Lord 
Ducie's example-farm at Whitfield, of which it 
is probable, in a forthcoming report of that in- 
teresting establishment, that a full account, ac- 
companied by the necessary drawings, will be 
given. Through the kindness of the manager, 
John Morton, in accordance with whose sug- 
gestions it was constructed, we have been 
131 



favoured with an opportunity of witnessing its 
performance, and with the following descrip- 
tion, which we give in his own words : — 

"This machine is worked by a steam-engine 
of six horse power. The corn is brought from 
the stack upon wagons running along a tram- 
road upon an inclined plane, to the doors of 
the building, whence, sheaf by sheaf, it is 
thrown by children into the buckets of an ele- 
vator, which, in its rotation, carries them to the 
feeding-board. This feeding-board is placed 
at a tangent from the drum parallel with its 
top ; and, as in Lee's machine, and the portable 
machines in Suffolk and Norfolk, the feeding- 
rollers are dispensed with, an endless web 
gradually carries the unthrashed straw to the 
feeding-mouth, from which the revolving 
scutches rapidly convey it to the concave. 

"The drum and concave, being the part on 
which the separating of the corn or thrashing 
principle depends, we shall first describe: — 
The drum is about 18 inches diameter, formed 
of sheet-iron strained round a cast-iron skeleton 
accurately turned ; upon this the beaters, or 
rather scutches, formed of angle-iron with its 
edges planed, are so placed as to describe an 
angle with the surface of the drum, pointing for 
ward in the direction of its motion ; these project 
about seven-eighths of an inch. The screen 
or concave encloses the drum to the extent of 
about one-third of its circumference, and con- 
sists of 4 or 5 arched pieces of grating, 3 inches 
wide, jointed together. It is made of cast-iron 
bars, having a square section placed so that 
every one shall present an edge to the passage 
of the straw, uniting (as is not uncommon in 
other machines) the fluted concave of the 
Scotch machine with the wired grating of the 
English ones ; the screen is supported on iron 
bolts, so that it approaches to within about one- 
eighth of an inch of the edge of the scutcher. 
Spiral springs surround these bolts, which per- 
mit the bars of the concave to yield when too 
much pressure may at any time occur between 
them and the revolving drum. The grain is 
thus separated, most of it passing through the 
screen of the concave ; but in order that no 
grain shall be allowed to pass away with the 
straw, it is thrown upon the shaker below. 

The motion given to the straw by this shaker 
is the most perfect we can conceive; the blows 
occasioned as each series of spars strike it 
from beneath, effectually remove every particle 
of loose grain, while the shaker rapidly carries 
forward the straw, and at its termination depo- 
sits it in the straw-house, while the corn sifted 
out by its action falls before the blast of a 
fanner (the construction of which is peculiar); 
and all the light grain and short straws thrown 
out by the first winnowing into the light corn 
spout is then taken up by another elevator, 
deposited again upon the feeding-board, and 
passed a second time through the drum, i)i 
order effectually to separate any that may re- 
main. After passing through another win 
nower, the thoroughly cleaned corn is taken 
up by a third elevator, and dropped into a 
hopper, through which it passes into a sack, 
wh'ch is placed on a weighing machine, and it 
is there weighed and left thoroughly fit for 
market. 

1041 



THRASHING-MACHINE. 



THRASHING-MACHINE. 



We have introduced at length the descrip- 
tion of this machine, or rather series of ma- 
chines, as being the most complete of any that 
have fallen within the range of our observa- 
tion ; the most comprehensive in its design, 
performing every operation, from receiving 
the sheaf at the barn-door to depositing its grain 
in a clean stale weighed up in the sacks, and 
excellent in the greater part of its detail, which 
is carried out, both as regards ingenuity and 
workmanship, in a style very superior to the 
general character of agricultural machines. 

With regard to the moving power most ad- 
vantageously connected with the thrashing- 
machine, it may be observed, that where the 
locality admits of the use of a water-wheel, 
this power is most economical and easily ma- 
naged ; but the advantage is limited to peculiar 
situations. 

Where the quantity of work to be performed 
is sufficient to repay the interest of outlay, 
expense of wear and tear, &c., a steam-engine 
would be most advantageously employed on 
the farm. Of its economy, as compared with 
either horse or manual labour, there need be 
no question. But as few farms in England at 
present have these appendages, the question 
for consideration is narrowed to the compa- 
rison between horses and manual labour. On 
the authority of Dr. Gregory, the dynamic 
power of a horse at a dead pull may be calcu- 
lated in the main as equivalent to that of six 
men, or to 420 lbs., if exerted in a direct line ; 
but the result of experiments made by Tred- 
gold tend to prove that sustained effort at the 
rate of three miles per hour must not be calcu- 
lated at more than equivalent to 120 lbs. drawn 
over a pulley. This, taking six hours of labour 
per diem as the utmost he would recommend, 
would be the maximum of useful effect. Under 
the circu mstance of any deviation from a straight 
line, iliis must be materially reduced ; and in 
describing a circle of 18 feet radius, the cramp- 
ed position of the horse will probably prevent 
his power from being advantageously exerted 
to the extent of much more than half. It will, 
therefore, be seen that a very large proportion 
of dynamic effort is wasted ; and this not only 
arises from the constrained position of the 
horse's movement, but from the friction of the 
mill by means of which motion is communi- 
cated to a machine. 

It is affirmed by Emerson that a man of or- 
dinary strength, turning a roller by the handle, 
can act for a whole day against a resistance 
equal to 30 lbs. weight; and if he works 10 
hours a day, he will raise this weight through 
3^ feet in a second, or about 2^ miles per hour. 

Animal power is, however, so varied by the 
character of the exertion, that it is difficult to 
arrive at a correct calculation. The late Ro- 
bertson Buchanan ascertained that in the action 
of working a pump, of turning a winch, of 
ringing a bell, or rowing a boat, the dynamic 
results were respectively as the numbers 100, 
167, 227, and 248. See Strength. 

Having caused a machine with beaters to be 
constructed, '"^orked by 4 men whose force 
should be exerted as in the manner of rowing 
a boat, the results, as compared with a ma- 
chine requiring the force of 4 horses in a circle 
1042 



of 18 feet radius, we found might be taken on 
an average as 5 to 12. It was thought the 
continuous effort might be for an equal length 
of time exerted by 6 men relieving each other 
at intervals, as by the same number of horses 
relieved in the same way. 

We have not yet had opportunity to repeat 
the experiment ; and we instance this only to 
show that, although advantage may be on the 
side of horse-labour for large quantities, ma- 
nual force is not so inapplicable to this object 
as most writers have represented it to be ; and 
we are of opinion that, on small farms, hand- 
machines may with great advantage be used. 
A simple and effective hand thrashing-machine, 
which was exhibited at the Royal Agricultural 
Society's meeting at Liverpool, obtained the 
commendation of the judges (vide their re- 
port). It is worked by 4 men, and the moving 
power being obtained by means of a lever on 
the one side, and by a crank handle on the 
other, the men working it may relieve each 
other by change of motion. It requires one 
man to feed the machine, and the number of 
hands necessary to bring the sheaves and re- 
move the straw will depend upon the distance 
it has to be conveyed. When the straw is 
short, and the wheat of average yield and in 
good condition, it will thrash at the rate of 13 
to 16 bushels per hour. 

In England the cost of the thrashing-ma- 
chines of former days varied considerably, and 
their performances were very unequal. It may 
not be uninteresting to compare them with those 
of the present day. The following are ex- 
tracted from the Agricultural Reports : — 

Thrashing per Day. 

In the reports of Roxburgh and Sel-") „- ,„ ^ ,, 

kirk, in 1796, R. Douglas slates that \r °^ "*" ' 

mills by water, or with 4 horses, j . 

would do great execution. J 

In the report of Norfolk, in 1804, 
Arthur Young gives an account of 
machines which belonged to the fol- 
lowing parties : 

Droziers, Reedham, built by Wigfull, T*^ '^°- w*»fa*- 
cost 120/., worked by 7 persons and-^ «„ ';°- „,, y* 
6 horses. 1^" ''°- "^'^ »' 

L peas. 

Farrow, Shibidham, built by Wigfull, \f^ H' ^.^^^^ 

worked by 7 persons, and by 4, 5,.; ^" ^°- 3«y- 

or 6 horses. ^" '^°- °^'* °' 

[_ peas. 

Beck, Castle Rising, built by Wigfull,"! .32 co. wheat. 

cost 200 guineas, worked by 6 per- >64 co. barley. 

sons, and 4, 5, or 6 horses. J 80 co. peas. 

Whiting, Tring, built by Fordyce,") 24 co. wheat. 

from Scotland, cost 200/., worked >55 co. barley. 

by 6 persons and 6 horses. 3 63 to 84 co. oats. 

Bevan, Riddles worth, engineer from") 40 co. wheal. 

Leith, cost 100/., worked by 10 >-40 co. barley. 

men and 8 horses. j 50 co. oats. 

Coke, Holkham, cost 600/., worked Ic, . . 

by 12 men and 8 horses. T*- <^"' ^^"i*^*- 

Reeves, Heverland, built by Assby,^ 30 co. wheat. 

Blyboro', cost 100 suineasj worked >32 co. barley. 

with 2 or 3 horses. 3 40 co. peas. 

CO. wheat. 
120 CO. barley, 
peas, or oats. 



or from 
150 to 180 busb. 






Styleman, Smithshain, cost 300/ 
worked by 10 persons and 8 horses 

In the report of Kent, R. Boys, in~| 

1805, remarks on the only thrash- | 

ing-mill then in Kent, which, by a I „. . 

numberof improvements, and after (_,, 2"' r,"fo« 

many alterations, he finds to an- 
swer extremely well ; and he states 

that it requires 4 horses and 12 men 

to work it. 
In Sir John .Sinclair's System of Hus-' 

bandry, published in 1812, we find 

an account of R. Kerr's machine, f- 

which, with 6 horses, 4 men, and 4 

women, would tbrasb 



-32 qrs. barley, 
40 qrs. oata. 



50 bolls, or about 
300 bushels of 
wheat. 



THRASHING-MACHINE. 



THRIFT. 



Considerable improvements have since been 
effected. In the statements of the trials of im- 
plements at the Royal English Agricultural So- 
ciety's meeting at Cambridge, in 1841, the 
quantity of wheat thrashed by two four-horse 
portable machines manufactured by J. R. and 
A. Ransome, of Ipswich, and R. Garrett and 
Son, Leiston, was respectively 61 bushels and 
I of a peck, and 61 bushels and 5^ of a peck 
per hour ; and the corn was clean thrashed and 
uninjured. 

This must not be taken as a criterion on 
which to found an average, as it was doubtless 
the result of stimulated exertion ; but it is not 
unusual with machines of this construction, 
with reaped wheat in fair condition, to thrash 
100 CO. or 400 bushels in a day of 10 hours, and 
the same quantity of mown barley. 

It should, however, be observed, that these, 
having neither rakes nor fans, the work of 
which is done by hand, would require 8 men 
and 5 boys, and a change of horses in the day. 

Thrashing-machines are now very generally 
used in the United States, to get out the crops of 
wheat, &c. Before their introduction flails were 
employed in the Northern and Eastern States, 
whilst in the Middle and Southern States, 
treading with horses and cattle was the cus- 
tomary mode of thrashing. The cost by em- 
ploying the flail was generally estimated at 10 
bushels out of every 100, which, when wheat 
was a good price, proved very expensive. The 
employment of horses, though expeditious, is 
very objectionable, the grain being rendered 
gritty and filthy, so as to lessen its value in 
the market. The practice, too, of setting 
horses at suf a hard and peculiar work in hot 
weather proved injurious and often destructive 
to them. 

The notice furnished in this article of the 
successive improvements made in Britain, in 
contrivances for thrashing out grain, will show 
the efibrts there made and the results obtained. 
Ingenuity would seem to have been still more 
actively employed in the same pursuit in the 
United States, where, within a few years past, 
more than 100 patents have been obtained for 
inventions and improvements of the thrashing- 
machine. These have nearly all involved two 
main principles: 1st, a beater consisting of 
bars ; and, 2dly, a cylinder furnished with 
spikes instead of bars. This last may perhaps 
be called the American principXe, par excellence. 
Where bars are used, the machine requires an 
increased velocity equal to 300 revolutions per 
minute, over what is requisite where the cylin- 
der is furnished with spikes. It is for this rea- 
son chiefly, that the spike machines have been 
so much more generally used. It must, how- 
ever, be observed, that where the beater is com- 
posed of bars, the force required to work the 
machine is about one-third less in performing 
the same amount of work. In Eams's patent, 
the bars are of wrought or cast-iron, notched 
on the edges. 

Pitts's Thrasher and Separator is con- 
sidered a machine by which a great saving of 
labour is effected over the ordinary machines, 
the operations of thrashing and cleaning being 
performed at the same time. The bundles are 



fed to the machine at one end, and the clean 
seed, v/ithout a kernel being scattered, taken 
from the other. Its weight is about TOO lbs., 
and it occupies a space about 8 feet by 2 feet 4 
inches. The whole machinery is durable, and 
easily kept in repair. It thrashes and cleans 
all kinds of grain in the best manner, perform- 
ing the work at the rate of from 25 to 50 bushels 
per hour. Four hands are required to tend the 
machine when in operation, viz. — one to for- 
ward the bundles, one to feed, one to measure 
and put the grain into bags, and one to pitch 
the straw away as it comes from the machine. 
It can be easily moved from place to place, and 
attached to any horse power, and can be used 
in the field as well as on the thrashing-floor, 
there being no loss or scattering of grain after 
it is once fed into the machine. The late Judge 
Buel considered this machine as the best adapt- 
ed to the purpose of any he had ever seen. 

Horse Power. — The power almost universally 
employed to propel thrashing-machines in the 
United States is that adapted to horses. These 
are generally of a description which admits of 
transportation along with the machine from 
place to place. They are of two kinds, one 
called the sweep power, in which the horses 
attached pass round in a circle; the other 
called the endless chain or tread power, where the 
horse or horses move as if walking or trotting, 
but in consequence of the rotation of the end- 
less chain of bars on which they are placed, 
always remain in the same place. Mixe's cast 
iron portable siveep power is generally considered 
the best now in use, in the Middle States at least. 
Its weight is from 700 to 1000 lbs., and the price 
$80 for a two-horse, and $90 for a four-horse 
power. 

The endless chain or ti'ead power is coming 
into very general use, being specially adapted 
to farms where there is much barn or shed- 
room, admitting of the thrashing being done 
under shelter; whereas, with the sweep power, 
the operations require the open yard. 

The tread power, called Pitts's, is now in 
high repute. These, as well as all other kinds 
of machinery used in thrashing, are exten- 
sively manufactured in Wilmington, Delaware, 
by Hollinsworth & Co., and may also be had 
of Mr. Chandler, manufacturer of agricultural 
implements, 196 Market street, Philadelphia, 
as also at most of the numerous depots for 
agricultural implements in that and other cities 
in the United States. The price of the one- 
horse endless chain power is $75 ; of the two- 
horse do., $85. It is said that a two-horse 
tread power is equal to a four-horse sweep 
power. 

THREAVE. A quantity of grain, consisting 
of 24 sheaves. It is sometimes written thrave. 

THRIFT {Statice, from statizo, to stop: in 
allusion to the powerful astringency of $ome of 
the species). The species of thrift ought to bt; 
in every garden, on account of their lively little 
flowers. There are three indigenous species 
of thrift or sea-lavender, all perennial, viz : 

1. The common thrift, or sea gilliflower (S. 
Armeria), -which is a common ornament of rus. 
tic gardens, where it serves for edgings of 
flower-beds; nor does this plant suflfer in'tch 

1043 



THRIPS. 



TOAD. 



from the smoke even of London. The flowers 
are numerous, rose-coloured, inodorous. 

2. Blue spiked thrift, or common sea-laven- 
der ("S. limoniutn), which grows plentifully on 
muddy sea-shores, and about the mouths of 
large rivers. The root is woody and tough. 
Leaves leathery, glaucous, usually 2 or 3 
inches long. Panicle of spikes of imbricated, 
upright, fine blue flowers. 

3. Matted thrift (S. reticulata), growing on 
muddy sea-shores, chiefly on the eastern coast 
of England. {Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. ii. p. 115.) 

A kind of American sea-lavender, S. Carolini- 
ana) is described by Nuttall as apparently a 
mere variety of the S. limonium. The flowers 
are of an elegant blue. 

THRIPS. The Thrips, or vine-fretter, as it 
is often called, is a very minute, light-coloured 
or spotted fly, exceedingly active in all its mo- 
tions, and appearing to leap rather than fly. 
They live on the buds, leaves, and flowers of 
plants, being so small as readily to escape 
notice, unless particular attention is directed 
to them. They are generally found by observ- 
ing the efiects of their apparently poisonous 
bites which produce deformities in the leaves 
or blossoms, causing these often to swell or 
curl up. The peach tree occasionally suflers 
severely from their attacks, as well as from 
those of the plant-lice, to which family of insects 
they are allied. (Harris on Destructive Insects.) 

A remedy for thrips will be found, with the 
mode of using it, under the head of jJphis. 

A new disease of the plum tree, occasioned 
by thrips, is described by Dr. Harris, in Ho- 
vey's Horticultural Magazine. 

THYME, GARDEN {Thymus vulgaris, from 
^u/uau courage, being considered a reviver of 
the spirits ; or from d-Ja, to sacrifice, being 
employed as incense). The varieties are, — 
the broad-leaved green, narrow-leaved green, 
variegated, and lemon-scented. The varie- 
gated is grown almost solely on account of its 
ornamental foliage. A poor, light, and dry 
soil is best suited to it. In moist or rich ones, 
it becomes luxuriant, but deficient in its aro- 
matic qualities, and generally perishes during 
the winter. The situation cannot be too open. 

Thyme is propagated both by seed and 
rooted slips. Sowing may be performed from 
the middle of March until about the beginning 
of May. Slips maj' be planted from the begin- 
ning of February until the close of May. 

The seed must be sown neither thin, nor 
raked in more than half an inch below the sur- 
face. It is sometimes sown in drills of a simi- 
lar depth, six inches apart, or as an edging to 
a bed or border. The seedlings must be kept 
clear of weeds, and, if the season is dry, watered 
moderately twice a week. When of about six 
weeks' growth, or when 3 or 4 inches high, 
they require to be thinned to 6 inches apart, 
unless grown as an edging, when they must 
be left thick. Those removed may be pricked 
out to a similar distance, if required. Water 
is required occasionally until they have taken 
foot. The plants may be left in the situations 
they a-e placed in at this season, or be finally 
planted out in September or October, or in the 
early spring of the following year. To obtain 
slips, some old stools may be divided into as 
1044 



many rooted portions as possible, or layers 
may be obtained by loosening the soil around 
them, and pegging the lateral shoots beneath 
the surface. They must be planted out at dis- 
tances similar to those raised from seed, water 
and weeding being similarly required. 

In autumn the decayed stalks should be 
cleared, and a little fresh earth scattered and 
turned in among the stools. 

Although this herb is perennial, yet after 3 
or 4 years it becomes stunted and unproduct- 
ive, consequently requiring to be raised peri- 
odically from seed. For the production of 
seed, some plants should be allowed to run up 
without being gathered from in early summer. 
The seed is ripe during July, and must be cut 
immediately it is so, and laid on a cloth to dry, 
otherwise the first rain will wash it out of the 
seed-vessels. 

THYME, WILD (Thymus). A genus of aro- 
matic, pungent, branched, somewhat shrubby 
plants, belonging to the natural order Labiatce. 
They are often diflfuse in England, and of hum- 
ble growth: in some instances annual. The 
common wild thyme (7'. serpyllum) is plentiful 
almost everywhere, particularly on heaths and 
drv mountainous ground. The odour of the 
plant is gratefully aromatic. Bees are fond of 
the flowers. Whether, as alleged, the quality 
of mutton is improved by the sheep feeding on 
this plant, or on fine, short grasses which usu- 
ally accompany it, is still a matter of great 
doubt. See Basil, Calamint, and Thymk. 

TICKS. See Shkep, Diskasf.s of. 

TILLER. A term applied to the branching 
of the stems of wheat, &c., from the roots. 

TILTH. The condition of the earth after 
ploughing, &c. ; or the state of the soil in 
respect to tillage as relating to manure. 

Timber (Germ, zimmer,- Du. titmnerhout). 
The term used to express every large tree 
squared, or capable of being squared, and fit 
for being employed in house or ship-building. 

TIMBER TREES. See Treks, Plaxta- 
TiONs, and the several indigenous trees, under 
their alphabetical heads. 

TIMOTHY GRASS (^Phlcum pratcnse). See 
Cat's-Tail Gil ass. 

TINE. A tooth or spike placed in any im- 
plement, but especially in the harrow kind. 
See Harhow. 

TOAD (Rana biifo.) A well-known and 
much dreaded, though perfectly innoxious rep- 
tile of the frog genus, which feeds on insects, 
flies, ants, &c. It is preyed upon by owls, 
buzzards, snakes, &c. ; otherwise the toad at- 
tains to a considerable age, some remarkable 
instances of which have been recorded. 

Dr. H. Storer, in some remarks upon reptiles 
furnished by him to Professor Hitchcock, and 
published in the Zoological Survey of Massachu- 
seits, observes: — Great errors also exist with re- 
gard to the order Batrachia. The acrid secretion 
Ibund upon the skin of the Hyla versicolor, the 
toad, and several species of efts and newts, has 
caused them to be considered venomous — 
which is incorrect. Ever)' species of this 
order is inofiensive, and, when better known, 
will undoubtedly be found beneficial to man. 

In some countries, the flesh of the difierent 
Rante, frc^s, is an article of food. With us. 



TOAD-FLAX. 

the nabits of the Bvfo Ameriranus, or common 
toad, are becoming better understood, and the 
horticulturist, instead of destroying, carefully 
preserves it on his grounds, for the benefit it 
affords him, by feeding upon noxious insects. 
In the same way are our springs and wells 
rendered the purer by the presence of the car- 
nivorous salamander. 

TOAD-FLAX. A name applied to two pe- 
rennial species oi Antirrhinum. 1. The creep- 
ing, pale blue toad-flax {A. repens) is a rare 
species, growing on chalky banks or rocks 
near the sea. The herbage is smooth and 
glaucous, stem panicled, leaves linear, scat- 
tered, partly whorled ; flowers sweet-scented. 

2, Common yellow toad-flax (A. linaria), 
which is common about hedges and the bor- 
ders of fields. The leaves are linear-lanceo- 
late, crowded; stems erect; spikes terminal; 
flowers terminal, inodorous. (PI. 10, x,.r.) See 
Flukllix and Snap-Dragox. 

Common linaria is found in the Middle States, 
where it bears the names of toad-flax, butter-and- 
eggs, and Ramstead-weed. It is a foreigner, fre- 
quenting fence-rows and pastures, where it is a 
showy but very obnoxious weed. {Flora Ces- 
trica.) 

TOAD-FLAX, BASTARD. See Bastabd 
Toad-Flax. 

TOBACCO. Botanists have given this well- 
known American plant the generic name of 
Nicotiana, from John Nicot, of Nismes, in Lan- 
guedoc, ambassador from the King of France 
to Portugal, where he procured the seeds from 
a Dutchman who had derived them from Flo- 
rida. The first plant was said to have been 
presented by Nicot to Catharine de Medicis, 
whence the former French name, Hcrbe a la 
Heine, or the queen's plant. The name tobacco, 
which has superseded all others, is an appella- 
tion acquired from the place from whence it 
was originally most generally derived, namely, 
the island of Tobago, in the West Indies. Ac- 
cording to Linnaeus, tobacco was known in 
Europe as early as 1560. It was taken to 
England from the West Indies or Mexico by 
Ralph Lane in 1586, but only the herb for 
smoking, a practice introduced into England 
by Sir Walter Raleigh, who acquired it from 
Captain Lane. In the house in which he lived 
at Islington are his arms on a shield, with a 
tobacco plant on the top. Smoking has conse- 
quently been common in Europe for upwards 
of two centuries. It is a powerful narcotic, 
and also a strong stimulant with respect to the 
whole system, but especially to the stomach 
and intestines, to which, in small doses, it 
proves emetic and purgative. The smoke 
thrown up the anus acts as a glyster: an infu- 
sion of the leaves forms a powerful lotion for 
obstinate ulcers. The decoction, powder, and [ 
smoke of tobacco are used in gardening to de- 
stroy insects, and in agriculture for the same 
purpose, and to cure cutaneous eruptions in 
domestic animals. 

Botanists have identified many different spe- 
cies of tobacco, and Loudon, in his Encydopa- 
dia of Plants, makes the following list of those 
enumerated under the generic head of Nico- 
tiana, with the places from which they were 
derived : — 





TOBACCO. 






Species. 


Common Name. 


Origin and Dale. 


Nicotiana tabacum 


Virginian 


America 


1579 


macrophylla 


Large-leaved 


America 


" 


friiticosa 


Shrubby 


China 


1699 


undulata 


Sweet-scented 


N. S. W. 


1800 


rustica 


Common-green 


America 


1570 


paniculata 


Panicled 


Peru 


1752 


glutinosa 


Clammy 


Peru 


1759 


pliiinbaginifolia 


Curled-leaved 


America 


1816 


pusilla 


Primrose-leaved 


Vera Cruz 


1733 


quadrivalvis 


Four-valved 


N. America 


1811 


nana 


Dwarf. 


N. America 


1823 


Langsdorffli 


Langsdorff's 


Chili 


1819 


cerinthnides 


Honeywort 


" 


1821 


repanda 


Havannah 


Havana 


1823 



In the 4th plate there are representations of 
the species known as Virginia tobacco {Nico- 
tiana tabacum, /), common green tobacco (N. 
rustica, g), Havana repanda (/<), of which the 
fine and fragrant cigars are made; the Qua- 
drivalvis, or four-leaved tobacco (r), and the 
Nana, or dwarf species (k), both of which last 
are used by the Indians of the Rocky Mountains. 

Tobacco is cultivated in Europe as far north 
as Sweden, and is also grown in China, Japan, 
and other eastern and hot countries. The sort 
most generally preferred is the Virginia spe- 
cies, a very beautiful plant. The cl umon 
green kind (N. rustica), is also frequentlj cul- 
tivated, especially in Europe, it being consi- 
dered hardier than the Virginian sort. Parkin- 
son says he has known Sir Walter Raleigh, 
when prisoner in the Tower, prefer it to make 
good tobacco, "which he knew so rightly to 
cure." Tobacco has been successfully culti- 
vated and cured in England, but its growth is 
prohibited as a crop, and it is now only grown 
for curiosity as a border flower, or by garden- 
ers for the destruction of insects. In Germany 
and other northern countries, most families 
who have gardens grow enough of N. rustica 
for their own use ; but as they do not know 
how to cure it properly, it is not much valued, 
and is never made into chewing tobacco or 
snuff, but used for smoking. 

Although tobacco, an annual plant, may be 
brought to maturity in almost every country, 
even in Russia and Sweden, with their tran- 
sient summers, still will the plants, under such 
unfavourable circumstances, be small, and their 
flavour weak. In long, moist, and not very 
warm summers, such as those of Ireland, the 
plants may attain a very large size, but they 
will not have that superior flavour which can 
only be derived from abundance of clear sun- 
shine, and free, dry air. The fragrant tobacco 
of Havana and Luconia may retain pre-emi- 
nence for smoking, but for all other purposes 
the peculiarly high and rich flavour of the to- 
bacco of Maryland, Virginia, and neighbouring 
states must always give it preference, both at 
home and abroad. 

It will be seen from an estimate furnished 
Congress by Mr. Ellsworth, Commissioner of 
Patents, of the agricultural products of the 
United States in 1842, that tobacco, though cul- 
tivated in every State of the Union, constitutes 
a staple crop in comparatively few, namely, 
Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, 
Tennessee and Missouri. The crop of the 
year mentioned, was below the average, and 
in Virginia not over two-thirds of the regular 
crop, being both light and of bad quality, li 
was distributed as follows :— 

4 T 1045 



TOBACCO. 

states. No. of pounds gathered. 

Maine ...... 82 

New Hampshire ... - 290 

Massachusetts 97,297 

Rhode Island 499 

Ck)nnecticut . - - . 630,275 

Vermont ------ 781 

New York ----- 1,086 

New Jersey . . - - - 2,958 
Pennsvlvania - . - - 480,374 

Delaware 401 

Maryland 21,199,696 

Virginia 59,627,369 

North Carolina ... 16,129,474 

South Carolina - - - - 55,654 

Georgia 141,523 

Alabama 264,018 

Mississippi - . - . 145,212 

Louisiana - - . - - 118,146 

Tennessee - - . - 28,289,171 

Kentucky 45,494,083 

Ohio 5,264,766 

Indiana 2,660,408 

Illinois 984,960 

Missouri 12,727,350 

Arkansas 212,266 

Michigan 2,725 

Florida Territory - - . - 86,877 
Wisconsan Territory ... 362 
Iowa Territory - ... - 11,153 
District of Columbia - . - - 65,654 

194,694,891 

Increased attention has been latterly paid to 
the culture of tobacco in Illinois and even in 
some of the New England States. The follow- 
ing statement would seem to show, that, not- 
withstanding the vast amount of tobacco 
raised in the Union for home consumption and 
exportation, there is yet no reasonable ground 
for apprehending an over-stock of the market. 
In a letter of the Secretary of the Treasury 
relative to the amount of home consumption 
and exports of tobacco, with a great variety of 
other particulars, it is stated that the whole 
amount supplied elsewhere than in the United 
States, is about 150,000,000 pounds ; the 
amount of possible consumption of American 
tobacco is put at not less than 1,000,000,000 
pounds. So that were only one-half of this 
quantity actually consumed, it would be four 
times more than our present export, which, in 
value, is only second to that of cotton. 

In almost every country in Europe the most 
vexatious restrictions in the forms of excessive 
duties and imposts are levied upon tobacco. 
In general, the governments, such as France, 
Spain, Italy, &c., take possession of all the 
tobacco imported or raised, and farm or let out 
to great capitalists for immense sums, the pri- 
vileges of vending to manufacturers and re- 
tailers. In this way the cost of tobacco in 
Europe is usually extremely high, and govern- 
ments manage to derive from their subjects 
vast sums of money by exactions in the shape 
of imposts upon the tobacco they consume. 
In France, the revenue thus annually derived, 
is $10,000,000, and all this from a reduced im- 
portation of some 6000 or 7000 hogsheads. It 
would indeed seem to be a favourite object for 
excessive taxation in nearly every government. 
At a great meeting of tobacco planters held in 
May, 1840, it was shown from authentic docu- 
ments, that on an export of 100,000 hogsheads, 
valued here at $7,000,000, a duty was paid by 
the consumers in the various countries of Eu- 
rope, of more than $30,000,000. "As a matter 
of interest to many of our readers," says the 
fditor of the Cultivator, " we copy or condense 
1046 



TOBACCO. 

from the report of that body, the amount of 
tobacco exported to the European countries 
respectively, or the most prominent ones : 



CouDtriei. 


Export of Tobacco id hbds. 


Tax per lb 


Russia 


358 




Holland - 


- 3,300 


13 cts 


Belgium 


- 6,000 


24 ' 


Great Britain 


- 28,772 


72J • 


France 


- 12,000 




Spain 


- 5,700 




Portugal - 


363 




Italian States 


- 2,000 




Austria 


- 4,000 





The remainder of the 100,000 hogsheads is 
distributed through the German States, Sardi- 
nia, Hungary, &c. &c. We have been unable 
to ascertain the precise duties paid in all cases, 
but the enormous rates of those ascertained, 
and the fact that the tobacco import is in most 
of the countries of Europe farmed out for a 
stipulated sum, renders it certain, that while 
none are below what is here named, some of 
the highest much exceed the almost prohibitory 
imposts of Great Britain. A duty of 800 per 
cent., such as England imposes on our tobacco, 
is an anomaly in the history of trade ; and 
which, under all circumstances, may be deemed 
positively unjust." This excessive duty, how- 
ever, is imposed merely for revenue purposes, 
not for protection to agriculture, like the duty 
on wheat; as, excepting a few plants for pri- 
vate use, for medicinal purposes, &c., it is pro- 
hibited to be grown. 

"The culture of tobacco is every year ex- 
tending itself in the Western States, and pro- 
mises to become a most important article of 
export from the rich districts north and south 
of the Ohio. That tobacco can be grown in 
Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, with 
a profit greater than that attending the culture 
of wheat and corn, seems certain ; and we 
doubt not, that as the cultivation progresses, 
and the better methods of curing are adopted, 
the tobacco of the new States will rival in qua- 
lity and celebrity that of the old. The plants 
on new land grow more luxuriantly than on 
soils cultivated for any considerable time ; but 
experience proves that the quality is not so 
fine. The best tobacco in any country is 
grown on lands in good condition, but not ex- 
travagantly rich, or highly manured." 

Many facts connected with the history of the 
first production and exportation of tobacco in 
America are highly interesting. Some of these 
were collected by an intelligent investigator 
a few years ago, from which we extract the 
following. In a letter still extant, of the Go- 
vernor and Council of Virginia, dated James' 
City, January 20, 1622, it is stated, that there 
was not then above 60,000 lbs. of tobacco made 
in the colony. In 1639, however, only 17 
years afterwards, the Grand Assembly passed 
a law which recites, that, " Whereas, the ex- 
cessive quantity of tobacco of late years 
planted in the colony, has debased the quality," 
and enacts, "that all the tobacco planted this 
present year, and the two succeeding years, in 
the colony of Virginia, be absolutely destroyed 
and burned, excepting and reserving so much 
in equal proportion to each planter, as shall 
make in the whole just the quantity of 120,000 
lbs. of tobacco, stripped and smoothed, «&c. In 
consideration whereof, the creditors of the 



TOBACCO. 



TOBACCO. 



planters were compelled to "accept and re- 
ceive 40 lbs. of tobacco so stripped and 
smoothed, in full satisfaction of every 100 lbs. 
now due them." It is not important to ascer- 
tain whether this law was re-enacted at the 
end of the 3 years named in it ; for \t'e find in 
an official report to the commissioners, that the 
yearly exports of tobacco for ten years end- 
ing in 1709, were 28,868,666 lbs., of which 
11,260,659 lbs. were annually consumed in 
Great Britain, and 17,598,007 lbs. in other 
countries of Europe. In 1744 — 1776, the ave- 
rage annual exportation was 40,000,000 lbs., 
of which 7,000,000 lbs. were consumed in 
Great Britain, and 33,000,000 lbs. in other Eu- 
ropean countries. The annual average ex- 
portatidH from 1768 to 1770, both inclusive, 
was 67,780 hhds. of about 100 lbs. each, or 
67,780,000 lbs. As we have now approached 
the period when the exportation of tobacco ar- 
rived at a point from which it has vibrated, 
(sometimes a little above or below it,) we sub- 
join a statement of the exportation for the 
years 1772 — 1775, inclusive, which will fur- 
nish the remarkable fact that (compared with 
any succeeding four years since that period) 
the annual exportation of tobacco just before 
the Revolution, was about the same that it has 
been at any time since, in our most prosperous 
periods. For although 1790 — 1792 were three 
years of very heavy exportations, they fell off 
in 1793 nearly one-half, making the annual 
averaffe exportation not materially different 
from 1772—1775: 

Statement showing the quantity of tobacco export- 
ed from the United Colonies from 1772 to 1775, 
inclusive. 



Years. 


Pounds exported. 


Pounds consumed 
or rematoint; on 
hand in Great 
Britain. 


Pounds consumed 
or remaiiiins on 
hand in other 
countries of Eu- 
rope. 


1772 
1773 
1774 
1775 


97,799,263 
100,472,007 

97,397,252 
101,828,617 


97,791,805 
3,695,564 
18,698,337 
27,623,451 


7,458 
96,776,443 
78,676.915 
74,205,166 


397,497,139 


147,809,157 


249,665,982 



Total exportation for the 4 years, 397,497,139 
lbs., or an annual average of 99,374,785 lbs. 
This brings up to the period of the Revolution. 
The following will exhibit the exportation of 
the article during that period. 

Statement showiyig the quantity of tobacco exported 
from the United Colonies, from 1776 to 1782, 
inclusive. 



Years. 


Pounds exported. 


Pounds consumed 
or remaining on 
hand in Great 
Britain. 


Pounds consumed 

hand in other 
countries of Eu- 
rope. 


1776 
1777 
1778 
1779 
1780 
1781 
1782 


14,498,500 
2,441,214 
11,961,533 
17,155,907 
17,424,267 
13,339,168 
9,828,244 


* 
+ 
7.520,550 
10;982,899 
11,474,791 
7,600,296 
6,364,813 


14,498,500 
2,441,214 

4,440,783 
6,173,008 
5,950,176 
5,738,872 
3,463,431 


86,649,533 


43,943,349 


42,705,984 



♦ This year Great Britain exported to the Continent 
nearly 26,000.000 lbs. of old stock. 

+ Great Britain exported this year to the Continent 
0,000.000 lbs. of former stock. 



Total exportation for the 7 years, 86,649,533 
lbs., or an annual average of 12,378,504 lbs. 
Of the total 7 years' exportation, 33,974,949 lbs 
were captured by the British during the war. 

The following table exhibits the exports of 
tobacco from the United States, for the years 
1787, 1788, 1789, immediately preceding the 
adoption of the present Constitution. 

Statement showing the quantity of tobacco exportea 
from the United States, from 1787 to 1789, in- 
clusive. 



Years. 


Pounds exported. 


Foundti consumed 
or remaining on 
hand in Great 
BriUin. 


Pounds consumed 
or remaining ou 
hand in other 
countries of Eu- 
rope. 


1787 
1788 
1789 


99,041,000 
88,595,000 
88,675,000 


45,379,795 
39,600,404 
48,831,232 


44,661,205 
48,995,186 
39,843,768 


267,311,000 


133,811,431 


133,500,159 



It may be proper to remark, that the weight 
of a hogshead of tobacco is much greater now 
than formerly. Originally, tobacco being less 
compactly pressed, the hogsheads averaged 
only 600 lbs., but they gradually increased, and 
in 1770, reached 1000 lbs. average. At this 
time Kentucky averages about 1300 lbs. per 
hogshead, and the average of all kinds (Ken- 
tucky, Virginia, Maryland, and Ohio) we have 
estimated at 1200 lbs. per hogshead, which we 
believe to be very nearly right. The annual 
average exportation for the last 21 years, from 
1815 to 1835, inclusive, is within a fraction of 
82,760 hogsheads. Taking our estimate of 
1200 lbs. per hogshead to be the true weight, 
we shall thus have 99,313,000 lbs. as the an- 
nual average for the last 21 years; and we 
have seen that the annual average exportation 
for the four years ending in and including 
1775, was 99,374,785 lbs., which establishes 
the remarkable fact, that the exportation of 
leaf tobacco has remained stationary for a 
period of 60 years. 

On a careful examination of the foregoing 
statements, it appears, that when our exports 
of leaf tobacco, for two or three successive 
years, much e.xceed 100,000,000 lbs.; for some 
succeeding years they are proportionably re- 
duced below that standard. It is also evident 
that the revolutionary war gave a check to the 
exportation of leaf tobacco from which it has 
never recovered ; for until that period, as may 
be seen by reference to the preceding state- 
ments, the annual average exportation increased 
regularly and steadik. It was 37,780,000 lbs. 
greater for the years 1763 to 1770, than for the 
years 1744 to 1746; and for the years 1772 to 
1775, it was 31,594,785 lbs. more than the an- 
nual average for the years 1763 to 1770. In 
other words, for the 31 years immediately pre- 
ceding the revolution, our exports of leaf to- 
bacco annually increased very nearly 2,328,000 
lbs., and for the 60 years since that period, it 
has remained stationary, except when inter- 
rupted by wars or other commercial embar- 
rassments. The reason is apparent. Before 
the revolution, all Europe depended on us for 
supplies of the article; but, being cut off from 
the supplies by the war, Europeans turned 
their attention to growing it for themselves, and 

•047 



TOBACCO. 



TOBACCO. 



Statement exhibiting the number of hogsheads of tobacco exported from the United States from 1790 to 
1835, inclusive, and the average price per pound, and g7-oss value from 1802 to 1835, inclusive. Also 
the number of pounds of manufactured tobacco and snuff sxported from 1791 to 1835, inclusive, and 
gross value from 1817 to 1835, inclusive. 



Years. 


No. ofhhds.Leaf 
Tobacco. 


Average price 
per lb. 


Total talue. 


Maaufaclured To- 
bacco — lbs. 


Snuff. 


Value of maaufae- 
tored S'Mff. 


1790* 


11 8,460 T 
101,272 












1791 






81,1221 






1792 


112,428 






117,874 








1793 


59,947 






137,784 








1 17M 


72,958 






19,370 








1795 


61,050 
69,018 


Average price 


Total value of 


20,263 








1796 


per lb. not 


Leaf Tobacco 


29,181 








1797 


58,167 


ascertained. 


ascertained. 


12,805 








1798 


68,567 






142,269 








1799 


96,070 






406,076 








1800 


78,686 
103,758J 






457,713 








ISOl 






472,282 








1S02 


77,721 


He 


$6,220,000 


233,591 




SnufTand 




1803 


86,291 


6 


6,230,000 


152,415 




manufactured 


Value unas- 


1804 


83,341 


51 


6,00O,M0 


298,139 


■ 


Tobacco in- 


certained. 


1805 


71,251 


71 


6,341,000 


428,460 




cluded. 




1806 


83,186 


6i 


6,572,000 


361, 733 








1807f 


62,236 


It 


5,476,000 


274,952 








18081: 


9,576 


71 


838,000 


36,332 








1809 


53,921 


5f 


3,774,000 


350,635 








1810^ 


84,134 


5 


5,048,000 


529,285 








1811 


35,828 


5 


2,150,000 


752,553 








1812 


26,094 


5 


1,514,000 


588,618 








1813 


5,314 


5 


319,000 


283,512 








1814 


3,125 


67 


232,000 


79.377 








181 51T 


85,337 


8 


8,235.000 


1,034,045 








1816 


69,241 


IH 


12,800,(W 


576,246j 








1817 


68,365 


m 


9,230,000 


1,115,874 


5,080 


#281,509 


1818 


84,337 


10 


10,241,341 


1,486,240 


5,513 


373,875 


1819 


69,427 


lOi 


8,874,167 


926,833 


13,710 


237,192 


1820 


83,940 


8 


8,186,188 


593,358 


4,996 


149,.^89 


1821 


66,858 


71 


5,798,045 


1,332,949 


44,552 


149,083 


1822 


83,169 


61 


6,380,020 


1,414,424 


44,602 


157,182 


1823 


99,000 


5i 


6,437,627 


1.987,507 


36.684 


154,955 


1824 


77,883 


5f 


5,059,355 


2,477,990 


45.174 


203,789 


18^ 


75.984 


6J 


5,287,976 


1,871,368 


53,920 


172,353 


1826 


64,098 


6J 


5,347,208 


2,179,774 


61,601 


210,134 


1827 


100,025 


5* 


6,816,146 


2,730,255 


45,812 


239,024 


1828 


96,278 


4* 


5,480,707 


2,637,411 


85,655 


210.747 


1829 


77,131 


H 


5,185,370 


2,619,399 


19,509 


202,390 


1830 


83,810 


5i 


5,833,112 


3,199,151 


29,425 


246,747 


1831 


86,718 


41 


4,892.388 


3,639.856 


27,967 


292,475 


1832 


106,806 


4i 


5.999,769 


3,456,071 


31,175 


295,771 


1833 


83,153 


5J 


4,755,968 


3,790,310 


13,453 


288,973 


1831 


87,979 


6i 


6,.'i95,305 


3,956,.579 


57,826 


328,409 


1835 


94,353 


7i 


8,250,577 


3,817,854 


36,471 


357,611 



* French revolution. 
i Rambouillet decree. 



■(• Berlin and Milan decrees. 
II War with Great Britain. 



t Embargo. 
U Peace. 



have continued to cultivate it all over the con- 
tinent. 

It will be observed that the exportation of 
manufactured tobacco and snuff has increased 
more than 44 fold since 1791, and more than 
3 fold since 1817; but the gross value has not 
proportionably increased, at least since 1817. 

From a review of the subject, as above de- 
tailed, it will be perceived, that, if it were 
in our power to furnish a precise statement of 
the exports of each description of tobacco, and 
the countries to which it was exported (al- 
though very desirable on many accounts), it 
would not furnish satisfactory evidence that 
the consumption of tobacco generally, or of 
any particular description, had increased or di- 
minished in Europe, without knowing what they 
groiv, as well as what we export. We have de- 
voted much labour and attention to this part of 
the subject; but, although we can learn gene- 
rally that the production of it in Europe keeps 
pace with the increased consumption, yet our 
researches have not enabled us to lay before 
you any useful statement, either as to the quan- 
tity or the qualities grown, except for 3 years 
m France, as follows: 
1048 



Statement shotving the quantity of Tobacco grown 
in France for the years 1818 — 1820. 



Years. 


KUograniines. 


t> J, No. of hhds., esti- 

^°'"^'- n,ated at i,200 
lbs. jer hhd. 


1818 
1819 
1820 


7,418,000 
10,360,000 
13,155,000 


18,545,000 
25,900,000 
32,887,500 


15,454 
21,583 
27,406 



This shows an increased production of near- 
ly double in the 3 years. 

It will strike you with surprise, as it did us, 
that the consumption of tobacco has increased 
so much in our own country as to carry off 
the very large surplus grown beyond the foreign 
demand. Formerly, when all the tobacco was 
grown in Virginia and Maryland, we exported 
as much as we do now; and now, in addition 
to those states, which produce nearly, or quite 
as much as they did then, Ohio, Kentucky, and 
Tennessee, together with Connecticut, Penn- 
.sylvania, Indiana, and Missouri, produce as 
much more. We must, therefore, consume 
more than the quantity required foi exportation. 

Remarks. — If the preceding statements may 
be relied on as correct, it appears that there 



Plah- .^ 





KICE, SUGAR, TOBACCO, ETC. 



TOBACCO. 



TOBACCO. 



has been a very surprising increase of the use 
of tobacco in this country, and that the annual 
consumption now amounts to upwards of 
100,000,000 lbs. :— giving about 7 lbs. to every 
man, woman, and child. The sum annually 
paid (ly the consumers of this quantity of to- 
bacco in its manufactured state, has been com- 
puted by a writer in The Portsmouth Journal, at 
§20,000,000. {National Gazette, Philadelphia, 
Oct. 6, 1836. Republished in Farnwr's Register, 
vol. vi. 1838.) 

Culture of Tobacco. — The following concise 
directions for the cultivation and management 
of tobacco are chiefly taken from a communi- 
cation drawn up by Mr. J. F. Edmunds, of 
Mecklenburg, Virginia, and originally pub- 
lished in the Partner's Register. 

Raising the Plants, — The land for the plant- 
bed is usually selected in a warm exposure on 
the south or southeastern side of a hill in a 
wood, new ground being always preferred. 
From this the roots should be grubbed, the rub- 
bish cleared away and the old leaves raked off. 
Brush of pine or other wood is then to be 
piled on until from 2 to 3 feet thick all over the 
bed, and this is to be set on fire. As the beds 
should be prepared for seeding immediately 
after the frost is out of the ground, the brush 
should be collected and put in place some time 
during the winter. Instead of burning over 
the whole bed at once, a part may be fired for 
an hour or so at a time, proceeding thus over 
the entire bed. The place is then to be broken 
up with hoes, and sometimes with coulters 
drawn by horses or oxen, and the work re- 
peated until the earth is made perfectly fine, 
being careful to avoid turning under the sur- 
face. All the roots should then be extracted, 
and the land laid off in beds (slightly elevated 
if dry, and more if moist or wet) 4 feet wide. 
And to 16 square yards, a common pipe-bowl 
of seed is sown. The bed is then trodden or 
pressed with hoes, and well covered with brush 
to protect the plants from frosts. When the 
plants have come fully out, they should be 
slightly manured with strong manure made 
fine ; this should be repeated frequently, and 
in larger quantity, as the plants increase in 
size and are able to bear it. 

When the plants have attained a good size, 
and there is no longer danger of frost, the 
covering of brush is removed, and the bed 
weeded with the hand, those employed in this 
duty taking great care to avoid bruising the 
tender plants. The beds require frequent pick- 
ing to keep down the weeds. 

Preparation and Planting. — The plants will 
be generally ready for removal about the last 
of May or first of June. They are to be drawn 
out after a rain and transplanted in good 
ground previously well prepared for their 
reception. 

Soil and Season. — In Virginia and the other 
states, the best tobacco is grown in rich, light, 
alluvial, loamy land, or such as has been re- 
cently cleared and brought into cultivation. 
Tobacco requires a mild and warm season, and 
can never be worth growing in situations ele- 
vated much above the level of the sea, in 
northern exposures, or in wet and springy land. 

Field Culture. — The land for tobacco should 
132 



be of the best quality, either newly cleared and 
virgin soil, or old ground highly manured and 
well pulverized, or good clover fallow, ploughed 
in the fall, manured and cross-ploughed in the 
spring, just before planting, well harrowed, 
and then laid off with a plough in rows 3, 3^, 
or 4 feet apart each way. Every square thus 
made is to be scraped with the hoe so as to 
form a hill in which one plant is to be set. In 
case the plants die from drought, or are de- 
stroyed by worms, a very common occurrence, 
others must be set in their places. 

Cultivation. — The culture is very much like 
that usually adopted for Indian corn, the plough, 
cultivator and hand-hoe being freely used to 
keep down weeds and loosen the earth. 

It is important to the early growth of the 
plant to plough and work deep once or twice, 
so that when it is ripening, the ground will 
be broken deep and fine. (The coulter is 
preferred for this operation.) This should be 
effected without much interference with the 
roots, as that would check the growth, and pre- 
vent the plant from attaining its proper size. 
And hence the advantage of greater distance 
between the rows than the common distance 
of 3| feet — because the wide rows can be 
ploughed, and worked with less damage to the 
roots. In this, as in all other crops, if we wish 
a good return, " we must speed the plough" and 
hoe, before the roots run out. On our high 
lands we should endeavour, by deep and 
horizontal ploughing, to counteract the bad 
effects of drought. On our flats, we should aim 
to prevent the collection of water by drains dis- 
charged at the lowest point. 

The bed is best for high land, because it 
retains more moisture where it is generally 
needed. The hill, retaining less moisture, is 
best for flat land, where there is commonly a 
superabundance. 

Priming, Topping, Suckering, and Worming,— 
As the tobacco plant grows and developes, a 
blossom-bud puts out from the top, which is 
termed buttoning. This top must be pulled off 
along with such of the upper leaves as are too 
small to be of any value. The plants are thus 
left usually about 2 or 3 feet high. The 
plants also shoot out suckers from every leaf, 
which must be broken off, care being taken not 
to break the leaf from the main stem. This 
causes the leaves to spread. 

The most regular topping is performed by 
measure. The topper carries in his hand a 
measure 6 inches long, by occasionally apply- 
ing which, he can regulate the priming with 
great accuracy ; and as the remaining leave* 
are numbered, this governs the operation, and 
gains the object of even topping. The topper 
should always carry this measure in his 
hand, as it serves to prevent excuses for 
negligence and uneven topping. Prime six 
inches, and top to eight leaves. We have 
found, by experience, that this is the best ave- 
rage height. We sometimes, but seldom, vary 
from this general rule. If the land is poorei 
than common, or if, from the backwardness of 
the plant, and the advanced state of the season, 
we apprehend frost, we do not prime as high ; 
(say 4 inches.) If we have an uncommonly 
rich spot, and there is danger that the top 
4t2 1049 



TOBACCO. 



TOBACCO. 



leaves will come to the ground, we should rise 
in the same proportion. The crop should be 
wormed and suckered, at least once a week. 

Cutting and Housing. — In about 3 months 
after setting out, the plants assume a spotted 
and yellowish appearance, indicating that they 
have attained sufficient maturity for cutting 
and housing. This stage of the tobacco cul- 
ture is generally reckoned the most difficult 
and delicate part of the whole business, and 
the planter, if he wishes to be successful, must 
give it all his attention, as the profit of a whole 
plantation, for the year, greatly depends upon 
the diligence and skilful management exercised 
during the few days of cutting. He should 
therefore be well prepared for this state of the 
crop, by having the barns close, carts and 
wagons in good order, and every thing ar- 
ranged to despatch business as much as pos- 
sible, since it is hard work he has to encounter. 
To save a heavy crop in the best manner 
requires both energy and activity. The most 
judicious hands should be selected for cutters. 
The plants are cut with a knife near the 
ground, and suffered to lie in the sun for a 
few hours, to cause them to " fall" or wilt. 
When the field is a pretty large one, a middling 
or average hand should count the whole num- 
ber of plants he cuts, so that, allowing each 
cutter the same number, we may arrive at 
nearly the whole quantity cut. We should 
never cut more nor less than will fill the con- 
templated barn; otherwise there is labour lost 
in attending to a barn not full, or the overplus 
is injured for want of firing. The tobacco, 
after it has "fallen," or becomes sufficiently 
limber, is carried to the barn in carts or wa- 
gons, being from 6 to 10 plants on a stick, and 
stowed away for firing. It is also of great im- 
portance to be particular in the arrangement 
of the sticks. The equal and general circula- 
tion of heat throughout the house depends on 
the manner in which this is done. Our barns 
commonly have three firing tiers above, and 
three below the joists. We commence ar- 
ranging the sticks on the most elevated tier 
in the roof, to which we give five inches dis- 
tance ; and on each tier, as we descend, we 
gain one inch ; so that on the lowest tier, near- 
est the fire, the sticks are placed eleven inches 
apart. This disposition of the sticks, I have 
ascertained by late experiment, is important. 
The sticks of tobacco being wider apart, next 
o the fires, gives a freer circulation, and, con- 
sequently, a more equal temperature, than the 
usual way of equal distance from bottom to 
top. The heat having more space to ascend, 
must be more equal and generally ditfused, and 
will give a more uniform house of tobacco. I 
esteem this a considerable improvement ; and 
if we have house-room, and make a greater 
difference in the proportionate distance be- 
tween the sticks, it will be a still better arrange- 
ment. 

Curing. — We commence our warming or 
preparing fires, says Mr. Edmunds, the day 
after nousing. We prefer what is commonly 
called the "bed logs" of green, and the "feed- 
ing" of dry or seasoned wood. By this ar- 
rangement the fires are rendered more govern- 
able. The bed logs should be nicely fitted to 
1050 



the barn floor, two lengths to reach across, the 
large ends placed outwards, to guard against 
the tendency of heat to the centre. We keep 
up our warming fires from 36 to 48 hours, the 
i mercury ranging from 100° to 115°. This 
will generally bring the leaf to the drying state; 
the tail, or end of the leaf, now begins to curl 
handsomely , and then the planter must be on the 
alert. If he is careless, and his fires are made 
too hot, the aromatic oil passes off with the sap 
and smoke, and he has a house of red or dark 
inferior tobacco. If his fires are kept too low, 
his tobacco gets into a clammy sweat, and the 
oil escapes. There is much more danger of 
the former than of the latter evil. There is 
more tobacco injured by too much heat than 
by the want of a sufficiency. The fires should 
n9w be kept steady and regular, with a gradual 
increase of heat, so that in 48 hours the mer- 
cury will stand 150° to 160°. It must be kept 
at or about that temperature until the tobacco 
is cured. 

Stripping, Prizing, ^c. — After the plants be- 
come sufficiently dried, known by the stems 
getting hard, which will be in about 2 months 
after housing, the leaves are stripped from the 
stalks. For this operation a moist time in the 
spring or late in winter is chosen, to prevent 
the leaves from crumbling. They are divided 
by select hands into three classes for stripping: 
1st, that which is of the best colour and qua- 
lity; 2dly, that which is somewhat inferior, 
comprising the balance of the leaf; 3dly, 
lugs, or ground leaves. Some planters make 
still more classes, but this requires more at- 
tention and discrimination than can be gene- 
rally bestowed, at least by ordinary hands. 
After sorting, the leaves are neatly tied up in 
bundles called "Aajirfs," consisting of 4 leaves 
in each bundle of the first class, or 6 of the 
second and third classes. The hands are next 
" put down to condition," as the process is 
commonly termed. This consists in putting it 
in large bulks and subjecting it to pressure 
from weights, in which state it undergoes a 
sweat. It must be watched during this pro- 
cess, and as soon as it is observed beginning 
to heat, taken out and hung up to dry. After 
drying thoroughly, it must be again taken down 
and put into bulk, a damp spell being chosen 
so as to prevent the leaves from breaking or 
crumbling. In Mr. Edmunds' instructions he ob- 
serves, that, " at the close of each day's stripping, 
and oftener if the weather is drying, we bulk 
down what has been stripped, being careful to 
pack straight. It is left in this situation until 
we wish to commence prizing, and then hung, 
from 12 to 15 bundles on a smooth stick, and 
hoisted in the barn, the sticks placed 6 inches 
apart, the hoister carrying a measure in his 
hand. It is important to measure, as the order 
will be more uniform. It should remain until 
the stems are perfectly dry; after which it 
should be taken down for prizing, as dry as itjl 
can be handled without breaking. It remains^ 
in this state a few days, until the leaves are 
pressed together, and we have soft weather 
for packing. Each bundle is then carefully 
straightened, repacked, and heavily weighted. 
It is then ready for prizing. We should prize 
in weather when the order of the tobacco will 



TOBACCO. 



TOBACCO. 



not change. Each bundle should be straight, and 
closely packed in hogsheads in the usual way." 
Some very excellent views upon the culture 
and subsequent management of tobacco will 
be found dispersed through the different south- 
ern agricultural periodicals, and especially the 
first volume of the Farmer^s Register. One of 
the communications in this last work, signed 
Frederick Oronoko, is very full of information 
upon every branch of the subject. The writer 
states that two great errors are generally com- 
mitted in topping and priming. On rich land 
the plants are topped too low, which, with 
planting too far apart, causes the leaves to 
grow loo large, coarse, and curly. On such 
lands, instead of making 10 leaves, at least 12 
should be made by topping to about 16, and 
not finishing priming with the topping, but 
commencing again when the four top leaves 
get about half-grown. If the seasons be fa- 
vourable to a rapid growth, some of the high 
top suckers shoula be indulged a while, which 
in a wet summer will prevent the leaves from 
growing coarse. Nothing, he says, is easier 
than to keep down the size of the leaves, and 
prevent them from getting too large, if you will 
only lop high and indulge the suckers to a pro- 
per extent in the early part of the summer, 
when the seasons are favourable to rapid 
growth. Sucker and prime judiciously, as the 
rains subside and dry weather sets in. By 
turning out a superabundance of leaves, it en- 
ables one to speculate on the weather in this 
crop with more certainty than can be done 
with any other. The four top leaves are al- 
ways the richest, if ripe, and of much the best 
and most useful shape. In a plant of 10 leaves, 
he thinks, in general, they are worth more than 
the other six, although the four are not so 
large, and do not usually weigh more than half 
as much as the six. The same rules, he thinks, 
are also applicable to the culture of tobacco on 
thin land, such as can just barely produce a 
crop, although he is opposed to the culture of 
such poor land. One-third to one-half of the 
Virginia crop is made upon such land as does 
not pay for the labour. It is a general im- 
pression that much of the fine, high-priced 
tobacco has been made on poor land. It will, 
he says, "be well to correct this error, as it has 
caused much injury, and great loss of labour, 
and final destruction and death to a great deal 
of thin land, either poor originally, or in the 
last stage of consumption by the Virginia-kill- 
ing mode of cultivation. It is true, however, 
to a notorious degree, that several poor coun- 
ties have of late been very conspicuous, and, 
perhaps, meritoriously celebrated, for making 
fine, high-priced tobacco ; but the fine tobacco 
was not made on poor land, when the land was 
actually poor; it was made on the richest, 
liveliest spots that could be picked out in those 
poor counties. Many of those who have not rich 
land, have resorted to the necessity of picking 
the best spots of thin land with only a meager 
coat of soil, and that coat nearly all composed 
of vegetable matter, scraped into hills, which 
causes them to be tolerably rich, active, and 
productive for one or two years, as this is 
generally new ground. In this way a part of 
the fine, high-priced tobacco has been made, 



but much the greater part has been produced 
by the rich land, with the aid of the art of high 
curing, with but little or no fire." 

Another great error dwelt upon by the same 
writer is that of cutting before the plant gets 
entirely ripe, which is the chief cause why so 
much is defective in flavour, colour, and sub- 
stance; and why so much feels rich and thick 
without being so. The odoriferous qualities 
of most aromatic plants are acquired in great- 
est perfection during the last stages of their 
growth, and some are never fully developed 
till they get through the process of curing, 
which is peculiarly the case with tea, coffee, 
and tobacco. Much of the substance as well 
as weight are therefore sacrificed by premature 
cutting, which also prevents the plant from 
curing with a good, lively, healthy colour. A 
dull, dingy hue will inevitably be the aspect of 
all that is cut green, cure it as you may. Any 
bright colour given to it artificially by the pro- 
cess of curing will fade away. "I hazard no- 
thing in the declaration that every rich plant 
cut in perfection, fully ripe, whether on rich 
or thin land, bottom or high land, may be cured 
of good colour and flavour, that will be lasting 
and delicious to the taste and smell. And al- 
though good colour and flavour constitute the 
chief value, yet no more than about one-tenth 
of the Virginia crop has ever come to market 
with these great advantages. 

" Many incorrect and erroneous opinions 
have gone into circulation respecting colour. 
Impressions have been extensively made in the 
country that yellow is a favourite hue. A 
bright, lively colour is invariably admired by 
the purchasers who give the highest prices. 
But neither brown, red, nor yellow will do. A 
rich mixture of red and yellow on the under 
side of the leaf is desirable ; such a mixture 
as is to be found in fat lightwood, and brilliant, 
rich, bright mahogany. The dull brown and 
dark, dingy colours are very objectionable. 
The next best colour to the favourite one just 
described, is a rich, deep yellowish-green, or 
rather the fat lightwood colour, with a slight 
admixture or tinge of green, but it is so much 
the worse of the green, in the ratio that it con- 
tains that shade, which lessens the fine flavour, 
and detracts from the value. 

" A similar colour, in a faint and feeble de- 
gree, can be given to the poor, thin tobacco, 
and is certainly a handsome dressing for it in 
the new state, and is well calculated to take 
with superficial judges. But as such a dress- 
ing injures the stamina, and increases the fad- 
ing in going through the sweat, either on land 
or at sea, it should never be attempted, as it is 
an injury, and will never take with any com- 
petent judge." 

The dapple, or pieball, is very much admired 
by many purchasers who are esteemed good 
judges, but the writer thinks those variegated 
colours a disadvantage, and the results of either 
too rapid curing, or bruising in pressing. A 
competent judge, he says, had rather have the 
under side of the leaf, stem, and fibres, all of 
one colour, of the fat lighttvood appearance ; am' 
this uniformity in colour proves the maximum, 
and is the best evidence of rich, well-cured 
tobacco, in its highest perfection. 

1051 



TOBACCO. 



TOBACCO. 



The same writer thinks that firing has been 
carried to great excess, very much to the injury 
of tobacco, of late years, both in smoking it too 
much, and parching and curing it too rapidly. 
The smoke is a very objectionable flavour, 
and the excessive parching makes the leaf loo 
crisp, and destroys the valuable elasticity. It 
should be well cured, with as little fire as pos- 
sible. Some cure it very well without fire. 

Several years ago, a great number of plant- 
ers took up the impression, that the purchasers 
were fond of hard-fired tobacco, from the erro- 
neous opinion of some of them, who said they 
liked to smell the effects of fire, because it 
was an evidence that it was well cured ; but 
they have since discovered their error, and no 
one is now fond of the smell of smoke, which 
is a great objection in every market in Europe 
as well as in America. 

The following additional observations rela- 
tive to curing tobacco, are furnished by the 
same authority. 

Sunning the tobacco is very necessary after 
cutting; but it should not be kept in the field 
any longer than to kill and make it sufficiently 
limber for removal to hang on sticks upon a 
scaffold at the tobacco-house, where it should 
hang in open airy order, at first letting in the 
sun well upon the stalks. In this way the butt- 
end of the stalks and big ends of the leaves 
and stems will get a great deal of the sun's 
heat, which they require in curing. And as 
fast as the leaves contract and draw up from 
heal, and in drying, the plants should be moved 
up nearer to each other, in closer and closer 
order, to prevent the lower parts of the leaves 
from being exposed to the sun. 

It v\rould be a great advantage to split the 
stalks, as it facilitates the curing very much. 
They should be split from the top down within 
2 or 3 inches of the cutting point. The plants 
thus split should straddle the sticks, and the 
sticks should range north and south, so that 
the morning's sun will shine on one side of the 
stalks, and the evening's on the other. In this 
manner it should take the sun and open air 
night and day, until it becomes well cured, 
and until the stalks, and stems, and leaves get 
dry. Showers of rain, and even heavy showers, 
in this situation, while the leaf continues green, 
are of little disadvantage ; because they only 
wet a small part, viz.: the under side of the 
leaves, which are now uppermost. Nearly all 
of the rich ingredients are concentrated on the 
upper side of the plants as they stand growing. 

But hot, sultry spells of rainy or very damp 
weather, of many days continuance, will 
mould, mildew, rot, or wash it to destruction, 
particularly after a considerable progress in 
curing. And when the winds come from the 
eastward, preceded by several damp, cloudy 
days, you may count upon a long spell, and 
then you should commence housing before the 
rain sets in, or much falls; and use fire as the 
weather may require. 

The firing should be in close houses ; the 
closer the better. And the more windows, the 
b'Mter, all with tight shutters, to shut out the 
damp in long wet spells, and let it in when 
ranted to bring the tobacco in order. No to- 



bacco can be finally well cured without coming 
and going frequently. You cannot have any 
command of your tobacco as regards weather, 
without close, tight houses, which are of very 
great-importance. 

Five fires dispersed are enough for a room 
20 feet square ; and they should not be large, 
but burn free, steady, and gradual, and would 
be the better of never going entirely out, if you 
intend curing by this destructive mode. But 
why make fires in the house at all! As 
smoke is now so very objectionable, why not 
do the little firing that may be necessary in 
very long wet or damp spells, to prevent mould, 
mildews, &c., in the manner that plank is 
steamed and dried at saw-mills? — by stoves, 
or by running a ditch or two through the house, 
and covering this with flat slabs of rock, or 
arching it over with brick, and making the fire 
at one end, out of doors. The heat and smoke 
thus procured will be enough in a close house, 
with the windows all shut, to prevent mould, 
mildew, &c. 

Those who cure without firing, or with as 
little as possible, let it remain after it turns 
yellow until the stalks and stems as well as the 
leaves get dry, in the open air and sun, if 
the weather permits, or in the house by the aid 
of fire, if necessary. But if the stalks, stems, 
and leaves get dry before the leaves get suffi- 
ciently yellow, let the tobacco hang until it be- 
comes very high indeed from wet or damp wea- 
ther, and bulk it in this damp, soft, high order, in 
very large bulks, in a very close room, and cover 
well with straw, &c., with heavy weights on 
the top, and let it remain till it gets warm ; ex- 
amine it every three to four hours night and 
day, and as soon as it yellows sufficiently, 
hang it up in the house, if the weather be wet 
or very damp, and fire it moderately and gra- 
dually until dry. 

The best kinds of woods to use are those 
which make the most heat and weakest smoke. 
The kinds best for smoking bacon are the worst 
for firing tobacco, since the smoke flavour has 
become objectionable. 

Another correspondent of the Farmer's Re- 
gister shows, by observations of the thermome- 
ter, the precise degrees of heat to which the 
tobacco is subjected in the different stages of 
firing. He has also furnished valuable in- 
formation in relation to other points connected 
with the curing process. In warm weather, 
says this writer, we hang from 8 large plants 
to 10 small ones on each stick ; the sticks 
should be carried immediately into the house, 
and placed 8 or 9 inches apart. The sticks 
having been regularly arranged throughout the 
house, the process of curing then comes on. 

My practice for several years, with but little 
variation, has been to regulate the sticks, the 
day after cutting and next morning. Com- 
mence with small fires, so as to raise the ther- 
mometer to 90° ; this heat should be continued 
from 36 to 48 hours, which we call the warm- 
ing or preparatory fire: (the small yellow 
tobacco, when cut, requiring a shorter prepara- 
tion than large, thick, green tobacco;) the heai 
should then be raised gradually 10°, and con- 
tinued 4 or 5 hours — thus continuing to raise 



TOBACCO. 



TOBACCO. 



the heat throughout the whole process 10° 
every 4 or 5 hours, until the thermometer 
reaches 150°, which is called a curing heat. 
The continuation of this heat depends much 
on the state of the atmosphere, as well as on 
the size of the plant : it should, however be 
continued until the whole plant is thoroughly 
cured. As soon, then, as the tobacco comes in 
order to handle, you may remove it to some 
other house, hanging it as thick as you can 
conveniently press the sticks together, where 
it will remain in perfect security until you are 
ready for stripping. 

In the month of November you may safely 
begin to strip ; and much care should be used 
in making the ditferent qualities, as well as 
tying the different bundles; the "tie leaf" 
should be stemmed, which looks much better 
than to have one-half of the leaf hanging 
down the bundle. A good hand will tie from 
700 to 1000 bundles in the day The tobacco 
stripped during the day, can be easily packed 
down in bulk at night, on a platform raised 18 
or 20 inches from the iioor, where it may re- 
main until winter is nearly over, when it must 
be rehung in order to get it in prizing order. 

Much depends on the order for prizing. The 
stem must be perfectly dry : never strike or 
take down tobacco for prizing, unless the wind 
is at some southern point ; and it should be 
taken down as dry as you can possibly handle 
without very much breaking it. When down, 
it should be well covered with fodder or leaves ; 
if the "season" continues, you may pack it in 
bulk as straight as possible for prizing ; the 
hogshead weighing from 16 to 18 cwt. The 
following are a few extracts from notes taken 
last summer during the curing season. 

" 15th Sept. 1833. First barn — tobacco very 
ripe — weather hot and dry — cut Friday — com- 
menced firing Monday morning — thermometer 
90° at 9 o'clock — 12 o'clock 106° — process too 
rapid — half past 3 o'clock, 110° — fired all night 
—Tuesday 9 o'clock, 120°— 3 o'clock 150°— 
fired all night — Wednesday 150° — fired all 
night— Thursday 150°— Friday 150°— fires 
kept up irregularly, and stopped in the evening, 
High wind each day — thermometer at back 
side of the house." When this tobacco came 
in order to be examined, I discovered that a 
small portion was somewhat injured by the 
fires being too strong in the commencement, 
as seen above. 

"16th Sept. 1833. Second barn — tobacco 
ripe — but not very ripe — weather hot and dry — 
cut Saturday — commenced firing Monday — 
smoked all day at 90° — Tuesday the same half 
day — Tuesday evening thermometer 100° — 
Wednesday morning leaf half cured on the 
lower tier — heat 140° — fired half night — Thurs- 
day 146°— Friday 146°— fired half night— hand- 
somely cured — thermometer 3 feet from the 
door and 5 feet high — windy each day. 

" 22d Sept. Third barn — dry weather — cut 
Saturday — not very ripe — commenced firing 
Monday morning 90° — continued all night at 
same — Tuesday 9 o'clock 110° — tails curling — 
tobacco looks very well — Wednesday 120° at 
9 o'clock — lower tier leaf nearly cured — Thurs- 
day 150®— fired all night— Friday 1 60°— fired 



till bedtime." This house, on examination, 
was very well cured. 

I forgot to mention in the proper place that 
my barns are made as tight and close as pos- 
sible. I do not, however, think that the roof 
should be very close; my barns are covered 
with oak boards, and are generally open enough 
to let off the smoke and vapour as fast as they 
are formed. Some of my neighbours have win- 
dows made just under the comb of the house. 

As the essential properties of the tobacco 
plant are very volatile, the writer maintains 
that the sooner it is well cured and pressed into 
hogsheads the better, and the hogshead cannot 
be too tight. If the crop comes in early, so as 
to admit of being cured in autumn, it will be 
all the better. It should not, if possible, be al- 
lowed to remain out of the hogsheads all winter. 
He tells the planters of Virginia not to fear that 
they will ever overstock the world with fine 
tobacco, and thereby reduce the price. The 
finer it is made, the less will be made in Eu- 
rope and other countries not so favourable to 
the perfection of its qualities. The low, dull 
state of the markets for common and inferior 
tobacco, is not the result of too much, but a 
consequence of its indifferent quality, which 
causes it to be little if any better than that 
which is made on the continent of Europe, 
with which it comes in competition. 

In Maryland and Virginia it is estimated 
that one good hand can manage 6000 plants, 
which, allowing a yard to each, would cover 
about an acre and a quarter. A hogshead 
weighing 1350 lbs. (some weigh 1800) is con- 
sidered a good yield for one hand. On the fine 
rich lands of Kentucky, from 1000 to 1500 lbs. 
are raised per acre. In Virginia the leaves of 
4 good plants are estimated to make 1 lb. of 
cured tobacco. 

Some of the diseases, accidents, and ene- 
mies to which tobacco is exposed, are, in the 
language of the planter, worm-holes, ripe-shot 
or sun-burnt, moon-burnt, stunted, torn by 
storms of hail and wind, injured or killed by 
frost, house-burnt. 

ToBAcro, Chemistry iff. Under the head of 
Ammonia it has been observed that the juice of 
fresh tobacco leaves contains ammoniacal 
salts. The existence of the volatile alkali in 
cured tobacco, is shown by the action of the 
smoke of a cigar upon blue vegetable flowers, 
or vegetable colours, turning the reds to purple, 
and the purples to green. 

When the leaves of the tobacco plant are 
subjected to distillation with water, a weak 
ammoniacal liquid is obtained, upon which a 
white, fatty, crystallizable substance swims, 
which does not contain nitrogen, and is quite 
destitute of smell. But when the same plant, 
after being dried, is moistened with water, tied 
together in small bundles, and placed in heaps, 
a peculiar process of decomposition takes 
place. Fermentation commences, and is ac- 
companied by the absorption of oxygen ; the 
leaves now become warm and emit the cha- 
racteristic smell of prepared tobacco and snuff. 
When the fermentation is carefully promoted 
and too high a heat avoided, this smell in- 
creases and becomes more delicate ; and after 

1053 



TOBACCO. 

the fermentation is completed, an oily, azotized; 
volatile matter called nicotine is found in the 
leaves. This substance, nicotine, which pos- 
sesses all the properties of a base, was not 
present before the fermentation. The different 
kinds of tobacco are distinguished from one an- 
other, like wines, by having very different odo- 
riferous substances, which are generated along 
with the nicotine. 

On a soil which contains potash, both wheat 
and tobacco may be reared in succession, be- 
cause the latter plant does not require so much 
of tile phosphates, salts which are invariably de- 
manded largely in wheat, but requires only al- 
kalies, and food containing nitrogen. 

According to the analysis of Posselt and Rei- 
mann, 10,000 parts of the leaves of the tobacco 
plant contain 16 parts of phosphate of lime, 
S-8 parts of silica, and no magnesia; whilst an 
equal quantity of wheat straw contains 47-3 
parts, and the same quantity of the grain of 
wheat 99-45 parts of phosphates. 

Now, if we suppose that the grain of wheat 
is equal to half the weight of its straw, then the 
quantity of phosphates extracted from a soil by 
the same weights of wheat and tobacco must be 
as 97-7 : 16. This difference is very considera- 
ble. The roots of tobacco, as well as those of 
wheat, extract the phosphates contained in the 
soil, but they restore them again, because they 
are not essentially necessary to the develope- 
rnent of the plant. {Liebig's Organic Chemistry.) 

Tobacco is a plant that contains much mineral 
matter. An acre yielding 800 lbs. would con- 
tain about 160 lbs. of mineral matter, most or 
all of which is carried off from the soil. Hence 
th.^ exhaustion of land from this crop is greater 
than that from grain ctoy>s, provided their straw 
be. f/iih/ returned to the fields, as in this case the 
loss would be confined to the phosphates and 
other mineral matters removed with the grain, 
which in a four years' rotation would amount to 
only about 83 lbs. per acre, instead of about 600 
lbs. carried off by the tobacco in the same time. 
The following analysis furnished by Professor 
J. F. W. Johnston of the ashes of tobacco leaves, 
gives the mineral constituents, with their pro- 
portions per cent : 

Potash 12-14 

Soda 0-07 

Lime 45-90 

Magnesia 13-09 

Chloride of sodium (common salt) . 3-49 

Chloride of potassium .... 3-98 

Phosphate of iron ....*.. 5-48 

Phosphate of lime 1-49 

Sulphate of lime fgypsum) . . . 6-35 

Silica (sand or flint) 8-01 

From this view of the mineral constituents of 
tobacco, the soil most favourable to its growth 
may be readily recognised. The proportions of 
the several articles removed by every 100 lbs. 
is not difficult to estimate, with the additions of 
the special manures required to prevent the 
exhaustion of the soil. Among these it will be 
observed, the largest amounts are lime, magne- 
sia, potash, iron, and silica. 

Some successful results are reported in the 
Albany Cultivator, of the culture of tobacco in 
Massachusetts. The variety produced there is 
called the " Connecticut Seed-leaf," and it usually 
brings double the price, and sometimes even 
nore, of Virginia and Kentucky tobacco. For 
1054 



TORMENTIL. 



a profitable crop, rich land is necessary, thoug 
sandy soils manured at the rate of 10 or 20 two 
horse-loads per acre, will produce well. With 
good management, the yield is from 1500 to 
2000 lbs. per acre, of marketable tobacco, capa- 
ble of bringing an average price of 8 cts. 

The Massachusetts growers believe that, wit^^ 
proper attention, instead of injuring the soil, to-- 
bacco may be made an ameliorating or improving 
crop, the liberal manuring required favouring thei 
after crops ; wheat and other grain, and also gras$ 
crops, flourishing better when tobacco forms ai 
part of the rotation, than where it does not. 
Where $36 worth of manure was put upon ]. 
acre and 100 rods, a ton of tobacco was raised, 
worth $160. The same piece of land, sown' 
immediately afterwards in wheat, yielded 30* 
bushels. The following crop being grass, pro- 
duced 4 tons of hay at two cuttings. One farmer 
in South Hadley had 17 acres planted in tobacco. 

A long and instructive account of the mode 
of cultivating tobacco in Cuba is given in the 
Report of the Commissioner of Patents for 1847. 

TOMATO, or LOVE-APPLE. {Solyjinm 
lycopersicum ; Lycopersictivi esculatum.) Several 
varieties of this plant are found in our gardens and 
fields, some of which are red and others yellow ; 
among the reds are, 1st, the common large; 2d, 
the small; 3d, the pear-shaped; 4th, the cherry- 
shaped. Of the yellow there are, 1st, the large 
yellow; 2d, the small or cherry-yellow. 

The tomato is a native of South America. 
It forms a rich vegetable sauce, and an excel- 
lent addition to soups. With sugar it makes 
a very valuable preserve. In the Middle or 
Northern States, the seed may be sown in April, 
in a hot-bed ; or in May, in a warm situ- 
ation, and transplanted as soon as the season 
will admit. A middling soil produces more 
fruit and less vines than a very rich soil. 

Tomatoes remaining on the vines late in the 
season, and which, if left out, would be destroyed 
by frost, may be preserved for many weeks by 
simply pulling up the vines and hanging them 
up, with the fruit upon them, in some house or 
sheltered situation. Those not ripe when the 
vines are pulled mature afterwards. 

Cows are said to thrive well and give an in- 
creased quantity of milk of improved quality 
when fed upon tomatoes. They may not take 
them kindly at first, but are said to grow fond 
of them soon. 

TOMENTOSE. In botany, means covered 
with dense, close, white hairs, or down. 

TOP-DRESSING. A term applied to such 
manures as are laid upon land without being 
turned in : and also to the practice of dressing 
the surface of grass land, or other crops, with 
some kinds of highly reduced manure, that can 
be evenly spread out or sown equally over them 
by the hand. 

A great variety of substances are in use for 
this purpose, such as soot, ashes, guano, and the 
dung of pigeons and other birds, rape dust, lime, 
gypsum, &c., the benefits of which are noticed 
under their respective heads. 

TORMENTIL (Tormentilla, alluding to a sup- 
posed efficacy in toothache, as well as to a belief 
that it could cure diseases of the bowels). The 
British species are two; both perennial. They 
are now regarded as belonging to the genus 
Potentilla, and the natural order RosanetB. 

1. In England common tormentil or sept-foil 
(P. officinalis or torme?Uilla) grows in barren pas- 



^ 



TOUCH-ME-NOT. 



TREES. 



tures, heaths, and bushy places. The stem is 
slender, ascending, branched. The woody red 
roots are so astringent as to be used in the 
western isles of Scotland for tanning leather, 
for which purpose they are superior even to 
oak bark. The root is likewise one of the most 
efficacious of English indigenous aromatic as- 
tringents, and may be used with great effect in 
cases where medicines of this class are proper ; 
namely, in chronic purgings. It is usually 
given in decoction, but is best administered in 
powder. 

2. Trailing tormentil {T.replans). This spe- 
cies grows sparingly about the borders of fields 
and hedges. The stems are 2 feet long, hairy, 
prostrate, but not creeping ; the leaves com- 
posed of 5 leaflets, obovate, strongly serrated, 
bright green, on long hairy footstalks. Flower 
of a full yellow, twice the size of the foregoing. 
Stipules undivided. It is also astringent, but 
less so than its congener. 

TOUCH-ME-NOT. See Balsam. 

TOWER-MUSTARD {Turritis, from turris, 
a tower; the foliage is so disposed on the stems 
as to give them a pyramidal form, and for the 
same reason the plants are called tower-mus- 
tard). The species are hardy annuals : one, 
the smooth tower-mustard (T. glabra), is indi- 
genous, and grows wild on banks and by road- 
sides, in a dry gravelly soil. The flowers are 
numerous, closely corymbose, pale sulphur- 
coloured. Pods very long and slender, on 
short stalks. Seeds about 60 in each cell, very 
small. 

TRACTION. See Cahts, Horse, Roap, 
Strkngth, &c. The reader may also consult 
a very able essay "On Draught" in Professor 
Youatt's work on The Horse, of which our space 
will not allow us to give even an outline. 

TRANSPLANTING. The act of removing 
either cuttings, layers, roots, or entire plants, 
from one soil into another. See Plaxting and 
Propagation. 

TRAPA NATANS. This plant grows in 
ponds, and is eaten like the chestnut. The 
canal of Versailles is covered with the plant, 
and the root is sometimes served up at table. 

TRAVELLER'S JOY. See Clematis. 

TREACLE- MUSTARD (Erysimum, from 
erion, to draw and cure : it is popularly reck- 
oned a cure for a sore throat, and is also said 
to draw and produce blisters). An extensive 
genus of plants, possessing warm and pungent 
qualities. The leaves are simple, often lanceo- 
late, and nearly entire. Flowers corymbose, 
yellow, sulphur-coloured, or white. Pods in 
very long upright clusters. There are in Eng- 
land three indigenous annual species. I. The 
worm-seed treacle-mustard (E. cherianlhoides) : 
2. The garlic treacle-mustard (E. alUaria), 
known also under the local names of Jack-by- 
the-hedge, or sauce-alone. 3. Hare's-ear trea- 
cle-mustard {E. orientale). The second is the 
most common. The whole herb is smooth, 
shining, deep green, and exhales, when bruised, 
the smell of garlic; and the seeds are stronger 
than the other parts of the plant. The stem is 
a foot high, somewhat branched. The leaves 
stalked, cordate, acute, veiny, and broadly ser- 
rated. The flowers are white. The pods erect, 
smooth, on a spreading stalk. The peasantry 



eat the young leaves with bread and butter. 
See Hedge Mustard. 

TREES are divided naturally into two prin- 
cipal classes, namely, fruit and timber trees: 
the former includes all such as are raised 
chiefly, or entirely, for their edible fruit, an ac- 
count of which, together with their modes of 
cultivation, the reader will find in alphabetical 
order, and also in the articles Fruit, Orchard, 
Pruning, &c. 

The second division comprehends those 
trees, the wood of which is employed in ship- 
building, machinery, or for other useful pur- 
poses, such as the oak, elm, larch, &c., the 
culture of which has been discussed under 
those respective heads. For the diseases of 
trees, see American Blight, Canker, Mil- 
dew, &c. 

By timber, in English law, is intended only 
such trees as are considered fit and proper by 
the custom of the country to be employed in 
building or repairing houses ; and timber trees 
are those which are of 20 years' growth. The 
custom of the country naturally varies with re- 
gard to the kind of trees which are considered 
to be timber. The oak, the elm, and the ash are 
universally deemed to be such: beech is con- 
sidered so in Buckinghamshire, birch in York- 
shire, because it is generally used for buildings 
of an inferior kind. Thus the chestnut, wal- 
nut, lime, and others may, under similar cus- 
toms, be considered timber. If pollards are 
sound, it seems that they must be considered 
as timber: this was the opinion of Chancellor 
King. 

According to English common law, the 
property of the tree is in the owner of the soil 
on which it grows ; and though its roots may 
extend into two estates, yet it belongs to the 
owner of the land on which it was originally 
planted or sown. Nurseries of young fruit 
trees, raised for filling up orchards, cannot be 
removed by the tenant, but a nurseryman may 
do so. 

The tenant for life, without impeachment of 
waste, of an estate, may cut down timber in a 
husbandlike manner. But the Court of Chan- 
cery will restrain such tenant from cutting 
down underwood of an insufficient growth, or 
ornamental or sheltering trees. But this shel- 
ter or ornament is not to be construed to mean 
extensive woods. 

By custom, but not by common law, the trees 
growing on a copyhold estate may belong to 
the lord. The copyholder is not guilty of 
waste if he cut timber merely for necessary 
repairs. Timber trees growing on the estates 
of ecclesiastical corporations are to be devoted 
to the repair of the church. And consequently 
neither they nor their lessee can fell timber for 
their own use. Neither can a mortgagor cut 
down timber if the land without it is a scanty 
security. But the Court of Chancery will not 
restrain a mortgagor from cutting timber, 
unless the security is insuflScient without it. 
Though the timber of the estate belongs to the 
landlord, and also such trees as are likely to 
become timber, yet the general property in 
bushes and trees not timber is in the tenant, 
and, therefore, the landlord cannot maintain an 
action of trespass against a stranger, for cul- 

1055 



TREFALLOW. 



TUCKAHOE. 



ting bushes and thorns growing in a hedge, if 
the tenant afterwards assented. The tenant or 
lessee has no right to cut timber; and in an 
action for waste the defendant cannot give in 
evidence, even in mitigation of damages, that 
the timber was cut for the purpose of neces- 
sary repairs ; or, that after it was cut the tim- 
ber was exchanged with the lessor's consent 
for timber more fit for the purpose intended. 
But he may cut timber without waste which 
has been cut within 20 years ; and in Kent they 
are in the habit of culling trees of 26 or 28 
years' growth. Windfalls belong to the lord, 
and the Court of Chancery will, if necessary, 
order it to be preserved for him who has the 
first estate of inheritance in the land. See 
Bahic, Forests, Nursery, Timber, &c. 

TREFALLOW. A local term, signifying to 
plough land the third time before sowing. 

TREFOIL {Trifolkim, from tres, three, and 
folium, a leaf. All the species have trifoliate 
leaves. The French call it trejie, and the Eng- 
lish trefoil, or clover). An extensive and well- 
known genus of herbaceous plants, natives of 
cold or temperate climates, either perennial or 
annual. Many of the species are highly im- 
portant as food for cattle, either fresh or in the 
state of hay, often acquiring a fragrant scent 
in drying. The white, red, and yellow clover 
are amongst the most valuable herbage plants 
adopted in European agriculture. 

Lucern has been recommended as superior 
to clover and sainfoin, and various other legu- 
minous plants have been highly extolled ; yet 
the red clover fot mowing, and the while for 
pasturage, far excel all other plants in these 
respects. All the species thrive in common 
garden soil, and many of them being very 
showy are well suited for ornamenting the 
flower border. The perennial kinds are rea- 
dily increased by dividing the plants at the 
roots in spring, or by seeds. See Bird's-Foot 
Trefoil, Clover, and Melilot. 

TREFOIL, THE MARSH. See Buck-Bean. 
TRENCH PLOUGH. See Plough. 
TRENCHING. See Subsoil Ploughing. 
TRIFOLIUM INCARNATUM. A well- 
known and much esteemed species of trefoil. 
See Clover and Trefoil. 

TRITICUM. See Wheat-Grass. 
TRUFFLE (Tuber cibarium). A round fun- 
guf growing under ground in many parts of 
Southern Europe, destitute of roots and leafy 
appendages. It absorbs nutriment at every 
point on its surface. The truffle is composed 
of globular vesicles, destined for the reproduc- 
tion of the vegetable, and short, barren fila- 
ments, called by Turpin tigellides; and the re- 
productive bodies, trvfimllcs. Each globular 
vesicle is fitted to give origin to a multitude of 
reproductive bodies, but a few of them only 
perfect the young vegetable. The parent dies; 
the trufinelles are nourished by its dissolving 
substance, and the cavity it originally filled 
becomes the abode of a multitude of young 
truflles; but many of them die, the stronger 
starving the weaker. As truffles spread over 
a large space, it is difficult to say by what 
means they progress. The truffle is one of the 
most wholesome and nutritive of the esculent 
fungi, and is generally discovered by means of 
1056 



dogs, which are taught to scent it ; so that, on 
smelling the truffle, they bark and scratch it 
up. Truffles are highly esteemed at the tables 
of the luxurious, where they are served up, 
either roasted in a fresh state like potatoes, or 
they are dried, shred, and dressed as ingredi- 
ents in soups and ragouts. See Tuckahoe. 

TRUSS. A bundle of hay, straw, &c. It 
may be observed that in England a truss of 
hay must contain 56 lbs. or half a cvvl. ; a truss 
of straw 36 lbs. : 36 trusses make a load. In 
June, July, and August, a truss of new hay 
must weigh 60 lbs. See Hat and Straw. 

TUCKAHOE. This curious vegetable is 
sometimes known by the name oC Inrlian bread, 
or Indian loaf. It is found in the Southern 
States on the Atlantic, and even as far north as 
Kent county, Del. It is a natural production, 
the origin of which has greatly perplexed na- 
turalists, as it is commonly found several feet 
under the surface, and, like the truffle of Eu- 
rope, has apparently no stem or leafy appendage 
connecting it with the external atmosphere. 
They are generally found through the instru- 
mentality of hogs, whose acute sense of smell- 
ing enables them to fix upon the spot where 
they lie buried. They are usually of a glo- 
bular or flattened oval shape, and rather regu- 
lar surface, the large ones resembling some- 
what a brown loaf of coarse bread. The size 
varies from that of an acorn to the bigness of 
a man's head. Clayton, the celebrated bota- 
nist, was the first naturalist who has mentioned 
the Tuckahoe. He gave it the Latin name of 
Lympcrdon solidn, (See his Flora Vitginira.) In 
May, 1817, Dr. Macbride, of Charleston, S. C, 
communicated a memoir on the subject to the 
New York Philosophical Society. Although 
the tuckahoe is quite common in the Southern 
and one or two of the Middle States, its natu- 
ral history is still involved in much obscurity. 
Its name in the Indian language is said to de- 
signate bread, and is applied to certain edible 
roots. Though sometimes found emerging 
from the earth and exposing a small part of 
the surface, it is generally met with 2 or 3 feet 
below the soil. When first dug up, it is soft 
enough to be easily cut with a knife, and of an 
acrid taste. Its colour internally is v/hite, like 
that of the meat of the cocoa-nut, and its tex- 
ture compact and homogeneous. It is covered 
with a tough substance, strongly adhering to 
the while parenchyma, of a dark brown colour, 
and somewhat wrinkled. When dried, the in- 
ternal substance becomes hard and loses its 
acrimony, possessing very little taste or smell, 
and capable of being reduced to powder with- 
out difficulty. When examined by the mi- 
croscope, the tuckahoe exhibits no fibres or 
pores or any other indications of organization, 
so easily detected in roots and other vegetable 
productions of ordinary growth. lis substance 
breaks as easily in one way as another, like a 
lump of starch or chalk. From these charac- 
teristics, together with the peculiar nature of 
the bark or external covering, it has been 
classed among the fungus tribe. In those parts 
of the country, however, where the tuckahoe 
most abounds, it is generally supposed to be 
the root of a species of Convolvulus (Pandura^ 
tus), called " the man of the earth." But both 



TULL, JETHRO. 

Dn Macbride and Mr. La Conte, after much 
attentive examination in its native slate, are 
decidedly of the contrary opinion, the roots of 
the Convolvulus being unlike those of the tucka- 
hoe. Most of the southern botanists regard it 
as a fungus. (See Medical Reposilory, vol. vi.) 
See Truffle. 

TULIP (Tulipa). A genus of celebrated 
and much-prized florists' flowers. They suc- 
ceed well in rich loam and sand, and are in- 
creased by off"sets ; new varieties are obtained 
from seed. The choicer kinds require to be 
taken up and dried after they have ceased flow- 
ering, and planted again in the autumn. They 
should be slightly protected in very rainy or 
frosty weather, as they are very liable to rot. 
One species, the wild tulip (T. gylveslris), is in- 
digenous to England, growing about old chalk- 
pits. It bears sweet-scented, bright-yellow, 
somewhat drooping flowers in April. Although 
the Tvlipomania, which rose to such an absurd 
height in Holland in the 17th century, is long 
since extinct, yet the rage for producing fine 
tulips still exists. The finest tulips are reared 
at Haarlem. The principal florists have their 
favourite breeders. A breeder is a seeding 
tulip, 8 or 9 years from the seed, but still vigor- 
ous. If the stem be tall; the petals of the 
flower blunt at the apex; if the flower be self- 
coloured, or of an equal, uniform colour on 
both surfaces of the petals ; if the base be pure 
■white or bright yellow; and the anthers and 
stigmas dark or black, it is highly esteemed as 
a breeder. The bulb is planted deep in a shel- 
tered, sunny place, and care is taken to prevent 
the leaves being injured by wind or hail; the 
stem is propped, and the flower carefully se- 
cured from the hot rays of the sun, as well as 
from wind and violent rain. The seed is care- 
fully collected, and from it many fine tulips are 
anticipated. The varieties at Haarlem are 
very numerous ; they are chiefly varieties of 
the Tulipa Gesneriana and T. Suaveolcns. 

TULIP POPLAR (Liriodendron tulipifera). 
This tree, the only one of its genus, is found 
in great abundance in the Middle United States, 
where, on the rich woodlands in the alluvials 
bordering the Delaware and other bays, it at- 
tains a growth which makes it the most majes- 
tic tree of the American forest. Trees are 
frequently found from 100 to 140 or 150 feet in 
height, and 6 or 8 feet in diameter, the trunk 
being sometimes 60 or 80 feet perfectly straight 
and without a knot or branch. This stately 
tree, when its wide-spreading branches extend 
from the ground to the summit, loaded in May 
with its tulip flowers, has been referred to in 
the article on the Bee, as the most magni- 
ficent of floral productions. The wood, which 
is very soft, is highly valued for building, and 
also for many purposes to which it is applied 
by the cabinet-maker and other mechanic ar- 
tists. The variety called yellow poplar is gene- 
rally preferred. It is known by its thicker 
and more deeply furrowed bark. The bark, 
which is very thick and spongy, is also a valu- 
able aromatic bitter; and has been success- 
fully used in intermittents. 

TULL, JETHRO. The science of agricul- 
ture, although the first in Importance to man- 
kind, is yet remarkable for the few great names 
133 



TULL, JETHRO. 

whose discoveries or general abilities adorn its 
history. For an explanation of this fact, we must 
in some measure \e contented with the com- 
mon observation that its advances, its improve- 
ments, are so slow, as to be almost impercep- 
tible ; are dependent upon much more tedious 
experiments than any other science : for in- 
stance, it is true that many, very many of the 
processes, daily witnessed and carried on by 
the cultivator, are based upon chemical princi- 
ples, and may be illustrated, and very materi- 
ally assisted, by chemical experiments : but 
those who have studied the science the most 
carefully are fully aware that no experiments 
upon the laws of dead matter even nearly 
equal in difficulty those upon living substances, 
for these last, in many instances, seem endow- 
ed with powers which completely neutralize 
and overcome the very principle of chemical 
attraction and repulsion. Such experiments, 
too, are not, like those made in the philoso- 
pher's laboratory, secure from interruption, and 
carefully and readily guarded from every source 
of error; on the contrary, those of even the 
most scientific, the most careful cultivators, 
are of necessity liable to many accidents, are 
ever the sport of the winds and the weather,, 
require months to complete, and often the dura- 
tion of a life to repeat and firmly establish- 
Then, again, to add to the difficulty of such in- 
vestigations, there are hardly two soils to be 
found, in England or elsewhere, whose compo- 
sition and conditions are even nearly the same. 
All differ either in the proportion of some ingre- 
dient, in climate, in declination, or in the nature 
of their substrata; the variations in their treat- 
ment, therefore, must often be as different as their 
numerous varieties. Thus, encircled with diffi- 
culties, requiring for the attainment of consider- 
able eminence the union of both practical ex- 
perience, patient and long-continued research, 
and scientific knowledge, we need hardly feel 
surprised that those who have made important 
improvements in agriculture have been but 
few in number, and that these illustrious ex- 
ceptions to the general rule have appeared at 
very distant intervals. The farmer, too, how- 
ever skilful and successful in his business, 
however industrious and talented, is but rarely 
induced to describe the improvements he has 
caused, or the implements he has improved or 
invented; he is too often content with the profit 
derived from his own ingenuity, and too fre- 
quently lets others reap all the honours of dis 
coveries to which he is more justly entitled. 

In the list, however, of distinguished English 
farmers, Jethro Tull presents us with a highly 
honourable exception to the general rule; for, 
utterly regardless of all selfish considerations, 
he not only made great and successful efforts 
for the promotion of agriculture, but he made 
those valuable researches, publicly known in 
a work entitled the Horse-hoeing Husbandry,, 
which will hand him down to all after-ages aa, 
one of the chief of English farmers ; as a pat 
triot who, undaunted by the natural dif5cijJLit(iie» 
of the attempt, attained great and iim^rtaD' 
advances in the cultivating and increasing ' 
fertility of the land, and ia enlarg>ing th 
sources of the followers of a business t' 
he was not originally bred; for, ?' 
4U 



TULL, JETHRO. 



TULL, JETHRO. 






presently see, Tull became a farmer not from 
inclination, but from the effects of a sickly con- 
stitution and diseased frame. 

The life of Jethro Tull will, indeed, well re- 
pay the careful and often-repeated study of the 
English farmer in more ways than one; will 
afford not only instruction, but encouragement 
to him who has to contend against the poorest 
soils, the most adverse of circumstances; for, 
if such a cultivator holds a poor, thin, hungry 
soil, so did Jethro Tull ; — if he farms in a re- 
mote and desolate district ; if he has ignorant 
and obstinate labourers ; if he is visited by 
sickness; if he is almost driven from his pro- 
fession by even incurable diseases, so, let him 
be assured, was that great farmer whose la- 
bours are the subject of this memoir. The 
dauntless intrepidity and perseverance, too, of 
Tull, should always be remembered to his 
honour. Knowing, as he did, the correctness 
of the principles for which he so nobly contend- 
ed, he never relaxed in his endeavours to in- 
duce their general adoption ; and if it was only 
after the lapse of many years, when Tull had 
long been in his grave, that those principles 
and those mechanical inventions for which he 
so energetically contended were commonly 
adopted, the fault was not Tull's, but must be 
attributed to the ignorance and the apathy of 
■the age in which he made his important, his 
lill-requited discoveries. 

The debt of gratitude which all modern far- 
mers owe to Tull is, indeed, a large one; 
ihe was Ihe first who boldly and zealously 
contended for the adoption of improved ma- 
chinery in ail agricultural operations ; the 
ploughs which he depicts in the engravings 
whicli accompany his Horf.e-hoe Husbandry, 
have not been very materially improved in the 
'.last century- He invented several varieties 
•of handoiiol horse-hoes. He was very nearly, 
df noi quite, ii'iie first who produced a practically 
lUseful drill. He shared the fate of all those 
who, as discoverers, have the temerity to dis- 
'turb old systems. He was regarded by the 
bulk of his contemporaries as an idle, restless 
innovator. He was ridiculed, thwarted, and 
'Opposed in every way, not, as might have been 
^reasonably expected, by the most ignorant, but 
by those who either did know, or ought to have 
known, better things. His neighbours regarded 
him a? almost a lunatic ; and the tradition of 
the. neighbourhood of Shalborn still is, that he 
was even wicked enough to attempt to banish 
;the flail from his farm, and that he had a ma- 
chine in his barn at Prosperous, which worked 
a set of sticks so readily as to thrash out his 
corn without the assistance of the labourer. 
This, there is little doubt, was an attempt to con- 
struct a thrashing-machine ; and that it was, in 
;those quiet days for agriculture, regarded as a 
^wonder, is proved by the existence of the tra- 
dition. When thus located in a remote rural 
parish, on th"=! borders of the counties of Berks, 
Hani's, and Wilts, Tull wrote his Husbandry, 
^ok which is not nearly so well known as 
* to be ; for, though the progress of 
rendered a considerable portion of 
obsolete, yet much, very much, 
" " the progress of discovery, 






to amply repay the farmer for a careful and 
often repeated perusal. 

Tull wrote with all the modesty and diffi- 
dence of genius : he tells us, in the preface to 
his Husbandry, that he knew that he had un- 
dertaken a task of which he was incapable, 
and that it was produced during a long con- 
finement within the limits of a lonely farm, in 
a country where he was a stranger. And 
when we remember that he was, through life, 
an invalid, — obliged to abandon his sedentary 
profession of the law, and seek for health by 
foreign travel and by country pursuits, — when 
we think of these things, we cannot but still 
more admire the energy of mind he betrayed, 
and the difficulties he overcame. He feelingly 
alludes to some of these, when he says, with 
regard to his great work — " 'Tis no -wonder 
that the style is low as the author, or as the 
dust that is here treated of, since the whole was 
written in pains of the stone, and other dis- 
eases as incurable and almost as cruel ; but 
fine language will not fill a farmer's barn." 
Every thing connected with the history of this 
great benefactor of agriculture must be inte- 
resting to the cultivators of this and all other 
countries. I regret that, with some industry, I 
have not been able to obtain for the farmer 
more information with regard to him. He was 
born in Oxfordshire, on his paternal estate. 
He was educated for the legal profession, be- 
came a member of Staple Inn, and was called 
to the bar on the 11th December, 1693, by the 
benchers of Gray's Inn, and not at the Temple, 
as is commonly asserted in the biographical 
dictionaries. He was afilicted soon after his 
call to the bar with a pulmonary disorder, and, 
in consequence, abandoned his Oxfordshire 
farm, and for some time travelled on the Con- 
tinent, He was for a considerable period at 
Montpelier, in the south of France. Returning 
to England, he took into his own hands the 
farm called Prosperous, at Shalborn, in Berk- 
shire, where, again resuming those agricultural 
efforts which he had commenced in Berkshire, 
he wrote his Horse-hoe Husbandry. 

During his tour on the Continent, Tull care- 
fully compared the agriculture of France and 
Italy with that of his own country, and omitted 
no occasion to observe and note every thing 
which supported his own views and discove- 
ries- He particularly, on more than one occa- 
sion, in his work, alludes to the similarity of 
the practice followed by the vine-dressers of 
the south of Europe, in constantly hoeing or 
otherwise stirring their ground, and his own 
horse-hoe husbandrj'. Finding that they did 
not approve of dunging their vineyards, Tull 
readily adduced the fact in favour of his own 
favourite theory, that manuring a soil is an un- 
necessary operation. 

After Tull's decease, his lands in Berkshire 
found their way into Chancery, and were sold, 
by order of the court, in 1784, to Mr. Blandy, 
the father of the present owner. It consists of 
about 70 acres of freehold land, but Tull held 
about 130 acres in addition, by a different te- 
nure. The house in which he dwelt has been 
modernized, but the old-fashioned brew-house 
yet remains as Tull had it ; and when I visited 



iQ^ 






TULL, JETHRO. 



TULL, JETHRO. 



Prosperous, in July, 1840, was still in very 
good condition. Of the out-houses, TuU's gra- 
nary and his stables are yet in existence, 
though fast verging to destruction ; and at the 
end of this granary, which TuU built, is an old 
well in which, when cleared out some years 
since, was found, deeply buried in the accu- 
mulated mud of nearly a century, a three- 
pronged hoe, which there is no doubt belonged 
to TuU, and is now in the museum of the Royal 
/ j,ricultural Society of England. Into this well 
it was most likely thrown by his men, who, 
adopting the use of his new tools with the ut- 
most reluctance, annoyed him in many ways. 
Against these he declaims with much bitterness; 
"'Tis," he says, "the most formidable objec- 
tion against our agriculture, that the defection 
of servants and labourers is such, that few 
gentlemen can keep their lands in their own 
hands, but, rather than make nothing of them, 
they let them for a little to tenants who can 
bear to be insulted, assaulted, kicked, cuffed, 
and bridewelled, with more patience than gen- 
tlemen are endowed with." This burst of feel- 
ing would very clearly intimate the probable 
truth of the case — that TuU was energetic and 
irritable — that his servants pillaged and an- 
noyed him, and that he did not submit to their 
impositions without struggling against them in 
a way which his legal education should have 
taught him to avoid. 

Such was the spirit of enterprise, and such 
was the genius of TuU, that no difficulties, how- 
ever formidable, stopped him in his researches. 
His experiments, carried on in his garden and 
in his house, with regard to the food and the 
habits of plants, some of which he gives in the 
first pages of his work, betray the thirst for 
knowledge, the industiy, and tact, which he 
possessed. 

The tradition of his neighbours is, that, when 
confined to his room and to his couch by his 
incurable maladies, he yet managed to carry 
on his experiments on vegetation, by having 
large boxes and garden-pots of earth placed in 
his room, and before his windows, where he 
sowed his seeds, and watched their progress 
under different modes of cultivation, with all 
the zeal of a martyr, and the enthusiasm of an 
inventor. He is still spoken of by the old 
labourers of that district, as being a man whom 
it was impossible to oppose, in any of his 
plans, with eventual success. He was evi- 
dently the wonder of his neighbours, who 
would, perhaps, have regarded him as a ma- 
gician, if the age of witchcraft had not then 
been nearly, if not quite, over. It would seem, 
from what TuU says (p. 50), that it was in 
1701 that he constructed his first drill for plant- 
ing sainfoin. And the occasion of his doing 
so he thus describes in his preface: "It was 
very difficult to find a man that could sow 
clover tolerably ; they had a habit (from which 
they could not be driven) to throw it once with 
the hand to two large strides, and go twice on 
each cast; thus, with 9 or 10 pounds of seed 
to the acre, two-thirds of the ground v/as un- 
pianted, and on the rest it was so thick that it 
did not prosper. To remedy this, I made a 
hopper, to be drawn by a boy, that planted an 
acre sufficiently with 6 pounds of seed; but 



when I added to this hopper an exceedingly 
light plough, that made 6 channels 8 inches 
asunder, into which 2 pounds of seed to an 
acre being drilled, the ground was as well 
planted. This drill was easily drawn by a 
man, and sometimes by a boy." 

Jeihro TuU's great improvements in tillage 
consisted in the use of his drill, and in the adop- 
tion of such wide intervals between his rows 
of turnips (several feet, 3 to 6), that the horse- 
hoe could be easily and constantly employed. 
He ridiculed, very justly, the delusions under 
which the farmers then laboured with regard 
to the unvaried advantages of thick sowing. 
He told them that they "did not grudge to be- 
stow three or four pounds in the buying and 
carriage of dung for an acre, but that they 
thought themselves undone if they afforded an 
extraordinary eighteen-pennyworlh of earth to 
the wide intervals of an acre, not considering 
that earth is not only the best, but also the 
cheapest entertainment that can be given to 
plants." And again, in another place (p. 32), 
he told the thick-sowing, broadcast cultivators 
of those days, what must have not a little as- 
tonished them, "that every row of vegetables 
to be horse-hoed ought to have an empty space 
or interval of 30 inches on one side of it at 
least, and of nearly 5 feet in all sorts of corn;" 
and he was very justly suspicious that what he 
was going to advance "would seem shocking 
to them before they have made trials." 

TuU was the first English farmer who advo- 
cated to its fullest extent the decided advan- 
tages of constantly pulverizing and stirring the 
soil, to illustrate which almost all his experi- 
ments were directed. His explanations, how- 
ever, of his own discoveries were not always 
so good as the object he had in view, although 
there is little to find fault with in his theory of 
the advantages of tillage. "I have had," he 
says (p. 24), "the experience of a multitude of 
instances, w4iich confirm it so far, that I am in 
no doubt that any soil, be it rich or poor, can 
ever be made too fine by tillage; for one cubi- 
cal foot of this minute powder may have more 
internal superficies than a thousand cubical 
feet of the same or any other earth tilled in the 
common manner; and I believe no two arable 
earths in the world do exceed one another in 
their natural riches twenty times ; that is, one 
cubical foot of the richest is not able to pro- 
duce an equal quantity of vegetables, cceteris 
paribus, to 20 cubical feet of the poorest; there- 
fore, it is not strange that the poorest, where, 
by pulverizing, it has obtained 100 times the 
internal superficies of the rich, untitled land, 
should exceed it in fertility; or, if a foot of the 
poorest was made to have 20 times the super- 
ficies of such rich land, the poorest might pro- 
duce an equal quantity of vegetables with the 
rich. Besides, there is another extraordinary 
advantage when a soil has a large internal 
superficies in a very little compass ; for then 
the roots of the plants in it are better supplied 
with nourishment, being nearer to them on all 
sides within reach than it can be when the 
soil is less fine, as in common tillage, and the 
roots in the one must extend much farther than 
in the other to reach an equal quantity of nou- 
rishment; they must range and fill perhaps 

1059 



TULL, JETHRO. 



TULL, JETHRO. 



above 20 times more space to collect the same 
quantity of food. But, in this fine soil, the 
most weak and tender roots have a free passage 
to the utmost of their extent, and have also an 
easy, due, and equal pressure everywhere, as 
in water." 

He did not confine his attention to the ad- 
vantages of thoroughly pulverizing the land : 
he was also an advocate for much deeper 
ploughing than was usual in his time, and in 
one or two places laments the supineness of 
the farmers in this respect, and the idleness 
of the ploughmen, in only half-penetrating the 
soil, for fear of injuring the appearance of their 
horses ; and he illustrated the advantages of 
his proposed mode of ploughing by the best 
means in his power, not only by general ob- 
servation, but by also appealing to several 
very ingeniously-contrived little experiments 
upon the habits of plants. 

TuU saw very clearly that this theory of the 
advantages of pulverizing and deepening soils 
would be strongly supported if it could be 
shown that the roots of the commonly culti- 
vated grasses would, under favourable circum- 
stances, penetrate to more considerable depths 
than the ordinary shallow soils of the farmer 
allowed them. He paid, therefore, considerable 
attention to the roots of plants, not only in his 
small experimental glasses and pots, but in his 
fields. He found, by some observations on the 
roots of some wheat plants growing in a deeply 
loosened soil, that their roots had penetrated to 
more than double the depth of the commonly 
ploughed land of the farmer; and all this I can 
support from my own observations on the roots 
of the crops growing on the edge of chalk and 
loam pits, and in other situations where the 
soil has been loosened to great depths. Tull, 
too, noticed the very considerable and rapid 
extension of the roots of trees growing near 
to old dunghills, sewers, &c., and he hence ad- 
duced another argument in favour of the advan- 
tages which are derived from assisting, in the 
best ordinary way then known, the roots of 
plants to penetrate deeper into the soil. Had 
Tull lived in our days, he would have been an 
ardent advocate for the subsoil and subturf 
ploughs: he would not then have confined his 
efforts to the increased use of the common 
plough and the trenching-spade. 

A century has now elapsed since Jethro Tull 
thus earnestly endeavoured to draw the atten- 
tion of the farmers of England to the import- 
ance of deepening, pulverizing, and mixing 
their soils. Tull, unfortunately for himself, 
lived an age or two too soon : had to encounter 
the ignorance and the obstinacy of his work- 
men, the apathy of his neighbours, the ridicule 
of those who understood him not, and the anger 
of the indolent. The principles, however, which 
he inculcated have survived and overcome all 
these obstacles ; are yearly more prized, be- 
cause better understood. Tull thought that the 
earth, and the earth alone, did every thing for 
vegetation ; astonished at the effects which 
were produced by merely deepening and pul- 
verizing, he allowed his enthusiasm to carry 
him too far. "Every plant," he tells us, "is 
earth, and the growth and true increase of a 
plant is the addition of more earth ;" and in 
1060 



another place he adds, " too much nitre zor- 
rodes a plant, too much water drowns it, too 
much air dries the roots of it, too much heat 
burns it ; but too much earth a plant never can 
have." Thus impressed with the value and 
the all-sufficient powers of earth to support 
vegetation, it need hardly surprise us that TuU 
soon came to the conclusion that, under a pro- 
per management of the plough and the scarifier 
(for a rude instrument of this kind was known 
in Tull's days), the land might be so pulverized 
and deepened as to bear its crops without the 
addition of any decomposing manures. 

Tull deceived himself, in this instance, by 
not attending to the quantity of finely-divided, 
slowly decomposing substances, which all cul- 
tivated soils contain in some shape or other. 
By ploughing and pulverizing, the progress of 
the putrefaction of these organic matters was 
accelerated, they were rendered more soluble, 
and then the succeeding crop was, by their de- 
composition, sufficiently nourished. But these 
operations could not be long continued; at 
each repetition of the experiment the amount 
of the stubborn, slowly decomposing matters 
of the soil became reduced, and, in conse- 
quence, the crops produced under the system 
became less. Tull's farm at Shalborn was 
well adapted to try the effect of this theory; it 
is situated on the crown of a rising ground, 
whose thin-skinned soil is a light loam mixed 
with gravel, resting on chalk; of such a soil 
the organic matters, of necessity, are speedily 
exhausted by cropping and pulverizing. Tull 
soon found this out; he struggled hard against 
the necessity, but he finally had recourse tc 
the employment of manures; he found at last, 
that, however valuable good tillage is to the 
application of fertilizers, it is utterly incapable 
of supplying their place. The failure of Jethro 
Tull, therefore, in this great effort was com- 
plete ; but it was the failure of a man of genius. 
He tardily admitted the value of dunging the 
land; but he still explained its operation in 
such a way as to refer all the benefit to the 
earth, when he told the farmers of those days, 
"its use is not to nourish, but to dissolve, that 
is, divide the terrestrial matter which affords 
nutriment to the mouths of vegetable roots." 
To a very considerable extent Tull was cor- 
rect in this explanation of the mode in which 
common manure operates in rendering the soil 
more fertile; for it renders the land more per- 
vious to the atmospheric gases and vapour, 
and, in consequence, all vegetation growing 
upon the land is better nourished. But the 
benefit, as TuU imagined, does not end here; 
the organic matters of the compost, as they 
slowly dissolve in the soil, gradually give out 
a considerable proportion of various gases, 
such as carburelted hydrogen and carbonic 
acid gas, all of which are absorbed by the plant 
at the moment of their extrication, enter into 
new combinations, and promote its vigorous 
growth. That this is not a merely mechanical 
advantage is proved in several ways ; for in- 
stance, the benefit of the application of the de- 
composing compost is proved to be just as 
advantageous in some instances to the crop 
where it is not even mixed with the soil. This 
is shown by the effect (known to every gar- 



TULL, JETHRO. 



TULL, JETHRO. 



dener) which is produced by placing the ma- 
nure in a chamber beneath the soil, so that the 
roots of the plants neither mix with, nor does 
the soil even touch the compost. The gases 
of putrefaction, however, arise and mix with 
the soil, and the most luxuriant effects are pro- 
duced without any division of "the terrestrial 
matter," which TuU imagined to be so essen- 
tial to the explanation of the phenomenon. We 
need not search in the works of Tull for any 
attempts to use the drill for the application of 
fertilizers, for all TuU's efforts were directed 
to cultivate the earth without manure of any 
kind. He admitted the necessity of using it at 
all only with extreme reluctance; he told his 
leaders, 7 years before his death, that "the par- 
ticular scheme of raising constant annual crops 
of wheat without dung or fallow is as yet only 
upon probation ; but, by six crops I have had 
in that manner, I see nothing against their be- 
ing continued. This, it is true, requires greater 
care in their management than any other branch 
of the husbandry; but he who can do this with- 
out dung or fallow, may easily do it with one 
or both of them ; and there may be such wet, 
clayey land which the plough cannot well pul- 
verize without help of the ferment or dung." 

Tull, in fact, let no opportunity escape him 
to decry the ill effects of employing manure. 
Modern gardeners would be astonished at his 
zeal when he contends for its banishment from 
the kitchen garden. "There is," he says (p. 
18), " much more reason to prohibit the use of 
dung in the kitchen garden, on account of the 
ill taste it gives to esculent roots and plants, 
especially such dung as is made in great towns. 
It is a wonder how delicate palates can dis- 
pense with eating their own and their beasts' 
ordure, but a little more putrefied and evapo- 
rated, together with all sorts of filth and nasti- 
ness, a tincture of which those roots must un- 
avoidably receive that grow amongst it. In- 
deed, I do not admire, that learned palates, ac- 
customed to the gout of silphium, garlic, and 
morlified venison, equalling the stench and 
rankness of this sort of city muck, should 
relish and approve of plants that are fed and 
fattened by its immediate contact. People 
who are so vulgarly nice as to nauseate the 
modish dainties, and whose squeamish sto- 
machs even abhor to receive the food of nobles, 
so little different from that wherewith they re- 
gale their richest gardens, say, that even the 
very water wherein a rich garden cabbage is 
boiled stinks; but that the water wherein a 
cabbage from a poor undunged field is boiled 
has no manner of unpleasant savour; and that 
a carrot bred in a dunghill has none of that 
sweet relish which a field carrot affords. Dung 
not only spoils the fine flavour of these our 
eatables, but it spoils good liquor. The dunged 
vineyards in Languedoc produce nauseous 
wine ; from whence there is a proverb in that 
country, that poor people's wine is best, be- 
cause they carry no dung to their vineyards." 
Our author, however, had a better opinion of 
vegetable manures than those of animals, for 
he says, "Vegetable dung, unless the vegetable 
be buried alive in the soil, makes a much less 
ferment in it, and, consequently, divides it less 
than animal dung does. But the dung of vege- 



tables is much more wholesome for the use of 
edible roots and plants than that of animals." 

Jethro Tull, according to Chalmers, died at 
his house at Prosperous, January 3, 1740. Of 
his works and inventions of agricultural ma- 
chinery I have already spoken. Five chapters 
of his only work that I am acquainted with, 
The Horse-hoe Husbandry, were published in 
folio in 1731, the chief volume in 1733; and 
in the same year some additions were printed 
which are not found in many of the copies of 
that year, or even in that of 1751. Cobbett, 
however, was careful to add it to an octavo edi- 
tion which he printed in 1829. In this, he 
omitted only the plates of the ploughs and 
other agricultural implements ; but he added 
an introduction, in which he did little except 
laud Tull, and vituperate those who had adopt- 
ed Tull's plans, without acknowledging the 
source of their obligation ; not remembering 
that many a TuUian improvement has been 
often made since our author's time, by plain, 
practical farmers, who never even heard the 
name of Tull mentioned. 

Tull, as I have before remarked, published 
his " addenda" to his Husbandry in the same 
year that the first edition appeared; in these he 
takes more notice than was perhaps necessary 
of certain attacks which had been made upon 
his book, by the members of a certain " equi- 
vocal society," amongst whom was the cele- 
brated Stephen Switzer, the most talented 
seedsman, gardener, and horticultural author 
of his day. It appears, too, that a society of 
gentlemen in Dublin had, without his leave, 
reprinted for distribution his five " specimen 
chapters," all of which annoying circum- 
stances evidently irritated him; besides these 
controversial notices, and certain corrections 
of the errors made by the printer, the long ad- 
denda do not contain any thing very valuable. 
Time has settled pretty well the respective 
merits of the contending parties ; the fame of 
Tull is steadily increasing, while the name and 
works of even the classical, the elegant Swit- 
zer, are much too little known amongst modern 
cultivators. 

Twenty-four years after the death of J-ethro 
Tull, a paper appeared in the Gentleman's Ma- 
gazine, vol. xxxiv. p. 522, dated at Hungerford, 
about 4 miles from the farm where he lived and 
died, and signed with the initials D. Y., which 
details almost all that is known of the life of 
the great introducer of the drill system. It 
was written by one of his neighbours, who had 
known and associated with him, and valued 
very properly his services in the cause of agri- 
culture. He describes in that essay the sen- 
sation produced by the unheard-of attempts of 
Tull. He says, " Novelty always excites curi- 
osity — many gentlemen came from different 
parts on the fame of this new method of farm- 
ing, some of whom were persuaded by the 
weight of Mr. TuU's arguments, tc go hand in 
hand with him in the course of his experi- 
ments, while others, who thought themselves 
more 'Anse and more discerning, took every 
occasion of ridiculing the practice, and of re- 
presenting it as a fanciful project, that, after a 
great expense, would end in nothing but the 
ruin of the proprietor. In general, the whou" 
4u2 1061 



TULL, JETHRO. 



TULL, JETHRO. 



body of farmers and husbandmen pronounced 
the man as a conjuror, who, by sowing a third 
part of his land, would make it produce a 
quantity equal to that of sowing the whole." 

The farm of Jethro Tull will ever be an ob- 
ject of interest to the lover of agriculture. Ar- 
thur Young made a pilgrimage to Prosperous 
{Annals of Agr. vol. xxiii. p. 173), and William 
Cobbett did the same. More persons would 
\'isit it if they knew where it was to be found. 
To such it will be interesting to know that the 
rural parish of Shalborn is situated under the 
Coomb Hills, about 4 miles south of Hunger- 
ford ; that the roads are tolerable, and the pre- 
sent holder of the farm obliging, and not insen- 
sible of Tull's great merits. If Tull was de- 
ceived in his belief of the powers of the 
plough to render the soil fertile Avithout the as- 
sistance of manure, he was yet fully justified 
in almost every thing that he predicted, with 
regard to the advantages of thoroughly pulver- 
izing and increasing the depth of the soil. 

"The difference betwixt the operation of the 
spade and that of the common plough," he ob- 
serves, "is only this, that the former commonly 
divides the soil into smaller pieces, and goes 
deeper;" and he adds, "how easy and natural 
it is to contrive a plough that may equal the 
spade, if not exceed it, by going deeper, and 
cutting the soil into smaller pieces than the 
spade commonly does." The explanation, too, 
which Jethro Tull gave to the advantages or 
theory of deep ploughing was excellent, consi- 
dering the chemical knowledge of his days; 
for the modern cultivator must remember, that, 
in his time, the composition of the atmosphere 
was almost entirely unknown. Tull could not 
have known any thing of the three gases, — 
nitrogen, oxygen, and carbonic acid, — of which 
it is now found to be constituted; and of the 
existence of its insensible aqueous vapour he 
was equally unacquainted; he did not know 
how important these are to the roots of plants, 
and how the access of them all is naturally 
promoted by pulverizing the land on which they 
vegetate. But though Tull did not know these 
things, yet it is certain that he had carefully 
observed many facts which proved that vapour 
was absorbed by the soil, and that this absorp- 
tion was promoted by pulverization. "To de- 
monstrate," he says (pp. 27, 28), " that dews 
moisten the land when fine, dig a hole in the 
hard, dry ground, in the driest weather, as deep 
as the plough ought to reach ; beat the earth 
very fine, and fill the hole therewith ; and after 
a few nights' dews, you will this fine earth be- 
come moist at the bottom, and the hard ground 
all round will become dry. Till a field in 
lands : make one land very fine by frequent 
deep ploughing, and let another be rough by 
insufficient tillage alternately ; then plough the 
whole field crosswise in the driest weather, 
whicn has continued long, and you will per- 
ceive, by the colour of the earth, that every 
fine land will be turned up moist, but every 
rough land will be dry as powder from top to 
bottom. In the driest weather, good hoeing 
procures moisture to roots ; though the igno- 
rant and incurious fancy it lets in the drought, 
%nd therefore are afraid to hoe their plants at 
such times." 
1062 



These enlightened observations of Tull have 
been verified and illustrated by the progress of 
agricultural discovery, by the improved modes 
of practice adopted by modern farmers, and by 
the march of chemical philosophy. Evelyn 
had observed the advantages of continually 
keeping the ground of fruit orchards hoed or 
dug. Sir Henry Steuart attests, with Sir Wal- 
ter Scott, Withers, and a hundred others, the 
same fact, as applicable to timber plantations. 
The farmers of even the most sandy soils of 
Norfolk, on the very same principle, keep the 
ground between their rows of turnips con- 
stantly stirred, just as Tull proposed and prac- 
tised a century since. And when, long at'ter 
Tull was in his grave. Dr. Priestley discovered 
the oxygen gas of the atmosphere, it was soon 
found that its presence was essential to the 
growth of plants ; that it was highly grateful 
to the roots of plants, either when applied to 
them in its simple state, or when combined 
with the aqueous matters of the atmosphere ; 
and that this application was very sensibly 
indeed promoted, in either form, by increasing 
the finely divided state of the soil; and, fur- 
ther, that without this division of its particles, 
the earth was totally incapable of absorbing 
either the necessary gases or the watery va- 
pour. 

The subsoil-plough of Mr. Smith of Dean- 
ston, and the subturf-plough of Sir Edward 
Stracey, which have both proved so successful 
in our days, only illustrate the truth of TuH's 
principles and Tull's sagacious observations 
Tull was an advocate for deep ploughing, and 
for internal pulverizations : he did not, it is 
true, see the necessary limits, on ordinary soils, 
and with common ploughs, to the realization 
of this theory ; he forgot that the inert nature 
of many substrata would render it impossible 
to bring them at once to the surface; but 
though he omitted to take this into his calcula- 
tion, yet still he argued correctly enough, when 
he so strenuously urged his brother farmers to 
increase the depth of their soils by every prac- 
ticable means, to let in the air to the roots of 
their crops, and to give every facility possible 
to the growth of the roots of the plants ; for, by 
so doing, he very plainly told them they derived 
benefits which exclusively belong to the vege- 
table world. "There is yet," he said (p. 28), 
"one more benefit hoeing gives to plants, 
which by no art can possibly be given to ani- 
mals ; for all that can be done in feeding an 
animal is, to give it sufficient food at the time 
it has occasion for it; if you give an animal 
any more, it is to no manner of purpose, unless 
you could give it more mouths, which is im- 
possible; but, in hoeing a plant, the additional 
nourishment thereby given enables it to send 
out innumerable additional fibres and roots; so 
that hoeing, by the new pasture it raises, fur- 
nishes both food and mouths to plants." 

To every agricultural operation, in fact, of a 
mechanical nature, Tull's genius was admira- 
bly adapted; his ploughs, his hoes, his drills, 
were all of a description far superior to those 
of the rest of the farmers of those days. It was 
only where he attempted to reason upon the 
habits and food of plants, involving chemical 
truths, that Tull made great blunders. Thus, 



TULL, JETHRO. 

believing, as he did, that earth, and earth alone, 
was the sole food of plants of all kinds, he 
ridiculed the opinion of Dr. Woodward, that all 
the constituents of plants were conveyed to 
them through the agency of water. Woodward 
thought, very justly, " that water is only the 
agent that conveys the vegetable matter to the 
bodies of plants, that introduces and distributes 
it to their several parts for their nourishment." 
This theory seemed absurd to Jethro Tuli, who 
believed that all plants fed upon the same kind 
of food, and that that food was earth, and only 
earth. It is true that TuU had a very indistinct 
idea that something else was requisite for the 
food of plants, and that "certain materials con- 
tribute in some manner to the increase of 
plants." And he then specifies five substances, 
at the head of which it is not a little singular 
that he places saltpetre or nitre. But how this 
salt operated as a fertilizer was not at all more 
clear to TuU than to any who have succeeded 
him in the investigation. " Nitre," he says, 
(p. 10), "is useful to divide and prepare the 
food, and may be said to nourish vegetables, in 
much the same manner as my knife nourishes 
me, by cutting and dividing my meat; but when 
nitre is applied to the root of a plant, it will 
kill it as certainly as a knife misapplied will 
kill a man. Nitre is, in respect of nourish- 
ment, just as much the food of plants as white 
arsenic is the food of rats." Tull, however, 
had a high opinion of the powers of common 
salt, when used as a steep for seed-corn, to pre- 
vent the smut in wheat; and he gives (p. 6G) 
this account of the origin of the practice. 
"Brining of wheat, to cure or prevent smutti- 
ness, was accidentally discovered about 70 
years since, in the following manner: A ship- 
load of wheat was sunk near Bristol in autumn, 
and afterwards at the ebb-tide all taken up, 
after it had been soaked in sea-water; but it 
being unfit for making of bread, a farmer 
sowed some of it in a field, and when it was 
found to grow very well, the whole cargo was 
bought at a low price by many farmers, and all 
of it sown in different places. At the following 
harvest, all the wheat in that part of England 
happened to be smutty, except the produce of 
the brined seed, and that was all clean from 
smuttiness." He then gives the farmer direc- 
tions for drying the brined seed, by rolling it 
in quicklime, just as is now commonly prac- 
tised by the farmer. 

Water, Tull thought, was not a food for 
plants, because it commonly contains earth, to 
which he attributed the origin of the common 
opinion that water is a food of plants. And as 
to air being their food, which it certainly is, 
Tull considered this as a complete "phantasie," 
— quite an '-airy hypothesis." In common with 
many of the learned of his days, Tull here 
strangely confused himself, by not attending to 
observations and experiments with regard to 
plants, and to these only. The merit, however, 
of Tull, amid his occasional mistakes, was en- 
hanced by his modesty; and it is impossible 
for us, when we reflect upon the difficulties he 
had to encounter in the prosecution of his re- 
searches, and in the production of his book, to 
be insensible to his appeal, where he tells us, 
at the conclusion of his preface, "One cause 



TUMBRIL. 

that made the three parts of this book (that is 
to say, the theory, or speculative part, the prac- 
tical part, and the description of the tools), the 
more defective was, that all three were too 
many for me to make perfect at once, and two 
would have been useless without the third: 
therefore, it was better to give but a sketch of 
all than to have made any two of them never 
so full and perfect, leaving out the other." 

Such was the modesty, such were the merits 
of this great father of the drill and the horse- 
hoe husbandry, to whose memory something, I 
hope, will one day be erected — some memorial 
to indicate the agriculturist's gratitude, worthy 
of the English farmer. Tull lies buried with- 
out even a stone to indicate that such a bene- 
factor of agriculture reposes beneath it. His 
grave is even doubtfully placed. If Tull died 
at Shalborn, as Chalmers asserts, he was not 
buried there. There is no trace of him in the 
parish register; the tradition of the old people 
of the neighbourhood is, that he died and was 
buried in Italy. His deeds, his triumphs, it is 
true, were of the quiet, peaceable kind, with 
which the world in general is little enamoured; 
but their results, their value to the land of his 
birth, were of no mean order. His drill, his 
horse-hoe, have saved his countr}', in seed 
alone, the food of millions ; and when used 
as a distributer of manure, it has done, and it 
will hereafter accomplish, still greater things. 
It has brought into cultivation thousands of 
acres of the barren craig, the wolds of Lincoln- 
shire, of the deep sands of Norfolk; and its 
powers are not yet nearly exhausted, for, as 
fresh fertilizers are discovered, the drill evenly 
and economically distributes them; and as im- 
provements in its construction are continually 
taking place, there is evidently much yet to be 
achieved by its use. The same remarks apply, 
in a great measure, to his hoe, and to his sys- 
tem of attempted cultivation without manure; 
for, although the last was a complete failure, 
yet even this bold attempt was not unattended 
with benefit to agriculture; for the farmer was 
hence taught, that, although by deep ploughing 
and complete pulverization of the soil the use 
of manure could not be entirely avoided, yet 
that by these means a much smaller quantity 
was sufficient than under the old and indolent 
mode of tilling the land. The efforts, too, of 
Tull were productive of advantage in other and 
in indirect ways ; — his researches, his suc- 
cesses, his example, excited a spirit of inquiry, 
which since his days has hardly ever entirely 
slumbered. He was certainly the first who 
dared to boldly quit the beaten track, which 
had been used by the farmer for ages, and fol- 
low a way of his own. And although he has 
been well followed and imitated by succeeding 
cultivators, who have availed themselves of 
new discoveries and machinery of which Tull 
had not the assistance, yet there have been none 
who have since excelled, or perhaps equalled 
him, in the boldness and originality of his con- 
ceptions, or in the energy with which he real- 
ized them. (Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. xi. p. 342.) 

TUMBREL. A sort of dung-cart, convenient 
for many purposes. 

TUMBRIL. A machine employed chiefly m 
the county of Lincoln, for the purpose of giving 

1063' 



TUPELO. 



TURNIP. 



hay to sheef iuring the winter. It resembles 
the basket fish-pots used by fishermen, and con- 
sists of a circular cage or crib, which may be 
made of osiers, willows, or other pliant brush- 
wood of any kind. The whole is about 10 feet 
in circumference, and closely wattled to the 
height of about one foot, above which it is left 
open for the space of 18 inches; it is then 
wattled again to the height of 8 or 10 inches, 
and an opening, about 18 inches in breadth, is 
left at the top, for putting in the roots or other 
food, whether green or dry. The staves which 
form the skeleton of it are 10 inches asunder, 
so that 12 sheep may feed at the same time in 
each tumbril. 

TUPELO. Under this name Michaux de- 
scribes three species of the genus Nyssa found 
in the United States. One of these, the Nyssa 
aquatica, has already been described with the 
Black gum, with which it is commonly con- 
founded where both grow together. (Michaux, 
vol. iii. p. 40.) 

TURF. A term often applied to the green 
surface or sward of grass lands. Also the 
name given to peat, which is used in several 
parts as fuel. It varies much in its nature in 
different places, being sometimes hard and of 
a dark or black colour, while in others it is 
soft and spongy. It is a substance very useful 
in burning calcareous stones into lime. See 
Lime, Moss, Peat. 

TURKEY (Meleagris gallo-pavo). A wild 
fowl, originally introduced into Europe from 
America. They require care in their infancy. 
The black turkey is the best sort, both for size 
and delicacy. Turkeys are particularly clean 
birds, loving sweet food and delighting in air. 
They prefer roosting in trees, for which reason 
an evergreen, such as a yew tree, spruce fir, 
&c., is a great advantage, planted in the centre 
of a poultry-yard. Turkeys and pea-fowl hop 
up gradually from the low branches, and are 
sheltered from frost. But where this is not 
the case, the turkey-house must be dry and 
warm in winter, and cool in summer; it must 
be kept free from vermin, and the dung and 
litter of feathers, &c., should be often swept 
away. The perches must be large for their 
talons to grasp; and there should be plenty of 
ventilation, by gratings or holes bored in the 
floor. 

Turkeys seek quiet places to lay in, and 
often stray far from home. Their nest must 
be watched, and the newly laid egg exchanged 
for one made out of chalk every day. The 
turkey-hen lays from 12 to 20 eggs; and when 
she desires to sit, place her in the turkey-house 
on her eggs, and coop her up with them, if she 
is unwilling to remain, till she becomes settled. 
Do not disturb the hen while sitting, or attempt 
to assist the chick in piercing the shell. When 
the young ones are born, keep them in the nest 
for some time, as they love warmth, but do not 
handle them. Keep them warm and dry. When 
the red colour of the head appears, they are 
considered safe from the diseases of their in- 
fancy. Do not allow a turkey to sit twice in a 
Keasop ; the young ones never succeed unless 
^ey are full feathered before Michaelmas, 
^d young turkeys three or four times a day, 
'^i the food be a thickish paste, made of 

1064 
I 



fine barley-meal, mixed with finely chopped 
onions, nettles, and pot-herbs. The French 
give their turkeys plentiful supplies of nettles, 
of which they are very fond ; it is a warming 
and nutritious herb. Let the food be given 
fresh every day, and place it on a board with a 
shallow pan of water. Coop the hen while the 
young ones feed, or she will eat it herself. 
When the chicks begin to follow the turkey 
into the poultry-yard, do not let them out till 
the dew is off the ground. Vetch and marrow- 
fat peas are poisonous to young turkeys ; let- 
tuce brings on looseness; and hemlock and 
henbane should be destroyed near all poultry- 
yards. 

Turkeys love oats, boiled potatoes mashed 
with the meal of buckwheat, barley, or beans; 
or plain barley, like other fowls. Let the water 
always be sweet and clean. A turkey is six 
weeks fattening; if possible, feed two or three 
together, as they do not love solitary confine- 
ment. Let them eat as much as they like, but 
let the food be fresh every day, and let it be the 
paste above mentioned, softened by melted lard. 
Cramming turkeys is a cruel practice, and is 
not often done. They will feed well enough 
and fast enough if plenty of sweet food is 
placed before them, and if they are allowed 
some little space to move about in. It is a 
curious fact, that turkeys in America feed on 
the caterpillars that are found on the tobacco 
plant with impunity. 

Turkey eggs are very good in pastry, and 
mixed with hen eggs they improve omelets. 
Turkey's dung, properly mixed with other com- 
posts, makes a valuable manure. 

TURNIP {Brassica rapa). No vegetable has 
had such influence in advancing the husbandry 
of Great Britain as the turnip. By whom and at 
what period turnips were first used in England 
as the food of cattle, however, does not appear; 
but from variousaccounts,theircultureand uses 
were known in the Low Countries as far back 
as there are anj' records. The ancients ap- 
pear to have been well acquainted with the 
value of this root; Columella, speaking of the 
several kinds of vegetables adapted for the 
farm, recommends the cultivating of rapa in 
plenty, because, says he, those roots that are 
not wanted for the table will be eaten by the 
cattle. Worledge, in his Mystery of Husbandry, 
&c., printed in 1669-81, says, that "although 
turnips be usually nourished in gardens, and 
be properly a garden plant, yet are they, to the 
very great advantage of the husbandman, sown 
in his fields in several places in England, not 
only for culinary uses, as about London and 
other great cities, but also for the food of 
cattle." Again, he says, "that in Holland they 
slice their turnips with the tops, and rape-seed 
cakes and grains, &c., and therewith make 
mashes for the cows and give it them warm, 
which the cows eat like hogs." He likewise 
complains of the very great neglect and defi- 
ciency of English husbandry in this particular. 
Some time since, a very excellent paper "On 
the Cultivation of the Turnip Crop on Light 
Soil, by Mr. M. Milburn," appeared in the 
Transactions of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, 
from which this paper is chiefly extracted. 
It is generally supposed that the cultivation 



I 



TURNIP. 



TURNIP. 



of turnips as a field crop was introduced into 
Norfolk by Lord Townshend; but there is still 
further evidence that they were known as such 
some time before the date assigned for their 
introduction. They are mentioned in Hough- 
ton s Collection of Papers, vol. i. p. 213, as food 
for sheep, in 1684. Since that period consi- 
derable improvements in their cultivation have 
taken place, and a great variety of very inferior 
soils have been made capable of growing con- 
siderable crops of them, by judicious manage- 
ment and proper selection of manure. 

On the value and importance of the turnip 
crop to England, it is unnecessary to expatiate. 
Not only does it enable the farmer to supply 
the consumer with fresh meat during the win- 
ter, instead of the salted food upon which our 
ancestors had almost exclusively to depend, 
but also partially supplies the place of a fal- 
low; it imparts to the land a degree of fertility 
which ensures,under proper management, a suc- 
cession of crops for the following years of the ro- 
tation. It is indeed the sheet-anchor of light soil 
cultivation, and the basis of the alternate sys- 
tem of English husbandry, to which every class 
of the community is so much indebted. 

Preparation of the Soil. — Turnips generally 
succeed a crop of wheat. In some cases, on 
very poor soils, the clover leys are broken up 
for turnips ; and, on others, a crop of winter 
tares, either mown or depastured, are taken off 
between the wheat crop and ploughing for tur- 
nips. As a regular system, the former cannot 
be pursued; for the frequent recurrence of ihe 
turnip and clover crops would operate injuri- 
ously, and defeat the object of the cultivator; 
and the latter is only applicable to soils quite 
free from root weeds, of a superior staple, or 
in a very high state of cultivation. 

As soon as the grain crop is secured, and 
the stock have passed over the stubble, it is 
desirable to have it ploughed, to subject the 
soil to the ameliorating influence of the frosts 
of winter. In all cases the plough should be 
below the couch-grass, which is usually most 
abundant on inferior soils, but seldom below 
the mould. In ordinary cases, nothing is more 
necessary than to prevent the water from stand- 
ing in any part during the winter; where the 
land is intended for Swedes, an effort should be 
made to have it partly or entirely cleared of 
weeds before the winter 

When the land is free from weeds, the cross- 
ploughing may be begun as soon as the dry- 
ness will admit of it. It may take place in 
February with advantage; inasmuch as it ex- 
poses a new and more extensive surface to the 
action of the frosts which generally succeed. 
If allowed to remain a month or two longer, it 
may advantageously be crossed with Finlay- 
son's harrow. Where the couch-grass, how- 
ever, is abundant, it is positively injurious to 
cross-plough, early, as the operation breaks the 
roots, and renders the clearing of the land 
afterwards tedious and difficult. Where very 
abundant, the operation should be delayed until 
the soil is dry, even if it should be the latter 
end of April or the beginning of May; more 
will be effected by one ploughing in this case 
than by two under difierent circumstances. 

When the dryness admits of it, usually in 
134 



two or three days, the land should be harrowed 
across ; first with the patent or hinge harrows, 
and subsequently with the loose harrows, which 
separate the rubbish more effectually from the 
soil ; and then the weeds should be raked off, 
which is generally performed by women. 

As soon as the couch-roots, &c., are cleared 
oflT, either by carting into large, or burning in 
small heaps, the land may be dragged with Fin- 
lay son's or any approved drag; and the same 
course followed alternately, so long as any 
roots remain. When they are unable to rake 
them off, they should be hand-gathered, and no 
dependance whatever should be placed on the 
destruction of any by the sun's rays, until the 
25th of June, a time when, on most soils, the 
sowing should be concluded. It is desirable 
that the land should lie a week or ten days be- 
fore the last ploughing is given to it, as it 
admits of the germination of such seeds of 
weeds as may be lying dormant in the soil, and 
is likewise favourable to the accumulation of 
moisture in a dry season. The turnip-seed 
should be sown immediately, however, after 
the last ploughing. 

Manure. — In treating of the manures with 
which the turnips should be dressed, farm-yard 
manure stands the foremost, because it is what 
every farmer possesses, and, with the excep- 
tion of the calcareous soils in the East Riding 
of Yorkshire, is almost invariably employed in 
the cultivation of turnips. In general, it never 
will, and never can be superseded; and, though 
every deference is due to the practical know- 
ledge of the East Riding farmers, there can be 
no doubt that, if their straw were ynorc carefully 
made into manure, and applied to the turnip crop 
in conjunction with bones, it would be decidedly 
advantageous. It is unnecessary to say that 
house-made manure, and by fattening cattle, 
especially such as are consuming artificial 
food, is the best; and that of horses, cows, 
pigs, &c., should be mixed as intimately as 
possible, the hot character of horses' dung neu- 
tralizing the coldness of that of the cow, and 
vice versa. It is desirable to cart this mixture 
to the fields intended for turnips in January 
and February, during the frost, or at such other 
times as convenience may dictate; but the ear- 
lier the better. About three weeks before used 
it should be turned over, the sides of the mixen 
being carefully turned into the middle. With- 
out entering in particular into the much dis- 
puted question of the fermentation of dung be- 
ing useful or otherwise, thus much every farmer 
will know well the truth of, that on light soils, 
and for turnips, well rotted dung is indispensa- 
ble, where it is used at all. When fermentation 
is progressing so fast as to induce destructive 
heat, or mouldiness, it may be checked bjr 
treading the mixen and covering it with soil; 
and when it is sluggish, it may be excited by 
turning and watering. 

For sandy or gravelly soils, farm-yard ma- 
nure is an almost necessary ingredient in pro- 
ducing a crop of turnips. The rapid decom- 
position of vegetable matter which takes place 
on such soils requires that there should be a 
supply for that succulent crop ; and, as before 
staled, there can be no doubt of its utility to 
calcareous soils ; but for peaty -:'escription» 

1065 



TURNIP. 



TURNIP. 



where there is abundance of vegetable matter, 
It is less useful. 

The time for laying on the manure depends 
on the method of sowing adopted, and clear- 
ness of the land from weeds. If the plough- 
drill be used, it is desirable to immediately 
precede the plough ; if the Norfolk, or large 
drill, it is better to lay it on a week or two be- 
fore sowing, to allow it to mix intimately with 
the soil, especially if other manure is intended 
to be used, and the soil pretty free from weeds. 
The quantity to be applied will vary with cir- 
cumstances : 12 to 14 tons per acre may be 
stated as an average, and more if the soil be 
poor and no other manure intended ; while less 
may be used in proportion as other manures 
are applied. 

Lime stands next in importance, as a dress- 
ing. The object of all manure is to supply 
some deficiency, remedy some mechanical in- 
convenience, or correct some detrimental agent 
in the soil. When dung, for instance, has been 
applied for several successive crops, a quantity 
of undecomposed vegetable matter accumu- 
lates, which the natural soluble properties of 
the soil cannot dissolve, and it remains inert. 
A dose of lime will correct this, and bring 
every particle of such inert matter, with which 
it comes in contact, available as food to the 
plants. It also assists in the intimate pulver- 
ization of the soil, as well as corrects any 
acidity which may exist in it, from causes 
which the agriculturist can seldom foresee, nor 
correct, except by its use. It is also destruc- 
tive to weeds in the soil, and hence exceedingly 
valuable; for every farmer knows that weeds, 
being indigenous, are much more ready to 
grow in the soil than his crops, which are arti- 
ficial, and often exotic. For peaty soils, an oc- 
casional dressing of quick lime is invaluable, 
especially if there is an addition of clay, road 
scrapings, &c., to give the requisite firmness 
to the soil. It should be laid on as soon as 
convenient after bringing from the kiln, and in 
as hot a state as possible. The time for laying 
on lime is a few weeks before the sowing, in 
order that the subsequent ploughings may mix 
it thoroughly with the soil, and thus its efifects 
be more immediate after the sowing. The 
quantity per acre entirely depends upon the 
character of the lime in the locality. Two to 
four chaldrons per acre are used; but as it is 
applied for turnips generally in conjunction 
with other fertilizers, the former may be stated 
as the better quantity. If dung is also applied, 
they should be used at as great a distance of 
time between each other as circumstances will 
admit of, and the latter not long before the 
sowing. 

Bones form one of the most valuable ma- 
nures for turnips on all light soils, on account 
of their portable and stimulating character; 
they are least useful on a gravelly or loamy 
boil. They have converted barren moor lands 
inio rich, fertile, and productive farms, luxuri- 
ating in every valuable product of the earth. 
Their value is beyond all praise. The East 
Hiding of Yorkshire affords a specimen of 
what they have efiected ; and they require only 
be known to be extensively applied. In 
1066 



many cases they are used alone ; in others, in 
conjunction with farm-yard manure, with ashes, 
and with lime. Ashes are sometimes drilled 
with them as a substitute, by diminishing the 
quantity of the bones. Lime is a valuable 
auxiliary, on "old going land," or soil which 
has been long under cultivation. On pea'y 
soils, having a substratum of sand, they have 
produced wonderful crops, by supplying them 
with the necessary animal matter. The quan- 
tity varies from 12 to 30 bushels per acre. Six- 
teen bushels per acre will produce a fair crop, 
on average soils ; and some farmers say that 
more than that quantity is waste. It is desi- 
rable to mix them with a quantity of ashes, 
when they are drilled in the above quantity. 
This facilitates the early progress of the plants, 
and supports them until the bones become 
available. English bones are generally pre- 
ferred to foreign ; but from experiments made 
by the writer, he prefers foreign to English 
and also to recent bones ; for, although th- 
latter have more of their juices than the former, 
the former sooner decompose ; and the fat and 
animal juices require considerable chemical 
changes before they are available as food for 
the plants. A mixture might be judicious, but 
he has not tried it, nor is he aware of the trial 
having been made. 

Other manures of a miscellaneous character 
are used for turnips. Pigeon's dung is most 
valuable ; rape dust has been used success- 
fully; and animalized carbon has also been ad- 
vantageously employed. Sixteen bushels per 
acre, when drilled, is the quantity generally 
applied. Malt culms are useful as a top-dress- 
ing. {Trans. York, .£gr. Soc.) 

A machine for sowing turnip-seed with bone- 
dust is described in the second volume of 
Trans. High. Soc. p. 205 ; and the results of 
some experiments with different manures is 
given. Trans. High. Soc. vol. i. p. 66, 72, vol. iv. 
p. 233. 

Weirds Manuring one-row Turnip Drill, is de- 
scribed and figured by Loudon, and said to be 
a remarkable improvement on the Northum- 
berland implement. It has a manure hopper, 
and a seed hopper, the same as the others ; but 
the manure, in place of being dropped along 
with the seed, is deposited in a deep gutter 
made by the coulter which goes before ; this 
manure is covered by a pronged coulter which 
follows the other : next comes the coulter 
which forms the gutter for the seed, which are 
deposited 1 inch above the manure. (See 
Loud. Envy, of .^gr.) 

Varieties. — There are numberless varieties 
and sub-varieties of turnips, which arrange 
themselves under four heads : — I. Swedish tur- 
nips, or liuta baga ; 2. Yellow and white tur- 
nips ; 3. Yellow turnips ; and 4. White turnips. 
Professor Low has divided them into three 
classes, distinguished by their form: — 1. The 
round, or globular; 2. The depressed; and 
3. The fusiform. These may be considered as 
types, to which the different cultivated kinds 
more or less approach. Many varieties are 
cultivated which are more fanciful than useful. 
For the main particulars of the following list 
I am chiefly indebted to an interesting Essay on 



TURNIP. 



TURNIP. 



Turnips published by Dr. William Ellis of 
Caistor, Lincolnshire, and to Messrs. Lawson's 
excellent Agriculturist's Manual. 

Swedish Turnips. — The Ruta Bagn, or Swed- 
ish turnip is hardier and more nutritious than 
any of the common sorts, and in addition to its 
being more esteemed as food for horses through- 
out the turnip season, is better adapted for spring 
feeding generallj'. It, however, requires a 
somewhat deeper and superior class of soils, 
together with a greater allowance of manure. 
S\ifcdish turnips are generally sown from about 
the middle to the end of May, and 2 to 2^ lbs. 
of seed per imperial acre are, under ordinary 
circumstances, considered sufficient. They 
possess an advantage over the others in being 
easily transplanted, so that the blanks in the 
rows, either of the Swedes or other sorts (when 
they occur), are by that means easily filled up. 

Skirving's new improved Purple-topped Swede. — 
Mr. William Skirving of Walton Nursery, near 
Liverpool, who has for many years directed his 
attention to the improvement of agricultural 
roots and plants, introduced last season for the 
first time the above variety. From comparison 
with every known variety of turnip, which Mr. 
Skirving has been at pains to collect from all 
quarters, both in England and on the continent, 
it appears to have shown itself to possess all 
the good qualities of a turnip, and gives a 
greater weight per acre of sound nutritive 
bulb: it is also hardier, and keeps longer than 
any other variety. The leaves of Mr. Skir- 
ving's Swede appear to partake considerably 
of the character of those of the common tur- 
nips, being less smooth and more serrated at 
the edges, and deficient in that glaucous bloom 
which distinguishes the leaves of the genuine 
Swedish turnip, which leads me to suspect that 
he has attained the size by hybridizing with 
some of the larger varieties of yellow turnips. 

JiaUnnty)ie's new improved Purple-topped Swede. 
— This improved variety for symmetry of 
shape, equality of size, and for the uniform deep 
purple colour of its top, is unsurpassed by any 
other variety which has come under our notice. 

Scott's Prize Purple-topped Swede. — This is ox- 
heart ?haped, purple above ground, and yellow 
fleshed, with a small top. 

Laiiig's new Pvple-toppcd Swede is a decidedly 
distinct variety. It has a leaf something like 
that of a lettuce. The leaves are so inserted 
in the top of the turnip as to give it much the 
appearance of that of a pine-apple. It grows 
to a good size, keeps well, and bears a very 
high character among the agriculturists of 
Berwickshire and Northumberland, where it is 
extensively cultivated. The crop has a most 
beautiful appearance when in full leaf. 

Green-topped Yellow Swede. — This variety is of 
longer standing than the purple-topped, since 
the introduction of which less attention has 
been bestowed by cultivators in procuring im- 
proved stocks of the green-topped Swede, 
which has on that account fallen somewhat in 
the estimation of growers ; but, where the same 
care is taken in selecting the roots grown for 
seed, the green-topped may be considered as 
being equal in merit to the purple. 

Scott's Prize Green-topped Yellow Swede is an 
im^ rnved variety of the above. The purple- 



topped Swedes are at present more popular, as 
we before mentioned ; but where, as is the case 
with Mr. Scott's, equal care has been bestowed 
on the selection of stocks, and in the subse- 
quent management, the green is in no way in- 
ferior to the purple-topped variety. 

Hilhjard's Thorpeland Swede. — This has the ap- 
pearance of a true Swedish turnip, and is said to 
be more nutritive, bulk for bulk, than some of 
the larger varieties, which may or may not be 
the case. Its dwarfish size, and the impossi- 
bility of raising any great weight of food per 
acre from it, must, notwithstanding its other 
merits, be a great obstacle to its making its 
way among the larger sorts which now invite 
the attention of cultivators. 

Car's new Imperial Swede. — This variety may 
be considered as intermediate in colour be- 
tween the purple and green-topped sorts ; its 
roots often attain a large size, but are rather 
irregular, and of a somewhat coarse-like quality. 

White Swede. — The roots of this turnip are 
veryirregularly shaped, with numberless fangs: 
they are white under the surface of the ground, 
and greenijh above. It is impossible to say 
what improvement may do for even this kind, 
but at present we are acquainted with no va- 
riety of white Swede worthy of cultivation. 

Yellow axd White Tuunips. — Common 
turnips are divided into two important classes, 
viz. the white and yellow-rooted ; the former 
comprehending those which are most tender 
and arrive soonest at maturity, and which are 
best fitted for using during the earlier part of 
the season ; and the latter, with trifling excep- 
tions, such as from their hardiness and period 
of arriving at perfection, are intermediate be- 
tween the white sorts and the Swedes, and, like 
the latter, require a somewhat superior soil 
and an additional allowance of manure. The 
period of sowing common turnips should be 
regulated according to the length of time that 
the variety to be grown requires to arrive at 
maturity ; for when allowed to remain in the 
ground in what maybe termed growing weather, 
or before winter sets in, after they attain to a 
full size, they become soft, spongy, and of in- 
ferior quality. A general rule, however, is, to 
commence with the yellow sorts about a fort- 
night after the Swedes, or about the beginning 
of June, and to follow with the white sorts from 
the middle till towards the end of that month. 

Yellow Turnips. — Jlltringham Yellow. — 
This turnip — although from its being rather 
below the medium size attained by yellow tur- 
nips in general, it is more particularly suited 
for garden culture — is also in good repute in 
some quarters as a field turnip. It is recom- 
mended for its fine globular shape, and the 
superior solidity of its flesh. It has a light 
greenish top, very small neck, and tap-root. 

Aberdeenshire Sugar Yellow. — This is a very 
hardy turnip; it buries itself considerably in 
the ground, is highly nutritious, and one of the 
most approved of the variet-^s .ately intro- 
duced. 

Border Imperial Purple-toppea Yellow. — The 
following particulars, respecting this variety, 
are given by Mr. Hogg : — " This turnip pos- 
sesses all the qualities of the Swedish, with 
the advantage of being a much freer grower 

1067 



TURNIP. 



TURNIP. 



It produces a larger crop than the white giobe, 
is a good feeder, and stands the winter better 
than any of the common yellows. It is in full 
perfection for using in February, and continues 
for as long a period as the Swedes; and should 
the latter fail, the border imperial being sown 
as late as the month of June, will yield a crop 
equal, if not superior, to what might have been 
expected from the Swedes, had they suc- 
ceeded." 

Green-topped Bullock Yellow. — This turnip at- 
tains a medium size. Its shape is globular, or 
somewhat flattened, with a very small tap-root; 
it is an old variety, and is held in deserved es- 
timation. 

Purple-topped Bullock Yellow. — This variety 
differs from the former chiefly in the colour of 
the top ; the size, shape, and quality of the 
roots being pretty nearly the same. It is also 
highly esteemed, and is considered by some to 
come nearest to the Swedes in hardiness and 
solidity of texture. 

Skirviiig's Improved Purple-topped Bullock Yel- 
low. — This improved variety of the above ob- 
tained fur its introducer — Mr. Willaim Skirv- 
ing, of Liverpool — the medal of the Highland 
Society of Scotland. It has been generally 
grown for a number of years by the first agri- 
culturists in Lancashire and the northwestern 
counties. 

Green and Purple-topped Yellow Scotch diflJer 
but little in any of their essential properties 
from green and purple-topped bullock yellow. 
The roots are flatter, and grow more in the 
ground. 

Ox-heart Yellow is an excellent turnip; al- 
though it comes early to maturity, and attains 
a considerable size, it is by no means deficient 
in hardiness. 

Yellow Globe. — This is a superior turnip, both 
for field and garden culture. Its roots are of 
medium size, globular, and always nearly un- 
der the surface of the ground; top greenish, 
leaves rather small and spreading. 

Yellow So,ic. — This variety differs from the 
last in growing more out of the ground, and 
having a greener top; in other respects it is 
pretty similar. 

Brown-topped Tankard Yellotv, — Root bright 
yellow, with a purple or brownish lop, of a 
somewhat irregular long or tankard shape. 
This variety is in great repute in Aberdeen- 
shire. A sub-variety, of not so very long a 
shape, is preferred by some growers. They 
are both excellent turnips. 

Green-topped Tankard Yellow differs from the 
above chiefly in the colour of the top. Of this 
there is also a sub-variety, of a flatter shape. 

Large Laurencekirk Yellow Tankard, intro- 
duced by Mr. Robert Scott, of Laurencekirk, 
resembles Dale's hybrid in many particulars, 
like which it grows a good deal out of the 
ground, but is distinguished by its more oblong 
and more nniformly shaped roots. It arrives 
early at maturity, but is generally considered 
as -ather less hardy, although it yields an 
equally bulky crop. 

Dale's Hybrid. — This highly esteemed variety 

rs a cross between the green-topped Swede 

and white globe, procured by repeated impreg- 

ations. Its most distinguishingcharacteristics 

1068 



are as follow : — foliage strong and luxuriant, 
roots of a large size, oblong shape, and of a 
lightish yellow colour, with light green top, 
having also a small neck and tap-root. The 
form of the root, however, although generally 
oblong, is rather apt to vary, being sometimes 
almost globular ; but its more material cha- 
racteristics, of large size and luxuriance of 
growth, are always the same. Compared with 
any other of the yellow field sorts, it is found 
to arrive sooner at maturity, and consequently 
may be sown at a later period of the season ; 
while at the same time it is equally hardy, or 
at least has been found sufficiently so, to with- 
stand the severest winters which have occurred 
since its introduction. 

Gordon's Yellow. — This very superior variety 
is of a rather oblong shape, deep green colour 
on the top, which is generally very slightly 
tinged with red. It is very nearly allied to 
Dale's hybrid, being a cross between the Aber- 
deenshire bullock yellow and the Swede. Sir 
F. A. Mackenzie, Bart., upon whose extreme 
accuracy as an experimentalist the utmost re- 
liance may be placed, grew last year a con- 
siderable number of the most approved kinds 
of turnips, on his farm at Conan Mains, near 
Dingwall, in Ross-shire, with the view of select- 
ing such as might be found most worthy of 
being kept in cultivation as best suited to the 
soil and climate of Ross-shire. The result of 
his experiments was, that of Swedes, Skirv- 
ing's is decidedly the best, Gordon's yellow 
the best of the yellow-fleshed, and Scott's pur- 
ple-topped hybrid and the old white globe, of 
the white-fleshed kinds. 

Hood's New Large Yellow is a very superior, 
large, globular-shaped, hardy turnip, remarka- 
bly perfect in symmetry, with rather a lightish 
green top. 

Pollexfen Yellow. — This turnip derives its 
name from its introducer, Thomas Pollexfen, 
Esq., of Cairston. From his peculiar method 
of selecting and transplanting the bulbs, as 
well as of stacking and preserving the seed, the 
turnip-seed of Mr. Pollexfen's growth has long 
been held in deserved estimation in Scotland, 
and has commanded the highest prices. The 
insular situation of Orkney, although in lati- 
tude 59° north, renders its climate less exposed 
to the extremes of heat and cold than in more 
continental situations farther south, the winters 
being mild, and the frost so gentle that the 
ice is seldom sufficiently strong to sustain the 
weight of a man. Its climate is on that ac- 
count peculiarly favourable to the growth of 
turnips, and turnip-seed grown in Orkney is 
accordingly highly prized by the Scotch far- 
mers. The Pollexfen yellow is a green-topped 
turnip of a large size, rather flattish in shape, 
skin very smooth and thin ; the flesh is firm 
and nutritious, being slightly impregnated with 
the green topped Swedish. It is adapted for 
winter and spring feeding, and is not liable to 
injury from frost. This turnip obtained the 
prize at the meeting of the Highland and Agri- 
cultural Society of Scotland, held at Inverness 
in 1836, in the report of which it is highly 
commended. 

White Turnips. — White Globe. — Roots glo- 
bular ; skin smooth, and perfectly white ; neck 



TURNIP. 



and tap-root small. Although the above de- 
scription embraces the principal characteristics 
of the white globe turnip, yet there is a con- 
siderable variety in those to which the name 
is applied, arising from the degree of care and 
attentiqn bestowed by growers in selecting 
their seed-roots ; and the shape is often not 
a little affected by the kind and state of the 
soil in which they are grown. Thus globes 
of any kind, and particularly the variety here 
mentioned, when grown on a very superior 
rich soil, may be said to be forced beyond their 
natural size, and thereby acquire somewhat of 
a monstrous or overgrown appearance, losing 
in a great measure their natural symmetry of 
shape. 

Pomeranian Globe.'— This variety was intro- 
duced some years since from Pomerania, and 
may be considered the most perfect globe tur- 
nip in shape, as well as the most regular or 
uniform grower. Its skin is of a smooth white, 
and somewhat shining or transparent-like in 
appearance ; leaves smoothish, of a dark green 
1 colour, with whitish nerves. 
I Green Globe. — Roots of a fine globular shape, 
1 with a small neck and tap-root; very white 
beneath, and green above the surface of the 
ground, of medium size, hardy and firm of tex- 
1 ture,but scarcely so much so as the green round, 
; although it arrives at maturity rather earlier. 
1 Stone Globe. — This is considered to be the 
I hardiest of all the entire white globe turnips. 
! It grows naturally deeper in the soil than the 
1 others, and has stronger and darker green 
j foliage. 

Red Globe. — Roots medium-sized, globularly 
shaped, and firm in texture. This is an old, 
and, in some districts, a pretty extensively cul- 
tivated variety. It is medium early, and gene- 
rally allowed "to be particularly well suited for 
light soils and exposed elevated situations. 

White Round is known in Lincoln by the 
name of spring white. It is the largest of the 
round turnips, and, at the same time, the soft- 
est and most irregular in shape. It is gene- 
rally hollowed towards the neck, and, being so, 
Is apt to be injured by retaining moisture, 
which renders it unfit for using, except in the 
beginning of the winter season. 

Green Round. — The round turnips are all of 
a peculiar flatlish shape, rather hollowed to- 
wards their neck, as also on their under side; 
and, when grown to a large size, they become 
more or less of an irregular round, or some- 
what cornered shape. The green-topped va- 
riety possesses these characters in a less de- 
gree than the former, and is generally of a 
pretty, regular, round shape, flattened, but not 
much hollowed, on the upper and under sur- 
face, the former of which is of a green colour, 
and the latter white. It is also the hardiest of 
the round turnips. 

Red Round. — This sort is inferior in size to 
the two former, but rather firmer in texture, 
and more regular in shape. It should also be 
used in the early part of the season. 

White Tankard. — The tankards, like the three 
preceding kinds, are unsuitable for winter 
feeding, not so much on account of their soft- 
ness, as from their standing mostly above 
ground, and being thereby much exposed to 



TURNIP 

frost. They are generally earlier in arriving 
at maturity than the others. The white tan- 
kard has its roots more than half out of the 
ground, oblong, or tankard-shaped, but often 
bent or crooked. It is the largest of the tan- 
kards, but is also softer in texture than either 
red or green ; its leaves are large and luxu- 
riant: it is the earliest in maturing of any, hjt 
will not stand the frost. 

Green Tankard. — The roots of this species 
are also more than half above ground ; of a 
greenish colour, except on the under surface, 
which is white. 

Red Tankard.— In size, form, and texture, this 
variety may be considered as occupying an 
intermediate place between the white and 
green tankard. It is of a bright red colour on 
the upper surface, and white on the under. 

Lawton Hybrid.— Uardy, aiiQ possessed of 
more solidity and firmness than most of the/ 
white sorts. . 

Scott's improverl Purple-topped Hybrid. — tor 
a white-tleshed turnip is remarkably solid, and 
attaining a great size. 

Lewisham Green-topped Ox-heart.— An excel- 
lent variety, grown in some of the southern 
districts of England and Scotland. 

The short seasons of growth allowed the 
turnip in the American climate, renders most 
of the preceding varieties unfit for culture. Mr, 
Buistof Philadelphia, recommends the two fol- 
lowing preferable to the most superior of the 
European sorts. 

Red or Purple-topped. (American,) shape flat 
and round, with purple top ; very hardy and keeps 
•well. Sow about the end of August, or not later 
than the Sth of September. 

White or Flat Dutch ; often called strap-leaved 
White, is in form, size and qualities, very simi- 
lar to the preceding; it is more generally culti- 
vated in the United States than any other kind 

of turnip. . . 

Lewisham Green-topped Ox-heart. — J his is an 

excellent variety, grown in some of the south- 
ern districts of' England, and in Scotland. It 
acquired this name from having been first 
introduced by Messrs. Willmot & Co. of Lew- 
isham. 

Autumn, Stxibble, or Six Weeks. — Roots much 
above ground, rather large, of an irregular 
globular shape, or in form between the white 
globe and white round, and rather soft. This 
sort arrives sooner at maturity than any of the 
others, the tankard turnips perhaps excepted; 
and from its natural softness of texture should 
always be sown late, and used before the se- 
vere frosts set in. As descriptive of its for- 
wardness, it has received the above names, 
being suited for sowing in early situations in 
autumn after the corn crop has been removed, 
and it is also valuable for making up blanks 
in turnip fields, where the first sowing may 
have partially failed. 

The comparative nutritive powers of the 
different varieties of turnips appear to be as 
follow : — . 



64 drachms of the Swedish turnip afford 

Stone or garden turnip - - - 

Norfolk white turnip - - - - 

Common or white loaf . - - 

Tanltard or long-rooted - - - - 76 

(Sinclair's Hort. Oram, p 406.^ 
4 X 1069 



110 

85 
83 
80 



TURNIP. 

Methods of solving. — The modes of sowing are 
various ; but the general principle to be at- 
tended to is, to get the seed into the nearest 
possible connection with the manure used, so 
that it may have all the advantage of its fer- 
tilizing influence in the earliest stage. This 
is forestalling, because, it decides the drill 
method to be the most valuable, before we de- 
scribe the others ; but it is a principle so ne- 
cessary and obvious as to strike every reflect- 
ing person at the outset. The old broadcast 
plan was, to spread on the manure, plough it 
in, and then very carefully sow the seed with 
the hand. This practice is almost everywhere 
abandoned, nor can it be justified or recom- 
mended in any case. 

The plough drill is used where farm-yard 
manure only is employed. The manure is 
spread on the ground, and the plough follows 
with the drill, being fixed to the right-hand side 
of the plough, and thus deposits the seed im- 
mediately in the seam made by the plough, and 
directly upon the manure just covered by the 
plough. The plough-drill is only useful where 
very bulky manure alone is applied. See 
DniLL. 

The ridge or Scotch method is used with 
success, especially on inferior and thin soils, 
and has its decided advantages. The ridges 
are made either with a single cast of the double 
mould-board plough, or a double one of the 
common or ribbing plough, and from 20 to 28 
inches apart. A cart with manure follows, and 
women are generally employed to drop the 
manure into the seams made by the plough. 
The plough again follows, and closes the 
ridges, covering the manure; and the drill 
succeeds, drawn by one horse, and sows one 
ridge at a time. A light roller goes over the 
sown ridges to cover the seed, and sometimes 
the ridges are rolled before the sowing. This 
plan takes more time and labour to effect it, 
but the turnips generally succeed; and if they 
should be destroyed by the flea-beetle, they can 
be resown with more probability of success 
than by any other method. 

The general and most expeditious way is by 
the large drill. This is constructed to deposit 
the bones, ashes, &c., with the seed, upon the 
level surface, drilling 6 or 7 rows at once. It 
is drawn by 3 horses, and will drill 12 acres 
per day. The seed does not run down the 
same funnel as the bones, but has a separate 
apparatus immediately behind the latter, and 
the coulters of the drill generally cover the 
whole. A pair of light harrows are usually 
passed over once after the sowing ; and should 
much heavy rain succeed, it is desirable to 
give it another turn with the harrows imme- 
diately before it is dry, to prevent it from 
scarping. The quantity of seed sown by each 
of these methods, is from 2 to 3 pounds per 
acre. 

.jlfler Culture. — When the turnip plants are 
of about 3 weeks' growth, they require to be 
thinned, and the weeds destroyed. This is 
usually performed by hand-hoeing; but in 
some cases Swedes are hand-thinned by wo- 
men, and subsequently horse-hoed, which can 
be done in all cases where they are sown in 
ridges, and is a considerable savins of labour. 
1070 



TURNIP. 

No two plants should be left together at the 
first hoeing, but they should be thoroughly 
singled ; and a second hoeing must take place 
about 2 or 3 weeks afterwards, to destroy the 
weeds. For ordinary crops, they should be 
left 7 to 12 inches distant, according to the 
richness or poverty of the soil ; if the latter is 
the case, they should be at shorter distances, 
as they will grow to a smaller size. The 
whole of the ground should be gone over, as it 
loosens the earth, and promotes the growth of 
the plants. The double operation is usually 
performed for from 6s. to 7s. per acre. Some- 
times the crop requires hand-weeding in the 
autumn, especially if the soil is infested with 
charlock. 

Diseases. — The extensive and repeated cul- 
ture of the turnip has fostered the rapid in- 
crease of its natural enemies ; and after all the 
pains, labour, and expense of the cultivator, he 
often sees his crop entirely destroyed, or seri- 
ously injured. The remedies he can apply for 
many of these can only be termed palliative ; 
but still he has much in his power; and as the 
knowledge of natural history and field-ento- 
mology advances, he may expect more and 
more assistance. See Insects. 

The turnip flea-beetle (Haltica nemoruni) is 
one of the worst enemies which attack the 
turnip plant, which it does when in its seed- 
leaf slate, and often destroys a crop, and even 
the second and third sowings. Various steps 
have been taken in order to prevent its attacks, 
and several steeps for the seed used, but with- 
out success; top-dressings of a saline and as 
tringent character have been applied, but have' 
failed; machines have been invented, but none 
of these have succeeded. The only directions 
which can be given are: sow plenty of seed; 
use stimulating manure, to excite the plants to 
vigorous growth in their first stages, and se- 
cure a sufficiency of moisture in the soil at the 
time of sowing; especially keeping seedlings 
in turnip fields clear of charlock, which nurses 
the flea. See Fly iv Turnips. 

The black caterpillar, larva of the Athalia 
ren/ifolicE, also preys upon the leaves in a more 
advanced stage, appearing on the plants when 
they are about 3 weeks old. See Saw-Fly. 

Another disease to which the turnip is liable, 
is vulgarly called "fingers and toes." See An- 
bury. 

The wire-worm is a sad enemy. (See Winp.- 
WoiiM.) The swarms of aphides, or plant 
lice, severely injure the turnips; and, from the 
smallness of their size, are often unobserved. 
In 1836 they committed terrific ravages. They 
suck the juices of the plant, and appear in 
countless numbers. They are both oviparous 
and viviparous, and increase with amazing 
rapidity. Happily they are always followed by 
swarms of lady-cows, which feed on them, as 
well as insectivorous birds, which destroy vast 
numbers. No remedy can be applied with any 
probability of success. Every farmer should 
carefully protect swallows, red-breasts, &c., 
which are great destroyers of the aphides. 

Slugs are, especially on newly ploughed soils, 
great devourers of the turnip plant in all its 
stages. Ducks will devour them, but always 
injure the plants. Three bushels of quick 



TURNIP. 



TURNIP. 



lime per acre, scattered over the plants early 
in the morning, when the slugs are active, is a 
certain method of destroying them. Perhaps 
the very best preservative from ail the above 
diseases may be staled to be — liberal manuring, 
adapted to the soil ; thorough clearing of the 
land from weeds ; and, in short, pursuing the 
steps above detailed for securing a full crop. 
The vigour of the plants in such cases, and 
their rapid vegetation, often enable them to 
overcome many serious attacks. 

Storivg. — There are different modes of per- 
forming this useful practice. The common 
way is to take up the turnips, choosing dry 
weather, cutting off the leaves and taproots 
(provincially called topping and tailing), which 
operation should be performed with as much 
exactness as possible, so as not to wound the 
bulb, as this would cause the turnip to rot; nor 
yet to leave much of the leaves, as this would 
make the turnip vegetate on receiving a flight 
degree of heat ; after this the turnips are 
placed in a well-aired situation, adjoining to 
the feeding byre, in a narrow tapering ridge, 
similar to potato pits, and this is covered with 
straw and secured with ropes. The situation 
chosen for the store should be as dry as pos- 
sible. The heaps must not be covered with 
earth, like potatoes ; for this would cause the 
turnips to heat and completely destroy them. 

But as this practice of storing is only adapt- 
pil for the Swedish and yellow varieties, the 
white globe variety possessing too much water 
to be preserved for any length of time, another 
method is often practised by what is called 
;;/rt'(/?g-. The tap-roots being taken off, the 
bulbs, with the leaves, are placed close together 
ill the position they grew, upon some dry place 
near to where they are to be consumed. In 
this way they will keep longer than if they had 
been left in the field, as they are not so apt to 
run to seed. 

But even the placing system has its objec- 
tions ; for if a tract of dry weather set in, the 
turnips, from being merely on the surface, be- 
come soft and shrivelled, and not so palatable 
to the cattle, and will even continue so for a 
considerable time, although the weather should 
be rainy, until the fibres begin to take hold of the 
soil ; and another objection is, that if the turnips 
are not placed near the steading, the destruction 
from game, hares, wood-pigeons, &c. is very 
great, particularly if the turnip be Swedish. 

In order, therefore, to remedy these objec- 
tions, another method has been adopted, which 
has been found to answer every purpose in- 
tended. The turnips are brought from the 
Held, without either " topping or tailing," to a 
piece of dry ground near the straw-yard ; then 
a man with one horse in a plough makes a 
straight furrow ; the turnips are then placed in 
the furrow quite close together, till the whole 
is filled from end to end; then the man with 
the plough moves round to where he com- 
menced, drawing another furrow just as close 
to the turnips as to enable him to cover them, 
and so on alternately, the men making the fur- 
row and covering the turnips, while the women 
and girls lay in the turnips. By this method 
the turnips keep as fresh, preserving all their 
natural juice and are as well relished by the 



cattle as though they were taken from the field; 
thus allowing the land to be sown with wheat. 

The report of the Harleston Farmers' Club 
for 1839, affirms that the best method of pre- 
serving roots during the winter, is by clamping 
them, both as regards protection from frost and 
maintaining their quality ; and that the follow- 
ing is a very effectual method of making the 
clamps : — Select a convenient and dry situa- 
tion, and pack the roots carefully, with their 
crowns outside, in a row about 6 feet wide at 
the bottom, and terminating in a narrow ridge 
at the top ; then dig a trench, commencing im- 
mediately at the edge of the roots, 2 feet wide 
and 1 deep, turning the mould from the heap; 
thatch the latter carefully with straw, com- 
mencing in the trench, so that all the rain may 
drain off the heap into it. The clamp may be 
left two or three weeks in this state, that the 
evaporation from the roots may escape ; the 
mould already taken out of the trench is then 
to be laid on the straw, commencing at the bot- 
tom of the thatch, and covering the heap 12 
inches thick throughout, finishing with a sharp 
edge. Half the trench originally made will, 
of course, by this plan be filled up with straw 
and mould; the other half will remain as a 
channel for the water falling off the heap; and, 
as sutlcient mould will not have been raised 
from the original excavation, it will be advis- 
able, in procuring more, to make the channel 
left round the heap a few inches deeper, as 
well as wider. If the roots are stored late in 
the season, and the probability of frost setting 
in renders it necessary to cover the heap with 
mould as soon as it is made, it would be better 
to leave the top uncovered for a week or ten 
days longer, that the heat may escape. There 
is no objection to the roots being wet and dirty 
when they are clamped: the tops should be cut 
ofi, but not too close to the crown ; the roots 
and fibres should be left on. 

In England, the turnip crops cultivated with 
so much care and at so much cost, yield a 
most abundant supply of vegetable matter, 
most of which, owing to the comparatively 
mild winters, is left on and in the ground to be 
eaten off by sheep. This adds great fertility 
to the soil and prepares it for producing those 
astonishingly luxuriant crops of wheat of 40, 
50 and 60 bushels to the acre. The profits of 
the turnip crop, either direct or indirect, must 
be very great, to authorize a tenant on land 
loaded with taxes, to go to an expense of nearly 
§50 per acre in putting in his root crop, as 
may be seen in the article Appuaiskmext, 
where the details of expenditures in putting in 
only 17 acres of Swedish turnips are estimated 
at £117 15s. sterling, equal to nearly $900, of 
federal money, a sum actually paid for the 
crop in the ground by an incoming tenant. 
The root crops of Britain which form the basis 
of her agricultural prosperity, can only be par- 
tially carried on in the United States, ov/ing to 
the severity of the winter, by which every thing 
on or near the surface of the ground is bouni 
in early and enduring frost. But then, where 
cold thus opposes a barrier, a high summer 
heat opens a new resource, and where nature 
obstructs the way in one direction, she opens 
others to agricultural thrift. One of these is 

1071 



TURNIP CART. 



TUSSER, THOMAS. 



the Indian corn crop, denied to Europe, except 
in a small space on or near the Mediterranean. 
The value of this crop, far transcending that 
of any other staple, is referred to under the 
head of Maize. In reference to the agricul- 
tural value of the turnip and other roots, Mr. 
Nicholas Biddle in an address before the Phi- 
ladelphia Agricultural Society in 1842, made 
the following interesting observations; — 

"It is strange how things so lowly acquire 
national importance. The best farming is that 
which will give the greatest mass of suste- 
nance to animals — since the less land required 
for animals, the more can be given for the 
maintenance of human beings. That fine 
farming region, England, had reached the limit 
of its power of supporting animals — since it 
turned to the root culture it more than doubled 
or quadrupled its power — and now, odd as the 
mingling of such dissimilar notions may seem, 
it is scarcely an exaggeration to say, that Eng- 
land's power is based upon its iron, its coal, 
and its turnips. Then, that beet, which the 
commercial jealousy of Napoleon endeavoured 
to raise to the dignity of the sugar-cane, which 
at this moment yields to France more than 60 
millions of pounds of good sugar, and has now 
become so incorporated into the French agri- 
culture as to divide the government of France 
between the encouragement of the foreign 
sugar-cane and the domestic sugar beet. To 
us the question is unimportant, since sugar is 
so cheap in this country as to leave to us the 
sugar beet as an excellent food for our cattle." 

Although the excessive frosts in the United 
States interfere with the English plan of feeding 
the turnips from the ground during winter, still 
there is no question that great advantages may 
be derived by the American farmer from the 
cultivation of the turnip, the Swedish especially, 
to lay up as green and succulent food for stock, 
to be used conjointly with hay and other kinds 
of provender. Very satisfactory experiments 
have demonstrated the value of turnips appro- 
priated in this way, for an account of which the 
reader may consult Bud's Farmer's Instructor, 
Coleman's Reports, the Cultivator, and other Am. 
agricultural periodicals. 

The insects tvhich attack turnips in America will 
be found described under the heads Caterpil- 
lAH, Flea-Beetle, Fly in Turnips, &c. 

TURNIP CART. This is an ingenious 
adaptation of the disc turnip cutter to the tur- 
nip cart. The disc is put in motion by a face- 
wheel fixed upon the nave of the cart-wheel, 
which, as it revolves communicates by means 
of cog-wheels with the axis of the cutting- 
plate. It offers a very convenient mode of 
feeding sheep on pastures or lawns, and was 
introduced about the year 1834, by Arthur Bid- 
dell, farmer, of Playford, the inventor of the 
well-known scarifier, which bears his name. 

TURNIP CUTTERS. Although there are 
stveral kinds of turnip cutters, the principles 
upon which thej'' are constructed do not em- 
brace much variety : setting aside the simple 
application of the knife with a lever handle, 
the others may be divided into two classes ; 
first, those which have their knives placed on 
a disc ; and secondly, those with their cutting 
«d;fes arranged on a cylinder. 
1072 



As the object to be eflTected is simple, and 
involves little mechanical contrivance, a short 
description will suffice. 

Gardner's Patent Turnip Cutter, is pronounced 
the best known in England. In Ransome's Bar- 
row Turnip Cutter, Gardner's machine is used, 
the disc of which is attached to the side of a 
barrow, which serves as a hopper ; the knife is 
nearly the length of the radius, and when re- 
quired to cut the turnip in slices is alone used; 
if it be necessary to cut small slices for sheep, 
the small cross-knives are, by a simple con- 
trivance, adjusted to dissect the slice; and in 
this case the barrow is useful, as it is easily 
moved from trough to trough, into which the 
small slices may be made to fall. 

It is intended to cut into small slices for 
sheep, and is generally acknowledged to he the 
best implement for the purpose that is at pre- 
sent in use in England. 

TURPENTINE. A transparent, oleo-resin- 
ous substance, which exudes naturally, but is 
chiefly obtained by incision, from various spe- 
cies of pine. There are several kinds of tur- 
pentine, namely, common, Bordeaux, Cana- 
dian, Strasburg, Venice, and American white. 
The Chian turpentine is the production of the 
Pistarhia terebinlhus ; but all of them possess 
the same general and chemical properties. 

TUSSER, THOMAS, a celebrated agricul- 
tural writer. Five-and-twenty years after the 
publication of the first English work upon agr' 
culture (Fitzherberl's Boke of Husbnnrhye), ap- 
peared (in 1557) the One Hundred Points of 
Good Husbandry, by Thomas Tusser. This 
celebrated work must be regarded more as a 
series of poetical good farming, and domestic 
directions and axioms, than as a regular treat- 
ise upon agriculture. All that is known of the 
author of this curious production has been col- 
lected by Dr. Mavor, in his able edition of 
Tusser's book, and by my brother, Mr. George 
W. Johnson, in his History of English Garden- 
ing; and both these authors have been obliged 
to content themselves chiefly with Tusser's 
own account of himself; for Tusser did what 
few men ever attempt — he wrote his own life, 
and in a manner still more rare, in verse. His 
life was full of adventure ; for he evidently had 
all the restlessness of genius, with the unsettled 
habits too commonly confirmed by continued 
change of occupation. 

He was born about the year 1515, at Riven- 
hall, a village on the high-road between the 
towns of Witham and Keldevon, in Essex, of a 
family allied by marriage to the higher ranks 
of society. 

He was buried in the church of St. Mildred 
in the Poultry, according to Stowe, with this 
epitaph: 

" Here, Thomas Tusser, clad in earth, doth lie, 
That sometime made the Points of Husbandry : 
By him then learn thou niay'st ; here learn we must, 
When all is done, we sleep, and turn to dust : 
And yet, through Christ, to heaven we hope to go ; 
Who reads his books, shall find his faith was so." 

In whatever capacity he at various times 
lived he acted with ability, yet never so as to 
benefit his fortune. That he excelled as a 
chorister, — to which he was originally edu- 
cated, though strongly against his inclination. 



TUSSER, THOMAS. 



TUSSER, THOMAS. 



—is certain ; for none but those of more than 
ordinary powers are admitted into the royal 
choir. As a courtier he was unfrowned upon 
till the disgrace of his patron. As a farmer it 
is evident that he possessed a correct know- 
ledge, from his work upon the subject. The 
same book testifies that, as an author and a 
poet, he was far above mediocrity. Fuller, in 
his Worthies of Essex, describes him, in his 
usual quaint manner, as " a musician, school- 
master, serving-man, husbandman, grazier, 
poet; more skilful in all than thriving in any 
vocation. He spread," he adds, " his bread 
with all ;orts of butter, yet none would stick 
thereon.' The testimony of Fuller to the ex- 
cellent piivate character of Tusser is valuable 
as coming from one who must have been the 
contemporary of many persons who well re- 
membered our author. " I hear," says Fuller, 
" no man to charge him with any vicious ex- 
travagancy or visible carelessness." The true 
reason of his ill success in life is to be found, 
perhaps, in the verses of a poet almost his con- 
temporary. Peacham, in his Minerva, a book 
of emblems, published in 1612, has a device of 
a whetstone and a scythe, with this beneath: 

"They tell nie, Tusser, when ihoii wert alive. 
And hadst for profit turned every stone. 
Where'er thou earnest thnn couldst never thrive. 
Though hereto best couldst counsel every one ; 
As it may in thy Hushnndry appear, 
Wherein afrcsii thou livesl among us here. 
So, like thyself, a number more are wont 
To sharpen others with advice of wit, 
When tiiey tliemselves are like the whetstone blunt." 

Tusser's work first appeared in 1557, en- 
titled "./3 Hundreth Good Poinles of Husbandrie : 

"A hundreth good points of husbandry 
Maintiiineth good household, with huswifry. 
Housekeeping and husbindry, if it be good. 
Must love one another like cousinnes in blood. 
The wife, too, must husband as well as the man, 
Or farewel thy husbandry do what thou can. 

Imprinted at London, in Flete strete, within 
Temple barre, at the sygne of the hand and 
starre, by Richard Totell, the third day of Feb- 
ruary, An. 1557. Cum priviligio ad imprimen- 
dura solum." 

A copy of this edition, which Dr. Mavor con- 
siders to be unique, is in the British Museum. 
It consists of only 13 quarto leaves. 

The Book of Huswifry, it is supposed, was at 
first printed by itself; it was afterwards added 
to the editions of the Husbandry. 

Editions of this work appeared in 1561, 1562; 
and another, "newly corrected and amplified," 
1570, 1571 (Watts). To these succeeded an 
enlarged edition and several reprints, the last 
of which is that edited by Dr. W. Mavor in 
1812, 4to and 8vo, with many notes and addi- 
tions. 

To this Book of Husbandry, says Weston, is 
often joined The Booke of Regarde, containing the 
Castle of Delight, the Garden of Unthriftinessc, the 
Arbour of Virtue, and the Castle of Repentance. 
Another work is ascribed by Haller to the pen 
of Tusser, viz. Tractatus de ^gricultura Versibus 
Anglicis. London, 1638-72. Both these last- 
mentioned works are extremely rare. 

Tusser dedicated his book first to Lord Wil- 
liam Paget, in an acrostic, and after his death 
to "the Lord Paget of Beaudesert," his son and 
135 



heir. From this we find that Tusser shared aii 
author's very common fate, for he tells us — 

" By practice and ill speeding. 
These lessons had their breeding. 
And not by hearsay or reading. 

As some abroad have blown ; 
Who will not thus believe me. 
So much the more they grieve me. 
Because they grudge to give me. 

What is of right mine own." 

Its price, when first published, as described 
in his prefatory address to the reader, was only 
4rf. or 8rf. He says, 

" What is a groat 
Or twain to note, 
Once in the life. 
For man or wife V 

The style in which Tusser wrote his book is 
plain, and sometimes rather hobbling; but at 
the same time it is a metre easily remembered; 
and verse is well adapted to impress upon the 
memory the mass of useful truths and rural 
directions contained in the work. In the rhym- 
mg preface, "to the buyer of this book" (for 
Tusser seemed to do every thing in verse), he 
says, — 

" What look ye, I pray you shew what 1 
Terms pointed with rhetorick fine 7 
Good husbandry seeketh not that. 
Nor is't any meaning of mine." 

His tenth chapter consists of a series of 63" 
excellent "Good Husbandry Lessons, worthy 
to be followed of such as will thrive," He- 
omitted no opportunity to give occasion for 
seasonable reflections : 

"As bud, by appearing, betok'neth the spring. 
And leaf, by her falling, the contrary thing;. 
So youth bids us labour to get as we can. 
For age is a burden to labouring man." 

He comments the system of moderate corn- 
rents, and was evidently no enemy to the sports 
of the field: 

" To hunters and hawkers lake heed what ye say. 
Mild answer with courtesy, drives them away; 
So where a man's better will open a gap. 
Resist not with rudeness, for fear of mishap " 

He begins his monthly husbandry with Sep- 
tember, for that was then the period, as now in 
England, when arable land was commonly en- 
tered upon by the farmer. He says, in his 
opening stanza, — 

"At Michaelmas lightly, new farmer comes in,. 
New husbandry forcelh hiin ; new to begin; 
Old farmer, still taking, the time to him given, 
Makes August to last untill Ittichaelmas even." 

In furtherance of his object, that of giving 
some very minute directions to the incoming 
tenant, he even gives a catalogue of farming 
implements in verse, in which he manages 
with some adroitness to include several ap- 
parently impracticable names, such as, — 

" A hand-barrow, wheel-barrow, shovel, and spade. 
A curry-comb, mane-comb, and whip for a jadt." 

It was the approved practice in TusserV 
days to " sow timely thy white wheat, sow rye 
in the dust." They were used also to put rye- 
meal into their wheat-flour : 

"But sow it not mixed to grow so on land, 
Lest rye tarry wheat till it shed as it stand." 

Thick and thin sowing had even then cne.. 
I respective advocates : 

4x2 1073 



TUSSER, THOMAS. 



TUSSER, THOMAS. 



" Though beans be in sowing ; but scattered In, 
Yet wheat, rye. and peason, I love not too ihin : 
Sow barley and dredge with a plentiful hand, 
Lest weed, stead of seed, overgroweth thy land. 

It is evident that in those days the farmers 
were not able to grow their grain on many soils 
where the modern holders find no obstacles. 
Thus he speaks of the difficulty they found in 
producing barley in the parish of Brantham, 
in Essex, where he farmed some land; and, 
again, he tells us, what will surprise the mo- 
iern skilful Suffolk farmers, — 

" In Suffolk, again, whereas wlieat never grew. 
Good husbandry, used, good wheat land 1 knew." 

And he adds, — 

" As gravel and sand is for rye and not wheat." 

He mentions several varieties of wheat then 
grown by the fr.rmers of the reign of good 
Queen Bess, such as white and red rivet, white 
and red pollard, Turkey and gray. But of this 
last he says, — 

" Oats, rye, or else barley, and wheat that is grey. 
Brings land out of comfort, and soon to decay." 

The land, however, was evidently farmed 
with little skill : 

^'Two crops of a fallow, enricheth the plough. 
Though l' one be of pease, it island good enough : 
One crop and a fallow some soil will abide. 
Where, if ye go further, lay profit aside." 

He warns the farmers to beware of corn 
stealers, and to keep their soil in good heart ; 
to manure their land with the earth from head- 
hinds and old banks ; he commends the use of 
night-soil for gardens; and recommends the 
manure of the farm-yard to be laid up "round 
on a liill.'' And he had the wisdom to perceive 
Ihe advantages of shed-feeding live-stock: 

'■ Thi^ house ing of ca tile, while winter doth hold, 
It is good for all such as are feeble and old ; 
Ii siv'ili much compass and many a sleep. 
Ami bparelh the pasture fur walk of thy sheep." 

Grazing has, since Tusser's days, been more 
and more on the decline, as soiling has been 
belter appreciated. A distinguished modern, 
witty divine, in a letter to a friend, thus zeal- 
ously denounces the grazing system : "Grazing 
is an absolute barbarism ; it is just the same 
as if you desired your servants to trample and 
roll over your bread and butter." 

For faint cattle he recommends the use of 
bay-salt; and in his February's husbandry gives 
some directions for the management of their 
dung, which betrays a deplorable want of know- 
ledge in its economy : 

" Who layeth on dung, ere he layeth on plow. 
Such husbandry useth, as thrift doth allow : 
One month ere ye spread it, so still let it stand. 
Ere ever to plow it, ye take it in hand. 

Place dung-heap alow, by the furrow along. 
Where water, all winter-time did it such wrong : 
■So make ye the land to be lusty and fat. 
And corn thereon sown, to be better for that." 

In another place, however, he recommends 
tli« farmer to use the mud from ditches and 
ponds as a dressing for their land. 

They harvested their corn, it seems, then, 
much after the same manner as at the present 
day. They reaped their wheat and mowed 
;heir stubbles ; and this they carried as we do 
iiow. as soon as possible after harvest: 
1074 



" For fear of destroying with cattle or rain, 
The sooner ye load it more profit ye gain." 

And as to barley, Tusser says, — 

" The mowing of barley, if barley do stand. 
Is cheapest and best, for to rid oiit of hand : 
•Some mow it, and rake it, and set it on cocks ; 
Some mow it, and bind it, and set it on shocks." 

They let out, at the period when Tusser 
wrote, it seems, the harvest-work either by the 
acre or by the day ; of which modes of getting 
in the corn he seems to prefer the latter: 

" By great will deceive thee, with ling'ring it out, 
By day will despatch, and put all out of doubt." 

His directions to the farmer with regard to 
the treatment of his harvestmen and the poor 
gleaners, and his warm hopes for the farmer's 
success, betray the excellent benevolent spirit 
with which he was actuated. He says, — 

" Corn carried, let such as be poor go and glean, 
And after thy cattle, to mouth it up clean ; 
Then spare it for rowen till Michei be past. 
To lengthen thy dairy, no better thou hast. 

In harvest-time, harvest-folk, servants and all. 
Should make altogether, good cheer in the hall ; 
And fill out Ihe black bowl of blylhe to their song. 
And let them be merry all harvest-time long. 

Once ended thy harvest, let none he beguil'd ; 
Please such as did help thee— man, woman, and child. 
Thus doing, willi alway, such help as they can ; 
Thou winnest the praise of the labouring n)an. 

Now look up to God-ward, li;t tongue never cease 
In thanking of Him for his mighty increase. 
Accept my good will, — for a proof go and try ; 
The better lliou tlirivest the gladder am I." 

Having commenced his directions with the 
outgoing tenant, his last stanza concludes with 
a reference to the incoming: 

" New farmer he thinketh each hour a day. 
Until the old farmer be packing away." 

"Thus endeth and holdeth out 
August's Husbandry till 
Michaelmas Eve. Tho. Tusser.'' 

The Book of Husbandry of Tusser is also in- 
teresting from the information it gives us with 
regard to the customs and habits of the farmers 
of more than two centuries and a half since. 
It is evident that they then lived very much 
upon salt fish, for in his directions for the far- 
mer's diet, he mentions for Lent herrings and 
salt fish — at Easter they had veal and bacon — 
at Martinmas, beef — before the feast of St. 
John, mackerel — fresh herrings at Michaelmas 
— at Hallowtide, sprats and spurlings — for 
Christmas fare they seemed to have all the 
modern standing dishes, — 

"Good bread and good drink, a good fire in the hall, 
Brawn-pudding and souse, and good mustard withal; 
Beef, mutton, and pork, slired pies of the best. 
Pig, veal, goose, and capon, and turkey well drest." 

They evidently, however, lived generally 
very frugally : 

"Where fish is scant, and fruit of trees. 
Supply that want with butter and cheese, 
Quoth Tusser." 

They bought, in Tusser's time, such stocks 
of salt fish as would amaze a modern farmer 
in these protestant days, when, by the increase 
of green winter food, cattle and sheep are kept 
easily through the winter, and fresh meat is 
always to be had. Few farmers would now . 
think of undertaking a journey to buy fish ; 1 1 
yet he directed the farmer of the sixteenth I 
century, — 



TUSSER, THOMAS. 



UDDER. 



"When harvest is ended, take shipping or ride, 
Ling, salt-lish, and herring for Lent to provide ; 
Get home that is bought, and go slack it up dry. 
With pense-sti'aw between it, the safer to lie." 

They had a rude way of measuring time, it 
seems : 

" As huswives are teached, inst<'ad of a clock, 
How winter nights passelh by crowing of cock." 

The care of the garden evidently fell to the 
wife's share, who had also to see to the feeding 
of the household. It seems that the labourers 
had then a great fondness for porridge, for 
Tusser tells us, — 

" No spoon-meat, no bellyfull, labourers think." 

In other days, too, it is evident that spinning 
was no mean part of the mistress's avocation, 
for it is here said, — 

" Wife, pluck fro thy seed hemp the fimble hemp clean ; 
This lonkelh more yellow, the other more green. 
Use t' one for thy spinning, Michell the t'other. 
For shoe-thread and halter, for rope and such other : 
Now pluck lip thy flax for the maidens to spin." 

Tusser never seems to have forgotten, on 
any occasion, to recommend to the landholder 
the payment of his just dues; even the ques- 
tion of the tithes, once so obnoxious to the 
farmer, was not overlooked by him. He ad- 
vised his farming brethren to 

"Tilhe duly and truly, with hearty good will, 
That God and his blessing may dwell with thee still ; 
Though parson neglecteth his duty for this, 
Thank thou ihy Lord God, and give ev'ry man his." 

The Points of Husivifcry, united to the Comfort 
of Husbandry, by Thomas Tusser, Gentleman, 
was, it is concluded, first published with The 
Hushnndry in 1561 or 1.562. It is written in 
rather a more lively style than the former, and 
has an epistle dedicatory, " to the right honour- 
able, and my especiall good lady and mistress, 
the Lady Paget," which he thus commences : 

"Though danger be niickle. 
And favour so fickle; 
Vet duty doth tickle 

My fancy to write : '* 

Concerning how pretty. 
How fine and how netty. 
Good huswife should jetty 

From Hiorning to night." 

This work contains an abundance of direc- 
tions, in his usual style of versification, for the 
conduct of household duties. He directs the 
servants, before breakfast, to be set to work: 

"Let some to peel hemp, or else rushes to twine, 
To spin, or to card, or to seething of brine." 

At breakfast time the wife was, in those 
days, the carver for the farm servants : 

"Let huswife be carver, let pottage be heat, 
A mess lo each one with a morsell of meat." 

In the cookery department the now nearly 
extinct race of turnspits were indispensable 
attendants upon the cook: 

"Good diligent tiirnbroche, and trusty withal." 

In his washing section he is rather more 
terse than gentle in his conclusion: 

"Maids, wash well, and wring well, but beat, ye wot 
how, 
If any lack beating, I fear it be you. 

In his directions for malt-making he alludes 
to the use of straw and wood, but does not 
mention the modern fuel, coke, or cinders. 
They used, it seems to dine at noon: 



" By noon, cee your dinner be ready and neat; 
Let meat tarry servant, not servant his meat." 

The mistress of the house then made, as now 
in some parts of England, her own candles, it 
seems : 

" Provide for thy tallow, ere frost cometh in, 
And make thine own candle, ere winter begin." 

Twice a week, Sundays and Thursdays, the 
ploughmen were entitled to roast meat for sup- 
per ; and to a harvest goose when the corn was 
gathered in. At harvest-home the mistress was 
enjoined, — 

" Remember thou, therefore, though I do it not. 
The seed-cake and pasties, and furmety put." 

In Tusser's time a very unwholesome custom 
prevailed, in the absence of carpets, of strew- 
ing the citizens' houses with rushes, and those 
of the country with flowers. He gives, there- 
fore, a list of "strewing flowers of all sorts," 
in which we find only the common sorts of 
flowers now cultivated, such as cowslips, dai- 
sies, lavender, roses, sage, tansy, violets, &c. 

Such were the works of Tusser, writings 
which were long in the hand-book of the Eng- 
lish country gentleman. That they were popu- 
lar is evidenced by the rapid succession of 
copious editions which fell to their lot; that 
they were read with delight is shown by the 
way in which he is commonly quoted by the 
farmer of all grades. If he had spoken in 
prose, as has been sometimes suggested, he 
might certainly have been more instructive to 
the few, but he would not have been read by 
the many. 

The popular details and histories of all na- 
tions escaping from rudeness are commonly 
written in verse ; and multitudes can learn 
these by heart who never were taught to read. 
Tusser, therefore, is deserving of the gratitude 
of the English farmer, for his labours tended 
to improve, to refine, to elevate the profession 
he celebrated in his verses. The attempt at 
any thing like a systematic treatise on farming 
had not, when Tusser died, been deemed pos- 
sible. {Quart. Journ. Agr. vol. xii. p. 69.) 

TWAYBLADE {Listera : named in honour 
of Martin Lister, M.D., a famous English phy- 
sician and naturalist; best known as aconcho- 
logist afld entomologist). A genus of curious 
little native plants, growing wild in shady 
places. They may be grown in a mixture of 
peat and loam, and are increased by divisions 
of the roots. 

T W I G - R U S H (Cladium, from klados, a 
branch or twig, referring to the appearance of 
the plant). This is a genus of hard, harsh, 
rushy, often prickly-edged plants, whose stems, 
whether round or triangular, are more or less 
clothed with alternate sheathing leaves ui 

TWITCH. See Couch. 



u. 

UDDER. The glandular organ of a cow, 
mare, ewe, or other animal which is destined 
for the secretion of milk. There are four teats, 
each of which consists of two granular lobatec 
glands, comprehending bloodvessels, nerves 

1075 



UMBEL. 



VEGETABLE CHEMISTRY. 



and milk ducts, all of which first unite into 
eight or ten principal ducts, and these again 
into one, which perforates the skin of the teat 
at its apex. The granular part is the secreting 
organ. 

UMBEL. In botany, a particular arrange- 
ment of the flowers in certain plants, of which 
the carrot is a familiar example ; the pedun- 
cles and pedicles spring from a common centre, 
and rise till they form a somewhat flat tuft. 
The umbel is a loose inflorescence, the primary 
axis of which is short, and the secondary long; 
and the umbel becomes compound when the 
secondary axes are developed, in the same 
manner as the primary. Both the primary and 
the secondary umbel is generally furnished 
with bractes at the point of its divergence. 
The secondary umbel is termed umbelhde. The 
-lifference between an umbel and a corymb is, 
/liat in the latter the flowers form a flat head, 
the secondary axes arising alternately from 
dilferent points of the primary, not, as in the 
former, springing from a common centre. See 

IXFLORESCF.XCE. 

UMBELLIFEROUS PLANTS (UmbcUi- 
ftrce). An extensive group of useful plants, 
including those well-known garden vegetables 
parsley, celery, carrots, fennel, caraway, cori- 
ander, dills, anise, lovage, angelica, eryngo, 
samphire, hemlock. The name of the class 
was given from a fanciful resemblance to 
some parts of an umbrella or parasol. The 
flower-stem divides at the top into a number 
of short, slender branches, which all run from 
a common point or centre like the rays of an 
umbrella from the ring sliding up and down 
the stick. The class, though containing so 
many useful plants, has many possessed of 
extremely poisonous qualities, such as hem- 
lock, the fool's parslc}' {^tlmsa cynapiioti, P]. 
10, g), dropwort, &c. The blossom of the elder 
resembles at first sight those of umbelliferous 
plants, to which, how^ever, the elder does not 
belong, because the rays of the flower do not 
proceed from a common point, some being 
higher and some lower. 

UNDERWOOD. A term applied to coppice, 
or any wood not accounted timber. See Cop- 
pice, Forest, and Plantation. 

URINE. A saline fluid secreted from the 
blood of animals by the kidneys, collected in 
the urinary bladder, and emitted by the canal 
of the urethra. Urine diflers in diflferent ani- 
mals, and varies in its characters, according to 
the kind of food employed. The usual salts 
contained in it are, sulphates, phosphates, and 
chlorides, all of which are fertilizing sub- 
stances. The urine also of oxen and horses is 
alkaline; it undergoes decomposition less ra- 
pidly than that of carnivorous animals : it 
contains hippurates, but no lithic acid, that 
substance which forms red gravel m man. 
Hippuric acid contains 7 per cent, of nitrogen. 
Urine, therefore, is of much use as a manure, 
improving most kinds of soil. Columella has 
asserted that, stale, it is excellent for the roots 
of trees. And Hartlib commends the Dutch 
for preserving the urine of cows as care- 
fully as they do the dung, to enrich their 
auds. 

107 



It is a fluid capable of being employed v.'ith 
great benefit both on meadou-s and on arable 
land. See Liacm Manuhb and Night-soil. 

URITH. Provincially the etherings or bind- 
ings of hedges. 

USTILAGO (from ustus, scorched appear- 
ance). A genus of fungi, parasitical, which 
are found preying upon the cereal and other 
grasses. See Smct. 



V. 



VALLESNERIA {Spiralis). This plant 
grows very abundantly from the bottoms of 
fresh water rivers and lakes over the whole 
United States, where the flow of water is not 
very rapid. It goes by the different names of 
eelgrass, tapegrass, and channelweed. It is 
upon the roots of this grass, or a native spe- 
cies of vallesneria, that the canvass-back 
duck feeds, and to which its peculiarly delicate 
flavour is ascribed, by Wilson, the ornitho- 
logist. 

VALUATION. See AppnAisEXEST. 

VEGETABLE CHEMISTRY is that branch 
of the science of chemistry which relates to 
vegetable substances. Under the heads 
Analysis, Chemistkt, Organic (^hemistrt, 
Gases, Earths, Water, Salts, &c., I have 
endeavoured to include all the facts supplied 
by this important science for the assistance 
of the farmer with which I am acquainted; 
I shall, therefore, merely insert in this place 
the chemical analysis of the inorganic sub- 
stances found in several of the commonly cul- 
tivated crops of the farmer ; and this I take 
from p. 318, of the valuable Lectures on Agri- 
cultural Chemistry and Geology, by J. F. Johnston ; 
see also Liebig's Organic Chemistry. 

Besides the elements of the organs of plants, 
other substances, obtained from inorganic na- 
ture, are necessary for certain organs destined 
to special functions peculiar to each family of 
plants. In the ashes of the plants left after 
burning them, these substances are found 
Almost all plants contain acids, in combination 
with soda, potassa, lime, alumina, or magnesia. 
The quantity of these salts varies at different 
periods of the growth of the plant : thus unripe 
grasses contain more bitartrate of potassa than 
the ripe, and the potato more potassa before it 
blossoms than afterwards. The nature of a 
soil, as has already been detailed, alters the 
quantity of salts found in plants. The Salsola 
kali, raised from seeds of plants near the sea, 
in an inland garden, contains both potassa and 
soda; but the plants from the seed of this con- 
tain potassa only. But these facts are detailed 
under the head Salts, &c. 

In examining the results of these analyza- 
tions, the farmer must remember, that the acids 
and their bases do not exist in plants in an 
uncombined state, but in combination with i J 
each other; that is, as salts. • I 

1. Of the Jlsh of Wheat. — According to the 
analysis of Sprengel, 1000 lbs. of wheat leave 
11-77 lbs. and of wheat straw 35-18 lbs. of ash, 
consisting of— 



VEGETABLE CHEMISTRY. 



VEGETABLE CHEMISTRY. 



Potash .... 

Soda 

Lime . . - - . 
Magnesia . . - - 
Alumina, witli a trace of iron 
Silica - - . - . 
Sulphuric acid ... 
Phosphoric acid . - - 
Chlorine . . - - 



■25 lbs. 
•40 



0-20 lbs. 
0-29 
2-40 
0-32 
090 
28-70 
0-37 
1-70 
0-30 



35-18 lbs. 



2. Of the ^sh of Barley. — A thousand pound.s 
of the grain of barley (two-rowed, Hordeum dis- 
tichon) leave 23i lbs., and of the ripe dry straw 
52*42 lbs. of ash. This ash consists of — 



Potash - . - 
Soda .... 
Lime . - - - 
Magnesia ... 
Alumina . . . 
Oxide of iron 
Oxide of manganese - 
Silica - - - . 
Sulphuric acid 
Phosphoric acid - 
Chlorine ... 



2-78 lbs. 


1-80 lbs. 


2-90 


0-48 


106 


5-54 


1-80 


76 


0-25 


1-46 


a trace. 


014 


. 


0-20 


11-82 


38-56 


0-59 


1-18 


210 


1-60 


0-19 


0-70 



23-49 lbs. 52-42 lbs. 



3. Of the Ash of Oats.— In 1000 lbs. of the 
grain of the oat are contained about 26 lbs., 
and of the dry straw about 57^ lbs., of inorganic 
matter, consisting of — (see next column) 





Grain. 


Straw. 


Potash .... 


1-50 lbs. 


8-70 lbs. 


Soda ..... 


1-32 


0-2 


Lime - - - - . 


0-86 


1-52 


Magnesia .... 


0-67 


0-22 


Alumina .... 


0-14 


006 


Oxide of iron ... 


0-40 


0-02 


Oxide of manganese - 


0- 


002 


Silica 


19-76 


45-88 


Sulphuric acid ... 


0-35 


0-79 


Phosphoric acid ... 


0-70 


0-12 


Chlorine .... 


0-10 


0-05 


25-80 lbs. 


57-40 lbs. 



4. Of the Ash of Rye. — The -weight of ash con- 
tained in 1000 lbs. of the grain of rye is 10| lbs., 
and of the straw 28 lbs. This ash consists of — 



Potash ... 

Soda .... 
Lime .... 

Magnesia ... 
Alumina . . - 
Oxide of iron 
Oxide of manganese - 
Silica - - - , - 
Sulphuric acid - 
Phosphoric acid - 
Chlorine ... 



1-22 
0-44 
0-24 
0-42 
0-34 
1-64 
02.'? 
0-46 
0-09 



Straw. 

; 0-32 lbs. 
0-11 
1-78 
012 

025 



22-97 
1-70 
051 
0-17 



5. Of the Ash of Beans, Peas, and Vetches. — The 
ash of the seed and straw of the field bean, the 
field pea, and the common vetch (Vicia sativa), 
dried in the air, contains in 1000 lbs. the several 
inorganic compounds in the following propor- 
tions : — 



Potash ... 

Soda ... 

Lime ... 

Magnesia 

Alumina 

Oxide of iron - 

Oxide of manganese 

Silica 

Sulphuric acid 

Phosphoric acid 

Chlorine 



1-26 
0-89 
2-92 
041 



SIraM 



16-56 
0-50 
6-24 

2-9 

010 

0-07 

005 

2-20 

0-34 

2-26 

0-80 



21-36 31-21 24-64 49-71 



235 

27-30 
3-42 
60 
20 
007 
9-96 
3-.37 
2-40 
0-04 



Common Vetch. 



Sir 



8-97 
6-22 
1-60 
1 42 
0-22 
009 
0-05 
200 
050 
1-40 
0-43 



18-10 
052 

19 55 
3-24 
015 
009 
0-08 
4-42 
1-22 
2-80 
0-84 



22-90 



51-01 



6. The Ash of the Turnip, Carrot, Parsnip, anrf I from the field, contain respectively in 10,000 
Potato. — These 4 roots, as they are carried lbs. — 



Potash ... 
Soda ... 
Lime ... 
Magnesia 

Alumina ... 
Oxide of iron . 
Oxide of manganese 
Silica - 
Sulphuric acid 
Phosphoric acid 
Chlorine 



Turnips. 



Roots. 



23-86 
10-48 
7-52 
2-54 
36 
0-32 

3-88 
801 
3-67 
2-39 



63-3 



Leaves. 



32-3 

22-2 

62-0 

5-9 

0-3 

1-7 

12-8 

25-2 

9-8 

8-7 



180-9 



35-33 

9-22 
6-57 
3-84 
0-3S 
0-33 
0-60 
1-37 
2-70 
5-14 
0-70 



66 19 



Tops. 



41-80 I 82-83 



81-9 

0-9 

129-7 

17-0 
0-4 
0-2 

49-4 
4-2 

19-7 
5-0 



308-4 



7. Of the Ash of the Ch-asses and Clovers. — The 
following table might have been much en- 
larged. I have thought it necessary, however, 
to introduce in this place only those species 
of grass and clover -which are in most exten- 



sive use. I have also calculated the weight.s 
given below for these plants in the state vf hay 
only, as the succulency of the grasses — that is, 
the quantity of water contained in the green 
crop — varies so much that no correct estimate 

1077 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



«ould be made of the quantity of inorganic I annexed quantities are contained in 1000 lbs 
matter present in hay or grass, from a know- 1 of the dry hay of each plant : 
ledge of its weight in the green state only. The | 



Potash - - - 
Soda - . - 
Lime ... 
Magnesia 
Alumina 
Oxide of iron 
Oxide of manganese 
Silica - - . 
Sulphuric acid 
Phosphoric acid - 
Clilorine 



Rye-grajs. 
Hiy. 



8-81 
3-94 
7-34 
0-90 
0-31 



2772 
3-53 
O'iS 
006 



19-95 
5-29 

27-80 
3-33 
0-14 



3-60 

4-47 
6-57 
362 



52-86 74-78 9132 9553 



Clo 



31-5 

5-79 
23-48 
3-05 
1-90 
063 

14-73 
3-53 
5-05 
211 



Lucern. 



13-40 
6-15 

4831 
3-48 
0-30 
030 

3-30 
404 
13-07 
3-18 



20-57 
4-37 
21-95 



5- 

3-41 
916 
1-57 



6957 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY is that sci- 
ence which treats of the vegetable kingdom, its 
habits, propertie^;, and organization, in the most 
comprehensive manner. Its objects have been 
clearly stated by Mrs. Marcet, in her excellent 
Conversations on Vegetable Physiology, when de- 
scribing the lectures of M. DecandoUe on this 
science; and what she has so well described, 
it is needless for me to give in other words. 
"So far from confining himself to the classifi- 
".ation of plants, the physiologist examines the 
v^egetable kingdom in its most comprehensive 
and philosophical point of view. In describing 
the structure, he investigates the habits and 
properties of plants, and shows, not only how 
wonderfully they have been formed to fulfil the 
purposes of their own multiplication and pre- 
servation, but how admirably they answer the 
high purpose which nature has assigned to 
them, of ministering to the welfare of the ani- 
mal creation, and more especially to that of 
man. He turns his attention particularly to 
point out the means by which the science of 
botany can promote that with which it is most 
intimately and importantly connected — agricul- 
ture. He makes ready the soil and sows the seed 
for the husbandman ; he extracts the healing 
juices and the salutary poisons for the physi- 
cian ; he prepares materials for the weaver, co- 
lours for the dyer : in a word, as he proceeds, 
there is scarcely an art on which he does not 
confer some benefit, either by pointing out a 
new truth, or warning against an old-establish- 
ed error." From this description of the objects 
of the science of vegetable physiology, the 
reader will see that almost all its different 
branches are treated of separately in articles 
which are dispersed through this volume. It 
is only, therefore, a few scattered fragments 
which I propose to gather together in this 
place. See Acclimation, Botany, Eakths, 
Gases, Light, Putrefaction, Salts, Tempe- 
KATunE, Water, &c. 

The description of the cambium for the de- 
scending sap of plants was omitted in its pro- 
per place, and the eflTect of gravity or attrac- 
tion upon plants was referred to this head. 
The sap having ascended into the leaves, and 
being in its course gradually altered into a 
fluid suitable lor the nourishment of the plant, 
descends principally through the liber, or inner 
layer of bark, but a small portion also descends 
through the young wood, or alburnum. This 
movement, especiallv through the plants with 
107S 



pendent branches, is materially facilitated by 
motion, as by the action of the wind. " Mr. 
Knight," adds Mrs. Marcet, "has made a va- 
riety of interesting experiments on this subject. 
He confined both the stem and branches of a 
tree in such a manner that it could not be 
moved by the wind. The plant became feeble, 
and its growth much inferior to that of a 
similar tree growing in its natural state. He 
confined another tree so that it could be moved 
only by the north and south winds, and ob- 
tained the singular result of an oval stem, the 
sides accessible to the wind growing more 
vigorously than those sheltered from its influ- 
ence. Every species of restraint, and espe- 
cially such as tend to render plants motion- 
less, impedes their growth. Stakes by which 
young trees are propped, nailing them to walls 
or trellises, green-houses, or confined situations 
where the air has not free access, check and 
injure the vigour of vegetation, and render 
plants diminutive and weakly. The cambium 
descends almost entirely through the liber or 
most internal and youngest layer of the bark; 
if, therefore, a ring is cut completely through 
the bark, this fluid is arrested in its course, 
and, accumulating around the upper edge of 
the intersected bark, will cause an annular pro- 
tuberance. The descent of the cambium thus 
being obstructed, it will accumulate in that part 
of the tree above the intersection, afibrd it a 
superabundance of nourishment, creating a 
proportional vigour of vegetation, and a cor- 
responding excellence and profusion of pro- 
duce." This operation, or ringing, is often per- 
formed on the non-productive branches of fruit 
trees. 

The effect of gravitation or attraction upon 
plants is of the highest importance to their ger- 
mination and their growth. From the very 
nature, however, of this essentially present 
power, a principle known only to us by its 
effects, the research is surrounded with diffi- 
culties. Mr. Knight, the late excellent presi- 
dent of the Horticultural Society, described 
some of the effects of gravity upon plants in 
his usual happy manner, when, in addressing 
the fellows of the Royal Society, he observed, 
"It can scarcely have escaped the notice of the 
most inattentive observer of vegetation, that in 
whatever position a seed is placed to germi- 
nate, its radicle invariably makes an efl^ort to 
descend towards the centre of the earth, while 
the elongated germen takes precisely the oppo- 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



site direction ; and it has been proved by Du- 
hamel, that if a seed during its germination be 
frequently inverted, the points both of the radi- 
cle and germen will return to the first direc- 
tion. Some naturalists have supposed these 
opposite effects to be produced by gravitation; 
and it is not difficult to conceive that the same 
agent, by operating on bodies so differently 
organized as the radicle and germen of plants 
are, may occasion the one to descend and the 
other to ascend." The hypothesis of these na- 
turalists it was the intention of Knight to exa- 
mine by certain experiments, which he thus 
proceeds to describe: "I conceived that if gra- 
vitation were the cause of the descent of the 
radicle and the ascent of the germen, it must 
act either by its immediate influence on the 
vegetable fibres and vessels during their forma- 
tion, or on the motion and consequent distribu- 
tion of the true sap afl^orded by the cotyledons; 
and as gravitation could produce these effects 
only while the seed remained at rest, and in 
the same position relative to the attraction of 
the earth, I imagined that its operation would be- 
come suspended by constant and rapid change 
of the position of the germinating seed, and 
that it might be counteracted by the agency of 
centrifugal force. Having a strong rill of wa- 
ter passing through my garden, I constructed a 
small wheel, similar to those used for grinding 
corn, adapting a wheel of a different construc- 
tion, and formed of very slender pieces of 
wood, to the same axis. 

"Round the circumference of the latter, which 
was 11 inches in diameter, numerous seeds of 
the garden bean, which had been soaked in 
water to produce the greatest degree of expan- 
sion, were bound at short dista'nces from each 
other. The radicles of these seeds were made 
to point in every direction, some towards the 
centre of the wheel, and others in the opposite 
direction ; others at tangents to its curve ; some 
pointing backwards and others forwards, rela- 
tive to its motion, and others pointing in oppo- 
site directions in lines parallel with the axis 
of the wheels. The whole was enclosed in a 
box and secured by a lock, and a wire-grate 
was placed to prevent the ingress of any body 
capable of impeding the motion of the wheels. 
The water being then admitted, the wheels per- 
formed something more than 150 revolutions 
in a minute, and the position of the seeds rela- 
tively to the earth was as often perfectly in- 
verted within the same period of time, by which 
I conceive that the influence of gravitation 
must have been wholly suspended. In a few 
days the seeds began to germinate; I soon per- 
ceived that the radicles, in whatever direction 
they were protruded from the position of the 
seed, turned their points outward from the cir- 
cumference of the wheel, and in their subse- 
quent growth receded nearly at right angles 
from its axis. The germens, on the contrary, 
took the opposite direction, and in a few days 
their points all met in the centre of the wheel. 
Three of these plants were suffered to remain 
on the wheel, and were secured to its spokes 
to prevent their being shaken off by its mo- 
tion. The stems of these plants soon extended 
beyond the centre ; but the same cause which 
first occasioned them to approach its axis still 



operating, their points returned and met again 
at its centre. The motion of the wheel being 
in this experiment vertical, the radicle and ger- 
men of every seed occupied during a minute 
portion of time in each revolution precisely the 
same position they would have assumed had 
the plants vegetated at rest; and as gravitation 
and centrifugal force also acted in lines paral- 
lel with the vertical rriolion and surface of the 
wheel, I conceived that some slight objections 
might be urged against the conclusions I felt 
inclined to draw. I therefore added to the ma- 
chinery I have described another wheel, which 
moved horizontally over the vertical wheels; 
and to this, by means of multiplying wheels of 
different powers, I was enabled to give many 
different degrees of velocity. Round the cir- 
cumference of the horizontal wheel, whose dia- 
meter was also 11 inches, seeds of the bean 
were bound as in the experiment which I have 
already described, and it was then made to per- 
form 250 revolutions in a minute. By the 
rapid motion of the water-wheel, much water 
was thrown upwards on the horizontal wheel, 
part of which supplied the seeds upon it with 
moisture, and the remainder was dispersed in 
a light and constant shower over the seeds in 
the vertical wheel, and on others placed to 
vegetate at rest in diflerent parts of the box. 

"Every seed on the horizontal wheel, though 
moving with great rapidity, necessarily retained 
the same position relative to the attraction of 
the earth, and therefore the operation of gravity 
could not be suspended, though it might be 
counteracted in a very considerable degree by 
centrifugal force, and the difference I had an- 
ticipated between the eflJ'ects of rapid vertical 
and horizontal motion soon became sufficient- 
ly obvious. The radicles pointed downwards 
about 10 degrees below, and the germens as 
many degrees above, the horizontal line of the 
wheel's motion, centrifugal force having made 
both to deviate 80 degrees from the perpendi- 
cular direction each would have taken had 
they vegetated at rest. Gradually diminishing 
the rapidity of the horizontal wheel, the radi- 
cles descended more perpendicularly, and the 
germens grew more upright, and, when it did 
not perform more than 80 revolutions in a mi- 
nute, the radicle pointed about 45 degrees be- 
low, and the germens as much above, the hori- 
zontal line; the one always receding from, 
and the other approaching to, the axis of the 
wheel. 

"I would not, however, be understood to 
assert that the velocity of 250 or 80 horizontal 
revolutions in a minute will always give accu- 
rately the degrees of depression and elevation 
of the radicle and germen which I have men- 
tioned; for the rapidity of the motion of my 
wheels was somewhat diminished by the col- 
lection of fibres of confervije against the wire 
grate, which obstructed in some degree the 
passage of the water; and the machinery hav- 
ing been the workmanship of myself and my 
gardener, cannot be supposed to have movtd 
with all the regularity it might have done, had 
it been the work of a professed mechanic. But 
I conceive myself to have fully proved that the 
radicles of germinating seeds are made to de- 
scend, and their germens to ascend, by son<« 

.079' 



IVEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



external cause, and not by any power inherent 
in vegetable life ; and I see little reason lo 
doubt that gravitation is the principal, if not 
the only, agent employed in this case by nature." 
Mr. Knight has endeavoured lo point out the 
means by which he conceives the same agent 
may produce effects so diametrically opposite 
lo each other. 

It has, however, been objected by Duhamel 
(and the greatest deference is always due to 
his o-pinions) that gravitation could have little 
influence on the direction of the germen, were 
it, in the first instance, protruded, or were it 
subsequently inverted, and made to point per- 
pendicularly downwards. To enable myself, 
says Mr. Knight, to answer this objection, I 
made man^ experiments on trees of the horse- 
chestnut and of the bean, in the box I have 
already described; and as the seeds there were 
suspended out of the earth, I could regularly 
watch the progress of every effort made by the 
radicle and germen to change their positions. 
The extremity of the radicle of the bean, when 
made to point perpendicularly upwards, gene- 
rally formed a considerable curvature within 
3 or 4 hours when the weather was warm. 
The germen was more sluggish ; but it rarely 
or never failed lo change its direction in the 
course of 24 hours ; and all my efforts to make 
it grow downwards by slightly changing its 
direction were invariably abortive. 

As trees possess the power of turning the 
upper surfaces of their leaves and the points 
of their shoots to the light, and their tendrils in 
any direction to attach themselves to conti- 
guous objects, it may be suspected that their 
lateral roots are by some means directed lo any 
soil in their vicinity which is best calculated 
to nourish the plant to which they belong; and 
it fs well known that much the greater part of 
the roots of an aquatic plant which has grown 
in a dry soil, on the margin of a lake or river, 
have been found to point to the water, whilst 
those of another species of tree which thrives 
best in a dry soil have been ascertained to lake 
an opposite direction : but the result of some 
experiments I have made is not favourable to 
this hypothesis; and I am inclined lo beUeve 
that the roots disperse themselves in every 
direction, and only become more numerous 
where they find most employment, and a soil 
best adapted to the species of plant. 

A tree growing upon a wall at some distance 
from the gruund, and consequently ill supplied 
with food and water, has also been observed to 
adapt its habits to its situation, and to make 
very singular and well-directed efforts lo reach 
the soil beneath by means of its roots. Dur- 
ing the period in which it is making such 
efforts, little addition is made to its branches, 
and almost the whole powers of the plant ap- 
pear to be directed to the growth of one or 
more of its principal roots. To these much in 
coi.Acquence is annually added, and they pro- 
ceed perpendicularly towards the earth, unless 
made to deviate by some opposing body; and 
as soon as the roots have attached themselves 
10 the soil, the branches grow with vigour and 
rapidity, and the plant assumes the ordinary 
abits of its species. 

In some other experiments of Knight to illus- 
1080 



Irate these highly interesting habits of plants, 
pieces of alum, and of the sulphate of iron 
[green vitriol), blue vitriol (sulphate of cop- 
per), were placed at small distances perpendi- 
cularly beneath the radicles of germinating 
seeds of different species, lo afford an oppor- 
tunity of observing whether any efforts could 
be made by them to avoid poisons ; but they 
did not appear to be at all influenced except by 
actual contact of the injurious substances. 
The growth of their fibrous lateral roots was, 
however, obviously accelerated when their 
points approached any considerable quantity 
of decomposing vegetable or animal matter; 
and when the growth of the roots was retarded 
by want of moisture, the contiguity of water 
in the adjoining mould, though not apparently 
in actual contact with them, operated benefi- 
cially: but I had reason to suspect that the 
growth of roots was, under these circum- 
stances, promoted by actual contact with the 
detached and fugitive particles of the decom- 
posing body and the evaporating water. 

The way in which plants establish them- 
selves in opposition to the various obstacles 
they have to encounter, as, for instance, in 
withstanding violent winds, is very remarkable. 
The growth and forms assumed by the roots 
of trees of every species are, to a great extent, 
dependent upon the quantity of motion which 
their stems and branches receive from winds ; 
for the effects of motion upon the growth of 
the root and of the trunk and branches are 
perfectly similar. Whatever part of a root is 
moved and bent by winds or other causes, an 
increased deposition of alburnous matter upon 
that part soon takes place, and consequently 
the roots which immediately adjoin the trunk 
of an insulated tree in an exposed situation be- 
come strong and rigid, whilst they diminish 
rapidly in bulk as they recede from the trunk, 
and descend into the ground ; by this sudden 
diminution of the bulk of the roots the passage 
of the descending sap through their bark is ob- 
structed, and it, in consequence, generates, and 
passes into many lateral roots, and these, if the 
tree be still much agitated by winds, assume a 
similar form, and consequently divide into 
many others. A kind of net-work, composed 
of thick and strong roots, is thus formed, and 
the tree is secured from the danger to which 
its situation would otherwise expose it. In a 
sheltered valley, on the contrary, where a tree 
is surrounded and protected by others, and is 
rarely agitated by winds, the roots grow long 
and slender, like the stem and branches, and 
comparatively much less of the circulating 
fluid is expended in the deposition of alburnum 
beneath the ground ; and hence it not unfre- 
quently happens that a tree in the most shel- 
tered part of a valley is uprooted, whilst the 
exposed and insulated tree upon the adjoining 
mountain remains uninjured by the fury of the 
storm. 

All such investigations as these are fraught 
with instruction to the cultivator of the earth. 
They not only illustrate the every-day opera- 
tions of the farmer, but they guard him against 
the adoption of specious novelties and unsci- 
entific efforts to increase the fertility of the 
soil. Such researches, too, will hardly fail to 



I 



11 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



VENTILATION. 



instruct and elevate the character of the tiller 
of the earth in more ways than one. They 
will teach him, as M. Mirbel long since well 
remarked, that every operation " is connected 
in the vast system of the globe, and that order 
emanates from the equipoise of conflicting 
phenomena. Animals carry off the oxygen of 
the atmosphere, replacing it by carbonic acid 
gas ; and are thus at work to adulterate the 
constitution of the air and render it unfit for 
respiration. Vegetables take up carbonic acid 
gas, retain the carbon, and give out oxygen ; 
aJid are thus purifying the air tainted by ani- 
mals, and re-establishing the necessary propor- 
tions between its elements. In Europe, while 
our vegetables, stripped by the severity of the 
season of their foliage, no longer yield the air 
contributing to life, the salutary gas is borne 
to us by trade winds from the southernmost 
regions of America. Breezes from all quar- 
ters of the world intermingle thus the various 
strata of the atmosphere, and keep its consti- 
tution uniform in all seasons and at all eleva- 
tions. The substances which are produced by 
the dissolution of animal and vegetable matter 
are absorbed by plants, and constitute a por- 
tion of the nourishment by which they are 
maintained ; plants, in their turn, become the 
food of animals, and these again the prey of 
others which subsist on flesh. Yet, in spite of 
this perpetual state of war and destruction, 
nothing perishes, for all is regenerated. Na- 
ture has ordained that the two great divisions 
of organized beings should depend the one 
upon the other for support, and that both the 
life and death of individuals should be equally 
serviceable in preserving the harmony of the 
universe." 

If we come to consider vegetation as it re- 
gards ourselves, we shall find that this great 
agent of nature, subjected in a certain degree 
to the control of man in a state of society, is 
the main source of his prosperity or of his 
misery. How many countries have the greedy 
ambition of princes, and the degradation and 
ignorance of the people, made barren ! Recol- 
lect what Asia Minor, Judea, Egypt, the pro- 
vinces at the foot of Mount Atlas, have been, 
and behold what they are at this day. Recol- 
lect Greece, once the country of science and 
of liberty, now that of ignorance and slr.very ; 
she can be only recognised in her ruins, and 
her monuments of the dead. Man had denied 
his labour to the earth, and the earth her trea- 
sures to man : all vanished with agriculture. 
The traveller who passes that country of so 
great renown, finds, in the place of the fine 
forests that crowned its mountains, of the rich 
harvests reaped by twenty busy nations, of the 
numerous flocks that enriched its fields, only 
naked rocks and sterile sands, with here and 
there a miserable village. He seeks in vain 
for several rivers recorded in history ; they are 
gone ! Thus the rage of conquest and of rule 
not only overturns cities, depopulates whole 
countries, and brings back barbarism, but it 
dries up the very springs from which the natu- 
ral riches of the earth have flowed. To these 
melancholy resu.ts of our passions we might 
oppose the more cheerful ones of our industry; 
but they are more properly within the province 
136 



of the arts of cultivation than of vegetable 
physiology. 

VEGETABLE MARROW (Cucurbita ovifera). 
This fruit of the succada gourd is uniformly 
of a pale yellow colour, and of an elliptic- 
oblong shape, the surface having irregular, 
longitudinal ribs, uniting into a projecting 
apex. When full grown it is about 9 inches 
in length and 4 in diameter, and is by far the 
best adgipted for culinary purposes of any spe- 
cies of the gourd tribe. It is of recent intro- 
duction into Europe, having been brought from 
Persia. It is useful for culinary purposes in 
every stage of its growth; when very young, 
it is good if fried with butter; when large, or 
about half-grown, it is excellent either when 
plain, boiled, or stewed with rich sauce ; for 
either of these purposes it should be cut in 
slices. The flesh has a peculiar tenderness 
and softness, from which circumstance it has 
received its name, much resembling the buttery 
quality of the beurre year, and this property re- 
mains with it till it is full-grown, when it is 
used for pies. It is in its intermediate state of 
growth that it is likely to be most approved. 
Compared with all the other vegetables of the 
same family, its superiority is decided. I con- 
sider the vegetable marrow without a rival. 

" Wc have grown the true vegetable marrow 
two seasons," says the editor of the Cultivator, 
"and although we have not used it in the inter- 
mediate state of its growth, as recommended by 
Mr. Sabine, we esteem it among the best varieties 
of the cucurbita for boiling and for pies. It is 
cultivated like the common pumpkin or squash, 
and will ripen in the U. S. in a high latitude." 

VEGETABLES. The observations of vege- 
table physiologists and the researches of che- 
mists have mutually contributed to establish 
the fact, that the growth and developement of 
vegetables depend on the rejection of oxygen, 
which is separated from the other component 
parts of their nourishment. 

In contradistinction to vegetable life, the life 
of animals exhibits itself in the continual ab- 
sorption of the oxygen of the air, and its com- 
bination with certain component parts of the 
animal body. 

While no part of an organized being can 
serve as food to vegetables, until, by the pro- 
cesses of putrefaction and decay, it has as- 
sumed the form of inorganic matter, the ani- 
mal organism requires, for its support and 
developement, highly organized atoms. The 
food of all animals, in all circumstances, con- 
sists of parts of organisms. 

Assimilation, or the process of formation 
and growth, — in other words, the passage of 
matter from a state of motion to that of rest,— 
goes on in the same way in animals and in 
vegetables. In both, the same cause determines 
the increase of mass. This constitutes the 
true vegetable life, which is carried on without 
consciousness. (Liebi^'s Animal Chemislry.) 

VENISON. The flesh of deer. See Deer 
and Meat. 

VENTILATION. The injurious effects o! 
close and dirty stables, and other places wher§ 
stock are often kept, and the great advantages 
derived from securing a proper ventilation or 
continual supply of fresh unbreathed air to 
4 Y 1081 



VENTILATION. 



VENTILATION. 



animals, are matters which have received, of late, 
a great deal of merited attention. The owner of 
horses or other stock, intent upon protecting these 
from the wet and cold, and placing them in the 
most favourable position to take on iat,pften ex- 
poses them to the most injurious effects induced 
by the breathing of impure air. " We generally 
find," says an able writer upon this subject, 
"that the unhealthiness of the atmosphere in 
which stabled horses and cattle are placed, 
increases with the value of the animal; this is 
especially the case with the horse. The groom 
finding no mode so easy in his endeavours to 
procure for his horses a tine coat, as that of 
keeping them in a high temperature, is pretty 
sure, if not restrained, to effect this by excluding 
from his stable every breath of air by which its 
temperature may be lowered, or its purity pre- 
served. It results then (often, it is true, by slow 
degrees) that the animal, from the breathing an 
atmosphere surcharged as a certain consequence 
with the carbonic acid gas emitted from the 
lungs of the horses in the stable, and with fumes 
of ammonia from the decomposing urine with 
which the floor is saturated (a decomposition 
accelerated by the warmth of the place), becomes 
tender and diseased. That to this source must 
be attributed the majority of those diseases of 
the lungs by which so many valuable horses are 
annually carried off, there is no reason to doubt. 
' The temperature of the stable,' says Professor 
Youatt, in his excellent treatise on the horse, 
' should never in winter exceed ten degrees 
above that of the external air, and during the 
rest of the year should be as similar to it as 
possible.' And he adds a fact which is far too 
little known to the owners of live stock : ' The 
return to a hot stable is quite as dangerous as 
the change from a heated atmosphere to a cold 
and biting air. Many a horse that has t)-avelled 
without injury over a bleak country, has been 
suddenly seized with inflammation and fever 
when he has immediately at the end of his 
journey been surrounded with heated and foul 
air.' 'And,' he adds in another place, 'of no- 
thing are we more certain, than that in the 
majority of the maladies of the horse, those of 
the worst and most fatal character, directly or 
indirectly are to be attributed to the unnatural 
heat of the stable.' The evil, then, being cer- 
tain, the remedy merely consisting in the better 
and more ri?^«/ar ventilation of the stable, can I 
urge upon the horse's owner a more reasonable 
or a more profitable improvement than this ? 
My own experience tells me that a warm box, 
well ventilated and constantly kept clean, is by 
far the best and the most healthy medium in 
which a horse can be placed. Both cleaiilhiexs 
and ventilation must, of course, go together; for 
it is easy to lose the advantages of ventilation 
by a disregard to the cleanliness of the stable. 

" With regard to the stall-fed cow and the ox, 
the same erroneous mode of treatment is too 
constantly adopted : ivartnth and quiet, and an 
absence of light, it is true, have all been deter- 
mined to be highly conducive to the rapid pro- 
gress of the animal to maturity, but no sensible 
farmer ever yet concluded that the purity or the 
foulness of the air in which the animal is placed, 
IS a matter of perfect indifference : and yet in 
now many instances are such cows, such fatten- 
ing oxen, stall-fed, in an atmosphere in which 
the lungs of the animals must be weakened, their 
1082 



health endangered ? How commonly do we see 
them placed in low close stables, into which a 
breath of fresh air rarely enters ? It is idle to 
contend that to confine them in such an atmo- 
sphere does them no injury. It has been found 
that the same kind of impure air which these 
animals are too often made to endure, is cer- 
tain death to the smaller animals ; and, that the 
mortality increases as the size of the animal 
decreases, has been well shown by many curious 
and valuable inquiries. I will give a few only 
of these, being quite sure that to many of my 
readers they will afford matter of grave and 
useful reflection, when they are considering the 
ventilation not only of the stables of their live 
stock, but of the cottages of their labourers, and 
the rooms which the farmer is himself inhabiting. 
Let us commence our inquiries, then, with the 
effects of bad air upon the smaller tribes of 
birds, and proceed afterwards to the larger ani- j 
mals. ' It is well known,' says Dr. Arnott I 
{Report of Com,missio7ters npoti the Health of 
Towns, p. 61), ' that a canary bird suspended 
near the top of a curtained bedstead in which 
people have slept, will generally, owing to the 
impurity of the air, be found dead in the morn- 
ing; and small, close rooms, in the habitations 
of the poor, are sometimes as ill-ventilated as 
the curtained bedstead.' 

"Mr. Edwin Chadwick, the excellent Secre- 
tary to the Poor-Law Commissioners, in his able 
supplementary report upon the sanatory condi- 
tion of the labouring classes, gives some striking 
facts in illustration of the ill effects of bad smells 
upon the health of small birds. He says (p. 10), 
' In the course of some inquiries which I made 
with Professor Owen, when examining a slaugh- 
terman as to the effects of the effluvia of animal 
remains on himself and family, some other facts 
were elicited illustrative of the effects of such 
effluvia on still more delicate life. The man" 
had lived in Bear Yard, near Clare Market, 
which was exposed to the combined effluvia 
from a slaughter-house and a tripe factory. He 
was a bird fancier, but he found that he could 
not rear his birds in this place. He had known 
a bird, fresh caught in the summer time, die there 
in a week. He particularly noted, as having a 
fatal influence on the birds, the stench raised by 
boiling down the fat from the tripe offal. He 
said, ' You may hang the cage out of the garret 
window, in any house round Bear Yard, and if 
it be a fresh bird it will be dead in a week.' 
He had previously lived for a time in the same 
neighbourhood, in a room over a crowded burial- 
ground in Portugal Street. At times, in the 
morning, he had seen a mist rise from the ground, 
and the smell was offensive. That place was 
equally fatal to his birds. He had removed to , 
another dwelling-house in Vere Street, Clare j 
Market, which is beyond the smell from this { 
particular place, and he was now enabled to keep 
his birds. In town, however, the ordinary sing- 
ing birds did not actually live more than about 
eighteen months. In cages, in the country, such 
birds were known to live as long as nine years or 
more, on the same food. When he particularly 
wished to preserve a pet bird, he sent it for a 
time into the country; and by repeating thiSil 
removal he preserved them much longer. Tha I 
fact of the pernicious effect of offensive smells 
on the small graminivorous birds, and the short 
duration of their life in close rooms and districts. 



VENTILATION. 



VENTILATION. 



was attested by a bird-dealer. In respect to 
cattle, the slaughterman gave decided reasons 
for the conclusion, that, whilst in the slaughter- 
iiouse, they lost their appetites and refused food, 
I'rom the effect of the effluvium of the place, and 
not, as was popularly supposed, from any pre- 
sentiment of their impending fate.' 'The spread 
of the knowledge of the fact that animals are 
subject Xo typhus, consumption, and the chief 
of the train of disorders supposed to be pecu- 
liarly human,' remark the Commissioners in 
another place, ' will, it may be expected, more 
powerfully direct attention to the common means 
of prevention.' {Report, p. 103.) 

hpizoori^f <liseases, are such as prevail 
among a large number of animals at the same 
time, just as epidemics do in the human species. 
' The epizootie are, in many respects, less serious 
than the epidemics : nevertheless, as they often 
affect the animals which serve for the nutriment 
of man, and that, apart from this consideration, 
they may have grave consequences for the public 
health, they have constantly engaged the care of 
the Council. In 1834 an epizootie was reported 
to the Administration, which prevailed amongst 
the cows of the communes round Paris, and 
which caused a great mortality. The researches 
of the Council established that this epizootie was 
only a chronic disease, a true pulmonary phthisis, 
to which has been given the name o{ pommeliere, 
and by which the greater part of the cows had 
been attacked which fill the stables of the milk- 
men of Paris and its environs. According to 
the Council, the principal cause of the evil was 
to be attributed to the vicious regimen to which 
this animal is subjected. It is known that they 
pass a part of the year in stables perfectly closed, 
in which the space is not proportioned to the 
number of inmates, in which the vitiated air 
renews itself with extreme difficulty, and in 
which the heat is sometimes suffocating. It is 
known, also, that they pass suddenly from the 
food of the stable to pasture, and that in this 
change they go from the hot and humid atmos- 
phere of the stable to a sudden exposure to the 
continued variations of the external air. This 
alternation of food, and of heat and cold, operates 
as a powerful cause of disease. But as the evil 
does not announce itself in a violent manner, as 
its progress is not very rapid, as there is even a 
period in the disease in which the animal is dis- 
posed to get flesh, the cow-feeder, who knows to 
what point to keep her, sells her when she is 
ready to calve. It is in a radius of thirty leagues 
from the capital that cows of this kind are pur- 
chased by the jobbers, who supply the milkmen 
of Paris. With these last they still hold out a 
certain number of years, if they are properly 
cared for ; but in general they are kept in stables 
which are neither sufficiently large nor sufficiently 
airy, where they are exposed to the same causes 
which gave birth to the malady. The phthisis 
arrives insensibly at its last stage, and carries 
off every year, from Paris and its neigbourhood, 
a great number of these cows.' 

" A similar discovery was only lately made as 
to the effect of defective ventilation on the ca- 
valry horses in some of the government barracks 
in England ; and it is stated a saving of several 
thousand pounds per annum was effected by an 
pasy improvement of the ventilation of the bar- 
racks near the metropolis. An agriculturist had 
a large number of sheep housed to feed them on 
mangel wurzel, but a great number of them 



sickened and died, and be supposed that it waa 
the food which had killed ihem. A vetorinary 
surgeon, however, who happened to be aware of 
the consequences of defective ventilation, pointed 
out the remedy — a better ventilation lor the 
over-crowded sheep. The deft ct was remedied ; 
the sheep throve well." 

In adopting means for the removal or e:rlraetion 
of foul air, in dwellings for man, as well as in 
stables, dairies, and even sheep-cots and pig- 
pens, when these are made close, the ventilator, 
or holes for its escape, should always be placed at 
the highest part of the ceiling. Withdrawing 
the foul air from the bottom of buildings, on the 
supposition that, as carbonic acid gas is heavier 
than common air, it must necessarily subside to 
the lowest portion of the interior, though plausi- 
ble in theory, is found to be altogether erroneous 
in practice. For it has been ascertained that 
this heavy gas, as it comes from the lungs 
combined with heat and moisture, is lighter than 
common air, as we see by the rising of the 
breath in frosty weather. In the ventilation of 
stables, cow-houses, &c., the supply of air will 
require to be of larger amount than ibr buildings 
intended for human beings. About 400 cubic 
inches per minute is the usual allowance of air 
breathed by an adult person ; but for horses and 
cows, three times as much is required. 

The one or more openings for the escape of 
the foul air, have their sizes or areas calculated 
according to the following rule. Multiply the 
number of horses the stable is to contain by 12, 
and divide the product by 43 times the square 
root of the height in feet from the ceiling to 
the floor, and the quotient is the area of the ven- 
tilation tube or tubes in feet. {Bum on Praeti' 
cal Ventilation.) 

No foul air can by any possibility be extracted 
from the interior of a building, however well 
arranged it may be, unless an ample supply of 
pure air is admitted, because it is the force of 
the entering air that causes the vitiated to be 
expelled. 

The/r«5/tatV should be admitted by apertures 
in the walls, made close to the floor under each 
window. Where this can be done, and supposing 
there were six windows, and the fresh-air ducts 
required to be 6 square feet, six openings should 
be made, each equal to one square foot. All the 
openings should have valves fixed on the outside, 
to regulate the admission of air. In stables, 
&c., well supplied with the means of admitting 
fresh air and withdrawing the foul air, the doors 
and windows may be made as tight as possible, 
yet the interior will smell sweet and clean. 

Dairies cannot be too well supplied with 
pure fresh air ; to secure which, they should not 
be situated in the vicinity of any source of con- 
tamination. (See Bitrn^-i Treatise on Practical 
Ventilation, for further details.) See Soiling. 

Animal Heat. — Recent researches made by 
chemists have developed many wonderful pheno- 
mena of life hitherto regarded as inexplicable 
mysteries. Among these is that relating to the 
source of animal heat, and the kinds and propor- 
tions of food necessary to maintain it. This 
being a subject intimately connected with the 
practices of sheltering and feeding cattle and 
other stock, it of course demands the close con 
sideration of the intelligent farmer, to whom we 
present the results recently obtained through the 
investigations of Dr. Playfair: — 

" The average temperature of the bodies of 

1083 



VENTILATION. 

our cattle is about 100°, or more than 40° higher 
than the ordinary temperature of the climate ol 
England. Hence there must be some provision 
in the animal body to sustain the heat, which is 
absolutely necessary' for the performance of the 
organic functions. The air, being so much colder 
than the body, must constantly withdraw from 
it heat, and tend to lower its temperature. 
Whence, then, comes the fuel for the production 
of the heat ? 

" The fuel consists of those ingredients of 
food from which nitrogen is absent; they all 
contain carbon and the elements of water. We 
know that oxygen is continually inhaled in the 
air we breathe, and that it is never again expired 
as such. Expired air consists of carbonic acid, 
a gas composed of carbon and oxygen. In the 
body, therefore, the oxygen has united with car- 
bon ; or It has produced the very gas which is 
obtained by burning a -piece of charcoal in the open, 
air. Now the heat generated by the combustion 
of the carbon in the body must be exactly equi- 
valent to that produced by burning the same 
amount in the atmosphere." 

Experiments have taught us, that the average 
quantity of carbon in the food of an adult man 
amounts to 14 ounces dail3^ By the combustion 
of this quantity 197,477° of heat are produced, 
and this is amply sufficient to account for the 
heat of the human body. 

The experiments of Boussingault show, that a 
cow breathes out about 70 ounces of carbon 
daily, and from this we calculate that 987,385'^ 
of heat must be produced in the body of a cow 
in the space of twenty-four hours. These cal- 
culations will at once prove that there is little 
difficulty in accounting for the heat of the animal 
body. 

But, as the heat of the animal body is the same 
in all regions, it is obvious that the quantity of 
fuel (fooil) necessary to sustain the constant tem- 
perature of the body must vary according to the 
nature of the climate. Thus less food is required 
for this purpose in India, where the tempeiature 
of the external air equals that of the body, than 
in the polar regions, in which it is very many 
degrees lower. But a beneficent Providence has 
arranged the produce of different countries so as 
to meet the exigencies of the climate. The 
fruits, upon which the inhabitants of warm coun- 
tries love to feed, contain only 12 per cent, of 
carbon, while the train-oil enjoyed by the inha- 
bitants of arctic regions contains above 70 per 
cent, of the same element. 

It has been shown that the food of various 
countries is more or less combustible, according 
to the temperature of the climate ; and proofs 
were adduced that the amount of the food con- 
sumed varied also according to the temperature. 
The animal body is a furnace which must be 
kept up to a certain heat in all climates. This 
furnace must, therefore, be supplied with more 
or less fuel according to the temperature of the 
external air. If then in winter we wish to 
retain the vital functions of our cattle in a pro- 
per degree of activity, we must keep up the 
heat of their bodies. This we may do in two 
ways. We may either add more fuel (food) to 
the furnace, or we may protect their bodies from 
the cold. Warmth is an equivalent for food, 
which may thus be economized. As a proof of 
the view I have now given, I will cite the fol- 
lowing experiment, which was made by the Earl 
of Ducie at Whitfield farm. 
J 084 



VENTILATION. 

One hundred sheep were folded by tens in pens, 
each of which was 22 feet in length by 10 feet 
in breadth, and possessed a covered shed attached 
to it of 12 feet in length by 10 feet in breadth. 
They were kept in these from the 10th of Octo- 
ber to the 10th of March. P'ach sheep consumed 
on an average 20 lbs. of swedes daily. Another 
hundred were folded in pens of a similar size, 
but without sheds attached. They were kept 
during the same time, and their daily consump- 
tion of swedes amounted to 25 lbs. each. Here 
the circumstances were precisely similar with 
respect to exercise, the only difTerence being 
that the first hundred sheep had sheds into which 
they might retire, and thus be partially pro- 
tected from the cold. 

This partial protection was equivalent to a 
certain amount of food, and consequently we 
find that the sheep enjoying this protection con- 
sumed one-fifth less food than those sheep which 
were left entirely exposed to the cold. In the 
last case the consumption of the additional food 
arose wholly from the necessity of adding more 
fuel (food to the furnace of the body,) in order to 
keep up its normal temperature. This was 
proved from the circumstance, that those sheep 
which enjoyed the protection had increased 3 
lbs. each more than those left unprotected, al- 
though the latter had consumed one-fifth more 
food. 

The influence of warmth in reducing the con- 
sumption of food has been examined experimen- 
tally by other farmers, who pretty well agree 
in the conclusion, that warmth is, to a consider- 
able extent, a substitute for food. It is true, 
that in the experiments with sheep the results 
have been somewhat discordant, but, as I have 
elsewhere had occasion to remark, this has 
arisen in many cases from inattention to other 
injurious influences to which these animals were 
exposed. Warmth is not only essential to their 
health and fattening progress, but this must be 
a dry and a wholesome warmth. To confine the 
sheep, as is sometimes done, over putrefying 
masses of fold, shed, or farm-yard dung, in an 
atmosphere saturated with fumes of ammonia 
and the gases of putrefaction, is to substitute 
one drawback upon the health and comfort of 
the animal for another, which produces a greater 
evil than cold. The sheep, in a state of nature, 
carefully avoids all these things; it leaves to 
the ox the deep rank-growing grasses of the 
damp lowland pastures. It carefully seeks its 
food and its habitation on the highest elevations, 
amid dry rocks and heath-producing soils, far 
away from all great masses of decomposing 
organic matter. The domestic sheep of our en- 
closed lands, by always occupying the most ele- 
vated portions of the field, clearly indicates that 
its natural instinct in this respect is still un- 
changed by all the eflbrts of the breeder. Fol- 
low, then, the sheep from his upland pastures, 
in the clear, dry, warm climate of Asia, and 
view him placed in our cold temperature, in a 
warm shed it is true, but with the floor of that 
shed covered for a depth of many inches with a 
mass of putrefying dung, and then let us ask 
ourselves, " Is this the way fairly to test the 
advantages of shelter and of warmth to the do- 
mestic sheep ? Is this the way to fairly try the 
economy of raising the temperature of the atmo-^ 
sphere in which it is placed ?" The Rev. Xi 
Huxtable saw this in its true light, when he 
commenced his trials. He tells us, in his valua 



VENTILATION. 

blc little paper Jonr. R. A. S. vol. vi. p. 242,) 
."Having observed that siieep in wet weather 
: on our downs always select the most beaten 
' roads for their bed, it occurred to me that not 
only when under sheds should they lie on boards, 
according to your own experiment, but also that 
the courts to which they have daily access whilst 
their houses are being cleaned should be co- 
vered, not with soft litter, but with hard chalk 
:or sand, or other materials to form a solid bot- 
tom. My little yards attached to the sheds are 
floored with a sort of asphalte made of chalk 
beaten small, covered with gas-tar and sand. In 
constructing sheds for my sheep I have kept in 
view the strictest economy; and I venture to 
send these minute details, which I hope will 
serve to prove that the protection of sheep from 
:the inclemency of the weather is within the 
reach of every tenant farmer. Each of these 
■ sheds contains about 50 sheep. They are erected 
on a very simple plan : a couple of fir poles, 12 
feet long, are nailed together at the top; their 
extremities, at a distance of 15 feet, are driven 
into the ground; another couple, 10 feet distant, 
are united with this, and held firm by a ridge- 
pole nailed into and lying between the tops of 
the fir poles. Side pieces are nailed parallel to 
the ridge-pole, and small hazel-wood is interlaced 
so as to support the thatch, which a labourer 
ties on with tar-twine. The thatch in fiont and 
behind reaches to about 3 feet from the ground ; 
behind, a bank of turf is raised to meet the 
thatch; the front is guarded by a hurdle, move- 
able at pleasure, to allow the sheep to go into 
the court, which is of the same size as the shed. 
It is important that both ends of the shed should 
be protected with bavins only, which will secure 
a free ventilation, yet keep out rain. My sheds, 
about 50 feet long (not charging the straw), cost 
about 41*. each. 

" These sheds are floored with 1-inch boards, 
separated (each strip from the other) by | inch 
intervals. The cost of the timber and mode of 
preparing the floor were as follows : — White 
pine timber was used for its cheapness, being 
Is. 3d. the cube foot, which would therefore 
give eleven 1-inch boards. On account of the 
particular width of the logs which I bought, the 
board was sawn into pieces 7 inches broad and 
1 inch thick. These, for economy, are hand- 
sawn into three parts, and are nailed upon joists 
at a distance of | inch. By this plan nearly one- 
third of timber is saved ; so that each sheep, 
requiring 9 feet of space, lies actually on 6 feet 
of 1-inch board. The cost of timber for joists, 
nails, and carpenters' work, raises the total ex- 
pense of placing the sheep on boards to 1 s. Ad. 
per head. Instead of sleepers I used small 
blocks, 6 inches thick, to keep the rafters from 
direct contact with the manure. The boards 
are put together into frames about 10 feet by 4, 
so that they may easily be taken up by one man. 
Beneath the boards the floor, excavated 8 or 9 
inches, is puddled and made water-tight, and 
govered with 6 inches of sawdust, burnt clay, or 
good dry mould. This receives and absorbs the 
manure which falls, or is swept below twice a 
day. The boards, after sweeping, are watered 
with a solution of 3 lbs. of sulphate of iron (cop- 
peras), which instantaneously removes the odour 
not only of the ammonia, but of the more ofl^en- 
sive sulphuretted hydrogen. The boards should 
be laid perfectly flat, to prevent the sheep slipping 
about. The sheep are fed under the sheds, not 



VENTILATION. 

in the courts. The results of this arrangement 
have been most successful, both in the health 
and well <luing of the sheep. 

" It IS true that I have lost four head, which 
seem to have died from apoplexy ; but I lost the 
same number in the flock which were at lar^^e, 
and treated in the usual manner. Though I 
have had more than 300 Southdowns so shedded, 
some of them longer ♦han five months, yet I 
have never seen any instance of lameness, even 
in the least degree. 

" Their food consists of turnips, for the last 
fortnight only of swedes; half a pint per day 
(never more) of oats or peas; with straw cut 
into chaff', over which ground linseed has been 
poured, mixed with boiling water. 

" I regret that I cannot send the important 
statistics of weight and improvement under this 
regimen. During one month the sheep were 
weighed, and found to have increased about 3 
lbs. per week on an average ; that is, ten were 
selected and weighed which seemed fairly to 
represent the flock, and they had made this im- 
provement. The illness of my bailiflT stopped 
these calculations; but the general issue will be 
allowed to be satisfactory, as more than half 
have been sold which in twelve weeks have 
paid 13^. a head. 

" Leaving out of the account both the injury 
which in bad seasons my clay-lands would have 
sustained by the treading of the sheep, and 
the value of the rich manure saved under shelter 
(its gases fixed by the sulphate of iron and gyp- 
sum strewed daily over the boards), I consider 
that the whole expense of boards and sheds wa8 
saved in the first month." 

In the stall feeding of cattle, the application 
of these just principles can hardly be too sys- 
tematically regarded. Of this opinion, too, is 
Mr. George Dobito, who, in his prize " Essay 
on fattening Cattle," {Jour. R. A. S. vol. vi. p. 
78), remarks, "Cleanliness, warmth, and quiet, 
are the great points I insist upon, of course cou- 
pled with good feeding; but many tons of oil- 
cake are annually wasted, because the comfort 
of the animals is not more attended to." 

The subjects of air and food are so closely 
allied as to be viewed to most advantage toge- 
ther. That vegetable substances contain animal 
matters ready formed, was a suspicion which 
was entertained in a confused shape by more 
than one of even the early Greek j^iilosophers, 
but it was reserved for the modern chemist to 
prove the truth of the supposition. This has 
been thus explained by Dr. Lyon Playfair (Jottr. 
R. A. S. vol. iv. p 216 :— 

" All vegetable food has been found to contain 
a peculiar substance, which, though it difl^ers in 
appearance and in form, according to the source 
from whence it is obtained, is in reality the 
same body. It has received the name of gluten 
or albumen, and is precisely identical, in chemi- 
cal composition, with the albumen obtained from 
the white of an egg. This substance is invaria- 
bly present in all nutritious food. Chemists 
were surprised to discover that this body never 
varies in composition; that it is exactly the 
same in corn, beans, or from whatever plant it 
is extracted. But their surprise was much in- 
creased when they remarked that it is quite 
identical with the flesh and blood of animals. It 
consists, like the latter, of carbon, hydros'^n, 
nitrogen, and oxygen, and in the very same pro- 
portion in 100 parts. By identity in composition 
4y2 1085 



VENTILATION. 

is not meant a mere similarity, but an absolute 
identity ; so much so, that if you were to place 
in a chemist's hand some gluten obtained from 
wheat flour, some dry albumen procured from 
the white of an egg, a fragment of the flesh of 
an ox or of a man, or some of their dried blood, 
and request him to examine their difference, he 
would tell you, strange as it may appear, that 
they are precisely the same, and that with all 
the refinements of his science he was unable to 
detect any essential difference between them. 
There is much difference, indeed, in external 
appearance and in structure, but in their ultimate 
composition there is none." To render this 
more obvious. I subjoin the composition of these 
various substances, as obtained by different che- 
mists, who executed their analyses without 
any knowledge of the results obtained by the 
otiiers : — 

Gluten Casein Albumen 

from Flour, from Pease, from Ecgs. Ox Blood. Ox Flesh. 

BoussinKAult. Srherer. Jo.jcs." hlavfair. Hayfair. 

Cailinn 54.'2 5t.!.T8 55.000 54.35 54.12 

Hydrogen.... 7.5 7.156 7.073 7.50 7 89 

Nltnigea.... 13.9 15.672 15.920 15.76 15.67 

Oxygen 24.4 23.034 22.007 22.39 22.32 

100.0 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 

These analyses do not differ from each other 
more than the analyses of the same substance 
usually do. Thus we are led to the startling 
conclusion, that plants contain within them the 
flesh of animals ready formed, and that the only 
duty of animals subsisting upon them is to give 
this flesh a place and form in their organism. 
When an animal subsists upon flesh, we find no 
difficulty in explaining its nutrition; for the 
flesh being of the same composition as its own 
body, the animal, in a chemical point of view, 
may be said to be eating itself; nor, with a 
knowledge of this identity of vegetable albumen 
with flesh, is there any difficulty in comprehend- 
ing the nutrition of vegetable feeders. 

Plant!!, then, in reality, form Xhe flesh of ani- 
mals ; and the latter merely appropriate it a 
place in their organism. 

It follows, then, as a conclusion, that the ana- 
lysis of any vegetable substance pretty accu- 
rately indicates its nutritious powers. "It has 
been shown by many laborious chemical re- 
searches," to use the words of Dr. Playfair, 
*'that there are two kinds of food. The first, 
which contains nitrogen, is exactly of the same 
composition as the principal tissues of the human 
body, and is the only substance which can sup- 
ply the waste of these tissues. The second kind 
of food is that destitute of nitrogen, such as 
starch, gum, and sugar, all of which are destined 
for the support of respiration and consequent 
heat of the animal. The latter kind of food, 
when in excess, is converted into fat, but never 
into muscle. The increase of flesh in an animal 
consists in two changes of the matter of the food, 
without any alteration in its composition. The 
albumen or nitrogenous constituent of the food 
is first converted into blood, without decompo- 
sition, and the blood is afterwards converted 
into flesh. In order to show that the transforma- 
tion is actually effected without change, we have 
only to refer to the following results of the ana- 
lysis of vegetable albumen, of ox blood, and of 
flesh :— 

Veietable Albumen. Ox Blood. Fl'sh. 

Carbon ...55 160 54.35 54.12 

Hydrogen 7.055 7.50 7.89 

Nitrogen 15.996 15.76 15.67 

Oxygen 21.18 22.39 22.32 

1086 



VENTILATION. 

" As muscle then is formed only by the albu- 
men or gluten of the food, which albumen is in 
reality flesh itself, we can ascertain the compa- 
rative value of food, as far as the production of 
muscle is concerned, by estimating the exact 
quantity of the nitrogenous constituent of the 
food. The following table," continues Dr. Play- 
fair, " contains the approximative, though not 
perfectly accurate, information relative to the 
value of food for the support of respiration and 
production of fat : — 







Unazotized 






Unazotized 


100 lbs. 


Albumen 


Matter. 


100 lbs. 


Albume 


1. Matter. 




lbs. 


Its. 




lbs. 


lbs. 


Flesh . 


. 25 





Oats . . 


. 11 


68 


Blood . 


. 20 





Barley mea 


1 14 


68i 


Beans . 


. 31 


514 


Hay . . 


. S 


68i 


Peas . . 


. 29 


51 i 


Turnips 


1 


9 


I.<entils 


. 33 


48 


Carrot . 


. 2 


10 


Potatoes 


2 


25 


Red-beet 


■ U 


8i 



That /at exists ready formed in various vege- 
table substances, has been proved by carelul 
chemical examination. Thus, according to Lie- 
big, hay contains 1-56 per cent., and maize 4-67 
per cent, of fat. Braconnot found 1-20 per cent, 
in peas, while Fresenius got 2-1 per cent.; and 
in lentils 1-3 percent. Vogel obtained 2-00 per 
cent, of fat in oats; Liebig 0-3 per cent, in dry 
potatoes; and Braconnot 0-13 per cent, in rice, 
although, in another variety, Vogel states that 
he detected 1-05 per cent. The substance here 
called fat is in reality a waxy or resinous body, 
and not tallow, except in a few instances. 

[Food.] An animal requires, to sustain its 
body in good condition, supply heat, and make 
up for daily waste, about l-60th part of its own 
weight. If the object be to increase the size, en- 
able it to work, or give milk, a still larger pro- 
portion of food must be given. Thus, to feed for 
milk twice the quantity of food named will be 
required. If muscle for labour be needed, food 
containing gluten must be given, and as peas 
and beans contain gluten in the largest quantity, 
they constitute exceedingly valuable food for 
working horses. Wheat contains S-*) to 40 per 
cent, of the gluten out of which muscle is formed. 
Cabbage is rich in gluten, and the flower of the 
cauliflower contains more gluten than any other 
garden vegetable we raise for food. When fat is 
required, or a good coat, give substances contain- 
ing oil, such as Indian corn, oats, linseed-cake, 
as well as rape-cake and poppy-seed cake. Farm- 
ers generally prefer those substances which unite 
I the muscle and fat-giving qualities. The milk- 
I man desirous of quantity and little regarding 
quality, gives his cattle grains from the brew- 
ery — and various kinds of watery slops. But 
where the dairyman wants butter or cheese, 
then quality is to be considered. In order to 
make butter, the milk must be rich, and he has 
it in his power to add largely to the ordinary 
produce of the dairy, by the selection of food rich 
in oil. In England oil-cake is given, but not 
much at a time, as it gives an undesirable taste 
to the butter. A skilful dairyman can, however, 
often manage, by giving a large quantity of oil- 
cake, to get a far better quality of milk than by 
giving any other kind of food. If the object be 
to make cheese, food is given rich in the mate- 
rial to produce curd — which is precisely that 
furnishing the flesh or muscle, already referred 
to. To feed with cabbage would produce a poor 
cheese, which contains little fat, but a large pro- 
portion of the curd or muscle-forming material. 
Where milk to make butter or rich cheese is 



II 



VENTILATION. 



VENTILATION. 



required, more fatty food must be furnished; and 
of ail substances for effecting this object, linseed- 
cake, and maize are perhaps the best. 

It IS of great importance to attend to the state 
in which food is introduced into the stomach of 
animals. Indian corn, for example, given with- 
out mixing with other food, will not be so readily 
digested. The proper preparation of food for 
animals is a branch of agricultural knowledge 
which has been found highly profitable to the 
farmer. By mixing different kinds of food, the 
requirements of the animal are best met. Cut 
straw or chaff is an admirable substance with 
which to mix other more nutritious materials, 
rendering these more readily digested and nourish- 
ing, besides making the food go further. Malt is 
often employed with great advantage, mixed with 
other food. Other influences, such as warmth, 
shelter, ventilation, and quiet, exert a great 
effect in promoting the thrift and welfare of 
animals. 

The amount of nutriment found in different 
varieties of the food consumed by the farmer's 
live stock, has been referred to under the head 
Food, where some interesting facts will be found, 
chiefly derived from the researches of Davy. It 
is a subject to which still more recent inves- 
tigations have given additional interest. The 
proportions in which the several elementary 
substances exist in 100 parts of some of the 
most commonly cultivated grains and products 
of the farm, are represented in the following 
table from Prof. J. F. W. Johnston's Lectures. 



' 


& 


III 
1^" 


Ill 


Id 




9 S 
If 


Wheat . . 


15 


15 


55 


lOtolO 


2tol 


2 


BiirJey . . 


15 


15 


60 


12tol5 


2to3 


3 


0:Us . . . 


16 


20 


60 


14tol9 


5to7 


4 


Rye . ; . 


12 


10to20 


60 


lOtolS 


3to4 


2 


Indian corn . 


14 


6 


70 


12 


5to9 


li 


Buckwheat . 


15 


25 


50 


8 


0-4 


4' 


Rice . . . 


13 


3 


75 


7 


0-7 


H 


Beans . . . 


U 


8-U 


40 


24-28 


2-3 


3' 


Peas . . . 


14 


9 


50 


24 


21 


3 


Potatoes . . 


75 


4 


18 


2 


0-3 


1 


Turnips . . 


86 


2 


9 


1-5 


0-3 


ito4-5 


Carrots . . 


85 


3 


10 


1-5 


0-4 


Uto2 


Mai)^el-Wur- 














zef . . . 


85 


2 


11 


20 


f 


jtoli 


Meadow hay 


14 


30 


40 


7-1 


2to5 


5 to 10 


Clover hay . 


14 


25 


40 


9-3 


3to5 


9 


Pea straw . 


lOtolS 


25 


45 


12-3 


15 


4to6 


Oat straw . 


12 


45 


35 


1-3 


0-S? 


6 


Wheat straw 


12tol5 


50 


30 


1-3 


2to3i 


5 


Barley straw 


12tol5 


50 


30 


1.3 


7 


5 


Rye straw . 


12tol5 


45 


38 


1.3 


? 


4 


Indian corn 














stalks . . 


12 


25 


52 


30 


1-7 


3to7 



likewise contain a substance called gluten, but 
in quantities varying very much, as may be seen 
by running the eye down the 4th column of the 
table; the greatest proportion of this and albu- 
men being found in beans, which explains their 
highly nutritious qualities. Even pea-straw is 
very rich in these materials, which makes them 
valuable provender, where other kinds of straw 
are almost worthless. Of oil or fatty matter, 
wheat and barley have very little, whilst in 
oats and Indian corn, oil abounds. The root 
crops and straws have very little. Plants take 
in, through their leaves and roots, the carbonic 
acid and other materials, the changes in which 
produce the starch, gluten, and fat to be found 
in them all, and which go to nourish animals. 

It forms, says Mr. Karkeek, in his "Essay on 
Fat and Muscle" (Jour. R. A. S. vol. v. p. 249), 
a curious and interesting subject for the feeder to 
ascertain the respective quantities of the fleshing 
and fattening properties contained in an acre of 
the different crops commonly used in the rearing 
and feeding of stock. The following acreahle 
table of mitrition has been constructed chiefly 
from Professor Johnston's calculations; the pro- 
portions of gluten, &c., from Boussingault's ana- 
lysis, which indicate Xhejleshi?/g properties ; and 
the proportions of starch, gum, and sugar, the 
fatteni>ig properties : — 





1 Produce 


of Grajn , ,, „ '•• 


VVt. of 
Starch, 


"eight 


One Acre of 


1 per 


Gunj, 


of Water 




1 Acre. 

1 


B-hel.l'-r,.* 
|l.jseine. 


Sugar, 
and fat. 


per Acre. 






lbs. 


lbs. 


lbs 


lbs. 


Field beans . 


25 bush 


64 


450 


672 


256 


Peas . . . 


25 " 


66 


380 


845 


208 


Oats . . . 


50 " 


42 


290 


1,168 


336 


Hay . . . 


3 tons: 




480 


2,790 


752 


Potatoes . . 


12 '' 




600 


3, .330 


20,250 


Carrots . . 


25 " 




1,120 


5,800 


47,600 


Turnips . . 


30 " 


.. 


800 


5,700 


56,950 


Wheat straw 


3.000 lbs. 




40 


940 


450 


Oat straw . 


12,700 " 




36 


970 


324 


Barley straw 


12,100 " 




28 


646 


252 



Some of the numbers in the above table are 
given as mere approximations, especially those 
referring to buckwheat and fatty matter, which 
last is very uncertain. 

It hence appears that water enters into the 
composition of every vegetable product, wheat 
containing 1.5 per cent., the turnip 88 to 90 per 
cent., exhibiting the strong contrast between 
grains and roots. The second column represents 
woody fibre, straw and husks, parts of plants 
which animals cannot digest, and from which 
they consequently derive no nourishment. In 
wheat and other grains, the proportion of this 
varies from 10 to 20 per cent. In the column 
designating the proportions of starch, gum, and 
sugar, the grain of wheat exhibits about 55 per 
cent., Indian corn 70 per cent., Indian corn stalks 
02 per cent., rice 75 per cent., &c. All grains 



Another table showing the nutritive properties 
per acre of the ordinary crops of the farmer has 
been given by Mr. Hyett, and will be found at 
the head of the next page. 

The tables just given from analyses made by 
Prof. J. F. W. Johnston, and other eminent 
chemists, show the proportions of water, with 
those of the several dry organic constituents, as 
well as the ashes or saline matters contained in 
many of the articles of food with which the far- 
mer is most familiar. From these it may be 
seen that it is very important for the economical 
management of live-stock to know the amount 
of water as well as of the organic and nutritive 
ingredients which each kind of food contains. 
Thus we find that in giving a pig 100 lbs. of po- 
tatoes, we actually give it about 75 lbs. of wa- 
ter. But in giving it 100 lbs. of Indian corn, we 
contribute only about 14 lbs. ol water, nearly 
all the remaining 86 lbs. being nutritious matter. 
As already observed, the table just given from 
Professor J. F. W. .Johnston shows the propor- 
tion of woody fibre freed from the nutritious sub- 
stances, well known to be contained in greater or 
less proportion in husks, straw, &c. This woody 
fibre, as it cannot be digested by animals, 
must therefore be deducted from the amount of 
nourishment. It constitutes half the amount of 
wheat and rye straw, whilst it makes but 30 per 
cent, of ordinary meadow grass hay, and only 25 
per cent, of clover hay. 

'087 



VENTILATION. 



VENTILATION. 











Aic :\tCc 


Equivalents 


Kcl.Tix- 


] 






Taken at 




per .^icit 111 


of 


Nourislinitfii: dlt 






per Acre. 

32 bush. 






ILs. 


NouriEhment. 






Wheat 


60 lbs. per bus 


hel = 


1,920 


-f- 41 


7-46 J'^-^'^ 




" straw . . . 


30 cwt. 


a ' 


= 


3,360 


-f- 450 




Peas 


20 bush. 


i( '< 


= 


1,200 


-j- 45 


26-6 ( 




" straw . . . 




" ' 


= 




-4- 125 




Barley 


40 bush. 


48 " ' 


= 


1,920 


H- 54-5 


r. s-« 




" straw . . . 


20 cwt. 


u < 


=^ 


2,240 


-1- 300 




Oats 


50 bush. 


40 " 


^= 


2,000 


-^ 55 


?:i i^'- 




" straw . . . 


40 cwt. 


a < 


= 


4,480 


-^ 300 




Beans 


32 bush. 


60 " ' 


= 


1,920 


-r- 61-5 


'11 !-■" 




" straw . . . 


40 cwt. 


a < 


= 


4,480 


-r- 450 




Clover hay . . . 


30 cwt. 


<( ' 


= 


3,360 


-^ 90 


37-3 




Ordinary hay . . . 


20 cwt. 


a ' 


' = 


2,240 


-H 100 


22-4 




Potatoes .... 


100 bags 


280 lbs. per ba 


3 


28,000 


-^ 200 


140 




Cabbage .... 


20 tons 


i( ' 


= 


44,800 


-r- 250 


179-2 




Carrots 


2.5 tons 


a ' 





55,000 


-j- 275 


200 




Beet. . . , . . 


25 tons 


i( ' 


= 


55,000 


-4- 397 


138-5 




Green clover . . . 


6 tons 


a < 


= 


13,440 


-T- 475 


28-29 




Turnips .... 


25 tons 


i( ( 


= 


55,000 


-j- 500 


110 


J 



And in the same economical point of view, it 
becomes an important question to ascertain, pro- 
vided the result of modern experiments relating 
to the formation of flesh and the generation of 
heat is correct, and calculating from the data 
which they furnish, the relative value of each 
description of food. This has been attempted 
by Dr. Playfair, with a result which he thus 
describes (Jour R. A. S. vol. vi. p. 560 : " All 
food then has two distinct purposes, the forma- 
tion of flesh, and the sustenance of animal heat. 
The substances in vegetables destined for the 
formation of flesh are perfectly identical with it 
in composition, and are known by the names of 
gluten, albumen, fibrin, or casein ; those which 
are suited for the support of animal heat are not 
at all similarly composed to flesh, and consist 
of starch, gum, sugar, &c. Knowing these facts, 
it becomes a money question as to the value of 
particular kinds of food for the support of the 
frame. We know how much of flesh-giving 
principle each variety of food contains, and 
therefore we can at once estimate how much of 
each it will be necessary to consume to obtain 
one pound of real nutriment, and what the cost 
of that pound will be to the consumer. The 
following table is constructed on this principle, 
but as prices vary in diflferent localities, these may 
be altered to suit the peculiar case : in the table, 
they are given at tbe rate at which the respective 
substances might be purchased in London under 
favourable circumstances. 

Quantity of Food necessary to 'produce 1 Ih. of 
I flesh, and the Money-Cost of its production. 
25 lbs. of milk furnish 1 lb. of flesh, £. s. d. 

and cost 3 1 

1(^0 " turnips 2 9 

•"0 » potatoes 2 

50 " carrots 2 1 

4 " butcher's meat, free from 
fat and bone, furnish 1 
lb. of flesh, and cost, 2 

9 " oatmeal 1 10 

vJfj" barleymeal 12 

7_4_» bread . • . . ..012 

7-4-'' flour 12 

3| " peas 7 

3j~o" beans 6i 

Let us look ct the various kinds of food with 
reference to tieir value as fuel, and we shall 
108S 



perceive the potato takes its proper rank. 1 lb of 
carbonaceous fuel to sustain animal heat would 
be furnished by different weights of the following 
articles at the English prices named : 4 lbs. of 
potatoes, 2\d. ; 10 lbs. carrots, 2f/. ; I5 lb. flour, 
2 8-10(/. ; 11 lb. barleymeal, 2d.-, 11 1-10 lb. 
turnips, 2d.; \\ lb. oatmeal, ^d.; 1 9-10 lb. 
beans, 3|^/. ; 1 9-10 lb. peas, 3 8-10^/.; 2 lb, 
bread, 4^/.; 11 9-10 lb. milk. Is. 5d. These esti- 
mates must, however, be considered as rough 
approximations. 

It will not be unattended with benefit if we 
contrast these valuable scientific researches upon 
the cost of production with the results of the 
trials of a practical Scotch farmer. 

From some careful experiments of Mr. Bruce, 
of Waughton, in East Lothian {Trans. High. 
Soc. 1846, p 375), with linseed cake and other 
substances in sheep feeding, he concludes that 
" mutton can be produced at a lower rate per lb. 
upon liberal use of foreign keep along with tur- 
nips, than upon turnips alone, taking of course 
the increased value of the manure into account ;" 
that of this foreign keep " linseed is the most valu- 
able, and beans the least so; but that the mixture 
of both forms a useful and nutritious article of 
food. In his trials 95 Cheviot ewes were di- 
vided into five lots, and enclosed, and fed with 
turnip tops and the following substances, upon 
portions of equally sheltered grass land. Lot 
A consisted of 15 ewes, B, C, D, and E, of 20 
each. 





We 


ght. 


Average Cnnsumption 

of each Shetp per 

Week. 


Cost of Prod action 
per lb. 


Lot. 


Oct. 21. 


Dec. 23. 










lbs. 


lbs. 


0/ 




07. 


A 


18.39 


2008 


50;- 

41 


liinseed. 
Be;ms. 


461 Linseed. 


B 


•2401 


2603 


113i 


I-ins'd cake. 


101 Lins"d cake. 


( 


2382 




95 .t 


Beans and 


59 Beans and 


^ \ 








liinseed. 


Linseed. 


1 




2657 


1.57; 


Poppy cake. 


106 Poppy cake. 


D 


2164 


25.57 


113; 


Bean.s. 


133, Beans. 


E 


2417 


2736 


100 


Be-rins and 
Linseed. 


56^ Beans and 

Linseed, j 



See Organic Chemistry, Food, Gelatin, Ve- 
getable Chemistry, and other heads relating to 
these subjects. 

VERBENA. See Vervain. 

VERJUICE. An acid liquor, prepared from 
the twigs of the vine, or from grapes or apples 
that are unfit to be converted into wine or cider. 
It is also made from the wild crab apples. 



VERMIN. 



VETCH. 



VERMIN. A general name for all birds, 
animals, insects, &c., which prey upon or 
prove injurious to the cultivator's crops, and to 
his live-stock. 

The insects, &c., comprise the most exten- 
sive and fearful class of depredators. Among 
these are the aphides, caterpillars, ants, beetles, 
and their grubs, wire-worms, slugs, earth- 
worms, &c. 

VERNAL GRASS. See Anthoxanthum. 

VERSATILE. In botany, signifies swinging 
lightly on the stalk, so as to be continually 
changing direction. It is illustrated in the 
leaves of the aspen. 

VERTICILLATE. Disposed in a whorl. 

VERVAIN (Verbena; said to be derived 
from its Celtic name Fcrfacn). This is a genus 
of extremely beautiful ornamental plants while 
in flower, either when grown in pots in the 
green-house or when planted out in the flower 
garden; and they will all succeed well in the 
open ground during the summer months. The 
flowers of V. leucrioides have a delightful jas- 
minelike odour. They all flourish well iu a 
light loamy soil, with careful drainage when 
kept in pots. The herbaceous perennial kinds 
increase rapidly by cuttings, planted in sand 
under a glass; the green-house kinds in a little 
heat. The annuals and biennials should be 
raised on a gentle hot-bed. 

One species is indigenous to England, the 
common vervain (V. officinalis), a perennial 
which grows by road-sides and in dry waste 
grounds, or pastures about villages. The root 
is woody, somewhat creeping. Stem ascend- 
ing, I5 foot high, leafy, roughish, with minute 
prickles or bristles. Leaves deeply cut. Spikes 
slender, several composing a sort of panicle 
of small, bluish, inodorous flowers. This spe- 
cies has scarcely any aromatic or other sen- 
sible quality. The root worn about the neck 
with a string is an old superstitious remedy or 
charm for the king's evil. 

A great many species of vervain or verbena 
are found in various parts of the United States. 
Nuttall enumerates 10 in this country, and 
altogether 20 American species in the two 
hemispheres. 

VESICLES. In botany, inflated, hollow ex- 
crescences, like bladders or blisters. 

VETCH (Vicia, fromvincio, to bind together, 
because the species have tendrils b}' which 
they encircle other plants). Some of the spe- 
cies of this genus are well worth cultivating in 
the flower-border for the beauty of their flowers. 
They are of the easiest culture in any common 
garden soil. The perennial kinds may be rea- 
dily increased by dividing the root or by seeds. 
The seeds of the annual kinds only require to 
be sown in the open border in spring. V. saliva 
and its varieties are extensively cultivated, and 
well known by the common name of vetch or 
tares; they are used in England as early fodder 
for all kinds of cattle, and are allowed to be 
more nutritive and profitable than hay or any 
otlier herbage. The seeds also form the food 
of pigeons. There are in Britain 10 indigenous 
species of vetch, the principal of which are the 
tufted vetch, wood vetch, common vetch, and 
bush vetch. Of all the different vetches (says 
Sinclair) that were submitted to experiment, 
137 



the winter tare or common vetch (F. sativa, 
var.) afforded the most nutritive matter: 64 
drachms of the herbage, cut at the time of 
flowering, afforded 4 drachms 4 grains of nu- 
tritive matter; while spring tares only yielded 
3 drachms 3 grains, which confirms the justice 
of that preference which practice has given to 
the former. 

1. The tufted vetch (V. cracca), is a peren- 
nial, very common in England in a wild state 
in hedges, thickets, osier grounds, and bushy, 
low meadows. The stems are 2 or 3 feet high, 
furrowed, rather downy, climbing by means of 
their long, many-branched tendrils, by which 
they choke and overtop other herbs. Flowers 
numerous, in dense clusters, beautifully varie- 
gated with tints of bright violet-blue, and some 
purple. Legume scarcely an inch long, smooth, 
with 4 or 5 dark, globular seeds, the size of a 
lentil. This vetch is said to be nutritious food 
for cattle, but it has not come into use, proba- 
bly from the difficulty of gathering, or of culti- 
vating, so pertinacious a climber. Dr. Plot, in 
his History of Staffordshire, says that this and 
the Vicia sylvalica advance starved or weak 
cattle above any thing yet known; and Dr. 
Anderson, in his Essays, speaks highly of this 
plant. It is inferior to the wood vetch, or com- 
mon tare (V. sylvatim), in the quantity of nu- 
tritive matter it affords, but contains much less 
superfluous moisture. This must give it a su- 
periority, in regard to nutrient properties, over 
tares which contain an excess. But it has a 
strong, creeping root, that will always prevent 
its admission to arable lands. It might be best 
cultivated on tenacious soils, and used after 
the manner of lucern, to which it is much su- 
perior in nutritive qualities, though greatly de- 
ficient in the weight of crop. Forty-three grains 
of nutritive matter consisted of — 



Saccharine mailer, nr sugar - 
Mucilage - - - - - 
Insoluble and saline mailer 



Grains. 
20 
12 
11 



The tufted vetch flowers about the middle of 
July or the beginning of August, and the seed 
is ripe at the beginning of September. 

2. The wood vetch ( F. sylvaticu ) grows in woods 
and hedges, chiefly in the more mountainous 
parts of Britain, and is one of our most elegant 
wild plants, welF worthy to decorate shrubbe- 
ries, or to be trained over a trtliis or bower. 
The habits of this vetch are similar to those 
of the species last described, but it seems more 
impatient of exposure, and thrives best where 
it has the support of bushes. The root is creep- 
ing, perennial ; herbage smooth. Stems nume- 
rous, much branched, climbing to the height 
of 6 or 7 feet, and spreading widely, decorating 
the bushes which support them with a profu- 
sion of delicate flowers, elegantly variegated 
with blue and white, streaked with gray. Le- 
gume the size of the last, bright brown, minutely 
dotted. When transplanted to open situations, 
the produce is inconsiderable compared with 
i that of the tufted vetch or the bush vetch, 
though in its natural place of growth the pro- 
I duce is six times that of either of these species ; 
j it is likewise superior in the quantity of nutri- 
I tive matter it affords. Horses, cows, sheef, 
1 and the South American llamas, ate this vetcb 

1089 



VETCH, THE BITTER. 

with more eagerness than they did the other 
vetches or natural grasses that were on seve- 
ral trials oflTered to them. The wood vetch 
flowers in July and August, and the seed is 
ripe in September. 

3. The common vetch or tare (F. sativa, PI. 
7, r) is an annual plant, which is in general 
cultivation, and therefore too well known to 
need description; 3000 grains of the green 
herbage of the common vetch consist of— 



Woody or indigestible substance 
Water . - - - - 
Nutritive matter . - - 



Grains. 

557 
2250 

193 



Hence 1,135 grains of the woody fibre of tares 
are combined with 27§ grains of saline matter. 
In England vetches are very commonly sown 
upon a wheat stubble, and no crop better re- 
pays the addition of any organic fertilizers. 

The bush vetch ( V. sepium) has been already 
noticed. See Bush Vetch. 

The other British species of vetch or tare are 
the narrow-leaved crimson vetch (F. angusti- 
folia), spring vetch (F. lathyroides), rough-pod- 
ded yellow vetch (F. lulca), hairy-flowered yel- 
low vetch (F. hybrida), smooth-podded sea-vetch 
(F. Ittvigata), and rough-podded purple vetch 
(F. bilhyrica). These call for no detailed de- 
scription. A few species of the vetch family are 
found in the United States and Territories. The 
species called tufted vetch (F. cracca), is com- 
mon on the borders of woods and meadows, and 
troublesome in some gardens in the southern 
parts of- Pennsylvania and other Middle States. 
Mr. Nutlall says it is smaller than the European 
plant described under the same name, but Dr. 
Darlington does not feel satisfied of its being 
a native of the United States. 

The species enumerated by Mr. Nuttall are, 
1. F. pusilla. 2. Sativa. 3. Jniericana. 4. Syl- 
vaticu, inhabiting the alluvial banks of the Mis- 
souri as far north as Fort Mandan. Leaflets a 
little more obtuse than usual. 5. Cracca. 6. 
■CaroUniniia. See Tahe and Vetculing, 

VETCH, THE BITTER (Orobus, from oro, 
to excite, and bous, an ox ; the orobos of Theo- 
phrastus was the name of a plant used for fat- 
tening oxen). The plants of this genus deserve 
to have a place in every flower-border, on ac- 
count of their very elegant papilionaceous blos- 
soms. Any soil suits them, and they are readily 
increased by dividing the plants at the roots in 
spring, or raised by seeds. There are in Eng- 
land two native species, both perennials. 

1. The common bitter vetch, or heath pea 
(0. tuberosus), grows in elevated or mountain- 
ous pastures, thickets, and woods. The root 
is creeping, externally blackish, swelling here 
and there into oblong knobs. Herbage smooth, 
darkish green. Stems simple, erect, a foot high, 
■compressed and winged. Leaves alternate. 
Flowers in loose, long-stalked, axillary clus- 
ters, elegantly variegated and veined, with pur- 
ple, crimson, and shades of blue and flesh co- 
lour. Legumes pendulous, long, cylindrical, 
black when ripe. The roots have a sweetish 
taste, and aff'ord some luxuries and refresh- 
ments to the hardy independent Highlander. 
There is considerable elegance iu the flowers, 
Hnd in the plant altogether. 

2. Wood bitter vetch (0. sylvaticus). In this 

1090 



VETERINARY COLLEGE. 

species the root is woody and tough, deeply 
fixed in the ground. The stems are numerous, 
spreading or recumbent, 1 to 2 feet long, hairy, 
more or less branched. Clusters of numerous 
flowers, which have a hairy calyx, are cream 
coloured, streaked, and lipped with purple. 
The legumes are ovate-oblong, smooth, com- 
pressed, and shorter than usual in the genus. 
VETCH, KIDNEY. See Kidney-Vetch. 
VETCH, MILK. See Milk-Vetch. 
VETCHLING (Lathyrus.) A numerous 
herbaceous genus of annual or perennial plants. 
The flowers are stalked, axillary, either soli- 
tary, in pairs, or in clusters ; either crimson, 
purplish, blue, or yellow. The herbage com- 
monly afibrds good fodder; the seeds are scarce- 
ly used for any purpose. There are seven indi- 
genour species of vetchling, or everlasting pea; 
the yellow vetchling (Z. aphaca), the crimson ' 
vetchling or grass-vetch (L. nissolia), the rough- 
podded vetchling (i. hirsutus), the yellow mea- 
dow vetchling, or tare everlasting (X. pratensis), 
narrow-leaved everlasting pea (X. sylveslris), 
broad-leaved everlasting pea (L. latifolius), and 
the blue marsh vetchling (L. palustris): most 
of these species have been already noticed un- 
der the heads Everlasting Pea and Latht- 
uus. The latifolius is that species usually cul- 
tivated in gardens on account of the beauty of 
the flowers. It has been recommended for field 
cuhivation, but the advice has not been fol- 
lowed. Bees procure much honey from the 
flowers. 

VETERINARY COLLEGE. The Highland 
Society of Scotland have instituted a veterinary 
school in connection with their establishment, 
which is under the management of Professor 
Dick. By difl'using generally a practical know- 
ledge of veterinary medicine, it cannot fail to 
be attended with the happiest consequences to 
the community at large. A veterinary college 
has long been established in London; and that 
useful periodical, the Veterinarian, edited by 
Professor Youatt, has added much valuable in- 
formation to our stock of knowledge on the dis- 
eases of animals. See Farhiert and Hippo- 
pathology. 

The London Veterinary College was first 
established in the year 1792, at St. Pancras. 
Mr. Boardman, in his Dictionary of the Veteri' 
nary Art, remarks, that " the public are indebt- 
ed for this national foundation to the exertions 
of the Agricultural Society of Odiham, in 
Hampshire. The first professor was M. St. 
Bel, a Frenchman, who had previously signal- 
ized himself in this country as a veterinary 
anatomist, by dissecting the famous race-horse 
Eclipse. This college is supported by public 
subscription. The annual contribution is 2 
guineas, but payment of 20 guineas at once 
constitutes a subscriber for life. 

"The views and objects of the college ap- 
pear in the following statement, printed by the 
authority of the governors. The grand object, 
they observe, is the improvement of veterinary 
knowledge, in order to remedy the ignorance 
and incompetency of farriers, so long univer- 
sally complained of. For this end, a range of 
stables, a forge, a theatre for dissections and 
lectures, with other buildings, have been 
erected : a gentleman of superior abilities has 



VILLOUS. 



VINE. 



been appointed professor, with other requisite 
officers. 

"The anatomical structure of quadrupeds, 
as horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, &c., the diseases 
to which they are subject, and the remedies 
proper to be applied, are investigated and re- 
gularly taught; by which means enlightened 
practitioners of liberal education, whose whole 
study has been devoted to the veterinary art in 
all its branches, may be gradually dispersed 
over the kingdom, in whose skill and expe- 
rience confidence may be securely placed. 

"Subscribers have the privilege of sending 
their diseased animals to the college, without 
further expense than that of their daily food, 
and these in general form a sufficient number 
of patients for the practice of the professor 
and pupils. On fixed days, the professor pre- 
scribes for animals belonging to subscribers 
who find it inconvenient to spare them from 
home, provided the necessary medicines be 
furnished and compounded at the college ; 
subscribers' horses are also there shod at the 
ordinary prices." 

VILLOUS. A term in botany, signifying 
covered with soft, close, long, loose hairs, re- 
sembling shag. 

VINE (Vitis, from the Celtic gtvid, signifying 
the best of trees. Wine is derived from the 
Celtic word gicin). A valuable genus of plants. 
The common grape vine (V. vinifera), with its 
very numerous garden varieties, is in general 
cultivation for its much-esteemed fruit. None 
of the other species are worth cultivating. 
The acids of grapes are chiefly the tartaric 
and acetic; but malic acid is also present in 
them. Mr. Loudon, in his Encydopadin of 
Gnrdemng,\h\xs, botanically describes the vine: 
— "The grape vine is a trailing, deciduous, 
hardy shrub, with a twisted irregular stem, and 
long flexible branches, decumbent, like those 
of the bramble ; or supporting themselves, 
when near other trees, by means of tendrils, 
like the pea. The leaves are large, lobed, en- 
tire, or serrated and downy, or smooth ; green 
in summer, but when mature, those varieties 
in which the predominating colour is red con- 
stantly change to, or are tinged with, some 
shade of that colour ; and those of white, green, 
or yellow grapes as constantly change to a 
yellow, and are never in the least tinged with 
purple, red, or scarlet. The breadth of the 
leaves varies from 5 to 7 or 10 inches, and the 
length of the footstalks from 4 to 8 inches. 
The flowers are produced on the shoots of the 
same year, which shoots generally proceed from 
those of the year preceding; they are in the 
form of a raceme, of a greenish-white colour, 
appearing in the open air in England in June; 
and the fruit, which is of the berry kind, attains 
such maturity as the season and situation ad- 
mit by the middle or end of September. The 
berry or grape is generally globular, but often 
ovate, (. val, oblong, or finger-shaped ; the colours 
are green, white, red, yellow, amber, or black, or 
a variegation of two or more of these colours. 
The skin is smooth ; the pulp and juice of a 
dulcet, poignant, elevated, generous flavour. 
Every berry ought to enclose five small heart 
;-r pear-shaped stones ; but as they are par- 
tially abortive, they have seldom more than 



three ; and some varieties, as they attain a 
certain age, as the Ascalon or Sultana raisin, 
have none. The weight of a berry depends 
not only on its size, but on the thickness of its 
skin, and texture of the flesh, the lightest be- 
ing the thin-skinned and juicy sorts, as the 
sweet-water or Muscadine." 

Although we presume the excellent treatise 
of Mr. Clement Hoare on the Culture of the Vine 
is in the hands of most of our readers, yet, as 
there is no other standard work of reference 
on this subject, we must necessarily draw upon 
this for our extracts. 

Of all the productions of the vegetable world 
(observes this experienced cultivator) which 
the skill and ingenuity of man have rendered 
conducive to his comfort and to the enlarge- 
ment of the sphere of his enjoyments, and the 
increase of his pleasurable gratifications, the 
vine stands forward as the most pre-eminently 
conspicuous. Its quickness of growth, the 
great age to which it will live, — so great, in- 
deed, as to be unknown ; its almost total ex- 
emption from all those adverse contingencies 
which blight and diminish the produce of other 
fruit-bearing trees ; its astonishing vegetative 
power; its wonderful fertility, and its delicious 
fruit, applicable to so many purposes, and 
agreeable to all palates, in all its varied shapes, 
— combine to mark it out as one of the great- 
est blessings bestowed by Providence to pro- 
mote the comfort and enjoyments of the human 
race. 

From the* remotest records of antiquity, the 
vine has been celebrated in all ages as the type 
of plenty and the symbol of happiness. The 
pages of Scripture abound with allusions to 
the fertility of the vine as emblematic of pros- 
perity; and it is emphatically declared, in de- 
scribing the peaceful and flourishing state of 
the kingdom of Israel during the reign of So- 
lomon, that "Judah and Israel dwelt safely, 
every man under his vine and under his fig 
tree, from Dan even to Beersheba." The 
source of enjoyment thus mentioned to record 
the happy state of the Jewish nation may be, 
with reference to the vine, literally possessed 
by the greater portion of the inhabitants of 
Great Britain. 

The native country of the vine is generally 
considered to be Persia. The finest grapes in 
the world are those of Shiraz and of Casvin. 
The latter city, says M. Morier, is environed 
by vineyards and orchards, and the former 
yield a grape which is celebrated throughout 
Persia. It is along the line of mountains that 
stretch from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian 
Sea, that the best vine districts are situated; 
but the grape vine has been found wild in 
America, and has now become naturalized in 
all the temperate regions of the world. In the 
northern hemisphere it forms an importaui 
branch of rural economy, from the 21st to the 
51st parallel of latitude; and by an improved 
method of culture very fine grapes may be 
annually grown on the surface of walls, in the 
open air, as far north as the 54th parallel, and 
even beyond that in favourable seasons. The 
vine is supposed to have been introduced into 
Britain at the commencement of the Christian 
era. It certainly did not exist before the 

1091 



VINE. 



VINE. 



man invasion, as neither Cesar, Pliny, nor 
Tacitus notice it in the description of Great 
Britain. Bade informs us, that in the com- 
mencement of the eighth century the cultiva- 
tion of the vine had made some progress in 
Great Britain : vines are mentioned in the laws 
of Alfred. History, indeed, amply proves, that 
for a long series of ages vineyards were com'- 
mon in the southern parts of England, and that 
the quantity of wine produced from them was 
so great as to be considered one of the staple 
products of the land. Larabarde (Topographi- 
cal Dictionary of England) informs us, that at 
Hailing, near Rochester, the bishop's vineyard 
yielded such excellent wine, that a present of 
it was sent to Edward II. when he was at 
Bakingfield. There was a royal vineyard at 
Rockingham, in the fifth year of King Stephen ; 
and William of Malmsbury, speaking of the 
vale of Gloucester, says, " this district, too, 
exhibits a greater number of vineyards than 
any other county in England, yielding abund- 
ant crops, and of superior quality." The same 
author also says, that in the isle of Ely the 
soil is " covered with vines, which either trail 
along the ground or are trained on high, and 
supported on poles." In the time of Richard 
II.. also, the vine grew so plentifully in Wind- 
sor Little Park, that part of the wine made 
there was sold for the king's profit. From 
some cause or other, however, the cultivation 
of the vine has fallen into general neglect, 
although good grapes might be grown on vines 
trained as espaliers, or in the same manner as 
in the vineyards abroad, from which excellent 
wine could be made, at a cost that would not 
exceed that of moderately strong beer. Why 
vineyards should have so completely disap- 
peared, it is difficult to say, since there are 
many thousands of acres of poor land that are 
of little value in an agricultural point of view, 
but on which vines would flourish, and pro- 
duce abundant crops of grapes, and yield there- 
by a most profitable return. 

Fruit-bearing Powers of the Vine. — From a 
long course of experiments, Mr. Hoare has 
computed the following scale of the greatest 
quantity of grapes which any vine can per- 
fectly mature, in proportion to the circum- 
ference of its stem measured just above the 
ground. 



3 inches 


. 


. 


5 


7 


3i - 


- 


- 


10 


75 


4 


. 


- 


15 


8 


H - 


. 


. 


20 


8, 


5 r 


. 


- 


25 


9 


5k - 


. 


. 


30 


0, 


6 


. 


. 


35 


10 


fi^ - 


- 


- 


40 





inches 



No vine should be suffered to ripen fruit 
until its stem measures 3 inches in girt. In 
general, vines are allowed to bear a much 
greater quantity of grapes than the above scale 
represents, but in all such cases it will be 
found that they are not perfectly ripened ; and 
moreover, by producing a superabundance of 
fruit, the plants are crippled for many years. 

Aspect. — The warmer the aspect, the greater 
perfection does the grape attain in the climate 
of England, provided all other circumstances 
are alike ; and if the greatest quantity of the 
jiun's rays shining on the surface of a wall 
1092 



were alone to be considered as constituting the 
best aspect, there would, of course, be no dif- 
ficulty in naming a due southern one as better 
than any other. But warmth alone is not suffi- 
cient; shelter from the withering influence of 
the wind is equally necessary. The best as- 
pects are those that range from the eastern to 
the southeastern, both inclusive. The next 
best are those from southeast to south. 

Soil. — The natural soil which is Tliost con- 
genial to the growth of the vine, and to the 
perfection of its fruit in this country, is a light, 
porous, rich, sandy loam, not more than 18 
inches in depth, on a dry buttom of gravel, 
stones, or rocks. A strong argillaceous soil is 
injurious to the vine : it checks the expansion 
of the roots, and retains too much moisture. 
In calcareous soils the vine always flourishes, 
especially if the bottom be stony or gravelly. 
No subsoil can possess too great a quantity of 
these materials for the roots of the vine, which 
run with eagerness into all the clefts, crevices, 
and openings in which such subsoils abound. 
In these dry and warm situations, the fibrous 
extremities, pushing themselves with the great- 
est avidity, and continually branching out in 
every possible direction, lie secure from that 
excess of moisture which frequently accumu- 
lates in more compact soils ; and, clinging like 
ivy round the porous surfaces of their retreats, 
extract therefrom a species of food, more nou- 
rishing than that obtained by them under any 
other circumstances whatever. All borders, 
therefore, made expressly for the reception of 
vines, ought to be composed of a suflScient 
quantity of dry materials, such as stones and 
brickbats, broken moderately small, lumps of 
old mortar, broken pottery, oyster shells, &c., 
to enable the roots to extend themselves freely 
in their search after food and nourishment; to 
keep them dry and warm by the free admission 
of air and solar heat, and to admit of heavy 
rains passing quickly through, without being 
retained sufficiently long to saturate the roots 
and thereby injure their tender extremities. 
The sweepings obtained from a turnpike road, 
or from any other high road kept in a good 
state of repair by the frequent addition of 
stones, and on which there is a considerable 
traffic of horses or other cattle, is the very best 
compost that can be added to any border in- 
tended for the reception of vines. Its compo- 
nent parts, consisting chiefly of sand, gravel, 
pulverized stones, and the residuum of dung 
and urine, aflford a greater quantity of food, 
and of a richer and more lasting nature, than 
can be found in any other description of com- 
post that I have ever seen or heard of being 
used for that purpose. Borders in which vines 
are planted should never be cropped nor digged. 

Manure. — The best species of manure for the 
vine are those which afford a considerable de- 
gree of nourishment, but at the same time 
slowly decompose in the soil. Such are bones, 
whole or crushed, the horns and hoofs of cat- 
tle, the entire carcasses of animals, cuttings of 
leather, woollen rags, feathers, and hair, and 
the leaves of the vines themselves. Liquid 
manures are also valuable, and forcing in their 
effect ; of this class the most powerful are 
urine, soot-water, blood, the drainings of dung 



VINE. 

heaps, and soap-suds. It should, however, al- 
ways be recollected, that the more manure is 
used, the poorer the wine procured from the 
grapes. As a top-dressing, and to be forked 
into the border, night-soil, refuse fish, stable 
manure, and the excrements of all birds and 
animals, will be found highly enriching sub- 
stances as fertilizers, and their nutritive and 
stimulating properties have been frequently 
alluded to in the progress of this work ; but if 
rich manures are used, they should be mixed 
with turf and sand. In the Alto Douro is a 
law which prohibits the vine being "littered;" 
as this operation, though it considerably aug- 
ments the produce, tends to deteriorate the 
quality of the wine. 

On' the Construction of Walls.— 'No general 
rule can be laid down as to the height of the 
wall, which must necessarily vary under differ- 
ent situations and circumstances. Mr. Hoare 
states, that in unsheltered situations and ex- 
posed aspects he has never seen fine grapes 
produced much higher than 8 feet from the 
ground. 

But, in favourable situations, height is no 
consequence. If built for the express purpose 
of rearing grapes, low walls of not more than 
6 feel are to be preferred, as more convenient 
for pruning and training the vines. Brick 
walls are undoubtedly the best, the surface 
being smooth and even. A considerable heat 
is obtained by blackening the wall. 

Propagation. — Vines are propagated in the 
open ground by layers and by cuttings. The 
former is the most expeditious mode, provided 
the shoots be laid down in pots, and planted 
out the same summer. The latter mode is 
much the best. To provide cuttings to be 
planted at the proper season, select at the au- 
tumnal pruning a sufficient number of shoots 
of the preceding summer's growth. Choose 
such as are well ripened, of a medium size, and 
moderately short-jointed. Cut them into con- 
venient lengths of 6 or 8 buds each, leaving at 
the ends not less than a couple of inches of 
the blank wood for the protection of the termi- 
nal buds. Stick these temporary cuttings about 
9 inches in the ground, in a warm and sheltered 
situation, where they will be effectually pro- 
tected from the severity of the winter. The 
best time to plant them out is about the middle 
of March, but any time from the 1st of that 
month to the 10th of April will do very well. 

Pruning and training are so closely connected 
together, and so mutually dependent on each 
other, that they almost constitute one operation. 
The judicious pruning of a vine is one of the 
most important points of culture throughout the 
whole routine of its management. The object 
is to get rid of all the useless and superabun- 
dant wood, for those shoots of a vin'^ which 
bear fruit one year never bear any afterwards. 
There are three methods of pruning vines in 
practice amongst gardeners; namely, the long- 
pruning, spur-pruning, and the fan or fruit tree 
method. The first is considered to be the most 
eligible method, and is that which is practised 
and recommended by Mr. Hoare. As the sole 
object in view in pruning a vine is to increase 
its fertility, the best method to accomplish this 
IS vj leave a sufficient supply of bearing shoots 



VINE. 

on the least possible proportionae quantity of 
old wood. 

Long-pruning appears to recommend itself 
by its simplicity ; by the old wood of the vine 
being annually got rid of; by the small num- 
ber of wounds inflicted in the pruning; by the 
clean and handsome appearance of the vine ; 
and by the great ease with which it is managed, 
in consequence of its occupying but a small 
portion of the surface of the wall. 

Mr. Hoare lays down the following practical 
general rules for the guidance of the pruner : — 
1st. In pruning, always cut upwards, and in 
a sloping direction. 

2d. Always leave an inch of blank wood be- 
yond the terminal bud, and let the cut be on 
the opposite side of the bud. 

3d. Prune so as to leave as few wounds as 
possible, and let the surface of every cut be 
perfectly smooth. 

4th. In cutting out an old branch, prune it 
even with the parent limb, that the wound may 
quickly heal. 

5th. Prune so as to obtain the quantity of 
fruit desired on the smallest number of shoots 
possible. 

6th. Never prune in frosty weather, nor wheu 
a frost is expected. 

7th. Never prune in the months of March, 
April, or May. Pruning in either of these 
months causes bleeding, and occasions thereby 
a wasteful and an injurious expenditure of sap. 
Sth. Let the general autumnal pruning take 
place as soon after the 1st of October as the 
gathering of the fruit will permit. 

Lastly, use a pruning-knife of the best de- 
scription, and let it be, if possible, as sharp as 
a razor. 

Training.— To train a vine (Mr. Hoare goes 
on to observe) on the surface of a wall is to 
regulate the position of its branches, the prin- 
cipal objects of which are, to protect them from 
the influence of the wind ; to bring them into 
close contact with the wall, for the purpose of 
receiving the benefit of its warmth ; to spread 
them at proper distances from each other, that 
the foliage and fruit may receive the full effect 
of the sun's rays, and to retard the motion of 
the sap, for the purpose of inducing the forma- 
tion of fruit-buds. The flow of sap, it must be 
remembered, is always strongest in a vertical 
direction, and weakest in a downward one. 
For this reason, the method of serpentine train- 
ing may be considered preferable to every 
other, being calculated in a greater degree to 
check the too rapid ascent of the sap, and to 
make it flow more equally into the fruiting 
shoots, and those intended for future bearers. 
On walls that are much less than 5 feet high, 
a portion of the shoots must be trained hori« 
zontally. 

Varieties of Grapes. — The following 12 sorts 
of grapes are those best adapted for culture oa 
open walls in England: — 

1. Black Hamburgh. As a splendid tabic 
fruit, this is, in every respect, one of the mos* 
valuable grapes that can be grown on open 
walls. It is a prolific bearer, hardy in its na- 
ture, and under judicious culture will ripen 
with as small a portion of direct solar h|fit as 
any grape we have. 

4 Z 1093 



VINE. 



VINE. 



2. Black Prince. This is a very fine grape, 
and nearly if not quite equal to the black 
Hamburgh; both of these sorts ripen in a 
southeastern aspect, about the middle of Oc- 
tober. 

3. Esperione. The Esperione vine is very 
hardy, extremely prolific, and ripens its fruit 
perfectly in any season, however unfavourable. 

4. Black Muscadine. This is also a prolific 
bearer, but it requires a good aspect to ripen it 
perfectly. 

5. Miller's Burgundy. This is a very hardy 
and prolific grape, and ripens perfectly in any 
season. Its leaves, which are very thick, dis- 
tinguish it from every other sort, being covered 
on both sides with a hoary down, which, when 
they are young, is nearly white ; hence it is 
called the "miller's" grape. 

6. Claret grape. This is a very fine wine 
grape. It requires a good aspect. Early in 
the summer its leaves change to a russet red, 
and die in the autumn of a deep purple blood 
colour. 

7. 8, 9. Black, grizzly, and white Frontignan. 
The flavour of these three sorts is so extremely 
delicious, that no good vine wall should be 
■without them. They ripen well in favourable 
aspects, and where the soil is very dry; but, 
being thin-skinned, and constitutionally dis- 
posed to decay after they become fully ripe, 
they cannot be kept long on the vine, particu- 
larly if the wall against which they are grow- 
ing be destitute of a projecting coping. 

10. While Muscadine. This is an exceed- 
ingly fine grape, and a prolific bearer; and 
from its hardy nature, and the certainty with 
which it ripens in any season, it may be con- 
sidered as the best white grape that can be 
grown on open walls. 

11. Malmsey Muscadine. This resembles 
the preceding, except that the berries are 
smaller, and the branches not so regularly 
formed; but the juice is sweeter, and pos- 
sesses a higher flavour. 

12. White Sweetwater. This is a delicious 
grape ; but, owing to its tenderness when in 
blossom, the berries sit very unevenly on the 
branches. 

If it be desired to have a very early sort, to 
the preceding may be added the early black 
July; which, though the branches and berries 
are smaller, and the latter in general unevenly 
set, is a very sweet and also a well-flavoured 
grape. (Hoare on the Cultivation of the Grape- 
Vine on open Walls, 3d edition ; Phillips's Hist, 
of Fruits, p. 177.) 

The work of Mr. Hoare is so full of details 
that it is scarcely necessary to add any thing 
to the directions contained in his work ; and 
we shall therefore confine ourselves to a state- 
ment of a few general truths in regard to the 
cultivation of the vine in the United States, the 
results of much observation and some experi- 
ence. 

1. The vine is a native of America, as it is 
of Asia, while it was an exotic in Europe. 
There is nothing, therefore, in the soil or cli- 
mate of America uncongenial to the vine, and, 
in fact, there are few parts of the United States 
where the forests are not filled with grape-vines 
growing with the greatest exuberance. If, 
1094 



therefore, the cultivation of the vine has made 
comparatively little progress, it is mainly be- 
cause other fruits and other crops have offered 
greater attractions. But as the country has 
advanced, and the population is concentrated 
in large towns, the grape has become an ob- 
ject of more interest, and we think it would 
now reward the industry of our farmers. 

2. This cultivation would have two objects, 
the making of wine, and the supply of grapes 
for the table. As to the first, we have no doubt 
that wine can be made of an excellent quality 
and at not unreasonable prices in the United 
States. In fact, we know that cultivators on a 
large scale, such as Mr. Rapp, at Harmony, Mr. 
Longworth, in Ohio, Mr. Geo. Sheaff, and Mr. N. 
Biddle, both of Pennsylvania, have succeeded 
in making wine — good, sound, palatable wine, 
which would require only the wine-dealers' arts 
to place it on a footing of equality with some of 
the best wines of Europe. But so long as the 
wines of France and of the old-established wine 
countries of Europe can be produced so cheap- 
ly, and imported with scarcely any duty, the 
competition of the foreign wine-makers is difii- 
cult to withstand, and it is mainly, therefore, 
when raised for the table that grapes will repay 
the labour of the farmer; and this, we think, 
they certainly would do. The importation of 
grapes and raisins into the United States will 
afford the best evidence of the consumption of 
those articles, and their cost to us. 

We happen to have before us two returns 
of importations for different years, from which 
we make the following extracts. 

In the year 1834 the importation stood thus — 



Raisins in jars 
All other raisins 



Quantity. 
6,897,517 lbs. 
7,423,567 

14,321,084 



The importation of 1837 was — 



Raising in boxes - 
All other raisins - 



19,137,098 



$477,318 
306,516 

*783,834 



Value. 

#980,201 
340,629 

$l,320,8:i() 



We have not at hand any more recent state- 
ments, and therefore do not know how these 
importations have been sustained. But these 
tables show an efiicient demand for grapes, 
fresh and dried, of no less than 1,320,000 dol- 
lars in a single year. Such an object is worth 
contending for. These imported grapes are 
generally not of the best kind, even in their 
own country, being selected mainly on account 
of their hard skins and their ability to bear the 
long voyage. They are gathered before they 
are fully ripe, and, being packed in sawdust, 
they retain too much of the flavour of that ma- 
terial. Now, if these grapes were met on their 
arrival by grapes grown here, and plucked 
from the vines within a lew hours instead of 
a few months before they are brought on the 
table, the preference could not fail to be given 
to the native fruits. 

Such fruits might be furnished from vineries 
covered with glass, or raised in the open fields. 

For raising grapes under glass, we do not 
think it necessary to give any directions, sinco 
whoever proposes it will find ample instrur 



VINE. 



VINE. 



tions in the works of M'Intosh and other gar- 
deners. Of the kinds of grapes best adapted 
for culture under glass we may speak with 
some confidence. These kinds are very nume- 
rous — great varieties of Chasselas — great va- 
rieties of Muskats — many of Frontignac. But 
we think that the labour and time are best re- 
warded by the black Hamburgh, which, for its 
excellence and its abundant bearing, may per- 
haps be placed at the head of all the grape 
family; by the Muscat of Alexandria, the fla- 
vour of which is of surpassing richness, though 
an uncertain and scanty bearer, and by one or 
two varieties of the Frontignac. These are at 
the head of their respective kinds, and none 
of the imported grapes can be placed in any 
sort of comparison with them. 

The cultivation of grapes in the open air is 
of course cheaper and easier to farmers. 

The best kind of foreign grapes, such as are 
above enumerated, may be successfully grown 
in city gardens with much shelter and care, 
and there are few gardens in which they would 
not prosper. But as yet the foreign grape has 
not succeeded in field cultivation, and accord- 
ingly for this purpose we must employ other 
varieties, which, though of inferior quality, 
are either natives, civilized by cultivation, or 
foreigners gradually acclimated. The sorts 
which are most considered are the Scuppernon, 
a vine of doubtful origin, which thrives well 
and bears abundantly in North Carolina, but 
as yet has made little progress to the north, 
though worthy, we believe, of more extensive 
experiments. Those most known to field cul- 
tivation in the Middle States are the Alexan- 
der, the Isabella, and the Catawba; and on 
these our markets will probably rely for some 
time. They may be cultivated in rows exactly 
like Indian corn, with the plough and the hoe- 
harrow: they do not require even as much 
trouble as a field of Indian corn, and, instead 
of being renewed and replanted every year, 
the plants will last for many generations of 
men. They require no covering in winter, but 
will stand unharmed the severest frosts and 
snows. 

On the whole, what we think should come 
next in the progress of American farming is, that 
everyfarm-house should have its patch of grapes 
as well as of peas or beans, of the improved 
native grapes, and that by degrees the highest 
kinds of foreign grapes should be acclimated, 
so as to form a part of field cultivation. This 
we believe entirely practicable, and to this we 
invite the attention of farmers. 

Of foreign grapes two kinds are well known 
in Virginia and other Southern as well as Mid- 
dle States, namely, the Summer sweetwater and 
the W^hite sweetwater. Highly interesting com- 
munications upon the subject of the vine cul- 
ture in the United States will be found in the 
American Fanner, Farmer's Register, and many 
other valuable periodicals. 

Among the various species of grape-vines 
found wild in the forests of the United States, 
the following have been described by botanists. 

I. P'lX-grape (Vitis labruska or Vitis vulpina). 
The berries of this luxuriant vine grow in short 
clusters, and are about half an inch and often 
more in diameter, varying at maturity from near- 



ly black to dark amber or copper colour and 
greenish-white. The flavour is musty and strong. 
" All kinds of this grape," says Bartram, "possess 
a strong, rancid smell and taste, have a thick 
coriaceous skin, and a tough, jelly-like pulp or 
tegument which encloses the seeds. Between 
this nucleus and the skin is a sweet, lively 
juice, but a little acerb or stinging to the mouth 
if pressed hard in eating them. There is an- 
other property of this grape which alone is 
sufficient to prove it to be the V. vulpina, that 
is, the strong, rancid smell of its ripe fruit, 
very like the effluvia arising from the body of 
the fox, which gave rise to the specific name 
of this vine, and not, as many have imagined, 
from its being the favourite food of the animal 
for the fox (at least the American species) sel- 
dom eats grapes or other fruit if he can get 
animal food." "In the wild state," says Dr. 
Darlington, " we find varieties in the fruit, and 
in our gardens and vineyards we have grapes 
under several names, which appear to be no- 
thing more than varieties of this — (or possibly 
some of them may be hybrids) — such as the 
Isabella grape, the Schuylkill (called also Alexan- 
der's and Tasker's grape), the Catawba grape, and 
Bland's grape. The two former of these are 
nearly black, the two latter copper or amber 
coloured — with less of the musky flavour than 
the others. The Schuylkill and Catawba varie- 
ties have been cultivated with the most suc- 
cess in Chester county." (Flora Cestrica.) 

2. Little summer grape (V. cestivalis), called 
also the Common blue grape and Bunch grape. 
In this most common of all American wild 
grapes the berries are round and small, gene- 
rally about one-fourth of an inch in diameter, 
of a deep blue or nearly black colour, covered 
when ripe with a thick bloom or powder. Their 
flavour when mature, which is generally after 
the first frost, is of an agreeable sprightly acid. 
"This species," says Dr. Darlington, "presents 
several varieties ; some of them with a larger 
fruit, which is much esteemed, and well worthy 
of culture. It sometimes attains to a great 
height in rich woodlands; the upper branches 
sustaining it by clinging to the limbs of tall 
trees, and gradually ascending, whilst the older 
branches below die and drop oflf, leaving the 
stem naked and suspended, somewhat resem- 
bling a topgallant halyard, belayed at the root." 

3. Chicken grape (V. cordifolia and V, labrusca 
of Marsh, and V. serolina of Bartram), also 
called Winter grape and Bermudian grape. 
This kind has very small berries, not so large 
as currants. They are very late in ripening, 
and, when mature, are nearly black, and pos- 
sessed of so much acerbity, that even birds 
will not eat them until they have undergone 
melioration from autumnal frosts. This vine 
is remarkable for its sweet flowers. It mounts 
to the top of trees, and its stems and twigs are 
more hard and woody than those of the preced- 
ing variety, or Summer grape. 

4. Bull or Bullet grape ( V. taurina of Bartram, 
and V. vulpina of Linnaeus and Walter). This 
excellent grape is a native of the Southern 
States, and in the Carolinas, Georgia, and ihe 
Floridas is called the Bull grape. It is pro- 
nounced by Bartram and others a distinct va- 
riety from that which it rt'rembles in external 

I0y5 



VINE. 

appparance, called Fox grapes from Pennsylvania 
to Florida. The Bullet or Bull grape is des- 
cribed by Bartram as having " A stiff, ligneous, 
smooth stem, of pale ash colour, and mounts to 
a great height by climbing up trees. The leaves 
are cordated and serrated, thin, and both sur- 
faces naked or smooth. The racemes or fruit 
bunches short, containing 15 or 20 grapes at a 
medium. The berries or acini are large, near 
the size of a rifle ball ; of a black colour when 
rips; having a bluish nebule over them, which 
being rubbed off they appear of a deep blood co- 
lour. In figure they approach to an ellipsis or 
prolate spheroid ; however, at a little distance 
they appear black and round. This species is 
deservedly esteemed the best native grape in 
America, and would make a rich and delicious 
wine. The juice is sweet, rich, and lively, and 
there is but little of the tough, jelly-like sub- 
stance enclosing the seed. The skin of the 
grape is rather thick, yet there is a sweet, melt- 
ing pulp within, which mixes with the saccharine 
juice when eaten. This undoubtedly is the 
first American grape which merits attention and 
cultivation for wine. It thrives in every soil 
and situation, from the sea-coast to the moun- 
tains ; it even thrives and is fruitful when grow- 
ing in the barren sandhills of Carolina and Flo- 
rida." 

After describing these distinct varieties of 
grapes found in the United States, Mr. Bartram 
mentions several others which he considers de- 
rived from a commixture of those described, as 
Alexiinder's or Taster's grape ; Bland's grape ; 
RacooH grape. Other varieties, possessing still 
superior properties, have since been added, such 
as the Isabella, Powell, Catawba, Seuppernon, 
&c., already mentioned. 

Although so short a time has elapsed since the 
previous observations relative to the grapes and 
tlieir culture in the United States were written, 
vineyards have become an important branch of 
husbandry in various parts of the United Stales, 
especially in the valley of the Ohio. 

An interesting publication, made in 1850 by 
R. B'jchanan, Esq., of Cincinnati, furnishes in a 
smaa space, a very great amount of instructive 
information relative to this culture and wine 
making, as carried on in the vicinity of Cincinnati, 
where the general intelligence and capital of the 
Americans is seconded by the practical expe- 
rience of the very numerous German settlers. 

The soil where these vineyards are mostly 
planted gives, on analysis, from 3 to 4 per cent, 
of carbonate of lime, with oxide of iron from 
2 per cent, to 0-30; vegetable matter, 10 to 13 
per cent.; sand and clay, about 80 per cent. 

Mr. B. gives, from his own experience, the 
following estimate of the cost of a vineyard of 
6 acres, containing 14,400 vines; the details are 
highly interesting, as showing the several opera- 
tions to be performed, and cost of each. 

Trenching:, two feet deep, S65 per acre $390.00 

Sodding avenues 60.00 

Cost of 30,000 cuttings, at $2.50 per thousand 75.00 

Pl.inting 70.(X) 

14,500 locust stakes, at $3 per hundred 435 00 

Setting 14,500 stakes 55.00 

1,085.00 
Oost of attending the first year — vine dresser, 
$216, and a hand for one month, $15, (and 

board themselves) $231.00 

Second year — vine dresser, 8216, and a hand for 

two months, at $15 per month 256.00 

Cuttings, after first year, to replace failures, say, 20.00 
1096 



VI XE. 

Hauling, cnrting, &c GP.OO 

Contingencies, &c loO.OO 

Avenge cost, say, $300 per acre 1,800.00 

In this instance the vineyard was on a gentle 
declivity, not requiring terracing or be//chi?/g ; 
nor was there much stone to remove, both of 
which would have added much to the expense. 
" By proper economy," Mr. B. says, " a man 
may have a vineyard of several acres in a few 
years, without feeling the expense to be burthen- 
some. Commence by trenching with the spade 
2 or 2^ feet in the fall or winter, and planting 
out in spring. Next year another acre, and so 
on for five or six years. After the third year he 
will have his own cuttings from the first acre, 
and also grapes enough to pay the cost of planting 
the succeeding additions to his vineyards. The 
stakes can be got out in winter, at little cost in 
money, and in this way a vineyard of six acres 
might be established at one half the cost of the 
estimate just given." 

Mr. B. estimates the cost of vineyards in_ 
trenched ground at $200 to $350 per acre — ac- 
cording to situation and condition of the soil, and 
the judicious economy displayed in the manage- 
ment. 

The expenses of attending a vineyard will be 
comparatively small where there are workers in 
the family. But where hired hands have to be 
employed, in Ohio a vineyard of 6 acres will 
cost for a vine dresser, who boards himself, $240 
per annum ; assistants in pruning, $25 ; assistance 
in the spring culture, $40, and summer culture, 
$55 ; in all §360, or at the rate, of §60 per acre. 
Where the cuttings can be sold for $2 to 2.5C 
per 1000, it will reduce the sum about SIOO. 

The vineyard should be laid off with a line, 
so as to make rows b\ to 7 feet apart, with the 
vines 3 to 4 feet asunder. The more level the 
ground, the farther apart should be the vines, so 
as to give freer access to the sun and air. Mark 
with a stick about 15 inches long, every place 
where a vine is to grow, digging a hole a foot 
deep in which two cuttings are to be placed in a 
slanting position, separated 6 or 8 inches at the 
bottom, and one inch at the top of the hole. 
Cover with a shovelful of rich vegetable mould 
from the woods, leaving the top eye of each cut- 
ting even with the surface, or, if the weather be 
dry, covered with the light mould half an inch or 
an inch. If both cuttings grow, one should be re- 
moved or cut off the following spring, leaving but 
one to each stake. To preserve and prepare the 
cuttings, the trimmings pruned from the vines 
should be buried in the earth ; about the last of 
March or first of April, the proper time for 
planting, cuttings may be made, having each 4 
eyes or joints, taken from ripe wood ; and if 
some of the old wood is left on, so much the 
better. Cut them off close below the lower 
joint, and about an inch above the upper. Some 
have recommended planting with roots 2 years 
old, but experience seems to be in favour of 
planting cuttings, as the most thrifty vines are 
those which have never been transplanted or 
disturbed. 

Treatment of the Young Vineyard. — The first 
year, keep the ground clean and free from weeds, 
; with the hoe ; many use the plough as being more 
expeditious and economical, but the more careful 
vine dressers who can afford it, never cultivate 
' with the plough, using only the two-pronged 
German hoe, made especially for the purpose. 



VINE. 



VINE. 



The e&rth should be stirreJ around the young 
vines, two or three tinnes during the season, to 
promote their growth ; superfluous shoots must 
be pulled off, leaving but one or two to grow, at 
first, and but one eventually. 

In the spring, cut the young vine down to a 
single eye, or bud; at first, if two are left for 
greater safety, take off one, afterwards; drive a 
stake 6 or 7 feet long firmly to each plant. Locust 
or cedar is preferred, but oak or black walnut, 
charred at the end, driven into the earth, or 
coated with coal tar, will, it is said, last nearly 
as long. Keep the young vine tied neatly to the 
stake, with rye or wheat straw — pick off all 
suckers, and let but one stalk or cane grow. 
The vineyard must be kept clean of weeds, and 
the young vines hoed as before. 

The second spring after planting, cut down to 
two or three eyes, or joints, and the third year 
to four or five; suckering, tying up, and hoeing 
the vines as recommended above. 

Re-plant from the nursery, where the cut- 
tinas have failed to strike root in the vineyard. 

The third year, the vines will produce a few 
grapes, sometimes enough to pay the expenses of 
attending them. 

Train two canes to the stake this year, take off 
suckers, and keep well hoed. 

The vineyard having now commenced to bear, 
may be considered as fairly established ; and for 
the fourth and successive years, the following 
treatment is generally adopted. 

Spring Priming. — This is usually done from 
the middle of February to the first week in 
March. Some prune in January, and Mr. Schu- 
man has recommended November and December, 
as the proper time. 

No serious injury to the vines, by winter 
pruning, has yet been discovered. 

Pruning, the fourth year, requires good judg- 
ment, as the standard stem, or stalk, has to be 
established. 

Select the best shoot or cane of last year, and 
cut it down to 6 or S joints, and fasten it to the 
adjoining stake in a horizontal position, or bend 
it over in the form of a hoop or bow, and tie it 
to its own stake. The ties should be of willow. 
This is the bearing wood. The other cane, cut 
down to a spur of two or three eyes, to make 
bearing wood for the next season. 

Mr. Schuman remarks in his treatise, " There 
are various methods of training adopted. Some 
tie the shoot up to the stake with two or three 
ties at proportionate distances. 

" The greater part of the German vine-plant- 
ers make circular bows with three ties, and 
another mode is to make half-circle bows. I 
recommend the latter as the best, and proceed to 
describe it. 

"Give the shoot the first tie on the stake 9 
inches from the ground, and the second 9 inches 
above it; then bow it over to the neighbour- 
ing stake in a horizontal position, and give it 
the third tie to that stake, at the top of the 
vine." 

In the succeeding, and all subsequent years, 
cut away the old bearing wood, and form the new 
bow, or arch, from the best branch of the new 
Vk'ood of the last year, leaving a spur as before, 
to produce bearing wood for the coming year, 
thus keeping the old stalk of the vine down to 
within 18 to M inches, from the ground. The 
vine is then always within reach and control. 

Should a vine be lost after the vineyard is in 
138 



bearing, it can be replaced by a layer from the 
adjoining vine, which is a much better mode 
than planting a young vine. The layers may 
be put down late in summer, but spring is pre- 
ferred. 

Cultivate the yellow, and the osier willow, to 
make ties for the spring pruning. They will 
grow in any wet place. 

Summer Pruning consists in removing suck- 
ers, and pinching off all lateral shoots, leaving 
but two stalks or canes to be trained for bearing 
wood the ensuing year, and pinching off the ends 
of the beariug branches, about the time of blos- 
soming, some two or three joints beyond, or 
above the last blossom bunch; pull no leaves off 
the bearing branches, and but very few from 
any other. As the vines grow, tie them neatly 
to the stakes, with rye straw, (some use grass), 
and when they reach the top, train them from 
one stake to the other, until the fruit has nearlj'' 
matured ; the green ends may then be broken 
off. If this is done too early, there is danger of 
forcing out the fruit-bearing buds for the next 
year, and of injuring the grapes in ripening. 

Mr. Longworth cautions American vine grow- 
ers against a common European practice of 
shortening the leading branches intended to pro- 
duce the next year's crop, heading in the short 
branches and thinning out the leaves for the pur- 
pose of exposing the fruit to the sun and air to 
promote its ripening. This method, though 
sometimes advantageous where there are cold 
summers, he says will, in the hot American cli- 
mate, where some shade is necessary, prove 
highly injurious, if not entirely destructive to 
the grapes. No more lateral branches should be 
taken from the main shoots intended for next 
year's fruit, then to give them the necessary 
length. A large crop is often occasioned by 
leaving too much bearing wood. This should 
always be avoided; for even if the crop ripens 
thoroughly, too much of the sap is taken by the 
fruit, and too little left to produce good young 
wood for the next season's crop. 

Culture. — The vineyard must be kept perfectly 
clean from weeds and grass, and should be hoed 
twice during the spring and summer. 

The cultivator or the plough is., less expensive, 
but the vines and roots are in danger of being 
injured by that mode of culture; therefore 
the hoe is preferred by those who can aflx)rd 
it. It has been recommended by some writers, 
to cut off the roots of the vines near the surface 
of the ground, and 4 or 5 inches under, that the 
roots, when the vines are young, may be well 
established at a proper depth below. 

By others, this plan is thought to be injurious. 
The majority, however, prefer cutting off the 
surface roots for the first three or four years. 

About every third year, put in manure, by 
opening a trench the width of a spade, and four 
or five inches deep. Above and near each row, 
throw in two or three inches of well rotted ma- 
nure, and cover up with the earth. 

Another plan adopted, is to run a furrow with 
the plough, put in manure, and cover over, either 
with the plough or hoe. 

Others, again, scatter manure over the surface, 
and dig it in. 

An intelligent cultivator, J. A. Corneau, re- 
marks : " High manuring is generally admitted 
to be injurious to the vinous quality of the srape ; 
or, in other words, it accelerates a larsrer growth 
of wood, and a more attractive-looking fruit 
4 z 2 1097 



VINE. 



VINE. 



while the more essential qualities of the grape 
for wine making, are very much deteriorated. 
No substance should ever be used which has a 
tendency to ferment, or which, in undergoing a 
chemical change in the soil, would form an acid 
or a salt of a highly stimulating nature. Vege- 
table manures, bones, &c., may be used to ad- 
vantage." Well rotted stable-yard manure has 
been used moderately, by the writer, with good 
effects to the plants and the fruit, and without 
any perceptible injury to the " vinous quality of 
the grape." 

Diseases, Lisects, and Frosts — The " rot," as 
it is termed, is the great evil, especially in culti- 
vating the Catawba. 

This takes place usually in the latter end of June 
or early in July, Dr. Warder says, " about the 
period of stoning," or " hardening of the seed," 
after continued heavy rains, and hot sweltering 
suns. — It strikes, something like the rust in 
wheat-, suddenly, and with the same disastrous 
effect to the crop. Various modes of prevention 
have been recommended, but none yei tried have 
proved always effectual. 

The cause is supposed to be an excess of water 
about the roots of the vine, in any clay subsoil 
retentive of moisture ; sandy soils with a gravelly 
substratum, are generally exempt from this 
disease. 

The opinions of Mr. Elliott, Mr. Longworth, 
and the Fruit Committee of the Cincinnati Hor- 
ticulural Society, on this subject, are quoted. 

Mr. Elliott, in the Horticulturist, Vol. 2, p. 
314, says the rot for the past three years has 
followed excessive rains in July and August. 
Dr. Flagg, two years since, found a small part 
of a vineyard where the rot was very slight. 
This had not been worked after the spring, and 
the ground was in such a state, that most of the 
rains passed off on the surface. Vines planted 
in rows eight feet apart, in one instance were 
found to be affected with rot, but very slightly. 

In the same article, Mr. Longworth says: 
" It is of late years only, that the rot has been 
so destructive among our grapes; one thing 
is certain, if we had little or no rain after the 
grapes are fairly forward, we should see but 
little of the rot ; certain it is, that continued rains 
followed by a hot sun, cause us to lookout for the 
appearance of the rot." 

He also refers to instances where, in seasons 
when the rot prevailed extensively, crops es- 
caped although raised upon a stiff clay sub-soil. 
In such cases the ground had been left without 
hoeing, and become so hard baked on the surface 
as to prevent the rain-water from penetrating to 
the roots. Under-draining will doubtless be 
found of the greatest advantage to vineyards on 
soils retentive of moisture. See Draining. 

In the able report of Dr. Mosher, Mr. Ernst, 
and Mr. Kidd, the Fruit Committee of the 
Society for 1848, it is remarked, " some vine- 
yards were injured by the wet weather in 
July, causing the grapes to rot and fall off"; this 
however, seems to have been confined to situa- 
tions where the air had not a free circulation, 
allowing fogsand vapours to remaintoo long upon 
the vines in hot weather, as well as to a tena- 
cious clayey soil ; on dry and moreairy situations, 
and where the ground was thoroughly drained, 
the crop has been fine and fair." 

H. VV. S. Cleveland, of Burlington, N. J., 
who has a vineyard of two to three acres, and 
who, Mr. Downing says, is one of the most reli- 
1098 



able horticulturists in the State, recommends 
covering the whole surface of the vineyard with 
shavings, leaves, or coarse grass, to prevent the 
ravages of insects, and diseases of the fruit — see 
Horticulturist, Vol. 3, p. 113. — In the same 
Vol. p. 121, " A Jerseyman," in summer pru- 
ning, put the leaves and young stems in a trench 
at the root of the vines — sprinkled gypsum 
on them, and covered over with earth. This was 
done at the suggestion of Mr. Downing, who 
strongly recommends it to the vine dressers on 
the Ohio, with a request that upon trial they 
" report progress." 

And at page 161, of the same Vol., " B.," 
" of Chester Co. Pa." recommends " special 
manures," as a certain specific — having tried 
with success, a mixture of guano, gypsum, and 
wood ashes. 

Mr. Downing says to " J. D. Legare, Aiken, 
S. C." in the same Vol. p. 255, " We note your 
experiment with ashes to prevent rot, but you 
must not decide against it with one year's trial. 
— It has been found effectual here at the north, 
when used along with gypsum." 

Two years ago, the writer of this treatise 
tried ashes on a small scale, btct without gyp- 
sum ; a trench was dug above two rows, the 
width of a spade, some four inches deep, and 
two or three inches of leached ashes put in and 
covered over with earth. No beneficial effect 
was perceived. The two rows were slightly 
affected by the rot, as were those adjoining. 

Hoeing in autumn, and not stirring the ground 
at all in the spring and summer, but keeping the 
weeds cut down, and the surface smooth, that 
the water may not sink, but pass off rapidly, 
has also been spoken of as a probable remedy 
against rot. 

Some persons even recommend letting the 
weeds grow ; to say the least of it, this would 
be slovenly culture. 

With a view to test the advantages of wide 
planting and high training, in preventing the 
rot, Mr. Werk has planted on his farm near 
Cheviot, eleven acres in the Catawba grape, 
twenty feet apart in the rows each way, and the 
vines are trained to locust stakes twelve feet 
high. Last year they produced fruit for the first 
time, and were entirely free from rot. But here 
it must be remarked, that the Jirst crop from 
young vines, is generally but little affected by 
that disease. Mr. Werk also cultivated the 
ground between the rows, for other purposes. 

The " mildew" comes earlier in the season, 
when the grapes are about one fourth grown, 
blighting occasionally a few bunches, and some- 
times only the lower end. It is neither common 
nor destructive. 

The " speck," by some persons mistaken for 
the rot, and by others called the bitter rot, is 
a large circular spot on the side of the grape, 
looking as if caused by the sting of an insect, 
and extending to the seed on one side of the 
berry, whilst the other is uninjured; but owing 
to this wound, or speck, the juice will be bitter. 
This has been attributed to the action of the 
sun on the fruit when covered with rain or dew- 
drops. 

The vine is so remarkably healthy, and of 
such luxuriant growth in almost any proper soil, 
that diseases at the root are almost unknown 
here. Mr. Schuman states that a white worm 
resembling' the peach tree worm, is sometimes 
found eating off the young roots of the vine, and 



VINEGAR. 

Mr. Mottier has also found and destroyed it — 
but it is rarely met with in vineyards. 

The Insects found most annoying, are a green 
worm that feeds on the vines just as the fruit 
buds appear, and before they blossom, eating off 
the tender bunches, and doing great mischief if 
not promptly destroyed. The Canker, or Mea- 
suring Worm (of which the above may be a va- 
riety) is sometimes found on the leaves and 
young shoots. The CurcnUo, so destructive to 
the plum, has occasionally been found on the 
grapes; they can te readily shaken down on 
a sheet, by a sudden blow on the stake, and 
destroyed. If ever permitted to get domesti- 
cated in a vineyard, this insect would be im- 
mensely destructive. 

The Rose-bug, Dr. Shaler says, has been ob- 
served in some vineyards in Kentucky, but it is 
rarely met with here. 

A large brown beetle, or bug, will frequently 
sting the young tender branches of the vine in 
summer, making a wound that subjects the 
branch to be broken off by strong winds. They 
can be watched and picked off, late in the evening, 
or early in the morning. All horticulturists 
are familiar with the spring and the early fall 
caterpillar, and of course, would not permit 
either to get a foothold in the vineyard. 

Frost. — Late spring frosts have some years, 
but not often, been highly injurious, especially 
to vineyards near s7nall streams of water, damp 
woods, or in cold situations. The most severe 
within the memory of Mr. Buchanan, occurred 
on the 9th of May, 7th of May, and 15th of 
April, of three successive years, when the buds 
had so far put out, that their loss was not replaced 
by the pushing out subsequently of the latent, 
or twin bud, which partially overcame the loss 
of the first bud in the latter year, 1849. 

In warm and sandy lands, with a gravelly sub- 
stratum, the buds are in some years pushed 
forward prematurely by warm autumns, so as to 
be killed by the severe frosts in winter. See 
Wine. 

VINEGAR is the acetous and acetic acids of 
the chemist, containing a variety of foreign ad- 
mixtures, some colouring matter, and an ethe- 
real substance or spirit, which gives it a grateful 
aroma. Vinegar has been known from a very 
early age. It was by far the earliest known 
acid of commerce. That it was drunk in re- 
mote periods, diluted with water, by the labour- 
ers and soldiers, is very certain. It is repeat- 
edly mentioned in the Old Testament. But then 
they had several descriptions, one of which, a 
kind of small wine, which they called pesea or 
sera, is supposed to be that offered to Ruth 
(Rnth, ii. 14), and to our Saviour by the Roman 
soldiers (Matt, xxvii. 48). The stronger va- 
riety of vinegar is alluded to in another place 
[Prov. X. 26). They mixed it also with nitre, 
or, properly speaking, natron, which was an 
alkali that, by neutralizing, destroyed its sharp- 
ness. " As vinegar upon nitre, so is he that 
singeth songs to a heavy heart." {Prov. xxv. 
20.) They made it in those days from wine. 
{Numb. vi. 3.) It is known to every one, that 
when wine or beer is exposed to the influence of 
the atmosphere, it becomes sour or acid; now 
this acid is the acetic. In the wine countries it 
is chiefly made from the produce of the vine, 
weak or low wines ; the shoots of the vine, &c., 
being also employed for that purpose. It may 
be readily made from merely sugar and water. 



VINEGAR. 

That of commerce in England is usually made 
from wort from malt liquor or cider. Vinegar 
is of a yellowish or reddish colour, an acid ta°te, 
and pleasant odour. Its specific gravity is com- 
monly between 1-0135 and 1-0251. It usually 
holds in solution various foreign substances, such 
as colouring matters, sulphate of lime, mucilage, 
sulphuric acid, and the ethereal spirit already 
mentioned. Vinegars differ greatly in strength 
and in purity. The best known in England for 
domestic purposes is the French white wine 
vinegar; but the Vinaigre d'Orleans, made from 
the red wine of the Orleanois, is that most es- 
teemed in France ; and that imported from 
Bourdeaux, although named Champagne vine- 
gar, is often made from red wine. The density 
of French vinegars varies from 10-14 to 10-22. 
The free sulphuric acid in British vinegar is per- 
mitted by the English excise laws to the amount 
of one part in one thousand, but it is often added 
to four times that amount. 

Vinegar is readily purified from its impurities 
by distillation, and in this form is the transpa- 
rent distilled vinegar of commerce. But even 
then it is united with a considerable portion of 
water. 

The specific gravity determines this point. 
Thus, at 10-14 it contains 10 per cent, of real 
acetic acid, at 10-22 15 per cent., at 10-25 18 
per cent., at 10-35 26 per cent., at 10-60 50 per 
cent., and so on, until it reaches 10-635, which 
is the strongest liquid acetic acid. 

When deprived of all impurities and water, 
by chemical means, pure acetic acid is com- 
posed, according to the analysis of M. Berze- 
lius, of — 

Parts. 

Carbon 46-83 

Oxygen 46-82 

Hydrogen 6-35 

100- 



Some plants contain acetic acid naturally. M. 
Vauquelin found it in the sap of various trees, 
and in the chick-pea. Scheele detected it in the 
elderberry. It has been found also in the date 
palm tree, and in several others ; and few plants 
exist in which acetic acid in the form of salts, 
such as the acetates of lime or potassa, is not 
found. 

In England, for domestic purposes, it is pre- 
pared in several very considerable manufactories 
from a mixture of barley or malt with water, by 
keeping the wash exposed in open vessels to the 
influence of the atmosphere, in rooms heated to 
a particular temperature. The formation of the 
acetic acid in this manner is in these works pro- 
moted by the addition of a certain small propor- 
tion of acetic acid. 

An excellent vinegar for domestic purposes 
may be readily made by exposing a mixture of 
one part of brown sugar by weight with seven 
parts of water and some yeast, in a cask whose 
bung-hole is only slightly covered over (as by a 
piece of gauze pasted down to keep out insects), 
for some weeks to the action of the atmosphere 
and the sun. The acetic fermentation and the 
goodness of the vinegar are promoted by the ad- 
dition of vine leaves. 

Although vinegar is familiarly used in small 
quantity as an agreeable and useful addition to 
food, yet in large quantities it interrupts diges- 
tion, and induces emaciation. In combination 

1099 



VIOLET. 



WALNUT TREE. 



with water, it is an excellent cooling and invi- 
gorating substance when eniployed for spong- 
ing the body, especially in febrile conditions 
of it : its vapour inhaled with the vapour of hot 
water relieves hoarseness; and, when mode- 
rately diluted, it forms an excellent gargle in 
inflamed or sore throats. See Acirs and Pt- 

HOLIGNKOUS Acin. 

VIOLET (Viola). All the species of this 
genus deserve to be cultivated, either for the 
beauty or the scent of their flowers. The spe- 
cies natives of America thrive best in vegeta- 
ble mould or peat, and are readily increased 
by parting the roots or by seeds. There are 8 
native species of violet in England, and, ac- 
cording to Schweinitz, 29 in the United States. 

VIOLET, AMERICAN (Erythronium Ameri- 
canuni). Sometimes called Dog's-tooth violet. 
This very pretty plant is found throughout 
the Atlantic States on the lowest alluvial 
banks of streams, and in most moist places, 
where it puts forth its beautiful violet flowers 
in April and May. It has a perennial bulbous 
root, rather deep in the ground. Among other 
American species of the violet enumerated by 
botanists, is the white violet (E. albidum), found 
throughout the Western States and Territories, 
in Upper Louisiana, and on the banks of the 
Missouri, where no other species appears to 
exist. There appears to be a yellow-flowered 
species confounded with this white species, 
and nearly allied to it. 

VIPER*S BUGLOSS. See Honey, Ciniak. 



w. 



WAGES. The price or hire paid to labour- 
ers or servants for performing diflerent sorts 
of farm work. 

These differ greatly in different districts and 
situations, and according to the character and 
employment of the workmen, but in all they 
are considerably increased within the last 15 
or "20 years. They may perhaps be stated as 
varying, in England, under different circum- 
stances, from 9s. to 18s. by the week, and from 
9/. to 15/. or 18/. by the year. 

WAGON. A wheel-carriage, of which there 
are several varieties, accommodated to the dif- 
ferent uses which they are intended to serve. 

In the business of husbandry, wagons con- 
structed in different forms, and of various di- 
mensions, are made use of in different districts 
or parts of the kingdom ; and mostly without 
much attention to the nature of the roads, or the 
articles which are to be conveyed by them; 
being in general heavy, clums}', and incon- 
venient. There is, however, a wagon much 
employed in Berkshire, England, which is 
constructed on a more simple and convenient 
principle than those mostly met with in the 
other southern parts of the island, not having 
the height or weight of them, while it possesses 
eufRcient strength, and is easy in the draught. 

Wagons require more power in the draught 
than carts, which is certainly an objection, 
though they carry a much greater load, and are 
far from being so handy and convenient; and 
Mr. Parkinson is of opinion, that more work 
1100 



may be done in any particular time, with the 
same number of horses, by carts than by wa- 
gons, in the general run of husbandry busi- 
ness, especially where the distance is small be- 
tween loading and unloading ; a fact which 
has long been known and attended to in Scot- 
land. 

Where wagons are used for husbandry, they 
should be made wide and low. Manures may 
be carried in this sort of wagon almost as 
well as in carts. Broad wheels are improper 
for passing and repassing upon tillage lands ; 
for, if in fallow, they press the land loo much, 
and make it so hard as to prevent its being 
ploughed till wet comes ; but on grass land 
broad wheels are proper for all uses, as there 
they operate as rollers. 

Wagons are probably the best conveyances 
for different sorts of heavy loads to a distance; 
but for home business, especially harvest and 
other work, which requires to be speedily per- 
formed in the field, carts with proper shelving 
will be found preferable. See Caiit and 
Highway. 

WAIN. A name applied to an ox cart, 
without any side rails, or ladders, in some dis 
tricts in England; but in others shelvings are 
added, and the body is large and open. They 
are rarely met with at present. In Gloucester- 
shire they adapt them to harvest work by fixing 
ladders and rathes on them. In the lower part 
of the vale they are called dimgpots : but in the 
forest districts, where drawn by oxen, wains. 

WALNUT TREE ( Juglav^, from Jovis glans; 
literally the nut of Jove). All the species of 
the ornamental genus to which the well-known 
walnut tree belongs are tall, stately-growing 
trees, well adapted for parks and lawns. They 
grow freely in any rich loamy soil, and are 
raised from seeds. This deciduous tree was 
formerly held in great esteem in England for 
its wood, which is often very finely veined; 
hut, on account of its aptness to be worm- 
eaten, it has long since given place to the ma- 
hogany. As a fruit tree, independent of its 
timber, which is still of much value, it merits 
attention, and it is also useful as an ornamental 
tree. There are several species capable of 
being cultivated with advantage both for their 
wood and fruit; as the common walnut, the 
white walnut, and the black walnut tree. 

The common walnut (/. rcgia) is a very 
large and lofty tree, which has strong spread- 
ing boughs. The leaves are pinnate, with a 
very strong but not unpleasant smell ; the leaf- 
lets 3 pairs (sometimes 2 or 4), nearly equal, 
except that the odd one is largest; they are en- 
tire, smooth, and shining. The male flowers 
are in close, pendulous, subterminating fila- 
ments; the females scattered, frequently 2 or 
3 together. Fruit an ovate, coriaceous, smooth 
drupe, inclosing an irregularly grooved nut, 
which contains a four-lobed, oily, eatable ker- 
nel, with an irregular knobbed surface, and 
covered with a yellow skin. This tree is a 
native of Persia. 

It has been noticed by Martyn, " that as they 
all vary again when raised from the seed, and 
that as nuts from the same tree will produce 
diflferent fruit, those who plant the walnut for 
its fruit should make choice of the trees in the 



WALNUT TREE. 



WALNUT TREE, 



nurseries, when they have their fruit upon 
them." 

The common walnut has several varieties, 
as the oval walnut, the round walnut, the large 
walnut, the small-fruited walnut, the double 
walnut, the early walnut, the late walnut, the 
tender thin-shelled walnut, and the hard thick- 
shelled walnut. 

There are two other species, the hickory-nut, 
or white walnut (/. alba), and the black walnut 
(/. nigra). Both these are natives of Virginia; 
but they are seldom cultivated in Britain, ex- 
cept as timber trees. 

The best manure for the walnut is ashes, 
spread in the beginning of winter, the land 
having been first ploughed or trenched over in 
an effectual manner. 

The length of time in which the English 
walnut bears well from the nut is about 20 
years. 

Mr. Knight has suggested that this tree will 
bear much sooner when raised by grafting, 
with bearing branches, by approach. But 
where the trees are intended for timber, it is a 
good practice to plant them out at once where 
they are to grow, as they thrive faster, and 
form better trees, by that method of raising 
them. 

These trees should not be planted nearer 
together than 40 feet, and even more distant, 
if they are designed for fruit. They delight in 
a firm, rich, loamy soil, or such as is inclinable 
to chalk or marl; and will thrive very well in 
stony ground, or on chalk hills, as is evident 
from those large plantations near Leatherhead, 
Godstone, and Carshalton in Surrey, where 
great numbers of these trees planted upon the 
downs produce annually large quantities of 
fruit, to the no small advantage of their owners. 

In order to preserve this fruit, it should be 
left upon the tree till it is thoroughly ripe, and 
then, as it would be exceedingly troublesome 
to gather it by hand, it may be beaten off, but 
not with such violence as is commonly used, 
from a mistaken notion that the tree is im- 
proved thereby; for most certainly it cannot 
be benefited by that rough way of forcing off 
the young wood upon which this fruit grows. 

The fruit is used in two diflferent stages of 
its growth : as when green, to pickle ; and 
when ripe, to eat the kernel. For the first pur- 
pose, the young green walnut, when about half 
or near three parts grown, before the outer coat 
and internal shell shall become hard, is most 
excellent, for which they are generally ready 
in July or the following month, and should be 
gathered by the hand, choosing such as are as 
free from specks as possible. But the fruit is 
discovered to be fully ripe by the outer husk 
easily separating from the nut, or by the husks 
sometimes opening at the valve, and the nuts 
dropping out, which occurs usually about the 
latter end of September. In trees of consider- 
able growth, it is commonly beaten down with 
long poles ; for, as the walnuts grow mostly at 
the extremity of the branches, it would, in 
very large spreading trees, be troublesome and 
tedious work to gather them by hand. As soon 
as gathered, they should be laid in heaps a few 
days to heat and sweat, to cause their outer 
husks, which closely adhere, to separate from 



the shell of the nuts ; after which they should 
be cleaned from the rubbish, and deposited in 
a dry room for use, covering them over close 
with dry straw, a foot thick, where they will 
keep 3 or 4 months. They always command 
a ready sale at market in large towns, where, 
at their first coming in, they are bought with 
their husks on, and sold by the sack, or bushel, 
but afterwards cleaned, and sold both by mea- 
sure and by the thousand. 

Plantations of these trees in England are 
therefore profitable, in their annual crops of 
fruit, while growing, and in their timber when 
felled or cut down. 

It is stated in the Gloucestershire Report, that 
"it will grow almost in any soil, wants no 
pruning nor care, and in less time than the oak 
it will make a large tree. The wood is too 
valuable to apply to the usual purposes of tim- 
ber trees, but is always used either in cabinet 
work or for gun-stocks; for the latter, indeed, 
so great has been the demand for a few years 
past, from the Birmingham gun-makers, that 
the county has been ransacked for this wood, 
and high prices have been held out to tempt the 
sale of it. In consequence of this, the stock 
has been much diminished, and, with very few 
exceptions, only here and there is a solitary 
walnut tree seen growing. In the parish of 
Arlingham there are more, perhaps, than in 
many other parishes combined." 

Were it only for the oil that these nuts alford, 
the trees which produce them would be worth 
some care. It has been observed by Evelyn, 
that one bushel of them will yield 15 lbs. of 
peeled kernels, and that these will yield half 
that weight of oil, which, the sooner it is drawn, 
is the more in quantity, though the drier the 
nut, the better is its quality. He adds, that the 
lee, or marc of the pressing, is excellent for 
fattening hogs. Certainly it would be good 
manure for land; as are the cakes of linseed, 
rape, «&c., after the oil has been squeezed out 
of them. The green husks boiled, without any 
mixture, make a good colour to dye a dark yel- 
low-brown. The kernel being rubbed upon 
any crack or chink of a leaking vessel, stops 
it better than either clay, pitch, or wax. (Phil- 
lips's Fruits, p. 342.) 

In the variety of trees which compose the 
vast forests of North America east of the Mis- 
sissippi, the walnut, says Michaux the younger, 
ranks after the oak, among the genera whose 
species are most multiplied. In this particular, 
the soil of the United States is more favoured 
than that of Europe, to no part of which is 
any species of this tree indigenous. This ar- 
dent student of nature has designated 10 spe- 
cies of walnut in the United States, including 
the hickories, and thinks others may yet be 
discovered in Louisiana. There is, he adds, 
room to think that species may be discover- 
ed, susceptible, like the pacanenut hickory, 
of speedy melioration, by the aid of grafting 
and attentive cultivation. Some weight is given 
this consideration, by an observation of Michaux 
the father, that the fruit of the common Eu- 
ropean walnut, in its natural state, is harder 
than that of the American species just men- 
tioned, and inferior to it in size and quality. 
To the members of agricultural societies in 

1101 



WALNUT TREE. 

the United Slates it belongs to extend their ob- 
servations and experiments on this subject, 
after the example of our ancestors, to whom 
we are indebted for a rich variety of fruits, 
equally salutary and beautiful. 

The walnuts of North America appear to 
prebent characters so distinct as to require 
their division into two sections. These cha- 
racters consist principally in the form of the 
barren aments or catkins, and in the greater or 
less rapidity of vegetation in the trees. The 
first section is composed of walnuts with sin- 
gle aments, and includes two species, the 
black walnut and the butternut ; to which sec- 
tion is added the European walnut. The second 
section consists of such as have compound 
aments, and comprises the 8 species already 
described under the name of Hickory. 

The black walnut (Juglans nigra), is known 
by no other name in all parts of the United 
States where it grows. East of the Alleghany 
mountains, the most northern point at which it 
appears, is, says Michaux, about Goshen in 
the state of New Jersey, in the latitude of 40° 
50'. West of the mountains, it exists abun- 
dantly 2° farther north, in that portion of Ge- 
nesee which is comprised between the 77th 
and 79th degrees of longitude. This observa- 
tion, as I shall have occasion to remark, is ap- 
plicable to several other vegetables, the north- 
ern limit of whose appearance varies with the 
ciimate, and this becomes milder in advancing 
towards the west. 

This last observation of Michaux in respect 
to the amelioration of climate in going west, 
has been ascertained, from exact thermometri- 
cal observations, to be applicable only to those 
sections of country situated sufficiently near the 
Lakes, and to the eastward of them to be in- 
fluenced by the greater equality of temperature 
maintained by bodies of water than by land. 
The proximity of those great internal seas have 
a similar effect in modifying climate to that 
manifested on the Atlantic border, where many 
trees and plants creep up several degrees higher 
than they can be found further in the interior. 
(See Climate OF the United States.) 

The black walnut is multiplied in the forests 
about Philadelphia, and, with the exception of 
the lower parts of the Southern States, where 
the soil is sandy, or too wet, it is met with to 
the banks of the Mississippi, throughout an 
extent of 2000 miles. East of the Alleghany 
mountains in Virginia, and in the upper part 
of the Carolinas and of Georgia, it is chiefly 
confined to the valleys, where the soil is deep 
and fertile, and which are watered by creeks 
and rivers : in the western country, in Ge- 
nesee, and in the states of Ohio and Kentucky, 
where the soil in general is very rich, it grows 
in the forests, with the coffee tree, honey-locust, 
red mulberry, locust, shellbark-hickory, black 
sugar maple, hackberry, and red elm ; all 
which trees prove the goodness of the soil in 
which they are found. 

It is in these countries, says Michaux, that 
the black walnut displays its full proportions. 
On the banks cf the Ohio, and on the islands 
of that beautiful river, I have often seen trees 
of 3 or 4 feet in diameter and 60 or 70 feet in 
height. It is not rare to find them of the thick- 
1102 



i 



WALNUT TREE. 

ness of 6 or 7 feet. Its powerful vegetatioa 
clearly points out this as one of the largest 
trees of America. When it stands insulated, 
its branches, extending themselves horizon- 
tally to a great distance, spread into a spacious 
head, which gives it a very majestic appear- 
ance. 

The leaves of the black walnut when bruised 
emit a strong aromatic odor. They are about 
18 inches in length, pinnate, and composed in 
general of 6, 7, or 8 pair of leaflets, surmount- 
ed by an odd one. The leaflets are opposite 
and fixed on short petioles ; they are acuminate, 
serrate, and somewhat downy. The barren 
flowers are disposed in pendulous and cylin- 
drical aments, of which the peduncles are 
simple, unlike those of the hickories. The 
fruit is round, odoriferous, of rather an uneven 
surface, and always appears at the extremity 
of the branches : on young and vigorous trees, 
it is sometimes 7 or 8 inches in circumference. 
The husk is thick, and is not, as in the hicko- 
ries, divided into sections; but when ripe it 
softens and gradually decays. The nut is hard, 
somewhat compressed at the sides, and sul- 
cated. The kernel, which is divided by firm 
ligneous partitions, is of a sweet and agree- 
able taste, though inferior to that of the Eu- 
ropean walnut. These nuts are sold in the 
markets of New York, Philadelphia, and Bal- 
timore, and served upon the tables. The size 
of the fruit varies considerably, and depends 
upon the vigour of the tree, and upon the na- 
ture of the soil and of the climate. On the 
banks of the Ohio, and in Kentucky, the fruit 
with the husk is 7 or 8 inches in compass, 
with the nut proportionally large : in Genesee, 
on the contrary, where the cold is intense, and 
in fields exhausted by cultivation, where these 
trees have been preserved since the first clear- 
ing of the land, it is not of more than half this 
bigness. Some variations are observed in the 
form of the fruit, and in the moulding of the 
shell ; but these I consider as merely acci- 
dental differences. Indeed, there is no genus 
of trees in America, in which the fruit of a 
given species exhibits such various forms as 
in the walnut; and doubtless this circumstance 
has misled observers, who, being acquainted 
only with the small number of trees existing 
in European gardens, have described them as 
distinct species. 

The bark of the black walnut is thick, black- 
ish, and on old trees deeply furrowed. When 
the timber is freshly cut, the sap is white and 
the heart of a violet colour, which after a short 
exposure to the air assumes an intenser shade, 
and becomes nearly black: hence probably is 
derived the name of black walnut. There are 
several qualities for which its wood is princi- 
pally esteemed ; it remains sound during a 
long time, even when exposed to the influences 
of heat and moisture ; but this observation is 
applicable only to the heart ; the sap speedily 
decays. It is very strong and very tenacious: 
when thoroughly seasoned it is not liable to 
warp and split ; and its grain is sufliciently 
fine and compact to admit of a beautiful polish. 
It possesses, in addition to these advantages, 
that of being secure from worms. On account 
of these excellencies, it is preferred and sue- 



WARBLE. 



WARPING OF LAND. 



cessfully employed in many kinds of work, 
chiefly in cabinet-making. 

The husk of the fruit yields a colour similar 
to that which is obtained from the European 
walnut. It is used in the country for dyeing 
woollen stuffs. 

This tree has been long since introduced, in 
England and France, into the gardens of the 
lovers of foreign culture. It succeeds per- 
fectly and yields fruit abundantly. Though 
differing widely from the European species, it 
bears a nearer resemblance to it than any 
other American walnut. By comparing the 
two species as to their utility in the arts and in 
commerce, it will appear that the wood of the 
black walnut is more compact, heavier, and 
much stronger; that it is susceptible of a finer 
polish, and that it is not injured by worms; 
qualities which, as has been seen, render it fit 
not only for the same uses with the European, 
but also for the larger works of architecture. 
These considerations sufficiently evince that it 
is a valuable tree, and that it is with great 
reason that many proprietors in America have 
spared it, in clearing their new lands. On high- 
roads, I am of opinion that it might be chosen 
to succeed the elm ; for experience has proved, 
that to insure success in the continued culti- 
vation of trees or herbaceous plants on the 
same soil, the practice must be varied with 
species of different genera. 

Nuts of the European walnut and of the 
black walnut have been planted at the same 
time in the same soil; those of the black wal 
nut are observed to shoot more vigorously, and 
to grow in a given time to a greater height. 
By grafting the European upon the American 
species at the height of 8 or 10 feet, their ad- 
vantages, with respect to the quality both of 
wood and of fruit, might be united. (Michaux.) 

The second species of walnut, properly so 
called, has been described under the head of 

BCTTER>'UT. 

WARBLE. See Back-sore, Galls, and 

SiTFAST. 

WARP. A slimy deposit or ooze left upon 
land by the receding sea tides in particular 
situations. See Alluvium and WAnrisR. 

WARPING OF LAND. A mode of fertiliz- 
ing and improving tillage lands practised in 
particular situations on the borders of large 
rivers and waters into which the sea tides flow, 
and where the level of the ground is such as 
to admit of their being flooded with great faci- 
lity. The practice is, for the most part, confined 
to the districts situate on the coasts of Lincoln- 
shire and Yorkshire. The water of the tides 
that come up the Trent, Ouze, Dun, and other 
rivers which empty themselves into the great 
estuary of the Humber, is muddy to an excess ; 
insomuch that in summer, if a cylindrical 
glass, 12 or 15 inches long, be filled with it, it 
will presently deposit an inch, and sometimes 
more, of what is called warp : a circumstance 
which renders them so fertile. 

The fertility of Egypt, of the land bordering 
on the shores of the Ganges, and some of the 
large American rivers, I have already shown 
to be attributable to the periodical overflowing 
of the waters which are surcharged with a 



large quantity of earthy substances which they 
hold in solution. 

" The effect of warping is very different from 
that of irrigation ; for it is not the water thaj 
works the effect, but the deposition of the mud, 
so that in floods the business ceases, as also in 
winter ; and the object of this practice is not 
to manure the soil, but to create it. The qua- 
lity of the land intended to be warped is not 
of the smallest consequence; a bog, clay, sand, 
peat, or a barn floor, are all one ; as the warp 
raises it in one summer from 6 to 16 inches 
thick, and in the hollows, or low places, 2, 3, 
or 4 feet, so as to leave the whole piece level. 
Thus a soil of any depth you please is formed, 
which consists of mud of a vast fertility, 
though containing not much besides sand." 

This is a practice which is begun in the 
month of July, and is proceeded with during 
the summer season ; and as it can only be 
performed at that period, every occasion of 
having it executed should be embraced, by 
having the work in perfect repair, that every 
tide may be made to produce its full effect. 
With regard to the advantage of doing this 
work in the summer months, it may be re- 
marked that at these times the lands not only 
become the soonest dry, a circumstance which 
must always fully take place before the pro- 
cess of cultivation can be carried on, but the 
tides are less mixed with fresh water, in which 
situation they are constantly found the most 
effectual. 

The method of executing the work is thus 
described, in the Agricultural Survey of the West 
Riding of Yorkshire, by Lord Hawke : — 

" The land to be warped must be banked 
round against the river. The banks are made 
of the earth taken on the spot from the land: 
they must slope 6 feet, that is, 3 feet on each 
side of the top or crown of the bank, for every 
foot perpendicular of rise: their top or crown 
is broader or narrower, according to the impe- 
tuosity of the tide and the weight and quantity 
of water; and it extends from 2 to 12 feet: 
their height is regulated by the height to which 
the spring tides flow, so as to exclude or let 
them in at pleasure. In these banks there are 
more or fewer openings, according to the size 
of the ground to be warped, and to the choice 
of the occupier; but in general they have only 
two sluices, one called the flood-gate, to admit, 
the other called the dough, to let off the water 
gently; these are enough for 10 or 15 acres. 
When the spring tide begins to ebb, the flood- 
gate is opened to admit the tide, the clough 
having been previously shut by the weight of 
the water brought up the river by the flow of 
the tide. As the tide ebbs down the river, the 
weight or pressure of water being taken from 
the outside of the clough next the river, the 
tide water that has been previous'ly admitted 
by the flood-gate opens the clough again, and 
discharges itself slowly but completely through 
it. The doughs are walled on each side, and 
so constructed as to let the water run off be- 
tween the ebb of the tide admitted and the flow 
of the next; and to this point particular atten- 
tion is paid. The flood-gates are placed so 
high as only to let in the spring tides when 

1103 



WARRANTY. 



WASP 



opened. They are placed above the level of 
the common tides. 

" Willows are also occasionally planted on 
the front of the banks, to break the force of the 
tides, and defend the banks by raising the front 
of them with warp thus collected and accu- 
mulated ; but these willows must never be 
planted on the banks, as they would destroy 
them by giving the winds power to shake them." 

It is stated that in England the first cost of a 
sluice for warping, that is, 5 feet in height and 
7 feet in width, may be estimated at from 400/. 
to 500/ ; and that such a sluice will in general 
be adequate to the warping of 50 acres annu- 
ally, and, where the soil is contiguous to the 
river, for 70 or more. 

The following is given as the substance of a 
note by a commissioner employed in warping: 
— " Warp leaves one-eighth of an inch every tide 
on an average ; and these layers do not mix in 
a uniform mass, but remain in distinct layers. 

"If only one sluice, then only every other 
tide can be used, as the water must run per- 
fectly off, that the surface may incrust; and if 
the canal be not empty, the tide has not the 
effect. 

" As a new soil is created by this practice, it 
is of little consequence what the original nature 
of the land may be, almost all kinds being im- 
proved by it. But at the same time it may be 
the most beneficial in such light soils as are 
very open and porous, and such stiff ones as 
are defective in calcareous matter, and which 
require substances of this kind to render them 
less tenacious. Land, when once well warped, 
will continue fur a vast length of time in a 
good state of fertility; but still it is suggested 
by some experienced warpers as a better prac- 
tice to apply a small portion of warp whenever 
the land is in the state of fallow, which will be 
'about every 5 or 6 years, as by this means the 
farmer will be more secure of having good 
crops. The depth to which the lands are co- 
vered by the tides must be regulated according 
to their levels, and the height of the tide in the 
rivers from which they proceed. It may be 
admitted to the height of 3, or 4, or more feet; 
but the deposit of sediment is in some measure 
proportionate to the height of the water, though 
the same effects may be obtained from much 
smaller quantities of water by continuing the 
process a great number of tides." 

The expense of this mode of improving 
lands must necessarily differ much in different 
cases, according as the circumstances of situa- 
tion and distance vary ; but, according to Mr. 
Young, it can seldom exceed 12/. or 15/. the 
acre, and in most instances it must be greatly 
below such estimates. 

Warped lands are found capable of growing 
most kinds of crops in great plenty, but par- 
ticularly oats, beans, wheat, flax, potatoes, and 
grass-seeds. 

WARRANTY. In horsemanship, «&c., a 
term applied to the assurance of the animal's 
being sound when purchased. See Burise 
and Selling. 

WARREN. A franchise, or place privileged, 
either by prescription or grant from the king, to 
keep beasts and fowls of warren in ; as rabbits, 
hares, partridges, pheasants, &c. 
1104 



By statute 21 Edw. 3, a warren may lie open, 
and there is no need of closing it in, as there 
is a park. 

In the forming a warren, great caution is to 
be used for the fixing, upon a proper place and 
a right situation. It should always be upon a 
small ascent, if possible, and exposed to the 
east or the south. The soil that is most suita- 
ble is that which is sandy ; for when the soil 
is clayey or tough, the rabbits find great diffi- 
culty in making their burrows, and never do it 
so well ; and if the soil be boggy or moorish, 
there would be very little advantage from the 
warren ; for wet is very destructive to these 
animals. See Rabbit. 

WASP (Vespa). An extensive genus of in- 
sects, of which three species are common to 
Britain. The hornet, or V. crabro, alread)-^ men- 
tioned ; common wasp, or V. vtilgaris, which 
makes its nest in the ground; the small wasp, 
or F. coaretata, the nest of which is a kind of 
paper made of woody fibre and suspended to 
the boughs of trees. 

Of the wasps most commonly known in the 
United States there are two species, namely, 
the large, fierce, stinging insect which builds 
its flat paper nest in bushes, &c., and the more 
harmless blue-winged mud-wasp, commonly 
called the mason, from its plastering its nest 
with mud against the walls of houses, &c. 
These nests are composed of cells, each one 
of which contains a single egg, together with a 
considerable number of living spiders, caught 
and imprisoned therein solely for the purpose 
of affording the little mason's young a ready 
supply of fresh provisions. In noticing this 
characteristic of the mud-wasp, Dr. Harris also 
refers to the habiT? and nests of some other 
tribes of the same family, such as the holes of 
the stump-wasp, stored M^ith hundreds of horse- 
flies for the same purpose ; the skill of the 
leaf-cutter bee in cutting out the semicircular 
pieces of leaves for her patchwork nest; the 
thimble-shaped cells of the ground-bee, hidden 
in clusters under some loose stone in the fields, 
made of little fragments of tempered clay, and 
stored with bee-bread, the work of many weeks 
for the industrious labourer; the waxen cells 
made by the honey-bee, without any leaching, 
upon purely mathematical principles, measured 
only with her antennae, and wrought with her 
jaws and tongue ; the water-tight nests of the 
hornet and wasp, natural paper-makers from 
the beginning of time, who are not obliged to 
use rags or ropes in the formation of their 
durable paper combs, but have applied to this 
purpose fibres of wood, a material that the 
art of man has not yet been able to manufac- 
ture into paper. These are only a few of the 
objects deserving of notice among the insects 
of this order; many others might be men- 
tioned, that would lead us to observe with what 
consummate skill these little creatures have 
been fashioned, and how richly they have been 
endowed with instincts, that never fail them 
in providing for their own welfare, and that of 
their future progeny. {Treatise on Dcs. Insects.) 

Wasps are not only destructive to grapes, 
peaches, and the more delicate kinds of fruit, 
but also to bees, the hives of which they attack 
and plunder, frequently compelling these in- 



Plate 10. 




VVEI-DS AND TROUBLESOME PLANTS 



WATER. 



WATER. 



dustrious insects to change their habitation. 
The nests of those wasps which build in the 
earth may be destroyed with hot water or oil ; 
those on trees are best suffocated by lighted 
brimstone. {Kollar on Insects, p. 79.) 
.' Wasps are much affected by cold; so that 
when winter begins to set in they become less 
bold and savage, and they all perish, except a 
few females, as soon as the frost begins. This 
is a wise provision of nature ; for, did they 
survive the winter, they would soon rival the 
locust in iheir destructive depredations. 

WASTE LAND. The following is an ac- 
count of the quantity of land uncultivated and 
waste in the British dominions, including Scot- 
land, Ireland, and the British islands, according 
to the evidence of Mr. Cowling before the 
Emigration Committee in 1827: — 



England - - - 
Wales - . - - 
Scotland ... 
Ireland ... 
British Islands 


UncullivateJ 
Acres. 


Unpn-fi table 
Acrra. 

3,256,000 
1,105,000 
8,523,930 
2,416,664 
569,469 


3,454,000 

530,000 

5,950,000 

4,900,000 

166,000 


1.1,000,000 


15,871,463 



WATER. A M'ell-known, universally dif- 
fused substance, which in ordinary tempera- 
tures is fluid, but is solid when cooled down to 
32° of Fahrenheit's thermometer. It rises into 
vapour- at all temperatures, even below the 
freezing point, and at 212° expands suddenly 
into steam. It is composed, by weight, of oxy- 
gen 8 parts, and hydrogen 1 part. 

Water is one of the most useful elements in 
the arts and manufactures, as well as in rural 
and domestic economy. The extensive utility 
of water for imparting motion to machinery, and 
for domestic purposes, is too well known to 
require explanation; and as we have already 
treated of its beneficial properties for irrigat- 
ing land, under this head we shall have prin- 
cipally to confine ourselves to its uses to 
plants. 

Its Uses to Vegetation. — The value of water to 
vegetation very early attracted the attention of 
mankind. In the most ancient of all books. 
Genesis ii. 10, we are told that " a river went out 
of Eden to water the garden." And the earliest 
of the Greek and Egyptian philosophers, as- 
tonished and confused by the magic effects 
which water produced upon the rank and luxu- 
riant lands of the warm eastern climates, were 
loud in their praises of the unaided powers of 
water to support vegetation. They not only 
regarded it as one of the four elements of which 
the world was composed, but Hippocrates con- 
sidered it to be the substance which nourishes 
and supports plants and animals. Theophras- 
tus even considered that all metals were pro- 
duced from water. The opinion that pure 
water, and water only, was able to support 
vegetation, was in succeeding ages long the 
opinion of many philosophers distinguished 
for their laborious investigations and their 
ardent love of truth. Amongst these may be 
named Van Helmont, Bonnet, Duhamel, Tillet, 
and the illustrious Boyle. These great men 
deceived themselves, however, by not suffi- 
ciently attending to the purity of the water 
139 



with which they experimented,or guarding with 
rigid accuracy against other sources of error. 
Of the many researches which they instituted 
to determine this point, none was more appa- 
rently conclusive than that of the well-known 
willow tree experiment of Van Helmont, which 
long deceived, from its apparent accuracy, the 
philosophers of that age. This celebrated ex- 
perimentalist planted a willow which weighed 
5 lbs. in a common earthen vessel filled with 
200 lbs. of soil, which had been previously 
thoroughly dried in an oven, and then moisten- 
ed with only rain-water. This earthen vessel 
he placed in the earth in a garden, covering it 
over in such a manner that all access of dust, 
&c., was prevented. For five years this willow 
continued to grow, although moistened only 
with either rain or distilled water. At the end 
of that period, it was found to weigh 1695^ lbs.; 
although the earth in which it was planted, 
when again dried and weighed, was found to 
have lost only two ounces of its original weight. 
Here, then, said the contemporaries of Van 
Helmont, is an increase of 164 lbs., and yet 
the only food the willow had was water; it is 
evident, therefore, that pure water, and water 
only, is quite sufficient to support vegetation. 

Various sources of error were, however 
speedily discerned to prove that this experi- 
ment was totally insufficient to decide this 
question. The illustrious Bergman, in 1773, 
showed that the rain-water employed by Van 
Helmont, so far from being chemically pure,, 
contained sufficient earthy matters to supply^ 
the whole of that found in the willow tree.. 
And, in addition to this, it was afterwards 
shown that unglazed earthen vessels readily 
imbibe and transmit the moisture of the soil 
in which they are placed : now this moisture 
abounds with a variety of solid matters, both 
organic, earthy, and saline. (Thomson, vol. iv. 
p. 313.) 

Still more accurate experiments have been 
since instituted with water chemically pure, with 
very different results. In this way all attempts 
to raise plants have in every instance totally 
failed, although, as I have in another place 
had occasion to remark, I have fruitlessly va- 
ried the attempt in several ways. See LiauiD 
Manure. 

Although, however, it is, from the result of 
these laborious researches, pretty clearly 
proved that water is not the sole food of plants, 
yet it must be evident to the most casual ob- 
server what an indispensable food this univer- 
sal fluid is to vegetation. To all vegetation, in 
fact, it is an indispensable necessary of life, 
although almost every species of plant re-- 
quires to be supplied with it in varying pro- 
portions : some, such as the aerial epidendron, 
and other Oriental plants, being able to supply 
themselves from merely the aqueous portion 
of it which always exists in the atmosphere;, 
while some, such as the rice plant, and the 
aquatics, cannot prosper without being sup- 
plied with it in such copious quantities as 
would be destructive to the ordinary crops of 
the farmer. In some proportion or other, how- 
ever, they all require it, and all attempts have 
been in vain made to cause plants to grow in 
situations where moisture was absolutely 
5 A 1105 



WATER. 



WATER. 



removed both from the earth and their sur- 
rounding atmosphere. 

M. Berthollet was of opinion that the leaves 
of plants have the power of decomposing wa- 
ter when exposed to the light of the sun. The 
oxygen gas, according to this distinguished 
philosopher, which is always emitted under 
these circumstances, is derived partly from the 
decomposition of the water. "Indeed," adds 
Dr. Thomson, "If we consider the great quan- 
tity of hydrogen contained in plants, it is diffi- 
cult to conceive how they should obtain it, 
provided the water they absorb does not con- 
tribute to furnish it." {System of C hem. vol. iv. 
p. 349.) These views open a field for future 
and highly interesting researches, which will 
probably lead to the establishing of new facts 
highly important to the cultivator. And as 
Davy, the chief of chemists, well said, " We 
can only reason from facts. We cannot imi- 
tate the powers of composition belonging to 
vegetable structures, but at least we can under- 
stand them ; and as far as our researches have 
gone, it appears that in vegetation compound 
forms are uniformly produced from simpler 
ones ; and the elements in the soil, the atmo- 
sphere, and the earth, absorbed and made parts 
of beautiful and diversified structures." (Lec- 
tures, p. 314.) 

Pure water, therefore, is certainly not capa- 
ble of entirely supporting vegetation. Yet, 
although it cannot produce eflfects so extensive 
as these, yet its uses are many and important, 
and it is more than probable that it is decom- 
posed by plants, its oxygen partially evolved, 
and its hydrogen assimilated with carbon and 
oxygen into a variety of vegetable substances, 
most of which contain hydrogen in some form 
or other : thus 

Sugar is composed of — 

Partn. 
Tlyilrogen ----- 6-18 
Oxygen . - - - - 
. Carbon . - - - - 



49-38 
44-44 



100 

Gum, of — 

Hydrogen ... - - 0-43 

Oxygen ------ 51-46 

Carbon 4211 

100 

Starch, of — 

Hydrogen . . - . - 022 

Oxygen 49-78 

Carbon ------ 44- 

100 

It would be difl5cult indeed to account for the 
large proportion of hydrogen present in vege- 
table substances, without we allow that in some 
instances water is decomposed by the plant. 
"AH the hydrogen," says Professor Liebig, 
rather too sweepingly, " necessary for the for- 
mation of an organic compound is supplied to 
a plant by the decomposition of water. (Organ. 
Chem. p. 66.) 

That plants have a strong attraction for wa- 
ter is evident from a variety of circumstances; 
thus by their leaves and roots they separate 
the aqueous vapour of the atmosphere from 
'he gases in which it is contained, and that too 
1106 



in all ordinary temperatures. This unvaried 
presence of aqueous vapour in the atmo-. 
sphere is not less remarkable by the immense, 
importance it is to vegetation ; for without the, 
assistance which the farmer's crops derive « 
from it in dry weather, the warmth of the sun' 
would too often in the summer months wither., 
and destroy them. This beautiful arrange-, 
ment of creative wisdom did not escape the'j 
attention of Davy, who noted too the variations 
in its quantity according to the changing de- 
mands of vegetation. The quantity of water, 
he remarked (Elements of Jgr. Chem. p. 207), 
which exists in air as vapour, varies with the 
temperature. In proportion as the weather is 
hotter the quantity is greater. At 50° of Fah- 
renheit's thermometer, air contains about one- 
fiftieth of its volume of vapour ; and as the 
specific gravity of vapour is to that of air nearly 
as 10 to 15, this is about one seventy-fifth of its 
weight. At 100°, supposing that it has a free 
communication with water, it contains about 
one-fourteenth part in volume, or one twenty- 
first in weight It is the condensation of va- 
pour by the diminution in the temperature of 
the atmosphere which is probably the princi- 
pal cause of the formation of clouds, and of 
the deposition of dew, mist, snow, or hail. The 
leaves of living plants appear to act upon the 
vapour likewise in its elastic form, and to ab- 
sorb it. Some vegetables increase in weight 
from this cause when suspended in the atmo- 
sphere, and unconnected with the soil; such 
are the house-leek, and different species of the 
aloe. In very intense heats, adds Davy, and 
when the soil is dry, the life of plants seems to 
be preserved by the absorbent power of their 
leaves ; and it is a beautiful circumstance in 
the economy of nature, that aqueous vapour is 
most abundant in the atmosphere when it is 
most needed for the purposes of life, and that 
when other sources of its supply are cut off, 
this is most copious. 

And, again, when water is combined with 
saline substances, the roots of plants separate 
it from them in a very remarkable manner. 
Some curious experiments of this kind were 
made by M. Saussure. See Salts, their Uses to 
Vegetation. 

That plants have the power, when nourished 
only with pure water, of decomposing the car- 
bonic acid gas of the atmosphere, has been 
shown by some very careful experiments of 
M. Saussure. He found that some sprigs of 
peppermint, when supplied with pure water 
only, and allowed to vegetate for some time in 
the light, nearly doubled the portion of carbon 
which they originally contained. The quan- 
tity of water which, under ordinary circum- 
stances, plants absorb, is very considerable ; 
thus. Dr. Hales ascertained that a cabbage 
transmits into the atmosphere, by insensible 
vapour, about half its weight of water daily; 
and that a sunflower, 3 feet in height, trans- 
pired in the same period nearly 2 lbs. weight. 
(Veg. Statics, vol. i. p. 5, 15.) Dr. Woodward 
found that a sprig of mint, weighing 27 grains, 
in 77 days emitted 2543 grains of water. A 
sprig of spearmint, weighing 27 grains, emitted 
in the same time 2558 grains. A sprig of com- 
mon nightshade, weighing 49 grains, evolved 



WATER. 



WATER. 



3708 grains, and a lathyrus of 98 grains 
emitted 2501 grains. 

In a previous page of this Encyclopaedia, I 
have endeavoured to show the various uses of 
the earths to vegetation. (See Earths.) The 
cultivator will observe how many of their chief 
fertile properties are connected with their at- 
traction for the aqueous vapour of the atmo- 
sphere, their powers of absorption, their capa- 
bility of retaining it. It is in vain, indeed, by 
any contrivance to attempt to make plants of 
any description vegetate in absolutely dry earth, 
or in air fiom which the aqueous vapour is en- 
tirely withdrawn. It is true that some of the 
flowering roots of the East, and some of the 
mosses of our own countr)', almost appear to 
do so; but such plants support themselves by 
absorbing a certain degree of moisture, even 
when suspended, as in oriental countries, by a 
silken cord from the ceiling of the room, or 
from apparently dry brick walls; for when by 
chemical means the moisture is entirely re- 
moved from them, even these hardy plants 
cease to vegetate. 

Various foreign substances have been sup- 
posed to exist in minute proportions in rain- 
water, to which its fertilizing effects have been 
chiefly ascribed: thus ammonia is believed by 
Professor Liebig to exist in rain-water. No- 
thing, however, is more likely to lead to erro- 
neous general conclusions than the detection 
of minute foreign substances in water. Such 
hasty generalizations have often deceived the 
most excellent philosophers; thus the great 
Boyle, by digesting pure water for a lengthen- 
ed period in glass vessels hermetically sealed, 
found that it deposited a minute quantity of 
flint in powder; and hence he was led to con- 
clude that water was in this way converted by 
long boiling into silica, an error which several 
other philosophers adopted, until the celebrated 
Lavoisier and Dr. Priestley proved that the 
flint deposited arose from the water having, by 
long boiling, partially dissolved the glass. In 
the same way even Davy, the most cautious 
of experimentalists, once thought that chlorine 
and soda might, by the influence of the voltaic 
pile, be obtained from water absolutely pure; 
but more caieful and rigid experiments soon 
convinced him of the extreme difficulty of pro- 
curing entirely pure water, the vessels in which 
the water was procured communicating, with 
every apparent caution, sundry impurities ; and 
this difficulty, I think it very likely, the skilful 
chemists of Germany have not successfully 
escaped. 

Water exists in all cultivated land in some 
proportion or other. The quantity, however, 
necessary to be present in the farmer's soils to 
obtain the maximum advantage varies with 
their nature, the climate, and the crop. For 
instance, the rice-fields of India require a de- 
gree of moisture which woiild be utterly de- 
structive to the grain crops of the English far- 
mer. The most porous, sandy land in a rainy 
climate will be prolific, when" the same soil in 
a dry, warm country will be absolutely barren. 
Even the drifting sands of Arabia, for instance, 
if placed under the incessant rains of the Ame- 
rican Andes, would certainly be speedily cover- 
ed with vegetation. Some of the richest water- 



meadows of the south of England and of Scot- 
land are formed on subsoils of broken flints, 
gravels, and the roughest shingle. And, again, 
the meadow-lands often need such copious sup- 
plies of moisture as would be the means of de- 
stroying the grain crops. The surface water 
which tenants many uncultivated soils is gene- 
rally surcharged with a variety of foreign sub- 
stances, very commonly with vegetable mat- 
ters. That in the gravelly soils is usually sur- 
charged with oxide of iron ; that resting on 
calcareous soils, with sulphate of lime (gyp- 
sum) ; whilst those from peat lands commonly 
abound with sulphate of iron, or the red oxide 
of the same metal. 

In most of the soils which the farmer has to 
bring into cultivation, the removal of these wa- 
ters is his first care; for such an abundance 
of moisture is not only pernicious, from the 
usual bad quality of the land water, but from 
the quantity being far too great for the habits 
of the plants which the farmer intends to cul- 
tivate; such waters, too, dissolve, and some- 
times carry off" from the soil, in their imper- 
ceptible drainage, all the soluble richest por- 
tion of the soil. For many reasons, therefore, 
draining has been long very justly held to be 
the foundation of all agricultural improve- 
ments ; since its good effects are not confined 
to the low marsh land, but its beneficial influ- 
ence is extended to the most upland soils. It 
removes the land springs, and dries the sur- 
face of thousands of acres of even the most 
elevated of the English gravels. 

Almost to an equally beneficial extent has 
the addition of water to plants for a lengthened 
period been carried on by the cultivator in a 
variety of modes ; by the gardener, either in 
steam in his conservatories, or by the watering- 
pot in the open ground. Almost endless, in- 
deed, are the varieties of artificial irrigation, 
from the minor applications of the gardener to 
the more gigantic efforts of the managers of 
the water-meads. It is this branch of the in- 
vestigation of the uses of water to vegetation 
which is the most interesting to the farmer, 
and to the head Irrigation I must refer the 
reader. In regarding the uses of water to vege- 
tation in this manner, however, the cultivator 
must remember that it is not pure water that he 
is thus using for his crops, but, as I have be- 
fore remarked, water surcharged with a variet)'- 
of earthy, saline, and organic matters, to whose 
presence a chief portion of the fertilizing effect 
of such streams must be attributed ; for it is 
found that the most foul and impure waters are 
much the best for the purposes of irrigation : 
thus the water of a river below a town is found 
to be much more fertilizing than the san»e wa- 
ter before it has been mixed with the contents 
of the sewers. These are facts well known, 
for instance, to the owners of the fine water 
meadows of the valleys of the Itchen, the Ken- 
nel, and the Avon. That of the Thames above 
the influence of the tide is not nearly so valua- 
ble to the grazier as it is after it has had mixed 
with its waters the huge mass of impure matters 
from the London sewers. Then, again, by far 
the richest irrigating waters, because the very 
foulest of all, are those of the sewers of the 
city of Edinburgh, which produce such singu- 

1107 



WATER. 



WATER-MELON. 



larly luxuriant crops of grass on the Craigin- 
tinny meadows. This observation is not con- 
fined to the English graziers : those of the duchy 
of Milan long since made the same remark. 
Half a century since, Mr. Songa, when describ- 
ing the meads of the banks of the Brembo, 
says, "That water is found excellent which 
passes through the fosses of the town of Tre- 
viglio, and discharges itself from them uy form- 
ing a canal of 8 or 10 feet broad, and 1 foot or 
1^ foot deep. The lands irrigated with this 
■water seem to receive every time the advan- 
tage of a dunging, and on this account sell 
from a third to a half dearer than any other of 
an equal quality of soil." ( Young's Annals, 1793, 
p. 182.) Watering the land to add to its fer- 
tility is a very ancient practice. 

Such, then, are a few of the well-ascertained 
facts with regard to the application of water to 
vegetation, uses which are so valuable when 
■well understood by the farmer. In all his ope- 
rations this universal fluid will be found to in- 
fluence his arrangements; and in a due and 
regular supply of it to his crops consists, in 
fact, the success of most of his eflibrts. If, for 
instance, a farmer w^ould judge of the value of 
a particular field from merely a specimen of its 
soil, the attraction of the previously dried earth 
for the moisture of the atmosphere will afford 
a very tolerable indication of its comparative 
value ; those soils which attract the most wa- 
ter being commonly those which obtain the 
highest rents. 

All researches like these, in many obvious 
and indirect ways, are attended with consider- 
able advantage to the cultivator. For, the 
more he becomes acquainted with the uses and 
properties of water, the more readily will he 
be able to avail himself of every opportunity 
■which may present itself for extending its 
sphere of usefulness. It is idle to conclude 
that every thing possible has been eiTected with 
regard to the agricultural uses of water; for, 
saying nothing of the inferior extent of our 
•water meads to those of even the banks of 
the Italian rivers, much still remains to be ac- 
complished in rendering available, not only the 
liquid drainage of our large towns, but in the 
use of the steam-engine for the purposes of 
irrigation ; an agent to which I have in this 
work already alluded, and for obtaining whose 
magic assistance the farmers of no other coun- 
try are so well situated as those of our own 
island. To the cultivator, therefore, an exami- 
nation of the powers and properties of water 
will in many ways be attended with benefit; 
for if the farmer once seriously contemplates 
the powerfully invigorating and enriching qua- 
lities of the waters near to which he is very often 
placed, the abundance of organic matters which 
they contain, and the advantages to be derived 
fromtheir judicious application, he will speedi- 
ly devise some means or other by which he 
may avail himself of this too often neglected 
agent. The finely divided earthy and organic 
matters which now so copiously pollute the 
waters of our rivers are m fact the only great 
drawbacks upon the otherwise gradually in- 
creasing productiveness of the land. (See Al- 
lUTii'M and Warping.) These, be it remem- 
bered, aie ever quietly yet incessantly acting 
1108 



as drains upon the fertility of the /and ; they 
never cease the work of impoverisliment ; and 
it is only by the eflTorts of the merchant, the 
fisherman, and the irrigator, that any portion of 
these finely divided matters everreturn again to 
the cultivated soils of our country. See Ibri- 
OATioN and Rain. 

WATER-ALOE, or WATER SOLDIER 
(St7-atiotes aloides; from siratos, an army, in allu- 
sion to its long sword-like leaves). In England, 
an ornamental native aquatic, which fills the 
ditches in summer with a close phalanx of 
sword-like leaves, and increases so fast in the 
ponds where it is planted as to become almost 
a troublesome weed. In its wild state it inha- 
bits deep ditches and pools, and is a stolonife- 
rous, smooth, floating herb, with numerous ra- 
dical leaves, and a solitary centra! flower-stalk, 
but no stem. The parent plant sinks to the 
bottom after flowering, and sends out long sim- 
ple runners, each terminating in a leaf, bud, or 
young plant, which first takes root in the mud, 
by several long fibres, and in the following 
summer rises to the surface of the water, blos- 
soms and then again subsides to ripen its seeds 
and throw out fresh runners, each tuft of 
leaves flowering but once. The leaves are a 
span long or more, acute, highly vascular, 
fringed with very sharp saw-like teeth. Flow- 
ers white, large and handsome, the stalk firm, 
stout, two-edged, much shorter than the leaves. 

WATER-CARPET. A name in Pennsylva- 
nia for the Golden Saxifhage, which see. 

WATER-COWBANE. See Cowrane. 

WATER-CRESS. See Crkss. 

WATER-DROPWORT. See Duopwort. 

WATER-ELDER. See Guelder Rose. . 

WATER-FARCY. See Farcy. 

WATER-HEMLOCK. See Cowuane. 

WATER-LILY, THE FRINGED. See 
Buckhean. 

WATER-LILY, YELLOW.— See Lilt. Wa- 

TEH. 

WATER-LILY, WHITE. See Lilt, Water. 

WATER-MELON. The following direc- 
tions for cultivating water-melons for an early 
market, are given in the Southern Jigriculturist, 

Select a high and dry soil for the purpose. 
Plough it up well, and harrow it. Check off 
the spot thus treated at distances of 10 feel 
each way. Dig out each check with a hoe or 
spade, and into the same place 5 or 6 quarts of 
cotton seed; or if this cannot be procured, fill 
the place with stable manure, partly decom- 
posed. Haul over this the earth before dug 
from the hole, and mix it well with the manure. 
If you have used cotton seed, in the spring, it 
will have sprouted a week or two after being 
put into the hole ; and must now be killed by 
chopping up the same well, and mixing it with 
the soil. This being done, you may now haul 
up the manure and earth as before directed, 
into hills, on the top of which you must place 
about a peck of sand, taken from some street 
or well-travelled road. Your hills will be now 
ready for planting. I should, however, state 
that the hills must, instead of being made high, 
be made flat and broad. 

Soak your seed over night in milk-warm 
water, and plant them out the next morning, 
placing from 5 to 6 seed to each hill. The 



WATER-PEPPER. 



WAY-GOING CROP. 



s«ed must not be covered more than 1 or 2 
inches under ground. Water the hills for a 
few days until the seed has sprouted, and then 
leave the plants to run. 

As soon as the plant has got 6 leaves, take 
off the centre plant with a sharp penknife, and 
when the lateral shoots are 6 inches or a foot 
long, take off all but three. When the shoots, 
thus left, begin to run to the ground between 
the hills, stake them down with a small cross- 
stick. 

As the vines begin to branch, at every 3 or 
4 feet, where the vine branches, put a shovel- 
ful of rich earth over the same, and press it 
down lightly with the foot. Wet weather should 
be selected for this operation, and by so doing 
the vines will never fail to take where they 
have been set. The spaces between the hills 
should be kept free of grass — and by following 
the above directions, large melons will be pro- 
duced. 

From a quarter acre of land thus treated, 
more melons will be made than from four 
times the amount as usually cultivated. See 
Melon, Water. 

WATER-PEPPER (Polygonum pwndatum). 
A plant found in the Middle and other States, 
possessing very acrid qualities, causing obsti- 
nate ulcerative inflammation when applied to 
the skin. 

WATER-PLANTAIN {Alisma, from the 
Celtic alls, water). A genus of pretty little, 
aquatic, perennial, smooth plants, with simple, 
entire leaves, and numerous, stalked, white, 
yellowish or purplish, panicled or umbellate 
inodorous flowers. In England, there are four 
native species; viz.: 

1. The greater water-plantain, or thrumwort 
(A. plantago), which is very common in pools, 
ditches, and about the margins of rivers. The 
root is fibrous. Leaves all radical, on long 
stalks, erect, ovate, acute, ribbed, in deep or 
running water lengthened out more or less. It 
has been recommended in hydrophobia; but, 
like many other wonder-working remedies, it 
is worthless. 

2. Star-headed water-plantain (A. damasoni- 
um), found in ditches and pools on a gravelly 
soil, but not common. The root consists of 
many long pale fibres. The leaves all radical, 
floating, bluntish or oblong, heart-shaped at the 
base. Footstalks very broad, with many ribs, 
and a membranous border, tapering upwards. 
Flower-stalks scarcely a span high, bearing 
1 or 2 whorls of white flowers, yellow in the 
middle. Capsules six, spreading in the form 
of a star, half-ovate. 

3. Floating water-plantain (A. nalans). This 
species frequents the lakes of North Wales 
and Cumberland. 

4. Lesser water-plantain (A. ranunculoides). 
This grows in swamps and turfy bogs, but is 
not a very common species. 

5. Creeping water-plantain (.4. ?Y;)e?is). This 
has only been found on the margins of some 
of the lakes in North Wales. 

WAX (Germ, wachs). A solid concrete 
abounding in the vegetable kingdom, whence 
it is erroneously supposed that it is collected 
by bees. Bees' wax is a secretion in the body 
of (he bee, and is accumulated in what are 



called the wax-pockets. Bees confined to a 
hive, and fed merely on sugar, form wax. It 
constitutes the partitions of the cells in which 
they store their honey. It is obtained by melt- 
ing the comb. Wax, when pure, is of a whit- 
ish colour; it is destitute of taste, and has 
scarcely any smell. Bees' wax, indeed, has a 
pretty strong aromatic odour ; but this seems 
chiefly owing to some substance with which it 
is mixed; for it disappears almost completely 
by exposing the wax, drawn out into thin 
ribands, for some time to the atmosphere to 
blanch, frequently changing the surface thus 
exposed, by remelting it, and reducing it again 
to thin flakes. By this process, which is called 
bleaching, the yellow colour of the wax disap- 
pears. White wax is principally used in mak- 
ing candles, and in white ointments, for the 
sake of its colour. Wax is insoluble in water; 
nor are its properties altered though kept under 
that liquid. When heat is applied to wax, it 
becomes soft ; and at the temperature of 142°, 
if unbleached, or of 155°, if bleached, it melts 
into a colourless transparent fluid, which con- 
cretes again, and resumes its former appear- 
ance, as the temperature diminishes. If the 
heat be still further increased, the wax boils 
and evaporates; and if a red heat be applied 
to the vapour, it takes fire and burns with a 
bright flame. It is this property which rendei-s 
wax so useful for making candles. Wax com- 
bines readily with fixed oils when assisted by 
heat, and forms with them a substance of greater 
or less consistency, according to the quantity 
of oil. This composition, which is known by 
the name of cerate, is much employed by sur- 
geons. 

According to the experiments of Gay-Lussac 
and Thenard (Rcch. Physico-Chim. vol. ii. p. 316), 
100 parts of wax are composed of — 

Farts. 

Oxygen --.... 554 
Hydrogen . - . . . 1267 
Carbon 81-78 

100 

Wax is sometimes adulterated with the white 
oxide of lead to increase its weight, with white 
tallow, and with potato starch. The first is 
detected by melting the wax in hot water, when 
the oxide falls to the bottoni undissolved ; the 
presence of tallow is indicated by the wax be- 
ing of a dull opaque white, and wanting the 
transparency which distinguishes pure wax; 
and starch may be detected by applying strong 
sulphuric acid to the suspected wax, as the 
acid carbonizes the starch without acting oa 
the wax. 

Notwithstanding the large supply of wax 
produced in England, a considerable quantity is 
imported from abroad ; but it is subject to the 
high duty of 1/. 10s. per cwt. The price va- 
ries, duty included, from 5^. to lOZ. per c\\ l 
(Thomson's Chem. vol. iv. p. 103 ; Thomson's Dia 
penstitory : M'Cullorh's Com. Diet.) 

WAX-MOTH. See Bee-Moth, and PI. 16, g. 

WAY-BREAD. One of the common name^ 
of the Common or Great Plantain. 

WAYFARING TREE. See Guelder Rose 

WAY-GOING CROP, That which is taker, 
from the land the year the tenant leaves a farrr 
5a2 1109 



*VAY, PRIVATE RIGHT OF. 



WEATHER. 



W \Y, PRIVATE RIGHT OF. This may 
arise either from grant or by prescription and 
usage from time immemorial, for this is in law 
supposed to arise from a grant. According to 
English common law, a right of way may be 
to a particular person to go over the grantor's 
land to church, to market, or to any particular 
close. Such a special permission is, however, 
to be construed strictly : the grantee cannot, 
under such a grant, justify going beyond the 
place specified in the grant ; nor can he take 
any other person with him ; neither can he as- 
sign over this right, — it dies with him. And a 
grant for agricultural purposes does not au- 
thorize the grantee to use the road for com- 
mercial or general purposes ; neither does a 
prescriptive right of way for all kind of car- 
riages, prove a right of way for all manner of 
cattle. If a grantor convey a piece of ground 
in the middle of his own land, the law will 
presume that he also granted a way to it. 
" When," said Lord Kenyon, in this case, 
"they made the conveyance, it must be taken 
for granted that they intended to convey some 
beneficial interest ; but he can derive no bene- 
fit whatever from the grant unless he has a 
right of way to the land." But if by purchas- 
ing other land, or new circumstances after- 
wards arise by which he can approach the 
public road, then the right of way ceases with 
the necessity. And if a private way is granted, 
that does not justify a person for going over 
the land by the side of it, even if the road is 
overflown with water from an adjoining river. 
Lord Ellenborough, C. J., said, in this case, " It 
is a thing founded in grant, and the grantor of 
a private way does not grant a liberty to break 
out of it at random over the whole surface of 
his close." 

By the 2 & 3 W. 4, c. 71, it is enacted, that 
in all claims for right of way by prescription, 
where it has been enjoyed for 20 years, such 
right shall only be defeated or destroyed by 
showing that such right was first expired at 
any time previous to such 20 years ; and where 
it has been enjoyed for full 40 years, the right 
shall be absolute and indefeasible, unless it 
shall appear that the same was enjoyed by 
some consent or agreement by deed or writing. 

WEANING. The means employed to re- 
concile a young animal to the loss of its mo- 
ther's milk, and habituate it to take common 
food. Under the head Foal we have already 
given directions for their management during 
and after weaning. The process of weaning 
calves is variously managed by different far- 
mers. When not let run with the cow, the 
most jidvisable mode, as it regards the calf, is 
to place it loose in a crib, and to suckle it by 
hand with the mother's new milk, of which it 
will consume for some time not more than 
about four quarts per day : the quantity, how- 
ever, must then be gradually increased, as it 
will, in the course of a few weeks, require as 
much as three gallons. If the weather be fine, 
it should be, within a fortnight or three weeks, 
turned out daily in the orchard, or some well- 
sheltered enclosure of sweet herbage; and, as 
it will in the course of 10 or 12 weeks have 
acquired some relish for the pasture, it may be 
r-gularly weaned by gradually diminishing the 
1110 



quantity of milk, and then substituting Ae 
sKimmed for the new. Calves may, however, 
be reared with skimmed milk and meal, with- 
out any portion of new milk, except the first 
few days' biestings, and many persons give 
them nothing but water-gruel and hay-tea with- 
in a fortnight after they have been removed 
from the cow. Sago and linseed jelly are also 
very nutritious, and calves may be weaned on 
them without any other food. (British Husb. 
vol. ii. p. 441.) 

The time of weaning lambs differs mate- 
rially, according to the locality of the farms 
and the quality of the pasture. Four months 
old is about the period usually selected. 

The lambs should be turned into somewhat 
better pasture than that to which they had been 
accustomed, in order to compensate for the loss 
of the mother's milk. Many farmers are very 
fanciful as to the provision for the weaned 
lambs. The clover or the sainfoin, or the 
aftermath, are selected by some ; others put 
their smaller and more weakly lambs to weed 
the turnip crops; but there can be nothing 
more desirable than a fresh pasture, not too 
luxuriant, and yet sulScient to maintain and 
increase their condition. (Youatt on Sheep, p. 
516.) For directions as to weaning pigs, see 

SwiNF.. 

WEASEL-SNOUT (Galeobdolonluteum). The 
weasel-snout, yellow archangel, or dead nettle, 
is a pretty, indigenous, perennial plant, found 
abundantly in most parts of England, in marshy, 
shady places. The root is somewhat tuberous, 
moderately creeping. The stems are 18 inches 
high, simple, leafy, covered with close deflexed 
hairs. Leaves stalked, ovate, acute, serrated, 
slightly hairy, bright green, various in breadth. 
Whorls numerous, each composed of many 
large, handsome, inodorous yellow flowers, 
whose lower lip is spotted with red, the middle 
segment stained with orange-colour. The 
flowers afford to bees an abundant supply of 
honey. 

WEATHER (Sax.). A term applied to de- 
note the state or disposition of the atmosphere, 
with regard to heat and cold, drought and 
moisture, fog, fair or foul, wind, rain, hail, 
frost, snow, &c. 

A knowledge of this is of vast importance 
to the farmer, as the securing of his produce 
in a perfect manner greatly depends upon it ; 
and as it is in and by means of the atmosphere 
that plants are nourished, and animals live 
and breathe, any alteration in its density, heat, 
purity, «&c., must, of course, necessarily be 
attended with proportionable effects on orga- 
nization. 

The great but regular alterations a little 
change of weather makes in many parts of 
inanimate matter is fully shown in the com- 
mon instances of barometers, thermometers, 
hygrometers, &c. ; and it is owing partly to 
our inattention, and partly to other causes, that 
man, like other animals, does not feel as great 
and as regular ones in the tubes, chords, and 
fibres of his own body. 

In order fully to establish a proper theory 
of the weather, it would he necessary to have 
registers carefully kept in different parts of the 
globe for a long series of years, whence we 



WEATHER. 



WEATHER. 



might be enabled to determine the directions, 
Ibreadth, and bounds of the winds, and of the 
weather they bring with them ; with the cor- 
respondence between the weather of divers 
places, and the difference between one sort and 
another at the same place ; and thus, in time, 
learn to foretell many great emergencies ; as 
extraordinary heats, rains, frosts, droughts, &c. 
But hitherto very few, and only partial, regis- 
ters or accounts of the weather have been kept. 
The Meteorological Society of Great Britain, 
and the British Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, have latterly done much to- 
wards increasing our stock of meteoric know- 
ledge, and have collected an immense body of 
facts and registers, from which many useful 
inferences have been drawn, and some impor- 
tant theories deduced. The general conclu- 
sions that have been drawn from the experi- 
ments that have been made on this subject are 
— that barometers generally rise and fall toge- 
ther, even at very distant places, and a conse- 
quent conformity and similarity of weather; 
but this is the more uniformly so, as the places 
are nearer together, as might be expected; — 
that the variations of the barometer are greater 
as the places are nearer to the pole : thus, for 
instance, the mercury at London has a greater 
range by 2 or 3 lines than at Paris ; and at 
Paris, a greater than at Zurich; and at some 
places near the equator there is scarcely any 
variation at all ; — that the rain in Switzerland 
and Italy is much greater in quantity for the 
whole year than in Essex; and yet the rains 
are more frequent, or there are more rainy 
days, in Essex than at either of these places; — 
that cold contributes greatly to rain, apparently 
by condensing the suspended vapours, and so 
leading to their precipitation ; thus, very cold 
months or seasons are commonly followed im- 
mediately by very rainy ones, and cold sum- 
mers are always wet ones. High ridges of 
mountains, and the snows with which they are 
covered, not only affect the neighbouring places, 
but even distant countries often partake of 
their effects. 

The science of meteorology, or the study of 
the changing phenomena of the atmosphere, 
&c., has from the earliest periods occupied a 
greater or less share of attention from the tiller 
of the soil, the gardener, and those engaged in 
the pasturage of animals. To no individual 
(the mariner, perhaps, excepted) is a fore- 
knowledge of the probable future state of the 
weather of more consequence and importance 
than the agriculturist; for on this must mainly 
depend the progress and success of his field 
operations, his seedtime and his harvest, and 
the greater or less return afforded by his crops. 

It may not comport with the dignity of the 
man of science, or the elevated learning of the 
erudite philosopher, to have his eyes and ears 
open to the plain and simple rules and guides 
which nature lays out before him. Perhaps he 
has little of leisure to note the every-day phe- 
nomena which the atmosphere and all animate 
and inanimate nature hold up to observation, 
as in a glass, where all who use their eyes may 
read as they run. The companions of his 
study are the more costly and elaborafely pre- 



pared philosophical instruments : how much, 
however, might their value be enhanced by a 
careful and comparative observation of the 
"skyey influences," as the poet terms them? 
But to these closet companions, the husband- 
man, the shepherd, the traveller, the fisherman, 
and the mariner have rarely access, while en- 
gaged in the busy out-of-door occupations of 
their several avocations. Those who till the 
land, or who go down to the sea in ships, of 
all others, are they who become, by habits of 
observation and reflection, most conversant 
with the signs and changes of the heavens ; 
the sun, the moon, and the stars are to them 
monitors and instructors, whose warning voices 
meet a prompt and ready response. The ripple 
of the wave, the curl of the smoke, the pass- 
ing shadow of the cloud, the budding of the 
tree, the arrival and departure of the migratory 
birds, the frolicsome gambols of animals, every 
leaf that quivers in the sunbeam, every plant 
that drinks the dew of heaven, the myriads of 
insects, and creeping things innumerable, that 
inhabit each leaf and opening flower, are all 
fraught with instruction and information to the 
experienced and watchful observer. 

Around, above, beneath, all animate and in- 
animate creation, animals, vegetables, the ele- 
ments, a thousand objects in a thousand direc- 
tions, in every recurring season, furnish their 
quota of information towards our stock of mete- 
oric knowledge, and foretell the approaching va- 
riations of atmospheric phenomena. The ex- 
perienced fisherman and the watchful and wary 
mariner will predict the coming storm, by the 
tiny cloud and other unerring criteria which 
frequent and attentive observance of the sky 
has rendered familar, long before its approach 
is visible to the ken of the ordinary and inat- 
tentive observer. 

It has been well remarked, that " the shep- 
herd, whose sole business it is to observe what 
has a reference to the flock under his care, 
who spends all his days and many of his nights 
in the open air, under the wide-spread canopy 
of heaven, is obliged to take particular notice 
of the alterations of the weather; and when 
he cares to take a pleasure in making such ob- 
servations, it is amazing how much progress 
he makes in them, and to how great a certainty 
he arrives at last, by mere dint of comparing 
signs and events, and connecting one observa- 
tion with another. Every thing in time be- 
comes to him a weather-gauge : the sun, the 
moon, the stars, the clouds, the winds, the 
mists, the trees, the flowers, the herbs, and 
almost every insect, animal, and reptile with 
which he is acquainted — all these become, to 
such a person, instruments of real know- 
ledge." 

To the farmer, a careful study of the wea- 
ther, and of the inferences to be drawn from 
precedent, and from natural and artificial data, 
come fraught with numerous and important 
considerations. Like the angler, the husband- 
man " must observe the wind, sun, and clouds 
by day; the moon, stars, and wanes of the ai"" 
by night." Few are so entirely dependent on 
the caprice of the weather, for the commonest 
routine operations of the farm, as the agricu 

nil 



WEATHER. 



WEATHER. 



turist. And how soon may his fairest crops 
be blighted by adverse and unfavourable sea- 
sons, or by the baneful effects of scorching and 
arid winds, of severe frosts, of heavy rains. 
Some winds come fraught with disease and 
death ; murrain, malaria, and epidemics, in hot, 
dry seasons, commit fearful ravages among his 
live-stock ; and these are frequently to be attri- 
buted to some mysterious atmospheric agency: 
other winds bring swarms of noxious insects 
and predatory birds to our shores ; the light- 
ning and the whirlwind level his plantations or 
fire his ricks ; the hail-storm, and the frost, and 
excess of rain, damage and destroy his grow- 
ing crop, or that to which he has looked for 
reward and profit for all his toil and outlay. 

The various casualties and diseases to which 
his crops are liable are frequently attributable 
to, and certainly much aided by, the state of 
the weather and conditions of the atmosphere. 
Information relative to many of the impor- 
tant phenomena connected with the atmo- 
spheric states and changes, will be found 
dispersed through this work under various 
heads, such as Atmosphere, Altitude, Ba- 
rometer, Climate, Dew, Fogs, Frost, Hoar 
Frost, Lightning, Rain, Snow, Moon, In- 
fluence of, &c. 

As means of prognosticating the future states 
of the weather, data, either natural, artificial, 
or both combined, are usually referred to. In 
the natural data are included those of — 

1. The vegetable kingdom; many plants 
shutting or opening their flowers, contracting 
or expanding their parts, &;c., on approaching 
changes in the humidity or temperature of the 
atmosphere. 

2. The animal kingdom; most of those fa- 
miliar to us exhibiting signs on approaching 
changes, of which those by cattle and sheep 
are more especially remarkable. 

3. The mineral kingdom ; stones, earths, me- 
tals, salt, and water of particular kinds, often 
affording indications of approaching changes. 

4. Appearances of the atmosphere, the moon, 
the general character of seasons, &c. The 
characters of clouds, the prevalence of parti- 
cular winds, and other signs, are very com- 
monly attended to. 

The artificial data are the various meteoro- 
logical instruments, as the barometer, hygro- 
meter, pluviometer, and thermometer, &c., 
which are all extremely useful aids to the 
farmer. 

It is a very common error to predict the fu- 
ture state of the season from some single appear- 
ance in the commencement of it, as an early 
bee, an early bud or blossom, the premature 
appearance of a swallow; but this is both un- 
philosophical and fallacious. 

In England a moist autumn, succeeded by a 
mild winter, is generally followed by a dry and 
cold spring, in consequence of which vegeta- 
tion is greatly retarded. Should the summer 
be uncommonly wet, the succeeding winter 
will be severe ; because the heat or warmth of 
the earth will be carried off by such unusual 
evaporation. Farther, wet summers are mostly 
attended with an increased quantity of fruit on 
the whue-thorn {3Icspilus oxycantha) and dog- 
1112 



rose (^Rosa ranina); nay, the uncommon fruit 
fulness of these shrubs is considered as tht 
presage of an intensely cold winter. 

A severe winter is supposed to be indicated 
by the appearance of birds of passage at an 
early period in autumn; because they never 
migrate southward till the cold season has 
commenced in northern regions. Great storms, 
rains, or other violent commotions of the 
clouds, produce a kind of crisis in the atmo- 
sphere; so that they are attended with a regu- 
lar succession either of fine or of bad weather 
for some months. An unproductive year mostly 
succeeds a rainy winter, as a rough and cold 
autumn prognosticates a severe winter. Very 
cold months or seasons are commonly followed 
immediately by very rainy ones, and cold sum- 
mers are always wet ones. 

Plants. — The sensitive indications afforded 
us by many plants first claim attention, and 
will be found amply to repay the time that 
may be bestowed upon the singular properties 
inherent to them. 

Very many of our most common plants are 
unerring guides for the foretelling rain and 
other atmospheric changes. The opening and 
shutting of some flowers depends not so much 
on the action of the stimulus of light as on the 
existing state of the atmosphere, and hence their 
expansion or contraction betokens change. 

The common chickweed or stitchwort (Slel- 
laria media') may be considered a natural baro- 
meter; for if the small, white, upright flowers 
are closed, it is a certain sign of rain ; while 
during dry weather they expand freely, and are 
regularly open from nine in the morning till 
noon. After rain they become pendent, but in 
the course of a few days they again rise. 

The purple sandwort {Arenaria rubra) is an- 
other example of a true prophet prior to a 
coming shower. The beautiful pink flowers 
expand only during sunshine, and close at the 
approach of evening or before rain. 

The pimpernel {^nngallis arvensis) has been 
very justly named "the poor man's weather- 
glass." This little plant blooms in June in our 
stubble-fields and gardens, and continues in 
flower all the summer. When its tiny brilliant 
red flowers are widely expanded in the morn- 
ing, we may generally expect a fine day; on 
the contrary, it is a certain sign of rain when 
its delicate petals are closed. 

The goat's-beard {Tragopogon pratensis) will 
not unclose its flowers in cloudy weather. 
From its habit of closing its flowers at noon, 
this plant has received the common name of 
"Go-to-bed-at-noon," and in many districts the 
farmers' boys regulate their dinner-hour by the 
closing of the goat's-beard. 

It is stated in Keitli's Botany, that if the Sibe- 
rian sow-thistle shuts at night, the ensuing day 
will be fine;' and if it opens, it will be cloudy 
and rainy. 

When the African marigold remains closed 
after 7 o'clock in the morning or evening, rain 
may be expected. If the trefoil and the con- 
volvulus contract their leaves, thunder and 
heavy rain may be expected. Lord Bacon 
tells us that the stalks of the trefoil swell and 
grow more upright previous to rain. 



Plate 3. 




z 

Varieties of Wheat with the most destrvwtire £nemies , 



WEATHER. 



WEATHER. 



The dark and lovely gentianella opens its 1 
blue eyes to greet the midday sun, but closes 
its petals against the shower. 

The germander speedwell (Veronica chama- 
drys), so universal a favourite in every hedge- 
row, closes its blue corolla before rain comes 
on, opening again when it ceases. The red 
campion (Lychnis diurna) uncloses its flowers 
in the morning. The flowers of the white cam- 
pion (Lychnis vespertina) open and expand 
themselves towards the approach of night. 
The wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella, "la Petite 
Oseille," or Suselle, of the French), an unobtru- 
sive, elegant little inhabitant of the moist, 
shaded bank, as soon as night approaches, as it 
is of too delicate a structure to bear the storm, 
closes up its curious triple leaves, hanging its 
flowers towards the earth, thus preserving the 
more tender parts from injury; but as soon as 
the morning sun arises, these expand and re- 
gain their beauty. Most of the Hieraciums, 
or hawkweed tribe, also open their flowers 
with the morning light, going to sleep again in 
the afternoon. The clear, bright, and gay 
flowers of the succory (Cychorium intybus) fore- 
tell the commencement of the daylight. Another 
of the components of Flora's clock which de- 
serves a passing word, is the common daisy 
(Bellis piirennis), opening at sunrise, and clos- 
ing its flowers at sunset: hence by Chaucer 
called the "Eie of Day." The great white ox- 
eye (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum), foretelling 
the coming storm, closes its flowers. The 
flowers of the alpine whitlow grass (Draba al- 
jiina), the bastard feverfew, the winter green 
(Tricnlalis Europcea), all hang down in the night 
as if the plants were asleep, lest rain or the 
moist air should injure the fertilizing pollen. 
The common nipplewort (Lapsana cummwiis), 
that lovely gem, the white water-lily (Nymphcga 
alba, "the naiad of the river,") and several of 
the diadelphous tribe of plants, in serene, calm 
weather expand their leaves in the day-time, 
and contract them during night. 

Animals. — Among quadrupeds the following 
are believed to indicate, by their restlessness 
and peculiar actions, a foreknowledge of ap- 
proaching changes of weather. When horses 
stretch forth their necks, neigh much, snuff the 
air with distended nostrils, and assemble in the 
corner of a field with their heads to leeward, 
rain may be expected. 

Sheep are seen running to and fro, jumping 
from the ground, and in their gambols appa- 
rently fighting, previously to a change of wea- 
ther. Fine weather may be expected to con- 
tinue when cattle lie in the open field or in the 
courts instead of the sheds; when sheep take 
up their lair for the night on the brow of a 
knoll; when pigs lie down for the night with- 
out covering themselves up in litter. Bad wea- 
ther is said to be prognosticated when asses 
hang their ears forward, or rub themselves 
against walls or trees. Swine also become un- 
easy, restless, grunting and squealing loudly, 
and return to their sties. Before rain dogs are 
apt to grow very sleepy and dull, and to lie all 
day before the fire, showing a reluctance to 
food, except grass. When cats lose their viva- 
city, remaining within doors, wet or windy 
w dther may be expected. Finally, when rats 
140 



and mice are more than usually restless, for- 
saking the fields and ditches, approaching rain 
may be anticipated. 

Fallow deer, and many other animals, be- 
coming restless from the uneasiness they feel 
owing to the altered condition of the atmo- 
sphere, prognosticate the approach of rain. If 
frogs croak more than usual — if toads issue 
from their retreats in great numbers — if earth- 
worms come forth from their holes — if moles 
throw up the soil more than usual — if pigs 
shake and spoil the stalks of the corn — if oxen 
lick their forefeet — all these signs are said to 
indicate rain. 

It may be remarked that, in summer, when 
sheep rise early in the morning, it is a sure 
sign of either rain or a very hot day; and that 
in all seasons when they jump and play about 
it is a sign of rain or wind (but generally both) 
in the summer, and very stormy weather in the 
winter. 

In winter, when the sheep lie under a hedge, 
and seem loth to go off" to pasture, and bleat, it 
is considered a sign of a storm. 

When rabbits come out to feed early in the 
evening, it is a sign of rain in the night in sum- 
mer, and of either rain or snow in winter ; and 
when it is likely to be a bad night, they will be 
apt to return to their burrows before it is dark. 

Next, with respect to birds : there is an old 
saying that "when swans fl}' it is a sign of 
rough weather," and the correctness of this 
saying would appear to be proved. A late 
writer states that he had invariably found that 
when the swan flies any distance against the 
wind, however fine the weather may be at the 
time, so sure will a wind, almost amounting to 
a hurricane, arise within 24 and generally 12 
hours after the bird has taken flight. The 
early appearance of woodcocks, snipes, field- 
fares, and other birds of passage, &c., are prog- 
nostics of severe winters. When owls hoot 
and screech during bad weather, it is a sign of 
coming fine weather. The missletoe thrush 
(Turdus visrivorus) frequently sings particularly 
long and loud before rain, and sometimes even 
during severe storms: hence it is termed the 
"storm-cock." The blue macaw is said to be 
a true indicator of the changes of the weather. 
Dr. Thornton is stated to have had one some 
years ago whose blue feathers assumed a 
greenish hue in rainy weather, or gray in clear 
weather, if likely to change for wet. 

When cranes fly exceedingly high, in silence, 
and ranged in order, it is said to indicate fine 
weather; but if their flight is in disorder, and 
they speedily return with cries, it foretells wind. 
If fowls roll themselves in the sand more than 
usual, it denotes rain; also when the cocks 
crow in the evening, or at unusual hours. 
When peacocks cry at night, rain may shortly 
be expected. When peacocks roost on the tops 
of houses, when the raven sails round and 
round high up in the air, and when the song- 
birds carol late in the evening, the weather wiU 
continue fair. 

The croaking of crows is said to indicate fiuo 
weather. When ducks and geese fly backwards 
and forwards, and frequently plunge into the 
water, or send forth cries ; or when pigeons 
return slowly to their houses, the probability 

1113 



WEATHER. 

;s that the succeeding day will be rainy. It is 
a sign of rain or wind when sparrows chirp a 
great deal ; if the redbreast be seen near houses ; 
or swallows fly near the ground, or brush the 
surface of the water. When sea-fowl and other 
aquatic birds retire to the sea-shore, or more 
inland, it generally indicates a change of wea- 
ther. If larks or kites soar high, and continue 
so for some time, it is generally a sign of fine 
weather. If the kingfisher disappear, expect 
fine weather. If swallows and martins fly lower 
than usual, foul weather may be expected. 

Mr. YarrelJ, in his History of British Birds, 
vol. iii. p. 117, records an instance of instinct, 
showing how useful an attention to the move- 
ments of animals, &c., might occasionally 
prove : — " I am indebted to the kindness of 
Lord Braybrooke for the following account of 
a female swan, on the small stream at Bishop's 
Stortford. This swan was 18 or 19 years old, 
had brought up many broods, and was highly 
valued by the neighbours. She exhibited, some 
8 or 9 years past, one of the most remarkable 
instances of the power of instinct that was ever 
recorded. She was sitting on four or five eggs, 
and was observed to be very busy in collecting 
grass, weeds, &c., to raise her nest; a farming 
man was ordered to take down half a load of 
haulm straw, with which she most industriously 
raised her nest and the eggs 2^ feet; that very 
night there came down a tremendous fall of rain, 
which flooded all the malt-shops, and did great 
damage, ilf aw made no preparation; the bird 
did. Instinct prevailed over reason ; her eggs 
were above, and only just above, the water." 

The same author, in his account of the green 
woodpecker (Picus vij-idis), known in some lo- 
calities as the " rain-bird," from being very 
vociferous when rain is impending, alludes to 
the probable means by which birds and some 
other animals become cognisant of approach- 
ing changes in the weather. The following is 
the rationale referred to : — 

"It is highly probable that no change takes 
place in the weather without some previous 
alteration in the electrical condition of the at- 
mosphere, and we can easily understand that 
birds, entirely covered as they are with feathers, 
which are known to be readily affected with 
electricity, should be susceptible of certain im- 
pressions, which are indicated by peculiar 
actions; thus, birds and other animals, cover- 
ed only with the production of their highly sen- 
sible skin, become living barometers to good 
observers." (YarrelVs British Birds, vol. ii. p. 
136.) 

Insects, being very sensible of every change 
in the atmosphere, are good weather guides. 

When gnats collect themselves before the 
setting sun, and form a sort of vortex in the 
shape of a column, it announces fine weather. 
L' they play up and down in the open air near 
sunset, they presage heat ; if in the shade, mild 
and warm showers ; but if they sling those 
passing them, coid weather and much rain may 
oe expected. 

It garden spiders break off and destroy their 
webs, and creep away, expect continued rain 
and showery weather. 

If spider webs (gossamer) fly in the autumn, 
expect fine weather. 
1114 



WEATHER. 

The following curious observations on the 
singular foreknowledge possessed by the spider 
are extracted from a little work entitled The 
Pocket Barometer. This despised insect often- 
times indicates a coming change in the weather 
10, 12, or 14 days previous to its taking place. 
The following directions will be a guide to the 
curious in their observations of this insect: — 
If the weather is likely to become rainy, or 
windy, spiders fix the terminating filaments on 
which the whole web is suspended unusually 
short. If the terminating filaments, on the 
contrary, are very long, the weather will be 
serene, and continue so for 14 days. If spiders 
be totally indolent, rain generally ensues ; 
though their activity during rain is a certain 
proof of its short duration, and that it will be 
followed by fine and settled weather. Spiders 
usually make some alteration in their webs 
every 24 hours. If this take place between 
the hours of 6 and 7 p. m., it foretells a clear 
and serene night. 

The weather is about to become cloudy and 
change for wet, when flies sting and are more 
troublesome than usual. Most insects become 
torpid when their temperature is much reduced. 
When it approaches the freezing point, they 
fall into a lethargic state, and require no foodi 
Ants present a remarkable exception to this 
rule ; for they are not benumbed till the ther- 
mometer is 27° of Fahr., or 5° below freezing 
point. When bees do not range abroad as 
usual, but keep in or about their hives, it is a 
sign of rain. 

In the summer season much information re-i 
lative to the change of the weather may bd' 
gained from watching the movements of ants. 
The finer the day, the more busily are they 
employed, as they never bring out their corn to 
dry but when the weather is clear and the sun 
very hot. A celebrated naturalist relates the 
following curious anecdote: — He one day 
observed these little creatures, after having 
brought out their corn at eleven in the forenoon, 
removing the same, contrary to their usual 
custom, before one in the afternoon. The sun 
being very hot, and the sky remarkably clear, 
he could perceive no reason for it ; but half an 
hour after, his surprise ceased — the sky began 
to be overcast, and there fell a shower of rain, 
which caused all this bustle, no doubt, among 
these active little creatures : they evidently 
foresaw rain, and provided accordingly; and 
were we minutely to examine into the economy 
and management of these wonderful artificers^ 
many other similar and equally curious facts 
might be gleaned relative to the weather. 

The leech also possesses the peculiar pro- 
perty of indicating approaching changes of the 
weather in a most eminent degree. In fair and 
frosty weather it remains motionless and rolled 
up in a spiral form ai the bottom of the vessel ; 
previous, however, to rain or snow, it will 
creep to the top, where, should the rain be 
heavy, or of long continuance, it will remain 
for a considerable time, — if transient, it will 
descend. Should the rain or snow be accom- 
panied with wind, it will dart about with great 
velocity, and seldom cease its evolutions until 
it blows hard. If a storm of thunder or light- 
ning be approaching, it will be exceedingly 



WEATHER. 



WEATHER. 



agitated, and express its feelings in violent 
convulsive starts at the top of the glass. It is 
remarkable, that however fine and serene the 
weather may be, and to our senses no indica- 
tion of a coming change, either from the sky, 
the barometer, or any other cause, yet, if the 
leech shifts its position, or moves about slug- 
gishly, the coincident results will undoubtedly 
occur within 26 hours. 

Signs of Rain. — Although we have incident- 
ally glanced already at some of these indica- 
tions, it may be well to sum them up in a body, 
as being more easy of reference. 

A white mist in the evening over a meadow 
or a river dispersed by the sun next morning, 
indicates that the day will be bright. Five or 
six fogs, successively, portend rain. Where 
there are high hills, and the mist which hangs 
over the lower land draws toward the hills in 
the morning, and rolls up to the top, it will be 
fair; but if the mist hangs upon the hills, and 
drags along the woods, there will be rain soon. 
A general mist before the sun rises is a sign 
of fair weather. 

Against much rain, the clouds grow bigger 
and increase very fast, especially before thun- 
der. When the clouds are formed like fleeces, 
but dense in the middle, bright towards the 
edge, with the sky bright, they are signs of a 
frost, with hail, snow, or rain. If clouds breed 
high in the air, in the white train like locks of 
wool, they portend wind, and probably rain. 
When a general cloudiness covers the sky, 
and small black fragments of clouds fly un- 
derneath, they are sure signs of rain, and pro- 
bably it will be lasting. Two currents of 
clouds generally portend rain, and in summer 
thunder. 

If the dew lies plentifully on the grass after 
a fair day, it is a sign of another fine day. If 
not, and there is no wind, rain will follow. A 
red evening portends fair weather ; but if 
spread too far upward from the horizon in the 
evening, and especially morning, it foretells 
wind or rain, or both. When the sky in rainy 
weather is tinged with sea-green, the rain will 
increase ; if deep blue, it will be showery. 

If there be a haziness in the air, which fades 
the sun's light, and makes the orb appear 
whitish or ill-defined; or at night, if the moon 
and stars grow dim, and a ring encircles the 
former, rain must follow. If the sun appears 
white at setting, or goes down into a bank of 
clouds in the horizon, bad weather is expected. 
If the moon looks pale and dim, we expect 
rain ; if red, wind ; and if the natural colour, 
with a clear sky, fair weather. If the setting 
sun appears yellow or gold colour, and parti- 
cularly if accompanied with purple streaks, 
the following day will be fine. 

If the wind veers about much, rain is pretty 
sure. If, in changing, it follows the course of 
the sun, it brings fair weather; the contrary, 
foul. Whistling or howling of the wind is a 
sure sign of rain. 

The aurora borealis, after warm days, is 
generally succeeded by cooler air. Shooting 
stars are supposed to indicate wind. 

Before rain, swallows fly low; dogs grow 
sleepy and eat grass ; waterfowls dive much ; 

h will not bite ; flies are more troublesome ; 



toads crawl about; moles, ants, bees, and many 
insects, are very busy; birds fly low for insects; 
swine, sheep, and cattle are uneasy, and even 
the human body. 

" The air, when dry, I believe, refracts more 
red or heat-making rays ; and as dry air is not 
perfectly transparent, they are again reflected 
in the horizon. I have generally observed a 
coppery or yellow sunset to foretell rain ; but, 
as an indication of wet weather approaching, 
nothing is more certain than a halo round the 
moon, which is produced by the precipitated 
water; and the larger the circle, the nearer the 
clouds, and consequently the more ready to 
fall." (Sir H. Davy.) 

To turn now to the atmosphere : the bulk 
of our most valuable meteorological observa- 
tions are, of course, deducible from its electri- 
cal condition, and the precise kind of electricity 
present ; from the power of evaporation exer- 
cised, from the state and direction of the wind, 
from a careful examination of the clouds ; in 
fact, the phenomena of the atmosphere are 
wellnigh endless. But, though endless in the 
variety of their forms and consequences, and 
for the most part uncertain in the time of their 
occurrence, yet they are successively the same 
in their nature to parts and properties, and are 
all the production of simple causes. The 
principal agents in producing these phenomena 
have already been noticed under the head Me- 
TEOROLOOT. I need not enlarge further upon 
the advantages to science in general derivable 
from the accurate and careful investigation of 
meteorological researches, aided by the excel- 
lent instruments that are now attainable, and 
at a moderate expense. From the accumula- 
tion of a multitude of such facts can we alone 
hope at some future time to derive that accu- 
rate knowledge and insight into the secret 
springs that would appear to be the movers of 
these phenomena. This may not be too much 
to effect from the analogies of the seasons and 
the results of experience; and this, we may 
venture to predict, will be the crowning reward 
of meteorological research. (Trans, of Met. Soc. 
vol. i. 1839.) See Moox, Influence of. 

Clouds. — The following definition of the de- 
scriptive terms now employed by meteorolo- 
gists to define various clouds, may prove useful 
to those in the habit of consulting meteorolo- 
gical registers, which are occasionally pub- 
lished in newspapers and scientific journals 
It is taken from Ure^s Chemical and Miner. Diet., 
article " Cloud," p. 338. 

A cloud is a mass of vapour, more or less 
opaque, formed and sustained at considerable 
heights in the atmosphere, probably by the 
joint agencies of heat and electricity. The 
first successful attempt to arrange the diversi- 
fied forms of clouds, under a few general mo- 
difications, was made by Luke Howard, Esq. 
We shall here give a brief account of his in- 
genious classification. 

The simple modifications are thus named and 
defined — 1. Cirrus; parallel, flexuous, or di- 
verging fibres, extensible in any or in all direc- 
tions. 2. Cumulus ; convex or conical heaps, 
increasing upwards from a horizontal base. 
3. Stratus : a widely extended, continuous hon 
zontal sheet, increasing from below. 

111? 



WEATHER. 



WEATHER. 



The intermediate modifications which require 
to be noticed are — 4. Cirro-cumulus; small, 
well-defined, roundish masses, in close horizon- 
tal arrangement. 5. Cii-ro-stratus ; horizontal 
or slightly inclined masses, attenuated towards 
a part or the whole of their circumference, bent 
downward, or undslated, separate or in groups, 
consisting of small clouds having these cha- 
racters. 

The compound modifications are — 6. Cumulo- 
straius : the cirro-stratus blended with the cu- 
mulus, and either appearing intermixed with 
the heaps of the latter, or superadding a wide- 
spread structure to its base. 

7. Cuvndo-cirro-straius, vel Nimbus : the rain 
cloud, a cloud or system of clouds from which 
rain is falling; it is a horizontal sheet, above 
which the cirrus spreads, while the cumulus 
enters it laterally and from beneath. 

The lirrus appears to have the least density, 
the greater variety of extent and direction, and 
to appear earliest, in serene weather, being in- 
dicated by a few threads pencilled in the sky. 
Before storms they appear lower and denser, 
and usually in the quarter opposite to that from 
which the storm arises. Steady high winds 
are also preceded and attended by cirrus streaks 
running quite across the sky in the direction 
they blow in. 

The cumulus has the densest structure, is 
formed in the lowest atmosphere, and moves 
along with the current next the earth ; a small 
irregular spot first appears, and is as it were 
the nucleus on which they increase. The lower 
surface continues irregularly plain, while the 
upper rises into conical or hemispherical heaps, 
which may afterwards continue long nearly of 
the same bulk, or rapidly rise into mountains: 
they will begin in fair weather to form some 
hours after sunrise, arrive at their maximum 
in the hottest part of the afternoon, then go on 
diminishing, and totally disperse about sunset. 
Previous to rain the cumulus increases rapidly, 
appears lower in the atmosphere, and with its 
surface full of loose fleeces or protuberances. 
The formation of large cumuli to leeward in a 
strong wind indicates the approach of a calm 
with rain ; when they do not disappear or sub- 
side about sunset, but continue to rise, thunder 
is to be expected in the night. The stratus has 
a mean degree of tensity, and is the lowest of 
clouds, its inferior surface commonly resting 
on the earth or water. This is properly the 
cloud of night, appearing about sunset. It 
comprehends all those creeping mists which in 
calm weather ascend in spreading sheets (like 
an inundation of water) from the bottom of 
valleys and the surfaces of lakes and rivers. 
On the return of the sun the level surface of 
this cloud begins to put on the appearance of 
cumulus, the whole at the same time separating 
from the ground. The continuity is next de- 
stroyed, and the cloud ascends and evaporates, 
or passes off with the appearance of nascent 
cumulus. This has long been experienced as 
a prognostic of fair weather. 

The cirrus having continued for some time 
increasmg or stationarv, usually passes either 
to the cirro-cumulus or the cirro-stratus, at the 
same time descending to a lower station in the 
atmosphere. This modification forms a very 
1116 



beautiful sky, and is frequent in summer, as 
an attendant on warm and dry weather. The 
cirro-stratus, when seen in the distance, fre- ■ 
quently gives the idea of shoals of fish (a 
mackerel sky). It precedes wind and rain; is 
seen in the intervals of storms, and sometime.? 
alternately with the cirro-cumulus in the same 
cloud, when the different evolutions form a cu- 
rious spectacle. A judgment may be formed 
of the weather likely to ensue, by observing 
which modification prevails at last. The solar 
and lunar halos, as well as the parhelion and 
paraseline (mock sun and mock moon), prog- 
nostics of foul weather, are occasioned by this 
cloud. The cumulo-stratus precedes, and th& 
nimbus accompanies rain. 

When there are small round clouds, of a 
dapple-gray colour, with a north wind, it may 
be concluded that there will be fair weather for 
2 or 3 days, but that large clouds like rocks 
are a sign of great showers. And when small 
clouds increase, it is a sign that there will be 
much rain, but if the large clouds are seen to 
lessen, there will be fair weather. 

In summer or harvest, when the wind has 
been south 2 or 3 days, and it grows very hot, 
and clouds are seen to rise with great white 
tops like towers, as if one were on the top of 
another, and joined together with black on the 
lower side, it may be considered a sign that 
there will be thunder and rain suddenly. When 
two such clouds rise, one on each hand, it is 
time to make haste to shelter. 

Whea a cloud is seen to rise against the 
wind or side wind, it is a sure sign that when 
the cloud comes up near you, the wind will 
blow the way that the cloud came. It is the 
same with the motion of a clear place, when 
all the sky is thick except one edge. 

At all times, when the clouds look black in, 
the west, it is sure to rain, or if raining, it is 
sure to continue, whatever quarter the wind 
may be in ; and, on the contrary, if it breaks 
in the west, it is sure to be fair. 

It is often observed, on those clear sunny 
mornings which occur in summer and autumn, 
that it is very likely, if not certain, to rain be- 
fore evening; and there is frequently much 
truth in the remark. The reason is, that when 
moisture accumulates in the air, before it be- 
gins to be precipitated, it imparts to it a higher 
refractive power; and it becomes, in conse- 
quence, more bright and transparent. (British 
Almanac, 1830.) 

The gradual diminution of clouds, till they 
are no longer observable, is a sign also of fine 
weather. So, likewise, is the continuance or 
abundance of dew upon the grass, after a 
serene day. 

During winter, fleecy clouds being thick and 
close in the middle, and very white at the 
edges, the surrounding sky being remarkably 
blue, indicate hail or snow, or cold, chilling, 
showers of rain. 

Where the clouds appear moving in two op- 
posite currents, and the lowest is wafted rapidly 
before the wind, it is a certain sign of rain ; 
and if this occurs during summer, or generally 
in hot weather, ii announces a thunder-storm. 

It may be a useful piece of information for 
agriculturists, or those concerned in getting in 



WEATHER. 



WEATHER. 



their crops, to describe tlie appearance of a 
small cloud, which, from its rapid formation 
and disappearance, is likely to escape the ob- 
servation of most persons, but which, from mf 
own experience, I have found a very faithful 
forewarner of foul weather. It appears mostly 
in the mild weather of spring, summer, and 
autumn, when its warning token becomes most 
acceptable. It is a small, delicately soft, thin, 
white, curved cloud, formed suddenly upon the 
summit of those fine heaped clouds (termed 
cumuli) which often prevail in warm weather, 
and appear to tower up to a prodigious height. 
It is necessary to keep a watchful eye upon the 
summit of the cumulus. When this little film, 
which I term " the storm cap," appears, it lies 
closely over the rounded summit, like a white 
silken web ; in a very few seconds it will dis- 
appear, sinking, I suppose, into the cumulus; 
but in a little time, and when heavy foul wea- 
ther threatens, the film again appears, disap- 
pearing as shortly as before. (Mag. Nat. Hist. 
vol. iv. p. 444.) 

The following indications have been record- 
ed, as shown by the predominance of certain 
of the prismatic colours of the rainbow, but 
they are perhaps too fanciful to be de- 
serving of much credence. — 1. Red; if this 
colour be very predominant, wind, or wind and 
rain, may be expected. 2. Orange ; when the 
orange colour appears strong and very full, it 
generally indicates approaching rain. 3. Yel- 
low; when yellow is more conspicuous than 
the other colours, it foretells dry weather. 4. 
Green ; approaching rain may be expected 
when the green is very predominant. 5. Blue; 
fine weather may be expected when the blue is 
particularly full. 6. Purple ; if the purple be 
a very full colour, wind and rain may be ex- 
pected. 7. Violet; the violet, when very clear, 
generally indicates approaching fine weather. 
See Rainbow. 

The Wind. — The earth is surrounded to the 
extent of 60 miles with an atmosphere, on 
which all nature mutually depends for life. 
This aerial ocean revolves with our earth 
round the sun, is very susceptible of motion, 
and some parts of it is constantly in restless 
commotion. These commotions are called 
winds, and are principally caused by heat from 
the rays of the sun, which, rarefying the air, 
causes it to ascend ; and the vacuum thus 
formed is filled up with a colder air from the 
north and south. 

Wind has been explained in the following 
manner: — Heated air has a tendency to rise, 
and cold air rushes in to supply its place. 
Thus the heated air of the equatorial regions 
rises and gives place to a current sent from the 
polar regions, which is a process that serves to 
equalize the temperature of the world. But 
the polar countries lying near to the axis of 
the sphere, the air from those regions has not 
received so much motion as that about the 
equator, or greatest distance from the axis ; 
wherefore it arrives at the equator, where the 
motion of the earth is greater. If it had no 
motion before, an east wind would be the con- 
sequence, and the force of that wind would be 
as the difference between the motion of the 
earth where the air came from, and that where 



it arrived: but then, in the northern hemi- 
sphere, it has a motion to the south; for it is 
rushing into a vacuum left by the air which 
rises ; so that the wind will not be from the 
east, but northeast; and the number of degrees 
north of the east from which it will blow will 
depend upon the comparative force of the cur- 
rent of air from the north to the difference be- 
tween the earth's motion at the equator and at 
the polar region, whence the air comec. As 
there must be a corresponding efflux frc.i the 
equator higher up, according to this thee- che 
wind should everywhere be northeast or south- 
west, but it blows in very different directions 
at different times and places, owing chiefly to 
circumstances connected with the distribution 
of land and water, and the variations in tem- 
perature at different times and places. 

From observing the wind a fair idea of the 
coming weather may oftentimes be drav/n; and 
yet, as Solomon observes, "he that considers 
the wind shall never sow;" that is, ho thai 
busies himself too much about the .vind will 
become superstitious. The indicdtio;is to br 
drawn from observing the direction and change? 
of the wind must vary in different countries, 
according to the relative positions of these in 
regard to the sea, lakes, plains, or mountains 
covered with snow, i'or an explanation of 
some of the phcnoir.ena of climate and weather, 
the reader is referred to preceding articles, 
under the hc-ads of BAnoMETEn, Climate o' 
THK UxiTED States, &c. 

In all countries, therefore, particular wind? 
are noted for being accompanied with either 
wet or dry weather. Thus the south and south- 
west winds bring much moisture into Britain, 
while those from the north and northeast ar , 
cold, dry, and penetrating. Hence the old Eng 
lish proverb — 

" When the wind 's in the south, 
It's in the rain's mouth." 

Not only does this arise from the immense 
surface of ocean over which these winds sweep 
south of the equator, the evaporation from which 
must be prodigious; but from these southerly 
winds being of a higher temperature, whereby 
they hold a greater quantity of vapour in sus- 
pension or solution, the condensation of which 
must be proportionally greater on arriving in 
this colder climate. Accordingly, it has been 
observed that the wind will turn from the north 
to the south quietly and without rain ; but on 
returning from the south to the north, will blow 
hard and bring much rain. Again, if it begin 
to rain from the south, with a high wind for 2 
or 3 hours, the wind falls ; but if the rain con- 
tinues, it is likely to rain for 12 hours or more, 
and does usually rain until a strong north wind 
clears the air. For the same reason, winds 
from the west and southwest are in England 
considered to bring with them wet weather. 
{Chambers^ Information for the People, No. 58, 
New Series.) 

A change in the warmth of the weather is 
often followed by a change in the wind. Thus, 
the northerly and southerly winds, though com- 
monly accounted the causes of cold and warn' 
weather, are really the effects of the cold n'' 
warmth of the atmosphere. 

5B 111" 



WEATHER. 



WEATHER. 



Mr. Towers (Quart. Jour, of Agr. vol. ix. p. 
89) relates the case of a person in Somerset- 
shire who had been haymaking nearly 40 years, 
and had hardly in one instance failed to carry 
in good condition. He had observed that in the 
month of June, earlier or later, there are three 
or more days wherein the wind blows from the 
northeast, and that period is invariably dry. 
When that wind first occurred, he seized the 
opportunity of cutting his grass and carrying 
the crop before the wind veered to the south. 
This theory holds good as respects the south- 
western counties, where the wind from any 
quarter between north and east is the sure con- 
comitant of dry weather. 

The following predictions of the weather are 
met with in the Holy Sciplures ; and, applying 
with equal correctness in the present day as at 
the time they were written, I subjoin them : — 
A south wind, or great heat in summer, por- 
tends a whirlwind. (Job xxxvi. 9.) Cold or 
fair weather is indicated by the north wind, 
which drives away rain. (Ibid, xxxvii. 9, 22.) 
A red sky in the evening foretells fair weather; 
in the morning, foul. "When it is evening ye 
say. It will be fair weather, for the sky is red. 
And in the morning. It will be foul weather to- 
day, for the sky is red and lowering." {Malt. 
xvi. 2, 3.) " When ye see a cloud rise out of 
the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a 
shower; and so it is. And when ye see the 
south wind blow, ye say. There will be heat; 
and it cometh to pass." (Luke, xii. 54, .55.) 

It results from observations made by M. 
Schow, that in the north of Europe the west- 
ern winds are more frequent than the eastern. 
This rule is without exception ; but the west- 
ern winds diminish more and more as we ap- 
proach the centre of the Continent, being more 
frequent in England, Holland, and France than 
in Denmark and the greater part of Germany; 
and more frequent in these latter countries than 
in Russia and Sweden. At London, the east 
wind is to the west as !• to 1*7; at Amsterdam, 
as I to 1'6; at Copenhagen, as 1 to 1*5; at 
Stockholm, as 1 to 14; at Petersburg, as 1 to 
1*3. The west winds seem to incline the more 
to the south according to the propinquity of the 
Atlantic sea ; towards the interior of the Con- 
tinent they incline more to the northwest. The 
north winds appear to increase towards the 
east. Amongst the winds which come from the 
west, that of the southwest predominates in 
England, Holland, and France; that of direct 
west in Denmark and the greater part of Ger- 
many; at Moscow the northwest predominates; 
at Petersburg and Stockholm the north wind is 
much more frequent than in the western parts 
of Europe. In the western and middle districts 
of northern Europe, such as England, France, 
Denmark, Germany, and Norway, the west 
winds are much more frequent during the sum- 
mer than during the winter or spring. This 
does not appear to be the case in Sweden and 
Russia. During the winter the west winds are 
more southerly; during the summer more di- 
rect and more northerly yjahrb. der Phys. und 
Chemie, 1828.) 

With regard lo the supposed influence of the 
moon upon the conditions cf the weather, and 
1118 



the strong evidences to prove that this satellite 
exerts no influence in controlling the atmosphere, 
so far as wet and dry weather are concerned, 
see Mooif, Influence of. 

Under the head of Barometer it has been 
observed that changes of weather are indicated, 
not by the actual height of the mercury, but by 
its change of height. One of the most general, 
though not absolutely invariable, rules, is, that 
where the mercury is very low, and, therefore, 
the atmosphere very light, high winds and 
storms may be expected. 

In winter the rising of the barometer pre- 
sages frost; and in frosty weather, if it falls 
three or four divisions, there will follow a thaw; 
but if it rises in a continued frost, snow may 
be expected. 

The mercury generally rises very fast after 
great storms of wind, when before it was very 
low. In England it has been observed to rise 
an inch and a half in six hours, after a long- 
continued storm of southwest wind. 

The words on the plate of a barometer are 
not strictly to be adhered to, though they will in 
general agree; for a fluctuating and unsettled 
state of the mercurial column indicates uncer- 
tain or changeable weather. The height of the ' 
mercury does not so much indicate the wea- 
ther as its motion up and down : to know, there- ■ 
fore, whether the mercury is actually rising or' 
falling, observe — 

1st. If the surface of the mercury is convex 
(or stands high in the middle), it is then rising,^ 

2d. If the surface is concave (standing low) 
in the middle), it is then falling. ' 

3d. If the surface is plain, or a little con-' 
vex, it may be considered as stationary. 

4th. A small tap on the barometer case, by ' 
shaking the tube will sometimes bring the mer- 1 
cury to its approaching height. 

The greatest heights of the mercury are on 
easterly and northeasterly winds; and its low-: 
est station on southerly winds. 

If the weather is about to be cold, frosty, ofl 
foggy, it rises pretty high; but if going to be^ 
windy or tempestuous, it will then sink very« 
low, and, as soon as the first storm is over, it"! 
will rise again apace. 

The domestic barometer would become a ' 
much more useful instrument if, instead of the ' 
words usually engraved on the plate, a short 
list of the best established rules, adapted to the 
particular locality in which it was situated, ' 
accompanied it, which might be either engrav- i 
ed on the plate, or printed on a card. It would 
be right, however, to express the rules only i 
with that degree of probability which observa- 
tion of past phenomena has justified. There < 
is no rule respecting these effects which will '* 
invariably hold good. 

In the following table the mean temperature, 
mean highest, and mean lowest, have been 
calculated from observations made on regis- 
tering thermometers, hung on a post 2 feet 
8 inches from the grass, facing the north, 
and in no v/ay sheltered. The barometer is ' 
in a vestibule. No corrections of any kind 
have been made in registering the barometer. 
(Johnson's and Shaw's Farmer's Almanac, vol. i. 
p. 157.) J 



WEEDS. 



WEEDS. 



Tables calculated from Atnwspherical Observations, 
made in the Parish of Cobhani, Surrey, England, 
during the Eight Years from 1833 to 1840. 



THERMOMETER. 



Month. 


Utmost 
Range. 


Mean. 


Mean 
Highest. 


Mean 
Lowest. 


DifiVrence, 

or Snlar 
Variation. 


January - 


fiO 


in 


33 -.38 


52 6 


14-6 


380 


Febniiiry 


60 


14 


39-84 


54-7 


20-6 


341 


March 


fiti 


16 


42-02 


60-1 


20-5 


39-6 


April 


S,") 


17 


46-25 


71-3 


23-0 


48-3 


May 


Sfi 


23 


55-25 


79-8 


30-3 


49-5 




9."^ 


33 


61-31 


88-5 


37-8 


50-7 


July 


9fi 


33 


63 00 


89-2 


39.2 


50-0 


August - 


94 


32 


61-83 


85-8 


36-7 


49- 1 


September 


82 


27 


56-32 


76-0 


32-3 


43-7 


October - 


79 


21 


49-87 


68-4 


25-8 


42-6 


November 


fifi 


16 


43-64 


58-8 


21-8 


37-0 


December 


63 


4 


38-98 


57-5 


18-8 


38-7 



BAROMETER. 



Month. 
January - 


Utmost Range. 


Mean. 


Mean 
Highest. 


Mean 
Lowest. 


Difii;r- 


30-83 


28 97 


29-986 


30-59 


29-17 


1-42 


February 


30-62 


28-62 


29-819 


30-44 


2904 


1-40 


March 


30-68 


28-70 


29-915 


30-47 


29-24 


1-23 


April 


3053 


2902 


29-999 


30-41 


29 34 


107 


Mav 


30-62 


29-42 


29960 


30-42 


29-54 


0-88 


June 


80-42 


29-29 


30 008 


30-35 


2955 


0-80 


July 


30-47 


29.37 


30039 


30 36 


29-57 


0-79 


August - 


30-48 


2911 


30-023 


30-35 


29-42 


0-93 


September 


30-.58 


28-99 


31-182 


30-34 


29 26 


1-08 


October - 


30-71 


28-98 


29-997 


30-50 


29-24 


1-26 


Novell ber 


30-48 


28-67 


29-822 


30-38 


2900 


1-38 


December 


30-66 


2904 


30-038 


30-50 


29-28 


1-22 



Tables showing the mean temperatare in 
most sections of the United States, and also at 
many noted places in Europe and Asia, will 
be found under the heads of Atmosphere and 
Clim.^tk. 

WEEDS. A weed has been aptly defined 
"a plant out of place." The clearing of all 
kinds of crops, and keeping them free from 
weeds, is an essential part of cultivation : if 
this be omitted, neglected, or but partially per- 
formed, a portion of the crop will be lost, in pro- 
portion to the prevalence of such weeds, from 
defective preparation or partial extirpation. 
The nourishment drawn from the ground by the 
roots of all vegetables being somewhat simi- 
lar, where that nourishment is suffered to be 
drawn by weeds, it is lost to the intended crop, 
which will therefore be reduced in produce in 
proportion as it has been deprived of nutri- 
ment from the soil, and prevented from occu- 
pying its whole extent of ground. The same 
observation will apply to pastures, to hedges, 
and plantations, and to all parts of the earth's 
surface reclaimed, occupied, and cultivated for 
the use of man/; for therein the growth of 
noxious or useless plants will be injurious to 
the success of the useful ones, and in propor- 
tion as the former abound, the latter must prove 
defective. 

The clearing of crops from weeds must be 
effected in two ways : 1. In the preparation ; 
and, 2. During the growth of the crop. In the 
preparation, attention must be given to dis- 
tinguish root weeds from seedlings, as their 
destruction must be effected upon different 
principles. In the spring of the year particu- 
larly, attention should be paid to hoeing and 
weeding. 

And old Tusser's advice may be followed 
with advantage : — 



"In May get a weed-hook, a crotch, and a glove. 
And weed out such weeds as the corn doth not love ; 
For weeding of winter corn, now it is best. 
But June is the better for weeding the rest. 

The May-weed doth burn, and the thistle doth fret, 
The fitches pull downward both rye and the wheat, 
The brake and the cockle be noisome too much, 
Yet like unto boodle no weed there is such. 

Slack never thy weeding, for dearth nor for cheap. 
The corn shall reward it, ere ever ye reap ; 
And 'specially where ye do trust for to seed. 
Let that be well used, the better to speed." 

The plants we term weeds, considered as 
respecting mankind, are not totally useless ; 
many of them have valuable medical quali- 
ties, and some of them may be applied to use- 
ful purposes, so as to pay something towards 
the expense of clearing them from the ground. 
Thus, sow-thistles (Sonchus) afford food for 
rabbits or hogs ; the hog-weed, or cow-parsnip 
{Heradcum sphondylimn), is good for either 
swine or cattle ; horses and asses are fond of 
young thistles when partially dried, and the 
seed may be prevented from spreading by 
gathering the down, which makes good pillows ; 
however, there is some danger of trusting them 
to this stage of growth, as a high wind would, 
and frequently does, disperse them over a 
whole country. Charlock, or wild radish, 
when drawn, may be given to cows, which are 
very fond of it, particularly of the smooth kind; 
and, in the Oxford Report, it is stated that it can 
be converted into good hay. Nettles, fern, and 
the more bulky hedge-weeds, are, in Stafford- 
shire, collected annually about midsummer 
and burned; their ashes being afterwards 
formed into balls, which are of considerable 
value, being used in composing a ley for scour- 
ing and cleaning linen and other clothes. 

It is said that pigeons are of use in picking 
up the seeds of many weeds that would other- 
wise vegetate : and I have no doubt but that a 
prodigious quantity of the seeds of weeds are 
eaten by small birds, particularly of most of 
the snake-weeds (Polygonums), of the spurry 
(Spergula), and, in severe weather, of the dif- 
ferent sorts of charlock {Sinapis, Brassica, and 
Raphanus), and of many other kinds. It has 
been observed that bees have not thriven so 
well in England since the extirpation of weeds 
has been more attended to. In China and Ja- 
pan, it is said, not a weed is to be seen, and 
that they only make use of night-soil as a ma- 
nure, partly with a view of preventing any 
rise of weeds. 

Weeds, like all other vegetables, may be 
distinguished into annuals, biennials, and pe- 
rennials, according to their term of duration. 

Annuals are those which continue only one 
year, the plants dying after perfecting their 
seeds : these are generally very prolific in seed. 
Biennials are those which continue two years, 
and die after perfecting their seed : these also 
produce an abundance of seed. Perennials 
are those which continue many years : some 
of these perfect their seeds every year, and 
others, being very tenacious of growth by their 
roots, and having the faculty of reproducing 
themselves in this way, are less prolific in 
seeds ; but many of them increase both by 
seeds and roots. 

The weeds of agriculture are very numerous 
but by far the greater part are underlings, awd 

1119 



WEEDS. 



WEEDS. 



are little noticed ; these are comparatively in- 
nocent, and a very great portion of them have 
no local or common names. Mr. William Pitt, 
in his essay On the Exiirpation of Weeds {Com, 
to Board of Agr. vol. v. p. 233), enumerates 55 
weeds, and the list might have been greatly 
extended ; but few farmers, whose knowledge 
is bounded by the soils they respectively cul- 
tivate, would think themselves troubled with 
more than a dozen to twenty ; that is, four or 
five which trouble them in their fallows ; four 
or five, the seeds of which infest their samples 
of corn ; and a few besides, which are locally 
prevailing and obtrusive, but (as seems to have 
been too generally considered) not very hurtful. 

The fact was, that, before the improved 
agriculture became so generally known, those 
weeds which did not hurt the samples the far- 
mers cared little about; not considering how 
much they hurt the crops : and hence it has 
been, that on the different soils corn poppy, 
charlock, blue-bottles, corn marygold, May- 
weed, &c., have been suffered to abound. 

The weeds of agriculture may be divided 
into, 1. Those which infest samples of corn; 
2. Rooted or fallow weeds, and such others as 
ai"e hard to destroy ; 3. Those which are prin- 
cipally objectionable as they encumber the 
soil ; 4. Underling weeds, such as never rise 
with the crop or come into the sickle. Under 
their respective heads, in alphabetical order, 
we have already treated of the deteriorating 
qualities and mode of destruction of each weed; 
but, following the above arrangement, we shall 
classify them, and add such further remarks as 
may be required. 

1. IVceds which infest Samples of Corn. — In 
England the weeds of this description do not 
exceed ten in number, and it very rarely hap- 
pens that more than two sorts are found asso- 
ciated in one sample of wheat. They vary as 
to soil so much, that some of the worst weeds 
in fens and marshes are not known at all on 
clay, cold soils, and are but very little seen on 
any sort of dry turnip land. Light loams and 
deep, loose soils generally have most weeds by 
nature. The weeds which infest the sample 
are, darnel, cheat, or chess {Eromus sccali)ms 
and fnoUis), cockle {Agrostemma Githago), tares 
(^Ervum telraspermum and hirsutiwt'), melilot 
(^Meldotus officinalis), wild oats (Avena falua), 
hariff" {Galium Aparine), crow-needles, or shep- 
herd's needle {Scatidix pccten Veneris), black 
bindweed (Polygonum Convolvulus), annual 
snake-weed (Polygonum lapathifolium), and 
charlock seeds in barley sometimes. 

Of these ten weeds, whose seeds infest sam- 
ples of corn, five are principally injurious to 
wheat; the others are partial, and more com- 
mon in barley and oats. 

2. On FalLio IVeeds. — The objects of a fal- 
low are, and always were, first, to eradicate 
root weeds, and cleanse and open the soil to 
the fibres of future crops; second, to pulverize 
and break down the texture of clay soils, and 
mix them with manure, in order to bring the 
land periodically into a mild and fertile condi- 
tion. Seedling weeds are destroyed incident- 
ally ; and good fallows, with good seasons, 
kill a great many, though it be not the object 
of fallowing 

1120 



The English fallow weeds are principally 
the following : couch, including Triticum re- 
pens, Agroslis repens, Holcus mollis, and Poa prO' 
tensis, rest-harrow (Ononis arvensis), saw-wort, 
the common way-thistle, or pasture-thistle 
(Carduus arucHSis), curled dock (Rumex crispus), 
tall oat-like soft-grass (Holcus aveyiaceus), colt's- 
foot (Tussilago Farfara), corn bindweed (Con- 
volvulus arvensis), corn mint (Mentha arvensis), 
surface-twitch (Agrostis stolonifera angustifolia), 
black foxtail-grass (Alopecurus agreslis), com- 
mon knot-grass (Polygonum aviculare), wild 
carrot (Dauais Carota), hedge parsley, or dill 
(Torilis infesta), common fool's parsley (JEthu- 
sa Cynapium), spingel or fennel (Meum Fanicu- 
lum). 

3. Weeds which are principally objectionable as 
they encumber the Soil, or tvhose Roots are annual, 
and xL'hose Seeds pass the Corn-sieve. — Of this 
class of weeds, the following deserve particu- 
lar notice: charlock (several species), corn 
poppy (Papuvcr Rhccas), blue-bottle (Centaurea 
Cyanas), stinking May-weed (Anlhemis cotula), 
corn marigold (Chrysanthemum scgetum). 

To extirpate these weeds, clean corn-seed 
must be used, not a single plant of these weeds 
must be suff'ered to perfect seed in the hedge- 
rows, and a judicious rotation of crops adopt- 
ed, so as to admit of the unsparing use of the 
horse-hoe, as well as of the hand, in weeding; 
by which means these noxious and disgraceful 
pests of corn-fields will be overcome, and 
banished from the soil. 

The corn-poppy particularly accumulates 
upon gravelly soils of low quality, also on dry 
sandy soils, and generally on all dry and shal 
low lands which are overcropped and neglect- 
ed. But much better-soils, as loamy gravel, 
&c., are infested with it ; only here the crops 
are generally good enough to keep it under, 
and being less abundant, it is much easier sub- 
dued by weeding. But the corn poppy is never 
so triumphant as in a hot and dry season, in ' 
which case many fields, which should have 
been corn, are wholly covered with it. One of 
three things must be done by way of remedy : 
1st, the soil must be clayed or marled ; 2d, or it 
must be fed with much larger quantities of 
farm-yard dung or compost; 3d, if neither of 
these be easily practicable, the rotation must 
be changed. 

4. Of the Weeds called Underlings, or such as 
never rise in the Crop, nor come into the Sickle.— 
These are groundsel or Simson (Seneeio vulga- 
ris), annual meadow-grass (Poa annua), chick- 
weed (Slellaria media), shepherd's purse (Thlap- 
si bursa pasloris), spurry (Spergula arvensis), 
camomile feverfew (Matricaria Chamomilla), 
fat hen or wild spinach (Chenopodium album), 
corn salad, or lamb's lettuce (Fedia olitoria), 
flixweed (Sisymbrium Sophia), common fumito- 
ry (Fumaria officinalis), and sand mustard 
(Sinapis muralis). 

Land may be rendered inert or unfertile from 
an excess of manure, as well as from the want 
of it; severe and avaricious cropping, long 
persevered in, being understood in both cases. 
Over-stimulus, as in the first instance, wears 
out, or renders inert, the principle of fertility 
in the land; and, in the latter instance, the 
want of stimulus produces the same effect. 



WEEDS. 



WEEVILS. 



The underling weeds, above mentioned, flou- 
rish and prosper under this state of the land, 
brought on by either cause. The remed}' is 
therefore obvious, viz., rest, or a clear-out sum- 
mer fallow ; and if in the first mentioned case 
(which is to be met with in deep fen land and 
in old garden mould), apply a dressing of lime, 
and sow down with the superior pasture-grasses 
and clovers, to remain for not less than five 
years. In the latter case, or when the fertility 
of the soil is worn out by injudicious cropping, 
and a niggardly supply of manure, joined to 
the naturally thin and poor staple of the soil, 
then a full application of manure, or marl and 
manure, the latter consisting as much as pos- 
sible of cow-dung, should be given, and the 
land sown down with the superior permanent 
pasture-grasses suited to the soil, with a due 
admixture of clover. 

5. Pasture Weeds. — Some farmers seem to 
suppose that if they keep the weeds subdued 
in the growing crops, they have performed 
wonders (and too many have reason to con- 
gratulate themselves if they do this), while all 
kinds of nuisances in the shape of weeds dis- 
figure and overrun their pastures. But this- 
tles, milkweed, everlasting, John's-wort, sweet 
elder, &c., flourish undisturbed, and fill the 
earth with seeds or roots in readiness to spread 
and grow whenever the earth is moved for 
their reception. Any plant not wanted on a 
farm, or not required in course of cultivation, 
should never be allowed to perfect its seeds on 
any part of it ; if they are, the farmer will 
find, to his sorrow, that he has suffered an ene- 
my to steal a march upon him, one which it 
may require much time and labour to subdue. 
Allow, then, nothing to go to seed on your farm 
you do not mean to cultivate ; dig them up root 
and branch, or, if this is not practicable, take 
your scythe and cut them at once. 

The following weeds are more frequently 
found to infest dry, sandy pastures, and calca- 
reous soils, than loamy or damp grass lands. 
Dwarf-thistle {Cardtms acaidis), common camo- 
mile {Anthemis nobilis), ox-eye daisy {Chrysan- 
themum Icucanthemum), great fleabane,or plough- 
man's spikenard {Coiiyza squarrosa), cheese 
refining, or yellow ladies' bedstraw (Galium 
verum), longrooted hawk-weed, wild thyme 
{Thymus serpyllum), sheep's sorrel (Ru7ne.v Ace- 
tosella), knot-grass, or snake-weed {Polygonum 
avicularc), yellow rattle {Rhinanthus cristagalli), 
common Carline thistle {Carlina vidgaris). 

Where these are found to prevail to a great 
extent, there is no remedy like breaking up the 
land and taking a course of crops, for pallia- 
tive remedies are of little avail. The this- 
tles, sheep's sorrel, and knot-grass, are the 
most formidable. Hand-weeding, when the 
weeds are confined to local spots, and are only 
just beginning to spread generally over the 
soil, will be found effectual ; but when once 
the pasture becomes generally infected with 
the seeds and roots of these plants, no time 
should be lost in using the plough, harrow, and 
horse-hoe, and a judicious course of cleansing 
crops, before returning the land again to perma- 
nent pasture. 

The pasture weeds which generally prevail 
in loamy soils, and such as are prevalent in 
141 



clayey and damp soils, are principally as fol- 
lows : — yellow goat's beard {Tragopogoti praten- 
sis), marsh, or red thistle {Carduus palustris'), 
melancholy plume-thistle {Cncius heterophyllus), 
meadow plume-thistle {Carduus pratensis), 
common butter-bur {TussUago Petasites), rag- 
wort {Senecio Jacobaa), common daisy {Bellis 
perennis), black knap-weed, or matfellow {Cen- 
taurea nigra), broadleaved dock {Rumex obtusi- 
folius) ; several species of orchis, common 
cow parsnip, or hog-weed {Heracleum Sphondy- 
lium), and sedge {Carex). 

The means to be adopted for the extirpation 
of these noxious weeds in pastures must be 
regulated by the nature of the soil and the 
comparative prevalence of the weeds. In good 
pasture land, where, from accident or neglect, 
these weeds, in part or wholly, have insinuated 
themselves, hand-weeding may most advan- 
tageously be had recourse to; and particularly 
for the larger weeds, such as thistles, rag-weed, 
docks, and knapweed, it will be found the best 
temporary remedy. Should the coarseness of 
the pasture have been occasioned by too fre- 
quent haying, then depasturing closely for two 
or three years, with a good top-dressing of dung 
compost applied in the early part of the spring 
or late in the autumn, with strict attention to 
hand-weeding, will be found effectual to reco- 
ver the pasture and extirpate the weeds. Fre- 
quent top-dressings are of the greatest use in 
effecting the above improvements on deterio- 
rated thin pasture lands, as regards the destruc- 
tion of weeds, as well as of improving the 
quality of the pasture. When the sedges, 
marsh-thistle, pestilent wort, &c., prevail in 
meadows, then recourse must be had to other 
means than that of hand-weeding, viz., drain- 
ing, paring and burning, liming, and a judi- 
cious rotation of crops under the horse-hoe 
husbandry, until every vestige of the seeds and 
roots of these noxious weeds disappear. The 
ground may then be laid down to permanent 
pasture, with the seeds of the most valuable 
species adapted to the soil, and, where water 
can be commanded, converted to water mea- 
dow, by which the value of the land will be 
considerably increased. {Holdich^s Weeds; 
Pitt's Essays on Weeds.) See Canada Thistle, 
Chaulock, Couch, &c., &c. 

WEEVILS. In the winged state, the insects 
thus called are hard-shelled beetles, which, 
says Dr. Harris, are distinguished from other 
insects by having the forepart of the head pro- 
longed into a broad muzzle or a longer and 
more slender snout, in the end of which the 
opening of the mouth and the small horny 
jaws are placed. The flies and moths produced 
from certain young insects, called weevils by 
mistake, do not possess these characters, and 
their larvae or young differ essentially from 
those of the true weevils. The latter belong tO' 
a group called ii/ij/ncAo/j/iomte, literally, snout- 
bearers. 

Among insects of this class is the Pales 
weevil, Curculio {Hylobius) Pales. See PI. 16, 6. 
This is a beetle of a deep chestnut-brown co- 
lour, having a line and a few dots of a yellow^ 
ish-white colour on the thorax, and many small 
yellowish white spots sprinkled over the wing- 
covers. All the thighs are toothed beneath, 
5b2 1121 



WEEVILS. 



WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 



and the snout is slender, cylindrical, inclined, 
and nearly as long as the thorax. On account 
of the length of the snout this insect has been 
placed in the genus RhynchcBnus by some natu- 
ralists ; but the antennae are implanted before 
the middle of the snout, and not far from the 
sides of the mouth. This beetle measures 
from two to three-eighths of an inch in length, 
exclusive of the snout. It may be found in 
great abundance, in May and June, on board- 
fences, the sides of new wooden buildings, and 
on the trunks of pine trees. I have discovered 
them, in considerable numbers, under the bark 
of the pitch pine. The larvae, which do not ma- 
terially differ from those of other weevils, in- 
habit these and probably other kinds of pines, 
doing sometimes immense injury to them. 
Wilson, the ornithologist, describes the depre- 
dations of these insects, in his account of the 
ivory-billed woodpecker, in the following 
words. " Would it be believed that the larvce 
of an insect, or fly, no larger than a grain of 
rice, should silently, and in one season, destroy 
some thousand acres of pine trees, many of 
them from 2 to 3 feet in diameter, and 150 feet 
high? Yet whoever passes along the high- 
road from Georgetown to Charleston, in South 
Carolina, about 20 miles from the former place, 
can have striking and melancholy proofs of 
the fact. In some places the whole woods, as 
far as you can see around you, are dead, stripped 
■ of the bark, their wintr)'-looking arms and bare 
trunks bleaching in the sun, and tumbling in 
Tuins before every blast, presenting a frightful 
picture of desolation. Until some effectual 
preventive or more complete remedy can be 
devised against these insects and their larvce, 
I would humbly suggest the propriety of pro- 
tecting, and receiving with proper feelings of 
gratitude, the services of this and the whole 
tribe of woodpeckers, letting the odium of 
guilt fall to its proper owners." {American 
Ornithology, vol. iv. p. 21.) Some years ago 
Mr. Nutlall procured, near the place above 
mentioned, specimens of the destructive in- 
sects referred to by Wilson. They were of 
:t.hree kinds. Those in greatest abundance 
were the pales weevil. One of the others was 
a larger, darker-coloured weevil, without white 
spots on it, and named Hylobius pirivorus, by 
'Germar and Schbnherr, or the pitch-eating 
weevil ; it is seldom found in Massachusetts. 
'The third was the white pine weevil. It is said 
that these beetles puncture the buds and the 
■tender bark of the small branches, and feed 
upon the juice, and that the young shoots 
;are often so much injured by them as to die 
:and break off at the wounded part. But it 
is in the larva state that they are found to be 
■most hurtful to the pines. The larvoe live 
•under the bark, devouring its soft inner sur- 
face, and the tender newly formed wood. When 
they abound, as they do ill some of the pine 
Ibr^^ts of the United States, they separate large 
pieces of bark from the wood beneath, in con- 
sequ°"'"-' of which the part peri.shes, and the 
tree itself soon languishes and dies. 

The white pine weevil, Rhynchcerms {Pissodcs) 

Sirobi, of Professor Peck, unites with the two 

preceding insects in destroying the Ameri- 

ran pines, as above describe ^ But it em- 

1122 



ploys also another mode of attack on the white 
pine, of which an interesting account is given 
by the late Professor Peck, the first describer 
of the insect, in the 4th volume of the Massw 
chiiselts Agricultural Repository and Journal, ac- 
companied by figures of the insect. The lofty 
stature of the white pine, and the slraightness 
of its trunk depend, as Professor Peck has re- 
marked, upon the constant health of its leading 
shoot, for a long succession of years ; and if 
this shoot be destroyed, the tree becomes 
stunted and deformed in its subsequent growth. 
This accident is not uncommon, and is caused 
by the ravages of the white pine weevil. This 
beetle is oblong-oval, rather slender, of a 
brownish colour, thickly punctured, and varie- 
gated with small brown, rust-coloured, and 
whitish scales. There are two white dots on 
the thorax ; the scutel is white ; and on the 
wing-covers, which are punctured in rows, 
there is a whitish transverse band behind the 
middle. The snout is longer than the thorax, 
slender, and a very little inclined. The length 
of this insect, exclusive of its snout, varies 
from one-fifth to three-tenths of an inch. Its 
eggs are deposited on the leading shoot of the 
pine, probably immediately under the outer 
bark. The larvae, hatched therefrom, bore into 
the shoot in various directions, and probably 
remain in the wood more than one year. 
When the feeding state is passed, but before 
the insect is changed to a pupa, it gnaws a 
passage from the inside quite to the bark, 
which, however, remaining untouched, serves 
to shelter the little borers from the weather. 
After they have changed to beetles, they have 
only to cut away the outer bark to make their 
escape. They begin to come out early in Sep- 
tember, and continue to leave the wood through 
that month and a part of October. The shoot 
at this time will be found pierced with small 
round holes on all sides ; sometimes 30 or 40 
may be counted on one shoot. (Harris.) See 
CoRjf Wkkvil, Curculio, Grain Wkevil, Pea 
Weevil, Plum Tree Weevil, &c. 

WEIGH. In England, a weight of cheese, 
wool, &c., containing 250 lbs. avoirdupois. Of 
corn, the weigh contains 40 bushels ; of barley 
or malt, 6 quarters. A weigh of cheese or 
butter in Suffolk is 256 lbs., and in Essex 
336 lbs. 

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. The pro- 
portions or quantities by which various sorts 
of agricultural or other produce are disposed 
of. In Britain they vary greatly in different 
districts, and even in different places of the 
same district or county. 

In a general sense the term measure is ap- 
plied to that by which any thing is compared 
in respect of quantity. Thus we have mea- 
sures of extension, of weight, time, force, re- 
sistance, temperature, &c. ; in short, of every 
thing of which greater or less can be predi- 
cated; and it frequently happens that the unit 
or measure is not taken in the thing or pro- 
perty which is the immediate subject of con- 
sideration, but in something else which de- 
pends on it, or is proportional to it. Angular 
space, for example, is measured by an arc of a 
circle ; time, by the rotation of the earth upon 
its axis, or its revolution around the sun ; force. 



WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 



WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 



by the quantity of motion it impresses on a 
body; degrees of heat, by the expansion of 
metals or other substances ; muscular strength, 
by the resistance of a spring. See Dtnamo- 
METER, SrnENGTH, Thehmometer, &c. 

By measure, in an absolute sense, is under- 
stood the unit, or standard, by which we mea- 
sure extension. We have, therefore, measures 
of length, of superficies, and of volume or ca- 
pacity; but, as the two latter may be deduced 
in all cases from the former, it is only neces- 
sary to establish a unit, or standard of length. 
The choice of such a standard, and the differ- 
ent multiples and parts of it taken for the uses 
of society, form a metrical system, or system 
of metrology. 

As no precise notion can be formed of the 
magnitude of a line in any other way than by 
comparing it with another line of a known 
length, (he necessity of having recourse, for 
the interchange of ideas, to measures not en- 
tirely arbitrary, but fixed by nature and intel- 
ligible alike to all mankind, seem to have been 
perceived in the earliest ages. Hence origi- 
nated the foot, the cubit, or length of the arm 
from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger ; 
the ulna, arm, or yard; the span; the digit, or 
finger; the palm; the fathom, or space from 
the extremity of one hand to that of the other. 



when they are both extended in opposite direc- 
tions ; the pace, the barley-corn, the hair's 
breadth, and other denominations of measure 
taken from parts of the human body, or from 
natural objects, which, though not of an abso- 
lute and invariable length, have a certain mean 
value sufficiently definite to answer all the pur- 
poses required in a rude state of society. But 
as civilization advanced, the necessity of adopt- 
ing more precise standards would be felt, and 
the inadequacy of such measure as the foot, 
the cubit, &c. (referred only to the human 
body), to convey accurate notions, would be 
rendered most apparent in their application to 
itinerary measures, or the estimation of great 
distances. 

English System of Lineal Measures. — The unit 
of lineal measure in England is the yard, all 
other denominations being either multiples, or 
aliquot parts of the yard. The yard is divided 
into 3 feet, and the foot subdivided into 12 
Inches. The multiples of the yard are the pole 
or perch, the furlong, and the mile ; 5^ yards 
being a pole, 40 poles a furlong, and 8 furlongs 
a mile. But the pole and furlong are now 
scarcely ever used, itinerary distances being 
reckoned in miles and yards. 

The relations of these different denomina- 
tions are exhibited in the following table : — 



I.iches. 


Feet. 


Yards. 


Poles. 


Furlon?3. 


Miles. 


1 

12 
36 

\98 
7920 
63360 


0083 
1 
3 

16-5 
660 
5280 


0-028 
0-333 
1 

5-5 
220 
1760 


000505 
006060 
01818 
1 
40 
320 


000126-26 
0-00151515 
0-004545 
0-025 

1 
8 


0-0000157828 

0-00016939 

0-00056818 

0003125 

0125 

1 



Of the different measures of length used in 
European countries, the foot is the most uni- 
versally prevalent. We subjoin the relation 
between the fool of different countries and the 
English foot. 

English fiiot. 

Russian foot - - . - 1- 

Paris foot ----- 1 065765 

I'russian and Danish foot - 1-029722 

Ravarian foot - - - - 0-957561 

Hanoverian foot - - - 0958333 

- Saxon foot - - - - 0929118 

Austrian foot - - - - 1-037128 

See Foot, League, Mile, &c. 



Measures of Superficies. — In square measure 
the yard is subdivided, as in general measure, 
into feet and inches; 144 square inches being 
equal to a square foot, and 9 square feet to a 
square yard. For land measure the multiples 
of the yard are the pole, the rood, and the acre ; 
30^ (the square of 5^) square yards being a pole, 
40 poles a rood, and 4 roods an acre. (See 
AciiE.) Ver}' large surfaces, as of whole coun- 
tries, are expressed in square miles. 

The following are the relations of square 
measure : — 



Squire Feet. 


Squire Tirds, 


Pnlos. 


Roods. 


Acres. 


1 

9 
272 25 

1(1890 
43.i60 


OlUl 

! 
30.25 
1210 
4840 


0-00367309 
0-03305798 
1 
40 
160 


0-000091827 
0-000826448 
0025 

1 
4 


0-000022057 

0-000206612 

0-00625 

0-25 

1 



Land is usually measured by a chain of 4 
poles or 22 yards, which is divided into 100 
links. Three chains in length and one in 
breadth make an acre, which equals 169 square 
perches, or 4840 square yards. 

Land Measure. 





Una 


Englisb 


No. equal to 


Countnes. 




Square 


10 En;Msh 






Yard. 


Acre,". 

10000 


England 


Acre 


4840 


Scotland 


— - 


6150 


7860 


j Ireland - 


— - 


7840 


6173 


1 France - 


Hectare 


11960 


4046 


Prussia - 


Morgen - 


3053 


15853 


Hainliurff 


— 


11545 


4192 


Amsterdam - 


— 


9729 


4978 


j Dantzic - 


— 


6650 


7278 



Square, or Superficial Measure. 

144 square inches = 1 square foot. 

9 — feet = 1 — yard. 

30j — yards = 1 — rod. 

40 — rods = 1 — acre. 

640 — acres — 1 — mile. 

Measures of Volume. — Solids are measured by 
cubic yards, feet, and inches; 172S cubic 
inches making a cubic foot, and 27 cubic feet 
a cubic yard. For all sorts of liquids, corn, 
and other dry goods, the standard measure is 
declared by the act of 1824 to be the imperial 
gallon, the capacity of which is determined im- 
mediately by weight, and remotely by tha 
standard of length. See Gallon. 

The parts of the gallon are quarts and pirns, 
2 pints being a quart, and 4 quarts a gallon. 

1123 



WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 

Its multiples are the peck, the bushel, and the 
quarter ; the peck being 2 gallons, the bushel 
4 pecks, and the quarter 8 bushels. The fol- 
lowing are the rotations : — 



Pints. 


.Quarts. 


Gallona. 


Pecks. 


Bushels. 


Quarters. 


1 


0-5 


0125 


00621 


015625 


0001953125 


if 


1 


0-25 


0125 


003125 


000390625 


8 


5 


1 


0-5 


0125 


015625 


16 


8 


2 


1 


0-25 


003125 


64 


32 


8 


4 


1 


0125 


1512 


256 


46 


32 


8 


1 



Cubic or Solid Measure. 

1 cubic foot. 
1 cubic yard. 

1 load. 



1728 cubic inches make 
27 cubic feet 
40 feet of rough timber") 
50 feet of hewn timber / 



WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 

whereof 20 make an ounce, 12 ounces a pound, 
and so upwards. 

Tables of Weights and Measures according to the 
Imperial Standard. 



Avoirdupois Weight. 

1 drachm =:: 

16 drachms 1 ounce = 

16 ounces 1 pound — 
28 pounds 1 f]uartercwt.= 

4 quarters 1 cwt. = 

20 cwt. 1 ton. =: 



French grammes. 

1-771 

28-346 

453544 

12 699 kilogram. 

50-796 

1015-920 



I 



This comprehends length, breadth, and thick- 
ness. 

And 108 solid feet, that is, 12 feet in length, 
3 feet in breadth, and 3 feet deep, or commonly 
14 feet long, 3 feet 1 inch broad, and 3 feet 1 
inch deep, are a stack of wood. 

And 128 solid feet, that is, 8 feet long, 4 feet 
broad, and 4 feet deep, are a cord of wood. 

Grain Measures. 



Countries. 


Bushels. 


No. of equal 
to English 
Quarters. 


Name nf 
Measure. 


Ensland 


1000 


8800 




Scotland 


1022 


7827 




France 


4427 


- 1807 


Seticr. 


Holland 


3157 


2534 


Mudde. 


Prussia 


1479 


5409 


Scheffel. 


Spain - - - 


1599 


5003 


Fanaea. 


Poland 


1451 


5513 


Korzee. 



(Loudon^ s Encyc. of Jigr. p. 20.) 
English Corn Measures. 
4 gills = 1 pint = 34f cubic in. 

2 pints = 1 quart = 69i 

4 quarts = 1 gallon = 277^ 
2 gallons = 1 peck = 544^ 

8 gallons = 1 bushel = 2218^ 
8 bushels = 1 quarter = loj cubic ft. 
Squatters = 1 load = 51^ 

See Bushel, Peck, Quarter. 

The Winchester quarter is more than the 
Imperial quarter, being in the proportion of 1 
to 0-96945. The English Imperial quarter, in 
estimating weight, means the^ of a ton of 2240 
lbs. = 560 lbs. or 1 quarter. 

English Measures of Wood and olher Fuel. — 
Cord-wood, being the' bigger sort of fire-wood, 
is measured by a cord or line, whereof there 
are two measures; that of 14 feet in length, 3 
feet in breadth, and 3 feet in height. The other 
is 8 feet in length, 4 feet in height, and 4 feet 
m breadth. This last is generally adopted in 
the United States. 

Weights.— Weights are used to ascertain 
the gravity of bodies, a quality depending part- 
ly on their magnitude and partly on their den- 
sity. The determination of the gravity or 
weight of different bodies supposes the in- 
vention of the balance. Nothing is known of 
the steps which led to its introduction; but it 
was used in the remotest antiquity. Weights 
have frequently been derived from grains of 
corn. Hence in England, and in some other 
European countries, the lowest denomination 
of weight is a grain ■ and 32 of these grains are 
directed, by the ancient statute, called Cotnposi- 
tw Mensurarum, to compose a pennyweight, 



In England the stone is generally 14 lbs. 
avoirdupois weight, but for butchers' meat or 
fish It IS 8 lbs. Hence the cwt. equals 8 stone 
of 14 lbs., or 14 stone of 8 lbs. 

Hay and straw are. sold by the load of 36 
trusses. See Hat and Tnuss. 

The custom of allowing more than 16 ounces 
to the pound of butter used to be very general 
in several parts of England. 

Wool Weight.— Like^aW oiher bulky articles, 
wool IS weighed by avoirdupois weight, but the 
divisions differ thus, 

7 pounds =: 

2 cloves r= 

2 stone r= 

6J lods = 

2 weys = 

12 sacks =z 

Cheese and butter. 



1 clove. 
1 stone. 
1 tod. 
1 wey. 
1 sack. 
I last. 



8 pounds 
32 cloves 
42 cloves 
56 pounds 



1 clove. 

1 wey in Essex. 
1 wey in Suffolk. 
1 firkin of butter. 



Miscellaneous Information relative to Wei<>-hts 
and Measures.— Specific gravity is determined 
by weighing the substance first in air, and then 
in water at the temperature of 60° Fahrenheit. 
In the latter case the substance loses of its 
weight a quantity precisely equal to the weight 
of Its own bulk of water. The total weight in 
air is then divided by the loss of weight in water, 
and the quotient is the specific gravity. This' 
IS either over or under that of pure water, 
which is the standard of comparison. The' 
Standard of weights is, the cubic inch of dis- 
tilled water, weighing 2.53-458 Troy grains; 
the Troy pound. 5760 grains, or 22-8157 inches! 
The same standard of 7000 Troy grains makes 
the pound avoirdupois, 27-7274 cubic inches; 
10 of which, or 277-274, being the imperial 
gallon, or a quart 69-33; and a gill of 5 ounces 
of water, equal to 8-664. 

The specific gravity of water being 1-000, 
that of alcohol, pure, is 0-829; beer, 1-0.34- 
cider, 1-018; milk, 1-032; linseed oil, 0-94- 
vinegar, 1-025; sea-water, 1-026; ox bone' 
1-666; brass, 7-824; brick, 2-; cork, 0-24- gold' 
19-2587; granite, 2-728; bar-iron, 7-68;' lead,' 
11-352; lignum vitas, 1-33; mahogany, 1-06; 
marble, 2-716; mercury, 13-58; oak, 1-17- 
platina, 20-722; silver, 10-474; clay-slat'e, 2-67- 
tin, 10-717; limestone, 1-.386; elm, 0-671 ; ho- 
ney, 1-45. (Treasury of Knoivledge.) 

A cubic foot of loose earth or sand weighs 
95 lbs. 
A cubic ft. of common soil weighs 124 lbs. 



II 



strong soil, 
clay, 

mason's work 
distilled water, 
cast-iron, 
steel. 



127 

135 « 
205 « 
62-5 « 
450-45 « 
489-8 « 



J 



WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 



WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 



A cubic ft. of lead, weighs 709-5 lbs. 

" " platina, " 1,218-75 " 

« " copper, « 486-75 " 

« " cork, " 15 " 

" '• tallow, " 59 " 

" " oak, " 73-15 " 

" " brick, " 125 " 

" air, " -0753" 

The American quintal is 100 lbs. The ton 
2240 lbs. 

The weight of a cubic inch of distilled wa- 
ter, in a vacuum, is 252-722 grains, and in air, 
is 252-458 grains. 

The Turkish pound is 7578 grains ; the 
Danish, 6941 ; the Irish, 7774 ; the Neapolitan, 
4952 ; the Scotch pound Troy, 7620-8. 

The imperial gallon contains 10 lbs. avoir- 
dupois of distilled water, weighed in air at 62°, 
with the barometer at 30 inches. Two gallons 
are equal to a peck, 8 gallons to a bushel, 
and 8 bushels to a quarter. 

Heaped measure, per bushel, is 2815^ cubic 
inches clear. 

The Winchester bushel is 18^ inches in dia- 
meter, and 8 inches deep, containing 2154-42 
cubic inches. 

1000 ounces of rain-water are equal to about 
7^ gallons wine measure, or to a cubic foot. 

Seven lbs. avoirdupois is a gallon of flour. 

A chaldron of coals is 58-f cubic feet. 

Twelve wine gallons of distilled water weigh 
100 lbs. avoirdupois. 

The imperial dry bushel, when not heaped, 
is 2218-192 cubic inches; the peck, 554-548; 
gallon, 277-274, and quart, 69-3185. The bu- 
shel is 8 inches deep, and 18-8 wide, with a 
heap 6 inches high. 

A bushel of wheat is 60 lbs.; rye, 53 lbs.; 
barley, 47 lbs. ; oats, 38 ; peas, 64 ; beans, 63 ; 
clover-seed, 68 ; rape, 48 lbs. 

A Scotch pint is equal to 4 English pints. 

A Scotch quart is 208-6 cubic inches. 

There are 545,267,000 cubic yards in a cu- 
bic mile. 

According to usage in Philadelphia and other 
parts of the United States, building-stone, when 
piled, or "perched," as it is usually termed, is 
measured by allowing 25 cubic feet to the 
perch. But when placed in the wall, only 22 
feel are allowed to the perch. In measuring 
stone wall, 14 inches of thickness is usually 
allowed. When the thickness of the wall ex- 
ceeds 14 inches, the extra thickness is estimated 
and made an additional charge. This is the 
common rule when the walls have onl}- one 
face. In double-faced walls, there is common- 
ly an allowance of about one-third more. Three 
pecks of good lime will generally suffice to lay 
one perch of stone wall. About 2 one-horse 
loads of sand are allowed to make mortar for 
3 perches of stone wall. 

To convert cubic feet into perches, divide 
by 25 ; or, what is still more easy, multiply 
by -04. 

In brick-work, 14 bricks are usually allowed 
to the cubic foot: sometimes only 13 are al- 
lowed. To convert cubic feet into cubic yards, 
livide by 3, and the product by 9. 

Lumber Measure. — In estimating the number 
'f feet in a board, the length in feet is to be 
mult; plied by the width in inches, and the re- 



sult, divided by 12, shows the contents in feet. 
When boards are more than 1 inch thick, all 
over is added. A board 12 feet long and IJ 
inch thick, would of course be estimated to 
contain one-fourth more than a board only 1 
inch thick. 

A bill passed by the legislature of Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1833, for the regulation of weights and 
measures in the state, provides for procuring 
and preserving standards, which are to con- 
form to those of the United States, when esta- 
blished; the linear standard to be the yard, with 
the customary multiples allowed. 

Superficial Measure. — Acre defined to be 4840 
sq. yards. 

Capacity Measures. — Wine gallon 231 cubic 
inches. Beer gallon 282 cubic inches. Bushel 
2150-42 cubic inches. Lime bushel 13^ inches 
diameter at bottom, 15 inches at top, and 13-47 
inches deep. A cord of wood to contain 128 
cubic feet. A hogshead of cider 110 wine 
gallons. 

Weights. — Troy pound to be equal to that of 
the United States mint, and the avoirdupois 
pound to bear to it the ratio of 7000 to 576 

60 lbs. of wheat to pass for a bushel. 

58 — rye. 

58 — corn. 

48 — buckwheat. 

47 — barley. 

32 — oats. 

85 — coarse salt (foreign). 

70 — ground salt. 

62 — fine. 

80 — anthracite coal, 112 lbs. to make 1 
cwt., and 2240 lbs. = 1 ton. 

If the square of the diameter of a circle be 
multiplied by -7854, the product is the area. 
If the diameter of a sphere be cubed and mul- 
tiplied by -6236, the product is the solidity ; and 
the square of the diameter, multiplied by 
3-14159, is the surface of the sphere. 

To find the contents of a cask, add double 
the square of the bung diameter to the square 
of the head diameter, and multiply this sum by 
the head of the cask ; then divide the product 
by 1077 for ale gallons of 280 cubic inches 
each, or by 882 for wine gallons of 231 cubic 
inches each. 

Method of ascertaining the Weight of Cattle 
vjhile living. — This is of the utmost utility for 
all those who are not experienced judges by 
the eye, and, by the following directions, the 
weight can be ascertained within a mere trifle. 
Under the head Cattle we have already given 
a useful table on this subject; but the annexed 
rules will be found of service. Take a string, 
put it round the beast, standing square, just 
behind the shoulder-blade; measure on a foot- 
rule the feet and inches the animal is in cir- 
cumference, this is called the girth ; then with 
the string measure from the bone of the tail, 
which plumbs the line with the hinder part of 
the buttock ; direct the line along the back to 
the fore-part of the shoulder-blade ; take the 
dimensions of the foot-rule, as before, which is 
the length, and work the figures in the follow- 
ing manner ; — Girth oi the bullock, 6 feet 4 
i inches ; length, 5 feet 3 inches ; which, multi- 
plied together, make 31 square superficial feet; 
that again, multiplied by 23 (the number of 

1125 



WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 



WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 



pounds allowed to each superficial foot of all 
cattle measuring less than 7 and more than 5 
feet in girth), makes 713 lbs.; and allowing 14 
lbs. to the stone, is .50 stone 13 lbs. ; and where 
the animal measures less than 9 and more than 
7 feet in girth, 31 is the number of pounds to 
each foot. Again, supposing a pig or any 
small beast should measure 2 feet in girth, and 
2 feet along the back, which, multiplied to- 
gether, make 4 square feet, that multiplied by 
11, the number of pounds allowed for each 
square foot of cattle measuring less than 3 in 
girth, makes 44 lbs. ; which, divided by 14, to 
bring it to stones, is 3 stones 2 lbs. Again, 
suppose a calf, sheep, &c., should measure 4 
feet 6 inches in girth, and 3 feet 9 inches in 
length, which, multiplied together, makes 16^ 
square feet; that multiplied by 16, the number 
of pounds allowed to all cattle measuring less 
than 5 feet and more than 3 in girth, makes 
264 lbs. ; which, divided by 14, to bring it to 
stones, is 18 stones 12 lbs. The dimensions 
of the girth and length of black cattle, sheep, 
calves, or hogs, may be as exactly taken this 
way as it is at all necessary for any computa- 
tion or valuation of stock, and will answer ex- 
actly to the four quarters, sinking the offal, and 
Avhich every man who can get even a bit of 
chalk may easily perform. A deduction must 
be made for a half-fatted beast of 1 stone in 20 
from that of a fat one, and for a cow that has 
had calves, 1 stone must be allowed, and an- 
other for not being properly fat. 

The last act of Parliament on the subject of 
weights and measures, is the 5 & 6 W. 4, c. 63, 
which contains some important provisions. It 
abolishes all local or customary measures 
under a penalty of 40«. for every sale made by 
them; it prohibits the mischievous practice of 
selling by heaped measure; it enacts that coals 
shall in all cases be sold by weight; that with 
the exception of the precious metals, jewels, 
and drugs, all other articles sold by weight 
shall be sold by avoirdupois weight only ; and 
that a stone shall in all cases consist of 14 lbs. 
avoirdupois ; a hundred weight of eight such 
stones, &c. Lead and pewter weights are not 
to be stamped. It enacts that the Winchester 
bushel, the Scotch ell, and all local or customary 
measures shalt be abolished ; and every person 
who shall sell by any measure other than one 
of the imperial measures, or some multiple or 
aliquot part thereof, shall be liable to a penalty 
not exceeding 40s. for every such sale. That 
the use of heaped measure shall be abolished, 
and all bargains, sales, and contracts made 
after the passing of this act, by heaped mea- 
sure, shall be null and void. 

Articles sold by heaped Measure, hoiv to be sold. 
— Whereas some articles heretofore sold by 
heaped measure are incapable of being stricken, 
and may not be conveniently sold by weight; 
it is enacted, that all such articles may hence- 
forth be sold by a bushel measure, correspond- 
ing in shape with the bushel prescribed by the 
5 G. 4, c. 74, for the sale of heaped measure, 
or by any multiple or aliquot part thereof, filled 
in all parts as nearly to the level of the brim 
as the size and shape of the articles will ad- 
mit; but nothina: herein shall prevent the sale 
1126 



by weight of any article heretofore sold by 
heaped measure. 

All coals, slack, culm, and cannel of every 
description shall be sold by weight and not by 
measure. 

All articles sold by weight shall be sold by 
avoirdupois weight, except gold, silver, platina, 
diamonds, or other precious stones, which may 
be sold by Troy weight, and drugs, which, when 
sold by retail, may be sold by apothecaries' 
weight. 

The stone, hundred weight, ^c. — From and after 
the passing of this act, the weight denominated 
a stone shall, in all cases, consist of 14 stand- 
ard pounds avoirdupois, the hundred weight of 
8 such stones, and the ton of 20 such hundred 
weights ; but nothing herein shall prevent any 
bargain, sale, or contract being made by any 
multiple or aliquot pain of the pound weight. 

Fiar prices. — In Scotland, from and after the 
passing of this act, the fiar prices of all grain 
in every county shall be struck by the imperial 
quarter, and all other returns of the prices of 
grain shall be set forth by the same, without 
any reference to any other measure whatso- 
ever; and any sheriff-clerk, clerk of a market, 
or other person offending against this provision 
shall forfeit not exceeding 5/. See Fiar. 

Penalty on price lists, ^-c. — From and after the 
1st of January, 1836, any person printing, or 
clerk of any market or other person making 
any return, price list, price current, or any 
journal or other paper containing; price list or 
price current, in which the weights and mea- 
sures quoted or referred to denote or imply a 
greater or less weight or measure than is de- 
noted or implied by the same denomination of 
imperial weights and measures under the pro- 
visions of this act, shall forfeit and pay not ex- 
ceeding 10s. for every copy of every such return, 
price list, price current, journal, or other paper 
which they publish. {Brande's Diet, of Science; 
M'Culloch's Com. Diet.) 

The following observations relative to the 
weights and measures of the United States are 
derived from a correspondent of the Farmer's 
Cabinet. 

The subject of establishing by the Congress 
of the United States a uniform standard of 
weights and measures for the whole confede- 
racy, is a matter of great importance to the 
agricultural and commercial interests. Most 
of the states, perhaps all, have legislated on 
this very interesting, important, and difficult 
subject, and it is obvious, from the results of 
their disjointed labours, that there is still room 
for the exercise of the skill, judgment, and 
science of the most learned men in the nation, 
to reduce the chaos to order, and to prepare a 
uniform system, founded on scientific princi- 
ples, for the use of the whole nation. Much 
confusion and loss must be sustained by the 
great discrepancies which exist in the weights 
and measures in use in the different states 
which are in habits of constant commercial 
intercouse. 

On an examination of the learned and able 
report made by John Quincy Adams to the 
Senate of the United States in 1821, and that 
made by F. R. Hassler to the same body in 



WELD. 



WELD. 



1832, on this subject, it does not appear that 
the bushel in any two stales contains the same 
number of cubic inches, and some of them 
differ materially from each other ; the weights 
also are variant, and the measures do not al- 
ways correspond with each other. In Penn- 
sylvania the Winchester bushel, 18-5 inches in 
diameter and 8 inches deep, and containing 
2150"42 cubic inches, is understood to be the 
standard dry measure; one-eighth of this, or 
268-8 inches, is a gallon, and 67-2 cubic inches 
the quart, dry measure. The ale gallon is 282 
cubic inches, and the quart 70*5 inches; and 
this is understood to be the quart by which dry 
articles are measured. The wine gallon, which 
is also the measure of all spirituous liquors, 
contains 231 cubic inches, and the quart 57*75 
inches. 'J'he reason for these differences is not 
sufficiently apparent to be recognised by any 
person of ordinary understanding, but they are 
calculated to produce much embarrassment, 
and not a little fraud, for there are always per- 
sons who are disposed to sell by the smaller 
rather than the larger measure. In England, 
whence we obtained all our standards of 
weights and measures, a better system has of 
late years been adopted, by which the pint, 
quart, and gallon, for wine, ale, beer, and grain 
or corn, measure the same with regard to mag- 
nitude ; 8 of these gallons make one bushel; 
and one gallon contains 277-274 cubical inches, 
or 10 pounds of distilled water at a tempera- 
ture of 62 degrees ; and the imperial bushel 
2218-192 cubic inches, or 80 pounds of water 
at 62 degrees. 

From the above it appears that the English 
bushel at present in use contains 67-772 cubic 
inches more than the standard bushel of Penn- 
sylvania. 

WELD (Reseda luleola). The dyer's weed, 
yellow rocket, or yellow weed, is in England 
an indigenous annual plant, growing in waste 
ground, especially on a chalky soil, as well as 
in fallow fields, and on walls. The root is 
tapering. The stem wand-like, striated, leafy, 
somewhat branched, smooth, like the rest of 
the herb; 2 or 3 feet high. The leaves are 
sessile, of a darkish green, linear-lanceolate, 
obtuse, entire, single-ribbed. The flowers are 
in tertninal clusters, erect, many-flowered, 
dense, pointed. The flowers themselves, which 
blow in July, are small, greenish-white, with- 
out much scent. Weld is cultivated for the 
sake of its stalks, flowers, and leaves, which 
are employed for dyeing wool and other sub- 
stances yellow, or, mixed with indigo, green. 
The whole plant is fetid when bruised. When 
it has attained maturity, which is about the 
time of flowering, it is pulled, and made into 
bundles and dried, in which state it is used as 
a dye-stuff. Weld is preferred to all other sub- 
stances for giving the lively green lemon-yel- 
low: but, to render the yellow permanent, the 
wool must be previously prepared with a mor- 
dant of alum and tartar. Being an exhaust- 
ing crop, and liable to failure from many 
causes, the cultivation of the dyer's rocket is 
only partially carried on in Essex and a few 
other places in England. 

Weld will grow on any soil, but fertile loams 
produce the best crops. Loudon gives the fol- 



lowing directions for sowing and managing 
weld. 

The soil being brought to a fine tilth, the seed 
is sown in April or the beginning of May, ge- 
nerally broadcast. The quantity of seed is from 
two quarts to a gallon per acre, and it should 
either be fresh, or, if two or three years old, 
steeped a few days in water previously to being 
sown. Being a biennial, and no advantage ob- 
tained from it the first year, it is sometimes 
sown with corn crops in the manner of clover, 
which, when the soil is in a very rich state, 
may answer, provided also, that hoeing, weed- 
ing, and stirring take place as soon as the corn 
crop is cut. The best crops, however, will 
obviously be the result of drilling and culti- 
vating the crop alone. The drills may be a 
foot asunder, and the plants thinned to 6 inches 
in the row. In the broadcast mode it is usual 
to thin them to 6 or 8 inches distance every 
way; often, when weld succeeds corn crops, it 
is never either thinned, weeded, or hoed, but 
left to itself till the plants are in full blossom. 

The crop is taken by pulling up the entire 
plant, and the proper period for this purpose 
is when the bloom has been produced the whole 
length of the stems, and the plants are just be- 
ginning to turn of a light or yellowish colour ; 
as in the beginning or middle of July in the 
second year. The plants are usually from 1 to 
21 feet in height. It is thought by some ad- 
vantageous to pull it rather early, without wait- 
ing for the ripening of the seeds, as by this 
means there will not only be the greatest, pro- 
portion of dye, but the land will be left at 
liberty for the reception of a crop of wheat or 
turnips ; but in this case a small part must be 
left solely for the purpose of seed. In the exe- 
cution of the work, the plants are drawn up by 
the roots in small handfuls, and set up to dry 
after each handful has been tied up by one of 
the stalks, in the number of 4 together in an 
erect position against each other. Sometimes 
they, however, become sufficiently dry by turn- 
ing without being set up. After they have re- 
mained till fully dry, which is mostly effected 
in the course of a week or two, they are boundup 
into larger bundles, that contain each 60 hand- 
fuls, and which are of the weight of 56 lbs. each: 
60 of these bundles constituting a load. These 
last, in places where this kind of crop is much 
grown, are tied up by a string made for the 
purpose, and sold under the title of weld cord. 

The produce ofivcld depends much on the na- 
ture of the season ; but from half a load to a 
load and a half is the quantity most commonly 
afforded, which is usually sold to the dyers at 
from 5/. or &l. to 10/. or 12/. the load, and 
sometimes considerably more. It is mostly 
bought by persons who afterwards dispose of 
it to the dyers occasionally as they find it con- 
venient. The demand for it is sometimes very 
little, while at others it is so great as to raise 
the price to a high degree. It is sometimes 
gathered green, and treated like woad or in- 
digo ; but in general the dried herb is used by 
the dyers in a state of decoction. 

The use of weld in dyeing is for giving a yel- 
low colour to cotton, woollen, mohair, silk, and 
linen. Blue cloths are dipped in a decoction 
of it, which renders them green ; and the ye] 

1127 



WELL. 



WHEAT. 



-ow colour of the paint called Dutch pink is 
obtained t.om weld. 

To save seed, select a few of the largest and 
healthiest plants, and leave them to ripen. The 
seed is easily separated. 

The chief disease of weld is the mildew, to 
which it is very liable when young, and this 
is one reason that it is often sown with other 
crops. 

WELL (Sax.). A term sometimes applied 
to a chimney or vent-hole left in a rick or mow 
of hay, or other similar materials, to prevent 
its overheating. 

WHEAT (Tritirum). This is undoubtedly 
the most important genus of the order Granii- 
necB : for wheat is that species of grain which 
is more generally cultivated than any other, 
and, from the universal demand and high price 
it obtains, best repays the European farmer's 
toil and outlay. 

The flour of wheat is the most nutritious and 
palatable of all the cereal grasses used as the 
food of man. Linnaeus comprehended all the 
different varieties of wheat known in his day 
under six species ; but modern botanists enu- 
merate about 30 species, and some hundreds 
of sub-varieties brought into existence by con- 
tinued cultivation. It has been well observed 
that for mere practical purposes it is sufficient 
to have two general classes, namely, white and 
red, and the varieties distinguished by their 
spikelets, as the smooth or bearded, the woody- 
chaffed or the hairy-chaffed. There are some 
varieties characterized, also, as spring or win- 
ter (Lammas) wheats, though these are fre- 
quently apt to lose their distinguishing charac- 
ters, and to accommodate their habits to the 
season in which they are sown. 

"It is to be presumed," says Colonel le Cou- 
teur, "trom the passage 'In the sweat of thy 
face shalt thou eat bread,' {Gen. iii. 19), that 
wheat was coeval with the creation ; and that 
upwards of a thousand years before the Chris- 
tian era, some improvement in its culture and 
some knowledge of a superior variety had been 
attained, by the circumstance of its being stated 
that ' Judah traded in wheat oiMinnith' " {Ezck. 
xxvii. 7.) 

Columella, who wrote about the time of our 
Lord, makes some interesting remarks on 
wheat: — 

"The chief and the most profitable corns for 
men," he observes, "are common wheat and 
bearded wheat. We have known several kinds 
of wheat ; but of these we must chiefly sow 
what is called the red wheat, because it excels 
both in weight and brightness. 

" The white wheat must be placed in the 
second rank, of which the best sort in bread is 
deficient in weight. 

"The trimestrian shall be the third, which 
husbandmen are mighty glad to make use of; 
for when, by reason of great rains or any other 
cause, the early sowing has been omitted, they 
have recourse to this for relief; it is a kind of 
white wheat." Pliny says that " this is the 
most delicious and the daintiest of any sort of 
wheat, exceeding white, but without much sub- 
stance or strength, only proper for moist tracts 
of land, such as those of Italy, and some parts 
of Gaul ; that ii ripens equally, and that there 
1128 



is no sort of corn that suffers delay less, be- 
cause it is so tender that such ears of it that 
are ripe presently shed their grains ; but in the 
stalk it is less in danger than any other corn, 
for it holds its ear always upright, and does 
not contain the dews which occasion blasting 
and mildew." (This description of Pliny's 
seems to accord with the spring wheat of the 
present day, which, be it remembered, came to 
us from Spain.) 

"The other sorts of wheat are altogether su- 
perfluous," continues Pliny, " unless any man 
has a mind to indulge a manifold variety, and 
a vainglorious fancy. But, of bearded wheat, 
we have commonly seen four sorts in use ; 
namely, that which is called clusinian, of a 
shining bright white colour; a bearded wheat, 
which is called venuculum ; one sort of it is of 
a fiery red colour, and another sort of it is 
white, but they are both heavier than the clusi- 
nian. The trimestrian, or that of 3 months' 
growth, which is called halicastrum ; and this 
is the chief, both for its weight and goodness. 
But these sorts, both of ordinary common 
wheat and of bearded wheat, must, for these 
reasons, be kept by husbandmen; because it 
rarely happens that any land is so situated that 
we can content ourselves with one sort of seed, 
some part of it happening, contrary to our ex- 
pectation, to be wet or dry. But common 
wheat thrives best in a dry place, and bearded 
wheat is Jess affected by moisture." 

Hence it appears that Romans -were aware 
of the propriety of selecting their wheat, and 
that it was then believed that winter or beard- 
less wheat was best suited to dry uplands, and 
bearded wheat to low or moist lands. In addi- 
tion to the winter wheats, some of which he 
states to be bearded, he distinctly alludes to the 
trimestrian or spring wheat, of which I shall 
speak hereafter. In the edition of Gerard's 
Herbal, printed in London in 1660, only 5 kinds 
of wheat are enumerated ; and, although this 
was the leading botanical work of the day, 
these are most indistinctly described. 

Modern writers generally are equally vague ; 
they merely designate a number of varieties ; 
but no attempt appears to have been made to 
class them correctly, or to ascertain their rela- 
tive values by comparison. 

In Sinclair's Hortus Gramineus Wobnriiensis, 42 
of the cultivated varieties are enumerated as 
winter or spring wheats, according to the ar- 
rangement of LinnsGus, which this illustrious 
writer has merely given as a sort of botanical 
classification. 

The Maison Rustique for 1835, enumerates 39 
varieties ; and, although a short notice is given 
of them, it is by no means sufficient, as their 
farinaceous qualities are not explained. Mr. 
Paxton, in his Botanical Dictionary, enumerates 
25 distinct species, besides several varieties. 

A classification of wheat is much required, 
pointing out the relative value of varieties, in 
their quantity of meal, the weight of bran and 
pollards, with the weight of straw of each, and 
their adaptation to soils. That this is a deside- 
ratum no one, I imagine, will deny ; but that it 
requires time, attention, and perseverance, to 
make such discoveries, will also be conceded, 
when it is stated that I already possess up- 



I 

I 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



wards of 150 varieties or sub-varieties. (Le 
Couteur on Wheat.') 

The most popular description of the different 
species of wheat which admit of cultivation 
for their seed is that given by Professor Low, 
in his work on the Elements of ^jlgricultive, and 
I shall therefore avail myself of his scientific 
description. 

Specific character. — The calyx of wheat con- 
sists of 2 valves or glumes, enclosing several 
florets. In each of these florets there are 2 
valves, forming the corolla, and enclosing the 
seed. Sometimes the corolla encloses a per- 
fect seed, and sometimes the seed is not per- 
fected. Each calyx, with the florets which it 
encloses, is termed a spikelet. The part to 
which the spikelets are attached is termed the 
rachis or shaft, and the spikelets placed one 
above the other, on each side of the rachis, 
form the ear or head. The rachis is jointed, 
and the spaces between the joints are termed 
the internodii. 

Species. — 1. Spring or summer wheat (T. cesti- 
vum) PI. 2, a, has awns both on the calyx and 
corolla. Each spikelet has usually 5 florets, 
of which 2 are barren. The grain is too ten- 
der to bear the frosts of the winter, but as 
quick in progress from its first shoot to ripe- 
ness as barley, oats, or any other spring corn. 
It requires a shorter period to complete its ve- 
getation than any of the other kinds. Summer 
wheat is the prevailing species of warmer 
countries, and is cultivated in many parts of 
Europe. It is much used in France, where it 
is called ble de Mars, from the season in which 
it is usually sown, and in some provinces bleds 
trcntois, from the time it takes between seed- 
time and harvest. In Spanish it is called trigo 
de murgo ; in Portuguese trigo tremes ; and in 
German sommer ivaitzen, all which names mark 
distinctly the difference between this and win- 
ter corn. It does not appear from the older 
books on husbandry, that it was at any period 
much cultivated in England ; the more modern 
ones are, in general, silent on the subject of it; 
they mention, indeed, under the name of spring 
wheat, every kind of winter wheat which will 
ripen when sown after turnips in February. 
This is probably the reason why the real spring 
wheat has been so little known ; agriculturists 
in general conceiving themselves to be actually 
in the habit of sowing spring wheat, when, in 
reality, they were substituting winter wheat in 
its place, have been little inclined to inquire 
into the properties of the true spring wheat 
when they had an opportunity of so doing. 

Its grains are, for the most part, small, and 
the produce of the straw is less than that of 
some other species, when cultivated under the 
same circumstances. Professor Low says, that 
" the trials which have been made with it in 
this country have shown it to be inferior in 
productiveness and quality to the better kinds 
of winter wheat. The advantage which it pos- 
sesses is the earlier period of its ripening, on 
which account it may be sown so late, even in 
this climate, as the beginning of May." The 
Board of Agriculture being desirous of bring- 
ing spring wheat into general cultivation, in 
1805 offered large premiums to those who 
should, in the spring of that year, sow the 
142 



greatest quantity of land with spring wheat. 
In one of the communications made to the 
Board, Sir Joseph Banks states that " in the 
countries best acquainted with its culture, 
spring wheat is preferred to all other corn for 
raising a crop of seeds. This is owing to the 
small quantity of leaf it bears, less, perhaps, 
than any other corn, and to the short duration 
of the leaf, which fades and falls down almost 
as soon as it has attained its full size. 

" In cases where red wheat has been da- 
maged by the wire-worm, a mischief which 
seems of late years to have increased in Great 
Britain, spring wheat appears to hold out an 
easy and simple remedy. In the first week of 
May the ravages of the worm have somewhat 
abated; if then the seed of spring wheat is at 
that time dibbled, or only raked with a garden 
rake, into the naked spots left by the worm, 
though it will not attain the growth at which 
the worm begins to prey upon it till he has 
changed his state for that of a winged beetle, 
it will certainly be ripe as soon as the winter 
wheat, and may be thrashed out and sold with 
it ; or, if it is preferred, may be reaped sepa- 
rately, as the appearance of the ears, which, in 
the Lincolnshire sort, have longer beards or 
awns than the rivet or cone wheat, will point 
it out to the reapers in such a manner that no 
great error can happen in separating it from 
the Lammas." (Com. to Board of jlgr. vol. v 
p. 181.) To the miller this mixture of grain 
can be of no consequence; but it would be 
scarcely safe to employ the produce as seed. 

From the analysis of Sir H. Davy it may be 
inferred that bread made of the flour of spring 
wheat is more nutritious than that made of 
winter wheat, because the former contains a 
larger proportion of gluten or half-animalized 
matter. He found that 



100 parts of the best Sicilian 

wiieat contained 
100 parts of spring wheat of 

1804 - - - . - 
100 parts of go(jd English 

wheat of 1803 - 
100 parts of blighted wheat of 

1804 



2. Winter, or lammas wheat (T. Lybumuvi), 
PI. 2, b, is distinguished from the last by its 
appearance, being much more vigorous in the 
stem, more erect and thick in the ear, by hav- 
ing no awns upon the calyx, and only short 
awns upon the corolla, near the suinmit of the 
spike. But the awns not being a good botani- 
cal character, many botanists have conceived 
the species to be the same. The characters, 
however, of either kind being permanent and 
remaining under given circumstances un- 
changed for an unknown period, they may be 
regarded as species. The winter wheat has 
usually 5 or 6 florets, of which 2 are barren. 

Winter wheat is that which is the most im- 
portant with relation to its cultivation in North- 
ern Europe. It is, in England, generally sown 
in autumn, or previously to the winter months, 
and ripens its seed in the following summer; 
but it is an annual plant, and may be sown in 
spring. 

5 C 1129 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



" Slight varieties of this species are exceed- 
ngly common in different localities, and are 
probably attributable to some peculiarities in 
'.he mode of culture. The common varieties 
of winter wheat are distinguished from each 
other according to the colour of the tunic en- 
\reloping the grain, and the difference observ- 
able in their chaff. The colours are usually 
divided into white and red, the latter of these 
including many different shades of brown. Red 
wheat is commonly said to be more hardy than 
white ; it is therefore thought better suited for 
cultivation in bleak and upland districts. The 
plant is, however, not so productive as the 
white, and the flour which it yields is seldom 
of so desirable a quality." {Baxter's Lib. of 
Jgr. p. 640.) 

3. Compact wheat (T. conipadtim) is allied 
to the two last-named species, and may be 
merely a variety of them. In it the internodii 
of the rachis are very short. It is partially 
produced in different parts of Europe. " I 
have received specimens of it," says Professor 
Low, " from France and Sweden, and have cul- 
tivated them without observing any change of 
characters. Whether, however, the charac- 
ters which distinguish it are sufl!iciently per- 
manent to entitle it to be regarded as a species, 
has not been determined. In the mean time, 
following the authority of Host {Icones el Des. 
Gram. Just.), I have placed it amongst the 
species." 

4. Egyptian, or many-spiked wheat (T. coni- 
positum), PI. 2, c, is distinguished from the 
others by its branched or compound spike, 
which no other species tends, under any cir- 
cumstance, to produce. Its seeds are nume- 
rous, and the produce abundant. It requires a 
good climate and a fertile soil, for in unfavour- 
able situations the branches of the spike are 
not evolved, and then it assumes the appear- 
ance of ordinary wheat. It is cultivated in 
Egypt and the east, as it is in the south of Eu- 
rope and different parts of Italy. It was known 
in Germany about 240 years ago, and in France 
it is said to have been cultivated for about 80 
years, having been brought from the east un- 
der the name of wheat of Smyrna. In England 
it has been partially cultivated as the subject 
of experiment. It is uncommonly fruitful, and 
the straw is very strong and tough, whence it 
has received the name of reed wheat. 

The grains, however, do not yield so large a 
proportion of flour or meal as any of the other 
species and their varieties, and the flour is 
scarcely superior to that obtained from the 
finest barley. Egyptian wheat will bear great 
degrees of heat and drought without harm, so 
that it is found to yield abundantly in situations 
•where other kinds would be greatly injured, if 
not destroyed; a circumstance which points it 
out as admirably adapted to the arid lands 
whereon it is chiefly cultivated. It would be 
more cultivated in England, if its form did not 
cause it to hold the wet at harvest-time, and 
hence it is very liable to be laid. 

.5. Turgid w'^heat (T. turs:id^lm), F\. 2, d. In 
this species the corolla is awned, but not the 
calyx ; the spikes are covered with soft hairs, 
and in some varieties change to a dark colour, 
and the awns drop off as the seeds become 
1130 



ripe, in which respect it differs from summer 
wheat. It is known in different localities un- 
der the several names of gray wheat, duck's 
bill wheat, gray pollard, rivet, pole rivet, cone, 
pendulum, &c. This species grows very tall, 
with a thick and rigid stem. The spikes are 
large and heavy, and nod to one side as the 
grain increases in weight. The kinds or minor 
varieties are distinguished by the farmer from 
their qualities of earlier or later ripening, and 
greater or less productiveness. One of the 
most esteemed of these is cone wheat, so named 
from the conical form of its spike. The tur- 
gid wheats are productive in corn and straw, 
but the grain is coarse and hard, and the flour 
much browner and of an inferior quality. 
They are chiefly suited to the inferior clays, 
upon which in England they are extensively 
cultivated. They are valued under such cir- 
cumstances for their productiveness in grain 
and their large growth of straw; but being in- 
ferior to the winter wheats in the quality of 
their produce, the cultivation of them is not 
likely to be extended in that country. 

6. Dark-spiked wheat (T. atratum) is allied 
to the last species, if it is not rather to be re- 
garded as a variety of it. It has merely been 
made the subject of experiment, but not of 
extended cultivation. It is not superior ia 
productiveness to the turgid wheats in com- 
mon use. 

7. Barley-like wheat (T. hordieiforme), so 
named from its peculiar form, resembling that 
of barley, seems, like that last described, to be 
derived from Africa. The florets are awned, 
and the calyx and corolla become dark as the 
seeds ripen. But it resembles the class to be 
next referred to, termed spelt-wheat. 

8. Far (T. zea) is one of the class of spelt- 
wheats. It is distinguished by the distance of 
its spikelets from one another. The straw is 
rigid; the calyx and corolla adhere closely to 
the seed, and the spikelets again so closely to 
the rachis, that they cannot be separated from 
the rachis without breaking it. This wheat is 
cultivated in some parts of Europe on inferior 
soils. 

9. Spelt-wheat (T. spclta), PI. 2,/, is distin-| 
guished like the last by its spikelets bein^ 
firmly attached to the rachis, and by its rigid' 
calyx and corolla closely enveloping the seed.' 
Spelt is much cultivated in the south of Eu- 
rope. It is grown extensively in the southern' 
provinces of France, in Switzerland, Italy, in! 
several parts of Germany, and in Arragon, 
Catalonia, and other parts of Spain, as well as' 
in the north of Africa, and at the Cape of Good 
Hope. Spelt could be raised in England with 
facility, and it is probable on soils low in the' 
scale of fertility. It has been cultivated in 
Scotland, 600 feet above the level of the sea. 
It is said that spelt-wheat is better adapted 
than any of the more delicate kinds for culture 
in Australia, and probably it will be found the 
more preferable sort in all the more southern 
wheat-growing countries. " 

There are two distinct varieties of spelt,, 
distinguished as the awned and the awnless; 
the latter is perhaps the most naked of all the 
cerealia. The grains of this are large, but the 
ear contains only a small number of them, as' 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



a portion of the flowers prove barren. It is 
generally, if not always, a spring-sown crop; 
grows strongly, and its stalks are nearly solid. 
Bread made of its flour is said to be of a dry 
quality. It is well known in commerce that 
the incomparable Nuremberg and Frankfort 
starch and flour are solely obtained from spelt- 
wheat. The grain cannot be divested of its 
husks by thrashing, and therefore requires to 
be passed through a mill. It should however 
be sown or drilled with the husks on. 

10. One-grained wheat, or St. Peter's corn 
(T.»(OMoccocMm), PI. 2,g-, is readily distinguished 
from all the other wheats by its general ap- 
pearance, in which it resembles barley. Its 
spikelet consists of three or four florets, one 
of which only is for the most part fertile, and 
hence its name of one-grained wheat. The 
fertile floret has a long awn. The stem of this 
species of wheat is slender and rigid ; and, 
from being both hard and fine, the straw is ex- 
cellent for thatching. It is allied to the spells, 
with which it was classed by some of the older 
botanical writers. This species is principally 
cultivated in the mountains of Switzerland and 
other elevated regions of Europe, and in barren 
soils. In consequence of its containing less 
gluten than common sorts, it answers better for 
being boiled into gruel and for being baked 
into bread. The four-sided form of the ripe 
ear is so regular, that it has the appearance 
of being carved in ivory. It has never formed 
an object of cultivation in this country, and 
does not appear to possess properties to entitle 
it to be introduced. 

11. Polish wheat (T. polonicum), PI. 2, e. 
This species has long awns, and is distin- 
guished from all the others by its long and 
leafy calyx and corolla. It is cultivated in 
Germany, in Poland, and in Spain. It was 
brought into notice, and partially cultivated, in 
some of the counties of England, in the latter 
part of the seventeenth century ; and it is said 
to have been valued on account of its produc- 
tiveness of flour. But, although it may be 
possessed of this quality, its florets are often 
infertile, and it does not merit a more extended 
culture in this country. Unless sown sparing- 
ly, it is apt to lodge, in consequence of which 
the quality of the corn is impaired. 

Vurielics. — The minor varieties of any spe- 
cies of wheat are not permanent in their cha- 
racter, though, under given conditions, they 
will remain unchanged for an indefinite period. 
Under other circumstances, however, they de- 
generate ; and hence particular kinds that were 
once valued have now ceased to be so. The 
best advice that can be given, therefore, in the 
choice of varieties and sub-varieties, is to select 
those which the practice and experience of the 
principal farmers of the neighbourhood have 
stamped as the best. Colonel Le Couteur, one 
of the best authorities on the culture of wheat, 
has given us the result of his experiments and 
great experience, upon four of the best pure 
and improved varieties of wheat lately intro- 
duced into England. {Joum. Roy. Eng. jlgr. 
Soc. vol. i. p. 113.) 

1. White downy. — This excellent variety is 
believed to be the same that is so well de- 
scribed by Boys in his General View of the Agri- 



culture of Kent, as the " Hoary White," or " Vel- 
vet-eared," said by him to have been much 
prized by the millers, but then entirely lost. 
The seed after being washed and steeped was 
sown in drills 7 inches apart, at the rate of two 
bushels or a little more to the acre. The wheat 
was carefully hand-hoed in the month of May, 
which caused it to tiller freely. The preceding 
crop was potatoes. This wheat will withstand 
the most severe weather. The season 1837 to 
1838 was a very trying one, both as to wetness 
and severity of cold, the thermometer having 
fallen to 18° below freezing ; but the crops of 
this wheat raised by my neighbours were per- 
fectly insensible to it, and of great produce. 
This wheat is not remarkable for its early 
maturity, though it cannot be called a tardy 
variety. It is not subject to degenerate, and 
if attention is paid to sowing the seed pure, 
and annually, or even occasionally, varying 
the manure intended for it, it is possible that 
it may never degenerate. The only objection 
to it is the huskiness or velvety ear, which in 
damp weather is retentive of moisture; and in 
snatchy seasons the grain is more apt to sprout 
than the smooth-chaff"ed varieties. It is not 
much affected with dust-brand; and when 
pickled and limed, has never been found with 
smut-balls. It is little liable to shed, even 
when over-ripe, and will resist very heavy 
gales without being laid or broken. 

2. Jersey Danlzic. — The seed is described as 
having been raised from a single ear, originat- 
ing from seed procured from Dantzic, selected 
from the finest "high mixed." It is, however, 
suspected to be identical with some excel- 
lent sorts, called in Sussex, Kent, and some 
parts of Surrey, the " Chittums ;" in other 
parts "Pegglesham;" in Berkshire, "Trump;" 
in Essex, "Hardcastle;" in some counties, 
" Old Sufl^olk;" in Scotland, "Hunter's White;" 
and assuming several other names. This 
wheat is not quite so hardy as the " hoary ;" it 
is, nevertheless, considered sufficiently so to 
succeed throughout the kingdom, excepting the 
northern parts of Scotland. In rich soils it 
tillers amazingly, and produces a longer straw 
than the hoary, nor is it so liable to sprout in a 
moist climate from being smooth-chaffed: in 
very severe, moist, and stormy weather, it will 
be laid sooner than the hoary. 

It ripens a week earlier at least than the va- 
riety last described, and should be reaped 
while the grain can be marked by pressure 
from the thumb-nail, as it is rather liable to 
shed if over-ripe, a disadvantage which the 
hoary is peculiarly free from, as it is tenacious 
to the ear. In the dry season this wheat will 
afford a beautiful, clean, white straw, fit for 
bonnet-making, or any purpose of thatching: 
it is firm and tenacious. In wet seasons it is 
rather subject to rust, which, under such cir- 
cumstances, almost all wheat suffers from. 

3. Whiitington IVTieiit. — The seed was ob- 
tained from Mr. Whittington himself, and was 
a very fine, pure sample. The grain is large, 
full, and plump, rather of a whitish-red cast, 
and a little thick-skinned. The seed was 
washed, pickled, drained, and limed, then sown 
in drills seven inches apart, about three bushels 
to the acre. When the seed is large, it is con 

1131 



At^HEAT. 



WHEAT. 



sidered prudent to add half a bushel or more to 
the acre. I consider this to be a very hardy- 
wheat, afifording much herbage and straw, very 
fit for being eaten down by sheep in the spring 
when sown early in the fall. The Whittington 
is rather a late wheat, ripening a week or ten 
days later than the Jersey Dantzic before de- 
scribed, though it was in bloom on the same 
day. From the purity of the seed, and the 
uniform appearance of the crop, it does not 
appear likely to degenerate, nor does it seem 
more liable to disease than other wheats. The 
straw is brittle, and many ears break off. I 
am of opinion, from what I have witnessed, 
that the value of this description of wheat is 
much overrated: the millers dislike it, and in 
certain situations it is apt to blight. 

4. Felh'viie Tuluvera. — This admirable variety 
is invaluable where it is adapted to the soil 
and climate. 'J'he seed being large, a greater 
quantity of it should be allowed than usual. 
This wheat has succeeded in the north of Scot- 
land, and is suificiently hardy to withstand the 
winter in its grassy slate, but it is otherwise 
more valuable as a spring crop : without doubt 
it may be sown as late as the first week in Feb- 
ruary in all the milder parts of England, with 
a prospect of reaping quite as good an average 
crop from it as from any other wheat, but with 
a certainty of obtaining more flour than from 
most. There is no tendency to degenerate ob- 
servable in this wheat, as far as the experience 
of five or six years goes ; nor, from its early 
habits, is it at all likely to become intermixed 
by fecundation from other varieties, though 
sown about the same period, as it will, in such 
casey, flower a fortnight or three weeks before 
them. It is not more liable to disease than or- 
dinary white wheats, and affords a very fine, 
clear, white straw: it is, indeed, onef of the 
Italian bonnet-making varieties. There is, 
however, one disadvantage in it, which is, that 



the ear is so heavy that it is apt to break down, 
though not break off, when swept by a gale 
about the period of ripening ; but it has a 
countervailing good quality, of ripening the 
grain equally well though bent down ; as is the 
case with spring wheats, which ripen their 
seed well though quite laid, which with winter 
wheats is doubtful. Another peculiarity is the 
tenacity of the chaff to the ear, more remain- 
ing on it after passing through the thrashing- 
machine than any other variety I am acquainted 
with, J 

The following sorts I have also grown expe-] 
rimentally, but, not having raised them in quan- 
tities sufficient to warrant a positive opinion, 
which probably might only tend to mislead, 
they are merely named. 

The "golden drop" is one of the best red 
wheats, affording great produce in corn and 
straw, and a larger quantity of flour than some 
white wheats. 

"Hickling's prolific red" is a productive va- 
riety, but rather coarse. The properties of this 
wheat are, straw long, stout at the bottom, and 
tapering at-the head; head short, thick, close, 
and heavy; kernels four in the row across the 
ear, and red in colour, with the chaff white ; in 
sample the wheat is short, plump, thin-skinned, 
and looks as if it would flour well : colour 
dark orange-red. 

Brown's "ten-rowed chevalier," or prolific, 
is well named, where it suits the soil and cli- 
mate: it is, when pure, a very fine variety. 

"Gale's Hampshire" is a very enormously 
productive sort of bearded wheat. "Essex 
red," a very good variety. "The duck's-bill" 
wheat is very productive, but shedding greatly, 
and not very farinaceous. 

In order to present the particular points of 
comparison between the four principal varie- 
ties above-described, the results are appended 
in a tabular form: — 



Varieties. 


Soil. 


Manure. 


Quantity 
of Seed 
per Acre. 


Time of 
Sowing 


Harvested. 


Produce per Acre. 


Produce per 
Acre iu 


B 

BO'S 
°| 

1- 

a. 


1 
z. 


O 


S 


o 




3 

1 


fl 


While 5 
Downy"! 

.lersey 1 
Dantzic S 

Whitting-^ 
ton \ 

JBellevne ") 
1 Talavera S 


Argillaceons 
Bchist, light 
and rich. 

Ditto. 

Do. on a r 

red clay < 
bottom. (_ 

Ditto. 


7 Kelp ashes, 91 
j" qrs. 1 

Ditto. 

i hhds. of lime. 
6 qrs. lime ashes. 
5 qrs. kelp ashes. 

Ditto. 


2 bushels. 

Ditto, 
is bush. 

Ditto. 


Jan. 29. 

Ditto. 

Jan. 8. 

Feb. 3. 


Ang. 16. 
Aug. 12. 
Aug. 24. 
Aug. 17. 


bush. 

48 
43i 
33 
52 


lbs. 
4557 

4681 

7786 

5480 


lbs. 
315 

430 

483 

282 


lbs. 
62 

63 

61 

61 


lbs. 
2402 

2161 

1454 

2485 


lbs. 
542 

606 

524 

626 


lbs. 
25 

25J 

23f 

25 


L. 1. d. 
7 4 9 

5 9 9 

2 76 

812 9 



N. B. — In the estimate of profit, in the last column, the calculation is not made with relation to the respective 
values of the wheats as to their productiveness in flour, which it might be, but according to the ordinary market- 
able value of good wheat ; the straw is valued as intended for manure. 



The following is an excellent account of an 
experiment on the relative values of several ' 
varieties of wheat by Mr. John Morton, which 
I have extracted from the first volume of the 
Journ. of ill" Eitg. Agr. Soc, p. 39. It is from 
practical and carefully carried out experiments, 
such as these, that we shall be able to arrive 
at the proportionate value of different species 
and new varieties of wheat, and from which 
we may be enabled to select the good and re- 
ject the bad kinds. 
113" 



The profits of farming, whether the land be 
pasture or arable, and the tenant be a feeder 
of stock or a tiller of the ground, may be in- 
creased in two ways. The stock-farmer knows 
very well that the return he obtains from his 
cattle depends, not only on the kind of food 
given to them, and the manner in which it is 
supplied, but also on the feeding qualities of 
the breed to which they belong; and he in- 
creases his chance of profit as much when, on 
purchasing from the breeder, he selects with 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



judgment, as when he adopts an improved 
mode of feeding. The intelligent farmer of 
arable land, again, expects a greater crop, the 
more he has been able to improve the texture 
of the soil, and the better the nature and state 
of the manure which it contains. He expects it, 
because he knows that it depends on the nature 
of the food given to the plants, and the manner 
in which they are provided with a constant 
supply of it. The crop does not, however, de- 
pend only on this: for as two beasts, fed in 
exactly the same manner, may not be equally 
profitable, owing to a difference between them 
regarding the quantity and quality of the meat 
they afford, so two different kinds of wheat, 
though sown on land precisely similar, and in 
equally good condition, may give unequal re- 
turns, owing to a difference between them re- 
garding the quantity and quality of the flour 
they afford. Hence the importance, too often 
overlooked by farmers, not only of preparing 
the land for the crop in a good and sufficient 
manner, but also of selecting that kind of seed 
which experience has pointed out as being 
most valuable and productive. It was with a 
view, not only of ascertaining the relative 
value, hardiness, and other properties of seve- 
ral of the most commonly planted wheats, but 
also of effecting an improvement in the best 
of them, that the following experiment was 
commenced on the 1st of November, 1837. To 
insure accuracy in the results, it was neces- 
sary that the seeds of each variety should be 
planted so as to have them all at equal distances. 
To efiect this, two boards were used, each 6 
inches wide, 9 feet long, and | inch thick. 
Along the centre of each board was a row of 
holes, 3 inches apart and 1 inch in diameter. 
A dibble was made to fit into the holes, having 



a shoulder at the distance of 2^ inches from 
the point. 

When the board was placed on the ground, 
and the dibble put through each hole in succes- 
sion, a series of holes was thus made, 2 inches 
deep, and 3 inches apart from centre to centre. 

After this had been done through the Srst 
board, the second, which was touching it, and 
parallel to it, was served in the same way ; and 
then the first was taken up, and placed on the 
other side of the second. By proceeding thus, 
the whole ground was finished, and then one 
grain of wheal was dropped into each hole. 
The rows were thus exactly 6 inches apart, 
and the grains in the rows were 3 inches from 
one another. The regularity with which the 
planting was performed was thus mathemati- 
cally accurate. The ground planted lies on 
the lower edge of the great oolite formation, 
and the soil is a stone brash, about 10 inches 
in thickness. Crops of potatoes had been 
taken off it for a succession of eight years; 
and it had been manured every alternate year 
with a compost of equal bulks of stable-dung 
and earth, at the rate of about 20 cubic yards 
per acre. It was 67 feet in length ; and 3 
rows of each variety of wheat were planted, 
except the first and last numbers, of which 
there were 4 rows. The outer row of each of 
these, however, was not taken into account, 
because their roots had a much greater extent 
of ground for their growth than the others, 
whose roots touched one another all round. 
The end plants of each row were also rejected 
for the same reason. Sixty-six feet in length 
of ground were thus taken up, and three rows 
of each variety occupied in width H foot: the 
ground occupied by each variety was thus 99 
square feet, the 440th part of an acre. 



Old red 

itnmas. 
Grilden drop 
Ten-rowed 
prolific. 
Hunter's. 

Thick-set 
Suffolk. 

Hickine's 
prolific. 

While Taun 

ton. 
Silver drop. 

Scotch 



vhile 



Talivera. 
Sniilhers' 

Hereford 

white. 
A red wheat. 
Egypiiai 

Red jtra' 

Lamm 

Blue coil 







_. 


Prod 


uce 


£ 


K 


T3 




_3 


5 


of 99 sq. 


S 


o. 


3 "C 




■^ 


^ 


Feet. 


g- 


•o 


1£ 




-i 


e ^ 





" 




a V 


Whence 


r 


i* 


Z 




° "i 




'^ 3 


ohiained. 


"S 


"il 


o 


'S 


r 


dl 








- i 


a 


O 


z 






c 


1 


1 

0. 


1 




> 

< 


s" 
















lbs. 


Pusey, Berks. 


-92 


337 


05 


2463 


25 


6 


6 


_ 


792 


291 


501 


2542 


25 


5 


6 3-4 


Hareby, Lin- 
















colnshire. 


792 


391 


401 


19-35 


19 


3 1-2 


4 1-2 


Leek, Lin- 
















colnshire. 


792 


273 


519 


2028 


20 


4 1-4 


4 1-2 


Lyford, 
















Berks. 


792 


120 


672 


3039 


30 


4 1-2 


10 1-2 


Old Bucking- 
inKhani, 
Norfolk, 
















792 


132 


657 


2386 


29 


4 1-2 


10 1-4 


Wallinsford, 
















Berks. 


792 


305 


487 


2693 


27 


5 1-4 


6 


Lyford, 
















Berks. 


792 


218 


574 


25 S2 


26 


4 1-2 


8 


. 


792 


379 


413 


2386 


24 


5 3-4 


6 1-4 


Taunton. 


792 


434 


338 


19S5 


20 


5 1-2 


5 1-4 


Cirencester. 
















(Smith). 


792 


319 


473 


2529 


25 


5 1-4 


9 1-2 


- 


792 


252 


540 


3453 


35 


6 1-2 


12 


- 


792 


528 


264 


711 


7 


2 1-4 


3 M 


_ 


792 


510 


2S2 


2096 


21 


7 1-2 


4 1-2 


- 


792 


264 


528 


1626 


16 


5 


6 


- 


79-2 


456 


336 


2446 


24 


7 


10 


4 


_2_ 


6 


7 


S 


9 


10 


11 



Weight of 

Wheat per 

Acre. 



16 2 8 
16 2 16 

16 Z 16 
2 110 

1 19 3 3 



1 17 I 8 

2 5 1 12 
13 24 

16 2 16 

1 3 1 28 
1 19 1 4 

12 



41 34 
46 3-4 



55 

43 
36 

65 1-2 

82 1-2 

23 



16 1-2 

15 1-4 
12 3 4 
12 3-4 
19 12 

16 1-2 
15 1-4 
IS 1-2 



14 1-2 
9 34 
12 1-2 



■lb. 



3 5 2 24 

3 3 

2 10 10 

2 12 10 

3 5 2 14 

3 5 2 24 



3 8 3 20 

4 7 2 



6 3-4 
5 1-2 



Note. — Specimens, in the straw, of each of the varieties mentioned in the Tabl«, were laid before the Society, 



Weight of 

Roots per 

Acre. 



T. owt.qr.lb. 

0S19 2 6 

I 2 14 

19 2 6 

19 2 6 

1 9 1 24 

16 2 8 



19 2 

1 15 2 6 

113 4 

19 2 6 

13 2 8 

IS 2 10 

18 



Athough the tabular form in which this ex 
periment is detailed explains itself by the head- 
ings of each column, yet it is considered ne- 
cessary to give a somewhat fuller account of 



it. The seed from which the first ten varieties 
were raised was carefully selected from speci- 
mens of each obtained in the ear. The other* 
were from samples, and here, also, the greatest 
5 c 2 1133 



WHEAT. 

care was taken that the seed from which each 
was raised should be the best and plumpest 
that could be obtained. 

The first five columns need no explanation 
bej'ond what is given at the head of each ; the 
.sixlh shows the number of grains lost from 
casualties. If the frost had been the only agent 
in the destruction of so many of the seeds, this 
column might have been considered as a very 
accurate index of the relative hardiness of each 
variety. This, however, is not the case ; for 
the havoc which the birds made must also be 
taken into account. It was thought at the time 
that more injury was sustained from the latter 
cause by those varieties planted on the 21st 
than by any of the others; but this does not 
appear to have been the case, for, if the great 
loss sustained by these had been wholly owing 
to the havoc committed by the birds, it is evi- 
dent that the varieties marked Nos. 12 and 15 
would not have been so slightly injured, while 
Nos. 11, 13, 14, and 16 suffered so severely. 
The figures in this column may, therefore, be 
said to indicate with tolerable accuracy the re- 
lative ability of each variety to withstand the 
effects of a severe and changeable winter, such 
as that during which the experiment was made. 

The number of plants of each variety which 
came to perfection is placed opposite the name 
of each in the seventh column. This was as- 
certained by pulling each as they respectively 
ripened, and counting the plants of each before 
proceeding to the others. In this way, by a 
simple subtraction, the numbers contained in 
the sixth column also were ascertained. 

When all the plants of any variety had been 
pulled, the number of ears also belonging to 
them was counted, and the results are placed 
in the eighth column. 

By dividing these by 99, the number of square 
feet which each variety occupied, we obtain the 
number of ears in each square foot; and this 
is placed opposite the name of each wheat, in 
the ninth column. 

The average number of ears to each root, 
ascertained by dividing the number of ears by 
that of the roots, is placed in the tenth column. 
This column shows the degree in which each 
species possesses the important property of 
spreading and shooting out stems, or, as it is 
technically termed, of tillering; and it will be 
seen that they vary in this respect greatly. 

At'ter having been pulled and dried, the wheat 
was carefully rubbed out; and, after the light 
and imperfect grains had been separated, the 
weight of the remainder was taken, and placed 
opposite each sort, in the eleventh column. 

The thirteenth column contains the number 
of bushels per acre raised from each variety. 
As the quantity produced was so small, there 
was some difficulty in obtaining the particulars 
which this column contains. 

The mode adopted was this : The average 
vveight of several of the varieties was ascer- 
tained, by weighing 8 pints of each, to be at 
the rate of 64 lbs. per bushel, some being rather 
more and others less. The number of bushels 
were then obtained from the weight of wheat 
per acre, by dividing it by 64. 

The weight of straw, which is placed in the 
fifteenth and sixteenth columns, was ascertain- 
1134 



WHEAT. 

ed after the roots had been cut off, and after it 
had remained out sufliciently long to dry it 
perfectly. j. 

After the earth had been removed from th«H' 
roots, which had been cut off with about two^ 
inches of the stem, they were weighed, and the 
result placed in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
columns. The object of this was to ascertain 
the amount of vegetable matter left in the soil 
after the wheat crop has been removed, and 
the result greatly exceeds any conception of it 
that had been previously entertained. 

The inferences which, it is presumed, may 
be drawn from the above details, are the fol- 
lowing: — 

1st. With regard to the hardiness of the va- 
rieties, which, as we have already said, may, 
to a certain extent, be deduced from the parti- 
culars contained in the sixth column, that they 
may be placed in three classes. Nos. 5, 6, 8, 
12, 15, 4, and 2 being the hardiest; Nos. 13, 14, 
16, and 10 being the most delicate; and Nos. 
1, 3, 7, 9, and 11 occupying an average station. 

2d. With regard to the property of tillering, 
of which we have already spoken, that Nos. 12, 
14, 16, and 1 possess it in the greatest degree; 
that Nos. 3, 13, 4, 5, 6, 15, 8, and 2 possess it 
in the least; and that Nos. 7, 9, 10, and 11 hold 
a medium rank. 

3d. That with respect to the relative value 
of each variety mentioned in the table. No. 12 
is undoubtedly the best of any, in productive- 
ness, and in being sufliciently hardy; that No. 
13 is as undoubtedly the worst of any, as will 
be seen by a reference to any of the columns ; 
and that the others vary greatly, some possess- 
ing nearly three times the productiveness of 
others. 

These 16 different sorts of wheat, with the 
exception of Nos. 13, 15, 16, which are beard- 
ed, are merely varieties of one species of the 
genus Triticum; and the circumstance of dif- 
ferences existing among them, some possess- 
ing three times the value of others, shows that 
any variety is capable of improvement. This, 
indeed, is shown by many other plants besides 
the wheat. The originals of the potato, the 
carrot, and the turnip, were comparatively in- 
significant and useless in their application as 
food, and it was only by careful and repeated 
cultivation that they were at length brought to 
their present condition, and made to hold such 
an important rank among the many nutritive 
plants cultivated for the food of man and beast 
It is supposed, then, and where it has been tried 
experience shows it to be a fact, that, by first as- 
certaining the best of many varieties of wheat, 
and planting the finest and plumpest seeds se- 
lected from the best sample that could be obtain- 
ed of it, the last of a succession of crops, the first 
of which was raised in this manner, and all the 
others from seeds selected out of the produce 
of the preceding harvests, would, at length, 
afford a wheat of a more productive and valu- 
able kind than has hitherto been used by the 
farmer. The experiment here detailed is, then, 
merely the first step in the process ; it merely 
points out the best of the varieties which were 
tried. The improvement of these by repeated 
cultivation still remains to be effected. 

During the growth of the wheat, a journal 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



was kept, an extr^t from which is given here, 
as it refers to an insect which was observed 
after the blossoming of the plants, and to which 
the destruction of many of the seeds was owing. 
Observations of this kind might be easily and 
generally made, and they would be useful as 
information regarding the nature and habits 
of the insects which attack wheat; and answers 
to the how, when, and where, on the sub- 
ject, which would thus be obtained, afford the 
only guide to the invention of means for their 
destruction. 

1838. Extract from Journal. 

July 5th. — All the wheat is in blossom, except 
Nos. 13 and 15. 
I4th. — Very rainy and windy weather. 
Whether will this be found to 
injure or improve the quality of 
the grain 1 
16th. — Since the rain of the 14th, an orange- 
coloured substance, like rust, has 
been observed in the seed-vessels 
of some of the ears, as if the rain 
had got in and rotted the pollen. 
A very small fly has been ob- 
served about the ears in the even- 
ing. Many of the ears are filling 
rapidly ; some are already full, 
and others are only in blossom. 
19th. — In the ears of wheat, which were 
before-mentioned as having abor- 
tive grains, owing, as was thought, 
to the pollen having been rotted 
by the rain, I now find small 
orange-coloured grubs, about the 
tenth of an inch long, doubtless 
the offspring of the small fly ob- 
served about a week ago. 
Aug. 4th. — All these grubs have disappeared. 
27th. — Nos. 4, 10, and 11, are ripe and 

pulled. 
28th. — Nos. 3, 5, and 6, are ripe and pulled. 
29th. — Nos. 7, 8, and 9, are ripe and pulled. 
30th.— Nos. 2, 12, and 16, are ripe and 
pulled. 
Sept. 1st. — Nos. 1 and 14 are ripe and pulled. 
2d. — Nos. 13 and 15 are ripe and pulled. 
The account of this experiment is thus 
finished, and there now remains but to state 
what will have already occurred to the reader, 
especially if he be a practical man, that it is 
not one nor many experiments, if conducted on 
a small scale, which will accurately determine 
the point this tends to ascertain. 

Sail. — Although wheat can be cultivated on 
any soil, yet heavy loams, strong clays, and 
marls are considered to be the best wheat soils, 
and the larger the proportion of alumin in the 
soil, the heavier will be the grain, and the more 
productive the crop. 

Sandy soils (says a modern writer) are un- 
favourable to the growth of wheat, for they are 
deficient in that degree of firmness which is 
necessary to support the roots of the plants. It 
is therefore a crop which should never be 
sc"vn on such land ; or if grown, it should only 
be upon one ploughing of a clover ley, and 
then afterwards folded by a flock of sheep. 
{Brit. Husb. vol. ii. p. 140.) 
Very fine descriptions of wheat are grown 



on gravelly, chalky, and flinty soils, which 
have a dry subsoil. 

In England the cultivation of wheat varies 
in diflTerent districts, and according to the na- 
ture of the soil. Upon heavy clays, the course 
of cropping is commonly a twelvemonth's fal- 
low, with from four to six ploughings, &c., and 
a dressing of manure or lime, or both. On 
this description of land, wheat also very com- 
monly follows beans, which have been care- 
fully cleaned; and, thirdly, is sown extensively 
upon clover-leys. On lighter soils, a crop of 
turnips or rape sown in May, and fed off by 
sheep early in the autumn, is frequently sub- 
stituted with advantage instead of a year's 
naked fallow. And, again, a practice, but 
which I strongly condemn, is still followed in 
several parts of England, of sowing dressed or 
folded rye-grass leys with wheat. (See Rota- 
tion OF Crops.) On soils adapted for turnips, 
and where the drill and horse-hoe are employ- 
ed, a course I much approve from the ley's 
return, from a small expenditure, consists of: 
1st, turnips; 2d, oats or barley; 3d, clover; 
4th, beans or peas ; and then, 5th, wheat. 

The quantity of seed varies considerably ; 
and, although I have witnessed large crops 
grown from one bushel of seed drilled per acre, 
the rows at foot intervals, yet the general 
practice may be taken at from two to three 
bushels per acre. The time of sowing is from 
September to March ; the winter varieties 
should be in the ground by the end of Novem- 
ber, and the spring varieties as early as the 
season will admit. For the diseases of wheat, 
see Fly in Wheat, Mildew, and Rust. And 
I may observe that, although subject to several 
diseases, yet upon the whole it is the hardiest 
of the cereal grasses, and flourishes under a 
greater variety of seasons and climate. 

Sowing. — Wheat is either sown broadcast, or 
by the drill or dibble. Drilling is the most 
preferable mode. When it is sown in drills, 
the usual distance between the rows is from 
9 to 12 inches; but it is conceived that the 
larger intervals are the better, and that they 
may in most cases be even more than 12 
inches. The best period of sowing, it has been 
said, is from about the middle to the end of 
September. The early part of October, how- 
ever, is well suited to the sowing of M'heat, and 
it may be continued till the middle of No- 
vember. 

The proportion of seed that is necessary 
must depend upon and be regulated by a va- 
riety of different circumstances, but in general 
from two to three bushels, according to the 
state of the soil, the nature of the climate, and 
the period in which it is put into the ground, 
may be the most suitable proportion for soils 
of a medium state of fertility, under the broad- 
cast method of husbandry ; but where the drill 
or dibble system of culture is practised, a con- 
siderably less quantity may be suflScient for 
the purpose. See Seed. 

In the case of summer-fallow the quantity 
of seed need not exceed two bushels to the 
acre. When the sowing takes place in spring, 
the quantity may be extended to three bushels, 
rather less than more. 

The cultivation of wheat is very rapid br 

1135 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



either of the following methods : 1. By select- 
ing the grains of superior ears and dibbling 
them in a seedling bed, 4 inches apart every 
way. 2. By dividing and transplanting the 
roots. 

The same weight of Rostock and Dantzic 
flour from wheat grown in the Baltic, made 
only 23 pounds of bread, very light and good, 
but not so white by many shades or well-fla- 
voured as that made from the two first varie- 
ties of home growth. 

These experiments having been made in my 
own presence, may be relied on. The dough 
was worked in the French mode, not pushed 
down, turned and worked with closed hands, 
but drawn up into long strings, and repeatedly 
lifted, in order to expose it to the action of the 
air as much as possible, which tends greatly to 
improve the bread, by rendering it more light 
and easy of digestion. See Brkah. 

The superiority of the hoary variety of wheat, 
which furnished three pounds more bread on a 
baking of 18 pounds of flour, or an increase of 
one-sixth over the Dantzic and Rostock, which 
was also a very fine sample of flour, is thus 
clearly established. (Le Couteur on Wheat, 
p. 44.) 

Securing the crop. — I have already briefly ad- 
verted under the head Reaping to the advan- 
tages to be derived from harvesting the grain 
before it is fully ripe, but have reserved to this 
place some further experiments and details 
corroborative of the benefit and profit resulting 
therefrom, by Mr. John Hannam of North 
Deighton, near Wetherby. This gentleman 
remarks, — 

"Having selected a field of 'old square-headed 
red wheal' for the experiments, on August 4, 
1840, 1 cut a sheaf. At this lime it was quite 
green, i. c. both straw and ears were in full 
vigour, and full of sap. Though the grain ap- 
peared perfectly formed, the chaff" still adhered 
so firmly to it that it was scarcely possible to 
separate them by friction in the hands. When 
separated it was large and plump, but so full 
of milk, that the slightest pressure reduced the 
whole to a juicy consistency or pulp. 

" This sheaf stood in the field for a fort- 
night, when it was housed. On the same day, 
August 18, 1 cut another. The wheat was, of 
course, yet ' green,' speaking positively, or 
*not ripe,' if we speak negatively, — being what 
farmers commonly term 'raiv.' This is, the 
straw, though appearing at a distance green, 
when examined closely, was of a hue fast ap- 
proximating to yellow ; while, for about a foot 
"■tpwards from the ground, it was quite yellow. 
The ears, too, were more open, the chaff" tinged 
with various shades of yellow and green, and 
the grain itself, when separated, soft and pulpy, 
but not near so full of fluid as before. The 
judgment of the farmer will, however, best tell 
him the conditions of the wheat, both at this 
and at the preceding cutting, when I say, that 
in another fortnight the whole field was ripe. 
At the end of this fortnight, (September 1,) I 
housed the sheaf cut on August 18, and which 
had remained exposed to the weather in the 
interval, and cut a third. This I have said 
was ' ripe ;' but by the term I don't mean that 
degree of ripeness when the straw breaks, the 
1136 



ears curl, and the grain shakes out ; but that 
condition in which it is customary to commence 
reaping it — when the straw, from the roots to 
the ear, is uniformly yellow, and has lost all 
symptoms of vivid health. 

"On the 14th of September the third sheaf 
was taken from the field and carefully pre- 
served, along with the other two, till the 1st of 
November, when, out of each sheaf, I selected 
100 ears, and put each parcel into a separate 
bag. The straw from each of these parcels of 
ears was preserved carefully. 

"The ears in one bag (No. 1, or that cut 
very green) were now thrashed, the chaff" care- 
fully separated, and the gross weight of the 
corn yielded ascertained by an extremely ac- 
curate balance. The weights of a fixed mea- 
sure of a certain number of grains were next 
found. To avoid error, this was repeated several ™ i 
tirnes, ■ j 

" No. 2 (cut raw) and No. 3 (ripe) under- ■ 
went the same process : for the results of 
which see the following table : — 

Comparative Weights of Wheat reaped at different 
periods. 



Time of reaping, and Condition. 


Gross 
Produce. 


Equal 

Measure. 


Equal 

Number of 
Grains. 


No. 1. August 4 (very 

green - . . 

No. 2. August 18 (raw) 

No. 3. Sept. 1 (ripe) - 


576 
736 
650 


568 

5H0 
570 


19f 
231 



"As this table is merely comparative (the 
weights used being in parts, and decimal parts 
of the same, for the convenience of minute ex- 
periments), it may not be unnecessary to give 
the following table of the absolute weights of 
each sample in ounces, drachms, scruples, and 
grains Troy : — 





Grofs Produce. 


Eip al Measures. 


Equal Numlier 
of Grains. 


No. 1. 
No 2. 
No. 3. 


3 3 9 gr. 

4 

5 2 13 
4 4 6 


^39 gr- 

3 7 1 13 

4 13 

3 7 2 (1 


3 3 3 gi-- 

1 5| 

1 m 

1 15J 



"The straw belonging to each sample was 
now weighed (all the parcels having previ- 
ously been made of the same length, commenc- 
ing from the bottom of the ear), when the fol- 
lowing was the result: — 

Comparative Weights of 100 Straws of an equal 
length, belonging to the samples Nos. 1, 2, 3. 



No. 1. (green) 
No. 2. (raw) 
No. 3. (ripe) 



550. 
475. 
450. 



"The next thing to be ascertained was the 
quality of the produce, or the comparative 
worth of each description. Believing in the 
old saying, that, 

'The proper value of a thing 
Is just as much as it will bring,' 

on the 5th of November I attended market, and 
asked the opinion of an extensive corn-grower 
as to the values of the respective samples, ac- 
cording to the prices of the day. His opinion 
was, 

No. 1. - - - fil«. per quarter. 

No. 2. - - . 64s. do. 

No. 3. - - - 625. do. 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



Putting the same samples into the hands of an 
extensive corn-factor and miller, his opinion of 
its value, and what he would give to buy, was for 



No. 1. 


- 61s. per quarter 


No. 2. 


- 63s. do. 


No. 3. 


- - - 61s. do. 



Adding these values respectively together, and 
taking the mean price of each (by which we 
shall obtain as near an approximation to the 
truth as possible), we have 



No. 1. 


= 


61s. Od. per quarter 


No. 2. 


= 


63s. 6d. do. 


No. 3. 


= 


61s. 6d. do. 



" The loss or gain on these samples, by reap- 
ing at different periods, will be best seen from 
the following 

Table of the relative Weights and Value of Wheal 
cut August 4, August 18, and September 1 ; that 
cut last (or ripe) being taken as the standard, 
and unity assumed as its value in each column. 



i 


Weight 
of Gross 
Produce. 


of equal 
Measures. 


Weight 

of an 

equal No. 

of Grains. 


Value. 


Weight 
of the 
Slravv. 


No. 3. Sept^ 1. 

(ripe) - 
No. 2, August. 

(raw) 
No. 1. August. 

(green) 


1 

234 

S2.? 


1 

23 4 

2 3.^ . 


1 

oT 


I 

1 4 

'72 3 
1 2 2 
T25 


1 



"According to this table, it is evident that 
the wheat reaped a fortnight before it was ripe 
has the advantage of the ripe in every point: 

1st. In weight of gross produce j'^jV,, or 13| 
per cent. 

2d. In weight of equal measures -'., or near- 
ly ^ per cent. 

3d. In weight of equal number of grains g-p 
or nearly 21 per cent. 

4th. In quality and value yf j, or above .3^ 
per cent. 

5th. In weight of straw y\, or above 5 per 
cent. 

On the other hand, that reaped a month before 
it was ripe, has an advantage of 22 per cent, 
in weight of straw, compared with the ripe, 
but in every other point has the disadvantage : 
thus, 

1st. In weight of gross produce ^J^, or lly'j 
per cent. 

2d. In weight of equal measures -^\-^, or 
rather more than | per cent. 

3d. In weight of equal number of grains ^jf, 
or better than 13J- per cent. 

4th. In quality and value jig-, rather more 
than f per cent. 

"It maybe here necessary to mention that 
the sample No. 3 (ripe) was very bold, but 
rather coarse, feeling rough in the hand ; while 
No. 2 (raw) was quite as bold, but very fine and 
thin in the skin. No. 3 (green) was also a good 
and clear sample, but much smaller than either 
of the others. This will account for the appa- 
rently anomalous fact of there being scarcely 
any difference in the marketable value of the 
green compared with the ripe, while there is 
a difference of 13 per cent, in favour of the 
ripe in weight of equal numbers of grains ; for 
the sample being dry and good, the buyer lost 
little by this inferiority in the size of grain, as 
the weights of equal measures were the same, 
143 



— the difference of ^\-^ scarcely making ^ ib 
in the sack. 

" Before venturing to draw any deductions 
from these experiments, let us put their results 
in a still more practical point of view. 

" Suppose we have 3 acres of wheat, 1 of 
which, reaped when ripe, yields us 30 bushels 
of corn and 1 ton of straw ; what will be the 
gross value of the same 1 And what the value 
of the other 2 acres, according to the data fur- 
nished by the foregoing experiments, supposing 
each acre to be exactly equal in crop, and the 
one reaped a fortnight and the other a month 
before the ripe. 

"Before answering this, we must fix a value 
for the straw — say '2d. per stone, which, taking 
into account that used by the farmer himself — 
and many cannot sell any — is as much as it is 
actually worth. Whence we have, for the acre 
of ripe, 

/.. I. d. 

30 bushels of wheai, at 61s. M. per quarter 



(the price of sample No. 3.) 
I ton of straw, at Id. per stone 



Gross produce 



11 10 7i 
1 6 8 



£12 17 3A 



" Let US next take the acre cut 'mti-.' Before 
we can come to its value, we must first resolve 
the question. How much, in measure, will the 
acre produce us, supposing it to produce 30 
bushels, if cut when ripe 1 

"In solving this, as we must assume each 
crop to be exactly equal if cut at the same 
lime, it is obvious that, if we would determine 
the difference caused by reaping at an earlier 
period, we cannot found our calculations upon 
the gross icright of the two samples (Nos. 2 and 
3) ; for, although there is no doubt but that this 
weight was materially affected by the condition 
of the wheat at the time of reaping, (indeed, 
the difference in the weight of equal numbers 
of grains proves the fact), it is possible that, 
in selecting the 100 ears from the sheaf, I 
might take out of one sheaf ears with a greater 
number of grains in them than those taken out 
of the other. This, then, would affect the total 
or gross weight; and, therefore, it cannot be 
taken into account in the present case, where 
both acres are supposed to have an equal number 
of grains. 

" To- the weights of equal measures, and of 
equal numbers of grains, both the result of 
many careful trials, this objection cannot be 
urged ; and they are amply sufficient to enable 
us to tell the produce of an acre of 'raw,' when 
that of the ' ripe' is 30 bushels. Thus, in the 
first table, we have. 







Wtiffht of equal 


Weight of equal 






Measures. 


Numbers nf GrainSv 


No. 2. (raw) - 


_ 


580 


23-25 


No. 3. (ripe) - 


- 


570 


22-75 



Now put w^this measure, and n=the num- 
ber of grains weighed of each sort ; then 
2275 

n : 22-75 : : 1 : =the weight of one grain 

n cj , w 

of No. 3., whence 

22-75 , ,„. 57071 ,, u e 

: 1 : : 570 : s;r^=the number of grain.* 

n 22- / 5 

of No. 3 in the measure m. 

23-25 
Again, similarly, n : 23-25 : : I : , weigm 

of one grain of No. 2, and 



1137 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



23-25 



580ji 



1 : : 580 : ^^=the number of grains 

of No. 2 in the measure m. 

. J 570re 22'75m ^, . , 

And «t-T-jrs^r7= ^^:;7r-=the space occupied 
22-75 570n ^ ^ 

by one grain of No. 3 (ripe) ; and 

580™ 23-25m ,, • j v, «„ 

wj-T-2^=-Tgo ='ne space occupied by one 
grain of No. 2 (raw). 

Now, as there are the same number of grains 

upon each acre, and as the acre of ripe yields 

30 bushels, we have 

2375m ^;25m feushels : 30-1307313 bush- 

570n 58071 

els, the produce of one acre cut a fortnight be- 
fore the ripe. 

Again, by reference to the second table, we 
have 1 and 1 ,V as the relative weights of the 
straw No. 3 and No. 2 ; whence, as No. 3 is 
supposed to produce one ton, 

1 : ly'j, : : 160 stones : 168^ stones, the weight 
upon the acre reaped when raw. And for the 
whole produce of the acre, we have 



30-1307 bushels of wheat, at 63«. 6d. 

quarter 

168 stones of straw, at 2i. per stone - 



per 



£13 7 n 



Adopting the same course for the produce of 
the acre cut first, i. e. a month before the ripe, 
;and which corresponds with sample No. 1, we 
■get 

— ^=the number of erains of the green in 

J9-75 ■-' 

, 19-75m ,, 

the measure m; whence -—5— =the space oc- 

' Soon 

cupied by one grain of green. 
22'7'>7K 

But (vide above), -g=^=space by one grain 

,. . - 1 22-75m 19 75 „„ , , , 

of the ripe; whence- ^^^^ "seSn"' bushels: 

26-1.3.'i<! bushels, the produce of the acre cut a 
.month K>efore the ripe. And {vide "Table of 
(relative weights," &c. 

1 : 1 1 : : 160 stones : 195f stones of straw, the 
■produce of the same ; whence we have 



t26-1356 bushPis of wheat, at 61s. per quarter 
.195 5-9 stones of straw, al 3d. per stone 



3i 



£11 11 lOi 



The total products of the three acres stand 
thus : — 

L. I. d. 

No. 3. Reaped when ripe - - - 12 17 3J 

No. 2. Reaped a fortnight earlier - 13 7 3^ 

No. 1. Reaped a month before the ripe 11 11 lOir 

rShowing a loss of H. 5s. 5d., or about 10 per 
.cent., by cutting very green ; and a gain of 
I0&.per acre, or nearly 4 per cent., by reaping 
dn a raw state, or a fortnight before it was ripe. 
"From the above details, it would appear 
that it is the farmer's interest to cut his 
wheat before it becomes thoroughly ripe. 
Many, no doubt, will be disposed to doubt de- 
•ductions of such importance, drawn from such 
limited experiments. This objection the writer 
anticipates, because it is a natural one, which 
he felt himself, when he considered the most 
important conclusions which resulted; when, 
.however, he retraced, step by step, his investiga- 
tions, without any variation in that resuit, he could 
M3S 



no longer refuse to believe it true till he proved 
it untrue. He is aware that there are other 
points of consideration in this subject — that 
there are peculiarities in the nature of land, of 
seed, or of season, and that there is, as in all 
man's investigations, a. possibility of error; any 
of which circumstances might materially affect 
the result of experiments upon so limited a 
scale as the present one; and for this reason 
he -will, if all be well, give the subject a trial in 
the ensuing harvest, on a much more com- 
prehensive scale. That the results of these 
experiments will be corroborative in the main 
points, he has no doubt, and for this cause he 
feels no hesitation in laying the preceding 
'details' before the agricultural world; more- 
over, as he has in no case given a deduction 
without the grounds upon which it rested, the 
degree of 'acceptation' which the reader may 
give it rests with himself. The most skeptical, 
he, however, flatters himself, will think it 
' worthy of being tested, if of nothing more. 

" In testing, however, the conclusion which 
the foregoing experiments warrant, there are 
some other advantages which strengthen that 
conclusion, which must not be forgotten. That 
they have not been considered in the preceding 
pages, is not because they are of no import, 
but, on the contrary, because they are of such 
consequence, that the writer could not assign 
them an adequate momentary value. And had he 
attempted to do so, he would have at once 
made the details of his experiments valueless 
by mixing the real results of practice with the 
imaginary ones of opinion. Before the sub- 
ject, however, can be thoroughly sifted, they 
must be considered. The circumstances are 
these ; — independently of the 4 per cent, gain 
(according to the foregoing experiments) by 
reaping our wheat a fortnight beiore it is ripe, 
we have, 

"1st, Straw of a better quality. 

"2d, A better chance of securing the crop; 
and, 

"3d, A saving in securing it. 

"1st, 'Straw of a better quality.' This is 
easily demonstrated, both for the purpose of 
food and manure. 

"As an article of food, the value of any 
vegetable depends upon the gross quantity, or 
upon the combination of certain substances 
termed soluble, from their entering into union 
with water. This rule applies particularly to 
the grasses which are used for the purpose of 
feeding stock. The substances generally found 
in these grasses are saccharine matter or 
sugar, mucilage or starch, and gluten or albu- 
men, and bitter extract and saline matters. Of 
these the sugar is, no doubt, the most, and the 
extractive matter the least, nutritive ; the 
latter having been found, by experiment, to 
come away in the dung of the animal con- 
suming it, while the other matters were ab- 
sorbed by the body. 

" Now, wheat is a species of grass, and the 
value of the straw, as an article of food, depends 
upon the quantity of nutritive matter contained 
in it. 'This nutritive matter must be very 
small in straw, as now generally used,' the 
practical farmer will say, 'for straw ;>cr sc is 
but poor food, and scarcely able to sustain life.' 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



This ii5 true ; ' from 400 grains of dry barley- 1 
straw,' says Sir H. Davy, ' I obtained 8 grains 
of matter soluble in water, which had a brown 
colour, and tasted like mucilage. From 400 
grains of wheaten straw I obtained 5 grains of 
a similar substance.' With this paucity of nu- 
tritive matter in the straw before us, how can 
we account for the fact that, in the sap of 
wheat, the straw, and in all succulent plants, 
there is naturally a great proportion of mucilagi- 
nous and sarrlun-ine Matter? The answer is this : 
in all grasses and succulent plants, the great- 
est proportion of this is present before the 
flower is dead ripe. So in wheat, when we 
allow the straw to remain till thoroughly ripe, 
a portion of the sugar is converted, loy the 
action of light, heat, <fec., into mucilage, and a 
great proportion of the nutritive powers of the 
grass absorbed by the atmosphere, or lost in 
some manner; for, as Mr. Sinclair observes in 
his Report of Experiments of Grasses, 'there is a 
great difference between straws or leaves that 
have been dried after they were cut in a suc- 
culent state, and those which are dried (if I 
may so express it) by Nature while growing. 
The former retain all their nutritive powers, but 
the latter, if completely dry, very little, if any. ^ 

"As a manure, too, the straw cut 'rrtjo* is 
equally superior to the ripe; for, as it is an 
agricultural axiom, that the better the food of 
an animal is, the better the manure from it; 
the manure from a stock consuming this 
straw, containing a fair proportion of nutritive 
natter, must be more valuable than that from 
stock consuming the ripe with scarcely any 
in it. 

" But a great proportion of the farmer's straw 
is converted into manure without undergoing 
the process of mastication and digestion. For 
this purpose the unripe straw is equally pre- 
ferable, as all unripe vegetables are manures joitli- 
out preparation ,- the soluble and nutritive ex- 
tracts which they contain, being the principal 
agents informing vegetable manure; as they 
not only combine to render the process of de- 
composition the more rapid, by breaking down 
the woody fibres, &c., in the manure heap, but 
are also, in their pure and separate states, sti- 
mulaius to vegetation. 

" It may be urged, that the increased value 
of the straw is more in favour of that cut very 
green (No. 1) than that cut a fortnight later 
(No. 3). This is true ; but to produce this in- 
crease of value, if we cut our wheat so early as 
No. 1, we have a desiccation of the grain to such 
an extent as to diminish the measured produce above 
12 per cent. : while, by reaping with No. 2, we 
are, so far from injuring either sample or mea- 
sure, actually improving both, and at the same 
time gaining above 5 per cent, in the weight, 
and at least as much in the quality of the 
straw. For the increase of weight in the latter 
is not produced by a greater produce, but by 
the presence of a greater portion of those solu- 
ble substances which are alike necessary to 
animal and vegetable life — are alike the nutri- 
tive part of food and the quickening principle 
of manure. 

" 2d, We come now to the second advantage, 
the ' better chance of securing the crop.' 

" This is self-evident. We gain a fortnight 



at the commencement of harvest. If the 
weather be good, we can secure a great portion 
of our wheat before we should scarcely have 
begun upon the old system. If not, we can 
wait ; so, under any circumstances, our chances 
of securing the grain must be greater. More- 
over, if we take a retrospect of the harvests for 
a number of years, we shall find that nearly ail 
the early harvests have been what we term 
* good' ones, i. e. good as regards weather and 
the condition in which the grain was secured. 
When the peculiarities of our climate, its ge- 
neral fickleness, and its still greater liability to 
change as the autumn advances, are consider- 
ed, this will require no explanation. 

" If we look, too, at the later harvests, we 
shall, I venture to say, find, that in nine cases 
out of ten, the grain which was first cut was 
secured in the best condition. As an example 
of this, the crop of 1839 will suffice. The 
crops were late, the beginning of reaping the 
same, and the result was, that in the North of 
England full 75 per cent, of the whdlc wheat crop 
ivas damaged. And full 75 per cent, of that 
which was uninjured, I will also venture to say, 
was that which was cut the first. In Yorkshire 
this was especially seen ; for the earliest wheat 
was, with the greatest difficulty, secured. In 
this village (North Deighton) not a sheaf was 
in stack till the day before, and on some 
farms, the very day on which the rainy weather 
set in. 

"The frequent recurrence of such years as 
this, will teach the value of even a fortnight, 
better than any thing that can be said here. 
And that they will recur is beyond a doubt. 
What has happened once may happen again, 
but what has frequently happened (as this sort 
of harvest has), with the same causes in opera- 
tion, we are warranted in saying ivill happen 
again, and often. 

" 3d, The saving in securing the crop is a dou- 
ble one. In the first place, there is less waste 
in moving or reaping, and no danger of 'shak- 
ing' or ' necking' in strong winds. In the 
second place, there is an absolute economy in 
the expense of reaping the crop, which may be 
thus illustrated. 

" The busy period of harvest with the farmer 
generally extends over four or five weeks. In 
this month a certain portion of his work is 
done by his own hands, ('. e. by the regular la- 
bourers and servants of the farm ; therefore, by 
beginning a fortnight sooner, and extending the 
season of harvest over six weeks instead of 
four, it is evident that these regular servants 
would cut a much greater proportion of his 
crop — in fact, one-half more. By this he is ren- 
dered less dependent on those extraneous 'helps' 
or ' takers' who, in the seasons of hurry and 
anxiety, fix their own terms. 

"To assign a value for these advantages is, 
as has been said before, for the farmer himself: 
and it will not be an insignificant one. For if 
beginning harvest a fortnight earlier enables 
him to save a crop from spoiling once in a life- 
time, — if the improved quality of his straw as 
food for his stock allows him to plough out an 
acre more, or to pasture another acre of clover 
with feeding-stock, instead of mowing it for his 
lean stock, every grain saved, every extra bushel 

1139 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT.- 



tf corn produced, and every extra head of stock fed, 
is a benefit to the whole community as well as 
to himself, — is so much added to the gross 
produce and wealth of the country : there be- 
ing, in fact, an increased return without an in- 
creased outlay." {Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. xii. 

P- 24.) 

In a recent obliging communication, with 
reference to this important subject, made to 
me (March 1842), by Mr. John Hannam, he 
observes in reference to the experiments above 
detailed, " At the time I wrote you last I stated 
that the bulk of the wheat reaped by me during 
the present harvest was unthrashed. I could 
therefore only give you an idea of the quality 
of the raw and the ripe by public opinion from 
a sample sheaf. Since then the various cut- 
tings (for I made several) have been thrashed 
and ground. The result of which was, 3^ 
bushels of the ripe gave 10 st. 11 lbs. of good 
flour, 1 St. 9 lbs. of seconds (technically termed 
' sharps'), and 2 st. 5 lbs. of bran : 3^ bushels of 
raw gave 12 st. 6 lbs. of flour, 12 lbs. of sharps, 
and 2 st. 1 lb. of bran. From which it appears 
that the raw cut wheat gave 6| lbs. of flour to 
the bushel more than the ripe gave, while the 
latter gave 3i lbs. more sharps and Ij lb. more 
bran than the former per bushel. 

"Your question as to the effect of early reap- 
ing upon the vegetative powers of the seed I 
have not answered, because I can give no an- 
swer but what depends more upon opinion than 
fact. I have never seen a practical trial made 
of wheat, as seed, in the various conditions 
necessary to warrant a final and definite con- 
clusion. An American writer, commenting 
upon my experiments, while he coincides with 
my conclusions as incontrovertible, says that 
it is ^equally indisputable' that the ripe wheat is 
preferable for seed. For all this, I am not dis- 
posed to assent blindly to any such doctrine, 
because I have seen early cut wheat used with 
perfect success as seed many times." 

The editor of the CuUivator, in noticing these 
facts, remarks : — " A farmer friend of ours, 
growing wheat extensively, found last season 
that one of his fields of wheat, then in a very 
raw or green state, was badly struck with rust. 
He determined to cut it at once, and did so, 
amid the laugh or pity of his neighbours, who 
thought him little belter than crazy. The ad- 
joining fields suffered little from rust, and stood 
till fully ripe; yet, at thrashing, the wheat first 
cut gave the finest wheat and the best yield." 
Mr. Hannam mentions a similar instance, in 
which it was remarked of a farmer who was 
cutting his wheat earnestly, that he " had cut 
grass, and stacked muck;" when thrashed it 
yielded four bushels per acre more than it had 
been estimated at, and was sold for the highest 
price in the market. In this country, the same 
reason, arising from bad weather or a late 
harvest, does not exist for early cutting, as 
in England; but there are others which ren- 
der the subject of little less interest here than 
there ; and the agricultural public of both coun- 
tries are certainly much indebted to Mr. Han- 
nam for the skill and perseverance with which 
he has pursued these investigations in all their 
]iarts. 

The editor of the Cultivator proceeds to no- 
1140 



tice the experiments reported by Mr. Hannam, 
and in so doing exhibits the results in a man- 
ner calculated to be more striking than the 
statements recently presented in detail. It 
appears, says the editor, that J. Hannam, Esq., 
a farmer of Yorkshire, England, made an ex- 
periment in cutting wheat by reaping at five 
different times from the same crop, with the 
following results as to the time of cutting and 
value of the produce of an acre, which he sets 
down at 28 bushels : 

No. 1 was cut a month before fully ripe. 

No. 2 was cut 3 weeks before fully ripe. 

No. 3 was cut 2 weeks before fully ripe. 

No. 4 was cut 2 days before fully ripe. 

No. 5 was cut when ripe. 

Taking 100 lbs. of grain, he found it to yield 
flour as follows : — 



No. 


Flour. 


Stconds. 


Bnn. 


1 


75 lbs. 


7 lbs. 


17 lbs 


2 


76 


7 


16 


3 


80 


5 


13 


4 


77 


7 


14 


5 


72 


11 


15 



" It thus appears," says Mr. Hannam, " that 
No. 3 (cut two weeks before it was fully ripe) 
is superior to all other varieties ; giving more 
per bushel than No. 5 (cut when fully ripe) by 
6| lbs. of flour, and again of about 15 per cent, 
on the flour of equal measure of grain. 100 lbs. 
of wheat of No. 3 makes 80 lbs. of flour; while 
100 lbs. of No. 5 yields 72 lbs.; showing an 
average of 8 per cent, in favour of grain cut 
raw. In grinding, it was found that No. 5 
ground the worst — worse than No. 1. In No. 
5 were a greater quantity of flinty particles, 
which would not pass the bolt, than in any of 
the others. The bran from No. 5 was coarse 
and heavy; while that from No. 3 was 'thin as 
a bee's wing.' " 

Mr. Hannam extended his experiments to 
some length, and sums up the advantages of 
cutting wheat two weeks before it is fully ripe, 
as follows : first, there is a gain of 15 percent. 
of flour upon equal measures ; second, a gain 
in the weight of straw of 14 per cent.; third, 
a gain of about 163 in the value of every 
quarter of wheat; and, fourth, a gain of about 
583 upon every acre producing 28 bushels. 
These calculations are founded upon the price 
of wheat in England, at the time the experi- 
ments were made. The flour produced from 
No. 3 was of a far better quality than that pro- 
duced from the grain cut at any other times. 

Produce. — The fair produce of wheat (as is 
well observed by the author of Brilish Hus- 
bandry) varies so much upon different kinds 
of land, and is so much governed by climate 
and mode of cultivation, that it is difficult to 
form any acreable estimate of the amount 
or average quality in ordinary season.s and 
under the common course of management; 
it may, however, be fairly calculated at 3 
quarters, or, perhaps, 28 bushels per imperial 
acre. To produce the latter quantity, circum- 
stances must, however, be favourable, and any 
thing beyond that may be considered large, 
though on some land 4 to 5 quarters are not 
unusual. The weight may average 60 lbs. per 
bushel. The straw is generally reckoned to 
be about double the weight of the grain ; an 
acre producing three quarters of wheat of the 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



ordinary quality may therefore be presumed to 
1 yield about 26 cwt. 

The use to which the grain is applied is al- 
most exclusively that of food in its various pre- 
parations, and chiefly in that of bread, though 
a considerable quantity — but generally of an 
inferior or damaged kind — is employed in the 
manufacture of starch. This preference is due, 
not only to the superiority of its nutritive pro- 
perties, but also to their peculiar nature ; for 
"more water is consolidated in bread made 
from barley, and still more in that from oats; 
but the gluten in wheat being in a much larger 
quantity than in any other grain, seems to form 
a combination with the starch and water which 
renders it more digestible than any other." 
{Lectures on Agr. Chcm. p. 121.) 

Since the Western States have become 
thickly settled, and so much of their rich lands 
been brought under tillage, especially since the 
completion of numerous canals and rail-roads 
have opened ready markets in the commercial 
cities, they have poured into these such vast 
quantities of wheat as have reduced the price 
and tended greatly to lessen the profits of hus- 
bandry in the old Atlantic States. At present, 
more than a third of the whole wheat crop in 
the Union is produced west of the mountains, 
and the proportion is every year rapidly in- 
creasing. By reference to the tabular state- 
ments of crops (art. Agriculture) it appears 
that Ohio stands at the head of the wheat-grow- 
ing states ; her product in 1839 having been es- 
timated at over 16,500,000 bushels. Pennsyl- 
vania stands next, having furnished that year 
upwards of 13,000,000. The produce of New 
York is estimated at over 12,000,000; and of 
Virginia, 10,000,000 for the same time. These 
four large states raised upwards of 52,000,000 
of the total amount of 84,823,272 bushels 
produced that year in the whole United States. 
The aggregate of the wheat crop of the United 
States for 1842, has been estimated at 102,317,540 
bushels. {Ellswortlis Report to Congress.) The 



Governor of Ohio, in his message, computes 
the wheat crop of that state in 1842, at no less 
than 24,000,000 bushels, of which, he thinks, 
14,000,000 may be allowed for exportation, ailer 
deducting 10,000,000 for domestic consump- 
tion. Some idea of the rapidity with which 
the wheat crop increases in the Western States, 
may be formed from the fact, that, in 1840, the 
amount of wheat shipped from Chicago to Buf- 
falo amounted to only 20,000 bushels, whilst, 
in the following year, 1841, it amounted in the 
same period to no less than 200,000 bushels. 

The United States present almost boundless 
facilities over an immense extent of fertile 
territory for raising wheat. But, great as the 
aggregate crop at present appears from the 
preceding statements, it scarcely exceeds 
that of the comparatively insignificant li- 
mits comprehended by the United Kingdom 
of Great Britain. Notwithstanding her im- 
mense domestic product of wheat, England is 
compelled to import annually many millions 
of bushels from other countries, for only a 
small portion of which is she indebted to the 
American farmers, who have for so long a pe- 
riod worn her cloths and tilled their ground 
with implements of British manufacture. In 
1841, when the imports of foreign wheat into 
the kingdom amounted to 21,604,840 bushels, 
the proportion received from her great cus- 
tomer the United States, only amounted to 
2,528,600 bushels. 

In June, 1840, Lord Palmerston, the British 
prime minister, caused letters to be addressed 
to the British consuls in various parts of North- 
ern and Southern Europe, from which wheat is 
extensively exported. These letters contained 
certain queries relating to points connected 
with the grain-growing countries and their 
markets. A great many highly interesting 
facts were elicited in the answers to these cir- 
culars, many of which have been condensed in 
the following tabular form. 



Answers from 



St. Tetersbiirg 
Risra 

Liebau - 
Odessa - 
Warsaw 
Stockholm 
Daiuzic - 
Konijsburg - 
Stettin - 
Meriiel - 

Elsinore 

Hamburg 

Rotterdam 

Antwerp 

Palermo 

Total - 

Gen'l average 



What quan- 
liiy of Wheal 
miisht b,- ex- 
pected in 
England. 



Quarters. 
192,500 

30,000 

150,000 

300,000 

1,000 

315,000 

65,000 

250,000 

5,964 

175,000 
538,000 



200,000 



2,222,464 



1 to 

7 to 

7 to 

6 to 

to 

to 35 

to 

to 45 

to 

to 

to 36 
to 46 
to 
5 to 
to 



405. 6<i. 



Answers, 

No - 

No - . 

No 

No 

To a certain extent, say - . . 
Yes, if foreign capital were employed 
No .--.-.. 

No 

No 

Might be increased one-fourth if there 
were a great demand ... 

Yes 

Probably not . . - . . 
To no great extent .... 

No 

Would increase in 3 or 4 years - 



Freight per 
Quarter. 



d. s. 

5 to 5 
9 to 

6 to 5 
to 



3 6 to 4 

3 6 to 4 

4 to 6 
4 to 5 



to 5 

6 to 5 

6 to 5 

to 2 

to 2 

3 to 



Cost per bush, 
on board of 

vessel at 
Liverpool. 



D. ctt. 

93i 

1 50 

1 325- 
1 00 
1 42 

99 

1 19^ 
1 30i 
1 22 

1 09J 
1 02 
1 2U 
1 57 
1 6U 
1 27 



I 24^^ 



Other facts elicited by these inquiries with 
respect to other countries competing with the 
agricultural interests of the United States, may 
be interesting. Among these are the following: 

It appears that in the grain-growing districts 
in Europe, the soil contiguous to seaports has 



already been extensively tilled, and cannot be 
pushed further without the aid of artificial ma- 
nures, while the bad roads from the interior 
shut them out from a competition with this 
and other countries more favourably situated. 
Thus in Russia: The corn districts are to« 
5D 1141 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



remote from the seaports for the grain to be 
ready, in season, for exportation ; the rapid in- 
crease of manufactures has withdrawn from 
tillage, &c. 

In Poland, there is a deficiency of manure, 
and scarcity of hands, and want of skill in 
cultivation. 

From Odessa, the report is that the crops are 
precarious, on account of drought; tillage is 
defective, and improvement difficult; distances 
great; no roads; the rivers unnavigable ; the 
landholders impoverished, and no improve- 
ments to be expected. 

It may also be gratifying to some to compare 
the transportation of flour, &c., from Poland 
(one of the greatest grain-growing districts) 
and the United Slates to England. 

From Poland to Dantzic, the grain is chiefly 
brought from the interior in flatboats of the 
rudest construction, similar to those in use on 
the western waters of the United States, at an 
expense of 25 cents per bushel, open to the 
weather, &c. During the voyage the wheat 
sprouts, and forms a thick mat or covering for 
the bulk. On reaching Dantzic, the boat is 
broken up and sold, the wheat taken out and 
dried in the fields, then stored in the ware- 
houses at an expense of 6 cents per bushel. 
From Dantzic to England the freight, &c., not 
including the duty, is nearly 8d. — equal to about 
15 cents per bushel ; making in all about 46 
cents per bushel. From Illinois to Liverpool 
the whole freight would be 14s. per quarter, or 
Is. 9d. — equal to 38 cents per bushel; being 
about 8 cents in favour of Illinois. There are 
costs and charges also, in both cases, which 
would probably be in favour of our export. 

In this connection, it may be interesting to 
compare a detailed estimate of the exports of 
wheat from Illinois to England, both by New 
Orleans and Canada. 

Illinois wheat, via New Orleans to Liverpool. 



Wheat, 4 J bushels, at 50 cents, is - 
Grinding and barreling (with offal) 
Freight to New Orleans 
Freight to Liverpool . . - 



«2 37 
50 
62 
66 

4 15 



which is a little less than 90 cents per bushel. 
Charges would be alike in both cases. 

View the matter in another point of light. 
Suppose the wheat or flour of the Western 
States carried through Canada, and, after the 
5th July, to pay 3s. on an imperial quarter, viz., 
(8 bushels), which is about 85 cents per bushel : 
Foreign wheat would have to pay, at the pre- 
sent sliding rule, about 60 cents per bushel. 

The United States, therefore, could succeed 
with the greatest competitor; but that compe- 
titor cannot supply 1,500,000 bushels — less 
than the surplus of some of the smaller states 
of thi<' ''^"ion produce; and, indeed, all Eu- 
rope could not supply England with more than 
18,000,000 bushels, under the most favourable 
circumstances — about three-fourths as much 
as the state of Ohio now furnishes. 

It may be remarked, too, that the crops on 
the continent are far more precarious than 
those of the United States ; and hence the con- 
tinental governments find it necessary, and are 
careful to reserve large granaries, to guard 
1142 



against such a misfortune as a failure of the 
usual harvest. Exportation thence is also for-' 
bidden in certain cases, but in the United 
States no such prohibition exists. 

While, therefore, we may look with confi- 
dence to advantages in our favour in the Bri- 
tish market, we must remember that we have 
to compete against almost unpaid labour, and 
cannot expect a great profit on our calture, un- 
less the very cheapest mode of production is 
studied. Labour (as we have before remarked) 
must doubtless fall very considerably in agri- 
cultural districts, or else farmers and planters 
cannot hire. {Ellsworth's Report.) 

With regard to the diflerent kinds of wheat 
cultivated in the United States, some are best 
adapted to one latitude and soil, some to an- 
other. The fine varieties which succeed so well 
in England and other parts of Northern Eu- 
rope, very often fail in the United States, and 
the most common difficulty with them arises 
from the circumstance of their tardy habit of 
maturing, which exposes them to rust and mil- 
dew. Seeds from the southern parts of Eu- 
rope and shores of the Mediterranean, are those 
which seem best adapted to the climate of the 
United States, since these mature very early. A 
fine red variety, now commonly known as the 
Mediterranean wheat, is being very extensively 
cultivated. It seems to have improved under cul- 
ture in the United States in the essential quali- 
ties for making flour, since the millers, who at 
first objected to it and would only purchase at 
a reduced price, now pay the same as for other 
red wheat. This wheat has been already men- 
tioned as resisting the attacks of that great 
American scourge of wheat crops, the Hes- 
sian fly. 

For the following valuable table, showing 
the exports of flour from the United States, 
during a long series of years, with the prices 
per barrel, we are indebted to Hunt's Merchant's 
Magazine. 

Exports of Flour from the United States, and Price, 
from 1795 to 1843. 



Year 


Flour. 
Barrels. 


Price per 
Barrel. 

$12 00 


Year. 


Flour. 
Barrels. 


Price per 
Barrel. 

«8 00 


1795 


687,369 


1819 


750,660 


1796 


725,194 


16 00 


1820 


1,177,036 


5 37 


1797 


515.633 


10 00 


1821 


1,056,119 


4 25 


1798 


567,558 


7 00 


1822 


877,867 


7 00 


1799 


519,265 


10 00 


1823 


756,702 


7 75 


1800 


653,052 


10 00 


1824 


996,792 


6 62 


1801 


1,102,444 


13 00 


1825 


8.')7,820 


5 37 


1802 


1,156,248 


9 00 


1826 


868,696 


5 25 


1803 


1,311,853 


7 00 


1827 


837,385 


8 00 


1804 


810,808 


7 75 


1828 


860,809 


5 50 


1805 


777,513 


13 00 


1829 


1,227,434 


5 50 


1806 


782,724 


7 50 


1830 


1,806.529 


7 25 


1807 


1,249,819 


8 25 


1831 


864,919 


5 62 


1808 


262,813 


6 00 


1832 


955,768 


5 87 


1809 


846,247 


7 50 


1833 


835,352 


5 50 


1810 


789,436 


8 25 


1834 


955,768 


5 00 


1811 


1,445,012 


10 50 


1835 


779,396 


9 00 


1812 


1,443,492 


10 75 


1836 


505,400 


7 50 


1813 


1,260,942 


13 00 


1837 


318.719 


10 25 


1814 


393,274 


14 50 


1838 


418;i61 


9 50 


I8I5 


862,739 


9 25 


1839 


92,3,121 


6 75 


1816 


729,053 


7 37 


1840 


1,897,501 


5 00 


1817 


1,479,198 


14 75 


1841 


1,032,011 


6 50 


1818 


1,157,697 


10 25 


1842 


- 


4 50 



From these tables it appears that, during the 
period 1795 to 1810, which embraced the Eu- 
ropean wars, and when the population of the 
United States averaged 5,000,000, the export* 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



of flour averaged nearly 1,000,000 barrels per 
annum, at near $10 per barrel, or an export of 
1 barrel to every 5 inhabitants. During the 
non-intercourse, from 1807 to 1811, the price 
fell very low; and in 1812 the export was re- 
sumed, and was so large that the rates again 
rose very high, so high as to check the export. 
Under the high successive tariffs of 1824-28-33, 
the export of flour declined, and with that de- 
cline prices fell; until after 1834, when debt 
and state stocks were exported in return for 
foreign goods, instead of the legitimate export 
of produce, and the rage of speculation, by 
checking agriculture, produced actual scarcity, 
which again brought up prices. The revulsion 
drove people to work, and the large crops of 
1839, assisted by a scarcity in England, caused 
a great export, which, with the 1,000,000 bar- 
rels sent forward in 1841, raised the value of 



the whole crop $1 50 per barrel, or 25 per cent, 
in that year. The surplus of those two years 
may be estimated at 2,500,000 barrels. Ac- 
cording to the census, there were produced in 
1839, in round numbers, 8,000,000 barrels of 
flour, and the product of 1840 was estimated at 
12,000,000 barrels, worth $60,000,000. The 
export of one-sixth part, or 2,000,000 barrels, 
raised the price to $6 50 in 1841, or the value 
of the crop to $78,000,000; making a dif- 
ference, in favour of the farmer, equal to 
$18,000,000 or 30 per cent. {Hunt's Mag.) 

The average price of wheat may be esti- 
mated pretty correctly from that of flour, by 
adopting the miller's rule of computing the 
price of a bushel of wheat weighing 60 lbs. at 
one-fifth the price of a barrel of flour. See 
Bread, Flour, Flx in Wheat, Grain, Grain 
Fly, «&c. 



Pahliamentart Papers relating to Wheat and other Grain. 

Statement of the Quantities of each kind of Grain imported into England from 1828 to 1841. 



WHEAT and 
WHEAT FLOUR. 


QuaDtitie* imported. 


Quantities entered for Home CoDRumption. 


Quantities remaining in Ware, 
house at the end of each Vear. 


Foreign. 


Colonial. 


Total. 


Foreign. 


Colonial. 


Total. 


Foreign. | Colonial. 


Total. 


Qr.. 


Qn. 


Qv,. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Q.^. 


Qrs. 


Qr.. 


1828 (from 15th July) 


570,799 


20,130 


590,929 


740,458 


20,021 


760,479 


32,005 


212 


32,217 


1829 


1,715,442 


10,339 


1,725,781 


1,434,096 


8,605 


1,442,701 


246,092 


1,660 


247,752 


1830 


1,592,768 


70,515 


1,663.283 


1,667,228 


60,559 


1,727,847 


143,131 


11,236 


154,367 


1831 


2,083,812 


226,158 


2,309;970 


1,369,044 


135,696 


1,506,740 


801,527 


99,925 


901,445 


1832 


345,386 


124,516 


469,902 


182,770 


193,985 


376,755 


673,673 


28,620 


702,293 


1833 


183,229 


114,330 


297.565 


1,330 


82,706 


84,030 


764,934 


57,868 


822,852 


1834 


109,734 


66,587 


176,321 


290 


64,684 


64,974 


715,132 


59,053 


774,185 


1835 


43,801 


23,104 


66,905 


124 


28,430 


28,554 


627,180 


53.978 


681,158 


1836 


234,503 


7,240 


241,743 


1,045 


29,062 


30,107 


599,463 


:-; 1,980 


631,443 


1837 


544,150 


15,792 


559,942 


210,897 


33,375 


244,272 


630,310 


14,361 


644.671 


1838 


1,355,314 


16,643 


1,371,957 


1,818,828 


29,647 


1.848,475 


24,229 


1,500 


25,729 


1839 


2,862,933 


12,772 


2,875,605 


2,698,981 


12,742 


2,711,723 


174,188 


1,494 


175,682 


1840 


2,284,289 


148,476 


2,432,765 


2,287,637 


113,799 


2,401,436 


102,845 


36,563 


139,408 


1841* - 
Total - 
BARLEY. 


2,524,443 


259,159 


2.783,602 


2,388,072 


259,736 


2,647,808 








16,450,503 


1,115,767 


17,566,270 


14,800,860 


1,075,047 


15,875,907 














1828 (from 15lh July) 


125,490 


. 


125,490 


195,075 


. 


195,075 


699 


. 


699 


1829 


305,798 


- 


305,798 


209.799 


. 


229.799 


64,979 


. 


64,979 


1830 


132,210 


. 


132,210 


48,505 


- 


48,505 


147,025 


. 


147,025 


1831 - - 


368,809 


223 


369,032 


514,395 


215 


514,610 


1,889 


. 


1,889 


1832 


101,713 


97 


101,810 


77,891 


97 


77,988 


17,504 


. 


17,504 


1833 ... 


85,221 


. 


85,221 


1,226 


- 


1,226 


98,341 


. 


98,341 


1834 


88,562 


. 


88,562 


11,071 


. 


11,071 


165,717 


_ 


165,717 


1835 


67,796 


. 


67,796 


136,853 


. 


136,853 


51,762 


. 


51,762 


1836 


83,483 


. 


83,483 


110,0.!1 


- 


110,021 


7,078 


- 


7,078 


1837 


87,791 


. 


87,791 


47,475 


- 


47,475 


37,053 


. 


37,053 


1838 


2,203 


. 


2,203 


8,192 


. 


8,192 1 11,409 


. 


11,409 


1839 


579,405 


. 


.579,405 


594,301 


. 


594,301 


1,121 


. 


1,121 


1840 


625,437 


. 


625,437 


619,801 




619,801 


9,110 


. 


9,110 


1841* - 
Total - 
OATS and OAT- 


264,460 


525 


264,985 


222,312 


525 


222,837 








2,918,.378 


845 


2,919,223 


2,816,917 


837 


2,817,754 












MEAL. 




















1828 (from 15lh July) 


147,251 


580 


147,831 


11.790 


580 


12,370 


143,606 


. 


143,606 


1829 


548,588 


61 


548,649 


189,815 


61 


189,876 


44,3,451 


. 


443,451 


1830 


511,936 


1,5.55 


513,491 


902,917 


1,555 


904,472 


25,726 


- 


25,726 


1831 


615,117 


7,099 


622,216 


348,666 


6,826 


355,492 


282,251 


233 


282,484 


1832 


31,138 


709 


31,847 


2,150 


932 


3,082 


225,175 


. 


225,175 


1833 


23,334 


_ 


23,334 


975 


. 


975 


226,384 


. 


226,384 


1834 - 


175,026 


- 


175,026 


55,620 


- 


55,620 


331,591 


. 


331,521 


1835 


113,188 


- 


113,188 


176,142 


- 


176,142 


239,688 


- 


239,688 


1836 


131,466 


- 


131,466 


97,197 


- 


97,197 


216,660 


. 


216,660 


1837 


418,885 


- 


418,885 


334,024 


- 


334,024 


253,854 


. 


253,854 ] 


1838 


55,539 


4 


55,543 


11,068 


4 


11,072 


242,199 


- 


242,199 


1839 ... 


670,453 


60 


670,513 


862,729 


60 


862,789 


15,845 


- 


15,845 , 


1840 


541.400 


4,S63 


546,263 


513,338 


3,714 


517,052 


15,011 


975 


15,986 j 


1841* - 
Total 


123,006 


8,ni9 


131,025 


20,769 


7,149 


27,918 






1 

! 


4,106,327 


22,950 


4,129,277 


3,527,200 


20,881 


3,548,081 



♦ Tb<< Returns for 1841 will be liable to alteration (although not to any considerable extent) when the Accounts 
of that year shall have been Anally adjusted. 

1143 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 





Quantities Imported. 


Quantities entered for 
Home CoDSUQiptioD. 


Quantities remaining in j 
Warehouse at ttio end • 
of each Year. 


RYE, from 15 


ForeigD. 


Colooial. 


Total. 


Foreign. 


Colonial. 


Total. 


Foreign. 


Colonial. 


Total. 




















July— 

1828 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


28,172 


- 


28,172 


144 


- 


144 


31,609 


- 


31,609 


1829 


67,392 


- 


67,392 


64,963 


- 


64,963 


26,435 


- 


26,435 


1830 


44,784 


. 


44,784 


19,189 


- 


19,189 


17,604 


. 


17,604 


1831 


93,006 


- 


93,006 


56,203 


- 


56,203 


20,703 


- 


20,703 


1832 


4,646 


- 


4,646 


60 


- 


60 


4,054 


- 


4,054 


1833 


3,370 


- 


3.370 


1 


- 


1 


5,720 


- 


5,720 


1834 


10 


. 


10 


22 


- 


22 


5,108 


- 


5,108 


1835 


. 


- 


- 


3 


- 


3 


3,450 


- 


3,450 


1836 


6,626 


. 


6,626 


18 


- 


18 


6,805 


. 


6,805 


1837 


30,711 


- 


30,711 


19,576 


- 


19,576 


12,047 


. 


12,047 


1838 


1,781 


- 


1,781 


2,517 


- 


2,517 


5,079 


. 


5,079 


1839 


153,673 


- 


153,673 


152,582 


- 


152,582 


3,036 


. 


3,036 


1840 


3,332 


- 


3,332 


1,857 


- 


1,857 


3,326 


. 


3,326 


1841 * - 

Total, 

PEAS, from 


15,600 


- 


15,600 


518 


- 


518 








453,103 


- - 


453,103 


317,653 


- - 


317,653 














15 July— 




















1828 


41,295 


1,499 


42,794 


42,269 


1,499 


43,768 


8,338 


. 


8,338 ■■ 


1829 - 


39,272 


1,140 


40,412 


35,271 


1,140 


36,411 


10,207 


. 


10,207 


1830 


32,667 


1,905 


34,572 


42,598 


1,909 


44,507 


192 




192 


1831 


58,925 


582 


59,507 


57,365 


612 


57,977 


699 


- 


699 


1832 


20,190 


8 


20,198 


16,587 


8 


16,595 


3,088 


. 


3,088 


1833 


15,879 


11 


15,890 


18,081 


11 


18,092 


315 


- 


315 


1834 


67,595 


285 


67,880 


57,417 


285 


57,702 


9,935 


- 


9,935 


1835 


23,566 


650 


24,216 


24,525 


659 


25,184 


7,705 


- 


7,705 


1836 


78,289 


10 


78,299 


80,918 


10 


80,928 


3,154 


- 


3,154 1 


1837 


111,254 


7 


111,261 


87,608 


7 


87,615 


22,929 


_ 


22,929 ! 


1838 


29,753 


95 


29,848 


11,525 


93 


11,618 


35,120 


1 


35,121 


1839 


139,734 


278 


140,012 


169,991 


279 


170,270 


3,867 


- 


3.867 


1840 


154,270 


4,216 


158,486 


155,202 


4,255 


159,457 


2,904 


. 


2,904 


1841 * - 

Total, 

BEANS, from 


132,769 


16,728 


149,497 


118,113 


14,744 


132,857 








945,458 


27,414 


972,872 


917,470 


25,511 


942,981 














15 July— 




















1828 


37,230 


- 


37,230 


72,863 


- 


72,863 


17,951 


17,951 


1829 


46,487 


. 


46,487 


61,406 


. 


61,406 


2,557 


. 


2,557 


1830 


16,909 


- 


16,909 


18,697 


. 


18,697 


808 


- 


808 


1831 


22,345 


- 


22,345 


17,678 


. 


17,678 


5,305 


- 


5,305 


1832 


27,914 


- 


27,914 


7,439 


- 


7,439 


20,962 


- 


20,962 


1833 


22,859 


. 


22,859 


6,028 


- 


6,028 


37,223 


- 


37,223 


1834 


47,756 


- 


47,756 


44,566 


- 


44,566 


38,557 


- 


38,557 


1835 


34,380 


- 


34,380 


69,824 


. 


69,824 


2,306 


- 


2,306 


1836 


93,056 


- 


93,056 


87,796 


- 


87,796 


7,374 


- 


7,374 


1837 


105,607 


- 


105,607 


109,076 


- 


109,076 


4,519 


. 


4,519 


1838 


64,358 


- 


64,358 


54,240 


- 


54,240 


14,314 


. 


14,314 


1839 


109,810 


- 


109,810 


123,597 


- 


123,597 


701 


- 


701 


1840 


129,361 


57 


129,418 


129,460 


57 


129,517 


760 - 


760 


1841 * - 
Total, 


294,532 


- 


294,532 


267,697 


- 


267,697 


i 




1,052,604 


57 


1.052.661 


1,070,367 


57 


1,070,424 







Previously to 1833, the monthly returns of the importation and consumption of foreign and colonial corn were 
collected together, in annual periods, commencing on 1st January, and terminating on 3lst December. From 1833, 
downwards, they have been made up, like the other accounts of this department, in preriods, commencing on 6th 
January in each year, and terminating on 5th January, in the year succeeding. This circumstance is necessary to 
be noted, inasmucfi as it explains why the aggregate imports and consumption of the several years, from 182S to 
1832 inclusive, as exhibited in the present statement, will be found to differ, to a small extent, from the quantities 
shown in other accounts, which have been compiled, not, as in this case, from special monthly returns of the corn 
trade, but from the ordinary records of the general commerce of the country. 

* JVote. — The returns for 1841 will be liable to alteration (although not to any considerable extent) when the 
accounts of that year shall have been finally adjusted. 



Statement of the Septennial Prices of each kind of Grain, as prepared for the Purposes of the Tithe Commission, in 

each Year, from 1835 to 1841. 



Periods of Seven Years 
ending Cbri&inus. 



1835 
1836 
1837 
1838 
1839 
1840 
1841 



d. 
Oi 
Si 
6* 
67 
9 

llf 
3f 



Average Prices per Imperial Bushel. 



d. 
IH 
llj 
Hi 

9i 
1 

3 



d. 
9 
9 

8f 

8 

9^ 

m 



Rye. 



d. 
3A 
3i 

2 

n 

6i 



6* 
10 

6i 

8 
10 
11 



d. 
9 

9i 

8i 
8 
9 
lOi 

m 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



Statement of the Total Quantities of Wheat and Wheat Flour imported into, and exported from, Cheat 
Bi-itain, in each Year, from 1697 to 1841. 



1 Years. 


Imported. 


Eicporied. 


Yeirs. 


Imported. 


Exported. 


Years. 


Imported. 


Eiported. 




Qrs. 


Qrs. 




Qrs. 


Qrs. 




Qrs. 


Qrs. 


1697 


400 


14,698 


1746 


- 


131,105 


1795 


313,793 


18,839 


1698 


1,689 


6,686 


1747 


- 


270,491 


1796 


879,200 


24,679 


1699 


486 


557 


1748 


6 


545,240 


1797 


461,767 


54,525 


1700 


5 


49,057 


1749 


382 


631,007 


1793 


396,721 


59,782 


1701 


1 


98,324 


1750 


280 


950,483 


1799 


463,185 


39,362 


1702 


- 


90,230 


1751 


3 


662,957 


1800 


1,264,520 


22,013 


1703 


50 


106,615 


1752 


- 


430,117 


1801 


1,424,765 


28,406 


1704 


2 


90,314 


1753 


- 


300,754 


1802 


647,663 


149,304 


1705 


- 


96,185 


1754 


201 


356,781 


1803 


373,725 


76,580 


1706 


77 


188,332 


1755 


- 


237,466 


1804 


461,140 


63,073 


1707 


- 


174,155 


1756 


5 


102,752 


1805 


920,834 


77,955 


1708 


86 


83,969 


1757 


141,562 


11,545 


1806 


310,342 


29,566 


1709 


1,552 


71,618 


1758 


20,353 


9,234 


1807 


404,916 


25,113 


1710 


400 


16,607 


1759 


162 


227,641 


1808 


84,889 


98,005 


1711 


- 


80,941 


1760 


3 


393,614 


1809 


455,987 


31,278 


1712 


- 


148,539 


1761 


- 


441,956 


1810 


1,567,126 


75,785 


1713 


- 


179,969 


1762 


56 


295,385 


1811 


336,131 


97,765 


1714 


16 


180,665 


1763 


72 


429,538 


1812 


290,710 


46,325 


1715 


- 


173,237 


1764 


1 


396,857 


1813 


559,000 


j Records 
\ destroyed. 


1716 


- 


75,876 


1765 


104,547 


167,126 






1717 


_ 


25,637 


1766 


11,020 


164,939 


1814 


852,567 


111,477 


1718 


. 


74,381 


1767 


497,905 


5,071 


1815 


384,475 


227,947 


1719 


20 


130,533 


1768 


349,268 


7,433 


1816 


332,491 


121,611 


1720 


- 


84,343 


1769 


4,378 


49,892 


1817 


1,089,855 


317,524 


1721 


. 


82,748 


1770 


34 


75,449 


1818 


1,694,261 


58,668 


1722 


. 


178,915 


1771 


2,510 


10,089 


1819 


625,638 


44,689 


1723 


. 


158,082 


1772 


25,474 


6,959 


1820 


996,479 


94,657 


1721 


148 


247,162 


1773 


56,857 


7,637 


1821 


707,384 


199,846 


1725 


12 


211,175 


1774 


289,149 


15,928 


1822 


510,602 


160,499 


1726 


. 


143,626 


1775 


560,988 


91,037 


1823 


424,019 


145,951 


1727 


. 


31,030 


1776 


20,578 


210,664 


182-1 


441,591 


61,680 


1728 


74,574 


3,935 


1777 


233,323 


87,686 


1825 


787,606 


38,796 


1729 


40,315 


18,993 


1778 


106,394 


141,070 


1826 


897,127 


20,054 


1730 


76 


94,530 


1779 


5,039 


222,261 


182T 


711,868 


57,323 


1731 


4 


130,650 


1780 


3,915 


221,059 


1828 


1,410,300 


76,489 


1732 


. 


202,612 


1781 


159,866 


103,021 


1829 


2,190,095 


75,097 


1733 


7 


427,425 


1782 


80,695 


145,152 


1830 


2,205,751 


37,149 


1734 


7 


498,747 


1783 


584,183 


51,943 


1831 


2,867,860 


65,875 


1735 


9 


155,280 


1784 


216,947 


89,288 


1832 


1,254,351 


289,558 


1736 


18 


118,218 


1785 


110,863 


132,685 


1833 


1,166,457 


96,212 


1737 


32 


46«,071 


1786 


51,463 


205,466 


1834 


981,486 


159,482 


1738 


3 


588,284 


1787 


59,339 


120,536 


1835 


750,808 


134,076 


1739 


23 


285,492 


1788 


148,710 


82,971 


1836 


861,156 


256,978 


1740 


5,469 


54,391 


1789 


112,656 


140,014 


1837 


1,109,492 


308,420 


1741 


7,540 


45,417 


1790 


222,557 


30,892 


1838 


1,923,400 


158,621 


1742 


1 


295,698 


1791 


469,056 


70,626 


1839 


3,110,729 


42,512 


1743 


3 


375,979 


1792 


22,417 


300,278 


1840 


2,526,645 


87,242 


1744 


2 


234,274 


1793 


490,398 


76,869 


1841 


2,923,189 


30,390 


1745 


6 


325,340 


1794 


327,902 


155,048 






1 
.i 



JVote.— This Account Includes the Trade with Ireland. 
144 6 » 2 



1145 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



Slalement of the Quantities of the several kinds of Grain and Meal imported from each Country, and 
likewise of the Quantities re-exported from the Warehouse to each Country, in each Year, from 1828 
to 1840, (omitting 1829 and 1831.) 



1 

Countries. 


WHEAT. 


Quantities imported into the Cnited Kingdom. 


1828. 


1830. 


1832. 


1833. 


1834. 


1835. 


1836. 


1837. 


1838. 


1839. 


1840. 


Russia - - . 

Sweden - - - 

Norway - - - 

Denmark 

Prussia - - - 

Germany 

Holland' - - \ 

Belgium - - J 

France - - - 

Portugal, Proper - 

Azores - 

Madeira - 

Spain - - - 

Canaries - 

Gibraltar 

Italy . - - 

Malta - - . 

Ionian Islands 

Turkey - - - 

Egypt - 

Tripoli, Tunis, Al- 
giers, and Morocco 

Cape of Good Hope - 

E. India Company's 
Territories and 
Ceylon 

British Settlements 
in Australia - 

British North Ame- 
rican Colonies 

United States of 
America 

Chili - - - 

Peru - . - 

Channel Islands 

Total 


Qrs. 

18,096 
1,303 

41,150 
251,206 
142,396 

167,025 

29,452 

22,216 

' 5,216 

I 

I 
14,415 

22,359 


Qrs. 

235,302 
2,937 

88,032 
517,844 
364,961 

76,711 

15,219 

1,141 

39,493 

'28,612 
7,268 

656 

58,963 
6,086 

'32,079 


Qrs. 

91,290 

33,548 
119,320 
43,046 

475 

1,763 

' 2,304 

1,062 
10 

1,642 

945 

25 

89,516 

6,286 
180 


Qrs. 
18,656 
357 

7,958 
87,903 
49,421 
f 276 

' 692 

41 
6 

2,696 

752 

79,410 


Qrs. 

1 

11,732 

29,826 
42,770 

1 
1 

* 1,616 

471 

1,766 

44,907 


Qrs. 

'9,758 

3,236 

11,577 

8 

111 

2,158 
6 

1 

1,107 

336 

1 

14,326 

1 


Qrs. 
1,036 

10,258 

100,199 

51,562 

3,984 

" 1,593 
4 

1 
1 

's 


Qrs. 
11,244 
251 

18,240 

315,121 

87,665 

10,741 

420 

746 

1 

' 4,483 
6,390 

257 
310 


Qrs. 
41,339 

111,499 

550,826 

312,442 

82,010 

17,396 

53,190 

15 

421 

30,264 
11,647 
5,370 
3,150 
800 

555 
20,531 


Qrs. 

371,693 

392 

360 

196,730 

740,203 

409,729 

116,480 

23,141 

278,182 

26,382 

1,561 

616 

17,741 

4,573 

335,612 

16,370 

13,928 

43,740 

1,729 

3,360 
3 

2 

27 
3,766 

"28,236 


Qrs. 

268,263 
2 

150,351 

800,508 

364,553 

50,612 

7,627 

48,350 

1,396 

46,939 

1 
149,328 
1,544 
1,960 
4,802 
2,874 ^ 

2 

8,192 

73,755 

91 

12,233 


715,242 


1,475,314 


391,417 


248,171 


133,091 


42,628 


168,647 


455,871 


1,241,460 


2,634,556 


1,993,383 


Countries. 

1 


Quantities re-eiported from the United Kingdom. 


1828. 


1830. 


1832. 


1833. 


1834. 


1835. 


1836. 


1837. 


1836. 


1839. 


1840. 


Russia - - - 

Norway - - - 

Denmark 

Prussia - - - 

Germany 

Holland - - ") 

Belgium - - ) 

France - - - 

Portugal, Proper - 

— Azores - 

Madeira - 

Spain _ - - 

Canaries - 

Gibraltar 

Italy ... 
Malta - . - 
Ionian Islands 
Cape of Good Hope - 
Mauritius 

E. India Company's 

Territories and 

Ceylon 

China - - - 

British Settlements 

in Australia 
British North Ame- 
rican Colonies 
British West Indies 
I'nited States of 

America 
Brazil - - - 
States of the Rio de 

la Plata 
Cli.annel Islands 

Total 


Qrs. 

1,849 
23,904 

1,328 

100 

4,099 
500 
53 

13 

2,996 
23,804 


Qrs. 

2,900 
20,660 

670 

820 


Qrs. 

1,677 

75,017 

147,443 

883 

450 

3,595 

175 

1,212 

63 
1,927 

3,441 


Qrs. 

C 5,187 

1 1,182 

50 

1,351 

150 

5,609 

3,966 

3,346 

304 
294 

5,971 
1,027 

1,127 

3,339 

1,577 


Qrs. 

3,772 
29 

6,296 

961 
68,891 

7,117 
3,403 
1,035 
2,404 
2,030 
5,748 

300 

1 

4,748 
308 

62 

3,420 
3,051 


Qrs. 
713 

1,283 

281 
1,083 
1,818 
111 
874 
580 

19,118 

10,540 

423 

390 

6,222 

923 

1,723 

966 

24,569 
1,200 

7,486 
1,029 

200 
3,460 


Qrs. 
10 

3,360 
2,398 

3,769 
250 

1,122 

872 
3,313 

10,393 

64,055 
6 

80,972 
114 

3,300 


Qrs. 

40 
800 

10,235 

708 

2,180 
4,437 

1,718 

99,522 
121 

87,418 
8,658 


Qrs. 

1 
530 

4,442 

1,371 
1,109 

896 
67,368 

14,530 
5,146 


Qrs. 

9 

5 
5 

3,052 

2,100 

818 

602 
1,179 


Qrs. 

11,468 
700 

2,411 , 
1,500 

5 

3,308 
470 

11,874 


58,646 


25,050 


235,883 


34,480 


113,576 


84,992 


173,934 


215,837 


95,402 


7,770 


31,745 



114(i 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



Statement of Quantities of Grain and Meal imported, and Quantities re-exported, in each Year, from 

1828 to 1840 — Continued. 



Countries. 


BARLEY. 








Quantities imported 


nto the United Kingdom. 


1 


1828. 


1829. 


IS30. 


1831. 


1832. 


1833. 


1834. 


1835. 


1836. 


1837. 


1838. 1 1839. 


1840. 




Qr,. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


4rs 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Russia 


1,824 


7,989 


4,062 


42,568 


8,820 


1,579 


1,270 






24 


338 


18,338 


4,657 


:3weden 


1,393 


5,179 


579 


1,719 


- 


27 


- 


. 


- 


- 


- 


2,499 


23,783 


Norway 


- 


143 


- 


- 


- 




- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


233 


S20 


Denmark - 


96,044 


144,262 


75,537 


115,658 


54,859 


70,651 


82,781 


65,693 


21,779 23,536 


11 


210,134 


252,037 


Prussia 


21,297 


49,615 


29,508 


60,886 


11,373 


8,734 


2,166 


823 


29,586 28,443 


469 


I39,l.'i3 


189,167 


Germany 


33,031 


55,193 


27,722 


116,928 


16,208 


4,219 


2,161 


1,267 


24,327 


24,780 


1,384 


75,694 


81,017 


Belgium - 3 


9,137 


4,182 


1,184 


12,284 


- 


?.' 


178 


7 


6,333 
735 


3,585 
404 


- 


13,057 
4,318 


5,584 


France 


3,227 


9,845 


- 


18,738 


4,381 




1 


2 


459 


3,706 


_ 


105,326 


.58,207 


Portugal, Proper 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


555 


Spain and the Ba- 




























learic Islands - 


. 


139 


- 


2,318 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


600 


677 


Canaries 


. 


. 


. 


419 




















Italy and the Ita- 




























lian Islands 


. 


- 


. 


3,003 


. 


6 


. 


. 


1 


2,696 








Malta - - - 


. 


- 


1 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


. 


1,660 


594 


Turkey 


. 


- 


. 


624 


96 


. 


. 


. 


. 


- 


- 


1,772 




Egypt - - - 


. 


. 


- 


. 




. 


. 


. 


. 


604 


. 


. 


5,676 


Cape of Good Hope 




. 


. 


1 




















East India Compa- 




























ny's Territories 




























and Cevlon 


. 


. 


. 


15 


3 


- 


. 


. 


. 


. 


1 


. 


3 


British N. Ameri- 




























can Colonies - 


. 


. 


_ 


223 


96 


















United States of 




























America - 


. 


1 
























Isles of Guernsey, 




























Jersey, Alder- 




























ney, and Man 




























(Foreign Goods) 

Total 

Total quantities') 
re-exported J 


2,718 


5,1S9 


6,598 


1,128 


- 


- 


- 


4 


262 


« 


- 


6,621 


3,66! 


168,672 


281,713 


145,119 


376,513 


95,839 


85,921 


88,561 


67,796 


83,483 


87,790 


2,203' 579,405 


625,438 


4,117 


10,297 


1,285 


642 


7,822 


3,210 


9,865 


44,365 


18,219 


10,605 


19817 620 


4,379 

1 



Statement of Quantities of Grain and Meal imported, and Quantities re-exported, in each Year from 
1828 to 1840 (omitting 1829)— Continued. 



Countries. 


OATS. 

1 


IS28. 






Quantities 


mported into ttie United Kingdom. 1 


1830. 


1831. 


1832. 


1833. 


1834. 


1835. 


1836. 


1837. 


1838. 


1839. 


1840. 




Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qr,. 


Q« 


Qrs. 


Qr,. 


Qrs. 


Qri 


Qrs 


Qr,. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Russia ... 


35,036 


122,015 


371,710 


17,696 


18,047 


13,017 


12.370 


1,731 


151,205 


I0,22S 


316,823 


167,248 


Sweden - - . 


13,601 


8,732 


20,663 


. 


1,120 


19,667 


26,78.') 


5,735 


2,307 


. 


3,604 


17,047 


Norway - - . 


- 


1 


. 


- 


480 


- 


3 












Denmark 


65,403 


118,203 


96,996 


7,992 


2,888 


79,128 


52,591 


23,321 


26,109 


3,085 


46,235 


78,919 


Prussia - . - 


12,063 


130,961 


70,597 


- 


83 


11,189 


4,051 


18,749 


99,251 


198 


99,521 


105,629 


Germany 


25,354 


68,324 


31,434 


2,273 


530 


26,717 


12,210 


36,086 


91,697 


15,879 


75,010 


114,668 


Holland - - \ 
Belgium - - i 


10,523 


39,891 


15,641 


221 


f 174 


22,835 
2,422 


5,035 


45,413 


40,082 
130 


23,681 
467 


101,336 
21,196 


50,215 
266 


France - - - 


1,508 


15,684 


7,936 


- 


- 


- 


- 


. 


80 


. 


5,640 


606 


Portugal, Proper - 


- 


- 


. 


- 


4 


- 


- 


- 


. 


. 


300 




Spain . . - 


- 


- 


30 


. 


. 


. 


20 












Italy and the Italian 


























Islands 


. 


. 


1 


. 


. 


. 


. 


_ 


5,361 


. 


_ 


83 


Cape of Good Hope 


. 


. 


1 




















East India Compa- 


























ny's Territories 


























and Ceylon 


. 


. 


. 


2 


. 


. 


. 


_ 


. 


4 


, 


4 


British North Ame- 


























rican Colonies . 


580 


1,223 


6,329 


. 


. 


. 


. 


I 










British West Indies 


. 


. 


. 


672 


















United States of 




















1 




America 


- 


. 


599 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


. 


5,306 


Channel Islands 


2,351 


1,600 




- 




- 


- 


20 


416,424 


- 


452 


745 


Total - 


166,423 


506,637 


621,940 


28,858 


23,334 


174,975 


113,067 


131,056 


53,544 670,117 


540,736 


Total quantities l 
re-exported j 


6,694 


26,140 


5,571 


83,793 


19,491 


13.446 


30,792 


56,184 


46,917 


54,424 40,205 


36,486 



JVot«.— Of the Oats re-exported, by far the largest amount went to the British Colonies, especially to those in 
the West Indies. 

1147 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



Statement of Quantities of Grain and Meal imported and Quantities re-exported, in each Year, from 

1828 to 1840 — Continued. 



Countries. 


RYE. 


Quantities imported into the United Kingdom. 


1828. 


I8i9. 


1830. I 1831. 


1832. 


1833. 


1834. 


1835. 


1836. 


1837. 


1838. 


1839. 


1840. i 




Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 1 Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Russia . - . 


12,469 


29,478 


15,625 53,911 


4,627 


3,363 


- 


- 


998 


2,105 


. 


14,030 




Sweden - . - 


. 


1,432 


333 


60 


- 


. 


- 


- 


. 


3 


- 


273 




Norway - . - 


. 


- 


. 


- 


. 


. 


. 


. 


86 


606 








Denmark 


1,154 


6,103 


1,151 


5,832 


- 


. 


- 


. 


- 


1,100 


- 


16,460 


333 


Prussia - - - 


13,909 


19,693 


21,460 


18,447 


. 


. 


. 


- 


5,542 


24,057 


1,290 


97,834 


2,932 


Germany 


2,025 


8,662 


5,785 


7,103 


. 


. 


- 


- 


- 


67 


360 


16,588 


8 


Holland - - \ 
Belgium - - j" 


- 


4,531 


153 


4,205 


- \ 


- 


- 


: 


- 


2,401 
370 


131 


6,170 
215 




France - - - 


. 


- 


- 


137 




. 


. 


. 


. 


- 


. 


1,738 




Italy and the Italian 




























Islands 


- 


- 


. 


. 


- 


. 


10 














United States of 




























America 


. 


- 


. 


1,867 


. 


6 


. 


- 


. 


. 


. 


. 


59 


Isles of Guernsey, 




























Jersey, Alderney, 




























and Man (Foreign 




























Goods) 

Total 

Total quantities \ 
re-exported S 


2 


9 


45 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


365 




29,562 65,910 


45,155 


91,565 


4,627 


3,369 


10 


- 


6,626 30,710 


1,781 


153,673 


3,332 


886' 7,861 


35,408 


36,735 


18,216 


1,521 


600 


926 


3,300 5,932 


6,080 


4,192 


1,215 



J^ote. — Of tliese re-exportations the largest amount went to Holland and Belgium, and in the years 1836, 1837, 
and 1838 to the United States. 

Statement of Quantities of Grain and Meal imported and Quantities re-exportea, in each year, from 
1828 to 1840, (^omitting 1829) — Continued. 















BEANS 


AND PEAS. 










Countries. 








Quantities 


mported into the United Kin 


Sdom. 










1828. 


1830. 


1831. 


1832. 


1833. 


1834. 


I83i. 


1836. 


1837. 


I83S. 


1839. 


1840. 




Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. 


Qrs. , 


Russia - - - 


1,642 


788 


6,418 


1,364 


146 


197 


87 


1 


3,121 


1,126 


3,104 


270 


Sweden - - - 


2,324 


516 


34 


. 


108 


2,686 


752 


222 


144 


- 


1,506 


3,688 


Norway - - . 


. 


. 


- 


. 


- 


165 


- 


34 


- 


- 


484 




Denmark 


35,796 


5,181 


3,966 


7,044 


8,599 


26,927 


13,420 


37,838 


37,010 


23,875 


29,579 


46,207, 
110,076 


Prussia - - - 


13,621 


23,931 


37,318 


14,869 


4,734 


12,131 


7,778 


44,556 


64,873 


8,656 


113,610 


Germany 


43,506 


19,063 


21,627 


15,550 


15,282 


64,455 


34,881 


79,448 


71,041 


53,951 


50,521 


74,194 


Holland - - \ 
Belgium - - j 


10,456 


1,411 


7,543 


29 


J5,104 


6,734 
518 


1,007 


8,114 
692 


21,077 

1,388 


4,776 
1,648 


19,109 
2,351 


12,684 
5 


France - - - 


1,881 


15 


1,576 


8 


- 


- 


. 


1 


9,567 


30 


28,580 


18,780 


The Azores - 


. 


- 


- 


649 


. 


- 


. 


- 


1 


- 


- 


536 


Spain . . - 


. 


2 


5 


3 


1 


1 


2 


2 


6 


7 


1 


1 


Gibraltar 


. 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


. 


- 


. 


- 


- 


390 


Italy - - 


1,936 


. 


3,691 


2,295 


4,760 


1,215 


- 


103 


8,115 


- 


8 


15,191 


Malta - . - 


. 


- 


1,031 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


313 


- 


- 


1,459 


Tripoli, Tunis, Al- 


























giers, and Morocco 


. 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


I 




Western Coast of 


























Africa - 


- 


. 


. 


- 


. 


- 


. 


- 


- 


- 


- 


57 


Egypt - 


12,904 






















1 


Cape of Good Hope - 


- 


8 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


1 






Mauritius 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


15 












E. India Company's 






















- 




Territories and 






















- 




Ceylon 


10 


1 


136 


- 


- 


35 


- 


6 


- 


55 


36 


53 


China - - - 


. 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


h 


British North Ame- 


























rican Colonies 


1,868 


1,424 


461 


8 


10 


283 


650 


4 


8 


39 


279 


4,216: 


British West Indies 


. 


. 


- 


- 


- 


- 


1 


1 


- 


- 


- 


r 


United States of 


























America 


IOC 


- 


- 


2 


















Channel Islands 


246 


185 


92 


- 


- 


280 


- 


329 


203 


39 


654 


96 


Total 


126,299 


52,533 


83,904 


41,825 


38,749 


115,635 


58,596 


171,355 


216,668 


94,207 


249,823 


237,905 


Tota' quantities ") 
le-exported j 


2,977 


677 


597 


3,011 


1,381 


072 


3,792 


2,379 


4,813 


5,389 


2,446 


1 
2,055, 



JVote.— Of these re-exportations of Beans and Peas, many went to the British North American, but by for the 
.^rgest went to the West India colonies. 
1148 



WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



Russia . . . . . 
Sweden - . . - - 
Denmark - - - - . 
Prussia - . . - . 
Germany - - - - . 
Holland - - - . " 
Belgium - - - . j 
France . - . _ . 
Portugal, Proper . - . 
Spain and the Balearic Islands 
Gibraltar - - - - - 
Italy and the Italian Islands 
Malta - . . . . 
Turkey - - - - . 

Egypt 

Western Coast of Africa - 
Cape nf Good Hope - . - 
Kast India Company's Territo- 

r.ies and Ceylon ■ - 
China . . . . . 
Uritish Settlements in Australia 

North American Colonies 

West Indies - - - 

United Slates of America 

Brazil 

Channel Islands (Foreign Goods) 

Total - . . . 



WHEAT-MEAL AND FLOUR. 



nporied into the United Kingdom. 



1828. 



Civts 

226 

2 

2,41 

6,426 

6,846 

6ft 

1,534 
4,485 



Cwts. j 

1,740 

79, 

246 

7,9.36' 

3,570, 



5,U2i 



10 
534 



7,895 

41,749 

3,541 



16,575 

1 

47,470 

64,992 



61,916 

3 

623,745 



2,660 



30,219 



48,831 

3 

114,909 



8,577 
37,292 
5,196 



21,898 
137 

40,386 

8 

34,974 

712 



36 12 

15,897 7,172 



13,026 

10 

24 

478,969 

981,467 

1 

3,753 

151,033 707,082J 194,896 151,.306 84,969 255,831 1 364,248[ 456,739 813,0!6| 7,838 



9,735 18,025 

6 125 

6,809 1,1 83 1 



1 

41,370 

122,939 

120,133 

919 

956 

883 

42 



1,677 



44,66- 



77,233 
123,119 
131,936 

3,639 
26,740 



199 

2,596 

1 

40 
5 



18,911 



Cwts. 

3,946 

39,395 1 
96,360 

66,.52SJ 

1,474 1 

6,061 

115,502 



63 

23 

10,951 

23,433 

21,795 

175 

1,070 



185 
422 
19,488 73 



68 
17,532 



1 14 

9,527 39,745 

5 

130 19,550 



1,389 13,374 20,974 12,756 



27,094 

1 

432,742 

3,251 

12,917 



Russia . . . . . 
Sweden - - . - . 
Norway - - . . . 
Denmark - . - . . 
Prussia . . . . . 
Germany - - - - . 
Holland - - - - 
Belgitiin - - - - . 
France . . . - . 
Portugal, Proper - - - 

Azores - - _ 

Madeira . . . 

Spain and the Balearic Islands 

Canaries - - - 

Gibraltar - - - - - 
Italy and the Italian Islands - 
Malta - . . . - 
Ionian Islands - - . - 
Morea and the Greek Islands - 

Turkey 

Syria and Palestine - - - 
Egypt - . . - . 
Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Mo- 
rocco . - . - . 
Western Coast of Africa - 
Cape of Good Hope - . . 
Cape Verd Islands - - - 
St. Helena . . . . 
Matiiititis - - - - - 
Isle of Bourbon . - . 

Arabia . . . . . 
East India Company's Territo- 
ries and Ceylon - . - 
Sumatra, .lava, &;c. - - - 
Philippine Islands - - - 
China . - . . . 
British Settlements in Australia 
New Zi>aland - - - - 
British NortliAmerican Colonies 

West Indies ... 

Hayti 

Cuba and other Foreign West 
Indies . - - . . 
United States of America 
Mexico ----- 
Guatemala - - - . 
Columbia - - - - - 
Brazils ----- 
States of the Rio de la Plata - 

Chili 

Peru . - - - - 

Channel Islands (Foreign Goods) 

Total . - . . 



Quantities re-exported from the United Kingdom. 



9 
21 

9 
497 



700 

2,563 

61 



1,781 
5 

408 



437 
379 



14,925 

27,776 

119 



5,709 

1,623 

52 

9 

1,980 



313 
2,514 



1,997 
23 
61 

914 

52 

11,776 

9,149 

5 

26 
86 
35 

19 

3,999 

853 

196 

48 
381 



3 

370 

20,255 

27,469 

3,119 

138 

4,591 

4,332 

87 

9,741 

41 

12 

2 

33 

14 



984 
11,676 



2,418 
37 
3 



19,719 

36,966 

16 

119 
207 



25,338 
559 
37 
64 

12,169 



1681 

■ al 

88, 

2 

13o' 
10 



1,293 
24 

208 
14 
44 
2 



2,258 

231 

46 

943 

4,901 

21 



2,949 
379 
21 
241 

1,963 

9,785 

57,776 

12 



28 

40 
74,357 
928 
72 
81 
1,55' 



2,054 

48 



232 
513 



1,152 
9,21 



2,581 

525 

9 

340 

9,365 

5,269 

79,875 

424 

530 

6,921 

32 

9 

41,328 

432 

1,683 

833 



178 

73 

1,739 

30 

105 

28 



14 
4 
5 

9 

717 
4,776 

2,039 
8,557 



2 

12 

10 

7 

1,54' 

2,790 

883 

73 

24 

5 

3 
4 



4,271 
1,533 

277 
16,422 

49,091 

133,645 

1,375 



15,780 
200 

14 

42,567 

61 

43 

84 



58,846 33,768 83,073 160,731 165,309 283,862 323,244 212,461 j 108,92oi 181,306 



728 

2,561 

5 

3,492 

9,379 

27 

2,911 

31 

11 

145 

5,331 

65,700 

181,462 

2,364 

1,752 

1,233 

62 

40 

900 

39,363 

50 

122 

67 

29 



547 

3,891 

3 

557 
3,332 



2,646 
1,081 

210 

7,776 

30 

58,202 

102,131 

1,344 

131 

600 

12 

16 
29,107 

222 
43 
53 

344 



344 
9,640 



1,357 
3,861 



1,396 
2 

56 

10,525 

2,626 

6,006 

57,288 



14 

113 

12 

1ft 

2S 

11,901 

931 

333 

26 

2,283 



10 

9 

200 

2 

240 

5 

16 

68 

7 

2 

1,462 

5 

5 

12 

50 

63 

21 

2 

40 

5| 



691 
27,199 

1,368 
15,343 

16 

5,521 

234 

19 

153 

65,151 

3,535 

4,609 

23,775 

194 



378 

•8 

5 

16 

20,848 

115 

158 

108 

<!.559 



1149 



WHEAT, COW. 



WHEAT-GRASS. 



jln Account of the total Quantities in England of each kind of Grain, Foreign and Colonial, with the 
total Amount of Duty paid upon each kind, and the average Rate thereof during the whole Period 
from July, 1828, to December, 1841. 











CORN, MEAL AND FLOUR, I 




FOREIGN CXJRN, MEAL, AND FLOUR. 


the produce of, and i 


mported from, British possessions 










out of Europe. 




Quantities charged 






Quantities charged 








with Duty for home 






with duly for home 








consumptiou, under 




Rates of Duly, 


consumption, under 




Rates of duty, 




Act 9 G. IV. c. 60, 


Amount of 


taken on the 


Act 9 G. IV. c. 60, 


Amouut of 


taken on the 




from the passing of 


Duty received 


average of the 


from the passing of 


duty received 


average of the 




the Act (ISlh Julj, 


thereon. 


whole period. 


the Act (I'ilh July, 


thereon. 


whole period. 




1823, to the 51 h 






1828), 10 the 5lh 








January, 1812. 






January, 1842. 










Per Qr. 






Per Qr. 




Qn.. 


£ 


.. d. 


Qrs. 


£ 


>. d. 


Wheal 


13,555,471 


3,779,417 


5 7 


589,012 


104,639 


3 7 


Barley . - - 
Oats . - - - 


2,826,397 


659,559 


4 8 


839 


89 


2 1 


3,534,637 


*1, 137,940 


6 5 


9,060 


303 


8 


Rye - - - - 

Peas - - - - 


319.842 


49,195 


3 1 








919.227 


266,374 


5 10 


25,872 


1,786 


1 5 


Beans - - - - 


1,071,369 


371,698 


6 11 


57 


1 


6 


Indian corn 


140,164 


26,940 


S 10 


8,365 


456 


1 I 


Buckwheat 


40,024 


12,357 


6 2 

Per CwL 






Per Cwt. 




Cwt.. 




.. d. 


Cwts. 




>. d. 


Wheat meal and flour 


4,303,981 


428,083 


2 


1,704,528 


81,479 


11 


Oatmeal . . . 


1,422 


253 


3 7 


18,877 


932 


1 



Statement of the Decennial Fluctuations in the 
Price of Wheat in England, from 1646 to 1815; 
from 1816 to 1828; and from 1829 to 1841; 
exhibiting the highest and lowest annual Average 
in each Decennial Period and the per-centage 
Amount of Difference. 







Annuil 


Average 










Per cent. 


Periods. 








Diflference. 


Highest. 


Lowest, 






1. rf. 


I. d. 






'1646 to 


1655 


77 10 


23 9 


227- 




1656 " 


1665 


67 9 


37 1 


82- 




1666 " 


1675 


62 10 


33 


90- 




1676 " 


1685 


55 


34 9 


58- 




1686 " 


1695 


61 11 


23 


169- 




1696 " 


1705 


65 


26 11 


141- 




1706 " 


1715 


71 11 


23 9 


202- 




1716 " 


1725 


44 5 


31 9 


40- 


1st period < 


1726 " 


1735 


49 11 


24 4 


105' 




1736 " 


1745 


46 5 


22 9 


104- 




17-16 " 


17.55 


40 10 


29 8 


37- 




1756 " 


1765 


55 


27 7 


99- 




1766 " 


1775 


59 1 


41 10 


41- 




1776 " 


1785 


54 3 


34 8 


56- 




1766 " 


1795 


75 2 


40 


87- 




1796 " 


1805 


119 6 


51 10 


130- 




^1806 " 


1815 


126 6 


65 7 


92- 


2d period - 1816 ' 


1888 


96 11 


44 7 


117- 


3d period - 1829 ' 


1841 


70 8 


?i 39 4 


79- 



WHEAT, COW (Mclampyrum, from melas, 
black ; and pyros, wheat). A genus of branched, 
spreading, annual, nearly smooth herbs, grow- 
ing to the height of twelve or eighteen inches. 
The seeds, which resemble grains of wheat in 
shape and colour, turn black in drying. There 
are, in England, four indigenous species of 
cow-wheat, namely : — 

1. Crested cow-wheat (M. cristatum), which 
grows in woods and thickets, and sometimes in 
corn-fields, flowering in July. Flower rather 
small, not quite closed, variegated with cream 
colour and light purple; the palate yellow. 
The seed-vessel is a crescent-shaped capsule, 
containing two large seeds in each cell. 

2. Purple cow-wheat {M. arvense). This 
species grows in corn-fields on a light soil, and 
ilowers in July. Stem 1^ foot high, purplish, 
acutely quadrangular; the branches more up- 
right than in the foregoing. Leaves lanceolate, 

1150 



rough-edged. Spikes long, many-flowered. 
Bractes loosely spreading, deeply pectinated or 
pinnatifid, the upper ones entirely, and the 
lower ones partially, coloured of a delicate 
purplish rose colour. The flowers are large 
and scentless. The seeds are two or three in 
each capsule, but one is often abortive. This 
is one of the most beautiful of English wild 
plants. It will grow from fresh seeds in a dry 
garden, and is well worthy of cultivation. 

3. Common yellow cow-wheat (M. pratense). 
PI. 7, q. This is a very common species in 
woods and bushy places, especially on clay or 
loamy soil. It flowers in July and August. 
Stem smooth, with several wide-spreading 
branches. Leaves bright green, lanceolate. 
Flowers axillary, solitary, opposite, turned in 
pairs to one side. The capsules have a curved 
point. Cows are reported to be fond of this 
plant; and Linnceus says the best and yellow- 
est butter is made where it abounds. 

4. Wood cow-wheat {M. sylvaiicum). This 
species grows in alpine woods, especially in 
forests of fir. It agrees with the last in gene- 
ral habit, but is rather smaller, especially the 
flowers, and the capsule is less pointed. 

Two or three species of cow-wheat are 
found in the United States. 

WHEAT-GRASS (Tritirum). Of this ge- 
nus, to which belongs our cultivated wheat, 
there are five species indigenous to England. 

1. Sea rushy wheat-grass {T. jtmceum),v/hich 
is frequent on the sandy sea-coast, is a pe- 
rennial, and flowers in July. The root, with 
its widely creeping, numerous woolly fibres, 
is well calculated for binding the loose sand, 
which purpose it serves in common with Ely- 
nms arenarius, Arundo arenaria, &c. The whole 
plant is glaucous and rigid, like those grasses. 
Stem 12 or 18 inches high, simple, inclining, 
smooth, even and polished, tingetl with a bright 
violet hue below, striated above. Leaves in- 
volute, sharp-pointed. 

2. Creeping wheat-grass, or couch-grass (T. 
repens). PI. 10, i. 'I'his is a common pest 
everywhere, in waste as well as cultivated 
land. The long-jointed, creeping root-stock, or 



WHEAT-GRASS. 



WHEEL. 



rhizome, strikes so deeply and widely as to be 1 
verv difficult of extirpation. It is, in fact, an 
underground stem, vivacious, and consequently 
shooting up stems and leaves at every joint. 
The stem above ground is slender, 2 feet high, 
and leafy. Leaves linear, flat, of a dull, some- 
what glaucous green, most numerous on the 
lower part of the stems. But the plant is so 
well known that it requires no description. 
Forking out the roots after the plough is doubt- 
less the best mode of extirpating this noxious 
weed ; but the process must not be discontinued 
while a particle of the root-stock is suspected 
to remain in the soil, as the least portion will 
grow, and the land being so much broken and 
loosened by the operation, gives double encou- 
ragement for the rapid growth of the plant. It 
does not thrive well when combined with other 
grasses, but is naturally more common in 
hedges. The root-stock contains a large pro- 
portion of nutritive matter; it is esteemed 
abroad for feeding horses. At Naples the root- 
stocks are collected in large quantities for this 
purpose, and brought to market. The nutritive 
matter from the leaves contains an excess of 
bitter extractive and saline matters. Dogs eat 
the leaves, and also those of the Holcus avena- 
cens, to excite vomiting; hence it is sometimes 
called dog's grass, and in other places bears 
the name of quitch or quicks. See Couch. 

3. Fibrous-rooted, or bearded wheat-grass 
(T. caninum). This differs essentially from 
the common couch-grass last described, in 
having the root fibrous, without a rhizome. It 
grows in woods and shady hedges on a chalky 
or limestone soil. The stems are 2 feet high, 
very smooth. Leaves nearly upright, lanceo- 
late, taper-pointed, thin, flat, bright green, rough 
on both sides. As this grass yields a large 
supply of early spring herbage, and produces 
a sufficiency of seeds, which vegetate quickly 
on all soils except such as are tenacious or re- 
tentive of moisture, it might be cultivated to 
advantage on soils of an inferior quality in- 
stead of rye-grass. But for soils of the best 
quality it does not, as yet, uphold a sufficient 
claim, the awns of the spike being objectiona- 
ble, and the produce of the latter-math very in- 
considerable. 

4. Crested wheat-grass (T. cristalum), a na- 
tive of Scotland. The roots of this species 
consist of several long, strong woolly fibres, 
suited to a sandy soil. The culms are ascend- 
ing, 12 or 18 inches high, simple, rigid, slen- 
der, leafy ; hairy at the top. This grass seems 
well adapted, from its comparative merits, for 
culture on light heath soils ; the produce of 
early herbage in the spring being superior to 
most of the alpine grasses, or those which 
affect sandy dry soils. The latter-math is pro- 
ductive, and very nutritious. . It flowers about 
the second week of July, and the seed is ripe 
about the end of August. 

5. Dwarf sea wheat-grass (T. loliaceum). 
This is an annual species, growing on the 
sandy sea-coast, flowermg in June and July. 
The root is formed of many long downy fibres. 
Stem rigid and wiry, branched from the bottom, 
generally 2 or 3 inches high, but various in 
luxuriance, leafy, very smooth, and polished. 



erect or decumbent. Leaves linear, acute, 
nearly smooth, involute when dry. 

WHEEL. A circular piece of wood, me- 
tal, or other substance, that revolves on an 
axis. It consists of three principal parts, 
the nave, heel, or the centre ; the spokes or 
radii, and the periphery or ring. The strength 
of the wheel depends much on the framing 
and the arrangement of the spokes, every one 
of which should stand perpendicularly to the 
nave. In England and other parts of Europe, 
the elm is considered the best wood for making 
naves, as it bears the cutting of the mortices 
truer than any other. See Elm. In making 
wheels, after they are loosely put together, they 
are either left to season in a current of air for 
some weeks, or they are exposed to a heat of 
140° Fah. in a kiln. After this they are exa- 
mined, and if every thing is correct, the tire or 
iron hoop is put on, whether made of one hoop 
or separate pieces. Some years since a patent 
was taken out in England by Mr. T. Jones for 
making iron wheels, many of which are now 
in use. These wheels are not conical, nor what 
is termed dished, but cylindrical, which enables 
them to run lighter and also prove less destruc- 
tive to roads. They are not heavier than 
wooden wheels, they require less draught, and 
are more durable. Some improvements have 
been made on Mr. Jones's wheel by Mr. Wil- 
liam Howard, but the merits of this have not 
yet been fully proved. 

The utility of wheels to carriages may be 
said to be twofold ; namely, by diminishing or 
more easily overcoming the resistance or fric- 
tion from the carriage, and more easily over- 
coming obstacles in the road. In the first the 
friction on the ground is transferred, in some 
degree, from the outer surface of the wheel to 
its nave and axle, and in the latter they serve 
easily to raise the carriage over obstacles and 
asperities met with on the roads. In both 
these cases the height of the wheel is of mate- 
rial consideration ; as the spokes act as levers, 
the top of an obstacle being the fulcrum, their 
length enables the carriage more easily to sur- 
mount them, and the greater proportion of the 
wheel to the axle serves more easily to dimi- 
nish or to overcome the friction of an axle, as 
has been shown by Jacob in his work on IVheel 
Carriages. 

Carriages with four wheels are much more 
advantageous than carriages with two wheels, 
as carts ; for with two wheels, it is plain, the 
tiller horse carries part of the weight in one 
way or other; in going down hill the weight 
bears upon the horse, and in going up hill the 
weight falls the other way and lifts the horse, 
which is still worse. Besides, as the wheels 
sink into the holes in the roads, sometimes on 
one side, sometimes on the other, the shafts 
strike against the tiller's sides, which destroys 
many horses ; moreover, when one of thf 
wheels sinks into a hole or rut, half the weight 
falls that way, which endangers the overturn- 
ing of the carriage. 

With respect to the utility of broad wheei,s 
in amending and preserving the roads, it ha;i 
been so long and generally acknowledged as to 
have occasioned the legislature to enforce their 

1151 



WHEEL-PLOUGH. 



WHORTLEBERRY. 



nse. At the same time the proprietors and 
drivers of carriages seem to be convinced, by 
experience, that a narrow-wheeled cart is more 
easily and speedily drawn by the same number 
of horses than a broad-wheeled one of the same 
burden: probably because they are much 
lighter, and have less friction on the axle. 

WHEEL-PLOUGH. See Plough. 

WHEY. A provincial term applied to the 
serous part of the milk, from which the curd 
has been separated. 

Whey, when new and of a pale green colour, 
forms an agreeable beverage, and with oatmeal 
makes an excellent gruel or porridge. Left till 
it gets sour, it undergoes the vinous fermenta- 
tion as readily as buttermilk. Among the Tar- 
tars and Scythians a spirituous liquor is pre- 
pared from milk which has undergone fer- 
mentation. 

Whey is divided into two sorts, green and 
•white; the former escaping readily from the 
curd, while the latter is freed from it by means 
of pressure. There are different methods of 
extracting the whey. In some dairies the whole 
whey, when taken from the cheese-tub, is put 
into pails or other vessels, where it remains 
for about 24 hours ; when it is creamed, and 
the whey is applied to the use of calves and 
pigs, which are said to thrive as well on it 
after the cream has been taken from it as be- 
fore. The cream, when skimmed off the whey, 
is put into a brass pan and boiled, and after- 
wards set in pans or jars, where it remains till 
a sufficient quantity for churning is procured, 
which in large dairies happens generally once, 
but sometimes twice, in the week. In Ayr- 
shire whey is given to horses. See Dairy and 
Milk. 

WHEY BUTTER, as its name implies, is 
butter made from the whey which is taken from 
the curd, after the milk is coagulated for the 
manufacture of cheese. It is chiefly made in 
those counties where cheese is manufactured, 
and where it forms no inconsiderable part of 
the profits of the dairy. In the county of Derby, 
more butter is said to be made from whey than 
from the cream of milk, or from milk churned 
altogether. A similar preparation in the United 
States goes under the names of cottage cheese, 
schmeer case, &c. 

WHIN, or GORSE. See Furze. 

WHISKY. A spirit obtained by distilla- 
tion from corn, sugar, or molasses, though 
generally from the former. Whisky is the 
"national spirit," if we may so term it, of 
Scotland and Ireland; but that distilled in the 
former is generally reckoned superior to that 
oi" the latter. 

WHITE CROPS. A term used in England 
to designate crops of grain, such as wheat, 
barley, oats, &c. 

WHITE-ROT {Hydrocotyle ; from hydor, wa- 
ter, and rofyle, a cavity; in reference to the 
plants growing in moist situations, and the 
leaves being hollowed like cups). One spe- 
cies only is indigenous, the common white-rot 
or marsh penny-wort (H. vulgaris), which grows 
very frequent on moist heaths, boggy com- 
mons, and the margins of little clear rivulets. 
It is perennial in habit, flowering in May or 
June. The roots are fibrous ; stems creeping 
!152 



to the extent of 2 or 3 feet, slender, smooth, 
often subdivided, quite prostrate. Leaves soli- 
tary or aggregate, on upright, simple foot-stalks, 
2 or 3 inches high ; orbicular, peltate, smooth, 
cloven at the base. Umbels very small^ of di- 
minutive white or reddish, nearly sessile flow- 
ers. Fruit somewhat wrinkled, compressed. 
This herb is acrid, and, probably, like others 
of the umbelliferous tribe growing in wet 
places, poisonous. But whether it causes the 
rot in sheep, and, indeed, whether these ani- 
mals ever touch it, is doubtful. Too moist a 
pasture is known to produce that disease, and 
there the Hydrocotyle is genc4"ally to be found. 
See Rot. 

WHITE-THORN. See Hawtiiorx. 

WHITE-TOP (Jgrostis alba). See Herd's 
and Ykllow-Top. 

WHITLOW- GRASS (Draba, from drabe, 
acrid, biting; alluding to the taste of the 
leaves). Some of the species of this genus 
are very pretty, being well adapted for orna- 
menting rock-work or growing in pots among 
other alpine plants. A mixture of loam and 
peat suits them best; and they increase with 
facility, either by dividing at the root or by 
seeds. There are in England five native spe- 
cies : the common whitlow-grass (D. verna); 
the yellow alpine whitlow-grass (Z>. aizoides); 
the simple-haired whitlow-grass (D.hirta); the 
twisted-podded whitlow-grass (D. incana) ; and 
the speedwell-leaved whitlow-grass (D. mura- 
lis). The leaves are undivided; the flowers 
either white or yellow. 

WHORTLEBERRY {Vaccinium). A genus 
of shrubs mostly of very humble growth, with 
simple, alternate, evergreen, or deciduous 
leaves. Flowers stalked, solitary or aggre- 
gate, reddish or white, very elegant. Berries 
blue, black, or red, acid and eatable. The ge- 
nus is chiefly American, and the foliage turns 
red in decay. All the species are well worth 
cultivating, some of them for the sake of their 
fruit, some for curiosity, and others for orna- 
ment. The different kinds of whortleberry and 
bilberry succeed well in peat soil or very 
sandy loam. Some of them grow best in moist 
situations, and others in dry. They may be 
raised from root suckers, creeping roots, trail- 
ing rooting stems, or from seeds. There are 
four indigenous species, namely: — 

L In England the black whortleberry or bil- 
berry ( V. mirlyllus), is a shrub growing on stony 
heaths, and in woods where the soil is turfy, 
chiefly in mountainous countries, abundantly 
flowering in May. The stem is bushy, from 1 to 
2 feet hi(;h, with irregular, smooth, green, leafy, 
angular branches. Leaves stalked, ovate, ser- 
rated, about an inch long, bright green, smooth, 
thin, delicate, and veiny; deciduous. Flowers 
on simple, axillary, solitary, drooping stalks. 
Corolla ovate, bright red, with a waxy trans- 
parency. Berries bluish-black, of 5 cells, acid, 
but not agreeable nor wholesome except when 
dressed. They are, nevertheless, eaten raw in 
some countries with boiled cream and sugar. 
The leaves contain a good deal of tannic acid, 
and have been substituted for those o{ Uva ursi, 
as an astringent medicine, but are very inferior 
to them. 

1. Bog whortleberry or great bilberry (F 



WHORTLEBERRY. 



WILLOW. 



wUginosum), grows on boggy, mountainous 
heaths, and is common in the Highlands of Scot- 
land. It flowers in May. Taller than the pre- 
ceding, with round branches. Leaves obovate, 
entire, smooth, deciduous. Flowers several 
together, flesh-coloured. Berries large, bluish- 
black, less acid, and less wholesome than the 
former. 

3. Red whortleberry, or cowberry (F. vilis 
idaa.) This species grows on dry, stony, turfy 
heaths, or in mountainous woods, in many 
parts of Scotland, Wales, and the north of 
England. It is plentiful in Derbyshire. It is 
an evergreen, flowering in June. The roots 
are creeping; stems erect, 3 or 4 inches high, 
with a few irregular, wavy, leafy, downy 
branches at the summit. Berries globose, 
deep red, astringent, and acid, with much bit- 
terness, which they lose by immersion for some 
hours in water before they are made into pies, 
rob, or jelly. In the latter state this fruit is 
excellent for sore throats, as well as for eating 
with venison or other roast meat, as is prac- 
tised generally in Sweden. The leaves of this 
species are often mistaken for those of Uva insi. 
They contain much astringent matter, and are 
little inferior to Uva nrsi as a medicine. 

4. Marsh whortleberry, or cranberry (F. o.ry- 
coccus). This species grows in clear, watery, 
turfy bogs, among mosses. The roots are 
creeping, with many long fibres. Stems slen- 
der, wiry, trailing, and creeping, with numerous 
leafy branches. Leaves ovate, entire, smooth, 
revoliUe, acute, perennial. Flowers very ele- 
gant, drooping, on simple red stalks, several 
together at the end of each branch. Berries 
spotted in an early state, finally deep red, very 
acid, highly grateful to most people in tarts or 
other preparations with sugar; though in 
Sweden they serve only for the acid liquor to 
boil silver plate in, to eat away the minute ex- 
ternal particles of the copper alloy. 

Mr. Nultall enumerates twenty-five species 
of whortleberry, or huckleberry, natives of 
the United States, 17 of which are deciduous, 
and 8 evergreens. The following is his enu- 
meration: 

1. Leaves deciduous. 

1. Vacciniunistamhieum. Berries large, partly 
pyriform, and green when ripe ; bitter and 
scarcely edible. 2. album. 3. arbormm. The 
largest species of the genus in North America; 
branches divaricated; flowers partly as in V. 
stamincum; berries rather dry but sweet, with 
a granular pulp. 4. dumosnm. Very low, and 
running profusely; berries perfectly black to 
appearance, conspicuously crowned by the 
persistent calyx. 5. frondosnm. Berries and 
under side of the leaves glaucous; fruit large 
and rarely copious; agreeable, but quickly de- 
liquescent, and subject to be infested by the 
larva of insects. 6. pallidum. 7. rcsinosum. 
Flowers reddish, angular. Fruit not much es- 
teemed. 8. corymbosum. Fruit subacid, and 
agreeable, as well as that of the following. 
9. nmocnum. 10. virgatum, 11. fuscatum. 12. 
galezans. 13. ligustrinum. 14. tenellum, some- 
times called sugar-huckleberries, small and 
rather too saccharine, but a very agreeable 
fruit, brought in great quantities to the Phila- 
145 



delphia market. 15. uliginosum. The European 
whortleberry. 16. myrtilloides. 17. ccBspitosum. 

2. Leaves sempervirent. 

18. Vitisidcea. Berries scarlet, farinaceous, 
and insipid. A small subalpine species, indi- 
genous also to the north of Europe. 19. myr- 
tifolium. 20. crassifoliwni. A variety probably 
of the following. 21. nitidum. Branches pro- 
cumbent and repent. From Virginia to Georgia. 
22. tttyrsiniles. 23. buxifolium. 24. ovatiim. 25. 
obtimim. These two last are indigenous to the 
northwest coast. 

Vaccinium is a North American genus, with 
the exception of 3 species in Europe, 1 in Ja- 
maica, 1 in the island of Taheiti, in the Pacific, 
1 indigenous to Madeira and Cappadocia, and 
3 in Japan. 

Thespecies firstnamedby Mr.Nuttall,is what 
is commonly called in the Middle States squaw 
huckleberry and deerberry, the stems of which 
are low. The 5lh species, or leafy vaccinium, is 
commonly called blue huckleberry, and blue- 
tangles. The stems grow from 2 to 5 feet high. 
The large and dark blue berries of this species 
are a very agreeable fruit. The 7th species, or 
resinous vaccinium, is commonly known in the 
Middle States by the appellation of black huckle- 
berry ; the fruit of this has larger seeds than, 
the species last described, and, though pleasant, 
is not so much esteemed. The Sth species, or 
corymbose vaccinium, is what is known in the 
Middle States as the swamp, or tall huckleberry, 
a stout shrub, growing from 5 to 10 feet high, 
yielding abundantly large berries, one-third of 
an inch in diameter, purplish-black when ripe. 
Some other species, especially the F. fuscatum, 
and F. anioenum, are confounded with this by 
some naturalists. The 14th species is also called 
the Pennsylvania vaccinium, and commonly the 
sugar-huckleberry. The stem of this is from 1 
to 2 feel high, and much branched. The berries 
are middle-sized and covered with a little sil- 
very powder or bloom when mature. The pro- 
duct is very abundant and the fruit sweet and 
pleasant. 

In Kent county, Delaware, a new species or 
variety of whortleberry has been recently 
discovered, the fruit of which is of a beautiful 
rich white colour with a yellowish tinge. The' 
flavour is extremely pleasant, and free from the 
least harshness or acerbity. They are of course 
exempt from the objection tc the common 
kinds, that of staining the teeth and lips. 

In the valley of the Columbia river a new 
species of bushberry has been discovered^, 
called Pambina. 

I WIKES. A provincial term in England, 
signifying temporary boundaries or marks, sei 
up to divide swath, to be mown, such as boughs 
in the common fields, or meadows. Also boughs 
set upon haycocks for tithes, &c. 

WILD OATS. A name given to the tall 
oat-like soft grass {Hohus avenaccus). A noxi- 
ous weed in arable lands. See Holcus. 
WILD PEAR TREE. See June Behrt. 
WILLOW (Salix : from sal, near, and Ih, 
water (Celtic) ; in allusion to the place of its 
growth : or from satire, to leap, because of the 
rapidity of its growth). An extensive genus 
of well-known useful and ornamental trees 
5E 1153 



WILLOW 



WILLOW. 



and shrubs. They all delight to grow in 
swampy places, and are increased by cuttings, 
though some of the more rare alpine kinds 
root with difficulty. There is no tribe of trees 
of such various magnitude as the willows, from 
the large white willow to the minute Salix hcr- 
bacea, six of which may be placed between two 
leaves of a duodecima, roots, stems, leaves, 
and flowers. Many of the species of willow, 
under the names of osiev and sallow, are ex- 
tensively grown for the manufacture of basket- 
rods ; the best sorts for which are the great 
round-leaved sallow (S. caprca) and the com- 
mon osier (5. viminalis). The branches of 
some of the species are used as stakes, poles, 
handles to rakes, hoes, and a great variety of 
economical purposes. Loudon (jlrb. Brit.) says, 
"In the north of Europe the bark of <S. alba is 
used for tanning leather, and for dyeing yarn 
of a common cinnamon colour; and the leaves 
and young shoots are given to cattle in a green 
state, or dried like the twigs of the birch, and 
laid up for winter fodder." The bark, how- 
ever, is less valuable than that of some of the 
other species. The leaves of the least willow 
(S. herbaceu), soaked in water, are employed in 
Iceland for tanning leather. (Paxion's Bot. 
Diet.) The arrangement of the species of 
willows is a matter of considerable difficulty, 
as well as their technical discrimination. 
Among the numerous species of willows there 
are only a few which are cultivated for farm 
purposes: of these we shall enumerate and 
describe the following: — 

1. The long-leaved triandrous willow {S. 
tiiandra). This tree is very common in wet 
woods, hedges, and osier grounds. It is of an 
upright form, rising naturally, when not in- 
jured, to the height of 30 feet; towards autumn 
casting the bark of its trunk and larger branches 
in hmad, solid portions, cracking angularly 
asuniler, like the plane tree. The young 
branches are erect, long, tough, and pliant, 
smooth, leafy, brownish, somewhat brittle at 
their joint or insertion. Leaves linear-oblong, 
serrated, smooth, rather unequally sloping at 
the ba.se. The narrower-leaved willows gene- 
rally come under the denomination of osiers, 
of which this is one of the most valuable. It 
is cultivated for white basket-work, producing 
rods 8 or 9 feet long, tough and pliant, even 
when stripped of their bark, and very durable. 
They are cut. down every year. There are 

■several varieties of this species; one, called 
the French willow, is cultivated in Sussex and 
In the eastern parts of England ; it is more 
slenderinform,and only about 12 or 15 feet high. 

2. Bedford willow (S. RusselUana). When 
this tree was first recommended for cultivation, 

^by the name of the Leicestershire, or Dishley 
wihow, it was regarded with scorn as " only 
the crack willow" (S. fragilis), a sort noto- 
riously useless. This ignorance and prejudice 
are now removed, and this willow is found the 
most profitable for cultivation of any species 
of the genus, for the value of its timber as 
well as bark, the rapidity of its growth, and 
the handsome aspect of the tree. This spe- 

•cies of willow was first brought into notice by 
<he la'.e Duke of Bedford, who engaged an 

1154 



able chemist, Mr. Biggin, to make experiments 
upon it. It was found to contain in its bark 
more of the tanning principle than any other 
tree of England, except the oak. The bark 
also contains the largest quantity oi salicina, a 
salt which has been found useful as a substi- 
tute for the quinia and cinchona in agues, and 
which is much less liable to excite irritation 
in the stomach than the salts of the cinchona 
It is of great importance that the distinctions 
between this willow and the crack willow (& 
fragilis) should be clearly pointed out, on ac- 
count of the wide diff"erence in their qualities 
and value. This tree is more handsome than 
the crack willow in its mode of growth, as well 
as altogether of a lighter or brighter hue. The 
branches are long, straight, and slender, not 
angular in their insertion, like S. fragilis; and 
the trees, when stripped of their leaves, may 
always be distinguished by these marks. They 
are polished, very tough, flexible, round, and 
smooth. Leaves lanceolate, tapering at each 
end, serrated throughout, and very smooth. 
Those of S. fragilis are ovate-lanceolate; the 
foot-stalk, also, is longer than the scale, whilst 
in S. fragilis it is so short that the leaf is nearly 
sessile. In both it is glandular or leafy. 

3. Bitter purple willow (S. ptirpurea). This 
is a shrub growing in low meadows, about the 
banks of rivers and ditches, but not common. 
The trunk is 3 or 4 feet high, with long, slen- 
der, very smooth branches, spreading widely, 
and, if not supported, trailing on the ground, 
of a rich and shining purple, with a somewhat 
glaucous hue. Leaves partly opposite, obovate- 
lanceolate, serrated, very smooth, narrow at the 
base. This is a very valuable osier for fine 
basket-work, but more especially for platting 
into low, close fences, to keep out hares and 
rabbits; the leaves and bark being intensely 
bitter, those animals will not touch either. The 
twigs, moreover, are so long, tough, and flexi- 
ble, that they may be interwoven into any 
shape, and kept very close to the ground, as 
they always retain their horizontal mode of 
growth. Such a fence is scarcely inferior to 
one made of wire, and is, perhaps, more dura- 
ble, as continually producing young shoots, to 
supply the place of those that decay. It is im- 
portant to distinguish this useful and elegan* 
willow from that to be next described. The 
bark contains much salicina. 

4. The rose willow (S. helix) grows in 
marshes, osier holts, and about the banks of 
rivulets. It is a tree o& humble growth, erect, 
about 10 feet high, smooth in every part, alto- 
gether of a lighter hue than the last. The 
branches not trailing, but upright, smooth, and 
polished, of a pale yellowish or purplish ash 
colour, tough, and pliable, less slender and 
elongated than the foregoing species, though 
useful for the coarser sorts of basket-work. 
Leaves partly opposite, oblong-lanceolate, 
pointed, slightly serrated, very smooth, linear 
towards the base. Their colour a light, rather 
glaucous green, turning blackish in drying. 
The leaves and twigs are less bitter than the 
former, and the greater size of the trunk, as 
well as branches, renders this species fit for 
several purposes which that is not. It also 



WILLOW. 



WILLOW-HERB. 



makes a better figure in plantations, and the 
roots give more solidity to the banks of rivers 
or ditches. 

5. Common white willow (S. alba). This is 
a tall tree, whose bark is thick, full of cracks, 
useful for tanning ; and, as yielding much sali- 
cina, good also for the cure of agues, though 
inferior in quality to that of the true Bedford, 
or Huntingdon willow. The bark is called 
cortex saligmcDi, and an gliranuni by some writers. 
The branches are numerous, spreading widely, 
silky when young. Leaves all alternate, ellip- 
tic-lanceolate, pointed, serrated, silky on both 
sides; the lowest serratures glandular. There 
is a variety which is very superior in the 
value of the wood and bark, and the rapid 
growth as well as handsome aspect of the 
tree, to the original species. See Osier and 
Sallow. 

The willow genus contains more than 130 
species, chiefly distributed over the northern 
parts of Europe and America. Many of the 
species are alpine. Only 4 have as yet been 
found indigenous to South America, whilst in 
North America botanists enumerate upwards 
of 25 indigenous kinds. Some of these are 
mere shrubs. 

The black willow {S. nigra) is the most com- 
mon of the American willows, and the most 
analogous to that of Europe. It is less multi- 
plied in the Northern and Southern than in the 
Middle and especially in the Western States. 
It is found on the banks of the great rivers, 
such as the Susquehanna and the Ohio, and is 
called black willow, or simply willow. 

The black willow is rarely more than 30 or 
35 feet high and 12 or 15 inches in diameter. 
It divides at a small height into several diver- 
j^ent but not pendent limbs, and forms a spacious 
summit. The leaves are long, narrow, finely 
denticulated, of a light green, and destitute of 
stipuls. In the uniformity of its colouring the 
foliage of this species differs from that of the 
European willow, the lower surface of which 
is glaucous. 

Upon the trunk the bark is grayish and fine- 
ly chapl; upon the roots it is of a dark brown, 
whence may have been derived the specific 
name of the tree. The roots afford an in- 
tensely bitter decoction, which is considered 
in the country as a purifier of (he blood, and 
as a preventive and a remedy for intermittent 
fevers. 

The wood is white and soft, and the branches 
are easily broken from the tree. Neither the 
wood nor the twigs are applied to any useful 
purpose. (Michaiix.) 

Michaux describes two other species of Ame- 
rican willow. One, from being found on the 
shores of Lake Champlain, he calls Cham- 
plain willow (S. ligustriva). It grows 20 to 25 
iect high, with 7 or 8 inches diameter, and very 
much resembles the black willow, except that 
the leaves are longer and narrower. The other 
is the shining willow (&'. lurida), so called on 
account of the brilliancy of its foliage. This 
Michaux found onlj in the Middle and North- 
ern States. It is found in moist but open 
grounds, and is more common on the edges of 
the salt meadows than in the interior of the 
forests ; it is also seen on the islands, not co- 



vered with woods, in the rivers, and near the 
shores of the lakes. 

This species is easily distinguished by the 
superior size of its leaves, which are oval- 
acuminate, denticulated, and sometimes 4 inches 
in length. 

The shining willow attains the height of 18 
or 20 feet; but its ordinary elevation is 9 or 10 
feet. Baskets are made of its branches, when 
those of the European willow, which are pre- 
ferable, cannot be obtained; but it possesses 
no property that recommends it to attention. 

Many species of willow are found in the 
United States and in Canada, the greater 
part of which are susceptible of no useful em- 
ployment. The three species described are 
distinguished only by their superior height; 
but even these are greatly inferior to the Eu- 
ropean willow in size and in the properties of 
their wood. In the Northern and Middle States, 
particularly in Pennsylvania and in some 
townships in the lower part of New Jersey, 
great numbers of the European willow have 
been planted, of which light baskets are fabri- 
cated for the market of Philadelphia. This 
tree furnishes the charcoal for the manufacture 
of gunpowder. {Michaux.) 

The common yellow willow is the S. vitellina 
of botanists. It is also frequently called golden 
willow, and by some egg-yolk willow. The 
French call it Le Saule. This, says Dr. Darling- 
ton, was early introduced here as a shade tree, 
and has become partially naturalized in many 
places. I think I have never seen any but the 
pistillate plant. A variety with paler bark (per- 
haps the & alba of authors) is also occasionally 
to be met with. The handsome <S. bahylonica, or 
weeping willow, is more generally preferred as 
an ornamental shade tree, and the pistillate 
plant of that species is extensively propagated 
about houses, but it can hardly be said to be 
naturalized. 

WILLOW-HERB {Epllobium,fTom epi, upon, 
and lobos, a lobe ; the flowers have the appear- 
ance of being seated on the top of the pod). 
Many of the species of this genus are very 
ornamental, as E. angustifoUtim ; while a few 
others, such as E. monlanum, are mere weeds. 
They all grow well in any common soil, and 
are either increased by seeds or by dividing 
the roots. The indigenous species are nine, 
namely, the rosebay willow-herb (E. angustifo- 
lium), the great hairy willow-herb (E. hirsutum), 
the small-flowered hoary willow-herb (E.par- 
viflorunt), the broad smooth-leaved willow-herb 
(E. moiitanum), pale smooth-leaved willow-herb 
{E. roseum), square-stalked willow-herb {E. te- 
tragonum), round-stalked marsh willow-herb 
(jB. palustre), chickweed-leaved willow-herb 
(E. alsinifulium), and the alpine willow-herb 
(E. alpinum). 

These are all perennial herbs, with simple, 
generally toothed, leaves; flowers mostly pur- 
ple, in terminal leafy clusters or spikes, with- 
out scent. The most common of these are — 

1. The rose-bay willow-herb (E. angusiifo- 
Hum), which grows wild in meadows and moist, 
shady places, chiefly in the north of England. 
The root is creeping, fleshy, with numerous 
buds, stems from three to six feet high, erect, 
roundish, leafy, smooth, reddish, seldom oranch- 

1155 



WILLOW-LICE. 



WINE. 



ed. Leaves scattered, numerous, nearly sessile, 
linear-lanceolate, acute, various in breadth, 
veiny, smooth. Flowers crimson, inodorous, 
very handsome, numerous, in long terminal 
upright clusters. This is a very ornamental 
flower, common in gardens, where it increases 
but too rapidly ; thriving, like many mountain 
plants, even in the smoky air of London. There 
is a white variety. 2. The great hairy willow- 
herb {E. hirsiUum). This species is very com- 
mon in England in all watery places, ditches, 
and the margins of rivers ; among reeds, coarse 
grasses, and willows. It has an extensively 
creeping root. The whole herbage is downy, 
soft, and clammy, exhaling a peculiar but tran- 
sitory acidulous scent, justly compared to the 
flavour of boiled codlings and cream. Stems 
four feet or more in height, round, leafy, 
copiously branched, and bushy. Leaves half, 
clasping the stem, ovate-lanceolate, hairy. 
Flowers in leafy corymbose clustery large, of a 
delicate pink. Of this genus, which is most 
multiplied in the North of Europe, there are 8 
species enumerated in NiittalVs Genera as in- 
digenous to North America. 

WILLOW-LICE. See ApHiniANs. 

WILLOW-WEED. In England, a name 
applied in the fens to the snake-weed, or pale- 
flowered persicaria {Polygonum lapathifolmm), 
an annual plant, which grows very freely on 
all loose and deep soils, and on marshy lands, 
though it be scarcely known to any of the cul- 
tivators of clay, and it is as rarely to be seen 
on any sort of turnip land. This plant grows 
commonly from 18 inches to 2 feet; its stalks 
are tender and succulent, pale, spotted, or red- 
dish ; the joints much swollen. The plant 
branches most when it has free growth, and 
produces a great number of crowded spikes of 
seeds. The leaves resemble those of the wil- 
low, but are charged with dark spots in the 
middle. The seeds are very bright and heavy, 
highly nutritious, and therefore very grateful to 
birds, especially partridges. Those who keep 
decoys for catching wild ducks will buy the 
seeds to feed and entice the fowl. Pigs will do 
well on them, if boiled. These seeds very 
much infesi samples of fen corn, whether 
wheat, oats, or barley. As a weed in fen soils, 
this plant is the most ramping and cumber- 
some of any weed that grows. 

WIND. See Weather. 

WIND-FLOWER. One of the names of the 
marsh gentian. See Gkntian. 

WIND, in HORSES. See Biiokex Wind 
and RoAiiiNG. 

WINDMILL. A well-known contrivance 
for grinding corn or raising water, which is 
put in motion by the action of the wind upon 
its sails or vanes. They are of two kinds, ver- 
tical and horizonlal, but the former is generally 
preferred. Since the extensive introduction of 
improved horse power, hand, and steam ma- 
chinery, windmills are becoming much less 
common throughout the country ; and from 
depending entirely upon the caprice of the 
weather, they are only suited to elevated or ex- 
poses situations, where they will catch every 
passing breeze; and are much less useful than 
water-mills, which can generally be kept at 
work continuously, or for a much longer 
1156 



period. A set of arms and sails might be ad- 
vantageously used in some situations for pump- 
ing up water from a well into a trough or cis- 
tern for cattle, or for the purposes of irrigation. 
In the West Indies, a simple apparatus of this 
kind is usually attached to the pump c.r well in 
the farm-yard. The velocity of the sails of a 
windmill, in a moderate wind, was calculated 
by Mr. Ferguson to be thirty miles an hour. 

WIND-PLANT. Wood or Grove Anemone 
{A. nemorosa). An American plant, with a pe- 
rennial root, found in the moist woodlands and 
thickets of the Middle States, flowering in April 
and May. Flowers white, often tinged with 
purple. 

WINDROW. A term signifying in England 
the green parts, or borders of a field, dug up, 
in order to carry the earth on other land to 
mend it; so called because it is laid in rows, 
and exposed to the wind. It is also applied 
to a row of peats or a line of hay ex})osed to 
dry, and also to turfs cut up in paring and 
burning. 

WINE (Vinum, Lat. ; vin, Fr. ; vino, Ital. 
and Span.; vinho, Portu. ; u;ein, Germ.; iv'yn, 
Dutch; tt-in, Swed. ; dm/i, Dan.; vino, Russ.) A 
well-known agreeable, and, when moderately 
used, wholesome liquor, prepared from the 
juice of the grape, and that of some other 
fruits. The invention of wine is involved in 
the obscurity of the earliest ages. The sacred 
writings, however, lead us to believe that it 
must have been known before the deluge; for 
we are informed that the patriarch Noah, im- 
mediately after that overwhelming event, "be- 
gan to be a husbandman ; and he planted a 
vineyard ; and he drank of the wine, and was 
drunken" (Genesis, ch. ix. v. 20, 21), a suffi- 
cient reason for supposing that it was a fer- 
mented liquor, and not merely the simple juice 
of the grape. It is, indeed, natural to imagine, 
that in those countries where the vine is a 
native, the spontaneous fermentation of the 
juice of the fruit, when it was expressed, either 
purposely or accidentally, and not immediately 
used as a beverage, would have naturally led 
to the invention of making wine at a very 
early period. It is, nevertheless, certain, that 
until modern times the preparation of wine 
was purely empirical. 

The history of wine is of great interest, but 
it would be impossible to attempt even a very 
brief sketch of it in an article of this descrip- 
tion, and therefore we shall confine our remarks 
upon that part of the subject to some account 
of the wines used in England, our object 
being rather to treat of the general rules to be 
followed in making and preserving wine, and 
to explain its dietetic qualities, than to trace its 
history. 

Wine, at a former period, was made in 
England for sale, and most of the large abbeys 
were supplied with it from grapes raised in 
their own vineyards ; but at no time was it con- 
sidered equal in quality to foreign wine ; and 
certainly no stronger reason for the neglect 
into which wine-making in England fell need 
be stated. Soon after the Norman conquest, 
much encouragement was given to the importa- 
tion of the wines of Anjou and of Poitou ; and 
in the time of Henry III. we find those : f the 



WINE. 



WINE. 



Moselle and St. John, probably an Italian sweet 
v/ine, were added to the imports. But for a 
;onsiderable period the foreign wines were 
not drunk in their genuine form, but were 
mixed with honey, sugar, orange juice, and 
even opium. Chaucer, in the Knight's Tale, 
speaks of 

•' A ctarrie (claret) made of certain wine. 
With narcotise and opie of Thehes tine." 

These mixed wines received different names, 
according to tho; nature of the wine employed. 
When made with Burgundy or Bordeaux, the 
mixture was called Bishop; when with old 
Rhenish, its name was Cardinal: and when 
with Tokay, it was dignified with the title of 
Pope. In the reign of Edward II. the taste for 
sweet wines prevailed; and consequently we 
find the wines which Alsace then furnished, 
which were chiefly sweet, were much used. In 
the time of Elizabeth, the profusion and diver- 
.sity of wines displayed on the tables even of 
the citizens of the metropolis, and the inhabit- 
ants of the southern provinces, almost exceed 
belief. Harrison, in his account of the mode 
of living in England in that reign, states, that 
there were upwards of eighty-six different 
wines in use; "whereof," he adds, "Vernage, 
Cate-piment, Raspis, Muscadell, Romnie, Bas- 
tard, Tire, Oseie, Caprike, Clareie, and Mal- 
meseie are not least of all accompted of, be- 
cause of their strength and valure." {Hollins- 
hecPs Chron. p. 167.) Sack, with which all are 
familiar who have read the works of our im- 
mortal dramatist, was a dry Spanish wine; but 
sugar was often added to it, with the view, as 
Venner informs us, to lessen the hot and pene- 
trative quality of the wine. In truth, the best 
sack (tor there were several kinds in use) was 
of the growth of Xerez, or in other words 
sherry. In PasqtiiFs Palinodia, published in 
1619, this is stated in the following lines: — 

" give me sacke, old sacke, boys, 

To miiki^ the Jiiuses merry; 
The lift' of niirlh, and the joy of earth. 
Is a Clip of good old sherry." 

The Spanish wines still retained the first 
place on English tables, at the commencement 
of the seventeenth century. After this time, the 
preference was given to the Canary wines, 
more of which, Howell (Familia?- Letters, part 
ii. 60) informs us, " was brought into England 
than CO all the world besides." Champagne ap- 
pears to have been unknown in Britain until a 
present from Louis XIV. of two hundred hogs- 
heads of wine, consisting of Champagne, Bur- 
gundy, and Hermitage, was sent to the king of 
England; but it was long after this time un- 
known to those not connected with the court, 
and, therefore, it was regarded, as Venner 
terms it, " a regal wine." Even at this period, 
however, although much wine was drunk, yet 
few persons kept a stock of it in private cel- 
lars ; the chief consumption was in taverns. 

The war with France in 1689 introduced the 
use of the wines of Portugal, particularly the 
red wine, or port, as a substitute for the growths 
of Bordeaux; and the celebrated Methuen 
treaty, which obliged us to receive the wines 
of Portugal in exchange for our woollen manu- 
factures, and at one-third less rate of the duty 



levied on French wines, confirmed the taste of 
Englishmen for this strong and intoxicating 
beverage, a taste which is again happily, as 
respects health and longevity, on the decline. 

From the foregoing sketch it is evident that 
the English taste in wine has varied considera- 
bly at different periods. For five or six cen- 
turies, the light wines of France and the banks 
of the Rhine, and the rich sweet wines of the 
Mediterranean and the Archipelago, were in 
high estimation. Then came the dry Spanish 
wines ; and at the close of the seventeenth 
century the red growths of the Bordelais were 
in most frequent demand; which, however, 
owing to the wars with France, were given up, 
and the rough wines of Portugal substituted 
for them. But, as we have already said, the 
use of these is now on the decline, and our 
growing intercourse with the continent has 
revived the taste for light wines. (Henderson's 
History of Wine.) 

As far as concerns what is denominated 
home-made wines, there is in England scarcely 
any, if we except the gooseberry (intended to 
imitate Champagne) and raisin wine, that 
merit any notice. Indeed, it is an incontro- 
vertible fact, that grapes ripened on walls and 
trellises are in general unlit for the manufac- 
ture of wine ; and, in England, those cultivated 
under glass are too valuable for the dessert and 
other purposes, in their recent state, to be em- 
ployed for making wine. Still, however, to 
make home-made wine forms one of the occu- 
pations of the wife of a farmer, and tolerable 
wine may be made with a mixture of raisins 
and grapes cultivated in the open air, in favour- 
able seasons. The principles of wine-making 
are the same, whatever kind of fruit is em- 
ployed : in knowing, therefore, the manufacture 
of grape-wine, it is easy to modify the process, 
so as to render it applicable to every other 
description of wine. 

The juice of the grape, when themically 
analyzed, is found to consist of a considerable 
portion of sugar and water, mucilage, tannic 
acid, bitartrate of potassa, tartrate of lime, 
phosphate of magnesia, chloride of sodium, 
sulphate of potassa, and a mucososaccharine 
principle, on which the fermentative process 
productive of the wine depends. Thenard, a 
distinguished French chemist, assures us that 
this substance excites the vinous fermentation 
by abstracting a portion of oxygen from the 
sugar, by means of its carbon, forming carbonic 
acid gas, whilst its hydrogen and the remaining 
oxygen and carbon of the sugar are converted 
into alcohol, the basis and exciting principle 
of all wines. When the must, or expressed 
juice of the grape, is exposed to a temperature 
of 65° Fahr.j.this chemical change or fermenta- 
tion commences; an intestine motion takes 
place in the liquor; bubbles are evolved, which 
buoy up the grosser matter, increasing the bulk 
of the mass, and forming a scum upon the 
surface. An augmentation of temperature now 
takes place ; the must loses its saccharine 
taste; it acquires a deeper colour than before, 
and a vinous flavour, which increases with the 
advancement of the process. After a few day; . 
the fermentation gradually subsides, the mass 
returns to its original bulk, the scum sinks t« 
i>E2 1157 



WINE. 



WINE. 



the bottom of the vessel, the liquor becomes 
transparent, and it is now wine. The constitu- 
tion of the must is liable to be greatly influ- 
enced by the quality, the variety, the climate, 
and the culture of the grapes, as well as the 
nature of the seasons. In a cold year, owing 
to the deficiency of the saccharine matter, the 
wine is weak, harsh, and acescent ; in wet sea- 
sons it is devoid of a competent quantity of 
spirit: high winds and fogs are also injurious. 
In England, the mode of training the vine 
high upon walls is a disadvantage for making 
the fruit into wine. In the best wine countries, 
it is never allowed to grow more than 3 or 4 
feet high; and it is found that the bunches 
nearest to the soil, if they do not touch it, are 
always the richest. It is a mistake to suppose 
that sweet wines are the most susceptible of 
decomposition ; on the contrary, they can be 
kept for almost an indefinite length of time 
without undergoing any deleterious change. 
All wines continue to suflfer a certain degree 
of fermentation after they are racked off and 
ut into casks ; and as long as the saccharine 
matter is supplied to maintain this slow fer- 
mentation, the wine remains good ; but, when 
that is exhausted, the acetous fermentation 
begins, and the wine is converted into vinegar. 
Admitting, however, the goodness of the fruit, 
and the wine to be made consequently expected 
to be excellent, many circumstances may de- 
stroy that hope, for the process does not pro- 
ceed in the regular manner above described, 
unless certain rules be strictly observed : these 
are the following: — 1. The grapes should be 
well and equally bruised or trodden ; for the 
juice that first flows contains little mucoso- 
saccharine matter, and consequently does not 
ferment freely. That substance is contained 
chiefly in the insoluble organized parts and the 
skin, which also contains the greatest part of 
the acid,tl)[e resinous extractive, and the colour- 
ing principle. 2. The fermentation should be 
conducted at a temperature of 60° to 65° Fahr., 
below which it languishes, and above which it 
proceeds too violently. When it progresses 
too slowly, that evil may be remedied by the 
addition of a little boiling must. 3. The con- 
tact of air is essential in the commencement; 
and this affords another reason for the good 
bruising of the fruit, as much air is absorbed 
in that stage of the process. But after the fer- 
mentation is established, the air should be ex- 
cluded, for the sake of preserving the aroma; 
and to secure this, the French chemist, Chap- 
tal, who paid much attention to the manufac- 
ture of wines, recommends the vats to be co- 
vered with boards and linen cloths. 4. The 
greater the bulk of material, the more perfect 
the wine. 5. When the wine is perfected and 
racked off, it should be sulphured by burning 
sulphur-matches within the casks intended to 
contain it, in order to restrain, within a cer- 
tain degree, the further fermentation. 

When good wine is actually produced, much 
of the advantage expected from the possession 
of it depends on the future management and 
preservation of it; for every wine contains 
within itself the sources of both improvement 
and decline. The chief points to be attended 
to are guardmg against vicissitudes of tempera- 
1158 



ture and the contact of air. Wines in the cask 
or wood, as the term is, are liable to become 
sour, either by a sudden transition from cold 
to heat, or the reverse ; and the same suscepti- 
bility to acescency is favoured by defect of 
proper fining; but this process should not be 
frequently repeated, as it impairs the flavour 
and the body of the liquor. Wines are mel- 
lowed by the slow precipitation of the tartar, 
which carries down with it the colouring mat- 
ter and the salts of lime ; and this occurs in 
the ratio of the evolution of the alcohol, during 
the continued gradual fermentation which goes 
on even after the wine is bottled. This would 
strengthen wine in the cask, were it not 
balanced by the evaporation of the alcohol 
through the sides of the cask. Old Rhenish 
wines kept in the barrel lose nearly one-half of 
their original alcohol; yet it is an undoubted 
fact, that wine in bottles, not corked, but tied 
over with a bladder, becomes stronger : — that 
membrane permitting water to pass through it, 
but not spirit. Another curious fact, however, 
must not be forgotten, namely, that whilst the 
wine becomes weaker when kept in cask, it 
becomes much improved in its other qualities; 
a fact which is illustrated by the transporta- 
tion of Madeira to India, or keeping it in a 
warm place. 

The adulteration of wine is too comprehen- 
sive a subject to be here fully treated of; but, 
independent of this evil, every foreign wine 
sent to Great Britain, except the best of the 
Rhenish wines, contains much uncombined 
brandy, which tends not only to render them 
unwholesome, but impairs their original fla- 
vour, and risks their partial decomposition. 
Were home-made wines free from this evil, it 
would tend greatly to encourage a new branch 
of trade which has lately sprung up in Scot- 
land, chiefly at Edinburgh, lieith, and Glasgow. 
From a parliamentary return, we find that 
24,848 gallons, equal to nearly 150,000 bottles, 
were sent to England in 1839, and 23,089 gal- 
lons in 1840. Of the 24,848 in 1839, about 
13,000 gallons were shipped from Leith, and 
11,000 from Glasgow; and of the quantity in 
1840, about 14,700 gallons went from Leith, 
and 7,000 from Glasgow. 

In the present day, when temperance has 
made so favourable an impression on the 
ha'bits of all classes of society, some remarks 
on the dietetic properties of wine become 
essential in an article devoted to its other 
qualities. Were technical phraseology allow- 
able, we should say that wine is stimulant and 
salutary in small, narcotic and poisonous in 
large quantities. This opinion, however, nei- 
ther implies that it is necessary as an ordinary 
article of diet, nor that it is deleterious even in 
the largest doses, as a medicinal agent. Wine, 
moderately used, in the artificial state of mo- 
dern civilized society, is not at all essential for 
the healthy, however occupied, except under 
exposure to unusual fatigue. But were this 
principle of necessity to guide the regulation 
of diet and beverage, the art of cookery would 
be annihilated; and the growth of wine, as well 
as the manufacture of every spirituous liquor, 
under whatever name it is known, ardent spi- 
rits, cider, or malt liquor, would cease to exist 



WINE. 



WINNOWING-MACHINE. 



In noticing, therefore, the dietetic properties of 
wine, we must take society as we find it, not as 
it ought to be constituted. The stimulant ope- 
ration of wine is exerted on the nerves of the 
stomach, and the secreting powers of that 
organ are influenced by these ; and thus a 
beneficial eff'ect results when the digestive 
powers are depressed. This, in a great degree, 
depends on the alcohol contained in the wine ; 
yet it is a fact, that the same quantity of brandy 
diluted with water, to the strength of wine, will 
cause intoxication more speedily than when it 
is taken in the form of wine, especially if the 
wine contains no uncombined alcohol. The 
stimulant power of wine, however, depends on 
the quantity of alcohol in its composition ; but 
this power is much greater in those wines that 
contain adventitious and imperfectly combined 
spirit. On this account, Port-wine is more apt 
to derange the siomach, and to cause intoxica- 
tion, than Sherry of the same strength ; and 
Claret or Rhenish less than either. But besides 
the evils arising from wines containing uncom- 
bined brandy, those wines that contain much 
acid are usually deleterious to persons of 
sedentary habits, or who have weak stomachs. 
Indeed, the daily use of the best wine can only 
be supported with impunity by those who take 
much exercise in the open air. But, if we 
admit that wine is a necessar}' article of life 
for the healthy, there can be only one opinion 
respecting the superiority of the better kinds of 
Bordeaux. Whatever wine is taken, it should 
not be conjoined with other sorts, as nothing 
impairs digestion more than mingling several 
sorts of wine at one meal. 

Such are the general effects of the moderate 
use of wine; its abuse is so well known, both 
in reference to mind and body, that it is unne- 
cessary to make a single remark, in this place, 
upon the subject, except to caution those who 
feel no immediate injurious eflfects from a pint 
of Port, or indeed of any wine, daily, not to 
rely too confidently upon their apparent pow- 
ers of' resisting its evil influence; for a foun- 
dation may be slowly formed for maladies, that, 
when 'hey appear, are always difficult of cure, 
and often altogether irremediable. 

With respect to the comparative value in 
reference to the wholesomeness of different 
wines, a few remarks may be necessary, be- 
fore concluding this article. Among the brisk 
wines. Champagne is the least noxious, even 
when it is drank to excess, the excitement is 
of shorter duration, and the subsequent ex- 
haustion is less. It is said to be hurtful to the 
gouty ; but gout is almost unknown in the pro- 
vince where it is made; and more of the evil 
said to be caused by Champagne is due to the 
variety and the nature of the dishes, and the 
period of the day at which they are eaten, than 
to the wine itself. The red wines of Burgundy 
are strong, heating, and consequently intoxi- 
cating, and they should only be taken in very 
small quantity. The Bordeaux wines, as we 
have already stated, are the safest for daily use. 
They certainly do not excite inebriety so ra- 
pidly as most other wines. The wines of 
Oporto abound in astringent matter, and in un- 
combined brandy. They are unfit for weak 
stomachs; they tend to cause sleep rather thaa 



to elevate the spirits, and they are the most 
pernicious as daily beverage. The Spanish 
wines, especially Sherries, are less objection- 
able, but they should never be drunk without 
dilution with water, unless for medicinal pur- 
poses. The same opinion may be hazarded 
with respect to Madeira; and perhaps no wine 
is more suited for the dyspeptic, if hypochon 
driasis be absent. The best light wines of the 
Rhine and the Moselle are, of all others, the 
most wholesome. They contain little alcohol, 
and that little is wholly combined. They prove, 
in many instances, refrigerant, and have a ten- 
dency, from the nature of the acid which they 
contain, the tartaric, to diminish obesity. Last- 
ly, all sweet wines are apt to disorder the sto- 
mach ; and when used freely they intoxicate as 
readily, and cause as deleterious subsequent 
eff'ects as the stronger wines. But, after all, we 
must revert to the opinion, that wine is an un- 
necessary article of diet for all who are healthy 
and robust; and must truly be regarded, be- 
yond certain limits, either as. a medicine or a 
poison. (Henderson's History of Ancient and Mo- 
dern Wines ; Maculloch on Wine-7naking.') See 
Alcohoi. and Vine. 

Account of the Qucmtily of Foreign Wine retained 
in England for Home Consumption, in Wine Gal- 
lons, from 1789 to 1836. 



Ytrara. 


Gallniis. 


Years. 


Gallons. 
4,845,060 


1789 


5,814,665 


1823 


1790 


6,492,313 


1624 


5,030,091 


1792 


8,082,249 


1825 


8,009,542 


1794 


6,799,220 


1826 


6.058,443 


1796 


5,732,385 


1827 


6,826,361 


1798 


4,760,657 


1828 


7,162,376 


1800 


7,728,871 


1829 


6,217,652 


1802 


6,355,749 


1830 


6,434,445 


1604 


4,840,719 


1831 


6,212,264 


1805 


5,936,235 


1832 


5,965,542 


1810 


6,805,276 


1833 


6,207,770 


1815 


5,968,435 


1834 


6,480,544 


1820 


5,019,960 


1835 


6,420,342 


1822 


4,975,159 


- 





Account exhibiting the Quantities of the different 
Sorts of Wine imported into and exported from 
the United Kingdom in the Year ending the blh 
of January, 1840, and the gross Revenue accru- 
ins thereon. 





Quantities 


Quanli'ies 




Species of Wine. 


impnrted into 


cs ported from 






theUnilei 


(he United 


rece red 




King'lom. 


Kin^dum. 


thereon. 




Gnllons. 


Gallons. 


£ 


Cape - 


723,740 


3,520 


73,596 


Frencli 


508,.329 


121,525 


109,820 


Madeira 


207,047 


162,527-1 




Portuguese 


3,272,206 


299 355 1 




Spanish 


4,130,753 


989 776 1 




Rhenish 
Canary 


82,910 
341,225 


13,350 1 
292,779 ^ 


1,732,232 


Fayal 


202 


90 




Sicilian and 




170,I63j 




other wines 
Total - 


582,310 




9,908,722 


2,053,085 i 


1,915,648 



American Wine Making. — For their efllbrts to 
introduce the grape culture into the United States, 
great credit is due to the German vine dres- 
sers. But for the first demonstration that 
good wines resembling those of the Rhine and 
Moselle can be made on this side of the Atlan- 
tic, we are indebted to Mr. Longworth, of Cin- 
cinnati, whose zeal, intelligence, liberal expen- 
ditures, and final triumphant success, entitle him 

1159 



WINE MAKING. 



WINE MAKING. 



to the lasting gratitude of his countrymen. This 
gentleman, who now owns in the vicinity of 
Cincinnati 122| acres in vineyards, cultivated 
l.y 27 tenants — says, " I have for 30 years 
expf'rimented on the foreign grape, both for the 
table and for wine. In the acclimation of 
plants, 1 do not believe ; for the White Sweet 
Water does not succeed as well with nne, as it 
d,d 30 years since. I obtained a large variety 
of French grapes, from Mr. Loubat, many years 
since. They were from the vicinities of Paris 
and Bordeaux. From Madeira I obtained 6000 
vines of their best wine grapes. Not one was 
found worthy of cultivation in this latitude, and 
were rooted from the vineyards. As a last ex- 
periment, I imported 7000 vines from the moun- 
tains of Jura, in the vicinity of Salins, in France. 
At that point the vine region suddenly ends, 
and many vines are there cultivated on the north 
side of the mountain, where the ground is co- 
vered with snow the whole winter, from 3 to 4 
feet deep. Nearly all lived, and embraced about 
twenty varieties of the most celebrated wine- 
grapes of France. But after a trial of five years, 
all have been thrown away. I also imported 
samples of wine made from all the grapes. 
One variety alone, the celebrated Arbois wine, 
which partakes slightly of the Champagne cha- 
racter, would compete with our Catawba. If 
we intend cultivating the grape for wine, we 
must rely on our native grapes, and new varieties 
raised from their seed. If I could get my lease 
of life renewed for twenty or thirty years, I 
would devote my attention to the subject, and 
I would cross our best native varieties with the 
best table and wine grapes of Europe. I have 
heretofore wanted faith in the doctrine of French 
horticulturists, that to improve your stock of 
pears, you must not select the seed of the finest 
fruit, but of the natural choke-pear. I am half 
converted to their views. The Catawba is 
clearly derived from the common Fox grape. 
, In raising from its seed, even white ones are 
produced, but I have not seen one equal to the 
parent plant ; and in all, the white down on the 
under side of the leaf, and the hairs on the 
stalk, common to the wild Fox grape, are abun- 
dant." 

The Catawba, which has led the way in Ame- 
rica to the production of wines calculated to 
compete with the finer vintages of Europe, at 
present stands without a rival as a wine grape. 
It makes an excellent sparkling wine, resembling 
sparkling Moselle, and also a good, dry Hock. Its 
colour varies from almost clear water to straw co- 
lour and pink, and it possesses a fine fruity flavour, 
and most grateful aroma. It requires no sugar 
in fermentation when the grapes are well ripened. 
It is but justice to one of the most persevering 
pioneers in the grape culture and wine making 
in the United States, Major AdIum,of the District 
of Columbia, to say that he had long since enter- 
tained the most exalted views in regard to the 
valuable qualities presented by the Catawba 
grape. In a letter to Mr. Longworth he says — 
'• In bringing this grape into public notice, I have 
rendered my country a greater service than I 
would have done, had I paid off the National 
Debt ;" and Mr. Longworth expresses his con- 
currence in this enthusiastic estimate. 

In regard to the present cost of making wine 

in tho valley of the Ohio, Mr. Buchanan states, 

from his own experience, that when done by 

hired labour, the gathering, pressing, and filling 

1160 



the juice into casks, comes to an average of $2 •'5 
to t30 per acre. It is the German emigrants 
who make wine to greatest profit, as the most 
of the work is done by their wives and daughters. 
The largest profits will accrue to those who 
bring into requisition the most intelligence and 
skill, who take care to have the fruit gathered 
when fully ripe, the green and decayed berries 
picked out, (from which by the addition of 8 or 
10 ounces of sugar to the gallon, wine of an 
inferior quality may be made,) who use a clean 
press, clean casks, a cool cellar from which the 
external air can be excluded, who, during the 
period of fermentation, which continues from 
two to four weeks, attend to keeping the casks 
filled to within four or five inches of the bung, 
(which last must be put on loosely,) and racking 
off at the proper time in spring, always keeping 
the casks after fermentation, full and air-tight, 
never bottling till 4 or 5 years old, and finally 
selling without their names in seasons when 
wine is not of the best quality. 

The great secret, for such it has been gener- 
ally kept among wine-makers — of producing 
an effervescing wine, consists simply in mixing 
the wine of the new vintage with wine of the 
previous vintages, half and half. 

Although 400 and even over 600 gallons of 
wine per acre have been occasionally obtained 
from Ohio vineyards in some very favourable 
seasons and situations, Mr. Buchanan sets down 
the average produce of an acre (containing 2420 
vines, planted 3 by 6 feet apart), in fair seasons 
at 300 to 400 gallons. A probable average for 
8 or 10 years, with but little rot, would be 250 
gallons. And with a reasonable allowance for 
loss by rot, frosts, &c., 200 gallons might beset 
down as a fair average. 

A bushel of grapes on the stem will yield 
from 3 to 3| gallons of juice. Some have yielded 
4 gallons, but this is rare. In measuring, the 
bushel is "heaped," or liberally rounded on the 
top. A recapitulation of Mr. Buchanan's state- 
ments would give the costs and profits of an 
Ohio vineyard as follows : 

Cost of the vineyard per acre, say $250, 

interest per annum 15.00 

Cost of attendance per acre .... 60 00 

Cost of making the wine 25.00 



Probable average annual product ; 
200 gals, of wine, at, say .$1 00 . . 



$100 00 
$200.00 
$100.00 



Supposed profit per annum 

A press capable of expressing from 160 to 300 
gallons per day, will cost S60 to $150 — the ves- 
sels $10 to S15, and the casks from 4 to 8 cts. 
per gallon, according to size and quality. The 
loss in quantity in making the wine, by fermen- 
tation, lees in racking, and by evaporation, is 
about 10 per cent. See Vine. 

The experiment of lettinir the grapes, after 
being mashed, ferment in the skins slightly before 
pressing, has been found to afford some advan- 
tages The mashed grapes are allowed to stand 
in large open hogsheads, for 24 to 30 hours, or 
until they begin to ferment, and the grapes rise 
to the surface They are then pressed. Too 
much fermentation ^?^ this state would be inju- 
rious, and give a bitter, astringent taste to the 
wine : but a slight fermentation adds to the 
colour and aroma. 



WINE MAKING. 



WINNOWING-MACHINE. 



Mr. Longvvorth states that it is a very jrreat 
error in wine making, to have the giapes gath- 
ered too soon, and before the saccharine princi- 
ple is luily developed. The richness of the wine 
is estimated by the weight of the must or IVesh 
juice, the average of the least being 95 deg. on 
the scale of the Hydrometer. He states that 
in the neighbourhood of Cincinnati he found 
some from well matured fruit which weighed 101, 
whilst that of other vineyards weighed only 
from 65 to 80. He says that he would rather 
pay 75 cts. per gallon far must weighing 95, 
than 5 cts. for that which weighs only 75. 

FermeDtation. — The casks are to be filled up 
till within 3 or 4 inches of the bung, and this 
is to be put in loosely. The gas escapes without 
the wine running over. Usually in 2 to 4 
weeks the fermentation ceases, and the wine be- 
comes clear ; then fill iijp the casks and tighten 
the bungs. 

In February or March, rack off the wine into 
clean casks. A second but moderate fermenta- 
tion will take place late in the spring, after 
which the wine becomes clear and is ready for 
sale. If the casks are kept well filled, and the 
bungs tight, it will improve for many years. 
Use no brandy or sugar if the grapes are sound 
and well ripened. 

It was a long time disputed whether alcohol 
existed already formed in the wine, or whether 
it was developed through the application of heat 
in distillation. Gay-Lussac succeeded in ex- 
tracting alcohol from wine in a vacuum at the 
temperature of 59 deg. Fahrenheit, thus demon- 
strating that it was not developed by the heat 
used in distillation. 

When it is necessary to add sugar to grape 
juice, experience has proved in France that 
ahtcose, or the sugar made from starch, is to be 
preferred, since it more resembles that of the 
grape than the sugar made from the cane or the 
beet. Sugar ought, however, never to be added 
except with the greatest caution and judgment, 
being apt to make the wine thick, flat, and acid. 
Although it may increase the proportion of alco- 
hol, the quality of the wine will never equal that 
of good seasons, when sugar can be dispensed 
with. Some add alcohol instead of sugar to the 
fermenting must. But although this may fur- 
nish the wine with strength, it will never be 
equal to that in which sugar has been used. 

The safest way of keeping the wine is in 
bottles well corked and sealed, and placed on 
their sides. The fewer rackings it receives, 
and the less exposure to the air, the sweeter and 
better it will keep. The bottling may take 
place one year after racking, although better de- 
ferred till the lapse of 2 years. Never bottle 
before the second fermentation, which t?ikes place 
in the spring succeeding the vintage, unless it is 
where the sparkling quality is desired, which, 
as has been already stated, is imparted by mix- 
ing the wine of the new with that of an old vin- 
tage. The fining of wine can be done to the 
greatest perfection by bottling or racking off 
during the very coldest weather in wiriter, at which 
time it will of course deposit most of its solu- 
ble materials. This was an important secret, 
kept and practised upon with great success by a 
celebrated Philadelphia wine merchant. 

Consumption, of Wines i7i Great Britain and 
the United Slates. — The importations of wine 
into thj United Kingdom of Great Britain in 
146 



In Casks. 


Ill Bottles. 


$1,716 


$2,181 


21,6.30 


1,916 


109,983 


1,379 


170,134 


4,141 


221,416 


109,638 


14,087 


— 


5,816 


— 


67,364 


— 


1,998 


— 


180,928 


— 


193,358 


— 


— 


288,256 


— 


38,068 



1849, amounted to 7,970,007 galls., and the in- 
crease in the home consumption, compared with 
the previous year, was 115,315 galls. The pro- 
portions in which the various wines were con- 
sumed in England in the year 1849, are stated as 
Ibllows : Of the total amount drank, Cape con- 
stituted 3-87 per cent. ; French, 5-30 ; Portugal, 
42-36 ; Spanish, 39-16 ; Madeira, 1-14 ; RhenTsh, 
0-74 ; Canary, 0-32 ; Sicilian and other sorts 
fiom the Mediterranean, 7-11 ; total, 100-00. 

As nearly all the wine imported in the United 
States is consumed at home, the following state- 
ment will show the proportions of various wines 
consumed, and consequently exhibit the Ame- 
rican taste. 

The values of the different wines imported 
into the United States in one year, namely, from 
July 1st, 1847, to July 1st, 1848, were as follows : 

Wines. 

Burgundy 

Madeira 

Sherry and San Lucar . . . 

Port 

Claret 

Teneriffe and Canary . . . 
Fayal and other Azores . . 
Sicily and other Mediterranean 
Austria and other German 
Red Wines not enumerated . 

White Wines 

Champagne 

All other kinds 

Thus it appears that the English taste runs 
mainly upon Port and Sherry, which constitute 
81 i per cent, of all the wines they drink. Their 
consumption of French wines, or Claret and 
Champagne, amounts to only 5-30 per cent., 
and of Madeira to only 1-14 pei cent. In the 
United States, on the contrary, the French 
wines, including Champagne and Claret, consti- 
tute over 56 per cent, of the valueof all the wines 
consumed, Port and Sherry 19, Madeira about 
1-64, and Claret and other red wines alone, 36. 

WINE-PRESS. The one most commonly 
used near Cincinnati is made somewhat like a 
" Screw Cider Press." The screw, which is of 
iron, and about 3 or 4 inches in diameter, is 
placed either in a strong upright frame, or 
coming up through the centre of the platform, 
the last plan being the cheapest and most sim- 
ple. A strong, tight, box platform, 6 or 7 ieet 
square, made of 2 or 3 inch plank 6 or 8 inches 
high at the sides, is wedged into heavy timbers, 
and, in this, a box of 1^ inch boards, 5 or 6 feet 
square, perforated with holes near the lower 
edge, 8 or 10 inches high at the sides (made so 
as readily to be taken apart), is placed to contain 
the grapes. Boards to fit loosely inside of this 
box, and lie on top of the pile of mashed 
grapes (or the " cheese"), and pieces of scantling, 
to lay across to receive the pressure, complete 
the press. The pressing power is applied ^y 
a strong lever attached to the nut or female 
screw, and the juice runs out through a hole. 

WINNOWING-MACHINE. A contrivance 
employed for separating, by an artificial cur- 
rent of air, the chaff from the grain, after it 
has been thrashed out of the straw. Various 
are the accounts (remarks Mr. J. A. Ransome 
in his Treatise on the IvipJcments of Agrictdture') 
given of the introduction of this machine, and 
many of the claimants for the credit of having 
been the first maker of this piece of mechan- 

i:5. 



WINNOWING-MACHINE. 

ism in England or Scotland. All, however, 
agree that the idea, design, or model was origi- 
nally furnished from Holland, earlier, however, 
than the date of any of these by at least a pe- 
riod of twenty years. We learn from the pa- 
pers of Robert Somerville of Haddington, that 
in 1710, pursuant to articles of agreement be- 
tween himself and Fletcher, laird of Saltoun, 
James Meikle (father to Meikle of thrashing- 
machine memory) visited Holland for the pur- 
pose of learning "the perfect art of sheeling 
barley," in order to the introduction of the bar- 
ley-mill. The same authority, 1805, states, 
"that on Meikle's return he made the first fan- 
ners which were seen in Britain ;" and that 
these were in use only a few years before that 
date at the Saltoun barley-mills. That the ma- 
chine was not made public till many years 
afterwards may be attributed to a clause in the 
above-mentioned agreement, by which Meikle 
was bound, on leaving Saltoun's service, "not 
to profit any more by this mill, nor communi- 
cate the arts he had learned to any other." In 
1737, through the medium of Rogers of Cavers 
and others, it was brought into more general 
use ; and in 1768, A. and R. Meikle obtained a 
patent for a machine of this kind. Although 
a very considerable advantage over the plan 
of dressing by hand, these still appear to have 
been but very imperfect, the corn having to be 
passed through them twice or thrice, in order 
to be perfectly separated. And in 1798, R. 
Douglas, in his Agricultural Survey of Roxburs^h- 
shire, remarking upon these defects, mentions 
an improvement invented by one Moodie of 
Lilliesleaf, " in which he had happily combined 
some properties of other fans, so that the grain 
at one operation could be both separated from 
the chaff and lighter seeds, and completely rid- 
dled of all sorts of refuse." 

Other patents had been taken out which do 
not appear to have involved much real im- 
provement, till, in 1800, 1. Cooch of Northamp- 
ton patented the machine which has since been 
known by his name, and has obtained deserved 
commendation, being in use and approved be- 
yond most at the present day. This machine 
dresses all kinds of seeds, and its work is per- 
formed in a perfect manner: its principle in- 
volved more mechanical combinations than 
were at that time generally understood by the 
class for whose use it was intended; and this, 
together with its then cost, retarded its more 
general adoption. 

In 1812, John Elmy obtained a patent for 
improvements in winnowing-machines, and 
produced a very efficient implement; the ar- 
rangement of its various parts were simple, 
and greater effect was obtained from the blast. 
Comparing this with the drawings and descrip- 
tion of one we find in the Edinburgh Journal of 
Agriculture, and with that described by Profes- 
sor Ijow, we have little doubt of their general 
identity with this, the model upon which the 
machines in general use are now made. 

In 1839, T. F. Salter obtained a patent for a 
machine for winnowing and dressing corn and 
seeds, which at the R. A. S. E. meeting at Cam- 
bridge was exhibited, and obtained the silver 
medal. 

In this invention are combined the princi- 
1162 



WINNOWING-MACHINE. 

pies of Grant's hummelling machine, described 
in British Husbandry, vol. xi. p. 204, and of 
Hall's smut machine {Loudon^ Ency. of Agr. p. 
439, fig. 403), with the operations of the com- | 
mon winnower. 

The undressed grain from the hopper passes 
through a cylindrical sieve, having within it a 
rotary spindle, upon which short blunt arms 
are arranged in a spiral direction ; these agi- 
tate the grain as it passes along, and thus se- 
parate the small dirt and dust as well as the 
awns of barley, which fall through in a closed 
box or cupboard. The cylinder is placed in a 
slanting direction, and is provided at each end 
with slides, which regulate the quantity and 
speed with which the grain shall pass. Through i 
the slide aperture at the lower end the grain is I 
introduced upon other sieves, which, having a ' 
backward and forward motion, distribute it 
equally over their surface, when it is subjected 
to the blast of the fan, driving obliquejy through 
the sieves ; this carries the chaff out of the 
machine ; the grain falls on a screen, which, 
having a similar motion to the sieves, separates 
from it all small seeds, and the dross corn is 
carried away in a division formed for the pur- 
pose. The grain, dross, corn and chaff are 
thus all thoroughly separated from each other, 
and the dust, dirt, and small seeds, having fallen 
in an enclosed box from the cylinder, may be 
entirely removed. 

We have heard this machine highly ap- 
proved by many, and when pains are taken to 
separate the corn from the short straw, «&c., 
previously to submitting it to the machine, we 
believe it to be very effective ; but as there is 
some degree of complication in its details, it is 
chiefly suited to those to whom a high degree 
of excellence in the manner of " making up 
their corn" is a matter of more importance 
than the time or labour it may require. 

We now come to the description of the win- 
nower used in combination with the thrash- 
ing apparatus at Whitfield, in which the prin- 
cipal feature is the improvement of the fan or 
blower. Having noticed that the ordinary form 
and position of the fans, which are flat boards, 
radiating from the centre, tended to keep the 
air contantly whirling within the casing, rather 
than to force it forwards ; and that if, instead 
of being flat, they were curved forward in the 
direction of their motion, they would draw the 
air in from the tube and force it out at the 
sides, J. Clyburn of Uley, the engineer by 
whom the machinery at Whitfield was executed, 
constructed a blower, in which, by a certain 
curvature of the fans, and a different arrange- 
ment of the chamber in which they revolve, 
the tendency to form a vacuum is considerably 
increased, and greater force is consequently 
obtained from the blast. 

We are not disposed to leave this part of 
our subject without some allusion to an inven- 
tion for still further carrying out the process 
of cleaning corn, known as Tuxford's reeing- 
machine. This consists of a series of sieves, 
to which a rotatory motion is given : the grain is 
by this means separated from any small dust 
and dirt, which passes through the wires of 
the sieve, while all the lighter rubbish 'is by 
the motion brought to the top, whence it is re- 



WINTER CHICKWEED. 



WIRE-WORM. 



moved by hand. This implement is more, 
perhaps, adapted for millers ; and its cost pre- 
sents, in its present form, a bar to its general 
introduction. If it could be reduced to the 
power of being worked by hand, it would be a 
very valuable assistant to the proper prepara- 
tion of the grain for market. 

The American machines for cleaning grain 
are commonly designated Fans, Grain Fans, 
and in the Eastern States, Winning Mills. Their 
construction differs materially from such as 
are used for similar purposes in Europe, being 
much more simple, and not having more than 
half the machinery. The old "Dutch Fan," 
formerly used, and which had no shaking screen, 
is now superseded by highly improved fans. 
The principal modern improvement in these 
consists in the application of a screen attached 
to the shaker, which more effectually rids the 
grain from cockle and dirt that cannot be 
blown out. The ordinary size of an American 
'an is about 5 feet in the frame or boarding, 83 
feet in height, and about 2 feet 4 or 6 inches in 
width. The blower or fan is about 25- feet in 
diameter. Screens and riddles from 18 to 20 
inches square, from 3 to 6 riddles accompany- 
ing each fan. The most simple arrrangement 
for working a shaker is a small crank attached 
to a rod leading from the side of the fan to the 
riddle-frame or shaker. 

A fan of the dimensions described will clean 
from 40 to 60 bushels of wheat per hour. Eng- 
lish farmers who have come to the United States, 
say thai these simple winnowing-machines do 
far more work than the English, which last are 
complicated with much machinery, for cleaning 
smut, &c. (See Smut-Mill.) The English 
winnowing-machines cost from $40 to $60, 
whilst the American are made for $16 to $24, 
according to the size and number of screens ; at 
which prices they are furnished, among other 
places, at No. 196 Market street, Philadelphia, 
by Mr. Chandler,agricultural implement maker. 

WINTER CHICKWEED. See Chickweed, 
European. 

WINTER-CRESS (Burbarea, on account 
of its being formerly called the herb of St. 
Barbara). There are, in England, two indi- 
genous species; 1. The bitter winter-cress, or 
yellow rocket {B. vulgai-is), a perennial, which 
is common in rather moist waste ground, about 
hedges, or in marshy meadows. The root is 
tapering, somewhat woody ; stem about 2 feet 
high, simple or branched, leafy, stout, angular, 
and furrowed. Lower leaves lyrate, the termi- 
nal lobe roundish ; upper obovate, toothed, 
strongly ribbed, of a fine texture, quite smooth. 
Flowers bright yellow, in round-headed corym- 
bose clusters. Pod quadrangular, about an 
inch long. The whole herb is nauseously bit- 
ter, and in some degree mucilaginous. A dou- 
ble-flowered variety, with innumerable petals 
produced in long succession, and turning white 
as they fade, is frequent in gardens. 2. Early 
winter-cress (B. prcecox). This biennial spe- 
cies is found in watery, grassy places, or on the 
banks of ditches. Stems, one or more, erect, 
1^ or 2 feet high, smooth, a little branched, 
tinged at the bottom with a violet hue. Lower 
leaves lyrate : upper deeply pinnatifid, with 
linear, oblong, entire segments; flowers fewer, 



smaller, and paler than those of B. vulgarit. 
Pods thrice as long as in that species, exactly 
square, smooth. This species propagates 
itself abundantly by seed, but the root is not 
perennial. It may be eaten like water-cresses, 
with which it agrees in flavour, except being 
rather more pungent. 

WINTER-GREEN {Pyrola, from the leaves 
being similar to those of the pear tree). A 
genus of very pretty plants, rather difficult to 
cultivate. A shaded peat border appears to 
suit them best, and they are readily increased 
by divisions or seeds. The whole genus is 
astringent and tonic. There are, in England, 
five native species, all perennials, as follows : — 
1. Round-leaved winter-green {Pyrola rotundi- 
folia). 2. Intermediate winter-green {P. media). 
3. Lesser winter-green (P. minor). 4. Serrated 
winter-green (P. secunda) ; and, 5. Single-fiow- 
ered winter-green (P. unijioru). They all in- 
habit alpine wooded localities ; the flowers are 
white or reddish, often highly fragrant. P. wwi- 
flora is one of the most curious and elegant of 
British flowers. 

WiNTER-GttEEN, AMERICAN (Pyrola umbel- 
lata), Pipsissiwa. The Chivtaphila umbellata 
of Nutlall. This plant is very abundant in 
cool situations in the United States. It has a 
long creeping root, and ascending stem 3 to 6 
inches long, leafy at the top. The leaves are 
of a deep green and very glossy, possessing a 
peculiar flavour, some bitterness, and a mode- 
rate degree of astringency. Under the Indian 
name of Pipsissiwa, this plant has been long 
noted as a popular medicine. It has doubtless 
some virtues, but its properties are very often 
misapplied in its empirical use. 

The Spotted Winter-Green {Pyrola maculata) 
is also a common plant in the United States 
erroneously called Pipsissiwa by Pursh. Its 
properties are similar to those of the first- 
named species, though weaker. Five or six 
additional species of the Pyrola genus are 
found in the United States. 

WINTER-PROUD. A term provincially 
applied to wheat which in winter puts on a 
more green and luxuriant appearance than it 
is able to support in the following summer; or 
in which the ramifications become too nume- 
rous to be kept up, or brought to maturity, from 
the previous over-exertion of the soil. In 
these cases the crops decline during the spring 
and summer, and at harvest yield imperfectly, 
falling much below other crops which had a 
more backward appearance in the winter. 

WINTER- WEED. A name given, in Nor- 
folk and other parts, to the ivy-leaved speed- 
well {Vei'onica hederifolia). See Speedwell. 

WIRE-WORM (Elater segetis). These are 
larvEB of that tribe of insects named Elateridee, 
or click-beetles, which are readily known by 
having the sternum produced behind into a 
strong spine fitted to enter a groove in the ab- 
domen situated between the intermediate pair 
of legs. By bringing these parts suddenly into 
contact, the insects are enabled to spring to 
some height into the air, and thus recover 
their natural position, when they happen 
to fall on their backs, which they frequently 
do, when dropping from plants to the ground. 
A special provision of this kind is rendered 

1163 



WIRE-WORM. 



WIRE-WORM. 



necessary, in consequence of the shortness and 
weakness of their legs. The wire-worms have 
a long, slender, and cylindrical body, covered 
by a hard crust, which has obtained for them 
the above name. They are composed of twelve 
segments fitting closely to each other, and are 
provided with six conical scaly feet, placed in 
pairs on the three segments next the head. 
The latter is furnished with short antenna, 
palpi, and two strong mandibles or jaws. 

Upwards of sixty different species of these 
insects occur in Britain, and it is probable that 
a considerable proportion of them feed upon 
the most valuable cultivated plants. The same 
species of larva does not appear to confine 
itself to one kind of food, but attacks indiscri- 
minately the roots of grain and other grasses, 
as well as esculent roots, such as turnips, car- 
rots, radishes, &c. But it is at the same time 
deserving of notice, that as a strong similarity 
prevails among larvas specifically distinct, it is 
probable that different kinds may often have 
been confounded, and a more correct know- 
ledge may prove them to be more restricted in 
their choice of food than is at present sup- 
posed: this, at least, is rendered not unlikely 
by what is observed in analogous cases. We 
are as yet acquainted with the metamorphoses 
and habits of a very small number of these 
insects ; and it is, therefore, highly desirable 
that whenever a destructive species of wire- 
worm prevails, it should be traced to the per- 
fect condition. This, however, is attended 
with considerable difficulty, owing to the length 
of time they continue in the larva state, ex- 
tending, in many instances, to several years. 

This insect occurs in considerable plenty 
throughout the country in grass fields and pas- 
ture lands, and is usually found creeping 
among the herbage, or lying at the sides of 
stones; it is scarcely ever observed on the 
■wing. The extent of the injury they sometimes 
occasion may be estimated from the fact, that 
a single worm has been observed to bite from 
8 to 20 plants in a very short time; and they 
are occasionally so abundant, that from 4 to 8 
have been turned up by the spade in a space 
of 4 square feet. The depredations of the 
wire-worm in England being principally con- 
fined to wheat sown upon clover leys, old pas- 
lures recently broken up, pea and bean stub- 
bles, &c., we may suppose the general average 
of the injury to amount to about a twentieth 
part of what is sown upon this description of 
lands. This may be deemed a very f^air and 
moderate calculation. 

When the fields lie fallow, these insects conti- 
nue to feed on the grass and other weeds, which 
are frequently allowed to overrun the surface ; 
whereas, if the soil were kept clean, they would 
either die for want of food, or be compelled to 
remove to some other place. As these larvae 
invariably live beneath the surface of the soil, 
every plan suggested for their destruction must 
oe founded on this consideration. 

Without adverting to this fact, many super- 
ficial applications, such as strewing the sur- 
face with quicklime, soot, &c., have been tried 
without effect. The most obvious remedy is to 
saturate the soil with some fluid which has 
been previously ascertained to destroy the in- 
1164 



sects without injuring the plants ; that is, if the 
latter be of a kind which it is necessary to 
preserve, as will usually be the case. In a fal- 
low field, this precaution need not be observed, 
as a double benefit would ensue from the de- 
struction of both insects and weeds. More 
carefully conducted experiments, and on a 
more extensive scale than any that have yet 
been undertaken, will be necessary to show 
what kind of liquid is best adapted for this 
purpose. Probably, different substances will 
be found most useful in different situations, ac- 
cording to the nature of the soil and the chemi- 
cal ingredients which enter into its composi- 
tion. The latter consideration should be par- 
ticularly attended to in all experiments on the 
subject, as most likely to suggest the most ap- 
propriate remedy; and it might even happen 
that the fluid employed to destroy the insects 
might be so managed as to produce a most 
beneficial change in the chemical qualities of 
the soil. If a strong saline solution, for exam- 
ple, should be found to kill the insects, as it is 
very likely to do, there are few soils which 
would not derive benefit from such an applica- 
tion. Of course, many substances prove 
speedily fatal to these insects, and among these 
the choice would have to be determined by 
cheapness and ease of application. Beirkan- 
der, a Swedish observer, who has investigated 
their habits, found that they lived among — 



ayi. 


Hours 


9 








14 





12 





9 





2 


4 






Garlic . . . . 

Spriice leaves - . . 

Fir leaves . - . 

Ledum palustre 

Myrica gale . - - 

In water . - - - 

He suggests that such of these plants as 
proved most speedily fatal should be mixed 
with the manure. He also considers it of great 
advantage to cause children to follow the 
plough, and pick up all that happen to be 
turned up. He states that in this way he has 
seen 351 wire-worms collected in a field not 
exceeding 600 feet by ^6. 

Sir .Joseph Banks suggested a very simple 
plan for a-lluring the wire-worms from the 
plants, and collecting them that they might be 
destroyed. This consisted merely in burying 
slices of potato, stuck upon skewers, near the 
seeds sown. As the larvae are very fond of this 
root, they leave the young plants and fix upon 
it. These slices require to be examined every 
day, and the wire-worms collected upon them 
destroyed. Mr. Tallant affirms that he has fre- 
quently freed fields entirely from wire-worms 
by sowing a crop of white mustard-seed. The 
experiment he has tried so frequentl)', and in 
circumstances so well calculated to demon- 
strate its efl!ects, that he is perfectly satisfied 
that the remedy is efficient. "Encouraged," 
he observes, " by the results of my former 
trials, I sowed a whole field of 42 acres, which 
had never repaid me for 19 years, in conse- 
quence of nearly every crop being destroyed 
by the wire-worm ; and I am warranted in 
stating that not a single wire-worm could be 
found the following year ; and the crop of 
wheat throughout, which was reaped last har- 
vest, was superior to any I h^d grown for 21 
years. I am, therefore, undT a strong persua- 



WISP. 



WOAD, DYER'S, 



sion that the wire-worm may be successfully 
repelled and eradicated by carefully destroying 
all weeds and roots, drilling white mustard- 
seed, and keeping the ground clear by hoeing." 
{Brit. Farm. Mag. 1831.) , 

Nature herself has taken means to check 
their superabundant increase by making them 
the prey of a small ichneumon, which searches 
out their retreats, and deposits its eggs in their 
bodies, which are consumed by the parasitical 
larvae as soon as hatched." (Mr. Duncan, Qtmrt. 
Journ. of Jlgr. vol. viii. pp. 96, 348.) (See In- 
sects.) Under the head Bektlf,, at page 174, 
the American wire-worms have been described 
as materially differing in structure and habits 
from those of Europe. 

WISP. A term applied to a small bunch 
of hay or straw, when used in rubbing down 
horses or cattle. 

WITHY. A name sometimes given to the 
flexible boughs of willows and osiers. 

WOAD, DYER'S (Isatis linctoria). This is a 
biennial plant, growing wild in cultivated fields 
and about borders in England, but rare. As 
the ancient Britons are reported to have paint- 
ed their bodies with the blue colour obtained 
from this plant, which is still used in dyeing, 
the woad is most probably an original produc- 
tion of England; though what occurs now and 
then about cultivated fields is supposed to have 
escaped from the crops occasionally raised, 
chietiy in the middle part of the island. The 
naturalized plants are less perfectly smooth, 
and far less luxuriant than the cultivated ones. 
This plant has a tapering and fibrous root. 
The stem rises 2 or 5 feet high, wand-like, 
slightly glaucous, leafy, panicled at the top. 
Panicle of many compound racemose branches, 
beset with diminished lanceolate leaves, all of 
a yellow hue as well as the stalks. Flowers 
numerous, small, bright yellow. 

Woad has been cultivated in France from 
time immemorial. In England its culture is 
mostly confined to Lincolnshire, where it is a 
common practice to take rich flat tracts near 
rivers, at a high price, for the purpose of grow- 
ing it for 2 or 4 years. Those who engage in 
this sort of culture form a sort of colony, and 
move from place to place as they complete 
their engagements. It is sometimes, however, 
grown by stationary farmers. The leaves are 
the parts of the plant used, and it is considered 
as a severe crop. 

There is a variety of woad, called the Dalma- 
tian, described by Miller, and also a wild sort, 
but only the common is cultivated in England. 

The soil for woad should be deep and per- 
fectly fresh, such as those of the rich, mellow, 
loamy, and deep vegetable kind. Where this 
culture is carried to a considerable degree of 
perfection, as in Lincolnshire, the deep, rich, 
putrid, alluvial soils on the flat tracts extend- 
ing upon the borders of the large rivers, are 
chiefly employed for the growth of this sort of 
crop; and it has been shown by repeated trials 
that it answers most perfectly when they arc 
broken up for it immediately from a state of 
sward. 

The preparation of the soil, when woad is to be 
grown on grass land, may either be eflfected by 
deep ploughings, with the aid of the winter's 



frost; cross-ploughing and harrowing in spring: 
by deep ploughing and harrowing in spring; by 
paring and burning; or by trench-ploughing or 
spade-trenching. The first mode appears the 
worst, as it is next to impossible to reduce old 
turf in one year, and even if this is done, the 
danger from the grub and wire-worm is a suf- 
ficient argument against it. By ploughing deep 
in February, and soon afterwards sowing, the 
plants may germinate before the grub is able 
to rise to the surface ; by trench-ploughing the 
same purpose will be more effectually obtained; 
and, best of all, by spade-trenching. But a me- 
thod which is equally effectual with the first, 
more expeditious, and which has a superiority 
over it in more completely destroying grubs, 
insects, and other vermin, which are apt to 
feed on the plants in their early growth, is that 
of paring and burning. This is, however, 
chiefly practised where the sward is rough and 
abounds with rushes, sedge, and other plants 
of the coarse kind, but might be had recourse 
to on others with benefit. 

The time of sowing may be extended from Feb- 
ruary to July. Early sowing, however, is to be 
preferred, as in that case the plants come up 
stronger, and afford more produce the first 
season. 

The mode of sewing is generally broadcast, but 
the plant might be most advantageously grown 
in rows and cultivated with the horse-hoe. The 
rows may be 9 inches or a foot apart, and the 
seed deposited 2 inches in depth. The quantity 
of seed for the broadcast method is 5 or 6 lbs. 
to the acre ; for the drill mode, 2 lbs. are more 
than sufficient, the seed being smaller than that 
of the turnip. New seed, where it can be pro- 
cured, should always be sown in preference to 
such as has been kept for some time ; but when 
of the latter kind, it should be steeped for some 
time before it is put into the ground. 

The afler-cultiire of the woad consists in hoe- 
ing, thinning, prong-stirring, and weeding, 
which operations may be practised by hand or 
horse-tools, as in the culture of teazle. 

In respect to the business of gathering the crops, 
with the spring-sown ones, the leaves will ge- 
nerally be ready to be gathered towards the 
latter end of June or beginning of July, accord, 
ing to the nature of the soil, season, and cli 
mate ; but for those put in at a later period ii/. 
the summer, they are often fit to be gathered 
earlier. This business should, however, con- 
stantly be executed as soon as the leaves are 
fully grown, while they retain their perfect 
green colour and are highly succulent, as, 
when they are let remain till they begin to turn 
pale, much of their goodness is said to be ex- 
pended, and they become less in quantity, and 
of an inferior quality for the purposes of the 
dyer. In the execution of this sort of business, 
a number of baskets are usually provided in 
proportion to the extent of the crop, into which 
the leaves are thrown as thej' are taken from 
the plants, which is effected by the hand, by 
grasping them firmly and giving them a sort 
of a sudden twist. In favourable seasons, 
where the soils are rich, the plants will often 
rise to the height of 8 or 10 inches; but iu 
other circumstances they seldom attain mere 
than 4 or 5 ; and where the lands are well ma 
5F 1165 



WOLF'S-BANE. 



WOOL. 



naged in the culture of the plants, they will 
often afford two or three gatherings, but the 
best cultivators seldom take more than two, 
which are sometimes mixed together in the 
manufacturing of them. It is necessary that 
the after croppings, when they are taken, are 
cons-tantly kept separate from the others, as 
they would injure the whole if blended together, 
and considerably diminish the value of the pro- 
duce. It is said that the best method, where 
a third cropping is either wholly or partially 
made, is to keep it separate, forming it into an 
inferior kind of woad. 

The produce is mostly from about a ton to a 
ton and a half of green leaves. The price 
varies considerably; but for woad of the prime 
quality it is often from 25/. to 30/. the ton, and 
for that of an inferior quality 6/. or 71., and 
sometimes much more. 

To prepare it for the dyer, it is bruised by ma- 
chinery to press out the watery part; it is after- 
wards formed into balls and fermented, re- 
ground, and fermented in vats, where it is 
evaporated into cakes in the manner of indigo. 
The haulm is burned for manure or spread 
over the straw-yard, to be fermented along with 
straw-dung. 

T/ie use of woad in dyeing is as a basis for 
the black and other colours. 

To save seed, leave some of the plants unde- 
nuded of their leaves the second year, and 
when it is ripe in July or August, treat it like 
turnip-seed. 

The only diseases to which the woad is liable 
are the mildew and rust; when young it is 
often attacked by the fly, and obliged to be re- 
sown, and this even on winter-ploughed grass 
lands more than once. (Loudon.) 

WOLF'S-BANE (.Aconitum). A genus of 
ornamental, tall, free-flowering, very hardy 
plants, succeeding well under the shade of 
trees; increased by division or by seeds. All 
the species are to be dreaded, being of a poi- 
sonous quality, highly narcotic, and acid. The 
aconite has, however, become of great service 
as a narcotic in many very troublesome disor- 
ders. One species, the common wolf's-bane 
or monk's-hood (./?. napellus), is a native of 
Greece, but now grows wild in this country in 
watery places. It is perennial in habit. Root 
fleshy, tapering; stem erect, simple, leaf5% 
clothed with minute, close hairs, and terminat- 
ing in a solitary, simple, upright, spike-like 
panicle of large, dark-blue, helmeted flowers, 
without scent. The nectaries are full of honey, 
and form the spur of the flower. Leaves deeply 
five-cleft, cut, with linear segments, furrowed 
above, and of a deep green, but pale beneath. 
See Aconite. 

WOOD. The fibrous or ligneous substance 
i>f which the branches, trunks, and roots of 
trees are principally composed. In vascular 
trunks, the hardest wood is always in the 
centre. See Bark, Liber, Lignin, Timbeh, 
Trees, &c. 

WOODBINE. See Honeysuckle. 

WOOD-RUSH (Liiaoia, from the Gramen 
Luzulx, or glow-worm grass of Bauhin). These 
plants are nearly related to Junciis, from which 
they are at once distinguished by their flat 
leaves. They possess little beauty, and are of 
1166 



the easiest culture. There are seven indige- 
nous species, all of which are described iu 
Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. ii. p. 177. 

WOODSIA (named in honour of Joseph 
Woods, F. L. S., an excellent practical British 
botanist, who first illustrated our native species 
of Rosa). A genus of small ferns, of which 
two species only have hitherto been discover- 
ed : — the oblong Woodsia ( W. ilvensis), and the 
rounded-leaved Woodsia (W. hyperborea). These 
ferns grow best in peat and loam mixed, and 
are increased by division, or by seed. Their 
roots are fibrous; fronds tufted, erect, stalked, 
pinnate, pinnatifid, clothed with simple hairs, 
or narrow-pointed scales. (Smith's Eng. Flor. 
vol. iv. p. 322.) 

WOOD-SORREL (Oxalis, from oxys, acid; 
the leaves have an acid taste). Most of the 
plants of this genus deserve cultivating on ac- 
count of their very pretty blossoms, which are 
produced in great abundance. The hardy 
species should be planted in a shady border, 
where they will grow and flower very freely. 
The seeds of the hardy annual species may be 
sown in the open border in spring. There are 
in England two wild native species, — 1. The 
common wood-sorrel (O. acetosclla), which 
grows abundantly in groves and shady places. 
Stalks radical, single-flowered. Leaves ternate, 
inversely heart-shaped, hairy ; root of many 
scaly joints. Leaflets of a delicate bright green, 
often purplish at the back, drooping at night, on 
long, hairy, radical, purplish foot-stalks. Flow- 
ers solitary, drooping, bell-shaped, either white 
or purplish, always streaked with fine branching 
purple veins. When ripe, the blackish shining 
seeds are projected to a distance on the slight- 
est touch or motion, by their elastic tunics, 
which remain contracted and wrinkled in the 
capsule. This herb is powerfully and most 
agreeably acid, making a refreshing and whole- 
some conserve with fine sugar; its flavour 
resembling green tea. Few of our wild flowers 
are more elegant. 

2. Yellow procumbent wood-sorrel (0. cor- 
nirulata). This species is annual, growing in 
shady, rather moist waste ground. The root is 
fibrous, and it has become almost a weed in 
gardens. Stems branched, procumbent. Flov/er 
stalks in small umbels of yellow flowers. 

Several species of oxalis have been found in 
the United States, among which are the follow- 
ing, enumerated by Nuttall. 1. O. acelosella. 
2. violarea. This species appears often to 
flower again late in the autumn, and is then 
destitute of leaves. 3. Lyoni. Ph. 4. Comiculata. 
5. Striata. 6. Dillenii. These two last are 
scarcely distinct species. 

This genus of more thnn 100 species is, with 
a few exceptions in Europe and America, pe- 
culiarly indigenous to the Cape of Good Hope. 
The leaves of all the species are more or less 
sensitive and nictitant. (Paxton's Bot. Diet.; 
Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. ii. p. 323.) See Sorrei. 

WOOD-WASP. See Saw-Flt. 

WOOD-WAXEN. See Greenweed. 

WOOL (Germ, tvolle; Dutch, wol : Kus. 
loolna). The soft, hairy, or downy substance 
which forms the covering of sheep, and is 
found in smaller proportion on many other 
animals. It is an article which has continued 



WOOL. 



WOOL. 



from the earliest period down to the present 
day to be of primary importance, having 
always formed the principal partof the clothing 
of mankind in most temperate regions. Authors 
have seemed to imagine that the production of 
wool was confined to the sheep; practical men, 
however, know that there is a numerous list 
of animals, on whom, at some season of the 
year at least, wool is found. 

M. Chevreul, who has long devoted himself 
to the examination of wool, has proved that 
wool contains three or four different substances. 
The following is the result of an examination 
of 100 parts of a merino fleece: — 

Parts 
Earthy substances ... 2606 
Fat matters dissolved by washing 3274 

Fat matters ----- 9-97 

Clean wool 3123 



A consideration of the most important pro- 
perties of wool cannot be better introduced 
than in the words of one to whom the agricul- 
turist, whatever department of husbandry may 
chiefly occupy his attention, is much indebted. 
— "Fine and coarse," says Arthur Young, 
"are but vague and general descriptions of 
wool ; all fine fleeces have some coarse wool, 
and all coarse fleeces some fine. I shall en- 
deavour, for the information of my readers, to 
distinguish the various qualities of wool in the 
order in which they are esteemed and preferred 
by the manufacturer. First, fineness with close 
ground, that is, thick-matted ground. Second, 
fineness. Third, straight-haired, when broken 
by drawing. Fourth, elasticity, rising after 
compression in the hand. Fifth, staple not too 
long. Sixth, colour. Seventh, what coarse is 
in it to be very coarse. Eighth, tenacit3^ 
Ninth, not much pitch-mark; but this is no 
other disadvantage than the loss of weight in 
scouring. The bad or disagreeable properties 
are, — thin, grounded, toppy, curly-haired, and, 
if in a sorted state, little that is very fine, a 
tender staple, no elasticity, many dead white 
hairs, very yolky. Those who buy wool for 
combing and other light goods that do not want 
milUng, wish to find length of staple, fineness 
of hair, whiteness, tenacity, firmness, elasticity, 
and not too many pitch-marks." (Annals of 
Agriculture, vol. xviii. p. 329.) The fineness of 
the wool differs greatly on the different parts of 
the sheep. That running down the side of the 
neck, and covering the shoulders, the ribs, and 
the back, is the finest; the next covers the 
superior parts of the legs and the thighs, and 
extends up to nearly the haunch and the tail, 
and a still inferior portion runs along the 
upper part of the neck, the throat, the breast, 
the belly, and the lower part of the legs. There 
is considerable variation in this respect in dif- 
ferent breeds, and in individuals of the same 
breed ; and although a fleece, taken generally, 
may be said to be adapted to a particular use, 
yet a portion of it may be employed in the 
manufacture of a much more valuable article; 
and at the same time, a greater quantity will 
be thrown aside as not sufl!iciently fine for the 
originally intended purpose. The influence of 
temperature on the growth of wool is very con- 
•iderable. Sheep in a hot climate will yield a 



comparatively coarse wool, and those in a 
cold climate will carry a finer, but, at the same 
time, a closer and a warmer fleece. The na- 
tural instinct of the sheep would seem to teach 
the wool-grower the advantage of attending to 
the influence of temperature on him. He is 
evidently impatient of heat. In the open dis- 
trict, and where no shelter is near, he climbs 
to the highest parts of his walk, that if the rays 
of the sun must still fall on him, he may never- 
theless be cooled by the breeze; but if shelter 
is near, of whatever kind, every shaded spot is 
crowded with sheep. Pasture has a very great 
influence on the fineness of the fleece. The 
staple of the wool, like every other part of the 
sheep, must increase in length or in bulk 
when the animal has a superabundance of nu- 
triment; and, on the other hand, the secretion 
which forms the wool must decrease, like 
every other, when suflncient nourishment is 
not afforded. Connected with fineness is true- 
ness of staple — as equal a growth as possible 
over the animal — a freedom from the shaggy 
portions, here and there, which are occasion- 
ally observed on poor and neglected sheep. 
These portions are always coarse and com- 
paratively worthless, and they indicate an 
irregular and unhealthy action of the secretion 
of wool, which will probably weaken or render 
the fibre diseased in other parts. Soundness 
and elasticity are also very important proper- 
ties in wool. 

If the pile is sound, there are few qualities 
in wool of so much consequence as softness. 
Fashion has done much in effecting this. Soft- 
ness of the pile is evidently connected with the 
presence and quantity of yolk. There is no 
doubt that this substance is designed, not only 
to nourish the hair, but to give it richness and 
pliability. Bad management, neglect, expo- 
sure, starvation, impair the pliability of the 
woolly fibre, but chiefly so because they arrest 
the secretion of the yolk, or change its proper- 
ties. The colour of the fleece is of minor, and 
yet of no trifling importance. The alteration 
of the colour was the first recorded improve- 
ment of the sheep; and its purity, its perfect 
whiteness, should never be lost sight of by the 
sheepmaster of the present day. To a certain 
extent, the fleece is frequently stained with the 
colour of the soil on which the animal grows. 
In some parts of Gloucestershire the wool ac- 
quires an orange colour; in Hertfordshire and 
Warwickshire it is of a brownish red; and in 
the fens of Lincoln and Cambridge it has a 
dark blue tint. 

In some districts, and particularly in the 
west of England, the farmer needlessly uses a 
considerable quantity of ochre or ruddle, either 
in the composition of his salving mixture, or 
to gratify a foolish fancy. The tar gives con- 
sistence to the oil or butter, and although it is 
often with considerable difl5culty washed away, 
yet while it remains on the fleece, it gives a 
permanency to the smearing process ; not one 
plea, however, can be offered in favour of the 
ruddle. See Salving. 

It is not necessary (nor, indeed, would our 
space permit it) to go into the construction of 
wool, as seen through the microscope. We 
shall pass on, therefore, to point out the diffe/«« 

1167 



WOOL. 



WOOL. 



ence between hair and wool. The fibre of 
wool is crisped or curled, the curls increasing 
according to the fineness and felting property 
of the wool: hair is often disposed to curl, but 
in an inferior degree. The distinction, there- 
fore, between these substances is more in de- 
gree than intent. Wool is decidedly crisped 
and serrated; hair is sometimes curled, but to 
an inferior degree, and the irregularities of its 
edge, in some few cases, assume the form of 
slight serrations. Wool will felt: hair will 
only entangle and harle to a limited extent. 
See Felt and Haih. 

The old and apparently simple division of 
wool was into long and short, or, according to 
the purposes to which it was devoted, " comb- 
ing" and "clothing wool;" but there was con- 
siderable difficulty in arranging, some fleeces 
which were of intermediate lengths, and con- 
vertible to either purpose. A third subdivision, 
that of " middle wool," has recently been added. 
These are again divided into subordinate 
classes, according to the fineness of the fibre. 
" In sorting wools," says Mr. McCulloch, " there 
are frequently eight or ten different species in 
^n Account of the Quantity and declared Value of British Woollen Manufartiires exported from the 
United Kingdom in the Year 1841. (Pari. Paper, No. 23, Sess. 1842.) 



a single fieece; and if the best wool of one 
fleece be not equal to the finest sort, it is thrown 
to a 3d, 3d, or 4th, or to a still lower sort, of an 
equal degree of fineness with it. The bes* 
English short native fleeces, such as the fine 
Norfolk and Southdown, are generally divided 
by the wool-sorter into the following sorts, all 
varying :n fineness from each other: — viz. 
1. Prime; 2. Choice; 3. Super; 4. Head; 5. 
Downrights; 6. Seconds; 7. Fine Abb; 8. 
Coarse Abb; 9. Livery; 10. Short coarse, or 
breech wool. The relative value of each va- 
ries, according to the greater demand for coarse, 
fine, or middle cloths." {Youatt on Sheep; 
BaketvelVs Observations on Wool; Lucrock on 
Wool ; Anderson on Wool.) See Alpaca, Fleece, 
Lamb-skins, and Sheep. 

Price of Sjuthdown Wool in England, in different 

Years. 







». i. 








». d. 


1781 


- 


8i 


1810 


- 


- 


2 4 


1785 


- 


9 


1815 


. 


. 


1 11 


1790 


. 


- 1 0^ 


1820 


. 


. 


1 5 


1795 


. 


- 1 3 


1825 


. 


. 


1 4 


1800 


- 


- 1 5 


1830 


. 


. 


10 


1805 


- 


- 2 3 


1833 


- 


- 


I 5 



Counfrie3 tn which 
exporled. 



Russia 

Sweden 

Norway 

Denmark 

Prussia 

Germany 

Holland 

Belgium 

France 

Portugal, Azores, 

and Madeira 
Spain and the Ca- 
naries 
Gibraltar - 
Italy - - - 
Mafta - - - 
Ionian Islands 
Kingdom of Greece 
Turkey 

Syria and Palestine 
East Indies and 

Ctiina 
Settlements inAiis- 

tralia 
New Zealand 
Cape of Good Hope 
Other parts of 

A frica 
British Colonies in 

North America 
British West Indies 
Foreign West In- 
dies - . - 
United States of 

America - 
Brazil - - - 
Mexico and the 
States of South 
America - 
Isles of Guernsey, 
Jersey, Aldcrney, 
and Man 



Pieces. 

839 

264 

671 

64 

5' 

15,800, 

1,624 

562' 

274 

10,031 

969 
5,758 
2,127 
1,436 

98 

238 



45,068 

4,282 

27 

2,416 

879 

22,374 

2,708 

1,823 

39,670 
17,325 



33,274 
2,579 



136 
101 

5,124 

1,585 

2,325 

135 

41 

101 

26 



Pieces 

367 

50 

157 

39 

9 

2,663 

269 

421 

50 

349 

214 

727 
1,429 
25 
3 
24 
78 



892 
22 

856 



2,981 
184 



5,866 
2,374 



1,749 



824 

15,662 

112 

15 

3,474 

3,20' 
58 
3 
6 
3 



151 

8 
680 



575 
258 



370 



52,212 
14.905 

2,650 
318 
164 
512,493 
156,747 
56,272 
18,299 

44,623 

25,309 

38,942 

112,739 

3,173 

522 

286 

10,212 

408 

126,016 

10,521 

419 

12,400 



106,510 
14,381 



12,184 
498,246 



7,326^ 79,789 

3,750 86,142 

64 4,256 



Yards. 

2.798 
504 

3,608 
565 

.385,083 

127,500 

114,973 

10,424 

8,943 

4,313 
28,031 
3,191 
4,625 
3,458 
390 
3,034 



164,170 

88,976 

3,922 

56,475 

10,316 

509,864 
59,527 

1,667 

39,115 
17,360 



98,089 
79,230 



Carpels 

tJidCar. 

peling. 



3,771 

8,1100 

700 

7,118 

5,738 

200 

448 



33,130 

227,881 
26,834 
27,390 

6,452 

466,358 
56,868 

90,830 

P25,038 
150,382 



36,365 

19,638 



YarcU. 
5,3fi0 

1,736 

410 

223 

366 

93,770 

62,771 

19,167 

26,259 

3,952 

16,718 

8,8.37 

22,997 

2,487 

485 

35 

14,620 



25,67 
3,198 
3,.370 

465 

186,567 
2.031 

6,145 

166,820 
10,125 



Vard«. 

90,430 

9,-)50 

3,383 

1,196 

2,000 

519,623 

240,049 

I9S,.570 

120,853 

31,955 

7,727 

67,082 

221,031 

200 

470 

360 

I7,290l 

2,000 

62,159 

52,709 

1,200 

57,100 

10,796 

373,200 
57,969 



253 

14 

363 



1,053 
4,13 

3,968 
22 

2,125 

600 

207 

2,270 

94 

24 

125 



2325,488 
142,885 



2,090 

4,871 

196 

1,113 

2,111 

29,900 
2,376 



68,554 
2.342 



85,661 353,455 6,193 
29,116 



332 
302 
1,05 
10.'. 

I9,73.f 

6,025 

900 

863 

1,242 

649 
2,557 
3,917 
27.) 
327 
193 
691 



6,699 

6,028 

277 

3,214 

3,798 

28,471 
8,907 



46,263 



7,098 329,984 



7,396 
1,383 



£ 

102,733 

26,620 

11,9.30 

1,774 

663 

883,878 

316,769 

110.792 

38,043 

164,251 

60,342 

92,261 

203.797 

15,010 

2,234 

752 

20,913 

571 

532,710 

91,831 

4,767 

55,185 

24,447 

515,344 
62,919 

56,962 

1521.980 



468,070 
31,121 



Total . 213,125!ll,491 22,131 137,160 2007,366 1820,244,2187,329 809,315 5015,087 135,909 163,900 5748,673 

"Ties 



WOOL. 



WOOL. 



An account of Sheep and Lambs' Wool imported 
into Great Britain in the undermentioned Years. 
(McCulloch's Com. Diet.) 

Lbs. 

In 1810 10,914,137 

1820 9,789,020 

1825 43,795,281 

1830 32,313,059 

1833 38,076,413 

1839 - . - . . 57,379,923 

1841 56,170,974 

Ah Account of the Quantity of Sheep and Lambs' 
Wool imported into the United Kingdom in the 
Year 1841 ; specifying the Countries from which 
it came, the Quantity that paid a Duty of One 
Penny per Pound, and the Quantity that paid a 
Duty of One Halfpenny per Pound ; of the 
Quantity of Foreign Wool re-exported during 
the same period, and the Countries to which it 
was sent; and the Quantity remaining warehoused 
under Bond on the hth day of January, 1842. 
(Pari. Paper, No. 237, Sess. 1842.) 
Quantity of sheep and lambs' wool imported 

.nco the United Kingdom: — 

Lbs. 

From Russia 4,131,652 



Sweden and Norway 
Denmark . - . . . 
Prussia --..-. 
Germany . . - . . 
Holland . . - . - 

Belgium . . . . . 

France -..--. 
Portugal _ . . . . 

Spain ------ 

Gibraltar - . - . - 
Italy ------ 

Malta ...... 

Turkey ------ 

Egypt .--.-- 
Morocco - - - - - 

Cape of Good Hope - - - 
St. Helena - - - - - 

East India Company's Territories 
New South Wales - . . 

Van Diemen's Land . - - 
Swan River Settlement 
South Australia - . - - 
New Zealand - . - - 
British North American Colonies 
British West Indies . - . 
Curagoa - - - 

United States of Ameirica 
Brazil ------ 

States of the Rio de la Ptata 

Chili 

Peru .-..-- 



15,424 

778,256 

165,125 

20,958,775 

121,061 

300,862 

14,659 

679,071 

1.088,200 

25,678 

1,502,254 

124,989 

447,563 

70 

85.250 

1,079,910 

990 

3,008,664 

7,993,060 

3,597,531 

48,590 

759,909 

272 

4,881 

5,014 

224 

58,791 

318 

5,10!),637 

923,832 

3,144,462 



Foreign woo* ----- 56,170,974 
Produce of ihe tsle of Man - - 8,667 



Total quantity imported 



56,179,641 



Quantity of foreign sheep and lambs' wool 
retained for home consumption : — 

Lbs. 
Charged with duty at Id. per lb. - - - 22,051,796 
Do. - at \d. do. - - - 14,495,002 
Do. - at 6(i. do., being red wool 4,306 

Duty-free, being the produce of British pos- 
sessions ..-..-- 16,310,916 



Total quantity retained for home consump- 
tion 52,862,020 



Quantity of foreign sheep and lambs' wool 
re-exported : — 



To Germany ------ 

Holland 

Belgium -.-.-. 
France -..--. 
Portugal ------ 

United States of America 

Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, and Man 

Total quantity re-exported - 

147 



Lbs. 

19,484 

67,517 

1,094,636 

846,460 

3,927 

520,460 

1,971 



2,554,455 



Quantity of foreign sheep and lambs' wool 
remaining warehoused under bond on 5th 
January, 1842 ------ 6,912,060 



An Account of the quantity of British Sheep and 
Lambs' Wool, and Woollen Yarn, exported from 
the United Kingdom in the Year 1841; specify- 
ing the Cowntries to which they were sent. (Pari. 
Paper.) 







Woollen and 






Worsted Yarn 






(including 


Countriei to which exported. 


Sheep and 
Liunbs' Wool. 


Yarn of Wool 
or Worsted 
mixed with 

other 
niaterials). 




Lbs. 


Lb.. 


Russia ----- 




123,896 


Sweden - - - - - 


- 


1,964 


Norway - . - . - 


- 


955 


Denmark - - - . 


. 


828 


Prussia . - . - - 


. 


944 


Germany . . - - 


2,514 


2,638,311 


Holland 


I0,.'->25 


1,264,090 


Belgium - - - - - 


7,544,196 


123,784 


France - - . - - 


894,704 


300,560 


Portugal, Azores, and Madeira 


. 


2,780 


Spain and the Canaries - 


- 


96 


Gibraltar - - - - 


. 


50,958 


Italy 


. 


54,594 


East Indies and China - 


- 


3,752 


Western Coast of Africa 


- 


150 


British Colonies in North 






America - . - - 


70 


22,335 


British West Indies 


. 


16 


Foreign West Indies 


4,480 


112 


United States of Anierica 


8,9J0 


292,754 


Chili 


- 


224 


Isles of Guernsey, Jersey, Al- 






derney, and Man 


5,796 


20,188 


8,471,235 


4,903,291 



Account of the Pieces of Woollen Cloths, Coatings, 
and Kerseymeres, exported in the Years 1820, 
1830, and 1840. 



Countries to which exported. 


1820. 


1S30. 


1840. 
Pieces. 




Pieces, 


Pieces 


Russia - - - - 


31,824 


7,415 


1,680 


Sweden - - - - 


- 


33 


205 


Norway - - - - 


799 


1,276 


550 


Denmark - . - 


220 


248 


101 


Prussia - - - - 


54 


14 


- 


Germany - - - 


91,802 


54,502 


21,572 


Netherlands - - - 


24,584 


21,313 


10,832 


France - - - - 


15 


169 


211 


Portugal, Azores, &c. - 


51,979 


29.597 


10.577 


Spain, &c. - - - 


4,791 


5,685 


369 


Gibraltar - - - 


7,248 


2,122 


2,093 


Italy - - - . 


28,967 


15,204 


2,829 


Malta . - - - 


725 


736 


644 


Ionian Isles - - - 


12 


134 


207 


Turkey and Levant 


313 


1,782 


663 


Guernsey, Jersey, &c. - 


3,192 


3,419 


2,809 


East Indies and China - 


43,133 


72,390 


44,396 


Australia - - - 


584 


1,363 


7,336 


Cape of Good Hope 


2,258 


3,890 


3,354 


Other parts of Africa 


193 


370 


1,006 


British America 


20,513 


33,088 


25,661 


British West Indies 


14,559 


8,262 


3,623 


Foreign West Indies 


5,633 


3,859 


2,525 


United States of America 


76,114 


101,294 


46,945 


Brazils - - - - 


35,913 


22,509 


18,044 


Mexico - - - - 
Total - - - 


12,063 


51,760 


46,370 


427,288 


445,360 1 


258.942 



(Leeds Times, Aug. 1841.) 

Under the head of Agricultural PRODUcrs 
OF THE United States, the gross amount of 
wool for 1839 was stated. The proportions 
furnished by individual states were as fo' 
lows : — 

5f2 1169 



WOOL. 



WOOL. 



states, he. Founds of Wool. 

Maine 1,465,551 

New Hampshire ... - 1,260,517 
Massachusetts - . - . 941,906 
Rhode Island - . - - 183,830 
Connecticut . - . - 889,870 

Vermont 3,699,235 

New York 9,845,295 



New Jersey 

Pennsylvania 

Delaware - 

Maryland 

Virginia 

North Carolina - 

South Carolina - 

Geoigia 

Alabama 

Mississippi - 

Louisiana - 

Tennessee - 

Kentucky 



397,207 

3,048,564 

64,404 

488,201 

2,538,374 

625,044 

299,170 

371,303 

220,353 

175,196 

49,283 

1,060,332 

1,786,847 



Ohio ------ 3,685,315 

Indiana 1,237,919 

Illinois 650,007 

Missouri 562,265 

64,943 

153,375 

7,265 

6,777 

23,039 

707 



Arkansas . . - 
Michigan - - - 
Florida Territory 
Wiskonsan Territory - 
Iowa Territory - 
District of Columbia - 



Total 35,802,114 



The following statement from 
paper, (the Burlington Democrat,) 
prices of wool from 1821 to 1843. 



1821 
1822 
1823 
1824 
1825 
1826 
1827 
1828 
1829 
1830 



55 to 85 cts. 


1831 


33 - 65 


1832 


35 - 65 


1834 


25 - 70 


1835 


25 -70 


1836 


25 - 65 


1838 


25 - 50 


1839 


30 - 50 


1840 


25 - 45 


1843 


38 - 68 





a Vermont 
shows the 



45 to 70 cts. 

42 - 63 

43 - 60 
55 - 65 
60 - 80 
45 - 47 
45 - 60 
43 - 44 
25 - 30 



An interesting view of the foreign wool trade 
and the check upon this effected through the 
protection received from Congress, is exhibited 
in the following account derived from the co- 
lumns of the New York Journal of Commerce, 
(for Sept. 1843.) 

In a communication to the Middkbury Peo- 
ple's Press, dated 10th July last, and signed by 
the Hon. William Slade, late a member of Con- 
gress from Vermont, some interesting facts are 
stated as to the operation of the new Tariff 
upon the importation of wool from foreign 
countries. By information received from the 
Register of the Treasury, it appears that dur- 
ing the 1st half of the present fiscal year, which 
commenced on the 1st of October last, about a 
month after the new Tariff went into operation, 
there was imported into the United States, of 
wool costing 7 cts. a lb. or under, only 881,568 
lbs. and of wool costing over 7 cts. a lb., only 
175,962 lbs. Making a total of only 1,037,530 
lbs. of all descriptions of wool in 6 months ! 
This is a most extraordinary falling off, com- 
' pared with the importations of previous years, 
as will be seen from the following schedule : 

Under 8 els. Over 8 els. 

5,543,626 - 388.830 lbs. 
11,033,010 - 806,370 

9,480,195 

6,551,126 

7,398,519 

9,303,992 
11,409,764 
10,558,993 lbs. 



Tear. 
1835 
1836 

1837 
1838 
1839 
1840 
1841 
1842 



703,276 
445,478 
527,620 
675,009 
981,281 
351,384 



Making, on an average of 7 years, something 
over 9,000,000 lbs. per annum, y^ths of which, 
at the place whence imported, cost less than 8 
1170 



cts. a lb. The new Tariff makes the minimuip 
7 cts. per lb. instead of 8 cents, and levies a 
duty of 5 per cent, on wool not above that mi 
nimum, whereas under the old Tariff such wool 
was duty free. But these changes are so slight, 
that they are not at all sufficient to account for 
the immense decrease in the amount imported. 
Lest such should be the inference of the wool- 
growers, Mr. Slade tells them that through the 
efforts of the Vermont delegation in Congress, 
the word " coarse" was inserted in connection 
with cheap wool, so that now, in order to be 
admitted at the low duty of 5 per cent, (which 
cannot exceed 3^ mills per lb.), wool must not 
only have been bought at 7 cts. a lb. or under, 
but must also be coarse : and he adds, "I have 
no doubt that with a careful and thorough exe- 
cution of the coarse wool provision, according 
to its true intent and meaning, the reduction [in 
the quantity of wool imported] would have 
been still greater." To illustrate this point, he 
states the following particulars : 

"It appears from the Custom House returns 
that 1101 sheep, of the aggregate value of 
$10,565 — averaging $9 60 each, and therefore 
presumed to have been merino bucks — were 
exported from the United States to Buenos 
Ayres in the years 1837 and 1838. The quan- 
tity of wool, the product of the crossings of 
these merino with the native South American 
sheep, imported into the United States at and 
below the value of 8 cts., cannot, of course, be 
ascertained. The importations from that coun- 
try of wool costing 8 cts. and under, were 
greatly increased in the succeeding years ; em- 
bracing, as is well known, much fine wool, and 
therefore presumed to have been the product 
of the crossings referred to. That increase 
will appear by the following statement of the 
importations of wool costing 8 cts. and under, 
from Buenos Ayres, during the years 1839, 1840, 
and 1841, compared with the previous 3 years. 



In 1836 
1837 
1838 
1839 
1840 
1841 



2,256,887 pounds. 

2,108,582 

2,515,883 

683,535 

566,468 
8,870,799 



"The French blockade of Buenos Ayres in 
1839 and 1840 diminished the exports of those 
years, and consequently swelled those of 1841 
when the blockade was raised. The annual 
average of the 3 years was 3,373,600 lbs. That 
of the preceding 3 years was 2,293,784 lbs.; 
making an excess of the average of the last 3, 
over that of the first 3 years, of 1,079,816 lbs. 
— an increase of about 47 per cent. 

" It was the extraordinary quantity of fine 
wool thus cheapened in the market of Buenos 
Ayres, and thrown, in large quantities, upon 
our own, that suggested the necessity of the 
introduction of the word 'coarse' into the 
clause in question. Its intended effect was, to 
subject to the higher duty all wool not coarse, 
though costing less than 7 cts." 

This higher duty, which applies to all wool 
costing over 7 cts. a lb., and, according to Mr. 
Slade's construction, to all wool not coarse, 
whatever may be its cost, is 3 cts. a lb. and 30 
per cent, ad valorem. Hence the duty on wool 
costing 10 cts. at the place whence imported, 
is 6 els. a lb. ; and on wool costing 20 cts., 9 



WOOLLEN RAGS. 



WORLIDGE, JOHN. 



cts. a lb. This is a large per centage, we 
admit; but not so large as that established by 
the Tariff of 1832, which on all wool over 8 
cts. a lb. levied a duty of 4 cts. a pound and 
32 per cent, ad valorem. On wool costing over 
8 cts., the duties during all the years embraced 
in the second of the above tables, except a part 
of 1843, were, on an average, as high as they 
are now. We wish this fact to be particularly 
noted ; for it affords conclusive evidence that 
the smallness of the importations of wool since 
the new Tariff went into operation, is not oc- 
casioned by that Tariff. It is occasioned, in 
part, by the market having been over-stocked 
with coarse wool during 1841 and 1842 (nearly 
17,000,000 lbs. having been imported during 
those 2 years from Buenos Ayres alone), — 
partly by the prostration of carpet manufactur- 
ing in this country for the last year or two, on 
account of low prices and the scarcity of mo- 
ney, — and partly by the cheapness of ivool grown 
in the United States. This last is what is going, 
very soon, to nullify the Tariff, and importa- 
tions too, so far as wool is concerned. We 
have no doubt that in 10 years — perhaps less — 
we shall become a wool-exporting country to 
such an extent that protection against imported 
wool will be as effective as it now is against 
imported cotton ; — and no more so. [We still 
lay a duty of 3 cts. a pound on cotton, which 
does neither hurt nor good.] The great west 
is coming, with her immense prairies, admi- 
rably adapted to sheep, — and she will soon de- 
luge the country with wool and sheep-skins, as 
she now does with hogs, bacon, pork, lard, lard- 
oil, soap, &c. 

WOOLLEN RAGS. See Rag. 

WORK. See Labour. 

WORLIDGE, or WOOLRIDGE, JOHN. An 
ear'.y English agricultural writer. But little 
more is known of his history, than that he was 
a gentleman who was a great lover of rural 
affairs and gardening. Of his works I am only 
acquainted with the following: — 1. Systema 
Jlg7-icultur(E : The Mystery of Husbandry disco- 
vered and laid open, 1669—77—81, 1687, folio, 
1716, 8vo. 2. Treatise on Husbandry, 1675, 
folio. 3. Systema HorticuUurcB ; or, The jlrt 
of Gardeniyig, 1677. 4. Vinetum Brilannicum, 
1678 — 91, 8vo. 5. The most easy way of mak- 
ing Cyder, 1678. 6. jipiaiium, 1691, 12mo. 

The Systema AgricuUura was the most bulky 
folio volume on agriculture that had yet ap- 
peared, and its comprehensive themes are all 
set forth in its first page. The authors of those 
days seemed to consider it essential that their 
readers should have, in the title-page of a book, 
a complete summary of its inviting contents. 
Woolridge was evidently of this opinion, for 
his title-page announces that this was the 
"Systema Agriculturae, or the Mystery of Hus- 
bandry discovered ; treating of the several new 
and most advantageous ways of tilling,planting, 
sowing, manureing, ordering, improveing, of 
all sorts of gardens, orchards, meadows, pas- 
tures, corn-lands, woods, and coppices; as also 
of fruits, corn-grain, pulse, new hays, cattle, 
fowl, beasts, bees, silk-worms, and fish, with 
an account of the several instruments and en- 
gines used in the profession ; to which is added, 
Kalendaiium Rusticum, or the husbandman's 



monthly directions ; also the prognosticks of 
dearth, scarcity, plenty, sickness, heat, cold, 
frost, snow, winds, rain, hail, thunder, &c.: 
and Dictionarium Rusticum, or the interpreta- 
tion of rustick terms ; the whole work being 
of great use and advantage to all that delight 
in that most noble practice." It is dedicated 
to the gentry and yeomanry of England, and 
opens with a preface laudatory of agriculture. 
Notwithstanding, however, the ill aspect of 
this heavy title-page, the book contains more 
useful and more enlightened observations on 
many points of husbandry than any which had 
preceded it. He was a warm friend to the en- 
closure of commons and other waste land, and 
he suggested, what in fact he appears (p. 21) 
to have carried into effect in 1665, at Wilton, 
the erection of water-works for the purpose of 
flooding meadows, an improvement of which 
I think not nearly so much has been made as 
is possible in this land of steam and steam- 
engines. He was evidently well acquainted 
with the management of water-meads, and his 
directions with relation to them are practical 
and sensible. He advises that sandy meadows 
should be chalked, and ashes applied to sour 
rushy grasses. When speaking " of several 
new species of hay or grass," he enumerates 
clover-grass, trefoyle, St. Foyn, La Lucern, 
ray-grass, &c. He also recommends the deep 
ploughing or digging of land, and on all occa- 
sions seemed alive to any improvement in the 
implements of agriculture. After giving an 
account, at some length, of the rude and clumsy 
contrivance of Gabriel Platte, for a dibbling- 
machine, he elaborately and earnestly advocates 
the use of a drill, an engraving of one of which, 
primitive enough, it is true, in its appearance, 
he gives in his work. "To remove," he says, 
"all manner of errors or inconveniences that 
can be found in setting or hoeing of corn, I 
shall here give you a plain and perfect de- 
scription of an easy and feasible instrument 
that shall disperse your corn, grain, or pulse, 
of what kind soever, at what distance, and in 
what proportion you please." The farmer 
may be curious to know the construction of 
this drill of a century and a half since. It had 
a coulter, a pipe, a hopper, wheels, and axle- 
trees. He was the first English author, I be- 
lieve, who suggested the use of the manure- 
drill, for, when speaking of the drill, he says 
(p. 52), " By the use of this instrument also, 
you may cover your grain or pulse with any 
rich compost you shall prepare for that pur- 
pose, either with pigeon's dung, dry or granu- 
lated, or any other saline or lixivial substance 
made disperseable, which may drop after the 
corn, and prove an excellent improvement; for 
we find experimentally, that pigeon's dung, 
sown by the hand on wheat or barley, mightily 
advantageth it by the common way of hus- 
bandry; much more might we, therefore, ex- 
pect this way, where the dung, or such like 
substance, is all in the same furrow with the 
corn, where, in the other vulgar way, a grea% 
part thereof comes not near it. It may eithei' 
be done by having another hopper, on the same 
frame, behind that for the corn, wherein the 
compost may be put, and made to drop sue- 
ce;,sively after the corn, or it may be sown 

1171 



WORLIDGE, JOHN. 

with another instrument to follow the former, 
which is the better way, and may both dis- 
perse the soil, and cover both soil and seed." 

Woolridge was evidently an observer who 
was able and willing to think for himself. He 
advocated change of seed "from dry, hungry, 
barren land, to rich and fat land ; also from 
land inclining to the south, to land inclining 
towards the north, and the contrary ;" all of 
which, he well adds (and the reader must re- 
member that Woolridge was writing when 
chemistry existed only in name), " are mani- 
fest signs that there is some particular thing 
wherein each seed delights, which if we did 
but understand we might properly apply it, and 
gain riches and honours to ourselves ; but be- 
cause we are ignorant thereof, and are content 
so to remain, we must make use of such soils, 
dungs, composts, and other preparations and 
ways of advancement of the growth of vege- 
tables as are already discovered and made 
use of." (p. 57.) 

He extols the use of steeps for seed-corn, 
mentions with approbation for this purpose 
nitre, common salt, as well as urine, and gives 
a recipe for making a kind of liquid manure 
with sheep-dung (^ bushel), saltpetre (^ lb.), 
and common salt (1 lb.), boiled together for 
ten minutes in water (20 quarts), and this he 
commends very highly as a steep ; and I am 
inclined to believe that something of this kind 
of rich liquor, more especially if the seed was 
afterwards dried by being sprinkled with some 
of the very fine manure powders at present 
proposed, such as the urate of the London 
Manure Company, the composition of M. Poitte- 
vin, the guano, gypsum powder, &c., might be 
used more profitably by the cultivator than at 
first sight he may be inclined to believe. He 
was in favour of paring and burning on some 
soils, and had the good sense to discern the 
advantages capable of being derived from the 
permanent improvement of the soil by the use 
of earthy manures. He devotes, therefore, a 
chapter to the soils and manures taken from the 
earth (p. 65) ; notices the uses, for this pur- 
pose, of chalk, lime, marl, clay, fuller's earth. 

The value of sand as a fertilizer did not 
escape our author's attention. He notices the 
value to some soils of that of the calcareous 
shores of Cornwall, and of the Sutfolk craig 
formation, and of that which he advises the 
farmer to lay under his farm-yards and sheep- 
pens. 

The excrements of fowls were strongly re- 
commended by Woolridge as a fertilizer. He 
describes those of pigeons and hens as "incom- 
parable, — one load is worth ten loads of other 
dwng;" commends the use of "all marrow- 
bones, fish-bones, horn, or horn-shavings ;" 
but he fell into the error with regard to those 
which it required a century and a quarter to 
remove, viz., he fancied that all the enriching 
qualities of the bones were to be attributed to 
the grease they contained, instead of to their 
phosphate of lime. He advocated the mixture 
of peat, saw-dust, and tanners' refuse bark 
with dung-heaps, — a plan which is even now 
not nearly so extensively adopted as its merits 
deserve. Indeed, as honest John Woolridge 
coMcludea his section (p. 85), "The well-pre- 
1172 



WORLIDGE, JOHN. 

paring of dung-mixt is a piece of husbandry not 
to be slighted, on which point of good or ill 
husbandry depends the rise and fall of the 
rents or values of many farms in this king> 
dom." 

Every account of live-stock given by the 
earlier agricultural writers betrays the total 
want of attention then paid by the farmers to 
the breeding of stock, or if they do mention the 
points to be commended in an ox or a sheep, 
they are precisely those which a modern 
breeder endeavours to avoid. For instance, 
the chronicler Hollingshed commends the Eng- 
lish cows for their largeness of bone, and 
even Woolridge, writing centuries after him, 
although very elaborate on most points of hus- 
bandry, treats of the farmer's live-stock in a 
manner that clearly indicates that in those 
days, to use a Norfolk phrase, "a cow was a 
cow, and a sheep a sheep." Thus all the in- 
struction he gives the breeder with regard to 
the selection of a cow is, that "the best sort is 
the large Dutch cow, that brings two calves at 
one birth, and gives ordinarily two gallons of 
milk at one meal." His account of sheep I 
will also give, without abridgment, for its facts 
will sound still more novel to a modern farmer: 
— "There are divers sorts, some bearing much 
finer wool than others : as the Herefordshire 
sheep about Lemster bear the fairest fleeces of 
any in England. Also they are of several 
kinds as to their proportion: some are very 
small, others larger. But the Dutch sheep are 
the largest of all, being much bigger than any 
I have seen in England, and yearly bear two 
or three lambs at a time. It is also reported 
that they sometimes bear lambs twice in the 
year." This seemed to convince Woolridge, 
and very naturally, too, of their value, for he 
adds, " It may doubtless be of very good 
advantage to obtain of those kinds and also of 
Spanish sheep that bear such fine fleeces." 

The scientific modern breeder, when he 
smiles at this negligence and folly of a by-gone 
race of farmers, must remember, however, the 
difllculties under which they laboured, not only 
from lack of knowledge, but also of the means 
to improve at a reasonable rate their ill- 
shaped, large-boned, and slow-feeding race of 
oxen. He should recollect that they had not 
had the advantage of a Bakewell, a CuUey, or a 
Collings, to labour during a lengthened period 
for their improvement, — the days of the Smith- 
field Club, and of the Highland Society, were 
yet far distant. They had not even a suspicion 
of what improved breeding would efiect ; and 
if they were ignorant, as they evidently were, 
that their breeds were inferior, we can hardly 
wonder that they were content to labour on, 
since the very first step to improvement, a be- 
lief in greater excellence being possible, was 
wanting. 

The opinions, however, of Woolridge with 
regard to plantations of timber-trees were evi- 
dently more enlightened; for although he lived 
a century before the days of our modern ex- 
tensive planters — of such men as the Lords 
Athol, Devonshire, and Fife, and of Sir Henry 
Steuart — yet he earnestly advised the planting 
of the poorer soils of our island; he asked the 
landowners of his time, after describing to 



WORLIDGE, JOHN. 

them the profit they might derive from such 
foresighted enterprise, "What can be more 
pleasant than to have the bounds and limits of 
your own property preserved, and continued 
from age to age by the testimony of such grow- 
ing and living witnesses, in the spring yielding 
a reviving cordial to your winter-chilled spirit, 
giving you an assurance of the approaching 
summer by their pregnant buds and musical 
inhabitants ■? In the summer, what more 
delectable than the curious prospect of the 
variety of greenness, dark shades, and retire- 
ment from the scorching sunbeams 1" He 
well knew, too, what some of my northern 
friends are only now proving to be practically 
the case, that "woods also finely refrigerate 
the air in the summer's parching heats, and 
qualify the dry and injurious winds, both in 
winter, spring, and autumn." He devotes a 
long chapter to the profits and pleasures of 
fruit trees, and ridicules very quaintly the ob- 
jection too commonly made to such plantations, 
viz., " that their fruit would be stolen." "When," 
he says, "they become more common, they 
will be little regarded by these filchers, or if 
they do borrow a few sometimes in their 
pockets, or to make a few apple-pies withal, 
yet that is a poor discouragement to an inge- 
nious spirit, and much like that rustick humour 
of one that would not improve a very good 
piece of ground for that purpose with fruit 
trees, because the parson would have the deci- 
mation of it, and so denied himself the nine 
parts, because the parson should not have the 
remainder." 

Of the ploughs employed 150 years since, he 
mentions the double-wheeled or Hertfordshire 
plough, the turnwrest or Kentish plough, 
" which surpasseth for weight and clumsiness" 
the one-wheeled plough, the plain plough, and 
the trenching plough. 

Woolridge gives also sundry directions for 
angling, fowling, bird-catching, horse-breeding, 
and sundry other rural affairs, and finally he 

' winds up with a Kalendarium Rusticum. In 
these he gives various monthly directions, of 
which one specimen will suffice, of the mode 
of farming then commonly adopted. In May 
he directs the farmer " to kill ivy, to feed down 
or mow rank corn ; to sow barley, buckwheat, 
pease, hemp, and flax, clover-grass, St. Foyn, 
and other French grasses ; to pare and burn 

' land, and wean lambs." He every month, as 
if in rivalry of the almanac-makers of former 
generations, treated the farmer to some poetry, 
often of a most absurd description ; thus, in the 
month of March, after having told them that 
"this month ushers in the most welcome sea- 
son of the year," and that "now gentle Zephyrus 
fans the sweet buds, and the caelestial drops 
water fair Flora's garden," he could not help 
adding some of his own poetry, telling them 
what must have been indeed novel informa- 
tion, that now 

"The lofty mountains standing on a row, 
Wliich hut of late were perriwigg'd with snow. 
Doff their old coats, and now are daily seen 
To stand on tiptoes all in swaggering green ; 
Meadows and gardens are prankt up with buds, 
And chirping birds now chant it in the woods ' 

Woolridge labo ired hard, however, in spite 



WORLIDGE, JOHN. 

of occasional absurdities of expression, to ele- 
vate the science of agriculture; and that it was 
deemed a science in the 17th century, is evi- 
dent in this opening address to the farmer, 
when he says, " Agriculture hath been (not 
undeservedly) esteemed a science that prin- 
cipally teaches us the nature and divers pro- 
perties and qualities, as well of the several 
soils, earths, and places, as of the several pro- 
ductions or creatures, whether vegetable, ani- 
mal, or mineral, that naturally proceed or are 
artificially produced from, or maintained by, 
the earth." This he promises the husbandman 
he will do "after a plain and familiar method." 
He soon, however, begins to illustrate his 
" plain and familiar method," by talking of the 
" secret, mystical, and mechanick indagations 
of nature, the universal spirit, or spirit of mer- 
cury and of salt;" and gives us but a mean 
opinion of his natural philosophy, by gravely 
telling us that " soon will horse-hairs receive 
life lying in rain-water but a few days in the 
heat of the sun in spring-time." 

But in spite of these occasional mistakes, 
the book of Woolridge was perhaps the most 
practical, and therefore the most useful book 
which had yet appeared treating of agriculture 
and rural affairs. The very publication of 
such an expensive folio, of 326 pages, betray.*- 
the increasing thirst for knowledge of the cul 
tivators of those days, and the same remarks 
apply generally to those of Platte and of Hart- 
lib ; in truth, both agriculture and agriculturaf 
writers could hai'dly fail to keep pace with the 
rapid increase to the general stock of know 
ledge which the age in which they flourished 
received to so remarkable an extent; and this 
improvement was not, as my brother, Mr. 
George Johnson remarks {Hist, of Gard.), in 
only one branch of knowledge, but in the whole 
circle of the arts and sciences. The reforma- 
tion was not confined to religion. By deliver- 
ing the human mind from servile thraldom, and 
teaching man, instead of bowing blindly to 
custom, merely on account of its antiquity, to 
have a self-dependence, it gave an impulse to 
improvement which no tyrant opposition of 
either bigotry, indolence, or self-sufficiency 
could check. Such men as Bacon, Peiresc, 
and Evelyn arose, and whilst the first traced 
the path which men of science should tread, the 
two latter lent their talents and their wealth to 
sustain them in the pursuit. Bacon, it has 
been truly observed, was the first who taught 
men that they were but the servants and inter- 
preters of nature, capable of discovering truth 
in no other way than by observing and irritat- 
ing her operations ; that facts must be collecied 
instead of speculations formed, and that the 
materials for the foundations of true systems 
of knowledge were to be discovered, not in >hc 
books of the ancients, not in metaphysical 
theories, not in the fancies of men, but by care- 
ful, and laborious, and patient experiments 
and observations in the external world. Peiresc 
was a munificent man of letters; his advice, 
his purse were open to the votaries of every 
art and every science ; his library was stored 
with the literature of every age and nation, his 
garden with the rarest and most useful exotics, 
and these last he delighted to spread over the 

1173 



WORM. 



WOUNDWORT. 



country. When, indeed, we cast our eyes over 
a list of the men of science and literature of all 
kinds that adorned this age, especially in 
chemistry and in botany, the two sciences per- 
haps of all others the most important to agri- 
culture, we need not be surprised to find how 
rapidly it was rising from being a mere art of 
empiricism ; and when we note how rapidly 
the thirst for foreign research was prevalent, 
we can easily perceive how improved modes 
of culture and new plants were acquired to 
agriculture. Cavendish, but especially Ra- 
leigh, by their visits for lucre as well as fame 
to the Spanish settlements of America in 
1580-8, led the way in a path which Lancaster 
and Raymond followed in 1791, and laid the 
foundation of that anomalous copartnership of 
commercial monarchs, the East India Com- 
pany. Annual fleets now returned from the 
east and west, laden with the curiosities of both 
the animal and vegetable kingdoms; of these 
the potato, tobacco, and tea need alone be in- 
stanced ; and although the views of men were 
not yet liberal enough to prompt them to 
voyages of discovery, with an unmixed desire 
of extending the field of science, or an enlarged 
wish to benefit mankind, yet new plants, in 
common with other hitherto strange natural 
products, attracted their attention, and, though 
at first imported as novelties, soon became by 
degrees to be desired and sought for as the 
luxuries and necessaries of life. (Quart. Jour. 
Agr. vo\. xii. p. 460.) 

WORM. See CuT-wonm, Earth-worm, 

Wl UK-WORM, &C. 

WORM-SEED {Chenopodmr)i). See Goose- 
rooT. 

WORMS, INTESTINAL. A troublesome 
sort of vermin found in the intestines of horses 
and other animals. There is, perhaps, nothing 
so destructive to the health and appearance of 
the horse as worms. When they have obtain- 
ed a settlement in the intestines, neither the 
labour of the groom nor the liberality of the 
master will prove of any avail towards im- 
proving the animal's condition : for as fast as 
the chyle is formed from the aliment, which 
ought to be converted into blood, these nume- 
rous guests first satiate their craving appe- 
tites, and leave but a scanty supply for the 
exhausted sj'Slem of the horse, so that a double 
allowance of corn would not preserve a healthy 
state; because the digestive organs cannot ex- 
ert an extraordinary power for any length of 
time, without producing such a state of debility 
as to render them incapable of performing 
afterwards their proper office. 

In these animals, the most common kinds 
are the following: — -1. Bots, which many young 
horses are subject to in the spring; 2. Those 
that resemble earth-worms, and which, by phy- 
sicians, are called hunhrici; 3. Those that are 
about the size of the largest sewing-needles, 
with flat heads, called ascarides; 4. That species 
<'f worm called tmnia, or tape-worm. See Bots, 
Flukk.-wqrm, &c. 

WORMV/OOD {Aficmisia, so named in ho- 
nour of Artemisia, wife of King Mausolus, or 
of Diana AgTs/j/?)- There are four perenniaU 
rooted bitter aromatic herbs included under 
,hls name, and cultivated solely for medicinal 
1174 



purposes: — Common wormwood {A, ab- 
sinthium) is a native of almost every part of 
Europe, and in England is found by road-sides 
on heaps of rubbish, &c. It is an erect under 
shrub, with hoary tri-pinnatisert leaves. The 
flowers in small, globose, nodding, racemose 
panicles. The same remarks apply to the 
drooping sea-wormwood {A. mar'dima), which 
is found on salt marshes and the sea-coast. 
Roman wormwood {A. ponlica) is a native of 
Italy; and Santonicum or Tartarian worm- 
wood {A, Suutonica), which is a mere variety 
of A. maritima, of Persia and Siberia. The 
soil best suited to the growth of these plants is 
one that is dry, light, and poor, otherwise they 
become luxuriant, and are defective in their 
medicinal qualities, as well as in their power 
to withstand the rigour of the winter. Any 
situation will suit the common and the sea- 
wormwoods that is open and unconfined ; but 
the exotic species require to be sheltered from 
the severe aspects. In a severe winter, the 
Tartarian can only be preserved under a frame. 
The sea-wormwood seldom flourishes from the 
want of a genial soil; the application of salt 
would undoubtedly be beneficial. 

They are all propagated by seed, as well as 
slips and cuttings, the first of which may be 
sown in March or April, and the latter planted 
during June, July, and beginning of August. 
The seed is sown thinly broadcast, and when 
the plants arrive at a height of 3 or 3 inches, 
are weeded and thinned te 6 inches asunder; 
and those taken away pricked out at a similar 
distance, water being given if the weather is 
at all dry. The slips and cuttings are planted 
in a shady border, about 8 inches apart, and 
water given regularly every evening until they 
have taken root. They are all to be trans- 
planted finally early in the following spring, by 
whichever mode they are raised, setting the 
plants at last 18 inches apart. See Mukwort, 
and SouTiiKUNw«ou. 

WOUNDWORT (Sliichys, from stachys, a 
spike, alluding to the mode of flowering). A 
genus of rather weedy-looking plants, hardly 
worth cultivating for ornament. They all 
succeed in common garden soil. The peren- 
nial kinds are easily increased by dividing the 
roots in spring or autumn. The seeds of the 
annual kinds should be sown in spring, in the 
open border. As a vulnerary these plants have 
no power. There are five indigenous species: 
the hedge woundwort (S. syluatica) ; the ambi- 
guous woundwort (S. amiiigua) ; the marsh 
woundwort (iS. palustris); the downy wound- 
wort {S. gerniani(.a) ; and the corn wound- 
wort (S. arvensis). The marsh woundwort 
has a fleshy root, creeping extensively; throw- 
ing out in autumn a number of tuberous 
shoots, which render it, in low, wet ground, 
very difficult of extirpation. This, therefore, 
should be attempted in summer before these 
knobs are produced, when the flowers are 
appearing. 

Several species of woundwort, or hedge- 
nettle, are found in the United States. One, 
called S. sylvatira, is found on the banks of the 
Ohio, on the skirts of thickets, giving out the 
same fetid odour as the European species. 
The flowers are, however, paler. {Nuttall.'y 



YAM. 



YEAST. 



Y. 

YAM (Dioscorea sativa). A climbing plant, 
cultivated in the East and West Indies. Its 
roots are very large, flattened, sometimes pal- 
mated. It is boiled or roasted like the potato, 
and is wholesome, palatable, and nutritious. 
The flour is also used for puddings and bread. 
The D. alata is equally cultivated; its root is 
3 feet long, and often weighs 30 lbs. Of both 
kinds there are numerous varieties. 

YARD-DUNG. See FARM-YAnn MA>-unE. 

YARD OF LAND. A quantity of land 
which in some counties in England signifies 
15 acres, in some 20, and in others 24, 30, and 
34 acres. 

YARROW {Achillea). A g:enus of showy, 
free-flowering plants, succeeding well in any 
common soil, and readily increased by divid- 
ing the roots. The species are possessed of 
aromatic, bitter, tonic, and stimulating quali- 
ties. In England the following are indigenous 
perennials : — 

1. Sneezewort yarrow, or goose-tongue {A. 
ptarmica), which grows in wet hedges, or about 
the banks of rivers, flowering in July and Au- 
gust. The root creeps widely, and is diflUcult 
of extirpation where the soil is moist. Stems 
upright, about 2 feet high; corymbose at the 
top. Leaves sessile, linear, pointed, equally 
and sharply serrated, and of a glaucous green. 
Flowers numerous, small, milk-white in the 
disk as well as in the radius, with an irregular 
number of ligulate florets. The whole plant 
has a pungent flavour, provoking a flow of 
saliva, and this flavour renders it acceptable, 
as Schreber asserts, to sheep, who delight es- 
pecially in saltish food. The sneezing caused 
by the dried and powdered leaves is rather 
owing to their little, sharp, marginal prickles. 
Its name is derived from this property of caus- 
ing sneezing. 

2. Serrated yarrow (A. serrata). This is a 
much less common species, in which the root 
is fibrous, leaves linear, lanceolate, downy, 
deeply serrated. Flowers of a yellowish-white 
or buff" colour, not half the size of the forego- 
ing. The whole herb has a powerful aromatic 
scent and bitter flavour, somewhat like tansy. 

3. Common yarrow or milfoil (A. millifo- 
lium),P\.9,k. This species grows abundantly 
in English meadows and pastures. The root 
is creeping, with smooth, reddish, subterrane- 
ous shoots, which are warm and agreeably 
pungent, partaking of the flavour and salivat- 
ing quality of the pellitory of Spain (A. py- 
relhwn). Stems furrowed, erect, about a foot 
high. Leaves doubly pinnatifid, hairy ; seg- 
ments linear, toothed, pointed. Flowers nume- 
rous, white, occasionally reddish or purple. 
The whole herb is astringent, and weakly aro- 
matic. Although considered a bad weed in 
pasture and arable lands, in consequence of 
its creeping root, Dr. Anderson and others have 
recommended it for cultivation; but its pro- 
ductive and nutrient properties are very inferior 
to many other plants equally adapted to light 
soils; 64 drachms of the leaves and stems, cut 
when in flower, afforded 98 grains of nutritive 
matter. Linnaeus says that its properties are 
vulnerary and styptic. An essential oil is ex- 



tracted from the flowers ; and an ointment 
made of the leaves is reckoned good against 
the scab in sheep. A. moschata, an exotic spe- 
cies, a native of Italy, is sudorific and acrid, 
and makes a wholesome food for cattle. 

4. Woolly yellow milfoil, or yarrow {A. to- 
mcntosa). This species grows about dry hilly 
pastures in Scotland and Ireland. The root is 
woody, slightly creeping, with many long fibres. 
Stems scarcely a foot high, curved at the base, 
then erect. Leaves doubly pinnatifid, woolly, 
segments linear, crowded, acute. Flowers 
densely corymbose, on woolly stalks, of a 
bright golden yellow. The whole herb, as well 
as the flowers, has an aromatic scent when 
rubbed. It serves to decorate rock-work in 
gardens, but will not bear wet or shade. 

YEARLINGS. A term applied to calves, 
colts, and other young stock, when they have 
completed their first year. 

YEAST. The froth or scum which rises on 
beer during the act of fermentation. (See 
Brewing and Fermentation.) It contains a 
variety of components ; among others, carbon, 
acetic and malic acids, alcohol, potassa, lime, 
a saccharine, mucilaginous extract, gluten, and 
water. 

Yeast is an article of the greatest importance 
in domestic economy, forming a necessary in- 
gredient in the manufacture of bread, which, 
would otherwise become heavy and unwhole- 
some. When put in contact with saccharine- 
matters, at a temperature of between 50° and: 
60°, it causes fermentation, and changes the* 
sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid. Yeast 
may be dried and yet retain its properties, but 
a temperature of 212° destroys it. 

The yeast prepared by the Hungarians will 
keep for a whole twelvemonth. During the 
summer season they boil a quantity of wheaten 
bran and hops in water; the decoction is not 
long in fermenting, and when this has taken 
place they throw in a suflicient portion of bran 
to form the whole into a thick paste, which 
they work into balls, that are afterwards dried 
by a slow heat. When wanted for use they 
are broken, and boiling water is poured upon 
them ; having stood a proper time, the fluid is 
decanted, and in a fit state- for leavening bread.. 
See Bread. 

"The substance called' !/«ffi'< or /crwifn^, de- 
rives its name from the power it possesses of 
causing fermentation in sugar, or saccharine 
vegetable juices. It possesses," says Liebig^ 
" all the characters of a amipmmd nf nitrogen in, 
the state of pii.trc faction and cremacaiisis. 

"Like wood in the state of eremacausis, yeast 
converts the oxygen of the surrounding air intcs 
carbonic acid, but it also evolves this l:as from 
its own mass, like bodies in the state of putre- 
faction. {Colin.) When kept under water, it 
emits carbonic acid, accompanied by gases of 
an offensive smell {Thenard), and is at last con- 
verted into a substance resembling old cheese. 
{Proust.) But when its own putrefaction is com- 
pleted, it has no longer the power of inducing 
fermentation in other bodies. The presence 
of water is quite necessary for sustaining the 
properties of ferment, for by simple pressure 
its power to excite fermentation is much di 
minished, and is completely destroyed by drv 

1175 



YEAST. 



YELLOW-WOOD. 



ing. Its action is arrested also by the tempera- 
ture of boiling water, by alcohol, common salt, 
an excess of sugar, oxide of mercury, corro- 
sive sublimate, pyroligneous acid, sulphurous 
acid, nitrate of silver, volatile oils, and, in 
short, by all antiseptic substances. 

" The insoluble pari of the substance called fer- 
ment does not cause fermentation. For when the 
yeast from wine or beer is carefully washed 
with water, care being taken that it is always 
covered with this fluid, the residue does not 
produce fermentation. 

" The soluble part of ferment likewise does not ex- 
cite fermentation. An aqueous infusion of yeast 
may be mixed with a solution of sugar, and 
preserved in vessels from which the air is ex- 
cluded, without either experiencing the slight- 
est change. What then, we may ask, is the mat- 
ter in ferment which excites fermentation, if nei- 
ther the soluble nor insoluble parts possess the 
power] This question has been answered by 
Colin in the most satisfactory manner. He 
has shown that in reality it is the soluble part. 
Before it obtains this power, the decanted in- 
fusion must be allowed to cool in contact with 
the air, and to remain some time exposed to 
its action. When introduced into a solution 
of sugar in this state, it produces a brisk fer- 
mentation ; but without a previous exposure to 
the air it manifests no such property. 

"During the fermentation of sugar by yeast, 
both of these substances suffer decomposition 
at the same time, and disappear in conse- 
quence. But if yeast be a body which excites 
fermentation by being itself in a state of de- 
composition, all other matters in the same con- 
dition should have a similar action upon sugar; 
and this is in reality the case. Muscle, urine, 
isinglass, osmazome,* albumen, cheese, glia- 
dine, gluten, legumin, and blood, when in a 
state of putrefaction, have all the power of 
producing the putrefaction or fermentation of 
a solution of sugar. Yeast, which by con- 
tinued washing has entirely lost the property 
of inducing fermentation, regains it when its 
putrefaction has recommenced, inconsequence 
of its being kept in a warm situation for some 
lime. 

"If we consider the process of the fermenta- 
tion of pure sugar, in a practical point of view, 
we meet with two facts of constant occurrence. 
When the quantity of ferment is too small in 
proportion to that of the sugar, its putrefaction 
will be completed before the transformation of 
all the sugar is effected. Some sugar here re- 
mains undecomposed, because the cause of its 
transformation is absent, viz., contact with a 
body in a state of decomposition. 

" But when the quantity of ferment predomi- 
nates, a certain quantity of it remains after all 
the sugar has fermented, its decomposition pro- 
ceeding very slowly, on account of its insolu- 
bility in water. This residue of ferment is 
still able to induce fermentation, when intro- 
duced into a fresh solution of sugar, and re- 
tains the same power until it has passed 
through all the stages of its own transformation. 

" Hence a certain quantity of yeast is neces- 



• An extractive animal matter on which the peculiar 
fiavoiir of broth is supposed to depend ; hence its name, 
from the Greek for odour and broth. 
1J7§ 



sary in order to effect the transformatiou of h 
certain portion of sugar, not because it acts by 
its quantity increasing any affinity, but because 
its influence depends solely on its presence, 
and its presence is necessary, until the last 
atom of sugar is decomposed. 

" We have seen that ferment or yeast is a 
body in the state of decomposition, the atoms 
of which, consequently, are in a state of mo- 
tion or transposition. Yeast, placed in contact 
with sugar, communicates to the elements of 
that compound the same state, in consequence 
of which, the constituents of the sugar arrange 
themselves into new and simpler forms, name- 
ly, into alcohol and carbonic acid. In these 
new compounds, the elements are united toge- 
ther by stronger affinities than they were in 
the sugar, and therefore vender the conditions 
in which they were produced further decompo- 
sition is arrested. 

" We know, also, that the elements of sugar 
assume totally different arrangements, when 
the substances which excite their transposition 
are in a different state of decomposition from 
the yeast just mentioned. Thus, when sugar 
is acted on by rennet or putrefying vegetable 
juices, it is not converted into alcohol and 
carbonic acid, but into lactic acid, mannite, 
and gum. 

" Again, it has been shown, that yeast added 
to a solution of pure sugar gradually disap- 
pears, but that when added to vegetable juices 
which contain gluten as well as sugar, it is re- 
produced by the decomposition of the former 
substance. 

" The yeast with which these liquids are made 
to ferment, has itself been originally produced 
from gluten. 

" The conversion of gluten into yeast in these 
vegetable juices is dependent on the decompo- 
sition (fermentation) of sugar; for, when the 
sugar has completely disappeared, any gluten 
which may still remain in the liquid does not 
suffer change from contact with the newly de- 
posited yeast, but retains all the characters of 
gluten. 

" Yeast is a product of the decomposition 
of gluten ; but it passes into a second stage 
of decomposition when in contact with water. 
On account of its being in this state of further 
change, yeast excites fermentation in a fresh 
solution of sugar, and if this second saccha- 
rine fluid should contain gluten, (should it be 
ivort, for example,) yeast is again generated in 
consequence of the transposition of the ele- 
ments of the sugar exciting a similar change 
in this gluten. 

" After this explanation, the idea that yeast 
reproduces itself as seeds reproduce seeds, 
cannot for a moment be entertained." (Liebis.) 

YELLOW-BEAR. See Caterpillar. 

YELLOW-TOP (Jgrostis alba). A variety 
of Herds. Called also, in the New England 
states. White-top. 

YELLOW- WEED. See Weld. 

YELLOW-WOOD {Virgilia lutea). This 
tree, says Michaux, is confined to that part of 
West Tennessee which lies between the 35lh 
and 37th degrees of latitude, where it is com- 
monly designated by the name which is here 
adopted. 



YEOMAN. 



YOUNG, ARTHUR. 



This tree grows of preference on gentle de- 
divities, in a loose, deep, and fertile soil, and 
IS usually accompanied by the red mulberry, 
coffee tree, sweet locust, black walnut, and 
other species whose presence evinces the rich- 
ness of the land. It rarely exceeds 40 feet in 
height and 1 foot in diameter, and in general 
it does not attain even these dimensions. Its 
trunk is covered with a greenish bark, which is 
smooth instead of being furrowed like that of 
most other trees. 

The leaves of the yellow-wood are 6 or 8 
inches long on old trees, and of twice this size 
on young and thriving stocks. They are com- 
posed of two rows of leaflets, smooth, entire, 
nearly round, and about an inch and a half in 
diameter. The leaflets are 3, 4 or 5 on each 
side, borne by short petioles, and surmounted 
by an odd one, which is supported by the com- 
mon footstalk. As in the buttonwood, the lower 
part of the footstalk contains the bud, which 
becomes visible in plucking the leaf. 

The flowers form elegant, white, pendulous 
bunches, a little larger than those of the lo- 
cust, but less odoriferous. 

The seeds of the yellow-wood also nearly 
resemble those of the locust, and are con- 
tained in pods that differ only in being a little 
narrower. The seeds are ripe in the vicinity 
of Nashville about the 15th of August. 

YEOMAN. A term applied to the first or 
highest degree of cultivators in England. The 
yeomen are properly freeholders, and such as 
cultivate their own lands. This term has been 
derived from various words by different au- 
thors. Dr. Johnson seems to incline to the 
word geman, Frisick, a villager ; Fortescue de- 
rives it from gemen, or yemen, Saxon for a com- 
moner. Sir Thomas Smith's definition of a 
yeoman is, " a free-born Englishman who may 
lay out of his own free lands in yearly revenue 
to the sum of 40s." 

YEW TREE (Taxus), A genus of orna- 
mental evergreen trees, well adapted for under- 
wood, as they thrive under the shade and drip 
of other trees ; they are also very ornamental 
when planted to form hedges. They will grow 
in any moist soil, but succeed best in loams 
and c'^ys. They are chiefly propagated from 
seer's, which should be sown as soon as ripe ; 
br.L can also be increased by cuttings formed 
of eitHci one or two years' wood, and planted in 
a shady border in the beginning of April or end 
of August. In England the common yew tree 
(T. baccata) is the only indigenous species. 
The trunk is straight, with a smooth decidu- 
ous bark. Leaves two-ranked, crowded, linear, 
flat, about an inch long, dark green. Fruit 
drooping, consisting of a sweet, internally glu- 
tinous, scarlet berry. The leaves are fetid and 
very poisonous, and prove speedily fatal to 
cattle accidentally tasting them when j^oung 
and tender. The berries have a sweet mawk- 
ish taste, and may be eaten without danger. 
The wood of the yew tree, being of extremely 
slow growth, is hard and tough, formerly high- 
ly valuable for making bows, but now chiefly 
used for fine cabinet-work or inlaying. It 
makes handsomer chairs than many exotic 
woods. 

YOKF). A frame of wood fixed with bows 
148 



over the necks of oxen, whereby they are coupled 
together, and harnessed to the plough, &c. It 
is sometimes written " yoak," and is composed 
— 1. of a thick piece of wood that passes over 
the neck, and is strictly called the "yoke;" 

2. of a bow, which encompasses the neck; and 

3. of the " wreathings," or " stitchings," that 
serve to connect the whole. Besides these 
parts, there are employed a ring, denominated 
the " yoke-ring," and a chain for securing the 
traces. 

YOKE of land. In England, the quantity of 
land which a yoke of oxen can plough in a 
day. Hence, in some parts of Kent, a little 
farm, from its only requiring a yoke of oxen 
to till it, is called a " yokelet." 

YOLK. See Egg, and Wool. 

YOUNG, ARTHUR. A celebrated agricul- 
tural writer and farmer; perhaps the most popu- 
lar author on rural affairs that England or any 
other country has produced. His character- 
istics were great zeal, enterprise, and energy, 
with a copious flow of plain and intelligible 
language, which the meanest capacity could 
readily comprehend; and although he pos- 
sessed few claims to be ranked as a scientific 
farmer, yet he succeeded by his labours in ex- 
citing a general love of agriculture in the up- 
per classes of his countrymen, which has, 
since his day, never materially subsided. And 
this feeling, although attended, through a want 
of practical information, with considerable in- 
dividual loss, has yet produced great public 
advantages. It has been remarked, indeed, of 
the writings of Arthur Young, that they pro- 
duced more private losses and more public 
benefit than those of any other author. A me- 
moir of this extraordinary man was published 
soon after his death by Dr. Paris, his friend 
and medical attendant. 

His services to agriculture were important, 
and they would have been still more valuable 
if he had confined himself to the improvement 
of the science of agriculture, and avoided all 
those many political and party themes of which 
he was ever too ready to be the champion. 
This morbid feeling he can ied with him to the 
Board of Agriculture ; and, in consequence, 
both Arthur Young and the board of which he 
was long the chief spirit, experienced the same 
fate, — they obtained the support of only a sec- 
tion of the farmers of England, and they much 
too often laid themselves open to the charge 
of being more intent upon the advancement 
of the interests of their party than of those of 
practical agriculture. Thus the very first sen- 
tence of the first volume of the Annals of Agri- 
culture, published in 1790, is as follows ;— "The 
parties of one country and the debility of an- 
other having at last extinguished the torch of 
discord ;" and the entire essay comprehends 
hardly any thing else than a political survey of 
the state of the kingdom, and its possessions, 
fisheries, &c. It speaks with much zeal of the 
French Revolution, anion with Ireland, cus- 
toms, exports, tonnage, produce of the taxes, 
population, national debt. West Indian planta- 
tions of Great Britain; indulge: r. all kinds 
of visions ; gives a statement of what the edi- 
tor would do if he were made a king, &c., «&c.; 
and hardly a page is reserved for practical 
5G 1177 



YOUNG, ARTHUR. 



YOUNG, ARTHUR. 



agriculture, of which his work was to be " the 
annals." 

Arthur Young was the descendant of a re- 
spectable family, who had resided on their 
estate at Bradfieid Combust, near Bury St. 
Edmund's, in the county of Suffolk, for more 
than two centuries ; he was born in Ijondon, 
on the 7th of September, 1741. His father, the 
Reverend Arthur Young, rector of Bradfieid, had 
three children ; John, and a daughter Elizabeth ; 
the third was Arthur, the subject of the present 
memoir, who was educated at Lavenham, a 
school about six miles from Bradfieid Hall. 

Arthur Young was brought up for mercantile 
pursuits, in a merchant's counting-house at 
Lynn, where, at the age of 17, he commenced 
his literary career by writing a political pamph- 
let, entitled The Theatre of the present War in 
North America ; and then four novels — The Fair 
American, Sir Charles Beaufort, Lucy Watson, and 
Julia Benson, or the Innocent Sufferer. In 1763 
he returned from the residence of his uncle in 
London to his mother at Bradfieid Hall, with- 
out any prospect of a pursuit, profession, or 
employment. His whole income, during the 
life of his mother, arising from a copyhold 
farm of 20 acres, and producing only as many 
pounds, she was anxious that he should reside 
with her; and, as the lease of her farm of 80 
acres would shortly expire, she urged him to 
undertake its cultivation, a scheme so much in 
unison with his taste and wishes, that he did 
not long hesitate in accepting her proposal, and 
he embarked as a farmer. Young, eager, and 
totally ignorant, as he then was, of every ne- 
cessary detail, it is not surprising, as he used to 
say, that he should have squandered large sums, 
undergoldendreamsof improvements, especial- 
ly as he had a thirst for experiment, without a 
knowledge of what is demanded for its success. 
In this year (1765) he married Miss Martha 
Allen, of Lynn, and in the year 1767 undertook 
the management of the farm of Samford Hall, 
in Essex, which consisted of about 300 acres 
of land. Various unforeseen circumstances, 
and embarrassments from the want of capital, 
soon induced him to give 100/. to a farmer for 
taking the estate off his hands ; and this far- 
mer, by the advantages of capital, realized a 
fortune upon it. It was here, uniting the plough 
with the pen, that he wi-ote his work entitled, 
Political Essays on the Present State of the British 
Empire, hntwhichwas not published until 1772, 
in 1 vol. 4to. He now advertised for another 
farm, and the knowledge which resulted from 
viewing the different estates that were on this 
occasion presented to his notice, furnished him 
-.'.'ith the materials for his tour, which he called 
The Six Weeks' Tour through the Southern Coun- 
ties. By the advice of his Suffolk bailiff, he 
hired a farm of 100 acres in Hertfordshire; 
and, from viewing it in an uncommonly favour- 
able season, they were both deceived in the na- 
ture of the soil. "I know not," said Young, 
"what epithet to give this soil; sterility falls 
short of the idea ; a hungry, vitriolic gravel — 
I occupied, for 9 years, the jaws of a wolf. A 
nabob's fortune would sink in the attempt to 
raise good arable crops, upon any extent, m 
such a country : my experience and knowledge 
'.lad increased from travelling and from prac- 
1178 



tice; but all was lost when exerte.l upon such 
a spot. I hardly wonder at a losing account, 
after fate had fixed me upon land calculated to 
swallow, without return, all that folly or im- 
prudence could bestow upon it." It will be , 
here naturally asked, why he did not go to land | 
decisively good] He answers the question very ' 
satisfactorily. "It was on account of the houses; 
for, although I saw numerous farms that would 
have suited well, they had wretched hovels on 
them." 

Finding, about the year 178,3, that his in- 
come was barely sufficient to meet his expen- 
diture, he engaged to report the parliamentary 
debates for the Morning Post ; this he continued 
to perform for several years ; and after the la- 
bours of the week, he walked every Saturday 
evening to his farm, a distance of 17 miles 
from London, from which he as regularly re- 
turned every Monday morning. This was the 
most anxious and laborious part of his life: '-I 
worked," says he, " more like a coal-heaver, 
though without his reward, than a man acting 
only from a predominant impulse." In 1774, 
he published Political Arithmetic, a work which 
met with high consideration abroad, and was 
immediately translated into several languages. 
Mr. Young has left a memorandum which states 
that he received for his different writings, in 
the interval between the years 1766 and 1775 
the sum of 3000/. 

In 1784 he commenced the publication of his 
Annals of Agriculture, in which he appeared in 
the double capacity of editor and author, a work 
which he continued to the period of his blind- 
ness ; it extends to 45 vols. 8vo, and presents a 
vast store of information upon subjects of agri- 
culture and political economy. The plan upon 
which it was conducted was one which ought 
to have ensured for it more extensive and pro- 
fitable patronage, for, instead of recording ano- 
nymous correspondence, it refused admittance 
to any paper that had not the name and address 
of its author; it can accordingly boast of com- 
munications from the most exalted and enlight- 
ened characters in Europe, at the head of whom 
stands our late most gracious sovereign, who 
transmitted to Mr. Young for publication an 
account of the farm of Mr. Ducket, the able 
cultivator of Petersham, which is recorded in 
the 7th volume of the Annals, under the signa- 
ture of "Ralph Robinson." During the pro- 
gress of this work he travelled (and he pub- 
lished a popular description of his travels) 
over most parts of England, into Ireland, and 
in France. 

In 1793, animated as he always was by the 
spirit of adventure, he could not resist an op- 
portunity that occurred for realizing the favour- 
ite speculation he had so long entertained — that 
of cultivating a large tract of waste land. He 
accordingly completed the purchase of 4,400 
acres of waste in Yorkshire. But his fates had 
decreed other things for him. The Board of 
Agriculture was established in the August of 
1793, and he was immediately appointed its 
secretary. An individual is rarely appointed to 
an official situation on account of his possess- 
ing in an eminent degree those qualifications 
which its duties require ; but in the instance 
of Mr. Young this was undoubtedly the fact ; 



YOUNG, ARTHUR. 



ZAPZIEGER. 



his general and profound knowledge in agri- 
culture was the only circumstance that marked 
him as the most proper person to fill a situa- 
tion in every respect so important and honour- 
able. "The gratification," says he, "of being 
elected into so respectable a situation, in which 
opportunities of still giving an humble aid to 
the good cause of the plough could scarcely 
fail of offering, would not permit me to decline 
the appointment; although, to a person esta- 
blished in the country, the salary, with the resi- 
dence annexed, was not that pecuniary object 
which has been represented; and I must have 
improved on bad principles indeed, if it would 
not, in a few years, have turned out a more 
profitable speculation. (The salary was 400/. 
per annum, with a house free from all charge.) 
What a change in the destination of a man's 
life ! Instead of entering, as I proposed, the 
solitary lord of 4,000 acres, in the keen atmo- 
sphere of lofty rocks and mountain torrents, 
with a little creation rising gradually around 
me, making the desert smile with cultivation, 
and grouse give way to industrious population, 
active and energetic, though remote and tran- 
quil ; and every instant of my existence viak- 
ing two blades of gi'ass to grow ivhcre. not one was 
found before — behold me at a desk, in the 
smoke, the fog, the din of Whitehall. 'Society 
has charms;' true, and so has solitude to a 
mind employed. The die, however, is cast, 
' and my steps may still be, metaphorically, said 
vj be in the furrow." 

At the Board Arthur Young continued, to his 
t'.eath, zealously employed on all occasions as 
its secretary, in the service of agriculture; — 
old age at last crept on ; he became blind, and 
afflicted with the complaint which caused his 
death. He was attended (concludes Dr. Paris) 
by Mr. Wilson, Mr. Chilver, and myself; and 
although the incurable nature of his disease 
defied every hope of permanent relief, yet his 
suflerings were greatly palliated by the re- 
sources of art, and he died without entertain- 
ing the least suspicion of the malady under 
which he suflfered. Pious resignation cheered 
him in his illness, and not a murmur of com- 
plaint was heard to escape his lips. On the 12th 
of April, in the year 1820, at his house in Sack- 
ville street, after taking a glass of lemonade, and 
expressing himself calm and easy, he expired. 
His remains were conveyed to Bradfield, and 
deposited in a vault in the church-yard. 

I have thus offered a brief sketch of the 
principal labours of Arthur Young, a man who 
filled a large space in the public eye for a long 
series of years, but whose name and talents 
appear to have commanded still greater notice 
and respect in foreign countries than in his 
own. That he reflected lustre on the age and 
the country in which he lived can be hardly 
denied. Of what other philosopher can it be 
said that at one time he entertained, under his 
humble roof, pupils of seven different nations, 



each of whom had been sent to him, for in- 
structions in agriculture, by his respective 
government? I was lately informed by his 
daughter, that the late Duke of Bedford break- 
fasted at Bradfield on one of the mornings of a 
Newmarket race-meeting, and was met by pu- 
pils from Russia, France, America, Naples 
Poland, Sicily, and Portugal. His numerous 
works are distinguished by vivacity of thought, 
quickness of imagination, bias to calculation, 
and fondness for political speculation; and hai? 
they been less successful, posterity might per- 
haps have regarded these traits of genius an 
fatal defects, and as pregnant sources of fallacy 
and disappointment. 

YUCCA (commonly called Adam's needle). 
An American genus of plants found on the 
sandy sea-coasts of the Southern States and 
tropical regions, several of which are made to 
subserve valuable purposes. Nuttall gives the 
following description of the characters of the 
genus and individual species: — 

Proper stem none; caudex inconspicuous 
or assurgent and shrubby; leaves comose (or 
crowded and terminal), ensifbrm, spiny at the 
point, sometimes with a sphacelate filamenti- 
ferous margin; flowers in a terminal, irregulai 
panicle, each protected by two spathes; corolla 
white, roundish campanulate. 

Species. 1. Y. filamcniosa, 2. Angustifolia 
Stemless ; leaves glaucous, long, linear, anc 
mucronate, margin filamentose; capsules large 
and dry, oblong-obovate. Habitat on the banks 
of the Missouri, from the confluence of the river 
Platte to the mountains. Flowers large an-d 
white ; leaves scarcely half an inch wide. 

3. RecvrvifoUa. In sandy fields. North Caro- 
lina. 4. Gloriosa. Capsule internally filled 
with a sweetish pulp of a purple colour. This 
plant is called joc/rc by the Mexican Spaniards, 
and used for cordage, ropes, &c., as well as 
for packing-cloth, and is extremely durable. 
.5. JlloifoHa. There is also a 6th species of this 
genus, discovered by the late Mr. John Lyons, 
improperly called F. angustifolia by the garden- 
ers around London; it is nearly allied to F. 
/!ZnH!('«.^osa,but has much narrower leaves; with 
its specific characters I am unacquainted. 

The soil and climate of East Florida are be- 
lieved to be well adapted to the culture of these 
and many other plants, the fibres of which are 
converted into fabrics and cordage of great 
value. The general government, a few years 
since, granted a large tract of land in that terri- 
tory to the late Dr. Perrine for the purpose of 
encouraging the introduction of the Sisal hemp, 
and other filamentous plants and tropical pro- 
ductions. The recent melancholy massacre of 
this gentleman and his family by the Indians 
have frustrated these attempts, for a time at 
least. See Hemp. 

ZAPZIEGER, or SAP-SAGO, a kind of 
cheese made in Switzerland. See Cheese and 
Sap-Sago. 



THE END. 



STEREOTYPED BV L. JOHNSON. PHILADELPHIA. 



1179 



